Easter Day: "In Him is our nature exalted and raised up"

And if the Head be risen, the Members shall not stay behind. He is the head of the body the Church. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Our Lord is our Head, and in Him is our Nature exalted and raised up: And as he partakes of our Flesh, so do we of his Spirit, and have a pledge and argument on each side of our Resurrection.

If the spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you; He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you, (Rom.viii.11.)

We receive great assurance of our Resurrection; Christ hath left us (says Tertullian) Arrabonem Spiritus, the Earnest of the Spirit; and he hath taken from us Arrabonem Carnis, the Earnest of the Flesh, and carried with him into Heaven, Pignus totius summae illic quandóque redigendae; Part of our humane Nature, a pledge that inferrs the Resurrection of the rest. The Holy Sacrament we receive (if we receive as we should) is a token of our Resurrection.

Who so eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath Eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, (Joh.vi.54.) ...

Hence we may be comforted against the fear of Death. Our Lord hath disarm'd it, and now we can discern Life and Immortality beyond it. We can look into our Graves with comfort, for Christ is risen, and we shall therefore rise.

From 'A sermon upon the Resurrection', preached on Monday in Easter-week, 9th April, 1694, in St. Bride's Church, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, by Richard Kidder, Bishop of Bath and Wells (he was consecrated by Tillotson in 1691). Kidder was a Latitudinarian. His sermon, therefore, is a reminder that the preaching of this school of divines, rather than the 'moralism' suggested by critics (then and now) of Anglicanism in the 'long 18th century', explicitly proclaimed the mystery of Faith.

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After a break for Easter Week, laudable Practice will return on Monday 28th April.

A blessed Easter to all readers.

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