Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n
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B21649
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Two sermons preached before Her Majesty the Queen-Dowager in Her Majesty's chapel at Somerset-House / by Phil. Ellis.
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Ellis, Philip, 1652-1726.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing E604
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22,596
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44
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TWO SERMONS Preach'd before the Queen-Dowager IN HER MAJESTY's CHAPPEL AT Somerset-House By the Reverend Father Dom. PHIL. ELLIS Monk of the Holy Order of St. Benedict and of the English Congr Preacher and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTIES Published by Her Majesty's Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel 1686. A SERMON Preach'd before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER On Easter-day 1686. Si consurrexistis cum Christo quae sursum sunt quaerite If you have risen again with Christ seek those things which are above INto this pathetick Exhortation the Apostle falls in his Epistle to the Colossians ch 3. v. 1. Sacred Majesty Into this seasonable Exhortation the Church breaks forth at the Entry of this Solemnity in the first Mass which we on the Vigil the Primitive Christians celebrated at the first Point of the Natural Day In these Words she communicates to her mourning Children the joyful News that her Beloved was dead and is alive Words which express not only the Reality but also the Efficacy and Extent of our Lord's Resurrection that the yearly Revolution of this Festival implies something more than our Blessed Master's glorious Rising from the Dead that it carries us farther than a bare Memory of his Triumph that it comprehends the Glory of the Members as well as of the Head and celebrates our own Victory over Death if indeed we are risen again with Christ My Text therefore is an Argumentation founded upon two Suppositions the one of Faith the other touching Matter of Fact Of Faith That Christ is risen the Fact That we are actually risen with him Si consurrexistis cum Christo The one he supposes as a First Principle of our Religion which falls not under dispute The other needs a Confirmation and is to be prov'd by something more evident than it self The Proof of our Resurrection must be drawn from our diligent application to those things which are above quae sursum sunt quaerite or as he expresses himself more clearly in the following Verse from setting our affections on heavenly things quae sursum sunt sapite from leading a supernatural Life and weaning of our Hearts from all that is below non quae super terram But there can be no Resurrection to a New Life unless by way of necessary Disposition there be a Death to the Old To rise again therefore we must first die Death being the Medium or Boundary between these two Lives this of the World and the other according to God For since they are incompatible and in some manner contradictory the one must cease to be before the other can exist and by consequence the Presence of the one must demonstrate the Destruction of the other Wherefore that we are risen again with Christ is evinc'd by our being dead to the World and this doubly prov'd first by the Affirmative seeking those things which are above and then by the Negative not setting our affections on things below My Text thus expounded divides it self and calls upon me to speak a Word to each of these Resurrections that of Christ and this of the Christian which jointly compose the Subject of our present Joy and consequently are the fittest Subject of the present Discourse and of Your Royal and Favourable Attention But when I reflect that St. Ambrose Ambr. lib. 3. de Virg. versus Med. and after him the whole Current of Divines piously suppose the Blessed Mother of our Lord first saw his Resurrection both saw it first and was the first who believ'd it it being most agreeable to Reason and a natural Consequence of Affection that so loving a Parent should receive the first Visit from so loving a Son that she who most eminently shar'd in the Pangs of his Death when the Sword of Sorrow pierced her Heart should taste the First-fruits of his returning to Life Let us before we proceed beg her Intercession that I may speak of this great Mystery as one who is risen again with Christ and you attend unto my Words as they who seek the things which are above AVE MARIA If you are risen again with Christ seek the things which are above c. OF all the Mysteries of our Holy Religion the Resurrection of Christ is the Principal because it is the highest Proof of his Divinity the greatest of his Miracles the chiefest Instance of his Veracity the Earnest of his Promises and the Foundation of all our Hope And upon this Consideration St. Ambrose calls it the Corner-stone and Basis of Faith primum maximum Fidei Fundamentum His Conception and Nativity were but the remote Preparations to it His Life and Doctrin the Means His Death and Passion the immediate Dispositions But his rising the third day according to the Flesh was the ultimate End of his coming as being the first in Intention and the last in Execution In this consists the Strength the Meaning and Intent of the Apostle's Assertion Rom. 4.25 That Jesus Christ was deliver'd for our Sins and rose again for our Justification For as the Church sings in the Office of Yesterday Nihil nobis nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset The Excellence of our Being had avail'd us nothing if a Redemption had not restor'd us to the End of our Creation forfeited by Sin so a Redemption it self would not have answer'd our Necessities if a Resurrection had not perfected and crown'd the Work of our Justification But as it naturally follows the further the Consequence draws from the First Principle the obscurer it grows the deeper the Water is the further we are from discerning the Bottom the greater the Miracle the less comprehensible so we find the Mystery of the Resurrection to be the most profound and consequently the most obscure and difficult of all our Credends For how inexplicable soever the Heathen Philosophers judg'd the Immortality of the Soul they could not deny but the Light of Nature discover'd it to be reasonable But all their Application Enquiry and force of Reason fell so short of the Resurrection of the Body that while they admitted the one they derided the other as impossible as chimerical as the Dreams of Simple or the Reveries of Frantick Men. Thus when St. Paul Acts 17. had discours'd the Point to the most Learned of them they call'd him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Babler or Disperser of ridiculous Novelties to others he seem'd to be a setter forth of new Gods And when he came to this Point in his Discourse on Mars-hill before that celebrated Bench hi quidem irridebant some mocked ver 32. Neither did Festus when he had heard the same Apostle upon that Subject conceive a better Opinion of him than of a Madman venting the wild Fancies of a disturb'd Brain Insanis Paule Paul thou talkest like one distracted Nay the Apostles themselves after so many clear Predictions to prepare their Minds to the Belief of this