THE EARNEST OF OUR INHERITANCE: TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW HEAVEN and of the New earth, and a demonstration of the glorious Resurrection of the body in the same substance. Preached at Paul's Cross the second day of August. 1612. By THOMAS DRAXE Bachelor of Divinity. BY WISDOM·PEACE BY PEACE PLENTY· AT LONDON, Imprinted by F. K. for George Norton. 1613. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LEARNED AND RELIGIOUS Lord, WILLIAM Lord PAGET, grace, peace; and all happiness both temporal and eternal. ALbeit (most noble Sir) the doctrine of the restitution of this whole universe, and the renovation of the principal creatures therein contained, may be thought to be curious, intricate, doubtful, and to minister occasion of scorn, or error to the ignorant and those that are carnally minded; and albeit the doctrine of the glorious resurrection of the bodies of the Saints in the same matter and substance, be doubted of, by the curious; denied by infidels; and impugned by divers Heretics and Atheists, yet both these doctrines and assertions, whereof the latter is an Article and main foundation of Faith, are plainly proved by plentiful and pregnant testimonies of Scripture, evinced by evidence of Arguments, and subscribed unto by consent of the best Divines both ancient and modern. That there shall be, at the second coming of our Lord jesus (which shall not be before Rome be ruinated, and the dispersed jews generally converted to Christianity) a glorious restorement and reformation of the world: Of these visible heavens, with their lights, eyes, stars: and of the earth, and (in all probability) of all such, plants, trees, beasts, birds, herbs, which were created by God in the six days, and which shall be found remaining at the day of the Lord, it is sufficiently proved in this present Sermon. Yet that I may give your Lordship some taste and touch, these places and arguments immediately following, are forcible, and duly to be considered. First, there shall be a new (outward) heaven, and a new earth, (new I say for quality Isay 65. 17. 2. Pet. 3. 13. but not for substance) wherein dwelleth righteousness, (that is) righteous men, yet by intercourse, and not by any continual residence. Secondly Saint Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is, we know, that every creature groaneth after this glorious liberty, Rom. 8. 22. therefore the Apostle taketh this restitution as a thing granted. Thirdly, the creatures shall be changed, namely into a better form, ergo they shall not be eternally abolished. Fourthly, the inward supernatural and constant desire of the creatures, to be fully and finally freed from vanity and the bondage of manifold abuses, and withal (in their manner and proportion) to be restored into the glorious liberty of God's children, doth evince as much. Fifthly, sin, the corrupting cause of the creatures, shall at the last judgement wholly cease, therefore the corruption and abuse of the creature; shall then likewise cease. Sixthly, God who is the God of order, and not the author of confusion, will at length, rectify and reform whatsoever hath been and is, disordered and deformed. Seventhly, Christ our mighty Saviour, the second Adam, and the Lord from heaven heavenly must & shall cure every wound, that the first Adam, and that sin and Satan have inflicted. Eightly, the Apostle proveth the certainty of eternal life, by the secret desire of the creature after this time; wherein it shall be gloriously renewed. Ninthly, God's elect must, and shall wholly recover the dominion over other creatures, which by Adam's fall, they have (in great part) lost, and then the meek shall (in their manner) inherit the Earth, and none but they, but now for Matth. 5. ver. 5. the most part, Tyrants, and Gods enemies usurpingly possess it. Lastly, (to omit the general consent of later and most worthy Writers) Saint Theodoret, Ambrose, Oecumenius etc. hold and acknowledge this particular restitution. Neither must it be thought that the Creatures renewed shall engender, or multiply; for as there is, and shall be no engendering, nor multiplication of the A Parable. Saints in heaven (notwithstanding the distinction of male and female shall remain;) so shall there be no multiplication, much less in infinitum, of plants, beasts, birds, in the renewed earth. Touching the use and end of the creatures, they shall serve to set forth God's power, wisdom, mercy, goodness, and shall serve for the Saints delight & contemplation, and not otherwise. And as for all other cavils and objections of any moment. I suppose I have sufficiently answered them in the book. Now that the bodies of God's children (though for the present vile, mortal, deformed, miserable etc., shall at the last day arise again in power, glory, incorruption, and that in the same substance with all their parts and dimensions, in few words I thus demonstrate. First, the Scriptures of the old and new Testament do abundantly declare it. Secondly, sundry types and figures of the old law, and the rising of divers Saints, both in the old and also the new Testament, (at least) to a temporal life, are good inducements hereunto. Thirdly, the Saints bodies, being the Temples of the holy Ghost, and being redeemed by Christ, as well as their souls, must of necessity be glorified, as well as their souls. Fourthly, the resurrection is grounded upon God's almightiness, and Matth. 22. 20. upon his infallible promises. Fifthly, Christ our head, to whom we must be made conformable, arose again in the same body and substance that Phil. 3. 20. he died in; therefore our bodies shall in like sort, arise again. Lastly (not to exceed the scantling of an Epistle) the bodies of the Saints must come to judgement, as well as their souls; and therefore they must needs rise again. Concerning the sundry and sweet comforts that the holy meditation of the Resurrection affordeth us. I have distinctly laid them forth in the Treatise. Wherefore the matter being so useful, so desirously heard in the greatest auditory, and worthy of an honourable and judicious Patron, I have upon just causes, and due deliberation presumed to entitle it to your Honour, and to commend it to your patronage: For first, to whom should the dedication of it, of better right appertain then to a noble Cedar in God's Church: A Maecenas of learned men, a Shield of justice, a sincere Israelite, and to one that in Staffordshire shineth, as the Sun amongst the lesser Stars. Secondly, your Lordship is known to be very learned, and studious & a diligent hearer of your painful and godly preaching Minister Master Macham: Lastly, it hath pleased the right Reverend father in God, and my singular good Lord, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfieild, in his respective compassion towards me, to procure for me, and seat me in the vicarage of Coll-wich, a few miles distant from your Honours dwelling house, and therefore I would be glad to have so noble a protector near me. And thus, most humbly requesting your Lordship's favour, and gracious acceptation of these my meditations, I betake your blessed Lordship, together with your most virtuous, and zealously religious Lady, unto the continual tuition, and heavenly government of the Almighty. Your Honours in all duty and service, ready at command, THOMAS DRAXE Vicar of Coll-wich. THE EARNEST OF OUR INHERITANCE. ROME 8. CHAP. V. 22. 23. 22 For we know that the whole (or every) creature, groaneth and traveleth together in pain, until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit (even we ourselves) groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (to wit) the redemption of our bodies. THE Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, wherein is enclosed the Quintessence and perfection of saving Doctrine, may not unfitly be compared to the Paradise of God, the place of all pleasure and happiness: the 8. Chapter, which like a conduit pipe conveyeth unto the Church, the waters of life, may be likened to the tree of life, (i. the Sacrament and instrument of it,) in the midst of the Garden, and this my text in regard of the spiritual nourishment and Souls Physic that it ministereth (as it were) a goodly branch of this blessed tree, whose fruit serveth for food, and whose (very) leaves, for shade and medicine. And this Parcel of Scripture, is so ample and copious, that like the river of Eden, that watered the Garden, it doth divide itself into four heads, or parts. For first the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter, unto the first verse, absolveth his large and long dispute of our Redemption and justification by Christ and Faith in him only. Secondly, from the first verse unto the eighteenth, he by powerful and persuasive arguments exhorteth the Romans to holiness and newness of life. Thirdly, from the 18. unto the 31. verse, he by sundry, sound and substantial reasons, doth arm, comfort, and confirm them against the manifold miseries, and troubles of this life. Lastly, from the 31. verse unto the end of the Chapter, he concludeth his doctrine, partly by a brave challenge of all adversary power, and partly by way of Triumph and exclamation. Touching the coherence and dependence of my Text, with the verses immediately going before, we are to understand that the Apostle in the eighteenth verse of this Chapter, affirmeth that the excellency of eternal glory, doth (whether we respect quantity, quality, or continuance) far exceed and surmount the afflictions of this present life. In the three verses next ensuing, he proveth the certainty of the same Glory, by the secret instinct and earnest desire of the (reasonable and brutish) Creature; yea of the whole Universe: which like a spy out of a watch tower, or like to a Captive, that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (ay) put it head out of a grate, and carefully expect the coming of the deliverer, doth desire and wait for the manifestation of God's children, when it shall be freed from the bondage of corruption and abuse, and be restored into it former purity and perfection, (and in it proportion and degree) be made partaker of their glory: and in the two and twentieth verse, he repeateth, and further explaineth the Creatures desire and waiting for it restitution; and in the three and twentieth verse, he enforceth the certainty of immortality, by the inward groaning, and serious expectation of God's children, for their redemption and salvation: and the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place is, by the joint and mutual groaning and expectation both of the creature, and also of God's children, to demonstrate the assuredness of the glory to be revealed. Touching the order and Method of the Apostle in my Text, we have a double description, first of the Creature, secondly of God's children. In the Creature to be restored, three things are to be noted, first, the generality of it, Every Creature, secondly, the earnest and careful desire, and waiting of it, groaneth and traveleth in pain together, lastly, the extent, or continuance of this groaning and traveling, until now. In God's Elect, who are in the three and twentieth verse described, three points are like wise to be observed. First their spiritual and saving graces, whereby they know themselves to be God's children, and whereby they are distinguished from heathens, from hypocrites, heretics, and all profane and untegenerate persons: in these words, which have the first fruits of the spirit. Secondly their deep desire, and hopeful expectation, arising from the above named graces in these terms, groaning within ourselves and waiting for, etc. Lastly, the object and end of their desire and hope, epitomized in this word Adoption, which the Apostle by interpretation, calleth the redemption of the body, to wit, the final and full deliverance of it, from mortality, death, and all the miseries of this temporary life, and thus much our blessed Saviour intimateth when and were he saith, when ye see these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for Luke 21 28. Ephes. 1. your redemption draweth nigh. Now it remaineth that I lay down, and prove, and apply the special doctrines lessons and observations, that this Scripture naturally yieldeth and presenteth to our considerations. But that I may work upon a sure foundation, and build upon a sure ground, and proceed orderly, I am first, (so far forth as I conceive it either manifestly revealed in God's word, or (at least) in some particulars very probably to be gathered out of it) to remove all rubs out of the way, and to determine what this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, every creature is; whether that it is generally, or specially to be understood; and what, or which this creature is, (or creatures are): and in the handling hereof, I will deal and proceed, first negatively, showing what creatures shall Incipiendum a facilioribus. not be restored, and delivered, and then Positively and affirmatively: by resolving what creatures shall undoubtedly be delivered and restored, and what also in likelihood, and the judgement of probability only, shall be repaired and renewed. Therefore from the number of the creatures that do groan and travel in pain together, after, and for their deliverance and restorement, are to be abstracted and deducted these Creatures, whose special kinds follow. First, the blessed and sinless Angels: for they are not capable of, much less, subject to such bondage of corruption and abuse, but do always behold the face of God the Father which is in Heaven. Indeed, they so long Matth. 18. 10. as they attend upon, & minister unto the Saints in earth, have not that perfection of glory and joy, which they shall have, when they shall be discharged of this Ministry, and shall be in rest and contemplation, but yet they are not made subject to vanity, nor in any bondage of corruption: and what if they, as they rejoice of the conversion of a sinner, so they (in a sort) mourn for, and labour Luk. 15. 10. under so great perverseness and frowardness of God's children, whereof they are beholders; may be said to groan and travail in pain: yet this groaning and traveling, is not in regard of their essence and nature, Beza. 2. which admitteth no blemish or abuse, but only in respect of their office and ministery. Secondly, the Devils; and all evil spirits, whom God hath reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness, jud. Epist. v. 6. unto the judgement of the great day, and that have no possibility of any better condition, are in no wise to be ranked in this number: they daily expect a time of torment, but not of triumph; and they do not condole Matth. 8. 29. with God's children but continually seek to devour them. Thirdly, the Reprobates, or so many as God hath in his eternal counsel rejected, cannot liere be employed: for none of the reprobate persons groan or sympathize with God's children; and to none of these belongeth deliverance, but to all of them, is damnation; decreed, denounced, prepared. Fourthly, from this number, are distinguished and deducted the very Elect of mankind: for first, this word Creature, in the Scriptures doth not signify mankind unless some other word, or words be added to it. Secondly, the Elect only have the denomination of the Sons of God, and so hath not the creature; Thirdly, in my Text, the Elect of God are discerned and severed from the Creature, by the discretive conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but, and by the graces of salvation which the Apostle calleth the first fruits of the Spirit, and Lastly, by the expectation vers. 23. of the Resurrection and redemption of their body. Now these graces and this hoped for resurrection are proper to the Elect only, and doth not at all appertain to the Creature. Fifthly, horns and thistles, briers & brambles, weeds and nettles, &c: are none of the Creatures that are by S. Gen. 3. 18. Paulmeant, or, intended: for, instantly upon man's transgression and fall, the earth being cursed for his sin, brought forth all these evil things. Sixthly, all creatures that have their being from an equivocal, mixed and confused generation, and not from the proper male and female, and therefore are, in kind and name divers and different, as Mules, Wolfe-dogs, Wolfe-birches, and all monstrous creatures come not into the number of the Creatures, to which deliverance and renovation is promised. Seventhly, all Creatures that have their beginning from, and are bred of corruption and putrefaction, as frogs, flies, worms, moulds, mice, crickets, bats, barnacles, have no part in this restitution. Eighthly, the Ocean, and all seas, for there shall be no more sea, and consequently no sea-fish: take away the subject, take away the adjunct: and take away the proper Apoc. 21. 1. Sublato vel negato subiecto proprio, tolluntur vel negantur adiuncta. element, and then take away the creature that liveth in it. Ninthly, all those (or such) plants, beasts, fowls, that either are already dead and dissolved, or, that afterwards, and at Christ his second coming shall be found deed and without life, are to be deducted out of this number. Lastly, amongst other things, all houses, buildings, cities, towns, villages, monuments, inventions and devices of man shall be utterly dissolved, for the earth and the works 2. Pet. 3. 10. Metaph. C. 3. magis dicimus illum scire rem, quiscit eam affirmatiuè quam qui negatiuè. therein (whereof these are parts) shall be utterly burnt with fire. Now because affirmative knowledge, whereby a thing is known positively, is far better, then negative knowledge, whereby a thing is known privatively, and confusedly, let us, with warrant of Scripture, and weight of reason (according to our scantling,) see and set down what is the Creature that groaneth and travaileth in pain together unto this day, and shall at length be restored. First, whether we tender these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the whole Creature, and so take it collectively, for a magnitude, or a continued quantity, in which sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not seldom used, as Matth. 2. 3. etc. and Mark 2. 13. or according to the current of Scripture, and genial consent of most interpreters, ancient and modern, take it for every particular, or, the general of every particular: than it must needs be granted, that the whole universe shall continue: the four elements shall be purified, renewed, made more subtle and be (in all likelihood) eternally preserved in this happy estate. It is most manifest and apparent out of Scripture, that Isaiae. 66. 22. 2. Pet. 3. 10. Apoc. 21. 1. there shall be a new heaven: i a new or renewed, starry, airy, visible and external heaven, (for this heaven only and not the third heaven is subjecteth to the bondage of corruption) and a new earth, and certain it is, that these have from the beginning to our time continued groaning and travailing in pain for their deliverance. Or let us take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, either collectively, for the whole frame of the world, or, distributively for every kind, many kinds, or (at least) some kinds of creatures, than the Sun, Moon and Stars, those eyes, lights, and lamp of heaven, are to be restored to a better state and condition, and that upon these grounds following. First, we under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, comprehending the main parts and principal creatures, than the Sun, Moon, stars with their Orbs, must necessarily be herein included and understood. For they have never since their first creation ceased to be, and have from man's fall, continued in groaning, and painful travail, and so shall continue unto the consummation of the world. Secondly, the Sun and Moon (& by the same reason, the stars) shall at the last day receive a manifold addition of brightness and glory; for the Sun shall be seven times more glorious (than it is now) and the Moon Isaiae. 30. 26. shall be as glorious as the Sun; which place of Scripture, as it hath his allegorical interpretation, in regard of the (begun) reformation of the Christian Church, so it shall be literally fulfilled, when the Church and other creatures shall be perfected: as might be instanced and evidenced by many Scriptures of the like nature and extent. Lastly, the perpetuity of Christ his (spiritual) Kingdom, is shadowed and set forth by the continuance of the Sun and Moon: his throne shall be as the Sun, Psal. 89. vers. 36. 37. Psal. 72. vers. 5. verse 7. verse. 17. and (it) shall be established for evermore as the Moon, God's children shall fear him so long as the Sun and Moon endureth: and Christ his name shall endure so long as the Sun Ergo, these creatures shall be restored, and so continue without decay, or corruption. But if the Sun, Moon and stars shall be glorified, and so continue, than it may be demanded to what use they shall Objection. serve? I answer, that they shall cease from all motion, (for they shall have a perfect rest or jubilee,) and they shall not serve for signs seasons and for days and years, nor Gen. 1. vers. 14. to distinguish times, (for there shall be no more time, neither night nor darkness, Summer nor Winter, nor shall they be any more used as instruments to impart and communicate light to the world: for God by his special Apoc. 21. ver. 23. presence shall enlighten the new heaven and the new earth, and the Saints very bodies shall be as light as the Sun, not needing any Sun, Moon or starlight. There shall be no need of, or, such use of any creature, when we shall enjoy the creator himself. But they shall remain as most glorious and lightsome bodies, and as so many monuments of Gods eternal power, wisdom and goodness, the beholding and contemplation whereof, shall not only affect and wonderfully delight the Saints, but also occasionably stir and provoke them to extol and magnify the creator. Touching the continuance and reparation of such plants, beasts, fowls, as shall have a life and being, at the glorious appearing of our Lord, it seemeth very probable (if not demonstrable,) by these testimonies of Scripture and arguments ensuing. Vbi multa concurrunt verisimilia, facile est credendum: Aristot. Matth. 4. 23. Matth. 7. 31. First, this particle (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) is commonly and usually (in the new Testament specially) taken for a discontinued quantity, and for specials and particulars, as for example sake Christ healed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. that is, every sickness and every disease amongst the people: every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: Godwill have all, that is, (some of every kind, calling, condition) 1. Tim. 2. 4. men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth▪ and God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance, and why may it not be understood in this my text? especially seeing amongst the 2. Pet. 3. 9 Ancient. Saint Ambrose, Oecumenius, Theodoret. etc., and amongst later writers, most noble and famous Divines, Calvin, Peter Martyr, Olevian, Tossanus, Faius, Cooper that learned Scotish Britain, and Pererius, extend Ad insensata et inanimata. Iren. lib. 5. c. 30. H. l. 12. lib. de Trinitate. this restitution and reformation, not only to things and creatures that are senseless and without soul: as doth Irenaeus and Hilary: and also Beza, Bucan, Rollocke. But also to the very beasts and birds themselves. Secondly, God's children that do, & have in this mortal life recovered by regeneration, the title & interest in, & to all the creatures: the light whereof they wholly lost by Adam's fall, and the dominion in great part (they must semblably at the last day recover and obtain the full Lordship and dominion over them: then they shall accord Isa. 11. 6. 7. 8. together (as they did at their first creation) and be subject unto man: if Adam being Lord (under God) of the earthly Paradise, had (for the time) the rule and command of them, how much more shall men the heir of the heavenly Paradise and of the new heaven, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (that is, righteous Bucan. and just men) have the eternal dominion over them? at such times, and in such manner, as God shall appoint: especially, seeing that we in Christ, not only recover that we lost in Adam (I mean so much as shall make for our eternal happiness) but are gainers, and improve our estate many ways? Thirdly the Saints shall (at the day of the Lord) inherit the earth, wherein most of them, for the present, Matth. 5. 5. have no free hold, nor actual possession, yea, they shall reign on the earth, to wit by enter course and in manner Apoc. 5. 10. that God shall see good, yet their ordinary place of residence Apoc. 14. 4. and rest shall be the highest heaven, the throne of God, and the promised kingdom; which they shall eternally 1. Thess. 4. 17. Mat. 25. ver. 34 inherit. Lastly, shall these outward and visible heavens, and their transparent lights & gems, the Sun, Moon, stars, etc. be renewed and shall the renewed earth be wholly dispossessed and deprived of their necessary and convenient ornaments and furniture? Is there not reason (or at least) great probability as well for this, as for that? But plants, birds, beasts, etc. shall serve no longer for Objection. man's necessity, or to help his infirmity, for there shall be no use of them, for labour, lodging, building, meat, drink, apparel, physic, Ergo these ends and uses ceasing, the creatures must, and shall likewise cease. I answer: Answer. The argument followeth not: for though their natural, ends, and uses which served for man's infirmity shall cease: yet their spiritual and principal ends, to wit, the setting forth of God's glory: the matter of man's delight, and the exercise of his meditation and thankfulness, may and shall continue and abide. These ends are the perfection of the creatures in which they shall rest. The soundness of this my answer may more plainly appear by these particulars following: The brazen Serpent that Moses, by God's commandment set up in the wilderness (if we respect the supernatural Num. 21. 9 next and special end of it) was to be a sign of cure unto the Israelites, that as many of them as were stung by fiery Serpents, might look upon the brazen serpent and live and withal to be a figure of Christ, by whom alone we john 3. 4. are cured and healed of the deadly sting and poison of sin and condemnation, and though it was no sign of cure nor figure of Christ, any longer (for aught we read) than the jews were in the wilderness, yet it remained as a Monument of God's merciful goodness, until Ezechiah his time, who, when it was perverted to Idolatry, did in (an heroic zeal) break it into 2. King. 18. pieces. Christ our head at, and after his resurrection retained, and now being (in heaven) glorified, hath, and retaineth, all the parts and dimensions of a true human body, john. 20. 17. 20. 27. as, hands, feet, flesh, sinews, bones, blood, sides: natural parts. Now that which is affirmed of, and verified in Christ his natural body, hath his truth, and accomplishment in all his (Mystical.) members: The tongue, nose, the mouth, stomach, belly, and divers other parts of man's body, shall want all such former uses as served for man's infirmities and natures necessities; but shall have spiritual uses, and shall remain, as parts of the whole, without which, it cannot consist, or be perfect. Many Hearses, have their arms, flags, and divers captains have their armour hanging over their tombs, for monuments: but it will be objected, that plants, birds, beasts, 2. Objection. have not continued groaning and traveling in pain from the beginning of their bondage until now, much less, to the world's end, and therefore none of them are to be restored; Answer: It may be sufficient, that Christ our Lord Answer. find one generation of them groaning and traveling in pain together, at his coming; and then he may, or will (as he is a free and absolute agent) renew and continue all the particulars, or (at least) the generals of every special, plant, beast, foul: as shall seem good to his heavenly wisdom. But the full and certain truth hereof shall be revealed unto us in the last day: and therefore it is not good to approach nearer this holy flame of God's Altiora te ne quaesieris. secrets, lest we be therewith consumed, nor dive any deeper into this bottomless depth for fear of drowning; we herein must not be over curious, but be wise to sobriety: and specially labour to know those things that more concern us, and that are more evidently discovered unto us, that we and our children may do them. Thus much therefore let it suffice to have disputed of this difficult Deut. 29. 14. question; having therefore opened with the Key of interpretation, the chest wherein the treasure of doctrine and exhortation is contained, let us now view the treasure (id est) gather the chiefest and choicest heads of doctrine, which are ample and useful, and hereunto let us specially bend and apply our hearts and ears. We know that every creature groaneth and traveleth together in pain until now. Out of the whole verse, jointly and generally considered, I gather and observe, that at Christ his glorious Generalia sunt simpliciora et intellectui notiora. Observe. Esay 66. 22. 2. Pet. 3. 13. appearing, the world shall be repaired and all things shall be made new, and the creatures, whereof I formerly entreated, shall be restored to their first and original integrity (if not to a better condition.) There shall be a new heaven and a new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. And what if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (ay) the outward hue and habit, form & fashion, & the corruptible qualities of the world shall pass, and be scoured away by the fire of the last judgement, yet the matter and substance shall remain 1. Cor. 7. 3. (but purified, renewed, and refined) for the Scripture in no place saith that the substance shall perish. The Heavens in deed shall pass away with a noise (or rustling) or 1. Pet. 3. 10. Apoc. 6 14. shrink together like a skroule of parchment: The elements (like lead) shall melt with heat, and the earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt up, yet the world shall not be consumed to nothing, but only transchanged into a new form and converted to a sabbatical and better use: God out of the very ashes of it, will produce Psal. 102 27. a new world: The truth here of may by a familiar similitude be made more light some and easy to be conceived: as when the gold or silver is cast into, and so tried in the fire, the substance remaineth, but the dross perisheth: A similitude. so in the last day, the fire of the judgement shall consume and abolish the corruptible and drossy qualities of the creature, but the substance (being subtilised and refined) shall abide and continue. The first reason. The Apostle taketh it for a matter known to, and confessed of the Romans, for he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for we, that is, I and you know; (namely by God's word which is more steadfast and sure than the earth's foundation) and where the same word in other places of Scripture is used, it importeth a certain and demonstrative knowledge, as 2. Cor. 5. 1. 1. john 3. 4. and chap. 5. v. 18. & 19 The second reason. God that hath put this secret desire, restless motion, and inward groaning into the Creature; for it restitution and end, which doth determine it desire and operation, cannot, and will not be frustrate of his end: for he cannot repent, and no creature can alter, hinder or prevent Deus et natura, nihil facit frustra. him of his purpose: and therefore the Creatures shall at length be perfectly restored. And hereupon the creature so fervently desireth it deliverance and restoration: For as the needle of a Dial being touched with A similitude. the Loadstone, moveth Northwards, and never resteth, nor standeth still, until it come to that point: So the Creature by a secret and inward motion and instinct, never ceaseth it motion, until it have attained unto it end. The third reason. God that is not (the author) of confusion but the God of order, and that hath already begun, and daily doth 1. Cor. 14. 33. continue, go on with, and perfect this promised reformation, spiritually, in the Church and in the members thereof, will also at length both begin and finish it (at one moment) in the Creature: The creatures vanity and bondage hath not been always, neither shall it so continue: For when man's sin that caused and occasioned it, shall be (at the last day) wholly blotted out and abolished, then of necessity must the creatures bondage of Sublatâ â causa proximá) tollitur effectus. corruption and abuse which is the effect of it, cease. The fourth reason. Christ our all sufficient Saviour that strong man, that bindeth and spoileth Satan, and that putteth and will Matth. 12. 29. (further) put Satan, death, and all his enemies under his feet, that daily doth repair his image (of grace and holiness) 1. Cor. 15. 25. 26. in us; purifieth our hearts by faith, and will undoubtedly deliver our bodies from the grave: will heal every wound that sin and Satan hath caused and inflicted: (Otherwise he would not appear to be so perfect and omnipotent a Saviour and deliverer, as he is) but the creatures vanity and bondage, is one of these wounds and one of the devils works, which Christ came into the world for to dissolve. 1. john. 3. 8. The fifth reason. The spiritual Marriage that is on earth concluded and contracted betwixt the Lamb and his spousess, Apoc. 19 7. Christ and the Church, shall be eternally consummate and solemnized in Heaven: And then the Creatures, their attendants, servitors and followers, shall (in their measure and proportion) be partakers of their Magnificence, Olevianus. Glory and Majesty: no otherwise then at the marriage of a mighty Monarch's son, all the Court and every person, officer, attendant, according to his place, office and dignity, is gay and glorious. The first use. If the silly and harmless creature, that so far forth as it is not by a superior power overruled, retaineth the order in which it was created, and that is made subject to Vanity, not willingly, but by reason of God, who for the punishment of man's transgression hath thus subjecteth verse 20. it, must be notwithstanding (by fire) refined, altered, changed, and be rid from the dregss and dross of corruption? How much more then, ought we that have so infinitely sinned, and that have been the occasioners of the creatures vanity and bondage, be renewed in the spirit of our minds, become new creatures, repair our decay and cast off the old man which is corrupt through the deceitful Eph. 4. 22 23 lusts, and put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness? Otherwise we have no part in Christ, if we be not new creatures we shall john. 13. 8. Math. 18. 4. never enter into the kingdom of Heaven, and when the creature shall be restored, we shall be condemned. The second use. Seeing the world, and all the creatures therein contained, are by reason of man's sin, so blemished and corrupted and baned, so fading and fleeting, so full of vanitic and abuse, and daily tend to ruin and destruction, let us not set up our rest here, much less seek certainty in uncertainty, purity in infection, life in death, and eternity in mortality. Nothing doth give that which Nihil dat quod non habet. Non est plus in effectu quam suit in causa. it hath not, neither is there more in the effect, than was in the cause; The world hath not blessedness in it, neither inhaesiuè nor effectiuè, that is, neither in it, nor by effect, and operation: wherefore, (if we will rise with Christ) let us seek the things that are above, and mind them, but let us not affect the things of the world. here we are strangers and pilgrims, and have no abiding City, therefore let us seek one to come, and let us by the preservatives Col. 2. 1. No fancy. Hebr. 13. 14. of grace strive to keep ourselves unspotted and untainted of the world: Christ our treasure is in heaven, therefore let our hearts be there also, and seeing that the Matth. 6. 19 time is short, let they that have wives be as though they had none: they that weep as though they wept not: and 1. Cor. 7. 29. 30. they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not: and they that buy, as though they passessed not, and they that use this Bern. Cui Christus incipit dulcescere. mundus amarescat, necesse est. world, as though not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away: to whom Christ beginneth to become sweet, to him the world must needs grow bitter and distasteful. Groaneth and traveleth in pain. Here the Apostle by a figure called Prosopopeia, whereby life and sense is ascribed to things without life and sense, bringeth in the Creature groaning, as a man that is heavy laden with a burden, whereof he desireth to be eased; and also traveling in pain, like a woman great with child, near her hour, and there upon Apoc. 12. 2. crieth and is pained to be delivered: from which metaphorical and Emphatical words, I note and observe, Obser. that man's sin hath so corrupted, enthralled, perverted, and daily paineth the creature, that it, weary of this intolerable bondage doth in it kind, make pitiful complaint unto God, and groaneth for it deliverance, and if God should open the mouth of it, as he did the mouth of Balaams' ass, it would expostulate and reason the case with Man, and say master, what have I done, that thou hast thus corrupted me; and tormented Num. 22. 30. me so many times, am not I thy servant which thou hast used and employed since the first time until this day? The first reason. The Creature knoweth (in it kind and manner) that it shall never be freed, nor finally delivered from this bondage and abuse, until sin be wholly rooted and removed out of man's bones, nature, and bowels, which shall not come to pass, before the day of judgement, which is the day of the restitution of all things, and the day of regeneration, when every member of Christ shall Acts 3. 19 be finally and wholly delivered and purged from all sins: and hereupon the creature is so pained and so panteth, vers. 20. Hebr. 9 28. and so earnestly continueth in desiring and carefully waiteth for this time. The second reason. The Creature is (in a sort) sensitive, of, and taketh notice of it miserable and mortal condition: of it weakening and decay in it virtues and powers: of it manifold abuse and bondage: and how it tendeth to ruin and death, as in the several parts, so in the whole; The parts are alterable, ergo the whole, that receiveth his being from the parts, cannot be perpetual: and it knoweth that the older it is, the worse, the weaker and more ruruinous, it must needs be: All things are the worse for wearing. The Spring, Summer, and Autumn of the world is past, and the Winter and Decrepit age is begun: for now we may truly affirm, that the evil dates are, and the years approach, wherein we shall say we have had no pleasure in them. But now because the vanity, Eccles. 12. decay and tottering state of the whole, will more sensibly and evidently appear by the vanity, decay and ruin of the parts, let us a little insist in the particularising hereof. First therefore, the Sun, Moon, Stars, those eyes and lights and Gems of Heaven, are much altered & mightily decayed in their light, strength, virtue, influence, and are often in their times made God's instruments and executioners to correct and chastise us: thus the stars in their courses and regions (effective) fought against Sisera. The Sun & Moon have their frequent and fearful judg. 5. 20. Instrumentales causae sunt plwiarum, ventorum, grandinis, tempestatum. Eclipses: the sun hath his Maculas or spots (as Mathematicians observe) from Ptolemy's day unto our time, is worn and wasted in his course, and nearer the earth by some 9976 German miles: the Moon hath her changes and wanes, and is often changed into blood. Secondly, the air with his several quarters & regions is much corrupted, distempered, and suffereth many alterations, and is made hurtful & noy some to man, birds, beasts. The air is sundry times darkened, overcast, infected with a contagious quality, and (now and then) strange, ominous and prodigious sights and apparitions are discerned in it: As, new suns, new moons, armies of men fight. Comets and blazing stars, etc. From the upper region of the air, and the distemper of it proceed immoderate droughts (as late and lamentable experience hath verified) in England; & scorching heats whereby the grass and herb is burnt and singed, beasts famished, mortality caused, and much hurt done: from thence are heard and seen sometimes prodigious rattling and roaring thunderings and lightnings: In the middle region of the air are not seldom seen black foggy and Exod. 19 dark clouds and from thence descend (sometimes) such immoderate and excessive rain as if Heaven and earth should go asunder, and as if the world should be again drowned: yea, (sometimes) the air raineth down milk, blood, fishes, frogs, iron, wool, crosses, engendered by Magirus. Arist. lib. 4. de gen. animalium. a violent generation, the Sun's heat working upon the pliableness of matter, or at least drawn thither by the violence and vehemency of the winds, and so fall down upon the earth: From the lowest region of the air, are sometimes caused and descend such tempests of hail as beat down corn, yea and destroy man and beast: and thence come such cruel, long continued and kill frosts, as nips fruit in the head and blossom: and destroy fish, birds and other creatures. Thirdly, the earth is many ways accursed, weakened, corrupted, deformed in itself, and in it waters, plants, beasts, herbs: etc. Sundry parts of it lie waste and without inhabitants. It is cursed with barrenness in sundry parts, and slow in bringing forth good fruit, but it is fertile and fruitful in thorns, briers, brambles, nettles, thistles, weeds, vermin: It is shaken by earthquakes, yea and (in some places) sunk, or removed: it is not seldom by fires, heats, inundations of waters and sea-breakes, spoiled and corrupted: it bringeth forth (sometimes) monstrous and prodigious births: and sendeth out dangerous, yea and deadly damps: The rivers and streams are (now and then) dried up, or else change their channels, and alter their courses. Lastly, there is a mortality in plants and beasts, and they continually are weakened and decay in their beauty, goodness and other virtues. Fourthly, the Sea hath his ebbing and flowing, whereof Aristotle The Sea. could assign no reason (or cause:) it is often so troubled, boisterous and tempestuous, that it sinketh and drowneth both men and ships: It continually altereth his course, eateth into the earth, incroacheth upon the continent and main land, and gaining one way, looseth an other: For if it overflow certain islands, towns, cities, villages: yet it maketh other islands in it bosom, so that Cities and towns are built where the Sea erst flowed. Lastly, there is a daily change, decay, alteration, climacterical year and fatal period, not only in men, in apparel, buildings; but also in States, Empires, Kingdoms: All these have their beginning, their end, their risings, their settings, their infancy, youth, flourishing and best time, and their drooping and decaying old age: In a word, the world and all the parts of it, are in a secret, daily and unrecoverable consumption. The third Reason. The last reason and cause that enforeeth the Creature so grievously to groan, and with such terror to travail in pain, to be delivered, is a threefold abuse, that by reason of man's disobedience and rebellion it is subject to: First, not only amongst the rude Pagans' and Rom. 1. 23. 25. Act. 7. 41. 42. Apoc. 9 20. infidels, but also amongst (those) nominal and equivocal Christians the Romanists, the Creature is made the matter and instrument of the grossest idolatry: whereby the Divine Majesty is wholly estranged from it, and they are laid open to all temporary and eternal plagues and punishments: The purity of God's service and Idols, can never stand together: where there are Images (worshipped) there is no (true) religion saith Lactantius: For Vbi imago ibi nulla religio. in the substantial worship of God, we must from the Canonical Scriptures, have a Command for it, for every particular: otherwise our service is a will worship and after the vain traditions of men. Secondly, the creature is constrained to be the executioner of (the) wicked Matth. 15. 9 men's malice, against God's children: hereupon the loathsome prison and doleful dungeon keepeth them in bondage; the fire burneth, the Sea and waters drown: the sword killeth, and the wild beasts devoureth them. Lastly, the Creature, full sore against it will and stomach (for the time) serveth and ministereth unto God's enemies: For the Sun shineth upon them, as well as the good, the rain maketh their ground fruitful, Luk. 6. the air affordeth them breath, the water matter of drink, the hemp, flax, sheep and silkworm, yieldeth them clothe and garments, the earth whiles they live, serveth them with meat, drink and places of habitation, and when they die, it affordeth unto their corpse a burying place. But at the day of the Lord and thenceforward, they shall all with an universality of consent, concur and conspire to work their torment. The first use. If the sinless creature, so groan under the burden of our sin, which hath made it so much miserable, and if it so wonderfully doth hope, desire and weight for it deliverance, then how much more ought we, that by our sins, are made so odious and loathsome, to God and all his creatures: to cry out and say O miserable men ●ho shall deliver us from this body of sin? Otherwise we are more blockish and brutish than the very Creature: Rom. 7. 24. and it shall (as the dumb A●●● rebuked Balaam the wizard, for his folly) check us for our senselessness; and if the creature so covet and expect it restitution by the very instinct of nature, or (perhaps) by supernatural motion; then how much more should we, that have received the light of reason, yea and of grace, and expect certainly the light of glory, and that are so fettered and clogged and laden with sin and misery; deeply desire and unweariedly wait for our redemption and deliverance? According to the superexcellent and incomparable object of our hope, so should our hope and desire be. Otherwise, we make it more than manifest, that we have no faith, no hope, no comfort, no promise, and the very creature shall rise up against us in judgement, and condemn us: The second use. If the creatures originally made and ordained for our service, benefit and good, occasionally at any time, prejudice, annoy, hurt or endamage us, in our persons, family, goods, or outward estate, let us not be wrath against, much less transfer the fault upon them (for they are but God's ministers servants, officers, to maintain his quarrel, correct his children and to take vengeance on his enemies) but let us descend into ourselves, consider the plague in our hearts, blame and condemn ourselves, and figuratively apply that confession of David to ourselves and say, it is we that have sinned, and have committed evil, but these creatures? what 2. Chro. 24. 17. have they done? and withal at such times, when God doth correct us by them, let us run unto God, let us by serious and seasonable repentance, pacific his displeasure, and invocate and implore his mercy and help, than God will hear in heaven, be merciful unto us, and work perfect peace betwixt us, and the creature. The third use. If we would not increase the creatures groans and torments, nor cause them (in it manner) to cry out and exclaim, yea and to prefer a bill of inditement unto the just judge against us; let us than never (at least for the time to come) abuse, pervert and misapply them to any Idolatrous or superstitious use▪ or, to hurt and hinder (much less to ruinate and undo) our neighbour, or to serve our unlawful and inordinate lusts whether of pride and pleasure, gluttony and drunkenness, or of wrath and revenge, etc. For then the just Lord will punish our enormous abuse, and will either deprive us of the use of the creatures, or make them his instruments and rods to scourge and plague us. Groan together, travail in pain together, namely, with us. THese words groan and travail in pain together, have a relation unto man, with whom they suffer and sympathize, whence I draw this instruction and conclusion, namely, that there is a certain secret sympathy, fellow feeling, mutual affection and agreement of nature, between the creature and Gods children: which sympathy and agreement is not only and ordinarily discovered by their (natural) effects, as by the shaking and trembling of the earth, eclipses of the Sun and Moon, whizzing and singing of the winds, roaring of the Seas, serviceableness and dutifulness of the creatures as when the dogs licked Lazarus his sores: but also sometimes by rare, unusual, and miraculous motions, Luk. 16. effects and actions. Instances hereof we have in the hard rock that Moses smote with his rod which powered forth water for God's people in great abundance: In the red Sea, that shrunk aside: and in the flood jordan that yielded back, Exod. 14. 16. & 22. jos. 3. 16. 17. jos. 3. 10. 12. 13. 2. King. 20. 10. and made a way and passage for the children of Israel: namely, the red Sea made a way into the wilderness, & the river Iorden into the land of Canaan: In the Sun that at the prayer of joshua stood still a whole day, until he and the Israelites were avenged of the Amorites: In the Sun: that at the prayers of Esaias and Ezechias, went back ten degrees: In the ravenous Ravens that brought Elias bread and flesh in the Morning, and in the Evening: In 1. King. 17. 6. the fire that would not hurt Sadrach, Meshach & Abednago: In the hungry Lions that would not devour Daniel Dan. 3. 26. the Prophet: In the vail of the Temple, that at Christ his Dan. 6. 22. 23. Matth. 27. 55. death, rend into two pieces: In the earth that then quaked: And in the rocks that clave asunder: and at the point of Christ his second coming, the Sun, Moon, and Stars shall darken by degrees: and the powers of heaven, that is, the four Elements, and the world's foundation Luk. 21. 26. shall be shaken. The first reason. If there be a natural and mutual, (though secret and inward in respect of causes unknown) sympathy & mutual affection between the creatures themselves, why A'Pari. then may not there be the like, (though more supernatural) betwixt the creatures and man? But there is such a sympathy and secret compassion and affinity of nature, betwixt the Creatures themselves for the Loadstone by a secret and virtual power draweth iron unto it: the Marigold openeth and shutteth with the Sun and followeth the course of it: the North east wind draweth unto it clouds: the jet (or amber) pulleth to it straw: the fish Remora, sucke-stone or Sea Lamprey, sticking to the Keel of the ship, doth stay and stop the course of it: the wild Bull tied to a figtree groweth tame, and by this sympathy the vines and Elms rejoice to dwell together. The second reason. They are (as it were) our sworn servants, they are our confederates, allies and good friends & kind neighbours, and ready to do us any office and service, therefore they rejoice with and applaud us, when it fareth well with us: and do condole, mourn and suffer with us, when it goeth ill with us, or when we are any way hardly bestead. The first use. divers have doubted (yet without any great reason) whether that there are any Antipodes, that is, people directly under us, whose feet in respect of situation go against our feet, but they have less reason to doubt whether that there by any Antipathites, that is, Men that are opposite to men & contrarily affected: For the world, yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Timones. and our little world of great Britain, aboundeth with such, who though they have the form and shape of men, yet in regard of their uncompassionate nature, they are rather monsters than men, & rather fiends than friends: of which I will give some taste & some general instances. First then, by this doctrine are condemned the merciless brood and devilish generation of Papists, Jesuits, Seminary Papists. Priests, and the like, whose faith is fact on, whose religion is rebellion, and whose badge is blood: these cry poison, poison, kill, kill, crucify, crucify, these mouldy pioneers, and sulphureous hellhounds, cry raze the Parliament, house, raze it to the ground: these seduce and pervert many hundred of the King's Majesty his liege Subjects. O what massacres have they not made Psal. 137. 7. in France, Italy, America, have they not imbrued and bathed themselves in the Blood▪ of the Prophets and of the Saints, and of all Protestant and perfect Christians that have been slain in Europe? Have not they their masses in sundry places of the Kingdom? O where is become the zeal of Magistrates civil and Ecclesiastical in many places, that should prevent and restrain our English Papists from resorting thither. God grant that every one may timely beware of their sugared seducements, damnable doctrine, and pestilent practices, that they be Papists. not partakers in their sin, and that they receive not of their plagues: and God stir up the hearts, and kindle the zeal▪ of all that be in authority, and whom it specially concerneth, to look to the Main chance, to take Apoc. 18. 4. these Foxes that devour the Vines, to tie up these mad dogs: to cut off this dead flesh, and to dispatch these worrying wolves: otherwise, if too much connivence (be still) used, the tars will overspread and overgrow the good corn: the Wolves will devour the Lambs, the Cant. 2. 15. Foxes will destroy the vines: And the Papists (which God forfend) will get the start of us. Severity in the due execution of Law herein, Non crudelitas sed pro Deo pietas, is not cruelty (as some mis-intitle it,) but zeal for God, and a public or common evil hath need of a common remedy: Secondly, to this number of Apathites, Antipathites, or perverse minded people, belong the great Nimrods' of our time, whether Knights, Gentlemen, or others, that have within this twenty or thirty years last passed, hedged in, and enclosed, (for their private use and advantage) common grounds, fields, pastures, & have withal (for it must needs follow) decayed and depopulated many hundred burroughss, townships, Villages. Hereby the Kingdom is weakened, the Kings most excellent majesties subjects are in their number decreased: Tillage decayed: In any dearth of grain the multitude starved, or hard bestead: and the tenants turned out to shifted for themselves, or to feed on the bare Commons: Hospitality marred, pride professed, sheep empastured, but men impoverished. The fathers get their enclosures by oppression, and the heirs and successors will make no restitution: what will be the end and issue? God will and doth curse and cross these cannibal enclosers, in their states, persons, stocks, and posterities: and of ill-gotten goods the third Heir shall have no fruition. God grant that authority may herein respectively tender the poor, and reform the common abuse, & God grant unto the poor and oppressed, patience, and give them grace by prayers and tears, to commend their cause to God, who will in time right and revenge them. Thirdly, hereby the Lawyers are reproved: who having Arist. 2. lib. de anima. Omnium animalium certissimum tactum habet homo. such an Attractive hand and silver touch, are but faint in their poor Client's cause, except they feel him: the better moneyed that the Client is, the better is his matter. Do not many of you undertake more causes than you have time to follow? And do you not take fees of divers, for whom you have either no leisure or at the lest no pleasure to speak and pled? Where is your Christian compassion become, and who will pled your cause, or intercede for you at the last day before the great judge of Heaven and earth? Do you, if you perceive that your Client's cause is nought, and that he is like to be cast in the suit, plainly tell him the truth, and charitably advise him what course he were best to take? Nay do not some of you keep your Clients, (especially) if it be a Chancery matter; in a long and tedious suit for your own advantage, as some uncompassionate and unconscionable Physicians, keep their rich Patients in long cure, for their further gain and profit? In the name of God, think seriously of these faults, amend them, let the fear of God be before your eyes: take no reward against the innocent, pity the poor, look to the cause rather than the client, and have no respect of persons 2. Chro. 19 17. in judgement, then shall you prospero and do well. Hereunto (if time would permit) I might add and adjoin the greedy engrossing Merchant who hath not only, his dark lights, and his mingled wares, whereby he deceiveth many, but most of all beguileth his own soul, but like a Monopolist selleth his wares at an unreasonable rate and reckoning: where o Man is thy mercy Apostrophe. to thy poor brother? where is thy sympathy and compassion? Mark the end and be wise, remember that ill gotten goods do not long prospero, and that he that showeth no (mercy) shall have judgement without mercy. Lastly, of jac. 2. 13. this rank and rabble of merciless men, the griping and biting usurer, the Church devowring and the Church robbing Latron; I would have said Patron, sed lapsa est lingua; the Market-Badger, the Corne-Munger and Corne-hoorder, and the pitiless and sheepe-pining dumb dog, and the idle, lazy, unprofitable non-resident, these are one of sort and suit, and never a barrel the better herring: God amend them all (if it be his will) and grant that when they lie open to law, it may be duly excuted upon, them and against them, to God's honour and to the good example of others. USES OF EXHORTATION. The second use. LEt us in no wise curse, ban, lame or misuse any of the poor Creatures, knowing that if there be any defect or untowardness in their nature; or any want of duty and observance in them, towards us, our sin hath been and is the cause and occasion of it: and if the poor dumb Creature, (bird or beast) be in any pain and misery, let us not joy, nor sport ourselves in it pains and torments, but rather be sorry for it, and be grieved for our own sins, which the filly and sinless creature smarteth for. And in this action let us imitate and follow the example of the sons of Kings and great Nobles, who when they see any of their Schoolefellowes, A similitude. Playfellows, or attendants, beaten and scourged for their default and offence, take it as greenously, and as much to heart, as if they were corrected and chastised in their own proper persons. The third Use. Let us from the very Creature learn to be merciful and compassionate one towards an other: Let us not be wolves one to another, but instruments and examples of good: Let us feeling members of that mystical body whose head is Christ, rejoice with them that rejoice, and mourn with them that mourn: let us condole and suffer Rom. 12. Matth. 25. 35. Verse 36. Gregor. in Moralibus. Tanto quisque perfectior est, quanto perfectius alienos sentit dolores. Hier. Epist. ae Nepot: Non memini me legisse mala morte mortuum, qui libenter opera Charitatis exercuit. Habet enim multos intercessores, et impossibile multorum preces non exaudiri. with our persecuted brethren in any Kingdom, Country, place: Let us pray for them, and (if opportunity serve) counsel, comfort and relieve the bowels of Christ. Finally, if Christ be hungry in his (true) members, let us give him meat: if he thirst let us give him drink: if he be a stranger let us take him in: if he be naked let us clothe him: If he be sick, let us visit him: and if he be in prison, let us come unto him: For every man is so much the more complete, the more perfectly that he feeleth an other man's sorrow, then shall we in this world, and at the day of judgement, find mercy at God's hands; and if any of ours be in need and distress, God will for our sakes and his promise sake, stir and raise them up friends: and will be merciful unto them: I will conclude with that saying of S. Jerome: I to my remembrance (saith he) never read, that he died an evil death that willingly practised the works of Charity. For he hath many intercessors, and it cannot be but that the prayers of many (Saints) should be heard. Until now. IN this place the Apostle doth illustrate and setteth forth the Creatures desire and hope, by the Circumstance of time, and so successively, shall continue groaning and traveling in pain together, unto the end of the world, whence we are taught, by their example, not to be disheartened in our long continued and tedious afflictions, but to practise patience and long sufferance, and to wait in hope for our full and final deliverance. The first Reason. Because that we are more drawn with examples, then moved with Commandments, and do rather heed and practise precedents than regard precepts, the Merciful God tendering our infirmity, hath for our help and imitation, made the Creature a guide and example unto us, in so much that if we suffer the Creature herein to out-stride, and outstrip us, we are altogether unexcusable. The second reason. In a common Calamity, and in suffering for any good Mitior est paena quanto communior ipsa est. cause, the more company, the greater comfort, by how much more common the suffering is, by so much more easy and tolerable it is: we have then no (just) cause to complain with Elias, that we are left alone, nor with 1. Kings 19 14. the jews in jeremy his lamentations, to demand, whether that there is any sorrow like unto ours which is done Lamen. 1. 12. unto us: nor curiously with Peter, to say what shall become of john, What shall this man do? Nay, (if we respect the date and term of time) our afflictions are but momentany, being compared with those of the Creatures: joh. 21. For some of them have groaned and traveled in pain, five thousand and (almost) six hundred years: and it is more rare than usual, if we continue groaning fourscore years: For not one (I am persuaded) of ten, or of many, attaineth unto that length of years: and therefore we have the more cause, more quietly and contentedly to undergo them. The third reason. The longer that our afflictions are, the lighter and lesser they are: the sharper that they are, the shorter will they be: No violent thing is perpetual: if our affliction be Nullum violentum est perpetuum. caused by persecutors and oppressors, than God will not let the rod and sceptre of the wicked to rest long upon us, lest we tired by their tyranny, should put forth our Psal. 125. 3. hands unto wickedness, and if it come by any other means, God (such is his indulgence and faithfulness) will not suffer us to be tempted above that we be able, but 1. Cor. 10. 13. Psal. 103. 14. will even give an issue with the temptation, our misery is the object that moveth God to show mercy: he knoweth whereof we be made, and he remembreth that we are but dust; and therefore the more privy that we are of our own impiety, and the more sensible that we are of our own sinfulness, the more ready and resolute will God be to show mercy. The use. First, The long patience and waiting of the creatures for their restorement: and their long attendance and patient desire to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, serveth to check and condemn the graceless Gallants and the swearing Swaggerers and thriftless Tobackonists of our time, whether men of sort, or otherwise so abhorring holy assemblies, and distasting all practice of piety; who meeting in Taverns and gaming-houses, and that often at unseasonable times, fall a drinking and dicing so long: that the liquor being in and the wit out, the blood up, and the devil at their elbow, fall to wrangling and quarrelling, challenging and stabbing one an other: In so much that many loose both their lives & their souls, and lands and livings at one instant: and the murderers, though they escape man's judgement, are plagued and pursued with the furies of an evil conscience, and the vengeance of God followeth them at heels. These men will put up no wrongs, but offer them; patience never grew in their garden: but rancour and wrath possesseth their hearts. O ye merciless murderers that will show no mercy, nor if (perhaps) you be wronged will make God, the law and the Magistrate your avengers': but you will revenge your own quarrel, and that without ground, reason or moderation: The very brutish and reasonless creatures that do so patiently put up so many wrongs and indignities offered them & call and cry only unto God for help and deliverance, shall at the latter day, rise up in judgement against you, and condemn you, and in the mean time leave you without all excuse. Secondly, it serveth to reprove and condemn our 2. Use. in trouble, and our repining and impatient Spirits: every trial doth trouble us, every menace doth amate us: every (Church) tempest maketh us (for very fear) to cry save us Lord, we perish, yea, every cross Matth. 8. 25. doth cast us down: Surely, if we faint in the day of our adversity, our strength is not great, nor our hope lively? wherefore let the very creatures example put life and Spirit into us: and let it be a shame for us (who are the Sons of God, not only by creation; but also by redemption, and that are heirs apparent of heaven) to let the poor and brutish Creature so greatly to exceed and excel us in long suffering and patient expectance for a better condition. Let therefore the approach of the Lords coming to us by death, or, the general judgement; and the due and deep meditation of the infinite weight of glory prepared for us, keep us from falling and fainting; let it kindle and provoke our desire and longing after it, and make us steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as we Hebr. 10. 37. know; that yet a very little while, and he that shall come, will come and will not tarry, and that our labour is not in 1. Cor. 15. 58. vain in the Lord, Shall the husbandman wait for the precious fruit of the earth, and have long patience for it, until he receive the first and latter rain? And shall not we jam. 5. 7. much more patiently and thirstingly, expect the fruitful showers of Gods preventing and confirming grace, and settle our hearts for the coming of our Lord, when the Angels shall reap us down, and carry us as sheaves of Matth. 13. good wheat into God's barn? The Lord, grant us, faith, hope and patience, and give us the hearts and wills to use all the holy means, whereby they may be quickened, increased and confirmed. Amen. But also we ourselves, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. IN this metaphor of (the) first fruits the Apostle alludeth to the custom and practice of the jews in the time of the old Testament, who (that they might testify their obedience to God's commandments, make proof of their thankfulness, and procure a blessing to the rest of their fruits) did offer their first fruits unto God: by the performance of which duty, they were assured to receive and enjoy the residue, in due season: So God's children referring, dedicating and converting the first fruits of grace, which they have received from God, to his honour and glory; conceive and entertain certain hope, that they shall at length receive the accomplishment of them, and with all eternal bliss and glory: now in that the Apostle doth here describe God's children by their gifts and graces, which he calleth the first fruits of the spirit, and which are the earnest of their immortality, we learn that every child of God, must in this Observe. life, truly have and be possessed (in some competent measure) with the graces of Salvation: They are, or must be partakers of spiritual blessings in heavenly things: Every member of Christ must have his measure of grace Rom. 12. 3. Eph. 4 7. and faith. They must know the truth, that is, according to godliness: and know the mysteries of God's kingdom, they must 1. Tim. 2. 4. Matth. 13. 15. Apoc. 7. 11. 12. Hebr. 10. 22. have the Spirit of prayer and thanksgiving: They must be sprinkled in their hearts from an ill conscience: their bodies washed with pure water: they must love the brethren, because they are Gods adopted children: they must with 1. john 3. 14. godly sorrow bewail their manifold sins, and from 2. Cor. 10. the bottom of their heart, repent of them: They must be rooted, grounded and established in faith, & have that lively hope Colloss. 2. 6. Rom. 5. 5. that maketh them not ashamed: and (not to be tedious) they must every one of them in his proportion and according to his means, calling, employments, have the first fruits of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: and as Saint Peter Galat. 5. 22. &. 23. reckoneth and numbereth them, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity: 2. Pet. 1. 6. &. 7. etc. These and the like, spiritual graces and endowments are the breathe and impressions of God's spirit: Exorn. and the rebound or reflection of the beams of the sun of righteousness upon us: these are the bright, white and shining garments where with the lambs spouse and bride is clad and attired: these are the Myrrh, Aloes, Cassia, incense and powders of the Merchant, wherewith the Saints are perfumed: These are the bracelets, Ouches, pretions stones, Rings and jewels, wherewith Christ his Church is beautified and adorned: and the hidden treasure wherewith they are enriched. The first reason. Except, we partake of these graces, we are no members of Christ: we have no part, interest and portion in him: and shall never inherit the kingdom of heaven, nor see God's face in glory: Christ is the Son of righteousness: if we receive no light from him, we remain in deadly darkness: He is the wellspring and fountain of john. 4. 14. grace, from whom if we by the buckets of faith draw not the waters of life from it, we are but dry & dead sticks: Christ is the head of his members, and doth impart and communicate spiritual sense, life and motion to them, which if we receive not from him, we are no members of his: because we are not quickened by his Spirit. Lastly, if we remain in our pure naturals, and are not new borne of water and the holy spirit, Christ will not acknowledge us, for any of his, but disclaim and renounce us: For, as the Eagle doth not take notice of, nor acknowledge her young ones for her own, so long as they are naked, implumed and without feathers: so in Similitude. like manner, Christ jesus our Lord, doth not take nor acknowledge any for his members, all the while that they are in their natural corruption, and are without the wings of faith, and the feathers of God's grace. The second reason. God's children must (even in this mortality) be by these graces separated and essentially, discerned and distinguished, from all mere naturals and civil men, from all heathens, hypocrites, heretics, and from all that are only Politicians, Linguists, and those that have the laudable knowledge of all the liberal Arts and sciences: For common and natural gifts, and those that the reprobates may partake of as well as the Elect (common gifts Communia non distinguunt. I say) make not the formal and essential difference between them, but those that are proper and peculiar to the Elect: to wit, the gifts and graces of justification and Eph. 4. 24. sanctification: For hereby God's Image, which consisteth in knowledge, in true holiness and righteousness, is renewed Col. 3. 10. and repaired in them. The third reason. God's children before that they can be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, must be washed from Col. 1. 12. their sins and sanctified by faith in the Lord jesus, and they must live justly, godly, and soberly in this present Tit. 2. 11. 12. world, that they may be made mere for it: for as the kingdom of heaven is prepared for them, so they must be Apoc. 19 7. prepared for it. The first use. Let us not rest in, nor content our selves with the natural gifts of civility, policy, or that we are good Artists, Philosophers, linguists: for the common gifts; though in themselves, and for substance they are good, yet in all those who are destitute of faith and sanctification, they are sinful and polluted, and are as rotten rags, and a body without a soul (or spirit.) Tit. 1. 14. Neither let us content ourselves with a temporary and fleeting faith, with a pharasaical, seeming, and hypocritical Matth. 5. 17. holiness, or with a bare taste of the heavenly gifts, and with an outward reformation of manners when Hebrews 6. 5. the heart is not changed, nor the affections sanctified: For, God that is true, sincere and holy in his nature, and all his attributes, and that requireth truth in the inward parts and will be served in spirit and truth, will not accept Psal. 51. 6. of these for current payment: Those persons have no Oil in their lamps, nor light in their works, nor are not ready for the Marriage, and therefore shall be shut out Mat. 25. 3. &. 10 from it, and those wanting the wedding garment of faith and holiness, shall be cast bound hand and foot into utter darkness: But let us, though with loss of all that we have, purchase the field wherein this hid treasure lieth, Matth. 13. 44. & 46. and buy this inestimable pearl of grace: and conscionably use and ply all holy means, both to gain these graces, and to increase and confirm them. Let us therefore not (as many do) content ourselves with a dumb, ignorant and unteaching ministery, where that is wanting that serveth▪ usually to work effectually upon our consciences, and be get us unto God, and build us up in faith (for if the blind lead the blind, Matth. 13. 14. both must needs (without God's extraordinary mercy) fall into the pit of eternal destruction) but because Rom. 10. 14. (ordinarily) faith only cometh by bearing of the word Rom. 4. 15. preached, and increaseth daily by it, 〈◊〉 also by the administration of the sacraments and prayers, let us be devout and 1. Cor. 10. 1. diligent in the use of all these blessed means, and then Rom. 10. 13. carefully frequenting Sermons, and using all the other exercises of religion, God will bless his own ordinance, Mat. 7. 7. &. 8. and confer grace upon us, and having begun this good work● in us: will perform it unto the day of Phil. 1. 6. Christ. Phil. 1. 6. The first fruits of the spirit. THe Apostle doth not say that we have received the perfect, full and whole fruits (for those we shall receive at the harvest of the great day) but alluding to the usage of God's people in the time of the old Testament, saith, that we have the first fruits (Id est) certain sheaves (or rather ears) of corn, in respect of the whole harvest; & Observe. certain small clusters, in comparison of the whole vintage; whence it is apparent, that God's children, though they have the truth of grace in their hearts and all the parts of it: yet they are not complete, or accomplished in grace, Ea quae scimus, sunt minima respectu earum, quae ignoramus. Ariflot. and have not the fullness, nor all the degrees of it: If we regard quantity, there is more ignorance of heavenly things in them, than knowledge, more sin than sanctity, and more rebellion than obedience: the gifts and graces of God in them; are but (as it were) certain beams of the Sun of righteousness, certain grains of gold, in comparison of the whole mine and mountain, & certain drops of the water of life, in regard of the main Ocean of God's grace. The first reason. From a partial (or unperfit) cause, cannot proceed a total and full effect (for there is not more in the effect than was in the cause) but the next and immediate causes of their thoughts, words, actions, to wit, the enlightening of their, minds, and the change and sanctification of their wills and affections, are but partial, they are begun, and in motion, and in the way towards perfection, but they are not yet perfect: for their knowledge and understandings are mixed with ignorance: their wills and affections with rebellion: their faith with unbelief: their hope with doubting: and so their thoughts, words, actions are soiled and defiled with sin: in so much that Rom. 7. 15. In iis damnatum peccatum sed non extinctam. what they would do? they do not, but what they hate, that they do! Sin is condemned in them, but not destroyed; lessened, but not abolished, weakened, but not wholly wasted. The second reason. Our spiritual birth, and the growth of it (ordinarily) followeth the order of our natural birth: for in sundry places of Scripture, it is compared and resembled to it: but our natural birth, is not perfitted all at once, but by Gal. 4. 19 times and degrees, & when the child is brought forth, it doth not forthwith attain unto his ripeness and perfect state and stature: but hath his infancy, his childhood, his youth, and then it full strength and perfect man: And thus it fareth with our new birth and new man: It hath his forming and framing, his growth and increase, and shall aspired unto the pitch and point of it full age before Ezech. 47. the judgement day: They are in their way, but not yet at Eph. 4. 13. their journeys end and rest. 1. Cor. 13. 10. 12 The third reason. They (during this mortality) are not fitted for it; nor worthy to receive it, and therefore God will have them The children of God, during this mortality, are not capable of absolute perfection. exercised before that he put them into full possession of absolute perfection: and that partly, by reason of their shallow apprehension of grace offered, and partly by reason of their divers decays, losses, arreareges. For, first, God's children (though vessels of grace, and of gold and silver, serving for honourable uses) are but like narrow-mouthed 2. Tim. 2. 20. 21 pots, and cannot at once receive all the grace that is by the ministery of the word offered, but by little and little receive it, and here that Rule of the Philosopher: hath his place viz, whatsoever is received, that same Quicquidirecipitur, recipitur secundam modum recipientis et non recepti. is received, according to the measure of the receiver and not of the thing received. The law is spiritual, and doth require spiritual and perfect obedience, but they are carnal that is, full of sins, slips, imperfections; Secondly, their passions lead them hither and thither; Thirdly, their manifold temptations, are like so many rubs and hubs, blocks, and stones, in their ways: where at they est soon stumble, & are let in their journey & especially they in the (daily) combat betwixt the flesh and the Gal. 5. 16. & 17. spirit, though at length they prevail, yet they receive many foils and falls, and often (for the time) loose somewhat of that they formerly had, and are troubled and terrified in conscience. An example hereof, we have in jacob, when he all the night wrestled with the Angel (jesus Christ) for, as the Angel, when jacob wrestled with him, touched, loosed and unionted the hollow of his thigh; in so much that he halted all his life after it, and Gen 32. 24 & 25 yet notwithstanding by reason of his importunity, he Pezelius in Genesin. prevailed: So God's children (even the stoutest and strongest of them) receive (for their correction and humiliation) in the spiritual combat and conflict, some loss and lameness, and some hurt and wound: yet (because God will perfect his power in Infirmity) they are more 2. Cor. 12. 9 10. than conqeurours, through Christ that loveth them. Neither Rom. 8. 37. must God's purpose and proceedings herein seem strange, and much less offensive. For his will is, that there shall be a notable and remarkable difference between mortality and immortality, betwixt the childhood of his Church in this life, & the perfect manly estate of it in the next: I say betwixt the Church warring in earth, and it triumphing in heaven, The first use. Hence is discovered the conceived vanity and vaunting vein of many that are but novices, petites, and incipients in Christ his school, who being but low shrubs imagine that they are tall Cedars: being but windy bladders conceit themselves to be full of all the Spirit: having hardly gotten the true beginnings of piety and purity, bear themselves in hand, that they have the perfection and pith of it. These men measure not themselves by their inward state, whereof they are ignorant, but by their outward appearance: They measure themselves by themselves, which is a partial and Lesbian rule, but not by the touch stone and standard of God's word: And hereupon these empty caskets, and these tinkling Cymbals make the greater sound, but in the wind and tempest of trial and trouble (these) leaves and chaff will be scattered, and at the coming of the Lord (if not before) they shall be unmasked and uncased, and their nakedness shall appear to, and their shame be seen of all men. Apoc. 16. 15. The second Use. Secondly, these are also, by the authority of this doctrine, taxed and reproved, who confounding all things, vail and hide all want and absence of grace in themselves, under the curtain and colour of imperfection, as though there were no difference between blindness and dim sight, between nakedness and apparel, betwixt life and death, betwixt bondage and liberty, Qui non distinguit, destruit artem. something and nothing: here it is true, he that maketh no distinction, overthroweth Art: and they that cannot, nor will make no difference betwixt light and darkness, natural gifts and spiritual, and between presence of grace and want of it, do put out the eyes of faith and make all sins equal, and so destroy all Divinity: These peevish persons wittingly and wilfully seduce their own souls: and their fond excuses will not hold out water, but fail them in death, and at the day of judgement leave them without excuse. The third use. here is matter of endless comfort for all them, that have the sound beginnings, and parts of saving grace, and that are careful and constant by the use of all good means, namely by hearing of Sermons, receiving of the Sacraments, the use and practise of prayer and thanksgiving, reading of the Scriptures and of all learned Divines, disputes and treatises: by holy conferences; and by conscionable walking in their civil and Christian callings, to cherish and strengthen the same. God will accept them for the better, and not the greater parts: he will more esteem them for the graces of the spirit, than dislike or distaste them for their corruptions: if they be Matth. 12. 20. no stronger than bruised reeds, Christ will not break them: and if their faith do but smoke, he will not quench it: He accepteth in them, the desire for the deed: and will in his due time finish the spiritual building begun in them: his grace is sufficient for them, and he will perfect 2. Cor. 12. 9 his power in their manifold infirmities. Groan within ourselves. Out of these words, Groan within ourselves, this instruction offereth and presenteth itself to our consideration, Obser. namely, that the very inward sighs and groan in God's children, are certain and infallible signs, Psalm. 51. and testimonies of their Adoption, and are much respected of God: * They are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (ay) peculiar affections in God's Children. Isai. 38. 14. Exod. 3. 9 Act. 7. 34. joh. 11. 33. 38. Nehemias', David, the Children of God in their captivity in Egypt, Moses: Exod. 14. 15. Anna, Ezechias, Paul, yea and our Lord jesus himself are in the Scriptures noted and ennoble for their sighs and groan. The first reason. The inward groans: (which often times break out into outward passions) are a part of God's spiritual worship, whereby they are distinguished from all hypocrites, whose service and holiness is only outward: for they proceed from a broken and contrite heart, and are special Psal. 51. 15. effects of God's spirit, which he cannot but highly esteem of. The second Reason. They are weary and heavy Laden: they feel their sins like a Millstone to press them down: they labour under the burden of their manifold falls, and failings: they see in what danger they stand: and how mightily the Divine Majesty is, or may be offended: No known sin seemeth light to them: they strive to shake it off, and would fain be eased of it: For it breaketh their hearts, and forceth them to cry out with blessed Paul, O miserable man, who shall deliver us from this body of sin? But Rom. 7. 24. chose the wicked make but a jest and sport of Prou. 4. 16. sin, It is meat and drink to them: And they receive it into their souls and bodies, as the Gallant and swaggerer doth his Indian weed, that is, his idle, idol, Tobacco: It seemeth honey in the taste, but it is more bitter than wormwood and gall in the trial. The third reason. The eclipse of sincerity: decay of piety: freezing of charity: the oppression of the innocent, the encroaching of superstition: the intolerable breach of the Sabbath, and Inundation of Atheism and profaneness, do compel their hearts to melt and to mourn for the abominations that are done in the land, and when they see and hear the Ezech. 9 4. wicked conversation of the ungodly, to vex their righteteous souls from day to day: They as good subjects cannot abide that their Heavenly King: as good servants that their Heavenly Master: and as dutiful and loving sons that their Heavenly Father, should be so blasphemed, dishonoured, offended, and provoked to anger. The fourth reason. The manifold troubles, and persecutions of the ministers and members of Christ of all sorts and in (all) places, where sin and Satan reigneth, do draw sighs from their hearts, tears from their eyes, and complaints from their months! They are grieved, troubled: yea and martyred (in affection) to see Gods dear servants so indignly handled! Hence they cry, help Lord: and up Lord, let not man prevail: and how long Lord holy and Psalm. 12. 1. Apoc. 6. 10. true? And remember the enemy and the avenger. They know that it cannot go well with the whole, when it fareth so ill with the parts. But the enemies of God, whose badge and cognizance is cruelty and pitiless compassion, rejoice at their troubles, make merry, and send gifts one to another: their song is, down with them, down with them: but their sins are scored up: and they fulfil the measure of their sins: and their damnation Apoc. 11. 10. steepeth not. And though God cometh with woollen feet, yet he striketh with iron hands: and the slower that his vengeance is, the more severe will it be when it is to be executed. The first use. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. here we have very just cause and occasion to weep for, and to bewail the more than stony hardness of our senseless and dead hearts, that when so many occasions and objects of groaning are daily offered, yet our hearts will not come down, send forth groan, nor distill into tears: surely, surely, our hearts are harder than the Adamant: for though neither fire not iron, can separate nor Leu. Lemni. de gemmis. Lib. 2. c. 15. dissolve the parts of it, yet the hot and fresh blood of a goat doth cause it to yield, and to dissolve. Our hearts are harder than the Rock that Moses did smite with his Num. 20. 11. rod, for when he smote it, it powered forth abundance of water: But neither mercies nor miseries, rods nor rewards, can draw groan from our hearts, nor sin, tears from our eyes: wherefore let us most humbly and heartily entreat the Lord, to give us a new heart, and to put a new spirit into us, to take away the stony heart out of our Eze ch. 36. 26. bowels, and to give us an heart of flesh; that may melt at God's judgements as josias his heart did, and that may yield itself pliable and frameable to God, by his Spirit, to work upon. The second use. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If we in our griefs, agonies, distresses and extremities, can but groan & cry inwardly unto God for counsel, Exod. 14. 15. ease and deliverance (though with our tongues we cannot tell how to speak or pray: as we would and should; nay, if Tyrants and persecutors, should cut our tongues out of our heads: Let us not be dismayed, nor discouraged, but comfort and cheer our hearts: God that hath taught us by his Spirit, thus to groan, & that knoweth and approveth what his own Spirit desireth and coveteth, taketh notice of these Groans, accepteth of them, and will hear and deliver the oppressed: Psalm. 12. 5. These proceed from a broken and contrite heart, Psalm. 51. 17. which sacrifices God despiseth not: but most affectionately tendereth: but woe to those wicked ones that by their oppression, and by their scandalous life and injurious dealing, cause God's children to groan & grieve: they here in touch the apple of Gods own eye: and better Zach. 2. were it for them that a millstone were hanged about their necks, and that they were drowned in the depth Math. 18. 6. of the Sea, than thus to offend one of God's children. Waiting for the adoption. THe word Adoption hath a threefold signification: first it is (sometimes) taken for the Adoption of Election, whereby we are (Gods) Sons in his eternal Eph. 1. 4. decree and counsel: Secondly, for the Adoption of justification, for as soon as we actually believe in Christ, we are actually made the Sons of God: Lastly, (as in S. Luke's Gospel, and also in this place) it is used for the joh. 1. 12. Luke. 21. 28. Obser. Adoption of glorification. From this last notion & sense, I draw this collection: It is a proper mark and Character of God's Children to desire, hope, and wait for their glorification and full Salvation. They wait for their Master's Luke. 12. 36. Tit. 2. 13. Phil. 2. 20. Apoc. 22. 20. 2. Cor. 5. 2 & 5. Matth 25. 10. return from the wedding: They look for the blessed hope, and for the glorious appearance of the Lord jesus: They pray for the coming of Christ: They sigh for it; And prepare themselves against that day. The first reason. It is the nature and property of hope with patience to Rom. 8. 25. wait for that which is promised and not seen: and so much the more carefully to attend it, as the thing hoped for, draweth nearer to his date, and accomplishment: For this hope is built upon the powerful and unchangeable Promise of God in the Scripture; yea, and upon his Hebr. 6. 19 oath, and it is the anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, to stay the ship of their conscience, that it be not carried away by the storms & tempests of troubles: wherefore where there is no desire and expectation, for full redemption, there is no hope, no faith, no comfort, no religion. The second reason. They are Sojourners, Strangers and pilgrims in this Psal. 119. Gen. 47. 9 Hebr. 13. 13. present world, they have no settled seat, nor abiding-Citie here, but they seek one to come: and in this their pilgrimage, partly, the view of their own sins, and of the abominations of the world, and partly, the manifold, yea and remediless wrongs and indignities, that they here undergo, and do make them loathe this wretchéd life: and to long and look for a better, where 2. Thes. 1. 6. 7. they shall rest from all their labours, and enjoy fullness of pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore. The third reason. The contemplation and serious consideration of the more than excellent weight of the eternal glory that shall be revealed in their souls and bodies, and also of that most blessed and immediate fellowship and communion, that the Saints shall have mutually, not only one with another, but also with the whole Trinity (that is) with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, doth put an edge and life to their desires; & increaseth their hopeful expectation. If no workman worketh for naught, but Nullus efficiens agit temerè, sed omnis propter sinem certum agit. every one looketh to some certain end: If the hired servant waiteth for his days wages: if the husbandman for the precious fruits of the earth, If the traveler desireth the end of his journey that he may rest: and the soldier have respect to the victory and unto the spoil: Then how much more should we that tarry for such a Kingdom, exercise and stir up our hope and patience? Qu. But why do many of God's children more fear Quaest the last judgement then desire it? Ans. First, they by reason of the dregss of corruption, Ans. do not sufficiently distaste the world: Secondly, many of them are babes and novices in Christianity: Thirdly by the violence of some temptations. The first use. Fearful and (almost) forlorn, unhappy, yea and hopeless is the estate and condition of many, yea even of those that live in the body & bosom of the Church, whose thoughts, meditations and desires are taken up only with earthly profits and pleasures: They set up their rest here and so live, as if there were no general resurrection, and neither Heaven for reward, nor hell for punishment to be expected: They, falsely imagine, that there is a certainty in uncertainty, they make the World their paradise, and as for the glory to be revealed, they believe it not, and therefore they hope not for it, and shall never be partakers of it. The second use. Let this be a caution unto us, that we make not the outward state & condition of God's children in this life the rule, squire, & touchstone of their hope & happiness, (for them we measure them with a Lesbian rule, & weigh Vita eius qui secundum evangelium vixerit, est continua Crux et Martyrium. Col. 3. 3. 1. john 3. 2. them in a false balance) their present life is but a toilsome & troublesome pilgrimage, and a painful (yet no popish) purgatory, yea a continual Cress and Martyrdom: their life of glory is hid with God in Christ, it doth not yet appear, neither to themselves nor others what they shall be though they walk by faith, and not by sight: Finally, they, though Gods good Corn, yet they are so hid in the mountains of the world's chaff, that few of them are known (in person and face) and by experimental knowledge, one to another, but let us measure, esteem and judge of them by their blessed hope: by their 1. Cor. 4. 18. Psalm. 37. Apoc. 14. 13. title to eternity, and by their glorious state to come; for than they shall be enstated and put into the possession of Heaven: where there is the absence of all evil, and fullness of joy and glory unspeakable for evermore. The third use. Let the hopeful expectation of this promised and prepared glory, make us patient in all perplexities, comfortable in Crosses, and firm and forward in every good work: For, we serve the most honourable and bountiful Lord and Master of all others: who procureth and rejoiceth in the prosperity of his servants: and will (especially in the life to come) such is his favour and mercy, abundantly and everlastingly reward our sufferings and our well doings: If the due consideration hereof Omne opus leave fieri solet, cum eius praemium cogitatur, et spes praemij est solatium laboris. will not put life, spirit and courage into us, what will do it? Every work (saith Jerome) is wont to be accounted light, when we think on the reward of it; and the hope of reward, is the comfort of the labour. The redemption of our Body. BY Redemption of our body, is not in this place meant, the price and ransom of it, for Christ our Saviour paid it to God his Father in our behalf, above 1600. years ago: but in this place, as in that of Luke cap. 21. 28. It signifieth the full and final effect and consummation of it, to wit, the regeneration and glorification of the body: whence I note that God doth observe a certain orderly and gradual proceeding in accomplishing our Obser. Adoption and Redemption: the Adoption (or Sonship) of election goeth before the Adoption of justification, and that of justification, goeth (in time) before the Adoption of glorification. The first reason. The soul first sinned in hearkening and assenting unto Satan's suggestion, and the body afterward sinned in being the instrument to put it in execution; therefore the wise and merciful Lord, doth in this life begin and forward the regeneration of our souls: but the regeneration and glorification of our bodies, (whether we respect their substance or properties,) is reserved to the day of judgement: the body may (in a sort) be said to be regenerate and is truly regenerate and sanctified in this life, but that is only in the holy dispose, use and application Rom. 6. 13. 14. of the whole and the several parts: but not in the substance and qualities, for the senses are not hereby refined; nor the body kept from decay, death, mortality and temporal misery. The second reason. God in the work of our redemption will make a notable and manifest difference beeweene Christ his first and his second coming: Christ, at his first coming, paid our perfect ransom, and then did, and daily doth by degrees, renew and repair our souls: But at his second coming, he will not only absolutely and eternally free our soul●s from all sin: but also deliver our body from the very remainders of it, and from all misery and mutability: and hereby make it like unto his glorious body: and in this last acception and sense the day of the Lord is called the day of the regeneration: and Matth. 19 28. Luk. 14. 14. the resurrection of the just. The use. Let us in the work of our Salvation, imitate God's order and proceeding, let us first get, confirm and increase the true knowledge of God, and true holiness and righteousness: for than we renew God's image in us, which Adam lost: and then let us yield our (bodily) members as instruments of righteousness unto God, and carefully endeavour to subject them in obedience to our regenerate souls: then God will in the time appointed, complete the regeneration of our souls: and will raise joh. 40. up our bodies in glory. Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath Apoc. 20. 6. no power: but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ, etc. The adoption (ay) the redemption of the body. HEre the Apostle interpreteth himself, and expoundeth Adoption to be the Redemption of the body, by whose example, and by warrant of many places of Scripture, wherein one and the same verse expoundeth it self (specially in David's Psalms) I might (to the consounding of the lying heretical Papists) show that it was not God's purpose to make the Scriptures so hard to be understood, as they would bear the world in hand: but I purpose only to prosecute the main points, and to follow the Apostle his scope and drift: Here than the comfortable doctrine of the glorious resurrection of the body is avouched and averred; which because it is so main & fundamental an Article of faith and salvation; & hath been and is so much impugned by Heretics and Atheists: I purpose to prove the doctrine of it, the more largely, and distinctly. I will therefore stand upon, and sound and succinctly prove these four points following: First, that the Saints bodies shall rise again: Secondly, that they in matter, number, kind, substance, Eadem numero sunt eadem specie. shall rise the same that they were before, and no other: Thirdly, I will show in what stature they are likely to arise: Fourthly, I will lay open the principal properties and qualities of a glorified body: Lastly, I will make a brief apply of the whole Doctrine. The Redemption of the body. FIrst, that there shall be a general resurrection of the bodies both of the just and unjust, it is plain and demonstrable observe by Scripture of them that sleep in the dust (saith holy Daniel) some shall awake to everlasting life, and Dan. c. 12. 7. some to shame and perpetual contempt. Saint Paul before Felix professeth his hope towards God, viz. that there john. 5. 28. shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust. Act 24. 15. The Lord by his Prophet Isay saith thus. Thy dead men shall live, with my body they shall arise. Saint john in his Esay 26. 19 apocalypse saw the dead both great and small stand before God: and the sea, death and hell to deliver and give up their Apoc. 20. 12. 13. dead. Now, that the bodies of the Elect and Saints, to whom only the glorious and blessed resurrection is proper and peculiar shall arise, thus it by Scripture appeareth: Saint Luke appropriateth the resurrection to the Luk. 14. 14. just: Saint john saith that they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life: and that Christ will raise up, at the last day, them that come to him (by faith) Christ in regard of the Saints his mystical members, is the death of death, and the graves destruction, he hath taken away the sting and condemnation of Host 13. 14. 1. Cor. 15. 55. death, and the victory of the grave, job saith that he shall see his redeemer (not his condemner) with the same eyes: the flesh of the Saints rest in hope; namely, that hope which they conceive whiles that they live in earth. Lastly, Psal. 16. 9 the bodies of the Saints (though sown in corruption, yet they shall be raised in incorruption: 1. Cor. 15. 42. 43 though sown in dishonour, they shall be raised in glory: though sown in weakness, they shall be raised Question. in power. But it may be demanded if the bodies both of the just and unjust shall in differently rise again; then what shall be the difference? Ans. There (as may be gathered out of the Testimonies Answer. alleged, and by the reasons that prove the Resurrection, and by the properties of a glorified body whereby it is distinguished from the bodies of the reprobates) is (or shall be) a threefold difference: First, the bodies of Causis. the Saints, which only are Christ's members, shall arise by Christ his quickening virtue and power; but the bodies of Reprobates shall arise only by the power of God's curse, to wit, in the day that thou shalt eat (of the forbidden Gen. 2. 17. fruit) thou shall die the death (to wit temporal and eternal) and by the power of Christ as the judge, effectually summoning them to appear before him, that Gods threatening may be accomplished in, and upon them. Secondly, the Saints bodies shall arise glorious: 2. Informa seu modo. Dan. 12. 2. but the bodies of the Reprobates, shall arise in shame and disglorie. Lastly, they differ in the end, for the bodies of the Saints shall arise to eternal life, but the bodies of In fine. the wicked to eternal torment, that, God his glorious mercy may be fully manifested in the one, and his glorious justice in the other. The first reason. God to whom nothing is impossible, that in the beginning Luk. 1. 37. Phil. 3. 21. Matth. 22. 22. brought forth and fashioned all things of nothing, can and will raise up their bodies out of the same matter: by that word, whereby he created all things, by Aug. Qui potuit formare novam Creaturam, non poterit reparare mortuam? Cyrill. Qui potuit id quod non erat, producere ut aliquid esset, id quod iam est, cum reciderit, restituere nonne potest? the same he will repair all things: he that did the greater work, cannot he do the lesser? For, it is far more hard, to create that which before was not, then to repair (or restore) that which was. He that could fashion a new creature: shall not he be able, to repair it when it is dead? he that could bring forth that which was not, that it might be some thing, cannot he restore that which now is, when it is fallen? The second reason. Christ our head, being the first fruits of them that sleep, and the pawn of our resurrection, did in his true human body rise again, and therefore the Saints his 1. Cor. 15. 20. members shall rise again, for that which was performed and fulfilled in Christ the head, must also (in proportion and in due time) be performed and fulfilled in the members; for he rose in our room and stead, and for us his Cassiod Est in Christo homine uniuscuiusque nostrum caro et sanguis: ubi ergo portio mea regnat, regnare me credo: ubi dominatur sanguis meus, ibi dominari me sentio: ubi glorificatur Caro mea, ibi me gloriosum esse cognosco. body felt no corruption, and therefore ours shall not feel eternal! He hath (as a pawn) carried our flesh into heaven, therefore we shall ascend after him, but this cannot come to pass before that our bodies be raised. Cassidore saith well: There is in Christ (as he is man) the flesh and blood of each of us: therefore where my portion reigneth I think I reign: where my blood hath dominion, there I find that I have dominion: and where my flesh is glorified, there I know myself to be glorious. The third reason. Christ hath by his death and obedience redeemed their bodies as well as their souls: therefore they must needs rise again, or else God's purpose, Christ his passion 1. Cor. 6. 19 20. in that behalf had been forceless and fruitless, and our Salvation not perfect, but unaccomplished. The fourth reason. The continued and continual groans of the Saints for their full Salvation, and their fervent desire and expectation of it; doth infer the resurrection: For these are rare fruits of God's sanctifying Spirit: but God's Spirit Deus et natura, (immo Deus et gratia) nibil facit frustrà. cannot be frustrate of his end and scope, nor the Saints of their desire and expectation. The fifth reason. There shall be a day of judgement wherein all men in their whole persons, viz. in their souls and bodies must appear before the judgement seat of Christ; and there receive a due reward or punishment, therefore there Act. 17. 31. 2. Cor. 5. 10. Sublatis destinatis ad finem tollitur finis. must needs be a rising again of the bodies: take away the subject and object, and take away the end. The sixth reason. One absurdity being granted, many follow. Now if there be no resurrection; then God should not, and Arist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. could not be omnipotent: his promise should be of no virtue and vigour: the unseparable union betwixt Christ his body & ours, dissolved: the blessed ministery of the word and Sacraments; all practice of pity, repentance, justice, charity, yea all confession, suffering and martyrdom. yea, and the very death, Resurrection and ascension of 1. Cor. 15. 17. 18 our blessed Lord and Saviour should be all in vain and to no purpose: yea, and we dead in our sins. 19 The seventh reason. We in the volume of God's book have many types, figures and resemblances hereof: viz. In Enoch & Elias Enochus et Elias duo Candidati immortalitatis. Gen. 5. 24. Hebr. 11. 15. 2. King. 2. 9 1. King. 17. 22. 2. King. 4. 16. 33. Ezec. 37. 8 (though instantly transchanged) rapt alive into heaven, the one before the law was written, and the other in the time of the law: In the widow of Sarepta her son raised to life by Elias his prayers: in the Synamites child raised by Elizaeus: In the dead soldier that being cast among, and touching Elizaeus his dead bones, revived: In the dead bones (whereof we read in Ezechiel) that began to shake and come together, bone to his bone, and to be covered with sinews, flesh and skin, and that being breathed on by the four winds revived and stood upon their 10 Matth. 9 25. Luk. 7. 15. feet: In jairus his daughter: In the widows Son of Naim: And in Lazarus, all raised up to a temporal life by our Lord and Saviour: and most eminently, in the bodies of divers Saints, which by virtue of Christ his resurrection, joh. 11. 43. 44. Matth. 27. 53. and to evidence it the more, rose out of their graves, and walked up and down in jerusalem, and appeared to many; touching whom it is most likely, that as they rose with Christ, so when Christ ascended, it is likely (or thought) that they ascended with him: For, they Aug. in serm de pass. Horum corpora, sicut cum Domino resurrexerunt, ita cum co ascendente, et●am ipsa ascendisse creduntur. Hebr. 11 19 Numb. 17. 8. Mat. 12, 39 40. rose to this end to manifest the quickening virtue of his resurrection, There unto as resemblances may be added, the sparing of Isaac that should have been slain and sacrificed: From death Abraham received him in a figure. Secondly, Aaron's dry rod, or stick, that budded and blossomed: and the deliverance of jonas out of the whales belly, wherein he had been three days and three nights, captivated and enclosed. The eighth reason. Types and enducements in nature, from whence we may conceive some possibility of the Resurrection, are (or may be) these, and the like: First, Kernels and seeds of any kind cast into, and buried in the earth, where in 1. Cor. 15. 36. 37 38. they seem for the time to die; appear and spring out of the earth and grow to a perfect body: Secondly, plants, trees, herbs: that in the winter are (as it were) dead and have no appearance of life (in them) but in the Spring Matth. 24. 32. Perkin. upon the creed. p. 424. Ambros. Doceat nos phaenix exemplo suo, resurrectionem credere, que sive exemplo, rationis perceptione sibi insignia resurrectionis instaurat. when the sap ascendeth from the roots upward, they grow tender, bud and blossom: and in their kind, bring forth, leaves, flowers, fruits: Thirdly, swallows, worms, flies, who lying dead in the winter, do in the spring time, by virtue of the suns heat, revive: Fourthly, and singularly, in the Phoenix of Arabia: of whom Philosophers and Divines have written, that when she hath passed, or outlined (the space of) six hundred years, she gathereth Cinnamon, Casia and other sweet woods, and maketh herself a case, covert, or nest, which being set on fire by the suns heat, she burneth herself, and out of her ashes a new Phoenix ariseth whereby she is renewed, and her kind preserved. Pomp. Mel. desitu orbis lib. 3. c. 9 Yea and it is very probable and agreeable, that a Dion. in Hist. Phoenix being seen before the last year of Nero, did signify the Resurrection of Christ, and of all the believers, after they had from heaven received life from death. That the bodies of the Saints, shall arise again the same that they were before, in matter, substance, number, with the same parts and members, the same flesh, skin, observe 2. veins, blood, bones, sinews, head, eyes, ears, hands and feet, sides, and not new bodies be created, as the Manichees hold; Albeit the former Scriptures and reasons which evinced the resurrection, may sufficiently prove; yet that the truth may more evidently appear, I add & adjoin these Testimonies and arguments following. Blessed job saith, that his redeemer liveth, and that he shall see him with the same and with no other eyes. The grave shall open, and the bodies shall come forth, ergo the same bodies and no other shall arise. The same body that is sown job. 19 25. john 5. 29. in corruption, in weakness, in dishonour, shall arise again in incorruption, power, and honour: Lastly the godly daily, and (especially) in death commit themselves unto God, 1. Cor. 15. 42. 43 as unto a faithful Creator: Ergo, he will as well (in time) raise up their bodies, as he than receiveth their Souls, otherwise he could not be faithful. The certainty hereof we may in some sort conceive by a familiar comparison. As divers seeds, or corns cast and mingled together in the earth, do at the length, spring out of it, grow to a perfect body, and each in his kind bring forth proper and A similitude. distinct fruit: so the seeds of the bodies of the Saints, though cast into the earth and there consumed, mingled and confounded together; shall be raised and rise again in distinct members and parts, the same that they were before, that they died. The first reason. That which riseth again first fallen (for to fall and rise Hicronimus. Argumentum a relatis. (again) are relatives, the one whereof doth consist of the mutual affection of the other) but these our natural bodies, first sell by death, Ergo, they and no other, shall rise again. The second reason. Christ his body arose, the same, that it was before in Luk. 24. 39 Similia sunt quorum qualitas est una. matter and Substance: he was seen to have the same eyes, mouth, palate, feet, sides, hands, blood, body, with all the essential parts of a true body, and with length, breadth, visibility, locality; and therefore our bodies, must arise the same for substance which they were before: for his resurrection is the picture and pattern of ours: and our vile bodies must be fashioned like to his glorious body. The third reason. The corruptible qualities of the body, to wit their baseness, vileness, weakness, deformity, mortality, shall Axioma. Accidentia substantiam non constituunt, licèt è principijs subiecti sui essentialibus fluant. Keckerm. Log. 184. only be abolished, and glorious qualities come in place: Ergo, the substance and essential parts shall abide and remain. The fourth reason. The regeneration of the soul and body is of the same nature and property: but the regeneration of the soul, doth not alter and change the substance of it, but only reform the sinful quality: so at the last day the regeneration Parium est eadem ratio. (or glorification) of the body shall not destroy and nullify the substance of it, but only all innovate and change the corruptible qualities. The fifth reason. It is most agreeable to God's impartial justice, that the Saints should be rewarded not in an other body, but Gen. 18. 25. in that body which had wrought righteousness; and that the reprobates should be punished not in an other body that never sinned, but in their own which had been the instrument of all abominations. God is a righteous Psal. 62. 12. just judge, who will render to every man (First to every Psal. 62. 12. Revel. 22. 12. Rom. 2. 6. soul and body: for the person of a man consisteth of both of them) according to his works. The sixth reason. The Creator infinitely exceedeth all and every of his Creatures, in wisdom, power, skill. But a cunning and skilful Goldsmith can by his Art and skill single, sunder and distinguish, gold, silver, copper, pewter, brass and other A similitude from a goldsmith. metals, whether in the same mountain mingled, or, accidentally melted and confounded together; and some out of one metal can draw an other: and shall not, and cannot much more God almighty, find out each man's substance, & distinguish it from the dust of beasts, and from the dust of other men, and out of it produce and form a perfect and glorious body? But much of man's substance is devoured of beasts, and turned into their nature, or devoured of man himself Objection. (for the Cannibals ordinarily eat one another) how then can it arise the same again in substance. Ans. Nothing is impossible to God, who can and will Answer. find out each man's proper substance: and what if some of it be lost, yet God can supply the rest by his power, and multiply it, as he multiplied the bone and flesh where of Eve was form. Again, it is sufficient that every Perkins creed p. 425. man than have so much substance of his own, as shall make his body to be entire and perfect; all superfluetie being removed. The third Member. Touching the stature in which the Saints bodies shall Observe. arise, though the Scripture hath not defined nor expressed it, yet by these grounds following it seemeth most probable (if not certain) that they shall arise in man's estate, or, in full and perfect stature. First, our first parents Adam Lucan. Loc. co●. pag. 422. and Eve, were created with bodies of perfect stature, Ergo. both their and our repaired bodies, shall be such. Again, Christ the second Adam, arose from death to life in his perfect and best age. And therefore, we the members who (in body as well as soul) must attain unto the measure of the fullness of Christ, must so arise. Thirdly, the resurrection is (as it were) a new Creation. Aug. de civitat. Dei. lib. 22. c. 16 17. 18. Eph. 4. 13. Gen. 2. 25. Apoc. 1. 6. Ergo, it must be like to the first, and therefore good and perfect. Fourthly, our bodies, must in (all) things (the more than excellent difference betwixt the heaven and members being excepted) be made like unto (though not equal to) Christ his glorious body, but his body arose in full stature: Ergo, ours shall like wise thus arise. Fifthly, the Saints bodies must have their just proportion and decent form: otherwise they could not be perfect and entire. Sixthly, if infants must rise infants, then old men must rise old men; but there is no distinction, or difference of age in heaven. Lastly, the tradition and judgement of the Churches holding this opinion is not to be contemned. The fourth member. Touching the properties and qualities of a glorified Observe. Phil. 3. 21. body: I, first answer (generally) that the bodies of the Saints, shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body, the glory whereof, when our Lord extraordinarily appeared in it to Saint Paul, did exceed the glory of the Sun, otherwise Paul could not have discerned it, and noted Act. 22. 6. it; Particularly, I answer thus: and content myself to express the principal qualities of a glorified body. First, their bodies shall be immortal, because their reward is eternal, and because Christ shall then wholly destroy sin and death the cause of mortality. Secondly, they shall be incorruptible, for they have lost none of their substance, and need no repair. Thirdly, they are impassable and uncapable of any evil, grief or pain, yet capable and partakers of all joy Apoc. 13. 13. and holiness. Fourthly, they shall be goodly, seemly, beautiful: If beauty so much commend the body in earth, and if it be commended so much in the Scriptures, than it shall be much more beautiful in Heaven, when it shall Eph. 5. 17. have all perfections in perfection, and have no spot or wrinkle. Fiftly, their bodies shall be (at least in all likelihood) shining bodies, for they shall be glorious, whereof shining 1. Cor. 15. 40. is a part (or kind) the righteous shall shine, not only as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars; but as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father: this Dan. 12. 3. Matth. 13. 43. glory shall arise from the vision, chiefly of God and the aspect and continual presence of the Lord jesus: Glimpses, tastes and resemblances hereof, we have in Moses face, which when he had been conversant with God 40. days in the mount, did shine so brightly, that the Exod. 34. 29. 2. Cor. 3. 13. Children of Israel could not steadfastly look on him. Secondly, in divers and glorious apparitions of Angels: when the Angel of the Lord appeared to the Shepherds, it is said that the glory of the Lord shone round about them: The Angel of the Lord that at Christ his resurrection Luke 2 9 rolled away the stone, had his countenance like lightning and his raiment white as snow. Lastly, in our blessed Matth. 28. 3. Saviour whose face in the transsiguration did shine as the Sun: his raiment did shine as the Light, and was so white Matth. 17. 2. Luke 9 29. Mark 9 3. as no fuller on earth could white them. Sixthly, they shall not be natural bodies, but spiritual that is spiritual in quality, but not in substance; for otherwise they should cease to be bodies. The bodies shall be spiritual in a threefold sense, First in that they shall be wholly sreed from all earthly and drossy corruption: all the senses shall be more pure and subtle: And the Martyr. 2. Reg. 2. affections shall (so much as the truth of nature will permit) be refined: Secondly, because they shall be no more upheld and maintained by earthly means and helps, but be preserved by Spiritual means: that is, by the power of his (holy) Spirit; what use (herein) shall there be of the Creature, when the Lord of glory is in place? and in Matth. 22. these two respects (especially) they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is, equal to the Angels: Thirdly, because, they shall never rebel against, but be always subject and obedient to the regenerate soul. Seventhly, their bodies being clarified and refined, shall be light, agile, nimble, able (like the body of our Lord) to walk upon the waters, and by their proper nature 1. Thess. 4, 17. and motion, as well to ascend as to descend: For a Act. 1. 6. glorified body can with celerity and speed move and remove upward and downward. Lastly (to insist no longer in these particulars) they shall be (by way of excellency) vessels of honour, meet for the Lords use, and filled with all joy and blessedness. 2. Tim. 2. 21. Thus much of the doctrine of the general resurrection, now let us come to the uses, whether of consutation, consolation, or exhortation. The first use. By warrant and force of this doctrine, are refuted and fall to the ground, divers pestilent and damnable errors and heresies. First, of the heathens, yea and of their chiefest Philosophers: Arist. lib. 2. de gen. et. corrupt. who not knowing the ways and word of God, utterly deny that the body being once dead, can arise again the same, in number, substance and kind. Secondly, of the Sadduces in Christ his time, and sithence, of the Sardinian heretics, the Archonites and Manichees, and divers Heretics and Atheists of our times, who peremptorily held, and hold that the body riseth not again. Thirdly, of those, who in their absurdity, hold and defend that the body at the general resurrection shall be essentially turned into a Spirit, and so looseth his bodily substance: but this palpable error may be thus refelled. First, if the bodies at the resurrection become Spirits then they cease to be sensible, visible, touchable: but Christ's body when it rose again, lost none of these properties, joh. 20. and therefore how can ours? Secondly, if the bodies of the Saints be turned into Spirits, than they cease to be bodies, and how can they rise again? Thirdly, the body being turned into a Soul, or Spirit, the same or a divers, than the Saints should consist Deletio proprietatum est natura negatio. Keckerm. 2. Cor. 14. 33. of a double Spirit, the one natural, the other accidental, and it should follow that the body (being) should be no more a body: For, take away the proprieties of the body, and take away the body. Lastly, God should not be the author of order, but of confusion, but this is flatly against the Scripture. The first use (of the doctrine) of consolation. The advised and serious consideration of this doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. serveth wonderfully to cheer and comfort all Psal. 16. 9 Christians; for the day of the resurrection is the time of their refreshing, and of perfect restitution and a year of Act. 3. 19 jubilee, and the day of our body's ascent into heaven: wherefore, let us prepare our selves, to meet the Lord at this day: and amend our lives and turn, that our sins may be blotted out, when the times refreshment, shall come from Act. 3. 19 the presence of the Lord. The second use (of consolation.) If we believe the doctrine of the resurrection, we must not immoderately weep, or mourn for our friends departed, or for the death of most worthy and 1. Thes. 4. 13. blessed instruments in Church and commonwealth: For they die not (to speak properly) but fleepe a while in the earth, and afterwards the body shall awake and ascend to glory: they are not perished but posted before: we and they, living and dying in faith and obedience, shall one Non sunt amissi sed praemissi. day meet together in the Palace and parliament of heaven, and there, by our mutual conversement, increase one an others comfort. The third use consolatarie. The musing and holy meditation. of this doctrine serveth to arm and hearten God's children against all the afflictions of body and mind, and against all evils both private and public: For, First: they are light, tolerable, 2. Cor. 3. 17. finite, temporaris: secondly, an exceeding weight of glory doth follow, and succeed them: Thirdly; David, Psal. 16. 9 Apoc. 14. 13. job. c. 19 25. the servants of God, that in the days of Antiochus, were racked and tormented. Lastly, our Lord Hebr. 11. 35. himself, did comfort themselves against death and trouble by the doctrine of the body's resurraction. The fourth use consolatory. Act. 2. 26. This doctrine doth minister reviving comfort against the fear of death: For, First, the sting, poison, and condemnation Mors intermistit vitam non eripit. of death is taken away from all true believers: it doth interrupt our life for a season, but it doth not extinguish it. Secondly, it doth strip us of the rags of Sin, and misery, and invest us with the glorious robes 2. Cor. 5. 1. of Christ his righteousness, It is the gate of heaven, and a speedy passage to eternal life: Lastly, our souls after their dissolution from the bodies, incontinently are carried Luke 16. by the blessed Angels into heaven, and our bodies though eaten of the worms, and consumed to ashes, shall in due time, be raised up from the death, reunited to our bodies, and be everlastingly glorified. Uses of exhortation. Let the consideration of the body's resurrection, be a bridle to restrain and refrain us, from all manner of sin. For we must all of us, come to judgement and give a (strict) accounted of all that we have done in this life, 2. Cor. 5. 10. whether it be good, or evil: and let it be a spur, or mean to further and forward us, to the performance of all duties of piety, justice, charity, whiles we have time and space, and (with Saint Paul) to exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and Act 24. 16. towards man. The second use (exhortatory.) Seeing that we desire, groan, and look for the glorious resurrection of our bodies; we must not apply and divert them to sin and profaneness; to surfeiting and Rom. 13. 13. drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, pride and vanity, wrong and oppression, but addict and consecrate them wholly and perpetually, to God's service and holy uses: that they may be the temples of the holy Ghost to dwell in, and vessels of honour in this world: and that they may be vessels of glory in the life to come, and not vessels of wrath prepared to destuction; which God almighty grant: Amen. The third use (exhortatory.) Let us honour the Saints bodies, and honourably bury them; and let us suffer no indignity to be offered to their dead bodies, or places, where they are buried, for they are members of Christ, and shall arise again in glory. Thus we have heard the renovation of the world with his specials: the groan of the creatures, the hope and expectation of God's children, their gift, and graces: and the certainty of the glorious resurrection of the body, together with the use of the doctrine. Now the God of heaven, give us grace so to be renewed here in this world, so to sympathize & suffer with the Creature, & specially, with God's children, and the Lord so furnish us with saving grace, that we waiting for, the glorious resurrection, and preparing ourselves against that day, may in this life have the earnest of eternity, and afterwards the full possession of it, which God almighty bring to pass, for our Lord jesus Christ his sake, to whom with the father and God the holy Ghost, three persons and one only God, be given and ascribed all honour, glory, power and praise in the Church, from this time forth, for evermore. Amen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. FINIS.