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the body (which seems so incredible) if he could prove any resurrection. "If there be any resurrection at all," says he, "it must be of the body, for the soul cannot die, therefore not rise." Yet have not those fathers, nor those expositors, who have in this text acknowledged a resurrection of the soul, mistaken nor miscalled the matter. Take Damascen's own definition of resurrection : Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit secunda surrectio. 'A resurrection is a second rising to that state from which any thing is formerly fallen." Now, though by death the soul do not fall into any such state as that it can complain, (for what can that lack which God fills ?) yet by death the soul falls from that for which it was infused and poured into man at first; that is, to be the form of that body, the king of that kindom; and therefore, when in the general resurrection, the soul returns to that state for which it was created, and to which it hath had an affection and a desire, even in the fulness of the joys of heaven, then when the soul returns to her office, to make up the man, because the whole man hath, therefore the soul hath a resurrection; not from death, but from a deprivation of her former state; that state which she was made for, and is ever inclined to.

But that is the last resurrection; and so the soul hath part even in that last resurrection. But we are in hand with the first resurrection of the soul; and that is, when that soul, which was at first breathed from God, and hath long suffered a banishment, a close imprisonment in this body, returns to God again. The returning of the soul to

De Ortho. Fid. 1. 4. c. ult.

him from whom it proceeded at first, is a resurrection of the soul. Here then especially I feel the straitness of time. Two considerations open themselves together, of such a largeness as all the time from Moses's in principio, when time began, to the angel's affidavit in this book, that shall say and swear, that time shall be no more,' were too narrow to contemplate these two hemispheres of man, this evening and morning of man's everlasting day. The miseries of man, in this banishment, in this imprisonment, in this grave of the soul, the body, and the glory and exaltation of that soul in her resurrection to heaven. That soul, which being born free, is made a slave to this body, by coming to it. It must act but what this body will give it leave to act, according to the organs which this body affords it; and if the body be lame in any limb, the soul must be lame in her operation in that limb too. It must do but what the body will have it do; and then it must suffer whatsoever that body puts it to, or whatsoever any others will put that body to. If the body oppress itself with melancholy, the soul must be sad; and if other men oppress the body with injury, the soul must be sad too. Consider, (it is too immense a thing to consider it,) reflect but one thought, but upon this one thing in the soul, here and hereafter, in her grave, the body, and in her resurrection in heaven: that is the knowledge of the soul.

"Here," says St. Augustine," when the soul considers the things of this world," non veritate certior, sed consuetudine securior; "she rests upon such things as she is not sure are true, but such as she sees are ordinarily received and accepted for truths: so that the end of her knowledge is not truth, but

opinion; and the way, not inquisition, but ease. But," says he, "when she proceeds in this life to search into heavenly things," Verberatur luce veritatis, "the beams of that light are too strong for her, and they sink her, and cast her down," Et ad familiaritatem tenebrarum suarum, non electione sed fatigatione convertitur; "and so she returns to her own darkness, because she is most familiar, and best acquainted with it;" Non electione, "not because she loves ignorance, but because she is weary of the trouble of seeking out the truth, and so swallows even any religion to escape the pain of debating and disputing; and in this laziness she sleeps out her lease, her term of life, in this death, in this grave, in this body."

But then in her resurrection, her measure is enlarged and filled at once. There she reads without spelling, and knows without thinking, and concludes without arguing. She is at the end of her race, without running; in her triumph, without fighting; in her haven, without sailing. A freeman without any apprenticeship; at full years, without any wardship; and a doctor, without any proceeding. She knows truly, and easily, and immediately, and entirely, and everlastingly. Nothing left out at first, nothing worn out at last, that conduces to her happiness. What a death is this life! what a resurrection is this death! For though this world be a sea, yet (which is most strange) our harbour is larger than the sea: heaven infinitely larger than this world. For, though that be not true which Origen is said to say, "that at last all shall be saved," nor that evident which Cyril of Alexandria says, "that without doubt the number of them that are saved, is far

greater than of them that perish," yet surely the number of them with whom we shall have communion in heaven, is greater than ever lived at once upon the face of the earth. And of those who lived in our time, how few did we know? and of those whom we did know, how few did we care much for? In heaven we shall have communion of joy and glory with all, always: Ubi non intrat inimicus, nec amicus exit: "Where never any man shall come in that loves us not, nor go from us that does."

Beloved, I think you could be content to hear, I could be content to speak of this resurrection, our glorious state, by the low way of the grave, till God by that gate of earth let us in at the other of precious stones. And blessed and holy is he who in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection now. But we shall not depart far from this consideration, by departing into our last branch, or conclusion, That this first resurrection may also be understood to be the first riser, Christ Jesus; and blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first resurrection.'

IV. This first resurrection is then without any detorting, any violence, very appliable to Christ himself, who was primitie dormientium, in that; in that action, that he rose again, he is become' says the apostle, the first fruits of them that sleep.' He did rise, and rise first; others rose with him, none before him: for St. Jerome, taking the words as he finds them in that evangelist, makes this note, "That though the graves were opened, at the instant of Christ's death, (death

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was overcome, the city opened the gates,) yet the bodies did not rise till after Christ's resurrection. For, for such resurrections as are spoken of, that women received their dead raised to life again,' and such as are recorded in the Old and New Testament, they were all imperfect and temporary resurrections, such as St. Jerome says of them all, Resurgebant iterum morituri. "They were but reprieved, not pardoned; they had a resurrection to life, but yet a resurrection to another death. Christ is the first resurrection; others were raised; but he only rose; they by a foreign and extrinsic, he by his own power.”2

·

But we call him not the first in that respect only; for so he was not only the first, but the only; he alone rose by his own power: but with relation to all our future resurrections, he is the first resurrection. First, If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain,' says the apostle; you have a vain faith if you believe in a dead man. He might be true man, though he remained in death; but it concerns you to believe that he was the Son of God too; 'and he was declared to be the Son of God, by the resurrection from the dead.' That was the declaration of himself, his justification; he was justified by the Spirit, when he was proved to be God by raising himself. But thus our justification is also in his resurrection; for, he was raised from the dead for our justification.'s How for ours? That we should be also in the likeness of his resurrection.' What is that? That he hath told us before; 'our resurrection in Christ is, that we should walk in newness of life.'"

Heb. xi. 35. 31 Cor. xv. 17.

2 Jerome, in Matt. xxvii. 52. 4 Rom. i. 4. 5 Ib. iv. ult. • Ib. vi. 4.