us He and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is so grafted one into the other that he is part of us and we of Him So that as Saint Bernard well observeth Christus etsi solus resurrexit tamen non totus That Christ though He be risen onely yet He is not risen wholly or all till we be risen too He is but risen in part and that He may rise all we must rise from death also This then we know first That death is not a fall like that of Pharao into the sea that sunk downe like a lump of leade into the bottome Exod. 15.10 and never came up more but a fall like that of Iona's Ion. 1.17.2.10 Matt. 12.40.25 41. Esay 26.19 into the Sea who was received by a fish and after cast up againe It is our Saviour Christ's owne Simile A fall not like that of the Angells into the bottomelesse pitt there to stay for ever but like to that of men into their bedds when they make accompt to stand up againe A fall not as of a log or stone to the ground which where it falleth there it lyeth still but as of a wheate corne into the ground which is quickned and springeth up againe 1. Cor. 15.36 The very word which the Apostle vseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth the two later 1 either of a fall into a bed in our chamber where though we lye to see to little better then dead for a time yet in the morning we awake and stand up notwithstanding 2 Or of a fall into a bed in our garden where though the seede patrifie and come to nothing yet we looke to see it shoote forth anew in the spring Which spring is as Tertullian well calleth it the very resurrection of the yeare and Christ's resurrection falleth well with it And it is saith he no way consonant to reason that man for whom all things spring and rise againe should not have his Spring and rising too But he shall have them we doubt not by this daies worke He that this day did rise and rising was seene of Marie Magdalen in the likenesse of a gardiner Ioh 20.15 this gardiner will looke to it that man shall have his spring He will saith the Prophet drop upon us a dew like the dew of herbs and the earth shall yeeld foorth her dead And so as CHRIST is risen from the dead Esay 26.19 even so shall we â— That Christ now dieth not Luk. 7.11.14 8.54 Ioh. 11.43 Our second Particular is That as He is risen so now he dieth not Which is no idle addition but hath his force and Emphasis For one thing it is to rise from the dead and another not to die any more The Widowe's Sonne of Naïm the Ruler's daughter of the Synagogue Lazarus all these rose againe from death yet they died afterward But Christ rising from the dead dyeth no more These two are sensibly different Lazaru's resurrection and Christ's and this second is sure a higher degree then the former If we rise as they did that we returne to this same mortall life of ours againe this very mortalitie of ours will be to us as the prisoners chaine he escapes away withall by it we shall be pulled back again though we should rise a thousand times We must therfore so rise as Christ that our resurrection be not reditus but transitus not a returning back to the same life Ioh. 5.24 but a passing over to a new Transivit de morte ad vitam saith he The very feast it selfe puts us in minde of as much It is Pascha that is the Passeover not a comming back to the same land of Aegypt Deut. 17.16 but a passing over to a better the land of Promise whither Christ our Passeover is passed before us and shall in his good time give us passage after Him 1. Cor. 5.7 The Apostle expresseth it best where he saith that Christ by His rising hath abolished death 2. Tim 1.10 and brought to light life and immortalitie not life alone but lifâ— and immortalitie which is this our second particular Risen and Risen to die no more because risen to life to life immmortall 〈◊〉 the third is yet beyond both these more worth the knowing 3. That from hence forth death hath no more dominion over Him more worthy 〈◊〉 accâ—mpâ— death hath no dominion over him Where as we before sayd one thing it was to rise againe another to dye no more so say we now it is one thing not to dyes another not to be under the dominion of death For death and deaths doâ—â—nion are two different things Death it selfe is nothing els but the very separation of the life from the body death's dominion a thing of farre larger extent By which word of dominion the Apostle would have us to conceive of death as of some great Lord having some large Signiorie Ver. 14.17.21 Even as three severall times in the Chapter before he saith Regnavit mors death reigned as if death were some mighty Monarch having some great dominions under him And so it is For looke how many dangers how many diseases sorrowes calamities miseries there be of this mortall life how many paynes perills snares of death so many severall provinces are there of this dominion In all which or some of them while we live we still are under the jurisdiction and arrest of death all the dayes of our life And say that we scape them all and none of them happen to us yet live we still under feare of them and that is deathe's dominion too Iob. 1â— 14. For He is as Iob calleth Him Rex pavoris King of feare And when we are out of this life too unlesse we pertayne to CHRIST and His resurrection we are not out of his dominion neyther For Hell it selfe is secunda mors so termed by Saint Iohn the second death Apoc 20.14.21.8 or second part of death's dominion Now who is there that would desire to rise againe to this life yea though it were immortall to be still under this dominion of death heer still subject still liable to the aches and paynes to the greefs and gripings to all the manifold miseries of this vale of the shaddow of death But then the other the second region of death the second part of his dominion who can endure once to be there There they seeke and wish for death and death flyeth from them Verily Rising is not enough rising not to dye againe is not enough except we may be quit of this dominion and rid of that which we either feele or feare all our life long Therefore doth the Apostle add and so it was needfull he should death hath no dominion over Him No dominion over Him No for He dominion over it For lest any might surmise He might breake through some wall or gett out at some window and so steale a resurrection or casually come to it He tells
flesh the like wrought in us by his Spirit It is a Maxime or maine ground in all the Fathers that such an accompt must be The former what CHRIST hath wrought for us Deus reputat nobis GOD accompteth to us For the latter what CHRIST hath wrought in us Reputate vos we must accompt to GOD. And that is Similiter vos that we fashion our selves like him Like him in as many points as we may but namely and expresly in these two here sett downe 1 In dying to sinne 2 In living unto GOD in these two first and then secondly in doing both these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once for all 1. In dying to sinne Eph. 5.1 1. Pet. 2.21 Like him in these two 1 In His dying For He died not onely to offer a Sacrifice for us saith Saint Paul but also to leave an example to us saith Saint Peter That example are we to be like 2 In His rising For He arose not onely that we might be regenerated to a lively hope 1. Pet. 1.3 saith Saint Peter but also that we might be grafted into the similitude of His Resurrection saith Saint Paul a little before in the fifth verse of this very Chapter That Similitude are we to resemble So have we the exemplarie part of both these wherevnto we are to frame our Similiter vos He died to sinne there is our paterne Our first accompt must be Compt your selves dead to sinne And that we do when there is neither action nor affection nor any signe of life in us toward sinne no more then in a dead bodie when as men crucified which is not onely his death but the kind of his death too we neither moove hand nor stirr foot toward it both are nayled downe fast In a word to die to sinne with Saint Paul heer is to ceasse from sinne with S. Peter 1. Pet. 4.1 To ceasse from sinne I say understanding by sin not from sin altogither that is a higher perfection then this life will beare but as the Apostle expoundeth himselfe in the very next words Verse 12. Ne regnet peccatum that is from the dominion of sinne to ceasse For till we be free from death it selfe which in this life we are not we shall not be free from sinne altogither onely we may come thus farr ne regnet that sinne reigne not weare not a crown fit not in a throne hold no Parliaments within us give us no lawes in a word as in the fourth verse before that we serve it not To dye to the dominion of sinne that by the grace of GOD we may and that we must accompt for He liveth to GOD. There is our similitude of His resurrection â— In living to GOD. our second accompt must be Compt your selves living unto GOD. Now how that is he hath already told us in the fourth verse even to walke in newnesse of life To walke is to move moving is a vitall action and argueth life But it must not be any life our oâ—d will not serve it must be a new life we must not returne backe to our former course but passe over to another new conversation And in a word as before to live to GOD with Saint Paule heer is to live secundùm Deum according to GOD in the spirit with Saint Peter 1. Peter 4.6 And then live we according to Him when His will is our law His word our rule His Sonnes life our example His Spirit rather then our owne soule the guide of our actions Thus shall we be grafted into the similitude of his Resurrection Now this similitude of the resurrection calleth to my minde another similitude of the resurrection in this life too which I finde in Scripture mentioned it fitteth us well it will not be amisse to remember you of it by the way it wil make us the better willing to enter into this accompt At the time that Isaac should have been offered by his Father Isaac was not slaine Gen. 22.7 very neere it he was there was fire and there was a knife and he was appointed readie to be a Sacrifice Of which case of his the Apostle in the mention of his Father Abraham's faith Heb. 11. Abraham saith he by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.19 made full accompt if Isaac had beene slaine GOD was able to raise him from the dead And even from the dead GOD raised him and his Father received him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a certaine similitude or after a sort Marke that well Raising Isaac from imminent danger of present death is with the Apostle a kind of resurrection And if it be so and if the Holy Ghost warrant us to call that a kind of resurrection how can we but on this day the Day of the Resurrection call to minde and withall render vnto GOD our vnfeigned thankes and praise for our late resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our kind of resurrection He not long since vouchsafed us Our case was Isaac's case without doubt there was fire and in stead of a knife there was powder enough and we were designed all of us and even ready to be sacrificed even Abraham Isaac and all Certainely if Isaac's were ours was a kind of resurrection and we so to acknowledge it We were as neere as he we were not onely within the Dominion but within the Verge nay even within the very gates of death From thence hath GOD raised us and given us this yeare this similitude of the resurrection that we might this day of the Resurrection of His SONNE present him with this in the Text of rising to a new course of life And now to returne to our fashioning our selves like to Him in these As there is a death naturall and a death civill so is there a death morall both in Philosophie and in Divinitie and if a death then consequently a resurrection too Every great and notable change of our course of life whereby we are not now any longer the same men that before we were be it from worse to better or from better to worse is a morall death A morall death to that we change from and a morall resurrection to that we change to If we change to the better that is sinn's death if we alter to the worse that is sinn's resurrection when we commit sinne we die we are dead in sinne when we repent we revive againe when we repent our selves of our repenting and relapse back then sinne riseth againe from the dead and so toties quoties And even upon these two as two hinges turneth our whole life All our life is spent in one of them Now then that we be not all our life long thus off and on fast or loose â— And that once for all in docke out nettle and in nettle out docke it will behoove us once more yet to looke backe upon our similiter vos even upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 semel
with the fields that we need a feast of first fruits a day of consecration every yeere By something or other we grow un-hallowed and need to be consecrate anew to re-seize us of the first fruits of the Spirit again At least to awake it in us as Primitiae dormientium at least That which was given us and by the fraud of our enemie or our owne negligence or both taken from us and lost we need to have restored that which we have quenched to be light anew that which we have cast into a dead sleepe 1. Th. 5..19 Ephes. 5.14 awaked up from it If such a new consecrating we need what better time then the feast of first fruits the sacring time under the Lawe and in the Gospell the day of CHRIST 's rising our first fruits by whom we are thus consecrate The day wherein He was himselfe restored to the perfection of His Spirituall life the life of glorie is the best for us to be restored in to the first fruits of that spirituall life the life of Grace IV. The Application to the Sacrament And if we aske what shall be our meanes of this consecrating The Apostle telleth us Heb. 10.10 we are sanctified by the Oblation of the bodie of IESVS That is the best meanes to restore us to that life He hath said it and shewed it himselfe He that eateth Me shall live by Me. The words spoken concerning that are both Spirit and Life Ioh. 6.57.63 whither we seeke for the Spirit or seek for Life Such was the meanes of our death by eating the forbidden fruit the first fruits of death and such is the meanes of our life by eating the flesh of CHRIST the first fruits of life And herein we shall very fully fit not the time only and the meanes but also the manner For as by partaking the flesh and blood the substance of the first Adam we came to our death so to life we cannot come unlesse we do participate with the flesh and blood of the second Adam that is CHRIST We drew death from the first by partaking his substance and so must we draw life from the second by the same This is the way become branches of the Vine and partakers of his nature and so of his life and verdure both So the time the meanes the manner agree What letteth then but that we at this time by this meanes and in this manner make our selves of that conspersion whereof CHRIST is our first fruits by these meanes obteining the first fruits of His Spirit of that quickning Spirit which being obteined and still kept or in default thereof still recovered shall heer begin to initiate in us the first fruits of our restitution in this life whereof the fulnesse we shall also be restored unto in the life to come As Saint Peter calleth that time the time of the restoring of all things Then shall the fulnesse be restored us too Act. 3.21 when GOD shall be all in all not some in one and some in another but all in all Atque hic est vitiae finis pervenire ad vitam cujus non est finis This is the end of the Text and of our life to come to a life whereof there is no end To which c. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE KING'S MAIESTIE AT VVHITE-HALL on the XXVII of March A. D. MDCVIII being EASTER DAY MAR. CHAP. XVI Et cum transisset Sabbatum c. VER 1. And when the Sabbath day was past Marie Magdalen and Marie the mother of Iames and Salome bought sweet ointments that they might come and embalme Him 2. Therefore early in the morning the first day of the weeke they came unto the Sepulcher when the Sunne was yet rising 3. And they said one to another Who shall roll us away the stone from the doore of the Sepulcher 4. And when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was a very great one 5. So they went into the Sepulcher and saw a yong man sitting at the right side clothed in a long white robe And they were afraid 6. But he said unto them Be not afraid Ye seeke IESVS OF NAZARET which hath beene crucified He is risen He is not heere Behold the place where they put Him 7. But goe your way and tell His Disciples and PETER thâ—t He will goe before you into Galilee there shall ye see Him as He said vnto you THE Summe of this Gospell is a Gospell that is The Summe a message of good tydings In a message these three points fall in naturally 1 The Parties to whom it is brought 2 The Partie by whom 3 And The Message it selfe These three 1. The Parties to whom Three women the three Maries 2. The Partie by whom an Angell 3. The Message it selfe the first newes of Christ's rising againe These three make the three parts in the Text. 1 The Women 2 The Angell 3 The Message Seven verses I have readd ye The first foure concerne the Women The fifth the Angell The two last the Angell's message In the Women we have to consider The Division 1 Themselves in the first 2 Their Iourney in the second and third and 3 Their Successe in the fourth In the Angell 1 The manner of his appearing 2 and of their affecting with it In the Message The newes it selfe 1. That CHRIST is risen 2. That He is gone before them to Galilee 3. That there they shall see Him 4. Peter and all 5. Then the Ite dicite The Commission Ad Evangelizandum not to conceale these good newes but publish it These to his Disciples they to others and so to us we to day and so to the worlds end I. The Parties to whom Three Women AS the Text lyeth the part that first offereth it selfe is The parties to whom this message came Which were three Women Where finding that Women were the first that had notice of Christ's resurrection we stay For it may seeme strange that passing by all men yea the Apostles themselves Christ would have His Resurrection first of all made knowne to that sexe Reasons are rendred of diverse diversly We may be bold to alleage that the Angell doth in the Text Verse 5. Vos enim quaeritis for they sought Christ. And Christ is not vnrighteous to forget the worke and labour of their Love Heb. 6.10 that seeke Him Verily there will appeare more Love and Labour in these Women then in Men even the Apostle's themselves At this time I know not how Men were then become Women and did animos gerere muliebres Ioh. 20.19 and Women were Men Sure the more manly of the twaine The Apostles they satt mured up all the doores fast about them sought not went not to the Sepulcher Ioh. 21.15.20 Neither Peter that loved Him nor Iohn whom He loved till these Women brought them word But these Women we see were last at His Passion and first at His
congruitie they found were many they may be reduced to these foure 1. Whither you looke to the composition or parts of it 2. Or to the furniture and vessells of it 3. Or to what was done in it 4. Or to what was done to it that is what first and last befell it In all which they hold that Templum hoc might more truely be affirmed of Him that was in the Temple then of the Temple He was in The last of the foure what was done to that Temple what befell it and so what befell the Temple of Christ's bodie that I take to be most proper to this Text and to that we have in hand For to goe through all foure would take up a whole sermon So I take my selfe to the Congruitie onely Marke then what befell either by that shall you best find that Fata utriusque Templi the destinies of both Temples were alike Psal. 132.6 Mat. 2.1 Like in Solvite excitabo They began alike The first newes of the Temple was heard at Ephrata which is Bethlehem So was it of Him for there was He borne Like in their beginnings and in their ends no lesse I appeale to this Text and content me with those two He insists on Himselfe Both were destroyed both were reared againe that in all things His Bodie and His Temple might be suitable 2 Chro. 36.19 Psal. 137.7 That Temple was destroyed by the Chaldees downe with it even unto the ground Imitated by them heer downe with it even into the ground For they never left till they had Him there past Excitabo as they thought past rising any more But as the Temple Agge 1.14 after it was so razed had an Excitabo was raised againe up by Zorobabel So was this too Solvite tooke place but there came an Excitabo after that made amends for it And as the glorie of the second House was greater then the first So the estate Agge 2.10 He rose to farr more glorious then that He was in before And marke I pray you if these two were not to be seen as brim in the little glasses about it as in the great Mirrour it selfe For the Temple was as a great Mirrour and the furniture as so many little glasses round about it Take but the Arke the Epitome as it were of the Temple The two Tables in it the type of the true treasures of Wisedome Knowledge hid in Him Col. 2.3 Exod. 32.19.34.4 they were broken first there is Solvite but they were new hewen and written over againe there is excitabo The Pot of Manna a perfect resemblance of Him the Vrna or the vessell being made of earth so earthly The Manna the contents of it being from heaven so heavenly The Manna we know would not keepe past two daies at the most Exod. 16.20.24 Exod 16 32. there is Solvite but being putt into the Vrna the third day it came againe to it selfe and kept in the Pott without putrifying ever after there is Excitabo· Aaron's rod the type of His Priesthood and of the rule of soules annexed to it that Rod Num. 17.8 was quite dead and drie but revived againe blossomed yea brought forth ripe Almonds In every and in each of them His destinie whom they represented Solvite and Excitabo in all But the End is all in all and in respect of that of the end well saith Ambrose of His bodie Verè Templum in quo nostrorum est purificatio peccatorum Truly a Temple He no Temple ever so truely as wherein was offered up the true propitiation for and the true purification of our sinnes and of us from them which is the end of all Temples that ever were or shall be and was but shaddowed in all besides but in this truly performed There the onely true Holâ—caust of His entire obedience which burnt in Him bright and cleare from the first to the last all His life long There the onely true Trespasse-offering of His Death and Passion the Solvite of this Temple satisfactorie to the full for all the trespasses and transgressions of the whole world There the Meat-and-drinke-offering of His blessed Bodie and most precious blood And the Exta of this sacrifice the fat of the entrailes of it that is the Love wherewith He did it the desire the longing desire He had to it that that Luc. 12.50.22.15 Col. 1.20 was the perfect Offering that sett at one all things both in heaven and earth That what ever was Sub figurâ in Templo illo was really and in truth exhibited in Templo hoc And iudge now whither the Signe were not well layd by our SAVIOVR in the Temple which was it selfe a Signe of Him And whither as He sayd in a place Ecce maior Templo hîc So He might not have sayd Ecce maius Templum hîc Mat. 12.6 when He was in the Temple Behold a greater a truer Temple now in the Temple then the Temple it selfe Now to the second maine point Solvite II a Solvite the saying a The saying it first b The executing it after The Solvite and the Solutum est 1. First by Solvite that is dissolving is meant death * Phil. 4.23 Cupio dissolvi ye know 1 Sâ—lviâ—e Death a loosing what that is And Tâ—mpus dissolutionis meae instat the time of my dissolution that is my death is at hand For death is a very dissolution a loosing the caement the soule 2. Tim 4.6 and bodie are held togither with Which two as a frame or fabrique are compaginate at first and after as the timber from the lime or the lime from the stone so are they taken in sunder againe But death is not this way onely a loosing but a further then this For upon the loosing the soule from the bodie and life from both there followes an universall loosing of all the bonds and knotts heer of the Father from the Sonne and otherwhile of the Sonne from the Father first Of Man from Wife of friend from friend of Prince from people So great a Solvite is death makes all that is fast loose makes all knotts flye in sunder 2. And all this in naturall death But a further matter there is in Solvite 2 Solvite Violent For that is against nature alijs solventibus by the hands of other that are the Solventes them to whom this is spoken This Temple dropps not downe for age or weakenesse dissolves not of it selfe Others they to whom Solvite is heer sayd they pull it downe It is then no naturall but a violent death this Well therefore turned Solvite destroy it there is no destruction but with force or violence 3. So violent though on theirs as voluntarie yet on His part 3 Solvite Valuntarie Not against His will quite not by constraint For He Himselfe that is to be disâ—olved He it is doth heer say Solvite He could have avoyded it if He would He would
then the shovell and the Spade crying out at the houre of death both of the uncertainty of their riches of the uncertainty of the estate of their soules too This point this is a point of speciall importance to be spoken of by me and to be thought of by you I would GOD you would take it many times when GOD shall move you into sad consideration With a great affection and no lesse great truth said Chrysostome that heaven and earth and all the creatures in them if they had teares they would shedd them in great abundance to see a great many of us so carelesse in this point as we be It is the hand of the LORD and it is His gracious hand if we could see it that He in this manner maketh the world to totter and reele under us that we might not stay and rest upon it where certainty and stedfastnesse we shall never find but in Him above where onely they are to be found For if riches being so brittle and unsteady as they be men are so mad upon them if GOD had setled them in any certenty what would they have done What poore man 's right what widowe's copie or what Orphane's legacie should have been free from us The Iâ—I Point Trust in God Well then if riches be uncertaine whereto shall we trust If not in them where then It is the third point Charge them that be rich in this world that they be not high-minded neither trust in the uncertenty of riches but that they trust in GOD. It is the third point of the Charge in generall and the first of the affirmative part and conteineth Partly a Homage to be done for our riches to GOD and that is trust in Him And partly a rent charge layd upon our riches which is doing good And indeed Psal. 37.5 no other then David had said before Trust in the Lord and be doing good Saint Paul will batter down and lay flat our Castle but he will erect us another wherein we may trust Yea indeed so as Salomon did before setteth up a tower against the tower the Tower of the righteous which is the Name of the LORD against the Rich man's tower Pro. 18.10 which is as you have heard before his riches In stead of the Worldling's saith which is to make money an article of his faith teacheth us the faith of a Christian which is to vouchsafe none but GOD that honour Even so doth the Apostle heer and that for great reason Nam qui vult securus sperare speret in Eo qui non potest perire He that will trust and be secure in his trust let him trust in Him who himselâ—e never failed and never faileth those that put their trust in him in whom is no uncertainty Iam. 1.17 no not so much as any shadow of uncertainty Trust in him by looking to Him first yer we admitt any els into our conceipt and by looking to Him last and not looking beyond him to any as if we had a safer or trustier then He. And that because he is the living GOD as if he should say That you phaâ—sie to your selves to trust in is a dead idoll and not a living GOD and if ever you come to any dangerous disease you shall find it is an idoll dead in it self not hable to give it selfe life much lesse to another not hable to ransome the bodie from the death â—uch lesse the soule from hers not hable to recover life when it is gone nay not hable to preserve life when it is present not to remove death nay not to remove sicknesse not any sicknesse not the gout from your feet not the palsie from your hanâ—s nay not so much as the ache from your teeth not hable to add one haire to your head nor one haire 's bredth to your stature nor one houre to your dayes nor one minute to the houres of your life This moath-eaten God as our Saviour CHRIST calleth it this canker-eaten God this God that must be kept under locke and key from a thiefe trust not in it for shame O let it be never said the living trust in the dead Trust in the living GOD that liveth himselfe nay that is life himselfe in His Sonne that was hable to quicken himselfe and is hable to quicken you of whose gift and inspiration you have already this life by whose daily spirit and visitation your soule is preserved in this life in this mortall and corruptible life and of whose grace and mercie we looke for our other immortall and aeternall life Who not onely liveth but also giveth you c A living and a giving God that is that liveth and that giveth of whose gift you have not onely your life and terme of yeares but even also your riches themselves the very hornes that you lift so high and wherwith unnaturally many times you push against Him that gave them He giveth for the earth was the Lord's and all that therein is Psal 24.1.115.16 Ag 2.9 till the earth he gave unto the children of men And silver and Gold were the Lord's till not by a casuall scattering but by his appointed giving not by chance but by gift He made them thine He gave them â—â—ou broughtest none of them with thee into the world thou camest naked He gave them and when He gave them He might have given them to thy brother of low estate and made thee stand and ask at his door as He hath made him now stand and ask at thine He giveth you riches you get them not it is not your own wisdome or travaile that getteth them but His grace and goodnesse that giveth them For you see many men of as great understanding and foresight as your selves want not onely riches but even bread It is not your travaile except the Lord had given them Eccle. 9.11 all the early up-rising and late downe-lying had been in vaine It is GOD that giveth make your recognisance it is so for feare lest if you denie Dominus dedit Iob 1.21 you come to affirme Dominus abstulit GOD teacheth it was He that gave them by taking them away This is Saint Paul's reason let us see how it serves his conclusion to the overthrow of our vaine pride and foolish trust in them If it be gift Si accepisti quid gloriaris 1. Cor 4.7 be not proud of it And if it be gift He that sent it can call for it again trust not in it Who giveth us all things c All things spirituall or corporall temporall or aeternall little or great from the least and so upward from the greatest and so downward from panem quotidianum a morsell of bread to Regnum coelorum the Kingdome of heaven He giveth us all even unto Himselfe yea He giveth us himselfe and all and more we cannot desire Why then if He give all all are Donatives all that we hold we hold in franck almoigne and no other tenure
before and then that which is now life shall be then no life And then what is it the neerer What if Adam had lived till this morning what were he now the neerer Yet for all that as short and fraile as it is we do what possibly man can do to eeke it still and think our selves jolly wise men when we have done though we die next yeare after for all that If then with so great labour diligence earnestnesse endeavour care and cost we busy our selves sometimes to live for a while how ought we to desire to live for ever if for a time to put death away how to take death away cleane You desire life I am sure and long life and therefore a long life because it is long that is commeth somewhat neerer in some degree to aeternall life If you desire a long lasting life why doe you not desire an ever lasting life If a life of many yeares Psal. 101.28 which yet in the end shall faile why not that life whose yeares shall never faile If we say it is lack of witt or grace when any man runnes in danger of the law of man whereby haply he abridges himselfe of halfe a douzen yeares of his life what wit or grace is there wilfully to incurre the losse of aeternall life For indeed as in the beginning we sett downe it is a matter touching the losse of aeternall life we have in hand and withall touching the paine of aeternall death It is not a losse onely for we cannot lose life and become as a stone free from either if we leese our hold of this life aeternall death taketh hold upon us If we heape not up the treasure of immortalitie we heape up the treasure of wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Act. 8.20 If your wealth be not with us to life pecunia vestra vobiscum est in perditionem We have not farre to seeke for this For if now we turne our deafe eare to this Charge Verse 9. you shall fall into tentations fear ye not that Into many foolish and noisome lusts nor feare ye that neither yet feare whither these lead which drowne men inperdition and destruction of body and soule Feare ye not these doth the Lord thunder thus and are ye not moved Quibus verbis te curabo I know not how to do you good But let aeternall life prevaile Sure if life come not death comes There is as much said now not as I have to say but as the time would suffer Onely let me in a few words deliver the charge concerning this and so I will breake up the Court for this time And now Right Honourable beloved c albeit that according to the power that the Lord hath given us I might testifie and charge you in the presence of GOD the Father who quickeneth all things and of the Lord Iesus who shall shew himselfe from heaven with His mighty Angells in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them not onely that know not GOD but to them also that obey not the Gospell of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that ye thinke upon these things which you have heard to do them yet humanum dico for your infirmitie I will speake after the manner of men the nature of a man best loveth to be dealt withall and even beseech you by the mercies of GOD even of GOD the Father who hath loved you and given you an everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace and by the comming of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and our assembling unto Him that you receive not this Charge in vaine that ye account it His charge and not mine received of Him to deliver to you Looke not to me I beseech you in whom whatsoever you regard countenance or learning years or autoritie I do most willingly acknowledge my selfe farr unmeet to deliver any more meet a great deale to receive one my selfe save that I have obteined fellowship in this businesse in dispensing the Mysteries and delivering the Charges of the Lord. Looke not on me looke on your owne soules and have pitie on them Looke upon heaven and the Lord of heaven and earth from whom it commeth and of whom it will be one day called for againe Surely there is a heaven Surely there is a hell Surely there will be a day when enquirie shall be made how we have discharged that we have received of the Lord and how you have disâ—â—â—rged that you have received of us in the Lord's Name Against which day your consciences stand charged with many things at many times heard Wisd. 1.12 O seeke not death in the error of your life deceive not your selves think not that when my words shall be at an end both they shall vanish in the aire and you never heare of them againe Surely you shall the day is comming when it shall be required againe at your hands A fearefull day for all those that for a little riches thinke basely of others upon all those that repose in these vaine riches as they shall see then a vaine confidence upon all those that enjoy onely with the belly and the backe and doe either no good or miserable sparing good with their riches whose riches shall be with them to their destruction Beloved when your life shall have an end as an end it shall have when the terror of death shall be upon you when your soule shall be cited to appeare before GOD in novissimo I know and am perfectly assured all these things will come to mind againe you will perceive and feele that which possibly now you do not The devill 's charge commeth then who will presse these points in another manner then we can then it will be too late Prevent his charge I beseech you by regarding and remembring this now Now is the time while you may and have time wherein and abilitie wherewith thinke upon it and provide for aeternall life you shall never in your life stand in so great need of your riches as in that day provide for that day and provide for aeternall life It will not come yet it is true it will be long in comming but when it comes it will never have an end This end is so good that I will end with aeternall life which you see is Saint Paule's end It is his and the same shall be my end and I beseech GOD it may be all our ends To GOD immortall invisible and onely wise GOD who hath prepared this eternall life for us who hath taught us this day how to come unto it whose grace be ever with us and leave us not till it have thereto brought us the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost be all glorie power praise and thanksgiving now and for ever AMEN One of the Sermons upon the II. COMMANDEMENT PREACHED IN THE PARISH Church of S t. GILES Cripplegate Ian. IX AN. DOM. MDXCII ACTS CHAP. II. VER XLII And they continued in the APOSTLE'S Doctrine and Fellowship and Breaking of
â—o become a prisoner as 1. Reg. 1.43 Shemei did Therfore sweare and be sworne in those causes and questions whereto Law doth bind to give answere though Fine and Commitment doe ensue upon them This question remaineth If a man have sworne without those what he is to doe when an oath binds when it doth not We hold No man is so streightened between two sinns but without committing a third he may get forth Herod thought he could not and therfore being in a streight betwixt murder and periurie thought he could have no issue but by putting Saint Iohn Baptist to death It was not so for having sworne and his oath proving unlawfull if he had repented him of his unadvisednesse in swearing and gon no further he had had his issue without any new offense 1. If then We have sworne to be simply evill the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis vinculum iniquitatis 2. If it hinder a greater or higher good the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis impedimentum pietatis 3. If it be in things indifferent as we terme them absque grano salis it is a rash oath to be repented not to be executed 4. If the oath be simply made yet as we say it doth subiacere Civili intellectui so as GOD'S oath doth Ieremia 18.8 and therefore those conditions may exclude the event and the Oath remaine good 5. If in regard of the Manner it be extorted from us the rule is Iniusta vincula rumpit Iustitia 6. If rashly Penitenda promissio non perficienda praesumptio 7. If to any man for his benefit or for favour to him if that partie release it it bindeth not A SERMON PREACHED AT VVHITE-HALL upon the Sunday after EASTER being March XXX AN. DOM. MDC IOHN CHAP. XX. VER XXIII Quorum remiseritis peccata remittuntur eis Et quorum retinueritis retenta sunt VVhose-soever sinnes ye remitt they are remitted unto them and whose-soever ye reteine they are reteined The Conclusion of the Gospell for the Sunday THEY be the words of our SAVIOVR CHRIST to his Apostles A part of the first words which he spake to them at his Epiphanie or first apparition after he arose from the dead And they contein a Commission by him graunted to the Apostles which is the summe or contents of this Verse Which Commission is his first largesse after his rising againe For at his first appearing to them it pleased him not to come empty but with a blessing and to bestow on them and on the world by them as the first fruicts of his resurrection this Commission a part of that Commission which the sinfull world most of all stood in need of for remission of sinnes To the graunting wâ—â—reof He proceedeth not without some solemniâ—ie or circumstance The Summariâ— proceeding in it well worthy to be remembred For first Verse 21. he saith As my father sent me so send I you which is their authorizing or giving them their Credence Secondly Verse 22 He doth breath upon them and withall inspireth them with the Holy Ghost which is their enhabling or furnishing thereto And having so authorized and enhabled them now in this Verse heer He giveth them their Câ—mmission and thereby doth perfectly inaugurate thâ—m into this part of their Office A Commission is nothing els but the imparting of a power which before they had not First therefore he imperteth to them a power a power over sinnes over sinnes either for the remitting or the reteining of them as the persons shall be qualified And after to this power he addeth a promise as the Lawyers terme it of Ratihabition that he will ratifie and make it good that His power shall accompanie this power and the lawfull use of it in his Church for ever The dependence in respect of the time Why not before Esai 53.10 Heb. 9.22 Mat. 16.19.18.18 And very agreeably is this power now bestowed by him upon his resurrection Not so conveniently before his death because till then he had not made his soule an offering for sinne nor till then he had not shed his bloud without which there is no remission of sinnes Therefore it was promised before but not given till now because it was convenient there should be solutio before there were absolutio Not before he was risen then Why now And againe no longer then till he was risen not till he was ascended First to shew that the remission of sinnes is the undivided and immediate effect of his death Secondly to shew how much the world needed it for which cause he would not with-hold it no not so much as one day for this was done in the very day of his resurrection Thirdly But specially to set forth his great love and tender care over us in this that as soone as he had accomplished his owne resurrection even presently upon it he setts in hand with ours and beginneth the first part of it the very first day of his rising The Scripture maketh mention of a first and second death and from them two of a first and second resurrection Both expresly sett downe in one verse Apoc. 20.6 Happy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection for over such the second death hath no power Vnderstanding by the first the death of the soule by sinne and the rising thence to the life of grace by the second the death of the body by corruption the rising thence to the life of glorie CHRIST truly is the Saviour of the whole man both soule and body from the first and second death But beginneth first with the first that is with sinne the death of the soule and the rising from it So is the method of Divinitie prescribed by himselfe Mat. 23.16 First to cleanse that which is within the soule then that which is without the body And so is the methode of Physique first to cure the cause and then the disease 1. Cor. 15 56. Now the cause or as the Apostle calleth it the sling of death is sinne Therefore first to remove sinne and then death aâ—â—erwards For the cure of sinne being performed the other will follow of his owne accord As Saint Iohn telleth us He that hath his part in the first resurrection shall not faile of it in the second The first resurrection then from sinne is it which our Saviour Christ heer goeth about wherto there is no lesse power required then a divine power For looke what power is necessarie to raise the dead bodie out of the dust the very same every way is requisite to raise the dead soule out of sinne For which cause the Remission of sinnes is an Article of faith no lesse then the Resurrection of the body For in very deed a resurrection it is and so it is termed no lesse then that To the service and ministerie of which divine worke a Commission is heere graunted to the Apostles And first they have heer their sending from GOD the Father their inspiring
that is their durance Our time is proclaimed in the Prophet Flesh All flesh is grasse and the glorie of it as the floure of the field From Aprill to Iune Esa. 40.6 The scithe commeth nay the wind but bloweth and we are gone Withering sooner then the grasse which is short Nay fading sooner then the flower of the grasse which is much shorter Iob 4.19 Nay saith Iob rubbed in peeces more easily then any moth This we are to them if you lay vs together And if you weigh vs vpon the ballance Men by themselues Psal. 62.11 Psal. 144.14 we are altogether lighter then vanitie it selfe There is our weight And if you value vs Man is but a thing of nought There is our worth Hoc est omnis homo This is Abraham and this is Abrahams seede And who would stand to compare these with Angells Verily there is no comparison They are incomparably farr better then the best of vs. Now then this is the rule of reason the guide of all choice Evermore to take the better and leave the worse Thus would man do Haec est lex hominis Heer then commeth the matter of admiration Notwithstanding these things stand thus between the Angells and Abrahams seed They Spirits glorious heavenly immortall yet tooke He not them yet in no wise tooke He them But the seede of Abraham The seed of Abraham with their bodies vile bodies earthly bodies of clay bodies of mortalitie corruption and death These He tooke these He tooke for all that Angells and not men So in reason it should be Men and not Angells So it is And that granted to vs that denied to them Granted to us so base that denied them so glorious Denied and strongly denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not not in any wise not at any hand to them They every way in every thing els above and before vs in this beneath and behind vs. And we vnworthy wretched men that we are above and before the Angells the Cherubim the Seraphim and all the Principalities and Thrones in this dignitie This being beyond the rules and reach of all reason is surely matter of astonishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith S. Chrysostome this it casteth me into an extasie and maketh me to imagine of our Nature some great matter 1. Sam. 3.18 I cannot well expresse what Thus it is It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good in his owne eyes II. Wherein they are coÌ„pared And with this I passe over to the second point This little is enough to shew what odds between the Parties heer matched It wil much better appeare this when we shall weigh the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wherin they are matched Wherin two degrees we obserued 1. Apprehendit and 2. apprehendit Semen I. In apprehendit he took 1. Of apprehendit first Many words were more obvious and offered themselves to the Apostle no doubt Suscepit or Assumpsit or other such like This word was sought for certeinly and made choise of saith the Greeke Scholiast And he can best tell vs It is no common word Oâ—cumen in locum And tell vs also what it weigheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word supposeth a flight of the one partie and a pursuit of the other A pursuit eager and so long till he overtake and when he hath overtaken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehendens laying fast hold and seizing surely on him So two things it supposeth 1 a flight of the one and 2 a hot pursuit of the other It may well suppose a flight For of the * Ind v. 6. Gen. 3.8 Angells there were that fled that kept not there originall but forsooke and fell away from there first estate And Man fell and fled too and hid himselfe in the thicke trees from the presence of God And this is the first yssue Vpon the Angells flight he stirred not satt still neuer vouchsafed to follow them Let them goe whither they would as if they had not been worth the while Nay He never assumed ought by way of promise for them No promise in the Old to be borne and to suffer No Gospell in the New Testament neither was borne nor suffered for them But when Man fell He did all Made after him presently with Vbiâ—s sought to reclaime him What haue you done Why haue you done so Protested enmitie to him that had drawne him thus away Gen. 3.9 Made his assumpsit of the Womans seede And which is more when that would not serve sent after him still by the hand of his Prophets to sollicit his returne And which is yet more when that would not serue neither went after him Himself in person left his ninety and nine in the fold and gott him after the lost sheepe Neuer left till he found him Luk. 15.5 layed him on His owne shoulders and brought him home againe It was much even but to looke after us to respect vs so farr who were not worth the cast of His eie Much to call vs backe or vouchsafe vs an Vbies But more when we came not for all that to send after vs. For if He had but onely been content to give vs leave to come to Him againe but given vs leave to lay hold on Him to touch but the hemme of His garment Himselfe sitting still and neuer calling to vs nor sending after vs it had been favour enough farr above that we were worth But not only to send by others Psal. 40 7. but to come Himselfe after vs to say Corpus apta mihi Ecce venio Gett me a bodie I will my selfe after him this was exceeding much That we fled and He followed vs flying But yet this is not all This is but to follow He not onely followed but did it so with such eagernesse with such earnestnesse as that is worthy a second consideration To follow is somewhat yet that may be done faintly and a farr of But to follow through thicke and thinn to follow hard and not to give over never to give over till he overtake that is it And He gave not over His pursuit though it were long and laborious and He full wearie though it cast Him into a sweate a sweate of bloud Angelis suis non pepercit saith S. Peter 2. Pet. 2.4 The Angells offending He spared not them Man offending He spared Him and to spare Him saith S. Paul He spared not His own Son Nor His own sonne spared not Himself but folâ—owed his pursuit through danger distresse yea through death it selfe Followed and so followed as nothing made Him leave following till He overtooke And when He had overtaken for those two are but presupposed the more kindly to bring in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I say he had overtaken them commeth in fitly and properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is not every taking not suscipere or assumere But manum injicere
and as much as in us lies Heb. 6.6 even crucifie afresh the SONNE OF GOD making a mocke of Him and His piercings These I say for these all and every of them in that instant were before his eyes must of force enter into and go thorow and thorow his Soule and Spirit that what with those former sorrowes and what with these after indignities the Prophet might truly say of Him and he of himselfe In Me Vpon Me not whose body or whose soule but whom entirely and wholly both in body and soule alive and dead they have pierced and passioned this day on the Crosse. 2. The Person à quibus Of the Persons which as it is necessarily implied in the word is very properly incident to the matter it selfe For it is usuall when one is found slaine as heere to make inquirie by whom he came by his death Which so much the rather is to be done by us because there is commonly an error in the world touching the Parties that were the causes of CHRIST 's death Our manner is either to lay it on the Souldiers that were the Instruments Or if not upon them upon Pilate and Iudge that gave sentence Or if not upon him upon the people that importuned the Iudge Or lastly if not upon them upon the Elders of the Iewes that animated the People And this is all to be found by our Quest of Inquirie But the Prophet heere inditeth others For by saying They shall looke c whom They have pierced he entendeth by very construction that the first and second They are not two but one and the same Parties And that they that are here willed to looke upon him are they and none other that were the authors of this fact even of the murther of IESVS CHRIST And to say truth the Prophet's entent is no other but to bring the malefactors themselves that pierced Him to view the body and the wounded heart of Him whom they have so pierced In the course of Iustice we say and say truly when a party is put to death that the Executioner cannot be said to be the cause of his death nor the Sherif by whose commandement he doth it neither yet the Iudge by whose sentence nor the Twelve men by whose verdict nor the Lawe it selfe by whose authoritie it is proceeded in For GOD forbid we should endite these or any of these of murther Solum peccatum homicida Sinne and Sinne onely is the murtherer Sinne I say either of the Party that suffereth or of some other by whose meanes or for whose cause he is put to death Now CHRIST 's owne sinne it was not that he died for That is most evident Not so much by His owne challenge Ioh. 8·46 Quis ex vobis a guit me de peccato as by the report of his Iudge who openly professed that he had examined Him and found no fault in Him No nor yet Herod for Luc. 23.14 15. being sent to him and examined by him also nothing worthy death was found in Him And therefore calling for water and washing his hands Matt. 27.24 he protesteth his owne innocencie of the bloud of this IVST MAN Thereby pronouncing him Iust and void of any cause in himselfe of his owne death It must then necessarily be the sinne of some others for whose sake CHRIST IESVS was thus pierced And if we aske who those others be or whose sinnes they were the Prophet Esai tells us Esa. 53.3 4. Posuit super Eum iniquitates omnium nostrûm He laid upon Him the transgressions of us all who should even for those our many great and grievous transgressions have eternally been pierced in bodie and soule with torment and sorrowes of a never dying death had not he stept between us and the blow and receiv'd it in his owne body even the dint of the wrath of GOD to come upon us So that it was the sinne of our polluted hands that pierced his hands the swiftnesse of our feet to do evill that nailed His feet the wicked devises of our Heads that gored his head and the wretched desires of our hearts that pierced his heart We that looke upon it is we that pierced Him and it is we that pierced Him that are willed to looke upon Him Which bringeth it home to us to me my selfe that speake and to you your selves that heare and applieth it most effectually to every one of us who evidently seeing that we were the cause of this his piercing if our hearts be not too too hard ought to have remorse to be pierced with it When for delivering to DAVID a few loaves Ahimelech and the Priests were by Saul put to the sword if David did then acknowledge with griefe of heart and say I 1. Sam. 22.22 even I am the cause of the death of thâ— Father anâ— all his house when he was but onely the occasion of it and not that direct neither may not we nay ought not we much more juâ—â—ly and deservedly say of this piercing of CHRIST our Saviour that we verily even we are the cause thereof as verily we are even the principalls in this murther and the Iewes and others on whom we seeke to derive it but onely accessaries and instrumentall causes thereof Which point we ought as continually so seriously to thiâ—k of and that no lesse then the former The former to stirre up compassion in our selves over him that thus was pierced the latter to worke deâ—pâ— remorse in our hearts for being authors of it That he was pierced will make our bowells melt with compassion over CHRIST That he was pierced by us â—hat looke on Him if our hearts be not flint as Iob saith or as the nether mil-stone Iob. 41.15 will breed remorse over our selves wretched sinners as we are II. The Act. To looke upon Him The Act followeth in these words Respicient in Eum. A request most reasonable to looke upon Him but to looke upon Him to bestow but a looke and nothing els which even of common humanitie we cannot denie Quia non aspicere despicere est It argueth great contempt not to vouchsafe it the cast of our eye as if it were an Obiect utterly unworthy the looking toward Truely if we marke it well nature it selfe of it selfe enclineth to this act When Amasa treacherously was slaine by Ioab and lay weltring in his blood by the waies side the storie saith that not one of the whole Armie then marching by but when he came at him 2. Sam. 22.12 stood still and looked on him In the Gospell the party that going from Ierusalem to Iericho vvas spoiled and wounded and lay drawing on though the Priest and Levite that passed neere the place relieved him not as the Samaritan after did yet it is said of them Luc. 31 32. they went neere and looked on and then passed on their way Which desire is even naturall in us so that even Nature it selfe enclineth us to
once That is that we not only dye to sinne and live to GOD but dye and live as He did that is once for all which is an utter abandoning once of sinn's dominion and a continuall constant persisting in a good course once begoon Sinn 's dominion it languisheth sometimes in us and falleth haply into a 〈◊〉 but it dyeth not quite once for all Grace lifteth up the eye and looketh up a little and giveth some signe of life but never perfectly reviveth O that â—nce we might come to this No more deaths no more resurrections but one that we might â—nce make an end of our daily continuall recidivations to which we are so subiect and once get past these pangs and qualmes of godlinesse this righteousnesse like the morning cloud which is all we performe that we might grow habituate in grace radicati fundati rooted and founded in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 steddie Ephes. 3.17 1. Cor. 15. vlt. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to be remooved that so we might enter into and passe a good accompt of this our Similiter vos â— The Discharge and meanes of it Iâ— Iesus Christ our Lord. And thus are we come to the foot of our accompt which is our Onus or Charge Now we must thinke of our discharge to goe about it which maketh the last words no lesse necessarie for us to consider then all the rest For what is it in us or can we by our owne power and vertue make up this accompt We cannot saith the Apostle 2. Cor. 3.5 nay we cannot saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make accompt of any thing no not so much as of a good thought toward it as of our selves If any thinke otherwise let him but prove his owne strength a little what he can do he shall be so confounded in it as he shall change his minde saith Saint Augustine and see plainely the Apostle had reason to shut up all with In Christo Iesu Domino nostro otherwise our accompt will sticke in our hands Verily to raise a soule from the death of sinne is harder farr harder then to raise a dead bodie out of the dust of death Saint Augustine hath long since defined it that Marie Magdalen's resurrection in soule from her long lying dead in sinne was a greater miracle then her brother Lazaru's resurrection that had lyen foure daies in his grave If Lazarus lay dead before us we would never assay to raise him our selves we know we cannot doe it If we cannot raise Lazarus that is the easier of the twaine we shall never Marie Magdalen which is the harder by farre out of Him or without Him that raised them both But as out of Christ or without Christ we can doe nothing toward this accompt Not accomplish or bring to perfection but not do not any great or notable summe of it Ioh. 15.5 but nothing at all as saith Saint Augustine upon Sine me nihil potestit facere So in Him and with Him enhabling us to it we can thinke good thoughts speake good words and doe good workes and dye to sinne and live to GOD and all Omnia possum saith the Apostle Phil. 4.13 And enable us He will and can as not onely having passed the resurrection but being the resurrection it selfe not onely had the effect of it in himselfe but being the cause of it to us So He saith himselfe I am the resurrection Ioh. 11.25 and the life the resurrection to them that are dead in sinne to raise them from it and the life to them that live vnto GOD to preserve them in it Where beside the two former 1 the Article of the resurrection which we are to know 2 and the Example of the resurrection which we are to be like we come to the notice of a third thing even a vertue or power flowing from Christ's resurrection whereby we are made able to expresse our Similiter vos and to passe this our accompt of dying to sinne and living to GOD. It is in plaine words called by the Apostle himselfe virtus resurrectionis Phil. 3.10 the vertue of CHRIST 's resurrection issuing from it to us and he praieth that as he had a faith of the former so he may have a feeling of this and as of them he had a contemplative so he may of this have an experimentall knowledge This enhabling vertue proceedeth from Christ's resurrection For never let us thinke that if in the daies of His flesh there went vertue out from even the verie edge of his garment Luk. 8.46 to doe great cures as in the case of the woman with the bloudie issue we reade but that from His owne selfe and from those two most principall and powerfull actions of His owne selfe his 1 death and 2 resurrection there issueth a divine power from His death a power working on the old man or flesh to mortifie it from His resurrection a power working on the new man the Spirit to quicken it A power hable to râ—ll backe any stone of an evill custome lye it never so heavy on us a power hable to drie up any issue though it have runne upon us twelve yeare long And this power is nothing els but that divine qualitie of grace which we receive from Him 2. Cor. 6.1 Receive it from Him we doe certainely onely let us pray and 〈◊〉 ouâ— selâ—es that we receive it not in vaine the Holy Ghost by waies to flesh 〈…〉 vnknowne inspiring it as a breath distilling it as a dew deriving it as a secret inflâ—ence into the soule For if Philosophie grant an invisible operation in us to the câ—lestiall bodies much better may we yeeld it to His aeternall Spirit whereby 〈◊〉 a vertue or breath may proceed from it and be received of us Which breath or Spirit is drawen in by Prayer and such other exercises of devotion on our parts and on GOD 's part breathed in by and with the Word well therefore termed by the Apostle the Word of grace And I may safely say it Act. 20.32 with good warrant from those words especially and chiefly which as He himselfe saith of them are Spirit and Life even those words which ioyned to the element Ioh. 6.63 make the blessed Sacrament There was good proofe made of it this day All the way did He preach to them even till they came to Emmaus and their hearts were whot within them which was a good signe but their eyes were not opened but at the breaking of bread Luk. 24.31 and then they were That is the best and surest sense we know and therefore most to be accompted of There we tast and there we see Tast and see how gratious the Lord is Psal. 34.8 1. Cor. 12.18 Heb 13.9 Heb 9.14 There we are made to drinke of the Spirit There our hearts are strengthened and stablished with grace There is the bloud which shall purge our consciences from dead
and so risen that is to speake after the manner of men that there is in Christ a double capacitie 1 One as a body naturall considered by himselfe without any relative respect vnto us or to any In which regard well may we be glad as one stranger is for another but otherwise His rising concernes us not at all 2 Then that He hath a second as a body Politique or chiefe part of a Companie or Corporation that have to him and he to them a mutuall and reciprocall reference In which respect His resurrection may concerne us no lesse then himselfe It is that he giveth us the first Item of in the word Primitiae that Christ in His rising commeth not to be considered as a Totum integrale or body naturall alone as Christ onely but that which maketh for us He hath besides another capacitie that He is a part of a corporation or body of which bodie we are the members This being woon looke what he hath suffered or done it perteineth to us and we have our part in it You shall finde and Aâ— a part of the whole ever when you finde such words make much of them Christ called a a Ephes. 1.22 Head a Head is a part Christ called a b Apoc. 22.16 Root a Root is a part and heer Christ called first fruits which we all know is but a part of the fruits but a handfull of a heape or a sheafe and referreth to the rest of the fruits as a part to the whole So that there is in the Apostles conceipt one masse or heape of all mankinde of which Christ is the first fruits we the remainder So as by the Law of the body all His concerne us no lesse then they doe Him whatsoever He did He did to our behoofe Die He or rise we have our part in His death and in His resurrection and all why because He is but the first fruits And if He were but Primus and not Primitiae dormientium there were hope For Primus is an ordinall number and draweth after a second a third and GOD knoweth how many But if in that word there be any scruple as sometime it is Ante quem non est rather then post quem est alius if no more come but one all the world knowes the first fruits is but a part of the fruits there are fruits beside them no man knoweth how many As a part for the whole But that which is more The first fruicts is not every part but such a part as representeth the whole and hath an operative force over the whole For the better understanding whereof we are to have recourse to the Law to the very institution or first beginning of them Levit. 23.10 Ever the Legall ceremonie is a good key to the Evangelicall mysterie Thereby we shall see why saint Paul made choise of the word first fruicts to expresse Himselfe by that he useth verbum vigilans a word that is awake as Saint Augustine saith or as Salomon a word upon his own wheel Pro. 25.11 The Head or the root would have served for if the head be above the water there is hope for the whole body and if the Root have life the braunches shall not long be without yet he refuseth these and other that offered themselves and chooseth rather the terme of first fruicts And why so This very day Easter day the day of CHRIST 's rising according to the Law is the day or feast of the first fruicts the very Feast carieth him to the word nothing could be more fit or seasonable for the time The day of the Passion is the day of the Passover Chap. 5.7 and CHRIST is our Passover the day of the Resurrection is the day of the first fruicts and CHRIST is our first fruicts And this terme thus chosen you shall see there is a very apt and proper resemblance between the resurrection and it The rite and manner of the first fruictes thus it was Vnder the Law they might not eate of the fruicts of the earth so long as they were prophane Prophane they were untill they were sacred And on this wise were they sacred Levit. 23.10.11.14 All the sheaves in a field for example's sake were unholy One sheaf is taken out of all the rest which sheafe we call the first fruicts That in the name of the rest is lift up aloft and shaken to and fro before the LORD and so consecrated That done not onely the sheafe so lifted up was holy though that alone was lift up but all the sheaves in the field were holy no lesse then it The rule is Ro. 11.16 If the first fruicts be holy all the lumpe is so too 2. Co. 5.14 And thus for all the world fareth it in the Resurrection We were all dead saith the Apostle dead sheaves all One and that is CHRIST this day the day of first fruits was in manner of a sheafe taken out of the number of the dead and in the name of the rest lift up from the grave and in His rising He shooke for there was a great Earth-quake Matt. 28.2 By vertue whereof the first fruits being restored to life all the rest of the dead are in Him entitled to the same hope in that He was not so lift up for himselfe alone but for us and in our names And so the substance of this Feast fulfilled in CHRIST 's resurrection Not of the dead but Of â—hem that sleepe Our Hope Now upon this lifting up there ensueth a very great alteration if you please to marke it It was even now CHRIST is risen from the dead the first fruits it should be of the dead too for from thence He rose it is not so but the first fruits of them that sleepe that you may see the consecration hath wrought a change A change and a great change certainly to change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a buriall place into a coemeterie that is a great Dortor Graves into beddes Death into sleepe Dead men into men layd downe to take their rest a rest of hope of hope to rise againe If they sleepe Ioh. 11.12 they shall doe well And that which lyeth open in the word Dormientium the very same is enfolded in the word first fruits Either word affordeth comfort For first fruits imply fruits And so we as the fruits of the earth falling as do the graines or kernells into the ground and there lying to all mens seeming putrified and past hope yet on a sodeine against the great Feast of first fruits shooting forth of the ground againe The other of Dormientium the Apostle letteth goe and fastens on this of fruits and followeth it hard through the rest of the Chapter shewing that the rising againe of the fruits sowen Ver. 36. would be no lesse incredible then the resurrection but that we see it so every yeare These two words of 1 sleeping and 2 sowing
CHRIST was the utter making it void So Iudgement was entred and an Act made CHRIST should be restored to life And because He came not for Himself but for us and in our name and stead did represent us and so we virtually in Him by His restoring we also were restored By the rule si Primitae tota conspersio sic as the First fruicts go Rom. 11.16 so goeth the whole lumpe as the Roote the branches And thus we have gotten life againe of mankind by passing this Act of Restitution whereby we have hope to be restored to life But life is a terme of latitude and admitteth a broad difference which it behooveth us much that we know Two lives there be In the holy Tongue the word which signifieth life is of the duall number to shew us there is a dualitie of lives that two there be and that we to have an eye to both It will helpe us to understand our Text. For all restored to life All to one not all to both The Apostle doth after at the 44 Verse expressly name them both 1 One a Naturall life or life by the living soule The other â— a Spirituall life or life by the quickening Spirit Of these two Adam at the time of his fall had the first of a living soule was seised of it and of him all mankind Christ and we all receive that life But the other the Spirituall which is the life cheifly to be accompted of that he then had not not actually Onely a possibilitie he had if he had held him in obedience and walked with GOD to have been translated to that other life For cleer it is the life which Angells now live with GOD and which we have hope and promise to live with Him Luc. 20.36 after our restoring when we shall be aequall to the Angells that life Adam at the time of his fall was not possessed of Now Adam by his fall fell from both forfeited both estates Not onely that he had in reversion by not fullfilling the conditions but even that he had in esse too For even on that also did Death seise after Et mortuus est CHRIST in his restitution to all the sonnes of Adam to all our whole nature restoreth the former therefore all have interest all shall partake that life What Adam actually had we shall actually have we shall all be restored To repaire our nature He came and repaire it He did all is given againe really that in Adam really we lost touching Nature So that by his fall no detriment at all that way The other the second that He restoreth too but not promiscuè as the former to all Why for Adam was never seised of it performed not that whereunto the possibilitie was annexed and so had in it but a defeicible estate But then by His speciall grace by a second peculiar act He hath enabled us to atteine the second estate also which Adam had onely a reversion of and lost by breaking of the condition whereto it was limited And so to this second restored so many as to vse the Apostle's words in the next verse are in Him that is so many as are not only of that masse or lump whereof Adam was the first fruits for they are interessed in the former onely but that are besides of the nova conspersio whereof CHRIST is the Primitiae a Ioh. 1.12 They that beleeve in Him saith Saint Iohn them He hath enabled b Ioh. 20.17 to them He hath given power to become the sonnes of GOD to whom therefore He saith this day rising Vado ad Patrem vestrum In which respect the Apostle calleth Him c Rom. 8.29 Primogenitum inter multos fratres Or to make the comparison even to those that are to speake but as d Esay 8. â—â— Esay speaketh of them His children Behold I and the the children GOD hath given me The terme He vseth Himselfe to them after His resurrection and calleth them Children And they as His familie take denomination of Him Christians of CHRIST Of these two lives the first we need take no thought for It shall be of all the vnjust as well as the iust The life of the living soule shall be to all restored All our thought is to be for the later how to have our part in that supernaturall life for that is indeed to be restored to life For the former though it carie the name of life yet it may well be disputed and is Whether it be rather a death then a life or a life then a death A life it is and not a life for it hath no living thing in it A death it is and not a death for it is an immortall death But most certaine it is call it life if you will they that shall live that life shall wish for death rather then it and this is the miserie not have their wish for death shall flie from them Out of this double life and double restoring there grow two Resurrections in the world to come set downe by our SAVIOVR in expresse termes Ioh. 5. â—9 Though both be to life yet 1 that is called condemnation to judgement and 2 this onely Heb. 11.35 to life Of these the Apostle calleth one the better resurrection the better beyond all comparison To atteine this then we bend all our endeavours that seeing the other will come of it selfe without taking any thought for it at all we may make sure of this To compasse that then we must be in CHRIST So it is in the next verse To all but to every one in order CHRIST first the first fruits and then they that be in Him Now He is in us by our flesh and we in Him by His Spirit and it standeth with good reason they that be restored to life should be restored to the Spirit For the Spirit is the cause of all life but specially of the Spirituall life which we seeke for His Spirit then we must possesse our selves of and we must doe that heere for it is but one and the same Spirit that raiseth our soules heere from the death of Sinne Rom. 8.11 and the same that shall raise our bodies there from the dust of death Of which Spirit there is first fruits to reteine the words of the Text and a fullnesse But the fullnesse in this life we shall never atteine Our highest degree heer is but to be of the number whereof he was that said Et nos habentes primitias Spiritus Rom. 8 23. These first fruits we first receive in our Baptisme which is to us Tit. 3.5 our Laver of regeneration and of our renewing by the holy Spirit where we are made and consecrate Primitiae Heb. 12.1 But as we need be restored to life so I doubt had we need to be restored to the Spirit too We are at many losses of it by this sinne that cleaveth so faâ—t to us I doubt it is with us as
Resurrection stayd longest at that came soonest to this Even in this respect to be respected Sure as it is said of the Law Vigilantibus non dormientibus succurrit lex so may it no lesse truly be said of the Gospell We see it heere it commeth not to sleepers but to them that are awake and up and about their businesse as these Women were So that there was a capacitie in them to receive this prerogative Marie Magdalen first Before I leave this part of the Parties I may not omit to observe Marie Magdalen's place and precedence among the three All the Fathers are carefull to note it That she standeth first of them For it seemeth no good order She had had seven divells in her as we finde Luk. 7.37 Verse 9. She had had the blemish to be called Peccatrix as one famous and notorious in that kinde The other were of honest report and never so stained Yet is she named with them With them were much but not onely with them but before them With them and that is to shew Christ's resurrection as well as His Death reacheth to Sinners of both sexes And that to Sinners of note no lesse then those that seeme not to have greatly gone astray But before them too And that is indeed to be noted that she is the first in the list of Women and Saint Peter in that of men These two the two chiefe Sinners either of their sexe Yet they Col. 1.12 the two whose lots came first forth in Sorte Sanctorum in pertaking this newes And this to shew that chiefe Sinners as these were if they carrie themselves Luk. 15.22 as these did shall be at no losse by their fall shall not onely be pardoned but honored even as he was like these with stolâ primâ the first robe in all the Wardrobe and stand foremost of all And it is not without a touch of the former reason In that the Sinner after his recoverie for the most part seeketh GOD more fervently Whereas they that have not greatly gone astray are but even so so if warme it is all And with GOD it is a Rule Plus valet hora fervens quà m mensis tepens An hower of fervor more worth then a month of tepor Now such was Marie Magdalen heere and elsewhere vouchsafed therefore this degree of exaltation to be of the first three nay to be the first of the three that heard first of His rising Yea as in the ninth Verse that first saw Him risen from the dead This of the Persons 2. Sam. 23.19 And now because their endeuours were so well liked 2. Their iourney and therein thâ—ir love as they were for them counted worthy this so great honor it falleth next to consider what those were that we being like prepared may partake the like good happ So seeking as they we may finde as they did They were foure in number The first and third in the II. the second in the I. and the last in the III. verse All reduced as CHRIST reduced them in Marie Magdalene to Dilexit multum their great Love Of which these foure be foure Demonstrations Or if love be an Ensigne as it is termed Cant. 2. the foure Colours of it 1. That they went to the Sepulcher Love Cant. 2.4 to one dead 2. That they bought pretious odours Love that is at charges 3. That out they went early before breake of day Love that will take paines 4. That for all the stone still they went on Love that will wrestle with impediments The first is constant as to the dead The second bounteous as aâ— expense The third diligent as up betimes The last resolute be the stone never so great According to which foure are the foure denominations of Love 1 Amor â— morte when it surviveth death 2 When it buyeth dearely it is Charitas â— When it sheweth all diligence it is Dilectio 4 When it goeth per Saxa when stones cannot stay it it is Zelus which is specially seene in encountâ—ing 〈◊〉 It shall not be amisse to touch them severally it will serve to touch our Love whether ours be of the same assay The first riseth out of these words They went to the Sepulcher 1 Love to the dead Amor. And indeed ex totâ substantiâ out of the whole Text. For for whom is all this adoe is it not for CHRIST But CHRIST is dead and buried three daies since and this is now the third day What then though He be dead to their love He liveth still Death may take His body from their eyes but shall never take His remembrance from their hearts Heerein is Love this the first Colour saith a great Master in that facultie Fortis sicut Mâ—rs Love Cant. 8 6. that death cannot foile but continueth to the dead as if they still were alive And when I say the dead I meane not such as the dead hath left behind them though that be a vertue and BOOZ worthily blessed for it Path 2 20. that shewed mercie to the living for the dead's sake but I meane performing offices of love to the dead himselfe To see he have a Sepulcher to goe to Not so to burie his friend as he would burie his Asse being dead To see he have one and not thither to bring him and there to leave him and burie him and his memorie both in a grave Such is the world's love SALOMON sheweth it Eccle 9.4 by the Lion and the Dog All after CHRIST living But goe to His Sepulcher who will not we The love that goeth thither that burieth not the memorie of Him that is buried is Love indeed The iourney to the Sepulcher is Iter amoris a a Love that was aâ— charges â—â—aritas â—on 11.31 had it beene but to lament as Marie Magdalen to Lazaru's Iohn 11. But then heer is a farther matter They went to annoint Him That is set for another signe that they spâ—red for no cost but bought pretious odours wherewith to embalme Him 1. To goe to annoint CHRIST is kindly It is to make him CHRIST that is Annointed That terme referreth principally to His Father's annointing I grant but what if we also annoint Him will he take it in evill part Cleerely not Neither quick nor dead Not quick Luk. 7. Mâ—r. 14. Not dead this place is pregnant it is the end of their journey to doe this He is well content to be their Luk. 7.46 Mar. 14.3 and our Annointed Not His Father's onely yea it is a way to make Him Christum nostrum Our CHRIST if we breake our boxes and bestow our odours vpon Him 2. To Annoint Him And not with some odd cast ointment lying by them kept a little too long to throw away upon Him But to buy to be a Ì„t cost to doe it Emptis odoribus with bought odours 3. This to doe to Him alive that would they with all their hearts But if that cannot be to doe it
in white And white is the colour of gladnesse 4 Clothed in white as we finde Eccl. 9.8 All to shew still that it shall be a state as of Strength Rest and Honour so of Ioy likewise And that robe-wise not short or skant but as his stoale all over downe to the ground Neither serves it alone to shew us what then we shall be but withall what now we ought to be this day the day of His Rising In that we see that Matt. 27.45 as the heavens at the time of His Passion were in black by the great Eclipse shewing us it was then a time of mourning so this day the Angells were all in white to teach us thereby with what affection with how great Ioy and gladnesse we are to celebrate and solemnize this Feast of our SAVIOVR 's rising Their affection heere was otherwise And that is somewhat strange 3. Their affâ—cting therewith In the Apparition there was nothing fearefull as ye see yet is it said they were afraid Even now they feared nothing and now they fall to be afraid at this so comfortable a sight Had they beene guilty to themselves of any evill they came to doe well might they then have feared GOD first as the Malefactor doth the Iudge and then His Angell as the Executioner of His Wrath. But their comming was for good But I finde it is not the Sinner's case onely but even the best 's of our nature Looke the Scripture a Gen. 15.12 Abraham and b 28 17. Iacob in the Old c Luk. 1.12 Zacharie and the d â—9 Blessed Virgin in the New all strooken with feare still at the sight of good Angells Yea even then when they came for their good It fareth with the Angells of light as it doth with the light it selfe Sore eyes and weake cannot endure it No more can Sinners them No more can the strongest sight neither beare the light if the Object be too excellent if it be not tempered to a certaine proportion Otherwise even to the best that is is the light offensive And that is their case Afraid they are not for any evill they were about but for that our verie nature is now so decayed Vt lâ—cem ad quam nata est sustinere nequeat as the Angell's brightnesse for whose societie we were created yet as now we are beare it we cannot but need to be comforted at the sight of a comfortable Angell It is not the Messenger Angelicall but the Message Evangelicall that must doe it Which leadeth us along from the Vision that feared them III. The Message to the Message it selfe that releeved them which is the third part The stone lay not more heavie on the grave then did that feare on their hearts pressing them downe hard And no lesse needfull was it the Angell should roll it away this spirituall great stone from their hearts then he did that other materiall from the Sepulcher it selfe With that he beginnes 1. Feare not 1. Feare not A meet Text for him that maketh a Sermon at a Sepulcher For Heb. 2.15 the feare of that place maketh us out of quiet all our life long Heb. 2. It lyeth at our heart like a stone and no way there is to make us willing to goe thither but by putting us out of feare by putting us in hope that the great stones shall be rolled away againe from our Sepulchers and we from thence rise to a better life It is a right beginning for an Easter day's Sermon Nolite timere 2. And a good reason he yeelds why not For it is not every bodies case this Nolite timere vos feare not You Why not For You seeke IESVS of NAZARETH which hath beene crucified Nazareth might keepe you backe the meanesse of His Birth and Crucified more the reproch of His Death In-as-much as these cannot let you but ye seeke Him are ashamed neither of His poore birth nor of His shamefull death but seeke Him And seeke Him not as some did when He was alive when good was to be done by Him but even now dead when nothing is to be gotten And not to robb or rifle Him but to embalme Him an office of love and kindnesse this touched before feare not You nor let any feare that so seeke Him Now that they may not feare he imparts them his Message full of comfort And it containeth foure comforts of Hope answerable to the foure former proofes of their Love 1 He is risen 2 But gone before you 3 Ye shall see Him 4 All his Disciples Peter and all Goe tell them so 1 He is risen In that you thus testifie your love in seeking Him I dare say ye had rather He ye thus come to embalme that He were alive againe and no more ioyfull tydings could come to you then that He were so Ye could I dare say with all your hearts be content to lose all your charge you have beene at in buying your odours on condition it were so Therefore I certifie you that He is alive He is risen No more then Gaza gates could hold SAMSON or the Whale Iud. 16.3 Ion. 2.10 IONAS no more could this stone keepe Him in the Sepulcher but risen He is First of this ye were sure heer He was ye were at His laying in ye saw the stone sealed and the Watch sett so that heere He was But heere He is not now Come see the place trust your owne eyes Non est hic But what of that this is but a lame consequence for all that He is not heere therefore He is risen For may it not be He hath beene taken away Not with any likely-hood though such a thing will be given out that the Disciples stole him away while the watch was asleepe Matt. 28.13 But your reason will give you 1. Small probabilitie there is they could be asleepe all the ground shaking and tottering vnder them by meanes of the Matt. 28.2 earth-quake 2. And secondly if they did sleepe for all that yet then could they not tell sleeping how or by whom He was taken away 3. And thirdly that His Disciples should doe it they you know of all other were vtterly vnlike to doe any such thing So fearefull as miserably they forsooke Him yet alive and have ever since shut themselves up since He was dead 4. And fourthly if they durst have done such a thing they would have taken Him away linnen clothes and all as fearefull men will make all the hast they can possibly and not stood stripping Him and wrapping up the clothes and laying them every parcell one by one in order as men vse to doe that have time enough and take deliberation as being in no hast or feare at all To you therefore as we say ad hominem this consequence is good Not taken away and not here therefore risen He is â— He is gone before But to put all out of doubt you shall trust your
must be Hoc facite It is not mentall thinking or verball speaking there must be actually somewhat done to celebrate this Memorie That done to the holy symboles that was done to Him to His body and His bloud in the Passe-over Breake the one poâ—re out the other to represent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how His sacred body was broken and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how His pretious bloud was shedd And in Corpus fractum and Sangus fusus there is Immolatus This is it in the Eucharist that answereth to the Sacrifice in the Passe-over The memoriall to the figure To them it was Hoc facite in Mei praefigurationem do this in praefiguration of Me Luk. 22.19 1. Cor. 11.26 To us it is Doe this in commemoration of Me. To them Prenuntiare to us Anâ—untiare there is the difference By the same rules that theirs was by the same may ours be termed a Sacrifice In rigor of speech neither of them Heb. 10.4 for to speake after the exact manner of Divinitie There is but one onely sacrifice veri nominis properly so called That is CHRIST 's death Heb. 9.28 And that sacrifice but once actually performed at His death but ever before represented in figure from the beginning and ever since repeated in memorie to the world's end That only absoluâ—e all els relative to it representative of it operative by it The Lamb but once actually slaine in the fulnesse of time but virtually was from the beginning is and shall be to the end of the world That the Center in which their lines and ours their types and our anti-types doe meet While yet this offering was not the hope of it was kept alive by the prefiguration of it in theirs And after it is past the memorie of it is still kept fresh in minde by the commemoration of it in ours So it was the will of GOD that so there might be with them a continuall fore-shewing and with us a continuall shewing foâ—â—h the LOâ—D'S death till He come againe Hence it is that what names theirs caried ours doe the like and the Fathers make no scruple at it no more need we The Apostle in the X. Chapter compareth this of ours to the Immolata of the Heathen 1 Cor. 10 21. c. Heb. 13.10 And to the Hebrewes Habemus Aram maâ—cheth it with the Sacrifice of the Iewes And we know the rule of comparisons They must be eiusdem generis Neither do we stay Heere but proceed to the other Epâ—lemâ—r For â— Epâ—lemur In the Sacrament there is another thing yet to be done which dotâ— present to uâ— that which Celebremus â—oth represent From the Sacrament is the applying the Sacrifice The Sacrifice in generall Pro omnibus The Sacrament in particular to each severall receiver Pro singulis Wherein that is offered to us that was offered for us that which is common to all made proper to each one while each taketh his part of it and made proper by a communion and vnion like that of meat and drinke which is most neerely and inwardly made ours and is inseparable for ever There Celebremus passeth with the representation But heere Epulemur as a nourishment abideth with us still In that we see and in this we taste Psal. 54 8. how gratious the Lord is and hath beene to us And so much for these two as two meanes to partake the Benefit and we to vse them and as Duties required of us and we to performe them Will ye marke one thing more That Epulemur doth heere referre to Immolatus To Christ not every way considered but as when He was offered Christ's body that now is True but not Christ's body as now it is but as then it was when it was offered rent and slaine and sacrificed for us Not as now He is glorifed for so He is not so He cannot be immolatus For He is immortall and impassible But as then He was when He suffered death that is passible and mortall Then in His passible estate did He institute this of ours to be a memoriall of His Passibile and Passio both And we are in this action not onely carried up to Christ Sursum corda but we are also carried back to Christ as He was at the very instant and in the very act of His offering So and no otherwise doth this Text teach So and no otherwise doe we represent Him By the incomprehensible power of His eternall Spirit not He alone but He as at the very act of His offering is made present to us and we incorpoâ—ate into His death and invested in the benefits of it If an host could be turned into Him now glorified as He is it would not serve Christ offered is it Thither we must looke a Ioâ— 3.14 To the Serpent lift up thither we must repaire b Luk. 17.37 even ad cadaver we must c 1. Cor. 11.24 hoc facere doe that is then done So and no otherwise is this Epulare to be conceived And so I thinke none will say they doe or can turne Him 1. Itaque We bound to keepe it Now all we have to doe is to shew what we thinke of this Itaque whither it shall conclude us or no and that we shew it by our practice for other answer the Apostle will take none If we play fast or loose with it on this fashion as divers doe upon the matter as good to say The Holy Ghost cannot tell how to make an argument Christ is offered but no Itaque epulemur for all that Thus we will not say for very shame What then will we dispensare contra Apostolum which we blame as a foule abuse in the Pope and yet I cannot see but every meane person takes upon Him Papall authoritie in this case and as oft as we list dispense with the Apostle and his Itaque exempt our selves from his conclusion That we will not seeme to do No it is not at Itaque The truth is it is at Non in fermento we stick we love our levin so well be it malice or be it some other levin as bad so well we love it we will not part with it we loath the Lamb rather then the levin shall out But in the meane time there is no trifling with this conclusion there is no dispensing with the Apostle there is no wanton wilfull dis-abling our selves will serve Itaque will not be so answered Not but with Epulemur It layeth a necessitie upon every one to be a guest at this feast The Iewes we know were held hard to theirs upon a great paine to have not their names Exod. 12.19 but their soules cut out from GOD 's people And is it a lesse trespasse for Christians to passe by this Passe over or hath the Church lesse band to exact like care at our hands No indeed we must know the Holy Ghost can tell how to inferre And that this Itaque of the Apostle's is a binding
Him to love it for His very Person 2. Worke. And in this vertue He is not barely set out to us but in it and by it bringing to passe the worke of our redemption Which cannot but extraordinarily commend this vertue to us in that it hath pleased GOD to doe more for us in this His Humilitie Ioh. 10.38.14.11 then ever He did in all His Maiestie even to save and redeeme us by it To love it then if not for Him yet for the worke 's sake 3. Reward But specially which is the third for the Propter quod in the Text if not for the worke yet for the Reward 's sake That as CHRIST was no loser by it no more shall we For all this Glory here the way to it is by the first verse Humiliavit is the beginning and the end of it is Exalting That the mother this the daughter all riseth from Humiliavit ipse se. Iames 4.10 1. Pet. 5.6 Humiliamini ergo saith Saint Iames Humiliamini ergo saith Saint Peter and after it there followeth still exaltabit vos Deus a promise of a like glorious end And what saith the Apostâ—e here This minde saith he was in CHRIST Verse 5. and it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wise mind That we count it a wise minde and worth the carying and carie it and it shall carie us to the same iourneys end it brought Him even to the glory of GOD the Father This for Humilitie Obediens Domino And what Shall we not give some light triall of our Obedience also to averre our Confession that He is our Lord It would be by Domine quid nos vis facere that is the true triall Say then Domine quid nos vis facere And He will answer us Hoc facite in Mei memoriam Will ye know what I would have you doe Doe this in remembrance of Me In signe that I am Lord doe but this Here is a case of instance and that now even at this very present a proofe to be made By this we shall see whether He be Lord or no. For if not this but slip the collar here and shrinke away Si rem grandem dixisset 2. Reg. 5.13 in a farre greater matter how would we stand with Him then We were wrong before here is the sound and syllables we spake of here it is For all is but sound and syllables if not this But of us I hope for better things that by our humble cariage and Obedience at least Heb. 6.9 in this we will set our selves some way to exalt Him in this His day of Exaltation Which as it will tend to His glory so will He turne it to matter of our glory and that in His Kingdome of glory or to keepe the word of the Text in the glory of GOD the Father That so we may end as the Text ends A better or more blessed end there cannot be And to this blessed end He bring us that by His Humilitie and Obedience hath not onely purchased it for us but set the way open and gone it before us IESVS CHRIST the Righteous c. A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the IX of April A. D. MDCXV being EASTER DAY IOHN CHAP. II. VER XIX Respondit IESVS dixit Solvite Templum hoc in tribus diebus excitabo illud IESVS answered and said Dissolve or destroy this Temple and within three days I will rayse it up againe HE answered and said this to the Pharisees Who sought a Signe of Him the Verse next before The Occasion A Signe Vers. 18. A Signe they would have And He tells them a Signe they should have Themselves should minister Him occasion to shew a Signe the like was never shewen For destroy Him they should His bodie so and He within three daies would raise it againe from death to life But this Answere of His The speech figurative is a figurative speech and runnes under the termes of the Temple The reason whereof was they were then in the Temple there fell out this Question And as it appeareth in the Verses before much adoe there hath been between them and that a long time about the Temple Now His manner still was the Place the Time the Matter in hand ever to frame the Tenour and termes of His speech according to them And so now being in the Temple He takes His termes from thence Even from the Temple But He doth as I may say Solvere Templum hoc The figure interpreted Vers. 2â— loose and 〈◊〉 this terme for us For within a Verse we are told this Temple is no other then the Temple of His bodie Now the rest followes of it selfe The Solvite is a taking Him in â—oder His soule from His bodie The excitabo is the setting them togither and raising them up againe And both these within three dayes the onely word in the Text wherein there is no figure How a Sign in the true sense And this now was His Signe And a great Signe it was Great even in their sense if it had been but of the Pile of Building as they tooke the word Temple But greaterfar far another manner Signe in His sense in the true For as for that Temple Zorobabel and Herod had raised it and other great Persons as great Buildings as that But the Temple of the bodie if that were once down all the Temple builders that ever were with all their care and cost could never get it up more Therefore in His in CHRIST'S sense it is farr the greater signe then as they phanfied it Indeed so great a Signe as he that was in hell fire could not devise nor did not desire a greater Luc. 16.30 If but Lazarus if but one come from the dead then then regard him That signe out of question Why heer is one come from the dead and this day come and a greater then Lazarus I trust then we will regard Him we will regard this signe and not be worse then he in hell was Let vs then regard it The Division The ground of the signe and of all heer is Templum hoc About it two maine Acts they shew forth themselves The razing of it downe in Solvite The raising of it up in Excitabo These in figure Answerable to these This Temple is Christ's bodie The razing it downe is CHRIST crucified and slaine The raising it up is Chriâ—â— restored to life Of which two to divide it by the Persons Solvite is their part Excitabo His. That His Passion by their act Solvite This His Resurrection by His owne Excitabo Now this He saith shal be done And saith further shall not be long in doing No longer then three dayes And within the compasse of the time limited He did it For this is now the third day And to day by Sun-rising it was done So upon the matter there come to be handled these foure points 1.
That Christ's bodie is Templum hoc 2. The dissolution of it by death in Solvite 3. The rearing it up againe by His resurrection in Excitabo 4. The time to doe it in three dayes By which circumstance of three dayes and this day the third of them commeth this time to claime a kind of propertie in this passage of Scripture And that two waies For first at this Feast were these words heer spoken you may see they were so at the thirteenth verse before at the Feast of Easter And secondly at this Feast againe were they fullfilled after the Solvite three dayes since the Excitabo this very day So at this Feast the promise and at the very same the accomplishment of it The accomplishment once the memoriall ever Being then at this very time thus spoken and done Spoken heer now done three yeares after Being I say spoken and done and at this time spoken and done Neverso fit as now I. The two senses of Templâ—â—oc Ver. 20. Solvite Templum hoc Templum hoc we begin with It is a borrowed terme But we cannot misse the sense of it For both are set downe heer to our hand the wrong sense and the right The wrong the next verse of all for the materiall Temple So the Pharisees tooke it and mis-tooke it The right the next Verse after for the Temple of His body So they should have taken it For so He meant it Ver. 21. Ipse autem dicebat c But He spake of the Temple of His Body And He know his owne meaning best and reason would should be His own Interpreter And this meaning of His it had been no hard matter for them to have hitt on but they came but a byrding but to catch from Him some advantage and so were willing to mistake Him As this they caught as an advantage we see and layd it up for a raynie day and three yeares after out they came with it and framed an Inditement upon it as if He had meant to have destroyed their Temple Mat. 26.61 Mar. 14.58 The Pharisees sense could not be true Ver. 18. But was it likely or could it once be imagined He meant to destroy it It was GOD'S house And the zeale of God's house but even a verse before consumed Him And doth His zeale now like the zeale of our times consume God's house What and that so quickly but a Verse between But even very now He purged it And did He purge it to have it pulled downe That were preposterous Now it was purged pull it downe Nay pull it downe when it was polluted Now it is cleansed let it stand To reforme Churches and then seeke to dissolve them wil be counted among the errours of our Age. CHRIST was farr from it He that would not see it abused would never endure to have it destroyed specially not when He had reformed the abuses And yet more specially not even presently upon it they might be sure But that which must needs lead them to the right meaning was that these words Templum hoc He could not say them but by the manner of His uttering them by His very gesture at the delivery of this particle hoc they must needs know what Temple it was He intended It was easy to marke whither He carried His hand or cast His eye up to the fabrique of it or whither He bare them to His bodie Which one thing onely was enough to have resolved them of this point and to quit our Saviour of aequivocation We will then wayve theirs as the wrong meaning And take it as he wisheth The true sense Chap. 13.23 who leant on his breast and best knew His minde of the Temple of His bodie But what resemblance is there between a bodie and a Temple 1. A Bodie a Temple Ver. 16. or how can a bodie be so termed Well enough For I aske why is it a Temple What makes it so Is it not because it is Domus Patris mei as He said a little before because GOD dweleth there For as that wherein man dwells is a house So that wherein GOD is a Temple properly That I say wherein be it place or be it bodie So come we to have two sorts of Temples Temples of flesh and bone as well as Temples of lime and stone For if our bodies be termed houses because our soules tenant wise abide and dwell in them If because our soules dwell they be houses if GOD doe so they be Temples why not Why not 1. Cor. 6 1â— why know yee not this saith the Apostle that your very bodies if the Spirit of GOD abide in them eo ipso Temples they be such as they be But then they be so specially when actually we imploy them in the service of GOD. For being in His Temple and there serving Him then if ever they be Templa in Templo Living Temples in a Temple without life A bodie then may be a Temple Even this of ours And if ours these of ours I say in which 2. CHRIST 's body a Temple Col. 2.9 the Spirits of God dwelleth onely by some gift or grace with how much better right better infinitely His bodie Christ's in whom the whole God-Head in all the fulnesse of it dwelt corporally Corporally I say and not Spiritually alone as in us By nature by personall union not as in us by grace and by participation of it onely Againe if ours which we suffer oft to be polluted with sinne that many times they stand shutt up and no service in them for a long season togither how much more His that never was defiled with any the least sinne never shut but continually taken up and wholly imployed in His Father's service His above all exception His without all comparison certeinly Alas ours but Fathers acâ—es under goat skinns His the true the Marble the Cedar-Temple inâ—enâ— in CHRIST'S bodie then a Temple But a Temple at large will not serve It must be Templum hoc that very Temple 3. Christ's body This Tâ—â—â—le or 〈…〉 they too heat for And so we to proceed yet further and to seeke a congruitie of His bodie with the materiall Temple it was taken for to which there is no doubt His intent was to resemble it The Rabbins in their Speculative Divinitie doe much busy themselves to shew that in the Tâ—mple there was a modell of the whole world and that all the Sphaeres in heaven and all the Elements in earth were recapitulate in it They were wide The Fathers tooke the right and bestowed their time and travaile more to the point to shew how that Temple and all that was in it was nothing els but a compendious representation of CHRIST for whom and in whose honour was that and all other true Temples And this they did by Warrant from the Apostle who in Heb. IX aimeth at some such thing Heb. 9.5 Christ's bodie Templum hoc wherein like Now the points of
three First Iona's whale death it was not it was but danger but danger as neer death as could be never man in more danger to scape it then he if not in death in Zalmaveth in the vale of the shadow of death it was Psal 23.4 Of any that hath beene in extreme perill we use to say he hath beene where Ionas was By Iona's going downe the whale's throat by Him againe comming forth of the whale's mouth we expresse we even point out the greatest extremitie and the greatest deliverance that can be From any such danger a deliverance is a kinde of resurrection as the Apostle plainly speakes of Isaac when the knife was at his throte he was received from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though yet he did not Heb. 11.19 This for the feast of the Resurrection And thus was Ionas a signe to them of Ninive As he scaped so they he his whale they theirs destruction which even gaped for them as wide as Iona's whale And as to them a Signe this so to us And this use we have of it When at any time we are hard bestead this signe then to be set up for a token And there is no danger so deadly but we may hold fast our hope if we set this signe before us and say What we are not yet in the whale's belly why if we were there from thence can GOD bring us though as Ionas He did Iona's whale was but the shadow of death CHRIST'S was death And even there in death to be set up And we no not in death it selfe to despaire Iob 13.15 but with Iob to say yea though He kill me yet will I trust in Him My breath I may my hope I will not forgoe expirare possum desperare non possum Heer now is our second hope to come forth to be delivered from CHRIST'S whale from death it selfe But if the whale be or betoken the death of the bodie it doth much more the death of the soule So shall we finde another whale yet a third And that whale is the red dragon that great spirituall Liviathan Satan And sin Apoc. 1◠3 the very iawes of this whale that swoupeth downe the soule first and then the bodie and in the end both Ionas has been deepe downe this whale's throte before ever he came in the others The land-whale had devoured him before ever the Sea whale medled with him In his flight he fell into this land-whale's iawes before ever the Sea-whale swallowed him up And when he had got out of the gorge of this ghostly Liviathan the other bodily whale could not long hold him And from this third whale was Ionas sent to deliver the Ninivites which when he had the other of their temporall destruction could do them no hurt Their repentance ridd them of both whales bodily and ghostly at once Heer then is a third Cape of good hope that though one had been downe as deep in the entrailes of the spirituall great Liviathan as ever was Ionas in the Sea-whale's yet even there also not to despaire He that brought Ionas from the deepe of the Sea and David from the deepe of the Earth his bodie so He also delivered his soule from the nethermost hell where Ionas and He both were Psal. 71.20 Psal. 86.13 while they were in the transgression And now by this are we come to the very Signature of this signe even to Repentance which followeth in the very next words for they repented at the preaching of Ionas Ionas preached it Ver. 41. and indeed none so fit to preach on that theme on repentance as he as one that hath been in the whale's bellie in both the whale's the spirituall whale's too for Ionas had been in both One that hath studied his sermon there been in Satan's sive well winnowed cribratus Theologus he will handle the point best as being not onely a preacher but a Signe of repentance as Ionas was both to the Ninivites And as Ionas so Christ how soon He was risen He gave order streight that repentance as the very vertue the stamp of His resurrection and by it remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations Luc. 24.47 But indeed if you marke well there is a neer alliance between the Resurrection and Repentance reciprocall as between the Signe and the Signature Repentance is nothing but the soule 's resurrection Men are dead in sinne saith the Apostle their soules are Ephe. 2.1 From that death there is a rising Els were it wrong with us That rising is repenting And when one hath lien dead in sinne long and doth eluctari wrastle out of a sinne that hath long swallowed him up he hath done as great a masterie as if with Ionas he had got out of the whale's belly Nay as if with Lazarus be had come out of the heart of the earth Ever holding this that Marie Magdalen raised from sinne was no lesse a miracle then her brother raised from the dead And sure Repentance is the very vertue of Christ's Resurrection There it is first seen it first sheweth it selfe hath his first operation in the soule to raise it This first being once wrought on the soule from the ghostly Liviathan the like will not faile but be accomplished on the bodie from the other of death of which Ionas is heer Mysterium magnum dico autem in Christo. For in Christ this Signe is a Signe Ephe. 5.32 not betokening onely but exhibiting also what it betokeneth as the Sacraments doe For of Signes some shew onely and worke nothing such was that of Ionas in it selfe Sed Ecce plus quà m Ionas hîc For some other there be that shew and worke-both Ver. 42. worke what they shew present us with what they represent what they sett before us set or graft in us Such is that of Christ. For besides that it setts before us of His it is further a seale or pledge to us of our owne that what we see in Him this day shall be accomplished in our owne selves at His good time And even so passe we to another Mysterie For one Mysterie leads us to another this in the Text to the holy Mysteries we are providing to partake which doe worke like and doe worke to this Even to the raising of the soule with the first resurrection Apoc 20.5 And as they are a meanes for the raising of our soule out of the soile of sin for they are given us and we take them expressly for the remission of sinnes so are they no lesse a meanes also for the raising our bodies out of the dust of death The signe of that Bodie which was thus in the heart of the earth to bring us from thence at the last Our Saviour saith it totidem verbis Who so eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Bloud Ioh. 6.54 I will raise him up at the last day raise him whither He hath raised himselfe Not
in us it is so by the power of CHRIST 's death and thither to be referred properly And whatsoever good is revived or brought againe anew from us it is all from the vertue of CHRIST 's rising againe All do rise all are raised thence The same power that did create at first the same it is that makes a new creature The same power that raised Lazarus the brother from his grave of stone the same raised Marie Magdalene the sister from her grave of Sinne. From one and the same power both Which keepeth this methode Worketh first to the raising of the soule from the death of sinne and after in the due time to the raising of the body from the dust of death Els what hath the Apostle said all this while Now this power is inhaerent in the Spirit as the proper subject of it even the aeternall Spirit whereby CHRIST offered himselfe first unto GOD and after raised himselfe from the dead Now as in the texture of the naturall body ever there goes the Spirit with the blood ever with a veine the vessell of the one there runnes along an arterie the vessell of the other So is it in CHRIST His blood and his Spirit alwaies goe together In the Spirit is the power in the power virtually every good work it produceth which it was ordeined for If we get the Spirit we cannot faile of the power And the Spirit that ever goes with the blood which never is without it This carries us now to the blood The very shedding whereof upon the Crosse primùm ante omnia was the nature of a price A price first of our ransome from death due to our sinne through that His satisfaction A price againe of the purchase He made for us through the value of His merit which by His Testament is by Him passed over to us Now then His blood after it had by the very powring it out wrought these two effects it ranne not wast but divided into two streames T it 3.5 1. One into the Laver of the new birth our Baptisme applied to us outwardly to take away the spotts of our sinne Luk. 22.20 2. The other into the Cup of the New Testament in His blood which inwardly administred serveth as to purge and cleanse the conscience from dead workes Chap. 9.14 that so live works may grow up in the place So to endue us with the Spirit that shall enhable us with the power to bring them forth Haec sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta these are not two of the Sacraments but the two twin-Sacraments of the Church saith S. Augustine And with us there are two Rules 1. One Quicquid sacrificio offertur Sacramento confertur what the Sacrifice offereth that the Sacrament obteineth 2. The other Quicquid Testamento legatur Sacramento dispensatur What the Testament bequeatheth that is dispensed in the holy Mysteries To draw to an end If this power be in the Spirit and the blood be the vehiculum of the Spirit How may we partake this blood It shall be offered you streight in the Cup of blessing which we blesse in His name For is not the Cup of blessing which we blesse the Communion of the blood of CHRIST saith S. Paul 1. Cor. 10.16 Is there any doubt of that In which blood of CHRIST is the Spirit of Christ. In which Spirit is all Spirituall power and namely this power that frameth us fit to the workes of the Spirit Which Spirit we are all made there to drinke of And what time shall we doe this What time is best What time better then that day in which it first shewed forth the force and power it had in making peace in bringing back CHRIST that brought peace back with Him that made the Testament that sealed it with his blood that died upon it that it might stand firme for ever All which were as upon this day This day then somewhat would be done somewhat more then ordinarie more then every day Let every day befor every good worke to doe His will But this day to doe something more then so something that may be well pleasing in His sight So it will be kindly So we shall keepe the degrees in the Text So we shall give proofe that we have our part and fellowship in CHRIST in CHRIST 's resurrection in the vertue of CHRIST 's resurrection Grace rising in us workes of grace rising from it That so there may be a resurrection of vertue and good workes at CHRIST 's resurrection That as there is a reviving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the earth when all and every herbs and flowers and brought againe from the dead So among men good workes may come up too that we be not found fruitlesse at our bringing backe from the dead in the great Resurrection But have our parts as heere now in the blood so there then in the Testament and the Legacies thereof which are glorie joy and blisse for ever and ever Printed for RICHARD BADGER SERMONS OF THE SENDING OF the Holy Ghost PREACHED VPON VVhit-Sunday A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT GREENVVICH on the VIII of June A. D. MDCVI being WHIT-SVNDAY Acts CHAP. II. VER I. II. III. IV. And when the Day of Pentecost was come or when the fifty daies were fulfilled they were all with one accord in one place And there came sodeinly from heaven the sound of a mighty Winde and it filled the place where they sate And there appeared tongues cloven as they had beene of fire and sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance WE are this day beside our weekly due of the Sabboth to renew and to celebrate the yearely memorie of the sending downe the Holy Ghost One of the Magnalia Dei as they be termed after in the XI Verse One of the great and wonderfull Benefitts of GOD Indeed Ver 11. a Benefit so great and so wonderfull as there were not tongues enough upon earth to celebrate it withall but there were faine to be more sent from heaven to help to sound it out throughly Even a new supply of tongues from heaven For all the tongues in earth were not sufficient to magnifye GOD for his goodnesse in sending downe to men the gift of the HOLY GHOST This we may make a severall benefit by it selfe from those of CHRIST 's And so the Apostle seemeth to doe Gal. 4.4.4.6 Gal. 4. First GOD sent His Sonne in one verse and then after GOD sent the Spirit of His Sonne in another Or we may hold our continuation still and make this the last of CHRIST 's Benefitts For Ascendit in altum is not the last there is one still remaining which is Dona dedit hominibus Psal. 68.18 And that is this daye 's peculiar wherein were given to men many and manyfold both graces and gifts and all in one gift
c Act. 17.34 Areopagite the Iudge at Athens as for the d Act. 16.30 Iayler at Philippos for the e 2. Ioh. 1. elect Ladie as for widow f Acts 9.36 Dorcas g Act 8.27 For the Lord Treasurer of Aethiopia as for the h Acts 3.2 Begger at the beautifull gate of the Temple i Phil. 4.22 for the houshold of Caesar as for the k 1. Cor. 1.16 houshold of Stepharas yea and if he will for l Acts 26.28 King Agrippa too But if you will have pauperibus a restringent you may but then you must take it for poore in spirit Mat. 5.3 with whom our Saviour begins His Beatitudes in the Mount the poverty to be found in all As indeed I know none so rich but needs these tydings all to feele the want of them in their spirits Rev 3.17 No Dicis quia dives sum as few sparks of a Pharisee as may be in them that wil be interessed in it III. The tydings of a Physitian for broken hearts Well we see to whom What may these newes be Newes of a new Physician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medicus cordis one that can give Physicke to heale a broken heart And newes of such a one is good newes indeed They that can cure parts lesse principall broken armes or leggs or limbs out of joint are much made of and sent for farre and neere What say you to one that is good at a broken heart make that whole set that in joint againe if it happen to be out So they understood it plainly by their speech to Him after Ver. 23. Medice 〈◊〉 teipsum Ecchis 15.17 The heart sure is the part of all other we would most gladly have well Give me any griefe to the griefe of the heart said one that knew what he said Omni custodia custodi cor saith Salomon keep thy heart above all Pro 4.23 if that be downe all is downe looke to that in any wise Now it is most proper for the Spirit to deale with that part it is the fountaine of the spirits of life and whither indeed none can come but the Spirit to do any cure to purpose that if CHRIST if the Spirit take it not 〈◊〉 hand all cures els are but poâ—â—sitive they may drive it away for a while it will come 〈…〉 then ever Now then to Medice cure as CHRIST after saith to this 〈…〉 〈…〉 cure our rule is first to looke to de causis morborum how the heart can be 〈…〉 then after de methodo medendi IV. Of the hearts 1 How they came broken the way heere to helpe it 〈…〉 comes the heart broken The common hammer that breaks them is some 〈◊〉 crosse such as we commonly call heart-breakings There be heere in 〈…〉 strokes of this hammer hable I thinke to breake eny heart in the 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 They be captives first and captives and caitives 1 By being captives Psal. 137.2 in our speech sound 〈…〉 one It is sure a condition hable to make eny man hang up his harpe and 〈…〉 by the waters of Babylon There is one stroke 2. Thâ—re followes another worse yet For in Babylon though they were captives â— In a darke dungeen 〈◊〉 they abroad had their libertie These heere are in prison And in some 〈…〉 there as it might be in the dungeon where they see nothing That I take 〈◊〉 meant by blind heere in the Text Blind for want of light not for want of 〈◊〉 though those two both come to one are convertible They that be blind say they are darke and they that be in the darke for the time are deprived of sight have no manner use of it at all no more then a blind man Now they that row in the galleys yet this comfort they have they see the light and if a man see nothing els the light 〈◊〉 it selfe is comfortable And a great stroke of the hammer it is Eccles. 11.7 not to have so much 〈◊〉 that poore comfort left them 3. But yet are we not at the worst One stroke more For 3 And bruised with irons there one may be in the dungeon and yet have his limmes at large his hands and feet at libertie But so have 〈◊〉 those in the Text but are in yrons and those so heavy and so pinching as they 〈◊〉 even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bruised and hurt with them See now their case 1 Captives 〈◊〉 not onely that but 2 in prison In prison not above but in the dungeon the 〈◊〉 darkest blindest hole there no light no sight at all 3 And in the hole 〈◊〉 many yrons upon them that they are even bruised and sore with them And tell 〈◊〉 now if these three together be not enough to breake Manasse's or any man's 〈◊〉 and to make him have cor contritum indeed They be but what is this to us This is no mans case heere No more was it eny â—heirs that were at CHRIST 's Sermon yet CHRIST spake to the purpose we 〈◊〉 be sure We may not then take it literally as meant by the body CHRIST 〈◊〉 no such captivitie dungeon or yrons That He meant not such is plaine He 〈◊〉 He was sent to free captives to open prisons But He never set eny captive free 〈◊〉 life nor opened eny gaole in that sense to let eny prisoner forth Another 〈◊〉 then we are to seeke Remember ye not we beganne with the Spirit the 〈◊〉 the Spirit comes about is spirituall not secular So all these spiritually 〈◊〉 understood As indeed they are all three appliable to the case of the Spirit 〈◊〉 plaine description of all our states out of CHRIST and before He take us in 〈◊〉 â— There is Captivitie there wherein men are held in slaverie under sinne and 〈…〉 than that we now spake of Saint Paul knew it speakes of it Rom. 7.24 Rom. VII 〈◊〉 he hath so crieth out Wretched man that I am who shall rid me of it Verily 〈◊〉 Turke so hurries men putts them to so base services as sinne doth her captives 〈◊〉 one that hath beene in her captivitie and is got out of it scit quod dico he 〈◊〉 it is true I say 〈…〉 is a prison too not Manasse's prison But aske David who never came 〈…〉 what he meant when he said I am so fast in prison Psal. â—8 8 as I know not how to 〈…〉 And that you may know what prison that was he cries Psal. 142.7 Matt. 4.16 O bring my soule out of 〈…〉 A prison there is then of the soule no lesse than of the bodie In which prison 〈…〉 of those that CHRIST preached heere to S. Matthew saith they sat in 〈…〉 and in the shadow of death even as men in the dungeon doe 3. 〈◊〉 are chaines too that also is the sinner's case He is even tied with chaines 〈…〉 sinneâ— saith Salomon with the bonds of iniquitie Saint Peter Pro. 5.22 Act
ever counted of speciall faith and trust Of the Kings Chamber But plaine it is they were of his Chamber Not of his lieges alone or of his housâ—old but which is more of his Chamber It is a wonderfull â—hing the State that the Pâ—rsian Monarchs kept No man upon paine of death to come so neere as into their inner base Court uncalled if he did he died for it unlesse the King Chap. 4.11 by holding forth hiâ— Scepter pardoned him his life You will easily then imagine in what place they were that had free recourse into his innermost chamber to go and come thither at their pleasure Not onely to do so themselves but to be those by whom all others were to go or come No man to come thither but by them For that is meant by Lords of the threshold or qui in primo limine praefidebant as the Fathers read it the very chiefe over his Chamber The Septuagint who should best know the nature of the word they turne it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first keepers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the bodie And many they had for many such Kings need have But these two they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe the Arch-keepers had if any more then other the chiefe charge the very principall of all GOD do so and so to me saith King Achis to David if I make not thee the keeper of my head 1 Sam. 28.2 and in so saying thought he promised him as good a place as he had He could make him no more To this place had the King advanced these two and these two were they that sought this That it should be sought at all evill that these should seek it too bad They that if others had sought it should have staid their hands these to lay on their own to seek it themselves All men know it was no meane preferment early and late to be so neer Assuerus's person They had meanes thereby to do themselves much good So had they to do others much hurt if they were not the better men But for others hurt it skills not if they had not thereby had the meanes to do Assuerus himselfe if the Devill so farr prevailed with him as he did Of his chamber Dapifer his dish Pincerna his cup Keepers of his body principall keepers if they seek to lay their hands they will soon find what they seek the more dangerous they the more his danger by them a great deale And is not this heavinesse to death when they that were so honoured proove so unkind when they that so trusted so untrue and may we not take up the Wise man's Oh O wicked presumption whence art thou sprung up to cover the face of the earth Stay a little and looke upon them as ye would upon a couple of monsters Ecclus. â—7 3 1 To seek this in Regem alone were too much to breake their Duety to their Liege Lord if there were no more but that to lay their hands on him for whom they should lay downe their lives 2 Add then not to a King onely but to such a King nor to their Liege Lord alone but to so good and gracious a Lord that had done them so great favours placing them so neer him trusting them so farre honouring them so greatly For no honouâ— to trust no trust to the chiefe trust of all More then heathenâ—sh wickednesse this to render evill for good and whose wealth they of all other bound to seek to seek his ruine 3 And they came not to that place but they were sworne to vilifie their oath then and to teare in pieces the strongest band of religion The hands that had taken that oath those hands to lay on him 4 To betray their trust to him that had layd his innocent life in their hands and to make their trust the opportunitie of their treacherie 5 In a word of the chiefe Keepers of his body to become the chiefe seekers of his bloud the chiefe enemies to his body and life and all What can be said evill enough of these Say it were lawfull in any case it is not lawfull in any but say it were to lay hands on a King yet they in all reason of all others should not have been the doers Etsi ille dignus perpeti at non tu qui faceres tamen Were not these monsters then Was not their condemnation just It grieves me I have stayed so long on them yet if I have made them and their fact odious it grieves me not What was the matter What could move them thus to play the wretches 3. The cause wherefore They were angry Why they should not many and good reasons we see Why they did none in the Text but that they were angrie and that is no reason but a passion that makes men â—o cleane against reason many times Bigthan was angrie and Thares as angrie as he Yet if it be but a little anger it will over Indeed such it may be it will What manner anger was it The word is a shrewd word signifies an anger will not go down with the Sunne Ephes. 4.25 will not be appeased What speake we of the word their deeds shew as much We see nothing would satisfie them but his life Nothing serve but lay hands on him That they sought so angrie they were What angred them then No cause is set downe And none I thinke there was If there had we should have beene sure to have heard of it For men to be angrie without a cause and even with Superiors it is no new thing Well if no cause some colour yet if not that some shadow at least Somewhat we are to seek why they did seeke this If there be in the Text eny thing to lead us to it it is in the first words or not at all In those daies In those angrie they were as much to say as before those daies they were not but in those then they were Els there is no cause to mention that of the daies but to make this difference Out of the Text nothing can be picked els Angry for Assueru's choise of Esther Why what daies were those That goes immediately before The dayes wherein Assuerus had made choise of Esther to match with her and make her his Queene and had made a great feast upon it At the feast it seemes they surfeited they could not brook that match at eny hand Some ambitious desire of theirs disappointed by it likely that was the cause This was faine to serve for the occasion for lack of a better A bad one we say is better then none What the Great King of Persia finde no match in all his owne brave Nation Never a Persian Lady serve him but he must to this vile base people the Iewes his captives his slaves to picke him a match thence What a disparagement is this to all the Persian blood It would make eny true Persian heart rise against it
hebrew sheweth there is a reason there is a cause why it commeth 1. Sam. 6.9 And the english word Plague comming from the Latine word Plaga which is properly a stroke necessarily inferreth a Cause For where there is a stroke there must be One that striketh And in â—hat both it and other evill things that come upon us are usually in scripture called Gods judgements If they be iudgements it followeth there is a Iudge they come from They come not by adventure by chance they come not Chance and Iudgement are utterly opposite Not Casually then but Iudicially Iudged we are For when we are chastened we are judged of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.32 There is a Cause Now what that Cause is Concerning which 1. That Cause is 1. Naturall if you aske the Physitian he will say the cause is in the aire The Aire is infected the Humors corrupted the Contagion of the sicke comming to and conversing with the sound And they be all true causes The Aire For so we see by casting * The aire infected ashes of the furnace towards heaven in the aire the aire became infected and the plague of botches and blaines was so brought forth in Egypt * Exod. 9.8 The Humors For to that doth King David ascribe the Cause of his disease that is that his moisture in him was corrupt dried up 2 The Humors corrupted Psal. 32.4 turned into the drought of Summer Contagion Which is cleare by the Law where the leprous person 3 Contagion Levit. 13.45.46 52. for feare of contagion from him was ordered to crie that no body should come neere him To dwell apart from other men The clothing he had worn to be washed and in some case to be burnt The house-walls he had dwelt in to be scraped and in some case the house it self to be pulled downe In all which three respects Salomon saith Pro. 14.16 A wise man feareth the Plague and departeth from it and fooles runne on and be carelesse A wise man doth it and a good man too For King David himselfe durst not go to the Altar of GOD at Gibeon to enquire of GOD there because the Angel that smot the people with the plague stood betweene him and it 1. Chro. 21.30 that is because he was to passe through infected places thither But as we acknowledge these to be true that in all diseases 2 Supernaturall By which GOD. and even in this also there is a Naturall cause so we say there is somewhat more something Divine and above â—ature As somewhat which the Physitian is to looke unto in the plague so likewise something for Phinees to do and Phinees was a Priest And so some worke for the Priest as well as for the Physitian and more then it may be It was King Asa's fault He in his sicknesse looked all to Physitians and looked not after GOD at all That is noted as his fault It seems 〈…〉 It seemes his concâ—it was there was nothing in a disease but 〈◊〉 nothing but bodily which is not so For infirmitie is not only 〈◊〉 bodily there is a Spirit of infirmitie we finde Luc. 13.11 And some 〈◊〉 spirituall there is 〈◊〉 infirmities something in the soule to 〈◊〉 â—ealed In all â—ut specially in this Wherein that we might knoâ— it to be spirituâ—ll we finde it oft times to be executed by spirits We see an 〈◊〉 destroying Angel 〈…〉 12.13 in the Plague of Egypt another in the Plague in Swaâ—â—â—rib'â— Campe 〈…〉 â—7 36 〈…〉 21.16 〈…〉 16.2 a third in the Plague at Ierusalem under David 〈…〉 pouring his phiall upon earth and ther fell a noysome plague upo◠〈◊〉 and beast So that no man looketh deeply enough into the Cause of this sickenesse unlesse he acknowledge the Finger of God in it over 〈◊〉 â—bove any causes naturall 〈…〉 GOD then hath his part GOD But how affected GOD provoked to aâ—ger so it is in the Text his anger his wrath it is that bringeth the plague among us 〈…〉 The Verse is plaine They provoked him to anger and â—he plague brake in among them 〈…〉 Generally there is no evill saith Iob but it is a sparke of GOD 's wrath And of all evills the Plague by Name There is wrath gone out from the LORD 〈◊〉 21.7 and the plague is begunn saith Moses Num. 16.46 So it is said GOD was displeased with David he smot Israël with the plague So that if if there be a plague GOD is angry and if there be a great plague GOD is very angry Thus much for By what for the anger of GOD by which the plague is sent Now for what 〈…〉 â—hich 〈…〉 general There is a cause in GOD that he is angry And there is a Cause for which he is angry For he is not angry without a cause And what is that cause For what is GOD angry What is GOD angry with the waters when he sends a tempest it is Habacuk's question 〈…〉 Or is GOD angry with the earth when He sends barrennesse Or with the aire when he makes it coÌ„tagious 〈…〉 5. 6. No indeed His anger is not against the Elements they provoke him not Against them it is that provoke him to anger Against men it is and against their sinnes and for them commeth the wrath of GOD upon the children of disobedience And this is the very Cause indeed As there is Putredo humorum so there is also putredo morum And putredo morum is more a Cause then putriedo humorum 1 The Corruption of the soule the 〈◊〉 7. â— 2 corrupting of our waies more then the 〈◊〉 6.12 corrupting of the aire The 〈◊〉 8.38 Plague of the Heart more then the sore that is seene in the body 〈◊〉 5.32 The cause of Death that is sinne the same is the cause of this 〈◊〉 38.5 kinde of death of the plague of mortalitie And as the â—panâ— Balme of ilead and the 〈◊〉 48.46 Physitian there may yield us helpe when GOD'S wrath is removed so if it be not no balme no medicine will serve 〈◊〉 us with the Woman in the Gospell 〈◊〉 5.26 spend all upon Physitians we shall bee never the better till we come to CHRIST and he cure us of our sinnes whâ— is the onely Physitian of the diseases of the soule 〈◊〉 â— 2 And wiâ—â— CHRIST the cure beginns ever withiâ— First Sonne thy 〈◊〉 be for giventhee and then a fier â—ake up thy bed and walke His sinnes first and his limbes after As likewise when we are once well CHRIST'S councell is sinne no more lest a worse thing come unto thee As if sinne would certainely bring a relapse into a sicknesse But shall we say the wraâ—h of GOD for sinnes indefinitely Particular sinn That were somewhat too generall May we not specifie them or set them downe in particular Yes I will point you at three or foure First this