more behinde still so to fill the desires of men and to draw their affections unto him As it is thus in these corporall things which are with lesse labour found out still there is an infinitum a kinde of infinite labour and toyle in it that they are not found out but by the hand of God So many golden mines in the earth that are undiscovered so many precious things that are not yet revealed Much more must it needs be in those holy secrets those gracious things in heaven in the glorious Court above when the footstoole is so infinite and secret Psal 77.19 Aug. As the Psalmist saith his footsteps are not knowne Saith Saint Austin well If the steppes of his feet be not knowne how then shall the counsels of his head be discovered Therefore in these things wee must settle our selves and returne the foole upon our owne soules when we meddle with these deepe and secret matters wee know not a great number of things that are created the hearbes that are under our feet we know not the difference of them wee know not the qualities of them nor their natures and operations and shall we then mount up into heaven to see what is done there before our time The Lord will give it us in time if wee keepe our selves within the limits of modestie and restraine our selves within that compasse which hee hath commanded us Vse Secondly we learne out of this in that the Apostle cals him foole and cals these things foolish therefore we should not affect these things and give our selves over to them We learne what to judge of all curious Divinitie and dâ—scourses that it is rather a part of folly then any shew and remonstrance of wisedome And by this reason a great number of Students and Scholars in this Land spend their time meerly in folly 1. Tim. 6.10 As the Apostle saith It is science falsely so called they studie and imploy themselves that they may be madde with reason that is by following a kinde of sublime reason as they thinke they fall from reason and loose themselves Like the Philosopher that so long conversed about the mysterie of the Sunne that at the last he made a question whether ever there were a Sunne or no he knew not whether the light came from the Sunne or from any super-illuminating cause or no. The Lord blindes men that are too quicke sighted to search into things that hee hath not provided for them Such things there be indeed as Saint Austin saith Aug. there are certaine idle delicacies and dainties but they are not for us they are for no man to know that would worke out his salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 Lastly in that he cals him foole or madde man we see how lawfull and how necessary it is sometimes to use the authoritie of the Spirit to use the majestie of the Spirit in the Gospell to call them fooles that speake foolish things And although Christ forbid us to do it in our particular and private talke and he that cals his brother foole Mat. 5.22 is in danger of hell fire yet it is one thing what a common Christian may do upon a little sleight cause and it is another thing what the Magistrate or what the Minister of the Word may do upon an urgent occasion Gal. 3.1 Wee see Saint Paul cals the Galathians madde men and foolish men and this questionist here hee cals him foole Luk. 12.20 Yea our Lord Christ cals the rich man foole Thou foole this night shall they take away thy soul Mat. 3.7 And Saint Iohn Baptist Oh generation of vipers So that there is left in the Church a power and authority which must be used when there is occasion to draw the sword against contumacious rebels which will not be reclaimed by other meanes As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith the preacher of the Word must be like unto the Bee he must have both a sting and honey And Saint Chrysostome upon this place saith he Chrysost he gives him a sharpe tearme but hee passeth by him quickly hee gives him indeed a poore title but yet it is a fit one He was afraid lest hee should cut him too deepe therefore hee would not stand too long upon him lest he should make him runne away For as a wise man will easily endure such a word as this from the mouth of a wiser so a man when he is followed and baited too farre he will kicke against the pricks and be ready altogether to cast off the reprehension Now we come to the demonstration That which thou sowest c. 2 The demonstration Here is the substance of the Answer to the first question the answer to the second follows in the next verse The Lord of his great goodnesse and mercie hath made the possibilitie of his owne truth apparant unto us in all the common actions of nature What more usuall what more ordinarie what more necessarie then the sowing of seed Now the seeds man if he do but mark what he doth when he imployes himselfe he shall easily perceive that God teacheth him out of his owne trade what he is to thinke of this great mystery To sow the corne in the ground we know that to flesh and bloud and common sence it is a meere losse of it and if wee had not seene it done before wee should conclude so Therefore there are some men that are celebrated as famous in the Poets for inventing this the casting of the seed into the ground from whence people thought there was no returning Indeed that conceit might be in barbarous rude Nations but it is certaine that this doctrine was taught unto Adam in Paradise and hath beene transmitted to all his posteritie Yet there are some Nations that to this day do not know the common necessity of sowing nor use it not they understand not the mystery the Lord hath so farre blinded them So it is in this sowing of the body In all judgement of flesh and bloud when the body is put downe into the grave into the coffin into the earth it seemes to be gone for ever and it goes from worse to worse till it come to dust and ashes the prime principles of our creation We ought to compare therefore these things together and we shall see how wondrous God is in the one and learne thereby how glorious he will be in the other The seed that is sowne it is quickened and hath life that vegetable life th t things of like nature have to grow againe and to bee greater to feed it selfe and to feed us also For God hath made the seed of a singular piercing qualitie that the lesser it is the more power it hath Therefore the mustard-seed which is the least graine whâ—n it comes up it grows to be a great tree For in these small things God sets forth his power oft times more gloriously then in greater matters And
from death are phrases and termes that properly belong to the life of man yet the Apostle useth it here in speaking of the corne to which it belongs not properly and significantly And now when he comes to speak of the burying of the bodies he useth a phrase which is proper to the corne and saith It is sowne and It is raised up that is it is brought forth in that variety as the corn is cloathed with And the reason St. Chrysostom saith is this Because we are as sure of the one as of the other and also to shew the fitnesse of the comparing of these things There is no comparison that could have been so fit therefore he interchangeth the phrases of the one to the other to shew that it comes all to one It is sowne The body of man hath two kinds of sowings in this world One is when he is sowne into the esse into the being of a man and that is in the wombe of his mother as St. Chrysostom saith in which sense it is said that such and such descended from the seed of Abraham and from the seed of such progenitors Another sowing is this which the Apostle speaks of here which is in the wombe of that great mother the Earth which is the common mother and universall nurse of all mankind Now of the first St. Paul speaks not here although it be true indeed that some Interpreters have turned it that way For it is certaine that the prime principles of men are laid in corruption and the first sation or sowing is a concealed and secret matter a shamefull action and sometimes a dishonest thing but the Apostle hath no intention to speak of that for he speaks here by way of allusion and saith So is it in the resurrection of the dead Therefore I cannot follow those extravagancies but apply it to the Resurrection It is certaine the Apostle meanes of that sowing of God when he sows the body in the ground Earth to earth ashes to ashes as St. Chrysostom saith Chrysost that is the best sowing by far For the first is a sowing to misery and weaknesse to live in troubles and crosses and affliction in this world even as Iob saith Job 14.1 Man that is borne of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery but this sowing of God of his children in the grave of which this Text as also this Chapter must be understood it is a sowing not to a life of misery but to a state of glory There shall be no trouble after that but a quiet and perfect rest and renovation when the fulnesse of time shall appeare So then It is sowne Hee useth this word upon purpose to take from us the feare of death the feare and trouble of that great monster and bugg of the world For as much as to die is a hopefull thing as the sowing of the seed is a hopefull action Sowing is a word of confidence and expectation as we see 1 Cor. 9. 1 Cor. 9.10 11. that he that sowes may sow in hope and he that reaps may reap in hope and he that ears may eare in hope All these are words of hope words that are very full of contentment to the minde for by that meanes there is a certaine expectation of gaine and advantage It is sowne That is when a man dies he is full of hope there is a blessed hope that waits and attends upon him As Iob saith the just man the good man hath hope in his death and the faithfull with faithfull Abraham they hope against hope that when desperation assailes him then he is strongest in his hope to God It is sowne Therefore is is not cast away it is not brought to nothing it is not destroyed but it is sowne it is laid up in a faithfull hand it is laid up as a depositum and not onely so but it is put forth to Interest and hath a great Income againe It is sowne And it is sowne in a due place in the field of God in Gods acre as in many places in Germany the Church-yards are called Gods acre It is not cast into the water it is not cast into the fire to be burned nor to the thorns and weeds to choak it it is not left to be picked by the fowls of heaven but it is sowne in that place where God hath purposed it shall repose and rest Yea it is given upon tale and the earth shall restore and give up her dead she shall surrender every body which God hath committed unto her It is sowne with the diligent hand of the great husbandman the Lord Almighty he that casts his seed with judgement and laies it up with knowledge and great wisdome Ioh. 15. Joh. 15.1 saith Christ I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman The Lord therefore takes this seed and he so layes it up where it may bring the most profit and rise with the richest advantage It is sown in the bosome of the great mother the earth which is fruitfull and abounds in plenty which receives the first and later raine Deut 11.14 and sets the vallies thick with corne Psal 65.14 that it makes men rejoyce and sing In such a place is this semination this sowing it is sowne by the hand of God it is sowne in the expectation of hope profit This word the Apostle useth to allure us to familiarity with that which of necessity we must undergoe Men must forgoe this tabernacle but it is grievous to them to think of it they are perplexed and distressed when such melancholy thoughts come in their heads Let us shake hands therefore with that to the which we must needs bow at the last And let us conceive the goodnesse of God which follows us even unto our death and opens a gate of hope and makes us prisoners of hope and gives passage to the performance of those blessed promises wherein we are instructed and whereto we are called by the lure of the glorious Gospell So much for that metaphor Now the other for the body to come 2. The metaphor for the life to come Chrysost it is very significant It is raised up Saith St. Chrysostom the Apostle doth not say it grows up of it self but it is raised up as being done by another so indeed our redemption it is not wrought by any thing that is inherent in us but it is an externall action that comes from God it is the hand of God that works on us and raiseth us up It is raised therefore by the power of him that raised Christ from the dead Rom. 8.11 It is raised by him that raised for us a horne of salvation in the house of his servant David Luke 1.69 John 11.17 It is raised as Lazarus was raised after he had been foure daies in the grave It is raised as a house is raised from the foundation It is raised as the Temple
you fishers of men And in many places in Scripture men are compared to fishes by reason of the laver of regeneration Lastly he saith there is another flesh of fowls or birds and he saith by those are meant the bodies of the Martyrs that have dyed for the testimony of Christ Those are like unto birds that flye from this world Psal 55.6 that take unto themselves the wings of a dove and flye away to be at rest that separate themselves from the world and worldly things that forsake father and mother and countrey and land and goods and life it selfe to be for Christ and for his profession So Tertullian Tertull. makes the sence to be this that in the Resurrection some shall rise as good and perfect men and some shall be as beasts that is in great uglinesse and deformitie and some shall rise as fishes that is with the benefit of their baptisme and some with their glory and crowne of martyrdome as the birds and fowls of the aire But in this exposition there is a great deale more wit then soundnesse for we must not indure to expound Scripture in this manner It is a dangerous thing for a man to build allegories to ground upon idle conceits to destroy the letter withall For the letter of the Scripture must stand and if there be any possible construction to keepe it it must bee kept and maintained If not we are to abhorre niceties and then to expound it by way of similie and allegorie but never till then Others expound it as if the Apostle meant it of the different degrees of joy in heaven whereof we shall have more occasion to speak if God permit when we come to speake of the difference of starres One starre differeth from another in glory Divers men have diversly distracted the sence of this Scripture while they thinke the Apostle speakes of the different flesh of men because that beasts and fishes and fowls they are things that belong not to the Resurrection and what then should they do in this argument But I take it the best and true sence is that the Apostle takes it according to the letter and out of that he draws an argument to perswade us of the glorious bodies that shall be in the Resurrection For in the similitude that went immediately before he teacheth us how we shall finde the doctrine of the Resurrection in our gardens in our fields in the things that we sowe and admit into the ground Now he riseth to a higher argument and teacheth us how we should find it in our flesh in this flesh that we carry about us for that is the principall thing that is here spoken of It is the flesh that must rise againe and if wee can find an argument so neare home in this our flesh it is certainly a plausible and delightfull argument and the Apostle tels us that if we come from our fields and our gardens if we come home to our selves and looke upon this flesh of ours we shall see in that a most lively representation of the glorious Resurrection And whereas all the whole bodie of living creatures is nothing else but flesh although it be diversly and with a strange varietie distinguished the same God that can make such varietie in the selfe same thing that can make one flesh to be washy and waterish as the flesh of fish another to be ayrie and spiritly as the flesh of birds another to be sullen and drowsie as the flesh of beasts another to be temperate and meane as the flesh of men the Lord that works this difference in this fraile subject much more in the Resurrection can hee worke a diversitie in the forme and shape and in the colour and representation in the flesh that shall be then glorified To proceed in order Division into 3. parts 1 The Resurrection proved from flesh 2 A fourefold diversity of that flesh 3 How this peâ—swades the Resurrection First he would have us to consider that the flesh it selfe affords an argument of the Resurrection and he riseth from things sowne in the earth to flesh that moves in the world and that in what part soever they are whether in the ayre or in the water or upon the earth And then he tels us that that flesh is not all one but there is a diversitie And he makes the diversity foure fold as the flesh of men the flesh of beasts the flesh of fishes and the flesh of birds Thirdly we are to consider the use of this argument how it inferres and perswades the soules of men that there is a likelihood and certaintie of the resurrection 1. Part. Argument of the Resurrection raised from flesh and raised higher and higher Concerning the first the Apostles method is most singular and excellent he proceeds in his arguments from things that are lesse perfect to those that are of greater perfection All the seeds that be abundant in the earth they argue indeed the mighty hand of God in their power and varietie and in their growth and successe but yet flesh is a farre more constant body then they be Now if the Resurrection do appeare in things that grow upon the earth much more doth it appeare in things sensible in things that have life For the vegetables although they argue somewhat yet the argument is obscure as their life is obscure but the sensibles those things that stirre and move they are farre more cleare preachers of the Resurrection then the other can be The flesh as Methodius Methodius saith it is nothing but the middle way betweene incorruption and corruption the flesh is neither corruption nor incorruption of it selfe but the middle way betweene both For the flesh was so created at the first by the hand of God that if man had not purchased corruption by sinne if he had not brought in the sting of sinne to rot it it had never putrified but had continued in that goodlinesse and beautie wherein the Lord created it But now by reason of the sinne of man there is entred a worme into the flesh which is a necessitie of dying which is alway gnawing upon it and decreasing and abating of it till it bring it to the tearmes of corruption And yet the Lord suspends the action for a time and gives the flesh a certaine flourish in this world in some to twenty yeares in some to forty in some to a great many more but the flower cannot last long the flesh may live when the glosse is gone So this body of flesh wherein God hath set his glory more a great deale then in plants and trees and things that grow out of the ground it doth affoord us a stronger and more forcible argument that the bodies shall rise in a glorious qualitie when the day of judgement shall come There where God hath now taken more paines and hath shewed his hand most glorious there hee intends hereafter to bee more glorious Now the resurrection of
to thousands and millions in the world that beleeve in him that although there be sinne now in our mortall bodies yet it doth not raigne it commands us not to every thing it finds us not as the Centurions servants to goe when it saith goe but it is in many things broken and dissipated and the Lord hath beat sathan under our feet that is the usuall work of sathan sinne and foule impressions in your soules and understandings Thus the Lord hath given us victory over sinne in himselfe fully in us it is begun but for that wee shall have occasion afterwards to discourse The Lord himselfe being free from all sinne hee was therefore a Conquerour over that pestilent viper that poyson of our nature and he gave his people the infusion of his Spirit to guide them by the which Originall sinne is weakned the sire is abated and allayed the edge of sin is lessened The last is over the Law That still is the greatest enemy that still layes before us the judgments of God Doe this and live Doe that and be damned Follow this course and thou shalt be damned for ever If thou be a drunkard if thou be lustfull if thou be covetous and worldly if thou be revengefull and malicious the sentence of damnation is passed upon thee that is all the comfort wee have by the Law but Christ hath given us victory over this enemy which followes us at the heeles when wee doe amisse and still puts us into qualmes of conscience for our misdeeds and curbes and bridles us by the checks of conscience that if a man could but see the end of these foule actions as hee seeth the beginning he would never doe them because there is no equality between the short time of sinning and the eternity of punishment But against all this Christ hath given us victory for he hath fulfilled the law of God he hath stopped the crimination he he hath stayed all those slanders and all those accusations that the devill would make by the law or that those that have been curious observers of the law would make and those accusations that an evill conscience would make by the power of the Law of God which hath enlightened it He hath silenced all these in this life but the consummation of this we must understand is to come when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality They are now gone before in the head they shall then follow in the body Saith St. Austin Aug. Whatsoever Christ hath done in his owne body it shall follow in our mortall bodies When hee shall change them 1 Cor. 15. and make them like unto his owne glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe This is that goodly victory in the which the Lord hath interested us all To conclude and refer the rest till the next time I beseech you beloved in the Lord let us consider what part we have in this victory wee ought not to insult and triumph in a vaine presumption in blessings that pertaine not to us but if we think we have the victory let us labour to finde it and so enter into judgement with our owne soules who it is that overcommeth Apoc. 3. To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the tree of life in the middest of the paradice of God to him that overcommeth will I give a white stone c. And what must he overcome He must overcome himself and all his passions he must overcome the feare of death the power of sinne and the terrours of the Law A fearfull encounter and a great troop of enemies is laid open the Lord strengthen poore David that he may be able to encounter with this mighty Goliah for it seemes that hell it selfe is open upon him when therefore we doe give our selves that liberty as to doe what our selves list against the good will and command of God let us not thinke to have any part in this victory we are rather as so many conquered slaves and vassals that lie at the command of death that whereas wee should tread Satan under our feet Satan tramples us under his and makes us the most base and vile creatures in the world Thou that hast enough in this world and yet canst not tell when thou hast enough but still art distracted with envious desires and makest thy self great by other mens falls that raisest thy owne fortunes by other mens ruines that usest any meanes good or bad by hooke or by crooke to advance thine owne estate to make thy selfe rich and settest thy selfe onely to the study of the Idoll Mammon what kinde of victory or what hope of conquest canst thou have in that great and mighty victory which wee pretend the Lord Iesus hath given us surely none There is no such gally-slave in the world as a man that is given and addicted to his wealth and riches in this present life for it pierceth men through with many sorrowes as the Apostle saith They that will be rich 1 Tim. 6. pierce themselves thorow with many sorrowes Behold the sting of death is the sting that pierceth them the sting of death is sinne and this sting it pierceth through the heart and stabbs the soule of every covetous man in the world that they cannot claime any part of that victory which God communicates to his children but they are foyled base creatures that are made for slaughter and destruction And so againe for them that live in their pleasures in their voluptuous and filthy courses that will grow old in adultery that will make no end of their filthinesse and uncleannesse but with greedinesse seeke when one prey is enjoyed how to obtaine another these that make their vessells that should be Temples of God the brothell-houses of the Devill that are no sooner tempted but they yeeld these comming Creatures how or with what face with what confidence can they lay claime to the victory that we have in God through Iesus Christ our Lord being nothing else but bruits and are given over yeelding themselves they have taken the marke of the beast and follow Satans direction and command as if Christ had no power to be their Chieftaine but the Prince of darknesse must rule The like may bee said of all these malicious prowling spirits that be in the world that take delight to sting their brethren to doe mischiefe without cause to sow the seeds of dissention that will wrangle out their lives to trouble others to bring upon them endlesse suits and questions that shall never be decided to vexe the world with begging or buying of new found offfices to make their hands full out of every thing sacred and prophane to play the very roaring Lions in their dennes that no man can tell how hee should live or keepe himselfe quiet with them That these Creatures I say should come and claime any part in this
his worke Diddest thou ever see the Whale Iob 41. Didst thou ever see the goodly proportion that he hath and the carelesnesse and contempt that he hath of thee and of all the weapons that thou canst bring against him I say in that vast element the wonders of God appeare more then upon the face of the earth What shoales what millions what mighty armies of fishes every yeare passe and repasse the sea and keepe their seasons and times that rather then men shall want they come and offer themselves in their seasons to be meat for man that as some kinde of birds flie unto us at certaine times in the yeare so also at certaine seasons the fishes of the Sea do swimme unto us For God hath given the Sea that qualitie that invites them hee makes the South sea so hot that the fishes are faine to come and refresh themselves in the North and every where where they come they fill the shores with plentie And to this kinde of creature God hath given a flesh that is waterish like to the element where it lives And withall he hath given it the blessing to be fit for the use and food of man and that in admirable delicacie and great variety For whereas there is not of all the beasts and birds upon the earth set them all together not forty kinde of severall dishes for there are but foureteene kinde of beasts that are fit for meat and but twenty five or twenty sixe of birds and no more there are of severall kindes of fishes very neare two hundred that are wholsome and good for the food and use of man And this food it is not ordinarie but to some bodies and in som Countries it is a great deale more nourishing and faemiliar and good then either that of beasts or birds Therefore the Lord hath glorified himselfe in this creature wondrously by the miracle of the two fishes he wrought that upon the fish that we do not reade in the Gospell hee wrought upon flesh Luk 9.16 For in that Countrey as their fish was most delicate so their meat most ordinarily was fish His Apostles were fishermen and his last apparition to them was in giving them a dish of broyled fish upon the shore where a fire was kindled and the fish was laid upon it no man knew how It was a dish which the Lord gave them they found the fire the broyled fish upon it by a miraculous act of Christs hand that as he commanded the fish to have money in its mouth so hee commanded preparation to be made by the ministery of Angels for his Apostles dinner in that place The last flesh he speakes of is the flesh of fowls or birds and that is another wonder indeed and of great varietie For the water and the ayre they differ but in their thicknesse and thinnesse the ayre is a thinne water and the water is a thicke ayre and so the motion of the fishes and the motion of the birds do differ accordingly For the fishes do move with that speed that they may be said to flye in the water and the birds do flye with that facilitie that they may be said to swimme in the ayre they are wondrous things that the Lord hath wrought in these two elements But there is nothing that comes to that height of excellencie for naturall motion as the birds which can be in any place They can rest upon the waters as many of them do they can rest upon the land and yet they can travell in the ayre and in a short space of time they can overcome a great journey To see that a massie heavy body should be carried up with the helpe of a feather of a wing and hang in the ayre that if a man should see them that had never seene it before hee would thinke they should all breake their necks and that it were impossible for them to be free from danger And yet the Lord hath given them such a poyse and such a measure that though they bee made with round bodies yet their spirits are so thinne and fierie and nimble that they can sustaine themselves even in the clouds and soare aloft for many houres together This argueth also the power that shall be in the bodies that shall be raised from the dead For they shall have that abilitie and power to soare about Christ Mat. 24.28 to flocke about him as the Eagles about the body And this flesh of birds to see in what a wondrous varietie it is is strange For the cleannesse and uncleannesse of them For their severall kinds For their forme and figure and proportion For their quantitie For their colours For their feathers in some goodly and glorious in others for necessitie in others their feathers are like the streames of a flagge rather then feathers Of those I meane that are heavier bodies and cannot mount aloft The great God is wondrous in all these things and we ought not to looke upon them with an idle eye but to make it a Sabbath dayes exercise to instruct our selves in these varieties and to praise and blesse God where we see any step of his greatnesse I will conclude in a word 3. Part. How this variety of fleshes proves the resurrection Now we come to the use of all this It is true there is one kinde of flesh of men another of beasts another of fishes and another of birds but what is that to the purpose how doth this prove that there shall be a resurrection The Lord hath made all these things that be in the world to be types and paternes of better things that are reserved for another world therefore if he have set a glorious varietie here much more will he do it there even those things that wee account here to be the best of things they shall be so farre short of that which shall be then revealed as that the best things that are now shall come short by farre of the worst that shall be then Wee can distinguish among the beasts which are best and which are worst and among the fishes and fowls and in the parts of our bodies all are not so beautifull as the eye there are some parts of lesse and worse respect and in the beauty and colour and complexion of the faces of men and women there are better and worse Some are exceeding goodly some are extreamly deformed and we make a difference alway betweene that which is worst and that which is best in every kinde So the Apostle argues thus God shall so alter and change the things that remaine for a better life hee shall so alter them to a betterment and perfection that the best things that are here shall not compare with the worst thing that shall be there Looke how farre the most excellent beautie excels them that are most deformed in face looke how farre the best bodie excels the worst the most crooked and impotent body looke how farre the best
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