prophecie but a dark mystery what is eloquence but untunable musick what is munificence but prodigality what is martyrdome but a rash and unadvised slaying a mans self Without love they may all hang down in their own weaknesse and infirmity and therefore Saint Paul tells us We know but in part and therefore prophecie but in part We know but in part that 's the first and I fear the time will suffer me to go no farther We know but in part Take knowledge to be what you will take it at the largest extent the wisest men on earth those that have been in the uppermost chambers of Divinity and sounded the depths of all Learning yea that have gone round all humane Learning they know but in part Some things there are that we know not and there are some things we know but in part and what we know objectively it may be full but subjectively it is weak First some things we know not as the Essence of God instant in things past and to come we cannot know it it is not fit for our understanding Who knows what God did before the world Who knows when the Angels were created who knows we may collect and conjecture but who can positively affirm it who can tell whether the Sun before the Stars were created did rise and set or no those are beyond our knowledge We know not the end of the world when all things shall be out of date when the tongue shall be tied up from prophecying in this world when faith shall be turned into feeblenesse and hope into quaking and that when hope shall quake love shall stand still when the rest faint and vanish This is confirmed in the words neer the Text and in the words of my Text. The Argument stands thus That which is but in part cannot last But knowledg is but in part and faith is but in part For we know but in part and we prophecie but in part And beloved if so be these Preachers you have heard have faln short in any particular in the prosecution of their Text and if I as I know I must being weary of proceeding and I undervalue my own thoughts neither will I be so in love with the brood of my own brain as to trouble you and my self long with it but onely in behalf of all the Ministers that have preached and of my self that we know but in part and prophecie but in part The head and tongue divide the Text the head is like unto Heaven that doth disperse abroad its light and influence by the tongue and the tongue it is a many-stringed instrument whereby we do praise God Here 's the knowledge of the head the tongue but that this tongue may be tied up from self-commendation therefore we come to the ignorant terms of antipathy as Why doth the Load-stone draw Iron to it what answer can we give but that it is the quality as much as to say I do not know And so for the times to come it is not for us to know the times of God Prophecies are best understood in the fulfilling of them there are many things God hath left to his own Cabinet-Councel and we must not intrude into them Secret things belong to God but revealed things to as and to our children And secondly our knowledge is but imperfect in respect of the object We see but through a glass darkly and imperfectly First what can we say or know of God Damasin saith he is not an essence or substance he is somewhat above we do not know what to call him bring in a contribution of all kind of language there 's too much inability to expresse the nature of Almighty God our knowledge of God rises not by adding to it but as a statue rises by cutting somewhat from it and we know him by an imperfect knowledge We see the Sun in a dim kind of way we see but the back-parts of God as we see a man that is past we have but a glimpse of it And so for the Trinity the Father Son and holy Ghost three Persons and one God it is a mystery that made Hillary cry out and fall back and go again and say there 's a stupidity in my understanding I know not what to say and therefore the Nicene Fathers would not have the words of Essence used they thought there was more in God And so for the Decree of God how far is it beyond our knowledge How unsearchable are his Judgments they are past finding out And if you cannot finde out the reason of Gods decrees see the reason of it it is well for you to be of his Court though not of his Councel His decrees may amaze a man to consider them read but Saint Pauls discourse how shall we puzzle and gravel what shall we say more then this I will not say Do thou reason the case how thou wilt Ego credam I will believe And then fourthly for the Creation of the world what a vast difference is there between nothing and something We may believe there is a Creation but we cannot grasp it in our understanding And then in the fifth place the prophanation of sin That God should create us so holy that the body should have no sin in it and yet there should now be sin in both body soul we know it But how do we know it Come to the Person and Offices of Christ that he that was the Ancient of dayes should dye that he that was the mouth of his Father and the Word should not speak this is a mystery and great is the mystery And then again the mystery or our bodies that our bodies should be destroyed that they should be turned to ashes or cut in pieces and one piece many miles from another and yet the same body to arise gloriously We may believe it but we are not able to conceive it Now to the joyes of Heaven Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the joyes that are there The eye can see far and the ear can hear far the one can see the lightning afar off and the other hear the thunder yet eye and ear are both dull and heavy if you bring them to the consideration of this thing here are things unutterable I was rapt up into the third Heaven saith Saint Paul and I saw things that were unutterable And so for the Scriptures though in all things necessary to salvation the Scriptures are plain and evident but take many places of the Scripture how far remote are they from our understanding what great mysteries are there One being asked what God was took first a day then two then three dayes then four and so the farther he went to search the more he was plunged So in the Scriptures some places are plain a Lamb may feed in them In prophecies we fix upon one man he must be the deliverer we see him taken from the world
upon the next verse He is risen as he said What said he The Evangelist Saint Luke chap. 24. as he said to you women when you were in Galilee Then the saying must be taken as it was told them by Christ in Galilee before he was crucified What was his saying He said unto them I shall rise the third day What meant Christ by rising was it rising in the grave or out of the grave Certainly out of the grave VVill you have our witnesses Two Angels Luke 24.5 Say unto these women Why seek you the living among the dead If he be living he is not among the dead therefore not in the grave but out of the grave It is the conclusion of the very Angels themselves Come to the next words following here Go quickly tell his Disciples that he is risen Tell his Disciples then the Angels instructed them so that they might have a faith that he was out of the grave to the end they might perswade the Disciples being now a foundation of the Articles of the Christian Faith But above all you will see it Luke 24.6 He renders the words of Christ thus He is not here but he is risen But that is a particle adversitive alwayes implying a contradiction from the former as if he should say such a one is not dead but alive if therefore alive not dead Christ saith of his body I am not spirit but flesh flesh therefore not spirit Thus in all it is a contradiction in adjuncts Therefore the truth is this is an impossibility that the body of Christ can be in two places at once which is the conclusion drawn from thence Now beloved I had not insisted so much upon this except it had been First that it was so full in my way that I could not passe by it Secondly because of the jealousie of these times wherein it is suspected that divers of the Ecclesiasticks are infected with this leaven or rather leprosie of Popery to think that the body of Christ can be in divers places at once Therefore now I shall crave leave to inlarge my self and the rather because in thus saying whosoever they be they destroy it I am therefore now beloved to prove it unto you not by testimonies and allegations onely but to deliver unto you the heads as I may say the form and the reasons summarily of true Antiquitie in the Primitive Church and that shall confirm unto us this our doctrine to have been not onely a Catholique truth but to have had the degree of a Catholique faith in the Church of God for six hundred years together Briefly then thus those holy Fathers taught first that no creature can be in divers places at once why for that this to be in divers places at once is the Prerogative of God himself Secondly they prove that the holy Ghost the third Person in the Trinity is God Why for that it was in divers Prophets at once Jeremiah in Jewry Daniel when he was in Babylon Ezekiel in Cabar and also after that when he was in divers Apostles at once they being dispersed into divers Regions of the world Thirdly they prove that the Angels are not Gods Why Because Angels cannot be in divers places at once Fourthly they prove that no body no bodily substance can be in divers places at once Why For that it is one body and to be here and there in one instant were to divide it self from it self that it were two and one and not one are contradictions Lastly that we may omit divers others they prove that the Humanity is thus distinguished from the Divinity because the Deity the divinity nature that being in Heaven is in Earth and every where else but the humane nature if it be in Heaven it is not on Earth if on Earth it is not in Heaven Thus these holy Fathers You have their doctrine of truth Now that it may appear unto you that this doctrine of truth was also a doctrine of faith and that by two reasons First because by these for 's which are answerable to this for of the Angel here they urged them against the Hereticks of their times such were the Marcionites the Manichees the Neucomitans and such like Secondly because they did this to this end that they might confirm unto all the world the doctrine of the Deity to know that this is a Prerogative belonging to God alone and secondly for the preservation of the true nature of the manhood of Christ for whereas the Manichees might say that the body of Christ was in the Moon and the Deity together fieri non potest saith Saint Austin it cannot be for by this means you will not make it a true body of Christ I will conclude and it shall be in the words of an holy Father that lived six hundred years after Christ Vigilius by name who saith thus Humanitas Christi si in terra tunc non in coelo c. The Humanity of Christ if it be on Earth then certainly it is not in Heaven if in Heaven bodily then certainly not on earth Was this his private opinion onely No Haec est Confessio Catholica quam c. This is the Confession a Catholique confession saith he which the Apostles have delivered the Martyrs of Christ have confirmed and now all the faithful in Christ do preserve to this day Beloved this Vigilius was Bishop of Trent and he hath delivered unto us a confession as contrary unto the last Councel of Trent as yea and nay truth and falsity Antiquity and Novelty so that if the Primitive Church of Christ was the Catholique Church certainly the now Romish church it is a step-dame and degenerate If the Primitive doctrine was a Catholique faith and a legitimate childe then the now doctrine of the Church of Rome it is a bastard-brat Now then beloved I have delivered unto you the points concerning the Logical part wherein if I have been too obscure if that Logick part be too obscure for some I may make amends in the Historical where I shall not make it so plain to your brains as to your senses He is not here for c. This Historical part will offer unto you 3 observations concerning this doctrine of Christs Resurrection the first is 1. That it is a truth most evident 2. It is a truth Omnipotent 3. It is a truth Trimphant For Christ after his Resurrection manifested himself unto all men all kinds of men that heard him Preach he manifested himself to two to twelve to five hundred at once to Saint Paul after his Ascension into Heaven here is all the eye-sight to other senses he manifested himself to his Apostles by feeling and handling his body here are three senses Now beloved why should not this be a foundation of truth to know and discern to build our faith upon these things The Apostlâ—â—aint John tells us that it ought to be so for saith he 1 John 1.1 That which you have heard that which you
him is as he is risen as an example That it is possible there may be a resurrection from the death of the body First the resurrection of Christ teacheth us a certainty of resurrection that he is the special effectual cause of the resurrection to life everlasting unto the sons of God that shew the actions of the resurrection of Christ Secondly there is a generality or universality of Resurrection Thirdly the possibility of the bodies resurrection unto life To begin with the universality all must rise again by whom by whose power why by Christs 1 Cor. 15.6 As by the sin of the first Adam death came upon all men so by Christ the Resurrection from the dead all men all manner of men all men dying all men rising all the sons of men We have an Apostle for it All men saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. All men must dye all men must appear before the Tribunal Seat of Christ and give an account of all things they did in this life be it good or bad Here 's good and bad all men This was believed by the Jews before Christ came so the Apostle Saint Peter Acts 2. shews unto us That they believed the resurrection from the dead They believed the Prophet Daniel that they should rise the just and the unjust Dan. 12. Here 's all that Prophets prophecy some to honour and some to shame here 's either honour or shame A shame therefore it will be unto us beloved if we do not believe that which they believed That we having before us not a prophecie which Saint Peter saith is a dark light they believed in a dark light in a light in a dark place and we have the very Sun-shine of the Gospel to instruct us But what instruction do we learn from this universality It commends unto us the general Justice of God that as he will be both vindicative and remunerative to the bodies of men they must rise again vindicative to punish wicked men and remunerative to reward the godly even in their bodies Our reason That as the body hath been an instrument unto the soul for acting either good or evil so they should be co-partners together in weal or woe We see the same shadowed in the Parable the finger of the poor man in Heaven and the tongue of the rich man in Hell yet notwithstanding it must be the same body and as Job said of his eyes I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see him with these eyes and no other The same eyes For beloved how should it consist with the Justice of God that one body should glutton gormandise and swell with excesse and wallow in sensual pleasures and there should be another body put upon him that should cry out I am tormented in these flames Or for the godly as for example Saint Stephen whose name signifies a Crown that he should suffer Martyrdome for this truth we are now proving the Resurrection and afterwards another body be given unto him which should be clothed with blessednesse which is called the Crown of Righteousness No beloved it is a certain and an infallible truth that it must be disposed according to the Justice of God There 's a statute for it Heb. 1.9 Statutum est c. It is appointed and statuted for all men to dye and after death comes Judgment all men first to dye and then comes Judgment Judgment as sure as death Here is matter of horrour and matter of comfort horrour to the wicked that when that great and general Goal-delivery comes it shall be as it is sometimes at the Assises there are two men in prison and one hath either got his pardon or else he is innocent that none can impeach him and he saith to his fellows I am going before the Judge for deliverance out of prison Another he hath Guilty branded in his forehead and he cryes I am going before the Judge but it is to receive my condemnation and to be delivered over to execution So shall it be in the end of time and in this general Resurrection Then as it is in the Apocalypse the wicked that should appear before the Judge shall cry to the rocks to cover them and the mountains to fall upon them to deliver them from the wrath of the Lamb and yet to them he is a Tyger looking upon their guiltinesse and desperation they call and cry for impossibilities rocks to hide them from the Judge of all Judges and hills to cover them from the God of all Gods But as for the godly they come and say Now is our Redemption at hand for that which concerns redemption and comfort it belongs to them The next consideration is the necessity of the resurrection Now hear how necessary this resurrection is We read of many benefits in the Scripture of God concerning all men by vertue of Christs birth his life his merits his preaching his passion his dying But what if there were no Resurrection The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. Then were our faith in vain Our whole faith were vain if there were not a resurrection we preach in vain And indeed were there no resurrection though the birth of Christ were never so joyous the miracles that he wrought in the world never so miraculous his promises for everlasting life never so gracious his work and price of Redemption never so meritorious yet if there were no resurrection his birth his life his miracles his passion yea his death it self put together the same stone that covered his corpse should cover all those singular infinite benefits But now he is risen this work of the resurrection it is both the perfection and complement of all the Articles that went before so it is also the foundation of all the Articles that come after rising communion sitting at the right hand of God in glory See the necessity of this resurrection and there is also the like necessity laid upon us seeing this resurrection is the vertue of our resurrection So the Apostle to the Colossians tells us That Christ is the Head of the Church and the first begotten of the dead He must have the preeminence he is the first begotten of the dead for he ascended first into Heaven to take possession there 's his preheminence Happy are we if we can come after as we may come for he did not take possession for himself alone but as the head of the whole body he is the first begotten among the dead And this for the comfort of all Be that inseparable union between us and Christ known unto you I do not say in our souls alone but in our bodies also for so the Apostle Eph. 5. We are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Oh beloved when the holy Fathers of the Primitive Church fell upon this Text they were ravished with contemplations thereof to think there was such an individual union between Christ and them even our bodies And this union is more then if there were