the curious zeale of the soule It will not only haue a body againe but in a precise societie it will haue only its owne againe For the preseruing therefore of such numericall identitie there shall bee wonderfully restored the substantiall vnion which is but formally distinguished from the parts vnited There shall be restored the personalitie and lastly the natiue temperament which does containe the indiuiduating dispositions whereby such a matter has a pecullar appetite to such a forme Which matter by vertue of such inclination remaynes formally the same though it may be varied by extention as when the infant shall be raysed into a man the person shall bee enlarged but not multiplyed But the vnruly wit of Philosophie will here demand how they shall rise with their owne bodies who when they liued had not bodies of their owne being not only fed with the flesh of men but descending also from parents nourished with the like horrible diet For by this wild reckoning there will bee such a Genealogie of debt that the bodie of the Nephew must peraduenture be paid to the great Grand-father To which some Christians doe reply with as much impertinent deuotion as vnwarrantable subtiltie without necessity attributing to Gods Omnipotencie a totall supply of new bodies which for the preseruing the numericall identitie shall bee endowed with the former temperature But surely we ought to judge it a safer modestie not to satisfie reason then to offend Religion And since we must rise in our old bodies without all sophistrie wee may more temperately beleeue that the diuine wisdome has decreed and prouided that there shall neuer be any humane bodie which shall totally consist of other humane bodies It being harsh to say that the same body is raised when there are only the same reproduced dispositions and as absurd to affirme that such dispositions being the speciall accidents of a former matter should be transferd vpon another You see then the sacred eagernesse of the soule It will neither loose nor change a dust nor will it only possesse but also adorne the body Mankind shall feele and expresse a youthfull spring the walking-staffe and the wrinkle shall bee no more the helpe and distinction of age and death it selfe shall suffer climactericall destruction O how the wonder will almost out-act faith when the infant and the dwarfe shall be made a proper man When the limbes exhaled with famine shall bee replenished with as much miracle as flesh When the child that left its soule before it left the wombe shall in an instant without growth be as bigge as the mother when sleepe shall bee commanded from the eye-lid no more by care but by immortalitie which shall chase death out of nature and with importunate triumph cry-out vnto the graue O earth earth earth heare the voice of the Lord Thy dead men shall liue with their primitiue bodies shall they arise awake and sing you that dwell in dust for your dew is as the dew of herbs by which blessing you shall bee made as glorious as fruitfull And since that fruitfulnesse is the gratitude of nature let it remember vs as much to acknowledge as enjoy the mercie of that power by which wee rise And wee may most justly and easily remember by whom wee rise by remembring him by whom we fell Yet if wee behold the originall of their humanitie wee shall find that they were both without sinne and that the first Adam had his best paradise within himselfe But when hee was fallen by the weaknesse of the woman that was made for his helpe neuer did woman prooue a strong helpe vnto man before the Virgin-mother of Christ God and man And then though the first Adam had eaten vp the apple the second Adam swallowed vp death He had before made the poore man take vp the bed of his sicknesse and walke but hee himselfe was the first that euer tooke vp the death-bed and walked Yet some before our Sauiour borrowed a phantasticall resurrection as Saul's equiuocall Samuel and some rose in earnest but to die againe in earnest as supererogating Lazarus that paid to nature one death more then he owed But our Lord is risen with as much perfection as power and with as much power as loue and glory The Poeticall Chymiques tell vs of an Alchymisticall man at the earth's center who by a sphericall diffusion of his vertue does like a subterraneous Sunne improoue metals to a metamorphosis yet new Which as it is bold in the fable so by a deuout mythologie may bee made modest in the morall And this secret workeman shall be our Sauiour whose vertue was so dispersed into the bowels of graues that at his resurrection he improued carcasses into Saints who were the witnesses and attendants of his power Indeed to aduance the head without the members were so vnnaturall that it were more like an execution then a preferment and it were stranger to see a Leader without his souldiers then without his armes besides were it fit that when the master rises the seruants should lie still Thus then they were raised and as much to holinesse as to life It was not only a resurrection but also a consecration Christ was the first of them that rose nay he was the first-fruits of them Hee had the precedence both in order and vertue The first-fruits were the first handfull as acceptable as ripe by a bountifull mediation obtayning holinesse and entertaynment for the rest And this first offering did commend it selfe vnto the Lord rather by the speed then the quantitie The Iew offered this at his owne home and it was as domestique as his thoughts being a present of eloquent simplicitie which at the same time did honour and ouercome the Almightie O how our Sauiour made this figure solid when at once he conquered for vs death and heauen Hee was but the first handfull of corne and yet as powerfull as small making all the rest of a like holinesse though not of an equall But there were greater first-fruites which the Iew went to pay at Ierusalem and as the first were an offering of humilitie so these of pompe those did more set-forth the thankfulnesse of the labourer and these the munificence of the Lord. If you will take the word of the Rabbines whom in the story of Custome wee haue no more need to suspect then they had to faigne when the husbandman carried-vp these fruits to the holy Citie hee had a Bull went before him whose hornes were gilded and an Oliue garland vpon his head This was the picture of his masters affection and estate as if by the impetuous beast hee would expresse the courage of his joy by the gilded hornes the riches of his plentie and by the Oliue-garland the crowne of his peace Behold the displayed Heraldry of his happinesse And that it might bee increased by applause a pipe played before them to charge all to take notice of it vntill they came to the mountaine of the Lord.
is especially an act of the mercie of the liuing God to giue life to the dead yet by a greater mercie hee makes it an act of his iustice freely binding himselfe to admit our boldnesse not so much to to request as to claime a resurrection For shall the bodies of the Saints bee more remembred by their tombs then by their labours or shall they bee worse oppressed with death then they were with their torments or shall their soules with an enuious inequalitie vsurpe and enioy the purchase of their bodies shall those eyes whose deuotion did still watch or mourne for euer want respect as much as sight shall those hands that haue been free in extending themselues and mercie to the poore be for euer bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees that haue bowed with such willing reuerence bee so held downe by the violence of mortalitie that they shall neuer rise vp againe Where are then thy teares O Dauid if thy eyes shall not enioy the happinesse of their owne sorrow Where are then O Iob thy faith and patience if thy body bee now as much without hope as it was before without rest Where are then O Esay thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant furie of the Saw and the schisme of thy bodie thy bodie suffer a wilder dissociation from thy soule for tedious eternitie Where are thy trauels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geographie and conquest of Paganisme thou liest for euer confined to the dull peace of a graue No the almightie which made man with such wisdome of art wil neither lose his glory nor his worke But as he made his greater heauen for his angels so made he the lesser and mortall heauen of mans bodie for his soule and will make it as eternall as his soule There is more excellencie of workmanship in the soule but more varietie in the bodie The soule does more truly expresse God but the bodie more easily The soule judges best but the bodie first and though the eye of the soule does behold the works of God more cleerely yet does the eye of the bodie behold them more properly Nay should the bodie not bee raised to life and heauen how great a part of heauen and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as vnnecessary as it is wonderfull God hath prouided joyes which the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard but which the eye shall see and the eare shall heare and without the pleasure of a traunce for euer possesse as much without errour as without measure Such honour will the Creatour of our bodies doe to the bodies of his Saints they shall acknowledge corruption but ouercome it they may in their journy be the ghests of the graue but at last they shall bee the inhabitants of Heauen Yet the Lord cannot hereafter so much honour humane flesh by raysing it as hee has already by assuming it It was before his seruant but now his companion That was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raysed vnto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raysed to the soule At the day of judgement though there shall be no marriages of sexes yet there shall be of parts when soules shall be vnited to bodies in so intire and inexorable a matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor feare of a diuorce Neither need wee feare in the jealousie of this match the ignoble parentage of the flesh since what it wants in birth is supplied in dowry and flesh is now become such refined earth being made wonderfull in shape and office that the soule may be thought to be scarce more noble but that it seemes more reserued by being inuisible And yet you may obserue the bodies emulation which fals before its resurrection into such atomes of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seene as to bee numbred But notwithstanding that these principles of earth be thus diuided among themselues yet are they not diuided against themselues retayning still though not an appetite yet an obedience to resurrection Nature has not lost this and God will supply that and as easily vnite as distinguish each dust To yeild to this truth is the Creed of the Creed If therefore any man's faith in the assent to this mysterie should bee as weake as his reason hee may helpe both his reason and his faith by his sense by which they shall either be conuinced or perswaded If you will bee but as bold as antiquitie you may propose vnto your selues the solemne Poetry of the Phoenix a creature rarer then the resurrection though not as admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fanned to the resurrection of a flame as if this creature by the mystery of death would by a fire both perish and reuiue But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot-forth new quils wherewith may bee written and testified his endeauour of immortality Thus does God teach nature how to teach vs mysteries and without the Magicall studie of the language of birds to vnderstand without their voice their secret instruction But peraduenture you wil think that to discerne this truth in the nature of the Eagle will require a sight as sharpe as the Eagle's remooue then your eye from the foules of the aire but to the trees wherein they nest and with a negligent view you may obserue how after the nakednesse and death of winter they bud afresh into life and beautie Yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation studie so broad an object Let our eye with more gratefull industrie confine its prospect to the small seed of corne and at least take the paines to see the paines of the husbandman And shall wee not admire at the delightfull arithmetique of nature to behold a seed whose hope seemes as small as it selfe by being cast away to bee found by destruction to receiue increase and from the same furrow to haue both a buriall and a birth Thus then we see that the body is able to shew that it selfe may rise but now the soule will proue that it must and with such friendly eloquence helpe its first companion that by the vnion of loue it will preuent the resurrection For should the soule for euer want the body should it not want both perfection wonder Is not the soule most perfect when it is most noble and is it not most noble when it is most bountifull and is it not most bountifull when it giues life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixes with corruption and yet is incorrupt when it is most burthened and yet most variously actiue Thus by this necessary inclination of the soule the resurrection is as naturall in respect of the vnion as it is aboue nature in respect of the manner But now see
ease Simon of his burden Whiles he goes on a multitude of women forgetting to be Iewes bestow teares vpon him whom he exhorts to thrift of sorrow bidding them stay their lamentation till a time of lamentation for themselues and for their children whose bloud shall bee made as cheape as their mothers teares when in the vengeance and sport of slaughter the curse of barrenesse and a dry pap shall bee a blessing At last they bring this Catholique sacrifice to mount Caluary to the altar of the world where euery part of him is stretcht-out as the free embleme of his extended mercy They fasten him to his crosse with violence but hee was fastned surer by his owne loue They pierce his hands and his feete with nayles but his heart with their ingratitude thus is hee vsed in the house of his friends They exalt him on his crosse arming himselfe against himselfe and making his owne weight his owne affliction And now I must cry-out with Pilate Behold the man aduanced in the triumph of redemption vpon the Cherub of the crosse Or if your tender eyes haue not the hearts to see this spectacle yet reade the title of his crosse and sure the first word Iesus may comfort you Yet if the remembrance of his name should proue the remembrance of his sorrow where will you then alas bestow your eyes If you looke away you shall see those that passe by the way nod their heads at him if you looke on the ground you shall see the diuided souldiers at lots for his intire Coate which they more respect then they doe Christ if you looke among the company you shall see the vnhallowed Priests prophaning him if you looke on either side his crosse you shall see a thiefe made his companion Whereof one as if he were his executioner crucifies him with blasphemie though the other crucifies his owne vnbeliefe and by a new theft steales Heauen at his execution If yet you cannot behold our Sauiour behold his Disciple and his mother whom from his crosse he himselfe beholds Saint Iohn's loue had now made a recompence for his flight by conquering his feare to this returne and sorrow Our Sauiour beholds his beloued Iohn and hauing nothing left that is his owne but his mother hee bequeathes her vnto him But it may be you are as little able also to looke on these who also are crucified with the passion of loue If then you cannot at all indure these sights be indulgent to lamentation Let teares seaze on your eyes as an vniuersall darknesse does on Iudea The guilt of the Iewes puts out the Sunne and yet this huge night which can hide all Iudea cannot hide the guilt of the Iewes O how they shall hereafter wish that this darknesse had beene more speedy that it might haue preuented or excused their violence Then happily they would haue pleaded O had we seene what we did wee would not haue crucified the Lord of glory In this forc'd night and agony this man of sorrowes cries out with a voice as strong as earnest his fainting humanitie begging aide and release Thus long they haue afflicted his outward-parts and now their wit finds a deuice to torment his inward also In a drouth of combat and torment hee cries-out I thirst and when from this his Vineyard he might looke for wine behold they vilely spunge him with vngratefull vineger Being persecuted thus with a swift succession of plagues in a free obedience he bowes his head and in the Empire of his Diuinitie and loue is pleased to die giuing to the justice of his Father for a redeeming sacrifice his troubled spirit Corrupt Philosophers who now for a long time haue animated the world with a magique soule may in this truth bury their errour and now acknowledge that only this is the soule of the world Thus they haue crucified him and now they shall know whom they haue crucified The Iewes and the Deuils shall know that it was the Lord of glory and the whole world shall know that it was the Lord of glory Behold an angry miracle teares the vaile of the Temple and by a greater mystery reueales their mysteries Behold an earth-quake shakes open the graues and after the resurrection of this first-borne of the dead the glad carcasses by the returne of their disacquainted soules can no more then their soules endure the Graue Behold the stones cleaue asunder as if violated nature would lend them mouthes to cry-out against the Iewes or as if they would pronounce themselues of a softer tempter then the hearts of men And now there is a religious earth-quake in the heart of the Centurion from whose inspired mouth proceeds a voice articulated by faith and wonder pronouncing the innocence and diuinitie of our Iesus and euen the Iewes doe smite their breasts as if their hands insteed of repentance should soften their hearts But his friends neerest to him in affection stand afarre off to whom it is a death not to dye with him And indeed none of them did die by martyrdome the Lord counting the torment of this spectacle equall vnto it His friends stand afarre off yet farther from comfort then from him O how may wee imagine his tender mother weepes How may we imagine she now cryes-out O my sonne Iesu O Iesu my sonne my sonne This is a more wounding lamentation then the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon when the good Iosias when the beloued Iosias fell vnder the sword of Pharaoh Now the souldiers come to examine the execution to see if these the late prisoners of the Iewes be now become the prisoners of death and finding the two theeues breathing still in the custome of vaine crueltie on malefactors they breake their legges when alas their soules were readier to runne away then their is bodies But to our Sauiour being already dead they are pleased to shew a negatiue mercy Yet one to prooue himselfe more senslesse then what he wounds now pierces his side as if beyond the expulsion of his soule he would not leaue in him the forme of a carcasse When behold an instructing mysterie flowes from his side Water flowes out as if it would present vnto the souldier the innocency of our Sauiour bloud flowes out as if it would present vnto the soul ther the admonishing horrour of his owne guilt It was vile to wrong the innocent it was inhumane to abuse the dead but it was execrable to violate the Lord of glory But the glory of this Lord shall now dispell this night of sorrow Now weepe not that hee died but rejoyce that hee died for you It was his loue that hee would redeeme as it was his power that he could redeeme So he did redeeme as be did suffer hee suffered not in his diuine nature but by the â—nion of his diuine nature hee redâ—emed not in his diuine nature but by the union of his diuine nature For from a double nature his mysticall vnitie did arise and as
his soule was a diuinitie to his body so was his diuinitie a soule to his humanity To create man God â—reathed a spirit like himselfe into him him to redeeme man God himselfe entred into him and though the diuinitie could not hee crucified yet was the vnion of it with the passion of the humanitie counted as the passion of the diuinitie Thus by the bountie of interpretation and communication of proprieties they verily crucified the Lord of glory Whose carcasse now as cold as death raises a flame of loue in the breasts of Ioseph and Nicodemus Ioseph in a couragious Christianitie goes vnto Pilate and begges the body When Christ was aliue Iudas sould him and now he is dead Pilate giues him away whose body though it were preserued by the diuinitie yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrhe and Deuotion They wrap him in a linnen cloth not so much concealing his nakednesse as expressing his innocence They lay him in Iosephs Tombe which was in a garden and was not then this garden Paradise It was a glorious sepulchre as if by the prophesie of loue it had been proportioned to the guest Whose bodie being heere entertayned with magnificent pietie his illustrious soule forces a triumph in Hell crucifies the Deuill and ouerthrowes the tyranny of damnation He does not take away damnation but contract it And now you see after this redemption of our Sauiour you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side receiue saluation You may behold the opening mouth of this wound which with eloquent bloud inuites you to faith and loue You may behold the Lord of glory comming from Edom with his died garments from Bosrah This is the Lord of glory glorious in his apparell glorious in his nakednesse glorious in his mightinesse to saue Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat Thou hast trodden the Wine-presse alone and of the people there was none with thee O what did cause these soundings of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards vs Who can expresse thy sorrowes and thy louing-kindnesse towards vs Who can expresse what thou hast done for our soules Thou wast afflicted thou wast despised thou wast whipt wounded bruised condemned sacrificed for our soules thou wast made a seruant of death thou wast numbred with the transgressours thou madest thy graue with the wicked for our soules Wherefore God has highly exalted thee and giuen thee a name aboue all names that at the Name of Iesus euery knee shall bow of things in Heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And euery tongue shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord of glory And the foure and twentie Elders shall fall downe before the Lambe with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours and in their new Song shall they prayse thee And the Angels about thy throne euen ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lambe that was slaine to receiue power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory Therefore with Angels and Arch-angels and with all the company of Heauen wee laude and magnifie thy glorious Name euermore praysing thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord of glory Heauen and earth are full of thy glory and of thy mercies The Angels in Heauen wonder at thy mercies the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies thou thy selfe triumphest in thy mercies and the sonnes of men rejoyce in thy mercies Wherefore O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world deliuer vs by thine agonie and bloudie swear by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall deliuer vs And wee will fall downe before thy glorie and we will sing praises vnto thy mercie and we will triumph in the victorie of thy bloud and we will for euer euen for euer acknowledge that Thou the crucified Lord of glorie art the Christ of God and the Iesus of men The end A Sermon preached at Saint Marie's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday 1623. 1. CORINTH 15.20 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept IT were vnnecessarie art feare to stirâ—e to keepe the liuing awake with a preface when as the dead are at the businesse of a resurrection WoÌ„ders blessings are aboue their auditors who must be glad to be staâ—â—led to the newes Now was our Sauior task'd with his most vnweildie miracle His mercie had before bestowed many vpon others but now his power tries one vpon himselfe His diuinitie acts a miracle vpon his humanitie repairing this second Trinitie of his person from the immortall ruines of a God a soule and a carcasse Three dayes did hee consecrate for the performance of this wonder and three dayes doe wee consecrate for the perswading to this wonder which should haue beene the joy and was the shame of the Apostles who were slow to apprehend it though Christ was their Schoole-master They had not as yet learned their owne Creed which their peruerse sense was pleased to bee taught not so much by our Sauiour as by his sepulchre whose opening mouth when it sent forth Christ the Word pronounced his Resurrection which is the Epitaph of God Thus did the ambition of the graâ—e instruct the preuented Angell and though it cannot as the multitude of Tombes with the voice and conquest of proud Death tell vs whom it does captiue yet does it remember to vs whom it did Which assumed triumph of death is as short as its combat Ioseph's deuotion bestowed this Tombe vpon our Sauiour but our Sauiours victorie bestowed it vpon death which since his Resurrection has lien buried in his tombe But can a dead man bee warmed againe into life And can the lungs that haue forgot to breathe learne to breathe againe Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed and being honoured with an imitating omnipotencie can with a coequall extension of assent apply it selfe to the number and degrees of Gods actions But as hard it was to raise the faith as the body of Saint Thomas nay it was his body that caused him to beleeue the Resurrection of Christ's bodie which was a way of faith more certaine then gratefull Yet must the vnderstanding bee so raised before it can beleeue that the bodie can bee raised that the diuine indulgence does gradually chastize the difficultie by the length of instruction For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation when straight hee was practised vnto an essay of this second Creation When Adam descended into sleepe there was a Resurrection of his rib which awaked into a woman Did not mortalitie then put on immortalitie when a senselesse bone was so endued with reason that it could apprehend its owne preferment Mee thinkes the Chymique might hence extract an easie Rhetorique for his promotion of metalls and without an Apologie teach that vsurie of art And heere too
was an imployed legacie a woman bequeathed to time to multiply resurrections Which yet were almost reduced to a despaire by her degenerating Nephewes whose crimes had forsworne or scorned the resurrection of their bodies and did more ouerwhelme them then the floud Yet then looke vpon Noah with joy as the Lord did with fauour and when the olde and the new World were distinguished and continued but by an Isthmus from Noah's wife the Arke of mankind see a new resurrection of man and from his floud a resurrection of the world But will you see a raising without death or sleepe Behold Isaac as neere the stroke as the hand of his father arising from his Funerall pile and at this resurrection too there was an Angell remoouing though not a Tombe-stone yet a Knife more exorable then the sword which the Angell in Paradise did shake whose threatning edge was as deuouring as its flame But heere was a sacrifice offered yet not slaine and though not slaine yet accepted But peraduenture it will more gratefully frighten you to see a man taught to bee buried aliue and more yet to liue after his buriall Behold then Ioseph from the tombe of his prison rising vnto a triumph as eminent as his innocencie which had before conquered his passion and now his affliction Behold in Ioseph the mysticall bodie of our Sauiour a body admirably mortall and incorruptible a body that suffered rather the graue then death And will any man now count it such a wonder to see the fetters fall-off from Peter when they had learned the religion from his Masters winding-sheete which fell at his feet when hee arose But if the eye and courage of your faith will venter farther and see the actiue horrour of a graue behold Ionas his quicke tombe made a tombe of saluation to him Three of our dayes hee lay struggling in his new night of amazement as if he had found an Aegypt in the Whale and did acknowledge that watry Purgatory At last the graue by a new instruction cast-vp the liuing The Whale was no more a Sepulchre but a fish and Ionas no longer a coarse but a Prophet Hee had surely died if hee had not beene buried And heere was a resurrection though not a reuiuing a resurrection from disobedience and the Whale Thus this rare An'choret and his tombe were both aliue but the tombe of our Sauiour was as desperate as death What could be expected from a graue and a carcasse Yet behold this carcasse reuiue into a man nay into a God! And I may rightly say behold for he did rise that wee should behold him and at that time wherein we might behold him He rose when night rises into morning and at this pregnant season when winter is quickned into the spring Now did the day-spring visit vs from the graue It was on the first day of the Iewes weeke a weeke well begunne and is was the first day of the Christian Creation If you will turne ouer the notes of time you may beleeue that Pharaoh as on that day of the yeere was inuaded by an host of waues which conquering his Chariots made him without wheeles hurrie faster vnto Hell Whiles Moses led his Israel through the Wildernesse of the Sea passing from the shadow of death in that monument of waters Did not our Lord also leaue his tombe with an equall and contrary wonder Then were the waters made firme rising into Alpes as now the earth was made to quake like the waters And well might it tremble when the Lord conquered it and forsooke it The Angell too made a little earth-quake in the graue when he remoued the mightie stone with which the vaine few tryed to oppresse our Sauiour after death as it he would haue sealed him vp to an impossibilitie of resurrection But since the Angell has opened the tombe for vs shall we goe see the place whence Christ is risen And yet wee shall not make such hast but that the speedy deuotion of the two Maries will bee there before vs whose feete were as swift as their loue and their loue as time nay more swift then time which hindred them by the delay and command of their Sabbath A Sabbath it was but only of their bodies which whiles our Sauiour lay buried were but the sepulchres of their soules their soules that found no Sabbath till they found the Lord. They came with prepared spices and oyntments for him whose diuinitie did preuent Balme and esteemed their pietie of a more precious sweetnesse then their oyntments But will you see this loue languish into feare and this feare againe strengthned into joy They are no sooner in the sepulchre but that they find it as empty of our Sauiour as it was full of wonder and insteed of the body of the Lord they behold the Angell of the Lord sitting vpon the stone which he had conquered to obedience as if hee meant to rest himselfe in triumph after the conflict of his miracle His rayment was white as snow which he did imitate in puritie and descent His countenance was like lightning or more wonderfull for that is of so instant a terrour that it is the object rather of our memory then our eye but this with courteous majestie was patient to be beheld The women with the dutie of feare beheld it being quickly encouraged by the angell but first by their innocence The souldiers beheld it too though with such guiltie faintnesse that they seemed to striue as much to shame their sexe as their profession being at once almost disarmed of their weapons and soules They became as dead men and were rather the prisoners then the keepers of the graue But in the meane time the angell comforts and instructs the women who now are his Disciples and receiuing commission to preach the resurrection of our Sauiour to the Disciples of our Sauiour they haste out of the Tombe with the confused expedition of feare and joy Was not this a strange pilgrimage to runne from the sepulchre of our Lord But it was yet more strange they seeke the Disciples and find Christ It was a comfortable mistake And indeed hee did comfort them with his presence and speech When immediately they fall on their knees at his knees in loue worship holding him by the feet O how glorious are the feet of the Lord of the Gospell The Gospell of whose resurrection these female Euangelists are againe sent to teach and the first schollers which they must teach must be Christ's Disciples When to shew their obedience to be as readie as their loue they depart euen from Christ to their dutie and speedily find Peter and Iohn for their auditours Heere was zeale and tendernesse the fiercest and the mildest of the Apostles as if they had beene left together to temper one another And these no sooner heare the newes but straight they runne as fast to the tombe as the women did runne from it Iohn came first vnto it but Peter went first
into it Loue was swiftest but zeale boldest When they are entred they find Christ's victory acknowledged by the linnen clothes his spoiles of death and these spoiles too had beene diuided the napkin of his head being laid by it selfe It seemes the angell at our Sauiour's resurrection attended to bee a witnesse of it to the women and leaue a witnesse of it to the Disciples Thus that he was not stolne away appeares by the inconuenience and leisure of his vndressing and by the method of the linnen which the frightened policie of the souldiers did no more touch then obserue and they no more obserued it then did the women who after the sight of the angell had their eyes as much amazed as their minds The souldiers too did more tremble then watch but the Disciples had lesse feare and more time besides they learned somewhat which they were not taught and could now teach the women this newes of the graue But did hee rise but from the graue This is the newes but of his bodie yes hee did rise also from the damned who are dead too as much in judgement as to nature Though some are as vnwilling to haue Christ descend into Hell as to goe thither themselues and in a dangerous Brachygraphie write the Creed so short that without the commission of an Index Expurgatorius they quite leaue out the article of the descent But what an vnmannerly ingratitude is this to accept of Christ's benefits and denie his wonders They will enjoy his conquest of Hell and yet they will not let him goe to conquer it Ought wee not to make greater the glory of Christo and can wee make lesse the power of Christ Let then our pietie behold and wonder to see Heauen descend into Hell to see againe Gosâ—â—â—â— in Aegypt The Deuill had beene before in Heauen and now God is pleased to goe into Hell The arch-angell conquered the Deuill in Heauen and now God conquers him in his owne Empire and makes his Empire his Dungeon Wee ouercome the Deuill by flight but God by inuasion Yet who would not stand amazed to see God with the Deuill Had the Manichie beene now hee might heere at once haue behold both his Princes Mee thinkes our Sauiour now turned Sampson's Riddle into a Prophesie which hee expounded and fulfilled Did not out of the eater come forth meate and out of the strong came there not sweetnesse when from the jawes of Hell by Christ came forth saluation Now whiles the soule of our Sauiour was triumphant in Hell his bodie was obedient in the sepulchre his diuinitie being as his soule till it recalled his soule and made the whole Christ change an age of three and thirtie yeeres into eternitie Loe heere is the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah whose almightie strength vouchsafed to couch vnder the power of the graue and Loe the glorious indignation of his loue has rouzed him vp againe from the sloth of death Will you behold how hee was raised behold how the potter workes vpon the wheele he takes clay he makes it a vessell and this vessell being marred in the hand of the potter he makes it againe as hee best pleases Christ was immortall clay and earth purer then Heauen When by the wonder of omnipotency the Creator and the creature were made into one and of one matter did consist both the potter and his pot From this broken clay there did arise the same and a renewed Christ That hee rose in the earnest of a body his owne mouth did testifie when hee said nothing proouing it by the authoritie of food which he did eate with his Disciples Could any man in this point be yet an infidell If any could see how he conuerts them Hee lets Thomas disgrace himselfe to a beliefe and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously increase his faith Can any doubt that hee was renewed in a bodie of glory when he was full of God Know you not that his body was indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost Was hee not renewed in a body of glory whom the doores that were shut when hee entred to his Disciples did obediently acknowledge to be the King of glory And though hee were patient vnder death three dayes yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died and the last part of the last after hee reuiued there was the number but not the length of three dayes and thus hee made so short a change seeme rather a sleepe then a death And O but to consider heere as well the wonder as the change Doe but imagine that in the dawning birth of the morning you saw the reuelation of a graue emulating the morning a coarse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sunne a winding-sheet falling away as an empty cloud the feet and hands striuing which shall first recouer motion the hands helping to raise the body the feet helping to beare both the body and the hands the tongue so eloquent that it can tell you it can speake againe the eares so pure that they can perceiue the silence of the graue the eyes looking forth of their Tombes as if they were glad to see their owne resurrection Would you not bee as much affrighted as instructed with this power of a God Would you not be turned into very coarses to see this liuing coarse Would you not be strucke as pale as the winding-sheet you looked-vpon But when all this shall bee done as well in mercy as in majestie as well to raise you to a hope of eternall life as to strike you with a remeÌ„brance of a temporall death as well to make you like vnto God as to make you know you are yet not like vn-him O how will you then at such compassion dissolue with compassion as if you would hasten to the like resurrection How will you then kisse those hands which before you feared How will you then with stedfast eyes examine and adore the resurrection of that body which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our bodies For therefore did hee raise himselfe that hee might raise vs and so become the first-fruites of them that sleepe But shall wee rise too and shall dust againe bee taken-vp and breathed on Shall euery man by this second Adam be made as wonderfully as the first Adam And yet shall we want faith when God wants not power Or shall we thinke it harder to vnite the bodie and soule then to make them It were an impious discourtesie to deny that to God which God denied not vnto his seruant Did not the widow of Zarephah thus receiue a sonne by Elias who yet was neither the father of it nor the God Nay did not his seruant doe more for the Shunamite to whom hee promised a sonne before hee was conceiued and restored him after hee was dead Nay did not the bones of this Elisha giue life to one that was as dead as themselues teaching him to confesse the mercie of a graue It
Shall not these first-fruits be likewise payed at our great Resurrection shall they not bee brought to the heauenly Ierusalem shall they not haue Angels goe before them shall there not bee crownes likewise prouided and shall they not be vshered with the voice of a trumpet It was the sound which the Iewes vsed at their brauer Funerals and may it not then fitly bee vsed when they shall awake againe from their tombes Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if wee once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let vs no more say they were dead but that they slept Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleepe but some shal insteed of rising be only new-dressed by being clothed with incorruption and so haue rather a change of rayment then of life They shall not put-off their bodies but their mortalitie and bee made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection and in the glory The Eutychian shall then confesse that the two natures in Christ are not mixt though joyned and that his humanitie though exalted is not changed The Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seene and it shall certainly prooue that it is not euery-where by being not in the graue whence it is risen The Pythagorean shall then recouer the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soule and the Saducy shall then arise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with his bodily eyes see the errour of his soule Since then our Redeemer is as eternall in his flesh as in his God-head since the souldiers feare acknowledged his resurrection which their malice denied since we must rise both by his authority and example let our rising not only follow his but also imitate it As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord so let the crucifying of our vices and the quiet contemplation of eternall joyes goe before the glory of the Resurrection So shall it be vnto vs as it was vnto our Sauiour a true Passeouer who passed thereby from this world vnto the Father So shall our hope bee as certaine as our rising so shall our soules rise as well as our bodies in that day of wonder When the last earthquake shall shake-vp death when the oecumenicall voice of one trumpet shall bee lowd enough to whisper-vp drowsie mankind when loose dust shal with the warmth and moysture of bloud bee kneaded into man when the tribute of dispersed and deuoured limbes shall bee paid-in from all countries and creatures when there shall be a Resurrection of disease of sleepe of death of the winding-sheet of the graue of rottennesse all which shall be purified into health into watchfulnesse into life into a robe of glory into a throne of glory into immortalitie when there shall bee a Resurrection of earth and heauen which shall be both renewed when there shall bee a Resurrection of God himselfe whose glory which seemed buried in this world shall illustriously arise in the face of heauen earth when there shall bee a new Resurrection of our Lord Iesus who shall no more arise from the graue but from heauen when the Iew and hell shall tremble those wounds of glory appeare which are the bloudie seales of our saluation So raise vs then O thou Lord of life vnto holinesse of life that when these things shall come to passe wee may not only rise in judgement but also stand in it and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heauen that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets prayse thee where thy noble armie of martyrs praise thee And with their bodies O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heauen and let our soules euen there feele a new affliction that whiles we cannot grieue enough that we cannot prayse thee enough our increasing gratitude for our bodies resurrection may be our soule 's eternall resurrection The end A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day 16â—â— 1. PETER 3.22 Who is gone into Heauen and is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subiect vnto him FOr man to goe into Heauen is almost impossible for God to goe into Heauen is impossible To vnderstand then the wonder of Christ's ascension we might wish that our soules could but ascend like his bodie which whiles it was on the earth receiued motion from his soule but when it left the earth receiued motion from his Diuinitie without which that motion can now bee no more vnderstood then it could then be performed The greatest wonder of mans bodie has beene the structure but the greatest wonder of this bodie is now the motion The force of mans hand can make earth ascend towards Heauen but only the power of God can make earth ascend vnto Heauen Man can raise earth aboue its Spheare but only God can fixe it aboue its Spheare This day you may see both these wonders whiles the bodie is made as wonderfull as the soule whiles the bodie is made the wonder of the soule and goes to Heauen with as much ease and with more weight And indeed Philosophie may seeme to haue come short at least of perfection if not of truth whiles it has discouered the effects of its owne ignorance insteed of the causes of ascension and descension Which now seeme not to bee the workes of weight and lightnesse but of sinne and innocence seeing that a bodie free from sinne has learned to ascend and spirits loaden with sinne haue sunke themselues from Heauen to the punishment and center of sinne And yet innocence is rather a preparatiue then a cause of this wonder a bodie cannot ascend without it a bodie cannot ascend by it It has more power vpon the soule then vpon the bodie yet it has not this power vpon the soule And as the soule cannot ascend by the power of innocence so neither can the bodie ascend by the power of the soule The soule can affoord vnto the bodie the motion of progression but not of ascension progression being made by the power of the soule but by the parts of the bodie and it is a kind of friendly attraction when one foot inuites the other to a succession of motion by a succession of precedencie But the ascension of the bodie cannot bee performed but by somewhat that is aboue the bodie aboue it not so much in place as in power The bodie can bestow vpon it selfe an equiuocall ascension when a part of the foote shall be raised into the stature of the bodie but this is rather an ascension in the bodie then of the bodie Nay we cannot at all call it an ascension but by leaue when the bodie has by chance an erect situation
all other posture making it descend as much to the name as to the simplicitie of extension The foules of the aire also haue their ascension but it is as well by the aire as in it and their cunning wing which diuides the aire into away compacts it into a helpe Thus do they ascend with an easie wonder it being performed by the power of nature and apprehended by the power of the vnderstanding But for mans bodie to ascend without the actiuitie of a wing aboue the actiuitie of a wing is so strange that it was strange euen in Christ's bodie nay it might haue beene strange to his owne bodie which had it not beene instructed by his diuinitie might haue maruail'd at its owne motion And it did no lesse amaze Heauen then possesse it making a great part of the Angels thus behold earth without descending to it And this bodie ascended rather to Heauen then to God The Diuinitie was with it yet did not ascend with it since it does not change place but fill all place His soule did ascend with it yet did rather effectually change place then properly whiles it did only not change that bodie which did change place The whole person did ascend not that the Diuinitie left any place where the humanitie had beene but that it was in euery place where the humanitie was to be And this ascension of Christ's bodie was not only farre from the nature but also against the nature of his bodie which acknowledg'd the burden and tyrannie of our Elements till by resurrection it was refined into the libertie of a glorified nature and taught to obey its owne preferment which the Diuinitie so bestowed both vpon bodie soule that they were almost not more neere vnto it then like vnto it And that they might be more like vnto it the Diuinitie became voluntarily as humble as the humanitie was naturally and voluntarily made the humanitie as high as the Diuinitie was naturally Which great worke of the ascension did not only need a Diuinitie to performe it but also to perswade men that it could bee performed the beliefe of the ascension being the next wonder to the ascension As then God did effect it so he did teach it he humbled himselfe to man hee humbled himselfe in man making the degrees of his instruction descend by the degrees of mans apprehension And first he did discouer the possibilitie of ascension to the Vnderstanding by which wee doe as truly as Moses though not as cleerely see Enoch's ascension which was not for ought we know seene by any eye but the eye of the vnderstanding the ascension of his bodie being no more discerned then the ascension of his soule God tooke him bodie and soule his bodie being by a holy obedience to his soule made so like his soule that it did ascend as easily nay as soone as his soule Holinesse which to other men is a resurrection of the soule was to him a resurrection also of the bodie which was refined without the deliberate corruption of a graue It was refined sooner then it could be corrupted It knew no graue but sinne from which it did ascend as it did ascend from its owne mortalitie but his soule did first by righteousnesse ascend in his bodie before it did ascend with his bodie God tooke him to himselfe leauing his storie to posteritie and faith as if he would teach the world by this inferiour proportion that ascension should be an object of faith The next apprehensiue facultie in man to which God descended to teach it the possibilitie of ascension was the Phantasie Thus Iacob saw the angels goe vp to Heauen though this was an ascension but by the helpe of a ladder and that helpe like that ascension but in a dreame and the bodies which ascended were but like a dreame hauing no more substance then a dreame But Saint Paul did by the phantasie not see the ascension of another but enjoy one himselfe and to that degree of truth that hee doubted whether his bodie did not as much possesse Heauen as the Vision possessed his bodie At last the diuine instruction taught the ascension to the Sense it taught the ascension of the bodie to the bodie Thus did Elisha see Eliah ascend he saw him ascend like the fire in which he did ascend in which he did ascend till he ascended aboue it Hee saw the state of his ascension in a Chariot he saw the speed of his ascension in his horses he saw and he heard the whirle-wind in which Eliah suffered a triumph and rapture of his bodie as other Prophets had suffered a rapture only of their soules Nay Elisha's touch too did apprehend the ascension whiles it tooke vp the mantle that did ascend for the mantle too had an ascension though not to Heauen yet toward Heauen and to the working of miracles But all Elisha was but a witnesse of this ascension whiles God tooke-vp Eliah and left the Prophet with Elisha whom he clothed not so much with the mantle as with Eliah But if you would heare of one that had gone toward Heauen and come downe againe as if he would be a witnesse of his owne ascension you may remēber Abacuc with whose story wee may bee satisfied as much as Daniel was with his prouision Whom yet if carefully we will obserue we shall perceiue him cast into the Lions denne so late in the euening and deliuered thence so early in the morning that there will bee no more need then there was time for the ascension of Abacuc and the miracle of the dinner Nay had it come it would haue beene as great a miracle to haue kept the Lions from the food as to haue kept them from Daniel And had Abacuc liued till Daniel's imprisonment he would indeed haue had need to bee carried though his journie had beene farre shorter then from Iury to Babylon Thus did death make this Prophet preuent this ascension of his bodie by an ascension of his soule But Simon Magus did ascend in earnest nay and hee prooued it too by descending in earnest Only it was an vntoward ascension he did ascend by the power of the Deuill but hee descended by the power of God he descended to that power by which he ascended Now as this Sorcerer was made to descend by the prayers of Saint Peter so Saint Thomas of Aquine as some haue told vs ascended by his owne prayers hee ascended without presumption a foot or two Which petty ascension may serue for a mannerly miracle if the Saint-maker's eyes were not as dimme as his deuotion and by an apocope of that Saint's bodie mistooke not his knees for his feete vpon which peraduenture hee stood praying and the mistake was as easie as the miracle But wee haue heard of some Dead bodies that haue ascended thus some haue buried Moses in Heauen striuing to make his tombe as famous as his holinesse and belike lest the Deuill should haue made his body an Idoll they