bearing about us this bodie of flesh the stepps whereof are so vnstaied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and walking in this world the waies whereof are so slipperie It is an Apostle that saith it Iam. 3.2 In multis omnes c. In many things we offend all and it is another that saith that whosoever saith otherwise not he is proud and there is no humblenesse 1. Ioh. 1.8 but he is a lyar and there is no truth in him Iam. 4.6 Our estate then as it is needeth some Scripture that offereth more grace And such there be saith Saint Iames and This is such That they which have not heard the Apostle and his counseile Qui stat c. may yet heare the Prophet heere and his Qui cecidit let him up againe That they which have not heard Esaie's voice Ambulate You are in the way turne not from it May yet heare Ieremie's voice Qui aversus est c He that is out let him get into it againe So that this is the summe of that I have read If we have not been so happie as to stand and keepe our way The Summe let us not be so vnhappie as not to rise and turne to it againe Best it were before we sinne to say to our selves Quid facio what am I now about to doe If we have not that yet it will not be amisse after to say What have I done GOD will not be displeased to heare us so say We should not follow those foules we should have no wings to fly from GOD but if in flying away we have followed them then that we follow them too in the retrive or second flight In a word Yesterday if we have not heard His voice Psal 95.7.8 To day if we will heare His voice not to harden our hearts when He calleth us to repentance This is the summe The manner of the deliverie is not common but somewhat vn-usuall and full of passion For seeing plaine poenitentiam agite doth but coldly affect us It pleaseth GOD hâc vice to take vnto Him the termes the style the accents of passion thereby to give it an edge that so it may make the speedier and deeper impression And the Passion He chooseth is that of Sorrow For all these verses are to be pronounced with a sorrowfull key Sorrow many times worketh us to that by a melting compassion which the more rough and violent passions cannot get at our hands This sorrow He expresseth by way of complain◠For all the speech is so Which kind of speech maketh the better nature to relent as mooved that by his meanes any should have cause to complaine and not find redresse for it That He complaines of is not that we fall and erre but that we rise not and returne not that is still delay still put of our Repentance And that 1. Contrarie to our own course and custome Verse 4. in other things We doe it every where els yet heere we doe it not 2. Contrarie to GOD'S expresse pleasure For glad and faigne He would heare we doe it Verse 8. yet we doe it not 3. Contrarie to the very light of nature For the foules heere fly before us and shew us the way to doe it yet we doe it not for all that Which three He vttereth by three sundry waies of treatie 1. The first by a gentle yet forcible expostulation Verse 4. Will you not Why will ye not 2. The second by an earnest protestation Verse 5. How greatly He doth hearken after it 3. The third by a passionate Apostrophe Verse 7. by turning Him away to the foules of the ayre that doe that naturally every yeare which we cannot be got to all our life long Of which passions to say a word It is certaine the immutable constancie of the Divine nature is not subiect to them howsoever heere or elsewhere He presenteth himselfe in them I add that as it is not proper so neither it is not fitting for GOD thus to expresse himselfe But that He not respecting what best may become Him but what may best seeme to move us and doe us most good chooseth of purpose that dialect that Character those termes which are most meet and most likely to affect us And because good morall counseile plainely delivered enters but faintly and of passionate speeches we have a more quick apprehension He attireth His speech in the habit vttereth it in the phrase figure and accent of anger or sorrow or such like as may seeme most fit and forcible to prevaile with us 1. Tertullian saith the reason this course is vsed is ad exaggerandam malitiae vim to make the haynousnesse of our contempt appeare the more 2. Act. war GOD indeed cannot complaine it falleth not into His nature to doe it But if He could if it were possible by any meanes in the world He might such are our contempts so many and so mighty that we would force Him to it 2. But Saint Augustine's reason is more praised Exprimit in Se vt exprimat de te In himselfe He expresseth them that from us He may bring them Sheweth himselfe in passion that He may move us and even in that passion whereto He would move us As heer now As in greefe He complaineth of us that we might be greeved and complaine of our selves that ever we gave Him such cause And so consequently that we might bethink our selves to give redresse to it that so His complaining might ceasse And from the complaint it is no hard matter to extract the redresse 1. The Division To yeeld to but even as much for Him for Him Nay for our selves as every where els we vse to doe 2. To speake that which GOD so gladly would heare 3. To learne that which the poore foules know the season of our returne and to take it as they doe Three waies to give redresse to the three former greevances These three and the same the three parts of this Text orderly to be treated of TO make His motion the more reasonable and His complaint the more iust He makes them Chancelors in their owne cause And from their owne practise otherwhere GOD frameth and putteth a Case and putteth it question-wise and therefore question-wise that they may answer it and answering it condemne themselves by a verdict from their owne mouth Will they this people themselves fall c Is there any that if he turne c In effect as if He should say Goe whither you will farre or neere was it ever heard or seene that any man if his foot slipped and he tooke a fall that he would lie still like a beast and not up againe streight Or if he lost his way that he would wittingly goe on and not with all speede get into it again I proceed then Men rise if they fall and sinne is a fall We have taken up the terme our selves calling Adam's sinne Adam's fall A fall indeed for it foules as as a fall for it bruises as a fall for it bringeth downe as a fall downe from the state of Paradise downe to the dust of death downe to the barre of iudgement downe to the pitt of hell Againe Men turne when they erre And sinne is
would be layd up well That which is sowen riseth up in the spring that which sleepeth in the morning So conceive of the change wrought in our nature that feast of first fruits by CHRIST our first fruits Neither perish neither that which is sowen though it rott nor they that sleepe though they lye as dead for the time Both that shall spring and these wake well againe Therefore as men sowe not grudgingly nor lye downe at night unwillingly no more must we seeing by vertue of this Feast we are now Dormientes not mortui now not as stones but as fruits of the earth whereof one hath an annuall the other a diurnall resurrection This for the first fruits and the change by them wrought There is a good analogie or correspondence betweene these III. The ground of our hope it cannot be denied To this question Can one man's resurrection worke upon all the rest it is a good answer Why not as well as one sheafe upon the whole harvest This Simile serves well to shew it To shew but not prove Symbolicall Divinitie is good but might we see it in the rationall too We may see it in the cause no lesse in the substance and let the ceremonie goe This I called the Ground of our hope Why saith the Apostle should this of the first fruits seeme strange to you that by one mans resurrection we should rise all seeing by one mans death we die all By one man saith he Rom. 5.12 sinne entred into the world and by sinne death to which sinne we were no parties and yet we all die because we are of the same nature whereof he the first person Death came so certainely and it is good reason life should doe so likewise To this question Can the resurrection of one a thousand sixe hundred yeares agoe be the cause of our rising it is a good answer Why not as well as the death of one five thousand sixe hundred yeares ago be the cause of our dying The ground and reason is that there is like ground and reason of both The wisest way it is if Wisedome can contrive it that a person be cured by Mithridate made of the very flesh of the viper bruised whence the poison came that so that which brought the mischiefe might minister also the remedie The most powerfull way it is if Power can effect it to make strength appeare in weakenesse and that He that overcame should by the nature which He overcame be swallowed up in victorie The best way it is if Goodnesse will admit of it that as next to Sathan man to man oweth his destruction so next to GOD man to man might be debtor of his recoverie So agreeable it is to the Power Wisedome and Goodnesse of GOD this the three Attributes of the Blessed and Glorious Trinitie And let Iustice weigh it in her ballance no iust exception can be taken to it no not by Iustice it selfe that as death came so should life too the same way at least More favour for life if it may be but in very rigour the same at the least According then to the very exact rule of Iustice both are to be alike If by man one by man the other We dwell too long in generalities Let us draw neerer to the persons themselves in whom we shall see this better In them all answer exactly word for word Adam is fallen and become the first fruits of them that die CHRIST is risen and became the first fruits of them that live for they that sleepe live Or you may if you please keepe the same terme in both thus Adam is risen as we vse to call rebellions risings He did rise against GOD by Eritis sicut Dij Gen 3.6 He had never fallen if he had not thus risen His rising was his fall We are now come to the two great Persons that are the two great Authors of the two great matters in this world life and death Not either to themselves and none els but as two Heads two Roots two first fruits either of them in reference to his companie whom they stand for And of these two hold the two great Corpâ—rations 1 Of them that die they are Adam's 2 Of them that sleepe and shall rise that is CHRIST ' s. To come then to the particular No reason in the world that Adam's transgression should draw us all downe to death onely for that we were of the same lump and that CHRIST 's righteousnesse should not be availeable to raise us up againe to life being of the same sheaves whereof He the first fruits no lesse then before of Adam Looke to the things Death and Life Weakenesse is the cause of death Raising to life commeth of Power 2. Cor. 13.4 Shall there be in Weakenesse more strength to hurt then in Power to do us good Looke to the Persons Adam and CHRIST shall Adam being but a living soule Ver. 45.47 infect us more strongly then Christ a quickning spirit can heale us againe Nay then Adam was but from the earth earthly CHRIST the LORD from heaven Shall earth doe that which heaven cannot vndoe Never it cannot be Sicut Sic As and So so runne the termes But the Apostle in Rom. 5. where he handleth this very point tells us plainly Non sicut delictum Rom. 5.15 ita donum Not as the fault so the Grace Nor as the fall so the Rising but the Grace and the Rising much more abundant It seemeth to be A pari it is not indeed It is under value Great odds between the Persons the Things the powers and the meanes of them Thus then meet it should be Let us see how it was Heer againe the very termes give us great light We are saith he restored Restoring doth alwaies presuppose an attainder going before and so the terme significant For the nature of attainder is One person maketh the fault but it taints his blood and all his posteritie The a Heb. 9.27 Apostle saith that a Statute there is All men should dye But when we go to search for it we can finde none but b Gen. 3.19 Pulvis es wherin onely Adam is mentioned and so none die but he But even by that Statute death goeth over all men even those saith Saint Paul that have not sinned after the like manner of transgression of Adam By what law By the law of Attainders The Restoring then likewise was to come and did come after the same manner as did the attainders That by the first this by the second Adam so He is called Ver. 45. Lev. 18.5 There was a Statute concerning GOD 's commaundements qui fecerit ea vivet in eis He that observed the commaundements should live by that his obedience Death should not seise on him CHRIST did observe them exactly therefore should not have beene seised on by death should not but was and that seisure of his was deathe's forfeiture The laying of the former Statute on
point the Prophet here calleth us to even how to looke upon CHRIST often and to be the better for our looking It shall be verie agreeable to the Text and to the HOLY GHOST 's chief entent if we prove how and in how diverse sorts we may with profit behold and looke upon Him whom thus we have pierced 1. Respise transfigere First then looking upon Him we may bring forth for the first effect that which immediatly followeth this Text it selfe in this Text Et plangent Eum Respice plange First looke and lament or mourne which is indeed the most kindly and naturall effect of such a spectacle Looke upon Him that is pierced and with looking upon Him be pierced thy selfe Respice transfigere A good effect of our first looke if we could bring it forth At least wise if we cannot Respice transfigere looke and be pierced yet than it might be Respice compungere that with looking on Him we might be pricked in our hearts Actâ— 2.37 and have it enter past the skinne though it go not cleane through Which difference in this Verse the Prophet seemeth to insinuate when first he willeth us to mourne as for one's onely sonne with whom all is lost Or if that cannot be had to mourne as for a first begotten sonne which is though not so great yet a great mourning even for the first begotten though other sonnes be left Verse 11. And in the next Verse if we cannot reach to naturall griefe yet he wisheth us to mourne with a Civill even with such a lamentation as was made for Iosias And Behold a greater then IOSIAS is heere Comming not as he to an honourable death in battell but to a most vile death the death of a Malefactor And not as Iosias dying vvithout any fault of theirs but mangled and massacred in this shamefull sort for us even for us and our transgressions Verily the dumbe and senselesse creatures had this effect wrought in them of mourning at the sight of his death in their kind sorrowing for the murder of the SONNE of GOD. And we truly shall be much more senselesse then they if it have in us no worke to the like effect Especially considering it was not for them He suffered all this nor they no profit by it but for us it was and vve by it saved And yet they had compassion and vve none Be this then the first Now as the first is Respice transfigere Looke upon him 2. Respice tranâ—fige and be pierced so the second may be and that fitly Respice transfige Look upon him and pierce and pierce that in thee that was the cause of CHRIST 's piercing that is sinne and the lusts thereof For as men that are pierced indeed vvith the griefe of an indignity offered vvithall are pricked to take revenge on him that offers it such a like affection ought our second looking to kindle in us even to take a wreake or revenge upon sinne quia fecit hoc because it hath been the cause of all this I mean as the HOLY GHOST termeth it a mortifying or crucifying a thrusting thorow of our vvicked passions and concupiscences in some kind of repaying those manifold villanies vvhich the SONNE of GOD suffered by meanes of them At leastwise as before if it kindle not our zeale so farre aginst sinne yet that it may slake our zeale and affection to sinne that is Respice ne respicias Respice CHRISTVM ne respieias peccatum That we have lesse mind lesse liking lesse acquaintance vvith sinne for the Passion-sake For that by this means vve do in some sort spare CHRIST and at least make his wounds no wider Wheras by affecting sinne anew we do vvhat in us lieth to crucifie Him afresh and both increase the number and enlarge the widenesse of his wounds It is no unreasonable request That if we list not wound sinne yet seeing CHRIST hath wounds enough and they wide and deep enough we should forbeare to pierce him further and have at least this second fruit of our looking upon Him either to look and to pierce sinne or to looke and spare to pierce him any more Now as it was sinne that gave him these wounds so 3. Respice dilige it was love to us that made him receive them being otherwise hable enough to have avoided them all So that He was pierced with love no lesse then with griefe and it was that wound of love made him so constantly to endure all the other Which love we may read in the palmes of His hands as the Fathers expresse it out of Esa. 49.16 For in the Palmes of his hands He hath graven us that he might not forget us And the print of the neiles in them are as Capitall letters to record his love toward us For CHRIST pierced on the Crosse is liber charitatis the very booke of love laid open before us And againe this love of His we may read in the cleft of His heart Quia Claâ—us penetransfactus est nobis Clavis reserans saith Bernard ut pateant nobis viscera per vulnera The point of the Speare serves us instead of a key letting us through his wounds see his verie bowells the bowells of tender love and most kind compassion that vvould for us endure to be so entreated That if the Iewes that stood by said truely of him at LAZARVS 's grave Ioh. 11.36 Ecce quomodo dilexit Eum when He shed a few teares out of his eyes much more truly may we say of him Ecce quomodo dilexit nos seeing him shedd both Water and Blood and that in great plentie and that out of his heart Which sight ought to pierce us with love too no lesse then before it did with sorrow With one or with both for both have power to pierce but specially Love Which except it had entred first and pierced him no neile or speare could ever have entered Then let this be the third Respice dilige Look and be pierced with love of him that so loved thee that he gave himselfe in this sort to be pierced for thee 4 Respice crede And forasmuch as it is CHRIST his owne selfe that resembling his passion on the Crosse to the Brazen Serpent lift up in the wildernesse maketh a correspondence between their beholding and our beleeving for so it is Ioh. 3. 14. vve cannot avoid but must needs make that an effect too Even Respice crede And well may we beleeve and trust him whom looking a little before we have seene so constantly loving us For the sight of that love maketh credible unto us whatsoever in the whole scripture is affirmed to us of CHRIST or promised in his name So that beleeve it and beleeve all Neither is there any time wherein with such cheerefulnesse or fulnesse of faith we crie unto him Ioh. 20.28 MY LORD and MY GOD as when our eye
and in good health but the houre is comming when we shall leave catching at all other hopes and must hold onely by this in horâ mortis when all hope save the hope of this verse shall forsake us Sure it is under these very words are we layd into our graves and these the last words that are sayd over us as the very last hold we have and we therefore to regard them with Iob and lay them up in our bosome There is in this text 1 a Text and an 2 Exposition 1. The Text we may well call the Angell's text for from them it came first 2. The Division The Exposition is Saint Paule's These words CHRIST is risen were first uttered by an Angell this day in the Sepulcher All the * Mat. 28.6 Mar. 16.6 Luc. 24.6 Evangelists so testifie This Text is a good text but reacheth not to us unlesse it be helped with the Apostle's Exposition and then it will The Exposition is it that giveth us our hope and the ground of our hope CHRIST is risen saith the Angell CHRIST the first fruicts saith the Apostle And marke well that word first fruicts For in that word is our hope For if He be as the first fruicts in His rising His rising must reach to all that are of the heape whereof He is the first fruicts This is our hope But our hope must have a reason saith Saint a 1. Pet. 3.15 Peter and we be ready with it b Heb. 11.1 The hope that hath a ground saith Saint Paul that is c Rom. 5.5 spes quae non confundit Having then shewed us this hope he sheweth us the ground of it This That in very aequitie we are to be allowed to be restored to life the same way we lost it But we lost it by man or to speake in particular By Adam we came by our attainder Meet therefore that by man and to speake in particular that by CHRIST we come to our restoring This is the ground or substance of our hope And thus he hath sett before us this day life and death in themselves and their causes two things that of all other doe most concerne us Our last point shall be to applie it to the meanes this day offered unto us toward the restoring us to life I. The text Christ is risen THe doctrine of the Resurrection is one of the Foundations so called by the Apostle Heb. 6.1 It behooveed him therefore as a skilfull worke-man to see it surely layd That is surely layd that is layd on the rocke and the rocke is Christ. Chap. 10.4 Therefore he layd it on Christ by saying first Christ is risen Of all that be Christians Christ is the hope but not Christ every way considered but as risen Even in Christ un-risen there is no hope Well doth the Apostle beginn heer and when he would open to us a gate of hope carry us to Christ's sepulcher emptie â—os 2.15 to shew us and to heare the Angell say He is risen Thence after to deduce If He were able to do thus much for Himselfe He hath promised us as much and will do as much for us We shal be restored to life Thus had he proceeded in the foure Verses before destructivè 1 Miserable is that man Ver 19.18.17 that either laboureth or suffereth in vaine 2 Christian men seem to do so and do so if there be no other life but this 3 There is no other life but this if there be no resurrection 4 There is no resurrection if CHRIST be not risen for ours dependeth on His. And now he turneth all about againe But now saith he 1 CHRIST is risen 2 If he be we shall 3 If we shall we have as Saint PAVL calleth it a blessed hope Tit. 2.13 and so a life yet behinde 4 If such hope we have we of all men labour not in vaine So there are foure things 1 CHRIST 's rising 2 our restoring 3 our hope and 4 our labour All the doubt is of the two first The two other will follow of themselves If a restoring we have good hope if good hope our labour is not lost The two first are in the first the other in the last words The first are Christ is risen the last we shal be restored to life Our endeavour is to bring these two togither But first to lay the corner-stone CHRIST is risen is the Angell's Text A part of the great mysterie of Godlinesse 1. Tim. 3 16. which as the Apostle saith was seen of Angells by them delivered and beleeved on by the world Quod credibile primum fecit illis videntium certitudo post merientium fortitudo jam credibile mihi facit credentium multitudo It became credible at first by the certainty of them that saw it then by the constancie of them that died for confession of it and to us now the huge multitude of them that have and do beleeve it maketh it credible For if it be not credible how is it credible that the world could beleeve it the world I say being neither enjoyned by authority nor forced by feare nor inveigled by allurements but brought about by persons by meanes lesse credible then the thing it selfe Gamaliel said If it be of GOD it will prevaile And though we cannot argue Act. 5 37. all that hath prevailed is of GOD yet thus we can That which hath beene mightily impugned and weakly pursued and yet prevailed that was of GOD certainly That which all the Powers of the earth sought but could not prevaile against was from heaven certainely Certainely Christ is risen for many have risen and lift up themselves against it but all are fallen But the Apostle saith it is a foundation that he will not lay it againe No more will we but goe forward and raise upon it And so let us doe CHRIST is risen Suppose He be what then Though Christ's rising did no way concerne us or we that yet 2 first in that a man one of our owne flesh and blood hath gotten such a victorie even for humanitie's sake 2 Then in that one that is innocent hath quit himselfe so well for innocencies sake 3 Thirdly in that He hath foiled a common enemie for amitie's sake 4 Lastly in that He hath wiped away the ignominie of His fall with the glorie of His rising againe for vertue and valour's sake for all these we have cause to rejoyce with Him All are matter of gratulation But the Apostle is about a further matter that Text the Angel's Text he saw II. The Apostle's exposition Christ â—s the first fâ—uits would not serve our turne further then I have said Well may we congratulate Him if that be all but otherwise it perteines not to us Christ is risen The Apostle therefore enters further telling us That Christ did thus rise not as Christ onely but as Christ the first fruits Christ is risen and in rising become the first fruits risen
CHRIST was the utter making it void So Iudgement was entred and an Act made CHRIST should be restored to life And because He came not for Himself but for us and in our name and stead did represent us and so we virtually in Him by His restoring we also were restored By the rule si Primitae tota conspersio sic as the First fruicts go Rom. 11.16 so goeth the whole lumpe as the Roote the branches And thus we have gotten life againe of mankind by passing this Act of Restitution whereby we have hope to be restored to life But life is a terme of latitude and admitteth a broad difference which it behooveth us much that we know Two lives there be In the holy Tongue the word which signifieth life is of the duall number to shew us there is a dualitie of lives that two there be and that we to have an eye to both It will helpe us to understand our Text. For all restored to life All to one not all to both The Apostle doth after at the 44 Verse expressly name them both 1 One a Naturall life or life by the living soule The other â— a Spirituall life or life by the quickening Spirit Of these two Adam at the time of his fall had the first of a living soule was seised of it and of him all mankind Christ and we all receive that life But the other the Spirituall which is the life cheifly to be accompted of that he then had not not actually Onely a possibilitie he had if he had held him in obedience and walked with GOD to have been translated to that other life For cleer it is the life which Angells now live with GOD and which we have hope and promise to live with Him Luc. 20.36 after our restoring when we shall be aequall to the Angells that life Adam at the time of his fall was not possessed of Now Adam by his fall fell from both forfeited both estates Not onely that he had in reversion by not fullfilling the conditions but even that he had in esse too For even on that also did Death seise after Et mortuus est CHRIST in his restitution to all the sonnes of Adam to all our whole nature restoreth the former therefore all have interest all shall partake that life What Adam actually had we shall actually have we shall all be restored To repaire our nature He came and repaire it He did all is given againe really that in Adam really we lost touching Nature So that by his fall no detriment at all that way The other the second that He restoreth too but not promiscuè as the former to all Why for Adam was never seised of it performed not that whereunto the possibilitie was annexed and so had in it but a defeicible estate But then by His speciall grace by a second peculiar act He hath enabled us to atteine the second estate also which Adam had onely a reversion of and lost by breaking of the condition whereto it was limited And so to this second restored so many as to vse the Apostle's words in the next verse are in Him that is so many as are not only of that masse or lump whereof Adam was the first fruits for they are interessed in the former onely but that are besides of the nova conspersio whereof CHRIST is the Primitiae a Ioh. 1.12 They that beleeve in Him saith Saint Iohn them He hath enabled b Ioh. 20.17 to them He hath given power to become the sonnes of GOD to whom therefore He saith this day rising Vado ad Patrem vestrum In which respect the Apostle calleth Him c Rom. 8.29 Primogenitum inter multos fratres Or to make the comparison even to those that are to speake but as d Esay 8. â—â— Esay speaketh of them His children Behold I and the the children GOD hath given me The terme He vseth Himselfe to them after His resurrection and calleth them Children And they as His familie take denomination of Him Christians of CHRIST Of these two lives the first we need take no thought for It shall be of all the vnjust as well as the iust The life of the living soule shall be to all restored All our thought is to be for the later how to have our part in that supernaturall life for that is indeed to be restored to life For the former though it carie the name of life yet it may well be disputed and is Whether it be rather a death then a life or a life then a death A life it is and not a life for it hath no living thing in it A death it is and not a death for it is an immortall death But most certaine it is call it life if you will they that shall live that life shall wish for death rather then it and this is the miserie not have their wish for death shall flie from them Out of this double life and double restoring there grow two Resurrections in the world to come set downe by our SAVIOVR in expresse termes Ioh. 5. â—9 Though both be to life yet 1 that is called condemnation to judgement and 2 this onely Heb. 11.35 to life Of these the Apostle calleth one the better resurrection the better beyond all comparison To atteine this then we bend all our endeavours that seeing the other will come of it selfe without taking any thought for it at all we may make sure of this To compasse that then we must be in CHRIST So it is in the next verse To all but to every one in order CHRIST first the first fruits and then they that be in Him Now He is in us by our flesh and we in Him by His Spirit and it standeth with good reason they that be restored to life should be restored to the Spirit For the Spirit is the cause of all life but specially of the Spirituall life which we seeke for His Spirit then we must possesse our selves of and we must doe that heere for it is but one and the same Spirit that raiseth our soules heere from the death of Sinne Rom. 8.11 and the same that shall raise our bodies there from the dust of death Of which Spirit there is first fruits to reteine the words of the Text and a fullnesse But the fullnesse in this life we shall never atteine Our highest degree heer is but to be of the number whereof he was that said Et nos habentes primitias Spiritus Rom. 8 23. These first fruits we first receive in our Baptisme which is to us Tit. 3.5 our Laver of regeneration and of our renewing by the holy Spirit where we are made and consecrate Primitiae Heb. 12.1 But as we need be restored to life so I doubt had we need to be restored to the Spirit too We are at many losses of it by this sinne that cleaveth so faâ—t to us I doubt it is with us as
with the fields that we need a feast of first fruits a day of consecration every yeere By something or other we grow un-hallowed and need to be consecrate anew to re-seize us of the first fruits of the Spirit again At least to awake it in us as Primitiae dormientium at least That which was given us and by the fraud of our enemie or our owne negligence or both taken from us and lost we need to have restored that which we have quenched to be light anew that which we have cast into a dead sleepe 1. Th. 5..19 Ephes. 5.14 awaked up from it If such a new consecrating we need what better time then the feast of first fruits the sacring time under the Lawe and in the Gospell the day of CHRIST 's rising our first fruits by whom we are thus consecrate The day wherein He was himselfe restored to the perfection of His Spirituall life the life of glorie is the best for us to be restored in to the first fruits of that spirituall life the life of Grace IV. The Application to the Sacrament And if we aske what shall be our meanes of this consecrating The Apostle telleth us Heb. 10.10 we are sanctified by the Oblation of the bodie of IESVS That is the best meanes to restore us to that life He hath said it and shewed it himselfe He that eateth Me shall live by Me. The words spoken concerning that are both Spirit and Life Ioh. 6.57.63 whither we seeke for the Spirit or seek for Life Such was the meanes of our death by eating the forbidden fruit the first fruits of death and such is the meanes of our life by eating the flesh of CHRIST the first fruits of life And herein we shall very fully fit not the time only and the meanes but also the manner For as by partaking the flesh and blood the substance of the first Adam we came to our death so to life we cannot come unlesse we do participate with the flesh and blood of the second Adam that is CHRIST We drew death from the first by partaking his substance and so must we draw life from the second by the same This is the way become branches of the Vine and partakers of his nature and so of his life and verdure both So the time the meanes the manner agree What letteth then but that we at this time by this meanes and in this manner make our selves of that conspersion whereof CHRIST is our first fruits by these meanes obteining the first fruits of His Spirit of that quickning Spirit which being obteined and still kept or in default thereof still recovered shall heer begin to initiate in us the first fruits of our restitution in this life whereof the fulnesse we shall also be restored unto in the life to come As Saint Peter calleth that time the time of the restoring of all things Then shall the fulnesse be restored us too Act. 3.21 when GOD shall be all in all not some in one and some in another but all in all Atque hic est vitiae finis pervenire ad vitam cujus non est finis This is the end of the Text and of our life to come to a life whereof there is no end To which c. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE KING'S MAIESTIE AT VVHITE-HALL on the XXVII of March A. D. MDCVIII being EASTER DAY MAR. CHAP. XVI Et cum transisset Sabbatum c. VER 1. And when the Sabbath day was past Marie Magdalen and Marie the mother of Iames and Salome bought sweet ointments that they might come and embalme Him 2. Therefore early in the morning the first day of the weeke they came unto the Sepulcher when the Sunne was yet rising 3. And they said one to another Who shall roll us away the stone from the doore of the Sepulcher 4. And when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was a very great one 5. So they went into the Sepulcher and saw a yong man sitting at the right side clothed in a long white robe And they were afraid 6. But he said unto them Be not afraid Ye seeke IESVS OF NAZARET which hath beene crucified He is risen He is not heere Behold the place where they put Him 7. But goe your way and tell His Disciples and PETER thâ—t He will goe before you into Galilee there shall ye see Him as He said vnto you THE Summe of this Gospell is a Gospell that is The Summe a message of good tydings In a message these three points fall in naturally 1 The Parties to whom it is brought 2 The Partie by whom 3 And The Message it selfe These three 1. The Parties to whom Three women the three Maries 2. The Partie by whom an Angell 3. The Message it selfe the first newes of Christ's rising againe These three make the three parts in the Text. 1 The Women 2 The Angell 3 The Message Seven verses I have readd ye The first foure concerne the Women The fifth the Angell The two last the Angell's message In the Women we have to consider The Division 1 Themselves in the first 2 Their Iourney in the second and third and 3 Their Successe in the fourth In the Angell 1 The manner of his appearing 2 and of their affecting with it In the Message The newes it selfe 1. That CHRIST is risen 2. That He is gone before them to Galilee 3. That there they shall see Him 4. Peter and all 5. Then the Ite dicite The Commission Ad Evangelizandum not to conceale these good newes but publish it These to his Disciples they to others and so to us we to day and so to the worlds end I. The Parties to whom Three Women AS the Text lyeth the part that first offereth it selfe is The parties to whom this message came Which were three Women Where finding that Women were the first that had notice of Christ's resurrection we stay For it may seeme strange that passing by all men yea the Apostles themselves Christ would have His Resurrection first of all made knowne to that sexe Reasons are rendred of diverse diversly We may be bold to alleage that the Angell doth in the Text Verse 5. Vos enim quaeritis for they sought Christ. And Christ is not vnrighteous to forget the worke and labour of their Love Heb. 6.10 that seeke Him Verily there will appeare more Love and Labour in these Women then in Men even the Apostle's themselves At this time I know not how Men were then become Women and did animos gerere muliebres Ioh. 20.19 and Women were Men Sure the more manly of the twaine The Apostles they satt mured up all the doores fast about them sought not went not to the Sepulcher Ioh. 21.15.20 Neither Peter that loved Him nor Iohn whom He loved till these Women brought them word But these Women we see were last at His Passion and first at His
congruitie they found were many they may be reduced to these foure 1. Whither you looke to the composition or parts of it 2. Or to the furniture and vessells of it 3. Or to what was done in it 4. Or to what was done to it that is what first and last befell it In all which they hold that Templum hoc might more truely be affirmed of Him that was in the Temple then of the Temple He was in The last of the foure what was done to that Temple what befell it and so what befell the Temple of Christ's bodie that I take to be most proper to this Text and to that we have in hand For to goe through all foure would take up a whole sermon So I take my selfe to the Congruitie onely Marke then what befell either by that shall you best find that Fata utriusque Templi the destinies of both Temples were alike Psal. 132.6 Mat. 2.1 Like in Solvite excitabo They began alike The first newes of the Temple was heard at Ephrata which is Bethlehem So was it of Him for there was He borne Like in their beginnings and in their ends no lesse I appeale to this Text and content me with those two He insists on Himselfe Both were destroyed both were reared againe that in all things His Bodie and His Temple might be suitable 2 Chro. 36.19 Psal. 137.7 That Temple was destroyed by the Chaldees downe with it even unto the ground Imitated by them heer downe with it even into the ground For they never left till they had Him there past Excitabo as they thought past rising any more But as the Temple Agge 1.14 after it was so razed had an Excitabo was raised againe up by Zorobabel So was this too Solvite tooke place but there came an Excitabo after that made amends for it And as the glorie of the second House was greater then the first So the estate Agge 2.10 He rose to farr more glorious then that He was in before And marke I pray you if these two were not to be seen as brim in the little glasses about it as in the great Mirrour it selfe For the Temple was as a great Mirrour and the furniture as so many little glasses round about it Take but the Arke the Epitome as it were of the Temple The two Tables in it the type of the true treasures of Wisedome Knowledge hid in Him Col. 2.3 Exod. 32.19.34.4 they were broken first there is Solvite but they were new hewen and written over againe there is excitabo The Pot of Manna a perfect resemblance of Him the Vrna or the vessell being made of earth so earthly The Manna the contents of it being from heaven so heavenly The Manna we know would not keepe past two daies at the most Exod. 16.20.24 Exod 16 32. there is Solvite but being putt into the Vrna the third day it came againe to it selfe and kept in the Pott without putrifying ever after there is Excitabo· Aaron's rod the type of His Priesthood and of the rule of soules annexed to it that Rod Num. 17.8 was quite dead and drie but revived againe blossomed yea brought forth ripe Almonds In every and in each of them His destinie whom they represented Solvite and Excitabo in all But the End is all in all and in respect of that of the end well saith Ambrose of His bodie Verè Templum in quo nostrorum est purificatio peccatorum Truly a Temple He no Temple ever so truely as wherein was offered up the true propitiation for and the true purification of our sinnes and of us from them which is the end of all Temples that ever were or shall be and was but shaddowed in all besides but in this truly performed There the onely true Holâ—caust of His entire obedience which burnt in Him bright and cleare from the first to the last all His life long There the onely true Trespasse-offering of His Death and Passion the Solvite of this Temple satisfactorie to the full for all the trespasses and transgressions of the whole world There the Meat-and-drinke-offering of His blessed Bodie and most precious blood And the Exta of this sacrifice the fat of the entrailes of it that is the Love wherewith He did it the desire the longing desire He had to it that that Luc. 12.50.22.15 Col. 1.20 was the perfect Offering that sett at one all things both in heaven and earth That what ever was Sub figurâ in Templo illo was really and in truth exhibited in Templo hoc And iudge now whither the Signe were not well layd by our SAVIOVR in the Temple which was it selfe a Signe of Him And whither as He sayd in a place Ecce maior Templo hîc So He might not have sayd Ecce maius Templum hîc Mat. 12.6 when He was in the Temple Behold a greater a truer Temple now in the Temple then the Temple it selfe Now to the second maine point Solvite II a Solvite the saying a The saying it first b The executing it after The Solvite and the Solutum est 1. First by Solvite that is dissolving is meant death * Phil. 4.23 Cupio dissolvi ye know 1 Sâ—lviâ—e Death a loosing what that is And Tâ—mpus dissolutionis meae instat the time of my dissolution that is my death is at hand For death is a very dissolution a loosing the caement the soule 2. Tim 4.6 and bodie are held togither with Which two as a frame or fabrique are compaginate at first and after as the timber from the lime or the lime from the stone so are they taken in sunder againe But death is not this way onely a loosing but a further then this For upon the loosing the soule from the bodie and life from both there followes an universall loosing of all the bonds and knotts heer of the Father from the Sonne and otherwhile of the Sonne from the Father first Of Man from Wife of friend from friend of Prince from people So great a Solvite is death makes all that is fast loose makes all knotts flye in sunder 2. And all this in naturall death But a further matter there is in Solvite 2 Solvite Violent For that is against nature alijs solventibus by the hands of other that are the Solventes them to whom this is spoken This Temple dropps not downe for age or weakenesse dissolves not of it selfe Others they to whom Solvite is heer sayd they pull it downe It is then no naturall but a violent death this Well therefore turned Solvite destroy it there is no destruction but with force or violence 3. So violent though on theirs as voluntarie yet on His part 3 Solvite Valuntarie Not against His will quite not by constraint For He Himselfe that is to be disâ—olved He it is doth heer say Solvite He could have avoyded it if He would He would