RESVRGENDVM A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. We haue here no continuing Citie but we seeke one to come Hebr. chap. 13. verse 14. Resurget iustus vt iudicet peccator vt iudicetur impius vt sine iudicio puniatur IW LONDON Printed by Iohn VVolfe 1593. The Printer to the Reader I Send thee here gentle Reader a Sermon for stile eloquent for order methodicall and for substance of matter right heauenly heartily praying thee euen for thine ovvne soules health to vouchsafe the reading thereof Taken it vvas not from the Preachers mouth by any fond or nevv found Characterisme vvhich to the great preiudice of some vvorthie and learned men hath of late verie pitifully blemished some part of their labours this vvay vvith intollerable mutilations but set dovvne at their desire vvho might herein command by the Authors ovvne pen and indited as I verily persuade my self by special instinct of the holy Ghost And surely the doctrine of this Sermon is such as I make no doubt at all but it vvil be held to be most needfull and necessarie especially for these desperat times of ours vvherein amongst other most erronious sects vvhich rent in peeces the coate of Christ and the vnitie of his Church that one of the Saduces vvho say there is no resurrection is not perhaps of all other the least imbraced VVith this sort of hel-hounds this godly Sermon though not of purpose doth chiefly encounter and vvith inuincible argumēts beateth them dovvne flat to the ground assuring all flesh of that great and generall Resurrection vvhich euery true Christian is bound both in heart to beleeue and vvith his mouth to confesse hovvsoeuer the prophane Atheist in the greatnesse of his vaine and vvicked imaginations may othervvise fancie to himselfe not vvithout his ovvne remedilesse damnation vnlesse in time he do repent him of his sinne And vvould to God many such alarums as this might dayly be rong and sounded into our eares that if it vvere possible euery Christian might haue as deepe an impression and be no lesse affected vvith the continuall cogitation and remembrance of our resurrection at the last day then that godly father S. Ierome seemed to be vvho sayd Whether I eate or drinke whether I sleepe or wake or what thing else so euer I do me thinkes I heare a trumpet alwayes sounding thus in mine eares Arise you dead and come vnto iudgement And so gentle Reader I leaue thee to the grace of God A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. Philip. 3.20.21 20 But our conuersation is in heauen from vvhence also vve looke for the Sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ 21 VVho shall change our vile bodie that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious bodie according to the vvorking vvhereby he is able euen to subdue all things vnto him selfe THose teachers of Gods truth whose works be not answerable to the word are fitly compared to Mercuries the images in the streetes which point the right way to other men but stand still and walke not thē selues or to the stage player who speaking of the earth pointed to heauen and meaning the heauen pointed to the earth manu commisit soloecismum Such haue the voyce of Iacob but the hands of Esau of such the Apostle with teares exhorteth the Philippians to beware in the 18. verse of the third chapter And that they may the better be knowen he setteth downe their properties and painteth them out in their colours as that they be enemies to the crosse of Christ their bellie is their God they glorie in their shame they are earthly minded But such as build with both hands the church of God that is by sound doctrine and holy life such as haue Vrim and Thummim brightnesse of knowledge and integritie of conuersation such as go armed before their brethren as Ruben and Gad and halfe Manasses did not to be touched with errour in faith or deformitie in life these be good guides to folow and sure loade starres to direct our course Amongst which Paule with a good conscience placeth him selfe and such as be like him setting downe in this place their conuersation to be heauenly And good cause why for that there is their Sauiour and that thence they long for him whose comming shall not be frutelesse to them for he shall chaunge their bodies from such base infirmitie as now they are in to such glorie as his body is clothed withall Which may not be thought incredible because his will and power which subdueth all things shall bring this to passe In the farther vnfolding of which words the Apostle putteth in my hands these two principall things to deliuer vnto you First the change that is in the soules of the godly in this life Secondly the change that shal be in their bodies after this life In the former there be these points to be handled That their conuersation is not earthly but in heauen The cause that draweth them thither the Lord Iesus Christ A longing and expectation of his comming In the change that shal be of the bodie we are to consider What our bodies are nowe They are vile What they shall be then Like the glorious bodie of Christ The causes which bring this to passe The will of God and his mightie power These be the ioynts and parts of this present Scripture whereof I will speake as the time shall permit me your Honorable patience heare me the Apostle direct me and God shall assist me with his grace Saint Augustine parteth all the people in the world into two companies the synagogue of Sathan and the Church of God into Babylon and Ierusalem into the sonnes of the earth and the Citizens of heauen In which now are all the godly hauing their conuersation in heauen that is behauing them selues as free Burgesses of Ierusalem which is aboue Manie Cities in the world haue lawes and customes differing one from another yet not so contrarie but one may enioy freedome of diuerse at once But heauen and earth haue so continuall and so vnreconcileable variance as no peace can be compounded betweene them For he that is free to the one must be disfranchized in the other he that is friend to the one must be foe to the other he that hath giuen his faith to the one must sweare against the other It is as possible for light to agree with darknes for life to be friends with death for the Arke of God and the idol Dagon to lodge quietly in one place as for a man to serue God and Mammon to be true to the Lord and the world to be free Denison beneath and aboue to haue an earthly and a heauenly conuersation Therefore Elias doth sharply reproue the people of Israell for halting betweene two opinions in following the Lord and going after Baall 3. Reg. 18.21 The Samaritans for feare of Lyons which deuoured them
is a sweet sleep without dreams as Socrates named it not an euerlasting sleepe as Secundus the Philosopher said to Adrianus the Emperor It may be called a brasen sleep a strong a long sleepe for so Homer thinketh of it That which Christ spake of the rulers daughter may be truly affirmed of all them that be departed out of this life that they are not dead but fallen a sleepe and at the last day shall rise againe The places of buriall for this cause are called caemeteria of which men would not haue such care if there should be no resurrection Olde father Iacob vpon his death bed in Egypt maketh his sonne to burie him in the holy land and Ioseph at his death giueth commaundement to his brethren to carrie away his bones Which desire of theirs was partly to be free from that idolatrous nation euen when they were dead but chiefly it shewed the hope of this change Tobias is commended for burying the dead and Christ sayd that the woman who annointed his bodie to buriall should be spoken off in all the world The men of Iabes Gilead shewed mercie vpon Saul and Ionathan in burying their bodies Talia pietatis officia ad mortuorum corpora pertinent propter fidem resurrectionis astruendam Aug. 1. de Ciuit. Dei cap. 13. Such duties of godlinesse do appertaine to the dead in token that we beleeue the resurrection The iustice of God requireth this that the bodies of men hauing bene partners in well or euill doing with the soule in this life should be partners in reward or punishment after this life The hand which is open to receiue bribes the foote which is swift to shed blood the tongue that speaketh proud things the eyes that behold vanitie the eares that are open doores to let in vnchast talke the minde a nest of wicked imaginations the head that deuiseth mischiefe and euill the heart which boyleth in lust and malicious reuenge euery part with the whole which is a fellow with the soule in sinning shall beare companie in the punishment Contrariwise those bodies which haue borne the heate and burthen of the day shall haue part of the penie and wages The Hebrue Doctors haue made plaine this by a parable deuised in this sort A man planted a vineyard and hauing cause to go from home was carefull to leaue such watchmen as might keepe it safe from strangers and such as should not deceiue him them selues therefore he appointed two the one was blind but strong of his limbes the other had his sight but was a creeple In the absence of their maister they conferred how to deceiue him and craftily the blind tooke the lame man vpon his backe and got of the frute At the returne of their Maister he found out their subtilty that they had ioyned their labour together and so he punished them both together Man standeth of two partes the bodie is blinde but strong to commit sin the soule hath his sight knowledge but vnable to worke outward wickednesse but both helpe forward to sinne and therefore in iustice must abide the punishment 2. Cor. 4.18 We must all appeare before the iudgement seate of God that euery man may receiue the things which he hath done in his bodie whether they be good or euill The infinite goodnesse of God to his people nor the vp heaped measure of his seueritie against the vngodly could not be shewed if this chaunge should not be For now the ioy of the elect and paine of the wicked is but as a dreame to that which shal be Esa 61.7 For your shame you shal receiue double euerlasting ioy shal be vnto you Which place Lyra and the enterlined glosse expound of ioy of soule and bodie The truth of God cannot stand if this chaunge should not be For he hath promised to raise vs vp at the last day and that not one haire of our head shall perish Luke 14. When thou makest a feast call the poore lame c. who cannot reward thee but it shal be recompenced at the resurrection of the iust The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death 1. Cor. 15. And lest death might alleadge prescription God hath in all times of the world hindered his possession and taken from him the bodie of some to shew that he had title right vnto them As in the time of nature he tooke Enoch in the time of the Lawe he tooke away Helias in the time of Christ he tooke our Sauiour To conclude this point the authoritie of the Scriptures the reasons of the Apostle the name of death to be sleepe the maner of buriall the iustice mercie and truth of God are strong chaines to binde vs to beleeue and are sure proppes to vphold this maine piller of our faith that our bodies shall be changed By these it is euident that God is willing as his power is answerable therunto God hath giuen to his creatures some portion of his power whereby things are brought to passe which shadow out this change which by his owne arme he will bring to passe The Lyon being long absent from his whelpes because in due time he could not find his pray finding them dead roareth in his caue and reuiueth them againe The Pellicane by her blood quickeneth her young ones Lactantius worthely describeth the maner of the Phoenix death and birth againe out of her owne ashes The fire lyeth hid in the flint stone yet a small force will make it appeare The sunne setteth and riseth againe the moone waineth and renueth her light trees are cut downe yet they spring afresh the herbes wither in the winter season but are greene againe in the sommer time The whole course of nature telleth vs that we shall die and putteth vs in hope of our rising againe Our nayles being pared our haire being cut off yet they increase and growe againe If the dead part of our bodie be restored by the ordinarie power of God in nature much more shall the bodies of men be restored by the mightie power of God What if our bodies be consumed to ashes in the fire dryed in shew to nothing in the aire rotten to dust in the earth swallowed vp of fishes in the sea those fishes taken and eaten of men those men deuoured of wild beastes those beasts made a pray to rauenous foules Disperse as farre as may be by imagination the partes of mans body yet shall this mightie power of God call them together againe Aug. de Ciuitate Dei lib. 22. cap. 20. Absit vt aliquis sinus naturae ita recipiat aliquid subtractum à sensibus nostris vt omnino creatoris aut lateat scientiam aut effugiat potestatem God forbid that any secret place should be thought so to hide any thing remoued from our senses that it can either be kept from the knowledge of the creator or auoyd his power For this cause the sea is sayd to giue vp her dead Apoc. 20.13 because the bodies that
man after Gods owne heart yet had he not small slips but grosse falles Salomon a wise king yet bewitched with women Peter a great Apostle yet an Apostata for a time But why do I vpbrayd the naked infirmities of the fathers seeing all flesh hath corrupted his wayes and none can say my heart is cleane or my handes innocent And yet God hath his flock although it be but a litle one and Christ hath his Church his familie although they be fewe in it God hath his number in earth which in sinceritie without hypocrisie haue their conuersacion in heauen Euery man may be a witnesse to himselfe to whether number he belongeth by that rule which S. Augustine hath set downe in Psal 64. Duas ciuitates duo faciunt amores Hierusalem facit amor Dei Babiloniam amor saeculi Interroget ergo se quisque quid amet inueniet vnde sit ciuis Two loues make two Cities the loue of God maketh Ierusalem the loue of the world Babylon Therefore let euerie man deale truely with his owne heart and in euen ballances lay all his doings putting thereto such loue as he hath If it be the loue of God it wil lift them vp and shew them to be heauenly if the loue of the world set them a worke it wil bewray their conuersatiō to be of the earth To execute iustice with a straight hand to cherish vertue to roote vp vice to foster religion to banish superstition to do any good to eschue any euill for anie other cause but in loue and obedience vnto God is not to haue an heauēly but an earthly cōuersation The spider of a drie slime which commeth off her bodie weaueth her webbe and setteth her nets to take the flie which is her foode and many times when curiously she hath finished her worke a blast of winde taketh her and it away so the loue of the world causeth manie to wearie their bodies trouble their wittes breake their sleepe to set nets for commodities which are but small and by the last breath of our life caried away The loue of the world which ruleth in vs by corruption of nature and custome of life withdraweth vs from such conuersation as is heauenly whereas the loue of God if it be but as a graine of mustard seede doth season all our doings and cleareth them from earthly corruption Therfore let euery man as he groweth in yeares so go forward in goodnesse increase in faith in knowledge in vertue in the loue of God decrease in ignorance in infidelitie in vice in the loue of the world As our age and gray haires come on so let our olde conuersation vanish away putting on the new man in holinesse of behauiour the nearer we come to our heauenly countrey to wish and desire it the more For as the child in the wombe is more quick and strong the nearer the time of birth commeth so it should be with vs. For as Chrysostome sayth Nos sumus in mundo vt puellus in vtero and happie are they that are dayly more quicke and strong in godlinesse of life that may with a good conscience say as Paule doth here Our conuersacion or citie like behauiour is in heauen The cause which draweth vp mens hearts in desire affection to heauen is the sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ The brasen serpent was lift vp in the wildernesse that the people being stong might be healed liue the sonne of man is lifted vpon the crosse lifted vp and set in the view of all men by the preaching of the Gospell and by his glorious ascension into heauen draweth all their hearts to him that looke for saluation in him they feare him as their Lord loue him as their Iesus reuerence him as their Christ they kisse him as their Sauiour that find and feele by the seale of Gods spirit that God hath made him Christ appointed him and annointed him to be a Lord and king to gouerne them a Priest to sacrifice him selfe for them a Prophet to teach and instruct them What greater daunger then to haue our cogitations and affections as traitors and rebelles to worke treason within vs and to conspire our destruction and what happier benefite then to haue them tamed changed and made pliable in obedience to an heauenly gouernment This profite Christ worketh in his people being their Lord to rule them and this kingdome we pray for dayly to come vnto vs. What greater discomfort then to lye in darknesse and to liue in ignorance and what sweeter mercie then to haue our eyes opened and the brightnesse of heauenly knowledge to shine about vs This commoditie our Sauiour bestoweth vpon vs and is made Christ our Prophet for this end No perill is so fearfull as to be out of Gods fauour nor blessing so chearefull as to be at peace with him Our Sauiour in loue hath giuen him selfe for vs a sweet smelling sacrifice and in him the Father is pleased with vs. Daniel was in great danger among the Lyons yet his bodie could but be hurt for his soule was comforted in that he suffered for the Lord but mankind was in miserable plight being iustly condemned body and soule into hell Christ hath reached forth his hand and drawen vs out of the iawes of the Lyon and is become a Iesus a Sauiour vnto vs. Therefore seeing as Christ is the mine where all these treasures lye hid the iewell house where all these pearles are heauenly gouernment he is the Lord heauenly instruction he is Christ a Prophet heauenly reconciliation he is Christ a Priest heauenly redemption he is Iesus a Sauiour It is no maruell though the hearts of Gods children be with him who hath in store all these treasures for them The marchant hath his minde in those places where his goods are and whence he hopeth for commoditie The husbandmans heart is in the haruest which is the end of his labour and the hope of his paine Profit will carrie mens desires verie farre euen through the world yea to heauen and happie are they which venture the farthest for in this life there is no true treasure to be found The minde of man is wider then the world and nothing in the world can fill it Nay the mo worldly things that are heaped into it the more it retcheth as whitleather and is more voyd and emptie Few things will suffise the bodie but all is not inough to satisfie the mind as Philip the king of Macedonia confesseth of himselfe who in wrastling tooke a fall vpon the sand and rising looked vpon the place where he might see the print which his bodie had made to be compassed in a small peece of earth where the whole world was too litle for his couetous mind For so he speaketh of him selfe The ambitious man which climeth to honour the higher he is the higher he would be he still buildeth vpwards Nemrods tower is too low for him and yet it was high 1174. paces The pride of Lucifer
as Iob. 17.13 The graue shall be my house I shall make my bed in the darke I shall say to corruption thou art my father and to the wormes you are my sister and mother There is an old riddle what should be both the mother and the daughter the answer is of the I se but it may as well be said of the bodies of men which are made of the dust and shall thither returne againe The consideration that our bodies are vile should take away that too much curiositie to attire and pamper the bodie which commonly is in them that thinke too wel of them selues deeming their bodies to be too good to be fed but with dainties or cloathed but with costly apparell The winde may not blowe vpon them nor the sunne shine vpon them Our beginning is base of the earth our abode here is full of vncertaine prosperitie or sundrie miseries our end is most vile We must die like the beastes as Dauid saith Psal 49.12 This is the state of our bodies before they be chaunged and made like to the glorious bodie of Christ Some sight of this glorie Peter saw when Christ was transfigured Mat. 17.2 His face did shine as the sunne and his clothes were white as the light Of this Daniell speaketh in the twelfe chapter third verse They that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnesse shall shine as the starres for euer and euer 1. Cor. 15.43 the Apostle saith they rise in incorruption in glorie in power a spirituall bodie He that looked vpon Ierusalem as it is described in the Scriptures shall see the houses gates walles strong and faire yet made of timber stone and ordinarie matter But the new Ierusalem in the Reuelation is most glorious the walles of Iaspir the foundations of precious stones the gates of pearles the pauement of pure gold For our capacitie the spirit of God doth thus set foorth the difference betwixt things in this life and things in that better life And the like difference there is in our bodies Now they are but shadowes but then they shall be as the sunne now they are simplemen then they shall be as the Angels of God now they are as cloudes some higher some lower some brighter some darker as mens places differ in the world but all hanging vncertainly in the aire then shall they be as the starres in the heauens now they are as gold in the mine mingled with the earth then they shall be purified seuen times in the fire now our bodies are vile then made like the glorious bodie of Christ Then all teares shall be wiped away all infirmitie shall cease all deformitie shal haue an end There shal be health without sicknesse strength without weaknesse pleasure without paine youth without olde age Rest shall not be needfull for there shall be no labour there shall be felicitie with certaintie and life without the reach and gunshot of death now our bodies are vile then like the glorious bodie of Christ Let vs not therefore be dismayed in the sundrie daungers nor let not our hearts faile and fall in the most grieuous sicknesse of the bodie which can but last for a time neither can it bring destruction It may ouerthrowe the bodie into the graue and there death shal haue dominion for a season but at the last our bodies shall be taken out of the power of death and made like to Christs glorious bodie This account the Martyrs of God haue made Quid si tyrannus sit interfector corporis mei cum Deus sit susceptor animae erit restitutor corporis mei Quid si membra laceret inimicus cum capillos annumeret Deus What if the tyrant kill my bodie seeing that God will receiue my soule and will also restore my bodie What if the enemie teare in peeces my members seeing God hath numbred the haires of my head The bloodie hand of cruell tyrants may wast and rend a sunder the bodies of Gods people but they shall be gathered together againe by the will and power of God which two causes working together will performe a harder matter then this For if God were willing and not able or of power but not willing then some doubt might be made of this change But he is both willing and able to make this chaunge of our vile bodies to make them like to the glorious bodie of Christ That God is willing both authority of Scriptures and reason agreeing thereunto doth warrant vnto vs. Esa 26.19 Thy dead men shall liue euen with my bodie shall they arise awake and sing ye that sleepe in the dust for thy deaw is as the deaw of herbes and the earth shall cast out her dead Ezech. 37.14 I wil open your graues and bring you foorth of your sepulchers Ioh. 5.28 The houre shall come when all they that are in the graues shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and shall come foorth 1. Thess 4.14 If we beleeue that Iesus is dead and risen euen so they that beleeue in Iesus will God bring with him 1. Corinth 15. There is a iust treatise of this matter and manie reasons alledged why the dead should rise againe Many mischieuous inconueniences and inconuenient mischiefes doe followe the denying or doubting hereof as that Christ is not risen that Paule had preached an vntruth that the people had beleeued an vntruth that the Apostles had bene false witnesses Againe that their sinnes were not taken away that the dead are vtterly perished that to hope in Christ is most miserable For fiducia Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum the trust of Christians is the resurrection of the dead as Tertullian saith Besides Christ is primitiae resurgentium the first frutes of them that rise againe and by his resurrection hath sanctified all the elect thereunto Whatsoeuer Adam hath lost Christ hath restored but Adam lost life and by his sinne brought in death which Christ hath vanquished in his death Farther the beginners in religion when their death approched made hast to be baptized not that their bodies might be washed cleane for the graue but rather cleansed against the happie day of the resurrection as Epiphanius in Corinthianos expoundeth that point Lastly the godly endure persecution to no purpose if there be no rising againe The name and nature of death doth proue the resurrection For it is a sleepe and so named many times in the Scriptures as 1. Thessal 4.13 Brethren I would not haue you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that you sorrow not as they which haue no hope August epist 120. cap. 32. Quinque virgines fatuae quinque sapientes dormierunt id est moriebantur mors enim in Scripturis dicitur somnus propter resurrectionem velut euigilationem The fiue foolish virgins and the fiue wise slept that is died for death in the Scriptures is called sleepe and in respect of the resurrection as it were an awaking againe Death