wit and the best sence and judgement excels the naturall foole looke how farre the strongest man excels the weakest childe so farre the bodies that shall bee raised up in that glorious day shall excell the best and the brightest bodies that are here in this world For saith he as God hath made severall sorts of flesh now and hath given a bestnesse and a worstnesse in them that there is great difference and it is well knowne to us how they differ so in the Resurrection there shall be nothing there the worst shall be more glorious then the best and most noble perfections that are here And so I thinke it to bee true as the Fathers imagine that it is spoken of the difference that shall bee but it cannot bee directly prooved by Scripture as Peter Martyr Peter Mart. saith Although it be true that there shall be some inferiour unto others there yet we must not rest upon it nor make comparisons of it There is nothing that shall be so bad in that kingdome but it exceeds all the best things that are in this There is nothing that shall bee so meane in that life but it shall exceed the most glorious things in this life This I take to bee the purpose and meaning of the Apostle in bringing in this difference to shew that if there be a difference here much more shall there be there There is as much difference betweene the body that dyes here and the body that shall rise then being compared together as there is betweene fish and flesh as much difference as is betweene one part and member and another All of them are indeed flesh but yet there is one kinde of vigour and one kinde of use and life and motion in the one and another kind in the other and so it shall be at the Resurrection To conclude the summe of all is this Vse that wee prepare our selves in a continuall expectation with blessed Iob looking for our change Iob 14.14 to depend upon the Lord God to trust in him that is able to set his Image in a farre more glorious stampe then he did before that can renew his broad seale and out of one peece of elementarie dust can raise such wondrous matters as are here spoken of What is the most beautifull body in the world what is the goodliest flesh what is the fairest colour in comparison but a bag of dust and yet how marvellously hath God wrought upon this dust out of a poore meane ground to draw such a lively colour such an excellent picture upon nothing but dust It is a strange thing so to fortifie it with comely bones to fill it every where every concavitie of it with a faire beauty of flesh to adorne it with such a goodly glosse and colour like the flourishing flowers of the field to continue it thus for twenty or thirty yeares in this faire glosse and goodly composure this is the most wondrous act of God! Teaching us Vse that there is a further matter that remaines that he that hath wrought upon dust in this manner now his hand is not shortened but hee can worke upon the dust that shall be raised out of the grave againe hee can draw the lines upon it and breathe upon it as he saith by his holy Prophet Heare the word of the Lord ye dry bones Ezek. 37.4.8.10 and it is said the bones gathered together and the Lord breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up The Lord is able to do these things and certainly these colours and this flesh that we carry in this world they are as earnest penies of that glorious flesh that shall be collated and confirmed upon us when this life shall be ended Onely as we looke for these things so let us sanctifie our selves to the Lord God let us keepe our selves unblameable in the wayes of the Lord let us reconcile our selves by true and unfeigned repentance Iam. 1.27 let us keepe our selves unspotted of the world that this flesh may not be tainted with the pollutions of sinne but that it may be preserved for that use which it was appointed for even to be a temple and tabernacle for the Holy Ghost for so it shall be sure to have this blessed change put upon it There is as much difference betweene that which is now and that which shall be as there is difference betweene any parts of the body naturall as much difference as there is betweene unsensible and sensible creatures as there is betweene men and beasts as much difference as there is betweene the flyer and the swimmer betweene fish and fowls Yet still the same flesh shall be the same flesh shall rise that dyed but the Lord shall adde unto it Ambr. he shall ampliate it saith S. Ambrose he shall make it better he shall not destroy the substance but he shall adde a new qualitie a new glorious quality which shall indure for ever 1 COR. 40.41 And bodies heavenly and bodies earthly but one is the glory of the heavenly and another that of the earthly one glory of the Sunne another glory of the Moone and another glory of the Starres for one starre differeth from another in glory So also is the Resurrection of the body THis noble and divine order which the Apostle hath taken for the assurance of our faith in this grand point of the Resurrection is noted by all Interpreters to be the glory of that spirit within him that he could not possible shew a greater evidence of the holy Ghost then in this manner of proceeding Therefore Tertullian Tertull. saith that Saint Paul did with all the strength of the holy Ghost bend and imploy himselfe in this Argument His meaning is with all the strength of the holy Ghost that Saint Paul was capable of For otherwise it cannot be said of any man that he can use all the strength of the holy Ghost for the strength and power of the holy Ghost is more then any man can comprehend But the order I say is so excellent and divine that he leaves no part of nature unransacked and unpierced for the finding of some argument and some evidence of the Resurrection First he taught us to finde it in our gardens in our fields in the things that are sowne in those things that are under our feet Then afterward he riseth somewhat higher and teacheth us to finde it in our flesh that we carry about us in the flesh of men in the flesh of beasts in the flesh of birds in the flesh of fishes in which as there is great varietie so all this present variety serves to shew and portend a variety in the world to come in the bodies that shall rise And now hee riseth higher and teacheth us to finde the Resurrection and the varietie of the bodies that shall be in the Resurrection from a comparison that he takes from heaven and heavenly things that we may see it also above
bloud that is sinfull creatures as well as wee and yet they be in the Kingdome of God Thirdly it may be objected concerning them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord they shall be flesh and bloud as we are and they shall in a moment of time be translated to the Kingdome of God therefore it seemes that flesh and bloud inherits the Kingdome of God Answers to the 3. Objections For the answer to these For the first we must observe that it is one kind of possession that a man hath spiritually by faith and apprehension and it is another to have it in reall entrance and in a reall investiture The Saints of God are called in this life the sons and daughters of the Kingdome and they are called heyres of the Kingdome and Co-heyres with Christ But how it is onely in faith it is onely in taste in an earnest of that which shall be fully paid hereafter as the Apostle saith Heb. 6. Heb. 6.5 It is impossible that such as have tasted of the heavenly joy c. So that wee doe not deny nor the Apostle doth not say that flesh and bloud shall not taste of heaven nor corruption taste of incorruption for we have it the children of God they have the very pledge and earnest of it sealed unto them But how It is in expectation For the Lord Iesus tries his servants in their expectation by their waiting upon him In the world it is true it is one thing to be a Noble-mans or a Gentlemans heyre and it is another thing to come to the possession of the land he is sure of it by his birth by his primogeniture he is sure that it shall be his but he hath it not yet Hee may live like a poore gentleman and his father may curbe him and keepe him in before he come to enjoy it he hath it not for the present So the Lord hee suffers those that be his heyres to want to be troubled and afflicted in the world hee suffers them to have no better pittance then this As one saith I hope for things better hereafter and therefore I swallow those things that are present here And then for the second point objected concerning Enoch and Elyas Answ 2 There are divers opinions of Divines about it Some think that their bodies are not in heaven but were buried in some place unknowne as wee see in Moses death and that they shall rise againe at the Resurrection This I confesse hath many grounds and good reasons to prove it that it is the prerogative of Christ alone to be in heaven For there is none that hath descended but the same that hath ascended which is the son of man which is in heaven Eph. 4.9 10. But yet the commō tenent of the Church is otherwise whereunto I must yeeld and subscribe namely that the bodies of Enoch and Elias and those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ be actually with Christ and keep him company in heaven And although the ascension of those be not manifest yet it is agreeable to the analogie of faith to beleeve it For to what purpose should the Apostle insist so much upon this Heb. 11.5 By faith Enoch was translated if he were not after another maner dignified and honoured than ordinary men And to what purpose is it said that Elias was carryed to heaven in a whirlewind and a fiery chariot if the Lord would break his neck upon a rock and cast him downe againe to the earth This had been no honour but a punishment Therefore as their raptures are noted in the Scriptures so the tearms are notable and such as no man can attaine unto in the common Resurrection For the blessed God which is the God of the married and of the single life he tooke out of each estate one to accompany him in his heavenly Kingdome Enoch was a married man and figured those in that estate that should associate and keep Christ company in heaven Elias was a single man and he took him to be a symbole and type of the single life To teach us that married and unmarried both if they be in Christ are accepted of him and shall reside and keep him company in the Kingdome of heaven And for those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ it is a constant opinion and followed of the best Divines that those were never admitted to returne to their bodies againe for that had been to deprive them of a greater benefit which they had before Therefore to answer the argument If Enoch and Elias and those that rose with Christ I say if they be in heaven they be flesh and bloud therefore flesh and bloud doth inherit heaven and so by consequence the Apostles speech doth not alway stand firme when he saith Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Therefore it is possible for flesh and bloud to inherit heaven For the answer of this we must understand that Enoch and Elias had a change and the changing of their bodies was equivalent unto our death And although they were rapt up in a strange manner yet all that was mortall in them all that was corrupt it was consumed by the strong hand of God We see the Lord can worke as it pleaseth him in naturall things You see how the lightning sometimes so alters things that it falls on that it draws out all the pith of them all the substance in a moment We see gold that is cast into a hot fornace the fire licks it up and melts it So we see those earthen pipes that are used too commonly in our mouthes how soon the fire alters them and refines them We see these things in nature Now wee must imagine that the mighty power of God can doe much more for the body so that that which was nothing but mud before he can make a pure chrystall glasse of it It is not impossible for nature almost to worke this for we see men make glasse of sand and therefore to the operative word of God there is nothing impossible It is credible and to be beleeved therefore that the Lord changed their bodies in their rapture that whatsoever was corrupt and base and dreggie in them it was wrought out Answ 3 The same reason is for them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord the Lord shall so work upon those bodies which they shall then beare which shall be corrupt flesh and bloud the Lord shall work them in an instant to purity even as the fornace of metallers does the fornace of those that deale in fire-works For as the fornace changeth the substance of the thing that is cast into it upon the instant and licks it up and devoures it if it be combustible or if it be not combustible as gold or the like then it turnes and melts it to better purpose to a better burnish to a better hue so the all-working-hand of God shall doe Therefore although
point for it the first day of the weeke were the Lords day when Sermons and prayer and communicating in the Sacrament were made and received It follows that the Church had changed the Sabbath day from the seventh day unto the eight and so we are to resolve our selves against these innovators how this might be done for assure your selves although we be well resolved in the thing and long experience hath taught us to be quiet and to settle our selves in the authoritie of the Church yet there is nothing that is of weaker authoritie then the change of the Sabbath and if these new Hereticks can prevaile with us in other things it is no marvell if they prevaile in this for there is nothing that is left upon so weake a foundation that hath so slender proofe as this which makes them to get ground upon unstable soules that are their hearers being a multitude of men where there is varietie of affections and imbecillitie of judgement and every man is carried away with every blast of doctrine as children to and fro no marvell if they have sowne such seeds of pestilent schisme by these contrary blasts which are every where studied Therefore you shall understand that the holy Apostles presently after our Lords ascention into heaven The Sabbath changed by the Apostles they did ordaine that the meetings of Christians for the Sabbath that those exercises should be upon the eight day of the weeke I meane upon the eight day from the creation upon the Iews Munday which now is called Sunday or our Lords day and those feasts that formerly were wont to fall upon any day of the weeke as Easter day which was kept according to the course of the Moone and if it fell upon a Wednesday or a Thursday or the like still it was Easter day the Passeover day the feast of sweet bread when the paschall Lambe was offered But the Apostles changed it that it should alwayes be on the Sunday upon the day of our Lords resurrection and Whitsuntide which followes after Easter being a moveable Feast and as Easter was still that was to be referred to it now the feast of Pentecost was referred by the Apostles to the Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection our Sunday And this was not the devise of Pius Pius the first Pope or Dicta the first Pope as some have imagined which was many yeares after our Lords ascention but it is certaine it was the ordinance of the Apostles themselves as we may see in two famous places for we have but two as Beza Beza saith well in Acts 20.10 Act. 20 10. and in this place In these two places we observe that liberty that the Lord gave to his Church 1 Cor. 16.2 to change the seventh day to the eighth And whereupon upon what ground did they take this liberty for we have no direct word from the mouth of our Saviour for it but they did it onely upon the revelation of the spirit of God and they had such firme arguments and reasons as might sway them against the common tenents of the Iewish slavery and bondage whereby they were tyed and bound to the observation of their Sabbath The first maine reason that the Church had for the changing of the Sabbath 1 To shew the prerogative of Christ it was to shew the prerogative of the Sonne of God which saith of himself The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath also he is Lord even of the Sabbath Mark 3. Mark 3. Now therefore if he were Lord of the Sabbath then it lay in his power to change the time of the Sabbath the morall action he changed not that alway continueth we must have a day to worship God in we should worship God alway but the publique worship of God is the proper end and office of the Sabbath I but for the time why it should be upon the seventh day or on the eight day this was left in the Lordship of Christ being the Lord of the Sabbath which therefore could tell what he did when hee would rejourne the Sabbath to some other time where it might be a figure of some better signification therefore to shew the glory of the sonne of man the Church thought good to change the time of the Sabbath to another time 2 In remembrance of the work of redemption Secondly there was another reason as Athanasius Athanasius observeth upon those words of Christ All things are given to me of my Father he extends it thus far even to the change of the Ceremonies of Moses Law now saith he there are two great workes of God which are to be considered in their substance and in their ceremony The first is the worke of creation And the second is the worke of redemption wherin the world was recreated and made anew For the first the worke of creation the old Sabbath was instituted and ordained of God in remembrance of his worke for God rested the seventh day from all the worke that he had wrought and created in the sixe dayes before he rested the seventh day and blessed it and hallowed it for man to remember the workes he had created in the sixe working dayes and that man should also worke in sixe dayes as he had done and rest upon the seventh day for as the Lord had wrought sixe dayes so he saith sixe dayes shalt thou labour for all the life of man must be conformed to the example of Almighty God so now there being these two great workes the one of creation the other of redemption wee are to consider whether of these two are the greater and surely we shall finde the worke of redemption is a greater matter then the worke of creation When the Lord created the world by his omnipotent power he did but speake the word and it was done The Lord did but say let there be light and there was light Let there be a firmament and there was a firmament Let there be sea and land and there was presently sea and land and every thing else necessary But when he wrought redemption it was not done by a word but it cost the bloud it drew the bloud from the heart of his deare Sonne for it could not be done by way of omnipotency because it must be done by way of justice the justice of God must be satisfied which could not be satisfied but the sinner must loose his life which he had forfeited to God and God himselfe must doe it the person of God must take upon him the nature of man to suffer death for sinfull man that had deserved death everlasting this is the worke of recreation and redemption Now saith Athanasius these workes had their severall ages the worke of the creation was to be remembred untill Christ came to worke the worke of redemption and when he was come then the age of that was to passe away it was determined and terminate in Christ And now
and Kingdome of Christ it had lost something among the nations but it found place to be a most constant Church For Paul needed nothing to doe in that Church after he had once confirmed it as we see in many passages of his Epistles It was the most glorious constant and pure Church in the world the Church of Macedon We come now to the promise that hee makes to them at Corinth they might say 3 Part. St. Pauls promise to winter at Corinth If thou goe to Macedon when wilt thou come to us for this was the great and earnest desire of the Corinthians to see their Pastor they were troubled with seducers they were troubled with a number of ravening wolves that were crept into the flock and they knew not how to keepe the body of Christ unparted Some would be of Paul some would hold with Apollo some with Cephas some with Christ some with their owne fancie therefore they desired that he would come and rectifie these disorders which he was willing to doe if the Lord permitted him Now Paul promiseth them what he intended to doe in Theory in contemplation if God would give him leave he would come to them and stay with them and perhaps winter with them I passe to Macedon but I will stay with you Macedon is a Church that needs no great reformation it is enough that I visit that and passe by it but I will stay longer with you because you want my presence to make somewhat good which is amisse And for this wintering of St. Paul the holy Ghost gives us to understand that although of necessity the Minister of the Gospell be to apply himselfe to the word of God especially in the prime plantation of it yet the Lord vouchsafes unto them a kind of Sabbath a kind of resting time It is not for a man to expose himselfe to danger at all times and in all places but that liberty which the Lord hath afforded to men in reason and common nature that liberty the preachers of the Gospell may take to themselves There is some time indeed when a man must lay downe his life when God calls him to it but otherwise except he have a speciall command for it a man is not to offer himselfe The winter is an unfit time to travaile in therefore St. Paul takes his opportunity to winter at Corinth The snow in Thracia the dangerous weather by the sea the frost and cold of those countries are extream for the time that they last these things were sufficient motives to Paul to make him take up his lodging and his station at Corinth Liberty allowed to Preachers So it doth give and afford liberty to all the Ministers of the Gospell to take those opportunities which the Lord reacheth forth unto them a man is not bound to preach when he is sick nor he is not bound to find a Preacher in his sicknesse but at the charge of the parish and those that belong unto it for there is no reason for men to trouble a sick man with whole mens businesse for the seasons must be considered the Lord bids the wind blow at one time and hee bids it cease at another he commands the raine to fall at one time at another time the doores of heaven are stopped up So he saith Isay 5. Isay 5. that the clouds shall not raine so sometimes the Preacher of the Gospell he cannot raine he cannot distill that which hee hath received for want of health or by reason of discontent or else by reason of opposition in the world and men must take these things well A man might have said to Paul What will you spend a whole winter at Corinth You should goe about your masters businesse the Lord hath sent you to preach the Gospell through the world will you take up so much time at Corinth to lie there idle so long Nay saith he the Lord hath given me this liberty I may although not give indulgence to my flesh yet I must spare my life till God call for it and then I must not when he calls for it but till then I must take the opportunities as common sense and reason shall guide me But here behold what a wintering this was What winterings S. Pauls waâ— this wintering of the Apostle it was not as other winterings be the word is borrowed from souldiers and from shipping when the souldiers cannot keepe in the field by reason of the extremity of the weather they then take up their station in some good populous towne where they may have habitation and ability against the summer and then be brought forth into the field to doe more service It is also taken from ships when the sea is shut up in the winter times the ship is pulled into the dock till the spring come that it be brought out againe after reparation from these things is this word taken but yet the wintering of St. Paul it was not like that of souldiers or the wintering of ships for they commonly be both unprofitable but the wintering of St. Paul was as profitable where he was as his travailes could have been in other places for indeed souldiers cannot sight in winter they cannot beare armes in the field by reason of the extremity of the weather and if they doe any thing at home it is some small triviall thing to keep themselves in action to raise a rampier or sconce or some such thing not like unto the dangers that are abroad in the field so the ships in the dock they doe nothing but stand meerely without any use but the wintering of St. Paul was not so but it was full of action full of profit for in Corinth where hee wintered if he had wintered there and had come to effect his will and purpose hee had been still in the Lords Vineyard hee had been still preaching and exhorting and going from house to house as the fashion was then to give comfort and consolation to those that were afflicted to confirme them against the stormes of persecution to shine before them in the example of holy and good living In this regard St. Pauls wintering was a glorious progresse when hee rested he ceased not hee ceased not from his labour but still hee was full of life and action and as the sunne in the firmament which cannot stand still but is ever running his course like a mighty giant Psal 19. Psal 19. So we see here a mighty difference between the word of God and all other actions other men whatsoever is their profession and trade they must of necessity leave when their opportunity ceaseth they can work no longer a man cannot work by night as our Lord Iesus saith The night commeth when no man can worke Although there be many that work by artificiall light yet there are some kinde of works that will not admit of any but day light And when the water is up when the weather is extreame when the water is
yet we suffer still we are in danger every houre and therein we shew our perseverance But I will conclude in a word with the use and force of this argument For it hath beene still the reason that heretiques have taken to themselves Vse to abuse the force of the Apostles disputation The divell hath fitted the world with such seduced men to suffer and to suffer for a lye Now then the argument can have no just nor no necessary consequeÌ„ce that because men suffer every hour therefore there shall be a resurrection For then heretiques may object and say because they suffer for this erroneous conceit that therefore it is no conceit but there is such a thing Certainly as Tertullian saith Not onely the true orthodoxe faith of Christians is increased by the Martyrs bloud but also heretiques are increased by their Martyrs There was never any heresie so bad but it had some to testifie it with their bloud the divell hath his Martyrs as well as Christ But we must understand the difference must be taken partly from the cause And partly from the persons that give the testimony For it is the cause that makes the Martyr and the foundation of the cause is to be fetched from the word of God The word of God teacheth a man for what cause he should suffer and for what he should not suffer And the cause of the Apostles sufferings were grounded on the word of God the Lord Iesus told them that they should suffer many things for his name Iohn 15.21 And as it was the lot of the Prophets in former time to suffer so it was their portion to take their course and to suffer for the truth and they were defended by the apparant word of God fetched from all antiquity The cause was good for which they suffered and the cause makes the Martyr and the witnessing to the cause The witnessing to a lye can no way make a falshood true all the lyers in the world cannot doe it but witnesse must be given to the truth as the Apostles witnessed to the verity of Christ Because Christ the prime Martyr hath set to his hand that these things are true Ioh. 3. He is the true witnesse that hath sealed it with his bloud Ioh. 3.32.33 and hath confirmed it by his miracles and by the approbation of all the world This is one difference It is true men may labour to bolster out bad causes by their obstinate spirits but what is that to this Our cause is judged we have the words of Scripture for it And although heresies in all times have been bred out of the Scriptures yet they are meere wrestings and sophistries dreames cavillations and coacted things of their owne devising But this was a cause that was throughly proved by the word revealed And as I said the word of God tels us for what cause a man should suffer and for what not when he should live secure and when in ieopardy That is one reason Secondly from the persons Popish Traytors Although it be true that Antichrist will come and dye as Martyrs doe yet we must observe they either doe it to maintain factions that have been formerly begun or to get a name to themselves or else they seeke to flye from the danger if they can make an escape Acts 5.41 But the Apostles were in danger willingly they yeelded themselves to it with gladnesse of heart and reioyced in afflictions and tribulations But for the other they breake prisons they lye and equivocate to save their lives doe any thing to rid themselves from the danger The Apostles and Martyrs as simple sacrifices gave themselves to God in meere devotion to be disposed at his pleasure to rest upon his will to be as sheep for the slaughter when he called for them They sought not to flye from their enemies or by equivocation and lies to get away but rejoyced in their persecutions and sang even in prison And although S. Paul made an escape Acts 16.25 2 Cor. 11.33 and were let downe in a basket from a window yet that was but to reserve himselfe for further times for at last he meant to give up himselfe as a sacrifice to Christ Therefore the argument is strong that we must confirme our selves from the passion of the Saints before and take no limit of the voluptuous delights of the world These are not the way to heaven The course that we hold now a dayes in our conversing one with another in merriments in eating and drinking and idle complements they are no wayes to give us comfort at the houre of death at the day of judgement but our comfort must be taken from the sufferings of the Church from the passion of the blessed Saints before from the noble army of Martyrs from that cloud of witnesses from those that have sealed the truth of Christ with their bloud that have indured jeopardy that have imbraced danger all the hours of their life These are they whose steps we must follow and insist in those worthy presidents before us And as farre as we conform our selves to these so much comfort we shall have when we suffer with them that suffer to be conformed to the passion of Christ that we may also be conformed to his glory Luke 22.28.30 For if we suffer with him we shall also raigne with him as our Lord Iesus saith which the Lord grant unto us for his sake Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.31 I dye daily by the rejoycing that I have in Christ Iesus our Lord. THe frequent reading studying and conversing in the Scriptures is like the dressing of an armour or the cleansing of a fountaine for an armour the more it is furbushed the brighter it lookes and the Spring or Fountaine the more it is scoured the clearer the water runnes so the holy field of the Scriptures the more it is tilled with diligence and frequencie the more faire and goodly fruit it brings forth The precious pearle of the truth oft times is so hid in the ambiguity of words words of equivocation that is words that may be taken in divers sences that unlesse a man looke very narrowly to them and observe well the passages of them he is in danger to be drawne into some errour This most difficult portion of Scripture that we have taken in hand begins now to appeare by our continuance and dwelling upon it The truth the pearle which before lay hid in the casket begins to shâ—w forth his owne lustre As Ierome Ierome saith Truth oft times lyes hid in the ditch of words so the ambiguity of one word here hath puzled the faire and cleare stream of the truth that without much searching of the Scripture we had not found it out But by our frequency and diligence I hope we have found in the end the proper sence and full meaning of the Text for one Scripture whets and cleares another Now the Apostle brings the passion of the Martyrs to
his owne particular instance and saith as the common ordinary number of Saints were baptised in bloud so the Colledge of the Apostles much more and he himselfe most of all This I conclude to be the sence of the Text and of those difficult words verse 29. of baptising for the dead It is that which the Apostle renders here and in the verse before going in other termes For first in verse 29. he cals it baptising for the dead In verse 30. he cals it Ieopardy every houre and now in this verse he saith I dye daily All the three phrases have but one sence and signification onely distinguishing the persons from whom he drawes the argument For the thing is all one the state of Christs Church here on earth is alway like it selfe in this life alwayes in an afflicted condition So then his argument first in verse 29. which is a great graund argument to prove the Resurrection he takes it from the passions and sufferings of the Martyrs and professors of Christ and it holds in all these three verses and that which followeth In the first of the three he brings the argument generall In the second particular In the third he brings it personall First generall verse 29. his argument is drawn thus If there be no resurrection of the dead why should any man be so mad as to be baptised in bloud for the testimony thereof that is to forsake Father and Mother Land Country and Life and al for the witnesse of the Gospell which chiefly stands in the hope of the resurrection for this is the baptisme that Christ speakes of when he saith Can ye be bapti sed with the baptisme that I shall be baptised with and can ye drinke of the cup that I shall drinke of that is the baptisme of teares of affliction the baptisme of bloud for the testimony of the truth And so he drawes his argument from the common example of the Martyrs in their sufferings implying that they were madde men if they would suffer in confidence of a bad cause to lose the best thing in this world for a lye Therefore their sufferings are a plaine argument a strong and perfect subscription and consent to this maine point of our faith the Resurrection of the dead that for which the Saints in all the world the Prophets before Christ the Apostles after Christ have beene baptised For as Iames the brother of Iohn Acts 12. who was killed with the sword Stephen the first Martyr and all that were slaine in the first generall persecution the Apostle drawes his argument thence that if there were no Resurrection then they had laid downe their lives in vaine but they had not laid them downe in vaine therefore there shall be a Resurrection This is the scope of that argument In the second place he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles in verse 30. and saith Why doe we live in ieopardy every houre that is why doe we live in danger of death in perill all our life long to dye as it were every houre and to be baptised for the dead As a man that is under water as it was the custome in baptising he is as it were lost so long as he is there he is a dead man and although perhaps he may get up againe and lift up his head yet as long as he is in that element it being not the element of our life he is a lost man So they that betake themselves to the profession of the Gospell they are baptised they are under water they are throwne over board they are cast away out of the ship of the world and made away to plaine destruction to ignominy to basenesse to poverty and every kinde of persecution that their enemies hand can make over them they are baptised for dead because they are in danger all the day long in all the passages of their life they are in jeopardy of death and deepely drenched in the conceit and feare of death which is worse than death it selfe Now in the third place in this verse he comes to the personall proofe of the poynt and that which is usuall with all the Martyrs in generall with the Colledge of Apostles in particular he applies in his owne personall instance and saith I dye daily I protest and it is no meane protestation if you will not beleeve my word yet take my oath I set my seale to it and sweare and I sweare by the Lord Iesus by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily This is the summe of the words Now you perceive the argument we will proceed on The greatest thing in such passages is to finde out the sence the matter will be evident enough In other places the matter is deepe and the sence is evident but in this and in passages of like nature it is contrary To proceed in order Here first we are to consider the marvellous strange assertion that the Apostle makes Division into two parts 1 The Assertion 2 The Probation where he saith I dye daily he dyeth and yet he liveth and he dieth daily There was no part of his life but still the shadow of death overwhelmed him which is the miserablest thing in the world to dye after death and still to be dying it is the worst kinde of death and yet the Apostle saith he dyed daily It is an assertion that the Saint of God pronounceth for himself for there is no man that can understand him but he that takes delight in these meditations he that hath part in the kingdome of Christ knowes what this meanes For experience teacheth this and not speculation or any argument that reason can afford Secondly we are to consider the probation of this because it is a strange paradox as Luther Luther saith What dost thou meane Paul to contradict thy selfe and all common sence and reason Doe I not see thee walke Doe I not see thee eate and drink Doe I not heare thee preach and yet art thou dead I see no signe of a dead man in thee Therefore the Apostle makes it good by an oath and saith I protest by the reioycing that I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily Where first we are to consider the manner of his inference it is by way of oath And then the thing he sweares by by the reioycing that I have in Christ A dead man and yet rejoyce it is a very strange mixture Thirdly we are to consider the ground of his reioycing where it is placed In Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly to consider the force of this argument and how we may preserve and keepe the strength of this argument alway unavoydable to be able to say and to sweare and lay to pawne and gage this Rejoycing that we have in Christ when we finde this confidence in our selves 1 Part. The Assertion First touching that marvellous assertion of the Apostle I dye daily If an ordinary
one after another Every minute is like the bodrags in the heart and braine of a man that are still accrewing fearefull shewes and signes of evill So that I protest by the rejoycing I have in the Lord Iesus I dye daily 2 Part. The Proofe Now I come to the second poynt which is the proofe of this For there is no man that would beleeve it because flesh and bloud cannot understand how a man should be dead and yet alive As the Poet saith As long as a man liveth whatsoever happen to him he is well breake a hand or a foot of him breake his bones and let him have life he is indifferent well But the children of God doe not judge so of these things For life is not to live meerely but to be in a good estate to be in a healthy condition therefore seeing the Apostle lived and had his being among men he being not now layd in his grave but conversing in our common element why then doth he say hee died daily Why even because of troubles and of cares It is true but because men would not beleeve how he should have such cares 1 By way of an Oath and how they should be the cut-throat of his life therefore now he interposeth his bond and it is a firme bond his oath which though it be but an imperfect argument yet is it taken of godly men for the strongest argument that is in Rebus humanis For things that are uncertaine are determined by the oath of an honest man and men take it for the most certaine truth that can be because an oath is a bond that gives testimony to the truth So the Apostle in this and in other places useth a strange kinde of reasoning drawn from the contrary and we are to beleeve him upon his Word It is true his friends and those that are sanctified will easily beleeve him but those that are without that are yet to bee wonne they are hardly to be perswaded Therefore for their infirmity and for the weakenesse of the Corinthians he puts his oath to it and sweares it is true I protest by the reioycing I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily Now you see the nature of the argument and if we consider it well it will appeare that the wisedome of God in the state of his children which is so farre above mans reach and reason that the Angels themselves can scarcely make a delivery of it For marke he had said before I dye daily and now he proves it by another thing cleane contrary by his rejoycing daily By the reioycing that I have in Christ Iesus continually by that reioycing that is alway with me by that reioycing I dye daily A strange thing that a man should have feare and care and yet be ioyfull too at the same time to dye and yet to reioyce or boast at the same instant for so the word signifieth to boast in the apprehension of a good thing to ioy in a singular measure for Ioy is the apprehension of a singular good in a singular measure that these two should be put together to say I reioyce daily and I dye daily this is a wonder which the Lord hath hid from flesh and bloud which he hath not manifested to the great ones of the world but to his little despicable ones even those that take delight in the kingdome of Christ By the reioycing I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily There is some variety in the reading of these words Some reade it by your reioycing and so that which I must honour our last translation hath it in the Margine by your reioycing some reade it or reioycing But there is no great difference for the sence comes all to one So Saint Ierome Saint Augustine Saint Chrysostome and Theophilact they read it by your reioycing But then on the other side there are a number of the Fathers that reade it our reioycing as Basile upon Psal 14. Athanasius and of later Writers Luther and Calvin Onely Beza holds with the Ancients and saith your reioycing making notwithstanding no difference in the Text or in the sence for saith he the Apostles meaning is by the reioycing that I have of you and by the reioycing that you have of me and saith Saint Chrysostome he calleth the proficiency of the Corinthians his reioycing as he saith 1 Thes 2. What is our crowne 1 Thes 2.19 and our reioycing and our glory are not ye And he answers his owne question and saith yes Ye are our crowne and our reioycing in the day of the Lord. This I take to be the more fitte and the more lively and fuller our reioycing rather than to reade it yours although it bee true it is the common Reioycing of Gods children they have all the same spirit and the same joyes yet a man may not lawfully sweare by that which is in another man but a man may sweare for himselfe Thus Saint Paul although he knew that the Corinthians were forward and full of the gifts of the holy Ghost and of ioy yet he had no reason to be so confident in them as to sweare by their reioycing Because a man knowes not what is in his neighbour he is not certaine he may iudge the best but he knowes nothing certainly and he were a mad man therefore that would sweare for that which he knowes not therefore the Apostle makes this oath not of the ioy or gloriation or boasting that was in the Corinthians but the boasting and gloriation of his owne spirit in the presence of Christ Iesus This I take to be the sence although it be true that the Apostle gloried much in his passions and sufferings at Corinth and he gloryed too for the preaching and successe of the Gospell this was matter of great gloriation and boasting yet it was the inward comfort and testimony of his conscience that made him sweare by his reioycing in Christ Others goe about to put it off with a kinde of Asseveration onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Bezae Annotat in locum that is another reading which Saint Ambrose followes and the vulgar Bibles and so the common translations at this day though they touch upon this and in a manner are weary of the other As if the Apostle should say for your glory sake But those that know the Greeke tongue they know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being not written with letters but like a halfe circle it is easily brought to be like the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Scripture may be read promiscuously with eyther of them in this place But this is against the tenent of all the Fathers of the Church which have still thought this to be an oath As Saint Austin writing to Hillary in his 89. Aug ad Hilla ep 89. Et lib. 3. de Trin. Epistle he proves it lawfull for a Christian man to sweare because the Apostle writes by an oath And
cast among them to strive and struggle with them to see whether God would favour his cause or no whether he were of a magnanimous spirit or whether he would yeeld and shrinke when he saw the beast come neare him from his faith or no. We cannot imagine that Saint Paul did this seeking to please the people to make himselfe a barbarous spectacle to them or that he did it to tempt God by offering his life to the beasts but he was throwne unto them and compelled to it And it was no disgrace for him then to yeeld to it being forced by the superiour powers So Calvin Luther and Beza are indifferent But many of the Ancients directly expound it according to the letter as that these beasts must be understood to be some kinde of Tygers Leopards or Lyons such things Saint Paul was exposed unto to try the constancy of his faith to try his prowesse and valour to see whether God would deliver him or no. I confesse the number of the Authors are so great and their authority and gifts so excellent as that I cannot deny but that this may be the true sence of this place But yet I rather incline to the other which Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine Saint Cyrill Tertullian and divers other Fathers doe warrant to us as the best and most proper sence Namely that Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with beastly men men of beastly conditions And there is but one thing difficult in it that is that the Apostle should forget that lenity of spirit in which he useth to speake and that Christ teacheth all men that they should not give an ill or a rayling word Whereas there cannot be a worse word given to a man than to call him beast Our Lord and Saviour Christ saith that he that cals his brother Racha Math 5.22 he that cals his brother foole shall be in danger of hell fire Now he that cals a man foole speakes farre more moderately and modestly than he that cals a man a beast For to call a man foole is still to call him man for there is nothing can be a foole but man or woman for it fals not within the compasse of beasts to bee wise or foolish but still when one is called foole hee is kept in the condition of a man but when a man cals a man beast he is out of the element and latitude of men and compared to a more base and degenerate creature But for this we must understand that our Lord Christ speakes there of the common talke and discourse among Christians and not of that Apostolicall authority not of that magisteriall reproofe that is in the Church and must be to the worlds end For every man may not speake alike a private man must not speake as the Magistrate doth nor every man must not speake as the Minister may speake in reprooving sinne and revealing the will of God And here we must conceive that this that the Apostle speaks it was by Gods spirit dictating it unto him he was the Prophet of God put in that place he spake it not from himselfe but from a greater Therefore to pitch upon this exposition If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus That is with men that had the faces of men but the condition of beasts For this is the common phrase and language of people when a man transcends others in bruitishnesse and cruelty in a base conversation they say he hath put on the beast he hath left humanity and is turned beast For it is mens carriage and conditions that distinguisheth them from beasts So we see the Scripture hath this peculiar phrase when the Prophet speakes Isa 56.10 Isa 56. of Prophets that would not Preach or that preached for gaine he cals them dumb dogs Phil. 3.2 and the Apostle Paul saith Beware of dogges whereby is meant such kinde of men as are prophane as Esau those that returne to their vomit of sinne to their former concupiscence and contemne and scorne all holy things Math. 7.6 yea and our Lord Christ saith Give not holy things to dogges that is to doggish men so the Prophet David often prayes unto God to deliver his soule from the Lyon from the Vnicorne from the Dogge from the Wolfe And so Saint Paul calleth Nero 2 Tim. 4.17 Lyon 2 Tim. 4. The Lord hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lyon that is from the Emperour Nero Luke 13.32 so our Lord Christ called Herod Foxe Tell that Foxe saith he I worke to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfect There is nothing more usuall in the Scriptures than this therefore I will not insist to prove or illustrate it any further It is an excellent thing which Chrysologus Chrysologus saith The Scriptures of God make no more account of a man to be a man after he fals to bruitish conditions but reputes him in his ranke among beasts as he is a beast of the field a beast for the slaughter The Scripture cals them divels in the fashion and habite and outward forme of men so our Saviour Christ tels us Iohn 8. Ioh. 8. of a generation of Vipers of a genealogy of divels Ye are of your father the divell saith he which wee know is not to be understood according to the letter but is to be referred to the absurd conditions of men Of which also the Apostle speakes 2 Thes 3.2 2 Thes 3.2 Pray to God for us saith the Apostle for what purpose That we may be delivered from absurd men men that have no nature in them that have no common straine of humanity in them but are altogether degenerated and metamorphosed into beasts pray for us to be delivered from them So that place being compared with this it is cleere If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with men of bruitish natures men that cannot be contampred with at all men of no society but are given over to their fury and madnesse that have no more mercy in them than bruit beasts and must be let goe to their fury as a beast that doth what mischiefe it can without any limitation or respect To passe from this poynt We see what base dejection sinne hath brought on us we that thought to be equall to God Vse as God saith Behold Adam is become as one of us Gen. 3.22 we are now become as the beasts that perish Psal 59.20 as the Prophet David saith Man being in honour understood it not but it become like the beasts that perish Gen. 3.21 And as man fell to bee like a beast so God clad him in the skinne of a beast Our first great grandfather Adam had the skinnes of beasts for his garments to signifie that as they were turned beasts so God gave them an outward habite and vesture to shew them what inwardly they were become This should teach us still to have our eye on that
that which keepes the world together These devils are to be shunned as the very roarings from hell And especially those idle jests that concerne the Scriptures and matters of this nature that we now speake of when men like bruit beasts will take upon them to jest out of the booke of God Such as can prompt themselves with more Scripture to make jests and fooleries then they can remember upon their death-bed to give them comfort These that in their cups can abuse God and his booke to his face they are the first-borne of the devill even such as either wrest the Scriptures to a bad sence or else make jests of it to an idle purpose for vanitie and foolerie These jesters with the Word of God are the greatest corrupters of good manners for they take away the feare of God which is the great good manners of a Christian and they take away the authoritie of the Scriptures by which we are all bound to the Lord. So likewise for all matters of disputation Hee that speaks before weake mindes that much may stagger their faith this is a corrupting of good manners In our time it is the fashion we will dispute of all religions when wee meete and one is for this matter and another for that and there is a sort of poore things about us and they heare all but know not who to hold with as having not discretion to make a difference of things But he that makes the greatest clamour and that hath most voices shall carry it away By this meanes they kill the good manners of people and take away that orthodoxe faith that should be in men It is a wondrous thing to observe how the Devill labours to make these kinde of disputations When a man is resolved for the truth yet saith he it is no matter heare what these men can say they bring some colour of arguments for it they do it with a good wit heare them I wish thee not to yeeld onely see their reasons By this meanes we have lost within this short time an infinite company of Protestants The venome hath beene so strong that they have not been able to work it out and so they have been brought into grosse heresie and Apostasie and fallen quite away by this meanes Let us take heed of this these strike at the maine they undermine the very foundation other things may more easily be mended For when a man shall suffer shipwracke in his understanding and in his apprehension of God It is a thousand to one if ever such a one be recovered So to conclude this present point vile speeches in a mans mouth concerning the Resurrection is a damnable thing For this is the maine end of all our profession this is the hope and fruit the harvest of Religion the resurrection of the body and if that be called in question or made a jest of or the majesty of it touched Luther there must needs be a great concussion and shaking of the whole house and frame of Religion Therefore those base words used in former time which Luther saith were used among the Saxons Saxons They had a grosse proverbe amongst drunken fellows Sirra saith one to his fellow drunkard doest thou thinke that I have not another companion within me to this outward companion that is a soule to this body And his fellow would answer Yes Why then saith he againe I perswade my self that they will dye together as friends and the one shall not out-live the other We two spend our time in drinking and good-fellowship and it is hard if my friend within be not better then my friend without But as Luther saith if the devill should have come from hell he could not have spoken worser I am loath to speake these things lest men take hold of it but we must open them to the children of God that they may know and beware of these evill words There is another company of drunkards that when they are met at their pots they will talke of the Resurrection whether they shall know their friends in the other world and discourse concerning the bloud of Gods children that hath beene let out by physicke and concerning the haires of their head which they have lost Such strange devices men have to mocke out the kingdome of God and the glorious relation of the Resurrection There is another company and they will not be buried in the Church by reason of the tumult that will be at the Resurrection lest they should be overwhelmed with the weight of them These beastly things these dialects of hell if Christians admit them into their eares they are in danger of damnation by it but if they take them into their mouthes they are in danger of double and treble damnation Let us know the holy things of God let us use these holy and glorious mysteries with honour and reverence and let us not meddle with them but with humilitie and prayer and great affection For these words that go about to make these holy things prophane and to make these pearles fit for swine they are degenerating corrupting base words and a true Christian should wish as the Poet in the Comedie when he heard that which pleased him not I would to God that this man were dumbe or that I were deafe that either he could not speake or that I could not heare these beastly things that ruine the state of the soule and abuse the apprehension of the majestie of God to loosenesse and to beastlinesse FINIS 1 COR. 15.34 Drunkards awake justly and sinne not for divers have not the knowledge of God I speake this to your shame Or as the words signifie Awake from your drunkennesse justly and sinne not for many certain of you some of you have an ignorance concerning God I speake this for reproofe AFter the Apostle had shewed the great danger that comes by pestilent discourses and communication and had given them charge concerning it take heed be not deceived hee now concludes all that point and makes way to another which is the most notable demonstration the most gracious remonstrance of the manner and order of the Resurrection And so he gives as it were a barre unto them to stop their eares against all contrary speech and discourse For those that wil be content to entertaine discourse contrary to the doctrine of the sGospell they are seldome or never brought to bee choller 's to the Gospell Sathan ever sharpens the wits and whets the tongues of men to rise up in confutatorie speeches that tend to the disgrace and calling in question of the truth and if men will but lend their eares to it the Lord will give them over in just judgement that they shall be insnared and intangled with it Therefore as Plutarch Plutarch saith well concerning yong mens reading of the writings of Poets and lascivious poems that they should be well armed that they should arme themselves with Amphitedes which was a certaine fence
cannot rouse up his spirits to action so these infernall sleeps these sleepes of sinne they give a certaine evident prognostication that such a man shall be for ever damned in hell They have slept their sleepe saith the Prophet that is Psal 76 5. they are gone to their everlasting sleepe to hell where their sleepe is not a refreshing and refection as ours is but a continuall terrour with gastly dreames and apparitions that they were better not to have any being then to be in that fearfull manner Therefore the Apostle would teach us that the consideration of that infernall sleepe should worke us from this sleepe of sinne which unlesse we be awaked from we shall be like those in a Lethargie even in death and extreamly unable for any living actions Sinne is compared to sleepe for many plaine reasons I need not name them First as when sleepe is on men they know not what they do or what they say many idle words passe from them that they are not sensible of So a sinner whatsoever he doth all is sinne yet he knows not what he doth Therefore our Lord Christ upon the Crosse prayes Father forgive them Luk 22.34 they know not what they do Secondly sleepe exposeth a man to any danger He that lyes sleeping cannot defend himselfe the least childe that comes may cut his threat So a man that lives in sinne is exposed to all dangers that on every side waite upon him He is in danger of God he is in danger of Man in danger of the devill in danger of his owne humours and constitution in danger of every beast of every thing that comes neare him the least spider that is may confound and destroy and poyson him There is nothing so exposed to danger as a sleeping man much more as a sleeping sinner Therefore the wise man compares him to a man that is asleepe But where upon the top of a mast of a ship Prov. 23.34 in a storme of weather which losses the ship to and fro and he being asleepe there it is a thousand to one if he be not shaken over into the Sea So a man that lives in sinne he is asleepe in the middest of his enemies in the tents of those that hate him There is no securitie for a man that lives in sinne wheresoever he goes danger dogges him and he is exposed to the striking hand of God in every place Thirdly sleepe and sinne are compared together in the Scriptures because neither of them have any signification of life A sleeper is bound in all his sences there is nothing remaines in him but a little breathing and a few wilde affections in raging dreames and deepe phantasies So it is with a sinner whatsoever he doth is unpleasing to God His words are unsavoury his works are ungodly his example every where detestable himselfe odious to God odious to men odious to his owne soule The Scripture could not finde a fitter comparison to describe the infirmitie of the soule by which is sinne then sleepe And yet it is so much the more wondrous because the Apostle saith it is not simplie a sleepe but a drunken sleepe There is a great addition to it in that for the sleepe naturall is farre more easily to be recovered it reviveth and refresheth the body it leaves a sweet and easie touch and tincture behinde it But those fals and mischiefes that a drunkard gets in his sleepe he cannot so easily cast them off but they sticke to him many dayes after And that facilitie that a man hath in rising from his sleepe it is not found in a sinner except the Lord worke wondrously It is an easie thing to worke a man out of sleepe but it is an hard thing to awake a man out of his sinne Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 stand up from the dead bestirre thy selfe a small matter will not do it But by this it seemes Quest that there is in man free-will of himselfe to convert himselfe because the Apostle saith Awake and stand up thou that sleepest and recover thy selfe againe to thy owne minde and to thy former actions Is it in the power of man to waken at the voyce of man that as he cast himselfe into sleepe and into sinne so to awaken himselfe when he pleaseth Verily no Answ it must be the great God that must do it all the power in heaven and earth cannot waken a sleeping sinner untill God blow the trumpet T is God that gives his beloved sleepe And as it is he alone Psal 127.2 that gives the sleepe naturall so much more it is he that gives the waking It is a great blessing of God to bring a man that is out of this world as it were by dreames and phansies to bring him backe to living actions For a man that is sleeping is in another element in another world and they are farre from true life that are asleepe saith Plinie Plinie And certainly every life is a kinde of watching and therefore sleepe must needs be a kinde of dying it is the brother of death as the Poet saith Therefore the same Poet well signified it out of that glimmering he had from the Scriptures that God is the author both of mans waking and also of his sleeping For they make Mercurie to have a certaine rodde which was given him of Iupiter whereby he had power to cast asleepe whom he would and to waken others that were a sleepe when he would Hom. ult â—l as Homer Homer saith The meaning of this little learning they had in Divinitie was this that it lay in the hand of God for Mercury was one of the prime and chiefe gods among them when he would to give change of sleeping and waking and that none else could do it no not in naturall things But much more in the spirituall sleep is it impossible for any man to waken a sinner but he must be roused by the great God that permitted him in justice to fall asleepe but in the multitude of his mercie hee takes the paines to awaken him againe Quest But how is this done Answ We reade in Scripture of three chiefe and principall wayes whereby God awakeneth sinners The first is with a voyce And then with certaine pinchings And lastly with high clamours and cries The voyce is as that which came to Samuel When Samuel was asleepe 1. Sam. 3.4 the voyce of the Lord comes and called Samuel Samuel whereupon Samuel riseth and goeth to Ely being now beginning to slumber the voyce of the Lord rowseth him Thus God deales with men that have tender hearts and flexible mindes that come in at the first call of the Lord and returne home Such a man was David who is called a man after Gods owne heart 1. Sam. 13.14 Not because he had no sinne but because his heart was as waxe flexible unto God without any purpose to defend any sinne or to continue in any sinne Secondly another
more behinde still so to fill the desires of men and to draw their affections unto him As it is thus in these corporall things which are with lesse labour found out still there is an infinitum a kinde of infinite labour and toyle in it that they are not found out but by the hand of God So many golden mines in the earth that are undiscovered so many precious things that are not yet revealed Much more must it needs be in those holy secrets those gracious things in heaven in the glorious Court above when the footstoole is so infinite and secret Psal 77.19 Aug. As the Psalmist saith his footsteps are not knowne Saith Saint Austin well If the steppes of his feet be not knowne how then shall the counsels of his head be discovered Therefore in these things wee must settle our selves and returne the foole upon our owne soules when we meddle with these deepe and secret matters wee know not a great number of things that are created the hearbes that are under our feet we know not the difference of them wee know not the qualities of them nor their natures and operations and shall we then mount up into heaven to see what is done there before our time The Lord will give it us in time if wee keepe our selves within the limits of modestie and restraine our selves within that compasse which hee hath commanded us Vse Secondly we learne out of this in that the Apostle cals him foole and cals these things foolish therefore we should not affect these things and give our selves over to them We learne what to judge of all curious Divinitie and dâ—scourses that it is rather a part of folly then any shew and remonstrance of wisedome And by this reason a great number of Students and Scholars in this Land spend their time meerly in folly 1. Tim. 6.10 As the Apostle saith It is science falsely so called they studie and imploy themselves that they may be madde with reason that is by following a kinde of sublime reason as they thinke they fall from reason and loose themselves Like the Philosopher that so long conversed about the mysterie of the Sunne that at the last he made a question whether ever there were a Sunne or no he knew not whether the light came from the Sunne or from any super-illuminating cause or no. The Lord blindes men that are too quicke sighted to search into things that hee hath not provided for them Such things there be indeed as Saint Austin saith Aug. there are certaine idle delicacies and dainties but they are not for us they are for no man to know that would worke out his salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Lastly in that he cals him foole or madde man we see how lawfull and how necessary it is sometimes to use the authoritie of the Spirit to use the majestie of the Spirit in the Gospell to call them fooles that speake foolish things And although Christ forbid us to do it in our particular and private talke and he that cals his brother foole Mat. 5.22 is in danger of hell fire yet it is one thing what a common Christian may do upon a little sleight cause and it is another thing what the Magistrate or what the Minister of the Word may do upon an urgent occasion Gal. 3.1 Wee see Saint Paul cals the Galathians madde men and foolish men and this questionist here hee cals him foole Luk. 12.20 Yea our Lord Christ cals the rich man foole Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soul Mat. 3.7 And Saint Iohn Baptist Oh generation of vipers So that there is left in the Church a power and authority which must be used when there is occasion to draw the sword against contumacious rebels which will not be reclaimed by other meanes As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith the preacher of the Word must be like unto the Bee he must have both a sting and honey And Saint Chrysostome upon this place saith he Chrysost he gives him a sharpe tearme but hee passeth by him quickly hee gives him indeed a poore title but yet it is a fit one He was afraid lest hee should cut him too deepe therefore hee would not stand too long upon him lest he should make him runne away For as a wise man will easily endure such a word as this from the mouth of a wiser so a man when he is followed and baited too farre he will kicke against the pricks and be ready altogether to cast off the reprehension Now we come to the demonstration That which thou sowest c. 2 The demonstration Here is the substance of the Answer to the first question the answer to the second follows in the next verse The Lord of his great goodnesse and mercie hath made the possibilitie of his owne truth apparant unto us in all the common actions of nature What more usuall what more ordinarie what more necessarie then the sowing of seed Now the seeds man if he do but mark what he doth when he imployes himselfe he shall easily perceive that God teacheth him out of his owne trade what he is to thinke of this great mystery To sow the corne in the ground we know that to flesh and bloud and common sence it is a meere losse of it and if wee had not seene it done before wee should conclude so Therefore there are some men that are celebrated as famous in the Poets for inventing this the casting of the seed into the ground from whence people thought there was no returning Indeed that conceit might be in barbarous rude Nations but it is certaine that this doctrine was taught unto Adam in Paradise and hath beene transmitted to all his posteritie Yet there are some Nations that to this day do not know the common necessity of sowing nor use it not they understand not the mystery the Lord hath so farre blinded them So it is in this sowing of the body In all judgement of flesh and bloud when the body is put downe into the grave into the coffin into the earth it seemes to be gone for ever and it goes from worse to worse till it come to dust and ashes the prime principles of our creation We ought to compare therefore these things together and we shall see how wondrous God is in the one and learne thereby how glorious he will be in the other The seed that is sowne it is quickened and hath life that vegetable life th t things of like nature have to grow againe and to bee greater to feed it selfe and to feed us also For God hath made the seed of a singular piercing qualitie that the lesser it is the more power it hath Therefore the mustard-seed which is the least graine whâ—n it comes up it grows to be a great tree For in these small things God sets forth his power oft times more gloriously then in greater matters And
which are the judges of life and death For who can tell what is dead and what is alive in the creature but he that is Lord of the creature Therefore though it have a kinde of action though it have a kinde of life lurking in it yet to our sence it is to no purpose it is of no use it is a meere jellie that is good neither for man nor beast Therefore it is dead So our Lord Christ saith Ioh. 12.24 Verily saith he comparing himselfe to the wheat-corne the corne of wheat saith hee except it fall into the ground and dye it remains alone and brings forth nothing but is single still but when it fals into the ground when it is buried and dyes in the earth then it brings forth much fruit So the Sonne of Man if he should live still in the world and not dye hee should remaine alone hee should do no good hee should be a single Christ no man could be saved by him but if he dye and rise againe hee shall raise a mighty harvest unto God So we see the truth of this doctrine manifested against the Philosophers That the corne is simplie dead it is demonstrated hence because the corne of God which is farre better then the common corne it dyes the bodies of men are truly dead yea the body of that wheat corne the Sonne of God himselfe was dead It is idle therefore for them to imagine that it hath a perfection to it selfe though it be corrupted to us For it is certaine that all these things dye the corne dyeth man dyeth the Sonne of God dyed according to that part of his humane nature which was mortall Therefore hee compares himselfe to a wheat corne to shew the great and sweet convenience betweene him which is the head and we that are his members how it is figured in these parcels of nature First the Lord hath made the corne of the earth to feed man and hath given a gracious abundance unto it that it comes forth in a goodly beautie and with strange varietie And then he teacheth us that the bodies of men shall rise so too which are much more deare then corne And lastly he hath given us a patterne in his owne body being cast into the earth which else should have remained single but being once interred and rising againe brings forth abundance of fruit This we may see in the bread of this life and in the bread of heaven how they both worke to give us an assurance of the Resurrection The bread of this life is corne the bread of heaven is Christ he is the Mannah that came downe from heaven Job 6.58 and these breads the bread of the body and the bread of the soule make up the conclusion as a certaine thing that that which is nourished by both these breads shall follow the qualitie of them The body of man is nourished with the one and the soule of man with the other Therefore the substance of the man must rise because the bodily bread riseth and the spirituall bread riseth and we feed of them and according to that which a man feeds on he is conformed As the Philosopher saith man is nourished of that thing whereof he consists and he consists of that whereby he is nourished And further we may observe in the phrase hee doth not say that the corne liveth but it is enlivened as Saint Chrysostome Chrysost and Saint Basil Basil observe Because hee would give us to note that all is in the power of God that worketh all in all Therefore he saith It is quickened It signifieth a passion or suffering and to be wrought upon from a higher cause It is quickened it is enlivened from a higher superior power So that the growing of the corne is not meerly from the influence of the Sunne or of the Moone no nor from the goodnesse of the soyle nor from the diligence of the husbandman nor from any naturall inherent qualitie but God gives it a body God gives it life And if his eye of providence be so watchfull in these particular cases in things of this small qualitie much more will he be watchfull in that great worke wherein he hath bound himselfe by a promise and if that be too little he hath sworne it we have his oath that it shall be so He hath given us to know in his Word 1. Cor 3.6 that it is not in Paul that plants nor in Apollo that waters but God that gives the increase that is there is nothing that can bring forth fruit no not a tree except the Lord give the increase All the second causes are nothing it is God that works all as the Psalmist saith Psal 127.1 2. It is to no purpose for men to rise early or to go to bed late and to eate the bread of carefulnesse It is in vaine for the watchmen to watch the Citie except the Lord keepe it The Apostle doth not say It doth not live except it dye but he saith It is not quickened it is not enlivened still hee reflects upon God and yeelds unto him the praise and glory of all things for from him onely comes the blessing and increase And lastly to conclude with the time hee saith that after the corne is dead it is quickened againe it is enlivened againe so it shall be with the bodies of men after they be dead but hee saith except it first bee dead it cannot be alive so that dying is the necessary reason of living It is a condition absolute if wee must live we must of necessity dye first Vse This must teach us that there is no exemption and priviledge from death if we look to be of their number that shall come to life Men cannot possibly be clad over this body with glory this body is not capable of the garment of glory except either it be brought to a change as they shall be that live at the comming of Christ or else it dye and be raised againe It is impossible that the robe of glory should cover this body of ours as it is Vse This should comfort us against death that because we shall dye first therefore wee shall be quickened againe it hath the force of a cause or condition in it it cannot bee otherwise Because the corne dyes therefore it lives and the reason that it lives is because it first dyes There is no hope of recoverie of life except first there bee a passage through death Hence we have exceeding comfort against the sorrows of death Those things that seeme to argue cleane contrary against us they make most for us For because there be such unlikelihoods of the Resurrection therefore we shall rise because we shall be dead therefore we shall be alive because we shall be closed within the grave as in a prison therefore we shall be inlarged because we are brought to dust and ashes therefore we shall bee brought to glory and to a heavenly condition
of the Lord out of the prime materialls and beginnings It is raised never to fall downe againe It is raised not to relapse againe but to stand as a goodly monument for ever It is raised by the mighty hand of him that raiseth the poore out of the dust and mire Psal 113.7 8. and makes them equall to the Princes of his people Therefore in this word the Apostle would teach us also wherein our hope consists It is sowne that is a hopefull action but after it is sowne it must be raised againe that is a dependant action which is not in our selves but from the Lord. Therefore we must raise our hearts unto God and returne our devotion and best affections to him while we live here that he may raise these bodies of ours when they have no power to raise themselves but when they shall lie in the dust of confusion he shall raise them up that they may be living Temples for the holy Ghost for ever to inhabit It is necessary before hand to raise our spirits unto him that he may make a requitall unto us at the great day of his Visitation So much for the metaphors It is sowne in corruption Corruption is the worst change that can be It is a motion from a being to a not-being For as generation is a work of God whereby something which was not is brought to have a being so corruption is a work which God permits to be done whereby a thing is brought to fall from that being either to no-being at all to have no being in our sense or else to such a base and naughty being that a man can see no reason why it should ever have been so glorious and so goodly to come to such a foule disgracefull downfall Corruption therefore is the destruction of the thing that was made as in all things we see in the world In naturall artificiall things when a matter is corrupt once it grows fit for nothing and although there be some kind of liquors that when they are corrupted they serve for some use as wine when it is corrupt it turnes to vineger and although it be not fit to drink yet it serves to raise the appetite in sauce and so divers other things doe so corrupt that notwithstanding they serve for some use but yet the chiefest and greatest number of things when they come once to be corrupted they come as much as to say to nothing to a kind of dissolution for there is nothing that can be turned unto nothing simply but because the use and property and substance is so disgraced and a contrary thing succeeds a better it is as if the thing were not at all Now this corruption is done two waies It is effected either by separation of the matter Or by removing of the forme The matter and the form you know are the chief things of which every body consists and we see that in death these things hold exactly For the forme of man being his reasonable soule as long as that is in the body it is cōpact and free from corruption and it keeps the beauty in the forme and image of God in its proper frame and figure But when the soule is gone then corruption works and dissolves the matter to Now when the matter is dissolved or the element is dissolved and corrupted this is that corruption which the Apostle speaks of here when hee saith The body is sowne in corruption that is the principles of the body which consist of bloud and flesh and skin and bones and colour and complexion and proportion and figure and frame all these goe away presently after the soule is gone And though some hold longer then other as being of more sollid parts yet they continue not long even but a few yeares and in some grounds a few dayes destroy the whole man This corruption began when wee began God t is true made the body of man uncorrupt had he persisted in obedience but as soone as man by his prevarication by transgression of Gods command was drawne into sinne he brought upon him this worme of corruption which never ceaseth to work upon the powers and faculties of flesh and bloud and upon every part till at the last it work it to an utter nothing to a very desolation And this corruption if it could be contained it were well if it could consist within some termes For corruption is proper to the body but yet through the infection of sin the gangrene hath so poysoned and possessed the whole man that corruption by a metaphor is brought into the soule to which is the speciall part of man And when the best things are corrupted the corruption is most wofull of all Matth 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse saith the Lord Iesus Men in this world are corrupt in body they are corrupt in soule they are corrupt in their understandings in their speeches they are corrupt in their wayes Psal 53.1 as the Prophet saith Corrupt they are and become abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one They are corrupt in their consciences the consciences of wicked men are defiled with hypocrisie that they stink in the nostrils of God and men And to this corruption every man is subject more or lesse But the chiefe corruption intended here is corruptibility that is the rottennes of the parts of the body when they are once dissolved and melted and fall from one another To conclude this point because we know it by experience and we beare about us these corrupt bodies and we are troubled with the signs of corruption every day if we understand any thing Vse 1 It should teach us therefore not to triumph in any of these worldly things that puffe up the flesh and fill the mind with vaine conceits of its owne sufficiency but rather let us study mortification such as becomes the children of God let us weep for our owne corruptions for they grow so fast upon us that they make us odious even unto our owne selves when wee come to have a sense of our selves Againe it teacheth us this to take heed how we Vse 2 patch over this corruptibility as we use to do What a deale of cost what a deal of painting and art and labour and time is spent now adaies to conceal this corruption Corrupt bodies will not seem to be corrupt but they will be immortall and eternall and those offensive things that be in nature and that grossenesse and loathsomnesse that lurks in these bodies we seek by perfumes and by orient colours and singular diet to suppresse them and obscure them that they may not appeare But now the Lord hath put a worm in this flesh see it and acknowledge it and waile over it make not thy selfe better then thou art deceive not thy selfe thou art nothing but dust and ashes a corrupt creature a masse of corruption Why then art thou
harmelesse humour although when it is too extreame and violent it is full of sinne yet it is construed to a good sense that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all that is to say not to be dissolved after the fashion of the common death as S. Paul did but to have a kinde of light mutation and change and so to be translated unto glory You see in 2 Cor. 5.4 2 Cor. 5.4 where the Apostle tells us We would not be spoiled of this body that is we would not die but supervestiri wee would have a garment or vestment of glory and immortality to be put upon this body without death As if hee should say we would have corruption to enter into incorruption and we would be made capable of heaven with these bodies unchanged by death To that the Apostle answers in these words No saith he these things are contrary naturall and spirituall and it is impossible for a naturall body to be capable of spirituall qualities or a spirituall body of naturall qualities we must needs leave off the one before we can take the other we must lay downe the rags of this flesh before we can take the garment or vestment of glory and eternity in that blessed life that followes And although we have a great desire to goe unto life without death yet wee must mortifie that desire for it is as vaine as nurses wishes As nurses that wish the most eminent and excellent things to their children so we delight our selves in this imagination But the Apostle tells us that wee must take things in order for that God hath made all things in order First we are to taste of the naturals and then to be made partakers of the spirituals so we cannot be borne into this world but by nature and we cannot be borne into our spirituall possession at the first but first we must have a kinde of naturall life and by the grace of God that prepares us unto the life spirituall So God hath appointed and ordained every thing to goe by succession that all things should not be done at once but every thing in its time For saith he that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall And to this purpose hee brings in the two great fountaines and seminaries of mankinde the one for the life of nature the other for the life of grace a man and a man both of them being men but yet being diversly qualified and both leaving their qualities to those that be their followers For saith the Apostle the causers of all this great difference of naturall and spirituall be the two Adams the one was meerely naturall and was no more but a man The other although he were naturall yet he was spirituall too he was both God and man The one wrought unto death the other wrought unto life the one was bent and inclined to sinne the other was full of all grace the one left an inheritance of misery the other left great demeanes of glory to all those that are his followers Now as these causes bee contrary in themselves there being as much difference betweene them as there is betweene East and West so wee must imagine the effects to be different too For if the one did work to hell and damnation the other wrought to heaven a glorious redemption and salvation for all Gods people and if the wickednesse of the one were derivable upon his posterity in the flesh much more the goodnesse and righteousnesse of the other is derived unto them that are true beleevers and followers of him The first man was of the earth earthly the second man was the Lord from heaven And as they be so be their disciples as is he that is earthly so are they that are earthly and as was the heavenly so are they that are heavenly They are to follow their masters cue and to be of the same condition as their Chieftaine and Soveraigne The carnall man dies in Adam the spirituall lives in Christ even to life everlasting This is the substance of the words read unto you Now to proceed in order of the Text. First Division into 3. parts 1. The order of the PropositioÌ„ 2. The comparison betweene the 2. Adams 3. The conformity of their members we are to consider the verity and truth of the order of this proposition how the Apostle intends that that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall For it seemes that the best things should be first and spirituall things being best therefore it seemes they should be first yea it seems to be a disparagement unto things spirituall and heavenly to come in time after things naturall But the Apostle saith no God hath appointed it so and hee gives no further reason as St. Chrysostom observes that they may give themselves content in this that it is Gods will it shall be so that is a reason sufficient they need seek no further Secondly we are to consider the comparison betweene the two heads and roots and fountaines of mankinde the first man and the latter man and they are compared in foure things The first is in respect of their order and succession the first and the last or the first and the second The second is in respect of the place of their nativity whence they come the first from the earth the second from heaven The third is in the quantity of their difference and excellencie the first came as a servant the second came as a Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the word servant be not noted in the Text yet it is to be understood by this that he saith The Lord himselfe Therefore the first came not as a Lord but as a servant but the second came as a Lord in all points yea as the Lord himselfe from heaven Then lastly for their qualities the one is earthly the other is heavenly The third part of the Text is the conformity of the members that belong to these heads with their heads For as there are two great foundations of mankinde so likewise they have members answerable to them Those that be of Adam that is naturall men they be as their father is such as the earthly is so they are that are earthly and those that be of Christs retinue they be such as their Master is too For as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly which is not meant of the manners and condition of men here in this world for the Apostle meddles not with that in all this Chapter but it is spoken of the bodies that shall be raised at that day thâ—t as all men be earthly by nature the best Saints of God here are in an earthly condition and must be dissolved into earth and as we have that by means of the first Adam from whence wee descend so from the second Adam wee have a hope and shall
for that which is changeable therefore he is said to be unconstant base and earthly that is a simple poore base creature which made himselfe according to his prime originall and studied and gaped after the things of the earth out of which he was extracted He had indeed better things if he would have used them but he was so stupefied and drawne back to his inferiour part that hee was made like unto his first materialls the earth But the other was from heaven not because he had not a body from the earth but because to that body was added a glorious divinity and that his body was not a person as Adams was For if the manhood of Christ had been a person he must have beene lyable as all persons that are borne to condemnation but his was not a person but a nature united to the second person in the Trinity so that although there be two natures in Christ yet there is not two but one person and the actions that come from any man they are the actions of his person of the subject and not the actions of his nature For it is a man that speaks and a man that works and not the body of a man that speaks or the soule of man So therefore it comes to passe that the actions that come from Christ they are the actions of his person not of his humane nature but of his person and so they be the actions of God and man That is of that person in the Godhead that took the manhood unto it and so they are made the actions of an infinite merit and possibility Herein then is the difference that although Adam had a soul as well as Christ yet he had onely a living soule that could enliven no body but himselfe but the Lord had a Spirit that is the Deity it selfe which is able to give life which is the fountaine of life to all the world And although Christ had a body from the earth yet that body was not left unto frailty but was governed and sanctified and glorified by the beatificall vision of God and by the presence of the incorporate union of the Sonne of God So by this comes the difference between them the one was a man and nothing else but from the earth the other was more then a man God and man and so he is the Lord from heaven 3. In respect of their qualities The third difference is in their quality and condition which is noted in this word hee was a Lord. Therefore Adam came not as a Lord he came as a servant he was to serve in all purposes he came to till the garden to till the earth he came to eate and drink to beget children to be the father of a family Hee came into the world to increase and multiply as God commanded him Gen. 1.28 to replenish the earth These although they be faire courses and God gave a blessing unto them yet they be carnall and fleshly there is no respect of excellencie in these things they are matters rather of necessity for the present solace in this world then of glory But Christ came not for this purpose He came not to eate and drink but his meat and drink was to doe the will of his Father Iohn 4 34. He had no generation all his generation is a spirituall regeneration he came to doe God service these were the things he was exercised in Therefore he was the Lord from heaven This is the high prerogative of Christ There were many Angels that came from heaven as well as Christ but they came not as Lords but as servants as fellow servants Rev. 22.9 as in Rev. 22. when Iohn would have worshipped the Angel See thou doe it not saith hee I am thy fellow servant Heb. 1.14 And in Heb. 1. they are ministring spirits that serve for the salvation of those that are elect and chosen for the inheritance Therefore they came not downe as Lords but as servants And although we reade in Scripture of those that came downe as Lords as in the apparition to Abraham Gen. 18. he called the Angell Lord. Gen. 18.3 And the Captaine of the Lords Army that appeared to Ioshua though these came in the glory Ioshuah 5.14 and might of the Lord yet they were not that Lord as here it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord that came from heaven For that Lord is but one Lord Heb. 1.2 which is the Sonne of God to whom the Father hath given the inheritance of all things Heb. 1.2 hee is the heyre of all things and the Iewes themselves confesse Come let us kill him this is the heyre Mark 12.7 and the inheritance shall be ours Hee then is the Lord from heaven Adam came not as a Lord nor yet from heaven but one onely part of him his soul without any conjunction of the divine nature there came a changeable soule into a fraile body but Christ the Lord from heaven that is the Sonne of God as being Lord of hell and heaven invested himself in a strange and wondrous manner into the body and wombe of a Virgin and tooke that masse and lump of blood whereof his blessed body should be compacted and united it to himselfe and exercised the power of miracles and of gracious wonders and all parts of perfection in that nature and therefore he hath exalted our nature high above the Angels nature for he took not upon him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he took the seed of Abraham Lastly in their qualities they differ that as the first man came from the earth and is a servant so he is earthly There are two parts of man as the Philosopher saith there is the mind and the understanding that is the subtile and divine and fiery part of man whereby he is appropincate and drawes neere unto God in the similitude of his Image There is another and that is the grosse and materiall part Chrysost as St. Chrysostom expounds it that this earthly man is one that is dull and grosse and nayled and tyed to these things that are present whereas the other 2 Cor. 4.18 is heavenly and altogether upon the things that are not seene for the things that are seene are temporall but them that are not seene are eternall So then the one by his condition was still looking downward the other was all spirit and full of vigour full of life alway looking upward still unto heaven his conversation was also heavenly having given all his followers power to have their conversations there Phil. 3.20 Phil. 3. But our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Lord Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body So this is the Comparison of these two heads which that I may conclude this point wee must observe very strictly For by that meanes we may be both able to keep out all contrary
that shall not sleepe that is they shall not die after the common maner of death And then for the second opinion the second sense that Reades it We shall all rise againe That is false for there are none that shall rise but those that were dead and because all shall not die therefore all shall not rise as I said before in the opening of the Text. So that this is the proper and true sense of the Text and it is that also which is in all the Greek Copies The other is onely in some old Latin Copies and is diversly taken and mistaken by the Fathers This therefore is the Apostles meaning We shall not all sleepe that is wee shall not all die after this order and maner of death but wee shall all bee changed Those that bee in their graves shall be changed to incorruption to immortality and life and they that never come to the grave shall bee changed another way which shall be semblable and answerable unto the death that wee have So that all shall be changed yea not onely the godly to glory but the reprobate and wicked shall bee changed to a dureability to indure the torment which the justice of God hath allotted to them for their deserts from all eternity This Reading therefore is that that we must rest in as being the most proper resolution of the Apostles mind who giving a reason of that hee had said before that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdome of God No saith hee they shall not inherit it but by a kind of change and mutation not after the fashion as we doe God hath reserved for them another kind of translation by mutation not by buriall and putrefaction as our bodies doe Now I come to the words The first thing is this that he saith Behold I shew you a mystery Mystery is a word derived from the Hebrew Mister or Mistar and it signifieth a hidden thing or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it of shutting or closing of the eye because that all eyes are shut up and closed to the mysteries of God and it lies not in the power of any eye to understand the secrets of the Almighty Secret things belong unto God Deut. 29 29. but revealed things belong unto us and to our children saith Moses The Gospel is full of these mysteries and there is nothing so mysticall and hard to bee understood as these things concerning the renewing and reparation of the world For the things that bee done in common experience be nothing mysticall but those that we looke to by faith those things that we apprehend by hope they are all full of mysteries But the blessed God hath revealed them to his Apostles to S. Paul and to the rest and to the Ministers of his Word By reading the Scriptures he hath revealed that which is farre remote from the sense and understanding of any mortall and carnall man The mysteries of the Kingdome must bee revealed Behold I tell you a mystery The Lord hath told it me and I must tell it to you againe it is a thing that I am acquainted with by the Spirit of God which hath revealed it to mee It was once as strange to me as it is to you but God hath delivered it to me that by my ministery it may come unto you Behold I shew you a mystery The word signifieth three things in the Scripture as Chrysostome noteth One is when by an outward visible thing some other invisible thing is signified and represented So in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper where the water in Baptisme signifieth the precious blood of Christ and the wine and bread in the Lords Supper signifieth the breaking of the body and the powring forth of the blood of that emmaculate Lamb that was offered up for us Thus the Sacraments bee called holy mysteries hidden and secret things which the world cannot understand because they deride them because they doe not affect them but they are onely knowne unto the chosen ones of God In that sense the word is not here used for the Apostle speaks not of a mystery here by any outward thing to signifie some inward matter as in the Sacrament Another way mystery is taken for a partiall or halfe esteeme or conceit of any thing we speake of So in 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 13.12 We see in a dark mystery wee see in a cloude wee see in a riddle in a dreame Wee understand in part we know in part As if hee should say All that we see in the providence and guidance of God here in this world is full of mystery some part of it wee know and some part wee know not so that the partiall knowledge of man because it attaines not to fulnesse it is called seeing in a mystery seeing in a darke view But neither in that sense doth the Apostle use it here in this place The third sense is saith St. Chrysostome when a man speaks something against the common sense and reason which the wisedome of man cannot attaine unto and reach nor would never have dreamed of And this is it which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mystery that is I shew you a matter which you would hardly have conceived with your selves or that you will scarcely believe when I tell it to you I tell you that there are many men that shall never die nor never rise againe and yet they shall have their part of glory and be accepted and come to happinesse as well as you This paradox which is contrary to common opinion contrary to common sense and which is above the common reach and apprehension of man the Apostle calls a mystery in this place And hee hath great reason to put an ecce before it behold I tell you c. Vse To teach us that where any thing is mysticall in the Gospel and in the Scripture we ought to double our files to double our attention and to raise our spirits to hearken to that which is so secret For it is all our desires and it is naturally ingraffed in us to heare of newes to heare newes of State newes of the greatest importance Wee seeke we labour we travaile and wee sharpen one another to know what reports there are in the greatest importments Much more should wee be thus affected in the matters of God and of our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle satisfieth us and saith I will tell you you seeke for it and you long to know this you make many doubts and scruples in your hearts behold I will resolve you in one word The condition of the world that shall bee when Christ shall come it shall be farre different from this It is a mystery to tell you but it is infallibly true It hath been revealed unto me by the Spirit of God and I will open it to you the people of God And the
twinckle now for our good Perhaps they will alwayes stand hereafter and never any more looke upon us Let it bee our wisedome therefore to take our moment of time wee know not how our time is laid up in the hands of God we know not whether God will give us another moment after this Let us therefore apprehend this while we have it and let the grace of God worke while it appeares to us and while the motion of the Spirit offers it let us imbrace it because we know not our owne time Indeed in â—he twinckling of an eye the Lord receives a sinner but whether we shall have so much time as the twinckling of an eye to repent in wee know not Let us therefore take our moment for there may be a moment of sudden destruction come upon us and there may bee a time to plague us before our eye can twinckle There may come a time to dazle our eyes to corrupt our understandings and to infatuate our senses before we can twinckle our eye As a man that goes under a rotten house the house falls and destroyes him before hee have time to look So the judgement of God like a mighty mountaine it may fall upon the head of a man and crush his braines and work his sudden destruction before he be sensible of himselfe Therefore let us in the feare of God take all time and let us tell our moments The Lord tels our times hee observes our moments let us take our times and seasons And if we be thus prepared the Lord can work upon us in a moment for he requires no time to work his great works but he brings them to passe in a moment in the twinckling of an eye FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.52 In the last trump for the trump shall blow and the dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality IT was a true senteÌ„ce of S. Ierom Ierome that God hath kept the greatest doctrines unto the last times and the chiefest and most marvailous things be reserved for the very last end of the world How the dead bodies should be raised How they should be raised in a moment in the twinkling of an eye How there should be such a mighty collection over all the world by the sound of a trumpet What the trumpet should be whether one or many Who should blow the trumpet who should sound it What should be the sense and signification which the sound of the trumpet should give And what should be the effects and operations that should follow after These are those wonderfull doctrines and strange mysteries which God hath reserved to the fulnesse of time to the very consummation of all things And although every one of us must be raised by the power of that trumpet yet until the time that we heare it with our eares we shall never be able to comprehend it in our senses it being one of those things that are hard of understanding and so hard as perhaps the very Angell himselfe that shall be set to blow the trump doth not yet know what it should be till he come to undertake his office Therefore I pray you that I may give you some more light to understand this darke and obscure Text let us consider some other places of Scripture which doe illustrate this In Mat. 24.25 26. Mat. 24.25 26. our Lord Iesus speaking of this same thing saith The sonne of man shall send forth his Angels with a trumpet with a great sound with a great noise and they shall gather all the elect from the foure windes from the one part of the heaven to the other part of it So that which the Apostle cals here the trumpet that shall blow and the last trump our Lord calls it the Angels trumpet for the Angels shall come in the mighty voice of a trumpet and shall make a collection of Gods people There is another place also that something sets forth this 1 Thes 4.16 1 Thes 4.16 where the Apostle saith The Lord shall come in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a great noise in the voice of the Arch-angell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the noise that sea-men make when they are weighing anchor or when they are doing any great matter about the ship they all give a noise together that their work and labour might meet in one This is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or like the noise that Souldiers make when they goe forth with their Army against the enemy they come with a mighty noise to terrifie the enemy In that noise the Lord shall come downe He shall come downe with the voice of the Arch-angell and with the trumpet of God shall he descend from heaven and the dead in Christ shall be raised first So that out of these two places wee have some light added to this present place For Christ tells us that the trumpet shall be sounded by the voice of an Angell St Paul saith there by an Arch-angell But the Scripture useth no great difference of those for the word is used promiscuously oft times in the Scripture St. Paul saith it is the last trump to shew the difference of that from some other But that shall be the last because there shall be no more newes there shall be no more message from God to men any more And the Apostle saith in 2 Thes 4.16 2 Thes 4 16. he tells us it shall be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a certain generall navall acclamation and crying one to another to help forward the common work The generall salvation must be helped forward by the sides of men So the Lord expresseth it Although indeed he can doe it by himselfe hee can doe it by his word and there is no difficulty and hardnesse in the matter yet because the Lord would have us to conceive the mighty power and work of his right hand hee sets it downe by this As suppose a mighty army of men were setting forward and exhorting one another to break through the strong holds of the enemy or as those that are in a ship when they are about their necessarie affaires stirring up each other to shew themselves men In stopping of holes and leakes or in weighing of anchor or in hoysing up the sailes which is not the worke of one man to doe but of all Therefore the Apostle useth that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here now we begin to come to the manner how the Resurrection of the dead shall be made and how the persons shall be summoned And it shall be by the voice of a strange and wondrous trumpet that shall sound over all the world That as the Roman Emperors used to call their souldiers to fight by the sound of a trumpet and after by the drumme which succeeded the trumpet and is thought to be equall unto them so the Lord shall
then bring a mighty Armado out of the bowels of the earth which in the conceit of men were gone they were given as lost for ever But the Lord shall then bring forth such an infinite army as doth exceed the wit and conceit of man to imagine For our thousands we shall have millions nay for our single persons we shall have millions at that day And those that shall survive at the comming of the Lord they shall be but a handfull in respect of the mighty army which the Lord shall raise and remount out of the earth which shall then pay her tribute with which the Lord hath intrusted her Here therefore he shewes the manner how this shall be done and he shewes the great difference between the trumpet of God and the trumpets of men For though they be both taken in a simile from war yet there is infinite difference in thē The trumpet of man summons and calls onely those that are living souldiers it calls the living to be at such an houre present in the battaile to follow their colours and to keep their ranks But the trumpet of God cals the dead themselves by a strange sound It shall penetrate the bowels of the earth and shall speak unto dust and ashes which is dissolved to nothing to rise and come in presence before the Emperour to come before God Againe there is another marvailous difference When the trumpets of men sound then the armies gather together and kill and murther each other there is nothing but death and murther slaughter vastation and destruction But the trumpet of God it calls men to no death but to life and sense and glory and abilities So contrary is the Trumpet of the Lord to the trvmpet of man and yet it hath some similitude and diverse conveniences with it which that I may in order observe Division into 6. parts We will first consider what this trumpet is Secondly why it is called the last trump in respect and difference to some other And thirdly what this trumpet shall doe when it shall sound for the trumpet shall sound Origen Origen translates it well the trumpet shall trump so the Greek words have it That is it shall sound after one manner after the musick that God shall appoint to sound out of such a hollow long musicall instrument and what shall be the effect of it in the substance and the matter for it shall be a voice significant that men may understand it Fourthly the effect and operation of it that so soone as the trumpet shall sound over the whole world presently the dead shall rise incorruptible The very wicked themselves shall then be incorruptible as concerning the integrity and perfectnesse of their members but not as concerning the happinesse and joy which the children of God shall be possest of Fiftly the Apostle shewes us the reason of all this For saith hee it behooves it should be thus for it must needs be so It must needs be so both in respect that it is impossible for this corrupt body to enter into incorruption unchanged and because also that congruity stands with divine justice that that body which had been before corrupt should be invested with and put on incorruption that every man might take and receive his reward or punishment according as he hath done in this corrupt flesh Lastly we are to consider the sweet metaphor in the word to put on Where the Lord shews us that now wee have the rags of corruption upon our backs we have this flesh but instead of that God will give us that blessed garment that fine linnen spoken of Rev. 19. Rev. 19.8 that fine silke that is the justification of Christ which shall be unto us as the soul is to the body a perpetuall rich vesture to keep us from the wrath of God and to preserve us in eternall happinesse for ever Of these things briefly and inorder as it shall please God to give assistance 1 Part. What Trumpet this is First concerning the word here used a Trumpet That the word trumpet doth signifie either properly the instrument musicall for the gathering of men together or metaphorically something else that doth the like office every man easily understands But in which of these senses it is here to be used it is not easily determined For it is very likely that indeed the meaning of the holy Ghost is that there shall be properly a trumpet that shall sound a very materiall trumpet although perhaps it shall not be of the same matter and metall that ours is of yet notwithstanding it shall be some kinde of instrument that God shall prepare to make the like sound as a trumpet doth And that this is likely to be true the letter will carry it The letter must never be shunned except there be some kinde of inconvenience that will follow upon the literall exposition For where there is no absurdity or inconvenience wee are bound in conscience to expound the Scriptures in a literall sense and where it includes any absurdity wee are to leave the literall sense and to take another which is analogicall But here because the letter will carry it and chiefly because the Apostle repeats it twice it is a great argument that it shall be a true materiall trumpet For first the Apostle saith in the verse going before the last trumpet and then hee shews the effect of this trumpet it shall blow or sound Our Lord Christ useth the same word in Mat. 24. Mat. 24.31 and St. Paul expresseth the same in 1 Thes 4. 1 Thes 4.16 Therefore it is an argument that properly and truly it is to be understood a trumpet as we in our sense doe apprehend it although the matter and effects and use of it be higher then any trumpet in the world Againe another reason is this When the Law was given in Exod. 19. Exod. 19.16 there was a trumpet with a high shrill voice which increased more and more I demand what that was Surely it was not made of metall or any artificiall composition as those that we have yet the Lord made it in the clouds even the sound of a trumpet he made it more exact and perfect by his power than any man can doe by art and invention Therefore as then at the promulgation of the Law there was a true distinct noise of a trumpet sounding that the people perceived and conceived it to be the voice of a trumpet so likewise when the new law shall be given that is when the fulnesse of all things is come at the Resurrection of the dead there shall be a created voice which shall be loud and it is likely that it shall be a true materiall trumpet Notwithstanding perhaps not after the common frame of men yet it shall be so ordered as that a man may distinguish it and say it is the voice of no other instrument but of a trumpet Lastly it appeares by this in that the great
Supper as that shall bee the Supper of the Lamb. Apoc. 19.9 Blessed are they that are called to the marriage Supper of the Lamb. I say the bidding to the supper of the Lamb is nothing else but the fulnesse of glory which the Lord shall invest his children with at his comming to judgement This trumpet shall call us to that supper to that banquet which shall be a continuall feast to last forever And for the trumpet of Tents the trumpet of Removeall it is manifest it shall bee so For there is no such removing in the world as that shall be For some men to remove to hell and other some to remove to heaven it shall be the greatest kind of progression that ever was taken So that this last trumpet hath an embleme or signification of that also And for the trumpet of manifestation we know it is that The Lord shall manifest at that day who are his and he shall manifest every thing tha◠hath been wrought were it never so close and secret it shall then bee brought to light And as the face of man or woman is knowne one of another by their aspect now so then the thoughts and secrets of the hearts shall bee mutually knowne and understood one by another That is the light that shall reveale all things it is that that shall manifest all things that is the trumpet of manifestation As Christ saith Matth. 6.2 Blow not a trumpet before thine almes doe not manifest it The manifestation of things indeed never comes till the end of the world and then every thing shall bee manifested Those things that are hidden from the eyes of men now either by the policy of men or by the connivence of God as there be many things that are though now they were never seene by any eye then they shall be manifest and laid open And for the trumpet of the Gospel this trumpet shall bee truely that for this trumpet shall bee the fulfilling of all the Gospel When the Lord shall gather by the last trump those whom he hath raised before by the trumpet of his doctrine by the holy trumpet of the Scriptures by preaching of the Word by the Sacraments them that hee hath rowzed by baptisme and by his gracious admonitions in this world he shall then bring upon them another sound which shall tend to the like effect to the same purpose to put them into glory which his voice had raised before unto the holy warre against the devill and the flesh and the world in this life So that this trumpet that wee here speake of is the miracle of all miracles it concludes all that was before it it comprehends all perfection that may be imagined It is a voice magnificall a voice angelical it is a voice terrible it is a voice that hath life in it a voice that shall give life It shall bee a voice so full of majesty as that all the world shall be taken with amazement and astonishment the best children of God shall not bee without feare saith St. Cyprian Cyprian at that day And saith St. Chrysostome Chrysost Woe is me when I thinke of that fearefull day For although we should bee so prepared for it Rom. 13.11 as that we should lift up our heads because our salvation drawes nigh yet saith hee I would see any Saint of God that dares looke there with a confident countenance For though our justification by Christ shall give us comfort yet love and feare shall bee mixed and mingled together a filiall feare shall possesse men in the hearing of the silver trumpet It must needs therefore be full of majesty and terror As St. Austin saith Aug. You know brethren that a trumpet hath not so much delight in it as feare and trembling having naturally a kinde of musique in it which makes the body to shake and shiver in the parts of it and that most of all separates a man from himselfe So shall be the voice of this great and mighty thunder which God shall give that it shall sound in the manner of this musicall instrument of this speciall instrument that gave the Law and that set forth the Prophesies and that was used at the solemne feasts It shall be full of majesty and full of comfort and joy and yet it shall bee with feare and terrour to the best of them that shall heare it For as the voice of God was so great when the Law was given that Gods owne people could not endure it Let not God speake unto us Exod. 20.19 but let Moses speake Let not God speake to us any more for then wee die for feare the chosen people of God were faine thus to say So at that day those that be the most sanctified although they shall bee full of joy in one respect that their redemption is consummate in Christ yet that joy shall consist in a mixture and mingling of feare For it is befitting Gods children as they love him so to feare him to feare him in love and to love him in feare to yeeld unto him all submission and reverence that they may bee reconciled and made one in those contrary passions feare and love which is a sweet union and reconcilement in the contemplation of one and the selfe same God To conclude therefore this point concerning this trumpet and what it is One saith That the trumpet is properly a priestly instrument a holy instrument for holy purposes But hee spake this above his clement Chrysost St. Chrysostome saith The presence of the Lord Iesus Christ is this trumpet this silver trumpet which shall passe through the world And St. Theophilact his scholler and follower Theophil hee saith This trumpet is nothing else but the will of God the command of God which shall runne thorow the world as it is said in the Psalme Psalm 147.15 the word of God runnes swiftly and fills all the world And St. Augustin in his Epistle to Honorius Aug ad Honoriū saith he In the name of a trumpet the Lord would have us to understand some most evident and rare thing And hee saith in his Epistle to Constantius Aug. ep ad Constantium not knowing what to determine of it In the last trump that is that signe which God shall give last to the earth whatsoever signe that shall be St. Ambrose Ambros thinks it is nothing but the comming of the Lord signified by the noise of a trumpet As Princes and great men and noble men when they come to a Towne have it divulged and manifested before they come by the sound of a trumpet So this same sound of this trumpet here spoken of is nothing else but the manifestation of the presence of the Sonne of God Genebrard Genebrard upon the Canticles saith The trumpets of God are of two sorts the one is paginall the trumpet of his word which is written clearly in this life The trumpet here is manifested
which is now accomplished but in one the Lord Iesus hath it alone in one Now it is in the first fruits then it shall be in the whole Harvest then it shall be made good to the whole Church which is now only performed to the head of the Church that Death is swallowed up into victory This I take to be the sense of the words To proceed in order First we are to consider it as the words lye and not as the logicall rule would carrie us For logically we have A subject A predicate And a Vinculum or Copulate The subject is corruption This corruptible The predicate is a certaine change it must have this corruptible must take and put on incorruption And the copulate is the oportet it must needs be so and this mortall must put on immortality And then after that there is a blessed comfort that the Church of God shall receive In the meane time shee receives it as being certaine that it shall be but then she shall receive it as a full payment at that time That Scripture which said Death is swallowed up into victory It shall then be utterly accomplished Wherein we are to consider First that the Apostle confirmes and strengthens himselfe by Scripture by that which is written Secondly where it is written Thirdly the substance and matter that is written That Death is swallowed up into victory Where againe we are to consider three termes First what that is that is swallowed Death and all evill and mischiefe Secondly the terme to which it is swallowed or consumed to victory Thirdly the efficient cause who swallowes it and what it is that swallowes Death that must needs be understood the death of the Sonne of God the death of Christ swallowes up the death of men into an absolute victory And then the answer to that question How is Death swallowed up in victory seeing it every day swallowes us up and consumes us how then is Death swallowed up himselfe And that is to be answered in these words because the time is not yet come When this corruption shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality then shall be fulfilled this saying Every thing is in its own time when all things are done that should bee done when all things are accomplished that the Lord shall send before then that shall come after But we have it now onely in hope we have it onely in the first fruits we have it in some part we have it in the head then we shall have it in all the members We have it in some few that were raised with Christ to be witnesses of his Resurrection and they are pawnes for all the rest When this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall c. Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first to follow the order of the words He saith this corruptible and this mortall speaking of the bodies of men For the soule of man is neither corruptible nor mortall as heretofore wee have touched Therefore those that understand these things of the Resurrection of the spirit of the Resurrection of the soule from vice to newnesse of life they are extremely mistaken and they abuse the word of grace which is here propounded unto us For the Apostle speakes of that part which is corrupt and mortall that the glory of God shall be shewed upon it and he saith this very body this Identicall thing this Idem numero not another body in stead of this but this which is now so corrupt The body shall remaine the same although the accidents and qualities shall be rare and glorious which shall accrew unto it yet it shall be one and the selfe same body As S. Chrysostome saith Chrysost the selfe same it shall be in the selfe same inches and quantity although the qualities shall be altred and it shall have gracious indowments yet they shall be the same substance they shall be the same bodies And againe it is to be observed that hee useth two words together hee repeates it This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality And this hee doth not without very good reason For it is no vaine repetition of the same thing twice over it is not S. Pauls purpose nor his custome so to doe but hee notes in us two certaine infirmities which the Lord shall stay and stanch at that day by that glorious vesture and garment of incorruption and immortality which he shall put upon us First then our body is corrupt that is changing from one forme to another it cannot continue in the same stay And secondly it is mortall that is subject to utter destruction to be altogether without any forme The first is the mutability which the matter whereof we consist cannot endure You understand that in all things that are made there are two great principles the matter and the forme besides the privation The matter is so infinitly capable and desirous of new formes that it cannot endure long to stay in one state still the matter desires a new forme to come upon it as being weary of that which it hath borne before We see it in all things in nature And though God worke his owne will and his gracious wonders by that yet notwithstanding it shewes the variety and disposition of the matter which is still capable and hath an appetite after a new forme and desires to be changed In the fruits of the earth The seed would not continue so a seed but when it is cast into the ground it comes to sprout and to spring and from thence it comes to be a little tree and so a greater and then it comes to grow backward it comes downe againe and comes to be a dead thing We see it in our selves First there is the matter of our nature then wee doe not so continue but it becomes an embrio then it comes from that forme to be a childe and when it is weary of that it comes higher So God brings things to perfection and then back againe to imperfection I speake onely of the variety in the materiall cause which as the Philosopher speaks is the devourer of formes it is ever desiring a new forme to be set upon it So God teacheth us by this that the very appetite of the matter shall carrie us to the certainty of a new forme which shal be set upon us in that blessed day because that this corruptible matter is ever changeable and changing formes It is certaine that God shall then stop the appetite of the matter and give it a forme which shall never be changed and that it shall never desire to change Here nature never stayes nor is never content with any forme but wee come from our prime matter to childhood from childhood wee passe along to youth and youth sends us to middle age middle age brings us to dotage and dotage sends us to our graves
is done as it is certaine it shall bee done for wee have Gods word and promise for it wee have the appetite of the matter which still calls and cries to God for a forme and we have the Lord ingaged by example and president and by the head and first fruits Christ Iesus the head when this is done Then shall bee fulfilled that which was spoken As if he should say I speake not these things to you of my selfe and out of my owne Apostolicall authority which I might stand upon but I speake them out of the writings of those men that were illuminated by the same Spirit from the writing of the holy Prophets Then shall be fulfilled that which was spoken or written That word that word of grace that word of promise that word which is able to make the dead revive and the word is this that Death is swallowed up into victory Where observe First who wrote this And then the substance of the words Concerning the first the Apostle defends his authority from ancient times to teach us what we are to doe in like cases But this is a common obvious point I will not insist upon it Concerning the Author Isay and Hosea are alledged for it some holding with the one some with the other Certainely it is in Isay in the true intimation according to the word Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 where God promiseth the people a deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon He saith God shall destroy death for ever he hath swallowed up death for ever or to victory for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 netsahh may signifie both entrance into length of time or else victory Because victory properly respects the time and that is true victory which is not to be dashed nor daunted with any time that is the most perfect victory that is not daunted in any time So in this respect the word time and victory is taken in the holy Tongue for the same and that which the Septuagint here translates the one the Apostle in the Text translates the other Although indeed the Apostle follow the Septuagint yet they have another translation besides which is God shall swallow up death for ever So the Prophet Isays words I take to be the best and the fittest Hos 13.14 The other in Hosea is in Hos 13.14 where the verse following after my Text is repeated expresly but the words of this verse of my Text is not there to bee found Therefore this I take to be the word of Isay Observe now what the word is that hee useth for it it is full of life it brings men from temporall things to the expectation of things eternall The Lord speakes to them of a great feast that they should make after their comming up out of the Land the Apostle takes it to set forth the eternall feast For it is to no purpose to have these temporall things and to bee swallowed up of death and hell The Apostle teacheth us therefore what construction wee should make of the blessings of God in this life to extend them in a high sense They are never sweet till then The bread that wee eat should make us mindefull of the bread of heaven that is of the glorious presence of God which shall for ever delight us And the honours and preferments that wee have here except they signifie to us those glorious and stately seates of glory hereafter they are rather plagues and punishments then blessings By death there in the Prophet is meant the generall Captivity but the Apostle takes it for the death of the body To victory is the terme and manner whereto it shall bee swallowed But I should be too troublesome to enter upon them now FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.54 Then shall bee fulfilled that word which is written Death is swallowed up into victory Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory WHat is so weak and againe what is so strong as a Christian man saith St. Ambrose Ambros Hee is exceedingly weake because hee is subject to any temptation and incomparably strong because hee can triumph over death it selfe which is the triumpher over all mankind For what can he feare that is fearelesse of death and what is able to insult over him that can insult over that which is the last of all terribles which is the dissolution of nature Thus the Lord hath tempered in the same vessell great infirmity and great valour that hee might shew his owne strength for in mans weaknesse is Gods strength consummate The Apostle therefore to prove those wonderfull things which hee had said before that this corruptible must put on the garment of incorruption this mortall must put on the weed of immortality he doth now as it were bring into the minds of the Corinthians the present spectacle hee lifts up their hearts to view it as a thing acted and done before their eyes As he saith to the Galathians Gal. 3.1 that Iesus Christ was crucified before their eyes whom they never saw crucified but hee was so lively described unto them by his Gospel that he saith they saw it acted and saw him really crucified and all the passages of his death and passion So now he would bring the hearts and minds of the Corinthians to such a kind of contemplation as to see the Lord God raising up the dead and to see the dead putting on their new garments their new coat of immortality and incorruption He represents all to the eye and when hee hath so done hee brings in a kinde of insultation a verse that they were wont to sing in victories and triumphs 1. Sam. 18.7 As in the triumph of David over Goliah the women sang Saul hath slaine his thousand but David his ten thousand so the Saints of God as St. Chrysostome saith Chrysost Dost thou see saith he what a generous spirit is in the holy Apostle how hee paints before the eyes of the people this most noble and divine indowment this garment of incorruption and immortality and behold how he himselfe is rapt And in that most heavenly and strange rapture as a man inspired from heaven he insults over death lying under his feet and treads upon the head of him that treads downe all things else and cries over him Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory This is the song of the Church and that song which the Saints of God desire with full contentment to sing and it is given to all them that are true hearted to the Lord to sing this song with a full resolution But when the time is come that it should be sung the weaknesse of our nature perhaps will not suffice to it For it is one thing for a man to bee valiant when he is in health and it is another thing when the fit and when the storme takes him then to appeare that which hee professed himselfe to be before
there are but few that can come in the houre of death to make this insultation But all should aspire for it and looke after it and should desire God to inable them to doe thus as St. Paul speaketh and as many Saints and Martyrs have in their martyrdome insulted over death with these words For this was often the motto in their mouthes Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Division into five Parts Now that we may proceed in order First wee are to consider that which hee saith the word shall be fulfilled which was written And then where it is written And thirdly what it is that is written Death is swallowed up into victory And fourthly when this shall bee performed Then then when our bodies are changed and this corruptible hath put on incorruption 1. Cor. 15. and this mortall hath put on immortality then shall bee fulfilled this saying And lastly the use and ground of all that is to take heart and courage for these things are written for consolation A man that can take no comfort against death shall never have any comfort any time of his life if there were no joy in our death there could bee none in our life Therefore all this is to renew the spirits of Gods children and to make them undaunted when that great and common Adversary shall ceaze upon them The Insultation is in the 55. verse 1. Part. The fulfilling of the prophecy which is taken out of Hosea 13.14 Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first concerning the fulfilling of the Prophesie The holy Apostle would raise up the Saints of God to applaud and to take delight and to gratulate one another to see the fulfilling of Prophesies come to an end For all Prophesies must bee fulfilled Matth. 24 35. and though heaven and earth should passe away yet no jote and tittle of the Law and the Prophets can passe till all bee fulfilled and accomplished Now the Apostle brings to their minde those sweet prophesies of former time whereby he concludes the certainty of these things which he now delivers to them For there is no greater contentment to any man that is a true judicious Reader of the Scriptures then this to see that the things promised in the Gospel are not yesterday matters they bee no new things no late devises but they be almost as ancient as the world they are drawne out of the treasures of God in former ages by the holy Prophets that spake in former times what should come to passe in the fulnesse of time And as St. Pauls manner is still hee confirmes his doctrine by the precedent doctrine of the Prophets so here in this saith St. Chrysostome speaking many infinite incredible things it was needfull for him to set to a seale and to conclude all with the authority of some Author that had gone before And he tells them this is a word written It is a book-case it is no new thing which he saith but that which God had inspired before into the holy Prophet Isay and the Prophet Hosea and divers others concerning the same doctrine that he reveales unto them Therefore to conclude this point Vse We should learne by this example to confirme our faith to incourage our selves by the constancy of Gods word the constant truth which hath beene from age to age And that is it which must settle and stablish if there were any thing which swerved from the common custome or any thing that were new then wee might doubt whether it were from God or no. But because in all things it is so consonant to it selfe and God is the same God of the Old Testament and of the New it is a great confirmation to us to keepe us from doubting and from many scruples which Satan the enemy of mankind suggests unto us 2. Part. Whore this is written But where this word is written or who is the Authour of it as I said Divines doe diversly interpret Some thinke it is from Isay some thinke it is from Hosea and some that it is a writing from them both that it is two testimonies It is not unlikely that his purpose was to cite both the Prophets two of them together Matth. 18.16 that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might bee established Therefore the first part of the sentence is taken out of Isay the second part out of Hosea That in Isay is Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 you shall see there the Lord makes a banquet to his Church and the conclusion of that heavenly banquet is this God shall destroy death for ever hee shall swallow up death into victory as it is here spoken His meaning and purpose is there to speake of the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon but because there is no use in these temporall blessings except wee referre them to spirituall for these outward things be but as earnests of greater graces which God hath reposed for us in a better world therefore the argument followes As the common Tenent of the Scriptures hold still that from things present wee may argue things to come and from things temporall wee may prove to our selves the assurance of things spirituall So the deliverance out of the captivity of Babylon did signifie to them and was an assurance of the deliverance from hell of the deliverance from the bondage of destruction of the deliverance from the bondage of sin and the bondage of death Therefore the Apostle translates that according to the meaning of the Prophet which raiseth Gods people to understand that they had greater enemies to encounter with then Babylon And if God should have stayed his hand there and have given them a meere deliverance out of Babylons countrey they should be no better then men of a few dayes continuance For they must die after that deliverance and they had greater enemies then Babylon was from whom they must desire to bee delivered and whom they stood in feare of which would draw a more dangerous consequence then all their enemies else besides For Babylon could but inthrall their bodies and that but for a time but hell would destroy both body and soule for ever Therefore God saith hee would destroy death hee would destroy the death of the body and the death of the soule the first death and the second death and he would swallow both into victory That is the death of Christ should get the mastery of them that they should never need to feare them afterward they should bee so couched in silence that they should have no power nor strength remaining in them but they shall bee as though they had never beene they shall be so obliterate Now for the other place Hosea 13.14 Hosea 13.14 where the Prophet discourseth strangely after a wondrous and hidden manner For I think there was
victory that we have in Christ it were a fanaticall madnesse a ridiculous base delusion Therefore let them that are willing to comfort their owne soules against the day of trouble let them thinke that there is no comfort to bee had but in this victory and there is no comfort can bee had in this victory except they strive to be Victors and Conquerors in Christ to have a part in him and to fight as well as they may under his banner as long as they live in sinne that they seeke it and study it and mainetaine it and defend it let them delude their owne soules and deceive themselves which is the grossest and most fearefull deceit of all others for a man to deceive himsefe they may thinke they are Conquerers but they are the Devills vanquished ones they are his captives they are held in the Devils Irons God be mercifull to us for there is none that lives in sin but the poore miserable thiefe that lies in the dungeon is better then hee But this victory notwithstanding is the Churches and wee are of the Church wee are baptized wee are called to the knowledge of the misteries of the Gospel and God doth not call men for nothing hee doth not make his mysteries idle It is true therefore as long time as God hath vouchsafed us wee have still time to bee victors and though our soules cleave to the earth though they sticke to the pavement yet God can raise us out of the dust and make us equall with the Princes of his people as the Prophet David saith Psal 113. Therefore let us call to the Lord God and though wee find no strength in our selves nor no meanes nor will if there bee not so much as a will yet let him that hath the wills of men in his hand that hath the hearts of men in his hand and turnes them as the rivers of waters let him doe as it pleaseth him let him worke this for us that can worke nothing for our selves To whom bee praise and glory obedience and thanksgiving both now and for evermore Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.56 57. But thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ our Lord therefore beloved Brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not lost nor in vaine in the Lord. THere is nothing more certain Note then that it is the portion of a Christian soule to fight and labour in this life present The Church is a militant Church a People that are alway at combat and conflict with the devill and with men and if these faile with himselfe too Saith S. Austin St. Aug. we would faine be freed from this fight from this continuall perturbation but the comfort that God hath given against it is that as we are called to a triall so the Lord assists us too in the day of Trouble and assures us of the victory that howsoever we cannot overcome all these enemies by any grace that is inherent in us but that we are often foyled and conquered yet we have another Meane to conquer them by that is by faith and the apprehension of the victory that the Lord Iesus Christ hath purchased for us over the devill and all these Adversaries and this victory can be given us but by one hand it lyes onely there to dispense that is in the hand of God which is the Lord of Hoasts and Armies It is he alone that enclines the battaile it is hee that weakneth the adversaries and that strengthens those that follow his colours when they are foyled hee raiseth up them that are fallen it is he that beateth downe Sathan under our feet that was our conquerour This spirituall conquest is of all others the most excellent for the rest as Isay Isay 8. saith They are gotten with tumult and with tumbling of garments in bloud But this conquest that we have in the Lord Iesus it was like a Lamb-slaughter in the day of Madian You know in the day of Madian what kinde of victory it was Gideon went out hee did nothing the Lord did all for him for still hee brought downe his troups from thousands to hundreds to three hundred and when they were to be set to worke they did nothing but onely clash their broken pitchers and the Lord wrought a great slaughter in the Hoast of Madian Such a victory is the conquest wee have in Iesus Christ our Lord he is still the victor that got the conquest without all appearance of second Causes without all union of forces and power in the world that God may be all in all In other victories there be many sharers that may claime a part in the conquest there is something belongs to the Generall some to the Colonels some to the Captaines some to the other Officers some to the common Souldiers There is no man but hee may claime a part in the common victory But in this victory that we have obtained by the meanes of Christ Iesus our Lord there is nothing that belongs to any but to God Therefore the Apostle saith Thanks be to God thanks be to no man thanks be to no Angell thanks be to no power that can be supposed to help us but the thanks and praise must rest in God alone which hath wrought all this for us As the Heathen Orator said to Caesar when hee had overcome his anger and had pardoned his Enemie In other warres saith he there is a communication of the praise of the wars it belongs to one as well as to another But in this victory which thou hast gotten over thy selfe Orat. pro Milone in giving and forgiving thou hast gotten the glory The like may wee much more truly say of God as the Apostle saith here Thanks be to God and to none but to him that hath given us victory for he alone with his owne hand and his stretched out arme Psal 94. hath gotten himselfe the victory as the Psalmist saith So Tertullian Tertul. speaking of this point in his fifth booke against Marcian Chap. 10. The Apostle saith he being well advised how the conquest comes to a Christian hee gives no thanks to any other God but him alone that put the word of triumph and insultation into his mouth That God that gave him power to say by way of triumph Oh Death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory To that same God that gave him the word of triumph he returnes the word of thanksgiving and retribution of praise because it belongs onely to him If Marcians god as Marcian supposed hee had another god than that which is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ can tell mee such things as hee hath done or that hee hath published any such thing to the world as this I will account him the Father of mercy But till then I will account him Marcians Idoll
never looks after the performance of it A man goeth by an Hospitall and saith he will give them somewhat when he comes backe againe and when he comes backe he thinkes not of it Imagine what you will although you forget it yet it stands on account in Gods booke hee will call you to a reckoning for it and if you sneake away and will not pay the shot the Lord will take it upon your bodies and soules in hell For you must not thinke to passe a vow to the Lord in a good mood for a good purpose but the Lord will take it and exact it at your hands Therefore let every man lay downe for himselfe God intrusts every mans selfe he trusts every mans honesty This should be a great comfort and a meanes to provoke us to be true to God Let every man lay by him in store For if every man should have brought it presently to the poore mans box it might have beene thought to have beene done out of a present passion and that he would have taken it out againe afterward after it was cast in if he might have had leave But for a man to be constant in it to let it stand by him a moneth or two moneths or a quarter of a yeare that hee saith and resolveth this they shall have whatsoever become of me I will not abate a penie of the stocke of God of the stocke of charitie when he saith Let every man lay up by him in store his meaning is that God will call every man to account if hee bee inconstant and forgetfull of his vow and promise the Lord will not let such a one escape As whatsoever God hath prospered him with 3 The measure First what is this that he must put apart whatsoever God hath prospered him with so we may turne it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod ei bene successerit s placuerit but the word is a rare word and therefore it is diversly expressed by Interpreters some say that which is fit some say that which hee thinkes good and these are true for there is no man herein compelled to do any thing but what he doth out of his owne heart of his owne free-will The Lord loves a free-giver a chearfull giver and hee will have no constraint Yet Expositors come not neere the glory of the word for it is a metaphor taken from Merchant-venturers that cast their goods into a bottome it may be halfe their estate sometimes it may be sometimes all and if God give them a good voyage they are made if not then they are downe the winde undone So it signifies a good journey or a good voyage you have the word twice over in the Scripture both before and after this In Rom. 1.10 saith the Apostle I pray to God continually if God would give me a good journey to come to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same word is used here hodos a journey heodos a good journey As the Lord is pleased to blesse a man in his trade and course of life so the word is used in 3. Ioh. 2. Beloved brother I desire of God that thou mayest have a good journey that thou maiest prosper and be well and in good health as thy soule prospereth that thou shouldest have a good journey in all things So by these two places you understand what is the meaning of the word that whereas all the provision of the life present here is made upon casualties there is no man can tell when he sets up how the Lord will blesse him before the yeares end some runne bankrupt some againe get by the mercie of God the Lord sets up one and brings downe another Men in their trading here be as Merchant adventurers upon the Sea there is as great adventure on the Land as on the Sea and there is not greater danger there then here so when it pleaseth God that the ship comes well from the sea that it brooks all that it escapes all rocks and pyrats and comes home full fraught then all the neighbours rejoyce about it and shew their joy by shooting off peeces of ordnance for the great benefit they have received and give thanks to God by this merriment So when a Merchant man upon the Land drives out his Trade by his frugalitie and good husbandrie and by his just dealing keepes a good conscience to all men and the Lord raiseth him out of his 100. l. unto an hundred and twenty or more the Lord requires some custome to be payed some impost money there is some scot and allowance to be made Therefore I say we must pay this tribute it belongs it is due unto God For this good journey for this prosperous and good voyage he hath given thee out of this thou must lay up somewhat for the poore Saints Thou must reserve that which is fit for thy person what is fit for thy children and family God gives thee leave to doe this but thou must leave a remnant still for the poore according to the good iourney that the Lord hath given thee The Lord it may be hath multiplied thy hundreds to thousands thou must therefore remember the Lord thy God that hath given thee this great increase and abundance above all that thou couldest hope or conceit in former times for what was every yong beginner that now is growne rich let him say himselfe thou wouldest have beene glad of the tenth part of that that God hath enriched thee with and now the Lord hath multiplied and encreased thee oh let thy hand againe be inlarged toward God and abundant to him that hath so abounded in grace and mercy to thee and as the Lord hath given a man a good iourney a good way and passage a good trade and prospers him that he thrives in his calling so let him againe doe the workes of mercy for the God of mercy But these things that remaine are so full of matter and variety and I have beene so troublesome to your patience already that I must reserve the rest that remaines untill the next time The second Sermon 1 COR. 16.1.2.3 Now concerning the collection for the Saints according as I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia even so doe you In the first day of the Sabbath or of the weeke Let every one of you lay up by himselfe a treasure of whatsoever God hath prospered him c. THere is no point in all divinity that needs more cleare propoundiâ—g and more earnest prosecuting then this of Almes-deeds and brotherly benevolence For men are wondrously and by a strange motion of the spirit of God brought unto it against the current of nature every man thinking that that which is given is lost that it is cast away and there is scarse any man perswaded that he that gives to the poore lends to the Lord although it be a common speech in every mans mouth Therefore the Apostle being appointed by the Church of God to have a speciall
you must doe it much more as being more blessed of God As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so doe ye where we are to understand three things First the antiquity of the Church of Galatia Three things 1 The antiquity 2 Apostolicall authorâ—ty Secondly that the Apostle had ordained it hee commands it he counselleth them not to doe it but by his power Apostolicall he enjoynes them 3 The power of the Church Thirdly and lastly what is the force and power of this argument which is drawne from the authority of the Church what is the nature of it and how farre it must prevaile with all the followers of Christ For thus he argueth The Churches of Galatia doe this and if you doe it not you are in great fault and in danger of damnation for you must follow the example of elder Churches but they have done thus therefore you must doe so much more having greater meanes and better ability then they that is one motive Another incentive is this that he himselfe will come and that he will see to these things and that he will receive it at their hands and that hee will make a convoy for it to the place where it should be surely delivered which is a great argument for a man is very willing to part with his money if he be sure that it shall not be interverted that there shall be no falshood but that it may come to the hands of those for whom it is intended upon these termes it may be he will be reasonable willing to part with it Therefore for this he tels them that he will take an order and that order that shall be best liking to themselves for when he comes they shall appoint and choose certaine fit men that they may trust with money and indeed he that a man may trust with money he may trust him with any thing almost therefore they shall choose such men not as may be their owne carvers not such as shall seek to make themselves rich of other mens goods much lesse out of the poore mans stocke but such as shall be true and faithfull dispensers of that which is offered by them and these shall bee chosen by themselves because he was a stranger to them and they were strangers to him and not onely so but they shall commend them to the brethren at Ierusalem by their Epistle and if need were he himselfe would helpe to convoy it he would helpe to passe their blessing The last motive that he useth is this that he saith they shall carry your grace to Ierusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling that almes that they should give a grace as making them gracious before God and men as proceeding from the grace and good spirit of God as comming from meere grace not of constraint Every man desires to be gracious and to be reputed gracious the tythe of grace is the most honourable and the greatest thing that can be in the world especially of divine grace and such a thing is this almes deeds he calls it not almes he cals it not benevolence or a collection but he cals it grace They shall carry your grace to Ierusalem that is that gracious gift which the Spirit of God shall worke you to And the summe of all is this that he would have this done before he come lest they should be found too tardy if they should then fall a gathering when they should be a presenting and offering their gift for tardinesse and unreadinesse is a base fault in any man but most in Christians and in Christian duties most of all It was the fault of the foolish virgins which were tardy and lost the kingdome for it things must be done in season in due time so saith the Apostle lest it be to be made when I come I pray make it before as he saith in 2. Corinth 9. If the Macedonians that I shall bring with me when they come shall finde you making your collection you and I shall be both ashamed to see your unreadinesse in this point of Religion and devotion whereunto you should go with the formost I take this to be the summe and substance of the words read that upon the Lords day every man should repose and lay by himselfe of that which it had pleased God to give him and that he is pleased to give againe to the Church to lay by that he can spare and to do it upon consideration that other Churches have done it before him and that all the members of Christ are bound one to another and also because it was a precept and command upon the Church left by Apostolicall power and chiefly because the whole managing of the businesse was certaine to be conveyed by men of most knowne fame and experienced goodnesse and honesty Such as should be chosen by themselves such as should be confirmed by their letters commendatorie and all this the Apostle instances lest they themselves should not be found so ready and chearfull in the worke lest they should be lagging in their gift which should bee ready and willing to keep their credit especially in so good an action Of these things briefly and in order and but a word because I will not extend your patience beyond the time 1 The time of the collection First for the day the Apostle would have this done upon the first day of the weeke wee may take it for granted that it was the Lords day we will prove it afterward we will have it granted now The first day of the weeke the first of the Sabbath for all the dayes of the weeke were among the Iewes reckoned for Sabbaths so Sunday was the first and Munday the second and Tuesday the third Sabbath and so forth And according to this reckoning they all computed their time their moneths and their weeks among the Iews In which sence the Pharisee is to be understood when he saith I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the weeke For the Sabbath being the great day and the principall of the seven it gives the denomination to all the rest and they be called the first and second and third according as they have their distance from that day So this first of the weeke it was the Iews Munday as it were it is our Lords day which immediately succeeded the day of the Passeover wherein our Lord Iesus lay in the grave and which was the first day of his resurrection and therefore is remembred throughout all Christian generations This was the time that the Apostle thought fittest for Christian men to lay aside their charitie to lay it up for the common treasure for the common stocke of the Saints for the poore Saints at Ierusalem It teacheth us that as all the works of mercie become the Lords day so especially this of almes giving it is a worke proper to the Lords day For therein we have both rest from labour representing unto us our eternall rest
is a lively hope made over to all the branches that they shall rise againe with the root It was graced by the manifold apparitions of Christ and confirmed unto us according as the Apostles had receiued it from the will of Christ to grace that day the eighth day with his apparitions It was confirmed unto us by the Apostle Saint Iohn who maketh mention of the Lords day hee was rapt in the Spirit upon the Lords day And by these two places Act. 20.10 and this present place 1. Cor. 16.2 The time prevented me that I could not shew you the authoritie from age to age and the concurrence of these two things which was the gathering of collections upon that day for the Apostle includes both these both that the day should be changed to the first of the Sabbath that is to the first day of the weeke And secondly that upon this first day of the weeke it should be a particular appendix of the Sabbath dayes worke to lay up somewhat for the Saints because then there were no such officers appointed in the Church therefore every man waâ— his owne Treasurer every man was his owne overseer for the poore to lay up by himselfe as Chrysostome saith this priesthood thy charitie and thy love to thy brother hath bestowed upon thee that a man should provide and ordaine by his owne hands till such time as the Church should provide overseers and collectors for the poore and Deacons that they should be every where as they were then at Ierusalem Now it may seeme a matter not worth the labour to prove this point concerning the time of the Sabbath if it were not that some phanaticall spirits in these latter dayes had raised such a mist and vapour to cloud this truth and to bring backe the Iews ceremoniall Sabbath which saith Gregory if any go about to do he must bring in the Iews sacrifice and so he shall derogate and destroy the bloud and sacrifice of Christ which was offered once for all Give me leave therefore a little before I come to the residue of the Text for indeed it is full of matter to shew you how the Church of God in the first beginning acknowledged this day for the true Sabbath of the Lord. And upon these grounds out of Scripture I need not do it I know among you that are fully perswaded but there are some men that do infringe the glory and purpose of this Text and contradict the Fathers even some of our late Writers that are otherwise worthy Interpreters of the word of God yet here they hold that the Apostles meaning is where he saith One of the Sabbath that it is not to be understood upon the Lords day but they thinke it may be any one day in the week Wherein it is a wonder that they should give such a scandall to the Church of God in weakening the arguments and the faith of the Fathers that were before us and to make us uncertaine what to adhere and cleave unto I spare their names because they are worthy instruments of the Gospell Onely I go about to refute and cast down their opinion which I will do briefly and by the libertie and licence of the time that I may make the shorter worke The first of the Sabbath the Lords day Therefore that this first of the Sabbath is the Lords day it is manifest by other places of Scripture whose consent make an absolute verity every where for the rule of Scripture is to expound one place by another In Matth. 28.2 The woman came to the grave upon the first of the Sabbath when as it shined up when the light shined up upon the first of the Sabbath then came the woman to the grave the same word is used there as there is here The first of the Sabbath which was the day of the Lords resurrection and not every day in the weeke but the eight day from the creation So againe more clearly in Mark 16.2 and vers 9. it is said there verse 2. the women came very early in the morning upon the first of the Sabbath or of the weeke And in the 9. verse it is said Iesus did rise upon the first of the Sabbath in the morning that is upon the first day of the week This phrase in Scripture alludeth to that in Gen. 1.7 the morning and the evening were the one day that is the first day for one and first in the Hebrew tongue are promiscuously taken which is in every one day of the Sabbath that is in every Sabbath or upon the Lords day or in every first day of the weeke which is the Lords day Then the authoritie of the Acts of the Apostles and this place and that of Saint Iohn which saith he was rapt in the spirit upon the Lords day The judgement of the Fathers for the obâ—ervation of the Lords day All these things be firme and true establishers of the point we have declared Now for the Fathers that they were all also of the same minde you shall heare Iustin Martyr Iustin Martyr Apolog 1.2 that lived an hundred yeares after Christ within an hundred and foure yeares after he saith in the second of his Apollogeticks In the day saith he that we call Sunday the day which the Heathen men called Sunday which is now our Sabbath day for the other day before was called Saturne day of Saturne which was the Iews Sabbath in that day saith he the congregation come together and there are prayers offered up to God and after the Sacraments are received there is a collection made every man layes up as much as his own good will is according to his own election and it is given to the superintendent or to the chiefe Minister of the place and he seeth the poore provided for with it he seeth it be bestowed upon them Tertullian which lived two hundred and foure yeares after Christ in his booke called Tertull. in sould Crowne Apolog. ca. 16. The souldiers Crowne he saith Vpon the Lords day wee abhorre fasting for it is a time of feasting with us And in his Apolloget Chap. 16. saith he If we give one day in seven to merrinesse and joy to joyfulnesse in the holy Ghost it is but all one as the Iewes do which give yet superstitiously the day of Saturne to idlenesse and meere superstition so saith Tertullian there is a certaine little chest in the Church and every man puts into it what seemes good to him if he can and if he will for there is no man constrained and this is done once in a moneth For the place could not endure that it should be done every Sabbath as the Apostle saith here upon every first of the Sabbath but because of the povertie of the countrey it was but once in a moneth that they brought their charitie for the poore Clemens Alexandrinus in the fifth of his Stromata Clem. Alexan. Strom. 5. Pâ—ato he brings a prophesie out of
Plato that God would change the seventh day to the eighth to signifie thereby that God would bring a rest to all the world so that our change of the Sabbath day saith he it is not onely of us not onely manifested to us but it was opened to the Gentiles themselves they also acknowledged it Cyprian Diacon Epist 41. Cyprian the Deacon saith he shall reade the next Lords day wherein the Church must bring their accustomed sacrifice to God that is the sacrifice of Almes-deeds the treasure of life eternall and in his 41. Epistle saith he in the station that is in the Church where we meet and stand together before God let you almes be ready and let no man appeare empty before the Lord alluding to the law speaking of the change of the Sabbath and the collection for the poore Saints named in this place by the common state of the Church Basil Hexamer secund Basile in the second of his Hexameron saith he that the Lord might bring us from this present life to the thought of a better life of the life to come he hath appointed the first fruits of the Sabbath wherein the first fruits of the living rose again from the dead the Lord Christ which was dead did then live which was the beginner and continuer of light in his Church I meane saith he the holy Sabbath day glorified by the resurrection of Christ and commended to the Church to be alway fulfilled and kept Nazianzinus orat 43. Nazianzen saith he there were two Lords dayes the one for the Iewes the other for the Gentiles but ours that we have is more excellent than that for that was belonging to mans salvation but this was the very nativity of salvation the birth of our Saviour The Iewes Sabbath was the intermedium the passage betweene the buriall of Christ and his resurrection for Christ lay in his grave upon their Sabbath day and there he rested and with him rested all the ceremonies of the law never any more to revive but this of the resurrection of Christ is plainly and fully the day of the second generation and regeneration of all the Saints and he gives a reason for it For saith he even as the first creation of the world begun from the Sabbath day so we must imagine that God began to make the world upon the Munday as we call our weeke for in his eternall rest whereby he rested from all eternitie he began then to worke although it were no worke to God but a rest even the creation it was a rest to him he did not worke then more then before yet it is signified to us by worke in the Scripture and that he began in the beginning of the weeke to set himselfe to worke therefore as that worke of the creation began from the Sabbath so the worke of the recreation and redemption of man must begin from the Sabbath And although this be the eighth day yet it is the best day of all that were before it and of all that shall come after it being more high and glorious then that glorious day that was before and being more wonderful and admirable then that wondrous time that preceded it Saint Ierome in the second Epistle of his booke against Vigil The Apostle Paul saith he S. Hierom. contra Vigil Epist 3. Vigitantius I suppose commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poore made upon the Lords day which is the first day of the weeke that is the first of the Iewish weeke And in his fourth question to Hibibbia How soone saith he did the Apostles of Christ turne and change the Iewish Sabbath to shew the libertie of Christians from the bondage of the law how soone did they turne it to the Lords day Aug. 10. Tom. Saint Austin in the tenth Tome of his Sermon upon these words of the Apostle saith he When the seventh day was fulfilled which is the consummation of the world we must come backe againe to the first and reckon from seven to seven and this first will be found the eight day the seventh day is ended and then the Lord is buried the eight day begins and then the Lord is raised for the raising up of the Lord Iesus hath promised unto us a day eternall and hath consecrated to us the Lords day which is the signe and note and assurance unto us of that eternall day of that everlasting Sabbath for now the rocke is raised up againe Let all our hearts be circumcised speaking of the manner of circumcision which was done with a knife of stone with a piece of a stone taken out of the rock out of the rock which is Christ Chrysost on 1. Cor. 16.2 Saint Chrysostome upon this place In one of the Sabbaths that is saith he upon the Lords day for the time it selfe was of sufficient force saith he to bring a man to bee liberall to give almes plentifully Oecumenius Oecumenius saith the same saith hee it should rouze us up this time the Lords day to do good to the Lords Saints Theophilact Theophilact being the first day of the weeke the time wherein we meet together before God they never saith he went without love to God and to the Saints upon the first day of the weeke which is the Lords day Theodoret Theodoret. saith he the day and the worke are met together a man should do the works of the time in his owne time a worke done in season is the more gratefull and acceptable Therefore saith he the day of the Lord wherein the resurrection of Christ is honoured is the fittest time to shew our bountifulnesse to God which hath beene so bountifull to us in giving us the memoriall of him that was Lord of his owne and of our resurrection Athanasius Athanasius upon that place All things are delivered to me of my Father which I stood on the last day and shewed his reasons for the change of the Sabbath Cirill of Ierusalem in the fourteenth of his Catechisme saith he Yesterday Cirill of Ierus Catech. 14. upon the Lords day in the congregation of the Saints and at the generall prayers of the people you heard me speak and discourse of these things where we may see that in that countrey also the same manner was retained Epiphanius in his second booke Epiph. lib. 2. The Sabbath of the Iewes remained in the law till the presence and comming of Christ but Christ dissolved the Sabbath and gave a Sabbath of his owne which is a type of that true rest of that sabbatism wherby the Saints rest from ceremonies and are come to the substance the Sonne of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.7 Cirill of Alexandria in his seventh booke to Palladius We know saith he Cirill Alexand. l. 7. ad Pallad that the Lord Christ came to make us a perfect rest from sinne from death from miserie and to give us conquest over death
and he had power being Lord of the Sabbath to make a new day to make a new consecration which the Church of God hath alway followed Saint Ambrose Ambrose 2. Cor. 16.2 upon this place saith he this one of the Sabbaths or the first of the Sabbath is the Lords day as it is written every where in the Gospell that Christ rose on the first day of the weeke Leo on the Collects Leo on the Collects speaking to the Saints to give bountifully now is the time saith he now is the Lords day now shew your thankfulnesse and your love to God in Christ by your bountie to those that are the members of Christ Greg. Epist 3. Saint Gregory in his third Epistle If any man saith he say that the Iews sabbath should be reduced and brought backe let them reduce all the ceremonies with it and if the one be abhominable the other is abhominable also therefore take heed you be not seduced despise the words of fooles weigh every thing in the ballance of reason and that revelation that you have received the sabbath is made the day of the Lord that looke what errours we commit the week before we should make amends by expiation and confession and sorrow and contrition upon the Lords day Damâ—scene Damascene We celebrate the Lords day as the perfect rest of humane nature for the Iews sabbath was a carnall rest a temporall and figurative rest of that which was to come but this is the perfect rest of nature to have an assured promise of our resurrection which we could not have but by the memoriall of a resurrection and that could not be done but in the resurrection of Christ therefore we celebrate this day in memory of Christs resurrection and in token of the assurance of our resurrection Beza and Musculus Beza and Muscuâ—us and other late writers unlesse one or two which I spake of before which indeed are singular men in their place and degree I say these men dissent from them and they say and acknowledge that these two places of Scripture make it apparant the authoritie of the change of the Sabbath I have beene too long on this subject Now I come to that which is more plaine and easie After he had told them on what time this should be done and we see the time was upon the Lords day and we see the reasons why it was changed from the seventh day from the creation to the eighth day Now let us go to the next that follows in the order of the words By what reasons The motives to charitie by what arguments would the Apostle perswade them to this act What arguments doth he use It is a hard matter to bring a churles money out of his purse and even those that bee generous and excellent well minded yet they cannot endure to heare much of almes for charitie is soone wearie and being once wearie there must needs come infinite danger to the soule For the heart grows hard if charity bee weary And therefore to the intent it may hold out good arguments and reasons must be devised to feed and incourage it for charitie of it selfe will lagge and faile except it be well supported Therefore the Apostle gives such motives as that nothing could be found more opportune and fit to keepe men in practise then this And first from the example of other Churches As I have appointed in the Churches of Galatia so do ye that which other Churches do surely that you will do especially that which poorer Churches have done that are not able to come neere you in state and meanes you will be ashamed to come behinde them but the Churches of Galatia which are more ancient then you and withall poorer then you they have done this Therefore I pray do you so too that is one great incentive wherein we are to consider what the Church of Galatia was and also what his authoritie was among them I have appointed I have commanded saith he saith S. Chrysostome he did not counsell them he did not exhort them by faire words to do it but he appointed them by his power Apostolicall by his Apostolicall authoritie whereby it appeares that the Church hath power to dispose of mens goods in the generall though not in the speciall quantitie that is one motive to draw them on Another is taken from the faire carriage that should be in the businesse a man will more easily be intreated to do something if he be perswaded that there shall be no false play in it but that every thing shall be done according to the Donors intention and that the parties appointed shall be sure to receive that which they have given without any fraud or deceit for that the Apostle gives them satisfaction and tels them that when hee comes the money shall be sent and transmitted to Ierusalem to the poore Saints of Ierusalem for whom he begged as we heard before it should be sent to them and it should be sent by those that they should chuse themselves and if need were he himselfe also would go with them So that here is a full certaintie made that it should not be balked that it should not be interverted nor kept in private mens hands or be turned to the private good of a few but it should redound to the benefit of those for whom it was intended and for that purpose hee tels them there should be certaine men chosen and chosen of the Corinthians themselves men that should be approved by their letters and Epistles and if there were further necessitie he himselfe would go to be a witnesse and testifie of this their great grace which God had done by them This is the second motive whereby he incites them The third is the glorious title he gives them for charitie although it be not proud yet notwithstanding it looks that there should be some thankfull remembrance of it it desires no glorious titles nor no blazing yet the Lord God in mercie hath appointed that if the poore woman shall poure upon the body of Christ such a box of oyntment the Lord saith Verily I say unto you wheresoever the Gospell shall be preached a memoriall shall be made of her of this that she hath done her box shall go with her for a memoriall of her The Lord will not have the good deeds of his Saints to be buried in oblivion but hee will have them famous he will have them carried through the world therefore the Apostle gives it a glorious name a glorious title and saith your grace They shall carry your benefit or your grace your benefit as the word signifieth at large But the Apostle speakes here in another minde as of a thing that comes from the grace of God that ruled and reigned in them and moved them to this gracious worke And then the last is from the inconvenience that would come otherwise hee desires that it might be done with all speed for hee
of custome and dutie these men shame themselves infinitely and disturbe the order of nature and perhaps lay up a curse for their owne soules The last thing that I observe hence is this how will he make the Church of Galatia to provoke them how will hee bring the Corinthians to this how shall it be brought about The Corinthians might have objected and said What do you tell us of the Church of Galatia Have not we poore enow of our owne as we use to say now adayes we will give nothing abroad because wee have poore at home It is true a poore mans neighbour that is neere unto him ought in the first and principall place to be regarded no question of it yet there ought something to be done to the poore at large Now lest the Corinthians should say they would be at their choice and they would either do or they would not do and the Church of Galatia was of no power to prescribe them or their example was of no force to move them by way of necessitie The Apostle therefore tels them I did appoint So by this he shews that he came with full authoritie as speaking more authentically and more powerfully not by perswasion and counsell but by his Apostolicall authoritie which he had received by Christs command As I have appointed The Church hath power to dispose of mens goods We learne by this that the Church hath power to dispose of mens goods and yet this must be done in a gentle manner with a reservation of their owne will for the quantitie for in the quantitie it cannot say saith Saint Chrysostome thus much or thus much but must leave it to a mans owne conscience according as God hath inriched him but as I said before whensoever God hath given a prosperous voyage according as a man hath had a good journey in his trade so he must prosper Gods Saints according as God hath prospered him But for the maine point that he must give something it lyes in the Churches power to command that almes-deeds and works of charitie should be done that is as much in the Churches power as that we should keepe a Sabbath day that men should meet together and heare the word and administer Baptisme and the Lords Supper in the Church wee know these things the Church hath power to ordaine and constitute and as much power hath the Church to ordaine the collection for the poore for all come from one authoritie Therefore the Apostle saith here As I have appointed So then the Corinthians were bound not onely by the example of the Church of Galatia but by that Apostolicall power by that authoritie which the Apostles had received from Christ Feed my sheepe feed them with your prayers feed them with your preaching feed them with your exhortations feed them in giving them bread for the body feed them by your example feed them every way that may be helpfull and commodious to them Howbeit out of this we must not gather that the Church hath that fulnesse of power to impose what they list and to oppresse by way of exaction to thrust in upon the members of Christ what it pleaseth them No the Apostle gives no way here for annates he gives no way for Peter-pence nor for such kinde of collections for those were exactions and extortions against the good wils of the parties to the impoverishing of them that gave it and to the exceeding enriching of those that received it Therefore in such a case we must take notice how farre the Churches authoritie doth extend that is when it is to do good to them of Ierusalem for the Saints of Ierusalem for the good of them that want of them that are disabled by age or by nature or by misfortune to do good to them this is the will of God and this the Church hath power to raise out of a mans substance and there is nothing that is a mans owne there is nothing that he can say hee takes comfort in unlesse the poore man take part of it there is no pound that thou hast except the poore man have a quantitie out of it if it be but a farthing in a pound except he have something from it there can be no rest nor quiet to thee of it the Lord hath appointed unto men that as he hath blessed them so they should returne some tribute some acknowledgement to his poore members on earth As I have appointed in the Churches of Galatia This is the first motive I lay no new thing upon your shoulders no new burthen upon you but that which other Churches beare as well as you nay that which poorer Churches as that of Galatia which is not comparable to you beares the same burthen therefore I pray do you beare it It is the common taxation of the Church of God the collection for the poore the taxing for the poore it hath beene still a follower and a concomitant of the Gospell to have mind of the poore Saints it was the charge given to Paul and Barnabas Gal. 2. as a chiefe part of their office to be mindfull of the poore 2. Motive The safe carriage of it The second motive is taken from the faire carriage that shall bee in this matter for the Corinthians might feare when they had made this collection and should send it that it would miscarry for Ierusalem was almost a thousand miles off from Corinth take the neerest way that might be and there might many casualties fall out before it came there it might be taken by tyrants or they might be false among themselves so that they knew not whether ever it should come to the hands of them that should have it tendred them Therefore for that he saith he will see to it they shall be sure it shall be carried safe and sent to Ierusalem It is a great comfort and a great argument to stirre up mens hearts to do good when they know there shall be no fraud nor deceit in the conveyance of it it was that onely incentive that moved our forefathers to be so bountifull to the Church of God as they were that they went from the giving of almes-deeds to the building of Cels and Colledges and Monasteries and great Churches and goodly Pallaces a strange and wondrous height there was of pietie and devotion Indeed there was much superstition mingled with it there was much vanitie mixed with it but yet we may well thinke that if those men had ever thought of such sharkers as came after them to pull downe all and to make every thing equall with the ground they would have saved a labour and would never have beene so bountifull to the Church If they had thought that such a sort of intruders and ravenners would have taken the goods and the stocke of the Church and the stocke of the poore and have made such havocke of them not caring for the honour and respect of the Church But here for this the Apostle
to shew that men should be ready and willing to run to do good things This doth greatly condemne our backwardnesse although I need not speake it comparatively for perhaps there is not any Church in the world comparatively that is more famous in good deeds and charitable almes then this is yet notwithstanding when men come to some speciall actions they be marvellous slacke and unready and they are hardly drawn It is said in the Records of the Church that when the Statute for the poore came out first when it was first made a statute law the devout men there blessed themselves and smote their breasts and wondred that there should come such a coldnesse of charitie that men which before times had beene ready and plyable should be forced unto it now by the law but we see every day there is a necessitie of a law for it and there shall be every day more need we must be constrained to do that good that we should do out of the bowels of mercie which should be in us we should do it frō the influence of the grace of God to us in Christ we should do it as fellow members we should love our owne flesh we should do it as though we our selves were pinched with the infirmities of other men we should give poore men that which we can spare as freely as we give them our looks as freely as we give them the gesture of our bodies and the like and we know that words and looks are not hunshingly drawne from us but when we come to works of mercie then we dreame they come hardly off it sticks with us but the holy Apostle tels us there is a shame in this when men are so backward although they do good deeds yet when they do them not in the firstnesse of time and when they do not go through them with chearfulnesse they shew themselves to be fallen backe in their love to Christ and to his members But I need not insist much upon this in this Congregation which hath alway beene ready in these matters and in this Citie the bowels of the Saints and their necessities finde such reliefe that it gives occasion to a company of wandring folk to put them oft times to great and transcendent and excessive collections whereof I would have charitie to be a little shie but when these things come that are of extraordinarie consequence as the undoing of our brethren the overthrowing of their estates by fire and such like casualties as these and are testified to us under the hands and certificates of great men men of place and worth and credit in these things wee are not to make question nor to be slacke or untoward for it is the voice of God that rouzeth us And as we should be cautelous in those things that we know not so wee should be forward and ready in those things whereof there is a declaration made whereof no doubt can be made Therefore I beseech you as the Lord hath inabled you that every man would labour to maintaine in his heart the fire of charity that it may still burne as the fire was to burne continually upon Gods altar that your zeale to the members of Christ may still continue that Christ may live in you by faith by apprehending the promises and by love and charitie which is the chiefe demonstration of himselfe and his abiding in you The fourth Sermon 1 COR. 16.4.5 And if it shall be worthy of my journey that I shall go with it they shall go with me But I will come to you when I shall passe through Macedonia for I do passe through Macedonia THis proposall of a collection for the poore Saints that were at Ierusalem was a matter of great moment and that was it that made the Apostle to stand so much and so largely upon it for the lives of the brethren that were there were much indangered both by want and by extreame persecution but especially by reason of a famine whereof Agabus prophesied in Act. 11. which happened in the third or fourth yeare of Claudius Cesar and therefore as Pompey said once when Rome was in great lacke and scarsitie of victuals and he was ready to embarke in a tempestuous sea in a dangerous weather his friends counselled him by all meanes to looke to his life and not to expose himselfe to the perill of the sea at that time He answered them very valorously againe that he must needs saile and set forward that expedition and that he did contemne and scorne his owne life in respect of the common good and the desire he had of the safety of those lives that he had at Rome which were to be sustained So the Apostle sets this forward with all his diligence there must be a collection made for the Saints at Ierusalem and it must be done quickly with great zeale and devotion And therefore hee offers himselfe to the action if need so require The way was long from Corinth to Ierusalem they were about nine hundred or a thousand miles distant in which way many great inconveniences and incommodities might happen The men also that were to beare it might perhaps prove unskilfull or unfaithfull the treasure that was gotten and gathered in the Church of Corinth was great and therefore to be so much the more regarded these and the like circumstances so troubled the minde of the Apostle that he could not in few words discharge himselfe but he useth a number of intimations to them as being possessed with the thought and great zeale that the businesse might be fairely carried that it might have good successe and because the blessing of God went with him wheresoever he went and he made no question but his presence would secure the state of the collection that no thiefe or pyrate should seize upon it by the way nor no meanes should be used to intervert it therefore he promiseth that if it be worthy his labour if it come to such a summe as may beseeme the person of an Apostle to be sent in ambassage and legacie about it that then he will go and he will give a kinde of securitie to it for indeed as yet although it were a great treasure that was gathered at Corinth yet the Apostle knew it not for he now writes but for the gathering of it but afterward in his second Epistle he gives them thanks for it He thanks God for that unspeakable gift that is that summe of money which was such a masse as that he saith the gift was meerly unspeakable their liberalitie was so free that it was a very munificence a magnificent thing as the word is for this therefore because the charge was great he promiseth that if need require that his person should be there hee would go with them and would see the whole businesse expedite for he was secure of this that whatsoever he set his hand unto the Lord would give it protection by the way that it should safely arrive
these things hee was not then the master of his owne guidance in the Action but hee was to bee lead and directed by a Spirit that was higher then his owne by the Spirit of God And hee was not so resolute as fleshly men are as to say I will doe this or I will doe that His yea was not yea and his nay was not nay as if he should say I was not so peremptory as to come unto you till I knew the will of God as St. Iames Iames 5. saith Chap. 5. For this you ought to say if God will or if the Lord permit so the sense is this That whereas I purposed to come unto you and doe not now come you must pardon mee for I am not lead by my selfe but by a higher Spirit which hinders and intervents my purposes as it pleaseth him for I depend not upon my owne will but upon the will of God for if I had beene guided by my owne will I had been with you Then as it followes in the Text The Lord is faithfull for our speach to you hath not beene yea and nay for the Sonne of God Iesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay but yea for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him are amen As if hee should have said You must make a difference betweene my Preaching of the Gospel and the promises that I make as I am a man as I am a weake man and know not the things that are to come I know not the things that are contingent so I tell you this and I tell you that which it may bee shall not bee performed and made good so that I will not say that my yea is yea or my nay nay but when I come to preach the Gospel I am sure of those things I know what I say I understand my selfe I know the foundation of truth is unmoveable I know that there it is not yea and nay in Christ but all the promises of God in him are yea and in him are Amen for ever Thus you partly understand this But that wee may make it a little more open the sense of the Apostle is this That whereas I promised you in my former Epistle to come unto you I was so in earnest affected to this journey that whereas I told you I would not passe by you but would first goe to Macedonia and then come backe to you yet my minde was so altered and my bowels againe were so earnest that I determined to bee better then my word I purposed to come to you first and so to passe from you to Macedonia but all this was not in my owne government but in the hand of God I know not whether I shall goe I know not how I shall be disposed of I know not how the Lord hath laid the way for mee I know not where hee will have mee imployed I went to preach unto all Nations the Gospel of Christ but the Lord hindered mee and would not suffer mee to preach to many of them but bade mee hold my tongue so I promise you now to come to Corinth but I know not whether ever I shall come or that this shall come to passe therefore I would have you distinguish and make a difference between the word of my preaching and the word of my Promise the word of my Preaching is alway certaine it is yea and amen but those words that I promise as a man they bee yea and nay as God shall dispose of them I have not power of my selfe to order them so this place is a plaine argument of that I said before that St. Paul never performed this which hee thought and desired that is to come to Corinth Now looke to another place that makes it a little more plaine 2. Cor. 2.1 where hee gives another reason for it I determined saith hee I disposed with my selfe that I would never come in sorow to you I would never come to you in heavinesse but if I come I will come in joy and cheerefulnesse Now I understand that yee are in heavinesse because of the letter that I wrote unto you I wrote a letter concerning the incestuous fellow that used his fathers wife and lived with her and I understand that you are in heavinesse for this and I would not therefore come unto you for this cause because you were in sorow although I bee glad for it that you are sorry for it was a godly sorrow which caused repentance but yet I would not come unto you in that state but when you have made your peace with God and with your selves when you may entertaine me with cheerefulnesse it is my purpose then to come So both the will of God and my will wrought together in this for Gods will it perfects my will it was Gods will that I should not come unto you and my will is agreeable to Gods will the Lord told mee that it was not fit for mee to come and take you in sorrow for the spirit of the Pastor and of his Schollers should alwayes meet in joy they should rejoice continually as the Apostle saith We see then it was not done Now let us see a little the cause why it was not done The cause why he came not how came it to passe that the Apostle Paul was thus disturbed and disappointed of his purpose For that you shall see Acts 20.3 Act. 20.3 St. Paul went to Macedonia and came through those parts and exhorted the brethren with much exhortation from thence he came into Grecia and staying there three moneths he heard say that there was treason plotted against him that there was a conspiracy against him in Asia by the Iewes or else in some part of Grecia the Iewes had laid wait for his life to intercept and hinder him Therefore hee was counselled by the company by the body of the Apostles those that were then companions with him to goe backe againe to Macedonia and from thence he came to the port Towne to Philippi and thence along and never touched at Ephesus as we shal have occasion to shew upon the next verse if God give permission he never touched there but went along upon the first day upon Easter Munday as wee call it and so passed on till Pentecost and never saw Ephesus nor Corinth more but went to Ierusalem and after hee was carried to Rome and there he continued till the time of his Martyrdome So out of this we gather that St. Paul was twice at Macedon once when hee planted the Church and another time when hee came to visite the Church The planting of the Church wee find Act. 16.9 Acts 1â— 9 It is said there that there was in the night time a vision made to Paul a certaine vision appeared to him for there was a man of Macedon that stood there and intreated him and said unto him Come over to Macedonia and help us And upon this