16.17 when he comes to Lidia there Sathan had entred into a woman and she having the divell in her Verse 18. uttered these words of Paul and Silas These are the men that teach the way of truth but the Apostle understanding that the divell spake that for some cozening for the hinderance of the Gospell the Text saith he grew into vexation and trouble of spirit and commanded the divell to come out of her Another time he comes to Paulus house Acts 13.8 and there Elymas the sorcerer opposeth him whereupon being moved with griefe he growes to those high termes that he never spake the like language but onely there Verse 10. Thou full of all subtilty thou childe of the divell wâ—lt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of God these things therefore occasioned him new pangs and brought his death on multiplied his sorrowes and made him say as he doth here in the vexation of his spirit I dye daily For these Idolaters for these opposers for the inward troubles from his own flesh for outward troubles from his own corrupt nation these things so every where beset him that hee could make no evasion or escape Therefore hee sweares By the rejoycing I have in Iesus Christ our Lord I dye daily But the chiefe and maine thing that made the Apostle dye daily to dye upon the nest as it were it was the care of the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 29 2 Cor. 11. the great compassion he had that great Armado of cares and businesse and toyle that lay upon him As he saith The trouble and care of all the Churches lyes upon me Who is weake and I am not burthened who is offended and I burne not The griefe that he conceived to see men back-sliders to see how hardly men were brought to it and how ill they lived in their profession that they lived not answerable to their calling in Christ to see men fall from grace to this world as he saith of Demas He hath forsaken me 2 Tim. 4.10 and imbraced this present world these strange alterations and turnings in the Church of God did so vexe and trouble and grieve his spirit that he could take no rest or repose in any thing in the world but was as a dead man free among the dead and he cryes out here I protest by the reioycing I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily I dye daily This is a great aggravation of the miserie To dye is the bane of nature the horrible of horribles which none of us all can indure to heare of the least approach of it casts us into infinite feares and horrour but to dye daily to know no end of death no period to determine it but to be in the continuall act of dying here is the height of all the patience of the Saints As they dye so they dye daily there is no time that shines perfectly cleare to them but all is in cloudes and disasters and misfortunes here I dye daily Every day brings its burthen with it that as we begge our daily bread so there is a daily death and we have not such assurance of our daily bread as we have of our daily death Men often by fasting pull downe themselves and keepe downe their bodies that they eate not their bread but there is no day but a Christian tasts of death Though hee have no taste of bread or any rellish of victuals yet hee shall be sure to taste of death I dye daily as though my life were of steele and my bones of marble as though this short threed of mine were of Adamant so thy terrours worke upon me Like a moath that frets a garment and leaves nothing but flockes and dust and ruine of the goodliest garment so the terrors of God the terrours of conscience the terrours of the world the discontents and feares the malice of the divell the malice of some false brethren and the falling away of others these things did so worke upon him and so vexe him that they did even bring him to nothing that there was no houre but it was full of distraction and perturbation I protest by the rejoycing I have in Christ Iesus our Lord I dye daily This daily death is the generall condition of Gods Saints Saint Paul suffered it not alone but he left it also as our inheritance he dyed daily and we may say who doth not dye daily He that knowes Christ and hath a will to follow him he shall finde his life in this life to be a continuall death wrastling with him and tyrannizing over him as Iob saith My soule rather desires strangling Iob 7.15 than to live as I doe Saint Paul had his death and the ministers of the Gospell now have their death and though they live in a time of peace and plenty yet they want not their death to gnaw on them The envy of men the malice and slander and villanous reports whereby they defame and disgrace their brethren to the pit of hell the non-proficiencie of men their scorning of the word these are as death to a man that is sensible of God or of his government The Apostle seemes to make all the day being divided into two parts to be a continuall dying The day is either naturall or artificiall and both these are full of deaths the day naturall is that we worke in and sleepe in the day artificiall is that onely which we worke in in the common course of nature and in both these there were deaths to the blessed Apostle In the day time the time of worke I dye daily in all the passages of my life in all the practises and exercises of religion whether it be Prayer Meditation or Teaching and admonishing the people In all these exercises I dye daily In my prayers I dye with coldnesse and dulnesse I have not zeale to wing my affections to God In my preaching I dye with weakenesse and neglect I cannot set forth that glorious word as I ought to doe In my Meditations I dye with sluggishnesse and lazinesse that I cannot hold on my beginnings in that course In my Meate and drinke and other refreshings I dye I am eyther too excessive or else too superstitiously vaine and fearefull Nay in that very time of the day wherein nature brings rest and repose in the time of night when I should sleepe and rest I dye in my very sleepe That is full of startling dreames and fearefull phantasies and perturbations to vexe my soule so that every day I dye whether it be in that part of the day which is for worke or that which is for rest every where I dye When the Sunne shines it is as a blazing starre that opens the day to mischiefe and discomfort When the Moone appeares it is as a Commet or candle to waken me to distracted thoughts The Stars are as so many clouds that drowne me in darkenesse My houres are as Iobs messengers that bring mee sad reports
in Luthers explication Saith he the bodies of the Saints shall be so strong at that day that they shall be able to remove Churches out of their places with their finger they shall be able to play with mighty mountaines as children play with tennis-balls His meaning is that they shall have a mighty and infinite power to work upon any thing that God shall set them about or that shall be expedient for them But these kind of speeches and discourses are explanatorie and are rather for recreation then for men to subscribe unto and yet it is most sure that their working power shall be great and admirable and although it shall not be infinite yet it shall be as neare to infinite as can be devised For whatsoever it shall please God to put in their minds to effect they shall be able to doe it and nothing shall make resistance Thirdly some other of the Fathers and of the later Writers Beza Calvin as Beza and Calvin expound it thus It is raised againe in power that is it is freed from the necessities of nature which is weaknesse For the life of man here in this world must be sustained by mennes it must have meat and drink and sleep and rest and an intercourse and change of things there must be physick and medicines to cure his diseases Now at that day the Lord shall so temper the body that it shall be able to live without meat and drink and it shall alway watch without any necessity of sleepe As St. Austin saith in his 5. Tome the 13. Book Chap. 23. Although the bodies of the Saints shall have power to eate and drink in that world yet they shall not stand in need of it they may doe it if they will but they shall have no dependancie upon meat and drink as now they have in this world So it shall rise a strong body That little strength that men have now is maintained by meat and drink under God they have no way else to preserve it and if a man fast sixe or seaven daies he must needs die presently because nature can indure no further abstinence and besides that old age is comming upon him although his meat be most delicate yet notwithstanding the power of digestion so far failes him that he is notable to concoct it and transmit it into bloud and nature as he was wont to doe and especially if his meat grow coorse or his fare be abated then wee know that the best and most singular strength in the world must fade and failâ— For commonly according as the Commons are so is the strength so our life is a meere dependance upon second causes next under God God gives meat a power to nourish and meat by a secondarie meanes nourisheth whereby it comes to be assimilated and made like unto the body and so we live and as meat growes worse or is taken away so the body impaires and when for a long time it is not able to master the meat and to digest it into the substance of the body then likewise the life is impaired and falls But the strength that the bodies of the Saints shall then have it shall be without these dependances the children of God shall be able to live and to keep their strength and vigour and fulnesse and perfection without any of these helps of second causes and although they may stoop to them when they will for variety yet they shall have no necessity of them Aug. Lastly as St. Austin saith in his 3. Tome 13. Book Chap. 26. this strength saith he that the Apostle speaks of I take to be specially this that whereas now of these earthly bodies of ours Mat. 26.41 the Lord Iesus saith the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and the Apostle saith Rom. 7.19 The good things that I would doe that I doe not and the evill things that I would not doe that doe I Saith the holy Father I take the meaning of that place of Scripture to be this That whereas now the strongest part of man the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and as a dull asse the Lord shall then prepare it so that he shall proportion and fit the horse to his rider that to the soule which is the rider and commander of the body hee shall give a horse of metall that shall be able to carry it to all actions whereas now it jades and tires upon every good thing The spirit here is willing but the flesh is weak but there shall be so perfect a concord and subjection of the flesh to the spirit that it shall goe hand in hand and shall hold pace with the soule the flesh shall be as willing to doe God service as the spirit and there shall be that wondrous transmutation of qualities that it shall seem rather a flesh made of spirit then otherwise For so it followes in the Text It is sowne a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body It is sowne a naturall body 2. Property Sowne in weaknesse it is raised a spirituall body This is the last difference of the 4. and in this is comprehended the summe of all For hee comprehends in the first word naturall all defects and all weaknesses and infirmities and in the word spirituall he comprehends all perfection and augmentation that God shall give in that day Saint Austin saith Aug. Beza a naturall body is a mortall body Beza saith it is a body subject to mutation a changeable body A bodie it is compounded of elements by a soluble composition A bodie that bows to the earth that goes to the center according to its owne naturall inclination A bodie that must at last bee resolved into its principles and as it is made of Elements so it must goe to Elemenâ—s againe This is a naturall body and thus we know it is with every body in the world For though there must be a change of them that survive when the Lord shall come and that they shall not have this dissolution that our bodies must have yet that change that they shall have shall bee in stead of this dissolution and who knowes in what kinde it shall bee and with what paines it shall bee No doubt it shall bee no great prerogative above us and although they shall not die and goe unto the earth as we doe yet they shall be full of pangs and horrour as the deaths of common men are For it is the nature of this body being animal and having no better a principle whereby it lives then the soule to dissolve and come to its owne principles dust to dust to come to ashes and earth according to Gods decree working upon this flesh of ours It is sowne therefore a naturall body that is subject to change and corruption But now see the hand of God on the other side It is raised a spirituall body This is that wherein the Apostle comprehends all the rest to perswade that
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
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
sinfull man had spoken this it had beene no newes but that it should come from a most sanctified vessell of the holy Ghost a chosen vessell one that for his life was unblameable and for all learning and the graces of the spirit incomparable that he should utter this it is a very strange mervaile Indeed a reprobate a man that followes his owne lusts that lives not to God but to himselfe he may truely say I dye daily For the Lord makes his life to be hanged before him as a perpetuall signe of death that as the children of God are said to have the earnest of the spirit and of the kingdome of heaven so the servants of sinne may be said to receive the earnest of hell So many passages of his life as there be they are as so many flakes of hell burning before him and doe assure him that at the last he shall be tumbled and divolved into the damnation of the divell and his Angels That gnawing worrne of conscience makes his life a continuall death But that the Saints of God should be thus troubled too it is this that moves the wonder And yet the Apostle here saith nay and sweares it too that not onely wicked men are troubled and galled with the conscience of sinne that they are alway in death because they are the sonnes of death and study that which tends to death but he that had the fruit of life he that had the spirit of God and of Christ in him Gal. 2.20 nay that had Christ himselfe as he saith It is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me that he should he subject to this death and to this frequencie of death that there was never a day came over his head but a new death was presented to him It seemeth strange The reason of this we must fetch out of the rest of his writings for there he hath set downe the summe of every thing that we are to conceive of this mystery The first reason or meanes of this death it was that he carried the divell about him as Gregory Nazianzen saith in his 32. Nazianzen Orat. 32. Oration to the Bishops at Constantinople when he was to leave the place Saith he Even as it was with Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 so doe I carry the divell about me alluding to that place 2 Cor. 12. where the Apostle complaines of the messenger and instrument of Sathan that was sent to buffet him continually that he could not be at peace and quiet for him and he prayed to the Lord thrice against it but the Lord answered him My grace is sufficient for thee Rom. 7 23. This was it that made him to say I protest by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily For my life is such a kinde of condition as wherein the flesh and the spirit are continually conflicting together good and evill righteousnesse and sinne are alway countermanding one another A good conscience and an evill conscience sorrow and joy heaven and hell God and the divell are continually in an agony and combate This conflict that I sustaine betweene the flesh and the spirit is that which makes me dye daily and makes me cry out Oh wretched and miserable man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this body of death that is from the sting of the law in my members whereby I am carryed in contradiction to the good spirit of God And so as Nazianzen saith he did carry Sathan about him nay within him also For the reliques of sinne which he cals the messenger of Sathan the instrument of the divell the remainders of corruption were in him yea and are in all the sonnes of God For there was none ever without them but that Sonne of God that came to take away the sinnes of the world The second reason why the Apostle said he dyed daily was because the divell bare him outwardly by envy and trouble and persecution he carried him on his shoulders he was the beast that he was set on And no marvell for if the divell could make our Lord sit on his backe Math. 4. Mat. 4. and that our Lord Iesus rode upon the divell as a man would ride upon a horse if he were so impudent as to set himselâ—fe under our Lord and carry him about to the pinacle of the Temple and to the mountaine then well may he come to the shoulders nay to the very bowels of his members If he did so to the head he will doe to the members much more Acts 17.4.12 Thus he still carried Paul wheresoever he came by the envy of the world by the malice of the Iewes and Gentiles as upon the occasion of those devout and religious womens beleeving whereupon they raised persecution against him and that wheresoever he came there was eyther stoning or fire and faggot or banishment some mischiefe intended Treason by false brethren treason by his opposers or treason of those that were best trusted of him every where he was inclosed with perill This was the divell without him as some of the Fathers imagine 2 Cor. 12 7. from that place 2 Cor. 12. that messenger of Sathan there sent to buffet him They say it was not so much any inward thing he speakes of But I yeeld not to this for I suppose it was somewhat inward Rom. 7.23 But the Fathers say he meanes another matter he speakes of men and of the malice of men that would not suffer the Gospell to passe in the world and that for this he saith he dyed daily by the perpetuall hand of those murtherers I cannot goe any where but the malice of men persecutes and followes me so that I cannot rest and if they could trap me once in their snare and make a prey of me I were surely theirs and then I were gone the feare of this makes me dye daily Thirdly another cause that made the Apostle dye daily was the opposition that hee had by Idolaters wheresoever he came Idolaters still laboured to put downe the Gospell As we see at Athens Acts 17. Acts 17.16 The Text saith His spirit was sore troubled when hee saw the City given to idolatry And so likewise when he came to Ephesus they cry Acts 19.28 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana the Idoll of Ephesus had like to have cost him his life Therefore the vexation of his spirit to see men fall down to stocks and stones and to forget that loyalty they ought to God Rom. 1.25 To worship the creature in stead of the Creator This made him teare his cloathes and ready to teare his flesh for the vexation of his spirit to see whole Cities so given over Fourthly another cause of this daily death of the Apostle it was the opposition that he had by Witches and Sorcerers wheresoever he came almost the divell would still set some Witch in the place so in Acts 16.17 Acts
to spend that time with Whores or in Tavernes and Alehouses and places of pleasure but rather betake himselfe to his study and private meditations to sorrow and anguish he would spend his time so as might savour something of a Philosopher This the children of God have ever done When Hezekias was told by the Prophet 2 King 20.1 Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye we see what was his course He turned his face to the wall and wept and prayed to God and desired him to remember the faithfulnesse of his heart he poures out his soule before the Lord. Here is the true disposition of a gratious man It is also the act of a reasonable man for reason teacheth men this although they be not illuminated nor have grace from above But then you will say how followes the argument of the Apostle where he saith Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye Be not deceived c. The reason followeth thus because these men to whom the Apostle speakes had a certaine knowledge of the Resurrection they knew there was a better life and although the Philosopher knew it not yet he knew that there was a greater meanes to make men at peace with God by a moderate life rather than by an excessive course and yet the Apostles argument is true For suppose there were no Resurrection for the good or for the bad but that all should dye in a brutish manner as the beasts doe then it were true this would follow Let us eate and drink for to morrow we shall dye That is let us have some thing in this life before we goe for we shall have nothing after let us take the pleasures and benefits of this life while it lasteth The last thing to be noted out of this poynt is this that it hath beene alway a received and common tenent of the world that all men must dye And though this rabblement were brutish and damnable in uttering these speeches to make so bad a use of the shortnesse of their life which they should have imployed to better purposes and have redeemed the time death so fast comming on yet this bruit company were better than another generation that are in the world who perswade themselves that they are immortall There are a sort of wicked men whose hornes are growne great the mighty pushers of the world that imagine they shall never dye and upon confidence that they are immortall they will doe what they list in the world not by eating and drinking for they might be tolerated in these things but they take away the meate and drinke from the poore children of God they take away their meanes and their liberties take away their good name yea they take away their lives and all upon a confidence of remaining here for ever that no death nor no change can assayle them These are the great Gyants of the world that trouble us farre worse than the Epicures doe even our mighty neighbours our bloudy malicious adversaries our greedy enemies who will shew the latitude of their power in avenging themselves that by their sinfull doings and wicked practises fill the world with clamours with indignation and blasphemy and make men doubt whether there be a God or no in the world These are they that upon pretence of immortality that they shall never be shaken they confound all things Churches Temples Widdowes houses whatsoever comes within their fangs they lay hold on and greedily apprehend it to the overthrow of the condition of Gods people in the world and onely live by the bloud of other men These are they that build their houses in sacriledge Amos 2.6 that sell the poore for old shooes these are they that grinde the faces of Gods people Esay 3.15 that ioyne house to house and land to land and like unsatiable beasts are still feeding on the bloud Esay 5.8 It were well if they would onely say Let us eate and drinke but they must eate and drinke the bloud of Gods people and feed upon the living Temples of the holy Ghost A strange wofull thing yet thus do al our gripple miscreant Vsurers our great biting Extortioners that in stead of doing justice in their place thinke that God hath set them up that they might pull all men downe and tread upon their neckes and that they might make their advantage of the havocke of the Church of God These are worse than the company here mentioned for they doe nothing but eate and drinke and are harmelesse in comparison of these beasts of the forrest that destroy all that is before them and the steppes of their feet must be upon the necks of Gods people this plague the Church is worse troubled with then with the Epicures themselves I should now come to the Antidote which the Apostle gives but the time is upon expiration Be not deceived and afterwards to the speech the Apostle citeth out of the Poet for the proofe of his exhortation Evill words corrupt good manners Be not deceived As if he should have said The Antidote although their words are faire and plausible to flesh and bloud yet they will meerely deceive you and there is no man that by his will would be deceived There is nothing that grieves a man more than to see himselfe deceived though it be but in a trifle if it be but in a Iigg or common Iergan if it be but in one of his riddles or doubtfull speeches a man thinkes himselfe greatly disparaged if he finde himselfe deceived But especially if it be in a matter of moment if it concerne him much then it grieves and vexeth him extreamely that either his wits should not serve him to finde out the fallacie or that by his foolishnesse and too much credulity he should give himselfe to be made a prey to his enemies and adversaries to catch him There is nothing that a wise man delights in more than to apprehend the truth and there is nothing for which hee is more sorry than to be deluded with lies and errour For as truth is the light of the soule so errour is the death of the soule the depravation of all sence and understanding It is a damnable meere nothing Errour being taken from a word that signifieth going out of the way As we know a traveller that goeth a long way that he knoweth not there is nothing more troublesome to him than when he findes himselfe out of his way and to goe backe againe and recover his former tract it may be it is neither easie nor possible and to go forward the further he goeth the grosser errours he runs into Much more beloved is it in poynt of religion To erre in humane things it is a smaller matter and is soone corrected but to erre in divine matters that concerne the soules health it is a fearfull by-sliding a wofull outwaying it brings a man to downefals and to precipices of soule and body both together It
of nature For it is seene in the falling and rising of the Sunne In the descending and ascending of the starres It is seene in the intercourse of Summer and Winter It is seene in the vicissitude of day and night It is set forth in the continuall intercourse of generation and corruption in the world And especially it is seene in this one thing in the seed that is sowne in the ground For a man in his garden may observe the certaintie of the Resurrection in his field in the hope of his harvest he may see that God is able to do as much for his body as he doth for those seeds that he commits to the ground As S. Chrysostome saith well Chrysost there is a twofold kinde of sowing or semination 1 One of seed 2 Another of bodies All men sow seed so God sowes bodies and the Church-yards are called Gods acre in some countries because there is sowne that seed that God preserves to eternall life hee is able to bring them from the bosome of the earth and we must trust and credit him with it to bring them from dust to be invested with glory and to be made conformable to the body of his Sonne Therefore here the holy Apostle out of arguments drawne and observed from nature out of the common course that men are acquainted with daily he brings a very forcible remonstrance to prove the necessity of the Resurrection And that he may do it with the more force and emphasis he brings it by way of prosopopeia making a man to speak and move questions and then to give himselfe the answer He brings in a simple man an ignorant man either disgracing the doctrine of the Resurrection or else being simple and ignorant desiring to know what the truth of it were And he moves two questions The one touching the Resurrection in generall as though it were impossible the dead should rise The other touching the manner and qualitie of their bodies if the dead should rise how with what bodies shall they come To which questions he returns a twofold answer The first more bitter by way of reprehension The second of demonstration shewing the reasons why and the manner how they shall come For the first Thou foole saith he that which thou sowest it is not quickened except it dye Doth not thy selfe teach thy selfe that there must needs be a raising of these dead bodies of ours because God hath used thee as an instrument to make a kinde of Resurrection For when thou committest thy seed to the ground God gives it a body at his pleasure but thou takest paines and usest the meanes to effect it that it may come to passe That now which thou doest to thy corne will not God do to his corne Are we not all the seeds of God are we not all the corne of the Almighty hath thy ground by thy diligence and culture better abilitie and power to bring forth a new eare of corne then the earth to yeeld up thy body by Gods worke and blessing upon it So he answers the first question The second answer is in the next words concerning the manner and qualitie of the bodies when they are raised As they shall come bodies so they shall be bodies but with certaine qualifications otherwise qualified then they are now In the prosopopeia in the questions that hee makes and in the answer that the Apostle returnes to them in the next verse we are to observe First that he speaks indefinitely Division into 1. A question bringing in a simple ignorant man moving questions arguing and disputing and talking against the resurrection 2. The matter of it 3. The answer in the matter 2 questions 1. Of the generality Secondly he notes to us the matter of his questions what he demands And there are two questions One is concerning the generalitie of this maine Article How can the dead rise how can they be raised againe 2. of the forme of the bodies raised The second is concerning the forme and disposition of their bodies when they be raised Suppose there shall be such a thing as the raising of the dead yet with what kinde of bodies shall they come 3. In the Answer we have 1. A reprehension And then in the answer we are to consider First a reprehension of this boldnesse for medling with Gods mysteries too much for medling too farre Foole. So that to move questions is not alwayes a signe of wit and great learning Though questions may be moved in a sober manner when men do it for satisfaction but to multiply question upon question to no purpose this is grosse follie and rather makes men giddie in their understandings then gives them any instruction Therefore he cals him foole 2. A demonstration And then he demonstrates it out of the actions that men are every day conversant in That which thou sowest I will shew thee out of thine owne field out of thy plot of ground that this is not incredible but that there shall be a resurrection Why because that which thou sowest must first dye that it may live after For it is never quickened untill the corne come to a very jellie and be turned to nothing but corruption and rottennesse and putrefaction in the earth and then it pleaseth God to raise it Therefore as the corne in the ground first dyes that after it may live so Gods corne must dye there must be a passage to a temporall death that God may raise it thence unto eternall life Of these briefly and in order 1. part The Question First concerning the questionist in this place the partie that moves the question You must first note that the Apostle will not lay the imputation upon the Corinthians because he would not too much offend them Hee doth not charge them that they should be so long taught in the schoole of Christ and yet be so little edified as to move such idle questions as these For hee takes it as a thing confessed among them and although indeed many denyed it yet he will not cast it upon them every where but hee labours to keepe himselfe peaceable and quiet with them that so he might worke the better upon them Therefore he brings in a man at large he supposeth such a man in the world one that understood nothing of the power of God nor yeelded unto it he supposeth him to speake such a word as this How are the dead raised c. And this as Saint Chrysostome saith teacheth us that we should not be personall or particular Vse Chrysost in our reprehensions When we are to deale with Gods people in a publicke place we must not deale so personally and particularly that any may thinke themselves pointed at For by that meanes they may be made incorrigible but such things must be supposed in the person of a stranger there must be a kinde of compassing a kinde of wheeling about as we see Nathan did
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
notwithstanding they shall not die nor be put into their graves for that change shall be unto them instead of our death And doe not think your selves so much the worse that God favours you the lesse or that he favours them more because they goe not to their graves as you doe For the Lord makes you by patience subject to his holy will hee gives you that patience that for his sake you can be content to be deposed to lay downe your earthly Tabernacles And you must not vexe and grive at them for they are never the better for it For their change is to them as a death although it be not with the same obsequies and in the same outward shews yet in effect it shall be the same Therefore that wee are done to dust and that they never see dust this is no disparagement to us nor no great comfort to them for it shall be all one in effect the Lord imbalmes the memory of his Saints and he preserves their dust and tels the sands of their dust and hee keeps them in perpetuall record so that whatsoever hee poures out hereafter upon another generation it shall not be a prejudice to those that are now dead For the Lord goes down with those that sleepe to the grave hee descends with them and preserves them and keeps them he numbers their haires he numbers the members and parts of their bodies And this is that mysterie which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mysterie It is a great mysterie that any man should live and not see death yet the Apostle tells us that there shall be millions of men that shall live and yet they shall have no death many that shall have a mortall and corrupt and sinfull life as we have and yet they shall not have any death It is a great mysterie that all the Saints should not come to life eternall by the same meanes that is by way of putrefaction and of resurrection and yet there are millions that shall not come to life that way but by another way of change and mutation Behold I tell you a mysterie we shall not all die but we shall all be changed This is the summe of the words Division into 1 The time 2 The manner and meanes Now the Apostle expresseth and explaineth himselfe farther by telling the cause and the means how this shall be done for hee saith this shall be done as concerning the time immediately in an instant in the twinckling of an eye And as concerning the manner and the meanes of it by the vertue of the last trump The trump that shall blow And so the substance of it is this The Lord shall sound forth his Trumpet which shall have a power to change the bodies that as at the first hee spake the word Let this be made Gen. 1. and it was made Let there be light and there was light so there shall be another power in the voice for the renewing and re-creating of things as there was a power in the voice then to create and make the world so there shall in the re-creating and re making of the world that shall make a change of all things And as in the beginning things that were dark before were made light Let there be light and there was light of that which was dark before and that which was confused before was made orderly and distinct which is the greatest extremities that can be light and darknesse order and confusion so likewise there shall be a mighty voice of God in that sounding silver Trumpet that shall then blow to change the bodies of men from dark to light some bodies and shall change their thoughts from confusion and disorder to bee regular and orderly The trumpet is the voice of God the operation of the Almighty which as it wrought a strange change in the Creation so it shall worke a stranger in the recreation and renovation of the world These are the parts and parcels of the Text. Now to proceed in order as it shall please God to give assistance The first thing to bee considered is that the Church of God in respect of this mystery which the Apostle speaks of hath been drawne to diverse readings and expositions of this Text. For they could not see how it should be true that the Apostle saith All shall bee changed because they thought it onely belonged to the godly But it is certaine that the ungodly shall be changed too for their bodies that are now corrupt shall be then uncorrupt But how to sustaine misery and torment that they had better not to bee than to bee in such a case All the paines of hell shall not so work upon them to dead them not to consume them but they shall bee able to consist in the middest of torment Now the least care and trouble in the world kills a mans heart and works him off but then God shall so change the bodies of the reprobates that they shall bee able to indure whatsoever torment shall bee laid upon them But because those men understood not this they thought the change was to bee taken in a good sense to belong onely to the godly Therefore they reade it two severall wayes differing from ours For our reading is this which is so in the Originall according to the Greek copy Wee shall not all die but wee shall all bee changed And so it agrees properly with that which went before For he gives an answer to a question that might be made Why doe you say that corruption shall not enter into incorruption nor flesh and blood into the kingdome of heaven shall not they bee corrupt flesh that shall live at the comming of Christ to judgement To this the Apostle saith Indeed they shall not die but instead of that death they shall have a change So that this is an inference upon the former and an answer for the removall of an objection Now as I said diverse partes of the Church reade it two other wayes The first is this Wee shall all certainely die but wee shall not all be changed For they were carefull still to appropriate and bring the change unto Gods people and inheritance as though it belonged not to the wicked Another Reading is this Wee shall all rise againe but wee shall not all bee changed so that still they make the negative upon the change because they understood not how this thing might bee conceived to belong to the good and bad which is the change of the bodies Now indeed in their severall senses they be all true For the first that saith wee shall not all sleepe It is true of the common masse of mankind but not of every particular body and of every particular age For I told you before that the Lord shall exempt a whole world from the common death which wee suffer Therefore it is not true in the particulars that we shall all sleâ—pe For there shall be many thousands of men
matter of this mystery follows We shall not all die but we shall all be changed The power and strength of death working unequally upon mankinde it seemes a great wonder and a mysterie indeed how that some should be happier than their fellowes to be exempted from this common law which is a Statute law Heb. 9 27. and It is appointed for all men once to die And how then are these become so happy to escape the common doome inflicted for the sin of Adam upon all mankinde surely to our common sense they are the happiest of all men even those that shall live in those dayes For we love our flesh so well that wee are loath to commit it to the ground wee are loath that dust should goe to dust and ashes to ashes but still wee would continue and be the last men upon the earth And this great ambition we have so truely and so radically in us that a man would give all that he had in this world not to be taken away till the world be taken away It is the greatest comfort of a mans life to be snatched and hurried away when the universality goes away It is a great comfort to have abundance of company in misery But for this the holy Ghost hath taught us Vse to settle our selves in patience the Lord hath appointed our severall times They are never a whit the more happy because they shall not die nor we never the more unhappy because wee shall die for life and death are all one to them that are planted in the Lord Iesus Christ For it is he that is our advantage he is our hope in death that wee shall attaine unto everlasting life And whether we shall come unto it by the way of resting and rottennesse in the grave or by a sudden and extemporarie change and mutation it ought to seeme all one unto us It is true if God should vouchsafe us that blessing to stand the last men upon the earth and to be the last generation it were a thing very plausible and that which we should desire but we ought not too much to settle upon it for the Lord hath made it a mysterie It is a mysterie when any man dies It is a mysterie in the generall and in the particular it is a mysterie when God calls any man unto him and wee must not wish contrary to the will of God but be content with that portion that he hath destinated unto us Our first parents because they were the authors of sin and transgression Adam and Eve the Lord hath given them the longest time of rotting they lie longest in their graves and they dwell in the pavillions and habitations of death the longest because they were the first authors of wrong to us In the later end of the world the Lord will incline in mercie because he hath been long in judgement in the judgement of death he will incline in the latter generations of the world and give them a taste of his mercy All things grow lesse by continuance and use as a raging plague and pestilence when it comes first into a Citie it takes away a number of people three or foure thousand in a weeke afterward the Lord allayes that rage and abates the disease that there are not so many this week as there were the week before nor so many the next week as there were this So in this common calamity as the world growes in yeares nearer the end of her time so her children that is the people of God which lie in their graves they have lesse time to lie The first authors of sinne when Gods anger was fierce and vehement they are condemned to lie longer in the dust to inhabit and dwell there At the last the plague of God shall begin to slacken and to abate it selfe and the anger of God shall be mitigated and mollified so that those that live in the last age they shall have the least time of sleeping in the dust But in these things we ought to make no difference for the patience that God indues his children with makes up this whether a man sleepe a thousand yeares or five thousand it is all one because God seasons their death with a meditation of the Resurrection and in the meane time inricheth the soule with the beatificall vision with the presence of his Majesty and with that joy that cannot be comprehended in the heart of man We shall not all sleepe Observe againe the Apostle speaks in the first person Wee he saith We shall not all sleepe and yet hee is asleep aswell as other men how then doth he say We shall not all sleep His meaning is to take upon him the person of the Church of God in generall and especially that part of the Church that shall survive when Christ shall come For St. Paul is done to dust as wee shall be and there is no difference in that part that went to the grave There is no difference but onely this that he sleeps in the Lord hee sleeps a glorious compasse and yet he saith We shall not al sleep Vnderstand that he speaks still of the â—ommon state of the Church and for that part of the Church which hee brings the argument for For now he brings his argument to answer an accusation or conclusion which might be made against his doctrine Some might aske him What shall become of those that shall be living at the comming of Christ Oh saith he I am of them although I die before that time yet I am of that number For the members of Christ are not distinguished by time but are all one Abel might have said Wee and Adam might have said Wee of the last end of the world This teacheth us how great the communion of Saints is that it is not broken by the entercourse of yeares time but that it still continues We shall not all sleep The blessing of God runs on still with perpetuity and that which is true to one generation is firme to another and that which belongs to one is common to all This is that communion of Saints in the strength of which the Apostle uttered this phrase We shall not all sleep as he doth oft times in his other Epistles We shall not doe this and wee shall not doe that Although the Apostle be dead and rotten 15. hundred years agoe yet he saith We shall not all sleep But we shall all be changed Still We as if he were one of the men Here he teacheth us another lesson that the Apostle was a man that still looked for the day of judgement He saith We shall all be changed It may be I shall be one of the men I know not it may be the trumpet shall blow while I live for the Lord hath reserved the time onely to himselfe the day of judgement is knowne to no man Nay the son of man as hee is man knowes not when Christ shall come to judgement Therefoâ—e I prepare my selfe
And there wee cease not neither but still wee seeke for a new forme the matter still would have a new coate None of these content us but wee desire of God a forme that never may be changed This corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality The other condition of our nature is that as it cannot endure to be in the same kinde but still seeks new fashions and new formes so at length it comes to that forme that seemes to extinguish it utterly as if it had never beene which brings matter and forme and all to nothing as a man would think the goodliest temper the stateliest comely body the best and freshest countenance the best brued bloud and the sweetest colour these which are the materialls of man it brings them all at length to a handfull of dust that a man would think that now the matter had quite lost its forme and that it should never desire a further forme For it is mortalized it is brought to nothing it is brought to stench and corruption and it seemes to be drowned there there is no hope that ever it shall rise againe But yet still the appetite works for the matter works still to the God of nature and desires of him a new forme to give it a new garment And the Apostle saith that God shall heare that matter and hee shall regard the cries of it and shall graunt the petition that this dust shall make unto him and he shall give it a new vestment which shall be of such a fashion as it shall never desire any more to change and put off again For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality 6 â—art The metaphor Shall put on A sweet and blessed metaphor is this word put on It must be put on in stead of the ragges wee put off for mortality and corruption stick close to us not as a close-bodied garment sticks to the body but as the skinne and the flesh cleaves to the bones And we can never put them off and be rid of them but by the common law and necessity of dying and rotting in the grave There are only some few that shall have the prerogative which shall live at the comming of Christ they shall have a change in stead of this death But for us that must goe the common way of nature wee know our doome Now then this ragged garment and vesture that wee carrie about us by reason of Adams sinne and our corruption which wee have multiplied and added to Adams transgression it must first be shaken off by the omnipotent hand of God it must be so purely and so fully removed as that no threeds nor no tagg of it remaine And then when that is done there is time and place for the new robe to be put upon us for that blessed garment which is to come in the place of this But first these torne raggs must be cast away they must first be put off and then this blessed vestment which the Lord hath prepared even the vestment of incorruption and immortality shall succeed in the place of this So that from hence we see the truth of the former doctrine again Saith S. Austin the garment is one thing Aug. and the thing garnished and decked is another the garment is not the man but an accident to the man and it may be that hee may be here and that may be there or it may be here and he may be away and yet notwithstanding the man may be the same So likewise the bodies that the Saints have in this world they shall be still the same bodies the same in incorruption that they were in corruption the same body that it was when it was mortall the same shall it be when it is immortall the same in substance but not the same in glory and quality Tertull. For as Tertullian saith the Apostle disputes of the glory of the bodies and not of the substance of them Therefore as a man that is of any state and account in this world he hath divers suites of cloathes but he hath but one body so it is true in this case that the Lord upon one and the selfe same body shall poure multiplicity of garments and riches of the rayment which hee shall give in that blessed day The garment of beauty the garment of eternity the garment of strength of wisedome of all kinde of excellencies both of body and soule The Lord shall sit them then with many changes of apparell but still it shall be one and the selfe same body For this mortall must put on the glorious garment of immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption So the Fathers in the Greeke Church taught their men and women in the Church to say I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh When we say the Creed wee say I beleeve the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting But still they when they came to this article they clapt their hand upon their breast and said I beleeve the resurrection of This flesh punctually pointing at themselves because the Apostle saith This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality to shew that it belongs to the person properly and peculiarly to this very subject that he makes his proposition of And this glorious garment what it is but the garment which God himselfe hath worne from all eternity Hee is incorruptible that is unchangeable and he is immortall that is it is impossible for him to grow worse For God can never change from better to worse and hee shall give that power to the bodies of his Saints that their perfection shall be so great as that it shall not possibly be made better and they shall be so singular that it is impossible they should be made worse or decline For hee shall set them in the highest pitch of perfection in the top of excellencie that they shall receive neither majus nor minus neither more nor lesse neither better nor worse they shall have no kinde of change This is that glorious apparell that God puts on The Lord is King Psal 93.1 hee hath put on his glorious apparell hee hath girded himselfe with strength and majestie This is that apparell which the Apostle S. Iames speaks of when he saith That the Lord is without any change Iam. 1.16 or shadow of changing This garment which God hath put upon himselfe from all eternity hee will vouchsafe in a degree and measure to his Saints in time they shall be eternall from the time after as he hath beene from worlds and ages to world without end himselfe one and the same for evermore Now whereas hee saith in the vinculum of this proposition that Oportet this must needs be thus Vse that it can be no other way but thus This thing the Apostle adds for our comfort and consolation both to encourage us patiently to abide
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
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
cannot rouse up his spirits to action so these infernall sleeps these sleepes of sinne they give a certaine evident prognostication that such a man shall be for ever damned in hell They have slept their sleepe saith the Prophet that is Psal 76 5. they are gone to their everlasting sleepe to hell where their sleepe is not a refreshing and refection as ours is but a continuall terrour with gastly dreames and apparitions that they were better not to have any being then to be in that fearfull manner Therefore the Apostle would teach us that the consideration of that infernall sleepe should worke us from this sleepe of sinne which unlesse we be awaked from we shall be like those in a Lethargie even in death and extreamly unable for any living actions Sinne is compared to sleepe for many plaine reasons I need not name them First as when sleepe is on men they know not what they do or what they say many idle words passe from them that they are not sensible of So a sinner whatsoever he doth all is sinne yet he knows not what he doth Therefore our Lord Christ upon the Crosse prayes Father forgive them Luk 22.34 they know not what they do Secondly sleepe exposeth a man to any danger He that lyes sleeping cannot defend himselfe the least childe that comes may cut his threat So a man that lives in sinne is exposed to all dangers that on every side waite upon him He is in danger of God he is in danger of Man in danger of the devill in danger of his owne humours and constitution in danger of every beast of every thing that comes neare him the least spider that is may confound and destroy and poyson him There is nothing so exposed to danger as a sleeping man much more as a sleeping sinner Therefore the wise man compares him to a man that is asleepe But where upon the top of a mast of a ship Prov. 23.34 in a storme of weather which losses the ship to and fro and he being asleepe there it is a thousand to one if he be not shaken over into the Sea So a man that lives in sinne he is asleepe in the middest of his enemies in the tents of those that hate him There is no securitie for a man that lives in sinne wheresoever he goes danger dogges him and he is exposed to the striking hand of God in every place Thirdly sleepe and sinne are compared together in the Scriptures because neither of them have any signification of life A sleeper is bound in all his sences there is nothing remaines in him but a little breathing and a few wilde affections in raging dreames and deepe phantasies So it is with a sinner whatsoever he doth is unpleasing to God His words are unsavoury his works are ungodly his example every where detestable himselfe odious to God odious to men odious to his owne soule The Scripture could not finde a fitter comparison to describe the infirmitie of the soule by which is sinne then sleepe And yet it is so much the more wondrous because the Apostle saith it is not simplie a sleepe but a drunken sleepe There is a great addition to it in that for the sleepe naturall is farre more easily to be recovered it reviveth and refresheth the body it leaves a sweet and easie touch and tincture behinde it But those fals and mischiefes that a drunkard gets in his sleepe he cannot so easily cast them off but they sticke to him many dayes after And that facilitie that a man hath in rising from his sleepe it is not found in a sinner except the Lord worke wondrously It is an easie thing to worke a man out of sleepe but it is an hard thing to awake a man out of his sinne Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 stand up from the dead bestirre thy selfe a small matter will not do it But by this it seemes Quest that there is in man free-will of himselfe to convert himselfe because the Apostle saith Awake and stand up thou that sleepest and recover thy selfe againe to thy owne minde and to thy former actions Is it in the power of man to waken at the voyce of man that as he cast himselfe into sleepe and into sinne so to awaken himselfe when he pleaseth Verily no Answ it must be the great God that must do it all the power in heaven and earth cannot waken a sleeping sinner untill God blow the trumpet T is God that gives his beloved sleepe And as it is he alone Psal 127.2 that gives the sleepe naturall so much more it is he that gives the waking It is a great blessing of God to bring a man that is out of this world as it were by dreames and phansies to bring him backe to living actions For a man that is sleeping is in another element in another world and they are farre from true life that are asleepe saith Plinie Plinie And certainly every life is a kinde of watching and therefore sleepe must needs be a kinde of dying it is the brother of death as the Poet saith Therefore the same Poet well signified it out of that glimmering he had from the Scriptures that God is the author both of mans waking and also of his sleeping For they make Mercurie to have a certaine rodde which was given him of Iupiter whereby he had power to cast asleepe whom he would and to waken others that were a sleepe when he would Hom. ult â—l as Homer Homer saith The meaning of this little learning they had in Divinitie was this that it lay in the hand of God for Mercury was one of the prime and chiefe gods among them when he would to give change of sleeping and waking and that none else could do it no not in naturall things But much more in the spirituall sleep is it impossible for any man to waken a sinner but he must be roused by the great God that permitted him in justice to fall asleepe but in the multitude of his mercie hee takes the paines to awaken him againe Quest But how is this done Answ We reade in Scripture of three chiefe and principall wayes whereby God awakeneth sinners The first is with a voyce And then with certaine pinchings And lastly with high clamours and cries The voyce is as that which came to Samuel When Samuel was asleepe 1. Sam. 3.4 the voyce of the Lord comes and called Samuel Samuel whereupon Samuel riseth and goeth to Ely being now beginning to slumber the voyce of the Lord rowseth him Thus God deales with men that have tender hearts and flexible mindes that come in at the first call of the Lord and returne home Such a man was David who is called a man after Gods owne heart 1. Sam. 13.14 Not because he had no sinne but because his heart was as waxe flexible unto God without any purpose to defend any sinne or to continue in any sinne Secondly another
spirit but the body This is the great mercie and blessing of God that although the body be never so naked yet the promise of the Resurrection is made unto that For the spirit needs no Resurrection the spirit cannot rise for it never falleth And as Saint Chrysostome saith the Resurrection must be of that which fals but the spirit never fell otherwise then by sinne and it is not otherwise raised then by repentance a spirituall kinde of resurrection But the Apostle meddles not with that here but he cals it the resurrection of the body and he shews that this comfort the body hath that although it be never so poore and never so bare though it bee cast into the furrows of the earth never so forlorne and forsaken and be stripped of all the glorious weedes that it had before yet it hath a promise that it shall resume unto it its former glory nay a farre greater glory a glory that shall indure for ever Indeed the corne when it comes out of the earth againe it flourisheth for a time and then afterward is resolved into the old corne againe and becomes like it selfe all the greennesse and goodlines of it with two or three moneths drying Sunne fades away or with the blast of a tempest it perisheth But these bodies when they shall be raised againe God shall give them that singular beautie that he intends to bring them to hee shall give them that durability that duration that no winde shall weather-beat them no Sunne shall scorch them the Sunne shall not hurt them by day Psal 121.6 nor the Moone by night for the Lord is their protection and their candle for evermore 2. Part. Gods part I come now to the second part of the Text which is Gods part He denyes it to man and saith that he doth not sow that which shall be but he saith God gives it a body that is that body that God meanes to give it man doth not sowe actually How comes it then By the hand of him that guides and governs all things he gives to every seed a body as he pleaseth and to every seed his owne proper body Where first the Apostle would reduce the glory of all the action of this creation to God all the operation in this great worke it is of God And to make us to settle onely in that he useth a phrase that is most sweet and gentle when he saith God gives it a body He doth not say God creates and makes it a body for those are works of labour we understand and conceive alwayes by those works something that is painfull and hard to be gotten And although God take no paines in the worke of creation yet it is so propounded to us as a matter of great difficultie Therefore he tooke sixe dayes to make the world in to raise our intentions to understand the greatnesse of the worke and the order that God tooke it was not a confusion therefore hee did not all things at once as he might have done but in succession of time But I say those words when they are used in Scripture they are spoken still in the sence and notion of labour But the word giving is alway taken in another sence as a matter of facilitie and easinesse to shew both the quicknesse and facilitie and also the goodnesse of the giver So in this that hee saith that God gives it a body he shews that it is a customarie thing for him out of his hidden treasures still to draw forth and to poure downe his benefits upon mankinde with chearfulnesse and good will his minde is set to do it not onely to his friends but to his enemies Mat. 5.45 for he makes his Sunne to shine and his raine to fall upon the just and unjust and hee makes that corne to grow even the corne of Infidels as well as Christians So great is his goodnesse to mankinde Vse And withall in that he saith God gives it a body It should teach us alway to receive these creatures as gifts from God as earnests of Gods love unto us A man that useth these temporall things either hee must make them assurances of things eternall or else he must abuse them And being the gifts of God of whom we receive every thing therefore they must be used to the honour of God which is the donour Our bread and food and all the parts of our maintenance as they spring and issue from him so they should be returned to him with a retribution of thankfulnesse and a gracious conversation God gives it a body and to every seed his owne body This is the maine point with which the Apostle intends to comfort the present body that is afflicted in this world For there were certaine Heretiques that said there was one body that fel and another body that rose that there was one body that rotted and corrupted in the grave and instead of that God gave another body And so there was a kinde of mutation or substitution to let one body dye but another to be raised out of the ashes as the Phoenix is said to rise out of the ashes of her mother But it is not so saith the Apostle There is no substitution there is onely by the blessing of God a restitution of the same thing unto a higher and a better and a more beautifull estate There is not one body that dyes and another body that is raised for then there could be no resurrection For what kinde of victory can this be said to be over death if the same thing that was foyled and conquered be not conquerour againe by the powerfull hand of God Therefore Christ is so carefull to prove this point unto us that it was the same body of Christ that rose that suffered upon the crosse hee was so carefull I say that wee should know this that he ordained it so that Thomas should be so distrustfull that he should gage his wounds Joh. 20.27 and finde the print of the nayles that he might looke on them that he might touch them and handle them that he might see that it was the same identicall body that he had before he went to the grave For he foresaw that there would such a doctrine of devils arise in the latter end of the world to say that Christ both in his body personall and in his body mysticall that there was a mutation of bodies that one body should dye and another rise in the place of it But against this the Apostle saith He gives to every seed his owne body In the body of nature the corne doth oftentimes so degenerate that wheat will turne to barley and barley to oates the better corne will turne to worser by reason of the badnesse and hungrinesse of the ground or by reason of the weaknesse of the seed or the unseasonablenesse of the times or the indiligence of the husbandman These things oft times cause these mutations But in this seed our bodies
that is in so great a variety and difference from the body that is here present as the difference is great betweene heaven and earth betweene the stars that are in heaven and the stones that lie upon the earth And so is it in the resurrection So as the particular differences are between the heavenly bodies one star differeth from another in glory they have not all one magnitude they are not all of one brightnesse but according to their severall magnitudâ—s so is their shining brightnesse So the Lord shall make the admirable difference not onely betweene the present bodies that we have here and the bodies which shall be raised but likewise between the bodies themselves that although all shall be full yet all shall not have a like measure but every one shall receive according to their capacitie So now to come to that part of the Text. You see the substance is thus much Hee tels us there shall be some rare qualities which God shall poure upon this flesh which it could never attaine to in this life for that it is still pestered with the contrary It shall have honour it shall have strength it shall have nimblenesse and subtlety and all this shall be tyed with a golden band of incorruption which is that that makes all sweet and full For to have good things and to fall from them is as good as never to have them but this incorruption is the glorious tye of all the rest the crowne of all the rest that the strength there shall be without corruption their beauty shall be incorrupt their agility and subtlety of body shall be incorrupt all these things shall be for ever they shall be preserved by the perpetuall influence of Gods mercy and love upon the creature This is the height and depth of this Text. As if the Apostle had said You wonder in your selves to consider the great difference that shall be between the bodies that are raised and the bodies which you have now in this life I will shew you plainly how it shall be All the difference ariseth from certaine qualities for the substance there is nothing different or contrary in it but in the quality is all the difference and contrariety and I will shew you it by such qualities as are most contrary one to another For what is more contrary then corruption and incorruption what is more contrary then honour and dishonour what is more contrary then weaknesse and power what is more contrary then naturall and spirituall and behold God shall so turne the termes of this present state in that blessed world that whereas now here is nothing but a masse of corruption then there shall be a glorious peece of incorruption whereas now it is compassed about with shame and deformity in death and in sicknesse in consumption and in misery then there shall be a vessell of honour that shall be every way shining and glorious in the sight of God that whereas now this body is subject to weaknesse all the strongest lives in the world being full of great weaknesse then it shall be a mirrour of strength it shall have an arme able to break a bow of steele that whereas now it is a lumpish creature then it shall be swift as a soaring eagle and like unto an Angell of God for we shall be equall to the Angels of God in heaven So then Division into two parts 1. A description 2. A condition first we have here a Description of the state present in a metaphoricall word the promise of the state to come in another metaphor like unto it And then we have the condition and severall manner how these shall be In the first two particulars 1. The state present 2. The state in the life to come Concerning the first for the state of the body present the Apostle saith It is sowne The metaphor for the life to come is in this that he saith It is raised up again It is sown in corruption it is raised again in incorruption Each of these estates differenced by foure essentials and their contraries And then for the essentiall parts of difference he makes them foure wherein the body is sowne and there are foure contraries wherein it is raised For the first the body is sowne in rottennesse It is sowne in corruption For the second it is sowne in deformity and ugly vision that this corruption cannot lie hid for then it were more tolerable but it must come unto the eye of the world a mans friends must looke upon him and see the gastly countenance in the dead corps This the Apostle calls dishonour there is nothing in the world more dishonourable that is there is nothing in the world more hatefull to look upon then the dead body of a man Thirdly he saith It is sown in weaknesse that is in such a miserable feeblenesse and desolation and so deprived of all strength and power that it is left as a trampling stock for men and beasts And lastly he saith It is sowne a naturall body that is nothing but a meer elementary thing nothing else to the sense of flesh and bloud and to looke on These are the wofull parts of this body that wee have in this present life But on the contrary God shall invest it in stead of corruption with incorruption with impassibility with immortality and in stead of weaknesse it shall have strength and so of the rest These are the branches of the Text of these briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance And first for the two metaphors that be used 1 Part. Metaphor of the present life Chrysost It is sowne It is a good observation of St. Chrysostom that the holy Apostle is so confident in the matter that he useth the termes interchangeably between the sowing of the corne and the burying of the dead body For saith he when he speaks of the sowing of the corne he useth the phrase which properly belongs to the burying of the dead and when hee speaks of the burying of the dead he useth that maner of speech which belongeth unto the corn To teach us that as there is nothing that could have been spoken more fitly nor no comparison could have been more naturall then this which he taketh from corne so likewise that there is nothing more sure and certaine then that the one shall come to passe as truely as we daily see the other For when he speaks of the corn which is cast into the ground he saith It is not quickned except it die To die belongs properly to that which hath life which hath a sensible life although there be a kind of death to in other things but yet this word is used most properly to signifie the life of man when it passeth from the body And againe when he saith It is quickned to be quickned most properly belongs to the highest life the life of man So to die and to be quickned againe
from death are phrases and termes that properly belong to the life of man yet the Apostle useth it here in speaking of the corne to which it belongs not properly and significantly And now when he comes to speak of the burying of the bodies he useth a phrase which is proper to the corne and saith It is sowne and It is raised up that is it is brought forth in that variety as the corn is cloathed with And the reason St. Chrysostom saith is this Because we are as sure of the one as of the other and also to shew the fitnesse of the comparing of these things There is no comparison that could have been so fit therefore he interchangeth the phrases of the one to the other to shew that it comes all to one It is sowne The body of man hath two kinds of sowings in this world One is when he is sowne into the esse into the being of a man and that is in the wombe of his mother as St. Chrysostom saith in which sense it is said that such and such descended from the seed of Abraham and from the seed of such progenitors Another sowing is this which the Apostle speaks of here which is in the wombe of that great mother the Earth which is the common mother and universall nurse of all mankind Now of the first St. Paul speaks not here although it be true indeed that some Interpreters have turned it that way For it is certaine that the prime principles of men are laid in corruption and the first sation or sowing is a concealed and secret matter a shamefull action and sometimes a dishonest thing but the Apostle hath no intention to speak of that for he speaks here by way of allusion and saith So is it in the resurrection of the dead Therefore I cannot follow those extravagancies but apply it to the Resurrection It is certaine the Apostle meanes of that sowing of God when he sows the body in the ground Earth to earth ashes to ashes as St. Chrysostom saith Chrysost that is the best sowing by far For the first is a sowing to misery and weaknesse to live in troubles and crosses and affliction in this world even as Iob saith Job 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery but this sowing of God of his children in the grave of which this Text as also this Chapter must be understood it is a sowing not to a life of misery but to a state of glory There shall be no trouble after that but a quiet and perfect rest and renovation when the fulnesse of time shall appeare So then It is sowne Hee useth this word upon purpose to take from us the feare of death the feare and trouble of that great monster and bugg of the world For as much as to die is a hopefull thing as the sowing of the seed is a hopefull action Sowing is a word of confidence and expectation as we see 1 Cor. 9. 1 Cor. 9.10 11. that he that sowes may sow in hope and he that reaps may reap in hope and he that ears may eare in hope All these are words of hope words that are very full of contentment to the minde for by that meanes there is a certaine expectation of gaine and advantage It is sowne That is when a man dies he is full of hope there is a blessed hope that waits and attends upon him As Iob saith the just man the good man hath hope in his death and the faithfull with faithfull Abraham they hope against hope that when desperation assailes him then he is strongest in his hope to God It is sowne Therefore is is not cast away it is not brought to nothing it is not destroyed but it is sowne it is laid up in a faithfull hand it is laid up as a depositum and not onely so but it is put forth to Interest and hath a great Income againe It is sowne And it is sowne in a due place in the field of God in Gods acre as in many places in Germany the Church-yards are called Gods acre It is not cast into the water it is not cast into the fire to be burned nor to the thorns and weeds to choak it it is not left to be picked by the fowls of heaven but it is sowne in that place where God hath purposed it shall repose and rest Yea it is given upon tale and the earth shall restore and give up her dead she shall surrender every body which God hath committed unto her It is sowne with the diligent hand of the great husbandman the Lord Almighty he that casts his seed with judgement and laies it up with knowledge and great wisdome Ioh. 15. Joh. 15.1 saith Christ I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman The Lord therefore takes this seed and he so layes it up where it may bring the most profit and rise with the richest advantage It is sown in the bosome of the great mother the earth which is fruitfull and abounds in plenty which receives the first and later raine Deut 11.14 and sets the vallies thick with corne Psal 65.14 that it makes men rejoyce and sing In such a place is this semination this sowing it is sowne by the hand of God it is sowne in the expectation of hope profit This word the Apostle useth to allure us to familiarity with that which of necessity we must undergoe Men must forgoe this tabernacle but it is grievous to them to think of it they are perplexed and distressed when such melancholy thoughts come in their heads Let us shake hands therefore with that to the which we must needs bow at the last And let us conceive the goodnesse of God which follows us even unto our death and opens a gate of hope and makes us prisoners of hope and gives passage to the performance of those blessed promises wherein we are instructed and whereto we are called by the lure of the glorious Gospell So much for that metaphor Now the other for the body to come 2. The metaphor for the life to come Chrysost it is very significant It is raised up Saith St. Chrysostom the Apostle doth not say it grows up of it self but it is raised up as being done by another so indeed our redemption it is not wrought by any thing that is inherent in us but it is an externall action that comes from God it is the hand of God that works on us and raiseth us up It is raised therefore by the power of him that raised Christ from the dead Rom. 8.11 It is raised by him that raised for us a horne of salvation in the house of his servant David Luke 1.69 John 11.17 It is raised as Lazarus was raised after he had been foure daies in the grave It is raised as a house is raised from the foundation It is raised as the Temple
of the Lord out of the prime materialls and beginnings It is raised never to fall downe againe It is raised not to relapse againe but to stand as a goodly monument for ever It is raised by the mighty hand of him that raiseth the poore out of the dust and mire Psal 113.7 8. and makes them equall to the Princes of his people Therefore in this word the Apostle would teach us also wherein our hope consists It is sowne that is a hopefull action but after it is sowne it must be raised againe that is a dependant action which is not in our selves but from the Lord. Therefore we must raise our hearts unto God and returne our devotion and best affections to him while we live here that he may raise these bodies of ours when they have no power to raise themselves but when they shall lie in the dust of confusion he shall raise them up that they may be living Temples for the holy Ghost for ever to inhabit It is necessary before hand to raise our spirits unto him that he may make a requitall unto us at the great day of his Visitation So much for the metaphors It is sowne in corruption Corruption is the worst change that can be It is a motion from a being to a not-being For as generation is a work of God whereby something which was not is brought to have a being so corruption is a work which God permits to be done whereby a thing is brought to fall from that being either to no-being at all to have no being in our sense or else to such a base and naughty being that a man can see no reason why it should ever have been so glorious and so goodly to come to such a foule disgracefull downfall Corruption therefore is the destruction of the thing that was made as in all things we see in the world In naturall artificiall things when a matter is corrupt once it grows fit for nothing and although there be some kind of liquors that when they are corrupted they serve for some use as wine when it is corrupt it turnes to vineger and although it be not fit to drink yet it serves to raise the appetite in sauce and so divers other things doe so corrupt that notwithstanding they serve for some use but yet the chiefest and greatest number of things when they come once to be corrupted they come as much as to say to nothing to a kind of dissolution for there is nothing that can be turned unto nothing simply but because the use and property and substance is so disgraced and a contrary thing succeeds a better it is as if the thing were not at all Now this corruption is done two waies It is effected either by separation of the matter Or by removing of the forme The matter and the form you know are the chief things of which every body consists and we see that in death these things hold exactly For the forme of man being his reasonable soule as long as that is in the body it is cōpact and free from corruption and it keeps the beauty in the forme and image of God in its proper frame and figure But when the soule is gone then corruption works and dissolves the matter to Now when the matter is dissolved or the element is dissolved and corrupted this is that corruption which the Apostle speaks of here when hee saith The body is sowne in corruption that is the principles of the body which consist of bloud and flesh and skin and bones and colour and complexion and proportion and figure and frame all these goe away presently after the soule is gone And though some hold longer then other as being of more sollid parts yet they continue not long even but a few yeares and in some grounds a few dayes destroy the whole man This corruption began when wee began God t is true made the body of man uncorrupt had he persisted in obedience but as soone as man by his prevarication by transgression of Gods command was drawne into sinne he brought upon him this worme of corruption which never ceaseth to work upon the powers and faculties of flesh and bloud and upon every part till at the last it work it to an utter nothing to a very desolation And this corruption if it could be contained it were well if it could consist within some termes For corruption is proper to the body but yet through the infection of sin the gangrene hath so poysoned and possessed the whole man that corruption by a metaphor is brought into the soule to which is the speciall part of man And when the best things are corrupted the corruption is most wofull of all Matth 6.23 If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse saith the Lord Iesus Men in this world are corrupt in body they are corrupt in soule they are corrupt in their understandings in their speeches they are corrupt in their wayes Psal 53.1 as the Prophet saith Corrupt they are and become abominable in their doings there is none that doth good no not one They are corrupt in their consciences the consciences of wicked men are defiled with hypocrisie that they stink in the nostrils of God and men And to this corruption every man is subject more or lesse But the chiefe corruption intended here is corruptibility that is the rottennes of the parts of the body when they are once dissolved and melted and fall from one another To conclude this point because we know it by experience and we beare about us these corrupt bodies and we are troubled with the signs of corruption every day if we understand any thing Vse 1 It should teach us therefore not to triumph in any of these worldly things that puffe up the flesh and fill the mind with vaine conceits of its owne sufficiency but rather let us study mortification such as becomes the children of God let us weep for our owne corruptions for they grow so fast upon us that they make us odious even unto our owne selves when wee come to have a sense of our selves Againe it teacheth us this to take heed how we Vse 2 patch over this corruptibility as we use to do What a deale of cost what a deal of painting and art and labour and time is spent now adaies to conceal this corruption Corrupt bodies will not seem to be corrupt but they will be immortall and eternall and those offensive things that be in nature and that grossenesse and loathsomnesse that lurks in these bodies we seek by perfumes and by orient colours and singular diet to suppresse them and obscure them that they may not appeare But now the Lord hath put a worm in this flesh see it and acknowledge it and waile over it make not thy selfe better then thou art deceive not thy selfe thou art nothing but dust and ashes a corrupt creature a masse of corruption Why then art thou
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
though God could not open the kingdome of heaven to flesh and blood but not to flesh and blood corrupted with sinne As long as we are in this life our flesh is full of sinne and our blood in the veines of the body runne with sinne and as long as they bee so they bee meere matter of corruption and therefore they cannot enter into incorruption Howbeit Adam in his first creation was flesh and blood and yet had hee stood in the state of grace and innocencie he had entred into heaven with his body of flesh and blood So that the meaning is not as though God could not conferre so great a benefit upon flesh and blood but because it hath corrupted it selfe Flesh hath corrupted his owne way and blood is tainted with sinne it is tainted defiled and polluted blood it is not such as God made it but it hath received a tincture from the Divell In regard of this it must be dissolved and brought to rottennesse and corruption that God may raise it a new seed and so make it pure and perfect againe and make it capable of the heavenly and blessed inheritance So that the summe of the words is this As long as wee be flesh and blood as long as wee bee in this life sinfull flesh that we carry about with us wee must not looke to be translated into heaven Adam should have been translated into heaven if hee had lived and kept that state wherein hee was made Wee desire indeed to bee like him in that but our desires and our hopes must be grounded upon Gods will not on our own fancies and we must expect what the Lords will hath determined He hath determined that wee should come to death before we enter into life that we should beare the image of the earthly before we come to the image of the heavenly and wee cannot have incorruption and glory poured upon this body that wee carry about with us by reason of sinne because it is in sinne For sinfull flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God And although when Christ shall come there shall bee alive many millions of men that shall not die as we doe yet they shall have a change and there change shall be unto them as death is unto us now For it is not possible that any corrupt body should enter into incorruption This I take to bee the summe and sense of the words read Now to proceed in order we are to consider First the persons that he saith as we have borne Then secondly the matter propounded of those persons First there is a sentence or proposall Division into 1. the Persons 2. the Matter propounded Secondly the explanation of that proposall The proposall that is made of these persons is by way of comparison as wee have borne the image of the earthly so also wee shall beare the image of the heavenly The explanation of it what hee meanes by this image The Corinthians might aske and say they doubted of his words these are obscure things that the Text saith The image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly My meaning saith hee is nothing but this that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Eingdome of God nor corruption cannot inherit incorruption So in the proposall or proposition in the 49. verse we are to consider these things First that God made man to an Image Secondly that that Image being defaced and deformed wee are made to another kinde of Image than we were first intended for we are made to the image of the earthly Thirdly we are to observe the reddition that as we beare the image of the earthly so we shall also beare the image of the heavenly Fourthly the certainty in the sicut so as according to that manner And this makes us assured of the thing that this is a ground experimentall that because wee have the image of the one therefore wee are assured of the image of the other For still we are made to an image that is for the proposall In the explanation in the words following brethren I say unto you or my meaning is this Wherein the holy Ghost teacheth us to speak plainly and not to wander away in new quaint words in obscure sentences but to make the doctrines cleare that wee take in hand And then for flesh and bloud that they are not capable of heavens kingdome and for what reason they are not capable And lastly the summe of all corruption which is flesh and bloud cannot enter into incorruption which is the Kingdome of heaven For that which he call flesh and bloud in one place hee renders it againe in another place by corruption and that which he called the kingdome of heaven in the former words he turnes it in the latter words incorruption So that the Apostles perspicuity and evidence is wondrously to be admired in this place hee labours to speak of a high matter a deep profound matter of dignity so plainly to flesh and bloud Hee saith flesh and bloud shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Not because it is flesh and bloud but because it is corrupted and there shall not enter any thing that is corrupt into incorruption because they are contraries and one contrarie cannot enter into another It is impossible for a man to be alive and dead to be sick and well at one time there is no difference in the world greater then the difference of corruption and incorruption and because flesh and bloud is corrupted for sinne it is full of misery and wretchednesse by sinne and the Kingdome of heaven is an uncorruptible crowne it is impossible that these should be coincident and meet and be mingled together Therefore corruption must be evacuated and rooted out before incorruption can be attained Of these things briefly and in order as God shall give assistance And first concerning the persons 1. Part. The persons of whom these things are propounded of whom these things are pronounced It is of Gods Saints For as I have often told you this whole Chapter is spoken of and endited concerning the Resurrection of the Saints onely There is indeed a resurrection of those that belong not to God which is a resurrection to punishment and shame but the Apostle meddles not with that in this whole Chapter but speaks only of the Saints resurrection and he saith We that have borne the image of the earthly wee shall also beare the image of the heavenly We that is those that are called of Christ and sanctified by his holy Spirit to these it is to whom this promise appertaines For every man beares the image of the earthly good and bad but every man shall not beare the image of the heavenly but onely those for whom it is ordained The nature of man is not capable of heaven for if mans nature were capable of heaven then all men should have it because all men have the nature of man indefinitely and equally but it is the
they be in heaven yet they are not there without some change of body not without the destruction of the corrupt part whereby it was made sinfull And though the Saints that shall live at the comming of Christ shall be translated and it is true they shall be so but how by the mighty power of Gods omnipotencie that shall work them throughly to perfection and shall take away the drosse and leave nothing but that which is pure and sit for the glory of God to dwell in and make his residence there For it is impossible that the slaves of miserie should make their residence in the Court of glory because of the corruption of sinne that is left in them which must be rooted out that they may be capable of that blessed condition To the which the Lord bring us Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.51 Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleepe but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye by the last trump THere is almost no part of our Christian faith so generall but it admits of some particular exception 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ came into the world to save sinners yet not all sinners but those that are penitent and converted So the Rule is that all men must once die Heb. 9.27 and that all men that are dead shall rise againe And yet this is not true of all particulars for there are some exceptions against this truth yea there be many thousands of men and women many millions that shall neither die nor rise againe Yea a whole world the world that shall stand at the comming of Iesus Christ shall neither die nor rise again But these are but a handfull in respect of former ages and therefore some particular exceptions doe not infringe a generall rule for if there be some then that shall not tast of death yet there is no man doubts but that the common law of death is imposed upon all men and every man must suffer it in his time And although it be a true Article of our faith that all flesh that is dead shall rise againe to judgement yet there are a certaine number which shall be exempted and which shall be translated after another manner not by way of Resurrection but by way of change and mutation And the Apostle calls this a great mysterie for indeed as all the whole doctrine of the Resurrection is full of mysteries so this above the rest to understand what kinde of change this shall be to understand how they that live at Christs comming shall be priviledged more than us that lived before them For it is a great priviledge for a man never to goe to his grave and hee that sleeps least in the dust we account him in common sense and reason the happiest we esteeme him the happiest man that stayes the shortest time in death How therefore these things should be conceived it is mysticall and hidden from our senses All this notwithstanding the Apostle resolves upon it and saith although it be a mysterie to us yet it was not a mysterie to him for it was revealed by the Spirit of God to him and he reveals it and tells it again unto us that there is a remnant of men that shall survive when Christ shall come to judgement which shall not goe to heaven by that common path that wee goe they shall not come to see death as we doe nor to the putrefaction and filth which is incident to our nature but they shall be translated by a kinde of change which shall be unto them as our death is to us and they shall not have a resurrection as our bodies have they shall not goe under grovnd to rise againe they shall not be dissolved to be renewed againe And this is the wondrous mysterie which is of all most strange For suppose a child that is both new borne and newly interred as there shall be many thousands that shall die two or three dayes before the Resurrection these must now rise very raw out of their graves the change then that shall now be made upon their bodies that were so newly interred must needs be a very wonderfull one It is past the reason of man to conceive but it is enough that it rests in the power of God and that he hath revealed it to his Apostles and Teachers of his Church by an infallible determination and that it shall be truely and really effected upon the persons of them that shall then live whatsoever wee think and deeme to the contrary So now the Apostle begins partly to tell us of the great world that shall be when Christ shall come and partly to prove that which hee had said before As concerning the state of the world he would have us to consider that in the latter end the Lord shall come in a moment and he shall take things as he finds them and those that are then living he shall make his own hand glorious upon them as he pleaseth by a kinde of change and mutation although not according to the common decree and course of dying And for the other that it is a proofe of that hee had said before we are to consider the words that formerly he had said that corruption shall not inherit incorruption nor flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Now for that a man may thus object and say against it What then shall become of them that live when Christ comes to judgment are not they flesh and bloud as well as wee for their bloud shall be corrupted as well as ours is and corrupt flesh as well as wee their flesh shall be tainted with sinne and with all kinde of transgression and disobedience as ours is and rather worse for the longer the world stands the worse it growes therefore if flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God and that corrupt flesh and bloud shall not come into incorruption what shall become of them that Christ shall finde at his comming The Apostle answers that Nay saith hee God hath provided another way for them and that is by mutation and change So that though they shall be flesh and bloud as wee are and corrupt flesh and bloud as wee are and perhaps worse corrupted than we because the last times of the world shall be the worst yet the Lord shall so work by his omnipotent power as that their corruption shall be refined and wrought out they shall be molded by the mighty hand of God and by that fire that shall goe through the world For as hee hath a visible fire to purifie the elements and all this visible masse which we see so he hath another kind of fire a spirituall fire to purge the bodies of men from their originall and actuall transgressions which they have contracted the power of God shall so worke that they shall have some Analogie with our death which
that shall not sleepe that is they shall not die after the common maner of death And then for the second opinion the second sense that Reades it We shall all rise againe That is false for there are none that shall rise but those that were dead and because all shall not die therefore all shall not rise as I said before in the opening of the Text. So that this is the proper and true sense of the Text and it is that also which is in all the Greek Copies The other is onely in some old Latin Copies and is diversly taken and mistaken by the Fathers This therefore is the Apostles meaning We shall not all sleepe that is wee shall not all die after this order and maner of death but wee shall all bee changed Those that bee in their graves shall be changed to incorruption to immortality and life and they that never come to the grave shall bee changed another way which shall be semblable and answerable unto the death that wee have So that all shall be changed yea not onely the godly to glory but the reprobate and wicked shall bee changed to a dureability to indure the torment which the justice of God hath allotted to them for their deserts from all eternity This Reading therefore is that that we must rest in as being the most proper resolution of the Apostles mind who giving a reason of that hee had said before that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdome of God No saith hee they shall not inherit it but by a kind of change and mutation not after the fashion as we doe God hath reserved for them another kind of translation by mutation not by buriall and putrefaction as our bodies doe Now I come to the words The first thing is this that he saith Behold I shew you a mystery Mystery is a word derived from the Hebrew Mister or Mistar and it signifieth a hidden thing or else from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it of shutting or closing of the eye because that all eyes are shut up and closed to the mysteries of God and it lies not in the power of any eye to understand the secrets of the Almighty Secret things belong unto God Deut. 29 29. but revealed things belong unto us and to our children saith Moses The Gospel is full of these mysteries and there is nothing so mysticall and hard to bee understood as these things concerning the renewing and reparation of the world For the things that bee done in common experience be nothing mysticall but those that we looke to by faith those things that we apprehend by hope they are all full of mysteries But the blessed God hath revealed them to his Apostles to S. Paul and to the rest and to the Ministers of his Word By reading the Scriptures he hath revealed that which is farre remote from the sense and understanding of any mortall and carnall man The mysteries of the Kingdome must bee revealed Behold I tell you a mystery The Lord hath told it me and I must tell it to you againe it is a thing that I am acquainted with by the Spirit of God which hath revealed it to mee It was once as strange to me as it is to you but God hath delivered it to me that by my ministery it may come unto you Behold I shew you a mystery The word signifieth three things in the Scripture as Chrysostome noteth One is when by an outward visible thing some other invisible thing is signified and represented So in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper where the water in Baptisme signifieth the precious blood of Christ and the wine and bread in the Lords Supper signifieth the breaking of the body and the powring forth of the blood of that emmaculate Lamb that was offered up for us Thus the Sacraments bee called holy mysteries hidden and secret things which the world cannot understand because they deride them because they doe not affect them but they are onely knowne unto the chosen ones of God In that sense the word is not here used for the Apostle speaks not of a mystery here by any outward thing to signifie some inward matter as in the Sacrament Another way mystery is taken for a partiall or halfe esteeme or conceit of any thing we speake of So in 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 13.12 We see in a dark mystery wee see in a cloude wee see in a riddle in a dreame Wee understand in part we know in part As if hee should say All that we see in the providence and guidance of God here in this world is full of mystery some part of it wee know and some part wee know not so that the partiall knowledge of man because it attaines not to fulnesse it is called seeing in a mystery seeing in a darke view But neither in that sense doth the Apostle use it here in this place The third sense is saith St. Chrysostome when a man speaks something against the common sense and reason which the wisedome of man cannot attaine unto and reach nor would never have dreamed of And this is it which the Apostle speaks of here Behold I shew you a mystery that is I shew you a matter which you would hardly have conceived with your selves or that you will scarcely believe when I tell it to you I tell you that there are many men that shall never die nor never rise againe and yet they shall have their part of glory and be accepted and come to happinesse as well as you This paradox which is contrary to common opinion contrary to common sense and which is above the common reach and apprehension of man the Apostle calls a mystery in this place And hee hath great reason to put an ecce before it behold I tell you c. Vse To teach us that where any thing is mysticall in the Gospel and in the Scripture we ought to double our files to double our attention and to raise our spirits to hearken to that which is so secret For it is all our desires and it is naturally ingraffed in us to heare of newes to heare newes of State newes of the greatest importance Wee seeke we labour we travaile and wee sharpen one another to know what reports there are in the greatest importments Much more should wee be thus affected in the matters of God and of our owne salvation Therefore the Apostle satisfieth us and saith I will tell you you seeke for it and you long to know this you make many doubts and scruples in your hearts behold I will resolve you in one word The condition of the world that shall bee when Christ shall come it shall be farre different from this It is a mystery to tell you but it is infallibly true It hath been revealed unto me by the Spirit of God and I will open it to you the people of God And the
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
power of life and heat failes therefore a man dies Death is nothing but a privation and by consequent it is nothing at all As the Sunne when it is set there is darknesse which is a matter of nothing but the absence of the Sunne So death is nothing but the absence of life nothing but a cessation of the powers in man But because wee conceive it after another manner as a grievous enemie as a triumphant enemy over all the world therefore the Scripture condiscends to our capacity speaks in our language and makes it as an enemy Christ and it as two enemies encountring each other and the one foyling the other and so foyling it as that there is no reliques or remainders of the one left because of the great victory and conquest of the other The victory of Christ shall bee so absolute over death that there shall be no occasion of feare because there shall bee no steppe of death that shall have being in the world And this is marvellously set downe by a metaphor of swallowing that that monster which swallowes all the world of men that hath swallowed our forefathers that hath swallowed all The ages and generations before us what are they else but the morsels of death which hee hath swallowed to glut his stomack and all cannot serve but still he is craving For death and hell and the grave are unsatiable they are never satisfied although they have abundance of income and harvest dayly throwne into them The metaphor is taken from those kinde of ravenous beasts which vse not to chew but to swallow their prey and specially from fish from Whales and Crokodiles which altogether smallow and choake it up without any mincing the meat they receive So the meaning is that the death of Christ swallowes up the death of nature and the death of sinne the second death that they have no more power over us Hee shall swallow them as the Whale swallowed Ionas he shall swallow them that there shall bee no more sight of them to live and to bee and to have power hee shall swallow them as the red sea swallowed up the Egyptians he shall swallow them as the fiery furnace swallowes a little water that is cast into it a sprinkling of water It shall swallow them as the mysts and vapours are swallowed up by the beams of the Sun that there shall be no appearance of them afterward It shall swallow them as the dry gaping thirsty land swallowes a little showre of raine after a long drought It swallowes them up as the weaker metalls that are cast into the fiery furnace that are so spent and consumed as that there is no remainder nor footsteps left of them So is this similitude contrived that the devouring death shall bee swallowed in the death of Christ And whereto shall it be swallowed To Victory To victory This is the strange terme that there is nothing now in the Church of God but triumphs trophees and victorie there is nothing now but songs of deliverance there is nothing but well-springs of life to water every tree in the garden of God The most strange and compleat deliverance that can bee is to bee brought from all the points of slavery to all the points of liberty Such a victoâ—y is this which is spoken of here There shall bee nothing but victory where there was nothing before but captivity Where there was nothing but sicknesse and after sicknesse death and after death damnation by meanes of the sinne of Adam Now there shall be nothing else but life and joy and glory and victory And this is the happy estate and condition of the second comming of Christ and his presence and possession of his children at his comming So wee reade it and so the best Translations hold it to victory Some others reade it to contention So St. Ierom Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Ierom. Teâ—tull Ambros Aug. and St. Austin in many places reade it to contention For saith St. Ierom it is a kind of contestation a kind of law and pleading in the court of God betweene the death of Christ on the one party and the death of nature inflicted for sinne on the other party and they shall enter into plea the one against the other and the power of the death of Christ shall command and overwhelme the power of the death of nature and of the second death which is of sinne by reason of the justice and righteousnesse which is in Christ For thereupon it comes to passe that death is swallowed up into victory because the death of Christ hath answered the justice of his Father and hath satisfied the wrath which wee had contracted against us And by that reason hee shall cease the Commission of death which is out for us because of Adams sinne Rom. 6. last For the wages of sinne is death but because Christ was without sinne therefore hee had no cause or reason to die but onely for our sinnes and so God is satisfied by his death and is well-pleased in him to give us life because the actions that proceed from Christ are not humane actions but the actions of his person the actions of God and man and by consequent able to merit for an infinite company and to be applied to many worlds if there were any more then this that is to all believers to the end of the world that shall have participation in his blood They shall have as they have a promise forgivenesse of sinnes and sinne being removed and forgiven death hath no claime But there was no sin in Christ therefore death had no right to him nor shall have to those that are in him therefore death shall make a surcease and be no more but shall be utterly abandoned and swallowed up into victory This is that plea that the Lord Iesus in his death makes against death I will be death against death Because thou hast forfetted thy commission because thou wast appointed of God to lay hold upon sinners and thou hast laid hold on him that is not a sinner therefore thou shalt lose thy place and thou shalt bee cashiered thou shalt have no more right over sinners because the justice and righteousnesse of the Sonne of God is imputed unto them to ridde them from thy hands and from those dismall conclusions which otherwise they should have beene drowned in There is the contention on the one party Death of Nature The other party is the death of nature Death which is the great master of the world to this day he shall have another plea. Hee shall say For thy part I acknowledge I was mistaken I acknowledge I laid my hands amisse when I tooke thee for there was no sinne in thee But for all other men from the beginning of the world God gave me them as prisoners and made mee their executioner I have not done amisse in these therefore I may justly hold them that are given me by Divine providence by the
he had from God hee cast all men into the prison of death and he keepeth them there and will keep them there by the common calamity of sinne he keeps all mens bodies there to the time of the resurrection which the Lord shall cause in the fulnesse of time but therefore the Lord following the way of justice and not the way of power for God was able to take us from death otherwise by other meanes then by the death of Christ but then hee could not be just Now God would teach us that it is better to follow the way of justice then the way of power for every man can be powerfull the devils themselves have power but they have no justice therefore God then in justice would have the death of his Sonne satisfie the wrath of God and would have him to die for them that should have died that his death might be the life of many thousands that his death might be the destruction of the power of death which had a commission given for the time that at the last might have an end To conclude because I see the time past let us also learne to frame our selves to this high spirit of the Apostle to insult over death and then if wee can insult over death much more may wee insult over all the calamities of this life for what is so great a calamity as that why should poverty oppresse us why should infamy vexe us if sicknesse diseases and death it selfe cannot oppresse why should trouble of conscience for sinne oppresse us when the grand enemy himselfe is conquered and when we have a part of the conquest wee are souldiers to that great Captaine and hee communicates his victory unto us all Iohn 16. ult Aug. Be of good comfort saith Christ for I have overcome the world Saith St. Austin What dost thou meane by this Be of good comfort I have overcome the world What have we to doe to be of good comfort it belongs not to us be thou of good comfort it pertaines to thee what are we the better because thou hast overcome the world Yes saith hee oh death thou which hast been the devourer now thou art devoured thy self thou that hast swallowed up men now thou art swallowed up thy selfe by a more potent cause oh death he was wounded for me that made me and he that through his death hath swallowed up thee hee hath conquered thee for me therefore I rejoyce in him which is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone his victory is my victory therefore he saith Be of good comfort I have overcome the world And this the Lord hath taught us in many passages of his holy Booke that hee might prepare us once to this courage to this great valour For in this a man is seen more than in any thing else in the patient abiding of trouble and misery in the patient enduring of death in this present life All worldly passions are seperated as chaffe by the wind from the godly the wind blowes away the chaffe but so it cannot the good corn that falls still on the floore the chaffe is blowne away with every wind of temptation and persecution Let us therefore take notice of that singular comfort which God hath given us out of the Scripture which all resolves at last into this one point Oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory In Iosuah 10. Ioshuah 10.24 wee reade that Iosuah there the Prince and Captaine he brought out the five Kings that were closed in a Cave and a stone rolled to the mouth of it till hee should come back hee brings them forth and bade the Captaines tread upon the necks of the Kings and not feare for saith hee The Lord your God shall fight for you This was a figure of this glorious victory of the Sonne of God over death All the potentates of Hell are like to the five Kings of Canaan which oppresse all they meet as Adonibezek they thumb them hee cut off the thumbs and toes of men and set them under his Table as dogges The Lord signified this victory of Christ by the victory of Iosuah over those five Kings and Adonibezek that hee would give a spirituall conquest over death hell sinne and all the adversaries that could oppose him and he would tread upon the necks of all his opposers What is so base a part what is so base a thing as the foot of a man and what is so lofty a thing as the necke and yet the very foot of Gods children the basest part shall tread upon the necks of their enemies upon the necks of Kings themselves which are compassed and surrounded with jewels and ornaments yet they shall bee subjected to the basest parts even to the heeles of godly men so great is the comfort of Gods children And as it was done then in Iosuahs time so also the comfort remaines now So wee see again the Lord bids the people look back whē they were past the Red-sea look back upō the Egyptians and the People Miriam had a song Exod. 15.1 when they looked back saw the Egyptians floating above the water A strange thing but God would have it so because he would have his people to have Arms to have the Arms of the Egyptians to fight against Amalek It is said the people looked back and saw them those proud spirited people those braggadocioes which thought to have swallowed them up quick and followed them with their chariots and Army those which before could not bee resisted now the Lord brings them to a calme he so cooled the Nation that the least boy might insult over them Israel looked and saw them and tooke off their armour took off their rings and jewels and their costly apparrell and furnished themselves with it when they went into the wildernesse So shall the conquest of Gods children be over death although it have beene full of threatning full of terrour and blood before yet the Lord will bring it into the floud into the Red sea he will overwhelme it in the water of his Omnipotency and his children shall look back and shall see him and spoyle him that was the spoyler and destroy him that was the destroyer and they shall take his weapons from him and make use of them to their owne purposes and they shall say as the people might have said to the Egyptians Where is thy bragging that thou usedst before thou art inclosed now in thine owne net Where is thy sting oh death Oh hell where is thy victory The Lord shall turne the termes the Lord shall make the field to goe on his owne side and take away the conquest from the adverse party It hath beene an ancient Proverb That to pluck the beard of a dead Lion even for children themselves it is an easie matter a poore child that cannot indure the noise or the sight of a living Lion Chrysost as St. Chrysostome saith the boyes
as God hath made him which knew not sinne to be sinne for us that is he hath made him a sacrifice for sinne and hee was accounted a sinner as he was made sinne for us so this is the effect of this account and imputation of our sins upon him it shall be the imputation of his righteousnesse upon us as the holy Apostle saith 2 Cor. 6. He was made sin for us which knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God Now after this he hath shewed us the enemies he begins to shew us the use of all this he drawes to a conclusion and he saith God hath given us victory Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ Iesus our Lord. As if hee should say if we had indeed the remnants of sin in us still wee were foolish to make any insultation over death for death would triumph over us for as long as sinne remaines death must needs ensue and as long as the law is put upon us to curbe and contradict us sin will be but now God be thanked that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord For he hath destroyed the one and hee hath fulfilled the other he hath destroyed the one by his gracious conversation and he hath fulfilled the law he hath appeased the wrath of God that now there remaines no more enemy but the field is cleare and we are masters of the field for ever Therefore God be thanked which hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord. Wherein wee are to consider First the gift that is given It is victory Division of the Text into 5. parts an absolute and compleat victory over these fierce enemies Secondly whence this victory comes from God God hath given us victory It is from the whole Trinity Thirdly the manner how it comes by way of gift not by way of merit blessed be God that hath given us the victory Fourthly the meanes through whom it comes through Christ Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Christ Iesus our Lord. It is by the arme of Christ Fiftly the end and use of all Thanks be to God For the blessings of God require thankfulnesse therefore the Apostle gives glory to him that glorifieth us he gives conquest to him that is a conquerour for us Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through Iesus Christ The sting of death is sinne the strength of sinne is the Law This former part of the Text describes the Adversaries extinct and vanquished that which hee speaks of a sting is diversly translated by Interpreters some call it morsum the biting comparing it to a serpent that poysoneth and infecteth and killeth by biting so sinne was represented to us in the garden by the serpent that gave the apple unto Eve Some take it for the sting of a waspe the Hebrew word Kota in Hosea 13. Hosea 13.14 signifieth that which is sharp as a stelletto a thing that makes a present impression and by the puncture it pierceth into the inward parts and brings sudden death So by divers Translators it is thus read I will be a plague unto thee oh death and I will be thy destruction oh hell Many and sundry wayes it is translated but it is sufficient for us to take that which the last and best translation affords and so we call it the sting because indeed death was never nor it could not be sharp unto us except it come to be armed with sinne nor there is no calamity in the world no misery that a man suffers but he suffers it willingly if he have a cleare conscience it being the onely rule of peace and quiet to be free from the cause and from deserving that thing that is imputed and cast upon a man But when miseries come not onely tedious of themselves but they come armed with the condignity of sinne that they have a certaine correspondence in commutative justice that he that hath done evill must suffer evill Now it becomes of all calamities the extreamest and most miserable Therefore it is said here The sting of death is sinne as though death it self were nothing unwelcome and harsh to the flesh of man but that it is inflicted for sin and as the wages of sin But here a man may very well make a stand and aske how can this be how should sin be the sting of death seeing it is rather contrary death is the sting of sinne for which is first was not sinne before death saith St. Austin in his 7. Tom. in his 3. S. Aug. Tom. 7. lib. 3. d◠peceat remiss Booke De peccatis remissione peccatorum saith he we sinne not because wee die it is no sinne to die because it is the fulfilling of the judgement of God upon sinne We sinne not in dying but we die for sinning for from that comes our death therefore seeing sinne was the cause of death and that death is a thing of nothing a thing that followes afte◠sinne it seemes therefore that sinne being first and sin being the cause of death it followes that it must use death as a sting unto it and not on the contrary that it should be a sting unto death But for this there is no great matter in the phrase for as St. Austin Aug. and the rest of Divines accord with him the Apostle calls sinne the sting of death not that death made it but that death is made with it and it is made by it so it is called the sting of death that is a deadly sting that brings death with it As a cup of poyson we call it a cup of death not as though death made the cup but because death is with it that he that takes that cup shall die with it So the tree of life and the tree of knowledge the meaning is not as though life were made by the tree or that knowledge were made by the tree but because the fruit of that tree would have brought life and would have brought the knowledge of good and evill This therefore is the meaning of the Apostles words that sinne by the just permission of God and by the deputation that God gave unto sathan to execute judgement upon sinners it comes upon every man armed and it is armed with death the most desperate weapon that can be that destroyes the very nature of man and brings him to his very foundation to a matter of nothing This is that sting that must prick us all at length as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Therefore let us learne while wee are now in this world to prepare our selves for this sting that we doe not kick against the pricks as our Lord saith Acts 9. Acts 9.5 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Let us therefore never grumble against the necessity of sicknesse disease and miseries for alas these are nothing in comparison of death we
must endure death it selfe that prick must gall us to the heart all the power of Men or Angels cannot deliver us from it Let us as well as we can entertain it therefore and not kick against the pricks for we double our wound if we doe and plague our selves more there is no resisting of those things that be of necessity Let us take heed withall seeing sin is called the prick of death or the death of death which is all one let us take heed I say that wee multiply not sinne forasmuch as that is nothing else but to double and re-double our torment to an infinite measure If a man be slaine with one stab of a goad or with a prick of a Stelletto though they are no lesse mortall yet they are more sufferable but if a man shall be cast upon a hurdle that is full of nailes and be rolled up and down upon that that is one of the terriblest deaths that ever was found out and such a death every sinfull man casts himselfe into the more hee sins and gives way unto his head strong affections the more sharp nailes points and pricks he casts himselfe upon Let us take heed therefore the sting of death is sin the more we sin the more nayles and goads and pricks we thrust into our owne sides for there is no sinner but as hee sinnes more so hee offends God more and so he brings more vengeance upon himselfe in a fearfull manner The sting of death is sinne But what sinne is this is it to be accounted the actuall sin that men commit or the originall sin in which they are borne Surely it is true of both but the Apostles meaning is here to speak of Originall sinne for we see this a true doctrine upon chlidren too that never committed actuall sin therefore we must give the sense of the words the most large and utmost extent because we see the doctrine of the place extends it self so farre for children themselves are pricked to death not by actuall transgression according to the similitude of the sinne of Adam but by an inbred corruption which is drawne from the seed of their parents there lying a poyson in the seed of man which came from the first fall and corruption of man in the materialls of Adam in the substance and bodily part there lies a poyson of corruption and it is strange that sinne which is an intellectuall thing a matter of the understanding for there is no beast can sinne because it hath not the intellectuals it wants the understanding It is strange I say that it should rise unto a materiall thing which hath no understanding untill the soul be added but so the Lord hath ordained that in the propagation of the corrupt seed of man there should be infused a soule which lying in a fustie vessell should contract the impurity it finds there in the matter and so should work in both together the damnation of the party in which it is Behold therefore what that fearfull state or condition is in which we are conceived and borne into the world It is that which death useth for a sting it is that fearfull weapon that wounds us and pierceth us not onely for one death but for two for the second death even everlasting destruction if the mercy of God interpose not This is that law in our members that captivates and makes us slaves and carries us away from the law of God This is that prepuce or uncircumcision of the heart that makes us Philistins and Aliens and strangers from the Lord. This is that flint stone that will not be wrought upon by the finger of God but hardens it selfe against all the proceedings of the Lord. This is that seminarie of all mischiefe the originall of all kind of corruption whatsoever a man can think of it is included in Originall sinne For Adam when he fell from God he was a thiefe a murtherer hee was a blasphemer hee was a man given to concupiscence he was a false witnesse against his neighbour hee was the breaker of every Commandement by that action and his children take it from him by originall sinne which is the Mother sinne of all abominations that may be imagined and as wee begin it so wee continue the cherishers and nourishers of it we feed it wee bring it up we suckle this brat of perdition and filthinesse to our owne destruction that every man must needs be forced when he understands himselfe to cry out with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death It is a body of death it is not a limbe it is not a superficies it is not a quality it is not a small matter but it is a body it is a legion of devils it is a multitude of sins it is a kingdome of hell This is that beastly corruption which we have all contracted Let us labour in prayer and sollicite God that the power of this monster may be removed for although we had no actuall transgression but wee could live as pure and sincere as the Angels in heaven in respect of actuall sinnes yet as long as wee have this moisture in us the fire is not out though it seeme to be smothered and though it break not forth yet it is not quenched it is not quite slacked So much of the first part the proportion the sting of death is sinne that is originall sinne because if we should take it for actuall sinne then wee could not take children into the definition but they are stung to death they die and yet they have no Actuall sinne therefore it is spoken of originall sin properly But how comes death and sinne to be thus potent and strong The Apostle tell us by the law The strength of sin is the law Till the law came the edge and point of sinne was dull it was blunt when the law came it whetted it and sharpned it againe and made it more piercing than ever it was before The strength of sinne is the law And how is this God gave the Law for a good Law for a holy and just Law how came it then to bee the strength of sinne It seemes God machinated a mischiefe to mankind to give him that which should make him more sinfull But you must understand it is one thing that a man doth upon purpose and for good and it is another thing when the man to whom it is done can receive it so God gave the Law indeed as a true direction for the reformation of life and manners but the party that received it did not take it thus thus by occasion not from the nature of it but by the ill acceptance of the party it came to be thus to bee the strength of sinne As when a Physician that is skilfull in his profession hee doth all that belongs to a skilfull man the druggs that he gives and the ingredients are able to worke their effect if they fall
to thousands and millions in the world that beleeve in him that although there be sinne now in our mortall bodies yet it doth not raigne it commands us not to every thing it finds us not as the Centurions servants to goe when it saith goe but it is in many things broken and dissipated and the Lord hath beat sathan under our feet that is the usuall work of sathan sinne and foule impressions in your soules and understandings Thus the Lord hath given us victory over sinne in himselfe fully in us it is begun but for that wee shall have occasion afterwards to discourse The Lord himselfe being free from all sinne hee was therefore a Conquerour over that pestilent viper that poyson of our nature and he gave his people the infusion of his Spirit to guide them by the which Originall sinne is weakned the sire is abated and allayed the edge of sin is lessened The last is over the Law That still is the greatest enemy that still layes before us the judgments of God Doe this and live Doe that and be damned Follow this course and thou shalt be damned for ever If thou be a drunkard if thou be lustfull if thou be covetous and worldly if thou be revengefull and malicious the sentence of damnation is passed upon thee that is all the comfort wee have by the Law but Christ hath given us victory over this enemy which followes us at the heeles when wee doe amisse and still puts us into qualmes of conscience for our misdeeds and curbes and bridles us by the checks of conscience that if a man could but see the end of these foule actions as hee seeth the beginning he would never doe them because there is no equality between the short time of sinning and the eternity of punishment But against all this Christ hath given us victory for he hath fulfilled the law of God he hath stopped the crimination he he hath stayed all those slanders and all those accusations that the devill would make by the law or that those that have been curious observers of the law would make and those accusations that an evill conscience would make by the power of the Law of God which hath enlightened it He hath silenced all these in this life but the consummation of this we must understand is to come when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality They are now gone before in the head they shall then follow in the body Saith St. Austin Aug. Whatsoever Christ hath done in his owne body it shall follow in our mortall bodies When hee shall change them 1 Cor. 15. and make them like unto his owne glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe This is that goodly victory in the which the Lord hath interested us all To conclude and refer the rest till the next time I beseech you beloved in the Lord let us consider what part we have in this victory wee ought not to insult and triumph in a vaine presumption in blessings that pertaine not to us but if we think we have the victory let us labour to finde it and so enter into judgement with our owne soules who it is that overcommeth Apoc. 3. To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the tree of life in the middest of the paradice of God to him that overcommeth will I give a white stone c. And what must he overcome He must overcome himself and all his passions he must overcome the feare of death the power of sinne and the terrours of the Law A fearfull encounter and a great troop of enemies is laid open the Lord strengthen poore David that he may be able to encounter with this mighty Goliah for it seemes that hell it selfe is open upon him when therefore we doe give our selves that liberty as to doe what our selves list against the good will and command of God let us not thinke to have any part in this victory we are rather as so many conquered slaves and vassals that lie at the command of death that whereas wee should tread Satan under our feet Satan tramples us under his and makes us the most base and vile creatures in the world Thou that hast enough in this world and yet canst not tell when thou hast enough but still art distracted with envious desires and makest thy self great by other mens falls that raisest thy owne fortunes by other mens ruines that usest any meanes good or bad by hooke or by crooke to advance thine owne estate to make thy selfe rich and settest thy selfe onely to the study of the Idoll Mammon what kinde of victory or what hope of conquest canst thou have in that great and mighty victory which wee pretend the Lord Iesus hath given us surely none There is no such gally-slave in the world as a man that is given and addicted to his wealth and riches in this present life for it pierceth men through with many sorrowes as the Apostle saith They that will be rich 1 Tim. 6. pierce themselves thorow with many sorrowes Behold the sting of death is the sting that pierceth them the sting of death is sinne and this sting it pierceth through the heart and stabbs the soule of every covetous man in the world that they cannot claime any part of that victory which God communicates to his children but they are foyled base creatures that are made for slaughter and destruction And so againe for them that live in their pleasures in their voluptuous and filthy courses that will grow old in adultery that will make no end of their filthinesse and uncleannesse but with greedinesse seeke when one prey is enjoyed how to obtaine another these that make their vessells that should be Temples of God the brothell-houses of the Devill that are no sooner tempted but they yeeld these comming Creatures how or with what face with what confidence can they lay claime to the victory that we have in God through Iesus Christ our Lord being nothing else but bruits and are given over yeelding themselves they have taken the marke of the beast and follow Satans direction and command as if Christ had no power to be their Chieftaine but the Prince of darknesse must rule The like may bee said of all these malicious prowling spirits that be in the world that take delight to sting their brethren to doe mischiefe without cause to sow the seeds of dissention that will wrangle out their lives to trouble others to bring upon them endlesse suits and questions that shall never be decided to vexe the world with begging or buying of new found offfices to make their hands full out of every thing sacred and prophane to play the very roaring Lions in their dennes that no man can tell how hee should live or keepe himselfe quiet with them That these Creatures I say should come and claime any part in this
us that are the children of Abraham although wee must study holinesse Heb. 12.14 without which no man shall see God and we must abhor all the works of darknesse and come into the light yet we are so fraile in this flesh that we cannot doe the one nor the other But miserable wretches we have two lawes the law of our members and the law of God and so we must conclude with the Apostle Rom. 7.25 I serve the law of God in my minde and spirit but the law of sinne with my members and yet hee concludes in this place thankes bee to God that gives us victory in Christ Iesus our Lord. To conculde this point It is the faith that a man holds in God the faith he hath in Christ that makes us Conquerers and gives us the victory It was this that armed the thiefe upon the Crosse when hee had done nothing all his life time but plaied the thiefe and robbed and oppressed and played his tragicall part in the world yet hee shewed himselfe to have one mite of faith in the end of his life and for that he was accepted And Christ saith unto him Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That whereas the Pharisees and Priests and Scribes thought Christ to be justly executed and put to death yet notwithstanding hee put his faith in him and beleeved that hee was a King and that he had a great portion of glory reserved for him and that hee was able to communicate it to his followers therefore he desires to partake of that glory Luke 23.42 Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome Now I come to the last point of the precedent verse Thanks be to God since wee have the victory in Christ Iesus our Lord that is since wee have both received the fulnesse of the conquest imparted to us and also the first fruits of the Spirit by which we are able to overcome though not fully to overcome yet to overcome by the power of his victory and to be accounted conquerers though we bee but cowards Thanks be to God for this great gift and mercy of imputation The holy Apostle saith Theodoret Theodoret. hath concluded all his discourse with a necessary line with thanksgiving and praise to God For indeed as wee are bound to thanke God for every thing that wee receive so much more for the chiefe and principall things that wee take from his hands There is no thing so gracious as this to be victors to bee borne to be Conquerers and to be conquerers over such enemies too as have conquered all the world this many thousand yeares together that in sight that there was nothing that domineered nor nothing got the victory but death and sinne and hell and to conquer these miscreants that had over-run all the world this is the hand of God which is to be rejoyced in and if there bee any blessing for us to blesse our soules in it is this that we are conquerers in Christ saith St. Austin Aug. For saith hee If I must thanke God for every petty benefit what greater reason can I have then to give thanks for chiefe and maine benefits The grace of God in Iesus Christ our Lord is that which gives us this victory Thanke God saith St. Bernard thanke not thy selfe St. Bern. thank not Saints thanke not Angels thanke not preparatory works thanke not foreseene merits thanke nothing else but let the praise rest wholly and totally in God It is he that did all therefore to him be given all praise and glory for ever and ever FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15. ult Therefore beloved brethren be stedfast and unmoveable abounding in the worke of the Lord alway because you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. WEE are come now to the conclusion of this Chapter which followes most naturally as Chrysostome saith Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast c. It is a true conclusion when a man hath fully proved the premises hee that concludes a thing before he hath argued well and proved the matter he discourseth of hee is either a foole or a falsarie for it must needs argue it is a lie when a man will ground upon uncertaine grounds It argueth also weaknesse in him when hee thinks hee hath perswaded without sufficient ground for there is no wise man will be perswaded without due confirmation and demonstration of those things that are argued Therefore now the Apostle comes in as an excellent Oratour to conclude not upon poore grounds nor upon weak evidences but upon strong perswasion and demonstration saith Tertullian Tertul. Hee useth all the strength of the holy Ghost to perswade to this powerfull article of the Resurrection his meaning is with all the power of the holy Ghost that he was capable of for else the power of the holy Ghost is as infinite as God himselfe is infinite But now when the Apostle had driven this doctrine home when he had so beat it into them as that there was no scruple left to any gainsayer or contradictor when he had shewed the cause of the Resurrection when he had shewed the maner of it when he had shewed the absurdities that would follow the contrary doctrine if men did doubt of it when hee had shewed the effects and consequents of it of that glorious incorruption and immortality when hee had proved it by force of holy Scriptures Oh death I will be thy death oh hell I will be thy destruction When he had set downe all these firme and maine presidents it is time for him now to bring in his conclusion He is a foolish builder that will set up the roofe of his house before the walls be built and he is an idle discourser that will offer to bring a thing into his Auditory upon any triviall reason but the Spirit of God teacheth us first to settle the understandings to perswade the minds of men by strong and puissant arguments and then to draw forth conclusions for hee must first move a mans senses and understanding and then draw his will for the will is alway plyable to the conclusion but the understanding is attentive to the demonstration All this while the Apostle had held the understanding giving demonstrative causes and such reasons as no man could contradict him in Now that being done he closeth with the will and that is easily brought if he can perswade the understanding therefore he saith Therefore my beloved brethren that is seeing these things are thus seeing I have told you the will of God in this point that Christ is risen himselfe and that he is risen so palpably that he was seene of more than five hundred brethren at once and that he is the Head of the body and that therefore all the members must be raised up at one time to come with their Head and be joyned unto him Seeing that
regard of this among the rest to have a care of the poore Gal. 2. Gal. 2. Wheresoever he came he did found and settle this constitution as strongly as any of the rest as that of faith so this of workes that those that had beleeved and received the Lord Christ into their hearts by faith that they should extend their hands by good workes to feed him and to minister to his members which are wanting here upon earth We have thus farre proceeded to shew what kinde of Gift or Present this was which the Apostle required it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fruit it is the corne they yeeld the harvest which Gods children which be his fruitfull field yeeld unto him It is the shot they pay which are invited to the supper of the great King And it is not cast away upon such as are unworthy persons but bestowed upon the Saints themselves that whereas God requires that we should helpe our owne flesh whether good or bad and we should imitate our heavenly Father which makes his light to shine and his raine to fall as well upon the uniust as the iust yet the Apostle recommends unto them not the common refuse of men whereunto notwithstanding they were bound by nature but a select company of Saints and such a company as were under persecution and that the most hot and sharpe persecution and trouble that was then to be found in the world for the Church of God never suffers so ill as it suffers from it selfe all civill wars and intestine discords being the greatest plagues that can he The Church of Ierusalem having received the law and the promises and glorying in their prerogative they could not therefore indure that a new religion should come and confront theirs and put that out of place but they sought by all meanes to beat it downe againe and by consequent no man could lift up his head but presently there were letters from the high Priests and Elders to cast him into prison to thrust that light under a bushell which God had set upon a Candlesticke to give light to the whole house And againe there was another cause of it by reason of the famine which Agabus prophecied of in the end of Caligula his reigne for which cause the Church of God made provision against that time of famine and scarcity Now the quantity that they should give it is not set downe but it is left to every mans disposition for the Church of God will not make charity compulsive but leaves it to the free-will in it selfe that it may be the more gratious and the better accepted with God but look whatsoever God had prospered them withall according as God had blessed them according as he had given them a good voyage in the affaires of the world according to that hee should not scant and balk the Lord but he that had received much should give much and he that had received little should give of that little according to the quantity and proportion so that was left to the conscience of every man And that this collection should be done in private that every man should lay up by himselfe by himselfe because there were no officers appoynted as then in the Church or because he might be defeated of it by trusting of others or because some had so little that they durst not bring it every weeke being so small but were to lay it up by them that many littles might make a mickle therefore they were to keep it till it might be a convenient summe that it might carry some shew with it in regard of this the Apostle bids them lay up by themselves And they must lay it up as a Treasure for as much as the Lord accounted of that in heaven he tooke account of that in heaven which they layd forth in earth and it was a treasure to them that when they should come to faile to faile of this life when they should come to dye when no friend should help and rescue them from the hand of death they may have some treasure in heaven that when they came into a strange country they might finde some treasure there they might have a banke there to give them refreshing As when a man is outed in England when he is outlawed or banished if hee can make an escape and can have a banke at Venice or at Amsterdam and can goe to his friends there and have somewhat laid up for him in trusty hands he is as well there almost as he is here So the Lord compares the passages of this life to those of a better life but we cannot deny nor doubt but that we shall be infinitely farre better there then we are here but yet we are loath to part with this habitation we would faine keepe this tabernacle of the body as long as we could although it be with hard conditions Now the Lord tels us to incourage us in our journey that all our good works all our Almes-deeds are sent before as a treasure they are laid up as a stocke of money in a faithfull hand not in a mountebankes hand but in the trusty hand of God which will repay us againe and will repay us with interest he that gives to the poore lends to the Lord upon interest so it is called in this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Thesaurus a treasure to lay up treasure to lay up for to morrow to lay up for the time to come thus farre we proceeded Now we come to the next point in the Text The time of the collection which is what day what time he chooseth out for the setting apart of this portion of those that offered to the Lord and to his poore Saints and that is noted here to be the first day of the weeke Secondly wee are to note the incentives reasons and arguments to moove them to this because charity and the workes of charity are not easily perswaded men must be drawne to them by very attractive and forcible reasons and arguments such as may win though not constraine and force their piety His first argument is this the common example for these things we must propound them diversly and otherwise then they lye in the Text for order sake and for method of teaching For those things that are first in the Text are not alway first in order of time nor in order of teaching how will he therfore winne the Corinthians to give unto strange poore when they had enow of their owne he tels them there is an example for it the Churches of Galatia As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia so doe ye As if he should say I bring no new matter among you I put no burthen upon you which is not generall and common in all the Churches your brethren have gone before in other Countries which are poorer men and weaker every way in their fortunes then you therefore that which they doe which are poorer and more unable