which was amōgst the falling Angels in heauen is now found among the sonnes of men in the earth The voluptuous man is like him who hath the dropsie the more he drinketh the more he desireth he would lye deeper and longer with the swine in the mire The couetous man as the graue neuer saith there is inough Gods good giftes are without vse buried in him His arke and his chest may be filled but his heart in the chest of his body can neuer be satisfied Honour profite pleasure no earthly thing can content the heart of man It is onely this Lord this Sauiour this Christ which draweth mens hearts to heauen and there fully satisfieth them The Israelites in the wildernesse did eate Manna and dranke of the water out of the rocke but hungred and thirsted and died in the end But they which are fed with the true bread that came downe from heauen and drinke of the water of life they shall neuer be more a thirst but shall haue eternall life Christ Iesus is the euerflowing ouerflowing well Blessed are they that hunger thirst for him for they shall be satisfied in him he is the pearle for which we must sell all and buy him He is our head and with the serpent we must be wise to suffer losse in our bodies in our goods in our fame in our liberties in our liues so that we keepe our head safe Aeneas when Troy was won hauing a grant as all the citizens had to carie away some one chiefe thing which he made best account of chose and tooke away Patrios Poenates the gods of his countrey preferring them before his father his goods or any other thing which might be of price with him Which action of his may teach vs in our desires and affections to make choise of Christ and lift vp our hearts to him He requireth in the Gospell to be preferred before those things which otherwise be of most value with vs. He that doth not forsake father and mother is not worthie of me He would not suffer one whom he called to take his leaue of his friends at home nor permit another to bury his father a worke of humanitie and pietie Hieronimus ad Heliodorum hath a worthie iudgement agreeable to this licet à collo paruulus pendeat infans licet vbera quibus te nutrierat ostendat mater licet in limine iaceat pater vt te à Christo retardent abijciatur infans contemne matrem calcandus est pater solum est pietatis genus in his fuisse crudelem If thy young child hang about thy necke if thy mother shew her breasts wherewith she nursed thee if thy father lye in the doore to stay thee frō following of Christ cast from thee thy child contemne thy mother tread vpon thy father ad Christi vexillum vola flie to the banner of Christ to be his souldier and seruant it is pietie to be cruell in this case Glaucus carieth the bell among all fooles for changing his golden armour for brasen harnesse The Israelites lothed Manna and wished the onions and garlicke the grosse diet of Egypt The Gergesens were more grieued for the losse of their swine then glad of the presence of Christ nay they desire him to depart out of their coasts And all the sonnes of the earth these Terrigenae fratres may with the Athenians giue for their badge the grashopper which is bred liueth dieth in the same groūd so their whole desire both in life and death is in earth and as the grashopper hath wings but flyeth not sometimes she hoppeth vpward a litle but presently falleth to the earth againe so they haue some light and short motions to goodnesse but they returne to their old affections of the world their portion is only in this life for they loue vanitie more then truth drosse then gold earth then heauen the world then him that made and redeemed the world riches that rusteth before treasure that lasteth trash and pelfe not true wealth which maketh happie anie earthly vncertaintie before this Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ the onely author of all felicitie Those foules that feede grossely neuer flie high and they which feed their hearts with things below can not haue their affections in heauen The Sunne draweth out of the sea the clearest water leauing the grosse and dregs behind which some thinke is the cause of the saltnesse of the sea so the sonne of God draweth vp the harts of them that are pure but leaueth below the earthly minded If Christ be deare vnto vs if the day starre be risen in our hearts if we find in our soules that Christ is a Lord a Iesus a Sauiour if the power of these offices take place in our consciences it cannot be but our harts shal be with him Gods spirit worketh this confession in vs that with feeling we may say the Lord is Iesus as Paule writeth 1. Cor. 12.3 To speake the wordes without sence thereof is to no vse The parrot vttereth wordes but knoweth no meaning but the godly do find with ioy that Christ is the way by truth to life the ladder by which they ascend to heauen the good shepheard by whom they are safe the henne vnder whose wings they rest quietly In him is their health wealth ioy rest felicitie he is their treasure and therefore their hearts are with him whereby it commeth to passe that they long for and desire his comming The first comming of Christ was long wished and most desired The holy fathers who with the eye of faith a farre off saw that day reioyced as Christ speaketh of Abraham and when he was come there was great gladnesse thereof The Angell telleth the shepheards that he brought tidings of great ioy to all people The same night that he was borne there was great light in token of comfort but at his death there was darknesse vpon the day in signe of sorow The Sunne put on his mourning garment and was ashamed to looke vpon that cruelty which the sonnes of men were not afrayd to commit If that first comming of Christ was so ioyful which was but meane and simple alone and solitarie when he came to stand at the barre to be iudged when he gaue vs but the earnest of our saluation thrise more comfortable shall his second comming be which shal be in glorie attended vpon with ten thousand of Saints and Angels when he shall sit him downe to iudge the wicked giue full possession of his kingdome to the elect Then shall the sheepe be gathered into the fold neuer to be in daunger of wandering or of the wolfe then shall the corne be inned into the barne neuer to be shaken with the winde or weather againe then shall there be a Saboth after which no work-day shal follow then shall be an euerlasting Iubilie when all bondage shall cease and the chosen shall enter to their inheritance which neuer shall be taken from them The hope of this
RESVRGENDVM A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. We haue here no continuing Citie but we seeke one to come Hebr. chap. 13. verse 14. Resurget iustus vt iudicet peccator vt iudicetur impius vt sine iudicio puniatur IW LONDON Printed by Iohn VVolfe 1593. The Printer to the Reader I Send thee here gentle Reader a Sermon for stile eloquent for order methodicall and for substance of matter right heauenly heartily praying thee euen for thine ovvne soules health to vouchsafe the reading thereof Taken it vvas not from the Preachers mouth by any fond or nevv found Characterisme vvhich to the great preiudice of some vvorthie and learned men hath of late verie pitifully blemished some part of their labours this vvay vvith intollerable mutilations but set dovvne at their desire vvho might herein command by the Authors ovvne pen and indited as I verily persuade my self by special instinct of the holy Ghost And surely the doctrine of this Sermon is such as I make no doubt at all but it vvil be held to be most needfull and necessarie especially for these desperat times of ours vvherein amongst other most erronious sects vvhich rent in peeces the coate of Christ and the vnitie of his Church that one of the Saduces vvho say there is no resurrection is not perhaps of all other the least imbraced VVith this sort of hel-hounds this godly Sermon though not of purpose doth chiefly encounter and vvith inuincible argumēts beateth them dovvne flat to the ground assuring all flesh of that great and generall Resurrection vvhich euery true Christian is bound both in heart to beleeue and vvith his mouth to confesse hovvsoeuer the prophane Atheist in the greatnesse of his vaine and vvicked imaginations may othervvise fancie to himselfe not vvithout his ovvne remedilesse damnation vnlesse in time he do repent him of his sinne And vvould to God many such alarums as this might dayly be rong and sounded into our eares that if it vvere possible euery Christian might haue as deepe an impression and be no lesse affected vvith the continuall cogitation and remembrance of our resurrection at the last day then that godly father S. Ierome seemed to be vvho sayd Whether I eate or drinke whether I sleepe or wake or what thing else so euer I do me thinkes I heare a trumpet alwayes sounding thus in mine eares Arise you dead and come vnto iudgement And so gentle Reader I leaue thee to the grace of God A NOTABLE SERMON CONCERNING THE RESVRrection preached not long since at the Court by L. S. Philip. 3.20.21 20 But our conuersation is in heauen from vvhence also vve looke for the Sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ 21 VVho shall change our vile bodie that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious bodie according to the vvorking vvhereby he is able euen to subdue all things vnto him selfe THose teachers of Gods truth whose works be not answerable to the word are fitly compared to Mercuries the images in the streetes which point the right way to other men but stand still and walke not thē selues or to the stage player who speaking of the earth pointed to heauen and meaning the heauen pointed to the earth manu commisit soloecismum Such haue the voyce of Iacob but the hands of Esau of such the Apostle with teares exhorteth the Philippians to beware in the 18. verse of the third chapter And that they may the better be knowen he setteth downe their properties and painteth them out in their colours as that they be enemies to the crosse of Christ their bellie is their God they glorie in their shame they are earthly minded But such as build with both hands the church of God that is by sound doctrine and holy life such as haue Vrim and Thummim brightnesse of knowledge and integritie of conuersation such as go armed before their brethren as Ruben and Gad and halfe Manasses did not to be touched with errour in faith or deformitie in life these be good guides to folow and sure loade starres to direct our course Amongst which Paule with a good conscience placeth him selfe and such as be like him setting downe in this place their conuersation to be heauenly And good cause why for that there is their Sauiour and that thence they long for him whose comming shall not be frutelesse to them for he shall chaunge their bodies from such base infirmitie as now they are in to such glorie as his body is clothed withall Which may not be thought incredible because his will and power which subdueth all things shall bring this to passe In the farther vnfolding of which words the Apostle putteth in my hands these two principall things to deliuer vnto you First the change that is in the soules of the godly in this life Secondly the change that shal be in their bodies after this life In the former there be these points to be handled That their conuersation is not earthly but in heauen The cause that draweth them thither the Lord Iesus Christ A longing and expectation of his comming In the change that shal be of the bodie we are to consider What our bodies are nowe They are vile What they shall be then Like the glorious bodie of Christ The causes which bring this to passe The will of God and his mightie power These be the ioynts and parts of this present Scripture whereof I will speake as the time shall permit me your Honorable patience heare me the Apostle direct me and God shall assist me with his grace Saint Augustine parteth all the people in the world into two companies the synagogue of Sathan and the Church of God into Babylon and Ierusalem into the sonnes of the earth and the Citizens of heauen In which now are all the godly hauing their conuersation in heauen that is behauing them selues as free Burgesses of Ierusalem which is aboue Manie Cities in the world haue lawes and customes differing one from another yet not so contrarie but one may enioy freedome of diuerse at once But heauen and earth haue so continuall and so vnreconcileable variance as no peace can be compounded betweene them For he that is free to the one must be disfranchized in the other he that is friend to the one must be foe to the other he that hath giuen his faith to the one must sweare against the other It is as possible for light to agree with darknes for life to be friends with death for the Arke of God and the idol Dagon to lodge quietly in one place as for a man to serue God and Mammon to be true to the Lord and the world to be free Denison beneath and aboue to haue an earthly and a heauenly conuersation Therefore Elias doth sharply reproue the people of Israell for halting betweene two opinions in following the Lord and going after Baall 3. Reg. 18.21 The Samaritans for feare of Lyons which deuoured them
man after Gods owne heart yet had he not small slips but grosse falles Salomon a wise king yet bewitched with women Peter a great Apostle yet an Apostata for a time But why do I vpbrayd the naked infirmities of the fathers seeing all flesh hath corrupted his wayes and none can say my heart is cleane or my handes innocent And yet God hath his flock although it be but a litle one and Christ hath his Church his familie although they be fewe in it God hath his number in earth which in sinceritie without hypocrisie haue their conuersacion in heauen Euery man may be a witnesse to himselfe to whether number he belongeth by that rule which S. Augustine hath set downe in Psal 64. Duas ciuitates duo faciunt amores Hierusalem facit amor Dei Babiloniam amor saeculi Interroget ergo se quisque quid amet inueniet vnde sit ciuis Two loues make two Cities the loue of God maketh Ierusalem the loue of the world Babylon Therefore let euerie man deale truely with his owne heart and in euen ballances lay all his doings putting thereto such loue as he hath If it be the loue of God it wil lift them vp and shew them to be heauenly if the loue of the world set them a worke it wil bewray their conuersatiō to be of the earth To execute iustice with a straight hand to cherish vertue to roote vp vice to foster religion to banish superstition to do any good to eschue any euill for anie other cause but in loue and obedience vnto God is not to haue an heauēly but an earthly cōuersation The spider of a drie slime which commeth off her bodie weaueth her webbe and setteth her nets to take the flie which is her foode and many times when curiously she hath finished her worke a blast of winde taketh her and it away so the loue of the world causeth manie to wearie their bodies trouble their wittes breake their sleepe to set nets for commodities which are but small and by the last breath of our life caried away The loue of the world which ruleth in vs by corruption of nature and custome of life withdraweth vs from such conuersation as is heauenly whereas the loue of God if it be but as a graine of mustard seede doth season all our doings and cleareth them from earthly corruption Therfore let euery man as he groweth in yeares so go forward in goodnesse increase in faith in knowledge in vertue in the loue of God decrease in ignorance in infidelitie in vice in the loue of the world As our age and gray haires come on so let our olde conuersation vanish away putting on the new man in holinesse of behauiour the nearer we come to our heauenly countrey to wish and desire it the more For as the child in the wombe is more quick and strong the nearer the time of birth commeth so it should be with vs. For as Chrysostome sayth Nos sumus in mundo vt puellus in vtero and happie are they that are dayly more quicke and strong in godlinesse of life that may with a good conscience say as Paule doth here Our conuersacion or citie like behauiour is in heauen The cause which draweth vp mens hearts in desire affection to heauen is the sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ The brasen serpent was lift vp in the wildernesse that the people being stong might be healed liue the sonne of man is lifted vpon the crosse lifted vp and set in the view of all men by the preaching of the Gospell and by his glorious ascension into heauen draweth all their hearts to him that looke for saluation in him they feare him as their Lord loue him as their Iesus reuerence him as their Christ they kisse him as their Sauiour that find and feele by the seale of Gods spirit that God hath made him Christ appointed him and annointed him to be a Lord and king to gouerne them a Priest to sacrifice him selfe for them a Prophet to teach and instruct them What greater daunger then to haue our cogitations and affections as traitors and rebelles to worke treason within vs and to conspire our destruction and what happier benefite then to haue them tamed changed and made pliable in obedience to an heauenly gouernment This profite Christ worketh in his people being their Lord to rule them and this kingdome we pray for dayly to come vnto vs. What greater discomfort then to lye in darknesse and to liue in ignorance and what sweeter mercie then to haue our eyes opened and the brightnesse of heauenly knowledge to shine about vs This commoditie our Sauiour bestoweth vpon vs and is made Christ our Prophet for this end No perill is so fearfull as to be out of Gods fauour nor blessing so chearefull as to be at peace with him Our Sauiour in loue hath giuen him selfe for vs a sweet smelling sacrifice and in him the Father is pleased with vs. Daniel was in great danger among the Lyons yet his bodie could but be hurt for his soule was comforted in that he suffered for the Lord but mankind was in miserable plight being iustly condemned body and soule into hell Christ hath reached forth his hand and drawen vs out of the iawes of the Lyon and is become a Iesus a Sauiour vnto vs. Therefore seeing as Christ is the mine where all these treasures lye hid the iewell house where all these pearles are heauenly gouernment he is the Lord heauenly instruction he is Christ a Prophet heauenly reconciliation he is Christ a Priest heauenly redemption he is Iesus a Sauiour It is no maruell though the hearts of Gods children be with him who hath in store all these treasures for them The marchant hath his minde in those places where his goods are and whence he hopeth for commoditie The husbandmans heart is in the haruest which is the end of his labour and the hope of his paine Profit will carrie mens desires verie farre euen through the world yea to heauen and happie are they which venture the farthest for in this life there is no true treasure to be found The minde of man is wider then the world and nothing in the world can fill it Nay the mo worldly things that are heaped into it the more it retcheth as whitleather and is more voyd and emptie Few things will suffise the bodie but all is not inough to satisfie the mind as Philip the king of Macedonia confesseth of himselfe who in wrastling tooke a fall vpon the sand and rising looked vpon the place where he might see the print which his bodie had made to be compassed in a small peece of earth where the whole world was too litle for his couetous mind For so he speaketh of him selfe The ambitious man which climeth to honour the higher he is the higher he would be he still buildeth vpwards Nemrods tower is too low for him and yet it was high 1174. paces The pride of Lucifer
day holdeth vp the heads of Gods children in the middest of infinite miseries of this life and sweeteneth the bitter tast of sundry afflictions in this world and breedeth a sound ioy in the hearts of them that haue eyes to see so farre August Psal 147. Quare non gaudes cum venerit iudicare te qui venerit iudicari propter te Why art thou not ioyfull of his comming to iudge thee who came to be iudged for thee The carelesse carnall man hath no sence or sight of this day but as the oxe is fatted in the pasture and the bird singeth sweetely and feedeth without feare and sodainly the one is carried to the slaughter the other taken in the snare So the worldlings are drowned in securitie and seldome thinke of much lesse wish for the comming of this Sauiour Some fewe who are stong with sinne and force the wrath of God against them do tremble and feare at the remembrance of this day and wish it might either not be at all or else be deferred and some foolishly perswade themselues that it is farre and say as the euill seruant doth in the Gospell my maister will deferre his comming But the godly crie Lord Iesus come quickly nowe they are wardes then shall they come to their owne now they are in the skirmish then shall they be in the victorie now they are in the tempestuous sea then shall they be in the quiet hauen now in the heate of the day then shall they be in the rest of the euening now in place they are absent from Christ though in affection they be present with him then shall they follow him whither soeuer he goeth nowe their life is hidde with Christ but when Christ shall appeare they also shall appeare with him in glorie In the eight chapter to the Romanes and nineteenth verse Paule saith that all the creatures of God haue a feruent desire for the reuealing of the sonnes of God much more should the sonnes of God them selues desire that day In the fourteenth of the Reuelation the word of God is likened to the sound of many waters to the thunder to harping with harpes because in the hearers it hath diuerse effectes as this particular point which now I haue in hand For when the comming of Christ to iudgement is spoken of to carnall men it is an idle sound as if Neptune were mouing the sea to other it is terrible and fearfull as if Iupiter threwe his thunderbolt amongst them these be wounded but want the medicine But to the elect it is sweete musicke as if Apollo played vpon his harpe I will iudge none but the word which I speake will touch euery one our owne consciences will accuse vs as carelesse and fearfull of Christs comming or excuse vs as ioyfull therof Let euery one make choise of his companie and sit him downe with his owne fellowes either with the carelesse who neuer thinke of it their case is dangerous vnlesse God reuiue them or among the fearfull of whom there is no hope vnlesse God heale and cure them or with the faithfull who are in blessed state because their redemption draweth neare This is the chaunge in the soules of the godly which must go before that other of the body as Augustine saith Anima debet prius resurgere per gratiam quam corpus resurgat ad gloriā the soule must rise againe in newnesse of life by the grace of God before the bodie shall rise to glorie Of the which change of the bodie I will now intreate in the same order as I first pointed it out Our bodies they are vile base full of infirmities and therefore in the Scriptures compared to weake meane things to grasse to the flower of the field Esa 40. to dust and ashes Gen. 18.27 to houses of clay Iob. 4.19 to earthly houses of this tabernacle 2. Cor. 5.1 Our bodies when they are young are weake twigges when they are olde are doting trees in the best age as vessels of glasse yea more brittle as Augustine saith for by carefull looking vnto glasses are kept a long time after their death who made them and vsed them Euerie creature liueth of his owne but man for the maintenance of his vile bodie hath a licence to begge and craueth the helpe of euerie creature The Sunne lendeth him light the ayre breath the water drinke the beastes birds and fishes and foules feed him with their flesh and cloath him with their haire wooll and skin The rich man in the Gospell who was cloathed in purple whence had he it but of the sheepes fleece for the matter and of the shell fish for the colour His fine linnen which nowe beareth all the viewe for bands like windmill sailes which may not vnfitly be so termed because mens heads are caried about with euerie wind and blast of vanitie whence and what is it but the barke and as it were the skin of the line and flaxe The silke wherein euen meane persons do ruffle is but the excrements of the wormes The golde and pearles wherewith this bodie is attyred are the guts and bowels of the earth yea some do borrow the haire of the dead We came naked into this world and should so continue if we had not help of the creatures who lend vs their feathers to couer vs as in the end naked we must returne to the earth They that be come of noble houses borne of honorable parents descended of the kings stocke and blood royal yet haue their bodies vile as Paul here meaneth as subiect to diseases as needing all helps for health as vnable to endure labour heate cold to abide hunger thirst as vnable to want sleepe rest as other men Therefore if they that be great haue their bodies vile much more we that be wormes and no men Alexander was perswaded by flatterers that he was the sonne of Iupiter a god and no man but by want of sleepe when he was wearie and by smart of body when he was wounded confessed that he was mortall as others be The same Alexander with a proud minde sayling vp Nilus intending to find the spring thereof which yet neuer could be knowen was perswaded by an old man to returne who gaue him a pearle of this propertie that being layd in ballance with anie mettall it was to heauy but couering it with dust a feather was heauier then it By which was meant that Alexander him selfe who in his life time was too strong mightie for all the world being dead was as weake as other men So that sicknesse and death are incident to the greatest of all whereby is plaine how vile and base our bodies are This cutteth downe the pride of all the world where euerie man kisseth his owne handes and thinketh too well of him selfe for his birth strength youth beautie We must remember that we were made of the slime of the earth and must returne to the dust euen the best and highest of vs all must confesse