intercepted by death Austin And Nebridius S. Austins great friend was not baptised till he was old and S. Austin himselfe was not baptised till his mans estate This errour God confuted by the death of Valentinian and other great spirits which although they were perswaded of the truth of religion yet they put off God and would not take his time but have a time of their owne choosing and therefore God gave them no time as Ambrose saith of the Emperour he wanted not the grace of baptisme because he had the faith of baptisme He yeelded his consent unto the truth and although he went away unbaptised yet he was truely baptised as one who in his heart yeelded to the faith and promises of Christ And if we should take it thus this is the sence of S. Paul in these words what shall they doe that are baptised for dead that is when they are ready to die and goe out of the world if there be no resurrection his argument followes that that which they did so late they would not doe it at all that which they did by constraint putting it off to the last time of their life they would not doe it at all except it were for the hope of the resurrection so that if there be no resurrection there is a maine frustration and a meere delusion of these men that suffer themselves so farre to be overgone with deadly sicknesse as that they looke every houre for death and yet then they take upon them the baptisme of life as a certaine pawne and pledge of the common resurrection This sounds somewhat like a truth but yet it is likely that the Apostle would have condemned this as well as the other being as ridiculous because this is injurious to God and to the Sacrament and pernicious to mens owne soules to tempt God whether he will give them a time of their owne choosing to put off the Sacrament that should be imbraced upon all opportunities to refuse it when God offers it which we should take thankfully and chearefully No doubt but the Apostle would have confuted this errour as the former and not have suffered the Corinthians to have beene so tardy in a point of salvation Wherefore I take this opinion not to be according to the Apostles minde for as I sayd that opinion is most probable and most agreeable to S. Pauls meaning that proves the strongest but this proves nothing that because a man that is driven to it in extremity at the time of his death to doe an action that therefore that action should bee of force that may be done in amazement and feare or by the instigation of others a man it may be is not lead to it by his owne will so much as by the perswasion of another and there is no reason that a man should ground upon such a weake stay to inferre such a strong conclusion The third opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is for the forgivenesse of sins which are dead workes For so indeed the Lord seems to signifie when he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living and also the Apostle when he saith ye were dead in sinnes and trespasses It is true our Saviour Christ includes in that speech both them that were dead naturally and them that were dead spiritually For in one place he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living speaking of naturall death In another place let the dead bury their dead speaking of them that were dead spiritually and so we may apply it that those that are baptised for dead that is for remission of sinnes wherein the body and soule are dead and for the quickening and reviving of them by spirituall grace But this is too farre off for the Apostles meaning is not here to speake of a thing that is common that being common to all beleevers to be baptised for the remission of sinnes but he speakes of some peculiar baptisme that was not common to all in generall but belonged to some in particular Besides the Apostle speakes not here of the spirituall resurrection but of the corporall he speakes not of the rising from sinne to grace although it be true that they that are baptised are baptised for the remission of sinnes yet it is not proper here for the Apostle speaks of the resurrection of the flesh the spirituall is allegoricall which is from the death of sinne to the life of grace by repentance Therefore that proves nothing and is not likely to be S. Pauls minde for he purposed not to spend his time in trifles but to bring the validity of his arguments directly to conclude the cause Another opinion there is that hath many great and substantiall followers They that are baptised for the dead that is that are baptised into the death of Christ Iesus to be planted with him into the similitude of his death And this hath Chrysostome Theodoret Aquinas Calvin and many other great Divines for the Authors and followers of it And that you may see that it hath some similitude of reason in it looke in Rom. 6.4.5 Rom. 6.4.5 Doe you not know saith the Apostle that they that are baptised into Christ are baptised into his death therefore we are buried together with him in baptisme It is true that every man that makes profession of the faith of Christs baptisme among the rest of the articles that he professeth he must beleeve in Christ that was dead and buried that he was crucified and that he descended into hell and that he rose againe the third day c. And he professeth also that he is ready to dye for Christ when he shall be called to it and till that time come that he will dye spiritually in his heart and in his will to worldly affections which he knowes that Christ never had in him or had any liking to them but utterly abhorred them Therefore this being the symbol and badge of our profession it seemes from hence that every man that is baptised may be said to be baptised for dead that is for a dead Christ in whom he trusts which was dead but now is alive and behold he is alive for evermore Apoc. 1.18 He is baptised for dead that is to the world and the flesh that he may live for ever unto God Chrysostome proves this by an argument that hee thinkes fit and convenient for the purpose for saith he whether of the two is easier to raise the body from death or to raise the soule from sinne no doubt saith hee it is an easier matter to raise the dead body from the grave than to raise a soule that is dead in sinnes and trespasses to newnesse of life And behold saith he in the Romans the Apostle proves the one by the other that although we thinke it easier yet he intimates that that which we thinke to be easier is harder and that which seems more hard
in the Apostles place that they would Vse 1 follow his steps to have their reioycing in this one Lord and master to have no ioy in the world or in men in goods and profits in pleasures honours or in preferments which the world usually buyes and sels To have no reioycing in these but as they bee men that belong to God so let them reioyce onely in God And there is all the poynt of gloriation Therefore let not the rich man boast in his riches Ier. 9.23 or the strong man in his strength but let him that reioyceth reioyce in the Lord for it is he that executes iudgement and iustice and that sheweth mercy to those that reioyce in him as the Lord speakes Vse 2 Againe this must teach us to mingle these two together as the holy Apostle doth Reioycing and death we must labour by the study of pleasing Almighty God to keepe this sweet temper in us Wee are sure of the one but we must labour for the other I wonder not when I heare thee say as the Apostle doth here I dye daily for every man doth so there is not the most sensuall man but he hath a touch of death every day eyther by sensible misery or by the touch of conscience by bringing of his sinnes to his view That is incident to nature and a consequent of sinne to dye But what is thy reioycing what comfort hast thou in Christ This is that we should desire and call upon God continually for even to make this temper and mixture in us for the one is as necessarie as the other and God is as ready to give the one as our nature is ready to draw the other upon it selfe And this must be by this one meanes the making Iesus Christ thy Lord knowing no other Lord besides him no nor none against him nor none with him but that he may have the preheminence and be all in all as he is to his children in the world and shall be for ever in another world So thou must make him all thy ayme all that thou desirest all thy gloriation because thou must or canst desire nothing but it is seated in him To conclude with the time here is a modell of a christian mans estate death and life sorrow and ioy he is composed of such strange differences as the understanding of man cannot attaine unto But yet assuredly the Lord is never so heavy to him in iudgment but he is withall rich in mercy sorrow of heart shall never so surround him but he shall have the ioy of the holy Ghost to survive him As Saint Augustine Augustine saith upon that place of Paul Redeeme the time because the dayes are evill I saith he it is true the time in this world is evill but all the dayes that are in Christ are good dayes all the dayes of the Lord are good all the dayes of sinne are evill Let us sell them then he that redeemes parts with one thing to get another Let us sell these evill dayes in this world that we may get those good dayes in the grace of Christ And as Saint Gregory Gregory saith Good Iesus hee that hath thee looseth nothing and though he be in the midst of death yet he shall be recompenced with life although hee be in the midst and swallowed up with sorrow and deepe pangs of conscience yet thy spirit is there to remove that sorrow for though sorrow indureth for a night yet ioy commeth in the morning Psal 30. Psal 30.5 And in thy light wee shall see light thy wrath indures for the twinckling of an eye but in thy pleasure there is life for evermore This is the blessed state that every Christian is called unto and the Lord make it every one of our portions for Iesus Christs sake Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.32 If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men what doth it availe me if there be no resurrection from the dead THis is now the conclusion of that argument which Saint Paul draws from his owne person For drawing his principall argument from the sufferings of the Church to prove the resurrection of the dead he begins first with the generall and then he descends to the particular and last of all he comes to the personall First the generall was verse 29. What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead Then in the next verse he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles and saith We also are in ieopardy every day And for his owne particular he protests he dyes daily in the verse before the Text. And now he comes to explaine this how it should be taken saith he If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men Because he had spoken of a thing unlikely and unusuall and unwonted and therefore it might be offensive to Atticke eares such as were at Corinth to say that he lived and yet was dead therefore now he tempers his speech and mitigates it by this exposition when he saith He received the sentence of death against himselfe for hee was cast to beasts to fight with them eyther indeed according to the letter as it was a kinde of punishment and torment that the Pagan persecutors assigned the Christians unto or by way of metaphore as many and most of the Fathers of the Church interpret it But how ever the force of the argument is all one For whether he were cast to beasts and suffered to take his weapons and to defend himselfe and so by the mercy of God to escape without hurt from them or whether he meane by fighting with beasts beastly minded men as the phrase of Scripture often insinuates the strength of the argument is all one For often times a man were better bee cast unto beasts then to men there being more mercy and lesse fury in the pawes of the very beasts than in the working braines of men and the malicious conveyances that they have in the world So whether wee take it for beasts literally or for men that were beasts metaphorically the force of the argument is equall For saith he if there were no hope of the Resurrection then I would doe as the world doth and I would say as they say I would accommodate my selfe to all mens humours I would be so farre from casting my selfe into such dangers as to sight with beasts or with beastly men as that I would seeke to recover my owne which I had once being a Pharisie I would live a quiet and peaceable life among my brethren as I did then when I was rather ready to doe others hurt than to suffer any I would much rather choose that state of life than thus to be plagued and plunged and drowned in misery if there were not a hope of a Resurrection but the vigour and life of that hope duls all the pangs in this world and sweetens the cup of affliction which else would eate out my very intrayles If
never any man but out Saviour Christ was able to understand Hosea no nor shall doe till the worlds end To make a setled discourse and a plaine exposition of him it is almost impossible for hee seems upon purpose to write in parables and hard Enigmataes and riddles Therefore hee concludes his Prophesie Hosea 14.9 He that hath wisedome shall understand this For indeed he that hath not wisedome cannot possibly attaine the knowledge of it But this that St. Paul saith may be taken in divers kind of speeches that either I will be thy death oh death which is the best reading of all and followed by the best Divines or oh death where is thy sting as the Apostle reades it here The summe of the Prophet Hosea is this to teach that God was purposed and was willing to deliver his people out of the captivity of Babylon and to have brought them quickly home againe and to have stablished them in their owne country But because they were contumelious and rebellious against him therefore their wickednesse and obstinacy stayed his purpose and therefore he would be death to them and would not spare them as wee see in the sequell of the Text. But I will not trouble you with these thornie discourses It is certaine that that which is there written may be taken many wayes and for mee to shew you the variety of Readings were but to cast a stumbling block before your most holy faith Therefore I will resolve upon the authority of the Apostle which followes the Septuagint and reads it thus not I will be thy death but Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory according to the Septuagint For St. Paul followes the Greek copie the translation of the Septuagint in all places almost where he citeth Scripture Howbeit to gather that cōclusion and proposition as Hosea saith by way of supposall If my people had been good if they had been wise death should not have had power over them but I would have been the death of death the Apostle brings it in the way of affirmation oh death where is thy sting Now the reason is this where God propounds things by way of condition there the Saints of God keep the condition alway and so the matter is true to them which is propounded As in Psal 81. If Israell would have kept my wayes Psal 81.13 16. I would have fed them with the finest flowre of wheat but because they did not keepe my wayes therefore they were famished and perished Out of this a man may gather that a childe of God that keeps his wayes shall be fed with the finest flowre of wheat with the best delicates that can be So Hosea speaks by way of supposition in the potentiall mood If my people had been wise if they had repented them of their sinnes I would have done this great miracle for them the Lord would have freed them from their captivity and brought them to Israel out of Babylon which he never did Indeed Iudah returned out of their captivity but Israel did never returne If they had been penitent God would have done this but because they were not and repented not of their rebellion therefore God determined death against them Vse Out of this where the promises of God are hindred by the malice of men the Saints of God can gather matter of comfort and consolation For they keepe the Covenant of the Lord they repent them of their sinnes they are wise when God strikes them and their vexation gives them understanding Therefore they conclude if God would have done this to them if they had beene better certainely he will doe it to mee which desires to be better if hee would have delivered them if they had repented he will deliver me which doe repent before him in sackcloth and ashes Those good things which the wicked cannot have because they keepe not the condition wee shall have them because we keepe the condition You understand then how these things are to bee reconciled Hosea speakes in the potentiall mood that God would doe this but St. Paul speaks it in the indicative mood by way of insultation God hath done it Hee will doe it because the Saints of God are found not truce-breakers but they keep covenant with the Lord as much as they can by the helpe and assistance of his holy Spirit This is all the difference for that which is in the moods and is uttered againe in the tenses it is of lesse moment In that it is said in Hosea the Lord shall doe it and St. Paul saith he hath done it as speaking of the time past This is the nature of faith to expound the promises of the Gospel as things done actually because they are as sure being once signed with the privy signet of God as if they were performed There being no difference with God betweene the things present and the things to come So in the hope of Gods children the promises of God are yea and amen For in Christ Iesus all the promises of God are yea 2. Cor. 1 2◠and amen 2 Cor. 1. So much concerning the Prophet where it is written Wherein because that is the greatest difficulty I thought onely to observe that the Apostle speaks in the confidence of faith that it is now done which the Prophet saith shall bee done And that which the Prophet Isay saith hee shall destroy death the Apostle saith he hath destroyed it that is then when these things shall bee done And Hosea saith I will bee thy death the Apostle saith Where is thy sting oh death These matters I say must be expounded as belonging onely to the faithfull of whose resurrection the Apostle speaks in this Chapter alone For the faithfull doe willingly keepe the condition with God they breake not peace with him but keepe their covenant Therefore that which the rebells should have had if they had kept their truce and covenant that the godly shall have because they doe keepe the condition of the covenant 3. Part. What is written Now I come to that which is written the sentence of Isay is Death is swallowed up into victory Here is first a strange and wondrous position that death should bee swallowed up but of this I have spoken before I will but touch it now And then for the maner of the phrase swallowed And then the terme whereto to victory And then the efficient cause whereby what it is that swallowes up death the death of Christ 1. Swallowed Concerning the first wee must understand that according to the common speech of men death is such a puissant and powerfull adversary that there is no Prince in the earth that can confront him He is indeed able to meet him but he is foyled by him Although indeed death bee nothing but the cessation of nature because a mans sight failes him therefore he is blind because the power of hearing ceaseth therefore a man is deafe because the
as God hath made him which knew not sinne to be sinne for us that is he hath made him a sacrifice for sinne and hee was accounted a sinner as he was made sinne for us so this is the effect of this account and imputation of our sins upon him it shall be the imputation of his righteousnesse upon us as the holy Apostle saith 2 Cor. 6. He was made sin for us which knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God Now after this he hath shewed us the enemies he begins to shew us the use of all this he drawes to a conclusion and he saith God hath given us victory Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ Iesus our Lord. As if hee should say if we had indeed the remnants of sin in us still wee were foolish to make any insultation over death for death would triumph over us for as long as sinne remaines death must needs ensue and as long as the law is put upon us to curbe and contradict us sin will be but now God be thanked that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord For he hath destroyed the one and hee hath fulfilled the other he hath destroyed the one by his gracious conversation and he hath fulfilled the law he hath appeased the wrath of God that now there remaines no more enemy but the field is cleare and we are masters of the field for ever Therefore God be thanked which hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. Wherein wee are to consider First the gift that is given It is victory Division of the Text into 5. parts an absolute and compleat victory over these fierce enemies Secondly whence this victory comes from God God hath given us victory It is from the whole Trinity Thirdly the manner how it comes by way of gift not by way of merit blessed be God that hath given us the victory Fourthly the meanes through whom it comes through Christ Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ Iesus our Lord. It is by the arme of Christ Fiftly the end and use of all Thanks be to God For the blessings of God require thankfulnesse therefore the Apostle gives glory to him that glorifieth us he gives conquest to him that is a conquerour for us Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ The sting of death is sinne the strength of sinne is the Law This former part of the Text describes the Adversaries extinct and vanquished that which hee speaks of a sting is diversly translated by Interpreters some call it morsum the biting comparing it to a serpent that poysoneth and infecteth and killeth by biting so sinne was represented to us in the garden by the serpent that gave the apple unto Eve Some take it for the sting of a waspe the Hebrew word Kota in Hosea 13. Hosea 13.14 signifieth that which is sharp as a stelletto a thing that makes a present impression and by the puncture it pierceth into the inward parts and brings sudden death So by divers Translators it is thus read I will be a plague unto thee oh death and I will be thy destruction oh hell Many and sundry wayes it is translated but it is sufficient for us to take that which the last and best translation affords and so we call it the sting because indeed death was never nor it could not be sharp unto us except it come to be armed with sinne nor there is no calamity in the world no misery that a man suffers but he suffers it willingly if he have a cleare conscience it being the onely rule of peace and quiet to be free from the cause and from deserving that thing that is imputed and cast upon a man But when miseries come not onely tedious of themselves but they come armed with the condignity of sinne that they have a certaine correspondence in commutative justice that he that hath done evill must suffer evill Now it becomes of all calamities the extreamest and most miserable Therefore it is said here The sting of death is sinne as though death it self were nothing unwelcome and harsh to the flesh of man but that it is inflicted for sin and as the wages of sin But here a man may very well make a stand and aske how can this be how should sin be the sting of death seeing it is rather contrary death is the sting of sinne for which is first was not sinne before death saith St. Austin in his 7. Tom. in his 3. S. Aug. Tom. 7. lib. 3. d◠peceat remiss Booke De peccatis remissione peccatorum saith he we sinne not because wee die it is no sinne to die because it is the fulfilling of the judgement of God upon sinne We sinne not in dying but we die for sinning for from that comes our death therefore seeing sinne was the cause of death and that death is a thing of nothing a thing that followes afte◠sinne it seemes therefore that sinne being first and sin being the cause of death it followes that it must use death as a sting unto it and not on the contrary that it should be a sting unto death But for this there is no great matter in the phrase for as St. Austin Aug. and the rest of Divines accord with him the Apostle calls sinne the sting of death not that death made it but that death is made with it and it is made by it so it is called the sting of death that is a deadly sting that brings death with it As a cup of poyson we call it a cup of death not as though death made the cup but because death is with it that he that takes that cup shall die with it So the tree of life and the tree of knowledge the meaning is not as though life were made by the tree or that knowledge were made by the tree but because the fruit of that tree would have brought life and would have brought the knowledge of good and evill This therefore is the meaning of the Apostles words that sinne by the just permission of God and by the deputation that God gave unto sathan to execute judgement upon sinners it comes upon every man armed and it is armed with death the most desperate weapon that can be that destroyes the very nature of man and brings him to his very foundation to a matter of nothing This is that sting that must prick us all at length as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Therefore let us learne while wee are now in this world to prepare our selves for this sting that we doe not kick against the pricks as our Lord saith Acts 9. Acts 9.5 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Let us therefore never grumble against the necessity of sicknesse disease and miseries for alas these are nothing in comparison of death we
must endure death it selfe that prick must gall us to the heart all the power of Men or Angels cannot deliver us from it Let us as well as we can entertain it therefore and not kick against the pricks for we double our wound if we doe and plague our selves more there is no resisting of those things that be of necessity Let us take heed withall seeing sin is called the prick of death or the death of death which is all one let us take heed I say that wee multiply not sinne forasmuch as that is nothing else but to double and re-double our torment to an infinite measure If a man be slaine with one stab of a goad or with a prick of a Stelletto though they are no lesse mortall yet they are more sufferable but if a man shall be cast upon a hurdle that is full of nailes and be rolled up and down upon that that is one of the terriblest deaths that ever was found out and such a death every sinfull man casts himselfe into the more hee sins and gives way unto his head strong affections the more sharp nailes points and pricks he casts himselfe upon Let us take heed therefore the sting of death is sin the more we sin the more nayles and goads and pricks we thrust into our owne sides for there is no sinner but as hee sinnes more so hee offends God more and so he brings more vengeance upon himselfe in a fearfull manner The sting of death is sinne But what sinne is this is it to be accounted the actuall sin that men commit or the originall sin in which they are borne Surely it is true of both but the Apostles meaning is here to speak of Originall sinne for we see this a true doctrine upon chlidren too that never committed actuall sin therefore we must give the sense of the words the most large and utmost extent because we see the doctrine of the place extends it self so farre for children themselves are pricked to death not by actuall transgression according to the similitude of the sinne of Adam but by an inbred corruption which is drawne from the seed of their parents there lying a poyson in the seed of man which came from the first fall and corruption of man in the materialls of Adam in the substance and bodily part there lies a poyson of corruption and it is strange that sinne which is an intellectuall thing a matter of the understanding for there is no beast can sinne because it hath not the intellectuals it wants the understanding It is strange I say that it should rise unto a materiall thing which hath no understanding untill the soul be added but so the Lord hath ordained that in the propagation of the corrupt seed of man there should be infused a soule which lying in a fustie vessell should contract the impurity it finds there in the matter and so should work in both together the damnation of the party in which it is Behold therefore what that fearfull state or condition is in which we are conceived and borne into the world It is that which death useth for a sting it is that fearfull weapon that wounds us and pierceth us not onely for one death but for two for the second death even everlasting destruction if the mercy of God interpose not This is that law in our members that captivates and makes us slaves and carries us away from the law of God This is that prepuce or uncircumcision of the heart that makes us Philistins and Aliens and strangers from the Lord. This is that flint stone that will not be wrought upon by the finger of God but hardens it selfe against all the proceedings of the Lord. This is that seminarie of all mischiefe the originall of all kind of corruption whatsoever a man can think of it is included in Originall sinne For Adam when he fell from God he was a thiefe a murtherer hee was a blasphemer hee was a man given to concupiscence he was a false witnesse against his neighbour hee was the breaker of every Commandement by that action and his children take it from him by originall sinne which is the Mother sinne of all abominations that may be imagined and as wee begin it so wee continue the cherishers and nourishers of it we feed it wee bring it up we suckle this brat of perdition and filthinesse to our owne destruction that every man must needs be forced when he understands himselfe to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death It is a body of death it is not a limbe it is not a superficies it is not a quality it is not a small matter but it is a body it is a legion of devils it is a multitude of sins it is a kingdome of hell This is that beastly corruption which we have all contracted Let us labour in prayer and sollicite God that the power of this monster may be removed for although we had no actuall transgression but wee could live as pure and sincere as the Angels in heaven in respect of actuall sinnes yet as long as wee have this moisture in us the fire is not out though it seeme to be smothered and though it break not forth yet it is not quenched it is not quite slacked So much of the first part the proportion the sting of death is sinne that is originall sinne because if we should take it for actuall sinne then wee could not take children into the definition but they are stung to death they die and yet they have no Actuall sinne therefore it is spoken of originall sin properly But how comes death and sinne to be thus potent and strong The Apostle tell us by the law The strength of sin is the law Till the law came the edge and point of sinne was dull it was blunt when the law came it whetted it and sharpned it againe and made it more piercing than ever it was before The strength of sinne is the law And how is this God gave the Law for a good Law for a holy and just Law how came it then to bee the strength of sinne It seemes God machinated a mischiefe to mankind to give him that which should make him more sinfull But you must understand it is one thing that a man doth upon purpose and for good and it is another thing when the man to whom it is done can receive it so God gave the Law indeed as a true direction for the reformation of life and manners but the party that received it did not take it thus thus by occasion not from the nature of it but by the ill acceptance of the party it came to be thus to bee the strength of sinne As when a Physician that is skilfull in his profession hee doth all that belongs to a skilfull man the druggs that he gives and the ingredients are able to worke their effect if they fall
separated from the body But in all this discourse if we can but gaine the true and most perfect sence we have sufficiently handled this text for We must first consider what the words meane And then how the words prove and argue For if we finde once but the true signification we shall then finde the perfect demonstration and proofe that ariseth from them First then the Church hath taken it as though the Apostle alluded to a grosse errour of the Cerinthians and Montanists and as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Marcionits which out of these words have gathered a ridiculous kinde of baptising of young Christians And they said when there was any Catechumeni that is those that were not baptised but were yet in their principles and in their catechisme for then they baptised none for the most part till they were come to yeares of discretion that themselves were able to make profession of their owne faith Now if any of these were taken away by death upon the sudden or by any casualty which had intended to be baptised at the appointed season which was Easter in this case they were to substitute and appoint some friend that was alive to answer for the dead man and to be baptised for him And then in a kinde of stage-playing they laid the dead childe or the dead man upon a forme or upon a table or on a bed and the substitute or appointed friend was to goe under the bed or table and to answer to those questions that the Priest did usually make to the partie baptised The first question was whether he would be baptised or no and if the dead man could not his friend was to say yea The second question was whether he beleeved or no the partie was to answer affirmatively for the dead man to that also The third question was Chrysost whether he renounced the Divell and all his workes and he was to answer to that too So saith Chrysostom this is a ridiculous thing that every Christian should laugh at in his minde to see their folly yet there is some shew of argument to be drawne from it for that out of mens follies God can ordaine strength And this proves that they had a conceit of the resurrection or else they would never have descended to such vaine and ridiculous fantasies Afterwards that the Church of God tooke up this custome yea such as were not heretiques but were brought up in the Church yet they thought it as possible for one man to be baptised for another as for one man to be helped by anothers prayers but this hath no shew of consequence in it For the one we have a command and a promise for the other we have neither Besides prayer is generall for all but the receiving of the Sacrament is personall for one for him alone that receives it So that one cannot be baptised for another Yet some in the Church mistaking this text of Scripture thought that when any that intended to be baptised were taken away before the due time they might appoint some that was his friend that had first beene baptised for himselfe And they thought this was profitable to him that was deceased But these are but mockeries of the Sacrament and questionlesse it is a thing that the Apostle alludes not to For the Apostle would never have indured this errour in the Corinthians or if he had yet it proves nothing It doth not follow that because foolish men abuse the Sacrament to a hope of the resurrection that therefore there shall be a resurrection For foolish actions have no probation there is no force in that which is without reason And seeing the Apostle is curious to rebuke them for lesser matters as concerning meate offered to Idols and women being uncovered in the Church which seeme to be matters of lesse moment yet he particularly reproves thē much more would he have rebuked this and not have suffered such a gangrene of errour to eate into the body of the Church as this was that makes a mockerie of the Sacrament Therefore seeing it hath no force to prove and because it is likely that the Apostle would not suffer such a thing to be extant there nor is there mention any where in his Epistles of such an errour that was crept into Corinth Therefore we reject the exposition although some other of the Fathers thinke that out of their common abuse the Apostle makes a good use and drawes an argument as in some cases it is necessary It is lawfull sometimes to draw arguments from the follies and dreames of the heathen so our Divines doe out of Plato and out of the historie of Err who they say after his death lived and was seen again of his friends and the storie of Epimenides he that slept so many yeares and revived againe But the Apostle useth not to insist upon such arguments he drawes something indeed from Menander and from Epimenides but it is matter of common knowledge and experience that no man could gaine-say And so I come to the second opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead That is it was a custome for the first 500. yeares almost that those that were baptised into the name of Christ they thought good to deferre it till the latter end of their life and so when they lay sicke upon their death bed they called for baptisme For they thought according to the errour of Novatian that when a man had once received baptisme and had tasted of that heavenly gift as the Apostle speakes Heb. 6. if they then fell into sinne Heb. 6.6 there was no Sacrament for them nor no hope to be reconciled to God which is the cut-throat of all faith and repentance but they being carried thus by naturall reason thought that after they were baptised and had made defiance of the world the flesh and the divell and then fell backe and relapsed into sinne they thought there was no pardon for them And because they knew their owne weakenesse and infirmitie that they could not so renounce the world the flesh and the divell but that they were oft intangled with them or with some of them therefore unlesse they should bring upon their soules an inevitable necessitie of damnation they thought it good not to meddle with that Sacrament till they were past the necessity of sinning which when that is no man knowes For unlesse the grace of God subdue our affections as long as a man lives the power of sinning is not past But they imagined that old age would bring a cessation and a supersedeas of all offences and that then they might better serve God and with more quietnesse according to their profession Therefore they deferred baptisme to their last age and then they were baptised And in this errour we see what great men lived As Valentinian the Emperour whom S. Ambrose commends highly in his funerall oration For he purposed to be baptised when he came home but he was
and difficult is more easily atchieved and effected by the hand of God And he proves it out of Matth. 9.5 Mat. 9.5 where our Lord discoursing with the Pharisees when they had said who can forgive sinnes he askes them whether it were easier to say to the sicke of the Palsie take up thy bed and walke or to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee where our Lord clearely gives us to understand that it is a harder matter and a more powerfull thing to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee then to give limbs to him to walke and to take up his bed and goe his way For sicknesses are the punishments of sinne and the Lord removing that once he takes away the cause which is greater than the effect But although this be followed with so many so great and so worthy Interpreters yet me thinkes it hath no congruity with the purpose of the Apostle in this place for as I said before the Apostles meaning is not here to instruct us in the renovation of the soule of newnesse of life in holinesse and sanctification but to tell us of the resurrection of the flesh that is his chiefe argument the maine point he insisteth precisely upon Therefore to say to be baptised for dead is to be baptised for the name of a dead Christ it is too farre fetched and I cannot see how it can be brought in Therefore without prejudice to these glorious and goodly writers we proceed to further examination of these words There be some others that cannot indure what hath beene said before but they must devise trickes of their owne They say Saint Paul alludes to the Leviticall Law Numb 19. Numb 19. when a man had touched any dead carkasse he was to be cleansed before the even but suppose say they that the man dyed by casualty before night before he could come to the Priest before he could have gotten the matter of his purification what was then to be done Then say they his neighbour was to be cleansed for him and so they fall upon an opinion before named But what is their purpose certainly to bring in prayer for the dead because they thinke that as there was baptisme for the dead so there should be prayer for the dead And if the one fall to be so the other must needs be so too For I rather thinke that there should be prayer for the dead than that there should be baptising for them to speake in a sacramentall sence They doe it to bring in their superstitions of holy-water and sprinkling the graves and sepulchers and coffins of dead persons thereby to make them more pure before God and that which is more ridiculous that the Priest should undertake in times past and it may be now too in our times when he was sent for to a sicke body to give him the host and that the party were dead before he came he in the presence of the company was to eate it for him that was deceased and thought that that would be availeable to him for the forgivenesse of his sinnes and for the receiving him into heaven These things have no ground nor warrant neither in this Epistle nor in the old Law There is no such thing that there was any such purification by a proxie but it was alway done in a mans owne person and there was no friâ—nd admitted in any such action Therefore in that devise they make one lye to salve another as their custome is in other of their proceedings Further there is yet another opinion that saith that baptising for the dead it is meant of those that came and offered themselves voluntarily to afflictions and persecution And this is more neare the point for indeed in the Scripture it is a most usuall and common saying to call afflictions by the name of baptisme So Math. 20. Math. 20. Mark 9. Mar. 9. when the sonnes of Zebede come to our Lord and desire a boone of him requesting that one of them might sit at his right hand and the other at his left in his kingdome Christ answers them againe that they knew not what they asked And he proceeds further saith he Can ye drinke of that Cup whereof I shall drinke and can ye be baptised with the baptisme that I shall be baptised withall and they answer againe they could Christ tels them again that indeed they should drinke of that cup and be baptised with that baptisme but to sit at his right hand and at his left c. where we may see he speakes of the baptisme of fire and trouble and persecution That which is intended in those words the same also by comparison may be taught here and interpreted in this place They that are baptised for dead that is those that scorned their lives that cared not for them those that were ready to drinke the cup of Christ that were ready to throw themselves into danger for the glory of their Lord and Master To what end are they thus forward if there be no resurrection from the dead There be many things that favour this interpretation as the sequell that followes in the next words Where the Apostle saith why are we in danger or jeopardie every houre if the dead rise not as if he would bring the argument from abroad home to himselfe and then the sence of the place is this To what purpose doe men adventure their lives and cast themselves into apparant danger of death except they have a certaine hope of the resurrection to life and that that God that takes away their life now can give it them againe with advantage in the world to come This is true but whether it be fully proper or no to rest in this baptisme as absolute I thinke it lyes not in any mans power by any strong and full authority to determine It is true our Lord saith Luke 10. Luke 10. I have a baptisme to be baptised with and how am I pained till it be past Where he meanes in the same sence the baptisme of affliction For a man in affliction is as it were a dead man a man in prison as though he were in the bottome of the water in another element when there is persecution and trouble on every side But yet there is another opinion which shall be the last that at this time I will trouble you withall that is of Beza Beza and others that hold with him that all this that is spoken of baptisme here is not meant of any sacramentall washing but as the word is often used for a legall washing and purifying common and ordinary at the carrying forth of the dead as in Heb. 9. Heb. 9. there are many washings and the word is thus used in divers places in the Gospell As where Christ saith the Scribes and Pharisees when they come from the market they baptised their hands and they baptised their Cups and their Platters and Dishes It is the same word there and it signifieth
sinfull man had spoken this it had beene no newes but that it should come from a most sanctified vessell of the holy Ghost a chosen vessell one that for his life was unblameable and for all learning and the graces of the spirit incomparable that he should utter this it is a very strange mervaile Indeed a reprobate a man that followes his owne lusts that lives not to God but to himselfe he may truely say I dye daily For the Lord makes his life to be hanged before him as a perpetuall signe of death that as the children of God are said to have the earnest of the spirit and of the kingdome of heaven so the servants of sinne may be said to receive the earnest of hell So many passages of his life as there be they are as so many flakes of hell burning before him and doe assure him that at the last he shall be tumbled and divolved into the damnation of the divell and his Angels That gnawing worrne of conscience makes his life a continuall death But that the Saints of God should be thus troubled too it is this that moves the wonder And yet the Apostle here saith nay and sweares it too that not onely wicked men are troubled and galled with the conscience of sinne that they are alway in death because they are the sonnes of death and study that which tends to death but he that had the fruit of life he that had the spirit of God and of Christ in him Gal. 2.20 nay that had Christ himselfe as he saith It is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me that he should he subject to this death and to this frequencie of death that there was never a day came over his head but a new death was presented to him It seemeth strange The reason of this we must fetch out of the rest of his writings for there he hath set downe the summe of every thing that we are to conceive of this mystery The first reason or meanes of this death it was that he carried the divell about him as Gregory Nazianzen saith in his 32. Nazianzen Orat. 32. Oration to the Bishops at Constantinople when he was to leave the place Saith he Even as it was with Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 so doe I carry the divell about me alluding to that place 2 Cor. 12. where the Apostle complaines of the messenger and instrument of Sathan that was sent to buffet him continually that he could not be at peace and quiet for him and he prayed to the Lord thrice against it but the Lord answered him My grace is sufficient for thee Rom. 7 23. This was it that made him to say I protest by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily For my life is such a kinde of condition as wherein the flesh and the spirit are continually conflicting together good and evill righteousnesse and sinne are alway countermanding one another A good conscience and an evill conscience sorrow and joy heaven and hell God and the divell are continually in an agony and combate This conflict that I sustaine betweene the flesh and the spirit is that which makes me dye daily and makes me cry out Oh wretched and miserable man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this body of death that is from the sting of the law in my members whereby I am carryed in contradiction to the good spirit of God And so as Nazianzen saith he did carry Sathan about him nay within him also For the reliques of sinne which he cals the messenger of Sathan the instrument of the divell the remainders of corruption were in him yea and are in all the sonnes of God For there was none ever without them but that Sonne of God that came to take away the sinnes of the world The second reason why the Apostle said he dyed daily was because the divell bare him outwardly by envy and trouble and persecution he carried him on his shoulders he was the beast that he was set on And no marvell for if the divell could make our Lord sit on his backe Math. 4. Mat. 4. and that our Lord Iesus rode upon the divell as a man would ride upon a horse if he were so impudent as to set himselâ—fe under our Lord and carry him about to the pinacle of the Temple and to the mountaine then well may he come to the shoulders nay to the very bowels of his members If he did so to the head he will doe to the members much more Acts 17.4.12 Thus he still carried Paul wheresoever he came by the envy of the world by the malice of the Iewes and Gentiles as upon the occasion of those devout and religious womens beleeving whereupon they raised persecution against him and that wheresoever he came there was eyther stoning or fire and faggot or banishment some mischiefe intended Treason by false brethren treason by his opposers or treason of those that were best trusted of him every where he was inclosed with perill This was the divell without him as some of the Fathers imagine 2 Cor. 12 7. from that place 2 Cor. 12. that messenger of Sathan there sent to buffet him They say it was not so much any inward thing he speakes of But I yeeld not to this for I suppose it was somewhat inward Rom. 7.23 But the Fathers say he meanes another matter he speakes of men and of the malice of men that would not suffer the Gospell to passe in the world and that for this he saith he dyed daily by the perpetuall hand of those murtherers I cannot goe any where but the malice of men persecutes and followes me so that I cannot rest and if they could trap me once in their snare and make a prey of me I were surely theirs and then I were gone the feare of this makes me dye daily Thirdly another cause that made the Apostle dye daily was the opposition that hee had by Idolaters wheresoever he came Idolaters still laboured to put downe the Gospell As we see at Athens Acts 17. Acts 17.16 The Text saith His spirit was sore troubled when hee saw the City given to idolatry And so likewise when he came to Ephesus they cry Acts 19.28 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana the Idoll of Ephesus had like to have cost him his life Therefore the vexation of his spirit to see men fall down to stocks and stones and to forget that loyalty they ought to God Rom. 1.25 To worship the creature in stead of the Creator This made him teare his cloathes and ready to teare his flesh for the vexation of his spirit to see whole Cities so given over Fourthly another cause of this daily death of the Apostle it was the opposition that he had by Witches and Sorcerers wheresoever he came almost the divell would still set some Witch in the place so in Acts 16.17 Acts
cannot rouse up his spirits to action so these infernall sleeps these sleepes of sinne they give a certaine evident prognostication that such a man shall be for ever damned in hell They have slept their sleepe saith the Prophet that is Psal 76 5. they are gone to their everlasting sleepe to hell where their sleepe is not a refreshing and refection as ours is but a continuall terrour with gastly dreames and apparitions that they were better not to have any being then to be in that fearfull manner Therefore the Apostle would teach us that the consideration of that infernall sleepe should worke us from this sleepe of sinne which unlesse we be awaked from we shall be like those in a Lethargie even in death and extreamly unable for any living actions Sinne is compared to sleepe for many plaine reasons I need not name them First as when sleepe is on men they know not what they do or what they say many idle words passe from them that they are not sensible of So a sinner whatsoever he doth all is sinne yet he knows not what he doth Therefore our Lord Christ upon the Crosse prayes Father forgive them Luk 22.34 they know not what they do Secondly sleepe exposeth a man to any danger He that lyes sleeping cannot defend himselfe the least childe that comes may cut his threat So a man that lives in sinne is exposed to all dangers that on every side waite upon him He is in danger of God he is in danger of Man in danger of the devill in danger of his owne humours and constitution in danger of every beast of every thing that comes neare him the least spider that is may confound and destroy and poyson him There is nothing so exposed to danger as a sleeping man much more as a sleeping sinner Therefore the wise man compares him to a man that is asleepe But where upon the top of a mast of a ship Prov. 23.34 in a storme of weather which losses the ship to and fro and he being asleepe there it is a thousand to one if he be not shaken over into the Sea So a man that lives in sinne he is asleepe in the middest of his enemies in the tents of those that hate him There is no securitie for a man that lives in sinne wheresoever he goes danger dogges him and he is exposed to the striking hand of God in every place Thirdly sleepe and sinne are compared together in the Scriptures because neither of them have any signification of life A sleeper is bound in all his sences there is nothing remaines in him but a little breathing and a few wilde affections in raging dreames and deepe phantasies So it is with a sinner whatsoever he doth is unpleasing to God His words are unsavoury his works are ungodly his example every where detestable himselfe odious to God odious to men odious to his owne soule The Scripture could not finde a fitter comparison to describe the infirmitie of the soule by which is sinne then sleepe And yet it is so much the more wondrous because the Apostle saith it is not simplie a sleepe but a drunken sleepe There is a great addition to it in that for the sleepe naturall is farre more easily to be recovered it reviveth and refresheth the body it leaves a sweet and easie touch and tincture behinde it But those fals and mischiefes that a drunkard gets in his sleepe he cannot so easily cast them off but they sticke to him many dayes after And that facilitie that a man hath in rising from his sleepe it is not found in a sinner except the Lord worke wondrously It is an easie thing to worke a man out of sleepe but it is an hard thing to awake a man out of his sinne Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 stand up from the dead bestirre thy selfe a small matter will not do it But by this it seemes Quest that there is in man free-will of himselfe to convert himselfe because the Apostle saith Awake and stand up thou that sleepest and recover thy selfe againe to thy owne minde and to thy former actions Is it in the power of man to waken at the voyce of man that as he cast himselfe into sleepe and into sinne so to awaken himselfe when he pleaseth Verily no Answ it must be the great God that must do it all the power in heaven and earth cannot waken a sleeping sinner untill God blow the trumpet T is God that gives his beloved sleepe And as it is he alone Psal 127.2 that gives the sleepe naturall so much more it is he that gives the waking It is a great blessing of God to bring a man that is out of this world as it were by dreames and phansies to bring him backe to living actions For a man that is sleeping is in another element in another world and they are farre from true life that are asleepe saith Plinie Plinie And certainly every life is a kinde of watching and therefore sleepe must needs be a kinde of dying it is the brother of death as the Poet saith Therefore the same Poet well signified it out of that glimmering he had from the Scriptures that God is the author both of mans waking and also of his sleeping For they make Mercurie to have a certaine rodde which was given him of Iupiter whereby he had power to cast asleepe whom he would and to waken others that were a sleepe when he would Hom. ult â—l as Homer Homer saith The meaning of this little learning they had in Divinitie was this that it lay in the hand of God for Mercury was one of the prime and chiefe gods among them when he would to give change of sleeping and waking and that none else could do it no not in naturall things But much more in the spirituall sleep is it impossible for any man to waken a sinner but he must be roused by the great God that permitted him in justice to fall asleepe but in the multitude of his mercie hee takes the paines to awaken him againe Quest But how is this done Answ We reade in Scripture of three chiefe and principall wayes whereby God awakeneth sinners The first is with a voyce And then with certaine pinchings And lastly with high clamours and cries The voyce is as that which came to Samuel When Samuel was asleepe 1. Sam. 3.4 the voyce of the Lord comes and called Samuel Samuel whereupon Samuel riseth and goeth to Ely being now beginning to slumber the voyce of the Lord rowseth him Thus God deales with men that have tender hearts and flexible mindes that come in at the first call of the Lord and returne home Such a man was David who is called a man after Gods owne heart 1. Sam. 13.14 Not because he had no sinne but because his heart was as waxe flexible unto God without any purpose to defend any sinne or to continue in any sinne Secondly another
harmelesse humour although when it is too extreame and violent it is full of sinne yet it is construed to a good sense that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all that is to say not to be dissolved after the fashion of the common death as S. Paul did but to have a kinde of light mutation and change and so to be translated unto glory You see in 2 Cor. 5.4 2 Cor. 5.4 where the Apostle tells us We would not be spoiled of this body that is we would not die but supervestiri wee would have a garment or vestment of glory and immortality to be put upon this body without death As if hee should say we would have corruption to enter into incorruption and we would be made capable of heaven with these bodies unchanged by death To that the Apostle answers in these words No saith he these things are contrary naturall and spirituall and it is impossible for a naturall body to be capable of spirituall qualities or a spirituall body of naturall qualities we must needs leave off the one before we can take the other we must lay downe the rags of this flesh before we can take the garment or vestment of glory and eternity in that blessed life that followes And although we have a great desire to goe unto life without death yet wee must mortifie that desire for it is as vaine as nurses wishes As nurses that wish the most eminent and excellent things to their children so we delight our selves in this imagination But the Apostle tells us that wee must take things in order for that God hath made all things in order First we are to taste of the naturals and then to be made partakers of the spirituals so we cannot be borne into this world but by nature and we cannot be borne into our spirituall possession at the first but first we must have a kinde of naturall life and by the grace of God that prepares us unto the life spirituall So God hath appointed and ordained every thing to goe by succession that all things should not be done at once but every thing in its time For saith he that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall And to this purpose hee brings in the two great fountaines and seminaries of mankinde the one for the life of nature the other for the life of grace a man and a man both of them being men but yet being diversly qualified and both leaving their qualities to those that be their followers For saith the Apostle the causers of all this great difference of naturall and spirituall be the two Adams the one was meerely naturall and was no more but a man The other although he were naturall yet he was spirituall too he was both God and man The one wrought unto death the other wrought unto life the one was bent and inclined to sinne the other was full of all grace the one left an inheritance of misery the other left great demeanes of glory to all those that are his followers Now as these causes bee contrary in themselves there being as much difference betweene them as there is betweene East and West so wee must imagine the effects to be different too For if the one did work to hell and damnation the other wrought to heaven a glorious redemption and salvation for all Gods people and if the wickednesse of the one were derivable upon his posterity in the flesh much more the goodnesse and righteousnesse of the other is derived unto them that are true beleevers and followers of him The first man was of the earth earthly the second man was the Lord from heaven And as they be so be their disciples as is he that is earthly so are they that are earthly and as was the heavenly so are they that are heavenly They are to follow their masters cue and to be of the same condition as their Chieftaine and Soveraigne The carnall man dies in Adam the spirituall lives in Christ even to life everlasting This is the substance of the words read unto you Now to proceed in order of the Text. First Division into 3. parts 1. The order of the PropositioÌ„ 2. The comparison betweene the 2. Adams 3. The conformity of their members we are to consider the verity and truth of the order of this proposition how the Apostle intends that that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall For it seemes that the best things should be first and spirituall things being best therefore it seemes they should be first yea it seems to be a disparagement unto things spirituall and heavenly to come in time after things naturall But the Apostle saith no God hath appointed it so and hee gives no further reason as St. Chrysostom observes that they may give themselves content in this that it is Gods will it shall be so that is a reason sufficient they need seek no further Secondly we are to consider the comparison betweene the two heads and roots and fountaines of mankinde the first man and the latter man and they are compared in foure things The first is in respect of their order and succession the first and the last or the first and the second The second is in respect of the place of their nativity whence they come the first from the earth the second from heaven The third is in the quantity of their difference and excellencie the first came as a servant the second came as a Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the word servant be not noted in the Text yet it is to be understood by this that he saith The Lord himselfe Therefore the first came not as a Lord but as a servant but the second came as a Lord in all points yea as the Lord himselfe from heaven Then lastly for their qualities the one is earthly the other is heavenly The third part of the Text is the conformity of the members that belong to these heads with their heads For as there are two great foundations of mankinde so likewise they have members answerable to them Those that be of Adam that is naturall men they be as their father is such as the earthly is so they are that are earthly and those that be of Christs retinue they be such as their Master is too For as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly which is not meant of the manners and condition of men here in this world for the Apostle meddles not with that in all this Chapter but it is spoken of the bodies that shall be raised at that day thâ—t as all men be earthly by nature the best Saints of God here are in an earthly condition and must be dissolved into earth and as we have that by means of the first Adam from whence wee descend so from the second Adam wee have a hope and shall
I look for my change as well as another man As Iob Iob 14.1 saith All the dayes of my life will I looke for my change So the Apostle saith every man must look for this that he may be prepared For perhaps I may be the last man perhaps the trumpet may sound to night before to morrow for there is no man knowes when the day of doome shall be It is reserved in the bosome of God alone and we are alway to looke for his comming because we know not when he will come whether at midnight Marke 13.5 or at the dawning of the day Therefore wee should alwayes be ready with our lamps lighted and our loynes girded that we may be prepared when the Bridegroome commeth to enter into the Kingdome Mat. 25. Thus the Apostle saith we shall be changed He speaks as if hee should be one of them although long since he were interred in the earth yet because hee knew not his owne dissolution or the destruction of the world when it should be therefore he had it in perpetuall memorie Wee shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed And what is this change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how death is called a sleepe I have told you heretofore and I will not repeat it now We shall be changed that is in quality for so the word signifieth even an altering of the quality not a changing of the substance For the same body that suffered death for sinne the same body shall be glorified by the grace and favour of God As sin came upon it to doe it to death so the grace of God shall overflow it to bring it to life For where sin hath abounded grace shall super abound Rom. 14.20 If therefore the sinne of Adam were able to mortifie all to their graves much more shall the grace of Christ be able to quicken all his to life everlasting Therefore I say we shall be changed meaning as concerning the qualities not concerning the substance For that body which was once the Temple of the holy Ghost shall never cease to be the Temples of the holy Ghost and those parts that felt misery by Adams sinne they shall feele sweetnesse of grace by the bounty that shall be revealed through Christ Iesus our Lord. We shall all be changed This change how it shall be made and in what degrees I have partly spoken of it before The Apostle delivers it unto us when hee said It is sowne in weaknesse it is raised in strength It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sowne a mortall or naturall body but it riseth a spirituall body It is sown in dishonour it riseth againe in honour These are the manners of the change which having heretofore stood upon I will not now repeat The change therefore shall be in those foure noble qualities which the Apostle formerly described unto us And this change shall be wrought by the omnipotencie of God upon a matter that wee would think could not indure such a strange operation as that is But the Lord is able to command light to come out of darknesse and hath wrought by meane things in the world the great impressions of his power Hee therefore is able to work upon this weak body and to set upon it the stamp of incorruption of glory of immortality and of strength Hee is able to doe it and his power will doe it according to his gracious promise We shall all be changed All we saith the Apostle chiefly this change shall be upon the Saints of God but yet it shall not be so restrained to them but that in part it shall extend to all men I told you in the opening of the Text that the Reprobates shall have their part in this change for their bodies shall be made uncorrupt and immortall but not to glory and beauty not to comfort and consolation as the bodies of the Saints shall but to extremity and misery Like as a brick which lies in the fire continually and is alway burning and yet never consumed or as that Axbestam which the Philosopher speaks of which is not consumed but is able continually to abide the fire so the bodies of those that doe â—ot feare the Lord and worship him the earthly tabernacles of theirs shall be made durable of paine but not capable of honour and glory They shall be made capable of no comfort and yet they shall not be spoyled and consumed by any paine and sorrow that shall lie upon them This change therefore Vse we must desire the Lord that it may be for the better and not for the worse That seeing there shall and must be a change of these bodies that it would please the Lord to change us from these frailties and miseries that we now live in to the blessed joy and hope which he hath called his children unto And that wee may be capable of this we must desire God to make a change of us in this life for the Lord shall change all things hee is the changer of us he is unchangeable himselfe all things else he shall change Psal 102. Thou shalt change the heavens and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy yeares never faile So that the Lord being onely immutable and the same for ever it is hee that works the change upon all things Wee see in the common course of our life what changes hee works in our ages hee changes childhood to youth and that to manhood and thence to old age A strange and various change In our Climates there is Winter and Summer there is day and night there is stormy and faire weather Wondrous changes bee also in matters politique and civill he turnes warre into peace he changeth peace into warre it is he that suffers Nation to rise against Nation all the changes in the world come from God So wee must imagine in our bodies that shall be changed that all shall be wrought by his owne hand Vse This must teach us first to desire God to make a happy change in our soules before hee make the change in our bodies For there can never be a comfortable change in any mans body except first there be a precedent and a president change in the soule For except the soule be changed from worse to better from wickednesse to holinesse of life it is impossible for a man to looke for a good change of his body where there is no precedent change in his soule Therefore while wee are in this life wee are to looke for this change If the Lord change thy soule from sinfulnesse to holinesse thou maiest bee sure thy body also shall bee changed to happinesse and immortality and glory If thy soule be not changed but thou art worse and worse verily thou shalt have a change in the Resurrection but it shall bee unto dismalnesse to fearefulnesse and to distraction so that a man had better never have beene borne than to be
God Almighty to worke our incorruption to be not an incorruption to misery but to glorie and that he would so worke us to himselfe as that wee may be in a continuall fruition and possession of his sweet and gracious presence not to be molested and tormenled with the absence of God with the losse of heaven and the joyes thereof which the damned spirits thinke if they had but a moment to live and repent them againe they would regaine the things they have lost And they cry out damnation to themselves that they were so foolish to lose the time which might have been so imployed as that they might have been made masters of heaven and possessors thereof The dead shall rise incorruptible And we shall be changed That is wee all those that belong unto Christ Where we may observe the Apostle still useth the wee although the Apostle himselfe were not changed but after the manner of the common change by death But the Apostle doth this partly as I told you the last time because of the common communion of the Church of God whereas every man may say wee every man may take his neighbour with him we have all one head and we are all members of one body And chiefly the Apostle so speaks because he thought the day was neare approaching and he prepared himselfe every where He thought that the time and the day wherein hee wrote this wherein he spake this he thought that might have beene the last day and therefore that hee might have beene one of the number and therefore hee saith wee Now this change as I said before is commonly taken for the better but it is true also of the Reprobate After that manner of change wee speake of they shall be changed from a state mutable to immutability that which they are when they rise they are for ever They are not so now for they follow the change of nature they are subject to mutability and variety seaven years make a great alteration in a mans life and in the best life in the world more years makes a greater impression But the Lord shall then raise them to a setled state to a state of incorruption and whether they have glory or whether they have misery it shall be without change it shall be in a kind of eternity as the Lord himselfe is eternall I should now come to the Reason which includes all and to the sweet metaphor where the Apostle expresseth himselfe in these words We must put on But I must reserve it till the next time FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be fulfilled the speech that is written Death is swallowed up into victory 5. Part. The Reason IN these words the Apostle renders a Reason of that former change mutation which shall befall the Saints of God For this whole doctrine of the Resurrection it must be so expounded of the Saints especially howbeit it may be also further extended even to the wicked and the reprobates For they shall have a kinde of change as being made from mortall immortall and from corrupt to be incorrupt although it shall be for their punishment and for their greater ignominie yet it shall be true immortality and a true incorruption that they shall receive But as Beza and the later and best Divines hold it is fittest for us to tye these things and to understand them of that sanctified company to whom the Lord hath promised and will also vouchsafe a glorious Resurrection They must therefore as it is said before be all changed and they must be changed presently upon the sound of the trumpet by the power of Almighty God of which things I will now make no repetition Now because it might be questioned what need wee be changed wee desire rather to goe to God In this body we desire super-vestiri to be over-clad rather with the glory of the Almighty then to be naked and to be stripped of this flesh that we have here We would goe to Christ but wee would not goe the same way to Christ that Christ came to us for he came to us by death but wee would goe to him still without death Therefore this the Apostle resolves us and teacheth us that which he said before in part That flesh and bloud shall not inherite the Kingdome of God that is corrupt flesh and bloud by reason of the corruption that is in it by reason of the tainture of sinne it is subject to change and mutability For it is impossible till it be reformed till it be cast into the earth and mouldered to dust and that it be prepared by the hand of God in the ground untill then it is uncapable of heaven So here hee saith in the affirmative Oportet it must needs be so it must needs be that this mortall must put on immortality and this corruption must put on incorruption So when hee hath given his resolution that such a thing must needs be then he lifts them up to the expectation of the time when this glorious change shall be made He tells them that it shall be and whensoever it shall come to passe as certainly it must be fulfilled then shall also be fulfilled that glorious saying in the Scriptures wherewith he confirmes himselfe and his authority and is not content to speake as an Apostle onely out of his owne Apostolicall power which he had received from Christ but hee also fetcheth some ground and help besides his testimony from the Prophets that were before him then saith hee shall be fulfilled that happy word that glorious word spoken of by Isay as the most and best Divines think or by Hosea as some others think And the word is this Death is swallowed up into victory that there is nothing left now in the tents of Christs holy Church but the voyce of triumphs and trophees over death and consequently over hell over sinne over sicknesse over all infirmities and discontent whatsoever For if Death be swallowed up in victory the rest are much more swallowed up For that is the greatest and the last enemie of all and if that be confounded the rest must needs perish with it There shall then be such a compleat victory as that looke whatsoever a man casts his eye on hee shall see nothing but victory and conquest and glory and life and righteousnesse and holinesse in stead of this wickednesse and misery and distemper and accidents whereto we are subject in this life Then shall be fulfilled So he notes unto us the goodly and glorious time in which the Saints shall have their full consummation and blisse Then then it shall be fulfilled which is now prophesied and promised It shall be made up then which is now but expected It shall then be fulfilled in all
And there wee cease not neither but still wee seeke for a new forme the matter still would have a new coate None of these content us but wee desire of God a forme that never may be changed This corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality The other condition of our nature is that as it cannot endure to be in the same kinde but still seeks new fashions and new formes so at length it comes to that forme that seemes to extinguish it utterly as if it had never beene which brings matter and forme and all to nothing as a man would think the goodliest temper the stateliest comely body the best and freshest countenance the best brued bloud and the sweetest colour these which are the materialls of man it brings them all at length to a handfull of dust that a man would think that now the matter had quite lost its forme and that it should never desire a further forme For it is mortalized it is brought to nothing it is brought to stench and corruption and it seemes to be drowned there there is no hope that ever it shall rise againe But yet still the appetite works for the matter works still to the God of nature and desires of him a new forme to give it a new garment And the Apostle saith that God shall heare that matter and hee shall regard the cries of it and shall graunt the petition that this dust shall make unto him and he shall give it a new vestment which shall be of such a fashion as it shall never desire any more to change and put off again For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality 6 â—art The metaphor Shall put on A sweet and blessed metaphor is this word put on It must be put on in stead of the ragges wee put off for mortality and corruption stick close to us not as a close-bodied garment sticks to the body but as the skinne and the flesh cleaves to the bones And we can never put them off and be rid of them but by the common law and necessity of dying and rotting in the grave There are only some few that shall have the prerogative which shall live at the comming of Christ they shall have a change in stead of this death But for us that must goe the common way of nature wee know our doome Now then this ragged garment and vesture that wee carrie about us by reason of Adams sinne and our corruption which wee have multiplied and added to Adams transgression it must first be shaken off by the omnipotent hand of God it must be so purely and so fully removed as that no threeds nor no tagg of it remaine And then when that is done there is time and place for the new robe to be put upon us for that blessed garment which is to come in the place of this But first these torne raggs must be cast away they must first be put off and then this blessed vestment which the Lord hath prepared even the vestment of incorruption and immortality shall succeed in the place of this So that from hence we see the truth of the former doctrine again Saith S. Austin the garment is one thing Aug. and the thing garnished and decked is another the garment is not the man but an accident to the man and it may be that hee may be here and that may be there or it may be here and he may be away and yet notwithstanding the man may be the same So likewise the bodies that the Saints have in this world they shall be still the same bodies the same in incorruption that they were in corruption the same body that it was when it was mortall the same shall it be when it is immortall the same in substance but not the same in glory and quality Tertull. For as Tertullian saith the Apostle disputes of the glory of the bodies and not of the substance of them Therefore as a man that is of any state and account in this world he hath divers suites of cloathes but he hath but one body so it is true in this case that the Lord upon one and the selfe same body shall poure multiplicity of garments and riches of the rayment which hee shall give in that blessed day The garment of beauty the garment of eternity the garment of strength of wisedome of all kinde of excellencies both of body and soule The Lord shall sit them then with many changes of apparell but still it shall be one and the selfe same body For this mortall must put on the glorious garment of immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption So the Fathers in the Greeke Church taught their men and women in the Church to say I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh When we say the Creed wee say I beleeve the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting But still they when they came to this article they clapt their hand upon their breast and said I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh punctually pointing at themselves because the Apostle saith This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality to shew that it belongs to the person properly and peculiarly to this very subject that he makes his proposition of And this glorious garment what it is but the garment which God himselfe hath worne from all eternity Hee is incorruptible that is unchangeable and he is immortall that is it is impossible for him to grow worse For God can never change from better to worse and hee shall give that power to the bodies of his Saints that their perfection shall be so great as that it shall not possibly be made better and they shall be so singular that it is impossible they should be made worse or decline For hee shall set them in the highest pitch of perfection in the top of excellencie that they shall receive neither majus nor minus neither more nor lesse neither better nor worse they shall have no kinde of change This is that glorious apparell that God puts on The Lord is King Psal 93.1 hee hath put on his glorious apparell hee hath girded himselfe with strength and majestie This is that apparell which the Apostle S. Iames speaks of when he saith That the Lord is without any change Iam. 1.16 or shadow of changing This garment which God hath put upon himselfe from all eternity hee will vouchsafe in a degree and measure to his Saints in time they shall be eternall from the time after as he hath beene from worlds and ages to world without end himselfe one and the same for evermore Now whereas hee saith in the vinculum of this proposition that Oportet this must needs be thus Vse that it can be no other way but thus This thing the Apostle adds for our comfort and consolation both to encourage us patiently to abide
no other noise nor voice rang among them but victorie victorie and though they lost many men that were slaine and heard of the death of many of their friends yet they were content to offer the lives of their friends in that common sacrifice so the victory might be pronounced amongst them So we reade of Rome and Athens and especially of Carthage for the newes of a victory that they had over the Romanes they did nothing for a whole moneth together but goe with garlands on their heads and celebrate festivalls as men with exceeding joy transported out of themselves For this purpose also the great Conquerours called many Cities after that name by the name of victory as the City of Nice where the first Counsell was kept it signifieth victory and Nicosia-Stratonica and Verturia Thessalonica and many other Cities had their names given them of their victories and the great Captaines would call themselves Nicanors and by the like names victorious men And those that bore the victory they still wore garlands which were alway greene because they would have their names and conquests never to wax old but be alway greene therefore they had their garlands of Laurell So wee see how the world use to be have themselves in victory how they are never daunted with any thing nor grieved with any thing if they may have the victory they are content to lose the life of their best friends This should teach us to apply these things in a spirituall sense to be as wise in our generation as the world is in their generation we were so desirous of victory and so desperate for it that wee would have given all things to be made partakers of it we would have given the first fruits of our bodies for the sinnes of our soules thousands of rammes and ten thousand rivers of oyle that wee might be made victors of this grisly monster but we were not able to do it nay rather then we would not have the victory we were content to lose the life of our Chieftaine Christ Iesus who slept in death that we might ever wake unto life eternall wee were content that he should die for us and the hands of us all were in his bloud we were content that he should die that death by him might be swallowed up into victorie Let us therefore entertaine this glorious motion into our soules let us lift up our heads with melody to God let us know that nothing can make against us now because wee have the victory a constant and perfect victory where there is no enemy resides or remaines The princes of this world have but halfe victories the enemy runs away from them and comes and makes head again and comes the next yeare with a greater force But God when he gets a victory he leads captivity captive he leaves no possibility of rising againe but hee strikes to the maine he strikes the adversary to the heart he cuts off stub and stock of all likelihood and probability that there should not be any fear of it afterward he takes away the essence of the thing and so he makes an absolute victory The Insultatiō Now followes the Insultation whereunto God would raise a christian mans heart Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory These words that be in the vocative case in the Apostles writing in the Prophet are in the accusative I will be death unto death and I will be destruction against hell Here the Apostle understanding the purpose of the holy Ghost teacheth us not too much to be tyed to the letter of the Scripture but to the sense and meaning he takes out these two hee singles them out and sets them downe in the constancy of his spirit as though they were two personated enemies Death and Hell that is death and the grave for hee speaks here of the resurrection of the dead of such as are dead in Christ and they shall never come to hell therefore although the word be translated Sheol hell yet it is here taken for the grave onely whereunto the godly goe as well as the ungodly to hell goe not the godly but the ungodly they goe to the grave which is the common receptacle of all and it is a degree of misery and mischiefe that after a man hath lost his ability when he hath lost his life and power when he hath lost his colour and glory and perfection to be thrust down as a brute beast into a pit and to lie there and rot and putrifie therefore because these two are the most shamefull enemies the one to rid a mans body of the precious soule that is in it and the other to bring upon him the most foule and beastly condition of rottennesse the Apostle singles them both out and insults upon them as upon dead Captaines as upon them that are not able any more to strike a stroke but lie devoid of all power and upon their heads he brings forth this insulting sentence Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Oh death where is thy sting thou that hast stung all the men in the world as we know death is painted with a dart in his hand to sting and to strike to the heart to deprive men of their life to take away the heart bloud of men thou that stingest men with sicknesse and takest away their vitall spirits oh death now thy sting is dulled it is broken in pieces it hath no edge it hath no point it can effect nothing further And thou grave which wast wont to have the victory which wast wont to be so victorious as to make the fairest faced dames and the goodliest beauty in the world to bring to dust and ashes to beat a man to powder to bring a man to dust which is the greatest victory that can be to drive a man to dust thou that wast so absolute a victor where is now thy glory and victory as if he should say it is no where it is altogether vanished away there is no appearance nor any more power nor life in thee to worke death we are secured from thee for ever wee are freed from thy sting that thou shalt no more strike us to death with thy dart And thou grave thy victory to turne us to dust is nothing all these are taken out of thy hands for ever So this is the glorious triumphant song which the Church of God hath ever sung over this Conquerour there were two enemies that fought a strange duell that was the death of Christ and the death of nature the Leader of the victorious army died yet notwithstanding he lives for ever the leader of the conquered and banished army killed him and yet notwithstanding he dies for ever for so according to Heb. 2.14 Heb. 2.14 the Lord appointed that by death the Lord Christ should destroy him that had the power of death that is the devill For the devill by means of a commission that
he had from God hee cast all men into the prison of death and he keepeth them there and will keep them there by the common calamity of sinne he keeps all mens bodies there to the time of the resurrection which the Lord shall cause in the fulnesse of time but therefore the Lord following the way of justice and not the way of power for God was able to take us from death otherwise by other meanes then by the death of Christ but then hee could not be just Now God would teach us that it is better to follow the way of justice then the way of power for every man can be powerfull the devils themselves have power but they have no justice therefore God then in justice would have the death of his Sonne satisfie the wrath of God and would have him to die for them that should have died that his death might be the life of many thousands that his death might be the destruction of the power of death which had a commission given for the time that at the last might have an end To conclude because I see the time past let us also learne to frame our selves to this high spirit of the Apostle to insult over death and then if wee can insult over death much more may wee insult over all the calamities of this life for what is so great a calamity as that why should poverty oppresse us why should infamy vexe us if sicknesse diseases and death it selfe cannot oppresse why should trouble of conscience for sinne oppresse us when the grand enemy himselfe is conquered and when we have a part of the conquest wee are souldiers to that great Captaine and hee communicates his victory unto us all Iohn 16. ult Aug. Be of good comfort saith Christ for I have overcome the world Saith St. Austin What dost thou meane by this Be of good comfort I have overcome the world What have we to doe to be of good comfort it belongs not to us be thou of good comfort it pertaines to thee what are we the better because thou hast overcome the world Yes saith hee oh death thou which hast been the devourer now thou art devoured thy self thou that hast swallowed up men now thou art swallowed up thy selfe by a more potent cause oh death he was wounded for me that made me and he that through his death hath swallowed up thee hee hath conquered thee for me therefore I rejoyce in him which is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone his victory is my victory therefore he saith Be of good comfort I have overcome the world And this the Lord hath taught us in many passages of his holy Booke that hee might prepare us once to this courage to this great valour For in this a man is seen more than in any thing else in the patient abiding of trouble and misery in the patient enduring of death in this present life All worldly passions are seperated as chaffe by the wind from the godly the wind blowes away the chaffe but so it cannot the good corn that falls still on the floore the chaffe is blowne away with every wind of temptation and persecution Let us therefore take notice of that singular comfort which God hath given us out of the Scripture which all resolves at last into this one point Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory In Iosuah 10. Ioshuah 10.24 wee reade that Iosuah there the Prince and Captaine he brought out the five Kings that were closed in a Cave and a stone rolled to the mouth of it till hee should come back hee brings them forth and bade the Captaines tread upon the necks of the Kings and not feare for saith hee The Lord your God shall fight for you This was a figure of this glorious victory of the Sonne of God over death All the potentates of Hell are like to the five Kings of Canaan which oppresse all they meet as Adonibezek they thumb them hee cut off the thumbs and toes of men and set them under his Table as dogges The Lord signified this victory of Christ by the victory of Iosuah over those five Kings and Adonibezek that hee would give a spirituall conquest over death hell sinne and all the adversaries that could oppose him and he would tread upon the necks of all his opposers What is so base a part what is so base a thing as the foot of a man and what is so lofty a thing as the necke and yet the very foot of Gods children the basest part shall tread upon the necks of their enemies upon the necks of Kings themselves which are compassed and surrounded with jewels and ornaments yet they shall bee subjected to the basest parts even to the heeles of godly men so great is the comfort of Gods children And as it was done then in Iosuahs time so also the comfort remaines now So wee see again the Lord bids the people look back whē they were past the Red-sea look back upō the Egyptians and the People Miriam had a song Exod. 15.1 when they looked back saw the Egyptians floating above the water A strange thing but God would have it so because he would have his people to have Arms to have the Arms of the Egyptians to fight against Amalek It is said the people looked back and saw them those proud spirited people those braggadocioes which thought to have swallowed them up quick and followed them with their chariots and Army those which before could not bee resisted now the Lord brings them to a calme he so cooled the Nation that the least boy might insult over them Israel looked and saw them and tooke off their armour took off their rings and jewels and their costly apparrell and furnished themselves with it when they went into the wildernesse So shall the conquest of Gods children be over death although it have beene full of threatning full of terrour and blood before yet the Lord will bring it into the floud into the Red sea he will overwhelme it in the water of his Omnipotency and his children shall look back and shall see him and spoyle him that was the spoyler and destroy him that was the destroyer and they shall take his weapons from him and make use of them to their owne purposes and they shall say as the people might have said to the Egyptians Where is thy bragging that thou usedst before thou art inclosed now in thine owne net Where is thy sting oh death Oh hell where is thy victory The Lord shall turne the termes the Lord shall make the field to goe on his owne side and take away the conquest from the adverse party It hath beene an ancient Proverb That to pluck the beard of a dead Lion even for children themselves it is an easie matter a poore child that cannot indure the noise or the sight of a living Lion Chrysost as St. Chrysostome saith the boyes
when they see a Beare or a Lion or a Wolfe dead in the street they will pull off his haire and insult over him and deale with them as they please they will trample upon their bodies being dead which they durst not looke upon when they were alive Such a thing is death it is a furious Beast a rampant Lion a devouring Wolfe which consumes all the world The Lord hath laid him now at his length he hath laid him dead that he is unable ever to have life againe and so the very children saith St. Chrysostome are able to insult over him That wee have had Martyrs saith hee of 14. or 15. yeares old which have offred themselves to the fire and to the sword and to all the passions of this hungry beast they have offered themselves to the devourers with a willing imbrace and have played upon him which is the common swallower of all mankind as Theophylact saith well We doe still devour and swallow up death by the faith that wee have in the life of Christ for that faith makes us so constant as that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus as the holy Apostle saith Rom. 8. Rom. 8.35 What shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or persecution or sword or hunger or cold or nakednesse shall Angels or life or death things present or to come life or death No none of these are able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus our Lord But these things are easily spoken and as long as we be in Theories so long as we bee in Contemplation wee may easily subscribe to them but who is hee that is able to doe thus when the time serves That is in the hand of the great God to give the garland whensoever it shall please him It must be our ambition to seek for it to intreat the Lord to crowne us with that victory with that heavenly valour which himselfe hath promised to all that love him Apoc. 2.17 I will give him the crowne of life and blessed is hee that continueth to the end for hee shall eat of that hidden Mannah and shall flourish as a tree in the Paradice of God But it lies not in us to continue neither therefore he that gives the end must also give the meanes and the same prayer that sues for the one must also beg and intreat for the other all this comes from God from the true love that wee have to Christ from the hope that we have in him to partake of his victory from our beleeving and confessing that God hath raised up Christ from the dead For if thou beleeve with thy heart and confesse with thy mouth that God hath raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt bee saved If wee beleeve that this victory of Christ is for ever accomplished wee shall be saved If thou beleeve although thou must doe many other things which are conditionall to salvation yet this is the maine point beleeve in the Conquerour and the conquest is thine hee conquered not for himselfe but for thee to make the spirits of his Saints conquer in heaven and to make their bodies also to reigne with him there when he shall appeare Col. 3 4. for when the Lord Iesus shall appeare we shall also appeare with him in glory See the extent and latitude of his conquest When God takes a field hee takes it for all the world not for one countrey as earthly Princes doe but all commers from the East and West and North and South shall yeeld unto the Lord and rest under his shadow Even all Nations a tot quot The Dinner of the great King refuseth no guests and rather then they will want guests and the Feast shall be unfurnished he will send to the hedges and highwayes to bee searched to come and fill his Table whereunto hee calleth by the Gospel and whereunto he bring us for his Sonnes sake Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.56 The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but God bee thanked that giveth us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ TO bragge before the victory begotten before the field bee wonne it was ever held a most vaine presumption as the King of Israel said to the King of Syria Let not him that buckleth on his armour bragge as he that puts it off For there is nothing more uncertaine then the events of warre and oft times when mighty men promise to themselves the assurance of the victory they faile and come to be foiled Yet notwithstanding so great is the confidence of St. Pauls spirit and so great is the assurance that wee have in Christ Iesus our Lord that wee dare boldly insult over death and proclaime the victory although our selves must bee vanquished For this most noble and gracious Triumpher over death hee lies in the grave he lies in the dust as well as wee must doe and there is no difference to the sight of flesh and blood betweene the ashes of St. Paul and the ashes of another common man and yet notwithstanding the Spirit of God was so mighty and potent in him and the faith of the things to come did so represent unto him the things promised that as though the matter were now presently performed he insults over death and takes upon him the person of a man new risen again from the dead As St. Ierom well speaks hee supposeth that those times that bee long to come and God knowes how long he supposeth that they were come in his time and as it were in the person of a man newly risen newly raised from death he begins Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory So the holy Father tells us that the words should bee then rise in every mans mouth when God shall raise them out of their graves to that incorruption and that immortality which this corruptible and this mortall must put on It shall be the speech in every mans mouth then as being triumphant over death Oh death whre is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory Thou hast had victory over my poore bones and body a long time but what is it now thou hast lost it for evermore In these victories in the world there is no certainty because that which they call fortune is so changeable as it seldome setteth up one man but anon it raiseth another to pull him downe againe So the victories are fading and passing away and he that is a Conqueror is conquered and made a slave to those that formerly were his inferiours Ignarius it is said had a great victory over the Cimbri and Tutons yet hee fell shortly after into the hands of Scilla that conquered him and Scilla that was once the Sunne-rising when Pompey once appeares he becomes the Sunne-setting And if Pompey were never so famous a Victor as there was none more glorious
in his time yet at last hee shall fall and be conquered by the hand of Caesar and by his prowesse be outed both of his honours and of his life And Caesar himselfe in the height of all that glory that can come upon a man in this world there was never any before him or the like shall bee after him yet hee could not hold his state but he falls into the hands of Conspirators a sort of bloody murtherers that shall kill him in his Counsell-chamber so uncertaine are the smiles of this world that there is no victory constant but still she flies moves and changes her tent and tabernacle from one side to another therefore there can bee no boasting or bragging in these earthly and worldly conquests which hath made the wisest Emperours of the world after they have had a good gale of fortune as they call it after they have prospered a while for feare of crosse blowes after they have left their honours and betaken them to a solitary life to live in Monasteries lest they should have a foule end after such goodly and faire proceedings But in this case in this victory that wee now speake of there is no uncertainty there is no inconstancy to be feared Ianus Temple is shut for ever They had a custome among the Romans they worshipped a certaine god which they thought was the Lord and Tutor of their City which they called Ianus which had in Rome a great Temple the doores whereof stood open all the while they were in warres and shut in all the time of peace and they were so cumbred with warre for 800. yeares together that in all that time the doores of Ianus Temple were but thrice shut they were alway open to shew that the warres were open and therefore they gave their god leave to goe out and in to succour them or else they thought his arme could not reach his power could not extend to their ayde See the ridiculous and foolish vanities of the Heathen when the warres were ceased they shut the doores to keepe in their god there was no use of him then Now this Temple I say for 800. yeares was in all that time but three times shut First in the time of Numa Pompilius Secondly in the time of Tytus Maneus as Tytus Livius saith after the Carthaginian warre And thirdly by Augustus Caesar But when the time shall come when God shall give to this corruption incorruption and to this mortall immortality then there shall be for ever a cessation of warre The Temple of Ianus shall never more be opened it shall be shut for everlasting there shall bee no cause of warre but the people of God shall bee in perfect peace with the Lord and shall live under the defence of his protection they shall live secure for ever Plutarch saith when Philip King of Macedon had gotten a great victory at Cheronia hee wrote to Archimedes and hee used lofty speeches in his letter as being proud and puffed up with his late victory Archimedes replies to him no more but this Sir saith hee you write stately to mee in high termes and I partly know the reason of it but if you will take the paines but to measure your owne shadow you shall find that it is no more that it is no greater nor no larger then it was before your victory You were as great a man then and as many inches about as you are now And it is true in worldly things Chance as they call it is so variable that no man can tell how hee shall begin or how he shall end but in this victory which the Lord vouchsafes us in Christ Iesus it holds not for the victory that we shall have there shall make our shadowes greater and it shall make our persons more honourable and fuller of power and majesty 1. Cor. 15.44 For it is sowen in dishonour it riseth againe in honour It is sowen in weaknesse it riseth again in power The victory therefore that we have in Christ it is not like the victory that Philip the King of Macedon got that his shadow was no bigger then before but this victory in Christ is a great enlarger of man and of all the parts and faculties in him that hee is not like himselfe as hee was before no more then an honourable thing is like a dishonourable or a strong thing is like unto a weake Now to come to the Order Oâ—der of the words read unto you here the holy Apostle explains that which he had said before when hee insulted over death A man might ask what is the reason thou takest upon thee so much seeing death shall conquer thee as well as other men and thou must die as well as the rest that have gone before thee To give a reason therefore of it he shewes that it was no presumption or idle imagination of himselfe but it was a thing conferred unto him by the power of Christ and his Gospel For saith hee I have good reason to insult as I did I know when that blessed time shall come wee shall have no enemies against us If there should be any enemy it should be either death or sinne or the law But there shall be none of these and therefore there shall bee no enemy but a perpetuall end and issue of man for ever There shall bee no death for why because there shall be no sinne for the sting of death is sin and death cannot come upon man but by the wrath of God which is conceived for sinne which being taken away death must needs cease for the worke ending the wages must needs end and the wages of sinne is death But how will you prove that there shall bee no sinne Because there shall be no law for the strength of sinne is the Law and the Lord shall give that glory to the bodies that shall rise that they shall not need any Law but they shall be a law to themselves and every man shall love God and please God not by constraint not by the terrours of the Law and Commandement but from the ducture of his owne free-spirit that shall leade and conjoyne and make him one spirit with the Lord. Therefore that which the holy Apostle said before is most constant and true that because there shall bee no enemies then left therefore we may boast in the Lord our God which hath given us perfect victory over all our enemies and there shall be no enemie left because there shall be neither sin which is the grand cause the Arch-enemy of mankind for that is taken away by the righteousnesse of Christ who knew no sinne he that knew no sinne God made him sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God Mark it saith the holy Apostle that we might be made the righteousnesse of God When was Christ made sinne for us In this miserable life and when shall we be made the righteousnesse of God In that blessed life Therefore
to thousands and millions in the world that beleeve in him that although there be sinne now in our mortall bodies yet it doth not raigne it commands us not to every thing it finds us not as the Centurions servants to goe when it saith goe but it is in many things broken and dissipated and the Lord hath beat sathan under our feet that is the usuall work of sathan sinne and foule impressions in your soules and understandings Thus the Lord hath given us victory over sinne in himselfe fully in us it is begun but for that wee shall have occasion afterwards to discourse The Lord himselfe being free from all sinne hee was therefore a Conquerour over that pestilent viper that poyson of our nature and he gave his people the infusion of his Spirit to guide them by the which Originall sinne is weakned the sire is abated and allayed the edge of sin is lessened The last is over the Law That still is the greatest enemy that still layes before us the judgments of God Doe this and live Doe that and be damned Follow this course and thou shalt be damned for ever If thou be a drunkard if thou be lustfull if thou be covetous and worldly if thou be revengefull and malicious the sentence of damnation is passed upon thee that is all the comfort wee have by the Law but Christ hath given us victory over this enemy which followes us at the heeles when wee doe amisse and still puts us into qualmes of conscience for our misdeeds and curbes and bridles us by the checks of conscience that if a man could but see the end of these foule actions as hee seeth the beginning he would never doe them because there is no equality between the short time of sinning and the eternity of punishment But against all this Christ hath given us victory for he hath fulfilled the law of God he hath stopped the crimination he he hath stayed all those slanders and all those accusations that the devill would make by the law or that those that have been curious observers of the law would make and those accusations that an evill conscience would make by the power of the Law of God which hath enlightened it He hath silenced all these in this life but the consummation of this we must understand is to come when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality They are now gone before in the head they shall then follow in the body Saith St. Austin Aug. Whatsoever Christ hath done in his owne body it shall follow in our mortall bodies When hee shall change them 1 Cor. 15. and make them like unto his owne glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe This is that goodly victory in the which the Lord hath interested us all To conclude and refer the rest till the next time I beseech you beloved in the Lord let us consider what part we have in this victory wee ought not to insult and triumph in a vaine presumption in blessings that pertaine not to us but if we think we have the victory let us labour to finde it and so enter into judgement with our owne soules who it is that overcommeth Apoc. 3. To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the tree of life in the middest of the paradice of God to him that overcommeth will I give a white stone c. And what must he overcome He must overcome himself and all his passions he must overcome the feare of death the power of sinne and the terrours of the Law A fearfull encounter and a great troop of enemies is laid open the Lord strengthen poore David that he may be able to encounter with this mighty Goliah for it seemes that hell it selfe is open upon him when therefore we doe give our selves that liberty as to doe what our selves list against the good will and command of God let us not thinke to have any part in this victory we are rather as so many conquered slaves and vassals that lie at the command of death that whereas wee should tread Satan under our feet Satan tramples us under his and makes us the most base and vile creatures in the world Thou that hast enough in this world and yet canst not tell when thou hast enough but still art distracted with envious desires and makest thy self great by other mens falls that raisest thy owne fortunes by other mens ruines that usest any meanes good or bad by hooke or by crooke to advance thine owne estate to make thy selfe rich and settest thy selfe onely to the study of the Idoll Mammon what kinde of victory or what hope of conquest canst thou have in that great and mighty victory which wee pretend the Lord Iesus hath given us surely none There is no such gally-slave in the world as a man that is given and addicted to his wealth and riches in this present life for it pierceth men through with many sorrowes as the Apostle saith They that will be rich 1 Tim. 6. pierce themselves thorow with many sorrowes Behold the sting of death is the sting that pierceth them the sting of death is sinne and this sting it pierceth through the heart and stabbs the soule of every covetous man in the world that they cannot claime any part of that victory which God communicates to his children but they are foyled base creatures that are made for slaughter and destruction And so againe for them that live in their pleasures in their voluptuous and filthy courses that will grow old in adultery that will make no end of their filthinesse and uncleannesse but with greedinesse seeke when one prey is enjoyed how to obtaine another these that make their vessells that should be Temples of God the brothell-houses of the Devill that are no sooner tempted but they yeeld these comming Creatures how or with what face with what confidence can they lay claime to the victory that we have in God through Iesus Christ our Lord being nothing else but bruits and are given over yeelding themselves they have taken the marke of the beast and follow Satans direction and command as if Christ had no power to be their Chieftaine but the Prince of darknesse must rule The like may bee said of all these malicious prowling spirits that be in the world that take delight to sting their brethren to doe mischiefe without cause to sow the seeds of dissention that will wrangle out their lives to trouble others to bring upon them endlesse suits and questions that shall never be decided to vexe the world with begging or buying of new found offfices to make their hands full out of every thing sacred and prophane to play the very roaring Lions in their dennes that no man can tell how hee should live or keepe himselfe quiet with them That these Creatures I say should come and claime any part in this
DOOMES-DAY OR A TREATISE OF THE RESURRECTION of the BODY Delivered in 22. Sermons on 1. Cor. 15. Whereunto are added 7. other Sermons on 1. Cor. 16. BY The late Learned and Iudicious Divine MARTIN DAY Doctor in Divinity Chaplaine in Ordinarie to his Majestie and sometimes Rector of S. Faiths LONDON Matth. 22.31 Have you not read what God hath spoken to you touching the Resurrection of the Dead LONDON Printed by T. H. and M. F. for Nathanael Butter and are to be sold at the signe of the Pide Bull neere Saint Austins gate 1636. To the Right Reverend Father in God and his most Ho. Lord JOSEPH By the Divine Providence Lord Bishop of EXCESTER MY LORD REligious spirits are usually Indulgent Patrons to Orphanes They imitate in this Act him who sayd I will bee a Father to the Fatherlesse I doubt not but that I shall finde your Honour of this generous disposition to these printed Posthumes of Doctor Dayes licensed by Authority and now seeking to your Lordship for protection I have adventured to present these papers comming to my hands to your Honour hoping the childe wil be wel liked for his Fathers sake who was wel known unto and entirely beloved of your Hon. in his primitive time in Cambridge as also while hee was our Pastor heere continued it towards him in his charge in your Lo. Diocesse even untill his dissolution however I have done this to shew my readines upon any occasion of service to your Lordship Thus craving your favour to shelter and fence this worke from open depravers and to continue your love to the Authors memory I humbly take leave being Your Lordships Servant NATH BUTTER To the Readers YOu cannot expect that these Sermons should have such exact politenesse and neat dressing as if the Authour had lived to revise them Yet you may discover Dr Dayes spirit expression method and matter to speake in all of them praesentemque refert concio quaeque patrem I would wish you then to read them without any prejudicate opinion as thâ—y are exercises whose Authour was famous in his time and which cannot chuse but yeeld you matter of counsell and comfort You have but few Authours in English upon this Epistle and fewer upon these subjects Lose by reading of them you cannot gaine you may I doubt not but they will proove beneficiall to the whole Church for whose sake I have published them Thus wishing you to gather hony out of these where it may be had I rest Yours N. B. 1 COR. 15.29 What shall they doe that are baptised over the dead if the dead rise not at all Why therefore are they baptised over the dead THis gratious Apostle the blessed organ and instrument of the holy Ghost doth so wondrously dispute his cause and contrive his arguments for the maintaining of this holy article of our faith the resurrection of the body that as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost in locum he leaves nothing unfetched either from God or men for in five or sixe verses before the text he disputes from the omnipotencie of God in raising Christ his Sonne He hath discoursed also of Christs kingdome and of the delivery of the kingdome of his mediation and of the end of all things the perfect consummation of all that God may governe and be all in all Now he descends to a lower kinde of sphere to arguments taken from the actions of men and presidents here below upon the earth And he saith that there were certaine men in the world that were baptised for dead that is they are baptised in a certaine hope of the resurrection of the dead whose labour is lost and their faith frustrate and to no purpose if they have not the end of that whereof they now make profession here So some expound it But that is to bring us backe into the same labyrinth we were in before Verse 14. for he saith before that our hope is vaine and our Preaching vaine if there be no resurrection Therefore waving that opinion I take it that the Apostle speakes of some other more peculiar and particular cause that is concerning the state of the Church of God in persecution wherin men despairing of helpe in this world despairing of any life or contentment they did come and offer themselves in a voluntary martyrdome and tooke the baptisme of death that is they were baptised to this purpose being willing to offer themselves as dead men to persecution for the Gospell sake which they would not have done unlesse they had beene certainly assured of the resurrection of the body Other sences there be but I must proceed in order from one to another and labour to finde out the likeliest for in truth there are innumerable many and the place is very difficult Onely two things we are most sure of in this argument and discourse here set downe to our hand First that whatsoever this baptising over the dead was and therein is all the difficultie yet it was a thing that was publike notorious and knowne to the Corinthians it was a matter that was not obscure to them although it be to us For the Apostle speakes not to them in clouds but by way of familiar and evident example thereby to winne their judgements to this conclusion concerning the bodies resurrection Secondly another thing is that whatsoever this baptisme was yet certainly it was a thing of much force it was a great argument to prove that which the Apostle intended For it is not his manner to deale weakely in proving and disputing but he useth all the strength of the holy Ghost as Chrysostome saith Chrysost that is as much strength and demonstration and evidence of the spirit as a man can be capable of And so upon this ground we must gather that that opinion is most likely and to be imbraced that maketh most for the resurrection of the body And if there be any sence of more force then other or any sence more pertinent than other to prove that maine conclusion certainely that is the sence which the Apostle intends For all those that be of lesser weight and smaller moment they are besides the Apostles purpose Questionlesse if there be any vigour or power in any more than another we must imagine that that is it the Apostle aymed at and that he would have us to ayme at All the doubt comes out of the ambiguitie of this one word Baptisme While some take this baptisme for the sacramentall washing others againe take it for a ceremoniall washing either such as were in the Law among the legall ceremonies or such as were knowne in the common course of life the washing of the bodies and corpes of the dead when they were layd forth for the Coffin Concerning these words for the dead there is also some doubt some expounding it for sinne some for sinners and some for them that are naturally dead that is when the spirit in the common course of nature is
we in jeopardy and danger every day and every houre are an exposition of the former Wherein he translates the argument from the common passion of the Church to his owne personall sufferings and those that were the first and principall in persecutions and troubles and he concludes that they were mad men that would undergoe such misery except they hoped for something unlesse they had a certaine hope of reward and recompence in those bodies in which they suffered For it is the body that suffers here the soule cannot be martyred but the body Therefore the Apostle saith Every man shall receive in their bodies according as they have done in their bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 whether it be good or evill Now for a man to undertake such great hazard and danger to be alway in jeopardy to be every houre in perill it is as bad as to be utterly consumed A man were better to be utterly dispatched than to be alway hanging in suspence for men to be still in anxiety to leade their lives in extremity and trouble to have nothing to comfort them here nor to have any expectation in the world to come of the common resurrection there were no madnesse comparable to this But because in these things we must not be presumptuous but must take them as the spirit of God hath suggested and dictated them to other men therefore I will not build certainly upon this sence although I thinke it to be the most true and naturall consequent that can be But we will consider also what the spirit of God hath spoken otherwise This gift of interpretation is not acknowledged nor understood among simple men although it be the greatest gift of all other For a man cannot tell what to build on he cannot tell what to thinke he knowes not what to say or what to conclude on If he ground upon a false interpretation Ierome in Gal. 1. as Saint Ierome saith upon Galath 1. upon these words I mervaile that you are gone to another Gospell saith he what makes this another Gospell false glosses and interpretations by giving a false sence of the Scriptures that which in it selfe is the pure Gospell of Christ may be made the Gospell of man nay that which is worse the Gospell of the divell so Saint Ierome Chrysost And Saint Chrysostome discoursing upon the same argument saith he If Christ himselfe shall not interpret the word which is obscure and darke in it selfe I shall neither gather the doctrine nor settle the conclusion so that the gift of interpretation is of all others the chiefe and prime foundation of divinity Therefore observing the great variety of the ancient Fathers in the Church of God I must of necessity abandon all kinde of darke and obscure speech and all that savours of affected language or eloquence yea and speake plainely as Saint Austin saith It is a farre better thing that the Grammarian or that the Criticke should reprehend us then that the people should not understand us In the divers sences of this Text I touched some others remaine which I will conclude as briefly as I can and then come to the other argument taken from his particular Why doe we thus Why doe we live in danger and jeopardie every houre What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead The first opinion was that the Text is to be understood according to the letter to be baptised for dead men This opinion is followed by many great and learned men and by Musculus which I wonder at for he was a most rare instrument of light to the Church of God throughout all the Scriptures and yet he thinkes this to be a good and a true construction That as Christ Iesus commended the fact of the unrighteous and unjust Steward although he did not commend the fact yet his wisedome is commended so the Apostles purpose is to shew that though it were a vaine thing for them to baptise the dead in the person of the quicke to baptise them by a proxey yet it argued that which the Apostle would inferre that they had a hope of the resurrection or else they would never have done it But because this hath beene condemned by the Fathers as hereticall and foolish therefore I wave that opinion as not being the Apostles meaning A second opinion was concerning those that did put off their baptisme till their death as the fashion was in the first 4 or 500. yeares after Christ The third what shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is that are baptised into a dead Christ This is followed by a great number of worthy Divines Chrysostome Theophilact Oecumenius Theodoret and Calvine Another opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is from the dead so the word signifieth sometimes and so Luther Luther saith that in the primitive times they baptised their children in the Church yards where the dead bodies were buried and were wont to stand upon the grave of the dead man and say This man shall rise againe I beleeve it and I take the Sacrament upon it and here I am baptised If wee could finde such a custome in the Church this were a cleare evidence but there is no history that makes this appeare unto us Notwithstanding if there had beene such a custome as that it being something superstitious it could not greatly inferre the argument and there is no reason to thinke they should be baptised upon the graves of the dead seeing the custome seemed to be contrary to baptise them in their Baptisteria or Fonts which were in little houses neere their Churches in which there was no burying of the dead for divers hundred yeares after Christ that is not till the Fonts were brought into the Churches till when they buried in the Church yards and in the Cloysters below Yet notwithstanding this might be true in some places as in the Church of Asia and in the parts upon the Euxine sea where they never baptised any but at the time of Easter and Whitsuntide and then they baptised them upon the graves of the dead to assure them that the dead that were contained in those graves and turned to dust should rise againe which they would now verifie by taking the Sacrament of baptisme upon it Therefore I give this interpretation the authority it deserves and take it as a true glosse on the Text but yet it is not the fulnesse of the great things the Apostle here intended The next opinion was they that are baptised for the dead that is dead to the world civilly dead that betake themselves to the study of mortification and will not live in those pleasures and delights which the world accounts the onely life Those kinde of pleasures and epicurious delights which worldly men take to be the life of life the Saints of God detest and abhorre them and in baptisme they doe renounce them the pompes and vanities of the wicked world and make
most sencelesse people of all others we will worke for some end too And to what end doe we thus trouble our selves if there be no hope of a resurrection So when we reade the Scriptures we should observe the manner of this phrase It teacheth us much and we should checke our owne dulnesse and infirmitie that the spirit of God must rouse us up by questions and interrogations and not onely propound the simple and plaine truth but must give us certaine crosse propositions to teach us that we cannot rayse our selves untill we be raised of God and to make us more sensible after he followes us with a multitude of questions 2 The subiect Now for the subiect of the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also First the Holy Ghost would teach us here that the Apostle and those that adhered to him they did conforme themselves to the presidents of ancient times And we also that is the Prophets before us suffered for the testimony of the truth for the doctrine of the Messias some of them were sawne in pieces with sawes some of them were killed with the sword some of them were banished some slaine betweene the Temple and the Altar Ierusalem was full of bloud in former times and all for the profession of the Messia the Lord Iesus and for the hope of the Resurrection conceived by him And we also follow them This is the sweet harmony of Gods Church it still consists of unisons and still they follow in the direction and union of one spirit to speake the same thing to teach the same thing to suffer for the same thing And we also doe it The Church of Christ seekes for no delicacies but it treads in the steps of her ancestors and looke what they have given for example before they follow in it diligently after If there were any kinde of worldly wisedome in this that men should see and discover the heresies and lyes and errours of former times it were madnesse for the latter times to embrace them But saith the Apostle we doe so too If our fore-fathers had been in errors had maintained lies we that live in these times me thinkes should be admonished and advised by processe of time and the great meanes that we have to discover them For if we should yet live in their errours our errour would be greater than theirs because we have more helpe than they and we have the advantage of time to see and contradict them But behold saith the Apostle we are so farre from contradicting of them that looke in what steps they have gone before we trace after them and follow with an even pace may we goe beyond them and transcend their perfections If they suffered something we suffer more if they were driven to some extremities we are acquainted with more The glory of Christs Church is this that still there is a succession of Martyrs and professors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also doe thus In matters of the world and the devises of Philosophie you shall have no man so valiant as to suffer for another mans opinion although in heresies and schismes it hath beene so the cause of which I shall shew afterwards yet among the Philosophers so many men so many mindes every man against his fellow As in the confusion of Babel or in the destruction of Madian their own swords were against one another But in the schoole of Christ the doctrine is pure and cleare the parties are zealous and unanimous they goe together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also tread in the steps of our fore-fathers This is one thing the Holy Ghost would teach us There are some other things that the Fathers have related to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also That is saith Ambrose Ambrose we that are well instructed and illuminated because he would make that good in his exposition which he had said before As I told you that the Apostle would prove the resurrection of the dead from an ill custome of them that were baptised for the dead by a proxey so Ambrose makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also As if the Apostle should say What doe you tell us of the foolish superstitions of the Cerinthyans of the Manichees and Montanists and others afterward which the Apostle foresaw would be What doe you tell us of those foolish people that baptise over the dead that is to say the living for the dead What doe you tell us of these that are in a grosse errour But I tell you we that are not erronious but know what we say and what we doe we that are illuminated from the Almighty we that are orthodoxe we suffer afflictâ—ons and persecutions We also Ambrose to defend his former opinion makes this kinde of exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as the former was weake so this is much weaker Therefore I let that passe as being not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here spoken of Saint Chrysostome Oecumenius and Theophylact expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also as a gradation or height of the argument bringing it from profession to passion As if he should have said What doe you speake of them that are baptised for the dead that is into the death of Christ For that was their opinion that baptising for the dead was into the death of Christ for remission of sinnes and for the resurrection of the bodies that are dead in sinne So then the sence should be this Why doe we also suffer As if hee should say they that are baptised to the death of Christ and to the faith of the resurrection they doe onely affirme it by word but we affirme it by deed by passion by suffering And it is a stronger argument that is taken from deeds then that which is taken from words It is an easier matter to make profession then to enter into passion Now behold they that are baptised into the death of Christ they make profession in words that they beleeve this flesh shall rise againe but it may be they will not stand to it when they are put to the tryall of afflictions for the defence of it But you see we doe Therefore as the tryall from deeds and actions is better then that in word and profession so the argument is cleare when he saith Why doe we travell or are in jeopardy every day I confesse this is the sentence of a grave learned and a holy Father and 't is true that he saith but yet I take that truth to be most proper that I spake of before concerning the argument drawne from the sufferings of the Church and that the Apostle doth speake of all the passions of the Martyrs of all the Prophets and blessed men witnesses of Christ that have beene in the world to this very day And although they did excellently in their times and places yet now the sufferings of Christ are made most glorious and they never came to that height and
his owne particular instance and saith as the common ordinary number of Saints were baptised in bloud so the Colledge of the Apostles much more and he himselfe most of all This I conclude to be the sence of the Text and of those difficult words verse 29. of baptising for the dead It is that which the Apostle renders here and in the verse before going in other termes For first in verse 29. he cals it baptising for the dead In verse 30. he cals it Ieopardy every houre and now in this verse he saith I dye daily All the three phrases have but one sence and signification onely distinguishing the persons from whom he drawes the argument For the thing is all one the state of Christs Church here on earth is alway like it selfe in this life alwayes in an afflicted condition So then his argument first in verse 29. which is a great graund argument to prove the Resurrection he takes it from the passions and sufferings of the Martyrs and professors of Christ and it holds in all these three verses and that which followeth In the first of the three he brings the argument generall In the second particular In the third he brings it personall First generall verse 29. his argument is drawn thus If there be no resurrection of the dead why should any man be so mad as to be baptised in bloud for the testimony thereof that is to forsake Father and Mother Land Country and Life and al for the witnesse of the Gospell which chiefly stands in the hope of the resurrection for this is the baptisme that Christ speakes of when he saith Can ye be bapti sed with the baptisme that I shall be baptised with and can ye drinke of the cup that I shall drinke of that is the baptisme of teares of affliction the baptisme of bloud for the testimony of the truth And so he drawes his argument from the common example of the Martyrs in their sufferings implying that they were madde men if they would suffer in confidence of a bad cause to lose the best thing in this world for a lye Therefore their sufferings are a plaine argument a strong and perfect subscription and consent to this maine point of our faith the Resurrection of the dead that for which the Saints in all the world the Prophets before Christ the Apostles after Christ have beene baptised For as Iames the brother of Iohn Acts 12. who was killed with the sword Stephen the first Martyr and all that were slaine in the first generall persecution the Apostle drawes his argument thence that if there were no Resurrection then they had laid downe their lives in vaine but they had not laid them downe in vaine therefore there shall be a Resurrection This is the scope of that argument In the second place he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles in verse 30. and saith Why doe we live in ieopardy every houre that is why doe we live in danger of death in perill all our life long to dye as it were every houre and to be baptised for the dead As a man that is under water as it was the custome in baptising he is as it were lost so long as he is there he is a dead man and although perhaps he may get up againe and lift up his head yet as long as he is in that element it being not the element of our life he is a lost man So they that betake themselves to the profession of the Gospell they are baptised they are under water they are throwne over board they are cast away out of the ship of the world and made away to plaine destruction to ignominy to basenesse to poverty and every kinde of persecution that their enemies hand can make over them they are baptised for dead because they are in danger all the day long in all the passages of their life they are in jeopardy of death and deepely drenched in the conceit and feare of death which is worse than death it selfe Now in the third place in this verse he comes to the personall proofe of the poynt and that which is usuall with all the Martyrs in generall with the Colledge of Apostles in particular he applies in his owne personall instance and saith I dye daily I protest and it is no meane protestation if you will not beleeve my word yet take my oath I set my seale to it and sweare and I sweare by the Lord Iesus by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily This is the summe of the words Now you perceive the argument we will proceed on The greatest thing in such passages is to finde out the sence the matter will be evident enough In other places the matter is deepe and the sence is evident but in this and in passages of like nature it is contrary To proceed in order Here first we are to consider the marvellous strange assertion that the Apostle makes Division into two parts 1 The Assertion 2 The Probation where he saith I dye daily he dyeth and yet he liveth and he dieth daily There was no part of his life but still the shadow of death overwhelmed him which is the miserablest thing in the world to dye after death and still to be dying it is the worst kinde of death and yet the Apostle saith he dyed daily It is an assertion that the Saint of God pronounceth for himself for there is no man that can understand him but he that takes delight in these meditations he that hath part in the kingdome of Christ knowes what this meanes For experience teacheth this and not speculation or any argument that reason can afford Secondly we are to consider the probation of this because it is a strange paradox as Luther Luther saith What dost thou meane Paul to contradict thy selfe and all common sence and reason Doe I not see thee walke Doe I not see thee eate and drink Doe I not heare thee preach and yet art thou dead I see no signe of a dead man in thee Therefore the Apostle makes it good by an oath and saith I protest by the reioycing that I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily Where first we are to consider the manner of his inference it is by way of oath And then the thing he sweares by by the reioycing that I have in Christ A dead man and yet rejoyce it is a very strange mixture Thirdly we are to consider the ground of his reioycing where it is placed In Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly to consider the force of this argument and how we may preserve and keepe the strength of this argument alway unavoydable to be able to say and to sweare and lay to pawne and gage this Rejoycing that we have in Christ when we finde this confidence in our selves 1 Part. The Assertion First touching that marvellous assertion of the Apostle I dye daily If an ordinary
16.17 when he comes to Lidia there Sathan had entred into a woman and she having the divell in her Verse 18. uttered these words of Paul and Silas These are the men that teach the way of truth but the Apostle understanding that the divell spake that for some cozening for the hinderance of the Gospell the Text saith he grew into vexation and trouble of spirit and commanded the divell to come out of her Another time he comes to Paulus house Acts 13.8 and there Elymas the sorcerer opposeth him whereupon being moved with griefe he growes to those high termes that he never spake the like language but onely there Verse 10. Thou full of all subtilty thou childe of the divell wâ—lt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of God these things therefore occasioned him new pangs and brought his death on multiplied his sorrowes and made him say as he doth here in the vexation of his spirit I dye daily For these Idolaters for these opposers for the inward troubles from his own flesh for outward troubles from his own corrupt nation these things so every where beset him that hee could make no evasion or escape Therefore hee sweares By the rejoycing I have in Iesus Christ our Lord I dye daily But the chiefe and maine thing that made the Apostle dye daily to dye upon the nest as it were it was the care of the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 29 2 Cor. 11. the great compassion he had that great Armado of cares and businesse and toyle that lay upon him As he saith The trouble and care of all the Churches lyes upon me Who is weake and I am not burthened who is offended and I burne not The griefe that he conceived to see men back-sliders to see how hardly men were brought to it and how ill they lived in their profession that they lived not answerable to their calling in Christ to see men fall from grace to this world as he saith of Demas He hath forsaken me 2 Tim. 4.10 and imbraced this present world these strange alterations and turnings in the Church of God did so vexe and trouble and grieve his spirit that he could take no rest or repose in any thing in the world but was as a dead man free among the dead and he cryes out here I protest by the reioycing I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily I dye daily This is a great aggravation of the miserie To dye is the bane of nature the horrible of horribles which none of us all can indure to heare of the least approach of it casts us into infinite feares and horrour but to dye daily to know no end of death no period to determine it but to be in the continuall act of dying here is the height of all the patience of the Saints As they dye so they dye daily there is no time that shines perfectly cleare to them but all is in cloudes and disasters and misfortunes here I dye daily Every day brings its burthen with it that as we begge our daily bread so there is a daily death and we have not such assurance of our daily bread as we have of our daily death Men often by fasting pull downe themselves and keepe downe their bodies that they eate not their bread but there is no day but a Christian tasts of death Though hee have no taste of bread or any rellish of victuals yet hee shall be sure to taste of death I dye daily as though my life were of steele and my bones of marble as though this short threed of mine were of Adamant so thy terrours worke upon me Like a moath that frets a garment and leaves nothing but flockes and dust and ruine of the goodliest garment so the terrors of God the terrours of conscience the terrours of the world the discontents and feares the malice of the divell the malice of some false brethren and the falling away of others these things did so worke upon him and so vexe him that they did even bring him to nothing that there was no houre but it was full of distraction and perturbation I protest by the rejoycing I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily This daily death is the generall condition of Gods Saints Saint Paul suffered it not alone but he left it also as our inheritance he dyed daily and we may say who doth not dye daily He that knowes Christ and hath a will to follow him he shall finde his life in this life to be a continuall death wrastling with him and tyrannizing over him as Iob saith My soule rather desires strangling Iob 7.15 than to live as I doe Saint Paul had his death and the ministers of the Gospell now have their death and though they live in a time of peace and plenty yet they want not their death to gnaw on them The envy of men the malice and slander and villanous reports whereby they defame and disgrace their brethren to the pit of hell the non-proficiencie of men their scorning of the word these are as death to a man that is sensible of God or of his government The Apostle seemes to make all the day being divided into two parts to be a continuall dying The day is either naturall or artificiall and both these are full of deaths the day naturall is that we worke in and sleepe in the day artificiall is that onely which we worke in in the common course of nature and in both these there were deaths to the blessed Apostle In the day time the time of worke I dye daily in all the passages of my life in all the practises and exercises of religion whether it be Prayer Meditation or Teaching and admonishing the people In all these exercises I dye daily In my prayers I dye with coldnesse and dulnesse I have not zeale to wing my affections to God In my preaching I dye with weakenesse and neglect I cannot set forth that glorious word as I ought to doe In my Meditations I dye with sluggishnesse and lazinesse that I cannot hold on my beginnings in that course In my Meate and drinke and other refreshings I dye I am eyther too excessive or else too superstitiously vaine and fearefull Nay in that very time of the day wherein nature brings rest and repose in the time of night when I should sleepe and rest I dye in my very sleepe That is full of startling dreames and fearefull phantasies and perturbations to vexe my soule so that every day I dye whether it be in that part of the day which is for worke or that which is for rest every where I dye When the Sunne shines it is as a blazing starre that opens the day to mischiefe and discomfort When the Moone appeares it is as a Commet or candle to waken me to distracted thoughts The Stars are as so many clouds that drowne me in darkenesse My houres are as Iobs messengers that bring mee sad reports
in his third Booke of the Trinity he saith The Apostle did not feare to confirme the certainty of his salvation by swearing for saith he by the confidence that I have in Christ Iesus I dye daily Among the Greekes none doubted of it but those that were simple and unlearned Therefore I say this was an oath and so the strongest confirmation that can be 2 The thing he sweares by Esay 45.23 But how doth Saint Paul sweare by that which is not God It is not lawfull to sweare by any thing but the name of God as the Lord saith Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse me and sweare by my name Heb. 6.13 It is true that when God sweares having no greater to sweare by he sweares by himselfe and when man sweares he must alway sweare by a greater For that is the end of an oath to protest an unknowne truth by the presence and countenance of a greater person then himselfe and one which cannot lye Therefore it is unlawfull for a Christian to sweare by any name but the name of God and that not often much lesse alway or in frivolous causes for this our Lord Christ condemnes when hee saith sweare not at all Math 5.34 that is not often nor out of passion But as an oath is a speciall service of God so it is to be taken upon speciall occasions but now we are bound to sweare by no name but the name of God and reioycing in Christ is not Christ himselfe Wherefore then doth the Apostle sweare by his reioycing in Christ We must understand that to sweare by any immediate fruit of the spirit of God by any thing that flowes immediately from God to us it is all one as to sweare by the name of God it selfe This is so individuall and inseparable a thing the comfort namely and the joy of Christ hath brought into the world that it is as inseparable from the spirit as the shadow from the body Therefore as a man may sweare by the shadow that there is a body and swearing the one he intimates the other and concludes the other so the Apostle here he sweares by this fruit of the holy Ghost which is ioy and peace even the peace of God which passeth all understanding which he found in his heart by the meanes of Christ Iesus who maketh our ioy to be full who is the fountaine of ioy swearing by this he sweares by the chiefe iewell of salvation which is the penny that Christ had given him as an earnest as a pawne and gage of his love Out of this that he saith Our reioycing observe I beseech you the wondrous temper of a Christian how he is composed of strange extreame contraries of death and life of sorrow and joy of peace and war There is nothing in the world that can be imagined so contrary as be the severall parts of a Christian mans constitution Upon this ground the holy Apostle goeth 2 Cor 4. 2 Cor. 4.8 c. where he makes the definition of a Christian after the same manner Saith he we are indeed oppressed and persecuted but yet not crushed altogether we are as men dead and yet behold we live poore and yet making many rich as having nothing and yet we possesse all things This is that marvellous mixture that God hath appointed his children to come to that they should be conformable to the sufferings of Christ and so be in death and yet that they should revive againe by the spirit of God and so no man be lesse in death being alway in life and having the certaine pledge and pawne of life eternall As for the men of this world the sonnes of flesh and bloud when they thinke themselves most lively then are they most deepely in death every thing worketh against them the stormes of Gods wrath attend them and worke upon their consciences at some time or other such fearefull deaths as out of which they can make no evasion or escape But with the children of God it is contrary when they are in the middest of death they are in the height of life 2 Cor. 4.16 As the Apostle saith Although our outward man dye daily and is corrupted yet the inward man is renewed and revived by the spirit of Christ So in all the passages of their life where death seemes to have the greatest sway and predominancie even there is life abundantly over death and the roote of life shall at length eate out the fruit of death And although death make a flourish for a time upon the Saints of God yet because there is a root of life it shall still grow and bud and bring forth at length that death may be swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.54 In all things the children of God have full contentment in this life although they be in the middest of death This is the great miracle that God doth in the world Every holy man is a wonder every good man is a miracle like the children of Israel Exod. 14.22 that walked through the deepe where there was never way knowne before like the three children in the furnace Dan. 3.25 that walked in the middest of the fire as if they had beene in a pleasant Medow like the Israelites and all their cattell that passed over Iordan Acts 16.25 like Paul and Sylas singing at midnight in chaines and fetters in prison A miraculous spectacle to God and men which drawes the eyes of Angâ—â—s to the contemplation of it For in sicknesse a Christian is full of the saving health of God In persecution he is full of quiet and contentment of the holy Ghost In prison he is full of Psalmes and spirituall Songs as were Paul and Sylas When he is bound in shackles he is free and expedite and loose As the Apostle saith in another place though I be bound 2 Tim. 2.9 yet the word of God is not bound the Gospell of Christ is not bound In all things he is a breathing miracle of the power of God that sounds unto us as so many silver Trumpets the omnipotencie of God that makes such a correspondence and proportion betweene life and death that makes death and life dwell together in one body and yet hee will evacuate death by the power of life that life may surmount and death may be put under that at the last death may be debased and life may be advanced And in that he saith Our reioycing or your reioycing For it is not materiall whether way it is read for it is a common ioy If I reade it yours I have it if mine you have it for it is a common ioy in our common Saviour This is that which all of us confesse when we make our prayers to God we call him our Father and we call the Saviour of the world our Saviour and so we may call the spirit our comforter because this common veyne of joy it flowes and runnes
wofull calamity that sinne hath brought upon us to pray to the Lord to take these barbarous trickes from us and to teach us the true civility of his Saints even that honourable conversation that makes of beasts men and of men Angels and not of men beasts and of beasts divels as our condition is by nature 2 Tim. 3.13 The wicked prosper from worse to worse as the Apostle saith It is a strange phrase that they should prosper from worse to worse and yet it is true for the prosperity of the wicked is to his greater destruction It is the grace of God that exalts a man from a beast to be a man and from the state of a man to the state of an Angell And it is the basenesse of nature that brings a man from being a man to be a beast and makes him to creepe or to goe on all foure to whom the Lord hath given an upright positure and an erected countenance So much for the first poynt of interpretation I have been too long in it I will conclude the rest more briefely Second poynt Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to men or after the manner of men This is more intricate than the former and as I said wee ought not to misprize what the Church hath taught us but as dutifull children to see the variety of the gifts of God as they have flowed in the whole body of the Church from time to time This saith Beza Beza According to men it signifieth no more but according to the fashion of men as men use to fight with beasts to get the victory and to get themselves glory and reputation in the world what profit shall I have by this if there be no Resurrection So Beza thinks following the opinion of Ambrose and of divers others before him S. Ambrose But me thinkes this concludes and inferres nothing For a man might thus object against this suppose he went to fight with beasts as commonly men doe it is the condition of men to looke for the same reward that others have and the same glory that other men atchieve these men fought with beasts daily and they looked for their reward but yet they thought not of the resurrection of the body they dreamed not of such a thing as the bodies rising therefore the Apostle denyes that he went after the manner of men for vaine-glory or for an idle applause of the people or for any worldly gaine he had no such project but he did it onely for the hope of the Resurrection This exposition though there be somewhat in it is not close it is not the proper sence which the most and best follow Anselme Anselme hath another sence of it If I have fought with beasts after the manner of men or according to men that is saith he if my passions and sufferings were seene with the eyes of men all men that had looked upon me at Ephesus how I was troubled with those wicked men there they would have thought I had rather fought with beasts in humane shape then men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to mens iudgement they would rather have seemed beasts than men so that I call them not beasts simply my selfe but in the judgement of them that are my beholders and spectators that see my sufferings to see with what kinde of wits I was incumbred they would have judged them beasts and not men This is too farre off because the Apostle useth not this phrase in that sence elsewhere in any of his Writings Thirdly If I have fought with beasts after the manner of men that is if I have fought to death so Theodoret and Theophilact Theodoret. Theophilact As those men that used to fight with beasts they fought to death still for the manner was when they sent a malefactor or a man that was condemned ad certamen to the stage to fight with the beast if perhaps he came away the conquerour and slew the beast yet then the Executioner or Hang-man was either by sword or with a halter to strangle him and to make an end of him so that still he that fought with beasts hee fought to death for if he fought not to death with the beast yet he came to his death by man because the Iudge had doomed him to dye and though he gaue him leave to use his weapon to take armes and to defend himselfe yet when that expectation failed they did not fayle to take away his life another way so that then the Apostles meaning must be If he fought with beasts as men used to doe to fight to death that have death every way if they be cast naked and bound it is to death for they are torne in pieces if they be armed against the beast and prevaile over him and be not killed by him yet the law after tooke hold of them so that still they fought unto death This exposition seemeth to be favoured by that in 2 Cor. 1.8 2 Cor. 1.8 where the Apostle saith We tooke the sentence of death against our selves that is there was no way with us but one there was nothing but death presented to us the gastly face of destruction and desolation he speakes there as it is likely of this persecution But as I said before they fought not alway to death but some times for tryall and besides if Saint Paul had fought to death he could not after that have related this to us Therefore I come to the last opinion and as I take it the best because of some reverend translations to whom I incline more than to any thing which hath beene done in the Church these many yeeres which understand the end of it to be this After the manner of men that is to speake after the manner of men according as it is the Apostles phrase in many other places and a mans meaning may be the best knowne by his stile by observing his speech elsewhere a man may trace him the better afterward one place helpes to cleare another Now this in the Writings of Saint Paul is a common speech after the manner of men Rom. 3.5 Rom. 6.19 Rom 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speake as a man And Rom 6.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 J speake after the manner of men and in divers other places I speake after the manner of men and although here be not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet here is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same forme and phrase he useth there and so the Apostles meaning is this you know men have a forme of speech to call malitious and cruell men beasts and according to that forme I speake for my Lord and Saviour otherwise would not give me leave to speake so out of my owne spleene out of my owne passion to call men beasts for they are all my brethren and all must be imbraced in the bowels of love and in long suffering and patience
renew reforme and regenerate our spirits it is impossible but that flesh should speake of flesh and should savour the things of the world and not the things of God that it may be carried with a full swing after its owne impieties grow worse and worse and never leave sinning till at last it sinke in sinne and the pit close her mouth upon it Let us therefore be warie in following the tract of our forefathers If they were naught we have no reason to insist in their steps except it be in good except it be according to the wayes of God according to the holy pathes of the Almighty For it followes not that because sinne hath beene predominant in all ages that therefore we should use it now It followes not that because women have prancked themselves in pride and made themselves the Idols of the world that therefore the daughters of Sarah should doe it now It followes not that because drunkennesse hath beene a common vice heretofore that therefore men should hunt and follow after it now We have no reason to follow our ancients in ill customes except wee will chuse to perish in those ill customes Therefore the Apostle bringeth an ancient stale sinne and useth the same sentence Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye To eate and drinke are the most essentiall necessaries of our nature the supporters of our being and there is no life but the Lord hath appointed it to be sustained by these two proppes Eating and Drinking Eating to supply the dryer and more sollid part of the body and drinking to moysten to bee a coach and conveyance for the meate that we eate to be a cooling and refrigeration of the heate of the body And in both of them God hath set his blessing that by eating and drinking the life of man should bee preserved and prolonged in some to forty in some to fifty in some longer by many yeares by the blessing of the Almighty Therefore to eate and drinke so farre as to recreate the body to refresh the spirits to strengthen us in our functions and callings to incourage us to give thankes to God who is our feeder eating and drinking be as necessary as living But the eating and drinking here intended and spoken of Let us eate to surfetting let us drinke to drunkennesse let us eate and drinke to excesse to study these things onely for satiety and gurmandizing and that fulnesse that may confound nature and drowne the spirits of men and not build them up in the feare of God and in thankfulnesse to him this is that they meane here Let us eate so as that we may over-eate let us drinke so as that we may drowne our understandings in drinke When men cannot tell how to use the gifts of God moderately they cannot eate as other men eate but as monsters they cannot drinke as moderate men drinke but as spunges that devoure all within their compasse that their bodies many times are so full of ballast that the whole ship is lost even in the harbour it is not able to hold all the water but sinkes under the burden and is made a spectacle of misery to God to Angels and to men to insult over This brutish eating and drinking savours of bestiality Eating and drinking it is the meere felicity of the beast in this world As Cornelius Tacitus saith well some men are like beasts and goe no further if you give them a little fodder they will lye slumbering and be idle and take no further care such are those people Psal 17.14 Tertul. whose belly God fils with his hid treasure those whose belly is their God as Tertullian rightly describes them Their stomacke is their Altar Their belly is their God Their Priest is their Cooke Their holy Ghost is the smell of their meate Their graces of the spirit are their sauces Their Kitchin is their Church and Temple And that Aculiculus the most filthy part of al the body is their great and admired Idoll As the same Father goeth on Thou saist thou hast faith hope and charity Thy faith is boyling in the kitchin Thy charity is in thy Caldron or pot Thy hope is in those divers dishes brought to thy table Thus Tertullian hath described the condition of these kinde of brutish men And we see that in ancient times before men had the knowledge of Almighty God they placed a great happinesse in this one poynt of eating and drinking to make themselves bruit beasts without understanding as Saint Peter cals them 2 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 2.12 unreasonable brutish beasts Insomuch as one great King among them when he dyed commanded this Epitaph to be set upon his tombe This I have that I have eaten and drunken all the rest is lost that I have all the rest is left and forsaken Tully Aristotle which as Tully saith well out of Aristotle what other thing then this could have beene set upon the tombe of an Oxe or bruit beast to say I have nothing else but that I have eaten but that I have consumed and driven into my paunch and so into the draught that I have and no possession else But Christians have another language those things we have that we have learned out of Gods word the wisedome that we have gotten of heaven and heavenly things these things we have left us when our life leaves us and nothing remaines but the portion of these Those that have read any thing of the Poets they know what was the common language of seduced nature When God left them to their owne dregges miserable poore creatures they had no further aymes and intents then these transitory and perishing things the filling of their bellies whose belly is their God whose end is damnation as the Apostle saith Phil. 3.18 Phil. 3.18 Whose glory is their shame and such was the glory of all the heathen Another of them said Eate drinke and play for after death there is no pleasure Ede bibe lude post mâ—rtem nulla voluptas Horacâ— there is nothing remains Another comes in with his vye and saith The Sun indeed may rise and set and rise againe but when our night comes once the night of death we sleepe for ever and there we lye and there is no more to be heard of us Another of them saith We must ease our youth and take the benefit of it as a flower because it runnes away with a swift foot And another saith use thy pleasures now for thou knowest not whether ever they will come againe thou knowest not whether ever after thou shalt have opportunity to enioy them Thus this beastly congregation of brutish swinish people they apprehended with the greatest industry that could be these vile pleasures of eating and drinking as though there were a necessity of pleasures in this life and that the greatest pleasure consisted in the palate in consuming of meate and drinke According as this wicked crew which the Apostle
you you have an ignorance concerning God because you call in question his power in this mighty benefit the resurrection of our bodies And then lastly he concludeth with mildnesse and sharpnesse and mingleth both together I speake this to your shame As if he should have said partly I am ashamed that I have spent so much time and so much labour among you and yet still you are in such waverings as these and are no better perswaded in the omnipotent power of God But as I speake this to your shame so I would not have you despaire but onely to take shame of your fault and so be brought to Repentance I speake it not to bring you to a confusion eternall but to a healthy confusion a confusion that brings conversion that conversion may bring salvation by the mercy of God I speak it not to overthrow you but to waken you that have beene intoxicate in a deepe sleepe by the wicked communication of these men This I take to be the sence of the Text. To proceed in order There are three parts Division into 3. Parts First a counsell or exhortation Then a serious expostulation 1. An exhortation 2. An expostulation 3. An Increpation And lastly a forcible dealing by way of Increpation whereby he doth as it were by an holy violence compell them to enter into the wayes of God and to be reclaimed from their sinnes The first is contained in these words Awake to righteousnesse and sinne not 1 delivered And that First in figure and then In plaine speech The figure in these words Awake to righteousnesse The plaine words follow And sinne not The one interprets the other In the figure there are two things 1 There is an Act to awake out of wine awake out of drinke for so the word signifieth Then secondly there is the tearme and manner whereto they must wake Awake to justice awake to perfection not as men halfe asleep and halfe awake to turne on the other side and take a nappe but to wake fully and freely It is such a waking as a man may be expedite to worke in the function of his life whereunto all waking men are disposed Then in the plaine words or exposition hee shews likewise two things 1 First that sinne is the mother of all errour of all grosse and base communication 2 Secondly that by the grace of God if we work with the grace of God we shall not sinne that is we shall not sinne in that grosse manner as these creatures do Although all men be sinners yet if we will tender the grace of God that is in us we shall so live as that we shall not sinne according to that phrase of Scripture which is afterwards to be expounded namely not with a full consent not with a high hand not to continue in sinne not to despaire in sinne but we shall know that if we do sinne we have a Mediatour of our reconciliation we have a Mediator which is God and Man Christ Iesus 1. Tim. 2.5 1. Iob. 1.1 2. who is the propitiation for our sinnes Then in the second part in the exposition there are two things to be considered First he tels them of their fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a word that we cannot well utter in English nor in Latine it is hard to be exprest in both languages to be ignorant of God And then because he would not offend all the company for a fews sake he saith Some of you have not the knowledge of God And then lastly the Application of all to them he saith he speakes it to their shame that is either he was ashamed to spend so much time and labour to so little profit or he spake it to their shame as the common Text reades it I speake it to your shame But yet it is such a speech as is not uttered in a virulent manner to cast them away to make them despaire but to bring them home that they might know what they ought to do for the time to come These are the branches of the Text. Of every one of these as the Lord shall give assistance and but a word of every one because they are common obvious things First it is to be observed 1. Part. The Exhortation Awake c. that the Apostle invites them and cals upon them for waking and for such a waking as if he should speake to a sort of drunkards that were drowned in wine and drunkennesse which is as base a kinde of sleepe as can be For all sleepe naturall of it selfe is justly accounted a meere losse of time the brother of death the field of danger a thing that hath no profit in it that spends one part of our life to no purpose And yet we cannot live without it for the repairing and re-edifying and building up of our bodies againe that were consumed and wasted before with daily labour Now if the naturall sleepe be a loosing of time a loosing of our spirits and a subjecting of us to danger much more then is it in the sleepe of sinne that poysonous sleepe that comes by excesse and drunkennesse These of all other are most dangerous and most hard for a man to bee rouzed out of It is a common thing in Scripture to compare sinners to sleepers and sinne to sleepe There are divers sleepes related in the Scriptures The sleepe corporall of the body and spirituall of the soule The sleepe corporall of the body is either naturall or violent Naturall sleepe is that when the strength of man is weakened and abated and his spirits are againe renewed by a gracious mist and dew that is cast upon the body whereby the naturall spirits the vitall spirits and the animall spirits are refreshed and raised againe to their worke Violent sleepe is either by drunkennesse or disease When nature is overwhelmed by drunkennesse or by disease As by Lethargies or palsies which all worke unto death which is also called sleepe For our Lord Christ saith We go to Lazarus who sleepeth And those that dye in the Lord they sleepe This is naturall sleepe The spirituall sleepe the sleepe that fals upon the spirit of man it is of two sorts in Scripture The one is celestiall and good The other is infernall for hell and hellish purposes Cant. 2.7 The first is that sleepe of the Church I charge you oh daughters of Ierusalem by the roes and by the hyndes that ye wake not my beloved untill she please that is in the meditation of holy things It is a divine rapture whereby the Saints of God have communion and are made one spirit with the Lord. Cant. 5.1 This is called in Scripture a sleepe I sleepe but my heart waketh But that which the Apostle speaks of here is an infernall sleepe that tends to a sleepe of damnation As sleepie diseases nourish death in men and there is no more assured signe that a man shall dye then when he is continually sleeping that he
he must stand up and do the actions of an holy life It is true saith S. Austin I see thou are rowsed and wakened but yet thou art drowsie thou art rubbing thine eyes thou hast not yet quite overcome and mastred thy sleepe but I tell thee God will have thee shake off all this sleepe and drowsinesse and so to awaken as Christ awakened from death he once left the grave never to return and come there any more For in that he dyed hee dyed once for sinne but in that he liveth he liveth ever to God Then therefore a man is risen justly when there is no part of drowsinesse remaines in him when he is not like those sleepie creatures that rise in their sleepe and go about their businesse and go to bed againe and when they have done all know not of it There is a kinde of kell or skinne wanting in the braine wherein memory should be retentive therefore they do many things in their sleepe But God would have men so waken as that there should no portion of this drowsinesse rest in them This doctrine is very necessarie For there is much sleepe carries them away that are most watchfull there is infinite heavinesse and slumber waits upon them God is in his children in one part and the devill in another part that they now speake well anon they do ill many make profession of the Gospell and yet shew no pittie to the poore nor exercise charitie where they see occasion These men are awaked and they be doing and stirring but it is not justly as God would have them When once a man leaves that way and habite which hee had before and hath a new spirit of life put into him he is then all for action and for working in the wayes of God Now I come to the Exposition Exposition And sinne not Here the Apostle expounds what he meanes by waking Where first the Apostle gives us to understand that the cause of all foolish and idle speech and communication as those hee speakes of before Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye the cause of these idle discourses it is meerly an inherent habite of sinne so that corruption is the plague that causeth evill speeches and behaviour and the one as a pestilent serpent brings forth the other It is sinne that breeds monstrous opinions it is sinne that breeds all the heresies in the world they have no other mother As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith those that make shipwracke of a good life it is no marvell if they make shipwracke of a good faith They that give themselves to base manners they are given over by the judgement of God to erronious opinions For as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost a wicked life is a corrupt fountaine from whence comes nothing but mud and dirt and froth Aâ—g and as Saint Austin saith well A man having knowledge once to do the will of God and yet will not do it according to his knowledge it is impossible he should retaine his knowledge he that knows what is acceptable in the sight of God and yet from a stubbornnesse of minde will not follow his knowledge the Lord shall bring that judgement upon him that he shall lose that power that he shall not be able to know what is right and what is wrong Take the talent from that unprofitable servant Mat. 25.28 and give it to him that hath ten talents Matth. 6.23 If the light in a man be darknesse how great is that darknesse from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath It is a fearfull and terrible sentence let us all tremble under the blast of it for it concernes every man As long as he lives in sinne it is the greatest miracle in the world that he is not drowned in it To keepe a true faith with a bad life it is meerly impossible Therefore sinne not For that there is all this false and idle communication that there is this base conversation these evill speeches these distrustfull languages concerning God and concerning the Resurrection the cause of it is this inveterate sinfulnesse If God punish men with giddinesse of braine and blinde their understandings that the light in him be darknesse it is a fearfull stroke yet this comes from sinne therefore he joynes both together and injoynes them saying Sinne not But how saith the Apostle sinne not Ob. Doth he not know they were men would he have them of Angelicall natures Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say If we that is if we that are Apostles 1. Joh. 1.8 if we say that wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And if the Physitian require of his Patient a thing that he cannot possibly do as to tell him that is diseased that hee must fetch such an hearbe from the East-Indies to cure him it were a meere trouble and delusion and the way to make him desperate Therefore what doth the Apostle meane when he saith Sinne not Why all men are sinners and stand in need of the glory of God and a man must pray as duly for the forgivenesse of his sinnes as for his daily bread they follow both as necessarily the one upon the other as it is possible two benefits can do Answ But to sinne in Scripture is taken in these sences chiefly First men are said to sinne that study sinne that hunt after sinne that seeke it many men are so given to the devill in the world that if hee do not seeke them they will seeke him The Apostle bids us take heed of that it is a terrible thing when a man hath a carefull minde to serve Sathan and to leave and forsake the living God The nature of Gods children may be overtaken with infirmities but they do not study for it Secondly they are said to sinne that go on in sinne so Saint Iohn saith the childe of God doth not sinne because they premise it not before hand and they call themselves to account and to judgement for it after they judge themselves for their sinne There is no man nor no barre in the world can devise that punishment for the childe of God that he doth inflict upon himselfe he is his owne judge and his owne executioner Therefore he makes no profession of his sinne but is ashamed and hides his head upon every remembrance of his sinne Therefore he is said nor to sinne by the speciall grace of God that covers his sinne because he cannot indure it As Saint Basil Basil saith If thy sinne please thee not it shall never hurâ— thee Lastly they are said to sin that sin to desperatioÌ„ thaâ— care not for pardon that disclaime the mercy of God that say their sinne is so great that it cannot bee forgiven like Cain and Iudas that will none of Gods compassion that reject his favour and will not subject themselves to his censure but are ready to say thus
proud thou dust and ashes which art nothing else but a masse and lump of poore rottennesse and putrifaction Take heed lest as thy outward man corrupts daily that the inward man be not corrupted to For there is no corruption like that when a man hath a rotten heart that is the most wofull putrifaction Take heed therefore to thy soule that though thy outward man be like it selfe corrupt 2 Cor. 4.16 yet thy inward-man may be renewed daily in holinesse and righteousnesse to serve the living God that thou mayst procure peace to thine own soule It is sowne in corruption It is raised againe in Incorruption Blessed be the God of Incorruption that although our bodies of themselves be subject to fade and molder away yet it is but for a season for that the Lord hath promised them another state which is incorrupt And although wee cannot understand how it shall be by looking upon these earthly bodies for we see every thing comes to nothing and is dissolved yet the Lord hath given us a signe of it in the starres of heaven which are incorrupt They are uncorrupt even in our common sense and experience for they be not mixed as these elementary bodies be they are not of such a grosse composition and therefore they stand in the firmament in their state and place as they have done from the beginning We have also a sign of it in the Angels which are uncorrupt also and in the soule of man that hee carries within him which is likewise uncorrupt These are emblems of that incorruption that God will worke upon our bodies also It is true the body that is tainted with sin it cannot be otherwise it must be a slave to corruption it is bound over to corruption it is full of putrifaction and it must needs say as Iob Job 17.14 I will say unto rottennesse thou art my mother and to the worm ye are my sisters and my daughters and my kinsfolke Yet the Lord hath made in these spirits and he will waken these bodies wherâ— he cleares and frees them from sinne he will make in them an eternall vigour and the everlasting influence of his goodnesse and grace shall keep that sweetnesse for ever after that it is once infused into it And this incorruption shall come to the bodies of the Saints three waies First by the goodnesse of the matter Secondly by the singularity of the forme Thirdly by the gracious assistance of the efficient cause First for the goodnesse of the matter The Lord shall make that a sollid lively and vigorous matter that shall never againe be subject to frailty as the body was before by sin that as the Indian or China dishes the earth and clay that they are made of is buryed certaine yeares in the ground that so it may ripen and be brought to that colour which after it comes to be capable of So the blessed God will bury these corrupt bodies under the ground to bring them to be a matter fit for his stamp and image to be set on which shall not be corrupt as the former was but shall remain full of strength and vigour and full of life and sweetnesse to indure for ever And then secondly for the forme The forme of man shall be all one as it is now and the matter to onely it shall be refined but the soule then shall be of such absolute power over the body that it shall command it every where The body shall yeeld a full obedience and the soule shall command with a full authority and it shall be so furnished with new abilities with new knowledge with new desires with new Zeale that it is impossible for any temptations to passe as they doe now Now sometimes the soule tempts the body and sometimes the body tempts the soule and they doe mutually work each others subversion but there shall be no such contrariety then but the body shall be for the soule and the soule for the spirit and the spirit for God that God may be all in all Therefore I say in that blessed world they cannot sin men that live in this flesh cannot but sin but God shall restore that blessed life that it shall not possibly sin nor conceive of sin that is with any inclination to sin For it is impossible for any man that is well in his wits that he should desire to be murthered it is impossible for a man that loves his wealth and riches to desire that a man should rob him it is impossible that such thoughts should come into the mind of a man that is well advised so it is impossible for the soule and body in that new world that ever they should have any delight to goe from God For then it were possible for a man to desire to be murthered or for a man to desire to be robbed of his wealth for to goe from God is for a man to lose his treasure to lose his life to lose his wealth to lose all his quiet and contentment and there is no man that would lose these Therefore as these earthly things doe so affect us that we cannot abide to be bereft of them much more then shall God so affect us that wee shall not indure to think of any separation or going from him As the Apostle saith Rom. 8.38 39. What shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus Shall fire or sword or hunger or cold or nakednesse or life or death nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God iâ— Christ Iesus Thirdly and lastly this incorruption shall be in respect of the gracious assistance of the efficient cause This indeed is the cause of causes this is all in all For though God make a glorious matter and habilitate it with an excellent forme yet notwithstanding if it were not for the continuall influence and pouring in of that glorious life every thing that is made may be marred againe As St. Basil St. Basil saith Everything created is convertible and may be turncal The Angels themselves they live not upon themselves nor they live not upon necessity but by the will and grace of God therefore they are immortall Nothing hath immortality properly in it selfe but God alone as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. To God 1 Tim. 6.16 who onely hath immortality That is who onely hath immortality of himselfe and of necessity hath it and cannot but have it All others have immortality by a dependant grace Here is the chiefe reason of our incorruption because God shall fill us with the sweet water of his river of incorruption which shall continually keepe us in our youth and in our glory and strength and in that state that he hath bestowed on us and the worke that he hath begun he will finish and follow it with his continuall assistance This is the reason why we shall be incorrupt For because of sinfull flesh the Lord permits it here to fall
upon him our nature hee must take that which stood in most need of redemption which is the poore body which is subject to all miseries and calamities For how should hee be called The sonne of man if he had not a body But as he is called The sonne of God so he is also called The sonne of man and hee came to save both parts of man that were downe by reason of sin he came to take the flesh of man to be incarnate and that is it that we so rejoyce and boast of that Christ was become incarnate became man and tooke our flesh upon him and in that flesh he hungred in that flesh he suffered in that flesh he was buryed in that flesh he rose againe in that flesh he ascended into heaven to make a way by the vaile of his flesh into the Holy-of-holyes Heb. 10.20 to all that constantly and truly beleeve in him Quest 3 Thirdly another Question is moved here How Adam is said to be corpus animale seeing God gave him a power of immortalitie for if it were corpus immortale then it could not be corpus animale as saith S. Austin and that truly but Adam had corpus immortale therefore it was not corpus animale and by consequent he cannot be so different from Christ as the Apostle makes him here For the Apostle brings in the two roots and fountaines of man-kinde and he makes the one animall and the other spirituall Now saith St. Austin I demand if Adam had an immortall body how was it an animall body For an animall body is that that is fraile and changeable an immortall body is that which is unchangeable And againe as the holy Father urgeth it further Certainely saith he we recover in Christ that which we lost in Adam and one thing that we recover by Christ is immortality therefore we lost immortality in Adam we lost it in the first Adam and we recover it in the second Now if we lost immortality in Adam then he lost it for us he lost it first as being the foundation of our kinde and we lost it in him being his posterity Then certainely he had it if he lost it for no man can lost that which he hath not and therefore Adam having immortality how should his body be fraile and mortall and an animall body These are things contrary each to other The Father answers againe These quirks and devises make the faith of many men to stagger and it makes some men to answer it thus That the body of man was changed in Paradise God made his body a mortall body but after this he brought him to the Symbole of life and gave him a commandement to abstaine from the tree of knowledge of good and evill which had he done and had kept that commandement then should the fruit of the tree of life have so preserved his life that he should have lived for ever So these men thinke that the Lord changed the condition and quality of his body in Paradise in the giving of the command Aug. But S. Austin answers it better afterwards I thinke saith he that the most safe and proper answer is this that although it be true that we recover immortality by Christ and that we lost this immortality in Adam yet we have a farre greater advantage by Christ we gaine more by Christ then we lost by Adam Adam never had this certainty of immortality that we have he had a kinde of a possibility of it but it was conditionall Now conditions make nothing to be and so this stood upon an if If thou keep the commandement thou shalt live and if thou doe not thou shalt die therefore a man cannot say that there was any immortality planted in the person of Adam because it was uncertaine it was mutable it was in the freedome of his will which was changeable he was not made in a certaine necessity of obedience therefore it was conditionall To conclude all As the holy Father saith the body of Adam although it were meerely naturall as ours is yet it was in a farre better condition then ours are that is it had no necessity of dying as ours hath for our bodies must needs die but the body of Adam might have beene sublimate and brought unto the heavenly joyes without death which ours cannot be For it is impossible for flesh and blood to enter into the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 Therefore we have no way to come to glory but by suffering the common calamity of nature which is by stooping to the burthen of death And againe Adam had in his very person those seeds that might have prolonged and continued his life by the blessing of God and the Sacrament of the tree of life whereas we by his sin have gotten nothing but the seeds of death and mortality working us from one misery and sicknesse to another and from sicknesse to death And if the mercy of God intervene not from the first to the second death to eternall misery and perplexity Therefore the difference is this the Lord made him in a better estate then we for he had no necessity of death nor no principle of death but what by his owne will he contracted but in us there is a necessity of death we must die and yet by the mercy of God in Christ wee are restored and renewed by his intercession and sacrifice unto better things then we lost in Adam The Lord make us assured of this blessed and glorious estate that thereby we may be armed against death against the feare of death and that thereby we may grow more and more spirituall that wee may become partakers of that divine grace which may make us while we live in this world not to be of the world but Citizens of that blessed and heavenly Ierusalem which is the mother of us all Gal. 4.26 To the which the Lord bring us for his infinite goodness and mercies sake Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.46 47. But that is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord himselfe from heaven As is the earthly so are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly IN the former part of this Treatise the Apostle hath discoursed of the kindes and degrees of our future happinesse in the glorious resurrection Now hee comes to tell us of the causes and of the order The substance of these words which I have read unto you is to give satisfaction to that common curiosity that is in Gods people whereby they seeke to prevent the time and to enjoy their happinesse before it be Gods will and pleasure It is naturall to man as Cornelius Tacitus saith to runne before his fortunes Corn. Tacit. And so it is among Christians themselves there is a kinde of
heresies and also to raise our selves to the imitation of our head to be conformable to him For this very Text of Scripture that Christ came downe the Lord from heaven hath given occasion to a great number of lying spirits to conclude that the Lord had no true naturall body that he had no true flesh but that he brought his body downe from heaven and that hee passed as through a pipe through the Virgin Mary Because say they if Adam and Christ be opposed together and that Adam brings his body from the earth then Christ brings his from heaven It followes therefore that they are not one kind of body and by consequent there must be a kind of celestiall body appointed for Christ because it must be directly opposite to Adams Now there is no consequence or sense in this For the Apostle opposeth not Christ unto Adam in regard of the substance of his flesh but in respect of the difference of his qualities The quality that Adam put upon his flesh was death and sicknesse misery and deformity but Christ hath put upon it another kind of quality another robe another garment and vestment of immortality of grace and perfection and beauty and strength and all kind of abilities another kind of quality Therefore hee saith not another substance of flesh for Christ came of David and David came of Adam they were all one flesh but because the one was the fountain of death and the other the fountaine of life they must needs work contrary effects Therefore according to the effects that they work the Apostle proceeds that the one works to basenesse and misery the other to glory to excellency to comfort and beauty But these heretiques will pretend a great number of places of Scripture and a great many arguments whereby they doe as the Apostle saith deceive 2 Pet. 2 14. and draw aside unstable people and make them at their wits end when they are not able to resolve the places they alledge As first they say this that the Lord Iesus did deny his Mother therefore he had no true flesh And they prove it out of St. Matthew 12. when hee was teaching the people they came and told him that his Mother and his brethren were without Mat. 12.47 48 49. desiring to speak with him and hee answers them who is my mother c. therefore say they Christ denies his mother This is false Christ no where denyed his mother But that place shewes that he had more care of the businesse he had in hand hee had more care of his Fathers commission of the Kingdome of the preaching of the Gospell of forgivenesse of sinnes of curing diseases and to doe the rest of the works of our redemption therefore he must not neglect them and be distracted from them to goe to inferiour things so that his mother must give way to those things he doth not deny his mother but onely prefers the practice of the other things Againe they say Christ cannot be adored if hee have true flesh or else he can be but halfe adored But now whole Christ must be adored therefore he had no true flesh For if we adore that which is flesh it is a creature and so it is idolatry for whatsoever is given to the creature that way is Idolatry Therefore Christs body was not created but was a super coelestiall thing above the order of mankinde Answ It is true the flesh of Christ was framed and wrought above the order of mankinde and yet so as that still it was true flesh And although wee ought to adore whole Christ yet in the adoring of Christ we doe it to the person Wee use not to disjoyne his natures but wee adore that God that was pleased to take upon him man we adore that blessed person in the Trinity that for our sake and for our salvation came downe from heaven and was incarnate by the holy Ghost in the womb of Mary It is that person we adore So that wee goe not about with the heretique Nestorius to make a division of the natures but we adore whole Christ God and man not man alone but God not God alone but man Many other shifts and sophismes they have but these are the chiefest and indeed they are scarce worth repeating but we must labour to furnish our selves because we know not what kinde of miscreant heresies are like to grow now in the latter end of the world Now the conformity follows in these words 3. Part. The conformity As the earthly is so are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly so are they that are heavenly It must needs be that as the principles are so the things that are made and framed of them must be All things in nature are a resemblance of their originall and it cannot possibly be that they should much swerve from them For every effect is in his cause a thing can draw no other inclination then that that is drawne from its cause Therefore as the earthly man is so must the earthly be As Adam for I will not meddle with other interpretations of the Fathers because they are not pertinent to this place therefore ruleth all in this present life hee makes all his followers earthly and mortall so Christ rules all in the blessed life to come and makes all things contrary that is immortall and glorious and powerfull For in Adam all the world is ruled according to the censure of God upon sinne as God doomed sinne Earth thou art Gen. 3.19 and to earth thou shalt returne which was the sentence upon Adam and upon all his posterity So we see daily this sentence fulfilled upon us and upon ours upon all our progenitors and successors It failes upon none and those that shall be changed at the latter day it shall be unto them as a kind of death for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne it is the common voice of God upon nature Therefore in this life wee must looke to be as Adam was to have no other inheritance then hee hath left us In the life which is to come wee shall have an inheritance from the Lord of heaven It is true by the grace of the Gospell and by the faith we have in Christ Iesus we have something more then Adam gave unto us but of that we are not put into possession to inherit untill the Lord shall appeare from heaven For when Christ our life shall appeare then wee also shall appeare with him in glorie Colos 3.4 Colos 3.4 As is the earthly so are they that are earthly Not in respect of their manners as some of the Fathers by way of digression have noted upon this place and St. Chrysostom assents unto it and St. Augustine also yeelds to it but to insist upon the strict tearmes for we can goe no further nor we cannot make any better sense of it that wee are like Adam in all things in this life In our birth In
2 Cor. 11 When I am weak then am I strong A strange contradiction but his meaning is that the Lord doth so season our weaknesse and infirmity in this life that it is an infallible testimony and forerunner of that great strength and glory that shall be revealed in the life to come The Lord useth to work thus out of weak causes to bring more strong effects And if the causes were strong God would not use them For out of weake and base and contemptible things God brings strong and noble effects As when Gedeon was to fight with the Midianites and he pretended that his Army was but a few Judges 7. How many hast thou saith the Lord so many thousand They are too many the Lord would not have them all there were too many and hee commanded to cut them off to another halfe and yet there were too many the Lord would not work with them they were too strong At last hee comes to make choice of them by lapping in the water and they came to 300. men to fight against as many as the sands on the sea that covered the earth as gras-hoppers as it is said And now the Lord begins to work with these men and how doth he work by weapons No but with a few broken pitchers in their hands and the Lord set the Madianites one upon the neck of his fellow that they were murtherers each of other and became as sheepe for the slaughter the Lord gave them as a prey into their hands This is the wondrous act of the great God which is not tyed to meanes which will not seem to worke with second common causes but with his owne arme It is true these common second causes in the world hee hath honoured them much and commanded them to be used but when he comes to effect great things such as was the destruction of the Madianites such as is the redemption of man by Christ and such as shall be the Redemption of of our bodies at the Resurrection then such meanes and causes as seeme to help him forward hee rejects them and works not by them but by the cleane contrary The greater stench the bodies have sustained in the grave shall worke it unto greater sweetnesse and the greater weaknesse it had the greater strength shall accrew unto it and wondrous puissance shall God worke unto that part which lacked honour according to his blessed dispensation in all things FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.49 50. And as wee have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare also the Image of the heavenly And this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither corruption can inherit incorruption TO hope for the time to come and to have now present possession is one of the greatest differences in humane affairs to be observed saith Chrysologus Chrysologus The one is the portion of this life sperare to hope in God for the things that are promised the other is in that blessed life to come to have and to hold and to enjoy the promises which the Apostle assures us of in this place that we shall have as sure as we have had the first fruits and the earnest so sure we are to enter into the full possession and to have the performance of the which God hath made a tender of and promised unto us before The words of the Text contain that great consolation which is the onely comfort and sweetnesse of our life The Saints of God are burthened with the image of the earthly man they are in continuall suffering they endure the plague of Adam which is sinne every day and every houre and there is none that comes of Adams blood but he is as it were borne to death to misery and to slavery which are the proper consequents of sinne Now the redemption that comes by Christ it is not yet apparent it is but yet begunne it is by faith it is in hope it is in spe but not in Re and this is the cause of the Saints mourning upon earth Therefore to this the Apostle answers and bids them be content and satisfie themselves for that which they have not now they shall have hereafter therefore they must stay the Lords leysure and all shall bee for the best And although hee stay long yet hee will come full and make an abundant recompence for his delatory absence with the greatnesse of those rewards and precious things that hee brings with him For saith the Apostle As we have borne the image of the earthly as we groane under the burthen of Adam so we are assured that we shall beare the image of the heavenly in the fulnesse of joy in the fulnesse of rest and holinesse in the fulnesse of all strength and perfection and immortality and incorruption And therefore his purpose is to quiet and content the distressed soules here in this world that groane under their misery with the expectation of that glory that shall bee revealed There is some difficulty in the words as what it is that he saith of an image the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly What it is he speaks of flesh and blood For the first we must understand that he meanes not a vaine shew a picture or representation but the thing it selfe For we have not the figure and proportion of Adam alone but we have all his misery and all his sinne his sinne comes unto us by tradition it is an inheritance which wee cannot shake off It is a kinde of portion he hath given us that we cannot be rid of So that it is not an image as we take it in the common sense for a picture or an imaginary matter but a reall substantiall impression by reason of his sinne and his breaking of the command There lies a burthen a heavy load of plague and misery upon our whole nature And so likewise for the other the image of the heavenly We are not to imagine it to be any outward light resemblance but a true reall conformity to him whose image we shall beare We shall be like unto Christ not in a sleight transitory fashion but in a true and reall change And that that hee saith of flesh and blood that they shall not inherit the kingdome of God we must understand it thus Not as a thing impossible for God to doe for flesh and blood doth inherite Gods kingdome Christ is flesh and blood and hee is in the kingdome of God Yea Divines have thought that the bodies of Enoch and Elias that are flesh and blood are already in the kingdome of God as those also that arose up with Christ of which there were diverse that arose to testifie his Resurrection And Divines think generally that the bodies of these ascended with Christ into heaven Now these are flesh and blood and yet they bee in Gods kingdome The meaning therefore is not as
though God could not open the kingdome of heaven to flesh and blood but not to flesh and blood corrupted with sinne As long as we are in this life our flesh is full of sinne and our blood in the veines of the body runne with sinne and as long as they bee so they bee meere matter of corruption and therefore they cannot enter into incorruption Howbeit Adam in his first creation was flesh and blood and yet had hee stood in the state of grace and innocencie he had entred into heaven with his body of flesh and blood So that the meaning is not as though God could not conferre so great a benefit upon flesh and blood but because it hath corrupted it selfe Flesh hath corrupted his owne way and blood is tainted with sinne it is tainted defiled and polluted blood it is not such as God made it but it hath received a tincture from the Divell In regard of this it must be dissolved and brought to rottennesse and corruption that God may raise it a new seed and so make it pure and perfect againe and make it capable of the heavenly and blessed inheritance So that the summe of the words is this As long as wee be flesh and blood as long as wee bee in this life sinfull flesh that we carry about with us wee must not looke to be translated into heaven Adam should have been translated into heaven if hee had lived and kept that state wherein hee was made Wee desire indeed to bee like him in that but our desires and our hopes must be grounded upon Gods will not on our own fancies and we must expect what the Lords will hath determined He hath determined that wee should come to death before we enter into life that we should beare the image of the earthly before we come to the image of the heavenly and wee cannot have incorruption and glory poured upon this body that wee carry about with us by reason of sinne because it is in sinne For sinfull flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God And although when Christ shall come there shall bee alive many millions of men that shall not die as we doe yet they shall have a change and there change shall be unto them as death is unto us now For it is not possible that any corrupt body should enter into incorruption This I take to bee the summe and sense of the words read Now to proceed in order we are to consider First the persons that he saith as we have borne Then secondly the matter propounded of those persons First there is a sentence or proposall Division into 1. the Persons 2. the Matter propounded Secondly the explanation of that proposall The proposall that is made of these persons is by way of comparison as wee have borne the image of the earthly so also wee shall beare the image of the heavenly The explanation of it what hee meanes by this image The Corinthians might aske and say they doubted of his words these are obscure things that the Text saith The image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly My meaning saith hee is nothing but this that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Eingdome of God nor corruption cannot inherit incorruption So in the proposall or proposition in the 49. verse we are to consider these things First that God made man to an Image Secondly that that Image being defaced and deformed wee are made to another kinde of Image than we were first intended for we are made to the image of the earthly Thirdly we are to observe the reddition that as we beare the image of the earthly so we shall also beare the image of the heavenly Fourthly the certainty in the sicut so as according to that manner And this makes us assured of the thing that this is a ground experimentall that because wee have the image of the one therefore wee are assured of the image of the other For still we are made to an image that is for the proposall In the explanation in the words following brethren I say unto you or my meaning is this Wherein the holy Ghost teacheth us to speak plainly and not to wander away in new quaint words in obscure sentences but to make the doctrines cleare that wee take in hand And then for flesh and bloud that they are not capable of heavens kingdome and for what reason they are not capable And lastly the summe of all corruption which is flesh and bloud cannot enter into incorruption which is the Kingdome of heaven For that which he call flesh and bloud in one place hee renders it againe in another place by corruption and that which he called the kingdome of heaven in the former words he turnes it in the latter words incorruption So that the Apostles perspicuity and evidence is wondrously to be admired in this place hee labours to speak of a high matter a deep profound matter of dignity so plainly to flesh and bloud Hee saith flesh and bloud shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Not because it is flesh and bloud but because it is corrupted and there shall not enter any thing that is corrupt into incorruption because they are contraries and one contrarie cannot enter into another It is impossible for a man to be alive and dead to be sick and well at one time there is no difference in the world greater then the difference of corruption and incorruption and because flesh and bloud is corrupted for sinne it is full of misery and wretchednesse by sinne and the Kingdome of heaven is an uncorruptible crowne it is impossible that these should be coincident and meet and be mingled together Therefore corruption must be evacuated and rooted out before incorruption can be attained Of these things briefly and in order as God shall give assistance And first concerning the persons 1. Part. The persons of whom these things are propounded of whom these things are pronounced It is of Gods Saints For as I have often told you this whole Chapter is spoken of and endited concerning the Resurrection of the Saints onely There is indeed a resurrection of those that belong not to God which is a resurrection to punishment and shame but the Apostle meddles not with that in this whole Chapter but speaks only of the Saints resurrection and he saith We that have borne the image of the earthly wee shall also beare the image of the heavenly We that is those that are called of Christ and sanctified by his holy Spirit to these it is to whom this promise appertaines For every man beares the image of the earthly good and bad but every man shall not beare the image of the heavenly but onely those for whom it is ordained The nature of man is not capable of heaven for if mans nature were capable of heaven then all men should have it because all men have the nature of man indefinitely and equally but it is the
hee was come there hee teacheth and converseth with the people hee goes not about his work upon the sudden The newes comes he is dead and buried Let him lie in his grave a long time that the glory of God may the more appeare Let him lie the first second and third day and the Lord comes not Upon the fourth day when all men gave him for stinking and desperate and that there was no hope of any good to bee done upon him then the Lord comes to work When Martha his sister had given over all hope and told Christ shee knew that hee should rise againe at the resurrection but for any other rising she never dreamed of or imagined that Well then when all things seemed to be senslesse and against reason and possibility then the power of God began to work And because Lazarus was so strongly held by death foure dayes therefore the stronger was the hand of God upon him in raysing him from death That the strength of death might be encountred and overcome and countermanded by the higher strength and arme of the Almighty it now gave way and made a passage to the arme of the Lord to work a mighty deliverance So still the misery of the child of God works for good and all things work for the best to those that love God Rom. 8.28 Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly so we shall beare the image of the heavenly This is a great incouragement to us to beare Vse Wee are impatient we cannot endure any thing but we see that wee must beare and if wee looke for the image of the heavenly we must be content to beare the image of the earthly We must be content to be sick we must be content to be poore to be persecuted to be every way miserable and wretched We must be content to be tempted by the tempting devill and oft times to be foiled by him and to bee overcome in sinne and shamefull actions and courses We must be content with the Christian agony and the bloody sweat that Christ had in the garden at his passion We must beare these things it is the image of the earthly It is the condition of the other life the bearing of the heavenly And except wee have the one we cannot have the other except we beare the image of the earthly we shall not beare the image of the heavenly But here it may be objected that Infants have not this image Yes reason tells us they doe For in their death in their sicknesse in their distractions and strange convulsions to which they are subject they beare the image of the earthly although not in so great a measure as men of groweth doe yet they have for their tender yeares a fearefull yoake laid upon them which is mortality and all the wayes that tend to death To conclude this first point the proposition Let us mingle the one with the other and beare both If thou bee troubled in this world in any sort inwardly or outwardly If thou be troubled in conscience for sinne if thou bee troubled with enemies art thou troubled in thy fortunes in thy state in the world art thou troubled with sicknesse of body remember it is nothing but thine owne image Thus thou art made wilt thou deny thine owne face wilt thou deny thy owne name wilt thou not take that which thou art borne unto art thou ashamed of thine inheritance it is that which thy Father hath left thee therefore beare it And withall to comfort thy selfe beare it with this hope and lively assurance that thou shalt beare a better image one day The galley-slaves that serve the Turks in their galleys if they could but think that at seven yeares end some Christian would come and deliver them they would be the better affected and would cheare their mindes especially if they could be assured of it If Iacob serve the churle Laban seven yeares Gen. 29. if he think he shall have Rachell at the end of it hee thinks it but like unto seven dayes and with patience he comforts himselfe in the Lord and staies his leisure and is content that God shall use him unto his hand as it pleaseth him This is the true constitution of a pure mind therefore let us sweeten these outward worldly miseries with the expectation of future joy and the promises which God hath made to us in his holy Word There is no griefe so great but if wee tie heaven unto the end of it it is light As the Apostle saith This short moment any affliction Rom. 8.18 is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed Let us put them together and the one will bee swallowed up in the other For as we have borne the image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heavenly Oh! when shall that blessed day appeare So must the Christian man aspire and hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of God and after his blessed kingdome Wee mourne saith the Apostle as long as we are from Christ in this body we would faine see the consummation of the promise Why then there is no meanes but one that is by incessant prayer by continuall clamours to call upon God to crie unto him for it The cries and clamours of Gods Saints must bring Christ from heaven againe unto earth to make up the fulnesse of the promise which he hath condescēded unto in his holy Word This must be the use we must make of this doctrine That as wee are patiently to endure the image of the earthly man to endure the misery that sinne hath contracted and brought upon us that we also be faithfull and hopefull to cry and to call unto God for the sweet things that are reposed and laid up for us in the glory of the Gospel So much for the Proposition Now for the explanation in verse 50. Verse 50. This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven neither can corruption inherit incorruption In these words the Apostle doth prevent those questionings and objections that simple men might make against this doctrine They might say that he taught in the cloudes that hee spake so as that they knew not what hee meant What doe you meane by the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly we have heard of no such words we know no such matter For this the Apostle tells them that hee speaks out of the phrase of Scripture hee speaks it out of Genesis For hee had said before that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickening spirit and so following the course of the creation he saith there was an image which at the first was heavenly but it was defaced by mans fault and so it became earthly and by consequence all of Adams blood were like their progenitor they all tooke part of the inheritance although it were against their will and they bore the image of
notwithstanding they shall not die nor be put into their graves for that change shall be unto them instead of our death And doe not think your selves so much the worse that God favours you the lesse or that he favours them more because they goe not to their graves as you doe For the Lord makes you by patience subject to his holy will hee gives you that patience that for his sake you can be content to be deposed to lay downe your earthly Tabernacles And you must not vexe and grive at them for they are never the better for it For their change is to them as a death although it be not with the same obsequies and in the same outward shews yet in effect it shall be the same Therefore that wee are done to dust and that they never see dust this is no disparagement to us nor no great comfort to them for it shall be all one in effect the Lord imbalmes the memory of his Saints and he preserves their dust and tels the sands of their dust and hee keeps them in perpetuall record so that whatsoever hee poures out hereafter upon another generation it shall not be a prejudice to those that are now dead For the Lord goes down with those that sleepe to the grave hee descends with them and preserves them and keeps them he numbers their haires he numbers the members and parts of their bodies And this is that mysterie which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mysterie It is a great mysterie that any man should live and not see death yet the Apostle tells us that there shall be millions of men that shall live and yet they shall have no death many that shall have a mortall and corrupt and sinfull life as we have and yet they shall not have any death It is a great mysterie that all the Saints should not come to life eternall by the same meanes that is by way of putrefaction and of resurrection and yet there are millions that shall not come to life that way but by another way of change and mutation Behold I tell you a mysterie we shall not all die but we shall all be changed This is the summe of the words Division into 1 The time 2 The manner and meanes Now the Apostle expresseth and explaineth himselfe farther by telling the cause and the means how this shall be done for hee saith this shall be done as concerning the time immediately in an instant in the twinckling of an eye And as concerning the manner and the meanes of it by the vertue of the last trump The trump that shall blow And so the substance of it is this The Lord shall sound forth his Trumpet which shall have a power to change the bodies that as at the first hee spake the word Let this be made Gen. 1. and it was made Let there be light and there was light so there shall be another power in the voice for the renewing and re-creating of things as there was a power in the voice then to create and make the world so there shall in the re-creating and re making of the world that shall make a change of all things And as in the beginning things that were dark before were made light Let there be light and there was light of that which was dark before and that which was confused before was made orderly and distinct which is the greatest extremities that can be light and darknesse order and confusion so likewise there shall be a mighty voice of God in that sounding silver Trumpet that shall then blow to change the bodies of men from dark to light some bodies and shall change their thoughts from confusion and disorder to bee regular and orderly The trumpet is the voice of God the operation of the Almighty which as it wrought a strange change in the Creation so it shall worke a stranger in the recreation and renovation of the world These are the parts and parcels of the Text. Now to proceed in order as it shall please God to give assistance The first thing to bee considered is that the Church of God in respect of this mystery which the Apostle speaks of hath been drawne to diverse readings and expositions of this Text. For they could not see how it should be true that the Apostle saith All shall bee changed because they thought it onely belonged to the godly But it is certaine that the ungodly shall be changed too for their bodies that are now corrupt shall be then uncorrupt But how to sustaine misery and torment that they had better not to bee than to bee in such a case All the paines of hell shall not so work upon them to dead them not to consume them but they shall bee able to consist in the middest of torment Now the least care and trouble in the world kills a mans heart and works him off but then God shall so change the bodies of the reprobates that they shall bee able to indure whatsoever torment shall bee laid upon them But because those men understood not this they thought the change was to bee taken in a good sense to belong onely to the godly Therefore they reade it two severall wayes differing from ours For our reading is this which is so in the Originall according to the Greek copy Wee shall not all die but wee shall all bee changed And so it agrees properly with that which went before For he gives an answer to a question that might be made Why doe you say that corruption shall not enter into incorruption nor flesh and blood into the kingdome of heaven shall not they bee corrupt flesh that shall live at the comming of Christ to judgement To this the Apostle saith Indeed they shall not die but instead of that death they shall have a change So that this is an inference upon the former and an answer for the removall of an objection Now as I said diverse partes of the Church reade it two other wayes The first is this Wee shall all certainely die but wee shall not all be changed For they were carefull still to appropriate and bring the change unto Gods people and inheritance as though it belonged not to the wicked Another Reading is this Wee shall all rise againe but wee shall not all bee changed so that still they make the negative upon the change because they understood not how this thing might bee conceived to belong to the good and bad which is the change of the bodies Now indeed in their severall senses they be all true For the first that saith wee shall not all sleepe It is true of the common masse of mankind but not of every particular body and of every particular age For I told you before that the Lord shall exempt a whole world from the common death which wee suffer Therefore it is not true in the particulars that we shall all sleâ—pe For there shall be many thousands of men
that shall not sleepe that is they shall not die after the common maner of death And then for the second opinion the second sense that Reades it We shall all rise againe That is false for there are none that shall rise but those that were dead and because all shall not die therefore all shall not rise as I said before in the opening of the Text. So that this is the proper and true sense of the Text and it is that also which is in all the Greek Copies The other is onely in some old Latin Copies and is diversly taken and mistaken by the Fathers This therefore is the Apostles meaning We shall not all sleepe that is wee shall not all die after this order and maner of death but wee shall all bee changed Those that bee in their graves shall be changed to incorruption to immortality and life and they that never come to the grave shall bee changed another way which shall be semblable and answerable unto the death that wee have So that all shall be changed yea not onely the godly to glory but the reprobate and wicked shall bee changed to a dureability to indure the torment which the justice of God hath allotted to them for their deserts from all eternity This Reading therefore is that that we must rest in as being the most proper resolution of the Apostles mind who giving a reason of that hee had said before that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdome of God No saith hee they shall not inherit it but by a kind of change and mutation not after the fashion as we doe God hath reserved for them another kind of translation by mutation not by buriall and putrefaction as our bodies doe Now I come to the words The first thing is this that he saith Behold I shew you a mystery Mystery is a word derived from the Hebrew Mister or Mistar and it signifieth a hidden thing or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it of shutting or closing of the eye because that all eyes are shut up and closed to the mysteries of God and it lies not in the power of any eye to understand the secrets of the Almighty Secret things belong unto God Deut. 29 29. but revealed things belong unto us and to our children saith Moses The Gospel is full of these mysteries and there is nothing so mysticall and hard to bee understood as these things concerning the renewing and reparation of the world For the things that bee done in common experience be nothing mysticall but those that we looke to by faith those things that we apprehend by hope they are all full of mysteries But the blessed God hath revealed them to his Apostles to S. Paul and to the rest and to the Ministers of his Word By reading the Scriptures he hath revealed that which is farre remote from the sense and understanding of any mortall and carnall man The mysteries of the Kingdome must bee revealed Behold I tell you a mystery The Lord hath told it me and I must tell it to you againe it is a thing that I am acquainted with by the Spirit of God which hath revealed it to mee It was once as strange to me as it is to you but God hath delivered it to me that by my ministery it may come unto you Behold I shew you a mystery The word signifieth three things in the Scripture as Chrysostome noteth One is when by an outward visible thing some other invisible thing is signified and represented So in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper where the water in Baptisme signifieth the precious blood of Christ and the wine and bread in the Lords Supper signifieth the breaking of the body and the powring forth of the blood of that emmaculate Lamb that was offered up for us Thus the Sacraments bee called holy mysteries hidden and secret things which the world cannot understand because they deride them because they doe not affect them but they are onely knowne unto the chosen ones of God In that sense the word is not here used for the Apostle speaks not of a mystery here by any outward thing to signifie some inward matter as in the Sacrament Another way mystery is taken for a partiall or halfe esteeme or conceit of any thing we speake of So in 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 13.12 We see in a dark mystery wee see in a cloude wee see in a riddle in a dreame Wee understand in part we know in part As if hee should say All that we see in the providence and guidance of God here in this world is full of mystery some part of it wee know and some part wee know not so that the partiall knowledge of man because it attaines not to fulnesse it is called seeing in a mystery seeing in a darke view But neither in that sense doth the Apostle use it here in this place The third sense is saith St. Chrysostome when a man speaks something against the common sense and reason which the wisedome of man cannot attaine unto and reach nor would never have dreamed of And this is it which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mystery that is I shew you a matter which you would hardly have conceived with your selves or that you will scarcely believe when I tell it to you I tell you that there are many men that shall never die nor never rise againe and yet they shall have their part of glory and be accepted and come to happinesse as well as you This paradox which is contrary to common opinion contrary to common sense and which is above the common reach and apprehension of man the Apostle calls a mystery in this place And hee hath great reason to put an ecce before it behold I tell you c. Vse To teach us that where any thing is mysticall in the Gospel and in the Scripture we ought to double our files to double our attention and to raise our spirits to hearken to that which is so secret For it is all our desires and it is naturally ingraffed in us to heare of newes to heare newes of State newes of the greatest importance Wee seeke we labour we travaile and wee sharpen one another to know what reports there are in the greatest importments Much more should wee be thus affected in the matters of God and of our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle satisfieth us and saith I will tell you you seeke for it and you long to know this you make many doubts and scruples in your hearts behold I will resolve you in one word The condition of the world that shall bee when Christ shall come it shall be farre different from this It is a mystery to tell you but it is infallibly true It hath been revealed unto me by the Spirit of God and I will open it to you the people of God And the
which is now accomplished but in one the Lord Iesus hath it alone in one Now it is in the first fruits then it shall be in the whole Harvest then it shall be made good to the whole Church which is now only performed to the head of the Church that Death is swallowed up into victory This I take to be the sense of the words To proceed in order First we are to consider it as the words lye and not as the logicall rule would carrie us For logically we have A subject A predicate And a Vinculum or Copulate The subject is corruption This corruptible The predicate is a certaine change it must have this corruptible must take and put on incorruption And the copulate is the oportet it must needs be so and this mortall must put on immortality And then after that there is a blessed comfort that the Church of God shall receive In the meane time shee receives it as being certaine that it shall be but then she shall receive it as a full payment at that time That Scripture which said Death is swallowed up into victory It shall then be utterly accomplished Wherein we are to consider First that the Apostle confirmes and strengthens himselfe by Scripture by that which is written Secondly where it is written Thirdly the substance and matter that is written That Death is swallowed up into victory Where againe we are to consider three termes First what that is that is swallowed Death and all evill and mischiefe Secondly the terme to which it is swallowed or consumed to victory Thirdly the efficient cause who swallowes it and what it is that swallowes Death that must needs be understood the death of the Sonne of God the death of Christ swallowes up the death of men into an absolute victory And then the answer to that question How is Death swallowed up in victory seeing it every day swallowes us up and consumes us how then is Death swallowed up himselfe And that is to be answered in these words because the time is not yet come When this corruption shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality then shall be fulfilled this saying Every thing is in its own time when all things are done that should bee done when all things are accomplished that the Lord shall send before then that shall come after But we have it now onely in hope we have it onely in the first fruits we have it in some part we have it in the head then we shall have it in all the members We have it in some few that were raised with Christ to be witnesses of his Resurrection and they are pawnes for all the rest When this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall c. Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first to follow the order of the words He saith this corruptible and this mortall speaking of the bodies of men For the soule of man is neither corruptible nor mortall as heretofore wee have touched Therefore those that understand these things of the Resurrection of the spirit of the Resurrection of the soule from vice to newnesse of life they are extremely mistaken and they abuse the word of grace which is here propounded unto us For the Apostle speakes of that part which is corrupt and mortall that the glory of God shall be shewed upon it and he saith this very body this Identicall thing this Idem numero not another body in stead of this but this which is now so corrupt The body shall remaine the same although the accidents and qualities shall be rare and glorious which shall accrew unto it yet it shall be one and the selfe same body As S. Chrysostome saith Chrysost the selfe same it shall be in the selfe same inches and quantity although the qualities shall be altred and it shall have gracious indowments yet they shall be the same substance they shall be the same bodies And againe it is to be observed that hee useth two words together hee repeates it This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And this hee doth not without very good reason For it is no vaine repetition of the same thing twice over it is not S. Pauls purpose nor his custome so to doe but hee notes in us two certaine infirmities which the Lord shall stay and stanch at that day by that glorious vesture and garment of incorruption and immortality which he shall put upon us First then our body is corrupt that is changing from one forme to another it cannot continue in the same stay And secondly it is mortall that is subject to utter destruction to be altogether without any forme The first is the mutability which the matter whereof we consist cannot endure You understand that in all things that are made there are two great principles the matter and the forme besides the privation The matter is so infinitly capable and desirous of new formes that it cannot endure long to stay in one state still the matter desires a new forme to come upon it as being weary of that which it hath borne before We see it in all things in nature And though God worke his owne will and his gracious wonders by that yet notwithstanding it shewes the variety and disposition of the matter which is still capable and hath an appetite after a new forme and desires to be changed In the fruits of the earth The seed would not continue so a seed but when it is cast into the ground it comes to sprout and to spring and from thence it comes to be a little tree and so a greater and then it comes to grow backward it comes downe againe and comes to be a dead thing We see it in our selves First there is the matter of our nature then wee doe not so continue but it becomes an embrio then it comes from that forme to be a childe and when it is weary of that it comes higher So God brings things to perfection and then back againe to imperfection I speake onely of the variety in the materiall cause which as the Philosopher speaks is the devourer of formes it is ever desiring a new forme to be set upon it So God teacheth us by this that the very appetite of the matter shall carrie us to the certainty of a new forme which shal be set upon us in that blessed day because that this corruptible matter is ever changeable and changing formes It is certaine that God shall then stop the appetite of the matter and give it a forme which shall never be changed and that it shall never desire to change Here nature never stayes nor is never content with any forme but wee come from our prime matter to childhood from childhood wee passe along to youth and youth sends us to middle age middle age brings us to dotage and dotage sends us to our graves
the stroke of death beause it must needs be so for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality and to assure us of the necessity of the glory that shall be it cannot faile but it must needs come so to passe as the Lord hath promised Oportet it must be so There are certaine bonds that have passed from God to man by the promise of the Almighty that bindes him to it For the word of a King is a King to a man as Demosthenes saith Demost Therefore God hath bound himselfe unto us by his word and by the promises he hath made and likewise we are againe bound by the necessity of congruitie by the necessity of fitnesse that these things should be so For it is of absolute necessity in regard of the fall of Adam and of our corruption that wee have contracted thence that we should not enter into that blessed incorruption till wee have put off this corruption which wee have contracted There is no medling for a sound man to come to them that are in the Pest-house nor there is no conversing for a man that is well in his wits with them that are in Bedlam there is no mingling of Sheepe and Goats together there is no blending of light and darknesse of Christ and Beliall there can be no communion and fellowship betweene corruption and incorruption It is impossible that the corrupt body of man should be able to entertaine and receive that incorruptible crowne of heaven it will burst him in his feeble abilities As is said of Semele that when Iupiter appeared unto â—â—r in his full glorie shee was exhausted by meanes of his Majestie shee expired and lost her life So it is true and certaine this weake vessell cannot endure heaven this corrupt body cannot abide incorruption no more than Gunpowder can endure the approach of fire for it will be swallowed up of it Therefore the Lord prepared a habitation and tabernacle for it in the earth that by the earth hee may bring it to be capacious of the glory they shall receive Therefore there is this necessity that the Apostle saith It must be thus And this necessity is in three respects First in respect of the soule when it is seperate from the body The soule is a part of a man and the body is a part of a man as well as the soule although it be not so great and so excellent a part as that but seeing that God hath appointed that a body and a soule shall alway make a man we cannot say therefore that the body is a man or that the soule is a man but onely by way of eminencie But we must needs take the soule as long as it is seperate from the body to be a thing imperfect for it is not so much blessed as it shall be when the body shall be re-united unto it It is blessed as much intensively but not extensively not in respect of the societie company with the body with the glory and beauty and that joy of the holy Ghost which shall be extended every where as well to the body as to the soul This the soul wants and therefore they lie continually lingring thirsting in expectation Apoc. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true They desire to be restored to their bodies they be naked now the sword is out of his scabbard now the Lord hath drawne them assunder notwithstanding they are both in â—â—e hand of God But then the Lord will again return the sword into his scabbard when he hath clensed pollished it that it shal never afterward be seperated In this regard it must needs be that corruption must put on incorruption For the soule by the hand of God is made uncorruptible and immortall but the body is made both corruptible and mortall therefore that the one may fit the other the Lord must make it by a strange wondrous change he must make this corruption put on incorruption that is he shall so mold the body by lying in the earth that he shall make it by the power of his hand hee shall make it capable of that great incorruption which hee shall give it when the soule and the body shall meete together in one The second reason of this necessity is this because the good God hath ordained in justice to performe all things and that according to that which a man hath done in this flesh 2 Cor. 5.10 for we mst receive according to the things that we have done in this flesh whether they be good or evill as the holy Apostle saith Therfore the Lord will have this corrupt body which hath suffered paine here on earth this body which hath suffered for Gods cause this body which hath suffered death this body which hath endured the flame and persecution this body which hath suffered hunger and thirst and nakednesse this body that hath suffered infamy and ignominy reviling and opprobries as the Lord Iesus did for our sakes this body which hath bin so brought under and made as it were a laughing stock to the world which hath bin made a refuge of scornes this body which beares the prints marks of the Lord Iesus Christ about with it Gal. 6.17 this body which hath bin in martyrdom so ignominious to the sight of the world though it have beene noble in the sight of God this body that hath born all the brunt and toyl labour in affliction this body must be glorified againe for that it stands with Gods justice that every man shall receive according as hee hath done in this flesh whether it be good or evill Therefore it must needs be that this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality this very body that hath suffered must be honoured that as it hath suffered many evill things for Gods cause so it may receive many good things for its owne cause for the mercy of God which shall be revealed upon it And lastly it is necessary it should be thus Oportet it must needs be that the body must goe to incorruption Aquin. by the way of corruption as Aquinas well noteth because of the conformity of the members to the head Our Lord Iesus Christ went this way therefore we that are his servants must not look to be above our Master Luke 6.40 it is enough that the servant be equall to his Master Christ is our head he is our Master he could not come to immortality but first he died he was mortall before he was immortall and though he were not corruptible although there was no change in his body to corruption yet he was mortall there was a change in the colour there was a change in his strength and life these things were in him for hee was dead these things cannot consist but in him that is dead So much as he was corruptible hee had it for our sakes hee was mortall hee
is done as it is certaine it shall bee done for wee have Gods word and promise for it wee have the appetite of the matter which still calls and cries to God for a forme and we have the Lord ingaged by example and president and by the head and first fruits Christ Iesus the head when this is done Then shall bee fulfilled that which was spoken As if he should say I speake not these things to you of my selfe and out of my owne Apostolicall authority which I might stand upon but I speake them out of the writings of those men that were illuminated by the same Spirit from the writing of the holy Prophets Then shall be fulfilled that which was spoken or written That word that word of grace that word of promise that word which is able to make the dead revive and the word is this that Death is swallowed up into victory Where observe First who wrote this And then the substance of the words Concerning the first the Apostle defends his authority from ancient times to teach us what we are to doe in like cases But this is a common obvious point I will not insist upon it Concerning the Author Isay and Hosea are alledged for it some holding with the one some with the other Certainely it is in Isay in the true intimation according to the word Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 where God promiseth the people a deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon He saith God shall destroy death for ever he hath swallowed up death for ever or to victory for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 netsahh may signifie both entrance into length of time or else victory Because victory properly respects the time and that is true victory which is not to be dashed nor daunted with any time that is the most perfect victory that is not daunted in any time So in this respect the word time and victory is taken in the holy Tongue for the same and that which the Septuagint here translates the one the Apostle in the Text translates the other Although indeed the Apostle follow the Septuagint yet they have another translation besides which is God shall swallow up death for ever So the Prophet Isays words I take to be the best and the fittest Hos 13.14 The other in Hosea is in Hos 13.14 where the verse following after my Text is repeated expresly but the words of this verse of my Text is not there to bee found Therefore this I take to be the word of Isay Observe now what the word is that hee useth for it it is full of life it brings men from temporall things to the expectation of things eternall The Lord speakes to them of a great feast that they should make after their comming up out of the Land the Apostle takes it to set forth the eternall feast For it is to no purpose to have these temporall things and to bee swallowed up of death and hell The Apostle teacheth us therefore what construction wee should make of the blessings of God in this life to extend them in a high sense They are never sweet till then The bread that wee eat should make us mindefull of the bread of heaven that is of the glorious presence of God which shall for ever delight us And the honours and preferments that wee have here except they signifie to us those glorious and stately seates of glory hereafter they are rather plagues and punishments then blessings By death there in the Prophet is meant the generall Captivity but the Apostle takes it for the death of the body To victory is the terme and manner whereto it shall bee swallowed But I should be too troublesome to enter upon them now FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.54 Then shall bee fulfilled that word which is written Death is swallowed up into victory Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory WHat is so weak and againe what is so strong as a Christian man saith St. Ambrose Ambros Hee is exceedingly weake because hee is subject to any temptation and incomparably strong because hee can triumph over death it selfe which is the triumpher over all mankind For what can he feare that is fearelesse of death and what is able to insult over him that can insult over that which is the last of all terribles which is the dissolution of nature Thus the Lord hath tempered in the same vessell great infirmity and great valour that hee might shew his owne strength for in mans weaknesse is Gods strength consummate The Apostle therefore to prove those wonderfull things which hee had said before that this corruptible must put on the garment of incorruption this mortall must put on the weed of immortality he doth now as it were bring into the minds of the Corinthians the present spectacle hee lifts up their hearts to view it as a thing acted and done before their eyes As he saith to the Galathians Gal. 3.1 that Iesus Christ was crucified before their eyes whom they never saw crucified but hee was so lively described unto them by his Gospel that he saith they saw it acted and saw him really crucified and all the passages of his death and passion So now he would bring the hearts and minds of the Corinthians to such a kind of contemplation as to see the Lord God raising up the dead and to see the dead putting on their new garments their new coat of immortality and incorruption He represents all to the eye and when hee hath so done hee brings in a kinde of insultation a verse that they were wont to sing in victories and triumphs 1. Sam. 18.7 As in the triumph of David over Goliah the women sang Saul hath slaine his thousand but David his ten thousand so the Saints of God as St. Chrysostome saith Chrysost Dost thou see saith he what a generous spirit is in the holy Apostle how hee paints before the eyes of the people this most noble and divine indowment this garment of incorruption and immortality and behold how he himselfe is rapt And in that most heavenly and strange rapture as a man inspired from heaven he insults over death lying under his feet and treads upon the head of him that treads downe all things else and cries over him Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory This is the song of the Church and that song which the Saints of God desire with full contentment to sing and it is given to all them that are true hearted to the Lord to sing this song with a full resolution But when the time is come that it should be sung the weaknesse of our nature perhaps will not suffice to it For it is one thing for a man to bee valiant when he is in health and it is another thing when the fit and when the storme takes him then to appeare that which hee professed himselfe to be before
power of life and heat failes therefore a man dies Death is nothing but a privation and by consequent it is nothing at all As the Sunne when it is set there is darknesse which is a matter of nothing but the absence of the Sunne So death is nothing but the absence of life nothing but a cessation of the powers in man But because wee conceive it after another manner as a grievous enemie as a triumphant enemy over all the world therefore the Scripture condiscends to our capacity speaks in our language and makes it as an enemy Christ and it as two enemies encountring each other and the one foyling the other and so foyling it as that there is no reliques or remainders of the one left because of the great victory and conquest of the other The victory of Christ shall bee so absolute over death that there shall be no occasion of feare because there shall bee no steppe of death that shall have being in the world And this is marvellously set downe by a metaphor of swallowing that that monster which swallowes all the world of men that hath swallowed our forefathers that hath swallowed all The ages and generations before us what are they else but the morsels of death which hee hath swallowed to glut his stomack and all cannot serve but still he is craving For death and hell and the grave are unsatiable they are never satisfied although they have abundance of income and harvest dayly throwne into them The metaphor is taken from those kinde of ravenous beasts which vse not to chew but to swallow their prey and specially from fish from Whales and Crokodiles which altogether smallow and choake it up without any mincing the meat they receive So the meaning is that the death of Christ swallowes up the death of nature and the death of sinne the second death that they have no more power over us Hee shall swallow them as the Whale swallowed Ionas he shall swallow them that there shall bee no more sight of them to live and to bee and to have power hee shall swallow them as the red sea swallowed up the Egyptians he shall swallow them as the fiery furnace swallowes a little water that is cast into it a sprinkling of water It shall swallow them as the mysts and vapours are swallowed up by the beams of the Sun that there shall be no appearance of them afterward It shall swallow them as the dry gaping thirsty land swallowes a little showre of raine after a long drought It swallowes them up as the weaker metalls that are cast into the fiery furnace that are so spent and consumed as that there is no remainder nor footsteps left of them So is this similitude contrived that the devouring death shall bee swallowed in the death of Christ And whereto shall it be swallowed To Victory To victory This is the strange terme that there is nothing now in the Church of God but triumphs trophees and victorie there is nothing now but songs of deliverance there is nothing but well-springs of life to water every tree in the garden of God The most strange and compleat deliverance that can bee is to bee brought from all the points of slavery to all the points of liberty Such a victoâ—y is this which is spoken of here There shall bee nothing but victory where there was nothing before but captivity Where there was nothing but sicknesse and after sicknesse death and after death damnation by meanes of the sinne of Adam Now there shall be nothing else but life and joy and glory and victory And this is the happy estate and condition of the second comming of Christ and his presence and possession of his children at his comming So wee reade it and so the best Translations hold it to victory Some others reade it to contention So St. Ierom Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Ierom. Teâ—tull Ambros Aug. and St. Austin in many places reade it to contention For saith St. Ierom it is a kind of contestation a kind of law and pleading in the court of God betweene the death of Christ on the one party and the death of nature inflicted for sinne on the other party and they shall enter into plea the one against the other and the power of the death of Christ shall command and overwhelme the power of the death of nature and of the second death which is of sinne by reason of the justice and righteousnesse which is in Christ For thereupon it comes to passe that death is swallowed up into victory because the death of Christ hath answered the justice of his Father and hath satisfied the wrath which wee had contracted against us And by that reason hee shall cease the Commission of death which is out for us because of Adams sinne Rom. 6. last For the wages of sinne is death but because Christ was without sinne therefore hee had no cause or reason to die but onely for our sinnes and so God is satisfied by his death and is well-pleased in him to give us life because the actions that proceed from Christ are not humane actions but the actions of his person the actions of God and man and by consequent able to merit for an infinite company and to be applied to many worlds if there were any more then this that is to all believers to the end of the world that shall have participation in his blood They shall have as they have a promise forgivenesse of sinnes and sinne being removed and forgiven death hath no claime But there was no sin in Christ therefore death had no right to him nor shall have to those that are in him therefore death shall make a surcease and be no more but shall be utterly abandoned and swallowed up into victory This is that plea that the Lord Iesus in his death makes against death I will be death against death Because thou hast forfetted thy commission because thou wast appointed of God to lay hold upon sinners and thou hast laid hold on him that is not a sinner therefore thou shalt lose thy place and thou shalt bee cashiered thou shalt have no more right over sinners because the justice and righteousnesse of the Sonne of God is imputed unto them to ridde them from thy hands and from those dismall conclusions which otherwise they should have beene drowned in There is the contention on the one party Death of Nature The other party is the death of nature Death which is the great master of the world to this day he shall have another plea. Hee shall say For thy part I acknowledge I was mistaken I acknowledge I laid my hands amisse when I tooke thee for there was no sinne in thee But for all other men from the beginning of the world God gave me them as prisoners and made mee their executioner I have not done amisse in these therefore I may justly hold them that are given me by Divine providence by the
will of God It is true thou art alone the onely man that hath overcome mee by thy justice and righteousnesse But this justice and righteousnesse is in thy selfe Escape therefore with thine owne life goe with thine owne priviledge trouble me not and that which belongs unto mee enter not into my possession the Lord hath given mee these sinners as hee gave thee to be no sinner What is thy holinesse to them that are unholy what is thy righteousnesse to them that are ungodly and sinners what passage can there be betweene thee and them to bring them out of my hands Yes the plea is to contention as St. Ierom saith They shall contend who shall have their spoiles and the Lord shall answer that he came not as a private man and that his works were not done personally for himselfe but they were publique actions for the redemption of mankind Therefore whatsoever hee did hee communicates it to his followers whatsoever he did it was for his subjects and servants If he overcame death in his owne person he hath done it not so much for himselfe as for those that beleeve in him that they might partake of his victory and that they might rejoyce for his victory that hee hath had over the world the flesh and the devill So the contention as St. Ierom saith comes upon Christs side by all reason because he hath satisfied the justice of God the Father because hee was offered a sacrifice of a sweet smell which shall be ever in record before God because his suffering was of an infinite nature being the second Person in the Trinity and the actions are alway given to the subject and to the principall the actions of Christ are not attributed to his humane nature but to his person and so also his merits and although he suffered in his humane nature properly and not in his Divine yet the merit and the glory of that suffering reflexed upon the Divine nature For not onely the blood but the blood of God was spilt for the satisfaction of the wrath of God and for the reconciliation of the world Therefore the Lord Iesus shall answer again in the plea that whatsoever he did he did it for the good of all them that belong to him I had never tooke flesh but to make all flesh blessed by my Incarnation I had never entred within the verge and list of my mortall body but to make all their bodies immortall so great is the benefit that I avow to man-kind that not onely my friends but also my enemies have that benefit by mee to have their bodies immortall whatsoever I have done either by way of suffering by way of merit by my miracles by my death and passion by my Resurrection and ascension into heaven I have done it not to reside onely in my owne nature but to communicate it that it may reside in my followers for I have made all the world of beleevers to partake of it This shall be the contestation as St. Ierome saith as if the Lord should heare the just plea of Christ and also the unjust wrangling of the death of nature he shall heare the cause and judge the matter on the part of our blessed Saviour which hath deserved by his death and passion to open the booke and to unloose the seales and to make good the promises to indow himself and all his followers in eternall possessions in that holy and heavenly city which is the Mother of us all Death is swallowed up into victory Now it followes concerning the time when this must be expected then shall be fulfilled this saying for these things be in order to be discussed It is true these things are accomplished now in some degree but the full accomplishment shall be then when wee shall be consummate then when Christ shall be consummate Christ is never full till his body be full hee beares such love to his Church that he is said yet to have reliques of passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1.24 the reliques of the passions of Christ The glory that Christ possesseth and is capable of which he is advanced unto in the highest perfection by his incarnation which the Lord stands now in possession of and he shall have no more glory conferred upon him then hee hath and hath had for these sixteene hundred yeares been possessed of but for the infinite love that hee beares to his children to those that are of his body he is said then to be compleat not before when all his members shall be completed then death shall be swallowed up into victory Death was swallowed up in victory when Christ rose againe when hee brought the spoyles of the grave away with him when the Lord raised him and when many bodies of the Saints which slept were carryed up with him to his Kingdome where he hath them now in heaven to converse with him and keepe him company then the Lord gave a gage and pawne of this that now shall be fulfilled but because those were but a few and because the fulnesse of the Church is that which Christ delights in the Apostle refers us to the hope and expectation of that time when we shall get the garment of immortality when we shall have that new coat of incorruption then we shall see that fulfilled and clearly accomplished which was spoken in former time Death is swallowed up into victory Not onely in the person of Christ but in thine and mine and all that have interest in Christ Death is swallowed up into victory that great swallower of all things in the world that consumes not onely the fraile bodies of men but the mighty monuments of marble and the greatest things that are most unlikely to be dissolved shaken asunder in the world the very earth it self the foundations of which we see oft stand trēbling and cast the firme continent into the great sea as it hath hapned to divers parts of the world Now this great swallower which was the destroyer and consumer of all things before and that never could meet with his match now he himselfe shall be swallowed up into compleat victory Therefore this must be our desire as souldiers after the victory we follow a master which is a victorious Captaine that was never foyled by any enemy but wheresoever hee goes he carries the field before him And souldiers wee know what great glory and glee they have what noysing of trumpets what erecting of spirits when they once come to be masters of their enemies there is not such a glorious sight under heaven as a victorious army returning from the spoile The Lord would teach us by this what wee should doe to lift up our spirits to prepare us for the insultation over this grisly enemy which is the devourer of all the voice of victory must be glorious as it is said of Lepanto when newes came to Venice that the Christians had the victory over the Turkes for three dayes together there was
the wofull calamity of our nature over which we must desire God to give us the victory and behold it followes in the Text But thanks be to God which hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. Which words I can but enter into of the gift or blessing which is vouchsafed victory Victory is alwayes welcome but especially when it is atchieved against a dangerous enemy The child of God is borne to be a Conquerour as St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 5.4 1 Iohn 5.4 Every thing that is born of God overcommeth the world Every thing that is borne of God where the Fathers observe that the Apostle speaks in generall he speaks in the neuter gender to shew that there is no man that is so meane or so vile and base of whatsoever condition he be that he may rather be called a thing than a man yet that he hath the spirit of grace by that hee is able to encounter and overcome the world and this victory that wee have it is over such powerfull enemies as that except God had promised it except God should worke it all the power in heaven and earth could not attain unto it A man that is borne a Conquerour over his owne corruptions and over himselfe he is greater than ever was the greatest conquerour and it is better to be made in this kind a Victor over his owne passions than to be the universall Emperour of all the world Saith Seneca there are many men that have subdued Principalities Kingdomes Cities Townes and Countries and brought them under their owne masterie but there are few that have guided themselves but still there is a Tiger within them that disgraceth and obscureth their outward conquest by reason of the foule seethings and corruption in their owne flesh therefore for a man to get the victory and to overcome himselfe is to get the victory and to overcome all the world for man is a microcosme a little world as St. Austin saith thou maist obtaine the victory against thy selfe for thy selfe After a certaine wondrous manner God hath ordained a christian souldier a militant member of his Church to fight against himselfe for himselfe For hee that will lose his life saith Christ for my sake and the Gospels shall save it Hee that will lose his delights and his pleasures hee that will make warre with himselfe and will have no peace with his affections the Lord shall give him that peace that passeth all understanding and although hee kill his body with chastizing it yet it shall be saved in the day of the Lord St. Bern. saith St. Bernard The victory is thought and reputed in the world to be lost rather by flying than by dying for there are many men slaine in the field that are not accounted as cowards and fugitives or vanquished men because they died upon the place but when they quit the place when they fly and are not able to hold out in the field hee that remaines accounts himselfe the Victor because the rest are fled and vanished away So the spirituall victory in Christ it is lost by flying for we should rather die for God we should rather die in his zeale and for his glory and keep our standing than to yeeld and fly from the devill and our own corrupt affections and stoop to them then sathan gets the victory when wee cast away our weapons and play the loose scouts in the field There is no hope of victory in those actions Hee hath given us victory Over what hath he given us victory victory must be over some enemie I shewed you before the parties what they are now I am to shew you who they are that God hath given us the victory over over death over sinne over the law over death that there is not so much as a relique of it remaining there there is no hope that ever hee shall returne and make head againe that is a famous victory wherein the roots of future seditions are taken away and plucked up when there is nothing left for any hope of future rebellion When the Romanes had warred with the Carthagenians and oft times overcome them yet still within a while within 8. or 10. yeares or lesse they made head againe and stirred up new warres and so they had successive combustion And so in all the Nations of the world there are none that are so vanquished now but they may become conquerours hereafter The same thing that the Lord hath made an underling now may be the Head and Chieftaine in time to come But in this victory that we have over death it is without any hope or comfort on deaths part and without any feare of suffering on our part for it is so taken away as though it had never been and that which had the greatest triumph the mightiest trophees in the world unto which all Kings and Princes have bowed their heads and laid downe their scepters for all the goodly things in the world have been nothing else but the morsells of death I say this victorious enemie by the hand of Christ it shall be turned to a thing of nothing it shall have no name nor notion it shall be left without any hope of recovery It shall have no more strength to sting for the sting is gone The second enemy we shall have victory over is sin because the prince of this world sifted Christ to know whether hee were pure wheat or no and the Text saith he found nothing in him but he was as the finest flowre of wheat without all bran of corruption without all inclination to sinne being conceived and borne in perfect purity and living in the strength of that purity insomuch as hee defies all his adversaries hee challengeth them saying Who can accuse mee of sinne Because I say our blessed Saviour in all the parts of him had nothing but the light of purity in his eyes in his understanding in his tongue in his gesture in his words in his actions in his perseverance in all the parts of his doctrine in all the passages of his miracles there was nothing else but a fountaine and a world of purity therefore death incroaching by the malice and violence of sathan and the envy of the high priests upon him that had no sinne it lost all the power and government that it had before for taking away life from him that had no cause of death in him it follows therefore that it is justly exattorate and put out of place and hath lost his commission for ever for Christ overcame sinne by satisfying for it on his holy crosse and by his example in his holy life by giving a holy example to his Apostles and Disciples and all beleevers in the world Hee overcame sinne by drinking the cup of Gods wrath which by our sinnes was filled to him and he overcame sinne by his gracious example by the copie of his holy life and much more by his holy Spirit by which he diffuseth his grace
victory that we have in Christ it were a fanaticall madnesse a ridiculous base delusion Therefore let them that are willing to comfort their owne soules against the day of trouble let them thinke that there is no comfort to bee had but in this victory and there is no comfort can bee had in this victory except they strive to be Victors and Conquerors in Christ to have a part in him and to fight as well as they may under his banner as long as they live in sinne that they seeke it and study it and mainetaine it and defend it let them delude their owne soules and deceive themselves which is the grossest and most fearefull deceit of all others for a man to deceive himsefe they may thinke they are Conquerers but they are the Devills vanquished ones they are his captives they are held in the Devils Irons God be mercifull to us for there is none that lives in sin but the poore miserable thiefe that lies in the dungeon is better then hee But this victory notwithstanding is the Churches and wee are of the Church wee are baptized wee are called to the knowledge of the misteries of the Gospel and God doth not call men for nothing hee doth not make his mysteries idle It is true therefore as long time as God hath vouchsafed us wee have still time to bee victors and though our soules cleave to the earth though they sticke to the pavement yet God can raise us out of the dust and make us equall with the Princes of his people as the Prophet David saith Psal 113. Therefore let us call to the Lord God and though wee find no strength in our selves nor no meanes nor will if there bee not so much as a will yet let him that hath the wills of men in his hand that hath the hearts of men in his hand and turnes them as the rivers of waters let him doe as it pleaseth him let him worke this for us that can worke nothing for our selves To whom bee praise and glory obedience and thanksgiving both now and for evermore Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.56 57. But thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord therefore beloved Brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not lost nor in vaine in the Lord. THere is nothing more certain Note then that it is the portion of a Christian soule to fight and labour in this life present The Church is a militant Church a People that are alway at combat and conflict with the devill and with men and if these faile with himselfe too Saith S. Austin St. Aug. we would faine be freed from this fight from this continuall perturbation but the comfort that God hath given against it is that as we are called to a triall so the Lord assists us too in the day of Trouble and assures us of the victory that howsoever we cannot overcome all these enemies by any grace that is inherent in us but that we are often foyled and conquered yet we have another Meane to conquer them by that is by faith and the apprehension of the victory that the Lord Iesus Christ hath purchased for us over the devill and all these Adversaries and this victory can be given us but by one hand it lyes onely there to dispense that is in the hand of God which is the Lord of Hoasts and Armies It is he alone that enclines the battaile it is hee that weakneth the adversaries and that strengthens those that follow his colours when they are foyled hee raiseth up them that are fallen it is he that beateth downe Sathan under our feet that was our conquerour This spirituall conquest is of all others the most excellent for the rest as Isay Isay 8. saith They are gotten with tumult and with tumbling of garments in bloud But this conquest that we have in the Lord Iesus it was like a Lamb-slaughter in the day of Madian You know in the day of Madian what kinde of victory it was Gideon went out hee did nothing the Lord did all for him for still hee brought downe his troups from thousands to hundreds to three hundred and when they were to be set to worke they did nothing but onely clash their broken pitchers and the Lord wrought a great slaughter in the Hoast of Madian Such a victory is the conquest wee have in Iesus Christ our Lord he is still the victor that got the conquest without all appearance of second Causes without all union of forces and power in the world that God may be all in all In other victories there be many sharers that may claime a part in the conquest there is something belongs to the Generall some to the Colonels some to the Captaines some to the other Officers some to the common Souldiers There is no man but hee may claime a part in the common victory But in this victory that we have obtained by the meanes of Christ Iesus our Lord there is nothing that belongs to any but to God Therefore the Apostle saith Thanks be to God thanks be to no man thanks be to no Angell thanks be to no power that can be supposed to help us but the thanks and praise must rest in God alone which hath wrought all this for us As the Heathen Orator said to Caesar when hee had overcome his anger and had pardoned his Enemie In other warres saith he there is a communication of the praise of the wars it belongs to one as well as to another But in this victory which thou hast gotten over thy selfe Orat. pro Milone in giving and forgiving thou hast gotten the glory The like may wee much more truly say of God as the Apostle saith here Thanks be to God and to none but to him that hath given us victory for he alone with his owne hand and his stretched out arme Psal 94. hath gotten himselfe the victory as the Psalmist saith So Tertullian Tertul. speaking of this point in his fifth booke against Marcian Chap. 10. The Apostle saith he being well advised how the conquest comes to a Christian hee gives no thanks to any other God but him alone that put the word of triumph and insultation into his mouth That God that gave him power to say by way of triumph Oh Death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory To that same God that gave him the word of triumph he returnes the word of thanksgiving and retribution of praise because it belongs onely to him If Marcians god as Marcian supposed hee had another god than that which is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ can tell mee such things as hee hath done or that hee hath published any such thing to the world as this I will account him the Father of mercy But till then I will account him Marcians Idoll
a meere Idoll And S. Ierome S. Jerom. speaking of this argument Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. For saith hee who was there to doe it but God Who was there to encounter all these enemies but Christ alone His friends forsooke him his Disciples left him Isay 45. as the Prophet saith It was I and none else that stood in the battaile Therefore saith S. Ierome S Jerom. to him alone belongs all the praise of the victory And S. Austin S. Aug. most heavenly and graciously discourseth of this point When I consider the victory of a Christian saith he which is this that his chiefe and deadly enemy is swallowed up by Death and by what death was he swallowed up by the death of life That is a strange saying that Death should be swallowed up by the death of life Why should I doubt to say that of God which God hath not doubted to doe for mee God hath certainly performed this for me therefore I may speake and affirme this of him What is the matter therefore that the Apostle saith wee may insult thus over Death and give thanks to God for the victory because saith he that Life being dead did kill Death the fulnesse of life did swallow up the bitternesse of death and all death and miserie is dissolved and consumed in the body of the Lord Iesus So S. Chrysostome saith In this great warre saith he the trophee was planted by the hand of the Lord himselfe he set downe the standard he set downe the place and note and mark where the enemy was discomfited and left the field But after that was done he cast out garlands as after the battaile is won after the field is won the Emperours devised Crownes and Garlands for those that had beene Conquerors with them But the Lord finding none there but he himselfe hee calls the by-standers wee that had not sought a stroke yet he vouchsafed to cast unto us Crownes and Garlands and hath made us to communicate and participate of that noble and glorious victory which himselfe hath only attained But this point of Doctrine must bee brought home more familiarly for this is true to those that be men of judgement and understanding they make no doubt of it but I must make it plaine to babes and sucklings How is it possible therefore that the victory of Christ which hee got over sinne and over death that it should be ours seeing both personall actions be uncommunicable that which is done by one person is not communicated to another person because the act is confined in him that did the act And seeing also that the children of God as long as they live in this world that they cannot be called Conquerours of their temptations for they are conquered many times and hee that is the best man in the world though he sometime overcome yet he is many times overcome too Nay almost the least temptation although it wound not a man to the heart yet it drawes blood of him as S. Iohn saith If we denie and say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves If we say he speakes of himselfe and the rest of his fellow Apostles 1 Ioh. 1.8 If wee say that there is not sinne in us that there doth not sinne remaine in us we lie and the truth of God is not in us we deceive our selves And the Apostle saith That hee was a miserable man himselfe under captivity Rom. 7.19 23. and that good thing that I would doe that doe I not and that evill thing that I would not doe that I doe What a miserable kinde of conquest is this Can a man be said to be a Conquerour in this miserable state when he can doe nothing that he would doe and doth all things that he would not doe How can this be agreeable Besides we see in the examples of the Children of God that they have had no conquest but have beene foyled What conquest had David over his great and grievous temptations We shall see almost nothing that was offered to him but he fell in it When he comes to be a Iusticiarie which is the easiest matter in the world to doe Iustice yet hee failed in that and gave to a false servant halfe his Masters good And when it came to a matter of revenge he failed in that too when hee made that rash vow that he would cut off from Naball all that turned to the wall besides the foule fall that hee had afterwards so that what victory had this man what victory had Manasses that afterwards was saved by the miracle of mercie What victory had hee over those murtherous attempts and conceits that he had whereby hee put to death many thousands of Gods children What conquest had Salomon when he was brought from his high wisedome to that low ebb when hee was brought to serve whores and devils and Idols and yet hee was a Type of Christ and is a true Saint in heaven The Thief on the Crosse what conquest or victory had he nothing in the world except we account that victory to controll his fellow thief and to stand speake a word for Christ To conclude this point seeing there is calling at the eleventh houre and as long as a man hath life he hath hope to be called to the service of God and many are not called untill the last period of their life It seems therefore that a Christian hath no conquest in this life for he is carried to doe that which he would not do and he cannot do that which he would do for al the examples in the Scriptures carrie us in a contrary streame How then is it said we have the cōquest victory For the first I answer thus where it is said that all actions personall are incommunicable It is true except they be generall persons If the man be a private peculiar person the action rests in himselfe but if he be a selected uniuersall chosen person the Action doth not rest in himselfe but it extends it selfe to a great multitude even to all that belong to him Such an one is Christ his Actions are not personall to be limited to himselfe but by way of merit they are applied and extended to all the world of Beleevers Wee may understand this by those things that God hath given us by the comparisons he hath made unto us in the Scriptures as being figures and fore-runners of his blessed Sonne In 1 Sam. 17.8 9. 1 Sam. 17.8.9 looke there at that mighty president the fight betweene Goliah and David which figured unto us the fight betweene the devill and the world and all adverse powers on the one side and the Lord Iesus our Chieftaine on the other side Marke what the Captaine of the Philistines saith Why saith he should we joyne our selves in battaile the whole Army let there be one man chosen out on either part and let us have a
us that are the children of Abraham although wee must study holinesse Heb. 12.14 without which no man shall see God and we must abhor all the works of darknesse and come into the light yet we are so fraile in this flesh that we cannot doe the one nor the other But miserable wretches we have two lawes the law of our members and the law of God and so we must conclude with the Apostle Rom. 7.25 I serve the law of God in my minde and spirit but the law of sinne with my members and yet hee concludes in this place thankes bee to God that gives us victory in Christ Iesus our Lord. To conculde this point It is the faith that a man holds in God the faith he hath in Christ that makes us Conquerers and gives us the victory It was this that armed the thiefe upon the Crosse when hee had done nothing all his life time but plaied the thiefe and robbed and oppressed and played his tragicall part in the world yet hee shewed himselfe to have one mite of faith in the end of his life and for that he was accepted And Christ saith unto him Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That whereas the Pharisees and Priests and Scribes thought Christ to be justly executed and put to death yet notwithstanding hee put his faith in him and beleeved that hee was a King and that he had a great portion of glory reserved for him and that hee was able to communicate it to his followers therefore he desires to partake of that glory Luke 23.42 Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome Now I come to the last point of the precedent verse Thanks be to God since wee have the victory in Christ Iesus our Lord that is since wee have both received the fulnesse of the conquest imparted to us and also the first fruits of the Spirit by which we are able to overcome though not fully to overcome yet to overcome by the power of his victory and to be accounted conquerers though we bee but cowards Thanks be to God for this great gift and mercy of imputation The holy Apostle saith Theodoret Theodoret. hath concluded all his discourse with a necessary line with thanksgiving and praise to God For indeed as wee are bound to thanke God for every thing that wee receive so much more for the chiefe and principall things that wee take from his hands There is no thing so gracious as this to be victors to bee borne to be Conquerers and to be conquerers over such enemies too as have conquered all the world this many thousand yeares together that in sight that there was nothing that domineered nor nothing got the victory but death and sinne and hell and to conquer these miscreants that had over-run all the world this is the hand of God which is to be rejoyced in and if there bee any blessing for us to blesse our soules in it is this that we are conquerers in Christ saith St. Austin Aug. For saith hee If I must thanke God for every petty benefit what greater reason can I have then to give thanks for chiefe and maine benefits The grace of God in Iesus Christ our Lord is that which gives us this victory Thanke God saith St. Bernard thanke not thy selfe St. Bern. thank not Saints thanke not Angels thanke not preparatory works thanke not foreseene merits thanke nothing else but let the praise rest wholly and totally in God It is he that did all therefore to him be given all praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15. ult Therefore beloved brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. WEE are come now to the conclusion of this Chapter which followes most naturally as Chrysostome saith Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast c. It is a true conclusion when a man hath fully proved the premises hee that concludes a thing before he hath argued well and proved the matter he discourseth of hee is either a foole or a falsarie for it must needs argue it is a lie when a man will ground upon uncertaine grounds It argueth also weaknesse in him when hee thinks hee hath perswaded without sufficient ground for there is no wise man will be perswaded without due confirmation and demonstration of those things that are argued Therefore now the Apostle comes in as an excellent Oratour to conclude not upon poore grounds nor upon weak evidences but upon strong perswasion and demonstration saith Tertullian Tertul. Hee useth all the strength of the holy Ghost to perswade to this powerfull article of the Resurrection his meaning is with all the power of the holy Ghost that he was capable of for else the power of the holy Ghost is as infinite as God himselfe is infinite But now when the Apostle had driven this doctrine home when he had so beat it into them as that there was no scruple left to any gainsayer or contradictor when he had shewed the cause of the Resurrection when he had shewed the maner of it when he had shewed the absurdities that would follow the contrary doctrine if men did doubt of it when hee had shewed the effects and consequents of it of that glorious incorruption and immortality when hee had proved it by force of holy Scriptures Oh death I will be thy death oh hell I will be thy destruction When he had set downe all these firme and maine presidents it is time for him now to bring in his conclusion He is a foolish builder that will set up the roofe of his house before the walls be built and he is an idle discourser that will offer to bring a thing into his Auditory upon any triviall reason but the Spirit of God teacheth us first to settle the understandings to perswade the minds of men by strong and puissant arguments and then to draw forth conclusions for hee must first move a mans senses and understanding and then draw his will for the will is alway plyable to the conclusion but the understanding is attentive to the demonstration All this while the Apostle had held the understanding giving demonstrative causes and such reasons as no man could contradict him in Now that being done he closeth with the will and that is easily brought if he can perswade the understanding therefore he saith Therefore my beloved brethren that is seeing these things are thus seeing I have told you the will of God in this point that Christ is risen himselfe and that he is risen so palpably that he was seene of more than five hundred brethren at once and that he is the Head of the body and that therefore all the members must be raised up at one time to come with their Head and be joyned unto him Seeing that
Lord because it is to him and for his sake or else if it were in the quality of the worke it were in vaine for there is nothing in us that is good therefore it is not any thing that is inherent in that but it is in the power of God that can doe what pleaseth him and that will give liberally even for the least thing that we have done he will give a great recompence it is he that makes it fruitfull and copious and plentifull in the recompence it is the Lord that rewardeth all thus And he concludes it under scale you know that this is true you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. This is that great blessing of God that double grace when hee makes us know the thing that it is impregnable that it is a thing not to be resisted that it is such a thing as all the powers of hell and darknesse and contrary disputations cannot make you doubt of You know this To know is to know by reasons naturall that never faile that this shall be thus the promise of God is so therefore you know it by that you know it by the practice of the Saints you know it by the testimony of the Spirit of God you know it by the common tenent of the world so that whatsoever God hath spoken hee is willing to performe and it is done already as though it were acted at this present time It is the heavenly and blessed contentment of a Christian man that hee hath the priviledge to know his happinesse before hee hath it that man that is advanced to morrow that is a poore man to day hee may hope well and wish well but hee knoweth nothing a man that goes to the field to fight in the battaile hee knowes not whether ever he shall come againe as Ahab said He that puts on his armour let him not brag as he that puts it off When a man sets forth on a journey hee knowes not whether ever hee shall returne home or not When a man enters into traffique for viands and matters of life hee knowes not whether hee shall gaine or lose there is nothing that wee can tell in this world that it shall be thus for time will alter and change it In all the works of Philosophy there is no certainty of the time to come but in the booke of God there is a certaine knowledge blessed be God for that knowledge It is a thing without exception it is a thing without all doubt Iohn 4. Our Lord Christ said to the woman of Samaria Ye know not what ye worship we know what we worship The knowledge therefore of true religion was among the people of God so the knowledge of the promises was among them too wee know saith the Apostle 1. Cor 5.1 when this earthly Tabernacle shall be abolished we have a heavenly mansion So the Apostle saith I know whom I have believed I know whom I have trusted And in 1 Iohn 2.15 Wee know that we are translated from death to life because wee love the brethren This therefore is that excellent priviledge of a Christian that he hath above all the schollers in the world that as he is made to glorie so he knows it before he hath a taste of the Spirit the earnest of the Spirit before which makes him cry Abba Father that helps him to pray that comforts him in trouble that stands by him that leads him and guides him on that never forsakes him in the state of grace till it bring him to the state of glory To the which the Lord bring us for Christ his sake Amen FINIS CORINTHS COLLECTION FOR THE SAINTS AT IERUSALEM Seven Sermons on 1 Corinth 16. the first 9. Verses BY That Worthy and Learned Preacher of Gods Word MARTIN DAY Chaplaine in Ordinarie to his Majestie and late Rector of S. FAITHS London Heb. 13.16 To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased LONDON Printed by T.H. for Nathanael Butter and are to be sold at the signe of the Pide Bull neere Saint Austins gate 1636. 1. Cor. 16.1.2 Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia â—ven so do yâ— â—pon the first of the Weeke Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come THis is the last head or common place of this holy Epistle which the Apostle hath therefore reserved to the last because he would have it the better in printed in the memory of his schoollars For all the rest indeed have beene matters of great concernment but this most of all it being the common office of Christianitie and a generall duty that runnes through the whole body as the life doth For the poore you shall have alway with you saith our Lord Christ and therefore your mercie to the poore shall be alway exacted so S. Chrysostome Chrysost The Apostle now saith hee goes forward to the head and principle of all good things He hath touched upon it before in Chap. 13. Chap. 13.1 speaking of charitie Though I had the tongue of men and Angels yet if I had not charitie I were nothing But that charitie is of another kinde for that intends the use of spirituall gifts that a man should forget himselfe for the common good that hee should not labour so much to shew himselfe a scholler or a Linguist as to speake to common capacities that is the charitie meant in that place But now here he speakes of another kinde of charitie not in the collation of things spirituall but of temporall wherein a man is put to his proofe more then then in the other for the conferring of sprituall things commonly as they come freely so they come easily without much paine or trouble There is no man almost but he will communicate his learning and knowledge to another gratis but for these temporall goods that we have in this world they can hardly be drawne from us and a small quantitie a poore despicable portion is exacted when we are brought to the best Therefore now the Apostle comes to that point of charitie which doth most of all discerne a Christian whereby he is best knowne the parting from his owne goods the defrauding of his owne genius of his owne belly that he may be helpfull to others And so this is the ninth and last part of this Epistle for as I told you heretofore Divines have diversly distinguished the Epistle but the best and the most neere and likely division is into nine severall points of doctrine whereof this is the last The first was of taking away the schismes and divisions which was in the Church of Christ One was of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas another of Christ In the first second third and fourth Chapters that is the first common place of this Epistle The second was concerning the power
Plato that God would change the seventh day to the eighth to signifie thereby that God would bring a rest to all the world so that our change of the Sabbath day saith he it is not onely of us not onely manifested to us but it was opened to the Gentiles themselves they also acknowledged it Cyprian Diacon Epist 41. Cyprian the Deacon saith he shall reade the next Lords day wherein the Church must bring their accustomed sacrifice to God that is the sacrifice of Almes-deeds the treasure of life eternall and in his 41. Epistle saith he in the station that is in the Church where we meet and stand together before God let you almes be ready and let no man appeare empty before the Lord alluding to the law speaking of the change of the Sabbath and the collection for the poore Saints named in this place by the common state of the Church Basil Hexamer secund Basile in the second of his Hexameron saith he that the Lord might bring us from this present life to the thought of a better life of the life to come he hath appointed the first fruits of the Sabbath wherein the first fruits of the living rose again from the dead the Lord Christ which was dead did then live which was the beginner and continuer of light in his Church I meane saith he the holy Sabbath day glorified by the resurrection of Christ and commended to the Church to be alway fulfilled and kept Nazianzinus orat 43. Nazianzen saith he there were two Lords dayes the one for the Iewes the other for the Gentiles but ours that we have is more excellent than that for that was belonging to mans salvation but this was the very nativity of salvation the birth of our Saviour The Iewes Sabbath was the intermedium the passage betweene the buriall of Christ and his resurrection for Christ lay in his grave upon their Sabbath day and there he rested and with him rested all the ceremonies of the law never any more to revive but this of the resurrection of Christ is plainly and fully the day of the second generation and regeneration of all the Saints and he gives a reason for it For saith he even as the first creation of the world begun from the Sabbath day so we must imagine that God began to make the world upon the Munday as we call our weeke for in his eternall rest whereby he rested from all eternitie he began then to worke although it were no worke to God but a rest even the creation it was a rest to him he did not worke then more then before yet it is signified to us by worke in the Scripture and that he began in the beginning of the weeke to set himselfe to worke therefore as that worke of the creation began from the Sabbath so the worke of the recreation and redemption of man must begin from the Sabbath And although this be the eighth day yet it is the best day of all that were before it and of all that shall come after it being more high and glorious then that glorious day that was before and being more wonderful and admirable then that wondrous time that preceded it Saint Ierome in the second Epistle of his booke against Vigil The Apostle Paul saith he S. Hierom. contra Vigil Epist 3. Vigitantius I suppose commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poore made upon the Lords day which is the first day of the weeke that is the first of the Iewish weeke And in his fourth question to Hibibbia How soone saith he did the Apostles of Christ turne and change the Iewish Sabbath to shew the libertie of Christians from the bondage of the law how soone did they turne it to the Lords day Aug. 10. Tom. Saint Austin in the tenth Tome of his Sermon upon these words of the Apostle saith he When the seventh day was fulfilled which is the consummation of the world we must come backe againe to the first and reckon from seven to seven and this first will be found the eight day the seventh day is ended and then the Lord is buried the eight day begins and then the Lord is raised for the raising up of the Lord Iesus hath promised unto us a day eternall and hath consecrated to us the Lords day which is the signe and note and assurance unto us of that eternall day of that everlasting Sabbath for now the rocke is raised up againe Let all our hearts be circumcised speaking of the manner of circumcision which was done with a knife of stone with a piece of a stone taken out of the rock out of the rock which is Christ Chrysost on 1. Cor. 16.2 Saint Chrysostome upon this place In one of the Sabbaths that is saith he upon the Lords day for the time it selfe was of sufficient force saith he to bring a man to bee liberall to give almes plentifully Oecumenius Oecumenius saith the same saith hee it should rouze us up this time the Lords day to do good to the Lords Saints Theophilact Theophilact being the first day of the weeke the time wherein we meet together before God they never saith he went without love to God and to the Saints upon the first day of the weeke which is the Lords day Theodoret Theodoret. saith he the day and the worke are met together a man should do the works of the time in his owne time a worke done in season is the more gratefull and acceptable Therefore saith he the day of the Lord wherein the resurrection of Christ is honoured is the fittest time to shew our bountifulnesse to God which hath beene so bountifull to us in giving us the memoriall of him that was Lord of his owne and of our resurrection Athanasius Athanasius upon that place All things are delivered to me of my Father which I stood on the last day and shewed his reasons for the change of the Sabbath Cirill of Ierusalem in the fourteenth of his Catechisme saith he Yesterday Cirill of Ierus Catech. 14. upon the Lords day in the congregation of the Saints and at the generall prayers of the people you heard me speak and discourse of these things where we may see that in that countrey also the same manner was retained Epiphanius in his second booke Epiph. lib. 2. The Sabbath of the Iewes remained in the law till the presence and comming of Christ but Christ dissolved the Sabbath and gave a Sabbath of his owne which is a type of that true rest of that sabbatism wherby the Saints rest from ceremonies and are come to the substance the Sonne of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.7 Cirill of Alexandria in his seventh booke to Palladius We know saith he Cirill Alexand. l. 7. ad Pallad that the Lord Christ came to make us a perfect rest from sinne from death from miserie and to give us conquest over death