more behinde still so to fill the desires of men and to draw their affections unto him As it is thus in these corporall things which are with lesse labour found out still there is an infinitum a kinde of infinite labour and toyle in it that they are not found out but by the hand of God So many golden mines in the earth that are undiscovered so many precious things that are not yet revealed Much more must it needs be in those holy secrets those gracious things in heaven in the glorious Court above when the footstoole is so infinite and secret Psal 77.19 Aug. As the Psalmist saith his footsteps are not knowne Saith Saint Austin well If the steppes of his feet be not knowne how then shall the counsels of his head be discovered Therefore in these things wee must settle our selves and returne the foole upon our owne soules when we meddle with these deepe and secret matters wee know not a great number of things that are created the hearbes that are under our feet we know not the difference of them wee know not the qualities of them nor their natures and operations and shall we then mount up into heaven to see what is done there before our time The Lord will give it us in time if wee keepe our selves within the limits of modestie and restraine our selves within that compasse which hee hath commanded us Vse Secondly we learne out of this in that the Apostle cals him foole and cals these things foolish therefore we should not affect these things and give our selves over to them We learne what to judge of all curious Divinitie and dâ—scourses that it is rather a part of folly then any shew and remonstrance of wisedome And by this reason a great number of Students and Scholars in this Land spend their time meerly in folly 1. Tim. 6.10 As the Apostle saith It is science falsely so called they studie and imploy themselves that they may be madde with reason that is by following a kinde of sublime reason as they thinke they fall from reason and loose themselves Like the Philosopher that so long conversed about the mysterie of the Sunne that at the last he made a question whether ever there were a Sunne or no he knew not whether the light came from the Sunne or from any super-illuminating cause or no. The Lord blindes men that are too quicke sighted to search into things that hee hath not provided for them Such things there be indeed as Saint Austin saith Aug. there are certaine idle delicacies and dainties but they are not for us they are for no man to know that would worke out his salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Lastly in that he cals him foole or madde man we see how lawfull and how necessary it is sometimes to use the authoritie of the Spirit to use the majestie of the Spirit in the Gospell to call them fooles that speake foolish things And although Christ forbid us to do it in our particular and private talke and he that cals his brother foole Mat. 5.22 is in danger of hell fire yet it is one thing what a common Christian may do upon a little sleight cause and it is another thing what the Magistrate or what the Minister of the Word may do upon an urgent occasion Gal. 3.1 Wee see Saint Paul cals the Galathians madde men and foolish men and this questionist here hee cals him foole Luk. 12.20 Yea our Lord Christ cals the rich man foole Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soul Mat. 3.7 And Saint Iohn Baptist Oh generation of vipers So that there is left in the Church a power and authority which must be used when there is occasion to draw the sword against contumacious rebels which will not be reclaimed by other meanes As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith the preacher of the Word must be like unto the Bee he must have both a sting and honey And Saint Chrysostome upon this place saith he Chrysost he gives him a sharpe tearme but hee passeth by him quickly hee gives him indeed a poore title but yet it is a fit one He was afraid lest hee should cut him too deepe therefore hee would not stand too long upon him lest he should make him runne away For as a wise man will easily endure such a word as this from the mouth of a wiser so a man when he is followed and baited too farre he will kicke against the pricks and be ready altogether to cast off the reprehension Now we come to the demonstration That which thou sowest c. 2 The demonstration Here is the substance of the Answer to the first question the answer to the second follows in the next verse The Lord of his great goodnesse and mercie hath made the possibilitie of his owne truth apparant unto us in all the common actions of nature What more usuall what more ordinarie what more necessarie then the sowing of seed Now the seeds man if he do but mark what he doth when he imployes himselfe he shall easily perceive that God teacheth him out of his owne trade what he is to thinke of this great mystery To sow the corne in the ground we know that to flesh and bloud and common sence it is a meere losse of it and if wee had not seene it done before wee should conclude so Therefore there are some men that are celebrated as famous in the Poets for inventing this the casting of the seed into the ground from whence people thought there was no returning Indeed that conceit might be in barbarous rude Nations but it is certaine that this doctrine was taught unto Adam in Paradise and hath beene transmitted to all his posteritie Yet there are some Nations that to this day do not know the common necessity of sowing nor use it not they understand not the mystery the Lord hath so farre blinded them So it is in this sowing of the body In all judgement of flesh and bloud when the body is put downe into the grave into the coffin into the earth it seemes to be gone for ever and it goes from worse to worse till it come to dust and ashes the prime principles of our creation We ought to compare therefore these things together and we shall see how wondrous God is in the one and learne thereby how glorious he will be in the other The seed that is sowne it is quickened and hath life that vegetable life th t things of like nature have to grow againe and to bee greater to feed it selfe and to feed us also For God hath made the seed of a singular piercing qualitie that the lesser it is the more power it hath Therefore the mustard-seed which is the least graine whâ—n it comes up it grows to be a great tree For in these small things God sets forth his power oft times more gloriously then in greater matters And
that is in so great a variety and difference from the body that is here present as the difference is great betweene heaven and earth betweene the stars that are in heaven and the stones that lie upon the earth And so is it in the resurrection So as the particular differences are between the heavenly bodies one star differeth from another in glory they have not all one magnitude they are not all of one brightnesse but according to their severall magnitudâ—s so is their shining brightnesse So the Lord shall make the admirable difference not onely betweene the present bodies that we have here and the bodies which shall be raised but likewise between the bodies themselves that although all shall be full yet all shall not have a like measure but every one shall receive according to their capacitie So now to come to that part of the Text. You see the substance is thus much Hee tels us there shall be some rare qualities which God shall poure upon this flesh which it could never attaine to in this life for that it is still pestered with the contrary It shall have honour it shall have strength it shall have nimblenesse and subtlety and all this shall be tyed with a golden band of incorruption which is that that makes all sweet and full For to have good things and to fall from them is as good as never to have them but this incorruption is the glorious tye of all the rest the crowne of all the rest that the strength there shall be without corruption their beauty shall be incorrupt their agility and subtlety of body shall be incorrupt all these things shall be for ever they shall be preserved by the perpetuall influence of Gods mercy and love upon the creature This is the height and depth of this Text. As if the Apostle had said You wonder in your selves to consider the great difference that shall be between the bodies that are raised and the bodies which you have now in this life I will shew you plainly how it shall be All the difference ariseth from certaine qualities for the substance there is nothing different or contrary in it but in the quality is all the difference and contrariety and I will shew you it by such qualities as are most contrary one to another For what is more contrary then corruption and incorruption what is more contrary then honour and dishonour what is more contrary then weaknesse and power what is more contrary then naturall and spirituall and behold God shall so turne the termes of this present state in that blessed world that whereas now here is nothing but a masse of corruption then there shall be a glorious peece of incorruption whereas now it is compassed about with shame and deformity in death and in sicknesse in consumption and in misery then there shall be a vessell of honour that shall be every way shining and glorious in the sight of God that whereas now this body is subject to weaknesse all the strongest lives in the world being full of great weaknesse then it shall be a mirrour of strength it shall have an arme able to break a bow of steele that whereas now it is a lumpish creature then it shall be swift as a soaring eagle and like unto an Angell of God for we shall be equall to the Angels of God in heaven So then Division into two parts 1. A description 2. A condition first we have here a Description of the state present in a metaphoricall word the promise of the state to come in another metaphor like unto it And then we have the condition and severall manner how these shall be In the first two particulars 1. The state present 2. The state in the life to come Concerning the first for the state of the body present the Apostle saith It is sowne The metaphor for the life to come is in this that he saith It is raised up again It is sown in corruption it is raised again in incorruption Each of these estates differenced by foure essentials and their contraries And then for the essentiall parts of difference he makes them foure wherein the body is sowne and there are foure contraries wherein it is raised For the first the body is sowne in rottennesse It is sowne in corruption For the second it is sowne in deformity and ugly vision that this corruption cannot lie hid for then it were more tolerable but it must come unto the eye of the world a mans friends must looke upon him and see the gastly countenance in the dead corps This the Apostle calls dishonour there is nothing in the world more dishonourable that is there is nothing in the world more hatefull to look upon then the dead body of a man Thirdly he saith It is sown in weaknesse that is in such a miserable feeblenesse and desolation and so deprived of all strength and power that it is left as a trampling stock for men and beasts And lastly he saith It is sowne a naturall body that is nothing but a meer elementary thing nothing else to the sense of flesh and bloud and to looke on These are the wofull parts of this body that wee have in this present life But on the contrary God shall invest it in stead of corruption with incorruption with impassibility with immortality and in stead of weaknesse it shall have strength and so of the rest These are the branches of the Text of these briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first for the two metaphors that be used 1 Part. Metaphor of the present life Chrysost It is sowne It is a good observation of St. Chrysostom that the holy Apostle is so confident in the matter that he useth the termes interchangeably between the sowing of the corne and the burying of the dead body For saith he when he speaks of the sowing of the corne he useth the phrase which properly belongs to the burying of the dead and when hee speaks of the burying of the dead he useth that maner of speech which belongeth unto the corn To teach us that as there is nothing that could have been spoken more fitly nor no comparison could have been more naturall then this which he taketh from corne so likewise that there is nothing more sure and certaine then that the one shall come to passe as truely as we daily see the other For when he speaks of the corn which is cast into the ground he saith It is not quickned except it die To die belongs properly to that which hath life which hath a sensible life although there be a kind of death to in other things but yet this word is used most properly to signifie the life of man when it passeth from the body And againe when he saith It is quickned to be quickned most properly belongs to the highest life the life of man So to die and to be quickned againe
of the Lord out of the prime materialls and beginnings It is raised never to fall downe againe It is raised not to relapse againe but to stand as a goodly monument for ever It is raised by the mighty hand of him that raiseth the poore out of the dust and mire Psal 113.7 8. and makes them equall to the Princes of his people Therefore in this word the Apostle would teach us also wherein our hope consists It is sowne that is a hopefull action but after it is sowne it must be raised againe that is a dependant action which is not in our selves but from the Lord. Therefore we must raise our hearts unto God and returne our devotion and best affections to him while we live here that he may raise these bodies of ours when they have no power to raise themselves but when they shall lie in the dust of confusion he shall raise them up that they may be living Temples for the holy Ghost for ever to inhabit It is necessary before hand to raise our spirits unto him that he may make a requitall unto us at the great day of his Visitation So much for the metaphors It is sowne in corruption Corruption is the worst change that can be It is a motion from a being to a not-being For as generation is a work of God whereby something which was not is brought to have a being so corruption is a work which God permits to be done whereby a thing is brought to fall from that being either to no-being at all to have no being in our sense or else to such a base and naughty being that a man can see no reason why it should ever have been so glorious and so goodly to come to such a foule disgracefull downfall Corruption therefore is the destruction of the thing that was made as in all things we see in the world In naturall artificiall things when a matter is corrupt once it grows fit for nothing and although there be some kind of liquors that when they are corrupted they serve for some use as wine when it is corrupt it turnes to vineger and although it be not fit to drink yet it serves to raise the appetite in sauce and so divers other things doe so corrupt that notwithstanding they serve for some use but yet the chiefest and greatest number of things when they come once to be corrupted they come as much as to say to nothing to a kind of dissolution for there is nothing that can be turned unto nothing simply but because the use and property and substance is so disgraced and a contrary thing succeeds a better it is as if the thing were not at all Now this corruption is done two waies It is effected either by separation of the matter Or by removing of the forme The matter and the form you know are the chief things of which every body consists and we see that in death these things hold exactly For the forme of man being his reasonable soule as long as that is in the body it is cōpact and free from corruption and it keeps the beauty in the forme and image of God in its proper frame and figure But when the soule is gone then corruption works and dissolves the matter to Now when the matter is dissolved or the element is dissolved and corrupted this is that corruption which the Apostle speaks of here when hee saith The body is sowne in corruption that is the principles of the body which consist of bloud and flesh and skin and bones and colour and complexion and proportion and figure and frame all these goe away presently after the soule is gone And though some hold longer then other as being of more sollid parts yet they continue not long even but a few yeares and in some grounds a few dayes destroy the whole man This corruption began when wee began God t is true made the body of man uncorrupt had he persisted in obedience but as soone as man by his prevarication by transgression of Gods command was drawne into sinne he brought upon him this worme of corruption which never ceaseth to work upon the powers and faculties of flesh and bloud and upon every part till at the last it work it to an utter nothing to a very desolation And this corruption if it could be contained it were well if it could consist within some termes For corruption is proper to the body but yet through the infection of sin the gangrene hath so poysoned and possessed the whole man that corruption by a metaphor is brought into the soule to which is the speciall part of man And when the best things are corrupted the corruption is most wofull of all Matth 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse saith the Lord Iesus Men in this world are corrupt in body they are corrupt in soule they are corrupt in their understandings in their speeches they are corrupt in their wayes Psal 53.1 as the Prophet saith Corrupt they are and become abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one They are corrupt in their consciences the consciences of wicked men are defiled with hypocrisie that they stink in the nostrils of God and men And to this corruption every man is subject more or lesse But the chiefe corruption intended here is corruptibility that is the rottennes of the parts of the body when they are once dissolved and melted and fall from one another To conclude this point because we know it by experience and we beare about us these corrupt bodies and we are troubled with the signs of corruption every day if we understand any thing Vse 1 It should teach us therefore not to triumph in any of these worldly things that puffe up the flesh and fill the mind with vaine conceits of its owne sufficiency but rather let us study mortification such as becomes the children of God let us weep for our owne corruptions for they grow so fast upon us that they make us odious even unto our owne selves when wee come to have a sense of our selves Againe it teacheth us this to take heed how we Vse 2 patch over this corruptibility as we use to do What a deale of cost what a deal of painting and art and labour and time is spent now adaies to conceal this corruption Corrupt bodies will not seem to be corrupt but they will be immortall and eternall and those offensive things that be in nature and that grossenesse and loathsomnesse that lurks in these bodies we seek by perfumes and by orient colours and singular diet to suppresse them and obscure them that they may not appeare But now the Lord hath put a worm in this flesh see it and acknowledge it and waile over it make not thy selfe better then thou art deceive not thy selfe thou art nothing but dust and ashes a corrupt creature a masse of corruption Why then art thou
fall into a grosse error which they might conceive by this doctrine of his For if it shall be raised a spirituall body why then say the heretiques Apollinarius Eunomius and such like then it is not the same For it is now a meere naturall body and what is so contrary as naturall and spirituall Animal and spirituall are clean contrary therefore the Scripture still bids us live after the spirit and distinguisheth betweene the sonnes of the flesh and the sons of the spirit there is nothing more contrary then these now it is impossible that a thing should be capable of that which is contrary Therefore they say if it shall be a spirituall body then it shall not be Idem corpus the same body Another crew say If they shall be spirituall bodies then they are not flesh and bloud and bones as these elementary bodies are that die and are committed to the ground but it shall be another thing made by God of a strange composure Against this the Apostle tells us that there is such a distinction of a naturall body and a spirituall body and yet none of these monsters follow neither For it is the pleasure of the great God to adde such excellencies to that body which was before dust and ashes and mortall and to draw such lines upon it to give it such beauty and perfection that it shall seeme rather a spirit then a body it shall be so full of quicknesse and motion and life and dexterity that it shall rather seeme a spirit then a body To speak comparatively Hence we learne That seeing the Apostle proves his distinction that it is not lawfull for any man to make of his owne head of his owne braine any generall principles or definitions or divisions or distributions concerning the doctrine of the Gospell but he must shew reason for it Then secondly what reason doth the Apostle give for it why It is also written Hee proves this his doctrine by the Scriptures and unlesse he could have proved it out of them he must have been subject to the censure of all these heretiques that all that they had passed upon him should have gone for good except he could have refuted them by the Scriptures So he tells them that It is written So that here we have a maine conclusion of our faith to hold to alwaies and to stick to that wee must beleeve no man further then the Scriptures If he will speak his own minde he may doe it for illustration or for arguments sake but to put the devices of his owne head and braine to goe for points of religion for matters of faith it is a damnable thing he must have no more credit then the Scriptures will afford him hee must make no distinctions and differences except it be found in the written word If this had been well observed the Church of God had never come to that miserable distraction that it hath been in for the space of these thousand yeares every Intruder still presuming to make his owne devices fundamentall to avert the points of religion to make distinctions such as man never saw in the Scriptures As to talk of Purgatory invocation of Saints and of other errors newly sprung up in these later times Such things as these have no kind of being in the Scriptures no nor any shew of being notwithstanding these proud imperious spirits will bring them upon the Church of God and lay a heavy yoak upon the people of God to beleeve them as if they were the very oracles of Almightie God himselfe Wee must take heed of these things Teach mee as far as thou wilt out of Gods booke but if thou teach me otherwise thou art a liar and no teacher thou art a seducer and an imposter and no pastor as St. Bernard Bernard and also Gregorie Gregorie saith Therefore this blessed Apostle he puts downe his proofe he will have them beleeve him no further then hee brings Scripture for it It is written saith he As if he should say I make not this distinction of a naturall body and a spirituall body I have it made to my hand for it is written And where is it written it is a hard thing to find that all the whole sentence is not to be found any where but the first part of it is written that the first Adam was made a living soule the other part is made up by the spirit of the Apostle understanding the difference betweene the first and the second Adam to make up the antithesis of that notable difference betweene the one and the other Some of the Fathers doe take it thus that the whole sentence may seeme to be written that oft-times in the Scripture things are said to be written and to be done which are not written nor done meaning not in their kinde but in their effects by some consequence As St. Chrysostom saith of this Chrysost from the reason and event of the thing it was written because that men did see every christian knows that Christ Iesus doth so farre passe and surmount the first Adam as God surpasseth man as the soule surpasseth the body therefore the event and consequent of the thing makes it as if it were written For God hath made it good and so hath set it as a sure writing in the world And so he gives instance from divers Scriptures in the like things As in Heb. 12.21 Heb. 12.21 the Apostle saith speaking of the terrour of Moses when he was in the mount when the Law was given the terror was so great that Moses said I feare exceedingly Now in the booke of Exodus Exod. 19. Chap. 19. where those things are related there is no such thing mentioned that Moses said any such words but the Glosse expounds it That it is certaine upon the deed upon the teror that Moses conceived he trembled It was a thing done although it were not spoken he did tremble So here also it may be said Although there be no such words as the second part of this sentence that the second Adam was made a living spirit yet de facto it is true For all the Church of God knowes and subscribes that there is a maine difference betweene them Such other places there are as that in Isay 7.14 Isay 7.14 A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a sonne and they shall call his name Emanuell Now this was never done de facto as St. Chrysostom observes Chrysost the people never called him so they called him Iesus not Emmanuel And although the Angell gave that name to the virgin yet the people used it not and yet saith St. Chrysostom though it were not done de facto yet it was done de jure it was done in right and reason for that the things themselves do send forth such a voice and testimony that he was Emmanuel God with us Therefore these Fathers think the meaning of the Apostle is this That although it were not
upon him our nature hee must take that which stood in most need of redemption which is the poore body which is subject to all miseries and calamities For how should hee be called The sonne of man if he had not a body But as he is called The sonne of God so he is also called The sonne of man and hee came to save both parts of man that were downe by reason of sin he came to take the flesh of man to be incarnate and that is it that we so rejoyce and boast of that Christ was become incarnate became man and tooke our flesh upon him and in that flesh he hungred in that flesh he suffered in that flesh he was buryed in that flesh he rose againe in that flesh he ascended into heaven to make a way by the vaile of his flesh into the Holy-of-holyes Heb. 10.20 to all that constantly and truly beleeve in him Quest 3 Thirdly another Question is moved here How Adam is said to be corpus animale seeing God gave him a power of immortalitie for if it were corpus immortale then it could not be corpus animale as saith S. Austin and that truly but Adam had corpus immortale therefore it was not corpus animale and by consequent he cannot be so different from Christ as the Apostle makes him here For the Apostle brings in the two roots and fountaines of man-kinde and he makes the one animall and the other spirituall Now saith St. Austin I demand if Adam had an immortall body how was it an animall body For an animall body is that that is fraile and changeable an immortall body is that which is unchangeable And againe as the holy Father urgeth it further Certainely saith he we recover in Christ that which we lost in Adam and one thing that we recover by Christ is immortality therefore we lost immortality in Adam we lost it in the first Adam and we recover it in the second Now if we lost immortality in Adam then he lost it for us he lost it first as being the foundation of our kinde and we lost it in him being his posterity Then certainely he had it if he lost it for no man can lost that which he hath not and therefore Adam having immortality how should his body be fraile and mortall and an animall body These are things contrary each to other The Father answers againe These quirks and devises make the faith of many men to stagger and it makes some men to answer it thus That the body of man was changed in Paradise God made his body a mortall body but after this he brought him to the Symbole of life and gave him a commandement to abstaine from the tree of knowledge of good and evill which had he done and had kept that commandement then should the fruit of the tree of life have so preserved his life that he should have lived for ever So these men thinke that the Lord changed the condition and quality of his body in Paradise in the giving of the command Aug. But S. Austin answers it better afterwards I thinke saith he that the most safe and proper answer is this that although it be true that we recover immortality by Christ and that we lost this immortality in Adam yet we have a farre greater advantage by Christ we gaine more by Christ then we lost by Adam Adam never had this certainty of immortality that we have he had a kinde of a possibility of it but it was conditionall Now conditions make nothing to be and so this stood upon an if If thou keep the commandement thou shalt live and if thou doe not thou shalt die therefore a man cannot say that there was any immortality planted in the person of Adam because it was uncertaine it was mutable it was in the freedome of his will which was changeable he was not made in a certaine necessity of obedience therefore it was conditionall To conclude all As the holy Father saith the body of Adam although it were meerely naturall as ours is yet it was in a farre better condition then ours are that is it had no necessity of dying as ours hath for our bodies must needs die but the body of Adam might have beene sublimate and brought unto the heavenly joyes without death which ours cannot be For it is impossible for flesh and blood to enter into the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 Therefore we have no way to come to glory but by suffering the common calamity of nature which is by stooping to the burthen of death And againe Adam had in his very person those seeds that might have prolonged and continued his life by the blessing of God and the Sacrament of the tree of life whereas we by his sin have gotten nothing but the seeds of death and mortality working us from one misery and sicknesse to another and from sicknesse to death And if the mercy of God intervene not from the first to the second death to eternall misery and perplexity Therefore the difference is this the Lord made him in a better estate then we for he had no necessity of death nor no principle of death but what by his owne will he contracted but in us there is a necessity of death we must die and yet by the mercy of God in Christ wee are restored and renewed by his intercession and sacrifice unto better things then we lost in Adam The Lord make us assured of this blessed and glorious estate that thereby we may be armed against death against the feare of death and that thereby we may grow more and more spirituall that wee may become partakers of that divine grace which may make us while we live in this world not to be of the world but Citizens of that blessed and heavenly Ierusalem which is the mother of us all Gal. 4.26 To the which the Lord bring us for his infinite goodness and mercies sake Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.46 47. But that is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord himselfe from heaven As is the earthly so are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly IN the former part of this Treatise the Apostle hath discoursed of the kindes and degrees of our future happinesse in the glorious resurrection Now hee comes to tell us of the causes and of the order The substance of these words which I have read unto you is to give satisfaction to that common curiosity that is in Gods people whereby they seeke to prevent the time and to enjoy their happinesse before it be Gods will and pleasure It is naturall to man as Cornelius Tacitus saith to runne before his fortunes Corn. Tacit. And so it is among Christians themselves there is a kinde of
2 Cor. 11 When I am weak then am I strong A strange contradiction but his meaning is that the Lord doth so season our weaknesse and infirmity in this life that it is an infallible testimony and forerunner of that great strength and glory that shall be revealed in the life to come The Lord useth to work thus out of weak causes to bring more strong effects And if the causes were strong God would not use them For out of weake and base and contemptible things God brings strong and noble effects As when Gedeon was to fight with the Midianites and he pretended that his Army was but a few Judges 7. How many hast thou saith the Lord so many thousand They are too many the Lord would not have them all there were too many and hee commanded to cut them off to another halfe and yet there were too many the Lord would not work with them they were too strong At last hee comes to make choice of them by lapping in the water and they came to 300. men to fight against as many as the sands on the sea that covered the earth as gras-hoppers as it is said And now the Lord begins to work with these men and how doth he work by weapons No but with a few broken pitchers in their hands and the Lord set the Madianites one upon the neck of his fellow that they were murtherers each of other and became as sheepe for the slaughter the Lord gave them as a prey into their hands This is the wondrous act of the great God which is not tyed to meanes which will not seem to worke with second common causes but with his owne arme It is true these common second causes in the world hee hath honoured them much and commanded them to be used but when he comes to effect great things such as was the destruction of the Madianites such as is the redemption of man by Christ and such as shall be the Redemption of of our bodies at the Resurrection then such meanes and causes as seeme to help him forward hee rejects them and works not by them but by the cleane contrary The greater stench the bodies have sustained in the grave shall worke it unto greater sweetnesse and the greater weaknesse it had the greater strength shall accrew unto it and wondrous puissance shall God worke unto that part which lacked honour according to his blessed dispensation in all things FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.49 50. And as wee have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare also the Image of the heavenly And this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither corruption can inherit incorruption TO hope for the time to come and to have now present possession is one of the greatest differences in humane affairs to be observed saith Chrysologus Chrysologus The one is the portion of this life sperare to hope in God for the things that are promised the other is in that blessed life to come to have and to hold and to enjoy the promises which the Apostle assures us of in this place that we shall have as sure as we have had the first fruits and the earnest so sure we are to enter into the full possession and to have the performance of the which God hath made a tender of and promised unto us before The words of the Text contain that great consolation which is the onely comfort and sweetnesse of our life The Saints of God are burthened with the image of the earthly man they are in continuall suffering they endure the plague of Adam which is sinne every day and every houre and there is none that comes of Adams blood but he is as it were borne to death to misery and to slavery which are the proper consequents of sinne Now the redemption that comes by Christ it is not yet apparent it is but yet begunne it is by faith it is in hope it is in spe but not in Re and this is the cause of the Saints mourning upon earth Therefore to this the Apostle answers and bids them be content and satisfie themselves for that which they have not now they shall have hereafter therefore they must stay the Lords leysure and all shall bee for the best And although hee stay long yet hee will come full and make an abundant recompence for his delatory absence with the greatnesse of those rewards and precious things that hee brings with him For saith the Apostle As we have borne the image of the earthly as we groane under the burthen of Adam so we are assured that we shall beare the image of the heavenly in the fulnesse of joy in the fulnesse of rest and holinesse in the fulnesse of all strength and perfection and immortality and incorruption And therefore his purpose is to quiet and content the distressed soules here in this world that groane under their misery with the expectation of that glory that shall bee revealed There is some difficulty in the words as what it is that he saith of an image the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly What it is he speaks of flesh and blood For the first we must understand that he meanes not a vaine shew a picture or representation but the thing it selfe For we have not the figure and proportion of Adam alone but we have all his misery and all his sinne his sinne comes unto us by tradition it is an inheritance which wee cannot shake off It is a kinde of portion he hath given us that we cannot be rid of So that it is not an image as we take it in the common sense for a picture or an imaginary matter but a reall substantiall impression by reason of his sinne and his breaking of the command There lies a burthen a heavy load of plague and misery upon our whole nature And so likewise for the other the image of the heavenly We are not to imagine it to be any outward light resemblance but a true reall conformity to him whose image we shall beare We shall be like unto Christ not in a sleight transitory fashion but in a true and reall change And that that hee saith of flesh and blood that they shall not inherit the kingdome of God we must understand it thus Not as a thing impossible for God to doe for flesh and blood doth inherite Gods kingdome Christ is flesh and blood and hee is in the kingdome of God Yea Divines have thought that the bodies of Enoch and Elias that are flesh and blood are already in the kingdome of God as those also that arose up with Christ of which there were diverse that arose to testifie his Resurrection And Divines think generally that the bodies of these ascended with Christ into heaven Now these are flesh and blood and yet they bee in Gods kingdome The meaning therefore is not as
though God could not open the kingdome of heaven to flesh and blood but not to flesh and blood corrupted with sinne As long as we are in this life our flesh is full of sinne and our blood in the veines of the body runne with sinne and as long as they bee so they bee meere matter of corruption and therefore they cannot enter into incorruption Howbeit Adam in his first creation was flesh and blood and yet had hee stood in the state of grace and innocencie he had entred into heaven with his body of flesh and blood So that the meaning is not as though God could not conferre so great a benefit upon flesh and blood but because it hath corrupted it selfe Flesh hath corrupted his owne way and blood is tainted with sinne it is tainted defiled and polluted blood it is not such as God made it but it hath received a tincture from the Divell In regard of this it must be dissolved and brought to rottennesse and corruption that God may raise it a new seed and so make it pure and perfect againe and make it capable of the heavenly and blessed inheritance So that the summe of the words is this As long as wee be flesh and blood as long as wee bee in this life sinfull flesh that we carry about with us wee must not looke to be translated into heaven Adam should have been translated into heaven if hee had lived and kept that state wherein hee was made Wee desire indeed to bee like him in that but our desires and our hopes must be grounded upon Gods will not on our own fancies and we must expect what the Lords will hath determined He hath determined that wee should come to death before we enter into life that we should beare the image of the earthly before we come to the image of the heavenly and wee cannot have incorruption and glory poured upon this body that wee carry about with us by reason of sinne because it is in sinne For sinfull flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God And although when Christ shall come there shall bee alive many millions of men that shall not die as we doe yet they shall have a change and there change shall be unto them as death is unto us now For it is not possible that any corrupt body should enter into incorruption This I take to bee the summe and sense of the words read Now to proceed in order we are to consider First the persons that he saith as we have borne Then secondly the matter propounded of those persons First there is a sentence or proposall Division into 1. the Persons 2. the Matter propounded Secondly the explanation of that proposall The proposall that is made of these persons is by way of comparison as wee have borne the image of the earthly so also wee shall beare the image of the heavenly The explanation of it what hee meanes by this image The Corinthians might aske and say they doubted of his words these are obscure things that the Text saith The image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly My meaning saith hee is nothing but this that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Eingdome of God nor corruption cannot inherit incorruption So in the proposall or proposition in the 49. verse we are to consider these things First that God made man to an Image Secondly that that Image being defaced and deformed wee are made to another kinde of Image than we were first intended for we are made to the image of the earthly Thirdly we are to observe the reddition that as we beare the image of the earthly so we shall also beare the image of the heavenly Fourthly the certainty in the sicut so as according to that manner And this makes us assured of the thing that this is a ground experimentall that because wee have the image of the one therefore wee are assured of the image of the other For still we are made to an image that is for the proposall In the explanation in the words following brethren I say unto you or my meaning is this Wherein the holy Ghost teacheth us to speak plainly and not to wander away in new quaint words in obscure sentences but to make the doctrines cleare that wee take in hand And then for flesh and bloud that they are not capable of heavens kingdome and for what reason they are not capable And lastly the summe of all corruption which is flesh and bloud cannot enter into incorruption which is the Kingdome of heaven For that which he call flesh and bloud in one place hee renders it againe in another place by corruption and that which he called the kingdome of heaven in the former words he turnes it in the latter words incorruption So that the Apostles perspicuity and evidence is wondrously to be admired in this place hee labours to speak of a high matter a deep profound matter of dignity so plainly to flesh and bloud Hee saith flesh and bloud shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Not because it is flesh and bloud but because it is corrupted and there shall not enter any thing that is corrupt into incorruption because they are contraries and one contrarie cannot enter into another It is impossible for a man to be alive and dead to be sick and well at one time there is no difference in the world greater then the difference of corruption and incorruption and because flesh and bloud is corrupted for sinne it is full of misery and wretchednesse by sinne and the Kingdome of heaven is an uncorruptible crowne it is impossible that these should be coincident and meet and be mingled together Therefore corruption must be evacuated and rooted out before incorruption can be attained Of these things briefly and in order as God shall give assistance And first concerning the persons 1. Part. The persons of whom these things are propounded of whom these things are pronounced It is of Gods Saints For as I have often told you this whole Chapter is spoken of and endited concerning the Resurrection of the Saints onely There is indeed a resurrection of those that belong not to God which is a resurrection to punishment and shame but the Apostle meddles not with that in this whole Chapter but speaks only of the Saints resurrection and he saith We that have borne the image of the earthly wee shall also beare the image of the heavenly We that is those that are called of Christ and sanctified by his holy Spirit to these it is to whom this promise appertaines For every man beares the image of the earthly good and bad but every man shall not beare the image of the heavenly but onely those for whom it is ordained The nature of man is not capable of heaven for if mans nature were capable of heaven then all men should have it because all men have the nature of man indefinitely and equally but it is the
the earthly Now because the Corinthians and other Readers might perhaps not understand this for it is not every mans part to understand the Scripture to the full the Apostle explaines it Brethren I tell you what I say flesh and blood corrupted by sinne cannot inherit the Kingdome of God When it is cleansed and purified it shall but in this condition of corruption it is not capable of that incorruption So that the first thing we are to note here is the diligence of the Apostle in the clearing of his doctrine in the opening of his mind This I say brethren As if he should say If you understand not what I say I will expresse my selfe in clearer and fairer termes Vse This commends unto us a memorable and gracious act of Christian charity still to open it selfe and to doe as much good by way of expression and explanation as possible may bee It is not for a man that is in St. Pauls place to speake in high termes in such phrases as passe the understanding of the people but if they chance to doe it or be carried away in some high straines of language they must descend againe as the Angels ascended and descended upon the ladder of Iacob If they doe ascend to high thoughts and discourses of Divinity they must descend againe to meaner speeches to those phrases and termes that the people may be capable of For preaching and teaching was made for a certaine commutation of mindes for the changing of mindes For by teaching the scholler is made the Master and he puts upon himselfe the nature and person of the Master As one said of another mans booke that he read hee said hee was become the man himselfe whose booke he had read Therefore as St. Austin saith all learning is nothing Aug. but a mingling and mixing of soules and spirits together It is needfull and necessary for him that teacheth to speake so as that hee may bee understood For to what end is speech if it be not perceived If I be not understood when I have said all that I can I have said nothing If I be understood when I have said little I have said sufficient because another man knowes that which I know and another is transformed into that which is inherent in me The Philosophers compare a teacher and a master to the parents of a childe and the scholler they liken to the child As the child beares the image of his father so the scholler beares the image of his Master much more It is much more lively in Art then in nature it can be expressed Therefore this holy Apostle St. Paul Gal. 4.19 hee intends to bring foorth children to Christ My little children of whom I travaile againe till Christ be formed in you He useth that plainnesse of speech and evidence of language that thereby he may flow into their hearts and senses and affections that hee may accommodate them to his intelligence and that he may doe it the better hee useth this word here Brethren This I say brethren As if he would carry them along shew them the thing with his finger in a familiar sweet speaking not as a high Commander to his Souldiers nor as a great Prince to his Subjects nor as the great God to Israell when he gave the Law that they could not indure the voice but said Let not the Lord speak any more but Moses lest we die But he speaks in the spirit of meeknesse and mildnesse Brethren fellow-souldiers fellow schollers you that are partakers of the same salvation come along and see the doctrine that I deliver to you This is that I say herein I expresse my selfe When I said the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly my meaning is this that flesh and bloud which is corrupt cannot enter into the Kingdome of God which is uncorrupt Let us consider what hee saith when hee saith Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Hee meanes to expound himselfe that corrupt flesh and bloud shall not enter As St. Austin saith Lib. 6. Aug de gen lit Cap. 18. de Gen. ad Literam Cap. 18. hee meanes that flesh and bloud that is thus tainted and defiled with sin shall not inherit the Kingdome of God the Kingdome of heaven And why not Because it is a place of that purity and of that perfection that it cannot indure sinne or any sinfull neighbour As soone as the devill sinned hee was throwne from heaven there was no place for him there As soone as Adam transgressed hee was throwne from Paradise which was the Type of heaven there was no more remaining for him there The blessed eyes of God are so pure that they cannot looke upon a defiled thing and because the Lord will have all the world which is tainted with sin to be cleare and pure the element of water came once through it and because that could not doe it the element of fire shall come and purge it and shall make all the goodly stately palaces all the goodly castles and the faire groves and pleasant meadowes in the world it shall make them all dust and ashes that the sinne that lodgeth in them and the corruption which they have contracted unto them by the transgression of Adam may be wrought out of them So pure is the Majesty of God that he cannot indure any evill thing to approach or come neare unto him Therefore flesh and bloud because it is full of sinne For all the acts of sinne are done in the flesh and the beginning and proceeding of the action begins in the bloud There is a tainted bloud about the heart of man wherein all these evill imaginations nestle and hide themselves there is an impure bloud that runnes through the veynes of man which fils him full of impiety So that the blessed God shall never suffer this corrupt bloud to enter into his Kingdome that can indure no corruption But he shall cleanse it and purifie it hee shall annihilate it and bring it to nothing that it may be something for ever But here may be many things excepted against us As first Objectiōs 3 If flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God then how are the Saints said to be partakers of the Kingdom how have they the first fruits of the Kingdome in this life how are they called the children of the Kingdome Those that belong to the Kingdome they are called heyres of the Kingdome and Co-heyres with Christ and if they be heyres and Co-heyres and fellow-heyres with Christ and yet be flesh and bloud how is it true then that flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Secondly it may be objected of Enoch and Elias that they never saw death and corruption not that corruption which falls upon our nature and yet it is presumed that their bodies are in heaven So that flesh and bloud enters into Gods Kingdome For Enoch and Elias were flesh and
bloud that is sinfull creatures as well as wee and yet they be in the Kingdome of God Thirdly it may be objected concerning them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord they shall be flesh and bloud as we are and they shall in a moment of time be translated to the Kingdome of God therefore it seemes that flesh and bloud inherits the Kingdome of God Answers to the 3. Objections For the answer to these For the first we must observe that it is one kind of possession that a man hath spiritually by faith and apprehension and it is another to have it in reall entrance and in a reall investiture The Saints of God are called in this life the sons and daughters of the Kingdome and they are called heyres of the Kingdome and Co-heyres with Christ But how it is onely in faith it is onely in taste in an earnest of that which shall be fully paid hereafter as the Apostle saith Heb. 6. Heb. 6.5 It is impossible that such as have tasted of the heavenly joy c. So that wee doe not deny nor the Apostle doth not say that flesh and bloud shall not taste of heaven nor corruption taste of incorruption for we have it the children of God they have the very pledge and earnest of it sealed unto them But how It is in expectation For the Lord Iesus tries his servants in their expectation by their waiting upon him In the world it is true it is one thing to be a Noble-mans or a Gentlemans heyre and it is another thing to come to the possession of the land he is sure of it by his birth by his primogeniture he is sure that it shall be his but he hath it not yet Hee may live like a poore gentleman and his father may curbe him and keepe him in before he come to enjoy it he hath it not for the present So the Lord hee suffers those that be his heyres to want to be troubled and afflicted in the world hee suffers them to have no better pittance then this As one saith I hope for things better hereafter and therefore I swallow those things that are present here And then for the second point objected concerning Enoch and Elyas Answ 2 There are divers opinions of Divines about it Some think that their bodies are not in heaven but were buried in some place unknowne as wee see in Moses death and that they shall rise againe at the Resurrection This I confesse hath many grounds and good reasons to prove it that it is the prerogative of Christ alone to be in heaven For there is none that hath descended but the same that hath ascended which is the son of man which is in heaven Eph. 4.9 10. But yet the commō tenent of the Church is otherwise whereunto I must yeeld and subscribe namely that the bodies of Enoch and Elias and those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ be actually with Christ and keep him company in heaven And although the ascension of those be not manifest yet it is agreeable to the analogie of faith to beleeve it For to what purpose should the Apostle insist so much upon this Heb. 11.5 By faith Enoch was translated if he were not after another maner dignified and honoured than ordinary men And to what purpose is it said that Elias was carryed to heaven in a whirlewind and a fiery chariot if the Lord would break his neck upon a rock and cast him downe againe to the earth This had been no honour but a punishment Therefore as their raptures are noted in the Scriptures so the tearms are notable and such as no man can attaine unto in the common Resurrection For the blessed God which is the God of the married and of the single life he tooke out of each estate one to accompany him in his heavenly Kingdome Enoch was a married man and figured those in that estate that should associate and keep Christ company in heaven Elias was a single man and he took him to be a symbole and type of the single life To teach us that married and unmarried both if they be in Christ are accepted of him and shall reside and keep him company in the Kingdome of heaven And for those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ it is a constant opinion and followed of the best Divines that those were never admitted to returne to their bodies againe for that had been to deprive them of a greater benefit which they had before Therefore to answer the argument If Enoch and Elias and those that rose with Christ I say if they be in heaven they be flesh and bloud therefore flesh and bloud doth inherit heaven and so by consequence the Apostles speech doth not alway stand firme when he saith Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Therefore it is possible for flesh and bloud to inherit heaven For the answer of this we must understand that Enoch and Elias had a change and the changing of their bodies was equivalent unto our death And although they were rapt up in a strange manner yet all that was mortall in them all that was corrupt it was consumed by the strong hand of God We see the Lord can worke as it pleaseth him in naturall things You see how the lightning sometimes so alters things that it falls on that it draws out all the pith of them all the substance in a moment We see gold that is cast into a hot fornace the fire licks it up and melts it So we see those earthen pipes that are used too commonly in our mouthes how soon the fire alters them and refines them We see these things in nature Now wee must imagine that the mighty power of God can doe much more for the body so that that which was nothing but mud before he can make a pure chrystall glasse of it It is not impossible for nature almost to worke this for we see men make glasse of sand and therefore to the operative word of God there is nothing impossible It is credible and to be beleeved therefore that the Lord changed their bodies in their rapture that whatsoever was corrupt and base and dreggie in them it was wrought out Answ 3 The same reason is for them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord the Lord shall so work upon those bodies which they shall then beare which shall be corrupt flesh and bloud the Lord shall work them in an instant to purity even as the fornace of metallers does the fornace of those that deale in fire-works For as the fornace changeth the substance of the thing that is cast into it upon the instant and licks it up and devoures it if it be combustible or if it be not combustible as gold or the like then it turnes and melts it to better purpose to a better burnish to a better hue so the all-working-hand of God shall doe Therefore although
that shall not sleepe that is they shall not die after the common maner of death And then for the second opinion the second sense that Reades it We shall all rise againe That is false for there are none that shall rise but those that were dead and because all shall not die therefore all shall not rise as I said before in the opening of the Text. So that this is the proper and true sense of the Text and it is that also which is in all the Greek Copies The other is onely in some old Latin Copies and is diversly taken and mistaken by the Fathers This therefore is the Apostles meaning We shall not all sleepe that is wee shall not all die after this order and maner of death but wee shall all bee changed Those that bee in their graves shall be changed to incorruption to immortality and life and they that never come to the grave shall bee changed another way which shall be semblable and answerable unto the death that wee have So that all shall be changed yea not onely the godly to glory but the reprobate and wicked shall bee changed to a dureability to indure the torment which the justice of God hath allotted to them for their deserts from all eternity This Reading therefore is that that we must rest in as being the most proper resolution of the Apostles mind who giving a reason of that hee had said before that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdome of God No saith hee they shall not inherit it but by a kind of change and mutation not after the fashion as we doe God hath reserved for them another kind of translation by mutation not by buriall and putrefaction as our bodies doe Now I come to the words The first thing is this that he saith Behold I shew you a mystery Mystery is a word derived from the Hebrew Mister or Mistar and it signifieth a hidden thing or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it of shutting or closing of the eye because that all eyes are shut up and closed to the mysteries of God and it lies not in the power of any eye to understand the secrets of the Almighty Secret things belong unto God Deut. 29 29. but revealed things belong unto us and to our children saith Moses The Gospel is full of these mysteries and there is nothing so mysticall and hard to bee understood as these things concerning the renewing and reparation of the world For the things that bee done in common experience be nothing mysticall but those that we looke to by faith those things that we apprehend by hope they are all full of mysteries But the blessed God hath revealed them to his Apostles to S. Paul and to the rest and to the Ministers of his Word By reading the Scriptures he hath revealed that which is farre remote from the sense and understanding of any mortall and carnall man The mysteries of the Kingdome must bee revealed Behold I tell you a mystery The Lord hath told it me and I must tell it to you againe it is a thing that I am acquainted with by the Spirit of God which hath revealed it to mee It was once as strange to me as it is to you but God hath delivered it to me that by my ministery it may come unto you Behold I shew you a mystery The word signifieth three things in the Scripture as Chrysostome noteth One is when by an outward visible thing some other invisible thing is signified and represented So in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper where the water in Baptisme signifieth the precious blood of Christ and the wine and bread in the Lords Supper signifieth the breaking of the body and the powring forth of the blood of that emmaculate Lamb that was offered up for us Thus the Sacraments bee called holy mysteries hidden and secret things which the world cannot understand because they deride them because they doe not affect them but they are onely knowne unto the chosen ones of God In that sense the word is not here used for the Apostle speaks not of a mystery here by any outward thing to signifie some inward matter as in the Sacrament Another way mystery is taken for a partiall or halfe esteeme or conceit of any thing we speake of So in 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 13.12 We see in a dark mystery wee see in a cloude wee see in a riddle in a dreame Wee understand in part we know in part As if hee should say All that we see in the providence and guidance of God here in this world is full of mystery some part of it wee know and some part wee know not so that the partiall knowledge of man because it attaines not to fulnesse it is called seeing in a mystery seeing in a darke view But neither in that sense doth the Apostle use it here in this place The third sense is saith St. Chrysostome when a man speaks something against the common sense and reason which the wisedome of man cannot attaine unto and reach nor would never have dreamed of And this is it which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mystery that is I shew you a matter which you would hardly have conceived with your selves or that you will scarcely believe when I tell it to you I tell you that there are many men that shall never die nor never rise againe and yet they shall have their part of glory and be accepted and come to happinesse as well as you This paradox which is contrary to common opinion contrary to common sense and which is above the common reach and apprehension of man the Apostle calls a mystery in this place And hee hath great reason to put an ecce before it behold I tell you c. Vse To teach us that where any thing is mysticall in the Gospel and in the Scripture we ought to double our files to double our attention and to raise our spirits to hearken to that which is so secret For it is all our desires and it is naturally ingraffed in us to heare of newes to heare newes of State newes of the greatest importance Wee seeke we labour we travaile and wee sharpen one another to know what reports there are in the greatest importments Much more should wee be thus affected in the matters of God and of our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle satisfieth us and saith I will tell you you seeke for it and you long to know this you make many doubts and scruples in your hearts behold I will resolve you in one word The condition of the world that shall bee when Christ shall come it shall be farre different from this It is a mystery to tell you but it is infallibly true It hath been revealed unto me by the Spirit of God and I will open it to you the people of God And the
God Almighty to worke our incorruption to be not an incorruption to misery but to glorie and that he would so worke us to himselfe as that wee may be in a continuall fruition and possession of his sweet and gracious presence not to be molested and tormenled with the absence of God with the losse of heaven and the joyes thereof which the damned spirits thinke if they had but a moment to live and repent them againe they would regaine the things they have lost And they cry out damnation to themselves that they were so foolish to lose the time which might have been so imployed as that they might have been made masters of heaven and possessors thereof The dead shall rise incorruptible And we shall be changed That is wee all those that belong unto Christ Where we may observe the Apostle still useth the wee although the Apostle himselfe were not changed but after the manner of the common change by death But the Apostle doth this partly as I told you the last time because of the common communion of the Church of God whereas every man may say wee every man may take his neighbour with him we have all one head and we are all members of one body And chiefly the Apostle so speaks because he thought the day was neare approaching and he prepared himselfe every where He thought that the time and the day wherein hee wrote this wherein he spake this he thought that might have beene the last day and therefore that hee might have beene one of the number and therefore hee saith wee Now this change as I said before is commonly taken for the better but it is true also of the Reprobate After that manner of change wee speake of they shall be changed from a state mutable to immutability that which they are when they rise they are for ever They are not so now for they follow the change of nature they are subject to mutability and variety seaven years make a great alteration in a mans life and in the best life in the world more years makes a greater impression But the Lord shall then raise them to a setled state to a state of incorruption and whether they have glory or whether they have misery it shall be without change it shall be in a kind of eternity as the Lord himselfe is eternall I should now come to the Reason which includes all and to the sweet metaphor where the Apostle expresseth himselfe in these words We must put on But I must reserve it till the next time FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be fulfilled the speech that is written Death is swallowed up into victory 5. Part. The Reason IN these words the Apostle renders a Reason of that former change mutation which shall befall the Saints of God For this whole doctrine of the Resurrection it must be so expounded of the Saints especially howbeit it may be also further extended even to the wicked and the reprobates For they shall have a kinde of change as being made from mortall immortall and from corrupt to be incorrupt although it shall be for their punishment and for their greater ignominie yet it shall be true immortality and a true incorruption that they shall receive But as Beza and the later and best Divines hold it is fittest for us to tye these things and to understand them of that sanctified company to whom the Lord hath promised and will also vouchsafe a glorious Resurrection They must therefore as it is said before be all changed and they must be changed presently upon the sound of the trumpet by the power of Almighty God of which things I will now make no repetition Now because it might be questioned what need wee be changed wee desire rather to goe to God In this body we desire super-vestiri to be over-clad rather with the glory of the Almighty then to be naked and to be stripped of this flesh that we have here We would goe to Christ but wee would not goe the same way to Christ that Christ came to us for he came to us by death but wee would goe to him still without death Therefore this the Apostle resolves us and teacheth us that which he said before in part That flesh and bloud shall not inherite the Kingdome of God that is corrupt flesh and bloud by reason of the corruption that is in it by reason of the tainture of sinne it is subject to change and mutability For it is impossible till it be reformed till it be cast into the earth and mouldered to dust and that it be prepared by the hand of God in the ground untill then it is uncapable of heaven So here hee saith in the affirmative Oportet it must needs be so it must needs be that this mortall must put on immortality and this corruption must put on incorruption So when hee hath given his resolution that such a thing must needs be then he lifts them up to the expectation of the time when this glorious change shall be made He tells them that it shall be and whensoever it shall come to passe as certainly it must be fulfilled then shall also be fulfilled that glorious saying in the Scriptures wherewith he confirmes himselfe and his authority and is not content to speake as an Apostle onely out of his owne Apostolicall power which he had received from Christ but hee also fetcheth some ground and help besides his testimony from the Prophets that were before him then saith hee shall be fulfilled that happy word that glorious word spoken of by Isay as the most and best Divines think or by Hosea as some others think And the word is this Death is swallowed up into victory that there is nothing left now in the tents of Christs holy Church but the voyce of triumphs and trophees over death and consequently over hell over sinne over sicknesse over all infirmities and discontent whatsoever For if Death be swallowed up in victory the rest are much more swallowed up For that is the greatest and the last enemie of all and if that be confounded the rest must needs perish with it There shall then be such a compleat victory as that looke whatsoever a man casts his eye on hee shall see nothing but victory and conquest and glory and life and righteousnesse and holinesse in stead of this wickednesse and misery and distemper and accidents whereto we are subject in this life Then shall be fulfilled So he notes unto us the goodly and glorious time in which the Saints shall have their full consummation and blisse Then then it shall be fulfilled which is now prophesied and promised It shall be made up then which is now but expected It shall then be fulfilled in all
in heaven and when a man is not cumbred with the labours of the world his minde is better and more easily induced to do good a man that is puzzelled about his worke he saith he hath other mattrrs to do then to attend a poore man he cannot be for him now he puts him off till another time and bids him come to morrow as the wise man saith Say not to thy neighbour Come againe to morrow Prov. 3. if thou have it now by thee A man being distracted with his businesse he takes his opportunitie and makes these excuses to answer God and his owne conscience with these or the like and saith he cannot now intend it he is otherwise busied But when hee hath a relaxation from his labour which is the proper fruit of the Sabbath the minde of man is made more gentle and more easily perswaded to do any good worke because it knows that therefore a man is lift up from the cares and troubles of this life to the speculation of heavenly things therefore he is the more easily perswaded to do the works of heavenly charitie and divine operation which the Spirit of God acts in the hearts and soules of all his children So that is one reason why the Apostle bids that this gathering should be on the first of the Sabbath because then men are at leasure then they are not cumbred with the world they are freed from peevishnesse and impatience which oft times hinders a poore man of an almes which if he had come when the partie was at quiet and rest he might have obtained 2 Reason The benefits received on that day Another reason is because of the benefits that we receive upon that day the commemoration of the blessings God hath vouchsafed us upon that day upon that day the root of life rose the Lord Iesus who rising againe from the dead hath opened to us a certaine gappe and hope of life everlasting the meditation of the good creatures of God the state of the Gospell cals us unto the liberty of the sonnes of God all the whole blessings of the Gospell be represented and accumulated unto us upon that day Therefore that was the fittest time to be thankfull to God for his mercies wherein God is most abundant in mercy to us that then wee should returne somewhat backe againe some small widdows mite some little portion to Gods children for all those infinite treasures we have received for this is all that God requires that we should give but something of his owne of some but the thousand part of some but the hundreth part this is all that he requires for that great store those mighty summes and infinite riches and treasures and masses of wealth he hath given us That we should make a little acknowledgement by giving some small sprinkling for all this That is another reason why the Apostle would have this collection be upon the Sunday wherin the memory of al the blessings of God upon body and soule are the goodliest in every thing therefore it makes men more prone and inclined to do some good for him that hath wrought so much good for them The third reason is Reas 3 The exercises of the day because upon that day the publique meetings were made where there was prophesie and preaching and praying and singing of Psalmes and holy revelations and instructions from heaven all which were as fire to kindle the zeale of a man to be for God and for his brethren and to joyne together the members of the Lord Iesus in a firmer conjunction then any other societie in the world If a man love a man abroad in the market he will love him ten times better in the Church if there be any pietie or any coales of love to kindle his affections elsewhere it will be much more in the Church where every word of God every Sermon every prayer every thanksgiving every Psalme that is sung brings some fuell to that heavenly flame Therefore for this cause the Apostle chuseth that time as being the most select and choise opportunitie for the conferring of that which God had blessed them withall upon the first day of the weeke that is upon the Lords day 4 Reason The Sacrament was th n received And lastly because that upon that day the Church was alway wont to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper it was not with them then as it is with us now men will receive it when they list but every Sunday was with them a Sacrament day and oft times every day in the weeke but on the Lords day they never failed Therefore as a testimony of their thankfulnesse to God for the benefit of the body and bloud of Christ which was offered on the Crosse as a ransome and propitiation for all their sins they thought they were bound in conscience and they were easily induced and perswaded upon the receiving of the Sacrament to give something to the sacred and holy Saints that belong unto the Lord. And so indeed after our Sacrament we have still a collection in remembrance of that there it was according to the greatnesse of their spirits and the greatnesse of their meanes which were supereminent ours are according to our poore meanes and measure and according to the scantinesse of our affections which is every day colder then other For these reasons the Apostle requireth that these things should be done and layd up upon the Sabbath day For then men are best affected of all times if ever a man will give any thing he will give it then when he is at rest for God and when he is expressing his thankfulnesse to God for the great mercies that he hath powred upon him in all the course of his life then he heares the word that stirres him up to good actions then he joynes in prayer with the Church of God then he understands that God hath not spared the precious bloud of Christ much lesse therefore should he spare a peny a small thing to give for his sake that hath given his bloud for his redemption Thus wee see great reason why the Apostle appointed the collection to bee made at this time It is true the collection for the Saints is due and seasonable at all times but especially when there is the fairest and goodliest opportunitie and then it is likely to prove best when there are the strongest motives to worke men unto it Vpon the first of the weeke But now we must launch into a great Sea to prove this doctrine which I need not do for men that are setled But because these last times affoord a number of monstrous doctrines and this Citie especially is plagued with those Iewish Sabbatarians that would still retaine the Iewish Sabbath and can very hardly be drawne from it but in their conventicles they draw away Gods children and trouble them that are not able to give a reason of their faith let us therefore a little search into this
us take it and put it into Gods Iewell-house where it hath its proper and naturall consistence Now for the substance of the sentence 2 The substance of the verse and the two Antagonists it is betweene two great Antagonists and adversaries good manners and evill words and which gets the victory over other evill words corrupt good manners that is they put them downe and so get the victory that they have no place or abiding any more in a man so that it cannot be knowne where they were The word manners First Antagonist Good manners although it be well understood yet we may adde something to give further light to it It signifieth a certaine habite in a man that is acquired with long labour and diligence and exercise by which a man hath gotten it to himselfe For there is no man borne with good manners but he is borne as a beast as Aristotle Aristotle saith a little childe is more harsh untractable than a beast a man were better keep and bring up a young Lyon he may doe it with lesse labour then to bring up a childe For because God will punish sinne in the first reliques of it therefore to shew the misery and deformity of it he suffers in children the way of impatience and harshnesse that it is the great and wondrous mercy of God that ever they should come to perfection and that they should have nurses to beare with them to humour them and follow them in all the wayes of their corruption So that manners are not naturall unlesse it be brutish manners but those here spoken of are not gotten but with a great deale of diligence What a stirre have we to over-master that filth and corruption that is in our children with stripes with putting them to schoole with exhortations with all the meanes in the world and all too little to beate out of them that naturall corruption and that pestilent humour that is crept into them by originall traduction of sinne But now the Lord hath given to the education of parents and to those of discretion by long custome to be guardians and guides to these little ones that the rudenesse of their nature and the barbarousnesse of their affections might be mollified As the wilde ground the husbandman by long tillage of it and the wilde Vine by pruning and cutting of it at the last he brings the wilde ground to be good soyle and the wilde Vine to be a fruitfull one so the Lord hath given a blessing upon the gift of education that at last he makes these wilde oats to be good corne in the harvest of God and he settles good manners where there was nothing but furious brutishnesse And when they are so setled by long labour by feare of punishments by hope of rewards and by such meanes as doth cultivate the ground of God although it be long before they be brought to this for there is much warre betweene these two adversaries in the Text when these good manners and thus settled then they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Sedes Indoles Mos. taken from a word which signifieth to sit and keepe residence For being thus ingrafted and keeping residence they are not easily wrought out againe for they come to be as it were a second nature the law of manners is not easily changed as Saint Basile Basile saith because they were first imprinted when the minde of the childe was tender therefore the impression goeth the deeper and continues the longer When the Lord settles the power of his grace in a man it is not easie for the divell to deface that impression and he shall never doe it utterly Although there be divers actions that may deface it in shew and for the present time but the Apostle here speaks in another respect although hee may extend his speech to the manners of grace among the Corinthians But these things that he speaketh of common profession common religion taught they were brought unto them by God who is the husband man as Christ saith Ioh. 15. I am the true Vine Ioh. 15 1. and my Father is the husbandman This culture whereby by diligent labour they were brought from the harsh Idolatry of the heathen to know Christ to come to the knowledge of his faith of his life of his death of his miracles of the benefits they received by the communion of his body and bloud of his blessed Resurrection and the promise of the reuniting of our bodies and of the returne of our spirits these were manners that grace had taught them besides the common profession of Religion for a man may make a profession of religion and yet have no grace Now if these manners remaine in a man he is past the danger of all the pawes of Sathan The divell shall not be able to plucke up these plants Math. 15.13 which our heavenly Father hath planted as our Saviour Christ saith But if we goe no further then common reason and profession and content our selves with the outward forme of religion then comes that to passe here spoken of that evill words corrupt good manners and though good manners be setled of themselves and keepe their residence strongly yet the mightinesse of our enemy is such that he will pull them out except they have a deeper impression by the spirit of God made in us Now we come to the other adversary which is Evill words Second Antagonist Evill words The manners are called good and the language ill not according to the estimation of men but according to the sheckle of the Sanctuary the ballance of the Sanctuary it is that that maketh good to be good and evill to be evill For many languages among men are accounted good that are base and evill and many manners are accounted evill that are perfect and good Therefore if we will examine what manners are good we must not repaire to the Courts of men to the fashions of men for sometime they are accounted most unmannerly amongst them that are the best mortified and sanctified men of all others Nor when we come to examine what are evill words what is wicked discourse and speech we must not measure it by mans iudgement but according to the Rule and Canon and square of the word of God It is that that judgeth men to be good or ill It is to be observed that the word here hath a great elegancie in it For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth such manners as are of great use and profit And so indeed from all kinde of goodnesse from all honest parts there is great profit profit for a mans selfe profit to his body profit to his soule profit to his state profit to his neighbour by his example so good manners be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of use and profit whereas the actions of ungodly wicked men they are unprofitable As the Apostle saith
away from him yea and his dearest beloved shall stop their noses at him This should teach us to humble our selves in this disconsolation Vse and to adde this to all the honors we have in the world if we have any or doe yet looke for any This dishonour of death is a cooling card that should make a man moderate in all his proceedings It should make him fearfull in all his doings It should make him understand that he ought not to be puffed up with conceits and pretences of honour but to qualifie himselfe with this comparing his dishonour which the Lord will lay upon sinfull flesh There is nothing so honourable but it shall be covered with shame and dishonour at the hour of death when we shall depart this world It is sowne in dishonour Well! although it be thus yet the Lord hath a help for this againe it shall be raised after another manner It shall be raised in honour in great glory As disgrace and dishonour is the worst of punishments so honour and grace and glory againe is the best of preferments There is nothing so sweet unto us as that to be above others to be beloved of others to be admired of others and to be served of others this is that sweet breath of life and that sweet contentment that shall fill us with marrow and fatnesse And this God purposeth to poure upon these dishonourable bodies that die so beastly and deformed that they are trampled on by the feet of beasts if they lie abroad and if it be in the Church where wee usually bury the poorest and basest of men tread upon them I say the Lord shall raise it at that day in such honour that it shall be like the stars of heaven it shall be like the Sunne in glory it shall be like the Angels of God it shall be like the Sonne of God Phil. 3.21 for he shall change these vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.21 Now by the contrary dishonour we may see that the honour of the Saints shall consist 1. In a goodly stature 2. In a perfect beauty 3. In a gracious fragrancie In the stature of the body there shall be no uncomelinesse there shall be no crookednesse there shall be nothing wanting that can be required as we use to say of images that are drawne in waxe that they are compleat so likewise God shall so paint his image in the bodies of his Saints when they shall rise that it is not possible to find it so in any thing but in the Exemplar in the master-piece the body of Christ there is nothing else that shall be more glorious As in those happy Countries where the leaves are alwaies greene and the earth is alway budding and bringing forth so the bodies of Gods Saints as St. Austin saith shall have that greennesse and vigorousnesse of incorruption possesse them totally St. Augustine And lastly that it shall be of a gracious fragrancy it is certaine that that also may be opposed to the stench of these carkasses The dead body is dishonoured in nothing more then by a caryon-like smell for thereby it differs nothing from a beast nay it is far worse then a beast for there is nothing so putrifies as the body of a man there is nothing brings forth such ugly things as that For out of the brain comes scorpions and snakes and out of the flesh toads and serpents which is not usuall among the beasts For some of them bring forth bees and some wasps but of Ages and Eumines and divers others it is reported that scorpions and snakes came out of their heads after they were dead and wreathed about their faces And we know by wofull experience of late time of divers gentlemen that were troubled with such a wofull thing that they had wormes in their braines and in their entrailes I say therefore answerable to this as the miserie is great to which the body of man is subject greater then other creatures because he is the onely sinner so at that day God shall make an aboundant recompence by pouring upon it the spring of beauty and sweetnesse and fragrancie that they shall be as a garden of spices in the nostrills of God and of his Saints Every Saint shall also be as a glasse to each other and every one shall see his fellowes beauty and they shall reflect one upon another in the joy and gladnesse of the Holy Ghost to see the wonderous work which God hath wrought upon this piece of frailty And even as Iacob was as the smell of a field when he came near his Father Behold saith Isaack I smell the smell of my sonne as the smell of a field Gen. 27.27 which the Lord hath blessed There being nothing more delightfull to the sense then a blooming field of new corne and of sweet grasse and flowers that rise out of the earth And therefore the holy man compares his sonne to a field which the Lord hath blessed Much more shall these be fragrant fields the Lord blessing them with infinite variety of goodnesse and of grace and sweetnesse that the field of God shall be more pleasant then the fields and gardens of men and then all the paradises in this world And as the head of this company is described Cant. 1. Cant. 1.3 4. Draw me and I will run after thee in the odour of thine anointments noting unto us the sweetnesse that is incorporated in the body of Christ And as we reade also of St. Paul Acts 19.12 that by the blessing of God he had napkins and handkerchiefs brought from his body that were of such sweetnesse that they were able to cure diseases so also we may understand what shall be the variety there from the sweetnesse that is now in the body arising from the mixture of the bloud in the veines which makes a perfect sympathy and harmony The Lord at that day shall make all things much more abundant As the Church also is described by the sweetnesse of her cloathes in the Canticles Cant. 1.14 My Spouse saith Christ is as a garden of myrrh or of spices and her breasts are like the clusters of grapes and like the fruit of Engedi So every man and woman shall be although here they be sickly and subject to never so many infirmities and diseases in this life yet the Lord shall so alter the bodies of those that serve him here in that blessed estate there that they shall be sure to finde a singular proportion of beauty of strength and of fragrancie that all the just shall be termed the field and paradise which God hath blessed FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.43 It is sowne in weaknesse it is raised in power It is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body There is a naturall body and there is
for that which is changeable therefore he is said to be unconstant base and earthly that is a simple poore base creature which made himselfe according to his prime originall and studied and gaped after the things of the earth out of which he was extracted He had indeed better things if he would have used them but he was so stupefied and drawne back to his inferiour part that hee was made like unto his first materialls the earth But the other was from heaven not because he had not a body from the earth but because to that body was added a glorious divinity and that his body was not a person as Adams was For if the manhood of Christ had been a person he must have beene lyable as all persons that are borne to condemnation but his was not a person but a nature united to the second person in the Trinity so that although there be two natures in Christ yet there is not two but one person and the actions that come from any man they are the actions of his person of the subject and not the actions of his nature For it is a man that speaks and a man that works and not the body of a man that speaks or the soule of man So therefore it comes to passe that the actions that come from Christ they are the actions of his person not of his humane nature but of his person and so they be the actions of God and man That is of that person in the Godhead that took the manhood unto it and so they are made the actions of an infinite merit and possibility Herein then is the difference that although Adam had a soul as well as Christ yet he had onely a living soule that could enliven no body but himselfe but the Lord had a Spirit that is the Deity it selfe which is able to give life which is the fountaine of life to all the world And although Christ had a body from the earth yet that body was not left unto frailty but was governed and sanctified and glorified by the beatificall vision of God and by the presence of the incorporate union of the Sonne of God So by this comes the difference between them the one was a man and nothing else but from the earth the other was more then a man God and man and so he is the Lord from heaven 3. In respect of their qualities The third difference is in their quality and condition which is noted in this word hee was a Lord. Therefore Adam came not as a Lord he came as a servant he was to serve in all purposes he came to till the garden to till the earth he came to eate and drink to beget children to be the father of a family Hee came into the world to increase and multiply as God commanded him Gen. 1.28 to replenish the earth These although they be faire courses and God gave a blessing unto them yet they be carnall and fleshly there is no respect of excellencie in these things they are matters rather of necessity for the present solace in this world then of glory But Christ came not for this purpose He came not to eate and drink but his meat and drink was to doe the will of his Father Iohn 4 34. He had no generation all his generation is a spirituall regeneration he came to doe God service these were the things he was exercised in Therefore he was the Lord from heaven This is the high prerogative of Christ There were many Angels that came from heaven as well as Christ but they came not as Lords but as servants as fellow servants Rev. 22.9 as in Rev. 22. when Iohn would have worshipped the Angel See thou doe it not saith hee I am thy fellow servant Heb. 1.14 And in Heb. 1. they are ministring spirits that serve for the salvation of those that are elect and chosen for the inheritance Therefore they came not downe as Lords but as servants And although we reade in Scripture of those that came downe as Lords as in the apparition to Abraham Gen. 18. he called the Angell Lord. Gen. 18.3 And the Captaine of the Lords Army that appeared to Ioshua though these came in the glory Ioshuah 5.14 and might of the Lord yet they were not that Lord as here it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord that came from heaven For that Lord is but one Lord Heb. 1.2 which is the Sonne of God to whom the Father hath given the inheritance of all things Heb. 1.2 hee is the heyre of all things and the Iewes themselves confesse Come let us kill him this is the heyre Mark 12.7 and the inheritance shall be ours Hee then is the Lord from heaven Adam came not as a Lord nor yet from heaven but one onely part of him his soul without any conjunction of the divine nature there came a changeable soule into a fraile body but Christ the Lord from heaven that is the Sonne of God as being Lord of hell and heaven invested himself in a strange and wondrous manner into the body and wombe of a Virgin and tooke that masse and lump of blood whereof his blessed body should be compacted and united it to himselfe and exercised the power of miracles and of gracious wonders and all parts of perfection in that nature and therefore he hath exalted our nature high above the Angels nature for he took not upon him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he took the seed of Abraham Lastly in their qualities they differ that as the first man came from the earth and is a servant so he is earthly There are two parts of man as the Philosopher saith there is the mind and the understanding that is the subtile and divine and fiery part of man whereby he is appropincate and drawes neere unto God in the similitude of his Image There is another and that is the grosse and materiall part Chrysost as St. Chrysostom expounds it that this earthly man is one that is dull and grosse and nayled and tyed to these things that are present whereas the other 2 Cor. 4.18 is heavenly and altogether upon the things that are not seene for the things that are seene are temporall but them that are not seene are eternall So then the one by his condition was still looking downward the other was all spirit and full of vigour full of life alway looking upward still unto heaven his conversation was also heavenly having given all his followers power to have their conversations there Phil. 3.20 Phil. 3. But our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Lord Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body So this is the Comparison of these two heads which that I may conclude this point wee must observe very strictly For by that meanes we may be both able to keep out all contrary
And there wee cease not neither but still wee seeke for a new forme the matter still would have a new coate None of these content us but wee desire of God a forme that never may be changed This corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality The other condition of our nature is that as it cannot endure to be in the same kinde but still seeks new fashions and new formes so at length it comes to that forme that seemes to extinguish it utterly as if it had never beene which brings matter and forme and all to nothing as a man would think the goodliest temper the stateliest comely body the best and freshest countenance the best brued bloud and the sweetest colour these which are the materialls of man it brings them all at length to a handfull of dust that a man would think that now the matter had quite lost its forme and that it should never desire a further forme For it is mortalized it is brought to nothing it is brought to stench and corruption and it seemes to be drowned there there is no hope that ever it shall rise againe But yet still the appetite works for the matter works still to the God of nature and desires of him a new forme to give it a new garment And the Apostle saith that God shall heare that matter and hee shall regard the cries of it and shall graunt the petition that this dust shall make unto him and he shall give it a new vestment which shall be of such a fashion as it shall never desire any more to change and put off again For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality 6 â—art The metaphor Shall put on A sweet and blessed metaphor is this word put on It must be put on in stead of the ragges wee put off for mortality and corruption stick close to us not as a close-bodied garment sticks to the body but as the skinne and the flesh cleaves to the bones And we can never put them off and be rid of them but by the common law and necessity of dying and rotting in the grave There are only some few that shall have the prerogative which shall live at the comming of Christ they shall have a change in stead of this death But for us that must goe the common way of nature wee know our doome Now then this ragged garment and vesture that wee carrie about us by reason of Adams sinne and our corruption which wee have multiplied and added to Adams transgression it must first be shaken off by the omnipotent hand of God it must be so purely and so fully removed as that no threeds nor no tagg of it remaine And then when that is done there is time and place for the new robe to be put upon us for that blessed garment which is to come in the place of this But first these torne raggs must be cast away they must first be put off and then this blessed vestment which the Lord hath prepared even the vestment of incorruption and immortality shall succeed in the place of this So that from hence we see the truth of the former doctrine again Saith S. Austin the garment is one thing Aug. and the thing garnished and decked is another the garment is not the man but an accident to the man and it may be that hee may be here and that may be there or it may be here and he may be away and yet notwithstanding the man may be the same So likewise the bodies that the Saints have in this world they shall be still the same bodies the same in incorruption that they were in corruption the same body that it was when it was mortall the same shall it be when it is immortall the same in substance but not the same in glory and quality Tertull. For as Tertullian saith the Apostle disputes of the glory of the bodies and not of the substance of them Therefore as a man that is of any state and account in this world he hath divers suites of cloathes but he hath but one body so it is true in this case that the Lord upon one and the selfe same body shall poure multiplicity of garments and riches of the rayment which hee shall give in that blessed day The garment of beauty the garment of eternity the garment of strength of wisedome of all kinde of excellencies both of body and soule The Lord shall sit them then with many changes of apparell but still it shall be one and the selfe same body For this mortall must put on the glorious garment of immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption So the Fathers in the Greeke Church taught their men and women in the Church to say I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh When we say the Creed wee say I beleeve the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting But still they when they came to this article they clapt their hand upon their breast and said I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh punctually pointing at themselves because the Apostle saith This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality to shew that it belongs to the person properly and peculiarly to this very subject that he makes his proposition of And this glorious garment what it is but the garment which God himselfe hath worne from all eternity Hee is incorruptible that is unchangeable and he is immortall that is it is impossible for him to grow worse For God can never change from better to worse and hee shall give that power to the bodies of his Saints that their perfection shall be so great as that it shall not possibly be made better and they shall be so singular that it is impossible they should be made worse or decline For hee shall set them in the highest pitch of perfection in the top of excellencie that they shall receive neither majus nor minus neither more nor lesse neither better nor worse they shall have no kinde of change This is that glorious apparell that God puts on The Lord is King Psal 93.1 hee hath put on his glorious apparell hee hath girded himselfe with strength and majestie This is that apparell which the Apostle S. Iames speaks of when he saith That the Lord is without any change Iam. 1.16 or shadow of changing This garment which God hath put upon himselfe from all eternity hee will vouchsafe in a degree and measure to his Saints in time they shall be eternall from the time after as he hath beene from worlds and ages to world without end himselfe one and the same for evermore Now whereas hee saith in the vinculum of this proposition that Oportet this must needs be thus Vse that it can be no other way but thus This thing the Apostle adds for our comfort and consolation both to encourage us patiently to abide
they should have been the Preachers of the glorious Kingdome and doctrine of the Lord Iesus yet these were they that set themselves against it and their opposition was the most dangerous of all others and the most whetted and exasperated by extreame hatred for there is no hatred like the hatred of those that being nearest of religion yet agree not in religion there is no such hatred as the hatred of brethren when they fall out as we see in Cain and Abel upon the part of Cain for Abel was a meere patient So we see in other stories as that of Antiochus and Polinesus c. So in the point of religion when nature is once disturbed a man forgets himselfe to be that that he is and kindles his wrath against those that he should love and there is no wrath nor malice like unto that So it is between the Iewes and Christians compare all the world together and you shall finde among the Turks and Mahometans them that worship the filthy Idols no such hatred between them and their company although they differ in their sects nor you shall finde no such hatred between them and us as there is between Iewes and Christians A man were better a great deale to dwell under the Turke than under a Iew a man that is a Christian and a Iew had better to dwell under the Turk than under a Christian And why because they are domesticks they are men of one house for they must be brought in one day the Lord will make them children and bring the naturall branches that are stricken off and ingraft them and make the fulnesse of the Gentiles by them in the meane time they be of the same house with us and because of that their anger and malice is the greater so that their adverse power is more than that of the Turks or Sarazens And then againe if wee looke farther into the state of Christendome to those that professe Christ wee shall see no such hatred betweene Pagans and Christians as there is betweene Papists and Protestants because they are domesticks of one and the same house professors of the same Lord in common they have the same faith in the most things they agree in the same tenents but because they fall out and cannot be reconciled in other points therefore their hatred and malice is extreame one against another that a man had better dwell with a Iew than with a Papist and a Papist had better dwell with a Iew than with a Protestant because the nearer they come in religion the greater is the adversnesse between them And to goe farther among those that be Protestants there is no such hatred under heaven as there is betweene the Formalists and the Puritans there is no man in the world that knows the course of the world and hath experience in men but hee had rather live being a Formalist among the Papists than with a Puritanc and the Puritans give out in plaine termes that they had as lieve be subject to the Papists or to the Iewes as to the Formalists What is the reason because they are still domestici men of one house the Lords purpose being to set men of one house together by the eares so the Lord Christ protests Doe you think that I am come to send peace into the world I am not come to send peace but to set men at variance to bring a sword which comes to passe accidentally by mens corruption for otherwise the Gospell is a doctrine of peace but by mens corrupt mindes it comes to passe that that which was made for peace it is turned to war Saith he I come to turne and to estrange and alienate and alter the mindes of men the sonne shall fall from the father and the father shall forsake his sonne and the mother in law shall hate the daughter in law and the daughter in law shall be against her mother in law A strange kinde of opposition and the reason of it is this because as wee see in wars those that are called civill that are kindled in the bowels of the Common-wealth there is no hatred like unto that Civill warre is the worst warre that can be for it feeds upon its selfe it eats up its owne bowels whereas in forraigne warres there is some mercy there is some kind of moderation there may be some truce or reconciliation but civill war is full of bloud full of revenge there is no mean to stop that great streame of hatred that runnes there So it is in religion when men fall out when there is civill war among themselves that the houshold of God war one against another there is no hatred to that Therefore hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those enemies those that professe the same God the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob as we doe those that have the same Covenant those that look for the same Messias those that have the promises of grace the better promises of the life to come these are they that are our adversaries This is the strange strait and pressure that the Apostle was brought unto that he was not to fight with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men he was not to encounter with them that were of no learning hee had no promise nor no assurance of that he took to but he waged war with them that were of one house them that had claimed the house of a long time almost for the space of 2000. years them that God called his peculiar people this was the great adverse power These things therefore should teach us to call unto the Lord God that we may be the same men Vse of one mind as we are of one house To pray for unity that as he hath given his Word to be a common direction to all so it may be the common guide that it may be the sweet mistris unto us to conduct us in the way of life to please us all that we may be alike enamoured on it and that it may still seek to preserve its own purity for religion is the great mistris of the world if we fall out about that there will be more war about it than that of Troy for Hellene as Austin saith S. Aug. The Truth of Christ hath far greater beautie and is far more worth and deserves far more to be fought for then Hellene of Greece did In the body of man there is no greater danger than when the like humours of the body are striving one with another when the bloud and the choller are one against another for then there is an evidence and open sign and overture of destruction there being as it were all the banners of nature displayed to destroy it selfe So in the Church of Almighty God when learned men set thēselves against learned men and one great wit against another and every man seeks the destruction of his fellow then fall the mighty men of Iudah whereas if they would set themselves against