the glory of God as the Apostle advises if our Discourses and Familiar Entertainments savour of those things which are above and at least indirectly appertain to the kingdom of God these are Arguments we are truly risen with Christ being of their own nature such Proofs of a Spiritual Life of a Spiritual Resurrection from the Death of Sin as the Exercise of the Animal Functions and Rational Powers are a Demonstration of the Continuance or Reviviscence of the Natural 2 Cor. 11.23 We read That the Spirit of Darkness sometimes transfigures himself into an Angel of Light sometimes takes a Body of Air which the deluded Sense cannot distinguish from a Solid and Real one and sometimes as Artfully moves a Solid but Dead Body as if it were Alive Both Sacred and Profane History offer innumerable Proofs of these Slights of Satan I shall instance only in the Second which is most for my purpose 1 Sam. 28.15 Thus the Witch of Endor is said in the First of Kings to have rais'd Samuel whose own Words seem to prove it a real Resurrection Quare inquietasti me ut suscitarer Why hast thou disquieted me to raise me up Yet St. Augustin assures us Samuel did not rise again in his own but only in a fictitious and imaginary or at most in an aereal Body And thro' these Slights and Delusions of Satan it happens that many seem to rise again with Christ who in effect rise only with Samuel If we regard their Promises and Protestations Sin shall never reign any more in their mortal Body their Eyes are open'd to see and bewail their past Transgressions they have recover'd their Speech to declare at the Feet of their Confessor those vicious Habits and secret Crimes which so long had been lock'd up in Silence and lay putrifying in their Breasts at the Voice of Christ they issue like so many Lazarus's from their Monuments and run to embrace their Life in the Holy Communion And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection is real and they are truly risen again with Christ But if you keep your Eye a little upon them you shall see them still playing about the Flames which had scorch'd them before you shall see them frequenting the same licentious Company which gave them their Death wantoning upon the same Brink of the Precipice whence they so lately fell like Ghosts still hovering about their Graves and Places of Burial in fine not advanc'd one step farther off the imminent Dangers and immediate Occasions of Sin And after all this who can doubt but their Resurrection was only in the Air imaginary or Fictitious a Stratagem of the Devil to delude them and to amuse their Confessors while St. Paul's Declaration touching the State of the Widow is verify'd in every Soul She that liveth in pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 is dead while she liveth Haec praecipe says the Great Apostle teach command urge and inculeate this Doctrin For the Resurrection of a Soul cries St. Bernard is not so easie a thing as you imagine it is a great and wonderful Sacrament magnum prorsus mirabile Sacramentum animae suscitatio Great in reference to the Power of God and Wonderful as to the Disposition requisite in the Sinner To break the Treble Cord of a threefold Concupiscence to destroy all vicious Habits Root and Branch to lay violent Hands upon our own Hearts and tear from our Breasts what is as dear to us as Life and almost as deeply ingrafted as Nature to turn the Stream of our Affections to hate our own Souls which we so tenderly cherish and indulge to love and embrace a Penitential Life of which we have so great an abhorrence to which we carry such a strange aversion and antipathy Ah! Christian this is not the work of a few Hours Recollection this is not the Fruit of a few superficial Tears which dry and vanish as they fall this is not the Effect of a Sigh which passes with the Wind or of a hasty Resolution which is forgot almost as soon as made this is not the Violence that takes Heaven which do's not yield upon every faint or false Attack These indeed are Circumstances which ever attend a true Resurrection but they are not infallible Proofs They are common to a Real and a Fictitious one They may be indeed the first Dawnings of a New Life but are too often only a gaudy Spectre a meer outside and an amusing Apparition So true is that terrible Assertion of the Holy Bishop of Barcellona S. Pacian Ep. 3. ad Synphr Paucorum est labor qui vere resurgunt Few there are who truly rise again because few will take the pains to extricate themselves from the Snares of Sin and remove every Occasion as far as in them lies of relapsing into it after the Example of the Holy King Josias 2 Kings 23. who not only broke down the Idols banish'd the Artificers demolish'd the Altars but also cut down the Groves to efface even the Memory of Idolatry lest the Convenience of committing the same Crime might be an Invitation to commit it Yet this work of estranging our selves from the Dangers of Sin tho' attended with so many Difficulties is but a remote disposition to a Spiritual Resurrection a removens prohibens there are others and nearer requir'd not only to the Introducing but also to the Nourishment and Preservation of the New Life This is the Third Analogy the Holy Fathers observe between the Resurrection of Christ and that of a Christian viz. the Duration and Perpetuity of it intimated by the Apostle when he tells us Christ being rais'd from the dead dies no more Rom. 6.9 By which words not only a feigned but also a failing Repentance is struck out of the Book of Life And this Admonition is particularly address'd to you of the Houshold of Faith who after a sincere and unfeigned sorrow of Heart after a clear and undisguis'd Enumeration of all your Sins by Confession of Mouth after a serious Endeavour to apply to your selves the Satisfactions of Christ by the exercise of Good Works use violence upon your Hearts in exterminating ill Habits and avoiding those Occasions which formerly prevail'd upon you and in fine are truly risen again but alas are not risen again with Christ For after you have set your hand to the Plow you look back upon the Ease and Pleasure of the World after you have been feasted with the Bread of Angels your Hearts return into Egypt you remit of your primitive Fervour you slacken in your Devotions you inquire into a corrupted Moral and hunt after Cases to dispense with your Resolutions you hearken to the Language of the World till you are insensibly seis'd with the Infection it gains every day upon you preys upon the Life of the Spirit and at last wholly consumes it Thus the very Means of your Salvation corrupt into the Occasions of your farther Misery and your rising again serves
Mystery when the Women brought the Relation of Matter of Fact that Christ was truly risen putabant deliramenta quae dicebantur thought they were bigotted and fancy'd Apparitions till they believ'd them So hard is it for Reason to allow a Return from the Privation to the Habit from Death to Life Yet the Son of God proposing a Religion to Men would have us act like Men when we assent unto it Indeed to exercise our Humility and to found a Merit in Believing he requires our Assent to things above but never contrary to Reason And therefore to render our Service Reasonable Rom. 12.1 he has not left us destitute of Arguments to evince this dark and profound Mystery such Arguments as no Rational Person without ceasing to be so can reject because they are sufficient because they are the highest the Subject Matter will admit And such are all those Apparitions recorded by the Four Evangelists shewing himself alive after his Passion Acts 1.3 in multis argumentis says St. Luke by many Arguments or as the Vulgar Translation has it by many infallible Proofs that is unquestionable Instances For in Matters of Fact an Instance of the thing asserted is the highest Proof and that which founds a Rational Conviction Should we with-hold our Assent in expectation of a stronger Motive we should never embrace any Reveal'd Truth we should never credit any History or Account of things distant or past because we should require a farther Evidence than the Thing propos'd can afford than the nature of Credibility can bear And in this appears the Unreasonableness and at the bottom the Infidelity of such as under pretence of Wit or Precaution before they will render to the Articles of Faith call for the Evidence either of Demonstration or Sense both which equally exclude Faith which is according to the Apostle Heb. 11.1 the Evidence that is a Conviction of the Being of such things as do not appear Had these Modern Sadducees been present at the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord they would certainly have remain'd as incredulous as the old who even amidst Prodigies and Miracles ask'd for a Sign For when their Eyes had been Witnesses to the Life of his Body they must still have submitted to the Belief of his Divinity which neither fell under the Verge of Sense nor rose so high as Demonstration in this Case tho' it created as great a Certainty as either but from a less Evidence And we that behold neither the one nor the other are as much oblig'd in Reason to believe both upon the Credit of the Apostles the Testimony of the Scriptures and of the Church which delivers them Thus without entring the Monument with Peter and John without any ocular Testimony or so much as inquiring into a Possibility of a Resurrection we are guarded from Error in our Belief our Holy Faith is abundantly attested the submission of our Understandings and the firmness of our Assent to this dark and inexplicable Mystery are warranted to be a Reasonable Service For the greater Obscurity of any one Article do's leave no more place for doubt than the Clearest Point of our Religion since we do not believe This upon a different Evidence from the other but both jointly upon the Attestation of such Works as never any one did that is John 15.24 which could not be perpetrated by any Power less than Divine Thus we find a sure footing for our Hope knowing that he who rais'd up our Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 4.14 will also raise us up by Jesus since the Resurrection of Jesus is not only the Meritorious Cause of ours but also the Efficient and Exemplar For as the same Apostle argues Philip. 3.21 as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly As he took our Nature upon him and dy'd to assimulate himself to us in a Mortal Condition so he rose again Philip. 3.21 that he might reform our vile and corruptible Body and render it like his own Glorious Body By Dying he merited our Resurrection by Rising in Glory he gave us a Pattern of our future Happiness and by assuming us into a Participation of his Brightness and Immortality he is the Cause Efficient of our Resurrection This Consideration obviates all Questions which a limited Understanding might start as to the Possibility of it and stops the Mouth of the Animal Man who do's not comprehend the Power of God and of corrupt Nature which is ever ready to speak perverse things For as it is evident we made not our selves but to find the Original of our Being we must ascend to a First Cause which could have nothing distinct from it self coexistent to it self so is it clearly inferr'd all things were made by him and extracted out of a meer Nothing Aug. Ser. 91. de Verb. Apost Now St. Augustin inquires Which you take to be the greater Miracle the commanding us to be and live out of Nothing or the restoring us to Life who already had a Being tho' we ceas'd to live Doubtless replies he in the name of every reasonable Creature it is more to make that which was not than to repair that which was Utique plus est facere quod nunquam fuit quam reparare quod fuerit And I ask you adds the Father why he cannot raise us after we are turn'd into Dust who if we were reduc'd into Nothing could give us a Being But blessed be God I stand not here at the Bar to be call'd in question by you touching the Hope and Resurrection of the Dead I appear in this Chair to preach the Faith you have already submitted to for so we preach and so you have believ'd I come here chiefly to declare to you the Extent of this Article of our Creed how far it carries us to what it do's oblige us How far it carries us that we die to the old Life To what it do's oblige us that we walk before him in newness of Life For two things are requir'd says the Master of our Schools to perfect the Justification of an Offender the Remission of the Sin and the Amendment of the Sinner The Sin was blotted out by the effusion of Christ's precious Blood upon the Cross The Amendment of our Lives was merited was suppos'd but not effected by his Resurrection The Merits of his Death are apply'd to us in our Baptism where we promise to enter upon a New Life but this Promise is fulfil'd by acting consequently to it The Church answer'd for our Dying with Christ before we were capable of knowing what we engag'd for but this Engagement is to be made good after we arrive to use of Reason by approving our selves to be a New Creature in the suitable Conformity of our Lives and seeking those things which are above Your Attention and my Second Part. IN the preceding Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians the Holy Apostle delivers an excellent Moral
TWO SERMONS Preach'd before the Queen-Dowager IN HER MAJESTY's CHAPPEL AT Somerset-House By the Reverend Father Dom. PHIL. ELLIS Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict and of the English Congr Preacher and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTIES Published by Her Majesty's Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel 1686. A SERMON Preach'd before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER On Easter-day 1686. Si consurrexistis cum Christo quae sursum sunt quaerite If you have risen again with Christ seek those things which are above INto this pathetick Exhortation the Apostle falls in his Epistle to the Colossians ch 3. v. 1. Sacred Majesty Into this seasonable Exhortation the Church breaks forth at the Entry of this Solemnity in the first Mass which we on the Vigil the Primitive Christians celebrated at the first Point of the Natural Day In these Words she communicates to her mourning Children the joyful News that her Beloved was dead and is alive Words which express not only the Reality but also the Efficacy and Extent of our Lord's Resurrection that the yearly Revolution of this Festival implies something more than our Blessed Master's glorious Rising from the Dead that it carries us farther than a bare Memory of his Triumph that it comprehends the Glory of the Members as well as of the Head and celebrates our own Victory over Death if indeed we are risen again with Christ My Text therefore is an Argumentation founded upon two Suppositions the one of Faith the other touching Matter of Fact Of Faith That Christ is risen the Fact That we are actually risen with him Si consurrexistis cum Christo The one he supposes as a First Principle of our Religion which falls not under dispute The other needs a Confirmation and is to be prov'd by something more evident than it self The Proof of our Resurrection must be drawn from our diligent application to those things which are above quae sursum sunt quaerite or as he expresses himself more clearly in the following Verse from setting our affections on heavenly things quae sursum sunt sapite from leading a supernatural Life and weaning of our Hearts from all that is below non quae super terram But there can be no Resurrection to a New Life unless by way of necessary Disposition there be a Death to the Old To rise again therefore we must first die Death being the Medium or Boundary between these two Lives this of the World and the other according to God For since they are incompatible and in some manner contradictory the one must cease to be before the other can exist and by consequence the Presence of the one must demonstrate the Destruction of the other Wherefore that we are risen again with Christ is evinc'd by our being dead to the World and this doubly prov'd first by the Affirmative seeking those things which are above and then by the Negative not setting our affections on things below My Text thus expounded divides it self and calls upon me to speak a Word to each of these Resurrections that of Christ and this of the Christian which jointly compose the Subject of our present Joy and consequently are the fittest Subject of the present Discourse and of Your Royal and Favourable Attention But when I reflect that St. Ambrose Ambr. lib. 3. de Virg. versus Med. and after him the whole Current of Divines piously suppose the Blessed Mother of our Lord first saw his Resurrection both saw it first and was the first who believ'd it it being most agreeable to Reason and a natural Consequence of Affection that so loving a Parent should receive the first Visit from so loving a Son that she who most eminently shar'd in the Pangs of his Death when the Sword of Sorrow pierced her Heart should taste the First-fruits of his returning to Life Let us before we proceed beg her Intercession that I may speak of this great Mystery as one who is risen again with Christ and you attend unto my Words as they who seek the things which are above AVE MARIA If you are risen again with Christ seek the things which are above c. OF all the Mysteries of our Holy Religion the Resurrection of Christ is the Principal because it is the highest Proof of his Divinity the greatest of his Miracles the chiefest Instance of his Veracity the Earnest of his Promises and the Foundation of all our Hope And upon this Consideration St. Ambrose calls it the Corner-stone and Basis of Faith primum maximum Fidei Fundamentum His Conception and Nativity were but the remote Preparations to it His Life and Doctrin the Means His Death and Passion the immediate Dispositions But his rising the third day according to the Flesh was the ultimate End of his coming as being the first in Intention and the last in Execution In this consists the Strength the Meaning and Intent of the Apostle's Assertion Rom. 4.25 That Jesus Christ was deliver'd for our Sins and rose again for our Justification For as the Church sings in the Office of Yesterday Nihil nobis nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset The Excellence of our Being had avail'd us nothing if a Redemption had not restor'd us to the End of our Creation forfeited by Sin so a Redemption it self would not have answer'd our Necessities if a Resurrection had not perfected and crown'd the Work of our Justification But as it naturally follows the further the Consequence draws from the First Principle the obscurer it grows the deeper the Water is the further we are from discerning the Bottom the greater the Miracle the less comprehensible so we find the Mystery of the Resurrection to be the most profound and consequently the most obscure and difficult of all our Credends For how inexplicable soever the Heathen Philosophers judg'd the Immortality of the Soul they could not deny but the Light of Nature discover'd it to be reasonable But all their Application Enquiry and force of Reason fell so short of the Resurrection of the Body that while they admitted the one they derided the other as impossible as chimerical as the Dreams of Simple or the Reveries of Frantick Men. Thus when St. Paul Acts 17. had discours'd the Point to the most Learned of them they call'd him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Babler or Disperser of ridiculous Novelties to others he seem'd to be a setter forth of new Gods And when he came to this Point in his Discourse on Mars-hill before that celebrated Bench hi quidem irridebant some mocked ver 32. Neither did Festus when he had heard the same Apostle upon that Subject conceive a better Opinion of him than of a Madman venting the wild Fancies of a disturb'd Brain Insanis Paule Paul thou talkest like one distracted Nay the Apostles themselves after so many clear Predictions to prepare their Minds to the Belief of this
only to plunge you deeper into Death by adding to the weight of your former Commissions a heavy Ingratitude a sacrilegious Abuse of Divine Grace a Contempt of Mercy a Rebellion against the Light an evacuating the Death of Christ and frustrating his Resurrection of its chiefest End that rising from Death with him you should die no more And herein consists the difference between the Resurrection of the Body and that of the Soul Both the one and the other are the Effects of a Supernatural and Divine Power But the one always supposes a Perpetuity and Settled state the other is subject to Decay and of its own nature do's not exclude Corruption and Mortality Thus the Sunamite's Child at the Prayer of Elizaeus the Dead Man at the touch of his Bones Lazarus and others at the Voice of Christ and they who at his Death came forth of their open'd Sepulchers were restor'd to Life but to a dying Life they liv'd to die again But the Spiritual Life communicated to a Soul by the Grace of Jesus Christ is invested as far as concerns the Operation of the Agent with Immortality and has impress'd upon it a Resemblance of his Resurrection a Jam non moritur She is commanded to cherish and perpetuate that Life which nothing can corrupt unless she lay murthering Hands upon her self and by consenting to Sin fall a Victim to it But can any one who believes in earnest the Advantage and Excellence of this Supernatural Life who has ever tasted the ineffable Comforts of a Spiritual Resurrection with and in Christ be so careless of the Advantage so insensible of the Excellence so forgetful of the Comforts as to lavish them away upon every slight occasion as to exchange them for every gaudy Trifle as to wound and destroy this Life at the persuasion of a Passion or for the gratifying a Concupiscence or for the indulging an Appetite If one did not find this practically true in speculation one would pronounce it impossible Impossible that the Reasonable Creature should persecute its own Happiness run counter to its own Desires and contrive its own Destruction contrary to the Dictamen of Reason to the Impressions of Faith and even to the Inclinations of Nature And whosoever considers with how many Tears Alms-deeds and Mortifications with what Assiduity in Prayer Modesty of Behaviour and Earnestness to hear the Word of God we have spent this Holy and Penitential Season in order to prepare our selves to rise again with Jesus Christ in this Day of his Triumph over Death will certainly conclude that we are truly dead Rom. 6.2 and our Life hidden with Christ in God that being thus dead to Sin quomodo adhuc vivemus in illo how is it possible we should harbor a Thought of living any longer in that wretched Condition Yet this time of Penance is no sooner elaps'd than we begin to provide Matter for a new Repentance We take the Reins off our Senses and Passions and turn them loose to rove and wanton as before as if Sensuality were the Object of the Churches Indulgence as if Luxury Excess mis-spending our Time superfluous Entertainments and other Practices which are at all times unlawful were not at the most Holy of Times more Criminal It seems the Tide of our Vices was only stemm'd for Forty days and now the Sluces are pull'd up to let them roll in their old Channels with more impetuosity than before We hear the Churches Invitations to rejoyce and to be merry her Exultemus's and Alleluia's we presently catch the Sound and like the Carnal Jew think it relates to Flesh and Blood we presently unbend the Mind and impart the happy News to every Passion and Concupiscence But who would have imagin'd that Relaxations of our Manners could be thought by Mankind the fittest Expressions and most unfeigned Testimonies of their Rejoycing at the Resurrection of Christ But since the World will have it so I am contented provided it be made appear that these are Arguments and Signs of our Rising again with Christ For our Lord reassum'd his Sacred Body that we might rise in Spirit with him and in Flesh after him Our Resurrection then is the principal End of His and by consequence those Actions which demonstrate us to be truly risen again with him are the only proper Means to express our Joy to celebrate his Triumph And I hope we are now agreed that these consist in seeking those things which are above in setting our affections on heavenly things in transcending all Human Considerations in leaving the World far below us and contemning its Vanities Honors and Riches as much as we abhor its Vices and Corruptions 1 Cor. 15.50 As for Flesh and Blood their Inclinations and Concupiscences which can never possess the Kingdom of God they become more than ever our mortal Enemies we have a new Obligation to persecute and detest them a fresh Provocation to distress and mortifie them because they hinder us from enjoying the Liberty of the Children of God they are a Clog upon the Heart a Damp upon the Spirits they check the Flight of the Soul and lure her down when she is upon the Wing to have her Conversation in Heaven Philip. 3.2 And since this is your Belief but your Practice so contrary has not the Apostle as much reason to expostulate with you as he had with the Galatians Sic stulti estis ut cum spiritu caeperitis Gal. 3.3 carne consummemini Are you become so foolish as to end in the Flesh after you have begun in the Spirit Tanta passi estis sine causa v. 4. Have you so long bridl'd your Appetites and deny'd your Senses even their lawful Satisfactions to let them break out at Easter like a Vapor from some Hollow of the Earth more unruly furious and destructive than they could have been had you not penn'd them in and confin'd them Have you suffer'd so many things in vain shed so many Tears without Fruit given so many Alms to no End In vain without Fruit and to no end indeed unless these happy Beginnings are crown'd with an answerable Perseverance unless you dy'd to Sin to rise again with Jesus Christ and are risen again to die no more Which God of his Infinite Mercy c. The End of the First Sermon A SERMON Preach'd before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER On Whitsunday 1686. Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Ghost AS the Children of Israel Most Sacred Majesty receiv'd the Law Fifty days after the Paschal Lamb was Sacrific'd in Memory and Thanksgiving for their Miraculous Deliverance from the Egyptian Slavery so the Church of Christ in the fulness of time and after that mysterious number of Days elaps'd from the Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb who takes away the Sins of the World is establish'd by the solemn publication of a New Covenant a Covenant of Grace But to express the Analogy and Relation between the one