wofull calamity that sinne hath brought upon us to pray to the Lord to take these barbarous trickes from us and to teach us the true civility of his Saints even that honourable conversation that makes of beasts men and of men Angels and not of men beasts and of beasts divels as our condition is by nature 2 Tim. 3.13 The wicked prosper from worse to worse as the Apostle saith It is a strange phrase that they should prosper from worse to worse and yet it is true for the prosperity of the wicked is to his greater destruction It is the grace of God that exalts a man from a beast to be a man and from the state of a man to the state of an Angell And it is the basenesse of nature that brings a man from being a man to be a beast and makes him to creepe or to goe on all foure to whom the Lord hath given an upright positure and an erected countenance So much for the first poynt of interpretation I have been too long in it I will conclude the rest more briefely Second poynt Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to men or after the manner of men This is more intricate than the former and as I said wee ought not to misprize what the Church hath taught us but as dutifull children to see the variety of the gifts of God as they have flowed in the whole body of the Church from time to time This saith Beza Beza According to men it signifieth no more but according to the fashion of men as men use to fight with beasts to get the victory and to get themselves glory and reputation in the world what profit shall I have by this if there be no Resurrection So Beza thinks following the opinion of Ambrose and of divers others before him S. Ambrose But me thinkes this concludes and inferres nothing For a man might thus object against this suppose he went to fight with beasts as commonly men doe it is the condition of men to looke for the same reward that others have and the same glory that other men atchieve these men fought with beasts daily and they looked for their reward but yet they thought not of the resurrection of the body they dreamed not of such a thing as the bodies rising therefore the Apostle denyes that he went after the manner of men for vaine-glory or for an idle applause of the people or for any worldly gaine he had no such project but he did it onely for the hope of the Resurrection This exposition though there be somewhat in it is not close it is not the proper sence which the most and best follow Anselme Anselme hath another sence of it If I have fought with beasts after the manner of men or according to men that is saith he if my passions and sufferings were seene with the eyes of men all men that had looked upon me at Ephesus how I was troubled with those wicked men there they would have thought I had rather fought with beasts in humane shape then men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to mens iudgement they would rather have seemed beasts than men so that I call them not beasts simply my selfe but in the judgement of them that are my beholders and spectators that see my sufferings to see with what kinde of wits I was incumbred they would have judged them beasts and not men This is too farre off because the Apostle useth not this phrase in that sence elsewhere in any of his Writings Thirdly If I have fought with beasts after the manner of men that is if I have fought to death so Theodoret and Theophilact Theodoret. Theophilact As those men that used to fight with beasts they fought to death still for the manner was when they sent a malefactor or a man that was condemned ad certamen to the stage to fight with the beast if perhaps he came away the conquerour and slew the beast yet then the Executioner or Hang-man was either by sword or with a halter to strangle him and to make an end of him so that still he that fought with beasts hee fought to death for if he fought not to death with the beast yet he came to his death by man because the Iudge had doomed him to dye and though he gaue him leave to use his weapon to take armes and to defend himselfe yet when that expectation failed they did not fayle to take away his life another way so that then the Apostles meaning must be If he fought with beasts as men used to doe to fight to death that have death every way if they be cast naked and bound it is to death for they are torne in pieces if they be armed against the beast and prevaile over him and be not killed by him yet the law after tooke hold of them so that still they fought unto death This exposition seemeth to be favoured by that in 2 Cor. 1.8 2 Cor. 1.8 where the Apostle saith We tooke the sentence of death against our selves that is there was no way with us but one there was nothing but death presented to us the gastly face of destruction and desolation he speakes there as it is likely of this persecution But as I said before they fought not alway to death but some times for tryall and besides if Saint Paul had fought to death he could not after that have related this to us Therefore I come to the last opinion and as I take it the best because of some reverend translations to whom I incline more than to any thing which hath beene done in the Church these many yeeres which understand the end of it to be this After the manner of men that is to speake after the manner of men according as it is the Apostles phrase in many other places and a mans meaning may be the best knowne by his stile by observing his speech elsewhere a man may trace him the better afterward one place helpes to cleare another Now this in the Writings of Saint Paul is a common speech after the manner of men Rom. 3.5 Rom. 6.19 Rom 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speake as a man And Rom 6.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 J speake after the manner of men and in divers other places I speake after the manner of men and although here be not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet here is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same forme and phrase he useth there and so the Apostles meaning is this you know men have a forme of speech to call malitious and cruell men beasts and according to that forme I speake for my Lord and Saviour otherwise would not give me leave to speake so out of my owne spleene out of my owne passion to call men beasts for they are all my brethren and all must be imbraced in the bowels of love and in long suffering and patience
is done as it is certaine it shall bee done for wee have Gods word and promise for it wee have the appetite of the matter which still calls and cries to God for a forme and we have the Lord ingaged by example and president and by the head and first fruits Christ Iesus the head when this is done Then shall bee fulfilled that which was spoken As if he should say I speake not these things to you of my selfe and out of my owne Apostolicall authority which I might stand upon but I speake them out of the writings of those men that were illuminated by the same Spirit from the writing of the holy Prophets Then shall be fulfilled that which was spoken or written That word that word of grace that word of promise that word which is able to make the dead revive and the word is this that Death is swallowed up into victory Where observe First who wrote this And then the substance of the words Concerning the first the Apostle defends his authority from ancient times to teach us what we are to doe in like cases But this is a common obvious point I will not insist upon it Concerning the Author Isay and Hosea are alledged for it some holding with the one some with the other Certainely it is in Isay in the true intimation according to the word Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 where God promiseth the people a deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon He saith God shall destroy death for ever he hath swallowed up death for ever or to victory for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 netsahh may signifie both entrance into length of time or else victory Because victory properly respects the time and that is true victory which is not to be dashed nor daunted with any time that is the most perfect victory that is not daunted in any time So in this respect the word time and victory is taken in the holy Tongue for the same and that which the Septuagint here translates the one the Apostle in the Text translates the other Although indeed the Apostle follow the Septuagint yet they have another translation besides which is God shall swallow up death for ever So the Prophet Isays words I take to be the best and the fittest Hos 13.14 The other in Hosea is in Hos 13.14 where the verse following after my Text is repeated expresly but the words of this verse of my Text is not there to bee found Therefore this I take to be the word of Isay Observe now what the word is that hee useth for it it is full of life it brings men from temporall things to the expectation of things eternall The Lord speakes to them of a great feast that they should make after their comming up out of the Land the Apostle takes it to set forth the eternall feast For it is to no purpose to have these temporall things and to bee swallowed up of death and hell The Apostle teacheth us therefore what construction wee should make of the blessings of God in this life to extend them in a high sense They are never sweet till then The bread that wee eat should make us mindefull of the bread of heaven that is of the glorious presence of God which shall for ever delight us And the honours and preferments that wee have here except they signifie to us those glorious and stately seates of glory hereafter they are rather plagues and punishments then blessings By death there in the Prophet is meant the generall Captivity but the Apostle takes it for the death of the body To victory is the terme and manner whereto it shall bee swallowed But I should be too troublesome to enter upon them now FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.54 Then shall bee fulfilled that word which is written Death is swallowed up into victory Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory WHat is so weak and againe what is so strong as a Christian man saith St. Ambrose Ambros Hee is exceedingly weake because hee is subject to any temptation and incomparably strong because hee can triumph over death it selfe which is the triumpher over all mankind For what can he feare that is fearelesse of death and what is able to insult over him that can insult over that which is the last of all terribles which is the dissolution of nature Thus the Lord hath tempered in the same vessell great infirmity and great valour that hee might shew his owne strength for in mans weaknesse is Gods strength consummate The Apostle therefore to prove those wonderfull things which hee had said before that this corruptible must put on the garment of incorruption this mortall must put on the weed of immortality he doth now as it were bring into the minds of the Corinthians the present spectacle hee lifts up their hearts to view it as a thing acted and done before their eyes As he saith to the Galathians Gal. 3.1 that Iesus Christ was crucified before their eyes whom they never saw crucified but hee was so lively described unto them by his Gospel that he saith they saw it acted and saw him really crucified and all the passages of his death and passion So now he would bring the hearts and minds of the Corinthians to such a kind of contemplation as to see the Lord God raising up the dead and to see the dead putting on their new garments their new coat of immortality and incorruption He represents all to the eye and when hee hath so done hee brings in a kinde of insultation a verse that they were wont to sing in victories and triumphs 1. Sam. 18.7 As in the triumph of David over Goliah the women sang Saul hath slaine his thousand but David his ten thousand so the Saints of God as St. Chrysostome saith Chrysost Dost thou see saith he what a generous spirit is in the holy Apostle how hee paints before the eyes of the people this most noble and divine indowment this garment of incorruption and immortality and behold how he himselfe is rapt And in that most heavenly and strange rapture as a man inspired from heaven he insults over death lying under his feet and treads upon the head of him that treads downe all things else and cries over him Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory This is the song of the Church and that song which the Saints of God desire with full contentment to sing and it is given to all them that are true hearted to the Lord to sing this song with a full resolution But when the time is come that it should be sung the weaknesse of our nature perhaps will not suffice to it For it is one thing for a man to bee valiant when he is in health and it is another thing when the fit and when the storme takes him then to appeare that which hee professed himselfe to be before
separated from the body But in all this discourse if we can but gaine the true and most perfect sence we have sufficiently handled this text for We must first consider what the words meane And then how the words prove and argue For if we finde once but the true signification we shall then finde the perfect demonstration and proofe that ariseth from them First then the Church hath taken it as though the Apostle alluded to a grosse errour of the Cerinthians and Montanists and as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Marcionits which out of these words have gathered a ridiculous kinde of baptising of young Christians And they said when there was any Catechumeni that is those that were not baptised but were yet in their principles and in their catechisme for then they baptised none for the most part till they were come to yeares of discretion that themselves were able to make profession of their owne faith Now if any of these were taken away by death upon the sudden or by any casualty which had intended to be baptised at the appointed season which was Easter in this case they were to substitute and appoint some friend that was alive to answer for the dead man and to be baptised for him And then in a kinde of stage-playing they laid the dead childe or the dead man upon a forme or upon a table or on a bed and the substitute or appointed friend was to goe under the bed or table and to answer to those questions that the Priest did usually make to the partie baptised The first question was whether he would be baptised or no and if the dead man could not his friend was to say yea The second question was whether he beleeved or no the partie was to answer affirmatively for the dead man to that also The third question was Chrysost whether he renounced the Divell and all his workes and he was to answer to that too So saith Chrysostom this is a ridiculous thing that every Christian should laugh at in his minde to see their folly yet there is some shew of argument to be drawne from it for that out of mens follies God can ordaine strength And this proves that they had a conceit of the resurrection or else they would never have descended to such vaine and ridiculous fantasies Afterwards that the Church of God tooke up this custome yea such as were not heretiques but were brought up in the Church yet they thought it as possible for one man to be baptised for another as for one man to be helped by anothers prayers but this hath no shew of consequence in it For the one we have a command and a promise for the other we have neither Besides prayer is generall for all but the receiving of the Sacrament is personall for one for him alone that receives it So that one cannot be baptised for another Yet some in the Church mistaking this text of Scripture thought that when any that intended to be baptised were taken away before the due time they might appoint some that was his friend that had first beene baptised for himselfe And they thought this was profitable to him that was deceased But these are but mockeries of the Sacrament and questionlesse it is a thing that the Apostle alludes not to For the Apostle would never have indured this errour in the Corinthians or if he had yet it proves nothing It doth not follow that because foolish men abuse the Sacrament to a hope of the resurrection that therefore there shall be a resurrection For foolish actions have no probation there is no force in that which is without reason And seeing the Apostle is curious to rebuke them for lesser matters as concerning meate offered to Idols and women being uncovered in the Church which seeme to be matters of lesse moment yet he particularly reproves thē much more would he have rebuked this and not have suffered such a gangrene of errour to eate into the body of the Church as this was that makes a mockerie of the Sacrament Therefore seeing it hath no force to prove and because it is likely that the Apostle would not suffer such a thing to be extant there nor is there mention any where in his Epistles of such an errour that was crept into Corinth Therefore we reject the exposition although some other of the Fathers thinke that out of their common abuse the Apostle makes a good use and drawes an argument as in some cases it is necessary It is lawfull sometimes to draw arguments from the follies and dreames of the heathen so our Divines doe out of Plato and out of the historie of Err who they say after his death lived and was seen again of his friends and the storie of Epimenides he that slept so many yeares and revived againe But the Apostle useth not to insist upon such arguments he drawes something indeed from Menander and from Epimenides but it is matter of common knowledge and experience that no man could gaine-say And so I come to the second opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead That is it was a custome for the first 500. yeares almost that those that were baptised into the name of Christ they thought good to deferre it till the latter end of their life and so when they lay sicke upon their death bed they called for baptisme For they thought according to the errour of Novatian that when a man had once received baptisme and had tasted of that heavenly gift as the Apostle speakes Heb. 6. if they then fell into sinne Heb. 6.6 there was no Sacrament for them nor no hope to be reconciled to God which is the cut-throat of all faith and repentance but they being carried thus by naturall reason thought that after they were baptised and had made defiance of the world the flesh and the divell and then fell backe and relapsed into sinne they thought there was no pardon for them And because they knew their owne weakenesse and infirmitie that they could not so renounce the world the flesh and the divell but that they were oft intangled with them or with some of them therefore unlesse they should bring upon their soules an inevitable necessitie of damnation they thought it good not to meddle with that Sacrament till they were past the necessity of sinning which when that is no man knowes For unlesse the grace of God subdue our affections as long as a man lives the power of sinning is not past But they imagined that old age would bring a cessation and a supersedeas of all offences and that then they might better serve God and with more quietnesse according to their profession Therefore they deferred baptisme to their last age and then they were baptised And in this errour we see what great men lived As Valentinian the Emperour whom S. Ambrose commends highly in his funerall oration For he purposed to be baptised when he came home but he was
we in jeopardy and danger every day and every houre are an exposition of the former Wherein he translates the argument from the common passion of the Church to his owne personall sufferings and those that were the first and principall in persecutions and troubles and he concludes that they were mad men that would undergoe such misery except they hoped for something unlesse they had a certaine hope of reward and recompence in those bodies in which they suffered For it is the body that suffers here the soule cannot be martyred but the body Therefore the Apostle saith Every man shall receive in their bodies according as they have done in their bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 whether it be good or evill Now for a man to undertake such great hazard and danger to be alway in jeopardy to be every houre in perill it is as bad as to be utterly consumed A man were better to be utterly dispatched than to be alway hanging in suspence for men to be still in anxiety to leade their lives in extremity and trouble to have nothing to comfort them here nor to have any expectation in the world to come of the common resurrection there were no madnesse comparable to this But because in these things we must not be presumptuous but must take them as the spirit of God hath suggested and dictated them to other men therefore I will not build certainly upon this sence although I thinke it to be the most true and naturall consequent that can be But we will consider also what the spirit of God hath spoken otherwise This gift of interpretation is not acknowledged nor understood among simple men although it be the greatest gift of all other For a man cannot tell what to build on he cannot tell what to thinke he knowes not what to say or what to conclude on If he ground upon a false interpretation Ierome in Gal. 1. as Saint Ierome saith upon Galath 1. upon these words I mervaile that you are gone to another Gospell saith he what makes this another Gospell false glosses and interpretations by giving a false sence of the Scriptures that which in it selfe is the pure Gospell of Christ may be made the Gospell of man nay that which is worse the Gospell of the divell so Saint Ierome Chrysost And Saint Chrysostome discoursing upon the same argument saith he If Christ himselfe shall not interpret the word which is obscure and darke in it selfe I shall neither gather the doctrine nor settle the conclusion so that the gift of interpretation is of all others the chiefe and prime foundation of divinity Therefore observing the great variety of the ancient Fathers in the Church of God I must of necessity abandon all kinde of darke and obscure speech and all that savours of affected language or eloquence yea and speake plainely as Saint Austin saith It is a farre better thing that the Grammarian or that the Criticke should reprehend us then that the people should not understand us In the divers sences of this Text I touched some others remaine which I will conclude as briefly as I can and then come to the other argument taken from his particular Why doe we thus Why doe we live in danger and jeopardie every houre What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead The first opinion was that the Text is to be understood according to the letter to be baptised for dead men This opinion is followed by many great and learned men and by Musculus which I wonder at for he was a most rare instrument of light to the Church of God throughout all the Scriptures and yet he thinkes this to be a good and a true construction That as Christ Iesus commended the fact of the unrighteous and unjust Steward although he did not commend the fact yet his wisedome is commended so the Apostles purpose is to shew that though it were a vaine thing for them to baptise the dead in the person of the quicke to baptise them by a proxey yet it argued that which the Apostle would inferre that they had a hope of the resurrection or else they would never have done it But because this hath beene condemned by the Fathers as hereticall and foolish therefore I wave that opinion as not being the Apostles meaning A second opinion was concerning those that did put off their baptisme till their death as the fashion was in the first 4 or 500. yeares after Christ The third what shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is that are baptised into a dead Christ This is followed by a great number of worthy Divines Chrysostome Theophilact Oecumenius Theodoret and Calvine Another opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is from the dead so the word signifieth sometimes and so Luther Luther saith that in the primitive times they baptised their children in the Church yards where the dead bodies were buried and were wont to stand upon the grave of the dead man and say This man shall rise againe I beleeve it and I take the Sacrament upon it and here I am baptised If wee could finde such a custome in the Church this were a cleare evidence but there is no history that makes this appeare unto us Notwithstanding if there had beene such a custome as that it being something superstitious it could not greatly inferre the argument and there is no reason to thinke they should be baptised upon the graves of the dead seeing the custome seemed to be contrary to baptise them in their Baptisteria or Fonts which were in little houses neere their Churches in which there was no burying of the dead for divers hundred yeares after Christ that is not till the Fonts were brought into the Churches till when they buried in the Church yards and in the Cloysters below Yet notwithstanding this might be true in some places as in the Church of Asia and in the parts upon the Euxine sea where they never baptised any but at the time of Easter and Whitsuntide and then they baptised them upon the graves of the dead to assure them that the dead that were contained in those graves and turned to dust should rise againe which they would now verifie by taking the Sacrament of baptisme upon it Therefore I give this interpretation the authority it deserves and take it as a true glosse on the Text but yet it is not the fulnesse of the great things the Apostle here intended The next opinion was they that are baptised for the dead that is dead to the world civilly dead that betake themselves to the study of mortification and will not live in those pleasures and delights which the world accounts the onely life Those kinde of pleasures and epicurious delights which worldly men take to be the life of life the Saints of God detest and abhorre them and in baptisme they doe renounce them the pompes and vanities of the wicked world and make
hee was come there hee teacheth and converseth with the people hee goes not about his work upon the sudden The newes comes he is dead and buried Let him lie in his grave a long time that the glory of God may the more appeare Let him lie the first second and third day and the Lord comes not Upon the fourth day when all men gave him for stinking and desperate and that there was no hope of any good to bee done upon him then the Lord comes to work When Martha his sister had given over all hope and told Christ shee knew that hee should rise againe at the resurrection but for any other rising she never dreamed of or imagined that Well then when all things seemed to be senslesse and against reason and possibility then the power of God began to work And because Lazarus was so strongly held by death foure dayes therefore the stronger was the hand of God upon him in raysing him from death That the strength of death might be encountred and overcome and countermanded by the higher strength and arme of the Almighty it now gave way and made a passage to the arme of the Lord to work a mighty deliverance So still the misery of the child of God works for good and all things work for the best to those that love God Rom. 8.28 Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly so we shall beare the image of the heavenly This is a great incouragement to us to beare Vse Wee are impatient we cannot endure any thing but we see that wee must beare and if wee looke for the image of the heavenly we must be content to beare the image of the earthly We must be content to be sick we must be content to be poore to be persecuted to be every way miserable and wretched We must be content to be tempted by the tempting devill and oft times to be foiled by him and to bee overcome in sinne and shamefull actions and courses We must be content with the Christian agony and the bloody sweat that Christ had in the garden at his passion We must beare these things it is the image of the earthly It is the condition of the other life the bearing of the heavenly And except wee have the one we cannot have the other except we beare the image of the earthly we shall not beare the image of the heavenly But here it may be objected that Infants have not this image Yes reason tells us they doe For in their death in their sicknesse in their distractions and strange convulsions to which they are subject they beare the image of the earthly although not in so great a measure as men of groweth doe yet they have for their tender yeares a fearefull yoake laid upon them which is mortality and all the wayes that tend to death To conclude this first point the proposition Let us mingle the one with the other and beare both If thou bee troubled in this world in any sort inwardly or outwardly If thou be troubled in conscience for sinne if thou bee troubled with enemies art thou troubled in thy fortunes in thy state in the world art thou troubled with sicknesse of body remember it is nothing but thine owne image Thus thou art made wilt thou deny thine owne face wilt thou deny thy owne name wilt thou not take that which thou art borne unto art thou ashamed of thine inheritance it is that which thy Father hath left thee therefore beare it And withall to comfort thy selfe beare it with this hope and lively assurance that thou shalt beare a better image one day The galley-slaves that serve the Turks in their galleys if they could but think that at seven yeares end some Christian would come and deliver them they would be the better affected and would cheare their mindes especially if they could be assured of it If Iacob serve the churle Laban seven yeares Gen. 29. if he think he shall have Rachell at the end of it hee thinks it but like unto seven dayes and with patience he comforts himselfe in the Lord and staies his leisure and is content that God shall use him unto his hand as it pleaseth him This is the true constitution of a pure mind therefore let us sweeten these outward worldly miseries with the expectation of future joy and the promises which God hath made to us in his holy Word There is no griefe so great but if wee tie heaven unto the end of it it is light As the Apostle saith This short moment any affliction Rom. 8.18 is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed Let us put them together and the one will bee swallowed up in the other For as we have borne the image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heavenly Oh! when shall that blessed day appeare So must the Christian man aspire and hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of God and after his blessed kingdome Wee mourne saith the Apostle as long as we are from Christ in this body we would faine see the consummation of the promise Why then there is no meanes but one that is by incessant prayer by continuall clamours to call upon God to crie unto him for it The cries and clamours of Gods Saints must bring Christ from heaven againe unto earth to make up the fulnesse of the promise which he hath condescēded unto in his holy Word This must be the use we must make of this doctrine That as wee are patiently to endure the image of the earthly man to endure the misery that sinne hath contracted and brought upon us that we also be faithfull and hopefull to cry and to call unto God for the sweet things that are reposed and laid up for us in the glory of the Gospel So much for the Proposition Now for the explanation in verse 50. Verse 50. This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven neither can corruption inherit incorruption In these words the Apostle doth prevent those questionings and objections that simple men might make against this doctrine They might say that he taught in the cloudes that hee spake so as that they knew not what hee meant What doe you meane by the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly we have heard of no such words we know no such matter For this the Apostle tells them that hee speaks out of the phrase of Scripture hee speaks it out of Genesis For hee had said before that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickening spirit and so following the course of the creation he saith there was an image which at the first was heavenly but it was defaced by mans fault and so it became earthly and by consequence all of Adams blood were like their progenitor they all tooke part of the inheritance although it were against their will and they bore the image of