the same aliment that others were And when he was Crucified and by the pains of that disposed for a resignation of his Spirit he gave it up to God and waited upon his disposal of it For all Souls are to return to the Father of Spirits to be consign'd to the state or place they are meet for And the Soul of the Messias went to the Apartment of separated Souls that is of Good and Righteous ones The improvement we make of this Article and Doctrine of Faith is as follows 1. That we are assured that we Are when we go hence And the Disciples of Christ go to Paradise as he did I do not say they go into the Heaven of Heavens for that Christ did not himself 'till he reassum'd his Body But when they are not as to mortal Eye they shall Be. So our Saviour told the repenting Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise thy Soul and mine shall go together to the Assembly of the first-born The dissolution of our Bodies shall not break off our Being the Soul the better part Is even in the state of separation The dust must return to dust but the Soul returns to God to be disposed of to its appointed Mansion The Soul of the Messias went to Hades the Congregation of the Just the Receptacle of Blessed Spirits the Rest that remains for the People of God 'till they are recalled to take up their Bodies They enter into rest not a cessation of Being or a rest of sleep 'till the awaking at the sound of the last Trump the dream of some But they rest in hope they live in a joyful expectation of a more glorious appearance They are cloath'd upon from above as soon as they go out of the Body But they await under that cloathing be it what it will for their first Bodies to be made like Christ's glorious Body They rest from sin and sorrow and all the ill Concomitants of a mortal Body but yet are vigorous and lively and in possession of a happiness that deserves the name of Heaven and Paradise tho' even in that state it may be said what St. John says of the Sons of God here that it doth not so fully appear even there what they shall be But yet there as here they have this assurance that when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall they and we apppear with him in Glory Our Saviour's return to re-assume his Body gave an Ocular demonstration of the Immortality both of Body and Soul The Immortality of the Soul was not so much question'd but that of the Body and the Resurrection of that was ridicul'd Acts 17.18 And so in after times Minutius Felix as I find in an Ancient Christian Writer But Christ's Soul came into his Body and by that he gave us assurance of the whole Man's appearing again in Body and Soul The Body shall not always be in the Grave nor the Soul be without its old Companion with these Eyes shall we again see our Redeemer This Doctrine is peculiarly the Revelation of the Gospel The Philosophy of the Gentiles could not reach it A thousand difficulties they raise against the possibility of it but what Christ did for himself he will do for his followers He follow'd the Spirits of Just Men into their state after their separation from the Body and he will bring them and their Souls back again to their Bodies and he will give them again their former Tabernacles or Abodes and the Organs of those of them that sleep in Jesus shall be awakened and their scatter'd Atoms shall be recalled to make up the whole Compositum Body and Soul and as Men in Bodies they shall ever be with the Lord. Thirdly A God Incarnate takes actual care both of our Bodies and Souls in every state after we come into the Body in Life in Death and after Death A God Incarnate I say for so was the Lord of Glory that was Crucified for us that Died and rose again from the Dead Not that God could die but the Nature he was Hypostatically united to suffer'd a separation and he himself re-assumed his Body and by the power of his Divinity returned from Hades Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 2.19 He spake of the Temple of his Body v. 21. Therefore doth the Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to take it again John 10.17 18. And this Power he exerts not only for himself but all his Followers he is with them in Life in Death in the Body and out of the Body He dwells with them by his Spirit while in the Tabernacle of the Flesh and when out of the Body they are with the Lord. He beams his Light of Glory into the Regions they are in for a while as separate from the Body he never leaves them nor forsakes them James and John and Peter saw his transfiguration on the Mount and were transported into extasie in so much that St. Peter crys out 't is good to be here He was so ravish'd as not to think of any other after-glory he was so well contented with that Matth. 17.2 St. Stephen under a shower of Stones looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God Acts 7.55 And some such like manifestations separate Souls have of their glorified Saviour which makes them wait with joy for a farther Salvation Fourthly That a Separation hereafter will be ever made betwixt the Righteous and Unrighteous Our Saviour in the state of Separation had nothing to do with the Damn'd he gave them no visit he was none of their Company he made not up one of their number he went not into Hell in this sense They that are inclinable to take the Doctrine in the grosser sense yet do not understand it of his being pain'd or punish'd with the Damn'd But rather that he consign'd them the more firmly in their state of horrour and darkness and that he triumph'd over Devils only as upbraiding them of their Apostacy and falling from their station and reproaching all Spirits in their Apostacy for the same Rebellion and binding them up in Chains of Darkness 'till the judgment of the great Day But the true and brighter side of the Article is to encourage comfort and confirm the Spirits of the Righteous with the hopes of a greater and farther glorification and of a nearer approach to the Eternal Majesty when he shall come again to give up the Kingdom unto the Father when he and they shall ever be with the Lord. Fifthly Nothing shall with-hold us from returning unto the Body when the time of re-union comes Nothing hinders the good Soul from entring into Paradise The Angels that pitch their Tents about them that fear God in their life time while in their Bodies
return'd to put the Organs again in tune The first Adam brought in Sin and Death into the World the second Life and Immortality An Argument which the Apostle pursues in 1 Cor. 15.47 The first Man is of the Earth Earthy the second Man is the Lord from Heaven Our Bodies must to Dust or Earth because they were made of Dust They must moulder because they are Mortal Our Natures as derivative from a Sinner are decreed to death and dissolution and must sink into the same Principle of which they are compounded but the second Man is the Lord from Heaven the Lord of Life and Immortality He doth not bring Death but Life to Body and Soul And therefore in v. 45. the Apostle stiles him a quickning Spirit keeping his Body tenantable tho' he went out of it and not only so but he was Lord of his own Body and none other had Power and Dominion over it None nor any thing could assault his Body laid up as in a Repository for his returning It seems by what we read in the History of the Gospel he put a Life-guard of Angels upon it or about it while he went into a far Country which frighted both the Souldiers and Devout Women that came to his Sepulchre to look after him Luke 24.4 The Socinians here banter and batter this Bulwark of our Faith by asserting that Christ had no power of his Body that when dead and in the Grave was out of his Care or Concern That 't was God kept his Body incorruptible and rais'd it such It was God the Father that took care of the Body and Soul of God the Son We yield this but he was such a Son of God as dwelt in Flesh not after the manner of the first Adam's Progeny His Body was of a finer make and purer mould conceiv'd of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin and so had the Seeds of Immortality in it and was not to corrupt tho' the Inmate was for a while to remove God the Father did indeed raise Christ from the dead as we read Gal. 1.1 But it 's also written that Christ also did raise himself Joh. 2.21 Destroy this Temple and I will raise it again Where he speaks of the Temple of his Body Which he might very properly call a Temple because the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily And in Scripture we are inform'd That when he was risen from the dead his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them and they believ'd the Scripture and the word that Jesus had said That Christ took care of his own Body and rais'd himself For 't is written Joh. 5.21 As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will He then which quickneth the dead Bodies of others when he raiseth them he also quickned his own Body when he raised that Thirdly and lastly His body was not to see Corruption because he was as the Christian High-Priest to enter into the Holy of Holiest as the first-fruits of the Dead So our Apologist St. Peter v. 29 c. of this Chapter Men and Brethren let me freely speak unto you of the Patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his Sepulchre is with us unto this day therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his Throne He seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his Soul was not left in Hell neither his flesh did see Corruption This Spiritual High-Priest must enter into the Holy of Holiest with all his Pontificalibus his Body and Soul Clean and Clear Pure and Perfect Radiant and Glorious the true Regalia that adorn'd the Investiture of this High-Priest He was also to rise as the first fruits the Cause and Pledge of all others Resurrection Afterwards they that are Christ's even Holy and Pious Men shall be raised up but not immediately for their Bodies must remain in the Grave and their Souls in Hades 'till he calls them They must see Corruption and pay the debt of a corrupt Nature and undergo the Pennance of the Grave and Hades Not that they feel pain in the one or the other but they willingly resign to the Divine Decree and for a while rest in hope of a glorious Redemption For the bonds of Death were unloosed by the Captain of our Salvation but they were such bonds as did not fetter they were willingly put on and easily put off The Christian High-Priest was to be a Freeman not a Prisoner he was not to enter with Shackles but rather with the Armature of a glorious Victor Eph. 6.13 c. With the whole Armour of God with the Brest-plate of Righteousness with the Shield of Faith with the Helmet of Salvation with the Sword of the Spirit by which he stood in the day of trial and withstood the fiery Darts of the Wicked and cut in sunder the bonds of Death To allude to the Apostle's Phrase From these Considerations we may conclude his Body could not see Corruption 1. Because in three days according to Promise and Prediction he was to assume his Body 2. Because he was the second Adam and so he was not under the guilt or the penalty of the first 3. Because he as the High-Priest was to enter Body and Soul pure as the Aether into the Everlasting Kingdom the Regions of Light and Glory The Doctrinal part of this Sermon speaks Comfort to us all words of great Consolation that should enliven us and fill us with joy in believing For First The same Lord Jesus that raised and reassumed his own Body shall raise ours and make them like his Glorious Body Phil. 3.21 It is the Faith of all Orthodox Divines that had the first Adam stood we had stood in him in his integrity in a perfect and holy Nature and in the favour of God And that after the expiration of a determinate time our Bodies and Souls had been translated as Enoch's and Elias's without seeing Death into a state of Immortality But what we lost by the first Man's prevarication will be beyond our deserts restored by the second Adam And as in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive All are to live but some to the Resurrection of the Just whose Bodies shall be made like Christ's glorious Body The second Adam say you who is he Why the seed of the Woman that should bruise the Serpent's head Gen. 3. That Seed in whom all the Nations of the Earth are blessed The second Adam in whom and by whom a new Covenant of Grace is made for blessings in this World and far greater in another that now we might have life and that more abundantly the life of Grace and hereafter the life of Glory This is the Christ whose Body did not see Corruption nor his Soul remain among the
A PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT Of the Articles of Christ's descent into AND Rising again from the Dead IN A SERMON Preach'd in the Parish Church of Bridgewater on Easter-Day Anno Domini 1697. By WILLIAM ALLEN â— â— Vicar of Bridgewater in Somerset What will this Babler say because he Preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection Acts 17.18 Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth Gal. 4.16 London Printed for J. Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard and J. Miller Bookseller in Sherborne and at his Shop in Yeavill 1697. TO JOHN HARVEY Of the Castle in Bridgewater Gent. T IS a Priviledge that the Country Ministers are bless'd with above your great Towns Vicars or Lecturers that their People remembring their Catechisms presume not to think themselves more Learned or Wiser than their Teachers but according to Christian Primitive Modesty and Doctrine they Learn of and Obey Reverence and are Ruled by their Spiritual Pastors But your Corporation Catechumens your Men of Gath are big of themselves especially if Opulent and Thriving and will not allow Master Parson whether he belongs to Church or Conventicle for that 's the diminitive word they scornfully Salute with the Levitical Order whether in Gown and Cassock or in Coat and long Cloak they will not I say allow them so much as to think otherwise than they think nor to speak otherwise than they would have them speak nor grant that their University Education or much Study or many years Exercise in the Ministry gives them any ascendant above their Level If they will not say their Pater-Noster the way they would have them they shall have no Peter's Pence from them Thus stands the Case of your Town and City Clergy And some of the Sons of the Church I am loath to think them Sons of Belial but they have appear'd such Sons of strife and stiffness as indeed provok'd me against mine inclination to publish the following Sermon at the Preaching of which two of your discontented Pew-Mates carried themselves as at other times ever since the * Tho' they have very early taken the Oaths to K. W. and Q. M. Revolution with all the proud and insolent contempt imaginable yea and in seeming great rage and wrath quitted the Congregation as if I had been about overturning Foundations and deny'd the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints and were running apace to the Dissenters and was doing their work This is the Charge and this is the Crime and I think it a very great one too if I should think say or do any thing against the Church But I have deliver'd no more than what you may read in the Bishop of Worcester's Discourse against the Socinians or in Dr. Lightfoot Bishop Peirson Dr. Towerson and others of our Learned Church of England The Dissenters as the Novatians of Old may be right in their Doctrine except in that which causes or occasions their separation And I heartily wish all that are Zealous for or against Ceremonies were as warm for Peace and Holiness Truth and Concord and that all of us as Disciples of the humble and holy Jesus under the Ministry of Paul or Apollo would as new-born-Babes desire the sincere Milk of the word that we may grow thereby in Grace and substantial Knowledge which is the earnest and sincere Prayer of the Minister of the Parish and Parish Church of Bridgewater and therefore your very Humble Servant William Allen. From my Study Bridgewater April 1697. THE PREFACE IT was an early Custom in the Asian Church and continues so to this very day says Sir Paul Ricaut for Christians to Salute each other with this Chearful Congratulation on Easter Morning Christ is Risen and the Return is Christ is Risen indeed For 't was a melancholy interval with Christ's first Disciples which he foretold them of that they should mourn when the World did rejoyce All the while the Son of Righteousness was in an Eclipse his poor Disciples were in a state of darkness and fear and trouble and almost despondency as we may gather from their faint hopes in their way to Emaus Luke 24.21 We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel But in a farther Conference our Saviour chides and rebukes them for their little confidence O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken whereof this is one Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption He descended into Hell is one of the Articles of that which we call the Apostle's Creed Not that I believe it is in totidem verbis any more the Apostle's-Creed than it is yours or mine Indeed there was a certain Writer tells us a Story That the Apostles before their parting from Jerusalem into the several parts of the World to Preach the Gospel agreed upon a form of Christian Faith and that every one cast in his Symbolum or Article which made just Twelve But for this we have only this one Man's word but all the other Ancients know nothing of this Matter Or that the present Creed commonly call'd the Apostle's-Creed was as Ruffinus reports theirs All the Learned now a-days in Church-History are agreed it was never composed by them Not but that there was a form of sound words but not as now Some were derived from the Apostles or from their days As I Believe in God the Father Or as the Greeks read it in One God the Father in opposition to the Polytheism of the Heathens And in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son our Lord I Believe in the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting These are all we can call Primitive from the Apostles Tho' all the other are true yet the others were added since in opposition to Heresies as they sprang up in the Church As was Conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost was put in in opposition to the Carpocratians Ebonites and Corinthians who taught that Christ was born in the ordinary and common way as other Men and Women are Was Born of the Virgin Mary Suffer'd under Pontius Pilate was placed in the Creed in contradiction to the Docetae Simonians and others who affirmed Christ to be a Man not really but phantastically and in appearance I believe the Remission of Sins was added to the form of words against the Basilidians and Novatians They only held that not all Sins but only involuntary ones would be remitted The other deny'd remission to the lapsed But to come more immediately to my Theam and to trace no longer the rest The Article of the descent into Hell was brought in toward the latter end of the Fourth Century From this account of the Creed I may again assume my assertion that that we commonly call the Apostles as it stands in our Liturgy is no more their Creed than it is mine or yours That is you and I believe all these Articles because they are in the Scriptures and