DELIVERANCE FROM THE GRAVE. A Sermon preached at Saint Mary's spital in London, on Wednesday in Easter week last, March 28. 1627. BY THO. GOFFE, Bachelor of Divinity, lately Student of Christ-Church in Oxford. LONDON: Printed for Ralph Mab. 1627. To the READER. CHristian Reader, the main word in the Text of this following Sermon, is the Grave: and in a Grave of silence, after that once speaking, it had for ever been laid, but that I was loath to leave it in a deeper Grave than any Ezechiels' Valley afforded, the throat of Detraction; which David justly calls an open sepulchre. Psal. 5▪ I do with all humility thank the Bestower of all gifts, who enabled me to conceive these unworthy Meditations, who strengthened me to utter them, and for whose sake I had an honourable, learned, and religious Audience, whose devout Attention did much encourage me in that holy Task. But it seems my weak labours were not of the nature of those things, which decies repetita placebunt: for the Rehearser could not taste them once, who rather hunted after a prey for his envy, then to perform the great and pious business he undertook. Pity it is, that a Christian, a Scholar, a Preacher, could not think me a fellow-Minister with him in all, both of the same Church and Gospel! for so the courteous imparting of my Notes to him many days before, proves that I reputed him a fellow-labourer with me. It may therefore justly be expected by all that know how sensible I must needs be of so public and so undeserved a provocation, that I should pay him again in his own coin: and how easily could I whet my Pen, and give the reins to an unbridled, but just anger? But non sic didici Christum, I have learned of Him to be ready to forgive, who teacheth us to bear with wrongs; not because out of baseness we cannot revenge, but out of Religion we will not. Therefore I will not smite an Hebrew, one that should be of my Brethren; whose memory I never intended to burden with more of my Sermon than he pleased, nor speak I, because he left out the most part; nay, in effect the whole Sermon in rehearsing: it neither deserved, nor did I ever desire an exact rendering; but what was wanting on his part in memory, or as himself professed in understanding, to make up with malice, showed his zeal to be void of discretion, and his emulation of Religion. For my expressions, (upon which he bestowed some unbeseeming terms of derision) I know no reason, why I should ever change one particle of that poor language which God hath lent me, to honour him withal, in hope to be upon all occasions supplied, out of the empty store of Rheumatic & extempore Barbarism: yet whoever shall truly weigh the whole body of my discourse, shall find it, for the most part, squared by the comely Phrase of the Scripture, which I shall ever esteem the Wellspring of Divinity: If otherwise, this small work of mine own will disapprove me: For I am forced to that which I never affected, to put myself upon the judgement of diverse Readers, whether this Sermon deserved the Censure of that one Rehearser. From whose lame Repetition I appeal: and let this Sermon speak for itself, as it was then spoke by myself, who in the Pulpit never uttered any thought, but with an unfeigned intent to honour God, and none but God; and to benefit my Audients souls not ears; Hooker Eccle. pol. lib. 5. par. 30. To their surmises, who think I gave any cause to be taxed, I say no: to other whisperers, nothing. So I commit my Sermon to thy reading, and thyself to the Almighty. From my Study in East-Clanden in Surrey, April. 17. 1627. Thine in Christ jesus, THO. GOFFE. To the READER. CHristian Reader, if the conceit of mine own labours, or the requests of some friends (whose entreaties in other things shall ever be commands to me) could have made me ambitious of the Press, I might have troubled it heretofore: But I am now forced to that which I never affected, to put myself upon the judgement of diverse Readers, whether this Sermon deserved the Censure of that one Rehearser. For my language, whoever esteems my style too high, (for that was intimated) shall find my heart low in any Service I can do to GOD: And yet whoever shall truly weigh my words, shall find them for the most part squared by the comely Phrase of the Scripture, which I ever esteem the Wellspring of Divinity: and in that, though there be still the same Spirit, yet Esay & Amos do not prophesy in the same words: and for my part, I shall never wish to change one particle of that poor discourse, which God hath lent me to honour him withal, unless I were guilty of affecting rather mine own praise than God's glory; and that well deserved a sharp reprehension. I do with all humility thank the bestower of all gifts, who enabled me to conceive these unworthy Meditations, who strengthened me to utter them, and for whose sake I had an honourable, learned, and religious 〈…〉 whose devout Attention did much encourage 〈…〉 in that holy Task. To such Readers as they 〈…〉 I appeal, from the Rehearsers' 〈◊〉 Repetition; for which, how easily could I whet my Pen, and give the reins to an unbridled but just passion? But non sic didici Christum, Christ teacheth me otherwise: and I will not smite an Hebrew; but leave that to be read, which he could not speak: hoping that thou (good Reader) wilt rather find here something that may profit thee, then hunt after a prey for undeserved malice to work upon. So I commit my Sermon to thy reading, and thyself to the Almighty. From my Study in East-Clandon in Surrey, April. 17. 1627. Thine in Christ jesus THO. GOFFE. DELIVERANCE FROM THE GRAVE. EZECHIEL 37.13. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. IT was yet Good-Friday both with this Prophet and the people, when he undertook for them a Text fit for Easter, I am sure for the resurrection, when the Israelites were stretched upon the Rack of misery, as He (of whom they were then Types, but afterwards persecutors) upon the Cross, when they were to be locked up in the grave of captivity, as He was for a time in the bars of the earth: quando stillavit ira Dei super jerusalem, Sixtus Senens. Bib. sanc. lib. prim. (saith Senensis:) from these oppressions, weighty though they were to him, this Robur vel imperium Domini, this strength of the Lord (for so the Prophet's name imports) breaks forth; his soul being full of divinations, as the River Chobar, by which he sat, of drops; and through the vision of dead bones, sees Israel's restauration to its former liberty, and man's resurrection to his eternity. The words of the Prophet will best set themselves together in your memories, if they be taken asunder into their parts: The division. for they have Three: First, God's care to be known, And you shall know that I am the Lord. Secondly, to whom, To his own people; O my people. Thirdly, by what means, by most powerful deliverance; when I have opened your graves, and brought you up out of your graves. Prima pars. [And you shall know.] Lib. 3. the fals. sap. cap. 11. God's care to be known, first presents itself; And you shall know that I am the Lord. Two things, saith Lactantius, GOD hath made man only to be most desirous of; Religionis & sapientia, Religion and wisdom, the two only Keys to open that Well sealed up, The knowledge of the Lord. But the Author goes on, sed homines ideo falluntur, quòd aut Religionem suscipiunt omissâ sapientiâ, aut sapientiae soli student omissâ Religione: either men, in the fury of Religion, will break up the seals of God's secrets, and so rather discover him then know him; or else they will find him in the Labyrinths of their subtle brains, omitting the best Clue to guide them thorough, Religion. We may observe how unhappy the first intent to know GOD too near was, when He that was the subject of the knowledge, was not the Instructor. Gen. 3. She that was first caught by that golden hook of knowledge, would know God, but it should be most ambitiously; for she would know herself to be like Him, in the knowledge of good and evil. That wretched knowledge she quickly gained; good she knew, by its irrecoverable loss; and evil she knew, not only by knowing, Perer. in Gen. lib. 1. but being so herself: and all because when she first set herself to School, the Devil was her Tutor. Glorious apparition of knowledge! which fired even innocence itself with a proud affection to it: nor could ever since any Age avoid the spices of that first disease of knowing. But, like over-fleet Hounds, we often outrun the prey in the pursuit; or else, tyered and hungry, fall upon some dead carrion in the way, and omit the Game. Else how were it possible that Man, who only hath that essential consequence of his Reason, Capacity of Learning, should all his time be brought up in a School of knowledge, and yet too often let the glass of his days be run out, before he knows the Author he should study? Have not the greatest Epicures of knowledge, like children new set to School, turned from their lessons to look on pictures in their books; gazing upon some hard trifle, some unnecessary subtlety, and forgot so much as once to spell the Lord? How great a part of this span-length of his days doth the Grammatical Critic spend, in finding out the construction of an obsolete word, or the principal verb in a worn-out Epitaph, still ready to set out a new book upon an old Criticism? How will an Antiquary search whole Libraries, to light upon an ancient Monument, whilst the Chronicle of this LORD, who is the Ancient of days, shall seldom be looked into? We do so weary the faculties of our understanding beforehand by over-practising, that when we come at the Race indeed, where our knowledge should so run that it might obtain, it gives over the course, as out of breath, before it have begun. I speak not but to honour learning and knowledge, even the first elements of the Arts; they are like the Crier in the Wilderness before our Saviour to prepare his way: Nor I think aught any to be transported with the pangs of so indiscreet a zeal, as to extinguish those first Lamps of knowledge, polite and humane studies: for though they do not directly teach us to know the Lord, yet are they the fittest spectacles for unripe years and tender sights to put on, who are not able to endure at the first vehemens sensibile, so excelling an object as the Lord is. God doth not use nowadays to ravish men extra corpus, as Saint Hierome saith he did this Prophet: or as Saint Paul saith, he doth not know whether it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 2 Cor. 12. whether within or without the body, when he was taken into the third Heaven: God leads us with a more apprehensive and ordinary hand, then either by taking us up, or sending down lights and visions from himself, to make his Spirit to be at command to every obstreperous unlettered Extemporist, Hieron. ad Paulin. ut doceat antequam didicit, who will undertake to teach before himself hath learned; and so it often falls out, that whilst such are about to make known this knowledge of the Lord, though their bodies be confined within the compass of the Pulpit, yet is their straggling invention fain to wander for matter, as Saul did over Mount Gilboa, 1 Sam. 9 and many other Mountains, to seek his Father's Asses, and yet never found them. It is the comparison of that Kingly Priest, B. King Lect. upon jonas 24. who was the late Reverend Prelate of this Sea. All Miracles, we know, are ceased; and yet the greatest Miracle that ever God wrought upon earth, (the Incarnation of his blessed Son excepted) the effusion of his Spirit, must still be so familiar with us, that the assiduity of having it, hath brought it amongst too many into a cheap contempt. I would not be mistaken; (for I speak with a reverend estimation of mine own and all Christian souls) Preaching is an inestimable jewel; and if the Physician of the body is to be honoured, then much more they that minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Basil. restoring Balsam to wounded souls. That Angel of our Church, reverend Hooker, (et tanto nomini semper assurgo, his name ought ever to be mentioned with honour) calls Sermons the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven; Eccles. pol. lib. 5. part. 22. Wings, by which our souls soar to the heavenly jerusalem. O what a blessing is it from heaven? nay, what proportion doth it hold with heaven, to hear a Preachers tongue, touched by a Seraphim, utter in the Pulpit, laboured & mature thoughts, clothing his sublime Themes in fit Apparel to be presented before that Person whom he represents; yet none tam loquitur fortia quam vivit, Cyprian. his life should be stronger, & speak more powerfully than his lines; and even then, when his words reach as high as the Throne of God, his heart should be as low as the humble Publicans. All Gods Prophets ought to be of David's mind, to esteem themselves Worms and no men, whilst their Audience are sweetly forced to repute them little less than Cherubims. What a blessed Martyrdom it were, for any employed in God's Service, to breathe forth his soul in saving others souls? Such a Preacher were like the good servant in the Gospel, Mat. 24.46. who when the Lord comes, he shall find so doing. That word [so] qualifies any extremity that might have been in his actions; like Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so run; running he observed many (perchance) too fast, therefore he assigns the modum debitum, the true path in which we should run. Men that will be either like him, or like the good servant so doing, must not fall into any excess, and be found overdoing; which, even in this great business of knowing the Lord, too many do. It was St. Hieroms complaint in his time, Sola Ars Scripturarum, Ars est omnium: In no other Profession can any man set up, before he have served a set number of years; but in the knowing of the Lord, every man will be a Doctor of the Chair, before ever he saw the Divinity-schoole. We ought, Numb. 11.29. I confess, all to wish as Moses did, Would God that all the Lords people were Prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them; but let them be enriched with Moses gifts too, who was skilful in all the learning of the Egyptians: Act. 7. for otherwise, although it were Moses charity to wish such a general blessing, 'twas God's wisdom not to grant it. It is indeed true, That to know the Lord and his salvation the Scripture affords light enough, and Divinity needs not to add to her immortal beauty by any borrowed painting: yet you shall see, that when Saint Paul undertook to make the Corinthians know who was the Lord, 1 Cor. 4. he professed a wealthy variety of much other knowledge besides the Scripture; and thanks God for it, that he spoke with Tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, more than all they did: and able he was to cite their own Poets among the then learned Athenians, and to apply a Satirical Verse out of Epimenides, to reprehend the lying, gluttonous and bestial manners of the Cretians. 1. Tit. His powerful language so ravished the Lystrians, in the 14. of the Acts, Act. 14. that he gained the repute of Mercury amongst them: and questionless, the sitting so long at the feet of Gamaliel, made him vas electionis, a vessel fit to hold that divine Treasure which the Holy Ghost poured into him: not that he, or any other Messenger of God, did ever use to thrust themselves into a Wilderness of Divinity, amongst Thorns and Bushes, suffering every Bramble to tear off part of that Golden Fleece, which can never safely be carried out of such Thickets. Therefore the Psalmist took a direct Method in learning to know this Lord; he looks upon the book of Experience, which was the only volume God himself opened in Paradise, written like the Book in the Revelation, Apoc. 5. within, and on the backside, The Heavens declare the Glory of God, Psal. 19 and the Firmament showeth his handy works; and so out of every Star could he take notes, by which he might learn who was this Lord. Opus fecit quod opificem visibilitate sui manefestavit, Lomb. lib. 1. distinct. 3. saith the Master out of St. Ambrose; The invisible workman may be known by his visible work, The beauty of Heaven, The Glory of the Stars, an Ornament giving light in the highest places of the Lord, at the commandment of the Holy one; they will stand in their order, and never faint in their watches. Eccles. 43. Thus the Son of Sirach would make the Universe our University, where we might perfect our souls in experimental knowledge sufficient to understand the power of Him that made all this All, first of nothing. Accedat quaecunque vis creatura, Lomb. loc. super. et faciat tale Coelum et Terram, & dicam quia Deus est: if these helps will not make up our observation full, job will direct us to plainer Masters, Interroga iumenta, & docebunt te: Ask now the Beasts; job 12. and they shall teach thee, and the Fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; or speak to the Earth, and it shall teach thee, and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not all these things, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? By the perpetuity of these creatures, we may know the eternity of their Creator; by their immensity, his omnipotency; by the ordering of them, the wisdom of him. Yet hath the Devil so fascinated the eyes of many, that in stead of knowing GOD by these his works, they have mistaken many of his works for their gods: How commonly have some esteemed the strong man in the Firmament, the Sun, for the Sun's Creator? who, could he have spoken, would have answered them like the Angel in the Revelation, Apoc. 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, see thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy Brethren. Thus the willing, yet impiously-devout Heathen, made their unhappy Piety rather to be a crime, than such blinded adoration to be esteemed knowledge of this Lord. Where was that immortal Soul, that Image of the sacred Trinity? Where all the Faculties of that Soul? Apprehension, judgement, and Discourse? Nay, where are they yet, in the greatest and most parts of the world? I desire not to dwell upon so unnecessary a point, as many may think the knowledge of God to be, in this Sunshine of the Gospel: yet some, I am sure, that this day hear me, have been in parts, and amongst people, who can no more see this Lord, than a blind man is able to discern the Sun at noon: where amongst observing many Monsters in their Travels, the greatest Monster Sea or Earth affords, is the ignorance of this Lord, not yet known to the mightiest Monarches upon earth. Let me beseech you, whoever you are, that dedicate yourselves to tread the untrackt paths of the Sea, and negotiate with remote Kingdoms, either for the Gold of Ophir, or the Spices of Arabia, to carry with you along for Exchange, if it be possible, (but not to forgo it yourselves) this Merchandise, sold at so low a rate now with us; The knowledge of this Lord. Let every one of your lives be a Taper to the darkened understandings of the Heathen, by which they may at least see that you know the Lord: for to you, to you only doth he bear this love, of you only he hath this fatherly care, that he would be known to be the Lord of you his people: for you shall know that I am the Lord, O my people: you are the persons to whom he would be known: his people. Did ever Father in more fair terms entertain the dearest Treasures of his blood, The second 〈◊〉 [● my people.] than God doth here his people? Ez. ca 35. 1ST A people, who in the Chapter 〈◊〉 had awakened his unwilling wrath, himself says of them, When the house of Israel dwelled in their own Land, they defiled it by their own ways, and by their doings, wherefore I poured forth my fury upon them. And who would not have still looked for burning from his lips, and Coals of fire from his nostrils? yet he presently forgets to be angry: scattered they were, but they shall not straggle long as sheep without a Shepherd; for he will again be their Lord, and they shall be his people. His people by order of Creation all people are: many blessings and benefits do all Nations, Kingdoms, and people receive from him: But, saith Bernard, Bern. tanquam proprium eum habent singuli Electorum, where he bears a selected and near affection, there he styles himself and them by a more dear and peculiar Title, O my people: He spoke to them before in terms of strangeness; They defiled their own way, effudi eos in Gentes, I have scattered them among the Nations: still in the third person, as if they were Branches to be cut from the Stock wherein they were engrafted, and henceforth to remain Aliens to his favour, never to be acquainted with him, or any thing of his, but his Anger and punishments. But his Anger endures but a while: In his favour is life: so gracious a LORD he had ever been to them, that he could never forget that they were his people. How like his own people did he truly use them, when they were under Pharaohs bondage, where every lash that was given them, seemed to strike him; and how did he double all those Stripes upon Pharaohs back? How did he afterwards load them with Courtesies, because they were his people? How did he feed them with food from his Table, such as they knew not, neither did their Fathers know? How did he bring them thorough the waters of the great Deep, and thorough the Red Sea, as thorough a Wilderness? Yet was not Gratitude for all these favours so truly planted in their depraved hearts, but they made a Molten Calf, an Idolattrous Sharer in his honour: If ever they were not to be accounted his people, and their names never to be registered more in his thoughts, now was the time they should have been blotted out, when such worms, not worthy to crawl before his Throne, should dare to urge God himself, with their upbraiding murmurs: Exod. 16. yet, even then, a word from his Servant Moses mouth, to put him in mind that they were his people, easily reconciles him; and he shows that he had wrote them upon the palms of his hands, and not forgot them, when the Mother hath forgot her sucking Child. He was ever wont to rejoice in the Title of being a Lord to his people: for, as if his Love had shut up all his Care for one Family alone, and only they should partake of it, he calls himself the God of Abraham, Exod. 3. the God of Isaak, and the God of jacob; as if he meant only to be their Lord, and they should only be his people. Some of his servants have desired to belong to him, with the same singularity of duty, as he hath owned them with a singular affection. Psal. 30. The man after his own heart, expresses him in Attributes most pleasing to him, joh. 20. Dubitatum est ab illo, nea nobis dubitaretur. Leo. Domine Deus meus, O Lord, my God. The Disciple, whose doubting faith hath made ours so strong that it ought not to doubt; when the wounds in his side had assured him who he was, he cries out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, My Lord and my God. joh. 20.11. At the same time, that happy sinner seeks this Lord with the same appropriating terms; They have taken away Dominum meum, my Lord: neither shame for his late reproachful Death, nor fear to belong to so contemned a Man as he was, made her to let fall her Relation, but still My Lord. Some of his than have been willing to dwell under the shadow of his wings, as he was to entertain them into his service; and ready to acknowledge him for their Lord, as he to call them his people. His people we are all content to go for, whilst he conferr's favours upon us, whilst he opens unto us the windows of Heaven, and powers forth blessings, that there is not room enough to hold them: But, Mal. 3. like peremptory Minions, who having long enjoyed the favour of their Prince, and finding themselves crossed but in some one Suit, they forget all the good turns that were heaped upon them before: Antiquiora beneficia subvertit, qui eadem posterioribus non cumulat; Plin. sec. iun. ep. none will any longer be his people, than his hand of bounty is open to them. Not only his people in general, but his chiefest Servants have used him so; his Psalmist, his King, whom he took from the Sheep-fold, and preventing him with all good things, set upon his head a Crown of gold; Then he would be his servant; Then he awakes his Psaltery and Harp, and himself would awake right early; Then he summons the Heavens, Psal. 118. Psal. 148. and the Heights, the Angels and Hosts, Dragons and Deep, all must help him to praise the Name of the Lord; for himself was resolved to do it for ever and ever. Yet in another place, he sees but the wicked flourish, he sees GOD (as he thinks) show a little favour to them that were not his own people; Psal. 73. sees that they are not in trouble like other men, nor plagued like other men; forthwith all that God had done for him, Psal. 3. That he had so often heard him out of his Holy Hill, that he had been his glory, and the lifter up of his head; yet he took ill counsel in his soul daily, and accuseth his careful Lord, of such perverse forgetfulness, as to be a continued Patron of Strangers, who never acknowledged themselves his, and to take no notice of his best and most obsequious servants. Apul. de D●g. Plat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Though we may every where find this Lord, yet if we look upon him with carnal eyes, we shall hardly discern him to be the Lord of his people, but rather of the ungodly, who oftentimes in far more plenty enjoy his outward bounties, than his own people. His people must not look to spread themselves and flourish like a green Bay three, to swim always upon smooth streams. When Christ himself had once in his company his Apostles, Mark. 4. all the poor Family that he had, all his people, the Winds and the Waters set upon the Ship where he and his people were; for had there been a continual calm, they could not so certainly have known him for their Lord, who both then and since reads to all his people many Lectures of himself, his Glory, his Omnipotency: But alas, they rather pose us then instruct us: by all them we only know, that we can never sufficiently know him, not the least handiwork of his. One School only GOD hath, where most perfectly we shall learn what he is: That School is the Grave, to which here he sets his people, where they shall truly know him to be the Lord, by those acts of his power, by opening Graves, and bringing up out of Graves. The last part, [When I have opened your Graves.] This is one of the unlikeliest places that ever man went to learn any knowledge in, especially the knowledge of the Lord. The Psalmist tells GOD, That was no place for him to be known in, quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui; Psal. 6. In death there is no remembrance of thee, and in the Grave who shall give thee thanks? He seconds it in the 30. Psalm, verse 9 Quae utilitas in sanguine meo? What profit is there in my blood, O Lord? When I go down into the Pit, shall the Dust praise thee? shall it declare thy Truth? Yes sure; A blessed Apostle could well think of no other Library to study for his chief Lesson in, to know jesus Christ, and him crucified, but the Grave▪ His Books must be meditations of the Carcases laid in their Graves; his fellow-students. Worms; his writing-tables, nasty Skulls; his main Author, Christ jesus, locked up a while after his crucifying, in the Archivis, in the closest and most secret room of the Grave, out of whom he meant to exscribe those Prophecies foretold, those Types prefigured, those Amazements of Heaven, those Terrors of Earth; and above all, one Note that transcends all the rest, without which his Preaching had been vain, his Epistles nothing worth; That only makes all his Epistles now to be Gospel, 1. Cor. 15. That Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that sleep: That as by a Man came Death, so by a Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead. And that alone makes us his people know that he is the Lord, now he hath opened our Graves, etc. Our Saviour himself, whilst he was upon Earth, was a frequent Guest to the House next adjoining in sad neighbourhood to the Grave, the Bed of sickness; from which he scarce ever departed, till he had made them with their Beds able to walk and depart from him: so in that Bed, he made the first way to show what power he would afterwards have over the Bed of Dust, the Grave. From sickness and languishing, Mat. 8.9. he raised the diseased, Creante, non medicante manu, not with the hand of a Physician, but of a Creator; Quam posuit cum formaret ex nihilo, imposuit iterum ut reformaret ex perdito: That hand which first framed us of less than Earth, is ever ready to preserve us when we are going to the Earth: Chrysol. Psal. 90. He turneth Man to destruction, and again he saith, Come again, ye children of men. But if we rove into the wonders of ancient days, or look into the Gospel, to see what Graves Christ opened, these Miracles seem a far off, and so they less affect us. These days of ours will change us from Auditors into Spectators, & when we talk of Graves, Ipsa lectio quaedam facta erit visio, Leo ser. de Pass. 19 The discourse will no longer become the object of our ears, but of our eyes. The Doors of this House of Death, you all know when they were first opened: when you shall not see GOD more busy in one Chapter to take Man out of the ground, Gen. 2. then in the next Chapter he was resolved to open the ground, that it might take Man in again: Gen. 3. In puluerem reverteris, To dust thou shalt return. An heavy doom from the mouth of the Almighty, and all unlooked for yet by our unhappy Father; who though he only had deserved it in Act, yet the force of that Edict stayed not alone at him; but, as in crowds, if the foremost fall, the whole pressing multitude commonly follows; the posse non mori, Lom. lib. 2. dist. 19 Innocence that might have kept us from the Grave, we had lost; and a non posse non mori, the inevitable Arrest of Death hath seized upon us, from which we can never be so totally bailed, but we must appear at his Summons, and present our Bodies to his Prison, the Grave. We are all but like so many wearied and breathless Hares before the Hounds, which every step looks to be a prey to their sporting cruelty. May we not All come to Saint Paul's mournful Quaere, Rom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from the Body of this Death? or from the Death of this Body? The words of this Text I never meant to understand as directly to prove the opening of Graves at the Resurrection: Hieron. in hunc locum. Saint Hierome tells us, Scimus multa robustiora Testimonia in Scriptures sanctis reperiri; The Scripture is not so barren, as to stand in need of an Allegory to demonstrate such confirmed Divinity: Every Chapter in some Prophets, every Period of some Chapters of the Evangelists, are literal witnesses of opening those Graves at the latter Day; And to them may these words be added, as holding proportion with that universal Deliverance; for nunquam poneretur similitudo, God would never have taken a similitude from the Grave, to illustrate Israel's redemption from Captivity, Id. ibid. nisi staret ipsa resurrectio, but that he who meant immediately to do the one, was resolved afterwards in his good time to perform the other. Pined. in job. 19 And Fidei cognitio sola visione beata, inferior est claritate, aequalis certitudine; Faith doth as certainly apprehend things that are to be done, as God himself knows that he will do them, saith Pineda. No Captivity beyond the Grave; and no word in this Chapter to set out this Captivity, but is translated from a Grave: Show me, O son of Man, the value of dead and dry Bones, Sinews, and Flesh brought upon these Bones; Breath fetched from the four Winds to animate these Bones: Ossa haec universa domus Israel est, These Bones are the whole House of Israel; nay, the whole House of the whole world must become as these Bones, Dry and Marrowlesse, divested of Flesh and Sinews, and laid for a time in such a lasting Sleep, where they shall not so much as dream of this their Lord. But, even then, that Eye of his, which neither slumbers nor sleeps, will keep a watch over them: And those that upon the heavy wings of Death, go to the uttermost parts of the Earth, shall there find him and his power in opening of Graves. God speaks in this Prophet hypothetically, if, or when; But this is to us a Truth already past; And the wide mouth of the Grave hath sufficiently been its own Commentary, to make the Text most plainly understood. Would you willingly forget, O you his people, how lately he showed you that outstretched Arm of his, in opening your Graves? The Grave never brought forth any thing but confusion: and therefore if you find it in my words, it may more fairly be interpreted; yet esteem it not for penury of matter, or that we could not hold out with the Glass, unless we inched out our Periods, by ripping up of dangers long since past. Past indeed is that sad time; and past (O Lord) let it be, like the word that is spoken, and can never be recalled: past let the Infection of the Disease be, But never let Salus jehovae, never let the Salvation of the Lord pass from your memories: let the right hand of God's Messengers forget their cunning, and their tongues cleave for ever to the roof of their mouths, who will not remember those cries, that then his people made to him, and the speedy haste he made to help them. Open your hearts deep as the Grave, and waken your eyes, that they sleep not the sleep of Death: those eyes to which we present a thousand alluring spectacles, turn them from vanity, to look into the house of mourning; turn them upon those affrighting Glasses, and see the Lord, the Lord himself, first opening the Grave to the Head, afterwards to the body; first to the King, afterwards to the Kingdom; thousands following to attend his Funeral, with a mournful Pomp. Did not Fathers and Sons than go to this Grave together? Was it not opened for the Infant, as soon almost as the womb was opened to let it into the world? And That which a little before was the hopeful Burden of the Mother, presently became a small, but heavy load to the Messenger of the Grave. Cadunt Medentes Mordus auxilium trahit. Sen. Oed. The Patient wounded the Physician, and recompensed him with Infection for his Antidote: They who one day carried Corpses to the Grave, were themselves the next day Courses carried thither: All trades failing in your City, but the Sextons, you had leisure to walk out to see the Mansions of Death: where if any wondering at their unwonted vastness, asked themselves where the bodies were that should fill them; ere they had past many Streets homeward, they met Beeres enough to make them question where the Graves were that should entertain them: In stead of Triumphs that were then begun to be thought upon, Death only rid in woeful Triumph thorough your Streets: The neighbours that were wont to embrace each other at their meetings, now appear one to the other as fearful as a Ghost at midnight: Some preserved to read the Bill of one week, and their own selves helped to fill it up the next: And who did not look upon those doleful Registers with wet eyes, as if it had been the Chronicle of a City, that sometimes was, and without God's speedy mercy never like to have been again? Did not the Grave open so wide at the length; That the Cormorant and Bittyrne were like to possess your habitations? The Owl also and the Raven to dwell amongst you, the lines of Confusion to be stretched upon you? And the stones of emptiness? Esai. 34. They are Esayes words to as flourishing a City, and a people once as dear to God as ever we were: Thorns & Thistles might have came in our Palaces, Nettles, and Brambles in our Fortresses, the Satire like to cry here to his fellow, and the Screech-owl like to find here a place to dwell in. Then were your delicate and tender Dames (whom the Sun in his pride must not look upon; and he in all that pride, not so proud as one of them) scorning at another time to grace a Country Village with their presence; but then glad to shelter themselves under an humble Thatch. Come now you pampered Trunks, and see these Bodies a Feast to their own corruption, for whom here no fowl was dear enough, no fish rare enough, to content their wittily-luxurious palates; The Fowl in his live proportion must come flying to our Feasts; And the fish swim again in the platter in a new Sea of Sauce: These bodies which to paint, to clothe, to adorn, Countries must be searched for Silks and Sables, and the wool of Ermines, the Silkworm must be robbed of the labour of her bowels; The Tailor must tire his wits to attire our Bodies; The Devil himself must renew his invention to revive a fashion: Satanae ingenia, Tertul. could Tertullian call them in his days; Days of Sackcloth and Ashes, in respect of ours: And all this Cost, Paines, Wit, Curiosity, to feed and clothe Bodies, that must come to the Grave. Whither if one Engine will not serve to bring us, he hath many; and although he struck us but with one rod, yet he threatened us with more. Solomon with a preventing Devotion, foresaw all his Whips and Scourges which drive us to our Graves, 1 Kings 8. Famine, Pestilence, Blasting, Mildew, Caterpillar, and Enemy. Must our Sermons pass them over? I pray God the destroying Angel, whose fingers were armed with them, may so pass over us too: But Famine hath ever been a Brand kindled in the fire of God's wrath; witness the Elegies which made Zion weep forth, when the Lord accomplished his fury, Lam. 4.11. When he had devoured the foundations thereof. Other punishments prevent their cruelty by a speedy destruction. But famine strikes with deliberate blows, and makes us wretchedly sensible of lasting miserieit; cools the preserving heat, drinks up the nourishing moisture, wears out the vegetable habitude, sucks up the flowing Marrow, eneruates the Sinews, untyes the joints, cobwebs the flesh, discolours the face, dambes up the voice; They that be slain with the Sword, Ibid. saith the Lord, are better than they that be slain with Hunger. If any think this passage unnecessary, because they never felt it, let them learn by this description of it, to pity them that do. Those are the lesser Conducts to the Grave, Blasting, Mildew, Locust, Caterpillar. Would not the mighty men amongst us neglect them, 1 Sam. 17. as Goliath scorned David the Youth? Yet Solomon, knew that this Army was able to bid Battle to the greatest power upon earth. So disdainfully did God overcome Pharaoh by an Army of Flies and Frogs; And brought Herod to his Grave with a few worms; Acts 12. manifesting upon him at once both his strength and scorn. One main Instrument he hath more to open our Graves; that is, the Enemy, but since the affrighting Drum hath not a long time struck up his Panic sounds in our land, nor the watchful Beacon lent us the fearful light to see an Enemy, the name of an Enemy may be thought, as needless a thing as a Soldier. Transport then your thoughts a while, but where the Enemy hath been, see how the Enemy hath opened a Grave, not for people, but for Provinces. What is become of the stately Towers? of the walled Cities? of the fruitful Vines? of a Country dear to us? But I question not the letting out of the blood of the Vine; since the Blood of the men was shed forth in fuller Cataracs. Sen. Nat. Quaest Vrbes constituit Aetas, Hora dissoluit. We may now seek that Country in the Country, and not find it so much as in the Ruins. We and our Sins had almost caused God to employ all these Arrows of wrath against us. What Country? What Nation under heaven do we Trade withal; from whom the Sins of that Nation is not brought hither? and those are Merchandises that might welbe spared: we all use our Lord like forgetful Mariners, promise much in a Storm, & never think of it in a Calm. God himself could tell his people in the 5 of Hosa, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence, Host 5.15. and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. Optimi sumus, Plin. Ep. dum infirmi sumus. Never do we truly kneel to him, but when we are under his strokes, upon which strokes, we must not look through the false Glasses of our deserts, but of his Mercies. Cain and judas looked upon him through the Perspective of their sins: and so in stead of reading the Prophet's Text, That his Mercy was above all his works, they mistook, and thought their own foul works above his Mercy: so though he would have forgiven them; they could not forgive themselves; whereas the goodness of God endureth for ever: and although he chastens every Son that he loves, yet his Stripes are not to drive us from him, with a desperate fear, but to call us to him with a Religious hope; Austin. Flagellat omnem filium quem amat, saith Saint Austin, he chastens all the sons whom he loves; yes, we may truly say All, for he had one Son, Idem. fine peccato, non tamen sine flagello; who never deserved a stripe, and yet he felt many. How was he fain to drive us All to his Temple not long since? How did a few strokes sink us upon our knees? Lift up our wearied hands? Exalt our tired voices? Turn our heads into Fountains? our eyes into Streams? And all ourselves, for a time into so many Saints? How did we come to him with hearty groans, Devout thoughts, Sobbing Breasts, Humble Knees, Serious Cries, Charming Tongues, Emphaticke Prayers, and above all, a full Resolution of Amendment? All which he listened to with such a pleased Attention, that he caused the Minister of his justice to put up the Sword of vengeance, & with a hand of Mercy shuts those Graves that he found open, and so all we that stand here this day, and many thousands more, are as men brought up out of our Graves, and may know that he is the Lord, and that we his people ought for ever to praise him in the great Congregation, who thus hath brought us out of our Graves. And brought you up out of your Graves.] Never did the pen of the Almighty, either from his own mouth so truly speak himself, when he sealed Moses Commission with his name jehovah, I am that I am, Exod. 3.14. Nor by any powerful Act so prove himself, nor by any Hieroglyphic so delineate himself, as by this last Particle by bringing up out of our Graves. The Son of Sirach employs all the Rhetoric he hath, to set out the Omnipotency of this Lord; from the Rainbow first which he bids us look upon and praise him that made it: Eccles. 43. very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof, it compasseth the heavens about with a Glorious Circle; ver. 11. And the hands of the Most high hath bended it. vers. 12. Then he directs us to the Meteors, Lightning & Thunder: then to his Treasures from whence the Clouds fly forth as Fowls, ver. 20. and the hoar Frost is poured as Salt upon the earth, which the North wind congealeth into ye, and clotheth the waters as with a Breastplate. Can Divinity assume more than that pen gives it? Yes, the Holy Ghost tells us of a Creature in the Sea, whom he calls Regem super omnes filios superbiae, job. 41. The King of all the children of pride: The Leviathan, Lay thy hand upon him remember the Battle, do no more, who can discover the face of his Garment? Or who can can come to him with his double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? his Teeth are terrible round about. You shall never find Gods own pen dropping upon this Creature, but even the Creator as pleased with his own work; is again ready to cry out as at the first, Valdè bonum; letting it breathe forth his praise, as it doth the Ocean out of his Nostrils. Yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this wonder, at which all other wonders may justly wonder, must not, cannot, show him so marvelous in our eyes, as by the promise that he here means to make himself known by to his people, by bringing of them up out of their Graves. Down with your Sceptres, all Monarches upon earth, fall at his feet, you heavenly powers that attend his Throne, for you may all here use David's words: Psal. 115. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis; Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thee only belongs the power to bring up out of the Grave. This Prerogative, vnshared to any, doth God ever keep to himself, I wound, and I heal; I kill, and I make alive: for Quis Deus nisi Dominus, who can bring from the Grave, but our God? He never delegated his dearest servant in this Ability, Num. 12. his servant Moses, so often styled his servant, employed to deliver his people from Pharoahs' Bondage, and therefore was armed for a time with many miracles; made able to turn his Rod into a Serpent, Exod. 7. and his Serpent again into a Rod; could at his pleasure call for Flies, Lice, Frogs, Darkness, yet he never brought any from the Grave. Christ jesus himself, amongst all his world of Miracles which he did whilst he was in the world, did not make this power of his too familiar: he brought one from the Bed, another from the Beer, joh. 11. but never, save only one, from the Grave; and that was he whom he loved. He would not put the strength of his Godhead to deal with so weak an adversary as a Disease; Chrysost. but Cui plus est mortem vincere, quam removere languorem, he provided not to cure Lazarus in his sickness, but to honour himself in his raising; and even by that temporal Resurrection of him, to prove the eternal Resurrection one day of us▪ he doth but speak to him, Lazarus, come forth, and he came forth, not to bring amazement, but faith to the beholders; who might then have shouted with that voice of triumph; Death, 1 Cor. 15. where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? But if we go to no other Grave but this, and only look upon the deliverance of Lazarus from it, we may sound a Conquest before the Field be won, and so our Enemy which lies in Ambush may invade us with an unlooked for assault. Lazarus rose indeed, and for a time enjoyed some benefit of longer life: Cypr. de Resur. Res quidem honorabilis, & dominatio potestativa fuit, saith Cyprian: The power that our Saviour showed over the Grave even there, aught ever to be honoured in our memories; but he was to go to the Grave again. Heb. 9 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Statute in Saint Paul, that all men must dye, will ever stand in full force, strength and virtue: and therefore the Psalmist makes it an angry question to any that shall doubt it; Psal. 88 Quis vivit? Who is he that lives, and shall not see Death? All the comfort one of the best Heathen could ever give in this case, Sen. ad Polib. was, Cogitare id sibi accidisse, quod antè se passi sunt omnes, omnesque passuros: The community of all suffering alike, may somewhat ease the severity of the punishment: for when we go to our Graves, they are the most sure Possessions that ever our Fathers could leave us, inherited by them that went before us, and shall successively be taken up by all generations that shall come after us. job 17. We must all say to Corruption, Thou art my Father; and to the Worms, You are my Mother and my Sisters. And yet now, even this comfortless place, the Grave, can yield us comfort; the walls of that Prison being in a manner broken down, since Christ jesus, who was the Surety for our first Father's Debt, was laid for a time in it, to redeem us from it. The Devil knew that he had given his word for the payment, but did not understand that the Principal did not at all belong to him: Leo serm. de Pass. 10. Non autem errabat in genere, sed fallebatur in crimine; 'Twas we had forfeited the Bond, and he must be arrested: so a Herd of Tigers came to seize upon the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; for whom, he (being God) became Man; they (being men) to him became Devils; they apprehend him with their bloody hands, whom their hearts could never apprehend; all wickedly intending to confound him, who only intended to preserve them, and thinking one death too little for him, who esteemed his own life, and eternity itself a blessing too small for them. The Element of Sin, which in one of our hearts weighs not at all, because it is in its proper place, (and Elementum non ponderat in loco suo) upon him lay so heavy, because he was no Centre for it, that it made him who was wont to bow the heavens, bow himself upon the earth, in the Garden of Gethsemane, knocking there at the door of his Grave to be let in: from thence he was carried to the Theatre of Death, strewed with Bones and dead Bodies; where the unwholesome savours might have brought him to his death without a Crosse. Thus both the living and the dead were equally prepared to bring him to his Grave, who came to bring both the living and the dead up out of their Graves. How like a Coarse, and nothing but a Coarse fit for a Grave, must he needs look, when that Face, at which the Angels so often wondered, was scarrifi'de and cauterised with Thorns? those eyes, from which the Lamps of Heaven, the Sun that wardeth by day, and the Moon which watcheth by night, might borrow a better clearness, sunk into their Caves; those ears, wont to hear nothing but Anthemed Alleluiahs, deafn'ed with the scorns of insulting Sinners; that mouth, the Torrent from whence flowed Eloquia Domini, Psal. 19 Eloquia munda, words sweeter than Honey and the Honey Combe, then stopped with Gall and Vinegar: he that had given them Wine, to cheer and make glad the heart of Man; what a Potion did they give him, to comfort his dying heart? Thus for his sufferings they would be sure to take what impious care they could; and their busy malice was so wholly taken up with them, that they forgot when they had done to provide him a Grave. He that in his life time was worse provided for then the wild inhabitants of the Field or Air, Mat. 8. (for himself complains, that the Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the Air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head,) lived and died in the same case; lived without a bed, and died without a Grave: Because the living would not, the dead came from their Graves to make him room; the Earth opened her obedient arms to entertain him; the stones of the Temple leapt from their foundations, disdaining the place where the hand of any Architect had laid them, Psal. 118.22. when those profane builders refused Lapidem angularem, him that was ever the head Stone of the corner. He died for the sins of strangers, and therefore a stranger, joseph of Arimathea, must provide him a Grave: he begged him of Pilate, and had so often laid him in his heart before, that he now esteems himself happy, if he may lay him in his Grave. Would you now think this Man that could not save himself, (as they blasphemed) could save us? That he that could not procure himself a Grave, should bring us all up out of our Graves? Nullas habet spes Troja, si tales habet. How do they yet deride our hopes in him, who do not yet believe in him? Durst he ever challenge Death upon his own Dunghill, the Grave, with such daring terms, Host 13. Ero mors tua, o mors, O Death, I will be thy death, O Grave, I will be thy destruction? Will the Lord ever say to him, Sat thou on my right hand, until I have made thine enemies thy footstool? Can he ever ascend on high, and take captivity captive, who was taken by two old men, joseph and Nicodemus, to be laid in a new Monument in Joseph's Garden? joh. 19 In horto erat Monumentum nonum, A new Sepulchre, wherein never man was yet laid; A Stone hewed out of a Rock, and therefore most fit to lay the Rock of our salvation in; and into a Rock his Disciples could hardly dig, to get him out: Therefore against that Rock must they needs dash, Mat. 28. which would have it said, His Disciples came by night, and stole him away. Mat. 27. They could say to Pilate, Sir, we have heard the Deceiver say, (and how wretchedly did they deceive themselves by not believing what he said?) His dixit ever was his fiat, Gen. 1. from the first saying, Let there be light; though afterwards when he had made that light come to shine in the darkness, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, joh. 1. the darkness comprehended it not: They had seen him whom they so falsely termed Deceiver, oftentimes making his word good without all deceit: The Centurion asked no more at his hands, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mat. 8.13. Say but the word only, and my servant shall be whole: and his servant was made whole the same hour. He that was himself the Word, needs never do any thing but say the word, he said he would rise again the third day; and as he was Filius fortitudinis to the Lord himself, the Son of his strength, or the strength of his Son, he could find or make a way to bring himself up out of the Grave. Let their laborious envy heap hills of Earth upon his Grave; let their Grand Patron the Devil himself, send Legions from Hell to guard his Sepulchre, as Pilate did a band of armed Soldiers, they could not have kept him in: His very sleep, which they thought the sleep of death, was busy in a triumphant Conquest over Hell itself; he was then gone to the house of the strong man, which himself speaks of in the Gospel, binding the strong man, Mark. 3. and spoiling him of his goods; he entered as Conqueror, bound him as the stronger, B. Bilson. in his tract of Christ's descent, pag. 15●. spoilt him, as the right owner of that estate in us, which he by theft and violence had once carried away. The drowsy weight of sleep sat far more heavy upon the Soldier's eyes, and bound them faster, than the High Priests Seal, than the Massy Stone; then the walls of the Grave, than Death with all his Cords were able to fetter him. Were the Fogs called from the Lakes and Fens for your sakes, O you, once his people? Was darkness called from the Centre of the Earth, to spread itself upon the face of Egypt three days? Exod. 10. or rather three prodigious nights? Didst thou, O Sun, Iosu. 10.12. more than stand still in Gibeon, and thou Moon, in the valley of Aijalon, that you his people should for ever since obtenerate your own eyes with a darkness more palpable than that of Egypt, and would neither then nor yet see this Sun of righteousness, coming from the Chamber of his Grave, fresh as a Bridegroom, and rejoicing as a Giant to run his race? Would his Disciples, a poor, disconsolate, wretched, forsaken company, Doves under the talons of Vultures and Ravens, would they venture upon a guarded Sepulchre? Would they offer violence to an armed Band? Indeed, habet pietas impetum suum: Religious valour will do much; and it is well they will accuse his Disciples of so good a crime, as to be more watchful than their Hirelings were. Innocence is ever most commonly apt for rest: when he took along with him three chosen witnesses of his sorrow in the Garden, Mat. 2●. when he felt the soul of affliction in the affliction of his soul, and many a groan was fetched from the bowels of his humanity, able to awaken a sullen Rock; they three not then able to watch with him one hour, and now all of them to watch a whole night when he was dead, and steal him away? This saying is commonly reported among the jews to this day. Mat. 28. Credat judaeus Apella, non ego: A sottish, Horat. stupid, unbelieving jew may credit such a lying vanity. And mark, I beseech you, even in that one thing, the provident justice of the Almighty, to punish them ever since with a general lightness of belief, to apprehend any thing but what they should have faith in; Dreams and Fables are Histories to them; and, which is their just curse, they have yet no other Gospel. Shall so supernatural an Earthquake be at his Passion, when he breathed out his Spirit into the hands of his Father? And shall neither Earth nor the Stone upon his Grave stir, to give way to him to reassume that Spirit to himself again? If Earth nor Stones will not move, Heaven will, and from thence will come an Angel to roll away the stone. Psal. 93.11. Angels ever have had a charge of him, and as they did not refuse to attend him when he took up his first lodging upon Earth in a Manger, Luk. 2. so did they wait upon him in the last bed that ever he lay in here, Austin. the Grave. Qui fuit vermiculorum locus, est & Angelorum, Angels scorn not to keep worms company in any place where Christ was: for as Princes denominate Courts, so doth he Heaven, even in the Grave, and the Grave was Heaven whilst he was there: Lucan. so Coelo tegitur, qui non habet urnam. But speak, thou Angel of the Lord, was not he thy Angel, and abler to help thee, than thou wert him? The Angel may still keep the praise of his duty, but Christ must have the honour of his Omnipotency; All that was done for him, was done by him, nor did the Angel roll away the stone, to make way for Christ to come out of the Grave, but to prepare our hearts for Christ to come into them, ut conseruis ad credendum daret fidem, Chrysost. Ser. 75. non ut ad resurgendum Domino praestaret auxilium; Not to help our Saviour, but our faith, to which the Angel would ever remain an happy both Messenger and witness; A witness joined to holy job, who knew certainly that his Redeemer lived; job 19 A witness with David, Psal. 16. that his holy One should not see corruption. A witness with Esay, Esay. 26. who called all that dwelled in the dust, to awake and sing. A witness with Ezekiel to this place, That he hath opened our Graves, and brought us up out of our Graves. Vteri nova forma, saith a Father, for the Tomb to become a womb to take in a dead man, and bring him forth alive; for the Grave to swallow up, not a dead Corpse, but Death itself; never did any thing deserve the lasting Characters which job meant to write with the Pen of a Diamond like this; never did Spring bring forth such a flower as the flower of jesse before; Esay 11. But if he be but a flower, he may fade again as flowers do, and so our flesh will last as long as his: for the Psalmist tells us, that as for Man, he flourisheth as the flower of the field; Psal. 103. But the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, the place thereof shall know it no more; so man hath ever remained since Adam's fall, Gen. 2: he was first made a Gardener, till that Gardner proved the worst weed in the Garden: and so as a weed was plucked up and throne away; but the second Adam the jews esteemed indeed a weed, but contrary to expectation he sprung up a Gardener: Mark 16. for Mary took him for the Gardener, and by the power of that Gardener, Minut. Fael. in Oct. Expectandum etiam nobis corporis ver est. These Bodies of ours shall at that general Springtime of the Resurrection grow up again a fresh in the Eden of Eternity. Tertul. de Resur. carnis, cap. 4. This flesh of ours, post totum ignobilitatis Elogium, this ignoble flesh subject to an Army of Diseases, to Corruption, Death, Worms, Rottenness, and Dissolution, with all the depraving Adjuncts, that Sadduce, Heathen, or Atheist can disgrace it with, yet because it is the diligent Attendant of the Soul here, by whose Organs she discourses, contemplates, and conveys her thoughts as high as the Seat of God; this flesh, in which Saint Paul carried Stigmata Christi, Ad Gal. 6. the marks of his Saviour, shall with its own eyes one day see that Saviour. For, shall darkness follow light, and light darkness? shall Autumn succeed Spring, and Spring Autumn? shall the Moon put off and renew herself by a monthly change? shall trees unclothe themselves of their leafy garments? and duly at their time reinuest themselves with those green Ornaments? shall Sun's each night set, and each morning rise? and must man take up a lethargic rest in a night long as eternity? Tertul. de Resur. carnis, cap. 12 No: Operibus praescripsit Deus antequam literis; his works are our books, in which we may read the plain and understood Stories of our being brought up out of our Graves. It is now, and ever was, since that first Easter, a continued Feast of joy, solemnised with celestial jubiles by the Angels in Heaven, because he brought himself up out of the Grave; Cyp. Said in hoc multiplicata sunt gaudia, saith a Father: This extends the degrees of their accidental joy to the height, that we, for whom he became so humble on earth, shall by him be made so high in heaven: That these bodies shall again be made the glorified Tabernacles to their souls, from which that Divine part shall never again be frighted with diseases, never loaded with discontents, never racked by pashions, never tortured by affections, never vexed by griefs, nor expelled by rebellious frailty; but every Christian shall be in a heaven of peace, and the peace of heaven in every Christian, that is brought up out of his Grave. O God, A meditation of the last day. when at that unknown day, thou shalt go forth about this universal business, to bring us All up out of our Graves, and meanest to cloth this mortal with immortality, Psal. 68 how will the earth shake, and the heaven's drop at thy presence? How will Kings of Armies fly apace? and how wilt thou scatter Kings; when the chariots of the Lord shall be twenty thousand, even thousands of Angels? In what furrow then will the Purchaser hide his covetous head? In what dunghill will the Adulterer shroud his unclean and rotten body? Into what Ditch then will the Drunkard reel? or in what Parchment will the Lawyer write his Evidences? or with what wax will he seal them, when the Heavens shall be contracted like Parchment, and the Hills shall melt away like Wax; and no Mountain left to give the Infidel so much hope of mercy, as to call upon the Mountains to cover him? Then wilt thou command the Sea, not only to stay her proud waves, but to make one depth still call upon another, till they bring up from the lowest bottom, all that have shipwrecked in her waters, or dashed against her Rocks. And upon earth every Angle, Nook, and Chasm, every place, though more desert than the ransacked Temple of jerusalem now is, shall be enquired into, and not be able to keep any garment of flesh that ever was worn by any whom Christ died for. If dissected limbs lie torn asunder, in places as distant as one end of the Pole is from the other, yet will he soader them together, and make them in every several individuum, a perfect, entire, numerical body again. Not the Beakes of Eagles, nor the throats of Ravens, not the Entrails of the most devouring Monsters of the Forest, not the jaws of Tigers, nor the teeth of Crocodiles, Serpents or Hiena's (for to these, and worse than these, doth sometimes this cockered flesh of ours become a prey,) not resolution to the first indeterminate matter; not the dissolution, if that could be, to nothing, can keep, can hide these bodies of ours, from him that first made them out of nothing. But whether they crumble into Atoms of dust, or be distilled into water, or with ashed from a Funeral Pile fill an urn, or be attenua 〈…〉 to Air, every one of these, Ravens, Eagles 〈◊〉 sters, Beasts, Tigers, Sea, Fire, Earth, Aire 〈…〉 their private closerts to be unlocked, and restore every integrating part, Artery, Sinew, Muscle, Vein, joint, Limb: Nay, those parts which Philosophy esteems but Excrements, Divinity will then make Ornaments; and therefore God hath a care that a hair of man's head shall not fall to ground without his providence. Thus much Rubbish He will have to work upon at the Resurrection, who at the Creation did all ex nihilo of nothing; and that was the greater task. What change soever these bodies suffer, subducuntur nobis, Minut. Fael. in Oct. sed Deo Elementorum custodi reseruantur: in no Element can they be lost, which are committed to his keeping, who keeps the Elements themselves. But all these Graves which I have yet named, are but like Peter's chains, Act. 12. which fell easily from his hands; there is a Grave yet more deep, more loathsome, that is, Matth. 22.13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, utter darkness, darkness of body, darkness of soul; not Egypt in all its darkness, like to the darkness of that Grave. There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Luk. 16.26. an unpassable Gulf betwixt life and death, for ever fixed, no Music, but where their Instruments are gnashing teeth, and their Hymns howling: All the sensible faculties of the soul, taken up with no thought, but never-ending sense of never-ending misery. No mention of joy, but Poena damni, the unrecoverable loss of joy, when they shall see others enjoy the abundance of that joy which they shall never have. When all other Graves shall have their Grave, and the last Moiety of sand be run out of the glass of Time itself, in this Grave shall they lie, that are gone to it as dead to any thing but torment which shall never die to them, nor they to it. No Gregory, no Falconella, no Mass, no Trentals, No Beads, no Penance, no Pope, no jesuit, no Devil, (for those whom their own pride hath joined together, let no man put asunder,) I say, none of these could ever redeem from that Grave of mortal immortality. Yet out of that Grave in one true and most Orthodox sense are we brought, not by getting out, if we ever had been actually in, but because that we know he is the Lord, whose merciful prevention hath barred up the everlasting doors of that Grave to us that are out: and to that purpose he sent the Angel in the Revelation from Heaven, having the Key of the bottomless Pit, Apoc. 20. and a great chain in his hand, and he took the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Devil, and bound him a thousand years, shut him up, and sealed upon him, that he should deceive the Nations no more. If a Messenger, one of our fellow servants, (for so the Angel calls himself in the foregoing Chapter) could do this, Apoc. 19 bind the Grave-maker, & shut him up in his own Grave, how may we that are his people, know that the Lord himself hath all the power of Hell chained at his will: all the Gates thereof shut, to all but those that will needs enter by the Posterns of Heathenish Infidelity, or Romish superstition? the Keys of every Gate else are kept, saving those of our Saviour's wounds; the infectious sting of Death being plucked out of the mouth of the Serpent the Grave and Hell itself. And by this you know (I hope) all you his people, that he is the Lord: Now he hath opened your Graves, and brought you up out of your Graves. God for his part hath, you see, made every word of the Text good: let him not in such a general Harvest of Heaven and Earth, have occasion to say to any of you, as the Master of the Vineyard said to the Labourers, Matth. 20.6. Why stand ye here all the day idle? why do not yourselves do your parts too, and set your hands to bring yourselves up out of your Graves? But the early charity, the vnconsumed Bounty of this City, prevents an Exhortation: you bring and keep from the Grave many a weak aged Christian, who have no other props but you and their staffs; their own limbs sooner forsaking them, than your bounty. Infants brought into the world, and left there as in a wilderness, hang upon your paps, and are fed from your Tables: You deliver the poor that cry, and have none to help them: In your Hospital lies many a wounded Christian; and in every wound is placed a tongue, to speak and cry to God himself for mercy, continued mercy and honour to this City. Your Bethlem shows, how he that was borne at Bethlem, is borne anew in your hearts, and you again regenerate and borne in him; for whose sake if a Cup of cold water given shall never go unrewarded, then surely, Copiosa erit Merces vestra in Coelis, Matth. 5. great will your reward be in Heaven, when you are brought up out of your Graves. Thus far do the arms of the Poor lift you their Benefactors and Patrons from your Graves: Thus far are these Liveries which attend you, Angels, and Messengers to report your Resurrection: Thus high you may stand upon your own Foundations, those foundations which you have raised for them, who are wet with the showers of the Mountains, and might have embraced the Rocks for want of a shelter. job 24. I dare make the Orator's challenge, Plin. Paneg. ad Traian. Eat nunc sui vetustas ostentatrix, & illa innumeris vulgata monumentis, iactet Exempla: Let Superstition and Idolatry, whose heretical doctrine of meritorious works raise walls for Hornets to inhabit, out of blind devotion: let them open their eyes, and see what Houses of Charity the true and clear knowledge that he is the Lord, hath built in this Kingdom, which shall ever remain honourable Monuments, in the memory of all that live, and attend their Founders, as glorious Trophies, when their easy dust shall give way to them, that they may come up out of their Graves. How will every garment that Charity hath put upon the back of the Infant, distressed Widow, Orphan, and fatherless, be one day requited, when your souls shall be arrayed like the two Angels at the Sepulchre of Christ, joh. 20. in white? O keep yourselves still in albis, in those white colours, that they may be known to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Matth. 22. Wedding Garments, at the Marriage of the King's Son. Let not purple Ambition, bloody Cruelty, dirty Avarice, ever stain such pure vestures; Nor above all, one spot that will appear fouler than all, profane Sacrilege, which keeps back the Tenth from Him who who gave you all. Arist. Ethic. lib. 4. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That which God hath ever appropriated to himself, can no way belong to Man. Let no false suggestions whisper into your ears, that whenever we fall upon this Argument, we are our own Advocates, and plead our own Cases; but remember that you are to bear part in that great solemnity, in that last and everlasting Easter: Let not Gods Prophets be able to say to you there, as Samuel said to Saul, 1 Sam. 15. when he thought himself free from any breach of GOD'S charge, What meaneth then the bleating of the Sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear? How will the bleating of such Sheep, and the lowing of such Oxen, (I mean) the profane keeping back of the portion of GOD'S Priests, and the honourable maintenance of his Temple, though it be hushed and silent in your Chests and Bags, yet how will it one day make such a confused noise in your own consciences, that it will hinder your attentions from the harmony even of Heaven itself? Quod festo honoratur, Leo moribus celebretur. Never again look down upon these Graves, from which you are brought up; set your affections on things above; and let us with that devotion celebrate the Feast of Easter here, where it is annual; that we may partake of it there, where it will be eternal. The joys whereof, 1 Cor. 15. since the Apostle tells us, they cannot descend into the heart of man, Austin. Illuc cor hominis ascendat, let the heart of man ascend up to them, where he is that hath thus far opened our Graves, that we are sharers in the first Resurrection of Grace; and will one day bring us so quite up out of our Graves, that we shall have our parts in the last Resurrection of Glory: Which God of his infinite mercy grant, for his dear Son's sake, jesus Christ: To whom, together with the Father and the blessed Spirit, be all honour, praise, glory and dominion for ever. Amen. FINIS.