A SERMON Preached Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Maior OF LONDON AND The Court of Aldermen c. ON EASTER-MONDAY 1692. Being one of the Anniversary Spittal-Sermons By EDWARD Lord Bishop of Gloucester LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCII THE Bishop of Gloucester's Sermon ON EASTER MONDAY STAMP Maior Jovis xiv o. Die Aprilis 1692. Annoque Regni Regis Reginae Willielmi Mariae Angliae c. Quarto THis COURT doth desire the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester to Print his Sermon Preached at St. Brides-Church on Monday in Easter-Week before the Lord Maior Aldermen and Governours of the several Hospitals of this City Goodfellow 1 COR. vi 14. God hath both Raised up the Lord and will also Raise up Us by His own Power BOTH this great Festival of the Catholick Church and the special occasion of this Anniversary Meeting have directed me to the Choice of these Words for my present Subject A Discourse on that greatest Article of our Christian Faith Our Lords Resurrection you need not be told is what this Festival calls for and a Discourse on our own future Resurrection and the Life to come as we shall now Apply it you will be satisfied is no less suitable to the design of this Meeting And in speaking to the Former of the Propositions which our Text consists of I shall with all possible brevity lay the Evidence before you which commands our Belief of Our Lord's Resurrection from Death to Life That He was put to Death is no more to be doubted than that such a Person once lived nor did either the Jews or Pagans who lived in those days ever question it He was Publickly Crucified and in the sight of a Great Multitude between two Thieves and not taken down from the Cross till after the Spear had pierced His Heart And all the Spectators were so satisfied He was dead that they brake not His Legs as they did His Fellow sufferers where by a Prophecy concerning Him was unawares to His Enemies fulfilled by them After which His Body was Buryed and the Sepulchre watched till the Third Day by a Guard of Souldiers The Jews His Inveterate Enemies do to this day upbraid Us Christians with His Death and scoff at us for Believing in a Crucified Saviour And His Ignominious Death is the great Scandal which hath hitherto prejudiced them against the Christian Faith Christ Crucified saith the Apostle is to the Jews a Stumbling block and to the Greeks Foolishness The Turks indeed say that Our Saviour did not dye but was Translated Mahomet having told them that Judas was Crucified in the place of Jesus But if the Followers of that Great Impostor were not miserably Bewitched they could never have rested on his sole Authority about a Matter of Fact of six Ages standing against the Evidence of Universal Tradition And besides what Blindness are they under who prefer Mahomet before Christ whilst they believe Christ so dear to God as to be received up into Heaven when they acknowledge Mahomet not only to have dyed like other Mortals but likewise still to remain among the dead There were also those in the Primitive Times among the Gnosticks who to their other monstrous Forgeries added this That Simon who was compelled to bear Christ's Cross being changed into His likeness was Crucified for Him Christ himself standing in the Crowd looking on him and deriding him But S. Irenoeus and Tertullian who lived in their Time have given us such an Account of these People as speaks them scarcely otherwise distinguishable from the Devils than as they had humane Bodies And as it is no less Evident that our Lord was put to Death than that he once lived so 't is as manifest that He Rose again as that He Dyed and was laid in the Grave For First Those who bare witness to His Resurrection were themselves at first most averse to the Belief of it Notwithstanding His having plainly told them that after He was put to DEATH He would rise again yet as if they thought those Words were not to be taken in a Literal Sense they had no Expectation of any such thing And whereas the Two Maries and Salome went Early on the Third Day to His Sepulchre their design was so far from being to be satisfied whether He were Risen or no that it was to Embalm His Dead Body Which alone was a Demonstration of their not imagining it should Rise again till the Last Day the end of Embalming being to preserve Bodies from Putrefaction Nay when they missed His Body in the Sepulchre this did not at all incline them to think 't was Risen for they concluded upon it that it was taken away Mary Magdalen makes her Complaint to Peter and John that they had taken away the Lord out of the Sepulchre and she knew not where they had laid Him And the other Mary stood weeping at their Disappointment and made the same Complaint to the Angels whom she took for Men and immediately after to her Lord Himself whom she supposed to be the Keeper of the Garden where the Sepulchre was and modestly taxed Him with taking Him away If thou hast born him hence said she tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away Or I will provide some other Burying Place for Him if He mayn't lye here And when these Women had informed the rest of the Disciples that the Body was not in the Sepulchre and how that Two Men in shining Garments said unto them why seek ye the Living among the Dead He is not here but is Risen Remember how He spake unto you when He was 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 they could by no means perswade them to give them Credit Their Words it is said seemed to them as idle Tales and they believed them not Luk. 24. 11. And when their Lord Appeared to them as He quickly after did they took him for some Spectre and were Frighted at the sight of Him so far were they from being hereby convinced that He was Raised to Life And when He spake to them and told them that it was He Himself and moreover shewed them His Hands and Feet or the Wounds in them we read that they believed not for Joy and Wondered they thought 't was infinitely too good News to be true So that He was fain to Call for Meat and did eat before them for their full satisfaction that what they saw was not a Phantastical but His Real Body And after all this Thomas being then absent when he was told these things by the Eye-witnesses would not believe them but roundly Answered them That except he not only saw in His hands the Prints of the Nails but also put his Finger into them and thrust his Hand into His Side he would not believe So that
I say the Witnesses of our Lords Resurrection were at first most averse to the Belief of it They were so far from being Credulous that never were there more unreasonably incredulous People They would not believe the Resurrection of their Lord till invincible irresistible Evidence had compelled them to it Secondly These Witnesses had not onely the forementioned but all imaginable Evidence given them of His being Risen As some of them were informed thereof by Two Angels and as they all saw Him and heard Him speak and He shewed them His Pierced Hands Feet and Side so they farther Handled Him they Ate and Drank with Him they Conversed with Him and that not once or twice but at times for fourty days together So that well might S. Luke say That He shewed Himself alive after His Passion to the Apostles by many infallible Proofs Acts 1. 3. And at last after He had given them Commission to Preach and Baptise and promised to be with them to the end of the World they saw Him ascend towards Heaven till a Cloud received Him out of their sight And therefore S. John begins His first Epistle with these powerful Words That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled of the Word of Life c. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you And those Words of S. Peter do well deserve to follow these tho' they chiefly relate to what he and two other Apostles saw before Christs Death viz. We have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty For He received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to Him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with Him on the Holy Mount 1 Ep. 1. 16 c. Nor was He onely seen by the Eleven Apostles and the forementioned good Women but by above five hundred Brethren at once as S. Paul told the Corinthians adding That the greater part of them were at that time living And after His Ascension He was seen by this Apostle too in his Journey to Damascus and that in so astonishing a Brightness as both blinded his eyes and struck him to the Ground And He farther spake audibly these Words to him Saul Saul Why persecutest thou Me 'T is in vain for thee to kick against the Pricks And asking Him who He was he received this Answer I am Jesus whom thou persecutest So that He who was an outragious Persecutor of the Witnesses of our Lords Resurrection was now compelled to be one of that Number and became as Couragious an Attestor of it as any of those he before had persecuted And many years after this our Lord appeared to His beloved Disciple in the Isle of Patmos in the most Glorious Form His Countenance being as the Sun when it shineth in its strength And so terrified was he with the sight that he fell as dead a his feet Apocal. 1. 17. And when I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead and He laid his Right Hand upon me saying unto me Fear not I am the First and the Last I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore And have the Keyes of Hell and Death And Lastly His so abundantly performing His promise of Sending the Holy Ghost was so great an Evidence of His Resurrection and Ascension too as a greater was not possible to be given He made this Promise not only before His death but likewise immediately before his Ascension Some of his last words to His Apostles being these That they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father which they had heard of Him And they waited no longer than ten days for the Accomplishment thereof For on the tenth Day there came a Sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the House where they were sitting And there appeared Cloven Tongues like as of Fire and they Sate upon Each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance c. Acts 2. beginning And v. 43. We read that many wonders and signs besides that of Speaking all Languages for the Preaching of the Gospel throughout the World were done by the Apostles Nor did the Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost quite cease for at least the three first Ages or till Christianity became the Religion of Nations when it was protected by the Emperours Sword and Encouraged by their Laws By which means the Church was under no necessity of the longet Continuance of those Gifts To our Lords Accomplishment of this Promise may be added the wonderful fulfilling of his Threats against the Jewish Nation for their Obstinate persisting in Unbelief and His prediction of the Destruction of Jerusalem which came to pass within fourty Years after his death And 't is marvellous to see what an Exact Agreement there is betwixt Josephus his History of the Miserys that then befel that People with divers Circumstances relating to them and our Blessed Lords Predictions of them Thirdly The Apostles Witnessed most boldly their Lords Resurrection before His Crucifiers and most deadly Enemys Nor could they be deterred from it by all their Threats nor by the Executions of them neither And therefore Chose to Suffer not onely the greatest Shame and Ignominy but all manner of Calamitys and the Cruellest deaths rather than desist from Preaching this Doctrine He who had been so great a Coward as to deny Him in his very presence and to be scared thereto by a silly Maid had the Courage to Own him even in the midst of His Murtherers after the Descent of the Holy Ghost Ye men of Israel said He Acts 2. 22 c hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by Miracles Wonders and Signs which God did by Him in the midst of you as you your selves also know Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and with wicked hands have Crucified and slain Whom God hath raised up having loosed the bands of death because it was impossible He should be holden of it c. And in the next Chapter he and S. John having cured a Cripple before a great Confluence of People at one of the Gates of the Temple he immediately declared to them that this they had done by the Power of that Jesus whom they had Murdered Ye men of Israel said he v. 12. why marvail ye at this Or why look ye so earnestly on us as tho' by our own Power or Holiness we had made this Man to walk The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob hath glorified His
Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and denyed Him in the presence of Pilate when He was determined to let Him go But ye denyed the Holy one and the just and desired a Murtherer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of life whom God hath Raised from the dead whereof we are Witnesses And His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong c. And we find that by the Sermon of which these words are part there were Converted to the faith of Christ about five thousand Souls and by the foregoing Sermon about three thousand But the Priests and Captain of the Temple and the Saducees being Enraged at this Boldness of theirs with the Success thereof laid hands on these two Apostles and the next day being brought before the High-Priest with the Rulers Elders and Scribes and being asked by them by what Power they had done this Miracle S. Peter declared to them as he had done before to the People with the Self-same Courage Ch. 4. 10. Be it known unto you all and to all the People of Israel that by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth whom ye Crucified whom God hath raised from the dead Even by Him doth this man stand before you whole This is the Stone which was set at nought by you Builders which is become the Head of the Corner Neither is there Salvation in any other c. It would take up a long time to shew with what Admirable Resolution these and the other Apostles and especially S. Paul persisted to the death in Preaching the Resurrection of Jesus with the other Christian Doctrines and what Miserys they Underwent because they would not be taken off from this Work So that who is able to suspect such Witnesses as these who is not as hardned an Infidel as the most Obdurate of our Lords Enemies That they could not be deceived themselves we have seen is as apparent as the Light and setting aside the Consideration of their most Exemplary Goodness 't is impossible that any Interest could prevail with them to deceive others Except we should suppose them so unlike all other of their Fellow-Creatures as to be in love with Ignominy Torment and Death But there are some who Object that Our Lords Resurrection would have been more Unquestionable had he at least shewed Himself alive after His Passion to Herod and Pontius Pilate the Chief Priest and the great Sanhedrin that Condemned Him In answer here to I will say these four things 1. That this is most impudently to prescribe to the Great God Was not He who is infinitely Wise the best judge what Evidence was fittest to be given in this Case And shall not He chuse His own Way and Method 2. Those most perverse and Obstinate Infidels had rendred themselves utterly Unworthy of so great a Favour who would not be Convinced by such an Abundance of most Miraculous Works which Jesus had wrought before their Eyes but still followed Him with the most horrible Calumnies until they had put Him to the most horrible death It seems Unworthy of Almighty God thus to necessitate and extort by main force Belief from those who had so maliciously shut their Eyes against the Clearest Light and had in the most insolent manner Rejected the Counsel of God against themselves 3. In that those who were chosen to be Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection were indued with such Divine Power and did such Mighty Works for the Confirmation of the truth thereof there was every whit as Effectual a Course taken for the Conviction of all not utterly incurable as if He had appeared to every one of them and Suffered Himself to be Handled by them And they might as reasonably have Questioned their own Senses as the Truth of those who did so admirably Confirm their Testimony But 4. Had He shewed Himself alive to His Enemys they might have Objected that it was not He but the Devil in His likeness with as great an Appearance of Reason as they could before impute His Casting out Unclean Spirits and His other most Supernatural Works to the power of Belzebub the Prince of the Devils We will make a very short Application of what hath been delivered on this former Part of the Text and then proceed to the latter Part. First We hence Learn the Strange Force and Power of Prejudice A rooted Prejudice is so Masterly so Unruly a thing that there is no dealing with it The Rulers and Generality of the Jews being strongly prejudiced against our Saviour chiefly upon the account of His being in diverse Respects quite a different person from what without ground they expected their Messias should be And because He declared that He came upon as different a Design from that which they vainly fancied and promised themselves He would come upon viz Not to deliver them from the Roman Yoke but from the Power of incomparably worse Enemys Sin and Satan Not to bless them with a great Affluence of Worldly Wealth and a Mighty Dominion in the World but to purchase Eternal Happiness for them in the Life to come and to Qualify them for it I say this great disappointment of their Carnal Expectations did make them Conclude it impossible that He of all men should be the Messias And because such Sensual Wretches as they were could not bear the thoughts of His being so His giving them the greatest Demonstrations imaginable that He was so was labour in vain they were all lost upon them Not only the most Rational Evidence in the World is Ordinarily compell'd to yield to the Power of Prejudice but even Sensible and Ocular Demonstrations have Submitted to it Our Blessed Saviour having had such sad Experience hereof among the Jews it is said not only that he Bewailed but also that He Marvailed at their Unbelief And Constant Experience assures us that the greatest strength of Argument signifies nothing to those who come with Byassed and Prepossest minds to the hearing of Truth Who judge of what is offered to them by their Wills not by their Understandings Nay the clearer and more irresistible the Evidence is the more are the Prejudiced incensed against the Proposer of it if they have but Ill Will equal to their Prejudice Secondly We learn from what hath been discoursed That we ought exceedingly to admire and deeply to be affected with the Divine Goodness in that there is given us such Wonderful Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel This none can call in Question who believe Christs Resurrection as I need not though I had time stand to shew and it is apparent from what hath been said that God hath done much more than barely enough to remove from us all Uncertainty concerning this great Point I cannot doubt but that the quarter Part of the Evidence for it he hath vouchsafed us would be sufficient to prevail on the Minds of all such as can perswade themselves to be impartially considerative And therefore how utterly inexcusable must those
themselves with the Cavils which have been often raised against the Resurrection of the Body they all supposing such a Sameness as is no where to be found in the sacred writings nay the Contrary to which the Apostle in the fore-cited words hath at least intimated And the Argument taken from our Bodies being such Fluid things as we know they are do nothing hinder but that the Dead may rise with as much the same Bodies with those that were Buried as the Buried are the Same with those they were Born with or that they had but a few years before they dyed But in short we shall doubtless Rise with as much the Same Bodies as it can be our Interest to desire we should and he who believes this needs not fear in the least that he believes too little relating to this great Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead And tho' he may not have so large a Faith as some others yet if it hath its due Influence upon his Practice he hath every whit as good a one to all Intents and Purposes Now as to our Evidence for the truth of this Article we have the greatest that can be since our Lord did so plainly Reveal it before His death and Confirmed the truth of all His Doctrines by His Resurrection Or which is the same thing demonstrated hereby that He was no Imposter in having declared Himself to be Sent of God and the Son of God We are therefore altogether as certain of our own future Resurrection as we can be of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And from what hath been said we may be assured that we can be certain of no matter of fact which we have not beheld with our own Eyes if we are not sure of this But the Apostle doth not stick to say that if there be no Resurrection of the dead then is not Christ risen 1 Cor. 15. 13. And he both repeateth this and Enlargeth upon it v. 15 16. Yea saith he 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 then is not Christ risen And farther Christ in rising again is declared by S. Paul to be the Representative of all true Christians He saith Now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the First Fruits of them that Slept Now the First Fruits under the Law did represent the whole Harvest and their being offered to God brought a Blessing on all the Other Fruits and by the offering of them as he also saith the rest were sanctified or Consecrated to God And so is the whole Church both in Soul and Body by Christs Resurrection And I add by His presenting Himself to His Father in Heaven upon that very day on which the First Fruits were offered according to the Law And so His Resurrection to Glory was a proof and pledge of all His sincere Disciples rising to Glory also And therefore this Apostle tells the Ephesians that as they who were dead in Sins were quickned together with Christ or raised from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness so likewise God hath raised them up together and made them sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus That is in Christ their Head their dead Bodies are already raised and with their Souls may be said to be at present Glorified in Him in Him I say considered as their Head or Representative And thus we see there is a necessary Connexion between the two Propositions in our Text God hath raised up the Lord and He will raise up us by his own Power Now to make Application of what hath been said on this Part of the Text In the First place Is it so certain that God will raise up us by His own Power even as certain as that He hath raised up Christ then are we not all of us infinitely concerned to make it our greatest Business while we remain in these Bodies which is our state of Probation and Tryal to be found in the Number of those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World to use our SAVIOURS own Words and the Resurrection from the Dead and to stand before the Son of Man That is to attain a Glorious Resurrection and to stand with Courage and Confidence before the Son of Man And how should we Watch and Pray always that we may escape those dreadful things which shall come upon the wicked S. Paul having said That he had hope towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and of the unjust immediately adds And herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and towards men And no man can be perswaded of this and withal consider it but it must of necessity have this effect upon him Especially since though the Resurrection of the Body may still be at a great distance yet the other Life is at the door and near at hand as to each of us The Doctrine of the Soul-sleepers being plainly confuted both by our blessed Saviour and the now mentioned great Apostle And indeed that Doctrine is no better Philosophy than Divinity it speaking great Ignorance of the Nature of Souls Nor have I ever met with a Philosopher who believed a Future Life as they all did or were inclined to do except the profest or the sly Atheists but took it for granted that humane Souls are so far from being deprived of all Sense and Consciousness of Being that they gain much the freer use of their Faculties by their leaving these Bodies They looking upon them as Prisons and dark Dungeons to Souls in which they are miserably straitned and pent up And they were so far from thinking that Bodies do give Life and Activity to Souls that they held the quite contrary And not onely that the Life and Activity of Bodies is wholly from their Souls but also that Souls can never be so truly said to live as when they are let loose from these Bodies And the Book of Wisdom presents us with the same Doctrine Ch. 9. 15. Where 't is said That the Corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the earthy Tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things And in saying that we are all upon the Borders of the other World I say we are very near to great Happiness or great Misery Good Souls in the separate State being very Happy by their having got rid of that Body of Death with which they were here so clogged and by the free Exercise of Love to God and to one another and of all the Divine Virtues thereby obtained in which their Bodies to their great grief miserably interrupted them As also they must needs feel great Happiness from comfortable Reflexions on the good they did or endeavoured to do in these Bodies and the joyful Foresight of that Crown of Righteousness which