DEATH. Man having eaten of the forbidden fruit, incurred the penalty of Death for himself and all his posterity. The Death of the Soul was what he instantly suffered, and he was made liable to bodily Death; tho’ this was what he did not undergo till a long time after. Had he continued obedient to God, and not violated the precept which he gave him of abstaining from the forbidden fruit, he had not died, and the use of the fruit growing on the tree of life would have preserved him in a happy state of constant health; and after a long life spent on earth, God would have transported him, as he did Enoch and Elijah, into a life absolutely immortal. The Fathers and Councils teach us, that without sin Adam had not died; but the Rabbins believe, that after he had lived a long time, his soul would have been separated from his body without pain and violence, by receiving a salute from the Lord, and so would have enjoyed a life still much happier in a state of eternity and immortality. It is unquestionable, that Death was brought into the World by the Envy and Malice of the Devil. Invidia Diaboli mors Wisd. iii. 24.introivit in orbem terrarum; and that the sin of Adam produced the death of the first of Mankind, and of all his descendants. Rom. v. 12.By one man sin came into the world, and death by sin; wherefore death hath passed upon all. St. Austin distinguishes two sorts of immortality in man, the greater and the lesser: the greater and more perfect immortality consists in an impossibility of dying, which is the happy prerogative of God and Angels: the lesser immortality consists in a possibility of not dying: this Adam enjoyed in the state of innocency. By continuing in the obedience which he owed to his creator, he might have avoided Death, and from this lesser degree of immortality he might have arrived at that of not dying, which is the condition of the Blessed after the resurrection. He was therefore driven out of Paradise after his guilt, lest he should eat the fruit of the tree of life, which would have procured for him eternal life. Discerne immortalitatem majorem scilicet à minore, nam & ista non absurdè immortalitas dicitur, quâ potest quisque non mori, si non faciat unde moriatur. In hac immortalitate fuit Adam. Hanc immortalitatem merito prævaricationis amisit. Hæc ei subministrabatur de ligno vitæ, à quo non est prohibitus, quando legem bonam ne peccaret, accepit, sed quando malâ voluntate peccavit; tunc enim de paradiso ejectus est, ne extenderet manum ad lignum vitæ, & manducaret, & viveret in æternum.
The Socinians pretend, that Adam was created, and that sin in this particular wrought no change in his condition; and in this belief they affirm, that they have the authority of the Rabbins for their support. But these evidently maintain, that if our first parents had persevered in innocence, they had lived always. Manasseh Ben-Israel, who flourished in the middle of the last Century, asserts, that the immortality of the first man is founded upon Scripture, and that many famous Rabbins who are cited by him, are of this opinion. He shews that this immortality of Adam agrees with reason, since there was no inward cause in him which might occasion his death, and that he had nothing to fear from without, living, as he did, in a delicious and agreeable place, where every thing was subject to him; and that the fruit which he was to feed upon, increased his strength, and preserved his health. The Rabbins maintain that the tree of life was of a prodigious size; that all the waters of the earth issued from the foot of it; that if any one had been to have walked five hundred years, he could scarce have gone round it: these are exaggerations, or figurative expressions. But they do not at all question its having an enlivening virtue, or that the natural quality which God had given it, was sufficient to preserve men in a state of immortality; and they affirm, that to prevent his eating of it, and living eternally, God forced our first parent out of Paradise after his disobedience.
Jesus Christ by his death hath subdued Death, and hath merited for us a blessed immortality. By which I do not mean, that the Soul was before mortal, and by him made immortal, nor that he has merited for us the favour of not dying; for he has not changed the nature of our Soul, nor thought fit to exempt us from the necessity of dying: but he hath given us the life of grace, and by his resurrection hath merited an happy immortality for us; provided the merits of his blood and death are applied to us by faith, and the use of the sacraments, and that we, through our own fault, do not frustrate his intentions to save all men.
As to the Resurrection of the Dead, we shall speak of it under the title of RESURRECTION.
Cant. viii. 6.The word Death is taken in Scripture not only for the death of the body, and soul; for the first death, which is that which happens when the soul is separated from the body; and for the second death, which is that of eternal damnation: but likewise for any great danger, for imminent danger of Death; for the plague and contagious diseases; for poison, and any great misfortune. By the gates of Death, the grave is signified, and the state of the Dead after this life: by the vessels or instruments of death, dangerous and deadly weapons are meant; by the bonds or snares of death, the snares which are laid to destroy an enemy; a son of Death, a man who merits Death, or is condemned to death; by the dust of death, the state to which the dead person is reduced in the grave. Love is strong as death, says Solomon; no one can resist death or love.