intercepted by death Austin And Nebridius S. Austins great friend was not baptised till he was old and S. Austin himselfe was not baptised till his mans estate This errour God confuted by the death of Valentinian and other great spirits which although they were perswaded of the truth of religion yet they put off God and would not take his time but have a time of their owne choosing and therefore God gave them no time as Ambrose saith of the Emperour he wanted not the grace of baptisme because he had the faith of baptisme He yeelded his consent unto the truth and although he went away unbaptised yet he was truely baptised as one who in his heart yeelded to the faith and promises of Christ And if we should take it thus this is the sence of S. Paul in these words what shall they doe that are baptised for dead that is when they are ready to die and goe out of the world if there be no resurrection his argument followes that that which they did so late they would not doe it at all that which they did by constraint putting it off to the last time of their life they would not doe it at all except it were for the hope of the resurrection so that if there be no resurrection there is a maine frustration and a meere delusion of these men that suffer themselves so farre to be overgone with deadly sicknesse as that they looke every houre for death and yet then they take upon them the baptisme of life as a certaine pawne and pledge of the common resurrection This sounds somewhat like a truth but yet it is likely that the Apostle would have condemned this as well as the other being as ridiculous because this is injurious to God and to the Sacrament and pernicious to mens owne soules to tempt God whether he will give them a time of their owne choosing to put off the Sacrament that should be imbraced upon all opportunities to refuse it when God offers it which we should take thankfully and chearefully No doubt but the Apostle would have confuted this errour as the former and not have suffered the Corinthians to have beene so tardy in a point of salvation Wherefore I take this opinion not to be according to the Apostles minde for as I sayd that opinion is most probable and most agreeable to S. Pauls meaning that proves the strongest but this proves nothing that because a man that is driven to it in extremity at the time of his death to doe an action that therefore that action should bee of force that may be done in amazement and feare or by the instigation of others a man it may be is not lead to it by his owne will so much as by the perswasion of another and there is no reason that a man should ground upon such a weake stay to inferre such a strong conclusion The third opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead that is for the forgivenesse of sins which are dead workes For so indeed the Lord seems to signifie when he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living and also the Apostle when he saith ye were dead in sinnes and trespasses It is true our Saviour Christ includes in that speech both them that were dead naturally and them that were dead spiritually For in one place he saith God is not the God of the dead but of the living speaking of naturall death In another place let the dead bury their dead speaking of them that were dead spiritually and so we may apply it that those that are baptised for dead that is for remission of sinnes wherein the body and soule are dead and for the quickening and reviving of them by spirituall grace But this is too farre off for the Apostles meaning is not here to speake of a thing that is common that being common to all beleevers to be baptised for the remission of sinnes but he speakes of some peculiar baptisme that was not common to all in generall but belonged to some in particular Besides the Apostle speakes not here of the spirituall resurrection but of the corporall he speakes not of the rising from sinne to grace although it be true that they that are baptised are baptised for the remission of sinnes yet it is not proper here for the Apostle speaks of the resurrection of the flesh the spirituall is allegoricall which is from the death of sinne to the life of grace by repentance Therefore that proves nothing and is not likely to be S. Pauls minde for he purposed not to spend his time in trifles but to bring the validity of his arguments directly to conclude the cause Another opinion there is that hath many great and substantiall followers They that are baptised for the dead that is that are baptised into the death of Christ Iesus to be planted with him into the similitude of his death And this hath Chrysostome Theodoret Aquinas Calvin and many other great Divines for the Authors and followers of it And that you may see that it hath some similitude of reason in it looke in Rom. 6.4.5 Rom. 6.4.5 Doe you not know saith the Apostle that they that are baptised into Christ are baptised into his death therefore we are buried together with him in baptisme It is true that every man that makes profession of the faith of Christs baptisme among the rest of the articles that he professeth he must beleeve in Christ that was dead and buried that he was crucified and that he descended into hell and that he rose againe the third day c. And he professeth also that he is ready to dye for Christ when he shall be called to it and till that time come that he will dye spiritually in his heart and in his will to worldly affections which he knowes that Christ never had in him or had any liking to them but utterly abhorred them Therefore this being the symbol and badge of our profession it seemes from hence that every man that is baptised may be said to be baptised for dead that is for a dead Christ in whom he trusts which was dead but now is alive and behold he is alive for evermore Apoc. 1.18 He is baptised for dead that is to the world and the flesh that he may live for ever unto God Chrysostome proves this by an argument that hee thinkes fit and convenient for the purpose for saith he whether of the two is easier to raise the body from death or to raise the soule from sinne no doubt saith hee it is an easier matter to raise the dead body from the grave than to raise a soule that is dead in sinnes and trespasses to newnesse of life And behold saith he in the Romans the Apostle proves the one by the other that although we thinke it easier yet he intimates that that which we thinke to be easier is harder and that which seems more hard
most sencelesse people of all others we will worke for some end too And to what end doe we thus trouble our selves if there be no hope of a resurrection So when we reade the Scriptures we should observe the manner of this phrase It teacheth us much and we should checke our owne dulnesse and infirmitie that the spirit of God must rouse us up by questions and interrogations and not onely propound the simple and plaine truth but must give us certaine crosse propositions to teach us that we cannot rayse our selves untill we be raised of God and to make us more sensible after he followes us with a multitude of questions 2 The subiect Now for the subiect of the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also First the Holy Ghost would teach us here that the Apostle and those that adhered to him they did conforme themselves to the presidents of ancient times And we also that is the Prophets before us suffered for the testimony of the truth for the doctrine of the Messias some of them were sawne in pieces with sawes some of them were killed with the sword some of them were banished some slaine betweene the Temple and the Altar Ierusalem was full of bloud in former times and all for the profession of the Messia the Lord Iesus and for the hope of the Resurrection conceived by him And we also follow them This is the sweet harmony of Gods Church it still consists of unisons and still they follow in the direction and union of one spirit to speake the same thing to teach the same thing to suffer for the same thing And we also doe it The Church of Christ seekes for no delicacies but it treads in the steps of her ancestors and looke what they have given for example before they follow in it diligently after If there were any kinde of worldly wisedome in this that men should see and discover the heresies and lyes and errours of former times it were madnesse for the latter times to embrace them But saith the Apostle we doe so too If our fore-fathers had been in errors had maintained lies we that live in these times me thinkes should be admonished and advised by processe of time and the great meanes that we have to discover them For if we should yet live in their errours our errour would be greater than theirs because we have more helpe than they and we have the advantage of time to see and contradict them But behold saith the Apostle we are so farre from contradicting of them that looke in what steps they have gone before we trace after them and follow with an even pace may we goe beyond them and transcend their perfections If they suffered something we suffer more if they were driven to some extremities we are acquainted with more The glory of Christs Church is this that still there is a succession of Martyrs and professors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also doe thus In matters of the world and the devises of Philosophie you shall have no man so valiant as to suffer for another mans opinion although in heresies and schismes it hath beene so the cause of which I shall shew afterwards yet among the Philosophers so many men so many mindes every man against his fellow As in the confusion of Babel or in the destruction of Madian their own swords were against one another But in the schoole of Christ the doctrine is pure and cleare the parties are zealous and unanimous they goe together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also tread in the steps of our fore-fathers This is one thing the Holy Ghost would teach us There are some other things that the Fathers have related to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also That is saith Ambrose Ambrose we that are well instructed and illuminated because he would make that good in his exposition which he had said before As I told you that the Apostle would prove the resurrection of the dead from an ill custome of them that were baptised for the dead by a proxey so Ambrose makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also As if the Apostle should say What doe you tell us of the foolish superstitions of the Cerinthyans of the Manichees and Montanists and others afterward which the Apostle foresaw would be What doe you tell us of those foolish people that baptise over the dead that is to say the living for the dead What doe you tell us of these that are in a grosse errour But I tell you we that are not erronious but know what we say and what we doe we that are illuminated from the Almighty we that are orthodoxe we suffer afflictâ—ons and persecutions We also Ambrose to defend his former opinion makes this kinde of exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as the former was weake so this is much weaker Therefore I let that passe as being not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here spoken of Saint Chrysostome Oecumenius and Theophylact expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also as a gradation or height of the argument bringing it from profession to passion As if he should have said What doe you speake of them that are baptised for the dead that is into the death of Christ For that was their opinion that baptising for the dead was into the death of Christ for remission of sinnes and for the resurrection of the bodies that are dead in sinne So then the sence should be this Why doe we also suffer As if hee should say they that are baptised to the death of Christ and to the faith of the resurrection they doe onely affirme it by word but we affirme it by deed by passion by suffering And it is a stronger argument that is taken from deeds then that which is taken from words It is an easier matter to make profession then to enter into passion Now behold they that are baptised into the death of Christ they make profession in words that they beleeve this flesh shall rise againe but it may be they will not stand to it when they are put to the tryall of afflictions for the defence of it But you see we doe Therefore as the tryall from deeds and actions is better then that in word and profession so the argument is cleare when he saith Why doe we travell or are in jeopardy every day I confesse this is the sentence of a grave learned and a holy Father and 't is true that he saith but yet I take that truth to be most proper that I spake of before concerning the argument drawne from the sufferings of the Church and that the Apostle doth speake of all the passions of the Martyrs of all the Prophets and blessed men witnesses of Christ that have beene in the world to this very day And although they did excellently in their times and places yet now the sufferings of Christ are made most glorious and they never came to that height and
separated from the body But in all this discourse if we can but gaine the true and most perfect sence we have sufficiently handled this text for We must first consider what the words meane And then how the words prove and argue For if we finde once but the true signification we shall then finde the perfect demonstration and proofe that ariseth from them First then the Church hath taken it as though the Apostle alluded to a grosse errour of the Cerinthians and Montanists and as Saint Chrysostome saith of the Marcionits which out of these words have gathered a ridiculous kinde of baptising of young Christians And they said when there was any Catechumeni that is those that were not baptised but were yet in their principles and in their catechisme for then they baptised none for the most part till they were come to yeares of discretion that themselves were able to make profession of their owne faith Now if any of these were taken away by death upon the sudden or by any casualty which had intended to be baptised at the appointed season which was Easter in this case they were to substitute and appoint some friend that was alive to answer for the dead man and to be baptised for him And then in a kinde of stage-playing they laid the dead childe or the dead man upon a forme or upon a table or on a bed and the substitute or appointed friend was to goe under the bed or table and to answer to those questions that the Priest did usually make to the partie baptised The first question was whether he would be baptised or no and if the dead man could not his friend was to say yea The second question was whether he beleeved or no the partie was to answer affirmatively for the dead man to that also The third question was Chrysost whether he renounced the Divell and all his workes and he was to answer to that too So saith Chrysostom this is a ridiculous thing that every Christian should laugh at in his minde to see their folly yet there is some shew of argument to be drawne from it for that out of mens follies God can ordaine strength And this proves that they had a conceit of the resurrection or else they would never have descended to such vaine and ridiculous fantasies Afterwards that the Church of God tooke up this custome yea such as were not heretiques but were brought up in the Church yet they thought it as possible for one man to be baptised for another as for one man to be helped by anothers prayers but this hath no shew of consequence in it For the one we have a command and a promise for the other we have neither Besides prayer is generall for all but the receiving of the Sacrament is personall for one for him alone that receives it So that one cannot be baptised for another Yet some in the Church mistaking this text of Scripture thought that when any that intended to be baptised were taken away before the due time they might appoint some that was his friend that had first beene baptised for himselfe And they thought this was profitable to him that was deceased But these are but mockeries of the Sacrament and questionlesse it is a thing that the Apostle alludes not to For the Apostle would never have indured this errour in the Corinthians or if he had yet it proves nothing It doth not follow that because foolish men abuse the Sacrament to a hope of the resurrection that therefore there shall be a resurrection For foolish actions have no probation there is no force in that which is without reason And seeing the Apostle is curious to rebuke them for lesser matters as concerning meate offered to Idols and women being uncovered in the Church which seeme to be matters of lesse moment yet he particularly reproves thē much more would he have rebuked this and not have suffered such a gangrene of errour to eate into the body of the Church as this was that makes a mockerie of the Sacrament Therefore seeing it hath no force to prove and because it is likely that the Apostle would not suffer such a thing to be extant there nor is there mention any where in his Epistles of such an errour that was crept into Corinth Therefore we reject the exposition although some other of the Fathers thinke that out of their common abuse the Apostle makes a good use and drawes an argument as in some cases it is necessary It is lawfull sometimes to draw arguments from the follies and dreames of the heathen so our Divines doe out of Plato and out of the historie of Err who they say after his death lived and was seen again of his friends and the storie of Epimenides he that slept so many yeares and revived againe But the Apostle useth not to insist upon such arguments he drawes something indeed from Menander and from Epimenides but it is matter of common knowledge and experience that no man could gaine-say And so I come to the second opinion What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead That is it was a custome for the first 500. yeares almost that those that were baptised into the name of Christ they thought good to deferre it till the latter end of their life and so when they lay sicke upon their death bed they called for baptisme For they thought according to the errour of Novatian that when a man had once received baptisme and had tasted of that heavenly gift as the Apostle speakes Heb. 6. if they then fell into sinne Heb. 6.6 there was no Sacrament for them nor no hope to be reconciled to God which is the cut-throat of all faith and repentance but they being carried thus by naturall reason thought that after they were baptised and had made defiance of the world the flesh and the divell and then fell backe and relapsed into sinne they thought there was no pardon for them And because they knew their owne weakenesse and infirmitie that they could not so renounce the world the flesh and the divell but that they were oft intangled with them or with some of them therefore unlesse they should bring upon their soules an inevitable necessitie of damnation they thought it good not to meddle with that Sacrament till they were past the necessity of sinning which when that is no man knowes For unlesse the grace of God subdue our affections as long as a man lives the power of sinning is not past But they imagined that old age would bring a cessation and a supersedeas of all offences and that then they might better serve God and with more quietnesse according to their profession Therefore they deferred baptisme to their last age and then they were baptised And in this errour we see what great men lived As Valentinian the Emperour whom S. Ambrose commends highly in his funerall oration For he purposed to be baptised when he came home but he was
and difficult is more easily atchieved and effected by the hand of God And he proves it out of Matth. 9.5 Mat. 9.5 where our Lord discoursing with the Pharisees when they had said who can forgive sinnes he askes them whether it were easier to say to the sicke of the Palsie take up thy bed and walke or to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee where our Lord clearely gives us to understand that it is a harder matter and a more powerfull thing to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee then to give limbs to him to walke and to take up his bed and goe his way For sicknesses are the punishments of sinne and the Lord removing that once he takes away the cause which is greater than the effect But although this be followed with so many so great and so worthy Interpreters yet me thinkes it hath no congruity with the purpose of the Apostle in this place for as I said before the Apostles meaning is not here to instruct us in the renovation of the soule of newnesse of life in holinesse and sanctification but to tell us of the resurrection of the flesh that is his chiefe argument the maine point he insisteth precisely upon Therefore to say to be baptised for dead is to be baptised for the name of a dead Christ it is too farre fetched and I cannot see how it can be brought in Therefore without prejudice to these glorious and goodly writers we proceed to further examination of these words There be some others that cannot indure what hath beene said before but they must devise trickes of their owne They say Saint Paul alludes to the Leviticall Law Numb 19. Numb 19. when a man had touched any dead carkasse he was to be cleansed before the even but suppose say they that the man dyed by casualty before night before he could come to the Priest before he could have gotten the matter of his purification what was then to be done Then say they his neighbour was to be cleansed for him and so they fall upon an opinion before named But what is their purpose certainly to bring in prayer for the dead because they thinke that as there was baptisme for the dead so there should be prayer for the dead And if the one fall to be so the other must needs be so too For I rather thinke that there should be prayer for the dead than that there should be baptising for them to speake in a sacramentall sence They doe it to bring in their superstitions of holy-water and sprinkling the graves and sepulchers and coffins of dead persons thereby to make them more pure before God and that which is more ridiculous that the Priest should undertake in times past and it may be now too in our times when he was sent for to a sicke body to give him the host and that the party were dead before he came he in the presence of the company was to eate it for him that was deceased and thought that that would be availeable to him for the forgivenesse of his sinnes and for the receiving him into heaven These things have no ground nor warrant neither in this Epistle nor in the old Law There is no such thing that there was any such purification by a proxie but it was alway done in a mans owne person and there was no friâ—nd admitted in any such action Therefore in that devise they make one lye to salve another as their custome is in other of their proceedings Further there is yet another opinion that saith that baptising for the dead it is meant of those that came and offered themselves voluntarily to afflictions and persecution And this is more neare the point for indeed in the Scripture it is a most usuall and common saying to call afflictions by the name of baptisme So Math. 20. Math. 20. Mark 9. Mar. 9. when the sonnes of Zebede come to our Lord and desire a boone of him requesting that one of them might sit at his right hand and the other at his left in his kingdome Christ answers them againe that they knew not what they asked And he proceeds further saith he Can ye drinke of that Cup whereof I shall drinke and can ye be baptised with the baptisme that I shall be baptised withall and they answer againe they could Christ tels them again that indeed they should drinke of that cup and be baptised with that baptisme but to sit at his right hand and at his left c. where we may see he speakes of the baptisme of fire and trouble and persecution That which is intended in those words the same also by comparison may be taught here and interpreted in this place They that are baptised for dead that is those that scorned their lives that cared not for them those that were ready to drinke the cup of Christ that were ready to throw themselves into danger for the glory of their Lord and Master To what end are they thus forward if there be no resurrection from the dead There be many things that favour this interpretation as the sequell that followes in the next words Where the Apostle saith why are we in danger or jeopardie every houre if the dead rise not as if he would bring the argument from abroad home to himselfe and then the sence of the place is this To what purpose doe men adventure their lives and cast themselves into apparant danger of death except they have a certaine hope of the resurrection to life and that that God that takes away their life now can give it them againe with advantage in the world to come This is true but whether it be fully proper or no to rest in this baptisme as absolute I thinke it lyes not in any mans power by any strong and full authority to determine It is true our Lord saith Luke 10. Luke 10. I have a baptisme to be baptised with and how am I pained till it be past Where he meanes in the same sence the baptisme of affliction For a man in affliction is as it were a dead man a man in prison as though he were in the bottome of the water in another element when there is persecution and trouble on every side But yet there is another opinion which shall be the last that at this time I will trouble you withall that is of Beza Beza and others that hold with him that all this that is spoken of baptisme here is not meant of any sacramentall washing but as the word is often used for a legall washing and purifying common and ordinary at the carrying forth of the dead as in Heb. 9. Heb. 9. there are many washings and the word is thus used in divers places in the Gospell As where Christ saith the Scribes and Pharisees when they come from the market they baptised their hands and they baptised their Cups and their Platters and Dishes It is the same word there and it signifieth
to dip to wash and make cleane And so it was a custome among Christians they used when they layd their dead bodies forth to wash them and annoynt them And all this was done as a certaine assurance and signe of the resurrection So the body of our Lord Iesus was imbalmed by Ioseph of Arimathea and Nichodemus and should have beene more fully embalmed upon that which we call our sunday morning but that the women received relation of his resurrection before they came to the grave This custome was used in Egypt as we see in the Scriptures and in expresse words Acts 9. Dorcas or Tabitha when she was dead shee was washed and layd in an upper roome And it seemes this custome was used by prophane men themselves in most Countries as the Poet speakes of Tarquynus when he was dead being slaine for his foule acts and tyrannizing parts a good woman saith he took him and in devotion washed his body and annoynted him according to the solemnity of funerals So the substance of the argument as Beza thinkes is this that all this expense about these corses carrying them to their graves in pompe that we cast them not out as beasts unburied but commit them to the bowels of our mother earth to lye there in certaine hope of the resurrection All the charge and cost that we bestow for them our washing of their bodies that we suffer them not to carry any pollution or staine with them all this is done in hope of the resurrection And this we would not doe except we had a hope of the resurrection but would cast them away without any care But we have a stately sumptuous care of their obsequies and proceedings in this businesse therefore we have a certaine hope of the resurrection Tertullian Tertul. saith if you aske me the fashion of my life and how I eate and drinke and how I wash my selfe in my bath I wash my selfe in such a bath as is convenient for the health of my body and I look for another bath when I am dead alluding to the custome that was then among Christians which was received from the Iewes or Hebrewes that had great skill in it and wrote it in bookes and put it into their Thalmud where there is a great long Chapter to this purpose how the funerals of men should be solemnized And of a truth there is some force of an argument from the customs and manners of the people of God to prove the certainty of our common faith in the resurrection But I am perswaded S. Paul did not greatly care for these fashions because they were but weake for though they prove something yet men might object and say what doe you tell us of idle customes that because men are carried by their friends with weeping and lamentation to their graves and those that be of greaer ranke with pompe and solemnity because they doe thus shall we therefore beleeve that there is a resurrection because this argument may suffer the traverse therefore it is not full although it prove something as Calvin Calvin saith well because death seemes to be the last extirpation and extinguishing and rooting out of men therefore it hath beene the wisedome of men and the nature of faith to devise life in death and to represent life by death For men that have friends that are men of respect and are able to have it so are carried to their graves with more pompe and magnificence than ever was done to them in all their life Because they would overcome death and make their scaffold of joy and delight in the height of death more then before in their life time to out-worke the feare of death in those that are living and to give assured hope of those that are dead therefore it was profitable for the Church to invent these things and the Church approves of it And then the Apostles argument is to what end are all these solemnities for the dead to what end is this cost to what end is this pompe in celebrating their funerals but as so many arguments of the resurrection And they tell us plainely that except we hoped to see the man againe in glory in the world to come we would not trouble our selves about these things but cast him away as a thing of nothing But by this we shew our esteeme of them that we account them to be those whose lives are layd up with God in Christ To conclude this because I have beene too troublesome to you in it Chrysost August I thinke that the fittest and the best sence is that of Saint Chrysostome and Saint Austine who though they lived in severall parts of the world yet with one spirit they agree upon it What then shall they doe that are baptised for the dead say they what is all this mortifying to the world what is this continuall expectation of death in the world what is all this preparation for the world to come which is in the opinion of worldly men nothing but a meere death They thinke that men that live thus are as dead coarses that have no society of mankinde those that are of retired life and conversation they are accounted dead men that man that is a man of abstinence that is a man of feare and trembling that is a man that betakes himselfe to God and neglects the world that addicts himselfe to a pure straine of devotion Luk 2.36 that like Hanna the daughter of Phanuell is in the Temple day and night praying and praysing God these men are civilly dead men these that are baptised to this kinde of holinesse that make this profession of the Sonne of God that live a strict course of life that use abstinence from the world and the delights therein that they may be vacant for God alone they are dead men alive or living men dead or men twise dead for so the world esteemes of them Now then what shall their profession and undertakings come to if there be no resurrection shall we say that these are deluded men that they are deceived farre be it from us farre be it to thinke that God will deceive them or put them besides their end Therefore they shall be partakers of that they looke for they shall have a most blessed and copious reward in heaven their labour is not lost in the Lord there is no part of their labour but it shall be fruitfull and glorious in the Lord. And if there be no resurrection why are they baptised for dead that is why are they taken for dead men that live not out their time as other men doe in jollity in mirth and bravery of the world as it hath beene and is a Proverbe among heathens while we live let us live As if to use a sober carriage were a kinde of death for men to refraine from the delights and pleasures of this world therefore while they live they will have a life of it and spend their time in
his owne particular instance and saith as the common ordinary number of Saints were baptised in bloud so the Colledge of the Apostles much more and he himselfe most of all This I conclude to be the sence of the Text and of those difficult words verse 29. of baptising for the dead It is that which the Apostle renders here and in the verse before going in other termes For first in verse 29. he cals it baptising for the dead In verse 30. he cals it Ieopardy every houre and now in this verse he saith I dye daily All the three phrases have but one sence and signification onely distinguishing the persons from whom he drawes the argument For the thing is all one the state of Christs Church here on earth is alway like it selfe in this life alwayes in an afflicted condition So then his argument first in verse 29. which is a great graund argument to prove the Resurrection he takes it from the passions and sufferings of the Martyrs and professors of Christ and it holds in all these three verses and that which followeth In the first of the three he brings the argument generall In the second particular In the third he brings it personall First generall verse 29. his argument is drawn thus If there be no resurrection of the dead why should any man be so mad as to be baptised in bloud for the testimony thereof that is to forsake Father and Mother Land Country and Life and al for the witnesse of the Gospell which chiefly stands in the hope of the resurrection for this is the baptisme that Christ speakes of when he saith Can ye be bapti sed with the baptisme that I shall be baptised with and can ye drinke of the cup that I shall drinke of that is the baptisme of teares of affliction the baptisme of bloud for the testimony of the truth And so he drawes his argument from the common example of the Martyrs in their sufferings implying that they were madde men if they would suffer in confidence of a bad cause to lose the best thing in this world for a lye Therefore their sufferings are a plaine argument a strong and perfect subscription and consent to this maine point of our faith the Resurrection of the dead that for which the Saints in all the world the Prophets before Christ the Apostles after Christ have beene baptised For as Iames the brother of Iohn Acts 12. who was killed with the sword Stephen the first Martyr and all that were slaine in the first generall persecution the Apostle drawes his argument thence that if there were no Resurrection then they had laid downe their lives in vaine but they had not laid them downe in vaine therefore there shall be a Resurrection This is the scope of that argument In the second place he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles in verse 30. and saith Why doe we live in ieopardy every houre that is why doe we live in danger of death in perill all our life long to dye as it were every houre and to be baptised for the dead As a man that is under water as it was the custome in baptising he is as it were lost so long as he is there he is a dead man and although perhaps he may get up againe and lift up his head yet as long as he is in that element it being not the element of our life he is a lost man So they that betake themselves to the profession of the Gospell they are baptised they are under water they are throwne over board they are cast away out of the ship of the world and made away to plaine destruction to ignominy to basenesse to poverty and every kinde of persecution that their enemies hand can make over them they are baptised for dead because they are in danger all the day long in all the passages of their life they are in jeopardy of death and deepely drenched in the conceit and feare of death which is worse than death it selfe Now in the third place in this verse he comes to the personall proofe of the poynt and that which is usuall with all the Martyrs in generall with the Colledge of Apostles in particular he applies in his owne personall instance and saith I dye daily I protest and it is no meane protestation if you will not beleeve my word yet take my oath I set my seale to it and sweare and I sweare by the Lord Iesus by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily This is the summe of the words Now you perceive the argument we will proceed on The greatest thing in such passages is to finde out the sence the matter will be evident enough In other places the matter is deepe and the sence is evident but in this and in passages of like nature it is contrary To proceed in order Here first we are to consider the marvellous strange assertion that the Apostle makes Division into two parts 1 The Assertion 2 The Probation where he saith I dye daily he dyeth and yet he liveth and he dieth daily There was no part of his life but still the shadow of death overwhelmed him which is the miserablest thing in the world to dye after death and still to be dying it is the worst kinde of death and yet the Apostle saith he dyed daily It is an assertion that the Saint of God pronounceth for himself for there is no man that can understand him but he that takes delight in these meditations he that hath part in the kingdome of Christ knowes what this meanes For experience teacheth this and not speculation or any argument that reason can afford Secondly we are to consider the probation of this because it is a strange paradox as Luther Luther saith What dost thou meane Paul to contradict thy selfe and all common sence and reason Doe I not see thee walke Doe I not see thee eate and drink Doe I not heare thee preach and yet art thou dead I see no signe of a dead man in thee Therefore the Apostle makes it good by an oath and saith I protest by the reioycing that I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily Where first we are to consider the manner of his inference it is by way of oath And then the thing he sweares by by the reioycing that I have in Christ A dead man and yet rejoyce it is a very strange mixture Thirdly we are to consider the ground of his reioycing where it is placed In Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly to consider the force of this argument and how we may preserve and keepe the strength of this argument alway unavoydable to be able to say and to sweare and lay to pawne and gage this Rejoycing that we have in Christ when we finde this confidence in our selves 1 Part. The Assertion First touching that marvellous assertion of the Apostle I dye daily If an ordinary
in his third Booke of the Trinity he saith The Apostle did not feare to confirme the certainty of his salvation by swearing for saith he by the confidence that I have in Christ Iesus I dye daily Among the Greekes none doubted of it but those that were simple and unlearned Therefore I say this was an oath and so the strongest confirmation that can be 2 The thing he sweares by Esay 45.23 But how doth Saint Paul sweare by that which is not God It is not lawfull to sweare by any thing but the name of God as the Lord saith Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse me and sweare by my name Heb. 6.13 It is true that when God sweares having no greater to sweare by he sweares by himselfe and when man sweares he must alway sweare by a greater For that is the end of an oath to protest an unknowne truth by the presence and countenance of a greater person then himselfe and one which cannot lye Therefore it is unlawfull for a Christian to sweare by any name but the name of God and that not often much lesse alway or in frivolous causes for this our Lord Christ condemnes when hee saith sweare not at all Math 5.34 that is not often nor out of passion But as an oath is a speciall service of God so it is to be taken upon speciall occasions but now we are bound to sweare by no name but the name of God and reioycing in Christ is not Christ himselfe Wherefore then doth the Apostle sweare by his reioycing in Christ We must understand that to sweare by any immediate fruit of the spirit of God by any thing that flowes immediately from God to us it is all one as to sweare by the name of God it selfe This is so individuall and inseparable a thing the comfort namely and the joy of Christ hath brought into the world that it is as inseparable from the spirit as the shadow from the body Therefore as a man may sweare by the shadow that there is a body and swearing the one he intimates the other and concludes the other so the Apostle here he sweares by this fruit of the holy Ghost which is ioy and peace even the peace of God which passeth all understanding which he found in his heart by the meanes of Christ Iesus who maketh our ioy to be full who is the fountaine of ioy swearing by this he sweares by the chiefe iewell of salvation which is the penny that Christ had given him as an earnest as a pawne and gage of his love Out of this that he saith Our reioycing observe I beseech you the wondrous temper of a Christian how he is composed of strange extreame contraries of death and life of sorrow and joy of peace and war There is nothing in the world that can be imagined so contrary as be the severall parts of a Christian mans constitution Upon this ground the holy Apostle goeth 2 Cor 4. 2 Cor. 4.8 c. where he makes the definition of a Christian after the same manner Saith he we are indeed oppressed and persecuted but yet not crushed altogether we are as men dead and yet behold we live poore and yet making many rich as having nothing and yet we possesse all things This is that marvellous mixture that God hath appointed his children to come to that they should be conformable to the sufferings of Christ and so be in death and yet that they should revive againe by the spirit of God and so no man be lesse in death being alway in life and having the certaine pledge and pawne of life eternall As for the men of this world the sonnes of flesh and bloud when they thinke themselves most lively then are they most deepely in death every thing worketh against them the stormes of Gods wrath attend them and worke upon their consciences at some time or other such fearefull deaths as out of which they can make no evasion or escape But with the children of God it is contrary when they are in the middest of death they are in the height of life 2 Cor. 4.16 As the Apostle saith Although our outward man dye daily and is corrupted yet the inward man is renewed and revived by the spirit of Christ So in all the passages of their life where death seemes to have the greatest sway and predominancie even there is life abundantly over death and the roote of life shall at length eate out the fruit of death And although death make a flourish for a time upon the Saints of God yet because there is a root of life it shall still grow and bud and bring forth at length that death may be swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.54 In all things the children of God have full contentment in this life although they be in the middest of death This is the great miracle that God doth in the world Every holy man is a wonder every good man is a miracle like the children of Israel Exod. 14.22 that walked through the deepe where there was never way knowne before like the three children in the furnace Dan. 3.25 that walked in the middest of the fire as if they had beene in a pleasant Medow like the Israelites and all their cattell that passed over Iordan Acts 16.25 like Paul and Sylas singing at midnight in chaines and fetters in prison A miraculous spectacle to God and men which drawes the eyes of Angâ—â—s to the contemplation of it For in sicknesse a Christian is full of the saving health of God In persecution he is full of quiet and contentment of the holy Ghost In prison he is full of Psalmes and spirituall Songs as were Paul and Sylas When he is bound in shackles he is free and expedite and loose As the Apostle saith in another place though I be bound 2 Tim. 2.9 yet the word of God is not bound the Gospell of Christ is not bound In all things he is a breathing miracle of the power of God that sounds unto us as so many silver Trumpets the omnipotencie of God that makes such a correspondence and proportion betweene life and death that makes death and life dwell together in one body and yet hee will evacuate death by the power of life that life may surmount and death may be put under that at the last death may be debased and life may be advanced And in that he saith Our reioycing or your reioycing For it is not materiall whether way it is read for it is a common ioy If I reade it yours I have it if mine you have it for it is a common ioy in our common Saviour This is that which all of us confesse when we make our prayers to God we call him our Father and we call the Saviour of the world our Saviour and so we may call the spirit our comforter because this common veyne of joy it flowes and runnes
in the Apostles place that they would Vse 1 follow his steps to have their reioycing in this one Lord and master to have no ioy in the world or in men in goods and profits in pleasures honours or in preferments which the world usually buyes and sels To have no reioycing in these but as they bee men that belong to God so let them reioyce onely in God And there is all the poynt of gloriation Therefore let not the rich man boast in his riches Ier. 9.23 or the strong man in his strength but let him that reioyceth reioyce in the Lord for it is he that executes iudgement and iustice and that sheweth mercy to those that reioyce in him as the Lord speakes Vse 2 Againe this must teach us to mingle these two together as the holy Apostle doth Reioycing and death we must labour by the study of pleasing Almighty God to keepe this sweet temper in us Wee are sure of the one but we must labour for the other I wonder not when I heare thee say as the Apostle doth here I dye daily for every man doth so there is not the most sensuall man but he hath a touch of death every day eyther by sensible misery or by the touch of conscience by bringing of his sinnes to his view That is incident to nature and a consequent of sinne to dye But what is thy reioycing what comfort hast thou in Christ This is that we should desire and call upon God continually for even to make this temper and mixture in us for the one is as necessarie as the other and God is as ready to give the one as our nature is ready to draw the other upon it selfe And this must be by this one meanes the making Iesus Christ thy Lord knowing no other Lord besides him no nor none against him nor none with him but that he may have the preheminence and be all in all as he is to his children in the world and shall be for ever in another world So thou must make him all thy ayme all that thou desirest all thy gloriation because thou must or canst desire nothing but it is seated in him To conclude with the time here is a modell of a christian mans estate death and life sorrow and ioy he is composed of such strange differences as the understanding of man cannot attaine unto But yet assuredly the Lord is never so heavy to him in iudgment but he is withall rich in mercy sorrow of heart shall never so surround him but he shall have the ioy of the holy Ghost to survive him As Saint Augustine Augustine saith upon that place of Paul Redeeme the time because the dayes are evill I saith he it is true the time in this world is evill but all the dayes that are in Christ are good dayes all the dayes of the Lord are good all the dayes of sinne are evill Let us sell them then he that redeemes parts with one thing to get another Let us sell these evill dayes in this world that we may get those good dayes in the grace of Christ And as Saint Gregory Gregory saith Good Iesus hee that hath thee looseth nothing and though he be in the midst of death yet he shall be recompenced with life although hee be in the midst and swallowed up with sorrow and deepe pangs of conscience yet thy spirit is there to remove that sorrow for though sorrow indureth for a night yet ioy commeth in the morning Psal 30. Psal 30.5 And in thy light wee shall see light thy wrath indures for the twinckling of an eye but in thy pleasure there is life for evermore This is the blessed state that every Christian is called unto and the Lord make it every one of our portions for Iesus Christs sake Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.32 If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men what doth it availe me if there be no resurrection from the dead THis is now the conclusion of that argument which Saint Paul draws from his owne person For drawing his principall argument from the sufferings of the Church to prove the resurrection of the dead he begins first with the generall and then he descends to the particular and last of all he comes to the personall First the generall was verse 29. What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead Then in the next verse he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles and saith We also are in ieopardy every day And for his owne particular he protests he dyes daily in the verse before the Text. And now he comes to explaine this how it should be taken saith he If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men Because he had spoken of a thing unlikely and unusuall and unwonted and therefore it might be offensive to Atticke eares such as were at Corinth to say that he lived and yet was dead therefore now he tempers his speech and mitigates it by this exposition when he saith He received the sentence of death against himselfe for hee was cast to beasts to fight with them eyther indeed according to the letter as it was a kinde of punishment and torment that the Pagan persecutors assigned the Christians unto or by way of metaphore as many and most of the Fathers of the Church interpret it But how ever the force of the argument is all one For whether he were cast to beasts and suffered to take his weapons and to defend himselfe and so by the mercy of God to escape without hurt from them or whether he meane by fighting with beasts beastly minded men as the phrase of Scripture often insinuates the strength of the argument is all one For often times a man were better bee cast unto beasts then to men there being more mercy and lesse fury in the pawes of the very beasts than in the working braines of men and the malicious conveyances that they have in the world So whether wee take it for beasts literally or for men that were beasts metaphorically the force of the argument is equall For saith he if there were no hope of the Resurrection then I would doe as the world doth and I would say as they say I would accommodate my selfe to all mens humours I would be so farre from casting my selfe into such dangers as to sight with beasts or with beastly men as that I would seeke to recover my owne which I had once being a Pharisie I would live a quiet and peaceable life among my brethren as I did then when I was rather ready to doe others hurt than to suffer any I would much rather choose that state of life than thus to be plagued and plunged and drowned in misery if there were not a hope of a Resurrection but the vigour and life of that hope duls all the pangs in this world and sweetens the cup of affliction which else would eate out my very intrayles If
you you have an ignorance concerning God because you call in question his power in this mighty benefit the resurrection of our bodies And then lastly he concludeth with mildnesse and sharpnesse and mingleth both together I speake this to your shame As if he should have said partly I am ashamed that I have spent so much time and so much labour among you and yet still you are in such waverings as these and are no better perswaded in the omnipotent power of God But as I speake this to your shame so I would not have you despaire but onely to take shame of your fault and so be brought to Repentance I speake it not to bring you to a confusion eternall but to a healthy confusion a confusion that brings conversion that conversion may bring salvation by the mercy of God I speak it not to overthrow you but to waken you that have beene intoxicate in a deepe sleepe by the wicked communication of these men This I take to be the sence of the Text. To proceed in order There are three parts Division into 3. Parts First a counsell or exhortation Then a serious expostulation 1. An exhortation 2. An expostulation 3. An Increpation And lastly a forcible dealing by way of Increpation whereby he doth as it were by an holy violence compell them to enter into the wayes of God and to be reclaimed from their sinnes The first is contained in these words Awake to righteousnesse and sinne not 1 delivered And that First in figure and then In plaine speech The figure in these words Awake to righteousnesse The plaine words follow And sinne not The one interprets the other In the figure there are two things 1 There is an Act to awake out of wine awake out of drinke for so the word signifieth Then secondly there is the tearme and manner whereto they must wake Awake to justice awake to perfection not as men halfe asleep and halfe awake to turne on the other side and take a nappe but to wake fully and freely It is such a waking as a man may be expedite to worke in the function of his life whereunto all waking men are disposed Then in the plaine words or exposition hee shews likewise two things 1 First that sinne is the mother of all errour of all grosse and base communication 2 Secondly that by the grace of God if we work with the grace of God we shall not sinne that is we shall not sinne in that grosse manner as these creatures do Although all men be sinners yet if we will tender the grace of God that is in us we shall so live as that we shall not sinne according to that phrase of Scripture which is afterwards to be expounded namely not with a full consent not with a high hand not to continue in sinne not to despaire in sinne but we shall know that if we do sinne we have a Mediatour of our reconciliation we have a Mediator which is God and Man Christ Iesus 1. Tim. 2.5 1. Iob. 1.1 2. who is the propitiation for our sinnes Then in the second part in the exposition there are two things to be considered First he tels them of their fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a word that we cannot well utter in English nor in Latine it is hard to be exprest in both languages to be ignorant of God And then because he would not offend all the company for a fews sake he saith Some of you have not the knowledge of God And then lastly the Application of all to them he saith he speakes it to their shame that is either he was ashamed to spend so much time and labour to so little profit or he spake it to their shame as the common Text reades it I speake it to your shame But yet it is such a speech as is not uttered in a virulent manner to cast them away to make them despaire but to bring them home that they might know what they ought to do for the time to come These are the branches of the Text. Of every one of these as the Lord shall give assistance and but a word of every one because they are common obvious things First it is to be observed 1. Part. The Exhortation Awake c. that the Apostle invites them and cals upon them for waking and for such a waking as if he should speake to a sort of drunkards that were drowned in wine and drunkennesse which is as base a kinde of sleepe as can be For all sleepe naturall of it selfe is justly accounted a meere losse of time the brother of death the field of danger a thing that hath no profit in it that spends one part of our life to no purpose And yet we cannot live without it for the repairing and re-edifying and building up of our bodies againe that were consumed and wasted before with daily labour Now if the naturall sleepe be a loosing of time a loosing of our spirits and a subjecting of us to danger much more then is it in the sleepe of sinne that poysonous sleepe that comes by excesse and drunkennesse These of all other are most dangerous and most hard for a man to bee rouzed out of It is a common thing in Scripture to compare sinners to sleepers and sinne to sleepe There are divers sleepes related in the Scriptures The sleepe corporall of the body and spirituall of the soule The sleepe corporall of the body is either naturall or violent Naturall sleepe is that when the strength of man is weakened and abated and his spirits are againe renewed by a gracious mist and dew that is cast upon the body whereby the naturall spirits the vitall spirits and the animall spirits are refreshed and raised againe to their worke Violent sleepe is either by drunkennesse or disease When nature is overwhelmed by drunkennesse or by disease As by Lethargies or palsies which all worke unto death which is also called sleepe For our Lord Christ saith We go to Lazarus who sleepeth And those that dye in the Lord they sleepe This is naturall sleepe The spirituall sleepe the sleepe that fals upon the spirit of man it is of two sorts in Scripture The one is celestiall and good The other is infernall for hell and hellish purposes Cant. 2.7 The first is that sleepe of the Church I charge you oh daughters of Ierusalem by the roes and by the hyndes that ye wake not my beloved untill she please that is in the meditation of holy things It is a divine rapture whereby the Saints of God have communion and are made one spirit with the Lord. Cant. 5.1 This is called in Scripture a sleepe I sleepe but my heart waketh But that which the Apostle speaks of here is an infernall sleepe that tends to a sleepe of damnation As sleepie diseases nourish death in men and there is no more assured signe that a man shall dye then when he is continually sleeping that he
which are the judges of life and death For who can tell what is dead and what is alive in the creature but he that is Lord of the creature Therefore though it have a kinde of action though it have a kinde of life lurking in it yet to our sence it is to no purpose it is of no use it is a meere jellie that is good neither for man nor beast Therefore it is dead So our Lord Christ saith Ioh. 12.24 Verily saith he comparing himselfe to the wheat-corne the corne of wheat saith hee except it fall into the ground and dye it remains alone and brings forth nothing but is single still but when it fals into the ground when it is buried and dyes in the earth then it brings forth much fruit So the Sonne of Man if he should live still in the world and not dye hee should remaine alone hee should do no good hee should be a single Christ no man could be saved by him but if he dye and rise againe hee shall raise a mighty harvest unto God So we see the truth of this doctrine manifested against the Philosophers That the corne is simplie dead it is demonstrated hence because the corne of God which is farre better then the common corne it dyes the bodies of men are truly dead yea the body of that wheat corne the Sonne of God himselfe was dead It is idle therefore for them to imagine that it hath a perfection to it selfe though it be corrupted to us For it is certaine that all these things dye the corne dyeth man dyeth the Sonne of God dyed according to that part of his humane nature which was mortall Therefore hee compares himselfe to a wheat corne to shew the great and sweet convenience betweene him which is the head and we that are his members how it is figured in these parcels of nature First the Lord hath made the corne of the earth to feed man and hath given a gracious abundance unto it that it comes forth in a goodly beautie and with strange varietie And then he teacheth us that the bodies of men shall rise so too which are much more deare then corne And lastly he hath given us a patterne in his owne body being cast into the earth which else should have remained single but being once interred and rising againe brings forth abundance of fruit This we may see in the bread of this life and in the bread of heaven how they both worke to give us an assurance of the Resurrection The bread of this life is corne the bread of heaven is Christ he is the Mannah that came downe from heaven Job 6.58 and these breads the bread of the body and the bread of the soule make up the conclusion as a certaine thing that that which is nourished by both these breads shall follow the qualitie of them The body of man is nourished with the one and the soule of man with the other Therefore the substance of the man must rise because the bodily bread riseth and the spirituall bread riseth and we feed of them and according to that which a man feeds on he is conformed As the Philosopher saith man is nourished of that thing whereof he consists and he consists of that whereby he is nourished And further we may observe in the phrase hee doth not say that the corne liveth but it is enlivened as Saint Chrysostome Chrysost and Saint Basil Basil observe Because hee would give us to note that all is in the power of God that worketh all in all Therefore he saith It is quickened It signifieth a passion or suffering and to be wrought upon from a higher cause It is quickened it is enlivened from a higher superior power So that the growing of the corne is not meerly from the influence of the Sunne or of the Moone no nor from the goodnesse of the soyle nor from the diligence of the husbandman nor from any naturall inherent qualitie but God gives it a body God gives it life And if his eye of providence be so watchfull in these particular cases in things of this small qualitie much more will he be watchfull in that great worke wherein he hath bound himselfe by a promise and if that be too little he hath sworne it we have his oath that it shall be so He hath given us to know in his Word 1. Cor 3.6 that it is not in Paul that plants nor in Apollo that waters but God that gives the increase that is there is nothing that can bring forth fruit no not a tree except the Lord give the increase All the second causes are nothing it is God that works all as the Psalmist saith Psal 127.1 2. It is to no purpose for men to rise early or to go to bed late and to eate the bread of carefulnesse It is in vaine for the watchmen to watch the Citie except the Lord keepe it The Apostle doth not say It doth not live except it dye but he saith It is not quickened it is not enlivened still hee reflects upon God and yeelds unto him the praise and glory of all things for from him onely comes the blessing and increase And lastly to conclude with the time hee saith that after the corne is dead it is quickened againe it is enlivened againe so it shall be with the bodies of men after they be dead but hee saith except it first bee dead it cannot be alive so that dying is the necessary reason of living It is a condition absolute if wee must live we must of necessity dye first Vse This must teach us that there is no exemption and priviledge from death if we look to be of their number that shall come to life Men cannot possibly be clad over this body with glory this body is not capable of the garment of glory except either it be brought to a change as they shall be that live at the comming of Christ or else it dye and be raised againe It is impossible that the robe of glory should cover this body of ours as it is Vse This should comfort us against death that because we shall dye first therefore wee shall be quickened againe it hath the force of a cause or condition in it it cannot bee otherwise Because the corne dyes therefore it lives and the reason that it lives is because it first dyes There is no hope of recoverie of life except first there bee a passage through death Hence we have exceeding comfort against the sorrows of death Those things that seeme to argue cleane contrary against us they make most for us For because there be such unlikelihoods of the Resurrection therefore we shall rise because we shall be dead therefore we shall be alive because we shall be closed within the grave as in a prison therefore we shall be inlarged because we are brought to dust and ashes therefore we shall bee brought to glory and to a heavenly condition
there is a spirituall body all the rest are included in this It is sowne in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is true if it be spirituall it must needs be incorrupt so It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour It is certaine if it be raised a spirituall body And so for strength if it be spirituall it must needs be strong Therefore the Apostle concludes all in this It shall be raised a spirituall body But how a spirituall body Marke he saith not that the flesh of Gods Saints the bodies that shall be raised that they shall be spirits but spirituall bodies Still it shall be a body So that there is no change in the substance but onely in the qualities and properties Tertull. Saith Tertullian the Apostle doth not speak of any change of the substance of nature but of the glorious qualities that shall come unto it Surely saith hee there is nothing that riseth againe but that which was sowne and there is nothing sowne but that which is dissolved and rotten in the earth and there is nothing lies rotting in the earth but flesh therefore nothing shall rise again but the flesh For there was nothing that the sentence of God went upon but the flesh of Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne So St. Austin expounding the words In Tom. 5. Aug. Lib. 13. How shall they be spirituall Not because they shall cease to be bodies they are not therefore called spirituall as though they were turned spirits and ceased to be bodies but because they shall subsist with a living and quickning spirit and because they shall be made indwellers and inhabitants of heaven which is the place of spirits it shall then be the place for the bodies of men For now it is a strange paradoxe to say the body of a man should dwell in heaven and though we know that Christ hath it by a speciall priviledge yet there is no man can imagine how the bodie of a man should dwell in heaven in those pure skies in those bright regions and that the heavinesse of the body should not praecipitate it downe to the earth and cast it into the fire and to dismall events that should consume it But when the Lord shall change this corruption into incorruption the bodies of the Saints shall be the onely fit inhabitants of heaven therefore it is called spirituall because it shall dwell in heaven which is the place of spirits the body shall then be able to inhabit there therefore it is called spirituall as being fit to possesse those mansions that are destinated properly for spirits But Chrysostome makes a question here Saith he Chrysost What is this that thou sayest here blessed Apostle Dost thou say that the bodies of the children of God are not spirituall now are they all meerly animal now are they not spirituall how is it said that they are Temples of the holy Ghost if the holy Ghost dwell in them he makes them spirituall they are called spirituall men all the children of God and if they be spirituall men then they have spirituall bodies But the Father answers himselfe again It is true these bodies we carry about us now by the power of the holy Ghost are after a sort spirituall but that body which shall be then which he here speaks of shall be infinitely far more spirituall This is onely in inchoation in beginning in the first fruits that shall be in the summe and substance and fulnesse of perfection And St. Bernard If thou sayest our bodies shall rise againe thy meaning is not to take away the being of the body but to give it a new lustre as the face of Moses and as in the transfiguration of Iesus Exod. 34. For as Moses when God put that brightnesse upon his face that the people could not look upon it but he was faine to haye a vaile on his face his face was still the same but yet there was a change of glory there was an accession of brightness whereby it seemed a spirit rather then a common ordinary visage so the bodies of men that shall be raised there shall be such an accession and augmentation of glory and beauty and brightnesse that it shall rather seeme spirituall then otherwise And as it was in the Transfiguration of Christ Mar. 17. his garments shone that no Dier in the earth could make the like and his face shone as the sunne in his strength the face of Christ was all one his garments were the same he had the same physiognomie but onely there was a new accession of glory that came unto it So the bodies of the Saints they shall be all one the very same body shall be revived which hath suffered misery here and shall have a new glory put upon it and that very body shall have strength that here was weak and subject to death The Lord shall then cloathe it with glory and although it shall rise a spirituall body it is not in respect of the change of the substance but in regard of the augmentation of glory which shall accrew unto it It is raised a spirituall body So much of those two Attributes of the change from weaknesse to strength and from naturall to spirituall Now in the words following the Apostle comes to prove that such a thing there is as a naturall body and a spirituall body And this he doth to prevent objections partly lest men should think that he coyned new distinctions and divisions which is a thing faulty in the Church and partly lest men should be drowned in error by misconceiving his doctrine For the first If a man should have said unto him Where doe you learne this did you ever heare any man speak such a thing that there is a spirituall body Yes saith the Apostle there is both there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body I will make the distinction good and prove it This teacheth us Vse that men ought to be carefull what distinctions they bring into the Church of God For as the Apostle saith to Timothy 1 Tim. 6.21 and to Titus Shun novelty of words and inventions shun them they are not to be admitted they destroy the faith and puzzle the understandings of all Gods children Vincentius Lirinensis Vincentius Lirinensis saith That although men ought to speak many things in the Church of God after a new fashion yet they ought to speak no new thing at all Therefore lest they should be offended with this distinction as though the Apostle had brought it out of his owne braine as though it were a new device of his owne hatching he is forced to make it good and to prove that there is such a thing because hee would not be thought an Inventer of new devices and a maker of new distinctions which is a plague in the Church of God throughout all ages Secondly another reason was this because hee would not suffer them to
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
harmelesse humour although when it is too extreame and violent it is full of sinne yet it is construed to a good sense that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all that is to say not to be dissolved after the fashion of the common death as S. Paul did but to have a kinde of light mutation and change and so to be translated unto glory You see in 2 Cor. 5.4 2 Cor. 5.4 where the Apostle tells us We would not be spoiled of this body that is we would not die but supervestiri wee would have a garment or vestment of glory and immortality to be put upon this body without death As if hee should say we would have corruption to enter into incorruption and we would be made capable of heaven with these bodies unchanged by death To that the Apostle answers in these words No saith he these things are contrary naturall and spirituall and it is impossible for a naturall body to be capable of spirituall qualities or a spirituall body of naturall qualities we must needs leave off the one before we can take the other we must lay downe the rags of this flesh before we can take the garment or vestment of glory and eternity in that blessed life that followes And although we have a great desire to goe unto life without death yet wee must mortifie that desire for it is as vaine as nurses wishes As nurses that wish the most eminent and excellent things to their children so we delight our selves in this imagination But the Apostle tells us that wee must take things in order for that God hath made all things in order First we are to taste of the naturals and then to be made partakers of the spirituals so we cannot be borne into this world but by nature and we cannot be borne into our spirituall possession at the first but first we must have a kinde of naturall life and by the grace of God that prepares us unto the life spirituall So God hath appointed and ordained every thing to goe by succession that all things should not be done at once but every thing in its time For saith he that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall And to this purpose hee brings in the two great fountaines and seminaries of mankinde the one for the life of nature the other for the life of grace a man and a man both of them being men but yet being diversly qualified and both leaving their qualities to those that be their followers For saith the Apostle the causers of all this great difference of naturall and spirituall be the two Adams the one was meerely naturall and was no more but a man The other although he were naturall yet he was spirituall too he was both God and man The one wrought unto death the other wrought unto life the one was bent and inclined to sinne the other was full of all grace the one left an inheritance of misery the other left great demeanes of glory to all those that are his followers Now as these causes bee contrary in themselves there being as much difference betweene them as there is betweene East and West so wee must imagine the effects to be different too For if the one did work to hell and damnation the other wrought to heaven a glorious redemption and salvation for all Gods people and if the wickednesse of the one were derivable upon his posterity in the flesh much more the goodnesse and righteousnesse of the other is derived unto them that are true beleevers and followers of him The first man was of the earth earthly the second man was the Lord from heaven And as they be so be their disciples as is he that is earthly so are they that are earthly and as was the heavenly so are they that are heavenly They are to follow their masters cue and to be of the same condition as their Chieftaine and Soveraigne The carnall man dies in Adam the spirituall lives in Christ even to life everlasting This is the substance of the words read unto you Now to proceed in order of the Text. First Division into 3. parts 1. The order of the PropositioÌ„ 2. The comparison betweene the 2. Adams 3. The conformity of their members we are to consider the verity and truth of the order of this proposition how the Apostle intends that that which is spirituall is not first but that which is naturall For it seemes that the best things should be first and spirituall things being best therefore it seemes they should be first yea it seems to be a disparagement unto things spirituall and heavenly to come in time after things naturall But the Apostle saith no God hath appointed it so and hee gives no further reason as St. Chrysostom observes that they may give themselves content in this that it is Gods will it shall be so that is a reason sufficient they need seek no further Secondly we are to consider the comparison betweene the two heads and roots and fountaines of mankinde the first man and the latter man and they are compared in foure things The first is in respect of their order and succession the first and the last or the first and the second The second is in respect of the place of their nativity whence they come the first from the earth the second from heaven The third is in the quantity of their difference and excellencie the first came as a servant the second came as a Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the word servant be not noted in the Text yet it is to be understood by this that he saith The Lord himselfe Therefore the first came not as a Lord but as a servant but the second came as a Lord in all points yea as the Lord himselfe from heaven Then lastly for their qualities the one is earthly the other is heavenly The third part of the Text is the conformity of the members that belong to these heads with their heads For as there are two great foundations of mankinde so likewise they have members answerable to them Those that be of Adam that is naturall men they be as their father is such as the earthly is so they are that are earthly and those that be of Christs retinue they be such as their Master is too For as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly which is not meant of the manners and condition of men here in this world for the Apostle meddles not with that in all this Chapter but it is spoken of the bodies that shall be raised at that day thâ—t as all men be earthly by nature the best Saints of God here are in an earthly condition and must be dissolved into earth and as we have that by means of the first Adam from whence wee descend so from the second Adam wee have a hope and shall
live in sicknesse and at last to be swallowed up of death to come to rottennesse and putrifaction which is the naturall conclusion of all bodies that live in this world This course God hath appointed first and then upon this God will make his power glorious to bring the body from dust and filth and rottennes to be spirituall to bring it to sweetnesse and glory and beauty this is his order Therefore first they are naturall bodies miserable and weak and obnoxious and then the Lord will supervestire he will invest them with that glory and incorruption which is promised to us in Christ So much for that point the truth of the proposition and the order Now for the comparison of the two heads and fountaines they are laid downe 2. Part. The comparison of the two Adams as the causers of all this Why is this so that there is first the naturall and then the spirituall because God would have Adam the naturall man to come first and Christ the Spirituall man to come last that the one should be the first of men the other the last and that they two should carry the keyes of these closets and treasures the one of corruption the other of incorruption Therefore from them depends all the reason of the former proposition First it is to be observed that hee saith a man First in respect of their order and succession first and last and a man It is spoken of Christ that hee is a man as well as of Adam so that they were both men of the same nature and substance nay the second Adam was the sonne of the first For wee see St. Luke in his Genealogie Luke 3. Luke 3. brings Christ from Adam Which was the sonne of Adam which was the sonne of God So that Manicheus and Valentinus and Martianus have taught us blasphemous doctrines in former times and so have the Swenck-Feldians which have received their errour of late All these are from hence condemned For as Tertullian Tertull. saith Why is Christ called the second man except hee were as true a man as the first therefore of the nature of Adam was the Lord Christ made even by deduction of nature and by a line infallible to the Virgin Mary Although by reason of the sanctifying of the bloud of which his blessed body was to be made and because that there was no intervention of the help of man he is not to be ranked in the common generation of man-kinde for he was not borne as they that are borne of women that is after the naturall ordinary course but by the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost Therefore in this regard hee is greater and far above Adam but concerning the materiall part of his body which hee tooke of the Virgin hee was the son of Adam and so the second man or the last Adam not because hee was the last of all men Iesus Christ hath been many years since in the flesh but because he was to put an end to the state of all things that there should be no new state after the comming of Christ expected Before Christ there was the state of nature of the law of the separation of the Iewes and Gentiles there were divers kinds and degrees but now he is come all the former states of nature and the law are no more to be recapitulated and there is no difference between the Iew and the Gentile Colos 3.11 bond and free male and female but all are one in Christ Iesus Againe Christ is called the last Adam because he saith of himselfe Revâ—l 1.8 that hee is Alpha and Omega he is Alpha in respect of his Deity and he is Omega in respect of his humanity and hee is both Alpha and Omega both first and last in regard that hee is coequall and coeternall with God the Father For as he is God he is Alpha the beginning of all things created he is the first borne of all creatures Colos 1.15 and as hee is Omega he is the last conclusion and end of the Alphabet that there is no more state no more sacrifice no more law no more new to be expected in the world But that which a Christian is to betake him to he must have it in Christ or not at all and all other are deceived that seeke for any other name than that Acts 4 24. for there is no other name under heaven whereby we may be saved This is the first difference in their order The second 2. In respect of their places earth heaven is in respect of the places from whence they were descended The first man is from the earth earthly The second man is the Lord himself from heaven heavenly The places from whence they come are earth and heaven and there is no greater difference can be in all the things in nature Wee cannot say that there is any thing more distant than these two nor any thing more contrary than these two the one being the fountaine of light the other being the receptacle of darknesse The one being the spring of all actions the other being a meerely passive and dull substance The one being the cause impressive the other being the cause receptive The one being the originall and fulnesse of every thing that is good the other being participant as much as it is capable of it For so much as the supreame cause works upon it so much it is prospered by it The one being alway moving and stirring and whirling about the other being restive and not able to stirre out of its place There is nothing more contrary than heaven and earth and such is the deduction of these two prime causes But how was Adam earthly more then Christ Christ had a body of the Virgin and so he was of the bowels of the earth as well as Adam And how was Christ more heavenly and spirituall then Adam had not he a soule and spirit as well as Christ how can these things consist For the first you must understand that the Apostles meaning is where hee saith that Adam was from the earth that is as much as to say his chiefe powers and abilities were still inclined to the earth that he was fraile that hee was made in a condition to goe back againe to the earth that was his destiny and hee had a law imposed upon him to dig and delve the earth and therefore he is said to be of the earth Not because hee had not a soule from heaven for hee had a soule from heaven as well as Christ had but because he was drawne by his inferiour part by his body which was his earthly part because hee was drawne by that from the contemplation of heavenly things and had rather to take an apple with his wife than to follow the justice and uprightnesse of God because hee declined to the earth and base things and left the Creator for a poore creature and because hee left the unchangeable good
our life In our inclination In our declination In our death In our grave and sepulchre In all things wee are like our first parent Adam which is the father of our nature as Christ is the father of our state in grace Therefore as at the first wee are made by the hand of God as Adam was wee are made out of a base matter as he was the Lord made him out of the red earth Psal 119.73 so saith David thy hands have made me and fashioned me out of such a kind of substance are we made We are like him in our beginning Adam was left to a kind of free-will to goe this way of that way Which free-will hee had entire and might have kept it if he would In our infancie wee are partly left that way but custome and corruption lead us another way for wee are forestalled by inbred corruption by sinne and we are mis-led by the corrupt customes in the world so that children are corrupted before they be sensible Otherwise children have that in them above men that they may say This course I will take and this course I will not take For when a man takes a course to be vicious and to fall into sinne he cannot be so free as he that hath a pure mind which is like unto a white paper wherein there is nothing written For they that fall into evill they set such blots upon them that cannot be gotten out without the bloud of Christ And indeed in the fairest paper in the minds of children there is that corruption that the bloud of Christ must wash it out even that originall sinne though they be free from actuall Therefore in this wee are like unto Adam mutable and changeable Nay our condition is worse than his for he had a power not to sin and we have no power but to sinne as long as wee live in this flesh Thirdly in the inclination of our mind As Adam grew hee had an inclination to eate and to drink a necessity of increasing in the world of steep and work and the like so in these things wee grow and many men are so set upon these worldly things that they commonly faile God and their soules in other things And for our declining age we are like unto him Although hee lived in strength a long time yet at last hee failed of his strength and of his wit and at length came to be turned to dust to nothing So it is with us as is the earthly so are they that are earthly we must follow his condition wee cannot avoid it we must be like unto him Lastly as Adam died and went to his grave from which he was taken earth to earth dust to dust and rotted in the earth and there he lyeth now and hath lyen for the space of almost 5000. years in the dust so the Lord will bring our bodies by the common sentence which hee hath pronounced against our sins and the sin of Adam he will bring them to the same state For as is the earthly so are they that are earthly In their birth in their life in their inclination in their death in their grave and in all the parts and passages of this mortall race they are all alike each to other But the Lord who is to give a new life of grace which begins here and shall be completed in the life of glory which shall be manifested hereafter he shall conforme his members unto him more then Adam doth his For if we be miserable because of the first Adam much more shall we be glorious because of Christ the second Adam And if a weak cause be able to conforme his members unto him a stronger cause shall be much more able Therefore as the misery of man is derived from Adam to his posterity so the glory and majesty of God shall be derived and exhibited and set forth and fulfilled from Christ as from a root and fountaine to all those that follow For from his fulnesse we have all received even grace for grace Iohn 1 16. Therefore he saith those that are spirituall shall be such as he that is spirituall as Christ is now in his glorious body For this must be taken of the glorified body of Christ and not of his mortall body For he had a mortall body in which he died but when it was raised againe it was a glorified body And as it was in the Resurrection of Christ so in the common Resurrection we shall be like unto him by the power of Christ that worketh all in all And if Adam could convey unto us an inheritance of misery and weaknesse and declining much more shall the Lord convey a stronger inheritance of glory and beauty and of all that wee can desire and that can fill the heart of man all which the word of God hath made a promise and tender of Therefore as the Apostle saith comfort your selves in these words 1 Thes 4.18 even in observing the order that God would have and be content that your naturalls may passe away that your spirituals may succeed For we must of necessity be borne before we can be borne anew of water and of the holy Ghost We must be borne first of the will of flesh and bloud wee must be borne after againe by the sacred laver of regeneration not of the will of flesh and bloud Iohn 1.13 but of the spirit by the word of God and by faith in Christ Iesus And as St. Austin saith we could not die Aug. except wee had been the members of Adam nor wee could not rise againe except wee were the members of Christ But these things be so ordained by God that wee cannot looke for the one except we be content to taste of the other The Lord made not the Angels and us in one condition they were made in their full perfection at the first therefore some of them fell from that to be devils some of them continuing by the grace of God and are confirmed for ever But man was not so made but as a scholler to come by divers degrees to grow forward from rudiments and principles unto further perfection that the glory of God might be seen in his successe and course in his bringing on and production that he appointed for man Vse Therefore wee ought to be contented with the ordinance of God to rejoyce in it and to be willing to suffer the cup which God hath put into our hands even the cup of death when the Lord shall call for us And wee ought also to arme our selves with this exceeding comfort that this is the onely passage and way which God hath made for that glorious state hereafter For if there be naturall there shall be spirituall and if there be no nature there shall be no spirit Therefore this misery and weaknesse is as it were a doore and a way unto greatnesse and strength and ability This is that which the blessed Apostle saith 2 Cor. 11.
have been carelesse and negligent in his wayes before so God shall take the advantage and come upon them upon the Sabbath day and upon the Sabbath day at night when men use quietest and with greatest repose to lay themselves to rest It is the last trump And why is it called the last trump Because God will have no more messages to man When the trumpet hath sounded there shall be no more newes nor no more intercourse between God and man Till that trumpet sound there is a daily intercourse betweene heaven and earth the Lord sends us newes by his word he sends us newes by his Sacraments by his punishments and afflictions by his blessings and fatherly preservations The world is full of his gracious trumpets which are ever sounding either to make us better and to bring us from sinne or else to discourage and harden us if wee goe on in our ill doings Still there is an entercourse betweene God and man but when the last trump shall blow all such entercourse shall cease Those that have done well shall goe into life Mat. 25.46 and shall have the perfect vision of God without any more newes or message from God to them and those that have done ill shall goe into everlasting fire and shall have a continuall privation and absence of God without any hope of seeing his face any more This is called the last trump because that after the trumpet hath blowne there shall be no more change in the dealings and affaires betweene heaven and earth I see the time almost past 3 Part. What sound the trumpet shall give I come therefore to the next thing what the trumpet shall sound For if the voice shall be sensible then it must needs have some signification and must utter something that men must understand For it is not enough to say that it is a voice of a trumpet an inarticulate and generall sound and no word for it cannnot be so And though the trumpet of God shall sound it shall not be so dull but it shall have a more sweet and significant impression to teach men what they have to doe Therefore the Fathers have gone so farre as to expresse what words the Trumpet shall sound St. Ierome Jerome and some of the Fathers with him say the words that the trumpet shall sound shall be Arise ye dead and come to judgement Therefore saith hee I am so possest with this I am so possest with the assurance of this that to what place soever I goe if I goe to my study if I walke if I eate or drinke if I lie downe to sleepe whatsoever I encline my selfe to me thinks I ever heare in my eares the voice of the trumpet sounding Arise yee dead and come to judgement But the holy Father may seeme to speake rather out of a high straine of fervent zeale by allusion than of any certainty that the trumpet shall so sound Theophilact Theophilact saith the trumpet shall sound to this effect Draw neare for the Iudge is at hand the Iudge is before the doore prepare your selves As Isay saith The voice of a cryer Esay 40.3 Prepare you the way of the Lord make his paths straight This indeed is more agreeable to the Scriptures Iohn Baptist that prepared the way before Christ he was a type and figure of the Angell Gabriel that shall found the trumpet to prepare the way of the Lord and shall give a sensible and significant note what hee would have men to doe But this it is sufficient for us to point at because wee know not the certainty of it It shall be such a voice as shall give sufficient warning it shall be a voice that shall be sensibly perceived the intendment of it shall runne over all reasonable eares there is none shall be so deafe or so dull but they shall heare and apprehend the meaning of it But what word it is whether it shall be articulate or no it is not left for us to enquire after Howbeit wee honour the invention of the holy Fathers because they tend something to the rectifying of manners and for the stirring up of mens affections for this purpose 4 Part. The effect Now followes the effect and operation of it when the trumpet shall blow The dead shall rise incorruptible This is that wondrous effect that the trumpet of God hath this is the great difference between the trumpet of God and the trumpets of men For they worke death and destruction when they blow and sound to the warres but this trumpet of God shall sound to life and immortality But this shall not be in the power of the instrument but it shall have this force by the power of God and from the power of Christ unto whom God hath given all judgement and power to raise and to change the quick and the dead But what is this that he saith The dead shall rise incorruptible Some think it is onely meant of the Saints because all this discourse of the Resurrection as Beza Beza and some other Divines observe is restrained to the Saints But the former part of the Apostles discourse is more large and so also may this be taken that not onely the bodies of the Saints shall be incorrupt but also the bodies of the wicked But how Saith St. Austin they shall be in the fulnesse of perfection of the parts and members they shall all rise incorruptible they shall have bodies that shall never be obnoxious to corruption and destruction but shall last and indure in the fire for ever They shall have a braine and a wit that shall never be dissolved they shall have a memory that shall never forget their wickednesse and sinnes that they have done and the blasphemies they have committed against God and the abominable actions they have done in the tabernacle of this flesh They shall have the proportion also of men and women in their true frame and proper stature and not as being lame or blind or the like as perhaps some of them died But they shall be raised in the fulnesse and perfection of their members and parts howbeit it shall be so as it may most dispose them to eternall torments that they may be able to indure that is all the reason why God raiseth them uncorruptible that they may be able to indure the corrupting causes For those causes that seeme to corrupt any thing in the world as sorrow and feare and malice and vexation and torture of the flesh which a man would think in time would bring any thing to an end yet they shall not be able to corrupt them Therefore saith St. Austin Aug. though they shall be raised incorruptible yet after a sort they shall be corrupted by the paine and torment which they shall indure But how Not to be brought to a worstnesse or destruction but they shall have an eternall life to suffer misery Let us labour therefore Vse and desire of
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
was dead and buried and hee testified his mortality three dayes together by lying in the grave Therefore as Christ went this way and could not goe to heaven untill he had tasted of death first he must suffer and so enter into glory It followes therefore Luke 24.26 that all his members must second him and subscribe to that course which their Lord and head went and be content to be like unto him it must be with us as it was with him therefore this corruption must put on incorruption That is wee cannot come to that glory but by dying first we must die to live first we must be in our graves in stinke and filthinesse that wee may be raised to beauty and strength and perfection according to the glorious promise which God hath made in Christ Now the next thing to be observed is the triumph of the Church when this is done when this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this blessed garment is once fitted when this vestment shall be once applyed unto these bodies as never to be put off again Then shall be fulfilled this saying This garment of incorruption and immortality that is this garment of glory and beauty wherein God shall invest his Saints it shall not be like these garments of ours that are put upon our outsides which cover onely our outward parts They touch not our intrailes they come not neare the heart but this blessed garment of incorruption it shall run through all the veynes of man it shall possesse him every where it shall be as the life is in all the parts of the body in every part there is life as well as in the rest It shall be as the health is it is the breath of heaven which runs through all the parts of the body if one part or member be sick all the rest are so too for company It shall be as the soule is in every part and substance of the bodie the soule is in all the parts of the body it is as well in the little finger as in the braine of a man And after this kind shall this garment be put on not as our cloathes which we put on and off not as our garments which keepe us warme in our outward parts and never touch our inward But this as the Spirit of God shall rule through the whole man there shall be no part nor no blood but it shall be uncorrupt there shall be no flesh in man but it shall be immortall There is no part but it shall be garnished and adorned with this rare and singular quality which shall run through the whole man and shall possesse him wholly and shall take that root in him as it shall be impossible for it to be extirpated for it is the glorious hand of God that shall plant them there and nothing therefore shall be able to supplant them Wee must put on incorruption And it shall be so put on as the sun puts on his glory never to put it off againe as the stars put on their light never to be eclipsed never to have their light taken from them Wee must not put on the robe and garment of immortality as Kings and Princes put on their gay cloathes and apparell Chrysost As St. Chrysostom saith when Kings and Princes goe to the bath on earth although they be never so gloriously apparelled yet when they goe into the bath they must put off their cloathes as well as other men and when they goe to their graves they must divest themselves and goe after the order of other men But the Saints of God shall not put on the cloathes of incorruption as a man that goes to the bath but they shall put it on as God hath put on eternity they shall put it on as the sun hath put on his light never to be darke They shall put it on as the moon and stars which have the same beauty and figure continually Although to us it seeme different and the light of the starres are not seene in the day time yet there is no hindrance in them they have the same coat on them The Saints shall have a garment like the coat and habite of the lillies of which our Saviour saith that Solomon in all his royalty Luke 12.27 was not cloathed like one of them their garments shall be so fit and so durable and so sweet and so naturall without any price without any cost The Lord shall then fit the garment to the party Making of garments requires great skill and much art for it is no ordinary thing for to fit a body truely with a garment or vesture But the Lord will shew that wondrous art in fitting this garment to our bodies in such a wondrous aptnesse in such a fitnesse and proportion and compleatnesse that in every part of mans body there shall appeare this beauty and this comelinesse this glorious apprehension of these heavenly qualities shall appeare in every part of man The Lord shall so fit the body that the garment shall glosse and beautifie and adorne the least part of the body Therefore let us lift up our heads Rom. 13.11 for our salvation drawes neerer then when wee first beleeved and let us delight our selves and labour to put on this new garment this blessed vesture that we all seeke so much after Wee are tired with these stinking cloathes Vse with these perishing vanities of the world Wee are faine to perfume them with sweet odours as the fashion of the times are now wee cannot indure the graine of our owne bodies but wee must perfume them with exotick and strange smels But that garment shall bee so perfumed it shall bee so amiable by the power of God that it shall need no other smell or perfume The curiosity of our dispositions cannot indure a garment a yeare together Shee is accounted a sordid woman that weares that garment this yeare which shee ware the last and shee is neglected and despised of her meanes and friends But the Lord shall so fit this garment that we shall still take delight wee shall have a holy pride in wearing of it and it shall still bee the better for wearing and have continually more splendor and beauty then when we first put it on For this mortall must put on immortality to all delight and glory to a lasting glory and a continuall glosse and beauty that shall never fade but still increase to the party that weares it Now let our appetites appeare in desiring of it When when shall it bee And so I come to the last point that I will trouble you with at this time When great promises are made all delayes are tedious Prov. 13.12 Hope that is deferred kills the heart of man therefore it is naturall for us still to call and urge for the time When Lord when why when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this
is done as it is certaine it shall bee done for wee have Gods word and promise for it wee have the appetite of the matter which still calls and cries to God for a forme and we have the Lord ingaged by example and president and by the head and first fruits Christ Iesus the head when this is done Then shall bee fulfilled that which was spoken As if he should say I speake not these things to you of my selfe and out of my owne Apostolicall authority which I might stand upon but I speake them out of the writings of those men that were illuminated by the same Spirit from the writing of the holy Prophets Then shall be fulfilled that which was spoken or written That word that word of grace that word of promise that word which is able to make the dead revive and the word is this that Death is swallowed up into victory Where observe First who wrote this And then the substance of the words Concerning the first the Apostle defends his authority from ancient times to teach us what we are to doe in like cases But this is a common obvious point I will not insist upon it Concerning the Author Isay and Hosea are alledged for it some holding with the one some with the other Certainely it is in Isay in the true intimation according to the word Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 where God promiseth the people a deliverance out of the Captivity of Babylon He saith God shall destroy death for ever he hath swallowed up death for ever or to victory for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 netsahh may signifie both entrance into length of time or else victory Because victory properly respects the time and that is true victory which is not to be dashed nor daunted with any time that is the most perfect victory that is not daunted in any time So in this respect the word time and victory is taken in the holy Tongue for the same and that which the Septuagint here translates the one the Apostle in the Text translates the other Although indeed the Apostle follow the Septuagint yet they have another translation besides which is God shall swallow up death for ever So the Prophet Isays words I take to be the best and the fittest Hos 13.14 The other in Hosea is in Hos 13.14 where the verse following after my Text is repeated expresly but the words of this verse of my Text is not there to bee found Therefore this I take to be the word of Isay Observe now what the word is that hee useth for it it is full of life it brings men from temporall things to the expectation of things eternall The Lord speakes to them of a great feast that they should make after their comming up out of the Land the Apostle takes it to set forth the eternall feast For it is to no purpose to have these temporall things and to bee swallowed up of death and hell The Apostle teacheth us therefore what construction wee should make of the blessings of God in this life to extend them in a high sense They are never sweet till then The bread that wee eat should make us mindefull of the bread of heaven that is of the glorious presence of God which shall for ever delight us And the honours and preferments that wee have here except they signifie to us those glorious and stately seates of glory hereafter they are rather plagues and punishments then blessings By death there in the Prophet is meant the generall Captivity but the Apostle takes it for the death of the body To victory is the terme and manner whereto it shall bee swallowed But I should be too troublesome to enter upon them now FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.54 Then shall bee fulfilled that word which is written Death is swallowed up into victory Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory WHat is so weak and againe what is so strong as a Christian man saith St. Ambrose Ambros Hee is exceedingly weake because hee is subject to any temptation and incomparably strong because hee can triumph over death it selfe which is the triumpher over all mankind For what can he feare that is fearelesse of death and what is able to insult over him that can insult over that which is the last of all terribles which is the dissolution of nature Thus the Lord hath tempered in the same vessell great infirmity and great valour that hee might shew his owne strength for in mans weaknesse is Gods strength consummate The Apostle therefore to prove those wonderfull things which hee had said before that this corruptible must put on the garment of incorruption this mortall must put on the weed of immortality he doth now as it were bring into the minds of the Corinthians the present spectacle hee lifts up their hearts to view it as a thing acted and done before their eyes As he saith to the Galathians Gal. 3.1 that Iesus Christ was crucified before their eyes whom they never saw crucified but hee was so lively described unto them by his Gospel that he saith they saw it acted and saw him really crucified and all the passages of his death and passion So now he would bring the hearts and minds of the Corinthians to such a kind of contemplation as to see the Lord God raising up the dead and to see the dead putting on their new garments their new coat of immortality and incorruption He represents all to the eye and when hee hath so done hee brings in a kinde of insultation a verse that they were wont to sing in victories and triumphs 1. Sam. 18.7 As in the triumph of David over Goliah the women sang Saul hath slaine his thousand but David his ten thousand so the Saints of God as St. Chrysostome saith Chrysost Dost thou see saith he what a generous spirit is in the holy Apostle how hee paints before the eyes of the people this most noble and divine indowment this garment of incorruption and immortality and behold how he himselfe is rapt And in that most heavenly and strange rapture as a man inspired from heaven he insults over death lying under his feet and treads upon the head of him that treads downe all things else and cries over him Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory This is the song of the Church and that song which the Saints of God desire with full contentment to sing and it is given to all them that are true hearted to the Lord to sing this song with a full resolution But when the time is come that it should be sung the weaknesse of our nature perhaps will not suffice to it For it is one thing for a man to bee valiant when he is in health and it is another thing when the fit and when the storme takes him then to appeare that which hee professed himselfe to be before
there are but few that can come in the houre of death to make this insultation But all should aspire for it and looke after it and should desire God to inable them to doe thus as St. Paul speaketh and as many Saints and Martyrs have in their martyrdome insulted over death with these words For this was often the motto in their mouthes Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Division into five Parts Now that we may proceed in order First wee are to consider that which hee saith the word shall be fulfilled which was written And then where it is written And thirdly what it is that is written Death is swallowed up into victory And fourthly when this shall bee performed Then then when our bodies are changed and this corruptible hath put on incorruption 1. Cor. 15. and this mortall hath put on immortality then shall bee fulfilled this saying And lastly the use and ground of all that is to take heart and courage for these things are written for consolation A man that can take no comfort against death shall never have any comfort any time of his life if there were no joy in our death there could bee none in our life Therefore all this is to renew the spirits of Gods children and to make them undaunted when that great and common Adversary shall ceaze upon them The Insultation is in the 55. verse 1. Part. The fulfilling of the prophecy which is taken out of Hosea 13.14 Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Of these parts briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first concerning the fulfilling of the Prophesie The holy Apostle would raise up the Saints of God to applaud and to take delight and to gratulate one another to see the fulfilling of Prophesies come to an end For all Prophesies must bee fulfilled Matth. 24 35. and though heaven and earth should passe away yet no jote and tittle of the Law and the Prophets can passe till all bee fulfilled and accomplished Now the Apostle brings to their minde those sweet prophesies of former time whereby he concludes the certainty of these things which he now delivers to them For there is no greater contentment to any man that is a true judicious Reader of the Scriptures then this to see that the things promised in the Gospel are not yesterday matters they bee no new things no late devises but they be almost as ancient as the world they are drawne out of the treasures of God in former ages by the holy Prophets that spake in former times what should come to passe in the fulnesse of time And as St. Pauls manner is still hee confirmes his doctrine by the precedent doctrine of the Prophets so here in this saith St. Chrysostome speaking many infinite incredible things it was needfull for him to set to a seale and to conclude all with the authority of some Author that had gone before And he tells them this is a word written It is a book-case it is no new thing which he saith but that which God had inspired before into the holy Prophet Isay and the Prophet Hosea and divers others concerning the same doctrine that he reveales unto them Therefore to conclude this point Vse We should learne by this example to confirme our faith to incourage our selves by the constancy of Gods word the constant truth which hath beene from age to age And that is it which must settle and stablish if there were any thing which swerved from the common custome or any thing that were new then wee might doubt whether it were from God or no. But because in all things it is so consonant to it selfe and God is the same God of the Old Testament and of the New it is a great confirmation to us to keepe us from doubting and from many scruples which Satan the enemy of mankind suggests unto us 2. Part. Whore this is written But where this word is written or who is the Authour of it as I said Divines doe diversly interpret Some thinke it is from Isay some thinke it is from Hosea and some that it is a writing from them both that it is two testimonies It is not unlikely that his purpose was to cite both the Prophets two of them together Matth. 18.16 that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might bee established Therefore the first part of the sentence is taken out of Isay the second part out of Hosea That in Isay is Isay 25.8 Isay 25.8 you shall see there the Lord makes a banquet to his Church and the conclusion of that heavenly banquet is this God shall destroy death for ever hee shall swallow up death into victory as it is here spoken His meaning and purpose is there to speake of the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon but because there is no use in these temporall blessings except wee referre them to spirituall for these outward things be but as earnests of greater graces which God hath reposed for us in a better world therefore the argument followes As the common Tenent of the Scriptures hold still that from things present wee may argue things to come and from things temporall wee may prove to our selves the assurance of things spirituall So the deliverance out of the captivity of Babylon did signifie to them and was an assurance of the deliverance from hell of the deliverance from the bondage of destruction of the deliverance from the bondage of sin and the bondage of death Therefore the Apostle translates that according to the meaning of the Prophet which raiseth Gods people to understand that they had greater enemies to encounter with then Babylon And if God should have stayed his hand there and have given them a meere deliverance out of Babylons countrey they should be no better then men of a few dayes continuance For they must die after that deliverance and they had greater enemies then Babylon was from whom they must desire to bee delivered and whom they stood in feare of which would draw a more dangerous consequence then all their enemies else besides For Babylon could but inthrall their bodies and that but for a time but hell would destroy both body and soule for ever Therefore God saith hee would destroy death hee would destroy the death of the body and the death of the soule the first death and the second death and he would swallow both into victory That is the death of Christ should get the mastery of them that they should never need to feare them afterward they should bee so couched in silence that they should have no power nor strength remaining in them but they shall bee as though they had never beene they shall be so obliterate Now for the other place Hosea 13.14 Hosea 13.14 where the Prophet discourseth strangely after a wondrous and hidden manner For I think there was
no other noise nor voice rang among them but victorie victorie and though they lost many men that were slaine and heard of the death of many of their friends yet they were content to offer the lives of their friends in that common sacrifice so the victory might be pronounced amongst them So we reade of Rome and Athens and especially of Carthage for the newes of a victory that they had over the Romanes they did nothing for a whole moneth together but goe with garlands on their heads and celebrate festivalls as men with exceeding joy transported out of themselves For this purpose also the great Conquerours called many Cities after that name by the name of victory as the City of Nice where the first Counsell was kept it signifieth victory and Nicosia-Stratonica and Verturia Thessalonica and many other Cities had their names given them of their victories and the great Captaines would call themselves Nicanors and by the like names victorious men And those that bore the victory they still wore garlands which were alway greene because they would have their names and conquests never to wax old but be alway greene therefore they had their garlands of Laurell So wee see how the world use to be have themselves in victory how they are never daunted with any thing nor grieved with any thing if they may have the victory they are content to lose the life of their best friends This should teach us to apply these things in a spirituall sense to be as wise in our generation as the world is in their generation we were so desirous of victory and so desperate for it that wee would have given all things to be made partakers of it we would have given the first fruits of our bodies for the sinnes of our soules thousands of rammes and ten thousand rivers of oyle that wee might be made victors of this grisly monster but we were not able to do it nay rather then we would not have the victory we were content to lose the life of our Chieftaine Christ Iesus who slept in death that we might ever wake unto life eternall wee were content that he should die for us and the hands of us all were in his bloud we were content that he should die that death by him might be swallowed up into victorie Let us therefore entertaine this glorious motion into our soules let us lift up our heads with melody to God let us know that nothing can make against us now because wee have the victory a constant and perfect victory where there is no enemy resides or remaines The princes of this world have but halfe victories the enemy runs away from them and comes and makes head again and comes the next yeare with a greater force But God when he gets a victory he leads captivity captive he leaves no possibility of rising againe but hee strikes to the maine he strikes the adversary to the heart he cuts off stub and stock of all likelihood and probability that there should not be any fear of it afterward he takes away the essence of the thing and so he makes an absolute victory The Insultatiō Now followes the Insultation whereunto God would raise a christian mans heart Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory These words that be in the vocative case in the Apostles writing in the Prophet are in the accusative I will be death unto death and I will be destruction against hell Here the Apostle understanding the purpose of the holy Ghost teacheth us not too much to be tyed to the letter of the Scripture but to the sense and meaning he takes out these two hee singles them out and sets them downe in the constancy of his spirit as though they were two personated enemies Death and Hell that is death and the grave for hee speaks here of the resurrection of the dead of such as are dead in Christ and they shall never come to hell therefore although the word be translated Sheol hell yet it is here taken for the grave onely whereunto the godly goe as well as the ungodly to hell goe not the godly but the ungodly they goe to the grave which is the common receptacle of all and it is a degree of misery and mischiefe that after a man hath lost his ability when he hath lost his life and power when he hath lost his colour and glory and perfection to be thrust down as a brute beast into a pit and to lie there and rot and putrifie therefore because these two are the most shamefull enemies the one to rid a mans body of the precious soule that is in it and the other to bring upon him the most foule and beastly condition of rottennesse the Apostle singles them both out and insults upon them as upon dead Captaines as upon them that are not able any more to strike a stroke but lie devoid of all power and upon their heads he brings forth this insulting sentence Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory Oh death where is thy sting thou that hast stung all the men in the world as we know death is painted with a dart in his hand to sting and to strike to the heart to deprive men of their life to take away the heart bloud of men thou that stingest men with sicknesse and takest away their vitall spirits oh death now thy sting is dulled it is broken in pieces it hath no edge it hath no point it can effect nothing further And thou grave which wast wont to have the victory which wast wont to be so victorious as to make the fairest faced dames and the goodliest beauty in the world to bring to dust and ashes to beat a man to powder to bring a man to dust which is the greatest victory that can be to drive a man to dust thou that wast so absolute a victor where is now thy glory and victory as if he should say it is no where it is altogether vanished away there is no appearance nor any more power nor life in thee to worke death we are secured from thee for ever wee are freed from thy sting that thou shalt no more strike us to death with thy dart And thou grave thy victory to turne us to dust is nothing all these are taken out of thy hands for ever So this is the glorious triumphant song which the Church of God hath ever sung over this Conquerour there were two enemies that fought a strange duell that was the death of Christ and the death of nature the Leader of the victorious army died yet notwithstanding he lives for ever the leader of the conquered and banished army killed him and yet notwithstanding he dies for ever for so according to Heb. 2.14 Heb. 2.14 the Lord appointed that by death the Lord Christ should destroy him that had the power of death that is the devill For the devill by means of a commission that
when they see a Beare or a Lion or a Wolfe dead in the street they will pull off his haire and insult over him and deale with them as they please they will trample upon their bodies being dead which they durst not looke upon when they were alive Such a thing is death it is a furious Beast a rampant Lion a devouring Wolfe which consumes all the world The Lord hath laid him now at his length he hath laid him dead that he is unable ever to have life againe and so the very children saith St. Chrysostome are able to insult over him That wee have had Martyrs saith hee of 14. or 15. yeares old which have offred themselves to the fire and to the sword and to all the passions of this hungry beast they have offered themselves to the devourers with a willing imbrace and have played upon him which is the common swallower of all mankind as Theophylact saith well We doe still devour and swallow up death by the faith that wee have in the life of Christ for that faith makes us so constant as that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus as the holy Apostle saith Rom. 8. Rom. 8.35 What shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or persecution or sword or hunger or cold or nakednesse shall Angels or life or death things present or to come life or death No none of these are able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus our Lord But these things are easily spoken and as long as we be in Theories so long as we bee in Contemplation wee may easily subscribe to them but who is hee that is able to doe thus when the time serves That is in the hand of the great God to give the garland whensoever it shall please him It must be our ambition to seek for it to intreat the Lord to crowne us with that victory with that heavenly valour which himselfe hath promised to all that love him Apoc. 2.17 I will give him the crowne of life and blessed is hee that continueth to the end for hee shall eat of that hidden Mannah and shall flourish as a tree in the Paradice of God But it lies not in us to continue neither therefore he that gives the end must also give the meanes and the same prayer that sues for the one must also beg and intreat for the other all this comes from God from the true love that wee have to Christ from the hope that we have in him to partake of his victory from our beleeving and confessing that God hath raised up Christ from the dead For if thou beleeve with thy heart and confesse with thy mouth that God hath raised up Christ from the dead thou shalt bee saved If wee beleeve that this victory of Christ is for ever accomplished wee shall be saved If thou beleeve although thou must doe many other things which are conditionall to salvation yet this is the maine point beleeve in the Conquerour and the conquest is thine hee conquered not for himselfe but for thee to make the spirits of his Saints conquer in heaven and to make their bodies also to reigne with him there when he shall appeare Col. 3 4. for when the Lord Iesus shall appeare we shall also appeare with him in glory See the extent and latitude of his conquest When God takes a field hee takes it for all the world not for one countrey as earthly Princes doe but all commers from the East and West and North and South shall yeeld unto the Lord and rest under his shadow Even all Nations a tot quot The Dinner of the great King refuseth no guests and rather then they will want guests and the Feast shall be unfurnished he will send to the hedges and highwayes to bee searched to come and fill his Table whereunto hee calleth by the Gospel and whereunto he bring us for his Sonnes sake Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.56 The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but God bee thanked that giveth us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ TO bragge before the victory begotten before the field bee wonne it was ever held a most vaine presumption as the King of Israel said to the King of Syria Let not him that buckleth on his armour bragge as he that puts it off For there is nothing more uncertaine then the events of warre and oft times when mighty men promise to themselves the assurance of the victory they faile and come to be foiled Yet notwithstanding so great is the confidence of St. Pauls spirit and so great is the assurance that wee have in Christ Iesus our Lord that wee dare boldly insult over death and proclaime the victory although our selves must bee vanquished For this most noble and gracious Triumpher over death hee lies in the grave he lies in the dust as well as wee must doe and there is no difference to the sight of flesh and blood betweene the ashes of St. Paul and the ashes of another common man and yet notwithstanding the Spirit of God was so mighty and potent in him and the faith of the things to come did so represent unto him the things promised that as though the matter were now presently performed he insults over death and takes upon him the person of a man new risen again from the dead As St. Ierom well speaks hee supposeth that those times that bee long to come and God knowes how long he supposeth that they were come in his time and as it were in the person of a man newly risen newly raised from death he begins Oh death where is thy sting oh hell where is thy victory So the holy Father tells us that the words should bee then rise in every mans mouth when God shall raise them out of their graves to that incorruption and that immortality which this corruptible and this mortall must put on It shall be the speech in every mans mouth then as being triumphant over death Oh death whre is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory Thou hast had victory over my poore bones and body a long time but what is it now thou hast lost it for evermore In these victories in the world there is no certainty because that which they call fortune is so changeable as it seldome setteth up one man but anon it raiseth another to pull him downe againe So the victories are fading and passing away and he that is a Conqueror is conquered and made a slave to those that formerly were his inferiours Ignarius it is said had a great victory over the Cimbri and Tutons yet hee fell shortly after into the hands of Scilla that conquered him and Scilla that was once the Sunne-rising when Pompey once appeares he becomes the Sunne-setting And if Pompey were never so famous a Victor as there was none more glorious
a meere Idoll And S. Ierome S. Jerom. speaking of this argument Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. For saith hee who was there to doe it but God Who was there to encounter all these enemies but Christ alone His friends forsooke him his Disciples left him Isay 45. as the Prophet saith It was I and none else that stood in the battaile Therefore saith S. Ierome S Jerom. to him alone belongs all the praise of the victory And S. Austin S. Aug. most heavenly and graciously discourseth of this point When I consider the victory of a Christian saith he which is this that his chiefe and deadly enemy is swallowed up by Death and by what death was he swallowed up by the death of life That is a strange saying that Death should be swallowed up by the death of life Why should I doubt to say that of God which God hath not doubted to doe for mee God hath certainly performed this for me therefore I may speake and affirme this of him What is the matter therefore that the Apostle saith wee may insult thus over Death and give thanks to God for the victory because saith he that Life being dead did kill Death the fulnesse of life did swallow up the bitternesse of death and all death and miserie is dissolved and consumed in the body of the Lord Iesus So S. Chrysostome saith In this great warre saith he the trophee was planted by the hand of the Lord himselfe he set downe the standard he set downe the place and note and mark where the enemy was discomfited and left the field But after that was done he cast out garlands as after the battaile is won after the field is won the Emperours devised Crownes and Garlands for those that had beene Conquerors with them But the Lord finding none there but he himselfe hee calls the by-standers wee that had not sought a stroke yet he vouchsafed to cast unto us Crownes and Garlands and hath made us to communicate and participate of that noble and glorious victory which himselfe hath only attained But this point of Doctrine must bee brought home more familiarly for this is true to those that be men of judgement and understanding they make no doubt of it but I must make it plaine to babes and sucklings How is it possible therefore that the victory of Christ which hee got over sinne and over death that it should be ours seeing both personall actions be uncommunicable that which is done by one person is not communicated to another person because the act is confined in him that did the act And seeing also that the children of God as long as they live in this world that they cannot be called Conquerours of their temptations for they are conquered many times and hee that is the best man in the world though he sometime overcome yet he is many times overcome too Nay almost the least temptation although it wound not a man to the heart yet it drawes blood of him as S. Iohn saith If we denie and say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves If we say he speakes of himselfe and the rest of his fellow Apostles 1 Ioh. 1.8 If wee say that there is not sinne in us that there doth not sinne remaine in us we lie and the truth of God is not in us we deceive our selves And the Apostle saith That hee was a miserable man himselfe under captivity Rom. 7.19 23. and that good thing that I would doe that doe I not and that evill thing that I would not doe that I doe What a miserable kinde of conquest is this Can a man be said to be a Conquerour in this miserable state when he can doe nothing that he would doe and doth all things that he would not doe How can this be agreeable Besides we see in the examples of the Children of God that they have had no conquest but have beene foyled What conquest had David over his great and grievous temptations We shall see almost nothing that was offered to him but he fell in it When he comes to be a Iusticiarie which is the easiest matter in the world to doe Iustice yet hee failed in that and gave to a false servant halfe his Masters good And when it came to a matter of revenge he failed in that too when hee made that rash vow that he would cut off from Naball all that turned to the wall besides the foule fall that hee had afterwards so that what victory had this man what victory had Manasses that afterwards was saved by the miracle of mercie What victory had hee over those murtherous attempts and conceits that he had whereby hee put to death many thousands of Gods children What conquest had Salomon when he was brought from his high wisedome to that low ebb when hee was brought to serve whores and devils and Idols and yet hee was a Type of Christ and is a true Saint in heaven The Thief on the Crosse what conquest or victory had he nothing in the world except we account that victory to controll his fellow thief and to stand speake a word for Christ To conclude this point seeing there is calling at the eleventh houre and as long as a man hath life he hath hope to be called to the service of God and many are not called untill the last period of their life It seems therefore that a Christian hath no conquest in this life for he is carried to doe that which he would not do and he cannot do that which he would do for al the examples in the Scriptures carrie us in a contrary streame How then is it said we have the cōquest victory For the first I answer thus where it is said that all actions personall are incommunicable It is true except they be generall persons If the man be a private peculiar person the action rests in himselfe but if he be a selected uniuersall chosen person the Action doth not rest in himselfe but it extends it selfe to a great multitude even to all that belong to him Such an one is Christ his Actions are not personall to be limited to himselfe but by way of merit they are applied and extended to all the world of Beleevers Wee may understand this by those things that God hath given us by the comparisons he hath made unto us in the Scriptures as being figures and fore-runners of his blessed Sonne In 1 Sam. 17.8 9. 1 Sam. 17.8.9 looke there at that mighty president the fight betweene Goliah and David which figured unto us the fight betweene the devill and the world and all adverse powers on the one side and the Lord Iesus our Chieftaine on the other side Marke what the Captaine of the Philistines saith Why saith he should we joyne our selves in battaile the whole Army let there be one man chosen out on either part and let us have a
the corne grows thus because it hath a double end For as you know it is made after a kinde of a long fâ—shion with two ends out of which co es the moysture and juyce which is the life and soule of the seed For if those ends should be cut or bitten off the seed could never rise againe Therefore the Ants and pâ—smires those creatures that hoard up corne against the Winter when they carrie it into their holes where they lay it they are carefull to bite off both ends of the corne to snappe them off For they understand by nature that if they should let them alone the corne would sprout and so they could not live on it God hath given them this instinct to know that out of the two ends comes the soule and life and juyce as being in those ends brought to a point out of which the life worketh This now the husbandman easily understands But the mystery concerning the body he doth not understand so well but yet he must make the argument from his field to Gods field from his hand to Gods hand from the blessing upon the corne to the blessing upon the body and then he shall see that the argument will follow clearly Is it possible that the Lord should have such a care and providence of a poore dead corne that fals into the earth that hee should raise it againe with a new colour and in great abundance and multiply it that it grows from one state to another from a blade to an eare and from thence to full corne in the eare Is it possible the Lord shall thus proportion and suite his power to a graine of corne that fals into the ground and will he neglect the temples of the holy Ghost will he neglect the image of God the body upon which he hath drawne the lineaments of Christ and for which he hath made a promise that hee will conforme it unto his body If God be carefull for the fowls of heaven and for the lillies of the field Mat 6.30 much more will hee be carefull for us oh we of little faith Therefore the bodies of the Saint are so precious in Gods sight that all the corne in the world doth not amount to that summe as one of those bodies For God gave the body of his Sonne to redeeme the body of the meanest of his and shall we doubt but that he that is so rich in glory upon the weake dead body of the corne will be much more glorious and powerfull in raising up these roots of life againe which though they seeme to bee dead are breeding of immortality by the power of him that is able by his mighty power to subdue all things to himselfe Saint Chrysostome askes the question saith he why did not the Apostle rather runne to the same argument that hee alledgeth to the Philippians to the omnipotencie of God Phil. 3.21 rather then to take this argument For when he treats there with the Philosophers Phil. 3. concerning this argument he proves it from that maine point because God can do all things therefore he will do this From whence wee looke for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power c. But saith he the Apostle here to these thought this the best teaching Hence we may learne Vse that it is a singular kinde of teaching when a man can instruct his scholler by the trade that he is frequently exercised in which hee is most familiar with That teaching is most operative and working the most impressive teaching that can be So our Lord Iesus teacheth his disciples that were fishermen out of their owne trade Come Mat. 4.19 and I will make you fishers of men So when he speaks to the common people to the multitude hee teacheth the plough-man by a plough-man Matth. 13.3 A sower went forth to sowe seed and some fell on the high way and some fell on thorny ground and some on good ground So Saint Paul Act. 17. he teacheth the Athenians which is a strange doctrine by their owne idols Act. 7.23 Ye men of Athens I see ye are too much given to superstition and idolatrie for as I came by one of your altars I see it written there To the unknowne God So our Saviour Christ teacheth men to make them friends of the unrighteous mammon Luk. 16.9 by the common lucre and gaine which was gotten among the Publicanes And in S. Iohn Baptist every man hath a lesson out of his owne trade he said to the souldiers do thus and to the Publicans Luk. 3. do thus still he teacheth them out of their owne particular calling and actions To teach us to labour and desire in this manner every one to bee taught out of those things that are common and obvious daily to us for therein is the greatest power of perswasion He that is conversant about the fire in fire-works and especially such as worke in glasse-houses where if he cannot see a cleare picture of hell he is a very sencelesse man and very bruitish in his understanding Psal 107.23 He that goes downe to the sea in ships and exerciseth his businesse in great waters if he cannot see a wondrous act of Gods providence in his preservation he understandeth nothing He that is a Student and doth not see in his books and the difficulties of learning and remembring if he do not see the infinite and admirable blessing of the Almighty in saving his wits and memory and in raising him from one degree of learning to another hee understands nothing In our ordinarie meats and drinks he that seeth not God seeth nothing hee hath his feeding and preservation from him and therein hee hath a signe of his everlasting refreshment and preservation Let us therefore scorne no Art nor thinke basely of any kinde of labour and good exercise because there is matter of good doctrine lyeth in the poorest profession that can be That which thou sowest I will prove out of thine owne actions out of thy owne trade this doctrine that I teach Thou that propoundest this question thou art not more simple then a plough-man and I will prove it unto thee from thence by the poorest labour in the earth for the man that tils the ground he is of lesse account then an Artizan yet even the very plough-man shall prove and make good that this doctrine that I teach is probable and possible And why because That which thou sowest is first dead and then it is quickened againe Concerning the dying of the corne the Philosophers make a distinction because they knew not this doctrine of the Resurrection They thought when the habite was gone when the privation had put out the habite that it could never come backe againe Therefore they thought that the corne had ever life in it But the Scripture tels us that it is dead that is it is dead to us
the stroke of death beause it must needs be so for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality and to assure us of the necessity of the glory that shall be it cannot faile but it must needs come so to passe as the Lord hath promised Oportet it must be so There are certaine bonds that have passed from God to man by the promise of the Almighty that bindes him to it For the word of a King is a King to a man as Demosthenes saith Demost Therefore God hath bound himselfe unto us by his word and by the promises he hath made and likewise we are againe bound by the necessity of congruitie by the necessity of fitnesse that these things should be so For it is of absolute necessity in regard of the fall of Adam and of our corruption that wee have contracted thence that we should not enter into that blessed incorruption till wee have put off this corruption which wee have contracted There is no medling for a sound man to come to them that are in the Pest-house nor there is no conversing for a man that is well in his wits with them that are in Bedlam there is no mingling of Sheepe and Goats together there is no blending of light and darknesse of Christ and Beliall there can be no communion and fellowship betweene corruption and incorruption It is impossible that the corrupt body of man should be able to entertaine and receive that incorruptible crowne of heaven it will burst him in his feeble abilities As is said of Semele that when Iupiter appeared unto â—â—r in his full glorie shee was exhausted by meanes of his Majestie shee expired and lost her life So it is true and certaine this weake vessell cannot endure heaven this corrupt body cannot abide incorruption no more than Gunpowder can endure the approach of fire for it will be swallowed up of it Therefore the Lord prepared a habitation and tabernacle for it in the earth that by the earth hee may bring it to be capacious of the glory they shall receive Therefore there is this necessity that the Apostle saith It must be thus And this necessity is in three respects First in respect of the soule when it is seperate from the body The soule is a part of a man and the body is a part of a man as well as the soule although it be not so great and so excellent a part as that but seeing that God hath appointed that a body and a soule shall alway make a man we cannot say therefore that the body is a man or that the soule is a man but onely by way of eminencie But we must needs take the soule as long as it is seperate from the body to be a thing imperfect for it is not so much blessed as it shall be when the body shall be re-united unto it It is blessed as much intensively but not extensively not in respect of the societie company with the body with the glory and beauty and that joy of the holy Ghost which shall be extended every where as well to the body as to the soul This the soul wants and therefore they lie continually lingring thirsting in expectation Apoc. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true They desire to be restored to their bodies they be naked now the sword is out of his scabbard now the Lord hath drawne them assunder notwithstanding they are both in â—â—e hand of God But then the Lord will again return the sword into his scabbard when he hath clensed pollished it that it shal never afterward be seperated In this regard it must needs be that corruption must put on incorruption For the soule by the hand of God is made uncorruptible and immortall but the body is made both corruptible and mortall therefore that the one may fit the other the Lord must make it by a strange wondrous change he must make this corruption put on incorruption that is he shall so mold the body by lying in the earth that he shall make it by the power of his hand hee shall make it capable of that great incorruption which hee shall give it when the soule and the body shall meete together in one The second reason of this necessity is this because the good God hath ordained in justice to performe all things and that according to that which a man hath done in this flesh 2 Cor. 5.10 for we mst receive according to the things that we have done in this flesh whether they be good or evill as the holy Apostle saith Therfore the Lord will have this corrupt body which hath suffered paine here on earth this body which hath suffered for Gods cause this body which hath suffered death this body which hath endured the flame and persecution this body which hath suffered hunger and thirst and nakednesse this body that hath suffered infamy and ignominy reviling and opprobries as the Lord Iesus did for our sakes this body which hath bin so brought under and made as it were a laughing stock to the world which hath bin made a refuge of scornes this body which beares the prints marks of the Lord Iesus Christ about with it Gal. 6.17 this body which hath bin in martyrdom so ignominious to the sight of the world though it have beene noble in the sight of God this body that hath born all the brunt and toyl labour in affliction this body must be glorified againe for that it stands with Gods justice that every man shall receive according as hee hath done in this flesh whether it be good or evill Therefore it must needs be that this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality this very body that hath suffered must be honoured that as it hath suffered many evill things for Gods cause so it may receive many good things for its owne cause for the mercy of God which shall be revealed upon it And lastly it is necessary it should be thus Oportet it must needs be that the body must goe to incorruption Aquin. by the way of corruption as Aquinas well noteth because of the conformity of the members to the head Our Lord Iesus Christ went this way therefore we that are his servants must not look to be above our Master Luke 6.40 it is enough that the servant be equall to his Master Christ is our head he is our Master he could not come to immortality but first he died he was mortall before he was immortall and though he were not corruptible although there was no change in his body to corruption yet he was mortall there was a change in the colour there was a change in his strength and life these things were in him for hee was dead these things cannot consist but in him that is dead So much as he was corruptible hee had it for our sakes hee was mortall hee