Advantage not as a Trapdore swallowing up in Destruction but as a Gate opening to everlasting Life And this is done first by recounting our looser dayes in bitternesse so shall we unlive the time we have lived amisse then by frequent Meditation and foretast of Death Think thine Eyes grown dim in the fainting twylight of life and thou shalt soon turn them aside from vanity think thine Eares grown deafe with sicknesse and thou wilt soon stop them against Idle words think thy Tongue grown stiffe with drowth and that thought will be a watch before thy mouth to Examine what thou lettest out and what thou lettest in think on the cold sweat of Death so thou wilt abhorre to swim in Lust think how naked thou must goe hence even as bare as thou camest onely with a shrowd as thou camest in with a Cawle and almost with as little flesh then thou wilt easily contemne all wordly pomp and subdue thy carnall Tumours Thinkest thou that Death drawes nearer when it is thought of or dares not to approach unlesse it be call'd no such matter this practice of dying dayly will not make us to die the sooner but so to live as that we may die the happier And this or the like practice belongs to our Christian Profession assumed in Baptisme where by the Covenant of Grace we become Dead in a third Acception Dead in Quality Dead to all Wordly and Carnall Lusts though we may sometimes fall upon them by Infirmity yet to pursue them is against our Profession The Desire is Dead and the Renunciation made against them is a kind of Death The spirituall Pharaoh with all his Hoast lies drown'd in the Font representing a Red Sea the Blood of Christ there Christ and We enter into Covenant he to free us from Sin and we to forsake it he to strike off the Dominion and Guilt thereof we the Service and Confederation Because by nature we are born Dead in Sin and subject to Corruption therefore by a second birth we are born Dead unto Sin the spirituall Death is a Countermine against the Naturall For by the Power of Baptisme the Old man together with his Lusts is taken and crucified nayl'd hand and foot to the Crosse of our Saviour quite disabled from acting what he would and at length with much adoe with striving and strugling with Gall and Vineger with Piercing or Breaking forc'd to die outright How then shall we that are Dead to Sin live any longer therein 't is the Use of the Apostle Rom. 6. 2. v. Is it not strange to heare that a dead man walkes is it not stranger to heare that he speakes and workes yes eates and drinkes abundantly and yet dead how is it then that the Old man so long since crucified dead and buried doth yet so frequently exercise the Actions of Life moving the Tongue to Idle words Lying Swearing the Throat to Excesse the Eie to Adultery the Hands to Oppression and all the members to severall Iniquity how is it that the Church of God is haunted with such Evill Spirits and Goblins sure there is some Spell or Magick in this foule Prodigie otherwise without the help of the Devill it could not be I grant that a rotten Tree after it is hewn down and laid in the Durt may put forth a Sprig a Leafe or so but they come to no Strength they never prosper Haire may grow on a Carcasse but such haire is never dressed nor keemed So may the Reliques of the Old man have a Counterfeit shew of Life but must not gather Head never be cherish'd within any Christian bosome Death frees us from all worldly Relations and Bonds as S. Paul disputes in the sixth to the Romanes it frees the Wife from the yoake of her Husband the Servant from the Task of his Master shall we then who are freed by Death forsake a fresh and lovely Spouse who died for our Love and be reunited to an old rotten Carcasse shall we forgoe this new Master who bought us with his blood for an Old tyrannous Canniball that feedes on our destruction God forbid So much for this point wherein you have heard that we are now dead already and in three respects Dead in Law through the sentence pronounced on sin that therefore we ought not to be over-sollicitous for much provision where we have no right to tarry longer Dead by the Course of Nature as appeares by the mutability of those elements whereof we consist and of things appertaining by dayly declynations insensibly but yet continually growing into sensible changes in our owne Persons and by the successive defluction of all mankinde from whence we should gather patience for the losse of others Caution for our selves but without Anxiety and above all godly Preparation for a better life Lastly that we are Dead by the Covenant of Grace Dead to sin and sin to us that therefore sin ought not to rule and exercise our Members Then if the Old Adam Die within us while we live we shall live in the New when we Dye as we were Buried in Baptisme we shall be Baptized in Buriall and returne with Bodies as clean from the Grave as we did with soules from the Font So from the Death of life I passe to my second Generall the Life of death Your Life is hid with Christ in God Death having lost her sting cannot kill us utterly some Life is left else it could not be hid You may then observe these three degrees of Comfort the safety of life in the Chamber of Death 't is Hid the ready Meanes of safety 't is hid with Christ the strong Author of the Meanes 't is hid with Christ in God The Subject is aptly disposed to a resurrection the Meanes are already prepar'd the Author is All-sufficient and Infallible First our Life is Hid then it is not quite extinguished but safe laid as coales rak'd up in Ashes safe though unseen alive though close covered It lies like Treasure under Ground not out of Minde though out of Sight and shall again be dig'd up if not for the worth of the Mettle yet for the Image of God which it beares Death is but a longer and sounder sleep and life is hid in sleep as well as in Death for in sleep the senses are fetterd as in Death all bodily Faculties Howsoever from the Captivity of one part an utter Destruction of the whole is not concluded When halfe the body is struck and possessed by a dead palsie there still remaines a living Body because there is life in some part So when the whole Body is seazd by Death there still remaines a living Man because there is life in the best part the Soule Abraham Isaack and Iacob have being enough to preserve their Names and our Saviour proves them to be also Living What though the Union of parts be Actually dissolved Yet the Dissolution is not Totall because there still remaines a possibility and a Naturall Desire of reuniting
the Meanes under the power of his Resurrection our life is hid Shall not he be able to effect for us what the Sun can doe for Flowers some will ask How shall the Dead rise or with what body shall they come Christ answers With my dead Body shall they rise Esay 26. at the 19. v. By vertue of his body already risen from Death Vbi gloria praecessit Capitis eòsequetur spes Corporis saith Leo whither the Head hath gloriously gone before the Members hope to follow after At the first veiw there appeares no more in Christs Resurrection but a man Risen but when we consider the Condition and Relation of that Man that being the Innocent and Holy one of God he was neither worthy of Death nor Tenable by it that therefore he dyed not for Himselfe but for the Guilty not as an Offendor but Vndertaker and Laid downe his Life with Power to take it up again for the benefit of those for whom he laid it downe that Death unadvisedly seizing upon an unlawfull prize forfeited the Lawfull hold of sinners together with the Iust when the Gospell hath yeilded this Discovery then we find that this Sonne of Man is become the Everlasting Father the Lord and giver of Life to all Mankinde that our Resurrection is virtually included under His and that though power thereof we shall rise as surely as if we had his power to raise our selves For as to us a Childe was borne and for us a Man was Crucified so for us a Saviour is risen Whatsoever Christ did on Earth the same he did in our behoofe not for Himselfe so that if we rise not in vaine is Christ risen Why is he cal'd the Foundation the Head the Roote the First fruites but in relation to Vs If the Foundation be laid by wisedom it implies a rising Structure if the Head be above Water the Members are safe if the Roote be quick the Branches will sproute if the first Fruites be Holy so is the whole Crop Christ is our Life in the next words after my Text this Life lay Hid in our Grave and therefore it is but a correspondent exchange that our Life should be hid with Christ that since he lay in a sepulcher hewd out for another others should be quicken'd by his Rising But how was Christ hid in our Grave himselfe hath shew'd in the 12. of St. Iohn 24. v. Except a Corne of Wheat fall into the Ground and dye it abideth alone but if it dye it bringeth forth much fruite he lay then in the Grave as a graine of Wheat in the furrow so purposely sowne for us that our Life might be hid with him as increase in the Graine which was sown It is not to be forgotten that as Christ at his Passion compar'd Himselfe to a Graine of Wheat so the Apostle in his Resurrection hath fitly compar'd him to the First Fruites Cor. 15. 20. the compleat Allegory declares this Vertue in Him this Dependance in us that since he lay in the Ground not like a stone but like Corne therefore in springing up he rose not single not as Ionas from the belly of the Whale unlesse to Ionas you reckon the Ninivites rais'd by his Preaching but multiplyed to more then Fifties to more then Hundreds to a world of Graines besides Himselfe that since at His Resurrection he likewise became the first Fruites of them that sleep he hath consequently obtain'd a blessing for the whole field Wherefore as the Lord Iesus who is blessed for evermore hath return'd Victor in spite of invading Death and all Impediments wherewith he was blocked so shall it be that all his Dependants in the utmost skirts of the world shall rise from Death notwithstanding the drowning burning mangling confounding scattering of Carcasses whose disorderd destiny makes a distinct Recollection of Parts to seem impossible But in presence of a sufficient meanes and unresistible Power Impossibility must Vanish We finde in the Generall Course of Nature things as much beyond our reach dayly renew'd we finde in Humane nature no Reluctance no repugnance against the Resurrection but rather an Aptitude and desire if there come a sufficient cause to reduce it into Act. Now when Christian Religion hath discovered to Reason an able Meanes in Christ who for this purpose became the first fruites of them that slep'd and hath gotten power to be judge of the Quick and Dead that the Dead might rise and appeare before his Tribunall now the Resurrection is more then possible more then fecible 't is in Vertue already perform'd and when I shall shew you that the Author who hath chosen and appoynted this meanes is God it will be found to be necessary And herein consists the third degree of comfort our Life is Hid with Christ in God In God Where could our Life be better or safer plac'd For as the Soule is the Life of the Body so God is the Life of our Soules and consequently both Soules and Bodies are in his hand hardly to be poynted out but safe kept in an Invincible and Infallible Custody The same who of his Infinite goodnesse hath appointed Christ to be the meanes of our Resurrection he having Power and will to produce the deserv'd Effect will not faile of his Iustice and Truth to bring it to passe If yet you can doubt consider your own Creatures the works of man when a musicall Ayre hath been plaid is it quite lost never to be called for againe or what is become of it is it hid in the Bowells of the Instrument in the prick'd or conceivd Copy or in the hand and Power of the Musition in all these so when the breath of man is expired he is hid in the Mold as in the Matter with Christ as with our Idea and Pattern in God as in the Author and harmonious Composer Againe when a Printer dissolves his Impression and casts it into the first Elements or Letters is it quite lost or what is become of it is it hid in the Boxes which contain those Letters or in the book out of which it was copied or in the hand of the Printer that sets the Letters together in all these such is the Case of Man though all his quarters be divided into the quarters of the world though his parts be distributed like those of the Levites wife or digested into other bodies or scattered into all Elements they are still within Gods Boxes though his Figure be lost to the memory of men it remaines fresh with Christ and in his Book are all our Members written though they cannot meet of themselves yet God can finde them out and will joyne them together after his Sonnes likenesse and his particular Register Who turned the round world who fashioned the parts of man at first was not God that Carpenter and Christ his Sonne Now which is harder to make a Table and the Timber too or to joyne the parts taken a sunder to create that which was not
The parts which stand separate are in want and Imperfect as without the whole they needes must therefore the widowed Soule longs for the Bodies Fellowship to supply this want and to gaine the fullnesse of Perfection How long cry the Saints under the Altar O Lord Holy and True how long Rev. 6. 9. v This Naturall Desire cannot ever be frustrated So then upon the matter the Dead are but asleepe and if they sleepe then as the Apostles well answered they shall doe well for as men that have slep'd soundly arise from their Couch more fresh and lively the dull and cumbersome humours being well concocted so the dead roused with a loud summons from the Grave will appeare more Glorious and Agil all Imperfections being worne off by the Furnace of Corruption In the meane time while the Bodies of both Sleepers lie senselesse their Soules are alike busied as in the living sleepe they are taken up with dreames so in the dead sleepe with heavenly Visions But shall we call it a Sleeping or Hiding when the Body is turn'd to the substance of the Bed Flesh to Mold still we may For what think you of the Seedes sown in your Ground is that sowing a destruction or onely a Hiding say then doth our Creed in this point extend to our Corne and not to our selves Behold in a little seed there sleepes the bulk of a rising Tree when 't is grown to a vast extent consider in what secret crany so spacious vertue lodg'd where was the ruggednesse of the bark the solidity of the trunk the verdure of the Leafe the pleasantnesse of the fruit feele and examine the Seed 't is not rough whence this grate of the bark 't is not tough whence in processe this hardnesse of the wood 't is not greene whence this tincture of leaves it smells not whence this fragrance in the fruit wherefore in Secrecy they all at once lay dormant though at once they doe not break forth From the Seed is the Root produced from the Root the Trunk and bark from them the Twig from the Twig the Leaves and Fruit and againe from the Fruit the Seed Now man like Seed lies resuscitable in the womb of the Earth If from a small kernell having no distinction of parts wood bark leaves and fruit be dayly raised into the massy bulk of a Tree what more wonder if out of dry Homogeneous Dust Bones Sinewes Veynes Flesh Skin and Hayre be reduced into Man He that askes a Reason of the manner must be cunningly answered by asking other questions of things continually obvious to sight yet no way comprehended by Reason that since by seeing we cannot penetrate the depth of things Visible we may beleeve by hearing the Truth of the Invisible So S. Gregory on the twentieth of S. Iohns Gospell The Philosopher may object that the raising of a Tree out of Seed is rather a Reparation of kind then of the particular and so an Instance of Generation rather then of the Resurrection but since this Generation is from the womb of the Earth not from the Stock of the Tree we reply that it is also an Argument of the Resurrection so urged both by our Saviour and by S. Paul And to make this Doctrine more familiar the Steps of the Resurrection are imprinted in most of the Creatures The Phoenix waxing old fills her Nest with billets of Spice on her funerall pile she turnes into Ashes and after by the dew of Heaven springs up a new Phoenix Divers imperfect bodies which yesterday lay labouring in some deep puddle now start into Life Bees in the Hive Flies in the Clefts of Walls which lay all winter without sense or motion suddenly revive at the Suns approach Day it selfe dies into night and the life of the Sun is hid with the Antipodes yet within a few houres he appeares in his sparkling dresse to cheere the forsaken world All things are preserved by perishing and are new trim'd by Dissolution So Tertullian Though these Arguments seeme meerly Rhetoricall and farre short of demonstrating the Resurrection of man yet upon better consideration since they plainly demonstrate an Aptitude of Reviction in nature under the power and providence of the Author from the raising of these inferiour Creatures we may confidently conclude a proportionall likelyhood of raising that which beares his own Image Wherefore I returne to the meditation of Nature whose reparation is most apparant at this present season behold now the Revolution of the whole world is an earnest of mans Restitution now all the Emblems of mortality enjoy their spring Grasse and Flowers rise from the sullen clod under which their life lay hid Shall we borrow their names onely in time Fading and not when they flourish Why so for all these things are renew'd for man and man doubteth not of their renewing shall he for whom they are reviv'd dispaire of his owne Resurrection What though he lye long and wast in the earth so he ought Creatures that soon fade againe may have quick returnes of their spring but man who after his rising is sure to wake for ever may well endure a long sleep Again Creatures lesse Noble unlesse they spring quickly cannot spring at all but man consisting of a reasonable soule and indued with vegetant power in the most Excellent manner is ripened more Deliberately saith Athenagoras and must rise the last of all he hath a Priviledge to rise after many thousands of yeares out of any Elements Fire Ayre Sea and Earth wheresoever he hath been scatterd Nothing springs before the due time at the due time Man shall also Would you have the Harvest before all the graine be sown Mundi tempora homini Annus est the end of the world is mans Harvest and best of all so least again he should rise to sin but when men have been all sown when the Winter of dying is past when God the husbandman hath sufficiently purged us and clarified the Flesh from drosse he will call us up to an endlesse Summer a Summer answerable to the past Winter For which purpose we also have our peculiar Sun and proper Dew Sun and Dew as well as the Creatures our Sun is the Sun of Righteousnesse when He appeares then as it followes after my Text we shall appeare together with him in glory our Dew whether it be the Dew of Teares it ushers in the Reaping of Ioy or whether the Dew of God's promise it shall not faile of performance Awake and sing saith he Ye that dwell in the dust for thy Dew is as the Dew of Hearbs and the earth shall cast out her Dead Esay 26. 19. v. When this comes to passe as who dares doubt it then it shall appeare that we lay as Flos in Hyeme that we Winter'd in Christ our Cause and only sunk into his Root who is the true Vine and Tree of Life This is our second degree of Comfort that our Life is hid with Christ With Christ he is