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than in the fancy of its inventors ;) or, that he went to SERM. deliver the fouls of the juft, and Prophets, from the wicked XXVIII. powers, into whofe power they had fallen, (as Juftin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon, p. 105.)

That he went to affront, triumph over, and terrify the Vid. Montac. Orig. powers of darkness upon their own ground, or in their part. Poft. own dominions.

P. 442. et in

Appar. 1.

Thefe and the like conceits feem enough discountenanced by saying, the Scriptures nowhere plainly declare any fuch thing, and that therefore they have no good ground to ftand upon, (they pretend only one or two difficult and obfcure places in the firft Epiftle of St. Peter, which are capable of fair expofitions not favourable to them;) whereas in teaching us, that our Lord preached upon earth falvation to them, who in this life fhould be converted to believe upon him and obey his laws; damnation irrecoverable to them, who should persist in infidelity and difobedience: that he merited by his obedience, and purchased by his blood, both a redemption from all future Heb. ii. 14. distress and a tranflation into blifs; that he by his death Colof. ii. 15. vanquished all the powers of hell, and triumphed over them upon the cross; in these things the Scripture is very clear and copious: but concerning that redemption of fouls beneath, that tranflation of fouls out of fubterrane

*

ous closets, or prifons, (as they call them,) that local Bellarm. triumph in the Devil's kingdom, it is quite filent, or very dark in expreffion about them; whence we may well be fomewhat backward in yielding affent to fuch devices, of which, if any perhaps fhould be true, yet could not the belief thereof be of neceffity, or great importance to us : for what our Saviour fo did below would not belong to the falvation of the living, which is abundantly provided for by his death and refurrection, with what followed them, nor would it much refer to our practice, which is otherwise fufficiently directed and encouraged. So that Vid. Fidei we may however fafely be ignorant in regard to any of Codice Jufthofe notions. But let it fuffice to have difcourfed thus tinian. Tit. far about this endless queftion; except we will end it with ad lit. viii.

1. De Gen.

XXVIII.

SERM. that faying of St. Austin; Melius eft dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis or with that more peremptory Calv. Inft. faying of Calvin; Atqui ftultum et temerarium eft de rebus incognitis altius inquirere, quam Deus nobis fcire permittit.

iii. 25, 6.

He rose again from the Dead.

SERMON XXIX.

ACTS i. 3.

To whom alfo he fhewed himself alive after his paffion by many infallible proofs, being feen of them forty days, and Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

THE moft proper and moft ufual way of God, in con- SERM. firming any truth of high moment in fpecial manner re- XXIX. vealed by him, is by lending unto them whom he employs as meffengers thereof his powerful arm, for the performance of works fupernatural or miraculous. Of such works there is none more certainly fuch, than raising a dead perfon to life; the doing which upon feveral accounts plainly furpaffeth the power of any creature; not only as exceeding the ordinary law and courfe of nature established and upheld by God, but for that the fouls of men departing hence do return into God's hand, or into a ftate by high fentence determined, whence no creature is able to fetch them down, or raise them up; because also God hath referved the prerogative of doing this unto himfelf; he holding (as it is expreffed in the Revelation) Rev. i. 18. the keys of hell and of death; he having faid, I am he, and Deut.xxxii. there is no God befide me; I kill, and I make alive.

There could also particularly be no more proper way of confirming our religion to come from God, whether we confider the persons whom it was defigned for, or the doc

39.

1 Sam. ii. 6. Pfal. Ixviii.

20.

SERM. trines it propounded. The Jews were uncapable of conXXIX. viction by any other way, than by miracle; no other reafon would have been apprehended by them, or would 2 Cor. i. 22. have had any force upon them: The Jews, faith St. Paul, John iv. 48. require a fign; and, Except ye fee figns and wonders, ye will

not believe, faid our Saviour to them. The Gentiles alfo had been fo used to the winding off and on the fubtilties and the plaufibilities of disputation, that nothing probably in that kind would have fufficed to perfuade them; and therefore fomewhat miraculous in the highest kind might be needful to convert them: alfo the moft peculiar and eminent doctrines of our religion (fuch as are, Our Lord Jefus being the Meffias, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world; the future refurrection, general judgment, and difpenfation of rewards, anfwerable to men's practice in this life) cannot more immediately and directly be affured, than by the refurrection from the dead of him who principally did reveal them.

Wherefore Almighty God in confirmation of our religion did perform this great work in raifing Jefus our Lord from the dead; and withal (for the conviction of the world, for rendering our faith reasonable and our infidelity inexcufable) he did take especial care, that the fact fhould by very fufficient teftimony be conveyed unto us; Acts x. 41. to which purpose he did, as St. Peter faith, poxapotoveÏV, predesign, pick out, and appoint a competent number of persons, in all respects capable and fit to affert it: thus is that which St. Luke in our text doth in way of historical narration affirm. And because the truth thereof is in its kind the principal argument, whereby the truth of our religion in grofs may be evinced, we fhall for the confirmation of our faith against all impreffions of this incredulous (and therefore impious) age, endeavour by God's affiftance now to declare and maintain it. That Jefus truly died, all the world could teftify; no death was ever more folemn or remarkable; nor do any adverfaries contest it; that he after that death was by divine power raised again to life is that which we believe and affert. Now whoever with reafon fhall doubt thereof or deny it, must do it,

either because of fome repugnance in the fact itself, im- SERM. plying that it could not well be done; or from deficiency XXIX. of the testimony proving it, as to its authors, or circumftances: but neither of thefe exceptions may reasonably be admitted.

As for the fact itself, or the notion of a refurrection in general, there cannot, (admitting that, which, as capable of antecedaneous proof, and as acknowledged by all perfons owning any religion, may be prefuppofed, the power and providence of God, together with his chief attributes of wisdom and goodness incomprehenfible,) there cannot be any repugnance therein, or any incredibility. For it was neither in its nature impoffible to God, or in its defign unworthy of him; it contained nothing apparently either beyond the power of God, or presumeable to be against his will.

1. To raise a dead man to life, is indeed, we confefs and avow, a work furpaffing the power of any creature not affifted by God; but no reason can be affigned, why it fhould go beyond the divine power. The doing it doth not involve contradiction, and is therefore an object of power, and at least is achievable by Omnipotence: let the foul be what it will, and in whatever life may be fuppofed to confift, nothing can hinder that God may reduce the parts of a man into the fame ftate they fometime before were in. And very eafily it is conceivable, that he who (according to the general notions and current traditions of mankind) did first inspire the foul of man into his body, may reinfuse it being separated; that he who after death keepeth it in his hand, may thence restore it; who also (according to hiftories received in all the principal religions that have been in the world) hath often actually performed it. Pliny indeed doth reckon this among instances of things abfolutely impoffible; a It is, faith he, a great folace of our imperfect nature, that even God cannot do all

* Imperfectæ vero in homine naturæ præcipua folatia funt, ne Deum quidem poffe omnia; nam neque fibi poteft mortem confcifcere fi velit, (quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitæ malis) nec mortales æternitate donare, nec revocare defunctos. Plin. ii. 7.

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