one death wrought or brought forth another Spiritualis corporalem culpabilis poenalem voluntaria necessariam c. The spirituall a corporall the culpable a penall the voluntary a necessary death But now wee are raised vp from the one and other FIRST we are raised vp from the death of the soule by the spirit of illumination and the spirit of sanctification two works but one and the same spirit enlightning the darkenesse of our vnderstanding and cleansing the corruption of our hearts This is the resurrection of which S. Iohn speaketh Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such death hath no power Apocal. 20.6 For though death remaine in act yet it is destroied in effect Death died in Christ and by Christ O death where is thy sting O graue where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law But thanks be vnto God who hath giuen vs the victory through Iesus Christ our Lord 1. Corinth 15.55.56.57 So that Non est malum in morte nisi malum post mortem There is no euill in the first death all the euill that is is in the second Blessed then indeed holy is he whose first life secureth him from the second death SECONDLY how are we raised from the death of the body who are not yet dead therein For the Apostle saith not God will raise vs vp but God hath raised vs vp as though it were not to come but past I answere first that our corporall resurrection is already past in the preuision of God to whom al things which are to come are actually present and in the purpose of God which changeth not I am the Lord and I change not Mal. 3.6 So the Prophets in the Law and the Apostles in the Gospel do speake of things which are yet to come as if they were already past Propter certitudinem euentus for the certainty of the euent Thus Esay the Euangelicall Prophet saith expressely of Christ He hath borne our infirmities He was wounded for our transgressions Hee was afflicted c. Esay 53. These sufferings of Christ were already past in the eternall destination of the Father but were yet to come in the actuall oblation of himselfe J answer secondly that wee are risen in Christ as in our Head betwixt whom and vs there is an indissoluble connexion and an inseparable bond For as there is a naturall vnion in Christ of his body and soule an hypostaticall vnion of the humane nature with his diuine person a sacramental vnion of the bread with his body so there is a mysticall vnion with vs he being the Head and we the members Therefore as in the ceremoniall Law the first fruits being blessed all the residue was blessed therein so Christ who was the first fruits of them that slept 1. Cor. 15.20 being raised from the dead we are also raised vp in him And this is a singular comfort against the feare of death though it bee the most terrible of all terrible things Why should we feare to die who are already raised frō the dead Our life is hid with God in Christ Col. 3.3 Will he not keepe it safely who bought it so dearely Therefore I will lay mee downe and sleepe in peace for thou Lord onely makest mee to dwell in safety Psal 4.8 With which comfortable sentence Gorgonia the blessed sister of Nazianzen commended her soule into the hands of her Redeemer Thus much of the second benefit to wit Resurrection of soule and body The third ensueth namely the Session of both in heauen Before we were quickned then raised now seated in heauen hee hath made vs sit together in the heauenly places in Christ O happy life to be so quickned ô happy resurrection to be so raised ô happy session to bee so placed First hee hath made vs to sit This is a signe of our tranquillity and rest aboue after much trouble and motion heere both in body and soule We are Pilgrimes vpon this earth as all our fathers were We are in via in our way to mooue not in patria in our countrey to sit downe We may not stand still for that is reproued Quid statis hîc otiosi Why stand you here idle Mat. 20.6 We can not sit for that is reserued vnto an other and better life when many shall come from the East and West and shall sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen Mat. 8.11 SECONDLY then he hath made vs sit together in heauenly places that is to say in the heauen of blessed Angels and Spirits to whom God reuealeth himselfe in the abundance of his glory For though God filleth the heauen and earth with his essence presence and power yet hee sheweth not the like effects thereof in euery place He is peculiarly in his elect by grace peculiarly in heauen by glory which is the Chamber of presence wherein we shall see him as he is and behold him face to face But what the qualities of these heauenly places are or what are the ioies therein as also how the degrees of ioy are vnequall since there are many mansions in heauen Joh. 14.2 and that may be here implied by the plurality places I neither can conceiue them as they are nor yet expresse what I conceiue thereof I will therefore conclude this point with that excellent speech of S. Augustine concerning the ioy of heauen Profectò in me totum non intrabit sed ego in illud totus intrabo truely it will not enter wholly into me by knowledge that I may apprehend it but I shall enter wholly into it by fruition that I may enioy it for euer and euer Now for the matter it selfe We sit in the heauenly places How Not by plenary possession but by the right of inheritance Not by personall fruition but by assurance of faith Finally not in our selues but in Christ our Head So saith my text he hath made vs sit together in the heauenly places in Christ For as Ioseph dreamed Genes 37.9 and it was a true dreame that the Sunne and the Moone to wit Iacob his father and Rachel his mother did reuerence vnto him which yet she neuer performed in her selfe for Rachel died before Genes 35.19 but in the person of Iacob her husband when he came downe into the land of Egypt so wee are already seated in the heauenly places not in our selues but in Christ our Head who as a Man tooke our nature from his mother and as a Redeemer vndertook our persons with his Father and so what he hath receiued for vs we enioy in him He being in heauen we are in heauen also he being ascended wee are ascended thither with him For though he descended alone yet he is ascended with vs. Therefore whereas our Sauiour saith No man ascendeth into heauen but he that descended from heauen the Sonne of man who is in heauen Joh. 3.13 S. Bernard meditateth vpon it in this
were not the seede of Abraham wee had not the seale of the couenant the promises appertained not vnto vs at least according to the letter All which things the Iewes might plead as peculiar vnto themselues alone Therefore S. Paul hauing demanded What is the preferment of the Iew and what is the profit of circumcision answereth Much euery manner of way and chiefly because vnto them were committed the oracles of God Rom. 3.1.2 But since wee Gentiles were not priuiledged by any of these graces but were strangers from the couenant and wholly inthralled into the captiuitie of sinne and Satan heerein the loue of God is more spectable and more commended in vs then in them because hee quickned Vs also when we were dead in sinne So that now we are succeeded into the state nay more into the very name of the Iewes themselues For hee is a Iew who is one within Rom. 2.28 And wee are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit Philip. 3.3 For it is true my brethren that God delighteth not in outward things without an inward affection not in Ceremonies not in Sacraments not in Sacrifice not in his owne People Nay more Christ acknowledgeth not the blessed Virgin to be his Mother if she heare not his word and keepe it Luke 8.21 Whereby he did not reproue her but instruct others in this behalfe It is not therefore succession from worthy persons it is not birth from religious fathers it is not the splendor and dignity of a particular place vpon which wee may securely rest yet these these are things and principall things too wherein the Church of Rome doth so confidently repose And as the literall Babylon Esay 47.8 so she the mysticall Babylon Apocal. 18.7 glorieth in this manner and saith I sit being Queene and am no widow and shall see no mourning Howbeit her destruction is ordained of old the sentence of condemnation is past the writ of execution is gone forth The Kings of the earth shall hate the whore the sometimes Mother Church now become a whore and make her desolate and naked and shall burne her with fire Apoc. 17.16 I come now from the Obiect vs vnto the quality thereof dead in sinnes There is a spirituall death of the soule a temporall of the body an eternall of both I speake not of the two latter they are deaths for sinne not in sinne of which alone my text doth here peculiarly intreat This spirituall death therefore of the soule in sinne is sometimes in Thought onely when we yeeld not consent thereunto For there is first suggestion either externally from Satan or internally from our concupiscence then delectation and finally consent which properly bringeth sin vnto her birth Otherwise S. Bernard asketh in the person of a regenerate man An forte iam non ago illa sed patior si vtique non consentio Mea dixerim peccata non quia facio sed quia sustineo I am rather a patient then an agent in my sinnes c. Sometimes this spirituall death is in Action to wit transient action for there was an immanent action before For a sinne may be actuall in the mind though not acted in the body Sometimes this spirituall sinne is in Habit and custome when sinne is not only inhabitant for so it is in all though not imputed vnto all it remaineth in act not in guilt but regnant in our soules Of which our Apostle speaketh in this maner Let not sinne raigne in your mortall body that you should obey it in the lusts thereof neither giue you your members as weapons of vnrighteousnesse vnto sinne Rom. 6.12 All these deaths of the soule are figured and represented in certaine persons whom our Sauiour raised vp from the death of the body The first in the Centurions daughter Mark 5.40 Her body lay yet in her fathers house and there she was raised vp vnto life The second in the widowes son Luke 7.12 His body was carried forth into the Citie and there he was raised vp vnto life The third in Marthaes brother Iohn 11.39 His body was laid in the graue and there he was raised vp vnto life Now our spirituall death was of the last and worst sort We were dead in the habit and custome of sinne dead in al our faculties and powers Dead in the Will which is the Queene-regent of the soule dead in the Vnderstanding which is her Counsellor dead in the Memory which is her Secretary dead in the Affections which are her messengers and seruants So dead in all that sinne raigned and grace was extinguished in our soules And yet ô Lord didst thou loue vs when wee were dead men Euen thou also who art the God not of the dead but of the liuing He did so Brethren our great sinnes could not euacuate his good purpose He loued vs in his election then by manifestation the first before all time the second in time And thus he was not changed by hauing loue now which he had not euer but we were changed by receiuing grace which we had not before Wherefore God loued vs when we were spiritually dead he loued vs I say in respect of his owne purpose not of our works And now as the Prophet Ieremy spake literally of his owne greefe but typically of Christs Was there euer Dolor sicut dolor meus griefe as my greefe Lam. 1.12 So I may truly say of Gods loue O Lord was there euer Amor sicut amor â—uus loue as thy loue No man hath greater loue then this that he lay downe his life for his friend Iohn 15.13 It is true no man hath greater but thou my Lord hadst greater for thou laidst down thy life for thine enemies Therefore saith S. Paul God setteth out his loue toward vs seeing that while we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. Rom. 5.8 While we were yet sinners dead in sinne and had no means to relieue our selues For if in our restitution vnto life we had preuented God in desire or cooperated with him in act his loue had not bin so set forth as now it is But the truth is we were passiue not actiue in this excellent work and so passiue that there was nothing in vs to concurre with God It was not a slumber and so we were awaked it was not a wound and so we were healed but it was death and so wee were raised vp againe not by any vertue within vs but by an externall power For what motion or actiuity is there in a dead body to raise vp it selfe None Therfore as in his creation A dam was made a liuing soule when God breathed the breath of life into him Gen. 2.7 so in his renouation for he was an old Adam as soone as hee was a new God inspired grace into him and Adam was quickned againe from the death of the soule Whereby as we learne how much we owe vnto God how little vnto our selues in this worke of our restitution vnto the life of grace so we
may behold and hate the turpitude and deformity of sinne from this one effect that it putteth vs in the state of dead men as S. Paul speaketh of the widow liuing in pleasure shee is dead euen while she liueth A spirituall death in a naturall life Thou hast a name saith God vnto the church of Sardis Apocal. 3.1 that thou liuest but thou art dead And so J may say vnto a sinful man it is but a name a shadow of life which thou hast for thogh thy body liue by thy soule yet thy soule liueth not by grace and consequently thou art separated from GOD the author and fountaine of thy life Thus a sinner is farre from God and God is farre from a sinner the first in grace the second in mercy But from whom God is farre in mercy he is neer in iustice for their destruction sleepeth not 2. Pet. 2.3 So much of the second motiue or cause to wit the great loue of God wherewith he loued vs when we were dead in sinne Now ensueth the third and last namely GRACE for so it followeth by grace you are saued Whereof I will intreat as briefly as I can It may be a question why Not before is now turned into Vos Before he said God loued vs to wit Iewes and Gentiles Now he saith You are saued to wit the Gentiles The answere is Though Iewes and Gentiles haue a common right in Christ yet the right of the Iewes was more singular then ours and in order at the least before ours by reason of their priuiledges as I shewed you before Whence it is that our Sauiour himselfe testifieth in this manner I am not sent saue to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel Math. 15.24 Likewise he gaue his commission vnto his disciples Goe not into the way of the Gentiles but goe rather vnto the lost sheepe of the house of Israel Math. 10.5.6 Conformable whereunto is the testimony of Saint Paul vnto the vngratefull Iewes It was necessary that the word of God should first haue been spoken vnto you but seeing you put it from you and iudge your selues vnworthy of eternall life loe wee turne vnto the Gentiles c. Whereupon the Gentiles glorified God and receiued the Gospell with great alacrity of heart that so it might bee verified which the Prophet declared long before Reioice ô barren that didst not beare breake forth into ioy and reioyce thou that didst not trauaile with child for the desolate hath more children then the married wif◠Esay 54.1 Specially therefore the Gentiles were saued by grace But by what grace There is the grace of God toward vs which respecteth vs as the obiects of it there is the grace of God in vs which respecteth vs as the subiects of it So that we are in the first grace the second grace is in vs. It is the first therefore not the second by which we are saued For we are not saued by the grace of God wrought within vs by his Spirit but shewed vnto vs in his Son You are saued by grace that is by the free and voluntary fauour of God the Father in Iesus Christ his Sonne For the grace of which S. Paul doth here speake is referred vnto God euen the Father howsoeuer our translation supplying some words which are not in the originall seemeth to refer it vnto the Son But the matter is not great For this grace is equally in all the persons but originally in the Father exhibitiuely in the Son by whom and in whom the Father hath declared his mercy loue and grace To proceed then We are saued by grace What by grace only We are saued by Christ by faith by hope by grace By all these but in a different manner By Christs death as the only meritorious cause by Faith as the proper instrumentall meanes by Hope Rom. 8.24 as sustaining our expectation of things to come by Grace as mouing God If therefore the question bee as it is properly in this place what was the first motiue of our saluation The answere is The grace of God For as the end of our saluation is his glory so the beginning of it is his grace Our election to life is free our vocation inwardly by the spirit outwardly by the word is free our iustification by the bloud of Christ is free our sanctification by the holy Ghost is free finally our glorification in heauen is free also as Fulgentius obserueth very well Datur ex gratia non solùm iustificatis vita hona sed etiam glorificatis vita aeterna Not only a good life vnto them who are iustified but also eternall life vnto them who are glorified is giuen freely and by the grace of God Not of works lest any man should boast himselfe Ephes 2.9 This is the argument vpon which S. Paul doth spend a great part of his Epistles this is the thing which he doth euery where inforce to wit the grace of God in Iesus Christ O S. Paul S. Paul Vas misercoridiae tuba gratiae the vessell of mercy and the trumpet of grace For in none was the mercy of God more expressed then in thee and in none was his grace more exalted then by thee And this he doth not to destroy actum operis but opinionem meriti not the performance of good works but the opinion of merit thereby and specially the merit of Condignity which the Church of Rome defendeth precisely in this sense to wit that after the first iustification by Christ the second being by works as they teach a man being in state of grace may performe and some doe performe such good works as in their owne worth and proper value deserue eternall life This they call merit of Condignity But this is an indignitie to God a disgrace to his grace and blasphemy against his honour More truely saith our Apostle Non sunt condignae c. the afflictions of this present life are not worthie of the glory which shall bee shewed vnto vs Rom. 8.18 Neither our actions nor our passions can deserue the same And I pray you marke the opposition in this behalfe SVNT they are worthy saith the Church of Rome NON SVNT they are not worthy saith S. Paul Away away with merit let vs establish the grace of God which is more honourable vnto him and more comfortable vnto vs. But J leaue the prosecution heereof and after a brief reflexion vpon that which is already past I will proceed vnto the residue of my text First then concerning the Mercy of God Trust in it Trust in it onely Trust in it euer Trust in it without diffidence for in the mercies of the most High you shall not miscarrie Psalm 21.7 Trust in it onely without any other plea. We doe not present our supplications before thee for our owne righteousnesse but for thy great tender mercies Dan. 9.18 Trust in it euer without wearinesse for his compassions faile not Lam. 3.22 As the oyle did not cease till there