Of the Latter Articles of Christian Faith Contained in the Apostles’ Creed. The Eighth Sermon
LeT us first of all pray to our God, that he will vouchsafe to grant us an happy, speedy, and very fruitful proceeding in the declaration of the other articles of christian belief. ΠΩ The fifth article of our belief is: “The third day he rose again from the dead.” And this article, verily, of our belief is in a manner the chief of all the rest. Neither are the apostles so busily occupied in declaring and confirming the other, as they are in this one. For it had not been enough, if our Lord had died only, unless he had also risen from the dead again. For if he had not risen from the dead, but had remained still in death, who should have persuaded us men, that sin was purged by the death of Christ, that death was vanquished, Satan overcome, and hell broken up for the faithful by the death of Christ? Yea verily, we have foolish fellows! that would never cease to blaspheme the very God, to make a mock of our hope, and to say: “Tush, who did ever return from the dead, to tell us whether there be a life in another world after this or no, and what kind of life it is? Because therefore we cannot find, that any man did ever return from the dead, that is to be doubted of, which these babblers? do tattle touching the life of the world to come.” That the Lord therefore might declare to the whole world, that after this life there is another, and that the soul dieth not with the body, but remaineth alive; he? returned the third day alive again to his disciples: and at that instant shewed them, that sin was purged, death disarmed, the devil vanquished, and hell destroyed. For the sting of death is sin: or the reward of sin is death: the devil hath the power of death? and shutteth in hell for sins. Now therefore, in that Christ riseth alive again from the dead, death could have no domi-
[1 absurdi nostri homines, Lat.] [2 spermologi, Lat.; Erasmus’ rendering, not the Vulgate’s, in]
[Acts xvii. 18.] [3 Dominus noster, Lat. ] [41 Cor. xv. 56; Rom. vi. 23; Heb. ii. 14.];]
nion over him: and because death, by suffering the Lord to pass, is broken, it must needs follow, that the devil and hell are vanquished by Christ; and lastly, that sin, the strength and power of them all, is purely purged. It is evident, therefore, that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ doth, as it were, certify and by seal assure us of our salvation and redemption, so that now we cannot any longer doubt of it.
We confess, therefore, in this article, that our Lord Jesus Christ is risen again, and that he is risen again for our behoof; that is to say, that he hath wiped away our sins, and that for us he hath conquered death, the devil, and hell, according to the saying of the apostle: God hath saved us, and hath called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and favour, which was given unto us through Jesus Christ before all beginning, but is declared openly now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath verily put out death, and brought forth life, light, and immortality by the gospels.” There are many more like this in the fourth of his epistle to the Romans, and in the fifteenth of his first to the Corinthians, For the Lord also in the gospel after St John saith: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live; and every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever.”
Now also let us throughly consider every word of this article severally by itself. We confess the Lord his resurrection. But a resurrection is to rise again. That riseth which Wnatare falleth. The body of Christ fell, therefore the body of Christ riseth; yea, it riseth again, that is to say, the very same body of Christ, which before it fell did both live and stir, doth now rise again; it doth, I say, both live and stir again. For truly said Tertullian of the resurrection of the flesh, that “this word resurrection is not properly spoken of any thing, save of that which first fell. For nothing can rise again but that that fell. For by rising again, because it fell, we say the resurrection is made; because this syllable re “is never added but when a thing is done again.” Wherefore
[5 2 Tim. i. 9,10. ante tempora eterna, Lat.; Erasmus’ render]
[ing; the Vulgate has, tempora secularia. ] [6 John xi. 25, 26.] (7 Resurrectionis vocabulum non aliam rem vindicat, quam que]
the women in the gospel, when they went to anoint the body of the Lord, which hung upon the cross, did hear the angel of the Lord say: “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen,” &c. This history of the Lord’s resurrection is set forth in the twenty-fourth after Luke, and the sixteenth after Mark. Peter the apostle also, in the second of the Acts, affirming the Lord’s resurrection by the testimony of David? doth expressly shew that the Lord is verily risen again.
After this we say again, that he is risen out of or from the dead: which member doth express the truth both of his death and resurrection. For the body or flesh dieth, or is destroyed; but, being dead, is raised up again: this body, therefore, or flesh, is raised up again; as though he that maketh confession of his belief should say, Our Lord died even in the very same condition of nature that other mortal men do die in; but he tarried not, nor yet stuck fast among the dead. For the very same mortal flesh, which he had taken unto him, and by dying had laid aside, he now taketh again immortal; as David had foretold before, saying: “Because thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption” For Christ is the firstbegotten of them that rise again, in whom, as in the head, «there ought to be declared in what sort the resurrection of all Christ his members shall be in the day of judgment.
And we confess that this resurrection was made the third day; I mean the third day after his death. For upon the day of preparation he is taken down from the cross and