which God will raise out of the Ruins of this It is a World expected as a wonderful Blessing from the Promise of God Now in this World the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things and it is from the grossness of the Organs of it that we think so little and discern so little of the Beauty of Nature and Providence And the more the Eye is help'd by Art the more it raiseth Admiration in him who considers the Works of God It letteth in a New World of Creatures and an infinite agreeable Variety of Motions Figures and Contextures which we discern nothing of by our naked Sight And in such Contemplation there is more true and useful Pleasure than in all the Brutalities in which Sensual Men consume their Time Substance and Health and waste their Conscience too Now it will be necessary for the Body to be Coelestial that it may be capable of considering those extraordinary Stamps and Characters of the Divine Power and Wisdom which will be found upon a Coelestial and Incorruptible World the observing of which will I believe be one of those Exercises in which the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect shall be most happily employ'd For if these Heavens declare the Glory and Handy-work of God those will much more do so and a Saint cannot be such if he delights not in that Manifestation 3 dly Another Privilege arising from our Deliverance from the grossness of this Body is the removal of a great hindrance of Piety and Devotion It cannot but be an extreme Mortification to those who would lift up their Hearts to God and have their Conversation in Heaven to feel such a pressure and dulness upon their Spirits as damps and deadens them in their Holy Admirations Praises and Prayers This especially will be an extraordinary Grief to them when they set themselves with all their Heart and Soul and Might to answer with the Degrees of their Devotion the most solemn Occasions of Publick Worship such as those of this Day on which all that is within us should bless the Name of God who hath begotten us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Iesus from the Dead But when the Body is not Restive and the Spirits move as Handmaids to the Soul then even here on Earth it is ravish'd with Religious Joy The second Advantage which Christians obtain by changing an Earthly for an Heavenly Body is Deliverance from the disorderly Motions to which this Body is liable as it is a Corruptible Body whether the Spring of them be within or from without and upon which account it may be called as it is in the Book of Wisdom a Body that is subject unto Sin Here frequently Sickness and violent Torture render Life not worthy the Name of Life and provoke the Patients to think sometimes that Death moves very slowly towards them Here it many times happens that one corrupt Member must be cut off for the Preservation of the rest though with certain Pain and uncertain Hope In this Body the Warmth which is subservient to Wit and Elocution carries frequently with it a mixture of Extravagance and Indiscretion How often does this Corruptible Frame bring such Decays upon the Memory that all things are almost forgotten even Injuries themselves tho of this sort of Oblivion we have no reason to complain What is more common to Man than the raging and swelling of unruly Passions and Affections which are troublesom both to the Person so highly moved and to the World to which he gives Disturbance How often do unreasonable Appetites and Inclinations become so impetuous and war with such force against the Soul in Men who are not yet grown up into strong Habits of Grace that the Good which they would do that they do not and the Evil which they would not do that they do How often do Flesh and Blood prejudice the Understanding by Enthusiastick Heat which represents to it Dreams and strong Delusions and flashes of Madness in the Fancy as immediate Illuminations from God How frequently does it form a dark Cloud of Melancholy in the Imagination and fashion that Cloud into all the Shapes of Terror and Affrightment in good though scrupulous Men Upon this account they cry out in their haste and in the anguish of their Souls Will the Lord cast off for ever and will He be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever Doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in Anger shut up his tender Mercies These through the fumes of the Blood rather than the guilt of the Conscience are for a season in this Life of all others the most miserable for such a troubled Spirit who can bear Nevertheless upon the whole their Condition is much safer and better than theirs who sport with their Misfortunes and mock at their Griefs and at the same time wallow in Sin without any Reflexion upon either the Criminalness or the Peril of their own Sensuality For these latter at the dreadful Day shall have their Bodies made the most Dishonourable and Unprofitable of all Vessels whilst those of the former shall be chang'd into Vessels of the highest Honour and the greatest Use that Humâ—ne Nature is capable of and such they shall remain for ever And that is The third sort of Advantage which those who are Christ's will be happy in that is to say a freedom from the perishing nature decay and fall of this Body as a corruptible mortal Body for this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality There are two things which all Men naturally desire to know an end of their Sufferings and to have no end of their Happiness The way to the Accomplishment of these Desires is not shewn in the Schools of Zeno or Plato It is confess'd there was taught by them a celebrated but false Doctrine of Restitution of the World This they would have to be brought to pass in the Revolution of a certain Period of Time in such sort that all things should come about again and be as they had been before for a like quantity of Duration and so in Vicissitudes for ever From whence it would follow that this Corruptible Body after it had put on Incorruption for a season should become corruptible again and mortal again But in the School of Christ we learn a Proposition which is most Confortable as well as most True to wit that after the Resurrection Ascension and glorious Change of this Body all Grossness all disorderly Motion all Pain and Trouble shall cease but of the Felicity of the Christian Man's Soul dwelling in it there shall be no End The Apostle assures us That Death their last Enemy shall it self be then destroy'd For the Lord Jesus shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ
of God That ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him which is your reasonable Service Seeing That all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of GOD wherein the Heavens being on Fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with servant heat Nevertheless we according to his Promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Wherefore Seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless As sure as Christ is risen these dry Bones shall live as well as those did which the Prophet spake of in a Political Sense meaning by them the House of Israel which God promised to Restore It should therefore be our Care not to put this vile Body into far worse Condition but to consult the good of it seeing the more Heavenly its Frame be made the Felicity of the Soul in it will be the greater Men of light and desultory Humours affect Alterations without considering the Events of them Wise Men chuse them also when they foresee plainly they will turn to their exceeding Benefit And here they have a plain prospect of a most considerable advantage of changing Corruption for Incorruption and Mortality for Immortality If any are extreamly concern'd at Deformities of the Body as so many marks of Shame tho' nothing which is not of our own doing can be a just reproach to us why have they not the innocent Ambition of desiring a Celestial Body which will be without wrinckle or blemish And the way to procure so decent a a Body is to rectifie the distractions of our Reason and the monstrous choice of our ungovern'd Wills and to subdue all dishonourable Passions and Vices and to keep our selves unspotted from the World If divers are very Covetous of Life in this Body as burthensome as it is and wish their Years were not so many as they are and that they would still be many more even then when the Wheel is almost broken at the Cistern and the Blood can scarce creep on in its Circle why are they averse to Christian Piety which will provide for them an Immortal Body You will permit me to use the Exhortation of the great Apostle Awake thou that Sleepest and rise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Life Say not as the Epicures mentioned in this Chapter Let us Eat and Drink for to morrow we die But rather let us be Sober and Vigilant that when ever we die the first Death we may overcome the Second Seeing Christ is risen and we shall rise and be changed by his Power say not upon any difficulties about Christian Religion Why stand we in Ieopardy every hour Why do we die daily Why do we Fight with Beasts or Men as Savage as they Why do we not rather consult the ease of Flesh and Blood but rather as St. Paul in the Conclusion of this Discourse Let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for asmuch as we know that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Finally Let us glorifie him with our Bodies and with our Souls that he may glorifie both Then may we upon good and comfortable grounds joyn with the same Apostle in these words of Spiritual Triumph O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen FINIS 1 S. Iohn 5. 29. Acts 24. 15. 51 52. 53. M. Fel p. 10. putes co jam revixisse †v. Gennad Massil de Eccl. dogmat c. 6. p. 5. c. 7. p. 6. Psal 13â— 1â— S. Mat. 13. 43. St. Luke 20. 35 36. 2 Cor. 5. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 44. 49. S. Mat. 17. S. Mark 9. 2 3. S. Luk. 9. 29. Artic. 4 Heb. 4. 14. Philip. 3. 21. 1 Cor. 15. 50. 1 Cor. 15. 40. v. 41. v. 42. v. 43. v. 44. Wisd. 9. 15. Corpus hoc Animi pondus ac poenaest quod equidem non aliter adspicio quam vinculum libertaâ—i meae circumdatum Hebr. 1. 10 11 12. 2. Pet. 3. 3 7 12 13 6. Vers. 12 13 14. Wisd. 9. 15. Wisd. 1. 4. Psal. 77. v. 7. v. 8. v. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess. 4. 16 17. Hosea 13. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 54. Isai. 25. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 2 3 4. Ver. 10. Wisd. 1. 15 Ch. 6. 18 19. 2 Cor. 5. 15. Gal. 6. 8. â— Cor. 5. â—0 Rom. 12. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 13. Ezek. 37. 3 11 14. Eph. 5. 14. Ver. 32. Ver. 30 31 32. Ver. 58. Ver. 55 56 57.
A SERMON CONCERNING The Coelestial Body of a Christian After the Resurrection Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL April 8. 1694. Being EASTER-DAY By the Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS Lord Bishop of Lincoln Published by their Majesties Special Command LONDON London Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV A SERMON Preached before the KING and QUEEN 1 CORINTH XV. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality THIS is part of a very remarkable Discourse of St. Paul's and indeed all his are such In it he treats of the great Article by which our holy Religion stands or falls The Resurrection of Christ as likewise of that of Christian Men. For here he does not speak of the entire Argument but of the Resurrection to life Now after having prov'd by several convincing Reasons that Christ is risen and that those who are Christ's shall rise also in God's due time he proceeds to the discovery of a mysterious Truth not hitherto unfolded to the Corinthians This holy Sâ—cret consisteth of two Branches The first is the wonderful change which shall of a sudden be made in the Bodies of those true Christians who shall be found alive at that time when Christ shall come to judge that world which with such insolence and ingratitude set him at nought The Apostle shews that there shall then be no other separation of the Souls of the Iust from their respective Bodies than what the Almighty power of God shall make by the transmutation of those Bodies from a gross to a heavenly frame The second is the like glorious alteration which shall be made at the last in the Boâ—es of those who having slept in Christ shall be raised again at that day Behold saith he I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall be changed In a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall found some awakening Power shall go before the Heavenly King when he descendeth with his Host of Angels and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality That which I have to say at present upon these words may be reduced to four Heads 1. The grounds of the Belief of a Christian concerning this change of a corruptible and mortal into an incorruptible and immortal Body 2. The many and great advantages which will accrue to those whose bodies shall be at last in this extraordinary manner transfigured 3. The means without which no man shall attain this Blessed End 4. An Exhortation to the conscientious use of the means by which we may with certainty arrive at this Change which will be so very much every way for the better that whensoever we shall leave these earthly Tabernacles in which we shall dwell but a few days and peradventure whilst those last incommodiously enough we may by the grace of God and the ministration of his holy Angels be received into everlasting habitations 1. I begin with the grounds upon which we believe that the Body shall be raised and made Caelestial in the Heavens and corrupt no more and dye no more That the Body is mortal is an Article in every mans Creed though many live as if they had not spent a thought about dying and upon the account which after death must be made by them That the Body shall rise was a Doctrine which the Primitive Christians spake of with such great assurance that as the Heathen in Minutius Felix observes a man that heard them would almost think they themselves were already risen And tho the conceit of Origen about a new Caelestial body instead of the glorified frame of the old one at least of the ideal rudiments of it had been by his Followers entertained yet they agreed with other Christians in the point of a heavenly Tabernacle Nevertheless all men in all Ages have not had a Faith equal with theirs but some especially in ours so over-run with Scepticism have doubted concerning the Resurrection and further Change of this Body such things entring with difficulty into our imaginations of which no Instance has been seen by us Notwithstanding which we have reason to believe this Change though none have come out of their Graves to shew us it And here I appeal to all sensible men whether That God who is the Author of Motion by which all Alterations in bodies are made who brought this goodly Frame of the World out of an heap of indigested Matter who formed the Body of Adam out of the Dust who has so framed Nature that a spring of Vegetables should succeed their death in Winter who quickens dying Seeds into beautiful Stems and Flowers and Fruit who caused even the dry rod of Aaron to bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds who has given skill and power to men by Fire and other natural Causes to open and refine the grossest bodies in whose Book saith David were all our members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them who is pleased frequently to raise the Sick to Health and Strength and Vigour after they had suffer'd a long and tedious languishment in which low Estate their Flesh and their Spirits were wasted and their Bones stood as it were staring upon them I appeal I say to all men of sound common sense whether that God who hath done these great things is not able to put together the parts of an humane body which he made contriv'd and formerly joyn'd and to advance the frame of it from grossness to purity To think he is not is next to no thinking at all and it is to reproach God's Power and Knowledge and Wisdom which is a perilous as well as an injudicious and irreverend practice How God will effect the change of this Body when he shall make it Coelestial I pretend not to explain No man I believe can minutely tell how a grain of Mustardseed grows up into a Tree or arborescent Plant. It is true we cannot properly call that part of this Doctrine which is revealed any longer a Mystery But there is something of it kept secret still God hath not been pleased fully to discover the methods of his working this wonderful effect It may suffice in this Doctrine of Grace as in those of time and place and rest and motion in Nature that we know enough for our present use though we know not all and that we are sure of the thing it self though we cannot comprehend the manner of it It is more than barely credible it is certain That God who can do all this will at last do it because he has said he will He who on earth caused the Faces of Moses and Saint Stephen to shine who translated Elias in the Chariot of a bright and glorious