The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

XIII. Homes and Over ton Base Millennium on Resurrection

NATHANIEL HOMES, OR HOLMES (1599-1678), Puritan divine, was born in Wiltshire and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Exeter College, from which he received the degrees of B.A., M.A., B.D., and D.D., between 1620 and 1637. He was said to have been highly skilled in Hebrew. He was made rector of St. Mary Staining as a Calvinist, but he changed his views, becoming a millenarian and having some of the beliefs of the Fifth Monarchy. He then served several Independent congregations, but upon enforcement of the Act of Conformity (1662), Homes gave up his cure. PFF2 574.2

His sermon on 2 Peter 3:13, The New World; or, The New Reformed Church (1641), expresses his clear premillennial views. His most noted work is The Resurrection Revealed: or the Dawning of the Day-Star. This stresses the millennium as still in the future, and is based on the literal resurrection of the dead saints and the change of the living, the coming destruction of the world by fire, with Antichrist as the archenemy of the truth of the coming glorious estate. Peter Sterry ⁵⁸ makes this introduction: PFF2 575.1

“Like a peece of rich coine, it hath been long buried in the earth, but of late dayes digged up againe; it begins to grow bright with handling, and to passe current with great numbers of Saints, and learned men of great Authority. As the same Star at several seasons is the Evening-star, setting immediately after the Sunne, and the Morning-star shining immediately before it; So was this Truth the Evening-star to the first coming of Christ, and giving of the Spirit, setting together with the glory of that Day, in a night of Antichristianisme: Now it appears againe in our Times, as a Morning star, to that blessed Day of the second effusion of the Spirit, and the second appearance of our Saviour in the glory of the Father.” ⁵⁹ PFF2 575.2

OVERTON CONTENDS RESURRECTION BEGINNING OF IMMOR TALITY.-The literal resurrection concept is increasingly stressed in the treatise by Richard Overton (fl. 1646) titled Man Wholly Mortal. The full explanation of the title page will suffice to give its scope: PFF2 575.3

“A Treatise wherein ‘T is proved, both Theologically and Philosophically, That as whole man sinned, so whole man died; contrary to that com moon distinction of Soul and Body: And that the present going of the Soul into heaven or hell, is a meer Fiction: And that at the Resurrection is the beginning of our immortality; and then actual Condemnation and Salvation, and not before. PFF2 575.4

“With Doubts and Objections answered and resolved, both by Scripture and Reason; discovering the multitude of Blasphemies and Absurdities that arise from the Fancie of the Soul. PFF2 575.5

“Also, divers other Mysteries; as, of Heaven, Hell, the extent of the Resurrection, the New Creation, etc. opened, and presented to the tryal of better Judgments.” ⁶⁰ PFF2 575.6