prophet Elyas was a tradytion among the Jewes appeers by the descyples question: How is it that the Jewes say, Elyas must fyrst come? And that it is an old tradycion of the Chrystians appeers by the testimony of Arethus, an old wryter, who sayth, Invariabiliter a tota ecclesia credi: it is beleeved unvaryably of the whole churche. How great a presumtyon is it for one man to vary from that the whole churche hath held unvaryably? St. Awgustin, in the viiith chapter of his 22d booke De civitate Dei, sayth, That hee that will not beleeve those miraculows and prodigiows works to have been done, that all the world beleeves to have been done, is himself a prodygious monster and miracle. So mee thinke I may say, that he [who] rejects that opinion which the whole churche hath receaved, is hymselfe worthy to bee rejected. 4. The fowrth and last reason is the opinions of the fathers; which in the second reason I had cawse to towche, for the exposycion of the xjth of the Apocalipse, that hygh and mistycall booke; and it were half ridyculows for me to be curyous or copyous in cyting theyr awthorytie whom skarce my yeers, and moch less my professyon, have giuen mee leysure to read; so, as for them I doe read I must say as owr Vedantius in Cambridge did, ut ait Aristoteles, quemadmodum accepi ab aliis: so I may say on other mens credyt, that St. Hillary, Orygen, Chrisostome, Hierom, and all that expownd St. Mathew's gospell, understand, and beleeve, and teach, that Elyas himselfe shall come; that all that wryte on the epistle to the Ebrews, interpret the apostles speech in the xjth chapter litterally that both Elyas and Enoke are yet lyving, is the opinion of Ireneus, Tertullyan, Jerom, and Epiphanius. And the reason, that some wryters alleadge for theyr soch opinion, is this, that it is most probable that these two are so longe and so myraculowsly preserved in the fleshe, to do some soch worthy exployt as to confownd the great Antichrist, the man of sinne; to convert the Jews, and make ut sit unus pastor, unum ovile; one shephard, one fold; and to conform the world to God, ne Deus veniens percutiat terram anathemate, least the Lord at his coming shold strike the whole earth with a curse. But now, for a full conclusion of this question, and to doe as owr Saviowr did, in so soher a banket as this, keep the best wyne for the last, I will finish this discowrse with St. Awgustins own words, owt of two his best and bestallowd treetyses; whose only awthoryty (I know not by what speciall pryveledge) is held awthentyke of all sydes. Thus hee sayth, in his 29th chapter of the xxth booke, De civitate Dei : 'When he had warned them to remember the lawe of Moses, foreseeing that they of long tyme should not spiritually understand it as they ought, he added incontinently, "Behold I will send unto you Elyas the Thesbite before the great and notable day of the Lord come, who shall turne the harte of the father to the sonne, and of a man to his neighbor, least happely I comminge should destroy.” Now it is a common and receaved opinyon in the hartes and mowthes of the faythfull, that the Jews shall beleeve in the trew Christe, that is, in owr Christe, in the last day before the generall judgment, the lawe being expownded unto them by this great and wonderfull prophett Elyas; for he himselfe not unworthely is expected to come before the comminge of our Savyour Christe, who now also not unworthely is thought to live: for the skripture dothe 7 See Malachi, iv. 6. |