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
THREE SERMONS VPON THE PASSION RESVRRECTION AND ASCENSION OF OVR SAVIOVR PREACHED At Oxford BY BARTEN HOLYDAY Now Archdeacon of OXFORD LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Nathaniell Butter and are to be sold at his Shop at Saint Austines Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1626. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Mr. Dr. CORBET DEANE OF CHRIST-CHVRCH IN OXFORD Worthy Sir I Cannot forget your fauours whiles I enioy them and yet the contemplation of that which is present cannot properly be called Remembrance But when I thinke of giuing thankes mee thinkes it is not more my purpose then my feare since gratitude does in some sort make bountie lesse bountie being more content when it is attended by gratitude but being more eminent when it is opposed by ingratitude so that the greatest thankes though not the best is not to giue thankes Besides bountie hauing in it more of outward good then gratitude hath gratitude may seeme a purer goodnesse then bountie and so whiles it striues to requite it may seeme to exceed it Yet since reason tels vs that ingratitude is against reason being an iniustice and so against nature I choose to giue thankes the common way not that I iudged it enough gratitude to giue thankes thus but that I iudged it too much ingratitude not to giue thankes thus That I might not therefore requite your goodnesse with iniury I endeauour to imitate that goodnesse by making my thankes like vnto it publicke and yet sincere Secret thankes are often free from flatterie yet alwayes like it being commonly at as much distance from examination as flattery desires to be Happy then are my thankes which are as iust as your merit being made iust by your merit which so appeares in your exemplary daily Deuotion that you haue taken more possession of your Church then of your Dignitie And for your Colledge you haue made it enioy a Statute of Improouement not so much in Dyet as in Studie ruling it by the Statute of your Example which will be Deane beyond Your time Any man May say thus much but I Must truth will make it iustice in another but choice will make it gratitude in Mee who owe my selfe vnto you nay who owe my Friendes vnto you They haue giuen me blessings but you haue giuen me Them euen the most Noble and through your fauour My Sir Francis Stuart whom when I haue Named I haue Bounded my vnderstanding and when I haue named him Mine I haue Contented it Which happinesse must needes make mee remember You as the cause of that happinesse and as before I was His by being Yours so now by being His I shall be the more Your Barten Holyday A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Good-friday 1621. 1. CORINTH 2.8 Had they knowne it they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory GReat sorrowes are dumbe and can custome then iustly expect that this should bee eloquent This day has enough with his owne griefe and shall wee adde vnto it by repetition The seueritie of this passion admits no other wit of Rhetorique then the salt of a teare nor sharper accent then of a groane equall to a lost friend or to a sinne Yet see the endeuour of compassion which had rather with moderate teares recouer it selfe to language by the reliefe of complaint to ease affliction then to be guilty of ingratitude by wonder and silence This day must cry-out and articulately lament vnto all dayes this horrible truth the tragedie of God which seemes as much to exceed our faith as our sorrow Is our God our liuing God as the carcasse-idols of the Heathen whose God-heads suffer the stroake and victory of the Chizell and the Hammer Or are Poets Prophets indeed and are there very Giants that dare inuade God Fiction that intends to perswade neither contradicts nor exceeds nature and story must be more seuerely contriued within the possibility of action otherwise it begets not faith but scorne and the Historians reason is rather questioned then his eloquence Yet this day breathes-out such vnion of extremities the humiliation of God and the insolence of man in Iesu crucified and the crucifying Iewes that your pietie can scarce be more amazed at our Lord's affliction then at the Iewes crueltie so that if the motiue and condition of these vnreasonable actors were not expressed our suspicion might cry-out Who will beleeue our report History or inuention has anciently told vs of some altars where-on wild deuotion sacrificed men but durst Poetry euer faigne a people that sacrificed their God Would any man haue thought that the Iew would haue beene the first Antichrist of his Messias That the children of Abraham would murder the God of Abraham That the partakers of the Lords glory would crucifie the Lord of glory I must admit you a respite to wonder and satisfie as well your admiration as your enquiry which does me thinkes with the labour of expectation desire to know not only the fact but also the affection of the Iewes as if then you would bee perswaded to the story of the action when first you shall haue heard the story of the actors Not the Iewes alone were partakers in this guilt but chiefly the Iewes triumph'd in this guilt the Iewes who were alwayes of a churlish vnderstanding and now their soules were as darke as peruerse They had before committed an essay of cruelty vpon the Prophets but that was but a yonger practice to this fury Then they crucified the Lord in his Saints but now they will doe it without a figure And may not our reason as well as piety here demand with wonder What aild the Heathen nay what aild the Iewes to murmure themselues into a Conspiracie against the Christ of the Lord Surely their rage did not discerne in him the mysticall systeme of God and man for had they knowne it they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory Yet shall execrable violation bee softned into an ignorance shall elaborate malice be excused into so gentle a guilt shall the crucifying of our Sauiour be made but man-slaughter It is not an errour to pardon an errour but it is a crime but to excuse a crime Could the Iewes bee ignorant of his innocence who was pronounced not-guilty by his judge Who was pronounced innocent by his Iudas Who was pronounced holy by Iewes amaz'd to silence and in that to confession at the power of his innocent syllogisme If I am guiltie why doe you not conuince mee If I am innocent why doe you not beleeue mee Could the Iewes be ignorant of his office when as hee so repaired the senses of the diseased that their sense might justly perswade their vnderstanding to beleeue When as he called by the voice of his power the dead to a compendious resurrection When as he proued his life to be a Commentary vpon the Prophets Could the Iewes bee ignorant of his diuinitie which was as necessary to the actuating of his wonderfull office as of his wonderfull person
was an imployed legacie a woman bequeathed to time to multiply resurrections Which yet were almost reduced to a despaire by her degenerating Nephewes whose crimes had forsworne or scorned the resurrection of their bodies and did more ouerwhelme them then the floud Yet then looke vpon Noah with joy as the Lord did with fauour and when the olde and the new World were distinguished and continued but by an Isthmus from Noah's wife the Arke of mankind see a new resurrection of man and from his floud a resurrection of the world But will you see a raising without death or sleepe Behold Isaac as neere the stroke as the hand of his father arising from his Funerall pile and at this resurrection too there was an Angell remoouing though not a Tombe-stone yet a Knife more exorable then the sword which the Angell in Paradise did shake whose threatning edge was as deuouring as its flame But heere was a sacrifice offered yet not slaine and though not slaine yet accepted But peraduenture it will more gratefully frighten you to see a man taught to bee buried aliue and more yet to liue after his buriall Behold then Ioseph from the tombe of his prison rising vnto a triumph as eminent as his innocencie which had before conquered his passion and now his affliction Behold in Ioseph the mysticall bodie of our Sauiour a body admirably mortall and incorruptible a body that suffered rather the graue then death And will any man now count it such a wonder to see the fetters fall-off from Peter when they had learned the religion from his Masters winding-sheete which fell at his feet when hee arose But if the eye and courage of your faith will venter farther and see the actiue horrour of a graue behold Ionas his quicke tombe made a tombe of saluation to him Three of our dayes hee lay struggling in his new night of amazement as if he had found an Aegypt in the Whale and did acknowledge that watry Purgatory At last the graue by a new instruction cast-vp the liuing The Whale was no more a Sepulchre but a fish and Ionas no longer a coarse but a Prophet Hee had surely died if hee had not beene buried And heere was a resurrection though not a reuiuing a resurrection from disobedience and the Whale Thus this rare An'choret and his tombe were both aliue but the tombe of our Sauiour was as desperate as death What could be expected from a graue and a carcasse Yet behold this carcasse reuiue into a man nay into a God! And I may rightly say behold for he did rise that wee should behold him and at that time wherein we might behold him He rose when night rises into morning and at this pregnant season when winter is quickned into the spring Now did the day-spring visit vs from the graue It was on the first day of the Iewes weeke a weeke well begunne and is was the first day of the Christian Creation If you will turne ouer the notes of time you may beleeue that Pharaoh as on that day of the yeere was inuaded by an host of waues which conquering his Chariots made him without wheeles hurrie faster vnto Hell Whiles Moses led his Israel through the Wildernesse of the Sea passing from the shadow of death in that monument of waters Did not our Lord also leaue his tombe with an equall and contrary wonder Then were the waters made firme rising into Alpes as now the earth was made to quake like the waters And well might it tremble when the Lord conquered it and forsooke it The Angell too made a little earth-quake in the graue when he remoued the mightie stone with which the vaine few tryed to oppresse our Sauiour after death as it he would haue sealed him vp to an impossibilitie of resurrection But since the Angell has opened the tombe for vs shall we goe see the place whence Christ is risen And yet wee shall not make such hast but that the speedy deuotion of the two Maries will bee there before vs whose feete were as swift as their loue and their loue as time nay more swift then time which hindred them by the delay and command of their Sabbath A Sabbath it was but only of their bodies which whiles our Sauiour lay buried were but the sepulchres of their soules their soules that found no Sabbath till they found the Lord. They came with prepared spices and oyntments for him whose diuinitie did preuent Balme and esteemed their pietie of a more precious sweetnesse then their oyntments But will you see this loue languish into feare and this feare againe strengthned into joy They are no sooner in the sepulchre but that they find it as empty of our Sauiour as it was full of wonder and insteed of the body of the Lord they behold the Angell of the Lord sitting vpon the stone which he had conquered to obedience as if hee meant to rest himselfe in triumph after the conflict of his miracle His rayment was white as snow which he did imitate in puritie and descent His countenance was like lightning or more wonderfull for that is of so instant a terrour that it is the object rather of our memory then our eye but this with courteous majestie was patient to be beheld The women with the dutie of feare beheld it being quickly encouraged by the angell but first by their innocence The souldiers beheld it too though with such guiltie faintnesse that they seemed to striue as much to shame their sexe as their profession being at once almost disarmed of their weapons and soules They became as dead men and were rather the prisoners then the keepers of the graue But in the meane time the angell comforts and instructs the women who now are his Disciples and receiuing commission to preach the resurrection of our Sauiour to the Disciples of our Sauiour they haste out of the Tombe with the confused expedition of feare and joy Was not this a strange pilgrimage to runne from the sepulchre of our Lord But it was yet more strange they seeke the Disciples and find Christ It was a comfortable mistake And indeed hee did comfort them with his presence and speech When immediately they fall on their knees at his knees in loue worship holding him by the feet O how glorious are the feet of the Lord of the Gospell The Gospell of whose resurrection these female Euangelists are againe sent to teach and the first schollers which they must teach must be Christ's Disciples When to shew their obedience to be as readie as their loue they depart euen from Christ to their dutie and speedily find Peter and Iohn for their auditours Heere was zeale and tendernesse the fiercest and the mildest of the Apostles as if they had beene left together to temper one another And these no sooner heare the newes but straight they runne as fast to the tombe as the women did runne from it Iohn came first vnto it but Peter went first