THREE SERMONS UPON THE PASSION, RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF OUR SAVIOUR, PREACHED At Oxford, BY BARTEN HOLIDAY, Now Archdeacon of OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed by William Stansby for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his Shop at Saint Austin's Gate in Paul's Churchyard. 1626.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Mr. Dr. CORBET DEANE OF CHRIST-CHURCH IN OXFORD.  
Worthy Sir,  
I Cannot forget your favours, whiles I enjoy them: and yet the contemplation of that which is present, cannot properly be called Remembrance. But when I think of giving thanks, me thinks it is not more my purpose then my fear: since gratitude does in some sort make bounty less; bounty being more content, when it is attended by gratitude; but being more eminent, when it is opposed by ingratitude: so that the greatest thanks, though not the best, is not to give thanks. Besides, bounty having in it more of outward good than gratitude hath, gratitude may seem a purer goodness, than bounty; and so whiles it strives to requite it, may seem to exceed it. Yet since reason tells us that ingratitude is against reason, being an injustice, and so against nature, I choose to give thanks the common way; not that I judged it enough gratitude, to give thanks thus: but that I judged it too much ingratitude, not to give thanks thus. That I might not therefore requite your goodness with injury, I endeavour to imitate that goodness by making my thanks; like unto it, public and yet sincere. Secret thanks are often free from flattery, yet always like it: being commonly at as much distance from examination, as flattery desires to be. Happy then are my thanks, which are as just as your merit, being made just by your merit: which so appears in your exemplary & daily Devotion, that you have taken more possession of your Church, then of your Dignity. And for your College, you have made it enjoy a Statute of Improovement, not so much in Diet, as in Study: ruling it by the Statute of your Example; which will be Deane beyond Your time. Any man May say thus much, but I Must: truth will make it justice in another: but choice will make it gratitude, in Me: who owe myself unto you; nay, who owe my Friends unto you. They have given me blessings; but you have given me Them; even the most Noble (and, through your favour) My Sir Francis Stuart: whom, when I have Named, I have Bounded my understanding: and, when I have named him Mine, I have Contented it. Which happiness must needs make me remember You, as the cause of that happiness; and as, before, I was His, by being Yours; so now by being His, I shall be the more  
Your Barten Holiday.   

A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Good-friday, 1621.  1. CORINTH. 2.8. 
Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  
GReat sorrows are dumb: and can custom then justly expect that this should be eloquent? This day has enough with his own grief: and shall we add unto it by repetition? The severity of this passion admits no other wit of Rhetoric, than the salt of a tear; nor sharper accent, then of a groan equal to a lost friend, or to a sin. Yet see the endeavour of compassion, which had rather with moderate tears recover itself to language, by the relief of complaint to ease affliction; then to be guilty of ingratitude by wonder and silence. This day must cry-out, and articulately lament unto all days, this horrible truth, the tragedy of God: which seems as much to exceed our faith, as our sorrow. Is our God, our living God, as the carcasse-idols of the Heathen, whose Godheads suffer the stroke and victory of the Chizell and the Hammer? Or, are Poets Prophets indeed? and are there very Giants, that dare invade God? Fiction, that intends to persuade, neither contradicts nor exceeds nature: and story must be more severely contrived within the possibility of action: otherwise it begets not faith, but scorn, and the Historians reason is rather questioned, than his eloquence. Yet this day breathes-out such union of extremities, the humiliation of God, and the insolence of man, in jesus crucified, and the crucifying jews; that your piety can scarce be more amazed at our Lord's affliction, then at the jews cruelty; so that, if the motive and condition of these unreasonable actors were not expressed, our suspicion might cry-out, Who will believe our report? History or invention has anciently told us of some altars, where-on wild devotion sacrificed men: but durst Poetry ever feign a people that sacrificed their God? Would any man have thought that the jew would have been the first Antichrist of his Messias? That the children of Abraham would murder the God of Abraham? That the partakers of the Lords glory, would crucify the Lord of glory? I must admit you a respite to wonder, and satisfy as well your admiration, as your enquiry; which does, me thinks, with the labour of expectation desire to know not only the fact, but also the affection of the jews: as if than you would be persuaded to the story of the action, when first you shall have heard the story of the actors. Not the jews alone were partakers in this guilt: but chiefly the jews triumphed in this guilt; the jews, who were always of a churlish understanding, and now their souls were as dark as perverse. They had before committed an essay of cruelty upon the Prophets: but that was but a younger practice to this fury. Then they crucified the Lord in his Saints: but now they will do it without a figure. And may not our reason as well as piety here demand with wonder, What ailed the Heathen, nay, what ailed the jews to murmur themselves into a Conspiracy against the Christ of the Lord? Surely, their rage did not discern in him the mystical system of God and man; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Yet shall execrable violation be softened into an ignorance? shall elaborate malice be excused into so gentle a guilt? shall the crucifying of our Saviour be made but manslaughter? It is not an error to pardon an error: but it is a crime but to excuse a crime. Could the jews be ignorant of his innocence, who was pronounced not-guilty, by his judge? Who was pronounced innocent, by his judas? Who was pronounced holy, by jews amazed to silence, and in that to confession, at the power of his innocent syllogism, If I am guilty, why do you not convince me? If I am innocent, why do you not believe me? Could the jews be ignorant of his office, when as he so repaired the senses of the diseased, that their sense might justly persuade their understanding to believe? When as he called, by the voice of his power, the dead to a compendious resurrection? When as he proved his life to be a Commentary upon the Prophets? Could the jews be ignorant of his divinity, which was as necessary to the actuating of his wonderful office, as of his wonderful person? His divinity, which was acknowledged by the Devils, whom he dispossessed: who, for a moment, did by a greater miracle leave their lying, than their habitation; and being tormented unto truth, admirably confessed him the Son of God? His divinity, which at his Baptism, Heaven revealed unto the Baptist, which revelation he likewise revealed unto the jews: the best of whom esteemed him as a man of God; the worst of whom feared him as a man of God; And he told them what he saw, not in the contrivance of fancy, or by the fallacy of a glass; And he did see the veil of Heaven divided: as if the divine persons, who never had been undivided, would now sensibly appear united at this the Synod of their Trinity; And he did see the mild emblem of the Holy Ghost descend upon him; and he heard the voice of the Almighty, who was both the father and the witness at this great Christening. And shall we yet say, that this light of the World was so obscured in the cloud of flesh, that it was not clearly presented to the eyes of the world? shall we yet say, that we do not sufficiently understand, whether or no the jews did sufficiently understand? shall we yet say with a bold compassion, Had they known it? and yet we must say with a safe compassion, Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The common jew was the common sense of that politic body: his outward soul was able to see the Law: but, for Prophecy, he was as far from the understanding of it, as from the gift of it. He could with enough ignorance gaze at the wonders of our Saviour: but it was a greater wonder to work, in a jew, a belief of these wonders, then to work these wonders. Yet some did believe them and abuse them, vilely apprehending these demonstrations as the impotent persuasions of probability. And some thus thought him to be the Christ; yet durst not reveal this cheap opinion: lest they should be excommunicated to salvation, by being cast-out of the Synagogue to Christ and his Disciples. It is the property of a wiseman, not to have his heart in his tongue: but never was it the property of a wise man, to have a heart without a tongue. The mercy of our Saviour made the dumb to speak: but the fear of the Rulers made these speakers dumb; thus were their consciences tonguetied by authority. And the Rulers themselves did not more impose this silence upon others, then upon themselves: but striving as much to exceed the people in perverseness as in authority, unto their ignorance they added fury. Indeed they could not by the sharpest discretion of their eye distinguish an incarnate God: nor was the Critic Gamaliel able to instruct his Disciple Saul in the Catechism of this mystery, though Saul's unwilling ignorance admitted him nearer to pardon and conversion. But the chief of the jews, to whom the Gospel was a schism, politicly rejoicing in their wisdom and honour, scorned the imputation of levity by a change, and a suspected dejection by this change; whereby the Highpriest of jerusalem should be abused into an obscure Christian. Wherefore armed thus with the affectation of ignorance and the malice of ambition, at what thunder would these startle? at what unconceived almightiness would this fury turn dastard? Yet had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And yet by an unmoved decree this passion was sealed to a necessity; and can we then make this predestinated execution depend upon the will of the uncertain jews? This dazzles the eye, and is a wheel turning in a wheel; a sphere wrapped in a sphere; the lowest against the order of Heaven and nature, seeming to give motion to the highest, the will of the jews to the decree of God. Had Festus upon his judgement-seate heard holy Paul preach this seeming opposition, we may easily believe that without the manners of deliberation he would once more have cryed-out to our Apostle, Much learning has made thee mad. But we leave him to his own ignorance and an other judgement-seate● and without being rapt to the third Heaven, we know, that Those things which are necessary in respect of the first cause admit uncertainty in respect of second causes. The crucifying of our Saviour was necessary compared to God's decree: but it was contingent compared to the liberty of the jews will: in whom it was choice, and not necessity to will or not to will the death of Christ. If the jews had known it, than both the causes of this action, and the action itself might have not been, and had not been. But this condition, the knowledge of our Saviour (which if it had been, our Saviour could not have suffered) could not be, because the first cause, God, had decree he should suffer. And as God by this decree of his Passion, did not with an active concurrence, lay a necessity & guilt upon the will of the jews: no more did he impose any necessity upon the humane will of Christ: but our Saviour made himself a free sacrifice with as much mercy as affliction. For though there were in his humane will a necessity of obedience to the decree of his Passion, yet was there also a true indifference: this necessity being extrinsecall to his humane will precisely considered, as it was intrinsecall and natural to his person. But his humane will suffering no violence, did for our sake in the liberty of choice offer-up his person to the violence of the jews. Who were so glad of their ignorance and ambition, that rather than they would fall from their Cleargy-monarchy they would not fear to set upon God. The bravest sin that ever was, was ventured in Heaven by an Angel and the basest sin that ever was, was committed on earth by a Disciple. A Disciple, who had he been of an entire faith, had been even yet of an entire fame, & in our sacred Calendar enjoyed the place and title of Saint judas. He was Christ's purse-bearer: whose office under such a Master, was in all likelihood of too narrow a commodity for a large Knave: yet loving this, more than his master, he bargains with the Priests, and takes earnest to be a convenient Traitor. But here I must not forget one thing, because our Saviour has commanded me to remember it: and that is thy piety, O happy woman, who didst bestow upon our saviour's head and feet a precious ointment. With thy beautiful hair thou didst wipe his beautiful feet, from which thy ointment returned sanctified to thine own head: and by a commanded anniversary of thy piety, he hath poured upon thee the ointment of a religious fame. justly do I here remember her, her liberality being the unjust cause of judas his murmuring: and it was he whose thrift did chide at the spending of this ointment. Now therefore, as if he had vowed a repair of this loss, he finds a policy to sell the ointment, which was already spent; by selling his master, who was anointed with it. A subtle Merchant, that laboured so with an emulation to engross treasure and iniquity, as if he would have contented with Adam for the future tradition and monopoly of sin. Thus you see, that it is possible, to find actors for the crucifying of the Lord of glory, and now I think, you can believe that there are monsters. But now behold a man! a man, in whom innocence and patience contend for supremacy. His enemies are preparing for his death by malice; and he himself is preparing for the same by love. The most of them are at their conspiracy, and he is at the Communion with his Traitor. At which last Supper he himself seems to remember and imitate the goodness of that woman, whom he commanded us to remember. She wiped his feet, and he washes his Disciples; and would you not think that these feet would for ever after go upright? Me thinks, when he came to wash judas his feet, his sullen treason might have expressed itself in Saint Peter's answer, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Indeed to wash a judas was to wash a Black-more. Yet he had more need to have used Saint Peter's second answer, Lord not the feet only, but also the hands and the head. But it would have been a mercy unwelcome to his stubbornness, to have been washed to an unwilling cleanness. His stain was as obstinate as his purpose: and his ears were cauterised as much as his conscience against our Savious words, which prevailed as little with his affection, as with his memory. Christ pointed-out the Traitor first by word: and, as if that had not been enough, with his very finger; He that I give a sop unto, he shall betray me; nay, with the Traitors own finger, He that dips his finger with me in the dish, he shall betray me. Christ dipped, and judas dipped, and Christ gave the sop to judas. Who would not here have thought, but that he, who by his garment and shadow could confer health, must by his sanctifying hand have conferred salvation? Was not here the finger of God? And yet here was not the finger of God. judas now found the truth of that unhappy Philosophy, Every thing is received according to the nature of the receiver. Christ gave the ●●p▪ but judas eat it. When strait behold a sad transubstantiation a sop turned into a Devil! And now you will think it was time for him to leave Christ's company; and so indeed he did for immediately he went forth, and it was night a necessary shadow for the melancholy of treason: yet it was but an emblem of his guilt. To conclude supper they sung a Psalm: this was the harmony of the Gospel in a Celestial Choir, where there was never a judas, and Christ was the chanter. Indeed they had need to sing, whiles yet they had the leisure of company and joy: for, after this meeting, sorrow had contrived the perpetual silence of their Music. But leaving their Music and the City they depart toward mount Olivet, a place where the customary devotion of our Saviour enjoyed the practice and happiness of Prayer. The way was but short, yet our Saviour made it tedious, not by his company, which was their delight: but by his discourse, which hitherto had been their delight. He tell them that this night he shall be their grief and danger. They, as not seeing it, make a large promise, though without surety, as much of their constancy, as of their affection. Peter especially makes this promise, which our Saviour tells him he especially will break: and that this night, which is the present witness of his double protestation, shall be the speedy witness of his triple denial: the Cock ere morning being to be his watchman and remembrancer. The length of our Saviour's discourse reacheth the mount, where departing from his Disciples about a stones cast, he enters into a Garden, and the horror of his passion enters into him. Now, he is crucified without a cross the height whereof as it afterward advanced him, so now the fear of it depresseth him to the ground. In the obedience of his supplication he bows his knees; he whose almightiness could have bowed the heavens. In the dejection of his thoughts he falls prostrate on his face, to show us the nature of our guilt, that dares not lookeup unto heaven: and yet his voice is towards heaven, whiles thrice he begs of his Father, if it be his will, that this cup may pass▪ this cup crowned full with the blood of sour Grapes: and thrice he returns to his Disciples, whom bee finds heavy as night and sleep. Whiles he prays, new terrors seize on him; and man though united to God is so oppressed, that an Angel from Heaven is sent to comfort him. So hard it was for him that overcame the Devil, to overcome the Cross. But alas had he not need of almightiness, for whom there remained strokes, and whips, and wounds, & thorns, and nails and a spear? and shall we think an Angel, shall we think one Angel enough against this host of torments? Can we with the confidence of words frighten horror? His agony and prayer increase; and from his merciful pores flows a sweat of blood: which begins his passion before the jews do. It pierces and dies his garment; O, this would have been a relic worth the keeping! a garment richer than Elias mantle! a garment animated with blood, though not to life, yet to a miracle! The Prophet's love and sorrow were but little ones; though his eyes did cast-out rivers of waters, for the destruction of jerusalem: but behold for our sins, every part of our jesus does weep blood: whose speedy drops seem to imitate the expedition of the love that sent them. After which agony of devotion, on his faint limbs he raises himself, and returning to his Disciples raises them: who willing rather to break their sleep, than their faith, arise; when he comforts them with a hope of more sleep, yet tells them that at this time they must sleep no more: treason and tyranny by a strange friendship being in a readiness to set upon him. Whiles yet he speaks, lo, a band of Officers are come from the High Priests with Lanterns, and torches, and swords and staffs, to take him, who neither means to fight, nor run away: his mercy will not let him do that, nor his innocency this. Their leader is judas guiding them with his feet to Christ, but with his counsel against Christ. When according to the compact and method of the Treason, he salutes our Saviour with a phrase and a kiss, enough to have breathed a Devil into any man, but Christ: who as much understanding as abhorring his salutation, by a Prophetic question prevents and reveals the news of his intent; judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? And was there ever such a sight as Christ & judas thus united! Did not Christ now also descend into Hell! From this kissing Traitor he passes to the swordmen; his innocence making him confident to ask them, whom they seek! when their business and authority straitwayes answer, jesus of Nazareth. (They had untowardly learned to make no difference of persons.) He with a mild courage replies, I am he; and immediately, as if he had come to apprehend Them, they fall down backward; they fall from Christ. The blowing-downe of the walls of jericho with Rams-hornes, though it was no less wonderful, yet it was less speedy. And where is now the conspiracy of their ambition? Where is now the strength of their invasion? Where is now the provision of their armour? Is it not all made the triumph of his meekness. here is no heavenly army to overthrow this legion of Devils; but with a victorious mildness they are struck down, their bodies acknowledging his power, which their souls denied: their understanding bodies being unwilling to act, what their senseless souls prompted them unto. Yet does his pardon give them strength to rise again, and again he asks them whom they seek, and they dare answer, jesus of Nazareth. Before, they spoke to his humanity, and his divinity answered them: but now he answers them with the patience of his humanity; which suffers the sacrilege of their hands and malice. When Peter's zeal, at the captivity of his master, unsheathes his sword: and cutting-off the High Priest's servant's ear, makes him learn a new Circumcision, which was no Sacrament, but a punishment. But again appears the divinity and mercy of our Saviour: who corrects Peter and his fact, replanting the servant's ear; which strait acknowledges and enjoys his power. Yet they persist in their impiety: and when he by his power has proved himself a God, they by his patience will prove him to be a man. And being in the hands of very jews, his Disciples, forgetting their master and their protestations, run all away: even bold Saint Peter runs away with his courage, and his sword: even his beloved john runs away, breaking the bonds of love with the strength of fear. O, here I cannot but stay and grieve that his beloved john also doth forsake him. Sure there is some friend for whom some friend will lay down a life: and sure there never were such friends as Christ and his Apostles: and sure of his Apostles there was none so near him as his beloved John. The rest were in his company, but he in his bosom: and does his beloved john also forsake him? Me thinks the protestation and persuasion of Saint Paul would have admirably become the mouth and practice of Saint john, Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, no not a very jew shall ever be able to force me from the love and bosom of my jesus. Yet even beloved john also does forsake his jesus! Whose miraculous hands they bind: the greatest miracle of which was at this time not their power, but their patience. They bind his hands; foolishly forgetting, that if any of them should lose another ear, as much as in them lay they hindered him from healing of it. Indeed happy had it been, if Adam and Eue's hands had been bound thus in Paradise! But see the bonds of our sins, that are able to captive the hands of Christ! Who is led by the blind malice of his jews unto judgement. And is there no good man's eye, who will with an easy tear follow his travelling affliction? Is there none that will go after him, though not to be a partaker, yet but a witness of his injury? Yes, there is one of more love than age covered rather then clothed with mere linen: who being hastily come, and as hastily apprehended, chooses rather to leave his linen, than his life, and slipping from their hands runs as hastily back again: and indeed he runs away so fast, that I cannot tell you who he is. Yet if the curious please to run after him, they may peradventure find him to be the son of that man of the village Gethsemane, at the foot of mount Olivet, who owned the Garden where our Saviour prayed. The tumult of the night might easily awake him to this undressed speed: which whiles he uses in running back, the jews go forward in their way and malice; leading our Saviour first to Annas. They were to pass by his reverend door, at which, by way of honour, they present their show: and he sends him to be presented to the Highpriest Caiaphas, his son in law; this was the kindred of these honourable murderers. But whiles this troop is with our Saviour, you may look back, and behold Peter following afar off, full of love, and shame, and sorrow. Yet alas, he returns but to forswear himself and his master! In a curious desire he enters the High-priest's hall, a place of temptation and blasphemy: where with as much danger as dissimulation, he mixes with Christ's persecutors; whom as already he accompanies, so anon, by an unhappy proficiency, he must imitate. Conversation is the last concoction of love, and does by a secret friendship of nature intimately assimilate. Now the Highpriest with an assisting tumult of Scribes and pharisees does not examine our Saviour, but tempt him; and when at their importunity he has acknowledged himself the Christ, he is made guilty of being God: and strait they practice upon him the wantonness of scorn. They profane his sacred face with the blasphemy of spittle: they blindfold him in execrable sport; and then striking him, in jesting inhumanity they ask, who strikes him. Whiles Christ is thus condemned, Peter is examined, and strait commits an easy denial of his master: and strait the Cock crows, but yet not loud enough to awake his guilt. He is persecuted again, and too wretchedly swears an ignorance. A third tempter vexes him, being both an accuser and a witness; and this is Malchus his cousin, whose ear Peter had cut off: which makes Peter fear more than the proportion of the jewish Law, an ear for an ear. He suspects that this ear will bring in danger his whole head. And having but one evasion, though worse than his entrance, he wishes himself accursed, if he knows our Saviour: when, alas, he knows that he were accursed, if he did not know him. And now the Cock, as if instructed to our saviour's prophecy, in his just time crows the second time; with the repeated diligence of his wing and voice not more awaking himself, than the heavy memory of Peter's conscience, which thus raised before day, makes him understand and bewail his night of sin; nor does he more hasten out of doors, then do the tears out of his eyes. Where mark the apt degrees, as of his fault, so of his sorrow. The haste of his repentance begged pardon for his denial: the tears of his repentance begged pardon for his oath: the bitterness of his repentance begged pardon for his curse. But now the jews are not avoiding, but provoking a greater curse: and as soon as it is day, in steed of seeing to correct their judgement made by night, they confirm it; leading our Saviour from this Cleargy-censure to the Secular execution. When behold the mercy of treason! judas has a mind to be godly! and seeing his master condemned by Caiaphas, he is with a swifter judgement condemned by conscience. Now he reputes him of his bargain: and as if he could as easily have been rid of his guilt, as of his hire, he brings back the money that would not be put to use, and though it were fearfully refused, in the presence and Temple of God he throws it down, flying from it as the Priests would have done from death; and indeed it was the wages of sin. His sin now does acknowledge itself and our saviour's innocency. This loyal Traitor betrays his treason. And would you not think that now again he hath almost vn-iudased himself? shall not judas also now again be among the Apostles? Does he not seem practised in the order of repentance? He grieves, he confesses, he restores. O, would he stay here! but, Lo, he departs from the temple & the God of the temple: he departs and hangs himself. He that is covetous falls into temptation, and the halter of the Devil. He hangs himself, and breaks asunder; What could you look for less, but that the Dragon should break with the pitch-ball? You may remember he conceived a sop, and now behold he brings forth a Devil, and thus by the riddle of damnation he is both the child and parent of the Devil. He breaks asunder, and is delivered of his bowels. It was the wit of justice, he should lose his bowels, that had lost his compassion. But since judas hath left us, let us leave him: and from this spectacle of justice got see our Saviour the spectacle of injustice, travelling from Caiaphas to Pilate, and from Pilate to Herod. This was a jew of a delicate Atheism: who, in a reprobate joy and fancy, had a most intentive desire to see a fine miracle or two. But his impiety was severely deluded by the silence of our Saviour; which changing the tyrant's curiosity into scorn, he returns him to Pilate, clad in a garment of ridiculous honour and simplicity. But Pilate desirous to free him, not so much by the mercy as the custom of the jews, proposes to the easy choice of their pardon, jesus and Barrabas a murderer; and whiles they are here at their deliberation, as he on the judgement-seate, behold his love is increased by fear. His wife prompted to compassion not by a bribe, but by a dream; sends to her husband to warn rather than request him to desist from judgement; the trouble of a vision having frighted and instructed her: and sure this was the best counsel she ere took of her pillow. But the people possessed with the Priest's demand Barrabas; which was an impious, yet a fit request: for could there be an apt fellowship then of a murderer with murderers? As for jesus, as if they would crucify him twice, they twice cry-out, Crucify him, Crucify him. Is now the voice of the people the voice of God? Sure we are, that the voice of this people is the voice of their Priests; by whom Pilate being conquered yeelds-up our Saviour unto soldiers, who multiply scourges upon him, as they do sins and plagues upon themselves; as if their madness would whip his divinity out of him, making it ashamed to stay in so torn a carcase. But, O you Soldiers, how shall you wish, that a happy palsy had made faint your hands? And, O thou Lord of glory, how hath thy mercy wooed thy Godhead unto this ignominious patience? O Lord of mercy, we are scarce more saved by the power of thy mercy, then confounded with the wonder of it: the condemnation of a world being a cheaper loss, than the least effusion of thy redeeming blood! Yet the merciless soldiers beyond this cruelty scornfully cloth him with a Purple Robe; though their cruelty in this had prevented their scorn his innocent blood clothing him with a nobler purple. But now because in the art of crucifying they had no separated torment for the head, by the increase of invention they enlarge their science of murder, fixing on his head a crown of thorns; and thus, as if he had a distinct soul in every part, they distinctly murder every part. And is not now the Lily verily among the thorns? This tender head of our beloved encompassed with the affliction of a crown! A crown neither of gold, nor Roses! Neither of honour, nor pleasure! Behold, a goodly fruit! The Lord planted a Vineyard, and when he comes to gather grapes, he receives thorns! They abuse his hand with a sceptre of reed; his hand the power whereof was the sceptre▪ and that their mouths might sin more than in words, they spit upon him. But their own dark eyes had more need to be touched with our Saviour's purging spittle. For had they seen what they had done, they would not have spit upon the Lord of glory! This affecting spectacle softens Pilate; and by an error of humanity taking jews to be men, and that their eyes peradventure might move their hearts, he presents him to them with this preface of compassion, Behold the man! But, alas, Pilate, can any man behold this man? Will not all eyes be sooner blinded with grateful tears? Or how can they here behold a man? A man lost in his own blood! Which strives as much to obscure his body, as his body his Godhead! Yet the unmoved jews with broad eyes of cruelty gaze upon him. And shall we yet think Deuealion's people a fable? Sure these children were raised unto Abraham from stones! And now they are so ready to crucify Christ, that they are ready also to condemn Pilate, not fearing to pronounce him a hypothetical Traitor, if he does not crucify Christ. Wherefore through the conquest and policy of ambition he thinks at once to satisfy the jews and God, so to secure his estate and conscience. In the presence of the people he takes water and washes his hands, protesting himself innocent from this innocent blood. He had need to rub hard, that means to wash away guilt with so weak an element; guilt never to be washed away, but by the water of repentance and baptism. It was in his power, as well as in his desire, to have set him free: but he pronounces him innocent and punishes him: he condemns himself, and crucifies Christ: he delivers 〈◊〉 beloved Barrabas to their pardon, and Christ to their cross which now he bears, as afterward it bears him. But in this travail toward mount Caluary, his strength is less than the burden: and needs must it be a heavy cross, which was laden with a world of sins. Wherefore to hasten the execution, not to ease our Saviour, they make one Simon carry the weight of the cross: our Saviour yet carrying the weight of the sins. Happy Simon now eases Christ of his burden: but Christ hereafter will ease Simon of his burden. Whiles he goes on, a multitude of women, forgetting to be jews, bestow tears upon him: whom he exhorts to thrift of sorrow; bidding them stay their lamentation till a time of lamentation for themselves, and for their children: whose blood shall be made as cheap as their mother's tears, when in the vengeance and sport of slaughter, the curse of barrenness, and a dry pap shall be a blessing. At last they bring this Catholic sacrifice to mount Caluary, to the altar of the world: where every part of him is stretcht-out, as the free emblem of his extended mercy. They fasten him to his cross with violence: but he was fastened surer by his own love. They pierce his hands and his feet with nails but his heart with their ingratitude; thus is he used in the house of his friends! They exalt him on his cross, arming himself against himself, and making his own weight his own affliction. And now I must cry-out with Pilate, Behold the man, advanced in the triumph of redemption upon the Cherub of the cross! Or if your tender eyes have not the hearts to see this spectacle, yet read the title of his cross, and sure the first word, jesus, may comfort you. Yet if the remembrance of his name should prove the remembrance of his sorrow, where will you then, alas, bestow your eyes? If you look away, you shall see those that pass by the way, nod their heads at him: if you look on the ground, you shall see the divided soldiers at lots for his entire Coat; which they more respect, than they do Christ: if you look among the company, you shall see the unhallowed Priests profaning him: if you look on either side his cross, you shall see a thief made his companion. Whereof one, as if he were his executioner, crucifies him with blasphemy; though the other crucifies his own unbelief, and by a new theft steals Heaven at his execution. If yet you cannot behold our Saviour, behold his Disciple and his mother, whom from his cross he himself beholds. Saint John's love had now made a recompense for his flight, by conquering his fear to this return and sorrow. Our Saviour beholds his beloved john, and having nothing left that is his own but his mother, he bequeathes her unto him. But, it may be, you are as little able also to look on these, who also are crucified with the passion of love. If then you cannot at all endure these sights, be indulgent to lamentation: Let tears seize on your eyes, as an universal darkness does on judea. The guilt of the jews puts out the Sun: and yet this huge night which can hide all judea, cannot hide the guilt of the jews. O how they shall hereafter wish that this darkness had been more speedy, that it might have prevented or excused their violence? Then happily they would have pleaded, O had we seen what we did, we would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In this forced night and agony, this man of sorrows cries out with a voice as strong as earnest, his fainting humanity begging aid and release. Thus long they have afflicted his outward-parts, and now their wit finds a device to torment his inward also. In a drought of combat and torment, he cries-out, I thirst: and when from this his Vineyard he might look for wine, behold they vilely sponge him with ungrateful vinegar. Being persecuted thus with a swift succession of plagues, in a free obedience he bows his head, and in the Empire of his Divinity and love, is pleased to die, giving to the justice of his Father, for a redeeming sacrifice, his troubled spirit. Corrupt Philosophers who now for a long time have animated the world with a magic soul, may in this truth bury their error, and now acknowledge, that only this is the soul of the world. Thus they have crucified him: and now they shall know whom they have crucified. The jews and the Devils shall know that it was the Lord of glory; and the whole world shall know that it was the Lord of glory. Behold an angry miracle tears the veil of the Temple, and by a greater mystery reveals their mysteries. Behold an earthquake shakes open the graves; and after the resurrection of this firstborn of the dead, the glad carcases by the return of their disacquainted souls can no more than their souls endure the Grave. Behold the stones cleave asunder, as if violated nature would lend them mouths to cry-out against the jews; or as if they would pronounce themselves of a softer tempter, than the hearts of men. And now there is a religious earthquake in the heart of the Centurion: from whose inspired mouth proceeds a voice articulated by faith and wonder; pronouncing the innocence and divinity of our jesus; and even the jews do smite their breasts, as if their hands instead of repentance, should soften their hearts. But his friends nearest to him in affection, stand afar off: to whom it is a death not to dye with him. And indeed none of them did die by martyrdom; the Lord counting the torment of this spectacle equal unto it. His friends stand afar off: yet farther from comfort, then from him. O how may we imagine his tender mother weeps? How may we imagine she now cryes-out, O my son jesus, O jesus, my son, my son! This is a more wounding lamentation, than the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon; when the good josias, when the beloved josias fell under the sword, of Pharaoh. Now the soldiers come to examine the execution to see if these, the late prisoners of the jews, be now become the prisoners of death: and finding the two thieves breathing still, in the custom of vain cruelty on malefactors, they break their legs: when, alas, their souls were readier to run away, then their is body's But, to our Saviour, being already dead, they are pleased to show a negative mercy. Yet one to prove himself more senseless than what he wounds, now pierces his side: as if beyond the expulsion of his soul, he would not leave in him the form of a carcase, When behold, an instructing mystery flows from his side. Water flows out, as if it would present unto the soldier the innocency of our Saviour: blood flows out, as if it would present unto the soul there the admonishing horror of his own guilt. It was vile, to wrong the innocent: it was inhuman to abuse the dead: but it was execrable to violate the Lord of glory. But the glory of this Lord shall now dispel this night of sorrow. Now weep not, that he died: but rejoice that he died for you. It was his love that he would redeem, as it was his power that he could redeem. So he did redeem, as be did suffer, he suffered not in his divine nature; but by the ●nion of his divine nature: he redeemed not in his divine nature; but by the union of his divine nature. For from a double nature his mystical unity did arise: and as his soul was a divinity to his body; so was his divinity a soul to his humanity. To create man, God ●reathed a spirit like himself into him; him to redeem man, God himself entered into him; and though the divinity could not he crucified; yet was the union of it with the passion of the humanity, counted as the passion of the divinity. Thus by the bounty of interpretation, and communication of proprieties, they verily crucified the Lord of glory. Whose carcase now as cold as death raises a flame of love in the breasts of joseph and Nicodemus. joseph in a courageous Christianity goes unto Pilate, and begs the body. When Christ was alive, judas sold him; and now he is dead, Pilate gives him away; whose body though it were preserved by the divinity, yet Nicodemus sweetens it with Myrrh and Devotion. They wrap him in a linen cloth, not so much concealing his nakedness, as expressing his innocence. They lay him in Joseph's Tomb, which was in a garden; and was not then this garden Paradise? It was a glorious sepulchre; as if, by the prophecy of love, it had been proportioned to the guest. Whose body being here entertained with magnificent piety, his illustrious soul forces a triumph in Hell, crucifies the Devil, and overthrows the tyranny of damnation. He does not take away damnation, but contract it. And now you see, after this redemption of our Saviour, you may like Thomas put your hand and faith into the wound of his side, & receive salvation. You may behold the opening mouth of this wound, which with eloquent blood invites you to faith and love. You may behold the Lord of glory coming from Edom, with his died garments from Bosrah. This is the Lord of glory: glorious in his apparel: glorious in his nakedness: glorious in his mightiness to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Winefat? Thou hast trodden the Winepress alone, and of the people there was none with thee. O, what did cause these soundings of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards us? Who can express thy sorrows, and thy loving-kindnesse towards us? Who can express what thou hast done for our souls? Thou wast afflicted, thou wast despised, thou wast whipped, wounded, bruised, condemned, sacrificed for our souls; thou wast made a servant of death, thou wast numbered with the transgressors, thou madest thy grave with the wicked for our souls. Wherefore God has highly exalted thee, and given thee a name above all names; that at the Name of jesus every knee shall bow; of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And every tongue shall confess that jesus Christ is the Lord of glory; And the four and twenty Elders shall fall down before the Lamb, with their Harps and golden Vials full of Odours; and in their new Song shall they praise thee; And the Angels about thy throne, even ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands shall say with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory. Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee and saying; Holy, holy, holy Lord of glory, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory, and of thy mercies. The Angels in Heaven wonder at thy mercies: the powers of Hell tremble at thy mercies: thou thyself triumphest in thy mercies: and the sons of men rejoice in thy mercies. Wherefore, O thou that takest away the sins of the world, deliver us: by thine agony and bloody swear, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and burial deliver us; And we will fall down before thy glory: and we will sing praises unto thy mercy: and we will triumph in the victory of thy blood: and we will for ever even for ever acknowledge, that, Thou the crucified Lord of glory art the Christ of God, and the jesus of men.  
The end.   

A Sermon preached at Saint Mary's in Oxford on Easter-Tuesday, 1623.  1. CORINTH. 15.20. 
Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.  
IT were unnecessary art & fear to stir●e to keep the living awake with a preface; when as the dead are at the business of a resurrection. Wonders & blessings are above their auditors: who must be glad to be sta●●led to the news. Now was our Saviour tasked with his most unwieldy miracle. His mercy had before bestowed many upon others: but now his power tries one upon himself. His divinity acts a miracle upon his humanity; repairing this second Trinity of his person from the immortal ruins of a God, a soul, and a carcase. Three days did he consecrate for the performance of this wonder: and three days do we consecrate for the persuading to this wonder; which should have been the joy, and was the shame of the Apostles: who were slow to apprehend it, though Christ was their Schoolmaster. They had not as yet learned their own Creed: which, their perverse sense was pleased to be taught, not so much by our Saviour, as by his sepulchre: whose opening mouth, when it sent forth Christ the Word, pronounced his Resurrection, which is the Epitaph of God. Thus did the ambition of the gra●e instruct the prevented Angel: and though it cannot, as the multitude of Tombs, with the voice and conquest of proud Death, tell us whom it does captive; yet does it remember to us, whom it did. Which assumed triumph of death, is as short as its combat. Ioseph's devotion bestowed this Tomb upon our Saviour; but our Saviour's victory bestowed it upon death: which, since his Resurrection, has lain buried in his tomb. But can a dead man be warmed again into life? And can the lungs that have forgot to breathe, learn to breathe again? Faith indeed can answer this with as much ease as speed; and being honoured with an imitating omnipotency, can with a coequal extension of assent apply itself to the number and degrees of God's actions. But, as hard it was to raise the faith, as the body, of Saint Thomas: nay, it was his body, that caused him to believe the Resurrection of Christ's body; which was a way of faith, more certain than grateful. Yet must the understanding be so raised, before it can believe that the body can be raised; that the divine indulgence does gradually chastise the difficulty by the length of instruction. For scarce had man viewed the materials of his Creation, when strait he was practised unto an essay of this second Creation. When Adam descended into sleep, there was a Resurrection of his rib, which awaked into a woman. Did not mortality then put on immortality, when a senseless bone was so endued with reason, that it could apprehend its own preferment? Me thinks, the Chymique might hence extract an easy Rhetoric for his promotion of metals; and, without an Apology, teach that usury of art, And here too, was an employed legacy, a woman bequeathed to time, to multiply resurrections. Which yet were almost reduced to a despair by her degenerating Nephews: whose crimes had forsworn or scorned the resurrection of their bodies, and did more overwhelm them then the flood. Yet then look upon Noah with joy, as the Lord did with favour; and when the old and the new World were distinguished and continued but by an Isthmus, from Noah's wife the Ark of mankind, see a new resurrection of man; and from his flood a resurrection of the world. But will you see a raising without death or sleep? Behold Isaac as near the stroke as the hand of his father, arising from his Funeral pile; and at this resurrection too there was an Angel removing though not a Tombstone, yet a Knife more exorable than the sword which the Angel in Paradise did shake; whose threatening edge was as devouring as its flame. But here was a sacrifice offered, yet not slain: and though not slain yet accepted. But peradventure it will more gratefully frighten you to see a man taught to be buried alive, and more yet, to live after his burial. Behold then joseph from the tomb of his prison rising unto a triumph as eminent as his innocence: which had before conquered his passion, and now his affliction. Behold in joseph the mystical body of our Saviour; a body admirably mortal and incorruptible; a body that suffered rather the grave than death. And will any man now count it such a wonder to see the fetters fall-off from Peter; when they had learned the religion from his Master's winding-sheete, which fell at his feet when he arose? But if the eye and courage of your faith will venture farther, and see the active horror of a grave, behold jonas his quick tomb made a tomb of salvation to him. Three of our days he lay struggling in his new night of amazement, as if he had found an Egypt in the Whale, and did acknowledge that watery Purgatory. At last the grave by a new instruction castup the living. The Whale was no more a Sepulchre, but a fish; and jonas no longer a coarse, but a Prophet. He had surely died, if he had not been buried. And here was a resurrection, though not a reviving; a resurrection from disobedience and the Whale. Thus this rare An'choret and his tomb were both alive: but the tomb of our Saviour was as desperate as death. What could be expected from a grave and a carcase? Yet behold this carcase revive into a man; nay, into a God And I may rightly say, behold: for he did rise, that we should behold him; and at that time wherein we might behold him. He rose, when night rises into morning, and at this pregnant season, when winter is quickened into the spring. Now did the dayspring visit us from the grave. It was on the first day of the jews week, a week well begun; and is was the first day of the Christian Creation. If you will turn over the notes of time, you may believe that Pharaoh, as on that day of the year, was invaded by an host of waves, which conquering his Chariots, made him without wheels hurry faster unto Hell; Whiles Moses led his Israel through the Wilderness of the Sea, passing from the shadow of death in that monument of waters. Did not our Lord also leave his tomb with an equal and contrary wonder? Then were the waters made firm, rising into Alps; as now the earth was made to quake like the waters; And well might it tremble, when the Lord conquered it and forsook it. The Angel too made a little earthquake in the grave, when he removed the mighty stone: with which the vain few tried to oppress our Saviour after death; as it he would have sealed him up, to an impossibility of resurrection. But since the Angel has opened the tomb for us, shall we go see the place, whence Christ is risen? And yet we shall not make such haste, but that the speedy devotion of the two Maries will be there before us: whose feet were as swift as their love, and their love as time; nay, more swift than time, which hindered them by the delay and command of their Sabbath. A Sabbath it was, but only of their bodies, which, whiles our Saviour lay buried, were but the sepulchers of their souls; their souls, that found no Sabbath, till they found the Lord. They came with prepared spices and ointments for him, whose divinity did prevent Balm, and esteemed their piety of a more precious sweetness, than their ointments. But will you see this love languish into fear, and this fear again strengthened into joy? They are no sooner in the sepulchre, but that they find it as empty of our Saviour, as it was full of wonder; and instead of the body of the Lord they behold the Angel of the Lord sitting upon the stone, which he had conquered to obedience; as if he meant to rest himself in triumph, after the conflict of his miracle. His raiment was white as snow, which he did imitate in purity and descent. His countenance was like lightning, or more wonderful: for, that is of so instant a terror, that it is the object rather of our memory, than our eye; but this with courteous majesty was patient to be beheld. The women with the duty of fear beheld it; being quickly encouraged by the angel, but first by their innocence. The soldiers beheld it too, though with such guilty faintness, that they seemed to strive as much to shame their sex, as their profession: being at once almost disarmed of their weapons and souls. They became as dead men, and were rather the prisoners, than the keepers of the grave. But in the mean time, the angel comforts and instructs the women, who now are his Disciples; and receiving commission to preach the resurrection of our Saviour to the Disciples of our Saviour, they haste out of the Tomb, with the confused expedition of fear and joy. Was not this a strange pilgrimage to run from the sepulchre of our Lord! But it was yet more strange; they seek the Disciples, and find Christ. It was a comfortable mistake! And indeed he did comfort them with his presence and speech; When immediately they fall on their knees, at his knees, in love & worship holding him by the feet. O how glorious are the feet of the Lord of the Gospel! The Gospel of whose resurrection these female Evangelists are again sent to teach; and the first scholars which they must teach, must be Christ's Disciples. When, to show their obedience to be as ready as their love, they depart even from Christ to their duty; and speedily find Peter and john for their auditors. here was zeal and tenderness; the fiercest and the mildest of the Apostles; as if they had been left together to temper one another. And these no sooner hear the news, but strait they run as fast to the tomb, as the women did run from it. john came first unto it: but Peter went first into it; Love was swiftest; but zeal boldest. When they are entered, they find Christ's victory acknowledged by the linen clothes, his spoils of death; and these spoils too had been divided; the napkin of his head being laid by itself. It seems, the angel at our saviour's resurrection attended to be a witness of it to the women, and leave a witness of it to the Disciples. Thus, that he was not stolen away, appears by the inconvenience and leisure of his undressing, and by the method of the linen: which the frightened policy of the soldiers did no more touch, then observe, and they no more observed it, than did the women: who after the sight of the angel, had their eyes as much amazed as their minds. The soldiers too did more tremble than watch: but the Disciples had less fear and more time; beside, they learned somewhat, which they were not taught; and could now teach the women this news of the grave. But did he rise but from the grave? This is the news but of his body; yes, he did rise also from the damned, who are dead too, as much in judgement as to nature; Though some are as unwilling to have Christ descend into Hell, as to go thither themselves: and in a dangerous brachygraphy write the Creed so short, that without the commission of an Index Expurgatorius, they quite leave out the article of the descent. But, what an unmannerly ingratitude is this, to accept of Christ's benefits, and deny his wonders? They will enjoy his conquest of Hell, and yet they will not let him go to conquer it. Ought we not to make greater the glory of Christo and can we make less the power of Christ? Let then our piety behold and wonder to see Heaven descend into Hell! to see again Gos●●●● in Egypt! The Devil had been before in Heaven; and now God is pleased to go into Hell! The archangel conquered the Devil in Heaven; and now God conquers him in his own Empire, and makes his Empire his Dungeon! We overcome the Devil by flight; but God by invasion. Yet who would not stand amazed to see God with the Devil? Had the Manichie been now, he might here at once have behold both his Princes Me thinks, our Saviour now turned Sampson's Riddle into a Prophecy, which he expounded and fulfilled. Did not out of the eater come forth meat, and out of the strong came there not sweetness; when from the jaws of Hell by Christ came forth salvation? Now whiles the soul of our Saviour was triumphant in Hell, his body was obedient in the sepulchre: his divinity being as his soul, till it recalled his soul, and made the whole Christ change an age of three and thirty years into eternity. Lo, here is the Lion of the Tribe of judah, whose almighty strength vouchsafed to couch under the power of the grave; and, Lo, the glorious indignation of his love, has roused him up again from the sloth of death! Will you behold how he was raised? behold how the potter works upon the wheel: he takes clay; he makes it a vessel; and this vessel being marred in the hand of the potter, he makes it again, as he best pleases; Christ was immortal clay, and earth purer than Heaven! When, by the wonder of omnipotency, the Creator and the creature were made into one; and of one matter did consist both the potter and his pot! From this broken clay there did arise the same, and a renewed Christ! That he rose in the earnest of a body, his own mouth did testify, when he said nothing; proving it by the authority of food, which he did eat with his Disciples. Could any man in this point be yet an infidel? If any could, see how he converts them; He lets Thomas disgrace himself to a belief, and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously increase his faith! Can any doubt that he was renewed in a body of glory, when he was full of God? Know you not that his body was indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost? Was he not renewed in a body of glory, whom the doors that were shut, when he entered to his Disciples, did obediently acknowledge to be the King of glory? And though he were patient under death three days, yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died, and the last part of the last, after he revived; there was the number, but not the length of three days; and thus he made so short a change seem rather a sleep then a death. And, O, but to consider here, as well the wonder as the change! Do but imagine, that in the dawning birth of the morning, you saw the revelation of a grave emulating the morning: a corpse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sun: a winding-sheet falling away as an empty cloud: the feet and hands striving which shall first recover motion; the hands helping to raise the body; the feet helping to bear both the body and the hands: the tongue so eloquent, that it can tell you, it can speak again: the ears so pure, that they can perceive the silence of the grave: the eyes looking forth of their Tombs, as if they were glad to see their own resurrection: Would you not be as much affrighted, as instructed with this power of a God? Would you not be turned into very corpses, to see this living coarse! Would you not be struck as pale, as the winding-sheet you looked-upon? But, when all this shall be done, as well in mercy, as in majesty: as well to raise you to a hope of eternal life, as to strike you with a remembrance of a temporal death: as well to make you like unto God, as to make you know you are yet not like un-him: O, how will you then at such compassion dissolve with compassion; as if you would hasten to the like resurrection! How will you then kiss those hands, which, before you feared? How will you then with steadfast eyes examine and adore the resurrection of that body, which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our bodies! For therefore did he raise himself, that he might raise us, and so become the firstfruits of them that sleep. But shall we rise too? and shall dust again be taken-up, and breathed on? Shall every man by this second Adam be made as wonderfully, as the first Adam? And yet shall we want faith, when God wants not power? Or, shall we think it harder to unite the body and soul, then to make them? It were an impious discourtesy to deny that to God, which God denied not unto his servant. Did not the widow of Zarephah, thus receive a son by Elias, who yet was neither the father of it, nor the God? Nay, did not his servant do more for the Shunamite, to whom he promised a son before he was conceived, and restored him after he was dead? Nay, did not the bones of this Elisha give life to one, that was as dead as themselves; teaching him to confess the mercy of a grave? It is especially an act of the mercy of the living God to give life to the dead: yet by a greater mercy he makes it an act of his justice; freely binding himself to admit our boldness, not so much to to request as to claim a resurrection? For shall the bodies of the Saints be more remembered by their tombs, then by their labours? or shall they be worse oppressed with death, than they were with their torments? or shall their souls with an envious inequality usurp and enjoy the purchase of their bodies? shall those eyes, whose devotion did still watch or mourn, for ever want respect as much as sight? shall those hands, that have been free in extending themselves and mercy to the poor, be for ever bound by the ingratitude of death? shall those knees that have bowed with such willing reverence, be so held down by the violence of mortality, that they shall never rise up again? Where are then thy tears O David, if thy eyes shall not enjoy the happiness of their own sorrow? Where are then, O job, thy faith and patience, if thy body be now as much without hope, as it was before without rest? Where are then, O Esay, thy victorious sufferings, if after the ignorant fury of the Saw, and the schism of thy body, thy body suffer a wilder dissociation from thy soul for tedious eternity? Where are thy travels then, O Paul, if after thy Christian Geography, and conquest of Paganism, thou liest for ever confined to the dull peace of a grave? No; the almighty, which made man with such wisdom of art, will neither lose his glory, nor his work; But, as he made his greater heaven for his angels, so made he the lesser and mortal heaven of man's body for his soul, and will make it as eternal as his soul. There is more excellency of workmanship in the soul: but more variety in the body. The soul does more truly express God: but the body more easily. The soul judges best: but the body first; and though the eye of the soul does behold the works of God more clearly: yet does the eye of the body behold them more properly. Nay, should the body not be raised to life and heaven, how great a part of heaven and that life would be lost, whiles not enjoyed, and be as unnecessary, as it is wonderful? God hath provided joys, which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard; but, which the eye shall see, and the ear shall hear, and without the pleasure of a trance, for ever possess, as much without error, as without measure. Such honour will the Creator of our bodies do to the bodies of his Saints; they shall acknowledge corruption, but overcome it: they may in their journey be the guests of the grave: but at last they shall be the inhabitants of Heaven. Yet the Lord cannot hereafter so much honour humane flesh by raising it, as he has already by assuming it. It was before his servant, but now his companion. That was a resurrection of the flesh, when it was raised unto God: but the only resurrection of our flesh is, when it is raised to the soul. At the day of judgement, though there shall be no marriages of sexes, yet there shall be of parts: when souls shall be united to bodies in so entire and inexorable a matrimony, that it shall admit no hope nor fear of a divorce. Neither need we fear, in the jealousy of this match, the ignoble parentage of the flesh: since what it wants in birth is supplied in dowry; and flesh is now become such refined earth, being made wonderful in shape and office, that the soul may be thought to be scarce more noble, but that it seems more reserved, by being invisible. And yet you may observe the body's emulation: which falls before its resurrection, into such atoms of dust, that they are with as much difficulty to be seen as to be numbered. But, notwithstanding that these principles of earth be thus divided among themselves, yet are they not divided against themselves, retaining still though not an appetite, yet an obedience to resurrection; Nature has not lost this, and God will supply that; and as easily unite as distinguish each dust. To yield to this truth, is the Creed of the Creed. If therefore any man's faith in the assent to this mystery, should be as weak as his reason, he may help both his reason and his faith, by his sense: by which they shall either be convinced, or persuaded. If you will be but as bold as antiquity, you may propose unto yourselves the solemn Poetry of the Phoenix, a creature rarer than the resurrection, though not as admirable: in whose ashes you may find the fire of life, expecting but to be fanned to the resurrection of a flame; as if this creature by the mystery of death, would by a fire both perish and revive! But without the courtesy of supposition, you may in earnest behold the Eagle shoot-forth new quills: wherewith may be written and testified his endeavour of immortality. Thus does God teach nature how to teach us mysteries; and without the Magical study of the language of birds, to understand without their voice, their secret instruction. But peradventure you will think, that to discern this truth in the nature of the Eagle, will require a sight as sharp as the Eagles'; remove then your eye from the fowls of the air, but to the trees wherein they nest; and with a negligent view you may observe, how after the nakedness and death of winter, they bud afresh into life and beauty. Yet why should we in the sloth of this easy contemplation study so broad an object? Let our eye with more grateful industry confine its prospect to the small seed of corn; and at least take the pains to see the pains of the husbandman. And shall we not admire at the delightful arithmetic of nature, to behold a seed, whose hope seems as small as itself, by being cast away, to be found; by destruction to receive increase; and from the same furrow to have both a burial and a birth! Thus than we see that the body is able to show that itself may rise: but now the soul will prove that it must; and with such friendly eloquence help its first companion, that by the union of love, it will prevent the resurrection. For, should the soul for ever want the body, should it not want both perfection & wonder? Is not the soul most perfect, when it is most noble? and is it not most noble, when it is most bountiful? and is it not most bountiful, when it gives life to the dead? Is it not likewise most full of wonder, when it is thus perfect in that which is imperfect? when it mixes with corruption, and yet is incorrupt? when it is most burdened, and yet most variously active? Thus, by this necessary inclination of the soul, the resurrection is as natural in respect of the union, as it is above nature in respect of the manner. But now see the curious zeal of the soul; It will not only have a body again, but in a precise society it will have only its own again. For the preserving therefore of such numerical identity, there shall be wonderfully restored the substantial union, which is but formally distinguished from the parts united. There shall be restored the personality, and lastly the native temperament, which does contain the individuating dispositions, whereby such a matter has a peculiar appetite to such a form. Which matter by virtue of such inclination remains formally the same, though it may be varied by extension; as when the infant shall be raised into a man, the person shall be enlarged, but not multiplied. But the unruly wit of Philosophy will here demand, how they shall rise with their own bodies, who when they lived, had not bodies of their own; being not only fed with the flesh of men, but descending also from parents nourished with the like horrible diet? For, by this wild reckoning, there will be such a Genealogy of debt, that the body of the Nephew must peradventure be paid to the great Grandfather. To which, some Christians do reply with as much impertinent devotion, as unwarrantable subtlety, without necessity attributing to God's Omnipotency a total supply of new bodies, which, for the preserving the numerical identity, shall be endowed with the former temperature. But surely we ought to judge it a safer modesty, not to satisfy reason, then to offend Religion. And, since we must rise in our old bodies without all sophistry, we may more temperately believe, that the divine wisdom has decreed and provided, that there shall never be any humane body, which shall totally consist of other humane bodies; It being harsh to say, that the same body is raised, when there are only the same reproduced dispositions; and as absurd to affirm, that such dispositions, being the special accidents of a former matter, should be transferred upon another. You see then the sacred eagerness of the soul; It will neither lose nor change a dust; nor will it only possess, but also adorn the body. Mankind shall feel and express a youthful spring: the walking-staff and the wrinkle shall be no more the help and distinction of age: and death itself shall suffer climacterical destruction. O, how the wonder will almost outact faith, when the infant and the dwarf shall be made a proper man! When the limbs exhaled with famine, shall be replenished with as much miracle as flesh! When the child that left its soul, before it left the womb, shall in an instant without growth, be as big as the mother! when sleep shall be commanded from the eyelid, no more by care, but by immortality! which shall chase death out of nature, and with importunate triumph cry-out unto the grave, O earth, earth, earth, hear the voice of the Lord! Thy dead men shall live: with their primitive bodies shall they arise: awake and sing you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs; by which blessing you shall be made as glorious, as fruitful. And since that fruitfulness is the gratitude of nature, let it remember us as much to acknowledge as enjoy the mercy of that power by which we rise; And we may most justly and easily remember by whom we rise, by remembering him, by whom we fell. Yet, if we behold the original of their humanity, we shall find, that they were both without sin, and that the first Adam had his best paradise within himself. But when he was fallen by the weakness of the woman, that was made for his help; never did woman prove a strong help unto man, before the Virgin-mother of Christ God and man; And then, though the first Adam had eaten up the apple, the second Adam swallowed up death. He had before made the poor man take up the bed of his sickness and walk: but he himself was the first, that ever took up the deathbed and walked. Yet some, before our Saviour, borrowed a fantastical resurrection, as Saul's equivocal Samuel; and some rose in earnest, but to die again in earnest; as supererogating Lazarus, that paid to nature one death more than he owed. But our Lord is risen with as much perfection as power, and with as much power as love and glory. The Poetical Chymiques tell us of an Alchymisticall man at the earth's centre: who by a spherical diffusion of his virtue, does like a subterraneous Sun improve metals to a metamorphosis yet new. Which, as it is bold in the fable, so by a devout mythology may be made modest in the moral. And this secret workman shall be our Saviour, whose virtue was so dispersed into the bowels of graves, that at his resurrection he improved carcases into Saints: who were the witnesses and attendants of his power. Indeed to advance the head without the members were so unnatural, that it were more like an execution than a preferment: and it were stranger to see a Leader without his soldiers, then without his arms; beside, were it fit, that when the master rises, the servants should lie still? Thus than they were raised; and as much to holiness, as to life. It was not only a resurrection; but also a consecration. Christ was the first of them that rose, nay, he was the first-fruits of them. He had the precedence both in order and virtue. The first-fruits were the first handful as acceptable as ripe; by a bountiful mediation obtaining holiness and entertainment for the rest. And this first offering did commend itself unto the Lord rather by the speed then the quantity. The jew offered this at his own home; and it was as domestic as his thoughts: being a present of eloquent simplicity, which at the same time did honour and overcome the Almighty! O, how our Saviour made this figure solid, when at once he conquered for us death and heaven! He was but the first handful of corn, and yet as powerful as small: making all the rest of a like holiness, though not of an equal. But there were greater firstfruits, which the jew went to pay at jerusalem: and as the first were an offering of humility, so these of pomp: those did more setforth the thankfulness of the labourer, and these the munificence of the Lord. If you will take the word of the Rabbins (whom in the story of Custom we have no more need to suspect, than they had to feign) when the husbandman carried-up these fruits to the holy City, he had a Bull went before him; whose horns were gilded, and an Olive garland upon his head. This was the picture of his master's affection and estate; as if by the impetuous beast he would express the courage of his joy: by the gilded horns the riches of his plenty: and by the Olive-garland the crown of his peace. Behold the displayed Heraldry of his happiness! And that it might be increased by applause, a pipe played before them, to charge all to take notice of it, until they came to the mountain of the Lord. Shall not these first-fruits be likewise paid at our great Resurrection? shall they not be brought to the heavenly jerusalem? shall they not have Angels go before them? shall there not be crowns likewise provided? and shall they not be ushered with the voice of a trumpet? It was the sound which the jews used at their braver Funerals; and may it not then fitly be used, when they shall awake again from their tombs? Till Christ was risen, those that were buried were dead: but if we once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise, let us no more say they were dead, but that they slept. Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleep: but some shall instead of rising be only new-dressed, by being clothed with incorruption; and so have rather a change of raiment, then of life. They shall not put-off their bodies, but their mortality; and be made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection, and in the glory. The Eutychian shall then confess, that the two natures in Christ are not mixed, though joined; and that his humanity though exalted is not changed. The Ubiquitary shall then see, that Christ's body may be seen: and it shall certainly prove, that it is not everywhere, by being not in the grave, whence it is risen. The Pythagorean shall then recover the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soul; and the Saducy shall then arise in that body, in which he denied the resurrection of the body; and with his bodily eyes see the error of his soul. Since than our Redeemer is as eternal in his flesh, as in his Godhead: since the soldiers fear acknowledged his resurrection, which their malice denied: since we must rise both by his authority and example: let our rising not only follow his, but also imitate it. As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord: so let the crucifying of our vices, and the quiet contemplation of eternal joys go before the glory of the Resurrection. So shall it be unto us, as it was unto our Saviour, a true Passeover, who passed thereby from this world unto the Father. So shall our hope be as certain as our rising: so shall our souls rise as well as our bodies, in that day of wonder; When the last earthquake shall shake-up death: when the ecumenical voice of one trumpet shall be loud enough to whisper-up drowsy mankind: when loose dust shall with the warmth and moisture of blood be kneaded into man: when the tribute of dispersed and devoured limbs shall be paid-in from all countries and creatures: when there shall be a Resurrection of disease, of sleep, of death, of the winding-sheet, of the grave, of rottenness; all which shall be purified into health, into watchfulness, into life, into a robe of glory, into a throne of glory, into immortality: when there shall be a Resurrection of earth and heaven, which shall be both renewed: when there shall be a Resurrection of God himself; whose glory, which seemed buried in this world, shall illustriously arise in the face of heaven & earth: when there shall be a new Resurrection of our Lord jesus; who shall no more arise from the grave, but from heaven: when the jew and hell shall tremble, & those wounds of glory appear, which are the bloody seals of our salvation! So raise us then, O thou Lord of life, unto holiness of life, that when these things shall come to pass, we may not only rise in judgement, but also stand in it; and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heaven that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints; where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father: where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee: where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets praise thee: where thy noble army of martyrs praise thee! And with their bodies, O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heaven, and let our souls even there feel a new affliction, that whiles we cannot grieve enough that we cannot praise thee enough, our increasing gratitude for our body's resurrection, may be our soul's eternal resurrection.  
The end.   

A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day, 16●●.  1. PETER, 3.22. 
Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God, Angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him.  
FOr man to go into Heaven, is almost impossible: for God to go into Heaven is impossible. To understand then the wonder of Christ's ascension, we might wish that our souls could but ascend like his body: which, whiles it was on the earth, received motion from his soul; but when it left the earth, received motion from his Divinity; without which, that motion can now be no more understood, than it could then be performed. The greatest wonder of man's body has been the structure: but the greatest wonder of this body is now the motion. The force of man's hand can make earth ascend towards Heaven: but only the power of God can make earth ascend unto Heaven. Man can raise earth above its Sphere: but only God can fix it above its Sphere. This day you may see both these wonders: whiles the body is made as wonderful as the soul: whiles the body is made the wonder of the soul; and goes to Heaven with as much ease, and with more weight. And indeed Philosophy may seem to have come short at least of perfection, if not of truth, whiles it has discovered the effects of its own ignorance, instead of the causes of ascension and descension. Which now seem not to be the works of weight and lightness, but of sin and innocence: seeing that a body free from sin has learned to ascend; and spirits loaden with sin have sunk themselves from Heaven, to the punishment and centre of sin. And yet innocence is rather a preparative, than a cause of this wonder: a body cannot ascend without it; a body cannot ascend by it. It has more power upon the soul, then upon the body: yet it has not this power upon the soul. And as the soul cannot ascend by the power of innocence: so neither can the body ascend by the power of the soul. The soul can afford unto the body the motion of progression, but not of ascension: progression being made by the power of the soul, but by the parts of the body; and it is a kind of friendly attraction, when one foot invites the other to a succession of motion, by a succession of precedency. But the ascension of the body cannot be performed, but by somewhat that is above the body; above it, not so much in place, as in power. The body can bestow upon itself an equivocal ascension, when a part of the foot shall be raised into the stature of the body: but this is rather an ascension in the body, then of the body; Nay, we cannot at all call it an ascension, but by leave; when the body has by chance an erect situation; all other posture making it descend as much to the name, as to the simplicity of extension. The fowls of the air also have their ascension; but it is as well by the air, as in it; and their cunning wing, which divides the air into away, compacts it into a help. Thus do they ascend with an easy wonder: it being performed by the power of nature, and apprehended by the power of the understanding. But for man's body to ascend, without the activity of a wing, above the activity of a wing, is so strange, that it was strange even in Christ's body; nay, it might have been strange to his own body: which had it not been instructed by his divinity, might have marvelled at its own motion; And it did no less amaze Heaven then possess it; making a great part of the Angels thus behold earth, without descending to it. And this body ascended rather to Heaven, then to God. The Divinity was with it, yet did not ascend with it: since it does not change place, but fill all place. His soul did ascend with it; yet did rather effectually change place, then properly: whiles it did only not change that body, which did change place. The whole person did ascend: not that the Divinity left any place, where the humanity had been; but that it was in every place, where the humanity was to be. And this ascension of Christ's body was not only far from the nature, but also against the nature of his body: which acknowledged the burden and tyranny of our Elements, till by resurrection it was refined into the liberty of a glorified nature, and taught to obey its own preferment: which, the Divinity so bestowed both upon body & soul; that they were almost not more near unto it, then like unto it. And that they might be more like unto it, the Divinity became voluntarily as humble, as the humanity was naturally; and voluntarily made the humanity as high as the Divinity was naturally. Which great work of the ascension did not only need a Divinity to perform it, but also to persuade men, that it could be performed; the belief of the ascension being the next wonder to the ascension. As than God did effect it, so he did teach it: he humbled himself to man; he humbled himself in man: making the degrees of his instruction descend by the degrees of man's apprehension. And first he did discover the possibility of ascension to the Understanding: by which we do as truly as Moses, though not as clearly, see Enoch's ascension; which was not, for aught we know, seen by any eye, but the eye of the understanding: the ascension of his body being no more discerned than the ascension of his soul. God took him body and soul: his body being by a holy obedience to his soul made so like his soul; that it did ascend as easily; nay, as soon as his soul. Holiness, which to other men is a resurrection of the soul, was to him a resurrection also of the body: which was refined without the deliberate corruption of a grave; It was refined sooner than it could be corrupted; It knew no grave but sin: from which it did ascend, as it did ascend from its own mortality: but his soul did first by righteousness ascend in his body before it did ascend with his body. God took him to himself; leaving his story to posterity and faith: as if he would teach the world by this inferior proportion, that ascension should be an object of faith. The next apprehensive faculty in man, to which God descended to teach it the possibility of ascension, was the Fantasy. Thus jacob saw the angels go up to Heaven: though this was an ascension but by the help of a ladder; and that help, like that ascension, but in a dream; and the bodies which ascended were but like a dream, having no more substance, than a dream. But Saint Paul did by the fantasy not see the ascension of another; but enjoy one himself; and to that degree of truth, that he doubted whether his body did not as much possess Heaven, as the Vision possessed his body. At last the divine instruction taught the ascension to the Sense: it taught the ascension of the body to the body. Thus did Elisha see Eliah ascend: he saw him ascend like the fire in which he did ascend; in which he did ascend, till he ascended above it. He saw the state of his ascension in a Chariot; he saw the speed of his ascension in his horses; he saw and he heard the whirlwind in which Eliah suffered a triumph and rapture of his body; as other Prophets had suffered a rapture only of their souls. Nay, Elisha's touch too did apprehend the ascension; whiles it took up the mantle that did ascend; for the mantle too had an ascension, though not to Heaven, yet toward Heaven, and to the working of miracles. But all Elisha was but a witness of this ascension; whiles God tooke-up Eliah, and left the Prophet with Elisha: whom he clothed not so much with the mantle, as with Eliah! But if you would hear of one, that had gone toward Heaven and come down again, as if he would be a witness of his own ascension, you may remember Abacuc; with whose story we may be satisfied, as much as Daniel was with his provision; Whom yet if carefully we will observe, we shall perceive him cast into the Lion's den so late in the evening, and delivered thence so early in the morning, that there will be no more need, then there was time for the ascension of Abacuc, and the miracle of the dinner; Nay, had it come, it would have been as great a miracle, to have kept the Lions from the food, as to have kept them from Daniel; And had Abacuc lived till Daniel's imprisonment, he would indeed have had need to be carried, though his journey had been far shorter, then from jury to Babylon. Thus did death make this Prophet prevent this ascension of his body, by an ascension of his soul. But Simon Magus did ascend in earnest: nay, and he proved it too, by descending in earnest. Only it was an untoward ascension: he did ascend by the power of the Devil; but he descended by the power of God; he descended to that power, by which he ascended. Now as this Sorcerer was made to descend by the prayers of Saint Peter: so Saint Thomas of Aquine (as some have told us) ascended by his own prayers; he ascended without presumption a foot or two. Which petty ascension may serve for a mannerly miracle; if the Saint-maker's eyes were not as dim as his devotion; and by an apocope of that Saints body, mistook not his knees for his feet, upon which peradventure he stood praying; and the mistake was as easy as the miracle. But we have heard of some Dead bodies that have ascended; thus some have buried Moses in Heaven, striving to make his tomb as famous as his holiness; and belike lest the Devil should have made his body an Idol, they sent it to his soul to make-up a Saint. And some have sent the body of the blessed Virgin thither, with much reverence and opinion, though as far from use as from certainty. And some have given two or three little ascensions to her Temple: which is pleased as yet to be honoured at Loretto; which is pleased as yet to honour Loretto, & make that place ascend above other places, by not ascending from that place. Nay, the Turks too boast of an ascension, not of a temple, but of their Mahomet; though had this been, it had been an ascension without a resurrection; an ascension not so much of his carcase, as of his coffin: which being of iron has been reported to ascend to the roof of his temple, or rather to the secret virtue of many Loadstones fixed with as much secrecy in the roof of his temple. Yet even this ascension also will prove to be the work rather of Poets, then of Loadstones. Which can indeed make iron ascend, nay, make other Loadstones ascend from the common centre; though they themselves, if not violently sustained, do naturally descend and acknowledge the common centre. Yet since without respect one to another, each does attract with an absolute intention; and since the application in such attraction is most aptly made from some point in the stone to some point in the iron: the defect of such form in the iron, and the number of the stones, which was invented to help the invention, does with the honesty of Philosophy quite betray it; since the iron by a confused command of its duty, could not apply itself to any one, and therefore not to any. And thus you see that Mahomet's presumptuous sins did ascend higher, than his body, or then the invention of his idolaters. But if we would see a low ascension, and yet a wondrous one, we may behold our saviour's walking upon the water: which was an ascension in respect of nature, though not of our Saviour's person: it was an ascension of his power, though not of his person: nay, it was an ascension of his person, because it should naturally have been a descension of his person. And lest we might think that this ascension could only be effected in Christ's person, as it could be effected only by his power, he did effect it in Peter's person; And though he needed Christ's hand, as much as his invitation, yet was it his unbelief that was heavier, than his body. But Christ's body was at last to ascend above all the elements, except so much of them as composed his body: which ascended to immortality forty days sooner, than it ascended to Heaven; and now as much required to be placed above the place of our bodies, as it was above the condition of them. When therefore he was to ascend, he led his Disciples out of jerusalem; it was the first degree of his ascension to separate himself from the trouble of the City; to separate himself from the impiety of that City: whose malice, whiles it was increased in procuring his death, was admirably deluded in procuring his ascension. He led: his Disciples unto Mount Olivet; a place from whence his prayers had often ascended, as now his person. It was not far from Bethanie, a Village not great (it seems) either in people or sins; and so peradventure as near to the benefit of the ascension, as to the ascension. And being now to go up to to the Kingdom of God, he discourseth to his Disciples of the Kingdom of God; as if their ear should prepare their eye; whiles he himself will make himself the illustration and proof of his own doctrine. Yet to show the truth of his love, as much as the truth of his words, first be lifts-up his hands, at which they lift-up their eyes and hearts; and then he lift-up his voice and blesses them. See, with what kind prevention he supplies his future absence by his present blessing; he makes his blessing the Deputy of his person: which whiles they behold with eyes as earnestly fixed by love, as they could be by death, behold he ascends, and they lose the sight of him, sooner by a cloud, then by distance. Which shortness of the the pleasure of their sight was happily supplied before, by the intention of their sight. His body was but a cloud to his Divinity; and now his body ascends in a cloud: which did as eminently show his power, as it concealed his person. A cloud full of God is the Chariot of his triumph; and the curtains of his Chariot are the wings of Cherubins! Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. But whiles the Apostles steadfastly gaze after him, as if they would turn their eyes into Perspectives, or attend him as far with their sight as with their desire; behold their passion is not satisfied, but changed; and heard by them, to save them the labour of gazing, they behold instead of one Christ two Angels; and their white apparel instead of a cloud; though their number was not so much for a supply of Christ, who was gone into Heaven, as for a more full security of his return from Heaven. The expectation whereof, if any shall think tedious, they may ascend after him, & peradventure before his return; not by seeking the impression of his footsteps on Mount Olivet, but by finding the ready way in his precepts: by which we may ascend to the understanding of his ascension: by which we may ascend to the height of his ascension. Which was above all the Heavens, that either Philosophers or the Stars had been acquainted with; nay, into that Heaven, of which Copernicus might without error have said, that it stands still; the Heaven in which the Saints rest like the Heaven; the Heaven in which Christ rests like the Saints. And yet you shall not only see his ascension into this Heaven, but you shall see also his ascension in this Heaven; that was the ascension of his person, but this of his glory. Enoch and Eliah ascended to this Heaven: but you shall see Christ jesus in this Heaven ascend to the right hand of God Behold this day the humanity made the favourite of the Divinity! Behold Christ on the right hand of God O what a spectacle would this have been for Herod and Pilate! they would have cried out that their worst Hell had been from Heaven; and to have scaped the horror of this sight, they would have chosen utter darkness! But behold Christ on the right hand of God In whose right hand are pleasures for evermore! And yet can we behold those pleasures, which no eye hath seen? Nay, can we behold the hand in which those pleasures are? Nay, can the hand be found, that we might behold it? Shall we dress the Almighty with shape? and by an idolatrous gratitude bestow the figure upon God, which he has bestowed upon us? Shall we give hands to him, that were not able to give them to ourselves? No, we give not hands unto him: but he gives them to himself; yet he gives them not for himself, but for us; not to assist himself, but instruct us. He makes us understand his greatest favours, by his less favours; and so by this happiness in their use, makes his less favours greater. He teaches us the parts of Christ's triumph by the parts of our body: and makes it as easy in some measure to distinguish between the glory of Christ and of the Angels, as between our right hand and our left; as between God's right hand and ours; nay, to judge of God's right hand by ours. In the right hand of man is his strength: and the Almighty calls his own strength his right hand. The right hand of man, nay, every right side limb of man is by situation and power of that priority by nature, that as if God had showed the sacred union and distinction of sexes in the same body, our left limbs are but female limbs; and so our left hand may be a help unto our right: but our right is a defence unto our left. And this courteous purpose of nature, as it is always promoted by exercise: so was it more singularly by wit and courage in those Amazonian warriors; who conveyed their right pap into their arm, bringing-up that, as the heir of their strength, and providing victory for its inheritance. And yet these were not monsters, but wonders; whiles they had not two right arms, but a double one. But nature itself without this supportment of use and art, has built the right arm upon the foundation of a greater bone, than the left: that if these bones were brought to the justice of the balance, we should with no less admiration than truth confess the right to exceed the left in weight and mystery. And as Nature has thus honoured our right hand, so likewise has Custom. It is the hand wherewith we command, as if it claimed to her the sceptre of reason, and would express as well the majesty as the purpose of the will. It is the hand wherewith we direct, with courtesy in part performing our own command, whiles with skill we teach it. It is the hand wherewith we promise, in which form of covenant the hands of men we so firmly united, to profess the intended union of their word and deed. It is the hand wherewith we bless, wishing the strength of our hand to be the Emblem of our blessing. It is the hand wherewith we defend, and which by the artificial mercy of protection, we can bestow upon another, and yet ne'er part from it. It is the hand wherewith we honour, as if he whom we place at our right hand▪ were as dear unto us as our right hand▪ Thus our right hand implies all that we can give: but does Gods right hand imply all that he can give? here let us with reverend comparison and delight behold God and Christ, Christ with God, at the right hand of God; the nearness presenting them both to the same view; the nearness expounding them both by the same view. It is supreme glory with God to have equal glory of Divinity with God; And Christ had this, the supreme part of Christ, his Divinity: which since it did from eternity enjoy such equality, this is rather to be the right hand of God, then to be at the right hand of God: to be at the right hand of God, being a triumph which Christ could not receive before his hypostatical union; a triumph, which he did not receive till after his ascension. Leaving then only unto wonder, such wonders of his right hand, we may only behold the pleasures (though they are wonders too) the pleasures in that hand; and not without pleasure consider the difference betwixt his hand and ours: since ours venter's to be but the Gypsie-prophet of our own success; but his right hand of truth and bounty, does by a Catholic and unfeigned Palmistry, show the blessings provided for other men! And O how admirable are the blessings of the man Christ jesus! Blessings that more encompass him then the cloud he ascended in! Blessings as ineffable, as his generation! Blessings as immense, as his love! Blessings as inseparable, as his Divinity! Blessings as exquisite, as his torments! O how are those hands, those feet, that side, which understood the point of the nail, & of the spear, and of the jew, made now as impenetrable, as the hearts that prepared them; made now as glorious as the patience that admitted them! The face, which received spittle as vile almost as the mouth that sent it, how does it now shine like the Sun in his strength, that now for the brightness of it, the soldiers could not see how to spit upon it! The head, which did no more desire a crown, than a crown of thorns ought to be desired, how is it now crowned with the merit of that blood, which the thorns did shed! with the mercy of that blood, which was ready to forgive those that shed it! The soul, which was so intentive to its own sorrows, that it almost forgot to animate the body, for which also it in part did sorrow; how is it now delighted as much with the society of the souls, whom it has delivered, as with its own righteousness, by which it delivered them! O happy Saints, who in peace behold our Saviour in his triumph of peace! A triumph attended by the peaceful Melchizedeck: who now instead of blessing Abram, does with Abram bless the God of Abram; and instead of presenting Bread and Wine, the blessings of peace, presents himself a King and Priest of peace! A triumph attended by the peaceful Solomon: from which seed of David God would not take away his blessings for ever; nay, in his mercy he has for ever given him more blessings, than he had women and children; and has now requited his Temple with a Temple; which more exceeds solomon's in wonder, than his exceeded Gods in the leisure of the building; his being the work & study of seven years, but Gods being the work but of a day; nay, but of the first instant of God's first day; a day when yet there was no Sun wherewith to measure a day; a day when yet there was no man, for whom to measure a day! A triumph attended by the peaceful Ezechias: who now is in a Temple safer from Sennacherib, than Sennacherib was in his own temple from his own children; who now is at more rest, than the Sun was in his Dial; in which though it went not forward, yet it stood not still; and now his reprieve from death for fifteen years is liberally improved into eternity! A triumph attended by the peaceful josiah: who instead of celebrating his solemn Passeover, does now feast with the true Lamb himself; and though that peaceful josiah did not end in peace, yet by that end he now enjoys a peace; a peace as harmless as that Lamb, with which he enjoys it! A triumph now attended also by our peaceful james: who so loved peace, that he lost his own, whiles he studied ours; who so loved peace, that excepting the combats of each Christian with himself, he would not have had the Church to be Militant here on Earth; making it almost Triumphant here on Earth; who loved peace, as much as the Priest ought to do; nay, who loved peace as much as he loved his Priest! And now he is ascended thither, where only is to be found a peace equal to his love of peace; and now without going to Spain, we can find a Saint james, Saint james of Britain, Defender of the Faith and the Clergy! O happy Saints, who do in peace attend our Saviour in his triumph of peace! And O the happiness of holy Stephen! whose eye was as full of wonder, as his soul of grace; and did so steadfastly look up into Heaven, as if his eye had imitated the constancy of his soul. And he beheld with that zeal of look, the son of man in his triumph of zeal: which was so raised against Stephen's persecutors, that he stood-up at the right hand of God; as if for his servant's sake, had it been possible, he would have ventured again among the jews; his love making him ready to forsake his glory, rather than his Saint! Whom yet he delivered from their cruelty, whiles he seemed not to deliver him. He delivered him from their cruelty by their cruelty; and by the speed of death, rescued him into Heaven; whiles he was as constant in his prayer, as in his death. And it seems his prayer was heard for Saint Paul: whose first zeal did not more delight in Saint Stephen's persecution, than his second zeal delighted in Saint Stephen's zeal; and now with joy both do attend upon our Saviour in his triumph of zeal! And O the happiness of divine john! who here on earth had the honour to see our Saviour in Heaven in his triumph of honour! And he saw the Elders fall down before the Lamb, imitating the humility of the Lamb; and by the imitation presenting unto him the remembrance of his own humility; and they triumphed more in their duty, then in their age; and by fruitful gratitude, gave honour to themselves, whiles they gave it to the honourable son of God And now Saint john is become a part of that wonder, which he wondered at: whiles by his own ascension he increases the number and triumph of those Elders; having put off his own body, that he might be nearer to our Saviour's body. O happy Saints, who are near the right hand of God, whiles they are near him who is at the right hand of God whose dwelling seat is at the right hand of God; a seat which the malice of the jew cannot reach unto; nay, which the prayer of the jew cannot reach unto! Whose judgement-seate is at the right hand of God; nay, the judgement-seates of his Saints are at the right hand of God: for they also with him shall judge the twelve Tribes of Israel. Yet mark the prerogative of our Saviour: they shall with him judge the world, but only he shall save it! And again, mark the prerogative of our Saviour: by which he is as wonderfully distinguished from them, as he is by his love united to them. As than you have beheld the ascension of his glory, so in this ascension now behold a jealous ascension, an incommunicable ascension of his power; Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him! The glory of a Prince is in the multitude of his people: the greatness of a Prince in the power of his people; but the greatest power of God is in himself; yet he communicates a great power unto his angels. To know the number of whose angels, is as much beyond our ability, as beyond our use; and it is enough glory unto God, that we know their number to be so great, that we cannot know it. To know the power of the angels is as easy as to know our own weakness: of which, our bodies are able to instruct our souls. But to define the Orders of the angels, is not an act of man's knowledge, though it has been of fancy; but like some to build the angels nine-storie-high, were such a piece of architecture, that Virtuoius himself would have thought it to have no more art in it, than safety: and he would have been as much confounded with wonder, as the building would be with its own height! Besides it would exceed the tower and vanity of Babylon: the foundation of this angelical Tower being higher than the top of that. Yet that of Babylon would in one respect exceed this; since that had a stronger foundation, though not a wiser. But peradventure these Dionysian builders laid their foundation upon a Dream, and took their imitation from Jacob's Ladder: upon which because jacob did behold angels, they have by finer workmanship rea●ed a Ladder of angels; And that the invention might seem new by the seen, as his ascent reached unto Heaven, so these are made to reach unto God. Whose wisdom has indeed distinguished his angels, but rather by their employment then their nature: as he has distinguished the souls of men, not by their offence, but their endowments. Thus some of his Angels are Seraphins: whose love is as hot as fire; whose love is as pure as fire. Some are Cherubins: the intuitive expedition and extent of whose knowledge may be named and figured by a wing. Some are thrones: who are safe from the fear of God's judgements, whiles they are made the seats of his judgements, the ministers from whom his judgements are sent forth. You may descend to dominions, principalities and authorities: but this middle Region of the angels is so full of clouds, that we can only see the clouds, through which we cannot see. You may descend yet lower, to Powers, arch-angels and angels: and yet thus near we shall be troubled with mists, that we can scarce see our hand, wherewith to point-out the differences. Besides, the Almighty can as easily appoint the change of their offices, as their offices; and by the weight of his message promote an angel into an archangel; or he can send the same angel to Balaam and to his Ass; or he cannot only change their offices, but also mix them; making the same angel that killed the firstborn of the Egyptian, preserve the Israelite to confess the distinction. And because this distinction is rather the cause of thankfulness, than the effect of curiosity, let us more consider their strength, than their Heraldry; yet rejoice more in their obedience then in their strength; they being all made subject to our Saviour; all, whether they are angels of authority to declare his pleasure, or angels of power to execute his pleasure. And it is his pleasure that as they are subject to him, so they shall be subject for us. It was for us that he sent two angels to be a witness and an effect of his ascension. It was an angel delivered Peter from the prison, and kept him safer than the jailor could. It was an angel delivered Paul from the wrath of the tempest, which was not so obedient to the angel, as the angel was to Paul. And when at the last Day the trumpet shall found, the angels shall make as much speed as the voice of the trumpet, and be as officiously obedient as the bones of the dead: which they shall raise and attend, at that last ascension. And then shall they wait for ever after, rather upon the person than the message of their Prince Christ jesus; of our Prince Christ jesus. Who is ascended to raise us to an ascension of Faith; by which, it being of things not seen, we do not only honour the person in whom we trust, but modestly oblige him; And thus the skilful mercy of our Saviour vouchsafes to make himself beholding to us, by his own work, for his own work, for our faith in his absence; rather then to make us beholding unto him for our delight in his presence. He ascended therefore to raise us likewise to an ascension of Hope: which has observed his love to be so united to his power in his assumption of our nature unto his nature: that by the great act of his ascension, it likewise expects the assumption of our persons unto his person. He ascended likewise to raise us to an ascension of Love: which being like fire ought to ascend: and being purer than the fire ought to ascend above the fire; and since the fire can ascend to Heaven, love aught to exceed it, and ascend into Heaven. Into which holy place our high Priest is entered, not so much to beg pardon as to give it; and by his entering into this holy place, that he might make the certainty of our peace equal to the mystery of it, he has proved our Priest to be equal to our God. He had before made man but little less than the angels: but now the man Christ jesus is above all the angels: to whom Enoch's ascension was news, but this amazement! And as it was their singular wonder, so let it be our singular joy. And indeed we may well rejoice, when by ascension we shall be purged from the melancholy of our humanity: when our faith shall be happily lost into sight: when we shall be past hope, not by despair, but by possession: when we shall be more transported by love, then by angels: when we shall be no longer their charge, but their company: when God shall so delight in us, that if we could sin, we should be proud, that he so delighted in us: when we shall so delight in God, that if there could be sorrow in that delight, we should be sorry, that we had not always delighted in him; and the eternity of this delight, shall be an ascension of this delight. O happy and full Vision, when jacob shall not dream that he sees angels go up to Heaven, but shall go thither himself; and now adore the angel, whom once he wrestled with: and as he then would not part from him, till he had a blessing, so now he never shall part from him, because he has this blessing! O happy and full vision, when Moses shall see the face of God and live; nay, when he shall live, because he sees the face of God when Moses his face shall shine so bright, that now it would shine through his veil; and yet his righteousness shall be more glorious than his countenance! when now he shall not need to go to the top of Mount Nebo, to see the land of promise; but on the top of this holy hill, enjoy the true land of promise, and the God that promised it! O happy and full Vision, when Simeon shall with more joy be taken up into Heaven, than he tooke-up the child jesus into his arms; and shall find himself more increased in joy, than the child his Saviour increased in stature; when he shall see his Saviour honoured at the right hand of God, who once vouchsafed to honour Simeons' arms! O happy and full Vision, when Peter shall see himself as much transfigured as Christ; when Peter shall see Christ more than transfigured; and now shall with delight behold our Saviour's face, when before for fear he fell upon his own! O happy and full Vision, when Paul shall so see Christ's body in Heaven, that he shall know himself to be there in body! when john shall no more need to see the new jerusalem come down from Heaven, but shall goe-up unto it! Unto which, O thou Lamb of God, grant that by the imitation of thy innocence, we may ascend: that we may ascend to that jerusalem, by thy light, who art the light of that jerusalem that the sight of thy triumph may be our triumph: that our petitions may now so ascend, that they may make way for the ascension of our souls and bodies: that with thy Cherubins and Seraphins continually we may cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth; who dost now with victory rest from thy passion; And though we cannot hope, for the glory of thy right hand, vouchsafe us the protection! Hear thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, and have mercy! For thou only art holy, thou only art the Lord, thou only O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father! Hear O thou that sittest at the right hand of God, and have mercy! And let thy mercy make our ascension a witness and part of the glory of thy ascension.  
The end.