A Key Opening Mysterious Texts of Scripture

BEhold, I bring you a prophesy, but of no Prophet; I present you lying malice speaking truth, unwittingly, unwillingly, and savage cruelty providing a salve to cure the wounds of all mankind. Out of one fountain bitter and sweet, out of one field tares and wheat, out of one mouth proceeds cursing and blessing. Behold an ambitious simoniacall Priest of the Roman constitution, and that but for a year, vaunt over him that is a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Behold bloody Caiaphas consulting, nay determining to put Christ to death, not for any fault of his, but because it was profitable to the Priests (it is expedient for us): yet doth he color his blood-thirsty appetite with a varnish of common good: If we let him alone, all men will believe in him, and believing him to be a God, will advance him to be a King, & the Romans will come & take away this place and our Nation. He is but one man, what is the blood of one man to the quiet of a public state? Melius est ut pereat unus, quàm unitas, let one man die, that the whole Nation perish not. This is Caiaphas his meaning: vouchsafe we a look to it, before we consider the meaning of a much better spirit. Solomon his Lily is most beautiful among thorns. The Rose, says Plutarch, is never so fragrant, as when it is planted by the Nettle: the doctrine of the Holy Ghost seemeth never more excellent, than when it is compared with the doctrine of Devils. It is expedient he should die, he saith not it is just or lawful: Bonum commodis non honestate metitur. Caiaphas profit is become the rule of justice; in whose hands now it is not only to judge according to the rule of law, but to over-rule the law also. In imitation of whom I verily think it was, that Clemens the fifth being demanded how the Templer Knights might be cut off, made this answer, Si non licet per viam justitiae, licet saltem per viam expedientiae.

But if it be profitable, to whom, cui bono? to whom is it so? to us: now he speaks like himself. To S. Paul all things were lawful, yet many things did not seem expedient: to Caiaphas that is expedient which is not lawful. But shall a just innocent man, a Prophet, nay more than he that was more than a Prophet, lose his life for nothing but your commodity? the answer is, that though he be all these, yet in a manner he is but unus, one man, and we are many; better it were that he suffer a mischief, than we an inconvenience; therefore be his quality what it may be, let him die.

Let not the high Priest be angry; will nothing but his death appease you? You have a guard, keep him sure, manacle his hands, fetter his feet, only spare his life, bring not his blood upon your head. Tush, it is for our profit, His blood be upon us. Thus crudelitas vertitur in voluptatem, & jam occidere hominem juvat, it was meat & drink to them to spill the blood of Christ Jesus; and being pleased to consider him but as a man, they trampled on him as a worm and no man. Behold here in another sense Caiaphas a bloody Ruby; yet, as the Rubies about Egypt aureâ bracteâ sublinuntur, so hath he gold foil Scripture in his mouth, the words of the Holy Ghost, who not only out of the mouth of babes and sucklings will have his praise, out of the mouth of asses and brute beasts will have his power to be known; but also out of the mouth of reprobates and incarnate devils will have the same truth in the same words confirmed, which holy Prophets, and the holy Spirit, by which they spake, would have revealed. For not only holy men (as the Preacher observed) but sometimes also unholy men speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost: Agit Spiritus Dei, & per bonos, & per malos, & per scientes, & per nescientes quod agendum novit, & statuit; but in a different manner. The Holy Ghost so touched the hearts of holy Prophets, that their hearts enditing this matter of Christ's passion, their tongues became the pen of ready writers: but on the contrary, as Caiaphas did honor God with his lips, while his heart was far from him; so (saith Saint Chrysostom ) the Spirit of God touched his lips, but came not near his heart. (It is expedient.) In the exposition of Caiaphas, the meaning is, it is good for us pretending common good, to kill Jesus; but the sense of the Holy Ghost is, that the precious death of our Savior would be expedient for us, and his alone blood once shed for his people an all-sufficient ransom for their souls.

Expedient it was, and behoovefull in the first place, that he who should satisfy for sin (the wages whereof is death) should be a man subject to death. Secondly, that he should die. Thirdly, inasmuch as with respect to his people he became a man subject to death; so that he should in the end lay down his life for the people. Fourthly, that he should be sufficient by his alone death to satisfy in their behalf, for whom he died. Lastly, we must inquire whether the profit of his passion be such as extendeth to ourselves, or not; we shall find it doth: for so are the words of the Text, It is expedient for us.

Expedient it was that the Savior of man should be a man, Ecce homo, behold he is so: for coming to save man, suscepit naturam quam judicavit salvandam, he became in all things, sin only excepted, like unto us. It was fit it should be so; for if the Deity had opposed it self, non tam ratio quàm potestas Diabolum vicisset, what mystery had there been for God to vanquish the Devil? how should the Scripture have been fulfilled, The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head? yet there is an experiment beyond all this,

saith the spiritual Lycaon; if he carry about with him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a body subject to dissolution, doubtless he is a man. Thus therefore that he might show himself a man, it was expedient that he should die. Is this thy reward, O sweet Savior, for stouping thine infinite majesty so low as to become earth, and thirty three years to converse amongst us, must thou die? It must be so, yet not for any necessity of justice in respect of himself; for never Lamb more innocent: nor of constraint; for at the very time of his apprehension, when he had less than twelve Apostles, he had more than twelve Legions of Angels at his beck; at the breath of his mouth, the majesty of his countenance, the force of those his words, I am he, a whole troupe of his persecutors fell backwards: but it must be so, because the determination of the Trinity, and the conformity of his own will thereunto will have it so: Oblatus est quia voluit (saith the Prophet:) I lay down my life (saith himself:) Yea, Caiaphas said as much in effect, It is meet, not that one should be put to death, but that he should die: Mori infirmitatis est, sic mori virtutis infinitae. There wanted not other means to redeem man, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was meet, that by the death of the Son of God we should be redeemed: No escaping the stroke of the Angel, but by sprinkling the Lambes life blood: no means to return from exile, till the death of the high Priest. Must he die then? and are the Scriptures so strait in this point? O death, how bitter is thy remembrance? witness our Savior: Si fieri potest, transeat hic calix; but since for the reasons before named that was neither possible nor expedient, since die he must, what death doth the Holy Ghost think to be most expedient? If he may not yield to nature, as a ripe apple falleth from the tree, but must be plucked thence, there are deaths no less honorable than violent: shall he die an honorable death? No, he must be reckoned among the malefactors, and die a shameful death. In shameful deaths there is a kind of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rid him quickly out of his pain: Misericordiae genus est cito occidere. No, that was not expedient, Feri ut se sentiat mori, it was expedient that he should die a tedious and most painful death, wherein a tract of lingering misery and lasting torment was to be endured: What death is that? I need not amplify; even by the testimony of the Holy Ghost the death of the Cross was for the torture most grievous, for the shame most infamous: He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. Could his humility go on one step further? Yes, one step, even to the death of the Cross, that is a death beyond death; the utmost and highest of all punishments, saith Ulpian: Having in it the extent of torture, saith Apuleius: The quintessence of cruelty, saith the Roman Orator. It is not amiss to know the manner of the execution of this death. First, after sentence given, the prisoner was whipped, then forced to carry his Cross to the place of execution, there in the most tender and sinewie parts of the body nailed to the Cross, then lifted up into the air, there with cruel mercy for a long while preserved alive; after all this, when cruelty was satisfied with blood, for the close of all, his joints were broken, and his soul beat out of his body. This was part of his pain; I say part, I cannot express the whole, the shame was much more: Infoelix Lignum, saith Seneca truly, and unhappy: for until this time the curse of God was upon him that was hanged. It is a trespass to bind, 'tis wickedness to beat, it is murder to kill: Quid dicam in crucem tollere? Look we to the original, it was first devised by Tarquinius, as the most infamous punishment of all, against such as laid violent hands upon themselves. Look we to the use of it, they accounted it a slaves, nay a dogs death; for in memory that the Dog slept when the Geese defended the Capitol, every year in great solemnity they carried a Goose in triumph, softly laid upon a rich carpet, and a Dog hanging upon a cross. Look we to the concomitancy, Non solent suspensi lugeri, saith the Civilian, no tear was wont to be shed for such as were crucified. And was it expedient that our Savior should die this death? It was expedient, that the prophesy of Isaiah might be verified, We saw him made as the basest of men; and of David, A scorn of men, and the outcast of the people; and of himself, They shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, scourge, and crucify him. These were prophesies that it should be so; yet we want a prophesy that saith, It is expedient: That we do not, Oportet filium hominis exaltari, ut Moses extulit Serpentem; for that Serpent, lifted up to cure all that looked upon it, was an emblem of Christ. Thus himself, who was a high Priest forever, did prophesy of himself, being now both priest and sacrifice. It was expedient that he should die, & thus die: to be forsaken of his friends, falsely accused by his enemies, to be sold like a slave, mocked like a fool, spit upon like a made man, whipt like a thief, crucified like a traitor; make up a misery, that the sun shamed, the earth trembled to behold it: yet it was expedient, it must be done, God hath said it. Mee thinks, I hear our Savior say in this baptism of blood, as he said in his baptism of water, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, and thus it became him, for whom, & by whom are all things, to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions. The prophesies had said it, it should be so, and it was expedient that he to whom they pointed should fulfill them, that so in fullness of truth he might take his leave of the cross, and say, Consummatum est, those things which were written of me have an end.

All this while we see not the reason why he should be thus tormented: Go to Pilate, his answer will be, I am innocent of the blood of this man: Enquire you of the Scribes and Pharisees, their answer will be, We have a law, and by this law he must die, because he made himself the Son of God. This was no fault, he was so, and therefore without robbery or blasphemy might both think and declare himself to be so. Go we further, from popular Pilate and the cruel Jews to God himself, and though we be but dust and ashes, for the knowledge of this truth presume we to ask, Cur fecisti filio sic? How may it stand with thy justice that he should die, in whom there was found no fault worthy death, nay no fault at all? the unswer is, Expedit mori pro populo: yet, O Lord, wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked? nay, which is more, wilt thou slay the righteous, and spare the wicked? nay, which is yet more, wilt thou slay the righteous for the wicked? shall not the Judge of all the world do right? God cannot choose but do right, the wages of sin is death; though he have not sinned, the people have. If the principal debtor cannot pay, the surety must; if the prisoner dare not appear, the baile must: Christ was the surety, the baile of the people, and so God might permit his justice against sin, to take hold on him, and he must die for the people, if he will not have the people die.

It being known that he died for the people, it is worth the while to know who these people were, for whom he died. Caiaphas had respect to the Jews only, and their temporal good; but the Holy Ghost intended the spiritual good of the Jews primarily, though not of them alone: but of the people also through the world. But is it possible, that of all people he should die for the Jews? Ab ipsis, & pro ipsis? these were they that spit upon him, whipped him, smote him on the face, crowned him with thorns, tare him with nails; these were they, who in the act of his bitter passion, when his soul bereft of all comfort, laden with the sin of all the world, and fierceness of his Fathers wrath, enforced from him that speech, than which the world never heard a more lamentable, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? then instead of comfort they reviled him, If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross, all this notwithstanding though they persecuted him, he loved them; though they cried Away with him, he died for them, & at his death prayed for them: Father, forgive, and pleaded for them, they know not what they do; and wept for them, offering supplications in their behalf with prayers & strong cries. Greater love than this can no man show, to lay down his life for his friend: yet thou, O blessed Savior, art a pattern of greater love, laying down thy life for this people whilst they were thine enemies; but not for this people only, (the Holy Ghost so speaks) O Lord, we were thine enemies as well as they, and whilst we were thine enemies, we were reconciled to God the Father by the precious death of thee his Son. For the Scripture setteth forth his love to us, that whilst we were yet sinners he died for us.

He for us, alone for us all: the same spirit which set before him expedit mori, did sweeten the brim of that sour cup with this promise, that when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed: that as the whole earth was planted, so it might be redeemed by one blood; as by one offense condemnation seized upon all, so by the justification of one, the benefit might redound unto all to the justification of life. And this blood thirsty Caiaphas unwittingly intimated, saying, Expedit unum mori pro populo.

If one, and he then dead could do thus much, what can he not do now, now that he liveth forever? He trod the wine-press alone, neither is there salvation in any other. S. Stephen was stoned, S. Paul beheaded, Nunquid pro nobis? No, it cost more than so, it is done to their hands, there is one, who by the oblation of himself alone once offered, hath made a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

And that whilst it is a world: for our Savior, that stood in the gap betwixt God's wrath & us, catching the blow in his own body, hath by his blood purchased an eternal redemption; everyone that believeth in him shall not perish, but have life everlasting. In the number of which believers if we be, then is the fruit of his meritorious passion extended to us, we may challenge our interest therein; and in our persons the Prophet speaketh, He bare our infirmities and carried our sorrows, he was wounded for our transgressions, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes are we healed.

Which great benefit, as it is our bounden duty to remember at all times, so this time, this day Vivaciorem animi sensum, & puriorem mentis exigit intuitum, recursus temporis, & textus lectionis, as S. Leo speaketh, The annual recourse of the day, and this text fitted to it, calleth to our mind the work wrought, & the means by which it was wrought on this day: to him a day of wrath, of darkness, of blackness, & heavy vengeance; but to us a good day, a good Friday, a day of deliverance & freedom, a day of jubilee and triumph. For as on this day by the power of his Cross were we delivered from the sting of sin, and tyranny of Satan, so that whereas we might forever have sung that mournful Elegy, O wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from death & hell? we are now enabled to insult over both, O death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is thy victory? Which victory of our Savior, and ours through him so dearly purchased, when we call to mind, let us consider withal, that as the cause of this conflict on his part was his love to us; so on our parts it was the heinousness of our sin, not otherwise to be expiated than by his death. And as the first ought to raise us up to give annual, daily, & continual thanks to him, who did and suffered so much for us; so the second should withhold us, & keep us back from sin: that since our Savior died for our sin, we should die to sin, & rather die than sin. This blood once shed is good to us; Expedit nobis, if to faith in that blood we join a life beseeming Christianity: but if by our crying sins & trespasses we crucify him again, we make even that blood, which of it self speaketh for us better things than the blood of Abel, instead of pardon to cry for vengeance against us.

Let us therefore look up to him the author and finisher of our salvation, beseeching him, who with the blood of his passion clave rocks & stones asunder, with the same blood, which is not yet nor ever will be dry, to mollify and soften our hard hearts, that seriously considering the heinousness of our sins, which put him to death, and his inexpressible & inconceivable love, that for us he would die the death, even the death of the Cross; we may in token of our thankfulness endeavor to offer up our souls and bodies as a reasonable sacrifice to him that offered himself a sacrifice for us, and now sitteth at the right hand of God; to this end, that where he our Redeemer is, there we his people and dearest purchase may be forever.

IT would ask the labor of an hour to settle this one only member, I find such a Babel of tongues at odds about so few words. Whereas we read terra projiciet, or ejiciet, the earth shall cast up or bring forth, as it doth her herbs and winter prisoners, Junius hath, Dejecisti in terram, Castalio, terram demoliris, the Seventy, Terra cadet, S. Jerome, Dejicies in terram, the Chaldee paraphrase, Trades in infernum: and for mortuos, in Hebrew Rephaim, from a word signifying to cure, per antiphrasin the Seventy read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the wicked or ungodly; S. Jerome, Gigantes, stout and robustious against God. But to set you in a right and inoffensive way, I reduce almost an infinity of distractions to two heads. For all of them either speak of the resurrection of the dead indefinitely, which they do that say, Terra ejiciet, to wit, postquam in terram dejecisti. For the earth cannot cast up that it hath not: and, Manium terram demoliris; or of the destruction of the wicked, one only species of the dead, which the Seventy call impios, others Giants, mighty to transgress; both senses, as the Northern and Southern rivers running from contrary points meet in the Ocean; so these from sundry and discrepant conceits run into one common place of the general resurrection, save that the latter add a strain to the former of God's vengeance, and wrath prepared for the wicked.

Thus having set the letters of my Text together, & accorded the words, it remaineth that their scope and intent be freed from question. There is not one of the learned Scribes, old or new, Jew or Christian, whose spirit and pen hath not fallen upon one of these two senses (viz.) that the Prophet either speaketh of the resurrection of the dead at the last day, or of the restitution and enlargement of the people from their present straights: in which (say they) calamity is a kind of death, captivity as the grave, God's people as the seed in the ground, God's grace and favor as the comfortable dew, to revive and restore them to their wonted being. Of these two companies some go after the literal gramatical sense, lending not so much as the cast of their eye toward the allegory, as Strigelius, Clarius, Brenz: Others on the other side of the bank standing for the shadowed resurrection, are not so peremptory; but si quis aliter sentire mavult, per me liber hoc faciat: and Calvin himself in his commentary lays out as it were a lot, as well for the true as the typical resurrection: Falluntur Christiani, qui ad extremum judicium restringunt, Prophetatotum Christi regnum ab initio ad finem usque complectitur. Aquinas equally joineth them both; Hìc est propositio resurrectionis, vel corporalis in die novissimo, vel à miseriâ captivitatis. To conclude then, as in the 37. chapter of Ezekiel the resurrection of the dead is brought in as an argument by God himself, to ascertain the people of their delivery from thralldom; an argument à majore ad minus: Can he raise and revive the dead? and can he not much more restore the distressed? yet I will be bold to say, that the proper resurrection of the dead, without the veil of a metaphor in the hardest construction that can be made of the words, is either the scope of the Prophet, or his proof, his intent or his argument, his main and principal conclusion, or his strongest principle to demonstrate his conclusion. And M ^r . Gwalther giveth a good reason why all other comforts are sealed up with this doctrine and promise of the universal resurrection, Quod nulla alia sit certa & solida consolatio, because all other calms are temporary, flux and mutable, from which there are recidivations and relapses into subsequent storms. By this time I am secure, that no mist of an allegory can so trouble or dim your eyes, but that you clearly behold in the true glass of my Text a fair and undoubted image of the resurrection of the dead; which being the proper subject of this feast, I hope I have sufficiently warranted the choice of my theme, and so I proceed to the explication.

Thy dead shall live, with my body shall they rise, awake and sing, &c. Ye see how many members there are in the body of my Text; yet in resolution and in issue they are all but one: It is a totum similare. As the whole water of the sea is but water, and yet every drop of the sea is water too; so the whole bulk and shock of my Text is the resurrection, and yet every part and parcel thereof is the resurrection also: for mark the words,

What is this in the whole composition, what in every limb & joint apari, but the ecchoing and resounding from one to the other the doctrine of the resurrection?

To omit (besides all these which have their tabernacle in the sun, and are evident and apert professions thereof) many secret & mineral arguments couched in the bowels and bosom of my Text, which shall be extracted in their due time. Bees are not so like Bees, but that there are individual differences between them; neither are the members of my Text so like, but that they may be distinguished. Thus then by way of objection and answer you may perceive their distinction and order, as also the main scope to which they tend.

Doth any object, Nihil est post mortem, death is an utter extinction? It is answered, not so: for thy dead shall live. Doth he go on and say, they may live in their spirits, which never die; but what for their bodies? It is answered, With my body shall they rise. Rise, do you say? but by what authority? what shall be the instrument and means thereof? The shrill sound of the last Trump awaking them out of their sleep, and the voice of God, Awake ye that dwell in dust. Awake they may and rise, but to no less wretchedness and misery than before: Answer, They shall awake and sing; it shall be a triumphant and joyful resurrection. Yea, but show us any sign thereof, and we will believe it: Answer, Thy dew is the dew of herbs; nature hath printed this truth in every garden thou walkest in. Lastly, if they say the earth hath devoured our bodies, how shall we then arise? It is answered, Terra projiciet, the earth shall be driven to disgorge and cast them up again.

There are degrees and ascents in my Text: 1. Vivent may be in soul; but 2. Resurgent must be in body. 3. Evigilabunt may be to sorrow; but 4. Cantabunt must be to joy. 5. Ros herbarum is but a light from nature; but 6. Terra projiciet is an act of irrisistible compulsory power. The first is the fundamental proposition, and showeth the entity, what is and shall be, Vivent mortui. The second is exposition, and showeth the manner, Resurgent. The third is confirmation, and showeth the efficiency, Evigilabunt. The fourth is congratulation, and showeth the quality, Cantabunt. The fifth is illustration, and showeth the probability, Ros herbarum. The sixth and last is conclusion, and showeth the necessity, Terra projiciet. There is a time of gathering, and a time of scattering. These six, either members or remarkable points and joints of my Text, hitherto severed, since the Prophet hath construed together, I will reduce to three combinations, and so handle them. The

• 1. Vivent and resurgent.
• 2. Evigilate and cantate.
• 3. Ros tuus and terra projiciet.

The first combination or conjugation is Vivent and Resurgent. There is a difference between them; the former is partial & incomplete, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive (as is proved by our Savior's argument: Deus non est Deus mortuorum, sed viventium ) when their bodies were not living; the latter is total and absolute, and addeth the life of the body to the life of the soul. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is of that whereof before there was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 they shall live therefore & rise, but who? Mortui, the dead; the dead is the common genus & sagena, that comprehends all sorts good and bad: Moritur pariter doctus & indoctus, in hoc tertio we all agree. In the first and archetypall world, when one man was as nine men, had nine men's ages, yet the end & period of all their acts is, Et mortuus est: and whatsoever the chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel omit besides, they omit not this, Et dormivit cum patribus. Death is that Syncope or Elision, that cutteth not out letters or leaves, but lives; and which not Grammar, but nature shall cause us to understand:

our whole life being but linea circumducta rediens ad idem punctum, à pulvere ad pulverem, the assured period and full point after all other points, pawses, sections and intersections, changes and vicissitudes of this mortal life: after all our eatings and drinkings the symbolum or shot that must be paid, the center, to which our corruptible body, which presseth down the soul, doth by its weight and proneness forcibly tend.

Mortui. Consider once for all the subject of this clause, and all the proposition, & how it climbeth; first mortui: secondly, cadaver: thirdly, pulvis: fourthly, habitatores pulveris: fifthly, inferi and manes; free Denizons among the dead, such as might say to corruption, thou art our father; and to worms & dust, ye are our brothers and sisters. Yet these dead carcasses, carrion, dust, inveterate dust, netherlanders, shall live and rise: Non obstat potentiae Dei diuturna putredo, walk but a pace or two backward, ye shall find a negative to this affirmative, the dead shall not live. Is there yea and nay in the Holy Ghost? Yea, and both true. For elucidation whereof take the rule of Brenz in his Nominibus, meum & tuum • ita est tota vis concionis: Thy dead shall rise, that is, the Lord's dead, either mortui propter Dominum, as Martyrs; or in Domino, as all believers; or quorum tota vita martyrium, whether they live or die they are the Lord's: Interfecti mei in some readings, in the genuine cadaver meum, the dead being, or which are my body, and then by collection, as Junius well observeth, cadavera mea quoque, all the bodies of my Saints, which are as it were mine, because they belong to my mystical body. Now then when it was said Mortui non resurgent, Mortui was put simply, and without addition, as Hyperius saith: but in these propositions mortui vivent, cadaver resurget, you have a specifical difference, not omnes mortui, but tui, that is, God's: cadaver, non omne, sed meum, that is, Christ's: opposite whereunto are mortui Satanae, & cadaver Antichristi. Hence cometh that seeming antilogie, or contradictio linguarum, strife of tongues, Resurgent, non resurgent, they shall, they shall not rise. But shall not all live, and rise again? Doubtless they shall, the righteous in a right and real acception: their life is a life indeed, vital, immortal, Angelical, nourished at the tree and fountain of life, animated and perpetuated from the Lord of life, and they rise as the morning Sun fairer and fairer, to a glorious, joyful, incorruptible, and celestial resurrection. Non sic impii, non sic, they live, or rather die a death, and that the second, and that second a thousand fold; or rather they live a life, a term without term, of being and not being, corrupting and not ceasing, burning and not consuming: Ignis eorum non interit, they shall never be able to extinguish their fire, nor their fire them; absumit ut servet, servat ut cruciet, the Salamanders of hell fire are kept in torment and vexation for evermore: and they rise, ut lapsu graviore ruant; as Jezebel was mounted to the window to be cast down to the dogs: as Herod to his throne, for a more woeful and spectable ruin: as Lucifer, or rather Tenebrifer (as Bernard calleth him) to the side of the mountain, for a more astonishable confusion. Our Savior knits up both in two words: Some shall rise to the resurrection of life, there is the true vivent & resurgent; some to the resurrection of condemnation, there is the opposite.

The second combination is Evigilate & cantate: ye shall observe in this and divers other passages in this Prophet divers interlocutions, prosopopeia's, and changing of persons. First, here the Prophet speaketh to God, or God to Christ, Thy dead shall live: Secondly, Christ to his Father, With my body shall they rise: Thirdly, here is God's apostrophe to the dead, Awake and sing: Fourthly, the answer of the dead to God, Ros tuus, that is, quem tu irrorasti; or God's apostrophe to his Church, Ros tuus, id est, qui super te cadet, O Ecclesia mea: Last of all, as it were the chorus and consent of all, Terra projiciet.

Awake and sing are God's alarm to the dead; habitatores pulveris, the household and meniall to dust. Now what voice, but the voice of God shall I say, like a Trumpet, or the roaring of a Lion, or the sound of many waters, or a clap or crack of thunder (all come too short) were able to inform and actuate dust and rubble to audience? Loquor ad Dominum might they say with Abraham, cùm sim pulvis & cinis? Howsoever pulvis & cinis in synthesi may do it, I am sure pulvis & cinis in analysi cannot. We attempt not to rouse up those that are in a dead sleep without loud cries, but is any man so mad as to spend his voice, though a stentorian, and rend his throat against deaf rocks? Behold, God doth more than this by that powerful instrument of his glorious Word, that gladius delphicus, that is more than Moses rod, wherewith he wrought wonders: more than Jacob's staff, wherewith he prospered: more than Judah's scepter, wherewith he governed: more than Joseph's cup, wherewith he divined: I say, by that powerful instrument, by which he said Fiant to heaven and earth, and they were created; Effata to deaf ears, and they were opened: Tace to the raging of the sea, and it was stilled: Obmutesce to the crying Devil, & he was silenced: Exi foras to the dead carcasses, & they came forth; by that doth he say to these dead and moultred in the earth, Awake and sing.

Awake: but with what eyes to behold the light of heaven? when the windows of their bodies have been long since shut down, their crystal glasses of nature broken, their seers sunk into the holes of their head, clay dwelleth in their tabernacles, and rottenness in their circles, and the scorn of the Idol in Baruch is fallen upon them, They cannot wipe the dust from their eyes.

And sing. How shall they sing in a strange land? what be their instruments to sing to? where is their living harp, and well tuned cymbal? is it hung upon the willows of Babylon, or rather tied to the roof of their mouth? where are their songs of praise and thanksgiving, which they sang in the land of the living?

We are now laid in the land of forgetfulness, we have taken up and made our beds in the dark, our mouth is filled with gravel, and the slime of the pit sticketh in our throats: all this notwithstanding, they that are in their tombs & graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, & earth, earth, earth in Jeremy winnowed and boulted by death into the smallest dust, shall be effigiated and shaped anew into living men; Et ex his vermiculis & pulvere, saith Saint Bernard, instaurabuntur muri coelistis Jerusalem.

Before I end this second combination, I remember that I noted unto you two things: first, the efficiency in the exuscitation, Awake; where forget not in the mean while to reserve for a latter meditation, that death by the phrase of my Text is a sleep: secondly, the quality; for since they are willed to sing, that imports a joyful resurrection: Musica in luctu importuna, and it must be a most joyful resurrection, when such as shall partake thereof not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (so the Seventy) but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Aquilas) and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Symmachus) and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Theodotian.) Agreeable hereunto is that of our Savior, Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. And here once more to the wicked we send libellum repudii: Non est vobis pars, ne{que} sors, ye may not consort with us in our blessed harmony, the voices of Ashdod and Canaan cannot tune together: to you belongeth, plangent tribus terrae, & tribulabitur ibi fortis, your singing shall be turned to sighing, your Tabrets & Shaumes into everlasting beatings and hammerings on the anviles of your breast, your showting into howling and yelling, your clapping of hands into gnashing of teeth, your praising into blaspheming & cursing, & all your rejoicing shall be as the mourning of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo; yea much more than of Hadradrimmon, because in the valley of Hinnon, is the lake and furnace of endless disconsolation. This Prophet shall conclude, Behold my servants shall rejoice, and ye shall be ashamed: my servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow, and howl for vexation of mind.

The third combination is, Ros tuus & terra projiciet, which giveth a double proof of the former doctrine: the one as it were of course, nature and common sense teacheth; the other of force, the creature must and shall accomplish it. Terra projiciet, that is, saith Rabbie David, Thou (O God) shalt command it. The learned in their Commentaries distinguish these proofs by a discrepancy of words, Elicere proper to the dew, and projicere fatal to the earth: the dew gently allureth, and calleth forth the herbs; so doth the Word & Spirit of God sweetly and easily bring up (may I say) these embryo's of death. But say that the earth withhold them, opposing her locks and bars, and pleading perhaps the prescription of hundreds or thousands of years, there is then place for projiciet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , angry and impatient though she be, reddet, non sua, she must cast them up, as the stomach a surfeit, and a woman an abortive fruit. See how God hath furnished us with all sorts of arguments: if Liber foederis will not serve, we may read in the book of nature, or rather Bibliotheca librorum, described with a text hand, in fair and capital letters, the resurrection of the dead. Interroga jumenta, saith Job: Interroga olera, saith my Prophet: Considera Lilia agri, saith our Savior: look into the fields, or sit still in your gardens, everyone under his own vine, and behold the growth of the plants and flowers, how after the cold of Winter, when the deadness of the year had blotted and blurred as it were the face of the earth, and the print of nature seemeth to be quite razed out; yet (as Isaiah speaketh of the Oak and Elm) there is a substance in them, and by the comfort of the vernall sun-shine, and fatness of the clouds dropping on them, they garnish and cover the earth again, as with the carpets of Egypt, and clothe it as with a Josephs coat, with all the variety of colors nature can invent. Nature is full of such demonstrations; I could bring you a band of creatures to strengthen this point. The bird of Arabia that riseth out of her own ashes, the insecta animalia that spend the Winter season in a shadow of death, the seed that lieth and dieth in the earth, our sleepings and awakings, nights and days, winters and summers, autumnes and springs; but I leave them all, and cleave to the resemblance in my Text, Thy dew is as the dew of herbs; but when this dew and soft distillation is too weak to work this effect, God hath a torrent and flood to do it: Terra ejiciet, & contermina terrae, the sea that is married to the earth & lieth in her arms & bosom. He shall say to the sea, Give; and to the earth, Restore, and all creatures in them, and in all the world besides that have devoured and swallowed the flesh of his chosen, when that day cometh, shall find that they have eaten morsels like asps, and drank a draught of deadly poison, too strong and hard of digestion for their over weak stomachs. I end with the words of this Prophet, chapt. 66. Quis audivit unquam tale? quis vidit huic simile? nunquid parturiet terra in die unâ? & tota gens parietur simul? at this day it shall be so.

Saphirus aureis punctis collucet, the best kind of Sapphire, saith the Naturalist, hath something like points of gold in it: Such were these we now handled; give me leave to use the Speakers phrase, though not in his sense, spare me to recapitulate, or rather from recapitulation: for what have I done else all this while?

Mee thinks the six parts of this Text are like the six cities of refuge, to which those that had slain, shall I say? nay, rather those that are slain may fly, to save shall I say? nay, but to recover and restore their lives: and they are all like the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, Rota in rotâ: or as the celestial Spheres one in the other, all moving alike to the same purpose: all striving for an Article of faith, one of the twelve flowers in the garland of our Creed, one of the twelve stones in the foundation of the holy City. I remember in the inheritance of Judah, among the rest there fell to their share sex civitates, & villae earum. Is there any such a desert so barren, so hopeless, so waste, as death and the grave, desertion of life and being, when milk forsaketh the breasts, marrow the bones, blood the veins, spirit the arteries, and the soul the body? yet when you are brought to this desert of deserts, you shall find sex civitates, & villas earum, six main and eminent proofs of the resurrection, with as many less, like suburbs, granges, and appertinent villages. For first, Mortui vivent is a main argument, grounded upon the Word and Promise, like civitas; but mortui tui is civitas & villa, a main with an appendant argument drawn from the propriety that God hath in us. Secondly, Cadaver resurget is civitas, but cadaver meum is civitas & villa, a main argument, with an appendant drawn from the society between the head & the members: he that raised Christ shall quicken us. Thirdly, Awake & sing are civitates, main arguments drawn from the command & power of God, who saith, Return ye sons of Adam, and they return; but that the nature of the phrase should import a sleep, & no death, no privation of speech, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pythagoricam, for a while, till God loosen the strings of the tongue, and put breath into the organ again, these are civitates & villae earum. Yet further, by Montanus his collection, pulvis & habitatores pulveris are villae, appendant arguments, the one from the matter of our creation, when we are at the worst we are but dust, from which our creation was, and why may not from thence our recreation be? the other from the term of our abode, habitatio; which (saith he) is not of those that take up their mansion or long home, but of sojourners and factors, who continue for a while in foreign countries till they have dispatched their affairs. Add lastly to all these the map of the whole earth, in every leaf of grass describing the truth of this doctrine:

with those insufferable passions, pangs, and angariations, which the common mother to us all is put unto, till she be rid of us, as the Whale of Jonas.

A word of application, and it shall be the explication, which some very learned Expositors give upon cadaver meum. We have hitherto taken it to be the word of Christ to his Father; they say rather it is the word of the Prophet to his brethren, as if in effect he had said, I preach to you no other doctrine than that I believe myself: I teach that the dead shall live, and I am assured that with my body shall they rise. In which sense it is a parallel to that Magna Charta, that great and memorable record which Job transmitteth to all posterity, I know my Redeemer liveth, and I myself shall see him with these eyes, and no other; concionantur profani homines, the fashion of these worldly men is to prate of the life of the righteous, as Balaam of their death, like men in a trance, without sense or affection after it. The food of the soul is unto them as Barzillai his bodily food was unto him, they eat it without any appetite or relish: (Hath thy servant any taste in that he eateth, saith he to David?) and the comforts of the Gospel to them as music to him: (Can I hear the voice of singing men or women?) They behold Canaan from the Mount, and the goodness of God afar off: my meaning is, they can talk of cadavera aliorum, but mind not, or at least hope not for cadaver meum: Odi sapientem qui sibi non sapit; qui sibi nequam, cui bonus? Nequam, saith Saint Bernard, is as much as nequaquam: all that this man knoweth or doth is as much as nothing, since it availeth not himself; his case is like that of Tantalus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Plato saith, who hath apples at his lips, and water at his chin, and yet pines for want. O unhappy man, go to the prodigal child, he came to his father with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and to that child of the world, who came to our Savior, Magister, dic fratri ut dividat mecum haereditatem, that is, suffer not a goodly inheritance of a joyful resurrection to be taken away by the violent, but thrust thou in for thy part among them, and when they shall say, corpora nostra, our bodies shall rise, say thou with a fiducial faith, cadaver meum, so shall my body rise: and let everyone that heareth me this day say with the Prophet, Remember me, O Lord, with the favor of thy people, and visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the felicity of thy chosen, and rejoice in the joy of thy people, and glory with thine inheritance.

THese words are a parcel of that book, the reading whereof the ancient Church esteemed so profitable and needful, that they enjoined all upon pain of excommunication to read it once a year, between Easter and Whitsuntide: Qui eam à Paschate ad Pentecosten non legerit, excommunicationis sententiam habeat. The words of my Text in special are verba pronuntiata verbi annuntiati, the words spoken of the word fore-spoken, the Son of God, who is so careful not to break the bruised reed, that he seeketh to expectorate all fear out of the minds of all true believers by the force of many arguments.

The first is drawn à potentiâ Dei, I am the Creator and Judge of your persecutors; therefore fear them not.

The second à praerogativâ Christi, I am the first and the last, and will take notice of everyone that hath been unjustly put to death, and make inquisition of blood, from the blood of the righteous Abel, to the blood of the last Martyr that shall be shed upon the earth, and will require it of them that have spilled it. I am the first: for, in principio erat Verbum; and I am the last, novissimus Adam, manifested in novissimis diebus, to come in novissimâ tubâ, and take account of novissimus quadrans; I am he that liveth, &c.

Here omitting the vain glosses and collections of some, who turn an history into a mystery, and apply ridiculously S. Johns falling before Christ's feet, mentioned Ver. 17. to the kissing of the Popes Pantofle; and the description Primus & novissimus, the first and the last, to a Prelate or Pastor, who ought to be primus ad laborem, novissimus ad requiem, first at his labor, and last at his ease; I take these words with Saint Augustine to be Symbolum abbreviatum, wherein we are to observe,

• 1. The death:
• 2. The resurrection of Christ,
  • 1. Prefaced with a note of attention, Behold.
  • 2. Sealed with a note of certainty, Amen.
• 3. The fruits and issue of both,
  • 1. In us,
    • 1. Freedom from death.
    • 2. Assurance of life.
  • 2. In him, the power of the keys,
    • 1. Authoritative.
    • 2. Possessive, I have.

I am alive, and I was dead. Et quando vixisti, bone Jesu? when didst thou live, sweet Jesu? from the time thou leftest thy Fathers bosom, and satest on thy mothers knee, jam extunc dura pati coepisti, saith Saint Bernard. Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up may Israel, nay, the God of Israel say. And this some will have to be signified in the phrase, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I was made dead, not struck down at one blow; that might have been a favor: Quid dabis ut uno ictu mortem afferam filio? but he was put to a tedious and lingering death: [Doctr. 1] Nay, Saint Gregory saith, Tota vita Christi crux fuit. The Son of God humbled himself; that is not enough, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he emptied himself, made himself of no reputation, and became Homo, & in homine infra hominem: nam flagellari ingenui non est, to be scourged is no ingenuous punishment. But it may be the shame was lessened, because of his Crown: What Crown, I pray you? thorns platted upon his temples? O Regem, O Diadema, O King, O Crown, saith Bernard: See, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother the Synagogue crowned him. But the worst is behind, he is condemned to die: Why, what hath he done? Is he a disturber of the peace, who being scarce borne gave peace to all the world, who himself is the Prince of peace, and his word the Gospel of peace, and his messengers the Angels of peace, and his mandate the same with that of Theodosius to Demophilus: Si tu pacem fugis, ego te ab Ecclesiâ meâ fugere mando, If thou flyest peace, I command thee to get thee packing out of my Kingdom? Did he blaspheme, because he said, I am the Son of God? Si opera Dei facit, quid prohibit Filium Dei appellari? Was he against the tradition of the Elders? only against such as annihilated the Law of God, against such upon whom the name of blasphemy is written: such as are those of the Church of Rome. Traditio multis partibus superat Scripturas, saith Costerus: and Salvâ Ecclesiae tradition, non multùm refert etiamsi Scripturae aboleantur. Was he a malefactor, of whom all the people witnessed, Recte omnia fecit? All this notwithstanding he is condemned to die, and to that death which the Holy Ghost speaks not of without a gradation; Mortem autem crucis: nor the Heathen Orator without a Quid dicam in crucem tollere? Yet all this is but Joseph his coat torn with the teeth of wild beasts: Vasculum Anaxarchi, non Anaxarchus. We hear of the outward man in agone, not the inward man in agoniâ. I dare not set the pains of the damned, God's wrath, and Christ's body in a balance; Crux Christi statera est, saith Saint Bernard. I like in such points rather a Divine of the temper of the Lacedaemonians, In ea quibus fidit vix ingredientem, than an Athenian, Supra vires audacem, liable to Archidamus his check, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Aut add viribus, aut adime animo.

[Use 1] Is it so (Beloved?) was Christ dead indeed? here seemeth to be matter for them that are without, to scoff at Christian Religion: Hominem colitis, hominem Palaestinum & crucifixum adoratis pro Deo: and, Deus vester patibulo affixus est, say the Heathen, Ye worship a God who was put to death and crucified. We do so, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nay, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was necessary and expedient that he should so die: If the wheat corn die not in the earth, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit: Gratias ago tritico quod sic mori voluit & multiplicari. We say with Tertullian, Quod Deo indignum est, nobis expedit: with Saint Jerome, Injuria Domini nostra gloria: and conclude with Saint Ambrose, Quanto major injuria, tanto major ei debetur gratia.

[Use 2] Was Christ dead? then was our old man crucified in him, and we are dead to sin: how then shall we live therein? I have put off my clothes, saith the Spouse, how should I put them on? I have washed my feet, how should I defile them? To lay down our sins, or put them off is not sufficient, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they must be mortified: and this is that death which Saint Leo saith is precious in the sight of God, cùm occiditur homo non terminatione sensuum, sed fine vitiorum.

Behold, I am alive for evermore. Of the divers significations of Ecce two serve for our purpose; Ecce insultationis, and Ecce consolationis: Ecce insultationis, as behold he cometh with the clouds, &c. Ecce consolationis, as behold the stone that the builders refused is become the head of the corner. So here for the terror of Infidels and Persecutors of Christ's Church, and for the comfort of the faithful an Ecce is prefixed: Behold, he that was dead is alive. Behold the sweet flower of Jesse withered and defaced in his Passion, but re-flourishing again in his resurrection, and in him is the blooming and springing of all that love his Name.

I am alive. Other doctrine, saith Tertullian, Christ preached per semetipsum; but this of the resurrection in semetipso. Alive forever. The Scripture speaketh of some that rose mortui, sed morituri. Christ so rose, ut nunquam cadere adjiciat, being risen from the dead he dieth no more, death hath no more power over him. Amen is a note of certainty, like Selah in the Psalms, which (as a seal) is put by the finger of the Holy Ghost to the words of that God, who is Deus Amen, and whose promises are Yea and Amen.

[Doctr. 2] From this Amen and the former Ecce we are taught, That the Holy Ghost laboreth to secure us and confirm us in the certainty of the doctrine of the resurrection, knowing it to be the faith and patience of the Saints: Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum, saith Tertullian. If our hope were in this life only, we were of all men most miserable, saith Saint Paul. And the rather doth the Spirit ascertain this doctrine, because it hath many enemies, Atheists, Libertines, and sundry sorts of Heretics besides. The Atheist thinketh there is no resurrection, because he seeth no reason for it: to whom, though it were sufficient to answer with Gregory, Fides non habet meritum, ubi ratio humana praebet experimentum; and with Saint Ambrose, Credimus piscatoribus, non dialecticis: yet to reason a little with these unreasonable men in the words of Saint Paul, Why seemeth it incredible unto you, that Christ should raise the dead? Is it not as easy to restore life, as to give it at the first? to raise man out of ashes, as to create him at first out of the dust? Considera autorem, & tolle dubitationem, saith Saint Augustine. The Libertine would have no resurrection, that he might still enjoy the pleasures of sin, and sacrifice to his belly: but for him there is first a Text of counsel, Awake to live righteously; and if that will not serve, a Text of judgment, Whose end is damnation, whose god is their belly. Of Heretics that professedly oppugned the doctrine of the resurrection, some taught that there is no resurrection at all, as the Sadducees; some that the resurrection was already past, as Hymineus and Philetus. Satan is a subtle Serpent, and turneth divers ways to get in his head. Before Christ's death he worked powerfully in the children of disobedience; in Judas to betray him, in the Pharisees to accuse him, in Pilate to condemn him: but after knowing that the time was come, that the Prince of the world was to be cast out by the death of Christ, he was much troubled, and labored by all means to hinder Christ's Passion: Utinam ne in nemore Pelio, he wisheth there were no wood in all the world to make a Cross of: he works remorse in Judas, giveth him a halter to hang himself: he employs Pilate's wife to send to her husband, to have nothing to do with him. When he was fast nailed to the Cross, he setteth the Jews upon him, to see whether they could persuade him to descend from thence. After this he spreads abroad a rumour, that Simon Cyreneus was crucified for him, or if he were crucified, that it was but in appearance only, and that he was falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus: and when his resurrection was so palpable, that it needed no other argument than the amazement of the watch, and Pilate's letter to the Emperor, he suborned a desperate rout to swear, that his Disciples stole him away by night. After all this he stirred up certain Heretics, who taught, that albeit Christ were indeed risen, yet that we were not to expect any future resurrection, because the resurrection was past already. But all these shall find, that there is a resurrection for them, to wit, Resurrectio ad condemnationem.

[Use 1] Is it so, that Christ our head is risen? then shall we his members rise also. For he is primogenitus mortuorum, & primitiae dormientium: the first fruits are carried already into the celestial barn, and the whole crop shall follow. And this may be a staff of comfort to all drooping and fainting souls, ut tali exemplo animati, sub ictu passionis, as Cyprian speaketh, non retrahant pedem, that they draw not back, but courageously go on forward to make a good profession, as being secure, Christi milites, non perimi sed coronari, & bonam mortem esse quae vitam non perimit, sed adimit ad tempus, restituendam in tempore, duraturam sine tempore. This was Jobs comfort, I know my Redeemer liveth: and of other distressed ones, who would not be delivered that they might be partakers of a better resurrection. An ancient father giveth these words for a Christians Motto: Fero, taceo, spero; Fero meam crucem, ut ill suam: taceo, quia tu, Domine, fecisti: spero, quia utique fructus erit justo.

[Use 2] Is Christ risen from the dead? then we that are his, are risen with him, at least in the first resurrection: if therefore ye are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father.

This indeed ought to be so, but we find it otherwise; never more preaching of the resurrection, and never less fruit. For all seek their own, and none the things that are Jesus Christ's. So that Bernard's observation fitteth our time: Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere pro solâ dignitate tuendâ, honori totum datur, sanctitati nihil: and again, all men learned and unlearned press to Ecclesiastical cures, Tanquam sine curis quique victuri sint, cùm ad curas pervenerint. The Apostle telleth us, Qui Episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat: non dignitatem, saith Saint Jerome, sed laborem: non delicias, sed solicitudinem: non crescere fastidiis, sed decrescere humilitate: Nay, not only opus, but onus also in Saint Bernard's judgment, though perhaps some Atlas's may think they never have load enough. But are the Laity more excusable, who buy and sell the poor for shoes and gay apparel, and strong drink? to whom (me thinks) I hear the poor cry, Et vos vanitate peritis, & nos spoliis perimitis. How many are there of them, who engross the Lord's portion, and bestow hallowed things upon worse than vanity? We have a saying against them also out of the same Saint Bernard: De patrimonio crucis Christi non facitis codices in Ecclesiâ, sed pascitis pellices in thalamis; adornatis equos, phalerantes pectora, capita deaurantes. Is this our resurrection from sin? Saint Paul giveth this lesson with a memento, Remember, saith he, O Timothy, that Christ is raised from the dead. It is a truth as stable as the poles of Heaven, that we shall have no part of the second resurrection to the life of glory, if we have not a good part in the first to the life of grace.

And I have the keys of Death and of Hell. They are well called keys of Hell, because there are Inferorum portae mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . There are many opinions about these keys; some will have them to be two, Clavis cognitionis, and Clavis authoritatis: but Allensis and the Schoolmen deny knowledge to be a key, except in an improper speech, Quia requiritur ad usum clavis; and they do well to deny it: for what key of knowledge had that Priest, of whom the Master of the Sentences maketh mention, who baptized in nomine Patria, Filia, & Spiritua sancta? Bonaventure ingenuously confesseth, Quidam in Ecclesiâ habent clavem, quidam claviculam, quidam nullam. Neither do they stand much upon it; for another of them saith, Dicit Doctor meus, & citat divum Thomam, quod quando Apostoli erant ordinati, Sacerdotes erant sine scientiâ. Yet Bernard in his Epistle ad Eugenium maketh knowledge one of the keys, Claves vestras qui sanùm sapiunt, alteram in discretione, alteram in potestate collocant. [Doctr. 3] The most received opinion of the reformed Churches is, That there is but one key in essence, and that is Ministerium Verbi. The Kingdom of God is compared to a house, the door of this house is Christ, the key to open and shut this door is the preaching of the Word: We are the savor of death unto death unto some, there is the power of binding; to others of life unto life, there is the power of loosing. He that refuseth me, the word which I have spoken shall judge him, there is the power of binding; again, The truth shall make you free, there is loosing. But how many soever the keys be, Christ hath them, Non solùm authoritative, sed etiam possessive. What meaneth then Bellarmine in his books de Romano Pontifice to imply, that the keys remain in Christ's hands only at the vacancy of the Popedom? What a blasphemy is that of Cusanus, who saith, that potestas ligandi & solvendi non minor est in Ecclesiâ, quàm fuit in Christo? and that of Maldonatus, Christus Petro vices suas tradidit, ipsamque clavem excellentiae, that key of David, which openeth, and no man shutteth? Or if he have not this key so absolutely as Christ, yet beyond all comparison above other Bishops; they have the keys of Heaven, sed quodam modo, and with an huc usque licet. Whereupon Petrus de palude observeth, that it was said of them, Quaecunque solveritis in terrâ, erunt soluta in coelo: but of Saint Peter, Brunt soluta in coelis. Pardon, I beseech you, the enlargement of this point; Blasphemiae dies haec est, Rabsakeh hath blasphemed the living God. The Pharisees and Scribes accounted it blasphemy to attribute forgiveness of sins to any but God. I am he that blotteth out thine iniquity, saith God by the Prophet Isaiah: Whereupon Saint Jerome commenting, saith, Solus peccata dimittit, qui pro peccatis mortuus est: and Saint Augustine accordeth with him, Nemo tollit peccata, nisi solus Deus; tollit autem dimittendo quae facta sunt, adjuvando ne fiant, & perducendo ad locum ubi fieri non possunt. What then doth the Minister upon confession and contrition? He pronounceth the penitent absolved; or to attribute the most unto him, he absolveth the person in facie Ecclesiae, remitteth not the sin absolutely before God. Saint Ambrose shall make up the reckoning: Verbum Dei dimittit peccata: Sacerdos est Judex, Sacerdos officium exhibet, sed nullius potestatis jura exercet.

[Use 1] 1. Hath Christ the keys of death and hell? O then let us kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and so we perish out of the right way.

[ 2] 2. Hath Christ the keys of hell and death? if then we belong to Christ, and follow his banner, let us not care what death or hell, man or devil can do against us:

Jesus of Nazareth is returned from hell, not as Theseus and Hercules, with a Cross and a Flagge; but with principalities and powers chained before his triumphant chariot: he doth not now threaten death, as before, O mors, ero tua mors; but insulteth over it: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, who hath given us victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Cui, &c.

MAn at the first was made a goodly creature, in the image of his Maker, having so near neighbourhood with the eternal Majesty, that he dwelt in God, and God in him: but by his woeful revolt he deprived himself of that sweet contentment he still should have enjoyed in God, and by his proud rebellion erected a Babel and partition wall, whereby he debarred himself of the fruition of him, whom to behold is the height of all that good, any creature can desire. But man's Creator retaining his love to that which he had made, though altogether blemished with that which we had done, looked down upon us with a compassionate eye of his tender mercy, suffered us not (being desirous of the means of salvation) with bootless travels still to wander in darkness, as strangers from the life of God: but sent from his bosom his word of truth, light into darkness, who in the fullness of time offered by the light of his countenance to bring us again to God's inaccessible brightness, and by the veil of his flesh not only to shelter us from the scorching flames of his Fathers fury (as the pillar of cloud did the Israelites from the heat of the Sun) but also by soliciting our peace, to demolish that partition wall which we had raised against ourselves, and to reunite us again inseparably to him, from whom we had rent and dissevered ourselves, crying in the midst of you as you hear, Come unto me, &c. The voice of God, and not of man, or rather of the eternal wisdom, which was God and man.

In these words, which I term Ch •• sts Proclamation of grace and peace to all soul-sick sinners, we may note,

• 1. An invitation, Come unto me.
• 2. The reward of our obedience, I will ease you.

In the first part note we,

• 1. The party inviting, Christ.
• 2. The thing he adviseth to, Come.
• 3. The object to whom, Mee.
• 4. The parties that are envited singled out by their qualities, all that are weary and heavy laden.

In the second part note we,

• 1. The party promising, I.
• 2. The reward it self, ease and rest, will ease you.

Here then you see,

• 1. Love inviting, Come.
• 2. Truth directing, To me.
• 3. Necessity inciting, All that are weary.
• 4. Reward alluring, And I will ease you.
  • 1. Love inviteth, that we fear not to come.
  • 2. Truth directeth, that we err not in coming.
  • 3. Necessity inciteth, that we slack not to come.
  • 4. Reward sustaineth, that we faint not in coming.

[Doctr. 1] Come. Venite, fides exigitur, studium desideratur, saith Saint Ambrose. Christ his proselytes life must not be as his confidence in Isaiah, chapt. 30. in ease and quietness: for then Moab-like he will soon settle on his lees, and have his taste remaining in him, Jerem. 48.11. The Chaldean Sagda (as Solinus reporteth) by the spirit enclosed in it, riseth from the bottom of Euphrates, and so closely sticketh to the boards of the ships that pass that river, that without slivering of some part of the bark it cannot be severed; so sin by the power of the evil spirit arising from the bottomless pit of perdition, adhereth so fast to us, that till our brittle Barkes of flesh be slivered off, this Sagda of sin, can never be removed, but like Dejanira's poisoned shirt,

And therefore this sore travel God hath allotted to all the sons of Adam, from the first time they become new borne babes in Christ, till they breath out their languishing souls into the hands of their Redeemer, to wrestle with their inbred corruptions, and to seek to shake off the sin which hangeth on so fast; that howsoever it cannot be altogether dis-severed before we are dissolved; yet it may not be a Remora to our ships, much less get such strength as to over-rule us. Howbeit, because the flesh is weak, where the spirit is most ready, and the spirit it self is not so ready as it should be, because the faculties thereof through the malignity of sin are much imbezelled, God spareth not by frequent Scriptures to stir us up to go on, and traverse the way of his commandments: some to rouse us up from sleep, as, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Some to incite us to go on forward when we are raised, as, Follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see God. Some to encourage us that we faint not, as, Be not weary of well doing: for in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not. Once indeed it was said to the Israelites, Stand still, and behold the salvation of God: but now, Come, behold, and stand not still, if you desire the salvation of God. Now no more sit still, as it was once said to the daughter of Babel; but arise and depart: for here is no resting place. Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending, but none standing or sitting on the ladder. There are many rounds in our Jacob's ladder, whereby we climb to the Mount of God: Non debemus pigri remanere, non debemus superbi cadere, saith Saint Augustine. Paul that honorable vessel of God, though he laid so fast hold on Christ by faith, and was so knit to him by love, that he challengeth all powers in heaven and earth to try if they were able to separate him from the love of his Redeemer (Rom. 8. Ver. 35.) yet reckoning with himself as if he had not comprehended him of whom he was comprehended, he forgot that which was behind, and followed hard to the mark, for the price of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. So true is that of Saint Bernard, Ubi incipis nolle fieri melior, ibi desinis esse bonus.

[Use 1] Here then let us track out by the footsteps of our spirits motion, how forward we are in the way of the Lord. If the longing desire of our heart be unsatisfied, till we enjoy again our happy communion with God: if when God saith, Seek ye my face, thy soul answer, Thy face, Lord, will I seek: if when Christ soundeth his Venite, thy heart springing for joy resound David's Ecce, Loe I come; and thy spirit so out-strip the slow motions of thy sluggish flesh, that with the Spouse in the Canticles thou desire to be drawn after him; then be thou assured, that this is the finger of God. For no man can come to Christ, but he whom the Father draweth.

[ 2] But contrariwise, if when the World saith, Come, we hearken to it, and for Hippomanes golden balls we refuse to follow Christ: if when the Devil saith, Come, we listen to his lure, and for his omnia tibi dabo, bow to his will: if when the flesh saith, Come, we trudge to it, and for lascivious lulling in Delilah's