meaning of the Resurrection of the Body is nothing else but this to persuade Vulgar people that though they seem to perish when they die and their Bodies rot in the Grave yet notwithstanding they shall have a real Subsistence after Death by which they shall be made capable either of future Happiness or Misery But because the apprehensions of the Vulgar are so gross that the Permanency or Immortality of the Soul is too subtile a Notion for them who commonly count their Bodies for Themselves and cannot conceive how they should have any Being after Death unless their very Bodies should be raised up again therefore by way of Condescension to vulgar Understandings the future Permanency and Subsistence of the Soul in Prophetical Writings is expressed under this Scheme of the Resurrection of the Body which yet is meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which conceit how well soever it may befit a Mahumetan Philosopher I am sure it no way agrees with the Principles of Christianity The Scripture here and elsewhere assuring us that the Resurrection of the Body is to be understood plainly and without a Figure and that the Saints departed this life in the Faith and Fear of Christ shall not be mere Souls without Bodies to all Eternity as Avicen Maimonides and other Philosophers dreamed but consist of Soul and Body united together Which Bodies though as the Doctrine of the Church instructeth us they shall be both Specifically and Numerically the same with what they were here yet notwithstanding the Scripture tells us they shall be so changed and altered in respect of their Qualities and Conditions that in that sense they shall not be the same V. 36 37. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Thou sowest not that Body that shall be but bare grain it may chance of Wheat or of some other grain but God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own Body The Apostle here imitating the manner of the Jews who as appeareth from the Talmud were wont familiarly to illustrate the business of the Resurrection of the Body by the Similitude of Seed sown into the Ground and springing up again Accordingly he goes on It is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption sown in dishonour it is raised in glory sown in weakness raised in power sown a Natural Body raised a Spiritual Body Which Epithet was used also in this case both by the Philosophers and the Jews for Hierocles upon the Golden Verses calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehicula Spiritualia Spiritual Bodies and R. Menachem from the ancient Cabbalists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Clothing Lastly the Apostle concludes thus Now this I say Brethren that Flesh and Bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption For which cause he tells us elsewhere that they which do not die must of necessity be changed And indeed if men should be restored after death to such gross foul and cadaverous Bodies as these are here upon Earth which is the very Region of Death and Mortality without any change at all what would this be else but as Plotinus the Philosopher against the Gnosticks writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be raised up to a Second Sleep or to be entombed again in living Sepulchres For the corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that 〈…〉 seth upon many things Wisedome 9. 15. Wherefore we must needs explode that old Jewish conceit commonly entertained amongst the Rabbinical Writers to this day That the future Resurrection is to be understood of such Gross and Corruptible Bodies as these are here upon Earth to eat drink marry and be given in marriage and which must needs follow afterward to die again Nachmanides in his Shaar Haggemul is the onely Jewish Author that ventures to depart from the common rode here and to abandon this Popular Error of the Jews endeavouring to prove that the Bodies of the Just after the Resurrection shall not eat and drink but be Glorified Bodies but Abravanel confutes him with no other Argument then this That this was the Doctrine and Opinion of the Christians Let us therefore now consider how abundantly God hath provided for us by Jesus Christ both in respect of our Souls and of our Bodies Our Souls in freeing us by the Spirit of Christ if we be not wanting to our selves from the Slavery of Sin and the Bondage of the Law as it is a Letter onely Our Bodies in that this Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal Immortality and that these Vile Bodies shall be made like to Christ's glorious Body In both which the compleat Salvation of Man consisteth the Perfection and Happiness both of Soul and Body For though our Salvation consist chiefly in the former in the Victory over Sin and in the Renovation of the Mind yet without the latter which is the Victory over Death and the immortalizing of our Bodies it would be a very lame and imperfect thing For Righteousness alone if it should malè habitare dwell alwaies in such inconvenient houses as these earthly Tabernacles are however the high-flown Stoick may bragg it could not render our condition otherwise then troublesome sollicitous and calamitous Wherefore the Holy men in Scripture not without cause longed for this future Change Rom. 8. 23. We grone within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies 2 Cor. 5. 2. In this we grone earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven But there is no obtaining of this future Victory over Death and Mortality except we first get a Victory over Sin here For this is that Crown of Life that Christ the First-begotten from the dead will set upon the Heads of none but those that have here fought a good Fight and overcome For as Death proceeds onely from Sin and Disobedience so the way to conquer Death and to arrive at Life and Immortality is by seeking after an inward Conquest over Sin For Righteousness is immortal Wisd. 1. 15. and will immortalize the entertainers of it and as the Chaldee Oracle speaks ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HAving hitherto shewed what are the great things we hope for by Christ and are to endeavour after namely to procure an Inward and Real Victory over Sin by the Spirit of Christ that so we may hereafter attain a Victory over Death and Mortality We cannot but take notice briefly of some Errors of those that either pretending the Impossibility of this Inward Victory over Sin or else hypocritically declining the Combate make up a certain Religion to themselves out of other things which are either Impertinent and nothing to the purpose or else Evil and noxious For first Some as was intimated before make to themselves a mere phantastical and imaginary Religion conceiting
Imprimatur Ex aedibus Lambeth Octob. 3. 1664. Tho. Cooke R ssimi in Christo Patris ac D ni D. Gilb. Cant. Archiep. Sacel Dom. A SERMON Preached to the HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF LINCOLNES-INNE BY R. CuDWORTH D. D. Master of CHRIST'S College in CAMBRIDGE S. Gregory Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY M DC LXIV 1 Corinth 15. 57. But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. CHRIST's Resurrection which the Apostle treateth of in the former part of this Chapter is one of the main and principal Articles of our Christian Faith for though Christ by his Death upon the Cross made a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the World yet it was his Resurrection onely which did manifest his Death to be effectual and available for that end and did evidence its acceptation with God For if the Grave had detain'd Christ and held him Prisoner this would have been an argument that the Debt for which he was committed to that dark Dungeon was not yet pay'd nor Satisfaction made for if Christ be not raised saith the Apostle your Faith is vain you are yet in your sins But now Death and the Grave having delivered up Christ out of their custody his Resurrection is an undoubted argument that they had no more to lay to his charge as he was a Surety and Undertaker for mankinde but that the Debt which was owing to the Law and Divine Justice was in the Court of Heaven fully acquitted and discharged For Christ was delivered for our Sins and rose again for our Justification And though Christ's other Miracles ought to have conciliated Belief to his Doctrine from the Jews yet his Resurrection from the dead foretold by himself and really accomplished added to all the rest was a most undoubted and unquestionable Confirmation of his Prophetical Ministery For if it were supposed as the Jews of old and the Talmudists of latter times maliciously calumniated our Saviour Christ that a mere Wizzard or Magician should have appeared and not onely have done many Miracles by Beelzebub and the Powers of Darkness but also have foretold that after he had been put to death he should rise again and have given this as a farther sign to confirm his Prophecy as our Saviour did Matth. 12. 39. it could never be conceiv'd that Divine Providence should suffer such an Impostour miraculously to rise again in so remarkable a manner and so often to appear before the eyes of so many Spectators and at last visibly to ascend up to Heaven Because this would have been Tentatio invincibilis to mankind it being not imaginable what greater assurance Heaven itself could give to confirm and seal a Prophet and to persuade the World that what he did was by the Finger of God and not by Magical imposture then this is And therefore it is observable that though a good while after our Saviour's time when the Jews had now forfeited that peculiar Providence that watched over them a certain counterfeit Messias one David El-Roy was permitted to doe several strange and miraculous things by Magick and Witchcraft if the Jewish Relations be true yet when he gave this for a Sign to the Persian King to prove himself the Messias that after he was beheaded by him he should rise again he plainly discovered his Imposture to the great disappointment of the deluded Jews who as Maimonides writes in vain expected his Resurrection a good while after Moreover If Christ had not risen again after death the world would not have had sufficient ground to trust and believe in him as a Saviour S. Austin reckon'd it as great a Miracle as any that Christ ever did upon earth that the World should be brought off to believe in a crucified Saviour For to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews by way of Disgrace call our Saviour or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Lucian's language one that was hanged for a God and to believe in him could not but seem a monstrous and prodigious thing both to Jews and Gentiles and certainly it would never have been brought to pass had there not been unquestionable assurance given of Christ's Resurrection from the dead For who would be so sottish as to believe in a dead Saviour and to expect help and assistance from him that had not been able to help himself and therefore had given no proof that he was able to help others nay from him that to all humane appearance had now no being at all Upon which account the Psalmist upbraids the sottish Heathen That they ate the Sacrifices of the dead Wherefore it is observable in the Gospel that when Christ was now dead buried in his Sepulchre the Hope and Expectation of his Disciples who had formerly believed in him lay as it were intombed in the same Sepulchre with him And then the two Disciples that went to Emmaus could onely say We trusted this had been he which should have redeemed Israel But afterwards when they were able upon good grounds to affirm that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord was risen indeed then their Faith revived a-new and mounted up higher then ever and grew triumphant in them Again there was another excellent Design in Christ's Resurrection from the dead which the Apostle pursues largely also in this Chapter viz. To give the world assurance of a Life after death and a blessed Immortality to be enjoyed by all true Believers and Followers of Christ. Christ by his Resurrection hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 1. 10. or as the Church sings in that divine Anthem After he had overcome the sharpness of Death he opened the kingdome of Heaven to all Believers The reasons of Philosophy that prove the Soul's Immortality though firm and Demonstrative in themselves yet they are so thin and subtile to vulgar apprehensions that they glide away through them and leave no such palpable impressions on them as can be able sufficiently to bear up against that heavy weight of gross infidelity that continually sinks down the minds of men to a distrust of such high things as be above the reach of Sense Neither are these considerations any longer of force then men can actually attend to the strength and coherence of the Demonstration and when that actual attention which is operose and difficult is taken off then the Truth itself like a Spectre or Apparition suddenly vanishes away and men question with themselves afterwards whether there were any such thing or no. Such thin and evanid things are Philosophical Speculations about the high Mysteries of Faith and Religion But Christ his raising of the self-same Body which was laid in the Sepulchre and afterwards appearing in it often to his Disciples gave such evident assurance of the Soul's Immortality and Life after death as must needs strike more strongly upon
men do illegally and unlawfully break loose from the Law which is their Husband whilst he is yet alive and ought to have Dominion over them and marry themselves to another Husband which Husband 's name is Carnal Liberty or Licentiousness too often miscalled in these latter Times by the name of Christian Liberty and such as these may well be styled in the Scripture-language Adulterers and Adulteresses But there is another Freedome from the Law which is a due and just Freedome when we do not make our selves free before the time violently breaking loose from it but when we stay till the Law which is our Husband is dead and the Compulsory power of it taken away by the Mortification of our Lusts and Affections and so marry another Husband which is Christ or the Spirit of Righteousness Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Wherefore there are Three general states of Men in order to God and Religion that may be here taken notice of The First is of those that are alive to Sin and dead to the Law This the Apostle speaks of Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once These are those whose Consciences are not yet considerably awakened to any Sense of their Duty nor to the Discrimination of Good and Evil but sin freely without any check or controll without any disquieting Remorse of Conscience The Second is when men are at once alive both to the Law and Sin to the Conviction of the one and the Power and Love of the other both these strugling together within the Bowels of the Soul checking and controlling one another This is a broken confounded and shatter'd state and these in the Apostles language are said to be Slain by the Law I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death For Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it Slew me Here is no Peace Rest nor Comfort to be had in this state mens Souls being distracted and divided by an intestine and civil Warr between the Law of the Minde and the Law of the Members conflicting with one another Wherefore the Third state is when men are dead both to the Law and Sin and alive unto God and Righteousness the Law of the Spirit of Life freeing them from the Law of Sin and Death In the First of these Three states which is the most wretched and deplorable of all we are Sin 's Free-men that is free to commit Sin without check or controll In the Second we are Bondmen to God and Righteousness and serve God out of a Principle of Fear and according to an outward Rule onely Children of Hagar the Bond-maid and of the Letter In the Third we are God's Free-men and Sons and serve him in the Newness of the Spirit out of a Love to God and Righteousness Children of the New Testament and of Sarah the Free-woman Wherefore here are Two Mistakes or Errors to be taken notice of that defeat and disappoint the Design of Christ in giving us Victory over the Law The first is of those that we have already mentioned that seek to themselves a Freedome from the Bondage of the Law otherwise then by Christ and the Spirit of Righteousness namely in a way of Carnal Liberty and Licentiousness whereby instead of being Bond-men to God and Righteousness they become perfect Free-men to Sin and Wickedness which is the most deplorable Thraldome in the World Wherefore these men instead of going forward from the Second state unto higher Perfection wheel back again unto the First just as if the Children of Israel after they had been brought out of Egypt and travelled awhile in the Desert of Arabia where the Law was given instead of entring into Canaan should have wheeled back into Egypt and then enjoying the Garlick and Onions and Flesh-pots thereof should persuade themselves that this was indeed the true Land of Promise that floweth with Milk and Honey And there is very great danger lest when men have been tired out by wandring a long time in the dry and barren Wilderness of the Law where they cannot enjoy the Pleasure of Sin as formerly and yet have not arrived to the relish and love of Righteousness by reason of their Impatience they should at last make more haste then good speed being seduced by some false shews of Freedome that are very tempting to such weary Travellers and promise much comfort and refreshment to them inviting them to sit down under their shadow Such as are a Self-chosen Holiness Ceremonial Righteousness Opinionative Zeal The Tree of Knowledge mistaken for the Tree of Life High-flown Enthusiasm and Seraphicism Epicurizing Philosophy Antinomian Liberty under the pretence of Free Grace and a Gospel-Spirit The Second Mistake that is here to be heeded is of those that would by all means persuade themselves that there is no higher State of Christian Perfection to be aimed at or hoped for in this Life then this Legal State That the Good they would doe they doe not the Evil they would not doe that they doe That the Law of Sin in their Members still leads them Captive from the Law of their Minds having no other Ground at all for this but a novel Interpretation of one Paragraph in the Epistle to the Romans contrary to other express Places of Scripture and the Sense of all ancient Interpreters and yet with so much zeal as if it were a principal part of the Gospel-Faith to believe this which is indeed arrant Infidelity and as if it were no less then Presumption or Impiety to expect a Living Law written upon our Hearts But this is nothing else but instead of seeking Liberty out of the Bondage of the Law to fall in love with our Bonds and Fetters and plainly to deny the Victory over the Law by Christ and to affirm that the Gospel is but the Ministration of a dead and killing Letter not of the Spirit that quickneth and maketh alive I Come now in the Third and last place to the Victory over Death expressed by the Resurrection of the Body to Life and Immortality which as it was meritoriously procured for us by Christ's dying upon the Cross his Resurrection afterward being an assured pledge of the same to us so it will be really effected at last by the same Spirit of Christ that gives us Victory over Sin here Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you As if he should have said If the Spirit of Christ dwell in you regenerating and renewing your Souls the very same Spirit hereafter shall also immortalize your very Bodies Avicen the Mahumetan Philosopher in his Almahad hath a conceit That the