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
his body for hee was slaine in warre 2. Chro. 35. In 22. of Math. and the 32. Christ saith I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaack and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but the living Hee doth not say I was the God of Abraham and of Isaack and of Iacob or I am the God of Abraham that once was but as implying his owne eternall being and the certaine being of those holy Patriarches hee saith I am the God of Abraham c. Now God is not the God of those that are not and have no existence at all but of those that have a being So that hee will raise their bodies or else he did Dimidium tantummodò Hominem restituere else hee were God but to one part of Abraham But as his mercy is over all his works so his works of mercy are over all his His mercy extends both to soule and body and in the mercy of the most High they shall not miscarry Therefore shall God raise the bodies of dead men But wee must not frame unto our selves a God all of mercy but learne to sing that compounded ditty of the Psalmist of mercy and Iudgement Gods iustice is himselfe as well as his mercy As his mercy which wee have already shewed so likewise his iustice requires that their must bee an universall resurrection If in this life saith the Apostle wee have hope in Christ 1 Cor. 15.15 we are of all men most miserable Paul indeed was at a quotidie morior every houre in danger to bee drawne to the blocke every day dying ready to bee offered up for the name of his Lord and Saviour But to what purpose did hee expose himselfe to such variety of perils if there were no resurrection Miserable is that man that either laboureth or suffereth in vaine Shal Paul beare in his body the markes of Christ Iesus and shall he not beare in the same body the crowne of his glory Shall the labourer endure the heate of the day and shall hee not at length receive this penny his wages Christiani ad metalla was a usuall condemnation but what made them digge so willingly in the mines Surely they had a treasure there which the Emperour knew not of they had infinite more precious wealth from thence then hee For the hope of the gaining a better life is the perswasive Rethoricke against the feare of loosing this Haec vespera est necesse est addi matutinam laetitiam and then shal our birth be consummate when the evening and the morning are made one day These mixt meditations compounded of contrary ingredients as a Crosse and a Crowne Martyrdome and glory Mortality and heaven death and life are strong grapples and ties to hold a Christian and his patience together It were iniurious to cōplaine of the measure when we acknowledge the recompence Afflictiōs are the flowers of eternall felicity and who would not willingly gather the flowers for the fruits sake He that hewed timber out of the rocke Psal 74.6 was knowne to bring it to an excellēt peece of worke so was Ioseph hewed in the stocks and in the prison God brought him to an excellent peece of work to make him Lord of Aegypt Thus was Christ Iesus hewed and squared on the Crosse with hammers nailes and speares of that excellent work see where he sitteth at Gods right Hand Thrones Powers Dominations Angels subjected to him And thus will God deale with the dead bodies of his Saints which though they have bin persecuted here and the iron hath even entred into their soule yet at length they shal come out of their graues like so many Iosephs out of prison for Death like that Aegyptian Mistresse hath only power over their coates their upper garments their bodies and the grave like the serpent is dieted and feedes on nothing but dust It is not so much the death of the body as the corruption of the body Mortalitas magis sinita est quam vita When the Lord brought the Israelites to Canaan he made them goe Southward into the mountaines the South was a dry and barren part Thou hast given me a South land give mee also springs of water Iudg. 1.15 Thus doth God deale with his children in this life hee sheweth them great afflictions and troubles the South part as it were at first but afterward he bringeth them to the land that floweth with milke and hony He that shall build his faith on this rocke hee that doth thus Reponere fidem in sine will supervolare crucen◠triumph o're the Crosse and with Iob comfort himselfe on the dunghill with a videbo Deum and outface death with his Resurrection in hope and expectation of that glory hee shall once enjoy with Christ Benedictus sic Deus saith the Apostle Blessed hee God who hath begotten us againe unto a liuely hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ to an inheritance incorruptible c. It hath beene well observed by one of no vulgar Iudgement how the Resurrection is there placed in the midst betweene our hope and our inheritance To hope before it before the Resurrection hope but after to the inheritance it selfe to the full possession and fruition of it So from the state of hope by the Resurrection as by a Bridge passe wee over to the enjoying our inheritance Before I shut up this stage I must cleere a doubt and remove an objection which hangeth on this thinge Some of the Rabbins have conceited that the wicked by corporall death shall utterly bee extinct and that none shall come to Iudgement but they shall bee saved grounding their opiniō on those words of the Psalmist Psal 1.5 The wicked shall not rise in Iudgement But here insteed of the naturall milke of this text they sucke out the blood of misinterpretation And they which shall tenter and wrest the Scriptures which is a fault Saint Peter complaines of with expositions and glosses newly coined to make them speake what they never meant must needs bring forth aut heresim aut phrenesim If wee tread in the steps of the best interpreters we shal find as Hierome others observe that this is not to be understood Quod non furgent sed quod in judicio non resurgent Hee saith not that the wicked shall not rise but in judgement they shall not rise not rise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Christ as Felons whose fact being evident are placed at the bar not so much to be convicted as to bee cōdemned Their conscience that like a Blood-hound hunts drie foote shall set before them the sent of their sinnes soe that the Lord Iudge shall not make any great inquisition to find out their faults but proceed to sentence At that great assise shall wee all appeare Nam oportet nos omnes 2 Cor. 5.10 saith the Apostle confusi confisi both Christs confessors his crucifiers but the end
of their Resurrection shall bee different the one to glory the other to shame which was properly figured in Pharaohs two servants Gen. 40. the Baker and the Butler both of them were taken out of prison but the one to bee restored to his office to minister before the King the other to bee put to death So shall both the godly and the wicked come out of their graves the one Rapi in occursum to meete their Saviour in the clouds the other verti retrorsum to be turned down to hell with all the people that forget God But I will not straine this note I have the rather touched upon it because it is one of those Quantuor nocissima which wee should still have in remembrance for after death commeth judgement whose forerunner is the universall Resurrection The day of death and the day of doome are the two Pole-starrs on which wee pilgrimes and travellers on earth should fix our eyes May my soule still keep on this wing Dan. 6.10 may my heart be like Daniels window which was open in his chamber toward Ierusalem may I oft repose my selfe on the rose bed of this contemplation for they that never have any holy whisperings with God that never walk up to Mount Tabor into some retired place of meditation and prayer such as Isaacks field Cornelius his Leads Davids Closset carry their soules in their bodies as Iosephs brethren did their money in their sacks and know not what Treasure they have And here for methode have I occasion given to treate CHAP. 5. Of Sadducisme and other heresies which flatly oppose this Article of the Resurrection SVperstition and Atheisme are the two extreames of Religion the Pharises ran on the Rocke of the one and the Sadduces sunke in the Sand-beds of the other This grosse errour of Sadducisme crept into Moses chaire many of the high Priests themselves as Ioannes Hircanus with his sons Alexander and Aristobulus and likewise Anaus the younger were of this Sect. To shew the originall occasion of this heresie I must open an antiquity and take up a story as I finde it already related to my hands The Sadduces were so called from Sadoc the first Author of this heresie this Sadoc lived under Antigonus Sochaeus who not long after the daies of Nehemial was the chiefest Rabbin in the great Synagogue at Ierusalem this Antigonus gravely instructing his Disciples that they should not be of servile mindes or doe their duties for hope of reward His Schollers hearing this desired him to expound his mind more fully whereupon hee added that men must not expect the recompence of a good life in this world but stay for it untill the world to come To these words Sadoc a chiefe disciple of his tooke exception and said Hee never heard of any such thing as the world to come whereupon hee with his fellow Baithuâ— turned Apostates and repaired to the schismaticall Temple built upon Mount Gerizim and became principall Rabbins of the Samaritans Amongst them did Sadoc first broach his heresie and taught them that there was no Resurrection of the dead because no immortality of the soule and spirit and so consequently no judgement to come Will you have a fuller relation of their impiety shall I present you with the picture of a Sadduce as I find it curiously penselled out Castly our eyes on the Table of that counterfeit Salomon where you have him lively set forth in his proper colours In his second Chapter of his Booke of Wisdome hee recounts at large the sensuall thoughts the earthly conceits of all such Epicures and Atheists Qui non agnoscunt saeculum nisi praesens and at length hee windes up all on this clew such things doe they imagine and goe astray for their owne wickednes hath blinded them verse 21. yea so blinded them that as they live like beasts so they imagin they shal dye like beasts that they shall not onely mori but per mori dye like Oxen knocked on the head that they shall be annihilated and therefore they dance after this pipe Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye 1 Cor. 15.32 Nay the Apostle hath it in the present tence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morimur to not the sensuality of these wretches who think that their soules and bodies shall bee quite extinguished together But on rotten joists is this fouÌ„dation laid Our blessed Saviour with the modesty of truth hath long since confuted this bold broad fac'd heresie of the Sadduces Wee reade Math. 22. That he put them to sileÌ„ce the Originall is significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee bridled their mouthes which is a phrase borrowed from fierce and stomackefull horses which beeing held in by a strong bit become subject perforce to the wil of the rider Hee that spake as never man spake so resolved their doubts and dissolved their sophismes that they were tongue-ride had not a word to returne upon him It is farther observable how our Savior in that place fits his Answer to the Questionists and concludes most evidently against theÌ„ by pressing them with their owne principalls Concerning the Resurrection of the dead he prooves it not out of the Prophets but drawes his Argument out of Exodus Exod. 3.6 For wheras the Sadduces rejected all Scripture save onely the Pentateuchi Christ disputes with them in their owne Canons and makes Moses give them an answer whose authority was sacred with them The Pharisees in their Doctrine were much neerer the truth than the Sadduces for they confessed that there were Angels and Spirits they acknowledged the Resurrection of the dead Hereupon Saint Paul perceiving that in the Councell the one part were Saduces Act. 23.6 the other Pharisees cryed out of the hope id est of the reward expected and of the Resurrection of the dead I am called in question yet though these Sectaries had a branch of the Tree of knowledged they bowed the sprig the wrong way They taught that the soules of evill men deceased departed into everlasting punishment but the soules said they of good men by a kinde of Pythagorian transmigration into other good mens bodies Of which Opinion Herod may seeme to have beene for when newes was brought him of Christ hee said that Iohn the Baptist being beâ—…ded was risen againe thinking that the soul of the Baptist was passed into the body of Iesus Hence againe arose the like different opinions concerning our Savior some saying hee was Elias Mat. 16.14 others Ieremias as if Christs body had bin animated by the soule either of Iohn Elias or Ieremias It were a world to rake up the old errors of all such as have drawn in the same line it were infinite to traduce the fond conceits of the Saturnians Basilidians and those whom Tertullian calls Partiatios Sadducaeorum or Semi-Sadduces But I forbeare to set down fancies for truths I willingly spare that oyle for as it was noted by some as a token of Gods
be separated from the body seing it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfecting act thereof wherfore the Soule cannot be continually separated but must necessarily resume the body It is not my intent to leade my Reader into the Lycaeum of the Peripateticks or the Gallery of the Stoicks or the Tusculatum of the Oratour The season of the yeere doth now invite us with Isaack into the fields and with Ioseph of Aramathea into our gardens And here as it hath ever beene the guise of godly men from the beholding of worldly things to beget heavēly thoughts to turne the sight of every solemnity into a Schoole of Divinity and from things they see here downeward to make a prospect upwards whatsoever is presented to our eyes may be an Embleme to us of our resurrection How doth it feed us with delight to view the trees apparelled with a fresh beauty to see The mealy mountaines late unseene Change their white garments into lusty greene The gardens prancke thē with their flowry buds The meades with grasse with leaves the naked woods For what is the Spring but as Tertullian calleth it the resurrectiō of the yeere and it is no way consonant to reason that man for whom all other things doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shoote forth wax fresh spring and rise againe should not have his spring and rising too The whole creature doth write a commentary to give us comfort in this point but principally the Arabian Phenix that sole bird of wonder The Phaenix never did the Roman Emperors lye in their beds in greater state when in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were to bee burnt and changed to Gods then she doth consume herselfe in cost because shee knowes she shall bee revived By all writers she hath ever been held a type of our glorious Resurrection In the 91. Psalme it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the vulgar translation wee reade it hee shall flourish like the palme but it may be translated hee shall flourish like the Phenix for the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admitts of both significations Dies diei discipulus one day teacheth another and one night certifieth another each day dieth into the night and riseth into the morning againe these vicissitudes of times and revolutions of seasons are but so many deaths and so many resurrections Homo est nummus Dei Man is Gods coine stamped with his Image Nazianzen speaking of Rulers as of the Image of God compareth the Highest to pictures drawne cleane through even to the feet the middle sort to halfe pictures drawne to the girdle the meanest to the lesser sort of pictures drawn but to the necke and shoulders But all in some degree carry his Image as well the poore penny as the coine of gold In these lively pictures of ours may wee see some shadow some resemblāce of our future Resurrection doe not our nails pared our haire being cut grow againe And if these dead parts of the body bee restored by the ordinary power of God in nature much more shall his mighty power restore the bodies of men hath God given me the security of the very haires of my head and shall I distrust him for the raising of my body These and the like meditations are armor of proofe against the feare of death Pulvis es in pulverem reverteris is Mans Epitaph writtē with Gods own finger Libenter mortalis sum quisim futurus immortalis is a faithfull mans suscription and reply I might here without disgression record what I find upon file many memorable sayings Apothegmata merientium and novissima verba the last breath of such Seraphycall Zelots as have gone to heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with some sentence of piety in their mouthes with good words in their lips and like so many dying swans have warbled out their soules into the hāds of God But this field hath bin already reaped to my hand Since an Angell sate on our Saviours grave and proclamed those good tidings Resurrexit non est hic wee have added to our tombe-stones too Hic jacet-this happy clause speresurgendi for wee know that the bodies of the dead are not lost but layed up that they doe not perish but rest in hope that the sepulchers are not gulfes to swallow thē but repositaries to keep thē therfore do the Germans wittily call the Church-yard Gods acker because the bodies are sowne there to bee raised up againe Securus moritur qui scit se morte renasci Soules take your rest whose soule in heavens attends A blest reunion of two loving friends When Christ shall come with a Prodi Lazare the graves shall set ope their marble doores when the Ark-Angell shall sound the trump of collectiō the scatter'd bones of the Saints shal be gathered together with sinewes and those sinewes incorporated with flesh and that flesh covered o're with skin and by a new Metempsycosis or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Pythagoras never dream'd of the same soule shall reenter into the same body But of the perfect restauration of our bodyes and glory of our soules wee shall discourse more largely in the close of our meditations Before I unlade my ship and put her into the creeke before I lodge my colours I should collect something by way of refutation from the absurdities that arise from the deniall of this truth The blessed Apostle hath set them downe at large in his Epistle to the Corinthians to which most comfortable Chapter wherein is store of Manna for the soule to feed on I referre my Reader To comment upon each of those texts were to set up a candle before the Sunne many of them being plaine and easy to bee understood I will only select one period of harder construction and give you the. CHAP. 7. Divers readings and interpretations of those words 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead Or as others baptized for dead if the dead rise not at all c. SOME Chymicall wits as the Advocates of Rome have extracted from hence a proofe of their Purgatory as Stapleton and that Franciscane in the Treatise of the fiery Torrent Du Moulin in his confut of Purgat p. 268. who disguising the passage thus what shall they doe that baptize themselves for the dead expound that which they have corrupted in this manner To baptize ones selfe signifieth to doe laborious and satisfactory workes for the dead and withall wee must understand that it is to fetch them out of Purgatory How fruitfull is errour of absurdities But 〈◊〉 will not sit on the skirts of this firy hil since Nabuchadnezzar cannot interpret his owne dreame nor the learnedst of our Adversaries cannot aread us their owne riddle this Somnium Monachorum nor resolve us concerning this mathematicall and imaginary fire either where it is or what it is This ignis fatuus hath been sufficiently quenched by the waters of Shilo which have
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