in the Apostles place that they would Vse 1 follow his steps to have their reioycing in this one Lord and master to have no ioy in the world or in men in goods and profits in pleasures honours or in preferments which the world usually buyes and sels To have no reioycing in these but as they bee men that belong to God so let them reioyce onely in God And there is all the poynt of gloriation Therefore let not the rich man boast in his riches Ier. 9.23 or the strong man in his strength but let him that reioyceth reioyce in the Lord for it is he that executes iudgement and iustice and that sheweth mercy to those that reioyce in him as the Lord speakes Vse 2 Againe this must teach us to mingle these two together as the holy Apostle doth Reioycing and death we must labour by the study of pleasing Almighty God to keepe this sweet temper in us Wee are sure of the one but we must labour for the other I wonder not when I heare thee say as the Apostle doth here I dye daily for every man doth so there is not the most sensuall man but he hath a touch of death every day eyther by sensible misery or by the touch of conscience by bringing of his sinnes to his view That is incident to nature and a consequent of sinne to dye But what is thy reioycing what comfort hast thou in Christ This is that we should desire and call upon God continually for even to make this temper and mixture in us for the one is as necessarie as the other and God is as ready to give the one as our nature is ready to draw the other upon it selfe And this must be by this one meanes the making Iesus Christ thy Lord knowing no other Lord besides him no nor none against him nor none with him but that he may have the preheminence and be all in all as he is to his children in the world and shall be for ever in another world So thou must make him all thy ayme all that thou desirest all thy gloriation because thou must or canst desire nothing but it is seated in him To conclude with the time here is a modell of a christian mans estate death and life sorrow and ioy he is composed of such strange differences as the understanding of man cannot attaine unto But yet assuredly the Lord is never so heavy to him in iudgment but he is withall rich in mercy sorrow of heart shall never so surround him but he shall have the ioy of the holy Ghost to survive him As Saint Augustine Augustine saith upon that place of Paul Redeeme the time because the dayes are evill I saith he it is true the time in this world is evill but all the dayes that are in Christ are good dayes all the dayes of the Lord are good all the dayes of sinne are evill Let us sell them then he that redeemes parts with one thing to get another Let us sell these evill dayes in this world that we may get those good dayes in the grace of Christ And as Saint Gregory Gregory saith Good Iesus hee that hath thee looseth nothing and though he be in the midst of death yet he shall be recompenced with life although hee be in the midst and swallowed up with sorrow and deepe pangs of conscience yet thy spirit is there to remove that sorrow for though sorrow indureth for a night yet ioy commeth in the morning Psal 30. Psal 30.5 And in thy light wee shall see light thy wrath indures for the twinckling of an eye but in thy pleasure there is life for evermore This is the blessed state that every Christian is called unto and the Lord make it every one of our portions for Iesus Christs sake Amen FINIS 1 COR. 15.32 If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men what doth it availe me if there be no resurrection from the dead THis is now the conclusion of that argument which Saint Paul draws from his owne person For drawing his principall argument from the sufferings of the Church to prove the resurrection of the dead he begins first with the generall and then he descends to the particular and last of all he comes to the personall First the generall was verse 29. What shall they doe that are baptised for the dead Then in the next verse he comes to the Colledge of the Apostles and saith We also are in ieopardy every day And for his owne particular he protests he dyes daily in the verse before the Text. And now he comes to explaine this how it should be taken saith he If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men Because he had spoken of a thing unlikely and unusuall and unwonted and therefore it might be offensive to Atticke eares such as were at Corinth to say that he lived and yet was dead therefore now he tempers his speech and mitigates it by this exposition when he saith He received the sentence of death against himselfe for hee was cast to beasts to fight with them eyther indeed according to the letter as it was a kinde of punishment and torment that the Pagan persecutors assigned the Christians unto or by way of metaphore as many and most of the Fathers of the Church interpret it But how ever the force of the argument is all one For whether he were cast to beasts and suffered to take his weapons and to defend himselfe and so by the mercy of God to escape without hurt from them or whether he meane by fighting with beasts beastly minded men as the phrase of Scripture often insinuates the strength of the argument is all one For often times a man were better bee cast unto beasts then to men there being more mercy and lesse fury in the pawes of the very beasts than in the working braines of men and the malicious conveyances that they have in the world So whether wee take it for beasts literally or for men that were beasts metaphorically the force of the argument is equall For saith he if there were no hope of the Resurrection then I would doe as the world doth and I would say as they say I would accommodate my selfe to all mens humours I would be so farre from casting my selfe into such dangers as to sight with beasts or with beastly men as that I would seeke to recover my owne which I had once being a Pharisie I would live a quiet and peaceable life among my brethren as I did then when I was rather ready to doe others hurt than to suffer any I would much rather choose that state of life than thus to be plagued and plunged and drowned in misery if there were not a hope of a Resurrection but the vigour and life of that hope duls all the pangs in this world and sweetens the cup of affliction which else would eate out my very intrayles If
Lord because it is to him and for his sake or else if it were in the quality of the worke it were in vaine for there is nothing in us that is good therefore it is not any thing that is inherent in that but it is in the power of God that can doe what pleaseth him and that will give liberally even for the least thing that we have done he will give a great recompence it is he that makes it fruitfull and copious and plentifull in the recompence it is the Lord that rewardeth all thus And he concludes it under scale you know that this is true you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. This is that great blessing of God that double grace when hee makes us know the thing that it is impregnable that it is a thing not to be resisted that it is such a thing as all the powers of hell and darknesse and contrary disputations cannot make you doubt of You know this To know is to know by reasons naturall that never faile that this shall be thus the promise of God is so therefore you know it by that you know it by the practice of the Saints you know it by the testimony of the Spirit of God you know it by the common tenent of the world so that whatsoever God hath spoken hee is willing to performe and it is done already as though it were acted at this present time It is the heavenly and blessed contentment of a Christian man that hee hath the priviledge to know his happinesse before hee hath it that man that is advanced to morrow that is a poore man to day hee may hope well and wish well but hee knoweth nothing a man that goes to the field to fight in the battaile hee knowes not whether ever he shall come againe as Ahab said He that puts on his armour let him not brag as he that puts it off When a man sets forth on a journey hee knowes not whether ever hee shall returne home or not When a man enters into traffique for viands and matters of life hee knowes not whether hee shall gaine or lose there is nothing that wee can tell in this world that it shall be thus for time will alter and change it In all the works of Philosophy there is no certainty of the time to come but in the booke of God there is a certaine knowledge blessed be God for that knowledge It is a thing without exception it is a thing without all doubt Iohn 4. Our Lord Christ said to the woman of Samaria Ye know not what ye worship we know what we worship The knowledge therefore of true religion was among the people of God so the knowledge of the promises was among them too wee know saith the Apostle 1. Cor 5.1 when this earthly Tabernacle shall be abolished we have a heavenly mansion So the Apostle saith I know whom I have believed I know whom I have trusted And in 1 Iohn 2.15 Wee know that we are translated from death to life because wee love the brethren This therefore is that excellent priviledge of a Christian that he hath above all the schollers in the world that as he is made to glorie so he knows it before he hath a taste of the Spirit the earnest of the Spirit before which makes him cry Abba Father that helps him to pray that comforts him in trouble that stands by him that leads him and guides him on that never forsakes him in the state of grace till it bring him to the state of glory To the which the Lord bring us for Christ his sake Amen FINIS CORINTHS COLLECTION FOR THE SAINTS AT IERUSALEM Seven Sermons on 1 Corinth 16. the first 9. Verses BY That Worthy and Learned Preacher of Gods Word MARTIN DAY Chaplaine in Ordinarie to his Majestie and late Rector of S. FAITHS London Heb. 13.16 To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased LONDON Printed by T.H. for Nathanael Butter and are to be sold at the signe of the Pide Bull neere Saint Austins gate 1636. 1. Cor. 16.1.2 Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia â—ven so do yâ— â—pon the first of the Weeke Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come THis is the last head or common place of this holy Epistle which the Apostle hath therefore reserved to the last because he would have it the better in printed in the memory of his schoollars For all the rest indeed have beene matters of great concernment but this most of all it being the common office of Christianitie and a generall duty that runnes through the whole body as the life doth For the poore you shall have alway with you saith our Lord Christ and therefore your mercie to the poore shall be alway exacted so S. Chrysostome Chrysost The Apostle now saith hee goes forward to the head and principle of all good things He hath touched upon it before in Chap. 13. Chap. 13.1 speaking of charitie Though I had the tongue of men and Angels yet if I had not charitie I were nothing But that charitie is of another kinde for that intends the use of spirituall gifts that a man should forget himselfe for the common good that hee should not labour so much to shew himselfe a scholler or a Linguist as to speake to common capacities that is the charitie meant in that place But now here he speakes of another kinde of charitie not in the collation of things spirituall but of temporall wherein a man is put to his proofe more then then in the other for the conferring of sprituall things commonly as they come freely so they come easily without much paine or trouble There is no man almost but he will communicate his learning and knowledge to another gratis but for these temporall goods that we have in this world they can hardly be drawne from us and a small quantitie a poore despicable portion is exacted when we are brought to the best Therefore now the Apostle comes to that point of charitie which doth most of all discerne a Christian whereby he is best knowne the parting from his owne goods the defrauding of his owne genius of his owne belly that he may be helpfull to others And so this is the ninth and last part of this Epistle for as I told you heretofore Divines have diversly distinguished the Epistle but the best and the most neere and likely division is into nine severall points of doctrine whereof this is the last The first was of taking away the schismes and divisions which was in the Church of Christ One was of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas another of Christ In the first second third and fourth Chapters that is the first common place of this Epistle The second was concerning the power
never looks after the performance of it A man goeth by an Hospitall and saith he will give them somewhat when he comes backe againe and when he comes backe he thinkes not of it Imagine what you will although you forget it yet it stands on account in Gods booke hee will call you to a reckoning for it and if you sneake away and will not pay the shot the Lord will take it upon your bodies and soules in hell For you must not thinke to passe a vow to the Lord in a good mood for a good purpose but the Lord will take it and exact it at your hands Therefore let every man lay downe for himselfe God intrusts every mans selfe he trusts every mans honesty This should be a great comfort and a meanes to provoke us to be true to God Let every man lay by him in store For if every man should have brought it presently to the poore mans box it might have beene thought to have beene done out of a present passion and that he would have taken it out againe afterward after it was cast in if he might have had leave But for a man to be constant in it to let it stand by him a moneth or two moneths or a quarter of a yeare that hee saith and resolveth this they shall have whatsoever become of me I will not abate a penie of the stocke of God of the stocke of charitie when he saith Let every man lay up by him in store his meaning is that God will call every man to account if hee bee inconstant and forgetfull of his vow and promise the Lord will not let such a one escape As whatsoever God hath prospered him with 3 The measure First what is this that he must put apart whatsoever God hath prospered him with so we may turne it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod ei bene successerit s placuerit but the word is a rare word and therefore it is diversly expressed by Interpreters some say that which is fit some say that which hee thinkes good and these are true for there is no man herein compelled to do any thing but what he doth out of his owne heart of his owne free-will The Lord loves a free-giver a chearfull giver and hee will have no constraint Yet Expositors come not neere the glory of the word for it is a metaphor taken from Merchant-venturers that cast their goods into a bottome it may be halfe their estate sometimes it may be sometimes all and if God give them a good voyage they are made if not then they are downe the winde undone So it signifies a good journey or a good voyage you have the word twice over in the Scripture both before and after this In Rom. 1.10 saith the Apostle I pray to God continually if God would give me a good journey to come to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same word is used here hodos a journey heodos a good journey As the Lord is pleased to blesse a man in his trade and course of life so the word is used in 3. Ioh. 2. Beloved brother I desire of God that thou mayest have a good journey that thou maiest prosper and be well and in good health as thy soule prospereth that thou shouldest have a good journey in all things So by these two places you understand what is the meaning of the word that whereas all the provision of the life present here is made upon casualties there is no man can tell when he sets up how the Lord will blesse him before the yeares end some runne bankrupt some againe get by the mercie of God the Lord sets up one and brings downe another Men in their trading here be as Merchant adventurers upon the Sea there is as great adventure on the Land as on the Sea and there is not greater danger there then here so when it pleaseth God that the ship comes well from the sea that it brooks all that it escapes all rocks and pyrats and comes home full fraught then all the neighbours rejoyce about it and shew their joy by shooting off peeces of ordnance for the great benefit they have received and give thanks to God by this merriment So when a Merchant man upon the Land drives out his Trade by his frugalitie and good husbandrie and by his just dealing keepes a good conscience to all men and the Lord raiseth him out of his 100. l. unto an hundred and twenty or more the Lord requires some custome to be payed some impost money there is some scot and allowance to be made Therefore I say we must pay this tribute it belongs it is due unto God For this good journey for this prosperous and good voyage he hath given thee out of this thou must lay up somewhat for the poore Saints Thou must reserve that which is fit for thy person what is fit for thy children and family God gives thee leave to doe this but thou must leave a remnant still for the poore according to the good iourney that the Lord hath given thee The Lord it may be hath multiplied thy hundreds to thousands thou must therefore remember the Lord thy God that hath given thee this great increase and abundance above all that thou couldest hope or conceit in former times for what was every yong beginner that now is growne rich let him say himselfe thou wouldest have beene glad of the tenth part of that that God hath enriched thee with and now the Lord hath multiplied and encreased thee oh let thy hand againe be inlarged toward God and abundant to him that hath so abounded in grace and mercy to thee and as the Lord hath given a man a good iourney a good way and passage a good trade and prospers him that he thrives in his calling so let him againe doe the workes of mercy for the God of mercy But these things that remaine are so full of matter and variety and I have beene so troublesome to your patience already that I must reserve the rest that remaines untill the next time The second Sermon 1 COR. 16.1.2.3 Now concerning the collection for the Saints according as I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia even so doe you In the first day of the Sabbath or of the weeke Let every one of you lay up by himselfe a treasure of whatsoever God hath prospered him c. THere is no point in all divinity that needs more cleare propoundiâ—g and more earnest prosecuting then this of Almes-deeds and brotherly benevolence For men are wondrously and by a strange motion of the spirit of God brought unto it against the current of nature every man thinking that that which is given is lost that it is cast away and there is scarse any man perswaded that he that gives to the poore lends to the Lord although it be a common speech in every mans mouth Therefore the Apostle being appointed by the Church of God to have a speciall
before that they should devoure him suddenly as they iudged but we know the issue of it the Lyons by the mercy of God were so couchant to Daniel that he had no harme But when his accusers came they were so rampant as that they crushed the bones of them their wives and children before they came to the ground Ignatius Epist 12 ad Romanos Saint Ignatius when hee heard the voyce of the Leopard that was to devoure him in the height of his spirit he gave God thanks Now saith he I shall be ground as fine flowre by the teeth of the Leopard that I may become fine manchet for God I shall become bread for Gods owne Table Sylvanus Bishop of Emesa Nicephorus Hist l. 7. c. 16. and divers others of Gods Saints have passed this way into heaven even by being objected unto beasts But Saint Paul certainly was not in this manner to bee cast naked and bound as a prey unto the beasts for that was for condemned men but Saint Paul was not cast as a condemned man to death to be torne in pieces but as a man condemned onely to tryall ad certamen to make sport to the people So there were certaine mercenary fellowes hirelings that for money would adventure their skinnes and lives and tugge with the Beares as there was of late amongst us So the Court of persecutors when they had sitten against any of the Saints of God as it came in their minde to make them a spectacle and to give sport to the people they appoynted such a one to be cast to the beasts not to bee bound hand and foot and torne in pieces without resistance but to make use of his weapon and of the cunning he had and if it were possible to make an evasion In this sort they say Paul was cast and objected to the beasts We see also in Tertullians time Tertul. it was the common exclamation still against the Christians If the yeere were too hot or if it were too dry or if there were barrennesse or any inundation upon the ground they put it still upon Christians and their word was Cast the Christians to the Lyons Christianum ad Leones This may well be this interpretation may well stand that Saint Paul in this kinde was objected to the very beasts to fight for his life He was not cast to them as one bound and naked to be torne in pieces of them but as one that was put to a venture ad certamen either by miracle to bee delivered by his fortitude and skill or else to be devoured Thus we reade of divers in former time Q. Curtius Alexander the great caused Lysimachus his deare friend to be cast to the Lyon and he by his valour overcame the Lyon and slew him and made himselfe after a free man and better accepted into favour with Alexander In this sort some imagine that Saint Paul was rescued and delivered by the power of God Almighty from the mouth of the Lyon As he saith 2 Tim. 4. 2 Tim 4.17 God hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lyon even the Lyon literally to whom he was exposed at his abode at Ephesus for he was there almost three yeeres This exposition no man can possibly finde fault with it being naturall and easie and as long as the literall sence is easie and without absurdity may be admitted we ought not to flye to metaphors But yet there is some thing that the contrary side of Divines hold against it Obiect 1 As first if there had beene such a thing that Paul had beene cast to beasts at Ephesus to fight for his life Saint Luke the great Chronicler of Pauls actions would not have omitted it but hee speakes nothing of it therefore there was no such thing For it seemes that he that takes upon him to write the History of a man must of necessity set down the chiefe and most rare and eminent passages of his life and what greater and more glorious relation could there be than that Saint Paul should fight for his life at Ephesus even with beasts and that he should by the mercy of God be delivered as Daniel was from the Lyons in the denne Therefore seeing Saint Luke hath buried it in deepe silence and mentions nothing lesse therefore it argueth it must not bee thus understood that Saint Paul was thus cast unto beasts Answ But this is easily put off For wee know that Saint Luke although he were a diligent writer of the actions of Saint Paul yet hee pretermits many things which Saint Paul himselfe in the Catalogue of his owne passions relates 2 Cor. 11.24.25 2 Cor. 11. for we have not in Luke many passages that are there As his being a day and a night in the deepe sea with some others but onely a briefe and short narration so that this may well be among those things that Saint Luke left unwritten as referring us more fully to the narration of Saint Paul himselfe who was the best witnesse of his owne travailes Another obiection Beza hath surely saith hee Obiect 2 Saint Paul was not cast naked â—eza and bound as a prey to the beasts for then saith he it had beene unlawfull for Saint Luke not to have taken notice of such a wondrous miracle as that Therefore if hee were cast to them it must be as a man to fight for his life and surely saith he he came not there to fight with beasts for that would have taken from his reputation hee would have beene thought to bee a sword-player to venture and expose his life to fight with beasts to please and satisfie men For this exercise was called venation and condemned by the Cannon law A man may not for money or for pleasing of the people come upon a Stage to encounter with beasts but to account it as a bloudy furious and barbarous spectacle to be abhord and abstained But this also hath no weight in it Answ For a man cannot say that Saint Paul came unto it with his will but he was thrust on and forced to it and I cannot imagine why a man should be lesse reputed of or how it should bring any shame to his profession when he suffers wrong Indeed when he offers wrong and thrusts himselfe into such actions then it is true but when he is thrust upon it that he cannot avoyd it in this there is no matter of disreputation The last objection against this opinion is of them Obiect 3 that say that those that were objected to beasts were alway cast to them for a prey But that is not so For all Civilians agree Answ that there were two sorts of them that were cast to beasts There were some that were condemned according to the quality of their offence as they thought to be torne in pieces and in that sort Saint Paul was not cast to the beasts Some againe were cast to them to try masteries and so they say Paul was
cast among them to strive and struggle with them to see whether God would favour his cause or no whether he were of a magnanimous spirit or whether he would yeeld and shrinke when he saw the beast come neare him from his faith or no. We cannot imagine that Saint Paul did this seeking to please the people to make himselfe a barbarous spectacle to them or that he did it to tempt God by offering his life to the beasts but he was throwne unto them and compelled to it And it was no disgrace for him then to yeeld to it being forced by the superiour powers So Calvin Luther and Beza are indifferent But many of the Ancients directly expound it according to the letter as that these beasts must be understood to be some kinde of Tygers Leopards or Lyons such things Saint Paul was exposed unto to try the constancy of his faith to try his prowesse and valour to see whether God would deliver him or no. I confesse the number of the Authors are so great and their authority and gifts so excellent as that I cannot deny but that this may be the true sence of this place But yet I rather incline to the other which Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine Saint Cyrill Tertullian and divers other Fathers doe warrant to us as the best and most proper sence Namely that Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with beastly men men of beastly conditions And there is but one thing difficult in it that is that the Apostle should forget that lenity of spirit in which he useth to speake and that Christ teacheth all men that they should not give an ill or a rayling word Whereas there cannot be a worse word given to a man than to call him beast Our Lord and Saviour Christ saith that he that cals his brother Racha Math 5.22 he that cals his brother foole shall be in danger of hell fire Now he that cals a man foole speakes farre more moderately and modestly than he that cals a man a beast For to call a man foole is still to call him man for there is nothing can be a foole but man or woman for it fals not within the compasse of beasts to bee wise or foolish but still when one is called foole hee is kept in the condition of a man but when a man cals a man beast he is out of the element and latitude of men and compared to a more base and degenerate creature But for this we must understand that our Lord Christ speakes there of the common talke and discourse among Christians and not of that Apostolicall authority not of that magisteriall reproofe that is in the Church and must be to the worlds end For every man may not speake alike a private man must not speake as the Magistrate doth nor every man must not speake as the Minister may speake in reprooving sinne and revealing the will of God And here we must conceive that this that the Apostle speaks it was by Gods spirit dictating it unto him he was the Prophet of God put in that place he spake it not from himselfe but from a greater Therefore to pitch upon this exposition If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus That is with men that had the faces of men but the condition of beasts For this is the common phrase and language of people when a man transcends others in bruitishnesse and cruelty in a base conversation they say he hath put on the beast he hath left humanity and is turned beast For it is mens carriage and conditions that distinguisheth them from beasts So we see the Scripture hath this peculiar phrase when the Prophet speakes Isa 56.10 Isa 56. of Prophets that would not Preach or that preached for gaine he cals them dumb dogs Phil. 3.2 and the Apostle Paul saith Beware of dogges whereby is meant such kinde of men as are prophane as Esau those that returne to their vomit of sinne to their former concupiscence and contemne and scorne all holy things Math. 7.6 yea and our Lord Christ saith Give not holy things to dogges that is to doggish men so the Prophet David often prayes unto God to deliver his soule from the Lyon from the Vnicorne from the Dogge from the Wolfe And so Saint Paul calleth Nero 2 Tim. 4.17 Lyon 2 Tim. 4. The Lord hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lyon that is from the Emperour Nero Luke 13.32 so our Lord Christ called Herod Foxe Tell that Foxe saith he I worke to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfect There is nothing more usuall in the Scriptures than this therefore I will not insist to prove or illustrate it any further It is an excellent thing which Chrysologus Chrysologus saith The Scriptures of God make no more account of a man to be a man after he fals to bruitish conditions but reputes him in his ranke among beasts as he is a beast of the field a beast for the slaughter The Scripture cals them divels in the fashion and habite and outward forme of men so our Saviour Christ tels us Iohn 8. Ioh. 8. of a generation of Vipers of a genealogy of divels Ye are of your father the divell saith he which wee know is not to be understood according to the letter but is to be referred to the absurd conditions of men Of which also the Apostle speakes 2 Thes 3.2 2 Thes 3.2 Pray to God for us saith the Apostle for what purpose That we may be delivered from absurd men men that have no nature in them that have no common straine of humanity in them but are altogether degenerated and metamorphosed into beasts pray for us to be delivered from them So that place being compared with this it is cleere If I have fought with beasts at Ephesus that is with men of bruitish natures men that cannot be contampred with at all men of no society but are given over to their fury and madnesse that have no more mercy in them than bruit beasts and must be let goe to their fury as a beast that doth what mischiefe it can without any limitation or respect To passe from this poynt We see what base dejection sinne hath brought on us we that thought to be equall to God Vse as God saith Behold Adam is become as one of us Gen. 3.22 we are now become as the beasts that perish Psal 59.20 as the Prophet David saith Man being in honour understood it not but it become like the beasts that perish Gen. 3.21 And as man fell to bee like a beast so God clad him in the skinne of a beast Our first great grandfather Adam had the skinnes of beasts for his garments to signifie that as they were turned beasts so God gave them an outward habite and vesture to shew them what inwardly they were become This should teach us still to have our eye on that
the best-way so it stands us upon to have care of that way above all others that we be not overtaken with errours and grosse mistakings or if so it come to passe as men are men and so they must needs erre there is none free from errour but God it fals out many wayes that men now and then are driven out of their way by contrary probabilities of by-waies which sometimes seeme fayrer than the right way then the next way is to make their errour short by comming againe into the right way for he that is out of his way the further he goeth the more foole he shewes himselfe and if he come quickly into the way againe he loseth the lesse time and the lesse labour All errours and foolish actions the lesse time they continue the more honourable they are but when they are protracted and drawne long then they grow to be a second nature and come to the height of wickednesse As the Poet saith Salvation it selfe cannot save that family that throwes it selfe into downefals and precipices Therefore erre not or if you doe as you are but men come backe presently I call you backe now you are in an errour you doubt of the Resurrection This is a grosse error therfore take heed of it and come out of it as soone as you can recover the losse and the distance of your way and enter into the way that I set you and I assure you at the last you shall come to life everlasting which is the end of all our travell Now then the Apostle would teach us further that we are apt to erre in the lawfull pleasures of this life we wander much by eating drinking But there are divers things wherein men wander worse than in eating and drinking For eating and drinking be the necessities of nature and though there be a great many occasions of errour and stumbling in them to those whose table is made a snare to them yet there are divers other things that are farre worse than these As for example in the profession of merchandize when men have no conscience to wrong men of their substance of their lands of their livings upon certaine trickes and devices If our table cause us to erre if our meate and drinke cause us to goe out of the way what doth our buying and selling then what doth our sutes in law what doe all these slanderous base creatures that get their living onely by doing mischiefe what are those idle courses wherby men wrong and injure one another and that by a profession what doe those bloudy and vile actions of men that set themselves to such a height of revenge that they are not satisfied till they have the very life of their brethren These things are farre worse than eating and drinking when men can never satisfie their malice nor suffer the divell to tumble them farre enough into these mischiefes when they will still be eating and drinking but it must be the life and bloud of the children of God These men erre more grosly and damnably then the other by this vile and canniball behaviour Therefore we ought to suspect these things and call to God for mercy a man can hardly trade in these things but he shall be erronious yea and a farre greater wanderer than any drunkard or Epicure A man cannot set himselfe to doe mischiefe to the life of another to undermine another mans estate but he shall be a farre more exorbitant sinner than any that upon naturall pleasures and delights forget them selves So much for the first part I come now to the sentence it selfe Evill words corrupt good manners Therefore take heed 2 Part. The Reason be not deceived with those evill words This verse is a saying of a Poet a man that knew not God nor had any glimpse of the Gospell of God or of Christ An ancient Poet that lived about 300. yeares before Paul and as Euripides after him so this before him was famous in those Comedies and Stages as being the father of good manners Those Grecians having no better Indeed he is full of rich sentences touching the life and manners and conversations of men Among which the Apostle maketh choyce of this one which is in Menander divers times As in the Comedy called Thais and againe he hath it in his Bucolicks saith he By conversing with evill men thou thy selfe at length shalt evade and come forth as evill as they Euripides Euripides also is full of these divine sentences We see the Apostle scornes not their sayings but brings them into the garden of God and makes a kinde of flower of them there plants them there as we see he doth also in divers other places Acts 17.28 Acts 17. when he would speake to the Philosophers in their owne kinde he tels them those things that they worshipped as Gods they were no Gods but made with mens hands stocks and stones that have no efficient power in them For saith he We are the workmanship of God and so he quoteth the hemystike of the Poet Aratus Aratus We are his generation and in Titus he quoteth Epimenides Epimenides the Poet of Creete or Candie whereof the Apostle wrote One of their owne Prophets he cals the Poet a Prophet because as Saint Ierome Saint Ierome saith such kinde of people as the Cretians were they deserved such Prophets as those scorners and mockers that speake of drunkennesse and for drunkennesse as the Prophet Hosea saith Now he saith the testimonie of that Poet was true and he quotes it The Cretians are alway lyers evill beasts Tit. 1.12 slow bellies Tit. 1. These three the holy Apostle Saint Paul quoteth which were prophane heathen men all of them To note unto us that all truth comes of God and we ought not to despise the truth wheresoever it is spoken For we see our Lord Iesus himselfe he dignifies Socrates and Plato with two sentences Socrates Plato Math. 7.12 For where our Lord saith That which you would have others doe to you doe ye so to them and that which you would not have others doe to you doe not to them This is the Law and the Prophets This golden sentence is the sentence of Socrates mentioned by Plato which notwithstanding our Saviour Christ honoureth with his owne mouth and makes the sentence his owne To shew unto the world that all truth is from him as he cals himselfe The way the truth and the life Iohn 14.6 And then that other saying where Christ saith Luke 4.23 You will say unto mee this Proverbe Physitian heale thy selfe which is taken out of Plato Plato being an ancient vulgar thing as this was that Paul here citeth So that we must not yeeld to the opinion of those men 1 The lawfulnesse of using humane learning in divinity that thinke there is nothing to be uttered in Sermons but Scripture This hath beene a great meanes to bring in idlenesse negligence and
he must stand up and do the actions of an holy life It is true saith S. Austin I see thou are rowsed and wakened but yet thou art drowsie thou art rubbing thine eyes thou hast not yet quite overcome and mastred thy sleepe but I tell thee God will have thee shake off all this sleepe and drowsinesse and so to awaken as Christ awakened from death he once left the grave never to return and come there any more For in that he dyed hee dyed once for sinne but in that he liveth he liveth ever to God Then therefore a man is risen justly when there is no part of drowsinesse remaines in him when he is not like those sleepie creatures that rise in their sleepe and go about their businesse and go to bed againe and when they have done all know not of it There is a kinde of kell or skinne wanting in the braine wherein memory should be retentive therefore they do many things in their sleepe But God would have men so waken as that there should no portion of this drowsinesse rest in them This doctrine is very necessarie For there is much sleepe carries them away that are most watchfull there is infinite heavinesse and slumber waits upon them God is in his children in one part and the devill in another part that they now speake well anon they do ill many make profession of the Gospell and yet shew no pittie to the poore nor exercise charitie where they see occasion These men are awaked and they be doing and stirring but it is not justly as God would have them When once a man leaves that way and habite which hee had before and hath a new spirit of life put into him he is then all for action and for working in the wayes of God Now I come to the Exposition Exposition And sinne not Here the Apostle expounds what he meanes by waking Where first the Apostle gives us to understand that the cause of all foolish and idle speech and communication as those hee speakes of before Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dye the cause of these idle discourses it is meerly an inherent habite of sinne so that corruption is the plague that causeth evill speeches and behaviour and the one as a pestilent serpent brings forth the other It is sinne that breeds monstrous opinions it is sinne that breeds all the heresies in the world they have no other mother As Saint Ambrose Ambrose saith those that make shipwracke of a good life it is no marvell if they make shipwracke of a good faith They that give themselves to base manners they are given over by the judgement of God to erronious opinions For as Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysost a wicked life is a corrupt fountaine from whence comes nothing but mud and dirt and froth Aâ—g and as Saint Austin saith well A man having knowledge once to do the will of God and yet will not do it according to his knowledge it is impossible he should retaine his knowledge he that knows what is acceptable in the sight of God and yet from a stubbornnesse of minde will not follow his knowledge the Lord shall bring that judgement upon him that he shall lose that power that he shall not be able to know what is right and what is wrong Take the talent from that unprofitable servant Mat. 25.28 and give it to him that hath ten talents Matth. 6.23 If the light in a man be darknesse how great is that darknesse from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath It is a fearfull and terrible sentence let us all tremble under the blast of it for it concernes every man As long as he lives in sinne it is the greatest miracle in the world that he is not drowned in it To keepe a true faith with a bad life it is meerly impossible Therefore sinne not For that there is all this false and idle communication that there is this base conversation these evill speeches these distrustfull languages concerning God and concerning the Resurrection the cause of it is this inveterate sinfulnesse If God punish men with giddinesse of braine and blinde their understandings that the light in him be darknesse it is a fearfull stroke yet this comes from sinne therefore he joynes both together and injoynes them saying Sinne not But how saith the Apostle sinne not Ob. Doth he not know they were men would he have them of Angelicall natures Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say If we that is if we that are Apostles 1. Joh. 1.8 if we say that wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And if the Physitian require of his Patient a thing that he cannot possibly do as to tell him that is diseased that hee must fetch such an hearbe from the East-Indies to cure him it were a meere trouble and delusion and the way to make him desperate Therefore what doth the Apostle meane when he saith Sinne not Why all men are sinners and stand in need of the glory of God and a man must pray as duly for the forgivenesse of his sinnes as for his daily bread they follow both as necessarily the one upon the other as it is possible two benefits can do Answ But to sinne in Scripture is taken in these sences chiefly First men are said to sinne that study sinne that hunt after sinne that seeke it many men are so given to the devill in the world that if hee do not seeke them they will seeke him The Apostle bids us take heed of that it is a terrible thing when a man hath a carefull minde to serve Sathan and to leave and forsake the living God The nature of Gods children may be overtaken with infirmities but they do not study for it Secondly they are said to sinne that go on in sinne so Saint Iohn saith the childe of God doth not sinne because they premise it not before hand and they call themselves to account and to judgement for it after they judge themselves for their sinne There is no man nor no barre in the world can devise that punishment for the childe of God that he doth inflict upon himselfe he is his owne judge and his owne executioner Therefore he makes no profession of his sinne but is ashamed and hides his head upon every remembrance of his sinne Therefore he is said nor to sinne by the speciall grace of God that covers his sinne because he cannot indure it As Saint Basil Basil saith If thy sinne please thee not it shall never hurâ— thee Lastly they are said to sin that sin to desperatioÌ„ thaâ— care not for pardon that disclaime the mercy of God that say their sinne is so great that it cannot bee forgiven like Cain and Iudas that will none of Gods compassion that reject his favour and will not subject themselves to his censure but are ready to say thus
constancie that in the flesh of men there dwels the strength of God But above this there is nothing in the world that makes this flesh so glorious as that the onely Sonne of God hath married himselfe unto it to grace this flesh and to bring it to the highest perfection the second person in the Trinitie was incarnate and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us This is the meanes whereby our flesh hath attained this great perfection And although the Angels do farre surpasse us in some kinde of abilities as they have more understanding and better experience and are stronger and swifter and more nimble in their motion yet notwithstanding because they are not sensible but intellectuall creatures and are onely to be perceived by the eye of reason and of argument and not by the eye of the body which is the most delightfull kinde of apprehension Therefore the Angels themselves cannot compare with the flesh of men since it is now graced and beautified by the Sonne of God which was incarnate and took our flesh upon him There is one flesh of men And this flesh of men although it be one yet it differs in the severall individuals To see how wondrously God hath set varietie upon this flesh that there is one kinde of colour in one and another kinde of colour in another There is the flesh of Moores and Maroccoes and the flesh of those that are faire and well coloured such infinite varietie as would astonish a man to consider of it yea even of those that be of the best of the most likeliest and goodly beauty there is variety in them too There is one kinde of flesh in children and another kinde of flesh in strong men and another kinde of flesh in old folke the flesh of children is puffed up and swelled and is not brought to the proportion by reason of the abundance of juyce and humours in their bodies The flesh of yong men is brought to some perfection and hath that grace and flower that it can attaine to possibly in this life The flesh of old age is so withered and decayed that a man cannot almost tell that this was ever that babe or that yong man Thus the Lord worketh wondrously in one and the selfe same flesh and not onely in a distance of time that altereth and worketh such a change in these things but in a very instant almost So that take the goodliest body in the world that is now flourishing and healthy and let it fall into a desperate sicknesse it will alter and change the flesh so wonderfully it will so mortalize it as we may say that there is no man almost can know it to be the same The finger of God works admirably in the selfe same flesh This inferres the argument of the Apostle that that God that can worke his own will in such a strange difference in the same flesh here in this life he will much more worke a gracious and glorious difference when this life is ended upon that flesh which he determines to crowne with glory For the second sort of flesh here spoken of the flesh of beasts the word signifieth not all beasts but those beasts that are for use to men The word signifieth helping because they are helpfull to the life of man It is true the argument goeth along as well unto wilde beasts and those that have no helpe in them as to the other but the Apostle properly insists upon these because the mercy of God is most wonderfull in these the Lord hath given variety of flesh among the beasts infinitely too That those beasts that are for the sustentation of man should have the sweetest flesh the sweetest humours and breathing and be wholsome and good so farre differing from the other that those beasts that be not for our use for the helpe of our life many of them are very noysome so extreamely noysome that a man cannot abide to be with them many of them being so abhominable that a man runnes and flies at the very smell a great way off which is no small blessing of God nor no little wonder neither should it be in our eyes a matter of small moment but we should consider it duely that the Lord hath given to those creatures that we stand in most need of the most temperate and the most sweetly composed flesh and because we are to feed upon that which is cleane and not on that which is uncleane he hath made therefore the difference of cleannesse and uncleannesse according to the nature and constitution of the beasts Some he hath made for the feeding of man some for varietie and some perhaps to exercise his patience and courage in the rooting them out And the flesh of beasts that is fit for the use of man to see in what a wondrous difference the Lord hath made it So that one should have one relish and taste and another another notwithstanding they feed all upon grasse upon the same food even because he would have us to have choice that we should not alway feed upon the same thing We see the taste of the creatures that we have about us at home and the taste of those that we hunt for abroad in the field they are all pleasant but yet marvellous different This the good God doth in the flesh of the creature working there the foundation of use and of life and nourishment according as hee is purposed to helpe mankinde by the meanes of it And how marvellously hath he set forth his glory even in that to give them all a prone aspect looking to the ground and in covering some of them with most profitable woolls for the benefit and cloathing of mankinde some of them he hath covered with skinnes of most singular benefit sweet and operative as in outlandish parts To see how he hath garnished them in the diversitie of their munition what fences they have that some of them defend themselves with their heels some with their hornes some with their teeth How the blessed God hath wrought these wondrous things it is not to be sleightly regarded but to be deeply considered For in truth a man that looks upon them shall be forced to say with the Prophet When I see the worke of thy fingers sheepe and oxen and all cattell I am faine to say Oh Lord God how wondrous is thy name throughout all the world The third kinde of flesh that he speaks of here is that which seemes least of al to be flesh that is fishes And herein God is more infinite then in all the rest For set all men together even all birds and beasts and they cannot make the halfe number of fishes which are in the vast and wide Ocean and if wee compare their quantities the difference there is wonderfull That the fishes should mount and rise in quantitie from the least drop to a great whale which is the mightiest of all the creatures The Lord saith to Iob as it were boasting of
upon him our nature hee must take that which stood in most need of redemption which is the poore body which is subject to all miseries and calamities For how should hee be called The sonne of man if he had not a body But as he is called The sonne of God so he is also called The sonne of man and hee came to save both parts of man that were downe by reason of sin he came to take the flesh of man to be incarnate and that is it that we so rejoyce and boast of that Christ was become incarnate became man and tooke our flesh upon him and in that flesh he hungred in that flesh he suffered in that flesh he was buryed in that flesh he rose againe in that flesh he ascended into heaven to make a way by the vaile of his flesh into the Holy-of-holyes Heb. 10.20 to all that constantly and truly beleeve in him Quest 3 Thirdly another Question is moved here How Adam is said to be corpus animale seeing God gave him a power of immortalitie for if it were corpus immortale then it could not be corpus animale as saith S. Austin and that truly but Adam had corpus immortale therefore it was not corpus animale and by consequent he cannot be so different from Christ as the Apostle makes him here For the Apostle brings in the two roots and fountaines of man-kinde and he makes the one animall and the other spirituall Now saith St. Austin I demand if Adam had an immortall body how was it an animall body For an animall body is that that is fraile and changeable an immortall body is that which is unchangeable And againe as the holy Father urgeth it further Certainely saith he we recover in Christ that which we lost in Adam and one thing that we recover by Christ is immortality therefore we lost immortality in Adam we lost it in the first Adam and we recover it in the second Now if we lost immortality in Adam then he lost it for us he lost it first as being the foundation of our kinde and we lost it in him being his posterity Then certainely he had it if he lost it for no man can lost that which he hath not and therefore Adam having immortality how should his body be fraile and mortall and an animall body These are things contrary each to other The Father answers againe These quirks and devises make the faith of many men to stagger and it makes some men to answer it thus That the body of man was changed in Paradise God made his body a mortall body but after this he brought him to the Symbole of life and gave him a commandement to abstaine from the tree of knowledge of good and evill which had he done and had kept that commandement then should the fruit of the tree of life have so preserved his life that he should have lived for ever So these men thinke that the Lord changed the condition and quality of his body in Paradise in the giving of the command Aug. But S. Austin answers it better afterwards I thinke saith he that the most safe and proper answer is this that although it be true that we recover immortality by Christ and that we lost this immortality in Adam yet we have a farre greater advantage by Christ we gaine more by Christ then we lost by Adam Adam never had this certainty of immortality that we have he had a kinde of a possibility of it but it was conditionall Now conditions make nothing to be and so this stood upon an if If thou keep the commandement thou shalt live and if thou doe not thou shalt die therefore a man cannot say that there was any immortality planted in the person of Adam because it was uncertaine it was mutable it was in the freedome of his will which was changeable he was not made in a certaine necessity of obedience therefore it was conditionall To conclude all As the holy Father saith the body of Adam although it were meerely naturall as ours is yet it was in a farre better condition then ours are that is it had no necessity of dying as ours hath for our bodies must needs die but the body of Adam might have beene sublimate and brought unto the heavenly joyes without death which ours cannot be For it is impossible for flesh and blood to enter into the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 Therefore we have no way to come to glory but by suffering the common calamity of nature which is by stooping to the burthen of death And againe Adam had in his very person those seeds that might have prolonged and continued his life by the blessing of God and the Sacrament of the tree of life whereas we by his sin have gotten nothing but the seeds of death and mortality working us from one misery and sicknesse to another and from sicknesse to death And if the mercy of God intervene not from the first to the second death to eternall misery and perplexity Therefore the difference is this the Lord made him in a better estate then we for he had no necessity of death nor no principle of death but what by his owne will he contracted but in us there is a necessity of death we must die and yet by the mercy of God in Christ wee are restored and renewed by his intercession and sacrifice unto better things then we lost in Adam The Lord make us assured of this blessed and glorious estate that thereby we may be armed against death against the feare of death and that thereby we may grow more and more spirituall that wee may become partakers of that divine grace which may make us while we live in this world not to be of the world but Citizens of that blessed and heavenly Ierusalem which is the mother of us all Gal. 4.26 To the which the Lord bring us for his infinite goodness and mercies sake Amen FINIS SERMONS On 1 COR. 15. Of the Resurrection 1 COR. 15.46 47. But that is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord himselfe from heaven As is the earthly so are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly IN the former part of this Treatise the Apostle hath discoursed of the kindes and degrees of our future happinesse in the glorious resurrection Now hee comes to tell us of the causes and of the order The substance of these words which I have read unto you is to give satisfaction to that common curiosity that is in Gods people whereby they seeke to prevent the time and to enjoy their happinesse before it be Gods will and pleasure It is naturall to man as Cornelius Tacitus saith to runne before his fortunes Corn. Tacit. And so it is among Christians themselves there is a kinde of
brought to such a wofull change as that Therefore a Christian upon this must consider that as he looks for a change at that day in his body so hee must labour for this change before hand of his manners and conditions even to change his pride into lowlinesse to turne his filthinesse into holy obedience God expects such a change at our hands and we should make our prayer to Almighty God that he that changeth all things would take the paines to change us that in the middest of other things we might not continue the same desperate men but bee renewed in the spirit of our mindes and be changed into another man Ephes 4.23 To put off the old man and his wickednesse and to put on the new man Colos 3.9 10. which is made according to the image of God in righteousnesse and holinesse to change our apparrell and to put on Christ This is the true devotion of the Saints and that which they should spend the time of their life in Oh thou that changest all things Vse thou that changest the bodies of men at the end of the world after a miraculous manner I beseech thee change my fortunes change my state bring mee out of this wretchednesse and misery to a competencie Especially change my vicious estate that I may not rot and corrupt in it but that I may be brought to holinesse and righteousnesse Change the hearts of mine enemies that they may turne to mee Alter their hearts Prov. 21.1 thou which haste the hearts of men in thy hand and turnest them as the rivers of waters change the hearts of them Change thine owne countenance which art angry with mee for my sins Although thou change not in thy selfe yet in respect of me thou seemest sometimes to be pleased and sometimes to be angry When I doe well thou art pleasant to my conscience when I doe ill thou art as a Lion to me Psal 18.25 26. With the godly thou wilt shew thy selfe godly with the righteous thou wilt bee righteous with the perverse thou wilt shew thy selfe perverse Therefore I beseech thee change this misery of mine change it to happinesse change my sinfull state to a holy and blessed estate change my spirit which is addicted to the world and worldly things to spirituall and gracious intentions that it may intend onely the things that belong to thy glory and to my owne soules health God is the God of changing and though there bee no shadow of changing in him yet it is hee that makes all the changes that are in us Iames 1.17 both in this little world and in the great world about us Now I come to the last point a word of it because the time is past The time And the meanes The time In the twinckling of an eye And the meanes The blowing of a trumpet Therefore as my Text is short a moment of time so I will indeavour to speake of it in a moment as it were The Apostle saith all this shall bee done in a moment in the twinckling of an eye This is the greatest wonder of all the rest the mystery was never great till now that there should bee such a deale of worke done in so small a time A moment is nothing The word signifieth an atome a thing that cannot be cut into quantity a very punctum a moâ—e in the Sunne which no man can cut or divide it into pieces it is a thing that cannot bee distinguished So his meaning is to signifie unto us the shortest time that can bee For certainly wee must needs imagine that these great things must require some time For first of all when the Lord began to make the world hee tooke some time he took sixe dayes to make a distinction and division of the work Therefore also it is likely that at the later end of the world the Lord shall take some time although it shall not be so much as that was Secondly againe it is needfull that there should be some time because of the observation that Gods children must make of these actions For if all things should bee done in a moment and hurried up in a confusion the children of God should want a great part of their instruction and a great part of their comfort For this is one part of their delight and comfort to see how the world shall bee destroyed to see how the dead shall bee raised and themselves to see how their bodies shall bee changed to see how the Iudge shall come This shall bee a great part of their learning to understand these things and without distinction of time it is impossible but there would be a confusion wrought Therefore it is needfull that there should bee an interpose of time Therefore the Apostles meaning is not to bee thus taken that there shall bee no time in the doing of these things But his meaning is this that the time shall be so short that it shall not bee perceived or conceived to bee agreeable to so great an action The Lord shall doe it so speedily as if it were in the twinckling of an eye For the Apostle speaks here out of an earnest desire as hee doth in other Epistles when he would set forth a thing to the full hee speaks in a kinde of holy hyperbole in a holy excesse therefore hee saith it shall bee in the twinckling of an eye to signifie that the Lord shall doe it in such a trice with such quicknesse as it is past all the understanding of men or Angels that such a great thing should be done upon such a sudden So I take the twinckling of an eye to bee understood So to conclude the point Vse We learne that God works upon a sudden when he begins to work Therefore this shoulâ— comfort us that no man should despaire of his well-being with God For God is able to work upon the sudden he requires no time to work in He calls some men at one houre and some at an other A man that hath been a wicked liver all his life time perhaps threescore perhaps fourescore yeares hee growes desperate in the sight of his sinnes and thinks that all time is past for recovery No hee is deceived the Lord can work without time he requires none Hast thou so much life in thee as the twinckling of an eye hast thou so much time as a moment will answer to if there be so much there is hope still If there be but so much breath and life in a sinner that a man may say hee will not die till hee have twinckled his eye once if there bee but so much there is hope of mercy still with God But let us not doate upon this and thinke upon the twinckling of an eye or a moment but let us take every moment to come unto God For God works in a moment and which moment hee works in that we know not Perhaps this is our moment God calls us now Perhaps Gods eyes