THE GLORY OF THE GODLY GRAIN: A most comfortable sermon preached before the Honourable assembly in Paul's Church on Whitsunday 1605, on 1. Cor. 15. 42. 43, not published before this month of August 1607. Wherein is proved the Identity of our bodies in the resurrection: the miseries in life, and glory after death: By THOMAS BURT Preacher of the word.  1. CORINTH. 15. ver. 42. The body is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruption. 43. It is sown in dishonour, and is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness, and is raised in power. 
LONDON. Printed by N. O. for Roger jackson, dwelling in Fleetstreet near to the Conduit. 1607.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR WILLIAM FLEETWOOD Knight, Receiver general of his Ma. Court of Ward and Liveries.  
WHiles I was studying (right worshipful) how I should by some means express some part of my thankfulness for your late favour and bountifulness, I was importuned, by such as might command me, to make this Sermon common to all, which I am informed hath been comfortable to some. I thought it my duty to offer the dedication hereof to your Wor: who well know, that a willing mind is to be accepted according to that a man hath, not according to that a man hath not. 2 Cor. 8. vers. 12.  
And thus praying for the happiness of you and yours in all humbleness I take my leave.  
London this 1. of Aug. 1607 Ever at your worship's command, THOMAS BURT.   

A most comfortable Sermon preached before the Honour rabble assembly in Paul's Church, on Whitsonday 1605. on 1. Corin. 15. vers. 42. 43. not published before this month of Aug. 1607.  1 Cor. 15. 42. 
The body is sown in corruption and is raised in incorruption.  
Ver. 43 It is sown in dishonour, and is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness, and is raised in power.  
WHereas the blessed Apostle in this Chapter disputeth two questions: First whether there be any resurrection of the dead: Secondly, in what manner it shall be; I have chosen the second rather than the first: because the second doth contain the first; For being come to Qualis sit, We need not to inquire An sit mortuorum resurrectio. Albeit in the former the matter is by grave and weighty reasons taught us to be known, yet in the latter it is by visible examples set before us to be seen. Whereas we have not only the oracles of God to confirm our faith, but also the miracles of nature to persuade our reason, so that whatsoever faith doth apprehend in the truth of God's promises, reason may also acknowledge in the almightiness of his power. In the second question, S. Paul entreating only of the resurrection of the faithful, principally toucheth these three things.  
First, the Identity of our bodies, that we shall rise again in them hereafter, the same in substance as we are now.  
Secondly, he declareth the qualities & properties from whence and to what we shall be changed.  
Thirdly, by what power and help we do attain the same.  
Touching the first, that we shall arise again the same in substance as we are now. Though nothing can be more hardly persuaded to the wisdom of the flesh, yet is there nothing more evidently manifested by the wisdom of God's spirit. For as the one article doth contain our whole victory in Christ; and is in very deed the only supporter of religion, the Archpiller of our faith, the treasure of the Gospel, and the triumph of the Saints. And therefore of so great weight and importance, that if it be vain, the whole sum of religion is all merely vain: So is the assurance thereof so many ways pledged unto us as there is nothing either within us or without us, either in life or indeath, in the order of natute or of grace, that doth not illustrate the same. To set down a proof whereof, the Apostle doth in this place to confirm his assertion, fetch certain examples, as it were lively images out of the workhouse of nature, as namely of seed or sown corn, that by such things as are set before our eyes, he might teach us the secret and hidden mysteries of our faith; And by exhibiting unto us the power of God in the ordinary works of nature, that he may show forth to us the supernatural works of grace, not to draw us from faith to ground upon reason but that as a learned father saith, Ea quae in natura sunt aliquam similitudinem eorum quae supra naturam sunt exprimunt, qua ratione effectum est, ut eorum notitia quae supra sunt, ex hijs rebus quae natura constant, indagari possit. Such things as are in nature, express some likeness of those things as are above nature: by which means it cometh to pass, that the knowledge of such things as are above, by those things as are apparent in nature may be searched out.  
Of those foresaid examples of the Apostle, some are elemental, and some are celestial. The elemental are of two sorts, the one a vegetable body: the other a sensible body. The vegetable body as of seed or sown come, the sensible body, as namely of flesh and the variety thereof. In this text we are to consider three things: first the phrase and manner of speech, by way of comparison noted in these words, the body is sown: secondly the estate from which we shall be changed, from corruption, dishonour & weakness: thirdly the estate unto which our body shall be changed; to incorruption glory and power. The comparison is between the bodies of the faithful, and the sown corn, the body is sown. There their bodies are compared to the sown corn.  
The example and comparison we shall best understand, if we note first the congruence, and secondly the difference that this corn or seed hath with and from the bodies of men.  
The congruence S. Paul setteth down in verse the 36. O fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. Out of which words we gather that they agree in three things: First in sowing: Secondly in dying; and thirdly in quickening. First the corn is cast into the ground, as into a grave reserved unto the hope of rising again: even so we are cast into the grave as the corn into the ground, and are covered with earth as hidden seed reserved to the power of a new life: In respect whereof Math. 13. vers. 38. the faithful are called wheat which at harvest shallbe brought into the Lord's barn. Secondly, as the corn in the ground there dieth, altereth, changeth and corrupteh, and rotteth before it recover any spark of life: So our corpse likewise doth rot, change, alter and corrupt in the grave, before it receiveth any strength to live again; according to that notable penalty inflicted upon the head of Adam and his posterity, Gen. 3. ver. 19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return again. Where we may see that not only death, but the dissolution of nature is the punishment of a wicked life.  
Thirdly, as the corn after this change corrupting and rotting, doth at last become again notwithstanding, the same body as it was at first; So that as out of the uttermost extremity of the dark night there doth appear again a little glimmering of the bright day; Even so out of rottenness peereth and peepeth up life, and out of the midst of corruption beginneth a generation of new bodies, whereby we see evidently in the lap of nature a plain proof, that out of death there is a rising again to a new life. And so these our bodies semblably in the last day, shall arise again the same out of the dust and shall be drawn up out of the depth of death, unto a life immortal and everlasting: For if Resurgere be (as Tertullian and S. Augustine do note) nothing else but Reviuiscere; And Resurrectio, eius quod cecidit secunda surrectio; Seeing the bodies we now bear do fale the same bodies in substance though not the same in quality and estate shall rise again; For the corn was sown a bare and naked seed, hard and dried, old and withered, with an husk, as it were an hood on his head, without either strength or beauty, life or motion: but riseth up and springeth green out of death, being outwardly decked with fairness of colour, and sweetness of odor, and inwardly adorned with rare and precious virtues; having received mighty and powerful strength, not only to grow up great and burnish into a blade; but also to fructify and multiply itself an hundredth fold, and enrich itself an hundredth ways: Even so shall we be in the life of the resurrection, both outwardly decked in body, and inwardly garnished in mind, as here the Apostle doth demonstrate, It is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruption, It is sown in dishonour, and is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, and is raised in power.  
But as the corn doth thus agree in many points with our bodies: so doth it differ many ways from our bodies.  
First, the seed corn cometh not to his perfection but by little and little; But we shall be raised in a moment, even in the twinkling of an eye: for as the schoolmen say, Virtus infinita operatur in instants, & resurrectio divina virtute fiet: An infinite virtue worketh in an instant, and the resurrection shall be performed by the divine and infinite power of God.  
Moreover the corn doth recover life upon none other condition but to die again; whereas our bodies shall so rise out of death, as that death shall have no more dominion over them: For this corruptible shall put on incorruption, verse. 53. 
Rom. 6. 1. Cor. 15 31.   
Besides, the corn riseth not in the same form that it was sown: for it was sown a naked corn, but it riseth up a green tender grass, and it hath power to multiply, and spread itself into diverse bodies: But our bodies shall rise after the resurrection, the same that they are now before the resurrection, both in number, form and order according to the worthy saying of Ambrose, Gloria non tollit naturam, sed perficit eam: The estate of glory doth not take away nature, but perfecteth the same. Again, the corn doth recover that new life by the mean of a natural power and virtue included in the seed; but that our bodies cannot revive through any natural power or strength that doth remain in us; but through the supernatural and divine operation of the spirit of God, which Rom. 8. vers. 11. doth quicken our natural bodies, because that his spirit dwelleth in us.  
So that by this phrase of speech, wherein our bodies are compared unto sown corn, we are sent to the corn of the fields, as we may be to the seeds in our gardens, to the fruit in our orchards, that we may behold how every thing is a precedent to shadow and point out the resurrection unto us. For out of dead rotten corn cometh green tender grass; out of dead rotten seeds cometh sweet smeling herbs; out of dead rotten kernels mighty grown trees; out of dead rotten stones dainty pleasant peaches, cherries and plums: And even so out of dead rotten corpses proceed likewise ever living bodies. Omnia pereundo seruantur: Omnia 
Tertul. in Apolog.  de interitu formantur. All things are preserved by perishing: All things are form by destroying. Therefore if vegetable bodies which are of small regard, do by the strength of nature after death rise again to a new life; how much more shall the body of man the Lord of all creatures, the image of the invisible God, endued with an immortal and eternal soul, by the strength of the spirit of life be loosed from the bonds of death? And if we see with our eyes in the corn the distinction, succession and variation of forms; how out of corn cometh earth, out of earth grass, out of grass a blade, out of the blade a straw, out of the straw an ear, out of the ear blossoms, and out of the blossoms corn: Are not these as wonderful to reason, as is this point of faith that we so much wonder at? yet are we ready to ascribe this excellent order of doing, either to the principles of nature, as if it were to the form and matter of the corn that wrought it, or else unto secondary causes, as if it were the heavens alone that gave it. These things are nothing else but Instruments in the hand of God to be applied unto the work. But we are to ascend up higher even to the pleasure of God; and there to acknowledge his divine geodnesse in the gift, his power in the act, & his wisdom in the order; and assuredly be persuaded that he is able to draw life out of death, and at his pleasure to make the living out of the dead, and by consequence as able to raise them up to life as are fallen into death, and make them to live again: God can as well make the dead to live, as make the living out of the dead: For it is all one power and of the like strength: But God doth this every day, as we may see notably exemplified under the broad seal of the Lady Nature; wherein we find by proof that all things which have life have their originals out of those things which have no life, and every generation hath his beginning out of the very entrails of putrefaction. So that here we see the reasons of this comparison in the first principles, between the sown corn and our buried bodies, with the congruence & difference of the same.  
But on the other side there are some (and that no small Clerks of our time) that affirm the Apostle to compare the resurrection unto corn; that like as the corn doth rise again, so our bodies shall rise again: But the corn (say they) doth not rise again, Idem in numero, but Idem in specie: that is, that the same particular grain that was sown, is not the same grain that is reaped, but is another grain in number, although the same corn in kind. And likewise (say they) the same bodies that shall be raised shall not be the same bodies that are departed, but other bodies in particular, not the same in number.  
Their assertion they prove by natural reason, as the Philosopher doth avouch the same: But I marvel they do not conceive 
Arist. 2. de generatione.  the difference betwixt the order of generation and of resurrection: The Philosopher showeth how posterity is taken out of seed by the ordinary way of nature: And the Apostle teacheth how bodies are raised out of graves by the extraordinary power of grace: Now in generation (saith the Philosopher) where corn is raised out of seed, the new corn is not the same in number with the old: no more than the son raised of the father's seed is the same person in number with the father: But in the day of the resurrection, when the body shall be raised out of the grave, the new body shall not be another but the same in number with the old, as is manifest in job 19 ver. 27. Isaiah 26. v. 19 Dan 12. v. 2. And God to make new bodies doth not fetch new matter out of the four Elements; but raiseth the old former bodies out of the grave. In vain should S. Paul with trembling fear shake the consciences of men, making both small and great to appear before the throne of God, if new bodies should be brought before his tribunal seat: Neither could that persuasion of our Saviour, Math. 10. 28. be so forcible to hearten us against the fear of men, That can kill the body, and to draw us to the faere of God, that can Kill both body and soul, and cast them into hell fire, if it were not so that these present bodies were made subject to after pains.  
Would these men be wiser than the Apostles, more divine than the Prophets, more profound than the Evangelists, better learned than Christ? Then might we say (which is extreme blesphemie to say;) O foolish Fathers, patriarchs, Prophets, Confessors and Martyrs, which have yielded your bodies to all kind of torments for the obtaining of the proposed glory, if they shall not rise again themselves but other men for them. It might pity us that the poor widow of Sarepta took such great pains and yet was deceived: for she received not her son again (by these men's learning) but was beguiled with a changeling; and so be like Christ (I rue to speak it) did but delude Mary to make her leave her weeping: For she had not her brother Lazarus again, but another counterfeit in his stead.  
What truth (I beseech you) can there be in the whole Scripture, if this opinion be not false? Is not this all one with the censure of the Saduceis? They affirm that there is no rising again, and these deny that there is any rising again of the same bodies: If the same bodies that do fall do not rise, most undoubtedly there can be no resurrection. The Saducees do deny, and these do pervert the truth of the resurrection; they misbeleeve it, and these do corrupt it; they do deprave, and these do delude it. Both agree in this, to take away the power of the new life; In this they differ, the one doth it by profaneness of infidelity, and the other doth it through subtleness of philosophy: and yet this philosophical reason by reason cannot stand.  
The diversity of nature is between corn and our bodies, breeding a diversity of order in the manner of rising again, as hereby is most evident to be seen: namely in that here it is said that the bodies are raised in incorruption. And it is apparent that all the creatures of God what soever, they are by the constitution of their natures Incorruptible, either both in the whole & in the parts (as they say) Et secundum totum, & secundum parts, as are celestial bodies; or else in the whole only, and not in the parts, of which sort are all the Elements which are subject to corruption in every part, And yet no whole Element ever changed: Or else in part only, and not in the whole, as is man whose soul is immortal, though his body be caducal; Or else neither in the whole nor in any part as are all terrene and mixed bodies, which are composed of the four Elements.  
Now in this combination of corruption with incorruption, as the first sort, that is, celestial creatures, have no part of mortality; so the contrary last sort of creatures have no part of eternity: And therefore as the celestial, because they are incorruptible both in matter and form; are in no wise subject unto change and to die; so the terrestial, because they perish in their essential matter & form, are no way reducible ever to live again; And this is the reason why that in the corn and in all those things as are of this transitory sort, the position of the Philosop is true that they cannot, Redire eadem in numero, Return the same things in number. But those other creatures which are incorruptible, either in the whole only as are the Elements, or in their parts only as are men, are not like to these: for as by that part which is mortal in them, they are made subject to corruption; so by that part which is not corruptible in them, they are framed to eternity.  
And forasmuch as the essential forms and souls of men are of this sort, namely eternal, and are such also as the bodies are created for the use of them; they must either want their chiefest use, (which cannot be) or else must at length be joined again to their former bodies; which since it must needs be; when soever these same souls shall receive again these same bodies; there shall be at last again, Idem numero, the same person in number as was at first. And thus is this comparison both ways proved between the sown corn and the bodies of men: And the Identity of our bodies is manifest, that we shall arise the same in substance, number and kind that we are now.  
But now to the second general. Though we shall arise the same in substance, number and kind: yet the Apostle avoucheth that at the resurrection we shall differ in estate, and be changed into a far more noble and excellent condition, viz. From corruption, dishonour and weakness; to incorruption, glory and power. In which change of estate, the Apostle noteth two things. First, the estate from which. Secondly, the estate to which we shall be changed, viz. From corruption, dishonour and weakness to incorruption, glory and power. So making three degrees of misery, and three of felicity he doth match each heavenly good with his contrary evil: whereby he doth not a little illustrate the excellency of our happiness: and by laying down the difference between the estate of our bodies in this life present, and the estate of them in the life to come. He doth glad us with a double joy: By the one remembering the wretchedness we shall escape: By the other the happiness we shall obtain: And so provoketh us to a double thankfulness in duty.  
Now in the three degrees of our unhappy estate, he noteth by corruption all those anonyes that hurl us down into the destruction of the grave, and by dishonour the want of all those royalties which should garnish us with honour and renown: And by weakness a fleeting estate, feeble unto goodness, and ever fading and falling into wretchedness.  
But in the three degrees of our blessed estate in the day of the resurrection, by incorruption, he giveth us to understand that we shall then want all those evils which we now have; and by glory, that we shall then have all those good things which we now want; and by power that we shall enjoy them in such exceeding measure, and that they shallbe of such incomparable virtue, as that the good things shallbe never diminished, nor the evil things everrenewed, nor ourselves any way annoyed, altered, or distempered in the state of happiness.  
So that to understand these three estates of incorruption, glory, and power, we must know these two things. First the evils that man is subject unto in this life's misery. Secondly the good he shall attain unto in that life's felicity.  
The miseries that man lieth wrapped in may be divided into the miserable wretchedness of life; and 2. into the woeful cursedness of death; and 3. the calamities both of life and death. If we will know the wretched calamities of the body in this life, a certain ancient father showeth them briefly in describing man's misery. Cuius concptio culpa, nasci poena, labour vita, necesse mori: whose conception is sin, his birth a punishment, his life a labour, and of necessity he must die.  
See how it cometh to pass by God's just judgement, that as man is conceived and borne in sin, so is he defiled with uncleanness; and as he is by nature void of all goodness, so is he naked, feeble, and succourless; and as he is corrupted with wickedness, so is he exposed to all kind of wretchedness; and as he is fallen from the true God, so doth he fall in his birth most like unto an Idol, having feet yet goeth not, hands yet handleth not, mouth yet tasteth not, he is dumb without speech, infatuate without wit, confused without memory, having none use of body, nor fruition of mind to help himself withal: and as Bernard saith, he is a man sorrowing that he is a man, blushing because he is naked, grieving because he is poor, groaning because he is wretched, weeping and crying out because he is miserable. Neither can this silly worm any sooner gather strength and be able to abide the battery of correction. But presetnly he is assailed with rods, chastisements and fears, in such sort as if he were borne to abide the severity of others, and not to have the use and fruition of himself. So that to a natural man it may seem good never to be borne, or as Silenus said soon to die: But when he beginneth to step forth into the depth of discretion, & to look about into the world, streight-ways how dolefully griefs do assail him, perils besiege him, terrors affright him, wrongs do oppress him, cares do consume him, and troubles confound him, and that in such manner as it made the wiseman to cry out, homo ●mbecillitatis exemplum fortunae lusus inconstantiae imago iniuria & calamita ● trutina; Man is the example of weakness the play of fortune, the image of inconstancy and the balance of wrong and calamity. And if his lot be such as to draw out his days until the last date; yet even then also cometh old age laden with grey hairs, so withered with dryness, so crooked with stiffness, so crippled with pain, & overwhelmed with sickness, stooping the body double to the ground that it never doth respite him free from grief, until he be tumbled utterly into the grave.  
So then man doth begin his life with weeping, and end his life with groaning, his first age is weakness, his last age sickness, his young years oppressed with fears, his best time consumed with cares: yea if we consider what great grief and annoyance we suffer before our birth, and what defiling and rottenness we endure after death, we may justly say that every calamity begun long before in the womb and also endeth long time after in the grave. So that alas beloved we were in misery before we were, and shall not cease to be in misery when we cease to be.  
If we should reckon on a row the manifold misfortunes (as some call them) by wounding, maining, breaking and rotting of members, imprisonment, banishment, tortures and torment, we may truly affirm with Saint Ambrose, that death might rather seem to be the remedy of pain then the penalty of sin: Because those evils which while we live are never finished, are at last by death utterly extinguished.  
But admit there were none of these so great and manifold miseries to fall on us, yet without them in the midst of our best & greatest prosperity, our strength is but weakness, our time short, our estate transitory, our life misery, ourselves vanity; Isaiah calleth it grass, cap. 40. 6. ja. 4. 14. a vapour, job. 25. 6. misery, David, vanity, job again corruption. And as David noteth, Psal. 51 the seed of sin, and brood of iniquity, who as Ro. 8. 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God, whose ways Gen. 6. are corrupted etc.  
So as if we will vouchsafe to look on the Scriptures, they will as in a glass show us our faulty nature, sinful seed, wretched birth, that we are the brood of iniquity, servants of fin, subjects of death, corruption for fouleness, worms for vileness, and flesh for frailness our thoughts wicked, our deeds cursed, our hearts crooked, our lives wretched. And so much touching the calamity of the body.  
Now to leave the body, and to show the great infelicity laid upon the mind, which is by far more than any miserable body can be able to sustain; what a bitter gall and grief of mind is this, that once the most glorious image of God did most chiefly shine forth in it, now all these most noble lineaments are utterly razed out of it? Is not this a most lamentable saying? though I be now a caytiefe wretch, yet once I was a most flourishing man; now like a devil, once like a God? For if the loss of name, riches honour, empire, government, and authority be so grievous, and so full of sorrows and woes, that the pleasures of every thing past, doth bring into remembrance naught else but the smart of after grief: Alas what importable thing is it, man to have lost not only the rich treasures, plentiful pleasures, the great dignity, sovereignty and authority of the whole earth: But the inestimable ornaments of the divine nature; wisdom, justice, prudence, temperance, godliness, goodness innocency, righteousness, and perfect integrity both of soul and body, wherewith he was made such an excellent man as he glisteren in glory like agod. And yet this pensiveness is but a small thing in comparison of that which the mind endureth: for if the loss of good things is so grievous! O how much more is the burden of contrary evils? if it be so great a corrosive to forget pleasures, what heartsore is it to endure pain? if it be a thing so lamentable to depart from felicity, is it not a thing woeful to taste of bitter misery, and specially after the relish of pleasant prosperity, whereas not only the present feeling of woeful wretchedness, but the fresh remembrance of former happiness may breed in the mind a doubling distress. But now not only by losing the felicity which man sometimes held, but by falling also into the contrary calamity, is the mind overwhelmed with such an huge heap of mischiefs, a that it had not before somuch exceeding happiness, as is now doubled on it unmeasurable wretchedness.  
Again the soul of man she produceth not her actions according to God his first institution. The appetites they likewise are not obedient to the government of reason, and the will wandereth after strange and straggling motions, whereby the body is made subject to execute the wicked counsels of the mind. And thus is the whole man distained with sin, defiled with lust, polluted with filthiness, out-raged with affections, fretting in envy, drowned in gluttony, bleeding in cruelty, and altogether deformed with iniquity, so that from the glorious image of God he is become the right pattern of the devil, joh. 8. 44. Eph. 1. ver. 2. 3. In as much as the Lord repented that he had made man in the earth, and he was some in his heart. And doth allot his whole life to be naught else but a time of punishment and chastisement unto death, suffering the mind (through his just judgement) sometimes to be overwhelmed with pensiveness, sometimes to be chastised with fearfulness, sometimes to be distracted with madness, confused with foolishness, and swallowed up with such incredible woefulness, that natural men had rather many times then endure it, hang themselves like Achitophel; kill themselves like Saul, burn themselves like Zimrie, strangle themselves like judas, or drown themselves like the desperate darlings of this world; such anguish, such grief, such sorrows, such woes, such mortality, such misery hath God inflicted on man and on his posterity. And yet are we not only made subject to this misery of life, but are abandoned further into the accursedness of death, and the death that is due to us by God's justice is twofold. One of the body only, which is thereof a mortal destruction, Gen. 3. ver. 19 The other both of body and soul, Math. 10. ver. 28. Now daily experience teacheth, that the whole root of Adam's stock is made subject to the stroke of death; and what death is may all men know. It is the mortal enemy of life, the slaughterman of nature, the ruin of the world, the destruction of the body, the curse of God, the woe of man and the dart and power of hell.  
If we should but speak of the temporal death of the body only, yet what griefs are in the grave, what darkness, what solitariness, what silence, what rottenness, where is nothing else but an extinguishment of life, a deprivation of pleasure, a desolation of comfort, a confusion of order, and a destruction of nature: so as it is a dungeon of dreadfulness, a coffin of calamities, and a cabin of corruptions.  
But all this notwithstanding, if this first death be compared to the second, this may be accounted a kind of happiness in comparison of the second wretchedness: for in the grave albeit there be a ruin of all that is good, yet is there no renewing of that which is evil, though there be given us, as a just reward for our sins, our mouths full of mould, our bellies full of worms, our bones full of carrion, our bodies full of stinch, and that this shallbe to the proudest Prince & bravest gallant (for all his glittering here in gold) common with the poorest miserable caytiefe wretch, yet in the grave is no gripping of griefs, no soaking, consuming sorrows, no caring; no troubles, no labour; Nay, as in Revel. 14. 13. They rest from their labours, that is to say, are in quietness from troubles, and senseless of pains: But in the second death, as Math. 25. 30. There shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth; Yea, saith Saint Augustine, there shall be misery no mercy, sorrow no succour, crying no comfort, punishments no pity: Nay (saith he) mischiefs without measure, torments without ending, fire without quenching, the worm without dying, and death without ending.  
Now the first step of our happy estate, doth consist herein to be made free from all this woe and wretchedness, which how sweet it is, is best known of them that have tasted the sharpness of the sour: For as the Physician is best welcome to the sick, so the immunity of pain, & the richness of mercy are always most precious to the wretches of misery. And so much touching the evil things we shall then want.  
Now of the good things we shall then have: The learned do commonly part these good things into three branches. First the inward decking of the soul; secondly, the outward garnishing of the body; thirdly the common fruition of external good things. S. Bernard (In sermonum libro) when he would set out the ornaments of the mind, bursteth forth into an incredible exclamation (as ravished with the meditation of these new celestial dowries) O happy region (saith he) for there shallbe wisdom without undiscreetnesse, knowledge without ignorance, memory without forgetfulness, understanding without erroniousnes, will without perturbation, and reason without obscuration, S. Ambrose entreating of the great dignity and honour of the glorified bodies saith (exalting them in this sort) Habebunt integritatem in perfectione, impatibilitatem sine corruption, etc. They shall have integrity in perfection, impassibility without corruption, they shallbe as swift as thought for agility, and unresistible for subtlety, as beautiful as the fairest heavens, and in light and clearness as the brightest stars. And to speak of external good things: S. Augstine in lib. 22. De civitate Dei saith: There shall be whatsoever we can desire, neither can we desire any thing that shall not be there; all that is there shall be good, and all shall be good that shall be there: there is immortal blessedness, and blessed immortalnesse, certain security, and secure tranquillity, pleasant incunditie, happy eternity, and eternal felicity. For there saith Saint Gregory (in his book of homilies) are the joys of heaven everlasting quires of Angels, ever-singing, blessed spirits ever praising, holy Saints ever triumphing, God's presence ever shining, the fountain of life ever springing, and inaccessible light never dimming. Whereas we shall sit and see all things, love and praise all things, praise and have all things; O saith Saint Augustine what a Sovereign felicity is this, to see all things that you shall love, and what a sovereign charity to love all that you shall see, and what a sovereign jocundity in the end to have all, and that without all end.  
But because it would be too too tedious to speak of every branch of this partition severally, and since that of Saint Ambrose (entreating of the bodies of the Saints, as they are resumed again to their souls) doth without labour express the excellency of both natures, I will in this discourse only explain his rehearsal.  
First therefore as touching integrity; it shallbe such (no doubt) as that no man shall in that glorious resurrection, rise with any maim or want of limb, deformity or imperfection of body. But that they shall in that day every one be whole without want, strong without weakness, pure without blemish, perfect without defect, exact without fault. August. in Encherid saith, Resurgent sanctorum corpora sine ullo vitio, sine ulla deformitate sine ulla corruption, sine ulla difficultate, The bodies of the Saints shall arise without any fault, without any deformity, without any corruption, without any difficulty; And the reason of this so great exquisiteness is this; because at that day, man is to be be advanced to the highest top and summity of all his perfection, and to be installed as the glorious son of God in the kingdom of his Father; for if it be so (as Isaiah saith cap. 30. 26.) that against that day (as against the coronation of a most glorious and immortal King) the Sun and Moon and all creatures shall be most royally set forth, with what divine and admirable adorning shall the King himself be braved out?  
Moreover the resurrection shall be the most admirable work of God. And the divine work of God must needs be above all others most perfect, because that without derogation of the work-maister there must be found none imperfection in the work. And yet not only shall these bodies be most absolute and consummate in every point. But also shall have a most mighty and prepotent power to resist all manner of alteration, insomuch as their integrity shall never be diminished, their perfectness altered, nor their exquisiteness abated: For otherwise we know this by common sense, that whatsoever is passable is likewise corruptible (according to that ground, Omne patibile est corruptibile, and suffer end it must whatsoever doth suffer change) but all their excellency whatsoever as it shall then be most absolute, so shall it likewise be most permanent, remaining always immutable without change, inviolable without hurt, invincible without vanquish, continual without ceasing, and everlasting without ending.  
Neither shall there be alone at that day an integrity of nature, a perfection of body, a rejection of change, a perpetuity of estate; But beyond all this polishing of the human creature, there shallbe a further garnishing by the divine spirit with such wonderful subtlety and agility, as shall by far surpass all the adorn by nature. This subtleness I apprehend to be contrary to this our corpulent grossness, and this agility to debility and slowness, so that whereas it is now gross, heavy feeble, cumbersome, burdenous, and no small hindrance and let many times to the operation of the mind, and cannot be carried to and fro by the soul, but by great labour and in great time, nor perform the will, but with great travel and in great trouble: so at that day shall all these impediments be clean removed & taken from it, & the contrary adiuments wholly invested and given to it. The glorified body shall then not only have no slowness, no weightiness, no massines, no cumbrance, no grossness, none unaptness, (as it hath now:) But further it shall be made as subtle as air, as light, as wind, as quick as lightning, as swift as thought, having all celerity, dexterity, abillite, activity, placed in the same; for the Apostle here testifieth that the glorified body shall rise a spiritual body, that is to say a body in all, activeness, like unto a spirit able to do allthings that a spirit can.  
Now these spiritual natures and absolute forms, not being at all cumbered with the weight of the body, they are able to pierce the heavens, walk on the waters, fly in the air, accomplish their work in a moment, and to move from place to place in an instant: And as Augustine saith, In a space of time, if not indivisible, yet at leastwise inperceptible. All which things the glorified bodies shallbe able to do: The like whereof our Saviour seemeth to affirm, Mat. 10. that they shall be lake Angels in heaven, full of excellency, full of purity, full of potency and powerful activity; and the Apostle here saith the body shall be raised in power, that is to say, active, strong, mighty, immortal, full of all ability, perfectly to accomplish and fulfil the desire of the soul: For like as we see by the same we call Funambuli, how that by great exercise, they make the body able and apt to obey the will of the mind: Even so do we find that the greater dominion which the soul hath over the body, with so much the less labour and pains the body is moved by the soul. Seeing then that after the resurrection the soul shall have perfect dominion over the body, both by reason of the perfection of the soul, & of the perfect ability of the body, there shall be no labour in the moving of the body: But look how much the glorified soul and glorified body do excel the virtue and power of the soul and body now: Even so much swifter shall the soul then move the body likewise more than now; Wherefore as much as it shall incredibly exceed in the excellency of power: even so shall it do also in the swiftness of motion. Which assertion Augustine also maintaineth in his Enchiridion; In corporibus sanctorum (saith he) tanta facilitas quantafelicitas erit, There shall be as great facility of moving, as felicity of enjoying.  
Of this divine decking and adorning of the saints, the learned divines make two sorts: The first they call Pulchritudinem: The second Lucem, beauty and light. Pulchritudo corporis (saith Augustine, In lib. 19 De civitate Dei) est partium connenientia, cum suanitate quadam coloris, The beauty of the body, is the conveniency of the parts, with a certain sweetness of colour. So may we define this light; to be the ornament of brightness in the garment of glory.  
Lo thus (by these men's judgements) the saints shall have both favour and colour to make them amiable, light and brightness to make them admirable, colour to make them visible to be seen, light to make them impossible to be hid: the one to make them orient with beauty, the other to make them resulgent with glory. But our admiral decking in that day, though it cannot now be any way expressed, yet when the Lord will have it somewhat shadowed out for our comfort, he doth compare it to the beautifullest bodies that are in the world: as are the sun, firmament and stars, Math. 13. 43. Dan. 12. 3.  
Now in that the Lord avoucheth the shining of the just to be as the glittering of the sun: How many things of excellency under that one doth he ascribe unto our bodies. Forasmuch as that shine amongst creatures, is such a singular thing for goodness, as nothing can be better, so pleasant & delightful, as nothing can be sweeter; so fair and orient, as nothing can be brighter; of such power and virtue, as nothing can be greater: A taste whereof was revealed to Peter, james and john by the Lord, Math. 17. 2. when his face did shine as the sun, and his garments were as white as the lightning: and that Moses and Elias did appear unto him in glory: for if the Lord did strengthen his mortal face, to receive the divine ornaments of immortal beauty, and adorn an earthen piece of clay, with such celestial and heavenly glory: What shall our fairness & sweetness then be, when as we shall have glorified and immortal bodies, made able to receive the garnishing of heavenly dignities? Or how shall ourselves (think you) be braved out, when as our garments shall be made so resulgent as to shine with gleaming sparks of light? And yet doth our Saviour in this place not only simply and absolutely denounce that the just shall shine as the sun; but addeth a degree of exaltation further, which is as the just shall shine in the kingdom of their father; not as it is in this world, whereas it is oftentimes obscured with vapours, shadowed with clouds, dimmed with storms: But as it shall shine in the kingdom of God: whereas his light shall be so illustrate, as Isaiah doth note, Chap. 30. 26. The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun: And the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, And like the light of seven days.  
Behold then (I pray you) with what a glorious vesture of incomparable beauty shall the bodies of the saints than be decored, when the glory of the sun shall be sevenfold, and as the light of seven days: They shall be (I say) so divinely adorned, with such a radiant shine of heavenly light, as that they shall not at all be exceeded of the sun, no not when the sun shall sevenfold exceed himself. A notable experiment whereof was exhibited to S. Paul in his journey to Damascus, Acts. 9 Whereas the excellent brightness of the son of God did so far exceed the light of the sun-globe, that the one was cheerful for his shine the other fearful for his glory, the one so moderate that it served unto light, but the other so infinite that it oppressed the senses; the one lightning with his shine the darkness of the earth, the other darkening with his brightness the very light of heaven. Therefore if the son of God doth so far pass the glory of the sun, that when the sun may be well endured, his brightness alone cannot be sustained with mortal eye: What marvel if the light of all the bodies of the Saints shall seem to darken the brightness of the sun, seeing the holy Ghost doth assure us, Phil. 3. 21. that our vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto his most glorious body. Now how his most glorious body is decked out infinitely with the gorgeousness of light, it is plentifully testified in Reu. 21. 23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did light it: And the lamb is the light of it. Because that when as for the greatness of the light in that kingdom, it is showed that there is no need of the light of the sun, etc. All that wonderful illumination notwithstanding is prescribed to proceed from the glory of the Lamb; In as much as the people that are saved are affirmed shall walk in the light of it, verse 24.  
Now way this description, and note how infinite you may deem his beauty to be; In respect of whom, the sun and the moon are needles: and without whom, the kingdom of light is darkness: and by whom all the saints are so garnished, as that without him, all their brightness is quite blemished.  
Wherefore let it be so that to be made in fairness as an angel, in brightness as the firmament, in beauty as the light, in glory as the sun: yea, to exceed his adorning with clearness, and obscure it with its brightness, be so great and incomparable an excellency, as may by filling our breasts with joy, and our hearts with pleasure, breed an admiration in our minds, and an astonishment to our senses; yet to have our vile bodies which do rise out of dust, and do fall into carrion to be fashioned like to the glorious body of the Lord, which is of such pecrlesse perspicuity, that like as the sun doth adorn all the stars, so doth it illuminate all the saints: This doth exceed far beyond the bonds, not only of all beauty, but also far above all the comprehension that we can have of glory. For albeit in these former resemblances, I confess the royal decking of the saints is made comparable to the best of all creatures, yet in this it is made fashionable to the Lord himself: In the former, though the light is to be admired, yet is it to be defined; but 'tis showed by this, not only to be infinite for goodness, but of unmeasurable greatness.  
Moreover in those former, there was a special relation to sweetness of beauty: but in this, a general reference to all excellency of body: For S. Paul affirmeth that our vile bodies shall be like to his most glorious body. And can there be a more wonderful or incredible excellency attributed unto any creature, then to have (I say not that body which is vile to be made glorious,) but that body which is more vile than carrion, to be made no less glorious than like to the son of God; And these our rotten carcases to be fashioned like unto Christ, not only in speciousness of beauty, but in preciousness of body.  
Wherefore to speak now by way of conclusion of external good things, what a wonderful exaltation is this for mortal flesh, to be clothed like the son of God with immortal glory; to be assumed in honour into heaven, to be associated in fellowship with the blessed angels, to pass all time in eternity of pleasures, to enjoy all worlds in variety of delights, and that not only continually without any intermitting: But also everlastingly without all ending, to be decked out above all creatures, with the ornaments of beauty, garnished eternally with incomparable light, and fashioned in all excellency like the Lord jesus himself, although not in equal degree of glory (for therein Christ is to have the pre-eminence, & to be the head of his members) yet the members must needs be proportionable to the head; And therefore cannot but be stuffed full of brightness, light, fairness; sweetness, integrity, subtlety, agility, power, strength, immortality, felicity, glory and majesty; being joyous, happy, blessed, triumphant, glorious, immortal and eternal; even as the son of God himself is.  
Lo (Christians) if any be in love, here is that which is most amiable, if any desire to be fair; no beauty is so admirable: In comparison of this all faces are but dust, and all beauties are but shadows. Foolish Pygmalion's that there are, which gaze enamoured on images of mould, & are not rather ravished with this comeliness divine. Shall the painting of earth move more than the pollishing of heaven, the vestures of corruption, more than the ornaments of glory? or that which is less beautiful than a flower, beyond that which is more orient than the light? or a face drawn out of dust by the pencil of nature, than a grace distincted in the heavens by the finger of God's hand? Nay, rather as S. Augustine saith (in Epistola quadam) He that loveth pleasures, let him seek them there, where it never can be distracted with any pain; He that loveth honour, let him seek it there, whereas no contempt or abasement can make him be without it; He that loveth treasure, let him lay it up there, whereas no consuming can ever waste it out; He that loveth health, let him seek it there, whereas no sickness can ever make him want it; He that would live long, let him there obtain life, where it never can be determined by the stroke of death.  
God grant therefore we may so set our affections on things above, and not on things beneath: As that when Christ which is our life and light shall appear; we may also appear with him in glory.  
Amen.  
FINIS.