his humble and short Petition but behold a gracious return and grant Verily I say unto thee c. He begins his answer with a solemn word Amen or Verily a word which our Saviour used in any thing which tended to a serious concernment Aug. Tract 41 in Joan it hath the propriety of an oath and the reasons why he uses this importunate manner of speaking is because the thief might well doubt of the promise were it not for this earnest asseveration 1. In regard of his own person which could not seem any way worthy of so blessed a reward or so rich a blessing For who could imagin so bad a liver to pass so speedily from the Cross to a Kingdom 2. In regard of Christs present condition for then he was the miserable Character of poverty weakness and all sorts of humane Calamities And he might thus argue If he be not able whilest he lives to perform good offices for his friends how can he bestow them being dead This might have been his carnal reasoning 3. And then in regard of the thing promised Paradise which was then known to belong to the body only not to the soul So is the Etymologie of it according to the Hebrew An earthly Paradise It had been more credible if Christ had said To day thou shalt be with me in the place of Joy with Abraham Jsaac and Jacob. Therefore being so many scruples might occur unto this new convert Christ to remove them all confirms the the verity of his answer with this serious Protestation And his passage to Paradise was but short not a daies journey He does not say In the day of Judgment thou shalt be placed on the right hand with the Just nor does he say with the Millenarians after a thousand years sleep thy soul shall enjoy the pleasures of heaven nor doth he say Thou must first be refined in the Romish Purgatory or after some months or daies be beatified and that had been a happinesse beyond his expectation or merit but this day this very hour thou shalt transmigrate with me from the Tree of the Cross to the Joyes of Paradise Though it be Controverted by some what is here meant by Paradise yet it is the opinion of very Orthodox Divines That Christ the day after his death was with his Body in the grave and with his Soul triumphing on the infernal Spirits in hell but to neither of these can the name of Paradise be assigned the grave being but a gloomy receptacle for dead bodies where Christ's body only could be lay'd and under hell is intimated a place of torments But Paradise signifies a Garden of delight in the Terrestrial one there were flourishing Trees fruitful Waters Salubrietie of air and all the variety of deliousness that Adam could enjoy And in the Celestial one there are glorious and immortal Joyes frnitions of endlesse Beatitude an inaccessible light Seats and Mansions for the blessed The first was Local and Transient this is Spiritual and Eternal The joyes of the other were Corporal the Soul is Beatified in the latter by virtue of the Beatifical vision of God And this heavenly Paradise Christ promised the thief and that he would be with him and so he was according to his Divinity According to his Humane nature he was partly in the grave and partly in hell untill the third day upon which he ascended in a glorious and triumphant manner into heaven But according to the Divine as he was God he had an Ubiquitary Being he was then and alwayes in Heaven Paradise and all places Ioh. 3.13 Therefore very proper were the words of our Saviour when he saith not This day thou shalt be with me in my Kingdom because that day Christ was not to receive his Kingdom that is a perfect felicity of Body and Soul till after his Resurrection when he was to have a body glorious immortal impassible subject to no servitude or infirmity neither was the thief to enjoy this fellowship until the general day of Judgment but in Paradise because that day there was a community of glory to his soul and those of all true Saints And this is the perfect and essential felicity belonging to the Heavenly Paradise Neither doth Christ say We shall be there for he was then and before that time there according to the superiour portion of his soul but thou shalt be with me there that is even thy Soul shal also really be where now actually my divine Soul is .i. In the blessed joyes of Heaven Learn hence O man 1. How great and admirable is the mercy and liberality of Christ towards all his servants He being opprest with sorrows might not have heard the Religious thief but his charity had rather be insensible of his own torments then not to give ear to a miserable sinner confessing his delinquencies He was silent altogether at the maledictions and revilings of the Priests and Souldiers but to the humble clamours of a poor penitent he could not choose but give a gracious Audience He was silent at their Execrations because he was Patient and he was open-cared to the thief's Petition because he was Merciful Those that serve Temporal Lords do labour much but the rewards of their services are commonly far short of their expectations and we might observe many who have spun out their times in the Courts of Princes return home in their declining age either meer Mendicants or unregarded But this Holy Prince and President of true Liberality received nothing from this Penitential servant but a few good words and desires of serving him and behold what a Boon he confers upon him that very day he granted him a free pardon of all the sins he had committed in the whole course of his wicked life Then he prefers him to Abrahams â—â—som to a Quire of Saints anâ— Angels Patriarchs and Prophets were made his Associats and he himself made partaker of that Heavenly happinesse which is Undefinable and Eternal We read that the Roman Emperors gave vast treasures sometimes whole Provinces and Kingdoms to their Minions but this Prince bestowed on his new favourite more then they could either reach or conceive Neither was this goodness of Christ peculiar to this poor delinquent his Apostles deserted their small vessels their nets and cottages to serve him and then he appointed them Princes over the earth he subjected to their commands Divels Serpents Psal 44.2 3 Mat. 10 8 Principalities and Powers and all sorts of Diseases And he promises to all that shall leave their nearest relations for his sake and part with their dearest enjoyments for his service a hundred fold that is a reward incomparably greater then those particulars to wit Spiritual joys and blessings in this world and life Eternal in that to come We might reflect our thoughts on what great things the Lord wrought for Martyrs and Confessors of former ages how they came to honour by ignominy to riches by poverty to greatness by the
the last day 1. The uncertainty of its time It was the policy of Julius Caesar never to acquaint his Army aforehand with the time of their march that they might be ready on all occasions and such is the wisdom of our God that he hath concealed this day from us that we might alwayes stand upon our guard and be ready 2 No time is secure As no place no Sanctuary can exempt us from deaths approach it may come to us in the Church in the Street in our beds c. so no time can priviledge from its arrest in the night as well as in the day in youth as well as in old age 3. Sometimes when men least think of it it comes Whilst the Crocodile sleeps the n = * A kind of a Rat. â—cknewmon getteth in and â—eateth his bowels whilest the Theban Centinel was nodding Gen. Epiâ—ninondas came and thrust him through 4. All the time alotted before that day is little enough for so great a work We have scarce time to learn how to live well saith the Philosopher but we are streightned with time to learn the art of dying well saith the Divine 5. Thy Preparation for will be no Acceleration of the day Our death will not be the nearer but sweeter the blow will not come the sooner foreseen Premeditati mali malis ictas but it will be the easier thy life and death will be the more comfortable 6. That day will be most dismal and Exitial to all unprepared persons like that of the man whom when the King came in found without a wedding garment who was bound hand and foot and cast into utter darkness Mat. 22.13 Oh! that any or all of these Considerations might awaken our security and keep us from sleeping in those sins which will deprive us of Eternal life LORD We admire the deepness of the riches of thy mercy and goodness who wouldst condescend to be thus ignominiously tortured between two grand Malefactors for our sakes How thou didst abase thy self for our pride and humble thy self on earth to advance us to glory Teach us Lord who are but dust and ashes to be lowly-minded and never to exalt our selves before or against thee least by our pride we be excluded with the Angels out of Heaven or with Man out of Paradise But among all thy Attributes we most extol thy Mercy which was so transcendent to this poor penitent thief whom thou didst rescue from the jaws of hell through thy infinite Merits It had been enough O God if thou hadst but promised him to be with thee for where had been ill with thee or where had it been well without thee but thou hast crowned him with bliss and glory in the highest heavens By this we are taught Lord not to despair of thy Clemency for though Cherubins keep thy Paradise and thy gate of Mercy be guarded by Angels yet thou hast opened the door of it to as very sinners as our selves Though we have sinnes more numerous then the sands of the sea or the stars of the firmament yet is thy mercy more and above measure No stains or guilts can make us so vile but thy Sons blood can wash them off David Peter Magdalen Paul and this good thief were cured by the power of that mercie and virtue of that blood But because Lord we are too prone to presume of thy mercy which is so eminent over al thy works we therefore entreat thee to keep us from carnal security from a Lethargy in sin and the delayes of all religious duties When ever we fall into sin do thou Lord by thy Grace raise us up to a newness of life to a true and timely repentance lest we sleep and lie in our iniquities until we feel the horror of eternal death Raise us with David from the sin of wilfulness with Peter from those of infirmity with Paul from those of ignorance Thou calledst this penitent but once and he obeyed thy voice repented and was saved but Lord how often are we called how often wouldst thou have gathered us as a hen doth her chickings under thy wings but we would not O grant then that me may be either allured by thy mercies or terrified by thy judgments or converted by thy Word or won by thy Spirit that we may hate sin and forsake it love thee and never leave thee until thou hast brought us to that heavenly Paradise where thy Saints and Angels sing daily Halalujahs to thy blessed Name Grant this Father of Mercies and God of Grace even for his sake who suffered with sinners and dyed for our sins Jesus Christ The Third Word JOHN 19.26 27 He saith unto his mother Woman behold thy Son and to the Disciple Behold thy Mother A Question is here to be discust Why S. John did affirm the three women to have stood near the Cross of the Lord when S. Mark 15.40 and S. Luke 23.49 write they stood afar off But this is soon salved S. Aug. lib. 3 de Consen Evang. they may be said to have stood afar off in relation of the guard and souldiers who did even touch the Cross near because they could easily hear Christ Or they may be said to have stood afar off at the instant of Crucifixion the multitude hindring them but when his suffering began to be completed many giving way they might make a nearer approach The sum of the words is this Being I am now to pass from this loathsome world to my glorious Father and knowing thee to be destitute of all humane assistances I commend thee to my most loving Disciple John he shall be to thee a Son and thou shalt be to him a Mother The command was most pleasing to them both and S. John speaks of himself in the following words and from that hour the Disciple took her home But S. John was one of them who by his Masters mandate had relinquished father and mother all relations and possessions to follow Christ how comes he now having forsaken his own to take the charge of another mother Mat. 4.22 The resolve is easie The Apostles that they might follow Christ dismist father and mother as they were a hindrance to the preaching of the Gospel either in regard of carnal affection or worldly commodity but in what concerned their care and solemn duty they left them not and upon that account the Virgin Mary was committed to him having no other visible worldly support God without mans assistance could by the administration of Angels have procured her a livelyhood and protection but it was our Saviours pleasure to have it done by John as well in regard of an honour to him as a love to her God sent Elias to be fed by a widow not that he could no longer feed him by Crows as formerly but by this action he seemed to vouchsafe a blessing to the widow so it pleased the Lord to recommend his mother to this Disciple S. Aug Serm.
and enforce the wicked to such an obedience that the just may lead a quiet and peaceable life But if Humane Justice should sometimes sleep yet the Providential eyes of God are still open who never suffers the evil to go unpunished nor the good unrewarded and through an admirable way when the wicked think they vex and torment the good he makes these the more famous the more illustrious Saevisti persecutor in Martyrem Leo. Ser. de S. Laur. saevisti auxisti palmam dum aggeras Poenam The Rage of a Tyrant adds to the Glory of a Martyr nothing made Joseph so renowned as the persecutions of his brethren Gen. 40 Some to avoid the shadow of a little disreputation among men and to preserve the smoke of honour will rather persecute then forgive their enemies thereby displaying themselves to be void of true wisdom when as they to shun a lesse evil fall into a far greater It is an undenyable axiome pronounced by the Apostle Rom. 3. â— Evil things may not be done that good may come He that receives an injury falls into the evil of punishment he that revengeth falls into the evil of the fault betwixt which two there is no Symmetrical proportion for the punishment makes a man but miserable the guilt and fault makes a man as well evil as miserable the first deprives a man of Temporal felicity the other robs him as well of Eternal as Temporal Besides it is generally held an argument of a noble mind to pardon and a sign of a mean Pusillanimous spirit to revenge Julius Caesar that victorious Emperor of Rome excelled more in Pardoning then Conquering his enemies of whom Cicero gives this high Eulogie That he forgot nothing but injuries O let not a Heathen under the Law of Nature surpass us in clemency and charity under the Law of Grace But that which makes men most averse from doing good and praying for their enemies is their difference about holy things Religion which should be the grand motive to Peace and Unity is now become the main occasion of such rents and divisions among us as our Ancients never heard of and Posterity will scarce believe The Jews were so infatuated in their counsels that they knew not what they did and many of the Christians are in such a confusion they know not what to hold some for Paul some for Apollo some for they know not whom And that which is most to be lamented is that for some diversities in opinion they should pronounce such an heavy sentence upon one another as is that of Damnation If God should censure us as we censure one another I know not who should be saved But my hope and praier is That the Lord will be more merciful to all dissenters then they are to one another The seven Churches of Asia were all the Churches of Christ he walkt in the midst of them Rev. 1.13 Chap. 2.1 even in that Luke-warm Laodicean he held the seven Stars in his right hand and though some were more perfect then others yet hath he a particular charge against the best of them Chap. 2.4 14. Let the Romanists tell us never so much of their unerring Chair and Infallibility and let the Cartharists tell us never so much of their Purities yet there is no Congregation so spotless but Christ may find a blemish in her no Church so blameless but that he hath few things to urge against her Let us not then judge of others but learn to reform our own errors nor study how to dispute but to live well to that purpose the Apostle's counsel is very pertinent Put on as the elect of God Col. 3.12 13. 14. 15. holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you even so also do ye And above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in your hearts Ejaculations 1. THou God of Love and Peace we are in such blindness and distractions that we know not what we think speak or do we are at such deadly few'd among our selves that like Herod and Pilate we joyn together and muster up our forces against thee and all friends to Peace Profaneness Hypocrisie and Ingratitude towards thee Malice Hatred and Revenge towards one another are the reigning vices of our Times Pardon thou those against thee and give us grace to forgive these against our selves 2. We are taught Lord there is one fin irremissible Mat. 12.31 1 Joh. 5.16 and incapable of mercy and therefore not to be prayed for but being we know not who that sinner is and hope to find him no where therefore we make prayers and supplications for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 even for our enemies We have Thee for a President and thy Word for a Precept 3. Thou prayest their pardon that are shedding thy blood shall not we forgive those that do us injuries Thou art merciful to thy Enemies shall we be cruel to our Brethren How grievously do we provoke thee every day to thy face one of our offences against thy infinite Majesty is more then we are capable to receive from all our enemies on earth yet how silently dost thou pass by all our hainous affronts and bidst thy Sun to shine and thy rain to fall as well upon our grounds as thy holiest owners Thou dost graciously invite us to thee with new mercies and do we call our selves the sons of that Father whom we will not imitate Do we daily pray to thee To forgive us as we forgive others whiles we resolve to forgive none whom we can plague with revenge 4. Shall we hear a Cato say That he could and did pardon all offenders but himself and shall we pardon none but our selves Shall a Pagan without God have such rule over his Passion and shall a Christian who professeth a more divine Phylosophy give the reins to the wild and unruly erruptions of his rage 5. And what Lord though we differ in Judgments yet let us not vary in Affections What though our Brains be diverse yet let our Hearts be one 6. We all believe in thee O God and in the same Christ and are all Baptized into him and look to be saved by his sufferings We agree in that one and only Foundation we all embrace the two Testaments and as I hope the three Creeds and many other very material points why should we vary about the superstructures and circumstantials of Religion 7. We believe thy mercy to be of that extent Act. 2.21 Rom. 10.13 that whosoever shall call upon thy Name shall be saved why should we then be so uncharitable as to exclude so many millions of weak but true believers out of the Church below or out of heaven above for no other reason but because they are not of our judgments
we mean that the Sacrifices of the chiefest Priest is now finished on the Cross it followes that all his disciples in imitation of their Master according to their several talents should offer likewise Sacrifices to their God in this sence all Christians are Priests to offer Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.9 not such as were in the old Testament i Pet. 2.9 but Spirituall Priests to offer mystical sacrifices which may be presented from all men as praises and prayers and other services of piety the same is most occurately taught us in the Epistle to the Romans Heb. i3 i5 16. in resemblance of the sacrifices of the ancient Law Rom. 12.1 for there was in them 1. The hallowed to God which to convert to profane use was held a nafarious Crime 2. It was to be a thing living as a sheep or goate or the like 3. It was to be holy that is clean for there were among the Hebrews animals clean and unclean 4. And then the thing hallowed to God was to be burn't that it might send forth an odour of sweetness The like properties must be found in our spiritual Sacrifices 1. Our bodies ought to be hallowed to God that we may use them to his honour not as our own but his to whom they are consecrated by Baptisme and who hath purchased them by his blood 2. They ought to be living sacrifices enlivened with the life of Grace and of the holy Spirit for whosoever are dead by sin are not fit Victimes for God but for the devils our God who is alwayes living and the everlasting fountain of life abhors the stinking oblations of dead carkasses who are profitable for nothing unless for dogs and fowles of the Aire We must then enbalm and preserve the life of the soul with our best and most religious actions that we may give a reasonable sacrifice to our God 3. We must be holy and clean for none shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Psal 24.3 4 or stand in his holy place but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully 4. And then we must be well pleasing and send up a sweet savour to our God to that purpose in the old Law they used to kill and burn the sacrifie and this is rightly performed in the spiritual Sacrifice when carnal concupiscence is truly mortified and burn't with the coales of charity nothing can sooner or more effectually destroy it then a sincere love to God for he is Lord and King of all the affections of the heart and rules them all whether Fear Hope Desire Hatred Anger or any other perturbation of the soul and love doth not yeild but to a greater so that when divine love doth possess and bear dominion over the inmost corners of the heart then carnal concupiscence gives place and being mortified it vanisheth to nothing Thence flaming desires and most pure prayers ascend to heaven like aromatical perfumes of precious spices this then is that perfect and acceptable sacrifice which God requires and the Apostle here exhorts with a most persuasive argument I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies c. By his mercy that is as if he had said by him that created you something when you were nothing By him that made you his servants and needed not your service and when your merits were unavaileable blest you with his own by him that made you to his own similitude and by this capable of his love and knowledg by him that made you his adoptive sons and co-heirs with his unigenit by him that made you members of his body whereof he was the head by him that offered himself a full and propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross to redeem you from servitude and wash you from all spots and wrinkles by him I beseech you to give to God in stead of dead beasts lively sacrifice in stead of their blood which was but a shadow and pleased not God of it self the acceptable sacrifice of the spiritual man framed by faith to godliness and charity 4. And then we are here further taught that we shall be crowned with Lawrels and Diademes of eternal happiness if we fight courageously under the banner of Christ against our spiritual enemies and never desist until we have obtained the Victory Christ gave not over until all was finished If God had given over at his second dayes work we had had no sin no seasons if at the fifth we had no being if at the sixth no sabbath but by proceeding to the seventh we are all we have all So Christ if he had stayd at his Circumcision or his Agony or his scourgings our redemption had been imperfect but by continuing to his crowning and his nayling and the piercing of his side on the Cross all was completed that was necessary for mans salvation 2 King 5.24 Naaman could not be cured of his leprosie but by washing in Jordan seven times less could not do it it is not enough for a man to begin or do some few acts of piety or religion unless he make a constant progress therein Are the Angels weary of looking on that face of God which they looked upon yesterday or are the Saints weary of singing of that Allelujah which they sung to Gods glory yesterday Is not that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice and which shall be their song world without end called still A new song Oh! then never be weary never give over performing thy duties to that God that never ceaseth to bless thee for he and he only that continues unto the end shall receive a Crown of life In vain did the perfidious Jews cry if he be King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe in him Nay rather because he was so he would not desert his place for by his perseverance his interest to the Kingdome was confirmed and the work of redemption was consummated in such a glorious manner that nothing could be deficient to the greatness of its merit or to enduce us to follow so noble a president to proceed in those actions that are pleasant and suitable to our temper is facil and not praise worthy but to persevere in laborious Agonies and sorrows and in such things as are against the dictates of our own natural and carnal affections is indeed difficult but very laudable Christ was so enamoured with his divine Father and long'd so earnestly for the redemption of man that all intervening Crosses seemed Cordials to him and all pains pleasures After his Example we find that Paul enumerating his own sufferings with those of his Co-Apostles breaks thus forth who is able to separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8. shall tribulation or distress shall anguish persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we
by the violence of any executioner nor by the seperation of his best soul if I may so call it the Godhead nor by such a separation of his natural and humane soul as that he would not or could not nor did not resume it again From what hath been premised thou maist learn O man First How that Christ shewed his Power his Wisdom and his Charity even then when he seemed to be infirm and void of all consolation They who naturally dye do by degrees loose their voice and strength but he in the last passage of his dissolution used a louder acclamation then formerly And not only that but as arguments of his further power he caused the basis of the universe to tremble the stones to be cleft the Sepulchres to be opened and the vail of the Temple to be disjoynted All which want not their several mysteries as the earthquake and the Scision of the Rocks signifieth that by the passion and death of Christ men should be moved to repentance and the obdurate hearts of the obstinate should be cut in pieces as it appeared by those who went from this sad spectacle Luk. 23. striking their breasts the apertion of the sepulchres denote the glorious resurrection of the dead bodies which were to be raised by vertue of his The renting of the vail of the Temple whereby the Sanctum Sanctorum did appear did imply that for the merits of Christs death the Caelestial sanctuary should be opened and that the holy should be admitted to enjoy the beatifical vision Neither did he shew his wisdome only in these shadowy Mysteries but also in that he produced life out of death which was typified by Moses when he made the water flow from the flinty rock And Christ for the same cause compared himself to a grain of wheat Numb 20.8 9. that dying fructifieth abundantly Jo. 12.24 for as from the corruption of that grain sprouts a living stalk and eare so from his death on the Cross issued a life of grace to many nations as the first man being gull'd with the sweet apple infected his whole posterity with death so the second man swallowing the most bitter apple of death brought all who were in him re-born to eternal life And what shall we say of his charity which was divers wayes wonderfully demonstrated at the instant of his death His life which was the most precious of all lives the life of a King the most powerful of all the life of the wisest and best of all the life of God-man he voluntarily laid down for his enemies for the wicked for the unthankful From the flames of hell he frees them that he might make them his brethren and Co-heirs and empale them within the blessed territories of heaven Is there any then so transported with cruelty to himself and so insensible of his own good as not to enbosome Christ with a thankful love Is there any so negligent of his own eternity as not to embrace him with a sweet recordation of his mercies Lord melt our stony hearts that they may take the impressions of such divine and unspeakable favours 2. Here offers it self also to our consideration the great obedience of our Saviour to his heavenly father in this recommendation of his spirit to his paternal protection whereby is verified what the Apostle sayes Phil. 2.8 That he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross It was so admirable that it had its imitation from his very conception and without intermission like an indivisible line lasted to his very death Neither was it determinated to one kind of work but extended to all those things which it pleased his Father to command to this do those expression of his tend Jo. 4.34 Jo. 6. It is my meate to do his will that sent me and to finish his work I came down from heaven not to do my own will but his that sent me And because Quia per victimas aliena Caro per obedientiam propria voluntas muctatur Gregor mor. l. 35. c. 11. Obedience is the best of sacrifices therefore as many works as he did during his peregrination on earth so many most pleasing sacrifices he offered to God Almighty Hence such varieties of them that sometimes we find him fasting in the desart and lodging with wild beasts sometimes in the frequency of men eating and drinking sometimes at home obscure and silent and that not for few years sometimes glorious as well in wisdome as eloquence and unclapsing his power of doing miracles sometimes with great indignation throwing the buyers and sellers out of the Temple sometimes as it were weak declining from the company of the multitude all which did require the noble qualities of an excellent soul which shewed him no way subject to the swayes of any passionate will of his own And as he practised so he taught the rule of perfect Obedience He that will follow me Mat. 16.24 let him deny himself Man must renounce his own before he can submit to the will of Christ The Celestial orbs do not resist the Angels that move them whether they be driven to the East or to the West because they have no proper propensitie either to one part of the heavens or to the other and the Angels themselves are at Gods beck to observe all his mandates because there is no repugnancy between their wils and his but seem to be so happily consolidated to him as if they and he were but one spirit And certainly if we will become Christs true disciples we must disband our own desires and natural affections and wholly resign our selves to his dispose and so become one with him 3. And lastly We may make this benefit of this last prayer of the Lord to use it as a holy Ejaculation upon all emergencies more especially at the hour of death for if the soul then leaving the body fals into the clutches of the Devil Ab inferis nulla redemptio there is no possibility of its redemption for as the felicity of the Saints so the torments of the damned are eternal but if it happily comes into the paternal hands of God the potency of enemies is not to be feared but it will be re-united to the body and both of them shall in the end enjoy a blessed and a glorious resurrection And herein lyes an ocean of comfort to all believers for as Christ the head did rise so shall every member of his mystical body be raised from corruption to incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. from dishonour to glory It is storied of an Indian King that when he had been Catechised so far in the articles of our Christian Religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any father asked only is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure that will not die whereas if he had but