Plato that God would change the seventh day to the eighth to signifie thereby that God would bring a rest to all the world so that our change of the Sabbath day saith he it is not onely of us not onely manifested to us but it was opened to the Gentiles themselves they also acknowledged it Cyprian Diacon Epist 41. Cyprian the Deacon saith he shall reade the next Lords day wherein the Church must bring their accustomed sacrifice to God that is the sacrifice of Almes-deeds the treasure of life eternall and in his 41. Epistle saith he in the station that is in the Church where we meet and stand together before God let you almes be ready and let no man appeare empty before the Lord alluding to the law speaking of the change of the Sabbath and the collection for the poore Saints named in this place by the common state of the Church Basil Hexamer secund Basile in the second of his Hexameron saith he that the Lord might bring us from this present life to the thought of a better life of the life to come he hath appointed the first fruits of the Sabbath wherein the first fruits of the living rose again from the dead the Lord Christ which was dead did then live which was the beginner and continuer of light in his Church I meane saith he the holy Sabbath day glorified by the resurrection of Christ and commended to the Church to be alway fulfilled and kept Nazianzinus orat 43. Nazianzen saith he there were two Lords dayes the one for the Iewes the other for the Gentiles but ours that we have is more excellent than that for that was belonging to mans salvation but this was the very nativity of salvation the birth of our Saviour The Iewes Sabbath was the intermedium the passage betweene the buriall of Christ and his resurrection for Christ lay in his grave upon their Sabbath day and there he rested and with him rested all the ceremonies of the law never any more to revive but this of the resurrection of Christ is plainly and fully the day of the second generation and regeneration of all the Saints and he gives a reason for it For saith he even as the first creation of the world begun from the Sabbath day so we must imagine that God began to make the world upon the Munday as we call our weeke for in his eternall rest whereby he rested from all eternitie he began then to worke although it were no worke to God but a rest even the creation it was a rest to him he did not worke then more then before yet it is signified to us by worke in the Scripture and that he began in the beginning of the weeke to set himselfe to worke therefore as that worke of the creation began from the Sabbath so the worke of the recreation and redemption of man must begin from the Sabbath And although this be the eighth day yet it is the best day of all that were before it and of all that shall come after it being more high and glorious then that glorious day that was before and being more wonderful and admirable then that wondrous time that preceded it Saint Ierome in the second Epistle of his booke against Vigil The Apostle Paul saith he S. Hierom. contra Vigil Epist 3. Vigitantius I suppose commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poore made upon the Lords day which is the first day of the weeke that is the first of the Iewish weeke And in his fourth question to Hibibbia How soone saith he did the Apostles of Christ turne and change the Iewish Sabbath to shew the libertie of Christians from the bondage of the law how soone did they turne it to the Lords day Aug. 10. Tom. Saint Austin in the tenth Tome of his Sermon upon these words of the Apostle saith he When the seventh day was fulfilled which is the consummation of the world we must come backe againe to the first and reckon from seven to seven and this first will be found the eight day the seventh day is ended and then the Lord is buried the eight day begins and then the Lord is raised for the raising up of the Lord Iesus hath promised unto us a day eternall and hath consecrated to us the Lords day which is the signe and note and assurance unto us of that eternall day of that everlasting Sabbath for now the rocke is raised up againe Let all our hearts be circumcised speaking of the manner of circumcision which was done with a knife of stone with a piece of a stone taken out of the rock out of the rock which is Christ Chrysost on 1. Cor. 16.2 Saint Chrysostome upon this place In one of the Sabbaths that is saith he upon the Lords day for the time it selfe was of sufficient force saith he to bring a man to bee liberall to give almes plentifully Oecumenius Oecumenius saith the same saith hee it should rouze us up this time the Lords day to do good to the Lords Saints Theophilact Theophilact being the first day of the weeke the time wherein we meet together before God they never saith he went without love to God and to the Saints upon the first day of the weeke which is the Lords day Theodoret Theodoret. saith he the day and the worke are met together a man should do the works of the time in his owne time a worke done in season is the more gratefull and acceptable Therefore saith he the day of the Lord wherein the resurrection of Christ is honoured is the fittest time to shew our bountifulnesse to God which hath beene so bountifull to us in giving us the memoriall of him that was Lord of his owne and of our resurrection Athanasius Athanasius upon that place All things are delivered to me of my Father which I stood on the last day and shewed his reasons for the change of the Sabbath Cirill of Ierusalem in the fourteenth of his Catechisme saith he Yesterday Cirill of Ierus Catech. 14. upon the Lords day in the congregation of the Saints and at the generall prayers of the people you heard me speak and discourse of these things where we may see that in that countrey also the same manner was retained Epiphanius in his second booke Epiph. lib. 2. The Sabbath of the Iewes remained in the law till the presence and comming of Christ but Christ dissolved the Sabbath and gave a Sabbath of his owne which is a type of that true rest of that sabbatism wherby the Saints rest from ceremonies and are come to the substance the Sonne of God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 4.7 Cirill of Alexandria in his seventh booke to Palladius We know saith he Cirill Alexand. l. 7. ad Pallad that the Lord Christ came to make us a perfect rest from sinne from death from miserie and to give us conquest over death
in the Apostles place that they would Vse 1 follow his steps to have their reioycing in this one Lord and master to have no ioy in the world or in men in goods and profits in pleasures honours or in preferments which the world usually buyes and sels To have no reioycing in these but as they bee men that belong to God so let them reioyce onely in God And there is all the poynt of gloriation Therefore let not the rich man boast in his riches Ier. 9.23 or the strong man in his strength but let him that reioyceth reioyce in the Lord for it is he that executes iudgement and iustice and that sheweth mercy to those that reioyce in him as the Lord speakes Vse 2 Againe this must teach us to mingle these two together as the holy Apostle doth Reioycing and death we must labour by the study of pleasing Almighty God to keepe this sweet temper in us Wee are sure of the one but we must labour for the other I wonder not when I heare thee say as the Apostle doth here I dye daily for every man doth so there is not the most sensuall man but he hath a touch of death every day eyther by sensible misery or by the touch of conscience by bringing of his sinnes to his view That is incident to nature and a consequent of sinne to dye But what is thy reioycing what comfort hast thou in Christ This is that we should desire and call upon God continually for even to make this temper and mixture in us for the one is as necessarie as the other and God is as ready to give the one as our nature is ready to draw the other upon it selfe And this must be by this one meanes the making Iesus Christ thy Lord knowing no other Lord besides him no nor none against him nor none with him but that he may have the preheminence and be all in all as he is to his children in the world and shall be for ever in another world So thou must make him all thy ayme all that thou desirest all thy gloriation because thou must or canst desire nothing but it is seated in him To conclude with the time here is a modell of a christian mans estate death and life sorrow and ioy he is composed of such strange differences as the understanding of man cannot attaine unto But yet assuredly the Lord is never so heavy to him in iudgment but he is withall rich in mercy sorrow of heart shall never so surround him but he shall have the ioy of the holy Ghost to survive him As Saint Augustine Augustine saith upon that place of Paul Redeeme the time because the dayes are evill I saith he it is true the time in this world is evill but all the dayes that are in Christ are good dayes all the dayes of the Lord are good all the dayes of sinne are evill Let us sell them then he that redeemes parts with one thing to get another Let us sell these evill dayes in this world that we may get those good dayes in the grace of Christ And as Saint Gregory Gregory saith Good Iesus hee that hath thee looseth nothing and though he be in the midst of death yet he shall be recompenced with life although hee be in the midst and swallowed up with sorrow and deepe pangs of conscience yet thy spirit is there to remove that sorrow for though sorrow indureth for a night yet ioy commeth in the morning Psal 30. Psal 30.5 And in thy light wee shall see light thy wrath indures for the twinckling of an eye but in thy pleasure there is life for evermore This is the blessed state that every Christian is called unto and the Lord make it every one of our portions for Iesus Christs sake Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.32 If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men what doth it availe me if there be no resurrection from the dead THis is now the conclusion of that argument which Saint Paul draws from his owne person For drawing his principall argument from the sufferings of the Church to prove the resurrection of the dead he begins first with the generall and then he descends to the particular and last of all he comes to the personall First the generall was verse 29. What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead Then in the next verse he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles and saith We also are in ieopardy every day And for his owne particular he protests he dyes daily in the verse before the Text. And now he comes to explaine this how it should be taken saith he If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men Because he had spoken of a thing unlikely and unusuall and unwonted and therefore it might be offensive to Atticke eares such as were at Corinth to say that he lived and yet was dead therefore now he tempers his speech and mitigates it by this exposition when he saith He received the sentence of death against himselfe for hee was cast to beasts to fight with them eyther indeed according to the letter as it was a kinde of punishment and torment that the Pagan persecutors assigned the Christians unto or by way of metaphore as many and most of the Fathers of the Church interpret it But how ever the force of the argument is all one For whether he were cast to beasts and suffered to take his weapons and to defend himselfe and so by the mercy of God to escape without hurt from them or whether he meane by fighting with beasts beastly minded men as the phrase of Scripture often insinuates the strength of the argument is all one For often times a man were better bee cast unto beasts then to men there being more mercy and lesse fury in the pawes of the very beasts than in the working braines of men and the malicious conveyances that they have in the world So whether wee take it for beasts literally or for men that were beasts metaphorically the force of the argument is equall For saith he if there were no hope of the Resurrection then I would doe as the world doth and I would say as they say I would accommodate my selfe to all mens humours I would be so farre from casting my selfe into such dangers as to sight with beasts or with beastly men as that I would seeke to recover my owne which I had once being a Pharisie I would live a quiet and peaceable life among my brethren as I did then when I was rather ready to doe others hurt than to suffer any I would much rather choose that state of life than thus to be plagued and plunged and drowned in misery if there were not a hope of a Resurrection but the vigour and life of that hope duls all the pangs in this world and sweetens the cup of affliction which else would eate out my very intrayles If
matter of this mystery follows We shall not all die but we shall all be changed The power and strength of death working unequally upon mankinde it seemes a great wonder and a mysterie indeed how that some should be happier than their fellowes to be exempted from this common law which is a Statute law Heb. 9 27. and It is appointed for all men once to die And how then are these become so happy to escape the common doome inflicted for the sin of Adam upon all mankinde surely to our common sense they are the happiest of all men even those that shall live in those dayes For we love our flesh so well that wee are loath to commit it to the ground wee are loath that dust should goe to dust and ashes to ashes but still wee would continue and be the last men upon the earth And this great ambition we have so truely and so radically in us that a man would give all that he had in this world not to be taken away till the world be taken away It is the greatest comfort of a mans life to be snatched and hurried away when the universality goes away It is a great comfort to have abundance of company in misery But for this the holy Ghost hath taught us Vse to settle our selves in patience the Lord hath appointed our severall times They are never a whit the more happy because they shall not die nor we never the more unhappy because wee shall die for life and death are all one to them that are planted in the Lord Iesus Christ For it is he that is our advantage he is our hope in death that wee shall attaine unto everlasting life And whether we shall come unto it by the way of resting and rottennesse in the grave or by a sudden and extemporarie change and mutation it ought to seeme all one unto us It is true if God should vouchsafe us that blessing to stand the last men upon the earth and to be the last generation it were a thing very plausible and that which we should desire but we ought not too much to settle upon it for the Lord hath made it a mysterie It is a mysterie when any man dies It is a mysterie in the generall and in the particular it is a mysterie when God calls any man unto him and wee must not wish contrary to the will of God but be content with that portion that he hath destinated unto us Our first parents because they were the authors of sin and transgression Adam and Eve the Lord hath given them the longest time of rotting they lie longest in their graves and they dwell in the pavillions and habitations of death the longest because they were the first authors of wrong to us In the later end of the world the Lord will incline in mercie because he hath been long in judgement in the judgement of death he will incline in the latter generations of the world and give them a taste of his mercy All things grow lesse by continuance and use as a raging plague and pestilence when it comes first into a Citie it takes away a number of people three or foure thousand in a weeke afterward the Lord allayes that rage and abates the disease that there are not so many this week as there were the week before nor so many the next week as there were this So in this common calamity as the world growes in yeares nearer the end of her time so her children that is the people of God which lie in their graves they have lesse time to lie The first authors of sinne when Gods anger was fierce and vehement they are condemned to lie longer in the dust to inhabit and dwell there At the last the plague of God shall begin to slacken and to abate it selfe and the anger of God shall be mitigated and mollified so that those that live in the last age they shall have the least time of sleeping in the dust But in these things we ought to make no difference for the patience that God indues his children with makes up this whether a man sleepe a thousand yeares or five thousand it is all one because God seasons their death with a meditation of the Resurrection and in the meane time inricheth the soule with the beatificall vision with the presence of his Majesty and with that joy that cannot be comprehended in the heart of man We shall not all sleepe Observe againe the Apostle speaks in the first person Wee he saith We shall not all sleepe and yet hee is asleep aswell as other men how then doth he say We shall not all sleep His meaning is to take upon him the person of the Church of God in generall and especially that part of the Church that shall survive when Christ shall come For St. Paul is done to dust as wee shall be and there is no difference in that part that went to the grave There is no difference but onely this that he sleeps in the Lord hee sleeps a glorious compasse and yet he saith We shall not al sleep Vnderstand that he speaks still of the â—ommon state of the Church and for that part of the Church which hee brings the argument for For now he brings his argument to answer an accusation or conclusion which might be made against his doctrine Some might aske him What shall become of those that shall be living at the comming of Christ Oh saith he I am of them although I die before that time yet I am of that number For the members of Christ are not distinguished by time but are all one Abel might have said Wee and Adam might have said Wee of the last end of the world This teacheth us how great the communion of Saints is that it is not broken by the entercourse of yeares time but that it still continues We shall not all sleep The blessing of God runs on still with perpetuity and that which is true to one generation is firme to another and that which belongs to one is common to all This is that communion of Saints in the strength of which the Apostle uttered this phrase We shall not all sleep as he doth oft times in his other Epistles We shall not doe this and wee shall not doe that Although the Apostle be dead and rotten 15. hundred years agoe yet he saith We shall not all sleep But we shall all be changed Still We as if he were one of the men Here he teacheth us another lesson that the Apostle was a man that still looked for the day of judgement He saith We shall all be changed It may be I shall be one of the men I know not it may be the trumpet shall blow while I live for the Lord hath reserved the time onely to himselfe the day of judgement is knowne to no man Nay the son of man as hee is man knowes not when Christ shall come to judgement Therefoâ—e I prepare my selfe
brought to such a wofull change as that Therefore a Christian upon this must consider that as he looks for a change at that day in his body so hee must labour for this change before hand of his manners and conditions even to change his pride into lowlinesse to turne his filthinesse into holy obedience God expects such a change at our hands and we should make our prayer to Almighty God that he that changeth all things would take the paines to change us that in the middest of other things we might not continue the same desperate men but bee renewed in the spirit of our mindes and be changed into another man Ephes 4.23 To put off the old man and his wickednesse and to put on the new man Colos 3.9 10. which is made according to the image of God in righteousnesse and holinesse to change our apparrell and to put on Christ This is the true devotion of the Saints and that which they should spend the time of their life in Oh thou that changest all things Vse thou that changest the bodies of men at the end of the world after a miraculous manner I beseech thee change my fortunes change my state bring mee out of this wretchednesse and misery to a competencie Especially change my vicious estate that I may not rot and corrupt in it but that I may be brought to holinesse and righteousnesse Change the hearts of mine enemies that they may turne to mee Alter their hearts Prov. 21.1 thou which haste the hearts of men in thy hand and turnest them as the rivers of waters change the hearts of them Change thine owne countenance which art angry with mee for my sins Although thou change not in thy selfe yet in respect of me thou seemest sometimes to be pleased and sometimes to be angry When I doe well thou art pleasant to my conscience when I doe ill thou art as a Lion to me Psal 18.25 26. With the godly thou wilt shew thy selfe godly with the righteous thou wilt bee righteous with the perverse thou wilt shew thy selfe perverse Therefore I beseech thee change this misery of mine change it to happinesse change my sinfull state to a holy and blessed estate change my spirit which is addicted to the world and worldly things to spirituall and gracious intentions that it may intend onely the things that belong to thy glory and to my owne soules health God is the God of changing and though there bee no shadow of changing in him yet it is hee that makes all the changes that are in us Iames 1.17 both in this little world and in the great world about us Now I come to the last point a word of it because the time is past The time And the meanes The time In the twinckling of an eye And the meanes The blowing of a trumpet Therefore as my Text is short a moment of time so I will indeavour to speake of it in a moment as it were The Apostle saith all this shall bee done in a moment in the twinckling of an eye This is the greatest wonder of all the rest the mystery was never great till now that there should bee such a deale of worke done in so small a time A moment is nothing The word signifieth an atome a thing that cannot be cut into quantity a very punctum a moâ—e in the Sunne which no man can cut or divide it into pieces it is a thing that cannot bee distinguished So his meaning is to signifie unto us the shortest time that can bee For certainly wee must needs imagine that these great things must require some time For first of all when the Lord began to make the world hee tooke some time he took sixe dayes to make a distinction and division of the work Therefore also it is likely that at the later end of the world the Lord shall take some time although it shall not be so much as that was Secondly againe it is needfull that there should be some time because of the observation that Gods children must make of these actions For if all things should bee done in a moment and hurried up in a confusion the children of God should want a great part of their instruction and a great part of their comfort For this is one part of their delight and comfort to see how the world shall bee destroyed to see how the dead shall bee raised and themselves to see how their bodies shall bee changed to see how the Iudge shall come This shall bee a great part of their learning to understand these things and without distinction of time it is impossible but there would be a confusion wrought Therefore it is needfull that there should bee an interpose of time Therefore the Apostles meaning is not to bee thus taken that there shall bee no time in the doing of these things But his meaning is this that the time shall be so short that it shall not bee perceived or conceived to bee agreeable to so great an action The Lord shall doe it so speedily as if it were in the twinckling of an eye For the Apostle speaks here out of an earnest desire as hee doth in other Epistles when he would set forth a thing to the full hee speaks in a kinde of holy hyperbole in a holy excesse therefore hee saith it shall bee in the twinckling of an eye to signifie that the Lord shall doe it in such a trice with such quicknesse as it is past all the understanding of men or Angels that such a great thing should be done upon such a sudden So I take the twinckling of an eye to bee understood So to conclude the point Vse We learne that God works upon a sudden when he begins to work Therefore this shoulâ— comfort us that no man should despaire of his well-being with God For God is able to work upon the sudden he requires no time to work in He calls some men at one houre and some at an other A man that hath been a wicked liver all his life time perhaps threescore perhaps fourescore yeares hee growes desperate in the sight of his sinnes and thinks that all time is past for recovery No hee is deceived the Lord can work without time he requires none Hast thou so much life in thee as the twinckling of an eye hast thou so much time as a moment will answer to if there be so much there is hope still If there be but so much breath and life in a sinner that a man may say hee will not die till hee have twinckled his eye once if there bee but so much there is hope of mercy still with God But let us not doate upon this and thinke upon the twinckling of an eye or a moment but let us take every moment to come unto God For God works in a moment and which moment hee works in that we know not Perhaps this is our moment God calls us now Perhaps Gods eyes
the wofull calamity of our nature over which we must desire God to give us the victory and behold it followes in the Text But thanks be to God which hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. Which words I can but enter into of the gift or blessing which is vouchsafed victory Victory is alwayes welcome but especially when it is atchieved against a dangerous enemy The child of God is borne to be a Conquerour as St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 5.4 1 Iohn 5.4 Every thing that is born of God overcommeth the world Every thing that is borne of God where the Fathers observe that the Apostle speaks in generall he speaks in the neuter gender to shew that there is no man that is so meane or so vile and base of whatsoever condition he be that he may rather be called a thing than a man yet that he hath the spirit of grace by that hee is able to encounter and overcome the world and this victory that wee have it is over such powerfull enemies as that except God had promised it except God should worke it all the power in heaven and earth could not attain unto it A man that is borne a Conquerour over his owne corruptions and over himselfe he is greater than ever was the greatest conquerour and it is better to be made in this kind a Victor over his owne passions than to be the universall Emperour of all the world Saith Seneca there are many men that have subdued Principalities Kingdomes Cities Townes and Countries and brought them under their owne masterie but there are few that have guided themselves but still there is a Tiger within them that disgraceth and obscureth their outward conquest by reason of the foule seethings and corruption in their owne flesh therefore for a man to get the victory and to overcome himselfe is to get the victory and to overcome all the world for man is a microcosme a little world as St. Austin saith thou maist obtaine the victory against thy selfe for thy selfe After a certaine wondrous manner God hath ordained a christian souldier a militant member of his Church to fight against himselfe for himselfe For hee that will lose his life saith Christ for my sake and the Gospels shall save it Hee that will lose his delights and his pleasures hee that will make warre with himselfe and will have no peace with his affections the Lord shall give him that peace that passeth all understanding and although hee kill his body with chastizing it yet it shall be saved in the day of the Lord St. Bern. saith St. Bernard The victory is thought and reputed in the world to be lost rather by flying than by dying for there are many men slaine in the field that are not accounted as cowards and fugitives or vanquished men because they died upon the place but when they quit the place when they fly and are not able to hold out in the field hee that remaines accounts himselfe the Victor because the rest are fled and vanished away So the spirituall victory in Christ it is lost by flying for we should rather die for God we should rather die in his zeale and for his glory and keep our standing than to yeeld and fly from the devill and our own corrupt affections and stoop to them then sathan gets the victory when wee cast away our weapons and play the loose scouts in the field There is no hope of victory in those actions Hee hath given us victory Over what hath he given us victory victory must be over some enemie I shewed you before the parties what they are now I am to shew you who they are that God hath given us the victory over over death over sinne over the law over death that there is not so much as a relique of it remaining there there is no hope that ever hee shall returne and make head againe that is a famous victory wherein the roots of future seditions are taken away and plucked up when there is nothing left for any hope of future rebellion When the Romanes had warred with the Carthagenians and oft times overcome them yet still within a while within 8. or 10. yeares or lesse they made head againe and stirred up new warres and so they had successive combustion And so in all the Nations of the world there are none that are so vanquished now but they may become conquerours hereafter The same thing that the Lord hath made an underling now may be the Head and Chieftaine in time to come But in this victory that we have over death it is without any hope or comfort on deaths part and without any feare of suffering on our part for it is so taken away as though it had never been and that which had the greatest triumph the mightiest trophees in the world unto which all Kings and Princes have bowed their heads and laid downe their scepters for all the goodly things in the world have been nothing else but the morsells of death I say this victorious enemie by the hand of Christ it shall be turned to a thing of nothing it shall have no name nor notion it shall be left without any hope of recovery It shall have no more strength to sting for the sting is gone The second enemy we shall have victory over is sin because the prince of this world sifted Christ to know whether hee were pure wheat or no and the Text saith he found nothing in him but he was as the finest flowre of wheat without all bran of corruption without all inclination to sinne being conceived and borne in perfect purity and living in the strength of that purity insomuch as hee defies all his adversaries hee challengeth them saying Who can accuse mee of sinne Because I say our blessed Saviour in all the parts of him had nothing but the light of purity in his eyes in his understanding in his tongue in his gesture in his words in his actions in his perseverance in all the parts of his doctrine in all the passages of his miracles there was nothing else but a fountaine and a world of purity therefore death incroaching by the malice and violence of sathan and the envy of the high priests upon him that had no sinne it lost all the power and government that it had before for taking away life from him that had no cause of death in him it follows therefore that it is justly exattorate and put out of place and hath lost his commission for ever for Christ overcame sinne by satisfying for it on his holy crosse and by his example in his holy life by giving a holy example to his Apostles and Disciples and all beleevers in the world Hee overcame sinne by drinking the cup of Gods wrath which by our sinnes was filled to him and he overcame sinne by his gracious example by the copie of his holy life and much more by his holy Spirit by which he diffuseth his grace
you must doe it much more as being more blessed of God As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so doe ye where we are to understand three things First the antiquity of the Church of Galatia Three things 1 The antiquity 2 Apostolicall authorâ—ty Secondly that the Apostle had ordained it hee commands it he counselleth them not to doe it but by his power Apostolicall he enjoynes them 3 The power of the Church Thirdly and lastly what is the force and power of this argument which is drawne from the authority of the Church what is the nature of it and how farre it must prevaile with all the followers of Christ For thus he argueth The Churches of Galatia doe this and if you doe it not you are in great fault and in danger of damnation for you must follow the example of elder Churches but they have done thus therefore you must doe so much more having greater meanes and better ability then they that is one motive Another incentive is this that he himselfe will come and that he will see to these things and that he will receive it at their hands and that hee will make a convoy for it to the place where it should be surely delivered which is a great argument for a man is very willing to part with his money if he be sure that it shall not be interverted that there shall be no falshood but that it may come to the hands of those for whom it is intended upon these termes it may be he will be reasonable willing to part with it Therefore for this he tels them that he will take an order and that order that shall be best liking to themselves for when he comes they shall appoint and choose certaine fit men that they may trust with money and indeed he that a man may trust with money he may trust him with any thing almost therefore they shall choose such men not as may be their owne carvers not such as shall seek to make themselves rich of other mens goods much lesse out of the poore mans stocke but such as shall be true and faithfull dispensers of that which is offered by them and these shall bee chosen by themselves because he was a stranger to them and they were strangers to him and not onely so but they shall commend them to the brethren at Ierusalem by their Epistle and if need were he himselfe would helpe to convoy it he would helpe to passe their blessing The last motive that he useth is this that he saith they shall carry your grace to Ierusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling that almes that they should give a grace as making them gracious before God and men as proceeding from the grace and good spirit of God as comming from meere grace not of constraint Every man desires to be gracious and to be reputed gracious the tythe of grace is the most honourable and the greatest thing that can be in the world especially of divine grace and such a thing is this almes deeds he calls it not almes he cals it not benevolence or a collection but he cals it grace They shall carry your grace to Ierusalem that is that gracious gift which the Spirit of God shall worke you to And the summe of all is this that he would have this done before he come lest they should be found too tardy if they should then fall a gathering when they should be a presenting and offering their gift for tardinesse and unreadinesse is a base fault in any man but most in Christians and in Christian duties most of all It was the fault of the foolish virgins which were tardy and lost the kingdome for it things must be done in season in due time so saith the Apostle lest it be to be made when I come I pray make it before as he saith in 2. Corinth 9. If the Macedonians that I shall bring with me when they come shall finde you making your collection you and I shall be both ashamed to see your unreadinesse in this point of Religion and devotion whereunto you should go with the formost I take this to be the summe and substance of the words read that upon the Lords day every man should repose and lay by himselfe of that which it had pleased God to give him and that he is pleased to give againe to the Church to lay by that he can spare and to do it upon consideration that other Churches have done it before him and that all the members of Christ are bound one to another and also because it was a precept and command upon the Church left by Apostolicall power and chiefly because the whole managing of the businesse was certaine to be conveyed by men of most knowne fame and experienced goodnesse and honesty Such as should be chosen by themselves such as should be confirmed by their letters commendatorie and all this the Apostle instances lest they themselves should not be found so ready and chearfull in the worke lest they should be lagging in their gift which should bee ready and willing to keep their credit especially in so good an action Of these things briefly and in order and but a word because I will not extend your patience beyond the time 1 The time of the collection First for the day the Apostle would have this done upon the first day of the weeke wee may take it for granted that it was the Lords day we will prove it afterward we will have it granted now The first day of the weeke the first of the Sabbath for all the dayes of the weeke were among the Iewes reckoned for Sabbaths so Sunday was the first and Munday the second and Tuesday the third Sabbath and so forth And according to this reckoning they all computed their time their moneths and their weeks among the Iews In which sence the Pharisee is to be understood when he saith I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the weeke For the Sabbath being the great day and the principall of the seven it gives the denomination to all the rest and they be called the first and second and third according as they have their distance from that day So this first of the weeke it was the Iews Munday as it were it is our Lords day which immediately succeeded the day of the Passeover wherein our Lord Iesus lay in the grave and which was the first day of his resurrection and therefore is remembred throughout all Christian generations This was the time that the Apostle thought fittest for Christian men to lay aside their charitie to lay it up for the common treasure for the common stocke of the Saints for the poore Saints at Ierusalem It teacheth us that as all the works of mercie become the Lords day so especially this of almes giving it is a worke proper to the Lords day For therein we have both rest from labour representing unto us our eternall rest in heaven and when a man is not cumbred with the labours of the world his
point for it the first day of the weeke were the Lords day when Sermons and prayer and communicating in the Sacrament were made and received It follows that the Church had changed the Sabbath day from the seventh day unto the eight and so we are to resolve our selves against these innovators how this might be done for assure your selves although we be well resolved in the thing and long experience hath taught us to be quiet and to settle our selves in the authoritie of the Church yet there is nothing that is of weaker authoritie then the change of the Sabbath and if these new Hereticks can prevaile with us in other things it is no marvell if they prevaile in this for there is nothing that is left upon so weake a foundation that hath so slender proofe as this which makes them to get ground upon unstable soules that are their hearers being a multitude of men where there is varietie of affections and imbecillitie of judgement and every man is carried away with every blast of doctrine as children to and fro no marvell if they have sowne such seeds of pestilent schisme by these contrary blasts which are every where studied Therefore you shall understand that the holy Apostles presently after our Lords ascention into heaven The Sabbath changed by the Apostles they did ordaine that the meetings of Christians for the Sabbath that those exercises should be upon the eight day of the weeke I meane upon the eight day from the creation upon the Iews Munday which now is called Sunday or our Lords day and those feasts that formerly were wont to fall upon any day of the weeke as Easter day which was kept according to the course of the Moone and if it fell upon a Wednesday or a Thursday or the like still it was Easter day the Passeover day the feast of sweet bread when the paschall Lambe was offered But the Apostles changed it that it should alwayes be on the Sunday upon the day of our Lords resurrection and Whitsuntide which followes after Easter being a moveable Feast and as Easter was still that was to be referred to it now the feast of Pentecost was referred by the Apostles to the Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection our Sunday And this was not the devise of Pius Pius the first Pope or Dicta the first Pope as some have imagined which was many yeares after our Lords ascention but it is certaine it was the ordinance of the Apostles themselves as we may see in two famous places for we have but two as Beza Beza saith well in Acts 20.10 Act. 20 10. and in this place In these two places we observe that liberty that the Lord gave to his Church 1 Cor. 16.2 to change the seventh day to the eighth And whereupon upon what ground did they take this liberty for we have no direct word from the mouth of our Saviour for it but they did it onely upon the revelation of the spirit of God and they had such firme arguments and reasons as might sway them against the common tenents of the Iewish slavery and bondage whereby they were tyed and bound to the observation of their Sabbath The first maine reason that the Church had for the changing of the Sabbath 1 To shew the prerogative of Christ it was to shew the prerogative of the Sonne of God which saith of himself The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath also he is Lord even of the Sabbath Mark 3. Mark 3. Now therefore if he were Lord of the Sabbath then it lay in his power to change the time of the Sabbath the morall action he changed not that alway continueth we must have a day to worship God in we should worship God alway but the publique worship of God is the proper end and office of the Sabbath I but for the time why it should be upon the seventh day or on the eight day this was left in the Lordship of Christ being the Lord of the Sabbath which therefore could tell what he did when hee would rejourne the Sabbath to some other time where it might be a figure of some better signification therefore to shew the glory of the sonne of man the Church thought good to change the time of the Sabbath to another time 2 In remembrance of the work of redemption Secondly there was another reason as Athanasius Athanasius observeth upon those words of Christ All things are given to me of my Father he extends it thus far even to the change of the Ceremonies of Moses Law now saith he there are two great workes of God which are to be considered in their substance and in their ceremony The first is the worke of creation And the second is the worke of redemption wherin the world was recreated and made anew For the first the worke of creation the old Sabbath was instituted and ordained of God in remembrance of his worke for God rested the seventh day from all the worke that he had wrought and created in the sixe dayes before he rested the seventh day and blessed it and hallowed it for man to remember the workes he had created in the sixe working dayes and that man should also worke in sixe dayes as he had done and rest upon the seventh day for as the Lord had wrought sixe dayes so he saith sixe dayes shalt thou labour for all the life of man must be conformed to the example of Almighty God so now there being these two great workes the one of creation the other of redemption wee are to consider whether of these two are the greater and surely we shall finde the worke of redemption is a greater matter then the worke of creation When the Lord created the world by his omnipotent power he did but speake the word and it was done The Lord did but say let there be light and there was light Let there be a firmament and there was a firmament Let there be sea and land and there was presently sea and land and every thing else necessary But when he wrought redemption it was not done by a word but it cost the bloud it drew the bloud from the heart of his deare Sonne for it could not be done by way of omnipotency because it must be done by way of justice the justice of God must be satisfied which could not be satisfied but the sinner must loose his life which he had forfeited to God and God himselfe must doe it the person of God must take upon him the nature of man to suffer death for sinfull man that had deserved death everlasting this is the worke of recreation and redemption Now saith Athanasius these workes had their severall ages the worke of the creation was to be remembred untill Christ came to worke the worke of redemption and when he was come then the age of that was to passe away it was determined and terminate in Christ And now
began another age a more blessed and glorious age that of redemption that was now to flourish and to be esteemed in the world and so it was necessary that there should be a cessation of the former that there must be an introduction of this But how then will some say Quest shall we not remember the works of the creation still as well as wee should before Answ Yes but now the Lord hath given that grace and that light that wee may remember them every day we may meditate of them as we are doing our workes for the Gospell is so cleare and hath laid open the treasures of heaven so plainely that as we doe the workes of our hands we may remember the workes of the Lord too which the Iewes could not doe in their worke and labour for it was so hidden from them that they knew not that which was done before their faces as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 3. Therefore this is one reason the gratious worke of the redemption and recreation of the world being the greatest worke that ever was requires the greatest memoriall Therefore it is necessary there should be a Sabbath day a time of rest for the contemplation and meditation of that rather then for the lesser worke the worke of the creation which may be meditated on and remembred every day as well as upon the Sabbath but the worke of redemption although it be to be thought upon and remembred every day and may be meditated upon daily yet then we must thinke of it more seriously with a more curious observation and meditation upon the Lords day because then upon that day was the resurrection of the Sonne of God who is the first fruits of all Christian beleevers 3 The Iewish Sabbath was for distinction Againe another reason of the change of the Sabbath is because the Sabbath was made for a matter of distinction to distinguish the Iewish nation from all other people in the world it was a matter of separation and privacy but the Lord Iesus came to be publique he would have none of those private signes continue he tooke down the partition wall which was made betweene Iewes and Gentiles they were before shut up one from another there was no agreement or correspondency betweene them and the symboll of this separation was the Sabbath day for the Gentiles scorned them and said they spent the seventh part of their time in idlenesse meaning their Sabbath day Now by this separation there grew enmity and hatred and outward opposition because the one had a rest and the other had not Now the Lord Iesus came to take downe this separation to take away this wall of distinction which was betweene them and so he made the eighth day the day of rest the Sabbath not for a day of separation as the seventh day was which separated them and made them strangers from all other men but to unite them so that now there is none strange in Christ but all are one Gal. Iewes and Gentiles male and female bond and free there is no nation nor no condition whatsoever but all are welcome to Christ the Saviour of the world Therfore he made the Sabbath upon a new day because the other was a day of separation and division but this is a day of common convocation and collection and gathering of all together as the Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Mat. 23. Mat. 23. Further Reason 4 In memory of Christs resurrection because the Lord would assure us that both himselfe was risen and that wee also should rise by the vertue and power of his resurrection this is the maine head of our religion and all our faith therefore he would have us keepe the Sabbath upon the same day that he rose againe from the dead Therefore the Church changed that day from the Iewish Sabbath to rest not upon that day but upon the first day of the weeke which is our Lords day I say because the Lord would teach us the glorious article of his owne resurrection and would assure us of the consequent of it our resurrection by that power of his therefore he would have every Sabbath day to be a day of meditation upon that benefit that every Christian may say this is my resurrection day this day my Head rose againe which is the first fruits and I am assured that by the power of his resurrection I shall rise also therefore that Christ might make a way to my resurrection he hath ordained a day a Sabbath wherein I must contemplate upon that benefit and this I feed on this is my Sabbath dayes feast wherein I rest and quiet my soule and if it were not for the certainty of the resurrection of Christ and the certaine hope of my own resurrection I could keepe no Sabbath but now I keepe a Sabbath by the appoyntment of the Church by the wise judgement of my Mother as a symboll of my resurrection as a signe and symboll that my head is risen and that his body also shall rise in due time as certainly as the head is risen already Reason 5 From the end of the Sabbath Againe the Sabbath and the end of the Sabbath was a cessation from worke and it signifieth both a cessation from sinne and also the rest that our Lord and Saviour Christ was to have in the grave to make a cessation from our sinnes and from all sinne in his children Observe the argument ye shall see it in Heb. 4.10 Heb. 4.10 The Apostle there tels us that one of the ends of the Sabbath was this that a man should rest from his worke even as God rested from his what are mens works sinne what are Gods workes the glorious act of the creation therefore as God ceased from his worke and made a Sabbath to shew that then he had finished his worke and rested so there remaines a Sabbath to the people of God to shew that there is a cessation from their worke Now this cessation of Gods people it must come to the members from the head it must begin at our head Christ first he must cease from sinne but Christ had no sinne therefore he could not cease from sinne but because hee said consummatum est the day before the Sabbath that is the price of mans sinne which was cast upon him it was now payed therefore there is a cessation from sinne and wee must not live any longer therein but be dead to sinne as Christ was in his grave and rise to holinesse of life which is the proper end of his resurrection Marke how the Church concludes upon this the Sabbath was a type of Christs resting but he never rested till he was in his grave for saith he My Father workes hitherto and I worke and I worke to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfect still in this fraile life he was working but upon the Sabbath day then he rested to
and cast him into prison yet his word and power and spirit was stronger than they all and convinced and confuted them that although they seemed to themselves to be conquerers yet they were vanquished for so the Word of God useth to doe to conquer the conquerers and although they thought they took him prisoner yet he took them prisoners for it is a horrible victory that a man gets against the truth a man were better to be taken by the truth than to overcome and quell it These things I note as not any way prejudiciall to the authority or antiquity of those great Fathers and Interpreters but being as I think the more cleare exposition the truer meaning of the Text that he purposed to goe to Ierusalem by the feast of Pentecost and that was but seven weeks off now and although hee purposed if matters had been in place to have staid a while at Ephesus yet still his mind was at Ierusalem where the door was opened because of the aboundance of people that flocked and came thither and the adversaries were so many that it exceeded all faith to make relation of for the Iewes were bound thrice in the yeare all that were above 15. yeares old in the neare countries and all that were above 20. yeares old in far countries they were all bound thrice in the yeare to present themselves before the Lord in Ierusalem and they were such an infinite multitude that a man would wonder that the Land was not over-runne with them like grashoppers and destroyed by their being there But wee are too narrow to consider the blessings of God upon that Land for besides this that they were men of a very sparing and moderate dyet and cared not so much for soft beds but were content to lie in the fields to lie in tents nor they cared not for variety of fare any thing was sufficient for them Wee see that faith and credit makes this good in the History of Iosephus who as I said reports that there were nine millions at one Passeover Wee see the possibility of it also in King Iehosaphats time that had eleven hundred thousand men and upwards that did alway wait upon him besides those that were in his strong gallies that were men of warre as we see in 2 Chron. 17. 2 Chron. 17. Now if he were able to maintain such a number of men it may well be thought that when the generall concourse of that people was from all the parts and kingdomes of the world that there must be an infinite masse of people If hee had above one million daily attending upon him surely the severall parts of the world would furnish it to the number that Iosephus speaks of And it is not to be disputed how the land could beare them how it could nourish them these things wee are not to question but to understand that the blessing of God was mightily poured forth upon that Nation It is apparant I say in 2 Chron. 17. that Iehosaphat had so many hundred thousand men alway at his command So then the Apostle saith here a doore was opened there were so many men and so many adversaries for the most part therefore his minde was set and his spirit was inflamed so much the more to throw himselfe into the danger and to cast himselfe into the front of the battaile because he knew he was secure of the victory although he were overcome by the troublesome world yet he knew he should overcome in the quarrell of Christ that the truth of God should prevaile against them and chaine the chainers So much for the story 2 Part. The Church of God cannot want adversaries Now for the common induction that wee are to make out of this we learne that the Church of God and the truth of God can never want enemies wee must look still for a great number of adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle wee are made for this purpose In 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 4. I am perswaded saith the Apostle that God hath set us the last Ministers of the Gospell he hath set us out to be the off-scouring of the world the scorne of the people to be a theatre and stage for men and Angels to gaze upon And Simeon when he had the babe our Lord Iesus Christ in his armes he saith of him that hee was borne to be a stumbling stone to be a marke of contradiction hee was borne to have adversaries No sooner could the Gospell peepe out into the world then it had a number of adversaries and enemies to tread and trample it downe againe Those persecutions that were under the first Emperours after Christ the ten bloudy persecutions they witnesse what great adversaries the poore truth of Christ had And the Church of the Iewes which the Apostle called before him Acts 28. Acts 28. when they were convented and called together by the Apostle they told him that this new heresie the doctrine of the Gospell of Christ Iesus which they accounted heresie they knew for a certaine that it was every where spoken against that it was every where gainsaid It is an easie matter for lies to prevaile in the world the sonnes of darknesse are predestinated to bee drowned in darknesse to vanish in their owne dreames and so the lies of one Philosopher may passe upon another and they may joyne and blend them together and live in quiet and peace and yet all be lies But the pure truth of God and the sincere light of the Gospel it can indure no such Egyptian smoaks but it will shine bright forth of it selfe and therefore it cannot bee suffered for the Devill the Prince of darknesse he doth alway shew himselfe against the Lord of light and against the Gospel of light still either to extinguish it if possibly he can or at least to eclipse and dazle the light of it or to immure it in cloudes that it may not appeare to the sonnes of men It was the fortune of all truth ever to be beaten downe by liars but yet the Lord hath given it this victory It runnes the same course with Christ for hee died and was buried three dayes but hee rose againe so the truth which is his daughter the daughter of the Trinity the sister of the Sunne the brightnesse of the world although it bee for a time obscured and damped by the wickednesse of the Devils instruments and such miscreants yet in time it riseth againe it selfe by the power of God it is raised from the dead after that never more to be outed and undone but still to shine and fill the Hemisphere Therefore this should teach us Vse that men must not be discouraged in the worke of the Ministery because of the noise and tumult of the adversaries he that is for Christ he must feare no rumors but in good reports and bad reports and through prosperity and mischiefe he must make a way unto him that he seeks for of
to dip to wash and make cleane And so it was a custome among Christians they used when they layd their dead bodies forth to wash them and annoynt them And all this was done as a certaine assurance and signe of the resurrection So the body of our Lord Iesus was imbalmed by Ioseph of Arimathea and Nichodemus and should have beene more fully embalmed upon that which we call our sunday morning but that the women received relation of his resurrection before they came to the grave This custome was used in Egypt as we see in the Scriptures and in expresse words Acts 9. Dorcas or Tabitha when she was dead shee was washed and layd in an upper roome And it seemes this custome was used by prophane men themselves in most Countries as the Poet speakes of Tarquynus when he was dead being slaine for his foule acts and tyrannizing parts a good woman saith he took him and in devotion washed his body and annoynted him according to the solemnity of funerals So the substance of the argument as Beza thinkes is this that all this expense about these corses carrying them to their graves in pompe that we cast them not out as beasts unburied but commit them to the bowels of our mother earth to lye there in certaine hope of the resurrection All the charge and cost that we bestow for them our washing of their bodies that we suffer them not to carry any pollution or staine with them all this is done in hope of the resurrection And this we would not doe except we had a hope of the resurrection but would cast them away without any care But we have a stately sumptuous care of their obsequies and proceedings in this businesse therefore we have a certaine hope of the resurrection Tertullian Tertul. saith if you aske me the fashion of my life and how I eate and drinke and how I wash my selfe in my bath I wash my selfe in such a bath as is convenient for the health of my body and I look for another bath when I am dead alluding to the custome that was then among Christians which was received from the Iewes or Hebrewes that had great skill in it and wrote it in bookes and put it into their Thalmud where there is a great long Chapter to this purpose how the funerals of men should be solemnized And of a truth there is some force of an argument from the customs and manners of the people of God to prove the certainty of our common faith in the resurrection But I am perswaded S. Paul did not greatly care for these fashions because they were but weake for though they prove something yet men might object and say what doe you tell us of idle customes that because men are carried by their friends with weeping and lamentation to their graves and those that be of greaer ranke with pompe and solemnity because they doe thus shall we therefore beleeve that there is a resurrection because this argument may suffer the traverse therefore it is not full although it prove something as Calvin Calvin saith well because death seemes to be the last extirpation and extinguishing and rooting out of men therefore it hath beene the wisedome of men and the nature of faith to devise life in death and to represent life by death For men that have friends that are men of respect and are able to have it so are carried to their graves with more pompe and magnificence than ever was done to them in all their life Because they would overcome death and make their scaffold of joy and delight in the height of death more then before in their life time to out-worke the feare of death in those that are living and to give assured hope of those that are dead therefore it was profitable for the Church to invent these things and the Church approves of it And then the Apostles argument is to what end are all these solemnities for the dead to what end is this cost to what end is this pompe in celebrating their funerals but as so many arguments of the resurrection And they tell us plainely that except we hoped to see the man againe in glory in the world to come we would not trouble our selves about these things but cast him away as a thing of nothing But by this we shew our esteeme of them that we account them to be those whose lives are layd up with God in Christ To conclude this because I have beene too troublesome to you in it Chrysost August I thinke that the fittest and the best sence is that of Saint Chrysostome and Saint Austine who though they lived in severall parts of the world yet with one spirit they agree upon it What then shall they doe that are baptised for the dead say they what is all this mortifying to the world what is this continuall expectation of death in the world what is all this preparation for the world to come which is in the opinion of worldly men nothing but a meere death They thinke that men that live thus are as dead coarses that have no society of mankinde those that are of retired life and conversation they are accounted dead men that man that is a man of abstinence that is a man of feare and trembling that is a man that betakes himselfe to God and neglects the world that addicts himselfe to a pure straine of devotion Luk 2.36 that like Hanna the daughter of Phanuell is in the Temple day and night praying and praysing God these men are civilly dead men these that are baptised to this kinde of holinesse that make this profession of the Sonne of God that live a strict course of life that use abstinence from the world and the delights therein that they may be vacant for God alone they are dead men alive or living men dead or men twise dead for so the world esteemes of them Now then what shall their profession and undertakings come to if there be no resurrection shall we say that these are deluded men that they are deceived farre be it from us farre be it to thinke that God will deceive them or put them besides their end Therefore they shall be partakers of that they looke for they shall have a most blessed and copious reward in heaven their labour is not lost in the Lord there is no part of their labour but it shall be fruitfull and glorious in the Lord. And if there be no resurrection why are they baptised for dead that is why are they taken for dead men that live not out their time as other men doe in jollity in mirth and bravery of the world as it hath beene and is a Proverbe among heathens while we live let us live As if to use a sober carriage were a kinde of death for men to refraine from the delights and pleasures of this world therefore while they live they will have a life of it and spend their time in
into all the parts of Christs mysticall body in all the parts of the world The communion of Saints is taught us here Christ is alike to every one Our reioycing mine in Asia yours in Europe mine in Ephesus yours in Corinth mine on this side the sea yours beyond the sea My reioycing or our reioycing in our common Lord and Saviour It is ours because Christ is ours because he is the Lilly of the field Cant. 2.1 and the Lilly of the valley he is the Lilly of the field not of the garden a garden is a private place reserved for the particular owner of it but he is the flowre of the field that all passengers may take him up and smell to his sweetnesse He is the Lilly of the valley who conveyes grace and sweetnesse and beauty and maiesty to all that approach him He rules in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes because his vertue may be equally diffused as lines from the center to the circumference all concurring together in the center So all nations and people in the world have seene the salvation of God because they have met together in the center our Lord Iesus Christ By our reioycing in Christ Iesus our Lord. 3 The ground of this reioycing Here is the ground and foundation Christ Iesus our Lord. Christ is that fountaine from whence all streames If the old man worke death the new man shall worke life and we have put off the old man that we may put on the new that is that wee might be more invested with the one and lesse with the other By our reioycing in the Lord Iesus This common sunne which is the ioy of the world is sometimes ours and sometimes not ours When it riseth to us it sets in another place to another world of people The Antipodes have not the sunne when we have it and againe when they have it we want it because of day and night and intercourse of times For the sunne compassing the globe of the earth must of necessity by interposing the shadow make this difference so that the Sunne is not alway ours although it be the light of the world But the Sunne of righteousnesse is alway ours he is alway above our horizon alway beneath our horizon to the Antipodes as well as to us and to as many as the Lord shall call that Lord is the same he is the bright morning starre that was yesterday to day and for ever the same Heb. 13.8 Apoc. 1.8 He is Alpha and Omega By the reioycing that I have in Christ Iesus our Lord. And herein wee are to observe the causes of this joy for first he is Iesus and then he is Christ and then he is our Lord all this makes up the fulnesse of our joy If he were not Iesus he could not worke this miracle in our frayle tabernacles For as he is God he is called Iesus as he is man he is called Christ He is called Iesus because hee is a Saviour now man cannot save He is called Christ because he was annoynted and God cannot be annoynted It is the property of a man to receive annoynting from a higher thing This makes the fulnesse of our ioy for being Iesus he is able to conferre upon us streames of joy being the omnipotent fountaine of life all that we receive being from him from him we receive grace for grace as it is Ioh. 1. Ioh. 1.16 he being the fulnesse of joy from God the Father at whose birth the Angels sang Glory to God on high ioy on earth to men good will Luke 2.14 It followes therefore that hee is able to worke joy in the spirits of men that he can give light in darkenesse There is nothing difficult to him but his spirit can make all things lightsome he can make a man reioyce in tribulation and affliction as he is Iesus And then Christ that is annoynted Psal 45.7 for hee is annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes And what is that annoynting but the oyle of ioy and gladnesse that is that great fulnesse of ioy wherewith he is annoynted that it should not stay upon the head of Aaron or his beard Psal 133.2 but should runne downe to the skirts of his cloathing that all the body of the Priest should be filled with joy As our Saviour saith to his Disciples that when they came to a house Luke 10.5 they were to salute it and to say Peace be to this house When Christ comes once to a man hee brings joy he is that annoynted one he takes of that oyle of gladnesse and gives it to his fellowes that is to the followers of his salvation Lastly he is our Lord. Therefore he is a good Master and wisheth well to his servants he hath a horne of oyle and he poures it out that Amalthean horne of ioy and comfort and consolation for all the elect of God And hee is willing to doe it for us because we acknowledge him to be our Lord. Therefore we must examine our selves by this whom wee acknowledge to be our Lord. And we shall soone see the reason why we want this joy if a man be under the divell and acknowledge him to be his Lord he hath nothing to give him but misery and terrour and discomfort sorrow and distresse a man can receive nothing else there because he serves a bad Master but if thy Master be Christ the annoynted of God he shall bring thee ioy and peace of conscience and then certainly it will manifest it selfe It will appeare in thy countenance in thy words in thy patience in suffering with Gods Saints it will appeare in all the passages of a mans life that men may perceive that the oyle of grace is poured out upon him and is infused into him and it opens it selfe plainely and manifestly in every thing that passeth from him that is indued with the spirit of God Let us therefore labour which is the last poynt of the Text to preserve the force of this argument 4 The force of the Aâ—gument that we may be sure of our salvation and of our reioycing in Christ And if need be to protest and sweare it to lay it to pledge as a man doth his lands and estate When he would make a thing certaine he infeoffes a man in those things that are most neare and deare to him the best things that he hath So the best thing that the Apostle had it was his reioycing in Christ his comfort of conscience the peace of God which farre transcended his passions and sweetned his afflictions and made him reioyce in tribulation that comfort of Christ that hee had within in his spirit and from abroad by the proficiency of his Schollars to see them grow up in the feare of God in the knowledge of Christ in the profession of the faith this is the reioycing the Apostle speakes of I would that we all had this reioycing espeeially those that stand
not deceived evill words corrupt good manners IT was a true saying of Saint Augustine August take away once the faith and assurance of the Resurrection and take away all the care of religion Therefore this poynt being well proved it brings in all the rest and if this poynt be left weake and naked all the rest of necessity must shake and totter as being imperfect Therefore this holy vessell this blessed Apostle Saint Paul whom Chrysostome cals the eye of truth Chrysost and the sunne of the world under Christ Iesus he labours by all meanes as Tertullian saith with all the strength of the Holy Ghost that is so much as any man could be capable of to make cleare this poynt of our faith the certainty of the Resurrection to lay this fundamentall stone this corner stone that the rest of the house and body of Religion may be built upon it And to the end he may doe it hee leaves no stone unrolled but takes an argument from every thing yea even from his adversaries from the Epicures from the common fashion of the blinde world The childe of God gaynes every where and he mends and betters his wisedome out of the folly of the evill world Here now the Apostle takes upon him the person of another man and speakes as the phanaticall and beastly people of this life would speake Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye A thing which we know the Apostle was farre from But yet notwithstanding he shewes that it had some force of an argument in it if so be there were no Resurrection For if a man must dye as a beast I see no reason why a man may not live so too yea and take his full contentment in these things as having no happinesse after this life because hee hath his portion here So Saint Chrysostome saith well Chrysost The Apostle speakes here as a man that were an actor in a Comedy that puts upon him the person of another man the habite of another where a beggerly fellow oft times comes forth in the habite of a Noble man and contrariwise a Noble man or a King in the habite of a hermite and so they passe some intelligible matter to the company under those divers representations So the Apostle here after he had used arguments drawne from common sence and reason and from the inconvenience that might follow by admitting the contrary Now here hee puts upon himselfe the person of an Epicure and he proves out of that as being a strong argument the certainty of the Resurrection For saith he if this Epicurious life may be justly condemned as the basest and most bruitish life in the world so that their madnesse is hated of all men It followes then that there is a hope of the godly that they shall rise againe in their bodies or else we would give way to their madnesse For the madnesse and fury of these men hath some wisedome and reason in it except wee set downe this poynt for certaine that there shall be a Resurrection For what should a man doe that hath nothing to looke for after this life but take his time while he is here And so wee that know the Epicures to be a most detestable sect we make them sensible and reasonable if wee yeeld once to any doubt of the Resurrection They are now no more fooles and mad men but wise to take that opportunity which flies from us which wee deny our selves and care not for and they enjoy Namely eating and drinking that is all carnall delights and satisfactions of nature that may give content which in the meane time we want so they have something and we nothing and if our trust were onely here if our hope were onely for this life they were in better case then we a better sort of men then we Therefore I would say as they say if there were no Resurrection I would hold with their base and damnable conclusion Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye But because you know how bruitish this is that it is hissed out of all the schooles of common reason you know that the Philosophers that saw nothing but by the light of nature they damned these vile and sensuall positions Therefore I beseech you that are Christians be not deceived in these things for evill words corrupt good manners that is when any motion tending to this purpose comes into your hearts or when you heare it with your eares from other men to deny the Resurrection and to give assurance of happinesse in the things of this life take heed be not deceived the Philosophers could not be deceived by the Epicures therefore much more should you that are Christians take heed for he that denyes the Resurrection is an Epicure there can be no greater Epicure in the world than he that denyes the Resurrection and there is no man more beastly and filthy than hee that hopes for happinesse here in this life such men are the very sinkes of sinne and the dregges of damnation This is the scope of the place To proceed in order First we are to consider the connexion and joynting of these with the words before Division into the Connexion and the Argument Secondly the argument which the Apostle propounds which hath two parts in it First there is a poyson Secondly a counterpoyson a remedy or antidote against this poyson The poyson is contained in these words for the best are fayne to worke with poyson sometimes and the more infectious the disease is the more poyson they use now the Apostle to worke this poyson of theirs into physicke he brings a counter poyson The poyson I say is in these words Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye The antidote in these words Be not deceived evill words corrupt good manners In the first the pestilent heart he brings not in in his owne person but in the person of an Epicure where we are to consider First their profession and then The reason of their profession First their profession is this Let us eate and drinke The reason that is alleadged is as beastly and as brutish as the other for we shall dye to morrow Therefore let us eate and drinke to day the beastliest conclusion that can be in this world For they that have but till to morrow to live had need to bethinke themselves to day and not to drinke and swill and play the beast which is a fearefull corrupting of mans nature and understanding Then for the Antidote that the Apostle gives against it First he saith by way of caution be not deceived he gives a generall caution take heed be not deceived and drawne away from the hope of heaven and salvation by the base charmes of these Syrene songs Be not deceived Secondly hee gives a demonstration why they ought to beware and take heed For evill words corrupt good manners and it is a thing that wee should chiefly seeke
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
Have no fellowship with the unprofitable workes of darkenesse This language here this ill language Ephes 5.11 it is called Caba taken from a word used in warre Quaere The Greeke word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeâ—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth fearefull cowardly sloaâ—hfull the Cabaly they are flying away still and running backe so in evill there is nothing but trembling and feare and running backe and want of security a man knowes not where to lurke safe therefore he turnes him this way and that way and runs before any man persecute him as the Prophet saith We see the quality now of these Adversaries Now we come a little to their fight how they meete together and who overcomes Corrupt good manners Good manners being well settled in us and comming to be a second nature Thiâ—d poynt the action betwixt Evill words and good manners they corrupt them as it were the spirit of God being our guardian they become impregnable against the divell But if they have a small and slacke guard and are intrenched onely within the bounds of reason and common religion or a perfunctory profession then Sathan is powerfull and the examples of the world are bewitching and a mans owne flesh his owne selfe is false to himselfe and in a moment or short time they make such a battery and assault upon him that all the whole Fort is yeelded to the divell and so evill words corrupt good manners If good words could amend evill manners it were excellent and so sometimes they doe by the blessing of God But on the other side there is a fearefull losse which is frequent and common for wheras once good manners mend evill a thousand times ill manners corrupt good for we have a divellish disposition in us till the Lord worke it out by his spirit and this divell is so false that if we want corruption rather then we will not be corrupted we will corrupt our selves and turne divels to our owne soules For what else are these common and daily fashions that are used in the world but a voluntary seeking after corruption Psal 4.2 as the Prophet saith Psalm 4. How long will ye seeke after lyes All these devices whereby we pamper this flesh of ours they are meer huntings after corruption that though corruption flee from us yet we runne after it and overtake it This pride and prancking of these poore tabernacles we carry about us which are nothing but dust and ashes These extraordinary eatings and drinkings These high surfettings These great and mighty spendings What are these but very voluntary running a whoring after our owne inventions and a seeking to be corrupted And because we thinke there is nothing without us to corrupt us therefore we will have it within us rather than we will want it Bern. 1 Tim. 6.9 Saint Bernard speaking of that place of the Apostle Those that will be rich fall into divers snares oh saith Bernard our rich men if they had heard him they would have wished they had had more snares and thinke themselves miserable because they have not So although they goe to hell they care not if they can but make themselves heavy laden with this thick clay Habac. 2.6 as the Prophet speakes They care for nothing else The like corruption is upon all men and especially in these dayes there was never more corruption of manners than in this last and sinfull age of the world of which the Lord foretold and we by lamentable experience finde it corruption growes so strongly every day The word Corruption signifieth in the best and most common notion to bring a thing to wormes to bring it to lice as the body of Herod by the stroke of the Angell for his proud speech was brought to Vermine and Lice in a moment So all things that are corrupted they grow to a mouldring out of which mouldering there growes wormes if the matter be vegetable or had any life in it corruption being in it selfe a meere alteration to a not being from a being As generation makes a thing to be that was not before so Salvianus Salvianus saith those things that be corrupted are not themselves any longer after they be corrupted So consequently in the manners of men when they be corrupted there is such an alteration and change that a man cannot say that this is the man We see by wofull experience how quicke corruption is that in a short time a man cannot know one to be the same A youth that hath beene educated in the feare of God for fourteene or fifteene yeares and is well grounded and settled in the schooles send him into another part of the world but one halfe yeare and many times all the frame and building of his former education will be utterly ruinate and the party so corrupted that a man would wonder at the beastlinesse and strangenesse of such a fatall change From hence come those frequent complaints every where in the Church of God there are so many blasts of adverse winde so many examples of filthinesse in the world that they change every thing and take away the glosse and beauty and perfection of it and instead of the Image of God they imbrace the picture of the divell and it is done before a man is aware so quickly are we deceived and so soone brought to destruction Bern. As Saint Bernard saith well of such What art thou come to now what a Saint hast thou beene in time past and what a divell art thou now turned too thou begunnest farre better than thou endest and the first time the first part of thy graces were more excellent than thy latter times are Oh what a great change there is how unlike is this man to that childe being a man to thy selfe now when thou wast a childe nothing is more fearfull then this Let our gold and silver corrupt let our garments corrupt let theeves breake through and steale them let all things without us corrupt But let us keepe our manners pure they are our best and choicest treasure that should sit in our mindes and keepe their residence in the Court of heaven in the soule and conscience God forbid that they should be corrupted or if they be let us labour to returne presently to grace wherby corruption may be amended and a reparation made by the Spirit of God Evill words corrupt good manners Where naturall corruption is it comes alway from a kinde of heat from a strange outward heat all corruption whether it be of fruits or the corruption of mens bodies or any other thing it comes with a certaine outward heat which frightens the naturall heat and overcomes it and so works all to a beastly and monstrous disease and so to a meere nothing at last Corruption is made in the tenderest things those that are more solid receive lesse corruption and endure longest As stones and trees because of the hardnesse and firmnesse of their
of nature For it is seene in the falling and rising of the Sunne In the descending and ascending of the starres It is seene in the intercourse of Summer and Winter It is seene in the vicissitude of day and night It is set forth in the continuall intercourse of generation and corruption in the world And especially it is seene in this one thing in the seed that is sowne in the ground For a man in his garden may observe the certaintie of the Resurrection in his field in the hope of his harvest he may see that God is able to do as much for his body as he doth for those seeds that he commits to the ground As S. Chrysostome saith well Chrysost there is a twofold kinde of sowing or semination 1 One of seed 2 Another of bodies All men sow seed so God sowes bodies and the Church-yards are called Gods acre in some countries because there is sowne that seed that God preserves to eternall life hee is able to bring them from the bosome of the earth and we must trust and credit him with it to bring them from dust to be invested with glory and to be made conformable to the body of his Sonne Therefore here the holy Apostle out of arguments drawne and observed from nature out of the common course that men are acquainted with daily he brings a very forcible remonstrance to prove the necessity of the Resurrection And that he may do it with the more force and emphasis he brings it by way of prosopopeia making a man to speak and move questions and then to give himselfe the answer He brings in a simple man an ignorant man either disgracing the doctrine of the Resurrection or else being simple and ignorant desiring to know what the truth of it were And he moves two questions The one touching the Resurrection in generall as though it were impossible the dead should rise The other touching the manner and qualitie of their bodies if the dead should rise how with what bodies shall they come To which questions he returns a twofold answer The first more bitter by way of reprehension The second of demonstration shewing the reasons why and the manner how they shall come For the first Thou foole saith he that which thou sowest it is not quickened except it dye Doth not thy selfe teach thy selfe that there must needs be a raising of these dead bodies of ours because God hath used thee as an instrument to make a kinde of Resurrection For when thou committest thy seed to the ground God gives it a body at his pleasure but thou takest paines and usest the meanes to effect it that it may come to passe That now which thou doest to thy corne will not God do to his corne Are we not all the seeds of God are we not all the corne of the Almighty hath thy ground by thy diligence and culture better abilitie and power to bring forth a new eare of corne then the earth to yeeld up thy body by Gods worke and blessing upon it So he answers the first question The second answer is in the next words concerning the manner and qualitie of the bodies when they are raised As they shall come bodies so they shall be bodies but with certaine qualifications otherwise qualified then they are now In the prosopopeia in the questions that hee makes and in the answer that the Apostle returnes to them in the next verse we are to observe First that he speaks indefinitely Division into 1. A question bringing in a simple ignorant man moving questions arguing and disputing and talking against the resurrection 2. The matter of it 3. The answer in the matter 2 questions 1. Of the generality Secondly he notes to us the matter of his questions what he demands And there are two questions One is concerning the generalitie of this maine Article How can the dead rise how can they be raised againe 2. of the forme of the bodies raised The second is concerning the forme and disposition of their bodies when they be raised Suppose there shall be such a thing as the raising of the dead yet with what kinde of bodies shall they come 3. In the Answer we have 1. A reprehension And then in the answer we are to consider First a reprehension of this boldnesse for medling with Gods mysteries too much for medling too farre Foole. So that to move questions is not alwayes a signe of wit and great learning Though questions may be moved in a sober manner when men do it for satisfaction but to multiply question upon question to no purpose this is grosse follie and rather makes men giddie in their understandings then gives them any instruction Therefore he cals him foole 2. A demonstration And then he demonstrates it out of the actions that men are every day conversant in That which thou sowest I will shew thee out of thine owne field out of thy plot of ground that this is not incredible but that there shall be a resurrection Why because that which thou sowest must first dye that it may live after For it is never quickened untill the corne come to a very jellie and be turned to nothing but corruption and rottennesse and putrefaction in the earth and then it pleaseth God to raise it Therefore as the corne in the ground first dyes that after it may live so Gods corne must dye there must be a passage to a temporall death that God may raise it thence unto eternall life Of these briefly and in order 1. part The Question First concerning the questionist in this place the partie that moves the question You must first note that the Apostle will not lay the imputation upon the Corinthians because he would not too much offend them Hee doth not charge them that they should be so long taught in the schoole of Christ and yet be so little edified as to move such idle questions as these For hee takes it as a thing confessed among them and although indeed many denyed it yet he will not cast it upon them every where but hee labours to keepe himselfe peaceable and quiet with them that so he might worke the better upon them Therefore he brings in a man at large he supposeth such a man in the world one that understood nothing of the power of God nor yeelded unto it he supposeth him to speake such a word as this How are the dead raised c. And this as Saint Chrysostome saith teacheth us that we should not be personall or particular Vse Chrysost in our reprehensions When we are to deale with Gods people in a publicke place we must not deale so personally and particularly that any may thinke themselves pointed at For by that meanes they may be made incorrigible but such things must be supposed in the person of a stranger there must be a kinde of compassing a kinde of wheeling about as we see Nathan did
to extend this point as in all other things to come with modesty For if men will still be moving of questions and never make an end the Apostle calls it doting about questions 1 Tim. 6.4 He that is not content saith he with these things but will teach other things he is sicke about questions he labours of a great sicknesse the sicknesse of the soule which is the greatest sicknesse that can be And so about the matter of Baptisme that we are now to celebrate the devill doth plie doubting spirits with many questions As how is it possible that water should wash away sinne That a tincture and touch of water should do this what is the grace that God conferres in Baptisme whether it be an inherent thing in the soule whether it be a habite that can be removed or not removed whether it be necessarily effected by the collation of Baptisme or no Such things should not trouble us but we ought to follow the ordinance of God and to know that hee that hath promised is able to performe it hee that became a sacrifice for mankinde and was a sweet smelling savour unto God for the sinne of man he alone was able and had power and authoritie to ordaine a Sacrament and to blesse it with all those gracious appendices to make it a passage unto life the seale of glory And therefore he hath given us his Word and we cannot seeke further We know that a Prince can make a Knight of the Garter by sending his George though it bee a Prince in France or in another Countrey and he never saw the man nor came neare him yet by sending his Garter he is invested into that Order So much more the great God of heaven and earth when he sends us these badges and symbols even the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper These are the seales and signes of our investing into this holy order and we cannot miscarrie in our faith in this we are sure these signes are never frustrate but they put us into that honour and they possesse us of that order which our Prince hath sent unto us And as a Prince that sends a pardon to a malefactour or that sends a letter of grace and honour and advancement we know that those letters are still efficacious and have their worke upon the person to whom they are sent Much more is the letter of Baptisme powerfull which is sent from God which is turned from a letter to a working instrument It is not idle and fruitlesse but is alwayes working to eternall life and it puts them into honour that he that was a meane man before is now advanced to high dignitie it follows upon him he is as sure of it in his person by meanes of that letter and conveyance as men are of any possessions in the world So that this honour that God gives to Christians by Baptisme it is true and permanent it is inherent it is really conferred upon him Therefore we are not to move doubts and questions upon it but in our holy faith to follow our holy God and to know that he is able to do whatsoever hee will Psal 135.6 both in heaven and earth and in the sea and in all deepe places And for the conferring of grace it is certaine that by the prayers of the people by the faith of the Church and the faith of the parents there is a measure of grace conferred in Baptisme too That is those three Cardinall vertues those three principall stems faith hope and charitie though they do not yet worke and appeare in the childe because it is weake and must come to age first yet as reason lyes hidde in the childe for divers moneths and perhaps for divers yeares before it shew it selfe by speech and conversing so these graces are actually and really in the childe although they do not worke till God give them their fulnesse and growth as the Lord hath appointed to every thing it s owne time and operation So much for the first question that is about the Resurrection in generall 2 The quaâ—ities of the resurrection The second is concerning the qualities of the bodies raised And herein the nature of man troubleth it selfe more then in all the rest So curious and so sickish to know what correspondence there sh ll be betweene man and man to know in what kinde of stature they shall rise in what colour they shall have what imployment they shall be ra sed for whether a childe shall rise as a childe whether an old man shall râ—se in his old age whether crooked and deformed men shall rise crooked and deformed whether a Prince shall rise in the qualitie of a Prince and a prâ—vate man as a private man S ch foolâ—sh things the weake minde of man doats upon The qualitie and manner being of all other things the most hard to be conceived It is an easier matter to perswade a man of the substance of the thing that there shall be a Resurrection then to perswade him of the difference and of the qualities of men at the Resurrection What sexes againe male and female and so as the Sadduces thought man and w fe and consequently a new love and concordance and generation of the world Thus the foolish heart of man conceives To this then let us give that answer to our selves and to all others that dare meddle with these hidden matters which the Apostle gives for wee can give no better Foole thou thinkest it is a great part of wit to devise these things but they are such as languish the soule they are fearfull decayes and defacings of the image of God Chrysost For saith Saint Chrysostome such a desire of questioning shall never be stayed any where it multiplies and rebounds still on a man and at last overwhelmes him Therefore the onely wisedome is for men to betake them to principles and fundamentall doctrines which are the â—nely things that God would have us to build on As for these curiosities they shall once appeare but not yet God hath kept them for another world We see the Lord is marvellous in concealing of his works in materiall corporall things What a while was it before America was found out and when Plato Plato said there was another world as bigge as Affrica the world laught at him And when other Philosophers affirmed it still they were laught at for their labour And Pope Vitellius deposed a Bishop because in his conference he said there were such a people as the Antipodes We see then how long the world was in grosse ignorance in things that are created in things that are obvious and common to sence We know by experience that it is but the other day since halfe the world was found out nay it is certaine that some part of the world lyes still hidde So secret doth God keepe his riches that when men have gotten all they can that they should know that there is
spirit but the body This is the great mercie and blessing of God that although the body be never so naked yet the promise of the Resurrection is made unto that For the spirit needs no Resurrection the spirit cannot rise for it never falleth And as Saint Chrysostome saith the Resurrection must be of that which fals but the spirit never fell otherwise then by sinne and it is not otherwise raised then by repentance a spirituall kinde of resurrection But the Apostle meddles not with that here but he cals it the resurrection of the body and he shews that this comfort the body hath that although it be never so poore and never so bare though it bee cast into the furrows of the earth never so forlorne and forsaken and be stripped of all the glorious weedes that it had before yet it hath a promise that it shall resume unto it its former glory nay a farre greater glory a glory that shall indure for ever Indeed the corne when it comes out of the earth againe it flourisheth for a time and then afterward is resolved into the old corne againe and becomes like it selfe all the greennesse and goodlines of it with two or three moneths drying Sunne fades away or with the blast of a tempest it perisheth But these bodies when they shall be raised againe God shall give them that singular beautie that he intends to bring them to hee shall give them that durability that duration that no winde shall weather-beat them no Sunne shall scorch them the Sunne shall not hurt them by day Psal 121.6 nor the Moone by night for the Lord is their protection and their candle for evermore 2. Part. Gods part I come now to the second part of the Text which is Gods part He denyes it to man and saith that he doth not sow that which shall be but he saith God gives it a body that is that body that God meanes to give it man doth not sowe actually How comes it then By the hand of him that guides and governs all things he gives to every seed a body as he pleaseth and to every seed his owne proper body Where first the Apostle would reduce the glory of all the action of this creation to God all the operation in this great worke it is of God And to make us to settle onely in that he useth a phrase that is most sweet and gentle when he saith God gives it a body He doth not say God creates and makes it a body for those are works of labour we understand and conceive alwayes by those works something that is painfull and hard to be gotten And although God take no paines in the worke of creation yet it is so propounded to us as a matter of great difficultie Therefore he tooke sixe dayes to make the world in to raise our intentions to understand the greatnesse of the worke and the order that God tooke it was not a confusion therefore hee did not all things at once as he might have done but in succession of time But I say those words when they are used in Scripture they are spoken still in the sence and notion of labour But the word giving is alway taken in another sence as a matter of facilitie and easinesse to shew both the quicknesse and facilitie and also the goodnesse of the giver So in this that hee saith that God gives it a body he shews that it is a customarie thing for him out of his hidden treasures still to draw forth and to poure downe his benefits upon mankinde with chearfulnesse and good will his minde is set to do it not onely to his friends but to his enemies Mat. 5.45 for he makes his Sunne to shine and his raine to fall upon the just and unjust and hee makes that corne to grow even the corne of Infidels as well as Christians So great is his goodnesse to mankinde Vse And withall in that he saith God gives it a body It should teach us alway to receive these creatures as gifts from God as earnests of Gods love unto us A man that useth these temporall things either hee must make them assurances of things eternall or else he must abuse them And being the gifts of God of whom we receive every thing therefore they must be used to the honour of God which is the donour Our bread and food and all the parts of our maintenance as they spring and issue from him so they should be returned to him with a retribution of thankfulnesse and a gracious conversation God gives it a body and to every seed his owne body This is the maine point with which the Apostle intends to comfort the present body that is afflicted in this world For there were certaine Heretiques that said there was one body that fel and another body that rose that there was one body that rotted and corrupted in the grave and instead of that God gave another body And so there was a kinde of mutation or substitution to let one body dye but another to be raised out of the ashes as the Phoenix is said to rise out of the ashes of her mother But it is not so saith the Apostle There is no substitution there is onely by the blessing of God a restitution of the same thing unto a higher and a better and a more beautifull estate There is not one body that dyes and another body that is raised for then there could be no resurrection For what kinde of victory can this be said to be over death if the same thing that was foyled and conquered be not conquerour againe by the powerfull hand of God Therefore Christ is so carefull to prove this point unto us that it was the same body of Christ that rose that suffered upon the crosse hee was so carefull I say that wee should know this that he ordained it so that Thomas should be so distrustfull that he should gage his wounds Joh. 20.27 and finde the print of the nayles that he might looke on them that he might touch them and handle them that he might see that it was the same identicall body that he had before he went to the grave For he foresaw that there would such a doctrine of devils arise in the latter end of the world to say that Christ both in his body personall and in his body mysticall that there was a mutation of bodies that one body should dye and another rise in the place of it But against this the Apostle saith He gives to every seed his owne body In the body of nature the corne doth oftentimes so degenerate that wheat will turne to barley and barley to oates the better corne will turne to worser by reason of the badnesse and hungrinesse of the ground or by reason of the weaknesse of the seed or the unseasonablenesse of the times or the indiligence of the husbandman These things oft times cause these mutations But in this seed our bodies
wit and the best sence and judgement excels the naturall foole looke how farre the strongest man excels the weakest childe so farre the bodies that shall bee raised up in that glorious day shall excell the best and the brightest bodies that are here in this world For saith he as God hath made severall sorts of flesh now and hath given a bestnesse and a worstnesse in them that there is great difference and it is well knowne to us how they differ so in the Resurrection there shall be nothing there the worst shall be more glorious then the best and most noble perfections that are here And so I thinke it to bee true as the Fathers imagine that it is spoken of the difference that shall bee but it cannot bee directly prooved by Scripture as Peter Martyr Peter Mart. saith Although it be true that there shall be some inferiour unto others there yet we must not rest upon it nor make comparisons of it There is nothing that shall be so bad in that kingdome but it exceeds all the best things that are in this There is nothing that shall bee so meane in that life but it shall exceed the most glorious things in this life This I take to bee the purpose and meaning of the Apostle in bringing in this difference to shew that if there be a difference here much more shall there be there There is as much difference betweene the body that dyes here and the body that shall rise then being compared together as there is betweene fish and flesh as much difference as is betweene one part and member and another All of them are indeed flesh but yet there is one kinde of vigour and one kinde of use and life and motion in the one and another kind in the other and so it shall be at the Resurrection To conclude the summe of all is this Vse that wee prepare our selves in a continuall expectation with blessed Iob looking for our change Iob 14.14 to depend upon the Lord God to trust in him that is able to set his Image in a farre more glorious stampe then he did before that can renew his broad seale and out of one peece of elementarie dust can raise such wondrous matters as are here spoken of What is the most beautifull body in the world what is the goodliest flesh what is the fairest colour in comparison but a bag of dust and yet how marvellously hath God wrought upon this dust out of a poore meane ground to draw such a lively colour such an excellent picture upon nothing but dust It is a strange thing so to fortifie it with comely bones to fill it every where every concavitie of it with a faire beauty of flesh to adorne it with such a goodly glosse and colour like the flourishing flowers of the field to continue it thus for twenty or thirty yeares in this faire glosse and goodly composure this is the most wondrous act of God! Teaching us Vse that there is a further matter that remaines that he that hath wrought upon dust in this manner now his hand is not shortened but hee can worke upon the dust that shall be raised out of the grave againe hee can draw the lines upon it and breathe upon it as he saith by his holy Prophet Heare the word of the Lord ye dry bones Ezek. 37.4.8.10 and it is said the bones gathered together and the Lord breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up The Lord is able to do these things and certainly these colours and this flesh that we carry in this world they are as earnest penies of that glorious flesh that shall be collated and confirmed upon us when this life shall be ended Onely as we looke for these things so let us sanctifie our selves to the Lord God let us keepe our selves unblameable in the wayes of the Lord let us reconcile our selves by true and unfeigned repentance Iam. 1.27 let us keepe our selves unspotted of the world that this flesh may not be tainted with the pollutions of sinne but that it may be preserved for that use which it was appointed for even to be a temple and tabernacle for the Holy Ghost for so it shall be sure to have this blessed change put upon it There is as much difference betweene that which is now and that which shall be as there is difference betweene any parts of the body naturall as much difference as there is betweene unsensible and sensible creatures as there is betweene men and beasts as much difference as there is betweene the flyer and the swimmer betweene fish and fowls Yet still the same flesh shall be the same flesh shall rise that dyed but the Lord shall adde unto it Ambr. he shall ampliate it saith S. Ambrose he shall make it better he shall not destroy the substance but he shall adde a new qualitie a new glorious quality which shall indure for ever 1 COR. 40.41 And bodies heavenly and bodies earthly but one is the glory of the heavenly and another that of the earthly one glory of the Sunne another glory of the Moone and another glory of the Starres for one starre differeth from another in glory So also is the Resurrection of the body THis noble and divine order which the Apostle hath taken for the assurance of our faith in this grand point of the Resurrection is noted by all Interpreters to be the glory of that spirit within him that he could not possible shew a greater evidence of the holy Ghost then in this manner of proceeding Therefore Tertullian Tertull. saith that Saint Paul did with all the strength of the holy Ghost bend and imploy himselfe in this Argument His meaning is with all the strength of the holy Ghost that Saint Paul was capable of For otherwise it cannot be said of any man that he can use all the strength of the holy Ghost for the strength and power of the holy Ghost is more then any man can comprehend But the order I say is so excellent and divine that he leaves no part of nature unransacked and unpierced for the finding of some argument and some evidence of the Resurrection First he taught us to finde it in our gardens in our fields in the things that are sowne in those things that are under our feet Then afterward he riseth somewhat higher and teacheth us to finde it in our flesh that we carry about us in the flesh of men in the flesh of beasts in the flesh of birds in the flesh of fishes in which as there is great varietie so all this present variety serves to shew and portend a variety in the world to come in the bodies that shall rise And now hee riseth higher and teacheth us to finde the Resurrection and the varietie of the bodies that shall be in the Resurrection from a comparison that he takes from heaven and heavenly things that we may see it also above
deserved well in this world were turned into starres and so they imagined Hercules and Antonius and Arctophilax and a great number of toyes and trifles that they devised as though the starres were the bodies of men or that they were persons of a spirituall substance But the Lord teacheth us that they are no earthly bodies they are things that were created in the first beginning and they are bodies which notwithstanding seeme to be nothing lesse then bodies they seeme to be spirituall things to be spirits rather then bodies being of such a swiftnesse and of that rare operation and brightnesse Yet the Lord tels us that they are bodies that is that they have a kind of earthlinesse in them they have a kinde of matter in them For although they be farre different from these inferiour things from these inferiour bodies yet in respect of the first Creator they are but bodies For there is but one spirit there is but one pure Spirit which is God himselfe All things else have a kinde of dreggie matter in them which makes them bodies the bodies which are heavenly that is the starres are bodies because they are visible because they are circumscribed because they have figure and proportion and they are bodies because they are kept within a certaine compasse and limit Whence it follows that seeing they are bodies therefore they are not to be worshipped as the Heathens used to do and as the Indian people at this day worship them but hence we see they ought not to bee worshipped Why even because they are but bodies nay they are insensible bodies they have not sence to guide them So that for all their puritie and the use they are of to the world yet in the perfection of life they are not comparable unto the beasts of the field for the beasts of the field that have sence are more perfect in their kinde then the Sunne in the firmament Eatenus because to have life and sence is a better kinde of being then to be without it The starres are bodies without sence they are bodies without soules and they are over-ruled by other things or else as they bee bodies they could not possible rule themselves Now these goodly bodies how they should bee carried up and downe every 24. houres after what manner whether they flye as the birds in the ayre so they in their spheares and orbes or whether they swimme as the fishes in the sea as divers men have imagined a man would thinke that one of those wayes they must needs be moved but it is certaine they do neither of them For they have a mighty power that God hath given them and the Angels execute this power and they turne the whole globe over Psal 104.2 as the Psalmist saith where he cals it the curtaine of heaven which is bespangled with stars and the whole curtaine is turned over together as an Ancient or Flagge displayed that is imbossed with gold all the whole compasse and circumference is moved together or as a woman when she turnes the rimme of a wheele about both the circle and the center are moved together and so all the wheele moveth round together so the power of the Angels move the celestiall bodies by the appointment of God that in twenty foure houres they compasse the whole earth which is as much in effect as if a bird should flye fifty times the space of the world in halfe a quarter of an houre The rarenesse therefore of this motion and the strangenesse of it argueth that God hath set over them some spirituall mover which wee call their standings and their Intelligences which move them to and fro in an unspeakable manner And for the manner of it that it should be in such a contrary course that never a starre should rise to morrow in the same manner as it doth to day and that the Sunne should never rise at one and the same point twice in the yeare but still varie and by varying make the compasse of the yeare as the Moone makes the compasse of the moneth For the Sunne hath one motion whereby hee makes the day and the Moone another motion whereby shee makes the night Againe there is another motion of the Sunne whereby hee makes the yeare and the Moone hath another motion whereby she makes a moneth And so for the rest of these heavenly bodies some of them fulfill their course and period in twelve yeares some in five yeares some in thirty some in a hundred yeares the Lord having set such a rare guidance in these things that there is nothing but a man may know it before hand a man may tell fifty yeares yea an hundred yeares before hand when there shall be an eclipse and the presages of these things are certainly knowne This argues that these bodies celestiall are moved by spirits celestiall For of themselves being but bodies they could not possible do thus they could not keepe this exact and swift motion nor they could not rowle over of themselves it is impossible being but bodies that they should do these things Now I come to the second point 2. Part or comparison wherein the Apostle compares these bodies together in respect of their glory There is a great glory indeed in terrestriall bodies there is a great glory in gold and silver and many men esteeme them more then the starres of heaven There is a great glory and lustre in jewels and precious stones there is a goodly transparent beauty in them in the lustre that they give There is a great glory in the beauteous faces of Gods Saints and in the gorgeous and pompous out-settings of Kings and Princes in their Courts of state There is great glory in every part of humane felicitie but being compared to this glory of the heavenly bodies they are meere foyles to that For saith the Apostle there is one glory of the heavenly and another glory of the earthly That is there is a farre greater glory of the heavenly then can bee supposed to bee in the earthly For first of all the glory in the heavenly bodies is pure but the glory in the earthly is mixed the purer the glory is and the more it is separate the more singular and excellent it is Now the glory which is in the stars above is pure in comparison of these earthly things And although they bee speckled and spotted in respect of God and be full of dregges in comparison with the Angels yet in relation to earthly things they are most pure even puritie it selfe All these inferiour things in their glory they have a mixture They are mingled of foure things there is nothing so glorious but it is composed of the foure elements even of Earth Water Fire and Ayre and these elements are never so well glued together but they will worke themselves asunder iâ— time whereas that celestiall beauty is pure without mixture it is an Essence that is elaborate to the full God hath brought
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
power of life and heat failes therefore a man dies Death is nothing but a privation and by consequent it is nothing at all As the Sunne when it is set there is darknesse which is a matter of nothing but the absence of the Sunne So death is nothing but the absence of life nothing but a cessation of the powers in man But because wee conceive it after another manner as a grievous enemie as a triumphant enemy over all the world therefore the Scripture condiscends to our capacity speaks in our language and makes it as an enemy Christ and it as two enemies encountring each other and the one foyling the other and so foyling it as that there is no reliques or remainders of the one left because of the great victory and conquest of the other The victory of Christ shall bee so absolute over death that there shall be no occasion of feare because there shall bee no steppe of death that shall have being in the world And this is marvellously set downe by a metaphor of swallowing that that monster which swallowes all the world of men that hath swallowed our forefathers that hath swallowed all The ages and generations before us what are they else but the morsels of death which hee hath swallowed to glut his stomack and all cannot serve but still he is craving For death and hell and the grave are unsatiable they are never satisfied although they have abundance of income and harvest dayly throwne into them The metaphor is taken from those kinde of ravenous beasts which vse not to chew but to swallow their prey and specially from fish from Whales and Crokodiles which altogether smallow and choake it up without any mincing the meat they receive So the meaning is that the death of Christ swallowes up the death of nature and the death of sinne the second death that they have no more power over us Hee shall swallow them as the Whale swallowed Ionas he shall swallow them that there shall bee no more sight of them to live and to bee and to have power hee shall swallow them as the red sea swallowed up the Egyptians he shall swallow them as the fiery furnace swallowes a little water that is cast into it a sprinkling of water It shall swallow them as the mysts and vapours are swallowed up by the beams of the Sun that there shall be no appearance of them afterward It shall swallow them as the dry gaping thirsty land swallowes a little showre of raine after a long drought It swallowes them up as the weaker metalls that are cast into the fiery furnace that are so spent and consumed as that there is no remainder nor footsteps left of them So is this similitude contrived that the devouring death shall bee swallowed in the death of Christ And whereto shall it be swallowed To Victory To victory This is the strange terme that there is nothing now in the Church of God but triumphs trophees and victorie there is nothing now but songs of deliverance there is nothing but well-springs of life to water every tree in the garden of God The most strange and compleat deliverance that can bee is to bee brought from all the points of slavery to all the points of liberty Such a victoâ—y is this which is spoken of here There shall bee nothing but victory where there was nothing before but captivity Where there was nothing but sicknesse and after sicknesse death and after death damnation by meanes of the sinne of Adam Now there shall be nothing else but life and joy and glory and victory And this is the happy estate and condition of the second comming of Christ and his presence and possession of his children at his comming So wee reade it and so the best Translations hold it to victory Some others reade it to contention So St. Ierom Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Ierom. Teâ—tull Ambros Aug. and St. Austin in many places reade it to contention For saith St. Ierom it is a kind of contestation a kind of law and pleading in the court of God betweene the death of Christ on the one party and the death of nature inflicted for sinne on the other party and they shall enter into plea the one against the other and the power of the death of Christ shall command and overwhelme the power of the death of nature and of the second death which is of sinne by reason of the justice and righteousnesse which is in Christ For thereupon it comes to passe that death is swallowed up into victory because the death of Christ hath answered the justice of his Father and hath satisfied the wrath which wee had contracted against us And by that reason hee shall cease the Commission of death which is out for us because of Adams sinne Rom. 6. last For the wages of sinne is death but because Christ was without sinne therefore hee had no cause or reason to die but onely for our sinnes and so God is satisfied by his death and is well-pleased in him to give us life because the actions that proceed from Christ are not humane actions but the actions of his person the actions of God and man and by consequent able to merit for an infinite company and to be applied to many worlds if there were any more then this that is to all believers to the end of the world that shall have participation in his blood They shall have as they have a promise forgivenesse of sinnes and sinne being removed and forgiven death hath no claime But there was no sin in Christ therefore death had no right to him nor shall have to those that are in him therefore death shall make a surcease and be no more but shall be utterly abandoned and swallowed up into victory This is that plea that the Lord Iesus in his death makes against death I will be death against death Because thou hast forfetted thy commission because thou wast appointed of God to lay hold upon sinners and thou hast laid hold on him that is not a sinner therefore thou shalt lose thy place and thou shalt bee cashiered thou shalt have no more right over sinners because the justice and righteousnesse of the Sonne of God is imputed unto them to ridde them from thy hands and from those dismall conclusions which otherwise they should have beene drowned in There is the contention on the one party Death of Nature The other party is the death of nature Death which is the great master of the world to this day he shall have another plea. Hee shall say For thy part I acknowledge I was mistaken I acknowledge I laid my hands amisse when I tooke thee for there was no sinne in thee But for all other men from the beginning of the world God gave me them as prisoners and made mee their executioner I have not done amisse in these therefore I may justly hold them that are given me by Divine providence by the
have seene the enemy like men that rather desire to be overcome then to be conquerers like those that have neither will nor strength to stand in the battell Let us therefore call unto God that gives both to give us application and to strengthen our spirits by his powerfull inhabitation that as wee know wherein our strength consists so we may be able to exercise that strength wee have received that our faith bee not in vaine for a dead faith is in vaine saith Bernard S Bern. for hee that overcomes must bee a live man there is no dead man that can overcome and he must not onely be a live man but hee must bee quicke and able for a sicke man cannot fight Let us therefore labour that as God hath given us faith that it may be a living faith that it may be a working faith that it be not a dead faith a vaine imagination and fancy but that it may bee vivere valere vigere that we may bee strong and couragious and quit our selves like men in the battell of the Lord that wee may stand in our strength that wee may hold that tenent of victory and glory and conquest which the Lord Christ hath put over unto us So much of the first point concerning the personality of the action Secondly how can this bee made good when as the children of God by experience find in themselves such weaknesse that they are conquered almost by every temptation Shew me that covetous man twenty yeeres agoe that is a liberall person now and I will say it is a miracle but hee holds his old course still as hee begun and growes rather worse every day Let mee see that man that hath beene a drunkard heretofore and is become a sober and temperate man now and wee will sing a poena a hymne to God for his deliverance And so for the lustfull man if hee begin to follow that course once he followes it and holds on to his dying day except God worke a strange and marvellous deliverance And seeing that every man in the world is tainted with this that according as hee is given and inclined by his corrupt nature doe what hee can he shall hold a tang of it to his death And the Lord doth not this for any harme he wishes them but to exercise their humilitie in the sight of their frailty that they might see their weaknesse and to exercise their faith Therefore seeing that every man is thus inclined as by nature and corruption he is bent how can we be assured of the victory how can we take any glory in this that we are conquerers when we are trod under foot and foiled every where when any passion of anger can put the best and the wisest man out of himselfe that there is no man that can rule himselfe in any passion the least matter of revenge makes a man forget himselfe forget his Christian charity and he boyles in his blood till hee have some recompence for the wrong done him The dearest childe of God that ever was cannot say but that look what temptation he hath beene given to by nature still he hath a sting of it to his death to his dying-day and where is the victory then what conquest is this When a man suffers the least wrong presently to sweare or curse or fall into angry termes as though there were no Spirit of God to rule him when a man is offered a matter of gaine and advantage that hee will set it upon the tenters and wrest his conscience to bring it in although it bee false though it bee against the common good of his brethren What victory can this be But for this wee must understand that the greatest comfort that we have is this that though wee cannot overcome the work of the temptation yet we overcome the evill of that work For our victory consists especially in our faith 1 Iohn 5.14 This is the victory whereby wee overcome the world even our faith and in the next verse after who is hee that overcomes the world but he that believeth that the Sonne of God is come in the flesh and hath reconciled the world to God So that although it bee true indeed that faith must be a living faith and we must prove it by works yet notwithstanding when all comes to all the worth of the conquest shall not rest in the worke of the person of man but in the faith of the man that apprehends the victory of Christ This is the conquest that Christ hath imputed and imparted to us A man that hath no good works hath no testimoniall and hee that hath no letters testimoniall when he travels the Country hee is accounted a runnagate and vagabond and is clapt up every whereas he goes So it is with a Christian man that hath no desire to please God by the testimony and evidence of a good life And yet notwithstanding when the Lord comes to deliver the reward to give the retribution he doth not so much examine the dignity of the work but the dignity and soundnesse of faith whereby wee lay hold on the principall whereby we lay hold of him that is the Captaine of our nature and in him we overcome For wee must consider that the victory is without us and though God give us grace many times within our selves to overcome temptations yet the maine victory is without us in Christ Iesus therefore wee are to flie to him and to desire of him a perfect conquest and that all our imperfections may bee shrowded under his glorious victory This is that that makes us conquerers To conclude this point wee see it in the Father of the faithfull in Abraham hee is commended for his faith but there is no great matter of any works as the Apostle saith concerning workes hee had no great matter to glory before God hee could not glory before God before men he might But what was his righteousnesse then The righteousnesse of faith and beliefe Abraham beleeved God Gal. 3.6 and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse This was his conquest and victory that he beleeved God he hoped against hope that God was able to give him a sonne now hee was an hundred yeares old and that hee was able to raise the dead wombe of Sarah and give them the promised issue that he would give him the land of Canaan where hee was though not for his owne possession yet to his posterity and that this land of Canaan was a figure and embleme of heaven that glorious Kingdome which is above These things which were farre above reason and common sense that God should make them apparent to his sense that hee should make him verily beleeve that they should come to passe this was his righteousnesse Abraham beleeved God Iam. 2.23 and it was accounted to him for righteousnesse he beleeved God that he was omnipotent and true of his promise and that was accounted to him for righteousnesse So in
dammage and frustration But the Spirit of God doth not meane to set men a worke with a fooles errand to set men on worke without ensuing profit The blessed God that cannot lie to any man hee hath promised and assured that those that labour in him they shall not lose their reward The reason subdivided into 4. branches First then of the labour Secondly that it is not in vaine Your labour is not in vaine Thirdly why it is not in vaine Because it is in the Lord. Fourthly how we come to this You know this is so It is a thing that no man can make question of 1. The labour First of the labour It is true all the parts of religion are laborious and there is no man that takes such paines as a Christian doth When the great Conquerers of the world have subdued whole Nations yet the mastery was hard for them to atchieve over themselves that is the labour of the Lord but the labour that is spoken of here is chiefly to bee referred to three heads First to the Ministers of Corinth This labour is referred to 3. persons 1. Ministers you that preach the doctrine of the resurrection your labour is not lost therefore have a good confidence You preach that which is true you preach not lies and fancies but the doctrine that you preach that all men shall bee raised againe it is as true as God is true therefore you that are Preachers hold on be not dismaied whatsoever those Heretiques and adversaries goe about to cast against you and oppose you in your way Keepe the tenents of your profession hold on constantly for your labour is not lost the Lord shall make it good It is an idle thing for a man to stand in the Pulpit and tell nothing but lies to the people such a man deserves to be stoned to death for it to abuse the faith and to abuse the understandings of men to tell them things that God never meanes to doe And the Ministers of Corinth were men that were but Novices and there were so many hereticall fellows among them that they were not able to answer their sophismes and so they beganne to leave off their preaching of the doctrine of the resurrection because that was full of arguments and difficulties and they knew not how to evade out of it and answer their Opposers Therefore they began to give over that and take some other points but no saith the Apostle goe on with this doctrine let all the gates of hell open themselves they shall not prevaile against you It is the worke of the Lord and the Lords arme is higher and mightier then the powers of hell and that which you say the Lord will make it true in the time of the resurrection of the bodie whatsoever the gates and power of hell can make against it that is the first sense which Saint Basil S. Basil followes and indeed it is good and true Another sense is of the Brethren in Corinth that were of the common faith among them which were exercised in the Agonies of a christian life as if hee should say Brethren I understand you are by reason of this doctrine of the resurrection scoft at and laughed at they think you are fooles they imagine that such a thing as this is a meere dreame they account you creatures of another world and such as have a vaine beliefe and perswade your selves of these schismes which these new teachers have put into your heads and I see you have great troubles in your life and these troubles that you have by your persecution and troubles of conscience which are all sweetned by the Resurrection they are aggravated so that as I beseech my brethren that teach so also I intreat you that heare to abound in the worke of the Lord that as they preach and teach so that you may perceive this doctrine to be true although the world resist it never so much this is the agony of a christian life with Heretiques with Schismatiques with himselfe with the world This is the Agonie which a Christian is born unto which some of the Fathers take to be the labour here spoken of so St. Ierome Epiphanius S. Jerom. S. Epiphan and divers others follow that But that which I take to be the best is the sense which St. Austin and some others give S. Aug. which is this Your labour is not in vaine that is your labour of love Marke the Apostle there reciting all the Intellectuall graces of the Spirit of God 1 Thes 1.4 hee speakes there of the labour of love for there is nothing that hath so much labour in it as love although it be without paines if we regard the outward act and worke yet the imployment is great nothing is so laborious as love it is still doing good comforting those that are distressed bestowing somewhat to the poore out of that little it hath to spare it out of its owne mouth to give admonitions to the peevish to deale wisely with froward spirits A man were as good goe about to tame a wild Tigre as to tell men that are setled in evill courses of their faults yet a Christian must doe this so this is that labour of love the love of that blessed day the love to the time when a mans body shall be raised it makes him change his place remove his lodging it makes him spend his meanes it makes him doe all the good he can in this world because he hopes for the blessed resurrection of his body as the Apostle speaks Acts 20. For the hope of the Resurrection I am bound with this chaine This is that labour for wee doe not labour for nothing and indure all this toile and trouble but because wee looke for the resurrection of the dead This is that labour of love that wee must strive to finde in our selves that same unsatiable and unwearied labour that is still working still teaching without any intermission and although we be not called into the Vineyard of the Lord all at one time all at one houre but some at the third some at the sixth some at the ninth and some at the eleventh houre and though the worke of them be not all alike but some beare the burthen in the heat of the day and some are called at the evening yet we see all wrought untill the evening so long as they could worke So the labour of the Lord is never to be laid aside Luke 9.62 No man that puts his hand to the plough and looks back is meet And as our Saviour Christ saith Remember Lots wife Luke 17.32 But we must be constant as the greek word here signifieth a chopping labour a labour that cuts a man in pieces there is nothing that so divides betweene the sinewes and the joynts and the marrow as the labour that proceeds from true love and friendship And there is nothing that makes a man more settle himselfe
the Word of God it is without life it is without efficacy without the consequent which of due belongs unto it This also as I said before the great God must worke to make that which is spacious and large of it selfe to make it effectuall that when the doore hath once admitted the King of glory that we may keep him there that we may entertaine him into our hearts that we may lodge him in our affections that wee may yeeld our selves unto him in all our actions and that wee may bring forth fruit in our lives and conversations that our faith within us and the Lord within us may work effectually without us This is that mighty effectuall doore which God must open and make it wide and large and great and effectuall and prosperous that God may enter in and dwell there for ever I should come now to the last part of the Text which is full of great and various matter I should be too troublesome if I should enter into it namely concerning the Adversaries that were there to shew what were these adversaries They were Iewes no doubt and such as had skill in the law of Moses for they were the chiefe enemies of Paul the heathen came in more easily because they thought it was a better religion that they taught than that they had already but the Iewes thought theirs to be the best religion therefore St. Paul found the most enmity and hatred among them in all places And likewise concerning the place where these adversaries were not at Ephesus as most Interpreters agree but at Ierusalem because there was the great feast of Pentecost kept there was no such number of men simply in the world there was no such number of men as was gathered at Ierusalem at the feast Three times in the yeare saith God you shall come and appeare before me In the Passeover in the feast of weeks and in the feast of Tabernacles And Iosephus makes a true record that there were nine millions at one Passeover in his time which is a number sans number not to be numbred but only that the Iewish Nation were scattered in the world and wheresoever they were scattered they had the conscience to come at the feast to pay their vowes and sacrifice to God therefore the sea being full of fish it was time for St. Paul now to cast in his net and it could not fall amisse but it would no doubt prove an effectuall doore and take that which came to hand and sure it was effectuall for hee took so many that his net was almost broken with the multitude of fish but these things I will not trouble you with at this time I have been too offensive to you already FINIS SERM. 7. 1 COR. 16.9 10. A great doore is opened and there are many Adversaries THe summe of that I have said of the travells of St. Paul concerning these places of Corinth and Ephesus and Macedon is this that St. Paul was for the space of three years at Ephesus and from thence hee was driven out by the conspiracy of Demetrius the silver-smith and his company hee went therefore to Macedon to visite the Churches that hee had planted before and being at Ephesus almost three yeares hee disputed dayly for the space of a yeare and halfe in the Schoole of one Tyrannus a Philosopher after that time hee never came to Ephesus more for although he had a determination to be there and to stay there till hee might have a convenient saile to goe to Ierusalem by the Feast of Pentecost yet the Lord that disposeth of all things would not suffer that to bee so but the Iewes having laid wait for him in the way as hee was to returne so the brethren gave him counsell to goe back againe by Philippos into Macedon and to fetch a Northerne course that so their land-wait for him might be disappointed in which journey he wrot this Epistle to the Corinthians as one purposing to come to them but he was hindered by the treason of the Iewes for at Corinth hee had beene before for the space of 18. Moneths and the reason why he was there so long was because God told him in Acts 18. Acts 18. that hee had much people in that city and afterward going to Ephesus and staying there the space almost of three yeares and being driven out by the conspiracy of Demetrius he went to Macedon to visite the Churches that hee had before planted there for you heard before that he had two journeys to Macedon the first by reason of the vision in Acts 16. there appeared to him a man of Macedon and said Come to Macedon and helpe us And then he could goe no further then Berea that noble City because the Iewes sent thither from Thessalonica to take him after he had beene there three weekes discoursing of the Kingdome of God So his friends brought him along to Athens and from Athens to Corinth and there hee spent 18. Moneths and from thence hee went to Ephesus and stayed there three yeares from Ephesus being driven by the conspiracy of Demetrius he went to Macedon to view the Churches hee had planted there and to goe no further in the Countrey then purposing to come to Corinth they told him of a treason that was plotted against him which both hindered his purpose to come to Corinth as also his going to Ephesus therefore hee sailed by Ephesus because as I said there was treason as that hee could not with a safe conscience cast himselfe into the danger without tempting of God and because he had a great desire to be at Ierusalem at Pentecost These things are plainly set downe in the Acts of the Apostles You shall see in Act. 20. Acts 20. how these things agree In the first verse as soone as this tumult was ceased that is that great tumult of the people when they cried Great is Diana of the Ephesians great is Diana of the Ephesians which Demetrius raised when the tumult was ceased Paul called the Disciples together and saluted them and went to goe forward to Macedon and comming into those parts hee intreated them and exhorted them with much speach and comming into Greece hee stayed there three moneths and hearing of a certaine treason that was laid for him by the Iewes as hee was to goe to Syria therefore there was a Decree made that hee should returne back againe by Macedon Now three verses after you have it that wee sailed after the day of Sweet-bread from Philippi and came to the brethren at Troas in five dayes c. where wee stayed seven dayes Now about the 15. verse of that Chapter St. Paul did saile besides Ephesus that hee might not spend time in Asia for hee made hast if it were possible for him at the day of Pentecost to bee at Ierusalem So hee sent from Myletus to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and spake to them those rare and fatherly speaches as it