The xiiij. Chapter. Of Death, of Consolation, of Moorning and Buriall; & in what state the soules of the godlie are before the resurrection.
WE ought not to séeke for the fruit of Christs actions in his owne person onelie, 1 séeing it most of all redoundeth vnto vs: neither did the diuine nature take vnto it the humanitie in Christ, to the intent it would shut vp his benefits within the precincts thereof: but by the same it would deriue the force of his goodnesse vnto the rest of the parts of our nature. So that the same concurreth verie well, 2 which Cyrillus writeth in his Treatise vpon Iohn; namelie, that GOD the word hath after a sort assumed the whole humane nature. For albeit, as touching the substance, he onelie put on a particular man; yet by the same he quickened and sanctified the rest. Euen as if a sparke of fire shuld suddenlie catch hold, 3 and inflame a parcell of haie: indéed it would first take hold of that, which were ioined therevnto; but afterward passing through by little and little, 4 it would kindle the whole stacke of haie, were it neuer so great. The diuinitie did first remooue all sin from the man, which it assumed; and by [remouing] sinne, [remoued] death.
Secondlie, through Iesus Christ himselfe it tooke awaie sinne from the beléeuers: according as Iohn said; 5 Behold the lambe of God, which taketh awaie the sinnes of the world. And if so be that he haue put awaie sinne from them, he hath also driuen awaie death: therfore, so that we beléeue in him, the life of resurrection shall be giuen vnto vs. 6 But some will saie; If we be iustified foorthwith, so soone as we beléeue; and that sinne is taken awaie: wherefore dooth death remaine vnto vs? We answer; that notwithstanding by the mercie of GOD, and through Christ, sinne shall not be imputed vnto vs; yet the same resteth still in our flesh, and we are bound euerie daie to put off the old Adam. For during the time that we shall kéepe still anie part of the reliks of his oldnesse: euen so long shall we carrie death about with vs. Wherefore we shall once die at the last, that we may put off what infection soeuer we gat vnto vs by the first Adam; and a bodie altogither changed shall be restored vnto vs, in the time appointed.
¶ Looke the fift and sixt epistles at the end of this booke.
Of moorning for the dead; out of the booke of Genesis, vpon the 23. chapter, verse 7.
7 2 But now let vs speake of moorning for the dead. Let our proposition be; that It is lawfull to moorne for the dead. First, this is apparent, not onelie by the example of Abraham, but for the most part also of the fathers. 8 Christ, in the 19. of Luke, wept ouer the citie that was to be destroied: and in the eleuenth of Iohn, when Lazarus was dead, and that his sisters wept, he rebuked them not. It is not for Christians to haue that mind void of all affections, as the Stoiks would haue it. They themselues boasted thereof, yet thou shalt not find that they had such affections. If Tertullian in his booke De patientia, and other fathers, at anie time saie, that the dead ought not to be moorned for: this vnderstand thou, not of moorning at all, but of moorning immoderatelie, according as Paule saith in the first epistle to the Thessalonians, the fourth chapter; 9 I would not haue you sorrowe concerning them that sleepe, as others sorrowe, which haue no hope. Faults they be if thou moorne immoderatelie, that is, ouer-much. 10 After which maner we read that Samuel was reprooued, when he lamented ouer-much for Saule, 11 being now cast out of his kingdom. Ouer this, if vndecent things be doone; as the renting of the bodie, and such like: or else, if it be doone semedlie. Finallie, that moorning is most to be disallowed, which procéedeth of denieng the resurrection.