Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…

6. How the threatening was fulfilled upon him, when he did eat of ¹the forbidden fruit. We need not run to the answer of some, that this was spoken only by way of threatening, and not positively, as that sentence upon the Ninevites; for these conclude, therefore Adam died not, because of his repentance: but Adam did not immediately repent, and when he did, yet for all that he died. Others read it thus, In the day thou eatest thereof, and then make the words absolute that follow, Thou shalt die: as if God had said, There is no day excepted from thy death, when thou shalt eat. But the common answer is best, which takes to die, for to be in the state of death: and therefore Symmachus his translation is commended, which hath, Thou shalt be mortal; so that hereby is implied a condition and a change of Adams state as soon as he should eat this forbidden fruit: And by death, we are not only to mean that of the actual dissolution of soul and body, but all diseases and pains, that are the harbingers of it. So that hereby Christians are to be raised higher, to be more Eagle-eyed then Philosophers: They spake of death and diseases, as tributes to be paid, they complained of Nature as a step-mother; but they were not able to see sin the cause of this. Yea, in this threatening we are to understand spiritual death, and eternal also. Indeed, it's made a question, Whether, if Adam had continued, be should have been translated into heaven, or confirmed only in Paradise? but that ⟨p. 110⟩his death would have been more then temporal, appeareth fully by Rom. 5. Indeed, the things that concern heaven and hell, or the resurrection, are not so frequently and plainly mentioned in the Old Testament as in the New; yet there are sufficient places to convince, that the Promises and threatenings in the Old Testament were not only temporal, as some do most erroneously maintain.

6. How the threatning was fulfilled upon him, when he did eat of ¹the forbidden fruit. We need not run to the answer of some, that this was spoken onely by way of threatning, and not positively, as that sentence upon the Ninivites; for these conclude, therefore Adam died not, because of his repentance: but Adam did not immediately repent, and when he did, yet for all that he died. Others reade it thus, In the day thou eatest thereof, and then make the words absolute that follow, Thou shalt die: as if God had said, There is no day excepted from thy death, when thou shalt eate. But the common answer is best, which takes to die, for to be in the state of death: and therefore Symmachus his translation is commended, which hath, Thou shalt be mortall; so that hereby is implyed a condition and a change of Adams state as soon as he should eate this forbidden fruit: And by death, we are not onely to meane that of the actuall dissolution of soule and body, but all diseases and paines, that are the harbingers of it. So that hereby Christians are to be raised higher, to be more Eagle-eyed then Philosophers: They spake of death and diseases, as tributes to be paid, they complained of Nature as a step-mother; but they were not able to see sin the cause of this. Yea, in this threatning we are to understand spirituall death, and eternall also. Indeed, it's made a question, Whether, if Adam had continued, be should have been translated into heaven, or confirmed onely in Paradise? but that