ease Simon of his burden Whiles he goes on a multitude of women forgetting to be Iewes bestow teares vpon him whom he exhorts to thrift of sorrow bidding them stay their lamentation till a time of lamentation for themselues and for their children whose bloud shall bee made as cheape as their mothers teares when in the vengeance and sport of slaughter the curse of barrenesse and a dry pap shall bee a blessing At last they bring this Catholique sacrifice to mount Caluary to the altar of the world where euery part of him is stretcht-out as the free embleme of his extended mercy They fasten him to his crosse with violence but hee was fastned surer by his owne loue They pierce his hands and his feete with nayles but his heart with their ingratitude thus is hee vsed in the house of his friends They exalt him on his crosse arming himselfe against himselfe and making his owne weight his owne affliction And now I must cry-out with Pilate Behold the man aduanced in the triumph of redemption vpon the Cherub of the crosse Or if your tender eyes haue not the hearts to see this spectacle yet reade the title of his crosse and sure the first word Iesus may comfort you Yet if the remembrance of his name should proue the remembrance of his sorrow where will you then alas bestow your eyes If you looke away you shall see those that passe by the way nod their heads at him if you looke on the ground you shall see the diuided souldiers at lots for his intire Coate which they more respect then they doe Christ if you looke among the company you shall see the vnhallowed Priests prophaning him if you looke on either side his crosse you shall see a thiefe made his companion Whereof one as if he were his executioner crucifies him with blasphemie though the other crucifies his owne vnbeliefe and by a new theft steales Heauen at his execution If yet you cannot behold our Sauiour behold his Disciple and his mother whom from his crosse he himselfe beholds Saint Iohn's loue had now made a recompence for his flight by conquering his feare to this returne and sorrow Our Sauiour beholds his beloued Iohn and hauing nothing left that is his owne but his mother hee bequeathes her vnto him But it may be you are as little able also to looke on these who also are crucified with the passion of loue If then you cannot at all indure these sights be indulgent to lamentation Let teares seaze on your eyes as an vniuersall darknesse does on Iudea The guilt of the Iewes puts out the Sunne and yet this huge night which can hide all Iudea cannot hide the guilt of the Iewes O how they shall hereafter wish that this darknesse had beene more speedy that it might haue preuented or excused their violence Then happily they would haue pleaded O had we seene what we did wee would not haue crucified the Lord of glory In this forc'd night and agony this man of sorrowes cries out with a voice as strong as earnest his fainting humanitie begging aide and release Thus long they haue afflicted his outward-parts and now their wit finds a deuice to torment his inward also In a drouth of combat and torment hee cries-out I thirst and when from this his Vineyard he might looke for wine behold they vilely spunge him with vngratefull vineger Being persecuted thus with a swift succession of plagues in a free obedience he bowes his head and in the Empire of his Diuinitie and loue is pleased to die giuing to the justice of his Father for a redeeming sacrifice his troubled spirit Corrupt Philosophers who now for a long time haue animated the world with a magique soule may in this truth bury their errour and now acknowledge that only this is the soule of the world Thus they haue crucified him and now they shall know whom they haue crucified The Iewes and the Deuils shall know that it was the Lord of glory and the whole world shall know that it was the Lord of glory Behold an angry miracle teares the vaile of the Temple and by a greater mystery reueales their mysteries Behold an earth-quake shakes open the graues and after the resurrection of this first-borne of the dead the glad carcasses by the returne of their disacquainted soules can no more then their soules endure the Graue Behold the stones cleaue asunder as if violated nature would lend them mouthes to cry-out against the Iewes or as if they would pronounce themselues of a softer tempter then the hearts of men And now there is a religious earth-quake in the heart of the Centurion from whose inspired mouth proceeds a voice articulated by faith and wonder pronouncing the innocence and diuinitie of our Iesus and euen the Iewes doe smite their breasts as if their hands insteed of repentance should soften their hearts But his friends neerest to him in affection stand afarre off to whom it is a death not to dye with him And indeed none of them did die by martyrdome the Lord counting the torment of this spectacle equall vnto it His friends stand afarre off yet farther from comfort then from him O how may wee imagine his tender mother weepes How may we imagine she now cryes-out O my sonne Iesu O Iesu my sonne my sonne This is a more wounding lamentation then the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon when the good Iosias when the beloued Iosias fell vnder the sword of Pharaoh Now the souldiers come to examine the execution to see if these the late prisoners of the Iewes be now become the prisoners of death and finding the two theeues breathing still in the custome of vaine crueltie on malefactors they breake their legges when alas their soules were readier to runne away then their is bodies But to our Sauiour being already dead they are pleased to shew a negatiue mercy Yet one to prooue himselfe more senslesse then what he wounds now pierces his side as if beyond the expulsion of his soule he would not leaue in him the forme of a carcasse When behold an instructing mysterie flowes from his side Water flowes out as if it would present vnto the souldier the innocency of our Sauiour bloud flowes out as if it would present vnto the soul ther the admonishing horrour of his owne guilt It was vile to wrong the innocent it was inhumane to abuse the dead but it was execrable to violate the Lord of glory But the glory of this Lord shall now dispell this night of sorrow Now weepe not that hee died but rejoyce that hee died for you It was his loue that hee would redeeme as it was his power that he could redeeme So he did redeeme as be did suffer hee suffered not in his diuine nature but by the â—nion of his diuine nature hee redâ—emed not in his diuine nature but by the union of his diuine nature For from a double nature his mysticall vnitie did arise and as
is especially an act of the mercie of the liuing God to giue life to the dead yet by a greater mercie hee makes it an act of his iustice freely binding himselfe to admit our boldnesse not so much to to request as to claime a resurrection For shall the bodies of the Saints bee more remembred by their tombs then by their labours or shall they bee worse oppressed with death then they were with their torments or shall their soules with an enuious inequalitie vsurpe and enioy the purchase of their bodies shall those eyes whose deuotion did still watch or mourne for euer want respect as much as sight shall those hands that haue been free in extending themselues and mercie to the poore be for euer bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees that haue bowed with such willing reuerence bee so held downe by the violence of mortalitie that they shall neuer rise vp againe Where are then thy teares O Dauid if thy eyes shall not enioy the happinesse of their owne sorrow Where are then O Iob thy faith and patience if thy body bee now as much without hope as it was before without rest Where are then O Esay thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant furie of the Saw and the schisme of thy bodie thy bodie suffer a wilder dissociation from thy soule for tedious eternitie Where are thy trauels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geographie and conquest of Paganisme thou liest for euer confined to the dull peace of a graue No the almightie which made man with such wisdome of art wil neither lose his glory nor his worke But as he made his greater heauen for his angels so made he the lesser and mortall heauen of mans bodie for his soule and will make it as eternall as his soule There is more excellencie of workmanship in the soule but more varietie in the bodie The soule does more truly expresse God but the bodie more easily The soule judges best but the bodie first and though the eye of the soule does behold the works of God more cleerely yet does the eye of the bodie behold them more properly Nay should the bodie not bee raised to life and heauen how great a part of heauen and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as vnnecessary as it is wonderfull God hath prouided joyes which the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard but which the eye shall see and the eare shall heare and without the pleasure of a traunce for euer possesse as much without errour as without measure Such honour will the Creatour of our bodies doe to the bodies of his Saints they shall acknowledge corruption but ouercome it they may in their journy be the ghests of the graue but at last they shall bee the inhabitants of Heauen Yet the Lord cannot hereafter so much honour humane flesh by raysing it as hee has already by assuming it It was before his seruant but now his companion That was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raysed vnto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raysed to the soule At the day of judgement though there shall be no marriages of sexes yet there shall be of parts when soules shall be vnited to bodies in so intire and inexorable a matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor feare of a diuorce Neither need wee feare in the jealousie of this match the ignoble parentage of the flesh since what it wants in birth is supplied in dowry and flesh is now become such refined earth being made wonderfull in shape and office that the soule may be thought to be scarce more noble but that it seemes more reserued by being inuisible And yet you may obserue the bodies emulation which fals before its resurrection into such atomes of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seene as to bee numbred But notwithstanding that these principles of earth be thus diuided among themselues yet are they not diuided against themselues retayning still though not an appetite yet an obedience to resurrection Nature has not lost this and God will supply that and as easily vnite as distinguish each dust To yeild to this truth is the Creed of the Creed If therefore any man's faith in the assent to this mysterie should bee as weake as his reason hee may helpe both his reason and his faith by his sense by which they shall either be conuinced or perswaded If you will bee but as bold as antiquitie you may propose vnto your selues the solemne Poetry of the Phoenix a creature rarer then the resurrection though not as admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fanned to the resurrection of a flame as if this creature by the mystery of death would by a fire both perish and reuiue But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot-forth new quils wherewith may bee written and testified his endeauour of immortality Thus does God teach nature how to teach vs mysteries and without the Magicall studie of the language of birds to vnderstand without their voice their secret instruction But peraduenture you wil think that to discerne this truth in the nature of the Eagle will require a sight as sharpe as the Eagle's remooue then your eye from the foules of the aire but to the trees wherein they nest and with a negligent view you may obserue how after the nakednesse and death of winter they bud afresh into life and beautie Yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation studie so broad an object Let our eye with more gratefull industrie confine its prospect to the small seed of corne and at least take the paines to see the paines of the husbandman And shall wee not admire at the delightfull arithmetique of nature to behold a seed whose hope seemes as small as it selfe by being cast away to bee found by destruction to receiue increase and from the same furrow to haue both a buriall and a birth Thus then we see that the body is able to shew that it selfe may rise but now the soule will proue that it must and with such friendly eloquence helpe its first companion that by the vnion of loue it will preuent the resurrection For should the soule for euer want the body should it not want both perfection wonder Is not the soule most perfect when it is most noble and is it not most noble when it is most bountifull and is it not most bountifull when it giues life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixes with corruption and yet is incorrupt when it is most burthened and yet most variously actiue Thus by this necessary inclination of the soule the resurrection is as naturall in respect of the vnion as it is aboue nature in respect of the manner But now see
his soule was a diuinitie to his body so was his diuinitie a soule to his humanity To create man God â—reathed a spirit like himselfe into him him to redeeme man God himselfe entred into him and though the diuinitie could not hee crucified yet was the vnion of it with the passion of the humanitie counted as the passion of the diuinitie Thus by the bountie of interpretation and communication of proprieties they verily crucified the Lord of glory Whose carcasse now as cold as death raises a flame of loue in the breasts of Ioseph and Nicodemus Ioseph in a couragious Christianitie goes vnto Pilate and begges the body When Christ was aliue Iudas sould him and now he is dead Pilate giues him away whose body though it were preserued by the diuinitie yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrhe and Deuotion They wrap him in a linnen cloth not so much concealing his nakednesse as expressing his innocence They lay him in Iosephs Tombe which was in a garden and was not then this garden Paradise It was a glorious sepulchre as if by the prophesie of loue it had been proportioned to the guest Whose bodie being heere entertayned with magnificent pietie his illustrious soule forces a triumph in Hell crucifies the Deuill and ouerthrowes the tyranny of damnation He does not take away damnation but contract it And now you see after this redemption of our Sauiour you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side receiue saluation You may behold the opening mouth of this wound which with eloquent bloud inuites you to faith and loue You may behold the Lord of glory comming from Edom with his died garments from Bosrah This is the Lord of glory glorious in his apparell glorious in his nakednesse glorious in his mightinesse to saue Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat Thou hast trodden the Wine-presse alone and of the people there was none with thee O what did cause these soundings of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards vs Who can expresse thy sorrowes and thy louing-kindnesse towards vs Who can expresse what thou hast done for our soules Thou wast afflicted thou wast despised thou wast whipt wounded bruised condemned sacrificed for our soules thou wast made a seruant of death thou wast numbred with the transgressours thou madest thy graue with the wicked for our soules Wherefore God has highly exalted thee and giuen thee a name aboue all names that at the Name of Iesus euery knee shall bow of things in Heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And euery tongue shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord of glory And the foure and twentie Elders shall fall downe before the Lambe with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours and in their new Song shall they prayse thee And the Angels about thy throne euen ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lambe that was slaine to receiue power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory Therefore with Angels and Arch-angels and with all the company of Heauen wee laude and magnifie thy glorious Name euermore praysing thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord of glory Heauen and earth are full of thy glory and of thy mercies The Angels in Heauen wonder at thy mercies the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies thou thy selfe triumphest in thy mercies and the sonnes of men rejoyce in thy mercies Wherefore O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world deliuer vs by thine agonie and bloudie swear by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall deliuer vs And wee will fall downe before thy glorie and we will sing praises vnto thy mercie and we will triumph in the victorie of thy bloud and we will for euer euen for euer acknowledge that Thou the crucified Lord of glorie art the Christ of God and the Iesus of men The end A Sermon preached at Saint Marie's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday 1623. 1. CORINTH 15.20 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept IT were vnnecessarie art feare to stirâ—e to keepe the liuing awake with a preface when as the dead are at the businesse of a resurrection WoÌ„ders blessings are aboue their auditors who must be glad to be staâ—â—led to the newes Now was our Sauior task'd with his most vnweildie miracle His mercie had before bestowed many vpon others but now his power tries one vpon himselfe His diuinitie acts a miracle vpon his humanitie repairing this second Trinitie of his person from the immortall ruines of a God a soule and a carcasse Three dayes did hee consecrate for the performance of this wonder and three dayes doe wee consecrate for the perswading to this wonder which should haue beene the joy and was the shame of the Apostles who were slow to apprehend it though Christ was their Schoole-master They had not as yet learned their owne Creed which their peruerse sense was pleased to bee taught not so much by our Sauiour as by his sepulchre whose opening mouth when it sent forth Christ the Word pronounced his Resurrection which is the Epitaph of God Thus did the ambition of the graâ—e instruct the preuented Angell and though it cannot as the multitude of Tombes with the voice and conquest of proud Death tell vs whom it does captiue yet does it remember to vs whom it did Which assumed triumph of death is as short as its combat Ioseph's deuotion bestowed this Tombe vpon our Sauiour but our Sauiours victorie bestowed it vpon death which since his Resurrection has lien buried in his tombe But can a dead man bee warmed againe into life And can the lungs that haue forgot to breathe learne to breathe againe Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed and being honoured with an imitating omnipotencie can with a coequall extension of assent apply it selfe to the number and degrees of Gods actions But as hard it was to raise the faith as the body of Saint Thomas nay it was his body that caused him to beleeue the Resurrection of Christ's bodie which was a way of faith more certaine then gratefull Yet must the vnderstanding bee so raised before it can beleeue that the bodie can bee raised that the diuine indulgence does gradually chastize the difficultie by the length of instruction For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation when straight hee was practised vnto an essay of this second Creation When Adam descended into sleepe there was a Resurrection of his rib which awaked into a woman Did not mortalitie then put on immortalitie when a senselesse bone was so endued with reason that it could apprehend its owne preferment Mee thinkes the Chymique might hence extract an easie Rhetorique for his promotion of metalls and without an Apologie teach that vsurie of art And heere too