and who are Ministring Spirits to those that are Heirs of Salvation do at the moment of their separation from their Bodies await the good Soul's coming forth and immediately guard it through the Region of the Air the Principality of Daemons into those Blessed Abodes where good Souls await the redemption of the Body by a Resurrection and Re-union Thus we read of Lazarus's Soul being carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom Luke 16.22 I need urge no more on this Head with reference to the Followers of Jesus in the Regeneration for their assurance of following him in Life in Death and after Death than the great and triumphant Challenge and Conclusion of the Apostle Rom. 8.34 39. Wherefore let us comfort one another with these words Christ is Risen or rather with these of the Apostle apposite to my Sermon 1 Thes 4.15 16 17 18. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which believe in Jesus will God bring with him For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words You shall as your Redeemer's Soul go into Paradise but that is not your Eternal Rest It is a Mansion but not the Everlasting Kingdom that is yet to come and Christ will come to carry all and every of you both Body and Soul into the Kingdom prepared for you Wherefore comfort one another with these words Thirdly The incorruptibility of his Body it was not to see Corruption Tho' the Jews or Souldiers gave him his death-wounds yet they did not fester nor his Body see Corruption The immaculate Lamb was without spot he was pierced but he was not putrified he was butcher'd but not blemish'd his Body was cast into the Grave but it did not see Corruption Worms were neither his Brothers or Sisters his Body was of a purer make and had none of that taint that could attract such Vermin But tho' this may look plausibly yet it is not powerful without proof I shall therefore besides my Text represent to you some Considerations why Christ's Body was not to see Corruption First Because he was in three days to re-assume it according to Promise and his own Prediction He that laid it down had power and time prescribed by himself to take it up and that he limited according to the Laws of Nature I mean of material Nature because after such a Season of Stagnation and Incirculation of Animal Spirits according to the Laws of motion the Body would Corrupt A piece of Philosophy we read a Woman's Capacity reach'd to as in the instance of Lazarus's Body being in the Grave Martha the Sister of him that was dead said unto him Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days Joh. 11.33 The time of our Saviour's Body's being in the Grave was therefore prefix'd And as a Bone of him was not to be broken according to the Text So neither was his Body to see Corruption This he often intimated to his Disciples tho' they were dull of hearing or understood not his Sayings They would not believe that he must die that he must be Crucified and the third day rise again though he had very seriously and solemnly Preach'd this Doctrine to them and that too as an Evidence of his being the Messias deliver'd in the Scriptures But as he upbraids them after his Resurrection They were slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had said of him and what he had said unto them Luke 21.25 Which is proof to us that his Body was not to see Corruption For why should he chide them for their distrust and their unbelief but that it was a thing they ought to have believ'd that the Body of the Messias was not to see Corruption His Body in this sense was not to be a Mortal Body as ours to return to Dust That was the melancholly Sentence past on the Posterity of Adam but not to reach him that is the second Adam who was tho' the Son of Adam as says St. Luke yet not according to an ordinary Generation His Mother knew not Joseph nor was he Conceiv'd after the manner of Men and whatever the Virgin Mary was he was not born in Original Sin But of this more under the subsequent Consideration He that laid down his Earthly Tabernacle had power to raise it up again and he would stay no longer in the Region of Spirits when he saw it was time for him to return to his Body from the beginning prepared for him which he was in every sense to keep immaculate He had said destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again and he spake says the Text of the Temple his Body John 2.21 All the whole stress of his Undertaking lay upon this of his raising his Body No body would have believ'd him had he not rais'd his Body This was the main Point that kept such a stir in Jerusalem that rais'd the Scribes and Pharisees all in an uproar that the Body they Crucified was risen again They took all the pains and made use of all the craft imaginable to suppress the Report They persecute the Disciples at a grievous rate for their preaching and publishing the truth of his Resurrection They own that he had said so that he would raise his Body again We remember what that Deceiver said while he was yet alive after three days will I rise again Matth. 27.63 And they would fain make him a Liar and his Disciples too and to that end they tamper with the Souldiers They gave large money unto the Souldiers saying say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept Matth. 28.12 13. But he that was the Truth was the Life the Life to his own Body he came back with his Spirit and quickned it again And according to Promise and Prediction made good his word of both and rose the third day But we go on to Consider Secondly His Body was not to see Corruption because he was the second Adam and was not under the guilt of the first He was the Lord from Heaven and the Lord of Glory and his Body was to be a glorious Body His Body was never stain'd by Sin or Sickness and his Death-wounds only open'd a passage for his Spirit but the Cabinet tho' broken or bruised was not disjoynted the Temple was destroy'd without dislocation of any part or fracture of any joynt and the whole compages remain'd sound and safe 'till the good Soul
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
may be proved from them which is our Rule to prove that called the Apostle's-Creed by and particularly that of Christ's descent into Hell which is founded upon this Text Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption ACTS II. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption SAint Peter in a short but notable Sermon demonstrates Jesus to be the Messias The Holy One of God The Lord the Christ First From the Miracles he did in his Life-time they being witnesses of the same v. 22. Secondly By the fulfilling of Prophecy in being not only rejected by his own but Crucified by them according to the determinate Counsel of God ver 23. Thirdly From the Wonders he did not in Life only but in Death he brake thro' the bonds of it the Grave could not detain his Body nor Hades his Soul And this according to Prophecy and Promise Psal 16. v. 10. Which is the Apostle's Quotation and my Text. And the Doctrine or Article of Faith grounded upon it is this That Jesus the Christ and Saviour of the World made a Sacrifice for Sin and actually dead and buried went into the Region of Spirits but returned speedily from thence and reassuming his Body rose victoriously from the Grave In discussing this Doctrine I will shew 1. What is the meaning of Christ's Soul being in Hell 2. The Reason and Occasion of this Article boing inserted in our Creed 3. The Incorruptibility of his Body it did not see Corruption Tho' the Jews gave its Death-wounds yet the wounds putrified not Together with the Use we ought to make of these Considerations I shall not mention the various Opinions about this Article they rather disgrace than instruct but speak the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and that as concisely and clearly as I can 1. What is the meaning of Christ's Soul being in Hell For with respect to his Godhead we may say of him in the words of the Psalmist Psal 139.7 8. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there But our Discourse is of the Soul of the Messias and that was for a while in Hell Not in the sense the Damn'd are who are in a State of Torment in a Region of Woe and Misery which is full of Flame and Fire as the Rich Man roars out in the Text Luke 16.24 Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame But the Soul of the Messias when he gave up his Ghost passed into the Receptacle of Blessed Souls into that Paradise where the Redeemed and Pardoned are Lodged and where with him went the Repenting Thief on the Cross Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise 'T is this Receptacle of good Souls this Paradise for those that die in Christ that is called Hades that is an invisible State a Being tho' in a remote Region which Eye cannot reach or penetrate I confess 't is a hard matter to beat out of the vulgar Heads the gross conception of the word Hell which sounds to them no other than horrour and blackness of darkness and fire and brimstone The word Hell in our English is harsh and dreadful and speaks to us the place of the Damn'd A * D. Lightfoot place very improper to look for the Soul of Christ when departed out of his Body for Him and His Betrayer Judas to meet in the same place He that had by Death purchased Heaven for others himself after death to descend into Hell This therefore cannot be no is not the meaning of the word Hell where Christ went he came not near that Abyss nor was at all among those Reprobated Crew The word Hell is a word of Latitude and hath a larger signification as all that understand Greek know And I cou'd wish for the sake of the People we cou'd find a softer and more expressive word to speak in for the true easie and natural sense of Hades is an invisible Region the Mansion of blessed Souls which in Scripture is called Paradise Heaven Abraham's-bosom Object If Hades means Paradise why should Christ pray against his being left in Hades and hope that his Soul shall not be left in Hades as he hopes his Body shall not see Corruption Answ He doth not pray thus as if it were not well with his Soul in Hades as to what he enjoyed For his Soul was the Soul of the Messias the Soul of a Redeemer a Soul that was to Conquer Death and not to stay any considerable time from his Body born of the Virgin Mary He had work to do which other Souls had not he was to rise for others justification He was to ascend into the Holy of Holiest as the great High-Priest of our Souls and therefore he must return to his Body that he may as God-Man in Humane flesh for ever enter into the Vale. As if he should say thou wilt not leave me under Death that is my Soul in separation This wou'd be the triumph of the Devil But tho' the Messias's Soul when in its separation was in Bliss and all Holy Souls departed are so yet Christ's Soul had an undertaking that surmounted that of all Humane Souls and therefore to accomplish that he prays for the fulfilling of the Promise That tho' his Soul as others of Humane Kind were really separated yet that his might speedily be re-united for the perfecting of the work he took upon him the form of a Servant and came into the Body at first Secondly The Occasion and Reason of this Article being inserted in our Creed Not that it was there at first but it came in afterward and that occasion'd by a new Heresie that started up in the Church and therefore to obviate that this Article was added as a Truth proveable from Scripture that Christ went into Hades The Errour was this that Christ had no proper Intellectual or Rational Soul Which Heresie was begun and propagated by one Appolonius and his Followers That the Word or the Divinity supplied the place of a Soul and that therefore he was not properly dead when his Body was in the Grave But in opposition to this Error the Christians assert that Christ had a humane Soul that it underwent all the Offices of one in the Body and out of the Body of a humane Soul that first it was infused as other Souls are when a Body was prepared and when in the Body it actuated as other Souls by opening and enlarging its faculties as the Body grew in stature and the Man in years and he hungred and thirsted as other Men did the Union of his Soul and Body being to be preserv'd by