World whose Minds were too deeply tinctur'd with contrary Notions that they look'd upon the Christian Religion as a Design rather to destroy Reason than to save the Soul accounting it a very absurd thing to believe in a crucified Saviour as being a Person weak and impotent or the future Resurrection as being a thing utterly impossible We find the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.24 complaining that the Greeks who were then the great Masters of Wisdom and Learning esteemed a crucified Christ Foolishness and thought those Men little befriended by Reason that would depend for Life upon one that lost his own and venture to take off the Shamefulness of the Cross or to silence those Scoffs that were cast upon them for their Credulity who affirm the wonderful Resurrection of a dead Saviour and his glorious Triumph over Death and the Grave For this seemed to them no other than to solve an Absurdity by an Impossibility and make Reason more suspicious in that they judged the Fundamentals of Reason must be overthrown to make the Fundamentals of Christianity any way tolerable or possible Wherefore we find that even at Athens that great Concourse of Wits where all the Sect of Philosophers made their common Retreat yet when St. Paul preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection this Doctrine seem'd so absurd and foolish to them and so contrary to all Principles of right Reason that they forgot that Civility that usually is found in Men of inquisitive Spirits and brake out into open Reproaches and Revilings Act. 17.18 What will this Babler say because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection No doubt they wanted not very specious Arguments to urge against the Resurrection of the Body As first The Impossibility of a Recollection of the dispersed Particles of Men resolved into their Elements and scatter'd by the four Winds of Heaven though it might be very well retorted on the Epicureans who disputed with St. Paul against the Resurrection that it was not so unlikely a thing that there might be a Re-union of the scatter'd Parts of the same Man as the fortuitous Concourse of Attoms at the first Making of the World yet this Objection overbore and prevaild with Heathens that when they burnt the Bodies of Christians they cast their Ashes into the Rivers to confute their Hopes of ever being raised again from whenee they should be carried away into an unknown Ocean and there be made the Sport of Winds and Waves But what our Saviour says upon the same Occasion to the Sadduces may be said unto these Men You err Matth. 22.29 not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God For unless their Parts could be scatter'd beyond the reach of Omnipotency unless they could be ground so small as to scape the Knowledge and Care of God who ordereth and rangeth every Mote that plays up and down in the Sun-beams this Dispersion of the Body proves not the Impossibility of their Union because the Power and Providence of God will gather up every Dust and rally them together again into the same Place and Order as now they are Objection Another Argument against the Resurrection of the Body may be the various Changes dead Bodies undergo being first turn'd into Earth that again turn'd into Grass and Herbs that becoming Nourishment for other Men or Beasts that Nourishment again passing into their Substance making a kind of Transmigration of Bodies as Pythagoras would have there was of Souls which is very evident in the Case of Anthropomorphites and Men-Eaters who have of several parts of other Men's Bodies compounded their own And so the same Question may be demanded which the Sadduces asked our Saviour concerning the seven Brethren that married the same Woman whose Wife of the seven she should be at the Resurrection So here those Parts that belonged to so many Men to which of them belong they in the Resurrection without detriment to the rest Here the same Answer occurrs that Christ gave them Matth. 22.29 You err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God who is the best Judge of Property and can resolve all those Parts by which any Nourishment hath been received by any other Creatures unto their own proper Bodies again And thus it appears these Arguments against the Resurrection of the Body amount not to prove the Impossibility of the Effect but only the Supernatural Almighty Power of the Efficient Wherefore granting the Resurrection impossible according to the Original Course of Natural Things yet when an Omnipotent Arm doth interpose which gives Laws unto it who dares to say the Creature may be brought to such a State of Dissolution as may out-reach the Dominion of the Almighty Creator Upon these Grounds it is that the Apostle urgeth Act. 26.8 why it should be thought a strange and incredible thing that God should raise the Dead and in the Text that he asserts the Resurrection of Christ And to prevent any fallacious Cavils against it he shews First Division of the Words That God raised him from the Dead and therefore it was not to be accounted a thing impossible since to God nothing could imply a Contradiction Secondly He doth not only assert the Possibility but the Impossibility of his final Continuance under the Power of Death The Grave that grasps and retains all other Mortals was not able to detain him who hath Immortality and Life dwelling in himself It was not possible he should be holden of it therefore God hath raised him up loosing the Pains of Death Whom God raised up Here is the Efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection in the concurrent Action of the whole Trinity for all that God doth out of himself is ascribed to all the Three Persons Sometimes it is ascribed to the Father Act. 3.13 15. as the Apostle speaks The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers hath glorified his Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and denied the Holy One and the Just desiring a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised from the Dead Sometimes it is ascribed to the Son who by the infinite Power of his Divinity raised up his Humane Nature from the Grave So our Saviour himself tells us I lay down my Life of my self Joh. 3.18 I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again The same may be collected of the Holy Ghost from the Words of the Apostle Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit Now if the Spirit of God can quicken our Bodies the same Spirit also can quicken the Body of Christ since it is the same Spirit that quickens both the Head and the Members Having loosed the Pains of Death In some Copies it is Having loosed the Pains of Hell which possibly gave
God that when Christ had satisfied his utmost Demands that any of the punishment due to our Sins for which he satisfied should have lain upon him longer for that would have been no other than punishing without an Offence Now nothing is clearer in Scripture than that Death is a punishment inflicted upon us for Sin Rom 6 23. So says the Apostle The Wages of Sin is Death And in another place and 5 1â— By Sin Death entred into the World and Death passed upon all because all have sinned From all which it follows that as Christ taking upon him our Sins became thereby liable to Death so having satisfied for our Sins and thereby freed himself from the Guilt that he lay under by Imputation he was no longer liable unto Death which is one part of the punishment he underwent so that it could not have been agreeable to infinite Justice that Christ should have been holden of Death who by his undergoing of Death hath sustained the whole Load of God's infinite Wrath and Displeasure and fully satisfied for all those Sins that were imputed to him and therefore ought in Justice to be acquitted from all Penalties and consequentially from Death Fourthly Christ could not be holden of Death because of his Mediatorship It was impossible Christ should be holden of Death in respect of his Office of Mediatorship For having as our Mediatour undertaken the desperate Service of bringing sinfull and fallen Man to Life and Happiness he must of necessity not only dye but rise again from the dead without which his Death and whatever else he did or suffered for us would have been of no avail There are two Things requisite before any real or eternal Benefit can become ours First A meritorious purchase procuring the Thing it self for us Secondly An effectual Application of that Benefit to us The Purchase of Mercy was made by the Death of Christ by which a full Price was paid down to the Justice of God But the effectual Application of Mercy is by the Life and Resurrection of Christ Wherefore if Christ had only dyed and not risen again if he had not overcome Death within its own Empire and triumph'd over the Grave in its own Territories it would have been to his Disappointment and not at all to our Salvation The Loss of Christ's Life would not have procured Life for us unless as he laid it down with Freedom so he had again restored it with Power Our hope of Salvation otherwise would have been buried in the same Grave with himself but what he died to procure he lives to confer It was Ignorance of Christ's Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 24.16 19 20 21. that so stagger'd the two Disciples going to Emaus They tell Christ himself a sad Story of one Jesus of Nazareth that was condemned and crucified who while he lived among us by his Word and Works testified himself to be the true Messiah we little thought of his Dying and when he told us of his Death he likewise foretold us of his Resurrection the third Day and behold the third Day is already come and yet is there no Appearance of this Jesus Verily we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel but now our Hopes grow faint and languish in us for certainly there can be no Redemption for Israel by him who cannot redeem himself from Death There was nothing in the World did so much prejudice the Gospel and hinder its taking place in the Hearts of Heathens in the Primitive Times as this of the Cross and Death of Christ for believing that he was lifted up upon the Cross but not believing that he was raised up from the Dead they assented to their Natural Reason which herein taught them that it was Folly to expect Life from him who could not either preserve or restore his own It is true it was Folly thus to hope but that his Life applies what his Death deserv'd and our Salvation begun on the Cross is perfected on the Throne And therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15.17 our Faith in a crucified Saviour and our Obedience to him is all vain if he had not risen again from the Dead For unless he had risen from the Dead he could not have acquitted us from the Guilt of Sin because he could not have been justified himself We are justified by the Righteousness of Christ as the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Romans Rom 4 25 which Righteousness he wrought out for us both by his perfect Obedience to the Law and by his Submission to the Punishment of the Law But yet this Righteousness could not have availed to our Justification had he not after the Fulfilling of it risen again from the Dead because he himself had not been justified much less could we have been justified by one who could not have justified himself And therefore we read 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the Mystery of Godliness says the Apostle God manifested in the Flesh in his Incarnation justified in the Spirit by his Resurrection seen of Angels in his Ascension Had he not been raised and quickned by the Spirit that is by the glorious Power of his Divine Nature he had not been declared just nor could he have justified us For this Declaration that Christ was just was made upon the Resurrection of his Body from the Dead by which he was set free from all those Penalties due to our Sins that were imputed to him If therefore the Justification and Salvation of Sinners was a Design laid by the infinite Wisdom of God it must needs follow that it was impossible for Christ to be kept under Death because that would have obstructed their Justification and Salvation and so would have brought a Disappointment upon the infinite Wisdom of God which was impossible to be done and therefore consequentially Christ could not be holden of Death The Application of this great Truth shall be briefly in these following Inferences Use I First then If it was impossible for Christ not to have risen from the Dead it is evident then that Christ is the true Messiah For had he been an Impostor or False Prophet it would have been so far from an Impossibility that he should not have been raised that it would have been a very Impossibility for him to have risen again for neither could he have raised himself being a mere Man neither would God have raised him being a mere Impostor and Cheat. When therefore the Jews call'd for a Sign from Christ to prove him to be the true Messiah he gives them the Sign of his Resurrection in Matth. 12.38 39. Master Matth. 12.38 39. say they we would see a Sign from thee He answered and said unto them An evil and adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign and there shall be no Sign given to it but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas For as Jonas was three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly so
therefore a Divine Faith must be an Assent to a Divine Testimony that is to the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures But now if this Faith rest only in a bare and naked Assent to the Truth of Divine Revelation it is but Historical and Dogmatical which though it be a Divine Faith in respect of the Objects believed yet is it but Humane and Natural in respect of its Principle and Motives But when this Assent to the Truths of the Scripture is joined with proportionable Affections to those Truths and doth excite us to Actions conformable to the Discoveries of the Divine Will there this Faith is Justifying and Saving And certainly this is not so very distant from Obedience as to be thought hardly reconcileable with it As for Instance A Man may give a bare Assent to this great Gospel-Truth that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners and yet this Faith may not save him because it may be unoperative and pass no farther than the Act of the Understanding This is a dead Faith which can never bring any Man to Heaven yea such a Faith as the very Devils and Damned Jam. 2.19 Spirits in Hell have who believe and tremble Another Man believes the same Truth and assents to the same Proposition but this his Assent influenceth his Affections and governs his Actions in Conformity to the Nature and Consequences of such a Belief And because he is assured that Jesus Christ came into the World to be the Saviour of it therefore he loves him trusts in him relies upon him hopes in his Promises and obeys his Commands And this indeed What Saving Faith is is a true Saving Justifying Faith for Saving Faith is a firm Assent unto the Truths of God revealed in the holy Scriptures working in us proportionable Affections and Actions He who so believes the Glory of Heaven as to have his Endeavours thereby quickned to use his utmost Diligence for the obtaining of it He who so believes the Torments of Hell as thereby to be terrified from doing any thing that might expose him to so great and fearful a Condemnation He who so believes the Attributes of God as thereby to be excited to fear him for his Greatness to love him for his Goodness to imitate him in his Bounty Purity and Holiness He who so believes the All-sufficiency Merits and Mediatory Office of Jesus Christ as thereby to be engaged with all his Soul to love him to trust in him to rely upon him alone for Salvavation and to yield to him all sincere Obedience as the Law requires such an ones Faith is Saving and Justifying So that you see there is no such Discord between Faith and Works as some would imagine for that Faith that saves us must work by Love Gal. 5.6 and those Works which capacitate us for Salvation must be the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 as it is called Rom. 16.26 Use Now What is the End of all this but to press you to true practical Holiness and a strict Obedience to the Commandments of God If I should go from one Person to another and ask you one by one Do you hope to be saved Where is the Man that would not testifie the Confidence of his Hopes by his Disdain at the Question Yea but remember that Salvation is a litigious Claim and you have a powerful Adversary that puts in a strong Plea against you even the Justice of God and his Eternal Wrath and Vengeance whose Title to us were it but better weighed and considered would wofully stagger the Hopes of most Men and make their Faces gather Blackness and smite their Hearts with Amazement and their Knees with Trembling In a Matter of such infinite Importance it highly concerns us to examine our Right and Title and to peruse and try our Evidences lest at the Day of Trial we be cast in our Suit and pay dreadful Damages unto the Justice of God Only those who do God's Commandments have this Right to the Tree of Life Christ hath indeed purchased Salvation for all Heb. 5.19 but he is the Author of Salvation only to those who obey him as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Heb. 2.14 And Without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord. The Inheritance is indeed purchased but where are your Evidences of your Heirship Sirs flatter not your selves with any vain Conceits of the Mercy of the Gospel in prejudice to the Authority of the Law The Commandments are the Statute-Law of God's Kingdom the Gospel is his Court of Chancery but neither Justice nor Equity will relieve those who have not done their utmost to observe his Statute-Law and therefore those who indulge themselves in their Sloth and wilful Neglect both of what they ought and might have done do but deceive their Souls with vain Hopes they have no Right to the Eternal Inheritance but their Portion must for ever be with Dogs and Swine without the holy City into which no unclean thing shall ever enter And if any think this Legal Preaching let mine ever be so THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST A SERMON PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY FROM ACTS II. XXIV BY EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST c. ACT. 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the Pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it CHristian Religion is founded upon such mysterious and supernatural Truths Introduction and the Principles of it are so paradoxal to the received Opinions of Mankind that the greatest Persecution it ever found in the World was not so much from Fire and Sword Racks and Tortures the evident Cruelties of the first Opposers of it as from the Magisterial Dictates of partial and corrupt Reason The Philosophers whom Tertullian calls the Patrons of Hereticks have established two peremptory Maxims utterly repugnant unto what the Scripture reveals to us both concerning our Happiness Comfort The one is Ex nihilo nihil habetur Out of nothing nothing can be made directly levell'd against the Creation of the World And the other is A privatione ad habitum non datur Regressus There is no Restoration of the same Being after a total Corruption and Dissolution of it which still continues a great Prejudice against the Resurrection of our Bodies which the Oracles of Reason have so much troubled the World with that whatsoever seem'd in the least contradictory to it they judged contradictory to common Sense and exploded it as ridiculous and impossible Under these great Disadvantages the Christian Religion labour'd whilst it not only own'd the Creation of the World out of nothing formerly described by Moses but more clearly and openly attested the Resurrection of the Dead which before was not either so clearly known or so clearly proved for these Doctrines were held so absurd by the great Sophisters of the