in Incorruption That this Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall put on Immortallity vers 53 54. And in Phil. 3. 21. 't is his express Affirmation That Jesus Christ shall change our Vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Now if our Bodies in the Resurrection must be like unto our Saviours it will then follow that they must be advanced to a state of Incorruption since his was so after his Resurrection for so the Scriptures affirm concerning him Christ being raised from the Dead dyeth no more Death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. But secondly Natural Reason may come in for the proof of this particular Reason is able to inform us of these following postulatums to prove the truth of it 1. That a Resurrection in general is not impossible To him that believes that there is a God it is more easie to convince him of the possibility of a Resurrection than of the contrary for it is founded on the Power and the Will of God to the former of which nothing is impossible and he has no reason to doubt the latter if God had any where revealed his Intentions concerning it 2. That it is no impossible thing to make a Body immortal since it is no more than the devesting it of its corrupting Qualities and arraying it again with a fresher Lustre 'T is only done by taking away the Internal Principle that inclines it to Corruption and placing in its stead a Seed and a Principle of Incorruption and he that thinks this impossible to an Omnipotent Power must have very mean and dishonourable thoughts of the Power of God 3. That it is highly equitable that the same Numerical Body should be raised again that once lived upon the Earth that as it has been a Partner with the Soul in doing Good or Evil in this life so it may again partake a share of its good or bad fortune in the life to come We do all know that the Body is the great Instrument of the Soul by which she acts and exerts her Operations that it is fitted with Organs for the performance of them That as it is the Unhappy Parent of most of the Sins that we commit so it is a necessary Instrument for the discharge of several commendable Virtues such as Fasting and Temperance Sobriety and Chastity c. And would it not be the most absurd and unreasonable thing in the World to Punish one Body for the Sins committed in another to have one worn out with Paleness and Mortification and another snatch away its Reward 'T is the Argument that Tertullian insists on De Resurrect Cap. 56. to prove the Resurection of the same body Quam absurdum quam Ethnicum utrumque autem quam Deo indignum aliam substantiam operari aliam mercede dispungi ut hoec quidem caro Matyrio lanietur alia vero coronetur Nonne prestat omnem semel fidem a spe resurrectionis abducere quam de gravitate atque justitia Dei ludere Marcionem pro Valentino resussitati 'T is a thing unbecoming the Justice of God to oblige one substance to Toyl and Labour and give away its Recompence to another That one body should suffer the pains of Martyrdom for the sake of Christ and another shall receive the Crown that never labour'd for it and it were much better to Deny the Article of the Resurrection than so to Sport with the Wisdom and the Justice of God as to suppose him to raise up Marcion in stead of Valentinius 4. That where God has declared his Mind that he will do so and we have no just reason to doubt that it his will to have it so 't is then highly reasonable to believe that it shall be ordered according to his Will Now all Christians are agreed That the Scriptures do contain the Revelation of the Divine Will that God has therein made a discovery of his Intentions as to the future state of our Souls and Bodies And since we have an account given us in those Scriptures that God will raise them to a State of Honour and Immortality we have no reason to distrust either the possibility of the thing or the actual performance of it in its due and appointed season I should now descend to the Consideration of those particulars that remain but I must pass them by at present and show you what use you are to make of what has been already discoursed unto you I shall only name the Heads and so conclude First This may inform us of the indispensible necessity of so ordering all our Affairs in this Life as persons that expect to be called to an account for them in the next if it be so that after Death our Bodies must again be raised out of the Dust and entred into a state of Eternal Joy or Pain and if every Man must receive the things done in his Body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of our Lord Jesus Secondly This should learn us not to abuse these Bodies of ours by Riot or Intemperance by Adultery or Uncleanness for if they must be raised again to a state of Immortality is it any wisdom in us to treat them at that rate as if we were never more to see them or enjoy them Do we act like prudent and considering persons like Men that wish well to those Bodies we seem so fond of as to ingulph them in a state of endless and irremediable sorrows Thirdly It may instruct us farther in the necessity and advantage of a patient Submission to the Will of Heaven whensoever any Sharp Pains or Accute Diseases are sent upon our Bodies knowing that these Distempers will not last for ever that they are sent from Heaven with a design of Kindness to wean us from the World and prevent our falling into that place of Torments from whence there is no Redemption We ought therefore to bear with patience all those Pains that Arrest our Bodies For as our own Sins have pull'd them upon our Heads so our Repentance may make them the salutary Instruments of our Reformation We may comfort our selves in the midst of our Agonies with the Reflections of reposing them and our Bodies together in our Beds of Dust and that how crazy soever and disordered they may be in this life we shall receive them again in an improved condition like a Tottering House pull'd down to the ground that it may be re edifyed to for better advantage These are the Considerations with which every one of us may entertain our Thoughts in the midst of Infirmities and Acute Distempers and with such Reflections as these I doubt not but this Reverend Deceased Prelate did entertain himself in the intervalls of
A SERMON PREACHED IN CHRIST's-CHURCH DVBLIN NOVEMBER 18. 1693. AT THE FUNERAL Of His GRACE FRANCIS Lord Archbishop of DUBLIN By the Reverend Father in GOD ANTHONY Lord Bishop of MEATH Printed by Joseph Ray on College Green and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of Dublin 1694. II COR. V. 1. For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were Dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens THE Words that I have read unto you are a Reason render'd by the Apostle of something before discoursed of and if we look into the preceding Chapter we shall find that he is there rendring an Account of his Sufferings for the Gospel and his chearful Submission to those Sufferings on the hopes of being better Rewarded in another World It was the Contemplation of those Eternal Joys which God hath prepared for those that love Him that made him run through so many Dangers and endure such a Numerous Train of Misfortunes with so Heroick and Undaunted a Courage as he did That made the Primitive Christians despise the Swords and the Axes the Racks and the Tortures of their Persecutors that taught them to sing in the midst of the most scorching Flames and expire in the midst of the most cruel Torments with as much Serenity and Unconcernedness as if they had been Reposing themselves on a Bed of Roses For they had an Eye to the Recompence of a Reward hereafter and were as certain of enjoying it as if they had it in actual possession They look'd upon all their Sorrows and Afflictions as light and easie in respect of that far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory that was ready to Crown all their Labours 2 Cor IV. 17. They look'd not at the things that were seen which were able to affright them with the Terror of their Appearance but at the things which were not seen at that invisible state of Joy and Comfort which was abundantly sufficient to comfort and refresh their Spirits in the height of their greatest Sufferings And when their Persecutors were tormenting of their Bodies and exercising all the Cruelty upon them that the Wit and Rage of an Enemy could invent they were so far from shrinking back or complaining under their Pains that they looked upon them as an hastening of their Joys and an Emancipation of their Souls from the dark and melancholy Prison of their Bodies Being well assured that when the Earthly House of their Tabernacle was Dissolved they had a Building of God prepared for them an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens By the Earthly House of this Tabernacle we are to understand the frail and mortal Body of Man which the Apostle calls an Earthly House and a Tabernacle because of its similitude to them It is compared to an House because it is the Habitation of the Soul that is lodged within it our Bodies being only given us for the Entertainment of our Souls and the more easie exercise of their Operations And so much the Stoicks have instructed us out of their Philosophy whilst they compare the Body to a Casket but the Soul to a rich and pretious Jewel that is lodged within it It is called an Earthly House because it was first framed out of the Dust of the Earth and must again return to its first Principle and it is resembled to a Tabernacle not only in Conformity to the Phrase and Idiom of the Jews and the Pythagoreans who do frequently call it so in their Writings but also because of its Mutability Uncertainty it is the nature of a Tabernacle to be removed from place to place and it is the Nature and Constitution of our Bodies to be subject to Changes and at last dissolved and pulled in pieces By the House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens we are to understand that state of Dignity and Immortality to which our Bodies shall be advanced in another World which is therefore called a Building of God because it is of his ordering and preparing An House not made with Hands because not subject to Changes and Decays and it is called Eternal in the Heavens to denote the place and the perpetuity of it our Immortal Bodies shall be placed in Heaven and shall be no more subject to Dissolution or Corruption So that the sence of the Words may be explain'd by this short Paraphrase We Christians do certainly know that our Bodies shall be Dissolved into Dust and Ashes and we do not in the least doubt but that after their Dissolution they shall be raised up again to a state of Immortality and Incorruption and placed in the Heavens where they shall no more be subject to Decays and Alterations From the Words thus Explain'd I shall raise these following Observations 1. That these Bodies that we carry about us are only the Outward Shell or Covering of some more Excellent Thing that is lodged within them 2. That they shall be Dissolved and pull'd in pieces 3. That after their Dissolution they are not to remain Eternally Rotting in the Graves but shall be Advanced to a better state than they enjoyed before to a state of Immortality and Eternal Happiness 4. That the Place or State in which they shall be fixed is the Heavens above 5. That we Christians have the highest Reasons and the strongest Arguments to induce us to believe all this for we know and are assured That when the Earthly House of this Tabernacle is Dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens 1. I bgin with the first particular That our Bodies are only the Outward Shell or Covering of some more Excellent Thing that is lodged within them For the proof of this I shall only insist on such Arguments as do arise naturally out of the Text They are here compared to an House and a Tabernacle now the Notion of an House doth imply some Person or another that is to inhabit it no Man being so Unreasonable as to Erect it but with a respect to this End and out of a Design to fit it for the Conveniencies of some to dwell in it And the Notion of a Tabernacle doth imply the same thing and direct us to the same Sence and Meaning We read in the Old Testament of the Tabernacle of the Testament and of the Tabernacles of the Shepherds the former directs us to the Presence of God that was pleased to dwell in it and for whose Honour and Service it was Erected And the latter points us to the End and Use for which those Tabernacles were Erected namely For the Conveniencies of the Shepherds that were to lodge in them It is so likewise in the state and condition of these mortal Bodies that God hath given to the Sons of Men which are only prepared for the Receptacle of our Souls to be an Help meet and convenient for them and to serve as a ready Organ or
Instrument of their Actions When Almighty God breathed into the First Man the Breath of Life and quickned the first Lump of Clay with an Active Principle of Heat and Motion it was none of his Design that Men should fall in love with the Beauty of their own Faces or the neat Contexture of their Parts This were in effect to place our Affections on things below them and make an Idol of our selves we should rather consider that all this Symmetry and Proportion of Parts the Activity of our Bodies and the Strength of our Limbs and the admirable Order and Proportion of all the Members of our Body were principally given us for the Use and Convenience of that Ray of Himself that Divinae Aurae Particula that he was resolved to place in so fair a Pile of Building And from thence we should descend to an Admiration of his Wisdom and Providence in the Contrivance of it and conclude with our selves That when he made us after his own Image and Similitude by placing an Immortal Soul within us that it was our incumbent Duty not only to honour that Divine Guest which he sent to inhabit it but also to take a care of treating it with as much Ceremony and Respect as men do the richest Jewels in their Cabinet Let the Consideration therefore of this Particular prevail with you my Brethren to prefer your Souls before your Bodies to look upon them as more Valuable and more Useful and consequently to spend more of your Care and Time in the Salvation of your Souls which are so precious in the Eyes of God than in the Adorning of your Bodies or the vain pursuits of the Delights and Profits of the World 2. But because this Proposition is only implied in the Text I shall therefore enlarge no longer on it but proceed to the next Particular That these Bodies shall be Dissolved and pull'd in pieces The Similitudes that the Apostle makes use of do import as much for he calls them Houses of Clay and Earthly Tabernacles by the one referring to their Original by the other to the Uncertainty of their Stations Had he barely compared these Bodies of ours unto Houses we might perhaps flatter our selves with some vain Confidence and Expectation of their more lasting Continuance for as some Houses have been observed to out-last the Violences of Wind and Weather so some Persons might perhaps presume upon a more long Continuance and Duration of their Bodies But when it is considered that he accounts them no better than Tabernacles and Houses of Clay or Earth this alone is an Affrighting Consideration to the Carnal Man and a Dreadful Allay to all his Mirth and Jollity For by these Similitudes he designs to inform us that there is a Principle of Corruption within our Bodies that will bring them to Decay tho' no Exterior Accident should conspire to destroy them That they molder and decay every moment and are in a constant progress to a Change That they have not only an Internal Principle of Corruption that hurries them to their Ruine but that they are subject to the Will of Almighty God who removes them from place to place as the Shepherds do their Tabernacles That we have no abiding City in this World but are tossed about like a Ship in the Sea and become the Sport and Pastime of every wanton Wave That in the midst of Life we are in Death and when we think our selves most Secure then Danger is at hand That our Lives are not at our own Disposal nor is it in the power of our hands to preserve these Bodies from Sickness and Distempers For they are either sent upon us by the hand of God or we invite them to our selves by our own Riot and Debaucheries and when the Physician comes to cure our Distemper he unhappily mistakes the Disease and hastens his Patient to his long home Thus every thing almost either in Art or Nature by a secret and undiscernable Hand of Providence contributes to the Dissolution of our Tabernacle and whilst we look for Life he turns it into the shadow of Death and makes it gross Darkness I need not I hope enter into a tedious Harrangue concerning the Necessity and Unavoidableness of Death nor use many Arguments to convince you that your Earthly Tabernacles shall be dissolved Your own Experience is sufficient to perswade you to the belief of it there being hardly any House or Family in the Country which hath not some Buried out of it you dayly see your Friends Expiring before your Faces You are present at the Closing of their Eyes and attend them after to their Graves The Ringing of the Bells and the Mourners about the streets the frequent Lamentations of Wives for their Husbands and Children for their Parents and Friends for the loss of their Relations are a sufficient Evidence of the Triumphs of Death over all Ages all Sexes and all Conditions Or if these do not convince you of the declining state of your Mortal Tabernacles yet cast your Eyes I beseech you on that dismal Spectacle that hath assembled you together and now lies before your Eyes as the Spoil and Conquest of the King of Terrors He was once as fresh and active as any of you that pay this Charitable Office to his Memory but behold he now lyes as an useless and unactive lump of Clay without any other use or signification than that of a Deaths Head to put you all in mind of your own mortallity In his Fate you ought to consider the uncertainty of your own condition and from the view of his Sensless and Unactive Body to reflect upon the frailty of your own and so to number your Days that you may apply your Hearts to that true Wisdom which alone will comfort and support you at the last For this is the true end and design of Funerals which were not so much intended for the Commendation of the Deceased as the Information and Instruction of the Living and so much Solomon hath told us Eccles 7. 2. It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all Men and the Living will lay it to his Heart That is they ought to be seriously affected with it and awakened to prepare themselves for Death 3. I now proceed to the 3d. Particular or Observation viz. That after the Dissolution of these Frail Bodies they shall again be advanced to a state of Immortality So the Apostle tells us in my Text That after this Earthly Tabernacle is Dissolv'd we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens And this will be made good from Two Considerations First from the Texts of Scripture that affirm it Secondly from Natural Reason to ensorce it If we consult the Scriptures we shall find them plain and decretory in the point Thus St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15. 42. That it is sown in Corruption but raised