H. Zanchius his confession of Christian religion Which novve at length being 70. yeares of age, he caused to bee published in the name of himselfe & his family. Englished in sense agreeable, and in words as answerable to his ovvne latine copie, as in so graue a mans worke is requisite: for the profite of all the vnlearneder sort, of English christians, that desire to know his iudgement in matters of faith.

CHAP. XXVIII. Of the state of souls after death and of the resurrection of the dead.

I. Mens soules doe neither dye with their bodies, nor sleepe after they are loosed from the bodie, nor lye still out of heauen or hell, nor be tormented in purgatorie.

WE beleeue, that our soules doe nei∣ther dye with our bodies: nor be∣ing loosed frō our bodies do sleep: or not sleeping, do lye still in some close place, both out of heauen and hell: nor yet are tor∣mented in purgatorie: but that out of the bo∣dy also mens soules do liue, vnderstand, & de∣sire: and that the soules of the godly do raigne with Christ in heauen, and of the vngodly, are tormented in hell with the deuills: the Lord himselfe saying of them, when the godly and mer∣cifull men do decay, that is, depart out of this life, they, that is, their soules, shallbe receiued into e∣uerlasting habitations: and teaching in another place, that they are with him in paradise: but of the other, by shewing an example of the rich glutton, that they goe downe into hel, that is, into the place appointed for euerlasting fire,

(as we also read of Iudas) there to be tormen∣ted.

II. That the places be diuerse, where the soules of the faithfull, and the vnfaithfull do liue, after the deaths of their bodies.

Nowe, seing the condition and state of the soules of faithfull and vnfaithfull men is so di∣uers: we also beleeue that the places into which they passe are diuers: that is to say, euerlasting tabernacles, or heauen & paradise ordained for the godlie; and hell and the deepes prepa∣red for the wicked: sith to one of these places the scripturs attribute an immeasurable light, and to the other exceeding darkenesse, which Christ called vtter darkenesse: and sith the Lord saieth, that he desireth, that where he himselfe is, there should also bee they, vvhich beleeue in him: plainly meaning, that in the same place, where he is in bodie and soule, the faithfull are and shalbe also: first indeede in their soules, after∣wardes at their time they shalbee with their bodies. but the vnfaithful with neither soules nor bodies. So wee iudge it great impietie to say, that heauen is euerie where: sith it is to the vngodlie no where, but to the godlie it is one∣ly assigned in the holie scriptures, as their pro∣per, and euerlasting seate. And it must needes be graunted, both that bodies are circumscri∣bed with their certaine distances of place, yea euen after the resurrection: & also that soules are cōtained at least, (as they speak) definitely.

III. There shalbe an and of this world, & all things shalbe chaunged, though the verie time be vnknowne.

And although it be vnknowne vnto vs, whē the ende of this world shalbe, and that it may not bee knowne: yet we beleeue, that doubt∣lesse it shal be: and that then shal be chaunged not onely the earth, but also the heauens: and that there shalbe a new heauen & a new earth: and that all the dead yea the wicked, shal rise againe, Christ calling them to the generall iudgement, by the voyce and trumpe of an Archangell: to the assurance of which things it appertaineth, that the Lord, when he fore∣told of the desolation of Ierusalem, did forth∣with apply his speach to these matters: name∣ly that we seing what happened to Ierusalem, might by those thinges, beleeue also that the same should certainely come to passe, which he then also spake concerning the ende of the world.

IV. At length shall all dead men, haue life againe, and shall rise out of their graues.

We beleeue therefore that as by Adam all dye, so bv Christ all shal bee reuiued, yea euen the wicked also in their bodies: when as euerie ones soule shall take the bodie againe: though we cōfesse that some shall rise to eternall bles∣sednesse and some to euerlasting damnation: as Christ saith, and they shall come forth, that haue

done good, to the resurrection of life: they that haue done euill, to the resurrection of condēnation: where∣by is confirmed the order also of the resurre∣ction, which the Apostle setteth downe, say∣ing, first they shall rise that are Christes, then the rest.

V. There shall not bee newe bodies created for our soules, but the verie same, which died shall rise againe.

But we beleeue, that there shall not a newe bodie bee framed for each foule, but that the verie same bodies, touching the substance, of euerie one, which died, shal rise again, though diuersly altered in some qualities: euen as the Apostle reacheth, of the same bodies of the godlie, by a similitude of the same seede, that it is sowne one manner of bodie, it riseth another: they are sowne corruptible bodies, they rise incorruptible: and so forth: and Iob, witnessing of his hope, (saieth) I know that my redeemer liueth, and, at the last day I shall rise out of the earth: J shall see God my sauiour in my flesh, whom I my selfe shall see & none other, and mine eyes shall be hold him. For with our corporall eies shall wee see Christ returning in the cloudes in his bodie: and also raigning in heauen.

VI. By the example of our bodies after the resur∣rection, it is shewed that Christs bodie is not euerie where.

But sith the Apostle saieth, that Christ shall

transforme our vile bodies, that they may bee made like vnto his glorious bodie: wee beleeue that if Christs bodie, by that glorie which it receiued, by rising againe, receiued also the power to be euerie where in the proper substance, so also our bodies for the same glorie shall also bee euerie where: which, sith it shall not bee: there∣fore wee beleeue that neither the bodie of Christ is now euery where in it owne substāce how full of glorie and maiestie soeuer, being it selfe finite or determinate, & the glory ther∣of also finite: especially, sith he said, that where he himselfe is, there he will haue vs to be also: and we shall not be euerie where in our bodies.

VII. Errors.

We cōdemne those impious dotages, both of the philosophers, which taught that mens soules were mortall; and of those heritickes, which thought that the soules of all men once separated from the bodies were in some close places, where they slept, that is, were depriued of all sense and operation of the minde: or els waked, but yet rested, till they resumed againe new bodies, and thē were admitted into hea∣uen, or else thrust into hell: as also those, which dreamed that the soules of many godlie men, were cleansed by a certaine fire in purgatory, from the reliques of their sinnes, and their suf∣fered temporall punishments. Wee disallow

also those, which do not distinguish betweene heauen where we read that the godly are, frō hell and the deepes, where wee read that the wicked shal be: but that make a difference be∣tweene them both, only in this, that some are made blessed, some accursed, though they shal be all in one place together. Neither can wee allow of those, which saye, that if not the cer∣taine daye and howre, yet the certaine time, month or yeare, may be known & set downe, when the Lord will come, and end this world: notwithstanding that Christ said, it is not for you to knowe the times. Yea and wee accuse those skorners; of whome Peter spake, which thinke that the world shall euer remaine thus: denying that there is any life to come & laugh∣ing at it. We also condemne those which de∣nie the resurrection of the dead; as also those which dreame, that they shall not haue the same, but other new bodies. Also we condēne those that taught, that our bodies after the re∣surrection shalbe so spirituall: that they shall be like to a spirite, or as the ayre, and not bee seene nor felt, as some haue also fayned the bodie of Christ was after his resurrection: and since haue also forged, and impudently lyed, that his bodie was, as it were chaunged into his diuine nature, so that it could no longer be called a creature.

Notes

• Luc. 16.9
• Luc. 23.43 Luc. 16.23 Act. 1.25
• ••. Pet. 2.4
• Mat. 8.12 Ioh. 17.24
• Mat. 24.26 Act. 1.7 Ies. 24.23 & 65.17 & 66.22 Psal. 102.27 Dan. 12.2 Mal. 4.1 2. Pet. 3.13 Apoc. 21.1 Iude. 14.15 Mat. 24 Luc. 25.1 &c.
• 1. Cor. 15.22
• Ioh. 5.29
• 1. Cor. 15.36 & 42 &c.
• Iob. 19.25
• Phil. 3.21
• Ioh. 17.24
• Act. 17 2. Pet. 3.3 &c.