is especially an act of the mercie of the liuing God to giue life to the dead yet by a greater mercie hee makes it an act of his iustice freely binding himselfe to admit our boldnesse not so much to to request as to claime a resurrection For shall the bodies of the Saints bee more remembred by their tombs then by their labours or shall they bee worse oppressed with death then they were with their torments or shall their soules with an enuious inequalitie vsurpe and enioy the purchase of their bodies shall those eyes whose deuotion did still watch or mourne for euer want respect as much as sight shall those hands that haue been free in extending themselues and mercie to the poore be for euer bound by the ingratitude of death shall those knees that haue bowed with such willing reuerence bee so held downe by the violence of mortalitie that they shall neuer rise vp againe Where are then thy teares O Dauid if thy eyes shall not enioy the happinesse of their owne sorrow Where are then O Iob thy faith and patience if thy body bee now as much without hope as it was before without rest Where are then O Esay thy victorious sufferings if after the ignorant furie of the Saw and the schisme of thy bodie thy bodie suffer a wilder dissociation from thy soule for tedious eternitie Where are thy trauels then O Paul if after thy Christian Geographie and conquest of Paganisme thou liest for euer confined to the dull peace of a graue No the almightie which made man with such wisdome of art wil neither lose his glory nor his worke But as he made his greater heauen for his angels so made he the lesser and mortall heauen of mans bodie for his soule and will make it as eternall as his soule There is more excellencie of workmanship in the soule but more varietie in the bodie The soule does more truly expresse God but the bodie more easily The soule judges best but the bodie first and though the eye of the soule does behold the works of God more cleerely yet does the eye of the bodie behold them more properly Nay should the bodie not bee raised to life and heauen how great a part of heauen and that life would be lost whiles not enjoyed and be as vnnecessary as it is wonderfull God hath prouided joyes which the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard but which the eye shall see and the eare shall heare and without the pleasure of a traunce for euer possesse as much without errour as without measure Such honour will the Creatour of our bodies doe to the bodies of his Saints they shall acknowledge corruption but ouercome it they may in their journy be the ghests of the graue but at last they shall bee the inhabitants of Heauen Yet the Lord cannot hereafter so much honour humane flesh by raysing it as hee has already by assuming it It was before his seruant but now his companion That was a resurrection of the flesh when it was raysed vnto God but the only resurrection of our flesh is when it is raysed to the soule At the day of judgement though there shall be no marriages of sexes yet there shall be of parts when soules shall be vnited to bodies in so intire and inexorable a matrimony that it shall admit no hope nor feare of a diuorce Neither need wee feare in the jealousie of this match the ignoble parentage of the flesh since what it wants in birth is supplied in dowry and flesh is now become such refined earth being made wonderfull in shape and office that the soule may be thought to be scarce more noble but that it seemes more reserued by being inuisible And yet you may obserue the bodies emulation which fals before its resurrection into such atomes of dust that they are with as much difficulty to be seene as to bee numbred But notwithstanding that these principles of earth be thus diuided among themselues yet are they not diuided against themselues retayning still though not an appetite yet an obedience to resurrection Nature has not lost this and God will supply that and as easily vnite as distinguish each dust To yeild to this truth is the Creed of the Creed If therefore any man's faith in the assent to this mysterie should bee as weake as his reason hee may helpe both his reason and his faith by his sense by which they shall either be conuinced or perswaded If you will bee but as bold as antiquitie you may propose vnto your selues the solemne Poetry of the Phoenix a creature rarer then the resurrection though not as admirable in whose ashes you may find the fire of life expecting but to be fanned to the resurrection of a flame as if this creature by the mystery of death would by a fire both perish and reuiue But without the courtesie of supposition you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot-forth new quils wherewith may bee written and testified his endeauour of immortality Thus does God teach nature how to teach vs mysteries and without the Magicall studie of the language of birds to vnderstand without their voice their secret instruction But peraduenture you wil think that to discerne this truth in the nature of the Eagle will require a sight as sharpe as the Eagle's remooue then your eye from the foules of the aire but to the trees wherein they nest and with a negligent view you may obserue how after the nakednesse and death of winter they bud afresh into life and beautie Yet why should we in the sloth of this easie contemplation studie so broad an object Let our eye with more gratefull industrie confine its prospect to the small seed of corne and at least take the paines to see the paines of the husbandman And shall wee not admire at the delightfull arithmetique of nature to behold a seed whose hope seemes as small as it selfe by being cast away to bee found by destruction to receiue increase and from the same furrow to haue both a buriall and a birth Thus then we see that the body is able to shew that it selfe may rise but now the soule will proue that it must and with such friendly eloquence helpe its first companion that by the vnion of loue it will preuent the resurrection For should the soule for euer want the body should it not want both perfection wonder Is not the soule most perfect when it is most noble and is it not most noble when it is most bountifull and is it not most bountifull when it giues life to the dead Is it not likewise most full of wonder when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect when it mixes with corruption and yet is incorrupt when it is most burthened and yet most variously actiue Thus by this necessary inclination of the soule the resurrection is as naturall in respect of the vnion as it is aboue nature in respect of the manner But now see
Shall not these first-fruits be likewise payed at our great Resurrection shall they not bee brought to the heauenly Ierusalem shall they not haue Angels goe before them shall there not bee crownes likewise prouided and shall they not be vshered with the voice of a trumpet It was the sound which the Iewes vsed at their brauer Funerals and may it not then fitly bee vsed when they shall awake againe from their tombes Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if wee once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let vs no more say they were dead but that they slept Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleepe but some shal insteed of rising be only new-dressed by being clothed with incorruption and so haue rather a change of rayment then of life They shall not put-off their bodies but their mortalitie and bee made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection and in the glory The Eutychian shall then confesse that the two natures in Christ are not mixt though joyned and that his humanitie though exalted is not changed The Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seene and it shall certainly prooue that it is not euery-where by being not in the graue whence it is risen The Pythagorean shall then recouer the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soule and the Saducy shall then arise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with his bodily eyes see the errour of his soule Since then our Redeemer is as eternall in his flesh as in his God-head since the souldiers feare acknowledged his resurrection which their malice denied since we must rise both by his authority and example let our rising not only follow his but also imitate it As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord so let the crucifying of our vices and the quiet contemplation of eternall joyes goe before the glory of the Resurrection So shall it be vnto vs as it was vnto our Sauiour a true Passeouer who passed thereby from this world vnto the Father So shall our hope bee as certaine as our rising so shall our soules rise as well as our bodies in that day of wonder When the last earthquake shall shake-vp death when the oecumenicall voice of one trumpet shall bee lowd enough to whisper-vp drowsie mankind when loose dust shal with the warmth and moysture of bloud bee kneaded into man when the tribute of dispersed and deuoured limbes shall bee paid-in from all countries and creatures when there shall be a Resurrection of disease of sleepe of death of the winding-sheet of the graue of rottennesse all which shall be purified into health into watchfulnesse into life into a robe of glory into a throne of glory into immortalitie when there shall bee a Resurrection of earth and heauen which shall be both renewed when there shall bee a Resurrection of God himselfe whose glory which seemed buried in this world shall illustriously arise in the face of heauen earth when there shall bee a new Resurrection of our Lord Iesus who shall no more arise from the graue but from heauen when the Iew and hell shall tremble those wounds of glory appeare which are the bloudie seales of our saluation So raise vs then O thou Lord of life vnto holinesse of life that when these things shall come to passe wee may not only rise in judgement but also stand in it and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heauen that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets prayse thee where thy noble armie of martyrs praise thee And with their bodies O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heauen and let our soules euen there feele a new affliction that whiles we cannot grieue enough that we cannot prayse thee enough our increasing gratitude for our bodies resurrection may be our soule 's eternall resurrection The end A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day 16â—â— 1. PETER 3.22 Who is gone into Heauen and is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subiect vnto him FOr man to goe into Heauen is almost impossible for God to goe into Heauen is impossible To vnderstand then the wonder of Christ's ascension we might wish that our soules could but ascend like his bodie which whiles it was on the earth receiued motion from his soule but when it left the earth receiued motion from his Diuinitie without which that motion can now bee no more vnderstood then it could then be performed The greatest wonder of mans bodie has beene the structure but the greatest wonder of this bodie is now the motion The force of mans hand can make earth ascend towards Heauen but only the power of God can make earth ascend vnto Heauen Man can raise earth aboue its Spheare but only God can fixe it aboue its Spheare This day you may see both these wonders whiles the bodie is made as wonderfull as the soule whiles the bodie is made the wonder of the soule and goes to Heauen with as much ease and with more weight And indeed Philosophie may seeme to haue come short at least of perfection if not of truth whiles it has discouered the effects of its owne ignorance insteed of the causes of ascension and descension Which now seeme not to bee the workes of weight and lightnesse but of sinne and innocence seeing that a bodie free from sinne has learned to ascend and spirits loaden with sinne haue sunke themselues from Heauen to the punishment and center of sinne And yet innocence is rather a preparatiue then a cause of this wonder a bodie cannot ascend without it a bodie cannot ascend by it It has more power vpon the soule then vpon the bodie yet it has not this power vpon the soule And as the soule cannot ascend by the power of innocence so neither can the bodie ascend by the power of the soule The soule can affoord vnto the bodie the motion of progression but not of ascension progression being made by the power of the soule but by the parts of the bodie and it is a kind of friendly attraction when one foot inuites the other to a succession of motion by a succession of precedencie But the ascension of the bodie cannot bee performed but by somewhat that is aboue the bodie aboue it not so much in place as in power The bodie can bestow vpon it selfe an equiuocall ascension when a part of the foote shall be raised into the stature of the bodie but this is rather an ascension in the bodie then of the bodie Nay we cannot at all call it an ascension but by leaue when the bodie has by chance an erect situation
His diuinitie which was acknowledged by the Deuils whom he dispossessed who for a moment did by a greater miracle leaue their lying then their habitation and being tormented vnto truth admirably confessed him the Sonne of God His diuinitie which at his Baptisme Heauen reuealed vnto the Baptist which reuelation he likewise reuealed vnto the Iewes the best of whom esteem'd him as a man of God the worst of whom fear'd him as a man of God And he told them what he saw not in the contriuance of phancie or by the fallacie of a glasse And hee did see the veile of Heauen diuided as if the diuine persons who neuer had beene vndiuided would now sensibly appeare vnited at this the Synod of their Trinitie And hee did see the mild embleme of the Holy Ghost descend vpon him and he heard the voyce of the Almighty who was both the father and the witnesse at this great Christning And shall we yet say that this light of the World was so obscured in the cloud of flesh that it was not cleerely presented to the eyes of the world shall we yet say that we doe not sufficiently vnderstand whether or no the Iewes did sufficiently vnderstand shall wee yet say with a bold compassion Had they knowne it and yet wee must say with a safe compassion Had they knowne it they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory The common Iew was the common sense of that politique bodie his outward soule was able to see the Law but for Prophesie hee was as farre from the vnderstanding of it as from the gift of it Hee could with enough ignorance gaze at the wonders of our Sauiour but it was a greater wonder to worke in a Iew a beliefe of these wonders then to worke these wonders Yet some did beleeue them and abuse them vilely apprehending these demonstrations as the impotent perswasions of probabilitie And some thus thought him to bee the Christ yet durst not reueale this cheape opinion least they should bee excommunicated to saluation by being cast-out of the Synagogue to Christ and his Disciples It is the property of a wiseman not to haue his heart in his tongue but neuer was it the property of a wise man to haue a heart without a tongue The mercie of our Sauiour made the dumbe to speake but the feare of the Rulers made these speakers dumbe thus were their consciences tongue-tied by authoritie And the Rulers themselues did not more impose this silence vpon others then vpon themselues but striuing as much to exceed the people in peruersenesse as in authoritie vnto their ignorance they added fury Indeed they could not by the sharpest discretion of their eye distinguish an incarnate God nor was the Critique Gamaliel able to instruct his Disciple Saul in the Catechisme of this mystery though Saul's vnwilling ignorance admitted him neerer to pardon and conuersion But the chiefe of the Iewes to whom the Gospell was a schisme politiquely rejoycing in their wisdome and honour scorn'd the imputation of leuity by a change and a suspected dejection by this change whereby the High-priest of Ierusalem should be abused into an obscure Christian Wherefore arm'd thus with the affectation of ignorance and the malice of ambition at what thunder would these startle at what vnconceiued almightinesse would this fury turne dastard Yet had they knowne it they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory And yet by an vnmoued decree this passion was sealed to a necessitie and can we then make this predestinated execution depend vpon the will of the vncertaine Iewes This dazles the eye and is a wheele turning in a wheele a spheare wrapt in a spheare the lowest against the order of Heauen and nature seeming to giue motion to the highest the will of the Iewes to the decree of God Had Festus vpon his judgement-seate heard holy Paul preach this seeming opposition wee may easily beleeue that without the manners of deliberation he would once more haue cryed-out to our Apostle Much learning has made thee mad But wee leaue him to his owne ignorance and an other judgement-seate◠and without being rapt to the third Heauen wee know that Those things which are necessary in respect of the first cause admit vncertainty in respect of second causes The crucifying of our Sauiour was necessary cōpared to Gods decree but it was contingent cōpared to the libertie of the Iewes will in whom it was choice and not necessitie to will or not to will the death of Christ If the Iewes had knowne it then both the causes of this action and the action it selfe might haue not beene and had not beene But this condition the knowledge of our Sauiour which if it had beene our Sauiour could not haue suffer'd could not be because the first cause God had decree he should suffer And as God by this decree of his Passion did not with an actiue concurrence lay a necessity guilt vpon the will of the Iewes no more did hee impose any necessitie vpon the humane will of Christ but our Sauiour made himselfe a free sacrifice with as much mercy as affliction For though there were in his humane will a necessitie of obedience to the decree of his Passion yet was there also a true indifference this necessity being extrinsecall to his humane will precisely considered as it was intrinsecall and naturall to his person But his humane will suffering no violence did for our sake in the libertie of choice offer-vp his person to the violence of the Iewes Who were so glad of their ignorance and ambition that rather then they would fall from their Cleargy-monarchy they would not feare to set vpon God The brauest sinne that euer was was ventred in Heauen by an Angell and the basest sinne that euer was was committed on earth by a Disciple A Disciple who had he beene of an intire faith had beene euen yet of an intire fame in our sacred Kalendar enjoyed the place and title of Saint Iudas Hee was Christ's purse-bearer whose office vnder such a Master was in all likelihood of too narrow a commoditie for a large Knaue yet louing this more then his master hee bargaines with the Priests and takes earnest to be a conuenient Traitor But heere I must not forget one thing because our Sauiour has commanded mee to remember it and that is thy piety O happy woman who didst bestow vpon our Sauiour's head and feete a precious oyntment With thy beautifull haire thou didst wipe his beautifull feete from which thy oyntment returned sanctified to thine owne head and by a commanded anniuersary of thy pietie he hath poured vpon thee the oyntment of a religious fame Iustly doe I heere remember her her liberality being the vnjust cause of Iudas his murmuring and it was he whose thrift did chide at the spending of this oyntment Now therefore as if hee had vowed a repaire of this losse he finds a policie to sell the oyntment which was already spent by selling his
was an imployed legacie a woman bequeathed to time to multiply resurrections Which yet were almost reduced to a despaire by her degenerating Nephewes whose crimes had forsworne or scorned the resurrection of their bodies and did more ouerwhelme them then the floud Yet then looke vpon Noah with joy as the Lord did with fauour and when the olde and the new World were distinguished and continued but by an Isthmus from Noah's wife the Arke of mankind see a new resurrection of man and from his floud a resurrection of the world But will you see a raising without death or sleepe Behold Isaac as neere the stroke as the hand of his father arising from his Funerall pile and at this resurrection too there was an Angell remoouing though not a Tombe-stone yet a Knife more exorable then the sword which the Angell in Paradise did shake whose threatning edge was as deuouring as its flame But heere was a sacrifice offered yet not slaine and though not slaine yet accepted But peraduenture it will more gratefully frighten you to see a man taught to bee buried aliue and more yet to liue after his buriall Behold then Ioseph from the tombe of his prison rising vnto a triumph as eminent as his innocencie which had before conquered his passion and now his affliction Behold in Ioseph the mysticall bodie of our Sauiour a body admirably mortall and incorruptible a body that suffered rather the graue then death And will any man now count it such a wonder to see the fetters fall-off from Peter when they had learned the religion from his Masters winding-sheete which fell at his feet when hee arose But if the eye and courage of your faith will venter farther and see the actiue horrour of a graue behold Ionas his quicke tombe made a tombe of saluation to him Three of our dayes hee lay struggling in his new night of amazement as if he had found an Aegypt in the Whale and did acknowledge that watry Purgatory At last the graue by a new instruction cast-vp the liuing The Whale was no more a Sepulchre but a fish and Ionas no longer a coarse but a Prophet Hee had surely died if hee had not beene buried And heere was a resurrection though not a reuiuing a resurrection from disobedience and the Whale Thus this rare An'choret and his tombe were both aliue but the tombe of our Sauiour was as desperate as death What could be expected from a graue and a carcasse Yet behold this carcasse reuiue into a man nay into a God! And I may rightly say behold for he did rise that wee should behold him and at that time wherein we might behold him He rose when night rises into morning and at this pregnant season when winter is quickned into the spring Now did the day-spring visit vs from the graue It was on the first day of the Iewes weeke a weeke well begunne and is was the first day of the Christian Creation If you will turne ouer the notes of time you may beleeue that Pharaoh as on that day of the yeere was inuaded by an host of waues which conquering his Chariots made him without wheeles hurrie faster vnto Hell Whiles Moses led his Israel through the Wildernesse of the Sea passing from the shadow of death in that monument of waters Did not our Lord also leaue his tombe with an equall and contrary wonder Then were the waters made firme rising into Alpes as now the earth was made to quake like the waters And well might it tremble when the Lord conquered it and forsooke it The Angell too made a little earth-quake in the graue when he remoued the mightie stone with which the vaine few tryed to oppresse our Sauiour after death as it he would haue sealed him vp to an impossibilitie of resurrection But since the Angell has opened the tombe for vs shall we goe see the place whence Christ is risen And yet wee shall not make such hast but that the speedy deuotion of the two Maries will bee there before vs whose feete were as swift as their loue and their loue as time nay more swift then time which hindred them by the delay and command of their Sabbath A Sabbath it was but only of their bodies which whiles our Sauiour lay buried were but the sepulchres of their soules their soules that found no Sabbath till they found the Lord. They came with prepared spices and oyntments for him whose diuinitie did preuent Balme and esteemed their pietie of a more precious sweetnesse then their oyntments But will you see this loue languish into feare and this feare againe strengthned into joy They are no sooner in the sepulchre but that they find it as empty of our Sauiour as it was full of wonder and insteed of the body of the Lord they behold the Angell of the Lord sitting vpon the stone which he had conquered to obedience as if hee meant to rest himselfe in triumph after the conflict of his miracle His rayment was white as snow which he did imitate in puritie and descent His countenance was like lightning or more wonderfull for that is of so instant a terrour that it is the object rather of our memory then our eye but this with courteous majestie was patient to be beheld The women with the dutie of feare beheld it being quickly encouraged by the angell but first by their innocence The souldiers beheld it too though with such guiltie faintnesse that they seemed to striue as much to shame their sexe as their profession being at once almost disarmed of their weapons and soules They became as dead men and were rather the prisoners then the keepers of the graue But in the meane time the angell comforts and instructs the women who now are his Disciples and receiuing commission to preach the resurrection of our Sauiour to the Disciples of our Sauiour they haste out of the Tombe with the confused expedition of feare and joy Was not this a strange pilgrimage to runne from the sepulchre of our Lord But it was yet more strange they seeke the Disciples and find Christ It was a comfortable mistake And indeed hee did comfort them with his presence and speech When immediately they fall on their knees at his knees in loue worship holding him by the feet O how glorious are the feet of the Lord of the Gospell The Gospell of whose resurrection these female Euangelists are againe sent to teach and the first schollers which they must teach must be Christ's Disciples When to shew their obedience to be as readie as their loue they depart euen from Christ to their dutie and speedily find Peter and Iohn for their auditours Heere was zeale and tendernesse the fiercest and the mildest of the Apostles as if they had beene left together to temper one another And these no sooner heare the newes but straight they runne as fast to the tombe as the women did runne from it Iohn came first vnto it but Peter went first
all other posture making it descend as much to the name as to the simplicitie of extension The foules of the aire also haue their ascension but it is as well by the aire as in it and their cunning wing which diuides the aire into away compacts it into a helpe Thus do they ascend with an easie wonder it being performed by the power of nature and apprehended by the power of the vnderstanding But for mans bodie to ascend without the actiuitie of a wing aboue the actiuitie of a wing is so strange that it was strange euen in Christ's bodie nay it might haue beene strange to his owne bodie which had it not beene instructed by his diuinitie might haue maruail'd at its owne motion And it did no lesse amaze Heauen then possesse it making a great part of the Angels thus behold earth without descending to it And this bodie ascended rather to Heauen then to God The Diuinitie was with it yet did not ascend with it since it does not change place but fill all place His soule did ascend with it yet did rather effectually change place then properly whiles it did only not change that bodie which did change place The whole person did ascend not that the Diuinitie left any place where the humanitie had beene but that it was in euery place where the humanitie was to be And this ascension of Christ's bodie was not only farre from the nature but also against the nature of his bodie which acknowledg'd the burden and tyrannie of our Elements till by resurrection it was refined into the libertie of a glorified nature and taught to obey its owne preferment which the Diuinitie so bestowed both vpon bodie soule that they were almost not more neere vnto it then like vnto it And that they might be more like vnto it the Diuinitie became voluntarily as humble as the humanitie was naturally and voluntarily made the humanitie as high as the Diuinitie was naturally Which great worke of the ascension did not only need a Diuinitie to performe it but also to perswade men that it could bee performed the beliefe of the ascension being the next wonder to the ascension As then God did effect it so he did teach it he humbled himselfe to man hee humbled himselfe in man making the degrees of his instruction descend by the degrees of mans apprehension And first he did discouer the possibilitie of ascension to the Vnderstanding by which wee doe as truly as Moses though not as cleerely see Enoch's ascension which was not for ought we know seene by any eye but the eye of the vnderstanding the ascension of his bodie being no more discerned then the ascension of his soule God tooke him bodie and soule his bodie being by a holy obedience to his soule made so like his soule that it did ascend as easily nay as soone as his soule Holinesse which to other men is a resurrection of the soule was to him a resurrection also of the bodie which was refined without the deliberate corruption of a graue It was refined sooner then it could be corrupted It knew no graue but sinne from which it did ascend as it did ascend from its owne mortalitie but his soule did first by righteousnesse ascend in his bodie before it did ascend with his bodie God tooke him to himselfe leauing his storie to posteritie and faith as if he would teach the world by this inferiour proportion that ascension should be an object of faith The next apprehensiue facultie in man to which God descended to teach it the possibilitie of ascension was the Phantasie Thus Iacob saw the angels goe vp to Heauen though this was an ascension but by the helpe of a ladder and that helpe like that ascension but in a dreame and the bodies which ascended were but like a dreame hauing no more substance then a dreame But Saint Paul did by the phantasie not see the ascension of another but enjoy one himselfe and to that degree of truth that hee doubted whether his bodie did not as much possesse Heauen as the Vision possessed his bodie At last the diuine instruction taught the ascension to the Sense it taught the ascension of the bodie to the bodie Thus did Elisha see Eliah ascend he saw him ascend like the fire in which he did ascend in which he did ascend till he ascended aboue it Hee saw the state of his ascension in a Chariot he saw the speed of his ascension in his horses he saw and he heard the whirle-wind in which Eliah suffered a triumph and rapture of his bodie as other Prophets had suffered a rapture only of their soules Nay Elisha's touch too did apprehend the ascension whiles it tooke vp the mantle that did ascend for the mantle too had an ascension though not to Heauen yet toward Heauen and to the working of miracles But all Elisha was but a witnesse of this ascension whiles God tooke-vp Eliah and left the Prophet with Elisha whom he clothed not so much with the mantle as with Eliah But if you would heare of one that had gone toward Heauen and come downe againe as if he would be a witnesse of his owne ascension you may remēber Abacuc with whose story wee may bee satisfied as much as Daniel was with his prouision Whom yet if carefully we will obserue we shall perceiue him cast into the Lions denne so late in the euening and deliuered thence so early in the morning that there will bee no more need then there was time for the ascension of Abacuc and the miracle of the dinner Nay had it come it would haue beene as great a miracle to haue kept the Lions from the food as to haue kept them from Daniel And had Abacuc liued till Daniel's imprisonment he would indeed haue had need to bee carried though his journie had beene farre shorter then from Iury to Babylon Thus did death make this Prophet preuent this ascension of his bodie by an ascension of his soule But Simon Magus did ascend in earnest nay and hee prooued it too by descending in earnest Only it was an vntoward ascension he did ascend by the power of the Deuill but hee descended by the power of God he descended to that power by which he ascended Now as this Sorcerer was made to descend by the prayers of Saint Peter so Saint Thomas of Aquine as some haue told vs ascended by his owne prayers hee ascended without presumption a foot or two Which petty ascension may serue for a mannerly miracle if the Saint-maker's eyes were not as dimme as his deuotion and by an apocope of that Saint's bodie mistooke not his knees for his feete vpon which peraduenture hee stood praying and the mistake was as easie as the miracle But wee haue heard of some Dead bodies that haue ascended thus some haue buried Moses in Heauen striuing to make his tombe as famous as his holinesse and belike lest the Deuill should haue made his body an Idoll they
loued peace that hee lost his owne whiles he studied ours who so loued peace that excepting the combates of each Christian with himselfe hee would not haue had the Church to bee Militant heere on Earth making it almost Triumphant heere on Earth who loued peace as much as the Priest ought to doe nay who loued peace as much as he loued his Priest And now hee is ascended thither where only is to bee found a peace equall to his loue of peace and now without going to Spaine wee can find a Saint Iames Saint Iames of Britaine Defender of the Faith and the Cleargie O happy Saints who doe in peace attend our Sauiour in his triumph of peace And O the happinesse of holy Stephen whose eie was as full of wonder as his soule of grace and did so stedfastly looke vp into Heauen as if his eye had imitated the constancie of his soule And hee beheld with that zeale of looke the sonne of man in his triumph of zeale which was so raised against Stephens persecutors that he stood-vp at the right hand of God as if for his seruants sake had it beene possible hee would haue ventured againe among the Iewes his loue making him readie to forsake his glory rather then his Saint Whom yet he deliuered from their crueltie whiles hee seemed not to deliuer him Hee deliuered him from their crueltie by their crueltie and by the speed of death rescued him into Heauen whiles he was as constant in his prayer as in his death And it seemes his prayer was heard for Saint Paul whos 's first zeale did not more delight in Saint Stephens persecution then his second zeale delighted in Saint Stephens zeale and now with joy both doe attend vpon our Sauiour in his triumph of zeale And O the happinesse of diuine Iohn who heere on earth had the honour to see our Sauiour in Heauen in his triumph of honour And he saw the Elders fall downe before the Lambe imitating the humilitie of the Lambe and by the imitation presenting vnto him the remembrance of his owne humilitie and they triumphed more in their dutie then in their age and by fruitfull gratitude gaue honour to themselues whiles they gaue it to the honorable sonne of God! And now Saint Iohn is become a part of that wonder which hee wondred at whiles by his owne ascension hee increases the number and triumph of those Elders hauing put off his own bodie that he might bee neerer to our Sauiours bodie O happie Saints who are neere the right hand of God whiles they are neere him who is at the right hand of God! whose dwelling seate is at the right hand of God a seate which the malice of the Iew cannot reach vnto nay which the prayer of the Iew cannot reach vnto Whose judgement-seate is at the right hand of God nay the judgement-seates of his Saints are at the right hand of God for they also with him shall judge the twelue Tribes of Israel Yet marke the prerogatiue of our Sauiour they shall with him judge the world but only he shall saue it And againe marke the prerogatiue of our Sauiour by which hee is as wonderfully distinguished from them as hee is by his loue vnited to them As then you haue beheld the ascension of his glory so in this ascension now behold a jealous ascension an incommunicable ascension of his power Angels and authorities and powers being made subject vnto him The glory of a Prince is in the multitude of his people the greatnesse of a Prince in the power of his people but the greatest power of God is in himselfe yet hee communicates a great power vnto his angels To know the number of whose angels is as much beyond our abilitie as beyond our vse and it is enough glory vnto God that wee know their number to bee so great that we cannot know it To know the power of the angels is as easie as to know our owne weaknesse of which our bodies are able to instruct our soules But to define the Orders of the angels is not an act of man's knowledge though it has beene of phansie but like some to build the angels nine-storie-high were such a piece of architecture that Virtuoius himselfe would haue thought it to haue no more art in it then safetie and hee would haue beene as much confounded with wonder as the building would bee with its owne height Besides it would exceed the tower and vanitie of Babylon the foundation of this angelicall Tower being higher then the top of that Yet that of Babylon would in one respect exceed this since that had a stronger foundation though not a wiser But peraduenture these Dionysian builders layd their foundation vpon a Dreame and tooke their imitation from Iacobs Ladder vpon which because Iacob did behold angels they haue by finer workmanship reaâ—ed a Ladder of angels And that the inuention might seeme new by the seene as his ascent reacht vnto Heauen so these are made to reach vnto God Whose wisedome has indeed distinguished his angels but rather by their imployment then their nature as he has distinguished the soules of men not by their offence but their endowments Thus some of his Angels are Seraphins whose loue is as hote as fire whose loue is as pure as fire Some are Cherubins the intuitiue expedition and extent of whose knowledge may be named and figured by a wing Some are thrones who are safe from the feare of Gods judgements whiles they are made the seats of his judgements the ministers from whom his judgements are sent forth You may descend to dominions principalities and authorities but this middle Region of the angels is so full of clouds that we can only see the clouds through which wee cannot see You may descend yet lower to Powers arch-angels and angels and yet thus neere we shall be troubled with mists that we can scarce see our hand wherewith to point-out the differences Besides the Almightie can as easily appoint the change of their offices as their offices and by the weight of his message promote an angell into an archangell or hee can send the same angell to Balaam and to his Asse or hee cannot only change their offices but also mixe them making the same angell that killed the first-borne of the Aegyptian preserue the Israelite to confesse the distinction And because this distinction is rather the cause of thankefulnesse then the effect of curiositie let vs more consider their strength then their Heraldrie yet rejoyce more in their obedience then in their strength they being all made subject to our Sauiour all whether they are angels of authoritie to declare his pleasure or angels of power to execute his pleasure And it is his pleasure that as they are subject to him so they shall bee subject for vs. It was for vs that he sent two angels to be a witnesse and an effect of his ascension It was an angell deliuered Peter from the prison and kept him
innocencie making him confident to aske them whom they seeke when their businesse and authoritie strait-wayes answer Iesus of Nazareth They had vntowardly learned to make no difference of persons Hee with a mild courage replies I am hee and immediately as if hee had come to apprehend Them they fall downe backward they fall from Christ The blowing-downe of the wals of Iericho with Rams-hornes though it was no lesse wonderfull yet it was lesse speedy And where is now the conspiracie of their ambition Where is now the strength of their inuasion Where is now the prouision of their armour Is it not all made the triumph of his meeknesse Heere is no heauenly army to ouerthrow this legion of Deuils but with a victorious mildnesse they are strucke downe their bodies acknowledging his power which their soules denied their vnderstanding bodies beeing vnwilling to act what their senslesse soules prompted them vnto Yet does his pardon giue them strength to rise againe and againe he askes them whom they seeke and they dare answere Iesus of Nazareth Before they spake to his humanitie and his diuinitie answer'd them but now hee answers them with the patience of his humanitie which suffers the sacriledge of their hands and malice When Peter's zeale at the captiuity of his master vnsheathes his sword and cutting-off the High Priest's seruant 's eare makes him learne a new Circumcision which was no Sacrament but a punishment But againe appeares the diuinitie and mercy of our Sauiour who corrects Peter and his fact replanting the seruant 's eare which straight acknowledges and enjoyes his power Yet they persist in their impietie and when hee by his power has prooued himselfe a God they by his patience will prooue him to be a man And being in the hands of very Iewes his Disciples forgetting their master and their protestations runne all away euen bold Saint Peter runnes away with his courage and his sword euen his beloued Iohn runnes away breaking the bonds of loue with the strength of feare O heere I cannot but stay and grieue that his beloued Iohn also doth forsake him Sure there is some friend for whom some friend will lay downe a life and sure there neuer were such friends as Christ and his Apostles and sure of his Apostles there was none so neere him as his beloued John The rest were in his company but hee in his bosome and does his beloued Iohn also forsake him Me thinkes the protestation and perswasion of Saint Paul would haue admirably become the mouth and practice of Saint Iohn Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature no not a very Iew shall euer be able to force mee from the loue and bosome of my Iesus Yet euen beloued Iohn also does forsake his Iesus Whose miraculous hands they bind the greatest miracle of which was at this time not their power but their patience They bind his hands foolishly forgetting that if any of them should lose another eare as much as in them lay they hindred him from healing of it Indeed happy had it beene if Adam and Eue's hands had beene bound thus in Paradise But see the bonds of our sinnes that are able to captiue the hands of Christ Who is led by the blind malice of his Iewes vnto iudgement And is there no good man's eye who will with an easie teare follow his trauelling affliction Is there none that will goe after him though not to be a partaker yet but a witnesse of his injurie Yes there is one of more loue then age couered rather then clothed with meere linnen who being hastily come and as hastily apprehended chooses rather to leaue his linnen then his life and slipping from their hands runnes as hastily backe againe and indeed hee runnes away so fast that I cannot tell you who he is Yet if the curious please to runne after him they may peraduenture find him to be the sonne of that man of the village Gethsemane at the foot of mount Oliuet who owned the Garden where our Sauiour prayed The tumult of the night might easily awake him to this vndressed speed which whiles hee vses in running backe the Iewes goe forward in their way and malice leading our Sauiour first to Annas They were to passe by his reuerend doore at which by way of honour they present their shew and he sends him to be presented to the High-priest Caiaphas his sonne in law this was the kindred of these honourable murderers But whiles this troupe is with our Sauiour you may looke back and behold Peter following afarre off full of loue and shame and sorrow Yet alas hee returnes but to forsweare himselfe and his master In a curious desire he enters the High-priest's hall a place of temptation and blasphemie where with as much danger as dissimulation he mixes with Christ's persecutors whom as already he accompanies so anon by an vnhappy proficiencie he must imitate Conuersation is the last concoction of loue and does by a secret friendship of nature intimately assimilate Now the High-priest with an assisting tumult of Scribes and Pharisies does not examine our Sauiour but tempt him and when at their importunitie he has acknowledged himselfe the Christ he is made guiltie of being God and straight they practice vpon him the wantonnesse of scorne They prophane his sacred face with the blasphemy of spittle they blindfold him in execrable sport and then striking him in jesting inhumanitie they aske who strikes him Whiles Christ is thus condemned Peter is examined and straight commits an easie deniall of his master and straight the Cocke crowes but yet not lowd enough to awake his guilt Hee is persecuted againe and too wretchedly sweares an ignorance A third tempter vexes him being both an accuser and a witnesse and this is Malchus his cousin whose eare Peter had cut off which makes Peter feare more then the proportion of the Iewish Law an eare for an eare He suspects that this eare will bring in danger his whole head And hauing but one euasion though worse then his entrance he wishes himselfe accursed if he knowes our Sauiour when alas he knowes that he were accursed if hee did not know him And now the Cocke as if instructed to our Sauiour's prophesie in his just time crowes the second time with the repeated diligence of his wing and voice not more awaking himselfe then the heauy memory of Peter's conscience which thus raised before day makes him vnderstand and bewaile his night of sinne nor does hee more hasten out of doores then doe the teares out of his eyes Where marke the apt degrees as of his fault so of his sorrow The hast of his repentance begg'd pardon for his deniall the teares of his repentance begg'd pardon for his oath the bitternesse of his repentance beg'd pardon for his curse But now the Iewes are not auoiding but prouoking a greater curse and as soone as
his soule was a diuinitie to his body so was his diuinitie a soule to his humanity To create man God â—reathed a spirit like himselfe into him him to redeeme man God himselfe entred into him and though the diuinitie could not hee crucified yet was the vnion of it with the passion of the humanitie counted as the passion of the diuinitie Thus by the bountie of interpretation and communication of proprieties they verily crucified the Lord of glory Whose carcasse now as cold as death raises a flame of loue in the breasts of Ioseph and Nicodemus Ioseph in a couragious Christianitie goes vnto Pilate and begges the body When Christ was aliue Iudas sould him and now he is dead Pilate giues him away whose body though it were preserued by the diuinitie yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrhe and Deuotion They wrap him in a linnen cloth not so much concealing his nakednesse as expressing his innocence They lay him in Iosephs Tombe which was in a garden and was not then this garden Paradise It was a glorious sepulchre as if by the prophesie of loue it had been proportioned to the guest Whose bodie being heere entertayned with magnificent pietie his illustrious soule forces a triumph in Hell crucifies the Deuill and ouerthrowes the tyranny of damnation He does not take away damnation but contract it And now you see after this redemption of our Sauiour you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side receiue saluation You may behold the opening mouth of this wound which with eloquent bloud inuites you to faith and loue You may behold the Lord of glory comming from Edom with his died garments from Bosrah This is the Lord of glory glorious in his apparell glorious in his nakednesse glorious in his mightinesse to saue Wherefore art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat Thou hast trodden the Wine-presse alone and of the people there was none with thee O what did cause these soundings of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards vs Who can expresse thy sorrowes and thy louing-kindnesse towards vs Who can expresse what thou hast done for our soules Thou wast afflicted thou wast despised thou wast whipt wounded bruised condemned sacrificed for our soules thou wast made a seruant of death thou wast numbred with the transgressours thou madest thy graue with the wicked for our soules Wherefore God has highly exalted thee and giuen thee a name aboue all names that at the Name of Iesus euery knee shall bow of things in Heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And euery tongue shall confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord of glory And the foure and twentie Elders shall fall downe before the Lambe with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours and in their new Song shall they prayse thee And the Angels about thy throne euen ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lambe that was slaine to receiue power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory Therefore with Angels and Arch-angels and with all the company of Heauen wee laude and magnifie thy glorious Name euermore praysing thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord of glory Heauen and earth are full of thy glory and of thy mercies The Angels in Heauen wonder at thy mercies the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies thou thy selfe triumphest in thy mercies and the sonnes of men rejoyce in thy mercies Wherefore O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world deliuer vs by thine agonie and bloudie swear by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall deliuer vs And wee will fall downe before thy glorie and we will sing praises vnto thy mercie and we will triumph in the victorie of thy bloud and we will for euer euen for euer acknowledge that Thou the crucified Lord of glorie art the Christ of God and the Iesus of men The end A Sermon preached at Saint Marie's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday 1623. 1. CORINTH 15.20 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept IT were vnnecessarie art feare to stirâ—e to keepe the liuing awake with a preface when as the dead are at the businesse of a resurrection WoÌ„ders blessings are aboue their auditors who must be glad to be staâ—â—led to the newes Now was our Sauior task'd with his most vnweildie miracle His mercie had before bestowed many vpon others but now his power tries one vpon himselfe His diuinitie acts a miracle vpon his humanitie repairing this second Trinitie of his person from the immortall ruines of a God a soule and a carcasse Three dayes did hee consecrate for the performance of this wonder and three dayes doe wee consecrate for the perswading to this wonder which should haue beene the joy and was the shame of the Apostles who were slow to apprehend it though Christ was their Schoole-master They had not as yet learned their owne Creed which their peruerse sense was pleased to bee taught not so much by our Sauiour as by his sepulchre whose opening mouth when it sent forth Christ the Word pronounced his Resurrection which is the Epitaph of God Thus did the ambition of the graâ—e instruct the preuented Angell and though it cannot as the multitude of Tombes with the voice and conquest of proud Death tell vs whom it does captiue yet does it remember to vs whom it did Which assumed triumph of death is as short as its combat Ioseph's deuotion bestowed this Tombe vpon our Sauiour but our Sauiours victorie bestowed it vpon death which since his Resurrection has lien buried in his tombe But can a dead man bee warmed againe into life And can the lungs that haue forgot to breathe learne to breathe againe Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed and being honoured with an imitating omnipotencie can with a coequall extension of assent apply it selfe to the number and degrees of Gods actions But as hard it was to raise the faith as the body of Saint Thomas nay it was his body that caused him to beleeue the Resurrection of Christ's bodie which was a way of faith more certaine then gratefull Yet must the vnderstanding bee so raised before it can beleeue that the bodie can bee raised that the diuine indulgence does gradually chastize the difficultie by the length of instruction For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation when straight hee was practised vnto an essay of this second Creation When Adam descended into sleepe there was a Resurrection of his rib which awaked into a woman Did not mortalitie then put on immortalitie when a senselesse bone was so endued with reason that it could apprehend its owne preferment Mee thinkes the Chymique might hence extract an easie Rhetorique for his promotion of metalls and without an Apologie teach that vsurie of art And heere too
into it Loue was swiftest but zeale boldest When they are entred they find Christ's victory acknowledged by the linnen clothes his spoiles of death and these spoiles too had beene diuided the napkin of his head being laid by it selfe It seemes the angell at our Sauiour's resurrection attended to bee a witnesse of it to the women and leaue a witnesse of it to the Disciples Thus that he was not stolne away appeares by the inconuenience and leisure of his vndressing and by the method of the linnen which the frightened policie of the souldiers did no more touch then obserue and they no more obserued it then did the women who after the sight of the angell had their eyes as much amazed as their minds The souldiers too did more tremble then watch but the Disciples had lesse feare and more time besides they learned somewhat which they were not taught and could now teach the women this newes of the graue But did hee rise but from the graue This is the newes but of his bodie yes hee did rise also from the damned who are dead too as much in judgement as to nature Though some are as vnwilling to haue Christ descend into Hell as to goe thither themselues and in a dangerous Brachygraphie write the Creed so short that without the commission of an Index Expurgatorius they quite leaue out the article of the descent But what an vnmannerly ingratitude is this to accept of Christ's benefits and denie his wonders They will enjoy his conquest of Hell and yet they will not let him goe to conquer it Ought wee not to make greater the glory of Christo and can wee make lesse the power of Christ Let then our pietie behold and wonder to see Heauen descend into Hell to see againe Gosâ—â—â—â— in Aegypt The Deuill had beene before in Heauen and now God is pleased to goe into Hell The arch-angell conquered the Deuill in Heauen and now God conquers him in his owne Empire and makes his Empire his Dungeon Wee ouercome the Deuill by flight but God by inuasion Yet who would not stand amazed to see God with the Deuill Had the Manichie beene now hee might heere at once haue behold both his Princes Mee thinkes our Sauiour now turned Sampson's Riddle into a Prophesie which hee expounded and fulfilled Did not out of the eater come forth meate and out of the strong came there not sweetnesse when from the jawes of Hell by Christ came forth saluation Now whiles the soule of our Sauiour was triumphant in Hell his bodie was obedient in the sepulchre his diuinitie being as his soule till it recalled his soule and made the whole Christ change an age of three and thirtie yeeres into eternitie Loe heere is the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah whose almightie strength vouchsafed to couch vnder the power of the graue and Loe the glorious indignation of his loue has rouzed him vp againe from the sloth of death Will you behold how hee was raised behold how the potter workes vpon the wheele he takes clay he makes it a vessell and this vessell being marred in the hand of the potter he makes it againe as hee best pleases Christ was immortall clay and earth purer then Heauen When by the wonder of omnipotency the Creator and the creature were made into one and of one matter did consist both the potter and his pot From this broken clay there did arise the same and a renewed Christ That hee rose in the earnest of a body his owne mouth did testifie when hee said nothing proouing it by the authoritie of food which he did eate with his Disciples Could any man in this point be yet an infidell If any could see how he conuerts them Hee lets Thomas disgrace himselfe to a beliefe and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously increase his faith Can any doubt that hee was renewed in a bodie of glory when he was full of God Know you not that his body was indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost Was hee not renewed in a body of glory whom the doores that were shut when hee entred to his Disciples did obediently acknowledge to be the King of glory And though hee were patient vnder death three dayes yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died and the last part of the last after hee reuiued there was the number but not the length of three dayes and thus hee made so short a change seeme rather a sleepe then a death And O but to consider heere as well the wonder as the change Doe but imagine that in the dawning birth of the morning you saw the reuelation of a graue emulating the morning a coarse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sunne a winding-sheet falling away as an empty cloud the feet and hands striuing which shall first recouer motion the hands helping to raise the body the feet helping to beare both the body and the hands the tongue so eloquent that it can tell you it can speake againe the eares so pure that they can perceiue the silence of the graue the eyes looking forth of their Tombes as if they were glad to see their owne resurrection Would you not bee as much affrighted as instructed with this power of a God Would you not be turned into very coarses to see this liuing coarse Would you not be strucke as pale as the winding-sheet you looked-vpon But when all this shall bee done as well in mercy as in majestie as well to raise you to a hope of eternall life as to strike you with a remeÌ„brance of a temporall death as well to make you like vnto God as to make you know you are yet not like vn-him O how will you then at such compassion dissolue with compassion as if you would hasten to the like resurrection How will you then kisse those hands which before you feared How will you then with stedfast eyes examine and adore the resurrection of that body which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our bodies For therefore did hee raise himselfe that hee might raise vs and so become the first-fruites of them that sleepe But shall wee rise too and shall dust againe bee taken-vp and breathed on Shall euery man by this second Adam be made as wonderfully as the first Adam And yet shall we want faith when God wants not power Or shall we thinke it harder to vnite the bodie and soule then to make them It were an impious discourtesie to deny that to God which God denied not vnto his seruant Did not the widow of Zarephah thus receiue a sonne by Elias who yet was neither the father of it nor the God Nay did not his seruant doe more for the Shunamite to whom hee promised a sonne before hee was conceiued and restored him after hee was dead Nay did not the bones of this Elisha giue life to one that was as dead as themselues teaching him to confesse the mercie of a graue It
the curious zeale of the soule It will not only haue a body againe but in a precise societie it will haue only its owne againe For the preseruing therefore of such numericall identitie there shall bee wonderfully restored the substantiall vnion which is but formally distinguished from the parts vnited There shall be restored the personalitie and lastly the natiue temperament which does containe the indiuiduating dispositions whereby such a matter has a pecullar appetite to such a forme Which matter by vertue of such inclination remaynes formally the same though it may be varied by extention as when the infant shall be raysed into a man the person shall bee enlarged but not multiplyed But the vnruly wit of Philosophie will here demand how they shall rise with their owne bodies who when they liued had not bodies of their owne being not only fed with the flesh of men but descending also from parents nourished with the like horrible diet For by this wild reckoning there will bee such a Genealogie of debt that the bodie of the Nephew must peraduenture be paid to the great Grand-father To which some Christians doe reply with as much impertinent deuotion as vnwarrantable subtiltie without necessity attributing to Gods Omnipotencie a totall supply of new bodies which for the preseruing the numericall identitie shall bee endowed with the former temperature But surely we ought to judge it a safer modestie not to satisfie reason then to offend Religion And since we must rise in our old bodies without all sophistrie wee may more temperately beleeue that the diuine wisdome has decreed and prouided that there shall neuer be any humane bodie which shall totally consist of other humane bodies It being harsh to say that the same body is raised when there are only the same reproduced dispositions and as absurd to affirme that such dispositions being the speciall accidents of a former matter should be transferd vpon another You see then the sacred eagernesse of the soule It will neither loose nor change a dust nor will it only possesse but also adorne the body Mankind shall feele and expresse a youthfull spring the walking-staffe and the wrinkle shall bee no more the helpe and distinction of age and death it selfe shall suffer climactericall destruction O how the wonder will almost out-act faith when the infant and the dwarfe shall be made a proper man When the limbes exhaled with famine shall bee replenished with as much miracle as flesh When the child that left its soule before it left the wombe shall in an instant without growth be as bigge as the mother when sleepe shall bee commanded from the eye-lid no more by care but by immortalitie which shall chase death out of nature and with importunate triumph cry-out vnto the graue O earth earth earth heare the voice of the Lord Thy dead men shall liue with their primitiue bodies shall they arise awake and sing you that dwell in dust for your dew is as the dew of herbs by which blessing you shall bee made as glorious as fruitfull And since that fruitfulnesse is the gratitude of nature let it remember vs as much to acknowledge as enjoy the mercie of that power by which wee rise And wee may most justly and easily remember by whom wee rise by remembring him by whom we fell Yet if wee behold the originall of their humanitie wee shall find that they were both without sinne and that the first Adam had his best paradise within himselfe But when hee was fallen by the weaknesse of the woman that was made for his helpe neuer did woman prooue a strong helpe vnto man before the Virgin-mother of Christ God and man And then though the first Adam had eaten vp the apple the second Adam swallowed vp death He had before made the poore man take vp the bed of his sicknesse and walke but hee himselfe was the first that euer tooke vp the death-bed and walked Yet some before our Sauiour borrowed a phantasticall resurrection as Saul's equiuocall Samuel and some rose in earnest but to die againe in earnest as supererogating Lazarus that paid to nature one death more then he owed But our Lord is risen with as much perfection as power and with as much power as loue and glory The Poeticall Chymiques tell vs of an Alchymisticall man at the earth's center who by a sphericall diffusion of his vertue does like a subterraneous Sunne improoue metals to a metamorphosis yet new Which as it is bold in the fable so by a deuout mythologie may bee made modest in the morall And this secret workeman shall be our Sauiour whose vertue was so dispersed into the bowels of graues that at his resurrection he improued carcasses into Saints who were the witnesses and attendants of his power Indeed to aduance the head without the members were so vnnaturall that it were more like an execution then a preferment and it were stranger to see a Leader without his souldiers then without his armes besides were it fit that when the master rises the seruants should lie still Thus then they were raised and as much to holinesse as to life It was not only a resurrection but also a consecration Christ was the first of them that rose nay he was the first-fruits of them Hee had the precedence both in order and vertue The first-fruits were the first handfull as acceptable as ripe by a bountifull mediation obtayning holinesse and entertaynment for the rest And this first offering did commend it selfe vnto the Lord rather by the speed then the quantitie The Iew offered this at his owne home and it was as domestique as his thoughts being a present of eloquent simplicitie which at the same time did honour and ouercome the Almightie O how our Sauiour made this figure solid when at once he conquered for vs death and heauen Hee was but the first handfull of corne and yet as powerfull as small making all the rest of a like holinesse though not of an equall But there were greater first-fruites which the Iew went to pay at Ierusalem and as the first were an offering of humilitie so these of pompe those did more set-forth the thankfulnesse of the labourer and these the munificence of the Lord. If you will take the word of the Rabbines whom in the story of Custome wee haue no more need to suspect then they had to faigne when the husbandman carried-vp these fruits to the holy Citie hee had a Bull went before him whose hornes were gilded and an Oliue garland vpon his head This was the picture of his masters affection and estate as if by the impetuous beast hee would expresse the courage of his joy by the gilded hornes the riches of his plentie and by the Oliue-garland the crowne of his peace Behold the displayed Heraldry of his happinesse And that it might bee increased by applause a pipe played before them to charge all to take notice of it vntill they came to the mountaine of the Lord.
wee giue not hands vnto him but he giues them to himselfe yet hee giues them not for himselfe but for vs not to assist himselfe but instruct vs. He makes vs vnderstand his greatest fauours by his lesse fauours and so by this happinesse in their vse makes his lesse fauours greater He teaches vs the parts of Christs triumph by the parts of our bodie and makes it as easie in some measure to distinguish betweene the glory of Christ and of the Angels as betweene our right hand and our left as betweene Gods right hand and ours nay to judge of Gods right hand by ours In the right hand of man is his strength and the Almighty calls his owne strength his right hand The right hand of man nay euery right side limbe of man is by situation and power of that prioritie by nature that as if God had shewed the sacred vnion and distinction of sexes in the same body our left limbes are but female limbes and so our left hand may be a helpe vnto our right but our right is a defence vnto our left And this courteous purpose of nature as it is alwayes promoted by exercise so was it more singularly by wit and courage in those Amazonian warriers who conueighed their right pappe into their arme bringing-vp that as the heire of their strength and prouiding victory for its inheritance And yet these were not monsters but wonders whiles they had not two right armes but a double one But nature it selfe without this supportment of vse and art has built the right arme vpon the foundation of a greater bone then the left that if these bones were brought to the justice of the balance wee should with no lesse admiration then truth confesse the right to exceed the left in weight and mystrie And as Nature has thus honoured our right hand so likewise has Custome It is the hand wherewith wee command as if it claimed to her the scepter of reason and would expresse as well the majestie as the purpose of the will It is the hand wherewith wee direct with courtesie in part performing our owne command whiles with skill we teach it It is the hand wherewith we promise in which forme of couenant the hands of men we so firmely vnited to professe the intended vnion of their word and deed It is the hand wherewith we blesse wishing the strength of our hand to be the Embleme of our blessing It is the hand wherewith we defend and which by the artificiall mercy of protection we can bestow vpon another and yet nere part from it It is the hand wherewith we honour as if he whom wee place at our right hand were as deare vnto vs as our right hand Thus our right hand implies all that we can giue but does Gods right hand imply all that hee can giue Heere let vs with reuerent comparison and delight behold God and Christ Christ with God at the right hand of God the neerenesse presenting them both to the same view the neerenesse expounding them both by the same view It is supreame glorie with God to haue equall glory of Diuinitie with God And Christ had this the supreame part of Christ his Diuinitie which since it did from eternitie enjoy such equalitie this is rather to bee the right hand of God then to be at the right hand of God to be at the right hand of God being a triumph which Christ could not receiue before his hypostaticall vnion a triumph which hee did not receiue till after his ascension Leauing then only vnto wonder such wonders of his right hand we may only behold the pleasures though they are wonders too the pleasures in that hand and not without pleasure consider the difference betwixt his hand and ours since ours venters to be but the Gypsie-prophet of our owne successe but his right hand of truth and bountie does by a Catholike and vnfeigned Palmistrie shew the blessings prouided for other men And O how admirable are the blessings of the man Christ Iesus Blessings that more encompasse him then the cloud hee ascended in Blessings as ineffable as his generation Blessings as immense as his loue Blessings as inseparable as his Diuinitie Blessings as exquisite as his torments O how are those hands those feet that side which vnderstood the point of the naile of the speare and of the Iew made now as impenetrable as the hearts that prepared them made now as glorious as the patience that admitted them The face which receiued spittle as vile almost as the mouth that sent it how does it now shine like the Sun in his strength that now for the brightnesse of it the souldiers could not see how to spit vpon it The head which did no more desire a crowne then a crowne of thornes ought to bee desired how is it now crowned with the merit of that bloud which the thornes did shed with the mercy of that bloud which was readie to forgiue those that shedde it The soule which was so intentiue to its owne sorrowes that it almost forgot to animate the bodie for which also it in part did sorrow how is it now delighted as much with the societie of the soules whom it has deliuered as with its owne righteousnesse by which it deliuer'd them O happy Saints who in peace behold our Sauiour in his triumph of peace A triumph attended by the peacefull Melchizedeck who now insteed of blessing Abram does with Abram blesse the God of Abram and insteed of presenting Bread and Wine the blessings of peace presents himselfe a King and Priest of peace A triumph attended by the peacefull Solomon from which seed of Dauid God would not take away his blessings for euer nay in his mercy hee has for euer giuen him more blessings then hee had women and children and has now requited his Temple with a Temple which more exceeds Solomons in wonder then his exceeded Gods in the leisure of the building his being the worke study of seuen yeeres but Gods being the work but of a day nay but of the first instant of Gods first day a day when yet there was no Sunne wherewith to measure a day a day when yet there was no man for whom to measure a day A triumph attended by the peacefull Ezechias who now is in a Temple safer from Sennacherib then Sennacherib was in his owne temple from his owne children who now is at more rest then the Sun was in his Diall in which though it went not forward yet it stood not still and now his repreeue from death for fifteene yeeres is liberally improued into eternity A triumph attended by the peacefull Iosiah who insteed of celebrating his solemne Passeouer does now feast with the true Lambe himselfe and though that peacefull Iosiah did not end in peace yet by that end he now enjoyes a peace a peace as harmelesse as that Lambe with which he enjoyes it A triumph now attended also by our peacefull Iames who so
sent it to his soule to make-vp a Saint And some haue sent the bodie of the blessed Virgin thither with much reuerence and opinion though as farre from vse as from certaintie And some haue giuen two or three little ascensions to her Temple which is pleased as yet to be honoured at Loretto which is pleased as yet to honour Loretto make that place ascend aboue other places by not ascending from that place Nay the Turkes too boast of an ascension not of a temple but of their Mahomet though had this beene it had beene an ascension without a resurrection an ascension not so much of his carcasse as of his coffin which being of iron has beene reported to ascend to the roofe of his temple or rather to the secret vertue of many Load-stones fixt with as much secrecie in the roofe of his temple Yet euen this ascension also will proue to be the worke rather of Poets then of Load-stones Which can indeed make iron ascend nay make other Load-stones ascend from the cōmon center though they themselues if not violently sustained doe naturally descend and acknowledge the common center Yet since without respect one to another each does attract with an absolute intention and since the application in such attraction is most aptly made from some point in the stone to some point in the iron the defect of such forme in the iron and the number of the stones which was inuented to helpe the inuention does with the honestie of Philosophie quite betray it since the iron by a confused command of its dutie could not apply it selfe to any one and therefore not to any And thus you see that Mahomets presumptuous sinnes did ascend higher then his bodie or then the inuention of his idolaters But if we would see a low ascension and yet a wondrous one we may behold our Sauiour's walking vpon the water which was an ascension in respect of nature though not of our Sauiours person it was an ascension of his power though not of his person nay it was an ascension of his person because it should naturally haue beene a descension of his person And least wee might thinke that this ascension could only bee effected in Christ's person as it could be effected only by his power he did effect it in Peters person And though he needed Christ's hand as much as his inuitation yet was it his vnbeliefe that was heauier then his bodie But Christ's bodie was at last to ascend aboue all the elements except so much of them as composed his bodie which ascended to immortalitie fortie dayes sooner then it ascended to Heauen and now as much required to be placed aboue the place of our bodies as it was aboue the condition of them When therefore he was to ascend he led his Disciples out of Ierusalem it was the first degree of his ascension to separate himselfe from the trouble of the Citie to separate himselfe from the impiety of that Citie whose malice whiles it was increased in procuring his death was admirably deluded in procuring his ascension Hee led his Disciples vnto Mount Oliuet a place from whence his prayers had often ascended as now his person It was not farre from Bethanie a Village not great it seemes either in people or sinnes and so peraduenture as neere to the benefit of the ascension as to the ascension And being now to goe vp to to the Kingdome of God he discourseth to his Disciples of the Kingdome of God as if their eare should prepare their eye whiles he himselfe will make himselfe the illustration and proofe of his owne doctrine Yet to shew the truth of his loue as much as the truth of his words first be lifts-vp his hands at which they lift-vp their eyes and hearts and then hee lift-vp his voice and blesses them See with what kind preuention hee supplyes his future absence by his present blessing hee makes his blessing the Deputie of his person which whiles they behold with eyes as earnestly fixt by loue as they could be by death behold hee ascends and they lose the sight of him sooner by a cloud then by distance Which shortnesse of the the pleasure of their sight was happily supplied before by the intention of their sight His bodie was but a cloud to his Diuinitie and now his body ascends in a cloud which did as eminently shew his power as it concealed his person A cloud full of God is the Chariot of his triumph and the curtaines of his Chariot are the wings of Cherubins Lift vp your heads O yee gates and bee yee lift vp yee euerlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in But whiles the Apostles stedfastly gaze after him as if they would turne their eyes into Perspectiues or attend him as farre with their sight as with their desire behold their passion is not satisfied but changed and heard by them to saue them the labour of gazing they behold insteed of one Christ two Angels and their white apparell insteed of a cloud though their number was not so much for a supply of Christ who was gone into Heauen as for a more ful securitie of his returne from Heauen The expectation whereof if any shall thinke tedious they may ascend after him peraduenture before his returne not by seeking the impression of his footsteps on Mount Oliuet but by finding the ready way in his precepts by which wee may ascend to the vnderstanding of his ascension by which wee may ascend to the height of his ascension Which was aboue all the Heauens that eyther Philosophers or the Starres had beene acquainted with nay into that Heauen of which Copernicus might without errour haue said that it stands still the Heauen in which the Saints rest like the Heauen the Heauen in which Christ rest's like the Saints And yet you shall not only see his ascension into this Heauen but you shall see also his ascension in this Heauen that was the ascension of his person but this of his glory Enoch and Eliah ascended to this Heauen but you shall see Christ Iesus in this Heauen ascend to the right hand of God! Behold this day the humanitie made the favourite of the Diuinitie Behold Christ on the right hand of God! O what a spectacle would this haue beene for Herod and Pilate they would haue cryed out that their worst Hell had beene from Heauen and to haue scaped the horrour of this sight they would haue chosen vtter darknesse But behold Christ on the right hand of God! In whose right hand are pleasures for euermore And yet can wee behold those pleasures which no eye hath seene Nay can we behold the hand in which those pleasures are Nay can the hand be found that wee might behold it Shall vvee dresse the Almightie with shape and by an idolatrous gratitude bestow the figure vpon God which hee has bestowed vpon vs Shall we giue hands to him that were not able to giue them to our selues No