there shall be one way for him that gives his goods to the poore and another way for him that gives his life for Christs sake These shall shine in a different manner And as Ambrose Ambrose againe Even as for the penies sake there is no man that shall bee driven out of Gods kingdome but he that can bring the peny and shew it unto God and say Here is thy Image here is thy superscription Cesar know thy owne and take me for thine owne for here I bring thee the penie As he that can bring the penie shall have heaven so there be some that have more then the penie and those shall have varietie of mansions and goodly places in the paradise of God they shall be the chiefe and principall To conclude all Let us desire the Lord Vse that we may have some place and if it be never so little it shall be full enough The Lord shall fill all those that follow him as with a river in the pleasures of his house and to be a doore-keeper in the house of God in that blessed kingdome is worth all the tents and riches in this world Let us not dispute much about these things but let us rest in that doctrine which is delivered in the Scriptures and let us know that if God admit us to heaven we can have no meane place any thing there is better then all the glory of this world even the least and poorest mansion that can be And that we may have the greatest and the best and principall place there there must be an holy ambition for heaven and for the greatest place in heaven As the sonnes of Zebede desired that one might sit on the right hand of Christ Mat. 20.211 and another on the left let us know how it is to be gotten that so we may be made capable for it For it is not attained without a high comprehension there being no meanes for these straite vessels to keepe and hold such a latitude of honour they are too great for us therefore God shall reward us according to our works and according to the service that we do him Not for any merit of ours for that were nothing at all but hell and confusion but for the merits of Christ upon whom wee layhold by faith By which means his merits are made ours and we make him ours and shall be sure to finde him ours at that day Which the Lord grant SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.42 So also in the Resurrection of the dead It is sowne in corruption it is raised againe in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised again in honour IN these words the holie Apostle describes unto us those rare supernaturall qualities which God will deck the bodies of the Saints withall in the great day of the Resurrection Hee hath shewed heretofore by certain parables and similies that such a thing is likely to be that it is possible but now he tells us indeed what it is And so after that pleasing doctrine that was uttered in similitudes he comes to a more sad and solemne and sentencious kinde of doctrine and sets it downe in materiall propositions concerning the future state of Gods children It is true that to prepare the minds of men by familiar similies and examples before their eies is a part of wondrous art and great oratorie for so our Saviour used in the Gospel still to draw men by those things that were before them to teach them by their owne trades and by their proper callings by that meanes growing familiar with their understandings making those things that were hidden plain and open by those things that they were most conversant in But that kind of doctrine is not alway to be followed because as they say similitudes illustrate indeed but they prove nothing there is a kind of deeper divinity then that which is from similitude which our Saviour Christ mingleth with his similitudes as the Apostle Paul doth here For now he comes to tell us of those things which we could not have beleeved except the similitudes before had prepared us and had shewed us that they are things possible that the body that is so corrupt that it should have a new quality that it should receive incorruption and never corrupt again that the dead body which is so deformed should have such a glory and beauty that there is no creature no visible creature which God hath made can compare with it that the body that is so weak and so full of infirmity that it should have such a supernaturall strength whereby it shall exceed a thousand Sampsons in strength and vigour that the body that is a lump a meere carnall masse that it should come to that nimblenesse and agility and swiftnesse that it should become rather a spirit then a bodie when it is raised That these things should so happen it were altogether incredible if the Lord had not made it probable before by the things that we familiarly use by the corn in our fields by the flowers in our gardens by the flesh of the creatures by the difference of coelestiall and terrestriall bodies and by the difference of heavenly bodies among themselves Now he comes to the generall hypothesis and makes the reduction of all those similies that went before So is it in the Resurrection of the dead So that is in all those 4. comparisons which I named before you may apply all these very well understand by them the nature and the qualities of the bodies that shall be raised up So is it in the Resurrection of the dead So as it is with the corne so as it is with those divers kinds of flesh as it is in the difference of the heavenly bodies cōpared with the earthly as the heavenly bodies are mutually different one from another In the corne as there is a strange variety in the growth of it from that which was sowne it comes to an admirable plenty so the glory that shall be revealed upon the bodies of the Saints out of a rotten thing which was nothing but as an eare of corne putrifyed and corrupted out of this there comes a glorious stalke of incorruption and beautie that shall remaine for ever And as it is in the flesh of beasts and in the flesh of men the flesh of fouls and of fishes as there is great variety and some are sweeter then other and some more sollid and compact then other so is it in the Resurrection of the dead in comparison of this flesh that we have here This flesh is like unto the flesh of fishes in respect of that which shall be there The Lord himselfe shall so perfume it with his glorious unction that it shall be for ever stedfast and strong and able unto all purposes that it shall be filled with all faculties and prepared unto all the functions that God shal appoint unto it So is the Resurrection of the dead So
brought to such a wofull change as that Therefore a Christian upon this must consider that as he looks for a change at that day in his body so hee must labour for this change before hand of his manners and conditions even to change his pride into lowlinesse to turne his filthinesse into holy obedience God expects such a change at our hands and we should make our prayer to Almighty God that he that changeth all things would take the paines to change us that in the middest of other things we might not continue the same desperate men but bee renewed in the spirit of our mindes and be changed into another man Ephes 4.23 To put off the old man and his wickednesse and to put on the new man Colos 3.9 10. which is made according to the image of God in righteousnesse and holinesse to change our apparrell and to put on Christ This is the true devotion of the Saints and that which they should spend the time of their life in Oh thou that changest all things Vse thou that changest the bodies of men at the end of the world after a miraculous manner I beseech thee change my fortunes change my state bring mee out of this wretchednesse and misery to a competencie Especially change my vicious estate that I may not rot and corrupt in it but that I may be brought to holinesse and righteousnesse Change the hearts of mine enemies that they may turne to mee Alter their hearts Prov. 21.1 thou which haste the hearts of men in thy hand and turnest them as the rivers of waters change the hearts of them Change thine owne countenance which art angry with mee for my sins Although thou change not in thy selfe yet in respect of me thou seemest sometimes to be pleased and sometimes to be angry When I doe well thou art pleasant to my conscience when I doe ill thou art as a Lion to me Psal 18.25 26. With the godly thou wilt shew thy selfe godly with the righteous thou wilt bee righteous with the perverse thou wilt shew thy selfe perverse Therefore I beseech thee change this misery of mine change it to happinesse change my sinfull state to a holy and blessed estate change my spirit which is addicted to the world and worldly things to spirituall and gracious intentions that it may intend onely the things that belong to thy glory and to my owne soules health God is the God of changing and though there bee no shadow of changing in him yet it is hee that makes all the changes that are in us Iames 1.17 both in this little world and in the great world about us Now I come to the last point a word of it because the time is past The time And the meanes The time In the twinckling of an eye And the meanes The blowing of a trumpet Therefore as my Text is short a moment of time so I will indeavour to speake of it in a moment as it were The Apostle saith all this shall bee done in a moment in the twinckling of an eye This is the greatest wonder of all the rest the mystery was never great till now that there should bee such a deale of worke done in so small a time A moment is nothing The word signifieth an atome a thing that cannot be cut into quantity a very punctum a moâ—e in the Sunne which no man can cut or divide it into pieces it is a thing that cannot bee distinguished So his meaning is to signifie unto us the shortest time that can bee For certainly wee must needs imagine that these great things must require some time For first of all when the Lord began to make the world hee tooke some time he took sixe dayes to make a distinction and division of the work Therefore also it is likely that at the later end of the world the Lord shall take some time although it shall not be so much as that was Secondly againe it is needfull that there should be some time because of the observation that Gods children must make of these actions For if all things should bee done in a moment and hurried up in a confusion the children of God should want a great part of their instruction and a great part of their comfort For this is one part of their delight and comfort to see how the world shall bee destroyed to see how the dead shall bee raised and themselves to see how their bodies shall bee changed to see how the Iudge shall come This shall bee a great part of their learning to understand these things and without distinction of time it is impossible but there would be a confusion wrought Therefore it is needfull that there should bee an interpose of time Therefore the Apostles meaning is not to bee thus taken that there shall bee no time in the doing of these things But his meaning is this that the time shall be so short that it shall not bee perceived or conceived to bee agreeable to so great an action The Lord shall doe it so speedily as if it were in the twinckling of an eye For the Apostle speaks here out of an earnest desire as hee doth in other Epistles when he would set forth a thing to the full hee speaks in a kinde of holy hyperbole in a holy excesse therefore hee saith it shall bee in the twinckling of an eye to signifie that the Lord shall doe it in such a trice with such quicknesse as it is past all the understanding of men or Angels that such a great thing should be done upon such a sudden So I take the twinckling of an eye to bee understood So to conclude the point Vse We learne that God works upon a sudden when he begins to work Therefore this shoulâ— comfort us that no man should despaire of his well-being with God For God is able to work upon the sudden he requires no time to work in He calls some men at one houre and some at an other A man that hath been a wicked liver all his life time perhaps threescore perhaps fourescore yeares hee growes desperate in the sight of his sinnes and thinks that all time is past for recovery No hee is deceived the Lord can work without time he requires none Hast thou so much life in thee as the twinckling of an eye hast thou so much time as a moment will answer to if there be so much there is hope still If there be but so much breath and life in a sinner that a man may say hee will not die till hee have twinckled his eye once if there bee but so much there is hope of mercy still with God But let us not doate upon this and thinke upon the twinckling of an eye or a moment but let us take every moment to come unto God For God works in a moment and which moment hee works in that we know not Perhaps this is our moment God calls us now Perhaps Gods eyes
I assent to that which is written in the Gospel and because I hope for a reward at the resurrection therefore I give almes to my brethren I exercise works of charity and doe good to my fellow members because that one day I hope to be proclaimed a member of the Sonne of God Upon this work therefore followes all the rest this is that great worke of the Lord which is called The worke of the Lord by way of excellency All good things be the workes of God It is true but the worke the singular worke of the Lord is this whereby hee raised his Sonne from the dead the totall of our faith and resurrection the onely thing that makes us assured of salvation Rom. 10. If thou beleeve with thine heart and confesse with thy mouth that God hath raised Christ from the dead thou shalt bee saved saith the Apostle Behold the whole worke of salvation runnes upon this and though there bee other things required for hee that beleeveth must bee conformed to the glory of God which hath raised his Sonne yet the maine and chiefe point of a mans salvation is this that hee beleeve and confesse that God hath raised his Sonne Iesus from the dead and that he shall give life unto those that are dead and those things that were conquered hee shall make them more then conquerers This is that that saves a man 2. Part the degree Abound Bee abundant alway in the worke of the Lord. It is not onely necessary for us to worke the worke of the Lord but we must bee abundant in it God doth require of us an eminency for it is true that unto him that worketh by the grace of God that he hath received there is a commendation and a testimony due unto him yet notwithstanding if hee rest satisfied with his small measure hee cannot aspire to this dignity to partake of the conquest of Christ because he doth not abound in the worke of the Lord. Abound in the worke of the Lord that is bee abundantly able to comfort thy selfe in this matter of the resurrection and to comfort others that shall come to take comfort of thee The childe of God must abound as a River that keepes not the water that is in it for it selfe but disperseth it to the dry ground so the children of God must abound in the worke that they have by the Lord in the worke of charity in the worke of beliefe and apprehension of the Articles of their faith In every thing the Lord will have them abounding creatures In the first beginning it was the blessing of the Lord increase and multiply Gen. 1.20 we see of two creatures hee made a great world by that blessing upon it And as in naturall things much more in spirituall a man must increase and multiply he must not stand at a stay but abound and goe forward Hee must abound not to supererogation as the Papists would have it a man cannot be so abundant as to have enough for himselfe and others God knows he that hath the most hath too little for himselfe for it is the merit of Christ that must doe all For this is the meaning of the Apostle where he saith Bee abundant in the worke of the Lord that is that they should not content themselves with that measure that they had received there is more before forgetting that which is behind and pressing forward So that if a man have done that which is good he must not think that he hath done enough but he must goe forward in well-doing and not bee weary Whatsoever good worke the Lord hath in him to crowne and accomplish it with perseverance it is that that makes up all the graces of God and that is it which he saith here 3. Part. The extent Alway A grievous thing it is to bee set to worke there is no man can endure labour and worke especially the work of the Lord is hard and contrary to flesh and blood which is made easie by the grace of God but when a man hath begun he thinkes he may safely with a good conscience leave off after a short time and so he falls to be cold in his profession of those good things which formerly he contented himselfe withall Hee that hath beene in the service of God from his youth a long time hee thinks he may take some respite in his old age he thinks his earnestnesse and fervour and heat of zeale in his youth may admit some kinde of allay and his former zeale may be a sufficient defence for it A man that hath given to a poore man hee thinkes hee hath beene very beneficiall when hee hath given so much and hee bids him come no more at him hee hath done so much for him already When a man prayes when hee hath done his devotion in the morning he thinks whatsoever occasion comes hee shall have no occasion to pray till night And so in the course of al holy matters we grow weary of the service of God so the Apostle cuts this sluggishnesse away tells them he would have them be as a fountaine he would have them abound never to be exhausted never to be drawne dry as the fountaine runnes alway so the fountaine of grace in Gods children it runs continually To what purpose is it to give a poore man a peny to day and see him starve to morrow hee had as good give him nothing at all hee were as good have died to day it is but a dayes respite the charity of Gods children must bee perpetuall let them give as they are able but let them give continually let them pray continually let them reade continually let them meditate on the works of God continually let them rejoice let them give thanks continually let them approve the works of God continually let them satisfie doubting consciences continually let their fountaine be alwayes running let there be no stop in the fountaine of grace when it hath once begun let it goe on in a happy streame and flow unto all the inheritance of God I beseech you beloved be alway abundant in the worke of the Lord. This worke of the Lord the resurrection bee abundant in that and in all the rest of the works of the Lord because the Lord is alway plentifull to you in mercy so be you plentifull to him in good workes to draw this mercy of God upon your owne soules Now followes the reason of all and it is indeed a sweete contentment to every Christian man Knowing that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. There is no signe more ridiculous and frivolous then the labour in vaine for a man to wash an Ethiopian for a man to wash a brickâ— for a man to take paines for that which is not worth his labour if it be atchieved or which he cannot possibly atchieve If their labour had beene such as this then the Apostle should wish them to their losse to their great
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
began another age a more blessed and glorious age that of redemption that was now to flourish and to be esteemed in the world and so it was necessary that there should be a cessation of the former that there must be an introduction of this But how then will some say Quest shall we not remember the works of the creation still as well as wee should before Answ Yes but now the Lord hath given that grace and that light that wee may remember them every day we may meditate of them as we are doing our workes for the Gospell is so cleare and hath laid open the treasures of heaven so plainely that as we doe the workes of our hands we may remember the workes of the Lord too which the Iewes could not doe in their worke and labour for it was so hidden from them that they knew not that which was done before their faces as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 3. Therefore this is one reason the gratious worke of the redemption and recreation of the world being the greatest worke that ever was requires the greatest memoriall Therefore it is necessary there should be a Sabbath day a time of rest for the contemplation and meditation of that rather then for the lesser worke the worke of the creation which may be meditated on and remembred every day as well as upon the Sabbath but the worke of redemption although it be to be thought upon and remembred every day and may be meditated upon daily yet then we must thinke of it more seriously with a more curious observation and meditation upon the Lords day because then upon that day was the resurrection of the Sonne of God who is the first fruits of all Christian beleevers 3 The Iewish Sabbath was for distinction Againe another reason of the change of the Sabbath is because the Sabbath was made for a matter of distinction to distinguish the Iewish nation from all other people in the world it was a matter of separation and privacy but the Lord Iesus came to be publique he would have none of those private signes continue he tooke down the partition wall which was made betweene Iewes and Gentiles they were before shut up one from another there was no agreement or correspondency betweene them and the symboll of this separation was the Sabbath day for the Gentiles scorned them and said they spent the seventh part of their time in idlenesse meaning their Sabbath day Now by this separation there grew enmity and hatred and outward opposition because the one had a rest and the other had not Now the Lord Iesus came to take downe this separation to take away this wall of distinction which was betweene them and so he made the eighth day the day of rest the Sabbath not for a day of separation as the seventh day was which separated them and made them strangers from all other men but to unite them so that now there is none strange in Christ but all are one Gal. Iewes and Gentiles male and female bond and free there is no nation nor no condition whatsoever but all are welcome to Christ the Saviour of the world Therfore he made the Sabbath upon a new day because the other was a day of separation and division but this is a day of common convocation and collection and gathering of all together as the Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Mat. 23. Mat. 23. Further Reason 4 In memory of Christs resurrection because the Lord would assure us that both himselfe was risen and that wee also should rise by the vertue and power of his resurrection this is the maine head of our religion and all our faith therefore he would have us keepe the Sabbath upon the same day that he rose againe from the dead Therefore the Church changed that day from the Iewish Sabbath to rest not upon that day but upon the first day of the weeke which is our Lords day I say because the Lord would teach us the glorious article of his owne resurrection and would assure us of the consequent of it our resurrection by that power of his therefore he would have every Sabbath day to be a day of meditation upon that benefit that every Christian may say this is my resurrection day this day my Head rose againe which is the first fruits and I am assured that by the power of his resurrection I shall rise also therefore that Christ might make a way to my resurrection he hath ordained a day a Sabbath wherein I must contemplate upon that benefit and this I feed on this is my Sabbath dayes feast wherein I rest and quiet my soule and if it were not for the certainty of the resurrection of Christ and the certaine hope of my own resurrection I could keepe no Sabbath but now I keepe a Sabbath by the appoyntment of the Church by the wise judgement of my Mother as a symboll of my resurrection as a signe and symboll that my head is risen and that his body also shall rise in due time as certainly as the head is risen already Reason 5 From the end of the Sabbath Againe the Sabbath and the end of the Sabbath was a cessation from worke and it signifieth both a cessation from sinne and also the rest that our Lord and Saviour Christ was to have in the grave to make a cessation from our sinnes and from all sinne in his children Observe the argument ye shall see it in Heb. 4.10 Heb. 4.10 The Apostle there tels us that one of the ends of the Sabbath was this that a man should rest from his worke even as God rested from his what are mens works sinne what are Gods workes the glorious act of the creation therefore as God ceased from his worke and made a Sabbath to shew that then he had finished his worke and rested so there remaines a Sabbath to the people of God to shew that there is a cessation from their worke Now this cessation of Gods people it must come to the members from the head it must begin at our head Christ first he must cease from sinne but Christ had no sinne therefore he could not cease from sinne but because hee said consummatum est the day before the Sabbath that is the price of mans sinne which was cast upon him it was now payed therefore there is a cessation from sinne and wee must not live any longer therein but be dead to sinne as Christ was in his grave and rise to holinesse of life which is the proper end of his resurrection Marke how the Church concludes upon this the Sabbath was a type of Christs resting but he never rested till he was in his grave for saith he My Father workes hitherto and I worke and I worke to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfect still in this fraile life he was working but upon the Sabbath day then he rested to
intercepted by death Austin And Nebridius S. Austins great friend was not baptised till he was old and S. Austin himselfe was not baptised till his mans estate This errour God confuted by the death of Valentinian and other great spirits which although they were perswaded of the truth of religion yet they put off God and would not take his time but have a time of their owne choosing and therefore God gave them no time as Ambrose saith of the Emperour he wanted not the grace of baptisme because he had the faith of baptisme He yeelded his consent unto the truth and although he went away unbaptised yet he was truely baptised as one who in his heart yeelded to the faith and promises of Christ And if we should take it thus this is the sence of S. Paul in these words what shall they doe that are baptised for dead that is when they are ready to die and goe out of the world if there be no resurrection his argument followes that that which they did so late they would not doe it at all that which they did by constraint putting it off to the last time of their life they would not doe it at all except it were for the hope of the resurrection so that if there be no resurrection there is a maine frustration and a meere delusion of these men that suffer themselves so farre to be overgone with deadly sicknesse as that they looke every houre for death and yet then they take upon them the baptisme of life as a certaine pawne and pledge of the common resurrection This sounds somewhat like a truth but yet it is likely that the Apostle would have condemned this as well as the other being as ridiculous because this is injurious to God and to the Sacrament and pernicious to mens owne soules to tempt God whether he will give them a time of their owne choosing to put off the Sacrament that should be imbraced upon all opportunities to refuse it when God offers it which we should take thankfully and chearefully No doubt but the Apostle would have confuted this errour as the former and not have suffered the Corinthians to have beene so tardy in a point of salvation Wherefore I take this opinion not to be according to the Apostles minde for as I sayd that opinion is most probable and most agreeable to S. Pauls meaning that proves the strongest but this proves nothing that because a man that is driven to it in extremity at the time of his death to doe an action that therefore that action should bee of force that may be done in amazement and feare or by the instigation of others a man it may be is not lead to it by his owne will so much as by the perswasion of another and there is no reason that a man should ground upon such a weake stay to inferre such a strong conclusion The third opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is for the forgivenesse of sins which are dead workes For so indeed the Lord seems to signifie when he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living and also the Apostle when he saith ye were dead in sinnes and trespasses It is true our Saviour Christ includes in that speech both them that were dead naturally and them that were dead spiritually For in one place he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living speaking of naturall death In another place let the dead bury their dead speaking of them that were dead spiritually and so we may apply it that those that are baptised for dead that is for remission of sinnes wherein the body and soule are dead and for the quickening and reviving of them by spirituall grace But this is too farre off for the Apostles meaning is not here to speake of a thing that is common that being common to all beleevers to be baptised for the remission of sinnes but he speakes of some peculiar baptisme that was not common to all in generall but belonged to some in particular Besides the Apostle speakes not here of the spirituall resurrection but of the corporall he speakes not of the rising from sinne to grace although it be true that they that are baptised are baptised for the remission of sinnes yet it is not proper here for the Apostle speaks of the resurrection of the flesh the spirituall is allegoricall which is from the death of sinne to the life of grace by repentance Therefore that proves nothing and is not likely to be S. Pauls minde for he purposed not to spend his time in trifles but to bring the validity of his arguments directly to conclude the cause Another opinion there is that hath many great and substantiall followers They that are baptised for the dead that is that are baptised into the death of Christ Iesus to be planted with him into the similitude of his death And this hath Chrysostome Theodoret Aquinas Calvin and many other great Divines for the Authors and followers of it And that you may see that it hath some similitude of reason in it looke in Rom. 6.4.5 Rom. 6.4.5 Doe you not know saith the Apostle that they that are baptised into Christ are baptised into his death therefore we are buried together with him in baptisme It is true that every man that makes profession of the faith of Christs baptisme among the rest of the articles that he professeth he must beleeve in Christ that was dead and buried that he was crucified and that he descended into hell and that he rose againe the third day c. And he professeth also that he is ready to dye for Christ when he shall be called to it and till that time come that he will dye spiritually in his heart and in his will to worldly affections which he knowes that Christ never had in him or had any liking to them but utterly abhorred them Therefore this being the symbol and badge of our profession it seemes from hence that every man that is baptised may be said to be baptised for dead that is for a dead Christ in whom he trusts which was dead but now is alive and behold he is alive for evermore Apoc. 1.18 He is baptised for dead that is to the world and the flesh that he may live for ever unto God Chrysostome proves this by an argument that hee thinkes fit and convenient for the purpose for saith he whether of the two is easier to raise the body from death or to raise the soule from sinne no doubt saith hee it is an easier matter to raise the dead body from the grave than to raise a soule that is dead in sinnes and trespasses to newnesse of life And behold saith he in the Romans the Apostle proves the one by the other that although we thinke it easier yet he intimates that that which we thinke to be easier is harder and that which seems more hard
you you have an ignorance concerning God because you call in question his power in this mighty benefit the resurrection of our bodies And then lastly he concludeth with mildnesse and sharpnesse and mingleth both together I speake this to your shame As if he should have said partly I am ashamed that I have spent so much time and so much labour among you and yet still you are in such waverings as these and are no better perswaded in the omnipotent power of God But as I speake this to your shame so I would not have you despaire but onely to take shame of your fault and so be brought to Repentance I speake it not to bring you to a confusion eternall but to a healthy confusion a confusion that brings conversion that conversion may bring salvation by the mercy of God I speak it not to overthrow you but to waken you that have beene intoxicate in a deepe sleepe by the wicked communication of these men This I take to be the sence of the Text. To proceed in order There are three parts Division into 3. Parts First a counsell or exhortation Then a serious expostulation 1. An exhortation 2. An expostulation 3. An Increpation And lastly a forcible dealing by way of Increpation whereby he doth as it were by an holy violence compell them to enter into the wayes of God and to be reclaimed from their sinnes The first is contained in these words Awake to righteousnesse and sinne not 1 delivered And that First in figure and then In plaine speech The figure in these words Awake to righteousnesse The plaine words follow And sinne not The one interprets the other In the figure there are two things 1 There is an Act to awake out of wine awake out of drinke for so the word signifieth Then secondly there is the tearme and manner whereto they must wake Awake to justice awake to perfection not as men halfe asleep and halfe awake to turne on the other side and take a nappe but to wake fully and freely It is such a waking as a man may be expedite to worke in the function of his life whereunto all waking men are disposed Then in the plaine words or exposition hee shews likewise two things 1 First that sinne is the mother of all errour of all grosse and base communication 2 Secondly that by the grace of God if we work with the grace of God we shall not sinne that is we shall not sinne in that grosse manner as these creatures do Although all men be sinners yet if we will tender the grace of God that is in us we shall so live as that we shall not sinne according to that phrase of Scripture which is afterwards to be expounded namely not with a full consent not with a high hand not to continue in sinne not to despaire in sinne but we shall know that if we do sinne we have a Mediatour of our reconciliation we have a Mediator which is God and Man Christ Iesus 1. Tim. 2.5 1. Iob. 1.1 2. who is the propitiation for our sinnes Then in the second part in the exposition there are two things to be considered First he tels them of their fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a word that we cannot well utter in English nor in Latine it is hard to be exprest in both languages to be ignorant of God And then because he would not offend all the company for a fews sake he saith Some of you have not the knowledge of God And then lastly the Application of all to them he saith he speakes it to their shame that is either he was ashamed to spend so much time and labour to so little profit or he spake it to their shame as the common Text reades it I speake it to your shame But yet it is such a speech as is not uttered in a virulent manner to cast them away to make them despaire but to bring them home that they might know what they ought to do for the time to come These are the branches of the Text. Of every one of these as the Lord shall give assistance and but a word of every one because they are common obvious things First it is to be observed 1. Part. The Exhortation Awake c. that the Apostle invites them and cals upon them for waking and for such a waking as if he should speake to a sort of drunkards that were drowned in wine and drunkennesse which is as base a kinde of sleepe as can be For all sleepe naturall of it selfe is justly accounted a meere losse of time the brother of death the field of danger a thing that hath no profit in it that spends one part of our life to no purpose And yet we cannot live without it for the repairing and re-edifying and building up of our bodies againe that were consumed and wasted before with daily labour Now if the naturall sleepe be a loosing of time a loosing of our spirits and a subjecting of us to danger much more then is it in the sleepe of sinne that poysonous sleepe that comes by excesse and drunkennesse These of all other are most dangerous and most hard for a man to bee rouzed out of It is a common thing in Scripture to compare sinners to sleepers and sinne to sleepe There are divers sleepes related in the Scriptures The sleepe corporall of the body and spirituall of the soule The sleepe corporall of the body is either naturall or violent Naturall sleepe is that when the strength of man is weakened and abated and his spirits are againe renewed by a gracious mist and dew that is cast upon the body whereby the naturall spirits the vitall spirits and the animall spirits are refreshed and raised againe to their worke Violent sleepe is either by drunkennesse or disease When nature is overwhelmed by drunkennesse or by disease As by Lethargies or palsies which all worke unto death which is also called sleepe For our Lord Christ saith We go to Lazarus who sleepeth And those that dye in the Lord they sleepe This is naturall sleepe The spirituall sleepe the sleepe that fals upon the spirit of man it is of two sorts in Scripture The one is celestiall and good The other is infernall for hell and hellish purposes Cant. 2.7 The first is that sleepe of the Church I charge you oh daughters of Ierusalem by the roes and by the hyndes that ye wake not my beloved untill she please that is in the meditation of holy things It is a divine rapture whereby the Saints of God have communion and are made one spirit with the Lord. Cant. 5.1 This is called in Scripture a sleepe I sleepe but my heart waketh But that which the Apostle speaks of here is an infernall sleepe that tends to a sleepe of damnation As sleepie diseases nourish death in men and there is no more assured signe that a man shall dye then when he is continually sleeping that he
of God it is able to bring forth all these This is the wondrous act of Gods hand that out of a blacke beane or out of a browne corne of wheat that the Lord should bring a new flower a greene livery the next Spring and that he should give it such a dew in the earth that it should come with such leaves and flagges about it that in many places they are faine to let their cattell eate it twice or thrice over for feare of too much rancknesse Not that the corne is indangered but onely they take away the superfluity of it so that still there remaines a profit out of that poore dry thing that seemed unsufficient to affoord any moysture This is the wondrous hand of God Vse And it teacheth us that it hath pleased him to hide for his chosen children such treasures of heavenly furniture and such possibility of bringing forth rare abundance that although the hunger-bitten beast of death or sicknesse or affliction or trouble or persecution in the world bite upon it and eate it severall times yet the corne grows still According to the conceit of the Greeke Poet of the goat that was eating and gnawing the vine hee brings in the vine thus speaking to the goat Apud Sueton. Although thou eat me to the root yet I will rise againe and bring forth so much fruit as shall make wine to cast upon thy carkasse when thou shalt be offered in sacrifice This is that glorious worke of the Lord which he cals corpus futurum the body that shall be which the Lord shall bring from divers changes As from putrifying in the earth to sprout and to take root downward then to shoot upward For so the Lord guides the thing as the blessed Prophet Isaiah saith Isa 28. the Lord gives the plough-man wisedome in his heart to do these things the Lord contrives the worke by his owne blessing that first it takes root downward and layes a foundation and as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost looke what the foundation is in houses which men build the same is the root in vegetable things that grow upon the earth they worke themselves a foundation to stand on The divers branches that wee see a tree to have it hath roots answerable it is a tree beneath the ground as well as above ground or else it could not stand against those blasts and stormes that come from the ayre So it is in the corne it hath an extensive varietie a great number of little branches and roots that stretch themselves in the earth to make it firme and solid beneath it were impossible else but it should be broken in peeces with every winde and storme and raine And then when God hath given it power to worke that way to make the foundation downward then it shoots upward and begins like a tender greene grasse that peepes out of the earth And that grasse is soone after covered with such a deale of grassie substance of flagges and leaves and in the middest of that flaggie part there ariseth that that must be the care the choise of all which God builds up by a strange Art and makes it consist because it is to rise to some height of certaine knots that every knot may be as it were a post or pillar to support the eare of corne and therefore as they bee nearer the earth so the thicker and greater they be That the flagges that are about it should come in to feed it and make the substance of the fruit that there should come of one corne thirty or forty it is the wondrous act of God called Corpus futurum The body that is to come 2 Mans part affirmatively What he soweth The next thing on mans part is affirmatively what he soweth bare corne that hath none of these things to see too saith Tertullian it hath not any garment of it selfe it hath not any leaves to cloath is about it hath not a foundation of any root it hath not any fence of a hawne or huske to defend it from the fowls of the ayre or to keepe off the injurie of the adversaries the beasts of the field it hath no tall and comely proportion but is as a dead forlorn thing that is given for lost in nature But when it riseth againe it comes up with the greatest interest that can be There is no usury in the world no interest in the earth comparable to that that comes of the earth Though mens gaines oft times be cruel and bloudy yet notwithstanding it never makes such a noble in come as this that a man should finde an hundred for one For so wee reade in the Scriptures of Isaac that the Lord gave him in one yeare an hundred fold Gen. 26.12 he received an hundred for one that he sowed that yeare whereby he was made admirable and honoured of all the countrey This is now that glorious hand that is called the body that shall be And so it is in the rising of the bodies of men For it is to no purpose for us to stand in the straw of the similitude but wee must rise up to the corne to the thing that is purposed the doctrine of the Resurrection The best man in the world when he dyes he must bee sowne in the ground his body is sowne as a bare seed as a bare graine it is divested of all the goodlinesse it had before when it lived and flourished in this world It had then many faire blossomes it had a goodly eare a tall stately position and positure above many of his fellows It was indewed as the highest topped corne in the field of God with riches with honour with strength and beauty and wisedome and moreover with spirituall graces But what are all these when a man must come to lye downe in the grave when he must be cast into the furrows of the earth when all these flowers and feathers must be plucked off then he must forget his owne honour he must depose and lay aside his riches being not able to carrie them with him Iob 1.21 For naked we came into this world and naked we shall returne It is the common sentence of all the graine of the earth and as the Apostle saith certainly 1. Tim. 6.7 as we brought nothing into the world so we shall carrie nothing out of it for bare corne naked corne must be sowed This must humble us and teach us Vse that all the while men live in pompe and glory and are compassed about with varietie of plentie and apparrell now the corne is in the flourish now the tree is in the spring or rather in the goodliest time of the yeare but there will a Winter come that will dash downe the leaves of the tree and make the fruit to fall off and will bring it to a dry sticke againe and make it as bare as ever it was goodly and flourishing before bare corne Secondly observe what this fruit is not the
the flesh is that which we beleeve the resurrection of this flesh that is of men and chiefly of them that beleeve in Iesus Christ how the Lord hath set his hand upon this flesh his workmanship appeares to be wonderfull How he hath laid the foundation of it in the bones How he hath brought the flesh over it to be a covering and veile for the soule How he hath inlivened it that wheresoever there is flesh there is life and hath put the soule in it to dwell in the cabinet of the flesh How he hath divided and distinguished the parts in their severall joynts in their severall uses and proportions How he hath watred it with bloud and veines and with juyce and moysture every where How he hath inflamed it with arteries How he hath made it sensible with sinews How he hath extended and stretched it out with muscles How he hath covered all with a faire and beautifull skinne How he hath fenced some parts with haire as in men and with divers other fences more thicke and solid as in the diversitie of beasts with feathers as in fowls with skales as in fishes and yet all to live after one manner that there is none of these can live but they have veines and arteries and sinews and a braine which is the place of sence and a heart which is the place of life and a liver which is the place of concoction and they have bloud whereby they live That the Lord I say should set such a wondrous hand upon flesh now it argues he will do greater matters for it hereafter For he would not be so liberall of his grace and providence upon it here except he intended further glory for it hereafter Indeed in the trees and plants and fruits that grow upon the earth there is a glorious and sweet lustre and great variety but being compared unto flesh it is nothing And therefore in the Scriptures the flesh is made the subject of the promises and manhood it selfe is tearmed by the name of flesh as being that habitation or house that God meanes to raise againe when it is fallen downe to rebuild it up better then ever it was before For the flesh must fall as the flower of the field although it continue longer then the flower of the field but the Lord shall raile it unto everlasting glory So then this must teach us in the generall Vse that as oft as we looke upon our flesh or upon the flesh of others we ought still to possesse our mindes with holy meditations of the glory that shall be revealed upon that flesh to thinke of the resurrection of that flesh As the Lord hath built it wondrously and beautified it to singular purpose in this world so when it is ruinated he shall rebuild it to a farre greater beauty that shall never fade away but shall have a constant being as he himselfe is for ever It should teach us also to have a care of this flesh Vse that God hath so graced and that we do not disgrace it and betray it to the divell that we do not subject it to damnable purposes that we do not swell it with drunkennesse that we do not spoyle it with filthinesse that we do not distract it with worldly cares that we do not any way abuse and imbezell that substance that God meanes to grace that he hath set his image and stampe upon here and that hereafter meanes to better this his workmanship let not us prophane that which God hath made holy So much for the first point that the Apostles argument goes greater and higher the further wee go in nature still the more insight we have in the worke of the Lord and in the certaintie of the promises Therefore the Apostle riseth from things that grow in the earth from vegetables to things that live and move and there hee shews the resurrection more clearly 2. Part. The fourefold diversity of flesh Then the second thing to bee considered is this that the Apostle saith that all flesh is not one flesh For there is dâ—versitie of it It is true all flesh agrees in the generall they all live with a soule all men and beasts and fishes and birds they all have a soule and live in one manner by their bloud and by digestion of meat which turnes into bloud and nourishment So in the generall all flesh is one but in their severall kindes they are so varied that there is scarce any proportion one with another when we go to the particular differences of them For saith hee although they be one in the maine yet they be different in their specialties The first and chiefest that he names is the flesh of men And then after that the flesh of beasts Thirdly the flesh of fishes Fourthly of birds and fowls of the heaven For indeed according to their different motion the diversitie of their flesh may be conceived That the motion of men should be upon the earth and yet by reason of an heavenly aspect his countenance should bee erected unto heaven where his thoughts ought to be continually That the beasts should have a prone dejected motion looking alway toward the earth and as it were groveling there That the fishes should glide in the watery element being as it were not of our world but of another countrey That the fowls should mount up in that spirit and vigour that God hath given them by reason of a wing and a feather whereby they leave the seat wherein we must live and betake themselves unto the upper region By this variety of their motion we may necessarily gather this that there is a great variety in their natures For there is nothing more argueth the varietie of a thing then the ordinary motion of it to observe how it is moved The Apostle puts no other difference that might be conceived as the flesh of serpents c. because that may be referred to some of these it may be referred unto beasts or unto fishes but he contents himselfe with these foure as comprehending in them all the world of flesh which God created And in the first ranke in the prime place he saith there is one flesh of men whereon the Lord hath stamped his own image and hath made it the goodliest of all flesh setting such an admirable beautie in it and indowing some flesh with such excellent wisedome and judgement and that which is the chiefe of all setting the stampe of holinesse upon it which is the onely ornament of the flesh and of the spirit also that there is nothing that can compare with man I meane no visible thing in the world can enter into any tearms of comparison with that glorious image of God Such a goodly aspect to heaven Such a majestie and power in behaviour Such an erect upright and tall stature Such a goodly complection and proportion in the parts of the body Such an admirable dexteritie in all his actions Such valour such wisedome such
constancie that in the flesh of men there dwels the strength of God But above this there is nothing in the world that makes this flesh so glorious as that the onely Sonne of God hath married himselfe unto it to grace this flesh and to bring it to the highest perfection the second person in the Trinitie was incarnate and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us This is the meanes whereby our flesh hath attained this great perfection And although the Angels do farre surpasse us in some kinde of abilities as they have more understanding and better experience and are stronger and swifter and more nimble in their motion yet notwithstanding because they are not sensible but intellectuall creatures and are onely to be perceived by the eye of reason and of argument and not by the eye of the body which is the most delightfull kinde of apprehension Therefore the Angels themselves cannot compare with the flesh of men since it is now graced and beautified by the Sonne of God which was incarnate and took our flesh upon him There is one flesh of men And this flesh of men although it be one yet it differs in the severall individuals To see how wondrously God hath set varietie upon this flesh that there is one kinde of colour in one and another kinde of colour in another There is the flesh of Moores and Maroccoes and the flesh of those that are faire and well coloured such infinite varietie as would astonish a man to consider of it yea even of those that be of the best of the most likeliest and goodly beauty there is variety in them too There is one kinde of flesh in children and another kinde of flesh in strong men and another kinde of flesh in old folke the flesh of children is puffed up and swelled and is not brought to the proportion by reason of the abundance of juyce and humours in their bodies The flesh of yong men is brought to some perfection and hath that grace and flower that it can attaine to possibly in this life The flesh of old age is so withered and decayed that a man cannot almost tell that this was ever that babe or that yong man Thus the Lord worketh wondrously in one and the selfe same flesh and not onely in a distance of time that altereth and worketh such a change in these things but in a very instant almost So that take the goodliest body in the world that is now flourishing and healthy and let it fall into a desperate sicknesse it will alter and change the flesh so wonderfully it will so mortalize it as we may say that there is no man almost can know it to be the same The finger of God works admirably in the selfe same flesh This inferres the argument of the Apostle that that God that can worke his own will in such a strange difference in the same flesh here in this life he will much more worke a gracious and glorious difference when this life is ended upon that flesh which he determines to crowne with glory For the second sort of flesh here spoken of the flesh of beasts the word signifieth not all beasts but those beasts that are for use to men The word signifieth helping because they are helpfull to the life of man It is true the argument goeth along as well unto wilde beasts and those that have no helpe in them as to the other but the Apostle properly insists upon these because the mercy of God is most wonderfull in these the Lord hath given variety of flesh among the beasts infinitely too That those beasts that are for the sustentation of man should have the sweetest flesh the sweetest humours and breathing and be wholsome and good so farre differing from the other that those beasts that be not for our use for the helpe of our life many of them are very noysome so extreamely noysome that a man cannot abide to be with them many of them being so abhominable that a man runnes and flies at the very smell a great way off which is no small blessing of God nor no little wonder neither should it be in our eyes a matter of small moment but we should consider it duely that the Lord hath given to those creatures that we stand in most need of the most temperate and the most sweetly composed flesh and because we are to feed upon that which is cleane and not on that which is uncleane he hath made therefore the difference of cleannesse and uncleannesse according to the nature and constitution of the beasts Some he hath made for the feeding of man some for varietie and some perhaps to exercise his patience and courage in the rooting them out And the flesh of beasts that is fit for the use of man to see in what a wondrous difference the Lord hath made it So that one should have one relish and taste and another another notwithstanding they feed all upon grasse upon the same food even because he would have us to have choice that we should not alway feed upon the same thing We see the taste of the creatures that we have about us at home and the taste of those that we hunt for abroad in the field they are all pleasant but yet marvellous different This the good God doth in the flesh of the creature working there the foundation of use and of life and nourishment according as hee is purposed to helpe mankinde by the meanes of it And how marvellously hath he set forth his glory even in that to give them all a prone aspect looking to the ground and in covering some of them with most profitable woolls for the benefit and cloathing of mankinde some of them he hath covered with skinnes of most singular benefit sweet and operative as in outlandish parts To see how he hath garnished them in the diversitie of their munition what fences they have that some of them defend themselves with their heels some with their hornes some with their teeth How the blessed God hath wrought these wondrous things it is not to be sleightly regarded but to be deeply considered For in truth a man that looks upon them shall be forced to say with the Prophet When I see the worke of thy fingers sheepe and oxen and all cattell I am faine to say Oh Lord God how wondrous is thy name throughout all the world The third kinde of flesh that he speaks of here is that which seemes least of al to be flesh that is fishes And herein God is more infinite then in all the rest For set all men together even all birds and beasts and they cannot make the halfe number of fishes which are in the vast and wide Ocean and if wee compare their quantities the difference there is wonderfull That the fishes should mount and rise in quantitie from the least drop to a great whale which is the mightiest of all the creatures The Lord saith to Iob as it were boasting of
proud thou dust and ashes which art nothing else but a masse and lump of poore rottennesse and putrifaction Take heed lest as thy outward man corrupts daily that the inward man be not corrupted to For there is no corruption like that when a man hath a rotten heart that is the most wofull putrifaction Take heed therefore to thy soule that though thy outward man be like it selfe corrupt 2 Cor. 4.16 yet thy inward-man may be renewed daily in holinesse and righteousnesse to serve the living God that thou mayst procure peace to thine own soule It is sowne in corruption It is raised againe in Incorruption Blessed be the God of Incorruption that although our bodies of themselves be subject to fade and molder away yet it is but for a season for that the Lord hath promised them another state which is incorrupt And although wee cannot understand how it shall be by looking upon these earthly bodies for we see every thing comes to nothing and is dissolved yet the Lord hath given us a signe of it in the starres of heaven which are incorrupt They are uncorrupt even in our common sense and experience for they be not mixed as these elementary bodies be they are not of such a grosse composition and therefore they stand in the firmament in their state and place as they have done from the beginning We have also a sign of it in the Angels which are uncorrupt also and in the soule of man that hee carries within him which is likewise uncorrupt These are emblems of that incorruption that God will worke upon our bodies also It is true the body that is tainted with sin it cannot be otherwise it must be a slave to corruption it is bound over to corruption it is full of putrifaction and it must needs say as Iob Job 17.14 I will say unto rottennesse thou art my mother and to the worm ye are my sisters and my daughters and my kinsfolke Yet the Lord hath made in these spirits and he will waken these bodies wherâ— he cleares and frees them from sinne he will make in them an eternall vigour and the everlasting influence of his goodnesse and grace shall keep that sweetnesse for ever after that it is once infused into it And this incorruption shall come to the bodies of the Saints three waies First by the goodnesse of the matter Secondly by the singularity of the forme Thirdly by the gracious assistance of the efficient cause First for the goodnesse of the matter The Lord shall make that a sollid lively and vigorous matter that shall never againe be subject to frailty as the body was before by sin that as the Indian or China dishes the earth and clay that they are made of is buryed certaine yeares in the ground that so it may ripen and be brought to that colour which after it comes to be capable of So the blessed God will bury these corrupt bodies under the ground to bring them to be a matter fit for his stamp and image to be set on which shall not be corrupt as the former was but shall remain full of strength and vigour and full of life and sweetnesse to indure for ever And then secondly for the forme The forme of man shall be all one as it is now and the matter to onely it shall be refined but the soule then shall be of such absolute power over the body that it shall command it every where The body shall yeeld a full obedience and the soule shall command with a full authority and it shall be so furnished with new abilities with new knowledge with new desires with new Zeale that it is impossible for any temptations to passe as they doe now Now sometimes the soule tempts the body and sometimes the body tempts the soule and they doe mutually work each others subversion but there shall be no such contrariety then but the body shall be for the soule and the soule for the spirit and the spirit for God that God may be all in all Therefore I say in that blessed world they cannot sin men that live in this flesh cannot but sin but God shall restore that blessed life that it shall not possibly sin nor conceive of sin that is with any inclination to sin For it is impossible for any man that is well in his wits that he should desire to be murthered it is impossible for a man that loves his wealth and riches to desire that a man should rob him it is impossible that such thoughts should come into the mind of a man that is well advised so it is impossible for the soule and body in that new world that ever they should have any delight to goe from God For then it were possible for a man to desire to be murthered or for a man to desire to be robbed of his wealth for to goe from God is for a man to lose his treasure to lose his life to lose his wealth to lose all his quiet and contentment and there is no man that would lose these Therefore as these earthly things doe so affect us that we cannot abide to be bereft of them much more then shall God so affect us that wee shall not indure to think of any separation or going from him As the Apostle saith Rom. 8.38 39. What shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus Shall fire or sword or hunger or cold or nakednesse or life or death nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God iâ— Christ Iesus Thirdly and lastly this incorruption shall be in respect of the gracious assistance of the efficient cause This indeed is the cause of causes this is all in all For though God make a glorious matter and habilitate it with an excellent forme yet notwithstanding if it were not for the continuall influence and pouring in of that glorious life every thing that is made may be marred againe As St. Basil St. Basil saith Everything created is convertible and may be turncal The Angels themselves they live not upon themselves nor they live not upon necessity but by the will and grace of God therefore they are immortall Nothing hath immortality properly in it selfe but God alone as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. To God 1 Tim. 6.16 who onely hath immortality That is who onely hath immortality of himselfe and of necessity hath it and cannot but have it All others have immortality by a dependant grace Here is the chiefe reason of our incorruption because God shall fill us with the sweet water of his river of incorruption which shall continually keepe us in our youth and in our glory and strength and in that state that he hath bestowed on us and the worke that he hath begun he will finish and follow it with his continuall assistance This is the reason why we shall be incorrupt For because of sinfull flesh the Lord permits it here to fall
away from him yea and his dearest beloved shall stop their noses at him This should teach us to humble our selves in this disconsolation Vse and to adde this to all the honors we have in the world if we have any or doe yet looke for any This dishonour of death is a cooling card that should make a man moderate in all his proceedings It should make him fearfull in all his doings It should make him understand that he ought not to be puffed up with conceits and pretences of honour but to qualifie himselfe with this comparing his dishonour which the Lord will lay upon sinfull flesh There is nothing so honourable but it shall be covered with shame and dishonour at the hour of death when we shall depart this world It is sowne in dishonour Well! although it be thus yet the Lord hath a help for this againe it shall be raised after another manner It shall be raised in honour in great glory As disgrace and dishonour is the worst of punishments so honour and grace and glory againe is the best of preferments There is nothing so sweet unto us as that to be above others to be beloved of others to be admired of others and to be served of others this is that sweet breath of life and that sweet contentment that shall fill us with marrow and fatnesse And this God purposeth to poure upon these dishonourable bodies that die so beastly and deformed that they are trampled on by the feet of beasts if they lie abroad and if it be in the Church where wee usually bury the poorest and basest of men tread upon them I say the Lord shall raise it at that day in such honour that it shall be like the stars of heaven it shall be like the Sunne in glory it shall be like the Angels of God it shall be like the Sonne of God Phil. 3.21 for he shall change these vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.21 Now by the contrary dishonour we may see that the honour of the Saints shall consist 1. In a goodly stature 2. In a perfect beauty 3. In a gracious fragrancie In the stature of the body there shall be no uncomelinesse there shall be no crookednesse there shall be nothing wanting that can be required as we use to say of images that are drawne in waxe that they are compleat so likewise God shall so paint his image in the bodies of his Saints when they shall rise that it is not possible to find it so in any thing but in the Exemplar in the master-piece the body of Christ there is nothing else that shall be more glorious As in those happy Countries where the leaves are alwaies greene and the earth is alway budding and bringing forth so the bodies of Gods Saints as St. Austin saith shall have that greennesse and vigorousnesse of incorruption possesse them totally St. Augustine And lastly that it shall be of a gracious fragrancy it is certaine that that also may be opposed to the stench of these carkasses The dead body is dishonoured in nothing more then by a caryon-like smell for thereby it differs nothing from a beast nay it is far worse then a beast for there is nothing so putrifies as the body of a man there is nothing brings forth such ugly things as that For out of the brain comes scorpions and snakes and out of the flesh toads and serpents which is not usuall among the beasts For some of them bring forth bees and some wasps but of Ages and Eumines and divers others it is reported that scorpions and snakes came out of their heads after they were dead and wreathed about their faces And we know by wofull experience of late time of divers gentlemen that were troubled with such a wofull thing that they had wormes in their braines and in their entrailes I say therefore answerable to this as the miserie is great to which the body of man is subject greater then other creatures because he is the onely sinner so at that day God shall make an aboundant recompence by pouring upon it the spring of beauty and sweetnesse and fragrancie that they shall be as a garden of spices in the nostrills of God and of his Saints Every Saint shall also be as a glasse to each other and every one shall see his fellowes beauty and they shall reflect one upon another in the joy and gladnesse of the Holy Ghost to see the wonderous work which God hath wrought upon this piece of frailty And even as Iacob was as the smell of a field when he came near his Father Behold saith Isaack I smell the smell of my sonne as the smell of a field Gen. 27.27 which the Lord hath blessed There being nothing more delightfull to the sense then a blooming field of new corne and of sweet grasse and flowers that rise out of the earth And therefore the holy man compares his sonne to a field which the Lord hath blessed Much more shall these be fragrant fields the Lord blessing them with infinite variety of goodnesse and of grace and sweetnesse that the field of God shall be more pleasant then the fields and gardens of men and then all the paradises in this world And as the head of this company is described Cant. 1. Cant. 1.3 4. Draw me and I will run after thee in the odour of thine anointments noting unto us the sweetnesse that is incorporated in the body of Christ And as we reade also of St. Paul Acts 19.12 that by the blessing of God he had napkins and handkerchiefs brought from his body that were of such sweetnesse that they were able to cure diseases so also we may understand what shall be the variety there from the sweetnesse that is now in the body arising from the mixture of the bloud in the veines which makes a perfect sympathy and harmony The Lord at that day shall make all things much more abundant As the Church also is described by the sweetnesse of her cloathes in the Canticles Cant. 1.14 My Spouse saith Christ is as a garden of myrrh or of spices and her breasts are like the clusters of grapes and like the fruit of Engedi So every man and woman shall be although here they be sickly and subject to never so many infirmities and diseases in this life yet the Lord shall so alter the bodies of those that serve him here in that blessed estate there that they shall be sure to finde a singular proportion of beauty of strength and of fragrancie that all the just shall be termed the field and paradise which God hath blessed FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.43 It is sowne in weaknesse it is raised in power It is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body There is a naturall body and there is
hee was come there hee teacheth and converseth with the people hee goes not about his work upon the sudden The newes comes he is dead and buried Let him lie in his grave a long time that the glory of God may the more appeare Let him lie the first second and third day and the Lord comes not Upon the fourth day when all men gave him for stinking and desperate and that there was no hope of any good to bee done upon him then the Lord comes to work When Martha his sister had given over all hope and told Christ shee knew that hee should rise againe at the resurrection but for any other rising she never dreamed of or imagined that Well then when all things seemed to be senslesse and against reason and possibility then the power of God began to work And because Lazarus was so strongly held by death foure dayes therefore the stronger was the hand of God upon him in raysing him from death That the strength of death might be encountred and overcome and countermanded by the higher strength and arme of the Almighty it now gave way and made a passage to the arme of the Lord to work a mighty deliverance So still the misery of the child of God works for good and all things work for the best to those that love God Rom. 8.28 Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly so we shall beare the image of the heavenly This is a great incouragement to us to beare Vse Wee are impatient we cannot endure any thing but we see that wee must beare and if wee looke for the image of the heavenly we must be content to beare the image of the earthly We must be content to be sick we must be content to be poore to be persecuted to be every way miserable and wretched We must be content to be tempted by the tempting devill and oft times to be foiled by him and to bee overcome in sinne and shamefull actions and courses We must be content with the Christian agony and the bloody sweat that Christ had in the garden at his passion We must beare these things it is the image of the earthly It is the condition of the other life the bearing of the heavenly And except wee have the one we cannot have the other except we beare the image of the earthly we shall not beare the image of the heavenly But here it may be objected that Infants have not this image Yes reason tells us they doe For in their death in their sicknesse in their distractions and strange convulsions to which they are subject they beare the image of the earthly although not in so great a measure as men of groweth doe yet they have for their tender yeares a fearefull yoake laid upon them which is mortality and all the wayes that tend to death To conclude this first point the proposition Let us mingle the one with the other and beare both If thou bee troubled in this world in any sort inwardly or outwardly If thou be troubled in conscience for sinne if thou bee troubled with enemies art thou troubled in thy fortunes in thy state in the world art thou troubled with sicknesse of body remember it is nothing but thine owne image Thus thou art made wilt thou deny thine owne face wilt thou deny thy owne name wilt thou not take that which thou art borne unto art thou ashamed of thine inheritance it is that which thy Father hath left thee therefore beare it And withall to comfort thy selfe beare it with this hope and lively assurance that thou shalt beare a better image one day The galley-slaves that serve the Turks in their galleys if they could but think that at seven yeares end some Christian would come and deliver them they would be the better affected and would cheare their mindes especially if they could be assured of it If Iacob serve the churle Laban seven yeares Gen. 29. if he think he shall have Rachell at the end of it hee thinks it but like unto seven dayes and with patience he comforts himselfe in the Lord and staies his leisure and is content that God shall use him unto his hand as it pleaseth him This is the true constitution of a pure mind therefore let us sweeten these outward worldly miseries with the expectation of future joy and the promises which God hath made to us in his holy Word There is no griefe so great but if wee tie heaven unto the end of it it is light As the Apostle saith This short moment any affliction Rom. 8.18 is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed Let us put them together and the one will bee swallowed up in the other For as we have borne the image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heavenly Oh! when shall that blessed day appeare So must the Christian man aspire and hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of God and after his blessed kingdome Wee mourne saith the Apostle as long as we are from Christ in this body we would faine see the consummation of the promise Why then there is no meanes but one that is by incessant prayer by continuall clamours to call upon God to crie unto him for it The cries and clamours of Gods Saints must bring Christ from heaven againe unto earth to make up the fulnesse of the promise which he hath condescēded unto in his holy Word This must be the use we must make of this doctrine That as wee are patiently to endure the image of the earthly man to endure the misery that sinne hath contracted and brought upon us that we also be faithfull and hopefull to cry and to call unto God for the sweet things that are reposed and laid up for us in the glory of the Gospel So much for the Proposition Now for the explanation in verse 50. Verse 50. This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven neither can corruption inherit incorruption In these words the Apostle doth prevent those questionings and objections that simple men might make against this doctrine They might say that he taught in the cloudes that hee spake so as that they knew not what hee meant What doe you meane by the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly we have heard of no such words we know no such matter For this the Apostle tells them that hee speaks out of the phrase of Scripture hee speaks it out of Genesis For hee had said before that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickening spirit and so following the course of the creation he saith there was an image which at the first was heavenly but it was defaced by mans fault and so it became earthly and by consequence all of Adams blood were like their progenitor they all tooke part of the inheritance although it were against their will and they bore the image of
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
in his time yet at last hee shall fall and be conquered by the hand of Caesar and by his prowesse be outed both of his honours and of his life And Caesar himselfe in the height of all that glory that can come upon a man in this world there was never any before him or the like shall bee after him yet hee could not hold his state but he falls into the hands of Conspirators a sort of bloody murtherers that shall kill him in his Counsell-chamber so uncertaine are the smiles of this world that there is no victory constant but still she flies moves and changes her tent and tabernacle from one side to another therefore there can bee no boasting or bragging in these earthly and worldly conquests which hath made the wisest Emperours of the world after they have had a good gale of fortune as they call it after they have prospered a while for feare of crosse blowes after they have left their honours and betaken them to a solitary life to live in Monasteries lest they should have a foule end after such goodly and faire proceedings But in this case in this victory that wee now speake of there is no uncertainty there is no inconstancy to be feared Ianus Temple is shut for ever They had a custome among the Romans they worshipped a certaine god which they thought was the Lord and Tutor of their City which they called Ianus which had in Rome a great Temple the doores whereof stood open all the while they were in warres and shut in all the time of peace and they were so cumbred with warre for 800. yeares together that in all that time the doores of Ianus Temple were but thrice shut they were alway open to shew that the warres were open and therefore they gave their god leave to goe out and in to succour them or else they thought his arme could not reach his power could not extend to their ayde See the ridiculous and foolish vanities of the Heathen when the warres were ceased they shut the doores to keepe in their god there was no use of him then Now this Temple I say for 800. yeares was in all that time but three times shut First in the time of Numa Pompilius Secondly in the time of Tytus Maneus as Tytus Livius saith after the Carthaginian warre And thirdly by Augustus Caesar But when the time shall come when God shall give to this corruption incorruption and to this mortall immortality then there shall be for ever a cessation of warre The Temple of Ianus shall never more be opened it shall be shut for everlasting there shall bee no cause of warre but the people of God shall bee in perfect peace with the Lord and shall live under the defence of his protection they shall live secure for ever Plutarch saith when Philip King of Macedon had gotten a great victory at Cheronia hee wrote to Archimedes and hee used lofty speeches in his letter as being proud and puffed up with his late victory Archimedes replies to him no more but this Sir saith hee you write stately to mee in high termes and I partly know the reason of it but if you will take the paines but to measure your owne shadow you shall find that it is no more that it is no greater nor no larger then it was before your victory You were as great a man then and as many inches about as you are now And it is true in worldly things Chance as they call it is so variable that no man can tell how hee shall begin or how he shall end but in this victory which the Lord vouchsafes us in Christ Iesus it holds not for the victory that we shall have there shall make our shadowes greater and it shall make our persons more honourable and fuller of power and majesty 1. Cor. 15.44 For it is sowen in dishonour it riseth againe in honour It is sowen in weaknesse it riseth again in power The victory therefore that we have in Christ it is not like the victory that Philip the King of Macedon got that his shadow was no bigger then before but this victory in Christ is a great enlarger of man and of all the parts and faculties in him that hee is not like himselfe as hee was before no more then an honourable thing is like a dishonourable or a strong thing is like unto a weake Now to come to the Order Oâ—der of the words read unto you here the holy Apostle explains that which he had said before when hee insulted over death A man might ask what is the reason thou takest upon thee so much seeing death shall conquer thee as well as other men and thou must die as well as the rest that have gone before thee To give a reason therefore of it he shewes that it was no presumption or idle imagination of himselfe but it was a thing conferred unto him by the power of Christ and his Gospel For saith hee I have good reason to insult as I did I know when that blessed time shall come wee shall have no enemies against us If there should be any enemy it should be either death or sinne or the law But there shall be none of these and therefore there shall bee no enemy but a perpetuall end and issue of man for ever There shall bee no death for why because there shall be no sinne for the sting of death is sin and death cannot come upon man but by the wrath of God which is conceived for sinne which being taken away death must needs cease for the worke ending the wages must needs end and the wages of sinne is death But how will you prove that there shall bee no sinne Because there shall be no law for the strength of sinne is the Law and the Lord shall give that glory to the bodies that shall rise that they shall not need any Law but they shall be a law to themselves and every man shall love God and please God not by constraint not by the terrours of the Law and Commandement but from the ducture of his owne free-spirit that shall leade and conjoyne and make him one spirit with the Lord. Therefore that which the holy Apostle said before is most constant and true that because there shall bee no enemies then left therefore we may boast in the Lord our God which hath given us perfect victory over all our enemies and there shall be no enemie left because there shall be neither sin which is the grand cause the Arch-enemy of mankind for that is taken away by the righteousnesse of Christ who knew no sinne he that knew no sinne God made him sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God Mark it saith the holy Apostle that we might be made the righteousnesse of God When was Christ made sinne for us In this miserable life and when shall we be made the righteousnesse of God In that blessed life Therefore
to thousands and millions in the world that beleeve in him that although there be sinne now in our mortall bodies yet it doth not raigne it commands us not to every thing it finds us not as the Centurions servants to goe when it saith goe but it is in many things broken and dissipated and the Lord hath beat sathan under our feet that is the usuall work of sathan sinne and foule impressions in your soules and understandings Thus the Lord hath given us victory over sinne in himselfe fully in us it is begun but for that wee shall have occasion afterwards to discourse The Lord himselfe being free from all sinne hee was therefore a Conquerour over that pestilent viper that poyson of our nature and he gave his people the infusion of his Spirit to guide them by the which Originall sinne is weakned the sire is abated and allayed the edge of sin is lessened The last is over the Law That still is the greatest enemy that still layes before us the judgments of God Doe this and live Doe that and be damned Follow this course and thou shalt be damned for ever If thou be a drunkard if thou be lustfull if thou be covetous and worldly if thou be revengefull and malicious the sentence of damnation is passed upon thee that is all the comfort wee have by the Law but Christ hath given us victory over this enemy which followes us at the heeles when wee doe amisse and still puts us into qualmes of conscience for our misdeeds and curbes and bridles us by the checks of conscience that if a man could but see the end of these foule actions as hee seeth the beginning he would never doe them because there is no equality between the short time of sinning and the eternity of punishment But against all this Christ hath given us victory for he hath fulfilled the law of God he hath stopped the crimination he he hath stayed all those slanders and all those accusations that the devill would make by the law or that those that have been curious observers of the law would make and those accusations that an evill conscience would make by the power of the Law of God which hath enlightened it He hath silenced all these in this life but the consummation of this we must understand is to come when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality They are now gone before in the head they shall then follow in the body Saith St. Austin Aug. Whatsoever Christ hath done in his owne body it shall follow in our mortall bodies When hee shall change them 1 Cor. 15. and make them like unto his owne glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe This is that goodly victory in the which the Lord hath interested us all To conclude and refer the rest till the next time I beseech you beloved in the Lord let us consider what part we have in this victory wee ought not to insult and triumph in a vaine presumption in blessings that pertaine not to us but if we think we have the victory let us labour to finde it and so enter into judgement with our owne soules who it is that overcommeth Apoc. 3. To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the tree of life in the middest of the paradice of God to him that overcommeth will I give a white stone c. And what must he overcome He must overcome himself and all his passions he must overcome the feare of death the power of sinne and the terrours of the Law A fearfull encounter and a great troop of enemies is laid open the Lord strengthen poore David that he may be able to encounter with this mighty Goliah for it seemes that hell it selfe is open upon him when therefore we doe give our selves that liberty as to doe what our selves list against the good will and command of God let us not thinke to have any part in this victory we are rather as so many conquered slaves and vassals that lie at the command of death that whereas wee should tread Satan under our feet Satan tramples us under his and makes us the most base and vile creatures in the world Thou that hast enough in this world and yet canst not tell when thou hast enough but still art distracted with envious desires and makest thy self great by other mens falls that raisest thy owne fortunes by other mens ruines that usest any meanes good or bad by hooke or by crooke to advance thine owne estate to make thy selfe rich and settest thy selfe onely to the study of the Idoll Mammon what kinde of victory or what hope of conquest canst thou have in that great and mighty victory which wee pretend the Lord Iesus hath given us surely none There is no such gally-slave in the world as a man that is given and addicted to his wealth and riches in this present life for it pierceth men through with many sorrowes as the Apostle saith They that will be rich 1 Tim. 6. pierce themselves thorow with many sorrowes Behold the sting of death is the sting that pierceth them the sting of death is sinne and this sting it pierceth through the heart and stabbs the soule of every covetous man in the world that they cannot claime any part of that victory which God communicates to his children but they are foyled base creatures that are made for slaughter and destruction And so againe for them that live in their pleasures in their voluptuous and filthy courses that will grow old in adultery that will make no end of their filthinesse and uncleannesse but with greedinesse seeke when one prey is enjoyed how to obtaine another these that make their vessells that should be Temples of God the brothell-houses of the Devill that are no sooner tempted but they yeeld these comming Creatures how or with what face with what confidence can they lay claime to the victory that we have in God through Iesus Christ our Lord being nothing else but bruits and are given over yeelding themselves they have taken the marke of the beast and follow Satans direction and command as if Christ had no power to be their Chieftaine but the Prince of darknesse must rule The like may bee said of all these malicious prowling spirits that be in the world that take delight to sting their brethren to doe mischiefe without cause to sow the seeds of dissention that will wrangle out their lives to trouble others to bring upon them endlesse suits and questions that shall never be decided to vexe the world with begging or buying of new found offfices to make their hands full out of every thing sacred and prophane to play the very roaring Lions in their dennes that no man can tell how hee should live or keepe himselfe quiet with them That these Creatures I say should come and claime any part in this
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
us that are the children of Abraham although wee must study holinesse Heb. 12.14 without which no man shall see God and we must abhor all the works of darknesse and come into the light yet we are so fraile in this flesh that we cannot doe the one nor the other But miserable wretches we have two lawes the law of our members and the law of God and so we must conclude with the Apostle Rom. 7.25 I serve the law of God in my minde and spirit but the law of sinne with my members and yet hee concludes in this place thankes bee to God that gives us victory in Christ Iesus our Lord. To conculde this point It is the faith that a man holds in God the faith he hath in Christ that makes us Conquerers and gives us the victory It was this that armed the thiefe upon the Crosse when hee had done nothing all his life time but plaied the thiefe and robbed and oppressed and played his tragicall part in the world yet hee shewed himselfe to have one mite of faith in the end of his life and for that he was accepted And Christ saith unto him Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That whereas the Pharisees and Priests and Scribes thought Christ to be justly executed and put to death yet notwithstanding hee put his faith in him and beleeved that hee was a King and that he had a great portion of glory reserved for him and that hee was able to communicate it to his followers therefore he desires to partake of that glory Luke 23.42 Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome Now I come to the last point of the precedent verse Thanks be to God since wee have the victory in Christ Iesus our Lord that is since wee have both received the fulnesse of the conquest imparted to us and also the first fruits of the Spirit by which we are able to overcome though not fully to overcome yet to overcome by the power of his victory and to be accounted conquerers though we bee but cowards Thanks be to God for this great gift and mercy of imputation The holy Apostle saith Theodoret Theodoret. hath concluded all his discourse with a necessary line with thanksgiving and praise to God For indeed as wee are bound to thanke God for every thing that wee receive so much more for the chiefe and principall things that wee take from his hands There is no thing so gracious as this to be victors to bee borne to be Conquerers and to be conquerers over such enemies too as have conquered all the world this many thousand yeares together that in sight that there was nothing that domineered nor nothing got the victory but death and sinne and hell and to conquer these miscreants that had over-run all the world this is the hand of God which is to be rejoyced in and if there bee any blessing for us to blesse our soules in it is this that we are conquerers in Christ saith St. Austin Aug. For saith hee If I must thanke God for every petty benefit what greater reason can I have then to give thanks for chiefe and maine benefits The grace of God in Iesus Christ our Lord is that which gives us this victory Thanke God saith St. Bernard thanke not thy selfe St. Bern. thank not Saints thanke not Angels thanke not preparatory works thanke not foreseene merits thanke nothing else but let the praise rest wholly and totally in God It is he that did all therefore to him be given all praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15. ult Therefore beloved brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. WEE are come now to the conclusion of this Chapter which followes most naturally as Chrysostome saith Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast c. It is a true conclusion when a man hath fully proved the premises hee that concludes a thing before he hath argued well and proved the matter he discourseth of hee is either a foole or a falsarie for it must needs argue it is a lie when a man will ground upon uncertaine grounds It argueth also weaknesse in him when hee thinks hee hath perswaded without sufficient ground for there is no wise man will be perswaded without due confirmation and demonstration of those things that are argued Therefore now the Apostle comes in as an excellent Oratour to conclude not upon poore grounds nor upon weak evidences but upon strong perswasion and demonstration saith Tertullian Tertul. Hee useth all the strength of the holy Ghost to perswade to this powerfull article of the Resurrection his meaning is with all the power of the holy Ghost that he was capable of for else the power of the holy Ghost is as infinite as God himselfe is infinite But now when the Apostle had driven this doctrine home when he had so beat it into them as that there was no scruple left to any gainsayer or contradictor when he had shewed the cause of the Resurrection when he had shewed the maner of it when he had shewed the absurdities that would follow the contrary doctrine if men did doubt of it when hee had shewed the effects and consequents of it of that glorious incorruption and immortality when hee had proved it by force of holy Scriptures Oh death I will be thy death oh hell I will be thy destruction When he had set downe all these firme and maine presidents it is time for him now to bring in his conclusion He is a foolish builder that will set up the roofe of his house before the walls be built and he is an idle discourser that will offer to bring a thing into his Auditory upon any triviall reason but the Spirit of God teacheth us first to settle the understandings to perswade the minds of men by strong and puissant arguments and then to draw forth conclusions for hee must first move a mans senses and understanding and then draw his will for the will is alway plyable to the conclusion but the understanding is attentive to the demonstration All this while the Apostle had held the understanding giving demonstrative causes and such reasons as no man could contradict him in Now that being done he closeth with the will and that is easily brought if he can perswade the understanding therefore he saith Therefore my beloved brethren that is seeing these things are thus seeing I have told you the will of God in this point that Christ is risen himselfe and that he is risen so palpably that he was seene of more than five hundred brethren at once and that he is the Head of the body and that therefore all the members must be raised up at one time to come with their Head and be joyned unto him Seeing that
thrust us out of and we shall be well enough for we have Gods assistance to keepe us in that is the first instruction Then secondly be stedfast and unmoveable that is in respect of outward enemies which come with great violence in your open profession to displant and dislodge you Be not moved that is be not blowne away with every blast of doctrine be not shaken with every earthquake that sathan moves unto us be not removed out of your seat be not removed out of the point of that seat wherein you were set before for so the words are be not removed from the point including a marvellous perfection that a man must keep him constant to the very point of the place that he is in the devill oft-times seekes to remove men and although he cannot altogether remove them out of their place out of the seat of their holy faith and profession yet hee will remove them from the very point of their place he will make them dispute of some points he will make them doubt of some things hee will make them question somewhat No saith the Apostle suffer not any motion to come upon you not so much as the shaking of the place wherein you are the great mother the earth that beares us all when the wind which is in her bowels and concavities cannot break forth then the earth shaketh but the child of God must be stronger then the earth he must not be shaken although he shake concerning his obedience yet not concerning his faith which still is planted in the Lord upon the Cube Christ Iesus Behold here is the duty of Gods child those that are truely grounded upon Christ they must be like a house built upon a rock that when windes or weather come they cannot prevaile against it so strongly it is built that all the waters are broken against it but cannot downe with it Saith St. Austin While the waves of the sea threaten the ruine of the house Aug. they are turned into froth so while they seeke to ruinate the house of God which is like to the Mountaines of Ierusalem which stand fast for ever and cannot be removed It it like the Army of God that keepe their station This is the duty of every true Christian As for false hearts that will turne their religion upon every trouble and will suffer themselves by disputations to be brought from that to another way these have no part in the victory of Christ but they are foyled tumbled under by every temptation that Satan brings upon them for there is not any place for staggerers and cowards nor for any but those that apprehend truely this victory by a demonstrative faith in Christ There is no other meanes whereby they can lay claime to the victory of Christ besides this for by faith wee stand Rom. 9. and it is that onely which layeth hold on the conquest by Christ The next thing that he exhorts them to doe after they bee setled in the faith is that they bee carefull to extend themselves to good works Iam. 2. for faith without works is dead therefore hee saith alway abounding in the work of the Lord. Where we are to consider Division of the Text into 4. parts First the object the worke of the Lord. Then the degree of it abound in that worke Then the extent of it alway And the reason followes after Because you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. If your labour were in vaine I would not wish you to make any continuance in that course but because your labour is not lost therefore beloved brethren be stedfast and unmoveable in the worke of the Lord c. In the worke of the Lord. Every good thing may bee termed the worke of the Lord both in respect of the beginning from whence it comes and in respect of the reference and end of it to which it tends All good works are from God there is no good thing in us 2. Cor. 3.5 that is in our flesh Wee are not sufficient to thinke a good thought all is from God Therefore as there is no good thing naturally in us so there is nothing that is good that comes from us naturally but it is from the Spirit of God so they are called good in respect of the Originall from whence they come Every good gift saith St. Iames and every perfect worke also Iam. 1.17 is from him that is the Father of lights That is one reason why every good worke is called the worke of the Lord. Againe every good thing is called the worke of the Lord because it is referred to the Lord and is done for the Lord. Matth. 25. So whatsoever good worke is done to these it is done to me All is for him and for his glory as it is hee that gives the power of the worke so the effect and fruit of the worke is to be returned to him hee that gave the beginning of it hee also is to have the end of it So the worke of mercy is the worke of the Lord. This is true but it is not that worke of the Lord that the Apostle speakes of in this place The worke of the Lord is not every generall worke but some particular peculiar thing The Fathers therefore are in divers opinions but I will stand upon the choise and best of them Some thinke that the worke of the Lord here is the Gospel Abound in the worke of the Lord that is in the Gospel which Christ came to preach himselfe which he came to testifie and witnesse by his death and passion that is the worke of the Lord that glorious worke by the which we are all saved Be stedfast in the profession of that holy Gospel Another opinion of the worke of the Lord here is that it is the worke of charity to the poore which is true it is the worke of the Lord. But I take it the best and principall sense of the worke of the Lord in this place is the Article of the Resurrection Bee stedfast in the worke of the Lord that is be stedfast concerning the Article of the Resurrection for this is the worke of the Lord and upon this all the rest depends set up this and all the rest will follow take away this and all will fall downe If it were not for this our preaching were in vaine and your hearing were in vaine and all your labour lost as you heard before but you have not lost your labour as he saith in this verse therefore when he saith Be stedfast in the worke of the Lord his meaning is in the profession of the Resurrection of the body that Christ shall raise them by vertue of his resurrection bee stedfast in this worke And this worke doth not exclude the other workes but it drawes them in Because I beleeve that there shall be a resurrection therefore I beleeve the Gospel preached therefore I have faith in Christ therefore
dammage and frustration But the Spirit of God doth not meane to set men a worke with a fooles errand to set men on worke without ensuing profit The blessed God that cannot lie to any man hee hath promised and assured that those that labour in him they shall not lose their reward The reason subdivided into 4. branches First then of the labour Secondly that it is not in vaine Your labour is not in vaine Thirdly why it is not in vaine Because it is in the Lord. Fourthly how we come to this You know this is so It is a thing that no man can make question of 1. The labour First of the labour It is true all the parts of religion are laborious and there is no man that takes such paines as a Christian doth When the great Conquerers of the world have subdued whole Nations yet the mastery was hard for them to atchieve over themselves that is the labour of the Lord but the labour that is spoken of here is chiefly to bee referred to three heads First to the Ministers of Corinth This labour is referred to 3. persons 1. Ministers you that preach the doctrine of the resurrection your labour is not lost therefore have a good confidence You preach that which is true you preach not lies and fancies but the doctrine that you preach that all men shall bee raised againe it is as true as God is true therefore you that are Preachers hold on be not dismaied whatsoever those Heretiques and adversaries goe about to cast against you and oppose you in your way Keepe the tenents of your profession hold on constantly for your labour is not lost the Lord shall make it good It is an idle thing for a man to stand in the Pulpit and tell nothing but lies to the people such a man deserves to be stoned to death for it to abuse the faith and to abuse the understandings of men to tell them things that God never meanes to doe And the Ministers of Corinth were men that were but Novices and there were so many hereticall fellows among them that they were not able to answer their sophismes and so they beganne to leave off their preaching of the doctrine of the resurrection because that was full of arguments and difficulties and they knew not how to evade out of it and answer their Opposers Therefore they began to give over that and take some other points but no saith the Apostle goe on with this doctrine let all the gates of hell open themselves they shall not prevaile against you It is the worke of the Lord and the Lords arme is higher and mightier then the powers of hell and that which you say the Lord will make it true in the time of the resurrection of the bodie whatsoever the gates and power of hell can make against it that is the first sense which Saint Basil S. Basil followes and indeed it is good and true Another sense is of the Brethren in Corinth that were of the common faith among them which were exercised in the Agonies of a christian life as if hee should say Brethren I understand you are by reason of this doctrine of the resurrection scoft at and laughed at they think you are fooles they imagine that such a thing as this is a meere dreame they account you creatures of another world and such as have a vaine beliefe and perswade your selves of these schismes which these new teachers have put into your heads and I see you have great troubles in your life and these troubles that you have by your persecution and troubles of conscience which are all sweetned by the Resurrection they are aggravated so that as I beseech my brethren that teach so also I intreat you that heare to abound in the worke of the Lord that as they preach and teach so that you may perceive this doctrine to be true although the world resist it never so much this is the agony of a christian life with Heretiques with Schismatiques with himselfe with the world This is the Agonie which a Christian is born unto which some of the Fathers take to be the labour here spoken of so St. Ierome Epiphanius S. Jerom. S. Epiphan and divers others follow that But that which I take to be the best is the sense which St. Austin and some others give S. Aug. which is this Your labour is not in vaine that is your labour of love Marke the Apostle there reciting all the Intellectuall graces of the Spirit of God 1 Thes 1.4 hee speakes there of the labour of love for there is nothing that hath so much labour in it as love although it be without paines if we regard the outward act and worke yet the imployment is great nothing is so laborious as love it is still doing good comforting those that are distressed bestowing somewhat to the poore out of that little it hath to spare it out of its owne mouth to give admonitions to the peevish to deale wisely with froward spirits A man were as good goe about to tame a wild Tigre as to tell men that are setled in evill courses of their faults yet a Christian must doe this so this is that labour of love the love of that blessed day the love to the time when a mans body shall be raised it makes him change his place remove his lodging it makes him spend his meanes it makes him doe all the good he can in this world because he hopes for the blessed resurrection of his body as the Apostle speaks Acts 20. For the hope of the Resurrection I am bound with this chaine This is that labour for wee doe not labour for nothing and indure all this toile and trouble but because wee looke for the resurrection of the dead This is that labour of love that wee must strive to finde in our selves that same unsatiable and unwearied labour that is still working still teaching without any intermission and although we be not called into the Vineyard of the Lord all at one time all at one houre but some at the third some at the sixth some at the ninth and some at the eleventh houre and though the worke of them be not all alike but some beare the burthen in the heat of the day and some are called at the evening yet we see all wrought untill the evening so long as they could worke So the labour of the Lord is never to be laid aside Luke 9.62 No man that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is meet And as our Saviour Christ saith Remember Lots wife Luke 17.32 But we must be constant as the greek word here signifieth a chopping labour a labour that cuts a man in pieces there is nothing that so divides betweene the sinewes and the joynts and the marrow as the labour that proceeds from true love and friendship And there is nothing that makes a man more settle himselfe
Lord because it is to him and for his sake or else if it were in the quality of the worke it were in vaine for there is nothing in us that is good therefore it is not any thing that is inherent in that but it is in the power of God that can doe what pleaseth him and that will give liberally even for the least thing that we have done he will give a great recompence it is he that makes it fruitfull and copious and plentifull in the recompence it is the Lord that rewardeth all thus And he concludes it under scale you know that this is true you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. This is that great blessing of God that double grace when hee makes us know the thing that it is impregnable that it is a thing not to be resisted that it is such a thing as all the powers of hell and darknesse and contrary disputations cannot make you doubt of You know this To know is to know by reasons naturall that never faile that this shall be thus the promise of God is so therefore you know it by that you know it by the practice of the Saints you know it by the testimony of the Spirit of God you know it by the common tenent of the world so that whatsoever God hath spoken hee is willing to performe and it is done already as though it were acted at this present time It is the heavenly and blessed contentment of a Christian man that hee hath the priviledge to know his happinesse before hee hath it that man that is advanced to morrow that is a poore man to day hee may hope well and wish well but hee knoweth nothing a man that goes to the field to fight in the battaile hee knowes not whether ever he shall come againe as Ahab said He that puts on his armour let him not brag as he that puts it off When a man sets forth on a journey hee knowes not whether ever hee shall returne home or not When a man enters into traffique for viands and matters of life hee knowes not whether hee shall gaine or lose there is nothing that wee can tell in this world that it shall be thus for time will alter and change it In all the works of Philosophy there is no certainty of the time to come but in the booke of God there is a certaine knowledge blessed be God for that knowledge It is a thing without exception it is a thing without all doubt Iohn 4. Our Lord Christ said to the woman of Samaria Ye know not what ye worship we know what we worship The knowledge therefore of true religion was among the people of God so the knowledge of the promises was among them too wee know saith the Apostle 1. Cor 5.1 when this earthly Tabernacle shall be abolished we have a heavenly mansion So the Apostle saith I know whom I have believed I know whom I have trusted And in 1 Iohn 2.15 Wee know that we are translated from death to life because wee love the brethren This therefore is that excellent priviledge of a Christian that he hath above all the schollers in the world that as he is made to glorie so he knows it before he hath a taste of the Spirit the earnest of the Spirit before which makes him cry Abba Father that helps him to pray that comforts him in trouble that stands by him that leads him and guides him on that never forsakes him in the state of grace till it bring him to the state of glory To the which the Lord bring us for Christ his sake Amen FINIS CORINTHS COLLECTION FOR THE SAINTS AT IERUSALEM Seven Sermons on 1 Corinth 16. the first 9. Verses BY That Worthy and Learned Preacher of Gods Word MARTIN DAY Chaplaine in Ordinarie to his Majestie and late Rector of S. FAITHS London Heb. 13.16 To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased LONDON Printed by T.H. for Nathanael Butter and are to be sold at the signe of the Pide Bull neere Saint Austins gate 1636. 1. Cor. 16.1.2 Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia â—ven so do yâ— â—pon the first of the Weeke Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come THis is the last head or common place of this holy Epistle which the Apostle hath therefore reserved to the last because he would have it the better in printed in the memory of his schoollars For all the rest indeed have beene matters of great concernment but this most of all it being the common office of Christianitie and a generall duty that runnes through the whole body as the life doth For the poore you shall have alway with you saith our Lord Christ and therefore your mercie to the poore shall be alway exacted so S. Chrysostome Chrysost The Apostle now saith hee goes forward to the head and principle of all good things He hath touched upon it before in Chap. 13. Chap. 13.1 speaking of charitie Though I had the tongue of men and Angels yet if I had not charitie I were nothing But that charitie is of another kinde for that intends the use of spirituall gifts that a man should forget himselfe for the common good that hee should not labour so much to shew himselfe a scholler or a Linguist as to speake to common capacities that is the charitie meant in that place But now here he speakes of another kinde of charitie not in the collation of things spirituall but of temporall wherein a man is put to his proofe more then then in the other for the conferring of sprituall things commonly as they come freely so they come easily without much paine or trouble There is no man almost but he will communicate his learning and knowledge to another gratis but for these temporall goods that we have in this world they can hardly be drawne from us and a small quantitie a poore despicable portion is exacted when we are brought to the best Therefore now the Apostle comes to that point of charitie which doth most of all discerne a Christian whereby he is best knowne the parting from his owne goods the defrauding of his owne genius of his owne belly that he may be helpfull to others And so this is the ninth and last part of this Epistle for as I told you heretofore Divines have diversly distinguished the Epistle but the best and the most neere and likely division is into nine severall points of doctrine whereof this is the last The first was of taking away the schismes and divisions which was in the Church of Christ One was of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas another of Christ In the first second third and fourth Chapters that is the first common place of this Epistle The second was concerning the power
friends to them that are inrolled to them especially is the benevolence of the Saints extended the Saints to the Saints fellow members to fellow members supplie the sap and nourishment one to another from their common head Christ Iesus And who be these Saints Surely the power of charitie is such by the sweetnesse of the Gospell that perswades it to this Who taken for Saints to thinke every man a Saint that we know not certainly to be a devill For there bee but two sorts of men in the world and if a man know not certainly that a neighbour or a man knowne to him is in the state of damnation he must be taken and judged to be in the state of sanctification and account him a Saint For there be Saints divers wayes There are Saints by birth 1. Cor. 7. Diversitie of Saints Now are they holy If it were not so then were your children unholy but now they are holy There is sanctification by the faith of the parents wherein all our children are borne and for which cause they are to be called Saints because they are borne of beleeving parents Secondly there are Saints by profession that is those that receive their baptisme and the Sacrament of the Lord Iesus Christ that make an open profession of his name those be Saints also And thirdly there bee Saints by calling when God hath brought a man to a change for he is a true Saint whom God hath changed and there is no man that can challenge to himselfe any hope or any comfort in the number of Saints but onely he that is changed from himselfe that doth leave and forgo his former vanities and betake himselfe to the obedience of God in Christ This is that wee call sanctitie of calling called Saints Saints by calling as it is in the first Chapter of this Epistle 1. Cor. 1.4 Fourthly and lastly there are Saints by Conversation and good works which are here principally spoken of Saints of God that suffer for Christ Saints of God that live according to the power of the Gospell Saints that professe Christ in the middest of persecuters these be chiefe chosen Saints of which the Lord makes that glorious army of Martyrs The noble armie of Martyrs praise thee Out of this number of those that are persecuted and suffer for Christ the Lord chooseth the most glorious number of Saints so these are the Saints that are spoken of that were at Ierusalem Concerning the collection for the Saints The Saints at Ierusalem were most troubled of all others in the world but because the name is not here mentioned I will but onely speake it to you in a word For there they had the high Priesthood there they had the Scribes and Pharisees that carried the wisedome of the world as they thought in their lippes The Priests lippes should preserve knowledge and the people should seeke it at their mouth They had the Law of God and his veritie the best law under heaven but they set themselves against the Gospell of Christ therefore the poore Saints had no such strong persecutors in any place as in that And besides Agabus in Act. 11. foretold that there should be a great famine which seemed now to be raised when the Apostle wrote these words it seemes the famine was then upon the land of Iudaea It is said that it came in the dayes of Claudius Cesar but it was spoken of in the dayes of Caligula the event of it was in the third or fourth yeare of Claudius Cesar Suetonius and Tacitus that write of that Emperour say that search was made by the Romans for all strangers and they were put forth of the Citie the famine was so great and Claudius Cesar made a haven which is now out of use but after that it was a famous haven which he made by digging a mouth out of the River Tiber by which meanes he brought provision into the Citie and made a passage for all the world at all times as Dio the Historian said This famine therefore which Agabus foretold was the cause why the Apostle wrote now to make provision for the Saints at Ierusalem for the Lord had sent an heavie hand of scarsitie among them Besides the persecution they indured and those two wofull events perplexed them wondrously therefore the Apostle desires that their charitie might abound to them as their misery had abounded So out of this we learne First that the Saints of God may want Saints may want and stand in need to be maintained The Apostle tels us that he was a petitioner for the Saints therefore the Saints be men that may be in want The Saints of God are very needfull here upon earth and it is a thing that I need not proove all experience confirmes it The Lord God is able to give them of the dew of heaven and of the abundance of the earth to make them lords of all the soyle the Lord of heaven hath promised them the blessings of this life and of another a better as the Apostle saith yet notwithstanding they want many times and stand in need of other men and haply of worse men then themselves are in the booke of God what is the reason of this Why the Saints are in want First because God would shew us that they be weaned from this world that they are greater then the world as Saint Chrysostome saith speaking to a Philosopher Thou knowest not how to master thy affections thou knowest not how to be in poverty and in disgrace but I will shew thee out of mine owne bringing up how we are able to beare these things and to contemne them So the Lord by this would shew that his children are of another spirit of an higher spirit which the world cannot comprehend but they can easily comprehend the world and cast it behinde them For they looke for a Citie whose builder and maker is God they expect the treasures of heaven which are reposed in the bosome of Christ therefore they scorne these things below they do not minde them but for the present necessitie Onely as Severus said of his souldiers that those were his best souldiers that were the poorest and when they began to grow rich then they began to be naught so in the schoole of Christ the Saints are trained up in povertie as the Poet saith if you will bring up a boy a yong man to be a souldier learne him first to endure povertie learne him to lye hard to fare hard to encounter all the hardages which nature it self can hardly beare and which these delicious fellows cannot endure to thinke of let them first master them and then they shall bee able to overcome their enemies And so in the field of Christ the Lord suffers his Saints to want not because he cannot provide for them nor because he doth not intend to help them for those that he will give heaven to will he not give them earth if it be for
the poore and so it is according to the advise of the wise man Give of that which thou hast If thou have but little doe thy diligence to give of that little and notwithstanding the great authority of that most holy father and the rest that hold with him I thinke there is no necessity of this consequence for I take it that God bindes no man to impossibilities I know this that there are many men whose meanes are so poore as that they are fitter to be receivers to take from others then to be givers and for servants it is certaine many of their meanes and wages are so slender as that they have scarce enough to maintaine their owne bodies Therefore seeing the great God that sets men to worke will never call them to a worke that is impossible he will not call men to a necessity of inconvenience to their persons and states but he would have men to consider their place to consider the state they are in Certainely the Lord doth not call to such a generall collection as that all should give but according to their place and ability Therefore I take it this universall Terme Every man is to be restrained to that which followeth according as God hath inabled him Now God hath not inabled every man therfore every man is not bound to make this collection It is true if you know him a man fit to be a receiver you ought to give somewhat but because there be divers sorts and rankes of men some God hath made to be givers and some to be receivers therefore I conclude that every man cannot be a giver because then the distinction of difference should be taken away The second member of the distinction should be taken away and there could be no receivers for one begger to help another it is impossible indeed by admonition and counsell one may doe it to another but by way of helpe and worldly support they cannot doe so therefore I take it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be referred onely to him that God hath inabled out of that superfluity and abundance God hath given him to give something to the poore Saints Now for the Act 2 The act he saith they must lay up they be words of exceeding comfort that he must lay it up as a thing never to be taken from him and hee must lay it up as a treasure he must lay it up as a thing that shall be of much advantage to him lay it up as in a treasure Citie lay it up as a thing against to morrow that is against future time because a man is still doubtfull of the future he hath for the present but he knowes not what he may need after therefore a treasure is laid up for a time he knowes not of for an evill time So then the holy Ghost would give us comfort in this that man that layes up for the poore he layes up treasure Matth. 6. Lay not up treasure here on earth but lay up your treasure in heaven And this treasure it must be made of the richest things either of iewels or of gold or silver because they be of most price because they are contained in the least roome a man makes no treasure of other fruits of the earth he makes not a treasure of corne or fruit but of gold and silver that is a treasure where much wealth may lye in a little compasse So the holy Ghost hath taught this for our comfort that that man that gives to the poore he hath great wealth in a small roome although thou canst give but little yet notwithstanding if thou give according to that which God hath inabled thee it is not the quantity of the gift but the quality and minde of the giver that is accepted with the Lord. He must lay up by himselfe Why by himselfe why should he not bring it to the poore mans box why should he not bring it to the Church-Wardens to the Overseers for the poore to the Collectors for the poore Because there were no such officers appointed then in the Church the Church was but young it was but then in the cradle and by reason that they were many of them poore men that could lay up but every weeke a little they would have beene ashamed to have brought so little therefore the Apostle bids them lay it up keepe it by them that many littles might make a mickle as the Proverbe is and that so many crums might come to be a whole loafe and then to present it when it was an acceptable gift when it might carry some shew with it But here we may see what was the wonderfull goodnesse and conscience of the Church in those times every man was his owne Lord Almner his owne Treasurer he laid up for God and for himselfe what he could well spare for the Saints of God he laid it up every weeke If the men of our times were put to this passage they would abate from it for their owne allowance and when their friends and acquaintance should come to them they would draw some thing from the treasure that they had laid up for God Let us be ashamed of these base and vile exorbitances and aspire as much as we may to that sincere zeale and affection that was in Gods people in former times which were true accounters to the Lord God and laid up every weeke what they could spare for the honour of God and for the good of his people at the command of the Apostles that they should be masters of it they layed it down at their feet when they called for it and they would never take any part from it for then the Apostles would not have trusted them with their owne for a man may be good this weeke and lay up somewhat for a good purpose the next week hee may be a drunkard and spend that he layed up before but they were still constant that which they had layed up and consecrated to the wayes of God they were as carefull in the keeping of it Let every man lay up by himselfe Vpon this Saint Chrysostome Câ—rysost worthily comments I pray thee good Christian know thy honour thy Church is thy house and thy house is made a Church by this meanes for that that is given to Saints they are holy goods they are holy gifts and the Lord hath made thee a Deacon to thy selfe behold thy great honour the Lord hath chosen thee to be a Deacon and a collector for the poore to be a Treasurer for the state of the Church Now then let us labour also for this perfection that whatsoever we vow to God whatsoever wee do to him that we keepe and hold it When a man is to go on a journey hee saith if God will send me well on my journey I will give so much to the poore this vow stands upon record in heauen the Lord takes notice of it when he comes home againe he forgets his vow and
regard of this among the rest to have a care of the poore Gal. 2. Gal. 2. Wheresoever he came he did found and settle this constitution as strongly as any of the rest as that of faith so this of workes that those that had beleeved and received the Lord Christ into their hearts by faith that they should extend their hands by good workes to feed him and to minister to his members which are wanting here upon earth We have thus farre proceeded to shew what kinde of Gift or Present this was which the Apostle required it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fruit it is the corne they yeeld the harvest which Gods children which be his fruitfull field yeeld unto him It is the shot they pay which are invited to the supper of the great King And it is not cast away upon such as are unworthy persons but bestowed upon the Saints themselves that whereas God requires that we should helpe our owne flesh whether good or bad and we should imitate our heavenly Father which makes his light to shine and his raine to fall as well upon the uniust as the iust yet the Apostle recommends unto them not the common refuse of men whereunto notwithstanding they were bound by nature but a select company of Saints and such a company as were under persecution and that the most hot and sharpe persecution and trouble that was then to be found in the world for the Church of God never suffers so ill as it suffers from it selfe all civill wars and intestine discords being the greatest plagues that can he The Church of Ierusalem having received the law and the promises and glorying in their prerogative they could not therefore indure that a new religion should come and confront theirs and put that out of place but they sought by all meanes to beat it downe againe and by consequent no man could lift up his head but presently there were letters from the high Priests and Elders to cast him into prison to thrust that light under a bushell which God had set upon a Candlesticke to give light to the whole house And againe there was another cause of it by reason of the famine which Agabus prophecied of in the end of Caligula his reigne for which cause the Church of God made provision against that time of famine and scarcity Now the quantity that they should give it is not set downe but it is left to every mans disposition for the Church of God will not make charity compulsive but leaves it to the free-will in it selfe that it may be the more gratious and the better accepted with God but look whatsoever God had prospered them withall according as God had blessed them according as he had given them a good voyage in the affaires of the world according to that hee should not scant and balk the Lord but he that had received much should give much and he that had received little should give of that little according to the quantity and proportion so that was left to the conscience of every man And that this collection should be done in private that every man should lay up by himselfe by himselfe because there were no officers appoynted as then in the Church or because he might be defeated of it by trusting of others or because some had so little that they durst not bring it every weeke being so small but were to lay it up by them that many littles might make a mickle therefore they were to keep it till it might be a convenient summe that it might carry some shew with it in regard of this the Apostle bids them lay up by themselves And they must lay it up as a Treasure for as much as the Lord accounted of that in heaven he tooke account of that in heaven which they layd forth in earth and it was a treasure to them that when they should come to faile to faile of this life when they should come to dye when no friend should help and rescue them from the hand of death they may have some treasure in heaven that when they came into a strange country they might finde some treasure there they might have a banke there to give them refreshing As when a man is outed in England when he is outlawed or banished if hee can make an escape and can have a banke at Venice or at Amsterdam and can goe to his friends there and have somewhat laid up for him in trusty hands he is as well there almost as he is here So the Lord compares the passages of this life to those of a better life but we cannot deny nor doubt but that we shall be infinitely farre better there then we are here but yet we are loath to part with this habitation we would faine keepe this tabernacle of the body as long as we could although it be with hard conditions Now the Lord tels us to incourage us in our journey that all our good works all our Almes-deeds are sent before as a treasure they are laid up as a stocke of money in a faithfull hand not in a mountebankes hand but in the trusty hand of God which will repay us againe and will repay us with interest he that gives to the poore lends to the Lord upon interest so it is called in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Thesaurus a treasure to lay up treasure to lay up for to morrow to lay up for the time to come thus farre we proceeded Now we come to the next point in the Text The time of the collection which is what day what time he chooseth out for the setting apart of this portion of those that offered to the Lord and to his poore Saints and that is noted here to be the first day of the weeke Secondly wee are to note the incentives reasons and arguments to moove them to this because charity and the workes of charity are not easily perswaded men must be drawne to them by very attractive and forcible reasons and arguments such as may win though not constraine and force their piety His first argument is this the common example for these things we must propound them diversly and otherwise then they lye in the Text for order sake and for method of teaching For those things that are first in the Text are not alway first in order of time nor in order of teaching how will he therfore winne the Corinthians to give unto strange poore when they had enow of their owne he tels them there is an example for it the Churches of Galatia As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so doe ye As if he should say I bring no new matter among you I put no burthen upon you which is not generall and common in all the Churches your brethren have gone before in other Countries which are poorer men and weaker every way in their fortunes then you therefore that which they doe which are poorer and more unable
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
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
that wondrous and unwearied peregrination which he made in the world for he went from place to place and still was winning countries to the obedience and service of his Lord and master he might therefore ill loose so much time as should be spent in carrying the money from Corinth to Ierusalem or from Ephesus where it seemeth he now was because many countries in the world were not yet discovered there were many Nations that were not yet brought to the faith and obedience of Christ and he was sent to be a Preacher to the Gentiles and therefore he was to preach to all the Gentiles that he could extend himselfe unto being as Chrysostome saith like unto the sunne in the firmament that riseth in the one part of the world and in twenty foure houres compasseth all the round such an one was the Apostle which was sent and instituted by our Saviour and therefore it was much for him to lose so much time as this action would require to carry it so farre as to Ierusalem but now that the love of the brethren was so great and their necessitie was so important and exigent that he thought it not amisse for the time to lay aside the care of the greater office and to stoupe to this which was the lesser for it is true indeed the Apostle which way soever he went he gained soules to his master and it was all one for him howbeit there is great difference in this in planting of a new foundation where Christ was never heard of and in confirming of those places where Christ had beene taught and received and embraced Therefore there was some oddes and disadvantage in this that he should spend so much time as to go backe to Ierusalem whereas all those places were now already wonne to Christ and he should have gone and marched forward toward the North parts of the world where Christ had not as yet beene heard of and yet he sets all the care of this aside for the present and urgent necessitie that his brethren were in at Ierusalem and he thinkes that the works of mercie that belong to the Saints of God are to possesse and to take up the time of a man rather then some higher thing What then the preaching of the Gospell was not that the greatest part that belonged to his function Quest why then should he leave that seeing it was contrary to the rule that the Apostles themselves gave Act. 6.2 where there was a mutiny among the Greeks and the Hebrews because there was a neglect of their women in the common ministration and the Apostles to prevent such a mischiefe which was now growing among them and to take away the viper of discention and division which now troubled the Church they made this generall rule and principle that it was not fit that they should leave the Word of God to serve tables Behold this rule it bound all men it included all the Ministers of the Church and all the Apostles themselves therefore the Minâ—sters or Apostles should not leave the Word of God their daily function Apostolicall to serve tables And yet we see the Apostle leaves the word of God the preaching of the Gospell and other matters of great concernment the calling of the world to the faith of Christ he leaves this to serve tables that is to carry the money that was gathered at Corinth to Ierusalem which in effect was nothing else but to serve tables This therefore hath beene a question among Divines in all times how farre it should be extended and whether Saint Paul exceeded the limits or no or whether that that he did were well or no for some have thought that either he forgat that rule or else that he was not bound unto it Answ But this is easily answered It is true as long as the Church of God suffers no detriment by a mans absence no notable detriment and so long as it is otherwise well provided and so long as the businesse swallows up no great length of time but that with convenient speed the party may returne to his former calling so long the Apostles themselves were bound to intend the works of mercie and to serve tables It is true the Apostle was not to leave the Gospell and to serve tables because the greater work must be first intended except there be present necessity but in the second place he ought to intend that and if so be they can be joyned both together the preaching of the word and the serving of tables as Saint Paul did in this action for it is manifest they did concurre together both If a man can do thus it makes a more gratefull smell in the nostrils of God As Saint Austin said that he did not take accounts and reckonings because he bent his study to answer Hereticks he carried no keyes nor rings to seale daily matters and every commoditie of victuall in his house which they used to seale with a ring he carried none of these but he gave all the charge of them to his Steward but saith hee if God should give me a vacant time I know that this belongs to my charge too And Synetius Bishop of Pentapolis saith he I am farre from condemning those Bishops that take upon them the care of orphans and seculer poore and of almes houses and hospitals I am so farre from condemning their holy actions that I do admire at it and much wish that my selfe were fit for both but I know mine owne infirmitie they can passe through them both without pollution but if I should enter into these reckonings and summes to take care for these things I should lacke the whole sea the whole Ocean could not bee sufficient to cleanse mee from the pollution I should contract thereby And the Quinisex Councell in Cannon 35. Concil Quini sex Can. 35. they ordained that the Bishop should looke to the provision for the poore either in his owne person either himselfe or else by his Prelate or Archdeacon that was under him these things are so manifest as that no man of sence can deny it but those of the new fangled opinion of late would draw Ecclesiasticall persons from medling with temporall things yet surely these things are not meerly temporall but are ecclesiasticall for it is the gathering and collection of men that are spiritually minded and it is imployed for a spirituall purpose for the maintenance of the Church which are the sonnes and daughters of the Spirit of God It is true there was somewhat more in Saint Paul then in another man because he was not tyed to any place he had no fixed seat but he might go through the world therefore much more might hee passe such a journey and backe againe wheras our Bishops now have their setled residence and their little compasse therefore he might better do it then other men ordinary Bishops in that oeconomicall Province which the Lord put him in trust with Church men may tend secular
affections of men Or the malice of Sathan Or the craft of Hereticks Or the common condition of humane things which unlesse they be looked unto do naturally contract those materials which make them tend to putrefaction and corruption 1 In regard of the slownesse of the Churches building For in the first respect it is certaine that the Churches of God as they be mighty massie bodies so they are long building long a raising they cannot be done with one hand but there must be many hands set on worke before it can bee effected or brought to any good purpose Ioh. 2. Fortie sixe yeares was this Temple a building say the Iewes to Christ and wilt thou destroy it and raise it againe in three dayes speaking of the materiall Temple whereas Christ spake of the temple of his body and we know the reason why it was so long because it was hindred by Sanballet and Tobiah and other adversaries and by reason of the Iewes povertie But beloved there is no Church longer setting up then the spirituall flocke and company of Christ to have a setled Church well ordered and instructed in the faith free from all superstition and to have a true fountaine of uncorrupt doctrine and infallible truth to bring a Church to such a state as this it requires oft times twise as many yeares as that comes to and more for it is with the Church as it is with the body of an Army it being a great huge bodie it moves but slowly so the worke of the Lord in the Church it moves but slowly there is no businesse goes forward with lesse speed then that and in this regard Saint Paul saith to Barnabas Let us rise let us go to visite the brethren wee have layed the foundation of the Churches now let us go and set up the walls let us make it compleate at the least let us looke that there be no undermyning of that foundation that we have alreadie laid The Church of God is a tender plant it asketh a great deale of watering a great deale of fencing a great deale of pruning and dressing and therefore it had need bee helped with visitations for this purpose for although men may say what need you bring strangers to visit us we have sufficient men of our owne The Corinthians might say what need you bring Paul himselfe to Corinth we have Ministers of our owne what need he come he will but intrude into another mans place and take another mans calling out of his hands 2 In regard of mens affections No the worke of visitation is most effectuall when it is done by a stranger for although there be a sufficient Minister appointed for that place yet men are fickle and inconstant and can love nothing long together they grow weary of their ordinarie Minister but a stranger one that comes afarre off is admired men are easily induced to hearken to him all things are great and excellent that are said from abroad as for the gifts and the light that men have among themselves they be dimme after they have a while shined there As our Lord Iesus said of Iohn Baptist that he was once a bright candle a bright shining light but after he came to be eclipsed to fall into a darke smoake because of their darke smokie and fickle affections for this therefore it is necessarie that there should bee a visiter from abroad as Saint Paul here was to come from Ephesus to Corinth because that which is among men that which they ordinarily enjoy they account it a base and vile thing which they are daily conversant with but things that are strange and geason are admired and men are sooner led by them 3 In regard of the devils malice Againe it is needfull that there should be a visitation by Saint Paul that he should say Veniam I come because of the devils malice because of his wiles and sleights in the Church as the Apostle saith 2. Corinth 2. we know his shifts well enough we are not ignorant of his sleights where the word is excellent for saith he as the devill hath wit in him to undermine and destroy so the Apostle saith he hath a countermyning wit whereby hee is able to deale with him and to finde him and sift him out and prevent him in all his plots Sathan therefore useth in the absence of the Pastor alwayes to raise up mutinies sects seditions and heresies and new devises as the woolfe when he sees the shepheard and his dogge absent from the flocke then he comes and makes havocke and destroyes without danger or feare and kils pell-mell the absence of the chiefe Pastor is that which gives the devill occasion and his presence is that which affrights him and though the Corinthians had Ministers of their owne yet notwithstanding their gifts were nothing comparable to the excellencies and rare perfections that were in Saint Paul which brought the world into admiration wheresoever he was they had but a little rivolet in regard of that mighty swelling River as Chrysostome calls it which ranne over all the banks and could not be comprehended in any channell And generally it is the nature of all humane things 4 From the condition of humane things unlesse we looke to them with much diligence and care to repaire them they will grow presently to destruction There is no house so cleare but in a short time it will contract slutterie to it unlesse it be kept with continuall dressing There is no body that is so faire and so strong and able but except it be kept with exercise and with physicke and such meanes it will fall by its owne weight to sicknesse and diseases and be consumed ere a man be aware there is nothing that can by nature consist long without there be much care and diligence and art used to it and if every thing bee so subject to prolapses and declining much more is the Church of God for the Church of God hath greater enemies then this body it hath greater enemies then these houses of clay or then these buildings that we have in the world or then our worldly stocke that we carry about us there is no such malice suggested and intended and laid against them as there is against the Church of God Therefore where the craft of the devill is most perpetuall there should the watchfulnesse of the Pastor be equall and answerable unto it that according to the divels great observant malice there may be as much diligence used against that serpent to crush his head when he seeks to bruise their heele S. Paul would not go without the Coâ—inthians But now to conclude the Text he saith that hee will come but he saith they shall go with him to Ierusalem when hee commeth that is those that they had chosen as being fit men to whose fidelitie they would commit the money They should go with him he would not go alone and carry it himselfe So we see
at Ierusalem if he should come to go with it And because they had written in their letter to him desiring him to come and to reforme certaine abuses that were crept into their Church as we may see by that that follows Therefore he now answers to that part of their letter in vers 5. and tels them that he meanes to come and to visit their Church and to redresse those things that were disordered among them But he tels them that he cannot come yet because he had a purpose to passe through Macedonia The occasion of which we may reade Act. 19. when he was asleepe in his bed one night the Lord appointed that in a dreame or vision a certaine man of the Macedons that had a Souldiers jacket like the phalanx of Macedonia like their ordinary militarie garments not used in those countries and he stood in such a vesture as that any man that had seene the custome of the times and the manner of those Nations might have knowne him to be a Macedonian and he appeared to Paul when he was asleepe in a dreame desiring him to come and helpe them Come to Macedonia and helpe us which Saint Paul tooke as an heavenly vision and therefore he purposed and resolved the first thing he did to obey that vision to go to Macedonia And though it were farre by the bow because Corinth was as neare or nearer to Ephesus above halfe as neare againe as Macedon was yet he purposed to do that to go thither first because he thought the Lord would have that quickly dispatched so he tels them he will go first thither and then he will come back to Corinth and so he might well for he might land at Thessalonica or at Ephesus and round all about the coasts of Dalmatia and Illyrium and from thence come to Corinth which was very opportune and fit because it stood upon the necke of the Ionian sea that he might take shipping in any part of the countrey at the lower end of Tyrus and so sayle for Corinth He desires them therefore in the meane time to expect him for now he was to go about that busines and after he had performed this journey he would remember them and come and order the things that were amisse in their Church This is the summe of the words read unto you Now to proceed in order with them We must first consider the Apostle supposeth that the Churches collection and gathering at Corinth for the Saints at Ierusalem it might come to a great fumme or perhaps that it might faile of that summe that it might come short of his expectation and according to this he pronounceth If it fall out so as I would have it then I will go Parts of the Text 1. so that here is a condition and a resolution The condition 1. Conditio 2. Resolutio in these words If it be worthy If it be a thing worthy my labour that it may beseeme the person of an Apostle to attend it and to guard it I will go with it that is the resolution if it be worthy then he promiseth the presence of his owne person that he will imploy himselfe in that although he could hardly be spared for he was to plant the Church of God and not to intend worldly things so much and yet he was so touched with the weaknesse and with the frailtie and wants of his brethren at Ierusalem that he would dispence with that function for a while to do the works of mercy And then after in the last part of the Text he comes to a private overture concerning their familiar state Now hee hath done with the generall concerning the Church abroad he comes to the particular what he would do for them in the Church of Corinth He saith he will come and see them he will come and visit them and see their order to congratulate with them wherein they had done well and to visit them and reprehend them wherein they had done otherwise then well And then the time when not presently but he would come to them after he had gone to Macedonia because it was a great way about therefore they must stay for him till that journey were finished These are the branches of the Text. Of these in order as God shall give assistance and the shortnesse of the time will permit 1 Part. The condition And first concerning the condition that he propounds in that he saith If it be worthy that I shall go The word is taken in two sences in the Scripture sometime it is taken for this if it be needfull if you thinke it needfull for me to go But in this place by the consent of all Interpreters it hath a greater and higher sence and must be taken for a matter of dignitie that is if there be so much worth in your collection as that it may well beseeme the legacie and ambassage of an Apostle then I will undertake it where First we are to observe a contrary passage to that which commonly fals out in the liberalitie of the world wherein men are not to looke in the mouth of a given animall as they say not to number and estimate mens benefits that are given frankly and freely but to take the gift as it pleaseth the giver to bestow it but Saint Paul seemes to intimate another thing that the Church of God looke to be respected in their suits and Briefes and supplications not with a nigardly hand not with a perfunctory kinde of service but the thing must be done in some state according to a mans abilitie he should have a dignitie in the worke for those benefits that are small and slender they have no grace nor dignitie in them Although it be true indeed that sometimes the poorest gift is as greatly rewarded and respected of God as the poore widdows mite which she cast into the treasurie was more regarded then all that the rich cast in because she cast in all that she had all her substance But yet when men part with it hunshingly with a kinde of contradiction and he that is worth thousands of pounds will give but a poore peny to a generall or common good or a small thing which is farre inferiour and disproportionable to the state which God hath vouchsafed him as it is now adaies this is a kinde of unworthy contribution it is a collection which the Apostle thinks hath no worth in it and there is no reason that S. Paul should go with such a collection but any vulgar man might go with such a vulgar sacrifice If it be worthy That is if it come to so great a summe that it shall be fit to maintaine the poore to serve their turne for some length of time in a good measure it shall then be a worke of a sweet smell most gratefull and acceptable to the Church of God at Ierusalem and it shall befit me also to attend it For otherwise the Apostle could ill be spared from