his soule was a diuinitie to his body so was his diuinitie a soule to his humanity To create man God â—reathed a spirit like himselfe into him him to redeeme man God himselfe entred into him and though the diuinitie could not hee crucified yet was the vnion of it with the passion of the humanitie counted as the passion of the diuinitie Thus by the bountie of interpretation and communication of proprieties they verily crucified the Lord of glory Whose carcasse now as cold as death raises a flame of loue in the breasts of Ioseph and Nicodemus Ioseph in a couragious Christianitie goes vnto Pilate and begges the body When Christ was aliue Iudas sould him and now he is dead Pilate giues him away whose body though it were preserued by the diuinitie yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrhe and Deuotion They wrap him in a linnen cloth not so much concealing his nakednesse as expressing his innocence They lay him in Iosephs Tombe which was in a garden and was not then this garden Paradise It was a glorious sepulchre as if by the prophesie of loue it had been proportioned to the guest Whose bodie being heere entertayned with magnificent pietie his illustrious soule forces a triumph in Hell crucifies the Deuill and ouerthrowes the tyranny of damnation He does not take away damnation but contract it And now you see after this redemption of our Sauiour you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side receiue saluation You may behold the opening mouth of this wound which with eloquent bloud inuites you to faith and loue You may behold the Lord of glory comming from Edom with his died garments from Bosrah This is the Lord of glory glorious in his apparell glorious in his nakednesse glorious in his mightinesse to saue Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat Thou hast trodden the Wine-presse alone and of the people there was none with thee O what did cause these soundings of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards vs Who can expresse thy sorrowes and thy louing-kindnesse towards vs Who can expresse what thou hast done for our soules Thou wast afflicted thou wast despised thou wast whipt wounded bruised condemned sacrificed for our soules thou wast made a seruant of death thou wast numbred with the transgressours thou madest thy graue with the wicked for our soules Wherefore God has highly exalted thee and giuen thee a name aboue all names that at the Name of Iesus euery knee shall bow of things in Heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And euery tongue shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord of glory And the foure and twentie Elders shall fall downe before the Lambe with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours and in their new Song shall they prayse thee And the Angels about thy throne euen ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lambe that was slaine to receiue power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory Therefore with Angels and Arch-angels and with all the company of Heauen wee laude and magnifie thy glorious Name euermore praysing thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord of glory Heauen and earth are full of thy glory and of thy mercies The Angels in Heauen wonder at thy mercies the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies thou thy selfe triumphest in thy mercies and the sonnes of men rejoyce in thy mercies Wherefore O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world deliuer vs by thine agonie and bloudie swear by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall deliuer vs And wee will fall downe before thy glorie and we will sing praises vnto thy mercie and we will triumph in the victorie of thy bloud and we will for euer euen for euer acknowledge that Thou the crucified Lord of glorie art the Christ of God and the Iesus of men The end A Sermon preached at Saint Marie's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday 1623. 1. CORINTH 15.20 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept IT were vnnecessarie art feare to stirâ—e to keepe the liuing awake with a preface when as the dead are at the businesse of a resurrection WoÌ„ders blessings are aboue their auditors who must be glad to be staâ—â—led to the newes Now was our Sauior task'd with his most vnweildie miracle His mercie had before bestowed many vpon others but now his power tries one vpon himselfe His diuinitie acts a miracle vpon his humanitie repairing this second Trinitie of his person from the immortall ruines of a God a soule and a carcasse Three dayes did hee consecrate for the performance of this wonder and three dayes doe wee consecrate for the perswading to this wonder which should haue beene the joy and was the shame of the Apostles who were slow to apprehend it though Christ was their Schoole-master They had not as yet learned their owne Creed which their peruerse sense was pleased to bee taught not so much by our Sauiour as by his sepulchre whose opening mouth when it sent forth Christ the Word pronounced his Resurrection which is the Epitaph of God Thus did the ambition of the graâ—e instruct the preuented Angell and though it cannot as the multitude of Tombes with the voice and conquest of proud Death tell vs whom it does captiue yet does it remember to vs whom it did Which assumed triumph of death is as short as its combat Ioseph's deuotion bestowed this Tombe vpon our Sauiour but our Sauiours victorie bestowed it vpon death which since his Resurrection has lien buried in his tombe But can a dead man bee warmed againe into life And can the lungs that haue forgot to breathe learne to breathe againe Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed and being honoured with an imitating omnipotencie can with a coequall extension of assent apply it selfe to the number and degrees of Gods actions But as hard it was to raise the faith as the body of Saint Thomas nay it was his body that caused him to beleeue the Resurrection of Christ's bodie which was a way of faith more certaine then gratefull Yet must the vnderstanding bee so raised before it can beleeue that the bodie can bee raised that the diuine indulgence does gradually chastize the difficultie by the length of instruction For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation when straight hee was practised vnto an essay of this second Creation When Adam descended into sleepe there was a Resurrection of his rib which awaked into a woman Did not mortalitie then put on immortalitie when a senselesse bone was so endued with reason that it could apprehend its owne preferment Mee thinkes the Chymique might hence extract an easie Rhetorique for his promotion of metalls and without an Apologie teach that vsurie of art And heere too
Shall not these first-fruits be likewise payed at our great Resurrection shall they not bee brought to the heauenly Ierusalem shall they not haue Angels goe before them shall there not bee crownes likewise prouided and shall they not be vshered with the voice of a trumpet It was the sound which the Iewes vsed at their brauer Funerals and may it not then fitly bee vsed when they shall awake againe from their tombes Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if wee once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let vs no more say they were dead but that they slept Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleepe but some shal insteed of rising be only new-dressed by being clothed with incorruption and so haue rather a change of rayment then of life They shall not put-off their bodies but their mortalitie and bee made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection and in the glory The Eutychian shall then confesse that the two natures in Christ are not mixt though joyned and that his humanitie though exalted is not changed The Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seene and it shall certainly prooue that it is not euery-where by being not in the graue whence it is risen The Pythagorean shall then recouer the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soule and the Saducy shall then arise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with his bodily eyes see the errour of his soule Since then our Redeemer is as eternall in his flesh as in his God-head since the souldiers feare acknowledged his resurrection which their malice denied since we must rise both by his authority and example let our rising not only follow his but also imitate it As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord so let the crucifying of our vices and the quiet contemplation of eternall joyes goe before the glory of the Resurrection So shall it be vnto vs as it was vnto our Sauiour a true Passeouer who passed thereby from this world vnto the Father So shall our hope bee as certaine as our rising so shall our soules rise as well as our bodies in that day of wonder When the last earthquake shall shake-vp death when the oecumenicall voice of one trumpet shall bee lowd enough to whisper-vp drowsie mankind when loose dust shal with the warmth and moysture of bloud bee kneaded into man when the tribute of dispersed and deuoured limbes shall bee paid-in from all countries and creatures when there shall be a Resurrection of disease of sleepe of death of the winding-sheet of the graue of rottennesse all which shall be purified into health into watchfulnesse into life into a robe of glory into a throne of glory into immortalitie when there shall bee a Resurrection of earth and heauen which shall be both renewed when there shall bee a Resurrection of God himselfe whose glory which seemed buried in this world shall illustriously arise in the face of heauen earth when there shall bee a new Resurrection of our Lord Iesus who shall no more arise from the graue but from heauen when the Iew and hell shall tremble those wounds of glory appeare which are the bloudie seales of our saluation So raise vs then O thou Lord of life vnto holinesse of life that when these things shall come to passe wee may not only rise in judgement but also stand in it and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heauen that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets prayse thee where thy noble armie of martyrs praise thee And with their bodies O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heauen and let our soules euen there feele a new affliction that whiles we cannot grieue enough that we cannot prayse thee enough our increasing gratitude for our bodies resurrection may be our soule 's eternall resurrection The end A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day 16â—â— 1. PETER 3.22 Who is gone into Heauen and is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subiect vnto him FOr man to goe into Heauen is almost impossible for God to goe into Heauen is impossible To vnderstand then the wonder of Christ's ascension we might wish that our soules could but ascend like his bodie which whiles it was on the earth receiued motion from his soule but when it left the earth receiued motion from his Diuinitie without which that motion can now bee no more vnderstood then it could then be performed The greatest wonder of mans bodie has beene the structure but the greatest wonder of this bodie is now the motion The force of mans hand can make earth ascend towards Heauen but only the power of God can make earth ascend vnto Heauen Man can raise earth aboue its Spheare but only God can fixe it aboue its Spheare This day you may see both these wonders whiles the bodie is made as wonderfull as the soule whiles the bodie is made the wonder of the soule and goes to Heauen with as much ease and with more weight And indeed Philosophie may seeme to haue come short at least of perfection if not of truth whiles it has discouered the effects of its owne ignorance insteed of the causes of ascension and descension Which now seeme not to bee the workes of weight and lightnesse but of sinne and innocence seeing that a bodie free from sinne has learned to ascend and spirits loaden with sinne haue sunke themselues from Heauen to the punishment and center of sinne And yet innocence is rather a preparatiue then a cause of this wonder a bodie cannot ascend without it a bodie cannot ascend by it It has more power vpon the soule then vpon the bodie yet it has not this power vpon the soule And as the soule cannot ascend by the power of innocence so neither can the bodie ascend by the power of the soule The soule can affoord vnto the bodie the motion of progression but not of ascension progression being made by the power of the soule but by the parts of the bodie and it is a kind of friendly attraction when one foot inuites the other to a succession of motion by a succession of precedencie But the ascension of the bodie cannot bee performed but by somewhat that is aboue the bodie aboue it not so much in place as in power The bodie can bestow vpon it selfe an equiuocall ascension when a part of the foote shall be raised into the stature of the bodie but this is rather an ascension in the bodie then of the bodie Nay we cannot at all call it an ascension but by leaue when the bodie has by chance an erect situation
ease Simon of his burden Whiles he goes on a multitude of women forgetting to be Iewes bestow teares vpon him whom he exhorts to thrift of sorrow bidding them stay their lamentation till a time of lamentation for themselues and for their children whose bloud shall bee made as cheape as their mothers teares when in the vengeance and sport of slaughter the curse of barrenesse and a dry pap shall bee a blessing At last they bring this Catholique sacrifice to mount Caluary to the altar of the world where euery part of him is stretcht-out as the free embleme of his extended mercy They fasten him to his crosse with violence but hee was fastned surer by his owne loue They pierce his hands and his feete with nayles but his heart with their ingratitude thus is hee vsed in the house of his friends They exalt him on his crosse arming himselfe against himselfe and making his owne weight his owne affliction And now I must cry-out with Pilate Behold the man aduanced in the triumph of redemption vpon the Cherub of the crosse Or if your tender eyes haue not the hearts to see this spectacle yet reade the title of his crosse and sure the first word Iesus may comfort you Yet if the remembrance of his name should proue the remembrance of his sorrow where will you then alas bestow your eyes If you looke away you shall see those that passe by the way nod their heads at him if you looke on the ground you shall see the diuided souldiers at lots for his intire Coate which they more respect then they doe Christ if you looke among the company you shall see the vnhallowed Priests prophaning him if you looke on either side his crosse you shall see a thiefe made his companion Whereof one as if he were his executioner crucifies him with blasphemie though the other crucifies his owne vnbeliefe and by a new theft steales Heauen at his execution If yet you cannot behold our Sauiour behold his Disciple and his mother whom from his crosse he himselfe beholds Saint Iohn's loue had now made a recompence for his flight by conquering his feare to this returne and sorrow Our Sauiour beholds his beloued Iohn and hauing nothing left that is his owne but his mother hee bequeathes her vnto him But it may be you are as little able also to looke on these who also are crucified with the passion of loue If then you cannot at all indure these sights be indulgent to lamentation Let teares seaze on your eyes as an vniuersall darknesse does on Iudea The guilt of the Iewes puts out the Sunne and yet this huge night which can hide all Iudea cannot hide the guilt of the Iewes O how they shall hereafter wish that this darknesse had beene more speedy that it might haue preuented or excused their violence Then happily they would haue pleaded O had we seene what we did wee would not haue crucified the Lord of glory In this forc'd night and agony this man of sorrowes cries out with a voice as strong as earnest his fainting humanitie begging aide and release Thus long they haue afflicted his outward-parts and now their wit finds a deuice to torment his inward also In a drouth of combat and torment hee cries-out I thirst and when from this his Vineyard he might looke for wine behold they vilely spunge him with vngratefull vineger Being persecuted thus with a swift succession of plagues in a free obedience he bowes his head and in the Empire of his Diuinitie and loue is pleased to die giuing to the justice of his Father for a redeeming sacrifice his troubled spirit Corrupt Philosophers who now for a long time haue animated the world with a magique soule may in this truth bury their errour and now acknowledge that only this is the soule of the world Thus they haue crucified him and now they shall know whom they haue crucified The Iewes and the Deuils shall know that it was the Lord of glory and the whole world shall know that it was the Lord of glory Behold an angry miracle teares the vaile of the Temple and by a greater mystery reueales their mysteries Behold an earth-quake shakes open the graues and after the resurrection of this first-borne of the dead the glad carcasses by the returne of their disacquainted soules can no more then their soules endure the Graue Behold the stones cleaue asunder as if violated nature would lend them mouthes to cry-out against the Iewes or as if they would pronounce themselues of a softer tempter then the hearts of men And now there is a religious earth-quake in the heart of the Centurion from whose inspired mouth proceeds a voice articulated by faith and wonder pronouncing the innocence and diuinitie of our Iesus and euen the Iewes doe smite their breasts as if their hands insteed of repentance should soften their hearts But his friends neerest to him in affection stand afarre off to whom it is a death not to dye with him And indeed none of them did die by martyrdome the Lord counting the torment of this spectacle equall vnto it His friends stand afarre off yet farther from comfort then from him O how may wee imagine his tender mother weepes How may we imagine she now cryes-out O my sonne Iesu O Iesu my sonne my sonne This is a more wounding lamentation then the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon when the good Iosias when the beloued Iosias fell vnder the sword of Pharaoh Now the souldiers come to examine the execution to see if these the late prisoners of the Iewes be now become the prisoners of death and finding the two theeues breathing still in the custome of vaine crueltie on malefactors they breake their legges when alas their soules were readier to runne away then their is bodies But to our Sauiour being already dead they are pleased to shew a negatiue mercy Yet one to prooue himselfe more senslesse then what he wounds now pierces his side as if beyond the expulsion of his soule he would not leaue in him the forme of a carcasse When behold an instructing mysterie flowes from his side Water flowes out as if it would present vnto the souldier the innocency of our Sauiour bloud flowes out as if it would present vnto the soul ther the admonishing horrour of his owne guilt It was vile to wrong the innocent it was inhumane to abuse the dead but it was execrable to violate the Lord of glory But the glory of this Lord shall now dispell this night of sorrow Now weepe not that hee died but rejoyce that hee died for you It was his loue that hee would redeeme as it was his power that he could redeeme So he did redeeme as be did suffer hee suffered not in his diuine nature but by the â—nion of his diuine nature hee redâ—emed not in his diuine nature but by the union of his diuine nature For from a double nature his mysticall vnitie did arise and as