Easter Day with Jeremy Taylor: "Grace and Glory give us a new signature"

For as Death is the end of our lives, so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes; and as we die daily, so we daily hope: but Death, which is the end of our life, is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty, from uncertain fears to certain expectations, from the death of the body to the life of the soul; that is, to partake of the light and life of Christ, to rise to life as he did; for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours: He died for us alone, not for himself; but he rose again for himself and us too. So that if he did rise, so shall we.

... as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day, and the same for ever; so may we in Christ, become in the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better then yesterday in our natural life; the same body and the same soul tied together in the same essential union, with this only difference, that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetic seal give us a new signature, whereby we shall no more be changed, but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever ...

By the same Almighty power which restor'd life to the dead body of our living Lord, we may all be restor'd to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead ...

First Christ and then we. And we therefore because Christ is already risen. But you must remember, that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness; and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience, and the same perfect holiness, prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection. If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was, we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection.

From Taylor's sermon at the funeral of John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh, 16th July 1663

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A a short Easter break, laudable Practice will return on 17th April.

A blessed Easter to all.

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