to its owne condition and so it comes from better to worse and from thence to nothing at all to dust and ashes But there by reason that the Lord shall shew his mercy and by reason of the infinite delight that man shall take in God againe there shall be a continuall application of God to man by a continuall influence as the Schools speak So as it is impossible to think of any entrance of corruption as that place where the Sun shines continually can never be darke and that plot of ground which hath a sweet well ever pouring into it can never be dry nor thirsty So it must needs be where God is alwaies slowing in his light and love and grace it is impossible there should be any pressing in or any suspition of corruption to come againe Therefore concerning these things the Scripture tells us Psal 36. Psal 36 9. With thee saith the Prophet is the well of life As if he should have said thy waters run alway sweet Psal 87.7 and abundantly all fresh springs are in thee Psal 23.1 therefore we shall not lack nor die for thirst because we shall have the well of life Psal 36.8 And Psal 36. Thou feedest them with the fulnesse of thy house and thou givest them pleasures as out of a river And for this purpose also even for that we should be assured of this the Scripture tels us that we shall have in stead of sorrow fulnesse of joy in stead of darknesse in this life we shall have eternall light in stead of sicknesse we shall have his saving health in stead of death we shall have life everlasting And so wee see what this incorruptibility is it consists in impassibility that the body shall not be able to suffer from any thing because God shall be alway flowing into it his goodnesse and love in Christ Iesus It shall not be able to suffer from a tempting devill it shall not suffer from it selfe nor from any other created nature it shall not suffer from sicknesse nor from time the teeth of time which devoureth all things shall not be able to set its fangs upon the bodies of the children of God They shall not suffer from hell nor from death there shall be no matter of feare in any thing they shall not suffer from the flames of fire it shall not be able to consume those glorious bodies nor the sharpest sword shall not pierce the least haire of them but as we see God preserved the three children in the fiery furnace Dan. 3.27 when it was extraordinary hot that there was not so much as the smell of the singeing of the fire upon their garments The blessed God that is able to doe this in these corrupt bodies much more will hee doe it in that incorruptible condition when hee shall advance them to that glory which himselfe will give them who is the prime author and patterne of impassibility And if the Lions were not able with their teeth when they were so famished Dan. 6. to seize upon the body of Daniel when hee was cast into the dungeon much lesse shall infirmities have power or any other violence be able to touch the bodies of those that shal be glorified in the day of Iesus Christ It shall rise in incorruption I see the time is past I will but touch the next point and leave the rest It is sowne in dishonour it is raised againe in honour The greatest griefe that a man conceives in his death is the dishonorable condition that doth accompany him that though he were never so beautifull and beloved before yet his best and dearest friends will be readie to quit him now yea they cannot indure his company so that he must be removed out of sight as being an odious spectacle to looke upon as an intolerable neighbour that is not to be come neere as one that will infect all the society where he is as a pestilent creature that must be shunned and avoided that must be shut up close within the ground where hee may doe no harme nor be noysome and offensive to those that are above ground This is the strange dishonour to our nature that the great Lords and Ladies which have slept before upon their beds of Ivorie Amos 6.4 which had their goodly Curtaines and Canopies and singular arts to give them pleasure and contentment now being dead they must be outted from their palaces and their goodly-roomes and be thrust in the bowels of the earth they must be accounted such kinde of creatures as with whom there is no cohabitation Even Abraham himselfe although he loved Sarah dearly as his owne heart yet he could not endure her when she was dead but after a certaine season when he had mourned for her he was faine to be a sutor to the sonnes of Heth to sell him as much ground as to bury his dead in Gen. 23.4 to remove her out of his sight The best and the mightiest Monarchs in the world cannot secure themselves from this dishonour If they die on the sea they must be cast over-board or if they die on land they must suffer themselves to enter into this common misfortune and although art and imbalming and curiosity may doe much yet divers parts of them must of necessity be taken committed to the ground lest all about them be pestred by them This is the wofull stroak of nature the dishonour and deformity the beastly-figure of death which makes a man terrible to all the beholders so that that goodly countenance should be turned to a gastly skeleton that those faire cheeks should come to be pale ashes or as a black charcoale that those sparkling blazing eyes should become nothing but as a dim and dark peble and that which is the most fragrant piece of all the mouth to become the most ugly and odious of all The Lord hath drawne the pattern of sin in the face of a dead man and hath made it more sinfull and more ugly in that one spectacle then in any thing in the world besides Thus he that would not rest in the beauty of his creation that would not maintain the glory of his countenance and the image of God that hee had imprinted upon him hee shall now undergoe the most foule image and figure that could be devised There being no beast no creature that is halfe so ugly nothing falling so from it self nothing so unlike it selfe there being nothing traversed with such contrary passions and with such figures and lines of misery as the face of a dead man It is so with all men and although it appeare lesse in some then in others yet leave them a certaine time and they all at the last become so gastly that a man that hath a constant minde and can indure many things yet he loathes to behold a dead man This is the dishonour of sinfull flesh such a basenesse and contempt that a mans best friends shall run
the corne grows thus because it hath a double end For as you know it is made after a kinde of a long fâ—shion with two ends out of which co es the moysture and juyce which is the life and soule of the seed For if those ends should be cut or bitten off the seed could never rise againe Therefore the Ants and pâ—smires those creatures that hoard up corne against the Winter when they carrie it into their holes where they lay it they are carefull to bite off both ends of the corne to snappe them off For they understand by nature that if they should let them alone the corne would sprout and so they could not live on it God hath given them this instinct to know that out of the two ends comes the soule and life and juyce as being in those ends brought to a point out of which the life worketh This now the husbandman easily understands But the mystery concerning the body he doth not understand so well but yet he must make the argument from his field to Gods field from his hand to Gods hand from the blessing upon the corne to the blessing upon the body and then he shall see that the argument will follow clearly Is it possible that the Lord should have such a care and providence of a poore dead corne that fals into the earth that hee should raise it againe with a new colour and in great abundance and multiply it that it grows from one state to another from a blade to an eare and from thence to full corne in the eare Is it possible the Lord shall thus proportion and suite his power to a graine of corne that fals into the ground and will he neglect the temples of the holy Ghost will he neglect the image of God the body upon which he hath drawne the lineaments of Christ and for which he hath made a promise that hee will conforme it unto his body If God be carefull for the fowls of heaven and for the lillies of the field Mat 6.30 much more will hee be carefull for us oh we of little faith Therefore the bodies of the Saint are so precious in Gods sight that all the corne in the world doth not amount to that summe as one of those bodies For God gave the body of his Sonne to redeeme the body of the meanest of his and shall we doubt but that he that is so rich in glory upon the weake dead body of the corne will be much more glorious and powerfull in raising up these roots of life againe which though they seeme to bee dead are breeding of immortality by the power of him that is able by his mighty power to subdue all things to himselfe Saint Chrysostome askes the question saith he why did not the Apostle rather runne to the same argument that hee alledgeth to the Philippians to the omnipotencie of God Phil. 3.21 rather then to take this argument For when he treats there with the Philosophers Phil. 3. concerning this argument he proves it from that maine point because God can do all things therefore he will do this From whence wee looke for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power c. But saith he the Apostle here to these thought this the best teaching Hence we may learne Vse that it is a singular kinde of teaching when a man can instruct his scholler by the trade that he is frequently exercised in which hee is most familiar with That teaching is most operative and working the most impressive teaching that can be So our Lord Iesus teacheth his disciples that were fishermen out of their owne trade Come Mat. 4.19 and I will make you fishers of men So when he speaks to the common people to the multitude hee teacheth the plough-man by a plough-man Matth. 13.3 A sower went forth to sowe seed and some fell on the high way and some fell on thorny ground and some on good ground So Saint Paul Act. 17. he teacheth the Athenians which is a strange doctrine by their owne idols Act. 7.23 Ye men of Athens I see ye are too much given to superstition and idolatrie for as I came by one of your altars I see it written there To the unknowne God So our Saviour Christ teacheth men to make them friends of the unrighteous mammon Luk. 16.9 by the common lucre and gaine which was gotten among the Publicanes And in S. Iohn Baptist every man hath a lesson out of his owne trade he said to the souldiers do thus and to the Publicans Luk. 3. do thus still he teacheth them out of their owne particular calling and actions To teach us to labour and desire in this manner every one to bee taught out of those things that are common and obvious daily to us for therein is the greatest power of perswasion He that is conversant about the fire in fire-works and especially such as worke in glasse-houses where if he cannot see a cleare picture of hell he is a very sencelesse man and very bruitish in his understanding Psal 107.23 He that goes downe to the sea in ships and exerciseth his businesse in great waters if he cannot see a wondrous act of Gods providence in his preservation he understandeth nothing He that is a Student and doth not see in his books and the difficulties of learning and remembring if he do not see the infinite and admirable blessing of the Almighty in saving his wits and memory and in raising him from one degree of learning to another hee understands nothing In our ordinarie meats and drinks he that seeth not God seeth nothing hee hath his feeding and preservation from him and therein hee hath a signe of his everlasting refreshment and preservation Let us therefore scorne no Art nor thinke basely of any kinde of labour and good exercise because there is matter of good doctrine lyeth in the poorest profession that can be That which thou sowest I will prove out of thine owne actions out of thy owne trade this doctrine that I teach Thou that propoundest this question thou art not more simple then a plough-man and I will prove it unto thee from thence by the poorest labour in the earth for the man that tils the ground he is of lesse account then an Artizan yet even the very plough-man shall prove and make good that this doctrine that I teach is probable and possible And why because That which thou sowest is first dead and then it is quickened againe Concerning the dying of the corne the Philosophers make a distinction because they knew not this doctrine of the Resurrection They thought when the habite was gone when the privation had put out the habite that it could never come backe againe Therefore they thought that the corne had ever life in it But the Scripture tels us that it is dead that is it is dead to us
make them wither there shall be no griefe of heart no discontent of minde to make an alteration in the outward man there shall be nothing to make a change because God shall crowne them in heaven with incorruption And lastly the Lord shall give them another quality which shall be the rarest of all the rest And that is a strange agility and nimblenesse of body that they shall be able to move upward or downward as it shall please them While we are here in this life we have heavy bodies a man must walke upon his owne foundation hee must have the scaffold of the earth under him But if hee presume any further and offer to go any higher with Daedalus and with Icarus he shall be cast into the sea hee exposeth himselfe unto danger and his waxen wings will be fired by the beames of the Sunne But then at that day though our bodies in all things substantiall shall be like these and shall still bee true bodies yet the glory of them shall be so great and the strength and power that the spirit shall have over this flesh shall be so absolute as to command it which way it pleaseth When we move now either we go forward or backward or side-wayes or else downward but upward we cannot but then the Lord shall give us ability to move upward too And this is that the Apostle saith we shall be taken we shall bee snatched up to meete the Lord in the clouds 1. Thes 4.17 there shall bee such a mightie power and prevalencie in the spirit of man to rule and command the body The Lord hath given us instances of it in some things in the Gospell Mat. 14 26.29 Our Lord himselfe walked upon the water and not onely he himselfe but he gave Peter power to walke with him And this was a signe of that he meanes to do at the day of the Resurrection As their bodies then walked and were sustained by the power of God in the ayre and was able to make that which is fluent and soft and yeelding in it selfe to make it a sollid pavement like unto the stones to walke upon the same power shall also worke in our bodies that agilitie which is in the Eagle So the Prophet speaks yea our Lord compares us where he saith Where the body is Mat. 24.28 thither will the Eagles resort which is meant not onely of a spirituall flight by faith but also of the bodies assumption And this our Lord confirmed by the Ascention of his owne body Iob. 14.2 for he went before to prepare a place for us that beleeve in him Now we know that his body ascended to heaven it had the power to move upward as well as any other way We have examples of it also in Henoch and Elias which were both translated Elias carried in a fierie Car to heaven 2. King 2.11 And all this with eternitie and immortalitie that there shall not any thing of it passe away there shall be no expectation of death there shall be no feare of change This is the greatest thing of all when God shall give fulnesse of glory to have also full security For whatsoever glory men have in this world so long as they know that there is a worme â—hat can gnaw it or that it is possible for them to be outed this glory is nothing because it is glory that may be no glory Such is the state of these worldly things that there is nothing so great but it is subject to be brought from that greatnesse But the Lord shall give this glory for ever and ever as himselfe is he that is eternall in himselfe he is eternall to all those that he shall make his followers and companions in that blessed kingdome For they also shall receive that part of eternitie as farre as they are capable It is this safetie and securitie that makes this blessing amiable and for that the Lord hath given us an example for securitie in Scripture where for forty yeares together in the wildernesse the Lord so provided that there was no mans cloaths that were rent or worne not so much as the soale of his shoe impaired by that long and tedious travell We see also they had securitie of food continually it never ceased to follow them but in convenient time was still administred to them Therefore it follows that God that can do these things for garments for these ragges that we weare upon our bodies he meanes much more to do it to the bodies themselves As Christ saith Is not the body better then rayment Mat. 6.25 then garments Seeing therefore that he did it unto garments that are of farre lesse worth will hee not do it unto the bodies themselves He that kept their garments 40. yeares without wearing and yet what weares so soone as a garment he was able to have done it for eternity if it had pleased him But God gave them that for an instance to shew that these things belong in a higher nature and degree and measure to the setting forth of the lifâ—â—ternall and were to foreshew and to be an earnest of that infinite glory which God hath reposed for them that wait for the comming of his Sonne Which the Lord worke for us all c. 1 COR. 15.39 All flesh is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of man there is another flesh of beasts another of fishes and another of fowls THere is nothing more plain and easie then the sence of these words they are knowne to every man by experience And yet it is very hard to finde out the intent and reason why they were uttered Divers men have diversly commented upon them For some think as Tertullian Tertull. others that follow him that the Apostle speaks not as he seemeth to do of the flesh of beasts and of the flesh of men and of fishes and birds but by an allegorie comprehends some other thing concerning the diversitie and degrees of men And so he interprets The flesh of men that is of holy and just and good men There is one flesh of men that is of holy men for they are properly to be called men A man so farre forth as he is unholy so farre forth he comes short of a man and those are onely truly and really men that be good And then by the flesh of beasts he saith the Apostle meanes the flesh of beastly heathen men the flesh of Ethnicks of those that do not beleeve in God those that do not beleeve in Christ the Saviour of the world He saith such are beasts for they differ not world He saith such are beasts for they differ not from beasts neither in their sence nor in their conversation Then for the third there is another flesh of fishes he saith by fishes are meant those that are baptised and regenerate by water the fishes of our Lord Iesus Christ Mat. 4.19 whereof he said to his disciples I will make
our heads Psal 104.1 God hath drawn out the heavens as a curtaine that it might be full of glorious starres and every starre gives a certaine document and lesson of this that he treats of the certaintie of the Resurrection So that there is no part of nature voyde but all proclaime this doctrine of the Resurrection And he proves that look what difference there is betweene the bodies that bee in heaven and those bodies that be here in earth the same difference there shall be betweene the bodies that shall be then and the bodies that are now And although there bee in some bodies that are in this world as in the bodies of Princes and the bodies of beautifull men and women a rare luster and a goodly glory a marvellous feature and a stampe of Gods Image incomparable yet in comparison of that which shall be it is nothing That body that shall be in the world to come doth as farre surpasse this whatsoever it bee suppose it the fairest and most delicate bodie in the world as the lightsome starres do passe the poorest stones on the earth or any common forme and figure in the earth is not so much transcended by the glory of the starres as the bodies in the Resurrection do transcend and surmount the glory of any thing that is seene here below This is the summe of the words Now that we may proceed in order First we are to consider Division into 2. comparisons how he draws this Argument from heavenly bodies and compares them with earthly bodies wherein he gives the preferment to the heavenly bodies in these words where he saith There is not the same glory to the one as to the other There is one glory of the heavenly and another of the earthly That is there is a farre inferiour glory of the earthly in comparison of that which is heavenly Then secondly he makes a comparison of the heavenly bodies among themselves that as there is great difference betweene the starres of heaven and the stones upon the earth so there is great difference betweene the starres of heaven one with another not onely being referred to the earth which can make no comparison with them but in comparison one with another as they are in heaven some of them being of one magnitude and some of another some of them being of one lustre and some of another there is great difference there also Some of the Fathers have understood this of the different state of glory that shall be in heaven In the first similitude they say the glory that shall be revealed upon the sonnes of God shall be as infinitely beyond all the glory that is now as the glory of the starres in heaven excels the glory here on earth And for the other point of difference in the starres themselves thereby is signified that the just shall all shine in heaven as starres but in a different manner as the starres do now One starre differeth from another in glory And so he concludes all this parable and similitude So is the resurrection of the dead That is even as we see these earthly things to be farre exceeded by the heavenly in all kinde of beautie in all kinde of glory in all kinde of durabilitie and in all kinde of qualities which are commendable so the Resurrection shall be That is the bodies that shall rise then shall farre exceed these that are now as farre as heavenly things exceed earthly things And even as now there is a difference betweene starres that all are not alike in glory and all have not a like lustre nor like power and influence so then in the Resurrection there shall be difference and degrees every man shall have enough yet notwithstanding every man shall not have the same Of these things briefly and in order as it shall please the Lord to give assistance And first concerning the nature of the Apostles Argument 1. Part or comparison hee takes it now from heavenly bodies The higher a man goes in the body of Nature the more he learnes and the better he seeth the worke of him that is the Author of nature the Creator himselfe There is a great mysterie great power of instruction in the works of God Rom. 1. The wisedome and majestie of God is seene in his works But then is he best seene when a man doth ascend and rise up the skale and proceed from lower works to higher For even as he that climbeth to the highest top of an hill may see the furthest off so hee that ascends in the works of God in the disposing of the world the more he advanceth the more clearly hee seeth and the greater revelation is made unto him All the works of God they are great masters and teachers unto us if we will learne any thing There is nothing so dull there is nothing so poore but it is able to teach us But yet among the rest there is nothing comparable to the heavens being the fairest booke and the goodliest volume wherein the glory of God is expressed above all other things As the Psalmist saith Psal 19.3 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shew his handy worke There is no voyce nor language in the earth wherein the speech of heaven is not heard As there is no angle nor corner that is hidde from the light of the Sunne Vers 6. and from the heat and power of the Sunne but he searcheth it out so there is no man that is indewed with any sence but he is taught by that heat and light the greatnesse of the Almighty which these earthly things cannot attaine unto For they be restive and they be dull they be contained in their places they have not that diffused power and operation that the Sunne and the starres have to worke every where Therefore there is no worke of God more teaching and instructing then the booke of the heavens And therefore Saint Paul now makes his argument from the stronger that if our gardens could teach us and if our seeds could teach us if our fields could teach us and if our flesh can teach us even this flesh that we carry about us if these could teach us these things that are elementarie and sublunarie if these have a power of instruction no doubt then that golden booke that rare-volumne that is above that is written with so many starres as so many golden letters and so fairely written Hab. 2.2 that he that runnes may reade it no doubt I say but this is fuller of discipline and can much more easily draw the Schollar as containing in it more familiar precepts and more moving examples to winne us unto God His comparison here is taken in the name of bodies heavenly bodies and earthly bodies By heavenly bodies is meant the starres because they are created substances and not imaginarie things as the Philosophers would have them in their flattery and foolery they thought that the great men that
it to that high perfection that there is in it no contradiction In these things that are here below one Element fighteth against another untill they all come to destruction the best beauty in the world at the last the earth works all the other elements out and by a melancholy adust humour it brings the highest spirits the mightiest strength and noblest resolution it dissolves it and so brings it to its foot that earth it must be It turnes all to earth and ashes yea the very gold that seemes to out-vie time and to last alwayes yet it comes at last to be consumed by rust As one said of him that made his gold his god what a miserable God saith hee is that which cannot defend himselfe from rust and although it weare long and is the most compact thing in nature and though it can indure the fire and be never the worse yet it is subject to something which in time will consume and devoure it by reason of the mixture of it For it is made of the foure Elements and they have that discordance among themselves that at the last one workes out another But in the starres and the glory that is above there is no enemy no adversary but it is a pure glory of it selfe without any mixture so farre it doth transcend and exceed all the glory that is in the earth Againe it is more excellent in respect of duration For the glory that is in the earth is but a blast but the glory of heavenly things is the same alway In these earthly things there is a change God changeth them as a garment but the heavenly things they continue still and although they also shall be changed and the Lord shall fold them up Heb. 1.12 because hee onely remaines forever Yet for any thing that we see there is no change in them but they are still as they were before For in pretious stones and pearles which I thinke the Apostle hath some reference unto in this place he compares the starres to pretious stones which are the most goodly things in the earth and those things wherein God hath set an embleme of the starres and drawne the picture of heaven although there be much glory in them yet some of them are so darke of themselves that their glory comes unto them by accident as the Diamond which of it selfe is blacke and except by cutting the angles the lines reflect one upon another and be multiplied there is no glory in it So the light and glory of the Diamond is not of it selfe but from the light that is above and is onely by accident because of the cutting and proportion of one part with another And so in the rest of these pretious Iewels and orient pearles in the world their light is from that light which is above and onely in reflection of that light And for their duration they cannot hold and keepe time with that glory which is in the heavenly bodies For the light and brightnesse which is in Iewels hath an old age a time of fading therefore the Philosopher speakes of an old age of Iewels and pearles and the reason is because the naturall power is exhaled by a certaine force or else rather I thinke because that the outward ayre brings a kinde of slough upon it that duls the Iewell and makes it that it cannot shew so bright as it was before And chiefly because the vertue and power of it as in other things growes to the Center As wee see in an apple which is full when it is greene but when it is kept long then the pulpe or the flesh of it goes to the core and leaves the skin withered and wrinckled and destitute So it is in Iemmes and Iewels the power of it inclines inward As Scaliger Scaliger saith that he had a load-stone and other stones that had so lost the power attractive that it could not draw untill he brake it in the midst and then that part which was inward had the attractive power which it had before but the out-side was dulled But now the glory that is above in the starres that is not dulled by any of these contraries or adversaries but it still shines in its own brightnesse and clearenesse it is not the worse for wearing Therefore this glory it is more excellent because it is more durable it is more transcendent There is one glory of the heavenly and another of the earthly And lastly the glory of things that are in heaven is that they are full of action full of life and operation but these earthly things are nothing but very idlenesse as it were a non-agency they doe nothing but are meerely restive not having power to stirre The glory of men and women if they stir and move they move to their owne destruction and they are every day more subject to decadency As for the glory of pearles and Iewels it must rest in a place unlesse it be carried it cannot carry and helpe it selfe nor worke its operation therefore men must carry them As the Prophet saith of Idols that they cannot stir till the Idolaters carry them so those Idolaters that worship their gold they must carry it or else it cannot stir of it selfe But the glorious bodies that are above they move in an infinite strange variety and are of wondrous operation so that when they meete together in some poynts they governe the whole world It is a strange and terrible thing to imagine what may be prognosticated and truely foretold by the meeting and by the constellation of the starres There is no great meeting in the world no great warre no deluge or inundation of waters but a wise man may without any medling with the divell by the meeting and constellation of the starres tell when it shall be So the Lord hath set an infinite glory in these heavenly bodies he hath given them a perpetuall motion that they never rest but they whirle about the earth in an indefatigable course they are alway quiet and yet they never rest their circular motion being their joy and all their rest being in their moving and stirring So that in these regards the Apostle saith There is one glory of the heavenly and another glory of the earthly And now he comes and expresseth himselfe what he meanes by this and speakes to our capacity more plainely then he did before For saith hee there is one glory of the Sunne and another glory of the Moone and another glory of the Starres For one Starre differeth from another in glory This now is the second part of the comparison wherein he leaves the earthly things and medleth no more with them every man knowes what infinite difference there is there but now he wisheth us to consider what great difference there is in the heavenly things that seeing God hath made every where a variety therefore we should not thinke it much that God should doe so also at the Resurrectiō For we must not
that is in so great a variety and difference from the body that is here present as the difference is great betweene heaven and earth betweene the stars that are in heaven and the stones that lie upon the earth And so is it in the resurrection So as the particular differences are between the heavenly bodies one star differeth from another in glory they have not all one magnitude they are not all of one brightnesse but according to their severall magnitudâ—s so is their shining brightnesse So the Lord shall make the admirable difference not onely betweene the present bodies that we have here and the bodies which shall be raised but likewise between the bodies themselves that although all shall be full yet all shall not have a like measure but every one shall receive according to their capacitie So now to come to that part of the Text. You see the substance is thus much Hee tels us there shall be some rare qualities which God shall poure upon this flesh which it could never attaine to in this life for that it is still pestered with the contrary It shall have honour it shall have strength it shall have nimblenesse and subtlety and all this shall be tyed with a golden band of incorruption which is that that makes all sweet and full For to have good things and to fall from them is as good as never to have them but this incorruption is the glorious tye of all the rest the crowne of all the rest that the strength there shall be without corruption their beauty shall be incorrupt their agility and subtlety of body shall be incorrupt all these things shall be for ever they shall be preserved by the perpetuall influence of Gods mercy and love upon the creature This is the height and depth of this Text. As if the Apostle had said You wonder in your selves to consider the great difference that shall be between the bodies that are raised and the bodies which you have now in this life I will shew you plainly how it shall be All the difference ariseth from certaine qualities for the substance there is nothing different or contrary in it but in the quality is all the difference and contrariety and I will shew you it by such qualities as are most contrary one to another For what is more contrary then corruption and incorruption what is more contrary then honour and dishonour what is more contrary then weaknesse and power what is more contrary then naturall and spirituall and behold God shall so turne the termes of this present state in that blessed world that whereas now here is nothing but a masse of corruption then there shall be a glorious peece of incorruption whereas now it is compassed about with shame and deformity in death and in sicknesse in consumption and in misery then there shall be a vessell of honour that shall be every way shining and glorious in the sight of God that whereas now this body is subject to weaknesse all the strongest lives in the world being full of great weaknesse then it shall be a mirrour of strength it shall have an arme able to break a bow of steele that whereas now it is a lumpish creature then it shall be swift as a soaring eagle and like unto an Angell of God for we shall be equall to the Angels of God in heaven So then Division into two parts 1. A description 2. A condition first we have here a Description of the state present in a metaphoricall word the promise of the state to come in another metaphor like unto it And then we have the condition and severall manner how these shall be In the first two particulars 1. The state present 2. The state in the life to come Concerning the first for the state of the body present the Apostle saith It is sowne The metaphor for the life to come is in this that he saith It is raised up again It is sown in corruption it is raised again in incorruption Each of these estates differenced by foure essentials and their contraries And then for the essentiall parts of difference he makes them foure wherein the body is sowne and there are foure contraries wherein it is raised For the first the body is sowne in rottennesse It is sowne in corruption For the second it is sowne in deformity and ugly vision that this corruption cannot lie hid for then it were more tolerable but it must come unto the eye of the world a mans friends must looke upon him and see the gastly countenance in the dead corps This the Apostle calls dishonour there is nothing in the world more dishonourable that is there is nothing in the world more hatefull to look upon then the dead body of a man Thirdly he saith It is sown in weaknesse that is in such a miserable feeblenesse and desolation and so deprived of all strength and power that it is left as a trampling stock for men and beasts And lastly he saith It is sowne a naturall body that is nothing but a meer elementary thing nothing else to the sense of flesh and bloud and to looke on These are the wofull parts of this body that wee have in this present life But on the contrary God shall invest it in stead of corruption with incorruption with impassibility with immortality and in stead of weaknesse it shall have strength and so of the rest These are the branches of the Text of these briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first for the two metaphors that be used 1 Part. Metaphor of the present life Chrysost It is sowne It is a good observation of St. Chrysostom that the holy Apostle is so confident in the matter that he useth the termes interchangeably between the sowing of the corne and the burying of the dead body For saith he when he speaks of the sowing of the corne he useth the phrase which properly belongs to the burying of the dead and when hee speaks of the burying of the dead he useth that maner of speech which belongeth unto the corn To teach us that as there is nothing that could have been spoken more fitly nor no comparison could have been more naturall then this which he taketh from corne so likewise that there is nothing more sure and certaine then that the one shall come to passe as truely as we daily see the other For when he speaks of the corn which is cast into the ground he saith It is not quickned except it die To die belongs properly to that which hath life which hath a sensible life although there be a kind of death to in other things but yet this word is used most properly to signifie the life of man when it passeth from the body And againe when he saith It is quickned to be quickned most properly belongs to the highest life the life of man So to die and to be quickned againe
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
I look for my change as well as another man As Iob Iob 14.1 saith All the dayes of my life will I looke for my change So the Apostle saith every man must look for this that he may be prepared For perhaps I may be the last man perhaps the trumpet may sound to night before to morrow for there is no man knowes when the day of doome shall be It is reserved in the bosome of God alone and we are alway to looke for his comming because we know not when he will come whether at midnight Marke 13.5 or at the dawning of the day Therefore wee should alwayes be ready with our lamps lighted and our loynes girded that we may be prepared when the Bridegroome commeth to enter into the Kingdome Mat. 25. Thus the Apostle saith we shall be changed He speaks as if hee should be one of them although long since he were interred in the earth yet because hee knew not his owne dissolution or the destruction of the world when it should be therefore he had it in perpetuall memorie Wee shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed And what is this change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how death is called a sleepe I have told you heretofore and I will not repeat it now We shall be changed that is in quality for so the word signifieth even an altering of the quality not a changing of the substance For the same body that suffered death for sinne the same body shall be glorified by the grace and favour of God As sin came upon it to doe it to death so the grace of God shall overflow it to bring it to life For where sin hath abounded grace shall super abound Rom. 14.20 If therefore the sinne of Adam were able to mortifie all to their graves much more shall the grace of Christ be able to quicken all his to life everlasting Therefore I say we shall be changed meaning as concerning the qualities not concerning the substance For that body which was once the Temple of the holy Ghost shall never cease to be the Temples of the holy Ghost and those parts that felt misery by Adams sinne they shall feele sweetnesse of grace by the bounty that shall be revealed through Christ Iesus our Lord. We shall all be changed This change how it shall be made and in what degrees I have partly spoken of it before The Apostle delivers it unto us when hee said It is sowne in weaknesse it is raised in strength It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sowne a mortall or naturall body but it riseth a spirituall body It is sown in dishonour it riseth againe in honour These are the manners of the change which having heretofore stood upon I will not now repeat The change therefore shall be in those foure noble qualities which the Apostle formerly described unto us And this change shall be wrought by the omnipotencie of God upon a matter that wee would think could not indure such a strange operation as that is But the Lord is able to command light to come out of darknesse and hath wrought by meane things in the world the great impressions of his power Hee therefore is able to work upon this weak body and to set upon it the stamp of incorruption of glory of immortality and of strength Hee is able to doe it and his power will doe it according to his gracious promise We shall all be changed All we saith the Apostle chiefly this change shall be upon the Saints of God but yet it shall not be so restrained to them but that in part it shall extend to all men I told you in the opening of the Text that the Reprobates shall have their part in this change for their bodies shall be made uncorrupt and immortall but not to glory and beauty not to comfort and consolation as the bodies of the Saints shall but to extremity and misery Like as a brick which lies in the fire continually and is alway burning and yet never consumed or as that Axbestam which the Philosopher speaks of which is not consumed but is able continually to abide the fire so the bodies of those that doe â—ot feare the Lord and worship him the earthly tabernacles of theirs shall be made durable of paine but not capable of honour and glory They shall be made capable of no comfort and yet they shall not be spoyled and consumed by any paine and sorrow that shall lie upon them This change therefore Vse we must desire the Lord that it may be for the better and not for the worse That seeing there shall and must be a change of these bodies that it would please the Lord to change us from these frailties and miseries that we now live in to the blessed joy and hope which he hath called his children unto And that wee may be capable of this we must desire God to make a change of us in this life for the Lord shall change all things hee is the changer of us he is unchangeable himselfe all things else he shall change Psal 102. Thou shalt change the heavens and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy yeares never faile So that the Lord being onely immutable and the same for ever it is hee that works the change upon all things Wee see in the common course of our life what changes hee works in our ages hee changes childhood to youth and that to manhood and thence to old age A strange and various change In our Climates there is Winter and Summer there is day and night there is stormy and faire weather Wondrous changes bee also in matters politique and civill he turnes warre into peace he changeth peace into warre it is he that suffers Nation to rise against Nation all the changes in the world come from God So wee must imagine in our bodies that shall be changed that all shall be wrought by his owne hand Vse This must teach us first to desire God to make a happy change in our soules before hee make the change in our bodies For there can never be a comfortable change in any mans body except first there be a precedent and a president change in the soule For except the soule be changed from worse to better from wickednesse to holinesse of life it is impossible for a man to looke for a good change of his body where there is no precedent change in his soule Therefore while wee are in this life wee are to looke for this change If the Lord change thy soule from sinfulnesse to holinesse thou maiest bee sure thy body also shall bee changed to happinesse and immortality and glory If thy soule be not changed but thou art worse and worse verily thou shalt have a change in the Resurrection but it shall bee unto dismalnesse to fearefulnesse and to distraction so that a man had better never have beene borne than to be
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
in his third Booke of the Trinity he saith The Apostle did not feare to confirme the certainty of his salvation by swearing for saith he by the confidence that I have in Christ Iesus I dye daily Among the Greekes none doubted of it but those that were simple and unlearned Therefore I say this was an oath and so the strongest confirmation that can be 2 The thing he sweares by Esay 45.23 But how doth Saint Paul sweare by that which is not God It is not lawfull to sweare by any thing but the name of God as the Lord saith Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse me and sweare by my name Heb. 6.13 It is true that when God sweares having no greater to sweare by he sweares by himselfe and when man sweares he must alway sweare by a greater For that is the end of an oath to protest an unknowne truth by the presence and countenance of a greater person then himselfe and one which cannot lye Therefore it is unlawfull for a Christian to sweare by any name but the name of God and that not often much lesse alway or in frivolous causes for this our Lord Christ condemnes when hee saith sweare not at all Math 5.34 that is not often nor out of passion But as an oath is a speciall service of God so it is to be taken upon speciall occasions but now we are bound to sweare by no name but the name of God and reioycing in Christ is not Christ himselfe Wherefore then doth the Apostle sweare by his reioycing in Christ We must understand that to sweare by any immediate fruit of the spirit of God by any thing that flowes immediately from God to us it is all one as to sweare by the name of God it selfe This is so individuall and inseparable a thing the comfort namely and the joy of Christ hath brought into the world that it is as inseparable from the spirit as the shadow from the body Therefore as a man may sweare by the shadow that there is a body and swearing the one he intimates the other and concludes the other so the Apostle here he sweares by this fruit of the holy Ghost which is ioy and peace even the peace of God which passeth all understanding which he found in his heart by the meanes of Christ Iesus who maketh our ioy to be full who is the fountaine of ioy swearing by this he sweares by the chiefe iewell of salvation which is the penny that Christ had given him as an earnest as a pawne and gage of his love Out of this that he saith Our reioycing observe I beseech you the wondrous temper of a Christian how he is composed of strange extreame contraries of death and life of sorrow and joy of peace and war There is nothing in the world that can be imagined so contrary as be the severall parts of a Christian mans constitution Upon this ground the holy Apostle goeth 2 Cor 4. 2 Cor. 4.8 c. where he makes the definition of a Christian after the same manner Saith he we are indeed oppressed and persecuted but yet not crushed altogether we are as men dead and yet behold we live poore and yet making many rich as having nothing and yet we possesse all things This is that marvellous mixture that God hath appointed his children to come to that they should be conformable to the sufferings of Christ and so be in death and yet that they should revive againe by the spirit of God and so no man be lesse in death being alway in life and having the certaine pledge and pawne of life eternall As for the men of this world the sonnes of flesh and bloud when they thinke themselves most lively then are they most deepely in death every thing worketh against them the stormes of Gods wrath attend them and worke upon their consciences at some time or other such fearefull deaths as out of which they can make no evasion or escape But with the children of God it is contrary when they are in the middest of death they are in the height of life 2 Cor. 4.16 As the Apostle saith Although our outward man dye daily and is corrupted yet the inward man is renewed and revived by the spirit of Christ So in all the passages of their life where death seemes to have the greatest sway and predominancie even there is life abundantly over death and the roote of life shall at length eate out the fruit of death And although death make a flourish for a time upon the Saints of God yet because there is a root of life it shall still grow and bud and bring forth at length that death may be swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.54 In all things the children of God have full contentment in this life although they be in the middest of death This is the great miracle that God doth in the world Every holy man is a wonder every good man is a miracle like the children of Israel Exod. 14.22 that walked through the deepe where there was never way knowne before like the three children in the furnace Dan. 3.25 that walked in the middest of the fire as if they had beene in a pleasant Medow like the Israelites and all their cattell that passed over Iordan Acts 16.25 like Paul and Sylas singing at midnight in chaines and fetters in prison A miraculous spectacle to God and men which drawes the eyes of Angâ—â—s to the contemplation of it For in sicknesse a Christian is full of the saving health of God In persecution he is full of quiet and contentment of the holy Ghost In prison he is full of Psalmes and spirituall Songs as were Paul and Sylas When he is bound in shackles he is free and expedite and loose As the Apostle saith in another place though I be bound 2 Tim. 2.9 yet the word of God is not bound the Gospell of Christ is not bound In all things he is a breathing miracle of the power of God that sounds unto us as so many silver Trumpets the omnipotencie of God that makes such a correspondence and proportion betweene life and death that makes death and life dwell together in one body and yet hee will evacuate death by the power of life that life may surmount and death may be put under that at the last death may be debased and life may be advanced And in that he saith Our reioycing or your reioycing For it is not materiall whether way it is read for it is a common ioy If I reade it yours I have it if mine you have it for it is a common ioy in our common Saviour This is that which all of us confesse when we make our prayers to God we call him our Father and we call the Saviour of the world our Saviour and so we may call the spirit our comforter because this common veyne of joy it flowes and runnes
speakes of here said Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye There is no wise man would ever give himselfe to this most bestiall fashion were it but for the ill consequents of it for to say the truth there is nothing makes a man lesse like a man then to be a great drinker especially to be a great eater such being the very monsters of mankinde Nature is content with little and those that exceed that measure are hated and ridiculous to all men To see what mischiefe it brings to the body to this little frame of the world To see what intollerable dammage accrewes by it to the understandings of men What grosse heavinesse it brings upon the body How it takes away all nimblenesse and agility How it takes away all the powers of the spirits How it confounds the memory How it drownes every part of reasonable discourse How it makes a man a swadde and deformes that proportion and comely figure that God hath imposed upon him Every man knowes these things by common and wofull experience and yet these wretches cry out Let us eate and drinke As if they should have said Let us become fooles Let us make our selves mad Let us drowne our understandings Let us disfigure our selves that men may not know us to be men for nothing makes a man lesse discerned to be that which once he was then excessive eating and drinking Let us so eate and drinke therefore that we may eate and drinke in heaven let us not so set our selves upon our bellies as to become sonnes of Belial Let us take our bread here as an earnest of that bread we shall have in heaven Let us sit at our tables so here as a representation of the 12. Tables on which the 12 Apostles shall iudge the 12 Tribes of Israel Luke 22.30 Christ saith They shall sit upon 12 Tables and eate and drinke with him in the Kingdome of God It should teach us to eate and drinke these temporall things with conscience with remembrance with prefiguration and signification of those eternall meates drinks which we shall have in the kingdome of heaven by the mercy God For although it is true wee shall not eate and drinke there yet because this life consists in eating and drinking the holy Ghost hath set us downe the modell of the life to come with such ioyes and delights as may be compared nay which farre transcend eating and drinking but can by no meanes better be expressed to us than by these of eating and drinking For to eate and to drinke and to reigne and to reioyce and to dance and sing there are no such things in heaven but we cannot understand the ioy in heaven while we are here upon earth except it be set forth to us by these foyles Therefore the Lord condescends to our capacity and tels us of eating and drinking in heaven Let us therfore eate so here as that we may maintaine a hope of heaven Let not our tables be made a snare here Rom. 11.9 that which God hath appointed for our sustentation let it not turne to our confusion God hath not appoynted meate and drinke to overthrow us but to refresh us to make us fitter for his service and more able to the workes of our calling let us therefore disclaime and abhorre this brutish acclamation which these wicked wretches make that have no portion but their belly that are altogether for the gut and let us repute them among the basest of beasts but let us so eate as those that shall receive eternall food in the kingdome of God So much for the first poynt the poyson propounded Now we are to see the cause that these men alleadge for themselves 2 Poynt Reason alledgâ—d To morrow wee shall dye why they should eate and drinke For the wretched understanding of men is so depraved and corrupted by the judgement of God that they will drinke poyson upon reason these Epicures alleadge reason for their brutish course and their reason is because To morrow we shall dye This was a close mockery for when Isay told them in his time they should dye by the judgement of God for their wickednesse they mocked God in the Prophet As if they should say he tels us we shall dye he still threatens judgement and we know not how soone we may be taken out of this world therfore as long as we live let us have a time of it and while we live let us live since our time is short let us take the benefit of that time we have and so make it our happinesse See the wondrous stroke of Gods hand in blinding the understanding of man We are subject God knowes to the whole hand of God and sinne workes shame and confusion every where But there is no plague like this when a mans braine is smitten when his understanding is disturbed when he draws false and base conclusions out of Idle and foolish premises then comes the wracke and ruine of the poor creature There is nothing so wretched and miserable in the world as a mad man And in the body of Christianity there are none so mad as those men that argue after a contrary manner which upon strange premises bring in unnaturall conclusions For I beseech you coÌ„sider doth it follow because to morrow we shall dye that therefore we should feast ioviall it out to day nay cleane contrary It followes rather thou shouldest throw thy selfe downe in spirit and humble thy soule with fasting and prayer and in all the parts of humiliation to God to crave pardon for thy sinnes and so to prepare thee a way to everlasting glory How can thy meate be digested when thou must dye to morrow what man is so stout hearted that if he knew he should dye to morrow would feast to day can such a man swallow down his morsels with pleasure can he put over his drink with delight can he have any taste or rellish in these things that is destinated a dying man It is a wretched and divellish conclusion And yet God gives over the wicked wretched world to draw poysonful sences and wicked conclusions out of cleane contrary premyses What is that thou sayest saith Saint Austine To morrow we shall dye let us eate and drinke saith he thou hast terrified mee indeed but thou hast not deceived me Thou hast terrified me because thou sayest to morrow I shall dye and perhaps so I may The frailty of my nature is such that I may dye to night before to morrow Yet thou hast not deceived me for if I shall dye to morrow as thou sayest I will fast to day certainly Augustine so Saint Austine concludes and so would all reason conclude even a naturall man for as Plutarch Plutarch saith there is no man that if the Emperour should send him word that he should prepare himselfe and that after three dayes he should dye there is no man would be so brutish as
for the eares Those that were wrastlers and fought with the club they were armed with these Amphitedes which were made of some hard matter that so they might keepe the blow from their eares that upon the sudden they might not be stounded and dazelled and struck downe but might stand the longer in the fight Therefore they had these Amphitedes about their eares when they fought at the club And saith Plutarch these ought every yong man to take as a speciall munition against evill speeches For there is no blow either with staffe or club that afflicts the body or so stounds the braine of a man as evill and wicked speeches infect the soule Therefore the best way is to deeme such speeches base and impious to turne the eares from them and to give no audience to them For there is nothing in them but mischiefe the mouthes of wicked men being nothing but as the rawe graves as the Prophet saith Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open sepulchre that as the grave where a corps hath been lately buried being newly raved in there will a filthy vapour stench exhale and come forth to the danger of all the standers by so the throats of evill men their wicked speeches are as a raw grave sepulchre which when it begins to be opened let all the company runne away as fast as they can for there is a deadly stench that will infect them Their throat is an open sepulcher they breathe out the blasts of death of filthinesse and corruption And now he proceeds further and tels them that if they enter into the substance of the things which those men speake they are meere idle dreames of a drunken man their speech and communication is the most sencelesse of all other Therefore he saith Awake ye drunkards to justice or righteousnesse Shewing that all those words that are any way against God and his power and glory in the Resurrection what discourse soever it be that cals that in question it is nothing else but as Saint Basil Basil cals it the meere dreame of a drunken man It is an idle thing for any man to hearken to a drunkards speech especially that which he speaks betweene sleeping and waking so it is much more idle to hearken to these evill speeches and discourses of these blasphemous mouthes Now because the Church of Corinth hath beene infected with this cup and hath taken so much of it that many of them are drunke with it Therefore I will you saith the Apostle to wake now while God hath given you time and opportunitie while by my ministerie and the rest that shall succeed me hee gives you summons and cals you to wake out of this drunken humour from these wicked speeches that tend to sensualitie and carnalitie Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye and what shall become of us when we are dead These evill speeches are the dregs of hell and the lees of this deadly wine you have taken in abundance to your selves therefore as soone as you can awake And so wake as you may stand up to righteousnesse and follow that and walke therein for ever hereafter for there is difference in them that are waked out of sleepe Some are awaked with lesse noyse the creaking of a doore the least noyse in a chamber will wake some Such are those that are of tender hearts in Gods Church the least advertisement and admonition will bring them home Others are profoundly and deadly asleepe such as are spoken of here drunken men that are more violently asleepe then others they cannot bee drawne from it without extremitie they cannot be waked without calling without jogging or pinching and whatsoever meanes can be used to recover them yea when they are awaked except they bee taken when their sleepe is mellow they grow into desperate furie and madnesse And some when they are awaked they go not to their worke they set not to action but like the foolish sluggard in the Proverbes they cry Prov. 6.10 A little more sleepe a little more folding of the hands a little more turning and tossing as Saint Austin saith Aug. A little more sleepe a little more slumber and I will rise now and now but now and now have no measure nor bounds in them Now because there is such difference in mens wakings the Apostle sets downe the manner how they should wake Awake sufficiently not so as to returne to sleepe againe The sleepe naturall must be iterated and repeated men cannot alway wake but they must have some time to revive and refresh their spirits with the vicissitude change of sleepe But the spirituall waking is of another nature it must be undertaken upon such conditions and performed so as that we never returne by our good wils unto sleepe or if our naturall infirmitie carry us so farre yet never to snort and slumber in sinne any more but to wake to righteousnesse and to do that which is good in the sight of the Lord. And then because it might be somewhat doubtfull what this is that he saith Awake justly to righteousnesse he expounds himselfe in the next words Sinne not Psal 4.4 A phrase common among the Hebrews Psal 4. Commune with your owne hearts and be still and sinne not So here he tels what he meanes when he saith Awake justly that is give not your selves to sinne and corruption for that is the beginning of all these mischiefes Sinne is like Cyrces cups that inveigles and drownes men in slumber that they never rise againe without the wondrous mercy of God Therefore take heed you fall not into it because that brings all other evils it is that which brings the corruption of good words and good manners and you fall into them because you have no care of your conversation That is the first part of the Text. Then in the second he begins to deale more nearely with them and tels them of their proper faults that they were ignorant in things concerning God that they knew not God which is the maine object of all our knowledge For those that know not God or know him but by halves that call in question the omnipotencie of God concerning the raising of our bodies they are meerly ignorant of God He that doubts of Gods power concerning the raising of the dead hee were as good know nothing of God for he limits and straightens the hand of God and makes him inferiour to himselfe and inferiour to his word For his power is greater then his will and his will is revealed in his Word and his Word tels us that he will do it Therefore certainly he can do it because he can do more then he will do Therefore he that cals in question these things he were as good to have no sence or taste of God at all He knows not God he denies the prime and chiefe thing that is in God and therefore he knows him not And so it is with some of
grosse heresies for which he is said to deny the Resurrection notwithstanding hee denyed it not but he had a conceit that the bodies of men and women should rise and then after that they should dye againe and another Resurrection should come after that and another after that and in every Resurrection they should bee lesse and lesse untill they were brought to nothing Thus in effect he denyed it But the truth is by the doctrine of the Scriptures and of the Apostles that the Resurrection shall make our bodies nothing lesser but greater and it is certaine that the stature and proportion of those that shall be raised to glory in the life to come shall bee infinitely more great then that which they have now Numb 13.33 they shall be like gyants in respect of grassehoppers according to their speech that went to spie out the land of Promise We see now in this small stature that we have in this world what a goodly sight it is to see a tall proper man they be as it were the gyants of the earth the glory of the world they be the chiefe copies of Gods great and wondrous power and there is that state and majestie in their bodies which is not to be found in the persons of little men As also we see that those countries which naturally bring forth such tall and mighty men they have great priviledges and presidents of honour given unto them that God hath done by them mighty and marvellous works in the world Therefore the glory of manhood consists now in a strait and tall procerity in a goodly proportion of limbes and bignesse of body In which regard Saul was commended that hee was higher then all the people by the head and shoulders And so in Homer 1. Sam. 9.1 Homer great men have still this commendation they are men that are eminent above their fellows that are of such a proportion I say then if it be the glory of humanity if it be the glory of manhood not to be dwarfish and small but to bee of a goodly stature in this world we must imagine that God will bring us to all perfection in the other world he will bring all his Saints to a goodly bignesse to a comely tallnesse and proportion as a little corne of wheat brings a goodly tall and beautifull eare of corne out of a small graine that is cast into the ground Therefore there is no diminution to bee imagined as if the body should grow lesse and lesse till it come to nothing but there shall bee a great ampliation the Lord extending and driving out the body drawing it to the full lineaments and to the perfect length So the Apostles similitude inferres against Origen and those that maintained his opinion Now these things are very plaine in the open experience of nature but because we see not the things signified by them which we are to beleeve therefore they are held to flesh and bloud incredible to a man that is not acquainted with the field that is not seene and experimented in this kinde he would think it impossible that out of such a poore principle as a graine of corne there should come such a deale of grace and beauty as that verdure of colour and such a flower and leafe of grasse as the flagge of it that there should come so much straw to support it and that there should be such a structure in the knops of it that there should be such abundance in the treasure of it We should thinke these things meerly impossible but that common use and experience makes us cease to wonder And if we could see that which is spirituall as we do this that is outward we should as well be induced to subscribe and consent to it But in the outward thing in the world we see the sowing and the mowing we see the sowing and the reaping the seed time and the harvest Therefore by much experience we are taught to beleeve it without doubting But for that which is spirituall for the Resurrection we see onely the time of sowing but wee cannot live to see the time of mowing in this world For the bodies are sowne and the seed lyes rotting in the ground some five thousand yeares some lesse but all a long time yet it pleaseth God to bring as it were the dew of heaven upon them to raise them from their graves unto the harvest Then that truth which we now beleeve shall appeare as plainly as that which we apprehend by sence The thing which the Apostle would teach us here I will but summarily touch at because all this spâ—ech except it were better uttered is meerly unprofitable * In regard of his extream cold and unpleasant also I will therefore cut off all superfluity and onely touch that which is meerly necessary and elementarily pointed at First the Apostle tels us what is mans part And then what is Gods part in the matter of sowing and so we must apply it to the Resurrection For that is the Apostles purpose as being a parabolicall doctrine from a similitude and therefore he rests not in the outward letter but referres and reduceth us to the purpose and intent of it which is to prove the truth of the Resurrection Now the part that man doth he speaks of it Division into 1. Mans Part. 2. Gods Part. first negatively what he doth not sowe And then affirmatively what is sowne Negatively what he doth not sowe he soweth not that that shall be And then he shews affirmatively what he doth sowe a bare graine a bare corne devoyd of such ornaments as God afterwards gives unto it Then in the next part what God doth he gives it a body to every seed the same body The same body in essence and substance but so changed and bettered and altered that a man would thinke it were impossible to bring out of such a foundation such a kinde of conclusion And because the Lord is wondrous in all his works therefore he gives to every seed it s owne peculiar body although there bee many changes and differences yet it comes to it selfe againe to that it was before and it runnes as it were in a kinde of a circle he gives it its owne body And the way and manner and reason of all this is As he pleaseth For he doth whatsoever it pleaseth him in all the works of nature and in all the works of grace 1. Part. Mans part handled first negatively 2. Affirmatively Concerning the first point it is said the sower soweth not that body that shall be Which wee know to be true for hee soweth neither an eare nor hee soweth not a flagge neither soweth he a hawne nor a straw nor a knot in the straw hee soweth none of these 1 Negatively what man sows not Not that body that shall be yet notwithstanding hee soweth that which hath all these in it potentially in the power of it by the blessing
it is impossible for the body shall never grow worse and worse by degeneration but it shall bee brought by the power of God to that high perfection that it shall still be infinitely better and yet still it selfe it shall still be the selfe same in essence though not in qualities It shall be the same in substance and nature but not the same in eminencie of grace and glory It shall be the same in being but not the same in seeming or in circumstance And so Saint Chrysostome saith It is the same and not the same it is the same as touching the fundamentall essence of it and it is not the same concerning the augmentation and the rare qualities that God shall impose upon it and invest it withall And so I say it is that comfortable doctrine to this flesh of ours that there shall not be any other flesh glorified for it but that this flesh that hath suffered martyrdome this flesh that hath suffered hunger and thirst sicknesse and persecution in the world this flesh that hath suffered for Christ this flesh and no other but this shall receive the crowne of glory according to the manifold evils it hath indured Otherwise there could be no true consolation in this life seeing the spirit also shall have larger indowments The soule of man the wit shall be greater and the memory greater and all the parts and faculties shall be more excellent in the soule Now these being not visible parts therefore they are not that which shall rise For it is that which is visible which belongs to the Resurrection the glory of the soule cannot be manifest it is still hidden and inherent in the inner-man But this glory that shall be at the Resurrection it shall be manifest and there is no manifestation made but to the eye and the outward sences Therefore here comes the comfort to every poore distressed body that the same that suffers and is miserable afflicted and tormented in this world the very same body shall receive abundance of joy and comfort and glory and beautie in the day of the Lord. The poore creple that goes double that moves every mans heart to pittie to see him in the streets he shall rise with a glorious and goodly body being incorporate into Christ by faith he shall receive a body full of ample complements and blessed perfections To every seed his owne body If it be the same body how then is it a new body Ob. and how then in the Scripture is it called a glorious body which makes it different This I told you shall be by addition of certaine accidents of glory that shall acrew unto it Ans which cannot be separated as accidents may be from their subject but they indure with it continually And that consists 1. Partly in that goodly proportion that I spake of before wherein all men shall be raised in one size Not as they are now where there is great difference but all shall be of one stature and perfection And therein they shall more resemble the Image of God then if they should be made in greater variety 2. Secondly another qualitie wherewith they shall be indowed is the clearnesse and brightnesse of those bodies For although they shall not be transparent and translucent which is no property of a true body yet they shall be so full of light and gloriousnesse as the Lord Iesus his body were when he was transfigured in mount Tabor his garments did so shine that no Dyer or Fuller in the earth was able to make such a tincture or to give such a colour and glosse Mat. 17. as the garments of our Lord had Much more then was his countenance glorious and shining And if in the old Law Exod. 34.30.33 the glory of Moses face were so great that the Iewes could not endure to looke upon him but he was faine to take a veile and cover his face when hee read the Law that so they might heare what he spake without astonishment much more shall the glory of the bodies of the Saints be at that day They shall be all lightsome they shall shine like the starres in the firmament they being often compared in the Scriptures to the starres which cannot be numbred Thirdly another qualitie wherein they shall be like unto the corne The corne that seemed to bee a dead graine yet after comes to have an excellent greene colour and live so these bodies shall exceed in proportion of beauty There is great difference now some are faire and some are foule creatures and those that are the faire ones of the world they thinke themselves onely happie and those that are deformed they thinke they had better beene unborne then to live in the world Indeed it is a matter of great dejection and scorne to a naturall man to have a poore deformed body Therefore the Lord shall so alter all things in that day that every man shall have equall beauty The glorious Saints in heaven their perfection is one and the same perfection they shall have a common perfection like the Angels that waite before the Lord and the Seraphins that have the selfe same perfection and beautie shining upon them all although it be not sensible to us but is seene onely among themselves Fourthly all this glosse stature and goodlinesse that they shall have except it have also strength and vigour it is little worth Therefore God shall give them that too That as the corne riseth with an high stalke to a goodly stemme and hath knops to underproppe and support and keepe it up whereupon it is builded so the Lord saith Rev. 3.12 he that heares the word of God he will make him a pillar in the house of his Father that is he shall have the strength and glory and the fortitude of the great men of God that hee shall be able to do any thing that God shall assigne him to with great dexterity And all this with a further grace of incorruption for the seed that is sowne although it come up with a faire glosse for a time yet it presently corrupts and is brought unto a drie straw and stubble and that which is greene now to morrow it is cast into the fire But the Lord shall give unto this glorious glosse whereunto he shall bring the bodies of his Saints he shall give them an incorruptible crowne 1. Pet. 1.18 It is a crowne that is incorruptible an inheritance immortall that never hath any change The best beauty in this worldly glory a fit of an Ague will change it and long sicknesse will turne the fairest rose into an ashy coale there is nothing so subject to change and alteration as the glosse of beauty But that strength and beauty and goodlinesse of the creature after the resurrection shall be supported by that ever mighty power of Almighty God so that there shall bee no old age to draw wrinckles in the face of his Saints there shall be no sicknesse to
his worke Diddest thou ever see the Whale Iob 41. Didst thou ever see the goodly proportion that he hath and the carelesnesse and contempt that he hath of thee and of all the weapons that thou canst bring against him I say in that vast element the wonders of God appeare more then upon the face of the earth What shoales what millions what mighty armies of fishes every yeare passe and repasse the sea and keepe their seasons and times that rather then men shall want they come and offer themselves in their seasons to be meat for man that as some kinde of birds flie unto us at certaine times in the yeare so also at certaine seasons the fishes of the Sea do swimme unto us For God hath given the Sea that qualitie that invites them hee makes the South sea so hot that the fishes are faine to come and refresh themselves in the North and every where where they come they fill the shores with plentie And to this kinde of creature God hath given a flesh that is waterish like to the element where it lives And withall he hath given it the blessing to be fit for the use and food of man and that in admirable delicacie and great variety For whereas there is not of all the beasts and birds upon the earth set them all together not forty kinde of severall dishes for there are but foureteene kinde of beasts that are fit for meat and but twenty five or twenty sixe of birds and no more there are of severall kindes of fishes very neare two hundred that are wholsome and good for the food and use of man And this food it is not ordinarie but to some bodies and in som Countries it is a great deale more nourishing and faemiliar and good then either that of beasts or birds Therefore the Lord hath glorified himselfe in this creature wondrously by the miracle of the two fishes he wrought that upon the fish that we do not reade in the Gospell hee wrought upon flesh Luk 9.16 For in that Countrey as their fish was most delicate so their meat most ordinarily was fish His Apostles were fishermen and his last apparition to them was in giving them a dish of broyled fish upon the shore where a fire was kindled and the fish was laid upon it no man knew how It was a dish which the Lord gave them they found the fire the broyled fish upon it by a miraculous act of Christs hand that as he commanded the fish to have money in its mouth so hee commanded preparation to be made by the ministery of Angels for his Apostles dinner in that place The last flesh he speakes of is the flesh of fowls or birds and that is another wonder indeed and of great varietie For the water and the ayre they differ but in their thicknesse and thinnesse the ayre is a thinne water and the water is a thicke ayre and so the motion of the fishes and the motion of the birds do differ accordingly For the fishes do move with that speed that they may be said to flye in the water and the birds do flye with that facilitie that they may be said to swimme in the ayre they are wondrous things that the Lord hath wrought in these two elements But there is nothing that comes to that height of excellencie for naturall motion as the birds which can be in any place They can rest upon the waters as many of them do they can rest upon the land and yet they can travell in the ayre and in a short space of time they can overcome a great journey To see that a massie heavy body should be carried up with the helpe of a feather of a wing and hang in the ayre that if a man should see them that had never seene it before hee would thinke they should all breake their necks and that it were impossible for them to be free from danger And yet the Lord hath given them such a poyse and such a measure that though they bee made with round bodies yet their spirits are so thinne and fierie and nimble that they can sustaine themselves even in the clouds and soare aloft for many houres together This argueth also the power that shall be in the bodies that shall be raised from the dead For they shall have that abilitie and power to soare about Christ Mat. 24.28 to flocke about him as the Eagles about the body And this flesh of birds to see in what a wondrous varietie it is is strange For the cleannesse and uncleannesse of them For their severall kinds For their forme and figure and proportion For their quantitie For their colours For their feathers in some goodly and glorious in others for necessitie in others their feathers are like the streames of a flagge rather then feathers Of those I meane that are heavier bodies and cannot mount aloft The great God is wondrous in all these things and we ought not to looke upon them with an idle eye but to make it a Sabbath dayes exercise to instruct our selves in these varieties and to praise and blesse God where we see any step of his greatnesse I will conclude in a word 3. Part. How this variety of fleshes proves the resurrection Now we come to the use of all this It is true there is one kinde of flesh of men another of beasts another of fishes and another of birds but what is that to the purpose how doth this prove that there shall be a resurrection The Lord hath made all these things that be in the world to be types and paternes of better things that are reserved for another world therefore if he have set a glorious varietie here much more will he do it there even those things that wee account here to be the best of things they shall be so farre short of that which shall be then revealed as that the best things that are now shall come short by farre of the worst that shall be then Wee can distinguish among the beasts which are best and which are worst and among the fishes and fowls and in the parts of our bodies all are not so beautifull as the eye there are some parts of lesse and worse respect and in the beauty and colour and complexion of the faces of men and women there are better and worse Some are exceeding goodly some are extreamly deformed and we make a difference alway betweene that which is worst and that which is best in every kinde So the Apostle argues thus God shall so alter and change the things that remaine for a better life hee shall so alter them to a betterment and perfection that the best things that are here shall not compare with the worst thing that shall be there Looke how farre the most excellent beautie excels them that are most deformed in face looke how farre the best bodie excels the worst the most crooked and impotent body looke how farre the best
imagine that those bodies that dyed crooked shall rise crooked nor that those bodies that dyed weake and lame and yong shall rise so but God shall make a great variety there because he hath made a wondrous variety here There is one glory of the Sunne I will not shew my infancie in discoursing of these things but onely give a touch and so passe to the hypothesis where the Apostle saith so is the resurrection The glory of the Sunne is the greatest of all the glories in heaven all the created bodies we see are nothing comparable he is that great Gyant that God hath set in his chamber which is alway ready to runne his course Psal 19.5 The great messenger of the world which searcheth and vieweth and giveth intelligence of all nations and reports of them to God from whose heate there is no nation nor latitude of people can be hid his glory is this That he is both the chiefe of all the heavenly bodies and that this glory is his owne too First he is the chiefe you know as the Philosopher said well if it were not for the sunne whatsoever the Moone and Starres could doe we should have a continuall night For that is that great and mighty lampe of the world wherein God hath recollected and bound up all the body and bulke of light and it is of that unspeakeable beautie and of that rare excellency that all the stars in heaven borrow their light from thence so that it is the chiefest and the greatest And his owne light it is also he doth not take it from other starres as the rest doe derive their light from him but God tooke that light which he made the fourth day before for the light was the first thing that God made for a worke of distinction it was a chaos and confusion before but when the light was made the distinction did appeare and as a man cannot work without light so God describes himself unto us and therfore he made light for himselfe to worke by although indeed he be light it selfe 1 Tim. 6.16 and dwelleth in that light that none can attaine unto The Lord I say gathered that light which was in the creature before and put it into the body of the sunne and so made that light proper and peculiar to the sunne that he should have a power to diffuse and communicate his light to all the starres in heaven There is no starre that shines in his owne light but all the light they have they borrow it from the sunne because that God would bring all the light to one head and principle as all things doe depend and have their being in one God And this very beauty of the sunne which wee know is the greatest and the goodliest yet it is not alway alike but there is a difference in that too The sunne shines not so bright in the winter as hee doth in the summer because his beames in the winter be not so direct as in the summer and in the southerne parts of the world where the sunne is directly over the verticall poynt directly over their heads as they have more heate so they have a far greater light then we that have but an oblique or slant or side way beame their light is farre more For according to the nature of the beame so is the proportion of the light and heate in the winter lesse because the sunne is in a lower circle and though he be nearer the earth by his bodily presence yet he is further off by his power and operation and in summer when he seemes to be neare yet he is furthest off in body but is nearer by his operation because of the directnesse of his beame I say the Lord hath made a difference in the beate and light that is in the body of the sunne that there is one kinde of heate and light in summer and another kinde in winter So wondrous is God in making of difference and planting variety in every thing The second is the glory of the Moone There is another glory of the Moone The glory of the Moone we know how farre it comes short of the first of the glory of the sunne for it is neither a full glory neither is it her owne glory but that which it hath is derived from the body of the sunne and in the day time when the sunne is in his strength the Moone is like a cloud if it be then above our horison and when there is any shadow by the interposition of the earth the shadow of the earth doth so drowne her and so deprive her of the light of the sunne for the time that either totally or in so many parts she is utterly darkened And evermore one side of the Moone is blacke because of the distance of the sunne For that side which is next to the sunne is light and that side which is from the sunne is as a blacke cloud and according as it goeth further from the sunne or comes nearer to him because her motion is swifter than the sunnes for she doth that in a moneth which the sunne doth in a whole yeare because he is further off from the earth accordingly I say as she comes nearer to him or goeth further off so is her light sometimes she appeares to be halfe light sometimes full Moone and sometime againe nothing at all because the beames of our eye cannot discerne her when there is a meeting of the sunne and her body And yet wee may observe what a wondrous variety GOD hath given her that this which is the lowest and the meanest plannet in the heavens the meanest starre and the least of all others although it bee the least and the blackest and most unlightsome of all the rest yet the LORD doth by it as wondrous things as hee doth by all the starres of heaven nay he doth something more by it then he doth by the sunne it selfe For all the rising of waters all the ebbing and flowing of the sea all the motion of the bloud in the creatures all the guydance of the braine of man all the distemper of lunatiques and frantiques and whatsoever thing almost is in the trees in the vegitables or in the sencible things to be guided and governed they are dependent directly upon the regency of the Moone so that although it have a lesser light yet because it is nearer it hath a more wondrous operation Vse It teacheth us this lesson that although God have given lesser gifts to some men that although they be like the Moone in comparison of others that are like the sunne yet because they are nearer home because they looke to their charge because they keepe their flocke because they looke to their families that God hath put unto them even these men that have a weaker light they doe more good then those that are greater men that are further off that are carelesse and negligent therefore the Moone hath a greater operation being nearer
have imployed themselves in this world And there are divers similitudes that set out this in the Gospell Mat. 25. As of him that received ten talents and was made Lord of ten Cities Mat. 19.29 Of him that sowes plenteously and reapes plenteously whereas another soweth sparingly Of him that offers his bloud for the Lord Iesus Christ and receives an hundred-fold for it Of the Dâ—scâ—ples that shall be chiefe and prime in the kingdome of heaven Mat. 19.28 and sit upon twelve thrones to judge the twelve Tribes of Israel Luk 6.23 and that promise that the Lord makes Great shall your reward be in heaven There shall be a great reward for you therefore it seemes there shall not be so great a reward for other men as for the Apostles This joy is accidentall it happens to them because they have wrought in their callings because they have beene diligent in their places So the Schooles say a man of learning which is an accidentall thing for learning comes accidentally it is not a thing that is substantiall a man is â—ot borne with learning therefore they say according to the wisedome which a man hath used wel in this world hee shall be rewarded in heaven in a greater measure In respect of the substantiall joy he shall have all one penie with the rest but in respect of his accidentall joy honour for his wisedome and learning and for his almes-deeds which is by way of accident and so according to his workes he shall have a reward according to a mans works so shall his reward be This I take to be very true although I cannot well see how it should bee an infallible ground But we follow the Fathers direction Saint Austin speaking of the puritie of virginity Aug. of the professed virgins of his time well saith he those that shall come to the common immortalitie hereafter they shall have a great reward above the rest because they had something in the flesh which was not of the flesh they had something in the flesh which had no use or benefit of the flesh And in his 146. Epistle saith he If God have made all bodies visible and these visible bodies be so different each from other in distance of place in operation and power and in evidence much more must wee thinke he will make a difference at the day of the Resurrection And although all shall be as starres that shall shine in the firmament yet all shall not have one kinde of glory and of lustre Tertull. And Tertullian How shall there be many mansions in Gods house How doth Christ say In my Fathers house are many mansions Iob. 14.2 except it bee for the varietie of mens merits You must not be offended for this word merit for the Fathers in old time tooke it not in a proud sence but for the deeds done in the flesh whether good or evill So men should be rewarded according to their works or fruits they had done the Saints shall differ as one hath had greater works then another and greater deeds And Chrysostome brings this argument that unlesse this be granted that the Saints of God shall have a different portion of glory in the world to come and not be all alike it would make men that beleeve the Resurrection to be carelesse how they lived in good works or at least how they abounded in good works Because when a man once seeth salvation that it is common and that every man shall have as good a share in it as he he will not seek to be better then his fellow and so good works and almes-deeds would grow faint Therefore it is the best way to incourage them and to make them open and inlarge themselves to make them as capable as they can that God may fill them To this purpose the Fathers have a comparison of divers vessels that are cast into the water and all are filled a pottle is filled and a pint is filled and yet there is great difference every one hath as much as it can conteine but yet the pinte hath not so much as the pottle so the Saints of God they shall all be full of joy and full of glory but according to their capacitie the Lord shall fill them Therefore wee should make our selves large unto God that God may fill us to be large handed and large minded and large hearted to God this brings largenesse of glory and beauty and makes men principall starres in the firmament Theophilact brings another reason Theoph. which presseth better and urgeth further then this If we marke it saith he we see the damned in hell have a different torment therefore the Saints in heaven shall have a different glory The other is plaine by that saying where our Lord saith Matth. 11. It shall be easier for Sodome and Gommorrah then for that Citie which would not receive the Apostles and it should be easier for Tyre and Sydon then for Chorazin and Bethsaida they should have easier torment then those that despised the Gospell And therefore seeing there shall be an inequalitie of torment and that those that are cast away from the sight of God shall have a divers deformitie they shall all be deformed but some more then other there is more unworthinesse in some bodies according to the qualitie of their sinnes And so it follows on the contrary that the mercie of God shall bee opened and manifested in a greater measure upon one man then upon another according to the qualitie of their good conversation repentance and the good deeds that they have done in the flesh Saint Ambrose Ambrose also discoursing upon this argument Even as saith he out of one lumpe out of one piece and clod of clay God hath made all things but yet in a wondrous varietie For out of the water he hath taken all the brightnesse that is in this world the starres of heaven are bright because they are taken out of the water and the brightnesse of jemmes and pearles is out of the water mingled with earth and out of the earth comes all things that are obscure and darke so the Lord shall make out of this body out of one lumpe and masse a wondrous varietie At that day he shall make some as those that bring forth thirty fold others as those that bring forth sixtie and some as those that bring forth an hundred fold in an admirable difference and yet all shall have glory sufficient and in contentment and be full of glory The glory shall be full in it selfe although it shall not be so great as others And Saint Anselme Anselme saith clearly that there shall be one way for chastitie and puritie to shine for them that have lived chaste in wedlocke and another way for virginitie there shall bee one way for a man that gives little out of much and another way for him that like the poore widdow give as it were all that they have
of the Lord out of the prime materialls and beginnings It is raised never to fall downe againe It is raised not to relapse againe but to stand as a goodly monument for ever It is raised by the mighty hand of him that raiseth the poore out of the dust and mire Psal 113.7 8. and makes them equall to the Princes of his people Therefore in this word the Apostle would teach us also wherein our hope consists It is sowne that is a hopefull action but after it is sowne it must be raised againe that is a dependant action which is not in our selves but from the Lord. Therefore we must raise our hearts unto God and returne our devotion and best affections to him while we live here that he may raise these bodies of ours when they have no power to raise themselves but when they shall lie in the dust of confusion he shall raise them up that they may be living Temples for the holy Ghost for ever to inhabit It is necessary before hand to raise our spirits unto him that he may make a requitall unto us at the great day of his Visitation So much for the metaphors It is sowne in corruption Corruption is the worst change that can be It is a motion from a being to a not-being For as generation is a work of God whereby something which was not is brought to have a being so corruption is a work which God permits to be done whereby a thing is brought to fall from that being either to no-being at all to have no being in our sense or else to such a base and naughty being that a man can see no reason why it should ever have been so glorious and so goodly to come to such a foule disgracefull downfall Corruption therefore is the destruction of the thing that was made as in all things we see in the world In naturall artificiall things when a matter is corrupt once it grows fit for nothing and although there be some kind of liquors that when they are corrupted they serve for some use as wine when it is corrupt it turnes to vineger and although it be not fit to drink yet it serves to raise the appetite in sauce and so divers other things doe so corrupt that notwithstanding they serve for some use but yet the chiefest and greatest number of things when they come once to be corrupted they come as much as to say to nothing to a kind of dissolution for there is nothing that can be turned unto nothing simply but because the use and property and substance is so disgraced and a contrary thing succeeds a better it is as if the thing were not at all Now this corruption is done two waies It is effected either by separation of the matter Or by removing of the forme The matter and the form you know are the chief things of which every body consists and we see that in death these things hold exactly For the forme of man being his reasonable soule as long as that is in the body it is cōpact and free from corruption and it keeps the beauty in the forme and image of God in its proper frame and figure But when the soule is gone then corruption works and dissolves the matter to Now when the matter is dissolved or the element is dissolved and corrupted this is that corruption which the Apostle speaks of here when hee saith The body is sowne in corruption that is the principles of the body which consist of bloud and flesh and skin and bones and colour and complexion and proportion and figure and frame all these goe away presently after the soule is gone And though some hold longer then other as being of more sollid parts yet they continue not long even but a few yeares and in some grounds a few dayes destroy the whole man This corruption began when wee began God t is true made the body of man uncorrupt had he persisted in obedience but as soone as man by his prevarication by transgression of Gods command was drawne into sinne he brought upon him this worme of corruption which never ceaseth to work upon the powers and faculties of flesh and bloud and upon every part till at the last it work it to an utter nothing to a very desolation And this corruption if it could be contained it were well if it could consist within some termes For corruption is proper to the body but yet through the infection of sin the gangrene hath so poysoned and possessed the whole man that corruption by a metaphor is brought into the soule to which is the speciall part of man And when the best things are corrupted the corruption is most wofull of all Matth 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse saith the Lord Iesus Men in this world are corrupt in body they are corrupt in soule they are corrupt in their understandings in their speeches they are corrupt in their wayes Psal 53.1 as the Prophet saith Corrupt they are and become abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one They are corrupt in their consciences the consciences of wicked men are defiled with hypocrisie that they stink in the nostrils of God and men And to this corruption every man is subject more or lesse But the chiefe corruption intended here is corruptibility that is the rottennes of the parts of the body when they are once dissolved and melted and fall from one another To conclude this point because we know it by experience and we beare about us these corrupt bodies and we are troubled with the signs of corruption every day if we understand any thing Vse 1 It should teach us therefore not to triumph in any of these worldly things that puffe up the flesh and fill the mind with vaine conceits of its owne sufficiency but rather let us study mortification such as becomes the children of God let us weep for our owne corruptions for they grow so fast upon us that they make us odious even unto our owne selves when wee come to have a sense of our selves Againe it teacheth us this to take heed how we Vse 2 patch over this corruptibility as we use to do What a deale of cost what a deal of painting and art and labour and time is spent now adaies to conceal this corruption Corrupt bodies will not seem to be corrupt but they will be immortall and eternall and those offensive things that be in nature and that grossenesse and loathsomnesse that lurks in these bodies we seek by perfumes and by orient colours and singular diet to suppresse them and obscure them that they may not appeare But now the Lord hath put a worm in this flesh see it and acknowledge it and waile over it make not thy selfe better then thou art deceive not thy selfe thou art nothing but dust and ashes a corrupt creature a masse of corruption Why then art thou
a spirituall body So it is also written the first Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning spirit It is sown in weaknesse it is raised in power THe earth is Gods store-house whereinto he commits his treasure even the bodies of his Saints the Temples of his holy Spirit saith Tertullian Tertull. God hath made the earth to be as a ware-house therein to lay his commodities and from thence to require fetch them forth againe The sowing of these earthly bodies is manifest to us all but the raising of the seed that is sowne and the comming in of the harvest that is locked up and hid in the chambers of eternity in the omnipotency of God And there is no way for us to have accesse and to look into it but by the eye of faith whereby while we live in this flesh wee have a little peeping as it were through the key-hole to see a glimmering of the happinesse and of the gracious promises consigned unto us in Iesus Christ The things that here are spoken of the sowing of the body are so commonly knowne as that there is no man that calls that in question It is sown in dishonour it is sown in weaknesse It is sown in misery and mortality and the Apostle concludes all It is sown a naturall body but it is raised againe a spirituall body And because hee might seeme to offend some eares that never heard of that distinction that there was such a thing as a spirituall body for if it be a spirit then it is no body and if it be a body then it is not spirituall these things imply a contradiction Therefore the Apostle proves that which he had said he makes good his distinction and tels them There is a naturall body and a spirituall body And this hee proves out of the heads of them both out of the two maine Fountaines of mankinde the two Adams The one working to misery to sinne and to corruption and destruction and the other working to grace to obedience and to eternall glory And hee saith The first of these was made a living soule but the second was made and ordained a quickning Spirit The first was made to live to have life himselfe but he could not give life to another yea and that life that hee had was but mortall and fraile But the second Adam was made to have another kind of life and to be all spirit intending spirituall things and he was not onely able to live in himselfe but to give life to all his followers to quicken all them that belong unto him Yea although they be dead in their graves although they be dead in sins or dead in the damps of conscience yet hee is made a quickning Spirit to rouse and to raise them to the happinesse of the children of God This is the summe of the words read unto you To proceed in order There needs no great distribution or division of the Text because the words are nothing else but the probate of that which the Apostle had spoken before He proves it by the Scriptures that there is such a difference as a naturall body and a spirituall body The Scripture he brings is in Gen. 2.7 Gen. 2 7. where it is said The Lord breathed into Adam the breath of life and so Adam or man became a living soule or a living substance In the order of the words there are two miserable properties that remain to be spoken of touching the bodies of the Saints Division into two miserable Properties That they are sown in weaknesse That they are sown meerly naturall But the glory that God shall put upon them shall be in the highest contrary They shall rise in great strength and they shall be raised in a spirituall nature in a spirituall quality and condition 1 Property Sowne in weaknesse Concerning the first that the body of man is sown in weaknesse every man seeth there is nothing more weak and despicable then that all the whole life of man being nothing but a world of weaknesse as it is the prerogative of God to be Almighty so it is the miserable quality of man to be all weaknesse When he comes first into the world there is nothing more weak then he when he growes in the world the least fitt of disease of an ague any kind of opposition whatsoever will defeat him and bring him on his knees to such a degree of weaknesse and infirmity that he shall scarce support and sustain himself And even those that are the strongest of men that are strong to poure in strong drink Esay 5.22 as the blessed Prophet I say saith that spend their time in ryot those men doe soonest bring upon them this fatall weaknesse and none end so foule as they because though they seeme to struggle with the infirmities of nature and to overcome and transcend them for a time yet that inherent weaknesse which is in the flesh rebounds upon them and works them at last to nothing to the foulest expiration that can be Nay those noble spirits which as Tiberius was wont to say that there were some spirits in the world that account their businesse to be their solace their businesse and labour they account it comfort and consolation to them yet these men pluck and call upon themselves a greater weaknesse then other men so that the life of man whether it be base and degenerous or whether it be noble and spritely is nothing else but weaknesse If a man will doe nothing but sleepe out his time hee shall be surprised at length with base weaknesse If hee be vigilant and use the time that God hath given him to the highest and best purpose he is still overtaken with weaknesse and especially when the conscience of sin works upon a man there is nothing so weakens him as that doth Psal 39.11 When thou chastisest man for sin thou makest him like a garment that is moth-eaten And as the Prophet David saith by reason of my sinnes my bones are rotten and corrupted and all my ulcers stink there is no health in my body Psal 22.14 15. by reason of the sinnes of my soule My heart within me is like melting waxe I am broken like a pitcher like a broken vessell I am like a bottle in the smoak The conscience that God hath left in man to be his factor brings a weaknesse incomparable there is nothing that can be equall unto it But chiefly when all these meet together as in some they doe and when old age begins to rivle the face and to draw the complexion into furrows which was largely extended unto beauty and when the tresles and powers of the body begin to faile and the last terme and period is at hand then there is a wofull spectacle of weaknesse Even when a man cannot goe nor stand upon his supporters but hee reeles and falls when hee cannot taste his food nor smell nor finde
the least relish of it when his eyes waxe dim when he can retaine nothing in his stomack but he casts it up againe when hee can hardly speak a word nor know his best friends but all the organs of life and sense are drowned in death This is that poore weaknesse which the Apostle speaks of It is sown in weaknesse When he is casheerd and deprived of all sense of all power and motion and nothing remaines but a base and desperate imbecility and such a kind of infirmity as that there is no hope in flesh and bloud that ever there shall be made any recovery This is the state of all men Vse And it must teach us beloved to weepe over our weaknesse to think of it in the degrees and parts of it The Lord hath given us many prognosticants of it every sicknesse and every qualme and every distresse of conscience and whatsoever troubleth us in this world they be nothing but so many Kalenders of that great weaknesse that once shall come and make an end of us And therefore as it is said Man hath not one death alone but a number of deaths and that which takes him away is called the last death for he hath many before that This is the state of sowing the body But now behold the promise of the great God! he will raise it up in power the weaker it is sown the stronger it shall rise and this weaknesse that we have it is no argument of discomfort nor a mean to make us distrust but it is a surer tye to binde God to performance and a sure evidence of our deliverance that as our weaknesse is great so our strength shall be much more infinite which shall be wrought by the mighty power of God whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe It is raised againe in power or in strength For it is raised by him that is the strong God by him that is El Eli Elohim the God of strength of might and of majesty By that God that loves to make his strength seen in our weaknesse and to make his glory perfect in our infirmity by that God that delights to work in contraries and to bring fire and water out of the same principle that God hath undertaken to raise up this weak body Therefore the Apostle saith It is raised speaking in the present tense as of a thing done not in the future tense It shall be To bring us acquainted with the truth before it be done and to make us assured of it as if it were performed already We are as sure indeed to be raised to that glorious strength which God hath promised as if the deed were done for it is in the counsell of the great God in which those things that hee hath promised be as if they were already performed because he is true that hath promised and because he is able to keep his promise he is able to keep his word for it is his onely prerogative to keep his word and his promise for ever And this is that wondrous comfort that he hath given unto us that if it were possible for the body to have more weaknesse then it hath if it were possible to be debased worse by infirmity then it is yet then we had a stronger argument to prove the strength to come to which the body shall be restored For the weaknesse which we have and carry about us the greater it is the stronger proofe it makes for Gods infinite mercy in the deliverance of us For as we see by experience that vessels and barrells of gunpowder laid up in vaults and cells the more waight is laid upon them the greater pyles and masse of building there is over them the more furiously and strongly they break forth at the touch and traine of the least fire So likewise it is certain that the bodies that are turned into powder to dust these powder-bodies of ours for at last they must all all come to pulverell to dust powder these bodies the more weight is upon them the more earth the more difficulty and the greater weaknesse they have whereby they are compassed and surrounded it makes way for the more strength to burst out when the fire of God shall light and touch upon it when there shall be a re-union of the spirit a deduction of the soule when that fire shall light upon it that comes from heaven then they shall rise in a glorious strength for the more they have beene held downe by weaknesse the more they shall be rescued and ransomed and restored to a greater vigour It is raised in power and strength and in a strength that is answerable to the weaknesse that where the weakness is the greatest there the strength shall transcend in greatnesse And what is this strength It is reduced by the Fathers into foure particulars First St. Austin and St. Chrysostom and generally all the Fathers think Aug. Chrysost that the strength that shall be most eminent in the body when it riseth shall be in the power of motion which because I have before spoken of I will but now touch it As the top of the flame that is in a dry reed it runs upon the reed and you know when such platts of ground are on fire they set all a fire about them so the body of man it shall be able to flye to run and to move as swiftly as the flame doth upon the top of any combustible matter And as the Sun and the Stars and the Angels and spirits of men doe never sleepe and yet are still in motion and are never weary of their motion so the body that shall be raised and fitted againe unto the soule shall be without labour and pain without weaknesse and wearinesse and shall never faile nor faint but shall be able to hold out in an everlasting motion as the Sunne and the Stars doe in the firmament In which sense as Luther Luther saith they shall be able to goe ten thousand furlongs in the twinkling of an eye I name that as a matter of recreation because his spirit was wondrous cheerfull and merry in the Notes that he gives tending to that purpose The second thing wherein this strength shall consist shall be in the efficacy and power of their working So that those that be the weakest things in the world now that one devill if he were permitted were able to wrythe the necks of ten thousand people about then at that day God shall give them that strength of body that they shall be able to encounter a whole legion of devils which shall then have no power over the bodies of men as now they have nor shall not be able to possesse them and to rule them at their pleasure nor to make monsters of them but the body of one Saint shall put to flight and fright a whole legion of sathans complices And this mighty power whereby they work that I may a little still proceed
in Luthers explication Saith he the bodies of the Saints shall be so strong at that day that they shall be able to remove Churches out of their places with their finger they shall be able to play with mighty mountaines as children play with tennis-balls His meaning is that they shall have a mighty and infinite power to work upon any thing that God shall set them about or that shall be expedient for them But these kind of speeches and discourses are explanatorie and are rather for recreation then for men to subscribe unto and yet it is most sure that their working power shall be great and admirable and although it shall not be infinite yet it shall be as neare to infinite as can be devised For whatsoever it shall please God to put in their minds to effect they shall be able to doe it and nothing shall make resistance Thirdly some other of the Fathers and of the later Writers Beza Calvin as Beza and Calvin expound it thus It is raised againe in power that is it is freed from the necessities of nature which is weaknesse For the life of man here in this world must be sustained by mennes it must have meat and drink and sleep and rest and an intercourse and change of things there must be physick and medicines to cure his diseases Now at that day the Lord shall so temper the body that it shall be able to live without meat and drink and it shall alway watch without any necessity of sleepe As St. Austin saith in his 5. Tome the 13. Book Chap. 23. Although the bodies of the Saints shall have power to eate and drink in that world yet they shall not stand in need of it they may doe it if they will but they shall have no dependancie upon meat and drink as now they have in this world So it shall rise a strong body That little strength that men have now is maintained by meat and drink under God they have no way else to preserve it and if a man fast sixe or seaven daies he must needs die presently because nature can indure no further abstinence and besides that old age is comming upon him although his meat be most delicate yet notwithstanding the power of digestion so far failes him that he is notable to concoct it and transmit it into bloud and nature as he was wont to doe and especially if his meat grow coorse or his fare be abated then wee know that the best and most singular strength in the world must fade and failâ— For commonly according as the Commons are so is the strength so our life is a meere dependance upon second causes next under God God gives meat a power to nourish and meat by a secondarie meanes nourisheth whereby it comes to be assimilated and made like unto the body and so we live and as meat growes worse or is taken away so the body impaires and when for a long time it is not able to master the meat and to digest it into the substance of the body then likewise the life is impaired and falls But the strength that the bodies of the Saints shall then have it shall be without these dependances the children of God shall be able to live and to keep their strength and vigour and fulnesse and perfection without any of these helps of second causes and although they may stoop to them when they will for variety yet they shall have no necessity of them Aug. Lastly as St. Austin saith in his 3. Tome 13. Book Chap. 26. this strength saith he that the Apostle speaks of I take to be specially this that whereas now of these earthly bodies of ours Mat. 26.41 the Lord Iesus saith the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and the Apostle saith Rom. 7.19 The good things that I would doe that I doe not and the evill things that I would not doe that doe I Saith the holy Father I take the meaning of that place of Scripture to be this That whereas now the strongest part of man the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and as a dull asse the Lord shall then prepare it so that he shall proportion and fit the horse to his rider that to the soule which is the rider and commander of the body hee shall give a horse of metall that shall be able to carry it to all actions whereas now it jades and tires upon every good thing The spirit here is willing but the flesh is weak but there shall be so perfect a concord and subjection of the flesh to the spirit that it shall goe hand in hand and shall hold pace with the soule the flesh shall be as willing to doe God service as the spirit and there shall be that wondrous transmutation of qualities that it shall seem rather a flesh made of spirit then otherwise For so it followes in the Text It is sowne a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body It is sowne a naturall body 2. Property Sowne in weaknesse it is raised a spirituall body This is the last difference of the 4. and in this is comprehended the summe of all For hee comprehends in the first word naturall all defects and all weaknesses and infirmities and in the word spirituall he comprehends all perfection and augmentation that God shall give in that day Saint Austin saith Aug. Beza a naturall body is a mortall body Beza saith it is a body subject to mutation a changeable body A bodie it is compounded of elements by a soluble composition A bodie that bows to the earth that goes to the center according to its owne naturall inclination A bodie that must at last bee resolved into its principles and as it is made of Elements so it must goe to Elemenâ—s againe This is a naturall body and thus we know it is with every body in the world For though there must be a change of them that survive when the Lord shall come and that they shall not have this dissolution that our bodies must have yet that change that they shall have shall bee in stead of this dissolution and who knowes in what kinde it shall bee and with what paines it shall bee No doubt it shall bee no great prerogative above us and although they shall not die and goe unto the earth as we doe yet they shall be full of pangs and horrour as the deaths of common men are For it is the nature of this body being animal and having no better a principle whereby it lives then the soule to dissolve and come to its owne principles dust to dust to come to ashes and earth according to Gods decree working upon this flesh of ours It is sowne therefore a naturall body that is subject to change and corruption But now see the hand of God on the other side It is raised a spirituall body This is that wherein the Apostle comprehends all the rest to perswade that
there is a spirituall body all the rest are included in this It is sowne in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is true if it be spirituall it must needs be incorrupt so It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour It is certaine if it be raised a spirituall body And so for strength if it be spirituall it must needs be strong Therefore the Apostle concludes all in this It shall be raised a spirituall body But how a spirituall body Marke he saith not that the flesh of Gods Saints the bodies that shall be raised that they shall be spirits but spirituall bodies Still it shall be a body So that there is no change in the substance but onely in the qualities and properties Tertull. Saith Tertullian the Apostle doth not speak of any change of the substance of nature but of the glorious qualities that shall come unto it Surely saith hee there is nothing that riseth againe but that which was sowne and there is nothing sowne but that which is dissolved and rotten in the earth and there is nothing lies rotting in the earth but flesh therefore nothing shall rise again but the flesh For there was nothing that the sentence of God went upon but the flesh of Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne So St. Austin expounding the words In Tom. 5. Aug. Lib. 13. How shall they be spirituall Not because they shall cease to be bodies they are not therefore called spirituall as though they were turned spirits and ceased to be bodies but because they shall subsist with a living and quickning spirit and because they shall be made indwellers and inhabitants of heaven which is the place of spirits it shall then be the place for the bodies of men For now it is a strange paradoxe to say the body of a man should dwell in heaven and though we know that Christ hath it by a speciall priviledge yet there is no man can imagine how the bodie of a man should dwell in heaven in those pure skies in those bright regions and that the heavinesse of the body should not praecipitate it downe to the earth and cast it into the fire and to dismall events that should consume it But when the Lord shall change this corruption into incorruption the bodies of the Saints shall be the onely fit inhabitants of heaven therefore it is called spirituall because it shall dwell in heaven which is the place of spirits the body shall then be able to inhabit there therefore it is called spirituall as being fit to possesse those mansions that are destinated properly for spirits But Chrysostome makes a question here Saith he Chrysost What is this that thou sayest here blessed Apostle Dost thou say that the bodies of the children of God are not spirituall now are they all meerly animal now are they not spirituall how is it said that they are Temples of the holy Ghost if the holy Ghost dwell in them he makes them spirituall they are called spirituall men all the children of God and if they be spirituall men then they have spirituall bodies But the Father answers himselfe again It is true these bodies we carry about us now by the power of the holy Ghost are after a sort spirituall but that body which shall be then which he here speaks of shall be infinitely far more spirituall This is onely in inchoation in beginning in the first fruits that shall be in the summe and substance and fulnesse of perfection And St. Bernard If thou sayest our bodies shall rise againe thy meaning is not to take away the being of the body but to give it a new lustre as the face of Moses and as in the transfiguration of Iesus Exod. 34. For as Moses when God put that brightnesse upon his face that the people could not look upon it but he was faine to haye a vaile on his face his face was still the same but yet there was a change of glory there was an accession of brightness whereby it seemed a spirit rather then a common ordinary visage so the bodies of men that shall be raised there shall be such an accession and augmentation of glory and beauty and brightnesse that it shall rather seeme spirituall then otherwise And as it was in the Transfiguration of Christ Mar. 17. his garments shone that no Dier in the earth could make the like and his face shone as the sunne in his strength the face of Christ was all one his garments were the same he had the same physiognomie but onely there was a new accession of glory that came unto it So the bodies of the Saints they shall be all one the very same body shall be revived which hath suffered misery here and shall have a new glory put upon it and that very body shall have strength that here was weak and subject to death The Lord shall then cloathe it with glory and although it shall rise a spirituall body it is not in respect of the change of the substance but in regard of the augmentation of glory which shall accrew unto it It is raised a spirituall body So much of those two Attributes of the change from weaknesse to strength and from naturall to spirituall Now in the words following the Apostle comes to prove that such a thing there is as a naturall body and a spirituall body And this he doth to prevent objections partly lest men should think that he coyned new distinctions and divisions which is a thing faulty in the Church and partly lest men should be drowned in error by misconceiving his doctrine For the first If a man should have said unto him Where doe you learne this did you ever heare any man speak such a thing that there is a spirituall body Yes saith the Apostle there is both there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body I will make the distinction good and prove it This teacheth us Vse that men ought to be carefull what distinctions they bring into the Church of God For as the Apostle saith to Timothy 1 Tim. 6.21 and to Titus Shun novelty of words and inventions shun them they are not to be admitted they destroy the faith and puzzle the understandings of all Gods children Vincentius Lirinensis Vincentius Lirinensis saith That although men ought to speak many things in the Church of God after a new fashion yet they ought to speak no new thing at all Therefore lest they should be offended with this distinction as though the Apostle had brought it out of his owne braine as though it were a new device of his owne hatching he is forced to make it good and to prove that there is such a thing because hee would not be thought an Inventer of new devices and a maker of new distinctions which is a plague in the Church of God throughout all ages Secondly another reason was this because hee would not suffer them to
live in sicknesse and at last to be swallowed up of death to come to rottennesse and putrifaction which is the naturall conclusion of all bodies that live in this world This course God hath appointed first and then upon this God will make his power glorious to bring the body from dust and filth and rottennes to be spirituall to bring it to sweetnesse and glory and beauty this is his order Therefore first they are naturall bodies miserable and weak and obnoxious and then the Lord will supervestire he will invest them with that glory and incorruption which is promised to us in Christ So much for that point the truth of the proposition and the order Now for the comparison of the two heads and fountaines they are laid downe 2. Part. The comparison of the two Adams as the causers of all this Why is this so that there is first the naturall and then the spirituall because God would have Adam the naturall man to come first and Christ the Spirituall man to come last that the one should be the first of men the other the last and that they two should carry the keyes of these closets and treasures the one of corruption the other of incorruption Therefore from them depends all the reason of the former proposition First it is to be observed that hee saith a man First in respect of their order and succession first and last and a man It is spoken of Christ that hee is a man as well as of Adam so that they were both men of the same nature and substance nay the second Adam was the sonne of the first For wee see St. Luke in his Genealogie Luke 3. Luke 3. brings Christ from Adam Which was the sonne of Adam which was the sonne of God So that Manicheus and Valentinus and Martianus have taught us blasphemous doctrines in former times and so have the Swenck-Feldians which have received their errour of late All these are from hence condemned For as Tertullian Tertull. saith Why is Christ called the second man except hee were as true a man as the first therefore of the nature of Adam was the Lord Christ made even by deduction of nature and by a line infallible to the Virgin Mary Although by reason of the sanctifying of the bloud of which his blessed body was to be made and because that there was no intervention of the help of man he is not to be ranked in the common generation of man-kinde for he was not borne as they that are borne of women that is after the naturall ordinary course but by the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost Therefore in this regard hee is greater and far above Adam but concerning the materiall part of his body which hee tooke of the Virgin hee was the son of Adam and so the second man or the last Adam not because hee was the last of all men Iesus Christ hath been many years since in the flesh but because he was to put an end to the state of all things that there should be no new state after the comming of Christ expected Before Christ there was the state of nature of the law of the separation of the Iewes and Gentiles there were divers kinds and degrees but now he is come all the former states of nature and the law are no more to be recapitulated and there is no difference between the Iew and the Gentile Colos 3.11 bond and free male and female but all are one in Christ Iesus Againe Christ is called the last Adam because he saith of himselfe Revâ—l 1.8 that hee is Alpha and Omega he is Alpha in respect of his Deity and he is Omega in respect of his humanity and hee is both Alpha and Omega both first and last in regard that hee is coequall and coeternall with God the Father For as he is God he is Alpha the beginning of all things created he is the first borne of all creatures Colos 1.15 and as hee is Omega he is the last conclusion and end of the Alphabet that there is no more state no more sacrifice no more law no more new to be expected in the world But that which a Christian is to betake him to he must have it in Christ or not at all and all other are deceived that seeke for any other name than that Acts 4 24. for there is no other name under heaven whereby we may be saved This is the first difference in their order The second 2. In respect of their places earth heaven is in respect of the places from whence they were descended The first man is from the earth earthly The second man is the Lord himself from heaven heavenly The places from whence they come are earth and heaven and there is no greater difference can be in all the things in nature Wee cannot say that there is any thing more distant than these two nor any thing more contrary than these two the one being the fountaine of light the other being the receptacle of darknesse The one being the spring of all actions the other being a meerely passive and dull substance The one being the cause impressive the other being the cause receptive The one being the originall and fulnesse of every thing that is good the other being participant as much as it is capable of it For so much as the supreame cause works upon it so much it is prospered by it The one being alway moving and stirring and whirling about the other being restive and not able to stirre out of its place There is nothing more contrary than heaven and earth and such is the deduction of these two prime causes But how was Adam earthly more then Christ Christ had a body of the Virgin and so he was of the bowels of the earth as well as Adam And how was Christ more heavenly and spirituall then Adam had not he a soule and spirit as well as Christ how can these things consist For the first you must understand that the Apostles meaning is where hee saith that Adam was from the earth that is as much as to say his chiefe powers and abilities were still inclined to the earth that he was fraile that hee was made in a condition to goe back againe to the earth that was his destiny and hee had a law imposed upon him to dig and delve the earth and therefore he is said to be of the earth Not because hee had not a soule from heaven for hee had a soule from heaven as well as Christ had but because he was drawne by his inferiour part by his body which was his earthly part because hee was drawne by that from the contemplation of heavenly things and had rather to take an apple with his wife than to follow the justice and uprightnesse of God because hee declined to the earth and base things and left the Creator for a poore creature and because hee left the unchangeable good
for that which is changeable therefore he is said to be unconstant base and earthly that is a simple poore base creature which made himselfe according to his prime originall and studied and gaped after the things of the earth out of which he was extracted He had indeed better things if he would have used them but he was so stupefied and drawne back to his inferiour part that hee was made like unto his first materialls the earth But the other was from heaven not because he had not a body from the earth but because to that body was added a glorious divinity and that his body was not a person as Adams was For if the manhood of Christ had been a person he must have beene lyable as all persons that are borne to condemnation but his was not a person but a nature united to the second person in the Trinity so that although there be two natures in Christ yet there is not two but one person and the actions that come from any man they are the actions of his person of the subject and not the actions of his nature For it is a man that speaks and a man that works and not the body of a man that speaks or the soule of man So therefore it comes to passe that the actions that come from Christ they are the actions of his person not of his humane nature but of his person and so they be the actions of God and man That is of that person in the Godhead that took the manhood unto it and so they are made the actions of an infinite merit and possibility Herein then is the difference that although Adam had a soul as well as Christ yet he had onely a living soule that could enliven no body but himselfe but the Lord had a Spirit that is the Deity it selfe which is able to give life which is the fountaine of life to all the world And although Christ had a body from the earth yet that body was not left unto frailty but was governed and sanctified and glorified by the beatificall vision of God and by the presence of the incorporate union of the Sonne of God So by this comes the difference between them the one was a man and nothing else but from the earth the other was more then a man God and man and so he is the Lord from heaven 3. In respect of their qualities The third difference is in their quality and condition which is noted in this word hee was a Lord. Therefore Adam came not as a Lord he came as a servant he was to serve in all purposes he came to till the garden to till the earth he came to eate and drink to beget children to be the father of a family Hee came into the world to increase and multiply as God commanded him Gen. 1.28 to replenish the earth These although they be faire courses and God gave a blessing unto them yet they be carnall and fleshly there is no respect of excellencie in these things they are matters rather of necessity for the present solace in this world then of glory But Christ came not for this purpose He came not to eate and drink but his meat and drink was to doe the will of his Father Iohn 4 34. He had no generation all his generation is a spirituall regeneration he came to doe God service these were the things he was exercised in Therefore he was the Lord from heaven This is the high prerogative of Christ There were many Angels that came from heaven as well as Christ but they came not as Lords but as servants as fellow servants Rev. 22.9 as in Rev. 22. when Iohn would have worshipped the Angel See thou doe it not saith hee I am thy fellow servant Heb. 1.14 And in Heb. 1. they are ministring spirits that serve for the salvation of those that are elect and chosen for the inheritance Therefore they came not downe as Lords but as servants And although we reade in Scripture of those that came downe as Lords as in the apparition to Abraham Gen. 18. he called the Angell Lord. Gen. 18.3 And the Captaine of the Lords Army that appeared to Ioshua though these came in the glory Ioshuah 5.14 and might of the Lord yet they were not that Lord as here it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord that came from heaven For that Lord is but one Lord Heb. 1.2 which is the Sonne of God to whom the Father hath given the inheritance of all things Heb. 1.2 hee is the heyre of all things and the Iewes themselves confesse Come let us kill him this is the heyre Mark 12.7 and the inheritance shall be ours Hee then is the Lord from heaven Adam came not as a Lord nor yet from heaven but one onely part of him his soul without any conjunction of the divine nature there came a changeable soule into a fraile body but Christ the Lord from heaven that is the Sonne of God as being Lord of hell and heaven invested himself in a strange and wondrous manner into the body and wombe of a Virgin and tooke that masse and lump of blood whereof his blessed body should be compacted and united it to himselfe and exercised the power of miracles and of gracious wonders and all parts of perfection in that nature and therefore he hath exalted our nature high above the Angels nature for he took not upon him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he took the seed of Abraham Lastly in their qualities they differ that as the first man came from the earth and is a servant so he is earthly There are two parts of man as the Philosopher saith there is the mind and the understanding that is the subtile and divine and fiery part of man whereby he is appropincate and drawes neere unto God in the similitude of his Image There is another and that is the grosse and materiall part Chrysost as St. Chrysostom expounds it that this earthly man is one that is dull and grosse and nayled and tyed to these things that are present whereas the other 2 Cor. 4.18 is heavenly and altogether upon the things that are not seene for the things that are seene are temporall but them that are not seene are eternall So then the one by his condition was still looking downward the other was all spirit and full of vigour full of life alway looking upward still unto heaven his conversation was also heavenly having given all his followers power to have their conversations there Phil. 3.20 Phil. 3. But our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Lord Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body So this is the Comparison of these two heads which that I may conclude this point wee must observe very strictly For by that meanes we may be both able to keep out all contrary
our life In our inclination In our declination In our death In our grave and sepulchre In all things wee are like our first parent Adam which is the father of our nature as Christ is the father of our state in grace Therefore as at the first wee are made by the hand of God as Adam was wee are made out of a base matter as he was the Lord made him out of the red earth Psal 119.73 so saith David thy hands have made me and fashioned me out of such a kind of substance are we made We are like him in our beginning Adam was left to a kind of free-will to goe this way of that way Which free-will hee had entire and might have kept it if he would In our infancie wee are partly left that way but custome and corruption lead us another way for wee are forestalled by inbred corruption by sinne and we are mis-led by the corrupt customes in the world so that children are corrupted before they be sensible Otherwise children have that in them above men that they may say This course I will take and this course I will not take For when a man takes a course to be vicious and to fall into sinne he cannot be so free as he that hath a pure mind which is like unto a white paper wherein there is nothing written For they that fall into evill they set such blots upon them that cannot be gotten out without the bloud of Christ And indeed in the fairest paper in the minds of children there is that corruption that the bloud of Christ must wash it out even that originall sinne though they be free from actuall Therefore in this wee are like unto Adam mutable and changeable Nay our condition is worse than his for he had a power not to sin and we have no power but to sinne as long as wee live in this flesh Thirdly in the inclination of our mind As Adam grew hee had an inclination to eate and to drink a necessity of increasing in the world of steep and work and the like so in these things wee grow and many men are so set upon these worldly things that they commonly faile God and their soules in other things And for our declining age we are like unto him Although hee lived in strength a long time yet at last hee failed of his strength and of his wit and at length came to be turned to dust to nothing So it is with us as is the earthly so are they that are earthly we must follow his condition wee cannot avoid it we must be like unto him Lastly as Adam died and went to his grave from which he was taken earth to earth dust to dust and rotted in the earth and there he lyeth now and hath lyen for the space of almost 5000. years in the dust so the Lord will bring our bodies by the common sentence which hee hath pronounced against our sins and the sin of Adam he will bring them to the same state For as is the earthly so are they that are earthly In their birth in their life in their inclination in their death in their grave and in all the parts and passages of this mortall race they are all alike each to other But the Lord who is to give a new life of grace which begins here and shall be completed in the life of glory which shall be manifested hereafter he shall conforme his members unto him more then Adam doth his For if we be miserable because of the first Adam much more shall we be glorious because of Christ the second Adam And if a weak cause be able to conforme his members unto him a stronger cause shall be much more able Therefore as the misery of man is derived from Adam to his posterity so the glory and majesty of God shall be derived and exhibited and set forth and fulfilled from Christ as from a root and fountaine to all those that follow For from his fulnesse we have all received even grace for grace Iohn 1 16. Therefore he saith those that are spirituall shall be such as he that is spirituall as Christ is now in his glorious body For this must be taken of the glorified body of Christ and not of his mortall body For he had a mortall body in which he died but when it was raised againe it was a glorified body And as it was in the Resurrection of Christ so in the common Resurrection we shall be like unto him by the power of Christ that worketh all in all And if Adam could convey unto us an inheritance of misery and weaknesse and declining much more shall the Lord convey a stronger inheritance of glory and beauty and of all that wee can desire and that can fill the heart of man all which the word of God hath made a promise and tender of Therefore as the Apostle saith comfort your selves in these words 1 Thes 4.18 even in observing the order that God would have and be content that your naturalls may passe away that your spirituals may succeed For we must of necessity be borne before we can be borne anew of water and of the holy Ghost We must be borne first of the will of flesh and bloud wee must be borne after againe by the sacred laver of regeneration not of the will of flesh and bloud Iohn 1.13 but of the spirit by the word of God and by faith in Christ Iesus And as St. Austin saith we could not die Aug. except wee had been the members of Adam nor wee could not rise againe except wee were the members of Christ But these things be so ordained by God that wee cannot looke for the one except we be content to taste of the other The Lord made not the Angels and us in one condition they were made in their full perfection at the first therefore some of them fell from that to be devils some of them continuing by the grace of God and are confirmed for ever But man was not so made but as a scholler to come by divers degrees to grow forward from rudiments and principles unto further perfection that the glory of God might be seen in his successe and course in his bringing on and production that he appointed for man Vse Therefore wee ought to be contented with the ordinance of God to rejoyce in it and to be willing to suffer the cup which God hath put into our hands even the cup of death when the Lord shall call for us And wee ought also to arme our selves with this exceeding comfort that this is the onely passage and way which God hath made for that glorious state hereafter For if there be naturall there shall be spirituall and if there be no nature there shall be no spirit Therefore this misery and weaknesse is as it were a doore and a way unto greatnesse and strength and ability This is that which the blessed Apostle saith 2 Cor. 11.
they be in heaven yet they are not there without some change of body not without the destruction of the corrupt part whereby it was made sinfull And though the Saints that shall live at the comming of Christ shall be translated and it is true they shall be so but how by the mighty power of Gods omnipotencie that shall work them throughly to perfection and shall take away the drosse and leave nothing but that which is pure and sit for the glory of God to dwell in and make his residence there For it is impossible that the slaves of miserie should make their residence in the Court of glory because of the corruption of sinne that is left in them which must be rooted out that they may be capable of that blessed condition To the which the Lord bring us Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.51 Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye by the last trump THere is almost no part of our Christian faith so generall but it admits of some particular exception 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ came into the world to save sinners yet not all sinners but those that are penitent and converted So the Rule is that all men must once die Heb. 9.27 and that all men that are dead shall rise againe And yet this is not true of all particulars for there are some exceptions against this truth yea there be many thousands of men and women many millions that shall neither die nor rise againe Yea a whole world the world that shall stand at the comming of Iesus Christ shall neither die nor rise again But these are but a handfull in respect of former ages and therefore some particular exceptions doe not infringe a generall rule for if there be some then that shall not tast of death yet there is no man doubts but that the common law of death is imposed upon all men and every man must suffer it in his time And although it be a true Article of our faith that all flesh that is dead shall rise againe to judgement yet there are a certaine number which shall be exempted and which shall be translated after another manner not by way of Resurrection but by way of change and mutation And the Apostle calls this a great mysterie for indeed as all the whole doctrine of the Resurrection is full of mysteries so this above the rest to understand what kinde of change this shall be to understand how they that live at Christs comming shall be priviledged more than us that lived before them For it is a great priviledge for a man never to goe to his grave and hee that sleeps least in the dust we account him in common sense and reason the happiest we esteeme him the happiest man that stayes the shortest time in death How therefore these things should be conceived it is mysticall and hidden from our senses All this notwithstanding the Apostle resolves upon it and saith although it be a mysterie to us yet it was not a mysterie to him for it was revealed by the Spirit of God to him and he reveals it and tells it again unto us that there is a remnant of men that shall survive when Christ shall come to judgement which shall not goe to heaven by that common path that wee goe they shall not come to see death as we doe nor to the putrefaction and filth which is incident to our nature but they shall be translated by a kinde of change which shall be unto them as our death is to us and they shall not have a resurrection as our bodies have they shall not goe under grovnd to rise againe they shall not be dissolved to be renewed againe And this is the wondrous mysterie which is of all most strange For suppose a child that is both new borne and newly interred as there shall be many thousands that shall die two or three dayes before the Resurrection these must now rise very raw out of their graves the change then that shall now be made upon their bodies that were so newly interred must needs be a very wonderfull one It is past the reason of man to conceive but it is enough that it rests in the power of God and that he hath revealed it to his Apostles and Teachers of his Church by an infallible determination and that it shall be truely and really effected upon the persons of them that shall then live whatsoever wee think and deeme to the contrary So now the Apostle begins partly to tell us of the great world that shall be when Christ shall come and partly to prove that which hee had said before As concerning the state of the world he would have us to consider that in the latter end the Lord shall come in a moment and he shall take things as he finds them and those that are then living he shall make his own hand glorious upon them as he pleaseth by a kinde of change and mutation although not according to the common decree and course of dying And for the other that it is a proofe of that hee had said before we are to consider the words that formerly he had said that corruption shall not inherit incorruption nor flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Now for that a man may thus object and say against it What then shall become of them that live when Christ comes to judgment are not they flesh and bloud as well as wee for their bloud shall be corrupted as well as ours is and corrupt flesh as well as wee their flesh shall be tainted with sinne and with all kinde of transgression and disobedience as ours is and rather worse for the longer the world stands the worse it growes therefore if flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God and that corrupt flesh and bloud shall not come into incorruption what shall become of them that Christ shall finde at his comming The Apostle answers that Nay saith hee God hath provided another way for them and that is by mutation and change So that though they shall be flesh and bloud as wee are and corrupt flesh and bloud as wee are and perhaps worse corrupted than we because the last times of the world shall be the worst yet the Lord shall so work by his omnipotent power as that their corruption shall be refined and wrought out they shall be molded by the mighty hand of God and by that fire that shall goe through the world For as hee hath a visible fire to purifie the elements and all this visible masse which we see so he hath another kind of fire a spirituall fire to purge the bodies of men from their originall and actuall transgressions which they have contracted the power of God shall so worke that they shall have some Analogie with our death which
notwithstanding they shall not die nor be put into their graves for that change shall be unto them instead of our death And doe not think your selves so much the worse that God favours you the lesse or that he favours them more because they goe not to their graves as you doe For the Lord makes you by patience subject to his holy will hee gives you that patience that for his sake you can be content to be deposed to lay downe your earthly Tabernacles And you must not vexe and grive at them for they are never the better for it For their change is to them as a death although it be not with the same obsequies and in the same outward shews yet in effect it shall be the same Therefore that wee are done to dust and that they never see dust this is no disparagement to us nor no great comfort to them for it shall be all one in effect the Lord imbalmes the memory of his Saints and he preserves their dust and tels the sands of their dust and hee keeps them in perpetuall record so that whatsoever hee poures out hereafter upon another generation it shall not be a prejudice to those that are now dead For the Lord goes down with those that sleepe to the grave hee descends with them and preserves them and keeps them he numbers their haires he numbers the members and parts of their bodies And this is that mysterie which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mysterie It is a great mysterie that any man should live and not see death yet the Apostle tells us that there shall be millions of men that shall live and yet they shall have no death many that shall have a mortall and corrupt and sinfull life as we have and yet they shall not have any death It is a great mysterie that all the Saints should not come to life eternall by the same meanes that is by way of putrefaction and of resurrection and yet there are millions that shall not come to life that way but by another way of change and mutation Behold I tell you a mysterie we shall not all die but we shall all be changed This is the summe of the words Division into 1 The time 2 The manner and meanes Now the Apostle expresseth and explaineth himselfe farther by telling the cause and the means how this shall be done for hee saith this shall be done as concerning the time immediately in an instant in the twinckling of an eye And as concerning the manner and the meanes of it by the vertue of the last trump The trump that shall blow And so the substance of it is this The Lord shall sound forth his Trumpet which shall have a power to change the bodies that as at the first hee spake the word Let this be made Gen. 1. and it was made Let there be light and there was light so there shall be another power in the voice for the renewing and re-creating of things as there was a power in the voice then to create and make the world so there shall in the re-creating and re making of the world that shall make a change of all things And as in the beginning things that were dark before were made light Let there be light and there was light of that which was dark before and that which was confused before was made orderly and distinct which is the greatest extremities that can be light and darknesse order and confusion so likewise there shall be a mighty voice of God in that sounding silver Trumpet that shall then blow to change the bodies of men from dark to light some bodies and shall change their thoughts from confusion and disorder to bee regular and orderly The trumpet is the voice of God the operation of the Almighty which as it wrought a strange change in the Creation so it shall worke a stranger in the recreation and renovation of the world These are the parts and parcels of the Text. Now to proceed in order as it shall please God to give assistance The first thing to bee considered is that the Church of God in respect of this mystery which the Apostle speaks of hath been drawne to diverse readings and expositions of this Text. For they could not see how it should be true that the Apostle saith All shall bee changed because they thought it onely belonged to the godly But it is certaine that the ungodly shall be changed too for their bodies that are now corrupt shall be then uncorrupt But how to sustaine misery and torment that they had better not to bee than to bee in such a case All the paines of hell shall not so work upon them to dead them not to consume them but they shall bee able to consist in the middest of torment Now the least care and trouble in the world kills a mans heart and works him off but then God shall so change the bodies of the reprobates that they shall bee able to indure whatsoever torment shall bee laid upon them But because those men understood not this they thought the change was to bee taken in a good sense to belong onely to the godly Therefore they reade it two severall wayes differing from ours For our reading is this which is so in the Originall according to the Greek copy Wee shall not all die but wee shall all bee changed And so it agrees properly with that which went before For he gives an answer to a question that might be made Why doe you say that corruption shall not enter into incorruption nor flesh and blood into the kingdome of heaven shall not they bee corrupt flesh that shall live at the comming of Christ to judgement To this the Apostle saith Indeed they shall not die but instead of that death they shall have a change So that this is an inference upon the former and an answer for the removall of an objection Now as I said diverse partes of the Church reade it two other wayes The first is this Wee shall all certainely die but wee shall not all be changed For they were carefull still to appropriate and bring the change unto Gods people and inheritance as though it belonged not to the wicked Another Reading is this Wee shall all rise againe but wee shall not all bee changed so that still they make the negative upon the change because they understood not how this thing might bee conceived to belong to the good and bad which is the change of the bodies Now indeed in their severall senses they be all true For the first that saith wee shall not all sleepe It is true of the common masse of mankind but not of every particular body and of every particular age For I told you before that the Lord shall exempt a whole world from the common death which wee suffer Therefore it is not true in the particulars that we shall all sleâ—pe For there shall be many thousands of men
by paginalls by leaves that is to say the holy Scriptures contained in so many books But the trumpet at the comming of Christ it shall not be in pagina but in praesentia In the presence of the Sonne with the voice of the Sonne himselfe According as it is said Ioh. 5. Ioh. 5.25 there are many that sleep in their graves and monuments that shall heare the voice of the Sonne of God and shall rise againe Thus the Fathers seeme to incline to that opinion that the voice of the trumpet shall be metaphoricall that it is an allusiâ—n and a figurative speech But howsoever this it is most certaine that it shall be a sensible voice which shall be heard that as St. Ierom Jerome saith they shall heare with their eares and goe along with their feet unto the tribunall seat of judgement The best therefore that we can say and conclude of it is this according as wee see but in part 1 Cor. 13 9. we understand but in part in a darke riddle while wee live in this world the Lord shall then create a voice in the aire an audible voice in the aire which shall run through all parts and passages of the world and it shall be so mighty and so powerfull as that the dead bodies in the grave shall heare it Every thing heares when God speaks The waters heard the voice of Christ the windes heard the voice of Christ the devils heard his voice the rocks and stones heard him So there is an obedientiall power in every thing created and it cannot but heare when God speaks This is that trumpet that is a voice that shall be modulate and framed whether it shall be to descant as it is very likely or to a plain tune But howsoever it shall be a voice and a voice like the sound of a Trumpet which God shall frame in the body of the ayre Who shal blow this Trumpet But who shall blow this trumpet who shall sound it Here the curiosity of man must lay the hand up on the mouth and surcease It is a damnable thing for a man to enquire into that which God hath not reveiled Some of the Fathers have been inching and questioning about this point who it shall be but it is certain it shall be the voice of an Arch-angell Although the voice be properly the voice of the Son of God yet it is not meet that the voice should come from him it is not meet that the voice should be the immediate voice of the Sonne of God that should blow in the aire but as the voice of a Cryer or Herald when the King comes to a place is said to be the voice of the King because he cryes and proclaimes not his owne matters but the Kings So the Angell that shall be imployed in this businesse he is said to utter the voice of God and the voice of Christ from whom that which he utters receives all the efficacy and power And though it be the voice of an Angell and by the ministery of an Angell yet it shall be by the ordinance and power and authority of the Son of God that shall make this voice Therefore the Fathers resolve upon two which they think shall sound the trumpet Michaell or Gabriell They think Michaell shall sound it because he is the Prince of Angels and in the Revelation Michael his Angels Rev. 12.7 fought against the devill and his angels But this is unlikely for Michael there is to be understood of Christ the Sonne of God that fought with the power of satan upon the crosse But I rather incline to the other that it shall be Gabriell the Arch-angell who was hee onely that brought the newes of Christs first comming in Luke 1. Luke 1. As hee was used by God to bring tidings of Christs Incarnation that he should be borne of a virgin in his first comming so it is probable that he shall be imployed by the same Majesty againe to bring newes of the last comming of the Lord when hee shall come to judgement Concerning these things I will not be too inquisitive neither would I have you to be too curious for an Angell or an Arch-angell it must be for the word is so 2 Part. Why called the last trump I come now to the next thing Why is it called the last trump for if hee call it the last trump it hath reference to some others that were before it And so it is true for those that were before were figures of this last trump those seaven kinde of trumpets Theoph. Oecumenius Rev. 8. 9. and especially as Theophilact and Oecumenius observe St Paul hath reference to Rev. 8. there are seaven trumpets and they all sounded and presently there came vialls of wrath upon the world presently upon the sound of those trumpets So St. Paul tells us that there shall come trumpets betweene the time that he wrote and spake these things and betweene the last trump that shall sound there shall be other trumpets then this That is those seaven before spoken of which in the time of the Romane Empire the Lord uttered himselfe by expressing his will in them and also in the time of the Christian Empire And indeed in the time of all Christian Kings these trumpets have blowne and indeed these silver trumpets blow daily if wee could understand what were the right meaning of them and what the newes of them were And if there doe not one of these trumpets blow now a man cannot tell what to determine when there are such common combustions in the world when there are such warres and rumours of wars and such risings of one Prince against another when there is such common effusion of christian bloud Certainly this is a rare shrill trumpet which should be wisely by the cautelous and diligent hearing of every christian souldier observed to prepare them for the battaile to prepare them for the day of the Lord because it cannot be long before the last trump blow These trumpets indeed goe before but they are signes that the last trump is comming after and perhaps it shall come at the heeles and overtake the former before we be aware Aug. For as St. Austin saith well the Trumpet useth not to sound at midnight but in the morning and at the evening so saith he the Lords trumpet sounded in the morning when he gave the law at the promulgation of the law at the building of the Tabernacle at the dedication of the Temple it sounded in the morning of the world And now it sounds at the evening at the later end of the world it begins now to sound if men will open their eares to entertaine it But for the other trumpet saith he it may well be that the last trump of all shall sound at midnight that when men are quiet and secure and give themselves to profound sleepe that then the Lord may take them napping that as they
the stroke of death beause it must needs be so for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality and to assure us of the necessity of the glory that shall be it cannot faile but it must needs come so to passe as the Lord hath promised Oportet it must be so There are certaine bonds that have passed from God to man by the promise of the Almighty that bindes him to it For the word of a King is a King to a man as Demosthenes saith Demost Therefore God hath bound himselfe unto us by his word and by the promises he hath made and likewise we are againe bound by the necessity of congruitie by the necessity of fitnesse that these things should be so For it is of absolute necessity in regard of the fall of Adam and of our corruption that wee have contracted thence that we should not enter into that blessed incorruption till wee have put off this corruption which wee have contracted There is no medling for a sound man to come to them that are in the Pest-house nor there is no conversing for a man that is well in his wits with them that are in Bedlam there is no mingling of Sheepe and Goats together there is no blending of light and darknesse of Christ and Beliall there can be no communion and fellowship betweene corruption and incorruption It is impossible that the corrupt body of man should be able to entertaine and receive that incorruptible crowne of heaven it will burst him in his feeble abilities As is said of Semele that when Iupiter appeared unto â—â—r in his full glorie shee was exhausted by meanes of his Majestie shee expired and lost her life So it is true and certaine this weake vessell cannot endure heaven this corrupt body cannot abide incorruption no more than Gunpowder can endure the approach of fire for it will be swallowed up of it Therefore the Lord prepared a habitation and tabernacle for it in the earth that by the earth hee may bring it to be capacious of the glory they shall receive Therefore there is this necessity that the Apostle saith It must be thus And this necessity is in three respects First in respect of the soule when it is seperate from the body The soule is a part of a man and the body is a part of a man as well as the soule although it be not so great and so excellent a part as that but seeing that God hath appointed that a body and a soule shall alway make a man we cannot say therefore that the body is a man or that the soule is a man but onely by way of eminencie But we must needs take the soule as long as it is seperate from the body to be a thing imperfect for it is not so much blessed as it shall be when the body shall be re-united unto it It is blessed as much intensively but not extensively not in respect of the societie company with the body with the glory and beauty and that joy of the holy Ghost which shall be extended every where as well to the body as to the soul This the soul wants and therefore they lie continually lingring thirsting in expectation Apoc. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true They desire to be restored to their bodies they be naked now the sword is out of his scabbard now the Lord hath drawne them assunder notwithstanding they are both in â—â—e hand of God But then the Lord will again return the sword into his scabbard when he hath clensed pollished it that it shal never afterward be seperated In this regard it must needs be that corruption must put on incorruption For the soule by the hand of God is made uncorruptible and immortall but the body is made both corruptible and mortall therefore that the one may fit the other the Lord must make it by a strange wondrous change he must make this corruption put on incorruption that is he shall so mold the body by lying in the earth that he shall make it by the power of his hand hee shall make it capable of that great incorruption which hee shall give it when the soule and the body shall meete together in one The second reason of this necessity is this because the good God hath ordained in justice to performe all things and that according to that which a man hath done in this flesh 2 Cor. 5.10 for we mst receive according to the things that we have done in this flesh whether they be good or evill as the holy Apostle saith Therfore the Lord will have this corrupt body which hath suffered paine here on earth this body which hath suffered for Gods cause this body which hath suffered death this body which hath endured the flame and persecution this body which hath suffered hunger and thirst and nakednesse this body that hath suffered infamy and ignominy reviling and opprobries as the Lord Iesus did for our sakes this body which hath bin so brought under and made as it were a laughing stock to the world which hath bin made a refuge of scornes this body which beares the prints marks of the Lord Iesus Christ about with it Gal. 6.17 this body which hath bin in martyrdom so ignominious to the sight of the world though it have beene noble in the sight of God this body that hath born all the brunt and toyl labour in affliction this body must be glorified againe for that it stands with Gods justice that every man shall receive according as hee hath done in this flesh whether it be good or evill Therefore it must needs be that this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality this very body that hath suffered must be honoured that as it hath suffered many evill things for Gods cause so it may receive many good things for its owne cause for the mercy of God which shall be revealed upon it And lastly it is necessary it should be thus Oportet it must needs be that the body must goe to incorruption Aquin. by the way of corruption as Aquinas well noteth because of the conformity of the members to the head Our Lord Iesus Christ went this way therefore we that are his servants must not look to be above our Master Luke 6.40 it is enough that the servant be equall to his Master Christ is our head he is our Master he could not come to immortality but first he died he was mortall before he was immortall and though he were not corruptible although there was no change in his body to corruption yet he was mortall there was a change in the colour there was a change in his strength and life these things were in him for hee was dead these things cannot consist but in him that is dead So much as he was corruptible hee had it for our sakes hee was mortall hee
was dead and buried and hee testified his mortality three dayes together by lying in the grave Therefore as Christ went this way and could not goe to heaven untill he had tasted of death first he must suffer and so enter into glory It followes therefore Luke 24.26 that all his members must second him and subscribe to that course which their Lord and head went and be content to be like unto him it must be with us as it was with him therefore this corruption must put on incorruption That is wee cannot come to that glory but by dying first we must die to live first we must be in our graves in stinke and filthinesse that wee may be raised to beauty and strength and perfection according to the glorious promise which God hath made in Christ Now the next thing to be observed is the triumph of the Church when this is done when this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this blessed garment is once fitted when this vestment shall be once applyed unto these bodies as never to be put off again Then shall be fulfilled this saying This garment of incorruption and immortality that is this garment of glory and beauty wherein God shall invest his Saints it shall not be like these garments of ours that are put upon our outsides which cover onely our outward parts They touch not our intrailes they come not neare the heart but this blessed garment of incorruption it shall run through all the veynes of man it shall possesse him every where it shall be as the life is in all the parts of the body in every part there is life as well as in the rest It shall be as the health is it is the breath of heaven which runs through all the parts of the body if one part or member be sick all the rest are so too for company It shall be as the soule is in every part and substance of the bodie the soule is in all the parts of the body it is as well in the little finger as in the braine of a man And after this kind shall this garment be put on not as our cloathes which we put on and off not as our garments which keepe us warme in our outward parts and never touch our inward But this as the Spirit of God shall rule through the whole man there shall be no part nor no blood but it shall be uncorrupt there shall be no flesh in man but it shall be immortall There is no part but it shall be garnished and adorned with this rare and singular quality which shall run through the whole man and shall possesse him wholly and shall take that root in him as it shall be impossible for it to be extirpated for it is the glorious hand of God that shall plant them there and nothing therefore shall be able to supplant them Wee must put on incorruption And it shall be so put on as the sun puts on his glory never to put it off againe as the stars put on their light never to be eclipsed never to have their light taken from them Wee must not put on the robe and garment of immortality as Kings and Princes put on their gay cloathes and apparell Chrysost As St. Chrysostom saith when Kings and Princes goe to the bath on earth although they be never so gloriously apparelled yet when they goe into the bath they must put off their cloathes as well as other men and when they goe to their graves they must divest themselves and goe after the order of other men But the Saints of God shall not put on the cloathes of incorruption as a man that goes to the bath but they shall put it on as God hath put on eternity they shall put it on as the sun hath put on his light never to be darke They shall put it on as the moon and stars which have the same beauty and figure continually Although to us it seeme different and the light of the starres are not seene in the day time yet there is no hindrance in them they have the same coat on them The Saints shall have a garment like the coat and habite of the lillies of which our Saviour saith that Solomon in all his royalty Luke 12.27 was not cloathed like one of them their garments shall be so fit and so durable and so sweet and so naturall without any price without any cost The Lord shall then fit the garment to the party Making of garments requires great skill and much art for it is no ordinary thing for to fit a body truely with a garment or vesture But the Lord will shew that wondrous art in fitting this garment to our bodies in such a wondrous aptnesse in such a fitnesse and proportion and compleatnesse that in every part of mans body there shall appeare this beauty and this comelinesse this glorious apprehension of these heavenly qualities shall appeare in every part of man The Lord shall so fit the body that the garment shall glosse and beautifie and adorne the least part of the body Therefore let us lift up our heads Rom. 13.11 for our salvation drawes neerer then when wee first beleeved and let us delight our selves and labour to put on this new garment this blessed vesture that we all seeke so much after Wee are tired with these stinking cloathes Vse with these perishing vanities of the world Wee are faine to perfume them with sweet odours as the fashion of the times are now wee cannot indure the graine of our owne bodies but wee must perfume them with exotick and strange smels But that garment shall bee so perfumed it shall bee so amiable by the power of God that it shall need no other smell or perfume The curiosity of our dispositions cannot indure a garment a yeare together Shee is accounted a sordid woman that weares that garment this yeare which shee ware the last and shee is neglected and despised of her meanes and friends But the Lord shall so fit this garment that we shall still take delight wee shall have a holy pride in wearing of it and it shall still bee the better for wearing and have continually more splendor and beauty then when we first put it on For this mortall must put on immortality to all delight and glory to a lasting glory and a continuall glosse and beauty that shall never fade but still increase to the party that weares it Now let our appetites appeare in desiring of it When when shall it bee And so I come to the last point that I will trouble you with at this time When great promises are made all delayes are tedious Prov. 13.12 Hope that is deferred kills the heart of man therefore it is naturall for us still to call and urge for the time When Lord when why when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this
he had from God hee cast all men into the prison of death and he keepeth them there and will keep them there by the common calamity of sinne he keeps all mens bodies there to the time of the resurrection which the Lord shall cause in the fulnesse of time but therefore the Lord following the way of justice and not the way of power for God was able to take us from death otherwise by other meanes then by the death of Christ but then hee could not be just Now God would teach us that it is better to follow the way of justice then the way of power for every man can be powerfull the devils themselves have power but they have no justice therefore God then in justice would have the death of his Sonne satisfie the wrath of God and would have him to die for them that should have died that his death might be the life of many thousands that his death might be the destruction of the power of death which had a commission given for the time that at the last might have an end To conclude because I see the time past let us also learne to frame our selves to this high spirit of the Apostle to insult over death and then if wee can insult over death much more may wee insult over all the calamities of this life for what is so great a calamity as that why should poverty oppresse us why should infamy vexe us if sicknesse diseases and death it selfe cannot oppresse why should trouble of conscience for sinne oppresse us when the grand enemy himselfe is conquered and when we have a part of the conquest wee are souldiers to that great Captaine and hee communicates his victory unto us all Iohn 16. ult Aug. Be of good comfort saith Christ for I have overcome the world Saith St. Austin What dost thou meane by this Be of good comfort I have overcome the world What have we to doe to be of good comfort it belongs not to us be thou of good comfort it pertaines to thee what are we the better because thou hast overcome the world Yes saith hee oh death thou which hast been the devourer now thou art devoured thy self thou that hast swallowed up men now thou art swallowed up thy selfe by a more potent cause oh death he was wounded for me that made me and he that through his death hath swallowed up thee hee hath conquered thee for me therefore I rejoyce in him which is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone his victory is my victory therefore he saith Be of good comfort I have overcome the world And this the Lord hath taught us in many passages of his holy Booke that hee might prepare us once to this courage to this great valour For in this a man is seen more than in any thing else in the patient abiding of trouble and misery in the patient enduring of death in this present life All worldly passions are seperated as chaffe by the wind from the godly the wind blowes away the chaffe but so it cannot the good corn that falls still on the floore the chaffe is blowne away with every wind of temptation and persecution Let us therefore take notice of that singular comfort which God hath given us out of the Scripture which all resolves at last into this one point Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory In Iosuah 10. Ioshuah 10.24 wee reade that Iosuah there the Prince and Captaine he brought out the five Kings that were closed in a Cave and a stone rolled to the mouth of it till hee should come back hee brings them forth and bade the Captaines tread upon the necks of the Kings and not feare for saith hee The Lord your God shall fight for you This was a figure of this glorious victory of the Sonne of God over death All the potentates of Hell are like to the five Kings of Canaan which oppresse all they meet as Adonibezek they thumb them hee cut off the thumbs and toes of men and set them under his Table as dogges The Lord signified this victory of Christ by the victory of Iosuah over those five Kings and Adonibezek that hee would give a spirituall conquest over death hell sinne and all the adversaries that could oppose him and he would tread upon the necks of all his opposers What is so base a part what is so base a thing as the foot of a man and what is so lofty a thing as the necke and yet the very foot of Gods children the basest part shall tread upon the necks of their enemies upon the necks of Kings themselves which are compassed and surrounded with jewels and ornaments yet they shall bee subjected to the basest parts even to the heeles of godly men so great is the comfort of Gods children And as it was done then in Iosuahs time so also the comfort remaines now So wee see again the Lord bids the people look back whē they were past the Red-sea look back upō the Egyptians and the People Miriam had a song Exod. 15.1 when they looked back saw the Egyptians floating above the water A strange thing but God would have it so because he would have his people to have Arms to have the Arms of the Egyptians to fight against Amalek It is said the people looked back and saw them those proud spirited people those braggadocioes which thought to have swallowed them up quick and followed them with their chariots and Army those which before could not bee resisted now the Lord brings them to a calme he so cooled the Nation that the least boy might insult over them Israel looked and saw them and tooke off their armour took off their rings and jewels and their costly apparrell and furnished themselves with it when they went into the wildernesse So shall the conquest of Gods children be over death although it have beene full of threatning full of terrour and blood before yet the Lord will bring it into the floud into the Red sea he will overwhelme it in the water of his Omnipotency and his children shall look back and shall see him and spoyle him that was the spoyler and destroy him that was the destroyer and they shall take his weapons from him and make use of them to their owne purposes and they shall say as the people might have said to the Egyptians Where is thy bragging that thou usedst before thou art inclosed now in thine owne net Where is thy sting oh death Oh hell where is thy victory The Lord shall turne the termes the Lord shall make the field to goe on his owne side and take away the conquest from the