from the Chamber of his Graue fresh as a Bridegroome and reioycing as a Gyant to runne his race Would his Disciples a poore disconsolate wretched forsaken company Doues vnder the tallons of Vultures and Ravens would they venture vpon a guarded Sepulcher Would they offer violence to an armed Band Indeed habet pietas impetum suum Religious valour will doe much and it is well they will accuse his Disciples of so good a crime as to be more watchfull then their Hirelings were Innocencie is euer most commonly apt for rest when he tooke along with him three chosen witnesses of his sorrow in the Garden when he felt the soule of affliction in the affliction of his soule and many a groane was fetcht from the bowels of his humanity able to awaken a sullen Rocke they three not then able to watch with him one houre and now all of them to watch a whole night when he was dead and steale him away This saying is commonly reported among the Iewes to this day Credat Iudaeus Apella non ego A sottish stupid vnbeleeuing Iew may credit such a lying vanity And marke I beseech you euen in that one thing the prouident Iustice of the Almighty to punish them euer since with a generall lightnesse of beliefe to apprehend any thing but what they should haue faith in Dreames and Fables are Histories to them and which is their iust curse they haue yet no other Gospell Shall so supernaturall an Earthquake bee at his Passion when he breathed out his Spirit into the hands of his Father And shall neither Earth nor the Stone vpon his Graue stir to giue way to him to re-assume that Spirit to himselfe againe If Earth nor Stones will not moue Heauen will and from thence will come an Angell to rowle away the stone Angels euer haue had a charge of him and as they did not refuse to attend him when he tooke vp his first lodging vpon Earth in a Manger so did they waite vpon him in the last bed that euer he lay in heere the Graue Qui fuit vermiculorum locus est Angelorum Angels scorne not to keepe wormes company in any place where Christ was for as Princes denominate Courts so doth he Heauen euen in the Graue and the Graue was Heauen whil'st hee was there so Coelo tegitur qui non habet vrnam But speake thou Angell of the Lord was not he thy Angell and abler to helpe thee then thou wert him The Angell may still keepe the praise of his duty but Christ must haue the honour of his Omnipotency All that was done for him was done by him nor did the Angell rowle away the stone to make way for Christ to come out of the Graue but to prepare our hearts for Christ to come into them vt conseruis ad credendum daret fidem non vt ad resurgendum Domino praestaret auxilium Not to helpe our Sauiour but our faith to which the Angell would euer remaine an happy both Messenger and witnesse A witnesse ioyn'd to holy Iob who knew certainly that his Redeemer liued A witnesse with Dauid that his holy One should not see corruption A witnesse with Esay who call'd all that dwelt in the dust to awake and sing A witnesse with Ezekiel to this place That he hath open'd our Graues and brought vs vp out of our Graues Vteri noua forma saith a Father for the Tombe to become a womb to take in a dead man and bring him forth aliue for the Graue to swallow vp not a dead Corps but Death it selfe neuer did any thing deserue the lasting Characters which Iob meant to write with the Pen of a Diamond like this neuer did Spring bring forth such a flowre as the flowre of Iesse before But if he be but a flowre he may fade againe as flowres doe and so our flesh will last as long as his for the Psalmist tels vs that as for Man he flourisheth as the flower of the field But the wind passeth ouer it and it is gone the place thereof shall know it no more so man hath euer remain'd since Adams fall he was first made a Gardner till that Gardner prou'd the worst weed in the Garden and so as a weed was pluck't vp and throne away but the second Adam the Iewes esteem'd indeed a weed but contrary to expectation he sprung vp a Gardner for Mary tooke him for the Gardner and by the power of that Gardner Expectandum etiam nobis corporis ver est These Bodies of ours shal at that general Spring-time of the Resurrection grow vp againe a fresh in the Eden of Eternity This flesh of ours post totum ignobilitatis Elogium this ignoble flesh subiect to an Army of Diseases to Corruption Death Wormes Rottennesse and Dissolution with all the deprauing Adiuncts that Sadduce Heathen or Athiest can disgrace it with yet because it is the diligent Attendant of the Soule here by whose Organs she discourses contemplates and conueyes her thoughts as high as the Seat of God this flesh in which Saint Paul carried Stigmata Christi the markes of his Sauiour shall with its owne eyes one day see that Sauiour For shall darknesse follow light and light darknesse shall Autumne succeed Spring and Spring Autumne shall the Moone put off and renew her selfe by a monthly change shall trees vncloath themselues of their leafie garments and duely at their time re-inuest themselues with those greene Ornaments shall Sunnes each night set and each morning rise and must man take vp a lethargicke rest in a night long as eternity No Operibus praescripsit Deus antequam literis his workes are our books in which we may reade the plaine and vnderstood Stories of our being brought vp out of our Graues It is now and euer was since that first Easter a continu'd Feast of ioy solemniz'd with celestiall Iubiles by the Angels in Heauen because he brought himselfe vp out of the Graue Sed in hoc multiplicata sunt gaudia saith a Father This extends the degrees of their accidentall ioy to the height that we for whom he became so humble on earth shall by him be made so high in heauen That these bodies shall againe be made the glorified Tabernacles to their soules from which that Diuine part shall neuer againe be frighted with diseases neuer loaded with discontents neuer rackt by pashions neuer tortur'd by affections neuer vext by griefes nor expell'd by rebellious frailty but euery Christian shall bee in a heauen of peace and the peace of heauen in euery Christian that is brought vp out of his Graue O God when at that vnknowne day thou shalt goe forth about this vniuersall businesse to bring vs All vp out of our Graues and meanest to clothe this mortall with immortality how will the earth shake and the heauens drop at thy presence How will Kings of Armies flye
apace and how wilt thou scatter Kings when the chariots of the Lord shall be twenty thousand euen thousands of Angels In what furrow then will the Purchaser hide his couetous head In what dunghill will the Adulterer shrow'd his vncleane and rotten body Into what Ditch then will the Drunkard reele or in what Parchment will the Lawyer write his Euidences or with what waxe will he seale them when the Heauens shall be contracted like Parchment and the Hils shall melt away like Waxe and no Mountaine left to giue the Infidel so much hope of mercy as to call vpon the Mountaines to couer him Then wilt thou command the Sea not onely to stay her proud waues but to make one depth still call vpon another till they bring vp from the lowest bottome all that haue shipwrack't in her waters or dash't against her Rockes And vpon earth euery Angle Nooke and Chasme euery place though more desert then the ransackt Temple of Ierusalem now is shall be enquir'd into and not be able to keepe any garment of flesh that euer was worne by any whom Christ dyed for If dissected limbes lie torne assunder in places as distant as one end of the Pole is from the other yet will he soader them together and make them in euery seuerall indiuiduum a perfect entire numericall body againe Not the Beakes of Eagles nor the throates of Rauens not the Entrailes of the most deuouring Monsters of the Forrest not the Iawes of Tigers nor the teeth of Crocodiles Serpents or Hiena's for to these and worse then these doth sometimes this cocker'd flesh of ours become a prey not resolution to the first indeterminate matter not the dissolution if that could be to nothing can keep can hide these bodies of ours from him that first made them out of nothing But whether they crumble into Atomes of dust or be distill'd into water or with ashed from a Funerall Pile fill an vrne or be attenua 〈…〉 to Ayre euery one of these Rauens Eagles 〈◊〉 sters Beasts Tigers Sea Fire Earth Ayre 〈…〉 their priuate closets to be vnlock't and restore euery integrating part Arterie Sinew Muscle Veine Ioynt Limbe Nay those parts which Philosophy esteemes but Excrements Diuinity will then make Ornaments and therefore God hath a care that a haire of mans head shall not fall to ground without his prouidence Thus much Rubbish He will haue to worke vpon at the Resurrection who at the Creation did all ex nihilo of nothing and that was the greater taske What change soeuer these bodies suffer subducuntur nobis sed Deo Elementorum custodi reseruantur in no Element can they be lost which are committed to his keeping who keepes the Elements themselues But all these Graues which I haue yet nam'd are but like Peters chaines which fell easily from his hands there is a Graue yet more deepe more loathsome that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vtter darkenesse darkenesse of body darknesse of soule not Egypt in all its darknesse like to the darkenesse of that Graue There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an vnpassable Gulfe betwixt life and death for euer fix't no Musicke but where their Instruments are gnashing teeth and their Hymnes howling All the sensible faculties of the soule taken vp with no thought but neuer-ending sense of neuer-ending misery No mention of ioy but Poena damni the vnrecouerable losse of ioy when they shall see others enioy the abundance of that Ioy which they shall neuer haue When all other Graues shall haue their Graue and the last Moyty of sand be runne out of the glasse of Time it selfe in this Graue shall they lie that are gone to it as dead to any thing but torment which shall neuer die to them nor they to it No Gregory no Falconella no Masse no Trentals No Beads no Penance no Pope no Iesuite no Deuill for those whom their owne pride hath ioyn'd together let no man put asunder I say none of these could euer redeeme from that Graue of mortall immortality Yet out of that Graue in one true and most Orthodoxe sense are we brought not by getting out if we euer had been actually in but because that wee know he is the Lord whose mercifull preuention hath bar'd vp the euerlasting doores of that Graue to vs that are out and to that purpose hee sent the Angell in the Reuelation from Heauen hauing the Key of the bottomelesse Pit and a great chaine in his hand and he tooke the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Deuil and bound him a thousand yeeres shut him vp and seal'd vpon him that he should deceiue the Nations no more If a Messenger one of our fellow seruants for so the Angell cals himselfe in the foregoing Chapter could doe this bind the Graue-maker shut him vp in his owne Graue how may we that are his people know that the Lord himselfe hath all the power of Hell chayn'd at his will all the Gates thereof shut to all but those that will needes enter by the Posternes of Heathenish Infidelity or Romish superstition the Keyes of euery Gate else are kept sauing those of our Sauiours wounds the infectious sting of Death being pluckt out of the mouth of the Serpent the Graue and Hell it selfe And by this you know I hope all you his people that he is the Lord Now he hath opened your Graues and brought you vp out of your Graues God for his part hath you see made euery word of the Text good let him not in such a generall Haruest of Heauen and Earth haue occasion to say to any of you as the Master of the Vineyard said to the Labourers Why stand yee heere all the day idle why doe not your selues doe your parts too and set your hands to bring your selues vp out of your Graues But the early charitie the vnconsum'd Bounty of this Citty preuents an Exhortation you bring and keepe from the Graue many a weake aged Christian who haue no other props but you and their staues their owne limbes sooner forsaking them then your bounty Infants brought into the world and left there as in a wildernesse hang vpon your paps and are fed from your Tables You deliuer the poore that cry and haue none to helpe them In your Hospitall lyes many a wounded Christian and in euery wound is plac't a tongue to speake and cry to God himselfe for mercy continu'd mercy and honour to this Citie Your Bethlem shewes how he that was borne at Bethlem is borne anew in your hearts and you againe regenerate and borne in him for whose sake if a Cup of cold water giuen shall neuer goe vnrewarded then surely Copiosa erit Merces vestra in Coelis great will your reward be in Heauen when you are brought vp out of your Graues Thus farre doe the armes of the Poore lift you their Benefactors and Patrons from your Graues Thus farre are these Liuories which attend you Angels and
nasty Sculs his maine Author Christ Iesus lockt vp a while after his crucifying in the Archiuis in the closest and most secret roome of the Graue out of whom he meant to exscribe those Prophecies foretold those Types prefigur'd those Amazements of Heauen those Terrours of Earth and aboue all one Note that transcends all the rest without which his Preaching had beene vaine his Epistles nothing worth That onely makes all his Epistles now to be Gospell That Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that sleepe That as by a Man came Death so by a Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead And that alone makes vs his people know that he is the Lord now he hath opened our Graues c. Our Sauiour himselfe whil'st he was vpon Earth was a frequent Guest to the House next adioyning in sad neighbourhood to the Graue the Bed of sicknesse from which he scarce euer departed till he had made them with their Beds able to walke and depart from him so in that Bed he made the first way to shew what power hee would afterwards haue ouer the Bed of Dust the Graue From sicknes and languishing he rais'd the diseased Creante non medicante manu not with the hand of a Physician but of a Creator Quam posuit cùm formaret ex nihilo imposuit iterum vt reformaret ex perdito That hand which first fram'd vs of lesse then Earth is euer ready to preserue vs when wee are going to the Earth He turneth Man to destruction and againe he saith Come againe ye children of men But if wee roue into the wonders of ancient dayes or looke into the Gospell to see what Graues Christ open'd these Miracles seeme a farre off and so they lesse affect vs. These daies of ours will change vs from Auditors into Spectators when we talke of Graues Ipsa lectio quaedam facta erit visio The discourse will no longer become the obiect of our eares but of our eyes The Doores of this House of Death you all know when they were first open'd when you shall not see GOD more busie in one Chapter to take Man out of the ground then in the next Chapter he was resolu'd to open the ground that it might take Man in againe In puluerem reuerteris To dust thou shalt returne An heauy doome from the mouth of the Almightie and all vnlookt for yet by our vnhappy Father who though he onely had deseru'd it in Act yet the force of that Edict stay'd not alone at him but as in crowds if the foremost fall the whole pressing multitude commonly followes the posse non mori Innocencie that might haue kept vs from the Graue we had lost and a non posse non mori the ineuitable Arrest of Death hath seiz'd vpon vs from which we can neuer bee so totally bayl'd but we must appeare at his Summons and present our Bodies to his Prison the Graue We are all but like so many wearied and breathlesse Hares before the Hounds which euery step lookes to be a prey to their sporting crueltie May wee not All come to Saint Pauls mournfull Quaere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched men that we are who shall deliuer vs from the Bodie of this Death or from the Death of this Body The words of this Text I neuer meant to vnderstand as directly to proue the opening of Graues at the Resurrection Saint Hierome tels vs Scimus multa robustiora Testimonia in Scripturis sanctis reperiri The Scripture is not so barren as to stand in need of an Allegorie to demonstrate such confirm'd Diuinitie Euery Chapter in some Prophets euery Period of some Chapters of the Euangelists are literall witnesses of opening those Graues at the latter Day And to them may these words be added as holding proportion with that vniuersall Deliuerance for nunquam poneretur similitudo God would neuer haue taken a similitude from the Graue to illustrate Israels redemption from Captiuitie nisi staret ipsa resurrectio but that he who meant immediately to doe the one was resolu'd afterwards in his good time to performe the other And Fidei cognitio sola visione beata inferior est claritate aequalis certitudine Faith doth as certainely apprehend things that are to be done as God himselfe knowes that he will doe them saith Pineda No Captiuity beyond the Graue and no word in this Chapter to set out this Captiuitie but is translated from a Graue Shew me O sonne of Man the value of dead and drie Bones Sinewes and Flesh brought vpon these Bones Breath fetcht from the foure Winds to animate these Bones Ossa haec vniuersa domus Israel est These Bones are the whole House of Israel nay the whole House of the whole world must become as these Bones Dry and Marrowlesse diuested of Flesh and Sinewes and lay'd for a time in such a lasting Sleepe where they shall not so much as dreame of this their Lord. But euen then that Eye of his which neither slumbers nor sleepes will keepe a watch ouer them And those that vpon the heauie wings of Death goe to the vttermost parts of the Earth shall there finde him and his power in opening of Graues God speakes in this Prophet hypothetically if or when But this is to vs a Truth already past And the wide mouth of the Graue hath sufficiently beene its owne Commentarie to make the Text most plainly vnderstood Would you willingly forget O you his people how lately he shew'd you that out-stretched Arme of his in opening your Graues The Graue neuer brought foorth any thing but confusion and therfore if you find it in my words it may more fairely be interpreted yet esteeme it not for penurie of matter or that we could not hold out with the Glasse vnlesse we inch't out our Periods by ripping vp of dangers long since past Past indeed is that sad time and past O Lord let it be like the word that is spoken and can neuer bee recal'd past let the Infection of the Disease be But neuer let Salus Iehouae neuer let the Saluation of the Lord passe from your memories let the right hand of Gods Messengers forget their cunning and their tongues cleaue for euer to the roofe of their mouths who will not remember those cryes that then his people made to him and the speedy haste he made to helpe them Open your hearts deepe as the Graue and waken your eyes that they sleepe not the sleepe of Death those eyes to which we present a thousand alluring spectacles turne them from vanitie to looke into the house of mourning turne them vpon those affrighting Glasses and see the Lord the Lord himselfe first opening the Graue to the Head afterwards to the body first to the King afterwards to the Kingdome thousands following to attend his Funerall with a mournfull Pompe Did not Fathers and Sonnes then goe to this Graue
together Was it not opened for the Infant as soone almost as the wombe was open'd to let it into the world And That which a little before was the hopefull Burthen of the Mother presently became a small but heauie load to the Messenger of the Graue Cadunt Medentes Mordus auxilium trahit The Patient wounded the Physician and recompenc'd him with Infection for his Antidote They who one day carried Corpses to the Graue were themselues the next day Coarses carried thither All trades failing in your Citie but the Sextons you had leasure to walke out to see the Mansions of Death where if any wondring at their vnwonted vastnesse askt themselues where the bodies were that should fill them e're they had past many Streets homeward they met Beeres enow to make them queston where the Graues were that should entertaine them In stead of Triumphs that were then begun to be thought vpon Death onely rid in wofull Tryumph thorow your Streets The neighbours that were wont to imbrace each other at their meetings now appeare one to the other as fearefull as a Ghost at midnight Some preseru'd to reade the Bill of one weeke and their owne selues helpt to fill it vp the next And who did not looke vpon those dolefull Registers with wet eyes as if it had beene the Chronicle of a Citie that sometimes was and without Gods speedy mercy neuer like to haue beene againe Did not the Graue open so wide at the length That the Cormorant and Bittyrne were like to possesse your habitations The Owle also and the Rauen to dwell amongst you the lines of Confusion to be stretch't vpon you And the stones of emptinesse They are Esayes words to as flourishing a Citie and a people once as deare to God as euer we were Thornes Thistles might haue came in our Palaces Nettles and Brambles in our Fortresses the Satyre like to cry here to his fellow and the Screech-Owle like to find here a place to dwell in Then were your delicate and tender Dames whom the Sunne in his pride must not looke vpon and he in all that pride not so proud as one of them scorning at another time to grace a Countrey Village with their presence but then glad to shelter themselues vnder an humble Thatch Come now you pampred Truncks and see these Bodies a Feast to their owne corruption for whom here no fowle was deare enough no fish rare enough to content their wittily-luxurious palats The Fowle in his lyue proportion must come flying to our Feasts And the fish swimme againe in the platter in a new Sea of Sawce These bodies which to paint to cloathe to adorne Countries must be search't for Silkes and Sables and the wooll of Ermines the Silk-worme must be rob'd of the labour of her bowels The Taylor must tyre his wits to attyre our Bodies The Deuill himselfe must renew his inuention to reuiue a fashion Satanae ingenia could Tertullian call them in his dayes Dayes of Sackcloth and Ashes in respect of ours And all this Cost Paines Wit Curiositie to feed and cloathe Bodies that must come to the Graue Whither if one Engine will not serue to bring vs he hath many and although he strucke vs but with one rod yet he threatned vs with more Solomon with a preuenting Deuotion foresaw all his Whips and Scourges which driue vs to our Graues Famine Pestilence Blasting Mildew Caterpiller and Enemy Must our Sermons passe them ouer I pray God the destroying Angell whose fingers were arm'd with them may so passe ouer vs too But Famine hath euer beene a Brand kindled in the fire of Gods wrath witnesse the Elegies which made Sion weepe forth when the Lord accomplish't his furie When he had deuour'd the foundations thereof Other punishments preuent their cruelty by a speedy destruction But famine strikes with deliberate blowes and makes vs wretchedly sensible of lasting miserieit cooles the preseruing heate drinkes vp the nourishing moysture weares out the vegetable habitude suckes vp the flowing Marrow eneruates the Sinewes vntyes the ioynts cobwebs the flesh discolours the face dambes vp the voice They that be slaine with the Sword saith the Lord are better then they that be slain with Hunger If any think this passage vnnecessary because they neuer felt it let them learne by this description of it to pitty them that doe Those are the lesser Conducts to the Graue Blasting Mildew Locust Caterpiller Would not the mighty men amongst vs neglect them as Goliah scorn'd Dauid the Youth Yet Solomon knew that this Army was able to bid Battell to the greatest power vpon earth So disdainfully did God ouercome Pharaoh by an Army of Flyes and Frogges And brought Herod to his Graue with a few wormes manifesting vpon him at once both his strength and scorne One maine Instrument he hath more to open our Graues that is the Enemy but since the affrighting Drum hath not a long time strucke vp his Panicke sounds in our land nor the watchfull Beacon lent vs the fearefull light to see an Enemy the name of an Enemy may be thought as needlesse a thing as a Souldier Transport then your thoughts a while but where the Enemy hath beene see how the Enemy hath opened a Graue not for people but for Prouinces What is become of the stately Towres of the wall'd Cities of the fruitfull Vines of a Countrey deare to vs But I question not the letting out of the bloud of the Vine since the Bloud of the men was shed forth in fuller Cataracs Vrbes constituit Aetas Hora dissoluit We may now seek that Country in the Country and not find it so much as in the Ruines We and our Sins had almost caus'd God to employ all these Arrowes of wrath against vs. What Country What Nation vnder heauen do we Trade withall from whō the Sins of that Nation is not brought hither and those are Merchādises that might welbe spar'd we al vse our Lord like forgetfull Mariners promise much in a Storme neuer think of it in a Calme God himselfe could tell his people in the 5 of Hosa I will goe and returne to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seeke my face in their affliction they will seeke me early Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus Neuer doe we truely kneele to him but when we are vnder his strokes vpon which strokes we must not looke through the false Glasses of our deserts but of his Mercies Cain and Iudas look't vpon him through the Perspectiue of their sinnes and so in stead of reading the Prophets Text That his Mercy was aboue all his works they mistooke and thought their owne foule works aboue his Mercy so though he would haue forgiuen them they could not forgiue themselues whereas the goodnesse of God endureth for euer and although he chastens euery Sonne that he loues yet his Stripes are not to driue vs from him with a desperate
the Principall did not at all belong to him Non autem errabat in genere sed fallebatur in crimine 'T was we had forfeited the Bond and he must be arrested so a Heard of Tigers came to seize vpon the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world for whom he being God became Man they being men to him became Deuils they apprehend him with their bloody hands whom their hearts could neuer apprehend all wickedly intending to confound him who onely intended to preserue them and thinking one death too little for him who esteem'd his owne life and eternitie it selfe a blessing too small for them The Element of Sinne which in one of our hearts weighes not at all because it is in its proper place and Elementum non ponderat in loco suo vpon him lay so heauie because he was no Center for it that it made him who was wont to bow the heauens bow himselfe vpon the earth in the Garden of Gethsemane knocking there at the doore of his Graue to be let in from thence hee was carried to the Theater of Death strew'd with Bones and dead Bodies where the vnwholsome sauors might haue brought him to his death without a Crosse. Thus both the liuing and the dead were equally prepar'd to bring him to his Graue who came to bring both the liuing and the dead vp out of their Graues How like a Coarse and nothing but a Coarse fit for a Graue must he needs looke when that Face at which the Angels so often wondred was scarrifi'de and cauteriz'd with Thornes those eyes from which the Lamps of Heauen the Sunne that wardeth by day and the Moone which watcheth by night might borrow a better cleerenes suncke into their Caues those eares wont to heare nothing but Anthem'd Alleluiahs deafn'ed with the scornes of insulting Sinners that mouth the Torrent from whence flow'd Eloquia Domini Eloquia munda words sweeter then Honey and the Honey Combe then stopt with Gall and Vineger hee that had giuen them Wine to cheere and make glad the heart of Man what a Potion did they giue him to comfort his dying heart Thus for his sufferings they would be sure to take what impious care they could and their busie malice was so wholly taken vp with them that they forgot when they had done to prouide him a Graue Hee that in his life time was worse prouided for then the wilde inhabitants of the Field or Ayre for himselfe complaines that the Foxes haue holes and the Birds of the Ayre haue nests but the Sonne of Man hath not where to lay his head liu'd and dy'de in the same case liu'd without a bed and dy'de without a Graue Because the liuing would not the dead came from their Graues to make him roome the Earth open'd her obedient armes to entertaine him the stones of the Temple leapt from their foundations disdaining the place where the hand of any Architect had laid them when those prophane builders refus'd Lapidem angularem him that was euer the head Stone of the corner He dy'de for the sinnes of strangers and therefore a stranger Ioseph of Arimathea must prouide him a Graue he beg'd him of Pilate and had so often laid him in his heart before that hee now esteemes himselfe happy if he may lay him in his Graue Would you now thinke this Man that could not saue himselfe as they blasphem'd could saue vs That he that could not procure himselfe a Graue should bring vs all vp out of our Graues Nullas habet spes Troja si tales habet How doe they yet deride our hopes in him who do not yet beleeue in him Durst he euer challenge Death vpon his owne Dunghill the Graue with such daring termes Ero mors tua ô mors O Death I will be thy death O Graue I will be thy destruction Will the Lord euer say to him Sit thou on my right hand vntill I haue made thine enemies thy footstoole Can he euer ascend on high and take captiuity captiue who was taken by two old men Ioseph and Nicodemus to bee laid in a new Monument in Iosephs Garden In horto erat Monumentum nonum A new Sepulcher wherein neuer man was yet layd A Stone hewne out of a Rocke and therefore most fit to lay the Rocke of our saluation in and into a Rocke his Disciples could hardly dig to get him out Therefore against that Rocke must they needs dash which would haue it said His Disciples came by night and stole him away They could say to Pilate Sir we haue heard the Deceiuer say and how wretchedly did they deceiue themselues by not beleeuing what he said His dixit euer was his fiat from the first saying Let there be light though afterwards when hee had made that light come to shine in the darknesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the darknesse comprehended it not They had seene him whom they so falsely term'd Deceiuer oftentimes making his word good without all deceit The Centurion askt no more at his hands but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Say but the word onely and my seruant shall be whole and his seruant was made whole the same houre He that was himselfe the Word needes neuer doe any thing but say the word hee said hee would rise againe the third day and as hee was Filius fortitudinis to the Lord himselfe the Sonne of his strength or the strength of his Sonne hee could finde or make a way to bring himselfe vp out of the Graue Let their laborious enuie heape hills of Earth vpon his Graue let their Grand Patron the Deuill himselfe send Legions from Hell to guard his Sepulcher as Pilate did a band of armed Souldiers they could not haue kept him in His very sleepe which they thought the sleepe of death was busie in a triumphant Conquest ouer Hell it selfe he was then gone to the house of the strong man which himselfe speakes of in the Gospell binding the strong man and spoiling him of his goods he enter'd as Conquerour bound him as the stronger spoild him as the right owner of that estate in vs which he by theft and violence had once carried away The drowsie weight of sleepe sate farre more heauie vpon the Souldiers eyes and bound them faster then the High Priests Seale then the Massie Stone then the walls of the Graue then Death with all his Cords were able to fetter him Were the Fogs call'd from the Lakes and Fennes for your sakes O you once his people Was darknesse call'd from the Center of the Earth to spread it selfe vpon the face of Egypt three dayes or rather three prodigious nights Didst thou O Sunne more then stand still in Gibeon and thou Moone in the valley of Aijalon that you his people should for euer since obtenerate your owne eyes with a darknes more palpable then that of Egypt and would neither then nor yet see this Sunne of righteousnesse comming