Prop. 5. The true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word. All Philosophers and Physicians they searched no further then into the proxim & immediate causes of death, which are either external or internal; they looked no further; and knew of no other thing, but now by the Word of God, we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death; so that had not they been, those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been: The first cause is only by occasion and temptation, and that was the Devil: he tempted our first parents, and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world: for this cause the Devil is called, Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning; it doth not so much relate to Cain, as to Adams transgression; yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil, but to one mans disobedience, because Adams will was not forced by Satan, he had power to have resisted his temptations, only the Devil was the tempting cause. The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience; so that death is a punishment of that sin, not a natural consequent of mans constitution. The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirm this, that there was no footstep of death, till he transgressed Gods Law, and upon that it was most just, that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image, which is the life of the soul. should also be deprived of his soul, which is the life of the body; that as when he rebelled against God, he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within, and an external disobedience of all creatures, whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion; so also it was just, that he who had deprived himself of spiritual life, should also be divested of his natural life. Hence it is that the Apostle informeth us of that, which all the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of, Rom 5. 12. That by one mans sin, death entered into the world, where the Greek word [Greek or Hebrew], is observed to have its peculiar Emphasis, pertransiit sicut lues, even as the rot doth destroy an whole flock of sheep; and therefore at the 14th Verse the Apostle useth another emphatical expression, ⟨p. 512⟩Death reigned, and that upon those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression:
Prop. 5. THe true causes of death are only revealed in Gods Word. All Philosophers and Physitians they searched no further then into the proxim & immediate causes of death, which are either external or internal; they looked no further; and knew of no other thing, but now by the Word of God, we Christians come to know that there are three principal causes of death; so that had not they been, those intermedious and proxime causes of death had never been: The first cause is only by occasion and temptation, and that was the Devil: he tempted our first parents, and thereby was an occasion to let death into the world: for this cause the Devil is called, Joh. 8. 44. a murderer from the beginning; it doth not so much relate to Cain, as to Adams transgression; yet the Scripture Rom. 5. doth not attribute death to the Devil, but to one mans disobedience, because Adams will was not forced by Satan, he had power to have resisted his temptations, only the Devil was the tempting cause. The second and most proper cause of death was Adams disobedience; so that death is a punishment of that sinne, not a natural consequent of mans constitution. The History of Adam as related by Moses doth evidently confirme this, that there was no footstep of death, till he transgressed Gods Law, and upon that it was most just, that he who had deprived himself of Gods Image, which is the life of the soul. should also be deprived of his soul, which is the life of the body; that as when he rebelled against God, he presently felt an internal rebellion by lusts within, and an external disobedience of all creatures, whom he did rule over before by a pacifical dominion; so also it was just, that he who had deprived himself of spiritual life, should also be divested of his natural life. Hence it is that the Apostle informeth us of that, which all the natural wise men of the world were ignorant of, Rom 5. 12. That by one mans sinne, death entred into the world, where the Greek word 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, is observed to have its peculiar Emphasis, pertransiit sicut lues, even as the rot doth destroy an whole flock of sheep; and therefore at the 14th Verse the Apostle useth another emphatical expression, ⟨p. 512⟩Death reigned, and that upon those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression:
