A SERMON PREPARED To be preached at the FUNERALL of WALTER NORBANE Esq BY W. HAYWOOD Dr. in DIVINITY One of the Chaplains in ordinary to his late MAJESTY of Glorious Memory LONDON Printed for Richard Thrale at the Cross-Keyes at S. Pauls-Gate entring into Cheapside 1660. To the truly Virtuous and Worthy Mistress Mary Norbane Relict of Walter Norbane Esq deceased THat I had no desire or meaning thus to appear in print when I first undertook this Funeral Sermon I suppose on my single asseveration will easily be believed But that the Sermon should be at the very instant of the delivery in so honourable so full an Audience defeated and silenced is a thing not so easie to be believed without the attestation of many Witnesses That one single person usurping the Office of a Minister but neither a Graduate nor in Orders nor scant of Age to be nor ever intending as I am informed any way old or new to be should by his clamorous impudence and shameless railing confound such a Solemnity silence the Preacher appearing in the Pulpit and drive all that met to do honour to the memory of so worthy a Gentleman out of the Church without any Sermon is an example of pity and boy-like petulance such as I think can hardly be paralelled Especially sith neither the deceased Gentleman for ought I know nor the Preacher had ever affronted or provoked the said insolent Party in word or deed My own wrong I thank God I least value having learned by experience to bear many causeless injuries with patience But the wrong done to the deceased a singular Ornament to this Countrey and to his Profession together with the injury and contempt of so noble an Auditory consisting of Lords Knights Parliament-men Esquires Gentlemen Officers of the County and Reverend Divines so many as in divers years hath not been seen in Caln-Church the like Congregation such an insolence may not so well be passed over in silence nor so Worthy a Company utterly defrauded of what they came to hear I have therefore yielded to the request of divers friends that the Sermon may be published and not buried with him whose Memory and Vertues deserves never to be buried And I have thought fit to dedicate it to you by whose request it was undertaken and who can best witnesse how little I sued or sought for the employment Beseeching God it may help to mitigate your sorrow for so invaluable a losse and add somewhat to your comfort and remain as a Monument of his good will to you and yours who is many wayes obliged to be and to continue Your truly loving Friend and Neighbour WILLIAM HAYVVOOD A SERMON At the Funeral of Walter Norbane Esq April 13 1659. at Calne Church in Wiltshire prepared to be preached ROM 6.5 For if we have been planted together into the likeness of his Death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection OF Christs Death and Resurrection it is that the Apostle here speaks exhorting us to be planted into the one that we may attain to the likeness of the other The time of the year borders upon the annual Memory of our Saviours Death and Resurrection and it is a season also of planting and growing up but God hath made it to our great sorrow a time of felling and hewing down We have beheld the fall of this worthy Gentleman whose remainders lie here before us as the fall of some great Tree under whose shadow many lesser plants were shelter'd A Tree of no little ornament benefit relief and comfort to the poor Inhabitants of this place wherein he lived And much to our sorrow it adds that there appears not so near again any of like dignity age and fair abilities to compare with him Howbeit if we could be perswaded this cutting down were but a new Plantation and a plantation of great advantage to him how much loss soever to us that might avail somewhat to mitigate our sorrow And that I suppose this Text may help to perswade us for there we hear of a plantation into Christs Death so that Death it self to them that are in Christ is but a kind of plantation and their burial a kind of sowing So our Apostle 1 Cor. 15.42 It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weaknesse it is raised in power So our blessed Saviour Except a Corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit John 12.24 Christ himself therefore chose to die and his Burial to him proved but a planting His Body in three dayes rose again with an encrease of Immortality and Christ neither died nor rose for himself but is become the first fruits of them that sleep and the pattern of them that shall rise again For as is the Heavenly Adam so they also that are heavenly And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly But there must be a change first for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither may corruption inherit incorruption There must be a plantation therefore first into the death of Christ a fellowship with his sufferings as St. Paul calls it a conformity to his Passion which if we patiently undergo the Text then hath a comfortable promise that will not fail us For if we have been planted into the likeness of his Death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection But it will be said Saint Paul speaks not here of our planting into Christ by a natural death but rather by a moral or a mystical for immediately before he instanceth in Baptism Buryed saith he by Baptism into death That like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father so we should walk in newness of life And at the eleventh ver Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that the planting into our Saviours Death which Saint Paul here intends is by a death unto sin not by a death in the grave And this we deny not And even in this respect we have not only a comfortable Scripture over the dead but full of good instruction also and edification to the living So would Funeral Sermons be They are for the behoof of the living rather than the dead That as the Apostle saith of Prophesie He that prophesieth speaks unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort so by such preaching Christians might not only be comforted but edified likewise and exhorted Now for edification a Scripture more effectual can hardly be found than this For it comprehends the summe of all vertuous and godly living To be planted into Christs Death that thereby we may grow to his Resurrection that is To die to sin and live to Righteousness Cease to do evil and learn to do well Put off the
and to Men We hunger and thirty and are buffered Being reviled we bless being persecuted we bear it being defamed we entreat we are made as the filth of the world and are as the off-scowing of all things to this day 1 Cor. 4.13 There 's the Crosse of Tribulation Of these two Martyrdomes the first is more excellent because it belongeth to all Christians and is at all times to be practised Nor is the Crosse of Tribulation acceptable at all unless the Crosse of mortification be joyned with it but add both together and then ye have the nearest conformity to the Crosse of Christ that can be When a heart cleansed from sinfull corruptions and perfumed with sanctifying Graces is beaten in the Morter of Tribulation is threshed with the staile of persecution and sends forth the sweet odour of Praise and Thanksgiving rejoycing under the Crosse it is one of the most pleasing sacrifices to God and the nearest resembling Christs ' that may be imagined To touch upon both these in a few words That the Crosse of Mortification may most nearly be brought to the similitude of Christs Death observe from the words of our Text similitudinem mortis That it be not a defective or half mortifying in some parts not in all having our tongues bridled it may be and our hearts loose out looks and gestures sanctified but our actions in secret lawless our voluptuous desires curbed but covetous ones untied Our intemperance pruned and pared but our revenge and malice overgrown This is not in similitudinem mortis for Death setters all limbs deprives all sences extinguishes all faculties And Christ when he was crucified had every member stretched on the Cross not any escaped the paines of it if 〈◊〉 mortifie some vices and spare others as Saul destroyed Amalek in part and spared Agag if we leave a beloved sin uncrucified this is not the likenesse of Death but of mutilation only it is not in mortem while we suffer the smallest known sin to escape vengeance Not maimed then let our mortifying be Nor secondly inconstant that we return again to the works of sin for dead men return no more to life And thirdly let there be no more motion nor remembrance of former follies Let not our hearts fall a longing as the children of Israel when they remembred the Onions and Fleshpots and Fish and Melons of Aegypt for they that are dead are dead to all love and liking and have no more remembrance of the things of this life Fourthly Let not the pains of mortifying deter us neither for if it be in the likeness of Christs Death he dyed we know a painful Death Think not the crucifying of our naughty lusts will prove an easie dying but then believe it true and unfeigned when it puts us to trouble and grief These four then may help to try our mortifying whether our plantation come home to the pattern of Christs Death or no that is to say if it be an entire mortifying and in all parts diffused for it is Death not a maiming If it put us to sore pangs and struglings for it is a painfull Death and a Crucifying If it utterly abolish all delightfull remembrances all longings and desires toward sin for it is Death not a sickning or swowning And fourthly If it be a constant mortifying that we return no more to the works of sin for it is Death and not a sleeping The first of these discovers Hypocrites which mortifie by halves The second tender and delicate ones that will not abide the paines of a thorow mortifying The third waverers and languishers whose hearts hang after the pleasures of sin The fourth babksliders and revolters that return with the dog to the vomit and the sow to the mire again If our mortifying fail in none of these four particulars it is a good sign it comes home and the first way of planting into Christs Death is sound and uncounterfeit But then neither may the second way be omitted after the Crosse of mortification must be expected the Crosse of tribulation to trie whether our plantation be firm and right when the Potters vessel is well fashioned it must be brought to the fire that it may be hardned And the fire shall trie evry mans work of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 No sooner was Job perceived to be perfect and upright but Satan desired to trie him and the like with the Apostle whom he would fain have sifted as wheat the highest of all the eight Beatitudes is Blessed they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake If persecution shake us it is a signe we are firmly planted then indeed And it is Gods mercy to his own to send them a right experience of themselves in persecution that they may be assured their mortification is unfained tribulation worketh experience and experience hope that maketh not ashamed And if any be made ashamed that is fall away through stormes of persecution he may impute it to the lack of sound mortification his first planting was not firme Well but how may our planting either way be examined whether it be sound and firme according to Christs likenesse or no How but by the vertues which were most eminent and conspicuous in the Crosse of Christ and made his sufferings so acceptable Now they are chiefly foure which Bernard likens to the foure quarters of the Crosse each of them serving to make up the compleat body of a Christian suffering that is to say Humility and Charity and Patience and Constancy Humility first for Christ humbled himself and became obedient to Death even the Death of the Crosse And if he so humbled that had no sin how much rather we that are so full of sin humillity teaching us to think the worst of our selves will perswade us all the sufferings that fall upon us are lesse than we have deserved He hath not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us after our iniquities And consequently teach us with meeknesse to submit to the scourge Righteous art thou O lord in all thou hast brought upon us The end of the Crosse is indeed to humble us If any repine at it and grow not more lowly by it he makes not the right use of it Secondly Charity or Obedience which proves our lowlinesle for in the Death of Christ was manifested the height hof Charity Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend How great was his then that layd down his life for his enemies And Love is the fulfilling of the law Charity is the summe of obedience It suffereth long and is kind and thinks no evil heark how it speaks from the crosse Father forgive them for they know not what they do And Lord lay not this sin to their charge saith the first Martyr with his last breath If we be so charitable in our sufferings as to returne blessing for cursing prayers for persecutions it is a signe our plantation into the
old Man that we may be planted into the New And what is there more in Christianity to be done Yet though this be the nearest and most genuine Exposition of the Apostle so to understand him as speaking of mortification and rising to a new life the other way of applying this Text to men naturally dying or pressed with great tribulations may not be excluded as altogether improper For even to that purpose also Saint Paul in other places applyeth this very Metaphor of dying and rising with Christ as 2 Cor. 1.8 We are troubled on every side but not distressed Persecuted but not forsaken alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifest c. And though resembling Christs Death and Rising by true Repentance and a holy Life be the most excellent and most profitable way of imitating him as without which outward suffering availe little and therefore that sense needs most exhortation Yet we cannot deny such a conformity to Christs Death by our sufferings to be a neerer way and more fully resembling the likenesse of his plantation As our rising from corruption to glory draweth neerer the likenesse of Christs Resurrection than our rising to newnesse of life onely So our planting into Christs Death by a fellowship of his sufferings and by being brought down to the grave with him is a neerer and fuller resemblance of his passion than the Death of true repentance and mortification to sin only if no other affliction be added But how much more full if both be joyned together As in this our deceased brother to my knowledge they were an afflicted Body and a penitent soule a self-deniyn life and a patient and lamb like death a flesh crucified with the affections and lust and a spirit raised and revived with hope of immortality a soule aspiring to heaven while his body sunk to the earth What nearer what fuller what truer or more immediate planting into the death and Resurrection of Christ And he that is so farre incorporated what Text can fit him better For if we have thus been planted into the likenesse of our Saviours Death We shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection We proced to a division of our Text. Two plantations in this Scripture appeare joyned in connexion and inferred one upon the other The one a sad and heavy plantation the other a joyfull and comforting the one in weeping and mourning the other in triumph and rerejoycing the one may be called our Winner plantation the other our Summer If not rather the one our seed time the other our harvest out Winter planation or seed-time For if ye have been planted together into the likenesse of Chirsts Death And our Summer plantation or harvest Ye shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection The former of these containes our conflict the later our Crown Not more bitternesse and pains in the one than comfort and sweetnesse in the other We begin with the former which is our Winter plantation or sowing in tears For if we have been planted into the likenesse of Christ's Death Where the first word that meets us is the Conjunction Si implying a Condition Si complantati fuerimus If we have been planted Giving us to know that these two plantations are so connected one to the other as our labour and our reward our warfare and our victory that without having our part in the former there is no hope of attaining the latter unlesse we first communicate in the Winter plantation of our Lords Death at the summer plantation of his Resurrection there will be no arriving Except we first suffer with him no hope of reigning It is the Apostles way of arguing for some length together whereby he perswades Timothy to endure hardnesse as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2.3 If a man strive for Masteries yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits Remember that Christ first died before he rose againe and it is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we believe we shall also live with him So the two plantations are inseparable and rightly we may conclude if any man misse his part in the later it is for lack of the former if any attaine not to the Resurrection of Christ it is because he failed in the suffering which may be the reason perhaps why the Apostle thus puts it upon an If as a thing to be doubted of If we have been planted into his Death For so hard appeares the condition and so rate the number of them that are truely so planted that it may well be doubted and doubted of the best of us all Insomuch that the Apostle speaks here in the first person as if he doubted of himself for company If we have been planted fully and throughly into the likenesse of Christs Death And it is but what ye find in the third to the Phillipians All things I account but dung that I may be found in him with the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any meanes I might attaine to the Resurrection of the dead Not as if I had allready attained or were allready perfect But I follow after if I may apprehend Phillip 3 12. If I may apprehend So that he doubts of his own sufferings likewise and whether this first plantation be compleat with himself Ye see therefore that he useth the preterperfectense also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we have been planted Have been that we desire to be that we intend to be every one will be ready to say and no If no doubt upon that All the feare is whether or no we have allready enough of this plantation Which makes him say in another place I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh Coloss 1.24 As if somewhat in this kind were still wanting on his part and therefore well may he utter it with Si si Dubitantis If we have been allready planted sufficiently into the likenesse of his Death Doubted it may be the rather because of the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here added Si complantati faith the latine if we have been planted together which is diversly expounded together with Christ or together with one another Together with Christ If we have been obedient as he was to the Death not shrinking from our pattern so much as in a wish but resolved with him who when he saw the cup coming prayed not my will O Father but thine be done And then together with out brethren If we have not deserted out companions in suffering As St. Paul complaines of Demas that he had forsaken him and embraced this present world 3 Tim. 4.10 And at my first answer to wit before Nero No man stood with me but all forsook me Si complantati may teach us that suffering together in a good
cause is as acceptable as praying together They do not well therefore who withdraw from times of Common humiliation such as the Memorial of our Lords Passion and his fasting in the Wildernesse times ordained to make this Complantati as universal and as full as may be that Christians may be planted together into the similitude of their Saviours Death Two observations more by the way here offer themselves One upon Plantati another upon Mortem Upon Plantati that it is not any slight Conformity or Community with the Death of Christ will serve turn Though it be but in similitudinem yet it is more than assimilati It is not if we resemble it if we imitate or draw near it But Si complantati if we have been planted into it which argueth a nearer Conjunction more firm and inseparable For that which is planted or grafted so the word signifieth groweth into one nature with that whereto it is joyned It partakes of one life one spirit with the Root and never decayes so long as it hath Communion therewith We are not waxed or soder'd or pinn'd to the Body of Christ to be shaken off with foul weather melted with the flames of persecution or unty'd by Satans cunning but we are planted there to abide there to grow and thrive and encrease To thrive and encrease for planting inferrs fruitfulnesse Christs death is no barren soyl his Body no unfruitfull Tree It yielded an encrease with him to life everlasting and must yield an encrease with us An encrease and no small one For Christs Body is a Vine of all plants the most fruitfull I am the Vine ye are the branches and my Father the Husbandman Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit If it bear none be takes it away c. John 15.6 Nor will it suffice that for a while we bring forth fruit unlesse we continue so Branches that are grafted Slips that are planted if they live are never at a stay but alwayes encreasing to imitate our daily and incessant growth in Grace Therefore is the Gospel of the Kingdom likened to a grain of Mustard seed to Leaven spreading through a whole Lump the Corn rising and growing first the blade then the ear and then the full Corn in the ear and never at a stand till it be quite ripe If young Imps newly grafted do not thrive and encrease it is a signe they are not well joyned they have not communion with the Root Communion with the Root may be another reason why the Apostle chooseth this Metaphor of Planting The fruit be it more or less receives all its vigour from the Root while it derives from thence it flourisheth and multiplyeth when it ceaseth to draw from thence it withers to intimate therefore the power of all well-doing of all the fruit we bear is derived from the Merits of Christ and his Passion not from any natural vigour of ours therefore we hear of planting into his Death Into his Death leads us to another observation concerning Mortem That into any other resemblance of Christ it will not suffice us to have been planted if we shrink from this it will not serve turn that we have been planted into his life or his lesser sufferings As his causeless envy his undeserved infamy persecution stripes and wounds if we reach not to a Communion with his Death First by Mortification that the flesh be curcified with the affections and lusts and we can say no longer I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live is no more to my self but to him that dyed for me and rose again And then by constancy in Obedience that we be faithfull to the death that neither famine nor nakednesse peril or sword be able to separate us from his love This is in samilitudinem mort is into the likenesse of his Death without which all communion with his life will do no good Farther yet It may be doubted why Saint Paul adds In Similitudinem not into Christs Death but into the likenesse of his Death It is as some think to comfort those who by a mortified life striving after their Pattern reach it but imperfectly That though they attain not a full Communion or Identity with their Copy they may not be disheartened while they reach a similitude For a similitude may be enough for us Christ dyed bodily It may suffice that we die spiritually Christ died to make satisfaction We to make good our belief of his satisfaction Christ died for sin we not for but to sin Christ for the sinnes of the whole world we for no sinnes but our own Nor for our own neither by way of expiation for we cannot satisfie Justice but by way of cessation that we commit them no more Christ was crucified on the Cross literally God send our affections and lusts to be crucified mystically So perfectly mortified was he as to know no sin we if we can get so far as not to serve sin it will be well In Christ both nature and mortality was destroyed but not sin for he knew no sin In us not Nature nor Mortality till the time of our dissolution but sin only Christs death and rising again was by his own power I have power to lay down my life and power to take it up again John 10.18 so cannot ours be Our spiritual dying and rising is all by his ayd and assstance and vertue of our planting into him and without him we can do nothing so ye see a wide disparity 'twixt his manner of dying and ours And therefore well may it be in similitudinem not planted into his death but into the likeness of his death But in what points then holds the similitudes of being planted into that likeness ye will ask sith in these it holds not Nay first enquire what be the right wayes of thus planting for there appear more than one As there are two sorts of Crosses belonging to a Christian one of Mortification another of Martyrdome or Tribulation so two kinds of planting into Christs death The one voluntary by beating down our bodies by crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts and the other involuntary by persecutions molestations and troubles for a good conscience which all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must expect their share of St. Cyprian calls these two several kinds of Martyrdome the one belonging to times of Warre the other to times of Peace In times of Warre saith he Ponenda est anima we must jeopard our lives for a good conscience and imitate Christs Death that way In times of Peace Frangenda carnis desideria the wanton desires of the flesh to be broken and crucified The one of these ye have in St. Pauls Castigo corpus I beat down my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 There 's the Crosse of mortification and the other in facti sumus spectaculum we are made a Spectacle to the World to Angels
death of Christ is strong and mighty indeed as the contrary discovers a weake Christian For Thirdly if our conformity be right it must add Patience a vertue in Christs suffering most eminent Who As a sheep led to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth He shall not crie nor strive neither shall any man heare his voyce in the streets I became dumb and opened not my mouth faith David for it was thy doing this silent submitting this patient bearing this still lying and making no noyse is that which proveth us true Gold indeed for that melts in silence and makes no noyse as wheat also abides quiet under the flayle while Chaffe flieth in the face of them that smite it Fourthly Constancy the Crowne of all the rest for only He that indureth to the end shall be saved Most eminent this was in our Saviours Crosse when all the bitter scoffes of his enemies could not move him to come down Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the Crosse and we will believe him No they are not to be believed that say it Christ having loved his own continued to love them to the end and would not leave the work of our Redemption unperfect and lose the fruit of all for lack of constancie let patience saith St. James have her perfect work And the perfection of Patince is Constancy that we be not weary of well doing nor tired out with innocent suffering But wait on the Lord till he deliver us committing the keeping of our soules to him in well doing as to a faithfull Creator I know whom I have beleeved and he is able to keep what is committed to him 2 Tim. 1.12 Add these foure vertues together and then your sufferings may appeare somewhat like your Saviours Let them be humble without confidence in your selves Charitable having compassion and praying for others patient and silent without complaint or murmurring Constant and continued to the end without wavering or revolting And then your plantation is proved to be sound and firme ye are thus without doubt Planted into the similitude of Christs Death Especially if you be faithfull to the Death for that makes all sure Be faithfull to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of life Death ends the conflict puts all out of hazard gets the Conquest and crowns the conqueror for it foils the last and worst of all our enemies even Satan and all his forces As by the Crosse of mortification we die to the flesh and by the Crosse of Tribulation we die to the world so by the Crosse of a naturall Death we die to all the temptations of Satan And are then past our winter plantation without doubt and stand ready for our summer that followeth in the Text as the second General of our division and the Reward annexed to the painefull coudition For if we have been planted into the likenesse of his Death we shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection A promise I told you this part is and such a one as cannot faile us if we faile not with the condition The condition that indeed is proposed hypothetically and doubtfully If ye have been planted into his Death But so is not the promise that is direct and Categoricall without any If in t. Ye shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection Shall be without doubt if you continue unmoveable in your Winter plantation and pluck not your selves from the Tree of Christ Crosse That Cro-sse is a Tree of life that will not suffer you to die or wither but shoot you forth again into a better plantation Howbeit Take heed of presuming for though we cannot perish while we continue fast joyned to the root we may break our selves from the root and so perish If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a witherd branch Iohn 15.6 Behold the goodnesse and severity of God On them that fell severity But toward thee goodnesse if thou continue in hi goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cutt off Rom 11.22 So that in our unstedfastnesse there may be danger but in his promise is no unstedfastnesse If we continue not yet he abideth faithfull he cannot deny himself more than one or two places of Scripture like this assure us that we cannot misse of a glorious and high plantation if we abide firm in a lowly one and be constant in true Repentence then it is a faithfull saying For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2. Knowing that as we have been partakers of the suffrings we shall be also of the consolation 2 Cor. 1.7 For ye are dead and your life is bid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appeart then shall ye also appeare with him in glory Col. 3.4 He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also quicken our mortall bodies Ro. 8.11 Numbers of the like Testimonies assure us that our diying in Christ is but the Gate of rising to life we cannot be lost in the first plantation if we wait with patience for the second And as true that the two plantations are inseparable as was said no arriving to a glorious summer but through a hard winter no happy rising with Christ unlesse we die with him And if any rise not by a new and holy life after their repentance and conformity to his suffrings it is a sign they were never well planted into the similitude of Christs Death So then the connexion of the two plantings is undeniable they may not be severed But as touching this latter plantation into Christs rising wherein ye will aske consists that Or what is it to be so planted Interpreters are here divided some because the chapter throughout is an exhortation to good life and the words before are Baried with him in Baptisme into death That like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father so we to walk in newnesse of life conceive by this planting into the resurrection of Christ is meant onely our sanctification as by the other planting into his Death is meant our true Repentance and Mortification Others again because the two parts appeare in the nature of a Promise and Reward conceive this latter plantation to point at our eternall reward and the likenesse of Christs Resurrection to be that state of immortality wherein Christ now abides and which at the end of the world all his true members shall partake of both expositions are profitable both usefull and both have great abettors for the former of sanctification are Ambrose Jerom Bede and Cajetane for the latter of glorification are Chrysâ—stome Theophylact Euthymius and Athanasius we shall God willing touch upon both as the time will permit and so conclude with a word of Application And first we shall be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection that is by our sanctification In nature
this ought to go first for it went first in Christ even before his Body was glorified while he was in his mortality his soule was perfectly holy and enjoyed the vision of God These two estates of Christ viz. Before his resurrection and after represent our two Resurrections One of the soule to Righteousnesse and Holinesse begun in this state of mortality another of the Body glorified with immortality at Christs second coming to judgment The soules resurrection leads the way called therefore in Scripture the first Resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in that For over such the second Death shall have no power Revel 20.6 Two deaths we read of before the end of the world The souls death in sin and the bodies death in the Grave Both would have their resurrection But first the soule from the Death of sin to the life of righteousnesse which is by Grace And then the Body from corruption to Immortality which is by Glory To begin with the souls Resurrection to the life of Grace observable it is that this also is a plantation supernatural as well as the life of Glory No praise to us then in any good fruit we bear but to the Root Christ Jesus the Root of Jesse whereinto we are planted Without me saith he ye can do nothing for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure What hast thou which thou hast not received Even the power and will of bestowing and doing good to others is none of ours to boast of it is bestowed from on high Ye see here the Apostle promiseth such a Resurrection by way of Reward Ye shall be planted so as to bring forth good works Not as if you were able to bring them forth of your selves but God will plant you so that ye shall be able to bring them The reason why the Apostle useth this Metaphor of planting may be to shew how entirely we are beholding to Christ and to his Resurrection for the whole power of well-doing As also to let us know that our fruit bearing in Christ is the very end of our planting Therefore we are planted indeed for the fruits sake for when that cometh then it appears we are living plants then is our Resurrection justified as good we were dead still as barren and yield no encrease to our Master If no fruit then no part sure in this plantation nor in the first Resurrection Well but by what means is this planting brought to pass ye will ask or how are we grafted into Christ's Rising By Faith say some for Faith is that by which we live the life of Grace called therefore sometimes the life of Faith Faith unites us that 's certain for by it we dwell in Christ and Christ in us that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 Others say by Hope Blessed be God who haeth begotten us again to a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jsus Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 Others again by Love for Love is the most uniting Grace of all which makes us one with Christ and Christ with us one undivided and not to be separated for What shall separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.35 Indeed by all three we are incorporated into Christs mystical Body and therefore enliven'd and planted in our first Resurrection But especially and above all is this Resurrection to appear by a holy Conversation in newness of life This is the lively Image and similitude of Christ's Resurrection that as he was changed from mortality to Glory so we from our former corrupt conversation to holiness and righteousness We are grafted into a better stock that we should henceforth bring forth better fruit in vain are we new grafted if our fruit be still the same As the grave made a great change in Christ his glorious Body far differing from his frail and passible one so our lives renewed by Repentance must be far estranged from former sinfull courses All is to be new framed after the Image of the new Man old things are passed away behold I make all things new for if any be in Christ he is a new Creature A new heart that which before delighted in vanity now in perfection of Vertue and Purity New hands those that were wont to hurt and defraud our brethren now exercised in helping and relieving them New tongues those that were given to lying and dissembling to railing and cursed speaking now filled with blessing and truth instruments of Gods Praises New eyes they that so much joyed to behold beauty and vanity now flowing with water for their youthfull follies New feet those that were swift to shed blood now shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and prepated to run the way of Gods Commandements The whole man new not after the Image of the old Adam in the deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse but after the Image of the second Adam in sincerity and Truth This is rightly planted into the Similitude of Christ's Resurrection by being new framed according to his glorious Image And still we may go nearer For the likeness of Christ raised again is the very Image and likeness of God saith Leo. Now Gods likeness is in all Heavenly Vertue far above all passions and frail perturbations is his eternal Constancy He is all Mercy all Truth all Goodness imitate him what we may be mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull kind as he to the unthankfull and evil who sends his Rain upon the just and unjust long-suffering full of patience and slow to take vengeance Moreover see that all be in a right state of Government for Christs glorious Body is wholly subject to the will of the Spirit let our bodies also be in a right subjection to our souls and our souls in subjection to the Law of God Let our sense be ordered by our reason our reason by the Precepts of holy Scripture and especially in the manner of your vertuous working endeavour to resemble your Pattern for there is the right trial indeed Herein lyeth the main difference betwixt men regenerate and unregenerate betwixt those conformed to Christ's likeness and those unconformed That from a true Christian his works come easily voluntarily delightfully like the motions of Christ's glorified Body but from the unregenerate they proceed heavily cheerlesly wearisomly Ianguidly and interruptedly Will ye then discern the truth of your Plantation into the Rising of Christ Observe the manner of your fruit-bearing whether what ye do vertuously ye do delightfully heartily chearfully constantly abundantly without any tediousness or weariness of well-doing If so then ye may gather some comfortable assurance that ye have your part in the first Resurrection in which if you hold out with patience will without fail bring you to the second for that followeth as a Reward upon this and it is a Reward worthy waiting for indeed If ye have thus been planted into Christ's Resurrection
mystically ye shall be really If ye had thus resembled him in soul ye shall in body also and that brings us upon the last point of our division and most proper to our comfort over the dead to wit the Resurrection of immortality and glory and our planting into that Ye shall be planted into the likenesse of Christ's glorious Resurrection And this may well be called a summer Plantation for in the bodies rising mans nature somewhat resembles that of plants Plants after they are wither'd in the depth of Winter begin to spring again at the opening of the year and returning of the Sun The Sun of Righteousness Christ Jesus when he returnes shall make a spring season wherein all the bo dies of dead men shall rise here they have their fall of the leaf in affliction and sicknesse the dead winter in the Grave but they shall insallibly have their spring againe Thy dead men shall live saith Isaiah Their dead bodies shall arise thy dew is as the dew of hearbs and the earth shall cast forth her dead Isa 26.19 Of plants none doubt it they die and spring againe there is hope of a tree if it be cut down that from the root somewhat may spring But man lieth down and riseth not Job 14.12 Nay man shall rise also the nature of man shall now resemble the nature of plants by this new and divine plantation they shall have a new spring and a better summer at the return of a better sun and be more vigorous than ever For it is planted into his resurrection and his resurrection is glorious and glorious for ever Christ being raised from the dead now dieth not Death hath no more Dominion over him which makes the difference betwixt Christ's members and others that shall rise That Death may have dominion over them but not over Christs members that rise after his likenesse for they shall rise in glory When Christ who is our life shall appeare then we also with him in glory And we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Like him and somewhat more More than resemblence is promised even a kind of union I in them and thou in me that we may be made perfect in one John 17.23 This therefore is the plantation most properly intended by St. Paul for he speaks in the future ye shall be planted and shall be intimates hope and hope would be of some glorious reward somewhat worth our waiting for But the Resurrection of Grace to holinesse and Righteousnesse seems rather a labor than a reward because of the imperfection and troubles that attend it in this life the fears the cares and temptations Shall be planted then points to some better estate than this life can hope for even to that of 1 Cor. 15.58 Wherefore my brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the lord for a much as ye know upon his hope to wit of the bodies rising againe that now your abor is not in vain in the Lord. But take this hope away and our labor is vaine indeed then they that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished There must be a Resurrection therefore saith Crysostome on this place or God shall not be a full rewarder of them that seek him They that seek him most shall labor in vaine for how poorly is vertue recompensed here yea the best vertues Constancie and Striving for the truth unto death are least of all rewarded If no other life to be hoped for Christians were doubtlesse of all men most miserable But now is Christ risen saith the Apostle and risen as the first-fruits of them that sleep and therefore they that belong to him must rise like him This flesh now subject to wormes and dust shall be clad with a new garment of immortality he that made it of dust is not so weake that he cannot raise it out of dust again else if no Resurrection saith Damascene let us even turn Epicures eat and drink and live a beastly life and so an end If no resurrection what difference not onely betwixt holy and profane but betwixt men and beasts nay if no Resurection happier were the beasts that know no care feele no cumberance are not disquieted with sorrow for what is past or feare of what is to come If no Resurrection then neither God nor Providence All things are hurried by chance and confusion how many good men in this life have we seen heavily opressed And on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter how many wicked ones may we see unjustly prospering no bands in their death but they are lusty and strong they come in no misfortune like other folk nor are they plagued like other men their eyes swell with fatnesse they cotrupt others and speak wicked blasphemies How can this be endured if God be righteous and wise and all power in his hands Erit ergo Erit Resurrectio saith that Father There must there shall be a Resurrection for God is not untighteous to forget their work and labor of love which have suffered for his sake If the soul only have suffered in vertuous works It perils and conflicts have fallen upon the soule onely let the soule alone be rewarded But if the body the fraile body hath undergone toyles and paines if she sweat and faint hunger and pine and be even martyr'd and mangled for Gods service let either the body share in some proportionable rewards or confess God a weak if not an unrighteous Master Of the bodies Resurrection therefore no doubt to be made such a plantation it shall have but wherein consisteth the similitude ye will ask to the Resurrection of Christ School-writers answer in two things especially that is to say Clory and Impassibility the one defending the body from all harm the other crowning it with all good Two wayes we know a Glass that is broken may be conceived reparable one to be made whole as it was before but still brittle subject to casualties and apt to crack again another so repaired as to be changed into a solid hardness or metall-like firmness not to be broken any more The former of these is like the Resurrection of Lazarus or of Jairus his daughter the later like unto Christ's where this frail Glass of mortality shall be changed into firmness and immutability no more lyable to breaking this mortal to put on immortality and this corruptible to be cloathed with incorruption And again over and above such impassibility ye may suppose added to the Glass Charity and resplendency to give light of it self like a Carbuncle or Glow-wâ—â—n or the Moon in a clear night This likewise shall be added to the bodies impassibility namely Light and Glory The Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father Matth. 13.43 Such is the likeness of Christ's Resurrection In fine the Schoolmen here tell us of the souls and the bodies Dowries when the Heavenly marriage betwixt