holy men have complain'd of dying daily 1 Cor. 15. 31. of being in deaths often 2 Cor. 11. 23. of being compassed about with death Psal. 18. 4. The wicked have no bands in their death Psal. 73. 4. they are at an agreement with it have as it were hired it not to disquiet them Isa. 28. 15. they put it far from them Amos 6. 3. whereas good men have their souls often drawing nigh to the grave Psal. 88. 3. Dead then here they are 1. Quoad mortis praeludia all the fore-runners and harbingers of death common to them with all others sorrows sicknesses distresses and infirmities of all sorts 2. Quoad vitae exitum they end their days in the same manner as other men the wise man as the fool Eccles. 2. 16. Psalm 49. 10. thus in common good men and bad But godly men 3. Are dead quoad affectus Their affections and meditations are upon death Wicked men feed and fat their lusts fetch out all the sweetness that sin hath in it Whereas holy men mortifie their earthly members crucifie the flesh with affections and lusts are ever dying to sin and the world Rom. 6. 11. 4. They are dead quoad seculum crucified to the world Gal. 6. 14. and therefore hated by it John 15. 19. nothing to be looked for from it but persecution and tribulation John 16. 33. as men have done to the green tree so they will to the dry Luk. 23. 31. suffering belongs to the essence and calling of Christians 1 Pet. 2. 21. they are hereunto appointed 1 Thes. 3. 3. They are in his sense properly Mortui tui the Lords dead men for worldlings are not sufferers by calling and profession as true Christians are They are not in trouble as other men Psalme 73. 5. Job 21. 7 13. II. From Mortui tui it proceeds to Cadaver meum and such they are not onely by dissolution after death but by condition before it used like a dead carcasse exposed to contempt and dishonour as the refuse and off-scouring of men Lam. 31. 45. 1 Cor. 4. 13. troden under foot Isa. 63. 18. had in derision Jer. 20. 8. filled with contempt Psal. 123. 3. made as the ground and as the street for proud men to go over Isa. 51. 23. thus the righteous is an abomination to the wicked they loath him as a man would do a dead carcasse Prov. 29. 27. III. From dishonour they proceed to a kinde of despaire They are Habitatores pulveris they dwell in the dust they are not onely dust by constitution Gen. 3. 19. and by dissolution making the Grave their House and their bed in darknesse Job 17. 13. but further by estimation they judge so of themselves abhorring themselves and putting their mouths in the dust Job 42. 6. Lam. 3. 29. they are valued so by others Isa. 10. 6. as the mire of the streets This is the sad condition of the Church sometimes in this world under persecution and captivity so they were in Babylon as dead bones in a grave Ezek. 37. 11 12. By all which we learn what to look for in the world when we give our names to God The usage not onely of strangers and enemies but even of dead carcasses to be buried in contempt and dishonour The way to life lies through the countrey of death as the way to Canaan through a sea and a wilderness no scorns no graves must deter us from a godly life if ever we hope for a blessed resurrection Neither may we think it strange when we meet with troubles in the world which are but the preludes and prefaces unto death nor when one evil is over may we sing a requiem to our souls as if all were passed but look for vicissitudes and successions of sorrow for clouds after rain till we are landed in the Countrey of death And since our tenure in this world is so obnoxious both to encumbrance and uncertainty we should die to the world while we are in it as those who are very shortly to be translated from it and having no abiding station here be careful to look after that City which hath foundations and so to acquaint our selves before hand with death by meditation on it and preparation for it that it may not come as a messenger of wrath but as an Harbinger of glory that in our death we may be Mortui tui The Lords dead men and prisoners of Hope the Spirit of Christ in us being the earnest and seed of a Resurrection unto life We have considered the sad condition of the Church expressed by our Prophet in that Emphatical Climax Dead men a Carcasse Inhabiters of the dust Let us next take a view of the mercy of God in her deliverance a deliverance not onely commensurate to her troubles but victorious over them dead indeed but she shall live a carcasse but she shall arise asleep but she shall awake in the dust but she shall sing So there is mercy fully answerable to the misery no temptation without an issue no calamity without an escape 1. Vivent Mortui or as others read it Vivant True both They do live They shall live They have life in death and that life shall work them out of death 1. They do live in death Wicked men are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. dead in Law under the sentence of the curse as Adam was legally dead by guilt and obnoxiousness the same day that he did eat the forbidden fruit Dead in conscience under the pain of that sentence and under the bondage of deserved and denounced wrath Heb. 2. 15. Heb. 10. 27. dead in sin under the power of Lust Eph 2. 1. Psal. 14. 3. their throats Sepulchres full of rotten words Rom. 3. 13. their hearts Sepulchres full of unclean affections Matth. 23. 27 28. their lives Sepulchres full of dead works Heb. 6. 1. But mortui tui the Lords dead men live even in the Kingdome and Country of Death 1. They live in praeludiis mortis in all the forerunners of death in the greatest calamities they bear up their hearts in the favour of God which is better then life Psal. 63. 3. 2 Cor. 6. 9. In these things all these things we are Conquerours more then Conquerours Rom. 8. 37. 2. They live in Regno mortis in the Kingdome and Country of death when death hath possession of them they live still you are dead and your life is hid Col. 3. 3. The death of a Christian is not the taking away of life but the laying up of life as a Parent takes the Childs money and keeps it for him He that believeth shall live though he die John 11. 25. As Abel being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Yea their very bodies though dead to them do live to God for he is the God of the living Mat. 22. 32. therefore the Jews call their burying places Domus Viventium 1. They live in the Promise and Power of God Mat. 22. 29. 2. They live
in the Life of Christ their Head whether we wake or sleep we live together with him 1 Thes. 5. 10. as we are risen with him and sit with him in heaven Col. 3. 1. Eph. 2. 6. 3. They live in the Seed of the Spirit of Holiness whose Temples they are which is in them a pledge and seminal virtue of Resurrection Rom. 8. 11. compared with 1 Cor. 3. 16. 6. 19. In which respect the Apostle compareth the bodies of the faithful unto Seed I Cor. 15. 42. to note that by the Inhabitation and Sanctification of the Spirit there is a vital virtue in the body to spring up and awake again Thus even in the state of death we have vitam Absconditam Col. 3. 3. hidden out of our sight and sense as seed in the Furrow as a jewel in the Cabinet as an Orphans estate in the hand of his Guardian hidden with Christ the first fruits and in God the Author and Fountain of Life Thus vivunt they do live And further vivent they shall live for our life in Christ is not a decaying but a growing and abounding life Joh. 10. 10 therefore it will break forth into the similitude of Christs glorious Body in whom it is hid as the Corn groweth into the likeness of that seed wherein it was originally and virtually contained Joh. 12. 24. Col. 3. 4. Phil. 3. 21. 1 Joh. 3. 2 3. Of natural life we cannot say I live and I shall live for natural life runs into death as Jordan into the dead Sea But of Christian life we may say I live and I shall live it is a life which runs into life though through the way of death as the waters of the Caspian Sea are said through subterraneous passages to have communion with the great Ocean It comes from heaven Christ the Fountain and Center of it and it goes back unto heaven As a piece of earth falls to the whole earth so every piece of heaven will find the way to its whole 2. Resurgent With my dead body they shall arise their life shall be given them for their advancement wicked men shall live again that they may dye again and shall rise ut lapsu graviore ruant that they may be thrown deeper Pharoahs Butler and Baker came both out of prison the one to his office the other to dishonor the one to be advanced the other to be executed So mortui tui and mortui seculi shall both come out of their graves the one from a prison to a Furnace the other from a prison to a Palace In which respect Believers only are called children of the Resurrection Luke 20. 36. It is a Resurrection of life to the one of condemnation to the other Joh. 5. 29. And therefore to distinguish them from the other it is added 3. Expergiscimini They shall awake as a man refreshed with sleep which puts a great difference beâ—ween the deaths and Resurrections of the godly and the wicked 1. The death of the godly is but asleep 1. In regard of the seeds of life abiding in them A man in sleep ceaseth from the acts of sense but the faculties he retaineth still So an holy man though he lose in death the acts of life yet the seed and root he hath not lost he lives to God still 2. In regard of his weariness of the world and fulness of dayes A man wearied with labour lies down willingly to rest Abraham dâ—ed full of dayes he was satiated and desired no more Gen. 25. 8. the Apostle had enough of the world when he desired to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. whereas a wicked man how old soever is not said to die full of years or satisfied with life He may be loaded but not replenished he knows not whither he is going and therefore he would fain stay in the world still But it may be said Have not wicked men brought death upon themselves as Achitophel Saul Judas and godly men been sometimes unwilling to die as Hezekiah Isai. 38. 1 2. True both yet neither the one out of the love of death nor the other out of love of the world wicked men are impatient of present anguish and inconsiderate touching future terrours and therefore rush upon the one to avoid the other But godly men are weary of the body of sin and believe the favour of God and glory of Christs presence and that makes them desire to depart and to be with him Nor did Hezekiah decline death out of a servile fear being able to plead unto God his uprightness but out oâ— a desire to live to compleat the Reformation of the Church which he had begun and that he might have a Successor to derive the Line of the Royal Seed unto So then death to the godly is but a sleep in regard of the rest it giveth them Rev. 14. 13. from sins fâ—om sorrows from labours from enemies from temptations from fear from evils to come and therefore Job calls the grave his bed Job 17. 13. and so the Prophet They shall lye down in their beds Isa. 57. 2. 2. This awaking makes a great difference between the Resurrection of the godly and the wicked the one riseth refreshed as sleep repaireth the decays of Nature so that a man riseth vigorous and recruited therefore the time of the Resurrection is called the time of refreshing and of restitution of all things Acts 3. 19 21. The other riseth affrighted as a man awakened with a Thunder-clap or whose house is in a flame about him the one awakes to his work the other to his Judgement it is morning and everlasting day to the one it is horrour and darkness to the other and therefore it is added 4. Cantate when they awake they shall sing as David when he awaked calls on his Lute and Harp to awake with him Psal. 57. 8. In their graves at Bobylon they hung their Harps on the Willows no musick then Psal. 137. 3. but they go out of their graves as Israel out of the Red Sea with Victory and Triumph over Death and Hell and so shall sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb. Dust and Ashes in the Scripture phrase are ceremonies of mourning Job 2. 12. Mic. 1. 10. but here they who inhabit the dust are called upon to put off their prison garments and to shake themselves from their dust Isai. 52. 1 2. to awake unto singing and triumph when they awake they are satisfied Psalm 17. 15. Thus we see the deliverance of the Church is fully as large as their distress From all which we learn 1. The true cause why Death and the calamities leading thereunto do still remain after Christs Victory over them to wit 1 To exercise our Faith and Hope in Gods Promises for the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14. 32. 2 to conform us unto Christ as well in the way to life as in the end 1 Pet. 4. 13. 3 To wean us from the love of the
world which both useth us ill and passeth away 1 John 2. 15 17. John 15. 19. 4 To encrease our desires of glory that we may with good Jacob wait for the salvation of the Lord Gen. 49. 18. 5 To commend our love to Christ which makes us willing to be dissolved that we may go to him as a stone is contented to be broken in moving towards its center Phil. 1. 23. 6 To commend the power of Righteousness which is not afraid of the King of Terrours nor to go to Christ though there be a Lion in the way Act. 21. 13. Rom. 8. 35-37 7 To shew the sweetness and virtue of the Death of Christ which makes a Bed of a Grave an Antidote of a Serpent hath brought sweetness out of the strong and meat out of the Eater hath bound Death with her own Grave Cloaths and set a Guard of Angels over the bodies of the Saints hath rolled away the heavy stâ—ne from the graves of his people and made it a place of ease and refreshment hath made our Graves like a Garden that our bodies like herbs might spring out again hath slain Death as Benaiah did the Lion in its own pit and hath made it sick of the bodies of his people and travel in pain like a woman with-Child till at last it be delivered of them 2 We should by Faith and Hope in this Doctrine comfort our selves against all other calamities and incourage our selves against Death it self which is but a depositary and shall be an accomptant unto God for every member of his Church though it hath swallowed them as the Whale did Jonah it shall cast them up again though to the wicked it be a Trap-door which lets them down to Hell and so keeps them in the midst of laughter sorrowful in the midst of plenty and pleasures fearful in the midst of hope doubtful when they remember the dayes of darkness for they be many and the dayes of torment for they be more Yet to Believers it is a Bed a Rest a Sleep a Friend when it shuts the door between us and the world it opens a door between us and heaven Pardon of sin and peace with God makes us bold to play with the hole of the Asp and with the Cocatrice den Isai. 11. 8. We have thus far considered the Church as dead buried in the dust as quickned raised awakened delighted in God We are III. To take a view of the causes of this deliverance which are 1 Dispositive in regard of the Subject 2 Efficient in regard of the Author The dispositive causes qualifying the Subject for this deliverance are in the two Pronowns Tui and Meum thy dead men my dead body These mercies are not promised generally unto all dead men but unto the Lords dead men whom he hath chosen and formed for himself Psalm 4. 3. Isai. 43. 21. If he say thou art mine neither water nor fire nor East West North South Egypt Ethiopia nor any other Enemy shall keep us back from him Isai. 43. 1 2 6. 1. His we must be if we will not be lost in death 1 His by Consanguinity for Christ having taken upon him the Nature of Adam and the Seed of Abraham and so vouchsafing to call Believers Brethren Heb. 2. 11. by that means God is become our Father John 20. 17. and therefore in the deluge of desolation he will bring us into his Ark as Rahab when she was delivered her self called together her Kindred to share therein with her Josh. 6. 23. 2 His by purchase there was a dear and precious price paid for us we were bought with no less a price then the Blood of God Act. 20. 28. and therefore he will vindicate his Claim and Title unto us no man will lose what he hath paid for if he be able to rescue and recover it out of the hands of unjust possessors Christ having bought us Death shall not with-hold us from him the Redeemed of the Lord shall return Isai. 51. 11. 3 His by Covenant thy Maker is thy Husband Isai. 54. 5. and being married to her he will make her return Jer. 3. 14. Any loving Husband would fetch back his Wife from the Dead if he were able to do it 4 His by Dedication Inhabitation Consecration as a Temple 1 Cor. 6. 19. If Death destroy his Temple he will raise it up again John 2. 19. The Spirit that dwelleth in us will quicken our mortal bodies Rom. 8. 11. 2 His dead men we must be we must dye to sin because he died for it we must kill that which killed Christ we must be dead unto sin if we will live unto God Rom. 6. 11. His dead men his perseverantly until death Rev. 2. 10. His patiently even unto death Heb. 10. 36. Nothing must separate us from his love His ultimately whether we live we must live to the Lord or whether we die we must die unto the Lord Rom. 14. 8. that he may be glorified in our mortal bodies by life or by death Phil. 1. 20. And being thus His dead men 1 We are sure Death comes not but with a Commission from him his providence sendeth it his power restraineth it his love and wisdome guideth and ordereth it to our good it is his Officer it shall touch us no further then he gives it authority John 19. 11. He hath muzled and chained it he saith to Death as to Satan concerning Job He is in thine hand but touch not his Soul meddle not with his Conscience or with his Peace and for his Body thou shalt but keep it thou shalt not destroy it thou shalt be accomptable for every piece of it again 2. Being His dead men he hath alwayes an eye of compassion upon us our sorrows and sufferings he esteems his own Isai. 63. 9. Col. 1. 24. Act. 9. 4. and if they be his he will certainly save us from them and conquer them as well in us as in himself for unto him belong the issues from death Psalm 68 20. 3 As ever therefore we look for blessedness in death or deliverance from it we must labour both living and dying to be the Lords that he may own us when the world hath cast us out that we may be precious in his sight when we are loathsome to the world jewels to him when dung to men that our Graves may not only have worms in them to consume us but Angels to guard us If we die in our sins and be Satans dead men we shall never rise with comfort rottenness will feed not on our bodies only but on our names we shall have worms in our consciences as well as in our carcasses But when we can say Lord I am thine thou art mine we may thence infer we shall not dye Hab. 1. 12. We have a life which death cannot reach Col. 3. 3. this therefore must be our special care to be Mortui tui to dye to the Lord to fall asleep in Christ 1 Cor. 15. 18. that
THE CHVRCHES TRIVMPH OVER DEATH Opend in a SERMON Preached Septemb. 11. 1660. at the Funeral of the most Religious and ver tuous Lady The Lady MARY LANGHAM By EDWARD REYNOLDS D. D. now Bishop of NORWICH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 55. LONDON Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe for John Baker at the sign of the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1662. To his ever Honoured and most worthy Friend Sir James Langham K. SIR IT hath not been without a special providence of God that this Sermon preached above a year and an half since at the Funeral of your most religious Lady should now by your earnest desire come abroad unto publick view For hereby a just Accompt is given to the world of those deep and permanent Impressions of Love Sorroâ— and Honour which the memory of so matchless a Consort have made upon your soul when a wound so long since inflicted doth not yet cease to bleed afresh upon the continually recurring thoughts of so inestimable a loss I have read in the Civil Law That if a woman married again before the expiration of ten moneths after the death of her former Husband she did Subire maculam Infamiae But after such a space of time it was presumed she might overcome the pressures of so great a sorrow and yet still retain her Honour You have passed over double that time and yet not at all out of an unmanly softness but out of a just and most judicious esteem of those eminent graces which did so beautifie the soul and perfume the name of that excellent Lady you do not without redoubled Honour often resume the view and sense of that divine stroak whereby you were deprived of so unvaluable a Treasure Nor am I my self without a special Advantage acrewing unto me by this Publication having so good an opportunity to let the world know that great debt of Honour Love and Thankfulness wherein I stand bound to your noble Father your self and all the branches of that worthy Family for those many Favours those real and great bounties which ever since I have had the Honour of an acquaintance with you have been and yet are enmulated upon me I have no other way of paying back the Tribute which I ow to you all then by beseeching the God of Grace to make all his Grace abound towards you all and plentifully to supply you with the choicest â—f his heavenly Treasures according to his Riches in Glory by Jesus Christ which is the unfained prayer of Your most faithful Friend And Humble Servant Ed. Norvic THE CHURCHES TRIUMPH OVER DEATH ISAIAH XXVI 18 19. We have been with child we have been in pain we have as it were brought forth wind we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead THe holy Prophet having in the foregoing Chapter set forth many gracious Evangelical promises doth here in this celebrate them with a song of solemn and publick thanksgiving blessing the Lord for his salvation to his Church and his severity against the enemies thereof Whereupon we find the Church entertaining many holy Resolutions as fruits and expressions of that her joy She resoves to trust in the Lord for ever in regard of his strength and fidelity towards his people and of his power and jealousie against their enemies ver 4 5 6 7. She resolves to wait upon God in the midst of judgements upon the remembrance of that Name of his whereby he made himself known to his people in Egypt Exod. 34 6 7. as a God able to give being to every promise and by his truth and power to performe what his mercy had covenanted to do for her Micah 7. 20. ver 8 9 12. And this confident waiting upon God in trouble is commended ab opposito by the contrary disposition of wicked men whom favours and mercies cannot perswade to learn righteousness ver 10 11. She resolves to submit to Gods fatherly Government alone and to renounce all other usurping and tyrannical Lords who had exercised domination over her in reregard of Gods judgements executed on them and his mercies renued to his people v. 13 14 15. She resolves to poure out her prayer unto God in the midst of all present troubles acknowledging her own impotency and the miscarriage of all her own carnal counsels and contrivances and thereupon trusting no longer in her self but in God which raiseth the dead ver 16 17 18 19. Lastly after all these pious dispositions and noble resolves she concludeth her song with a triumphal Epinicion and insultation over all her enemies and with an assurance that as they should die and not live fall and not rise their persons and their memories should perish ver 14. so she should live and rise and sing and flourish as the herbs buried in the Earth when the dew of Heaven falls on them to refresh them ver 19. Some refer the words to the Babylonian Captivity wherein they were as dead bones in a grave Ezek. 37. 11 12. without any strength wisdome or visible hope of being ever delivered Some to the afflicted state of the Church under the Gospel and the Rest or Sabbath which the Lord would give them at the last out of all their labours and sufferings Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 20. 2. Some to the last Resurrection and the faith of the Church touching that And there is nothing more usual then for the Church and holy men therein to support their hearts above their incumbent afflictions and to secure to themselves the comfort of promised deliverance notwithstanding all the seeming improbabilities thereof by the general doctrine of the Resurrection See Job 19. 25 26 27. Isa. 66. 14. Hos. 6. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 9. Whatever was the particular state of the the Church then certain it is that in the general the words extend to the Resurrection of the faithful and are so interpreted by the Ancients Irenaeus Tertul. Hierom Cyril Augustine and by learned moderns Expositors The sore affliction here of the Church is compared to the pangs of a woman in travel who earnestly cryeth out and striveth to be delivered a frequent allusion to expresse any exquisite pain by Isa. 13. 8. Jer. 13. 21. She had in this her sore distresse cryed with strong groans and cryes unto God to be delivered but all in vain she brought forth nothing but wind pain without profit Jer. 12. 13. Wind is an usual expression whereby the Scripture describeth frustraneous events Jer. 5. 13. Hos. 8. 7. 12. 1. the womb of the Church miscarried and brought forth flatum pro faetu they looked for salvation and deliverance but they were totally disapointed they had the pains of a travelling woman but not the comfort of a child born John
that shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. 6. Proportioned to our need 1 Pet. 1. 6. and to our strength 1 Cor. 10. 13. If we will come to glory we must go the same way unto it as Christ did the way of holinesse and the way of sufferings Act. 14. 22. and surely if there be enough in a womans child to recompence the pains of her travel John 16. 21. There will certainly be enough in the glory to come to recompence all our pains either in our obedience or in our afflictions II. We might here note That even Gods own servants in time of trouble calamity are very apt to betake themselves to their own conceptions and contrivances for deliverance they are big oftentimes with their own counsels and in pain tobring forth and execute their own projections in order to the freeing of themselves from trouble Abraham when he was afraid of Pharaoh and Abimelech dissembled his relation unto Sarah David fearing Achish the King of Gath fained himself mad 1 Sam. 21. 11 12 13. when he feared the discovery of his adultery he gave order for the killing of Uriah 2 Sam. 11. 15. one sin is the womb of another When Asa was in danger from Baasha King of Israel he bought his peace with the spoils of the Temple 2 Chron. 16. 1 2. when Jonah was afraid of preaching destruction to Ninive he fled unto Tarshish from the presence and service of the Lord Jonah 1. 3. when Peter was afraid of suffering with Christ he flies to that woful Sanctuary of denying and forswearing him Mat. 26. 69 74. thus the fear of man causeth a snare Prov. 29. 25. This therefore is a necessary duty in time of fear and danger to look up as the Church here after disappointment by other refuges doth with a victorious and triumphant faith unto God and to make him onely our fear and our dread not to trust in fraud and perversenesse or to betake our selves unto a refuge of lies Isa. 30. 12. 28. 15. but to build our confidence upon that sure foundation on the which he that believeth shall not need make hast If we lean not upon our own understanding nor be wise in our own eyes but in all our ways acknowledge him and trust in him and fear him and depart from evil we have this gracious promise that he will direct our paths Prov. 3. 5 7. the more we deny our selves the more is he engaged to help us But when we travel with our own conceptions and will needs be the contrivers of our own deliverance it cannot be wondred if the Lord turn our devices into vanity and make our belly prepare wind and deceit Job 15. 35. as it here followeth We have brought forth wind we have not wrought any deliverance all our endeavours have been vain and succeslesse III. Carnal Counsels and humane contrivances are usually carried on with pain and end in disappointment and do obstruct the progress and execution of Gods promises unto us If we would go on in Gods way and use the means which he hath directed and build our faith and hope upon his promises we have then his Word to secure us his Spirit to strengthen us his Grace to assist us his Power and fidelity to comfort us we have him engaged to work our works for us and his Angels to bear us in our Wayes But when we seek out diverticles and inventions of our own when we will walk in the light of our fire and in the sparks which we have kindled Isa. 50. 11. and be wise in our own conceit Rom. 12. 16. and walk after our own thoughts Isa. 65. 2. no wonder if we be disappointed and made ashamed of our own counsels Hos. 10. 6. when we sow the wind it is not strange if we reap the whirle-winde Hos. 8. 7. And therefore it is our wisdom to cease from our own wisdom as the wise man exhorteth Prov. 23. 4. in as much as the Lord hath pronounced a curse upon those that are prudent in their own sight Isa. 5. 21. whom usually he disappointeth Job 5. 12. We have considered the Churches complaint her anguish her disappointment Now in her Triumph we are first to view her deliverance and then the causes of it In the deliverance is a Gradation both in the misery from which and in the condition unto which they are restored For the former 1. It extends unto dead men whom to quicken exceeds the power of nature But we do not use to give men over and lay them out for dead as soon as their breath fails them some diseases look like death therefore the deliverance goes further unto Cadaver meum my carkasse which the remainders of vital heat have forsaken laid out carried away severed from the living hastning to putrefaction But death makes yet a further progresse this carcasse must be had out of sight lodged in the bowels of the earth and there dissolved into dust his house must know him no more Job 7. 10. and yet even here when death hath carried a man to the end of his journey and landed him in its own dominion so far shall the deliverance extend The Damsel whom Christ raised was mortua though yet in the house amongst the living Mark 5. 35. The widows son gone a little further into the Region of death coffin'd up laid on the Biere carried out from the House a Carcasse Luke 7. 14. Lazarus in deaths den Inhabitator pulveris as far as death could carry him yet raised up John 11. 38 44. so there is a gradation in the Terminus à quo of this deliverance There is likewise a gradation in the Terminus ad quem the condition unto which they are restored 1. They shall Live and this is a favour though one stay in prison 2. They shall Rise their life shal be to an exaltation the wicked shall live again but it shall be to die again but these dead shall live and rise their life shall be an advancement to them 3. They shall Awake like a man out of sleep refreshed and comforted Psal. 17. 15. 4. They shall sing as victors over the grave never to return thither more So we have here 1. The sad condition of the Church 2. The great mercy and power of God to them in that condition Their sad condition in the former of these two gradations 1. They are dead men in a condition of death their whole life a conflict with mortality And though this be not a calamity peculiar to them for death feedeth equally upon all and though there be a great alleviation in their being Mortui tui The Lords dead men yet in some respects we finde the weight of mortality on the Churches side Wicked men meet many times with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live in pleasure and then die in ease spend their days in wealth and jollity in vanity and folly and go suddenly to the grave die onely once and together Job 21. 13. whereas
when he comes we may be found in him and so may be ever with him 1 Thes. 4. 17. This is the first qualification of the Subject for deliverance to be Mortui tui the Lords dead men 2. The next is that it is Cadaver meum 1 Mine as the words of Christ being my body they shall surely rise 2 Mine as the words of the Church Every member of my dead body shall rise in the unity of the whole 1 Then my dead body being members of an Head that lives for ever and hath the Keys of Hell and the Grave shall certainly rise His life is the Foundation of ours Because I live ye shall live also John 14. 19. If death had held him it would much more have held us But because in him the Mercies of David are sure therefore his Resurrection is an assurance of ours Act. 13. 34. Christ will not be incompleat and the Church is his fulness Eph. 1. 23. The feet under water are safe when the Head is above it Christ is said to be the first that rose from the dead Act. 26. 23. the first begotten the first born from the dead Rev. 1. 5. Col. 1. 18. For though some were raised before him yet not without him but by the Fellowship of his Resurrection As though light rise before the Sun yet it doth not rise but from the Sun The Mace goes before the Magistrate but it doth so only in attendance upon him He the only Conquerour of Death and as the first fruits did sanctifie the whole Mass Rom. 11. 16. so Christ by his Resurrection did consecrate all such as dye in the Lord to be a kind of first fruits and first born Jam. 1. 18. Heb. 12. 23. and therefore it is said that they shall rise first 1 Thes. 4. 16. His Resurrection is unto all his members 1 Arrha a pledge and earnest of theirs He having paid our debt death cannot detain us in prison for it His Resurrection hath justified us against the claim of death and will glorifie us against the power of death What he did purchase by the merit of his death is made applicable to us by the power of his Resurrection Rom. 8. 34. 2 Exemplar His the pattern of ours He taken not only from prison but from judgement death had no more to do with him Isal. 53. 8. Rom. 6. 9. In like manner we shall rise Victors over death never any more to be subject unto it This the Apostle calleth the Image of the Heavenly Adam 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. 3 Primitiae The beginning of the future Resurrection for he rose not barely in a personal but in a publick capacity though it were a damnable Heresie of Hymeneus that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2. 18. yet it is a truth to say that it is begun He first then we at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 23. By what is past in the Head we are assured of what is expected in his Members 2 All the particular Members of the Church shall rise in the unity of one body as mystically joyned unto one Head and as one Family Eph. 3. 15. and all one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. not barely the persons singly considered but as a Church and Body shall rise 1 Then be careful to be found in Christ at his coming for though all men shall rise yet with a great difference The wicked potestate judicis as malefactors are brought out of prison to the Judge to be condemned The godly virtute capitis the life of Christ shall be manifested in their bodies 2 Cor. 4. 10. 2 A Christian must not onely believe Thy dead men shall live but furth 1 My dead body shall arise too Herein is the Life of Faith in bringing down general promises to our own particular cases interests and comforts 2 Cor. 4. 13 14. Joh. 20. 28. Gal. 2. 20. 3 Since we shall all rise as one we should all live as one As we have all one Head one Spirit one Faith one Hope one Inheritance one common salvation so we should have one heart and one soul Act. 4. 32. Love as brethren have the same care as fellow members one of another weep with them that weep rejoyce with them that rejoyce That our life of faith on earth may in some measure expresse our life of vision in heaven and since we shall agree there not to fall our in our way thither Eph. 4 1. 6. Phil. 2. 1 2 3. Col. 3. 12 13. And thus much of the dispositive cause qualifying the subject of this deliverance 2 The Efficient follows The word and command of God being like dew to the tender herbs to revive them when they seem dead Whence we observe 1 The facility of the last Resurrection in regard of God to whom miracles are as easie as natural operations A Miracle being nothing but a new creation It is as impossible to us to cause raine as to raise a dead body He therefore who we see doth cause the one we may believe on his word that he will the other We finde Raine and dew used as Arguments to prove the omnipotency and greatnesse of God Psal. 147. 5 8. Job 5. 9 10. ler. 14. 22. Zach. 10. 1. And this teacheth us a very useful point to observe the wisdome and power of God in the Ordinances of heaven and course of nature and from thence to argue for the setling of our faith in such things as exceed the course of nature for there is no lesse omnipotency required to govern natural causes then to work those that are supernatural He therfore that keepeth his Law and sheweth his power in the one will do so in the other too The Lord strengthneth our faith by the consideration of natural things the bow in the clouds Gen. 9. 12. Isa. 54. 9. the stability of the mountains Isa. 54. 10. the multitude of starres Gen. 15. 5. the highth of the heavens Psal. 103 11. the beauty of the Lilies Mat. 6. 28 30. the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars ler. 31. 35 36. the Covenant of Day and Night ler. 33. 20 21. Thus the Lord teacheth us to make use of the rudiments of nature to confirme our faith in him I go quietly to bed and am not frighted with the horror of the night I know the day will return It is Gods Covenant I put my seed into the ground in the Winter I know it will grow into an harvest the Sun will return it is Gods Covenant And why should I not trust him as well in his Covenant of Grace as of Nature why should I not believe that that power which quickens dead corn can quicken dead men and can provide as well for my salvation as for my nature The truth is all unbelief doth secretly question the power of God Things past and present all can believe because they are seen But things promised when they pose reason and transcend the course of natural causes and the contrivances and projections