Eighty Sermons

SERMON XXIII. Preached at S. Paul's, for Easter-day. 1628.

T Hese two terms in our Text, Nunc and Tunc, Now and Then, Now in a glass, Then face to face, Now in part, Then in perfection, these two secular terms, of which, one designs the whole Age of this world from the Creation, to the dissolution thereof (for, all that is comprehended in this word, Now ) And the other designs the everlastingness of the next world, (for that incomprehensiblenesse is comprehended in the other word, Then ) These two words, that design two such Ages, are now met in one Day; in this Day, in which we celebrate all Resurrections in the root, in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, blessed forever. For the first Term, Now (Now in a glass, now in part) is intended most especially of that very act, which we do now at this present, that is, of the Ministry of the Gospel, of declaring God in his Ordinance, of Preaching his word; ( Now, in this Ministry of his Gospel, we see in a glass, we know in part ) And then the Then, the time of seeing face to face, and knowing as we are known, is intended of that time, which we celebrate this day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Judgment, the day of the actual possession of the next life. So that this day, this whole Scripture is fulfilled in your ears; for now, (now in this Preaching) you have some sight, and then, (Then when that day comes, which (in the first root thereof) we celebrate this day) you shall have a perfect sight of all; Now we see through a glass, &c.

That therefore you may the better know him, when you come to see him face to face, then, by having seen him in a glass now, and that your seeing him now in his Ordinance, may prepare you to see him then in his Essence, proceed we thus in the handling of these words. First, That there is nothing brought into comparison, into consideration, nothing put into the balance, but the sight of God, the knowledge of God; It is not called a better sight, nor a better knowledge, but there is no other sight, no other knowledge proposed, or mentioned, or intimated, or imagined but this; All other sight is blindness, all other knowledge is ignorance; And then we shall see how there is a twofold sight of God, and a twofold knowledge of God proposed to us here; A sight, and a knowledge here in this life, and another manner of sight, and another manner of knowledge in the life to come: For, here we see God In speculo, in a glass, that is, by reflection, And here we know God In aenigmate, says our Text, Darkly, (so we translate it) that is, by obscure representations, and therefore it is called a Knowledge but in part; But in heaven, our sight is face to face, And our knowledge is to know, as we are known.

For our sight of God here, our Theatre, the place where we sit and see him, is the whole world, the whole house and frame of nature, and our medium, our glass, is the Book of Creatures, and our light, by which we see him, is the light of Natural Reason. And then, for our knowledge of God here, our Place, our Academy, our University is the Church, our medium, is the Ordinance of God in his Church, Preaching, and Sacraments; and our light is the light of faith. Thus we shall find it to be, for our sight, and for our knowledge of God here. But for our sight of God in heaven, our place, our Sphere is heaven it self, our medium is the Patefaction, the Manifestation, the Revelation of God himself, and our light is the light of Glory. And then, for our knowledge of God there, God himself is All; God himself is the place, we see Him, in Him; God is our medium, we see Him, by him; God is our light; not a light which is His, but a light which is He; not a light which flows from him, no, nor a light which is in him, but that light which is He himself. Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, O Father of lights, that in thy light we may see light, that now we see this through this thy glass, thine Ordinance, and, by the good of this, hereafter face to face.

The sight is so much the Noblest of all the senses, as that it is all the senses. As the reasonable soul of man, when it enters, becomes all the soul of man, and he hath no longer a vegetative, and a sensitive soul, but all is that one reasonable soul; so, says S. Aug. (and he exemplifies it, by several pregnant places of Scripture) Visus per omnes sensus recurrit, All the senses are called Seeing; as there is videre & audire, S. John turned to see the sound; and there is Gustate, & videte, Taste, and see, how sweet the Lord is; And so of the rest of the senses, all is sight. Employ then this noblest sense upon the noblest object, see God; see God in everything, and then thou needest not take off thine eye from Beauty, from Riches, from Honor, from anything. S. Paul speaks here of a diverse seeing of God. Of seeing God in a glass, and seeing God face to face; but of not seeing God at all, the Apostle speaks not at all.

When Christ took the blind man by the hand, though he had then begun his cure upon him, yet he asked him, if he saw ought: Something he was sure he saw; but it was a question whether it were to be called a sight, for he saw men but as trees. The natural man sees Beauty, and Riches, and Honor, but yet it is a question whether he sees them or no, because he sees them, but as a snare. But he that sees God in them, sees them to be beams and evidences of that Beauty, that Wealth, that Honor, that is in God, that is God himself. The other blind man that importuned Christ, Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me, when Christ asked him, What wilt thou, that I shall do unto thee? Had presently that answer, Lord that I may receive my sight; And we may easily think, that if Christ had asked him a second question, What wouldst thou see, when thou hast received thy sight, he would have answered, Lord I would see thee; For when he had his sight, and Christ said to him, Go thy way, he had no way to go from Christ, but, as the Text says there, He followed him. All that he cared for, was seeing, all that he cared to see, was Christ. Whether he would see a Peace or a War, may be a States-man's Problem; whether he would see plenty or scarcity of some commodity, may be a Merchants Problem; whether he would see Rome, or Spain grow in greatness, may be a Jesuits Problem; But whether I had not rather see God then anything, is no Problematicall matter. All sight is blindness, that was our first; all knowledge is Ignorance, till we come to God, that is our next Consideration.

The first act of the will, is love, says the School; for till the will love, till it would have something, it is not a will. But then, Amare nisi nota non possumus; It is impossible to love anything till we know it: First our Understanding must present it as Verum, as a Knowne truth, and then our Will embraces it as Bonum, as Good, and worthy to be loved. Therefore the Philosopher concludes easily, as a thing that admits no contradiction. That naturally, all men desire to know, that they may love. But then, as the addition of an honest man, varies the signification, with the profession, and calling of the man, (for he is a honest man at Court, that oppresses no man with his power; and at the Exchange he is the honest man, that keeps his word; and in an Army, the Valiant man is the honest man) so the Addition of learned and understanding, varies with the man: The Divine, the Physician, the Lawyer are not qualified, nor denominated by the same kind of learning. But yet, as it is for honesty, there is no honest man at Court, or Exchange, or Army, if he believe not in God; so there is no knowledge in the Physician, nor Lawyer, if he know not God. Neither does any man know God, except he know him so, as God hath made himself known, that is, In Christ. Therefore, as S. Paul desires to know nothing else, so let no man pretend to know anything, but Christ Crucified; that is, Crucified for him, made his. In the eighth verse of this Chapt. he says, Prophesy shall fail, and Tongues shall fail, and Knowledge shall vanish; but this knowledge of God in Christ made mine, by being Crucified for me, shall dwell with me forever. And so from this general consideration, All sight is blindness, all knowledge is ignorance, but of God, we pass to the particular Consideration of that twofold sight and knowledge of God expressed in this Text, Now we see through a glass, &c.

First then we consider, (before we come to our knowledge of God) our sight of God in this world, and that is, says our Apostle, In speculo, we see as in a glass. But how do we see in a glass? Truly, that is not easily determined. The old Writers in the Optiques said, That when we see a thing in a glass, we see not the thing it self, but a representation only; All the later men say, we do see the thing it self, but not by direct, but by reflected beams. It is a useless labor for the present, to reconcile them. This may well consist with both, That as that which we see in a glass, assures us, that such a thing there is, (for we cannot see a dream in a glass, nor a fancy, nor a Chimera) so this sight of God, which our Apostle says we have in a glass, is enough to assure us, that a God there is.

This glass is better then the water; The water gives a crookedness, and false dimensions to things that it shows; as we see by an Oare when we row a Boat, and as the Poet describes a wry and distorted face, Qui faciem sub aqua Phoebe natant is habes, That he looked like a man that swomme under water. But in the glass, which the Apostle intends, we may see God directly, that is, see directly that there is a God. And therefore S. Cyrils addition in this Text, is a Diminution; Videmus quasi in fumo, says he, we see God as in a smoke; we see him better then so; for it is a true sight of God, though it be not a perfect sight, which we have this way. This way, our Theatre, where we sit to see God, is the whole frame of nature; our medium, our glass in which we see him, is the Creature; and our light by which we see him, is Natural Reason.

Aquinas calls this Theatre, where we sit and see God, the whole world; And David compasses the world, and finds God everywhere, and says at last, Whither shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; At Babel they thought to build to heaven; but did any men ever pretend to get above heaven? above the power of winds, or the impression of other malignant Meteors, some high hills are got: But can any man get above the power of God? If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, there thy right hand shall hold me, and lead me. If we sails to the waters above the Firmament, it is so too. Nay, take a place, which God never made, a place which grew out of our sins, that is Hell, yet, If we make our bed in hell, God is there too. It is a woeful Inn, to make our bed in, Hell; and so much the more woeful, as it is more then an Inn; an everlasting dwelling: But even there God is; and so much more strangely then in any other place, because he is there, without any emanation of any beam of comfort from him, who is the God of all consolation, or any beam of light from him, who is the Father of all lights. In a word, whether we be in the Eastern parts of the world, from whom the truth of Religion is passed, or in the Western, to which it is not yet come; whether we be in the darkness of ignorance, or darkness of the works of darkness, or darkness of oppression of spirit in sadness, The world is the Theatre that represents God, and everywhere every man may, nay must see him.

The whole frame of the world is the Theatre, and every creature the stage, the medium, the glass in which we may see God. Moses made the Laver in the Tabernacle, of the looking glasses of women: Scarce can you imagine a vainer thing (except you will except the vain lookers on, in that action) then the looking-glasses of women; and yet Moses brought the looking-glasses of women to a religious use, to show them that came in, the spots of dirt, which they had taken by the way, that they might wash themselves clean before they passed any farther.

There is not so poor a creature but may be thy glass to see God in. The greatest slat glass that can be made, cannot represent anything greater then it is: If every gnat that flies were an Arch-angel, all that could but tell me, that there is a God; and the poorest worm that creeps, tells me that. If I should ask the Basilisk, how camest thou by those killing eyes, he would tell me, Thy God made me so; And if I should ask the Slowworme, how camest thou to be without eyes, he would tell me, Thy God made me so. The Cedar is no better a glass to see God in, then the Hyssop upon the wall; all things that are, are equally removed from being nothing; and whatsoever hath any being, is by that very being, a glass in which we see God, who is the root, and the fountain of all being. The whole frame of nature is the Theatre, the whole Volume of creatures is the glass, and the light of nature, reason, is our light, which is another Circumstance.

Of those words, John 1.9. That was the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the World, the slackest sense that they can admit, gives light enough to see God by. If we spare S. Chrysostom's sense, That that light, is the light of the Gospel, and of Grace, and that that light, considered in itself, and without opposition in us, does enlighten, that is, would enlighten, every man, if that man did not wink at that light; If we forbear S. Augustine's sense, That light enlightens every man, that is, every man that is enlightened, is enlightened by that light; If we take but S. Cyrils sense, that this light is the light of natural Reason, which, without all question, enlighteneth every man that comes into the world, yet have we light enough to see God by that light, in the Theatre of Nature, and in the glass of Creatures. God affords no man the comfort, the false comfort of Atheism: He will not allow a pretending Atheist the power to flatter himself, so far, as seriously to think there is no God. He must pull out his own eyes, and see no creature, before he can say, he sees no God; He must be no man, and quench his reasonable soul, before he can say to himself, there is no God. The difference between the Reason of man, and the Instinct of the beast is this, That the beast does but know, but the man knows that he knows. The bestial Atheist will pretend that he knows there is no God; but he cannot say, that he knows, that he knows it; for, his knowledge will not stand the battery of an argument from another, nor of a ratiocination from himself. He dares not ask himself, who is it that I pray to, in a sudden danger, if there be no God? Nay he dares not ask, who is it that I swear by, in a sudden passion, if there be no God? Whom do I tremble at, and sweat under, at midnight, and whom do I curse by next morning, if there be no God? It is safely said in the School, Media perfecta ad quae ordinantur, How weak soever those means which are ordained by God, seem to be, and be indeed in themselves, yet they are strong enough to those ends and purposes, for which God ordained them.

And so, for such a sight of God, as we take the Apostle to intend here, which is, to see that there is a God, The frame of Nature, the whole World is our Theatre, the book of Creatures is our Medium, our glass, and natural reason is light enough. But then, for the other degree, the other notification of God, which is, The knowing of God, though that also be first to be considered in this world, the means is of a higher nature, then served for the sight of God; and yet, whilst we are in this World, it is but In aenigmate, in an obscure Riddle, a representation, darkly, and in part, as we translate it.

As the glass which we spoke of before, was proposed to the sense, and so we might see God, that is, see that there is a God, This anigma that is spoken of now, this dark similitude, and comparison, is proposed to our faith, and so far we know God, that is, Believe in God in this life, but by aenigmaes, by dark representations, and allusions. Therefore says S. Augustine, that Moses saw God, in that conversation which he had with him in the Mount, Sevocatus ab omni corporis sensu, Removed from all benefit and assistance of bodily senses, (He needed not that Glass, the help of the Creature) And more then so, Ab omni significativo aenigmate Spiritus, Removed from all allusions, or similitudes, or representations of God, which might bring God to the understanding, and so to the belief; Moses knew God by a more immediate working, then either sense, or understanding, or faith. Therefore says that Father, Per speculum & aenigma, by this which the Apostle calls a glass, and this which he calls aenigma, a dark representation Intelliguntur omnia accommodata ad notificandum Deum, He understands all things by which God hath notified himself to man: By the Glass, to his Reason, by the aenigma to his faith. And so, for this knowing of God, by way of Believing in him, (as for seeing him, our Theatre was the world, the Creature was our glass, and Reason was our light) Our Academy to learn this knowledge, is the Church, our Medium is the Ordinance and Institution of Christ in his Church, and our light is the light of faith, in the application of those Ordinances in that Church.

This place then where we take our degrees in this knowledge of God, our Academy, our University for that, is the Church; for, though, as there may be some few examples given, of men that have grown learned, who never studied at University; so there may be some examples of men enlightened by God, and yet not within that covenant which constitutes the Church; yet the ordinary place for Degrees is the University, and the ordinary place for Illumination in the knowledge of God, is the Church. There fore did God, whoever intended to have his Kingdom of Heaven well peopled, so powerfully, so miraculously enlarge his way to it, The Church, that it prospered as a wood, which no felling, no stubbing, could destroy. We find in the Acts of the Church, five thousand Martyrs executed in a day; And we find in the Acts of the Apostles five thousand brought to the Church, by one Sermon; still our Christnings were equal to our burials at least.

Therefore when Christ says to the Church, Fear not little flock, it was not Quia de magnominuitur, sed quia de pusillo crescit, says Chrysologus, Not because it should fall from great to little, but rise from little to great. Such care had Christ of the growth thereof; and then such care of the establishment, and power thereof, as that the first time, that ever he names the Church, he invests it with an assurance of perpetuity, Upon this Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; Therein is denoted the strength and stability of the Church in it self, and then the power and authority of the Church upon others, in those often directions, Dic Ecclesiae, complain to the Church, and consult with the Church, and then Audi Ecclesiam, Hearken to the Church, be judged by the Church; hear not them, that hear not the Church; And then Ejice de Ecclesia, let them that disobey the Church, be cast out of the Church. In all which, we are forbidden private Conventicles, private Spirits, private Opinions. For, as S. Augustine says well, (and he cites it from another whom he names not, Quidam dixit ) If a wall stand single, not joined to any other wall, he that makes a door through the wall, and passes through that door, Adhuc foris est, for all this is without still, Nam domus nonest, One wall makes not a house; One opinion makes not Catholic Doctrine, one man makes not a Church; for this knowledge of God, the Church is our Academy, there we must be bred; and there we may be bred all our lives, and yet learn nothing. Therefore, as we must be there, so there we must use the means; And the means in the Church, are the Ordinances, and Institutions of the Church.

The most powerful means is the Scripture; But the Scripture in the Church. Not that we are discouraged from reading the Scripture at home: God forbid we should think any Christian family to be out of the Church. At home, the holy Ghost is with thee in the reading of the Scriptures; But there he is with thee as a Remembrancer, ( The Holy Ghost shall bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you, says our Savior) Here, in the Church, he is with thee, as a Doctor to teach thee; First learn at Church and then meditate at home, Receive the seed by hearing the Scriptures interpreted here, and water it by returning to those places at home. When Christ bids you Search the Scriptures, he means you should go to them, who have a warrant to search; A warrant in their Calling. To know which are Scriptures, To know what the holy Ghost says in the Scriptures, apply thyself to the Church. Not that the Church is a Judge above the Scriptures, (for the power, and the Commission which the Church hath, it hath from the Scriptures) but the Church is a Judge above thee, which are the Scriptures, and what is the sense of the Holy Ghost in them.

So then thy means are the Scriptures; That is thy evidence: but then this evidence must be sealed to thee in the Sacraments, and delivered to thee in Preaching, and so sealed and delivered to thee in the presence of competent witnesses, the Congregation. When S. Paul was carried up In raptu, in an ecstacy, into Paradise, that which he gained by this powerful way of teaching, is not expressed in a Vidit, but an Audivit, It is not said that he saw, but that he heard unspeakable things. The eye is the devils door, before the ear: for, though he do enter at the ear, by wanton discourse, yet he was at the eye be fore; we see, before we talk dangerously. But the ear is the Holy Ghosts first door, He assists us with Ritual and Ceremonial things, which we see in the Church; but Ceremonies have their right use, when their right use hath first been taught by preaching. Therefore to hearing does the Apostle apply faith; And, as the Church is our Academy, and our Medium the Ordinances of the Church, so the light by which we see this, that is, know God so, as to make him our God, is faith; and that is our other Consideration in this part.

Those Heretics, against whom S. Chrysostom, and others of the Fathers writ, The Anomaei, were inexcusable in this, that they said, They were able to know God in this life, as well as God knew himself; But in this more especially lay their impiety, that they said, They were able to do all this by the light of Nature, without Faith. By the light of Nature, in the Theatre of the World, by the Medium of Creatures, we see God; but to know God, by believing, not only Him, but in Him, is only in the Academy of the Church, only through the Medium of the Ordinances there, and only by the light of Faith.

The Schooledoes ordinarily design four ways of knowing God; and they make the first of these four ways, to be by faith; but then, by faith they mean no more but an assent, that there is a God; which is but that, which in our former Considerations we called The seeing of God; and which indeed needs not faith; for the light of Nature will serve for that, to see God so. They make their second way Contemplation, that is, An union of God in this life; which is truly the same thing that we mean by Faith: for we do not call an assent to the Gospel, faith, but faith is the application of the Gospel to ourselves; not an assent that Christ died, but an assurance that Christ died for all. Their third way of knowing God is by Apparition; as when God appeared to the Patriarchs and others in fire, in Angels, or otherwise; And their fourth way is per apertam visionem, by his clear manifestation of himself in heaven.

Their first way, by assenting only, and their third way of apparition, are weak and uncertain ways. The other two, present Faith, and future Vision, are safe ways, but admit this difference, That that of future Vision, is gratiae consummantis, such a knowledge of God, as when it is once had can never be lost nor diminished, But knowledge by faith in this world, is Gratiae communis, it is an effect and fruit of that Grace which God shed upon the whole communion of Saints, that is, upon all those who in this Academy, the Church, do embrace the Medium, that is, the Ordinances of the Church; And this knowledge of God, by this faith, may be diminished, and increased; for it is but In aenigmate, says our Text, darkly, obscurely; Clearly in respect of the natural man, but yet but obscurely in respect of that knowledge of God which we shall have in heaven; for, says the Apostle, As long as we walk by faith, and not by sight, we are absent from the Lord. Faith is a blessed presence, but compared with heavenly vision, it is but an absence; though it create and constitute in us a possibility, a probability, a kind of certainty of salvation, yet that faith, which the best Christian hath, is not so far beyond that sight of God which the natural man hath, as that sight of God which I shall have in heaven, is above that faith which we have now in the highest exaltation. Therefore there belongs a consideration to that which is added by our Apostle here, That the knowledge which I have of God here (even by faith, through the ordinances of the Church) is but a knowledge in part. Now I know in part.

That which we call in part, the Syriac translates Modicum ex multis; Though we know by faith, yet, for all that faith, it is but a little of a great deal that we know yet, because, though faith be good evidence, yet faith is but the evidence of things not seen; And there is better evidence of them, when they are seen. For, if we consider the object, we cannot believe so much of God, nor of our happiness in him, as we shall see then. For, when it is said, that the heart comprehends it not, certainly faith comprehends it not neither: And if we consider the manner, faith itself is but darkness in respect of the vision of God in heaven: For, those words of the Prophet, I will search Jerusalem with Candles, are spoken of the times of the Christian Church, and of the best men in the Christian Church; yet they shall be searched with Candles, some darkness shall be found in them. To the Galatians well instructed, and well established, the Apostle says, Now, after ye have known God, or rather are known of God; The best knowledge that we have of God here, even by faith, is rather that he knows us, then that we know him. And in this Text, it is in his own person, that the Apostle puts the instance, Now I, (I, an Apostle, taught by Christ himself) know but in part. And therefore, as S. Augustine saith, Sunt quasi cunabula charitatis Dei, quibus diligimus proximum, The love which we bear to our neighbor is but as the Infancy, but as the Cradle of that love which we bear to God; so that sight of God which we have In speculo, in the Glass, that is, in nature, is but Cunabula fidei, but the infancy, but the cradle of that knowledge which we have in faith, and yet that knowledge which we have in faith, is but Cunabula visions, the infancy and cradle of that knowledge which we shall have when we come to see God face to face. Faith is infinitely above nature, infinitely above works, even above those works which faith itself produces, as parents are to children, & the tree to the fruit: But yet faith is as much below vision, and seeing God face to face. And therefore, though we ascribe willingly to faith, more then we can express, yet let no man think himself so infallibly safe, because he finds that he believes in God, as he shall be when he sees God; The faithfullest man in the Church must say, Domine adauge, Lord increase my faith; He that is least in the kingdom of heaven, shall never be put to that. All the world is but Speculum, a glass, in which we see God; The Church itself, and that which the Ordinance of the Church begets in us, faith itself, is but aenigma, a dark representation of God to us, till we come to that state, To see God face to face, and to know, as also we are known.

Now, as for the sight of God here, our Theatre was the world, our Medium and glass was the creature, and our light was reason, And then for our knowledge of God here, our Academy was the Church, our Medium the Ordinances of the Church, and our Light the light of faith, so we consider the same Termes, first, for the sight of God, and then for the knowledge of God in the next life. First, the Sphere, the place where we shall see him, is heaven; He that asks me what heaven is, means not to hear me, but to silence me; He knows I cannot tell him; When I meet him there, I shall be able to tell him, and then he will be as able to tell me; yet then we shall be but able to tell one another, This, this that we enjoy is heaven, but the tongues of Angels, the tongues of glorified Saints, shall not be able to express what that heaven is; for, even in heaven our faculties shall be finite. Heaven is not a place that was created; for, all place that was created, shall be dissolved. God did not plant a Paradise for himself, and remove to that, as he planted a Paradise for Adam, and removed him to that; But God is still where he was before the world was made. And in that place, where there are more Suns then there are Stars in the Firmament, (for all the Saints are Suns) And more light in another Sun, The Sun of righteousness, the Son of Glory, the Son of God, then in all them, in that illustration, that emanation, that effusion of beams of glory, which began not to shine 6000. years ago, but 6000. millions of millions ago, had been 6000. millions of millions before that, in those eternal, in those uncreated heavens, shall we see God.

This is our Sphere, and that which we are fain to call our place; and then our Medium, our way to see him is Patefactio sui, God's laying himself open, his manifestation, his revelation, his evisceration, and embowelling of himself to us, there. Doth God never afford this patefaction, this manifestation of himself in his Essence, to any in this life? We cannot answer yea, nor no, without offending a great part in the School, so many affirm, so many deny, that God hath been seen in his Essence in this life. There are that say, That it is fere de fide, little less then an article of faith, that it hath been done; And Aquinas denies it so absolutely, as that his Followers interpret him de absoluta potentia, That God by his absolute power cannot make a man, remaining a mortal man, and under the definition of a mortal man, capable of seeing his Essence; as we may truly say, that God cannot make a beast, remaining in that nature, capable of grace, or glory. S. Augustine speaking of discourses that passed between his mother, and him, not long before her death, says; Perambulavimus cuncta mortalia, & ipsum coelum, We talked ourselves above this earth, and above all the heavens; Venimus in mentes nostras, & transcendimus ease, We came to the consideration of our own minds, and our own souls, and we got above our own souls; that is, to the consideration of that place where our souls should be forever; and we could consider God then, but then we could not see God in his Essence. As it may be fairly argued that Christ suffered not the very torments of very hell, because it is essential to the torments of hell, to be eternal, They were not torments of hell, if they received an end; So is it fairly argued too, That neither Adam in his ecstacy in Paradise, nor Moses in his conversation in the Mount, nor the other Apostles in the Transfiguration of Christ, nor S. Paul in his rapture to the third heavens, saw the Essence of God, because he that is admitted to that sight of God, can never look off, nor lose that sight again. Only in heaven shall God proceed to this patefaction, this manifestation, this revelation of himself; And that by the light of glory.

The light of glory is such a light, as that our School-men dare not say confidently, That every beam of it, is not all of it. When some of them say, That some souls see some things in God, and others, others, because all have not the same measure of the light of glory, the rest cry down that opinion, and say, that as the Essence of God is indivisible, and he that sees any of it, sees all of it, so is the light of glory communicated entirely to every blessed soul. God made light first, and three days after, that light became a Sun, a more glorious Light: God gave me the light of Nature, when I quickened in my mothers womb by receiving a reasonable soul; and God gave me the light of faith, when I quickened in my second mothers womb, the Church, by receiving my baptism; but in my third day, when my mortality shall put on immortality, he shall give me the light of glory, by which I shall see himself. To this light of glory, the light of honor is but a glow-worm; and majesty itself but a twilight; The Cherubims and Seraphims are but Candles; and that Gospel itself, which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel, but a Star of the least magnitude. And if I cannot tell, what to call this light, by which I shall see it, what shall I call that which I shall see by it, The Essence of God himself? and yet there is something else then this sight of God, intended in that which remains, I shall not only see God face to face, but I shall know him, (which, as you have seen all the way, is above sight) and know him, even as also I am known.

In this Consideration, God alone is all; in all the former there was a place, and a means, and a light; here, for this perfect knowledge of God, God is all those. Then, sales the Apostle, God shall be all in all. Hic agit omnia in omnibus, says S. Jerome; Here God does all in all; but here he does all by Instruments; even in the infusing of faith, he works by the Ministry of the Gospel: But there he shall be all in all, do all in all, immediately by himself; for, Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. His Kingdom is the administration of his Church, by his Ordinances in the Church. At the resurrection there shall be an end of that Kingdom; no more Church; no more working upon men, by preaching, but God himself shall be all in all. Ministri quasi larvae Dei, says Luther. It may be somewhat too familiarly, too vulgarly said, but usefully; The ministry of the Gospel is but as God's Vizar; for, by such a liberty the Apostle here calls it aenigma, a riddle; or, (as Luther says too) God's picture; but in the Resurrection, God shall put of that Vizar, and turn away that picture, and show his own face. Therefore is it said, That in heaven there is no Temple, but God himself is the Temple; God is Service, and Musique, and Psalm, and Sermon, and Sacrament, and all. Erit vita de verbo sine verbo; We shall live upon the word, and hear never a word; live upon him, who being the word, was made flesh, the eternal Son of God. Hîc nonest omnia in omnibus, sed pars in singulis: Here God is not all in all; where he is at all in any man, that man is well; In Solomone sapientia, says that Father; It was well with Solomon, because God was wisdom with him, and patience in Job, and faith in Peter, and zeal in Paul, but there was something in all these, which God was not. But in heaven he shall be so all in all, Vt singuli sanctorum omnes virtutes habeant, that every soul shall have every perfection in itself; and the perfection of these perfections shall be, that their sight shall be face to face, and their knowledge as they are known.

Since S. Augustine calls it a debt, a double debt, a debt because she asked it, a debt because he promised it, to give, even a woman, Paulina, satisfaction in that high point, and mystery, how we should see God face to face in heaven, it cannot be unfit in this congregation, to ask and answer some short questions concerning that. Is it always a declaration of favor when God shows his face? No. I will set my face against that soul, that eateth blood, and cut him off. But when there is light joined with it, it is a declaration of favor; This was the blessing that God taught Moses for Aaron, to bless the people with, The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. And there we shall see him face to face, by the light of his countenance, which is the light of glory. What shall we see, by seeing him so, face to face? not to enlarge ourselves into Gregory's wild speculation, Qui videt videntem omnia, oninia videt, because we shall see him that sees all things, we shall see all things in him, (for then we should see the thoughts of men) rest we in the testimony of a safer witness, a Council, In speculo Divinit at is quicquid eorum intersit illucescet; In that glass we shall see, whatsoever we can be the better for seeing. First, all things that they believed here, they shall see there; and therefore, Discamus in terris, quorum scicntia nobiscum perseveret in Caelis, let us meditate upon no other things on earth, then we would be glad to think on in heaven; and this consideration would put many frivolous, and many fond thoughts out of our mind, if men and women would love another but so, as that love might last in heaven.

This then we shall get, concerning ourselves, by seeing God face to face; but what concerning God? nothing but the sight of the humanity of Christ, which only is visible to the eye. So Theodoret, so some others have thought; but that answers not the sicutiest; and we know we shall see God, (not only the body of Christ) as he is in his Essence. Why? did all that are said to have seen God face to face, fee his Essence? no. In earth God assumed some material things to appear in, and is said to have been seen face to face, when he was seen in those assumed forms. But in heaven there is no material thing to be assumed, and if God be seen face to face there, he is seen in his Essence. S. Augustine sums it up fully, upon those words, In lumine tuo, In thy light we shall see light, Te scilicet in te, we shall see thee in thee; that is, says he, face to face.

And then, what is it to know him, as we are known? First, is that it, which is intended here, That we shall know God so as we are known? It is not expressed in the Text so: It is only that we shall know so; not, that we shall know God so. But the frame, and context of the place, hath drawn that unanime exposition from all, that it is meant of our knowledge of God then. A comprehensive knowledge of God it cannot be; To comprehend is to know a thing as well as that thing can be known; and we can never know God so, but that he will know himself better: Our knowledge cannot be so dilated, nor God condensed, and contracted so, as that we can know him that way, comprehensively. It cannot be such a knowledge of God, as God hath of himself, nor as God hath of us; For God comprehends us, and all this world, and all the worlds that he could have made, and himself. But it is Nota similitudinis, non aequalitatis; As God knows me, so I shall know God; but I shall not know God so, as God knows me. It is not quantum, but sicut; not as much, but as truly; as the fire does as truly shine, as the Sun shines, though it shine not out so far, nor to so many purposes. So then, I shall know God so, as that there shall be nothing in me, to hinder me from knowing God; which cannot be said of the nature of man, though regenerate, upon earth, no, nor of the nature of an Angel in heaven, left to it self, till both have received a super-illustration from the light of Glory.

And so it shall be a knowledge so like his knowledge, as it shall produce a love, like his love, and we shall love him, as he loves us. For, as S. Chrysostom, and the rest of the Fathers, whom Oecumenius hath compacted, interpret it, Cognoscam practice, idest, accurrendo, I shall know him, that is, embrace him, adhere to him. Qualis sine fine festivitas! what a Holy-day shall this be, which no working day shall ever follow! By knowing, and loving the unchangeable, the immutable God, Mutabimur in immutabilitatem, we shall be changed into an unchangeableness, says that Father, that never said anything but extraordinarily. He says more, Dei praesentia si in inferno appareret, If God could be seen, and known in hell, hell in an instant would be heaven.

How many heavens are there in heaven? how is heaven multiplied to every soul in heaven, where infinite other happiness are crowned with this, this fight, and this knowledge of God there? And how shall all those heavens be renewed to us every day, Qui non mir abimur hodie, that shall be as glad to see, and to know God, millions of ages after every days seeing and knowing, as the first hour of looking upon his face. And as this seeing, and this knowing of God crowns all other joys, and glories, even in heaven, so this very crown is crowned; There grows from this a higher glory, which is, participes erimus Divinae naturae, (words, of which Luther says, that both Testaments afford none equal to them) That we shall be made partakers of the Divine nature; Immortal as the Father, righteous as the Son, and full of all comfort as the Holy Ghost.

Let me dismiss you, with an easy request of S. Augustine; Fieri non potest ut seipsum non diligat, qui Deum diligit; That man does not love God, that loves not himself; do but love yourselves: Imo solus se diligere novit, qui Deum diligit, Only that man that loves God, hath the art to love himself; do but love yourselves; for if he love God, he would live eternally with him, and, if he desire that, and endeavor it earnestly, he does truly love himself, and not otherwise. And he loves himself, who by seeing God in the Theatre of the world, and in the glass of the creature, by the light of reason, and knowing God in the Academy of the Church, by the Ordinances thereof, through the light of faith, endeavors to see God in heaven, by the manifestation of himself, through the light of Glory, and to know God himself, in himself, and by himself, as he is all in all; Contemplatively, by knowing as he is known, and Practically, by loving, as he is loved.

SERMON XXIV. Preached upon Easter-day. 1629.

W E celebrate this day, the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, Blessed forever; and in His, all ours; All, that is, the Resurrection of all Persons; All, that is, the Resurrection of all kinds, whether the Resurrection from calamities in this world, Ezekiel's Resurrection, where God says to him, Putasne vivent? Son of man doest thou think, these scattered Bones can live again? or the Resurrection from sin, S. John's Resurrection, Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection: Or of the Resurrection to Glory, S. Paul's Resurrection, that is, more argued, and more particularly established, by that Apostle, then by the rest. This Resurrection to glory, is the consummation of all the others; therefore we look especially at this; and in this, our qualification in this state of glory, is thus expressed by our Savior Christ himself, Erimus sicut Angeli, In the Resurrection, we shall be as the Angels. And that we might not flatter ourselves in a dream of a better estate, then the Angels have, in this text we have an intimation, what their state and condition is, Behold, he put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly.

In our handling of these words, these shall be our two parts; De quibus, and De quo; Of whom these words are spoken, and then of what; First, what is positively said, and then, what is consequently inferred; what proposed, and what concluded; what of the Angels, and then, what of us, who shall be like the Angels. In the first, the Persons of whom these words are spoken, because, though our Interpreters vary in opinions, yet even from their various opinions, there arise good instructions, we shall rather Problematically inquire, then Dogmatically establish, first, whether these words were spoken of Angels, or no; whether this word Angel, in this text, be not (as it is in many other places of Scriptures, and in the nature of the Word it self) communicable to other servants, and other messengers then those, whom ordinarily we intend, when we say Angels; and then secondly, if the words be spoken of Angels, then, whether of Good or Bad Angels, of those which stand now, or those which fell at first; and again, if of those that stand, then what degree of perfection they have, and what that which we use to call their Confirmation, is, how it accrues to them, and how it works in them, if even of them it be said, Behold, he put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly. In our second part, what was inferd upon these premisses, what was concluded out of these propositions, what reflected upon us, by this assimilation of ours to the Angels, because it is a matter of much weight, we shall first, in our entrance into that part, consider the weight of the testimony, in the Person that gives it; for it is not Job himself that speaks these words; It is but one of his friends; but Elephaz, but the Temanite, a Gentile, a stranger from the Covenant and the Church of God, and yet his words are part of the Word of God. And then for the matter that is inferd, from our assimilation to the state of Angels, will be fairly collected, that if those Angels stand, but by the support of Grace, & not by anything inseparably inhering in their nature, when we are at our best, in heaven, we shall do but so neither; much less whilst we are upon earth, have we in us any impossibility of falling, by anything already done for us; Our standing is merely from the grace of God, and therefore let no man ascribe anything to himself; and Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; for, God hath done no more for the best of us, here nor hereafter, then for those Angels, and of them we hear here, He put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly.

First then, for our first Disquisition, in our first part, De quibus, the persons of whom these words are spoken. Amongst all our Expositors of this book of Job, (which are very many) and amongst all Authors, Ancient and Moderne, which have had occasion in their Sermons and Tractates to reflect upon this text, (which are many more, infinite) I have never observed more then one, that denies these words to be spoken of Angels, or that there is any mention, any intention, any intimation of Angels, in these words. And, (which is the greater wonder) this one single man, who thus departs from all, and prefers himself above all, is no Jesuit neither; It is but a Capuccin, but Bolduc upon this Book of Job, and yet he adventures to say, That that Person of whom it is said in this text, He put no trust in his Servants, and He charged his Angels with folly, is not God; and that they of whom it is said, He trusted not his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly, are not Angels; But that all that Eliphaz intended in all this passage of Job, was no more but this, That no great Person must trust in any kind of Greatness, particularly not in great retinues, and dependencies, of many servants, and powerful instruments, for that was Job's own case, and yet he lost them all. The doctrine truly is good; neither should I suddenly condemn his singularity, if it were well grounded. For, though in the exposition of Scriptures, singularity always carry a suspicion with it, singularity is Indicium, (as we say in the Law) some kind of evidence, It is Semi-probatio, a kind of half-proof against that man, that holds an opinion, or induces an interpretation different from all other men; yet as these which we call Indicia, in the Law, work but so, as that they may bring a man to his oath, or, in some cases, to the rack, and to torture, but are not, alone sufficient to condemn him; So if we find this singularity in any man, we take from thence just occasion to question and sift him, and his Doctrine, the more narrowly, but not only upon that, presently to condemn him. For this was S. Augustine's case; S. Augustine induced new Doctrines, in divers very important points, different from all that had written before him; but, upon due examination, for all his singularity, the Church hath found reason to adhere to him, in those points, ever since his reasons prevailed. In our single Capuccins case here in our text, it is not so.

And therefore here we must continue that complaint, which we are often put to make, of the iniquity of the Roman Church to us; If the Fathers seem to agree in any point, wherein we differ from them, they cry out, we depart from the Fathers; If we adhere to the Fathers, in any point, in which they differ from them, then they cry out, we forsake the Church; Still they press us with their Trent-Canon, You must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers, and yet they suffer a single Capuccin of their own, to depart from the Fathers, and Sons, from the Ancient and Moderne Expositors in their own Church, And, I may add, from the Holy Ghost too, from the evident purpose and meaning of the place, in more places, then any Author, whom I have seen, and in this, more then in any other place, when he says, with such assurance, that in these words, He put no trust in his Servants, and his Angels he charged with folly, there is no mennon, no intention of God, or Angels, but it is only spoken of men, of the infidelity of servants, and of the insecurity of Masters relying upon such dependencies.

We take this then, as All do, All, (for this single Capuccin makes no considerable exception, more then a mole-hill to the roundness of the earth) to be spoken of Angels, which was our first problem and disquisition; And our second is, being spoken of Angels, of what Angels they are spoken, Good or Bad, of those that fell, or those that stood. Here we meet with the same rub as before, singularity. For, amongst all our Expositors upon this book, I have not observed any other then Calvin, to interpret this place, of the good Angels, of those that stand confirmed in grace. Not that Calvin is to be left alone, in that opinion, as though he were the only man, that thought that the good Angels, considered in themselves, might be defective in the offices committed unto them by God; for, it is evident that Origen in divers of his Homilies upon the book of Numbers, in his twentieth, and twenty two, and four, and twenty sixth, and in his thirteenth Homily upon S. Luke, And as evident that S. Jerome himself upon the first verse of the sixth Chapter of Micah, thought and taught, That those good Angels whom God appoints for the tuition of certain men, and certain places, in this world, shall give an account at the day of Judgment, of the execution of their office, whether the men committed to them, have not fallen sometimes by their fault, and their dereliction; for so does he (and not he only) understand that place, That we shall judge the Angels; As also those words in the beginning of the Revelation, which S. John is commanded by Christ, to write to the Angels of certain Churches, that Father, S. Jerome interprets not only of figurative, and Metaphoricall Angels, the Bishops of those Churches, but literally of the Angels of Heaven.

So then Calvin is from any singularity in that, That the good Angels considered in themselves, may be defective; but because he may be singular in interpreting this Text, of good Angels, (as for ought I have observed he is) this singularity of his, may be a just reason of suspending our assent, but not a just reason presently to condemn his exposition. The Church must beas just to him, as it was to S. Augustine, that is, to examine his grounds. And truly, his ground is fair; his ground is firm. It is this, that though this seem to derogato from the honor of Angels, that being confirmed, they should be subject to weakness, yet, says he, we must not pervert, nor force any place of Scripture, for the honor of the Angels. For indeed, the perverting, and forcing of Scriptures, for the over-honoring of Saints, hath induced a chain of Heresies in the Roman Church. And that this is a forcing of Scripture, to understand this Text of fallen Angels, Calvin argues rationally, That those Angels which are spoken of here, are called the servants of God; And devils are but his slaves, not his servants; They execute his will, but against their will; Good Angels are the servants of God; Nor shall we easily find that Title, The servant of God, applied to ill persons in the Scriptures. Therefore, (as he notes usefully) God doth not charge Angels in this Text, with rebellion, or obstination, or any heinous crime, but only with folly, weakness, infirmity, from which, in all degrees, none but God himself can be free. Though therefore there be no such necessity of accepting this exposition, as should produce that confident asseveration which he comes to, Dubium non est, It can admit no doubt, but this place must be thus understood, (for, by his favor, it may admit a doubt) yet neither is there any such newness in it, (because it is grounded upon Truth, and all Truth is ancient) but that it may very well be received; And therefore, as the sense that is most fit to advance his purpose that speaks it, (which is one principal thing to be considered in every place) as the sense that most conduces to Eliphaz his end, and to prove that which he intends to Job, without laying obligation upon any to think so, or imputation upon any that doth not think so, we accept this interpretation of these words; that they are spoken of Angels, (which was our first) and of good Angels, (which was our second disquifition) and now proceed to our third, what their confirmation is, and how it works, if for all that, God put no trust in those servants, but charged those Angels with folly.

That Moses did speak nothing of the fall, or of the confirmation of Angels, may justly seem a convenient reason to think, that he meant to speak nothing of the creation of Angels neither. If Moses had intended to have told us of the creation of Angels, he would have told us of their fall, and confirmation too; as having told us so particularly of the making of man, he tells us as particularly of the fall of man, and the restitution of man, by the promise of a Messiah in Paradise.

And therefore, that the Angels are wrapped up in that word of Moses, The Heavens, and that they were made when the heavens were made, or that they are wrapped up in that word of Moses, The Light, and that they were made, when Light was made, is all but conjectural, & cloudy: Neither doth any article of that Creed, which we call the Apostles, direct us upon any consideration of Angels. That they were created long before this world, all the Greek Fathers of the Eastern Church did constandy think; And in the Western Church, amongst the Latin Fathers, S. Jerome himself was so clear in it, as to say, Sex millia, nostri orbis, nondum implentur anni, Our world is not yet six thousand years old, Et quantas aternitates, quantas saeculorum origines, says that Father, what infinite revolutions of ages, what infinite eternities, did the Powers, and Principalities, and Thrones, and Angels of God, serve God in before? Theodoret that thinks not so, thinks it not against any article of Faith, to think that it was so. Aquinas, that thinks not so, will not call it an error, to think so, out of a reverence to Athanasius, and Nazianzen, who did think so; for that is an indelible character, which S. Jerome hath imprinted printed upon those two Fathers, That no man ever durst impute error to Athanasius, or Nazianzen. Therefore S. Augustine says moderately, and with that discreet and charitable temper which becomes every man, in matters that are not fundamental, Vt volet, unusquisq accipiat; I forbid no man, says he, either opinion, That the Angels were made before the world, or with it; Dum non Deo coaeternos, & de vera foelicitate securos non ambigat; Only this I forbid him, that he do not believe the Angels to be coeternal with God; For, if they were never made, but subsist of themselves, then they are God, If they be not creatures, they are Creators; And then, this I forbid him too, says he, That he do not think the Angels now in any danger of falling. So that S. Augustine makes this, matter of faith, That the Angels cannot fall; Nor hath S. Augustine any adversary in that point; we only inquire how they acquired this Infallibility, and assurance in their station. For, if they were made so long before this world, and fell when this world was made, since they that had stood so long, fell then, why may not they that stand yet, fall now? They are supported and established by a confirmation, says the School; And that is our present and ordinary answer; and it is enough; But how, or when was this confirmation sealed upon them, or how doth it work in them, if God do not yet trust these servants, but charge these Angels with folly?

That the Angels were created Viatores, and not Beati, in a possibility of everlasting blessedness, but not in actual possession of it, admits no doubt, because some of them did actually fall. Of whom S. Augustine says, Beatae vitae dulcedinem nongustaverunt, nec fastidiverunt acceptam; The Angels had not already fed upon Manna, and then were weary of that; Non ex eo quod acceperant, ceciderunt, sed ex eo, quod, si subdi Deo voluissent, accepissent, They fell not from that which they were come to, but from that, to which, if they had applied themselves to God, they should have come. So that then, they were not created in a state of blessedness, but in a way to it; and there was in them Pinguedo spiritus (as S. Jerome says elegantly) they were mere spirits; but if we compare them with God, there was a certain fleshliness, says he, a certain fatness, a slipprinesse of falling into a worse state, for anything that was in their nature; and the nature of those that fell, and those that stood, is all one, neither is their nature that do stand, changed by the benefit of their confirmation. Hence is it, that the Fathers are both so evident, and so concurrent in that assertion, That an Angel is a spirit, Gratiâ, & non Naturà immortalitatem suscipiens, that is, Immortal, but Immortal by additional Grace, and not by Nature. Take it in the eldest; Immortalitas eorum ex aliena voluntate pendet, they have an Immortality, but dependant upon the will of another. And agreeably to thē another, Quia ortum habuerunt, occidere possunt, Because the Angels were produced of nothing, they may be reduced to nothing; for, Solus Deus naturaliter immortalis, says that Father, Only God is immortal in himself, and by nature. And bring it from the elder to later Fathers, still we shall meet that which was said before by them, and S. Bernard says after, Non creati, sed facti immortales, they were not created at first, but made immortal after. Which S. Jerome carries even to a spiritual death, the death of sin; Licet non peccent, peccati tamen sunt capaces, says he; though Angels do not sin, if they were left to themselves, they might fin; As S. Ambrose expresses the same thing elegantly, Non in praejudicium trahas, you must not draw that into consequence, nor conclude so, Non moritur Gabriel, Vriel, Raphael non moritur, That the Angel Gabriel doth not die, Raphael, Vriel doth not die, therefore an Angel, and considered in his own nature, cannot die; for such an impossibility of dying, as in the soul of man, all agree to be in Angels; for, We shall be like the Angels, which cannot die, says Christ. But how this Immortality, and Infallibility accrues to them, and works in them, is still under our disquisition, since In these his servants God puts no trust, but charges these Angels with folly.

We have in the Ecclesiastical Story, a story of Alamandurus, a King of the Saracens, who having been converted, and baptized, and catechized in the true faith, was after attempted by some Bishops in his Court, of the Eutychian heresy. The Eutychian heresy was, That the divine nature in Christ, the Godhead, suffered as well as the Human; and the good King, providing a Packet of Intelligence to be delivered him, or something to be whispered in his ear in the presence of those heretical Bishops, upon reading thereof he told them, that he had received news, That Michael the Archangel was dead; And when those Bishops rejected that with a scorn, Alas Sir, Gabriel cannot die, Angels cannot die, The King replied, if an Angel cannot die, if an Angel be impassible, why would you make me believe, that the God-head itself, the Divine Nature suffered in Christ? So we see, that the piety of a religious King was able to maintain his holy station, even against the real practices of heretical Court Bishops. A pious and religious King should not easily be suspected of that levity, to hearken to impious and heretical motions, though there were good evidence, that that were practiced upon him; much less, when the fears in himself, and in those which should practice upon him, are but imaginary, and proceed, (as by God's grace they do) rather out of zeal that it may not be so, then out of evidence that it is so. Zeal distempered, (and God knows, zeal is not always well tempered) will think an Alamandurus, a constant and impregnable King, easily shaked; and zeal distempered will think an Athanasius, a Nazianzen, an Eutychian Bishop. Woe, when God's sword is in the Devils hand! zeal is God's sword; uncharitableness is the Devils. When God gave a flaming sword to the Cherubims in Paradise, they make good that place, but that sword killed nobody, wounded nobody. God gives good men zeal; zeal to make good their station, zeal to conserve the integrity and the sincerity of Religion, but this zeal should not wound, not defame any man. Faith comes by hearing, by hearing Sermons, and God sends us many of them; Charity goes out by hearing, by hearing rumors, and the Devil sends many of them. God continue our faith, and restore our charity.

That Angels are impassible, that they cannot sin, that they cannot die, all say; but that, if they were left to themselves, without the support of additional grace, they might do both; not only the Ancient Fathers, but, both the first School, from Damascene, and the middle School, from Lombard, and the later School, (if we except only those Authors that have writ since the Lateran Council, I mean the later Lateran Council, in our Fathers times, (under Leo the tenth) in which Council, it was first determined, that the soul of man (and consequently Angels) was immortal by nature) do weigh down the scale on that side, That God does not so trust in those servants, nor so discharge them, of all weakness, but that they might fall, but for this support of grace, which is their Confirmation. Now how is this conferred upon them?

In Christ certainly; In Christ the Father reconciled to himself all things in earth, and in heaven. How? Not as a Redeemer; for those that fell, and thereby needed a redemption, never were, never shall be redeemed; but as a Mediator, an Intercessor in their behalf, that those that do stand, may stand forever. For, therefore, says S. Augustine, do the Angels refuse sacrifice at our hands, Quia & ipsis nohiscum sacrificium norunt, Because they know that there is one sacrifice offered to God, for them, and for us too, that is Christ Jesus, a propitiation for them, and us; For us, by way of redemption; for them, by way of Mediation, and Intercession. In such a sense, as S. Augustine confesses that God had forgiven him the sins he never did, because but for his grace he should have done them, the Angels are well said to have received a reconciliation in Christ, because, but for his mediation, they might have fallen into God's displeasure. Upon those words, that God shown Adam his judgments, Quae judicia? says that Bishop Catharinus, what judgments did God show Adam? Iudicia pessimorum spirituum, says he, the better to contain Adam in his duty, God declared to him, the judgment that he had executed upon those disobedient Angels. So that, as Adam, if he had made a right use of God's grace, had been immortal in his body, and yet not immortal then, by nature, as our bodies in the state of glory in the resurrection, shall be immortal, and yet not immortal then by nature; so no Angel, after this Confirmation, (that is, the mediation of Christ applied to him) shall fall: For, Quis Catholicus ignorat, nullum novum Diabolum ex bonis Angels futurum? Who can pretend to be a Catholic, and believe, that ever there shall be any new Devil from amongst the good Angels? And yet, by the way, many of the Ancient Fathers thought that those words, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men to be fair, and fell in love with them, were meant of good Angels, who fell in love with those women, that were committed to their charge, and that they sinned in so doing, and that they never returned to heaven, but fell to the first fallen Angels: So that those Fathers have more then implied a possibility of falling into sin, and punishment for sin, in the good Angels.

But this none says now; nor with any probability ever did. It is enough that they stand confirmed, confirmed by the grace of God in Christ Jesus; so that now, being in possession of the sight of God, and the light of G • ry, their understanding is perfectly illustrated, so that they can apprehend nothing erroneously, and therefore their will is perfectly rectified, so that they can desire nothing irregularly, and therefore they cannot sin, and therefore they cannot die; for all sin is from the perverseness of the will, and all disorder in the will from error in the understanding; In heaven they are, and we, by our assimilation to them, shall be free from both, and impeccable, and impassible, by the continual grace of God; Though if they, or we were left to ourselves, even there, God could put no trust in his servants, nor leave his Angels uncharged with folly. And so we have done with the pieces, which constitute our first part, De quibus, of whom these words are spoken; First, that they were spoken of Angels, rejecting that single Capuccin, who only denies it; and then, of good Angels, accepting Calvin's interpretation, because, though he be singular in applying this Text to that Doctrine, yet in the Doctrine itself, he hath authority enough, and fair reasons for the Text it self; and lastly, how that which we call Confirmation in those Angels accrewes to them, and how it works in them. And so we pass to our second Part, what is inferred upon these premisses, what concluded upon these propositions, what by our assimilation to Angels, reflects upon us.

And here, because the matter is of much consideration, we proposed first to be considered, the weight and validity of the testimony, in the person of him that gives it; for many times the credit of the restimony depends much upon the credit of the witness. And here, it is not Job himself, it is but Eliphaz, Eliphaz the Temanite, an Alien, a stranger to the Covenant, and Church of God. But surely no greater a stranger, then those secular Poets, whose sentences S. Paul cites not only in his Epistles, but in his Sermons too. Certainly not so great a stranger, as the Devil, and yet in how many places of Scripture, are words spoken by the Devil himself inserted into the Scriptures, and thereby, so far made the word of God, as that the word of God, the Bible, were not perfect norintire to us, if we had not those words of those Poets, those words of the Devil himself in it? How can I doubt but that God can draw good out of ill, and make even some sin of mine, some occasion of my salvation, when the God of truth can make the word of the father of lies, his word? There is but one place in all this Book of Job cited in the New Testament; that is, He taketh the wise in their own craft; and those words are not spoken by Job himself, but by this very friend of Job, this Eliphaz, that speaks in our Text; and yet they are cited, in the phrase, and manner, in which holy Scripture is ordinarily cited, It is written, says the Apostle there, and so the Holy Ghost, that spoke in S. Paul, hath canonized the words spoken by Eliphaz.

But besides the credit which these words have, à posteriori, that they are after inserted into the word of God, (which is another manner of credit, and authentiquenesse, then that which the Canonists speak of, that when any sentence of a Father is cited, and inserted into a Decretal Epistle of a Pope, or any part of the Canon Law, that sentence is thereby made authentical, and canonical) these words have their credit à priori, for, before be spake them to Job, he received them in a vision from God. I had a vision in the night, says he, and fear, and trembling came upon me, and a spirit stood before me, and I heard this voice.

Neither is there any necessity, no nor reason, to charge Eliphaz with a false relation, or counterfeiting a revelation from God, which he had not had, as some Expositors have done. For, howsoever in some argumentations, and applyings of things to Job's particular case, we may find some errors in Eliphaz, in modo probandi, in the manner of his proceeding, yet we shall not find him to proceed upon false grounds; and therefore, we believe Eliphaz to have received this that he says, from God, in a vision, and for the instruction of a man, more in God's favor then himself, of Job. Balaam had the reputation of a great Wizard, and yet God made his Ass wiser then he, and able to instruct and catechize him. Generally we are to receive our instructions from God's established Ordinances, from his ordinary means afforded to us, in his Church: And where those means, sufficient in themselves, are duly exhibited to us, we are not to hearken after revelations, nor to believe everything, that may have some such apparance, to be a revelation.

But yet, we are not so to conclude God in his Law, as that he should have no Prerogative, nor so to bind him up in his Ordinances, as that he never can, or never does work by an extraordinary way of revelation. Neither must the profusion of miracles, the prodigality and prostitution of miracles in the Roman Church, (where miracles for every natural disease may be had, at some Shrine, or miracle-shop, better cheap, then a Medicine, a Drugge, a Simple at an Apothecaries) bring us to deny, or distrust all miracles, done by God upon extraordinary causes, and to important purposes. Eliphaz was a profane person, and yet received a Vision from God, and for the instruction of Job himself.

What was it? we see ver. 17. Shall mortal man be more just then God, shall a man be more pure then his Maker? Why? Did this Doctrine need this solemnity, this preparation, that Eliphaz gives it, v. 8. That it was a thing told him in secret, and such a secret, that he was able to comprehend but a little at once of it? Is there any such incomprehensiblenesse, any such difficulty in this Doctrine, That no mortal man is more just then God, no man more pure then his Maker, but that the shallowest capacity may receive it, and the shortest memory retain it? Needs this a Revelation, an extraordinary conveyance? For the general knowledge it does not; Every man will say, he knows mortal man cannot be more just then God, nor any man purer then his Maker; But, for the particular consideration it does. Every justifying a sin, is a making mortal man more just then God; when I come to say, With what justice can God punish a nights, or an hours sin, with everlasting torments? Every murmuring at God's corrections is a making man purer then God; when I come to say, Does not God depart farther from the purity of his nature, when he is an angry, and a vindicative God, then I from mine, when I am an amorous, or wanton man? We that are but mortal men, must not think, says Eliphaz, to make ourselves purer then our Maker; for, they, who in their nature, are much purer then we, the Angels, are far short of that, for, God put no trust in those servants, and those Angels he charged with folly.

So then, though Eliphaz his premisses reach to the Angels, and their state, his inference and his last purpose falls upon us, who, by God's goodness, become capable of succession into the place of the Angels that are fallen, and of an association, and assimilation to those Angels that stand. And our assimilation is this, That as they have in their station, we also shall have in ours, a faithful certitude, that we shall never fall out of the arms and bosom of our gracious God. But then, there arises to us a sweeter relish in considering this stability, this perpetuity, this infallibility to consist in the continual succession, and supply of grace, then in any one act, which God hath done for them, or us. I conceive a more effectual delight, when I consider God to have so wrought the confirmation of Angels, that he hath taken them into a state of glory, and a fruition of his sight, and to perpetuate that state unto them, perpetually superinfuses upon them more and more beams of that glory, then if I should consider God to have confirmed them, with such a measure of grace, at once, as that he could not withdraw, or they could forfeit that grace. For, as there is no doubt made by the Fathers, nor by the School, but that that light which the Apostles saw at the Transfiguration of Christ, was that very light of glory, which they see now in Heaven, and yet they lost the sight of that light again; so is there no violation of any Article of our Faith, if we concur in opinion with them, who say, That S. Paul in his ecstacy, in his rapture into the third heaven, did see that very light of glory, which constitutes the Beatifical Vision, and yet did lose that light again.

Truly to me, this consideration, That as his mercy is new every morning, so his grace is renewed to me every minute, That it is not by yesterdaies grace that I live now, but that I have Panem quotidianum, and Panem horarium, My daily bread, my hourly bread, in a continual succession of his grace, That the eye of God is open upon me, though I wink at his light, and watches over me, though I sleep, That God makes these returns to my soul, and so studies me in every change, this consideration, infuses a sweeter verdure, and imprints a more cheerful tincture upon my soul, then any taste of any one Act, done at once, can minister unto me. God made the Angels all of one natural condition, in nature all alike; and God gave them all such grace, as that thereby they might have stood; and to them that used that grace aright, he gave a farther, a continual succession of grace, and that is their Confirmation; Not that they cannot, but that they shall not fall; not that they are safe in themselves, but by God's preservation safe; for, otherwise, He puts no trust in those Servants, and those Angels he charges with folly.

This is our case too; ours that are under the blessed Election, and good purpose of God upon us; if we do not fall from him, it is not of ourselves; for left to ourselves, we should: For, so S. Augustine interprets those words of our Savior, Pater operatur, My Father worketh still; God hath not accomplished his work upon us, in one Act, though an Election; but he works in our Vocation, and he works in our Justification, and in our Sanctification he works still. And, if God himself be not so come to his Sabbath, and his rest in us, but that he works upon us still for all that Election, shall any man think to have such a Sabbath, such a rest, in that Election, as shall slacken our endeavor, to make sure our Salvation, and not work as God works, to his ends in us? Hence then we banish all self-subsistence, all attributing of any power, to any faculty of our own; either by preoperation, in any natural or moral disposing of ourselves, before God's preventing grace dispose us, or by such a cooperation, as should put God and man in Commission together, or make grace and nature Collegues in the work, or that God should do one half, and man the other; or any such post-operation, That I should think to proceed in the ways of godliness, by virtue of God's former grace, without imploring, and obtaining more, in a continual succession of his concomitant grace, for every particular action: In Christ I can do all things; I need no more but him; without Christ, I can do nothing; not only not have him, but not know that I need him; for I am not better then those Angels, of whom it is said, He put no trust in those Servants, and those Angels he charged with folly.

And as we banish from hence all self-subsistence, all opinion of standing by ourselves, so do we also all impeccability, and all impossibility of falling in ourselves, or in anything, that God hath already done for us, if he should discontinue his future grace, and leave us to our former stock. They that were raised from death to life again, Dorcas, Lazarus, and the rest, were subject to sin, in that new life, which was given them. They that are quickened by the soul of the soul, Election it self, are subject to sin, for all that. God sees the sins of the Elect, and sees their sins to be sins; and in his Ephemerides, his journals, he writes them down, under that Title, sins, and he reads them every day, in that book, as such; and they grow greater and greater in his sight, till our repentance have washed them out of his sight. Casuists will say, that though a dead man raised to life again, be not bound to his former marriage, yet he is bound to that Religion, that he had invested in Baptism, and bound to his former religious vows, and the same obedience to Superiors as before. We were all dead in Adam; and he that is raised again, even by Election, though he be not so married to the world, as others are, not so in love with sin, not so under the dominion of sin, yet he is as much bound to an obedience to the Will of God declared in his Law, and may no more presume of a liberty of sinning before, nor of an impunity of sin after, then he that pretends no such Election, to confide in. For, this is excellently said, to be the working of our election, by Prosper, the Disciple of S. Augustine's Doctrines, and the Echo of his words, Vt fiat permanendi voluntaria, foelixque necessitas, That our assurance of salvation by perseverance, is necessary, and yet voluntary; Consider it in God's purpose, easily it cannot, consider it in ourselves, it might be resisted. For we are no better then those Angels, and, In those servants he put no trust, and those Angels he charged with folly.

But such as they are, we shall be: And, since with the Lord there is Copiosa Redemptio, Plenteous Redemption, that overflowing mercy of our God, those super-superlative Merits of our Savior, that plenteous Redemption, may hold even in this particular blessedness, in our assimilation to them, That as, though there fell great numbers of Angels, yet great, and greater then they that fell, stood, So though The way to Heaven be narrow, and the gate strait, (which is said by Christ, to excite our industry, and are rather an expression arising out of his mercy, lest we should slacken our holy endeavors, then any intimidation, or commination) (for though the way be narrow, and the gate strait, yet the room is spacious enough within) why, by this plenteous redemption, may we not hope, that many more then are excluded, shall enter there? Those words, The dragons tail drew the third part of the stars from Heaven, the Fathers generally interpret of the fall of Angels with Lucifer; and it was but a third part; And by God's grace, whose mercy is overflowing, whose merits are super-abundant, with whom there is plenteous redemption, the serpent gets no farther upon us. I know some say, that this third part of the stars, is meant of eminent persons, illustrated and assisted with the best means of salvation, and, if a third of them, how many meanlier furnished, fall? But, those that we can consider to be best provided of means of salvation, nextto these, are Christians in general; and so may this plenteous Redemption be well hoped to work, that but a third part of them, of Christians, shall perish; and then the God of this plenteous Redemption having promised us, that the Christian Religion shall be carried over all the world, still the number of those that shall be saved is enlarged.

Apply to thyself that which S. Cyril says of the Angels, Tristaris, quia aliqui vitam amiserunt? Does it grieve thee, that any are fallen? At plures meliorem statum apud Deum obtinent, Let this comfort thee, even in the application thereof to thyself, that more stood then fell. As Elisha said to his servant, in a danger of surprisal, Fear not, for they that be with us, are more then they that are with them, so, if a suspicion of the paucity of them that shall be saved, make thee afraid, look up upon this overflowing mercy of thy God, this super-abundant merit of thy Savior, this plenteous Redemption, and thou mayest find, find in a fair credulity, and in a well regulated hope, more with thee, then with them that perish. Live so, in such a warfare with temptations, in such a colluctation with thy concupiscences, in such a jealousy, and suspicion of thine indifferent, nay, of thy best actions, as though there were but one man to be saved, and thou wouldst be that one; But live and die in such a sense of this plenteous Redemption of thy God, as though neither thou, nor any could lose salvation, except he doubted of it. I doubt not of mine own salvation; and in whom can I have so much occasion of doubt, as in myself? When I come to heaven, shall I be able to say to any there, Lord! how got you hither? Was any man less likely to come thither then I? There is not only an Only God in heaven; But a Father, a Son, a Holy Ghost in that God; which are names of a plurality, and sociable relations, conversable notions. There is not only one Angel, a Gabriel; But to thee all Angels cry alond; and Cherubim, and Seraphim, are plural terminations; many Cherubs, many Seraphs in heaven. There is not only one Monarchall Apostle, a Peter, but The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee. There is not only a Proto-Martyr, a Stephen, but The noble army of Martyrs praise thee. Who ever amongst our Fathers, thought of any other way to the Moluccaes, or to China, then by the Promontory of Good hope? Yet another way opened itself to Magellan; a Straite; it is true; but yet a way thither; and who knows yet, whether there may not be a North-East, and a North-West way thither, besides? Go thou to heaven, in an humble thankfulness to God, and holy cheerfulness, in that way that God hath manifested to thee; and do not pronounce too bitterly, too desperately, that every man is in an error, that thinks not just as thou thinkest, or in no way, that is not in thy way. God found folly, weakness in his Angels, yet more stood then fell; God finds weakness, wickedness in us, yet he came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; and who, that comes in that capacity, a Repentant sinner, can be shut out, or denied his part in this Resurrection?

The key of David opens, and no man shuts. The Son of David, is the key of David, Christ Jesus; He hath opened heaven for us all; let no man shut out himself, by diffidence in God's mercy, nor shut out any other man, by overvaluing his own purity, in respect of others. But forbearing all lacerations, and tearings, and woundings of one another, with bitter invectives, all exasperations by odious names of subdivision, let us all study, first the redintegration of that body, of which Christ Jesus hath declared himself to be the head, the whole Christian Church, and pray that he would, and hope that he will enlarge the means of salvation to those, who have not yet been made partakers of it. That so, he that called the gates of heaven strait, may say to those gates, Elevamini portae aeternales, Be ye lifted up, ye eternal gates, and be ye enlarged, that as the King of glory himself is entered into you, for the farther glory of the King of glory, not only that hundred and four and forty thousand of the Tribes of the children of Israel, but that multitude which is spoken or in that place, which no man can number, of all Nations, and Kindreds, and People, and friends, may enter with that acclamation, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb forever. And unto this City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly, and Church of the first b •• n, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things then that of Abel, Blessed God bring us all, for thy Sons sake, and by the operation of thy Spirit. Amen.

SERMON XXV. Preached at S. Paul's, upon Easter-day. 1630.

T Hese are words spoken by an Angel of heaven, to certain devout Women, who, not yet considering the Resurrection of Christ, came with a pious intention to do an office of respect, and civil honor to the body of their Master, which they meant to embalm in the Monument where they thought to find it. How great a compass God went in this act of the Resurrection? Here was God, the God of life, dead in a grave, And here was man, a dead man, risen out of the grave; Here are Angels of heaven employed in so low an office, as to catechize Women, and Women employed in so high an office, as to catechize the Apostles. I chose this verse out of the body of the Story of the Resurrection, because in this verse the act of Christ's rising, (which we celebrate this day) is expressly mentioned, Surrexit enim, for he is risen: Which word stands as a Candle, that shows itself, and all about it, and will minister occasion of illustrating your understanding, of establishing your faith, of exalting your devotion in some other things about the Resurrection, then fall literally within the words of this verse. For, from this verse we must necessarily reflect, both upon the persons (they to whom, and they by whom the words were spoken) and upon the occasion given. I shall not therefore now stand to divide the words into their parts and branches, at my first entering into them, but handle them, as I shall meet them again anon, springing out, and growing up from the body of the Story; for the Context is our Text, and the whole Resurrection is the work of the day, though it be virtually, implicitly contracted into this verse, He is not here, for he is risen, as he said; Come, and see the place where the Lord lay.

Our first consideration is upon the persons; and those we find to be Angelical women, and Evangelical Angels: Angels made Evangelists, to preach the Gospel of the Resurrection, and Women made Angels, (so as John the Baptist is called an Angel, and so as the seven Bishops are called Angels ) that is, Instructers of the Church; And to recompense that observation, that never good Angel appeared in the likeness of woman, here are good women made Angels, that is, Messengers, publishers of the greatest mysteries of our Religion. For, howsoever some men out of a petulancy and wantonness of wit, and out of the extravagancy of Paradoxes, and such singularities, have called the faculties, and abilities of women in question, even in the root thereof, in the reasonable and immortal soul, yet that one thing alone hath been enough to create a doubt, (almost an assurance in the negative) whether S. Ambroses Commentaries upon the Epistles of S. Paul, be truly his or no, that in that book there is a doubt made, whether the woman were created according to God's Image; Therefore, because that doubt is made in that book, the book itself is suspected not to have had so great, so grave, so constant an author as S. Ambrose was; No author of gravity, of piety, of conversation in the Scriptures could admit that doubt, whether woman were created in the Image of God, that is, in possession of a reasonable and an immortal soul.

The faculties and abilities of the soul appear best in affairs of State, and in Ecclesiastical affairs; in matter of government, and in matter of religion; and in neither of these are we without examples of able women. For, for State affairs, and matter of government, our age hath given us such a Queen, as scarce any former King hath equalled; And in the Venetian Story, I remember, that certain Matrons of that City were sent by Commission, in quality of Ambassadors, to an Empresse with whom that State had occasion to treat; And in the Stories of the Eastern parts of the World, it is said to be in ordinary practice to send women for Ambassadors. And then, in matters of Religion, women have evermore had a great hand, though sometimes on the left, as well as on the right hand. Sometimes their abundant wealth, sometimes their personal affections to some Church-men, sometimes their irregular and indiscreet zeal hath made them great assistants of great Heretics; as S. Jerome tells us of Helena to Simon Magus, and so was Lucilia to Donatus, so another to Mahomet, and others to others. But so have they been also great instruments for the advancing of true Religion, as S. Paul testifies in their behalf, at Thessolonica, Of the chief women, not a few; Great, and Many. For, many times women have the proxies of greater persons then themselves, in their bosoms; many times women have voices, where they should have none; many times the voices of great men, in the greatest of Civil, or Ecclesiastical Assemblies, have been in the power and disposition of women.

Hence is it, that in the old Epistles of the Bishops of Rome, when they needed the Court, (as, at first they needed Courts as much, as they brought Courts to need them at last) we find as many letters of those Popes to the Emperors Wives, and the Emperors Mothers, and Sisters, and women of other names, and interests in the Emperors favors and affections, as to the Emperors themselves. S. Jerome writ many letters to divers holy Ladies; for the most part, all of one stock and kindred; and a stock and kindred so religious, as that I remember, the good old man says, That if Jupiter were their Cousin, of their kindred, he believes Jupiter would be a Christian; he would leave being such a God as he was, to be their fellow-servant to the true God.

Now if women were brought up according to S. Jerome's instructions in those letters, that by seven years of age, they should be able to say the Psalms without book; That as they grew in years, they should proceed in the knowledge of Scriptures, That they should love the Service of God at Church, but not sine Matre, not go to Church when they would, but when their Mother could go with them, Nec quaererent celebritatem Ecclesiarum, They should not always go to the greatest Churches, and where the most famous Preachers drew most company; If women have submitted themselves to as good an education as men, God forbid their sex should prejudice them, for being examples to others. Their sex? no, nor their sins neither: for, it is S. Jerome's note, That of all those women, that are named in Christ's pedigree in the Gospel, there is not one, (his only Blessed Virgin-Mother excepted) upon whom there is not some suspicious note of incontinency. Of such women did Christ vouchsafe to come; He came of woman so, as that he came of nothing but woman; of woman, and not of man. Neither do we read of any woman in the Gospel, that assisted the persecutors of Christ, or furthered his afflictions; Even Pilate's wife dissuaded it. Woman, as well as man, was made after the Image of God, in the Creation; and in the Resurrection, when we shall rise such as we were here, her sex shall not diminish her glory: Of which, she receives one fair beam, and inchoation in this Text, that the purpose of God, is, even by the ministry of Angel s, communicated to women. But what women? for, their preparation, their disposition is in this Text too; such women, as were not only devout, but sedulous, diligent, constant, perseverant in their devotion; To such women God communicated himself; which is another Consideration in these persons.

As our Savior Christ was pleased, that one of these women should be celebrated by name, for another act upon him, Mary Magdalene, and that wheresoever his Gospel was preached, her act should be remembered, so the rest, with her, are worthy to be known and celebrated by their names; Therefore we consider, Quae, and quales; first who they were, and then what they were; their names first, and then their conditions. There is an Historical relation, and observation, That though there be divers Kingdoms in Europe, in which the Crowns may fall upon women, yet, for some ages, they did not, and when they did, it was much at one time, and all upon women of one name, Mary. It was so with us in England, and in Scotland it was so; so in Denmark, and in Hungary it was so too; all four, Mary's. Though regularly women should not preach, yet when these Legati à latere, these Angels from heaven did give Orders to women, and made them Apostles to the Apostles, the Commission was to women of that name, Mary; for, though our Expositors dispute whether the Blessed Virgin Mary were there then, when this passed at the Sepulcher, yet of Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James, there can be no doubt. Indeed it is a Noble, and a Comprehensive name, Mary. It is the name of woman, in general; For, when Adam says of Eve, She shall be called Woman, in the Arabic Translation, there is this name, She shall be called Mary; and the Arabic is, perchance, a dialect of the Hebrew. But in pure, and Original Hebrew, the word signifies Exaltation, and whatsoever is best in the kind thereof. This is the name of that sister of Aaron, and Moses, that with her Choir of women assisted at that Eucharisticall sacrifice, that Triumphant song of Thanksgiving, upon the destruction, the subversion, the submersion of Egypt, in the Red Sea. Her name was Miriam; and Miriam and Mary is the same name in women, as Joshua and Jesus is the same name to men. The word denotes Greatness, not only in Power, but in Wisdom, and Learning too; and so signifies often Prophets, and Doctors; and so falls fitliest upon these blessed women, who, in that sense, were all made Mary's, Messengers, Apostles to the Apostles; in which sense, even those women were made Mary's, (that is, Messengers of the Resurrection) who, no doubt, had other names of their own. There was amongst them, the wife of Chusa, a great man in Herod's Court, his Steward; and her name was Joanna, Joan. So that here was truly a Pope Joan, a woman of that name, above the greatest men in the Church. For the dignity of the Papacy, they venture to say, that whosoever was S. Peters Successor in the Bishopric of Rome, was above any of the Apostles, that over-lived Peter; as S. John did; Here was a woman, a Pope Joan, Superior to S. Peter himself, and able to teach him. But though we found just reason to celebrate these women by name, we meant not to stay upon that circumstance; we shut it up with this prayer, That that blessing which God gave to these Mary's, which was, to know more of Christ, then their former teachers knew, he will also be pleased to give to the greatest of that name amongst us, That she may know more of Christ, then her first teachers knew. And we pass on, from the Names, to the Conditions of these women.

And first we consider their sedulity; sedulity, that admits no intermission, no interruption, no discontinuance, no tepidity, no indifferency in religious offices. Consider we therefore their sedulity if we can. I say, if we can; because if a man should sit down at a Be-hive, or at an Ant-hill, and determine to watch such an Ant, or such a Be, in the working thereof, he would find that Be, or that Ant so sedulous, so serious, so various, so concurrent with others, so contributary to others, as that he would quickly lose his marks, and his sight of that Ant, or that Be; So if we fixe our consideration upon these devout women, and the sedulity of their devotion, so as the several Evangelists present it unto us, we may easily lose our sight, and hardly know which was which, or, at what time she or she came to the Sepulcher. They came in the end of the Sabbath, as it begun to dawn, towards the first day of the week, says S. Matthew; They came very early in the morning, upon the first day of the week, the Sun being then risen, says S. Mark; They prepared their Spices, and rested the Sabbath, and came early the next day, says S. Luke; They came the first day, when it was yet dark, says S. John. From Friday Evening, till Sunday morning they were sedulous, busy upon this service; so sedulous, as that Athanasius thinks these women came four several times to the Sepulcher, and that the four Evangelists have relation to their four comings; and S. Jerome argues upon this seeming variety in the Evangelists, thus, Non mendacii signum, sed sedulae visitationis officium, This variety argues no uncertainty in the Evangelists, but testifies the sedulity of those women they speak of; Dum crebro abeunt & recurrunt, says he, whilst they make many accesses, and returns, Nec patiuntur à Sepulchro diu, aut longiùs abesse, and cannot endure to be far distant, or long absent from their devout exercise.

Beloved, true devotion is a serious, a sedulous, an impatient thing. He that said in the Gospel, I fast twice a week, was but a Pharisee; He that can reckon his devout actions, is no better; He that can tell how often he hath thought upon God today, hath not thought upon him often enough. It is S. Augustine's holy Circle, to pray, that we may hear Sermons profitably, and to hear Sermons that we learn to pray acceptably. Devotion is no Marginall note, no interlineary gloss, no Parenthesis that may be left out; It is no occasional thing, no conditional thing; I will go, if I like the Preacher, if the place, if the company, if the weather; but it is of the body of the Text, and lays upon us an Obligation of fervor and of continuance. This we have in this example of these, not only Evangelical, but Euangelisticall (preaching) women; And thus much more, that as they were sedulous and diligent after, so they were early, and begun betimes; for, howsoever the Evangelists may seem to vary, in the point of time, when they came, they all agree they came early, which is another exaltation of Devotion.

They were women of quality, and means. They came with Christ from Galilee, and they came upon their own charges; and more then so; for, says the text, They ministered to Christ of their substance. Women of quality may be up and ready early enough for God's service, if they will. If they be not, let them but seriously ask themselves that question, whether upon no other occasion, no entertainment, no visit, no letter to or from another, they could have made more haste; And if they find they could, I must say in that case, as Tertullian said, They have put God and that man into the balance, and weighed them together, and found God too light. That Mighty, that weighty, that ponderous God, that blasts a State with a breath, that melts a Church with a look, that molders a world with a touch, that God is weighed down with that man; That man, whose errand, if it be but conversation, is vanity, but, if it be sin, is nothing, weighs down God. The world will needs think one of these Mary's, (Magdalene) to have been guilty of such entertainments as these, of Incontinency, and of that in the lowest (that is, the highest) kind, Prostitution; perchance she was; But, I would there were that necessity of thinking so, that because she was a Woman, and is called a sinner, therefore that must be her sin, as though they were capable of no other sin; Alas, it is not so. There may be women, whom even another sin, the sin of Pride, and over-valuation of themselves may have kept from that sin, and yet may well be called sinners too; There may be found women, whom only their scorn of others, hath kept honest, and yet are sinners, though not in that sin. But yet, even this woman; Mary Magdalene, be her sin what you will, came early to Christ; early, as soon as he afforded her any light. Christ says, in the person of Wisdom, I love them that love me, and they that seek me early, shall find me; And a good soul will echo back that return of David, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee; and double that echo with Isaiah, With my soul have I desired thee in the night, with my spirit with in me, will I seek thee early.

Now, what is this early seeking of God. First, there is a general rule given by Solomon, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; submit thyself to a religious discipline betimes. But then, in that there is a Now inserted into that rule of Solomon's, (Remember Now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth,) there is an intimation, that there is a youth in our age, and an earlinesse acceptable to God, in every action; we seek him early, if we seek him at the beginning of every undertaking. If I awake at midnight, and embrace God in mine arms, that is, receive God into my thoughts, and pursue those meditations, by such a having had God in my company, I may have frustrated many temptations that would have attempted me, and perchance prevailed upon me, if I had been alone, for solitude is one of the devils scenes; and, I am afraid there are persons that sin oftener alone, then in company; but that man is not alone that hath God in his sight, in his thought. Thou preventedst me with the blessings of goodness, says David to God. I come not early enough to God, if I stay till his blessings in a prosperous fortune prevent me, and lead me to God; I should come before that. The days of affliction have prevented me, says Job. I come not early enough to God, if I stay till his Judgments prevent me, and whip me to him; I should come before that. But, if I prevent the night watches, and the dawning of the morning, If in the morning my prayer prevent thee O God, (which is a high expression of David's, That I should wake before God wakes, and even prevent his preventing grace, before it be declared in any outward act, that day) If before blessing or cross fall upon me, I surrender myself entirely unto thee, and say, Lord here I lie, make thou these sheets my sheets of penance, in inflicting a long sickness, or my winding sheet, in delivering me over to present death, Here I lie, make thou this bed mine Altar, and bind me to it in the cords of decrepitnesse, and bedridnesse, or throw me off of it into the grave and dust of expectation, Here I lie, do thou choose whether I shall see any tomorrow in this world, or begin my eternal day, this night, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done; when I seek God, merely for love of him, and his glory, without relation to his benefits or to his corrections, this is that early seeking, which we consider in those blessed Women, whose sedulity and earnestness, when they were come, and acceleration and earlinesse, in their coming, having already considered, pass we now to the Ad quid, to what purpose, and with what intention they came, for in that alone, there are divers exaltations of their devotion.

In the first verse of this Chapter it is said, They came to see the Sepulcher; Even to see the Sepulcher was an act of love, and every act of love to Christ, is Devotion. There is a love that will make one kiss the case of a picture, though it be shut; There is a love that will melt ones bowels, if he do but pass over, or pass by the grave of his dead friend. But their end was not only to see the Sepulcher, but to see whether the Sepulcher were in such state, as that they might come to their end, which was, To embalm their Masters body. But this was done before; and done to their knowledge; for, that all the Evangelists testify; particularly, S. Luke, The women followed, and beheld the Sepulcher, and how the body was laid. How, that is, how abundantly it was embalmed by Nicodemus. How, that is, how decently and orderly it was wound and bound up, according to the manner of the Jews funerals. What then intended these women to do more then was done already?

That cannot be well admitted, which Theophylact says, That as Jacob's body was embalmed forty days in Egypt, so they intended to re-embalm our Savior's body, formerly embalmed by Nicodemus. For, that was only done upon such bodies as were exenterated and embowelled, and then filled up, and plastered about with spices and gums, to preserve them from putrifaction, when they were to be carried into remote parts; But of these re-embalmings and post-unctions after the body had been laid in the Sepulcher, I know not, who may have read of them; I have not. Neither seems it to have been possible in this case; not possible for these women to have come to the body of Chrrist. For, if that be the true winding sheet of Christ which is kept in Savoy, it appears, that that sheet stuck so close to his body, as that it did, and does still retain the dimensions of his body, and the impressions and signatures of every wound that he had received in his body. So that it would have been no easy matter for those women to have pulled off that sheet, if it had had no other glue, no other gum, but his own precious blood to hold it; But, if (as their more wary Authors say) Christ's body were carried loose, in that sheet, which is shown in Savoy, from the Cross to the Sepulcher, and then taken out of that sheet, and embalmed by Nicodemus, and wrapped up in other linen, upon those spices and gums which he bestowed upon it, and then buried according to the manner of the jews, whose manner it was to swathe the bodies of the dead, just as we swathe the bodies of children, all over, (for, so Lazarus came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes ) how could it fall into the imagination of these women, that they could come to embalm the body of Christ, so swathed, so wound, so bound up, as that body was; for, certainly, it was the body, and not the grave-clothes that they meant to embalm.

Truly I have often wondered, that amongst our very many Expositors of the Gospels, (which I can pronounce of some scores) no one hath touched upon this doubt. They all make good use of their piety, and devout officiousness towards their dead Master, but of the impossibility of coming to that body, and of the irregularity, and impertinency of undertaking that, and proceeding so far in that, which could not possibly be done, I find no mention. What shall be said of this? That may be said, which Chrysologus says, (though not of this, for of this none says anything) Saeva passionis procella turbaverat, That a bitter storm of passion and consternation, had so disordered them, as that no faculty of theirs performed the right function; And that which Calvin says, of the same case, which Chrysologus intends, Prae fervore caecutiebant, Vehemence and earnestness had discomposed them, amazed them, amuzed them so, as that they discerned nothing clearly, did nothing orderly. This, these, and some other Authors say, of some other inconsiderations in these Women, particularly, of the removing of the stone of the Sepulcher. For, they had prepared their gumms, and they were come upon their way, before they ever thought of that. Then they stop, and say to one another, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the Sepulcher; we never thought of that. So also did they fall under the rebuke and increpation of the Angel for another supine inconsideration; Quid quaeritis vivum? Why seek ye the living amongst the dead? Why him, who is The Son of the living God? Why him, who is The Prince of life? Why him, Who hath life in himself? Why him who is Life it self? Why him, who is The Bread of life to us? Why him, who is this life and the next too, (I am the life, and the Resurrection) Why him, who by his death hath made you a path of life, (Thou wilt show me the path of life) Why seek ye the living among the dead? What makes you think of arming him with your gums against putrifaction, who had told you before, that he was not subject to putrifaction, but would rise again. So also in such another inconsideratiō we may deprehend one of these womē, Mary Magdalene; whē the Angel had told her at the Sepulcher, He is not here, for he is risin, as he said, yet when she came to Peter, she said nothing of the Resurrection, never thought of that, but poured herself out in that lamentation, Tulerunt Dominū, They have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulcher, & we know not where they have laid him; Whereas if she had considered it advisedly, she must necessarily have known from the Angels words, that no man had taken away the Lord, that no man had laid him anywhere else, but that by his own power he was risen again. But as in this storm of passion they left Christ's promise, That he would rise, unconsidered, & left the rolling of the stone frō the door of the Sepulcher, unconsidered, so in this storm they also left unconsidered the impossibility of coming to Christ's body to do that office; Their devotion was awake, their consideration was in a slumber. But what though? Did they therefore lose all benefit of their plous and devout intention? That is another, and our next Consideration.

As Luther says, that if the marriage bed be kept undefiled, that is, from strange persons, and from such sins as are opposed against the very purpose of marriage, God pardons Maritales ineptias, some levities, and half-wantonnesses in married folks; so Calvin says of our present case, Deus non impat at, Because these good women were transported with a zealous piety towards Christ, God did not impure this in consideration unto them. For, though zeal without discretion produce ill effects, yet not so ill as discretion without zeal, worldly wisdom without Religion, for that is an evident preferring of thy worldly safety before the glory of God. When Moses makes that prayer to God in a holy fury and excess, Dele me, If thou wilt not forgive their sin, blot me I pray thee, out of the book thou hast written, (which was the excess of S. Paul too, in his Anathema; I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren ) God proceeds not to any sharper rebuke toward Moses, then this. Take heed what you say in your inconsiderate prayer, you may sin in a prayer, and, Whosoever hath sinned against me, (says God there) him will I blot out of my book; yet it concerns but others, take heed you draw it not upon yourselves. And such a charitable interpretation it becomes us to give of those prayers for the dead, which we find in the ancient Fathers; In S. Augustine for his mother Monica, in S. Anbrose for his Master Theodosius; They prayed inconsiderately, and upon consideration they retracted their prayers; at least, gave such Expositions of them, as that then they were no prayers, but vehement, and indeed, exorbitant declarations of piety mixed with passion. And so beloved, behooves it thee to do in thine own behalf, if at any time having cast thyself into the posture of prayer, upon thy knees, and entered into thy prayer thou have found thyself withdrawn, transported, strayed into some deviations, and by-thoughts; Thou must not think all that devotion lost; much less, that prayer to be turned into sin; for, God, who hath put all thy tears into his Bottle, all thy words into his Register, all thy sighs into his bosom, will also spread that zeal with which thou entredst into thy prayer, over thy whole prayer, and where that (thine own zeal) is too short, Christ Jesus himself will spread his prayer over thine, and say, Give him, O Father, that which he hath asked faithfully in my name, and, where he hath fallen into any deviations or negligences, Father forgive him, though he knew not what he said.

In our case in hand, for all their inconsideration, their misgovernment, their mistaking, the Angel doth not forbear to comfort them; Nolite timere, says he, Do not ye fear. In illis perseveret pavor, in quibus permanet incredulitas, says S. Jerome, in the person of this Angel to these women; I cannot blame ye, if ye fear; such unexpected changes, such violent earthquakes, such unnatural darknesses and eclipses, such rentings of the Temple, such cleaving of grave-stones may well occasion fear in you, but recollect yourselves, In illis perseveret, Let them continue in fear, who continue in unbelief, and have no God to comfort themselves in. Cur vos pertimescitis, qui vestros concives videtis, (says S. Gregory also, in, and to the same persons) Let those mercenary soldiers, who are hired to watch the Sepulcher, fear, and never recover, Cur vos, why should you fear, who see none but us, Concives, your fellow-Citizens, in the City, and service of God, if your conversation be in heaven, as it is, if ye do truly seek that Jesus, who is risen from hence, that he might go thither? And as though this comfort from the Angel were not enough, he multiplies this comfort in person unto them; he meets them, and says, Avete, first salutes them, and then enlarges himself unto them; as long as the root of their actions was piety and zeal, he casts no cloud of discouragement upon them, he occasions no jealousy or suspicion of his good purpose towards them, in them, but he maintains and exalts their holy confidence. Peccata non nocent, ubi non placent; Even our sins are forgiven, when we leave delighting in them; much more our inconsiderations, and mistakings, when we recollect, and rectify ourselves. For, all this withholds not the Angel from proceeding to a farther establishment of these devout, though weak women, in other particulars arising out of the very words, Non est hic, He is not here, for he is risen.

Non hic per praesentiam carnis, qui, per praesentiam Majestatis nusquam abest; He is not here, so as you thought to have found him here; so, as that you may anoint and embalm his body, he is not here: But, so as the secret sinner would wish him away, God is away nowhere. No adulterer that hath waited for the twilight, no whispering Calumniator that hath shot his arrow of slander In occulto, and wounded the righteous in secret, can say, Non est hic, God is not here, God sees not this. For even in the ways of death and hell (in all thy sinful courses) though God be a God of pure eyes and cannot behold evil, he sees thee. He sees thee in thy way thither, and when thou shalt make thy bed in hell, that is, enter into that perpetual prison, there will he be, felt though not seen. But could the Angel intend this for a comfort to these women, Non est hic, He is not here? Alas, might these poor souls say, we see that well enough, He is not here, but, where is he? From this arises the occasion of theirs, and all our comfort, Surrexit enim, He is not here, for he is risen.

First; this For, (for he is risen) this particle of argumentation, the Angel opposes prophetically, and by way of prevention, both against that heresy of Rome, That the body of Christ may be in divers places at once, by the way of Transubstantiation, and against that dream of the Ubiquetaries, That the body of Christ must necessarily be in all places at once, by communication of the divine Nature. For, if the Angel argue fairly, logically, sincerely, (He is not here, for he is risen) then there is no necessity, there is no possibility of this omni-presence, or this multi-presence, for then the Angels argument might have been denied, and they might have replied, What though he be risen, he may be here too, for he may be in divers places; But the Angel concludes us in this for, He cannot be here, for he is risen; Because he is risen, he cannot be here in the Sepulcher, so, as that you may embalm his body, Because he is ascended, he cannot be here, here in the Sacrament, so, as you may break or eat that body.

But is there such a comfort exhibited in this Surrexit, he is risen, as may recompense the discomfort that arises from the Non est hic, That he is not here? Abundantly, superabundantly there is; in these two channels and derivations of comfort; First, that he in whom we had placed our comfort, and our hope, is, by this his rising, declared to be the Son of God. God hath fulfilled his promise, in that he hath raised Jesus from the dead, as it is written in the second Psalm, says S. Paul in his Sermon at Antioch. Now, what is written in that Psalm, which S. Paul cites there, to our present purpose? This; Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. But is not this Hodie genui, This this days begetting intended rather of the eternal filliation & generation of the Son of God, then of this days work, the Resurrection? Those words of that Psalm may well admit that interpretation, and so many have taken them. But, with S. Hilary, most of the ancients have applied them to the Resurrection, as the application of S. Paul himself directly binds us to do, That the Hodie genui, This days generation, is this days manifestation that Christ was the Son of God. Calvin enlarges it farther; That every declaration of the Son by the Father, is a generation of the Son: So his baptism, and the voice then, so his Transfiguration, and the voice then, were each of them, a Hodie genui, a generation of the Son that day. But especially (says Calvin) do those words of the Psalm belong to this day, because the Resurrection was the most evident actual declaration that Christ was the Son of God, for, He was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead, says the Apostle expressly. But how? wherein was he declared? There were others that were raised from the dead by Prophets in the Old Testament, by Christ and his Apostles in the new, and yet not thereby declared to be such Sons of God, Essentiall Sons; no nor any Sons of God, not Sons by adoption; for we are not sure that all those that were miraculously raised from the dead, were effectually saved at last. Therefore the comfort in our case is in that word of the Angel, Surrexit, He is risen; For so all our Translators, and Expositors do constantly carry it, not in a Suscitatus (as all the rest are) That he was raised, but in this Surrexit, He is risen, risen of himself. For so he testifies of himself, Destroy this Temple, and in three days Ego suscitabo, I will raise it up again; Not that the Father should, but that he would; so also, Ego pono, and Ego sumo, says Christ, I lay down, and I take again my soul; Not that it is given, or taken by another. And therefore Gregory Nyssen suspects, that for the infirmity of the then hearers, the Apostles thought it scarce safe, to express it often in that phrase, He rose, or He raised himself, and therefore, for the most part, return to the Suscitatus est, that He was raised, lest weak hearers might be scandalized with that, that a dead man had raised himself of his own power. And therefore the Angel in this place enlarges the comfort to these devout women, in a full measure, when he opens himself in that word Surrexit, He is risen, risen of himself.

This then is one piece of our evidence, and the foundation of all, that we cannot be deceived, because he, in whom we trust, is, by this his own rising, declared to be the Son of God; And another, and a powerful comfort is this, That he being risen for our justification, we are also risen in him. He that raised the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by the same Jesus. He shall; there is our assurance; but that is not all; for there is a con-resuscitavit, He hath quickened us together, and raised us together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places; not together with one another, but together with Christ. There is our comfort collected from this surrexit, He is risen, equivalent to the discomfort of the non est hîc, he is not here; That this his rising declares him to be the Son of God, who therefore can, and will, and to be that Jesus, an actual Redeemer, and therefore hath already raised us. To what? To that renovation, to that new creation, which is so excellently expressed by Severianus, as makes us sorry we have no more of his; Mutatur ordorerum, The whole frame and course of nature is changed; Sepulchrum non mortuum, sed mortem devorat, The grave, (now, since Christ's Resurrection, and ours in him) does not bury the dead man, but death himself; My Bell tolls for death, and my Bell rings out for death, and not for me that die; for I live, even in death; but death dies in me, and hath no more power over me.

I was crucified with Christ upon Friday, says Chrysologus, Et hodie resurgo, today I rose with him again; Et gloria resurrection is sepelivit injuriam morientis, The ingloriousnesse of having been buried in the dust, is recompensed in the glory I rise to, Liber inter mortuos; that which David says, and, (by S. Augustine's application) of Christ, is true of me too; Christ was, and I am Liber inter mortuos, free amongst the dead, undetainable in the state of death. For, says S. Peter, It was not possible he should be holden of it. Not possible for Christ, because of the prediction of so many Prophets, whose words had an infallibility in them; not possible especially, because of the Union of the Divine Nature: Not possible for me neither, because God hath afforded me the marks of his Election, and thereby made me partaker of the Divine Nature too. But yet these things might, perchance, not fall into the consideration of these women; They did not; but they might, they should have done; for, as the Angel tells them here, Christ had told them of this before; Sicut dixit, he is risen, as he said.

Even the Angel himself refers himself to the word; Sicut dixit; The Angel himself desires not to be believed, but as he grounds himself upon the word, sicut dixit. Let therefore no Angel of the Church, not that super-Arch-angel of the Roman Church, proceed upon an ipse dixit, upon his own pectoral word, and determination, for the Angel here refers us to the sicut dixit, the former word. God will be content that we doubt, and suspend our assent to any revelation, if it do not concern some duty delivered in Scripture before; And to any miracle, if it do not conduce to the proof of something commanded in Scripture before. Sicut dixit, is an Angelical issue, As he said.

But, how often soever Christ had spoken of this Resurrection to others, these women might be ignorant of it. For, all that is said, even by Christ himself, is not said to all; nor is all, written for all, that is written by the Holy Ghost. No man must suspect that he knows not enough for salvation, if he understand not all places of Scripture. But yet these women could not well be ignorant of this, because being Disciples and followers of Christ, though Christ had never spoken of the Resurrection to them, they were likely to have heard of it from them, to whom Christ had spoken of it. It was Cleophas his question to Christ, (though he knew him not then to be so, when they went together to Emmaus) Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? that is, hast thou been at Jerusalem, and is this, The death of Christ, strange to thee? So may we say to any that professes Christianity; Art thou in the Christian Church, and is this, The Resurrection of Christ, strange to thee? Are there any amongst us, that thrust to Fore-noones, and After-noones Sermons, that pant after high, and un-understandable Doctrines, of the secret purposes of God, and know not this, the fundamental points of Doctrine? Even these women's ignorance, though they were in the number of the Disciples of Christ, makes us afraid, that some such there may be; and therefore blessed be they that have set on foot that blessed way of Catechizing, that after great professions, we may not be ignorant of small things. These things these women might have learnt of others, who were to instruct them. But for their better assurance, the Angel tells them here, that Christ himself had told them of this before; Remember, says he, how Christ spoke to you whilst he was with you in Galilee.

We observe, that Christ spoke to his Disciples, of his Resurrection, five times in the Gospel; Now, these women could not be present at any of the five but one, which was the third; And, before that, it is evident that they had applied themselves to Christ, and ministered unto him. The Angel then remembers them, what Christ said to them there. It was this; The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and Crucified, and the third day, rise again; And they remembered his words, says the Text there; Then they remembered them, when they heard of them again; but not till then.

Which gives me just occasion to note first the perverse tenderness, and the supercilious, and fastidious delicacy of those men, that can abide no repetitions, nor endure to hear anything which they have heard before; when as even these things which Christ himself had preached to these women, in Galilee, had been lost, if this Angel had not preached them over again to them at Jerusalem; Remember how he spake to you, says he to them. And why shouldst thou be loath to hear those things which thou hast heard before, when, till thou heardest them again, thou didst not know, that is, not consider that ever thou hadst heard them? So have we here also just occasion to note their impertinent curiosity, who though the sense be never so well observed, call everything a salfification, if the place be not rightly cyphard, or the word exactly cited; and magnify one another for great Text men, though they understand no Text, because they cite Book, and Chapter, and Verse, and Words aright; whereas in this place, the Angel refers the women to Christ's words, and they remember that Christ spake those words, and yet if we compare the places, (that where Christ speaks the words, and that where the Angel repeats them) though the sense be entirely the same, yet the words are not altogether so. Thus the Angel erects them in the consternation; Remember what was promised, that in three days he would rise; The third day is come, and he is risen, as he said; and, that your senses may be exercised as well as your faith, Come and see the place, where the Lord lay.

Even the Angel calls Christ Lord; and his Lord; for, the Lord, (and the Angel calls him so) is Lord of all, of men, and Angels. When God brings his Soninto the world, (says the Apostle) he says, let all the Angels of God worship him. And when God caries his Son out of the world, by the way of the Cross, they have just cause to worship him too, for, By the blood of his Cross are all things reconciled to God, both things in earth, and things in heaven, Men and Angels. Therefore did an Angel minister to Christ before he was, in the Annunciation to his blessed Mother, that he should be; And an Angel to his imaginary Father Joseph, before he was born; And a Choir of Angels to the Shepherds at his birth; An Angel after his temptation, And in his Agony, and Bloody-sweat, more Angels; Angels at his last step, at his Ascension, and here, at his Resurrection Angels minister unto him. The Angels of heaven acknowledged Christ to be their Lord. In the beginning some of the Angels would be Similes Altissimo, like to the most High; But what a transcendent, what a super-diabolical, what a prae-Luciferian pride is his, that will be supra Altissimum, superior to God; That not only exalteth himself above all that is called God, (Kings are called God's, and this Arch-Monarch exalts himself above all Kings) but above God literally, and in that wherein God hath especially manifested himself to be God, to us, that is in prescribing us a Law, how he will be obeyed; for, in dispensing with this Law, and adding to, and withdrawing from this law, he exalts himself above God, as our Law-giver. And, (as it is also said there) He exalteth himself, and opposeth himself against God. There is no trusting of such neighbors, as are got above us in power. This man of sin hath made himself superior to God, and then, an enemy to God; for God is Truth, and he opposes him in that, for he is heresy and falsehood; and God is Love, and he opposes him in that, for he is envy, and hatred, and malice, and sedition, and invasion, and rebellion.

The Angel confesses Christ to be The Lord, his Lord, and he confesses him to be so then when he lay dead in the grave, Come, seethe place where the Lord lay. A West Indian King having been well wrought upon for his Conversion to the Christian Religion, and having digested the former Articles, when he came to that, He was crucified, dead, and buried, had no longer patience, but said, If your God be dead and buried, leave me to my old god, the Sun, for the Sun will not die. But if he would have proceeded to the Article of the Resurrection, he should have seen, that even then, when he lay dead, he was GOD still; Then, when he was no Man, he was GOD still; Nay, then when he was no man, he was God, and Man, in this true sense, That though the body and soul were divorced from one another, and that during that divorce, he were no man, (for it is the union of body and soul that makes a man) yet the Godhead was not divided from either of these constitutive parts of man, body or soul. Even then, when a man is no man, he may be a Christian; when I am a worm and no man, when I am the off-scouring of the world, when I am the reproach, the proverb, the hissing of men, yet, as my Savior, when he lay in the grave, was the same Christ, so in this grave of oppression and persecution, I am the same Christian, as in my Baptism.

Let nothing therefore that can fall upon thee, dispoyle thee of the dignity and constancy of a Christian; howsoever thou be severed from those things, which thou makest account do make thee up, severed from a wife by divorce, from a child by death, from goods by fire, or water, from an office by just, or by unjust displeasure, (which is the heavier but the happier case) yet never think thyself severed from thy Head Christ Jesus, nor from being a lively member of his body. Though thou be a brother of Dragons and a companion of Owls, Though thy Harp be turned into mourning, and thine Organ into the voice of them that weep, nay, Though the Lord kill thee, yet trust in him. Thy Savior when he lay dead in the grave, was still the same Lord, Thou, when thou art enwrapped, and enterred in confusion, art still the same Christian. To this meditation the Angel carries us, in keeping up Christ's style at the highest, then when he was at the lowest, And to some other particulars he carries these Women, in that which remains, Come and see the place.

It is not nothing, certainly not merely nothing, that God does so often direct us to frequent his Sanctuary, and his holy places. Not nothing, that Solomon, into that Instrument which passed between God and him, for the Consecration of the Temple, inserted that Covenant, That not only they which came to that Temple, but they, who being necessarily absent, prayed towards the Temple, might be heard; which is, (not inconveniently) assigned for a reason of Hezekiah his turning to the wall to pray, in his sick bed, and of Daniel's opening of his windows, when he prayed in his private chamber, because, in so doing, they looked towards Jerusalem, where the Temple was. When Naaman being recovered from his bodily leprosy, recovered from his spiritual leprosy too, and resolved to worship none but the true God, he was loath to worship the true God, in an unholy place, and therefore desired some of that earth to build an Altar upon. Pharaoh was come to be content that Moses and his people should sacrifice to their true God, so they would sacrifice in Egypt; But, Moses durst not accept of those conditions. Pharaoh grew content that they should go out of Egypt to Sacrifice, so they would not go far, but keep within his limits; but Moses durst not accept those conditions; nor any conditions less then those, in which God had determined him, which was, To go three days journey into the Wilderness. We know that God is alike in all places, but he does not work in all places alike; God works otherwise in the Church, then in an Army; and diversely in his divers Ordinances in the Church; God works otherwise in Prayer then in Preaching, and otherwise in the Sacraments then in either; and otherwise in the later, then in the first Sacrament. The power is the same, and the end is the same, but the way is not so. Athanasius, scarce three hundred years after Christ, found the Church in possession of that Custom (and he takes knowledge of it, as of a precept from the Apostles themselves) That the Congregation should pray towards the East, to testify (says that Father) their desire of returning to the Country, which they had lost, Paradise. Places of profane and secular use should not be made equal with holy places; nor should holy actions, and motions, and gestures, and positions of the body in divine service, be submitted to scorn and derision. They have their use; either in a real exaltation of Devotion, or for a peaceable conservation of uniformity, and decency, or for a reverential obedience to lawful Authority; and any of these is enough, to authorize things in their use, which in themselves and in their own nature are indifferent. And though the principal purpose of the Angel, in showing these women the place, were to assure them, that Christ was risen, yet may there also be an intimation of the help and assistance that we receive from holy places, in this their Ecce locus, Come, and see the place.

But this is far, very very far from that superstitious fixing of God to the free-hold, which they have induced in the Roman Church, and upon which, they have super-induced their meritorious Pilgrimages to certain places. Consider a little the Pilgrimage of these Pilgrimages, how they have gone on. Innocent the third, in the Lateran Council, about four hundred years since, gave free pardon of all sins to all men, that went or contributed to the recovery of the holy land. Now these expeditions were not with any hope of recovering that land, but principally to carry the powerfullest persons, and the activest spirits into those remote parts, that so these parts might be left the more open to the Inundation of that Sea of Rome, and the invasions of that Bishop. After this, these Indulgences were enlarged, and communicated to all that went to Jerusalem, not only as Soldiers, but as Pilgrims. And, after that by Boniface the eighths liberality the way was shortened, and they had as much that came but to Rome, as they that went to Jerusalem. As, a little before, by Clement the sixth, there was a power given to every man, that went such a Pilgrimage, to deliver four souls out of Purgatory, which he would, and a commandment given to the Angels of Heaven, to carry their souls that died in that Pilgrimage, immediately to Heaven, without touching upon Purgatory.

These abuses made that learned and devout Man, Gerson, the Chancelor of Paris, in his time, (as, let them deny it with what stifnesse they will, nothing is more demonstrable, nor more evidently demonstrated, Then that in all times, some great men amongst themselves have opposed their Superstitions) This, I say, made Gerson say, (though he durst say no more) Abnegare non possumus, None of us all can deny, but that many things are induced upon color of Religion, quorum sanctior esset omissio, which he shall be more holy that forbears, then he that performs them. In detestation of this local and stationary salvation of these meritorious pilgrimages to certain places, some of the blessed Fathers spoke much, long before they were come to that enormous abuse, in which the later times exceeded. S. Jerome had occasion to say much of it, by a solicitation from Polinus, and he says this, Quanti hodieportant funera sua? How many men carry Sepulchers to the Sepulcher, when they carry themselves to Jerusalem? Non Hierosolymis vixisse, says he, To have lived well at Jerusalem is praise-worthy, but not to have lived there. Non audeo concludere, I dare not shut up that God, whom the Heavens cannot contain, in a corner of the earth; and Jerusalem is but so. Et de Britannia, & de Hierosolymis aequaliter patet aula coelestis, Heaven is as near England, (says S. Jerome ) as it is to Jerusalem. And Christ, (says he) was then in Jerusalem, in that holy place, when he said, Abeamus hinc, Let us go from hence; as holy as the place was, he made haste out of it; for, (as that Father adds) it is a place full of mutinous Soldiers, of licentious prostitutes, of Players and Jesters; and these are the elements of the holiness of that place.

Gregory Nyssen (in the same time with Jerome ) had a particular occasion to deliver his opinion of these pilgrimages to Jerusalem; for he had been there himself, though not as a Pilgrim. Sunt aliqui, There are some that make it a part of Religion, to have been at Jerusalem, Sin praeter praeceptum Domini, But, says he, if Christ never commanded it, (that is his Rule) I know not what can justify that man, that makes himself the Rule of his Religion. Christ never called that, Blessedness, says he, to have been at Jerusalem, nor ever called this Jerusalem the way to Heaven; why any man should do so, when Christ did not, Qui mentem habet, consideret, (says that Father) Let him that is not distracted, consider. Nay, says he, there is not only no certain profit, but evident danger to a chaste soul, in the unchaste conversation of those Pilgrims, and he exemplifies, and particularizes wherein; but we forbear that. Shall I be asked then, why I went to Jerusalem? says that Father; I went into those parts out of necessity, says he, being called to a Council held in those parts; And, being so near, I was chosen as an Arbitrator between some Churches, which were then at variance, which differences were to be composed at Jerusalem, and so I went thither. Howsoever, let no man be encouraged to go thither for my being there, (for I was never the better Christian for having been there) but let every man think and believe me to be the more competent witness, and judge of the dangers, because I saw them. I believed that Christ was risen, before I saw the empty Sepulcher; And though (I thank God for it) I lost none of my faith at Jerusalem, yet I increased it not there. Si perverse vivas; live Christianly, or thou art as far from Christ in the Sepulcher, and from all benefit of his Resurrection, as they that were hired to watch the Sepulcher, and to seal the Sepulcher to prevent the Resurrection, or as if he that lay in the Sepulcher had never died. When we have remembered you of that which S. Chrysostom (of the same time with Jerome and Nyssen ) says, That there were some so vain, as to go to Arabia to kiss that dunghill where Job sat to be visited by his impertinent friends, you have testimony enough, concurrence enough for the detestation of these hypocritical Pilgrimages, and the manifold superstitions that grow from this tree; and grew to a far greater inexcusableness, when all was transferred to Rome, where, both the Indulgences were larger, and the pestilent infections of the place more contagious then at Jerusalem.

Now, to bind up our sheaf, and lay it so upon you, that you may easily carry it, you have seen, That women, though weak, are capable of religious offices; [ 1] No understanding so weak, but it may believe, nobody so weak, but it may do something in some calling. You have seen too, that these women were early in their religious work, [ 2] they begun betimes; we have but one Parable that tells us, that they that came late to the labor were as well rewarded as the earliest. So have you also seen, [ 3] that as they were early and forward, so were they earnest, and sedulous; Cursed be he that doth the work of God (that is, any godly work) negligently. You have likewise seen upon what their devotion was carried; upon things which could not entirely be done; [ 4] yet God accepted their devotion; where the root and substance of the work is piety, God pretermits many times errors in circumstance. You have heard the Angels information to them, [ 5] Non hîc, that Christ was not there, and yet comfort in that; God raises comfort out of all things, even out of discomfort itself to the godly. You have heard the reason added, Quia surrexit, [ 6] for he is risen; And if this be a good reason, there is no Transubstantiation, no Ubiquitisme, for then Christ might have been there, though he were risen. He is risen, [ 7] not only raised, and therefore the Son of God; and risen for our Instification, therefere we are risen in him. And this, Sicut dixit, As he had said before; [ 8] No word is certain, not in the mouth of an Angel, but as it is referred to the former word of God. And it is Sicut dixit vobis, As he had said to you; Though all Scriptures be not proposed to all, [ 9] and God's secret purposes proposed to none, yet the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith are proposed to all, the weakest of all, These women had heard Christ. Him, [ 10] this Angel calls The Lord, His Lord; How rebellious is that man of sin, that makes Christ his servant, and pretence of religion his instrument? He avows him to be the Lord, [ 11] then when he lay dead in the grave; Be truly a Christian, and in the grave of persecution, in the grave of putrifaction thou shalt retain the same name, and even thy dust shall be Christian dust. And lastly, for the establishment of their comfort, [ 12] the Angel directs them to consider the place, Ecce locus, not to incline them to superstitious pilgrimages, but yet to a holy reverence, and estimation of places consecrated to God's service. And if these Meditations have raised you from the bed of sin, in any holy purpose, this is one of your Resurrections, and you have kept your Easter-day well. To which, he, whose name is Amen, say Amen, our blessed Savior Christ Jesus, in the power of his Father, and in the operation of his Spirit.

SERMON XXVI. Preached upon Easter-day.

I N this Epistle, our Apostle (according to his manner in all his Epistles) first establishes those to whom he writes, in those matters of faith, in which he had formerly instructed them; and then, rectifies them in matter of manners, of holiness of life, and the ways and fruits of sanctification. In this last part of this Chapter, he involves, he wraps up both together; a Fundamental point, the Resurrection of the dead, and then, an instruction for manners arising out of that, That they mourn not intemperately for the dead, as they do (saith he) which have no hope of seeing them again, who are gone. For we know, that they which are gone, are gone but into another room of the same house, (this world, and the next, do but make up God a house) they are gone but into another Pue of the same Church, (the Militant and the Triumphant do but make up God a Church.) If we believe that Jesus died, and rose again (says our Apostle) even so, them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him: with him; For, howsoever they have lien ingloriously in the dust all this while, all this while they have been with God, and he shall bring them with him. But the Thessalonians were not so hard in believing the Resurrection, as curious in enquiring the order of the Resurrection. And as among the Corinthians some inquired de modo, How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come? So among the Thessalonians some inquired, de Ordine, in what order, for precedency, shall the last scean of this last act of man, be transacted? What difference between them that were dead thousands of years before, and them whom Christ shall find alive at his second coming? Them the Apostle satisfies; We that are alive, shall not prevent them that are asleep, we shall not enter into heaven before them; The dead in Christ shall first rise, says he; and then, (then enters our Text) Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall be ever with the Lord.

Then. When? This Then in our text, is an apprehensive, and a comprehensive word. It reaches to, and lays hold upon that which the Apostle says before the text, in the fifteenth and sixteenth verses. Then, when the dead in Christ are first risen, and risen by Christ's coming down from heaven, in clamore, in a shout, in the voice of the Archangel, and in the Trumpet of God, Then, when that is done, We that are alive, and remain, shall be wrought upon, and all being joined in one body, They, and we together, shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. So that, in these words we shall have three things to consider, which will constitute three parts in this exercise. First, the raising of those that were dead before. Secondly, the changing of them who are alive then; And lastly, our union in our exaltation, and possession of the kingdom of God, We, together with them, shall be caught up.

Neither of these three parts will be swallowed down in a generality; There must pass a Mastication, a re-division into more particular branches upon them all. For, in the first, which the first word of our Text, Then induces, which is the raising of them who were dead before, we shall consider first, That the dead are not forgotten, though they have dwelt long in the house of forgetfulness, nor lost, though they have lain long in the dust of dispersion, nor neglected, nor deferred, that others might be preferred before them, which shall be alive then, for, says the Apostle, We shall not prevent them, but they shall rise first; How shall they rise? For, that is also a second consideration, induced by our first word. Then, Then when they shall be raised in virtute Christi, in the power of Christ, for, says the Text, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven to raise them. And how shall he exercise, how shall he execute, and declare his power in their raising? It shall be In clamore, with a shout, and in the voice of the Arch-angel, and the Trumpet of God. And in these three Branches, That the dead shall rise first, That they shall rise in the power of Christ, That that power shall be thus expressed, In a shout, in the voice of the Arch-angel, in the Trumpet of God, we shall determine that first Part. When that is done, and done so, we shall be wrought upon, We that are alive and remain then; where we shall first see, that some shall be alive, and remain then, when Christ comes, And then consider their state and condition, how they being then clothed with bodies of corruption shall be capable of that present entrance into glory; and in that disquisition we shall end our second Part. And then, in our third and last part, The glorious Union of these two Armies, Those which were dead, and those which are alive, we shall consider first, That here is no mention at all, of any Resurrection of the wicked, but only of them that sleep in Christ; They shall rise; And then, those that are to partake of this glory, are thus proceeded with; They are caught up, Rapiuntur; Caught up in the Clouds, In Nubibus; Exalted into the Air, In Aera; There to meet the Lord, Obviam Domino; And so to be with the Lord forever. We shall be, and be with the Lord, and be with the Lord forever; which are blessed and glorious gradations, if we may have time to insist upon them; which we may best hope for this day of all others; for, this day, we have two days in one. This day both God's Sons arose; The Sun of his Firmament, and the Son of his bosom. And if one Sun do set upon us, the other will stay, as long as our devotion last. God went not from Abraham, till Abraham had no more to say; No more will Christ from us.

First then, for our first Branch of our first part, the rising of the dead, the first man that was laid in the dust of the earth, Abel, loses nothing by lying so long there; He loses nothing, that men of later ages gain; For, if we live to the coming of Christ to Judgment, we shall not prevent them, we shall have no precedency of them, that were dead ages before. No man is superannuated in the grave, that he is too old to enter into heaven, where the Master of the house is The ancient of days. No man is bed-rid with age in the grave, that he cannot rise. It is not with God, as it is with man; we do, but God does not forget the dead; and, as long as God is with them, they are with him. As he puts all thy tears into his bottles, so he puts all the grains of thy dust into his Cabinet, and the winds that scatter, the waters that wash them away, carry them not out of his sight. He remembers that we are but dust; but dust then when we lie in the grave; and yet he remembers us. But his memory goes farther then so, He remembers that we were but dust alive, at our best; They die, says David, and they return to their own dust. It is not an entering into a new state, when they die, but a returning to their old, They return to dust; And it is not to that dust which is cast upon them, in the grave, (for that may be another man's dust) but to that dust which they carried about them in their bodies, They return, and to dust; and to their own dust.

Nor is dust so inglorious a thing, but that God gives a dignity to dust, when he admits it into comparison to express the multiplication, the accumulation of his blessings upon Abraham, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; not for weakness, but for infiniteness; And so, to the same purpose of expressing greatness, Balaam uses this Metaphor of dust, Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Neither does Abraham think it any diminution to lie in the dust of the earth, when he is dead, for he professes that he walks in the dust of the earth, in himself, whilst he is aliye, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord being but dust. And when David seems to fear the dust of death, (lighten mine eyes, lest they sleep the sleep of death) it is not that he suspects any detriment to himself by death, that he shall be the worse by dying, but that God may lose of his glory, when (as he adds there) the enemy shall say, we have prevailed against him. For, as in the Primitive Church, those that seem prayers for the dead, at Funerals, are, indeed, but thanksgivings to God, in their behalf that are departed; so, as often as David expresses himself in that Pathetical manner, Awake, O Lord, why sleepest thou? arise, and cast us not off forever, it is a thanksgiving that he hath not, and a prayer that he would not forget them. When he says, Will God be favorable no more? he means, I am sure he will. Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forever? Hath God forgot to be gracious? Hath he shut up his mercy in anger? All these imply a kind of confidence that he hath not.

And, as it is in that Resurrection of which David speaks most literally in those places, (that is, The Resurrection from the calamities and oppressions of this world) so is it in the Resurrection from the dust of the grave too; Thou hast brought me to the dust of the grave; but, be not thou far from me; That is, when thou shalt bring me to the dust of the grave, thou wilt not be far from me. And, when he says, (in apparence) by way of expostulation, and jealousy, and suspicion, Will God show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise him? shall his loving kindness be declared in the grave, or his faishfulnesse in destruction? All these passionate interrogatories, and vehement expostulations may safely be resolved into these Doctrinal propositions, Yes, God will show wonders to the dead, The dead shall rise and praise him, His loving kindness shall be declared in the grave, and his faithfulness in destruction. For, God will not forget the Congregation of his poor forever. The poor of this world, are our poor; God's poor are they that lie in the dust, the dust of the grave, the dead; of whom, God hath a greater Congregation under ground, then of the living upon the face of the earth; And, God will not forget the congregation of his poor forever. Finitus est eorum pulvis; That which we translate, Their Extortioner is at an end, their Oppressor is at an end, is in S. Jerome, Their dust is at an end; that is, there comes a time, when the dust of the grave shall oppress them no longer. When? Truly, that time is virtually, and in an infallibility come already; as those other words of the same Prophet, may admit an accommodation in the person of Christ, Thy dead men shall live; When? Together with my dead body they shall rise. Consider, by occasion of those words, a promise, long before Christ's Resurrection, that all they which slept in Christ should rise in him, with my dead body they shall rise; And then consider the performance of this promise in the Apostle, Consurrexerunt, together with Christ, all that slept in him, (nay, all that fell asleep since he waked, all that died since he rose) did arise. Virtually, and infallibly they did. And, for the actual accomplishment of this Resurrection in every individual person, they that were laid in the grave in the first ages, lose no time. For, there is no time of entering into heaven, till the Lord come to fetch us; And then, they that are dead, shall be so far from being pretermitted, as that they shall first be raised before anything be done upon us. But how shall they be raised, by what power? (for that is a second Consideration induced also by this first word of our Text, Then, when the Lord shall have descended from heaven to raise them; Then when they are raised, In virtute Christi, in the virtue and power of Christ.

Then, (says our blessed Savior, speaking of the Resurrection) then, shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun; And wheresoever we are called the Sun, compared, assimilated to the Sun, Christ is our Zodiake; In him we move, from the beginning to the end of our Circle. And therefore, as the last point of our Circle, our resurrection determines in him, in Christ; so, the first point of our Circle, our first adoption began in him, in Christ too. And, if I were adopted in Christ, (in Christ who is a Redeemer of sinners) I was adopted in the condition, and in the consideration of a sinner, and such a sinner as should, as would lay hold upon this Christ, this Redeemer. Christ is the Resurrection; so Christ is the Adoption; If there be a Resurrection in him, there were some dead before; If there bean Adoption in him, there are some sinners before. The first look that God casts upon us, is in Christ, and therefore the first consideration that he takes of us, is, as we are sinners; He adopts none but penitent sinners, he reproves none but impenitent sinners. In him also the dead are raised; that is, in that power, which he was raised by, The power of God. For, still that phrase is ingeminated, iterated, multiplied, Suscitavit Deus, suscitatus à Deo, God raised Christ from the dead, and Christ was raised from the dead by God. And when it is said by the Angel to the women, Surrexit, He is risen, (risen of himself, as the word sounds) And when by those two which went with Christ to Emmaus, it is said at their return to Jerusalem, to the eleven Apostles, surrex it vere, He is risen indeed, (risen of himself, as the word sounds) yet that phrase and expression, He is risen, if there were no more in it, but that expression, and that phrase, would not conclude Christ's rising to have been in virtute propria, in his own power. For, of Dorcas who was raised from the dead, it is said, Resedit, she sat up, and of Lazarus, Prodiit, he came forth; and yet, these actions thus ascribed to themselves, were done in virtute aliena, in the power of another. Christ's Resurrection was not so, In virtute aliena, in the power of another, if you consider his whole person, God and Man, but it was aliena à filio Mariae; Christ as the Son of Mary rose not by his own power. It was by his own; but his own, because he was God, as well as man. Nor could all the Magic in the world have raised him sooner, then by that his power, (his, as God) he (that is, that person, God and man) was pleased to rise. So sits he now at the right hand of his Father in heaven; nor can all the Consecrations of the Roman Priests either remove him from thence, or multiply him to a bodily being anywhere else, till his time of coming to Judgment, come. Then, and not till then, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, in clamore, says the Text, in a shout, with the voice of the Arch-angel, and with the Trumpet of God, which circumstances constitute our third, and last Branch of this first Part, The dead shall rise first, They shall rise in the power of Christ, (therefore Christ is God; for Christ himself rose in the power of God) and that power shall be thus declared, In a shout, in the voice of the Arch-Angel, in the Trumpet of God.

The dead hear not Thunder, nor feel they an Earth quake. If the Canon batter that Church walls, in which they lie buried, it wakes not them, nor does it shake or affect them, if that dust, which they are, be thrown out, but yet there is a voice, which the dead shall hear; The dead shall hear, the voice of the Son of God, (says the Son of God himself) and they that hear shall live; And that is the voice of our Text. It is here called a clamour, a vociferation, a shout, and varied by our Translators, and Expositors, according to the origination of the word, to be clamor hortatorius, and suasorius, and jussorins, A voice that carries with it a penetration, (all shall hear it) and a persuasion, (all shall believe it, and be glad of it) and a power, a command, (all shall obey it.) Since that voice at the Creation, Fiat, Let there be a world, was never heard such a voice as this, Surgite mortui, Arise ye dead. That was spoken to that that was merely nothing, and this to them, who in themselves shall have no cooperation, no concurrence to the hearing or answering this voice.

The power of this voice is exalted in that it is said to be the voice of the Archangel. Though legions of Angels, millions of Angels shall be employed about the Resurrection, to recollect their scattered dust, and recompact their ruined bodies, yet those bodies so recompact, shall not be able to hear a voice. They shall be then but such bodies, as they were when they were laid down in the grave, when, though they were entire bodies, they could not hear the voice of the mourner. But this voice of the Archangel shall enable them to hear; The Archangel shall re-infuse the several souls into their bodies, and so they shall hear that voice, Surgite mortui, Arise ye that were dead, and they shall arise. And here we are eased of that disputation, whether there be many Archangels, or no, for, if there be but one, yet this in our text, is he, for, it is not said, In the voice of An Archangel, but of The Archangel; if not the Only, yet he who comprehends them all, and in whom they all consist, Christ Jesus.

And then, the power of this voice is exalted to the highest in the last word, that it is, Tuba Dei, The Trumpet of God. For, that is an Hebraism, and in that language, it constitutes a superlative, to add the name of God to anything. As in Saul's case, when David surprised him, in his dead sleep, it is said, that Sopor Domini, The sleep of the Lord was upon him, that is, the heaviest, the deadest sleep that could be imagined, so here, The Trumpet of God is the loudest voice that we conceive God to speak in.

All these pieces, that it is In clamore, In a cry, in a shout, that it is In the voice of the Archangel, that it is In the Trumpet of God, make up this Conclusion, That all Resurrections from the dead, must be from the voice of God, and from his loud voice; It must be so, even in thy first Resurrection, thy resurrection from sin, by grace here; here, thou needest the voice of God, and his loud voice. And therefore, though thou think thou hear sometimes God's sibilations, (as the Prophet Zechariah speaks) God's soft and whispering voice, (in ward remorses of thine own; and motions of the Spirit of God to thy spirit) yet think not thy spiritual resurrection accomplished, till, in this place, thou hear his loud voice; Till thou hear Christ descending from Heaven, (as the text says) that is, working in his Church; Till thou hear him In clamore, in this cry, in this shout, in this voice of Penetration, of persuasion, of power, that is, till thou feel in thyself in this place a liquefaction, a colliquation, a melting of thy bowels under the commination of the Judgments of God upon thy sin, and the application of his mercy to thy Repentance.

And then, this thou must hear In voice Archangeli, In the voice of the Archangel. S. John in the beginning of the Revelation, calls every Governor of a Church an Angel. And much respect and reverence, much faith, and credit behooves it thee to give to thine Angel, to the Pastor of that Church, in which God hath given thee thy station; for, he is thine Angel, thy Tutelar, thy guardian Angel. Men should seek the Law at the mouth of the Priest, says God in Malachi; (of that Priest that is set over him) For, the lips of the Priest, (of every Priest, to whom the souls of others are committed) should preserve knowledge, should be able to instruct and rectify his flock, Quia Angelus Domini Exercituum, because every such Priest is the Angel of the Lord of Hosts. Hearken thou therefore, to that Angel, thine Angel. But here thou art directed above thine Angel to the Archangel. Now, not the governor of any particular Church, but he Who hath purchased the whole Church with his blood, He who only is head of the whole Church, Christ Jesus, is this Archangel; Hear him. It is the voice of the Archangel, (that is, the trne and sincere word of God) that must raise thee from the death of sin, to the life of grace. If therefore any Angel differ from the Archangel, and preach other then the true and sincere word of God, Anathema, says the Apostle, let that Angel be accursed. And take thou heed of over-affecting, overvaluing the gifts of any man so, as that thou take the voice of an Angel, for the voice of the Archangel, anything that that man says, for the word of God.

Yet thou must hear this voice of the Archangel in the Trumpet of God. The Trumpet of God is his loudest Instrument; and his loudest Instrument is his public Ordinance in the Church; Prayer, Preaching, and Sacraments; Hear him in these, In all these; come not to hear him in the Sermon alone, but come to him in Prayer, and in the Sacrament too. For, except the voice come in the Trumpet of God, (that is, in the public Ordinance of his Church) thou canst not know it to be the voice of the Archangel. Pretended services of God, in schismatical Conventicles, are not in the Trumpet of God, and therefore not the voice of the Archangel, and so, not the means ordained for thy spiritual resurrection. And, as our last resurrection from the grave, is rooted in the personal resurrection of Christ, ( For, if Christ be not raised from the dead, we are yet in our sins, (says the Apostle) But why so? Because, to deliver us from sin, Christ was to destroy all our enemies; Now, the last enemy is Death; and last time that Death and Christ met, (upon the Cross) Death overcame him, and therefore, except he be risen from the power of Death, we are yet in our sins) as we root our last resurrection in the person of Christ, so do we our first resurrection in him, in his word, exhibited in his Ordinance, for, that is the voice of the Archangel in the Trumpet of God. And as the Apostle says here, This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that thus the last resurrection shall be accomplished by Christ himself, so, this we say to you, by the Word of the Lord, (by the harmony of all the Scriptures) thus, and no other way, By the pure word of God, delivered and applied by his public Ordinance, by Hearing, and Believing, and Practising, under the Seals of the Church, the Sacraments, is your first resurrection from sin, by grace, accomplished. So have you then those three branches, which constitute our first part; That they that are dead before us, shall not be prevented by us, but they shall rise first; That they shall be raised by the power of Christ, that is, the power of God in Christ; That that power, working to their resurrection shall be declared in a mighty voice, the voice of the Archangel, in the Trumpet of God. And then, then when they who were formerly dead, are first raised, and raised by this Power, and this power thus declared, then shall we, we who shall be then alive and remain, be wrought upon; which is our second, and our next general part.

When the Apostle says here, Nos qui vivimus, We that are alive, and remain, would he not be thought to speak this of himself, and the Thessalonians to whom he writes? Do not the words import that? That he, and they should live till Christ's coming to Judgment? Some certainly had taken him so; But he complains that he was mistaken; We beseech you brethren, be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, by word or letter, as from us, that the day of the Lord is at hand; so at hand, as that we determine it in our days, in our life. So that the Apostle speaks here, but Hypothetically; he does but put a case, That if it should be God's pleasure to continue them in the world, till the coming of his Son Christ Jesus, thus and thus they should be proceeded withal; for, thus and thus shall they be proceeded with, says he, that shall then be alive. Our blessed Savior hath such a manner of speech, of an ambiguous sense, in S. Matthew, That there were some standing there, that should not taste of death, till they saw the Son of man coming in his Kingdom. And this might give them just occasion to think, that that Kingdom into which the Judgment shall enter us, was at hand; For, the words which Christ spoke immediately before those, were evidently, undeniably spoken of that last, and everlasting kingdom of glory, The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his Angels, &c. Then follows, Some standing here shall live to see this. And yet Christ did not speak this of that last kingdom of glory; but either he spoke it of that manifestation of that kingdom which was shown to some of them, (to Peter, and James, and John ) in the Transfiguration of Christ, (for the Transfiguration was a representation of the kingdom of glory) or else he spoke it of that inchoation of the kingdom of glory, which shined out in the kingdom of grace, which all the Apostles lived to see, in the personal coming of the Holy Ghost, and in his powerful working in the conversion of Nations in their life time.

And this is an inexpressible comfort to us, That our blessed Savior thus mingles his Kingdoms, that he makes the Kingdom of Grace, and the Kingdom of Glory, all one; the Church, and Heaven all one; and assures us, That if we see him In hoc speculo, in this his Glass, in his Ordinance, in his Kingdom of Grace, we have already begun to see him facie ad faciem, face to face, in his Kingdom of Glory; If we see him Sicuti manifestatur, as he looks in his Word, and Sacraments, in his Kingdom of Grace, we have begun to see him, Sicuti est, As he is, in his Essence, in the Kingdom of Glory; And when we pray, Thy Kingdom come; and mean but the Kingdom of Grace, he gives us more then we ask, an inchoative comprehension of the Kingdom of Glory, in this life. This is his inexpressible mercy, that he mingles his Kingdoms, and where he gives one, gives both. So is there also a fair beam of comfort exhibited to us in this Text, That the number reserved for that Kingdom of Glory, is no small number. For though David said, The Lord looked down from heaven, and saw not one that did good, no not one, (there it is less then a few) though when the times had better means to be better, when Christ preached personally upon the earth, when one Centurion had but replied to Christ, Sir, you need not trouble yourself to go to my house, if you do but say the word here, my servant will be well, Christ said in his behalf, Verily I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel; When Christ makes so much of this single grain of Mustard-seed, this little faith, as to prefer it before all the faith of Israel, surely faith went very low in Israel at that time, Nay, when Christ himself says, speaking of his last coming, after so many ages preaching of the Gospel, When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith upon earth, any faith? We have I say, a blessed beam of comfort shining out of this text, that it is no small number that is reserved for that Kingdom; For, whether the Apostle speak this of himself and the Thessalonians, or of others, he speaks not as of a few, but that by Christ's having preached the narrowness of the way, and the straitness of the gate, our holy industry and endeavor is so much exalted, (which was Christ's principal end in taking those Metaphors of narrow ways, and strait gates, not to make any man suspect an impossibility of entering, but to be the more industrious and endeavorous in seeking it) that as he hath sent workmen in plenty, (abundant preaching) so he shall return a plentiful harvest, a glorious addition to his Kingdom, both of those which slept in him before, and of those which shall be then alive, fit, all together, to be caught up in the clouds to meet him, and be with him forever; for these two armies imply no small number. Now, of the condition of these men, who shall be then alive, and how being clothed in bodies of corruption, they become capable of the glory of this text, in our first distribution, we proposed that for a particular consideration, and the other branch of this second part, and to that, in that order, we are come now.

I scarce know a place of Scripture, more diversely read, and consequently more variously interpreted then that place, which should most enlighten us, in this consideration presently under our hands; which is that place to the Corinthians, Non omnes dormiemus, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The Apostle professes there to deliver us a mystery, (Behold, I show you a mystery) but Translators and Expositors have multiplied mystical clouds upon the words. S. Chrysostom reads these words as we do, Non dormiemus, We shall not all sleep, but thereupon he argues, and concludes, that we shall not all die. The common reading of the ancients is contrary to that, Omnes dormiemus, sed non, &c. We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed. The vulgat Edition in the Roman Church differs from both, and as much from the original, as from either, Omnes resurgemus, We shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. S. Jerome examines the two readings, and then leaves the reader to his choice, as a thing indifferent. S. Augustine doth so too, and concludes aque Catholicos esse, That they are as good Catholics that read it the one way, as the other. But howsoever, that which S. Chrysostom collects upon his reading, may not be maintained. He reads as we do; and without all doubt aright, We shall not all sleep; But what then? Therefore shall we not all die? To sleep there, is to rest in the grave, to continue in the state of the dead, and so we shall not all sleep, not continue in the state of the dead. But yet, Statutum est, says the Apostle, as verily as Christ was once offered to bear our sins, so verily is it appointed to every man once to die; And, as verily as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so verily death passed upon all men, for that all men have sinned; So the Apostle institutes the comparison, so he constitutes the doctrine, in those two places of Scripture, As verily as Christ died for all, all shall die, As verily as every man sins, every man shall die.

In that change then, which we who are then alive, shall receive, (for though we shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed) we shall have a present dissolution of body and soul, and that is truly a death, and a present redintegration of the same body and the same soul, and that is truly a Resurrection; we shall die, and be alive again, before another could consider that we were dead; but yet this shall not be done in an absolute instant; some succession of time, though undiscernible there is. It shall be done In raptu, in a rapture; but even in a rapture there is a motion, a transition from one to another place. It shall be done says he, In ictuoculi, In the twinkling of an eye; But even in the twinkling of an eye, there is a shutting of the eye-lids, and an opening of them again; Neither of these is done in an absolute instant, but requires some succession of time. The Apostle, in the Resurrection in our text, constitutes a Prius, something to be done first, and something after; first those that were dead in Christ shall rise first, and then, Then when that is done, after that, not all at once, we that are alive shall be wrought upon, we shall be changed, our change comes after their rising; so in our change there is a Prius too, first we shall be dissolved, (so we die) and then we shall be re-compact, (so we rise again) This is the difference, they that sleep in the grave, put off, and depart with the very substance of the body, it is no longer flesh, but dust, they that are changed at the last day, put off, and depart with, only the qualities of the body, as mortality and corruption; It is still the same body, without resolving into dust, but the first step that it makes, is into glory.

Now transfer this to the spiritual Resurrection of thy soul by grace, here. Here, Grace works not that Resurrection upon thy soul, in an absolute instant. And therefore suspect not God's gracious purpose upon thee, if thou beest not presently, thoroughly recovered. God could have made all the world in one day, and so have come sooner to his Sabbath, his rest; but he wrought more, to give us an example of labor, and of patience, in attending his leisure in our second Creation, this Resurrection from sin, as we did in our first Creation, when we were not made till the sixth day. But remember too, that the last Resurrection, from death, is to be transacted quickly, speedily; And in thy first, thy spiritual Resurrection from sin, make haste. The last is to be done In raptu, in a rapture; Let this rapture in the first Resurrection be, to tear thyself from that company and conversation that leads thee into temptation. The last is to be done Inictu oculi, In the twinkling of an eye; Let that, in thy first Resurrection be, The shutting of thine eyes from looking upon things in things, upon creatures in creatures, upon beauty in that face that misleads thee, or upon honor in that place that possesses thee; And let the opening of thine eyes be, to look upon God in every object, to represent to thyself the beauty of his holiness, and the honor of his service in every action. And in this rapture, and in this twinkling of an eye, will thy Resurrection soon, though not suddenly, speedily, though not instantly be accomplished. And if God take thee out of the world, before thou think it thoroughly accomplished, yet he shall call thine inchoation, consummation, thine endeavor, performance, and thy desire, effect. For all God's works are entire, and done in him, at once, and perfect as soon as begun; And this spiritual Resurrection is his work, and therefore quickened even in the Conception, and borne even in the quickening, and grown up even in the birth, that is, perfected in the eyes of God, as soon as it is seriously intended in our heart. And farther we carry not your consideration upon those two Branches which constitute our second Part, That some shall be alive at Christ's coming, That they that are alive, shall receive such a change, as shall be a true death, and a true Resurrection, And so shall be caught up into the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air, and so be with the Lord forever; which are the Circumstances of our third, and last Part.

In this last part, we proposed it for the first Consideration, that the Apostle determines the Consideration of the Resurrection in those two, Them, and Us, They that slept in Christ, and We that expect the coming of Christ. Of any Resurrection of the wicked, here is no mention. Not that there is not one; but that the resurrection of the wicked conduced not to the Apostles purpose, which was to minister comfort in the loss of the dead, because they were to come again, and to meet the Lord, and to be with him forever; whereas, in the Resurrection of the wicked, who are only to rise, that they may fall lower, there is no argument of comfort. And therefore our Savior Christ determines his Commission in that, This is the Fathers will that sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. This was his not losing, if it were raised again; but, he hath only them in charge to raise at the last day, whom the Father had given him; given him so, as that they were to be with him forever; for others he never mentions.

And upon this, much, very much depends. For, this forbearing to mention the resurrection of the wicked with the righteous, gave occasion to many in the Primitive Church, to imagine a twofold, a former and a later Resurrection; which was furthered by their mistaking of those words in S. John, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection; which words, being intended of the Resurrection from sin, by grace, in this life, the Chiliasts, the Millenarians, interpreted of this Resurrection in our Text, That at Christ's coming, the righteous should rise, and live a thousand years, (as S. John says) in all temporal abundances, with Christ here, in recompense of those temporal calamities, and oppressions, which here they had suffered; and then, after those thousand years, so spent with Christ, in temporal abundances, should follow the resurrection of the wicked; and then the wicked, and the righteous should be disposed and distributed and settled in those Mansions, in which they should remain forever. And of this error, (as very many of the Fathers persisted in it to the end) S. Augustine himself had a touch, and a tincture, at beginning. And this error, S. Jerome also, (though truly, I think, S. Jerome was never touched with it himself) out of a reverence to those many, and great men, that were, ( Irenaeus, Tertullian, Lactantius, and the rest) would never call an Heresy, nor an Error, nor by any sharper name, then an opinion, which is no word of heavy detestation.

And as those blessed Fathers of tender bowels, enlarged themselves in this distribution, and apportioning the mercy of God, that it consisted best with the nature of his mercy, that as his Saints had suffered temporal calamities in this world, in this world they should be recompensed with temporal abundances, so did they enlarge this mercy farther, and carry it even to the Gentiles, to the Pagans that had no knowledge of Christ in any established Church. You shall not find a Trumegistus, a Numa Pompilius, a Plato, a Socrates, for whose salvation you shall not find some Father, or some Ancient and Reverend Author, an Advocate. In which liberality of God's mercy, those tender Fathers proceed partly upon that rule, That in Trismegistus, and in the rest, they find evident impressions, and testimonies, that they knew the Son of God, and knew the Trinity; and then, say they, why should not these good men, believing a Trinity, be saved? and partly they go upon that rule, which goes through so many of the Fathers, Facienti quod in se est, That to that man who does as much as he can, by the light of nature, God never denies grace; and then, say they, why should not these men that do so be saved? And, upon this ground, S. Dionyse, the Areopagite says, That from the beginning of the world, God hath called some men of all Nations, and of all sorts, by the ministry of Angels, though not by the ministry of the Church. To me, to whom God hath revealed his Son, in a Gospel, by a Church, there can be no way of salvation, but by applying that Son of God, by that Gospel, in that Church. Nor is there any other foundation for any, nor other name by which any can be saved, but the name of Jesus. But how this foundation is presented, and how this name of Jesus is notified to them, amongst whom there is no Gospel preached, no Church established, I am not curious in inquiring. I know God can be as merciful as those tender Fathers present him to be; and I would be as charitable as they are. And therefore humbly embracing that manifestation of his Son, which he hath afforded me, I leave God, to his unsearchable ways of working upon others, without farther inquisition.

Neither did those tender Fathers then, (much less the School after) consist in carrying this overflowing, and inexhaustible mercy of God, upon his Saints, after their Resurrection, in temporal abundances, nor upon the Gentiles, who had no solemn, nor clear knowledge of Christ, (which is Magnificare misericordiam, to magnify, to extend, to stretch the mercy of God) but, Mirificant misericordiam, (as David also speaks) they stretch this mercy miraculously, for, they carry this mercy even to hell itself. For, first, for the Angels that fell in heaven, from the time that they committed their first sin, to the time that they were cast down into hell, they whom we call the more subtle part of the School, say, That In illa mo •• la, during that space, between their falling into their sin, and their expulsion from heaven, the Angels might have repented, and been restored, for, so long, say they, those Angels were but in statu viatorum, in the state and condition of persons, as yet upon their way, (as all men are, as long as they are alive) and not In termino, in their last, and determined station. And that which is so often cited out of Damascene, concerning the fall of Angels, Quod hominibus mors est, Angels casus, That as death works upon man, and concludes him, and makes him impenitible forever, so works the fall upon the Angels, and concludes them forever too, they interpret to have been intended by Damascene, not of the Angels fall in heaven, but their fall from heaven; for, till then, they were not, say they, Intermino, in their last state, and, so, not impenitible. And those Ancients, which expound that battle in heaven, between Michael and the Dragon, and their several Angels, to have been fought at that time, after their fall, and between Lucifers rebellion, and his expulsion, (as the Ancients abound much in that sense of that place) argue rationally, That that battle, (what kind of battle soever it were) must necessarily have spent some time. They conceive it to have been a battle of Disputation, of Argumentation, of Perswasion; and that those good Angels which are so glad of our Conversion, would have been infinitely glad to have reduced their rebellious brethren to their obedience. And, during that time, (which could not be a sudden instant) they were not Inadeptivi gratiae, incapable of repentance, and of mercy. S. Cyril comes towards it, comes near it; nay, if it be well observed, goes beyond it; Of God's longanimity and patience toward man, (says he) we have in part spoken; Quanta ill Angels condonaverit, nescimus; how great transgressions he hath forgiven in the Angels, we know not; only this we know, says he, Solus qui peccdre non possit Jesus est, There is none impeccable, none that cannot sin, Man nor Angel, but only Christ Jesus.

Nay after the expulsion of the Angels, not only after their fall in Heaven, but their fall from Heaven, many of the Ancients seem loath to exclude all ways of God's mercy, even from hell it self. De statu moti, sed non irremediabiliter moti, says Origen, The Angels are fallen, fallen even into hell, but not so irrecoverably fallen, Vt Institutionibus bonorum Angelorum non possint restitui, But that by the counsel and labor of the good Angels, they may be restored again. Origen is thought to be single, singular in this doctrine, but he is not. Even S. Ambrose, interpreting that place, That S. Paul says He was made a Minister of the Gospel, Vt innotesceret, to the intent that the wisdom of God, might by the Church, be made known to Powers and Principalities, interprets it of fallen Angels; That they, the fallen Angels might receive benefit by the preaching of the Gospel in the Church. Prudentius says not so, but this he does say, That upon this day, when our blessed Savior arose from hell, Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae, And, Suppliciis mitibus, Nee forvent solito flumina sulphur, Some relaxation, some ease in their torments, at some time, some very good men have imagined, even in hell. And more then that; they have not absolutely cried down (for, so much it deserves) that fable of Trajan; That after that Emperor had been some time in hell, yet, upon the prayers of Pope Gregory, he was removed to Heaven. Nay, more then that; (for, that was but of one man) But, an Author of our age, and much esteemed in the Roman Church, delivers as his own opinion, (and thinks he hath the subtiler part of the School on his side) That that, which is so often said, (from hell there is no redemption) is only to be understood of them, whom God sends to hell, as to their last place; to them, certainly there is no redemption. But, says he, God may send souls of the heathen, who had not the benefit of any Christian Church, and yet were good moral men, to burn out certain errors, or ignorances, or sins in hell, and then remove them to Heaven; for, for so long time, they are but Viatores, they are but in their way, and not concluded.

Beloved, that we might have something in the balance to weigh down the curelty, and the petulancy, and the pertinency of those men, who in these later times have so attenuated the mercy of God, as that they have almost brought it to nothing, (for there is no mercy where there is no misery, and they place all mercy to have been given at once, and that, before man was fallen into misery by sin, or before man was made) and have pronounced, that God never meant to show mercy to all them, nor but to a very few of them, to whom he pretended to offer it, that we might have something in the balance to weigh against these unmerciful men, I have staid thus long upon these over-merciful men, that have carried mercy upon the Saints of God, in temporal abundances after the Resurrection, and upon the Heathen who never heard Gospel preached, and upon the Angels fallen in Heaven, and upon those Angels fallen from Heaven into hell, and upon the souls of men there, not only in the ease of their torments, but in their translation from thence to Heaven. That so our later men might see, that the Ancients thought God so far from beginning at Hate, (That God should first, for his glory, hate some, and then make them that he might execute his hate upon them) as that they thought god implacable, inexorable, irreconciliable to none; therefore to these unmerciful, have we opposed these overmercifull men.

But yet, to them we must say, Numquid Deus indiget mendacio vestro, ut pro eo Ioquamini dolos? Shall we lie for God, or speak deceitfully for him? deceive your souls, with over-extending his mercy? we may derive mercy from hell, though we carry not mercy to hell. Gehenna non solum eorum, qui puniendi, causa facta, sed & eorum, qui salvandi; Hell was not only made for their sakes, who were to suffer in it, but for theirs, who were to be warned by it; and so there is mercy in hell. Cooperatur regno, says S. Chrysostom, elegantly, Hell hath a co-operation with Heaven, It works upon us, in the advancement of our Salvation, as well as Heaven; Nec saevitiaeres est, sed misericordiae, Hell is not a monument of God's cruelty, but of his mercy, Et nisi fuisset intentata gehenna, in gehennam omnes cecidissemus, If we were not told of hell, we should all fall into hell; and, so there is mercy in hell. And therefore, says the same Father, Out of an unspeakable wisdom, and Fatherly care, (as Fathers will speak loudest to their Children, and look angerliest, and make the greatest rods, when they intend not the severest correction) Christus saepius gehennam comminatus est, quam regnum pollicitus, Christ in his Gospel, hath oftener threatened us with hell, then promised us Heaven. We are bound to praise God, says he, as much for driving Adam out of Paradise, as for placing him there, Et agere gratias tam progehenna, quam pro regno, And to give him thanks, as well for hell, as for Heaven. For, whether he cauterise or foment, whether he draw blood, or apply Cordials, he is the same Physician, and seeks but one end, (our spiritual health) by his divers ways. For us, who by this notification of hell, escape hell, We shall not die, but live; that is, not die so, but that we shall live again; Therefore is death called a sleep, ( Lazarus sleepeth, says Christ.) And Coemiteria are Dormitoria, Churchyards are our beds. And in those beds, (and in all other beds of death) (for, the dead have their beds in the Sea too, and sleep even in the restless motion thereof) the voice of the Archangel, and the Trumpet of God shall awake them that slept in Christ before, and they and we shall be united in one body; for, as our Apostle says here, We shall not prevent them, so he says also, That they shall not be made perfect without us. Though we live to see Christ, we shall not prevent them, though they have attended Christ five thousand years in the grave, they shall not prevent us, but united in one body, Rapiemur, They and we shall be caught, &c.

Rapiemur, We shall be caught up. This is a true Rapture, in which we do nothing ourselves. Our last act towards Christ, is as our first; In the first act of our Conversion we do nothing; nothing in this last act, our Resurrection, but Rapimur, we are caught. In everything, the more there is left to ourselves, the worse it is done; that that God does entirely, is entirely good. S. Paul had a Rapture too; He was caught up into Paradise; but whether in the body, or out of the body, he cannot tell. We can tell, that this Rapture of ours, shall be in body and soul, in the whole man. Man is but a vapor; but a glorious, and a blessed vapor, when he is attracted, and caught up by this Sun, the Son of Man, the Son of God. O what a blessed alleviation possesses that man! and to what a blessed levity, (if without levity we may so speak) to what a cheerful lightness of spirit is he come, that comes newly from Confession, and with the seal of Absolution upon him! Then, when nothing troubles his conscience, then, when he hath disburdened his soul of all that lay heavy upon it, then, when if his Confessor should unjustly reveal it to any other, yet God will never speak of it more to his conscience, not upbraid him with it, not reproach him for it, what a blessed alleviation, what a holy cheerfulness of spirit is that man come to? How much more in the endowments which we shall receive in the Rapture of this text, where we do not only devest all sins past, (as in Confession) but all possibility of future sins; and put on, not only incorruption, but incorruptiblenesse; not only impeccancy, but impeccability. And, to be invested with this endowment, Rapiemur, We shall be caught up, and Rapiemur in Nubibus, We shall be caught up in the Clouds.

We take a Sar to be the thickest, and so the impurest, and ignoblest part of that sphere; and yet, by the illustration of the Sun, it becomes a glorious star. Clouds are but the beds, and wombs of distempered and malignant impressions, of vapors, and exhalations, and the furnaces of Lightnings and of Thunder; yet by the presence of Christ, and his employment, these clouds are made glorious Chariots to bring him and his Saints together. Those Vapours and Clouds which David speaks of, S. Augustine interprets of the Ministers of the Church; that they are those Clouds. Those Ministers may have clouds in their understanding and knowledge, (some may be less learned then others) and clouds in their elocution & utterance, (some may have an unacceptable deliverance) and clouds in their aspect, and countenance, (some may have an unpleasing presence) and clouds in their respect and maintenance, (some may be oppressed in their fortunes) but still they are such clouds as are sent by Christ to bring thee up to him. And as the Children of Israel received direction and benefit, as well by the Pillar of Cloud, as by the Pillar of Fire, so do the Children of God in the Church, as well by Preachers of inferior gifts, as by higher. In Nubibus; Christ does not come in a Chariot, and send Carts for us. He comes as he went; This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven, say the Angels at his Ascension. In what manner did they see him go? He was taken up, and a Cloud received him out of their sight. So he went, so he shall return, so we shall be taken up, In the Clouds, to meet him in the Air.

The Transfiguration of Christ was not acted upon so high a Scene, as this our access to Christ shall be. That hill was not so high, nor so near to the Heaven of Heavens, as this region of the air shall be. Nor was the Transfiguration so eminent a manifestation of the glory of Christ, as this his coming in the air to Judgment shall be. And yet Peter that saw but that, desired no more, but thought it happiness enough to be there, and there to fixe their Tabernacles. But in this our meeting of Christ in the air, we shall see more then they saw in the Transfiguration, and yet be but in the way of seeing more, then we see in the air then; we shall be presently well, and yet improving. The Kings presence makes a Village the Court; but he that hath service to do at Court, would be glad to find it in a lodgeable and convenient place. I can build a Church in my bosom; I can serve God in my heart, and never clothe my prayer in words. God is often said to