A Brief Remonstrance of the State of the Church and Face of Religion, in the First Age of the World

From the creation to Noe's flood: the space of 1,656 years.

Here according to our purpose mentioned before, we will briefly recite certain principal points of Religion, taught and observed in the first age, in which the foundations of the true manner of serving God (that should be continued to the end of the world) were laid, and prospered in some, as appears in these seven first chapters of Genesis. But first of all, we shall in two words repeat (as it is clearly gathered in the same holy Scripture) the state of man before, and immediately after his fall, being the subject to whom all this pertains.

After therefore that God had created other things, both in heaven and earth, last of all he made Man, to his own image and likeness, with understanding and free will, therein like to Angels, and superior to all other creatures, and so made him Lord and master of all earthly things. Neither were these the greatest benefits which God bestowed on man: for his divine goodness endued also this his reasonable creature with innocence and original justice, whereby all things were most rightly ordered within him and about him. His mind, will, and reason were obedient to God; his senses and inferior part of his soul were subject to reason; his flesh and body obeyed the spirit; and all earthly creatures obeyed him. God also adorned man with excellent knowledge, both natural and supernatural. And although his body was of corruptible substance, yet the same, and all his posterity, if they had not sinned, should have been conserved, and without dying, have been translated to everlasting life. Thus man was placed in Paradise, and Eve there made of a rib of his side, to be his mate and inseparable companion, as man and wife joined in Marriage, with God's blessing, for increase and multiplication. As appears in the two first chapters of this book.

But God having made man right, he entangled himself (as holy Scripture speaks) with infinite questions. For the devil, envying man's felicity, inveigled our mother Eve with questions and lies, and then by her, first seduced and deceived, allured also Adam to the transgression of God's commandment. And so they lost original justice, which Adam had received for himself and all mankind: and all proceeding from them by natural propagation are born the children of wrath, in original sin contracted from Adam, slaves of the devil, not only subject to temporal death, but also are excluded for ever from heavenly bliss and glory, except by Christ's redemption particularly applied, they be restored to grace and justice in this life.

And touching Adam and Eve, whose sin was not original but actual, directly committed by themselves, God's mercy so reclaimed them by new grace, that they despaired not (as Cain, and some others did afterwards) but with hope of remission were sorry and penitent, and accordingly received penance, and redemption. For God brought Adam from his sin (as Wisdom 10 holy writ testifies) and the same is collected of Eve, God showing the like signs of his provident mercy towards them both, of which we shall by and by note some for example.

Now let us see the more principal points of faith and Religion professed and observed by the Church of God before Noe's flood. First they believed in one Eternal and Omnipotent God, who made the whole world and all things therein of nothing. Which is easily confessed of all that are not plain Atheists, and may be proved against them by reason. And therefore Adam and other Patriarchs could not err in this Article, nor others be ignorant thereof, except they were very wicked.

The Mystery also of the Blessed Trinity, three Divine Persons in one God, though far above the reach of man's reason, yet was believed more expressly by some, more implied by others, and conserved from age to age by tradition, at least amongst the chief heads and leaders. Whereupon Moses afterwards insinuated the same great Mystery, by divers words and phrases, writing of God and his works. The two words God created, if they be rightly considered, import so much. For the word Elohim, God, in the plural number, signifies plurality of Persons (for many Gods it cannot signify, seeing there is but one God), and the verb bara, created, in the singular number signifies one God in nature and substance, albeit three Persons. For whatsoever God does in creatures, is the work of the whole Trinity: though holy Scriptures do oftentimes appropriate some work to one Divine Person, some to another, which also proves distinction of Persons in God. So the words God created heaven and earth signify the Father, to whom power is attributed. In the beginning, signifies the Son, to whom wisdom is appropriated; and the words The Spirit of God moved over the waters, signify the Holy Ghost, by whose bountiful goodness the waters were made fruitful. Likewise God's own words Let us make man signify the plurality of Persons, and Image and likeness in the singular number, signify one God.

Men also knew by faith many things pertaining to themselves. As that the body was made of the slime of the earth; the soul not produced of any thing formerly existing, but created immediately of nothing and naturally immortal; that the soul of Adam was endued with grace and justice; that he fell from that happy state by yielding to temptation, and breaking God's commandment of abstinence; that for the same sin Adam and Eve were cast forth of Paradise, and all mankind subject to death and other calamities.

For remedy against sin, and restoration to grace, they believed in Christ promised to be born of the woman's seed, who by his death should conquer the wicked serpent, deliver man from captivity, and restore him to spiritual life. And this is the cause of the perpetual enmity between the woman (especially the most blessed Virgin Mother, of whom Christ took flesh) and the serpent, and between her seed (the spiritual children of Christ) and the serpent's seed (the whole company of the wicked). Of this battle and conquest Targum Hierosolymitanum thus speaks: There shall be remedy and health to the children of women, but to thee, O serpent, there shall be no medicine; yea they shall tread thee under their feet, in the latter days, by the power of Christ their King. Likewise God's familiar conversation with divers men in man's shape (Gen 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7) was a sign of Christ's incarnation. And the Sacrifices immolated did prefigure his death, in respect whereof it is said in the Apocalypse, The Lamb was slain from the beginning of the world. But more expressly St. Paul testifies that Abel, Enoch, and Noe believed in Christ, naming them for example of the first age, and others of other times; and in the end concludes that many more being approved by the same faith received not the promise (to wit, in their life time), God providing that they without others (of the new Law) should not be consummate, that is, not admitted into heavenly joys and fruition of God, until the way of eternal glory was opened by our Lord's Passion and Ascension.

Neither did the true servants of God, in those first days, only believe in heart, but they also professed their faith and Religion by external Rites, namely in offering of Sacrifice (the most special homage and service to God), which is clearly testified in chapter 4, as well bloody (in figure of Christ's Passion) as unbloody (in figure of the holy Eucharist). Also the accepting of the one rightly offered by Abel, and rejecting the other not done sincerely by Cain, was declared by external signs. Which Cain disdaining and envying his brother's good work, knowing his own to be naught, of mere malice killed his brother.

Besides Sacrifice they had also other Rites in public Assemblies, praying and invoking the name of our Lord, in more solemn manner, from Enos's time and so forward, according to that which is recorded of him in the end of the fourth chapter. For doubtless Adam, Abel, and Seth did also pray and call upon God, and therefore it was some addition or increase of solemnity in the service of God, which is referred to Enos.

They had moreover other ceremonies: of the seventh day particularly blessed and sanctified by God, kept holy by Adam and other Patriarchs, as Aben Ezra witnesses in his commentaries upon the ten commandments. Of abstaining from meats, for it seems the more godly sort did eat no flesh before the flood, which was afterwards permitted. Observation of clean and unclean beasts for Sacrifice. Of peculiar places dedicated to religious uses where people met together to pray.

Likewise divers other things in the first age were figures of Christ's Sacraments: the Spirit of God giving power to the waters (as Tertullian, St. Jerome, and others expound it), and the flood of Noe (by St. Peter's testimony) were figures of Baptism. Marriage instituted in Paradise is the very pattern of holy Matrimony, a Sacrament in the Church of Christ, where one man and one wife are only lawful, and not more at once in any wise; Christ reforming that which in Moses's law was tolerated (for hardness of men's hearts, and for avoiding murder, to put away one wife and take another) to this first institution as it was in the beginning, two in one flesh, not three nor more.

The repentance of Adam and Eve was a perfect and exemplary figure of the Sacrament of Penance. First they were ashamed, covering their nakedness, and hiding themselves, which showed their grief and sorrow for the sin committed. Secondly they confessed their fault, and by what means it happened. For God examining Adam, he answered truly and simply saying: The woman which thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree and I did eat. Likewise Eve confessed sincerely, saying: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat. Thirdly God gave them penance (besides death before threatened and other penalties annexed), that Eve should in pain and travail bring forth her children, and Adam should eat his bread in the sweat of his face. And withal cast them forth of Paradise. But not forth of his favor, as appeared by his making them garments of skins, granting them and their posterity the rest of the earth to live and labor in, especially to serve him and do penance, with admonition to remember that of dust man was made, and into dust he shall return. All which were signs of love, and that finally he would bring them, and many more, to eternal salvation. (From hence is taken the ceremony of ashes on Ash Wednesday.)

The first-born and heads of families were Priests at the time of the law of nature, until the law being changed, God took Priests only of the stock of Aaron, and the rest of the Levites to assist them in that function: Aaron and his sons thou shalt appoint, says our Lord, over the service of Priesthood, for I have taken the Levites of the children of Israel for every first-born. And St. Paul teaches that changing of Priesthood and changing of the law go always together, showing evidently that every lawful community or commonwealth under God has external Priesthood. So that if there had been no distinct order of external Priesthood in the law of nature, or now were none in the law of grace (as Protestants say there is not), there were no law at all. See more of this point in the Annotations, chapter 7 ad Hebraeos. Here we only observe that Abel, Seth, Enos, and other Patriarchs were Priests, and exercised priestly functions, yea Cain also was a Priest (though a bad one) and offered Sacrifice.

But external offices or ministry, without a well-disposed mind, and sincere virtues producing Good works, did never justify any man. And therefore Cain's Sacrifice, offered with a perverse mind, was not respected by God, as Abel's was, whereupon he becoming worse, and more malicious, God sharply reproved his anger and envy, conceived without just cause, saying: If thou doest well, shalt thou not receive again? But if thou doest ill, shall not thy sin forthwith be present at the door?, clearly showing that every one shall receive according to his works.

This place also evidently shows Free Will, yea in a wicked man. For this expostulation had never been uttered by our most reasonable Lord and Master, if Cain had been deprived of free will. For he might have excused himself, and must needs have been held excused, if he had been forced to do as he did. But God charged him as inexcusable, and as one that knew, or ought to know, that he had free will. And does further inculcate that he had, and should have, power and free will over his concupiscence, to correct the same if he would, saying: The lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it. So that no sinner, be he never so wicked, much less a just man, lacks free will. Yet Luther abhors the very word, and Calvin wishes it out of the world.

Temporal punishment is proved to be due for sin remitted, by that both death, and other penalties, are inflicted by God's justice upon men after justification, and by the particular punishments laid upon Adam and Eve confessing their faults.

Purgatory is also proved by the same justice of God. For when any dies penitent, and yet have not made full satisfaction, they must suffer for that remains after death, and be purged, before they can enter into rest, which remnant of debt our Blessed Saviour calls the last farthing, and says, it must be paid. The Jews also at this day hold the doctrine of Purgatory by tradition. And consequently they Pray for souls departed, not only to God, but also to the ancient Patriarchs (which likewise shows Invocation of Saints) in these words: Ye fathers which sleep in Hebron, open to him the gates of Eden, that is, of Paradise, which was planted in Eden. And Hebron is the place where Adam was buried, and his sepulchre religiously conserved in the time of Josue, above 1500 years after his death. The same is the place which Abraham bought, and there buried Sara; where also himself, and Isaac, and Jacob were buried; and to which finally the bodies of the twelve sons of Jacob were translated from Sichem, as Josephus writes. And Sichem also was specially honored, because such persons had been buried there, as St. Jerome witnesses, of his own knowledge in his time.

Again, by religious care of burying the dead in this first age, Enoch was more certainly known to be Translated alive, and not to be dead. For the seventy Interpreters, and St. Paul, say He was not found, which imports that they sought diligently for him, and that his body could not be found, for God translated him.

By all which we see mutual offices, and communion of good works amongst good men alive and dead, which is called Communion of Saints. And herein Angels lacked not their offices. For God set Cherubims to keep the gate of Paradise, that neither man should enter (being justly expelled for sin), nor devils, as St. Augustine notes, lest they should take fruit of the tree of life, and giving it to men, allure them to more sin. And now Saints being exalted to Angels' glory, have like honorable offices towards other men, as Angels have. Yea the blood of Abel unjustly shed by Cain, and justly to be revenged by God, shows the peculiar honor which God bestows upon his Saints, for their virtues and merits in this life, and especially in their death. For Precious in the sight of our Lord is the death of his Saints.

Hence also is proved that, seeing in this life the good are afflicted, and the bad oftentimes prosper temporally, there must needs be another Court of exact Justice, and another Reckoning day, wherein every one shall receive according as they have done good or evil. Which was sufficiently intimated by God's discussing, and manifesting Abel's and Cain's deserts, which were hidden before, and in part rewarding them accordingly, yet reserving the full reward of the one, and punishment of the other, to the next world. Of the Judge and his sentence, Enoch (alleged by St. Jude the Apostle) prophesied clearly, saying: Behold our Lord comes in his holy thousands, to do judgment against all, and to reprove all the impious, of all the works of their impiety, whereby they have done impiously, and of all the hard things which impious sinners have spoken against him. Thus holy Enoch preached touching the wicked, which thought there was no Judgment to come, nor Judge to be feared.

At this Judgment all shall appear in body and soul returning to life. For that All men shall rise from death is proved by the immortality of man's soul, which God did not make nor produce of corruptible matter, but immediately Breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So the soul being immortal, and having a natural inclination to the body, man's natural perfection requires the conjunction of body and soul. For neither soul nor body separated is a man, but both joined in one subsistence are a man, in so much that mankind should perish, except the bodies shall rise again, and live with the souls. And then shall the bodies be qualified according to the state of the souls, happy or miserable for ever.

Of Eternal life the translation of Enoch is a figure. For seeing God preserves his corruptible body so long, from death and infirmity, it is a token and manifest sign that by the same power of God, the bodies of men shall at the last day, after that all men are once dead, rise again, and remain with the souls for ever. The good in Eternal joy; the wicked in Eternal pain. Both signified by the custody of the gate of Paradise by Angels, who for ever keep out those that are still defiled with sin, and so they depart into fire everlasting, and admit the innocent and just into the kingdom of heaven, which is everlasting joy and perfect felicity.

Thus we see the face and brief summe of Religion, in the beginning of the World, till the flood: and the state of the Church, which was always Visible, consisting of men good and bad, with a continual Succession of Rulers, as well spiritual as temporal. For the first-born were both Priests and Princes in every family. And amongst the same one ever chief of all. From which rank Cain was exiled, or rather excluded himself, by Going forth from the face of our Lord. Whereupon holy Moses recites this Monarchical succession of one chief, and Supreme Head, from Adam by the line of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malaleel, Jared, Enoch, Mathusala, Lamech, and Noe. Nevertheless he sets down also the progeny of Cain, the first beginner of a worldly, schismatical, and heretical conventicle, opposite to the City of God. He denied God's providence (as Targum Hierosolymitanum testifies) protesting to Abel that there was no Justice nor Judge, nor other world than this, no reward for virtue, nor punishment for sin, and so desperately he killed Abel. Of these negative principles proceeded other like detestable opinions, and most wicked life, savage and barbarous cruelty, and all kind of impiety. And in process of time, albeit many remained in true faith and unity of the Church, yet by conversation with such miscreants, especially by occasion of Marriages between the faithful and infidels, almost the whole world was corrupted in manners. But Noe was just and perfect. In punishment therefore of so great and enormous sins, God sent the general flood, whereby all Cain's progeny, and all other infidels, were wholly destroyed and extinguished, and the true Church notably purged, only just Noe and his family reserved. By whom the same true Church was continued, and the world again replenished with men.

Notes:

• Man made to God's image, and in happy state.
• Man obeyed God, and all earthly creatures obeyed man.
• Man placed in Paradise.
• Man fell by yielding to temptations. Eccl. 7, 30. Wisdom 2, 24.
• Original sin.
• Adam and Eve were penitent. Wisdom 10.
• Faith in one God.
• The Blessed Trinity.
• Though the Blessed Trinity work jointly in all creatures, yet divers works are attributed to distinct Persons. Gen. 1.
• By faith the state of man past and present was known.
• Belief in Christ to come.
• Remedy for men but none for Angels that fell. Heb. 2, 16.
• Apoc. 13, 8.
• Heb. 11.
• None admitted into heaven before Christ.
• External Sacrifice.
• Public prayer with other Rites.
• Ceremonial observations. Gen. 2, 3.
• Feasts.
• Abstinence. Gen. 29; Gen. 9.
• Clean and unclean beasts for Sacrifice. Gen. 7, 2.
• Places dedicated to prayer. Gen. 4, 16.
• Figures of Christ's Sacraments. Gen. 1.
• Baptism. 1 Pet. 3.
• Marriage. Matt. 19; Gen. 2, 24.
• Penance.
• Contrition.
• Confession.
• Satisfaction. Gen. 3.
• From hence is taken the ceremony of ashes on Ash Wednesday.
• Priesthood.
• Priesthood and Law stand and change together. Num. 3, 10, 12, 45.
• Luther, l. de abroganda Missa.
• Good works necessary. Gen. 4.
• Free Will. Gen. 3.
• Luther, l. de servo arbitrio. Calvin, Institutiones l. 2 c. 2 par. 8.
• Temporal pain due for sin remitted.
• Purgatory. Matt. 5.
• Prayer for the dead. And to Saints. (Officio pro defunctu.) Josue 14. Gen. 23.
• Sepulchres of Patriarchs religiously conserved. Josephus, l. 2 Antiquit. St. Jerome, Epist. ad Pamiach.
• Enoch translated alive. Gen. 5. Heb. 11.
• Communion of Saints.
• Ministry of Angels. Gen. 3, 24. St. Augustine, l. 11 De Genesi ad Litteram c. 40.
• Honor of Saints. Gen. 4. Ps. 115.
• General Judgment.
• Judge of the world. Epist. Jude 7, 14.
• Resurrection. Gen. 2, 7.
• Everlasting life. Gen. 5.
• The blessed in eternal joy.
• The wicked in endless pain.
• Church ever visible.
• Succession of Patriarchs. Gen. 4, 16; Gen. 5.
• One supreme head of the Church.
• Cain's negative doctrine. Gen. 4, 17. St. Augustine, l. de Pastore c. 8 and 10.
• True faith still remained in many.
• Some also just and perfect.
• Interruption of heretical Synagogues. Gen. 6.
• Continuance of the Church.