Credo Resurrectionem CARNIS A Tractate on the eleventh Article of the Apostles Creed By W. H. Esquire sometimes of Peter-house in Cambridge SPES ADDIDIT ALAS LONDON Printed by E. P. for N. Bourne and are to be sold at his Shop at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange 1633. Credo Resurrectionem Carnis CHAP. I. Of the Creed in generall WHat Origen said of the inventiō of Hieroglyphicall Learning Origen Hom. 7. in Exod. may not unfitly be applyed to these Breviaries and Epitomes of Holy Writ like the Iewes Manna they fall downe in round and small cakes yet afford good nourishment Like rich Iewels they carry worth in every sparke and in these little maps is contained a world of matter As those decem verba the short Law of the Decalogue is a patterne of all duties to bee done As that Oratio quotidiana authorized by our Saviours lips is the curious Archetype master-peece of all prayer the common place the originall copie the platforme of all requests to bee made So the Apostolicall Creed is a plaine and absolute summe of all holy Faith It is called in English the Creed from the first Word Credo quia omnia credenda according to that of Athanasius whosoever will bee saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholicke faith which faith except every one keepe whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly It is called Apostolicall because it summarily conteines the chiefe and principall points of religion handled and propounded in the doctrine of the Apostles Other confessions are received not as new but as paraphrases and expositions and enlargements for the better clearing of this for as there is but one Faith so but one Creed as the foure Gospels are indeed but one Gospel so the Apostolicall Athanasian and Nicen Creed are but one in substance This of the Apostles hath ever been accounted in the Church most ancient and of greatest authority which although it be not Protocanonicall Scripture yet is it the key of Scriptures medulla Scripturarum the pith of the whole Bible Here have I an hādful of holy flowers which are called from the several beds of that spacious garden of the sacred Scripture here is collected into one faire body the substance and sweetnesse of all those divine mysteries which either lie hidden or scatterd in the volume of holy writ This is that Parvulus Iudex the little Iudge in matters of quarrell about religion for what doctrine soever is contrary to the Analogie of faith in these things ought and must bee rejected If a foole say in his heart there is no God If a Iew deny Christ If an Epicure beleeve not a life everlasting If a Cain deny the remission of sinnes or a Corinthian the Resurrection of the flesh All these crossing the Articles of our Christian faith the Church rejecteth them God condemneth them And they fearefully perish without his mercy to recall them The matter or object of the Creed concerneth 1 God 2 Church First God 1 The Father and our Creation Article 1. 2 The Son our Redemption in the 6. next Art 3 The Holy Ghost Article 8. Secondly it concerneth the Church in the 4. last Articles which is more fully described by her Properties 1 Holy Article 9. 2 Catholicke Article 9. 3 Knit in a Communion Article 9. Prerogatives In the soule remission of sins Art 10. In the body resurrection Art 11. Body soule everlasting life Art 12. These bee the twelve signes in the Zodiake of our faith through which passeth Christ Iesus the Sun of righteousnes O never may the clouds of infidelity darken or eclypse his beames These twelve Articles are so necessary and so lincked together that hee that denyeth one by consequent denyeth all because that of any one so denyed the denyall of the very foundation of our faith is straightly inferred He that with Marcion denyeth the Humanity of Christ may be easily convinced to deny the passion of Christ because the God-head is impassible he that with Ebion denyeth the Deity of Christ may with the like facility bee convinced to deny the Resurrection of Christ because the manhood onely never had beene able to raise it selfe from the dead Rom. 1.4 And hee that denyeth the Resurrection of Christ cannot beleeve his Ascension because the Apostle telleth us Ephes 4.9 that hee which ascended is the same which descended first into the lower parts of the Earth By this manifest inference may we plainely see the connexion of these Articles If yee deny one yee deny all and if yee renounce any one yee cannot be saved But I will not take a large survey in a small plot It s a good rule to be observed by booke-writers which a great master in oratory hath prescribed ut titulum legant to reade the title of their bookes and often to aske themselves what they have begun to handle From this maine sea I will therefore strike into a little channell and having drunke of the brooke in the way and given a tast of the Creed in generall I descend to this particular Article which is rhe subject of our following Treatise CHAP. 2. Each terme in this eleventh Article remarkable from the explication of which is inferred the immortality of the Soule and consequently of the rising againe of the body IN our precedent Chapter we shewed the dependancy of one Article with another and that to deny any one of these principles is the next degree to infidelity Wee may farther illustrate this truth by this Article of the Resurrection Hee that beleeves not this beleeves all other things in vaine for if there bee no Resurrection from death then can he receive no reward of his faith Nay I will take the note a little higher He that beleeves not this beleeves no other Article of his Creed for as our English Postiller hath observed from Erasmus aptly The whole Creed in grosse every parcell thereof argueth a resurrection If there bee a God Almighty then hee is just and if just then another reckning in another world If a Iesus Christ who is our Saviour then must hee dissolve the workes of Satan sinne and death If an Holy Ghost then all his holy Temples which have glorified him here shall bee glorified of him hereafter If a Church which is holy then a Remission of sins a Resurrection of the body a life everlasting Thus doe wee see how this Primarium Evangelii caput this predominant Article presupposeth all the rest how it is Nexus Articulorum omnium the tying knot on which all other links of holy Faith depend By this hand is religion held up by the head This is the anchor of our hope the reference of our faith the certainty of our salvation and the very dore of the Kingdome of heaven From this mine ariseth another treasure it is worth our observation how this Article of the Resurrection is placed betweene the Article of the
Iubile which Christiās enjoy under Christ by whose blood wee have not only a reentry into the Kingdome of heaven which we lost in the transgression of our great Grandfather Adam which wee had formerly morgaged forfeited by our sins And this was happily signified by the Israelits reentry upon their lands which they had formerly sould and againe the found of the Gospell which was in this Feast typed by the noise of the Trumpets is gone throughout the world The Redemption of Christ Easter Day is a yeere of Iubile the Resurrection of Christ is the chiefe day in the yeere yea Regina Dierum as Ignatius stiles it All Christians herein imitating the patterne of the blessed Apostle in honour of Christs Resurrection 1 Cor. 16.2 observe their Sabbath on the eight day which is the first day of the weeke wheras the Iewes hallowed their Sabbath upon the seaventh day which is the last day of the weeke So that Easter day is the Sabbath of Sabbaths an high and holy day from which every other Sunday hath its name being so called because the Sunne of righteousnesse arose from the dead this day Christs appearing on the eight day is not without a mystery wee labour six dayes in this life the seventh is the Sabbath of our death in which wee rest from our labours and then being raised from the dead the eighth day Christ in his owne body yea the very same body that was crucified shall reward every man according to his works Happy then is that man whose whole life is nothing els but a Lent to prepare him against the Sabbath of his death and Easter of his Resurrection CHAP. 4. Arguments drawne from divers Attributes of God as his Power Mercy Iustice c. to confirme us in this Article of the Resurrection AT my first entrance into the schoole of faith in the very first Article of my Creed I no sooner reade that there is a God but I learne withall that hee is Almighty The doctrine of his Omnipotency is the basis and fundamentall Arch on which is built our Christian religion from the knowledge hereof proceeds all faith because wee beleeve with the blessed Virgin Quia potens est that God is able to doe all those things which reason is not able to comprehend Cōtrariwise the ignorance or the not right understanding of this truth is the cause that there bee so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbeleevers and misbeleevers Atheists without the knowledge of God Infidels without hope or faith in God It was our Saviours own Argument against the Sadduces you erre not knowing the Scriptures Math. 22.29 nor the power of God i. e. saith the Paraphrase yee Sadduces doe erre grossely dānably in this your miscōceit of the resurrection the ground of your errour is your ignorāce both of the Scriptures which have cleerly revealed the truth thereof and of that Omnipotent power of God wherby is only this otherwise impossible worke If with the men of Berea wee do search the Scriptures wee shall find that before the Sadduces had any being in Israel this heresy of theirs was palpably convinced with an example of the resurrectiō even in Elishaes revived corps Now the power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a milliō a world No power can raise one man but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation In the beginning the Word of the Lord was the seminary of all being his will was his Word and his Word was his deed His Fiat and Fuit met together his Dixit and Benedixit kissed each other All at first was nothing and from that nothing carne all How easy is it then for him to repaire all out of something who could thus fetch all out of nothing How should we distrust him for our resurrection who hath approved his Omnipotency in our creation Our remainder after death can never bee so small as our being was before the world ashes is more than nothing The body wee confesse that is once cold in death hath no more aptitude to a reanimation than that which is mouldred into dust only as it was Gods omnipotēcy to create man out of a substāce that had no ability to produce the matter so likewise it is the Prerogative Royall to revive that dust to forme it into a new Adam to fetch a man a second time from the earth to live with himselfe when time shall bee no more This Resuscitation of the dead is one of those foure keyes which the Hebrewes say are in the hand of him who is the Lord of the whole world The Scripture makes mention of each of them 1. Clavis pluviae the key of raine the Lord will open to thee his good treasure Deut. 28.12 2. Clavis cibationis the key of food Thou openest thy hād and fillest every thing with thy plenteousnesse Psal 145.16 3. Clavis sterilitatis the key of barrenesse God remembred Rachel and opened her Wombe Genes 30.22 4. Clavis sepulchrorum the key of the grave when I shall open your sepulchers Ezek. 37.12 By all which places it is intimated that these foure things God hath reserved in his owne hand and custody Namely Raine Food the procreation of children the raising of our bodies For though at first hee made him ex nihilo out of nothing yet he did not make him ad nihilum to returne to nothing There may be a dissolution of soule and body for a time but there cannot bee an annihilation of either because they must be revnited againe to remaine for ever As we have derived a maine proofe of the Resurrection from the power of God so likewise may wee argue from his other glorious and divine attributes but because I will not enlarge a treatise into a volume I will herein follow the Schoole-men who reduce all communiter ad duo his Mercy Iustice These be the two master Attributes which set all the rest on work these bee the two feete of God whereupon he walketh al his wayes When God makes a covenant with his owne it is an incorruptible everlasting covenant Numb 18.19 therefore it is called a covenant of salt to note the perpepetuity of it In this covenant are all the dead Bodies of the Saints and the Lord forgetteth them not When Iacob wēt down to Aegypt Genes 46.4 the Lord promised to bring him backe againe but how did the Lord bring him backe againe seeing hee died in Aegypt the Lord was with him when hee was brought out of Aegypt So the Lord preserveth all the bodies of the Saints Psal 34.20 and hee keepeth all their bones yea even then when their bed is made in the dust because they are within the covenant It is said of Iosias although hee was slaine in battle yet he was gathered in peace to his Fathers i. e. to the Spirits of his Fathers who enjoy peace for hee was not gathered in peace in
putrefaction the Prophet apprehends a certaine hope of the Resurrection of his owne flesh to Immortality and assures himselfe that God will not give him over to that corruption which shall seize on him in the grave that his dead body shall not miscarry nor vanish away in rottenesse but bee raised againe in glory This meditation leades me by the hand to treate of our Saviours Resurrection being pertinent and conducing to the series of our discourse CHAP. 3. Christs Resurrection manifested by the testimony of Angels by his owne apparitions by the fulfilling of the Prophecies his Resurrection is a demonstration of ours THE glorious resurrection of our blessed Saviour was first proclaimed by an Herauld from Heaven so all the Evangelists testify Sonuit de sepulchro vox laetitiae never before was heard such newes from the grave but at that time when an Angell was the preacher his Sermon Christ is risen his Auditory Mary Magdalen and other devout women To discourse at large of those celestiall and immortall spirits comes not within the compasse of my walke yet thus much briefly and to our present purpose Angels however they still behold the face of our Heavenly Father yet they are but his houshold servants his pages of honor which hee sends on his holy errands the sacred tutors of the Saints the guard of Gods elect the watch-men over the wals of the new Ierusalem chaplaines in ordinary to the King of heaven Messengers Ministers attending about his Throne expecting his pleasure alwayes in readinesse to make knowne his will unto Man When God brought forth his first begotten Sonne into the world he sayed worship him all yee Angels and so they did when the blessed Virgin oreshadowed by the Holy Ghost carried her divine burthen within her wōbe an Angell appeared unto Ioseph to justify the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Sonne when hee was borne the Angels told the same unto the sheepheards and that with an Ecce too Luke 1. when Herod ment death to the Babe for the name of a King an Angell revealed the same unto Ioseph and willed him to fly into Aegypt with the child and so Populus Aegypti qui fuit persecutor primogeniti became custos unigeniti whē Herod was dead the Angell bid Ioseph returne againe into Iury When Satan left tempting him the Angels came and ministred unto him when his soule was exceeding sorrowfull unto death the Angels attēded to comfort him when his body was to bee raised from death an Angell descends to draw away the curtaine while our Lord came forth of his bed-chamber an Angell roles away the stone which his Adversaries had laid upon his grave an Angell is the first that reports the glad tidings of his resurrection The truth of this Angelicall assertion was secōded by Truth it selfe for what the Angell preached unto the women what the womē reported to the Apostles for in this Article were they first catechiz'd by the weaker sex our Saviour makes good by his manifold apparitions being seene at sundry times by such who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witnesses chosen before of God for that purpose as the Apostle affirmes in his little Creed to Cornelius Acts 10. wherein is a synopsis or summe of the chiefe points of holy beliefe Concerning the Doctrine verse 36 37. Miracles verse 38. Life and Death verse 39. Resurrection verse 40 41. Comming to iudgemēt verse 42. of Iesus Christ What Peter there recites to his Auditor his new convert his Cornelius what Paul elsewhere to his Corinthians was all foretold Per os Prophetarum by the mouth of the holy Prophets for this is sure convertible Nothing was done by Christ which was not foretold nothing was foretold which was not done So that there was an Oportet a forceable reason that he should rise againe Vt impleretur that the Scripture might be fulfilled his Resurrection being as Aquinas saith Complementum omnium promissionum the Consummatum est the period the accomplishment of al predictions We may farther illustrate this if we looke on our Saviour as he was seene by Ezekiel in a vision as a King Ezek. 9.2 as a Priest as a Prophet walking amongst the midst of the Angels as a King cloathed in white as a Priest and with an inkhorne hanging at his girdle as a Prophet And here likewise shall wee find an Oportet that his Propheticall Sacerdotall Regall Offices each of them implyed a proofe of his Resurrection First let us consider him as a Prophet even the Prince of Prophets When the Angels at the Sepulcher sayed unto the women why seeke yee the living among the dead He is not here Luk 24.6 but hee is risen hee addes to remēber how he spake unto you whē hee was yet in Galile saying The Sonne of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful mē be crucified and the third day rise againe It is remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not what only but how not the matter but the manner remember that He will keep his word though he die for it though he dye for it hee will rise againe the third day to keep it to a minute The very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his resurrection is determined He rose the third day that early too When God was to give sentence upon man for sin he stayed till the heat of the day was over but upō this day being to preach remissiō of sins he rose betime while it was yet darke It was the Love of God and tender affection to his Church which he had so lately so deerely bought made him rise so soone and appeare so often the same day to distressed soules In all my Creed there is no other circumstance of Time but this of all the Actions of Christ for mee there recorded onely this Action of rising againe though of all the most difficult yet it is to bee beleeved with the circumstance of time no other to shew that the doubt and difficulty the improbability in respect of meanes bee it what it will yet whensoever my Saviour promiseth hee keepeth it as well as whatsoever he hath promised Secondly as his prophecy so his priesthood inforced his Resurrection How could it appeare that the obligation was cancelled the law fulfilled God pacified if hee had not risen againe If the debt had not bene taken off by the surety it would have lyen still upon the Principall If Christ had not risen from the dead wee should still be yet in our sinnes and our Faith should bee in vaine But wee know that our high Priest with one offering hath consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 The powerfull operation of this passion endureth for ever being the Lābe slaine from the beginning of the world and bleeding as it were to the worlds end Aron and his successors were but onely forerunners of Christ who is the end of the Law
abundantly flowed from the best pen of France Thomas Aquinas by the dead understandeth sinnes which are dead workes as if the Apostle had said why are they baptized for the abolishing of sin whereby death commeth and which beeing removed death shall prevaile no more Others as Claudius Guiliandus understandeth it of Martyrdome for the faith of the resurrectiō because our Saviour speaking of suffering Martyrdome to the ambitious sons of Zebede said can ye be baptized with my baptisme These Expositions are far fetched In this and the like places of Scripture we must even have Oculos ad sensum for the occasion of speaking is the best key to every speech we will therfore weave this web a little closer In the translation and interpretation of these words Expositers vary I will strike the severall flints each of them may afford a sparke to give some light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are translated by some baptized over the dead as though it had beene the manner of some to baptize over the graves of the dead to cherish their hope of resurrection If it might appeare to have beene so by any History this would at once decide all controversies But as a moderne writer descanting upon this Exposition of Luther hath observed none hath made mention of any such thing and if we looke into the Register of Gods owne Record we shall finde that places of much Water were raither chose to baptize in as Iordan and Iohn the Baptist is said to have baptized by Enon besides Salim because there was much water there Ioh. 3.23 And S. Luke reports that the great Eunuch of Ethiopia went into the water came out of the water at his baptisme Act. 8.38 39. Others thinke that the Apostle here seems to allude to the ancient custome of the faithfull Iewes who to strengthen themselves in the hope of the resurrection used to wash the bodies of their dead and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to embalm them before they buried them As though the Apostle would prove there is a resurrection of the body from this custome seeing otherwise this washing should bee in vaine Though this cōstruction bee of some weight yet it is not sufficiently agreeable to the phrase the Apostle here useth Calvin according to the explication of Epiphanius upon the Text interpreteth the Apostles words as though he should reason from the custome of such converts and beginners in Religion as neglecting baptisme over-long yet when their death approached made haste to bee baptized that their bodies might be washed and cleansed against the joyfull day of the Resurrection Though the interpretation bee not lightly to bee passed by yet I cannot rest in it as in that which the Apostle should make his Epicherema ground of his reason and Master Calvin himself worthily condemneth them that should so deferre their baptisme till their going out of this life Francis Iunius rich in languages and subtill in distinguishing hath observed that this particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it be usually and rightly transtlated Super may neverthelesse according to the use of the same both Greeke and Latin praeposition in Greeke and Latin writers bee taken here for Praeter besides or in signification of Insuper Moreover as noting the cōtinuance of the Sacrament of Baptisme in the Church by a constant course for the comfort of the living still like as it was found to bee of comfortable use to those that were dead so long as they were alive as though the words of the Apostle were to be read thus Else what doe they which are baptized still or moreover and beside those that are already dead because otherwise it might bee inferred that unlesse the dead should rise againe neither have the dead any fruit of Baptisme abiding them to wit in respect of their bodies and so shall bee disappointed of that which they looked for by faith neither have the living any reason at least in respect of the body why it should bee continued amongst them And this may the doubling of the Question by the Apostle import Else what shall they doe that are baptized viz. such as are already dead and againe why are they namely the living being alive yet Baptized Saint Ambrose understands this place of a Sacramentall washing applyed unto some living man in the name and behalfe of his friend dying without Baptisme out of a superstitious conceit that the Sacrament thus conferred to one alive in the name of the deceased might bee available for the other dying unbaptized As if the Apostle did here wound the superstitious Corinthians with their owne quils and prove the Resurrection of the dead from their owne erroneous practice telling them in effect that their usuall but misgrounded and superstitious custome of baptizing the living were in vaine if there were no Resurrection Thus have I briefly set before your eyes what curious threads have beene drawne by expert workmen from this woofe of Scripture Other Truth men herein have laboured and we have entred into their labours I have here I confesse presented a Caena dubia let each man please his own pallat If any shall demand my sentence Etiam culices circumvolent cum apibus I doe herein subscribe to the interpretation given by du Moulin which with submissiō of my Iudgment I take to bee proper and genuine Nor do I obtrude this explicatiō on my Reader as Magisteriall but leave him if this sense satisfy not to his father disquisition The sense of these words saith he must bee taken of the Apostles intent His intent was to prove the Resurrection hitherto hee implyeth Baptisme which in those dayes was celebrated as may appeare in the monuments of Ecclesiasticall History by dipping and as it were diving Magdeburg cant 14. cap. 16. col 234. by plonging the whole body in water in token that wee are in death And the comming forth of the water representeth the Resurrection S. Pauls meaning is that this signe were in vaine if there were no Resurrection and that in vain we are baptized for dead or as dead and to represent unto us that we be in death if there be no hope of the Resurrection And in this sense may wee understand the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee used by the Apostle as the Latin Pro is used in this and the like phrase habere pro derelicto for hee which is baptized should bee baptized for dead i. e. as one in a manner dead even to dye more and more unto sinne but to love more and more to God because baptisme is a token of regeneration the pawne and Image of our Resurrection as Saint Ambrose stiles it Et per regenerationem corpora nostra Resurrectioni gloriae inaugurantur Therfore saith the Apostle are wee buried with Christ in Baptisme Rom. 6.4 i. e. as Ignatius expounds the phrase aright beleeving in his death wee are by baptisme made partakers of his resurrectiō And thus having endeavoured to cleare this obscure