Shall not these first-fruits be likewise payed at our great Resurrection shall they not bee brought to the heauenly Ierusalem shall they not haue Angels goe before them shall there not bee crownes likewise prouided and shall they not be vshered with the voice of a trumpet It was the sound which the Iewes vsed at their brauer Funerals and may it not then fitly bee vsed when they shall awake againe from their tombes Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if wee once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let vs no more say they were dead but that they slept Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleepe but some shal insteed of rising be only new-dressed by being clothed with incorruption and so haue rather a change of rayment then of life They shall not put-off their bodies but their mortalitie and bee made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection and in the glory The Eutychian shall then confesse that the two natures in Christ are not mixt though joyned and that his humanitie though exalted is not changed The Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seene and it shall certainly prooue that it is not euery-where by being not in the graue whence it is risen The Pythagorean shall then recouer the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soule and the Saducy shall then arise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with his bodily eyes see the errour of his soule Since then our Redeemer is as eternall in his flesh as in his God-head since the souldiers feare acknowledged his resurrection which their malice denied since we must rise both by his authority and example let our rising not only follow his but also imitate it As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord so let the crucifying of our vices and the quiet contemplation of eternall joyes goe before the glory of the Resurrection So shall it be vnto vs as it was vnto our Sauiour a true Passeouer who passed thereby from this world vnto the Father So shall our hope bee as certaine as our rising so shall our soules rise as well as our bodies in that day of wonder When the last earthquake shall shake-vp death when the oecumenicall voice of one trumpet shall bee lowd enough to whisper-vp drowsie mankind when loose dust shal with the warmth and moysture of bloud bee kneaded into man when the tribute of dispersed and deuoured limbes shall bee paid-in from all countries and creatures when there shall be a Resurrection of disease of sleepe of death of the winding-sheet of the graue of rottennesse all which shall be purified into health into watchfulnesse into life into a robe of glory into a throne of glory into immortalitie when there shall bee a Resurrection of earth and heauen which shall be both renewed when there shall bee a Resurrection of God himselfe whose glory which seemed buried in this world shall illustriously arise in the face of heauen earth when there shall bee a new Resurrection of our Lord Iesus who shall no more arise from the graue but from heauen when the Iew and hell shall tremble those wounds of glory appeare which are the bloudie seales of our saluation So raise vs then O thou Lord of life vnto holinesse of life that when these things shall come to passe wee may not only rise in judgement but also stand in it and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heauen that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets prayse thee where thy noble armie of martyrs praise thee And with their bodies O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heauen and let our soules euen there feele a new affliction that whiles we cannot grieue enough that we cannot prayse thee enough our increasing gratitude for our bodies resurrection may be our soule 's eternall resurrection The end A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day 16â—â— 1. PETER 3.22 Who is gone into Heauen and is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subiect vnto him FOr man to goe into Heauen is almost impossible for God to goe into Heauen is impossible To vnderstand then the wonder of Christ's ascension we might wish that our soules could but ascend like his bodie which whiles it was on the earth receiued motion from his soule but when it left the earth receiued motion from his Diuinitie without which that motion can now bee no more vnderstood then it could then be performed The greatest wonder of mans bodie has beene the structure but the greatest wonder of this bodie is now the motion The force of mans hand can make earth ascend towards Heauen but only the power of God can make earth ascend vnto Heauen Man can raise earth aboue its Spheare but only God can fixe it aboue its Spheare This day you may see both these wonders whiles the bodie is made as wonderfull as the soule whiles the bodie is made the wonder of the soule and goes to Heauen with as much ease and with more weight And indeed Philosophie may seeme to haue come short at least of perfection if not of truth whiles it has discouered the effects of its owne ignorance insteed of the causes of ascension and descension Which now seeme not to bee the workes of weight and lightnesse but of sinne and innocence seeing that a bodie free from sinne has learned to ascend and spirits loaden with sinne haue sunke themselues from Heauen to the punishment and center of sinne And yet innocence is rather a preparatiue then a cause of this wonder a bodie cannot ascend without it a bodie cannot ascend by it It has more power vpon the soule then vpon the bodie yet it has not this power vpon the soule And as the soule cannot ascend by the power of innocence so neither can the bodie ascend by the power of the soule The soule can affoord vnto the bodie the motion of progression but not of ascension progression being made by the power of the soule but by the parts of the bodie and it is a kind of friendly attraction when one foot inuites the other to a succession of motion by a succession of precedencie But the ascension of the bodie cannot bee performed but by somewhat that is aboue the bodie aboue it not so much in place as in power The bodie can bestow vpon it selfe an equiuocall ascension when a part of the foote shall be raised into the stature of the bodie but this is rather an ascension in the bodie then of the bodie Nay we cannot at all call it an ascension but by leaue when the bodie has by chance an erect situation
his soule was a diuinitie to his body so was his diuinitie a soule to his humanity To create man God â—reathed a spirit like himselfe into him him to redeeme man God himselfe entred into him and though the diuinitie could not hee crucified yet was the vnion of it with the passion of the humanitie counted as the passion of the diuinitie Thus by the bountie of interpretation and communication of proprieties they verily crucified the Lord of glory Whose carcasse now as cold as death raises a flame of loue in the breasts of Ioseph and Nicodemus Ioseph in a couragious Christianitie goes vnto Pilate and begges the body When Christ was aliue Iudas sould him and now he is dead Pilate giues him away whose body though it were preserued by the diuinitie yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrhe and Deuotion They wrap him in a linnen cloth not so much concealing his nakednesse as expressing his innocence They lay him in Iosephs Tombe which was in a garden and was not then this garden Paradise It was a glorious sepulchre as if by the prophesie of loue it had been proportioned to the guest Whose bodie being heere entertayned with magnificent pietie his illustrious soule forces a triumph in Hell crucifies the Deuill and ouerthrowes the tyranny of damnation He does not take away damnation but contract it And now you see after this redemption of our Sauiour you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side receiue saluation You may behold the opening mouth of this wound which with eloquent bloud inuites you to faith and loue You may behold the Lord of glory comming from Edom with his died garments from Bosrah This is the Lord of glory glorious in his apparell glorious in his nakednesse glorious in his mightinesse to saue Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat Thou hast trodden the Wine-presse alone and of the people there was none with thee O what did cause these soundings of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards vs Who can expresse thy sorrowes and thy louing-kindnesse towards vs Who can expresse what thou hast done for our soules Thou wast afflicted thou wast despised thou wast whipt wounded bruised condemned sacrificed for our soules thou wast made a seruant of death thou wast numbred with the transgressours thou madest thy graue with the wicked for our soules Wherefore God has highly exalted thee and giuen thee a name aboue all names that at the Name of Iesus euery knee shall bow of things in Heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And euery tongue shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord of glory And the foure and twentie Elders shall fall downe before the Lambe with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours and in their new Song shall they prayse thee And the Angels about thy throne euen ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lambe that was slaine to receiue power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory Therefore with Angels and Arch-angels and with all the company of Heauen wee laude and magnifie thy glorious Name euermore praysing thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord of glory Heauen and earth are full of thy glory and of thy mercies The Angels in Heauen wonder at thy mercies the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies thou thy selfe triumphest in thy mercies and the sonnes of men rejoyce in thy mercies Wherefore O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world deliuer vs by thine agonie and bloudie swear by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall deliuer vs And wee will fall downe before thy glorie and we will sing praises vnto thy mercie and we will triumph in the victorie of thy bloud and we will for euer euen for euer acknowledge that Thou the crucified Lord of glorie art the Christ of God and the Iesus of men The end A Sermon preached at Saint Marie's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday 1623. 1. CORINTH 15.20 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept IT were vnnecessarie art feare to stirâ—e to keepe the liuing awake with a preface when as the dead are at the businesse of a resurrection WoÌ„ders blessings are aboue their auditors who must be glad to be staâ—â—led to the newes Now was our Sauior task'd with his most vnweildie miracle His mercie had before bestowed many vpon others but now his power tries one vpon himselfe His diuinitie acts a miracle vpon his humanitie repairing this second Trinitie of his person from the immortall ruines of a God a soule and a carcasse Three dayes did hee consecrate for the performance of this wonder and three dayes doe wee consecrate for the perswading to this wonder which should haue beene the joy and was the shame of the Apostles who were slow to apprehend it though Christ was their Schoole-master They had not as yet learned their owne Creed which their peruerse sense was pleased to bee taught not so much by our Sauiour as by his sepulchre whose opening mouth when it sent forth Christ the Word pronounced his Resurrection which is the Epitaph of God Thus did the ambition of the graâ—e instruct the preuented Angell and though it cannot as the multitude of Tombes with the voice and conquest of proud Death tell vs whom it does captiue yet does it remember to vs whom it did Which assumed triumph of death is as short as its combat Ioseph's deuotion bestowed this Tombe vpon our Sauiour but our Sauiours victorie bestowed it vpon death which since his Resurrection has lien buried in his tombe But can a dead man bee warmed againe into life And can the lungs that haue forgot to breathe learne to breathe againe Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed and being honoured with an imitating omnipotencie can with a coequall extension of assent apply it selfe to the number and degrees of Gods actions But as hard it was to raise the faith as the body of Saint Thomas nay it was his body that caused him to beleeue the Resurrection of Christ's bodie which was a way of faith more certaine then gratefull Yet must the vnderstanding bee so raised before it can beleeue that the bodie can bee raised that the diuine indulgence does gradually chastize the difficultie by the length of instruction For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation when straight hee was practised vnto an essay of this second Creation When Adam descended into sleepe there was a Resurrection of his rib which awaked into a woman Did not mortalitie then put on immortalitie when a senselesse bone was so endued with reason that it could apprehend its owne preferment Mee thinkes the Chymique might hence extract an easie Rhetorique for his promotion of metalls and without an Apologie teach that vsurie of art And heere too
into it Loue was swiftest but zeale boldest When they are entred they find Christ's victory acknowledged by the linnen clothes his spoiles of death and these spoiles too had beene diuided the napkin of his head being laid by it selfe It seemes the angell at our Sauiour's resurrection attended to bee a witnesse of it to the women and leaue a witnesse of it to the Disciples Thus that he was not stolne away appeares by the inconuenience and leisure of his vndressing and by the method of the linnen which the frightened policie of the souldiers did no more touch then obserue and they no more obserued it then did the women who after the sight of the angell had their eyes as much amazed as their minds The souldiers too did more tremble then watch but the Disciples had lesse feare and more time besides they learned somewhat which they were not taught and could now teach the women this newes of the graue But did hee rise but from the graue This is the newes but of his bodie yes hee did rise also from the damned who are dead too as much in judgement as to nature Though some are as vnwilling to haue Christ descend into Hell as to goe thither themselues and in a dangerous Brachygraphie write the Creed so short that without the commission of an Index Expurgatorius they quite leaue out the article of the descent But what an vnmannerly ingratitude is this to accept of Christ's benefits and denie his wonders They will enjoy his conquest of Hell and yet they will not let him goe to conquer it Ought wee not to make greater the glory of Christo and can wee make lesse the power of Christ Let then our pietie behold and wonder to see Heauen descend into Hell to see againe Gosâ—â—â—â— in Aegypt The Deuill had beene before in Heauen and now God is pleased to goe into Hell The arch-angell conquered the Deuill in Heauen and now God conquers him in his owne Empire and makes his Empire his Dungeon Wee ouercome the Deuill by flight but God by inuasion Yet who would not stand amazed to see God with the Deuill Had the Manichie beene now hee might heere at once haue behold both his Princes Mee thinkes our Sauiour now turned Sampson's Riddle into a Prophesie which hee expounded and fulfilled Did not out of the eater come forth meate and out of the strong came there not sweetnesse when from the jawes of Hell by Christ came forth saluation Now whiles the soule of our Sauiour was triumphant in Hell his bodie was obedient in the sepulchre his diuinitie being as his soule till it recalled his soule and made the whole Christ change an age of three and thirtie yeeres into eternitie Loe heere is the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah whose almightie strength vouchsafed to couch vnder the power of the graue and Loe the glorious indignation of his loue has rouzed him vp againe from the sloth of death Will you behold how hee was raised behold how the potter workes vpon the wheele he takes clay he makes it a vessell and this vessell being marred in the hand of the potter he makes it againe as hee best pleases Christ was immortall clay and earth purer then Heauen When by the wonder of omnipotency the Creator and the creature were made into one and of one matter did consist both the potter and his pot From this broken clay there did arise the same and a renewed Christ That hee rose in the earnest of a body his owne mouth did testifie when hee said nothing proouing it by the authoritie of food which he did eate with his Disciples Could any man in this point be yet an infidell If any could see how he conuerts them Hee lets Thomas disgrace himselfe to a beliefe and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously increase his faith Can any doubt that hee was renewed in a bodie of glory when he was full of God Know you not that his body was indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost Was hee not renewed in a body of glory whom the doores that were shut when hee entred to his Disciples did obediently acknowledge to be the King of glory And though hee were patient vnder death three dayes yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died and the last part of the last after hee reuiued there was the number but not the length of three dayes and thus hee made so short a change seeme rather a sleepe then a death And O but to consider heere as well the wonder as the change Doe but imagine that in the dawning birth of the morning you saw the reuelation of a graue emulating the morning a coarse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sunne a winding-sheet falling away as an empty cloud the feet and hands striuing which shall first recouer motion the hands helping to raise the body the feet helping to beare both the body and the hands the tongue so eloquent that it can tell you it can speake againe the eares so pure that they can perceiue the silence of the graue the eyes looking forth of their Tombes as if they were glad to see their owne resurrection Would you not bee as much affrighted as instructed with this power of a God Would you not be turned into very coarses to see this liuing coarse Would you not be strucke as pale as the winding-sheet you looked-vpon But when all this shall bee done as well in mercy as in majestie as well to raise you to a hope of eternall life as to strike you with a remeÌ„brance of a temporall death as well to make you like vnto God as to make you know you are yet not like vn-him O how will you then at such compassion dissolue with compassion as if you would hasten to the like resurrection How will you then kisse those hands which before you feared How will you then with stedfast eyes examine and adore the resurrection of that body which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our bodies For therefore did hee raise himselfe that hee might raise vs and so become the first-fruites of them that sleepe But shall wee rise too and shall dust againe bee taken-vp and breathed on Shall euery man by this second Adam be made as wonderfully as the first Adam And yet shall we want faith when God wants not power Or shall we thinke it harder to vnite the bodie and soule then to make them It were an impious discourtesie to deny that to God which God denied not vnto his seruant Did not the widow of Zarephah thus receiue a sonne by Elias who yet was neither the father of it nor the God Nay did not his seruant doe more for the Shunamite to whom hee promised a sonne before hee was conceiued and restored him after hee was dead Nay did not the bones of this Elisha giue life to one that was as dead as themselues teaching him to confesse the mercie of a graue It
all other posture making it descend as much to the name as to the simplicitie of extension The foules of the aire also haue their ascension but it is as well by the aire as in it and their cunning wing which diuides the aire into away compacts it into a helpe Thus do they ascend with an easie wonder it being performed by the power of nature and apprehended by the power of the vnderstanding But for mans bodie to ascend without the actiuitie of a wing aboue the actiuitie of a wing is so strange that it was strange euen in Christ's bodie nay it might haue beene strange to his owne bodie which had it not beene instructed by his diuinitie might haue maruail'd at its owne motion And it did no lesse amaze Heauen then possesse it making a great part of the Angels thus behold earth without descending to it And this bodie ascended rather to Heauen then to God The Diuinitie was with it yet did not ascend with it since it does not change place but fill all place His soule did ascend with it yet did rather effectually change place then properly whiles it did only not change that bodie which did change place The whole person did ascend not that the Diuinitie left any place where the humanitie had beene but that it was in euery place where the humanitie was to be And this ascension of Christ's bodie was not only farre from the nature but also against the nature of his bodie which acknowledg'd the burden and tyrannie of our Elements till by resurrection it was refined into the libertie of a glorified nature and taught to obey its owne preferment which the Diuinitie so bestowed both vpon bodie soule that they were almost not more neere vnto it then like vnto it And that they might be more like vnto it the Diuinitie became voluntarily as humble as the humanitie was naturally and voluntarily made the humanitie as high as the Diuinitie was naturally Which great worke of the ascension did not only need a Diuinitie to performe it but also to perswade men that it could bee performed the beliefe of the ascension being the next wonder to the ascension As then God did effect it so he did teach it he humbled himselfe to man hee humbled himselfe in man making the degrees of his instruction descend by the degrees of mans apprehension And first he did discouer the possibilitie of ascension to the Vnderstanding by which wee doe as truly as Moses though not as cleerely see Enoch's ascension which was not for ought we know seene by any eye but the eye of the vnderstanding the ascension of his bodie being no more discerned then the ascension of his soule God tooke him bodie and soule his bodie being by a holy obedience to his soule made so like his soule that it did ascend as easily nay as soone as his soule Holinesse which to other men is a resurrection of the soule was to him a resurrection also of the bodie which was refined without the deliberate corruption of a graue It was refined sooner then it could be corrupted It knew no graue but sinne from which it did ascend as it did ascend from its owne mortalitie but his soule did first by righteousnesse ascend in his bodie before it did ascend with his bodie God tooke him to himselfe leauing his storie to posteritie and faith as if he would teach the world by this inferiour proportion that ascension should be an object of faith The next apprehensiue facultie in man to which God descended to teach it the possibilitie of ascension was the Phantasie Thus Iacob saw the angels goe vp to Heauen though this was an ascension but by the helpe of a ladder and that helpe like that ascension but in a dreame and the bodies which ascended were but like a dreame hauing no more substance then a dreame But Saint Paul did by the phantasie not see the ascension of another but enjoy one himselfe and to that degree of truth that hee doubted whether his bodie did not as much possesse Heauen as the Vision possessed his bodie At last the diuine instruction taught the ascension to the Sense it taught the ascension of the bodie to the bodie Thus did Elisha see Eliah ascend he saw him ascend like the fire in which he did ascend in which he did ascend till he ascended aboue it Hee saw the state of his ascension in a Chariot he saw the speed of his ascension in his horses he saw and he heard the whirle-wind in which Eliah suffered a triumph and rapture of his bodie as other Prophets had suffered a rapture only of their soules Nay Elisha's touch too did apprehend the ascension whiles it tooke vp the mantle that did ascend for the mantle too had an ascension though not to Heauen yet toward Heauen and to the working of miracles But all Elisha was but a witnesse of this ascension whiles God tooke-vp Eliah and left the Prophet with Elisha whom he clothed not so much with the mantle as with Eliah But if you would heare of one that had gone toward Heauen and come downe againe as if he would be a witnesse of his owne ascension you may remēber Abacuc with whose story wee may bee satisfied as much as Daniel was with his prouision Whom yet if carefully we will obserue we shall perceiue him cast into the Lions denne so late in the euening and deliuered thence so early in the morning that there will bee no more need then there was time for the ascension of Abacuc and the miracle of the dinner Nay had it come it would haue beene as great a miracle to haue kept the Lions from the food as to haue kept them from Daniel And had Abacuc liued till Daniel's imprisonment he would indeed haue had need to bee carried though his journie had beene farre shorter then from Iury to Babylon Thus did death make this Prophet preuent this ascension of his bodie by an ascension of his soule But Simon Magus did ascend in earnest nay and hee prooued it too by descending in earnest Only it was an vntoward ascension he did ascend by the power of the Deuill but hee descended by the power of God he descended to that power by which he ascended Now as this Sorcerer was made to descend by the prayers of Saint Peter so Saint Thomas of Aquine as some haue told vs ascended by his owne prayers hee ascended without presumption a foot or two Which petty ascension may serue for a mannerly miracle if the Saint-maker's eyes were not as dimme as his deuotion and by an apocope of that Saint's bodie mistooke not his knees for his feete vpon which peraduenture hee stood praying and the mistake was as easie as the miracle But wee haue heard of some Dead bodies that haue ascended thus some haue buried Moses in Heauen striuing to make his tombe as famous as his holinesse and belike lest the Deuill should haue made his body an Idoll they
loued peace that hee lost his owne whiles he studied ours who so loued peace that excepting the combates of each Christian with himselfe hee would not haue had the Church to bee Militant heere on Earth making it almost Triumphant heere on Earth who loued peace as much as the Priest ought to doe nay who loued peace as much as he loued his Priest And now hee is ascended thither where only is to bee found a peace equall to his loue of peace and now without going to Spaine wee can find a Saint Iames Saint Iames of Britaine Defender of the Faith and the Cleargie O happy Saints who doe in peace attend our Sauiour in his triumph of peace And O the happinesse of holy Stephen whose eie was as full of wonder as his soule of grace and did so stedfastly looke vp into Heauen as if his eye had imitated the constancie of his soule And hee beheld with that zeale of looke the sonne of man in his triumph of zeale which was so raised against Stephens persecutors that he stood-vp at the right hand of God as if for his seruants sake had it beene possible hee would haue ventured againe among the Iewes his loue making him readie to forsake his glory rather then his Saint Whom yet he deliuered from their crueltie whiles hee seemed not to deliuer him Hee deliuered him from their crueltie by their crueltie and by the speed of death rescued him into Heauen whiles he was as constant in his prayer as in his death And it seemes his prayer was heard for Saint Paul whos 's first zeale did not more delight in Saint Stephens persecution then his second zeale delighted in Saint Stephens zeale and now with joy both doe attend vpon our Sauiour in his triumph of zeale And O the happinesse of diuine Iohn who heere on earth had the honour to see our Sauiour in Heauen in his triumph of honour And he saw the Elders fall downe before the Lambe imitating the humilitie of the Lambe and by the imitation presenting vnto him the remembrance of his owne humilitie and they triumphed more in their dutie then in their age and by fruitfull gratitude gaue honour to themselues whiles they gaue it to the honorable sonne of God! And now Saint Iohn is become a part of that wonder which hee wondred at whiles by his owne ascension hee increases the number and triumph of those Elders hauing put off his own bodie that he might bee neerer to our Sauiours bodie O happie Saints who are neere the right hand of God whiles they are neere him who is at the right hand of God! whose dwelling seate is at the right hand of God a seate which the malice of the Iew cannot reach vnto nay which the prayer of the Iew cannot reach vnto Whose judgement-seate is at the right hand of God nay the judgement-seates of his Saints are at the right hand of God for they also with him shall judge the twelue Tribes of Israel Yet marke the prerogatiue of our Sauiour they shall with him judge the world but only he shall saue it And againe marke the prerogatiue of our Sauiour by which hee is as wonderfully distinguished from them as hee is by his loue vnited to them As then you haue beheld the ascension of his glory so in this ascension now behold a jealous ascension an incommunicable ascension of his power Angels and authorities and powers being made subject vnto him The glory of a Prince is in the multitude of his people the greatnesse of a Prince in the power of his people but the greatest power of God is in himselfe yet hee communicates a great power vnto his angels To know the number of whose angels is as much beyond our abilitie as beyond our vse and it is enough glory vnto God that wee know their number to bee so great that we cannot know it To know the power of the angels is as easie as to know our owne weaknesse of which our bodies are able to instruct our soules But to define the Orders of the angels is not an act of man's knowledge though it has beene of phansie but like some to build the angels nine-storie-high were such a piece of architecture that Virtuoius himselfe would haue thought it to haue no more art in it then safetie and hee would haue beene as much confounded with wonder as the building would bee with its owne height Besides it would exceed the tower and vanitie of Babylon the foundation of this angelicall Tower being higher then the top of that Yet that of Babylon would in one respect exceed this since that had a stronger foundation though not a wiser But peraduenture these Dionysian builders layd their foundation vpon a Dreame and tooke their imitation from Iacobs Ladder vpon which because Iacob did behold angels they haue by finer workmanship reaâ—ed a Ladder of angels And that the inuention might seeme new by the seene as his ascent reacht vnto Heauen so these are made to reach vnto God Whose wisedome has indeed distinguished his angels but rather by their imployment then their nature as he has distinguished the soules of men not by their offence but their endowments Thus some of his Angels are Seraphins whose loue is as hote as fire whose loue is as pure as fire Some are Cherubins the intuitiue expedition and extent of whose knowledge may be named and figured by a wing Some are thrones who are safe from the feare of Gods judgements whiles they are made the seats of his judgements the ministers from whom his judgements are sent forth You may descend to dominions principalities and authorities but this middle Region of the angels is so full of clouds that we can only see the clouds through which wee cannot see You may descend yet lower to Powers arch-angels and angels and yet thus neere we shall be troubled with mists that we can scarce see our hand wherewith to point-out the differences Besides the Almightie can as easily appoint the change of their offices as their offices and by the weight of his message promote an angell into an archangell or hee can send the same angell to Balaam and to his Asse or hee cannot only change their offices but also mixe them making the same angell that killed the first-borne of the Aegyptian preserue the Israelite to confesse the distinction And because this distinction is rather the cause of thankefulnesse then the effect of curiositie let vs more consider their strength then their Heraldrie yet rejoyce more in their obedience then in their strength they being all made subject to our Sauiour all whether they are angels of authoritie to declare his pleasure or angels of power to execute his pleasure And it is his pleasure that as they are subject to him so they shall bee subject for vs. It was for vs that he sent two angels to be a witnesse and an effect of his ascension It was an angell deliuered Peter from the prison and kept him