Psal. xvi. 11.

ART. through his Gospel; yet all the hints given of it shew that III. they looked for an immediate admission to blessedness after death. So David, thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are Acts ii. 31. pleasures for evermore. Thou shalt guide me here by thy Psal. Ixxiii. counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Isaiah says, that Is. lvii. 2. the righteous when they die enter into peace. In the New Testament there is not a hint given of this; for though some passages may seem to favour Christ's delivering some souls out of Hell, yet there is nothing that by any management can be brought to look this way.

24.

the Creed.

See Bishop There is another sense of which these words [descended Pearson on into Hell] are capable: by Hell may be meant the invisible place to which departed souls are carried after death: for though the Greek word so rendered does now commonly stand for the place of the damned, and for many ages has been so understood; yet at the time of writing the New Testament it was among Greek authors used indifferently for the place of all departed souls, whether good or bad; and by it were meant the invisible regions where those spirits were lodged: so if these words are taken in this large sense, we have in them a clear and literal account of our Saviour's soul descending into Hell; it imports that he was not only dead in a more common acceptation, as it is usual to say a man is dead, when there appear no signs of life in him; and that he was not as in a deep ecstasy or fit that seemed death, but that he was truly dead; that his soul was neither in his body, nor hovering about it, ascending and descending upon it, as some of the Jews fancied souls did for some time after death; but that his soul was really moved out of his body, and carried to those unseen regions of departed spirits, among whom it continued till his resurrection. That the regions of the blessed were known then to the Jews by the name of Paradise, as Hell was known by the name of Gehenna, is very clear from Christ's last Luke xxiii. words, To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise; and, Into 43, 46. thy hands do I commend my spirit. This is a plain and full account of a good sense that may be well put on the words; though, after all, it is still to be remembered, that in the first Creeds that have this Article, that of Christ's burial not being mentioned in them, it follows from thence, as well as from Ruffin's own sense of it, that they understood this only of Christ's burial.

ARTICLE IV.

Of the Resurrection of Christ.

Christ did truly rise again from Death, and took again his Body, with Flesh, Bones, and all things appertaining to the Perfection of Man's Nature, wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until he return to judge all Pen at the Last Day.

THERE are four branches of this Article: the first is

concerning the truth of Christ's Resurrection. The second concerning the completeness of it: that he took to him again his whole body. The third is concerning his Ascension and continuance in heaven. And the fourth is concerning his returning to judge all men at the last day. These things are all so expressly affirmed, and that in so particular a manner, in the New Testament, that if the authority of that book is once well proved, little doubting will remain concerning them.

It is punctually told in it, that the body of Christ was laid in the sepulchre: that a stone was laid to the mouth of it: that it was rolled away, and upon that Christ arose and left the death-clothes behind him: that those, who viewed the sepulchre, saw no body there: that in the same body Christ shewed himself to his disciples, so that they all knew him; he talked with them, and they did eat and drink with him, and he made Thomas feel to the print of the nails and spear. It is as plainly told, that the Apostles looked on, and saw him ascend up to heaven, and that a cloud received him out of their sight. It is also said very plainly, that he shall come again at the last day, and judge all men both the quick and the dead. So that if the truth of the Gospel is once fully proved, it will not be necessary to insist long upon the special proof of these particulars: somewhat will only be necessary to be said in explanation of them.

The Gospel was first preached, and soon after put in writing; in which these particulars are not only delivered, but are set forth with many circumstances relating to them. The credit of the whole is put on that issue concerning the truth of Christ's resurrection; so that the overthrowing the truth of that, was the overturning the

IV.

ART. whole Gospel, and struck at the credit of it all. This was transacted as well as first published at Jerusalem, where the enemies of it had all possible advantages in their hands; their interest was deeply concerned, as well as their malice was much kindled at it. They had both power and wealth in their hands, as well as credit and authority among the people. The Romans left them at full liberty, as they did the other nations whom they conquered, to order their own concerns as they pleased. And even the Romans themselves began quickly to hate and persecute the Christians: they became the objects of popular fury, as Tacitus tells us. The Romans looked upon Christ as one that set on the Jews to those tumults that were then so common among them, as Suetonius affirms: which shews both how ignorant they were of the doctrine of Christ, and how much they were prejudiced against it. Yet this Gospel did spread itself, and was believed by great multitudes both at Jerusalem and in all Judea; and from thence it was propagated in a very few years to a great many remote countries.

Among all Christians the article of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was always looked on as the capital one upon which all the rest depended. This was attested by a considerable number of men, against whose credit no objection was made; who affirmed, that they all had seen him, and conversed frequently with him after his resurrection; that they saw him ascend up into heaven; and that, according to a promise he had made them, they had received extraordinary powers from him to work miracles in his name, and to speak in divers languages. This last was a most amazing character of a supernatural power lodged with them; and was a thing of such a nature, that it must have been evident to every man whether it was true or false: so that the Apostles relating this so positively, and making such frequent appeals to it, that way of proceeding carries a strong and undeniable evidence of truth in it. These wonders were gathered together in a book, and published in the very time in which they were transacted the Acts of the Apostles were writ two years after St. Paul was carried prisoner to Rome; and St. Luke begins that book with the mention of the Gospel that he had formerly writ, as that Gospel begins with the mention of some other Gospels that were writ before it. Almost all the Epistles speak of the Temple of Jerusalem as yet in being; of the Jews as then in peace and prosperity, hating and persecuting the Christians every where they do also frequently intimate the assurance

:

IV.

they had of a great deliverance that was to happen quick- ART. ly to the Christians, and of terrible judgments that were to be poured out on the Jews; which was soon after that accomplished in the most signal manner of any thing that is recorded in history..

These things do clearly prove, that all the writings of the New Testament were both composed and published in the age in which that matter was transacted. The Jews, who from all the places of their dispersion went frequently to Jerusalem, to keep the great festivities of their religion there, had occasion often to examine upon the place, the truth of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and of the effusion of the Holy Ghost: yet even in that infancy of Christianity, in which it had so little visible strength, no proof was so much as ever pretended in opposition to those great and essential points; which being matters of fact, and related with a great variety of circumstances, had been easily confuted, if there had been any ground for it. The great darkness at the time of Christ's death, the rending the vail of the Temple in two, as well as what was more public, the renting of the rocks at his death his being laid in a new sepulchre, and a watch being set about it; and the watchmen reporting, that while they slept, the body of Christ was carried away: the Apostles breaking out all of the sudden into that variety of tongues on Pentecost; the miracles that they wrought, and the proceedings of the Sanhedrim with them; were all things so publicly done, that as the discovery of falsehood in any one of these was in the power of the Jews, if any such was; so that alone had most effectually destroyed the credit of this religion, and stopped its progress.

The writings of the New Testament were at that time. no secrets, they were in all men's hands, and were copied out freely by every one that desired it. We find within an hundred years after that time, both by the Epistle of the church of Smyrna, by Justin, and Irenæus, not to mention Clemens of Rome, who lived in that time, or Ignatius and Polycarp, who lived very near it, that the authority of these writings was early received and submitted to; that they were much read, and well known; and that they began very soon to be read at the meetings of the Christians for worship; and were esteemed by the several churches as the great trust and depositum that was lodged with them. So that though, by the negligence of copiers, some small variations might happen among some of the copies; yet as they do all agree in the main, and most

IV.

ART. signally in those particulars that are mentioned in this Article; so it was not possible for any that should have had the wickedness to set about it, to have corrupted the New Testament by any additions or alterations; it being so early spread into so many hands, and that in so many different places.

When all this matter is laid together, it appears to have as full an evidence to support it, as any matter of fact can possibly have. The narration gave great scope to a variety of inquiries; it raised much disputing, opposition, and persecution; and yet nothing was ever pretended to be proved that could subvert its credit: great multitudes received this doctrine, and died for it in the age in which the matters of fact, upon which its credit was built, were well attested, and in which the truth or falsehood of them might have been easily known; which it is reasonable to believe that all men would carefully examine, before they embraced and assented to that which was like to draw on them sufferings that would probably end in death. Those who did spread this doctrine, as well as those who first received it, had no interest beside that of truth to engage them to it. They could expect neither wealth nor greatness from it: they were obliged to travel much, and to labour hard; to wrestle through great difficulties, and to endure many indignities. They saw others die on the account of it, and had reason to look for the like usage themselves.

The doctrine that they preached related either to the facts concerning the person of Christ, or to the rules of life which they delivered. These were all pure, just, and good; they tended to settle the world upon the foundations of truth and sincerity, and that sublime pitch of righteousness, of doing as they would be done by; they tended to make men sober and temperate, chaste and modest, meek and humble, merciful and charitable; so that from thence there was no colour given for suspecting any fraud or design in it. The worship of God in this religion was pure and simple, free from cost or pomp, from theatrical shews, as well as idolatrous rites, and had in it all possible characters becoming the purity of the Supreme Mind. When therefore so much concurs to give credit to a religion, there ought to be evident proofs brought to the contrary, before it can be disbelieved or rejected. So many men forsaking the religion in which they were born and bred, which has always a strong influence even upon the greatest minds; and there being so many particular prejudices both upon Jews and Gentiles, by the opinions in