there is a spirituall body all the rest are included in this It is sowne in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is true if it be spirituall it must needs be incorrupt so It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour It is certaine if it be raised a spirituall body And so for strength if it be spirituall it must needs be strong Therefore the Apostle concludes all in this It shall be raised a spirituall body But how a spirituall body Marke he saith not that the flesh of Gods Saints the bodies that shall be raised that they shall be spirits but spirituall bodies Still it shall be a body So that there is no change in the substance but onely in the qualities and properties Tertull. Saith Tertullian the Apostle doth not speak of any change of the substance of nature but of the glorious qualities that shall come unto it Surely saith hee there is nothing that riseth againe but that which was sowne and there is nothing sowne but that which is dissolved and rotten in the earth and there is nothing lies rotting in the earth but flesh therefore nothing shall rise again but the flesh For there was nothing that the sentence of God went upon but the flesh of Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne So St. Austin expounding the words In Tom. 5. Aug. Lib. 13. How shall they be spirituall Not because they shall cease to be bodies they are not therefore called spirituall as though they were turned spirits and ceased to be bodies but because they shall subsist with a living and quickning spirit and because they shall be made indwellers and inhabitants of heaven which is the place of spirits it shall then be the place for the bodies of men For now it is a strange paradoxe to say the body of a man should dwell in heaven and though we know that Christ hath it by a speciall priviledge yet there is no man can imagine how the bodie of a man should dwell in heaven in those pure skies in those bright regions and that the heavinesse of the body should not praecipitate it downe to the earth and cast it into the fire and to dismall events that should consume it But when the Lord shall change this corruption into incorruption the bodies of the Saints shall be the onely fit inhabitants of heaven therefore it is called spirituall because it shall dwell in heaven which is the place of spirits the body shall then be able to inhabit there therefore it is called spirituall as being fit to possesse those mansions that are destinated properly for spirits But Chrysostome makes a question here Saith he Chrysost What is this that thou sayest here blessed Apostle Dost thou say that the bodies of the children of God are not spirituall now are they all meerly animal now are they not spirituall how is it said that they are Temples of the holy Ghost if the holy Ghost dwell in them he makes them spirituall they are called spirituall men all the children of God and if they be spirituall men then they have spirituall bodies But the Father answers himselfe again It is true these bodies we carry about us now by the power of the holy Ghost are after a sort spirituall but that body which shall be then which he here speaks of shall be infinitely far more spirituall This is onely in inchoation in beginning in the first fruits that shall be in the summe and substance and fulnesse of perfection And St. Bernard If thou sayest our bodies shall rise againe thy meaning is not to take away the being of the body but to give it a new lustre as the face of Moses and as in the transfiguration of Iesus Exod. 34. For as Moses when God put that brightnesse upon his face that the people could not look upon it but he was faine to haye a vaile on his face his face was still the same but yet there was a change of glory there was an accession of brightness whereby it seemed a spirit rather then a common ordinary visage so the bodies of men that shall be raised there shall be such an accession and augmentation of glory and beauty and brightnesse that it shall rather seeme spirituall then otherwise And as it was in the Transfiguration of Christ Mar. 17. his garments shone that no Dier in the earth could make the like and his face shone as the sunne in his strength the face of Christ was all one his garments were the same he had the same physiognomie but onely there was a new accession of glory that came unto it So the bodies of the Saints they shall be all one the very same body shall be revived which hath suffered misery here and shall have a new glory put upon it and that very body shall have strength that here was weak and subject to death The Lord shall then cloathe it with glory and although it shall rise a spirituall body it is not in respect of the change of the substance but in regard of the augmentation of glory which shall accrew unto it It is raised a spirituall body So much of those two Attributes of the change from weaknesse to strength and from naturall to spirituall Now in the words following the Apostle comes to prove that such a thing there is as a naturall body and a spirituall body And this he doth to prevent objections partly lest men should think that he coyned new distinctions and divisions which is a thing faulty in the Church and partly lest men should be drowned in error by misconceiving his doctrine For the first If a man should have said unto him Where doe you learne this did you ever heare any man speak such a thing that there is a spirituall body Yes saith the Apostle there is both there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body I will make the distinction good and prove it This teacheth us Vse that men ought to be carefull what distinctions they bring into the Church of God For as the Apostle saith to Timothy 1 Tim. 6.21 and to Titus Shun novelty of words and inventions shun them they are not to be admitted they destroy the faith and puzzle the understandings of all Gods children Vincentius Lirinensis Vincentius Lirinensis saith That although men ought to speak many things in the Church of God after a new fashion yet they ought to speak no new thing at all Therefore lest they should be offended with this distinction as though the Apostle had brought it out of his owne braine as though it were a new device of his owne hatching he is forced to make it good and to prove that there is such a thing because hee would not be thought an Inventer of new devices and a maker of new distinctions which is a plague in the Church of God throughout all ages Secondly another reason was this because hee would not suffer them to
heresies and also to raise our selves to the imitation of our head to be conformable to him For this very Text of Scripture that Christ came downe the Lord from heaven hath given occasion to a great number of lying spirits to conclude that the Lord had no true naturall body that he had no true flesh but that he brought his body downe from heaven and that hee passed as through a pipe through the Virgin Mary Because say they if Adam and Christ be opposed together and that Adam brings his body from the earth then Christ brings his from heaven It followes therefore that they are not one kind of body and by consequent there must be a kind of celestiall body appointed for Christ because it must be directly opposite to Adams Now there is no consequence or sense in this For the Apostle opposeth not Christ unto Adam in regard of the substance of his flesh but in respect of the difference of his qualities The quality that Adam put upon his flesh was death and sicknesse misery and deformity but Christ hath put upon it another kind of quality another robe another garment and vestment of immortality of grace and perfection and beauty and strength and all kind of abilities another kind of quality Therefore hee saith not another substance of flesh for Christ came of David and David came of Adam they were all one flesh but because the one was the fountain of death and the other the fountaine of life they must needs work contrary effects Therefore according to the effects that they work the Apostle proceeds that the one works to basenesse and misery the other to glory to excellency to comfort and beauty But these heretiques will pretend a great number of places of Scripture and a great many arguments whereby they doe as the Apostle saith deceive 2 Pet. 2 14. and draw aside unstable people and make them at their wits end when they are not able to resolve the places they alledge As first they say this that the Lord Iesus did deny his Mother therefore he had no true flesh And they prove it out of St. Matthew 12. when hee was teaching the people they came and told him that his Mother and his brethren were without Mat. 12.47 48 49. desiring to speak with him and hee answers them who is my mother c. therefore say they Christ denies his mother This is false Christ no where denyed his mother But that place shewes that he had more care of the businesse he had in hand hee had more care of his Fathers commission of the Kingdome of the preaching of the Gospell of forgivenesse of sinnes of curing diseases and to doe the rest of the works of our redemption therefore he must not neglect them and be distracted from them to goe to inferiour things so that his mother must give way to those things he doth not deny his mother but onely prefers the practice of the other things Againe they say Christ cannot be adored if hee have true flesh or else he can be but halfe adored But now whole Christ must be adored therefore he had no true flesh For if we adore that which is flesh it is a creature and so it is idolatry for whatsoever is given to the creature that way is Idolatry Therefore Christs body was not created but was a super coelestiall thing above the order of mankinde Answ It is true the flesh of Christ was framed and wrought above the order of mankinde and yet so as that still it was true flesh And although wee ought to adore whole Christ yet in the adoring of Christ we doe it to the person Wee use not to disjoyne his natures but wee adore that God that was pleased to take upon him man we adore that blessed person in the Trinity that for our sake and for our salvation came downe from heaven and was incarnate by the holy Ghost in the womb of Mary It is that person we adore So that wee goe not about with the heretique Nestorius to make a division of the natures but we adore whole Christ God and man not man alone but God not God alone but man Many other shifts and sophismes they have but these are the chiefest and indeed they are scarce worth repeating but we must labour to furnish our selves because we know not what kinde of miscreant heresies are like to grow now in the latter end of the world Now the conformity follows in these words 3. Part. The conformity As the earthly is so are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly so are they that are heavenly It must needs be that as the principles are so the things that are made and framed of them must be All things in nature are a resemblance of their originall and it cannot possibly be that they should much swerve from them For every effect is in his cause a thing can draw no other inclination then that that is drawne from its cause Therefore as the earthly man is so must the earthly be As Adam for I will not meddle with other interpretations of the Fathers because they are not pertinent to this place therefore ruleth all in this present life hee makes all his followers earthly and mortall so Christ rules all in the blessed life to come and makes all things contrary that is immortall and glorious and powerfull For in Adam all the world is ruled according to the censure of God upon sinne as God doomed sinne Earth thou art Gen. 3.19 and to earth thou shalt returne which was the sentence upon Adam and upon all his posterity So we see daily this sentence fulfilled upon us and upon ours upon all our progenitors and successors It failes upon none and those that shall be changed at the latter day it shall be unto them as a kind of death for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne it is the common voice of God upon nature Therefore in this life wee must looke to be as Adam was to have no other inheritance then hee hath left us In the life which is to come wee shall have an inheritance from the Lord of heaven It is true by the grace of the Gospell and by the faith we have in Christ Iesus we have something more then Adam gave unto us but of that we are not put into possession to inherit untill the Lord shall appeare from heaven For when Christ our life shall appeare then wee also shall appeare with him in glorie Colos 3.4 Colos 3.4 As is the earthly so are they that are earthly Not in respect of their manners as some of the Fathers by way of digression have noted upon this place and St. Chrysostom assents unto it and St. Augustine also yeelds to it but to insist upon the strict tearmes for we can goe no further nor we cannot make any better sense of it that wee are like Adam in all things in this life In our birth In
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
our heads Psal 104.1 God hath drawn out the heavens as a curtaine that it might be full of glorious starres and every starre gives a certaine document and lesson of this that he treats of the certaintie of the Resurrection So that there is no part of nature voyde but all proclaime this doctrine of the Resurrection And he proves that look what difference there is betweene the bodies that bee in heaven and those bodies that be here in earth the same difference there shall be betweene the bodies that shall be then and the bodies that are now And although there bee in some bodies that are in this world as in the bodies of Princes and the bodies of beautifull men and women a rare luster and a goodly glory a marvellous feature and a stampe of Gods Image incomparable yet in comparison of that which shall be it is nothing That body that shall be in the world to come doth as farre surpasse this whatsoever it bee suppose it the fairest and most delicate bodie in the world as the lightsome starres do passe the poorest stones on the earth or any common forme and figure in the earth is not so much transcended by the glory of the starres as the bodies in the Resurrection do transcend and surmount the glory of any thing that is seene here below This is the summe of the words Now that we may proceed in order First we are to consider Division into 2. comparisons how he draws this Argument from heavenly bodies and compares them with earthly bodies wherein he gives the preferment to the heavenly bodies in these words where he saith There is not the same glory to the one as to the other There is one glory of the heavenly and another of the earthly That is there is a farre inferiour glory of the earthly in comparison of that which is heavenly Then secondly he makes a comparison of the heavenly bodies among themselves that as there is great difference betweene the starres of heaven and the stones upon the earth so there is great difference betweene the starres of heaven one with another not onely being referred to the earth which can make no comparison with them but in comparison one with another as they are in heaven some of them being of one magnitude and some of another some of them being of one lustre and some of another there is great difference there also Some of the Fathers have understood this of the different state of glory that shall be in heaven In the first similitude they say the glory that shall be revealed upon the sonnes of God shall be as infinitely beyond all the glory that is now as the glory of the starres in heaven excels the glory here on earth And for the other point of difference in the starres themselves thereby is signified that the just shall all shine in heaven as starres but in a different manner as the starres do now One starre differeth from another in glory And so he concludes all this parable and similitude So is the resurrection of the dead That is even as we see these earthly things to be farre exceeded by the heavenly in all kinde of beautie in all kinde of glory in all kinde of durabilitie and in all kinde of qualities which are commendable so the Resurrection shall be That is the bodies that shall rise then shall farre exceed these that are now as farre as heavenly things exceed earthly things And even as now there is a difference betweene starres that all are not alike in glory and all have not a like lustre nor like power and influence so then in the Resurrection there shall be difference and degrees every man shall have enough yet notwithstanding every man shall not have the same Of these things briefly and in order as it shall please the Lord to give assistance And first concerning the nature of the Apostles Argument 1. Part or comparison hee takes it now from heavenly bodies The higher a man goes in the body of Nature the more he learnes and the better he seeth the worke of him that is the Author of nature the Creator himselfe There is a great mysterie great power of instruction in the works of God Rom. 1. The wisedome and majestie of God is seene in his works But then is he best seene when a man doth ascend and rise up the skale and proceed from lower works to higher For even as he that climbeth to the highest top of an hill may see the furthest off so hee that ascends in the works of God in the disposing of the world the more he advanceth the more clearly hee seeth and the greater revelation is made unto him All the works of God they are great masters and teachers unto us if we will learne any thing There is nothing so dull there is nothing so poore but it is able to teach us But yet among the rest there is nothing comparable to the heavens being the fairest booke and the goodliest volume wherein the glory of God is expressed above all other things As the Psalmist saith Psal 19.3 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shew his handy worke There is no voyce nor language in the earth wherein the speech of heaven is not heard As there is no angle nor corner that is hidde from the light of the Sunne Vers 6. and from the heat and power of the Sunne but he searcheth it out so there is no man that is indewed with any sence but he is taught by that heat and light the greatnesse of the Almighty which these earthly things cannot attaine unto For they be restive and they be dull they be contained in their places they have not that diffused power and operation that the Sunne and the starres have to worke every where Therefore there is no worke of God more teaching and instructing then the booke of the heavens And therefore Saint Paul now makes his argument from the stronger that if our gardens could teach us and if our seeds could teach us if our fields could teach us and if our flesh can teach us even this flesh that we carry about us if these could teach us these things that are elementarie and sublunarie if these have a power of instruction no doubt then that golden booke that rare-volumne that is above that is written with so many starres as so many golden letters and so fairely written Hab. 2.2 that he that runnes may reade it no doubt I say but this is fuller of discipline and can much more easily draw the Schollar as containing in it more familiar precepts and more moving examples to winne us unto God His comparison here is taken in the name of bodies heavenly bodies and earthly bodies By heavenly bodies is meant the starres because they are created substances and not imaginarie things as the Philosophers would have them in their flattery and foolery they thought that the great men that
the earth although in other respects it be the weakest and poorest of all the planets Lastly there is another glory of the Starres The stars are not comparable eyther to the Sunne or to the Moone Gen. 1.16 therefore it is said God made two great lights the one to rule the day and the other to rule the night The meaning is not because the Moone is greater than any of the starres of heaven for that it is not but it is spoken according to the opinion of men because it seemes to be greater to be the second to the sunne and almost as bigge as it therefore it is called a great light and because of the great office she hath in guiding the night and likewise in respect of her use the benefit of her in the growth of all things being great and her guydance also in the humours of mens bodies The starres therefore are innumerably different and for their number numberlesse And although the Mathematicians describe them to be no more but a thousand thousand and two and twenty starres according to the 48. Images which they describe in the firmament yet it is certaine that there be other starres that are not discerned which passe all number All these starres are sorted out into six magnitudes even into six differences not to stand now upon them In the first magnitude or difference there are but fifteene starres seven of them are in the South and three of them in the North and five in the Zodiaque And these are goodly starres that Navigators commend and say that the starres toward the South pole are more glorious then these which we see because of their double number The sixth magnitude is the least of all and yet the least starre that is in the heavens is so great that it exceeds the earth eighteene times over yet is it a wondrous thing that God hath made all these starres to draw their light from the Sunne For although they have a proper light of their owne yet it is so rustie that it hath no cleare explication of it selfe till it be enlivened by the light of the Sunne The starres therefore are never eclipsed because they alway see the Sunne the Moone is sometime eclipsed it doth not alway see the Sunne there is an interposition of the shadow of the earth that comes betweene her and him and that interposition makes her eclipse and lose her light But where the Apostle saith here that one starre differeth from another in glory his meaning is that one starre is of one magnitude and another of another and according to their bignesse is their glory their shining and their brightnesse Vse To teach all men that they should carry themselves according to their magnitude in the world He that is in the first magnitude to carry himselfe in a more glorious and brighter lustre then he that is in the second and the second then the third every man should keepe his magnitude here upon the earth for God hath appointed that the greatest magnitudes should serve for the greatest purposes in this world One starre differeth from another in glory that is as in bignesse and greatnesse so in use too Thus much of the bodies that he nameth Now we come to the hypothesis So is it in the resurrection of the dead This is that which the Apostle intends to proove first comparatively with these earthly bodies Secondly comparatively with the bodies that are glorious among themselves In the first sence he meanes thus As the Lord hath made severall magnitudes and great disproportion among the starres so that one differeth from another in glory even so as they differ in their bignesses so do the bodies at the Resurrection as they shall bee great and goodlie bigger then these so they shall be fuller of glory and excellencie The Lord shall make this earth to be heaven he shall so translate the properties of things he shall so amplifie and augment things farre surpassing the minde of man to imagine or to comprehend that wondrous picture that God shall draw upon this poore carkasse which now languisheth in this world that looke what difference there is betweene the creeping on the earth looke what difference there is betweene a worme and an Angell betweene the pebble stones upon the earth and the starres in heaven the Lord shall make the same difference above our expectation according to his promise in the bodies that he shall restore againe at the Resurrection Therefore his meaning is do not aske how they shall rise do not aske with what bodies they shall come For still the Apostle answers that question For they might object If the body that shall be raised shall be glorious then it shall not be the same and if it shall be of a spirituall nature the body shall be destroyed and shall not be the same Yes saith the Apostle it is the same even as all earthly bodies are the same among themselves in the generall element and the heavenly bodies as the starres are all celestiall bodies and yet there is a difference and one is more glorious then another So it shall be in the day of the Resurrection And for that point which our Divines and which the Fathers stand so much on indeed it is not safe for us to venture too much into it For although it be likely and true as Luther Luther saith that Saint Paul shall have more honour in heaven then a thousand other Christians he shall perhaps have more honour then all his persecutors that were converted by him he shall have more honour then all his schollars that followed him yet these things are spoken but by way of humane conjecture and cannot bee proved directly by the holy Scriptures How be it because it is the common tenent of the Fathers wee ought not to finde fault with them Pro. 22.28 nor to remove the ancient bounds and limits but to follow them in the doctrine they have taught us Therefore these things may assure us that as Saint Paul saith here one starre differs from another in glory so wee must extend it to this sence That in the day of the Resurrection the sonnes and daughters of God shall shine in the firmament as starres they shall all be starres but yet not of the same magnitude not of the same beautie and proportion not of the same excellencie And to this purpose the Schoole men have devised a distinction in the lawrell crownes that the Saints of God shall have and they say the joy in heaven is either substantiall or accidentall 1 Mat. 20 9. The substantiall joy that is all alike in every man for when they went into the vineyard the Lord gave unto every man a penie and no more The comfortable vision of God almightie the fruition of Christ and all his Saints that is the substantiall joy that is the penie There is another joy which is accidentall which is according to the labours of men according as they
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
will of God It is true thou art alone the onely man that hath overcome mee by thy justice and righteousnesse But this justice and righteousnesse is in thy selfe Escape therefore with thine owne life goe with thine owne priviledge trouble me not and that which belongs unto mee enter not into my possession the Lord hath given mee these sinners as hee gave thee to be no sinner What is thy holinesse to them that are unholy what is thy righteousnesse to them that are ungodly and sinners what passage can there be betweene thee and them to bring them out of my hands Yes the plea is to contention as St. Ierom saith They shall contend who shall have their spoiles and the Lord shall answer that he came not as a private man and that his works were not done personally for himselfe but they were publique actions for the redemption of mankind Therefore whatsoever hee did hee communicates it to his followers whatsoever he did it was for his subjects and servants If he overcame death in his owne person he hath done it not so much for himselfe as for those that beleeve in him that they might partake of his victory and that they might rejoyce for his victory that hee hath had over the world the flesh and the devill So the contention as St. Ierom saith comes upon Christs side by all reason because he hath satisfied the justice of God the Father because hee was offered a sacrifice of a sweet smell which shall be ever in record before God because his suffering was of an infinite nature being the second Person in the Trinity and the actions are alway given to the subject and to the principall the actions of Christ are not attributed to his humane nature but to his person and so also his merits and although he suffered in his humane nature properly and not in his Divine yet the merit and the glory of that suffering reflexed upon the Divine nature For not onely the blood but the blood of God was spilt for the satisfaction of the wrath of God and for the reconciliation of the world Therefore the Lord Iesus shall answer again in the plea that whatsoever he did he did it for the good of all them that belong to him I had never tooke flesh but to make all flesh blessed by my Incarnation I had never entred within the verge and list of my mortall body but to make all their bodies immortall so great is the benefit that I avow to man-kind that not onely my friends but also my enemies have that benefit by mee to have their bodies immortall whatsoever I have done either by way of suffering by way of merit by my miracles by my death and passion by my Resurrection and ascension into heaven I have done it not to reside onely in my owne nature but to communicate it that it may reside in my followers for I have made all the world of beleevers to partake of it This shall be the contestation as St. Ierome saith as if the Lord should heare the just plea of Christ and also the unjust wrangling of the death of nature he shall heare the cause and judge the matter on the part of our blessed Saviour which hath deserved by his death and passion to open the booke and to unloose the seales and to make good the promises to indow himself and all his followers in eternall possessions in that holy and heavenly city which is the Mother of us all Death is swallowed up into victory Now it followes concerning the time when this must be expected then shall be fulfilled this saying for these things be in order to be discussed It is true these things are accomplished now in some degree but the full accomplishment shall be then when wee shall be consummate then when Christ shall be consummate Christ is never full till his body be full hee beares such love to his Church that he is said yet to have reliques of passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1.24 the reliques of the passions of Christ The glory that Christ possesseth and is capable of which he is advanced unto in the highest perfection by his incarnation which the Lord stands now in possession of and he shall have no more glory conferred upon him then hee hath and hath had for these sixteene hundred yeares been possessed of but for the infinite love that hee beares to his children to those that are of his body he is said then to be compleat not before when all his members shall be completed then death shall be swallowed up into victory Death was swallowed up in victory when Christ rose againe when hee brought the spoyles of the grave away with him when the Lord raised him and when many bodies of the Saints which slept were carryed up with him to his Kingdome where he hath them now in heaven to converse with him and keepe him company then the Lord gave a gage and pawne of this that now shall be fulfilled but because those were but a few and because the fulnesse of the Church is that which Christ delights in the Apostle refers us to the hope and expectation of that time when we shall get the garment of immortality when we shall have that new coat of incorruption then we shall see that fulfilled and clearly accomplished which was spoken in former time Death is swallowed up into victory Not onely in the person of Christ but in thine and mine and all that have interest in Christ Death is swallowed up into victory that great swallower of all things in the world that consumes not onely the fraile bodies of men but the mighty monuments of marble and the greatest things that are most unlikely to be dissolved shaken asunder in the world the very earth it self the foundations of which we see oft stand trēbling and cast the firme continent into the great sea as it hath hapned to divers parts of the world Now this great swallower which was the destroyer and consumer of all things before and that never could meet with his match now he himselfe shall be swallowed up into compleat victory Therefore this must be our desire as souldiers after the victory we follow a master which is a victorious Captaine that was never foyled by any enemy but wheresoever hee goes he carries the field before him And souldiers wee know what great glory and glee they have what noysing of trumpets what erecting of spirits when they once come to be masters of their enemies there is not such a glorious sight under heaven as a victorious army returning from the spoile The Lord would teach us by this what wee should doe to lift up our spirits to prepare us for the insultation over this grisly enemy which is the devourer of all the voice of victory must be glorious as it is said of Lepanto when newes came to Venice that the Christians had the victory over the Turkes for three dayes together there was
and difficult is more easily atchieved and effected by the hand of God And he proves it out of Matth. 9.5 Mat. 9.5 where our Lord discoursing with the Pharisees when they had said who can forgive sinnes he askes them whether it were easier to say to the sicke of the Palsie take up thy bed and walke or to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee where our Lord clearely gives us to understand that it is a harder matter and a more powerfull thing to say thy sinnes are forgiven thee then to give limbs to him to walke and to take up his bed and goe his way For sicknesses are the punishments of sinne and the Lord removing that once he takes away the cause which is greater than the effect But although this be followed with so many so great and so worthy Interpreters yet me thinkes it hath no congruity with the purpose of the Apostle in this place for as I said before the Apostles meaning is not here to instruct us in the renovation of the soule of newnesse of life in holinesse and sanctification but to tell us of the resurrection of the flesh that is his chiefe argument the maine point he insisteth precisely upon Therefore to say to be baptised for dead is to be baptised for the name of a dead Christ it is too farre fetched and I cannot see how it can be brought in Therefore without prejudice to these glorious and goodly writers we proceed to further examination of these words There be some others that cannot indure what hath beene said before but they must devise trickes of their owne They say Saint Paul alludes to the Leviticall Law Numb 19. Numb 19. when a man had touched any dead carkasse he was to be cleansed before the even but suppose say they that the man dyed by casualty before night before he could come to the Priest before he could have gotten the matter of his purification what was then to be done Then say they his neighbour was to be cleansed for him and so they fall upon an opinion before named But what is their purpose certainly to bring in prayer for the dead because they thinke that as there was baptisme for the dead so there should be prayer for the dead And if the one fall to be so the other must needs be so too For I rather thinke that there should be prayer for the dead than that there should be baptising for them to speake in a sacramentall sence They doe it to bring in their superstitions of holy-water and sprinkling the graves and sepulchers and coffins of dead persons thereby to make them more pure before God and that which is more ridiculous that the Priest should undertake in times past and it may be now too in our times when he was sent for to a sicke body to give him the host and that the party were dead before he came he in the presence of the company was to eate it for him that was deceased and thought that that would be availeable to him for the forgivenesse of his sinnes and for the receiving him into heaven These things have no ground nor warrant neither in this Epistle nor in the old Law There is no such thing that there was any such purification by a proxie but it was alway done in a mans owne person and there was no friâ—nd admitted in any such action Therefore in that devise they make one lye to salve another as their custome is in other of their proceedings Further there is yet another opinion that saith that baptising for the dead it is meant of those that came and offered themselves voluntarily to afflictions and persecution And this is more neare the point for indeed in the Scripture it is a most usuall and common saying to call afflictions by the name of baptisme So Math. 20. Math. 20. Mark 9. Mar. 9. when the sonnes of Zebede come to our Lord and desire a boone of him requesting that one of them might sit at his right hand and the other at his left in his kingdome Christ answers them againe that they knew not what they asked And he proceeds further saith he Can ye drinke of that Cup whereof I shall drinke and can ye be baptised with the baptisme that I shall be baptised withall and they answer againe they could Christ tels them again that indeed they should drinke of that cup and be baptised with that baptisme but to sit at his right hand and at his left c. where we may see he speakes of the baptisme of fire and trouble and persecution That which is intended in those words the same also by comparison may be taught here and interpreted in this place They that are baptised for dead that is those that scorned their lives that cared not for them those that were ready to drinke the cup of Christ that were ready to throw themselves into danger for the glory of their Lord and Master To what end are they thus forward if there be no resurrection from the dead There be many things that favour this interpretation as the sequell that followes in the next words Where the Apostle saith why are we in danger or jeopardie every houre if the dead rise not as if he would bring the argument from abroad home to himselfe and then the sence of the place is this To what purpose doe men adventure their lives and cast themselves into apparant danger of death except they have a certaine hope of the resurrection to life and that that God that takes away their life now can give it them againe with advantage in the world to come This is true but whether it be fully proper or no to rest in this baptisme as absolute I thinke it lyes not in any mans power by any strong and full authority to determine It is true our Lord saith Luke 10. Luke 10. I have a baptisme to be baptised with and how am I pained till it be past Where he meanes in the same sence the baptisme of affliction For a man in affliction is as it were a dead man a man in prison as though he were in the bottome of the water in another element when there is persecution and trouble on every side But yet there is another opinion which shall be the last that at this time I will trouble you withall that is of Beza Beza and others that hold with him that all this that is spoken of baptisme here is not meant of any sacramentall washing but as the word is often used for a legall washing and purifying common and ordinary at the carrying forth of the dead as in Heb. 9. Heb. 9. there are many washings and the word is thus used in divers places in the Gospell As where Christ saith the Scribes and Pharisees when they come from the market they baptised their hands and they baptised their Cups and their Platters and Dishes It is the same word there and it signifieth
themselves dead men to the world that they may live unto God And so they may be said to be baptised for dead This is a true exposition yet I thinke it is not full because all are thus baptised there are none baptised but with this condition and as I said before this Text implies some speciall peculiar thing which pertaines to some men in particular and not to all in generall If it had pertained to all the Apostle would have said Why are we all baptised for dead But he speakes of a certaine number of men and what shall they doe those few eminent men that are baptised for dead if the dead rise not Concerning the other opinion of Beza Beza that Baptizati here must be taken for Loti for washing as they used in funerall pompe to carry their dead out of the world I confesse that may be admitted too because those that spend their time and cost in sending forth their dead in burying of them they would not doe it but that they testified thereby that they have a certaine hope of the resurrection of the dead But yet me thinkes this cannot be the full sence for it followes not because that all nations carry forth their dead with pompe that therefore the dead shall rise againe there is no force in this argument for they may doe it out of love or they may doe it because it is the common fashion and custome or they may doe it out of superstition because they thinke there is a kinde of commerce betweene the dead and the living Therefore To conclude all I hold that by baptising for dead is meant those that are baptised in the cup of bloud in the cup of affliction and persecution for Christ according as Christ saith himselfe I have a baptisme to bee baptised with Luk. 12. Luke 12.50 And as he saith to the sonnes of Zebedee Can you be baptised with the baptisme that I shall be baptised with and drinke of the cup that I shall drinke of which baptisme is affliction And this the Apostle proves by the sequell of the Text for as I said there is no way to understand the Scriptures but to consider that which goes before and that which comes after and to marke what he saith in the words following Why doe we suffer why are we in jeopardy every houre As if he should have said my reason why there is a certainty of the resurrection is this because both the Church in generall and we in particular and speciall are in danger and jeopardy every day and we would not be so mad as to take dangers unto us without some reason unlesse we looked for something and expected some recompence Therefore certainely unlesse we will under-value all the actions of Gods Saints and all the sufferings of his Martyrs except we will say they did it in a madnesse and in a fury and that it was superstition which we cannot doe without blasphemy we must confesse that it is a pregnant proofe and a forcible argument of the resurrection from the dead For indeed there is nothing that doth so well conclude it as those that suffer for it as the sufferings of those that professe it And one maine cause of persecution is the doctrine of the resurrection as the Apostle saith Acts 23.6 Acts 23.6 For the hope of the resurrection am I judged and accused and called in question this day The divell and his complices seeke to impugne it it being the highest and strongest tower of our faith for there is nothing whereby the mindes and consciences of Gods children are stablished but in the expectation of the promises propounded in the Gospel which are none at all if they be not to the body For all the service of God is performed with these our bodies and if these vessels these bodies shall lye rotting and unregarded all the service of God shall be voyd of recompence and respect because those parts that were used to Gods service shall have nothing for their service Now the God of heaven is the best Master that can be he will suffer no man to serve him for nothing Iob 1.9 as the divell confessed of Iob Doth Iob feare God for nothing The Apostle therefore brings the argument from the common passion that was abroad in the Church to that which was particular in himselfe And he saith we also our selves we whom you know there be many in the world that you know not which have suffered for Christ but we whom you see and converse with why are we subject to danger every day and not onely suffer them with an averse disposition but we take them of our owne will upon our selves we seeke for them for the glory of Christ and for the propagation of the Gospell and either we shall have a reward and recompence for this or else we are of all men most mad that will undertake such dangers without any reward and recompence To proceed in order First here we are to consider the manner of his proposition in question wise Why doe we suffer Division into foure parts and before Why are they baptised for dead Secondly the subject of the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we also Thirdly the predicate we are in jeopardie in danger and it is the worst life in the world to live in danger as it is the best life to be secure Fourthly the extent of it not for an houre or for a short time but every houre every moment there is no minute of our lives but we are in jeopardie Lastly the force of the argument how this proves because there have beene many heretiques in times past that have suffered themselves to be in danger in affliction and oppression for falshood How proves this then that to be in danger for the Resurrection is an argument that there shall be a Resurrection because that many for falshoods have beene in danger these be the passages of this Text of which briefly and in order First concerning the manner of his proposall 1 The manner He doth it by way of question It serves to stirre up our dulnesse to understand these things that be plaine and implies that we have lost our time unlesse we palpably discerne these matters here propounded For those things that are propounded by way of question saith Isidore Isidore are more effectuall and exprobrate and upbraid men for the dulnesse of their spirits if they doe not conceive those things that are plaine and obvious to the world Why doe we thus As if he should have said You spectators that looke upon our passions you are sencelesse if you knew not the end why we doe thus So he argues from the end and scope of the thing which is the chiefe and principall argument that can be For all things worke for some end all men suffer for some end there is no action that a man doth but it tends to some end and purpose and unlesse we be the
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
Have no fellowship with the unprofitable workes of darkenesse This language here this ill language Ephes 5.11 it is called Caba taken from a word used in warre Quaere The Greeke word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeâ—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth fearefull cowardly sloaâ—hfull the Cabaly they are flying away still and running backe so in evill there is nothing but trembling and feare and running backe and want of security a man knowes not where to lurke safe therefore he turnes him this way and that way and runs before any man persecute him as the Prophet saith We see the quality now of these Adversaries Now we come a little to their fight how they meete together and who overcomes Corrupt good manners Good manners being well settled in us and comming to be a second nature Thiâ—d poynt the action betwixt Evill words and good manners they corrupt them as it were the spirit of God being our guardian they become impregnable against the divell But if they have a small and slacke guard and are intrenched onely within the bounds of reason and common religion or a perfunctory profession then Sathan is powerfull and the examples of the world are bewitching and a mans owne flesh his owne selfe is false to himselfe and in a moment or short time they make such a battery and assault upon him that all the whole Fort is yeelded to the divell and so evill words corrupt good manners If good words could amend evill manners it were excellent and so sometimes they doe by the blessing of God But on the other side there is a fearefull losse which is frequent and common for wheras once good manners mend evill a thousand times ill manners corrupt good for we have a divellish disposition in us till the Lord worke it out by his spirit and this divell is so false that if we want corruption rather then we will not be corrupted we will corrupt our selves and turne divels to our owne soules For what else are these common and daily fashions that are used in the world but a voluntary seeking after corruption Psal 4.2 as the Prophet saith Psalm 4. How long will ye seeke after lyes All these devices whereby we pamper this flesh of ours they are meer huntings after corruption that though corruption flee from us yet we runne after it and overtake it This pride and prancking of these poore tabernacles we carry about us which are nothing but dust and ashes These extraordinary eatings and drinkings These high surfettings These great and mighty spendings What are these but very voluntary running a whoring after our owne inventions and a seeking to be corrupted And because we thinke there is nothing without us to corrupt us therefore we will have it within us rather than we will want it Bern. 1 Tim. 6.9 Saint Bernard speaking of that place of the Apostle Those that will be rich fall into divers snares oh saith Bernard our rich men if they had heard him they would have wished they had had more snares and thinke themselves miserable because they have not So although they goe to hell they care not if they can but make themselves heavy laden with this thick clay Habac. 2.6 as the Prophet speakes They care for nothing else The like corruption is upon all men and especially in these dayes there was never more corruption of manners than in this last and sinfull age of the world of which the Lord foretold and we by lamentable experience finde it corruption growes so strongly every day The word Corruption signifieth in the best and most common notion to bring a thing to wormes to bring it to lice as the body of Herod by the stroke of the Angell for his proud speech was brought to Vermine and Lice in a moment So all things that are corrupted they grow to a mouldring out of which mouldering there growes wormes if the matter be vegetable or had any life in it corruption being in it selfe a meere alteration to a not being from a being As generation makes a thing to be that was not before so Salvianus Salvianus saith those things that be corrupted are not themselves any longer after they be corrupted So consequently in the manners of men when they be corrupted there is such an alteration and change that a man cannot say that this is the man We see by wofull experience how quicke corruption is that in a short time a man cannot know one to be the same A youth that hath beene educated in the feare of God for fourteene or fifteene yeares and is well grounded and settled in the schooles send him into another part of the world but one halfe yeare and many times all the frame and building of his former education will be utterly ruinate and the party so corrupted that a man would wonder at the beastlinesse and strangenesse of such a fatall change From hence come those frequent complaints every where in the Church of God there are so many blasts of adverse winde so many examples of filthinesse in the world that they change every thing and take away the glosse and beauty and perfection of it and instead of the Image of God they imbrace the picture of the divell and it is done before a man is aware so quickly are we deceived and so soone brought to destruction Bern. As Saint Bernard saith well of such What art thou come to now what a Saint hast thou beene in time past and what a divell art thou now turned too thou begunnest farre better than thou endest and the first time the first part of thy graces were more excellent than thy latter times are Oh what a great change there is how unlike is this man to that childe being a man to thy selfe now when thou wast a childe nothing is more fearfull then this Let our gold and silver corrupt let our garments corrupt let theeves breake through and steale them let all things without us corrupt But let us keepe our manners pure they are our best and choicest treasure that should sit in our mindes and keepe their residence in the Court of heaven in the soule and conscience God forbid that they should be corrupted or if they be let us labour to returne presently to grace wherby corruption may be amended and a reparation made by the Spirit of God Evill words corrupt good manners Where naturall corruption is it comes alway from a kinde of heat from a strange outward heat all corruption whether it be of fruits or the corruption of mens bodies or any other thing it comes with a certaine outward heat which frightens the naturall heat and overcomes it and so works all to a beastly and monstrous disease and so to a meere nothing at last Corruption is made in the tenderest things those that are more solid receive lesse corruption and endure longest As stones and trees because of the hardnesse and firmnesse of their
the corne grows thus because it hath a double end For as you know it is made after a kinde of a long fâ—shion with two ends out of which co es the moysture and juyce which is the life and soule of the seed For if those ends should be cut or bitten off the seed could never rise againe Therefore the Ants and pâ—smires those creatures that hoard up corne against the Winter when they carrie it into their holes where they lay it they are carefull to bite off both ends of the corne to snappe them off For they understand by nature that if they should let them alone the corne would sprout and so they could not live on it God hath given them this instinct to know that out of the two ends comes the soule and life and juyce as being in those ends brought to a point out of which the life worketh This now the husbandman easily understands But the mystery concerning the body he doth not understand so well but yet he must make the argument from his field to Gods field from his hand to Gods hand from the blessing upon the corne to the blessing upon the body and then he shall see that the argument will follow clearly Is it possible that the Lord should have such a care and providence of a poore dead corne that fals into the earth that hee should raise it againe with a new colour and in great abundance and multiply it that it grows from one state to another from a blade to an eare and from thence to full corne in the eare Is it possible the Lord shall thus proportion and suite his power to a graine of corne that fals into the ground and will he neglect the temples of the holy Ghost will he neglect the image of God the body upon which he hath drawne the lineaments of Christ and for which he hath made a promise that hee will conforme it unto his body If God be carefull for the fowls of heaven and for the lillies of the field Mat 6.30 much more will hee be carefull for us oh we of little faith Therefore the bodies of the Saint are so precious in Gods sight that all the corne in the world doth not amount to that summe as one of those bodies For God gave the body of his Sonne to redeeme the body of the meanest of his and shall we doubt but that he that is so rich in glory upon the weake dead body of the corne will be much more glorious and powerfull in raising up these roots of life againe which though they seeme to bee dead are breeding of immortality by the power of him that is able by his mighty power to subdue all things to himselfe Saint Chrysostome askes the question saith he why did not the Apostle rather runne to the same argument that hee alledgeth to the Philippians to the omnipotencie of God Phil. 3.21 rather then to take this argument For when he treats there with the Philosophers Phil. 3. concerning this argument he proves it from that maine point because God can do all things therefore he will do this From whence wee looke for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power c. But saith he the Apostle here to these thought this the best teaching Hence we may learne Vse that it is a singular kinde of teaching when a man can instruct his scholler by the trade that he is frequently exercised in which hee is most familiar with That teaching is most operative and working the most impressive teaching that can be So our Lord Iesus teacheth his disciples that were fishermen out of their owne trade Come Mat. 4.19 and I will make you fishers of men So when he speaks to the common people to the multitude hee teacheth the plough-man by a plough-man Matth. 13.3 A sower went forth to sowe seed and some fell on the high way and some fell on thorny ground and some on good ground So Saint Paul Act. 17. he teacheth the Athenians which is a strange doctrine by their owne idols Act. 7.23 Ye men of Athens I see ye are too much given to superstition and idolatrie for as I came by one of your altars I see it written there To the unknowne God So our Saviour Christ teacheth men to make them friends of the unrighteous mammon Luk. 16.9 by the common lucre and gaine which was gotten among the Publicanes And in S. Iohn Baptist every man hath a lesson out of his owne trade he said to the souldiers do thus and to the Publicans Luk. 3. do thus still he teacheth them out of their owne particular calling and actions To teach us to labour and desire in this manner every one to bee taught out of those things that are common and obvious daily to us for therein is the greatest power of perswasion He that is conversant about the fire in fire-works and especially such as worke in glasse-houses where if he cannot see a cleare picture of hell he is a very sencelesse man and very bruitish in his understanding Psal 107.23 He that goes downe to the sea in ships and exerciseth his businesse in great waters if he cannot see a wondrous act of Gods providence in his preservation he understandeth nothing He that is a Student and doth not see in his books and the difficulties of learning and remembring if he do not see the infinite and admirable blessing of the Almighty in saving his wits and memory and in raising him from one degree of learning to another hee understands nothing In our ordinarie meats and drinks he that seeth not God seeth nothing hee hath his feeding and preservation from him and therein hee hath a signe of his everlasting refreshment and preservation Let us therefore scorne no Art nor thinke basely of any kinde of labour and good exercise because there is matter of good doctrine lyeth in the poorest profession that can be That which thou sowest I will prove out of thine owne actions out of thy owne trade this doctrine that I teach Thou that propoundest this question thou art not more simple then a plough-man and I will prove it unto thee from thence by the poorest labour in the earth for the man that tils the ground he is of lesse account then an Artizan yet even the very plough-man shall prove and make good that this doctrine that I teach is probable and possible And why because That which thou sowest is first dead and then it is quickened againe Concerning the dying of the corne the Philosophers make a distinction because they knew not this doctrine of the Resurrection They thought when the habite was gone when the privation had put out the habite that it could never come backe againe Therefore they thought that the corne had ever life in it But the Scripture tels us that it is dead that is it is dead to us
grosse heresies for which he is said to deny the Resurrection notwithstanding hee denyed it not but he had a conceit that the bodies of men and women should rise and then after that they should dye againe and another Resurrection should come after that and another after that and in every Resurrection they should bee lesse and lesse untill they were brought to nothing Thus in effect he denyed it But the truth is by the doctrine of the Scriptures and of the Apostles that the Resurrection shall make our bodies nothing lesser but greater and it is certaine that the stature and proportion of those that shall be raised to glory in the life to come shall bee infinitely more great then that which they have now Numb 13.33 they shall be like gyants in respect of grassehoppers according to their speech that went to spie out the land of Promise We see now in this small stature that we have in this world what a goodly sight it is to see a tall proper man they be as it were the gyants of the earth the glory of the world they be the chiefe copies of Gods great and wondrous power and there is that state and majestie in their bodies which is not to be found in the persons of little men As also we see that those countries which naturally bring forth such tall and mighty men they have great priviledges and presidents of honour given unto them that God hath done by them mighty and marvellous works in the world Therefore the glory of manhood consists now in a strait and tall procerity in a goodly proportion of limbes and bignesse of body In which regard Saul was commended that hee was higher then all the people by the head and shoulders And so in Homer 1. Sam. 9.1 Homer great men have still this commendation they are men that are eminent above their fellows that are of such a proportion I say then if it be the glory of humanity if it be the glory of manhood not to be dwarfish and small but to bee of a goodly stature in this world we must imagine that God will bring us to all perfection in the other world he will bring all his Saints to a goodly bignesse to a comely tallnesse and proportion as a little corne of wheat brings a goodly tall and beautifull eare of corne out of a small graine that is cast into the ground Therefore there is no diminution to bee imagined as if the body should grow lesse and lesse till it come to nothing but there shall bee a great ampliation the Lord extending and driving out the body drawing it to the full lineaments and to the perfect length So the Apostles similitude inferres against Origen and those that maintained his opinion Now these things are very plaine in the open experience of nature but because we see not the things signified by them which we are to beleeve therefore they are held to flesh and bloud incredible to a man that is not acquainted with the field that is not seene and experimented in this kinde he would think it impossible that out of such a poore principle as a graine of corne there should come such a deale of grace and beauty as that verdure of colour and such a flower and leafe of grasse as the flagge of it that there should come so much straw to support it and that there should be such a structure in the knops of it that there should be such abundance in the treasure of it We should thinke these things meerly impossible but that common use and experience makes us cease to wonder And if we could see that which is spirituall as we do this that is outward we should as well be induced to subscribe and consent to it But in the outward thing in the world we see the sowing and the mowing we see the sowing and the reaping the seed time and the harvest Therefore by much experience we are taught to beleeve it without doubting But for that which is spirituall for the Resurrection we see onely the time of sowing but wee cannot live to see the time of mowing in this world For the bodies are sowne and the seed lyes rotting in the ground some five thousand yeares some lesse but all a long time yet it pleaseth God to bring as it were the dew of heaven upon them to raise them from their graves unto the harvest Then that truth which we now beleeve shall appeare as plainly as that which we apprehend by sence The thing which the Apostle would teach us here I will but summarily touch at because all this spâ—ech except it were better uttered is meerly unprofitable * In regard of his extream cold and unpleasant also I will therefore cut off all superfluity and onely touch that which is meerly necessary and elementarily pointed at First the Apostle tels us what is mans part And then what is Gods part in the matter of sowing and so we must apply it to the Resurrection For that is the Apostles purpose as being a parabolicall doctrine from a similitude and therefore he rests not in the outward letter but referres and reduceth us to the purpose and intent of it which is to prove the truth of the Resurrection Now the part that man doth he speaks of it Division into 1. Mans Part. 2. Gods Part. first negatively what he doth not sowe And then affirmatively what is sowne Negatively what he doth not sowe he soweth not that that shall be And then he shews affirmatively what he doth sowe a bare graine a bare corne devoyd of such ornaments as God afterwards gives unto it Then in the next part what God doth he gives it a body to every seed the same body The same body in essence and substance but so changed and bettered and altered that a man would thinke it were impossible to bring out of such a foundation such a kinde of conclusion And because the Lord is wondrous in all his works therefore he gives to every seed it s owne peculiar body although there bee many changes and differences yet it comes to it selfe againe to that it was before and it runnes as it were in a kinde of a circle he gives it its owne body And the way and manner and reason of all this is As he pleaseth For he doth whatsoever it pleaseth him in all the works of nature and in all the works of grace 1. Part. Mans part handled first negatively 2. Affirmatively Concerning the first point it is said the sower soweth not that body that shall be Which wee know to be true for hee soweth neither an eare nor hee soweth not a flagge neither soweth he a hawne nor a straw nor a knot in the straw hee soweth none of these 1 Negatively what man sows not Not that body that shall be yet notwithstanding hee soweth that which hath all these in it potentially in the power of it by the blessing
it is impossible for the body shall never grow worse and worse by degeneration but it shall bee brought by the power of God to that high perfection that it shall still be infinitely better and yet still it selfe it shall still be the selfe same in essence though not in qualities It shall be the same in substance and nature but not the same in eminencie of grace and glory It shall be the same in being but not the same in seeming or in circumstance And so Saint Chrysostome saith It is the same and not the same it is the same as touching the fundamentall essence of it and it is not the same concerning the augmentation and the rare qualities that God shall impose upon it and invest it withall And so I say it is that comfortable doctrine to this flesh of ours that there shall not be any other flesh glorified for it but that this flesh that hath suffered martyrdome this flesh that hath suffered hunger and thirst sicknesse and persecution in the world this flesh that hath suffered for Christ this flesh and no other but this shall receive the crowne of glory according to the manifold evils it hath indured Otherwise there could be no true consolation in this life seeing the spirit also shall have larger indowments The soule of man the wit shall be greater and the memory greater and all the parts and faculties shall be more excellent in the soule Now these being not visible parts therefore they are not that which shall rise For it is that which is visible which belongs to the Resurrection the glory of the soule cannot be manifest it is still hidden and inherent in the inner-man But this glory that shall be at the Resurrection it shall be manifest and there is no manifestation made but to the eye and the outward sences Therefore here comes the comfort to every poore distressed body that the same that suffers and is miserable afflicted and tormented in this world the very same body shall receive abundance of joy and comfort and glory and beautie in the day of the Lord. The poore creple that goes double that moves every mans heart to pittie to see him in the streets he shall rise with a glorious and goodly body being incorporate into Christ by faith he shall receive a body full of ample complements and blessed perfections To every seed his owne body If it be the same body how then is it a new body Ob. and how then in the Scripture is it called a glorious body which makes it different This I told you shall be by addition of certaine accidents of glory that shall acrew unto it Ans which cannot be separated as accidents may be from their subject but they indure with it continually And that consists 1. Partly in that goodly proportion that I spake of before wherein all men shall be raised in one size Not as they are now where there is great difference but all shall be of one stature and perfection And therein they shall more resemble the Image of God then if they should be made in greater variety 2. Secondly another qualitie wherewith they shall be indowed is the clearnesse and brightnesse of those bodies For although they shall not be transparent and translucent which is no property of a true body yet they shall be so full of light and gloriousnesse as the Lord Iesus his body were when he was transfigured in mount Tabor his garments did so shine that no Dyer or Fuller in the earth was able to make such a tincture or to give such a colour and glosse Mat. 17. as the garments of our Lord had Much more then was his countenance glorious and shining And if in the old Law Exod. 34.30.33 the glory of Moses face were so great that the Iewes could not endure to looke upon him but he was faine to take a veile and cover his face when hee read the Law that so they might heare what he spake without astonishment much more shall the glory of the bodies of the Saints be at that day They shall be all lightsome they shall shine like the starres in the firmament they being often compared in the Scriptures to the starres which cannot be numbred Thirdly another qualitie wherein they shall be like unto the corne The corne that seemed to bee a dead graine yet after comes to have an excellent greene colour and live so these bodies shall exceed in proportion of beauty There is great difference now some are faire and some are foule creatures and those that are the faire ones of the world they thinke themselves onely happie and those that are deformed they thinke they had better beene unborne then to live in the world Indeed it is a matter of great dejection and scorne to a naturall man to have a poore deformed body Therefore the Lord shall so alter all things in that day that every man shall have equall beauty The glorious Saints in heaven their perfection is one and the same perfection they shall have a common perfection like the Angels that waite before the Lord and the Seraphins that have the selfe same perfection and beautie shining upon them all although it be not sensible to us but is seene onely among themselves Fourthly all this glosse stature and goodlinesse that they shall have except it have also strength and vigour it is little worth Therefore God shall give them that too That as the corne riseth with an high stalke to a goodly stemme and hath knops to underproppe and support and keepe it up whereupon it is builded so the Lord saith Rev. 3.12 he that heares the word of God he will make him a pillar in the house of his Father that is he shall have the strength and glory and the fortitude of the great men of God that hee shall be able to do any thing that God shall assigne him to with great dexterity And all this with a further grace of incorruption for the seed that is sowne although it come up with a faire glosse for a time yet it presently corrupts and is brought unto a drie straw and stubble and that which is greene now to morrow it is cast into the fire But the Lord shall give unto this glorious glosse whereunto he shall bring the bodies of his Saints he shall give them an incorruptible crowne 1. Pet. 1.18 It is a crowne that is incorruptible an inheritance immortall that never hath any change The best beauty in this worldly glory a fit of an Ague will change it and long sicknesse will turne the fairest rose into an ashy coale there is nothing so subject to change and alteration as the glosse of beauty But that strength and beauty and goodlinesse of the creature after the resurrection shall be supported by that ever mighty power of Almighty God so that there shall bee no old age to draw wrinckles in the face of his Saints there shall be no sicknesse to
make them wither there shall be no griefe of heart no discontent of minde to make an alteration in the outward man there shall be nothing to make a change because God shall crowne them in heaven with incorruption And lastly the Lord shall give them another quality which shall be the rarest of all the rest And that is a strange agility and nimblenesse of body that they shall be able to move upward or downward as it shall please them While we are here in this life we have heavy bodies a man must walke upon his owne foundation hee must have the scaffold of the earth under him But if hee presume any further and offer to go any higher with Daedalus and with Icarus he shall be cast into the sea hee exposeth himselfe unto danger and his waxen wings will be fired by the beames of the Sunne But then at that day though our bodies in all things substantiall shall be like these and shall still bee true bodies yet the glory of them shall be so great and the strength and power that the spirit shall have over this flesh shall be so absolute as to command it which way it pleaseth When we move now either we go forward or backward or side-wayes or else downward but upward we cannot but then the Lord shall give us ability to move upward too And this is that the Apostle saith we shall be taken we shall bee snatched up to meete the Lord in the clouds 1. Thes 4.17 there shall bee such a mightie power and prevalencie in the spirit of man to rule and command the body The Lord hath given us instances of it in some things in the Gospell Mat. 14 26.29 Our Lord himselfe walked upon the water and not onely he himselfe but he gave Peter power to walke with him And this was a signe of that he meanes to do at the day of the Resurrection As their bodies then walked and were sustained by the power of God in the ayre and was able to make that which is fluent and soft and yeelding in it selfe to make it a sollid pavement like unto the stones to walke upon the same power shall also worke in our bodies that agilitie which is in the Eagle So the Prophet speaks yea our Lord compares us where he saith Where the body is Mat. 24.28 thither will the Eagles resort which is meant not onely of a spirituall flight by faith but also of the bodies assumption And this our Lord confirmed by the Ascention of his owne body Iob. 14.2 for he went before to prepare a place for us that beleeve in him Now we know that his body ascended to heaven it had the power to move upward as well as any other way We have examples of it also in Henoch and Elias which were both translated Elias carried in a fierie Car to heaven 2. King 2.11 And all this with eternitie and immortalitie that there shall not any thing of it passe away there shall be no expectation of death there shall be no feare of change This is the greatest thing of all when God shall give fulnesse of glory to have also full security For whatsoever glory men have in this world so long as they know that there is a worme â—hat can gnaw it or that it is possible for them to be outed this glory is nothing because it is glory that may be no glory Such is the state of these worldly things that there is nothing so great but it is subject to be brought from that greatnesse But the Lord shall give this glory for ever and ever as himselfe is he that is eternall in himselfe he is eternall to all those that he shall make his followers and companions in that blessed kingdome For they also shall receive that part of eternitie as farre as they are capable It is this safetie and securitie that makes this blessing amiable and for that the Lord hath given us an example for securitie in Scripture where for forty yeares together in the wildernesse the Lord so provided that there was no mans cloaths that were rent or worne not so much as the soale of his shoe impaired by that long and tedious travell We see also they had securitie of food continually it never ceased to follow them but in convenient time was still administred to them Therefore it follows that God that can do these things for garments for these ragges that we weare upon our bodies he meanes much more to do it to the bodies themselves As Christ saith Is not the body better then rayment Mat. 6.25 then garments Seeing therefore that he did it unto garments that are of farre lesse worth will hee not do it unto the bodies themselves He that kept their garments 40. yeares without wearing and yet what weares so soone as a garment he was able to have done it for eternity if it had pleased him But God gave them that for an instance to shew that these things belong in a higher nature and degree and measure to the setting forth of the lifâ—â—ternall and were to foreshew and to be an earnest of that infinite glory which God hath reposed for them that wait for the comming of his Sonne Which the Lord worke for us all c. 1 COR. 15.39 All flesh is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of man there is another flesh of beasts another of fishes and another of fowls THere is nothing more plain and easie then the sence of these words they are knowne to every man by experience And yet it is very hard to finde out the intent and reason why they were uttered Divers men have diversly commented upon them For some think as Tertullian Tertull. others that follow him that the Apostle speaks not as he seemeth to do of the flesh of beasts and of the flesh of men and of fishes and birds but by an allegorie comprehends some other thing concerning the diversitie and degrees of men And so he interprets The flesh of men that is of holy and just and good men There is one flesh of men that is of holy men for they are properly to be called men A man so farre forth as he is unholy so farre forth he comes short of a man and those are onely truly and really men that be good And then by the flesh of beasts he saith the Apostle meanes the flesh of beastly heathen men the flesh of Ethnicks of those that do not beleeve in God those that do not beleeve in Christ the Saviour of the world He saith such are beasts for they differ not world He saith such are beasts for they differ not from beasts neither in their sence nor in their conversation Then for the third there is another flesh of fishes he saith by fishes are meant those that are baptised and regenerate by water the fishes of our Lord Iesus Christ Mat. 4.19 whereof he said to his disciples I will make
wit and the best sence and judgement excels the naturall foole looke how farre the strongest man excels the weakest childe so farre the bodies that shall bee raised up in that glorious day shall excell the best and the brightest bodies that are here in this world For saith he as God hath made severall sorts of flesh now and hath given a bestnesse and a worstnesse in them that there is great difference and it is well knowne to us how they differ so in the Resurrection there shall be nothing there the worst shall be more glorious then the best and most noble perfections that are here And so I thinke it to bee true as the Fathers imagine that it is spoken of the difference that shall bee but it cannot bee directly prooved by Scripture as Peter Martyr Peter Mart. saith Although it be true that there shall be some inferiour unto others there yet we must not rest upon it nor make comparisons of it There is nothing that shall be so bad in that kingdome but it exceeds all the best things that are in this There is nothing that shall bee so meane in that life but it shall exceed the most glorious things in this life This I take to bee the purpose and meaning of the Apostle in bringing in this difference to shew that if there be a difference here much more shall there be there There is as much difference betweene the body that dyes here and the body that shall rise then being compared together as there is betweene fish and flesh as much difference as is betweene one part and member and another All of them are indeed flesh but yet there is one kinde of vigour and one kinde of use and life and motion in the one and another kind in the other and so it shall be at the Resurrection To conclude the summe of all is this Vse that wee prepare our selves in a continuall expectation with blessed Iob looking for our change Iob 14.14 to depend upon the Lord God to trust in him that is able to set his Image in a farre more glorious stampe then he did before that can renew his broad seale and out of one peece of elementarie dust can raise such wondrous matters as are here spoken of What is the most beautifull body in the world what is the goodliest flesh what is the fairest colour in comparison but a bag of dust and yet how marvellously hath God wrought upon this dust out of a poore meane ground to draw such a lively colour such an excellent picture upon nothing but dust It is a strange thing so to fortifie it with comely bones to fill it every where every concavitie of it with a faire beauty of flesh to adorne it with such a goodly glosse and colour like the flourishing flowers of the field to continue it thus for twenty or thirty yeares in this faire glosse and goodly composure this is the most wondrous act of God! Teaching us Vse that there is a further matter that remaines that he that hath wrought upon dust in this manner now his hand is not shortened but hee can worke upon the dust that shall be raised out of the grave againe hee can draw the lines upon it and breathe upon it as he saith by his holy Prophet Heare the word of the Lord ye dry bones Ezek. 37.4.8.10 and it is said the bones gathered together and the Lord breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up The Lord is able to do these things and certainly these colours and this flesh that we carry in this world they are as earnest penies of that glorious flesh that shall be collated and confirmed upon us when this life shall be ended Onely as we looke for these things so let us sanctifie our selves to the Lord God let us keepe our selves unblameable in the wayes of the Lord let us reconcile our selves by true and unfeigned repentance Iam. 1.27 let us keepe our selves unspotted of the world that this flesh may not be tainted with the pollutions of sinne but that it may be preserved for that use which it was appointed for even to be a temple and tabernacle for the Holy Ghost for so it shall be sure to have this blessed change put upon it There is as much difference betweene that which is now and that which shall be as there is difference betweene any parts of the body naturall as much difference as there is betweene unsensible and sensible creatures as there is betweene men and beasts as much difference as there is betweene the flyer and the swimmer betweene fish and fowls Yet still the same flesh shall be the same flesh shall rise that dyed but the Lord shall adde unto it Ambr. he shall ampliate it saith S. Ambrose he shall make it better he shall not destroy the substance but he shall adde a new qualitie a new glorious quality which shall indure for ever 1 COR. 40.41 And bodies heavenly and bodies earthly but one is the glory of the heavenly and another that of the earthly one glory of the Sunne another glory of the Moone and another glory of the Starres for one starre differeth from another in glory So also is the Resurrection of the body THis noble and divine order which the Apostle hath taken for the assurance of our faith in this grand point of the Resurrection is noted by all Interpreters to be the glory of that spirit within him that he could not possible shew a greater evidence of the holy Ghost then in this manner of proceeding Therefore Tertullian Tertull. saith that Saint Paul did with all the strength of the holy Ghost bend and imploy himselfe in this Argument His meaning is with all the strength of the holy Ghost that Saint Paul was capable of For otherwise it cannot be said of any man that he can use all the strength of the holy Ghost for the strength and power of the holy Ghost is more then any man can comprehend But the order I say is so excellent and divine that he leaves no part of nature unransacked and unpierced for the finding of some argument and some evidence of the Resurrection First he taught us to finde it in our gardens in our fields in the things that are sowne in those things that are under our feet Then afterward he riseth somewhat higher and teacheth us to finde it in our flesh that we carry about us in the flesh of men in the flesh of beasts in the flesh of birds in the flesh of fishes in which as there is great varietie so all this present variety serves to shew and portend a variety in the world to come in the bodies that shall rise And now hee riseth higher and teacheth us to finde the Resurrection and the varietie of the bodies that shall be in the Resurrection from a comparison that he takes from heaven and heavenly things that we may see it also above
deserved well in this world were turned into starres and so they imagined Hercules and Antonius and Arctophilax and a great number of toyes and trifles that they devised as though the starres were the bodies of men or that they were persons of a spirituall substance But the Lord teacheth us that they are no earthly bodies they are things that were created in the first beginning and they are bodies which notwithstanding seeme to be nothing lesse then bodies they seeme to be spirituall things to be spirits rather then bodies being of such a swiftnesse and of that rare operation and brightnesse Yet the Lord tels us that they are bodies that is that they have a kind of earthlinesse in them they have a kinde of matter in them For although they be farre different from these inferiour things from these inferiour bodies yet in respect of the first Creator they are but bodies For there is but one spirit there is but one pure Spirit which is God himselfe All things else have a kinde of dreggie matter in them which makes them bodies the bodies which are heavenly that is the starres are bodies because they are visible because they are circumscribed because they have figure and proportion and they are bodies because they are kept within a certaine compasse and limit Whence it follows that seeing they are bodies therefore they are not to be worshipped as the Heathens used to do and as the Indian people at this day worship them but hence we see they ought not to bee worshipped Why even because they are but bodies nay they are insensible bodies they have not sence to guide them So that for all their puritie and the use they are of to the world yet in the perfection of life they are not comparable unto the beasts of the field for the beasts of the field that have sence are more perfect in their kinde then the Sunne in the firmament Eatenus because to have life and sence is a better kinde of being then to be without it The starres are bodies without sence they are bodies without soules and they are over-ruled by other things or else as they bee bodies they could not possible rule themselves Now these goodly bodies how they should bee carried up and downe every 24. houres after what manner whether they flye as the birds in the ayre so they in their spheares and orbes or whether they swimme as the fishes in the sea as divers men have imagined a man would thinke that one of those wayes they must needs be moved but it is certaine they do neither of them For they have a mighty power that God hath given them and the Angels execute this power and they turne the whole globe over Psal 104.2 as the Psalmist saith where he cals it the curtaine of heaven which is bespangled with stars and the whole curtaine is turned over together as an Ancient or Flagge displayed that is imbossed with gold all the whole compasse and circumference is moved together or as a woman when she turnes the rimme of a wheele about both the circle and the center are moved together and so all the wheele moveth round together so the power of the Angels move the celestiall bodies by the appointment of God that in twenty foure houres they compasse the whole earth which is as much in effect as if a bird should flye fifty times the space of the world in halfe a quarter of an houre The rarenesse therefore of this motion and the strangenesse of it argueth that God hath set over them some spirituall mover which wee call their standings and their Intelligences which move them to and fro in an unspeakable manner And for the manner of it that it should be in such a contrary course that never a starre should rise to morrow in the same manner as it doth to day and that the Sunne should never rise at one and the same point twice in the yeare but still varie and by varying make the compasse of the yeare as the Moone makes the compasse of the moneth For the Sunne hath one motion whereby hee makes the day and the Moone another motion whereby shee makes the night Againe there is another motion of the Sunne whereby hee makes the yeare and the Moone hath another motion whereby she makes a moneth And so for the rest of these heavenly bodies some of them fulfill their course and period in twelve yeares some in five yeares some in thirty some in a hundred yeares the Lord having set such a rare guidance in these things that there is nothing but a man may know it before hand a man may tell fifty yeares yea an hundred yeares before hand when there shall be an eclipse and the presages of these things are certainly knowne This argues that these bodies celestiall are moved by spirits celestiall For of themselves being but bodies they could not possible do thus they could not keepe this exact and swift motion nor they could not rowle over of themselves it is impossible being but bodies that they should do these things Now I come to the second point 2. Part or comparison wherein the Apostle compares these bodies together in respect of their glory There is a great glory indeed in terrestriall bodies there is a great glory in gold and silver and many men esteeme them more then the starres of heaven There is a great glory and lustre in jewels and precious stones there is a goodly transparent beauty in them in the lustre that they give There is a great glory in the beauteous faces of Gods Saints and in the gorgeous and pompous out-settings of Kings and Princes in their Courts of state There is great glory in every part of humane felicitie but being compared to this glory of the heavenly bodies they are meere foyles to that For saith the Apostle there is one glory of the heavenly and another glory of the earthly That is there is a farre greater glory of the heavenly then can bee supposed to bee in the earthly For first of all the glory in the heavenly bodies is pure but the glory in the earthly is mixed the purer the glory is and the more it is separate the more singular and excellent it is Now the glory which is in the stars above is pure in comparison of these earthly things And although they bee speckled and spotted in respect of God and be full of dregges in comparison with the Angels yet in relation to earthly things they are most pure even puritie it selfe All these inferiour things in their glory they have a mixture They are mingled of foure things there is nothing so glorious but it is composed of the foure elements even of Earth Water Fire and Ayre and these elements are never so well glued together but they will worke themselves asunder iâ— time whereas that celestiall beauty is pure without mixture it is an Essence that is elaborate to the full God hath brought
imagine that those bodies that dyed crooked shall rise crooked nor that those bodies that dyed weake and lame and yong shall rise so but God shall make a great variety there because he hath made a wondrous variety here There is one glory of the Sunne I will not shew my infancie in discoursing of these things but onely give a touch and so passe to the hypothesis where the Apostle saith so is the resurrection The glory of the Sunne is the greatest of all the glories in heaven all the created bodies we see are nothing comparable he is that great Gyant that God hath set in his chamber which is alway ready to runne his course Psal 19.5 The great messenger of the world which searcheth and vieweth and giveth intelligence of all nations and reports of them to God from whose heate there is no nation nor latitude of people can be hid his glory is this That he is both the chiefe of all the heavenly bodies and that this glory is his owne too First he is the chiefe you know as the Philosopher said well if it were not for the sunne whatsoever the Moone and Starres could doe we should have a continuall night For that is that great and mighty lampe of the world wherein God hath recollected and bound up all the body and bulke of light and it is of that unspeakeable beautie and of that rare excellency that all the stars in heaven borrow their light from thence so that it is the chiefest and the greatest And his owne light it is also he doth not take it from other starres as the rest doe derive their light from him but God tooke that light which he made the fourth day before for the light was the first thing that God made for a worke of distinction it was a chaos and confusion before but when the light was made the distinction did appeare and as a man cannot work without light so God describes himself unto us and therfore he made light for himselfe to worke by although indeed he be light it selfe 1 Tim. 6.16 and dwelleth in that light that none can attaine unto The Lord I say gathered that light which was in the creature before and put it into the body of the sunne and so made that light proper and peculiar to the sunne that he should have a power to diffuse and communicate his light to all the starres in heaven There is no starre that shines in his owne light but all the light they have they borrow it from the sunne because that God would bring all the light to one head and principle as all things doe depend and have their being in one God And this very beauty of the sunne which wee know is the greatest and the goodliest yet it is not alway alike but there is a difference in that too The sunne shines not so bright in the winter as hee doth in the summer because his beames in the winter be not so direct as in the summer and in the southerne parts of the world where the sunne is directly over the verticall poynt directly over their heads as they have more heate so they have a far greater light then we that have but an oblique or slant or side way beame their light is farre more For according to the nature of the beame so is the proportion of the light and heate in the winter lesse because the sunne is in a lower circle and though he be nearer the earth by his bodily presence yet he is further off by his power and operation and in summer when he seemes to be neare yet he is furthest off in body but is nearer by his operation because of the directnesse of his beame I say the Lord hath made a difference in the beate and light that is in the body of the sunne that there is one kinde of heate and light in summer and another kinde in winter So wondrous is God in making of difference and planting variety in every thing The second is the glory of the Moone There is another glory of the Moone The glory of the Moone we know how farre it comes short of the first of the glory of the sunne for it is neither a full glory neither is it her owne glory but that which it hath is derived from the body of the sunne and in the day time when the sunne is in his strength the Moone is like a cloud if it be then above our horison and when there is any shadow by the interposition of the earth the shadow of the earth doth so drowne her and so deprive her of the light of the sunne for the time that either totally or in so many parts she is utterly darkened And evermore one side of the Moone is blacke because of the distance of the sunne For that side which is next to the sunne is light and that side which is from the sunne is as a blacke cloud and according as it goeth further from the sunne or comes nearer to him because her motion is swifter than the sunnes for she doth that in a moneth which the sunne doth in a whole yeare because he is further off from the earth accordingly I say as she comes nearer to him or goeth further off so is her light sometimes she appeares to be halfe light sometimes full Moone and sometime againe nothing at all because the beames of our eye cannot discerne her when there is a meeting of the sunne and her body And yet wee may observe what a wondrous variety GOD hath given her that this which is the lowest and the meanest plannet in the heavens the meanest starre and the least of all others although it bee the least and the blackest and most unlightsome of all the rest yet the LORD doth by it as wondrous things as hee doth by all the starres of heaven nay he doth something more by it then he doth by the sunne it selfe For all the rising of waters all the ebbing and flowing of the sea all the motion of the bloud in the creatures all the guydance of the braine of man all the distemper of lunatiques and frantiques and whatsoever thing almost is in the trees in the vegitables or in the sencible things to be guided and governed they are dependent directly upon the regency of the Moone so that although it have a lesser light yet because it is nearer it hath a more wondrous operation Vse It teacheth us this lesson that although God have given lesser gifts to some men that although they be like the Moone in comparison of others that are like the sunne yet because they are nearer home because they looke to their charge because they keepe their flocke because they looke to their families that God hath put unto them even these men that have a weaker light they doe more good then those that are greater men that are further off that are carelesse and negligent therefore the Moone hath a greater operation being nearer
proud thou dust and ashes which art nothing else but a masse and lump of poore rottennesse and putrifaction Take heed lest as thy outward man corrupts daily that the inward man be not corrupted to For there is no corruption like that when a man hath a rotten heart that is the most wofull putrifaction Take heed therefore to thy soule that though thy outward man be like it selfe corrupt 2 Cor. 4.16 yet thy inward-man may be renewed daily in holinesse and righteousnesse to serve the living God that thou mayst procure peace to thine own soule It is sowne in corruption It is raised againe in Incorruption Blessed be the God of Incorruption that although our bodies of themselves be subject to fade and molder away yet it is but for a season for that the Lord hath promised them another state which is incorrupt And although wee cannot understand how it shall be by looking upon these earthly bodies for we see every thing comes to nothing and is dissolved yet the Lord hath given us a signe of it in the starres of heaven which are incorrupt They are uncorrupt even in our common sense and experience for they be not mixed as these elementary bodies be they are not of such a grosse composition and therefore they stand in the firmament in their state and place as they have done from the beginning We have also a sign of it in the Angels which are uncorrupt also and in the soule of man that hee carries within him which is likewise uncorrupt These are emblems of that incorruption that God will worke upon our bodies also It is true the body that is tainted with sin it cannot be otherwise it must be a slave to corruption it is bound over to corruption it is full of putrifaction and it must needs say as Iob Job 17.14 I will say unto rottennesse thou art my mother and to the worm ye are my sisters and my daughters and my kinsfolke Yet the Lord hath made in these spirits and he will waken these bodies wherâ— he cleares and frees them from sinne he will make in them an eternall vigour and the everlasting influence of his goodnesse and grace shall keep that sweetnesse for ever after that it is once infused into it And this incorruption shall come to the bodies of the Saints three waies First by the goodnesse of the matter Secondly by the singularity of the forme Thirdly by the gracious assistance of the efficient cause First for the goodnesse of the matter The Lord shall make that a sollid lively and vigorous matter that shall never againe be subject to frailty as the body was before by sin that as the Indian or China dishes the earth and clay that they are made of is buryed certaine yeares in the ground that so it may ripen and be brought to that colour which after it comes to be capable of So the blessed God will bury these corrupt bodies under the ground to bring them to be a matter fit for his stamp and image to be set on which shall not be corrupt as the former was but shall remain full of strength and vigour and full of life and sweetnesse to indure for ever And then secondly for the forme The forme of man shall be all one as it is now and the matter to onely it shall be refined but the soule then shall be of such absolute power over the body that it shall command it every where The body shall yeeld a full obedience and the soule shall command with a full authority and it shall be so furnished with new abilities with new knowledge with new desires with new Zeale that it is impossible for any temptations to passe as they doe now Now sometimes the soule tempts the body and sometimes the body tempts the soule and they doe mutually work each others subversion but there shall be no such contrariety then but the body shall be for the soule and the soule for the spirit and the spirit for God that God may be all in all Therefore I say in that blessed world they cannot sin men that live in this flesh cannot but sin but God shall restore that blessed life that it shall not possibly sin nor conceive of sin that is with any inclination to sin For it is impossible for any man that is well in his wits that he should desire to be murthered it is impossible for a man that loves his wealth and riches to desire that a man should rob him it is impossible that such thoughts should come into the mind of a man that is well advised so it is impossible for the soule and body in that new world that ever they should have any delight to goe from God For then it were possible for a man to desire to be murthered or for a man to desire to be robbed of his wealth for to goe from God is for a man to lose his treasure to lose his life to lose his wealth to lose all his quiet and contentment and there is no man that would lose these Therefore as these earthly things doe so affect us that we cannot abide to be bereft of them much more then shall God so affect us that wee shall not indure to think of any separation or going from him As the Apostle saith Rom. 8.38 39. What shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus Shall fire or sword or hunger or cold or nakednesse or life or death nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God iâ— Christ Iesus Thirdly and lastly this incorruption shall be in respect of the gracious assistance of the efficient cause This indeed is the cause of causes this is all in all For though God make a glorious matter and habilitate it with an excellent forme yet notwithstanding if it were not for the continuall influence and pouring in of that glorious life every thing that is made may be marred againe As St. Basil St. Basil saith Everything created is convertible and may be turncal The Angels themselves they live not upon themselves nor they live not upon necessity but by the will and grace of God therefore they are immortall Nothing hath immortality properly in it selfe but God alone as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. To God 1 Tim. 6.16 who onely hath immortality That is who onely hath immortality of himselfe and of necessity hath it and cannot but have it All others have immortality by a dependant grace Here is the chiefe reason of our incorruption because God shall fill us with the sweet water of his river of incorruption which shall continually keepe us in our youth and in our glory and strength and in that state that he hath bestowed on us and the worke that he hath begun he will finish and follow it with his continuall assistance This is the reason why we shall be incorrupt For because of sinfull flesh the Lord permits it here to fall
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
for that which is changeable therefore he is said to be unconstant base and earthly that is a simple poore base creature which made himselfe according to his prime originall and studied and gaped after the things of the earth out of which he was extracted He had indeed better things if he would have used them but he was so stupefied and drawne back to his inferiour part that hee was made like unto his first materialls the earth But the other was from heaven not because he had not a body from the earth but because to that body was added a glorious divinity and that his body was not a person as Adams was For if the manhood of Christ had been a person he must have beene lyable as all persons that are borne to condemnation but his was not a person but a nature united to the second person in the Trinity so that although there be two natures in Christ yet there is not two but one person and the actions that come from any man they are the actions of his person of the subject and not the actions of his nature For it is a man that speaks and a man that works and not the body of a man that speaks or the soule of man So therefore it comes to passe that the actions that come from Christ they are the actions of his person not of his humane nature but of his person and so they be the actions of God and man That is of that person in the Godhead that took the manhood unto it and so they are made the actions of an infinite merit and possibility Herein then is the difference that although Adam had a soul as well as Christ yet he had onely a living soule that could enliven no body but himselfe but the Lord had a Spirit that is the Deity it selfe which is able to give life which is the fountaine of life to all the world And although Christ had a body from the earth yet that body was not left unto frailty but was governed and sanctified and glorified by the beatificall vision of God and by the presence of the incorporate union of the Sonne of God So by this comes the difference between them the one was a man and nothing else but from the earth the other was more then a man God and man and so he is the Lord from heaven 3. In respect of their qualities The third difference is in their quality and condition which is noted in this word hee was a Lord. Therefore Adam came not as a Lord he came as a servant he was to serve in all purposes he came to till the garden to till the earth he came to eate and drink to beget children to be the father of a family Hee came into the world to increase and multiply as God commanded him Gen. 1.28 to replenish the earth These although they be faire courses and God gave a blessing unto them yet they be carnall and fleshly there is no respect of excellencie in these things they are matters rather of necessity for the present solace in this world then of glory But Christ came not for this purpose He came not to eate and drink but his meat and drink was to doe the will of his Father Iohn 4 34. He had no generation all his generation is a spirituall regeneration he came to doe God service these were the things he was exercised in Therefore he was the Lord from heaven This is the high prerogative of Christ There were many Angels that came from heaven as well as Christ but they came not as Lords but as servants as fellow servants Rev. 22.9 as in Rev. 22. when Iohn would have worshipped the Angel See thou doe it not saith hee I am thy fellow servant Heb. 1.14 And in Heb. 1. they are ministring spirits that serve for the salvation of those that are elect and chosen for the inheritance Therefore they came not downe as Lords but as servants And although we reade in Scripture of those that came downe as Lords as in the apparition to Abraham Gen. 18. he called the Angell Lord. Gen. 18.3 And the Captaine of the Lords Army that appeared to Ioshua though these came in the glory Ioshuah 5.14 and might of the Lord yet they were not that Lord as here it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord that came from heaven For that Lord is but one Lord Heb. 1.2 which is the Sonne of God to whom the Father hath given the inheritance of all things Heb. 1.2 hee is the heyre of all things and the Iewes themselves confesse Come let us kill him this is the heyre Mark 12.7 and the inheritance shall be ours Hee then is the Lord from heaven Adam came not as a Lord nor yet from heaven but one onely part of him his soul without any conjunction of the divine nature there came a changeable soule into a fraile body but Christ the Lord from heaven that is the Sonne of God as being Lord of hell and heaven invested himself in a strange and wondrous manner into the body and wombe of a Virgin and tooke that masse and lump of blood whereof his blessed body should be compacted and united it to himselfe and exercised the power of miracles and of gracious wonders and all parts of perfection in that nature and therefore he hath exalted our nature high above the Angels nature for he took not upon him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but he took the seed of Abraham Lastly in their qualities they differ that as the first man came from the earth and is a servant so he is earthly There are two parts of man as the Philosopher saith there is the mind and the understanding that is the subtile and divine and fiery part of man whereby he is appropincate and drawes neere unto God in the similitude of his Image There is another and that is the grosse and materiall part Chrysost as St. Chrysostom expounds it that this earthly man is one that is dull and grosse and nayled and tyed to these things that are present whereas the other 2 Cor. 4.18 is heavenly and altogether upon the things that are not seene for the things that are seene are temporall but them that are not seene are eternall So then the one by his condition was still looking downward the other was all spirit and full of vigour full of life alway looking upward still unto heaven his conversation was also heavenly having given all his followers power to have their conversations there Phil. 3.20 Phil. 3. But our conversation is in heaven from whence wee looke for the Lord Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body So this is the Comparison of these two heads which that I may conclude this point wee must observe very strictly For by that meanes we may be both able to keep out all contrary
2 Cor. 11 When I am weak then am I strong A strange contradiction but his meaning is that the Lord doth so season our weaknesse and infirmity in this life that it is an infallible testimony and forerunner of that great strength and glory that shall be revealed in the life to come The Lord useth to work thus out of weak causes to bring more strong effects And if the causes were strong God would not use them For out of weake and base and contemptible things God brings strong and noble effects As when Gedeon was to fight with the Midianites and he pretended that his Army was but a few Judges 7. How many hast thou saith the Lord so many thousand They are too many the Lord would not have them all there were too many and hee commanded to cut them off to another halfe and yet there were too many the Lord would not work with them they were too strong At last hee comes to make choice of them by lapping in the water and they came to 300. men to fight against as many as the sands on the sea that covered the earth as gras-hoppers as it is said And now the Lord begins to work with these men and how doth he work by weapons No but with a few broken pitchers in their hands and the Lord set the Madianites one upon the neck of his fellow that they were murtherers each of other and became as sheepe for the slaughter the Lord gave them as a prey into their hands This is the wondrous act of the great God which is not tyed to meanes which will not seem to worke with second common causes but with his owne arme It is true these common second causes in the world hee hath honoured them much and commanded them to be used but when he comes to effect great things such as was the destruction of the Madianites such as is the redemption of man by Christ and such as shall be the Redemption of of our bodies at the Resurrection then such meanes and causes as seeme to help him forward hee rejects them and works not by them but by the cleane contrary The greater stench the bodies have sustained in the grave shall worke it unto greater sweetnesse and the greater weaknesse it had the greater strength shall accrew unto it and wondrous puissance shall God worke unto that part which lacked honour according to his blessed dispensation in all things FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.49 50. And as wee have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare also the Image of the heavenly And this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither corruption can inherit incorruption TO hope for the time to come and to have now present possession is one of the greatest differences in humane affairs to be observed saith Chrysologus Chrysologus The one is the portion of this life sperare to hope in God for the things that are promised the other is in that blessed life to come to have and to hold and to enjoy the promises which the Apostle assures us of in this place that we shall have as sure as we have had the first fruits and the earnest so sure we are to enter into the full possession and to have the performance of the which God hath made a tender of and promised unto us before The words of the Text contain that great consolation which is the onely comfort and sweetnesse of our life The Saints of God are burthened with the image of the earthly man they are in continuall suffering they endure the plague of Adam which is sinne every day and every houre and there is none that comes of Adams blood but he is as it were borne to death to misery and to slavery which are the proper consequents of sinne Now the redemption that comes by Christ it is not yet apparent it is but yet begunne it is by faith it is in hope it is in spe but not in Re and this is the cause of the Saints mourning upon earth Therefore to this the Apostle answers and bids them be content and satisfie themselves for that which they have not now they shall have hereafter therefore they must stay the Lords leysure and all shall bee for the best And although hee stay long yet hee will come full and make an abundant recompence for his delatory absence with the greatnesse of those rewards and precious things that hee brings with him For saith the Apostle As we have borne the image of the earthly as we groane under the burthen of Adam so we are assured that we shall beare the image of the heavenly in the fulnesse of joy in the fulnesse of rest and holinesse in the fulnesse of all strength and perfection and immortality and incorruption And therefore his purpose is to quiet and content the distressed soules here in this world that groane under their misery with the expectation of that glory that shall bee revealed There is some difficulty in the words as what it is that he saith of an image the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly What it is he speaks of flesh and blood For the first we must understand that he meanes not a vaine shew a picture or representation but the thing it selfe For we have not the figure and proportion of Adam alone but we have all his misery and all his sinne his sinne comes unto us by tradition it is an inheritance which wee cannot shake off It is a kinde of portion he hath given us that we cannot be rid of So that it is not an image as we take it in the common sense for a picture or an imaginary matter but a reall substantiall impression by reason of his sinne and his breaking of the command There lies a burthen a heavy load of plague and misery upon our whole nature And so likewise for the other the image of the heavenly We are not to imagine it to be any outward light resemblance but a true reall conformity to him whose image we shall beare We shall be like unto Christ not in a sleight transitory fashion but in a true and reall change And that that hee saith of flesh and blood that they shall not inherit the kingdome of God we must understand it thus Not as a thing impossible for God to doe for flesh and blood doth inherite Gods kingdome Christ is flesh and blood and hee is in the kingdome of God Yea Divines have thought that the bodies of Enoch and Elias that are flesh and blood are already in the kingdome of God as those also that arose up with Christ of which there were diverse that arose to testifie his Resurrection And Divines think generally that the bodies of these ascended with Christ into heaven Now these are flesh and blood and yet they bee in Gods kingdome The meaning therefore is not as
though God could not open the kingdome of heaven to flesh and blood but not to flesh and blood corrupted with sinne As long as we are in this life our flesh is full of sinne and our blood in the veines of the body runne with sinne and as long as they bee so they bee meere matter of corruption and therefore they cannot enter into incorruption Howbeit Adam in his first creation was flesh and blood and yet had hee stood in the state of grace and innocencie he had entred into heaven with his body of flesh and blood So that the meaning is not as though God could not conferre so great a benefit upon flesh and blood but because it hath corrupted it selfe Flesh hath corrupted his owne way and blood is tainted with sinne it is tainted defiled and polluted blood it is not such as God made it but it hath received a tincture from the Divell In regard of this it must be dissolved and brought to rottennesse and corruption that God may raise it a new seed and so make it pure and perfect againe and make it capable of the heavenly and blessed inheritance So that the summe of the words is this As long as wee be flesh and blood as long as wee bee in this life sinfull flesh that we carry about with us wee must not looke to be translated into heaven Adam should have been translated into heaven if hee had lived and kept that state wherein hee was made Wee desire indeed to bee like him in that but our desires and our hopes must be grounded upon Gods will not on our own fancies and we must expect what the Lords will hath determined He hath determined that wee should come to death before we enter into life that we should beare the image of the earthly before we come to the image of the heavenly and wee cannot have incorruption and glory poured upon this body that wee carry about with us by reason of sinne because it is in sinne For sinfull flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God And although when Christ shall come there shall bee alive many millions of men that shall not die as we doe yet they shall have a change and there change shall be unto them as death is unto us now For it is not possible that any corrupt body should enter into incorruption This I take to bee the summe and sense of the words read Now to proceed in order we are to consider First the persons that he saith as we have borne Then secondly the matter propounded of those persons First there is a sentence or proposall Division into 1. the Persons 2. the Matter propounded Secondly the explanation of that proposall The proposall that is made of these persons is by way of comparison as wee have borne the image of the earthly so also wee shall beare the image of the heavenly The explanation of it what hee meanes by this image The Corinthians might aske and say they doubted of his words these are obscure things that the Text saith The image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly My meaning saith hee is nothing but this that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Eingdome of God nor corruption cannot inherit incorruption So in the proposall or proposition in the 49. verse we are to consider these things First that God made man to an Image Secondly that that Image being defaced and deformed wee are made to another kinde of Image than we were first intended for we are made to the image of the earthly Thirdly we are to observe the reddition that as we beare the image of the earthly so we shall also beare the image of the heavenly Fourthly the certainty in the sicut so as according to that manner And this makes us assured of the thing that this is a ground experimentall that because wee have the image of the one therefore wee are assured of the image of the other For still we are made to an image that is for the proposall In the explanation in the words following brethren I say unto you or my meaning is this Wherein the holy Ghost teacheth us to speak plainly and not to wander away in new quaint words in obscure sentences but to make the doctrines cleare that wee take in hand And then for flesh and bloud that they are not capable of heavens kingdome and for what reason they are not capable And lastly the summe of all corruption which is flesh and bloud cannot enter into incorruption which is the Kingdome of heaven For that which he call flesh and bloud in one place hee renders it againe in another place by corruption and that which he called the kingdome of heaven in the former words he turnes it in the latter words incorruption So that the Apostles perspicuity and evidence is wondrously to be admired in this place hee labours to speak of a high matter a deep profound matter of dignity so plainly to flesh and bloud Hee saith flesh and bloud shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Not because it is flesh and bloud but because it is corrupted and there shall not enter any thing that is corrupt into incorruption because they are contraries and one contrarie cannot enter into another It is impossible for a man to be alive and dead to be sick and well at one time there is no difference in the world greater then the difference of corruption and incorruption and because flesh and bloud is corrupted for sinne it is full of misery and wretchednesse by sinne and the Kingdome of heaven is an uncorruptible crowne it is impossible that these should be coincident and meet and be mingled together Therefore corruption must be evacuated and rooted out before incorruption can be attained Of these things briefly and in order as God shall give assistance And first concerning the persons 1. Part. The persons of whom these things are propounded of whom these things are pronounced It is of Gods Saints For as I have often told you this whole Chapter is spoken of and endited concerning the Resurrection of the Saints onely There is indeed a resurrection of those that belong not to God which is a resurrection to punishment and shame but the Apostle meddles not with that in this whole Chapter but speaks only of the Saints resurrection and he saith We that have borne the image of the earthly wee shall also beare the image of the heavenly We that is those that are called of Christ and sanctified by his holy Spirit to these it is to whom this promise appertaines For every man beares the image of the earthly good and bad but every man shall not beare the image of the heavenly but onely those for whom it is ordained The nature of man is not capable of heaven for if mans nature were capable of heaven then all men should have it because all men have the nature of man indefinitely and equally but it is the
hee was come there hee teacheth and converseth with the people hee goes not about his work upon the sudden The newes comes he is dead and buried Let him lie in his grave a long time that the glory of God may the more appeare Let him lie the first second and third day and the Lord comes not Upon the fourth day when all men gave him for stinking and desperate and that there was no hope of any good to bee done upon him then the Lord comes to work When Martha his sister had given over all hope and told Christ shee knew that hee should rise againe at the resurrection but for any other rising she never dreamed of or imagined that Well then when all things seemed to be senslesse and against reason and possibility then the power of God began to work And because Lazarus was so strongly held by death foure dayes therefore the stronger was the hand of God upon him in raysing him from death That the strength of death might be encountred and overcome and countermanded by the higher strength and arme of the Almighty it now gave way and made a passage to the arme of the Lord to work a mighty deliverance So still the misery of the child of God works for good and all things work for the best to those that love God Rom. 8.28 Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly so we shall beare the image of the heavenly This is a great incouragement to us to beare Vse Wee are impatient we cannot endure any thing but we see that wee must beare and if wee looke for the image of the heavenly we must be content to beare the image of the earthly We must be content to be sick we must be content to be poore to be persecuted to be every way miserable and wretched We must be content to be tempted by the tempting devill and oft times to be foiled by him and to bee overcome in sinne and shamefull actions and courses We must be content with the Christian agony and the bloody sweat that Christ had in the garden at his passion We must beare these things it is the image of the earthly It is the condition of the other life the bearing of the heavenly And except wee have the one we cannot have the other except we beare the image of the earthly we shall not beare the image of the heavenly But here it may be objected that Infants have not this image Yes reason tells us they doe For in their death in their sicknesse in their distractions and strange convulsions to which they are subject they beare the image of the earthly although not in so great a measure as men of groweth doe yet they have for their tender yeares a fearefull yoake laid upon them which is mortality and all the wayes that tend to death To conclude this first point the proposition Let us mingle the one with the other and beare both If thou bee troubled in this world in any sort inwardly or outwardly If thou be troubled in conscience for sinne if thou bee troubled with enemies art thou troubled in thy fortunes in thy state in the world art thou troubled with sicknesse of body remember it is nothing but thine owne image Thus thou art made wilt thou deny thine owne face wilt thou deny thy owne name wilt thou not take that which thou art borne unto art thou ashamed of thine inheritance it is that which thy Father hath left thee therefore beare it And withall to comfort thy selfe beare it with this hope and lively assurance that thou shalt beare a better image one day The galley-slaves that serve the Turks in their galleys if they could but think that at seven yeares end some Christian would come and deliver them they would be the better affected and would cheare their mindes especially if they could be assured of it If Iacob serve the churle Laban seven yeares Gen. 29. if he think he shall have Rachell at the end of it hee thinks it but like unto seven dayes and with patience he comforts himselfe in the Lord and staies his leisure and is content that God shall use him unto his hand as it pleaseth him This is the true constitution of a pure mind therefore let us sweeten these outward worldly miseries with the expectation of future joy and the promises which God hath made to us in his holy Word There is no griefe so great but if wee tie heaven unto the end of it it is light As the Apostle saith This short moment any affliction Rom. 8.18 is not worthy of the glory that shall bee revealed Let us put them together and the one will bee swallowed up in the other For as we have borne the image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heavenly Oh! when shall that blessed day appeare So must the Christian man aspire and hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of God and after his blessed kingdome Wee mourne saith the Apostle as long as we are from Christ in this body we would faine see the consummation of the promise Why then there is no meanes but one that is by incessant prayer by continuall clamours to call upon God to crie unto him for it The cries and clamours of Gods Saints must bring Christ from heaven againe unto earth to make up the fulnesse of the promise which he hath condescēded unto in his holy Word This must be the use we must make of this doctrine That as wee are patiently to endure the image of the earthly man to endure the misery that sinne hath contracted and brought upon us that we also be faithfull and hopefull to cry and to call unto God for the sweet things that are reposed and laid up for us in the glory of the Gospel So much for the Proposition Now for the explanation in verse 50. Verse 50. This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven neither can corruption inherit incorruption In these words the Apostle doth prevent those questionings and objections that simple men might make against this doctrine They might say that he taught in the cloudes that hee spake so as that they knew not what hee meant What doe you meane by the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly we have heard of no such words we know no such matter For this the Apostle tells them that hee speaks out of the phrase of Scripture hee speaks it out of Genesis For hee had said before that Adam was made a living soule and that Christ was made a quickening spirit and so following the course of the creation he saith there was an image which at the first was heavenly but it was defaced by mans fault and so it became earthly and by consequence all of Adams blood were like their progenitor they all tooke part of the inheritance although it were against their will and they bore the image of
the earthly Now because the Corinthians and other Readers might perhaps not understand this for it is not every mans part to understand the Scripture to the full the Apostle explaines it Brethren I tell you what I say flesh and blood corrupted by sinne cannot inherit the Kingdome of God When it is cleansed and purified it shall but in this condition of corruption it is not capable of that incorruption So that the first thing we are to note here is the diligence of the Apostle in the clearing of his doctrine in the opening of his mind This I say brethren As if he should say If you understand not what I say I will expresse my selfe in clearer and fairer termes Vse This commends unto us a memorable and gracious act of Christian charity still to open it selfe and to doe as much good by way of expression and explanation as possible may bee It is not for a man that is in St. Pauls place to speake in high termes in such phrases as passe the understanding of the people but if they chance to doe it or be carried away in some high straines of language they must descend againe as the Angels ascended and descended upon the ladder of Iacob If they doe ascend to high thoughts and discourses of Divinity they must descend againe to meaner speeches to those phrases and termes that the people may be capable of For preaching and teaching was made for a certaine commutation of mindes for the changing of mindes For by teaching the scholler is made the Master and he puts upon himselfe the nature and person of the Master As one said of another mans booke that he read hee said hee was become the man himselfe whose booke he had read Therefore as St. Austin saith all learning is nothing Aug. but a mingling and mixing of soules and spirits together It is needfull and necessary for him that teacheth to speake so as that hee may bee understood For to what end is speech if it be not perceived If I be not understood when I have said all that I can I have said nothing If I be understood when I have said little I have said sufficient because another man knowes that which I know and another is transformed into that which is inherent in me The Philosophers compare a teacher and a master to the parents of a childe and the scholler they liken to the child As the child beares the image of his father so the scholler beares the image of his Master much more It is much more lively in Art then in nature it can be expressed Therefore this holy Apostle St. Paul Gal. 4.19 hee intends to bring foorth children to Christ My little children of whom I travaile againe till Christ be formed in you He useth that plainnesse of speech and evidence of language that thereby he may flow into their hearts and senses and affections that hee may accommodate them to his intelligence and that he may doe it the better hee useth this word here Brethren This I say brethren As if he would carry them along shew them the thing with his finger in a familiar sweet speaking not as a high Commander to his Souldiers nor as a great Prince to his Subjects nor as the great God to Israell when he gave the Law that they could not indure the voice but said Let not the Lord speak any more but Moses lest we die But he speaks in the spirit of meeknesse and mildnesse Brethren fellow-souldiers fellow schollers you that are partakers of the same salvation come along and see the doctrine that I deliver to you This is that I say herein I expresse my selfe When I said the image of the earthly and the image of the heavenly my meaning is this that flesh and bloud which is corrupt cannot enter into the Kingdome of God which is uncorrupt Let us consider what hee saith when hee saith Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Hee meanes to expound himselfe that corrupt flesh and bloud shall not enter As St. Austin saith Lib. 6. Aug de gen lit Cap. 18. de Gen. ad Literam Cap. 18. hee meanes that flesh and bloud that is thus tainted and defiled with sin shall not inherit the Kingdome of God the Kingdome of heaven And why not Because it is a place of that purity and of that perfection that it cannot indure sinne or any sinfull neighbour As soone as the devill sinned hee was throwne from heaven there was no place for him there As soone as Adam transgressed hee was throwne from Paradise which was the Type of heaven there was no more remaining for him there The blessed eyes of God are so pure that they cannot looke upon a defiled thing and because the Lord will have all the world which is tainted with sin to be cleare and pure the element of water came once through it and because that could not doe it the element of fire shall come and purge it and shall make all the goodly stately palaces all the goodly castles and the faire groves and pleasant meadowes in the world it shall make them all dust and ashes that the sinne that lodgeth in them and the corruption which they have contracted unto them by the transgression of Adam may be wrought out of them So pure is the Majesty of God that he cannot indure any evill thing to approach or come neare unto him Therefore flesh and bloud because it is full of sinne For all the acts of sinne are done in the flesh and the beginning and proceeding of the action begins in the bloud There is a tainted bloud about the heart of man wherein all these evill imaginations nestle and hide themselves there is an impure bloud that runnes through the veynes of man which fils him full of impiety So that the blessed God shall never suffer this corrupt bloud to enter into his Kingdome that can indure no corruption But he shall cleanse it and purifie it hee shall annihilate it and bring it to nothing that it may be something for ever But here may be many things excepted against us As first Objectiōs 3 If flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God then how are the Saints said to be partakers of the Kingdom how have they the first fruits of the Kingdome in this life how are they called the children of the Kingdome Those that belong to the Kingdome they are called heyres of the Kingdome and Co-heyres with Christ and if they be heyres and Co-heyres and fellow-heyres with Christ and yet be flesh and bloud how is it true then that flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Secondly it may be objected of Enoch and Elias that they never saw death and corruption not that corruption which falls upon our nature and yet it is presumed that their bodies are in heaven So that flesh and bloud enters into Gods Kingdome For Enoch and Elias were flesh and
bloud that is sinfull creatures as well as wee and yet they be in the Kingdome of God Thirdly it may be objected concerning them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord they shall be flesh and bloud as we are and they shall in a moment of time be translated to the Kingdome of God therefore it seemes that flesh and bloud inherits the Kingdome of God Answers to the 3. Objections For the answer to these For the first we must observe that it is one kind of possession that a man hath spiritually by faith and apprehension and it is another to have it in reall entrance and in a reall investiture The Saints of God are called in this life the sons and daughters of the Kingdome and they are called heyres of the Kingdome and Co-heyres with Christ But how it is onely in faith it is onely in taste in an earnest of that which shall be fully paid hereafter as the Apostle saith Heb. 6. Heb. 6.5 It is impossible that such as have tasted of the heavenly joy c. So that wee doe not deny nor the Apostle doth not say that flesh and bloud shall not taste of heaven nor corruption taste of incorruption for we have it the children of God they have the very pledge and earnest of it sealed unto them But how It is in expectation For the Lord Iesus tries his servants in their expectation by their waiting upon him In the world it is true it is one thing to be a Noble-mans or a Gentlemans heyre and it is another thing to come to the possession of the land he is sure of it by his birth by his primogeniture he is sure that it shall be his but he hath it not yet Hee may live like a poore gentleman and his father may curbe him and keepe him in before he come to enjoy it he hath it not for the present So the Lord hee suffers those that be his heyres to want to be troubled and afflicted in the world hee suffers them to have no better pittance then this As one saith I hope for things better hereafter and therefore I swallow those things that are present here And then for the second point objected concerning Enoch and Elyas Answ 2 There are divers opinions of Divines about it Some think that their bodies are not in heaven but were buried in some place unknowne as wee see in Moses death and that they shall rise againe at the Resurrection This I confesse hath many grounds and good reasons to prove it that it is the prerogative of Christ alone to be in heaven For there is none that hath descended but the same that hath ascended which is the son of man which is in heaven Eph. 4.9 10. But yet the commō tenent of the Church is otherwise whereunto I must yeeld and subscribe namely that the bodies of Enoch and Elias and those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ be actually with Christ and keep him company in heaven And although the ascension of those be not manifest yet it is agreeable to the analogie of faith to beleeve it For to what purpose should the Apostle insist so much upon this Heb. 11.5 By faith Enoch was translated if he were not after another maner dignified and honoured than ordinary men And to what purpose is it said that Elias was carryed to heaven in a whirlewind and a fiery chariot if the Lord would break his neck upon a rock and cast him downe againe to the earth This had been no honour but a punishment Therefore as their raptures are noted in the Scriptures so the tearms are notable and such as no man can attaine unto in the common Resurrection For the blessed God which is the God of the married and of the single life he tooke out of each estate one to accompany him in his heavenly Kingdome Enoch was a married man and figured those in that estate that should associate and keep Christ company in heaven Elias was a single man and he took him to be a symbole and type of the single life To teach us that married and unmarried both if they be in Christ are accepted of him and shall reside and keep him company in the Kingdome of heaven And for those that rose at the Resurrection of Christ it is a constant opinion and followed of the best Divines that those were never admitted to returne to their bodies againe for that had been to deprive them of a greater benefit which they had before Therefore to answer the argument If Enoch and Elias and those that rose with Christ I say if they be in heaven they be flesh and bloud therefore flesh and bloud doth inherit heaven and so by consequence the Apostles speech doth not alway stand firme when he saith Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Therefore it is possible for flesh and bloud to inherit heaven For the answer of this we must understand that Enoch and Elias had a change and the changing of their bodies was equivalent unto our death And although they were rapt up in a strange manner yet all that was mortall in them all that was corrupt it was consumed by the strong hand of God We see the Lord can worke as it pleaseth him in naturall things You see how the lightning sometimes so alters things that it falls on that it draws out all the pith of them all the substance in a moment We see gold that is cast into a hot fornace the fire licks it up and melts it So we see those earthen pipes that are used too commonly in our mouthes how soon the fire alters them and refines them We see these things in nature Now wee must imagine that the mighty power of God can doe much more for the body so that that which was nothing but mud before he can make a pure chrystall glasse of it It is not impossible for nature almost to worke this for we see men make glasse of sand and therefore to the operative word of God there is nothing impossible It is credible and to be beleeved therefore that the Lord changed their bodies in their rapture that whatsoever was corrupt and base and dreggie in them it was wrought out Answ 3 The same reason is for them that shall be alive at the comming of the Lord the Lord shall so work upon those bodies which they shall then beare which shall be corrupt flesh and bloud the Lord shall work them in an instant to purity even as the fornace of metallers does the fornace of those that deale in fire-works For as the fornace changeth the substance of the thing that is cast into it upon the instant and licks it up and devoures it if it be combustible or if it be not combustible as gold or the like then it turnes and melts it to better purpose to a better burnish to a better hue so the all-working-hand of God shall doe Therefore although
God Almighty to worke our incorruption to be not an incorruption to misery but to glorie and that he would so worke us to himselfe as that wee may be in a continuall fruition and possession of his sweet and gracious presence not to be molested and tormenled with the absence of God with the losse of heaven and the joyes thereof which the damned spirits thinke if they had but a moment to live and repent them againe they would regaine the things they have lost And they cry out damnation to themselves that they were so foolish to lose the time which might have been so imployed as that they might have been made masters of heaven and possessors thereof The dead shall rise incorruptible And we shall be changed That is wee all those that belong unto Christ Where we may observe the Apostle still useth the wee although the Apostle himselfe were not changed but after the manner of the common change by death But the Apostle doth this partly as I told you the last time because of the common communion of the Church of God whereas every man may say wee every man may take his neighbour with him we have all one head and we are all members of one body And chiefly the Apostle so speaks because he thought the day was neare approaching and he prepared himselfe every where He thought that the time and the day wherein hee wrote this wherein he spake this he thought that might have beene the last day and therefore that hee might have beene one of the number and therefore hee saith wee Now this change as I said before is commonly taken for the better but it is true also of the Reprobate After that manner of change wee speake of they shall be changed from a state mutable to immutability that which they are when they rise they are for ever They are not so now for they follow the change of nature they are subject to mutability and variety seaven years make a great alteration in a mans life and in the best life in the world more years makes a greater impression But the Lord shall then raise them to a setled state to a state of incorruption and whether they have glory or whether they have misery it shall be without change it shall be in a kind of eternity as the Lord himselfe is eternall I should now come to the Reason which includes all and to the sweet metaphor where the Apostle expresseth himselfe in these words We must put on But I must reserve it till the next time FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be fulfilled the speech that is written Death is swallowed up into victory 5. Part. The Reason IN these words the Apostle renders a Reason of that former change mutation which shall befall the Saints of God For this whole doctrine of the Resurrection it must be so expounded of the Saints especially howbeit it may be also further extended even to the wicked and the reprobates For they shall have a kinde of change as being made from mortall immortall and from corrupt to be incorrupt although it shall be for their punishment and for their greater ignominie yet it shall be true immortality and a true incorruption that they shall receive But as Beza and the later and best Divines hold it is fittest for us to tye these things and to understand them of that sanctified company to whom the Lord hath promised and will also vouchsafe a glorious Resurrection They must therefore as it is said before be all changed and they must be changed presently upon the sound of the trumpet by the power of Almighty God of which things I will now make no repetition Now because it might be questioned what need wee be changed wee desire rather to goe to God In this body we desire super-vestiri to be over-clad rather with the glory of the Almighty then to be naked and to be stripped of this flesh that we have here We would goe to Christ but wee would not goe the same way to Christ that Christ came to us for he came to us by death but wee would goe to him still without death Therefore this the Apostle resolves us and teacheth us that which he said before in part That flesh and bloud shall not inherite the Kingdome of God that is corrupt flesh and bloud by reason of the corruption that is in it by reason of the tainture of sinne it is subject to change and mutability For it is impossible till it be reformed till it be cast into the earth and mouldered to dust and that it be prepared by the hand of God in the ground untill then it is uncapable of heaven So here hee saith in the affirmative Oportet it must needs be so it must needs be that this mortall must put on immortality and this corruption must put on incorruption So when hee hath given his resolution that such a thing must needs be then he lifts them up to the expectation of the time when this glorious change shall be made He tells them that it shall be and whensoever it shall come to passe as certainly it must be fulfilled then shall also be fulfilled that glorious saying in the Scriptures wherewith he confirmes himselfe and his authority and is not content to speake as an Apostle onely out of his owne Apostolicall power which he had received from Christ but hee also fetcheth some ground and help besides his testimony from the Prophets that were before him then saith hee shall be fulfilled that happy word that glorious word spoken of by Isay as the most and best Divines think or by Hosea as some others think And the word is this Death is swallowed up into victory that there is nothing left now in the tents of Christs holy Church but the voyce of triumphs and trophees over death and consequently over hell over sinne over sicknesse over all infirmities and discontent whatsoever For if Death be swallowed up in victory the rest are much more swallowed up For that is the greatest and the last enemie of all and if that be confounded the rest must needs perish with it There shall then be such a compleat victory as that looke whatsoever a man casts his eye on hee shall see nothing but victory and conquest and glory and life and righteousnesse and holinesse in stead of this wickednesse and misery and distemper and accidents whereto we are subject in this life Then shall be fulfilled So he notes unto us the goodly and glorious time in which the Saints shall have their full consummation and blisse Then then it shall be fulfilled which is now prophesied and promised It shall be made up then which is now but expected It shall then be fulfilled in all
the stroke of death beause it must needs be so for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality and to assure us of the necessity of the glory that shall be it cannot faile but it must needs come so to passe as the Lord hath promised Oportet it must be so There are certaine bonds that have passed from God to man by the promise of the Almighty that bindes him to it For the word of a King is a King to a man as Demosthenes saith Demost Therefore God hath bound himselfe unto us by his word and by the promises he hath made and likewise we are againe bound by the necessity of congruitie by the necessity of fitnesse that these things should be so For it is of absolute necessity in regard of the fall of Adam and of our corruption that wee have contracted thence that we should not enter into that blessed incorruption till wee have put off this corruption which wee have contracted There is no medling for a sound man to come to them that are in the Pest-house nor there is no conversing for a man that is well in his wits with them that are in Bedlam there is no mingling of Sheepe and Goats together there is no blending of light and darknesse of Christ and Beliall there can be no communion and fellowship betweene corruption and incorruption It is impossible that the corrupt body of man should be able to entertaine and receive that incorruptible crowne of heaven it will burst him in his feeble abilities As is said of Semele that when Iupiter appeared unto â—â—r in his full glorie shee was exhausted by meanes of his Majestie shee expired and lost her life So it is true and certaine this weake vessell cannot endure heaven this corrupt body cannot abide incorruption no more than Gunpowder can endure the approach of fire for it will be swallowed up of it Therefore the Lord prepared a habitation and tabernacle for it in the earth that by the earth hee may bring it to be capacious of the glory they shall receive Therefore there is this necessity that the Apostle saith It must be thus And this necessity is in three respects First in respect of the soule when it is seperate from the body The soule is a part of a man and the body is a part of a man as well as the soule although it be not so great and so excellent a part as that but seeing that God hath appointed that a body and a soule shall alway make a man we cannot say therefore that the body is a man or that the soule is a man but onely by way of eminencie But we must needs take the soule as long as it is seperate from the body to be a thing imperfect for it is not so much blessed as it shall be when the body shall be re-united unto it It is blessed as much intensively but not extensively not in respect of the societie company with the body with the glory and beauty and that joy of the holy Ghost which shall be extended every where as well to the body as to the soul This the soul wants and therefore they lie continually lingring thirsting in expectation Apoc. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true They desire to be restored to their bodies they be naked now the sword is out of his scabbard now the Lord hath drawne them assunder notwithstanding they are both in â—â—e hand of God But then the Lord will again return the sword into his scabbard when he hath clensed pollished it that it shal never afterward be seperated In this regard it must needs be that corruption must put on incorruption For the soule by the hand of God is made uncorruptible and immortall but the body is made both corruptible and mortall therefore that the one may fit the other the Lord must make it by a strange wondrous change he must make this corruption put on incorruption that is he shall so mold the body by lying in the earth that he shall make it by the power of his hand hee shall make it capable of that great incorruption which hee shall give it when the soule and the body shall meete together in one The second reason of this necessity is this because the good God hath ordained in justice to performe all things and that according to that which a man hath done in this flesh 2 Cor. 5.10 for we mst receive according to the things that we have done in this flesh whether they be good or evill as the holy Apostle saith Therfore the Lord will have this corrupt body which hath suffered paine here on earth this body which hath suffered for Gods cause this body which hath suffered death this body which hath endured the flame and persecution this body which hath suffered hunger and thirst and nakednesse this body that hath suffered infamy and ignominy reviling and opprobries as the Lord Iesus did for our sakes this body which hath bin so brought under and made as it were a laughing stock to the world which hath bin made a refuge of scornes this body which beares the prints marks of the Lord Iesus Christ about with it Gal. 6.17 this body which hath bin in martyrdom so ignominious to the sight of the world though it have beene noble in the sight of God this body that hath born all the brunt and toyl labour in affliction this body must be glorified againe for that it stands with Gods justice that every man shall receive according as hee hath done in this flesh whether it be good or evill Therefore it must needs be that this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality this very body that hath suffered must be honoured that as it hath suffered many evill things for Gods cause so it may receive many good things for its owne cause for the mercy of God which shall be revealed upon it And lastly it is necessary it should be thus Oportet it must needs be that the body must goe to incorruption Aquin. by the way of corruption as Aquinas well noteth because of the conformity of the members to the head Our Lord Iesus Christ went this way therefore we that are his servants must not look to be above our Master Luke 6.40 it is enough that the servant be equall to his Master Christ is our head he is our Master he could not come to immortality but first he died he was mortall before he was immortall and though he were not corruptible although there was no change in his body to corruption yet he was mortall there was a change in the colour there was a change in his strength and life these things were in him for hee was dead these things cannot consist but in him that is dead So much as he was corruptible hee had it for our sakes hee was mortall hee
was dead and buried and hee testified his mortality three dayes together by lying in the grave Therefore as Christ went this way and could not goe to heaven untill he had tasted of death first he must suffer and so enter into glory It followes therefore Luke 24.26 that all his members must second him and subscribe to that course which their Lord and head went and be content to be like unto him it must be with us as it was with him therefore this corruption must put on incorruption That is wee cannot come to that glory but by dying first we must die to live first we must be in our graves in stinke and filthinesse that wee may be raised to beauty and strength and perfection according to the glorious promise which God hath made in Christ Now the next thing to be observed is the triumph of the Church when this is done when this corruption hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this blessed garment is once fitted when this vestment shall be once applyed unto these bodies as never to be put off again Then shall be fulfilled this saying This garment of incorruption and immortality that is this garment of glory and beauty wherein God shall invest his Saints it shall not be like these garments of ours that are put upon our outsides which cover onely our outward parts They touch not our intrailes they come not neare the heart but this blessed garment of incorruption it shall run through all the veynes of man it shall possesse him every where it shall be as the life is in all the parts of the body in every part there is life as well as in the rest It shall be as the health is it is the breath of heaven which runs through all the parts of the body if one part or member be sick all the rest are so too for company It shall be as the soule is in every part and substance of the bodie the soule is in all the parts of the body it is as well in the little finger as in the braine of a man And after this kind shall this garment be put on not as our cloathes which we put on and off not as our garments which keepe us warme in our outward parts and never touch our inward But this as the Spirit of God shall rule through the whole man there shall be no part nor no blood but it shall be uncorrupt there shall be no flesh in man but it shall be immortall There is no part but it shall be garnished and adorned with this rare and singular quality which shall run through the whole man and shall possesse him wholly and shall take that root in him as it shall be impossible for it to be extirpated for it is the glorious hand of God that shall plant them there and nothing therefore shall be able to supplant them Wee must put on incorruption And it shall be so put on as the sun puts on his glory never to put it off againe as the stars put on their light never to be eclipsed never to have their light taken from them Wee must not put on the robe and garment of immortality as Kings and Princes put on their gay cloathes and apparell Chrysost As St. Chrysostom saith when Kings and Princes goe to the bath on earth although they be never so gloriously apparelled yet when they goe into the bath they must put off their cloathes as well as other men and when they goe to their graves they must divest themselves and goe after the order of other men But the Saints of God shall not put on the cloathes of incorruption as a man that goes to the bath but they shall put it on as God hath put on eternity they shall put it on as the sun hath put on his light never to be darke They shall put it on as the moon and stars which have the same beauty and figure continually Although to us it seeme different and the light of the starres are not seene in the day time yet there is no hindrance in them they have the same coat on them The Saints shall have a garment like the coat and habite of the lillies of which our Saviour saith that Solomon in all his royalty Luke 12.27 was not cloathed like one of them their garments shall be so fit and so durable and so sweet and so naturall without any price without any cost The Lord shall then fit the garment to the party Making of garments requires great skill and much art for it is no ordinary thing for to fit a body truely with a garment or vesture But the Lord will shew that wondrous art in fitting this garment to our bodies in such a wondrous aptnesse in such a fitnesse and proportion and compleatnesse that in every part of mans body there shall appeare this beauty and this comelinesse this glorious apprehension of these heavenly qualities shall appeare in every part of man The Lord shall so fit the body that the garment shall glosse and beautifie and adorne the least part of the body Therefore let us lift up our heads Rom. 13.11 for our salvation drawes neerer then when wee first beleeved and let us delight our selves and labour to put on this new garment this blessed vesture that we all seeke so much after Wee are tired with these stinking cloathes Vse with these perishing vanities of the world Wee are faine to perfume them with sweet odours as the fashion of the times are now wee cannot indure the graine of our owne bodies but wee must perfume them with exotick and strange smels But that garment shall bee so perfumed it shall bee so amiable by the power of God that it shall need no other smell or perfume The curiosity of our dispositions cannot indure a garment a yeare together Shee is accounted a sordid woman that weares that garment this yeare which shee ware the last and shee is neglected and despised of her meanes and friends But the Lord shall so fit this garment that we shall still take delight wee shall have a holy pride in wearing of it and it shall still bee the better for wearing and have continually more splendor and beauty then when we first put it on For this mortall must put on immortality to all delight and glory to a lasting glory and a continuall glosse and beauty that shall never fade but still increase to the party that weares it Now let our appetites appeare in desiring of it When when shall it bee And so I come to the last point that I will trouble you with at this time When great promises are made all delayes are tedious Prov. 13.12 Hope that is deferred kills the heart of man therefore it is naturall for us still to call and urge for the time When Lord when why when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortall hath put on immortality when this