have seen that which your hands have handled that we declare unto you c. He laies the faith of Christ on this foundation hearing seeing handling Here again I am justly occasioned to deal with the Church of Rome by this light to dispel the darknesse thereof that their great infatuation concerning the body of Christ they say he is in the Sacrament in these three opinions First he is here say they and yet his body is invisible Secondly it is here impalpable And lastly 't is in Heaven both visible and palpable It is here invisible impalpable and yet it is in Heaven both visible and palpable three monsters which are now to be expulsed not by the strength of my wit but by the authority of this Angel here speaking from Christ here spoken of from tâ—â— Church of Christ their whole voice for a general union for this the Angel in the next words even in this Text this verse he saith unto the women Come and see Come and see where they laid the Lord. I say he is not here I will prove it unto you demonstrate it unto your sight let your sight be Judge the arbitration of your sight shall satisfie you Come and see he is not here though they laid him here he is not here here is the argument of the Angel But here they will tell us he passed by men out of company to avoid danger and they saw him not This is truth but this is not all the truth for the reason why they saw him not it was because their eyes were held that they could not see How many of you now see this Pulpit and yet wink with your eyes you cannot see it Is this Pulpit ere the lesse visible because you do not see it When mens eyes are held they cannot see Christs body notwithstanding was visible still to be seen And now to confirm this that I have said unto you St. John himself shall make it good There was one of the Disciples saith he John 20. and he speaks of himself the other Disciple he looked into the sepulchre and he saw the linnen clothes he saw not Christ there present and what doth he but resolve and beleeve that he was risen out of the grave And indeed it had been a mockery of these women for the Angel if their eyes being held to bid them to see without their sight Therefore you have the first point concerning this sense of Seeing sufficiently demonstrated unto you Come to our Saviour Christ As the Angel said to the woman Come and see so Christ he said to his Disciples Come and feel feel I am I this body is mine feel my body search the wounds c. So that now Christ makes this truth even palpable unto them that they may have their faith from the vertue of their own fingers This is the doctrine of Christ the body of Christ is palpably to be seen Come unto our faith the Councel of Ephesus one of the first Councels in the Christian world for the humane nature of Christ resolves thus Corpus Christi est visibile palpabile ubicunque fuerit The body of Christ it is visible and tractable wheresoever it is therefore may we come now to our resolution and conclude that the body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Masse you say it is invisible I say then it is not the body of Christ Do you say it is impalpable it is not the body of Christ Do you say also it is both visible and invisible I return to the Fathers and they say thus This is say they sottish Why you may as well say that the same body of Christ can be finite and infinite it can be created and not created at once which the distinction of places can never reconcile Oh but say they unto us this is natural reason this is reasoning like Ethnicks and Pagans Nay we have the Authority which is the Authority of the Catholick Church we have the Authority Angelical we have not onely the Authority Evangelical but of Christ himself He is not here c. Thus I have shewn that he is palpable wheresoever he be Now the evidence being thus plain let us ascend a little higher to know that what if some should say that notwithstanding these evidences I doubt whether this doctrine be true or no that Christ is risen Our Apostle Saint Paul hath answered this argument long ago when he said thus If that Christ be not risen we are false witnesses As if he should say a thing most incredible for they which were with our Lord and Saviour and saw and heard and felt him were alwayes ready to lay down their lives for Christ and for this very Article he is risen There Saint Paul speak for himself If Christ be not risen what should it advantage me that I fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men to endanger my life for this Article Christ is risen and this was that Paul that could say of himself 1 Cor. 10. That among all those many troubles and afflictions for this profession In carcere c. I was in death often oftentimes left for dead stoned and persecuted so manifold a Martyr was this one Saint Paul He speaks also of the rest of the Apostles 1 Cor. 5. We are in jeopardy every day every day in jeopardy even for this Article and this truth that Christ is risen he stands upon in that 1 Cor. 15. Well then beloved for the establishing of our Christian faith in this one point certainly these Apostles of Christ had been most shamelesse if they had published to all that which they saw not most faithlesse if they had not believed that which they all saw most heartlesse if they had not ventured their lives for the profession of that the resurrection of Christ from the dead by vertue whereof their bodies should also be reserved to eternal life and most foolish also if they should have spent their bloud for that they believed not they having thus seen thus heard thus believed thus Preached thus dying and suffering death they may be eyes and have been to the Christian world to see by their faith and so I perswade my self of you all that are here present to give faith unto this Article of the resurrection of Christ from death and therefore I am authorised to give unto you the benediction which Christ gave unto such as you saying Blessed are they that see not and yet believe and so Blessed be you Now you have heard the evidence this is an evident truth we have not yet heard the power of it but that is in the next part wherein I said that this is a truth which is Omnipotent an Omnipotent truth look to our Text I but saith the Evangelist He is risen he doth not say Agarthes he is raised but he is risen and because it was he that raised himself from the dead It is he that said I have power to lay down my life and
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
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
The Great Work of Redemption Deliver'd in Five SERMONS At St. Paul's and at the Spittle Aprill 1641. I. On the Passion of our Saviour By Dr. Soames Vicar of Staynes II. On our Saviours Resurrection By Dr. Morton Bishop of Durham III. An Appeal to Gods Mercy By Dr. Potter Bishop of Carlile IV. The Expectation of a Christian By Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bristol V. The Imperfection of a Christian in this Life By W. Price B. D. London Printed for J. Playford and are sold at his Shop in the Temple neer the Church door 1660. The Texts of the following Sermons First a Sermon on the Passion Job chap. 7. vers 20. I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Second a Sermon on the Resurrection St. Matt. chap. 28. vers 6. He is not here for he is risen Third Sermon An Appeal to Gods mercy Psal 130. vers 4. But there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Fourth Sermon The Expectation of a Christian Philip. chap. 3. vers 20 21. But our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change c. Fifth Sermon The Imperfect state of a Christian here 1 Cor. chap. 13. vers 9. For we know but in part and we prophesie but in part To the READER Christian Reader ALthough we should love the Ministers for the word yet sometimes yea very often men are occasioned to love the Word by the Worth of the Ministers that Deliver it a cracked Bell is not good to Call men together nor Ministers of cracked and blemished Reputations fit Instruments to perswade others to Holiness and therefore it is that the Names of these Reverend and Eminent Divines who spake and wrote these following Sermons are prefixt in the Title Page that the Honour and unblemished Reputation they have in the Churches of Christ and amongst all sincere and pious Christians may the more commend them to thee Thou hast Good Reader here unfolded and opened the Great and Glorious Mysteries of thy Salvation then which there is nothing more pleasant and comfortable more animating and enabling more ravishing and soul contenting to a true Christian then the frequent and most serious Meditation Thou hast here the Passion Resurrection and the Glorious Expectation of a Christian enlightned to thee by Stars in the Right hand of Christ of the First Magnitude Oh! that the Light held forth in the Ignominious and painfull Sufferings of thy Saviour may give thee a true sight and sense of thy sins and the greatness of them which nothing could expiate but the Pretious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God and that with a Broken and Contrite heart thou mayst cry out with Holy Job I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Oh! that the Light also held forth in the Glorious Resurrection of Christ which is Arrham Resurrectionis nostrae which is the Earnest of our Resurrection may sustain and support thy spirits in these evill and last dayes knowing that this Body of thine now chiefly subject to many miseries and calamities through the Iniquity of the Times it may be to be cast into some loathsome Prison or put to a shamefull death yet this same Body of thine shall Rise and that by a lively faith thou mayst say with Job Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that though wormes destroy this Body of mine yet in this Flesh I shall see God with these mine Eyes and not other though my Reins be consumed within me yea thy hope and expectation shall not be cut off but all those afflictions which it pleaseth thy good God to permit Sathan or his Instruments to exercise thee with shall not be like idle Indifferents which do neither good nor harme but they shall all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work together for the Glory of God and the Dear Salvation of thy pretious Soul be perswaded therefore seriously to peruse these Sermons and the God of all Grace and Consolation sanctifie the Reading them to thee The Introduction made by Master Price before his Rehearsal of the Subsequent Sermons in Saint Pauls Church May 2. 1641. IT was a Constitution of those admired sons of Justice the Areopagi that such as pleaded before them should plead without Prefacing and without passion But I must crave your gracious pardon if at this time I transgresse beyond those bounds For I made account to have been so happy as to have been an Auditor but it fals out to be my unhappy lot now to be a Speaker The Speaker appointed for this dayes work being the prisoner of God upon his bed of sickness His place my great weakness is forced to undertake and therefore rolling my self upon the Almighty Providence of God I must indevour to go through this difficult travel more fit for an Angel crowned and invested with eternity then a mortal man and I am confident that my first summons to this work was since the preaching of the Passion Sermon in this place and therefore I hope you will not expect from me that curiosity of Introduction elegancy of expression volubility of tongue or exquisitenesse and readiness in delivery as otherwise you might A review of remarkable words or actions it is as ancient as it is profitable When God had done with the first dayes work he repeats it the second day What is the Book of Deuteronomy but the Law the second time repeated What are the Books of the Chronicles but a recapitulation of the Books of the Kings What is the New Testament but an open explication of that which is closely comprehended in the Old It was the request of the Jews when they heard Saint Paul preach of the Resurrection and the Resurrection is the chiefest Argument of the Sermons I am now to rehearse that they might hear it again the next Lords day Phil. 3.1 Repetition is like unto the third and last concoction that turns the meat into wholesome and nourishing sustenance In a word Repetition is a recollection so that I am to make a recollection of these Sermons whereof I may say as it is recorded of the men of Gibeath of Benjamin that they were such good Archers that they could shoot at an hairs breadth Such were these men in their several transcendent expressions though their Sermons were long I cannot say they were tedious many are brief and tedious but these were long and not tedious As Plinius secundus saith of Cicero his longest Orations were accounted the best They were not like Simon Magus expert in Sorcery but like Simon Peter faithful Shepherds They delivered not any Socinian or Pelagian doctrine in all their discourses their Bells were like the Bells of Aaron and so they did sound in our ears and for the manner of the setting forth of those discourses they were not affectatious of them they studied rather for Divinity then Rhetorick for sanantia rather then sonantia verba
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