their feet an exceeding great army he knowes that that of Esdras though it be Apocryphall writing yet it is Canonicall truth 2 Esd 4.40.42.43 Go thy way to a woman with childe when she hath fulfilled her nine moneths if her wombe may keepe the birth any longer within her For as shee that is with childe hasteth to escape the necessitie of the travell so do these places haste to deliver those things that are committed unto them That which thou desirest to see shall be shewed thee from the beginning and therefore if Christ be risen the first fruits what need I feare that that can neither hold me long nor hurt me at all that can neither end my hopes nor can begin my miseries Fourthly If Christ be risen as the first fruits then let this comfort us against immoderate griefe and sorrow for the death of friends Why should we immoderately grieve for the death of friends whose death for their Souls is their present gaine and for their bodies but onely a casting of the seed into the ground to rot and rest there for a while that it may sprout and spring up a farre more glorious body greene and fresh and a goodlier body then it fell in as is intimated here in verse 37 And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be c. but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him a greene and fresh a statelyer and goodlyer body by farre then it was sowne and so for their Soul death is their present gaine if so be they can say with Paul to me to live is Christ for then it will follow Phil. 1.21 to me to dy is gaine Againe except it be no gaine to be delivered out of a sinfull and miserable body yea a sinfull and miserable world and carried into a holy and happy place where sin and misery never peept in It is our weakness and errour to thinke of our friends departed as Jacob of Joseph Joseph was in great honour in Egypt and Jacob when he saw his bloodied coat thought that surely an evill beast had devoured him and Joseph was not but Joseph what bids he his brethren tell their Father to comfort him You shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt So wee when wee see the bloodied coats of our friends as 't were Gen. 45.9 2 Cor. 5.4 their dead bodies I meane the garments of the Soul we are ready to thinke that death that evill beast hath made an end of them and they are not but tell my Father c. So let us thinke of all the glory that they have in Heaven and be comforted Why should we therefore immoderately grieve for our friends whose death for their Souls is their present gaine c Wee that do so immoderately grieve for the death of our friends do we not mind what is the first thing used to be read at their burials I am the Resurrection and the life and while the earth is cast upon the body Forasmuch as it hath pleased c. do we not mind these things If we mind these things certainly we have either little faith in us to believe the glorious Resurrection of them that dy in Christ or little hope in us to perswade us that this our friend is dead in Christ or little patience in us under the good will and providence of God wisely ordering all things If it be impatience in us let us consider Job and what he said when among other things God had taken away his seven Sons and three daughters at once Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away Blessed be the name of the Lord. If it be because that we have little hope that our friends are dead in Christ why do we not then grieve for them when wee see that our friends do not live in Christ this griefe would be profitable it would make us seeke their amendment If lastly it be because we have little faith in us to believe the glorious Resurrection of them that dye in Christ Let us consider that if Christ be risen the third day then all that dy in Christ shall as undoubtedly rise the last day If we believe sayes the Apostle that Jesus dyed and rose againe even so them also which sleep in Christ will God bring with him also 1 Thes 4.14 If therefore Christ be risen c. their graves are but their beds to rest their wearied bones in a while till the day of the Lord dawne and that great trumpet sound to waken them out of their sleep and who now that loves one another dearlyest mournes when he bids him Good night to go lye downe in his bed till next morning Fifthly If Christ be risen as the first fruits Let this comfort us against the present frailties and weaknesses and vileness of these bodies of ours bodies that are so soone puling and complaining for a little excesse of cold or heat a little defect of meat or drinke bodies that are so soone wearied and tyred out with a little labour and pains in the Course of ones calling bodies that are so often vexing us with cramps and aches and sundry sicknesses bodies that are soone withering and waxing old and mouldring away bodies every way so vile that some have irked to have any pictures made of their bodies as but the picture of their shame and indeed were it not that they are our own bodies and that every one have bodies alike they would soone be seene how irksome they are but if Christ be risen c. these corruptibles shall put on incorruption and these mortalls shall put on immortality and thus Job comforted himselfe when he was so struck with sores and boils from the sole of the foot to the crowne of the head and so spent and wasted in his body with the heat and inflammation of those burning boils that he was even escaped with the skin of his teeth had no more left almost upon that poore carcasse of his then on his very teeth where is nothing at all yet being in that case he thus comforted himselfe I know that my Redeemer liveth and though after my skin as having almost nothing now on this back but a little withered skin worms destroy this body this poore torne tattered rent spent carcasse of mine yet in my flesh shall I see God And thus St. Paul also intimates comfort against the vileness and abjectness of these bodyes of ours by considering the glory they shall have at the Resurrection Phil. 3.21 who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body c. Sixthly If Christ be risen as the first fruits c. then what thankes owe we to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for so great a blessing so great a blessing as affords this comfort against all the present frailties and vileness of our bodies against all excessive greife for the death of our friends against all
factum est nescierunt in Ps 55. Stulta insania si vigilabas quare permisisti si dormiebas unde scisti in Ps 36. and so lyars are not to be believed or it was true and then how could they tell what hapned foolish madnes if thou wast awake why didst thou suffer it if thou wast asleep how didst thou know it Secondly it is more then too incredible they would do it would they that being Jews knew well what God and Religion meant have dared to have father'd such a grosse forgery on God it is the argument one of them which our Apostle here instanceth in If Christ be not risen then are we found false witnesses of God which some might thinke irreligious and profane wretches that they are to be no such great argument yet weigh it well in these persons the Apostles and a forcinger argument cannot be brought for how canst thou imagine that the Apostles who being no such fooles as appears well enough by putting the wise Jews so to it to call councell upon councell against them would of themselves without Divine warrant have attempted so foolish a thing as the preaching of obedience up and down the world to a crucified man no otherwise risen from the dead then by stealing his body out of the grave what hope could ever they have of any successe No hope from him whom they preached whose own consciences told them he was yet in the power of death no hope from God whom they so foully belyed no hope from any thing in themselves not from eloquence and excellency of speech to perswade they were but rude and illiterate men not from wealth and riches to corrupt shoos on their feet and a staff in their hand was most of that they had not from authority and greatnes to awe and prejudice they were but contemptible fishermen the like not from number and multitude to overrun and subdue they were but eleven silly sneaks that had all run away when their Master was apprehended no hope therefore from any thing in themselves no hope further from any docibleness and inclinabliness of the parties to be perswaded not any inclineableness of the Jew Not him but Barrabas and Crucify him Crucify him was the loud and joynt cry of the Jew the Jew was hardned therefore against any such Doctrine it had been as easie for these fisher men the Apostles to have spoken to the fishes of the Sea to have made them follow them on the dry land as to have spoken to the people of the Jews to have made them follow them in the Doctrine and beliefe of Christs Resurrection upon their own bare word they that cared not for all Christs miracles when he was alive but Crucified him were they likely to have believed the bare assertions of fishermen for his Resurrection Not any inclinableness again in the Gentile Act. 17.32 it was that they mocked at when they heard of the Resurrection it was that that Paul was glad to qualify with this argument of insinuation in the beginning when he was to speake of it to the Gentile Act. 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead be it a thing never so hard why should it be thought above Gods ability to do It was that also that when Paul was in the earnestness of his speech about the assertion of it Act. 26.24 made Festus break out with a loud voice and say Paul thou art beside thy selfe was the Gentile therefore likely to be inclinable to this Doctrine especially Christs suffering being publick and all seeing it and his Resurrection being private and underhand and but a few supposed witnesses of it and those few opposed almost by all that nation the nation of the Jews that if there had been any such thing should have brought the knowledge thereof unto the Gentiles would they therefore that were no stark fooles have gone about a thing of so great folly wherein they had no hope of successe from him that they preached as not risen no hope from God as belyed by them no hope from any thing in themselves as being without eloquence without riches without authority without multitude no hope from any inclinableness in the parties to be perswaded Jew or Gentile as being utter enemies the one to the mention of the name of Jesus of Nazereth the other to the mention of the Resurrection Either therefore they were very Idiots and stark fooles and why then were the wisest Jews so put to it by them to lay heads together and to assemble councel after councel or else they were wise enough and why then should any thinke they would attempt such a foolish thing without good ground and reason But suppose they had been so overseene as not to have considered these things at first yet would they not when the storme once begun to fall on them and the world rise up in armes against them seeing the impossibility every way of making their Legend their lying Legend take would they not then have desisted would not fair nor foul means have made one of them at least at last have bewrayed the whole busines but that all their life long in spite of what the world could do they should continue every one of them in most constant asseveration of the Resurrection certainly had they been nothing but deceivers it is not imaginable that the world could have a pack of such except they had been very incarnate Devils but their writings and much more their lives shewed them to have been rather incarnate Angels Again if they would have done this they should either have taken our Saviour for an impostor deceiving them of his promise that he promised them he would rise again the third day and so they should rather have hated him as an Impostor then preached him as Saviour or else should have taken him as the true Saviour indeed though yet deteined in the grave and so they would never have gone about to have preached him that was Truth by meere lyes and falshood they could not thinke that the true Saviour would thinke well of false Apostles and therefore it is too incredible they could it is more then too too incredible they would preach the Resurrection as Meere Deceivers Secondly Not as deceived with any fantasme or apparition Diabolicall For first They were sure the body was not in the sepulchre their own sense and the sense of all the Jews viewing the empty sepulchre confirmed them of that Secondly They were sure none had privately stollen the body away and laid it elsewhere because of the Watch that kept the sepulchre and because of the grave-cloaths left behind and the napkin that was upon his head wrapt up alone none would have carried away a dead Ghastly body and that so full of wounds and gored blood and Ghastly visaged for the Napkin of his head also was taken off none would have carried away a dead body in such
and down the world that our Fathers and our Preists and our Prophets have told us such strange things of should be made subject to him Nay is it credible that he that was this great God would be so borne so bred so crucified would so dye and be buried that majesty would be cloathed with such vileness that power and omnipotency would dwell with such weakness that life and immortality would embrace and shake hands with death and the grave So incredible is this Doctrine that all the cheife heresies of old were either against the true Divinity of our Saviour as the Arians Photinians c. or the true humanity as the Simonians Manichees Marcionites c. or the true union of Divinity and humanity into one person as the Nestorians Eutychians c. so unworthy thought they it was that the great God in one and the same person should become man or so overworthy that meane man should in one and the same person become God so that you may know our Saviour had good reason to say of Peters confession Mat. 16.17 whom do men say that I the son of man am Quodcunque Deo indignum est mihi expedit c. Natus est Dei Filius non pudet quia pudendum est moriuus est Dei Filius prorsus credibile est quia ineptum est sepultus resurrexit certum est quia impossibile est Tert. de Carne Christi Thou art Christ the son of the living God This is such high Philosophy that he that was the son of man he the same should be the son of the living God that our Saviour might well say Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee And this that Christ crucified should be the Saviour of the world that Paul might well say we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling blocke and unto the Greeks foolishnes Whatsoever seemes unworthy of God is for me expedient c. the son of God is borne I am not ashamed of it because it seemes a thing not to be ashamed of and the son of God dyed this is altogether credible because it seemes absurd and after he was buried he rose again this is certaine because it seemes impossible And therefore Secondly it might have offended as an incredible Doctrine incredible that he that seemed to be but a poore weake crucified man should be the great God and Saviour of all or as incredible that he that was this great God and Saviour of all would be a poore weake crucified man Thirdly As a Doctrine too high for the world to embrace wallowing in flesh and blood what high Doctrine was it to teach the proud world the humility of Christ Jesus the uncharitable world the love of their very enemies the unchast world the restraint even of an unchast looke the revengefull world not to resist evill but rather if one smite him on the right cheeke to turn to him the left also The sturdy stomackfull world to seeke reconcilement with ones brother the gripple pinch-penny world to be liberall in almes the covetous carking world not to lay up treasures on earth not to be thoughtfull about to morrow but let to morrow take thought for it selfe in a word the profane dissolute world to tuck up their loyns of their mind and to be sober and walke unto a precise circumspect walking in all godliness and honesty Say any one now even the best here that considers from the experience of the reliques of his own corruption yet in him what a hard thing it is for the proud spirit to be taught the humility of Christ Jesus c say if the doctrine of the Gospel might not well have offended as a Doctrine too high for the world c. Fourthly As a Doctrine bringing still the crosse and persecution with it No sooner was any converted to the Gospel but presently blows flew thick about his ears and the Divell raised up a storme of persecution against him even a mans enemies proved they of his own houshold the father betraying the son to death c. so inseparable an attendant of the Gospel in the primitive times was the crosse and persecution that the Apostles still where they preached the Gospel preached the Doctrine also of enduring tribulation So Paul and Barnabas went through Lystra Icenium and Antioch confirming the Souls of the Disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith And that wee must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Act. 14.22 So your selves know that wee are appointed thereunto to endure afflictions for verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as it came to passe 1 Thes 3.3 4. 2 Tim. 3.12 So all that will live godly in the world shall suffer persecution Say therefore they that consider what the wisdom of the flesh is namely to thinke it good sleeping in a whole skin good hearkning to S. Peters Counsell to our Saviour telling how many things he should suffer at Jerusalem and there be killed c. Spare thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let not these and these things befall thee Matt. 16.22 Say if the Doctrine of the Gospel might not also have offended as a Doctirne bringing the crosse with it Fifthly As a Doctrine that invited to all that hard matter and hard task of the crosse by no other promises then future of another world it should cost them here if they would be right Christians the denying of themselves the mortifying of their pleasures their plucking out their right eyes their cutting off their right hands and feet c. Moreover it would cost them the enduring the crosse the suffering shame the going still with their lives in their hands but reward here they should looke for none onely believe if they would Matt. 5.12 Matt. 19.28 Luke 14.14 Act. 3.19 great should be their reward in Heaven great in that regeneration great in that Resurrection of the just great in those dayes of refreshing from the presence of the Lord great in that coming of his to be glorified in his Saints and admired of all them that believe 2 Thes 1.10 Col. 3.3 your life is hid with Christ in God But in the meane time they must possesse their Souls in patience live by faith work all things and endure all things as seeing him that is invisible and looking for that reward which is invisible what a snub and hinderance thinke you was this likely to have been unto flesh and blood hankering still after the present things and loving to believe no more then it sees what a snub and hinderance from embracing that doctrine that invited unto such high doings and such deep sufferings upon promises onely hereafter and in another world whereof they had no other assurance then that Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seene and therefore whence but from the power
a blessed Resurrection let us labour to belong to the first fruits It is strange that we should thinke to continue nothing but very tares and stinking weeds in Gods field and thinke at harvest time to be carried home into his barne as the best Corne. Beloved however it prove with us that many a tare and filthy weed may be brought home among the good Corne and many a good eare of Corne left behind in the field yet at that harvest the end of the world not one tare in Gods field shall be brought home into his barn nor one eare of good Corne left behind to rot in the field Let us therefore strive to belong unto the first fruits if we look to be blessed in the first fruits Secondly If Christ be risen as the first fruits then let this confirme all them that belong unto the first fruits in the assured blessed hope of their undoubted glorious Resurrection if the poorest despised member of Christs body shall not rise again to glory then Christ himselfe is yet in the power of death death gnawes upon him It is the Apostle himselfe that is thus bold But if there be no Resurrection from the dead 1 Cor. 15.13 then is Christ not risen the Head is not in Heaven if any of the members shall for ever rot in the earth Observe how still the Scripture makes the blessed hope that is in us of our Resurrections to rest and build it selfe upon Christs Resurrection Job 19.25.26 so Job I know that my Redeemer liveth is one that death hath no power over and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and what then Job what if thou knowest that why I know then that I shall not alwayes be wormes meat but though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God So the Apostle having prayed that God would give the Ephesians enlightned minds to know the excellency of the happiness that awaits them in Heaven in these words That yee may know what is the hope of his calling Eph. 1.18 and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Lest they should thinke But how should wee ever attaine this happiness wee poore mortall corruptible creatures that dayly dy and rot and putrify in the grave and no signe of any such ensuing glory therefore he prayes withall that they may know the greatness of Gods power in raising up Christ from the dead as an assurance that he will also raise up them And that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead verse 19.20 because as it follows he raised up Christ to be the Head over all things to his Church which is his body the fulness of him which filleth all in all and therefore Christ is maimed and imperfect without his body His body therefore doubtles shal be assumed at last to him body and head to make one perfect man and one full Christ Till we all come in the unity of the faith Eph. 4.13 and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man c. what firmer hope therefore of our Resurrections then that wee are thus to be the fulness of Christ who should otherwise be a maimed Christ an imperfect Christ a halfe Christ a head without a body Further for this point makes that which the Apostle hath Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the power of his Resurrection to me ward to raise mee up also by an influence of the head upon the members after all my fellowship with him in his sufferings 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God sc nothing doubting but that he would also raise you up having raised him up your first fruits Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and have the keyes of Hell and of death have the keyes he slipt not out onely himselfe deceiving the keeper but he came out powerfully with keyes in his hand to let out also whomsoever of his he would he did not indeed as Samson did with the door of the gate of the City Gaza carry away the door and all that whosoever would might go forth but onely tooke away the keyes of the door to let out and lock in still whom he would Thirdly If Christ be risen as the first fruits then let this comfort us against the feare of death if we reckon of a day wherein he that dyed for us and rose again will for that which is sowne in corruption raise it again in incorruption which is sowne in dishonour raise it in glory sown in weakness raise it in power which is sowne a naturall body raise it a spirituall body Why should we much be afraid of death death doâ—s but spoil us of our rags to give us robes does but pull downe our old ruinous house to reare up a new one and a stately one in the roome We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved 2 Cor. 5.1 we have a building of God a house not made with hands he that now fears death much hath but either a little faith or an ill conscience and no marvaile if these two be afraid to dye the one looking at death as an end of all his hopes and the other as the beginning of all his misery But a good faith and a good conscience will not feare that which it knows can neither hold it nor hurt it it knows that Christ is risen as the first fruits and it knows that it belongs to those first fruits it knows what that means John 6.39 This is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day And that and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 but the spirit is life because of righteousness And that Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death the Divell He knowes that that which was spoken in a figure to the Jews shall in the very letter be performed to him and all Christs members Esay 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in dust c. and that which was a parable to them shall be a truth to the Saints That the valley of dry bones that were very dry Ezek. 37.5 the four winds shall blow upon them and breath shall come into them and they shall live and stand up upon
tormenting anxious feares for our owne deaths as being assured that Christ is not onely risen from the dead but risen as the first fruits to ensure the glorious Resurrection of all those that belong to him This use of thankfulness for so great a blessing the Apostle makes Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 which hath begotten us againe to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead And here St. Paul in the present Chapter O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And indeed he that considers what death is backed with sin and the unalterable Law of God can easily be moved to thankfulness for victory over it through our Lord Jesus Christ and his death and Resurrection Seventhly if Christ be risen as the first fruits c. then let these bodies of ours be sacred and holy to him here which we looke should be glorious and happy in him hereafter in him as glorified members of him a more glorious head he will never make him a glorious member that is not first a holy member never deliver him from the bondage of death that does not seeke first to be delivered of sin never deliver him from the corruption of the grave that does not seeke first to be delivered from the corruption of lust If it were possible that any member of Christ in Heaven should either be a sinfull member or a poor contemptible member sooner should it be a poor contemptible member then a sinfull member our Saviour sometimes here upon earth had a vile contemptible body but never a sinfull body looke we therefore that these bodyes of ours should be happy and glorious in him hereafter let them be sacred and holy to him here Think with thy selfe when gluttony and drunkenness dishonours thy body is this drunken body fit to be a member of Christs glorious body when filthyness and uncleanness defiles thy body is this filthy body fit to be a member c thinke with thy selfe when violence bribery injustice cozenage and trading Legerdemanie cleaves to thy hand is this hand fit to be a member of Christs glorious body c when pride envy avarice adultery sits in thy eye is this eye fit to be a member of Christs glorious body c when profane and cursed speaking horrible swearing slandering backbiting c. furres thy tongue is this filthy furred tongue fit to be a member of Christs glorious body c How does the Apostle reason against the abusing of the body by the sinne of fornication 1 Cor. 6.13 Now the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and is it fit that that body that is the Lords body looks to be raised up a glorious member of him already a glorious head is it fit that body should be for filthyness and fornication If we will needs so dishonour our selves as to make our bodyes the members of harlots let us know that Christ will not so dishonour himselfe as to make the members of harlots his own members If therefore Christ be risen as the first fruits c. he will not have like Nebuchadnezzars image the head to be of gold and any of the members though the very feet the lowest to be of base clay and dirt Eighthly If Christ be risen as the first fruit then let us be bold to venture these bodies of ours be it unto the death in behalfe of him and his glory who dyed for us and rose againe to ensure the glorious Resurrection of these bodies our bodies are not so sure our owne now that we have them and are clothed with them as when they are off at his bidding he does but lay them up in a sure wardrobe to restore us them again far better then we doft them off so much deceived were those heathenish persecutours that burning the Christians gathered up the ashes of their bodies and threw them into the river Rhone to be carried away who knowes whither that they might make the Christians without all hopes of the Resurrection but little knew they that they had a head in Heaven that as those bones by prophecying came together bone to his bone so by but speaking unto them could make all those ashes come together were they never so scattered with the four winds Euseb 5. see how this the ensurement of our glorious Resurrections in and by Christ is made a speciall ground and motive in Scripture for our sufferings 2 Cor. 4.14 Act. 20.20 1 Cor. 15.32 Gal. 6.12 so we believe and therefore speake speake without concealment of any part of the truth of the Gospel though thereby we procure our selves great persecution at the hands of the Jews and what is the ground of his boldness Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus so 1 Tim. 6.13 Exhorting Timothy to constancy in the Gospel whatsoever befell upon it 2 Tim. 2.8 upon what ground does he it sc this Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead Rev. 2.8 c. so the Lord exhorting the Church of Smyrna to endure tribulation for his names sake upon what ground does he it sc this these things saith the First and the Last which was dead and is alive c. And so though you dye in his cause feare not he will make you alive againe if therefore Christ be risen as c. Ninthly If Christ be risen as the first fruits let us while we are in these bodies of ours be constant and abundant in all good works knowing that our labour none of it all shall be lost but a day shal come when if we could be sorry for any thing it should be especially for this that we have slugged it so much in the work of godliness Let not thine heart envy sinners Prov. 23.17 18. for surely there is an end even that end 1 Cor. 15.24 and thine expectation shall not be cut off And have hope towards God Act. 24.15 16. that there shall be a Resurrection c. and herein do I exercise my selfe to have a conscience alwayes void of offence both towards God and man And here in this Chapter after the Apostle hath sufficiently proved Christs Resurrection and also our glorious Resurrection in him This is the very use he makes of it in the last verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore my beloved be ye stedfast setled grounded confirm'd in the infallible faith of Christs and your Resurrections and unmoveable not onely setled but unmoveably setled that nothing be able to shake you from that stedfastness not the violence of Tyrants persecuting you not the subtilty of Philosophers seeking to circumvent you and if you continue thus stedfast and unmoveable in this your faith what will then follow but that you should abound not be spare and scanty but abound and that not when you are ready to lay downe these bodies of yours onely but alwayes Abounding alwayes in the work of the Lord. FINIS
diligent that other enemies of theirs could say when they came to Thessulonica These that have turned the world up side down are come hither also Act. 17.6 so diligent that by their means in a small time the sound of the Gospel went into all the earth Rom. 10.18 and their words unto the end of the world and that leaven of the Kingdome spoken of Mat. 13. had leavened the whole lumpe Fourthly Grace of sincerity to take all this pains for no sinister worldly respect whatsoever but meerly for the Gospels sake to plant it whence could they have this sincerity but from the same power of the Holy Ghost How sincerely they preached the Gospel without seeking either praise or profit by it see a little Not praise Act. 3.12 for when upon the cure of the lame man the people came flocking about them and admiring them almost as halfe Gods what sayes S. Peter Ye men of Israel why looke ye so earnestly on us as if by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walke And when upon the like occasion the men of Lystra would have honoured Paul and Barnabas for Gods they were so far from seeking their own praise that they did all they could to hinder it Act. 14.14 c. they ran in among the people crying out and saying Sirs why do you these things we also are men of like passions with you c. And when some magnifying Paul and some Apollo and some Cephas calling themselves after their great Masters I am of Paul c. how doth Paul take up all pride that might arise thereupon 1 Cor. 3.5 who is Paul and who is Apollo but ministers by whom ye believed And we preach not our selves 2 Cor. 4.5 but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Christs suke If therefore that of our Saviours be true John 7.18 He that speaketh of himselfe seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him then they seeking not their own glory when it was offered them but anothers that sent them it must needs be that they speake not of themselves but acted by his spirit that sent them So for profit how sincerely they preached the Gospel without perverse aime that way Their hungry bellyes oftentimes in hunger and thirst which was not voluntary abstinence for that is meant afterwards in fastings often 2 Cor. 11.27 Their cold backs in cold and nakedness Their purse penniless Act. 3.6 silver and gold have I none these show what a little gain they made of the Gospel Paul would never have writ for a cloake as far as from Rome to Troas four hundred miles if poor man he had had that variety or his converts had been so franke unto him as to have furnished him with money to have bought a new one he made but a little harvest of the Gospel that was glad to write for an old cloake 400 miles to hap him against winter The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus 2 Tim. 4.13 bring with thee And that it was for happing to his back against the cold winter you may gather from that which followeth do thy diligence to come before winter verse 21. verily this argument if any other that the Appostles should with that sincerity preach the Gospel all praise and all profit set aside this helps to confirme the truth of the Gospel if any other that they should take such infinite pains in that harvest send forth Labourers into thine harvest and aime at no harvest at all thereby for themselves in the world Mat. 9.38 And therefore not without good reason does St. Paul so often stand upon this thing Act. 20.33 1 Cor. 4.11 and 9.3 2 Cor. 11.10 and 12.14 1 Thes 2.5 to stablish his converts in the truth of the Gospel which he preached Neither at any time used we flattering words Who is there even among you that would shut the door for nought But what a deal of pains tooke they for nought or rather they knew well enough whom they trusted and who it was that said lift up your eyes and looke on the fields for they are white already to harvest He that reapeth receiveth wages John 4.36 They would never have sweat so in this harvest and so little wages here but that they knew of those other wages Fifthly The grace of extraordinary patience whence also could they have it but from the power of the Holy Ghost who were they and what were their bodyes was their strength the strength of stones and their flesh of brasse Job 6.12 that they should be able to hold out against hunger and thirst against cold and nakedness stripes and imprisonments c was their Souls not like other mens but heavenly spirits sheathed in earthly bodyes that they should not be overcome no not much affected with all the opprobries reproaches ignominies that the world could cast upon them that all the paine and all the shame the world could put them to they should still continue as strong as steddy as anvills unstirred unmoved for all the blows What can this be but the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon them if so many strong men with Iron hammers should let drive at a piece of glass or earthen vessel and not be able to breake it all men would say it were an enchanted glass or vessel how many let drive at those earthen vessels the humane natures of the Apostles with such bats and blows as would almost have broken steele and adamant That therefore these earthen vessels were not broken with all these blows what should be the reason but onely that they were enchanted enchanted with that power of the Holy Ghost coming upon them that made their frail natures hold out so against dint of stroke of all persecutions I will turn aside saith Moses and see this great sight why the bush burnes with fire and consumeth not Exo. 3.3 that was a strange thing to his conceit so a strange thing it must needs be to any ones consideration that the Apostles who for their fraile humane natures were nothing but bushes and brushwood and combustiblest stuffe that could be strange that they should continue in the fire the fire of tribulation and consume not burne not yeeld not but as though their bodies were burnish't brasse shine onely the brighter for the fire surely what can be the reason but onely because as the Lord was in the bush and so it consumed not so the Lord was in these bushes these weak Apostles and they consumed not In the third of Daniel the Princes Governours Captains and the Kings Councellours all flocked together to see those men upon whose bodies the fire had no power they thought that a wonder surely I know not whether it be a greater wonder that the bodies of the Apostles flesh and blood like other men
1 Peter 1.4 that fiery tryall whereof St. Peter speakes should have no power upon them should not drive them to impatience not to desist or desert their Evangelical callings but hold out 20 30 40 years together unto the death and in death Moses was a godly Saint and yet driven to a little impatience that he was weary of his calling through the vexful behaviour of the Jews If thou deale thus with me Numb 11.15 kill me I pray thee out of hand Elias was a godly Saint yet driven to a little impatience when the storme fell so fierce upon him It is enough now O Lord take away my life 1 Kings 19.4 for I am not better then my fathers Job was a Saint who like him and yet driven to a great deale of impatience when he opened his mouth and cursed his day Let the day perish wherein I was borne c. Job 3. for a whole Chapter together But where do we ever read that all the afflictions the world could heap upon them put the Apostles into any impatience or that their spirits were any whit broken or their hearts dejected with them nay it broke their hearts when others pityed them and would have had them favoured themselves in Christs sufferings What meane you to weep and breake my heart Act. 21.13 Act. 20.22.24 for I am ready not onely to be bound but also to dye c. And now behold I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem But none of these things move me neither count I my life deare unto my selfe c. And I take pleasure in infirmites c. 2 Cor. 12.10 whence could they have this patience nay this joy in all their tribulations but from the power of the Holy Ghost And therefore I marvell not that St. Paul should so often urge this for an evident proofe of the truth of his ministry his Apostleship his Gospel that he preached namely his patience and indefatigable enduring of all misery and all affliction for the Gospels sake 2 Cor. 6.4 and 11.23 c. Gal. 6.17 Col. 4.18 2 Cor. 4.7 and 10. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience c. And from henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus And Remember my bonds Well I will conclude this with his reasoning we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us alwayes bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body That it may appeare that Jesus Christ is alive indeed by giving such strength and power to such a frail creature as Paul otherwise of himselfe was for that it is not to be understood of the life of glory to be manifested afterwards in the body but so as it is already expounded the drift and circumstances shew That the excellency of the power c. in our mortall body c. and because in the fourteenth verse he proceeds there to that sense Sixthly Grace of tenderest love and affection to the Salvation if they could of the whole world to the Salvation of those they never saw nor heard of before to the Salvation of those that it cost them many a long tedious journey to come into them to the Salvation of those that when they came among them gave them but cold entertainment even sought their death that came to bring them the word of life such love whence could they have it but from this power of the Holy Ghost Consider but how cold and back-ward men are in this business to build up one another even neighbour his neighbour and friend his freind in their Salvations and say if these men must not needs have been acted and moved with something in them more then flesh and blood that made them so zealous and earnest for the Salvation of the whole world of the unknowne world the remote world the injurious world that sought their deaths as much as they did their lives Take a scantling of this their earnest zeale and love to every Souls Salvation in St. Paul First In St. Pauls sollicitous care and feare nothing so full of care and feare for anothers good as love None so loving therefore as St. Paul that had such cares and fears and jealousies in his heart as touching others Salvations 2 Cor. 7.5 Without were fightings within were fears Within fears namely lest by some means men should be tempted and drawne away again from the faith Gal. 4.19 2 Cor. 11.2 and 28. Col. 2.1 And I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie And besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me dayly 1 Thes 3.1 the care of all the Churches And I wish you knew what great conflict namely of feare and care I have for you And for this cause when I could no longer forbeare namely for care and fear about you Secondly See it in St. Pauls wise and studious diligence by art and by industry 1 Col. 28. striving if he could to win every Soul Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant to all 1 Cor. 9.19 that I might gain the more that we may present every man perfect c. Nothing so painfull and devicefull of any course to speede as love Thirdly See it in St. Pauls earnest obtestations and entreaties that men would regard themselves and that which makes for their own Salvations no so humble a supplicant as true love the tender mother would beg it on her knees at her sons hand that he would reclaime and know his own good so St. Paul most humbly beseeches all that they would know their own good know the things that belong unto their own peace Now then we are Embassadors in Christ 2 Cor. 5.20 and 2.6 we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God And we then as workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vaine 2 Cor. 10.1 And Now I Paul my self beseech you by the meekness c. and gentleness of Christ c. To name one place more for all If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ Phil. 2.1 if any comfort of love c. what would beg so hard for no other boone but onely that men would know the things that belong to their own peace but onely Love Fourthly See it in St. Pauls abundant thanks and prayers for those whom God hath vouchsafed to call unto the participation of his heavenly truth It is no small measure of love that makes him so sensible of others eternall good others that what were they to him but onely that they were the Sons of Adam so sensible as to be so abundant in thanks to God for that blessing unto them and in prayers to God for the continuance of it Most of