Sermon XVI

SERMON XVI.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, IN THE EVENING, UPON .
EASTER DAY, 1623.

Acts Ii. 36.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord, and Christ. —

The first word of the text, must be the last part of the sermon, therefore; therefore let all know it. Here is something necessary to be known, and the means by which we are to know it; and these will be our two parts; Scientia, et modus, Knowledge, and the way to it; for, Qui testatur de scientia, testatur de modo scientios, is a good rule in all laws, He that will testify anything upon his knowledge, must declare how he came by that knowledge. So then, what we must conclude, and upon what premises, what we must resolve, and what must lead us to that resolution, are our two stages, our two resting places: and to those two, our several steps are these; in the first, Let all the house of Israel know, fyc. We shall consider first, the manner of St. Peter, (for the text is part of a sermon of St. Peter's) in imprinting this knowledge in his auditory; which is, first, in that compellation of love and honour, Domu s Israel, The house of Israel: but yet, when he hath raised them to a sense of their dignity, in that attribute, he doth not pamper them with an over-value of them, he lets them know their worst, as well as their best, Though you be the house of Israel, yet it is you that have crucified Christ Jesus, That Jesus whom ye have crucified; and from this his manner of preparing them, we shall pass to the matter that he proposes to them: when he had remembered them what God had done for them ( You are the house of Israel), and what they had done against God {You have crucified that Jesus), he imparts a blessed message to them all, Let all know it .^let them know it, and know it assuredly; he exhibits it to their reason, to their natural understanding, and what I The greatest mystery, the entire mystery of our salvation, That that Jesus is both Lord, and Christ; but he is made so; made so by God; made both; made Christ, that is, anointed, embalmed, preserved from corruption, ^ even in the grave, and made Lord by his triumph, and by being made Head of the church, in the resurrection, and in the ascension: and so, that which is the last step of our first stage, (That that Jesus is made Lord, as well as he is made Christ) enters us upon our second stage, the means by which we are to know, and prove all this to ourselves; Therefore, says the text, let all know it; wherefore I why, because God hath raised him, after you had / crucified him; because God hath loosed the bands of death, because it was impossible that he should be holden by death; because David's prophecy of a deliverance from the grave is fulfilled in him, therefore let all know this to be thus. So that the resurrection of Christ is argument enough to prove, that Christ is made Lord of all; and if he be Lord, he hath subjects, that do

as he does; and so his resurrection is become an argument, and an assurance of our resurrection too; and that is as far as we shall go in our second part, that first Christ's resurrection is proof enough to us of his dominion; if he be risen, he is Lord; and then his dominion is proof enough to us of our resurrection; if he be Lord, Lord of us, we shall rise too: and when we have paced, and passed through all these steps, we shall in some measure have solemnized this day of the resurrection of Christ; and in some measure have made it the day of our resurrection too.

First then, the apostle applies himself to his auditory, in a fair, in a gentle manner; he gives them their titles, Domus Israel, The house of Israel. We have a word now denizened, and brought into familiar use amongst us, compliment; and for the most part, in an ill sense; so it is, when the heart of the speaker doth not answer his tongue; but God forbid but a true heart, and a fair tongue might very well consist together: as virtue itself receives an addition, by being in a fair body, so do good intentions of the heart, by being expressed in fair language. That man aggravates his condemnation, that gives me good words, and means ill; but he gives me a rich jewel, and in a fair cabinet, he gives me precious wine, and in a clean glass, that intends well, and expresses his good intentions well too. If I believe a fair speaker, I have comfort a little while, though he deceive me, but a froward and peremptory refuser, unsaddles me at first. I remember a vulgar Spanish author, who writes the < Josephina, the life of Joseph, the husband of the blessed Virgin Mary, who moving that question, why that Virgin is never called by any style of majesty, or honour in the Scriptures, he says, That if after the declaring of her to be the mother of God, he had added any other title, the Holy Ghost had not been a good courtier, (as his very word is) nor exercised in good language, and he thinks that had been a defect in the Holy Ghost himself. He means surely the same that Epiphanius doth, That in naming the saints of God, and especially the blessed Virgin, we should always give them the best titles that are appliable to them; Quis unquam ausus, (says he) proferre nomen

Mariw, et non statim addidit virgo¹? Who ever durst utter the name of that Mary, without that addition of incomparable honour, The Virgin Mary?

That Spanish author need not be suspicious of the]Holy Ghost in that kind, that he is no good courtier so; for in all the books of the world, you shall never read so civil language, nor so fair expressions of themselves to one another, as in the Bible: when Abraham shall call himself dust, and ashes, (and indeed if the Son of God were a worm, and no man, what was Abraham ?) If God shall call this Abraham, this dust, this worm of the dust, the friend of God, (and all friendship implies a parity, an equality in something;) when David shall call himself a flea, and a dead dog, even in respect of Saul, and God shall call David, A man according to his own heart, when God shall call us, The apple of his own eye, the seal upon his own right hand, who would go farther for an example, or farther than that example for a rule of fair accesses, of civil approaches, of sweet and honourable entrances into the affections of them with whom they were to deal? Especially is this manner necessary in men of our profession; Not to break a bruised reed, nor to quench smoaking flax, not to avert any from a will to hear, by any frowardness, any morosity, any defrauding them of their due praise, and due titles; but to accompany this blessed apostle, in this way of his discreet, and religious insinuation, to call them Men of Judea, ver. 14. and Men of Israel, ver. 22. and Men and brethren, ver. 29. and here Domus Israel, the ancientest house, the honourablest house, the lastingest house in the world, the house of Israel.

He takes from them nothing that is due, that would but exasperate; he is civil, but his civility doth not amount to a flattery, as though the cause of God needed them, or God must be beholden to them, or God must pay for it, or smart for it, if they were not blessed. And therefore, though he do give them their titles, Aperte Mis imputat crucifixionem Christi, says St. Chrysostom, Plainly and without disguise he imputes and puts home to them the crucifying of Christ; how honourably soever they were descended, he lays that murder close to their consciences, You, you house of Israel

¹ Epiphan. Haeres. 78.

have crucified the Lord Jesus. There is a great deal of difference between Shimei's vociferations against David; Thou man of blood, thou man of Belial", and Nathan's proceeding with David; and yet Nathan forbore not to tell him, Thou art the man^s, Thou hast despised the Lord, thou hast killed Uriah, thou hast taken his wife. It is one thing to sew pillows under the elbows of kings, (flatterers do so) another thing to pull the chair from under the king, and popular and seditious men do so. Where inferiors insult over their superiors, we tell them, Christi Domini, They are the Lord's anointed, and the Lord hath said, Touch not mine anointed; and when such superiors insult over the Lord himself, and think themselves gods without limitation, as the God of heaven is, when they do so, we must tell them they do so, Etsi Christi Domini, Though you be the Lord's anointed, yet you crucify the anointed Lord: for this was St. Peter's method, though his successor will not be bound by it.

When he hath carried the matter thus evenly between them, (I do not deny, but you are the house of Israel, you cannot deny but you have crucified the Lord Jesus; you are heirs of a great deal of honour, but you are guilty of a shrewd fault too) stand or fall to your Master, your Master hath thus dealt mercifully with you all, that to you all, all, he sends a message, Sciant omnes, Let all the house of Israel know this. Needs the house of Israel know anything? needs there any learning in persons of honour? We know, this characterizes, this distinguishes some whole nations; in one nation it is almost a scorn for a gentleman to be learned, in another almost every gentleman, is conveniently, and in some measure, learned. But I enlarge not myself, I pretend not to comprehend national virtues, or national vices. For this knowledge, which is proclaimed here, which is, the knowledge that the true Messiah is come, and that there is no other to be expected, is such a knowledge, as that even the house of Israel itself, is without a foundation, if it be without this knowledge. Is there any house, that needs no reparations I is there a house of Israel, (let it be the library, the depository of the oracles of God, a true church, that hath the true word of the true God, let it be the house fed with manna, that hath the true administration of

⁸ 2 Sam. xvi 5. ⁸ 2 Sam. xii. 7.

the true sacraments of Christ Jesus) is there any such house, that needs not a farther knowledge, that there are always thieves about that house, that would rob us of that word, and of those sacraments?

/t\ The Holy Ghost is a dove, and the dove couples, pairs, is not alone; take heed of singular, of schismatical opinions; and what is more singular, more schismatical, than when all religion is confined in one man's breast? The dove is animal sociale, a sociable creature, and not singular; and the Holy Ghost is that; and Christ is a sheep, animal gregale, They flock together: embrace thou those truths, which the whole flock of Christ Jesus, the whole Christian church, hath from the beginning acknowledged to be truths, and truths necessary to salvation; for, for other traditional, and conditional, and occasional, and collateral, and circumstantial points, for almanack divinity, that changes with the season, with the time, and meridional divinity, calculated to the height of such a place, and lunary divinity, that ebbs and flows, and state divinity, that obeys affections of persons, domus Israel, the true church of God, had need of a continual succession of light, a continual assistance of the Spirit of God, and of her own industry, to know those things that belong to her peace.

And therefore let no church, no man, think that he hath done enough, or knows enough. If the devil thought so too, we might the better think so: but since we see, that he is in continual practice against us, let us be in a continual diligence, and watchfulness, to countermine him. We are domus Israel, the house of Israel, and it is a great measure of knowledge, that God hath afforded us; but if every pastor look into his parish, and every master into his own family, and see what is practising there, Sciat domus Israel, Let all our Israel know, that there is more knowledge, and more wisdom necessary; be every man far from calumniating his superiors, for that mercy which is used towards them that are fallen, but be every man as far from remitting, or slackening his diligence, for the preserving of them, that are not fallen.

The wisest must know more, though you be domus Israel, the house of Israel already: and then Etsi crv.cifitcisiis, Though you have crucified the Lord Jesus, you may know it, Sciant omnes, Let all know it. St. Paul says once, If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of life*: but he never says, if they have crucified the Lord of life, they are excluded from knowledge. I mean no more, but that the mercy of God in manifesting and applying himself to us, is above all our sins. No man knows enough; what measure of temptations soever he have now, he may have temptations, through which this knowledge, and this grace, will not carry him; and therefore he must proceed from grace to grace. So no man hath sinned so deeply, but that God offers himself to him yet; Sciant omnes, The wisest man hath ever something to learn, he must not presume; the sinfulest man hath God ever ready to teach him, he must not despair.

Now the universality of this mercy, God hath enlarged, and extended very far, in that he proposes it, even to our knowledge, Sciant, Let all know it. It is not only Credant, Let all believe it: for the infusing of faith is not in our power: but God hath put it in our power to satisfy their reason, and to chafe that wax, to which he himself vouchsafes to set to the great seal of faith. And that St. Hierome takes to be most properly his commission, Tentemus animas, quw deficiunt a fide, naturalibus rationibus adjuvare; Let us endeavour to assist them, who are weak in faith, with the strength of reason. And truly it is very well worthy of a serious consideration, that whereas all the articles of our creed, are objects of faith, so, as that we are bound to receive them de fide, as matters of faith, yet God hath left that, out of which all these articles are to be deduced, and proved, (that is, the Scripture) to human arguments; it is not an article of the creed, to believe these, and these books, to be, or not to be Canonical Scripture; but our arguments for the Scripture are human arguments, proportioned to the reason of a natural man. God does not seal in water, in the fluid and transitory imaginations, and opinions of men; we never set the seal of faith to them; but in wax, in the rectified reason of man, that reason that is ductile, and flexible, and pliant, to the impressions that are naturally proportioned unto it, God sets to his seal of faith.

⁴1 Cor. ii. 8.

They aro not continual, but they are contiguous, they flow not from one another, but they touch one another, they are not both of a piece, but they enwrap one another, faith and reason. Faith itself, by the prophet Esay, is called knowledge; By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many⁶, says God of Christ; that is, by that knowledge that men shall have of him. So Zechary expresses it at the circumcision of John Baptist, That he was to give knowledge of salvation, for the remission of sins*.

As therefore it is not enough for us in our profession, to tell you, Qui non crediderit, damnabitur, Except you believe all this, you shall be damned, without we execute that commission before, Ite prwdicate, Go and preach, work upon their affections, satisfy their reason: so it is not enough for you, to rest in imaginary faith, and easiness in believing, except you know also what, and why, and how you come to that belief. Implicit believers, ignorant believers, the adversary may swallow; but the understanding believer, he must chaw, and pick bones, before he come to assimilate him, and make him like himself. The implicit believer stands in an open field, and the enemy will ride over him easily; the understanding believer, is in a fenced town, and he hath out-works to lose, before the town be pressed; that is, reasons to be answered, before his faith be shaked, and he will sell himself dear, and lose himself by inches, if he be sold or lost at last; and therefore Sciant omnes, Let all men know, that is, endeavour to inform themselves, to understand.

That particular, that general particular, (if we may so say, for it includes all) which all were to know, is, that the same Jesus, whom they crucified, was exalted above them all.

Suppose an impossibility; (St. Paul does so, when he says to the Galatians, If an angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel; for that is impossible;) if we could have been in paradise, and. seen God take a clod of red earth, and make that wretched clod of contemptible earth, such a body as should be fit to receive his breath, an immortal soul, fit to be the house of the second person in the Trinity, for God the Son to dwell in bodily; fit to be the temple for the third person, for the Holy Ghost, should we not have wondered more, than at the production of all other

⁵ Isaiah Liii. 11. 6 Luke i. 77.

creatures? It is more, that the same Jesus, whom they had crucified, is exalted thus, to sit in that despised flesh, at the right hand of our glorious God; that all their spitting should but * macerate him, and dissolve him into a better mould, a better plaster; that all their buffetings should but knead him, and press him into a better form; that all their scoffs, and contumelies should be prophecies; that that Ecce Rex, Behold your King; and that Rex Judaeorum, This is the King of the Jews, which words, they who spoke them, thought to be lies, in their own mouths, should become truths, and he be truly the king, not of the Jews only, but of all nations too; that their nailing him upon the cross, should be a settling of him upon an everlasting throne; and their lifting him up upon the cross, awaiting upon him, so far upon his way to heaven, thafc this Jesus, whom they had thus evacuated, thus crucified, should be thus exalted, was a subject of infinite admiration, but mixed with infinite confusion too.

Wretched blasphemer of the name of Jesus, that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, and treadest under thy feet, in that oath, is thus exalted. Unclean adulterer, that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, in stretching out those forbidden arms in a strange bed, thou that beheadest thyself, castest off thy head, Christ Jesus, that thou mightst make thy body, the body of a harlot, that Jesus, whom thou defilest there, is exalted. Let several sinners pass this through their several sins, and remember with wonder, but with confusion too, that that Jesus, whom they have crucified, is exalted above all.

How far exalted? Three steps, which carry him above St. Paul's third heaven: he is Lord, and he is Christ, and he is made so by God; God hath made him both Lord and Christ. We return up these steps, as they lie, and take the lowest first: Fecit „ Dens, God made him so: nature did not make him so, no, not if we consider him in that nature, wherein he consists of two natures, God, and man. We place in the School, (for the most part) the infinite merit of Christ Jesus (that his one act of dying once, should be a sufficient satisfaction to God, in his justice, for all the sins of all men) we place it, I say, rather in pacto, than in persona, rather that this contract was thus made between the

Father and the Son, than that, whatsoever that person, thus consisting'bf God and man, should do, should, only in respect of the person, be of an infinite value, and extension, to that purpose; for then, any act of his, his incarnation, his circumcision, any had been sufficient for our redemption, without his death. But Fecit Deus, God made him that, that he is; the contract between the Father and him, that all that he did, should be done so, and to that purpose, that way, and to that end, this is that, that hath exalted him, and us in him.

If then, not the subtlety, and curiosity, but the wisdom of the school, and of the church of God, have justly found it most commodious, to place all the mysteries of our religion, inpacto, rather than in persona, in the covenant, rather than in the person, though a person of incomprehensible value, let us also, in applying to ourselves those mysteries of our religion, still adhwrere pactis, and not personis, still rely upon the covenant of God with man, revealed in his word, and not upon the person of any man: not upon the persons of martyrs, as if they had done more than they needed for themselves, and might relieve us, with their supererogations; for, if they may work for us, they may believe for us; and Justus fide sua trivet, says the prophet, The righteous shall live by his own faith1. Not upon that person, who hath made himself supernumerary, and a controller upon the three persons in the Trinity, the Bishop of Rome; not upon the consideration of accidents upon persons, when God suffers some to fall, who would have advanced his cause, and some to be advanced, who would have thrown down his cause, but let us ever dwell in pacto, and in the Fecit Deus, this covenant God had made in his word, and in this we rest.

i It is God then, not nature, not his nature that made him; and what? Christ; Christ is, anointed: and then Mary Magdalen made him Christ, for she anointed him before his death; and Joseph of Arimathea made him Christ, for he anointed him, and embalmed him, after his death. But her anointing before, kept him not from death, nor his anointing after, would not have kept him from putrefaction in the grave, if God had not in a far other manner, made him Christ, anointed him prw consortibus, above

^'7 Habak. ii. 4.

his fellows. God hath anointed him, embalmed him, enwrapped f him in the leaves of the prophets, That his flesh should not see corruption in the grave, that the flames of hell should not take hold of him, nor singe him there; so anointed him, as that, in his human nature, He is ascended into heaven, and set down at the right hand of God; for, de eo quod ex Maria est, Petrus loquitur, says St. Basil, That making of him Christ, that is, that anointing which St. Peter speaks of in this place, is the dignifying of his human nature, that was anointed, that was consecrated, that was glorified in heaven. -

But he had a higher step than that; God made this Jesus, Christ, and he made him Lord; he brought him to heaven, in his own person, in his human nature; so he shall all us; but when we shall be all there, he only shall be Lord of all. And if there should be no other bodies in heaven, than his, yet, yet now he is Lord of all, as he is head of the church. Ask of me, says his Father, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession*. And, as it is added, ver. 6, / have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion; so he hath made him Lord, head of the Jews, and of the Gentiles too, of Sion, and of the nations also; he hath consecrated his person, raised his human nature, to the glorious region of blessed spirits, to heaven, and he hath dignified him with an office, made him Lord, head of the church, not only of Jews, and Gentiles upon earth, but of the militant and triumphant church too.

Our two general parts were Scientia, et modus, what we must all know, and by what we must know it. Our knowledge is, this exaltation of Jesus; and our means is implied, in the first word of the text, Therefore, Therefore because he is raised from the dead; for to that resurrection, expressed in three, or four several phrases before the text, is this text, and this exaltation referred; Christ was delivered for our sins, raised for our justification, and upon that depends all. Christ's descending into hell, and his resurrection, in our creed, make but one article, and in our creed we believe them both alike: Quis nisi inf i delis negaverit, apud inferos fuisse Christum? says St. Augustine; Who but an infidel, will deny Christ's descending into hell? And if he be

.⁸ Psal. ii. 8.

lieve that to be a limb of the article of the resurrection, his descent into hell, must rather be an inchoation of his triumph, than a consummation of his exinanition, the first step of his exaltation there, rather than the last step of his passion upon the cross: but the declaration, the manifestation, that which admits no disputation, was his resurrection. Faetus, id est, declaratu s per resurrectionem, says St. Cyril, He was made Christ, and Lord, that is, declared evidently to be so, by his resurrection; as there is the like phrase, in St. Paul, God hath made the wisdom of this world, foolishness", that is, declared it to be so. And therefore it is imputed to be a crucifying of the Lord Jesus again¹⁰, Non credere eum, post mortem, immortalem, Not to believe, that now after his having overcome death in his resurrection, he is in an immortal, and in a glorious state in heaven. For when the apostle argues thus, If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain,

^and your faith in vain¹¹, he implies the contrary too, if you believe the resurrection, we have preached to good purpose: Mortuum esse Christum, pagani credunt; resurrexisse propria fides Christianorum¹*: The heathen confess Christ's death; to believe his resurrection, is the proper character of a Christian: for the first stone of the Christian faith, was laid in this article of the resurrection; in the resurrection only was the first promise performed, Ipse conteret, He shall bruise the serpenfs head; for, in this, he triumphed over death, and hell; and the last stone of our faith, is laid in the same article too, that is, the day of judgment; of a day of judgment God hath given an assurance unto all men (says St. Paul at Athens) In that he hath raised Christ

•' Jesus from the dead^1". In this Christ makes up his circle; in this he is truly Alpha and Omega; his coming in Paradise in a promise, his coming to judgment in the clouds, are tied together in the resurrection: and therefore all the Gospel, all our preaching, is contracted to that one text, To bear witness of the resurrection; only for that, was there need of a new apostle, There was a necessity of one to be chosen in Judas^' room, to be a witness of the resurrection¹⁴; Non ait cwterorum, sed tantum resurrectionis, says St. Chrysostom, He does not say, to bear witness of the other

6 1 Cor. i. 20. ¹⁰ Heb. vi. 6. ¹¹ 1 Cor. xv. 14.

^Ii Augustine. ¹³ Acts svii. 31. ¹⁴ Acts i. 22.

articles, but only of the resurrection; he charges him with no more instructions, he needs no more, in his commission, but to preach the resurrection: for in that, Trophwum de morte excitavit, et indubitatum reddidit corruptionem deletam": Here is a retreat from the whole warfare, here is a trophy erected upon the last enemy; The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, and here is the death of that enemy, in the resurrection.

And therefore, to all those who importuned him for a sign, Christ still turns upon the resurrection. The Jews pressed him in general, What sign showest thou unto iis^l°? And he answers, Destroy this temple (this body), and in three days I will raise it. In another place, the scribes and the Pharisees join, Master we would see a sign from thee¹¹, and he tells them, There shall be no sign, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas; who was a type of the resurrection. And then the Pharisees, and Sadducees join; now they were bitter enemies to one another; but, as Tertullian says, Semper inter duos latrones crucifixus Christus, It was always Christ's case to be crucified between two thieves; so these, though enemies, join in this vexation, They ask a sign, as the rest, and, as to the rest, Christ gives that answer of Jonas. So that Christ himself determines all, sums up all in this one article, the resurrection.

Now, if the resurrection of this Jesus, have made him, not only Christ, anointed and consecrated in heaven, in his own person, but made him Lord, then he hath subjects, upon whom that dominion, and that power works, and so we have assurance of a resurrection in him too. That he is made Lord of us by his resurrection, is rooted in prophecy; It pleased the Lord to bruise him, says the prophet Esay; But he shall see his seed, and he shall prolong his days¹⁸; that is, he shall see those that are regenerate in him, live with him, for ever. It is rooted in prophecy, and it spreads forth in the Gospel. To this end, says the apostle, Christ died, and rose, that he might be Lord of the dead, and of the living Now, what kind of Lord, if he had no subjects I Cum videmus caput super aquas⁸⁰, when the head is above water, will any imagine the body to be drowned? What a perverse con

"Athanasius. "John ii. 18. ¹⁷ Matt. xii. 38.

¹⁸ Isaiah tiii. 10. ¹⁹ Rom. xiv. 9. ⁸⁰ Gregory.

sideration were it, to imagine a live head, and dead members? Or, consider our bodies in ourselves, and Our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost; and shall the temples of the Holy Ghost lie for ever, for ever, buried in their rubbish? They shall not; for, the day of judgment, is the day of regeneration⁸¹, as it is called in the Gospel; Quia caro nostra ita generabitur per incorruptionem, sicut anima per fidem⁸⁸: Because our body shall be regenerated by glory there, as our souls are by faith here. Therefore, Tertullian calls the resurrection, Exemplum spei nostra, The original, out of which we copy out our hope; and Clavem sepulchrorum nostrorum, How hard soever my grave be locked, yet with that key, with the application of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, it will open; and they are all names, which express this well, which Tertullian gives Christ, Vadem, obsidem, fidejussorem resurrectionis nostrw, That he is the pledge, the hostage, the surety of our resurrection: so doth that also which is said in the school, Sicut Adam forma morientium, ita Christus forma resurgentium"; Without Adam, there had been no such thing as death, without Christ, no such thing as a resurrection: but ascendit ille effractor, (as the prophet speaks) The breaker is gone up before, and they have passed through thegate**, that is, assuredly, infallibly, they shall pass.

But what needs all this heat, all this animosity, all this vehemence, about the resurrection? May not man be happy enough in heaven, though his body never come thither? Upon what will ye ground the resurrection? Upon the omnipotence of God? Asylum heereticorum est Omnipotentia Dei, (which was well said, and often repeated amongst the ancients) The omnipotence of God, hath always been the sanctuary of heretics, that is, always their refuge, in all their incredible doctrines, God is able to do it, can do it. You confess, the resurrection is a miracle; and miracles are not to be multiplied, nor imagined without necessity; and what necessity of bodies in heaven?

Beloved, we make the ground and foundation of the resurrection, to be, not merely the omnipotency of God, for God will not do all, that he can do: but the ground is, Omnipotens voluntas Dei revelata, The Almighty will of God revealed by him, to us:

⁸¹ Matt. xix. 28. ⁸⁸ Augustine. ⁸³ Theophylact. ⁸⁴ Mich. ii. 13.

and therefore Christ joins both these together, Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God"; that is, not considering the power of God, as it is revealed in the Scriptures: for there is our foundation of this doctrine: we know, out of the omnipotence of God, it may be; and we know out of the Scriptures it must be: that works upon our faith, this upon our reason; that it is man that must be saved, man that must be damned; and to constitute a man, there must be a body, as well as a soul. Nay, the immortality of the soul, will not so well lie in proof, without a resuming of the body. For, upon those words of the apostle, If there were no resurrection, we were the miserablest of all men, the school reasons reasonably: naturally the soul and body are united; when they are separated by death, it is contrary to nature, which nature still affects this union; and consequently the soul is the less perfect, for this separation; and it is not likely, that the perfect natural state of the soul, which is, to be united to the body, should last but three or four score years, and, in most, much less, and the unperfect state, that in the separation, should last eternally, for ever: so that either the body must be believed to live again, or the soul believed to die.

Never therefore dispute against thine own happiness; never say, God asks the heart, that is, the soul, and therefore rewards the soul, or punishes the soul, and hath no respect to the body; Nec auferamus cogitationes a collegio carnis, says Tertullian, Never go about to separate the thoughts of the heart, from the college, from the fellowship of the body; Siquidem in carne, et cum carne, et per carnem agitur, quicquid ah anima agitur, All that the soul does, it does in, and with, and by the body. And therefore, (says he also) Caro abluitur, ut anima emaculetur, The body is washed in baptism, but it is that the soul might be made clean; Caro ungitur, ut anima consecretur, In all unctions, whether that which was then in use in baptism, or that which was in use at our transmigration, and passage out of this world, the body was anointed, that the soul might be consecrated; Caro , signatur, (says Tertullian still) ut anima muniatur; The body is signed with the cross, that the soul might be armed against temptations; and again, Caro de corpore Christi vescitiir, ut anima de

*6 Matt. xxii. 29.

Deo saginetur; My body received the body of Christ, that my soul might partake of his merits. He extends it into many particulars, and sums up all thus, Non possunt in mercede separari, qua opera conjungunt, These two, body, and soul, cannot be separated for ever, which, whilst they are together, concur in all that either of them do. Never think it presumption, says St. Gregory, Sperare in te, quod in se exhibuit Deus homo, To hope for that in thyself, which God admitted, when he took thy nature upon him. And God hath made it, says he, more easy than so, for thee to believe it, because not only Christ himself, but such men, as thou art, did rise at the resurrection of Christ. And therefore when our bodies are dissolved and liquefied in the sea, putrified in the earth, resolved to ashes in the fire, macerated in the air, Velut in msa sua transfunditur caro nostraTM, make account that all the world is God's cabinet, and water, and earth, and fire, and air, are the proper boxes, in which God lays up our bodies, for the resurrection. Curiously to dispute against our own resurrection, is seditiously to dispute against the dominion of Jesus; who is not made Lord by the resurrection, if he have no subjects to follow him in the same way. We believe him to be Lord, therefore let us believe his, and our resurrection.

This blessed day, which we celebrate now, he rose: he rose so, as none before did, none after ever shall rise; he rose; others are but raised: Destroy this temple, says he, and I will raise it3¹; I, without employing any other architect, / lay down my life*", says he: the Jews could not have killed him, when he was alive; if he were alive here now, the Jesuits could not kill him here now; except his being made Christ and Lord, an anointed king, have made him more open to them. / have a power to lay it down, says he, and I have a power to take it up again.

This day, we celebrate his resurrection; this day let us celebrate our own: our own, not our one resurrection, for we need many. Upon those words of our Saviour to Nicodemus", Oportet denuo nasci, speaking of the necessity of baptism, Non solum denuo, sed tertio nasci oportet, says St. Bernard, He must be born again, and again; again by baptism, for original sin, and for actual sin, again by repentance; Infelix homo ego, et misera

¹⁶ Tertullian. ^iJ John u. 19. ^,8 John x. 17. ⁴⁹ John ii. 3.

bilis casus, says he, cui non sufficit una regeneratio! Miserable man that I am, and miserable condition that I am fallen into, whom one regeneration will not serve! So is it a miserable death that hath swallowed us, whom one resurrection will serve. We need three, but if we have not two, we were as good be without one. There is a resurrection from worldly calamities, a resurrection from sin, and a resurrection from the grave.

First, from calamities; for, as dangers are called death, (Pharaoh calls the plague of locusts, a death, Intreat the Lord your God, that he may take from me, this death only³⁰, and so St. Paul says, in his dangers, / die daily³¹) so is the deliverance from danger called a resurrection: it is the hope of the wicked upon the godly, Now that he lieth, he shall rise no more³⁸; that is, now that he is dead in misery, he shall have no resurrection in this world. Now, this resurrection God does not always give to his servants, neither is this resurrection the measure of God's love of man, whether he do raise him from worldly calamities or no.

The second is the resurrection from sin; and therefore, this St. John calls, The first resurrection³³, as though the other, whether we rise from worldly calamities, or no, were not to be reckoned. Anima spiritualiter cadit, et spiritualiter resurget, says St. Augustine, Since we are sure, there is a spiritual death of the soul, let us make sure a spiritual resurrection too. Audacter dicam, says St. Hierome, I say confidently, Cum omnia posset Deus, suscitare virginem post ruinam, non potest; Howsoever God can do all things, he cannot restore a virgin, that is fallen from it, to virginity again. He cannot do this in the body, but God is a spirit, and hath reserved more power, upon the spirit and soul, than upon the body, and therefore Audacter dicam, I may say, with the same assurance, that St. Hierome does, no soul hath so prostituted herself, so multiplied her fornications, but that God can make her a virgin again, and give her, even the chastity of Christ himself. Fulfil therefore that which Christ says, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live³⁴: be this that hour, be this thy first resurrection. Bless God's present goodness, for this now;

^c0 Exod. x. 17. ³¹ 1 Cor. xv. 31. ³⁸ Psal. xLi. 8.

³³ Rev. xx. 5. ³* John v. 25.

and attend God's leisure, for the other resurrection hereafter. He that is the first fruits of them that slept35, Christ Jesus, is awake: he dies no more, he sleeps no more. Sacrificium pro te fuit, sed a te accepit, quod pro te obtulit³⁸: He offered a sacrifice for thee, but he had that from thee, that he offered for thee: Primitive fuit, sed tu<B primitive; He was the first fruits, but the first fruits of thy corn: Spera in te futurum, quod proecessit in primitiis tuis: Doubt not of having that in the whole crop, which thou hast already in thy ^ first fruits; that is, to have that in thyself, which thou hast in thy Saviour. And what glory soever thou hast had in this world, glory inherited from noble ancestors, glory acquired by merit and service, glory purchased by money, and observation, what glory of beauty and proportion, what glory of health and strength soever thou hast had in this house of clay, The glory of the later house, shall be greater than of the former³1. To this glory, the God of this glory, by glorious or inglorious ways, such as may most advance his own glory, bring us in his time, for his Son Christ Jesus^' sake. Amen.