reference in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses There were many false Apostles whose glory was their shame and minded earthly things but there was a distinction between true and false Apostles But our conversation is in Heaven whereever the conversation of false Apostles is Take it which way you will by way of a motive or a distinction it is not so much for us to know what Saint Paul did but what we ought to do what we should do There are four things considerable in the Text First that the Christians conversation it is in Heaven Secondly his expectation he looks for our Lord and Saviour there Thirdly his happinesse who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body Fourthly the ground of this hope and confidence according to that mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things Having taken his rise from the first of these the Christians conversation But our conversation is in Heaven The word Conversation is in the Old Testament every where up and down For Conversation the word here used is Politeuma and it is a word that concerns those that live in Cities So Greg. Nazianzen Beza and Tertullian do interpret it Tertullian saith But our Burgessship is in Heaven and so Beza We are Burgesses or freemen of Heaven But Beza and the rest they have faln short of this Politeuma It signifies more then a Burgessship or freedome but they are Citizens you make many free that are far from you you account them onely Citizens that inhabit among you Saint Paul did excusâ— himself from rods by saying he was a Roman but yet he was born at Tarsus he was free there but yet he was not a true Citizen there So there is a medium between these two So Anaxagoras when it was laid to his charge that he followed his study so much that he did not care for his Countrey no saith he but I do and pointing up his finger said that Heaven was his Countrey I care for that So saith David I am a stranger he was not onely a stranger when he was in Philistia with the King of Gath but in this earth as all my fathers were When I am at home I am not at home though I am in my Countrey yet I am not in my own Countrey For our conversation is in Heaven Heaven it is the Haven of the Saints God hath prepared Heaven for them and them for Heaven There are two Cities whereof Saint Paul speaks the one he calls Heaven the other Earth the one Jerusalem the other Babylon Let every man consider to which City he belongs for all of us belong either to Babylon or Jerusalem either above or below Monicha the mother of Saint Austin when she saw her son converted cryes out Nescio quid faciam c. 'T is true the time was that I desired some length of time to see thee become a good Christian but now I see that performed what if I dye if I dye now I see my son a true Orthodox Christian and a right honest man she cared for no more But if you will ask the Church of Rome especially the more Ancient or some others before the Church of Rome came into the world they will say an Hermites life is that which is the most Heavenly As Paul the Hermite prefers a Monastical life as if Saint Paul had said In Cellis and not In Celsis in Caves and not in Heaven But that life though it keeps them from a great deal of evil so it hinders them from doing a great deal of good a contemplative life it may be a blear-eyed life A contemplative life were good if God had no other businesse for us in this world but to leave our parents and friends our professions and callings and to run into Cells this is not the right conversation We may use the world but not love it saith Saint Paul use the world but not abuse it by riot gluttony surfets excesse which is a fighting with God with his own weapons if you love the world you do abuse the world But now let us consider our selves what we are There are many in the world that have nothing to do in the world but to care for the world They are of the earth earthly as Saint Paul speaks that think of the earth talk of the earth and do nothing but trade in the earth So that silver and gold may flow in they desire no more they see nothing sufficient but that To whom shall I liken this generation to Bees and to Ants. The Ants they are a Nation a wise Nation as Solomon calls them though not a strong there is an Aristocracy among them But now there are the Bees and they have a Monarchy and they are busie too So also men are wise in their generation this way they remember that Summer will not alwayes last but that Winter will come that health will not last alwayes but sicknesse will come But Oh who looks for their souls who provides that when Earth forsakes them Heaven may finde them I will give you the character of those whose conversations are in Heaven to characterise them We use to say of a man that 's dead he is a man of another world and so true Christians they are men of another world 'T is true you finde them here but they are here and not here while they are below they are above They do not slight the favors of God in the world but they do not use them as though they loved them They do not hate the world nor do they fear the frown of the world A good Christian takes care to shift himself out of the world with faith and a good Conscience with the peace of God 'T is true he is imparted in worldly things but he hath an heavenly minde He never ventures upon any worldly businesse but his thoughts and his heart are lifted up in the midst of his worldly businesse with many ejaculations and short prayers When things fall 〈◊〉 â—ccording to his expectation he sings Hallelujah's and Hosanna's when things fall out crosly he looks for better dayes to come he hath sorrow here but joyes hereafter He will lighten himself in any storm by casting his estate away one thing one way and another thing another way so he may come safe to Heaven His eyes are upon that Celestial place where the Angels are and the spirits of just men made perfect and where the body is to which the Eagles do resort and they look for our Saviour Christ from thence and that leads me from the first part which is the Christians conversation unto the second the Christians expectation From whence we look for our Lord c. And herein there are three particulars considerable First the person expected our Lord and Saviour Secondly the place from whence he is expected from Heaven And thirdly the act it self Expectation First the person expected our Lord and Saviour Jesus and Christ both answer
one another the two latter are but explicable to the former not to hold you long upon these beginnings of Divinity although they are profitable First he is our Jesus our Saviour Our Saviour saith Tully what word 's that reading it in an Inscription over a door in Syracuse What mean the words Non possunt exprimi it cannot be expressed with one word Will you say it is Servator or Salvator it is a made word Tertullian in his African Language will call it Salutifica but this comes from the former Well but saith Saint Austin he is a Saviour which is a Saviour and will be a Saviour He came at the first to save our bodies from sin he shall come to save our souls and he shall come from Heaven This is the name by which we must look to be saved and there is no other name under Heaven He is a Lord also as well as a Jesus Lord is a name of honour and a name of power A name of honour and therefore given unto Kings unto Priests unto Prophets and unto great men Unto Kings My Lord the King every where used Unto Priests so Hannah unto Eli. To the Prophets so to Elisha To great men so to Naaman the Syrian My Lord if the Prophet c. And therefore Christ being a greater King then David a greater Priest then Eli a greater Prophet then Elisha doth well deserve this title of Lord. And secondly in regard of power there is in Christ a double power there is potestas innata and potestas data a power innate and a power given And he is sometimes called the Lord with addition the Lord of the world the Lord of his Church sometimes he is called the Lord by way of Appropriation My Lord 〈◊〉 my God saith Thomas The Lord said unto my Lord saith David Sometimes in a way of Foundation My Lord the King but what 's the Lord without his honour If Christ be a Lord then in the first place let us honour him If I be a Lord where is my fear Secondly let us obey him To give him the name and to deny obedience it were to mock him Thirdly submit to his Law in all things whatsoever It is the Lord saith Eli let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Fourthly you must part with any thing for this God They let loose the Foal and the Asse because the Lord hath need of them It is the Lords wherefore wilt thou keep it from him Fifthly take heed of giving thy self over to any lust to be Lord Pride would be Lord as Tertullian saith Idlenesse would be my Lord Vain-glâ—â—â— would be my Lord but thou onely shalt be my Lord. Sixthly we must not use our own means we cannot say our tongues are our own our hands are our own we have a Lord over them and us You that are Lords on earth have a Lord in Heaven You that are Kings on earth have a King in Heaven And lastly we must expect this Lord we must look for him And so I come from the first particular of this general the person expected to the second the place from whence he is expected and that 's from Heaven But our conversation is in the Heavens Out of which Heavens we must expect our Saviour it is a dissonant in the expression and it is but a circumstance but we must pause upon it Heaven is the place from whence we expect Christ When Christ is in Heaven he cannot be on earth Christ is not upon the earth bodily as the Papists would have him but he is now in Heaven and the Heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things 'T is true Christ is here by his protecting power by his Word and by his Love and by his Spirit he walks amidst the golden Candlesticks I am he you know the Text saith but not in a bodily way he hath not lost the essential property of his Godhead he is in all places in heavenly things he hath called us together to sit down with him not onely in hope we are in Heaven even while we are on earth Securi estis c. saith Tertullian Oh my flesh and spirit be you secure Christ is gone to prepare Heaven for you he is gone he hath left us the pledge of his Spirit that he will come to us and he hath taken with him the pledge of our flesh to assure us that we shall come to him What would we have more What better rock can we rest upon then this our Saviour is in Heaven There 's a double expectation of our Saviour Christ First his first coming was expected Oh that thou wouldst rend the Heavens and come down Esa 66. He is called the desire of the Nations Heb. 2. The hope of the people of God We see how Hannah the Prophetesse and the rest did wait for the coming of Christ and there 's another expectation and that 's of the second coming of Christ And thus we must expect our Saviour but how after what manner There are many conditions we must expect him in We must first look for him with faith and with assurance that he that shall come will come and will not tarry he will come in his own time but we must wait for him Secondly we must wait for his coming with the love of his coming There are many accused as Malefactors that look for the Judge to come to absolve them and to deliver them out of prison Others to condemn them one looks with an hateful and an angry eye the other with a loving expecting and a longing eye So the Saints of Christ they wait and long for his coming they are sick of love and desire to be united to him not with remisse affections but with ardent love intensively and yet patiently expecting him To him that believes he will make haste to come and sup with him Even so Come Lord Jesus And then lastly we must look for this coming of our Saviour with care and with Conscience 1 Pet. 3.11 We look for a new Heaven and a new Earth according to his promise Consider therefore what manner of persons we ought to be if we look for the Resurrection for Christs coming in all holinesse The word in the Original is in all holinesses There are many have forms of godlines but they deny the power of it Oh the swearing the lying the Sabbath-breaking the murdering the abuse and injuring one of another doth this fit us for the coming of Christ with what tongues can we say Come Lord Jesus when we live so basely and entertain such horrid crimes we must be carefull as well as expecting Christians we must live in heaven and therefore expect our Saviour thence that he may change our vile bodies to be like unto his glorious body when he shall come in glory The very creatures groan for the coming of Christ the very creatures desire a dissolution and much more Christians It is to put forth the
leave granting till Abraham did leave asking It may be if he had come to lesse God would have spared them he did so in another place If there be but one to stand in the gap I will spare them Look upon Manasseh a most abominable Idolater who cut Esau in pieces with an iron sawe and made the streets of Jerusalem to run with bloud yet when he prayed unto God God did forgive him Mary Magdalene that had seven Devils she washed our Saviours feet with the hairs of her head that had been nets to catch fools bestowed that costly ointment which she had used upon her self upon Christ Christ accepts of it he applauds it he rewards it he is prone unto mercy and more prone unto mercy then unto judgement The Prodigal son when he returns home to his Father his Father runs and meets him when he was afar off and he doth not strike him or chide him but he falls upon his neck puts his ring upon his finger The Shepherd when he findes his sheep that was lost he doth not beat it but he laies it upon his neck Thirdly consider the circumstances of this mercy Consider first who it is that doth forgive Who why the God of Heaven and Earth he that hath Vials of wrath in his hand and could pour them upon us we that are his inferiours and his enemies we though we do bear with our superiours we will trample upon our inferiours but God doth not so Thirdly Consider what God in mercy doth forgive us and that is sin Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned David doth not place his blessings in his Beauty he was ruddy of complexion nor in his government though he was a great King nor in his preferment he was taken from the sheep to be head over Israel But here is his happinesse Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned Nay how often doth God do this seven times no but as often as Christ commands us to forgive our brethren seventy seven times as often as we forgive our brethren so we offend not out of malice but return and repent God will have mercy on us There went but one word to the making of the world but there go many to the saving of a soul 1 Pet. 1.8 And now judge and examine if you can imagine what a depth and height there is in this mercy of God I come to the Application in brief and so to put an end to this Sermon This may be an Antidote a Preservative against desperation unto poor dejected souls and disconsolate sinners that God is as merciful as just and delights more in mercy then in justice What a precious balsome is this for a wounded sinner And consider first that desperation it is most injurious unto our selves a wound that cannot possibly be healed by us If a Chirurgeon laies on a plaister and we cast it away what hope is there of cure for us And if God sends us the comforts of the Gospel and if we sit down sullen and cast them away what comfort can we have Desperation is compared to a beast with horns it pushes against mercy What for a man to despair of mercy is it but to spill his bloud upon the ground or to throw it in the air with Julian or to hang it on a Tree with Judas that God should drink to us in a cup of salvation and we to pledge him in a cup of damnation that is derogatory from God The Devil comes to us and sayes Thy sins are too great the mercies of God are too precious for thee shall we believe that lyar rather then he that sayes I have been wounded for you I will take your sins upon me and heal you Will you make God a lyar and the Devil true Secondly look upon the steps of desperation the several steps of it he did name divers * Ingratitude Infidelity steps but insisted only upon this to wit Presumption The wicked man begins in presumption but ends in despair When their flatteries have touled them a long time on and perswaded them that their case is good at last their souls are stifled with the consideration of their sins by presumption what more contrary and yet presumption it is the very rode way to desperation If I am abroad long either in the Sun or in the Snow my eyes will be so dazeled I shall hardly see When I have been in the glorious Sun-shine of the mercy of God in the Halcyon dayes of prosperity I cannot taste any thing but of a Saviour A presumptuous man is like unto one that is asleep upon a rock and dreaming of a rock of Pearl suddenly starts up and falls into the Sea Take heed the Devil do not finde you upon this pinacle upon presumption and so cast you down to eternal destruction Shall I be bold and presumptuous because God is merciful Shall I cut and gash my self because a good Chirurgeon lives where I live Shall I use spectacles to go over a Bridge to make the Bridge seem better and so perish Look not upon the mercy as if it were greater then it is no as God is merciful to penitent so he is just to impenitent sinners And so this reverend Father of our Church who was in Heaven while he was on Earth preached against those two main enemies of our salvation Desperation and Presumption His words were all excellent of the justice and mercy of God and the merits of our Saviour But what will become of all this what comfort springs from the mercy of God from the forgivenesse of sins unto us if our hearts our thoughts creep still on the ground if we be taken up with Earthly things and prefer riches and honour before God and therefore came to the chance of our fourth and last Divine to draw up our hearts sursum corda unto Heaven If you look for mercy lift up your hearts where it is to be had wherefore should we look down or kill flies any longer our conversations must be in Heaven if our hearts be in Heaven This was the bag out of which he did fetch treasure new and old precious treasure A Sermon Preached by Doctor Wesphale at the Spittle on Wednesday in Easter week PHILIPPIANS 3.20 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change our vise bodies that they may be like unto his glorious body according to that mighty word whereby he is able to subdue all things THE words may be read two wayes either For our conversation is in Heaven or But our conversation is in Heaven If For our conversation is in Heaven it is an argument to inforce a duty set down in the seventeenth verse That we should not minde the things here below for Saint Paul and the rest of the Saints have their conversation in Heaven If you will read it but then there 's another
have seen that which your hands have handled that we declare unto you c. He laies the faith of Christ on this foundation hearing seeing handling Here again I am justly occasioned to deal with the Church of Rome by this light to dispel the darknesse thereof that their great infatuation concerning the body of Christ they say he is in the Sacrament in these three opinions First he is here say they and yet his body is invisible Secondly it is here impalpable And lastly 't is in Heaven both visible and palpable It is here invisible impalpable and yet it is in Heaven both visible and palpable three monsters which are now to be expulsed not by the strength of my wit but by the authority of this Angel here speaking from Christ here spoken of from tâ—â— Church of Christ their whole voice for a general union for this the Angel in the next words even in this Text this verse he saith unto the women Come and see Come and see where they laid the Lord. I say he is not here I will prove it unto you demonstrate it unto your sight let your sight be Judge the arbitration of your sight shall satisfie you Come and see he is not here though they laid him here he is not here here is the argument of the Angel But here they will tell us he passed by men out of company to avoid danger and they saw him not This is truth but this is not all the truth for the reason why they saw him not it was because their eyes were held that they could not see How many of you now see this Pulpit and yet wink with your eyes you cannot see it Is this Pulpit ere the lesse visible because you do not see it When mens eyes are held they cannot see Christs body notwithstanding was visible still to be seen And now to confirm this that I have said unto you St. John himself shall make it good There was one of the Disciples saith he John 20. and he speaks of himself the other Disciple he looked into the sepulchre and he saw the linnen clothes he saw not Christ there present and what doth he but resolve and beleeve that he was risen out of the grave And indeed it had been a mockery of these women for the Angel if their eyes being held to bid them to see without their sight Therefore you have the first point concerning this sense of Seeing sufficiently demonstrated unto you Come to our Saviour Christ As the Angel said to the woman Come and see so Christ he said to his Disciples Come and feel feel I am I this body is mine feel my body search the wounds c. So that now Christ makes this truth even palpable unto them that they may have their faith from the vertue of their own fingers This is the doctrine of Christ the body of Christ is palpably to be seen Come unto our faith the Councel of Ephesus one of the first Councels in the Christian world for the humane nature of Christ resolves thus Corpus Christi est visibile palpabile ubicunque fuerit The body of Christ it is visible and tractable wheresoever it is therefore may we come now to our resolution and conclude that the body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Masse you say it is invisible I say then it is not the body of Christ Do you say it is impalpable it is not the body of Christ Do you say also it is both visible and invisible I return to the Fathers and they say thus This is say they sottish Why you may as well say that the same body of Christ can be finite and infinite it can be created and not created at once which the distinction of places can never reconcile Oh but say they unto us this is natural reason this is reasoning like Ethnicks and Pagans Nay we have the Authority which is the Authority of the Catholick Church we have the Authority Angelical we have not onely the Authority Evangelical but of Christ himself He is not here c. Thus I have shewn that he is palpable wheresoever he be Now the evidence being thus plain let us ascend a little higher to know that what if some should say that notwithstanding these evidences I doubt whether this doctrine be true or no that Christ is risen Our Apostle Saint Paul hath answered this argument long ago when he said thus If that Christ be not risen we are false witnesses As if he should say a thing most incredible for they which were with our Lord and Saviour and saw and heard and felt him were alwayes ready to lay down their lives for Christ and for this very Article he is risen There Saint Paul speak for himself If Christ be not risen what should it advantage me that I fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men to endanger my life for this Article Christ is risen and this was that Paul that could say of himself 1 Cor. 10. That among all those many troubles and afflictions for this profession In carcere c. I was in death often oftentimes left for dead stoned and persecuted so manifold a Martyr was this one Saint Paul He speaks also of the rest of the Apostles 1 Cor. 5. We are in jeopardy every day every day in jeopardy even for this Article and this truth that Christ is risen he stands upon in that 1 Cor. 15. Well then beloved for the establishing of our Christian faith in this one point certainly these Apostles of Christ had been most shamelesse if they had published to all that which they saw not most faithlesse if they had not believed that which they all saw most heartlesse if they had not ventured their lives for the profession of that the resurrection of Christ from the dead by vertue whereof their bodies should also be reserved to eternal life and most foolish also if they should have spent their bloud for that they believed not they having thus seen thus heard thus believed thus Preached thus dying and suffering death they may be eyes and have been to the Christian world to see by their faith and so I perswade my self of you all that are here present to give faith unto this Article of the resurrection of Christ from death and therefore I am authorised to give unto you the benediction which Christ gave unto such as you saying Blessed are they that see not and yet believe and so Blessed be you Now you have heard the evidence this is an evident truth we have not yet heard the power of it but that is in the next part wherein I said that this is a truth which is Omnipotent an Omnipotent truth look to our Text I but saith the Evangelist He is risen he doth not say Agarthes he is raised but he is risen and because it was he that raised himself from the dead It is he that said I have power to lay down my life and
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
Scripture tells you you shall rise and where 's the power that 's in the Scriptures Also there 's Moses leprous hand and presently healed there 's Aarons rod dry yet presently budded and blossomed Sarah being barren shortly after bears a child Jonah three dayes and three nights in the whales belly yet riseth again Eze. 37. There were dry bones and yet bones creep unto bones sinews creep unto those bones and knit them together and flesh comes and knits those sinews and then God puts life and then they become men But we are to deal with the man that is meerly natural and stands altogether upon his own reason and therefore thus If he will take the pains to go into Arabia there he may hear of the Phoenix that consumes it self in the fire and another riseth out of those ashes But that 's too far Come neerer hand to the Bombyx the Silk-worm he dyes and out of his dust comes a Fly These are yet remote will you have them domestical in our own Land we shall finde the like In some places the Bees the Flyes the Wasps are produced out of the Hides of Beasts of divers kinds But except I see a natural reason I will not believe it Perhaps you will say with Thomas I will not believe unlesse I see it and feel it Well seeing these will not serve thy turn what shall I do unto thee Even as Solomon sent the Sluggard to the Ant to labour so must I thee Saint Paul he sends a Naturalist or natural Fool to learn of a little seed of Corn the resurrection from the dead Thou fool when thou sowest the seed lives not before it dyes and yet you may see it live you may see it dye after it is turned to dust it lives again And by this he foolifies all the generation of Philosophers and Infidels and as we say Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses by false miracles were conquered by one true miracle of Lice So all these are confounded in this one seed and even here is the finger of God and as much in this as ever it was in that to the confusion of those that withstand it Now beloved that you have heard all these points opened there remains the fourth and that 's the Moral point About which I had studied not a little but foreseeing I should trespasse upon your patience I have contracted my self into some few Instructions concerning the Moral part and the first is this That the Resurrection of Christ requires of every Christian a conformity of holinesse of life and the Apostle will make it good for thus he saith Rom. 6. That as Christ rose again so should we walk in newness of life So that newnesse of life is a conformity to the Resurrection of Christ I speak of this newnesse of life the rather because it is a resurrection in it self So Saint John Apoc. 20. Those that are partakers of the first resurrection saith he shall never fall into the second death By the first Resurrection newnesse of life we are made partakers of the second resurrection and from hence may arise divers instructions The first shall be this That all Christian vertues they take their rising from the doctrine of the resurrection unto eternal life that comprehends all vertues that can be imagined Coloss 1. Saint Paul gives a direction that we should live soberly justly holily in this present world Here 's a Triplicative vertue which contains all others we must live soberly this requires temperance and sobriety c. justly that extends to all relation we have to Superiours or Governours and the other is holinesse which brings upon us all the obligations that we have concerning God and his worship in this present world What follows looking for the hope of the mighty God and of our Lord Jesus Christ Beloved how should this ravish the hearts of men to live soberly justly and holily in this present world When as the true Christian regenerate may say with the holy Apostle that he hath an expectation an hope a looking for the appearance the blessed appearance the glorious appearance of God a mighty God and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Here you see that our salvation depends upon these triplicite vertues Again Saint Paul 1 Cor. 13. saith thus there are the three Faith Hope and Charity What have these to do with the resurrection Certainly the doctrine of the resurrection is made sure by these Therefore for Faith first be it known unto you I speak of a living faith not of a dead faith void of repentance and newnesse of life This is a dead faith which he calls a Devillish faith but I speak of that faith which Saint Paul affirms to work by love Of this faith our Saviour Christ saith He that believeth in me though he dye yet shall be live Here is living of dying This is a resurrection and he that believes this doth believe he shall rise The next to Faith is Charity of this St. John speaks We know we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren Therefore love the brethren because we shall be preserved from death to life Now come to open it and that in the Old Testament where it is said The people of God were tormented racked suffered all manner of persecution because they looked for a better resurrection that is the resurrection of the body to be better then all the torments and afflictions the world could lay upon them Surely beloved we can look for no better resurrection then these holy men did that suffered for the resurrection but we may better look for it then they they looked upon it with dim eyes and they believed but we have open eyes we may see it by most evident demonstrations they never saw Christ raised from the dead reigning in Majesty in Eternity and Glory this doctrine are we made sensible of Now therefore saith the Apostle If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him So much for our Hope The second point is this That our first resurrection requires that our worship and service unto God in holinesse be as well performed in body as in soul Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.6 Glorifie God in your bodies and souls you are bought with a price Glorifie God with your bodies and yet behold greater then these Let every man say unto himself I am created by God both body and soul Ergo I will glorifie him in both But since I have trespassed against my God and thereby lost both body and soul Therefore thirdly there comes a Redeemer unto me and he suffers for me agonies and pangs both in body and soul therefore by this suffering he hath freed me from everlasting death and torments both of body and soul This is not all but besides this the price spoken of here which is the price of redemption is also a price purchasing of glory in the Heavens for my body and soul and therefore let
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