reason of the justice of God Sin is an offence or injuring of him who is mans Summum bonum or highest good and therefore to be expiated by the greatest punishment he therefore that was our surety was to taste of death by reason of the truth of God who spake concerning the fruit of the forbidden tree in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 It behoved Christ to die for the fulfilling of the prophesies and by reason of the prediction of Christ himself concerning his death Joh. 12.33 For the confirmation of the Testament of his grace which was to be performed by the death of the Son of God Heb. 9.6 From the death of Christ as it were out of a fountain floweth our redemption hence primarily is justification Rom. 8.34 hence regeneration or the restauration of corrupt nature our old man is destroyed by the power of Christs death and sanctification is obtained the death of Christ doth much weaken original sin in a Christian and although the death of Christ be past yet to this present time it doth mortifie our sins because its vertue and efficacy endureth for ever If so be that we apply this universal remedy of the heavenly chief Physician to our hearts Let us therefore with the Apostle exult for joy and say a Mors mortis morti mortem mors morte redemit O death where is thy sting c. 1 Cor. 15.55 This bondage of death Jesus undertook that he might procure unto us the liberty of eternal life True real death seiz'd upon him that we might attain to true life saith S. Ambrose But if Christ died for us Object why then must we die Answ We answer Our death is no satisfaction for sins but an admonition to us of the reliques of sin inherent in us a cleansing us from them and a passage into eternal life Holiness is the end of our redemption let us not then indulge our selves in pleasures The most sweet Jesus vouchsafed to die for our sins and because of this his unspeakable love we should rather choose to die then to rush into sin But oh the misery of it most holy Jesu how few mortals are so affected with sorrow for the dolours of thy death that they love holiness of life and piety Christ laid down his life for his friends yea for his enemies let us in like manner love others if occasion require which thing the most holy Apostle S. John urgeth in his 1 epist ch 3. v. 16. This love is heartily to be wished but can hardly be expected from a sort of men too too cruel To conclude death to beleevers is nothing but a disguised thing to scare them let us therefore be faithful unto death and not afraid to die Hitherto of the death of Christ his burial follows The bodies of the dead ought to be decently buried They are esteemed inhumane who neglect this Amongst these were the Lotophagi Historici Geographici passim a people of Africa who cast the bodies of their friends into the sea The Sabeans who threw the carcases of kings amongst dung-hils The Scythians who to honour those whom they loved did in their banquets devour their dead carcases The Hyrcanians who gave them to dogs or wilde beasts All these are detestable But although the death of Christ were ignominious yet his burial was very honourable For he was buried by men of quality Nicodemus a great Lawyer and Joseph a Counceller and Citizen of Jerusalem These were disciples before but secretly now they appear openly so great was the vertue of his passion Moreover many noble and religious women helped forward this work The honour of his burial is evident also by other circumstances his body was embalmed with abundance of spices and wrapped in costly fine linen Christ was buried in a new sepulchre hewn out of a rock lest that if another should have been buried there another might have been said to have risen as the Fathers note The New man would be buried in a new sepulchre and in a garden that his body might be sowen there and bring forth the fruit of resurrection That as in a garden Adams sin was committed so in a garden it might be expiated and satisfied for As his nativity was from the unstained bed or chamber of a Virgin so likewise his burial might not be defiled by any dead body He would be buried in another mans sepulchre that as he was born in another mans house so being dead he might lie in a grave that was another mans And he would not have a proper burial place or sepulchre of his own who had no proper cause of death in himself The sepulchre of Christ was a place of the chiefest devotion S. Jerom speaking of Paula saith That at her entrance into the sepulchre of the Lord she kissed the stone and the very place where Christ had lien The pilgrimage to this glorious sepulchre hath been most famous from all parts of the world The Turk a most malicious enemy getteth much profit by the visitation of the place which for this cause or for fear of punishment he hath not yet destroyed I think it not necessary for us to take so long a journey we may meditate on this matter more safely at home And although there is appointed a solemn procession at Lovain for the memory of Christs burial where the blessed Virgin and other women sorrowfully following the dead corps are wont to be represented yet we doubt not but that a pious soul may perform this without such pomp or ostentation Christ was buried that the types of the Old Testament might be fulfilled to wit that of Jonah and others As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale so Christ foretold concerning himself Matth. 12.40 Besides he was buried that it might appear that he was truly dead and that we might know that our sepulchres are sanctified by his being buried no more to be horrid places but sweet and quiet chambers in which we may rest until we shall be raised up hence our burying places are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 places for the dead to rest or sleep in We therefore being buried with Christ by baptism into his death ought to walk in newness of life Rom. 6. v. 4. where the Apostle alludes to a rite of baptism which was by plunging for his body who was baptized in this manner was in a sort buried in the waters And they that were baptized were wont to be thus plunged thrice in the waters by an allegorical similitude to represent Christ dead and three days immersed or drowned in the Sepulchre But S. Chrysostom saith the tropological meaning of it was to signifie that as Christ by his corporal death is dead unto this world so we likewise by a spiritual death should die to the same world and to sin its lord and king and with a purpose to lead a new life as Tertullian expounds it Let
By right of the Fathers constitution because the Father hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 and hath made him heir of all things Hebr. 1.2 His Dominion therefore extends not onely unto us but unto all creatures Seeing therefore Christ is the Lord of us all we ought to be humble and meek one towards another for we are fellow servants of the Lord. Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven saith S. Paul Col. 4.1 And seeing that Christ is the Lord let us adhere to him alone otherwise we shall have very many strange lords whom to serve it will be most miserable Most truly said S. Ambrose O how many lords hath he who hath not one he hath so many lords or masters as he hath sins yea holy father he hath so many mistresses as lusts and certainly thou thy self being judge lust is a most furious mistress Let us therefore serve the Lord Jesus onely And if we be noble and generous Christians let us not admit of any other government As Thomas Aquinas observeth of horses that a spirited and wel-mettled one will not admit of any other rider but his own master and is moved onely at his beck Hitherto of the titles of the Mediator he is further to be described according to the degrees both of his exinanition or humiliation and likewise of his exaltation First Christ did empty himself and became very low The word is made flesh Joh. 1.14 The Son of God is made the Son of man that the son of man might become the son of God He is now who was and what he is he was not De Trin. lib. â—0 saith S. Hilary Our Mediator is become God and man that he might conjoyn God and man together again who were separated and disjoyned And if it be said Object that the flesh of Christ could not be united to our flesh because our flesh is sinful Answ We answer It doth not follow for sinfulness is accidental to our flesh not of the substance or essence of it so that Christs flesh may be united to our flesh but not as to the sinfulness of it If it be said that no accession can be made to God we say That is true if meant of perfection but not of union If further any object Object that the humane nature cannot come or be united to God It is true unless that God assume it That it is most ignominious for God to be a creature Answ It is most ignominious for him to be changed into a creature but not to be united with it without the change of his essence But although there be in Christ two natures yet there is onely one Person Although he be God and man yet he is not two but one Christ as S. Athanasius professeth in his Creed The humane nature of Christ doth not constitute a person because it subsists not of or by it self but it is upheld or sustained in and by the Word If it be objected Object that God and man are two persons We answer Answ That it is true if they be not united If it be said that dead and always living are not the same It is true that they are not the same according to the same But Christ was so according to his divers natures If it be enquired How is the Incarnation attributed to the Son We are to know that the Incarnation is the work of the whole Trinity by inchoation and of the Son alone by termination He assumed our nature which the Father formed in him out of the substance of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost This substantial knitting or joyning although produced by all the Persons yet formally it did not knit or conjoyn the humane nature with any In 3. p. D. Thom. but with the Person of the Son as Suarez copiously and other Divines And of the two natures there was an union made hypostatically or personally not physically as the form is united to the matter nor spiritually as the elect among themselves and with God nor by help and assistance as the mariner to the ship nor relatively as a friend to a friend nor mystically as in the Sacrament the two natures were united inconfusedly unchangeably not admitting of any division inseparably Inconfusedly each nature having their properties remaining but the properties of one nature by communication of idioms is attributed in the concrete to the person denominated from either nature as that God hath purchased his Church by his bloud Acts 20.28 The Lord of glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 this is spoken according to his humane nature This speech ought to be taken in the concrete not in the abstract and it follows not that because God is said to suffer therefore the Deity suffered Secondly the natures were united inconvertibly that is without the change of the Divine into the humane or of the humane into the Divine Thirdly individedly without division of natures although not without distinction they are not two but one Christ Fourthly inseparably this union remains for ever At the death of Christ his soul was separated from his body but the Divine nature remained united to both after its own manner the natural union was dissolved and not the personal Thus far concerning the Incarnation in general The parts thereof follow the conception of Christ and his nativity Conceived by the Holy Ghost Not of the essence but by the efficiency of the Holy Ghost This particle of doth not denote the matter as if that Christ was of the Holy Ghost for he was of the fathers according to the flesh Rom. 9.5 God also is immutable and the Word assumed our flesh and is not changed into it but of signifies the efficient cause because by the vertue and power of the Holy Ghost Christ was conceived His conception by the Holy Ghost speaks the miraculous forming of the flesh or body of Christ without the help of man then the sanctifying of it from original sin and the hypostatical union of it with the Word The body of Christ is thought to have been made simul semel together and at once perfect not successively as the bodies of men are in the space of fourty days otherwise Christ should not have been conceived a man but an embryo yea he was inspired with a reasonable soul Wickedly did Apollinaris say that the soul of Christ was his Divinity His soul was heavy and sad which is not competent to the Divinity at his death his soul departed from his body but his Divinity did not recede or depart He was conceived for us behold his love how can we conceive to express it He was conceived of the Holy Ghost behold his wisdom that he might be free from sin let us mourn by reason of our impure conception Let every one say with David Behold in iniquity was I conceived Psal 51.5 His pure
conception will cover our impurity if that hereafter we endeavour to be pure So was his conception his nativity succeeds Christ was born that he might signifie to us the truth of his humane nature Born of Mary to shew that he was of the fathers to wit David and Abraham of whom Mary came Born of the Virgin Mary lest he should be defiled with original sin and that the Scripture should be fulfilled this the Prophet foretold Isai 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son Neither were the Sybils silent in this matter if those things be true which are written of them And truly Boetius in his Tractate of Scholastical discipline reports a wonderful thing to wit that there was found in Plato's tomb a plate of gold in which was written I beleeve in the Son of God that is to be born of the Virgin And such a like story Nicephorus tells of a certain man that in the time of Constantine and of his mother Irene there was a stone chest found under the earth with this inscription The Messias shall be born of a Virgin and I beleeve in him Out of all these ariseth the confirmation of our faith and firm consolation that a Saviour is born and born to us Isai 9.6 When he was rich he became poor for us For our sakes he was disgraced of men and contemned of the vulgar he was humble because he would not have us to be proud he was born of a poor Virgin that he might shew to us that we ought not to boast in riches and honour and that he might teach us to be contented with the meanest condition The Virgin brought forth her Son she wrapped him in swadling clothes having taken him first in her Virgin arms into the which he being new born the Angels had laid him as Suarez conjectures The Pastor of Israel manifested himself to be a good Shepherd to the shepherds The Angels brought news of great joy that should be to all people for that a Saviour was born Christ the Lord in the city of David and suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God Jesus the bread of life was born in Bethlehem the house of bread He was born in a stable that we should not so much care for sumptuous Palaces in which place afterwards there was built by S. Beda de locis sanctis alii Helen a most sumptuous Church to the honour of the Virgin the Mother of God Concerning the manner of his birth it was wonderfully singular and singularly wonderful Of this thing Saint Austin doth very admirably discourse saying thus Let the incredulous Jew tell me how or in what manner the dry rod to wit Aarons budded and blossomed and brought forth almonds then I will tell him how the Virgin conceived and brought forth But truly neither can the Jew explain the one nor I the other Divine mysteries are not to be discussed or searched out by the understanding but to be adored by faith saith S. Gregory I beleeve therefore that it is enough for us simply to beleeve that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary And certainly we ought piously to hold and maintain it that the blessed Mother of our Redeemer always remained a Virgin She was a Virgin before in and after her bearing or bringing forth The which S. Jerom at large proves against Helvidius And that place Mat. 1.25 He knew her not till she brought forth her first-born Son notes that he knew her not at all The like you have 2 Sam. 6. and the last verse where it is said Michal the daughter of Saul had no childe until the day of her death that is she never had any But how is Christ said to be the first-born if he had no brethren We answer that Christ is so called not because there was not any son after him but because there was none before him And where in the Scripture there is mention made of the brethren of Christ there cousin-germans and kinsmen are understood so Abraham said unto Lot We are brethren Gen. 13.8 Hitherto of the nativity of Christ his passion followeth He suffered under Pontius Pilate The whole life of Jesus was a passion he suffered in his circumcision in his flight into Egypt in fasting fourty days and in his temptation by the Devil he suffered in the want of the chiefest felicity he suffered all kinde of evils all humane infirmities sin excepted he endured poverty injury and the sense of the wrath of God but without despair and to conclude he suffered death it self according to his humane nature To teach that Christ felt no pain in his flesh nor true sorrow in his soul at the time of his passion is contrary to truth and heretical as if it should be said he took not upon him to be true and real man but onely his similitude So truly saith the Master of the Sentences The Divine nature did rest 3 Sent. dist 14. that the humane might suffer but it upheld the humane in its agonies that it might overcome The cause moving God to subject his Son to sufferings was either inward or outward The inward was the love of his good pleasure The outward threefold the misery of sin from whence was mercy sin it self from whence justice and the tyranny of the Devil from whence revenge the end and fruit of Christs passion are the same in a diverse respect the end in respect of Christ the fruit or benefit in respect of us and they are two the glory of God and our salvation The Judge under whom he suffered was Pontius Pilate the Governour of all Judea for Tiberius the Emperour that it might be evident that Jesus was the true Messias who was not to come till the sceptre was wholly taken away from Judah Gen. 49.10 which came now to pass Judea being overcome of the Romans Then it is also said that he suffered under Pilate that the truth of that which Christ spake concerning his being delivered up to the Gentiles might be manifest Matth. 20.19 Besides because his sufferings under Pilate were most heavy and grievous For Pilate scourged Christ and with thongs not by his own but by the hands of the executioners saith S. Jerom. Soon after when his body throughout was torn with scourges being crowned with thorns adorned with a purple robe and a sceptre of reed by a new kinde of mockery as it were to act in a theatre Pilate brings him in a King of misery to be beheld of the people and saith Behold the man By which words he would have moved the Jews to pity But they O hard-hearted men as they were used Christ very unmercifully made choice of Barabbas one notorious for lewd pranks to be released from punishment and were very instant requiring that the most innocent Jesus might be crucified Pilate could have denied them but he would not and against his conscience he delivered Jesus into the hands
of his enemies Moreover Pilates wife In Chr. 10. An. Chr. 34. whom Lucius Dexter calls Claudia Procula was earnest with her husband that he would give no rigid sentence against Christ but the threats of the Jews did more sharply prick him then his wifes advice Perhaps Pilates wife dream'd that he should smart for it which afterwards fell out accordingly when he was sent an Exile into Vienna in France as Josephus Ado and others report and we read that afterwards out of desperation he laid violent hands upon himself Furthermore Christ suffered under Pilate an ordinary Judge that he might absolve us from the severe judgement of God and to conclude that his innocency might be demonstrated for Pilate gave him this testimony that he found no cause of death in him Joh. 18.38 Therefore God would have him examined and so by consequence it was very clear that Christ was delivered to death not for his own but for our sins Against this passion of Christ under Pilate it may be objected Object that he was slain from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 how therefore could this be under Pilate To this we answer Answ that Christ was slain from the beginning of the world by appointment election power efficacy acceptation but not by execution He was slain from the beginning in the minde and purpose of God in an ideal passion but under Pilate in a real But Pilate seems to be absolved from the guilt Object because he did nothing but what God decreed beforehand to be done Act. 4.28 Answ To this likewise it may be said that God did not preordain the hatred of the Jews towards Christ but foreknowing it did purpose to make good use of it and by his precognition or foreknowledge of the evil determined the redemption of mankinde by the death of Christ The action displeased him the passion was acceptable The shameful act of the Jews and Pilate displeased God extremely but the passion of Christ and the redemption of mankinde from thence arising was exceeding acceptable Prosp ad objecta Gallorum resp 13. decreed from eternity and preordained Which is Prospers and other Doctors judgement in the point From what hath been spoken it is manifest how that the wicked do execute the counsel of God although they purpose no such thing and yet notwithstanding are not exempted from blame But some one may say Object Christ ought to suffer and therefore neither Pilate nor the Jews may seem to have sinned He ought indeed upon supposition Answ a necessity being derived from a voluntary decree of his dying for Jesus suffered because he would otherwise he could have escaped his enemies hands Ye have heard that Christ suffered and under whom It follows in the Creed that he was crucified Mat. 27.23 And they are urgent to have this punishment of the cross inflicted on him before any other as being the most cruel lingring and shameful death of all The offender was exposed alive to the view and mockery of all people hanging on a tree he was accursed Deut. 21.23 All kinde of hanging not onely among the Jews but among the Romans also was of most extreme infamy and disgrace as both Seneca and Livy testifie Seneca epist 101. Liv lib. 14. And this seems to be the reason that he who is hang'd on high is judged in a manner unworthy to tread on the earth with his feet and therefore he is lifted up from it Wherefore Christ that he might make himself of no account did undergo this most vile and accursed kinde of death and took that curse upon himself that was due to us Gal. 3.13 But wherefore would God have his Son rather to be crucified then otherwise punished the reason was saith Tertullian That he who overcame by the tree to wit the Devil by his envious working might be overcome also by the tree Secondly that by his suffering of the most cruel punishment he might procure for us a most copious redemption by satisfying to the full the Divine justice so others and from hence cometh our chiefest consolation Thirdly to satisfie the figures and oracles of the Prophets Ità S. August lib 6. de Civ Dei c. 32. in the which it was fore-signified For the brasen serpent being lifted up in the wilderness Num. 21. Joh. 3. the sacrifices which were lifted up on high Levit. 7. were the types of Christ crucified And as Isaac bare the wood whereon he was afterwards laid Gen. 22. so likewise did Christ the wood of the Cross One part of the mount Moriah was without Jerusalem wherein S. Jerom informs us out of a tradition of the Jews that Isaac and Christ likewise were offered up This place was afterwards called the mount of Calvary by reason of the sculls of the condemned that were there put to death Here Adams scull as some think was found whom Tertullian and other of the Ancients deemed to have been buried under the Cross some also affirming that the bloud of Christ hanging upon the Cross ran down upon Adams scull which manifests to us that he and his posterity beleeving in Christ should be saved by his bloud and this was beleeved by the godly as S. Cyprian averrs in a Discourse of the Resurrection Which opinion is pious enough but I know not how true In general it is evident that from the bloud of Christ there is a vertue derived most efficacious unto salvation Let us in the mean time bewail our sins for the which Christ was pierced through with nails and as the Israelites looked on the brazen serpent let us in like manner by the eyes of faith look upon Jesus and we shall be healed and as much as in us lies let us be crucified unto the world for this cause let him be wholly fixed in our heart who was wholly fastned upon the Cross for us And so pass we from his crucifixion to his death The Lamb of God expired on the Cross at the same time that the evening lamb or the daily sacrifice was offered up in the Temple to wit at the ninth hour with the Jews which answers to our third hour in the afternoon The death of Christ was voluntary no man took his life from him but he laid it down of himself Joh. 10.18 which is certainly apparent from his strong cry on the Cross when others being about to die lose their speech and do onely wheez in the throat Not without cause said the Centurion greatly admiring This is the Son of God Mat. 27.54 The bowing of his head sheweth the same whereas other men die before they bow their head And because the death of Christ was voluntary therefore meritorious otherwise he would not have been punished for our disobedience Secondly his death was innocent which the whole History proveth and the confession of his enemies Thirdly his death was precious the dignity whereof was from the dignity of the Person and so equivalent to eternal death Christ ought to die by
bride I beseech you therefore by the plentiful effusion of the bloud of Jesus on the Cross that ye walk with God or have your conversation with God not in the darkness of unbelief or of sin but in the light of faith grace and vertue God by his nature is light void of darkness if ye would be joyned to him ye must of necessity bid adieu to darkness and your delightful sins The second part of this communion is the union of the members of the Church between themselves We being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another saith the Doctor of the Gentiles Rom. 12.5 and from thence the holy man doth infer golden or precious precepts amongst some other these Let love be without dissimulation Communicate or distribute to the necessity of the Saints rejoyce with them that rejoyce weep with them that weep be of the same minde one towards another as if he should say I would have such a sympathy or fellow-feeling among you Christians as to be equally affected both with the good and evil things of all whether in prosperity or adversity Beloved Auditors yeeld ye obedience to these admonitions of the Apostle Be ye endued with humanity or brotherly love charity meekness bounty let it be a shame to Academians who ought to be more rational creatures then others to be given to anger brawlings envyings disobediences evil-speaking inhumanity and revenge shun these vices which become not the Students of humane learning and after the examples of the Christians of the Primitive Church Be ye of one heart and of one minde Acts 4.32 And if ye shall forgive others the injuries that are offered unto you by them ye shall also obtain remission of sins from your heavenly Father The which is treated of in the following words I beleeve the remission of sins Forgiveness of sins is the will or good pleasure of God whereby he forgiveth beleevers both the sin and the punishment due to sin for Christs merits sake Yea their most enormous sins shall be forgiven for it is repugnant to the infinite goodness of God to be overcome by any humane wickedness He doth injury to God that despaireth of his mercy rightly Saint Augustine against those words of Cain Genes 4. Mine iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven After this manner saith he Thou lyest Cain for the goodness of God is greater then the iniquity of all men and elsewhere he hath written That greater is the mercy of God then the misery of all men Verily it is a most excellent speech of his unto God in his meditations Although O Lord I have committed that for which thou mayest condemn me yet thou hast not lost that whereby thou mayest save me It is most true for if a sinner do repent the Lord will not remember his iniquities Let the wicked forsake his way and turn again unto the Lord and the Lord will have mercy on him Isai 55.7 In God there is omnipotent mercy and merciful omnipotency such is the benignity of his omnipotency and the omnipotency of his benignity that there is nothing that he will not or cannot forgive a beleeving soul yea oftentimes beyond remission God bestows most abounding grace What cannot repentance do Who in the secular state sinned more enormously then Paul Who in the religious more out of measure then Peter Yet they by repentance did not onely attain to the ministery but also the magistery of holiness But to explain this Article more fully We must know that God is the principal efficient cause of remission He alone can forgive sins primarily or by chief authority But the Priests or Ministers of the Church are onely administring causes as they are messengers of the Divine forgiveness God onely of himself forgiveth sins because he cleanseth the soul from the inward blemish or stain and releaseth it from the debt of eternal death but he hath not granted this to the Priest to them notwithstanding he hath given the power of loosing and binding that is by shewing them they are loosed and bound 4 Sent. Dist 18. as Lombard writes Some may say Object that it is not agreeable with the justice of God to forgive sin and not to punish it This is true Answ if he punish it neither in the sinner nor in another to wit the surety But God hath punished sin in Christ Some may object again that it is an unjust thing to punish the innocent for the offender We answer It is not if the innocent party offer himself spontaneously to punishment if he can go through it and get out of it and if this tend to the glory of God and the salvation of men all which conditions do meet very well in Christ It may be further objected that this remission of God is not freely bestowed because satisfaction was required to the forgiveness of sin But we say the satisfaction required was not made by us but by another If we be urged still that he who on such condition forgiveth doth not forgive freely It may be answered It is true unless the party that requires it doth also give the satisfaction But God the Father hath given his Son that he might satisfie for us Hitherto Of the remission of sins the resurrection of the body or flesh followeth Credo resurrectionem carnis I beleeve the resurrection of the body or flesh It is a very difficult thing to understand by the sense or perception of corrupt reason how or in what manner the same body should rise again after so many transmutations and be reunited to the same soul And therefore many in the Areopagus derided Paul when they heard of the resurrection of the dead yet by the light of faith it is most clearly manifest that there shall be such a resurrection It will not be difficult to them to beleeve this who do beleeve that with God there is nothing difficult the restitution of the body or flesh is by far easier then its first constitution or forming It is of lesser concernment by much to restore that which hath been then to make that which never had any being He which could make all things out of nothing can easily raise again our bodies out of something to wit restore them out of the dust of the earth and why should we admire that that could be born again which hath had a being when as we behold that to have a being which never had any before Holy Job in the Old Testament an Evangelical man before the Gospel doubted not of this thing I know saith he that my Redeemer liveth and after that worms shall consume this body of mine yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and not another Job 19.25 Thy dead men shall live saith Isaiah to the Lord together with my dead body shall they arise chap. 26. verse 19. And in the New Testament the Lord Jesus John 5.28 doth most apparently attest the