Adam Genesis 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely Gen. 2.17 dye the death The other to fulfill that blessed promise made by Christ to the faithfull Ioh. 11.15 Iohn the eleventh verse fifteenth I am the Resurrection and the life For till then wee shall not cleerely see the fruite either of that undoing sinne of Adam or of that eternall sacrifice which Christ the righteous presented to the Father when hee was pleased in his infinite mercy to dye for our sinnes and rise againe for our justification then it plainely appeares First what the second death meaneth and who they are that are truely cursed Secondly what eternall life is and who they are that are truely blessed Thirdly what Christ did for us and that he dyed not in vaine where with these eyes of ours we shall see millions cloathed with glory and immortality and of poore men made rich of beggers Princes By all which it is most cleere and evident that godlesse persons sonnes of Belial have no reason at all to looke for the Resurrection day but with Faelix Acts twenty foure verse the second Acts 24.2 to tremble at it sith to them it will bee a day of Darknesse and not light yea very darknesse and no brightnesse in it For however they shall escape the pound of the Grave yet the second death shall like a cruell Wolfe eagerly pursue them overtake them and quite master them so that their freedome from death shall bee no other benefit to them then if a man fled from a Lyon and a Beare met him or entring the house and leaning his hand on the Wall and a Serpent bit him To the children of God onely it wil bee a joyfull day their marriage day a day of great solemnity A day wherein their redemption draweth neere A day wherein their vild bodies shal be made like the glorious body of the Sonne of God as wee shall see afterward more plainely The second question is why the spirit of God calleth these dead men the Prophets dead men in saying Thy dead men shall live To which I answere diversly As first for that these persons formerly were his proper and peculiar charge and he set over them not onely as a watchman to informe them Eze. 3.17 Isa 40.11 Jer. 33.5 Ioh. 21.15 but a shepheard to feed them And therefore his people his flocke for severall congregations are so many Ministers flockes and all the soules therein their speciall charge to them they are in trust committed and at their hands one day they will be certainely required Eze. 3.18.19 33.8 Hence was it that the Apostle Paul in his farewell Sermon so earnestly exhorteth the Elders of Ephesus Act. 26.28 Act. 26.28 to feede the flocke of Christ Over which saith he the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers And the Apostle Peter all ministers in generall 1. Pet. 5.13 assuring them withall that in doing so When the great shepheard doth appeare they shall receive a Crowne of Glory 1 Pet. 5.13 that fadeth not away Secondly they are said to be his dead for that he was formerly a principal instrument and meanes for the conversion of their soules freedome from their naturall bondage Act. 26.18 Rom 8.22 and bringing of them into that blessed liberty of the sonnes of God So that now they are his dead who formerly obtained life by his helpe For this is an high priviledge and prerogative which onely belongeth to the Ministers of the Word lawfully called as was Aaron not onely to be the Embassadors of the sonne of God Cor 3.9 but his fellow-workers also yea Saviours instrumentally of the soules of men the which doth plainely appeare not onely by that wee read in the Prophesie of Obadiah ver 21. where he fore-telleth Obad. v. 21 That in the latter dayes Saviours shall come up upon Mount Syon Tim. 14.16 But by the exhortation that Saint Paul giveth his beloved Timothy willing him to have a care both to himselfe and to his doctrine for in doing so saith hee thou shalt save thy selfe and those that heare thee The consideration whereof ought not onely to be as pretious Wine warming of our breasts but a spurre and goad in our sides that are the Ministers of the Word putting us on cheerefully to passe through the miery waies of scorne and contempt which we dayly meete withall as wee walke along carefully performing the duties of our calling remembring First though it bee heere in this World a calling much contemned yet is it in heaven highly honoured Secondly though it bee a calling full of paines yet it bringeth in the end unspeakable comfort Let us therefore not so much eye the labour as the wages the present worke as the future reward Lastly they are said to be his dead for that he had not yet given up a perfect account for them And no marvaile for the Audit day was not yet come when both hee and his people must appeare face to face before that glorious Tribunall of that dreadful Judge who with an unpartiall eare will heare all things passed betwixt them and give sentence accordingly For death sealeth not a Minister his Quietus est neither is he fully discharged of his flocke and cure untill that day wherein the Sonne of God holding his general Assizes shall require at his hands a particular account both for himselfe and also for all those who were formerly his flocke and people Heb. 13.19 Heb. 13.19 The due consideration whereof made the Apostle Paul and the rest of the Apostles to preach the Gospell with that assiduity and diligence as they did Col. 1.28 For that saith he Colos 1.28 our desire is to present every man perfect in Iesus Christ which being so first of all happy and blessed is that man whom when his Master commeth shall finde so doing yea happy and blessed is that minister Luk 12.36 and painefull labourer in the Lord who having worne out his Age and strength in the service of the Church and like a pretious lampe consumed himselfe to give light to others is now laid up in peace in the midst of a number of his neighbours and familiar acquaintance it may bee by his meanes brought to the true knowledge and understanding both of God and themselves what a blessed sight wil it be when that day is come and that dreadfull voyce Surgite mortui shall shake Heaven and earth to behold both him and al those ancient friends of his lively leaping out of their graves clothed all in pure robes shining and glistering as the light Oh who can expresse the joy that wil be then at this their meeting againe But above all the joyfullest sight will be to behold that welcome which the Son of God will then give him with that Enge serve bone fidelis Wel done good servant and faithfull When hee upon his bended knee and al his company kneeling round about him shall then
Lord Aact 3.19 he who is the resurrection and the life shal not onely remove all deformity of nature but worke a blessde conformity betweene himselfe who is the head 1 Cor. 15.49 and all such as are several members of his blessed body that as they have borne the Image of the earthly so shal they then beare the Image of the heavenly Then sin together with the fruits woeful effects thereof shal wholly cease and howsoever the bodily substance shal remain yet the qualities therof shal be wholly changed So that for sicknesse there shal be health for deformity beauty for basenesse glory for lumpishnesse agility yea for weaknesse such aboundance of strength Zach 12 2 that hee that is feeblest amongst them shall be as David and the house of David as Gods and as the Angell of the Lord before them For as by death our naturall infirmities are fully cured Eph. 4.3 so in the resurrection every way so glorious our former losses shall perfectly be restored whilst we all come unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ By meanes thereof Isa 65.4 Psal 103.5 6 1 Cor. 13.9 we shall not onely obtaine a freedome from all misery but a fruition of all good Those things that wee doe now weakly beleeve we shall fully imbrace And those glorious things dayly spoken of thee thou rich inheritance of the Saints of God we shall both see and taste For instance then we shall by joyfull experience finde 1. The greatnesse of the Sonne of God his purchase and infinitenesse of his love that he that knew no sinne should be made sinne for us that wee might be made 2 Cor. 5.21 The righteousnesse of God 2 Cor. 5.21 2. What those robes are of Christs righteousnesse and how pretious those Garments are of our Elder Brother which the blessed Apostle so much desired Phil. 3.5 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Pet. 5.4 Phil. 3.5 together with the misery and most unhappy condition of those that want them 2. Tim. 4.8 1. Pet. 5.4 3. What the Crowne of Immortality and Life meaneth and whether it bee worth the blood of so many Martyrs and holy Confessors as have beene spilt from righteous Abel until now for the obtaining of it 4. Lastly what a glorified body is and the dignity and excellency of the same when our bodies shall be light and nimble passing up and downe as upon the wings of the Winde when our dayly foode shall be the love of God and all our drinke drawne out of the River of Celestiall pleasures when our bodies shall be transparent like the purest Christall and our soules shining through the same like so many sparkling Diamonds when God lastly shall bee all in all the vaile remooved and wee for ever with him The which in themselves are things so excellent that whilst I am speaking of them me thinkes I heare my soule thus secretly complaining Heu mihi peregrinor tandin c. Alas that I soiourne in Mesech Psal 120.5 Rev. 22 and dwell so long in the Tents of Kedar Lord Iesus come quickly Secondly if we take the words as some translate them Cadavera mea resurgent My dead Carcasses shall arise then questionlesse in calling them his dead carkasses the blessed spirit assureth them of his speciall care over them untill the day and time of their resurrection commeth so that although they have left the world yet are they not quite lost but when they are not then are they his dead Carkasses A dead Carkasse though of the dearest friend wee see usually few will owne A memorable example amongst many others wee have in William the second the Conquerors successor who being fatally killed and now falne to the earth all his company Nobles and others instantly forsooke him save only a few of the meanest sort who laying his Princely Corpes uppon a homely beere drew it into a house or lodge neare at hand now if this were the portion of so mighty a Prince whom immediatly before so glorious a troop so royally attended what must others then of meaner ranke expect and and looke for but onely with deaths closing up their eyes to have all their friends excluded and no sooner gone but to be as suddainely forgotten For Oblivion and neglect Psal 87.8 are the two handmaids of death and her Kingdome where shee principally tyrannizeth is Terra oblivionis The land of forgetfulnesse when as David therefore would expresse the worlds ingratitude in the highest degree toward him he fetcheth her comparison from her usuall manner in forgetting of the dead Psal 31.12 Psal 31.12 I am forgotten saith he like a dead man out of minde And from this evill fashion grew that ancient and usuall custome of erecting monument over the dead ut mentâ—m moneant ad defuncti memoria that they might retaine and keepe in memory persons formerly departed the consideration whereof as it cannot questionlesse but much trouble the dying heart even of the dearest servant of Christ who naturally is sociable and desiring the company of man as we see in Ezechias dolefull complaint Isa 38.11 Isa 38.11 I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the earth So ought the very hearing that all the dead bodies of the Elect are the Sonnes of God his dead carkasses and peculiar charge mightily to cheere up their dejected soules at the last houre and period of their lives If then it happeneth as oft it doth that these or the like Melancholly thoughts uppon the approach of Death enter thy troubled breast and thus thou secretly musest with thy selfe I see mine houre and time is now at hand when I must away and suddainly make my bed in darknesse in the slimey valley whither my friends will not care to come and mine acquaintance tremble to approach where my onely Comrade must bee corruption and the worme my chiefe companion Then remember that being Christs in thy lifetime thou art his when thou art dead then his living Temple and now his dead carkasse Neyther doth his love at all fayle when breath fayleth For however others perhaps will loath thee yet bee sure hee will not leave thee but closing thy dying eyes with his gracious hand will go along with thee unto thy Grave where having sowne thee like precious seed will not forsake thee until hee shall rayse thee in a most glorious manner For even as those infernal spirits are never absent from the Graves and tombes of Reprobates prophaine and wicked persons but there they are tryumphing over them as their spoyle and conquest so is the sonne of God never absent by his Divine presence from the Graves and monuments of all pious and Religious persons perfuming them with the odoriferous savour of his death and passion and so preserving of them that not a bone of them is lost The which being so Psal 34 20. when that time commeth and dye I must egredere anima mea
LIFES BREVITIE AND DEATHS Debility Evidently Declared in a Sermon Preached at the Funerall of that Hopeful and Uertuous yong Gentleman EDVVARD LEVVKENOR Esquire c. In whose Death is ended the name of that renowned Family of the Lewkenors in Suffolke By Tymothy Oldmayne Minister of the Word of God at Denham in Suffolke Our dayes on Earth are as a shaddow and there is none abiding Also an Elegy and an Epitaph on the death of that worthy Gentleman by I. G. Dr. of D. LONDON Printed by N. and I. Okes dwelling in little S. Bartholmewes neere the Hospitall gate 1636. FLECTAR NON FRANGAR TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL AND Of high Desert the Lady MARY Lewkenor and Mris Elizabeth Lewkenor the Mother and sorrowfull Widdow of this Deceased Gentleman together with the right worshipfull and truly noble Lady the Lady Anne Le-strange Wife to Sir Nicholas Le-strange Baronet As also to her two vertuous and worthy sisters Mistris Katherine and Mistris Mary Lewkenor Eternall Happinesse c. LOth I am right Worshipfull and truely Honorable that this rough unpolished discourse of mine should unfortunately renew Your former griefe or fill those Eyes againe with teares which were never fully dried sithence this heavy Accident befell this Noble Plant so neere so deere unto you For sorrow I know right well is of a quick and apprehensive nature that the least touch maketh the Vessell easily overflow How ever I humbly intreate that mine innocency herein may answer for me my ayme beeing chiefly this to strew onely some few flowers upon the Hearse of this my honourable friend such as in his life time his owne Hand gathered pleasant unto the Eye and of a most odoriferous Sent. Neither is this Treatise of mine otherwise intended but to bee a true Remembrancer to tell succeeding Ages the greatnesse of the losse when your renowned Family was by the Untimely Death of this so Hopefull a Young Gentleman thus fatally smitten if not quite overturned This Towne which now affordeth me my being formerly afforded mee my first breath And foure generations of your honourable Family haue I seene here upon the Stage successiuely acting their several Parts Angels and Men were the lookers on and with great applause highly commended their true Action generous demeanour But now alas the Theater is wholy empted and all the Actors quite gone the Stage hourely expected to be pulled down and if it stand yet little hope there is that ever our eyes shall see such Actors any more upon it to play their parts so commendable as those Antients did The consideration whereof as it carrieth with it not onely trouble but indeed a kind of amazement so is there much wisedom required in censuring and patience in induring what is hapned My humble request therfore unto you right Worshipfull is as those that haue the greatest share in this unvaluable losse that in the middest of so many differing Thoughts in searching out the true cause and end that the Almighty hath in doing this you would be pleased to remember these three Things First that there is in God an unbounded will that his Judgements are Vnsearchable and his Waies past finding out Secondly that You would bee pleased to looke backe upon the happinesse and glory of your Family which formerly You have both seene and tasted Beleeve mee right worshipfull the sight thereof will be a Soveraigne preservatiue against Repining Lastly that seeing it was determined by an eternall and inevitable decree that the Sirnames of your Family should heere fatally end that you would bee pleased to solace and cherish your Hearts that it is done without the least spot and blemish to the same And that this young Gentleman so honourably concluded and closed up all so happily as Hee hath done to his immortall praise But I desire not to tell the Travailer the way hee knoweth so well already or light a Candle when the Sunne is up or leade the hand of the skilfull Artist Here therefore I doe humbly take my leaue desiring You to accept of what is done heerein as the Fruite of that unfeigned Loue and dutiful Respect which was alwayes borne by him to your Honourable and worthy Family who still remaineth Yours in the Lord to be commanded to the uttermost of his power untill Death Tymothy Oldmayne Perlegi concionem hanc cui titulus est Lifes brevity in qua nihil reperio quo minus cum utilitate publica imprimatur Ex aedib Fulham decimo die Septem 1625. SA BAKER LIUES BREVITY AND DEATHES DEBILITY ISAIAH 26. VERS 19. Thy dead men shall live with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of Herbes and the earth shall cast out the dead IT would have brought much ease and comfort to our sorrowfull hearts if we had only heard of this sad accident the death I mean of this so noble a Plant this Honourable young Gentleman and not beene Eye-witnesses of the same And that the same Countrie which received his last breath had likewise imbraced his honourable Ashes his living presence how welcome would it have been unto us But comming thus amongst us shrouded under the blacke mantle of death we tremble at it For this is one of the miseries of man when death seizeth on him that he that was neerest unto him in affection then desireth to bee farthest from him in action and that living face that affoorded greatest joy when once dead carrieth with it greatest terrour neither can the conclusion of all this sad Catastrophe but adde vineger to our bleeding wound that whilst we were seriously bethinking with our selves in what sort wee may best expresse the inward griefe and trouble of mindes for this our losse in doing all the honour that possibly wee could unto him in this his Funerall obsequies Lo the tediousnesse of the way and terriblenesse of the disease had so shattered and crushed that tender and delicate body of his comming along to us riding in that dolfull Chariot of death that no sooner had a few teares given him a sad welcome but we were enforced to give his body to the earth and we to him a sorrowfull Adieu But in all this patience must possesse our soules And seeing he is now already entred into the house of his age and sweetly sleepeth upon his bed of honour amongst the rest of his noble Ancestors let us I pray you turne our thoughts awhile from him and looke a little upon the hand of God in doing this to him and with him in cutting off as it were with one stroake the name and glory of so renowned a family amongst us To that end it must be remembred as a thing not wholy past the memory of man how the Grand-father of this young Gentleman of high repute joyning himselfe in marriage with a Right Worshipfull family in this County left that former feate and dwelling of that ancient family of his owne in
onely and no impieties delicta non facinora weaknesses and infirmities no flagicious offences yet was he much troubled at the sight of them oft crying out with righteous Iob Paenitet me and with that holy Prophet David Psal 45.7 peccatum pueritiae mea ne recorderis Domine Lord remember not the sinnes of my youth Observe next his carefull providing of his Viaticum or things necessary for his departure his preparing and fitting of his Lampe with oyle and patient expecting of the Bridgroomes call In all which as is the generall report his care was more then ordinary neither was there any one thing in Heaven or Earth which he so much desired as he did that full assurance of his reconciliation with God to understand what that love of Christ was that passeth all understanding not that hee doubted at all thereof for he found the beginnings and fruits of the same as formerly I have shewed already in his soule mightily cheering up and comforting thereof onely he desired yet more that hee might at the length be filled with the fulnesse of God Eph. 7.19 Eph. 7.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the little infant that having but once tasted of the milke of the mother is never contented but mourneth and cryeth until it be fully satisfied and the belly filled therewith or like the hunted Stagge in Summer-time who finding a pleasant streame having once tasted of it is never satisfied untill hee hath sounded the bottome and duckt himselfe overhead and eares therein or rather like that faire Bride the Church I meane Cant. 2.6 Cant. 2.6 who thinketh her selfe never sure of her spouse and love untill his Left hand bee under her head and his right hand doth imbrace her Life hee simply desired not and death hee slavishly feared not for he knew right well that which came first should bee his gayne and great advantage And because for want of sleepe and the malignant and fiery working of his Disease hee feared much least any disorderly impatient or prophane speeches should passe from him to the dishonour of Almighty God and griefe and sorrow of his Friends about him His request therefore was hourely to God for Christs sake to set a watch before his mouth and to keep the doore of his lips And if at any time it hapned as seldome it did that his braine beeing somewhat over-heated he a little swarved from the right rule and so forgot himselfe his manner was after the violence of the fit was over upon inquire made and the truth thereof found humbly to beg pardon for the same with teares to bewaile it All the time of this sharpe tryall and visitation of his was for the most part daily spent eyther in holy conference with such graue Divines as were continually about him for his soules health or in hearty prayers presented before the throne of grace and powred into the golden Censure of the sonne of God wherein earnest request was made unto the Father that though this young souldier of his were thus strongly assaulted yet that hee might so keepe himselfe upon the legs of his Faith that hee might neyther be foyled Ioh. 23.10 nor yet led into temptation and that though hee were tryed unto the full yet that hee might in the end come out like pure Gold Iob 23.10 Neyther did this blessed servant of God hold it sufficient to have others pray for him except he likewise performed the same duty himselfe remembring well that hee that hath but once drunke a full draught of the River of Grace it cannot be Iohn 7.38 but out of his belly must needes flow rivers of water of Life The which prayers of his were delivered with such contrition of heart such Faith resting it selfe upon the promises of God such patient and humble submission of himselfe to the will of his gracious Father that it was an admiration to all about him to behold so tender a plant to bring foorth such delicate and precious fruite And thus while his body is here below his soule is seeking after things above his body a prisoner laden with gyves and fetters of his disease his soule is at liberty soaring up on high and sweetly conversing with that blessed society in Heavenly places The which it did divers dayes together going and comming till at last like another Noahs Dove it quite left his troubled Arke and this tempestuous World mounting up a loft above all earthly things and seated it selfe uppon the pleasant Mount Syon Vbi moritur omnis necessitas Vbi oritur summa faelicitas where all want ceaseth and all blisse increaseth even that place where are those fragrant and delightful fields replenished with all the trees of Myrrhe Frankincense and Alloes with sweete beds full of the richest and chiefest spices Cant. 4.12 13. where he dayly feedeth and so shall doe till that blessed day breake and all shadowes flye away Cant 4.6 And thus have I as briefly as I could without either wringing or churning being loath to lye for him as a man lyeth for his friend Pro. 30.33 Iob 13.9 set forth to you the Life and Death of this young Gentleman The which the more I thinke of the more I cannot but highly commend that true honour of Wedlocke and mirrour of widow-hood the noble and vertuous Lady his sorrowfull mother for her religious and Christian educating of him all his young and tender yeares dropping then grace into his heart and filling the same with Heavenly liquor the pleasant scent thereof never left him unto the last houre and minute of his life Her extraordinary care this way I shall not neede at large to relate unto you sith the whole Country round about can sufficiently witnesse the same to her immortall praise onely this I will say that if the holy Scripture as wee know it doth maketh such honourable mention of Bersheba and Evnice for their diligence in teaching their Sonnes Solomon and Timothy in their tender age the trade of their way And againe if holy Augustine ascribeth to his mother Monacha her teares and prayers next under God the ground of all the good that after so many wandrings and wanton actions of his at length appeared in him And lastly if Cornelia be so highly remembred in the Roman story for bringing up those famous Gracchi her sonnes so carefully as she did in their infancy and growing yeares making her the mother not onely of their naturall lives but also of their vertuous living and Heroicke demeanour I cannot see why his worthy Lady should not have the like honour and high respect at the hands of all for the religious care over this her sonne from his birth to his last breath And therefore being so however Almighty God for causes best knowne to himselfe hath thus as we see taken away the subject of her desired and chiefest care not suffering her lippes scarce to tast the fruite of that which she with a deale of paines had
and songs of Love Then shal we see I doubt not this sweete young Gentleman comming forth with his Laurell on his head Rev. 19.7 and his rich Robe on his backe washed in the Blood of the Lambe singing Alleluiahs unto God and saying with the rest Let us be glad and reioyce and give honour unto him for the Lambe is come and his Wife hath made her selfe ready The consideration whereof ought to bee another maine comfort against that sadnesse which the shadow of death bringeth with it when a darke cloud shall oppresse our hearts when our songes shall be turned into heavy sighes and all our mirth into dolefull complaints then let the Childe of God thus thinke with himselfe well though I cannot now bee merry yet the time is comming when I know I shall now I am sad but then I shall sing my ship being entred the wished Haven and this boysterous tempest wholly over But I hasten to an end intending as briefly as I can to close up all with the reason that the blessed Spirit yeeldeth in the latter end of the verse why the dead carkasses shall not onely arise but in so beautifull also and joyfull a sort the which is no other in word then the opperative and working power and vertue of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being the same to the dead that the dewe and sappe in the spring is to the hearbes and grasse of the field All the Winter long experience teacheth us when snow and frost covers the ground the grasse and plants of the earth appeare as dead and withered untill the spring commeth when a pleasant dew armed with the power of the Sunne not only mouldreth and prepareth the earth but soaking downe unto the rootes of the plants causeth them speedily to arise and grow so that within short time after the travailer may with their beauty feede his eye and the Labourer with the Fruite of the same fill his lap or bosome All which the Spirit of God in saying thy Dew is as the Dew of Hearbes and the Earth shall give up her dead intimateth to be the happy condition of all the Elect at the latter day So that how ever their Bones bee drye their Beauty lost and they returned agayne to Earth and Dust yet shall the fruite and benefite of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Christ like an heavenly dew or rather like the breath of GOD himselfe soake downe and pierce into the bottome of their Graves causing them to arise and blosome foorth like the Rose of the valley and Lilly of the field the darlings of the Spring all which is by the finger of God Cant. 2.1 And that the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus shall doe all this Rom. 6 Iohn 6.4 1 Cor. 6.14 2. Cor. 5.10 Ephes 6. Col. 6.4 may appeare both by multitude of places of Scripture proving the trueth hereof as also by so many exhortations which wee usually meete withall wherein wee are earnestly put on to fit and prepare our selves for so high a dignity and preferment amongst others 1 Thes 5.6.8 1. Thessalon 5. where the blessed Apostle willeth us Not to sleepe as others doe but but watch and bee sober putting on the breast plate of Faith 1 Pet. 3.14 and Love and for our Helmet the hope of salvation And the Apostle St. Peter in exhorting us in his 1 Epistle 3.14 so earnestly as hee doth that seeing wee looke for such things to bee diligent that wee may be found of him in peace without spot or blemish Jud. 20.21 The like doth the holy Apostle Saint Iude in the twenteth Chapter and the twenteth first verse of his Epistle in this sort Wherefore my beloved keepe your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of the Lord Iesus Christ unto eternall Life But if this I have spoken something before with which contenting my selfe I will in a word or two and that very briefly shew unto you the reason of the comparison wherein the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ Iesus is compared unto that dew of Hearbes The which indeede doth most excellently demonstrate and expresse the nature of the same as may appeare by these instances following First the Dew descendeth from above wholly wrought and perfected by those superiour bodies and is as it were the sweat of their brows such surely and undoubtedly is the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ a Divine and caelestiall Dew pleasantly distilling and dropping downe from the sacred top of that caelestiall Hermon at all times but then chiefly and more especially when hee unlooseth and untyeth the sorrows of Death it beeing unpossible for it to hold him Secondly the Dew is of a mollifying and softning nature as I sayd before fitting the plants to spring and the earth to bring foorth such is the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour of so powerfull and working a nature leading things on in so sweete and excellent an order to their several ends that neither the hardnesse and stubbornnes of the earth the drinesse and rottennesse of the trees nor the indisposition of the dead bodies themselves shall hinder but that the earth shall cast up her dead Thirdly the dew of hearbes is not onely full of spirits and of a cheering and quickning nature but likewise sweete and pleasant casting foorth a most odiferous scent and savour witnesse our Gardens in the Spring mornings of such both quickning and perfuming nature will the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ be by meanes whereof the Bodies of the Elect shall not onely bee restored to life againe but the stinch and rotten savours of the Grave being remooved they shal bee so sweetned and perfumed with the odiferous savours of the same that all their Garments shall smell of Myrrhe Alloes and Cassia together with all the choisest spices of the Merchants fitting the Ivory pallace whereinto they are to enter and where they are to rejoyce for evermore Fourthly the Dew is of a most beautifull and faire aspect gracing much the flowers with her christall droppes like so many orient pearles dangling on the severall slippes and sprigs thereof so surely will the vertue of the Resurrection of Christ Iesus bee to all those that are truely his at his second comming which will be to judgement beautifying and adorning them in a more rich and costly manner then all the chaines broaches and ornaments on the earth possibly can do yea past the apprehension of man Sith then Brethren it is so and the sonne of God hath done all this for us making by his owne Resurrection ours likewise every way so certaine and sure and every way so joyfull let us then in time I pray you make sure of the same which beleeve me we may easily do if we get but our part in the first Resurrection For if by the Resurrection of Christ we be once raysed out of the Grave of sinne then let us no way question but by the power of the