while appeared again a new Face came upon the World the Enemies were brought under a Cloud the Disciples and Friends of Christ revived their hope before as it were dead and buried was again raised together with their Lord and Master who rose again according to the Scriptures though for a while even the Disciples themselves understood not those places which spake of his Resurrection For as yet they knew not the Scripture That he must rise again from the dead As to that part of the Text which relates unto the Disciples not knowing the Scriptures at that time which referred unto Christ's Resurrection We might from thence draw several Observations not unuseful for us but that we purpose to apply our selves wholly to the point of the Resurrection the proper subject of the Day concerning which we consider three things I. That according to the Scripture Christ was to rise from the dead II. That Christ did truly and really rise from the dead according as the Scripture had foretold for this is that which Saint John believed and which he doth designedly prove in this place III. That there was a necessity Christ should rise again from the dead which you have in the word must for so the Scripture did declare that he must rise again from the dead I. The first thing we enter upon is to show That according to the Scripture the Messiah was to rise from the dead The Types in Scripture are many to this purpose So long ago as Adam this was typified of whom we read that soon after his Creation he was cast into a deep sleep whilst the Woman was taken out of his side and then awaked again Thus the Second Adam Christ of whom the first was a type slept the sleep of Death and sleeping his side was wounded whereout came Water and Blood which gave being to his Spouse the Church and then after a while he awoke revived and rose again You read how Isaac was laid upon the Altar with the Wood Now Abraham's Sacrificing his Son thus in Will was a type of God's giving his Son to be a Sacrifice in very deed but Isaac for all this came off and was preserved alive a Figure that our Isaac the Lord Jesus though really sacrificed yet should rise again and Death should have no power over him Many were the Conflicts of Sampson with the Philistins vanquishing them time after time of whom we read how he carried away the Gates of Gaza Posts and all up to a high Hill in all this a type of Christ who was to have many sharp conflicts with the World and the Devil for us and that he should at the last carry away the Gates of Hell and Death that none could hold him Sad was the condition of Jonas when he fled to Tarshish when followed with a Tempest when cast into the Sea when in the Jaws of the Whale when in the Whales Belly but yet he gets out in a small time and appears again upon dry land What was this but a type of Christ coming to Tarshish in his Nativity followed with a perpetual and dreadful storm in the Ocean of this World all the while he lived swallowed up of Death lying in the Grave and rising again the third day Truth it self so expounds it we may believe him Besides which Scripture-types many are the Scripture-Prophecies that Christ should rise from the dead The first Scripture which gives notice of a Christ doth not only mention him as suffering and dying but as rising and victorious If Thou shalt bruise his heel Gen. 3.15 noted his sufferings yet He shall bruise thy head was a Prophecy of his Victory and made good when he rose from the dead When the Patriarch Jacob blessed his Sons he thus Prophesieth concerning Judah Gen. 49.9 Judah is a Lions Whelp from the prey my Son thou art gone up he stooped down he couched as a Lion who shall rouze him up Judah was the Tribe of which Christ came and here is even by the Confession of the Jewish Doctors themselves a Prophecy of the Messiah Christ it is that is here resembled unto the Lions Whelp in that it is said he stooped down he couched therein is set forth his suffering when he bowed the Head and gave up the Ghost but this Lion is rouzed and there 's the Prophecy of his Resurrection and in that it is said Who shall rouze him up Isid Hisp Com. in Gen. thereby is noted as Isidore expounds that no Man should do this but himself When Balaam Prophesied of a Star that should arise out of Jacob he plainly foretold not only the setting of this Star in his Passion but the rising of it again when he came out of the Grave And if the Book of Job was written by Moses as the learned conclude then Job's saying Vid. Armach Annal p. 17. several testimonies I know that my Redeemer liveth is another Prophecy out of Moses's Writings concerning Christ's Resurrection From the Writings of Moses let us proceed to the Book of the Psalms where Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee is undoubtedly a Prophecy of the Resurrection of the Messiah for so Saint Paul interprets it and shows that hereby was declared and manifested on the day of his Resurrection Act. 13.33 That Jesus was the true and eternal Son of the most high God. And as when it is said Ps 110.7 He shall drink of the brook in the way his Sufferings are foretold So when it is said He shall lift up the head his Resurrection is signified unto us And again Ps 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption is a clear place to this purpose for David cannot herein speak of himself who died and saw Corruption as others but he doth foretel how Christ that holy one should not lie in the Grave till he saw corruption as others nor his Soul continue in Hell but his Soul should be brought back and united unto his Body and his Body raised out of the Grave And in another place where the Psalmist saith I am as a man that hath no strength thereby is noted the suffering of Christ and his lying in the Grave but then the following words free among the dead do show his rising again from the dead for he is said to be free among the dead S. Cyp. in Symb. Apost because he could not be holden of death as St. Cyprian expounds it The Prophet Isaias in many places speaks of Christ's Resurrection for whenas he brings him in born in this manner Unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and then afterwards saith Isa 9.6 7. that Of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end he doth suppose his rising from the dead for had he continued in the Grave there had been an end of his Government and therefore did he describe him by the
them all by the shape of it And that it was the very same humane Body in which he lived and died he evidenced by she wing them the prints of the Nails in his Hands and Feet and of the Spear in his side If any wonder at this that Christ should rise again from the dead with Scars they are to know that this was not for any weakness or inability to cure them but for the advancement of his own Glory who therefore carries them as perpetual badges of his own Victory and Triumph S. Aug. Epist 49. quasi si quisquam vir fortis pro patria dimicans c. As if some valiant Man who had received Wounds in the War for his Country having a Skilful Chirurgeon that could cure them without Scars should desire him so to cure them that the Scars might remain as Badges of the service he had done his Country Leo. Serm. 1. de ascensione Dom. ut non dubiâ fide sed constantissima scientia teneretur eam naturam in Dei Patris concessuram throno quae jacuerat in Sepulchro The Scars would Christ have to remain also that hereby the Hearts of the Disciples might be confirmed in the Faith of his Resurrection and therefore showing them to Thomas he saith Be not faithless but believing And this is so ordered saith Aquinas that the damned at the day of Judgment may hence perceive how justly they have the Sentence passed upon them when they shall see him whom they have pierced Of the humane Soul reunited to his Body he gave Evidence after he arose by the Operations of it This reality of Christ's Resurrection in the very same numerical Body which was Crucified and Buried with the same humane Soul united unto it which did before animate it is well expressed by our Church Eccles Angl. Art. 4. in the Book of Articles in these words Christ did truly rise again from death and took again his Body with Flesh and Bones and all things appertaining unto the perfection of Man's nature In which last words we are taught how his humane Soul was united to the same numerical Body which had been laid in the Grave this in a special manner belonging to the perfection of the humane nature This real Resurrection did Christ effect by his own power as the Text shows and the Scriptures foretold for the Scriptures did not only foretel that he should be raised from the dead but that he should Rise again from the dead which shows it to be his own Act. When the Psalmist saith He shall lift up the head it is to the same sense as those words of his own Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again This was the Evidence and a sufficient one that he was the true Messiah the Son of God and Saviour of the World. But then it is to be understood that this was not after the Socinian Mode who hold that God the Father raised Christ to Life and Christ being restored to Life did lift and raise his Body out of the Grave as the Man sick of the Palsie raised himself from the Bed or as we shall raise our selves out of our Graves at the sound of the last Trump And they tell us this was all that Christ could do but if this was all Christ might as well have said Destroy this Temple and any one of you may raise it up for when God had restored life unto it any one of them might have lifted it up and raised it out of the Grave and have shewed it alive We deny not but sometimes in Scripture the Resurrection of Christ is attributed to the Father and sometimes to the Holy Ghost but it is also attributed to himself who as he freely laid down his Life for us so did he by his own Power raise it up again he was not only passive in it but active Nor let any object and say What then needed the Angel to be sent before to roll away the Stone if he could raise himself out of the Grave Chrysol Serm. 75. Angelus revolvit lapidem non ut egredienti Domino praeberet aditum sed ut Dominum mundo jam resurrexisse monstraret conservis ad credendum daret fidem non ad resurgendum Domino praestaret auxilium for the Stone was not rolled away by the Angel so much to give his Body passage out as to give his Disciples passage into the Grave to behold the reality of his Resurrection otherwise he who came in while the door was shut could as well have came out while the Grave was shut Elizeus raised another not himself the Apostles raised others yet cannot raise themselves Vid. Bern. Serm. 1. de Festo Sanctae Paschae but Christ raised himself by his own power which shews the Excellency of his Resurrection above the Resurrection of others By all which you see our second point fully cleared that as the Scripture had foretold Christ should rise so did Christ really rise and in the same manner III. We have one point more That there was a necessity Christ should thus rise from the dead intimated in the word must For so the Scriptures did declare not only that there was a conveniency that he should rise that it may be he would rise it may be not but that he must rise again from the dead Besides the fulfilling of all the Scriptures foretelling it a double necessity there was of Christ's rising from the dead namely in respect of himself and in respect of us First In respect of himself it was necessary that hereby he might evidence himself to be the true Messiah who was to come and no Impostor as the Jews blasphemed This was a special sign of him who was to be the true Messiah and therefore when the Pharisees called upon him for a Sign he instanced in his Resurrection which was enough to convince them and from hence Saint Peter draws his Conclusion Act. 2.36 Therefore namely because he hath raised him from the dead let all the House of Israel know that God hath made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ Part of the office of Mediatorship was Executed on Earth but part thereof was to be Executed in Heaven he ought to be Priest Prophet and King not only a little while here on Earth but for ever his Kingdom was to be an Everlasting Kingdom now in order to the execution of that part of his office of Mediatorship which was to be done in Heaven necessary was it that he should rise from the dead Secondly This was necessary in respect of us were it but to remove from us the scandal of the Cross Unto the Greeks nothing seemed more ridiculous than that men should profess to rely upon a Crucified Christ for Salvation and to the Jews this was a great stumbling-block how could this great offence arising from his ignominious death be removed had he not rose from the dead Religion had been left in a bad
Pilkington Mayor c. Martis xvi die April 1689. Annoque Regni Regis Reginae WILL. MARIAE Angl. c. Primo THis Court doth desire Mr Mariott to Print his Sermon Preached at Guild-Hall Chappel on Easter-Day last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe Imprimatur April 26. 1689. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND ALDER MEN OF THE CITY of LONDON At GUILD-HALL Chappel on Easter-Day 1689. By THO. MARIOTT M. A. and Rector of Little Canfield in Essex LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1689. TO THE Right Honourable Sir Thomas Pilkington Kt Lord Mayor OF THE CITY of LONDON My Lord AS your favourable Acceptance of this Discourse was more than I could reasonably expect being conscious to my self of my own Weakness so your Command is the only reason of its appearing in publick There is sometimes a Resurrection of the Body Politick when it hath been as it were dead and buried under Oppression and Tyranny which our Nation through the Infinite Mercy and by the Almighty Power of God hath lately Experienced a Mercy not only above our Deserts but Hopes of which I am assured not only your Lordship but all True Protestants are deeply sensible and for which they are heartily thankful But it is another Resurrection which is here treated of the Resurrection of the Saviour of Mankind and of our own Bodies by vertue of his no circumstantial indifferent point but the great Fundamental of our Christian Religion and in that respect I hope of more general use That you may have part with all good Christians in this Resurrection at the last Day to Immortality and Glory and Enjoyment of your Lord in Everlasting Bliss is and always shall be the Prayer of My Lord Your most obliged and obedient Servant THO. MARIOTT A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor c. JOHN xx 9. For as yet they knew not the Scripture That he must rise again from the dead THese words are part of the Gospel appointed by our Church for this Day guiding us to speak concerning the lofty Mystery of Christ's Resurrection Easter-Day being kept by our Church as a solemn Festival Day and day of Rejoycing for the Miracle of Christ's rising from the dead Among our Festivals this seems to carry the brightest splendour of Antiquity upon it it having been the practice of the Church from the Apostles days downward to keep this day in a more than ordinary solemn manner It is the opinion of no mean Divines that what the Apostle saith to the Corinthians Let us keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.7 8. doth look to the special and Religious Solemnization of the Feast of Easter having immediately before made mention of Christ our Passover Great difference there was among the Primitive Christians about Easter but this concerning the time not the thing Some kept the Passover or Easter at the same time as the Jews kept theirs others afterwards so that this occasioned no small stir in the Church yet here it may not be unworthy of your observation that although they differed in their Opinion and Practice Of the time of keeping Easter Vid. Epiphan cont Haeres lib. 3. Tom. 1. cont Sect. Audianotum concerning this particular the Eastern Church keeping Easter with the Jews before the Spring Solstice the Western Church after the Spring Solstice or Equinoctial they did not in the early days next the Apostles separate from each other but as occasion served Communicated together This point was in the Council of Nice determined that the Christians should not symbolize with the Jews nor with them keep the Passover before the Spring Solstice or Equinoctial which was afterwards confirmed by the Synod of Antioch Syn. Antioch Can. 1. and so this difference was composed And I pray God send us as happy a composure of these unhappy differences at this day among Protestants as there was in the Primitive Church of the difference relating to the Feast of Easter By what hath been said of this early difference in the ancient Church concerning the time of keeping Easter it is so much the more evident that it always hath been the practice of the Universal Christian Church to keep Easter Day with a special Solemnity in memory of Christ's Resurrection It was no ordinary Piety strictness devotion with which the Primitive Christians were wont to keep this Solemnity by extraordinary fasting sometime before the better to humble their Souls for their Sins and prepare them for so joyful a Feast and great things do they speak of this day A Great Council calls it syn 6. in Trullo Can. 90 91. Greg. Naz. Orat. 42. The great Sabbath Gregory Nazianzen calls it The Feast of Feasts and Solemnity of Solemnities as much excelling the rest of the Feasts as the Sun doth the rest of the Stars And in the same Oration calls it the greatest of days S. Chrysostom goes so far as to tell us S. Chrysost Tom. 5. Serm. 34. de Resur Christi that this Solemnity is not only a Feast on Earth but a Feast in Heaven To day saith he speaking of Easter-Day there is Joy on Earth to day there is Joy in Heaven And he gives this reason of it For if there be Joy in Earth and Heaven for one Sinner that repenteth how much more will there be Joy in Heaven on this Day when the whole World was extorted out of the hands of the Devil From the Birth of Christ the World began to expect great things from a person so born and attended with such notable Signs and Wonders and still as he grew up and gave Evidence of his Vertue and Power the expectations of men were more raised and strengthned But when he began to Preach and work such mighty Miracles as he did how must Mens Hearts be affected and filled with hopes of great designs to be carried on by such a Person but see how the Scene was altered a little while was it and he on whom all their Eyes and Hearts were fixed was betrayed by the vulgar abused by the Governours condemned by their Instruments Executed his Hands and Feet nailed to the Cross the Sun was under a Cloud the object of the Worlds Hopes and Joy expired gave up the Ghost died was buried and lay for a while in the Grave as other weak frail Mortals What a disappointment this was and how they did lament it you may partly see by the Speech of the two Men going to Emmaus Lu. 24.21 We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done by which it doth appear how the Friends of Christ were pierced in his piercing and their hopes buried in his Sepulchre Blessed Day was it now when the Lord arose the Sun though set a
name Wonderful not only in respect of the wonderfulness of his Nativity and Death but because of the wonderfulness of his rising out of the Grave And when the same Prophet having spoken at large of his Sufferings his Death and Burial doth tell us that notwithstanding all this Isa 53.10 he should see his seed and prolong his days it hath a necessary reference to his Resurrection Nay so punctual are the Writings of the Prophets that they foretel the very time when Christ should rise even on the third day After two days will he revive us Hos 6.2 in the third day will he raise us up and we shall live in his sight And in that the Prophet speaks in the plural number it refers to those also who did rise with Christ and attended upon him for the greater Solemnity of this day By all which we see that according to the Scriptures Christ was to rise again I proceed now to II. The second point which is to shew That Jesus Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary who was Crucified and Buried by the Jews did most really and truly rise again from the dead according as these and many other Scriptures had foretold Let us see what Witnesses we can produce to prove this The very same day he rose he appeared several times to several persons First to Mary Magdalene then to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as they were going together from the Sepulchre then to the two Disciples going to Emmaus then unto St. Peter alone by himself then unto the Disciples as they were together Thomas being absent To these add his Apparitions at several other times Eight days after his Resurrection he appeared to his Disciples Thomas being present After this to seven of his Disciples as they were fishing at the Sea of Tiberias Again unto the eleven Disciples as they were upon a Mount of Galilee He appeared unto above five hundred of the Brethren at once after that he was seen of James apart The day of his Ascension he was seen to the Apostles on the Mount of Olivet when he was taken up into Heaven Lastly He was seen of St. Paul and these were Witnesses chosen before of God to bear record of his Resurrection as St. Peter tells us True Witnesses were they no Deceivers as the Keepers of the Sepulchre falsly reported saying His Disciples came by night and stole him away whilst we slept See what an unhappy Dilemma St. Austin doth run these Keepers into either it was false that they slept and so Liers are not to be believed or it was true and then how could they tell what happened Foolish madness if they were awake why did they suffer it If they were asleep how did they know it Enough is there in the story to evince their Falsity and to clear the Disciples Innocency And in that Christ was not seen to one alone but to several together even to a great multitude it shows they could not be deceived in this matter If any one shall say these were his Disciples and Friends and therefore their testimonies not full enough to settle our Faith in this point to these we might add the testimonies of Enemies Let Pilate be the first who was the Man that delivered him to the Jews to be Crucified Vit. Tiberii for after these things thus passed in Judea Pilate who was Governour of Jerusalem under the Roman Emperour wrote Letters unto Tiberius in whose Reign Christ was Crucified wherein he advertised the Emperour of the Death of Christ of the manner of it of the Miracles he had done in his Life as also of his Resurrection to the end that he should advise and determine whether Christ should not be held as a God and worshipped as a God. So that here is the testimony of Pilate to the Resurrection who no doubt being their Chief Governour had the best means to inform himself of the truth To this add the testimony of the Watch. These most likely were choice busy Fellows pickt out on purpose for such a design as let the design be never so bad some will be found to carry it on and what say they Mat. 28.11 Some of the watch came unto the City and showed unto the chief Priests all the things that were done They came as it were thunder struck looking like so many Ghosts with their hair standing an end and tell all the story of the Angels descending and rolling away the Stone and Christ's rising for this is that which was done and this is that they tell them which was so plain that neither could the Chief Priests any way resist the Evidence but only through desperate wickedness hire the Souldiers with money to blaze a notorious lie to cheat the common people with So that here is the express testimony of the Watch and the implicit testimony of the High-Priests themselves to the truth of Christ's Resurrection And was not Saul afterwards called Paul for some time a notorious Enemy of Christ yet afterwards proved he a most couragious Witness of his Resurrection Now though the Friends of Christ might have been supposed not to speak the truth yet when his most desperate Enemies witness the same it must be acknowledged that Christ did according to the Scripture rise again from the dead If such a multitude of Earthly Witnesses Men Women Rich Poor Friends Foes Jews Gentiles be not enough yet at least the testimony of Heavenly Angels ought to be believed Whose are those words He is not here but is risen are they not the words of a Heavenly Angel and if it may be more convincing St. Luke makes mention of two Angels who assert this though these be enough yet we add to these the testimony of the Spirit sent down upon the Apostles on purpose to impower them to be Witnesses unto the Resurrection of Christ through the World. And who can think all this should be to give testimony to a Resurrection that was not every way true and real Some Hereticks in the Primitive Times had the impudence so to teach Against this opinion Vid. Aug. lib. de Agone Christiano cap. 24. that as Christ died in appearance only so he did rise only in appearance it will therefore be convenient in this place to show that Christ did truly and really rise from the dead in the very same Body Flesh and Bones which was Crucified and what ever tended to the perfection of the human nature Those unto whom he appeared Aq. p. 3. q. 55. a. 6. knew him to be the same who had conversed with them before The verity of Christ's Resurrection doth Aquinas show by many Arguments both in respect of his Body and Soul. That it was a true solid Body in which he rose no fantastick aerial Body is evident because he offer'd it to be seen and felt now a Spirit hath no Flesh and Bones as they saw and felt he had And that it was a true human Body was evident to