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A64132 A sermon preached in Christs-Church, Dublin, July 16, 1663, at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland with a succint narrative of his whole life / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1663 (1663) Wing T396; ESTC R11878 29,244 70

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or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other then this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every Man in his own order First Christ and then Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christ's why there is an order for them too First they that are Christ's and then they that are not his Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection then taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approch and the heat to warm the body he reviv'd and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames call'd out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be He onely was restor'd from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their graves that they may go into hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his grones and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy garland scatters the heavy cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be called upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater then the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder then the grones of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnon These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the holy Jesus They are Gods words and Gods decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this that beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For i● it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God then for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle But he that hath risen once may rise again and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again and die for ever But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith shall according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah Enter into his chamber of death when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him and there he shall be hidden for a little moment But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing with Christs dead body shall they arise all shall rise but every man in his own order Christ the first fruits then they that are Christs at his coming Amen I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must ●wice exuere hominem put off the Old man and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave it is Vinum Myrrhatum there is Myrrhe put into our Wine it is wholsom but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation But no man can escape it After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a
children and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation for that must be done too every man in his own order first Christ then Christs servants and at last Christs enemies The first of these is the great ground of our faith the second is the consummation of all our hopes the first is the foundation of God that stands sure the second is that superstructure that shall never perish by the first we believe in God unto righteousness by the second we live in God unto salvation But the third for that also is true must be consider'd is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly But in the whole Christs Resurrection and ours is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Christian that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and the same for ever so may we in Christ become in the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better then yesterday in our natural life the same body and the same soul tied together in the same essential union with this onely difference that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature whereby we shall no more be changed but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever Of these I shall discourse in order 1. That Christ who is the first fruits is the first in this order he is already risen from the dead 2. We shall all take our turns we shall all die and as sure as death we shall all rise again And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self That Christ is first risen is the demonstration and certainty of ours for because there is an order in this oeconomy the first in the kind is the measure of the rest If Christ be the first fruits we are the whole vintage and we shall all die in the order of Nature and shall rise again in the order of Christ They that are Christ's and are found so at his coming shall partake of his resurrection But Christ first then they that are Christ's that 's the order 1. Christ is the first fruits he is already risen from the dead For he alone could not be held by death Free among the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death was Sins eldest daughter and the Grave-clothes were her first mantle but Christ was conquerour over both and came to take that away and to disarm this This was a glory fit for the head of mankind but it was too great and too good to be easily believ'd by incredulous and weak-hearted Man It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer But what 's that to us who saw it not Yes very much Valde dubitatum est ab illis ne dubitaretur à nobis saith S. Augustine They doubted very much that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more Mary Magdalene saw him first and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord and that he was risen from the dead but they believed her not After that divers women together saw him and they told it but had no thanks for their pains and obtain'd no credit among the Disciples The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him talk'd with him eat with him and they ran and told it they told true but no body believ'd them Then S. Peter saw him but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church they did not think him infallible and so they believ'd him not at all Five times in one day he appear'd for after all this he appear'd to the Eleven they were indeed transported with joy and wonder but they would scarce believe their own eyes and though they saw him they doubted Well all this was not enough he was seen also of Iames and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand into his side and appeared to S. Paul and was seen by five hundred brethren at once So that there is no capacity of mankind no time no place but had an ocular demonstration of his Resurrection He appeared to Men and Women to the Clergy and the Laity to sinners of both sexes to weak men and to criminals to doubters and deniers at home and abroad in publick and in private in their houses and their journeys unexpected and by appointment betimes in the morning and late at night to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion when they did look for him and when they did not he appeared upon earth to many and to S. Paul and S. Stephen from heaven So that we can require no greater testimony then all these are able to give us and they saw for themselves and for us too that the Faith and certainty of the Resurrection of Iesus might be conveyed to all that shall die and follow Christ in their own order Now this being matter of fact cannot be suppos'd infinite but limited to time and place and therefore to be prov'd by them who at that time were upon the place good men and true simple and yet losers by the bargain many and united confident and constant preaching it all their life and stoutly maintaining it at their death Men that would not deceive others and Men that could not be deceiv'd themselves in a matter so notorious and so prov'd and so seen and if this be not sufficient credibility in a matter of Fact as this was then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us no Records kept no Acts of Courts no narratives of the dayes of old no traditions of our Fathers no memorials of them in the third generation Nay if from these we have not sufficient causes and arguments of Faith how shall we be able to know the will of Heaven upon Earth unless God do not only tell it once but alwayes and not only alwayes to some Men but alwayes to all Men for if some Men must believe others they can never do it in any thing more reasonably than in this and if we may not trust them in this then without a perpetual miracle no Man could have Faith for Faith could never come by hearing by nothing but by seeing But if there be any use of History any Faith in Men any honesty in manners any truth in humane entercourse if there be any use of Apostles or Teachers of Embassadors or Letters of ears or hearing if there be any such thing as the Grace of Faith that is less than demonstration or intuition then we may be as sure that Christ the first Fruits is already risen as all these credibilities can make us But let us take heed as God hates a lie so he hates incredulity an obstinate a foolish and pertinacious understanding What we do every minute of our lives in matters of title and great concernment if we refuse to