saith hee would have none to gather when he came because it would tend both to his and to their shame if they should be found unready Vnreadinesse is a fault in all the parts of Christianitie and there was no man that ought to be so forward as they therefore he prayes them to do it before hand These are the parcels of this Text. Of these things briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance 2 Motive from the Churches authority First concerning the motive from the Church It hath alway beene a strong argument that is taken from the Churches authority He that heares you heares me and he that scornes you scornes me saith our Lord Christ and tell it to the Church and if he will not heare the Church let him be to thee as a heathen and a publicane or sinner Hee that will not do as the Church doth he is out of the Church of God he is a banished man from heaven and a cast-away from all hope of salvation This argument therefore must be of speciall consideration with us what the ancient Church hath done before times we must follow their steps if we meane to partake of the reward that they and we both looke for We see that antiquitie is a great and a maine reason to induce any good understanding for if the Church of God have authoritie to perswade all her children and those that follow after certainly then the ancientest Churches are of the greatest authoritie Now the Church of Galatia was a more ancient Church then Corinth Therefore the Apostle alledgeth the authority of that Church to bring this on So we see also in persons not only in Churches but in particular persons Rom. 16.6 Salute Andronicus and Iunia that were before me in the Lord they were Christians before Saint Paul therefore Saint Paul gave them honour as his predecessors as his glorious and honourable Ancestors that were in the Lord before him Therefore hee saith honour them and salute them much So in this case Galatia was the more ancient Church therefore it was to be the rule of Churches afterward in all good things in all things belonging to the propagation of the Gospell to the maintenance of a good conscience The authoritie of the Church is the greatest argument one of them under heaven and it is certaine if our mother Church which was once the Church of Rome if it had not proved extreamly cruell and tyrannous in her proceedings there ought no Church to have fallen away from her communitie for by separation from her if she had continued a true mother they had separated from their father too the God of all comfort the God of heaven and earth for a man cannot have his fathers blessing if he go from his mothers bosome but now when all things were turned to pride to worldly covetousnesse to ambition and vaine glory and their own greatnesse without the true aime and without respect to the right end when all was turned to pride and selfe-love that they would depose Kings and Princes out of their seats and kingdomes it grew then to be a monster and ceased to be a mother and thence it is not lawfull to have any communion with them that are so blasphemous But else I say if they had continued in that modest humilitie which they were first bred in Rome a true Church 500 yeares after Christ continued in for the space of foure or five hundred yeares surely the authoritie of the Church had beene a rule for the whole world for where they do well the Apostle makes a law from their doings As the Churches of Galatia do so do ye 2 What the Church of Galatia was Secondly here is to bee observed what this Church of Galatia was it was a famous but yet it was but a poore Church it was so famous in zeale that the Apostle protests that they would have given him their eyes to have done him good wherein he signified their infinite ardor and fervencie to the Gospell of Christ at his first comming although afterwards by his absence they were seduced and drawne away by circumcision by some creeping Iewes that stole in among them But as it was famous for the greatnesse of the graces of the spirit so it was but meane in condition Therefore the Apostle might well draw an argument from it for the Corinthians could not object and say What do you tell us of Galatia Galatia is a potent kingdome a rich kingdome full of meanes and full of glory above our Citie but this they could not do for it appeared to all the world to be but a poore place a place of no trafficke except it were a little in the Euxine sea for it is a middle-middle-land place And although the countries of Asia-minor whereof Galatia is one can maintaine themselves Galatia in Asia minor yet for any great superfluitie and abundance to send to others they cannot do it especially the Citie of Galatia which is excluded and kept from the Pamphilian Sea by the border of the South which lyeth betweene it and Pamphilia So we see here that according as God hath given Churches meanes and abilitie so they should exceed those that are poorer the richer sort must do after a rich manner and if the poore should at any time seeke to transcend them it were a shame to them that are greater and more able The Citie of Corinth it was the Mart of all the world Corinth the Mart of the world Hom. Iliad 2. therefore Homer in his time which was one of the ancientest Writers that ever was among the Heathen there is none like him in his second Iliad he saith three times over Rich Corinth The reason of it is because of the scituation which is betweene two seas from whence all the traffick of the world flocked flowed to it Therefore it followed that seeing the Church of Galatia had farre lesse meanes then Corinth and yet they had done thus Therefore Corinth must much more obey this precept And it is a lesson that I would that men of sence and reason would lay to their owne consciences both in the Church and in their private persons for we have a great number of poore Churches even in this Citie that are sessed oft times to pay farre more then richer places do and there are many poore persons that are truer pay-masters that pay scot and lot better then many greater men do which the Apostle intimates here to be a shame it is a shame that poore Churches should go before rich it is a shame that Galatia should go before Corinth and exceed them it is a thing that God will have a saying for and these great ones that have their thousands and their ten thousands about them and yet they will not pay that which belongs to their poore officers to their poore servants such as belong to them poore Church-men that will not pay that which belongs to them
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
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
power of life and heat failes therefore a man dies Death is nothing but a privation and by consequent it is nothing at all As the Sunne when it is set there is darknesse which is a matter of nothing but the absence of the Sunne So death is nothing but the absence of life nothing but a cessation of the powers in man But because wee conceive it after another manner as a grievous enemie as a triumphant enemy over all the world therefore the Scripture condiscends to our capacity speaks in our language and makes it as an enemy Christ and it as two enemies encountring each other and the one foyling the other and so foyling it as that there is no reliques or remainders of the one left because of the great victory and conquest of the other The victory of Christ shall bee so absolute over death that there shall be no occasion of feare because there shall bee no steppe of death that shall have being in the world And this is marvellously set downe by a metaphor of swallowing that that monster which swallowes all the world of men that hath swallowed our forefathers that hath swallowed all The ages and generations before us what are they else but the morsels of death which hee hath swallowed to glut his stomack and all cannot serve but still he is craving For death and hell and the grave are unsatiable they are never satisfied although they have abundance of income and harvest dayly throwne into them The metaphor is taken from those kinde of ravenous beasts which vse not to chew but to swallow their prey and specially from fish from Whales and Crokodiles which altogether smallow and choake it up without any mincing the meat they receive So the meaning is that the death of Christ swallowes up the death of nature and the death of sinne the second death that they have no more power over us Hee shall swallow them as the Whale swallowed Ionas he shall swallow them that there shall bee no more sight of them to live and to bee and to have power hee shall swallow them as the red sea swallowed up the Egyptians he shall swallow them as the fiery furnace swallowes a little water that is cast into it a sprinkling of water It shall swallow them as the mysts and vapours are swallowed up by the beams of the Sun that there shall be no appearance of them afterward It shall swallow them as the dry gaping thirsty land swallowes a little showre of raine after a long drought It swallowes them up as the weaker metalls that are cast into the fiery furnace that are so spent and consumed as that there is no remainder nor footsteps left of them So is this similitude contrived that the devouring death shall bee swallowed in the death of Christ And whereto shall it be swallowed To Victory To victory This is the strange terme that there is nothing now in the Church of God but triumphs trophees and victorie there is nothing now but songs of deliverance there is nothing but well-springs of life to water every tree in the garden of God The most strange and compleat deliverance that can bee is to bee brought from all the points of slavery to all the points of liberty Such a victoâ—y is this which is spoken of here There shall bee nothing but victory where there was nothing before but captivity Where there was nothing but sicknesse and after sicknesse death and after death damnation by meanes of the sinne of Adam Now there shall be nothing else but life and joy and glory and victory And this is the happy estate and condition of the second comming of Christ and his presence and possession of his children at his comming So wee reade it and so the best Translations hold it to victory Some others reade it to contention So St. Ierom Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Ierom. Teâ—tull Ambros Aug. and St. Austin in many places reade it to contention For saith St. Ierom it is a kind of contestation a kind of law and pleading in the court of God betweene the death of Christ on the one party and the death of nature inflicted for sinne on the other party and they shall enter into plea the one against the other and the power of the death of Christ shall command and overwhelme the power of the death of nature and of the second death which is of sinne by reason of the justice and righteousnesse which is in Christ For thereupon it comes to passe that death is swallowed up into victory because the death of Christ hath answered the justice of his Father and hath satisfied the wrath which wee had contracted against us And by that reason hee shall cease the Commission of death which is out for us because of Adams sinne Rom. 6. last For the wages of sinne is death but because Christ was without sinne therefore hee had no cause or reason to die but onely for our sinnes and so God is satisfied by his death and is well-pleased in him to give us life because the actions that proceed from Christ are not humane actions but the actions of his person the actions of God and man and by consequent able to merit for an infinite company and to be applied to many worlds if there were any more then this that is to all believers to the end of the world that shall have participation in his blood They shall have as they have a promise forgivenesse of sinnes and sinne being removed and forgiven death hath no claime But there was no sin in Christ therefore death had no right to him nor shall have to those that are in him therefore death shall make a surcease and be no more but shall be utterly abandoned and swallowed up into victory This is that plea that the Lord Iesus in his death makes against death I will be death against death Because thou hast forfetted thy commission because thou wast appointed of God to lay hold upon sinners and thou hast laid hold on him that is not a sinner therefore thou shalt lose thy place and thou shalt bee cashiered thou shalt have no more right over sinners because the justice and righteousnesse of the Sonne of God is imputed unto them to ridde them from thy hands and from those dismall conclusions which otherwise they should have beene drowned in There is the contention on the one party Death of Nature The other party is the death of nature Death which is the great master of the world to this day he shall have another plea. Hee shall say For thy part I acknowledge I was mistaken I acknowledge I laid my hands amisse when I tooke thee for there was no sinne in thee But for all other men from the beginning of the world God gave me them as prisoners and made mee their executioner I have not done amisse in these therefore I may justly hold them that are given me by Divine providence by the
and cast him into prison yet his word and power and spirit was stronger than they all and convinced and confuted them that although they seemed to themselves to be conquerers yet they were vanquished for so the Word of God useth to doe to conquer the conquerers and although they thought they took him prisoner yet he took them prisoners for it is a horrible victory that a man gets against the truth a man were better to be taken by the truth than to overcome and quell it These things I note as not any way prejudiciall to the authority or antiquity of those great Fathers and Interpreters but being as I think the more cleare exposition the truer meaning of the Text that he purposed to goe to Ierusalem by the feast of Pentecost and that was but seven weeks off now and although hee purposed if matters had been in place to have staid a while at Ephesus yet still his mind was at Ierusalem where the door was opened because of the aboundance of people that flocked and came thither and the adversaries were so many that it exceeded all faith to make relation of for the Iewes were bound thrice in the yeare all that were above 15. yeares old in the neare countries and all that were above 20. yeares old in far countries they were all bound thrice in the yeare to present themselves before the Lord in Ierusalem and they were such an infinite multitude that a man would wonder that the Land was not over-runne with them like grashoppers and destroyed by their being there But wee are too narrow to consider the blessings of God upon that Land for besides this that they were men of a very sparing and moderate dyet and cared not so much for soft beds but were content to lie in the fields to lie in tents nor they cared not for variety of fare any thing was sufficient for them Wee see that faith and credit makes this good in the History of Iosephus who as I said reports that there were nine millions at one Passeover Wee see the possibility of it also in King Iehosaphats time that had eleven hundred thousand men and upwards that did alway wait upon him besides those that were in his strong gallies that were men of warre as we see in 2 Chron. 17. 2 Chron. 17. Now if he were able to maintain such a number of men it may well be thought that when the generall concourse of that people was from all the parts and kingdomes of the world that there must be an infinite masse of people If hee had above one million daily attending upon him surely the severall parts of the world would furnish it to the number that Iosephus speaks of And it is not to be disputed how the land could beare them how it could nourish them these things wee are not to question but to understand that the blessing of God was mightily poured forth upon that Nation It is apparant I say in 2 Chron. 17. that Iehosaphat had so many hundred thousand men alway at his command So then the Apostle saith here a doore was opened there were so many men and so many adversaries for the most part therefore his minde was set and his spirit was inflamed so much the more to throw himselfe into the danger and to cast himselfe into the front of the battaile because he knew he was secure of the victory although he were overcome by the troublesome world yet he knew he should overcome in the quarrell of Christ that the truth of God should prevaile against them and chaine the chainers So much for the story 2 Part. The Church of God cannot want adversaries Now for the common induction that wee are to make out of this we learne that the Church of God and the truth of God can never want enemies wee must look still for a great number of adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle wee are made for this purpose In 1 Cor. 4. 1 Cor. 4. I am perswaded saith the Apostle that God hath set us the last Ministers of the Gospell he hath set us out to be the off-scouring of the world the scorne of the people to be a theatre and stage for men and Angels to gaze upon And Simeon when he had the babe our Lord Iesus Christ in his armes he saith of him that hee was borne to be a stumbling stone to be a marke of contradiction hee was borne to have adversaries No sooner could the Gospell peepe out into the world then it had a number of adversaries and enemies to tread and trample it downe againe Those persecutions that were under the first Emperours after Christ the ten bloudy persecutions they witnesse what great adversaries the poore truth of Christ had And the Church of the Iewes which the Apostle called before him Acts 28. Acts 28. when they were convented and called together by the Apostle they told him that this new heresie the doctrine of the Gospell of Christ Iesus which they accounted heresie they knew for a certaine that it was every where spoken against that it was every where gainsaid It is an easie matter for lies to prevaile in the world the sonnes of darknesse are predestinated to bee drowned in darknesse to vanish in their owne dreames and so the lies of one Philosopher may passe upon another and they may joyne and blend them together and live in quiet and peace and yet all be lies But the pure truth of God and the sincere light of the Gospel it can indure no such Egyptian smoaks but it will shine bright forth of it selfe and therefore it cannot bee suffered for the Devill the Prince of darknesse he doth alway shew himselfe against the Lord of light and against the Gospel of light still either to extinguish it if possibly he can or at least to eclipse and dazle the light of it or to immure it in cloudes that it may not appeare to the sonnes of men It was the fortune of all truth ever to be beaten downe by liars but yet the Lord hath given it this victory It runnes the same course with Christ for hee died and was buried three dayes but hee rose againe so the truth which is his daughter the daughter of the Trinity the sister of the Sunne the brightnesse of the world although it bee for a time obscured and damped by the wickednesse of the Devils instruments and such miscreants yet in time it riseth againe it selfe by the power of God it is raised from the dead after that never more to be outed and undone but still to shine and fill the Hemisphere Therefore this should teach us Vse that men must not be discouraged in the worke of the Ministery because of the noise and tumult of the adversaries he that is for Christ he must feare no rumors but in good reports and bad reports and through prosperity and mischiefe he must make a way unto him that he seeks for of