G. Opinions of the Reformers on the Nature and Condition of the Note to p. 278. I cannot refer to the Fourth Article of the Church of England without, at the same time, calling attention to some invaluable remarks on the same and some connected subjects which appear in Coverdale's Remains, an extract from which was given at p. 273. They are embodied in a treatise entitled, "Of the Hope of the Faithful," and were translated by Coverdale from a treatise on the subject by Otho Wermullerus, or Vierdmullerus, an eminent scholar and divine of Zurich, who was a contemporary of the bishop. It is truly refreshing to read the clear, masculine, Scriptural views respecting the future condition of man's body which are maintained throughout this treatise; and also to observe the manner in which the Scriptural proofs are handled. We have had nothing since its day, at least that I am acquainted with, that approaches to this work upon the subject, and I really could. not convey to another the satisfaction with which, some years ago, I perused it for the first time, holding, as I then did, and long before, the leading sentiments which I have now sought to embody in these Essays. But these writings of the Reformers, taken in connection with the noble statements of the Fourth Article of the Church, serve to show how far we have 1 Coverdale's Remains, p. 137, Parker Soc. Ed. retrograded on these, as on some other subjects, from the Scriptural standard of the sixteenth century. But as a specimen of the manner in which the materiality of the resurrection body is spoken of in this Treatise on "The Hope of the Faithful," I may give the following extracts:— "Now, as I suppose, I have sufficiently and plainly declared, that the true flesh of all men, yea, even our own body, and else none for it, yea, even the human true body shall rise again from death, namely, formed and fashioned with his own right proportion, measure and property, as a true body; so that the measure and property of the true body, which now is divided and parted in his members and joints, remaineth, that is, he shall have true flesh, blood, bones, sinews, joints, members, &c." (p. 175.) Again, he thus quotes the remarks of Jerome, on the subject: — "Yet in the same book hath the said Jerome set his own opinion touching the resurrection of the flesh, directing the oration unto Bishop John, and saying: 'If you will now confess the resurrection of the flesh after the truth, and not after fantasy, as thou sayest, then look that unto the words which thou hast spoken to content the simple, that even in the body, wherein we die and are buried, we shall rise again, thou add these words also, and say, Seeing the spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have: and forasmuch as it was so distinctly spoken unto Thomas, Put thy finger in my hands, and thy hand in my side, and be not faithless, but believing; therefore say thou, that we also after the resurrection shall have even the same members that we daily use, yea, the very same flesh, blood, and bone; the works whereof the Holy Scripture condemneth and rejecteth, and not their nature. And this is the right and true acknowledging of the resurrection; which so giveth honour unto the flesh, that therewith it minisheth nothing the verity of the flesh." 1 As a farther proof of how the Reformers thought and spoke on this subject, the following may be quoted from CRANMER :— "And Gregory Nazianzen meant that Christ should not come at the last judgment in a corruptible and mortal flesh, as he had before his resurrection, and as we have in this mortal life (for such grossness is not to be attributed to bodies glorified); but yet shall he come with such a body as he hath since his resurrection, absolute and perfect in all parts and members of a man's body, having hands, feet, head, mouth, side and wounds, and all other parts of a man visible and sensible, like as we shall all appear before Him at the same last day, with this same flesh in substance that we now have, and with these same eyes shall we see God our Saviour. Marry to what fineness and pureness our bodies shall be then changed, no man knoweth in the peregrination of this world, saving that St. Paul saith, "That he shall change this vile 1 We find the same view of the subject maintained by the Apostolic Fathers. Thus IGNATIUS:- -"But I know that even after his resurrection he was in the flesh; and I believe that he was so. And when he came to those who were with Peter, he said unto them, Take, handle me, and see that I am not an incorporeal demon. And straightway they felt him and believed, being convinced both by his flesh and spirit. For this cause they despised death, and were found to be above it. But after his resurrection he did eat and drink with them, as he was flesh; although as to his spirit he was united to the Father."-Epist. to the Smyrnæans, & iii. We Thus, too, CLEMENT:-" And let not any one among you say, that this very flesh is not judged, neither raised up. Consider, in what were ye saved, in what did ye look up, if not whilst ye were in this flesh? must, therefore, keep our flesh as the temple of God. For in like manner as ye were called in the flesh, ye shall also come in the flesh. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, being first a spirit was made flesh, and so called us. Wherefore we also shall in this flesh receive the reward."-Second Epistle to the Corinthians, § ix. Archbishop Wake's translation. body, that he may make it like unto his glorious body." But that we shall have diversity of all members, and a due proportion of men's natural bodies, the Scripture manifestly declareth, whatsoever you can by a sinister gloss gather of Nazianzen to the contrary, that glorified bodies have no flesh nor grossness.' - Cranmer's Works, i. 141, Parker Soc. Ed. "I know that St. Paul saith that in the resurrection our bodies shall be spiritual, meaning in the respect of such vileness, filthiness, sin, and corruption, as we be subject unto in this miserable world: yet he saith not that our bodies shall be all spiritual. For notwithstanding such spiritualness as St. Paul speaketh of, we shall have all such substantial parts and members as pertain to a very natural man's body. So that in this part our bodies shall be carnal, corporal, real, and natural bodies, lacking nothing that belongeth to perfect men's bodies. And in that respect is the body of Christ also carnal, and not spiritual. And yet we bring none other carnal imaginations of Christ's body, nor mean none other, but that Christ's body is carnal in this respect, that it hath the same flesh and natural substance which was born of the Virgin Mary, and wherein he suffered and rose again, and now sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory; and that the same his natural body now glorified hath all the natural parts of a man's body in order, proportion, and place distinct, as our bodies shall be in these respects carnal after our resurrection. Which manner of carnalness and diversity of parts and 1 It is worthy of notice that the Article in the Apostles' Creed which we have translated in our English Creed, the resurrection of the body, was delivered both by the Greek and Latin Churches in these words, the resurrection of the flesh; and the Church of Aquileia propounded it to every single believer in a still more specific manner, the resurrection of.this flesh. PEARSON on the Creed, Art. xi. members if you take away now from Christ in heaven, and from us after our resurrection, you make Christ now to have no true man's body, but a fantastical body, as Marcion and Valentine did and as concerning our bodies, you run into the error of Origen, which fancied and imagined, that at the resurrection all things should be so spiritual, that women should be turned into men, and bodies into souls." - Ibid. p. 177. But though so clear on the subject of the future condition of the body, the author of the Treatise "Of the Hope of the Faithful," yet partook in the prevailing opinion that heaven, not earth, will be the locality of their future inheritance. He is, however, consistent in maintaining distinctly that heaven must be a locality, "for," as he says, "heaven is a certain assured place1, and not only a name and declaration of the estate and being in heaven. Therefore when it is said, 'Christ is gone up into heaven,' it is not so much as only to say, He hath taken upon Him an heavenly estate or being; but also, He dwelleth bodily in heaven, as in one place." (p. 151.) In the opinion that "heaven is a certain assured place," I confess I cordially agree. Many reasons may, I conceive, be urged in favour of it, while strange results must be admitted if the negative of the question be maintained. "But if heaven be a locality, where is it?" We have no data on which to found an answer to this question, and in the absence of some authority to guide us, any opinion which may be hazarded upon the subject is of but little worth. With this understanding, I may venture, though not without much hesitation as to the propriety of doing so, to say, that it has long been a fond and favourite idea of my mind, and one 1 So BULLINGER:-"Therefore heaven, into which the Lord ascended, is the name of a place, not of a state or condition."-Decades, vol. v. p. 448. Par. Soc. Ed. G G |