them that have bodies and souls know that there is a duty lies upon them to glorifie God in their lives both in their bodies and souls The next point is this That the sinful body hath a dead soul every sinful body wallowing in sin hath a dead soul So we read 1 Tim. 1.5 The woman living in pleasure she was dead though she lived Again the Bishop of Sardis a wicked Bishop but yet a Bishop I am sure a Bishop Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead Our Saviour Christ said unto the survivers of those that were dead Survivers unto them and go and attend their Funeral and Herse Go saith he let the dead in sins bury their dead So you see that these wicked ones they have but the carkasse of Christians And as nothing is more ugly and odious in the sight of man then the carkasse of man so there is nothing more detestable in the sight of God then a wicked obstinate and impenitent sinner Again the mortified body hath a living soul It is necessary that this be preached unto all the world because most of the world have forgot themselves And the principal part of Christianity consists in this mortification and sanctification We all live in sins dost thou live in actual sin bodily sin thou art dead if thou be not mortified in them Give up your bodies a living sacrifice that is mortification let not sin reign in your mortal bodies I will give you a pattern of S. Paul himself 1 Cor. 9. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection So then you see that this is a matter on which consists eternal life The Apostle tells us If you mortifie the lusts of the flesh you shall live if not you shall dye It s a matter of life and death which is to shew that those that are mortified men have a living soul Again we must take heed of bodily and actual transgressions for I must tell you that these acts of men done in their bodies shall have resurrection with them even with their bodies This is a profitable point for God sees all things before him all things that have been or can be he sees them all in present as it were in present that 's the infinitenesse of his Science Now then what saith the Apostle We all must appear before the Tribunal-Seat of Christ and every one shall give an account of those things that are done in his flesh fleshly body So then whereas the Epicure sings his Ballad and the burthen of his Song is Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye yet death will come and then we must give an account of all our actions So much for my Text. Because I was told I should make some application concerning the present occasion I do therefore addresse my self and my speech unto you Right Honourable and to all your reverend Senate and to all your Associate Worthies First we must give an acknowledgment unto God and blesse his great goodnesse that hath so sanctified the hearts of our Predecessors of former times to leave such worthy and real Testimonies to the world of their piety and godly devotion devotion both for the Church and Houses of God and charity unto the poor these have received their rewards the full rewards of all their labours on Earth in the Heavens where they shall remain for ever in the highest Seat of Glory they are now Canonized by God himself and have left themselves in their memories and examples for you and those that shall be able to walk in their steps The Roll that I have seen speaks of wonderful blessed Foundations of Hospitality for the relief of hundreds and hundreds and thousands It doth not need so much to put them here in your Calendar and Paper for the comfort of men but that their good examples might stir up others to the like duties of piety and charity in respect of those that are the Founders all their names are registred in the Book of Life for all Eternity My Exhortation unto you must be that you would enlarge your munificence both wayes in duties of piety and charity but especially of charity because of the objects before our eyes the Orphans that have sung joyfully and comfortably unto God by way of Thanksgiving I shall not stand to reason with you I shall onely apply those things which are appliable unto the men of the world as they are worldly men and apply the promises of God unto them as they are worldly though the promises are all Heavenly and ye with a recommendation to men as worldly men for you look to have habitation here in the world behold the poor that you bestow your charity on they shall bring you you know the place of Scripture I do but name the words into eternal habitations You labour for treasure and the promise is that you shall have treasure in Heaven Will you have bags for your treasures the Gospel is that these Orphans and such like how mortal soever they may be yet unto God they are bags those bags that will never wear out Will you have a trade of life for the best advantage then without all comparison it is charitable usury the promise is You shall receive an hundred fold be the poor what they will of themselves the gift is to God and to Christ not so much unto them for be they wanderers in the world as we say rogues sometimes charity is not alwayes suspicious without cause What faith the Wise man to us Cast thy bread upon the waters for after many dayes thou shalt find it with advantage that thou givest unto such a man though unworthy what saith Job his loins shall bless thee thou givest mortal things and he gives immortal blessings his loins shall blesse thee Whatsoever thou dost to the poor their loins and their back and their belly shall blesse thee for it comes from God But withal let us know and remember why it is that the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour would set down the tenure of salvation or damnation upon the giving or not giving unto the poor it is because it is such a work if rightly done that proceeds from a true faith and therefore God knows that it is a work that proceeds from true charity and those that do thus and make conscience of it as giving it for Gods sake indeed and Christs sake indeed certainly they are Christs and will walk according to the Precepts of Faith And now I conclude with prayer c. And thus this Pillar this reverend Father of the Church of God this sound Divine as heretofore he hath asserted the truth of our Religion by his hand-writing against grand Apostates and against all the Chaos of Antichrists devises as then by his pen so now by his tongue did vindicate the Resurrection which is the Fundamental Article of our Religion for Resurrectio à mortuis est fides Christianorum the resurrection from the dead
Scripture tells you you shall rise and where 's the power that 's in the Scriptures Also there 's Moses leprous hand and presently healed there 's Aarons rod dry yet presently budded and blossomed Sarah being barren shortly after bears a child Jonah three dayes and three nights in the whales belly yet riseth again Eze. 37. There were dry bones and yet bones creep unto bones sinews creep unto those bones and knit them together and flesh comes and knits those sinews and then God puts life and then they become men But we are to deal with the man that is meerly natural and stands altogether upon his own reason and therefore thus If he will take the pains to go into Arabia there he may hear of the Phoenix that consumes it self in the fire and another riseth out of those ashes But that 's too far Come neerer hand to the Bombyx the Silk-worm he dyes and out of his dust comes a Fly These are yet remote will you have them domestical in our own Land we shall finde the like In some places the Bees the Flyes the Wasps are produced out of the Hides of Beasts of divers kinds But except I see a natural reason I will not believe it Perhaps you will say with Thomas I will not believe unlesse I see it and feel it Well seeing these will not serve thy turn what shall I do unto thee Even as Solomon sent the Sluggard to the Ant to labour so must I thee Saint Paul he sends a Naturalist or natural Fool to learn of a little seed of Corn the resurrection from the dead Thou fool when thou sowest the seed lives not before it dyes and yet you may see it live you may see it dye after it is turned to dust it lives again And by this he foolifies all the generation of Philosophers and Infidels and as we say Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses by false miracles were conquered by one true miracle of Lice So all these are confounded in this one seed and even here is the finger of God and as much in this as ever it was in that to the confusion of those that withstand it Now beloved that you have heard all these points opened there remains the fourth and that 's the Moral point About which I had studied not a little but foreseeing I should trespasse upon your patience I have contracted my self into some few Instructions concerning the Moral part and the first is this That the Resurrection of Christ requires of every Christian a conformity of holinesse of life and the Apostle will make it good for thus he saith Rom. 6. That as Christ rose again so should we walk in newness of life So that newnesse of life is a conformity to the Resurrection of Christ I speak of this newnesse of life the rather because it is a resurrection in it self So Saint John Apoc. 20. Those that are partakers of the first resurrection saith he shall never fall into the second death By the first Resurrection newnesse of life we are made partakers of the second resurrection and from hence may arise divers instructions The first shall be this That all Christian vertues they take their rising from the doctrine of the resurrection unto eternal life that comprehends all vertues that can be imagined Coloss 1. Saint Paul gives a direction that we should live soberly justly holily in this present world Here 's a Triplicative vertue which contains all others we must live soberly this requires temperance and sobriety c. justly that extends to all relation we have to Superiours or Governours and the other is holinesse which brings upon us all the obligations that we have concerning God and his worship in this present world What follows looking for the hope of the mighty God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Beloved how should this ravish the hearts of men to live soberly justly and holily in this present world When as the true Christian regenerate may say with the holy Apostle that he hath an expectation an hope a looking for the appearance the blessed appearance the glorious appearance of God a mighty God and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Here you see that our salvation depends upon these triplicite vertues Again Saint Paul 1 Cor. 13. saith thus there are the three Faith Hope and Charity What have these to do with the resurrection Certainly the doctrine of the resurrection is made sure by these Therefore for Faith first be it known unto you I speak of a living faith not of a dead faith void of repentance and newnesse of life This is a dead faith which he calls a Devillish faith but I speak of that faith which Saint Paul affirms to work by love Of this faith our Saviour Christ saith He that believeth in me though he dye yet shall be live Here is living of dying This is a resurrection and he that believes this doth believe he shall rise The next to Faith is Charity of this St. John speaks We know we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren Therefore love the brethren because we shall be preserved from death to life Now come to open it and that in the Old Testament where it is said The people of God were tormented racked suffered all manner of persecution because they looked for a better resurrection that is the resurrection of the body to be better then all the torments and afflictions the world could lay upon them Surely beloved we can look for no better resurrection then these holy men did that suffered for the resurrection but we may better look for it then they they looked upon it with dim eyes and they believed but we have open eyes we may see it by most evident demonstrations they never saw Christ raised from the dead reigning in Majesty in Eternity and Glory this doctrine are we made sensible of Now therefore saith the Apostle If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him So much for our Hope The second point is this That our first resurrection requires that our worship and service unto God in holinesse be as well performed in body as in soul Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.6 Glorifie God in your bodies and souls you are bought with a price Glorifie God with your bodies and yet behold greater then these Let every man say unto himself I am created by God both body and soul Ergo I will glorifie him in both But since I have trespassed against my God and thereby lost both body and soul Therefore thirdly there comes a Redeemer unto me and he suffers for me agonies and pangs both in body and soul therefore by this suffering he hath freed me from everlasting death and torments both of body and soul This is not all but besides this the price spoken of here which is the price of redemption is also a price purchasing of glory in the Heavens for my body and soul and therefore let
to take it up again lay down my life by dying to take it up again by rising as easie to take it up as to lay it down to lay down my life as man to take it up again as God Even as he said of the same body to the Jews Destroy you this Temple I will raise it up in three dayes Destroy it then its destructive but raise it up in three dayes there 's his Godhead Thus he spake once let us put them together God and Man Man and God How prove we it The Apostle proves it Heb. 1.1 of Christ thus he was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead Whereupon Saint Austin Oh miraculum miraculorum This is a miracle of miracles the Sun of all Suns never the like that one dead should raise himself from the dead this could not be man but God it must needs be as the Apostle to the Colossians The Godhead dwelling in him bodily which raised himself from the dead now beloved from hence it must follow that it was impossible for him to be detained in the grave and S. Peter saith Acts 2. it was impossible for Christ to be detained in the pangs of death it is a word taken from women travailing in child when the throwes and pangs are upon her she cannot contain her burden it must go out Well said Chrysologus of this burden Concepit mortuum peperit vivum Here is a difference then between this womb and all the rest of the world conceiving dead and bringing forth alive and indeed so it must needs bee when Omnipotency is the Midwife as it was with Jonas a type of Christ swallowed up of the Whale the stomach could not digest it it must be cast out Of what use must this be to us the same power that raised him from death to life the same power will give us resurrection to life everlasting even our bodies So the Apostle Phil. 3. He will change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body So much for the second point that I call it an Omnipotent truth The next is that it is also a triumphant truth there are two triumphings of Christ that we read of in Scripture and they are admirable the one is of his Passion and the other not of his but of the general Resurrection the one is an Introduction to the other of his Passion thus Col. 2. He having spoiled principalities and powers made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them on the Cross Here is his triumph he becomes a conquerour over principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly he spoiled them there 's the conquering sold them openly there 's the preparation for the triumph of the people and to look upon all as a conquerour there 's his triumph this triumph thus spokes of it hath allusion unto the triumphs of the world and especially that of the Romane State wherein there was first presented a multitude of Trumpeters sounding out the victory and resounding then came in chariots of spoils spoils of armour spoils of riches the conquerour he sits in the midst looking back unto those noble slaves that came behind their wives their children and all their hands bound about them I will passe no farther in the story enough for application Now I beseech you extend your mind as much as you can that we may behold at least some glimpse of this great victory of our Saviour Christ and of his conquest Here now where was his sight of Majesty he was now giving up the ghost upon the Crosse and behold a triumph why God and Man the Deity never forsook the Manhood no not in his death the vertue of his death was the crucifying of the Devil and all his powers And now I come to the slaves of this triumph the principalities and powers namely the greatest powers that can be conceived in creatures and who should deal with them but he that is above all power Christ our Saviour What doth he spoil them of of all their designs be they never so mischievous he spoils them of all their wiles and prevents them they can do nothing never any thing to the prejudice of the children of God regenerate never any thing that shall work to his overthrow This is that spoil and he leads them as it is here in the other Text open in view he goes not out of sight So that this point is contemplative here is no Cherubims or Seraphims Angels or Archangels but whatsoever can be seen in the world by the mortal eyes that was visibly performed by Christ Thus much for that second triumph and so it shall be in the general resurrection 1 Cor. 15. Oh death where is thy sting Oh Hell or Grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Thanks be to God that he hath given us victory in Christ our Lord. Now mark I beseech you the manifold circumstances of this victory in the day of the resurrection of the holy Saints and Martyrs What will become of the Law the Law of God it shall be cancelled no more Law here and the Law it is the strength of sin for if there were no law there were no transgression the law being taken away there is no more sin and as for sins past they are either pardoned or punished in the day of the resurrection Well then but sin it is the sting of death what becomes of death Death it is swallowed up in victory Death 's dead no more giving up of the ghost Come to the Grave Grave where is thy victory When the Trumpets sound and the Angel gives his voice arise ye dead and come unto Judgement they come out of their Graves the Graves are empty But the great enemies are Hell and the Devil Hell where 's thy victory The conquest being before as you heard concerning the passage of the souls of men the gates of Hell are shut up no ingresse nor egresse but all is shut they are all detained as the Apostle saith in the chains of darknesse and torments for ever And this is our victory Thanks be to God that hath given us victory in Christ Jesus our Lord Amen Thus have I ended the Historical point which concern'd us in the evidence of this truth that you have heard that he is risen and of the power thereof All this while we have not learned the causes of this resurrection that belongs to the third part which I said was Analogical and this hath three considerations The first is this Christ here in the Text is to be considered in the first place as the general cause of the Resurrection of the world of men The second consideration is this That he in this Text is the special cause of the resurrection of all the souls everlastingly blessed The third consideration of
him is as he is risen as an example That it is possible there may be a resurrection from the death of the body First the resurrection of Christ teacheth us a certainty of resurrection that he is the special effectual cause of the resurrection to life everlasting unto the sons of God that shew the actions of the resurrection of Christ Secondly there is a generality or universality of Resurrection Thirdly the possibility of the bodies resurrection unto life To begin with the universality all must rise again by whom by whose power why by Christs 1 Cor. 15.6 As by the sin of the first Adam death came upon all men so by Christ the Resurrection from the dead all men all manner of men all men dying all men rising all the sons of men We have an Apostle for it All men saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. All men must dye all men must appear before the Tribunal Seat of Christ and give an account of all things they did in this life be it good or bad Here 's good and bad all men This was believed by the Jews before Christ came so the Apostle Saint Peter Acts 2. shews unto us That they believed the resurrection from the dead They believed the Prophet Daniel that they should rise the just and the unjust Dan. 12. Here 's all that Prophets prophecy some to honour and some to shame here 's either honour or shame A shame therefore it will be unto us beloved if we do not believe that which they believed That we having before us not a prophecie which Saint Peter saith is a dark light they believed in a dark light in a light in a dark place and we have the very Sun-shine of the Gospel to instruct us But what instruction do we learn from this universality It commends unto us the general Justice of God that as he will be both vindicative and remunerative to the bodies of men they must rise again vindicative to punish wicked men and remunerative to reward the godly even in their bodies Our reason That as the body hath been an instrument unto the soul for acting either good or evil so they should be co-partners together in weal or woe We see the same shadowed in the Parable the finger of the poor man in Heaven and the tongue of the rich man in Hell yet notwithstanding it must be the same body and as Job said of his eyes I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see him with these eyes and no other The same eyes For beloved how should it consist with the Justice of God that one body should glutton gormandise and swell with excesse and wallow in sensual pleasures and there should be another body put upon him that should cry out I am tormented in these flames Or for the godly as for example Saint Stephen whose name signifies a Crown that he should suffer Martyrdome for this truth we are now proving the Resurrection and afterwards another body be given unto him which should be clothed with blessednesse which is called the Crown of Righteousness No beloved it is a certain and an infallible truth that it must be disposed according to the Justice of God There 's a statute for it Heb. 1.9 Statutum est c. It is appointed and statuted for all men to dye and after death comes Judgment all men first to dye and then comes Judgment Judgment as sure as death Here is matter of horrour and matter of comfort horrour to the wicked that when that great and general Goal-delivery comes it shall be as it is sometimes at the Assises there are two men in prison and one hath either got his pardon or else he is innocent that none can impeach him and he saith to his fellows I am going before the Judge for deliverance out of prison Another he hath Guilty branded in his forehead and he cryes I am going before the Judge but it is to receive my condemnation and to be delivered over to execution So shall it be in the end of time and in this general Resurrection Then as it is in the Apocalypse the wicked that should appear before the Judge shall cry to the rocks to cover them and the mountains to fall upon them to deliver them from the wrath of the Lamb and yet to them he is a Tyger looking upon their guiltinesse and desperation they call and cry for impossibilities rocks to hide them from the Judge of all Judges and hills to cover them from the God of all Gods But as for the godly they come and say Now is our Redemption at hand for that which concerns redemption and comfort it belongs to them The next consideration is the necessity of the resurrection Now hear how necessary this resurrection is We read of many benefits in the Scripture of God concerning all men by vertue of Christs birth his life his merits his preaching his passion his dying But what if there were no Resurrection The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. Then were our faith in vain Our whole faith were vain if there were not a resurrection we preach in vain And indeed were there no resurrection though the birth of Christ were never so joyous the miracles that he wrought in the world never so miraculous his promises for everlasting life never so gracious his work and price of Redemption never so meritorious yet if there were no resurrection his birth his life his miracles his passion yea his death it self put together the same stone that covered his corpse should cover all those singular infinite benefits But now he is risen this work of the resurrection it is both the perfection and complement of all the Articles that went before so it is also the foundation of all the Articles that come after rising communion sitting at the right hand of God in glory See the necessity of this resurrection and there is also the like necessity laid upon us seeing this resurrection is the vertue of our resurrection So the Apostle to the Colossians tells us That Christ is the Head of the Church and the first begotten of the dead He must have the preeminence he is the first begotten of the dead for he ascended first into Heaven to take possession there 's his preheminence Happy are we if we can come after as we may come for he did not take possession for himself alone but as the head of the whole body he is the first begotten among the dead And this for the comfort of all Be that inseparable union between us and Christ known unto you I do not say in our souls alone but in our bodies also for so the Apostle Eph. 5. We are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Oh beloved when the holy Fathers of the Primitive Church fell upon this Text they were ravished with contemplations thereof to think there was such an individual union between Christ and them even our bodies And this union is more then if there were
a reality of corporation in body and body by the vertue whereof he our head is risen that we may rise again and sooner shall Christ suffer his flesh to be torn from his body then that any one regenerate Christian man shall be separated from him in the resurrection to eternal glory Thus saith the Apostle 1 Thess 4. They shall be alwayes with him Now then thus you see as in the resurrection of Christ himself so in our resurrection although that all our joy in the birth of Christ all our saith in the promises of Christ and in the vertue of his death and all our hope of glory to come it is risen from these words of my Text by the vertue of this He is risen This is the necessity which is the second consideration I spake of and now beloved methinks I hear the voices of prophane men that say What do you tell us of the resurrection of the universality the happinesse or necessity of Christs resurrection before you can shew unto us the possibility thereof This is the next point which I am to handle unto you That it is possible that all shall rise again I prove it from the Text there 's a possibility and thus it stands He is risen if one man be risen from the dead its possible for another that 's dead to rise again Here 's the argument and yet behold there are two adversaries against this argument The one is imaginary and denyeth the consequence the other is peremptory and pernicious and denies the antecedent The consequence is this ergo another man may rise again The imaginary man that reads that Text Thou wilt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption reasons in his fancy not peremptorily not certainly why there is difference betwixt Christs rising and a Christian mans for Christ he is that holy One without sin We sinners for these reasons His body felt no corruption our bodies even putrified unto corruption it self He the holy One he could hallow his own grave so cannot we for we are corrupt These are his fancies now peradventure you may think they deserve no answer not much indeed and yet the answer whatsoever it shall be I hope it shall be pertinent and not unprofitable To the first therefore thus He it is true had no sin he was innocent yea innocency it self Now every one of us whosoever they be that are in the world that will say they are no sinners and have no sin the Apostle Saint John will give him the lye 1 John 1. There is no truth is him He hath no part in Christs resurrection no affinity with him and by nature we are born aliens from him So to consider that he being crucified of men most wickedly desperately cruelly blasphemously handled of sinners any natural man would think now that he is risen Theanthropos God and man He should abhor all men and loath the sight of all sinners and become Misanthropos But behold and marvel how he recollects himself in the behalf of sinners immediately after his resurrection Saint Mark chap. 16. tells us That Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene Note as much as if he should have said he appeared first of all unto one that had been a most notorious sinner she out of whom he had cast seven Devils this deserves a Marginal Note and speaks unto her in a mild compellation Mary that 's for her The Disciples of Christ they forsook him and turned apostates from Christ but did Christ forsake them No In the tenth verse of this Chapter he saith unto them Go and tell them yea they were more then forsakers for among the Disciples there was one Peter he that had vowed above all the rest not to deny Christ yet he disclaimed and disavowed him what 's become of him This Messenger of Christ this Angel saith Go and tell the Disciples and Peter by name lest he might be mist But what shall we say for Thomas message upon message comes unto him We have seen him he is risen Christ comes and gives his blessing to all his Disciples saying Peace be unto you cryes Thomas Thomas come and feel and believe Beloved behold here the mirrour of all mercifulnesse in our Saviour Christ Consider what Christ is An Angel tells us he was therefore called a Saviour because he should save his people from their sins this was in his Passion he dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification So in his Resurrection But now he is above all principalities and powers after his conquest of these principalities and powers when he led Captivity Captive and will he now vouchsafe pardon unto sinners It is his profession If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins The next Exception that was taken to the consequence was this That he was the holy One that saw no corruption but we are corrupt and putrified the best of us all with lying but four dayes in the grave will be little better then Lazarus rotten and stinking Yet notwithstanding remember that Lazarus being dead what Christ said to his Disciples Our brother Lazarus is asleep let us go and wake him So it is with all our corpses though they be turned into dust Lend me your attentions Let us all go to Golgotha the place of dead mens skuls look upon them with the eye of faith as those that will rise in the resurrection among the just But if there be any such here that Saint Peter speaks of saying In the last dayes there shall come scoffers denying the resurrection we may deal with these faithless as Christ with the Fidlers turn them out of our company that we have no conversation with them So that Christ here being the holy One and we his members we shall in the end be holy ones with Christ The last is the hallowing of our Graves and the Apostle saith He is the first-fruits of them that sleep Christ risen and in Heaven he is there but the first-fruits of the dead in behalf of us The first-fruits of them that sleep Alluding to that in the old Law where the Priests were to take sheaves out of the field before they were ripe and to offer them up to God and by oblation of those sheaves all the field of Corn was sanctified to the people So it is here Christ is the first-fruits wheresoever mans body be be it in the ditch or on the dunghill be it in the mawes of birds or beasts all our bodies through him are sanctified unto God So having done with this I come to the Hereticallizer who denies all possibility of resurrection the Antecedent He will stand upon natural reason Now there is two wayes if I were to deal with a Jew I would easily confute him If a Jew I would stand upon the principles of our Saviour Christ in his answer to the Sadduces You erre not knowing Scriptures nor the power of God The