death then entered; for Adam then could never have had children; whereas he lived long after, and saw a numerous posterity ere he died. But where it is said ( Gen. 2:17), “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” it must needs be meant of his mortality and certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by Adam’s forfeiture in committing sin, he that should cancel that forfeiture was to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for the sins of all that believe in Him; and therefore recovered to all believers that eternal life which was lost by the sin of Adam. And in this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth ( Rom. 5:18–19), “As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life”; which is again (1 Cor. 15:21–22) more perspicuously delivered in these words: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that eternal life which Christ hath obtained for them, the texts next before alleged seem to make it on earth. For if as in Adam all die, that is, have forfeited paradise and eternal life on earth, even so in Christ all shall be made alive; then all men shall be made to live on earth, for else the comparison were not proper. Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the Psalmist (Psalm 133:3), “upon Zion God commanded the blessing, even life forevermore”; for Zion is in Jerusalem upon earth; as also that of St. John ( Rev. 2:7), “To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This was the tree of Adam’s eternal life; but his life was to have been on earth. The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. John ( Rev. 21:2), where he saith, “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”: and again (verse 10) to the same effect; as if he should say, the new “Jerusalem,” the paradise of God, at the coming again of Christ, should come down to God’s people from heaven, and