us by the decree of God and it is unalterably certain that every believer must do good works or his believing will signifie little nay more than so every man must be careful to do good works and more yet he must carefully maintain them that is not do them by fits and interrupted returns but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them to dwell upon them to maintain good works that is to persevere in them But I am yet but in the general be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations 1. No mans sins are pardoned but in the same measure in which they are mortified destroyed and taken away so that if faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie it never can procure our pardon And therefore it is that as soon as ever faith in the Lord Jesus was preached at the same time also they preached repentance from dead works in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first Principles of Christianity nay the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the faith of Christ. And I pray consider can there be any forgivness of sins without repentance But if an Apostle should preach forgiveneâ—s to all that believe and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus a device to get togethâ—r all the wicked people of the world and to make them happy without any change of manners Christ came to other purposes he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word the word of faith was not for it self but was a design of holiness and the very grace of God did appear for this end that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live holily justly and soberly in this present World he came to gather a People together not like Davids army when Saul pursued him but the armies of the Lord a faithful people a chosen generation and what is that The Spirit of God adds a People zealous of good works Now as Christ prov'd his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans palsie because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed so the great act of justification of a sinner the pardoning of his sins is then only effected when the spiritual evil is taken away that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon when God takes away the hardness of the heart the love of sin the accursed habit the evil inclination the sin that doth so easily beset us and when that is gone what remains within us that God can hate Nothing stayes behind but Gods creation the work of his own hands the issues of his holy Spirit The faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it destroyes the whole body of sin and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner whom he doth not also purge and râ—scue from the dominion of sin is to affirm that he justifies the wicked that he calls good evil and evil good that he delights in a wicked person that he makes a wicked man all one with himself that he makes the members of a harlot at the same time also the members of Christ. But all this is impossible and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Faith ingrafts us into Christ by faith we are inserted into the vine but the plant that is ingrafted must also be parturient and fruitful or else it shall be quite cut off from the root and thrown into the everlasting burning And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of faith The just shall live by Faith No man shall live by faith but the just man he indeed is justified by faith but no man else the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter That 's the first great consideration in this affair no man is justified in the least sense of justification that is when it means nothing but the pardon of sins but when his sin is mortified and destroyed 2. No man is actually justified but he that is in some measure sanctified For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know that justification when it is attributed to any cause does not alwayes signifie justification actual Thus when it is said in Scripture We are justified by the death of Christ it is but the same thing as to say Christ dyed for us and he rose again for us too that we might indeed be justified in due time and by just measures and dispositions he dyed for our sins and rosâ— again for our justification that is by his death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power and effected this mercy that if we believe him and obey we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon of grace and of salvation appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified For so saith the Scripture We when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that is then was our Justification wrought on Gods part that is then he intended this mercy to us then he resolved to shew us favour to give us Promises and Laws and Conditions and hopes and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation and when faith layes hold on this Grace and this Justification then we are to do the other part of it that is as God made it potential by the death and resurrection of Christ so we laying hold on these things by Faith and working the Righteousness of Faith that is performing what is required on our parts we I say make it actual and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are mark'd out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dy to sin daily and are so made conformable to his death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of
Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weake he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the Word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may heare the Word of God but we can never understand it we heare the sound but are never the better unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by a daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that good is lovely and sin is of an evill and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he hath done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall dye and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you proceed and say that after death comes Judgement and the poor man believes and trembles He knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it it also undeniable And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no argument against it These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the Air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves halfe a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the Crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and heare the same Sermons they have capable understandings they both believe what they heare and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a son of man the other as a son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the World and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine principle within him and a new understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more then Knowledge as was rarely well observed by St. Paul Knowledge puffethup but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edify you no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God unlesse the love of God be in your hearts and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit But so it is in the regions of Starrs where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniforme and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turne not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God and so it is in the understandings of men When they all receive the same notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God hath sent his Divine spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the actives to the passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warme them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the new Ierusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Naturall man saith the holy Apostle cannot perceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishnesse unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palat or pleases the brutish part of man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seeme as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousnesse of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the sent of their game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostome the fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulnesse and wise discerning of the spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to heare it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the proposition he who consents with all his heart
false Prophet will fall upon them and the reward of the evil Steward will be their portion and they who destroyed the Sheep or neglected them shall have their portion with Goats for ever and ever in everlasting burnings in which it is impossible for a man to dwell Can any thing be beyond this beyond damnaâ—ion Surely a mâ—n would think not And yet I remember a severe saying of S. Gregory Scire debent Prelati quod tot mortibus digni sunt quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt One damnation is not enough for an evil Shepherd but for every Soul who dyes by his evil example or pâ—rnitious carelesness he deserves a new death a new damnation Let us therefore be wise and faithful walk warily and watch carefully and rule diligently and pray assiduously For God is more propense to rewards then to punishments and the good Steward that is wise and faithful in his dispensation shall be greatly blessed But how He shall be made ruler over the houshold What is that for he is so already True but he shall be much more Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem God will treat him as Joseph was treated by his Master he was first a Steward and then a Procurator one that ruled his goods without account and without restraint Our ministry shall pass into Empire our labour into rest our watchfulness into fruition and our Bishoprick to a Kingdom In the mean time our Bishopricks are a great and weighty care and in a spiritual sense our dominion is founded in grace and our rule is in the hearts of the people and our strengths are the powers of the Holy Ghost and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual and the eye of God watches over us curiously to see if we watch over our flocks by day and by night And though the Primitive Church as the Ecclesiastick Histories observe when they deposed a Bishop from his office ever concealed his crime and made no record of it yet remember this that God does and will call us to a strict and severe account Take heed that you may never hear that fearful sentence I was hungry and ye gave me no meat If you suffer Christs little ones to starve it will be required severely at your hands And know this that the time will quickly come in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet Where is the Flock that was given thee thy beautiful Flock What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee God of his mercy grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise as to convert Souls and to be so blessed and so assisted that we may give an account of our charges with joy to the glory of God to the edification and security of our Flocks and the salvation of our own Souls in that day when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shaâ—l come to judgment even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Love and Obedience now and for evermore Amen FINIS Thursday the 9 th of May. ORdered that the Speaker do give the Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Down the thanks of this House for his yesterdaies paines and that he desire him to print his Sermon John Keating Cler. Parl. 11. die Maii 1661. ORdered that Sir Theophilus Jones Knight Marcus Trever Esq Sir William Domville Kn t his Majesties Attorney General and Richard Kirle Esq be and are hereby appointed a Committee to return thanks unto the Lord Bishop of Down for his Sermon preached on Wednesday last unto the Lords Justices and Lords Spiritual and Temporal whereunto the House of Commons were invited and that they desire his Lordship from this House to cause the same to be forthwith printed and published Copia Vera. Ex. per Philip Ferneley Cler. Dom. Com. A SERMON PREACHED At the opening of the Parliament of IRELAND May 8. 1661. Before the right Honourable the Lords Justices and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor Salus in multitudine consulentium LONDON Printed by J. F. for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred MAJESTY 1661. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT My Lords and Gentlemen I Ought not to dispute your commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience lest my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum here I know my Example would be the best Use to this Doctrine and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey for then I have the wisdome of my Superiour for my warrant or my excuse I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor Aequius est me tot talium amicorum consilium quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi I could easily have pretended excuses but that day I had taught others the contrary and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with waters issuing from the fountains of Salvation My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness Plenty and Religion which do already and I hope shall for ever attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHURCH in the world I see no objection against my hopes but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended Men pretend Conscience against Obedience expressly against Saint Paul's Doctrine teaching us to obey for conscience sake but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent is never to be found in the books of our Religion It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject as God did to his stubborn people Quid faciam tibi I have tried all the waies I can to bring thee home and what shall I now doe unto thee The Subject should rather say Quid me vis facere What wilt thou have me to doe This Question is the best end of disputations Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium si quis ad id quod facere jussus est non obsequio debito sed consilio non considerato respondeat said one in A. Gellius When a Subject is commanded to obey and he disputes and saies Nay but the other is better he is like a servant that gives his Master necessary counsel when he requires of him a necessary obedience Utilius parére edicto quam efferre consilium he had better obey then give counsel by how much it is better to be profitable then to be witty to be full of goodness rather then full of talk and argument But all this is acknowledged true in strong men but not in the weak in vigorous but not in tender Consciences for Obedience is
the proportions of Holinesse and when all Books are read and all Arguments examined and all Authorities alledged nothing can be found to be true that is unholy Give your selves to reading to exhortation and to Doctrine saith St. Paul Read all good Books you can but exhortation unto good life is the best Instrument and the best teacher of true Doctrine of that which is according to Godlinesse And let me tell you this The great learning of the Fathers was more owing to their piety then to their skill more to God then to themselves and to this purpose is that excellent ejaculation of St. Chrysostome with which I will conclude O blessed and happy men whose names are in the Book of life from whom the Devils fled and Heretics did feare them who by Holinesse have stopp'd the mouthes of them that spake perverse things But I like David will cry out Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors who shined like lights in the World and contained the Word of Life Dulce est meminisse their very memory is pleasant Where is that Evodias the sweet savour of the Church the successor and imitator of the holy Apostles where is Ignatius in whom God dwelt where is St. Dionysius the Areopagite that Bird of Paradise that celestial Eagle where is Hippolytus that good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that gentle sweet person where is great St. Basil a man almost equall to the Apostles where is Athanasius rich in vertue where is Gregory Nyssen that great Divine and Ephrem the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the yong men to discipline the Looking-glasse of the religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces and the habitation of the holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Error because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the truth you walk by may better be confuted by your lives then by your disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a lye and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevaile But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chaires appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godlinesse so your time and your studies your persons and your labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficiall to men and pleasing unto God through him who is the wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS Imprimatur M. FRANCK S.T.D. R sso in X to P. ac D no. D. GILB Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Dom. Sept. 21. 1663. A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A succinct Narrative of his whole Life The third Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1663. 1 Cor. 15.23 But every Man in his own order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THe Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of Man It is indeed the resurrection of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity onely because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal Man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoyces because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand wayes to fail and miss of those glories though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no Man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the Salvation of his Soul in the resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we die daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to
certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the body to the life of the soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He died for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead in Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the summe of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushrome or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the daughters of rapine and ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if Men shall die like Dogs and sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the Resurrection hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God and Conformity to the life and death of the holy Jesus Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion 1. Christ is already risen from the dead 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order Christ is the first fruits But there shall be a full harvest of the Resurrection and all shall rise My Text speaks onely of the Resurrection of the just of them that belong to Christ explicitely I say of these and therefore directly of Resurrection to life eternal But because he also sayes there shall be an order for every man and yet every man does not belong to Christ therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto judgment But this shall be the last thing that shall be done for according to the Proverb of the Jews Michael flies but with one wing and Gabriel with two God is quick in sending Angels of peace and they flye apace but the messengers of wrath come slowly God is more hasty to glorifie his servants then to condemn the wicked And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar died first the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort and afterwards the rich man died and as the good many times die first so all of them rise first as if it were a matter of haste And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe so Gods bowels did yearn over his banish'd children and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation for that must be done too every man in his own order first Christ then Christs servants and at last Christs enemies The first of these is the great ground of our faith the second is the consummation of all our hopes the first is the foundation of God that stands sure the second is that superstructure that shall never perish by the first we believe in God unto righteousness by the second we live in God unto salvation But the third for that also is true must be consider'd is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly But in the whole Christs Resurrection and ours is the Α and Ω of a Christian that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and the same for ever so may we in Christ become in the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better then yesterday in our natural life the same body and the same soul tied together in the same essential union with this onely difference that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature whereby we shall no more be changed but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever Of these I shall discourse in order 1. That Christ who is the first fruits is the first in this order he is already risen from the dead 2. We shall all take our turns we shall all die and as sure as death we shall all rise again And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self That Christ is first risen is the demonstration and certainty of ours for because there is an order in this oeconomy the first in the kind is the measure of the rest If Christ be the first fruits we are the whole vintage and we shall all die in the order of Nature and shall rise again in the order of Christ They that are Christ's and are found so at his coming shall partake of his resurrection But Christ first then they that are Christ's that 's the order 1. Christ is the first fruits he is already risen from the dead For he alone could not be held by death Free among the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death was Sins eldest daughter and the Grave-clothes were her first mantle but Christ was conquerour over both and came to take that away and to disarm this This was a glory fit for the head of mankind but it was too great and too good to be easily believ'd by incredulous and weak-hearted Man It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer But what 's that to us who saw it not Yes very much Valde dubitatum est ab illis ne dubitaretur à nobis saith S. Augustine They doubted very much that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more Mary Magdalene saw him first and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord and that he was risen from the dead but they believed her not After that divers women together saw him and they told it but had no thanks for their pains and obtain'd no credit among the Disciples The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him talk'd with him eat with him and they ran and told it they told true but nobody believ'd them Then S. Peter saw him but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church they did not think him iâ—fallible and so they believ'd him not at all Five times in
under the arms of all the Enemies of the Roman greatness This is a less wonder than the former for admonetur omnis aetas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est If it was done once it may be done again for since it could never have been done but by a power that is infinite that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient By the same Almighty power which restor'd life to the dead body of our living Lord we may all be restor'd to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead When Man was not what power what causes made him to be whatsoever it was it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again and because we know not the method of Natures secret changes and how we can be fashioned beneath in secreto terrae and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones must our ignorance in Philosophy be put in balance against the Articles of Religion the hopes of Mankind the Faith of Nations and the truth of God and are our Opinions of the power of God so low that our understanding must be his measure and he shall be confessed to do nothing unless it be made plain in our Philosophy Certainly we have a low Opinion of God unless we believe he can do more things then we can understand But let us hear S. Paul's demonstration If the Corn dies and lives again if it layes its body down suffers alteration dissolution and death but at the spring rises again in the verdure of a leaf in the fulness of the ear in the kidneys of wheat if it proceeds from little to great from nakedness to ornament from emptiness to plenty from unity to multitude from death to life be a Sadducee no more shame not thy understanding and reproch not the weakness of thy Faith by thinking that Corn can be restor'd to life and Man cannot especially since in every creature the obediential capacity is infinite and cannot admit degrees for every Creature can be any thing under the power of God which cannot be less than infinite But we find no obscure foot-steps of this mystery even amongst the Heathens Pliny reports that Appion the Grammarian by the use of the plant 0siris call'd Homer from his grave and in Valerius Maximus we find that Aelius Tubero return'd to life when he was seated in his Funeral pile and in Plutarch that Soleus after three dayes burial did live and in Valerius that Aeris Pamphilius did so after ten dayes And it was so commonly believ'd that Glaucus who was choked in a vessel of honey did rise again that it grew to a Proverb Glaucus poto melle resurrexit Glaucus having tasted honey died and liv'd again I pretend not to believe these stories true but from these instances it may be concluded that they believ'd it possible that there should be a Resurrection from the dead and natural reason and their Philosophy did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this Article For God knowing that the great hopes of Man that the biggest endearment of Religion the sanction of private Justice the band of Piety and holy Courage does wholly derive from the Article of the Resurrection was pleased not onely to make it credible but easie and familiar to us and we so converse every night with the Image of death that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection Sleep and Death have but one mother and they have one name in common Soles occidere redire possunt Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis Nox est perpetua una dormienda Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cemeteries or sleeping-places and they that die are fallen asleep and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep but in sleep our Senses are as fast bound by Nature as our Joynts are by the grave-clothes and unless an Angel of God awaken us every morning we must confess our selves as unable to converse with Men as we now are afraid to die and to converse with Spirits But however Death it self is no more it is but darkness and a shadow a rest and a forgetfulness What is there more in death what is there less in sleep For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner then a Mans voice especially if he be call'd by name and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection We shall be awakened by the voice of a Man and he that call'd Lazarus by name from his grave shall also call us for although S. Paul affirms that the trumpet shall sound and there shall be the voice of an Archangel yet this is not a word of Nature but of Office and Ministry Christ himself is that Archangel and he shall descend with a mighty shout saith the Apostle and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice saith S. John So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man because we are onely fallen asleep by the decree of God and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead And when we consider what the Greek Church reports That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off we may with a little faith and reason believe that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution can recall them to life and union I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt nor the pretences of the Chymists that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties i◠colour and figure for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument is like him that wears a Wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already it hinders his going but helps him not The Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters Nature alone is a sufficient preacher Quae nunc herba fuit lignum jacet berba futura Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres Night and Day the Sun returning to the same point of East every change of Species in the same matter Generation and Corruption the Eagle renewing her youth and the Snake her skin the Silk-worm and the Swallows the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name Winter and Summer the Fall and Spring the Old Testament and the New the words of Job and the Visions of the Prophets the prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly the histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable all joyn in the verification of
this Mystery And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration that there was never any good man who having been taught this Article but if he serv'd God he also relied upon this If he believ'd God he believ'd this and therefore S. Paul sayes that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they who had no hope meaning of the Resurrection were also Atheists and without God in the world And it is remarkable what S. Augustine observes That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed and that the murderer out-liv'd his crime and built up a numerous family and grew mighty upon Earth they neglected the Service of God upon that account till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to heaven to recover them from their impieties by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal union But Christ the first fruits is gone before and himself did promise that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him Every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christ's at his coming And so I have done with the second Particular not Christ onely but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order But concerning this order I must speak a word or two not only for the fuller handling tâ—e Text but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection 3. First Christ and then we And we therefore because Christ is already risen But you must remember that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection But upon no other terms So said our blessed Lord himself Ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel For as it was with Christ the first fruits so it shall be with all Christians in their own order as with the Head so it shall be with the Members He was the Son of God by love and obedience and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal and so shall we but we cannot be so in any other way To them that are Christ's and to none else shall this be given For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life As God brought Christ to glory so he will bring us but by no other method He first obeyed the will of God and patiently suffered the will of God he died and rose again and entered into glory and so must we Thus Christ is made Via Veritas Vita the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to Eternal life He first trode this Wine-press and we must insist in the same steps or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other then this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every Man in his own order First Christ and then Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christ's why there is an order for them too First they that are Christ's and then they that are not his Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection then taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approch and the heat to warm the body he reviv'd and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames call'd out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be He onely was râ—stor'd from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their graves that they may go into hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his grones and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy garland scatters the heavy cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be called upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater then the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder then the grones of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnon These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the holy Jesus They are Gods words and Gods decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted
at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this that beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God then for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle But he that hath risen once may rise again and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again and die for ever But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith shall according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah Enter into his chamber of death when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him and there he shall be hidden for a little moment But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing with Christs dead body shall they arise all shall rise but every man in his own order Christ the first fruits then they that are Christs at his coming Amen I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must twice exuere hominem put off the Old man and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave it is Vinum Myrrhatum there is Myrrhe put into our Wine it is wholsom but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation But no man can escape it After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a mighty Empire yet there came a Message from Heaven not so sad it may be yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare thy self O Cyrus and then go unto the Gods he laid aside his Tiar and his beauteous Diadem and cover'd his face with a cloth and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave and none of us all can avoid this sentence For if Wit and Learning great Fame and great Experience if wise Notices of things and an honourable Fortune if Courage and Skill if Prelacy and an honourable Age if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent man could have been put in bar against a sad day and have gone for good plea this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly But tell me where are those great Masters who while they liv'd flourish'd in their studies Jam eorum praebendas alii possident nescio utrum de iis cogitant Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities and who knows whether ever they remember them or no While they liv'd they seem'd nothing when they are dead every man for a while speaks of them what they please and afterwards they are as if they had not been But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons and the Friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can but they expire in monethly minds or at most in a faint and declining Anniversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church S. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints Who all died having obtained a good report and that excellent Preacher in the 11. chap. of the Hebrews made a Sermon of their Commemoration For since good men while they are alive have their conversation in Heaven when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good names live upon Earth And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them is great unthankfulness to God and to good men When Dorcas died the Apostle came to see the dead Corps and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she whilest she lived wrought with her own hands She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife and did good to Mankind in her little way and that it self ought not to be forgotten and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Hero's if you can with your charitable though weeping eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate aâ—d not object the failings of Humanity to the participation of the
his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified Till than we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he haâ—h none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun fâ—om whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is deriv'd Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrunque placitum sayes one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience And he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well-doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely died for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dy for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto Glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude faith it self for faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the Foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not only as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promiâ—e without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but deceive us and turn Religion into words and holiness into hypocrisy and the promises of God into a snare and the truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and incurious walking in a State of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should