YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ESFECIAI. FATKOE"A<&E

THE QTJEEW.

SACRED CLASSICS:

©abinct Elhrarn of Dtblnltjj.

EDITED BY

THE REV. R. CATTERMOLE, B.D.
AND
THE REV. H. STEERING, M.A.

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3fo!»n 1§att&artJ an* Son, ^fccalfillfi;
tVHITTAKER & CO. AVE-MABIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL,
STATIONERS' COURT J TALBOYS, OXFORD ; DKIGHTON,
CAMBRIDGE ; OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH ;
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.
HDCCCXXXV.

LONDON :
FH1NTED D1C JOSEPH RICKBRBY,
SHgJtBOUKN LANE.

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WK1ULHAM 18S3WIgl8iSIB©lE 3D). 2D).

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SERMONS

THE RESURRECTION.

PARTICULARLY ADAPTED FOR

CHRISTIAN CONSIDERATION DURING EASTER.

SELECTED FROM THE WOHKS OF THE MOST EMINENT
ENGLISH DIVINES.

WITH AN
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
BY
THE REV. HENRY STEERING, M.A.

LONDON :
3o$n ^atcljartt antt Son, pccaHillp ;
WHITTAKER & CO. AVE-MARIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL,
STATIONERS' COURT ; TALBOYS, OXFORD; DEIGHTON,
CAMBRIDGE; OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH;
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.
MPCCCXXXV.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

The influence of Christianity on the state of the
world is acknowledged, but it is not estimated with
any degree of care or exactness: many are the
moral forces which it brings to bear on every por
tion of society ; but who thinks of attempting to
measure or reckon up the almost countless effects
which result from their action ? Whatever may
have been said of the weakness of human reason,
in its conflicts with passion and a perverse will,
men of elevated thought have at all times exercised
a very conspicuous influence over the opinions of
their fellow-men. The ancient systems of philoso
phy were, without exception, based on the suppo
sition that we require much help from wisdom to
make us happy ; that good has to be sought and
protected by many a complicated process of rea
son ; and that there is a constant struggle through
the whole range of existence between happiness
and misery, and right and wrong. In the mass of

Vlll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
argument, of persuasive exhortations and maxims,
which was accumulated in the illustration of these
systems, every faculty of the human mind was ap
pealed to,every chord ofthe human heart sometimes
made to thrill with deep and intense emotion. The
impressions thus produced on those who occupied
the highest stations in the schools of wisdom, were
gradually communicated to the humblest of their
brethren ; and large classes of society were thereby
imbued with feelings which confessed the power of
those mighty master spirits who ventured to exa
mine the laws and tendencies of being. But in the
little practical influence which the united systems
of philosophy possessed, we find a demonstration
of the melancholy fact, that that which flows from
the heart or intellect of man, has an inherent im
perfection, which prevents it from effecting any
important improvement in human nature. The
reasonableness, the truth, and beauty of all that
genius creates may be felt; but the homage we
render it is the homage of admiration, not of sub
jection; and in rendering this there is a con
sciousness of equality, which deprives the voice of
the eloquent and praise-rewarded teacher of most
of his authority.
Thus the ancient world was not without light
on many points of elevated morality ; nor did it
wholly fail in recognizing the power of those in
ward principles on which, as on an everlastino-

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IX
foundation, the noble fabric of humanity stands
fronting the skies. But it is an indubitable fact,
that notwithstanding the efforts which were made
to resist the depressing influences of sensuality, the
minds of men did, for ages,, lie grovelling with their
passions, in doubt or despair of ever obtaining
freedom. The thirst for life was never satisfied : the
path of existence ran through a desert, where there
were a few ancient wells, but no fountains flowing
into the ocean. It was only that small body of
men, who were justly regarded as the wonders of
their race, on whom the light of reason shed a hope
of immortality : for the rest, they could scarcely
look upon themselves as otherwise than passing
shadows, or bubbles for death to burst: there was
no savour of life in their souls ; and thus, from one
end of the earth to another there was an incessant
talk of eternal night and nothingness. The mother
brought up her children with the mother's natural
care and fondness; but if she chanced to think of
' death, she felt as if she held but dust and ashes to
her bosom. The friend loved his friend as friends
love each other now, but when sickness came, or
old age drew nigh, they had to think of nothing
but an eternal farewell. All was hopelessness, or
that which is almost as bad, and perhaps worse, a
harrowing, feverish slate of doubt; and generation
after generation seemed to perish like the leaves of

X INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
successive autumns. The poet's melancholy image
was all but reality.
If we inquire now how vice grew to such a height,
when the principles of morality were so far from
being unknown, or how it was that the noble efforts
which philosophy made towards enlightening man
kind were of so little avail, the answer will be
found in this, that the whole system of ethics, and
that knowledge of intellectual nature which be
longed to the province of reason, had no connexion
with the faith which pointed to Deity or heaven.
The philosopher and the scholar, it is supposed,
believed not in the gods : if they did, neither
could their faith receive any support from their
studies, nor their reason any help from their creed :
but the people at large, depending chiefly on what
was taught them respecting the nature and will of
their deities, could only find, in the scattered rays
of purer truth which occasionally reached them, a
light too clear for the light of their heavens — a re
velation of glory which had as little similarity to
the splendours of Olympus or the happiness of
Elysium, as the sublime beauty of nature to the
wanton luxuries of art. To decide between the
claims thus made by popular tradition on the one
hand, and reason, throned in her secret asylum, on
the other, was rarely attempted, and error was wor
shipped because her antiquity could be traced,

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XI
while truth had only, to appearance, its every-day
birth in the minds of the few and the isolated.
But the gloom of error and corruption is the
night in which the soul sleeps without dreaming
of its original destiny : and this was the case
with myriads in the anti-evangelical ages. The
sun of truth never rose above the horizon : but
meteors of every shape and hue sprung from the
noxious vapours of sin, and appearing like stars in
the dense night, were reverenced as guides through
out the disordered world. To one small portion of
the human race God had continued the know
ledge of his name, and the elements of his law ;
but both the one and the other were only revealed
so as to form the surface of a deep mystery, not
then to be penetrated. A light, pure and splendid,
shone around them : no one could look upon it
without feeling that it came from above : but it
was a light announcing rather than revealing the
presence of God ; and truth — though its messen
gers, and its ordinances, its laws, and signs, and
emblems were there — was not itself substantially
known or present.
Now let us suppose that in this state of things,
a simple, but full and direct, revelation had been
made of the immortality of the soul — a revelation
couched in such terms that minds of every class
might comprehend it, and see the whole force of
the evidence by which it was established. The

xii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
immediate consequence of such a discovery would
be equally striking and important. A being
whose thoughts and purposes had been adapted to
the humiliating notion of a brief and mere earthly
existence, — who had been taught by the impulses
of his sensual nature, that the indulgence of pas
sion was the highest happiness to which he was
bom, and that when his body should waste away,
and become dust, he himself would perish ; — a be
ing whose whole intellectual course was confined
to the space of which a momentary lust was the
starting point, and his power of enjoyment the
utmost boundary, could be subjected to no greater
change than that of finding himself immortal in
his nature, and the heir of whatever the illimitable
future might confer upon his species. It may
with safety be laid down as an axiom, that a man's
determinations are the counterpart of his hopes.
This is the case in respect to the kind of objects he
pursues : it is also so in regard to the extensive-
ness and fixedness of his designs. Spatio brevi
spem longam reseces was the consistent maxim of
the Epicurean poet : a far-extending hope was
fraught with danger and grievous disappointment
to one whose term of existence could scarcely pro
mise the possibility of its completion : but in pro
portion as the probable duration of life was in
creased, hope might more safely extend its views ;
and when no limit was left to the continuance of

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Xlll
conscious existence, neither was any needed for
the hopes and aspirations of the soul. But with
views thus enlarged, and the mind quickened into
constant action by the prospect of future good, the
moral being must of necessity begin to develop its
better qualities, and assert its superiority over the
mere animal. The torpor of indifference, or the
madness of sensual intoxication, will be yielded to
less readily ; a desire to make the most of experi
ence, to know more of nature, and approach as near
as possible the verge of the gulf which separates the
seen from the unseen, will exercise a powerful in
fluence on the mind ; and truth will every day be
come of more value and importance, because more
manifestly necessary to the security of happiness.
A revelation of the immortality of the soul, in
its simplest form, would realize much of what has
here been stated, in any age of the world. But
many circumstances may be imagined which would
render its effects more remarkable at one period
than another, and even, though not intrinsically,
yet, in respect to the temporal state of mankind,
more valuable. There are seasons in which our
race has to struggle less than at others, to supply
the necessities of life; in which there is a larger
proportion of calm and security; when diseases
are less frequent, death more tardy in its ap
proaches, and the satisfactions of appetite and
passion less dear or perilous in the purchase. At

XIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
such times, the minds of men may be supposed
to look with more complacency on their condition,
and to suffer less from the anxious suspense which,
in periods of toil and affliction, weigh down their
spirits. Now, for some ages previous to the com
ing of our Saviour, the world had been reaping,
and gathering into its storehouses, that is, into the
seats of its several governments, and into the
homes of individual men, the harvest of evil and
misery, which had been sown, first, at the fall of our
great progenitors, and then at the several periods
in which the mighty spirit of rebellion and anarchy
came visibly forth to exert his right upon us.
War had glutted itself with carnage; licentious
ness loosened the holiest bonds of social existence ;
slavery was defended as the necessary lot of mil
lions; and the whole mass of mankind felt, and
writhed under, the lash of the tormentor. The
only mitigation of these accumulated evils, was
that occasionally afforded by the soothing voices of
those few exalted and finer spirits, who kept some
portion of their natural freedom, and who loved to
employ their eloquence in asserting the beauty and
nobility of nature. Poetry and philosophy still
cultivated their green recesses in the desert ; and
sometimes coming forth into the world, startled
their fellow-mortals, as with a song heard in the
night, from their gross and heavy slumbers. But
the sound had no multiplying echo : there was no

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
focal point wherein the rays of intellectual light
might accumulate, and fire a torch for the guid
ance of the fallen race.
That the metaphor is fairly illustrative of the
reality, is proved by the sober testimony of un
doubted history. But let us, for the moment, sup
pose that when the world was in this condition,
one of those noble-minded men of whom we have
spoken, had discovered arguments, or a method
by which he could secure the immediate atten
tion of his fellow-beings to the better principles of
their nature, and lead them safely to the acquisi
tion of good and happiness; — is it to be doubted that
he would have readily employed his power ? or is
it not, in fact, proved that he would, by the manner
in which the best of the learned men of antiquity
did exercise their genius ? Let us further suppose
that he had not only discovered truth, and the right
method of communicating it, by the strength of his
own intellect, but that light had been poured into
his heart from on high, and that he found himself
thereby consecrated as a teacher of mankind ; — is it
to be imagined that he would have kept back the
blessing which he received in charge for the good
of his suffering brethren P The answer to this ques
tion is at once manifest, and we must at the same
time see, that in proportion to the benevolence and
the power of the individual, would be the decision
of his conduct; and consequently, that, if we sup-

XVI INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
pose a divine instead of a human being employed
in this work, the probability of his undertaking
the instruction and enlightenment of mankind is
increased in proportion to the increased perfection
ofthe agent. And while this is true of the agent,
it must also be true in respect to Him who sets
him at work, that is, of God himself: for unless
we deny him the attribute of love, He cannot be
supposed less willing to deliver his creatures from
darkness than any one of those creatures would be
to deliver the rest, were it in his power.
We may conclude from such considerations as
these, that nothing could be more consistent with
the benevolence of God than the communication of
a truth which should make man the conscious
master of immortality ; and that in thus enriching
his mind, he would be supplying him with the best
possible means of recovering his lost dignity and
happiness. But the wondrous act of benevo
lence has been performed : the human race has
received from its great Author this rich dowry of
intelligence; and in an age of the world when it
was the sole means of saving mankind from irre
coverable degeneracy. To regard a benefit with
less interest when it has been conferred, than when
it is viewed prospectively, or theoretically, is the
common course of human feeling; but to neglect a
blessing which is always increasing in the power
of its operation, and the application of which be
comes every hour more necessary to our safety, is

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV11
the extreme of folly : yet thus is Christianity disre
garded by millions of our race ; and the regene
rating application of the doctrine of the resurrec
tion resisted, or treated with contempt. Had such
an important truth been in the power of man to
reveal, there is every reason to believe that it would
have been listened to with eager and influential at
tention : delivered by God, it is heard with back
wardness and mistrust. Notwithstanding, however,
the little readiness evinced by mankind to adopt
the evangelical law for its renewing and life-giving
efficacy, the secret influences of it are felt through
out the world. The darkness has been broken
through which kept us enslaved to ignorance and
superstition ; and the Gospel, making the pro-
foundest maxims of eternal truth the common pro
perty of the world, has given the mind a new at
mosphere to breathe in ; and reason new confi
dence in its efforts. Nor is it to be doubted but
that the moral atmosphere, thus cleared of its im
purities, is itself, mysteriously and secretly, often
imbued with some portion of the light which ever
follows the track of the divine Spirit, and an
nounces his presence : for though the Lord deny
this precious gift in its converting strength to those
who seek not for it, yet hardly can the kingdom of
heaven, which is full of its splendour, exist amid
the nations, without some portion of those lustrous
rays of truth scattering their light beyond its bor-
b

XVIII INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
ders : — the dew of heavenly blessing overflowing
the full vessels ; the sound of heavenly harpings,
heard outside the mansion. Thus the world be
coming imbued with a certain degree of knowledge,
through the work and the presence of Christ, which
could have been derived from no other source, he
is, in a very general sense, ' the light which light
eneth every man that cometh into the world ;' it
being utterly impossible now to separate, or distin
guish that knowledge which a man may seem to
acquire by his natural ability, from that which, in
timately mixed up with- it, though unknown pro
bably to himself, he entirely owes to the silent ope
rations of the Lord, and the unobserved progress of
his kingdom.
But while a benefit of vast importance to the
world at large is thus communicated through the
medium of Christianity, its direct influence on the
state of the many thousands who own its sway in
their souls, is the beautiful manifestation of a
sublime mystery, in which the love of God is seen
regenerating, as it originally created, the whole
being of humanity. In the almost innumerable
circumstances which the plan of redemption pre
sents for contemplation, not one exists in which
divine benignity is not eminently conspicuous :
' Rejoice in the Lord always ; and again, I say,
rejoice,' describes the true feeling of every devout
mind, after a long and earnest consideration of the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
Gospel ; and the revelation of immortality is the
golden band which holds all its invitations, its pro
mises, and instructions together, so as to offer them
at once as a precious boon to the human heart :
and this revelation is so made as to remove every
cause of doubt that can exist in a thoughtful and
ingenuous spirit ; and to render the comprehen
sion of the mystery easy and familiar to the hum
blest understanding that rebels not against the law
of God.
The pathway to eternity is open, and human life
is declared to be commensurate with its untold ages.
For this intelligence we are indebted to the Son
of God : but with the revelation of our immortality
we receive a further revelation of the mystery by
which this endless life is beautified, like a stream
running through beds of amaranths, with unfading
delights : and ' to the Son of God are we indebted
for this also : for the eternal love of the Father
having decreed, that both our souls and bodies
should be saved, and that neither the flux and
convulsions of nature, nor the fury of sin should
destroy them, the Son has executed the decree, and
by his atonement both justified the promise of the
Almighty, and raised our nature to the level of his
mercy. It was remarked at the beginning of this Essay,
that the little practical influence enjoyed by the
philosophy of the ancients, may in great part be
b2

XX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
attributed to its separation from the received reli
gions. Philosophy and faith both appeal to the souls
of men : their ultimate object is properly'the same
— the sanctifying of the human heart, the naturali
zation of truth in the world ; the reconciling of men
to God, by enabling and inducing them to lay
upon his altar the sacrifice of pure and elevated
affections. When philsophy and religion are opposed
to each other, both suffer in tlieir general influences ;
for, though the one is chiefly taken up with the
examination of principles, and the other supposes
them known and received, it is in the same sub
stratum of truth both are expected to begin and
terminate their course. Now, one of the grand
differences between Christianity and the religions of
the heathen world is this, that it is not opposed to
the inquiries carried on by the learned and the
philosophical ; that it does not diffuse itself, as po
lytheism did, in the manner of a vast pool, con
tented with covering an immense extent of flat
surface with its shallow waters, while every little
hillock and pointed eminence remain bare and dry :
it has nothing to conceal ; but much in its very
character and structure to stimulate mental activity.
If its mysteries are incomprehensible, it is in the
same manner that the depths of the purest ether
are unfathomable : if it warn us against questioning
what we cannot comprehend, it is because, in this
as in every other particular, it has the most perfect

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Xxi
respect to the laws of human nature, to the extent
and limitation and proper exercise of its powers.
In all systems of philosophy the discovery of causes
is the main purpose of inquiry ; and to know the
nature of the great First Cause, the acknowledged
privilege of the clearest and most exalted intellects :
but Christianity refers at once to this universal
source of existence, as the object to be continually
contemplated in the course of our progress ; it de
scribes the nature of this sublime subject of in
quiry ; and makes every attribute of divinity ap
preciable to the understanding, by showing it in
its action on the conditions and destinies of our
race. Thus religion and philosophy may sit down
together at the same heavenly banquet of truth, and
each derive strength and vigour, according to their
respective origin and nature, from the same food.
There is, therefore, no irremediable injury inflicted
on the great mass of mankind by their exclusion
from the schools of philosophy. Philosophy is glad
to be their fellow-guest in the temple ; and every
believer in the gospel feels ennobled as the Lord's
freedman. The perfect law of liberty rules in his
mind : his soul is as free as truth : it is the will of
God that it rise as high as it can by its own force,
and when that fails, he gives it the wings of his
Spirit. That the application of any discovery made by
reason to the wants and anxieties of human feeling

XX11 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
is uncertain and limited, admits of the strongest
proof that can be afforded by experience. Its
effect on the discoverers themselves, on the very
minds in which the image of virtue has been gene
rated, is, if history speak true, highly problemati
cal. What trust, therefore, can be placed in these
means for the renewing of men's minds in general ?
Or is it not evident, from this consideration, that
the light and heat necessary to the success of such
a process must be diffused from a source suf
ficiently elevated to reach, in its descent and re-as
cension, intellects of every class, and however nu
merous or widely separated ? And in what can such
a source of illumination exist, except in a divine re
ligion, which having for its substance and object
the attributes of God, can never fail in the necessary
qualities demanded by an active faith ? But
Christianity not only answers to this; it reaches
the remotest wish of human nature, considered in
its primary principles ; and is, therefore, intimately
connected, not only with the highest and grandest
qualities of the soul, developed in the workings of
pure reason, but with the simple yearnings of sym
pathy, and every movement of the heart. In the
mythological religions, whatever was essentially
human had its god; but there is nothing in human
passion by which it can dignify or give beauty or
interest to itself: whenever passion has a true na
tural charm or grace, it derives that ornament

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XX111
from the corresponding intellectual movement, or
from a principle of our being higher and nobler
than itself: but where a deity is supposed to exist
as the source of that passion, it is itself the thing
worshipped as the highest good, and presents its
claim to obedience as an isolated power of nature.
In the revolution which Christianity has caused in
our systems'of philosophy and ethics, every pas
sion has its proper laws, and its corresponding
spiritual sentiment. Thus nature becomes dig
nified by a constant appeal to the fountain-head of
good ; and that which would be doomed to dark
ness and corruption, were it left to itself, is endued
with a lustre pure and bright as that which shines
in the innermost recesses of the soul. To every
point, therefore, which respects the happiness or
improvement of man, and which might be made
the subject of philosophical discourse, the religion
of Christianity looks with loving and grave atten
tion: nothing is omitted; nothing forgotten which
concerns us : it breathes throughout the tender,
cautious, and comprehensive wisdom of perfect be
nevolence ; and that which it offers to effect it has
effected, and is still effecting for thousands in every
quarter of the globe.
The evidence ofthe truth of Christ's resurrection,
or ofthe divine origin of the religion itself, is in one
respect peculiar. Enough is done for the convic
tion of the understanding when the same degree of

XXIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
proof, proportionable to its importance, is brought
for the truth of our faith, as is required for the
establishment of any other system on which our
safety or happiness depends. But it so happens,
that the allowed conviction of the understanding is
in this instance not sufficient to bring into willing
subjection the whole spiritual being. Something
is still wanting to leave the inner man without ex
cuse for resistance ; and reason having conquered
the difficulties of the general inquiry, as the sub
ject of historical evidence, or comparison of prin
ciples, demands of the soul why it does not yield at
once to the palpable force of its deductions. The
explanation of the mystery may perhaps be found
in this, — that as truth is certainly not limited by
the power of the observer, so, while the understand
ing is satisfied as to that which comes immediately
under observation, there may be a vast body of
truth lying far out of the reach of simple historical
evidence, and claiming the assent of the mind, not
on the strength or correspondence of certain facts.
but on the existence and everlasting operation of
spiritual principles. When truth has especial re
lation to these, if the higher faculties of the soul
remain unexerted or unsatisfied, truth is not appre
hended, the evidence proper to it in this respect is
not applied, and no conviction consequently is felt
or acknowledged. Now religion, in all its forms,
has a large portion of its evidence lying beyond the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXV
province of historical, or mere argumentative, so far
as it is verbal, proof: and Christianity does by its
very nature declare this, and claims of believers, in
plain and distinct language, a species of assent for
which the understanding, satisfied ofthe historical
verity, cannot lay foundations sufficiently deep or
extensive. 'The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God,' is the summing up of a
statement which sets this matter in the clearest light.
* My speech and my preaching,' says the messen
ger of God, ' was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power; that your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How
beit we speak wisdom among them that are per
fect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the
princes of this world, that come to nought ; but we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our glory : which none of the princes
of this world knew, for had they known it they
would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But,
as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love
him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in

XXVI INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of
God ; that we might know the things which are
freely given to us of God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teach-
eth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; compar
ing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natu
ral man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.' '
In this passage we find the most explicit account
of the nature of Christian evidence, as soon as it
has passed the limit of historical testimony, and
enters upon that grand and infinitely more exten
sive province in which it appeals to the internal
nature of man, and to the capabilities of his spirit
for converse with the prime and essential Author of
truth. Nor is ita portion of Scripture seized upon
as a passage fortunately discovered among the mass
of evangelical revelations, a passage distinguished
from, or remarkable when compared with, the rest :
the sentiments it imparts are a portion of the
general sentiment of the religion; deprived of
which its different doctrines would want harmony
among each other, and applicability, because of
' 1 Cor. ii. 4—14.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXV11
their pure spirituality, to the human soul. If
Christianity were capable of no higher proof than
that which belongs to the consideration of its his
tory or its morality, we might indeed establish its
divine origin ; but the truth of its doctrines, ex
cept as a portion of a religion so established, would
be without proof: they could not be proved by
testimony, by comparison, or by analogy. ' If any
man doeth the will of my Father, he shall know
of the doctrine whether it be of God' — they can
only be established in the heart, as true, when the
heart, sanctified and enlightened, is at liberty, and
has the will, to receive them as truth communicated
not only by, but with the divine Spirit. And that
which is true of Christian doctrine in general, is
true also of the particular doctrine of the resurrec
tion. The fact itself is proved by the clearest
evidence. But numberless professing Christians,
while the truth of it is thus established, have ho
feeling of delight and triumph resulting therefrom :
though in many respects influenced by certain
general impressions concerning it, they have evi
dently no ardour of hope, no earnestness of deter
mination proportionable to the importance of such
a species of knowledge. How is this ? we may
ask. The proper answer wilt be, that the know
ledge of the resurrection is possessed in the form
of a fact, but not in the spirit of the doctrine;
and that, till the soul receives it through the com-

XXV111 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
forting and elevating influences of heavenly grace,
the power of Christ's resurrection, and the hope of
our own, must remain an inconceivable mystery in
the understanding.
Minds of every class, and many among them
endowed with the highest qualities of intellect, have
been employed on the subject of the Resurrection.
We have endeavoured to afford the reader striking
and edifying examples of the piety, the acuteness,
and the erudition thus engaged in the cause of
Christian doctrine, and in the support of a truth
on which the peace of the human heart so entirely
rests. In selecting the Sermons, therefore, we have
not feared to choose some which present the argu
ment in the rough form which it has assumed
under the hand of weighty scholarship. Nor
have we thought it right to sacrifice, because of
the occasional appearance of subtlety — reasons
brought from the depths of powerful minds. It
would be an easy task to collect many volumes
of sermons abounding in elegant phraseology,
and beautiful sentiment on this subject; but in
such a matter the point to be aimed at is first
conviction, and then the nourishment of holy
thought by food that will give it strength, and
will therefore require long digesting. The study
of Christian truth affords the noblest of exercises
for the human mind : but in these latter times, an
opinion appears to have been daily gaining ground,

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. xxix
that reason may rest in deep repose while contem
plating the grandeur of heavenly mysteries ; and
that the less the style of theology demands the ex
ertion of thought, the better for the student. Chris
tian simplicity, the sacrifice of which we allow
could never be atoned for, suffers rather than gains
by this. Simplicity is strength : the offspring of
severe, reflecting, inquiring, and, therefore, self-
denying and humble minds : whenever it is not
combined with carefulness and energy of thought,
it wants the characteristics which render it so bright
a jewel in the Christian's crown : — simplicity is then
voluble in talk ; as weak, and therefore obscure, in
argument as it is wordy in expression ; humble in
pretension, but often confident and proud in spirit;
soft in its appeals, but rarely earnest ; smooth, but
never direct in its course ; always ready to acknow
ledge what it dares not attempt, but never tremb
ling at the awfulness of truth, because never caring
to lift its veil. How different was the simplicity of
the Fathers of the church to that of their degene
rate sons! They offered not on the altar of Christ
that which it had cost them little to purchase ; nor
was theology with them less worthy of intense ap
plication, than science or politics is with us now.
May the Great Head of the church fill the souls of
his ministers with a more earnest love of divine
contemplation than they have lately manifested, if
we may judge by the present state of theology !

XXX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
May he lead us back to the old paths and the right
way : and if he should please thus to awaken a fer
vent spirit of zeal among us, may they for whom
we labour recover at the same time the primitive
humility, charity, and holiness of their forefathers !
H. S.
March 25th, 1835.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.— Page 1.
For Easter-day ..... South.
SERMON IL— Page 27.
He Hose again from the Dead . . . Barrow.
SERMON III.— Page 63.
The Third Day He Rose again . . . Barrow.
SERMON IV— Page 85.
Jesus, the Son of God, proved by his Resurrection. Tillotson,
SERMON V.— Page 105.
Christ the First Fruits . . . Beveritjge.
SERMON VI.— Page 137.
Christ's Resurrection a Proof of Ours . . Beveridge.
SERMON VII.— Page 153.
Christ's Triumph in the Resurrection . . . Donne.

XXX11 CONTENTS.
SERMON VIII.— Page 179.
The First Resurrection  Donne.
SERMON IX.— Page 209.
The Resurrection of the Body .... Donne.
SERMON X.— Page 239.
Jesus Risen ..... . Hohne.
SERMON XI —Page 257.
The Resurrection of the Body .... Horse.
SERMON XII.— Page 279.
The Resurrection of the Dead . . . Wesle*.
SERMON XIII.— Page 299.
Christ's Coming to Judgment . . . Houslev.
SERMON XIV.— Page 315.
The Judgment .... Horslev.

SERMON I.
FOR EASTER-DAY.
BY DR. SOUTH.

[Robert South was born in 1631, and died in 1716".J

SERMON I.

ACTS, II. 24.

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains
of death: because it was not possible that he
should be holden of it.
It is of infinite concern to mankind, both as to
their welfare in this world and the next, to pre
serve in their minds a full belief of a future estate
of happiness oi- misery, into which, according to
the quality of their actions here, they must for ever
be disposed of hereafter ; the experience of all
ages having found the insufficiency of bare human
restraints to control the audacious sinfulness of some
tempers and dispositions, without holding them un-
derthe awe of this persuasion. From which, though
some by much and long sinning, and perverse
ratiocinations caused thereby, have in a great mea
sure disentangled their consciences, yet these are
but few and inconsiderable compared with the rest
of the world,Hn whose minds, education and bet
ter principles, grafted upon the very instincts of
nature, have fixed this persuasion too deep to be
ever totally rooted out. And it is from the victo-
b 2

4 FOR EASTER-DAY.
rious influence of this that the common peace of
the world has been maintained against those bold
invasions, which the corruption of man's nature
would otherwise continually make upon it. But
now as highly necessary as it is for men to believe
such a future estate, yet it must be acknowledged,
that with the generality of the world this belief
has stood hitherto upon very false, or, at the best,
very weak foundations ; and, consequently, that it
is of no small import to state and settle it upon
better. For the doing of which the most effectual
ways, I conceive, may be these two : —
1. By revelation.
2. By exemplification.
First, As to the first whereof, it must needs be,
either by an immediate declaration of this great
truth (not discoverable by reason) by a voice from
heaven, or by God's inspiring some certain select
persons with the knowledge of it, and afterwards
enabling them to attest it to the world by miracles.
And as this is undoubtedly suflicient in itself for
such a purpose, so Providence has not been want
ing, partly by revelation, and partly by tradi
tion thereupon, to keep alive amongst men some
persuasion at least of this important truth all
along ; as appears even from those fabulous ac
counts and stories which the heathen world still
clothed, or rather corrupted it with. Neverthe
less, such has been the prevalence of human cor
ruption and infidelity, as in a great degree to frus
trate all the impressions that bare revelation, or
tradition, could make upon men's minds; while
they chiefly governed tlieir belief by the observa
tion of their senses, which, from the daily occur
ring instances of mortality, show them, ' that as the

BY DR. SOUTH. 5
tree fell so it lay :' and that nobody was ever seen
by them to return from the mansions of the dead ;
but that, for any thing they could find to the con
trary, all passed into dust and rottenness, and
perpetual oblivion.
Secondly, The other way therefore of convincing
the world of this momentous truth (in comparison
of which all science and philosophy are but trifles)
must be by exemplification. That is to say, by
giving the world an instance, or example of it, in
some person or persons, who having been confes
sedly dead, should revive and return to life again.
And this, one would think, should be as full and
unexceptionable a proof that there may be a resur
rection of men to a future estate, as could be de
sired ; nothing striking the mind of man so pow
erfully as instances and examples, which make a
truth not only intelligible, but even palpable ;
sliding it into the understanding through the win
dows of sense, and by the most familiar, as well as
most unquestionable, perceptions of the eye. And
accordingly, this course God thought fit to take in
the resurrection of Christ; by which he conde
scended to give the world the greatest satisfaction
that infidelity itself could rationally insist upon.
Howbeit, notwithstanding so plain an address both
to men's reason and sense too, neither has this
course proved so successful for convincing of the
world of a resurrection from the dead, and a fu
ture estate consequent thereupon, but that unbelief
has been still putting in its objections against it.
For it is not, I confess, the interest of such as live
ill in this world to believe that there shall be ano
ther ; or that they shall be sensible of any thing
after death has once done its work upon them : and

(> FOR EASTER-DAY.
therefore let truth, and Scripture, and even sense
itself, say what they will for a resurrection, men,
for aught appears, will for ever square their belief
to their desires, and their desires to their corrup
tions ; so that (as we find it in the 16th of Luke
and last verse) ' though they should even see one
rise from the dead they would hardly be persuaded
of their own resurrection.' Such a sad and deplor
able hardness of heart have men sinned themselves
into, that nothing shall convince them but what
first pleases them, be it never so much a delusion.
Nevertheless, the most wise and just God is not so
to be mocked, who knows, that by raising Christ
from the dead, he has done all that rationally can,
or ought to be done, for the convincing of man
kind that there shall be a resurrection ; whether
they will be convinced by it or no. But now, if
after all it should be asked, How is Christ's resur
rection a proof that the rest of mankind shall
rise from the dead too ? I answer, That con
sidered indeed as a bare instance, or example, it
proves no more than that there may be such a
thing; since the same Infinite Power which ef
fected the one, may as well effect the other. But
then, if we consider it as an argument, and a con
firmation of that doctrine, (whereof the assertion of
a general resurrection makes a principal part,) I
affirm, that so taken it does not only prove that
such a thing may be, but also that it actually shall
be ; and that as certainly, as it is impossible for
the Divine Power to set its seal to a lie by ratify
ing an imposture with such a miracle. And thus,
as Christ's resurrection irrefragably proves the re
surrection of the rest of mankind, so it no less
proves Christ himself to have been the Messiah ; for

BY DR. SOUTH. 7
that, having all along affirmed himself to be so, he
made good the truth of what he had so affirmed by
his miraculous rising again, and so gave as strong
a proof of his Messiahship, as infinite power, joined
with equal veracity, could give. And upon this
account we have his resurrection alleged by St.
Peter for the same purpose, here in the text, which
was part of his sermon to the Jews, concerning
Jesus Christ; whom he proves to be their true
and long-expected Messiah, against all the cavils
of prejudice and unbelief, by this one invincible
demonstration. In the text then we have these three things con
siderable : —
First, Christ's resurrection and the cause of it, in
these words, ' whom God hath raised up.'
Secondly, The manner by which it was effected,
which was by ' loosing the pains of death.' And,
Thirdly, and lastly, The ground of it, which
was its absolute necessity, expressed in these words :
' It was not possible that he should be holden of
it.' And,
1. For the first of these, The cause of the resur
rection set forth in this expression, ' whom God
hath raised up.' It was such an action as pro
claimed an omnipotent agent, and carried the
hand of God writ upon it in broad characters,
legible to the meanest reason. Death is a disease
which art cannot cure : and the grave a prison
which delivers back its, captives upon no human
summons. To restore life is only the prerogative
of him who gives it. Some indeed have pretended
by art and physical applications to recover the
dead, but the success has sufficiently upbraided
the attempt. Physic may repair and piece up

8 FOR EASTER-DAY.
nature, but not create it. Cordials, plaisters, and
fomentations cannot always stay a life when it is
going, much less can they remand it when it is
gone. Neither is it in the power of a spirit or
demon, good or bad, to inspire a new life. For it
is a creation ; and to create is the incommunicable
prerogative of a Power infinite and unlimited.
Enter into a body they may, and so act and move
it after the manner of a soul : but it is one thing
to move, another to animate a carcass. You see
the devil could fetch up nothing of Samuel at the
request of Saul, but a shadow and a resemblance,
his countenance and his mantle, which yet was not
enough to cover the cheat, or to palliate the illusion.
But I suppose nobody will be very importunate
for any further proof of this, that if Christ was
raised, it must be God who raised him. The angel
might indeed roll away the stone from the sepul
chre, but not turn it into a ' son of Abraham ;'
and a less power than that which could do so,
could not effect the resurrection.
2. I come now to the second thing, which is to
show the manner by which God wrought this re
surrection, set forth in those words, ' having loosed
the pains of death.' An expression not altogether so
clear, but that it may well require a further explica
tion. For it may be enquired, with what propriety
God could be said ' to loose the pains of death/
by Christ's resurrection, when those pains con
tinued not till the resurrection, but determined
and expired in the death of his body ? Upon which
ground it is, that some have affirmed, that Christ
descended into the place of the damned ; where
during his body's abode in the grave, they say,
that in his soul he really suffered the pains of

BY DR. SOUTH. 9
hell ; and this not unsuitably to some ancient co
pies, which read it not iifavag Savaru ' the pains of
death,' but <iSTrae #S» ' the pains of hell ;' and this
also with much seeming consonance to that article of
the creed in which Christ is said to have ' descended
into hell.' But to this I answer, That Christ suf
fered not any such pains in hell, as the foremen-
tioned opinion would pretend, which we may de
monstrate from this, that if Christ suffered any of
those pains during his abode in the grave, then it
was either in his divine nature, or in his soul, or in
his body. But the divine nature could not suffer,
or be tormented, as being wholly impassible. Nor
yet could he suffer in his soul ; for as much as in
the very same day of his death, that passed into
paradise, which surely is no place of pain. Nor
lastly, in his body; for that being dead, and conse
quently for the time bereaved of all sense, could
not be capable of any torment. And then, for
answer to what was alleged from the ancient co
pies, it is to be observed that the word $oa (which
some render hell,) indifferently signifies also the
grave, and a state of death. And lastly, for that
article ofthe creed in which there is mention made
of Christ's descent into hell, there are various ex
positions of it, but the most rational and agreeable
is, that it means his abode in the grave and under
the state of death three days and three nights, or
rather three vvx^v^pa, viz. part of the first, and
third, (so called by a synecdoche of the part for
the whole,) and the second entirely. Whereby, as
his burial signified his' entrance into the grave, so
his descending into hell signified his continuance
there and subjection to that estate. And thus the
three parts of his humiliation in the last and grand

10 FOR EASTER-DAY.
scene of it, do most appositely answer to the three
parts of his exaltation. For, first, his death an
swers to his rising again. Secondly, His burial
answers to his ascending into heaven. And thirdly,
His descending into hell answers to his sitting at
the right hand of God, in a state of never-dying
glory, honour, and immortality. But, however, that
his descending into hell, mentioned in the creed,
cannot signify his local descent into the place of the
damned, the former argument disproving his suf
fering the pains of hell, will, by an easy change of
the terms, sufficiently evince this also. For, first,
Christ could not descend according to his divine
nature; since that which is infinite and fills all
places, could not acquire any new place. And as
for his soul, that was in paradise, and his body was
laid in the grave ; and being so, what part of
Christ could descend into hell, (the whole Christ
being thus disposed of,) needs a more than ordi
nary apprehension to conceive.
We are, therefore, in the next place to see, how
we can make out the reason of this expression upon
some other and better ground. In order to which,
it is very observable, that the same word which in
the Greek text is rendered by oiolvas, and in the
English by pains, in the Hebrew signifies not only
pain, but also a cord or band,1 according to which
it is very easy and proper to conceive, that the resur
rection discharged Christ from the bands of death :
besides, that this translation of the word seems also
most naturally to agree with the genuine meaning
of some other words in the same verse ; as of Xiaag,
' having loosed,' wliich is properly applicable to
1 See Dr. Hammond's Annot. on the place.

BY DR. SOUTH. 11
bands and not to pains ; as also of KpartuoSai, which
signifies properly to be bound with some cord or
band : so that undoubtedly this exposition would
give the whole verse a much more natural and ap
posite construction, and withal remove the difficulty.
But, Secondly, because the evangelist St. Luke follows
the translation ofthe Septuagint, (who, little mind
ing the Hebrew pointings, rendered the word >^an,
not by SxotWa, cords or bands, but by oioTvag,
pains ;) we are, therefore, not to baulk so great
an authority, but to see how the scheme of the
text may be made clear and agreeable, even to this
exposition. To this therefore I answer : —
First, that the words contain in them an Hebraism,
viz. the pains of death, for a painful death. The
abomination of desolation, for an abominable deso
lation;' and so the resurrection loosed Christ from
a painful death, not indeed painful in sensu compo-
sito, as if it were so at the time of his release from
it, but in a divided sense (as the logicians speak)
it loosed him from a continuance under that death;
which, relating to the time of his suffering it, was so
painful. 2. But secondly, I answer further. That, though
the pains of death ceased long before the resurrec
tion, so that this could not in strictness of sense be
said to remove them ; yet, taking in a metonomy
of the cause for the effect, the pains of death might
be properly said to have been loosed in the resur
rection, because that estate of death tinto which
Christ was brought by those foregoing pains, was
1 Matt. xxiv. 15.

12 FOR EASTER-DAY.
then conquered and completely triumphed over.
Captivity under death and the grave was the effect
and consequent of those pains ; and therefore the
same deliverance which discharged Christ from the
one, might not improperly be said to loose him from
the other. And thus, Christ was no sooner bound,
but within a little time he was loosed again. He
was not so much buried, as for a while deposited in
the grave for a small inconsiderable space ; so that
even in this respect he may not inelegantly be said
to have tasted of death ; for a taste is transient,
short, and quickly past. God rescued him from
that estate, as a prey from the mighty, and a captive
from the strong ; and though he was in the very
jaws of death, yet he was not devoured. Corrup
tion, the common lot of mortality, seized not on
him : worms and putrefaction durst not approach
him. His body was sacred and inviolable; as
sweet under ground as above it, and in death itself
retaining one of the highest privileges of the living.
3. Come we now to the last and principal thing
proposed, namely, the ground of Christ's resurrec
tion, which was its absolute necessity, expressed in
these words, 'Because it was not possible that he
should be holden of it ;' and that, according to the
strictest and most received sense of the word (possi
ble.) For it was not only just and equal that
Christ should not always be detained under death,
because of his innocence, (as Grotius precariously,
and to serve an hypothesis, would have the word,
possible, here signify,) but it was absolutely neces
sary that he should not, and impossible that he
should, continue under the bands of death, from
the peculiar condition of his person, as well as
upon several other accounts. And accordingly,

BY DR. SOUTH. I'S
this impossibility was founded upon these five
things : —
I. The union of Christ's human nature to the
divine. 2. God's immutability.
3. His justice.
4. The necessity of Christ's being believed upon.
5. And lastly, the nature of his priesthood.
First of all then, the hypostatical union of Christ's
human nature to his divine, rendered a perpetual
duration under death absolutely impossible. For,
how could that which was united to the great source
and principle of life, be finally prevailed over by
death, and pass into an estate of perpetual dark
ness and oblivion ? Even while Christ's body was
divided from his soul, yet it ceased not to maintain
an intimate indissolvable relation to hii divinity.
It was assumed into the same person ; for, accord
ing to the creed of Athanasius, * As the soul and
body make one man ; so the divine nature and the
human make one Christ.' And if so, is it imagin
able that the Son of God could have one of his na
tures rent wholly from his person ? His divinity
(as it were) buoyed up his sinking humanity, and
preserved it from a total dissolution : for, as while
the soul continues joined to the body, (still speak
ing in sensu composito,) death cannot pass upon it;
for as much as that is the proper effect of their
separation ; so, while Christ's manhood was re
tained in a personal conjunction with his Godhead,
the bands of death were but feeble and insignificant,
like the withs and cords upon Sampson, while he
was inspired with the mighty presence and assist
ance of God's Spirit.
It was possible indeed, that the divine nature

14 FOR EASTER-DAY.
might for awhile suspend its supporting influence,
and so deliver over the human nature to pain and
death ; but it was impossible for it to let go the re
lation it bore to it. A man may suffer his child
to fall to the ground, and yet not wholly quit his
hold of him, but still keep it in his power to recover,
and lift him up at his pleasure. Thus, the divine
nature of Christ did for awhile hide itself from his
humanity, but not desert it; put it into the cham
bers of death, but not lock the everlasting doors
upon it. The sun may be clouded and yet not
eclipsed ; and eclipsed, but not stopped in his
course, and much less forced out of his orb. It is
a mystery to be admired, that any thing belonging
to the person of Christ should suffer ; but it is a
paradox to be exploded, that it should perish. For,
surely, that nature which, diffusing itself through
out the universe, communicates an enlivening in
fluence to every part of it, and quickens the least
spire of grass according to the measure of its na
ture, and the proportion of its capacity, would not
wholly leave a nature assumed into its bosom, and,
what is more, into the very unity of the divine per
son, breathless and inanimate, and dismantled of
its prime and noblest perfection. For life is so
high a perfection of being, that in this respect the
least fly or mite is a more noble being than a star.
And God has expressly declared himself, ' not the
God ofthe dead, but ofthe living;' and this in re
spect of the very persons of men ; but how much
more with reference to what belongs to the person
of his Son ? For, when natures come to unite so
near, as mutually to interchange names and attri
butes, und to verify the appellation by which ' God
is said to be man,' and 'man to be God ;' surely,

BY DR. SOUTH. 15
man so privileged and advanced, cannot for ever
lie under death, without an insufferable invasion
upon the entireness of that glorious person, whose
perfection is as inviolable as it is incomprehensi
ble. 2. The second ground of the impossibility of
Christ's continuance under death, was that great
and glorious attribute of God, his immutability.
Christ's resurrection was founded upon the same
bottom with the consolation and salvation of be
lievers, expressed in that full declaration made by
God of himself: 'I, the Lord, change not: there
fore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.'1 Now, the
immutability of God, as it had an influence upon
Christ's resurrection, was two-fold.
First, in respect of his decree or purpose.
Secondly, in respect of his word or promise.
And first for his decree. God had from all eter
nity designed this, and sealed it by an irreversible
purpose. For can we imagine that Christ's resur
rection was not decreed as well as his death and
sufferings ? and these are expressly said, ' to have
been determined by God.' s It is a known rule in
divinity, " that whatsoever God does in time, that
he purposed to do from eternity ; " for there can be
no new purposes in God : since he who takes up a
new purpose, does so because he sees some ground
to induce him to such a purpose, which he did not
see before. But this can have no place in an infi
nite knowledge, which by one comprehensive in
tuition sees all things as present, before ever they
come to pass. So that there can be no new emer
gency that can alter the divine resolutions. And,
1 Malachi, iii. 6. 2 Acts, ii. 23.

16 FOR EASTER-DAY.
therefore, it having been absolutely purposed to
raise Christ from the dead, his resurrection was as
fixed and necessary as the purpose of God was irre
vocable : a purpose which commenced from eter
nity, and was declared in the very beginnings of
time; a purpose not to be changed, nor so much as
bent, and much less broke, by all the created
powers in heaven and earth, and in hell besides.
For though indeed death is a great conqueror, and
his bands much too strong for nature and mor
tality ; yet when over-matched by a decree, this
conqueror, as old as he has grown in conquest,
must surrender back his spoils, unbind his cap
tives, and in a word even death itself must receive
its doom. From all which it is manifest, that
where there is a divine decree, there is always an
Omnipotence to second it ; and consequently, that
by the concurrence of both, no less a power was
employed to raise Christ out ofthe grave, than that
which first raised the world itself out of nothing.
2. Let us consider God's immutability in respect
of his word and promise, for these also were en
gaged in this affair. In what a clear prophecy was
this foretold, and dictated by that Spirit, which
could not lie ! * Thou shalt not suffer thy Holy
One to see corruption.'1 And Christ also had fre
quently foretold the same of himself. Now when
God says a thing, he gives his veracity in pawn to
see it fully performed. ' Heaven and earth may
pass away sooner than one iota of a divine promise
fall to the gronnd. Few things are recorded of
Christ, but the rear ofthe narrative is still brought
up with this ; that such a thing was done, ' That it
1 Psalm xvi. 10.

BY DR. SOUTH. 17
might be fulfilled what was spoken by such or such
a prophet.' Such a firm, unshaken, adamantine
connexion is there between a prophecy and its ac
complishment. ' All things that are written in the
prophets concerning me,' says Christ, ' must come
to pass.' And surely then the most illustrious
passage that concerned him could not remain
under an uncertainty and contingency of event.
So that what is most emphatically said concerning
the persevering obstinacy and infidelity of the Jews ;
' That they could not believe, because,' that Esaias
had said, 'that God blinded their eyes, and hard
ened their hearts, that they should not see with
their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, and so
be converted and he should heal them:'1 — the
same, I affirm, may with as great an emphasis, and
a much greater clearness to our reason, be affirmed
of Christ, that therefore death could not hold him,
because the kingly prophet had long before sung
the triumphs of his glorious resurrection in the
forementioned prediction. In a word, whatsoever
God purposes or promises, passes from contingent
and merely possible into certain and necessary :
and whatsoever is necessary, the contrary of it is so
far impossible.
But when I say that the divine decree or pro
mise imprints a necessity upon things, it may, to
prevent misapprehension, be needful to explain
what kind of necessity this is, that so the liberty of
second causes be not thereby wholly cashiered and
taken away. For this therefore, we are to observe,
that the schools distinguish of a two-fold necessity,
physical and logical, or causal and consequential,
1 John, xii. 39, 40.

18 FOR EASTER-DAY.
which terms are commonly thus explained ; viz.
that physical or causal necessity is, when a thing
by an efficient, productive influence certainly and
naturally causes such an effect : and in this sense,
neither the divine decree nor promise makes things
necessary; for neither the decree nor promise, by
itself, produces or effects the thing decreed or pro
mised ; nor exerts any active influence upon second
causes, so as to impel them to do any thing ; but in
point of action are wholly ineffective. Secondly,
logical or consequential necessity is, when a thing
does not efficiently cause an event, but yet by cer
tain infallible consequence does infer it. Thus the
foreknowledge of any event, if it be true and cer
tain, does certainly and necessarily infer, that there
must be such an event: forasmuch as the cer
tainty of knowledge depends upon the certainty of
the thing known. And in this sense it is, that
God's decree and promise give a necessary exist
ence to the thing decreed or promised ; that is to
say, they infer it by a necessary infallible conse
quence : so that it was as impossible for Christ not
to rise from the dead, as it was for God absolutely
to decree and promise a thing, and yet for that
thing not to come to pass.
The third reason of the impossibility of Christ's
detention under a state of death, was from the jus
tice of God. God in the whole procedure of Christ's
sufferings must be considered as a judge exacting,
and Christ as a person paying down a recompense
or satisfaction for sin. For though Christ was as
pure and undefiled with the least spot of sin as
purity and innocence itself: yet he was pleased to
make himself the greatest sinner in the world, by
imputation, and rendering himself a surety respon-

BY DR. SOUTH. 19
sible for our debts. For it is said, ' He who knew
no sin was made sin for us.' l When the justice of
God was lifting up the sword of vengeance over
our heads, Christ snatched us away from the blow,
and substituted his own body in our room, to re
ceive the whole stroke of that dreadful retribution
inflicted by the hand of an angry Omnipotence.
But now, as God was pleased so to comport with
his justice, as not to put up the injury done it by
sin without an equivalent compensation ; so this
being once paid down, that proceeding was to
cease. The punishment due to sin was death,
which being paid by Christ, divine justice could
not any longer detain him in his grave. For what
had this been else but to keep him in prison after
the debt was paid ? Satisfaction disarms justice,
and payment cancels the bond. And that which
Christ exhibited was full measure pressed down
and running over, even adequate to the nicest pro
portions, and the most exact demands of that severe
and unrelenting attribute of God. So that his
release proceeded not upon terms of courtesy, but
of claim. The gates of death flew open before him
out of duty ; and even that justice which was infi
nite, was yet circumscribed within the inviolable
limits of what was due. Otherwise guilt would
even grow out of expiation, the reckoning be in
flamed by being paid, and punishment itself not
appease, but exasperate justice. Revenge, indeed,
in the hand of a sinful mortal man, is for the most
part, vast, unlimited, and unreasonable ; but re
venge in the hands of an infinite justice is not so
infinite as to be also indefinite, but in all its actings
proceeds by rule and determination, and cannot
' 2 Cor. v. 21.
c 2

20 FOR EASTER-DAY.
possibly surpass the bounds put to it by the merits
of the cause, and the measure of the offence. It is
not the effect of mere choice and will, but springs
out of the unalterable relation of equality between
things and actions. In a word, the same justice of
God which required him to deliver Christ to death,
did afterwards as much engage him to deliver him
from it.
4. The fourth ground of the impossibility of
Christ's perpetual continuance under death was
the necessity of his being believed in as a Saviour,
and the impossibility of his being so without rising
from the dead. As Christ by his death paid down
a satisfaction for sin, so it was necessary that it
should be declared to the world by such argu
ments as might found a rational belief of it ; so
that men's unbelief should be rendered inexcus
able. But how could the world believe that he
fully had satisfied for sin, so long as they saw
death, the known wages of sin, maintain its full
force and power over him, holding him, like an
obnoxious person, in durance and captivity ?
When a man is once imprisoned for debt, none
can conclude the debt either paid by him or for
given to him, but by the release of his person.
Who could believe Christ to have been a God and
a Saviour while he was hanging upon the tree ?
A dying, crucified God, a Saviour of the world
who could not save himself, would have been ex
ploded by the universal consent of reason as an
horrible paradox and absurdity. Had not the
resurrection followed the crucifixion, that scoff of
the Jews had stood as an unanswerable argument
against him, Mark, xv. 31, ' Himself he can
not save ;' and in the thirty-second verse, ' Let

BY DR. SOUTH. 21
him come down from the cross, and we will be
lieve in him.' Otherwise, surely, that which was
the lowest instance of human weakness and mor
tality could be no competent demonstration of a
Deity. To save is the effect of power, and of such
a power as prevails to » complete victory and a
triumph. But it is expressly affirmed, ' that Christ
was crucified through weakness.'1 Death was too
hard for his humanity, and bore away the spoils
of it for a time. So that, while Christ was in the
grave, men might as well have expected, that a
person hung in chains should come down and
head an army, as imagine that a dead body, con
tinuing such, should be able to triumph over sin
and death, which so potently triumphs over the
living. The discourse of the two disciples going
to Emmaus, and expecting no such thing as a
resurrection, was upon that supposition hugely
rational and significant. ' We trusted,' said they,
' that this had been he who should have redeemed
Israel:'* thereby clearly implying that upon his
death they had let that confidence fall to the
ground together with him. For they could not
imagine that a breathless carcass could chase away
the Roman eagles, and so recover the kingdom and
nation of the Jews, from under their subjection ;
which was the redemption that even the disciples
(till they were further enlightened) promised them
selves from their Messiah. But the argument
would equally, nay more strongly hold against a
spiritual redemption, supposing his continuance
under a state of death, as being a thing in itself
much more difficult. For how could such an one
1 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 2 Luke, xxiv. 21.

22 FOR EASTER-DAY.
break the kingdom of darkness and set his foot
upon ' principalities' and ' powers,' and ' spiritual
wickednesses in high places,' who himself fell a sa
crifice to the wickedness of mortal men ; and re
mained a captive in the lower parts of the earth,
reduced to a condition not only below men's envy,
but below their very feet ?
5. The fifth, and last ground ofthe impossibility
of Christ's perpetual continuance under a state
of death, was the nature of the priesthood, which
he had taken upon him. The apostle, Heb. viii. 4,
says, ' that if he were upon earth he should not be
a priest.' Certainly then much less could he be
so, should he continue under the earth. The two
great works of his priesthood were to offer sacrifice,
and then to make intercession for sinners, corre
spondent to the two works of the Mosaical priest
hood; in which the priest first slew the lamb,
and then with the blood of it entered into the
holy of holies, there to appear before God in the
behalf of the people. Christ therefore, after that
he had offered himself upon the cross, was to enter
into heaven, and, there presenting himself to the
Father, to make that sacrifice effectual to all the
intents and purposes of it. Upon which account
the apostle, to express his fitness for the priest
hood infinitely beyond any ofthe sons of Aaron,
states it upon this, ' that he lives for ever to
make intercession for us, and," upon that very
score also, ' is able to save to the uttermost.' '
But surely the dead could not intercede for the
living, nor was the grave a sanctum sanctorum.
Had not Christ risen again, his blood indeed
1 Heb. vii. 25.

BY DR. SOUTH. 23
might have cried for vengeance upon his mur
derers, but not for mercy upon believers. In
short, it had spoken no better things than the blood
of Abel, which called for nothing but a fearful
judgment upon the head of him who shed it.
Christ's death merited a redemption for the world,
but Christ while dead could not show forth the
full effects of that redemption. He made the pur
chase at his death, but he could not take possession
till he was returned to life. Ever since Christ
ascended into heaven, he has been pursuing the
great work begun by him upon the cross, and ap
plying the virtue of his sacrifice to those for whom
it was offered. It is affirmed by some, and that
not without great probability of reason, that the
souls of the saints who died before Christ's resur
rection did not actually enter into a state of com
plete glory till Christ, the great Captain of their
salvation, upon his ascension first entered into it
himself, and then made way for others. So that
according to that divine anthem of the church,
" after that he had overcome the sharpness of
death, then," at length, and not till then, " he
opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers."
And thus I have given five several reasons, why it
was not possible that a state of death should finally
prevail over Christ, wliich was the thing to be
proved. And I have nothing further to recom
mend to your consideration, but only two things,
which the very nature of the subject seems of itself
to imprint upon all pious minds.
I. The first is a dehortation from sin, and that
indeed the strongest that can be. For can we ima
gine that the second person in the glorious Trinity,
would concern himself to take upon him our flesh,

24 FOR EASTER-DAY.
and to suffer, and die, and at length rise again,
only to render us the more secure and confident in
our sins P Would he neither see, nor endure any
corruption in his dead body, that we should har
bour all the filth and corruption imaginable in
our immortal souls ? Did he conquer and triumph
over death, that we should be the slaves and cap
tives of that which is worse than death ? Christ
has declared that he will dwell in those, whom he
assumes into the society of his mystical body.
But can we think, that he who passed from a
clean, new sepulchre into an heavenly mansion,
will descend from thence to take up his habitation in
the rotten sepulchre of an heart possessed and pol
luted with the love of that which he infinitely
hates ? It will little avail us that Christ rose from
a temporal death, unless we also rise from a spi
ritual. For those who do not imitate as well as
believe Christ's resurrection, must expect no benefit
by it.
2. Christ's resurrection is an high and sove
reign consolation against death. Death we know
is the grand enemy of mankind, the merciless
tyrant over nature, and the king of terrors. But,
blessed be God, Christ has given a mortal blow to
his power, and broke his sceptre. And if we, by a
through conquest of our sins and rising from
them, can be but able to say, ' O sin, where is thy
power ?' We may very rationally and warrantably,
say thereupon, ' O death, where is thy sting ?' So
that when we come to resign back these frail bo
dies, these vessels of mortality to the dust from
whence they were taken, we may yet say of our
souls as Christ did of the damsel whom he raised
up, ' that she was not dead, but only slept ;' for, in

BY DR. SOUTH. 25
like manner, we shall as certainly rise out of the
grave, and triumph over the dishonours of its rot
tenness and putrefaction, as we rise in the morning
out of our beds, with bodies refreshed and ad
vanced into higher and nobler perfections. For
the head being once risen, we may be sure the
members cannot stay long behind. And Christ is
already risen and gone before, to prepare mansions
for all those who belong to him under that high
relation, ' that where he is, they (to tlieir eternal
comfort) may be also, rejoicing and singing praises
and hallelujahs to him who sitteth upon the throne,
and to the Lamb for ever and ever.'
To whom be rendered and ascribed, as is most
due, all glory, might, majesty, and dominion, to
eternal ages. Amen.

SERMON II.
HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
BY DR. ISAAC BARROW-

[Isaac Barrow was born in 1630. In 1672 he was made master of Trinity
College, Cambridge, and died in 16770

SERMON JJ

Acts, i. 3.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his pas
sion by many infallible proofs ; being seen of them
forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God.
The most proper and most usual way of God, in
confirming any truth of high moment in special
manner revealed by him, is by lending unto them
whom he employs as messengers thereof, his power
ful arm for the performance of works supernatural
or miraculous. Of such works there is none more
certainly such than raising a dead person to life;
the doing which, upon several accounts, plainly sur-
passeth the power of any creature; not only as ex
ceeding the ordinary law and course of nature esta
blished and upheld by God, but for that the souls of
men departing hence do return into God's hand, or
into a state by high sentence determined, whence
no creature is able to fetch them down, or raise
them up ; because also God hath reserved the pre
rogative of doing this unto himself; he 'holding
(as it is expressed in the Revelation) the Keys of

30 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
hell and of death ;' he having said, 'I am he, and
there is no God beside me; I kill, and I make
alive.'1 There could also particularly be no more proper
way of confirming our religion to come from God,
whether we consider the persons whom it was de
signed for, or the doctrines it propounded. The
.lews were incapable of conviction by any other
way than by miracle ; no other reason would have
been apprehended by them, or would have had
any force upon them. 'The Jews (saith St. Paul)
require a sign ;' and, ' except ye see signs and
wonders ye will not believe,' said our Saviour to
them.8 The Gentiles also had been so used to the
winding off and on the subtleties and the plausibi
lities of disputation, that nothing probably in that
kind would have sufficed to persuade them ; and
therefore, somewhat miraculous in the highest kind
might be needful to convert them: also the most
peculiar and eminent doctrines of our religion
(such as are, our Lord Jesus being the Messias,
the Son of God and Saviour of the world, the
future resurrection, general judgment, and dispen
sation of rewards, answerable to men's practice in
this life) cannot more immediately and directly be
assured, than by the resurrection from the dead of
him, who principally did reveal them.
Wherefore, Almighty God, in confirmation of our
religion, did perform this great work in raising
Jesus our Lord from the dead ; and withal (for
the conviction of the world, for rendering our faith
reasonable, and our infidelity inexcusable) he did
1 Apoc. i. Ill; Deut. xxxii. 39 ; 1 Sam. ii.fi ; l'salm lxviii-
'' 1 Cor. i. 22 ; John, iv. 40.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 31
take especial care, that the fact should by very suf
ficient testimony be conveyed unto us; to which
purpose he did (as St. Peter said) irpo^uporoveiv,
predesign, pick out, and appoint acompetent number
of persons, in all respects capable and fit to assert
it : ¦ this is that which St. Luke in our text doth in
wa}' of historical narration affirm. And because
the truth thereof is in its kind the principal argu
ment, whereby the truth of our religion in gross
may be evinced, we shall, for the confirmation of
our faith, against all impressions of this incredulous
(and therefore impious) age, endeavour by God's
assistance now to declare and maintain it. That
Jesus truly died, all the world could testify ; no
death was ever more solemn or remarkable ; nor
do any adversaries contest it; that he after that
death was by Divine power raised again to life is
that which we believe and assert. Now, whoever
with reason shall doubt thereof or deny it, must do
it, either because of some repugnance in the fact
itself, implying that it could not well be done; or
from deficiency of the testimony proving it, as to
its authors or circumstances ; but neither of these
exceptions may reasonably be admitted.
As for the fact itself, or the notion of a resurrec
tion in general, there cannot, (admitting that,
which as capable of antecedaneous proof, and as
acknowledged by all persons owning any religion,
may be presupposed, the power and providence of
God, together with his chief attributes of wisdom
and goodness incomprehensible,) there cannot be
any repugnance therein, or any incredibility. For
it was neither in its nature impossible to God, nor in
1 Acts, x. 41.

32 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
its design unworthy of him ; it contained nothing
apparently either beyond the power of God, or
presumable to be against his will.
1. To raise a dead man to life, is indeed, we con
fess and avow, a work surpassing the power of any
creature, not assisted by God ; but no reason can
be assigned, why it should go beyond the Divine
power. The doing it doth not involve contradic
tion, and is therefore an object of power, and at
least is achievable by Omnipotence : let the soul
be what it will, and in whatever life may be sup
posed to consist, nothing can hinder that God may
reduce the parts of a man into the same state they
sometime before were in. And very easily it is
conceivable that he, who (according to'the general
notions and current traditions of mankind) did
first inspire the soul of man into his body, may re-
infuse it being separated ; that he who after death
keepeth it in his hand, may thence restore it; who
also (according to histories, received in all the prin
cipal religions that have been in the world) hath
often actually performed it. Pliny, indeed, doth
reckon this among instances of things absolutely
impossible. 'It is,' saith he, 'a great solace of
our imperfect nature, that even God cannot do all
things ; for neither can he bring death upon him
self, if he would, nor bestow eternity on mortals,
nor recall the dead to life.'1 But it is no wonder,
that he, who thought the soul quite to perish hy
death, should conceive the restitution thereof im-
1 Imperfecta! vero in homine naturae praxipua solatia sunt,
ne Deum quidem posse omnia ; nam neque sibi potest mortem
consciscere si velit (quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vita;
malis) nee mortales a:ternitate donare, nee revocare defunutos 
Plin. ii. 7.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 33
possible ; although, even supposing that, his opi
nion was not reasonable ; for even any thing, how
corruptible soever, by dissolution of its ingredients,
or alteration of its temperament, may, by re-collect
ing and rejoining those ingredients, or by re-esta
blishing the causes of such a temperament, be re
stored, (as a house whose materials are dispersed
may be re-edified, or as a liquor by anew fermenta
tion may be revived,) which to effect may not be
deemed hard to him that made the whole world : '
however, to such as him we may say as our Saviour
did to the Sadducees, ' Ye err, not knowing the Scrip
tures, nor the power of God.'8 Especially to those
who acknowledge. the immortality of the soul, or
its permanence in a separate state, and who admit
the truth of the ancient histories among the Jews,
it is not only- most evidently possible, but very cre
dible, that God upon any considerable occasion
should perform it; with such St. Paul might well
thus expostulate : ' What ? doth it seem incredible
to you that .God should raise the dead?'3 to you
that have such previous notions and persuasions
-about God's omnipotency; (such as the prophet
Jeremy expresseth when he saith, ' Ah, Lord God,
behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth
by thy great power and,' stretched-out arm, and
there is nothing too hard for thee;') to you who
avow God to be the Father of Spirits, who formeth
the spirit of man within him, and that when man
dieth, his spirit returneth to God who gave it ; to
you who believe that our souls are spiritual sub
stances, like unto angels, subsisting after death,
and destined to future rewards ; to you, in fine, who
1 Jer. xxxii. 17. * Matt. xxii. 29. 3 Acts, xxvi. 8.
1)

34 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
may, in your holy records, find so many experi
ments of this power exerted by God in his pro
phets ; ' such as that of Elijah's restoring the widow
of Sarepta's son; of Elisha raising the son of
the Shunamite; that of the dead man reviving
when his body touched the prophet's bones; to you,
therefore, this fact cannot be in itself incredible ;
nor indeed can it, for the reason suggested, to any
man reasonably seem impossible.5
2. Nor was it apparently in its design unworthy
of God, or inconsistent with his holy will: for the
ends thereof (such as were pretended by the attes-
ters of it) were as very great and important, so
most good and reasonable ; it aimed at no slight or
trifling matter, but such as in appearance highly
concerned the glory of God, and conduced to the
welfare of mankind, it professing itself to be a cre
dential of the greatest embassy that ever came down
from heaven to men, importing the complete reve
lation of God's will, and procurement of salvation
to the world ; and did therefore, in that respect, well
become the wisdom and goodness of God to use it.
It pretended to confirm a doctrine containing most
true and worthy representations of God, the best
that could be ; declaring most gracious intentions
in God of mercy and kindness toward men ; no less
proper for him than grateful and needful for us;
prescribing most excellent rules and patterns of
life, (wherein the most genuine piety and virtue,
most exact justice and hearty charity, most strict
purity and sobriety are prescribed,) yielding the
1 Jer. xxxii. 17 ; Zech. viii. 6 ; Job. xiii. 2 ; Heb. xii. 9 ;
Numb, xvi. 22 ; Ibid, xxvii. 10 ; Zech. xii. 1 ; Isaiah, xlviii.
li, ; Eccles. xii. 1.
* 1 Kings, xvii. 21 ; 2 Kings, iv. 35, xiii. 21.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 35
most effectual helps to the practice of all goodness,
and tendering the best encouragement thereto; and
upon this account therefore also most worthy of
God. So that indeed God could not be conceived
to perform such a miracle to better purpose, than
for promoting the designs it pretendeth, being so
very great, and so very good : it could not be im
proper for the Divine power to be thus exerted in
favour of a religion so apt to promote his glory,
and to procure our benefit.
If it be said, that it is absurd or improbable, that
God should choose to perform this miracle upon a
person of this sort; one so mean and obscure in the
state of his life, so wretched and infamous forthe
manner of his death ; that God rather should have
chosen, for the interpreter of his mind and minister
of his purposes, a personage more illustrious in rank,
and clear in repute; I answer, first, that our shal
low fancy is a bad and incompetent judge of what
is reasonable or absurd, convenient or unfit in such
cases, touching the counsels of God ; who seeth not
as man seeth ; whose thoughts are not as our
thoughts, nor ways as our ways; whose folly is
wiser than men;1 (that is, whose counsels, how
ever seeming strange to our dim apprehensions,
do yet far excel the results of our best wisdom ;)
before whom, whatever is high among men is abo
minable ; with whom the wisdom of this world is
folly; whose judgments are unsearchable, and his
ways are past finding out ; as the holy Scriptures
teach us;8 and as good reason, considering the vast
distance between God and us, must acknowledge :
' 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; Is. Iv. 8 ; xl. 13 ; 1 Cor. i. 25.
5 Luke xvi. 15 ; 1 Cor. v. 13 ; Rom. xi. 33 ; Ps. xcii. 5 ;
xxxvi. 7- Job. xi. 7-
D 2

36 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
so that no such appearance of incongruity can
bottom a good exception against this, or any such
matter; otherwise well attested. I say, further,
that God's choice herein, being weighed by a pure
and well-disposed mind, will appear upon many
accounts full of admirable reason and wisdom ; all
the Divine economy concerning our Lord, being
rightly apprehended, will soon appear ' wisdom to
the perfect,' and will ' be justified by the children
of wisdom ;' as that wherein God's transcendent
goodness, and perfect justice, and glorious power
are with greatest advantage displayed; whereby
the hearts of men are most sweetly comforted un
der their sense of sin, and fear of misery ; their
minds are most clearly instructed in the ways of
duty and happiness, their affections are most
strongly excited and encouraged to the practice of
all goodness :¦ to such purposes, (for causes, which
were it now seasonable, we could produce,) our
Saviour's low condition and hard circumstances did
admirably serve; and therefore upon that score it
could not be unlikely, that God should raise him
from the dead.
3. But neither (which is the most considerable
point) is the testimony asserting this fact anywise
defective or insufficient, but hath all the conditions
imaginably requisite to the most entire assurance
of any such matter. The defect in the testimony,
if any be, must arise from weakness or from wil
fulness in the witnesses, (their want of knowledge,
or mistake, their want of honesty, or their unfaith
fulness,) or from some circumstances belonging to
their persons or their testimony, able to invalidate
1 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, 14 ; Matt. xi. 19.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 37
their attestation ; but none of these things can with
reason be supposed ; they were in all respects more
than competently qualified tp attest, and all con
siderable circumstances do assist in confirming
their attestation, as by weighing the considerations
following may appear.
1. As for their number, it was not one or two
persons, (although one or two ordinarily do suffice
for decision of the greatest cases among men,) but
many who conspired in asserting it. ' He was (saith
St. Paul, one who was conversant with these wit
nesses, who, of a zealous adversary and fierce perse
cutor of this testimony, did become an earnest
avoucher thereof) seen of Cephas, then of the
twelve, after he was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present.' l And ' this Jesus (say the
twelve apostles) hath God raised up, whereof all
we are witnesses.' Twelve there were who princi
pally were designed, and did take it for their espe
cial duty to attest this matter ; besides many others,
who in their order were able and ready to do it.'8
2. These witnesses were rio strangers to Jesus,
but persons by long conversation most familiarly
acquainted with him; who had (as it is said, and
as it was notorious) been with him from the begin
ning, who went out and in with him all the time
(that is, for three years' space) from his baptism to
his ascension.3
3. They did aver themselves to be eye or ear-
witnesses of the matter, as fully informed about it
as senses could make them :* ' We cannot but speak
' 1 Cor. xv. 5, 6.
2 Acts, ii. 14, 32 ; v. 32 ; i. 22 ; x. 39.
» John, xv. 27 ; Acts, i. 21, 22. * Luke, i. 2.

38 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
what we have heard and seen.'1 ' What we did see
with our eyes, and what our hands did handle of
the word of life, that we report unto you;'* so St.
John (the beloved disciple, who constantly attended
on his dear Master) expresseth his testimony. And,
' We have not followed cunningly devised fables,
when we made known unto you the power and pre
sence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-wit
nesses of his majesty;'3 so St. Peter affirmeth con
cerning the manner of their testifying these matters.
They did, I say, hear and see him, and that with
all advantage possible or needful, not once or
twice, not in passing or at distance, not in way of
glimpse or rumour; but often, for a good time,
thoroughly; many days conversing and interchang
ing discourses with him ; ' who (as St. Peter in the
name of the rest saith) did eat and drink with him
after that he rose from the dead.'4 And, 'to whom
(as St. Luke, their companion, from their mouth,
in our text saith) also he showed himself alive
after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God;'-* and 'He was
(saith St. Paul, another familiar of theirs) seen
many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the
people.'6 And two of these witnesses (St. John
and St. Matthew) are in writings extant relaters of
passages occurring in their conversation with him,
very many, very sensible as can be.
4. We may also consider that the chief of these
witnesses, the apostles themselves, were at first (as
1 Acts, iv. 20. s 1 John, i. 1. a 2 pet. i 10
4 Acts, x. 41. 5 Ib. i. 3. « Ib. xiii 31.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 39
St. Luke of them and from them confesseth) so
far from being easy or credulous in regard to this
matter, that hearing it from others, who before had
seen our Lord risen, they took it for a trifle or a
fiction; and gave no credence thereto: 'their words
(saith the text) did seem to them (a toy or) an idle
tale, and they believed them not.'1 Yea, some of
them would hardly confide in their own eyes, nor
would yield assent unto the fact appearing to them,
until by letting them touch him, and showing
them the marks of his crucifixion remaining on his
body, he demonstrated himself to be the very same
person who had lived with them and died before
them : ' They were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed they had seen a spirit' — ¦ And while they
yet believed not for joy, and wondered,' &c. are
words in the history. s
5.)Upon these grounds, as they professed, they did,
without any mincing, hesitancy, or reservation, in
the most full, clear, downright, and peremptory
manner, with firm confidence and alacrity concur
rently aver the fact : ' They spake the word of
God with boldness  aud with great power gave
the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus.' 3
Which things being weighed, it will appear im
possible, that the attesters of this fact (supposing
them in their wits and senses ; and certainly they
were so, as presently we shall show, and as the thing
itself plainly speaks) could not be ignorant therein,
or mistaken about it. For if all the senses of so
many persons in a matter so grossly sensible, so often
1 Luke, xxiv. 11 ; Matt, xxviii. 17.
8 Luke, xxiv. 37, 41 ; John, xx. 27-
3 Act. iv. 31, 33, xiv. 3.

40 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
und for such a continuance of time, can be distrusted ;
if the apostles could imagine they saw their friend
and master, whom they so long had waited upon,
when they did not see him ; that they heard him
making long discourses with them, when they did
not hear him ; that they did walk, eat and drink
with him, did touch, and feel him when there was
really no such thing, what assurance can we have
of any thing most sensible ? what testimony can
be of any validity or use ? on that hand, therefore,
the testimony is impregnable : the witnesses cannot
be accounted ignorant, or mistaken in the case;
for number, or for ability they cannot be excepted
against. It must be therefore only their seriousness, ho
nesty, or fidelity, that remains questionable in
them : they must be said to have wilfully deceived
and imposed upon the world; self-condemned hy
pocrites, impudent liars and egregious impostors
they must have been, if their testimony was false ;
but that they were not such persons, that they
could not, and would not do so, there are induce
ments to believe, as forcible as can be required, or
well imagined in any such case.
I. They were persons, who did (with denuncia
tion of most heavy judgments from God on the
contrary practices) preach and press constantly
and earnestly all kinds of goodness, veracity, and
sincerity, together with humility, modesty, inge
nuity, and equity, as main points of that religion,
which they by this testimony confirmed. All their
discourses plainly breathed a most serious and
sprightly goodness and charity toward men, very
inconsistent with a base plot to delude them ; their
doctrine utterly condemned all malice, all falsehood,

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 41
craft, and hypocrisy, detruding into the bottomless
pit all 'that love or make a lie:' consider these
sayings and rules of theirs : ' As we have opportu
nity let us do good unto all men : let your modera
tion (or equity) be known to all men : show all
meekness to all men : laying aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil
speakings, as new-born babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Put
ting aside all lying, speak every man truth with
his neighbour. Lie not one to another, seeing ye
have put off the old man with his deeds. Brethren,
be not children in understanding ; however in ma
lice be ye children ; but in understanding be per
fect men : ' ' such were their precepts discounte
nancing all malice, and all fraud ; propounded in
a manner as serious and grave and simple as can
be imagined ; all the tenor of their doctrine consent
ing to them : wherein also they earnestly declare
against and prohibit all vanity of mind, and per-
verseness of humour, all affectations of novelty and
singularity, all peevish factiousness and turbulency,
all fond credulity, stupidity, and precipitancy, all
instability and giddiness of mind, all such quali
ties which dispose men, without most sure and evi
dent grounds, either to introduce or to embrace any
new conceits, practices, or stories : such was their
discourse, nowise sounding like the language of
impostors : — deceit could hardly so disguise or so
thwart and supplant itself.
2. Their practice was answerable to their doc
trine, exemplary in all'sorts of virtue, goodness, and
sincerity ; such indeed whereby they did in effect
1 Apoc. xxii. 15, xxi. 27; Gal. vi. 10 ; Phil. iv. 5 ; Tit. iii.
2 ; 1 Pet. ii. 1 ; Kph. iv. 15, 25 ; Colos. iii. 9 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 20 ;
Tit. ii. 7> 8.

42 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
conciliate much respect and authority to their
words. 'Yeare witnesses (they could, appealing
to the observers of their demeanour, and to the all-
knowing God, say,) and God also, how holily, and
justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves
among you that believe.'1 And, 'We have re
nounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walk
ing in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth com
mending ourselves to every man's conscience in the
sight of God.'8 Such a lively sense of goodness
shining forth in a long course of practice ; so to
bridle appetites, so to moderate passions, so to
eschew all the allurements of pleasure, profit, and
honour, to bear adversities so calmly and sweetly,
to express so much tender kindness and meekness
towards all men, to be continually employed in
heavenly discourses and pious works, exhorting
men by word, leading them by example to all sorts
of goodness indisputably such ; to live thus, long
and constantly, doth nowise suit unto persons ut
terly debauched in mind, and of a profligate con
science ; who had devised, and did then earnestly
drive on the propagation of a vile cheat; the life, I
say, they led, was not the life of wicked impostors,
but worthy of the divinest men ; fit to countenance
and carry on the best design, such as they pre
tended theirs to be.
3. Further, they were persons of good sense ;
yea very wise and prudent; not in way of worldly
or fleshly wisdom, and skill to contrive or compass
projects of gain, honour, or pleasure to themselves,
to the commendation of them and of their testi-

1 1 Thess. ii. 10.
3 2 Cor. iv. 2, C ; ii. 17 ; Phil. iii. 17.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 43
mony ; they disclaimed being wise or skilful that
way ; having no practice therein nor caring for it,
(for they looked not much on things temporal
and transitory ; they did not mind earthly things ;
they had not their conversation, or interest here,
but above, as citizens of another world, deeming
themselves as but sojourners and pilgrims here,1)
but endued they were with a wisdom as in itself
far more excellent, so more suitable to the persons
they sustained ; with great perspicuity, and sound
judgment in the matters they discoursed about, and
in the affairs they pursued : such their writings,
according to acknowledgment of innumerable most
wise and learned persons, fraught with admirable
wisdom and heavenly philosophy (rude indeed,
and simple in expression, but most exact and pro
found in sense) do manifest them to have been;3
such the tenour of their doctrine evidenced them,
shining with that lustre and beauty, compacted
with that strength and harmony, that whoever will
not confess it to have proceeded from God, must,
upon consideration, however allow, that it could
not have been devised by idiots or mean persons,
but did come from persons of much subtlety and
great reach. They must be no fools who could
frame a religion merely by its own plausibility,
without any external help, able presently to sup
plant all the religions in the world, and to stand
durably firm upon the foundations laid by them.
Such also the notable conduct of their great affair,
(notwithstanding so mighty disadvantages and dif
ficulties,) together with the prodigious efficacy their
1 1 Cor. i. 20, ii. 5, G ; 2 Cor. i 12, xi. 6; 2 Cor. iv. 18; Col.
iii. 2; Phil. iii. 20 ; 1 Pet. ii. 11.
2 2 Cor. xi. 6 ; 1 Cor. ii. 1, 13.

44 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
endeavours hud upon men, do evince them to have
been. They surely could not be weak men, who in
a plain and peaceable way confounded all the wit
and policy, all the learning and eloquence, all the
force and violence that withstood them.1 Expe
rience did attest to the truth of what St. Paul saith ;
' The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong
holds, casting down imaginations and every thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.'8
4. So were they qualified in their minds. It
must be further also considered as to their pur
poses in this case, that in falsely venting and urging
this testimony, they could not have any design,
gainful or beneficial to themselves; but must
therein to no end be mischievous to themselves and
others; abusing others, indeed, but far more harm
ing themselves ; they must be supposed voluntarily
to have embraced all sorts of inconvenience, and
designedly to have rendered themselves miserable ;
courting adversity, choosing naked and barren evil
for its own sake ; 3 ' For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile : for neither
at any time used we flattering words, as ye know,
nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness : nei
ther of men sought we glory.''1 Profit, honour, or
pleasure, (those baits which entice men to do evil,
and set them upon wicked attempts,) or any
worldly advantage thence to accrue to themselves,
they could have no design upon; for all those
1 Chrys. in 1 Cor. v. Or. ellegantissime.
8 Acts, vi. 10 j 1 Cor. i. 27 ; 2 Cor. x. 4.
» Vid. Chrys. ib. * 1 Thes. ii. 3, 5.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 45
things wittingly and willingly they did abandon ;
for the sake of this very testimony incurring
extremities of loss, of disgrace, and of pain :
they did plainly foresee what entertainment their
testimony would find, and how in prosecution
thereof they should be forced to endure all kinds
of indignity, of damage, and of hardship from men ;
that ' in this world they should have tribulation;'
that ' men should deliver them up to be afflicted,
and should kill them ; ' and that they should ' be
hated of all nations for his name sake : ' their
Master expressly had forewarned them, that ' all
who would live godlily in Christ Jesus (that is, all
professors of faith in him, especially the teachers
thereof) must suffer persecution ; ' and ' must
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God;' that 'bonds and imprisonments did
abide them in every place;' that 'God had set
forth the apostles as appointed unto death,' and
exposed them as spectacles of scorn and obloquy
to the world ; that they were ' called to suffering,
and appointed to this very thing, as to their office,
and their portion ; ' these were the rules and mea
sures they went by ; these the expectations they
had from the world : according unto which it did
in effect happen to them : ' Even to this present
hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked,
and have no certain dwelling-place ; and labour,
working with our hands ; being reviled we bless,
being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed we
intreat : we are made as the filth ofthe world, and as
1 John, xvi. 33, xv. 20, xvi. ii ; Matt. xxiv. 9 ; Luke, xxi.
12; 2 Tim. iii. 12 ; Acts, xiv. 22; Acts, xx. 23; 1 Cor. iv.
9 ; 1 Pet. ii. 21 ; I Thes. iii. 3.

46 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
the off-scouring of all things unto this day :' so
doth St. Paul describe the apostles' condition.1
5. All these afflictions, as they knowingly did
object themselves to for the sake of this testimony,
so they did endure them with contentedness and
joy ; when they had been beaten, ' they departed
rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer
shame for the name of Jesus ; rejoicing that they
were made partakers of Christ's sufferings ; ' deem
ing it a privilege that 'was given them, not only
to believe in him, but to suffer for his name;'
thinking themselves ' happy in being reproached
forthe name of Christ; taking joyfully the spoiling
of their goods, counting all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ their
Lord, for whom they suffered the loss of all
things.'8 6. Whence it is evident enough, that the sa
tisfaction of their conscience, and expectation
of future reward from God for the discharge of
their duty herein, was all the argument which did
induce them to undertake this attestation, all the
reason that could support them in it ; neither of
which could be consistent with the resolved main
tenance of such a falsehood. They could not in
deed but grievously be tormented with remorse in
their minds, they could not but dread severe ven
geance from heaven, had they been conscious to
themselves of so villanous a design of mocking God,
(whose name and express command they pre-
1 1 Cor. iv. 1 1 ; 2 Cor. iv. 8.
* Acts, v. 41 ; 1 Peter, iv. 13 ; Phil. i. 29 ; 1 Peter, iv. 14 ;
Heb. x. 34 ; Phil. iii. 9 ; 1 Peter, i. 6 ; Bom. v. iii ; James,
i. 2.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 47
tended, whose testimony and judgment they ap
pealed to in this affair,) and, together, of abusing
the world with such an imposture.1 Such must
have been their inward sense, and such their ex
pectations, had they proceeded with guilty con
science in this business ; but they do seriously
profess otherwise, and the condition of things might
assure us they were in good earnest: ' For this end
(saith St. Paul) we both labour and suffer reproach,
because we trust in the living God, who is the Sa
viour of all men, especially of those that believe.
And our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con
science, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not
with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we
have had our conversation in the world :' and,
' knowing the fear of the Lord, (that is, being sen
sible of our duty toward God, and fearful of his
judgment, if we transgress it,) we persuade men;
but are made manifest unto God;'2 so they de
clare what principle it was that moved them to this
practice, and the hope encouraging them in it they
often express : ' If (said they) we suffer with
Christ, we shall be glorified together with bim.'
And, ' We always bear about in the body, the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus may be made manifest in our body.'
And, ' It is a faithful saying, if we are dead with
him, we shall also live with him ; if we suffer
with him, we shall also reign with him ; if
we deny him, he also will deny us.' And, ' I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the
¦ Acts, iv. 19, v. 29 ; 2 Cor ii. 17, iv. 2 ; 1 Cor. ix. IC.
8 1 Tim. iv. 10 ; 2 Cor. i. 12 ; 1 Cor. v. 11.

48 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
righteous judge shall give me at that day.'1 So
they profess concerning the grounds and reasons of
their maintaining this testimony (and the points
connected therewith) with so great present incon
venience to themselves : and the state of things
rendereth their profession most credible ; for they
appear not so blind as not to see those inconve
niences, nor so fond as to like them for themselves,
or upon no considerable account : they confess,
that they should be very stupid and senseless
people, if they had incurred and underwent all this
to no purpose, or without hope of good recompense
for it after this life. ' If Christ be not risen (saith
St. Paul) then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain ; yea, and we are found false wit
nesses of God, that he raised up Christ:  then
we have only hope in this life,' and ' if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable.'8
7. And how, indeed, is it conceivable, that such
persons should be so bewitched with so passionate
an affection, or so mighty a respect toward a poor
dead man, (one who was born so obscurely, who
lived so poorly, who died so miserably and infa
mously, as a malefactor; who indeed so died to their
knowledge most deservedly, supposing they did
know their testimony to be false; one who never
was capable of obliging them, or recompencing
them for their actings or sufferings in any valuable
measure,) that merely for his sake, or rather not for
his sake, but only for a smoke of vain opinion
about him, (which could nowise profit either him
1 Rom. viii. 17; 2 Cor. iv. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 11 ; 1 Pet. i. 7,
iv. 13; '2 Tim. iv. 0.
1 1 Cor. xv. 14, 15, 19, 30, 31.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 49
or them) they should, with an inflexible obstinacy,
defy all the world ; expose themselves to all the
persecutions of the world, and to all the damna
tions of hell. St. Paul surely had another opinion
of Jesus, when he said, ' Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword ? Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us ; for I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord :' ' could
they, think we, speak thus who knew Jesus to be a
wicked deceiver, worthily hated of God and men ?
No assuredly, their speech and behaviour do pal
pably show that therefore they did bear so vehe
ment an affection, and so high a respect toward
Jesus, because as with their mouths they openly
professed, so they were in their hearts thoroughly
persuaded that he was the Son of God, most dear
unto him ; who died for their sake, who was to
their knowledge raised again; who also, according
to his promises, would, recompense their faithful ad
herence to him with eternal joy and bliss.
8. Again, we may consider these witnesses to
have of themselves been persons very unlikely to
devise such a plot, very unfit to undertake it, very
unable to manage and carry it through.8 Persons
they were of no reputation for birth, for wealth
1 Rom. viii. 35. &c
5 Vid. Chrys. torn. vi. Orat. vi. p. 61.

60 HE HOSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
for any worldly interest; persons of no education,
no improvement, no endowments of mind (natural
or artificial) anywise considerable:1 they were, as
to condition and manner of life, fishermen, publi
cans, and mechanics ; as to abilities of mind, they
were (as they report themselves) illiterate and sim
ple;8 they were also men of no great natural spirit
or courage, but rather irresolute and timorous ; as
their deserting their Master, their renouncing him,
their flying and skulking, reported by themselves,
declare : 3 the base or ignoble, the despicable or
abject, the weak, the ' foolish things ofthe world,'
they did style themselves;'1 and in that no adver
sary will, I suppose, contradict them. And is it
possible, that a few (in this respect, I mean very
few) persons thus conditioned and qualified, should
have the wit to contrive, or the courage to main
tain a forgery of such, importance ? What hope
they could frame to themselves of any success
therein, upon so ^extreme disadvantages, is to any
man very obvious/ No kind of friends in all the
world could they imagine ready to back them, or
yield them any encouragement ; but heaven, hell,
and earth they had reason to expect all to be com
bined in opposition to them and their design.
They had all reason to fear, that God himself would
cross them and blast their wicked endeavours to
propagate the belief of such a lie, which most pro
fanely they dared to father on him, and to vent in
his name. They could not hope the father of lies
himself, or any powers of darkness would be fa-
1 Chrys. torn. v. a Acts, iv. 13.
3 Matt. xxvi. 56 ; John, xx. 19 ; 1 Cor. i. 27, 28.
4 Cor. iv. 7- 5 Chrys. torn. v. Orat. lxiv. in Bubylam.

BY DR, ISAAC BARROW. 51
vourable or helpful to them, whose interest they
so manifestly impugned, that the success of their
doctrine, whether true or false, could not but much
prejudice their kingdom ; as in effect we see that it
did in a manner quite subvert it. They were sure
among men to encounter the most potent, and most
earnest adversaries that could be : all the grandees
of the world, both political and religious, deeply
concerned in honour and interest to labour with
all their power the detection of their cheat, and
overthrow of their design. Whence it must be a
boldness more than human, more than gigantic,
that could bear up against all these adversaries ; if
their testimony was in their conscience false.
Against all these oppositions and disadvantages,
what could those poor men have to confide in, be
side the natural prevalence of truth, and divine
assistance thereto ; being in their hearts assured of
the former, and therefore greatly hoping for the
latter ?
9. And how indeed could such a cheat, contrived
and conducted by so, to human esteem, weak and
silly a knot of people, so easily prosper, and ob
tain so wonderful a progress, so as presently to in
duce very many persons, (' myriads of believers,' as
it^is in Acts, xxi. 20,) many of them considerable,
(even ' a great crowd or company of priests,' as it
is said in the Acts,1) to embrace it, together with
all the crosses and damages attending it ? — so as to
escape all inquisition about it, and overbear all
persecution against it, being neither convincible
by proof, nor controllable by force; but in de
spite of all assaults holding its ground, and run-
1 Acts, vi. 7- E 2

52 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
ning forward with huge success; according to that
in the Acts : ' so mightily grew the word of God
and prevailed.'1
10. The matter of their testimony (if we consi
der that as we should do) and its drift were very
implausible, such as no impostors would be likely
to forge, and no hearers, without great evidence of
truth, would be ready to admit. It was no fine
story apt to please the lusts, to flatter the humours,
or to gratify the fancies of men ;8 but rather very
distasteful to flesh and blood, (whose inclinations
it mainly thwarted,) likely to offend the ears of all
men, who should hear it ; apt to raise fierce anger
and indignation in Jews, great contempt and scorn
in Gentiles towar^ it.3 The Jews, to whom it was
first addressed, it did plainly charge with heinous
iniquity and impiety in cruelly murdering a per
son most innocent, most excellent in virtue and
dignity, most dear to God ; it withal defeated their
longings for a gaudy Messias, who should restore
and rear them into a lofty state of temporal prospe
rity, substituting in the room a spiritual King, with
overtures of felicity invisible and future, little suit
ing their gross conceit and carnal gust of things ;
it also imported the abrogation of those ritual laws,
and revolution of those special privileges wherein
they did so please and pride themselves; it opened
the enclosures of God's favour and grace, making
1 2 Thess. iii. 1 ; Acts,' xix. 20 ; vi. 7; xii. 24. Kara Kparog
ivZavt, grew by main force.
8 Chrys. in 1 Cor. Or. v.
3 Si rem credibilem crediderunt, videant quam sint stolidi qui
non credunt. Si autem res incredibilis credita est, etiam hoc
utiquc incredibile est, sic creditum esse quod incredibile est, &c.
Aug. tie Civ. D. xxii. 5. Vid. Chrys. torn. vi. Orut. lxi.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 53
them common to all people : ' it crossed their secu
lar interests of emolument and honour annexed
to the present outward frame of religion, which it
dissolved ; it menaced severe vengeance and hor
rible desolation to their nation and city : and was
such a report likely to be entertained by them
otherwise than with displeasure and detestation ?
Neither unto the Gentiles was it likely to be ac
ceptable ; for it did also subvert all the religion
established among them by law and custom ; de
stroying consequently all the interests of those
who were concerned in upholding thereof; such as
those who made that famous uproar, crying out,
' Great is Diana of the Ephesians.'8 It seemed to
thwart the common maxims of policy, and dictates
of worldly prudence ; it could not but appear to
men prepossessed with admiration of secular wealth,
power, and glory, a story most ridiculously extrava
gant, that so pitiful and wretched a person, as
Jesus seemed in the eye of the world to have been,
should in this miraculous way be declared the Son
of God, and Lord of all things, author of life and
salvation to all men ; sovereign object of all wor
ship and obedience : such a story therefore it was
not likely that any men in their senses should con
spire to forge, should offer to obtrude on the world,
so incapable of it, so averse from embracing it ; and
being such it were strange that by a general re
pulse it should not presently be stifled and quelled.
One would indeed think that this report, had it
been false, might easily have been disproved and
quashed. They who were mightily concerned, and
as eagerly disposed to confute it, wanted no means
1 Vid. Acts, xxii. 21, 22. * lb. xix. 28, 34.

54 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
of doing it : ' they were not surprised in the matter ;
but were forewarned of it, and did forbode it
coming : they were not drowsy, or neglectful, but
very apprehensive, careful and cautious in prevent
ing it ; that it should not be produced, or being so,
that it might be defeated ; for to this purpose they
caused the sepulchre of our Lord to be sealed up
and guarded by soldiers, that, being masters of his
body, they might by exhibiting it disprove any re
port that should be made about his resurrection:8
they had full opportunity of examining the matter
to the bottom ; it being fresh and presently di
vulged after its being reported done : they having
also the power and authority on their side, in further
ance of the discussion of the business, we may ac
cordingly suppose them very zealous, diligent, and
active in thoroughly sifting it, and striving to de
tect the falsehood therein ; they did so certainly,
and thereto they added strict prohibitions, fierce
menaces, and bloody persecutions toward the
suppression thereof;3 yet could they not by all
their industry confute it, nor by all their fury quell
it. Why ? Because it was not confutable ; because
truth prosecuted with vigorous integrity and con
stancy, or rather supported by divine protection
and blessing, is invincible. Put the case, there were
now the like fact by so many people reported done
within these two months, wherein the church and
state were in like manner exceedingly concerned,
and should therefore employ all their power and
care to discover the truth ; one would think it im
possible, that were it an imposture it should escape
detection, and being soon, with the general satisfac-
1 Acts, ». 28. » Matt, xxvii. 04. 3 Acts,iv. 17 ; xviii. 5, 28.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 65
tion of men, quite blown away and exploded : this
is the fate of all falsehood, standing merely upon
its own legs, and not propped by worldly power ;
but truth, as in the present case, is able to subsist
by its own strength, especially heaven being con
cerned 'to aid it.
12. As also, this testimony had no power to sus
tain it, so it used no sleight to convey itself into the
persuasions of men : it did not creep in dark corners,
it did not grow by clandestine whispers ; it craved
no blind faith of men ; but with a barefaced con
fidence it openly proclaimed itself, appealing to
the common sense of men, and provoking the world
to examine it ; daring all adversaries here to con
front it, defying all the powers beneath to with
stand it; claiming only the patronage of heaven to
maintain it.1
13. Furthermore, the thing itself, had it been
counterfeit, was in all probability apt to fall of
itself; the witnesses clashing together, or relenting
for their crime. That advice of Gamaliel had much
reason in it : ' Refrain,' said he, ' from those men,
and let them alone, for if this council, or this work
be of men, it will come to nought;'8 KaraXvBiiirErai,
it will of itself be dissolved or destroyed : for how,
indeed, could it be, that among so many con
federates in a juggle, not one, either checked by
conscience, or daunted by hazards, or wearied and
worn out by sufferings, should flinch and fall off,
so as to detect the plot, disavow his fault, and re
tire from persecution ; but that each one should
persist steadfast in so high a strain of vile dissimula-
1 1 Thes. v. 21. 8 Acts, v. 38.

56 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
tion ? If one had fallen off, he had certainly spoiled
all the plot, opened all men's eyes, and prevented
the faith of any one person to the story : and what
cement could firmly combine such a pack of men
to God, and to all the world, that they should con
tinue invincibly stiff in their faith to one another,
and constantly true to so vain a design, good to no
man, worst to themselves? That, I say, twelve
such persons, every one for a long time, during their
whole life, should persevere immoveable in so ex
travagant a resolution of lying, so as by no regrets
or dissatisfactions from within, no threats, no perils,
no troubles, or pains from without, to be ever driven
out of it, but should die with it in their mouths,
yea, rejoice and glory in dying for it ; should dying
carry it into the presence of God, and dare with it
to appear at his judgment, is exceedingly strange
and incredible. It must, therefore, surely be truth
alone that could set them on this design, and could
uphold them steady in it; so unanimous a consent, so
clear a confidence, so firm a resolution, so insuperable
a constancy and patience, nothing but a sense of truth
could inspire men with, nothing but a perfectly
good conscience could sustain. Possibly it is, that
in matters of speculation and subtlety men upon
slender grounds may be peremptorily opiniona-
tive, and desperately pertinacious; (this experience
showeth ;) but in a matter of this nature (a matter of
plain fact and gross sense) none can well be ima
gined (none especially so qualified, in such circum
stances, to such purposes can be imagined) to be
so wretchedly stupid, or desperately obstinate.
14. He, then, who doubts of the sincerity of these
witnesses, or rejects their testimony as incredible,

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 57
must, instead of it, admit of divers stranger incre
dibilities; refusing his faith to one fact, devious
from the natural course of things, but very feasible
to God ; he must thence allow it to many others,
repugnant to the nature of man, and to the course
of human things; performed without God, yea,
against him.1 Is it credible that persons other
wise through all their lives strictly blameless, and
rigidly virtuous, (even in the more heavenly parts
of goodness, in humanity, meekness, peaceableness,
humility, and patience,) should, against clearest
dictates of conscience, peremptorily and persever-
ingly commit so palpable viliany, as to broach and
• propagate such an imposture ; that they, all whose
demeanours and discourses evidently did tend to
the advancement of God's glory, and promoting
goodness, should so in their hearts utterly defy God,
and detest goodness ; or that persons in a" strain
incomparably solemn and serious should so plainly
teach, so strongly press, so otherwise uniformly
practise highest good will and beneficence toward
all men, while they were with all their mind and
might striving to gull and abuse men ? Is it con
ceivable, that men, otherwise in all their actions so
wise and well advised, (able to manage and to per
form so great matters,) should so zealously drive
on a most vain and senseless project, with more un
wearied industry labouring to maintain and dis
perse a lie, than any men beside did ever strive in
behalf of truth ? Is it not marvellous that men in
all respects so impotent, without any arms or aids,
should adventure on so high an enterprize, should
with so happy success achieve it ; that naked
1 Aug. de Civ. D. xxii. 5.

58 HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
weakness should boldly assault, and thoroughly
overpower the greatest might; pure simplicity
should contest with and baffle sharpest wit, subtlest
policy, and deepest learning; that rude speech
(void of strength or ornament) should effectually
persuade an uncouth and unpleasant tale against
all the finest and strongest rhetoric in the world ?
Is it not strange that a crew of vile and base per
sons should so inseparably be linked together with
no other bands than deceit and dishonesty; no
truth, no virtue, no common interest helping to
combine, or contain them together ? Is it to be be
lieved that men of sense should, gratis, for no con
siderable end or advantage, voluntarily embrace
und patiently endure all that is distasteful to human
nature, freely exposing themselves they knew not
why, only for the sake of a story, to the fury of
earth and flames of hell ; eagerly sacrificing their
fortunes, credits, lives, and souls themselves to the
ghost of a forlorn wretch and infamous caitif ? Is
it not in fine prodigious, that so implausible a false
hood, upon all greatest disadvantages, should en
counter, vanquish, and triumph over truth ? These
are incredibilities indeed, able to choke any man's
faith ; yet, he that rejects this testimony must
swallow and digest them, together with other like
them of as hard concoction.
15. To these things we may add, that God him
self did signally countenance, and ratify this testi
mony ; not only by conferring on the avowers
thereof extraordinary graces, (invincible courage,
irresistible wisdom, indefatigable industry, inflex
ible constancy and patience ; admirable self-denial,
meekness, charity, temperance, and all virtues in
an eminent degree,) not only further by a wonder-

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 59
ful success and blessing bestowed upon their en
deavours ; but by enduing them with supernatu
ral gifts, and enabling them to perform miraculous
works openly and frequently ; ' so that by the
hands of tbe apostles many wonders, and signs
were done among the people — the Lord giving tes
timony unto the word of his grace, and granting
signs and wonders to be done by their hands ; so
that with great power gave the apostles witness of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace
was upon them all :'¦ (that is, there was a great ap
pearance of the divine favour toward them, and of
the divine operation in and by them.) Yielding
which kind of attestation was the ancient and
usual method of God in authorizing his messen
gers, and approving the declaration of his mind by
them ; (the seal as it were put to the letters cre
dential from heaven;) nor could God afford more
convincing signs than these of his approbation to
any person or design : that God did thus owein-
paprvpeiv, ' attest (as the apostle to the Hebrews
speaketh) together with these witnesses,'8 if the
apostolical history (bearing in it [all the characters
of a simple, faithful, and upright narration,) did
not relate it; yet the effect of this testimony, so
speedily and easily prevailing every where, would
render it highly probable, since, in likelihood, no
human endeavour, without divine assistance, could
accomplish a business so great and difficult : if they
did no miracles, rSro fieyi^ov aripEtov, this (as St.
Chrysostom says,) ' was the greatest miracle that

1 Acts, ii. 43, v. 12 ; xiv. 3, xix. 11 ; iv. 33.
8 Heb. ii. 4.

GO HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
could be,' that such a testimony should without
any miracle prevail.1
16. Now, for conclusion, all these things being
considered, it is sufficiently apparent, that this
testimony is above all exception ; that no matter of
fact ever had, or well could have in any consider
able respect, a more valid and certain proof. The
greatest affairs in the world (concerning the rights
and reputations, the estates and the lives of men,)
are decided by testimonies in all regards less
weighty ; so that to refuse it, is in effect to decline
all proof by testimony, to renounce all certainty in
human affairs, to remove the grounds of proceeding
securely in any business, or administration of jus
tice; to impeach all history of fabulousness, to
charge all mankind with insufficiency, or extreme
infidelity, (for, if these persons were not able, or not
honest enough, what men can ever be supposed
such ; who can by greater arguments assure their
ability, or their integrity in reporting any thing ?)
to thrust God himself away from bearing credible
attestation in any case : (for, in what case did he
ever or can he be conceived to yield an attestation
more full or plain, than he did in this? What
further can he perform needful to convince men
endued with any competency of reason and inge
nuity, or to distinguish them from men of contrary
disposition, unreasonably and unworthily incredu
lous ?) in fine, to distrust this testimony, is there
fore in effect, to embrace the vanity of the most
wanton or wicked sceptic.
1 Chrys. in Act. i. 3. Vide in 1 Cor. Or. 6. Si per apostolos
 ista miracula facta esse non credunt, hoc nobis unum grande
miraculum est, quod ca terrarum orbis sine ullis miraculis credi-
dit. — Aug. de Civ. D. xxii. 5.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 61
The use of all is in short this, that we should
heartily thank God for so clear and strong an as
surance of the truth of our faith ; that we therefore
firmly embrace it, and steadily persevere therein;1
that we obey it, and bear fruits worthy thereof in
our practice; that so doing we may obtain the
blissful rewards which upon those terms it pro
pounded and promiseth ; that we may all so do,
God of his mercy grant, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, to whom for ever be all glory and praise.
Now the God of peace, that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove
nant, make us perfect in every good work to do his
will, working in us that which is well pleasing in
his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
for ever and ever. — Amen. 8
1 Heb. x. 23 ; iv. 14. 8 Heb. xiii. 20, 21.

SERMON III.
THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN, &c.
BY DR. ISAAC BARROW.

SERMON III.

Luke, xxiv. 46.
And he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus
it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day.
The words of men leaving this world (as proceed
ing from a depth of serious concernedness, and in
fluenced by a special providence) are usually at
tended with great regard, and a kind of veneration ;
these are such, even the words of our departing
Lord ; the which therefore deserve and demand
our best consideration.
They respect two points of grand importance,
the passion and the resurrection of our Lord ; of
which I shall only now consider the latter, as being
most agreeable to the present season : and whereas
there be divers particulars observable in them, I
shall confine my discourse to one, being the main
point; couched in those words, 'thus it behoved;'
which import the needfulness, and expediency of
our_ Lord's resurrection : of which I shall endea
vour, first, to declare the truth, and then to show the
usefulness, by a practical application thereof.

fi(i THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
The resurrection of our Lord may appear to
have been needful and expedient, upon several
good accounts.
1. It was needful to illustrate the veracity, wis
dom, and providence of God, by making good what
he had signified in the ancient Scriptures concern
ing it; either in mystical adumbrations, or by ex
press predictions ; understood according to those
infallible expositions, wliich the apostles did re
ceive from the instruction of our Lord, or from
illumination of that Spirit which dictated the
Scriptures : the particular instances, as being ob
vious, and requiring large discourse, I now forbear
to mention.
2. It was needful in congruity to other events fore
told, and in order to the accomplishment of those de
signs which our Lord wasto manage : the whole eco
nomy and harmony of the evangelical dispensation,
as it is represented by the prophets, doth require it.
It was, according to their predictions, designed,
that Christ should erect a spiritual kingdom, and
administer it for ever, with perfect equity, in great
peace and prosperity ; that he should in our be
half achieve glorious exploits, subduing all the ad
versaries of our salvation ; (sin, death, and hell ;)
that he should establish a new covenant, upon bet
ter promises, of another eternal most happy life,
assuring to the embracers thereof an entire recon
ciliation and acceptance with God ; that he should
convert the world to faith in God, and observance
of his will. Tn execution of these purposes, it was
declared that he should undergo suffering, and be
put to death in a most disgraceful and painful
manner. It consequently must be supposed, that
from such a death he should conspicuously and

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 67
wonderfully be restored to life; how otherwise
could it appear, that he did reign in glory,
that he had obtained those great victories, that
he had vanquished death, that the former curses
were avoided, God appeased, and mankind re
stored to favour by him ? Had the grave swal
lowed him up, had God left his soul in hell,
had he rested under the dominion of common
mortality, had, after his dismal passions, no evi
dence of special favour toward him shone forth,
what ground had there been to believe those great
things ? Who would have been persuaded of them ?
The Scripture therefore, which ' foretelleth the suf
ferings of our Lord, and the glories following them ;'
which saith, that ' having drunk of the brook in
the way, he should lift up his head ;' that • when
he had made his soul an offering for sin, he should
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
should prosper in his hand ;' that ' because he had
poured out his soul unto death, God would divide
him a portion with the great, and he should divide
the spoil with the strong;' that ' unto him whom
man despised, to him whom the nation abhorred,
kings should look and arise, princes should wor
ship ;' ' the Scripture, I say, foretelling these events,
doth consequentially imply the needfulness of his
resurrection. 3. It was requisite in itself; or in respect to the
many great ends for which it serveth, and the ex
cellent fruits, which it is apt to produce : as will
appear by reflecting on those, which are suggested
in the New Testament.
1 I Pet. i. 11 ; Luke, xxiv. 26 ; Psalm ex. 7 ; Isaiah, liii. 10,
12 ; xlix. 7-
F 2

68 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
I pass by its particular usefulness in regard to
our Lord's apostles and disciples ; its serving to re
inforce their faith, and rear their hopes, being stag
gered by his passion ; to comfort them in those
sorrowful apprehensions, and despondencies of
heart, which arose from the frightful events be
falling him ; to enlighten their minds by more per
fect instruction, removing their ignorance, and re
forming their mistakes concerning him, and the
things of his kingdom; to furnish them with in
structions and orders requisite for managing the
employments committed to them ; to arm them by
consolatory discourses and gracious promises of
support against the difficulties, hazards, and trou
bles they were to encounter, in the profession and
propagation of his doctrine ; in fine, by all his ad
mirable deportment with them, and his miraculous
departure from them, to confirm them in their faith,
and encourage them in their duty : these particular
uses, I say, we shall pass over, insisting only upon
those more common ends and effects in which our
selves and all Christians are more immediately
concerned. 4. A general end of it was the production and
corroboration of faith in us concerning all the doc
trines of our religion ; for that by it the truth of
all our Lord's declarations concerning his own per
son, his office, his power, his precepts and his pro
mises (to the highest pitch of conviction and satis
faction) was assured ; it being hardly possible, that
any miracle could be greater in itself for confirma
tion of the whole, or more proper for ascertaining
the parts of our religion.1 But more particularly ;
1 Chrys. in Rom. 1. 4.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 69
5. First, From it the dignity of our Lord's per
son, and his especial dearness to God (to the void-
ance of all exceptions, and surmises against him)
did appear.
If the meanness of his birth and parentage, if
the low garb and dim lustre of his life, if the bitter
pains and shameful disgraces of his death, (how
ever accompanied with rare qualities shining in
him, and wonderful deeds achieved by him,) in
persons standing at distance, casting superficial
glances on things, and judging by external appear
ances,' might breed disadvantageous apprehen
sions, or suspicions concerning him, whether he
were indeed, as he pretended, the Son of God, de
signed by him to be the Saviour of mankind, ' the
Lord of all things,' the Judge of the world; the
wonderful power, and signal favour of God de
monstrated in his resurrection, served to discuss
those mists, and to correct such mistakes, evincing
those temporary depressions to have been only
dispensations preparatory toward his greater ex
altation in dignity, and apparent favour with God ;
' for though' saith St. Paul, ' he was crucified out
of weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God ;8
that is, although in his sufferings the infirmity of
our nature assumed by him was discovered, yet by
his recovering life, the divine power attending him
was eminently declared ; it was indeed ' an exces
sive grandeur of power, an energy of the might
of strength,' which God did exert ' in the raising
of Christ from the dead,'3 as the apostle laboureth
to express the inexpressible eminency of this mi
racle ; and being so high an instance of power, it
» John, vii. 24. 8 2 Cor. xiii. 4. s Eph. i. 19.

70 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
was consequently a special mark of favour ; God
not being lavish of such miracles, or wont to
stretch forth his arm in behalf of any person, to
whom he cloth not bear extraordinary regard : the
which consequence also, by reflecting on the cir
cumstances, and nature of this event, will further
appear. He was persecuted and put to death as a noto
rious malefactor, and an enemy to God, to true
religion, to the common peace, to goodness ; and
his being delivered up to suffer was an enforce
ment of that pretence ; for his adversaries thence
did argue, that God had disavowed, and deserted
him ; they insulted over him as one in a forlorn
condition, 'esteeming him (as, the prophets fore
told ) stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted : ' but
God thus, by his own hand, undoing what they
had done against him, did plainly confute their
reasonings, did evidence their accusations to be
, false, and their surmises vain, did in opposition to
their suggestions approve him a friend and fa
vourite of God, a patron of truth, a maintainer of
piety and peace ; one meriting, because obtaining,
the singular countenance and succour of God.
And if yielding our Lord over to death (which
being a total incapacity of enjoying any good, doth
signify an extremely bad state) might imply God's
displeasure or disregard toward him; (as indeed it
did in a sort, he standing in our room to undergo the
inflictions of divine wrath and justice;) then an-
swerably restoring him to life, (which, as the foun
dation of enjoying any good, doth represent the
best condition,) must demonstrate a singular ten-
1 Isaiah, liii. 4 ; Psalm lxxi. 11 ; xxii. 8.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 71
derness of affection, with a full approbation and
acceptance of his performances : this indeed far
more pregnantly doth argue favour, than that could
imply displeasure; for that may happen to the best
men upon other grounds, this can bear no other
than a favourable interpretation.
Further, to give life doth ground that relation
which is deepest in nature, and importeth most
affection ; whence in the holy style, to raise up to
life, is termed to beget ; and ' the regeneration' is
put for the ' resurrection ;' ' so that it being a pa
ternal act, signifieth a paternal regard ;' and thence
perhaps St. Paul telleth us, that our Lord ' was
declared, or defined to be the Son of God, by his
resurrection from the dead.'3
6. Secondly, By our Lord's resurrection we may
be assured concerning the efficacy of his under
takings for us: for considering it, we may not doubt
of God's being reconciled to us, of obtaining the
pardon of our sins, and acceptance of our persons,
of receiving all helps conducible to our sanctifica
tion, of attaining final happiness ; in case we are
not on our parts deficient; all those benefits by
bur Lord's resurrection, as a certain seal, being
ratified to us, and in a manner conferred on us.
As God, in the death of our Lord, did manifest
his vyrath towards us, and execute his justice upon
us ; so in raising him thence correspondently God
did express himself appeased, and his law to be
satisfied ; as we in his suffering were punished, 'the
iniquity of us all being laid upon him,"4 so in his
resurrection we were acquitted and restored to

1 Acts, xiii. 33. 8 Matt. xix. 28.
3 Rom. i. 4. ' lsa. liii. 6.

72 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
grace ; as Christ did merit the remission of our
sins, and the acceptance of our persons by his pas
sion ; so God did consign them to us in his resur
rection ; it being that formal act of grace whereby,
having sustained the brunt of God's displeasure, he
was solemnly reinstated in favour, and we repre
sentatively or virtually in him ; so that (supposing
our due qualifications, and the performances requi
site on our parts) we thence become completely
justified, having not only a just title to what justi
fication doth impart, but a real in statement therein;
confirmed by the resurrection of our Saviour:
whence ' he was delivered,' saith St. Paul, ' for our
offences, and raised again for our justification:'
' and who then,' saith the same apostle, ' shall lay
any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God
that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is
Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again.'1
Our justification and absolution are, you see, rather
ascribed to the resurrection of Christ, than to his
death ; for that indeed his death was a ground of
bestowing them ; but his resurrection did accom
plish the collation of them ; for since, doth the
apostle argue, God hath acknowledged satisfaction
done to his justice, by discharging our surety from
restraint, and from all further prosecution; since
in a manner so notorious, God hath declared his
favour toward our proxy; what pretence can be
alleged against us, what suspicion of displeasure
can remain? Had Christ only died, we should
not have been condemned, our punishment being
already undergone ; yet had we not been fully dis
charged, without that express warrant and acquit-
1 Rom. iv. 25 ; viii. 33, 34 ; 2 Cor. v. 13.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 73
tance which his rising doth imply ; so again may
St. Paul be understood to intimate, when he saith,
' If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are
yet in your sins.' ' Death (or that obligation to
die, to which we did all for our transgressions stand
devoted) was condemned, and judicially abolished
by his death ; but it was executed and expunged
in his resurrection ;s in which ' trampling thereon'
he crushed it to nothing:3 wherefore therein man
kind revived, and received 'the gift of immortality;'
that being a clear pledge, and full of security, that
' as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made
alive.' 4 " He," saith St. Chrysostom, " by his re
surrection dissolved the tyranny of death, and with
himself raised up the whole world." * " By tbe
pledge of his resurrection," saith St. Ambrose, " he
loosed the bands of hell ;" " thereby," saith St. Leo,
" death received its destruction, and life its begin
ning ;" therein not only the natural body of Christ
was raised, but the mystical body also, each mem
ber of his church was restored to life, being tho
roughly rescued from the bondage of corruption,
and translated into a state of immortality;6 so that
' God,' saith St. Paul, ' hath quickened us together
with Christ, and raised us together, and made us
to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.'7

1 1 Cor. xv. 17.
8 Heb. ii. 14 ; 2 Tim. i. 10 ; Rom. viii. 3 ; v. 18; vi. 23 ;
1 Cor. xv. 14.
3 Morte calcatit surrexit, Hier. Ep. 129.
4 1 Cor. xv. 21. s Chrys. Rom. i.4.
6 Chrys. lorn. v. Or. 84. Resurrectionis pignore vincula
solvit Dominus suas inferni, &c. Ambr. ad Grat. Per resur-
rectionem Christi et mors internum, et vita accepit milium.
Leo. M. Ep.81.
7 Ephes. ii. 5, 6. Rom. viii. 21.

74 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
Hence in our baptism, (wherein justification,
and a title to eternal life are exhibited to us,) as
the death and burial of Christ are symbolically un
dergone by us ; so therein also we do interpreta-
tively rise with him: ' being,' saith St. Paul, 'bu
ried with Christ in baptism, in it we are also raised
together with him ;' ' and baptism, St. Peter telleth
us, being an antitype of the passage through the
flood, ' doth save us by the resurrection of Christ'
presented therein.8
It also ministereth hopes of spiritual aid, suffi
cient for the sanctification of our hearts and lives;
for that he, who raised our Lord from a natural
death, thence doth appear both able and willing to
raise us from a spiritual death, or from that mortal
slumber in trespasses and sins, in which naturally
we do lie buried, to ' walk in that newness of life'
to which the Gospel calleth us; and in regard
to which, ' God,' saith St. Peter, ' having raised his
Son Jesus, sent him to bless us, in turning every
one of us from his iniquities.' 3
The same, consequently, is a sure earnest of our
salvation ; for, ' If,' saith St. Paul, ' when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life.'4
7. Thirdly, By our Lord's resurrection, the ve
rity of his doctrines, and the validity of his promises
concerning the future state of men, are demon
strated, in a way most cogent, and most perti
nent.4 Any miracle, notoriously true, doth indeed
suffice to confirm any point of good doctrine; but
1 Colos. ii. 13, 14. * 1 Pet. iii. 21.
' Eph. ii. 10; Apoc. xx. 6; Acts, iii. 20.
4 Uom.v. 10; 1 Pet iii. 21. 5 John, xx. 31.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 75
a miracle in kind, or involving the matter contest
ed, hath a peculiar efficacy to that purpose. So did
our Lord's resurrection, in way of palpable in
stance, with all possible evidence to sense, directly
prove the possibility of our resurrection, together
with all points of doctrine coherent thereto; (the
substantial distinction of our soul from the body,
its separate existence after the dissolution, and con
sequently its immortal nature, God's wise and just
providence over human affairs in this state', the
scrutiny and judgment of our actions hereafter,
with dispensation of recompences answerable ;)
those fundamental ingredients of all religion, most
powerful incentives to virtue, and most effectual dis
couragements from vice; the which (before much lia
ble to doubt and dispute, little seen in the darkness
of natural reason, and greatly clouded in the uncer
tainty of common tradition) as our Lord by his
doctrine, first * brought into clear light,' so by his
resurrection he fully did show that light to be sin
cere and certain.' Infinitely weak and unsatisfac
tory were all the arguments which the most care
ful speculation could produce, for asserting those
important verities, in comparison to that one sensi
ble experiment attesting them : for if our Lord,
a man as ourselves, did arise from the dead, (his
soul, which from the cross descended into the in
visible mansions, returning into his body,) then
evidently our souls are distinct from our bodies,
and capable of subsistence by themselves ; then are
they apt to exist perpetually ; then may they be
put to render an account for what is acted here,
and accordingly may be dealt with. Hence may we
see, that St. Paul discoursed reasonably, when he
1 2 Tim. i. 10 : Acts, xxvi. 23.

76 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
told the Athenians, that ' now God hath appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righte
ousness by the man whom he hath ordained, ex
hibiting an argument most persuasive to all, having
raised him from the dead;'1 that St. Peter also
might well aver, that ' God hath regenerated us to
a lively hope of an incorruptible inheritance, re
served in heaven for us, by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead.'8
Particularly the resurrection of our bodies, re
storing our perfect manhood to us (a point wholly
new to the world, which no religion had embraced,
no reason could descry) was hereby so exemplified,
that considering it, we can hardly be tempted to
doubt of what the gospel teacheth about it ;' that
he, preceding as ' the first-born from the dead,' and
' the first fruits of them which sleep,' as ' our fore
runner,' and ' the Captain of life;' we iv tSi'w ray-
pan, in our due rank and season, as ' younger sons
of the resurrection,' as serving under his command
and conduct, in resemblance and conformity to
him, shall follow ;4 so that, ' If the spirit of him
that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwelleth in us,
he that raised up Jesus from the dead, shall also
quicken our mortal bodies, by his Spirit, that
dwelleth in us;' that 'If we have been planted
with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also
grow up in the likeness of his resurrection;' that
'As we have borne the image of the earthly man, so
1 Acts, xvii. 31. a 1 Pet. i. 3, 4.
' Credentes resurrectionem Christi, in nostram quoque credi-
mus, propter quos et ille obiit et resurrexit. Tert. de Pat. 9.
Resurrectionem carnis per semetipsum primus initiavit. Cyp.
4 Apoc. i. 5 ; Col. i. 18 ; 1 Cor. xv. 20; Acts, iii. 15 ; v.
31 ; Heb. vi. 20; 1 Cor. xv. 23 ; Luke, xx. 30'.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 77
> • ' f
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly ; ' so
that ' God, who raised our Lord, shall also raise us
by his power;'1 for we cannot but allow that con
sequence to be reasonable, which St. Paul doth
imply, when he saith, 'If we believe that Jesus
died and rose again; even so them also, which
sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him,'* re
ducing them into a state conformable to his ; by
reunion of their body "and soul.
8. Fourthly, it was a designed consequence of
our Lord's resurrection, that he thereby should
acquire a just dominion over us ; for, ' to this end,'
saith St. Paul, ' Christ both died, and rose, and
revived, that he might be the Lord, both of the
dead and living.'3 By the obedience of his death
he did earn that dominion, as a worthy recompense
thereof; 'He did by his blood purchase us'4 to be
his subjects and servants : but from his resurrec
tion he began to possess that reward, and to enjoy
his purchase ; it being the first step of his advance
ment to that royal dignity and * pre-eminence over
all flesh;'5 to which, in regard to his sufferings,
God did exalt him ; concerning which, before his
ascension, be said to his disciples, ' All power is
given me in heaven and earth :'" on so many great
accounts was our Lord's resurrection necessary; so
that it is no wonder, if God took such especial
care to assure its truth, and recommend its belief
to us ; appointing so many choice persons by their
testimony to assert, and inculcate it; to do so
being often expressed a main part, and peculiar
1 Rom. viii. 11 ; vi. 5 ; 1 Cor. xv. 22, 49 ; vi. 14.
8 1 Thes. iv. 14. 3 Rom. xiv. 9.
4 Acts, xx. 28. 5 John, xvi). 2 ; Phil. ii. 9.
' Matt, xxviii. 18.

4& V-'^tBE lllllRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
-£> ^y fa J]
k design oC4^e flfece apostolical. ' Nor is it strange,
Jttfat to Hjjc hearty belief, and ingenuous profession
' oL^3»/'bvarartic)e (it enfolding, or inferring the
l \s&m^y%\\ other Christian doctrines) salvation is
_ aliiflii il ; according to that assertion of St. Paul ;
' The righteousness of faith saith; thus, (or this is
the purport of the Christian institution,) that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thy heart, that God raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.'8 Nor is it
much, that a consideration of this point should be
so continually present to the minds of the ancient
Christians, that whenever they did meet, they should
be ready to salute one another with a ' Christ
is risen,' it importing so great benefits, and pro
ducing so excellent fruits ; in regard whereto St.
Paul expressed his so ardent desire, and high
esteem of ' knowing Christ, and the power of his
resurrection ;' 3 as the most valuable of all know
ledges ; which having in some measure declared, I
come now briefly to apply.
1. First, then: the consideration of our Lord's
resurrection should strengthen our faith, and
quicken our hope in God, causing us firmly to be
lieve his word, and confidently to rely upon his
promises, especially those which concern our fu
ture state. God having thereby, as by a most sen
sible proof, against all objections of our feeble rea
son, demonstrated himself able, so by a most sure
pledge declared himself willing, to bestow upon us a
happy immortality, in gracious reward of our obe
dience: for seeing by so illustrious an instance,

1 Acts, i. 22 ; x. 41 ; xiii. 31. « Rom. x. 6, 9.
3 Phil. iii. 10.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW?' • -k ¦" ''. f 7<f '"
»' ,-':'" " -¦ "f
God hath manifested that he is thor.ougVly recon- '
cileable to sinners, that he bountifully -Tewardeth..
obedience, that death and hell are vincibltjyJ-wbat
reason can we have to distrust his fidelity," to douf>t .
of his power, or to despair of his mercy ? Surely^
he that was so faithful in raising our Lord from
the grave, so notably rewarding his obedience and
patience (in advancing him to supreme dignity
and glory at his right hand) will not fail also to
confer on us (walking in the footsteps of his piety)
the promised inheritance of everlasting life and
bliss, the never-fading crown of righteousness and
glory: surely by this noble experiment we are
clearly informed, and should be fully persuaded,
that nothing can destroy us, nothing can harm us,
nothing can separate us from our God, and our
happiness ; that no force, no fraud, no spite of
men, or rage of hell can finally prevail against us ;
what then reasonably can be dreadful, or discou
raging to us ; what should be able to drive us into
distrust or despair ?
2. This point affordeth matter of great joy, and
an obligation thereto. If the news of our Saviour's
first birth were (as an angel called them) ' good
tidings of great joy to all people,' ' how much more
may the news concerning this second nativity of
him be hugely gladsome ? for in that birth he did
but assume our flesh, in this he did advance it ;
then he began to sustain our infirmities, now he
surmounted them; by his incarnation he became
' subject to death,' by his resurrection death was
subdued to him;8 at that he entered into the field,
and set upon the bloody conflict with our foes ; in
' Luke, ii. 10. ' Phil. ii. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 57.

80 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
this he returned a triumphant conqueror, having
utterly vanquished and quelled them ; the fury of
the world, the malice of hell, the tyranny of sin,
the empire of death, all of them combined to ren
der us miserable, he did in his resurrection per
fectly triumph over. And doth it not then become
us to attend his glorious victories with our joyful
gratulations ? ' Is it not extremely comfortable to
behold our gallant champion (the only champion
of our life and welfare) after all the cruel blows
which the infernal powers laid on him, after all the
ghastly wounds which human madness did inflict ;
after he had passed through the scorching flames
of divine wrath and justice, after he had felt the
sorest pangs of death, perfectly recovered from all
those distresses; standing upright and trampling
on the necks of his proud enemies ? Are not most
sprightful expressions of gratitude, are not most
cheerful acclamations of praise due from us to the
invincible ' Captain of our salvation ?' Shall we
not with great alacrity of mind contemplate the
happy success of that mighty enterprise, wherein
no less our welfare, than his glory, was concerned ?
Is it not a pleasure to consider ourselves so ex
empted from that fatal doom, to which all the hu
mane race was sentenced ; to see life and immor
tality so springing forth upon us; to view our
selves, the children of dust and corruption, from
hence in age and dignity, so nigh equalled to the
first-born sons of the creation ?
It is said of the first disciples, that although
they saw, and felt our Lord risen, yet ( for joy
they could not believe it;'8 so incredibly good was
1 Chrys. torn. v. Orat. 85. * Luke, xxiv. 41.

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW.- 81
the news to them ; excess of love and delight
choked, or rather suspended their faith ; we can
not be such infidels from surprise, but let us be as
faithful in our joy.1
3. Great consolation surely it ought to breed in
us, to consider, that by this event our redemption
is completed, and we are become entirely capable
of salvation ; that in it a full discharge is exhibited
from the guilt, and from the punishment of all our
sins, whereof we do truly repent ; that God's justice
appeareth satisfied, and his anger pacified; that
is countenance shineth out clearly with favour and
mercy toward us; that our condemnation is re
versed, our ransom is accepted, our shackles are
loosed, and our prison set open ; so that with full
liberty, security, and hope, we may walk forward
in the paths of righteousness, toward our better
country, the region of eternal felicity. Further,
4. This consideration should be a forcible en
gagement upon us to obedience and holy life. Our
Lord did, by his resurrection, gain a dominion
over us,8 unto which, if we do not submit, we shall
be very injurious and wicked j unto which, if we do
not correspond by all humble observance, we shall
be very ungrateful and undutiful : ' He was raised
to bless us, in turning every one of us from our ini
quities;'3 and no less unhappy, than unworthy we
shall be, if we defeat that gracious purpose. It is
the condition of our obtaining the happy fruits and
benefits of his resurrection, that we should ourselves
rise with him ' unto righteousness and newness of
life;'4 by not complying therewith, we shall render
1 Quod credunt tarditis, non est perfidise, sed amoris. Chry-
sost. Serm. 81.
' Rom. xiv. 9. 3 Act. iii. 26. 4 Rom- vi. 4.
G

82 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
his resurrection unprofitable to us, becoming un
worthy and incapable of any good advantage there
by. ' Awake,' saith the apostle, ' thou that sleep-
est, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee life ;'* to awake from our spiritual slumber, to
arise from dead works, are the terms on which
Christ doth offer that eternal happy life; for, as
the pains and ignominies of his death will no-wise
avail those who are not conformable to his death in
dying to sin, and mortifying their lusts, so will not
they be concerned in the joys and glories of his re
surrection, who are not planted in the likeness
thereof by renovation of their minds, and refor
mation of their lives ; ' for as he died, so he was
also raised for us, that we should not henceforth
live to ourselves, but unto him who died and rose
again for us.'8 Our sins did slay him, it must be
our repentance that reviveth him to us, our obedi
ence that maketh him to live in our behalf; for
Christ is not in effect risen to impenitent people ;
as they continue dead in trespasses and sins, as
they lie buried in corruption of heart and life, so
their condemnation abideth, and death retaineth
its entire power over them; they shall not xaravrq-v
elg rr)v e£ava?aow , ' attain unto that happy resur
rection,'3 whereof our Lord's resurrection was the
pledge and pattern ; so did our Lord assure us in his
preaching: ' He,' said our Lord, ' that believeth in
the Son (that is, who with a sincere, strong, and
lively faith, productive of due obedience, believeth
in him) hath everlasting life;' but 6 airti^iiv, 'he
that disobeyeth (or with a practical infidelity dis-
believeth) the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath

Eph. v. 14. * Phil, iii 10; Rom. vi. 5; 2 Cor. v. 15.
3 Phil. iii. 1 1

BY DR. ISAAC BARROW. 83
of God abideth on him;'1 whence we may well
infer with St. Paul, 'Therefore, brethren, we are
debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh ; for
if we live after the flesh, we shall die; but if
through the Spirit we do mortify the deeds of the
body, we shall live ;'8 that is, assuredly by obeying
God's will we shall obtain, by disobedience we
must forfeit all the benefits of our Lord's resurrec
tion. 5. Lastly, the contemplation of this point should
elevate our thoughts and affections unto heaven
and heavenly things, above the sordid pleasures,
the fading glories, and the unstable possessions of
this world ; for ' him we should follow whitherso
ever he goeth;'3 rising with him, not only from all
sinful desires, but from all inferior concernments,
soaring after bim in the contemplation of our
minds, and affections of our heart ; that * although
we are absent from the Lord in the body, we may
be present with him in spirit,' having our ' conver
sation- in heaven,' and ' our heart there, where our
treasure is;'4 for if our souls do still grovel on the
earth, if they be closely affixed to worldly interests,
deeply immersed in sensual delights, utterly ' en
slaved to corruption,' we do not ' partake' of our
Lord's resurrection, being quite severed from bis
living body, and continuing in vast distance from
him : I shall therefore conclude, recommending
that admonition of St. Paul ; ' If ye then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set
your affections on things above, not on things on
' John, iii. 15, 36. 8 Rom. viii. 13.
;l Rev. xiv. 4 ; Eph. ii. 6.
4 2 Cor. v. 6 ; PhiL i. 23 ; Phil. iii. 20 ; Matt. vi. 21.
G 2

84 THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN.
the earth ; for you are dead, und your life is hid
with Christ in God ;' that ' when Christ, who is our
life shall appear, then ye may also appear wilh
him in glory.'1 Amen.
Now the God of peace, that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove
nant, make us perfect in every good work to do his
will, working in us that which is well pleasing in
his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.
1 2 Pet. ii. 19; Rom. viii. 21 ; Gal. vi. (1; Apoc. iii. 1 ; 1
Tim. i. 6; Gal. iii. 1.

SERMON IV.
JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, PROVED BY
HIS RESURRECTION.
BV ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON.

[John Tillotson tvas born in 1630. He was elevated to the Archiepiscopal s
' of Canterbury in 1S91 ; and died, 1CMJ

SERMON IV.

Rom. i. 4.

And declared to be the Son of God, with power, ac
cording to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrec
tion from the dead.
St. Paul, in the beginning of this epistle, (accord
ing to his custom in the rest,) styles himself an
apostle, particularly called and set apart by God
for the preaching of the Gospel; the main subject
whereof was, 'Jesus Christ our Lord ;' who iis he
was, according to his divine nature, ' the eternal Son
of God,' so according to his human nature, he was
not only 'the Son of Man,' but also 'the Son of God.'
* According to the flesh (that is, the weakness, and
frailly, and mortality of his human nature) he was
the Son of David;' that is, of his posterity by his
mother, who was of that house and line. ' Made
of the seed of David, according to the flesh ;' ' ' but
according to the Spirit of Holiness, (that is, in re
gard of that divine power of the Holy Ghost, which
was manifest in him, especially in his resurrection
1 Rom. i. 3.

88 JESUS THE SON OF GOD, &C.
from the dead,) he was demonstrated to be the Son
of God;' even according to his human nature:
• declared to be the Son of God, with power, ac
cording to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrec
tion from the dead.'
All the difficulty in the words, is concerning the
meaning of this phrase, of Christ's being ' declared
to be the Son of God." The word is bpiSevrog, which
most frequently in Scripture does signify predes
tinated, decreed, determined ; but it likewise sig
nifies that which is defined, declared, demon
strated, put out of all doubt and controversy. And
in this sense our translation renders it. As if the
apostle had said, that our Lord Jesus Christ,
though according to the frailty and weakness of his
human nature, he was of the seed of David ; yet
in respect of that divine power of the Holy Ghost,
which manifested itself in him, especially in his
resurrection from the dead, he was ' declared to be
the Son of God with power;' that is, mightily,
powerfully demonstrated to be so; so as to put the
matter out of all dispute and controversy.
And therefore following our own translation, I
shall handle the words in this sense, as containing
this proposition in them : 'That the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, by the Holy
Ghost, is a powerful demonstration that he was the
Son of God.'
And it will conduce very much to the clearing
of this proposition to consider these two things.
First, Upon what account Christ, as man, is said
to be ' the Son of God.'
Secondly, In what sense he is said to be ' de
clared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from
the dead.' The consideration of these two particu-

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 89
lars will fully clear this proposition, and the apos
tle's meaning in il.
First, Upon what account Christ, as man, is said
to be 'the Son of God.' And for our right appre
hension of this matter, it is very well worthy our
observation, that Christ, as man, is no where in
Scripture said to be ' the Son of God,' but with re
lation to the divine power ofthe Holy Ghost, some
way or other eminently manifested in him ; I say
the divine power of the Holy Ghost, as the Lord
and Giver of life, as he is called in the ancient
creeds of the Christian church. For as men are
naturally said to be the children of those from
whom they receive their life and being ; so Christ,
as man, is said to be ' the Son of God,' because he
had life communicated to him from the Father, by
an immediate power of the Spirit of God, or the
Holy Ghost. First at his conception, which was
by the Holy Ghost. The conception of our blessed
Saviour was an immediate act of the power of the
Holy Ghost, overshadowing, as the Scripture ex
pressed it, the blessed mother of our Lord. And
then at his resurrection, when after his death he
was, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, raised to
life again.
Now upon these two accounts only, Christ, as
man, is said in Scripture to be ' the Son of God.'
He was really so upon account of his conception ;
but this was secret and invisible : but most emi
nently and remarkably so upon account of his
resurrection, which was open and visible to all.
1 . Upon account of his conception by the power
of the Holy Ghost. That upon this account he was
called ' the Son of God,' St. Luke most expressly
tells us, Luke, i. 35, where the angel tells the vir-

90 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C
gin Mary, that ' the Holy Ghost should come upon
her, and the power of the Highest should oversha
dow her, and therefore that holy thing which should
be born of her, should be called the Son of God.'
And this our Saviour means by ' the Father's sanc
tifying him, and sending him into the world ;' for
which reason he says he might justly call himself
' the Son of God.' ' ' If he call them gods, unto
whom the word of God came, and the Scripture
cannot be broken ; say ye of him, whom the Father
hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blas
phemest, because I said I am the Son of God ?' If
there had been no other reason, this had been suf
ficient to have given him the title of ' the Son of
God,' that he was brought into the world by the
sanctification, or divine power of the Holy Ghost.
2. Christ is also said in Scripture tobe ' the Son
of God,' and to be declared to be so upon account
of ' his resurrection from the dead,' by the power
of the Holy Ghost. His resurrection from the dead
is here in the text ascribed to ' the Spirit of Holi
ness,' or the Holy Ghost. And so in other places
of Scripture, ' If the Spirit of him that raised up
Jesus from the dead, dwell in you:'8 and, 'being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit;'3 that is, he suffered in that frail mortal
nature which he assumed ; but was raised again by
the power of the Holy Ghost, of the Spirit of God
which resided in him. And upon this account he
is expressly said in Scripture to be ' the Son of
God:' 'I will declare the decree; the Lord hath
said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I be-

1 John, x. 35, 36. • Rom. viii. 11.
a 1 Pet. iii. 18.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 91
gotten thee;'1 to which perhaps the apostle alludes
here in the text, when he says that Christ ' was de
creed to be the Son of God, by his resurrection
from the dead.' To be sure these words, 'this
day have I begotten thee,' St. Paul expressly tells
us were accomplished in the resurrection of Christ;
as if God, by raising him from the dead, had begot
ten him, and decreed him to be his Son. ' And
we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the
promise which was made unto the Fathers, God
hath fulfilled the same unto their children, in that
he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written
in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee.'8
He was ' the Son of God' before, as he was con
ceived by the Holy Ghost; but this was secret and
invisible, and known only to the mother of our
Lord. And therefore God thought fit to give a
public and visible demonstration of it, so as to put
the matter out of all question : he declared him in
a powerful manner to be his Son, by giving him a
new life after death, by raising him from the dead ;
and by this new and eminent testimony given to
him, declared him again to be his Son, and con
firmed the title which was given him before, upon
a true, but more secret account, of his being con
ceived by the Holy Ghost.
And as our Saviour is said to be ' the Son of
God' upon this twofold account, of his conception
by the Holy Ghost, and his resurrection to life by
the Spirit of God, so the Scripture (which does
solicitously pursue a resemblance and conformity
between Christ and Christians) does likewise upon
1 Psalm ii. 7. * Acts, xiii. 32, 33.

92 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C.
a twofold account (answerable to our Saviour's
birth and resurrection) call true believers and Chris
tians, ' the children of God ;' viz. upon account of
their regeneration or new birth, by the operation
of the Spirit of God ; and upon account of their
resurrection to eternal life, by the power of the
same Spirit.
Upon account of our regeneration and becoming
Christians by the power and operation of the
Holy Spirit of God upon our minds, we are said
to be the children of God, as being regenerated
and born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And
this is our first adoption. And for this reason the
Spirit of God conferred upon Christians at their
baptism, and dwelling and residing in them after
wards, is called ' the Spirit of adoption.' ' Ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby you
cry, Abba Father;'1 and believers are said to 're
ceive the adoption of sons ; God having sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying
Abba Father.'8 That is, all Christians, foras
much as they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit
of God, and having the Spirit of God dwelling in
them, may with confidence call God Father, and
look upon themselves as his children. So the
apostle tells us, ' that as many as are led (or acted)
by the Spirit of God, are tbe sons of God.'3
But though we are said to be children of God
upon account of our regeneration, and the Holy
Spirit of God dwelling and residing in Chris
tians ; yet we are eminently so, upon account of
our resurrection to eternal life, by the mighty
power of God's Spirit. This is our final adoption
1 Rom. viii. 10. « Gal. iv. a, 0. 3 Rom. viii. 14.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 93
and the consummation of it ; and therefore this is
called ' the glorious liberty of the sons of God,' be
cause by this we are for ever ' delivered from the
bondage of corruption ;'' and by way of eminency,
' the adoption,' viz. ' the redemption of our bo
dies.' We are indeed * the sons of God' before, upon
account of the regenerating and sanctifying vir
tue of the Holy Ghost ; but finally and chiefly
upon account of our resurrection by the power of
the Divine Spirit. So St. John tells us, that then
we shall be declared to be 'the sons of God,' after
another manner than we are now : ' Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God.8
Now we are the sons of God, (that is, our adop
tion is begun in our regeneration and sanctifica
tion,) ' but it doth not yet appear what we shall
be;' we shall be much more eminently so at the
resurrection. 'We know, that when he shall ap
pear, we shall be like him.'
But the most express and remarkable text to this
purpose, is, where good men, after the resurrec
tion, are for this reason said to be ' the children of
God,' because they are ' the children of the resur
rection.' ' But they who shall be accounted worthy
to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the
dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage,
neither can they die any more ; for they are equal
to the angels, and are the children of God, being
the children of the resurrection.' 3 For this reason
they are said to be ' the children of God,' because
they are raised by him to a new life ; and to be
1 Rom. viii. 21. 2 1 John, iii. 1. a Luke, xx. 35, 36.

94 JESUS THE SON OF GOD, &C.
made partakers of that which is promised to them,
and reserved for them. For all that are raised by
the power of God, out of the dust of the earth, are
not therefore ' the children of God ;' but only they
that have part in the blessed resurrection to eternal
life, and ' do inherit the kingdom prepared for
them.' Not those who are raised to a perpetual
death, and the ' resurrection of condemnation :'
these are not ' the children of God ;' but ' the
children of wrath and the children of perdition.'
But the resurrection of the just, is the full and
final declaration that we are ' the children of God ;'
not only because we are restored to a new life, but
because at the resurrection, we are admitted to the
full possession of that blessed inheritance which is
purchased for us, and promised to us.
And the Spirit of God which is conferred upon
believers in their regeneration, and afterwards
dwells and resides in them, is the pledge and earn
est of our final adoption, by our resurrection to
eternal life ; and upon this account and no other,
is said to be the ' earnest' of our future inheri
tance, and the ' seal' and confirmation of it. ' In
whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
by the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earn
est of our inheritance, until the redemption of the
purchased possession ;' ' that is, the Holy Spirit of
God which Christians were made partakers of,
upon their sincere belief of the Christian religion,
is the seal and earnest of our resurrection to eternal
life ; as the apostle plainly tells us, in that remark
able text, Rom. viii. 11; * If the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he
1 Eph. i. 13.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 95
that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also
quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you.'
I have been the longer upon this, because it
serves fully to explain to us those obscure phrases,
of the ' seal' and ' earnest,' and ' first fruits of the
Spirit,' which many have mistaken to import some
particular and spiritual revelation or impression
upon the minds of good men, assuring them of
their salvation. Whereas the apostle intended no
more by them, but that the Spirit of God which
dwells in believers, enabling them ' to mortify the
deeds of the flesh, and lo bring forth the fruits of
the Spirit," is a pledge and. earnest to us of a
blessed resurrection to eternal life, by the power of
the Spirit of God which now dwells in us, and is
the same Spirit which raised up Jesus from the
dead. And in this chapter, the Spirit of God is
said ' to bear witness to our spirits,' that is, to as
sure our minds, ' that we are the children of God ;' '
that is, that we are his children now, and conse
quently heirs of a glorious resurrection to eternal
life. For so it follows in the next words, ' and if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs
with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that
we may also be glorified together.' And this be
ing glorified together with Christ at the resurrec
tion, he calls, ' the manifestation of the sons of
God.'8 Thus you see how in conformity to 'the
Son of God,' our elder brother, we are said to be
' the sons of God,' because we are now regenerated,
and shall at the last day be raised up to eternal
1 Rom. viii. 16. 8 Ib. verse 19.

96 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C
life, by the power of the Spirit of God. I proceed
to the
Second thing I propounded to speak to, for the
clearing of these words; namely, in what sense
Christ is said to be ' declared,' or ' demonstrated to
be the son of God by his resurrection from the
daad.' By which the apostle means these two
things : —
1. That by his resurrection from the dead he was
approved by God to be the true Messias, and vin
dicated to the world from all suspicion of being a
deceiver and impostor. And secondly,
2. That hereby God gave testimony to the truth
and divinity of his doctrine.
1 . By his resurrection from the dead, he was ap
proved by God to be the true Messias, foretold by
the prophets, and expected at that time by the
Jews, and sufficiently vindicated to the world to
be no deceiver and impostor.
And for our fuller understanding of this, we are
to consider these two things : —
(1.) What the apprehensions and expectations
of the Jews were concerning the Messias. And,
(2.) What the many crimes were which they
laid to our Saviour's charge, and for which they
condemned him.
(1.) What the apprehensions and expectations
of the Jews were concerning the Messias. And it
is very plain from the evangelical history, that
they generally apprehended these two things of
him : that the Messias was to be * the Son of God,'
and ' the king of Israel ;' and therefore that our Sa
viour, by affirming himself to be the Messias, did
call himself 'the Son of God,* and 'the king of

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 97
Israel.' Andrew tells his brother Simon ' we have
found the Messias.' ' Philip tells Nathanael, • we
have found him of whom Moses in the law and the
prophets did write;'8 that is, the Messias. Na
thanael upon discourse with our Saviour, being
convinced that he was the Messias, owns him in
these terms : * Rabbi, thou art the Son of God,
thou art the king of Israel.' 3 Peter declares his
belief that he was the Christ, or the Messias, in
these words, ' we believe and are sure that thou
art the Son of the living God.'4 This appears
likewise from the high-priest's question to him,
* Art thou the Christ, (that is, the Messias,) the Son
ofthe living God P'5 or as it is in St. Mark, ' the Son
of the blessed ;' compared with Pilate's question,
' Art thou the king of the Jews ?' And when he was
upon the cross, some reviled him under the notion
of ' the Son of God.' ' If thou be the Son of God,
come down from the cross.' 6 Others, under the
notion of the king of Israel. ' If he be the king of
Israel, let him come down from the cross.' 7 From
all which it is plain that the Jews expected and
believed, that the true Messias was to be * the Son
of God,' and * the king of Israel ;' and whoever was
not so, was a deceiver and impostor. But our
Saviour affirmed himself to be the true Messias,
and * the Son of God.' Now God by raising him
from the dead, did abundantly vindicate him to
the world, from all suspicion of imposture ; and
gave testimony to him, that he was all that he said
of himself, viz. ' the true Messias,' and ' the Son
of God.'
1 John, i. 41. 2 Ib. verse 45. 3 Ib. verse 49.
4 John, vi. 69. 5 Matt. xxvi. 63.
6 Matt, xxvii. 40. 7 Ib. verse 42. H

98 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C.
Which will further appear, if we consider, 2dly,
What were the crimes which the Jews laid to our
Saviour's charge, and for which they condemned
him; and they were mainly these two, that by
giving himself to be the Messias, he made himself
king of Israel, and the Son of God. Of the first of
these they accused him to Pilate, hoping, by this
accusation, to make him guilty of sedition against
the Roman government; for saying, that he was
' the king of Israel.' Of the other, they accused
him to the chief priests, as being guilty of bias-
phemy, in that not being the Messias, he called
himself ' the Son of God." And upon this they
laid the main stress, as being a thing that would
condemn him by their law. They charged him
with this in his lifetime, as appears by those words
of our Saviour, ' Say ye of him whom the Father
hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blas
phemest, because I said I am the Son of God ?' '
And, when he was arraigned before the chief
priests, they accused him of this, and he owning
this charge, ' that he called himself the Son of God,'
upon this they judged him guilty of death. 'Then
the high-priest rent his clothes, and said, he hath
spoken blasphemy; what further need' have we of
witness ? Behold, now ye have heard his blas
phemy. What think ye ? They answered, he is
guilty of death.'8 And when Pilate told them, that
he found no fault in him, they still instance in this as
his crime, ' We have a law, and by our law he ought
to die, because he made himself the Son of God.'3
Now, this being the crime which was charged
upon him, and for which he was crucified and put
1 John, x. 36. a Matt. xxvi. 65, 6fi.
John, xix. 7.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 99
to death ; God, by raising him from the dead, and
taking him up into heaven, gave testimony to
him, that he was no impostor, and that he did not
vainly arrogate to himself to be the Messias and
the ' Son of God.' God, by raising him from the
dead, by the power of the Holy Ghost, gave a
mighty demonstration to him, that he was ' the
Son of God.' For which reason he is said by the
apostle, to be 'justified by the Spirit." The Spirit
gave testimony to him at his baptism, and by the
mighty works that appeared in him in his lifetime ;
but he was most eminently and remarkably 'justi
fied by the Holy Ghost, by his resurrection from
the dead ;' God hereby bearing him witness, that
he was unjustly condemned, and that he assumed
nothing to himself, but what of right did belong
to him, when he said he was the Messias, and
'the Son of God.' For how could a man that
was condemned to die for calling himself 'the Son
of God,' be more remarkably vindicated, and more
clearly proved to be so, than by being raised from
the dead, by the power of God ?
And next,. God did consequently hereby give
testimony to the truth and divinity of our Saviour's
doctrine. Being proved by his resurrection to be
' the Son of God)' this proved him to be a teacher
sent by him, and what he declared to the world
was the mind and will of God. For this none was
more likely to know, and to report truly to man
kind, than ' the Son of God,' who came from ' the
bosom of his Father.' And because the resurrec
tion of Christ is so great a testimony to the truth of
his doctrine, hence it is, that St. Paul tells us, that

' 1 Tim. iii. 16.
H 2

100 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C.
the belief of this one article of Christ's resur
rection, is suflicient to a man's salvation. ' If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thy heart, that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.'1 The reason
is plain, because the resurrection of Christ confirmed
the truth and divinity of his doctrine; so that the
belief of our Saviour's resurrection does by necessary
consequence infer the belief of his whole doctrine.
That God raised him from the dead after he was
condemned and put to death for calling himself
^the Son of God,' is a demonstration that he really
was ' the Son of God ;' and, if he was ' the Son of
God,' the doctrine which he taught was true, and
from God.
And thus I have shown you, how the resurrection
of Christ from the dead is a powerful demonstration
that he was * the Son of God.'
All that remains is briefly to draw some practical
inferences from the consideration of our Saviour's
resurrection. 1st. To confirm and establish our minds in the be
lief of the Christian religion, of which the resurrection
of Christ from the dead is so great a confirmation.
And therefore, I told you, that this one article is
mentioned by St. Paul as the sum and abridgment of
the Christian faith : ' If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in thy
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.' The belief of our Saviour's resur
rection doth by necessary consequence infer the be
lief of his whole doctrine; for he who believes that
God raised him from the dead, after he was put to
death for calling himself' the Son of God,' cannot but
believe him to be ' the Son of God ;' and conse-
1 Rom. x. 9.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 101
quently, that the doctrine which he delivered was
from God.
2dly. The resurrection of Christ from the dead
assures us of a future judgment, and ofthe recom-
pences and rewards of another world. That Christ
was raised from the dead, is a demonstration of
another life after this; and no man that believes
the immortality of our souls, and another life after
this, ever doubted of a future judgment ; so that by
the resurrection of Christ from the dead, God hath
given assurance unto all men of a future judgment,
and consequently of the recompences and rewards
of another world.
The consideration whereof ought to have a mighty
influence upon us, more especially to these three
purposes. 1st. To raise our minds above the present enjoy
ments of this life. Were but men convinced of
this great and obvious truth, that there is an in
finite difference between time and eternity, between
a few days and everlasting ages ; would we but
sometimes represent to ourselves, what thoughts
and apprehensions dying men have of this world,
how vain and empty a thing it appears to them;
how like a pageant and shadow it looks, as it pass
eth away from them ; methinks none of these things
could be a sufficient temptation to any man to
forget God and his soul ; but notwithstanding all
the present delights and allurements of sense, we
should be strongly intent upon the concernments of
another world, and almost wholly taken up with
the thoughts of the vast eternity which we are
ready to enter into. For what is there in this
world, this vast and howling wilderness, this rude
and barbarous country which we are but to pass

102 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C
through, which should detain and entangle our
affections, and take off our thoughts from our ever
lasting habitation, from that better, and that hea
venly country, where we hope to live and to be
happy for ever ?
2dly. The consideration of the rewards of another
world should comfort and support us under the
troubles and afflictions of this world. The hopes of a
blessed resurrection are a very proper consideration
to bear us up under the evils and pressures of this
life. If we hope for so great a happiness hereafter,
we may be contented to bear some afflictions in this
world; because the blessedness which we expect will
so abundantly recompense and outweigh our present
sufferings. So the apostle assures us, * We know
that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed in us." The consideration whereof was
that which made the primitive Christians to tri
umph in their sufferings, and in the midst of all
their tribulations, ' to rejoice in the hopes of the
glory of God ;' because their sufferings did really
prepare and make way for their glory. So the
same apostle tells us, ' Our light afflictions, which
are but for a moment, work for us a far more ex
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ; whilst we look
not at the things which are seen ; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which
are not seen are eternal.' 8
3dly and lastly, The assurance of our future re
ward is a mighty encouragement to obedience and
a holy life. What greater encouragement can we
1 Rom. viii. 18. « 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 103
have than this, that all the good which we do in
this world will accompany us into the other?
' That when we rest from our labours, our works
will follow us ?' That when we shall be stripped
of other things, and parted from them, these will
still remain with us, and bear us company ? Our
riches and honours, our sensual pleasures and en
joyments will all take their leave of us, when we
leave this world ; nay, many times they do not
accompany us so far as the grave, but take occa
sion to forsake us, when we have the greatest need
and use of them : but piety and virtue are ' that
better part which cannot be taken from us.' All
the good actions which we do in this world will go
along with us into the other, and through the me
rits of our Redeemer procure for us, at the hands
of a gracious and merciful God, a glorious and
eternal reward ; not according to the meanness of
our services, but according to the bounty of his
mind, and the vastness of his treasures and estate.
Now what an encouragement is this to holiness
and obedience, to consider that it will all be our
own another day ; to be assured that whoever serves
God faithfully, and does suffer for him patiently,
does lay up so much treasure for himself in an
other world, and provides lasting comforts for him
self, and faithful and constant companions, that
will never leave him nor forsake him !
Let us then do all the good we can, while we
have opportunity, and serve God with all our
might, knowing that no good action that we do
shall be lost and fall to the ground, that every
grace and virtue that we exercise in this life, and
every degree of them, ' shall receive their full re-
compence at the resurrection of the just.'

104 JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, &C
How should this inspire us with resolution and
zeal and industry in the service of God, to have
such a reward continually in our eye ! how should
it tempt us to our duty, to have a crown and a
kingdom offered to us, ' joys unspeakable and full
of glory, such things as eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor have entered into the heart of man !'
And ' such are the things which God hath laid up
for them who love him heartily, and serve him
faithfully in this world.'

SERMON V.
CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE.

[William Bbvhrtdgr was born in 1637: in 1704 he was consecrated Bishop of
St. Asaph, and died in 1708.]

SERMON V.

1 Corinthians, xv. 20.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first fruits of them that slept.
When we seriously consider how much the Son of
God suffered for our sins, we cannot but be highly
concerned, and troubled at the remembrance of
those sins for which so great a Person suffered ; for
certainly it was the greatest demonstration that
ever was or could be given, of the divine displea
sure against the sins of mankind, that no less a
person than the Son of God himself was able to
expiate them, nor he by any less means than his
own blood. The consideration whereof, should
not only deter us from the commission of sin here
after, but it should make us loathe and abhor our
selves for those which we have committed here
tofore. What grief, what horror should seize upon
our spirits every time that we consider how the
eternal Son of God, the only begotten of the Fa
ther, was affronted, was abused, was spit upon, was
arraigned, was condemned, was crucified, was put
to death, to the painful, to the shameful, to the

108 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
cursed death upon the cross, and all for those very '
sins, which we, ungrateful wretches that we are,
have lived and delighted in ! Methinks the re
membrance of it should make us blush and be
ashamed of ourselves, and never think that we can
grieve enough for those sins, for which Christ him
self not only grieved, but died.
But lest this consideration duly weighed, should
lie so heavy upon our spirits, as by degrees to sink
them down into despair, we must consider withal,
that as the remembrance of Christ's suffering for
our sins affords us great matter for grief and sor
row, so the remembrance of his resurrection sup
plies us with as much cause of joy and comfort.
We had great reason the other day to lament and
bewail those sins, which brought our blessed Lord
with sorrow to his grave. And we have as great
reason this day to rejoice and triumph, that he
was raised again from it: which 'was so great,
so exceeding great a blessing to mankind, that it
ought to be our constant employment while we are
upon earth, as it will be when we come to heaven,
to praise and magnify the eternal God for it At
least upon every Lord's-day, which was therefore
set apart for our Lord's service, because he rose
upon it. But above all other Lord's-days, that
which succeeded the ' Jewish Passover, wherein
our Lord suffered, hath been all along devoted by
the church to the memory of his resurrection,
which happened upon it, and to our rejoicing and
praising Almighty God for so great a mercy as
. that was.
This therefore being the proper work of the
day, that I may prepare you the better for it, and
assist you as well as I can in the due performance

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 109
of it, I shall endeavour to show what you ought to
believe concerning the resurrection of Christ, and
what cause you have to rejoice and to give thanks
to God this day, that you can say with the holy
apostle, ' Now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the first fruits of them that slept.'
In which words we may observe,
I. That Christ did truly rise again.'
II. That he thereby became ' the first fruits of
them that slept.'
In speaking to the first, we Bhall consider,
1. In what sense Christ is said to have risen
from the dead.
2. What • ground we have to believe that he
did so.
3. What benefit we have received by it, for
which we ought to rejoice, and give thanks unto
God this day.
As for. the first, in what sense Christ is said to
have risen from the dead : — that we ; shall easily
understand, if we do but consider, how that Christ
so took our human nature upon him, that he be
came really and truly a man, of the same nature.
and substance with other men in all things except
sin. Consisting, as other men do, of a rational
soul and a terrestrial body, and both so united to
gether, as that his body was quickened, informed,
and actuated by his soul ; by which means he per
formed all vital actions, and therefore was properly
said to live, as we do, and that for several years
together, until at length bis body, by the excessive
pain and torture that he suffered upon the cross,
being made incapable of all vital motion, and so
unfit for the soul to inhabit any longer, the knot
was untied, and his soul was separated from his

110 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
body, and so continued for some time ; during
which time, although both the essential parts of
man, his soul and body, subsisted, or were in
being as well as they were before, yet not subsisting
conjunctly, but separately, he was properly dead,
us other men are, when their souls have left their
bodies. And in this state he continued from Fri
day till Sunday morning ; when his body being
made a fit receptacle for the soul again, the same
soul was again united to it, and so the same man
that before was dead now lived again, and is there
fore said to be ' raised from the dead,' or out of
that state of death, wherein he had continued all
that time ; yea, he so lived again, as never to die
more ; but though it be above one thousand six
hundred years since he rose again, he is still alive,
and so will be for evermore.
The next question is, what grounds we have to
believe that Christ thus rose from the dead ? In
general, we have as much ground to believe that
Christ rose from the dead, as we have to believe
that we ourselves are now alive ; or if you will,
as much as it is possible for a thing of that nature
to be capable of; for besides that it was plainly
foreshown in the types, and infallibly foretold by
the prophets under the law, and so could not but
come to pass, we have the testimony of two angels
for it, who were both eye-witnesses of the fact itself,
for they saw him not only risen, but rising, and
assisted him in it, by rolling away the stone which
was at the mouth of the sepulchre where he lay,
and told the disciples that came to the place to see
him, that ' he was not there, but was risen.'1 And
1 Luke, xxiv. 4, 5, G. Matt, xxviii. 6.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. Ill
after he was risen, his disciples frequently saw him,
conversed familiarly with him, yea, ate and drank
with him as really as they had done it before his
passion. And that it was the same person they
knew by his visage, by the lineaments of his body,
by his voice, and by the print of the spear in his
side, and of the nails in his hands and feet where
with he had been fastened to the cross ; which was
so clear a demonstration, that it was the same body
that was before crucified, that when one of his dis
ciples doubted of it, whether it was he or no, he
said to him, ' Re,ach hither thy finger, and behold
my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into my side ;' which that disciple had no sooner
done, but he was fully convinced that it was the
same person that had those wounds given him
upon the cross.' * And so his doubting proved the
occasion of our being more confirmed in the truth
of it.
And indeed it is much to be observed, that both
St. Thomas himself, and the rest of the apostles,
were so fully assured that their master Jesus was
risen from the dead, that all the troubles and perse
cutions that they afterwards underwent for his sake,
could never make them so much as doubt of it,
much less deny it; but they all attested it to the
last, and sealed it with their own blood ; which cer
tainly they would never have done, had they not
been as sure that they had seen him alive after he
had been dead, as that they had seen him so before
he died. And questionless, there never was any
matter of fact since the world began, so fully
proved by the concurrent testimonies of so many
1 John, xx. 27, 28.

112 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
persons, not only hazarding, but actually laying
down their lives in the defence of it, as this was.
Neither must we think that this fundamental
article of our Christian religion is grounded only
upon the testimony of men and angels, for Christ
himself hath given us so full, so clear a demonstra
tion of it, that though no creature in the world had
ever seen him after his resurrection, yet none
could deny but that he did rise again ; in that he
did so exactly filfil what he had promised before;
for he told his disciples a little before his passion,
that when he was gone from them, he would send
another comforter, even the Holy Ghost unto them,1
which you know he accordingly did upon the day
of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost descending in a mi
raculous manner upon his disciples, and enabling
them to speak all manner of languages." But how
was it possible for Christ to have done this, except
he rose from the dead ? Can a man that lies in
the grave, and is not able to lift up himself from
the earth ; can such a one get up to heaven, and
from thence send down the Spirit of God ? It is
impossible ; for a dead man can do nothing, much
less so great a thing as that was ; and therefore his
doing of it, is an undeniable argument that he is
indeed risen from the dead.
To whicli we may also add, that infallible testi
mony that almighty God himself hath hereby given
to this truth ; in that he bore witness to them that
preached it, ' both with signs and wonders, and with
divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, accord
ing to his own will,' as the apostle speaks.3 For
would he, who is truth itself, bear witness to a lie ?.
' John, xvi. 7- 8 Acts, ii. 1, 2, 3. 3 Heb. ii. 4.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 113
Would he have given such extraordinary power,
and courage, and success to the apostles in pub
lishing this unto the world, if it had not been a
great truth ? No certainly, every sermon that the
apostles preached, every miracle that they wrought,
every suffering they underwent, every danger they
were in for Christ's sake, was a more than mathe
matical, a divine demonstration, that he is risen
from the dead ; especially considering, that how
incredible soever it might seem at first, yet by the
almighty power of God accompanying the publi
cation of it, the whole world was soon convinced
of the truth and certainty of this proposition, that
Christ is risen from the dead ; and therefore I need
not insist any longer upon showing what grounds
you have to believe it, seeing God himself hath
proved it so effectually to you, that I dare say, you
are all by his grace fully persuaded of it.
The other and principal thing to be considered
in this subject, especially upon this day, is, what
are those great benefits we have received by Christ's
resurrection, for which we ought to rejoice and
give thanks to God at each commemoration of it ?
In general they are so many and so great, that did
we but fully understand them, and were we but
truly sensible of them, nothing would come near
our hearts this day but joy and thankfulness to
God for. so unspeakable a mercy as this was. It is
past my skill either to describe or number them all
to you ; and therefore, I shall not undertake that,
but only endeavour to present you with some such
considerations about it, whereby your hearts may
be duly affected and raised up to a more than ordi
nary pitch of joy and praise to God for the resur
rection of Jesus Christ this day. For,

114 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
I. Hereby he was declared to be the Messiah
and the Son of God. As the apostle expressly
asserts, where speaking of our Saviour, he saith,
'That he was declared to be the Son of God with
power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead.' ' That is, God, by
raising Jesus from the dead by his Almighty
power, did thereby fully declare and demonstrate
to the world, that this Jesus whom he thus raised
was his Son ; not a mere man only, but the only
begotten of the Father. So that by raising him
from the dead, he confirms what he had said of
him when he was baptized, ' This is my beloved
Son, in whom I um well pleased.'8 And therefore,
what the Psalmist speaks of Christ in general, say
ing, ' I will declare the decree the Lord hath said
unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I be
gotten thee;'3 the apostle applies to the resurrec
tion of Christ.4 Because by that means God did
declare to the world, that this Christ was his only
begotten Son. Otherwise he would never have
raised him from the dead, and so have confirmed
all that he had ever said or clone. So that the ques
tion which the high-priest propounded to our Savi
our, saying, ' I adjure thee by the living God, that
thou tell us whether thou be Christ, the Son of
God,'5 was now effectually answered by his being
raised from the dead, and so declared to be so by
God himself.
Now, what a mighty consolation is this unto us
all, that our Saviour is by his resurrection declared
to be no less a person than the Son of God ! One
so far above all creatures, that he hath absolute
' Rom. i. 4. » Matt. iii. 17. a psalm ii. 7.
1 Acts, xiii. 33 ; Heb. i. 5. 5 Matt. xxvi. 03.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 115
authority over them. One, who being raised from
the dead, is ' set at the right hand of God in hea
venly places, far above all principality, and power,
and might, and dominion, and every name that is
named, not only in this world, but in that which is
to come." One so highly exalted by God, that he
hath a naffie given him * which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and
things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.'8 One whom the angels
themselves are commanded to worship, and to ac
knowledge to be their Lord.3 And it is very ob
servable that so they did immediately upon his re
surrection, ' He is not here,' saith the angel, 'he is
risen. Come, seethe place where the Lord lay.'4
He is their Lord, it seems, as well as ours : ' all power
being given to him both in heaven and earth,'5 as
himself said after his resurrection. Now, what can,
if this doth not, transport our hearts into holy ecs
tasies of jdy and thankfulness to God, who hath
provided so great, so mighty, so Almighty a Savi
our for us ? What cause have we all to sing with
the blessed Virgin this day, ' My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Savi
our.' In God my Saviour, — what a comfort is this,
that God himself should be our Saviour, or which is
all one, our Saviour God ; yet this is plainly de
clared to us, by his resurrection from the dead.
2. By Christ's resurrection from the dead, his
gospel was established, and our faith confirmed in
1 Eph. i. 20, 21. 3 Phil. ii. 9, 10, 11. 3 Heb. i. 6.
4 Matt, xxviii. 6. 5 Ibid. 18. I 2

116 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
him. The apostle, a little before my text, saith,
'If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ;" for
all our expectations from him had been frustrated,
all our hopes and confidence in him would have
been groundless, because all his promises would
have been void and of none effect, except he had
risen from the dead ; for he would not have been
in a capacity to have fulfilled them to us ; whereas,
by his resurrection from the dead, all the promises
which he, or God in him, hath made to mankind,
are so far confirmed to us, that there is no place
left for doubting or unbelief; for, indeed, they were
all comprehended and so fulfilled in this one, even
in God's raising Christ from the dead, according to
his promise : and how great joy and comfort this
affords us the apostle intimates, saying, ' We de
clare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers, God hath ful
filled the same unto us their children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again.'8
Glad tidings indeed ! that as there are no good
things but what God hath promised to us in Christ,
so there are none of his promises but what he hath
fulfilled and confirmed to us, by raising him from
the dead. So that now we have no cause at all to
doubt of any thing that is either said or promised
in the gospel, for God himself hath fully approved
and established, and set his own Almighty hand
and seal to it. And therefore we may boldly say,
that nothing was ever affirmed by Christ but what
was true; nothing foretold but what hath or shall
be fulfilled ; nothing commanded but what is just
and good; nothing threatened but what shall be
' 1 Cor. xv. 17 « Act. xiii. 32, 33.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 117
executed upon impenitent and unbelieving sinners ;
nothing promised but what shall certainly be per
formed to all that repent and believe the gospel.
Away, therefore, with all doubts and diffidence
about any thing that is there revealed : ' Heaven
and earth may pass away, but Christ's word shall
never pass away.'1 Hath he said, ' I and my Fa
ther are one;'8 then, whether we understand it or
no, we may be confident of the truth of it. Hath
he foretold that he will one day come in glory, and
all the holy angels with him, ' and that he will then
sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him
shall be gathered all nations P'3 Then you may be
as certain that you shall one day see him upon his
throne, as you are that ye are now in this place.
Hath he commanded you to deny yourselves, to
take up your cross and to follow him ? * Then, you
may be sure, it is good and just, and necessary for
you to do so. Hath he threatened destruction to
all that live and die in their sins without repent
ance, saying, ' Except ye repent ye shall all likewise
perish ?'* Then there is no avoiding it, you must
either repent or be damned. And hath he pro
mised rest to all ' that labour and are heavy laden,'
if they come to him ? Then, there is no question
can be made of it, but that he will most certainly
do it ; for we have not only his own word for it, but
God the Father hath confirmed it to us by raising
him from the dead ; which, as it strengthens our
faith, it must. needs be matter of extraordinary joy
and comfort to us ; yea, all the joy and comfort
that ever we expect from Christ, is grounded upon
1 Matt. xxiv. 35. 8 John, x. 30. " Matt. xxv. 31, 32.
* Matt. xvi. 24. 6 Luke, xiii. 3.

118 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
this one article of our faith, that he is risen from
the dead.
3. By the resurrection of Christ, we are fully
assured that he hath made complete satisfaction for
our sins, so that upon our repentance of them, they
will all for his sake be certainly pardoned and for
given us. This necessarily follows upon the former;
and therefore the apostle joins them together in
the place before quoted, saying, 'If Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins.'
Implying, that if Christ had not risen, our believ
ing in him would have been to no purpose, and by
consequence we should still lie under the guilt of
our sins, obnoxious to eternal damnation for them ;
whereas, on the other side, Christ being indeed
risen from the dead, as we have all the reason in
the world to believe in him, so by our believing in
him, ' we have redemption through his blood, even
the forgiveness of our sins.'1
And the reason in short is this ; we by our
affronting the majesty, dishonouring the name, and
transgressing the commands of our great Creator,
have incurred his displeasure, and rendered our
selves obnoxious to all the punishments, even to
that death itself, which his law and justice have
threatened against such ungrateful and rebellious
creatures. But the debt which we have hereby
contracted being so great, that it is impossible for
us ever to pay it ; the Son of God himself was
pleased to undertake it for us, to become our surety,
and to satisfy God's justice for our sins, by under
going those punishments in our nature, which we
must otherwise have undergone in our persons for
' Col. i. 14.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 119
evermore. Hence, he having taken our nature
upon him, suffered the extremity of the law, even
death itself in our steads and for our sakes, in
whose nature he suffered it; by which means, 'he
was a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only, but for the sins of the whole world.'1 Now,
Christ having thus suffered death for us, and so
paid that debt which was due from us to God, God
was pleased the third day after to raise him up to
life again, and so to open as it were the prison
doors, and acknowledge himself fully satisfied for
the sins of mankind, by having that death, which he
had threatened to us, undergone in our nature,
united to the person of his own Son. By virtue of
which hypostatical union, that death was more and
of greater value than the eternal death of all man
kind could be. And God having thus discharged
our Surety by raising him from the dead, all our
obligations to punishments are now cancelled and
made void, so soon as ever we perform those easy
conditions which the gospel requires of us, in order
to the applying the sufferings of our human nature
in Christ, to our own particular persons. So that by
the resurrection of Christ we are fully assured that
the work of our redemption was finished, and that
if it be not our own faults, our sins may be all
pardoned, and our persons justified before God
upon his account; who, as the apostle saith, ' was
delivered for our offences, and raised again for our
justification;'8 that is, who died for our sins, and
rose again, that by virtue of that death he might
justify our persons before God.
Consider this all ye that are sensible of your
1 1 John, ii. 1, 2. 8 Rom. iv. 25.

120 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
sins, and then tell me, whether you have not cause
to rejoice and bless God this day for the resurrec
tion of your Saviour ? If Christ had not risen
again, what a sad, what a dismal condition had
you all been in ! Like the fiends of hell, reserved
'in chains under darkness, to the judgment of the
great day.' Whereas, now that Christ is dead and
risen again, whatsoever sins you have committed,
it is but repenting of them, and they shall all be
pardoned. Howsoever you have incensed the
wrath of God against you, it is but believing and
obeying the gospel for the future, and he will be re
conciled to you; for Christ ' was made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him ;' we have sinned, but he hath suffered for
our sins; we have deserved death, but he hath un
dergone it for us. Neither did he only die for
us, but is risen again to confirm and apply the
merits of his death to us ; ' Who then shall lay any
thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that
justifieth, who is he that condemnelh ? It is Christ
that died, yea, rather, that is risen again.' ' Let us,
therefore, lay aside all melancholy and desponding
thoughts this day, and put our whole trust and
confidence on him that died and rose again for us.
And to testify our acknowledgment of so great a
mercy, let us spend this day in praising, in ador
ing, in magnifying the eternal God our Saviour,
who is risen from the dead, and ' become the first
fruits of them that slept'
4. Christ being raised from the state of death, he
is now able to raise us from a state of sin, and to
quicken us with his own Spirit : so that our sancti-
1 Rom. viii. 33, 34.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 121
fication as well as our justification depended upon
his resurrection : bad he continued in his grave, all
mankind had continued in their trespasses and
sins ; but when he our head arose, we his members
could not but rise with him, as the apostle assures
us we did, saying, ' If ye then be risen with Christ.'1
And elsewhere, 'buried with him in baptism,
wherein also you are risen with him through the
faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead.'8 ' When, therefore, we were
dead in trespasses and sins, God quickened us
together with Christ.'3 That like as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Fa
ther, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.' 4 And as we thus rose in Christ our head,
so he being risen, continually diffuses his Holy
Spirit into all his members ; whereby we are
actuated, and so enabled to repent, and obey his
gospel ; for being raised from the dead, ' God hath
exalted him with his right hand to be a prince and a
Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission
of sins.'5 From whence it appears, that Christ
being upon his resurrection advanced to heaven,
doth from thence distribute not only his pardons
for those sins which we repent of, but likewise
grace to repent of our sins, that so they may be
pardoned ; and by consequence all the graces of
his Holy Spirit here comprehended under that of
repentance. So that, whatsoever is necessary to be
performed by us, in order to our pardon and salva
tion, Christ being raised from the dead, can now
enable us to perform it, or as the apostle words it,

Col. iii. 1. 2 Ibid, ii 12. ' Eph. ii. 5.
4 Rom. vi. 4. 5 Acts, v. 31.

122 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
' We can do all things through Christ which
strengthens us.' '
Now how great a comfort is this to all such
amongst you, as are weary of their sins, and desire
to be eased of them, I need not tell you : you your
selves cannot but find it by your own experience,
what a mighty refreshment it is in all your spi
ritual conflicts to consider, that your Saviour being
risen from the dead, is always ready to assist you,
and to supply you with such measures of his grace,
whereby you may be enabled, either totally to sub
due your lusts, or effectually to withstand all
temptations to them. For mine own part, I verily
think there is no joy, no pleasure in this world,
comparable to that which ariseth from a firm faith,
and right apprehensions of Christ's being always
not only interceding for us in heaven, but also pre
sent with us upon earth, to direct, support, and
carry us through the various clianges and chances
of this mortal life, till he hath brought us to him
self in glory ; that he is always more ready to help,
than the devil can be to tempt us; that his grace
is always sufficient for us. When we are in such
straits and perplexities that we know not what to
do, he presently conveys such light into our minds,
whereby we plainly see the way we ought to walk
in. When our 'souls are dejected, distressed, tor
mented with the remembrance of our former sins,
he saith to us, as he did to the man in the gospel.
Be of good cheer, my son, thy sins are all pardoned.
When we meet with crosses and troubles in the
world, which are apt to distract our thoughts, and
to make our passions turbulent and unruly, he by
1 Phil. iv. 13.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 123
his Holy Spirit reduceth them into order, and gives
us strength not only to bear, but to improve what
soever happens to his glory and our own good.
When we are touched with so quick a sense of our
present infirmities, and the relics of sin and cor
ruption still remaining in us, that he cuts us to the
heart, and makes every thing uneasy and uncom
fortable to us, he binds up our wounds, he healeth
our troubled breasts, and gives rest to our souls, by
assuring us that he himself will stand by us, and
enable us not only to resist, but overcome all these
our spiritual enemies. So that when we cry out
in the words ofthe apostle, * O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?' we may add with him, 'I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.'1 He that thinks
not this to be matter of real joy, knows not as yet
what it is to be a Christian.
5. By the resurrection of Christ, we are fully
assured, that he will be our judge at the last day ;
as the apostle long ago observed, saying, that ' now
God commands all men every where to repent, be
cause he hath appointed a day, in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness, by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given as
surance unto all men, in that he hath raised him
from the dead.'8 It is true, his commission to
judge the world was granted to him before his
passion; 'for the Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment to the Son,' as he
himself tells us. 3 But it was sealed and published

Kom. vii. 24, 25. 2 Acts, xvii. 30, 31.
3 John, v. 22 ; Matt, xxviii. 1 8.

124 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
at his resurrection from the dead, whereby God
publicly owned, declared, and confirmed him to be
as the Saviour, so also the judge of mankind. This
being one great end of his being raised again,
' that we may all appear before his judgment-seat,
and there receive according to what we have done
in the flesh, whether it be good or evil.'1
And this certainly is no small comfort to them
who believe in Christ, that they shall give up their
accounts at the last day to him in whom they be
lieve; that he who is now their advocate, shall be
then our judge ; for then we may be confident, that
we shall have all the favour showed us, that either
the law or gospel can allow of. Neither can we
doubt but that all the promises which he made us
when he was upou earth, will be exactly fulfilled
by him when he sits upon his throne. Hath he
promised that those ' that come to him he will iu
no wise cast him out?'8 Then we need not fear
being rejected by him to eternity, if we do but
come unto him in time. Hath he promised that
they who believe in him, ' shall never perish, but
have everlasting life?'3 Then be sure he will
make it good at that day ; so that no one person
that ever did, or ever shall believe aright in him,
but shall then be saved by him from ruin and de
struction. Hath he promised that he will place all
his faithful disciples, all real saints, as sheep at his
right hand, and say to them, ' Come, ye blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world!'4 'Hath he
said it, and will he not perform it ? ' Yes, doubt-

1 2Cor.v. 10. ' John, vi. 37.
3 John, iii. 10. < Matt. xxv. 34.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 125
less, they that are truly such, will as certainly hear
that blessed sentence pronounced upon themselves
at the last day, as ever it was pronounced by
him before. In short, hath he promised to prepare
a place for us, and to receive us to himself, ' that
where he is, there we maybe also?'1 Then we
need not, we cannot question but that the place
will be ready for us, and that we shall live with
him for ever. The consideration whereof cannot
surely but make our hearts even leap with joy, and
fill our mouths with nothing but praise and thank
fulness this day to almighty God for the resurrec
tion of Jesus Christ, the great foundation of all
these our hopes and expectations from him. Espe
cially considering that not only our souls, but our
bodies too, and so our whole man, will be at that
day advanced to the highest glory they are capable
of: for as Christ is risen from the dead, ' so he is
become the first fruits of them that slept,' which
is the other thing to be considered in the words,
even that,
II. 'Christ being risen from the dead,' thereby
' became the first fruits of them that slept.' For
the understanding whereof, we must know, that the
apostle is here proving that our bodies shall rise
again at the last day, and he proves it from this ar
gument, because Christ rose again. 'Now,' saith he,
' if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,
how say some among you, that there is no resurrec
tion of the dead ?' And then having prosecuted
the argument, by showing how many absurdities
would follow upon the denial of Christ's resurrec
tion, he concludes it with these words, ' But now is
1 John, xiv. 2, 3. ' 1 Cor. xv. 12.

126 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first
fruits of them that slept ;' that is, Christ's resurrec
tion is a plain and undeniable argument, that we
also, who sleep or die, shall rise again ; for as the
same apostle elsewhere observes, ' If the first fruit
be holy, the whole lump also is holy.'1 So here,
' Christ is the first fruits of them that slept,' so that
he rising again, all others must needs rise too.
In the same sense he is elsewhere called, 'the be
ginning, and the first begotten from the dead.'8
Not but that there were several raised from the
dead before, us some in the Old Testament, and
some by him in the New, us Lazarus and the
widow's son at Nairn ; but these rose so as to die
again ; whereas Christ was raised to an immortal
life, so as never to die more ; and he was the first
that ever did so ; and whosoever do so, as all shall
at the last day, they do it by virtue of his resurrec
tion. For as the apostle argues in the following words,
' 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.' All
mankind being contained in Adam, when he fell,
all fell in him ; and so the whole human nature
being contained in Christ, when he rose, all rose
with him, at least virtually and potentially. So
that by virtue and power of his rising from the
dead in our nature, all that partake of that na
ture in which he did it, shall rise again too,
and therefore he is called the second Adam:
one by whom all mankind shall be raised from

' Rom. xi. IC.
a Col. i. 18. Rev. i. 5.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 127
that death to which they were made subject
by the first. The first Adam died, and there
fore we must die too. The second Adam rose
again, and therefore we shall rise again too. So
that Christ's resurrection is not only a proof, but
the cause of ours; and we shall as certainly rise
again, as Christ ever did so, and because he did so.
In which respect, Christ's resurrection affords us
as great matter of joy and comfort as any we have
hitherto mentioned ; as appears from the matter,
the manner, and the end of our resurrection, which
I shall briefly explain unto you.
I . As for the matter, it is plain that the same
bodies that die, shall rise again. As our Saviour's
body was the same after his resurrection, that it
was before and at his passion, of the same stature,
the same proportion, the same features, the same
substance every way, .so it will be with us. The
same bodies out of which our souls depart when we
die, shall be raised to life again at the resurrection ;
for otherwise, if there should be any change ofthe
substance, it could not be properly called a resur
rection ; our bodies cannot be said to rise again,
unless they be the same they were before, at least
as to the substance; it must be the same flesh, the
same bones, the same nerves and sinews, the same
veins and arteries, the same head, the same heart,
the same hands and feet, and so as to the other
parts of the body, the substance will be the same.
This is that wherewith Job comforted himself in
the midst of his troubles, saying, ' I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the lat
ter day upon the earth ; and though after my skin
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eye

128 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
shall behold and not another.'1 But this he could
never have expected, unless he had been sure that
that very flesh and eye which he then had, should
be raised again at the latter day, and not another.
But here we must observe, that though the sub
stance of our bodies will be the same as they are
now, or as they will be when we die, yet the dis
position and qualities of that substance will be
much altered ; for as the apostle saith, ' It is sown
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown
in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natu
ral body, it is raised a spiritual body.'8 It is still
the same body, but it is now endowed with incor
ruptible, with glorious, with powerful, and with
spiritual qualities. And so, though it be still the
same body, yet that body shall be so disposed and
ordered, that it shall far exceed that wherein our
souls are at present immured ; so far, that our bo
dies shall be then made like to the body of Christ
himself; for as the apostle assures us, ' he shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to the working
whereby he is able to subdue all things to him
self.' 3
Now who is able to express the comfort that a
soul which is truly pious, must needs receive from
a firm belief and serious consideration of this,
that very body which he now hath, shall not only
be raised again, but it shall be made much bet
ter than it was before, fashioned like to Christ's
body, that is, as pure, as glorious, as spiritual,
1 Job. xix. 25, 26, 27. = 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43, 44.
3 Phil. iii. 21.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 129
as it is possible for a body to be. We cannot but
all find, by sad and woful experience, that the
bodies we now carry about with us, are a great clog
and hinderance to us in the performance of all re
ligious duties, and so both in the pursuit and en
joyment of real happiness ; and that too, not only
when they are in pain or sick, but likewise when
we have all outward ease and health that we can
desire ; for our souls being so closely united to our
bodies, that so long as they are in them, they can
not act without them, but in all their operations
are forced to make use of the animal spirits in our
bodies, which are generally either too gross and
heavy, or else irregular and disorderly. Hence it
comes to pass that we are commonly very dull and
heavy in all religious exercises, or else our imagi
nations are so disturbed, our passions so unruly, and
all our thoughts so desultory and inconstant, that
we find it very difficult to fix our minds so as to
serve the Lord without distraction; every little
humour that ariseth in the body, being apt to dis
compose the animal spirits, so as to make them
unfit for the service of the soul.
And besides that, our bodies, by reason of the
several humours which are apt by turns to be pre
dominant in them, do not only impede and hinder
us in doing what is good, but excite and stir us up
to what is evil and wicked ; from hence it is that
some are passionate and fretful, others melancholy
and dejected. Some are inclined to lust and un-
cleanness, others to drunkenness and intemperance;
which last, is in divers respects, both the effect and
the cause of such ill humours arising in the body.
Be sure these and many such like sins, though they
would not be sins without the soul, yet they would
K

130 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
not be committed without the body ; which there
fore is the occasion of a great part of those vices
which men are so generally addicted to.
But it will not be so when our bodies are risen
again ; for then they will be so nimble and active,
so pure and spiritual, so free from all petulant and
domineering humours, that they will be perfectly
subject to the soul, and obedient to the dictates of
reason and religion ; as ready upon all occasions to
serve the soul, as the soul shall be to serve God.
As the whole shall never be sick or out of tune, so
neither will any part of them : our brains will never
be clouded, but always serene and clear ; our ima
ginations will never be disturbed, but shall always
represent things to our minds just as they are in
themselves. Our passions will never be headstrong
and exorbitant, but always shall move regularly
towards their proper objects. Our bodies shall
there be supported by the almighty power of God,
without the use of meat and drink; and therefore
our stomachs shall never be clogged, nor our heads
annoyed with their fumes. As we shall be al
ways doing good, we shall never be weary of
doing it ; for whatsoever we do, our bodies shall
never be discomposed nor out of tune, but we
shall always be quick and lively, cheerful and plea
sant, fresh as the morning ; continually beholding,
praising, and adoring him who rose from the dead,
' and became the first fruits of them that slept.'
How comfortable the consideration of this is to all
that truly love and fear God, they themselves expe
rience far better than I am able to express.
And it is no small addition to their comfort, to
consider also the manner how they shall rise again,
even with greater joy and triumph, with greater pomp

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 131
and solemnity than any one as yet is able to imagine ;
for as the holy angels attended our blessed Saviour
at his first coming into the world, so they will do it
at his second also ; for our Lord himself tells us,
that when the Son of man shall come again, all the
holy angels shall come with him.1 ' And that he
will send them,' his angels, ' with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other.'8 At the sound therefore of a trumpet
blown by the holy angels, so as that it may be heard
all the world over, the dust of every body that ever
was informed by a rational soul, shall immediately
gather up itself again, and haste into the place
where it was before, so as to compose the same in
dividual body, and their bodies being thus refitted,
the souls of all the elect shall come down from
heaven, and be united again to them, so that the
same persons that died in the faith of Christ, shall
now be raised through his power, to a life immor
tal, by the ministry of no less nor fewer persons
than all the holy angels.
What a joyful day then must this needs be to
all those that love Christ's appearing ? It is true,
it will be a very sad and terrible clay indeed to all
those that lived and died in their sins; but I
speak not now of these, but of such only as live
and die sincere members of Christ's body, real and
true saints. How pleasant will the trumpet sound,
how welcome will this day be to such as these !
How will their souls rejoice to meet their old mates
their bodies again ! What a sweet intercourse, and
greeting will there be between them ! when these
1 Matt. xxv. 31. 8 lb. xxiv. 31.
k 2

132 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
bodies, which they had mortified and kept under
by fasting, and watching, and praying upon earth,
shall now be reassumed by them, to partake with
them of glory and immortality in heaven ! And
that for the effecting of this great mystery, God
should make use of no less glorious instruments
than the holy angels, which continually attend
him ! This is that which the holy apostle looked
upon as matter of extraordinary comfort to all that
truly believe in Christ, and obey his gospel ; ' for
the Lord himself,' saith he, * shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch
angel, and with the trump of God : and the dead
in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive
and remain, shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so
shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore com
fort one another with these words.' '
But that which is the greatest comfort of all, is
still behind, and that is the end of our resurrec
tion ; even that they who believe in Christ upon
earth, may live with him in heaven, as the apostle
assureth us in those words. I know the souls of
all that die in the Lord, will be with him before,
but not their bodies, and by consequence not
the whole man. But now both soul and body,
and so their whole persons, will be advanced to the
highest glory, honour, and happiness that creatures
are capable of; for there the eye both of our body
and mind shall be so enlightened, that we shall be
able to see perfectly, and contemplate the whole
creation, and that infinite wisdom, power, and
goodness which appears in both, in the contrivance
1 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, 18.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 133
and government of the world. There we shall
familiarly converse with the holy angels and glo
rified saints, which will be our constant compa
nions and fellow-citizens of the new Jerusalem.
There we shall behold and enjoy the top of the
creation, Christ himself in our own nature united
to the divine Person, and so exalted above all crea
tures; yea, there we shall perfectly behold our
Creator himself; whose glory, beauty, excellency,
and perfections, shall be so clearly unveiled and
discovered to us, that our whole souls shall be
transported into flames of love unto him, and con
tinually ravished with ecstasies of joy and pleasure
in him.
But what do I mean to speak of these glories
which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard,
and which the heart of man is not able to con
ceive ? Alas ! we poor mortals upon earth, little
think what it is to be in heaven ; and therefore it
is in vain for us to offer at the description of it.
Only this we may say in general, that whatsoever
can any way conduce to the making either of our
souls or bodies happy, shall there be fully, per
fectly, eternally enjoyed by all and every one that
dies in the true faith and fear of God, after they
are risen from the dead.
Having thus considered how many and great
advantages accrue to us by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, that he was thereby declared to be
the Messiah and Son of God, that his gospel was
thereby established, and our faith confirmed in it,
that we are thereby assured that he hath finished
our redemption, and made complete satisfaction
for all our sins, that he is able to mortify our lusts,
and make us holy, und that he is thereby become

134 CHRIST THE FIRST FRUITS.
' the first fruits of them that slept;' so that by the
means and virtue of his resurrection, we also shall
rise again to a life immortal ; hence as we cannot
but acknowledge we have cause to do so, so it
must needs be our duty to rejoice this day, and to
praise and magnify the eternal God for so unspeak
able a mercy as this was ; for as the Psalmist saith,
' This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in
our eyes. This is the day that the Lord hath made,
we will rejoice and be glad therein.'1
Let us therefore, as the apostle saith, ' keep the
feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the lea*
ven of malice and wickedness, but with the unlea
vened bread of sincerity and truth.'8 Let us keep
it, ' not with rioting and drunkenness, not with
chambering and wantonness, not with strife and
envying,' but with rejoicing and praising God for
raising our Saviour from the grave, to turn us from
these and all other vices whatsoever.
Neither must we content ourselves with remem
bering Christ's resurrection to-day, but as St. Paul
gave it in charge to Timothy, saying, ' Remember
that Jesus Christ, ofthe seed of David, was raised
from the dead according to my gospel.'3 So say I to
you, Remember always that Christ is risen from
the dead, that he is gone to heaven, that he is now
there at the right hand of God, making intercession
for you. And ' if ye be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, and not on things in the earth.'4
For where should your hearts be, but where your
1 Psalm cxviii. 23, 24. 2 1 Cor. v. viii.
3 2 Tim. ii. (I. < Col. iii. 1, 2.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 135
treasure is? Where should your affections be, but
where your Lord and Saviour is, the best friend,
the greatest treasure that you have in the whole
world? Let us therefore now bid adieu to all
things here below, and go up to live with ' Christ
in heaven;' that our hearts may be there now,
where we hope both our souls and bodies shall be
for ever, in and through him who is risen from the
dead, and become ' the first fruits of them that
slept.'

SERMON VI.
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION A PROOF OF
OURS.
BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE.

SERMON VI.

1 Corinthians, xv. 12.
Now, if Christ be preached, that he rose from the
dead, how say some among you, that there is no
resurrection of the dead?
That Jesus Christ, after he was put to death upon
the cross, was raised again to life, is'not only one
ofthe articles of our Christian faith, but that upon
which all the rest are founded ; so that take away
this, and the others would all fall to the ground, to
gether with all our hopes of pardon and salvation :
for as the apostle here observes, ' If Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and our faith is
also vain.' ' Not only in that all that we believe
besides, stands upon the same bottom with this,
but likewise, because without this we could never
attain the end of our faith, even the salvation of
our souls, that depending upon the intercession
which Christ maketh for us in heaven : which he
could never have made if he had not risen from the
dead ; especially that great article, the resurrec-
1 1 Cor. xv. 14.

140 Christ's resurrection, &c.
tion ofthe dead, depends so entirely upon Christ's
resurrection, that a man cannot believe the one with
out the other, and he who believes either, must needs
believe both. At least, he that believes that Jesus
Christ rose from the dead, cannot but believe that all
mankind shall do so, as well as he, he having the
same ground for the one as he hath for the other.
Hence, therefore, the apostle in this chapter,
being directed by the Spirit of God, to reveal what
was necessary to be known and believed concern
ing the resurrection of the dead in general, he begins
with the resurrection of Christ, and the grounds we
have to believe that he rose from the dead ; first,
from the testimony ofthe Holy Scriptures, foretell
ing that Christ should rise from the dead.1 And
then from the testimony of those who had seen him
after he was risen, assuring us, that ' he was seen of
Cephas, then of the twelve, after that, of five hun
dred brethren at once, after that he was seen of
James, then of all the apostles again, and last of all
of himself too.'8 From whence he takes occasion
to show how unworthy he was of so great a favour;
and then he draws this conclusion from what he
had thus premised concerning Christ's resurrection,
that the dead shall certainly rise again : * Now,'
saith he, ' if Christ be preached, that he rose from
the dead, how say some among you, that there is
no resurrection of the dead ? '
From whence we may first observe, that there
were some in those days that denied it : such were
the sect of the Sadducees, who said, ' that there is no
resurrection.'3 And such were Hymeneus and
Philetus, of whom the same apostle saith, 'that
1 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4. a Ibid. ver. 5, 6, 7. 8.
3 Matt. xxii. 23 ; Acts, xxiii. 8.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 141
they have erred,' saying, ' that the resurrection is
past already, and overthrow the faith of some.'1
Where we may observe by the way, that by saying
that the resurrection is past already, they overthrew
the faith of such as hearkened to them; so that
they could have no true faith at all, that being
wholly grounded upon the same bottom with our
hopes of the resurrection to come, and yet this
damnable heresy, which hath been asleep almost
ever since the apostle's days, is now received, to our
shame be it spoken, in ours : there being a sort of
people risen up amongst us, who leaving the good
word of God, and following their own corrupt
humours and fancies, under the name of the light
within them, have been led themselves, and strive
to lead others, into this among other most horrid
opinions, that strike at the foundation of the Chris
tian religion, for though they profess to believe the
resurrection of the dead, yet they understand it
not of the body but the soul; when that riseth
from the death of sin, to tbe life of righteousness ;
and so is in effect the same with regeneration, which
being effected in this life, in all that are regene
rated, it is past already, and therefore not to be ex
pected hereafter, which plainly overthrows this
great article of our faith, the resurrection of the
body, and by consequence the faith of all that are
so weak and careless of their own salvation, as to
suffer themselves to be led blindfold into such per
nicious and destructive heresies.
Against such kind of heretics, the apostle here
argues, wondering how any can deny the resurrec
tion of the dead, now it is so plain and undeniable
1 2 Tim. ii. 18.

142 CHRIST'S RESURRECTION, &C\
that Christ was raised from the dead. ' Now,' if
Christ,' saith he, ' be preached, that he rose from
the dead, how say some among you, that th,ere is
no resurrection of the dead ?' He looks upon this
as such an invincible argument, that he cannot but
admire how any are able to withstand it : and so
shall we too, if we do but impartially consider
these few things.
For, first, this answers all the reasons that can
be alleged against the possibility of it, for which
so many have denied that the dead shall rise again
to life, even because it seemed, at least to them,
altogether impossible, that the soul which is once
separated from the body, should be afterwards
united to it again; and that the parts of a body that
are separated from one another, and reduced per
haps into thousands of atoms, and dispersed in as
many various and far distant places, should not
withstanding come together again, every one into
its proper place, so as to make up the same body
as they did before : but that the soul which is sepa
rated from its body may be united to it again,
cannot be now doubted of, seeing it was actually
done in the resurrection of Christ. For it is a
known principle, that what hath been done may
be done; but the soul of Christ was reunited to
his body, and therefore souls may be united again
to their bodies, how long soever they have been
separated from them. And if a separate soul or
spirit may be united again to its body, much more
may the parts of the same body, when separated, be
again united together, they being all of the same
nature, and having a natural tendency and inclina
tion to the place from whence they came, and being

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 143
all under the eye of God, when separated from
one another, as much as when they were all joined
together in the same body. But it is a certain
rule, that he who can do the greater can do the
less. And therefore seeing he raised Christ from
the dead, no question can be made, but that lie
can mise us too if he please.
And that he wijl be pleased to do it, appears
also from the resurrection of Christ: for as he died,
so he rose again, not in a private, but public ca
pacity : not as a single person only, but as the
common head and representative of all mankind,
so that we are said ' to be risen with him.' ' Be
cause our nature in general rose in him, all that
partake of that nature must needs do so too, his
resurrection being not only a most certain pledge
and earnest, but the first fruits of ours, as the
apostle here saith, 'Now is Christ risen from the
dead, and become the first fruits of them that
slept.'8 But as the same apostle elsewhere saith,
' If the first fruits be holy, the lump is also holy.'3
And if he rose as the first fruits, the whole lump
or mass of mankind must also rise. And there
fore the apostle here adds, ' For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead ; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall
all be made alive.' * That is, all mankind shall as
certainly rise again to life in Christ the second
Adam, as they died in the first ; and all by virtue
of his resurrection from the dead, which therefore
is not only the pattern and example, but the cause
of ours : and such a cause that it cannot but take

' Col. iii. 1 . 8 1 Cor. xv. 20.
' Rom. xi. 16. 4 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.

144 CHRIST'S RESURRECTION, &C.
effect. But all men that. die shall as certainly
rise again, as Christ did so, and because he did so.
Moreover, from the resurrection of Christ we
may infallibly conclude that we shall rise again,
because he was thereby declared to be the Son of
God. ' For God having declared him to be his
Son, by raising him from the dead, he thereby at
tested and confirmed all that Christ had said or
taught, but he through the whole course of his mi
nistry, taught mankind that they should rise again
at the last day. ' The hour is coming,' saith he,
' in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice, and shall come forth, they that have
done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam
nation-8 And elsewhere he promiseth those that
come unto him, ' that he will raise them up at the
last day;'3 'and that they shall be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just.'4 And when the
Sadducees, which denied the resurrection, pro
pounded a question to him about it, which they
thought to be unanswerable, he did not only con
vince them of their ignorance and error, but de
monstrated to them out of the writings of Moses
himself, that the dead shall rise again, ' Now,' saith
he, ' that the dead are raised, even Moses showed
at the bush when he called the Lord, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ;
for he is not the God ofthe dead, but ofthe living,
for all live unto him.' s Which argument was so
plain and evident to them, that they had not a
word to say against it. Seeing, therefore, Christ
' Rom. i. 4. * John, v. 28, 29.
3 John, vi. 40, 44. * Luke, xiv. 14.
5 Luke, xx. 37, 38.J

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 145
thus effectually taught and proved that the dead
shall rise again, and seeing God by raising him
from the dead, declared that he was his Son, and
by consequence, that whatsoever he had taught
was true, therefore whosoever believeth that Christ
was raised from the dead, must of necessity believe
that all shall be so at the last day.
The same thing appears also from the end of his
resurrection, for to this end Christ both died and
rose and revived, * that he might be Lord both of
the dead and living;' ' — ' that he might exercise su
preme authority and dominion over all,' as he will
at the last day, when, as it there follows, ' we shall
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ' ' Which
we are likewise fully assured of by his resurrec
tion from the dead, as we learn from the same
apostle, saying, ' that God hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteous
ness, by that man whom he hath ordained, even
Jesus Christ, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.'8
From whence it is evident, that he was therefore
raised again, that he might judge both the dead
and the living, and that we are thereby also assured
by God himself, that he will do it, but that he can
not do, unless the dead be raised again to life ; for
so long as their bodies continue in the grave, or in
a state of separation from their souls, they are not
in being as men, and so not capable of appearing
as such before him : and therefore unless the bodies
of all men that ever died, should be raised again
and their souls reunited to them, so as to be all
made alive again as they were before, Christ would
1 Rom. xiv. 9, 10. 2 Acts, xvii. 31. L

146 Christ's resurrection, &c.
lose the end of his resurrection, as well as of all
things else he did for mankind : but there is no
fear of that; God doth nothing in vain, but always
attains the end he aims at in what he doth. Seeing
Christ rose again that he might be the judge both
of quick and dead, he will most certainly raise up
the dead again, and summon them all together,
with such as shall be then living, to appear before
his judgment^seat; or rather, he will raise them up,
by his summoning them to come before him ; for
he will summon them by the sound of a trumpet,
blown by an archangel, so as to be heard all the
world over.' And the trumpet shall no sooner
sound, but the dead shall be raised, and they who
are then living shall be changed. 8 ' And then we
must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,
that every one may receive the things done in the
body, according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad.' * And therefore the apostle might
well say, as he doth in my text to the Corinthians,
' If Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead,
how say some among you, that there is no resur
rection of the dead.'
I hope this cannot be said of any here present,
for that you all believe and are fully persuaded,
that the dead shall rise again : but howsoever, to
confirm your faith in this fundamental article of
the Christian religion, waving all other arguments
that might be produced for it, I have briefly shown
how necessarily it follows upon the resurrection of
Christ, so that no man can believe that Christ rose
from the dead the third day, but he must of neces-

1 Thess. iv. 16. a 1 Cor. xv. 52.
8 2 Cor. «. 10.

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 147
sily believe also that all men shall rise again at the
last; wherefore as ye believe the one, ye must
never doubt of the other, but be fully persuaded in
your minds, that as certainly as you shall ever die,
you shall as certainly live again ; that although
your souls shall be separated from your bodies,
and continue so for some time, perhaps for many
years, yet at last they shall return unto them, so
that you shall then live again, as really as you are
now alive.
And do not trouble your heads about the way
and manner, how this great work shall be effected;
as he did whom this apostle in this chapter speaks
of, saying, ' But some man will say, How are the
dead raised up, and with what body do they come ?'
To whom he gives this sharp answer, ' Thou fool,
that which thou sowest is not quickened except it
die, and that which thou sowest thou sowest not
that body which shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or some other grain, but God giv-
eth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every
seed his own body.'1 Where we may first observe,
that the apostle calls him fool for asking such a
silly question : 'Thou fool,' saith he, intimating that
it is a great piece of folly and madness, for people
to concern themselves about any thing but what is
necessary for them to know and believe, concerning
this or any other article of our Christian faith, but
that we should rest contented with what is plainly
revealed. And then we may also observe that he
acquaints us here with all that is necessary for us
to know in this matter, under the similitude of a
grain or any seed sown in the ground, which first
1 1 Cor. xv. 35—38. l2

148 CHRIST'S RESURRECTION, &C.
rots or dies there, and then riseth up again, not
barely as it was sown, but with a stalk, an ear, or
husk, or what else is proper for it, and God (for it is
still his work) he gives to every seed its own body;
as if wheat be sown, there comes up wheat, if bar
ley, there comes up barley again ; so here when
our bodies are dead and rotted in the earth or sea,
or any where else, Almighty God, when he sees
good, causeth them to rise up again, giving to every
man his own body : that body out of which his
soul departed, shall be raised up again, and the
same soul that departed from it shall be restored
and united again to it ; and so the same man that
died, shall live again in the same body in which he
died. As our Saviour's body which rose, was the
same that he suffered in upon the cross, so that
they who knew him before knew him again after
he was risen ; which they could not have done, if
his body had not been of the same proportion, fea
tures, and lineaments which they had before ob
served in him ; and to put it beyond all dispute
that it was the same, he showed them the prints
which the nails had made in his hands and feet,
and which the spear had made in his side, which
was the clearest evidence that could be given, that
it was the very same body that had been nailed io
the cross, and out of which his soul there departed.
And as his was, so every man's body when it is
raised up shall be the same it was at the time
when he died ; the same that dies shall rise again,
and we shall be the same men or women then that
we are now, and every one may say, as Job did
long ago, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth, and
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth; and though after my skin worms destroy

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 149
this body, yet in my flesh (this very flesh of mine
which I now have) shall I see God ; whom I shall
see for myself, and mine eyes (these very eyes) shall
behold, and not another ; though my reins be con
sumed within me.'1
But here we must further observe, that the apos
tle, speaking of the resurrection of the just, saith,
' It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup
tion; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory;
it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power ; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.'8
Though it be still a body, and the very same body
that it was before, as to the substance of it, (for
otherwise it would not be properly a resurrection,)
yet the qualities of it shall be much altered ; it
shall now be an incorruptible, a glorious, a power
ful, a spiritual body : a body still, but endued with
such spiritual qualities, that it shall be as active,
as nimble, as tractable every way, as obedient to
the will and motions of the soul, as if itself also
was a spirit ; for it shall then be raised to the high
est degree of purity, glory, and perfection that mat
ter is capable of, being made as like as it is possi
ble to the body of Christ himself, who, as this
apostle tells us, 'shall change our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able to
subdue all things to himself.'3 And therefore, as
he now doth, so shall ' the righteous then shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.'4
Having thus briefly shown what ground we have
to believe that we shall rise again, in that our Sa-

1 Job. xix. 25, 26, 27. 8 1 Cor. xv. 42, 44.
3 Phil. iii. 21. 4 Matt, xiii 43.

150 Christ's resurrection, &c.
viour did so, and what we ought to believe con
cerning this great fundamental article of our reli
gion, as it is revealed in God's holy word, I shall
just mention some of the great uses that are to be
made of this doctrine. First, therefore, ye may
hence learn, whensoever you remember your Sa
viour's resurrection, to think likewise of your own,
and consider that as certainly as he rose again from
the dead, so shall you too ; that although your
bodies shall return to the earth out of which they
were taken, and perhaps lie there in dust for many
years together, yet they shall one day be raised up
and quickened, so as to live again as really as we
are now alive; and that as Christ therefore rose
again that he might be judge both of quick and
dead, so you shall rise again that you may be
judged by him, and either advanced to eternal
glory or condemned to everlasting punishment, ac
cording as you have or have not believed in him
and obeyed him, while you lived upon the earth ;
which I heartily wish you would not only believe,
as I hope you all do, in general, but that ye would
live with a constant sense of it upon your minds,
so as to be always thinking with yourselves, that ye
hear the trumpet sounding in your ears, 'Arise, ye
dead, and come to judgment !' for ye will one day
as certainly hear it, as ye are now in this place and
hear me speak.
From hence we may also see, how much it con
cerns you all to take care how ye now live in the
body. If ye were to die like beasts, ye might live
like beasts : if ye had no other world to live in but
this, it would be no great matter how ye lived in
it; but seeing that when your souls leave their
bodies, they still live without them, as really as

BY BISHOP BEVERIDGE. 151
they lived before in them, and seeing at the last day
your bodies also will be raised again, so that you
shall then live in them again as ye now do, and
that too not only for some time but to all eternity,
either in a state of perfect joy and happiness, or
else of extreme misery and torment, according as
ye lived here in obedience or disobedience to the
commandments of God your Maker; if ye firmly
believe this, as ye ought to do, you cannot but be
sensible how much it behoves you to endeavour all
ye can, to live in the true faith and fear of God
whilst you are in this world, that so ye may live
happily in the next; which, blessed be God, ye may
all do if ye will but take care and pains about it,
such as a matter of so great consequence requires ;
for ye have an Almighty Saviour, the only begot
ten Son of God, who having been delivered for our
offences and raised again for our justification, is
now the propitiation for our jsins, and the Author
of eternal salvation to all them that obey him,
which I therefore heartily wish you would all do.
Strive all ye can to live for the future, in sincere
obedience to all that he hath taught and com
manded, and then you will find, by your own expe
rience, that he will not only direct and assist you in
doing his will all the while you live in this world,
but at the last day he will raise you up to life ever
lasting, that ye may live with him, his saints and
angels in perfect joy and bliss for ever.
' Lastly, from what ye have now heard, you may
learn what infinite cause ye have to thank God for
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as upon many
other accounts, so particularly for that ye are
thereby assured, that your bodies shall not always
lie rotting in the grave, nor be scattered about in

152 CHRIST'S RESURRECTION, &C.
dust and atoms, but that they shall one day be
raised to life again ; and that if ye now fight the
good fight, finish your course, and keep the faith,
there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give you
at that day ; and not to you only, but to all them
that love his appearing.' ' ' For when he shall ap-
' pear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is;'8 and ever live with him, who liveth with
the Father and Holy Ghost, one God blessed for
ever. 1 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 8 1 John, iii. 2.

SERMON VII.
CHRIST'S TRIUMPH IN THE RESUR
RECTION.
BY DR. DONNE.

[John Donnk, bom 1573, was made Dean of St. Paul's in 1621,
and died in 1631.]

SERMON VII.

Acts, ii. 36.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ.
The first word of the text must be the last part of
the sermon — ' therefore ; ' therefore let all know it.
Here is something necessary to be known, and the
means by which we are to know it ; and these will
be our two parts ; scientia, et modus, knowledge,
and the way to it; for, qui tesiatur de scientia,
testatur de modo scientia, is a good rule in all laws,
he that will testify any thing upon his knowledge,
must declare how he came by that knowledge. So
then, what we must conclude, and upon what pre*
mises, what we must resolve, and what must lead
us to that resolution, are our two stages, our two
resting places : and to those two our several steps
are these : in the first, 'Let all the house of Israel
know,' &c. we shall consider first, the manner of
St. Peter, (for the text is part of a sermon of St.
Peter's,) in imprinting this knowledge on his audi
tory ; which is, first, in that compellation of love

156 Christ's triumph, &c.
and honour, domus Israel, * the house of Israel :'
but yet, when he hath raised them to a sense of
their dignity, in that attribute, he doth not pamper
them with an over value of them ; he lets them know
their worst as well as their best : — though you be
the house of Israel, yet it is you that have crucified
Christ Jesus ; ' that Jesus, whom ye have cruci
fied ; ' and from this his manner of preparing them,
we shall pass to the matter that he proposes to
them : when he had remembered them what God
had done for them, ' You are the house of Israel,'
and what they had done against God, ' You have
crucified that Jesus.' He imparts a blessed mes
sage to them all, ' Let all know it : ' let them know
it, and know it assuredly ; he exhibits it to their
reason, to their natural understanding : and what ?
The greatest mystery, the entire mystery of our
salvation, ' that that Jesus is both Lord, and
Christ;' but he is made so — made so by God —
made both — made Christ; that is, anointed, em
balmed, preserved from corruption, even in the
grave, and made Lord by his triumph, and by
being made head of the church, in the resurrection,
and in the ascension : and so, that which is the
last step of our first stage, ' that that Jesus is made
Lord, as well as he is made Christ,' enters us upon
our second stage, the means by which we are to
know, and prove all this to ourselves ; ' therefore,'
says the text, ' let all know it : ' wherefore ? Why,
because God hath raised him, after you hud cruci
fied him ; because ' God hath loosed the bands of
death, because it was impossible that he should be
holden by death ;' ' because David's prophecy of a
1 Acts, ii. 23, 24, 25, 2(i, 27.

BY DR. DONNE. 157
deliverance from the grave is fulfilled in him ;
therefore let all know this to be thus. So that the
resurrection of Christ is argument enough to prove,'
that Christ is made Lord of all ; and if he be Lord,
he hath subjects, that do as he does; and so his
resurrection is become an argument, and an assur
ance of our resurrection too ; and that is as far as
we shall go in our second part, that first Christ's
resurrection is proof enough to us of his dominion, —
if he be risen, he is Lord; and then his dominion is
proof enough to us of our resurrection, if he be
Lord, Lord of us, we shall rise too : and when we
have paced and passed through all these steps, we
shall in some measure have solemnized this day of
the resurrection of Christ; and in some measure
have made it the day of our resurrection too.
I. First, then, the apostle applies himself to his
auditory, in a fair, in a gentle manner ; he gives
them tlieir titles, domus Israel, ' the house of Israel.'
We have a word now denizened, and brought into
familiar use amongst us — compliment ; and for the
most part, in an ill sense ; so it is, when the heart
of the speaker doth not answer his tongue ; but God
forbid but a true heart and a fair tongue might
very well consist together : as virtue itself receives
an addition by being in a fair body, so do good
intentions of the heart, by being expressed in fair
language. That man aggravates his condemna
tion that gives me good words, and means ill ; but
he gives me a rich jewel, and in a fair cabinet, be
gives me precious wine, and in a clean glass, that
intends well, and expresses his good intentions well
too. If I believe a fair speaker, I have comfort a
little while, though he deceive me ; but a froward
and peremptory refuser, unsaddles me at first. I

158 Christ's triumph, &c.
remember a vulgar Spanish author, who wrote the
Josephina, the life of Joseph, the husband of the
blessed Virgin Mary, who moving that question,
why the virgin is never called by any style of
majesty or honour in the Scriptures, says, that
if after the declaring of her to be the mother
of God, he had added any other title, the Holy
Ghost had not been a good courtier, (as his very
word is,) nor exercised in good language, and he
thinks that had been a defect in the Holy Ghost
himself. He means surely the same that Epipha
nius doth, that in naming the saints of God, und
especially the blessed Virgin, we should always
give them the best titles that are appliable to
them ; quis unquam ausus, says he, proferre nomen
Mar ice, et non slatim addidit vir go ?* "Whoever
durst utter the name of that Mary, without that
addition of incomparable honour, The Virgin
Mary ? "
That Spanish author need not be suspicious of
the Holy Ghost in that kind, that he is no good
courtier so ; for in all the books of the world, you
shall never read so civil language, nor so fair ex
pressions of themselves to one another, as in the
Bible : when Abraham shall call himself dust and
ashes, (and indeed if the Son of God were a worm,
and no man, what was Abraham ?) If God shall
call this Abraham, this dust, this worm of the dust,
'the friend of God;' (and all friendship implies
a parity, an equality in something ;) when David
shall call himself ' a flea, and a dead dog,' even in
respect of Saul, and God shall call David, ' a man
according to his own heart,' when God shall call
1 Epiphan. Hasrcs. lxxviii.

BY DR. DONNE. 159
us, ' the apple of his own eye, the seal upon his
own right hand,' who would go further for an ex
ample, or further than that example for a rule, of
fair accesses, of civil approaches, or sweet and ho
nourable entrances into the affections of them with
whom they were to deal ? Especially is this man
ner necessary in men of our profession ; ' Not to
break a bruised reed, nor to quench smoking flax ;'
not to avert any, from a will to hear, by any fro-
wardness, any morosity, and defrauding them of
their due praise and due titles ; but to accompany
this blessed apostle, in this way of his discreet, and
religious insinuation, to call them 'men of Judea,'
and 'men of Israel,' and ' men and brethren,'1 and
here domus Israel, the ancientest house, the ho-
nourablest house, the lastingest house in the world,
' the house of Israel.'
He takes from them nothing that is due, that
would but exasperate : he is civil, but his civility
doth not amount to a flattery, as though the cause of
God needed them, or God must be beholden to
them, or God must pay for it, or smart for it, if
they were not pleased. And therefore, though he
do give them their titles, aperle illis imputat cruci-
fixionem Christi, says St. Chrysostom ; plainly and
without disguise he imputes and puts home to
them, the crucifying of Christ; how honourably so
ever they were descended, he lays that murder
close to their consciences : 'You, you house of Israel,
have crucified the Lord Jesus.' There is a great
deal of difference between Shimei's vociferations
against David ; ' Thou man of blood, thou man of
Belial,'8 and Nathan's proceeding with David;
1 Acts, ii. 14, 22, 29. 8 2 Sam. xvi. 7.

160 CHRIST'S TRIUMPH, &C
and yet Nathan forbore not to tell him, ' Thou art
the man ; ' ' thou hast despised the Lord — thou hast
killed Uriah — thou hast taken his wife. It is one
thing to sow pillows under the elbows of kings, (flat
terers do so,) another thing to pull the chair from
under the king, 'and popular and seditious men do so.
When inferiors insult over their superiors, we tell
them, Christi domini, they are the Lord's anointed,
and the Lord hath said, ' Touch not mine anointed ;'
and when such superiors insult over the Lord him
self, and think themselves gods without limita
tion, as the God of heaven is, when they do so, we
must tell them they do so, etsi Christi domini,
though you be the Lord's anointed, yet you cru
cify the anointed Lord ; for this was St. Peter's
method, though his successor will not be bound
by it.
When he hath carried the matter thus evenly
between them, I do not deny, but you are the
house of Israel, you cannot deny but you have
crucified the Lord Jesus; you are heirs of a great
deal of honour, but you are guilty of a shrewd
fault too, stand or fall to your Master, your Mas
ter hath dealt thus mercifully with you all, that to
you all, all, he sends a message, Sciant omnes, ' Let
all the house of Israel know this.' Needs the house
of Israel know any thing ? Needs there any learn
ing in persons of honour ? We know, this cha
racterizes, this distinguishes some whole nations.
In one nation it is almost a scorn for a gentleman
to be learned ; in another almost every gentleman,
is conveniently, and in some measure, learned.
But I enlarge not myself; I pretend not to compre-
1 2 Sam. xii. 7.

BY DR. DONNE. 161
hend national virtues, or national vices. For this
knowledge, which is proclaimed here, which is, the
knowledge that the true Messias is come, and that
there is no other to be expected, is such a know
ledge, as that even the house of Israel itself is
without a foundation, if it be without this know
ledge. Is there any house that needs no repara
tions? Is there a house of Israel, (let it be the
library, the depository of the oracles of God, a true
church, that hath the true word of the true God,
let it be the house fed with manna, that hath the
true administration of the true sacraments of Christ
Jesus,) is there any such house, that needs not a
further knowledge, that there are always thieves
about that house, that would rob us of that word,
and of those sacraments ?
The Holy Ghost is a dove, and the dove cou
ples, pairs, is not alone. Take heed of singular, of
schismatical opinions ; and what is more singular,
more schismatical, than when all religion is con
fined in one man's breast ? The dove is animal
sociale, a sociable creature, and not singular ; and
the Holy Ghost is that. And Christ is a sheepe
animal gregale, they flock together. Embrace thou
those truths, which the whole flock of Christ Jesus,
the whole Christian, hath from the beginning ac
knowledged to be truths, and truths necessary to
salvation; for, for other traditional, and condi
tional, and occasional, and collateral, and circum
stantial points ; for almanack divinity, that changes
with the season, with the time, and meridional
divinity, calculated to the height of such a place,
and 1 unary divinity, that ebbs and flows, and state
divinity, that obeys affections of persons, Domus
Israel, the true church of God had need of a con-
M

162 Christ's triumph, &c.
tinual succession of light, a continual assistance of
the Spirit of God, and of her own industry, to
know those things that belong to her peace.
And therefore let no church, no man, think that
he hath done enough, or knows enough. If the
devil thought so too, we might the better think so:
but since we see, that he is in continual practice
against us, let us be in continual diligence and
watchfulness, to countermine him. We are domus
Israel, the house of Israel, and it is a great measure
of knowledge that God hath afforded us; but if
every pastor look into his parish, and every master
into his own family, and see what is practising
there, sciat domus Israel, let all our Israel know, that
there is more knowledge and more wisdom neces
sary. Be every man far from calumniating his
superiors, for that mercy which is used towards
them that are fallen ; but be every man as far from
remitting or slackening his diligence, for the pre
serving of them that are not fallen.
The wisest must know more, though you be
domus Israel, the house of Israel already; and
then, et si crucifixislis, though you have crucified
the Lord Jesus you may know it, sciant omnes, let
all know it. St. Paul says once, ' If they had known
it, they would not have crucified the Lord of life ;' '
but he never says, if they have crucified the Lord
Of life, they are excluded from knowledge. I mean
no more, but that the mercy of God, in manifest
ing and applying himself to us, is above all our
sins. No man knows enough; what measure of
tentations soever he have now, he may have tenta-
tions, through which this knowledge and this
1 1 Cot. ii. a.

BY DR. DONNE. 163
grace will not carry him ; and therefore he must
proceed from grace to grace. So no man hath
sinned so deeply, but that God offers himself to
him yet ; Sciaht omnes, the wisest man hath ever
something to learn, he must not presume ; the sin-
fullest man hath God ever ready to teach him, he
must not despair.
Now the universality of this mercy, hath God
enlarged, arid extended very far, in that he pro
poses it, even to our knowledge, Sciant, let all
know it. It is not only credant, let all believe if
for the infusing of faith, is not in our power ; but
God hath put it in our power to satisfy their reason,
and to chafe that wax, to which he himself vouch
safes to set the great seal of faith. And that St.
' Jerome takes to be most properly his commission :
Tentemus animas, qua; deficiunt a fide, naturalibus
rationibus adjuvare; Let us endeavour to assist
them, who are weak in faith, with the strength of rea
son. And truly it is very well worthy of a serious
consideration, that whereas all the articles of our
creed are objects of faith, so as that we are bound to
receive them de fide, as matters of faith, yet God hath
.left that, out of which all these articles are to be de
duced and proved, (that is, the Scripture,) to hu
man arguments. It is not an article of the creed, to
believe these, and these books, to be or not to be
canonical Scripture; but our arguments for the
Scripture are human arguments, proportioned to
the reason of a natural man. God does not seal in
water, in the fluid and transitory imaginations, and
opinions of men ; we never set the seal of faith to
them; but in wax, in the rectified reason of man,
that reason that is ductile, and flexible, and pliant
to the impressions that are naturally proportioned M 2

164 CHRIST'S TRIUMPH, &C.
unto it, God sets his seal of faith. They are not
continual, but they are contiguous ; they flow not
from one another, but they touch one another;
they are not both of a piece, but they enwrap one
another — faith and reason. Faith itself, by the pro
phet Isaiah, is called knowledge. ' By his know
ledge shall my righteous, servant justify many,'1
says God of Christ; that is, by that knowledge
that men shall have of him. So Zacharias ex
presses it at the circumcision of John Baptist,
' that he was to give knowledge of salvation, for
the remission of sins.'8
As therefore it is not enough for us, in our pro
fession to tell you, Qui non crediderit, damnabitur,
" Except you believe all this, you shall be damned,"
without we execute that commission before, Ite
predicate, go and preach, work upon their affec
tions, satisfy their reason ; so it is not enough for
you, to rest in an imaginary faith, and easiness in
believing, except you know also what, and why,
and how you come to that belief. Implicit be
lievers, ignorant believers, the adversary may swal-1
low; but the understanding believer, he must
chew, and pick bones, before he come to assimi
late him, and make him like himself. The im
plicit believer stands in an open field, and the
enemy will ride over him easily ; the understand
ing believer, is in a fenced town, and he hath out
works to lose, before the town be pressed ; that is,
reasons to be answered, before his faith be shaken,
and he will sell himself dear, and lose himself by
inches, if he be sold or lost at last ; and therefore
sciant omnes, let all men know, that is, endeavour
to inform themselves, — to understand.
' Isaiah, liii. 11. * ljUke) i. 77.

BY DR. DONNE. 165
That particular, that general particular, (if we
may so say, for it includes all,) which all were to
know, is, that the same Jesus, whom they crucified,
was exalted above them all.
Suppose an impossibility; (St. Paul does so,
when he says to the Galatians, ' If an angel from
heaven should preach any other gospel ; for that is
impossible.) If we could have been in paradise,
and seen God take a clod of red earth, and make
that wretched clod of contemptible earth, such a
body as should be fit to receive his breath, an im
mortal soul — fit to be the house of the second
person in the Trinity, for God the Son to dwell in
bodily, — fit to be the temple for the third person,
for the Holy Ghost, should we not have wondered
more than at the production of all other creatures ?
It is more, that the same Jesus, whom they had
crucified, is exalted thus, to sit in that, despised
flesh, at the right hand of our glorious God ; that
all their spitting should but macerate him, and dis
solve him to a better mould, a better plaster ; that
all their buffettings should but knead him, and
press him into a better form ; that all their scoffs
and contumelies should be prophecies; that that
Ecce rex, ' Behold your king ;' and that Rex
Judteorum, ' This is the king of the Jews,' which
words, they who spoke them, thought to be lies, in
their own mouths, should become truths, and he
be truly the King, not of the Jews only, but of all
nations too ; that their nailing him upon the cross,
should be a settling of him upon an everlasting
throne ; and their lifting him up upon the cross, a
waiting upon' him so far upon his way to heaven :
that this Jesus, whom they had thus evacuafed,
thus crucified, should be thus exalted, was a sub-

166 CHRIST'S TRIUMPH, &C
ject of infinite admiration, but mixed with infinite
confusion too.
Wretched blasphemer of the name of Jesus, that
Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, and treadest under
thy feet in that oath, is thus exalted. Unclean
adulterer, that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, in
stretching out those forbidden arms in a strange
bed, thou that beheadest thyself, castest off thy
head, Christ Jesus, that thou mightest make thy
body the body of a harlot, that Jesus, whom thou
defilest there, is exalted. Let several sinners pass
this through their several sins, and remember with
wonder, but with confusion too, that that Jesus,
whom they have crucified, is exalted above all.
How far exalted ? Three steps, which carry him
above St. Paul's third heaven : he is Lord, and he
is Christ, and he is made so by God ; God hath
made him both Lord and Christ. We return up
these steps as they lie, and take the lowest first :
fecit Deus, God made him so : nature did not make
him so ; no, not if we consider him in that nature,
wherein he consists of two natures, God and man.
We place in the school (for the most part) the in
finite merit of Christ Jesus, (that his one act of
dying once, should be a sufficient satisfaction- to
God, in his justice, for all the sins of all men,), we
place it, I say, rather in pacto, than in persona ;
rather that this contract was thus made between
the Father and the Son, than that, whatsoever that
person, thus consisting of God and man, should
do, should, only in respect of the person, be of an
infinite value and extention to that purpose; for
then, any act of his, his incarnation, his circumci
sion, any had been sufficient for our redemption,
without his death. But fecit Deus, God made Inn*

BY DR. DONNE. 167
that that he is; the contract between the Father
and him, that all that he did should be done so,
and to that purpose, that way, and to that end ;
this is that that hath exalted him, and us in him.
If, then, not the subtlety and curiosity, but the
wisdom of the school, and of the church of God,
have justly found it most commodious to place all
the mysteries of our religion in pacto, rather than
in persona, in the covenant, rather than in the per
son, though a person of incomprehensible value ;
let us also, in applying to ourselves those mysteries
of our religion, still adhmrere paclis, and not per-
sonis; still rely upon the covenant of God with man,
revealed in his word, and not upon the person of
any man : not upon the persons of martyrs, as if
they had done more than they needed for them
selves, and might relieve us wilh their supereroga
tions ; for, if they may work for us, they may believe
for us ; and Justus fide sua vivet, says the prophet,
'The righteous shall live by his own faith.'1 Not
upon that person who hath made himself supernu
merary and a controller upon the three persons
in the Trinity, the bishop of Rome ; not upon the
consideration of accidents upon persons, when God
suffers some to fall, who would have advanced his
cause, and some to be advanced, who would have
thrown down his cause ; but let us ever dwell in
pacto, and in the fecit Deus; this covenant God
hath made in his word, and in this we rest.
It is God then, not nature, not his nature that
made him. And what? Christ, Christ is anointed :
and then, Mary Magdalen made him Christ, for
she anointed him before his death ; and Joseph of
1 Habak. ii. 4.

168 Christ's triumph, &c.
Arimathea made him Christ, for he anointed him,
and embalmed him after his death. But her
, anointing before kept him not from death ; nor
would his anointing after have kept him from pu
trefaction in the grave, if God had not in a fat-
other manner made him Christ, anointed him pra
consortibus, above his fellows. God hath anointed
him, embalmed him, enwrapped him in the leaves
of the prophets, that his flesh should not see cor
ruption in the grave ; that the flames of hell should
not take hold of him, nor singe him there; so
anointed him, as that, in his human nature, " He
is ascended into heaven, and set down at the right
hand of God :" for, de eo quod ex Maria est, Petrus
loquitur, says St. Basil; that making of him Christ,
that is, that anointing which St. Peter speaks of in
this place, is the dignifying of his human nature,
that was anointed, that was consecrated, that was
glorified in heaven.
But he had a higher step than that ; God made
this Jesus Christ, and he made him Lord; he
brought him to heaven in his own person, in his
human nature ; so he shall all us : but when we
shall be all there, he only shall be Lord of all.
And if there should be no other bodies in heaven
than his, yet, yet now he is Lord of all, as he is
head of the church. ' Ask of me,' says his Father,
* and I will give thee the heathen for thine inherit
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession.' ' And, as it is added, ' I have set my
King upon my holy hill of Sion ;'8 so he hath made
him Lord, head of the Jews and of the Gentiles too,
of Sion and ofthe nations also; he hath consecrated
' Psalm ii. 8. a lb. ver. 6.

BY DR. DONNE. 169
his person, raised his human nature to the glorious
region of blessed spirits, to heaven; and he hath
dignified him with an office, made him Lord, head
of the church, not only of Jews and Gentiles upon
earth, but of the militant and triumphant church
too. II. Our two general parts were scientia et modus,
what we must all know, and by what we must know
it. Our knowledge is this exaltation of Jesus ; and
our means is implied in the first word of the text,
' therefore ;' therefore because he is raised from the
dead ; for to that resurrection, expressed in three or
four several phrases before the text, is this text and
this exaltation referred. Christ was delivered for
our sins, raised for our justification, and upon that
depends all. Christ's descending into hell and his
resurrection, in our creed, make but one article, and
in our creed we believe them both alike : quis nisi
infidelis negaverit, apud inferos fuisse Christum ?
says St. Augustine. "Who but an infidel will deny
Christ's descending into hell ?" and if we believe that
to be a limb of the article of the resurrection, bis
descent into hell must rather be a commencement of
his triumph, than aconsummation of his exinanition ;
the first step of his exaltation there, rather than the
last step of his passion upon the cross : but the de
claration, the manifestation, that which admits no
disputation, was his resurrection. Faclus, id est,
declaratus per resurrectionem, says St. Cyril; He
was made Christ and Lord, that is, declared evi
dently to be so, by his resurrection : as there is
the like phrase in St. Paul, ' God hath made the
wisdom of this world foolishness,'1 that is, declared
1 1 Cor. i. 20.

170 Christ's triumph, &c.
it to be so.. And therefore, it is imputed to be a
crucifying of the Lord Jesus again;1 non credere
eum, post mortem, immortalem ; not to believe, that
now, after his having overcome death in his resur
rection, he is in an immortal and in a glorious
state in heaven.. For, when the apostle argues
thus, 'If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching
in vain, and your faith in vain,'8 he implies the
contrary too ; if you believe the resurrection, we
have preached to good purpose : mortuum esse
Christum, pagani credunt ; resurrexisse propria fides
Christianorum.3 " The heathen confess Christ's
death ; to believe his resurrection, is the proper
character of a Christian;" for the first stone of the
Christian faith was laid in this article of the resurrec
tion. In the resurrection only was the first promise
performed, ipse conteret, ' he shall bruise the serpent's
head ;' for, in this, he triumphed over death and
hell ; and the last stone of our faith is laid in the
same article too, thut is, the day of judgment : of a
day of judgment God hath given an assurance unto
all men, (says St. Paul at Athens) 'in that he hath
raised Christ Jesus from the dead.'4 In this Christ
makes up his circle ; in this he is truly alpha and
omega, his coming in paradise in a promise, his
coming to judgment in the clouds, are tied toge
ther in the resurrection; and therefore all the
gospel, all our preaching, is contracted to that one
text, ' to bear witness of the resurrection ;' only
for that was there need of a new apostle ; ' There
was a necessity of one toNbe chosen in Judas's room,
to be a witness ofthe resurrection :'s Mon ait ctele-

Heb. vi. ii. « 1 Cor. xv. 14. J August.
4 Acts, xvii. 31. s Ibid. i. 22.

BY DR. DONNE. 171
rorum, sed tantilm resurreclionis, says St. Chry
sostom. He does not say, to bear witness of the
other articles, but only of the resurrection ; he
charges him with no more instructions; he needs
no more in his commission, but to preach the Re
surrection; for in that, trophceum de morte excitavit,
et indubilalum reddidit corruptionem delelam.1 Here
is a retreat from the whole warfare; here is a
trophy erected upon the last enemy ; * the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death ;' and here
is the death of that enemy in the resurrection.
And therefore, to all those who importuned him
for a sign, Christ still turns upon the resurrection.
The Jews pressed him in general, Quod signum?
' What sign showest thou unto us ?' and he answers,
' Destroy this temple,' (this body,) ' and in three
days I will raise it.'8 In another place, the Scribes
and Pharisees join, ' Master, we would see a sign
from thee ;' and he tells them, * There shall be no
sign, but the sign of the prophet Jonas ;' 3 who was
a type of the resurrection. And then the Pharisees
and Sadducees join. Now they were bitter enemies
to one another ; but, as Tertullian says, Semper
inter duos latronis crucifixus Chrislus, " it was always
Christ's case to be crucified between two thieves."
So these, though enemies, join in this vexation;
they ask a sign, as the rest, and, as to the rest,
Christ gives that answer of Jonas. So that Christ
himself determines all, sums up all in this one
article, the resurrection.
Now, if the resurrection of this Jesus have made
him not only Christ, anointed and consecrated in
heaven, in his own person, but made him Lord,
'• Athan. 8 John, ii. 18, 19. * Matt. xii. 38, 39.

172 Christ's triumph, &c.
then he hath subjects, upon whom that dominion
and that power works, and so we have assurance of
a resurrection in him too. That he is made Lord
of us by his resurrection, is rooted in prophecy;
' It pleased the Lord to bruise him,' says the
prophet Isaiah ; ' but he shall see his seed, and he
shall prolong his days;' ' that is, he shall see those
that are regenerate in him, live with' him [for ever.
It is rooted in prophecy, and it spreads forth in the
gospel. ' To this end,' says the apostle, ' Christ
died and rose, that he might be Lord of the dead
and of the living.' 8 Now, what kind of Lord,
if he had no subjects ? Cum videmus caput super
aquas ; 3 " when the head is above water, will any
imagine the body to be drowned ?" What a
perverse consideration were it, to imagine a live
head and dead members ? Or, consider our bodies
in ourselves, and our bodies are temples of the
Holy Ghost ; and shall the temples of the Holy
Ghost lie for ever, for ever, buried in their rubbish ?
They shall not; for the day of judgment is the
day of regeneration, us it is called in the gospel ;*
Quia caro nostra ita generabitur per incorruptionem,
sicut anima per fidem : ' " because our body shall
be regenerated by glory there, as our souls are by
faith here." Therefore Tertullian calls the resurrec
tion exemplum spei nostra, the original, out of
which we copy out our hope ; and clavem sepul-
chrorum nostrarum ; how hard soever my grave be
locked, yet with that key, with the application of
the resurrection of Christ Jesus, it will open ; and
they are all names which express this well, which

Isaiah, liii. 10. 8 Rom. xiv. 9. 3 Gregor.
4 Matt. xix. 28. 5 August.

BY DR. DONNE. 173
Tertullian gives Christ, Vadem, obsidem, fide jusso-
rem resurrectionis nostra, that he is the pledge, the
hostage, the surety of our resurrection : so doth
that also which is said in the school, Sicut Adam
forma morienlium, ita Christus forma resurgentium ; l
" Without Adam there had been no such thing as
death ; without Christ, no such thing as a resur
rection :" but ascendit ille effractor, (as the prophet
speaks,) 'The breaker is gone up before, and they
have passed through the gate;'8 that is, assuredly,
infallably, they shall pass.
But what needs all this heat, all this animosity,
all this vehemence about the resurrection. May
not man be happy enough in heaven, though his
body never come thither ? Upon what will ye
ground the resurrection ? Upon the omnipotence of
God ? Asylum hareticorum est omnipolenlia Dei,
(which was well said, and often repeated amongst
the ancients,) " the omnipotence of God hath always
been the sanctuary of heretics," that is, always
their refuge in all their incredible doctrines, — God
is able to do it, can do it. You confess the resurrec
tion is a miracle ; and miracles are not to be mul
tiplied nor imagined without necessity ; and what
necessity of bodies in heaven ?
Beloved, we make the ground and foundation
of the resurrection to be, not «merely the omni
potency of God, for God will not do all that he
can do; but the ground is, Omnipotens voluntas
Dei revelata, "the almighty will of God revealed
by him to us:" and therefore Christ joins both
these together, erratis, 'Ye err, not. knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God;'3 that is, not
1 The'oph. 8 Mich. ii. 13.
3 Matt. xxii. 29.

174 CHRIST'S TRIUMPH, &C.
considering the power of God, as it is revealed in
the Scriptures : for there is our foundation of this
doctrine; we know out ofthe omnipotence of God
it may be, and we know out of the Scriptures it
must be : that works upon our faith, this upon our
reason; that it is man that must be saved, man that
must be damned ; and to constitute a man, there
must be a body as well as a soul. Nay, the im
mortality of the soul will not so well lie in proof,
without a resuming of the body. For, upon those
words of the apostle, ' If there were no resurrection,
we were the miserablest of all men,' the school rea
sons reasonably : naturally the soul and body are
united ; when they are separated by death, it is
contrary to nature, which nature still affects this
union ; and consequently the soul is the less per
fect for this separation : and it is not likely that
the perfect natural state of the soul, which is, to be
united to the body, should last but three or four
score years, and in most much less, and the unper-
fect state, that is, the separation, should last eter
nally, for ever: so that either the body must be
believed to live again, or the soul believed to die.
•¦ Never therefore dispute against thine own hap
piness; never say, God asks the heart, that is, the
soul, and therefore rewards the soul, or punishes
the soul, and hath no respect to the body ; Nee au-
feramus cogitationes a collegio carnis, says Tertul
lian; never go about to separate the thoughts ofthe
heart from the college, from the fellowship of the
body; siquidem in came, et cum came, et per car-
iiem agitur, quicquid ab anima agitur ; all that the
soul does, it does in, and with, and by the body.
And therefore, (says he also,) caro abluilur ut ani
ma emaculetur; the body is washed in baptism, but

BY DR. DONNE. 175
it is that the soul might be made clean ; Caro un-
gitur,ut anima consecretur ; injall unctions, whether
that which was then in use in baptism, or that
which was in use at our transmigration and pas
sage out of this world, the body was anointed, that
the soul might be consecrated : Caro signatur, (says
Tertullian still,) ut anima muniatur ; the body is
signed with the cross, that the soul might be armed
against tentations ; and again, Caro de corpore
Christi vescitur, ut anima de Deo saginetur ; " My
' body received the body of Christ, that my soul might
partake of his merits." He extends it into many
particulars, and sums up all thus, Non possunt in
mercede separari, qua opera conjungunt, " These two,
body and soul, cannot be separated for ever, which,
whilst they are together, concur in all that either
of them do.'' " Never think it presumption,",says St.
Gregory, sperare in te, quod in se exhibuit Deus
homo, " to hope for that in thyself which God admit
ted when he took thy nature upon him." "And God
hath made it," says he, " more easy than so for thee
to believe it, because not only Christ himself, but
such men as thou art did rise at the resurrection of
Christ." And therefore when our bodies are dis
solved and liquified in the sea, putrefied in the
earth, resolved to ashes in the fire, macerated in
the air, velut vasa sua transfunditur caro nostra,'
make account that all the world is God's cabinet,
and water, and earth, and fire, and air, are the pro
per boxes in which God lays up our bodies for the
resurrection. Curiously to dispute against our own
resurrection, is seditiously to dispute against the
dominion of Jesus ; who is not made Lord by the
1 Tertullian.

176 Christ's triumph, &c.
resurrection, if he have no subjects to follow him
in the same way. We believe him to be Lord,
therefore let us believe his and our resurrection.
This blessed day, which we celebrate now, he
rose : he rose so as none before did, none after ever
shall rise; he rose, others are but raised : 'Destroy
this temple,' says he, ' and I will raise it;'1 I, with
out employing any other architect. ' I lay down my
life,' says he : the Jews could not have killed him
when he was alive ; if he were alive here now, the Je
suits could not kill him here now; except his being
made Christ and Lord, an anointed King, have
made him more open to them. ' I have a power to
lay it down,' says he, ' and I have a power to take
it up again.'8
This day we celebrate his resurrection ; this day
let us celebrate our own : our own, not our one re
surrection, for we need many. Upon those words
of our Saviour to Nicodemus, oporlet denuo nasci,'
speaking of the necessity of baptism, non solum
denuo, sed tertid nasci oportet, says St. Bernard, he
must be born again and again ; again by baptism, for
original sin, and for actual sin ; again by repentance :
infoelix homo ego, et miserabilis casus, says he, cui
non sufficit una regeneratio ! " Miserable man that I
am, and miserable condition that I am fallen into,
whom one regeneration will not serve !" So is it a
miserable death that hath swallowed us, whom
one resurrection will serve. We need three, but if
we have not two, we were as well without one.
There is a resurrection from worldly calamities, a
resurrection from sin, and a resurrection from the
grave. 1 John, ii. 19. * lb. x. 17, 18. Ib. iii. 3.

BY DR. DONNE. 177
First, from calamities ; for, as dangers are called
death, (Pharaoh calls the plague of locusts a death:
'Intreat the Lord your God, that he may take
from me this death only;" and so St. Paul says
in his dangers, *I die daily,'8) so is the deliverance
from danger called a resurrection : it is the hope of
the wicked upon the godly, ' now that he lieth, he
shall rise no more ;'3 that is, now that he is dead in
misery, he shall have no resurrection in this world.
Now, this resurrection God does not always give
to his servants, neither is this resurrection the mea
sure of God's love of man, whether he do raise him
from worldly calamities or no.
The second is the resurrection from sin; and
therefore this St. John calls 'the first resurrec
tion,'4 as though the other, whether we rise from
worldly calamities or no, were not to be reckoned.
Anima spiritualiter cadit, et spirilualitur resurget,
says St. Augustine; "since we are sure there is a
spiritual death ofthe soul, let us make sure a spi
ritual resurrection too." Audacter dicam, says St.
Jerome; "I say confidently," cum omnia posset Deus,
suscitare virginempost ruinam, non potest ; " howso
ever God can do all things, he cannot restore a vir
gin, that is fallen from it, to virginity again." He
cannot do this in the body ; but God is a spirit, and
hath reserved more power upon the spirit and soul
than upon the body, and therefore audacter dicam,
I may say with the same assurance that St. Jerome
does, — no soul hath so prostituted herself, so multi
plied her fornications, but that God can make her
a virgin again, and give her even the chastity of
1 Exod.x. 17- 8 ICor. xv. 31.
3 Psalm xii. 8. 4 Apoc. xx. 5. N

178 Christ's triumph, &c.
Christ himself. Fulfil therefore that which Christ
says, ' The hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live.' ' Be this that hour, be
this thy first resurrection. Bless God's present
goodness for this now, and attend God's leisure for
the other resurrection hereafter. He that is ' the
first fruits of them that slept,'8 Christ Jesus, is
awake ; he dies no more, he sleeps no more. Sacri-
ficium pro te fuit, sed d te accepit quod pro te obtu-
lit ; 3 he offered a sacrifice for thee, but he had that
from thee that he offered for thee : primitia fuit,
sed tua primitia ; he was the first fruits, but the
first fruits of thy corn : spera in te futurum, quod
pracessit in primitiis tuis ; doubt not of having that
in the whole crop, which thou hast already in thy
first fruits ; that is, to have that in thyself, which
thou hast in thy Saviour. And what glory soever
thou hast had in this world, glory inherited from
noble ancestors, glory acquired by merit and ser
vice, glory purchased by money and observation,
what glory of beauty and proportion, what glory of
health and strength soever thou hast had in this
house of clay, ' the glory of the latter house shall
be greater than ofthe former.'4 To this glory, the
God of this glory, by glorious or inglorious ways,
such as may most advance his own glory, bring us
in his time, for his Son Christ Jesus' sake. Amen.

1 John, v. 25. » 1 Cor. xv. 20.
3 August. * Hag. ii. 9.

SERMON VIII.
THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
BY DR. DONNE.

N 2

SERMON VIII.

Revelations, xx. 6.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection.
In the first book ofthe Scriptures, that of Genesis,
there is danger in departing from the letter : in
this last book, this of the Revelation, there is as
much danger in adhering too close to the letter.
The literal sense is always to be preserved ; but the
literal sense is not always to be discerned: for the
literal sense is not always that which the very let
ter and grammar ofthe place presents; as where it
is literally said, that ' Christ is a vine,' and lite
rally, that ' his flesh is bread,' and literally, that
the new Jerusalem is thus situated, thus built,
thus furnished. But the literal sense of every
place, is the principal intention of the Holy Ghost
in that place. And his principal intention, in many
places, is to express things by allegories, by figures ;
so that in many places of Scripture a figurative
sense is the literal sense, and more in this book
than in any other. As then to depart from the

182 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
literal sense, that sense which the very letter pre
sents, in the book of Genesis, is dangerous, be
cause if we do so there, we have no history of the
creation ofthe world in any other place to stick to;
so to bind ourselves to such a literal sense in this
book, will take from us the consolation of many
spiritual happinesses, and bury us in the carnal
things of this world.
The first error, of being too allegorical in Genesis,
transported divers ofthe ancients beyond the certain
evidence of truth ; and the second error of being
too literal in this book, fixed many, very many, very
ancient, very learned, upon an evident falsehood ;
which was, that because here is mention of ' a first
resurrection, and of a reigning with Christ a thou
sand years after that first resurrection,' there should
be to all the saints of God a state of happiness in
this world, after Christ's coming, for a thousand
years ; in which happy state, though some of them
have limited themselves in spiritual things, that
they should enjoy a kind of conversation with
Christ, and an impeccability, and a quiet serving
of God without any reluctations, or concupiscences,
or persecutions ; yet others have dreamed on, and
enlarged their dreams to an enjoying of all these
worldly happinesses, which they, being formerly
persecuted, did formerly want in this world, and
then should have them for a thousand years toge
ther in recompence. And even this branch of that
error, of possessing the things of this world so
long in this world, did very many, and very good,
and very great men, whose names are in honour,
and justly, in the church of God, in those first times
stray into ; and flattered themselves with an ima-

BY DR. DONNE. 183
ginary intimation of some such thing, in these
words, ' Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection.'
Thus far then the text is literal, — that this resur
rection in the text is different from the general
resurrection. The first differs from the last. And
thus far it is figurative, allegorical, mystical, that
it is a spiritual resurrection that is intended. But
wherein spiritual ? or of what spiritual resurrec
tion ? In the figurative exposition of those places
of Scripture, which require that way oft to be
figuratively expounded, that expositor is not to be
blamed, who, not destroying the literal sense, pro
poses such a figurative sense as may exalt our de
votion and advance our edification ; and as no
one of those expositors did ill in proposing one
such sense, so neither do those expositors ill, who
with those limitations, that it destroy not the lite
ral sense, that it violate not the analogy of faith,
that it advance devotion, do propose another and
another such sense. So doth that preacher well
also, who, to the same end and within the same
limit, makes his use of both, of all those exposi
tions; because all may stand, and it is not evident,
in such figurative speeches, which is the literal,
that is, the principal intention of the Holy Ghost.
Of these words of this ' first resurrection' (which
is not the last, of the body, but a spiritual resur
rection) there are three expositions authorized by-
persons of good note in the church. First, that this
first resurrection is a resurrection from that low-
estate to whicli persecution had brought the church :
and so it belongs to this whole state and church;
and ' blessed are we who huve our part in this first

181 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
resurrection.' ' Secondly, that it is a resurrection
from the death of sin, of actual and habitual sin ;
so it belongs to every particular penitent soul;
and " blessed art thou, blessed am I, if we have
part in this first resurrection."8 And then, thirdly,
because after this resurrection it is said, 'that we
shall reign with Christ a thousand years,' (which
is a certain for an uncertain, a limited for a long
time,) it hath also been taken for the state of the
soul in heaven, after it is parted from the body by
death ; 3 for though the soul cannot be said pro
perly to have a resurrection, because properly it
cannot die ; yet to be thus delivered from the dan
ger of a secbnd death by future sin, to be removed
from the distance, and latitude, and possibility of
tentations in this world, is by very good expositors
called a resurrection ; and so it belongs to all them
who are departed in the Lord : ' Blessed and holy
is he that hath part in this first resurrection.' And
then the occasion of the day which we celebrate
now, being the resurrection of our Lord and Sa
viour Christ Jesus, invites me to propose a fourth
sense, or rather use of the words ; not indeed as
an exposition of the words, but as a convenient ex
altation of our devotion ; which is, that this first
resurrection should be the first fruits of the dead.
The first rising is the first Riser, Christ Jesus: for
as Christ says of himself, that ' he is the resurrec
tion,' so he is the first resurrection, the root of the
resurrection. He upon whom our resurrection, all
ours, all our kinds of resurrections are founded ;
and so it belongs to state, and church, and par-
' Aleazar * August et nostri. 3 Ribera.

BY DR. DONNE. 185
ticular persons, alive and dead : ' Blessed and holy
is he that hath part in this first resurrection.'
And these four considerations of the words ; a
resurrection from persecution, by deliverance; a
resurrection from sin, by grace ; a resurrection from
tentation to sin, by the way of death, to the glory
of heaven; and all these in the first resurrection,
in him that is the root of all, in Christ Jesus.
These four steps, these four passages, these four
transitions will be our quarter-clock for this hour's
exercise. I. First then, we consider this first resurrection
to be a resurrection from a persecution for religion,
for the profession of the gospel, to a forward glo
rious passage of the gospel. And so a learned ex
positor in the Roman church carries the exposition
of this whole place (though not indeed the ordinary
way, yet truly not incommodiously, not impro
perly) upon that deliverance which God afforded
his church, from those great persecutions which
had otherwise supplanted her, in her first planting,
in the primitive times. Then, says he, (and in part
well towards the letter of the place,) " the devil
was chained for a thousand years, and then we
began ' to reign with Christ for a thousand years;'
reckoning the time from that time when God de
stroyed idolatry more fully, and gave peace and
rest, and free exercise of the Christian religion,
under the Christian emperors, till antichrist, in the
height of his rage shall come, and let this thousand
years' prisoner, Satan, loose, and so interrupt our
thousand years' reign with Christ, with new perse
cutions. In that persecution was the death of the
church, in the eye of the world. In that deliver
ance by Christian emperors was the resurrection ol

186 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
the church ; and in God's protecting her ever since
is the chaining up of the devil, and our reigning
with Christ for those thousand years,"
And truly, beloved, if we consider the low, the
very low estate of Christians in those persecutions,
tried ten times in the fire, ten several and distinct
persecutions, — in which ten ^'persecutions God may
seem to have had a mind to deal evenly with the
world, and to lay as much upon his people, whom
he would try then, as he had laid upon others, for
his people before, and so to equal the ten plagues
of Egypt, — in ten persecutions, in the primitive
church ; if we consider that low, that very low
estate, we may justly call their deliverance a resur
rection. For as God said to Jerusalem, ' I found
thee in thy blood, and washed thee,' so Christ
Jesus found the church, the Christian church in
her blood, and washed her, and wiped her ; washed
her in his own blood, which washes white, and
wiped her with the garments of his own righteous
ness, that she might be acceptable in the sight.of
God ; and then wiped all tears from her eyes, took
away all occasions of complaint, and lamentation,
that she might be glorious in the eyes of man, and
cheerful in her own ; such was her resurrection.
We wonder, and justly, at the effusion, at the
pouring out of blood, in the sacrifices ofthe old
law ; that that little country, scarce bigger than
some three of our shires, should spend more cattle
in some few days' sacrifice at some solemnities, and
every year in the sacrifices of the whole year, than
perchance this kingdom could give to any use.
Seas of blood, and yet but brooks; tuns of blood,
and yet but basons, compared with the sacrifices,
the sacrifices of the blood of men, in the persecu-

BY DR. DONNE. 187
tions ofthe primitive church. For every ox of the
Jew, the Christian spent a man, and for every
sheep and lamb, a mother and her child ; and for
every herd of cattle, sometimes a town of inhabi
tants, sometimes a legion of soldiers, all martyred
at once; so that they did not stand to fill their
martyrologies with names, but with numbers; they
had not room to say, such a day, such a bishop —
such a day, such a general ; but the day of five
hundred, the day of five thousand martyrs, and
the martyrdom of a city, or the martyrdom of an
army. This was not a Red Sea, such as the Jews
passed, a sinus, a creek, an arm, an inlet, a gut of
a sea, but a red ocean, that overflowed and sur
rounded all parts ; and from the depth of this sea
God raised them ; and such was their resurrection.
Such, as that they which suffered, lay and bled
with more ease than the executioner stood and
sweat ; and embraced the fire more fervently than
he blew it; and many times had this triumph in
their death, that even the executioner himself was,
in the act of execution, converted to Christ, and
executed with them : such was their resurrection.
When the state of the Jews was in that depres
sion, in that conculcation, in that consternation, in
that extermination in the captivity of Babylon, as
that God presents it to the prophet in that vision,
in the field of dry bones, so, fili hominis, ' Son of
man, as thou art a reasonable man, dost thou think
these bones can live, that these men can ever be
re-collected to make up a nation ? ' The prophet
saith, Domine, tu scis, ' Lord, thou knowest;' which
is, not only thou knowest whether they can or no,
but thou knowest clearly they can ; thou canst
make them up of bones again, for thou madest

188 v THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
those bones of earth before. If God had called in
the angels to the making of man at first, and as he
said to the prophet, fili hominis, ' Son of man, as
thou art a reasonable man,' so he had said to them,
filii Dei, as you are the sons of God, illumined by
his face, do you think that this clod of red earth
can make a man, a man that shall be equal to you
in one of his parts, in his soul, and yet then shall
have such another part, as that he whom all you
worship, my essential Son, shall assume and invest
that part himself, can that man, made of that body
and that soul, be made of this clod of earth ?
Those angels would have said, Domine, tu scis, Lord,
Ihou must needs know how to make as good crea
tures as us of earth, who madest us of that which
is infinitely less than earth — of nothing, before.
To induce, to facilitate these apprehensions, there
were some precedents, some such thing had been
done before. But when the church was newly
conceived, and then lay like the egg of a dove, and
a giant's fooi over it; like a worm, like an ant, and
hill upon hill whelmed upon it ; nay, like a grain
of corn between the upper and lower mill-stone,
ground to dust between tyrants and heretics, when
as she bled in her cradle, in those children whom
Herod slew, so she bled upon her crutches, in those
decrepit men whom former persecutions and tor
ments had crippled before, when east and west
joined hands to crush her, and hands and brains
joined execution to consultation to annihilate her ;
in this wane of the moon, God gave her an instant
fulness; in this exinunition, instant glory; in this
grave, an instant resurrection.
But, beloved, the expressing the pressing of their
depressions, does but chafe the wax ; the printing

BY DR. DONNE. 189
ofthe seal, is the reducing to your memory your
own case ; and not that point in your case, as
you were for a few years under a sensible persecu
tion of fire and prisons ; that was the least part of
your persecution ; for it is a cheap purchase of hea
ven if we may have it for dying : to sell all we have
to buy that field where we know the treasure is, is
not so hard as not to know it ; ' to part with all
for the great pearl, is not so hard a bargain as not
to know that such a pearl there might have been
had. We could not say heaven was kept from us,
when we might have it for a fagot, and when even
our enemies helped us to it : but your great afflic
tion was, as you were long before, in an insensible-
ness; you thought yourselves well enough, and yet
were under a worse persecution of ignorance and
of superstition, when you, in your fathers, were so
far from expecting a resurrection as that you did
not know your low estate, or that you needed a re
surrection ; and yet God gave you a resurrection
from it, a reformation of it.
Now, * who have their parts in this first resur
rection?' or upon what conditions have you it?
We see in the fourth verse, 'They that are be
headed for the witness of Jesus;' that is, that are
ready to be so, when the glory of Jesus shall re
quire that testimony. In the mean time, as it fol
lows there, ' They that have not worshipped the
beast;' that is, not applied the honour and the al
legiance due to their Sovereign, to any foreign state ;
nor the honour due to God, that is, infallibility, to
another prelate ; ' that have not worshipped the
beast, nor his image,' says the text; that is, that
1 Matt. xiii. 44.

190 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
have not been transported with vain imaginations
of his power, and his growth upon us here, which
hath been so diligently painted, and printed, and
preached, and set out in the promises, and prac
tices of his instruments, to delude slack and easy
persons : and then, as it is added there, ' that have
not received his mark upon their foreheads ; ' that
is, not declared themselves Romanists apparently ;
'nor in their hands,' says the text; that is, which
have not underhand sold their secret endeavours,
though not their public profession, to the advance
ment of his cause. These men, who are ready to
be beheaded for Christ, and have not worshipped
the beast, nor the image of the beast, nor received
his mark upon their foreheads nor in their hands,
these have their parts in this first resurrection. These
are blessed and holy, says our text ; blessed, be
cause they have means to be holy, in this resurrec
tion ; ¦ for the Lamb hath unclasped the book ; the
Scriptures are open — which way to holiness our
fathers lacked : and then, our blessedness is, that
we shall reign a thousand years with Christ. Now
since this first resurrection, since the reformation
we have reigned so with Christ but one hundred
years ; but if we persist in a good use of it, our
posterity shall add the cipher, and make that one
hundred one thousand, even to the time when
Christ Jesus shall come again ; and us he hath given
us the first, so shall give us the last resurrection ;
and to that come Lord Jesus, come quickly ! and
till that, continue this.
II. This is the first resurrection in the first ac
ceptation, — a resurrection from persecution and a
peaceable enjoying of the gospel : and in a second,
it is a resurrection from sin ; and so it hath a more

BY DR. DONNE. 191
particular appropriation to every person. So St.
Augustine takes this place, and with him many of
the fathers, and with them many ofthe sons ofthe
fathers — better sons of the fathers than the Roman
church will confess them to be, or than they are
themselves, — the expositors ofthe reformed church ;
they, for the most part, with St. Augustine, take
this first resurrection, to be a resurrection from sin.
Inter abjectos abjectissimus peccator.1 No man
falls lower than he that falls into a course of sin :
sin is a fall ; it is not only a deviation, a turning
out of the way, upon the right or the left hand,
but it is a sinking, a falling : in the other case, of
going out of the way, a man may stand upon the
way and inquire, and then proceed in the way, if
he be right, or to the way, if he be wrong ; but
when he is fallen and lies still, he proceeds no fur
ther, inquires no further. To be too apt to con
ceive scruples in matters of religion, stops and re
tards a man in the way ; to mistake some points in
the truth of religion, puts a man for that time in a
wrong way ; but to fall into a course of sin, this
makes him insensible of any end that be hath to
go to, of any way that he hath to go by. God hath
not, removed man, not withdrawn man from this
earth ; he hath not given him the air to fly in, as
to birds, nor spheres to move in, as to sun and
moon; he hath left him upon the earth; and not
only to tread upon it, as in contempt, or in mere
dominion, but to walk upon it, in the discharge of
the duties of his calling; and so to be conversant
with the earth is not a falling. But as when man
was nothing but earth, nothing but a body, he lay
' Gregor.

1D2 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
flat upon the earth, his mouth kissed the earth, his
hands embraced the earth, his eyes respected the
earth ; and then God breathed the breath of life
into him, and that raised him so far from the earth
as that only one part of his body (the soles of his
feet) touches it ; and yet man, so raised by God, by
sin fell lower to the earth again than before, — from
the face ofthe earth to the womb, to the bowels, to
the grave : so God, finding the whole man, as low
as he found Adam's body then, fallen in original
sin, yet erects us by a new breath of life, in the
sacrament of baptism; and yet we fall lower than
before we were raised, from original into actual,
into habitual sins ; so low, as that we think not
that we need, know not that there is a resurrec
tion ; and that is the wonderful, that is the fearful
fall. Though those words, Qu.om.odo cecidisti de ccelo,
Lucifer! 'How art thou fallen from heaven, O Luci
fer, the son of the morning '.' ' be ordinarily ap
plied to the fall of the angels, yet it is evident that
they are literally spoken of the fall of a man. It
deserves wonder, more than pity, that man, whom
God had raised to so noble a height in him,
should fall so low from him. Man was bom to
love ; he was made in the love of God ; but then
man falls in love ; when he grows in love with the
creature he falls in love. As we are bid to honour
the physician, and to use the physician ; but, yet
it is said in the same chapter, he that sinneth be
fore his Maker, let him fall into the hands of tbe
physician.'8 It is a blessing to use him, it is a
curse to rely upon him ; so it is a blessing to glorify
1 Isaiah, xiv. 12. ' Ecclus. xxxviii. 1, 15.

BY DR. DONNE. 193
*
God in the right use of his creatures, but to grow
in love with them is a fall ; for we love nothing
that is so good as ourselves : beauty, riches, honour,
is not so good as man ; man capable of grace here,
of glory hereafter. Nay, as those things which we
love in their nature are worse than we which love
them ; so in our loving them, we endeavour to
make them worse than they in their own nature
are : by over-loving the beauty of the body we cor
rupt the soul ; by over-loving honour and riches
we deflect and detort these things which are not in
their nature ill, to ill uses, and make them serve
our ill purposes. Man falls as a fall of waters, that
throws down and corrupts all that it embraces.
Nay, beloved, when a man. hath used those wings
which God hath given him, and raised himself to
some height in religious knowledge and religious
practice ; as Eutichus, out of a desire to hear Paul
preach, was got up into a chamber, and up into a
window of that chamber, and yet falling asleep,
fell down dead ;' so we may fall into a security of
our present state, into a pride of our knowledge, or
of our purity; and so fall lower than they who
never came to our height. So much need have we
of a resurrection.
So sin is a fall, and every man is afraid of fall
ing, even from his temporal station ; more afraid of
falling than of not being raised. And qui peccat,
quatenus peccat, sit seipso deferior.' In every sin a
man falls from that degree which himself had be
fore ; in every sin he is dishonoured ; he is not so
good a man as he was : impoverished, he hath not
so great a portion of grace as he had; infatuated,
1 Acts, xx. 9. 8 Clem. Alex. O I

194 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
?
he hath not so much of the true wisdom of the
fear of God as he had ; disarmed, he hath not
that interest and confidence in the love of God
that he had ; and deformed, he hath not so lively
a representation ofthe image of God as before. In
every sin we become prodigals ; but in the habit of
sin we become bankrupts, afraid to come to an ac
count. A fall is a fearful thing, that needs a rais
ing, a help ; but sin is a death, and that needs a
resurrection ; and a resurrection is as great a work
as the very creation itself. It is death in semine, in
the root; it produces, it brings forth death. It is
death in arbore, in the body, in itself; death is a
divorce, and so is sin ; and it is death infructu, in
the fruit thereof: sin* plants spiritual death, and
this death produces more sin, obduration, impeni
tence, and the like.
Be pleased to return and cast one half thought
upon each of these : sin is the root of death ; 'death
by sin entered, and death passed upon all men, for
all men have sinned.'1 It is death, because we shall
die for it. But it is death in itself: we are dead
already, dead in it. ' Thou hast a name, that thou
livest, and art dead,'8 was spoken to a whole church.
It is not evidence enough to prove that thou art
alive, to say, I saw thee at a sermon : that Spirit that
knows thy spirit; he that knows whether thou wert
moved by a sermon, melted by a sermon, mended
by a sermon, he knows whether thou be alive or
no. That which had wont to be said, that dead men
walked in churches, is too true: men walk out a
sermon, or walk out after a sermon, as ill as they
1 Rom. v. 12. a Apoc. iii. 1.

BY DR. DONNE. 195
walked in ; they have a name that they live and
are dead : ' but the hour is come, and now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God :M
that is, at these hours they may hear if they will,
and till they do hear they are dead. Sin is the
root of death, the body of death, and then it is the
fruit of death. St. Augustine confesses of himself,
that he was Allisus intra parietes in celebritate so-
lemnitatum tuarum, that in great meetings upon
solemn days, in the church, there, within the walls
of God's house, egit negotium procurandi fructus
mortis ; he was not buying and selling doves, (but
buying and selling souls by wanton looks, cheapen
ing and making the bargain of tbe fruits of death,
as himself expresses it. Sin is the root and the
tree and the fruit of death ; the mother of death,
death itself, and the daughter of death ; and from
this death, this threefold death, death past in our
past sins, present death in our present insensible-
ness of sin, future death in those sins with which
sins God will punish our former and present sins,
(if he proceed merely in justice,) God affords us
this first resurrection.
How ? Thus : death is the divorce of body and
soul ; resurrection is the reunion of body and soul :
and in this spiritual death and resurrection, which we
consider now, and which is all-determined in the soul
itself, grace is the soul of the soul, and so the de
parting of grace is the death, and the returning of
grace is the resurrection of this sinful soul. But
how ? By what way, what means ? Consider
Adam. Adam was made to enjoy an immortality
in his body; he induced death upon himself: and
1 John, v. 25.

196 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
then, as God having made marriage for a remedy
against uncleanness, intemperate men make even
marriage itself an occasion of more uncleanness
than if they had never married ; so man having in
duced and created death by sin, God takes death,
and makes it a means of the glorifying of his body
in heaven. God did not induce death, death was
not in his purpose ; but veluti medium opportunum,
quo vas confractum rursus fingeretur,1 as a means
whereby a broken vessel might be made up again,
God took death, and made it serve for that purpose,
that men by the grave might be translated to
heaven. So then, to the resurrection of the body there is
an ordinary way, the grave ; to the resurrection of
the soul there is an ordinary way too, the church.
In the grave, the body that must be there prepared
for the last resurrection hath worms that eat upon
it. In the church, the soul that comes to this first
resurrection must have worms : the worm, the
sting, the remorse, the compunction of conscience.
In those that have no part in this first resurrection,
the worm of conscience shall never die, but gnaw
on to desperation ; but those that have not this
worm of conscience, this remorse, this compunction,
shall never live. In the grave, which is the furnace
which ripens the body for the last resurrection,
there is a putrefaction of the body, and an ill
savour. In the church, the womb where my soul
must be mellowed for this first resurrection; my
soul, which hath the savour of death in it, as it is
leavened throughout with sin, must stink in my
nostrils, and I come to a detestation of all those
• Cyril. Alex.

BY DR. DONNE. 197
sins which have putrefied her. And I must not be
afraid to accuse myself, to condemn myself, to
humble myself, lest I become a scorn to men;
Nemo me derideat ab eo medico tegrnm sanari, a quo
sibi prastilum est ne agrotaret. Let no man des
pise me, or wonder at me, that I am so humbled
under the hand of God, or that I fly to God as to
my physician when I am sick, since the same God
that hath recovered me as my physician when I was
sick, hath been his physician too, and kept him
from being sick, who, but for that physician, had
been as ill as I was. At least, he must be his phy
sician, if ever he come to be sick, and come to
know that he is sick, and come to a right desire to
be well. Spiritual death was before bodily; sin
before the wages of sin : God hath provided a re
surrection for both deaths, but first for the first;
this is the first resurrection, — reconciliation to God,
and the returning of the soul of our soul, grace in
his church by his word, and his seals there.
Now, every repentance is not a resurrection ; it
is rather a waking out of a dream than a rising to a
new life. Nay, it is rather a startling in our sleep,
than any awaking at all, to have a sudden remorse,
a sudden flash, and no constant perseverance.
' Awake, thou that sleepest,'8 says the apostle, out
of the prophet. First ' awake,' come to a sense of
thy state; and then ' arise from the dead,' says he,
from the practice of dead works ; and then, ' Christ
shall give thee light,' life, and strength to walk in
new ways. It is a long work, and hath many
steps: 'awake, arise,' and 'walk;' and therefore set
out betimes. At the last day, in those which shall
1 August. * Ephes. v. 14 s Isaiah, lx. 1.

198 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
be found alive upon the earth, we say there shall be
a sudden death, and a sudden resurrection: in
raptu, in transitu, in ictu oculi ; ' in an instant, in
the twinkling of an eye;' but do not thou trust
to have this first resurrection, in raptu, in tran
situ, in ictu oculi, in thy last passage, upon thy
death-bed, when the twinkling of the eye must
be the closing of thine eyes ; but, as we assign to
glorified bodies after the last resurrection certain
dotes, (as we call them in the school,) certain en
dowments, so labour thou to find those endowments
in thy soul here, if thou art come to this first re
surrection. Amongst those endowments we assign subtlety,
agility. The glorified body is become more
subtle, more nimble, not encumbered, not dis
able for any motion that it would make; so
hath that soul which is come to this first resur
rection, by grace, a spiritual agility, a holy nim-
bleness in it, that it can slide by tentations, and
pass through tentations, and never be polluted;
follow a calling, without taking infection, by the
ordinary tentations of that calling. So have
those glorified bodies clarity, a brightness upon
them, from the face of God; and so have these
souls, which are come to this first resurrection, a
sun in themselves, an inherent light, by which
they can presently distinguish between action and
action; what must, what may, what must not be
done. But of all the endowments of the glori
fied body, we consider most, impassibility, that
that body shall suffer nothing, and [is sure that it
shall suffer nothing. And that wliich answers that
endowment of the body most in this soul, that is
come to this first resurrection, is as the apostle

BY I) 11. DONNE. 199
speaks, 'that neither persecution, sickness, nor
death, shall separate her from Christ Jesus.'1 In
heaven we do not say, that our bodies shall divest
their mortality, so as that naturally they could not
die ; for they shall have a composition still ; and
every compounded thing may perish : but they
shall be so assured, and with such a preservation, as
they shall always know they shall never die. St.
Augustine says well, Adsit motio, absit fatigatio,
adsit potestas vescendi, absit necessilas esuriendi :
they have in their nature a mortality, and yet are
immortal ; a possibility and an impossibility of
dying, with those two divers relations, one to nature,
the other to preservation, will consist together. So
in this soul, that hath this first resurrection from
sin by grace, a conscience of her own infirmity,
that she may relapse, and yet a testimony of the
powerfulness of God's Spirit, that easily she shall
not relapse, may consist well together. But the
last seal of this holy confidence is reserved for that,
which is the third acceptation of this first resurrec
tion ; not from persecutions in this world, nor from
sin in this world, but from all possibility of falling
back into sin in the world to come; and to this
have divers expositors referred these words, this
first resurrection. ' Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in this first resurrection.'
III. Now, a resurrection of the soul seems an
improper, an impertinent, an improbable, an im
possible form of speech ; for resurrection implies
death, and the soul does not die in her passage to
heaven. And therefore Damascen makes account,
that he hath sufficiently proved the resurrection of
1 Rom. viii. 35—39.

200 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
the body (which seems so incredible) if he could
prove any resurrection. " If there be any resur
rection at all," says he, " it must be of the body,
for the soul cannot die, therefore not rise." ' Yet
have not those fathers, nor those expositors, who
have in this text acknowledged a resurrection
of the soul, mistaken nor miscalled the matter.
Take Damascen's own definition of resurrection :
Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit secunda surrectio.
" A resurrection is a second rising to that state
from which any thing is formerly fallen." Now,
though by death the soul do not fall into any such
state as that it can complain, (for what can that lack
which God fills ?) yet by death the soul falls from
that for which it was infused and poured into man
at first ; that is, to be the form of that body, the king
of that kindom ; and therefore, when in the general
resurrection, the soul returns to that state for which
it was created, and to which it hath had an affec
tion and a desire, even in the fulness of the joys of
heaven, then when the soul returns to her office, to
make up the man, because the whole man hath,
therefore the soul hath a resurrection ; not from
death, but from a deprivation of her former state;
that state which she was made for, and is ever in
clined to.
But that is the last resurrection ; and so the soul
hath part even in that last resurrection. But we
are in hand with the first resurrection of the soul ;
and that is, when that soul, which was at first
breathed from God, and hath long suffered a ba
nishment, a close imprisonment in this body, re
turns to God again. The returning of the soul to
1 De Onho. Fid. 1. 4. c ult.

BY DR. DONNE. 201
him from whom it proceeded at first, is a resur
rection of the soul. Here then especially I feel
the straitness of time. Two considerations open
themselves together, of such a largeness as all the
time from Moses's in principio, when time began,
to the angel's affidavit in this book, ' that shall
say and swear, that time shall be no more,' were
too narrow to contemplate these two hemispheres
of man, this evening and morning of man's ever
lasting day. The miseries of man, in this banish
ment, in this imprisonment, in this grave of the
soul, the body, and the glory and exaltation of that
soul in her resurrection to heaven. That soul,
which being born free, is made a slave to this
body, by coming to it. It must act but what this
body will give it leave to act, according to the
organs which this body affords it ; and if the body
be lame in any limb, the soul must be lame in her
operation in that limb too. It must do but what
the body will have it do ; and then it must suffer
whatsoever that body puts it to, or whatsoever any
others will put that body to. If the body oppress
itself with melancholy, the soul must be sad; and
if other men oppress the body with injury, the soul
must be sad too. Consider, (it is too immense a
thing to consider it,) reflect but one thought, but
upon this one thing in the soul, here and here
after, in her grave, the body, and in her resurrec
tion in heaven : that is the knowledge ofthe soul.
" Here," says St. Augustine, " when the soul con
siders the things of this world," non veritate certior,
sed consuetudine securior; " she rests upon such
things as she is not sure are true, but such as she
sees are ordinarily received and accepted for truths :
so that the end of her knowledge is not truth, but

202 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
opinion ; and the way, not inquisition, but ease.
But," says he, " when she proceeds in this life to
search into heavenly things," Verberatur luce veri-
latis, " the beams of that light are too strong for
her, and they sink her, and cast her down," Et ad
familiaritatem tenebrarum suarum, non electione
sed fatigatione convertitur; "and so she returns to
her own darkness, because she is most familiar, and
best acquainted with it ;'' Non electione, " not be
cause she loves ignorance, but because she is weary
ofthe trouble of seeking out the truth, and so swal
lows even any religion to escape the pain of de
bating and disputing; and in this laziness she
sleeps out her lease, her term of life, in this death,
in this grave, in this body."
But then in her resurrection, her measure is en
larged and filled at once. There she reads with
out spelling, and knows without thinking, and
concludes without arguing. She is at the end of
her race, without running; in her triumph, without
fighting ; in her haven, without sailing. A free
man without any apprenticeship ; at full years,
without any wardship ; and a doctor, without any
proceeding. She knows truly, and easily, and im
mediately, and entirely, and everlastingly. No
thing left out at first, nothing worn out at last, that
conduces to her happiness. What u death is this
life! what a resurrection is this death! For
though this world be a sea, yet (which is most
strange) our harbour is larger than the sea : hea
ven infinitely larger than this world. For, though
that be not true which Origen is said to say,
" that at last all shall be saved," nor that evident
which Cyril of Alexandria says, " that "without
doubt the number of them that are saved, is far

BY DR. DONNE. 203
greater than of them that perish," yet surely the
number of them with whom we shall have com
munion in heaven, is greater than ever lived at
once upon the face of the earth. And of those
who lived in our time, how few did we know ? and
of those whom we did know, how few did we care
much for? In heaven we shall have commu
nion of joy and glory with all, always : Ubi non
intrat inimicus, nee amicus exit : ' " Where never
any man shall come in that loves us not, nor go
from us that does."
Beloved, I think you could be content to hear, I
could be content to speak of this resurrection, our
glorious state, by the low way of the grave, till
God by that gate of earth let us in at the other of
precious stones. And blessed and holy is he who
in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection
now. But we shall not depart far from this con
sideration, by departing into our last branch, or
conclusion, That this first resurrection may also
be understood to be the first riser, Christ Jesus ;
and ' blessed and holy is he that hath part in that
first resurrection.'
IV. This first resurrection is then without any
detorting, any violence, very appliable to Christ
himself, who was primitia dormientium, in that ;
in that action, ' that he rose again, he is become'
says the apostle, ' the first fruits of them that
sleep.'8 He did rise, and rise first; others rose
with him, none before him : for St. Jerome, taking
the words as he finds them in that evangelist,
makes this note, "That though the graves were
opened, at the instant of Christ's death, (death
1 Aug. 2 l Cor. xv. 20.

204 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
was overcome, the city opened the gates,) yet the
bodies did not rise till after Christ's resurrection.
For, for such resurrections as are spoken of, ' that
women received their dead raised to life again,'
and such as are recorded in the Old and New Tes
tament, they were all imperfect and temporary
resurrections, such as St. Jerome says of them all,
Resurgebant iterum morituri. " They were but re
prieved, not pardoned ; they had a resurrection to
life, but yet a resurrection to another death. Christ
is the first resurrection ; others were raised ; but he
only rose ; they by a foreign and extrinsic, he by
his own power."8
But we call him not the first in that respect
only; for so he was not only the first, but the only;
he alone rose by his own power : but with relation
to all our future resurrections, he is the first resur
rection. First, ' If Christ be not raised, your faith is
in vain,'3 says the apostle ; you have a vain faith if
you believe in a dead man. He might be true man,
though he remained in death ; but it concerns you
to believe that he was the Son of God too ; ' and
he was declared to be the Son of God, by the resur
rection from the dead.'4 That was the declaration
of himself, his justification ; he was justified by the
Spirit, when he was proved to be God by raising
himself. But thus our justification is also in his
resurrection ; for, ' he was raised from the dead
for our justification.'5 How for ours ? 'That we
should be also in the likeness of his resurrection.'
What is that? That he hath told us before; 'our
resurrection in Christ is, that we should walk in
newness of life." 6
1 Heb. xi. 35. 8 Jerome, in Matt, xxvii. 52.
3 1 Cor. xv. 17. « Rom. i. 4. a Ib. iv. ult. « Ib. vi. 4.

BY DR. DONNE. 205
So that then Christ is the first resurrection ; first,
efficiently, the only cause of his own resurrection ;
first, meritoriously, the only cause of our resurrec
tion ; first, exemplarily, the only pattern how we
should rise, and how we should walk when we are
up : and therefore, blessed and happy are we, if we
refer all our resurrections to this first resurrection,
Christ Jesus. For as Job said of comforters, so
miserable resurrections are they all without him.
If, therefore, thou need and seek this first resur
rection, in the first acceptation, a resurrection from
persecutions and calamities, as they oppress thee
here, have thy recourse to him, to Christ. Remem
ber that at the death of Christ there were earth
quakes, the whole earth trembled ; there were rend-
ings of the temple — schisms, convulsions, distrac
tions in the church will be — but then the graves
opened in the midst of those commotions : then,
when thou thinkest thyself swallowed and buried
in affliction, as the angel did his, Christ Jesus
shall remove thy grave-stone, and give thee a resur
rection ; but if thou think to remove it by thine
own wit, thine own power, or the favour of potent
friends, digitus Dei non est hic, " the hand of God
is not in all this," and the stone shall lie still upon
thee till thou putrefy into desperation, and thou
shalt have no part in this first resurrection.
If thou need and seek this first resurrection in
the second acceptation, from the fearful death of
heinous sin, have thy recourse to him, to Christ
Jesus, and remember the weight of the sins that lay
upon bim — all thy sins, and all thy father's, and all
thy children's sins; all those sins that did induce the
first flood, and shall induce the last fire upon this
world ; all those sins which, that we might take ex-

Q^A ^" xlBHEJpiRST RESURRECTION.
?ample^by ,0m! nmo escape them, are recorded, and
wmcih^l^t'^l^e should take example by them to

'iipipw&riepf, are left unrecorded ; all sins of all
Lfegef^ajl^exes, all places, all times, all callings ;
"Mhs"'neavy in their substance, sins aggravated by
tlieir circumstances, all kinds of sins, and all par
ticular sins of every kind, were upon him, upon
Christ Jesus; and yet he raised his holy head, his
royal head, though under thorns, yet crowned with
those thorns, and triumphed in this first resurrec
tion ; and his body was not left in the grave, nor
his soul in hell. Christ's first tongue was a tongue
that might be heard ; he spoke to the shepherds by
angels: his second tongue was a star, a tongue
which might be seen ; he spoke to the wise men of
the east by that. Hearken after. him these two
ways ; — as he speaks to thine ear (and to thy soul by
it) in the preaching of his word, as he speaks to
thine eye (and so to thy soul by that) in the exhi
biting of his sacraments, and thou shalt have thy
part in this first resurrection. But if thou think to
overcome this death, this sense of sin, by diver
sions, by worldly delights, by mirth, and music,
and society ; or by good works, with a confidence
of merit in them ; or with a relation to God him
self, but not as God hath manifested himself to
thee, not in Christ Jesus ; the stone shall lie still
upon thee till thou putrefy into desperation, and
then hast thou no part in this first resurrection.
If thou desire this first resurrection in the third
acceptation, as St. Paul did, to be dissolved, and
to be with Christ, go Christ's way to that also. He
desired that glory that thou dost; and he could
have laid down his soul when he would, but he
staid his hour, says the Gospel. He could have as-

BY Dit. DONNE. 207'..
cended immediately, immediately in time, yet he
staid to descend into hell first; and he could have
ascended immediately of himself, by going up, yet .
he staid till he was taken up. Thou hast no such
power of thine own soul and life, not for the time,
not for the means of coming to this first resurrec
tion by death ; stay therefore patiently, stay cheer
fully God's leisure till he call, but not so over-
cheerfully as to be loath to go when he calls. Relief
in persecution by power, reconciliation in sin by
grace, dissolution and transmigration to heaven by
death, are all within this first resurrection ; but
that which is before them all is Christ Jesus.
And therefore, as all that the natural man pro
mises himself without God is impious, so all that
we promise ourselves, though by God, without
Christ, is frivolous. God, who hath spoken to us
by his Son, works upon us by bis Son too: he was
our creation, he was our redemption, he is our re
surrection. And that man trades in the world
without money, and goes out of the world without
recommendation, that leaves out Christ Jesus. To
be a good moral man, and refer all to the law of
nature in our hearts, is but diluculum, " the dawn
ing of the day ;" to be a godly man, and refer to
God, is but crepusculum, "a twilight;" but the
meridional brightness, the glorious noon and
height, is to be a Christian ; to pretend to no spiri
tual, no temporal blessing, but for, and by, and
through, and in our only Lord and Saviour Christ
Jesus; for he is this first resurrection, and 'blessed
and holy is he that hath part in this first resurrec
tion.'

SERMON IX.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
BY DR. DONNE.

SERMON IX.

John, v. 28, 29.
Marvel not at this ; for tlie hour is coming in tlie
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
and shall come forth ; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life, and they that have
done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
As the sun works diversely, according to the di
verse disposition ofthe subject, (for the sun melts
wax, and it hardens clay,) so do the good actions
of good men : upon good men they work a virtuous
emulation, a noble and a holy desire to imitate ;
upon bad men they work a vicious and impotent
envy, a desire to disgrace and calumniate. And
the more the good is that is done, and the more it
works upon good men, the more it disaffects the
bad ; for so the Pharisees express their rancour and
malignity against Christ in this Gospel : ' If we let
him thus alone, all men will believe in him;'1 and
that they foresaw would destroy tbcm in their re
putation. And therefore they enlarged their malice
1 John, xi. 48.
P2

212 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
beyond Christ himself, to him upon whom Christ
had wrought a miracle, to Lazarus j 'They con
sulted to put him to death, because by reason of
him many believed in Jesus.' l Our text leads us
to another example of this impotency in envious
men. Christ in this chapter had, by his only word,
cured a man that had been eight and thirty years
infirm ; and he had done this work upon the Sab
bath. They envied the work in the substance, but
they quarrel with the circumstance ; and they envy
Christ, but they turn upon the man who was more
obnoxious to them ; and they tell him, ' that it
was not lawful for him to carry his bed that day.'8
He discharges himself upon Christ : — I dispute not
with you concerning the law ; this satisfies me,
' he that made me whole, bade me take up my bed
and walk.' 3 Thereupon they put him to find out
Jesus ; and when he could not find Jesus, Jesus
found him, and in his behalf offers himself to the
Pharisees. Then they direct themselves upon him,
and (as the gospel says) ' they sought to slay him,
because he had done this upon the Sabbath :'4 and
as the patient had discharged himself upon Christ,
Christ discharges himself upon his Father : — Doth it
displease you that I work upon the Sabbath ? Be
angry with God, be angry with the Father, for the
Father works when I work. s And then this they
take worse than his working of miracles, or his
working upon the Sabbath, * that he would say,
that God was his Father :'|0 and therefore in the
averring of that, that so important point, ' that
God was his Father," Christ grows into a holy ve-

' John, xii. 10. ¦* Ibid, v. 10. a Ibid, v. 1 1.
1 Ibid, v. 16. « Ibid, v. 17- « Ibid, v. 18.

BY DR. DONNE. 213
bemence, and earnestness, and he repeats his usual
oath, ' Verily, verily,' three several times : first,
' that whatsoever the Father doth, he the Sou doth
also ; ' ' and then, ' He that believeth on me, and
him that sent me, hath life everlasting.'8 And
then again, ' The hour is coming, and now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear it shall live.'3 At this, that the
dead should live, they marvelled ; but because he
knew that they were men more affected with things
concerning the body than spiritual things, as in
another story, when they wondered that he would
pretend to forgive sins, because he knew that they
thought it a greater matter to bid that man that
had the palsy, take up his bed and walk, than to
forgive him his sins ; therefore he took that way
which was hardest in their opinion, he did bid him
take up his bed and walk. So here, when they
wondered at his speaking of a spiritual resurrection,
to hear him say, that at his preaching, the dead
(that is, men spiritually dead in their sins) should
rise again, to them who more respected the body,
and did less believe a real resurrection of the body
than a figurative resurrection of the soul, he pro
ceeds to that which was, in their apprehension, the
more difficult. 'Marvel not at this,' says he, here
in our text ; not at that spiritual resurrection by
preaching ; ' for the hour is coming, in the which,
all that are in the graves,' &c. and so he establishes
the resurrection of the body.
That then which Christ affirms and avows is, that
he is the Son of God ; and that is the first thing that
ever was done in heaven, the eternal generation of
' John, v. 19. * Ibid, v. 24. 3 Ibid, v. 25.

214 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
the Son : that by which he proves this to these
men is, that by him there shall be a resurrection of
the body ; and that is the last thing that shall be
done in heaven ; for after that there is nothing but
an even continuance in equal glory. Before that,
says he, — that is, before the resurrection of the
body, — there shall be another resurrection, a spiri
tual resurrection of the soul from sin ; but that
shall be by ordinary means, by preaching and sa
craments, and it shall be accomplished every day :
but fix not upon that, determine not your thoughts
upon that, marvel not at that, make that no cause
of extraordinary wonder, but make it ordinary to
you ; feel it, and find the effect thereof in your
souls, as often as you hear, as often as you receive,
and thereby provide for another resurrection, ' For
the hour is coming in which all that are in their
graves,' &c.
Where we must necessarily make thus many
steps, though but short ones. First, the dignity of
the resurrection, marvel at nothing so much as at
this ; nothing is so marvellous, so wonderful as this ;
and, secondly, the approach of the resurrection,
' The hour is coming ;' and, thirdly, the generality,
' all that are in the graves;' and the instrument of
the resurrection, ' the voice of Christ, that shall be
heard ;' and, lastly, the diverse end of the resur
rection, 'They shall come forth, they that have
done good,' &c. God hath a care of the body of
man— that is first; and he defers it not— that is
next ; and he extends it to all— that is a third ; and
a fourth is, that he does that last act by him by
whom he did the first, the creation, and all be
tween, the redemption ; that is, by his Son, by
Christ ; and then the last is, that this is an ever-

BY DR. DONNE. 21-5
lasting separation and divorce ofthe good and the
bad, the bad shall never be able to receive good
from the good, nor to do harm to the good, after
that. First, then, Christ says, ne miremini, • marvel not
at this,' not at your spiritual resurrection — not that
a sermon should work upon man — not that a sacra
ment should comfort a man ; make it not a miracle,
nor an extraordinary thing, by hearing to come to
repentance, and so to such a resurrection. For
though St. Augustine says, " that to convert a
man from sin is as great a miracle as creation," yet
St. Augustine speaks that of a man's first conver
sion, in which the man himself does nothing, but
God all. Then he is made of nothing ; but after
God hath renewed him, and proposed ordinary
means in the church still to work upon him, he
must not look for "miraculous working, but make
God's ordinary means ordinary to him. This is
panis quolidianus, the daily bread wliich God
gives you, as often as you meet here, according to
his ordinances. Ne miremini, stand not to wonder,
as though you were not sure, but come to enjoy
God's goodness, in his ordinary way here.
But it is, ne miremini hoe, ' wonder not at this;'
but yet there are things which we may wonder at.
Nil admirari is but the philosopher's wisdom : he
thinks it a weakness to wonder at any thing, that
any thing should be strange to him ; but Christian
philosophy that is rooted in humility, tells us, in
the mouth of Clement, of Alexandria, Principium
verilatis est res admirari, " The first step to faith is
to wonder, to stand and consider, with a holy ad
miration, the ways and proceedings of God with
man ;" for admiration, wonder stands as in the

216 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
midst, between knowledge and faith, and hath an
eye towards both. If I know a thing or believe a
thing, I do not longer wonder ; but when I find
that I have reason to stop upon the consideration
of a thing, so as that I see enough to induce admi
ration, to make me wonder, I come by that step,
and God leads me by that end, to a knowledge, if
it be of a natural or a civil thing, or to a faith, if it
be of a supernatural and spiritual thing.
And therefore be content to wonder at this, that
God would have such a care to dignify, and to
crown, and to associate to his own everlasting pre
sence the body of man. God himself is a spirit,
and heaven is his place ; my soul is a spirit, and
so proportioned to that place : — that God, or angels,
or our souls, which are all spirit, should be in hea
ven, ne miremini, never wonder at that. But since
we wonder, and justly, that some late philosophers
have removed the whole earth from the centre, and
carried it up, and placed it in one of the spheres of
heaven, that this clod of earth, this body of ours,
should be carried up to the highest heaven, placed
in the eye of God, set down at the right hand of
God, miremini hoc, wonder at this. That God, all
spirit, served with spirits, associated to spirits,
should have such an affection, such a love to this
body, this earthly body, this deserves this wonder.
The Father was pleased to breathe into this body,
at first, in the creation ; the Son was pleased to
assume this body himself, after, in the redemption.
The Holy Ghost is pleased to consecrate this body,
and make it his temple, by his sanctification ; in
that faciamus hominem, ' Let us,' all us, ¦ make
man :' that consultation of the whole Trinity
in making man, is exercised even upon this lower

BY DR. DONNE. 217
part of man, the dignifying of his body. So far
as that, amongst the ancient fathers, very many of
them are very various and irresolved which way
to pronounce, and very many of them clear in the
negative in that point, that the soul of man comes
not to the presence of God, but remains in some
out places till the resurrection of the body : that
observation, that consideration of the love of God
to the body of man, withdrew them into that error,
that the soul itself should lack the glory of heaven,
till the body were become capable of that glory
too. They therefore oppose God in his purpose of
dignifying the body of man, first, who violate and
mangle this body, which is the organ in which God
breathes ; and they also which pollute and defile
this body, in which Christ Jesus is apparelled ;
and they likewise who profane this body, which
the Holy Ghost, as the high-priest, inhabits and
consecrates. Transgressors in the first kind, that put God's
organ out of tune, that discompose and tear the
body of man with violence, are those inhuman per
secutors, who with racks, and tortures, and prisons,
and fires, and exquisite inquisitions, throw down
the bodies of the true God's true servants, to the
idolatrous worship of their imaginary gods ; that
torture men into hell, and carry them through the
inquisition into damnation. St. Augustine moves
a question, and institutes a disputation, and carries
it somewhat problematically, whether torture be to
be admitted at all or no. That presents a fair pro
bability which he says against it. " We presume,"
says he, " that an innocent man should be able to hold
his tongue in torture. That is no part of our purpose
in torture," says he, " that he that is innocent should

218 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
accuse himself by confesssion and torture. And if
an innocent man be able to do so, why should we
not think that a guilty man, who shall save his life by
holding his tongue in torture, should be able to do
so ? And then, where is the use of torture ? " Resfra-
gilis, et periculosa quastio, says that lawyer, who is
esteemed the law alone — Ulpian : it is a slippery
trial, an uncertain, to convince by torture ; for
many times, says St. Augustine again, Innocens
luit pro incerto scelere certissimas pwnas: " He that
is yet but questioned, whether he be. guilty or no,
before that be known, is without all question mi
serably tortured." And whereas, many times, the
passion of the judge, and the covetousness of the
judge, and the ambition of the judge, are calami
ties heavy enough upon a man that is accused in
this case of torture, ignorantia judicis est calamitas
plerumque innocentis, says that father, for the most
part, even the ignorance of the judge, is the greatest
calamity of him that is accused. If the judge knew
that he were innocent, he should suffer nothing ;
if he knew he were guilty, he should not suffer
torture; but because the judge is ignorant and
knows nothing, therefore the prisoner must be
racked, and tortured, and mangled, says that
father. There is a whole cjiistle in St. Jerome, full of
heavenly meditation, and of curious expressions.
It is his forty-ninth epistle, ad innocentium : where
a young man tortured for suspicion of adultery
with a certain woman, ut compendio cruciatus vita-
ret, says he, for his ease, and to abridge his torment,
and that he might thereby procure and compass a
present death, confessed the adultery, though false :
his confession was made evidence against the woman •
•and she makes that protestation, Tu testis Domine

BY DR. DONNE. 219
Jesu, " Thou, Lord, Jesus, be my witness," non ideo
me negare velle, ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolle, ne
peccem. " I do not deny the fact for fear of death,
but I dare not belie myself, nor betray mine inno
cence, for fear of sinning and offending the God of
truth :" and, as it follows in that story, though no
torture could draw any confession, any accusation
from her, she was condemned ; and one executioner
had three blows at her with a sword, and another
four, and yet she could not be killed.
And therefore, because story abounds with ex
amples of this kind, how uncertain a way of trial
and conviction torture is, though St. Augustine
would not say that torture was unlawful, yet he
says, it behoves every judge to make that prayer,
Erue me Domine a necessitatibus meis; "If there be
some cases, in which the judge must necessarily
proceed to torture, O Lord, deliver me, from having
any such case brought before me."
But what use soever there may be for torture for
confession,, in the inquisition they torture for a de
nial; for the denial of God, and for the renouncing
of the truth of his gospel. As men of great place
think it concerns their honour to do above that
which they suffer, to make their revenges not only
equal, but greater than their injuries, so the
Roman church thinks it necessary to her greatness,
to inflict more tortures now than were inflicted
upon her in the primitive church ; as though it
were a just revenge, for the tortures she received
then for being Christian, to torture better Christians
than herself for being so. In which tortures the in
quisition hath found one way to escape the general
clamour of the world against them, which is to
torture to that height, that few survive or come

220 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
abroad after to publish how they have been tor
tured. And these, first, oppose God's purpose, in
the making, and preserving, and dignifying the
body of man.
Transgressors herein, in the second kind, are they
that defile the garment of Christ Jesus, the body in
which he hath vouchsafed to invest and enwrap
himself, and so apparel a harlot in Christ's clothes,
and make that body which is his hers. That Christ
should take my body, though defiled with fornica
tion, and make it his, is strange ; but that I, in for
nication, should take Christ's body, and make it
hers, is more. ' Know ye not,' says the apostle,
' that your bodies are the members of Christ ?'
And again, ' Know you not, that he that is joined
to a harlot, is one body ?' l Some of the Roman
emperors made it treason to carry a ring that had
their picture engraved in it to any place in the
house of low office. What name can we give to
that sin, to make the body of Christ the body of a
harlot ? And yet, the apostle there, as taking
knowledge that we loved ourselves . better than
Christ, changes the edge of his argument, and
argues thus : ' He that committeth fornication sin-
neth against his own body.'8 If ye will be bold
with Christ's body, yet favour your own. No man
ever hated his own body; and yet, no outward
enemy is able so to macerate our body as our own
licentiousness. Christ, who took all our bodily in
firmities upon him, hunger and thirst, and sweat
and cold, took no bodily deformities upon him : he
took not a lame, a blind, a crooked body; and we,
by our intemperance and licentiousness, deform
1 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16. a Ibid. ver. 18.

BY DR. DONNE. 221
that body which is his, all these ways. The licenti
ous man, most of any, studies bodily handsome
ness, — to be comely and gracious, and acceptable ;
and yet, soonest of any, deforms and destroys
it, and makes that loathsome to all, which all his
care was to make amiable ; and so they oppose
God's purpose of dignifying the body.
Transgressors in a third kind are they that sacri-
ligiously profane the temple of the Holy Ghost, by
neglecting the respect and duties belonging to the
dead bodies of God's saints, in a decent and comely
accompanying them to convenient funerals. Heirs
and executors are oftentimes defective in these
offices, and pretend better employments of that,
which would be (say they) vainly spent so. But
remember you, ,of whom (in much such a case)
that is said in St. John, ' This he said, not because
he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief,
and had the bag, and bore that which was put
therein : ' l this executors say, not because they in
tend pious uses, but because they bear, and bear
away the bags. Generally, thy opinion must be no
rule for other men's actions ; neither in these cases
of funerals must thou call all too much, which is
more than enough. That woman's ointment poured
upon Christ's feet, that hundred pound weight of
perfumes to embalm his one body, was more than
enough, necessarily enough ; yet it was not too
much for the dignity of that person, nor for the testi
mony of their zeal, who did it in so abundant
manner. Now, as in all these three ways, men may oppose
1 John, xii. 6.

222 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
the purpose of God, in dignifying the body; so in
concurring with God's purpose, for the dignifying
thereof, a man may exceed and go beyond God's
purpose in all three. God would not have the
body torn and mangled with tortures in those cases ;
but then, he would not have it pampered with
wanton delicacies, nor varnished with foreign com
plexion. It is ill when it is not our own heart that
appears in our words ; it is ill too, when it is not
our own blood that appears in our cheeks. It may
do some ill offices of blood, it may tempt ; but it
gives over when it should do a good office of blood,
it cannot blush. If, when they are filling the
wrinkles and graves of their face, they would re
member that there is another grave that calls for a
filling with the whole body, so even their pride
would flow into a mortification. God would not
have us put on a sad countenance, nor disfigure
our face, in our fastings and other disciplines ;
God would not have us mar his work ; nor would
God have us go about to do his last work, which
he hath reserved to himself in heaven, here upon
earth; that is, to glorify our bodies with such
additions here, as though we would need no glori
fication there.
So also in the second way of giving due respect
to the body of man, a man may exceed God's pur
pose. God would not have the body corrupted and
attenuated, shrunk and deformed with incontinency
and licentiousness : but God would not have that
sparing of the body, to dishonour or undervalue, or
forbear marriage, nor to frustrate that which was
one of God's purposes in the institution of mar
riage, — procreation of children. Marriage without

BY DR. DONNE. 223
possibility of children, lacks one-half of God's pur
pose in the institution of marriage ; for, the third
reason of marriage, after the other two, (which two
were for a helper, and for children,) which is, that
marriage should be for a remedy, that third came
in after ; for at the time of the institution of mar
riage, man was not fallen into any inordinate
concupiscences, and so, at that time, needed no
remedy. Marriage without possibility of children,
lacks one of God's two reasons for it ; but mar
riage with a contract against] children, or a prac
tice against children, is not (says St. Augustine)
a marriage, but a solemn, an avowed, a daily adul
tery. To choose to be ill in the sight of God, rather
than to look ill in the sight of men is a perverse and
a poisonous physic. The sin of Er and Onan in
married men, the sin of procured abortions in
married women do in many cases equal, in some
exceed, the sin of adultery. To rob a husband or a
wife of a future child, may be, in the wife or hus
band, as great a sin as to bring a supposititious or
a spurious child into the father's inheritance. God
would not have the comeliness, the handsomeness
of the body defaced by incontinence and intem
perance, but he would not have the care of that
comeliness and handsomeness frustrate his purpose
of children in marriage.
And as in those two, (God would not have the
body tortured nor mangled, God would not have
the body deformed by licentiousness,) so in his
third respect to man's body, God would not have
the bodies of his dead saints neglected, God's pur
pose may be exceeded too. God's purpose therein
is, that all men should be decently, and honour
able persons honourably, buried ; but his purpose

224 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
herein is exceeded, when any rag of their skin, or
chip of their bones, or lock of their hair, is kept for
a relic, and made an universal balm and amulet
and antidote, against all temporal and all spiritual
diseases and calamities, not only against the rage of
a fever, but of hell itself. What their counterfeit
relics may do against their counterfeit hell — against
their purgatory, I know not. That powerful, and
precious, and only relic which is given to us against
hell itself, is only the communion of the body and
blood of Christ Jesus, left to us by him and pre
served for us in the church, though his body be re
moved out of our sight.
To end this, miremini hoc, " marvel at this,'' at
the wonderful love of God to the body of man, and
thou wilt favour it so as not to macerate thine own
body, with uncommunded and inhuman flagella
tions and whippings, nor 'afflict their bodies, who
are in thy charge, with inordinate labour ; thou
wilt not dishonour this body, as it is Christ's body,
nor deform it, as it is thine own, with intempe
rance ; but thou wilt behave thyself towards it so,
as towards one whom it hath pleased the King to
honour with a resurrection, (which was our first,)
and not to defer that resurrection long, which is
the next step : Venit hora, ' The hour is coming."
Non talem Deum tuum putes, qualis nee tu debes
esse, is excellently said by St. Augustine. Never
presume upon any other disposition in God, than
such as thou findest in thine own heart, that thou
art bound to have in thyself; for we find in our
hearts a band of conformity, and assimilation to
God, that is, to be as like God as we can. There
fore whatsoever thou findest thyself bound to do to
another, thou mayst expect at God's hand. Thou

BY DR. DONNE. 225
art bound to help up another that is fallen, there
fore thou mayst assure thyself that God will give
thee a resurrection : so, thou findest in thy heart,
that the soul of an alms, the soul of a benefit,
that that gives it life, is the speedy, the present
doing of it. Therefore thou mayst be sure that God
will make speed to save thee, that he will not long
defer this thy resurrection, hora venit. St. Augus
tine, comparing the former resurrection, which is
the spiritual resurrection of the soul,1 with this in
the text, which is tbe resurrection of the body, ob
serves, that there Christ says, hora venit, et nunc est,
' the hour is coming, and now is ;' because in every
private inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in every
sermon, in every meeting of the congregation, the
dead may hear and live ; nunc est, they may do it
now. But that in this resurrection in the text, the
resurrection of the body, it is not said, nunc est,
that the hour is now; for the Son of man, who
says it, (as he is the Son of man,) knows not when
it shall be. But he says, hora venit, ' it is coming,'
and coming apace, and coming quickly, shortly.
As soon as God had made man, he gave him his
patent dominamini, dominion over the creature.
As soon as man was fallen, God gave him the pro
mise of a Messias. And of his second coming,
himself says, Ecce venio citd ' Behold, I come
speedily.' Venit, "he comes," he is upon the way ;
and Ecce venit, " Behold, he comes !" he is within
sight ; you may see him in his forerunning tokens ;
and Ecce citd, as little way as he hath to go, he
makes haste. And there is a Jesuit that makes the
haste so great, as that he says, " Howsoever St.
1 John, v. 25.

226 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
Augustine make use of that note, that it is not said
in the text, nunc est, that the hour of the resur
rection is now, yet he does believe that Christ did
say so, though the evangelist left it out."1 We
need not say so ; we do not ; so much less liberty
do we take in departing from the fathers, than the
Roman authors do. But yet, so as St. John speaks,
hora novissima, ' this is the last time,' (' Now
there are many antichrists, whereby we know that
this is the last time.'8) And so, as St. Peter
speaks, ' Be not ignorant of this one thing, that
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day.' 3 So as this nunc
may signify ultimum statum, " the last course of
times," the time not of nature, nor of law, but of
grace; so we admit that addition in this resur
rection too, hora venit, et nunc est, ' the hour is
coming, and now is :' because there are no other
means to be hereafter instituted for the attaining
of a happy resurrection, than those that now are
established in the church, especially at a man's
death, may we very properly say, nunc est; "now
is the resurrection come to him," not only because
the last judgment is involved in the first, (for that
judgment which passeth upon every man at his
death, stands for ever without repeal, or appeal, or
error,) but because after the death ofthe body, there
is no more to be done with the body, till the resur
rection ; for as we say of an arrow, that it is over
shot, it is gone, it is beyond the mark, though it be
not come to the mark yet, because there is no more
to be clone to it till it be; so we may say, that he
that is come to death, is come to his resurrection,
' Maldon. * 1 John, ii. 18. - 2 Pet iii. il.

BY DR. DONNE. 227
because he hath not another step to make, another
foot to go, another minute to count, till he be at
the resurrection.
The resurrection, then, being the coronation of
man, his death and lying down in the grave is
his enthroning, his sitting down in that chair
where he is to receive that crown. As then the
martyrs under the altar, though in heaven, yet
do cry out for the resurrection ; so let us, in this
miserable life, submit ourselves cheerfully (o the
hand of God, in death, since till that death we
cannot have this resurrection, and the first thing
that we shall do after this death is to rise again.
To the child that is now born, we may say, hora
venit, " the day of his resurrection is coming." To
him that is old, we may say, the hour is come ; but
to him that is dead, the minute is come, because
to him there are no more minutes till it do come.
Miremini hoc, marvel at this, at the descent of
God's love, — he loves the body of man ; and mire
mini hoc, marvel at his speed, — he makes haste to
express this love; hora venit; and then miremini
hoc, marvel at the generality, — it reaches to all, all
that are in the grave : ' all that are in the graves
shall hear his voice,' &c. God hath made the body
as a house for the soul, till he call her out, and he
hath made the grave as a house for the body, till he
call it up. The misery and poor estate that Christ
submitted himself unto for man, was not deter
mined in that, ' that foxes had holes, but he no
where to lay his head," while he lived; but he
had no grave that he could claim when he was
dead. It is some discontinuance of the communion
1 Matt. viii. 20.

228 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
of saints, if I may not be buried with the saints of
God. Every man that hath not divested hu
manity, hath a desire to have his bones lie at rest ;
and we cannot provide for that so well, any way,
as to bury them in consecrated places, which are,
in common intendment, safest from profane vio
lences. Even that respect, that his bones might
lie at rest, seems to have moved one prophet to
enjoin his sons to bury him in the sepulchre where
the other prophet was buried.1 He knew that
Josiah would burn the bones of all the other graves,
upon the altar of Bethel, as was prophesied ; and
he presumed that he would spare the bones of that
prophet, and so his bones should be safe, if they
were mingled with the other. God expressed his
love to Moses, in that particular, ' that he buried
him;'2 and, to deliver and remove him from the
violence of any that loved him. not, and so might
dishonour his memory, and from the superstition
of any that over-loved him, and so might over-
honour his memory, God buried him in secret. In
more than one place doth David complain, ' that
there was none to bury God's saints ; and the dig
nity that is promised here in the text, is appro
priated to them ' who are in the graves,' who are
buried. But then, was that general ? Is it simply, plain
ly, literally of them, and them only, who are in
graves, who are buried ? Shall none enjoy a re
surrection that have not enjoyed a grave ? Still I
say, it is a comfort to a dying man, it is an honour
to his memory, it is a discharge of a duty in his
friends, it is a piece of the communion of saints, to
' I Kings, xiii. 31. * Deut. xxxiv. 6.

BY DR. DONNE. 229
have a consecrated grave. But the word here is,
in monumentis, all that are in monuments; that is,
in receptacles of bodies, of what kind soever they
be : wheresoever the hand of God lays up a dead
body, that place is the receptacle, so the monu
ment, so the grave of that body. ' God keeps all
the bones of the righteous, so that none of them
are broken.' " Though they be trod to dust in our
sight, they are entire in his, because he can bid
them be whole again in an instant. Some nations
burnt their dead, — there the fire is the grave ; some
drowned their dead, — there the sea is the grave;
and some hung them up upon trees, — and there
the air is their grave. Some nations eat their dead
themselves, and some maintained dogs to eat the
dead;8 and as they called those dogs, canes sepul-
chrales, sepulchral-dogs, so those men were sepul
chral-men, — those men and those dogs were graves.
' Death and hell shall deliver up their dead,'3 says
St. John. That is, the whole state and mansion of
the dead shall be emptied. The state of the dead
is their grave, and upon all that are in this state,
shall the testimony of God's love to the body of
man fall ; and that is the generality, * all that are
in the grave,' &c.
Our next step is, the instrument, the means by
which this, first so speedy, and then so general
love of God to man, to man in his lowest part, his
body, is accomplished unto him. These, all these,
all these that are in graves, in all these kinds of
graves, ' shall hear his voice,' and that is the means.
First, whose voice ? That is expressed immedi-

Psalm xxxiv. 20. 8 Herod. Strabo.
3 Rev. xx. 13.

230 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
ately before, ' the Son of man.' In the other re
surrection, in that of the dead soul,' there it is
said, ' the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God.' In this, which is the resurrection to judg
ment, it is * the Son of man.' The former resur
rection (that of a sinner to repentance by preach
ing) is wrought by a plain and ordinary means
here in the church ; where you do but hear a man
in a pew read prayers and pronounce absolution,
and a man in a pulpit preach a sermon, and a man
at a table consecrate and administer a sacrament ;
and because all this, though it be the power of life
and the means of your spiritual resurrection, is
wrought by the ministry of man, who might be
contemptible in your eye, therefore the whole work
is referred to God, and not the Son of rnan, but
' the Son of God,' is said to do it.
In this resurrection of the text, which is a resur
rection to judgment, and to an account with God,
that God whom we have displeased, exasperated,
violated, wounded in the whole course of our life,
lest we should be terrified, and dejected at the pre
sence of that God, the whole work is referred to
' the Son of man,' which hath himself formerly felt
all our infirmities, and hath had as sad a soul at
the approach of death, as bitter a cup in the form
of death, as heavy a fear of God's forsaking him in
the agony of death, as we can have : and for sin
itself, I would not, I do not extenuate my sin, but
let me have fallen, not seven times a day, but se
venty-seven times a minute, yet what are my sins
to all those sins that were upon Christ? The sins
of all men, and all women, and all children ; the
1 John, v. 25.

BY DR. DONNE. 2 J I
sins of all nations, all the east and west, and all
the north and south; the sins of all times and ages,
of nature, of law, of grace; the sins of all natures,
sins of the body, and sins of the mind; the sins of
all growth, and all extensions, thoughts, and words,
and acts, and habits, and delight, and glory, and
contempt, and the very sin of boasting, nay of our
belying ourselves in sin ; all these sins, past, present,
and future, were at once upon Christ, and in that
depth of sin, mine are but a drop to his ocean ; in
that treasure of sin, mine are but single money to
his talent ; and therefore, that I might come with a
holy reverence to his ordinance, in this place,
though it be but in the ministry of man, that first
resurrection is attributed to the Son of God, to give
a dignity to that ministry of man, which otherwise
might have been undervalued, that thereby we
might have a consolation and a cheerfulness to
wards it. It is he, thai, is, the Son of God, and the
Son of man, Christ ; which remembers us also, that
all that belongs to the expressing of the law of God
to man, must be received by us, who profess our
selves Christians, in and by, and for, and through
Christ. We use to ascribe the creation to the Father, but
the Father created by the word, and his word is his
Son Christ. ' When he prepared the heavens, I
was there, (says Christ of himself, in the person of
wisdom,) and when he appointed the foundations
of the earth, then was I by him, as one brought up
with him :M it is not, as one brought in to him, or
brought in by him, but with him — one as old ; that
is, as eternal, as much God as he. We use to
1 Prov. viii. 27.

i'32 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
ascribe sanctific.ition to the Holy Ghost ; but the
Holy Ghost sanctifies in the church, and the
church was purchased by the blood of Christ, and
Christ remains head of the church, usque in con-
summationem, till the end of the world. I look
upon every blessing that God affords me, and I
consider whether it be temporal or spiritual ; and
that distinguishes the metal ; the temporal is my
silver, and the spiritual is my gold : but then I
look again upon the inscription, cujus imago, whose
image, whose inscription it bears, and whose name;
and except I have it in, and for, and by Christ
Jesus, temporal and spiritual things too are but
imaginary, but illusory shadows ; for God conveys
himself to us no other way but in Christ.
The benefit then in our text, the resurrection, is
by him ; but it is limited thus, it is by hearing
him : ' They that are in their graves shall hear,' &c
So it is in the other resurrection too, the spiritual
resurrection.1 There they must hear him, that
will live. In both resurrections, that in the church
now by grace, and that in the grave hereafter by
power, it is said, ' They shall hear him.' They
shall, which seems to imply a necessity, though
not a coaction ; but that necessity, not of equal
force, not equally irresistible in both : in the grave,
'they shall,' though they be dead and senseless
as the dust, (for they are dust itself,) though they
bring no concurrence, no co-operation, ' they shall
hear ; ' that is, they shall not choose but hear. In
the other resurrection, which is in the church, by
grace, in God's ordinance, ' they shall hear too ;'
that is, there shall be a voice uttered so as that
1 John, v. 2o.

BY DR. DONNE. 233
they may hear, if they will, but not whether they
will or no, as in the other case, in the grave.
Therefore, when God expresses his gathering of his
church in this world, it is sibilabo et congregabo,
' I will hiss, or chirp for them, and so gather
them.'1 He whispers in the voice of the Spirit, and
he speaks a little louder, in the voice of a man :
let the man be a boanerges, a son of thunder, never
so powerful a speaker, yet no thunder is heard over
all the world. But for the voice that shall be
heard at the resurrection, ' He shall send his an
gels, with a great sound of a trumpet;'8 a great
sound, such as may be made by a trumpet, such
as an angel, all his angels can make in a trumpet :
and more than all that, 'The Lord himself shall
descend from heaven,' and that, ' with a shout, and
with the voice of an archangel ;'3 " that is," says St.
Ambrose, "of Christ himself;" ' and in the trumpet
of God,' that is also Christ himself.
So then you have the person, Christ; the means,
a voice ; and the powerfulness of that voice, in the
name of an archangel, which is named but once
more in all the Scriptures: and therefore, let no
man that hath an holy anhelation and panting
after the resurrection, suspect that he shall sleep in
the dust for ever, for this is a voice that will be
heard, be must rise. Let no man, who, because he
hath made his course of life like a beast, would
therefore be content his state in death might be like
a beast too, hope that he shall sleep in the dust for
ever, for this is a voice that must be heard ; ' and

Zecha. x. 8. ' Matt. xiv. 31.
3 1 Thes. iv. 10.

234 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
all that hear shall come forth, they that have done
good,' &c.
' He shall come forth ;' even he that hath done
ill, and would not, shall come forth. You may
have seen moral men, you may have seen impious
men, go in confidently enough ; not afrighted
with death, not terrified with a grave ; but when
you shall see them come forth again, you shall
see them in another complexion. That man that
died so, with that confidence, thought death his
end : it ends his seventy years, but it begins his se
venty millions of generations of torments, even tq the
body; and he never thought of that. Indeed, Judi-
cii, nisi qui vita aterna pradestinatus est, non potest
reminisci, says St. Ambrose ; " no man can, no man
dares think upon the last judgment, but he that
can think upon it with comfort, he that is predes
tinated to eternal life." Even the best are some
times shaken with the consideration of the resurrec
tion, because it is impossible to separate the con
sideration of the resurrection from the consideration
of the judgment ; and the terrors of that may abate
the joy of the other : Sive comedo, sive bibo, says
St. Jerome; "Whether I eat or drink, still methinks
I hear this sound," Surgite mortui, et venite ad judi
cium! "Arise ye dead, and come to judgment!"
When it calls me up from death, I am glad; when
it calls me to judgment, that impairs my joy. Can
I think that God will not take a strict account ; or,
can I be without fear, if I think he will ? Non ex-
paveseere requisiturum est dicere non requiret, is ex
cellently said by St. Bernard ; " If I can put off
all fear of that judgment, I have put off all imagi
nation that'any such judgment shall be." But when

BY DR. DONNE. 235
I begin this fear in this life, here I end this fear in
my death, and pass away cheerfully : but the
wicked begin this fear, when the trumpet sounds
to the resurrection, and then shall never end it ;
but, as a man condemned to be half-hanged and
then quartered, hath a fearful addition in his quar
tering after, and yet had no ease in his hanging
before ; so they that have done ill, when they have
had their hanging, when they have suffered in
soul the torments of hell, frpm the day of their
death to the day of judgment, shall come to that
day with fear, as to an addition to that which yet
was infinite before. And therefore the Vulgate edi
tion hath rendered this well, procedent, "they shall
proceed," they shall go further and further in tor
ment. But this is not the object of our speculation, the
subject of our speculation now. We proposed this
text for the contemplation of God's love to man,
and therefore we rather comfort ourselves with that
branch, and refresh ourselves with the shadow of
that, ' that they who have done good, shall come
forth unto the resurrection of life.' Alas ! the
others shall live as long as they. Lucifer is as im
mortal as Michael, and Judas as immortal as St.
Peter: but vita damnatorum mors est,1 that which
we call immortality in the damned, is but a con
tinual dying ; howsoever it must be called life, it
hath all the qualities of death, saving the ease and
the end which death hath, and damnation hath
not. They must come forth ; they that have done
evil must do so too : neither can stay in their house,
their grave ; for their house (though that house
1 August.

236 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
should be the sea) shall be burnt down, all the
world dissolved with fire. But then, they who have
done evil shall pass from that fire into a further
heat, without light; they who have done good, into
a further light, without heat.
But fix upon the conditions, and perform them
— they must ' have done good :' to have known
good, to have believed it, to have intended it, nay
to have preached it to others, will not serve — they
must ' have done good.' They must be rooted in
faith, and then bring forth fruit, and fruit in sea
son; and then is the season of doing good, when
another needs that good at thy hands. God gives
the evening rain, but he gave the morning rain be
fore : a good man gives at his death, but he gives
in his lifetime too. To them belongs this resurrec
tion of the body to life ; upon which, since our text
inclines us to marvel rather than to discourse, I
will not venture to say with David, Narrabo omnia
mirabilia tua, ' I will show all thy wondrous
works;'1 (an angel's tongue could not show them;)
but I will say with him, Memmentote mirabilium,
' Remember the marvellous works he hath done;'8
and by that God will open your eyes, that you
may behold the wondrous things that he will do.
Remember with thankfulness the several resurrec
tions that he hath given you ; from superstition
and ignorance, in which you in your fathers lay
dead ; from sin, and a love of sin, in which you in
the days of your youth lay dead; from sadness and
dejection of spirit, in which you in your worldly
crosses or spiritual tentations lay dead : and assure
yourself that that God that loves to perfect his own
1 Psalm ix. 14. 2 Ib. cv. 5 ; cxix. Ki.

BY DR. DONNE. 237
works, when you shall lie dead in your graves, will
give you that resurrection to life which he hath
promised to all them that do good, and will extend
to all them who, having done evil, do yet truly re
pent the evil they have done.

SERMON X.
JESUS RISEN.
BY BISHOP HORNE.

[George Hornb was born In the year 1730. In 1760 he was made President of
Magdalen College, Oxford ; and in 1790 was consecrated bishop of Norwich. He
died in 1792.]

SERMON X.

Luke, xxiv. 34.
The Lord is risen indeed.
Our meditations for this week past have been em
ployed on the sorrows and sufferings of the Son of
God, undergone for the sins of the world. We
have viewed him sold, betrayed, denied, mocked,
scourged, reviled, and evil entreated, crowned with
thorns, and nailed to the cross ; from thence taken
down and laid in the grave, as a man that had
been long dead ; a large stone placed at the mouth
of the sepulchre, properly sealed, and the watch
carefully set. During the solemn commemoration
of those days, in which the bridegroom was thus
taken away, the mirth of tabrets hath ceased, and
the noise of them that rejoice hath given place to
the penitential accents of grief and lamentation.
For a little season, even the sacred music of the
church hath not been heard ; but her harp also,
like that of holy Job, ' hath been turned to mourn
ing, and her organ into the voice of them that
weep ;' ' while either, with one of the Marys, she
1 Job, xxx. 31.

242 JESUS RISEN.
hath stood under the cross, or watched with the
other, at the grave of her Lord.
But as a woman who in her travail hath sorrow,
because her hour is come, yet afterward remember-
elh no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born
into the world ; with such unfeigned exultation do
we on this day celebrate the second birth of the
holy Jesus from the tomb; by which he realized to
his desponding disciples, in a peculiar manner, one
of his own beatitudes : — ' Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted !' Blessed are
they who have mourned for the death of Christ, and
the sins which occasioned it, for they are the per
sons who will be comforted by the tidings of his
resurrection ; their sorrow will indeed be turned
into joy, when they hear that their warfare is ac
complished, that their iniquity is pardoned; since
he, who died for their sins, is risen again for their
justification. Deservedly, therefore, hath this ever
been esteemed the queen of festivals, worthy to
give laws to the rest, to appear at the head of the
holy band, crowned with everlasting joy, and hailed
by incessant hallelujahs. For now it well becom
eth us to obey that injunction, issued of old from
the Lord, by his prophet Isaiah ; ' Sing, O ye hea
vens, for the Lord hath done it ; shout, ye lower
parts of the earth ; break forth into singing, ye
mountains, O forest, and every tree therein ; for the
Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in
Israel.'1 Let songs of praise, therefore, fill the
heavens, from the comforted spirits of just men
made perfect, of patriarchs, and prophets, and
saints, upon this triumph of their God, whom they
1 Isaiah, xii v. 23.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 243
waited for. Let the inhabitants of the earth diffuse
in loud acclamations the glorious name of the
mighty Conqueror, who, by his resurrection, hath
procured and given an earnest of their own. Let
Mount Sion and all her sister churches break forth
into singing, and utter the praises of him who hath
delivered them from the curse ofthe law, and from
the guilt of sin, and from the power of the second
death, as well as from the dominion of the first.
Let the Gentile world, and every tree of righteous
ness planted therein, burst out into fruits of praise
and thanksgiving for this great manifestation of the
power and glory of God, in the redemption of our
nature from the grave. Such be the joy produced
in heaven and in earth, among angels and men,
Jews and Gentiles, by the tidings of this day, ' The
Lord is risen indeed.'
The province allotted me at present is, to display
the grounds and reasons of this general joy, or to
state the evidence for the fact which gives occasion
to it, namely, the resurrection of Jesus our Lord
from the dead ; which being the key-stone of the
Christian fabric, and the foundation of all our
hopes, it must always be a task no less profitable
than delightful, to establish so important and com
fortable a doctrine upon its proper basis.
The evidence for the resurrection of Christ is of
two kinds, predictive and historical. From the
Old Testament it appears, that Messiah was to
rise ; from the New, that Jesus of Nazareth did
rise, and therefore is the Messiah.
Among the predictive witnesses, the first place is
due to that ancient and venerable order of men,
styled patriarchs, or heads of families, whose lives
and actions, as well as their words, were descriptive r 2

244 JESUS RISEN.
of the person in faith of whom they lived and
acted*; instructing, interceding for, and conduct
ing their dependents, as representative prophets,
priests, and kings ; looking forward unto the author
and finisherof their faith and ours, who by dying and
rising again, was to exhibit to the world the divine
fulness of all these characters ; to teach, to atone,
to reign ; to bruise the serpent's head ; to comfort
the sons of Adam concerning the work and toil of
their hands; to gather and to bless the nations.
The extraordinary incidents with which the history
of these holy persons aboundeth, the frequent revo
lutions of their affairs from the depth of adversity
to the height of prosperity, brought about by the
remarkable interpositions of heaven in their favour,
naturally direct our attention to parallel circum
stances in the after dispensations of God, to which
foregoing ones were designed to bear testimony.
In this light, the history of Isaac, intentionally
offered in sacrifice, and received again from the
dead, in a figure ; of Joseph, suffering persecution
from his brethren, and by them sold into the hands
of strangers, but afterward taken from prison and
from judgment, exalted to power and honour,
and becoming the preserver of men ; and under the
Mosaic dispensation, the history of David, anointed
to the kingdom, but wading through a sea of trou
bles and sorrows to the possession of it; of Samson,
arising at midnight, dismantling the fortifications
of the city where he was confined as a prisoner,
and leading captivity captive; together with the
accounts of many other temporal saviours and de
liverers, raised up unto Israel in time of need, to
rescue them from the oppression of their enemies ;
all these histories have been, from the beginning,

BY BISHOP HORNE. 245
considered as bearing an aspect to the exaltation of
mankind from misery and shame to felicity and
glory, through the sufferings and resurrection of
the Son of God, the Champion of the church, and
Redeemer of the world. And, considered in this
view, they will always afford matter of instruction,
of wonder, and delight to the pious and discerning
Christian. In the class of the predictive witnesses of our
Lord's resurrection, the second place is claimed by
the law. Nor will its claim be disputed by any
one who shall reflect that it prophesied until John,
executing the "office of a schoolmaster, to lead men
by material elements and rudiments to an appre
hension of the spiritual ideas signified and con
veyed thereby, until the Baptist succeeded it in
that office; who, pointing to Jesus as he walked,
spake the language of its institutions when he said,
' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sins of the world.' And indeed, when, after the
sacramental atonement made by the death of the
innocent victim, we see the Levitical high-priest
arrayed in the garments of glory and beauty ; when
we behold him purifying all the parts of the figura
tive tabernacle with blood, and then entering
within the veil, into the holiest of all, to present
that propitiating blood before the offended Majesty
of heaven; is it possible, even though an apostle
had not applied all these circumstances for us, to
detain the imagination a moment from fixing itself
on the great High-priest of our profession; the
plenary satisfaction made on the cross ; his resur
rection in an immortal body, no more to stand
charged with sin, no more to see corruption ; the
purification of the church by his precious blood

246 JESUS RISEN.
his ascension into heaven, and intercession for us
in the presence of God ? Again, when we read the
command given to the priest, that on the morrow
after the sabbath he should wave a sheaf of the first
fruits,1 as an earnest and sanctification ofthe future
harvest; doth it not immediately suggest to us,
that on the same day, on the morrow after the
sabbath, Christ arose from the dead, and became
the first fruits of them that slept, the sanctification
and earnest of that harvest which shall be at the
end of the world ; at which time he who, in the
days of his flesh, went on weeping, — a man of sor
rows, and acquainted with grief, bearing forth the
precious seed of the word of life, — shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him. Nor can we, it is apprehended, peruse
the account of the flowering rod of Aaron, depo
sited in the most holy place for a perpetual memo
rial of the investiture of the priesthood in him and
his family,5 without being led to reflect on the as
certainment of the eternal Melchisedekian priest
hood to the person of Christ, by the reflorescence of
that mortal part which he drew from the stem of
Jesse, and which hath now taken up its residence
in heaven itself, being an everlasting memorial to
God and man of the true and availing priesthood
and intercession of the holy Jesus.
Next to the patriarchs and the law, the prophets
press for admittance to deliver their testimony ; for
¦ the testimony of Jesus,' as saith the angel in the
Revelation, ' is the spirit of prophecy.'3 Some of
these give their evidence in the ancient way of

Lev. xxiii. 11. * See Numb. xvii.
3 Kev. xix. 10.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 247
figure and emblem; others, with less reserve, in
express literal declarations. Of the former kind is
that of Jonah, devoted for the safety of the vessel
in which he sailed, detained three days in what he
styleth ' the belly of hell,' and then restored to the
world again, to preach repentance to the heathen ;
a circumstance too plain and striking to need any
comment, after that given by our Lord himself:
' As Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth.'1
Of a like nature is that vision of Zechariah,2 in
which he seeth Joshua, the high-priest, clothed with
filthy garments, which are taken from him, and he
is clothed with change of raiment, and other sacer
dotal ornaments, denoting the purity and glory of
Christ, when our iniquity passed from him, and he
arose, without sin, unto salvation. And thus,
again, the prophecy of Haggai, that the ' glory of
the latter house should be greater than that of the
former,'3 is as true of the temple of our Lord's
body, after his resurrection, compared with that be
fore his death, as it is of the second material tem
ple, compared with the first, on account of the pre
sence of God incarnate in the one, which was not
in the other. Hosea delivers a prediction of the
restoration of the church, then oppressed and
afflicted, in terms literally applicable to the virtual
resurrection of members in the head ofthe church.
' Come, and let us return unto the Lord ; for he hath
torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he
will bind us up ; after two days be will revive us ;
and in the third day he will raise us up, and we
1 Matt. xii. 40. * See Zech. iii. 3. 3 Haggai, ii. 9.

248 JESUS RISEN.
shall live in his sight.' ' But Isaiah is very expli
cit, and saith, in the person of Christ addressing
himself to the church ; ' Thy dead men shall live,
together with my dead body shall they arise :
awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy
clew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast
out the dead.'* And, elsewhere, discoursing of
the Messiah, he foretelleth expressly, that 'when he
had made his soul an offering for sin, he should
see his seed, he should prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands :
that he should see ofthe travail of his soul, and be
satisfied; that because he had poured out his soul
unto death, God would afterward give him a por
tion with the great.'3 I shall close the predic
tive evidence with the famous passage from the
16th Psalm : ' Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corrup
tion : thou wilt show me the path of life;' where,
as St. Peter assureth us, in his sermon,4 David spake
not in his own person, but, ' being a prophet, and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that ofthe fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit upon his throne, he
seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did
his flesh see corruption.'
A fact of so extraordinary a nature as the resur
rection of a body from the dead, predicted, as we
have seen, at sundry times and in diverse manners,
by the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets, can
not be supposed to have happened without suffi-

(losea, vi. 1, 2. * Isaiah, xxvi. Ii). ¦> Isaiah, liii. 12.
4 Acts, xi.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 249
cient witnesses of its accomplishment. These are
now to be collected, and made to pass in due order
before us.
And, first, we shall cite heaven and earth to give
in their evidence ; for both of them perceived the ,
power of their Lord at his rising, and both pro
claimed it to the inhabitants of the world, by those
awful signs and appearances which ushered in the
morning of the resurrection. At the time fore-
appointed in the divine counsels, * the angel of the
Lord descended from heaven,' bringing with him a
strange and more glorious dayspring ; his bright
ness covering the heavens, and enlightening the
world. * His countenance,' saith St. Matthew, 'was
like lightning, and his raiment white as snow ;' all
purity, and joy, and triumph, and glory. At this
manifestation of splendour and majesty from hea
ven, the earth trembled and quaked, as declaring
itself unable any longer to detain the body which
had been committed to it for a little season : 'Be
hold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and
rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon
it.' At the instant of this universal commotion,
the blessed Jesus, awakening right early from that
which was- but a sleep to him, and will be no more
to us who believe in him, left the bed of death.
He arose, and came forth, almighty, all glorious,
fresh as the light of the morning; as a bridegroom
proceeding out of his chamber, as a strong man
prepared to run his course ; and saying, or seem
ing to say, 'I am he that liveth, and was dead; and,
behold, I am alive for evermore.' ¦
1 Rev. i. 18.

250 JESUS RISEN.
The next witnesses which appear in favour of
the resurrection, are the holy angels. For as the
devout women, who came betimes in the morn
ing, with a pious but needless care, to perform
the last instance of duty and affection to the body
of their Lord, were much perplexed at what they
saw ; lo, two of the inhabitants of heaven, ever re
joicing to minister to the heirs of salvation, ap
peared in robes of glory, and reproved them for
expecting to find their Master among the tombs, as
if it were possible that he should be holden of
death, who was to give life to all. ' Why seek ye
the living among the dead ? He is not here, but is
risen. Remember how he spake unto you, when
he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man
must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,
and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'1
As if they had said, " How long will ye be igno
rant of the divine dispensations concerning the
Messiah, and continue seeking the Lord of life in
the regions of death ? He died, indeed, unto sin
once, as he told you he should ; but do you not
bear in mind what he told you at the same time,
that, after payment of the debt, he should be re
leased from prison, naming the very day of his dis
charge, the third day, which is now come. He is
risen, as he said ; and, being so risen, he dieth no
more ; death hath no more dominion over him, nor
hath he any further connexions with mortality."
The same heavenly messengers were seen by Mary
Magdalen in the sepulchre, arrayed in white, and
sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. The grave
1 Luke, xxiv. 5.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 251
was now rendered a scene of joy and triumph,
where Christ had overcome the sharpness of death ;
and where, from thenceforth, the bodies of the
faithful rest in peace, under the care of heaven, till
the general resurrection ; when they shall become
as the angels of God, and shall ' walk with him in
white.' '
As one set of witnesses descended from above, to
bear testimony to the resurrectionof Jesus, so others
ascended, for the same purpose, from the lower
parts of the earth. For ' many bodies of saints
which slept, arose, and came out of their graves
after his resurrection, and went into the holy city,
and appeared unto many.'* The astonishment
produced in Jerusalem by the sudden appearance
of these new and unexpected evidences, is more
easily conceived than expressed. We may only
observe, that if this fact had not been as the gos
pel represents it, it must have exposed the inven
tors of the tale to utter scorn and contempt, and
proved the ruin of the cause which it was intended
to support.
But it is time to allege the many appearances of
Christ himself, after his resurrection, to Mary Mag
dalen apart; to the other devout women with her;
to the two going to Emmaus ; to St. Peter, to
St. James, to the eleven ; to ' above five hundred
brethren at once ;' to St. Stephen, just before his
martyrdom; and to St. Paul, at his conversion.
And so far were these witnesses of the appearances
of Christ from being credulous, that they were al
together sceptical ; God having in a wonderful
manner provided for the confirmation of our faith,
1 Rev. iii. 4. 2 Matt, xxvii. 52.

252 JESUS RISEN.
by suffering them to doubt to the last. For
not only the reports of those who had seen him
were disbelieved by those who had not, but
when he presented himself in the midst of the
eleven, they could not credit their own senses.
And when all the rest were convinced, Thomas
still stood out, till ocular and palpable demonstra
tion forced from him that ever memorable confes
sion, ' My Lord, and my God !' " Thus was there
no capacity of mankind, no time, no place, but
had visible proof ofthe resurrection of Christ. He
appeared to men and women, to clergy and laity,
to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to crimi
nals, to doubters and deniers, at home and abroad,
in public and in private, in their houses and their
journeys, unexpected and by appointment, betimes
in the morning, and late at night, to his disciples
in conjunction, and to them in dispersion, when
they did look for him, and when they did not ; he
appeared upon earth to many, and to St. Paul and
St. Stephen from heaven. So that we can require
no greater testimony than all these are able to
give us, who saw for themselves and for us too ;
that the faith and certainty of the resurrection of
Jesus might be conveyed to all ages and genera
tions.'' To enable the apostle thus to convey it, the
Spirit of truth himself set his seal to this article of
our creed, by coming down upon them on the day
of Pentecost, and bestowing on them wisdom to
teach, power to confirm, and patience to suffer for
the doctrine of the resurrection, until, converted by
their preaching, the nations of the earth bore uni
versal testimony to the reality thereof. For that
" a religion which taught men to be meek and hum-

BY BISHOP HORNE. 253
ble, disposed to receive injuries, but not to do any ;
a religion which gave countenance to the poor and
lowly, at a time when riches were adored, and am
bition and pleasure had possessed the hearts of all
mankind ; that such a religion, ]in such an age, by
the sermons and conduct of fishermen, men of
mean breeding and illiberal arts, should so speedily
triumph over the philosophy of the world, and the
arguments of the subtle, and the discourses of the
eloquent; the power of princes and the interests of
states; the inclinations of nature and the blindness
of zeal ; the force of custom and the solicitation of
passions ; the pleasures of sin and the busy arts of
the devil ; that is, against wit and power, super
stition and wilfulness, fame and money, nature
and empire, which are all the causes in this world
that can make a thing impossible ; this, this is to
be ascribed to the power of God, and is the great
demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus. Every
thing was an argument for it, and improved it ; no
objection could hinder it, no enemies destroy it ;
whatsoever was for it, made the religion to in
crease; whatsoever was against it, made it to in
crease. If the Christians had peace, they went
abroad and brought in converts ; if they had per
secution, the converts came in^ to them. In pros
perity they allured and enticed the world by the
beauty of holiness ; in affliction and trouble they
amazed all men with the splendour of their inno
cence, and the glories of their patience. Quickly
therefore it was, that the world became disciple to
the glorious Nazarene, and men could no longer
doubt of the resurrection of Jesus, when it became
demonstrated by the certainty of those who saw it,
and the courage of those who died for it, and the

254 JESUS RISEN.
multitude of those who believed it; who, by their
sermons and their actions, by their public offices
and discourses, by festivals and sacraments, by ar
guments of sense and experience, by reason and
religion, by persuading rational men, and establish
ing believing Christians, by their living in the obe
dience, and dying for the testimony of Jesus, have
greatly advanced his kingdom, and his power, and
his glory, into which he entered, upon his resur
rection from the dead."1
Thus we have taken such a view, as the usual
time allotted to discourses of this kind will allow
us to take, of the evidence for our Lord's resurrec
tion, predictive and historical ; to the completion
of which it is hard to conceive any thing wanting,
unless it were the testimony of the adversary to the
truth ofthe disputed fact, by the futility of an ob
jection started to overthrow it. And with this
proof likewise the Roman guard, under the direc
tion of the Jewish rulers, has thought proper to
furnish us. — ' The disciples," say they, ' came by
night, and stole him away, while we slept.' The
disciples came and stole the body ! They, who
all forsook their master at his apprehension, and
fled; they, who, from that time, had absconded,
1 Bishop Taylor's " Moral Demonstration of the Truth of
Christianity," republished, since this Discourse was written, by
a learned and amiable prelate of our church. May it meet with
the success it deserves ; for no tract ever came from the pen of
man, better calculated to dispel those doubts and difficulties
which may arise in the mind of a believer, or to work convic
tion and conversion in that of the unbeliever, who can bring
himself to give it a fair and attentive perusal. This has ever
appeared to me to be its true character, since the hour when,
with equal surprise and pleasure, I first met with it, where it
so long lay hidden from the fashionable world, in the Ductor
Ditbltantium.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 255
for fear of the Jews, without hope, without cou
rage, without contrivance, became all at once
subtle in counsel, and daring in execution. They
projected a plan to displace the guard, break the
seal, remove the stone, and rescue the body, in
order to persuade the world that their Master was
risen from the dead. And all this they effected,
not with the precipitation of men engaged in a bad
design, who feared a discovery, and would there
fore have hastily seized the body, wrapped as it
was in the sepulchral vestments, but, with all the
composed sedulity of domestics, carefully disen
tangling it from the linen clothes, and then depo
siting them in the exactest order. It is now proper
to inquire, where were the soldiers, appointed to
watch the sepulcre, all this while ? What were
they doing ? The answer is ready ; — they were
asleep. Notwithstanding the rigour of the Roman
discipline, and the care that would doubtless be
taken to select proper men upon this great occasion,
yet the disciples came and stole the body ' while
they slept.' But, did they indeed sleep ? Did
they all sleep ? Determine then, ye Jews and in
fidels, what degree of credit is due to the testimony
of men concerning what happened, when, by their
own confession, they were asleep ! This idle tale,
which thus carries its own confutation with it;
could have been the offspring only of a corrupt
and infatuated Sanhedrim, to whom the watch told
what had happened — not that the disciples came
and stole the body while they slept — but that, while
they were half dead with fear, at beholding the
heavens around them in a blaze of glory, and feel
ing the earth under them trembling from its centre,
the Galilean arose from the. dead, to the confusion

256 JESUS RISEN.
of all his enemies. But to stifle this evidence, and
prevent the report from spreading, the soldiers had
large money given them by the chief priests (and,
indeed, the work deserved the wages) to propagate
a story so absurd and shameless, that, instead of
invalidating the truth of the resurrection, it is of
itself sufficient to make any man believe it, who
was before determined to the contrary.
If, therefore, the patriarchs, the law, and the
prophets ; if heaven and earth ; if angels from
above, and the dead from beneath ; if the appear
ances of Christ himself on earth and from heaven ;
if the Spirit of truth, with all his gifts and graces ;
if the miracles of the apostles, the lives of saints,
the sufferings of confessors, and the deaths of mar
tyrs ; if the conversion of the world to the faith of
a crucified Saviour, without power, wealth, or
learning; if the church, with the antiquity, uni
versality, and consent of her institutions and ser
vices for above seventeen centuries, from the day
on which Christ was first seen by the eleven after
his resurrection, to this hour, in which we are now
assembled for the commemoration of it ; and,
lastly, if the objections of the adversary establish
ing the truth which they were intended to subvert ;
that is to say, in one word, if all the evidence
which God can give, or man receive, be sufficient
to prove a matter of fact; then may we evermore
rejoice, — and evermore let us therefore rejoice, in
all the glorious consequences of the proposition in
the text — ' The Lord is risen indeed.'

SERMON XI.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
BY BISHOP HORNE.

SERMON XL

Philippians, hi. 20, 21.
From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ ; who shall change our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby lie is able even to
subdue all things unto himself.
The text treats of a most amazing change to be
one day wrought in the bodies of men, as also of
the person who is to effect it; namely, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And, indeed, ' we trusted it had
been he who should have redeemed Israel from all
his troubles.' But, are we ' strangers in Jerusalem,
and know not the things that have come to pass
there within these days ; ' that this same Jesus,
falsely accused, through envy, by the nobles of
Judah, has been cast into the den of lions, with a
stone brought and laid upon the mouth ofthe den,
and sealed with a signet, that the purpose might
not be changed concerning him, ' nor any possibi
lity remain of his escaping from thence ? In this
1 Dan. vi. 17.

260 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
state, he is by no means able to perform the great
work ascribed to him in the text. For it must be
observed, that though he be indeed God over all,
he is not the Saviour, without his humanity.
Though the raising the dead be an act of omnipo
tence, and consequently one which must be wrought
by his divinity, yet it is not Jesus Christ that does
it, unless the divinity does it in Jesus. And thus
the text runs : — ' We look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus.' But, from whence do we look for him? From
the sepulchre ? No : from heaven ; — ' Our conver
sation is in heaven, from whence we look for the
Saviour.' Surely then 'the God whom he served
has delivered him from the power of the lions.' '
Surely ' the king has sent and delivered him, the
prince of the people has let him go free.'8 ' He is
escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler :
the snare is broken and he is delivered,'3 and fled
away toward heaven. For how should a person,
once laid in the grave, come from heaven, unless he
were first risen, and ascended thither ? Four days
ago he was carried captive into the kingdom of
death, and confined in that strong city, the grave ;
and now we look for him to come from heaven.
For thus doth the prophet Isaiah most magnifi
cently describe him returning to his capital, from
the land of the enemy, after his passion ; — ' Who is
this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments
from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel,
travelling in the greatness of his strength ? I who
speak in righteousness mighty to save.'4 Well,
therefore, may we ' look for the Saviour from hea-

1 Dan. vi. 22, 27. a Psalm, cv. 20.
1 Psalm cxxiv. 7. ' Iaiah, lxiii. 1.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 261
ven,' for there most certainly he is. And from
thence, as the text affirms, he shall as certainly
come to raise us. He, who died on the cross to
redeem, who rose from the sepulchre to justify, and
who sent his Spirit from heaven to sanctify our
souls, he, even he, shall come to glorify our bodies,
and finish his work. And then shall we hear
' from the throne the voice of mighty thunderings,
saying, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the
first and the last, the beginning and the end. I
will give unto him that is athirst of the water of
life freely.' May we not, therefore, address the
world in the words of Moses's divine song, and say,
' Give ear, O ye heavens, and he will speak ; and
hear, O earth, the words of his mouth. His doc
trine shall drop as the rain, and his speech shall
distil'as the dew;'1 for, as it is elsewhere written,
his ' dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall
cast out the dead.'8 The dew, like himself, arises
from earth, but we look for it from heaven ; ' from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able even
to subdue all things to himself.'
Let us then consider Christ coming from heaven
as a Saviour.
Man consists of two parts, both of which stand
in need of a Saviour, because both fell, and became
subject to the destroyer. The salvation here spoken
of is plainly the salvation of the body, not exclud
ing that of the soul, but perfective of it. For if
Christ be here denominated a Saviour, because he
1 Deut. xxxiL 1. ' Isaiah, xxvi. 19.

262 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
comes to change the body, then is he here spoken of
as the Saviour of the body, which he comes to
change. Now, a Saviour is one that delivers us
from our enemies, as it is written — ' He hath raised
up an horn of salvation for us, — that we should be
saved from our enemies.' ' But the enemy that
destroys the body, is death ; and, therefore, the
body cannot be saved from that enemy without a
resurrection; nor can Christ be its Saviour, unless
he raise it from the death. But the apostle here
styles him the Saviour, with respect to the body ;
therefore, he will be its * resurrection and its life ;
and whosoever believeth in him, though he were
dead, yet shall he live.'
Indeed, the work of redemption is left unfinished
if this be not the case. For, notwithstanding the
sufferings and resurrection of Christ, ' the whole
creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together,
until now ; and not only they, but ourselves also,
which have the first fruits of the Spirit; even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, lo wit, the redemption of the body.'8
This, and this only, crowns and makes effectual the
labours of the Redeemer. ' For this end,' says the
apostle, ' Christ both died, and rose, and revived,
that he might be Lord, both of the dead and of the
living.'3 And, again, ' He hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world by that man
whom he hath ordained; whereof he has given
assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from
the dead.'4 Christ was incarnate, that he might
die ; he died, that he might rise ; he arose, that he
1 Luke, i. C9— 71. » Rom. viii. 22. * Ibid. xiv. 9.
4 Acts, xvii. 31.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 263
might ascend; he ascended, that he might take
possession of his kingdom ; and he took possession
of his kingdom, that he might raise the dead and
judge the world. 'The God of our fathers,' says
St. Peter, ' raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, him
hath God exalted with his right hand' — for what
end ? — * to be a Prince, and a Saviour.' ' He,
therefore, that has ' done so great things for us
already, whereof we do rejoice, yea, and will re
joice,' will never leave us in our enemy's hand, but
' shall reign till he has put all enemies under his
feet;' and we know, 'the last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death.'
Again. He who is eternal truth, and who pro
mised to raise Christ, has promised to raise us. He
has fulfilled one part of his promise, and, therefore,
will accomplish the other.
Nor is this all. But such is the intimate union
between Christ and us, that. his resurrection in
effect is ours, and we are looked upon by our hea
venly Father as already risen in his beloved Son.
For we must consider Christ as suffering and rising,
not for himself alone, but for us. We must not
view him as a private person, as a single individual,
but as the representative and substitute of human
nature, and of all the persons in that nature ; we
must view him as the second Adam, containing in
his loins all who are, or shall be, born of the will of
God, of incorruptible seed, by spiritual regenera
tion; as in the loins of the first Adam lay all his
posterity, afterward born of the will of man, of cor
ruptible seed, by natural generation. In this ca-
1 Acts, v. 30.

264 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
pacity, as surety and father of us all, he entered
the grave, and lay under the arrest of death, for our
sin ; and in this capacity he arose from the grave,
and came forth, for our justification ; that as ' in
Adam all died, even so in Christ should all be
made alive.' The words, therefore, which he spake
are fulfilled : 'Because I live, ye shall live also.'1
For, if Christ be risen in our nature, then our na
ture is risen in Christ ; and if our nature be risen,
then they who partake of that nature shall rise too.
We are, as the apostle speaks, ovptyvroi, ' planted
together in the likeness of his death,' that we may
grow together ' in the likeness of his resurrection.'
He for us, and we in him ; that ' the same Spirit
which raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, may
also quicken our bodies.'8 For who amongst us
ever heard of a living head joined to dead members ?
Now, that he is joined to us is most certain ; for
when the foot was bruised on earth, the head from
heaven cried out, as sensible of the pain, ' Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' The head, lifted
up from the waters which had overwhelmed it,
drew in the breath of the Spirit of life, for the en
livening and invigorating every member of the
body. And though the members are, as yet, wading
through those waters, and being covered with the
waves, live only by their vital union with the ex
alted head, yet have they this promise, on which
they may with confidence rely : * I, when I am
lifted up, will draw all-men unto me.'3 The apos
tle observes, that * if any one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it.'4 How much more

John, xiv. 19. a Rom. viii. 11. J J0hnj xjj. 32.
4 1 Cor. xiii. 20.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 265
must this be the case, when 'the head is become as
the most fine gold, and on it are many crowns ;'
when * all the kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ ;' which
Christ is ' the head of the church, and he is the Sa
viour of the body.' It is an acknowledged axiom,
that as is the root such are the branches. If then
the root, though set in dry ground, yet through the
influences of heaven, and the water of , life, became
full of immortality, how shall not the branches par
take of that immortality which the root receives,
only lo bestow it upon them, as it is written : —
' The Father hath given to the Son to have life in
himself, that he should give eternal life to as many
as he has given him.' l He is the root, we are the
branches. He is the first begotten from the dead :
therefore others, whom ' he is not ashamed to call
brethren,' shall be begotten from the dead, and de
clared the sons of God, as he was, by their resur
rection, and the power of the Almighty. Many
other Scripture illustrations of the same point
might be adduced; but these are sufficient. Well
then might the apostle argue, as he does, in that
truly irrefragable manner : ' Now, if Christ be
preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some
among you, that there is no resurrection of the
dead ? But, if there be no resurrection of the
dead, then is Christ not risen ; and if Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is
also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God ; because we have testified of God, that he
raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be
that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not,
' John, xvii. 2.

266 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also, which are fallen asleep in Christ,
are perished. If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now
is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first
fruits of them that slept.' The first fruits are pre
sented by the great High-priest. 'The morning
after the sabbath he waved them before Jehovah.'
Then the heavens were bowed, and the earth shook.
And meet it was, when the sheaf of Joseph thus
arose and stood upright, thai every sheaf in the field
should make obeisance,1 that every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things on earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus is Lord ;s that he is the
first fruits, foreshowing, sanctifying, and insuring
that future harvest, which will be at the end of the
world ; that he is the first fruits of them that slept,
and, therefore, that they who are in the graves 'are
not dead, but sleep ;' and ' if they sleep in him,
they shall do well.' For yet a little while, and he
will call from heaven to his people, saying, in the
words of his prophets, ' Awake, and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust,' and let the voice of melody be
heard through all the chambers of the grave : —
Awake up, my glory, awake lute and harp ; awake,
thou that sleepest; shake thyself from the dust;
awake, awake, utter a song ; break forth into joy,
sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the
Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed
Jerusalem. Hath he said, and shall he not do it ?
I will redeem them from death, I will ransom them
from the power of the grave ; O death, I will be
1 Gen. xxxvii. 7. a Phil. ii. 10.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 267
thy plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction.
Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. I am
Jehovah, and change not.'
But how is this salvation to be effected ? The
text expresses it by a change; ' Who shall change
our vile body.' And otherwise than by a change
from the state in which it is to one very different,
the deliverance cannot be wrought ; since the sub
ject of it is a body now vile. In the original it is
ciopa rrjc tcltieiviiioewq r)pwv, ' the body of our humi
liation.' Humiliation implies a fall from some
higher state. And such a fall our nature has sus
tained : for though the body of man was originally
formed out of the earth, it was of the earth, before
the curse of corruption was inflicted upon it. —
' God created man to be immortal, and made him
an image of his own eternity.' Other things were
produced by the word of his power, but man by
the counsel of the eternal Three, who said, ' Let
us make man.' The workmanship ennobled the
materials ; the hand of the Almighty bestowed
perfection as it passed upon them, and the crea
ture rose under it, beautiful in his form, excel
lent in his glory, the most perfect image of his
Maker. There was no seed of corruption within,
to cause disease and deformity without ; no con
tending passions in the soul, like moths to fret
and wear out its garment, the body. The soul,
clothed with the Spirit of holiness, was all glori
ous within, and could not but communicate some
portion of its excellence to its earthly taber
nacle, thereby rendering matter a fit companion
for an upright spirit, breathed into it from above.
God made not sin, neither hath he pleasure in the

268 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
punishment of it. But man chose it. And behold
what destruction it hath brought upon the earth,
and upon our body formed out of it! What dread
ful attendants has this ravager of the world intro
duced ! Corruption, and shame, and misery, and
trouble, and infirmity, and deformity, and sorrow,
and death. The soul is become a sea, whereon the
passions, like winds, strive for the mastery, shaking
the earthly frame with diverse diseases, and sundry
kinds of death. It is now 'a body of sin;' and
what wonder that it should be a 'body of humilia
tion ? Sin has laid it low, even to the dust. Pam
per it with the luxuries of sea and land, array it in
gold and diamonds, it will be still the same. Only
undraw the curtains of affliction, and you view it
languishing upon the bed of sickness ; unlock the
doors of the grave, or enter the secret recesses of
the charnel-house, and you behold it stripped of the
world's tinsel pomps and vanities, reduced to pu
trid flesh, mouldering dust, and dry bones ; no
longer able to disguise or disown its original ;
brought at last to know itself, and introduced to an
acquaintance proper for it : — ' earth to earth, ashes
to ashes, dust to dust.' Here, then, O thou, who
soever thou art, that delightest to contemplate the
dignity and rectitude of human nature, here sit
down and begin thy meditations. Is it thus that
virtue is its own reward ? Or say, is the body no
part of the man ? If it be, why is it in this state ;
or how is it to be changed ? Men talk much of the
moral sense. Can the moral sense acquaint us with
the resurrection of the dead ? Reason is placed on
the throne, and her kingdom, it is said, ruleth over
all. Can reason discover the change of corruption

BY BISHOP HORNE. 269
into glory ? We know she cannot; and when she
spake upon the subject at Athens, her language
was, ' What will this babbler say ?'
Nay, since that time, we have heard her mutter
ing from the dust, by the mouth of certain philoso
phers, ' How are the dead raised up, and with what
body do they come ?' With what body, O man,
should they come, but the body with which they
went ? What body should be raised from the grave,
but the body that was laid in the grave ? Had we
seen Joseph of Arimathea deposit the Redeemer of
the world in the sepulchre, and been told that
the Redeemer should arise again, could any one
have thought of asking, ' with what body he should
come ?' Whether with the body which he had,
when he went with his parents to Jerusalem, at
twelve years old ; or the body he had at twenty ;
or the body he had at thirty, when he began his
ministry ? Upon this subject two men of equal
abilities might dispute, if they were to live so long,
till Christ came in the clouds to judgment, and
found them doubting whether he was risen or not,
because they could not conceive with what body he
should rise, or how it was consistent with the jus
tice of God to raise and reward one body only,
when, as they apprehend, he was born in one body,
lived in another, and suffered in a third ; because,
it is said, the body undergoes a thorough change
in a certain term of years. This metaphysical ar
gument therefore, though seemingly no more than
a difficulty proposed as to the manner of our resur
rection, really strikes at the truth of the article of
Christ's resurrection, and is calculated to darken
the counsel and revelation of the Most High, by
words without knowledge ; so much without know-

270 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
ledge that the plain matter of fact is a sufficient
answer. Jesus Christ was laid in the sepulchre,
and the same Jesus Christ arose out of the sepul
chre. And if it were so with his natural body,
why should it be otherwise with his mystical ? The
Scriptures are clear that it will not. For as they
who are alive at Christ's coming are to be 'changed
in the twinkling of an eye,' and consequently that
body must be changed which is found at the in
stant of his coming, and no other, so they that are
in their graves shall come forth to be changed like
wise, and consequently those bodies only must be
changed that were laid in the graves. ' Who shall
change our vile body,' says the text; therefore the
vile body must be there to be changed : otherwise
it would not be a change, pEraa^rjpariaiQ, a trans
formation, or transfiguration of vile into glorious,
but a substitution of glorious for vile. It is this
mortal, and this corruptible — tovto to Ovtjtov — this
very mass of mortality and corruption. ' It is
sown, it is raised.' The same, in short, may be
said to these objectors which Christ said to the
Sadducees upon a like occasion : ' Ye do greatly
err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of
God.' For if you knew the power of God, you
would know that he can do it; and if you knew
the Scriptures, you would know that he will do it.
And if they say he will do it, all the objections in
the world show but one thing, namely an evil heart
of unbelief in the objectors. For since the Scrip
tures (and particularly the process in Ezekiel's vision
ofthe resurrection) plainly show, that the body is
first to be raised, and all the parts of it put together,
before the change takes place, nothing remains but
an atheistical denial of the poiver of God to collect

BY BISHOP HORNE. 271
the parts and put them together; a denial, that he
who made all things of impalpable dust, and be
held the substance of the world before two atoms of
it were joined ; who formed the body of man out
of those created for that purpose, and dissolves and
disperses them at pleasure ; a denial that he can
collect them again when dispersed; a denial that
the Almighty can do this. Only suppose a man
not ignorant ofthe power of God, and all difficulties
vanish. For then, whether the dust lie quiet in the
grave, or be blown to the four winds, or be entombed
in a whale, or buried in the great deep, it is equally
under the eye of the Omniscient, and the power of
the Omnipotent. These are all his store-houses and
repositories, to be opened by him who has the keys
of hell and death, when the sea shall deliver up the
dead that are in it, and death and hell deliver up the
dead that are in themj; whenras the same Jonas came
out of the whale, and the same Son of Man from
the heart of the earth, so the same bodies of saints,
that laid down at night, shall arise in the morning.
God is not unrighteous, that he should forget the
body's work and labour of love. From those eyes,
which have poured forth tears of repentance, shall
all tears be wiped, and they shall be blessed with
the vision of the Almighty. Those hands which
have been lifted up in prayer, and stretched out to
the poor, shall hold the palm of victory and harp
of joy. Those feet which have wearied themselves
in going about to do good, shall stand in the courts
of the Lord, and walk in the garden of God, and in
the streets of the New Jerusalem. That flesh which
has been chastised and mortified, shall be rewarded
for what it has suffered ; nay, the very hairs of our
heads are all numbered ; how much more then the

272 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
parts of our bodies? 'This,' says the Resurrection
himself, ' is my Father's will that has sent me, that
of all which he has given me, 17AN 6 Sedoixe poi,
I shall lose nothing, but raise it up at the last
day." We might indeed follow the objectors to
the resurrection into the cold obscure of metaphy
sics. But what has been alleged from the Scrip
tures, and the power of God revealed in those Scrip
tures, (the only topics of argumentation upon sub
jects of this nature,) overturns the foundation of
every thing the objectors have to offer; and it will,
I presume, be much more profitable to lay open
from the Scriptures the manner in which this
change is to be wrought.
The greatness of the change appears from this,
that ' our vile body' is to be ' fashioned like unto
Christ's glorious body.' Of this he was pleased to
give a specimen to Peter and James and John,
and in them to all his disciples, who, by faith and
devotion will accompany their Master, in ' the
body of his humiliation,' to the top of Mount Ta
bor. There they may behold an ensample of this
most amazing change ; the power of the Highest,
which dwelt in Christ, diffusing itself outwardly,
till he appeared all over exceeding glorious, his
face shining like the sun, and his raiment becom
ing white as the light.8 Who is not ready to say,
' It is good for us to be here, to behold the fair
beauty of the Lord, even the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ ?' But here we must not stay,
because he did not. For though, at the bright-
1 John, vi. 39.
" See the resurrection of the body, in an ingenious and beau
tiful manner illustrated from the transfiguration of Christ, by
the Reverend Mr. Holmes, in his excellent Sermon on that sub
ject.

BY BISHOP HORNE. 273
ness before him, the cloud passed, and the sun, for
a little while, appeared in his strength, the cloud
soon returned and overshadowed him, and he en
tered into it. He descended from the mount of
transfiguration to the heart of the earth, and then
' there was darkness over all the land ;' but he soon
went up to an higher mountain than Tabor, was
again transfigured, and introduced a day which no
cloud shall ever overcast more. He became, as it
was foretold that he should do, * as the light of
the morning when the sun arises, even a morning
without clouds.' ' The world indeed sees him not ;
but to us, who believe, ' a door is opened in hea
ven, and behold a throne set, like the fiery flame,
and its wheels as burning fire, and one sits on it, to
look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone; his
garment white as snow, and the hairs of his head
like the pure wool ; his eyes as a flame of fire,
and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned
in a furnace, and his countenance as the sun shineth
in his strength.'2 'Beloved,' says St. John, 'it
does not yet appear what we shall be ; but this we
know, that ' when he shall appear, we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is, and by see
ing him, be transformed into the same image, from
glory to glory.' He has power, as the text informs
us, to subdue all things to himself, because he is
the Almighty God, and this power he will exert on
our bodies. Yet a little while, and he will rend
the heavens, and come down, and heaven and earth
will be filled with the overflowing flood of the ma
jesty of his glory, * as the waters cover the sea ;'
the heavens over our heads melting away before it,
1 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. a Dan, vii. 9 ; x. 6 ? Rev. i. 14.
T

274 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
and the mountains flowing down, in liquid fire, at
its presence. At that instant — " when the shriek
of millions, fearfully crying out, shall mingle with
the trumpet of the archangel, with the thunders of
the departing heavens, and the noise of a world
shaking into dissolution" — at that instant, ' the
dead shall be raised, and we shall be changed.'
Changed — not by the corruptible being taken away,
and the incorruptible introduced in its room, but
by a superinduction of the incorruptible upon the
corruptible. For thus says the apostle, ' We that
are in this tabernacle do groan earnestly, desiring
to be clothed upon vvith our house which is from
heaven. Not for that we would be unclothed,' or
lose the earthly body, ' but clothed upon,' with a
superinvestiture of the house from heaven, namely,
the divine light, which is to in wrap and invest the
mortal body as a garment. And not only in
vest it outwardly, as a garment, but, by the divine
energy of its almighty power, penetrate and pierce
through and through its most intimate substance,
till it has converted, subdued, worked, and changed
it all into itself, so that mortality is swallowed up
of life, and corruption quite absorbed and lost in
the ocean of the all-encircling glory. Then shall the
righteous be seen standing victorious, through faith
in Jesus, transformed (to compare the things of
this world with those of another) from the dark
ness of dust and ashes, to the clear transparency of
glass, the pure lustre of diamonds, the inconceiv
able agility of light, and the perfect impassibility
of heaven. No reasonable man can complain, that
the Scriptures are not explicit enough upon the
subject. But the transformation of mortality into
glory is one of those things of God, which the

BY BISHOP HORNE. 275
natural man never will know or discern. Though
surely, if nature teach any religion, it is the Chris
tian; if she preach any doctrine, it is this resur
rection and change. And was not the book of na
ture, as well as that of grace, become a sealed book,
what man, that ever travelled with the earth
through the vicissitudes of a year, could deny a
resurrection ? Ask the furrows of the field, and
they shall tell thee. For ' except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' The parts
of the seed cannot spring afresh, till they have
been first dissolved. It is true, the husbandman
soweth only bare grain ; but it arises, ' clothed
upon' wills a beautiful verdure. And ' if God so
clothe the grass of the field,' how much more shall
he clothe your mortal bodies with a glorious im
mortality, O ye of little faith ? But why need we
take the compass of a year ? Every twenty-four
hours there is a rehearsal, in nature, of man's death
and resurrection. Every evening, the day, with
its works, dies into darkness and the shadow of
death. All colours fade, all beauty vanishes, all
labour and motion cease, and every creature veiled
in darkness, mourns, in solemn silence, the inter
ment of the world. Who would not say, ' It is
dead — it shall not rise!' Yet, wait only a few
hours, in faith and patience, and this dead and
entombed earth, by the agency of heaven upon it,
shall burst asunder the bars of that sepulchral
darkness, in which it was imprisoned, and ' arise,
and be enlightened, and its light shall come ; the
dayspring from on high shall visit it, and destroy
the covering cast over all people,' and array uni
versal nature with a robe of glory and beauty,
t 2

276 the resurrection of the body.
raising those that sleep, to behold themselves and
the world changed from darkness to light, and
calling them up, to give glory to God and think
of the resurrection. Happy are they who make
this use of it ! God shall help them, when that
morning appeareth, of which every morning has
been to them a blessed prelude : to such, day unto
day uttereth the word of the everlasting gospel,
and night unto night showeth the knowledge of
salvation. They understand how 'the heavens
declare the glory of God' in the felicity of his
chosen, and furnish us with some ideas of our ap
proaching glorification. Nothing earthly can fully
represent that which is changed from earthly to
heavenly; for ' the glory ofthe celestial is one, and
the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is
one glory of the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is
the resurrection of the dead.' There is one glory
of the Sun of righteousness, another glory of the
moon, his church, walking in the brightness she
receives from him, and another glory of the stars,
his saints ; for here also one star differeth from ano
ther star in glory. All stand in their order, in shin
ing circles, round the throne of the sun. There these
morning stars sing together unto the Lord a new
song, and all the sons of God, even the children of
the resurrection, shout for joy ; for they rest not day
or night, making one sound to be heard through
all the heavenly courts — Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come I
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be
to thee, O Lord, Most High !
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, seeing these

BY BISHOP HORNE. 277
bodies of ours are to become instruments of glory
hereafter, how ought they to be instruments of
grace here? for grace is the dawn of glory, as glory
is the meridian of grace. Seeing we are to have
such bodies, what ought our souls to be, for whom
such bodies are prepared ? And how ought we to
spend our short moment of probation in ' cleansing
ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, per
fecting holiness in the fear of God !' The consider
ation of our glorious change cannot but make our
hearts to burn within us. And then is the time to
reflect, that blessed is he, whose soul is changed
from grace to grace, for his body shall be changed
from glory to glory. And if the soul of a Chris
tian be ever ' transformed by the renewing of his
mind,' it must be, not while he is in the hurry and
vanity of the world below, but when he leaves the
world, and, following the steps of his dear Lord
and Master, ascends, by faith, to the mount of
transfiguration, and is on his knees before God, re
membering it is written, ' While he prayed, he
was transfigured.' Blessed, therefore, is he who
breaks away from idle and vain conversation, to
meditate in the law of God day and night ; to com
mune with his own heart, and in his chamber; to
call his past ways to remembrance, in the bitter
ness of his soul ; to confess his wickedness, and be
sorry for his sin. ' Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth,' says the world. 'Blessed are they that
mourn,' says he, whom the world crucified. Let
those, therefore, who enjoy a life of perfect leisure,
and are continually complaining how heavy time
hangs upon their bands, consider, whether they
could tell, if God should call upon them at this
moment, when they ever freely and voluntarily

278 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.
withdrew for one hour, to attend the business of
changing their souls from sin to righteousness, that
so their bodies may be changed from dust to glory ?
And if this question, from the mouth of the all-see
ing Judge, will strike the unprofitable servant
speechless at his footstool, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear ? Let us consider this, and
be wise unto salvation, and, in every thought, word,
and action, remember our latter end. Let us re
member, that ' our Redeemer liveth, and that he
shall indeed stand at the latter day upon the earth ;
and though after our skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in this flesh shall we see God.' And may we
so ' look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,' by
the eye of faith, that when we see him as he is, he
may ' change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body, according to the work
ing, whereby he is able even to subdue all things to
himself.'

SERMON XII.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
BV THJB
REV. JOHN WESLEY, M. A.

[John Wesley, born 1703, died 1791.]

SERMON XII.

1 Cor. xv. 35.
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up?
¦ and with what body do they come ?
The apostle haying, in the beginning of this chap
ter, firmly settled the truth of our Saviour's resur
rection, adds, ' Now, if Christ be preached that he
rose from the dead, how say some among you, that
there is no resurrection of the dead ?' It cannot
now any longer seem impossible to you that God
should raise the dead, since you have so plain an
example of it in our Lord, who was dead and is
alive ; and the same power which raised Christ,
must also be able to quicken our mortal bodies.
' But some man will say, How are the dead
raised up ? and with what body do they come ?'
How can these things be ? How is it possible that
these bodies should be raised again, and joined to
their several souls, which many thousand years ago
were either buried in the earth, or swallowed up
in the sea, or devoured by fire ; which have moul
dered into the finest dust, that dust scattered over
the face of the earth, dispersed as far as the hea-

282 the resurrection of the dead.
vens are wide ; nay, which has undergone ten thou
sand changes, has fattened the earth, become tbe
food of other creatures, and these again the food of
other men ? How is it possible that all these little
parts, which made up the body of Abraham, should
be again ranged together, and, unmixed with the
dust of other bodies, be all placed in the same order
and posture that they were before, so as to make up
the very self-same body which his soul at his death
forsook ? Ezekiel was indeed, in a vision, set down
in a valley full of dry bones, ' and he heard a noise,
and beheld a shaking, and the bones came together,
bone to his bone ; the sinews and the flesh came
upon them, and the skin covered them above, and
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
upon their feet.' This might be in a vision. But
that all this, and much more, should in time come
to pass ; that our bones, after they are crumbled
into dust, should really become living men ; that
all the little parts whereof our bodies were made,
should immediately, at a general summons, meet
again, and every one challenge and possess its own
place, till at last the whole be perfectly rebuilt ;
that this, I say, should be done, is so incredible a
thing, that we cannot so much as have any notion
of it. And we may observe, that the Gentiles were
most displeased with this article of the Christian
faith : it was one of the last things the heathens
believed ; and it is to this day the chief objection to
Christianity, ' How are the dead raised up ? With
what body do they come ?' In my discourse on
these words, I shall do three things : —
I. I shall show that the resurrection of the self
same body that died and was buried, contains no
thing in it incredible, or impossible.

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 283
IT. I shall describe the difference which our Sa
viour makes between the qualities of a glorified
and a mortal body.
III. I shall draw some inferences from the whole.
I. I shall show, that the resurrection of the self
same body that died contains nothing in it incre
dible or impossible.
But before I do this, it may be proper to mention
some ofthe reasons upon which this article of our
faith is built.
And, 1. The plain notion of a resurrection, re
quires that the self-same body that died should rise
again. Nothing can be said to be raised again,
but that very body that died. If God give to our
souls at the last day a new body, this cannot be
called the resurrection of our body, because that
word plainly implies the fresh production of what
was before.
2. There are many places of Scripture that
plainly declare it. St. Paul, in the 53d verse of
this chapter, tells us, that ' this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality.' Now, by this mortal, and this cor
ruptible, can only be meant that body which we
now carry about with us, and shall one day lay
down in the dust.
The mention which the Scripture makes of the
places where the dead shall rise, further shows that
the same body which died shall arise. Thus we
read in Daniel, ' Those that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt.' And we may
likewise observe that the very phrase — of sleep
and awake, implies, that when we rise again from
the dead, our bodies will be as much the same as

284 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
they are when we awake from sleep. Thus again
our Lord affirms, ' The hour is coming in whicli
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and
shall come forth : they that have done good, to the
resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil,
to the resurrection of damnation.'1 Now, if the
same body do not rise again, what need is there of
opening the graves at the end ofthe world ? The
graves can give up no bodies but those which were
laid in them. If we were noe to rise with the very
same bodies that died, then they might rest for
ever. To this we need only to add that of St.
Paul, ' The Lord shall change this vile body, that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.'
Now this vile body can be no other than that
with which we are now clothed, which must be
restored to life again.
That in all this there is nothing incredible or im
possible, I shall show, by proving these three
things : — 1. That it is possible for God to keep and
preserve unmixed from all other bodies, the parti
cular dust into which our several bodies are dis
solved, and can gather and join it again, how far
soever dispersed asunder. 2. That God can form
that dust so gathered together, into the same body
it was before. 3. That when he hath formed this
body, he can enliven it with the same soul that be
fore inhabited it.
1. God can distinguish and keep unmixed from
all other bodies, the particular dust into which our
several bodies are dissolved, and can gather it to
gether and join it again, how far soever dispersed
asunder. God is infinite both in knowledge and
1 John, v. 28.

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 285
power. He knoweth the number of the stars, and
calleth them all by their names; he can tell the
number of the sands on the sea-shore : and is it at
all incredible that he should distinctly know the
several particles of dust into which the bodies of
men are mouldered, and plainly discern to whom
they belong, and the various changes they have
undergone ? Why should it be thought strange,
that he, who at the first formed us, — whose eyes
saw our substance, yet being imperfect, from whom
we were not hid when we were made in secret, and
curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,
— should know every part of our bodies, and every
particle of dust whereof we were composed ? The
artist knows every part ofthe watch which he frames,
and if it should fall in pieces, and the various parts
of it lie in the greatest disorder and confusion, yet
he can soon gather them together, and as easily
distinguish one from another as if every one had
its particular mark. He knows the use of each,
and can readily give it its proper place, and put
them all exactly in the same figure and order they
were before : and can we think that the almighty
Builder of the world, whose workmanship we are,
does not know whereof we are made, or is not ac
quainted with the several parts of which this
earthly tabernacle is composed ? All these lay in
one vast heap atthe creation, till he separated them
one from another, and framed them into those dis
tinct bodies whereof this beautiful world consists ;
and why may not the same power collect the ruins
of our corrupted bodies, and restore them to their
former condition ? All the parts into which men's
bodies are dissolved, however they seem to us care
lessly scattered over the face of the earth, are yet

286 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
carefully laid up by God's wise disposal till the
day of the restoration of all things. They are pre
served in the waters and fires, in the birds and
beasts, till the last trumpet shall summon them to
their former habitation.
But, say they, " It may sometimes happen that
several men's bodies may consist of the selfsame
matter ; for the bodies of men are often devoured
by other animals, which are eaten by other men :
nay, there are nations which feed upon human
flesh, consequently they borrow a great part of
their bodies from other men ; and if that which
was part of one man's body becomes afterwards
part of another man's, how can both rise at the last
day with the same bodies they had before?" To
this it may easily be replied, that a very small part
of what is eaten turns to nourishment, the far
greater part goes away according to the order of
nature : so that it is not at all impossible for God,
who watches over and governs all this, so to order
tilings, that what is part of one man's body, though
eaten by another, shall never turn to his nourish
ment ; or, if it does, that it shall wear off again,
and some time before his death be separated from
him, so that it may remain in a capacity of being
restored at the last day to its former owner.
2. God can form this dust, so gathered together,
into the same body it was before ; and that it is
possible, all must own who believe that God made
Adam out of the dust of the earth : therefore, the
bodies of men being dust after death, it is no other
than it was before ; and the same power that at
the first made it of dust, may as easily remake it,
when it is turned into dust again : nay, it is no
more wonderful than the forming of a human body

BY THE RF.V. JOHN WESLEY. 287
in the womb, whicli is a thing we have daily expe
rience of, and is doubtless as strange an instance of
divine power as the resurrection of it can possibly
be ; and were it not so common a thing, we should
be as hardly brought to think it possible that such
a beautiful fabric as the body of man is, with
nerves and bones, flesh and veins, blood, and the
several other parts whereof it consists, should be
formed, as we know it is, as now we are, that here
after it should be rebuilt, when it has been crumbled
into dust. Had we only heard of the wonderful
production of the bodies of men, we should have
been as ready to ask, How are men made, and with
what bodies are they born ? as now, when we
hear of the resurrection, ' How are the dead raised
up, and with what bodies do they come ?'
3. When God hath raised this body, he can en
liven it with the same soul that inhabited it before;
and this, we cannot pretend to say, is impossible to
be done, for it has been done already : our Saviour
himself was dead, rose again, and appeared alive to
his disciples and others, who had lived with him
many years, and were then fully convinced that he
was the same person they had seen die upon the
cross. Thus have I shown, that the resurrection of the
same body is by no means impossible to God ; that
what he hath promised he is able to perforin, by
that mighty power by which he is able to subdue
all things to himself. Though, therefore, we can
not exactly tell the manner how it shall be done,
yet this ought not in the least to weaken our belief
of this important article of our faith ; it is enough
that he, to whom all things are possible, hath
passed his word that he will raise us again. Let

288 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
those who presume to mock at the glorious hope of
all good men, and are constantly raising objections
against it, first try their skill upon the various ap
pearances of nature. Let them explain every thing
which they see happen in this world, before they
talk of the difficulties of explaining the resurrection.
Can they tell me how their own bodies were fashion
ed and curiously wrought ? Can they give me a
plain account by what orderly steps this glorious,
stately structure, which discovers so much work
manship and rare contrivance, was at first created?
How was the first drop of blood made, and how
came the heart, and veins, and arteries to receive
it ? Of what, and by what means, were the nerves
and fibres made ? What fixed the little springs in
their due places, and fitted them for the several
uses for which they now serve ? How was the
brain distinguished from the other parts of the
body, and filled with spirits to move and animate
the whole ? How came the body to be fenced with
bones and sinews, to be clothed with skin and flesh,
distinguished into various muscles? Let them but
answer these few questions about the mechanism of
our own bodies, and I will answer all the difficulties
concerning the resurrection of them. But if they
cannot do this without having recourse to the in
finite power and wisdom of the First Cause, let
them know that the same power and wisdom can
reanimate it after it is turned into dust ; and that
there is no reason for our doubting concerning the
thing because there are some circumstances belong
ing to it which we cannot perfectly comprehend, or
give a distinct account of.
II. I now proceed to the second thing I pro
posed, which was, to describe the difference the

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 289
Scripture makes between the qualities of a mortal
and of a glorified body.
The change which shall be made in our bodies at
the resurrection, according to the Scripture account,
will consist chiefly in these four things: 1, That
our bodies shall be raised immortal and incorrupti
ble. 2, That they shall be raised in glory. 3, That
they shall be raised in power. 4, That they shall
be raised spiritual bodies.
1. The body that we shall have at the resurrec
tion shall be immortal and incorruptible : * for this
corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality.' Now, these
words, ' immortal' and ' incorruptible,' not only
signify that we shall die no more, (for, in that
sense, the damned are immortal and incorruptible,)
but that we shall be perfectly free from all the bodily
evils which sin brought into the world ; that our
bodies shall not be subject to sickness or pain, or
any other inconvenience we are daily exposed to.
This the Scripture calls, 'the redemption of our
bodies ;' the freeing them from all their maladies.
Were we to receive them again subject to all the
frailties and miseries which we are forced to wrestle
with, I much doubt whether a wise man, were he
left to his choice, would willingly take his again ;
whether he would not choose to let his still lie
rotting in the grave, rather than to be again chained
to such a cumbersome clod of earth. Such a resur
rection would be, as a wise heathen calls it, ' a resur
rection to another sleep.' It would look more like
a redemption to death again, than a resurrection to
life. The best thing we can say of this house of earth
u

290 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
is, that it is a ruinous building, and will not be
long before it tumbles into dust ; that it is not our
home ; we look for another house, eternal in the
heavens; that we shall not always be confined here,
but that in a little time we shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption, from this burden of
flesh, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
What frail things these bodies of ours are ! How
soon are they disordered ! To what a troop of dis
eases, pains, and other infirmities are they con
stantly subject ! And how does the least distemper
disturb our minds, and make life itself a burden !
Of how many parts do our bodies consist ! And,
if one of these be disordered, the whole man suffers.
If but one of these slender threads, whereof our
flesh is made up, be stretched beyond its due pro
portion, or fretted by any sharp humour, or broken,
what torment does it create ! Nay, when our bodies
are at the best, what pains do we take to answer
their necessities, to provide for their sustenance, to
preserve them in health, and to keep them tenant-
able, in some tolerable fitness for our souls' use.
And what time we can spare from our labour, is
taken up in rest and refreshing our jaded bodies,
and fitting them for work again. How are we
forced, even naturally, into the confines of death ;
even to cease to be ; at least to pass so many hours
without any useful or reasonable thoughts, merely
to keep them in repair ? But our hope and com
fort is, that we shall shortly be delivered from this
burden of flesh ; when ' God shall wipe away all
tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain, for the former things are

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 291
passed away.' O when shall we arrive at that
happy land, where no complaints were ever heard,
where we shall all enjoy uninterrupted health both
of body and mind, and never more be exposed to
any of those inconveniences that disturb our pre
sent pilgrimage ! When we shall have once passed
from death unto life, we shall be eased of all the
troublesome care of our bodies, which now takes up
so much of our time and thoughts ; we shall be set
free from all those mean and tiresome labours which
we must now undergo to support our lives. Yon
robes of light, with which we shall be clothed at the
resurrection of the just, will not stand in need of
those careful provisions which it is so troublesome
to us here either to procure or to be without : but
then, as our Lord tells us, 'those who shall be
accounted worthy to obtain that world, neither
marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they
die any more ; but they are equal to the angels.'
Their bodies are neither subject to disease, nor
want their daily sustenance, which these mortal
bodies cannot be without. Meats for the belly,
and the ibelly for meats ; but God will destroy both
it and them. This is that perfect happiness which
all good men shall enjoy in the other world :
a mind free from all trouble and guilt, in a body
free from all pains and diseases. Thus our mortal
bodies shall be raised immortal : they shall not
only be always preserved from death, (for so
these might be, if God pleased,) but the nature of
them shall be wholly changed, so that they shall
not retain the same seeds of mortality : they cannot
die any more.
2. Our bodies shall be raised in glory : ' Then
shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom
u 2

292 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
of their Father.' A resemblance of this we have
in the lustre of Moses's face when he had conversed
with God on the mount: his face shone so bright,
that the children of Israel were afraid to come
near him, till he threw a veil over it. And that
extraordinary majesty of Stephen's face seemed to
be an earnest of this glory : ' All that sat in the
council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as
it had been the face of an angel.' How, then, if it
shone so gloriously even on earth, will it shine in
the other world, when his, and the bodies of all the
saints, are made like unto Christ's glorious body ?
How glorious the body of Christ is, we may guess
from the transfiguration. St. Peter, when he saw
this, when our Lord's face shone as the sun, and
his raiment became shining and white as snow,
was so transported with joy and admiration, that
he knew not what he said. When our Saviour
discovered but a little of that glory which he
now possesses, and which in due time he will
impart to his followers, yet that little of it made
the place seem a paradise; and the disciples
thought that they could wish for nothing better
than always to live in such pure light, and enjoy
so beautiful a sight : ' It is good for us to be here ;
let us make three tabernacles.' Here let us fix our
abode for ever. And if they thought it so happy
only to be present with such heavenly bodies, and
to behold them with their eyes, how much happier
must it be to dwell in such glorious mansions,
and to be themselves clothed with so much bright
ness !
This excellency of our heavenly bodies will pro
bably arise, in a great measure, from the happiness
of our souls. The unspeakable joy that we then

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 293
shall feel, will break through our bodies, and shine
forth in our countenances. As the joy of the soul,
even in this life, has some influence upon the
countenance, by rendering it more open and cheer
ful ; so Solomon tells us, ' A man's wisdom makes
his face to shine.' Virtue, as it refines a man's
heart, so it makes his very looks more cheerful and
lively. 3. Our bodies shall be raised in power. ; This
expresses the sprightliness of our heavenly bodies,
the nimbleness of their motion, by which they
shall be obedient and able instruments of the soul.
In this state our bodies are no better than clogs
and fetters, which confine and restrain the freedom
of the soul : the corruptible body presses down the
soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the
mind ; our dull, sluggish, inactive bodies, are often
unable or backward to obey the commands of the
soul : but in the other life, ' they that wait upon
the Lord, shall renew their strength ; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run,
and not be weary ; they shall walk, and not faint.'
Or, as another expresses it, ' they shall run to and
fro like sparks among the stubble.' The speed of
their motion shall be like that of devouring fire in
stubble, and the height of it above the towering of
an eagle ; for they shall meet the Lord in the air,
when he comes to judgment, and mount up with
him into the highest heaven. This earthly body
is slow and heavy in all its motions, listless, and
soon tired with action; but our heavenly bodies
shall be as fire, as active and as nimble as our
thoughts are.
4. Our bodies shall be raised spiritual bodies.
Our spirits are now forced to serve our bodies, and

294 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
to attend their leisure, and do greatly depend upon
them for most of their actions : but our bodies, shall
then wholly serve our spirits, and minister to them,
and depend upon them. So that, as by a natural
body we understand one fitted for this lower, sen
sible world, for this earthly state ; so a spiritual
body is one that is suited to a spiritual state, to an
invisible world, to the life of angels ; and, indeed,
this is the principal difference between a mortal
and a glorified body. This flesh is the most dan
gerous enemy we have : we therefore defy and re
nounce it in our baptism. It constantly tempts us
to evil. Every sense is a snare to us. All its lusts
and appetites are inordinate. It is ungovernable,
and often rebels against reason. The law in our
members wars against the law of our mind. When
the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak ; so that the
best of men are forced to keep it under, and use it
hardly, lest it should betray them into folly and
misery. And how does it hinder us in all our de
votions ! How soon does it jade our minds when
employed on holy things ! How easily, by its en
chanting pleasures, does it divert them from those
noble exercises ! But when we obtain the resur
rection unto life, our bodies will be spiritualized,
purified, and refined from their earthly grossness ;
then they will be fit instruments for the soul in all
its divine and heavenly employment ; we shall not
be weary of singing praises to God through infi
nite ages.
Thus, after what little we have been able to con
ceive of it, it sufficiently appears, that a glorified
body is infinitely more excellent and desirable than
this vile body. The one thing that remains is,
III. To draw some inferences from the whole.

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 2.05
And, 1st. From what has been said, we may learn
the best way of preparing ourselves to live in those
heavenly bodies, which is, by cleansing ourselves
more and more from all earthly affections, and
weaning ourselves from this body, and all the plea
sures that are peculiar to it. We should begin in
this life to loosen the knot between our souls and
this mortal flesh ; to refine our affections, and raise
them from things below to things above; to take
off our thoughts, and disengage them from present
and sensible things, and accustom ourselves to
think of and converse with things future and invisi
ble ; that so our souls, when they leave this earthly
body, may be prepared for a spiritual one, as hav
ing beforehand tasted spiritual delights, and being
in some degree acquainted with the things which
we then shall meet with. A soul wholly taken up
with this earthly body, is not fit for the glorious
mansions above. A sensual mind is so wedded to
bodily pleasures, that it cannot enjoy itself with
out them, and it is not able to relish any other,
though infinitely to be preferred before them ; nay,
6uch as follow the inclinations of their fleshly ap
petites, are so far unfit for heavenly joys, that
they would esteem it the greatest unhappiness to
be clothed with a spiritual body : it would be like
clothing a beggar in the robes of a king : such glo
rious bodies would be uneasy to them ; they would
not know what to do in them ; they would be glad
to retire, and put on their rags again. But when
we are washed from the guilt of our sins, and
cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we shall long
to be dissolved, and to be with our exalted Saviour.
We shall be always ready to take wing for the

296 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
other world, where we shall at last have a body
suited to our spiritual appetites.
2. From hence we may see how to account for
the different degrees of glory in the heavenly world ;
for, although all the children of God shall have
glorious bodies, yet the glory of them all shall not
be equal. As one star differeth from another star
in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
They shall all shine as stars ; but those who, by a
constant diligence in well-doing, have attained to
a higher measure of purity than others, shall shine
more bright than others; they shall appear as
more glorious stars. It is certain that the most
heavenly bodies will be given to the most hea
venly souls, so that this is no little encourage
ment to us to make the greatest progress we pos
sibly can in the knowledge and love of God, since
the more we are weaned from the things of the
earth now, the more glorious will our bodies be at
the resurrection.
3. Let this consideration engage us patiently
to bear whatever troubles we may be exercised
with in the present life. Tbe time of our eternal
redemption draweth nigh ; let us hold out a little
longer, and all tears shall be wiped from our eyes,
and we shall never sigh nor sorrow any more ; and
how soon shall we forget all we endured in this
earthly tabernacle, when once we are clothed with
that house which is from above ? We are now
but on our journey towards home, and so must ex
pect to struggle with many difficulties; but it will
not be long ere we come to our journey's end, and.
that will make amends for all. We shall then be
in a quiet and safe harbour, out of the reach of all
storms and dangers : we shall then be at home in

BY THE REV. JOHN WESLEY. 297
our Father's house, no longer exposed to the in
conveniences which, so long as we abide abroad in
these tents, we are subject to ; and let us not for
feit all this happiness for want of a little more pa
tience. Only let us hold out to the end, and we
shall receive an abundant recompense for all the
trouble and uneasiness of our passage, which shall
be endless rest and peace.
Let this especially fortify us against the fear of
death : it is now disarmed, and can do us no hurt.
It divides us, indeed, from this body awhile, but it
is only that we may receive it again more glorious.
As God, therefore, said once to Jacob, ' Fear not
to go down into Egypt, for I will go down with
thee, and will surely bring thee up again ;' so I
maj' say to all who are born of God, Fear not to
go down into the grave ; lay down your heads in
the dust, for God will certainly bring you up
again, and that in a much more glorious manner;
only be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord, and then let death pre-
, vail over and pull down this house of clay, since
God hath undertaken to rear it up again, infinitely
more beautiful, strong, and useful.

SERMON XIII.
CHRIST'S COMING TO JUDGMENT.
BY BISHOP HORSLEY.

[Samubi. Horsley was horn In 1733. He was made Bishop of St. David's In
1788 ; was translated to St Asaph In 1802 ; and died in 1 .806.]

SERMON XI?k

James, v. 8.
For tlie coming of the Lord drawelh nigh.
Time was, when I know not what mystical mean
ings were drawn, by a certain cabalistic alchymy,
from the simplest expressions of Holy Writ, — from
expressions in which no allusion could reasonably
be supposed to any thing beyond the particular
occasion upon which they were introduced. While
this frenzy raged among the learned, visionary les
sons of divinity were often derived, not only from
detached texts of Scripture, but from single words,
— not from words only, but from letters — from the
place, the shape, the posture of a letter : and the
blunders of transcribers, as they have since proved
to be, have been the groundwork of many a fine
spun meditation.
It is the weakness of human nature, in every in
stance of folly, to run from one extreme to its op
posite. In later ages, since we have seen the
futility of those mystic expositions in which the
school of Origen so much delighted, we have been
too apt to fall into the contrary error; and the

302 Christ's coming to judgment.
same unwarrantable license of figurative interpre
tation which they employed to elevate, as they
thought, the plainer parts of Scripture, has been
used, in modern times, in effect to lower the di
vine. Among the passages which have been thus mis
represented by the refinements of a false criticism,
are those which contain the explicit promise of the
' coming of the Son of man in glory, or in his king
dom ;' which it is become so much the fashion to
understand of the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Roman arms, within half a century after our Lord's
ascension, that to those who take the sense of Scrip
ture from some of the best modern expositors, it
must seem doubtful whether any clear prediction
is to be found in the New Testament of an event in
which, of all others, the Christian world is most
interested. As I conceive the right understanding of this
phrase to be of no small importance, seeing the
hopes of the righteous and the fears of the wicked
rest chiefly on the explicit promises of our Savi
our's coming, it is my present purpose to give the
matter, as far as my abilities may be equal to it, a
complete discussion ; and although, from the na
ture of the subject, the disquisition must be chiefly
critical, consisting in a particular and minute ex
amination of the passages wherein the phrase in
question occurs, yet I trust, that, by God's assist
ance, I shall be able so to state my argument, that
every one here, who is but as well versed as every
Christian ought to be in the English Bible, may
be a very good judge of the evidence of my con
clusion. If I should sometimes have occasion,
which will be but seldom, to appeal to the Scrip-

BY BISHOP IIORSLEY. 303
tures in the original language, it will not be to im
pose a new sense upon the texts which I may find
it to my purpose to produce ; but to open and as
certain the meaning, where the original expressions
may be more clear and determinate than those of
our translation. And in these cases, the exposi
tions which grammatical considerations may have
suggested to me, will be evinced to you, by the
force and perspicuity they may give to the pas
sages in question, considered either in themselves
or in the connexion with tlieir several contexts.
It is the glory of our church, that the most illi
terate of her sons are in the possession of the Scrip
tures in their mother tongue. It is their duty to
make the most of so great a blessing, by employ
ing as much time as they can spare from the neces
sary business of their several callings, in the dili
gent study of the written word. It is the duty of
their teachers to' give them all possible assistance
and encouragement in this necessary work. I ap
prehend that we mistake our proper duty, when we
avoid the public discussion of difficult or ambigu
ous texts; and either keep them entirely out of
sight, or, when that cannot easily be done, obtrude
our interpretations upon the laity, as magisterial
or oracular, without proof or argument ; a plan that
may serve the purposes of indolence, and may be
made to serve worse purposes, but is not well
adapted to answer the true ends of the institution
of our holy order. The will of God is, that all men
should be saved ; and to that end, it is his will that
all men, that is, all descriptions of men, great and
small, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, should
come to the knowledge of the truth. Of the truth
—that is, of the truths brought to light by the gos-

304 CHRIST'S COMING TO JUDGMENT.
pel : not only of the fundamental truths of faith
toward God, of repentance from dead works, and
of a future judgment ; but of all the sublimer
truths concerning the scheme of man's redemption.
It is God's will that all men should be brought to
a just understanding of the deliverance Christ hath
wrought for us ; to a just apprehension of the mag
nitude of our hopes in him, and of the certainty of
the evidence on which these hopes are founded.
It is God's will that all men should come to a
knowledge of the original dignity of our Saviour's
person ; of the mystery of his incarnation ; of the
nature of his eternal priesthood, the value of his
atonement, the efficacy of his intercession. These
things are never to be understood without much
more than a superficial knowledge of the Scrip
tures, especially the Scriptures of the New Testa
ment; and yet that knowledge of the Scriptures
which is necessary to the understanding of these
things, is what few, I would hope, in this country,
are too illiterate to attain. It is our duty to facili
tate the attainment by clearing difficulties. It may
be proper to state those we cannot clear; to present
our hearers with the interpretations that have been
attempted, and to show where they fail; — in a
word, to make them masters of the question, though
neither they nor we may be competent to the reso
lution of it. This instruction would more effectu
ally secure them against the poison of modern cor
ruptions, than the practice, dictated by a false
discretion, of avoiding the mention of every doc
trine that may be combated, and of burying every
text of doubtful meaning. The corrupters of the
Christian doctrine have no such reserve. The doc
trines of the divinity ofthe Son; the incarnation;

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 305
the satisfaction of the cross as a sacrifice, in the
literal meaning of the word ; the mediatorial inter
cession ; the influences of the Spirit; the eternity
of future punishment — are topics of popular dis
cussion with those who would deny or pervert these
doctrines: and we may judge by their success what
our own might be, if we would but meet our anta
gonists on their own ground. The common people,
we find, enter into the force, though they do not
perceive the sophistry of tlieir arguments. The
same people would much more enter into the in
ternal evidence of the genuine doctrine of the gos
pel, if holden out to them, not in parts, studiously
divested of whatever may seem mysterious ; not
with accommodations to the prevailing fashion of
opinions — but entire and undisguised. Nor are
the laity to shut their ears against these disputa
tions, as niceties in which they are not concerned,
or difficulties above the reach of their abilities : and
least of all are they to neglect those disquisitions
.which immediately respect the interpretation of
texts. Every sentence of the Bible is from God,
and every man is interested in the meaning of it.
The teacher, therefore, is to expound, and the 'dis-'
ciple to hear and read with diligence ; and much
might be the fruit of the blessing of God on their
united exertions. And this I infer, not only from
a general consideration of the nature ofthe gospel
doctrine, and the cast of the Scripture language,
which is admirably accommodated to vulgar appre
hensions, but from a fact which has happened to
fall much within my own observation, — the profi
ciency, I mean, that we often (ind, in some single
science, of men who have never had a liberal edu
cation, and who, except in that particular subject
x

306 CHRIST'S COMING TO JUDGMENT.
on which they have bestowed pains and attention,
remain ignorant and illiterate to the end of their
lives. The sciences are said, and they are truly
said, to have that mutual connexion, that any one
of them may be the better understood for an insight
into the rest. And there is, perhaps, no branch of
knowledge which receives more illustration from
all the rest than the science of religion ; yet it hath,
like every other, its own internal principles on
which it rests, with the knowledge of which, with
out any other, a great progress may be made. And
these lie much more open to the apprehension of
an uncultivated understanding than the principles
of certain abstruse science ; such as geometry, for
instance.or astronomy, in vvhich I have known plain
men, who could set up no pretensions to general
learning, make distinguished attainments.
Under these persuasions, I shall not scruple to
attempt a disquisition, which, ou the first view of
it, might seem adapted only to a learned auditory.
And I trust that I shall speak to your understand
ings. I propose to consider what may be the most
frequent import of the phrase of ' our Lord's com
ing.' And it will, if I mistake not, appear, that
the figurative use of it, to denote the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, is very
rare, if not altogether unexampled in the Scriptures
ofthe New Testament; except, perhaps, in some
passages of the book of Revelation : that, on the
other hand, the use of it in the literal sense is fre
quent, warning the Christian world of an event to
be wished by the faithful, and dreaded by the im
penitent — a visible descent of our Lord from hea
ven, as visible to all the world as his ascension was

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 307
to the apostles ; a coming of our Lord in all the.
majesty of the Godhead, to judge the quick and
dead, to receive his servants into glory, and send
the wicked into outer darkness.
In the epistles of St; Paul, St. Peter, and St.
James, we find frequent mention of the coming of
our Lord, in terms which, like those of the text,
may at first seem to imply an expectation in those
writers of his speedy arrival. There can be no ques
tion that the coming of our Lord literally signifies
his coming in person to the general judgment, and
that it was sometimes used in this literal sense by
our Lord himself; as in the 25th chapter of St.
Matthew's Gospel, where the Son of man is de
scribed as coming in his glory, as sitting on the
throne of his glory, as separating the just and the
wicked, and pronouncing the final sentence. But,
as it would be very unreasonable to suppose that
the inspired writers, though ignorant of the times
and seasons wliich the Father hath put in his own
power, could be under so great a delusion as to
look for the end of the world in their own days —
for this reason it has been imagined, that wherever
in the epistles of the apostles such assertions occur
as those I have mentioned, the coming of our Lord
is not to be taken in the literal meaning of the
phrase, but that we are to look for something which
was really at hand when these epistles were writ
ten, and which, in some figurative sense, might be
called his coming. And such an event the learned
think they find in the destruction of Jerusalem,
which may seem, indeed, no insignificant type of
the final destruction of the enemies of God and
Christ. But, if we recur to the passages wherein
the approach of Christ's kingdom is mentioned, we
x 2

308 CHRIST'S COMING TO JUDGMENT.
shall find that in most of them, I believe it might
be said in all, the mention of the final judgment
might be of much importance to the writer's argu
ment, while that of the destruction of Jerusalem
could be of none. The coming of our Lord is a
topic which the holy penmen employ, when they
find occasion to exhort the brethren to a steady
perseverance in the profession of the gospel, and a
patient endurance of those trying afflictions, with
which the providence of God, in the first ages of
the church, was pleased to exercise his servants.
Upon these occasions, to confirm the persecuted
Christian's wavering faith, to revive his weary
hope, to invigorate his drooping zeal, nothing
could be more effectual than to set before him the
prospect of that happy consummation, when his
Lord should come to take rym to himself, and change
his short-lived sorrows into endless joy. On the
other hand, nothing, upon these occasions, could be
more out of season, than to bring in view an ap
proaching period of increased affliction — for such
was the season of the Jewish war to be. The be
lieving Jews, favoured as they were in many in
stances, were still sharers, in no small degree, in
the common calamity of their country. They had
been trained by our Lord himself to no other ex
pectation. He had spoken explicitly of the siege
of Jerusalem as a time of distress and danger to
the very elect of God. Again, if the careless and
indifferent were at any time to be awakened to a
sense of danger, the last judgment was likely to
afford a more prevailing argument than the pros
pect of the temporal ruin impending over the
Jewish nation ; or indeed, than any thing else whicli
the phrase of ' our Lord's coming,' according to

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 309
any figurative interpretation of it, can denote. It
should seem, therefore, that in all those passages of
the epistles in which the coming of our Lord is
holden out, either as a motive to patience and per
severance, or to keep alive that spirit of vigilance
and caution which is necessary to make our calling
sure — it should seem, that in all these passages, the
coming is to be taken literally for our Lord's per
sonal coming at the last day ; and that the figure is
rather to be sought in those expressions wliich, in
their literal meaning, might seem to announce his
immediate arrival. And this St. Peter seems to
suggest, when he tells us, in his second epistle, that
the terms of soon and late are to be very differently
understood, when applied to the great operations of
Providence, and to the ordinary occurrences of
human life. ' The Lord,' says he, ' is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slack
ness. One day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.' Soon
and late are words whereby a comparison is rather
intended of the mutual proportion of different in
tervals of time, than the magnitude of any one by
itself defined ; and the same thing may be said to
be coming either soon or late, according as the dis
tance of it is compared with a longer or a shorter
period of duration. Thus, although the day of
judgment was removed undoubtedly by an interval
of many ages from the age of the apostles, yet it
might in their days be said to be at hand, if its
distance from them was but a small part of its ori
ginal distance from the creation of the world : — that
is, if its distance then was but a small part of the
whole period of the world's existence, which is the
standard, in reference to which, so long as the world

310 CHRIST'S COMING TO JUDGMENT,
shall last, all other portions of time may be by us
most properly denominated long or short. There
is again another use of the words soon and late,
whereby any one portion of time, taken singly, is
understood to be compared, not with any other,
but with the number of events that are to come to
pass in it in natural consequence and succession.
If the events are few in proportion to the time, the
succession must be slow, and the time may be
called long. If they are many, the succession
must be quick, and the time may be called short,
in respect ofthe number of events, whatever bethe
absolute extent of it. It seems to be in this sense
that expressions denoting speediness of event are
applied by the sacred writers to our Lord's coming.
In the day of Messiah the prince, in the interval
between our Lord's ascension and his coming again
to judgment, the world was to be gradually pre
pared and ripened for its end. The apostles were
to carry the tidings of salvation to the extremities
of the earth. They were to be brought before kings
and rulers, and to water the new-planted churches
with their blood. Vengeance was to be executed
on the unbelieving Jews, by the destruction of their
city, and the dispersion of their nation. The Pagan
idolatry was to be extirpated — the man of sin to be
revealed. Jerusalem is yet to be trodden down ;
the remnant of Israel is to be brought back ; the
elect of God to be gathered from the four winds of
heaven. And when the apostles speak of that
event as at hand, which is to close this great scheme
of Providence — a scheme in its parts so extensive
and so various — they mean to intimate how busily
the great work is going on, and with what con
fidence, from what they saw accomplished in their

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 311
own days, the first Christians might expect in due
time the promised consummation.
That they are to be thus understood may be col
lected from our Lord's own parableof the fig-tree, and
the application which he teaches us to make of it.
After a minute 'prediction of the distresses of the
Jewish war, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and
a very general mention of his second coming, as a
thing to follow in its appointed season, he adds,
' Now learn a parable of the fig-tree : when its
branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves,
ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye,
when ye shall see all these things, know that it
is near, even at the doors.' That ' it' is near; so
we read in our English Bibles ; and expositors ren
der the word ' it,' by the ruin foretold, or the deso
lation spoken of. But what was the ruin foretold,
or desolation spoken of? The ruin of the Jewish
nation — the desolation of Jerusalem. What were
all these things, which, when they should see, they
might know it to be. near? All the particulars of
our Saviour's detail ; that is to say, the destruc
tion of Jerusalem, with all the : circumstances of
confusion and distress with which it was to be ac
companied. This exposition, therefore, makes, as I
conceive, the desolation of Jerusalem the prognostic
of itself, — the sign and the thing signified the
same. The true rendering of the original I take to
be, ' So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these
things, know that he is near at the doors.' He, —
that is, the Son of man, spoken of in the verses
immediately preceding as coming in the clouds of
heaven, with power and great glory. The approach
of summer, says our Lord, is not more surely indi
cated by the first appearances of spring, than the

312 Christ's coming to judgment.
final destruction of the wicked by the beginnings
of vengeance on this impenitent people. The
opening of the vernal blossom is the first step in a
natural process, which necessarily terminates in
the ripening of the summer fruits ; and the rejec
tion of the Jews, and the adoption of the believing
Gentiles, is the first step in the execution of a set
tled plan of Providence, which inevitably termi
nates in the general judgment. The chain of phy
sical causes, in the one case, is not more uninter
rupted, or more certainly productive of the ulti
mate effect, than the chain of moral causes in the
other. ' Verily, I say unto you, this generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.' All
these things, in this sentence, must unquestionably
denote the same things which are denoted by the
same words just before. Just before, the same
words denoted those particular circumstances of
the Jewish war which were included in our Lord's
prediction. All those signs which answer to the
fig-tree's budding leaves, the apostles and their co-
temporaries, at least some of that generation, were
to see. But as the thing portended is not included
among the signs, it was not at all implied in this
declaration that any of them were to live to see the
harvest, — the coming of our Lord in glory.
I persuade myself that I have shown that our
Lord's coming, whenever it is mentioned by the
apostles in their epistles as a motive to a holy life,
is always to be taken literally for his personal com
ing at the last day.
It may put the matter still further out of doubt,
to observe, that the passage where, of all others in
this part of Scripture, a figurative interpretation of
the phrase of 'our Lord's coming' would be the

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 313
most necessary, if the figure did not lie in the ex
pressions that seem to intimate its near approach,
happens to be one in which our Lord's coming
cannot but be literally taken. Tbe passage to
which I allude is in the fourth chapter of St. Paul's
first epistle to the Thessalonians, from the thirteenth
verse to the end. The apostle, to comfort the
Thessalonian brethren concerning their deceased
friends, reminds them of the resurrection ; and tells
them, that those who were already dead would as
surely have their part in a happy immortality as
the Christians that should be living at the time of
our Lord's coming. Upon this occasion, his ex
pressions, taken literally, would imply that he in
cluded himself, with many of those to whom these
consolations were addressed, in the number of those
who should remain alive at the last day. This
turn of the expression naturally arose from the
strong hold that the expectation of the thing, in its
due season, had taken of the writer's imagination,
and from his full persuasion of the truth of the
doctrine he was asserting ; namely, that those who
should die before our Lord's coming, and those
who should then be alive, would find themselves
quite upon an even footing. In the confident ex
pectation of his own reward, his intermediate dis
solution was a matter of so much indifference to
him that overlooks it. His expression, however,
was so strong, that his meaning was mistaken, or
as I rather think, misrepresented. There seems
to have been a sect in the apostolic age, — in which
sect, however, the apostles themselves were not, as
some have absurdly maintained, included, — but
there seems to have been a sect which looked for
the resurrection in their own time. Some of these

314 Christ's coming to judgment.
persons seem to have taken advantage of St. Paul's
expressions in this passage, to represent him as
favouring their opinion. This occasioned the se
cond epistle to the Thessalonians, in which the
apostle peremptorily decides against that doctrine ;
maintaining that the man of sin is to be revealed,
and a long consequence of events to run out, before
the day of judgment can come; and he desires that
no expression of his may be understood of its
speedy arrival ; — :which proves, if the thing needed
further proof than I have already given of it, that
the coming mentioned in his former epistle is
the coming to judgment; and that whatever he
had said of the day of coming as at hand, was to
be understood only of the certainty of that coming.

SERMON XIV.
THE JUDGMENT.
BY BISHOP HORSLEY.

SERMON XIV.

Matt. xvi. 28.
Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death till they see the Son.
of man coming in his kingdom.
These remarkable words stand in the conclusion
of a certain discourse, with the subject of which, as
they have been generally understood, they seem to
be but little connected. It must therefore be my
business to establish what I take to be their true
meaning, before I attempt to enlarge upon the
momentous doctrine which I conceive to be con
tained in them.
The marks of horror and aversion with which our
Lord's disciples received the first intimations of his
sufferings, gave occasion to a seasonable lecture
upon the necessity of self- denial, as the means ap
pointed by Providence for the attainment of future
happiness and glory. 'If any one,' says our Lord,
' would come after me,' if any one pretends to be
my disciple, ' let him take up his cross and follow
me.' To enforce this precept, as prescribing a con
duct, which, afflictive as it may seem for the present,

318 THE JUDGMENT.'
is yet no other than it is every man's truest' interest
to pursue, he reminds his hearers of the infinite
disproportion between time and eternity ; he as-
uures them of the certainty of a day of retribution ;
and to that assurance he subjoins the declaration
of the text, as a weighty truth, in which they were
deeply interested; for so much the earnestness with
which it seems to have been delivered speaks.
' Verily, I say unto you ;' these are words bespeak
ing a most serious attention ; ' Verily, I sa}' unto
you, there be some standing here which shall not
taste of death till they see the Son of man coming
in his kingdom.'
Here then is an assertion concerning some per
sons who were present at this discourse of our
Lord's, that they ' should not taste of death' before
a certain time; which time is described as that when
' the Son of man should be seen * coming in his
kingdom.' Observe, it is not simply the time when
the Son of man should come, but the time when
he should come in his kingdom, and when he should
be seen so coming. In order to ascertain the mean
ing of this assertion, the first point must be to de
termine, if possible, what may be the particular
time which is thus described. From the resolution
of this question, it will probably appear in what
sense, figurative or literal, it might be affirmed of
any who were present at this discourse, that they
should not taste of death before that time; also, who
they might be at whom the words ' some standing
here' may be supposed to have been pointed. And
when we shall have discovered who they were of
whom our Lord spake, and what it was he spake
concerning them, it is likely we shall then discern
for what purpose of general edification the par-

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 319
ticular destiny of those persons was thus publicly
declared. Many expositors, both ancient and modern, by
' the coming of the Son of man,' in this text, have
understood the transfiguration. This notion pro
bably takes its rise from the manner in which St.
Peter mentions that memorable transaction, in the
first chapter of his second catholic epistle ; where,
speaking of himself as present upon that occasion
in the holy mountain, he says that he was then an
eye-witness of the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence, perhaps, the hint was taken, that the trans
figuration might be considered as the first manifes
tation of our Lord in glory to the sons of men, and
that the apostles, who were permitted to be pre
sent, might be said to have seen the Son of man at
that time coming in his kingdom ; and it must be
confessed, that no violence is done to the phrase of
' the coming of the Son of man,' considered by
itself, in this interpretation. But, if it be ad
mitted, — if the time described as that when the
Son of man should be seen coming in his kingdom,
be understood to have been the time of the transfi
guration, what will be the amount of the solemn
asseveration in the text P Nothing more than this,
— that in the numerous assembly to whicli our
Lord was speaking, composed perhaps of persons
of all ages, there were some, — the expressions cer
tainly intimate no great number, — but some few of
this great multitude there were, who were not to die
within a week ; for so much was the utmost inter
val of time between this discourse and the transfi
guration. Our great Lord and Master was not ac
customed to amuse his followers with any such nu
gatory predictions.

320 THE JUDGMENT.
The like argument sets aside another interpreta
tion, in which our Lord's ascension and the mission
of the Holy Ghost are considered as the ' coming in
his kingdom' intended in the text. Of what im
portance was it to tell a numerous assembly, (for it
was not to the disciples in particular, but to the
whole multitude, as we leam from St. Mark, that
this discourse was addressed,) — to what purpose, I
say, could it be, to tell them that there were some
among them who were destined to live half a year ?
Both these interpretations have given way to a
third, in which 'the coming of our Lord in his
kingdom' is supposed to denote the epoch of the
destruction of Jerusalem. This exposition is per
haps not so well warranted as hath been generally
imagined, by the usual import of the phrase of the
' coming of the Son of man,' in other passages of
holy writ. There is no question but that the
coming of our Lord, taken literally, signifies his
coming in person to the general judgment; and, if
the time permitted me to enter upon a minute exa
mination of the several texts wherein the phrase
occurs, it might perhaps appear, that, except in the
book of Revelations, the figurative sense is exceed
ingly rare in the Scriptures of the New Testament,
if not altogether unexampled. Be that as it may,
there is no question but that the coining of our Lord,
taken literally, signifies his coming in person to the
general judgment ; and the close connexion of the
words of the text with what immediately precedes,
in our Lord's discourse, makes it unreasonable, in
my judgment, to look for any thing here but the
literal meaning. In the verse next before the text,
our Lord speaks of the coming of the Son of man
in terms that necessarily limit the notion of his

BY BISHOP HORSI.EY. 321
coming to that of his last coming to the general
judgment. ' For the Son of man shall come in the
glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then he
shall reward every man according to his works.'
And then he adds, 'Verily, I say unto you, there
be some standing here, which shall not taste of
death till they see. the Son of man coming in his
kingdom.' First, it is said the Son of man shall
come; — it is immediately added, that some then
present should see him coming. To what purpose
is this second declaration, but as a repetition of the
first, with the addition of a, circumstance whicli
might interest the audience in the event, and
awaken their serious attention to it ? 'I will come,
and some of you shall see me coming.' Can it be
supposed, that in such an asseveration, the word to
come may bear two different senses ; and that the
coming, of which it was said that it should be seen,
should not be visible ? But what then ? Did out-
Lord actually aver that any of those who upon this
occasion were his hearers, should live to the day of
the general judgment ? It cannot be supposed :
that were to ascribe to him a prediction which the
event of things hath falsified. Mark his words :
' There be some standing here, who shall not taste
of death.' He says not, ' who shall not die,' but
' who shall not taste of death.' Not to taste of
death, is not to feel the pains of it — not to taste its
bitterness. In this sense was the same expression
used by our Lord upon other occasions, as was, in
deed, the more simple expression of not dying.
' If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of
death.' The expression is to be understood with
reference to the intermediate state between death
and the final judgment, in which the souls, both of
Y

322 THE JUDGMENT.
the righteous and the wicked, exist in a conscious
state — the one comforted with the hope and pros
pect of tlieir future glory, the other mortified with
the expectation of torment. The promise to the
saints, that they shall never taste of death, is with
out limitation of time; — in the text, a time being
set, until which the persons intended shall not taste
of death, it is implied that then they shall taste it.
The departure of the wicked into everlasting
torment is, in Scripture, called the second death.
This is the death from which Christ came to save
penitent sinners ; and to this the impenitent remain
obnoxious. The pangs and horrors of it will be
such, that the evil of natural death, in comparison,
may well be overlooked ; and it may be said of
the wicked, that they sihall have no real taste of
death till they taste it in the burning lake, from
whence the smoke of their torment shall ascend for
ever and ever. This is what our Lord insinuates
in the alarming menace of the text ; — this, at least,
is the most literal exposition that the words will
bear ; and it connects them more than any other
with the scope and occasion of the whole discourse.
' Whosoever,' says pur Lord, ' will lose his life,
shall find it;' — shall find, instead of the life he loses
here, a better in the world to come : ' and who
soever will save his life, shall lose it;' — shall lose
that life which alone is worth his care: ' for what
is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul ; or what shall a man give in ex
change for his soul ?' For there will come a day
of judgment and retribution ; — the Son of man —
he who now converses with you in a human form
— shall 'come in the glory of the Father, with his
angels; and then he shall reward every man ac-

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 323
cording to his works.' On them who, by patient
continuance in well-doing, have sought for life
and immortality — on them he shall bestow glory
and happiness, honour and praise ; but shame and
rebuke, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of
man that doeth evil. The purport ofthe discourse
was to enforce a just contempt both of the enjoy
ments and of the sufferings of the present life, from
the consideration of the better enjoyments and of
the heavier sufferings of the life to come; and be
cause the discourse was occasioned by a fear which
the disciples had betrayed of the sufferings of this
world, for which another fear might seem the best
antagonist, — for this reason, the point chiefly in
sisted on, is the magnitude of the loss to them who
should lose their souls. To give this consideration
its full effect, the hearers are told that there were
those among themselves who stood in this danger
ous predicament. * There be some standing here,
who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of
man coming in his kingdom ;' and then will they
be doomed to endless sufferings, in comparison
with which the previous pangs of natural death are
nothing. 'Flatter not yourselves that these threat-
enings will never be executed, — that none will be
so incorrigibly bad as to incur the extremity of
these punishments : verily, I say unto you, there
are present, in this very assembly, — there are per
sons standing here, who will be criminal in that de
gree, that they will inevitably feel the severity of
vindictive justice, — persons who now perhaps hear
these warnings with incredulity and contempt :
but the time will come, when they will see the Son
of man, whom they despised, whom they rejected,
whom they persecuted, coming to execute ven-
y 2

324 THE JUDGMENT.
geance on them who have not known God, nor
obeyed the gospel ; and then will they be doomed
to endless sufferings, in comparison with which the
previous pangs of natural death are nothing.'
It will be proper, however, to consider, whether,
among the hearers of this discourse, there might be
any at whom it may be probable that our Lord
should point so express a denunciation of final
destruction. ' There are are some standing here.' The ori
ginal words, according to the reading which our
English translators seem to have followed, might be
more exactly rendered, ' There are certain per
sons standing here;' where the expression 'cer
tain persons' hath just the same definite sense as
' a certain person,' the force of the plural number
being only that it is a more reserved, and, for that
reason, a more alarming way of pointing at an in
dividual. Now, in the assembly to which our
Lord was speaking, ' a certain person,' it may
well be supposed, was present, whom charity her
self may hardly scruple to include among the mi
serable objects of God's final vengeance. The son
of perdition, Judas the traitor, was standing there.
Our Saviour's first prediction of his passion was
that which gave occasion to this whole discourse.
It may reasonably be supposed, that the tragical
conclusion of his life on earth was present to his
mind, with all its horrid circumstances ; and, among
these, none was likely to make a more painful im
pression than the treason of his base disciple. His
mind possessed with these objects, when the scene
of the general judgment comes in view, — the trai
tor standing in his sight, — his crime foreseen, —
the sordid motives of it understood,— the fore-

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 325
thought of the fallen apostle's punishment could
not but present itself; and this drew from our di
vine instructor that alarming menace, which must
have struck a chill of horror to the heart of every
one that heard it, and the more because the parti
cular application of it was not at the time under
stood. This was the effect intended. Our Lord
meant to impress his audience with a just and
affecting sense of the magnitude of those evils,
the sharpness of those pains, which none but the
ungodly shall ever feel, and from which none of
the ungodly shall ever escape.
Nor in this passage only, but in every page of
holy writ, are these terrors displayed, in expres
sions studiously adapted to lay hold of the imagi
nation of mankind, and awaken the most thought
less to such an habitual sense of danger as might
be sufficient to overcome the most powerful allure
ments of vice. ' The wicked are to go into outer
darkness ; there is to be weeping and gnashing of
teeth ; they are to depart into everlasting fire, pre
pared for the devil and his angels, where the worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ; there they
shall drink of the wrath of God, poured out with
out mixture into the cup of his indignation.'
Whatever there may be of figure in some of these
expressions, as much as this they certainly import,
— that the future state of the wicked will be a state
of exquisite torment, both of body and mind, — of
torments, not only intense in degree, but incapable
of intermission, cure, or end, — a condition of un
mixed and perfect evil, not less deprived of future
hope than of present enjoyment.
It is amazing, that a danger so strongly set forth
should be disregarded ; and this is the more amaz-

326 THE JUDGMENT.
ing, when we take a view of the particular casts
and complexions of character among which this
disregard is chiefly found. They may be reduced
to three different classes, according to the three dif
ferent passions by which they are severally over
come, — ambition, avarice, and sensuality. Per
sonal consequence is the object of the first class ;
wealth, of the second ; pleasure, of the third. Per
sonal consequence is not to be acquired but by
great undertakings, bold in the first conception,
difficult in execution, extensive in consequence.
Such undertakings demand great abilities. Ac
cordingly, we commonly find in the ambitious man a
superiority of parts, in some measure proportioned
to the magnitude of his designs : it is his particular
talent to weigh distant consequences, to provide
against them, and to turn every thing, by a deep
policy and forecast, to his own advantage. It
might be expected, that this sagacity of under
standing would restrain him from the desperate
folly of sacrificing an unfading crown for that glory
that must shortly pass away. Again, your avari
cious money-getting man is generally a character
of wonderful discretion. It might be expected that
he would be exact to count his gains, and would
be the last to barter possessions which he might
hold for ever, for a wealth that shall be taken from
him, and shall not profit him in the day of wrath.
Then, for those servants of sin, the effeminate
sons of sensual pleasure, these are a feeble, timid
race. It might be expected that these, of all men,
would want firmness to brave the danger. Yet so
it is, — the ambitious pursues a conduct which must
end in shame ; the miser, to be rich now, makes
himself poor for ever; and the tender, delicate

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 327
voluptuary shrinks not at the thought of endless
burnings !
These things could not be, but for one of these
two reasons, either that there is some lurking in
credulity in men, ' an evil heart of unbelief,' that
admits not the gospel doctrine of punishment in its
full extent ; or, that their imaginations set the
danger at a prodigious distance.
The Scriptures are not more explicit in the
threatenings of wrath upon the impenitent, than in
general assertions of God's forbearance and mercy.
These assertions are confirmed by the voice of na
ture, which Ibudly proclaims the goodness as well
as the power of the universal Lord. Man is frail
and imperfect in his original constitution. This,
too, is the doctrine of the Scriptures; and every
man's experience unhappily confirms it. Human
life, by the appointment of Providence, is short.
' He hath made our days as it were a span long.'
" Is it, then, to be supposed, that this good, this
merciful, this long-suffering God, should doom his
frail, imperfect creature, man, to endless punish
ment for the follies, — call them, if you please, the
crimes, of a short life? Is he injured by out-
crimes, that he should seek this vast revenge ; or
does his nature delight in groans and lamenta
tions? It cannot be supposed. What revelation
declares of the future condition of the wicked, is
prophecy; and prophecy, we know, deals in poeti
cal and exaggerated expressions." Such, perhaps,
is the language which the sinner holds within him
self, when he is warned of the wrath to come ; and
such language he is taught to hold, in the writ
ings and sermons of our modern sectaries. He is
taught, that the punishment threatened is far more

328 THE JUDGMENT.
heavy than will be executed : he is told, that the
words which, in their literal meaning, denote end
less duration, are, upon many occasions in Scrip
ture, as in common speech, used figuratively or
abusively, to denote very long, but yet definite,
periods of time. These notions are inculcated in the
writings, not of infidels, but of men who, with all
their errors, must be numbered among the friends
and advocates of virtue and religion ; — but, while
we willingly bear witness to their worth, we must
not the less strenuously resist their dangerous in
novations. The question concerning the eternity of punish
ment (like some others, which, considered merely
as questions of philosophy, may be of long and
difficult discussion) might be brought to a speedy
determination, if men, before they heat themselves
with argument, would impartially consider how
far reason, in her natural strength, may be compe
tent to the inquiry. I do not mean to affirm gene
rally that reason is not a judge in matters of re
ligion : but I do maintain, that there are certain
points concerning the nature of the Deity and the
schemes of Providence, upon wliich reason is dumb
and revelation is explicit ; and that, in these points,
there is no certain guide but the plain, obvious
meaning of the written word. The question con
cerning the eternal duration of the torments of
the wicked is one of these. From any natural
knowledge that we have of the Divine character, it
never can be proved that the scheme of eternal
punishment is unworthy of him.
It cannot be proved that this scheme is incon
sistent with his natura] perfections, — his essential
goodness. What is essential goodness ? It is

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 329
usually defined by a single property, — the love of
virtue for its own sake. The definition is good, as
far as it goes ; but is it complete ? Does it com
prehend the whole of the thing intended ? Perhaps
not. Virtue and vice are opposites : love and hate
are opposites. A consistent character must bear
opposite affections toward opposite things. To
love virtue, therefore, for its own sake, and to
hate vice for its own sake, may equally belong to
the character of essential goodness ; and thus, as
virtue in itself, and for its own sake, must be the
object of God's love and favour; so, incurable
vice, in itself, and for its own sake, may be the
object of his hatred and persecution.
Again, it cannot be proved that the scheme of
eternal punishment is inconsistent with the rela
tive perfections of the Deity — with those attri
butes which are displayed in his dealings with the
rational part of his creation : for who is he that
shall determine in what proportions the attributes
of justice and mercy, forbearance and severity,
ought to be mixed up in the character of the Su
preme Governor of the universe ?
Nor can it be proved that eternal punishment is
inconsistent with the schemes of God's moral go
vernment: for who can define the extent of that
government ? Who among the sons of men hath
an exact understanding of its ends, a knowledge
of its various parts, and of their mutual relations
and dependencies ? Who is he that shall explain
by what motives the righteous are to be preserved
from falling from their future state of glory ?
That they shall not fall, we have the comfortable
assurance of God's word. But by what means is
the security of tlieir state to be effected ? Un-

330 THE JUDGMENT.
questionably by the influence of moral motives
upon the minds of free and rational agents. But
who is so enlightened as to foresee what particu
lar motives may be the fittest for the purpose?
Who can say, These might be sufficient, — these
are superfluous ? Is it impossible that, among
other motives, the sufferings of the wicked may
have a salutary effect ? And shall God spare
the wicked, if the preservation of the righteous
should call for the perpetual example of their
punishment ? — Since, then, no proof can be de
duced, from any natural knowledge that we have
of God, that the scheme of eternal punishment
is unworthy of the Divine character, — since there
is no proof that it is inconsistent either with the
natural perfections of God, or with his relative
attributes, — since it may be necessary to the ends
of his government, — upon what grounds do we
proceed, when we pretend to interpret, to qualify,
and to extenuate the threatenings of holy writ ?
The original frailty of human nature, and the
providential shortness of human life, are alleged to
no purpose in this argument. Eternal punishment
is not denounced against the frail, but against the
hardened and perverse; and life is to be esteemed
long or short, not from any proportion it may bear
to eternity, (which would be equally none at all,
though it were protracted to ten thousand times its
ordinary length,) but according as the space of it
may be more or less than may be just sufficient for
the purposes of such a state as our present life is, of
discipline and probation. There must be a certain
length of time, the precise measure of whicli can be
known to none but God, within which, the pro
mises and the threatenings of the gospel, joined

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 331
with the experience which every man's life affords
of God's power and providence— of the instability
and vanity of all worldy enjoyments, — there must,
in tbe nature of things, be a certain measure of
time, within which, if at all, this state of experience,
joined with future hopes and fears, must produce
certain degrees of improvement in moral wisdom
and in virtuous habit. If, in all that time, no effect
is wrought, the impediment can only have arisen
from incurable self-will and obstinacy. If the or
dinary period of life be more than is precisely suf
ficient for this trial and cultivation ofthe character,
those characters which shall show themselves incor
rigibly bad, will have no claim upon the justice or
the goodness of God, to abridge the time of their
existence in misery, so that it may bear some cer
tain proportion to the short period of their wicked
lives. Qualities are not to be measured by dura
tion : they bear no more relation to it than they do
to space. The hatefulness of sin is seated in itself
— in its own internal quality of evil : by that its ill-
deservings are to be measured ; not by the narrow
ness of the limits, either of time or place, within
which the good providence of God hath confined
its power of doing mischief.
If, on any ground, it were safe to indulge a hope
that the suffering of the wicked may have an end,
it would be upon the principle adopted by the
great Origen, and by other eminent examples of
learning and piety which our own times have seen,
— that the actual endurance of punishment in the
next life will produce effects to which the appre
hension of it in this had been insufficient, and end,
after a long course of ages, in the reformation of
the worst characters. But the principle that this

332 THE JUDGMENT.
effect is possible — that the heart may be reclaimed
by force, is at best precarious ; and the only safe
principle of human conduct is the belief, that un-
repented sin will suffer endless punishment here
after. Perhaps, the distance at which imagination sets
the prospect of future punishment, may have a
more general influence in diminishing the effect of
God's merciful warnings, than any sceptical doubts
about the intensity or the duration of the sufferings
of the wicked. The Spirit of God means to awaken
us from this delusion, when he tells us by the apos
tles and holy men of old, that the ' coming of the
Lord draweth nigh.' He means, by these declara
tions, to remind every man that his particular doom
is near: for, whatever may be the season appointed
in the secret counsels of God, for ' that great and
terrible day, when the heavens and the earth shall
flee from the face of him who shall be seated on
the throne, and their place shall be no more found;'
whatever may be the destined time of this public ca
tastrophe, the end of the world, with respect to every
individual, takes place at the conclusion of his own
life. In the grave there will be no repentance; no
virtues can be acquired, no evil characters thrown
off. With that character, whether of virtue or of
vice, with which a man leaves the world, with that
he must appear before the judgmentrseat of Christ.
In that moment, therefore, in which his present
life ends, every man's future condition becomes ir
reversibly determined. In this sense, to every one
that standeth here, ' the coming of the Lord draw
eth nigh,' the Judge is at the door ; let us ' watch,
therefore, and pray ;' watch over ourselves, and pray
for the succours of God's grace, that we may be able

BY BISHOP HORSLEY. 333
to stand before the Son of man. Nor shall vigi
lance and prayer be ineffectual. On the incorri
gible and perverse, — on those who mock at God's
threatenings, and reject his promises, — on these
only the severity of wrath will fall. But, for those
who lay these warnings seriously to heart, who
dread the pollution of the world, and flee from sin
as from a serpent, who fear God's displeasure more
than death, and seek his favour more than life,
though much of frailty will to the last adhere to
them, yet these are the objects of the Father's
mercy — of the Redeemer's love. For these he
died, for these he pleads, these he supports and
strengthens with his Spirit, these he shall lead
with him triumphant to the mansions of glory,
when Sin and Death shall be cast into the lake of
fire.

THE END.

J . llickerby, Piintcr, SherlKium Lane.

On May 1 will be published,
SERMONS
KOR
WHITSUNTIDE.

On March 1 was published,
SERMONS ON
RETIREMENT, SELF-DENIAL, RESIGNATION, &c.
SUITABLE FOR
CHKISTIAN CONSIDERATION DURING LENT.

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