putrefaction the Prophet apprehends a certaine hope of the Resurrection of his owne flesh to Immortality and assures himselfe that God will not give him over to that corruption which shall seize on him in the grave that his dead body shall not miscarry nor vanish away in rottenesse but bee raised againe in glory This meditation leades me by the hand to treate of our Saviours Resurrection being pertinent and conducing to the series of our discourse CHAP. 3. Christs Resurrection manifested by the testimony of Angels by his owne apparitions by the fulfilling of the Prophecies his Resurrection is a demonstration of ours THE glorious resurrection of our blessed Saviour was first proclaimed by an Herauld from Heaven so all the Evangelists testify Sonuit de sepulchro vox laetitiae never before was heard such newes from the grave but at that time when an Angell was the preacher his Sermon Christ is risen his Auditory Mary Magdalen and other devout women To discourse at large of those celestiall and immortall spirits comes not within the compasse of my walke yet thus much briefly and to our present purpose Angels however they still behold the face of our Heavenly Father yet they are but his houshold servants his pages of honor which hee sends on his holy errands the sacred tutors of the Saints the guard of Gods elect the watch-men over the wals of the new Ierusalem chaplaines in ordinary to the King of heaven Messengers Ministers attending about his Throne expecting his pleasure alwayes in readinesse to make knowne his will unto Man When God brought forth his first begotten Sonne into the world he sayed worship him all yee Angels and so they did when the blessed Virgin oreshadowed by the Holy Ghost carried her divine burthen within her wōbe an Angell appeared unto Ioseph to justify the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Sonne when hee was borne the Angels told the same unto the sheepheards and that with an Ecce too Luke 1. when Herod ment death to the Babe for the name of a King an Angell revealed the same unto Ioseph and willed him to fly into Aegypt with the child and so Populus Aegypti qui fuit persecutor primogeniti became custos unigeniti whē Herod was dead the Angell bid Ioseph returne againe into Iury When Satan left tempting him the Angels came and ministred unto him when his soule was exceeding sorrowfull unto death the Angels attēded to comfort him when his body was to bee raised from death an Angell descends to draw away the curtaine while our Lord came forth of his bed-chamber an Angell roles away the stone which his Adversaries had laid upon his grave an Angell is the first that reports the glad tidings of his resurrection The truth of this Angelicall assertion was secōded by Truth it selfe for what the Angell preached unto the women what the womē reported to the Apostles for in this Article were they first catechiz'd by the weaker sex our Saviour makes good by his manifold apparitions being seene at sundry times by such who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witnesses chosen before of God for that purpose as the Apostle affirmes in his little Creed to Cornelius Acts 10. wherein is a synopsis or summe of the chiefe points of holy beliefe Concerning the Doctrine verse 36 37. Miracles verse 38. Life and Death verse 39. Resurrection verse 40 41. Comming to iudgemēt verse 42. of Iesus Christ What Peter there recites to his Auditor his new convert his Cornelius what Paul elsewhere to his Corinthians was all foretold Per os Prophetarum by the mouth of the holy Prophets for this is sure convertible Nothing was done by Christ which was not foretold nothing was foretold which was not done So that there was an Oportet a forceable reason that he should rise againe Vt impleretur that the Scripture might be fulfilled his Resurrection being as Aquinas saith Complementum omnium promissionum the Consummatum est the period the accomplishment of al predictions We may farther illustrate this if we looke on our Saviour as he was seene by Ezekiel in a vision as a King Ezek. 9.2 as a Priest as a Prophet walking amongst the midst of the Angels as a King cloathed in white as a Priest and with an inkhorne hanging at his girdle as a Prophet And here likewise shall wee find an Oportet that his Propheticall Sacerdotall Regall Offices each of them implyed a proofe of his Resurrection First let us consider him as a Prophet even the Prince of Prophets When the Angels at the Sepulcher sayed unto the women why seeke yee the living among the dead He is not here Luk 24.6 but hee is risen hee addes to remēber how he spake unto you whē hee was yet in Galile saying The Sonne of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful mē be crucified and the third day rise againe It is remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not what only but how not the matter but the manner remember that He will keep his word though he die for it though he dye for it hee will rise againe the third day to keep it to a minute The very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his resurrection is determined He rose the third day that early too When God was to give sentence upon man for sin he stayed till the heat of the day was over but upō this day being to preach remissiō of sins he rose betime while it was yet darke It was the Love of God and tender affection to his Church which he had so lately so deerely bought made him rise so soone and appeare so often the same day to distressed soules In all my Creed there is no other circumstance of Time but this of all the Actions of Christ for mee there recorded onely this Action of rising againe though of all the most difficult yet it is to bee beleeved with the circumstance of time no other to shew that the doubt and difficulty the improbability in respect of meanes bee it what it will yet whensoever my Saviour promiseth hee keepeth it as well as whatsoever he hath promised Secondly as his prophecy so his priesthood inforced his Resurrection How could it appeare that the obligation was cancelled the law fulfilled God pacified if hee had not risen againe If the debt had not bene taken off by the surety it would have lyen still upon the Principall If Christ had not risen from the dead wee should still be yet in our sinnes and our Faith should bee in vaine But wee know that our high Priest with one offering hath consecrated for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 The powerfull operation of this passion endureth for ever being the Lābe slaine from the beginning of the world and bleeding as it were to the worlds end Aron and his successors were but onely forerunners of Christ who is the end of the Law
Credo Resurrectionem CARNIS A Tractate on the eleventh Article of the Apostles Creed By W. H. Esquire sometimes of Peter-house in Cambridge SPES ADDIDIT ALAS LONDON Printed by E. P. for N. Bourne and are to be sold at his Shop at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange 1633. Credo Resurrectionem Carnis CHAP. I. Of the Creed in generall WHat Origen said of the inventiō of Hieroglyphicall Learning Origen Hom. 7. in Exod. may not unfitly be applyed to these Breviaries and Epitomes of Holy Writ like the Iewes Manna they fall downe in round and small cakes yet afford good nourishment Like rich Iewels they carry worth in every sparke and in these little maps is contained a world of matter As those decem verba the short Law of the Decalogue is a patterne of all duties to bee done As that Oratio quotidiana authorized by our Saviours lips is the curious Archetype master-peece of all prayer the common place the originall copie the platforme of all requests to bee made So the Apostolicall Creed is a plaine and absolute summe of all holy Faith It is called in English the Creed from the first Word Credo quia omnia credenda according to that of Athanasius whosoever will bee saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholicke faith which faith except every one keepe whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly It is called Apostolicall because it summarily conteines the chiefe and principall points of religion handled and propounded in the doctrine of the Apostles Other confessions are received not as new but as paraphrases and expositions and enlargements for the better clearing of this for as there is but one Faith so but one Creed as the foure Gospels are indeed but one Gospel so the Apostolicall Athanasian and Nicen Creed are but one in substance This of the Apostles hath ever been accounted in the Church most ancient and of greatest authority which although it be not Protocanonicall Scripture yet is it the key of Scriptures medulla Scripturarum the pith of the whole Bible Here have I an hādful of holy flowers which are called from the several beds of that spacious garden of the sacred Scripture here is collected into one faire body the substance and sweetnesse of all those divine mysteries which either lie hidden or scatterd in the volume of holy writ This is that Parvulus Iudex the little Iudge in matters of quarrell about religion for what doctrine soever is contrary to the Analogie of faith in these things ought and must bee rejected If a foole say in his heart there is no God If a Iew deny Christ If an Epicure beleeve not a life everlasting If a Cain deny the remission of sinnes or a Corinthian the Resurrection of the flesh All these crossing the Articles of our Christian faith the Church rejecteth them God condemneth them And they fearefully perish without his mercy to recall them The matter or object of the Creed concerneth 1 God 2 Church First God 1 The Father and our Creation Article 1. 2 The Son our Redemption in the 6. next Art 3 The Holy Ghost Article 8. Secondly it concerneth the Church in the 4. last Articles which is more fully described by her Properties 1 Holy Article 9. 2 Catholicke Article 9. 3 Knit in a Communion Article 9. Prerogatives In the soule remission of sins Art 10. In the body resurrection Art 11. Body soule everlasting life Art 12. These bee the twelve signes in the Zodiake of our faith through which passeth Christ Iesus the Sun of righteousnes O never may the clouds of infidelity darken or eclypse his beames These twelve Articles are so necessary and so lincked together that hee that denyeth one by consequent denyeth all because that of any one so denyed the denyall of the very foundation of our faith is straightly inferred He that with Marcion denyeth the Humanity of Christ may be easily convinced to deny the passion of Christ because the God-head is impassible he that with Ebion denyeth the Deity of Christ may with the like facility bee convinced to deny the Resurrection of Christ because the manhood onely never had beene able to raise it selfe from the dead Rom. 1.4 And hee that denyeth the Resurrection of Christ cannot beleeve his Ascension because the Apostle telleth us Ephes 4.9 that hee which ascended is the same which descended first into the lower parts of the Earth By this manifest inference may we plainely see the connexion of these Articles If yee deny one yee deny all and if yee renounce any one yee cannot be saved But I will not take a large survey in a small plot It s a good rule to be observed by booke-writers which a great master in oratory hath prescribed ut titulum legant to reade the title of their bookes and often to aske themselves what they have begun to handle From this maine sea I will therefore strike into a little channell and having drunke of the brooke in the way and given a tast of the Creed in generall I descend to this particular Article which is rhe subject of our following Treatise CHAP. 2. Each terme in this eleventh Article remarkable from the explication of which is inferred the immortality of the Soule and consequently of the rising againe of the body IN our precedent Chapter we shewed the dependancy of one Article with another and that to deny any one of these principles is the next degree to infidelity Wee may farther illustrate this truth by this Article of the Resurrection Hee that beleeves not this beleeves all other things in vaine for if there bee no Resurrection from death then can he receive no reward of his faith Nay I will take the note a little higher He that beleeves not this beleeves no other Article of his Creed for as our English Postiller hath observed from Erasmus aptly The whole Creed in grosse every parcell thereof argueth a resurrection If there bee a God Almighty then hee is just and if just then another reckning in another world If a Iesus Christ who is our Saviour then must hee dissolve the workes of Satan sinne and death If an Holy Ghost then all his holy Temples which have glorified him here shall bee glorified of him hereafter If a Church which is holy then a Remission of sins a Resurrection of the body a life everlasting Thus doe wee see how this Primarium Evangelii caput this predominant Article presupposeth all the rest how it is Nexus Articulorum omnium the tying knot on which all other links of holy Faith depend By this hand is religion held up by the head This is the anchor of our hope the reference of our faith the certainty of our salvation and the very dore of the Kingdome of heaven From this mine ariseth another treasure it is worth our observation how this Article of the Resurrection is placed betweene the Article of the
Remission of sinnes and the other of Everlasting life teaching us that then only the Resurrection of the body is a benefit when Remission of sins goeth before eternall life followeth after for as the Resurrection is sepes Fidej so eternall life is Corona Fidej In this as in each parcell of the Creed are two maine things observable First the Act which is to beleeve therefore Credo must be applyed to every Article Pides est tota copulativa Secondly the object which is the ensuing Article In the Act is the personality which is faiths possessive Ego I beleeve This was Iobs Creed Scio quod Redemptor nâ—… I know that my Redeemer liveth I must saith one put all men in my Pater noster only my selfe in my Creed My prayer must bee like the penny which Peter found in the fishes mouth with which Christ bid him pay tribute pro me te I must pray for others beleeve for my selfe No mans faith can do mee good but mine owne for I cannot beleeve by an attorney nor be saved by a proxie When doubting Thomas fouÌ„d his faith at his fingers ends then did hee cry out with an holy appropriation my Lord and my God Vt brevissima sit absolutissima confessio saith Bullinger for hee did utter that in two words which is the contents of the two Testaments and summe of all summes of Faith and holy beleefe That living carcasse whom formerly wee mentioned hee that was even poore to a proverbe was enriched with this singular faith Iob 19.26 I shall see God in my flesh id est as it is excellently glossed on I in my flesh shall see God or Videbo Deum in carne h. e. Deum incarnatum I shall see God having taken flesh on him If I have this faith in particularity and can apply things generall to mine owne comfort then God even my God shall give me his blessing Et non est haec superbia Elati sed confessio non ingrati From the Act we remove our meditations to the object and here wee will first explaine those two Emphatical termes 1 Resurrectionem 2 Carnis For in these models summaries of Christian doctrine there is weight in every word we must therfore herein imitate the finers of pure gold Qui non tantum auri massas tollunt verum bracteolas parvas that make use not only of the wedge but even of the smallest foile or rayes that their mettall casteth Resurrection is properly a rising againe upon a fall taken for this praeposition Re as it hath beene noted B. of WimoÌ„ by a pious and learned Father of our Church doth ever imply not only Againe but Againe as it were upon a losse not second onely but a second upon the failing of the first as Redemption a buying againe upon a former aliening Reconciliation upon a former falling out Orthod fid lib. 4. ca. 28. Restitution upon a former attainder Resurrection upon a fall taken formerly to this suites well the definition of it given by Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resurrection is a second quickening or setting up againe of that which first fell Resurget quod prius cecidit In this word then Resurrection we do find the strength and sinewes of an argument If the body rise it must first fall in this is implicitly woven up a confessed truth That all men must dye the first death Debemur morti nos nosiraque to dye is as true as good a debt as any the world knowes for the levying of which debt as one excellently and with a silver pen there is an extent upon all mankind and a Statute recorded by Saint Paul StatutuÌ„ est omnibus semel mori This a decree not to bee reversed a debt not possible to be declined Here might I have store of rich cloath to apparel my lines withall but lest the hemme should be bigger than the garment I have taken no more than what is suitable to my purpose My second observation is that in this common cognizance of our faith in this Article of my Creed I do not say at large I beleeve a Resurrection but more strictly more expressely thus Credo resurrectioneÌ„ carnis I beleeve the resurrection of the flesh Carnis scilicet non Animae This word Resurrection doth properly belong to the body the body that fals must rise To thinke that our soules shall sleepe in dust as our bodies doe till the last doome is but a dreame of the Anabaptists the spawne of the ancient Arabicks Ne in somnium quidem cadit anima cum corpore quomodo ergo in ueritatem mortis cadet quae nec in imaginem ejus ruit saith Tertullian and experience tels me that my soule while it is now like the Arke of God In medio pellium in these wals of flesh hath her owne working and lively operation even then when the Publican arresteth my body while my senses are imprisoned in the bands of sleepe For the mind of maÌ„ is a restlesse thing Of the immortality of the Soule and though it give the body leave to repose it selfe as knowing it is a mortall and earthly part yet it selfe being a spirit therfore active and indefatigable is ever in motion it hath no rise at all from this clay It sleepes not in a living body therefore it shall not sleepe in a dead body it is made of an everlasting nature As Gods eternall decrees have an end without a beginning so the soule of man hath beginning without an end It hath beginning to live it shall have no time to dye There is indeed a death of the Soule not that it ceaseth to bee but when it ceaseth to bee righteous Habet anima mortem suam cum vitâ beatâ caret quae vera animae vita dicenda est saith Augustine consonant to this is that genuine and proper interpretation of those words of the Evangelist what will it profit a man to gaine the whole world and lose his soule Perdere animam saith the glosse Est non ut non sit sed ne male sit for the soule being immortall is capable of Eternal either Felicity or Misery and whatsoever life it liveth yet it never ceaseth to live I have briefely set down the riches of the observatioÌ„s that naturally arise from the explication of these two termes both which I find comprised in one verse Psal 16.20 Thou wilt not leave my soule in grave there 's the Immortality of the soule nor suffer the holy one to see corruption there 's the Resurrection of the body This David knowing before saith the Scripture spake of the Resurrection of Christ the accomplishment of which prophecy is often repeated in the new Testament Act. 2.31 Act. 13.35 howbeit David after hee had served his time by the Counsell of God hee slept and was layd with his Fathers and saw corruption yet by the vertue of an insitioÌ„ into that Christ whose sacred body the Lord preserved from the least