A SERMON CONCERNING DEATH and the RESURRECTION, Preached in St Mary's, At OXFORD, On Low Sunday, April the 28. 1644. Before the COMMITTEE of the Members of the Honourable House of COMMONS. By W. Strode Dr of Divinity.  
Published by Authority.  
OXFORD, Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the university. 1644.   
COL. 3. 3. For ye are Dead, and your Life is hid with Christ in God. 
AFter the Death and Resurrection of our blessed Saviour, it will not be unseasonable, especially in these times of Danger, to meditate upon our own. Lo therefore Life and Death, not now proposed to your Choice, but to your Meditation. The matter of my Text is the whole Race of Man, both while he is, and while he is not: he still travels to and fro, betwixt two Stages; which are ever the same, though the order be mutually inverted. For we are no sooner entered into Life, but we are Dead, dead and buried with Christ in baptism; no sooner dead to the World but new borne to God through the same means; when we are thus borne again, (notwithstanding this spiritual Parenthesis,) we still proceed in a natural course of Death; no sooner dead so, but our Life is hid with Christ in God. Thus on the cornerstone we catch Corners, alive and dead, dead and alive: and 'tis quickly done: for Life and Death, or Death and Life are not so far disjoined as we account, none indeed so near Neighbours; they are severed not only but by an Inch, as the Poet fancied, at Sea, Tabula distinguimur, but on Land also they are scarce distant by a moment of Time: we find them so close united in my Text, that they meet in the self same Instant, nay further in the very nullity of Time. For now even now Ye are Dead, and Then even Then after Time your Life is hid with Christ in God.  
So that my Text affords a contrary Assurance in two contrary Cases; Assurance of Death while ye Live, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for ye are Dead, and Assurance of Life when ye die, for your Life is hid with Christ in God: the first is the Death of Life, the second the Life of Death; that passing sure, for ye are surer of nothing on Earth then of yourselves, and yet howsoever ye are, ye are Dead, the second surer yet, for God is surer than yourselves, your Life is hid with Christ in God. In the first part I shall strike you Dead; ye are Dead.  
How Dead? yes already; in the Aorist; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, which we render not, ye shall die, but ye have died, or now are dead. Man borne of a Woman is not borne (as you may think) into Life, but into Death. Ye that are most awake sit asleep with your Eyes open; and when ye walk about, ye walk like Ghosts. What? shall I tell my Hearers they are Dead? who then shall hear me? I know to whom I speak, to the Dead, that come hither to learn the way of Life. Thrice Noble and thrice worshipful, thrice worthy and thrice welcome, that ye may truly know how dead ye are, I say, ye are thrice Dead; yes, three ways, Dead in Law, Dead by the Course of Nature, Dead by the▪ Covenant of Grace.  
First, ye are Dead in Law: the general Sentence hath already passed upon all: In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely die. From that Day to This, every sprig of Adam lives merely by reprieve. For which we have nothing to plead but our Book and Child-bearing; our Book which contains God's merciful Promise, and the Child-bearing of Christ, whereby we become Consanguineous with the Innocent and Holy One of God.  
If so, let me turn the Inference of my Text to the Consequence, For to Therefore, and so read backward, Therefore set not your Affections on things on the Earth, as you are warned in the precedent verse. When we draw near to the End, we mind nothing else, and only thereto we set our strength. Would you not think the man mad, who being sentenced to death should be solicitous for Titles to set forth Hìc jacet; if being straight to be demolished in Person, he should seek out Surveyors to build Castles and Barnes; if being stripped for the Axe, he should send for the tailor; if when he should gain Peace with God by sacrificing his Affections, he should choose to die like Zimri and Cosbi? so vain, so mad are we: all our toil is for an Epitaph; we build Houses when we must dwell in the Grave; we take measure for Clothes when Death takes measure for the Coffin, we and the worms look for Provision at once, and we die in our Lusts. The judge, under whose reprieve we stand, forbids Anxiety for things that perish, yet still our wisdom teacheth us to be thus foolishly Anxious: and therefore God prevents our Projects as he did the project of that uncertain rich man in the Parable: while he was driven into agony of thought what he should do with his great increase, while he became extreme miserable through much prosperity, and was ready to burst for want of a larger storehouse, his Repreiver says unto him, Thou fool, this Night will I take away thy soul, this Night; for the soul is always due, because we are Dead in Law. That which Christ spoke concerning the End of the World, Let not he that is on the house top come down to take any thing out of the house, nor he that is in the Field return to fetch his Clothes, Mat. 24. the same may I apply to the End of every particular Person, that promiseth Life to himself for the accomplishment of remote projects; let not he that is below think of cutting down Trees to make Ladders for his advancement, nor he that stands above think of securing his Condition by descending lower; for we are dead in Law. The gourd, wherein Jonas delighted, had a worm inbred to make it wither, so have all Earthly delights: if that will not wean us from them, we have a worm of Corruption within ourselves to make us let go our hold. Abraham the Representation of all the faithful, had no Inheritance in the Land of Canaan, not a Foot of his own Perpetuity, save only a place of burial: of this we are capable by Law. Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return. 
Gen. 3. 19  Indeed a Grave we cannot miss, because the Body will consume and bury itself.  
Secondly, we are Dead by the Course of Nature. believe it, ye are all dead men (as we say of those that are desperately sick) for ye cannot hold out long, ye are Going while I speak. Ye find that the Dust flieth away: are ye not made of Dust? that the wind vanisheth; is not your breath in your nostrils? that the shadow creepeth; do not your Bodies cast a Shadow? as the Element such is the Compound; and as the Shadow, such is the substance, But more expressly Dust ye are, Psal. 103. 14. v. Your Life is a wind, Iob. 7. 7. v. Your days a Shadow, Iob. 8. 9 v. You see the Dust Raised, not the Rising of every atom; the wind Past, not the Passage; the Shadow removed, not the motion; and so your days slide away without present observation of declining. That ye are changed ye feel, though not the changing: you perceive in your Age, a Spring, a Summer, an autumn, a Winter, and happily several Months of these great quarters: for every seven-year brings a sensible Change: within the number of 70 years, (which David accounted a full Pitch of Life) Solon observed ten Changes, for ten times seven; Teeth, Youth, Beard, Ability, Wedlock, Understanding, wisdom, virtue, Equity, and then recess; these Changes we plainly discern at the Stages, though not in the course: the Items in their sum, the grains in their Pounds we easily comprehend, but the little moments in themselves pass undiscerned, and we are stolen from ourselves unawares. Sometimes merrily, for we bring our years to an end as a Tale that is told, Psal. 90. 9 sometimes painfully, for our days are like the days of a Hireling, Iob. 7. 1. sometimes idly, for our Life is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a dreaming shadow, half of it shear sleep; and ever we pass them swiftly; for our days are swifter than a weaver's Shuttle, Iob. 7. 6. v. and so runs our thread of Life, just so; as that from hand to hand, so this from Morning to Evening, till we come from the beginning of the Web to the Fag, from the womb to the Grave. Howsoever we move, still we move forward, we never stay; the present tense is but a moment, that which is past is nothing, the Future is not yet. What can we call ourselves, who are changed before the word is pronounced? I am is the Name of God, the Name of the Creature is I am not.  
We are much deceived, if we think we die not till the last gasp. The beginning of Death is our Birth; we bring it with us; because we bring both Flesh, and Sin, whereof one makes us capable of Death, the other ready to earn it; and therefore as our Strength and work increaseth, so doth our wages, Death comes on the faster from the first day to the last. We think sometimes we are grown younger by Recoveries; as when we proceed from Creeping to walking, from weakness to strength: 'tis not so; for the year turns about, as well in fair weather as in foul, no less in Spring then in autumn; and as the Time such is the Timed, our very growth leads to decay, all addition to Life is but an Abatement. Turn your Conceit a little from Time to Motion, you shall find the pilgrim's Life such as his Way, which by further progress, whether up-hill or downhill grows ever shorter and shorter; or lay the Voyage not by Land but by Sea; in a Ship whether we stand or sit, lie or go, sleep or wake, play or work, on we sail, till we arrive at the Port: so is our Life still bound for Death, through all Varieties of Posture in Rest or Motion, through all changes of Condition by chance or purpose. They that tarry within doors, cannot miss a significant emblem of their own Fading; 
Isa. 51. 6.  All Flesh (saith the Prophet Esay) waxeth old as doth a Garment; which whether it be worn, or folded in a Chest, is consumed by degrees; and as the Cloth such is the Wearer; I may add, (since every thing far and near Preaches the same Lecture,) as the House also, such is the Dweller; and as the Meat, such is the Eater; and as the Thought, such is the Thinker; in the best Condition ever vanishing: but if the Garment be neglected, the house unrepaired, the meat ill cooked, the Thoughts destructive, if the Master too become more ruinous by Sin then by Mortality, how swift is the decay of Nature so hastened by wast, how headlong is the race of a precipice so impelled by Running?  
To pass over Particulars, the whole Generation of men collected is like that of leaves, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, 
Hom. Iliad. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  the blind Poet could see so much: on a Tree still furnished, while one leaf waxeth green another withers, while one is in the bud another drops off, and every leaf by blasting, wind, or Age, successively vanisheth: so follow the Generations of men; though the World be ever full, yet they that fill it are ever voiding the room; so you may see the high ways filled with unabiding Passengers, and channels with fleeting streams.  
Is it so? then what counsel in such a case? First, be not over grieved for the loss of a Friend by Death, considering that thyself also dost lie wounded by his side, thou dead in Fieri as he in Facto, Fish tumbling in the same Net. Thou shalt follow him, but he shall not return to Thee; and sorrow for necessity must needs be unnecessary.  
Next reckon to thyself how Death invades thee: know that every grey hair is a summons, and that every ache, every Swelling is a veny or Thrust made at thee, take it for a warning. Likewise cast thy account, how thou art changed ever since thy birth, or within a certain distance of time; then by proportion of declining, thou Mayest conjecture, how near thou art to thy natural period. But thou must further add the various contingence of possible dangers; though the way be smooth, the Robbers may be rough and many; our escape from infinite Casualties, if well considered, makes every day a Birth day. This multiplicity of danger may teach us the warier provision, and by provision death may be staved off. For though we always travel to it, yet our travel may be to and fro, long in passage of a little space, as the Israelites through frequent Meanders were travelling forty years from Egypt to Canaan.  
After sufficient Provision, the next Caution must be against Anxiety and Immoderate pensiveness for more personal safety than belongs to our share: when all the world totters, and so many eminent Worthies are daily sacrificed by the Sword, now to cover a particular Exemption from danger is too much partiality of tenderness. The only means of security is to expect none upon Earth, but to stand armed with Patience and Resolution to endure the Lot which God hath appointed. The heart being thus settled and prepared for Death, nothing else can seem terrible, quid ad me quàm magnis moriar, ipsum mori non est magnum.  
But the best use is, daily to add to our future life as much as we lose of the present, and as fast as we perish here, so with all speed to lay the Foundations of Immortality in Heaven; selling both profit and pleasure for one inestimable jewel, and making friends of the unrighteous Mammon. Since die we must, let us learn betimes how to die; that we may turn our necessity into virtue, and meet our Destiny not in horror, but in Honour; not as a loss▪ but as an Advantage; not as a Trapdore swallowing up in Destruction, but as a Gate opening to everlasting Life. And this is done, first by recounting our looser days in bitterness, so shall we unlive the time we have lived amiss; then by frequent Meditation and foretaste of Death; Think thine Eyes grown dim in the fainting twilight of life, and thou shalt soon turn them aside from vanity; think thine ears grown deaf with sickness, and thou wilt soon stop them against Idle words; think thy Tongue grown stiff with drought, and that thought will be a watch before thy mouth, to Examine what thou lettest out and what thou lettest in; think on the cold sweat of Death, so thou wilt abhor to swim in Lust; think how naked thou must go hence, even as bare as thou camest, only with a shroud as thou camest in with a cawl, and almost with as little flesh, than thou wilt easily contemn all worldly pomp, and subdue thy carnal tumors. Thinkest thou, that Death draws nearer when it is thought of, or dares not to approach unless it be called? no such matter: this practice of dying daily will not make us to die the sooner, but so to live as that we may die the happier. And this or the like practice belongs to our Christian Profession assumed in baptism, where by the Covenant of Grace we become Dead in a third Acception.  
Dead in Quality; Dead to all worldly and carnal Lusts; though we may sometimes fall upon them by Infirmity, yet to pursue them is against our Profession. The Desire is Dead, and the Renunciation made against them is a kind of Death. The spiritual Pharaoh with all his. Host lies drowned in the Font, representing a Red Sea, the Blood of Christ: there Christ and We enter into Covenant, he to free us from Sin, and we to forsake it; he to strike off the Dominion and Guilt thereof, we the Service and Confederation. Because by nature we are born Dead in Sin, and subject to Corruption, therefore by a second birth we are born Dead unto Sin, the spiritual Death is a Countermine against the natural. For by the Power of baptism the Old man together with his Lusts is taken and crucified, nailed hand and foot to the cross of our Saviour, quite disabled from acting what he would, and at length with much ado, with striving and struggling; with Gall and vinegar, with Piercing or Breaking forced to die outright.  
How then shall we that are Dead to Sin live any longer therein? 'tis the Use of the Apostle, Rom. 6. 2. v. Is it not strange to hear that a dead man walks? is it not stranger to hear that he speaks and works, yes eats and drinks abundantly, and yet dead? how is it then that the Old man so long since crucified, dead, and buried, doth yet so frequently exercise the Actions of Life, moving the Tongue to Idle words, Lying, & Swearing, the Throat to excess, the eye to Adultery, the Hands to Oppression, and all the members to several Iniquity! how is it that the Church of God is haunted with such evil Spirits and Goblins! sure there is some Spell or magic in this foul prodigy; otherwise without the help of the devil it could not be. I grant, that a rotten Tree after it is hewn down and laid in the dirt, may put forth a Sprig, a leaf, or so; but they come to no Strength, they never prosper. Hair may grow on a carcase, but such hair is never dressed nor keemed. So may the relics of the Old man have a Counterfeit show of Life, but must not gather Head, never be cherished within any Christian bosom. Death frees us from all worldly Relations, and Bonds (as S. Paul disputes in the sixth to the Romans) it frees the Wife from the yoke of her Husband, the Servant from the Task of his Master: shall we then who are freed by Death forsake a fresh and lovely Spouse who died for our Love, and be reunited to an old rotten carcase? shall we forgo this new Master who bought us with his blood, for an Old tyrannous cannibal that feeds on our destruction? God forbid.  
So much for this point; wherein you have heard, that we are now dead already, and in three respects: Dead in Law, through the sentence pronounced on sin, that therefore we ought not to be over-solicitous for much provision where we have no right to tarry longer. Dead by the Course of Nature, as appears by the mutability of those elements whereof we consist, and of things appertaining; by daily declynations, insensibly but yet continually growing into sensible changes, in our own Persons, and by the successive defluction of all mankind: from whence we should gather patience for the loss of others, Caution for ourselves, but without Anxiety, and above all godly Preparation for a better life. Lastly, that we are Dead by the Covenant of Grace, Dead to sin, and sin to us, that therefore sin ought not to rule and exercise our Members. Then if the Old Adam Die within us while we live, we shall live in the New when we die; as we were Buried in baptism, we shall be baptised in burial, and return with Bodies as clean from the Grave as we did with souls from the Font. So from the Death of life I pass to my second general, the Life of death, Your Life is hid with Christ in God.  
Death having lost her sting cannot kill us utterly; some Life is left, else it could not be hid. You may then observe these three degrees of Comfort, the safety of life in the Chamber of Death, 'tis Hid; the ready means of safety, 'tis hid with Christ, the strong Author of the means, 'tis hid with Christ in God. The Subject is aptly disposed to a resurrection, the means are already prepared, the Author is All-sufficient and Infallible.  
First, our Life is Hid. than it is not quite extinguished, but safe laid, as coals raked up in Ashes, safe though unseen, alive though close covered. It lies like Treasure under Ground, not out of mind, though out of Sight, and shall again be digged up, if not for the worth of the Mettle, yet for the Image of God which it bears.  
Death is but a longer and sounder sleep, and life is hid in sleep, as well as in Death; for in sleep the senses are fettered, as in Death all bodily Faculties. Howsoever from the Captivity of one part an utter Destruction of the whole is not concluded. When half the body is struck and possessed by a dead palsy, there still remains a living Body, because there is life in some part. So when the whole Body is seized by Death, there still remains a living Man, because there is life in the best part, the soul. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have being enough to preserve their Names, and our Saviour proves them to be also Living. What though the Union of parts be Actually dissolved? Yet the Dissolution is not Totall, because there still remains a possibility and a natural Desire of reuniting. The parts which stand separate are in want and Imperfect, as without the whole they needs must; therefore the widowed soul longs for the body's Fellowship, to supply this want, and to gain the fullness of Perfection: How long (cry the Saints under the Altar) O Lord Holy and True, how long? Rev. 6. 9 v: This natural Desire cannot ever be frustrated. So then upon the matter, the Dead are but asleep; and if they sleep, than (as the Apostles well answered) they shall do well: for as men, that have slep'd soundly, arise from their Couch more fresh and lively, the dull and cumbersome humours being well concocted; so the dead roused with a loud summons from the Grave, will appear more Glorious and agile, all Imperfections being worn off by the Furnace of Corruption. In the mean time, while the Bodies of both Sleepers lie senseless, their souls are alike busied; as in the living sleep they are taken up with dreams, so in the dead sleep with heavenly Visions.  
But shall we call it a Sleeping or Hiding, when the Body is turned to the substance of the Bed, Flesh to Mold? still we may. For what think you of the seeds sown in your Ground? is that sowing a destruction, or only a Hiding? say then, doth our Creed, in this point extend to our corn, and not to ourselves? Behold in a little seed there sleeps the bulk of a rising Tree: when 'tis grown to a vast extent, consider in what secret cranny so spacious virtue lodged: where was the ruggedness of the bark, the solidity of the trunk, the verdure of the leaf, the pleasantness of the fruit? feel and examine the Seed, 'tis not rough, whence this grate of the bark? 'tis not tough, whence in process this hardness of the wood? 'tis not green, whence this tincture of leaves? it smells not, whence this fragrance in the fruit? wherefore in Secrecy they all at once lay dormant, though at once they do not break forth. From the Seed is the Root produced, from the Root the Trunk and bark, from them the Twig, from the Twig the Leaves and Fruit, and again from the Fruit the Seed. Now man like Seed lies resuscitable in the womb of the Earth: If from a small kernel having no distinction of parts, wood, bark, leaves and fruit be daily raised into the massy bulk of a Tree, what more wonder, if out of dry Homogeneous Dust, Bones, sinews, veins, Flesh, Skin, and hair, be reduced into Man. He that asks a Reason of the manner, must be cunningly answered by asking other questions, of things continually obvious to sight, yet no way comprehended by Reason; that since by seeing we cannot penetrate the depth of things Visible, we may believe by hearing the Truth of the Invisible. So S. Gregory on the twentieth of S. John's gospel. The Philosopher may object, that the raising of a Tree out of Seed is rather a Reparation of kind then of the particular, and so an Instance of Generation rather than of the Resurrection; but since this Generation is from the womb of the Earth, not from the Stock of the Tree, we reply that it is also an Argument of the Resurrection, so urged both by our Saviour and by S. Paul.  
And to make this Doctrine more familiar, the Steps of the Resurrection are imprinted in most of the Creatures. The Phoenix waxing old fills her Nest with billets of Spice, on her funeral pile she turns into Ashes, and after by the dew of Heaven springs up a new Phoenix. Divers imperfect bodies, which yesterday lay labouring in some deep puddle, now start into Life; Bees in the Hive, Flies in the Clefts of Walls, which lay all winter without sense or motion, suddenly revive at the sun's approach: Day itself dies into night, and the life of the Sun is hid with the Antipodes, yet within a few hours he appears in his sparkling dress, to cheer the forsaken world. All things are preserved by perishing, and are new trimmed by Dissolution. So Tertullian. Though these Arguments seem merely rhetorical, and far short of demonstrating the Resurrection of man; yet upon better consideration, since they plainly demonstrate an Aptitude of Reviction in nature, under the power and providence of the Author, from the raising of these inferior Creatures, we may confidently conclude, a proportional likelihood of raising that, which bears his own Image.  
Wherefore I return to the meditation of Nature, whose reparation is most apparent at this present season: behold now the Revolution of the whole world is an earnest of man's Restitution; now all the Emblems of mortality enjoy their spring; grass and Flowers rise from the sullen clod, under which their life lay hid. Shall we borrow their names only in time Fading, and not when they flourish? Why so? for all these things are renewed for man, and man doubteth not of their renewing: shall he for whom they are revived, despair of his own Resurrection? What though he lie long, and wast in the earth? so he ought. Creatures, that soon fade again, may have quick returns of their spring, but man, who after his rising is sure to wake for ever, may well endure a long sleep. Again, Creatures less Noble, unless they spring quickly, cannot spring at all; but man consisting of a reasonable soul, and endued with vegetant power in the most Excellent manner, is ripened more Deliberately, (saith Athenagoras) and must rise the last of all: he hath a privilege to rise after many thousands of years, out of any Elements, Fire, air, Sea, and Earth, wheresoever he hath been scattered. Nothing springs before the due time, at the due time Man shall also: Would you have the Harvest before all the grain be sown? Mundi tempora homini Annus est, the end of the world is man's Harvest; and best of all so, lest again he should rise to sin: but when men have been all sown, when the Winter of dying is past, when God the husbandman hath sufficiently purged us, and clarified the Flesh from dross, he will call us up to an endless Summer; a Summer answerable to the past Winter. For which purpose, we also have our peculiar Sun, and proper Dew; Sun and Dew as well as the Creatures: our Sun is the Sun of righteousness; when He appears, than (as it follows after my Text) we shall appear together with him in glory: our Dew, whether it be the Dew of tears, it ushers in the Reaping of joy, or whether the Dew of God's promise, it shall not fail of performance. Awake and sing (saith he) Ye that dwell in the dust, for thy Dew is as the Dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out her Dead, Esay. 26. 19 v. When this comes to pass (as who dares doubt it?) than it shall appear, that we lay as Flos in Hyeme, that we wintered in Christ our Cause, and only sunk into his Root, who is the true Vine, and Tree of Life. This is our second degree of Comfort, that our Life is hid with Christ.  
With Christ, he is the means: under the power of his Resurrection our life is hid. Shall not he be able to effect for us, what the Sun can do for Flowers? some will ask, How shall the Dead rise, or with what body shall they come? Christ answers; With my dead Body shall they rise, Esay. 26. at the 19 v. By virtue of his body already risen from Death. ubi gloria praecessit Capitis, eòsequetur & spes Corporis, (saith Leo) whither the Head hath gloriously gone before, the Members hope to follow after.  
At the first view there appears no more in Christ's Resurrection, but a man Risen; but when we consider the Condition and Relation of that Man; that being the Innocent and Holy one of God, he was neither worthy of Death, nor Tenable by it, that therefore he died not for himself, but for the Guilty, not as an offender, but undertaker, and Laid down his Life with Power to take it up again, for the benefit of those for whom he laid it down; that Death unadvisedly seizing upon an unlawful prize, forfeited the lawful hold of sinners together with the just; when the gospel hath yielded this Discovery, than we find that this son of Man is become the Everlasting Father, the Lord and giver of Life to all mankind; that our Resurrection is virtually included under His; and that though power thereof, we shall rise as surely, as if we had his power to raise ourselves. For as to us a child was borne, and for us a Man was Crucified, so for us a Saviour is risen. Whatsoever Christ did on Earth, the same he did in our behoof, not for himself, so that if we rise not, in vain is Christ risen. Why is he called the Foundation, the Head, the root, the First fruits, but in relation to us? If the Foundation be laid by wisdom, it implies a rising Structure, if the Head be above Water, the Members are safe, if the root be quick, the Branches will sprout, if the first fruits be Holy, so is the whole Crop.  
Christ is our Life (in the next words after my Text) this Life lay Hid in our Grave, and therefore it is but a correspondent exchange, that our Life should be hid with Christ; that since he lay in a sepulchre hewed out for another, others should be quickened by his Rising. But how was Christ hid in our Grave? himself hath showed in the 12. of St. John, 24. v. Except a corn of Wheat fall into the Ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; he lay then in the Grave as a grain of Wheat in the furrow, so purposely sown for us, that our Life might be hid with him, as increase in the grain which was sown. It is not to be forgotten, that as Christ at his Passion compared himself to a grain of Wheat, so the Apostle in his Resurrection hath fitly compared him to the First fruits. Cor. 15. 20. the complete Allegory declares this virtue in Him, this dependence in us; that since he lay in the Ground not like a stone, but like corn, therefore in springing up he rose not single, not as Jonas from the belly of the Whale, (Unless to Jonas you reckon the Ninivites raised by his Preaching) but multiplied to more than Fifties, to more than Hundreds, to a world of grains besides himself: that since at His Resurrection he likewise became the first fruits of them that sleep, he hath consequently obtained a blessing for the whole field.  
Wherefore as the Lord Jesus (who is blessed for evermore) hath returned Victor in spite of invading Death, and all Impediments wherewith he was blocked, so shall it be, that all his Dependants in the utmost skirts of the world shall rise from Death, notwithstanding the drowning, burning, mangling, confounding, scattering of carcases, whose disordered destiny makes a distinct Recollection of Parts to seem impossible. But in presence of a sufficient means, and unresistible Power, Impossibility must Vanish. We find in the general Course of Nature, things as much beyond our reach daily renewed; we find in human nature no Reluctance, no repugnance against the Resurrection, but rather an Aptitude and desire, if there come a sufficient cause to reduce it into Act. Now when Christian Religion hath discovered to Reason an able means in Christ, who for this purpose became the first fruits of them that slep'd, and hath gotten power to be judge of the Quick and Dead, that the Dead might rise and appear before his tribunal, now the Resurrection is more than possible, more than feasible, 'tis in virtue already performed; and when I shall show you that the Author, who hath chosen and appointed this means, is God, it will be found to be necessary. And herein consists the third degree of comfort, our Life is Hid with Christ in God.  
In God. Where could our Life be better or safer placed▪ For as the soul is the Life of the Body, so God is the Life of our souls, and consequently both souls and Bodies are in his hand; hardly to be pointed out, but safe kept in an Invincible and Infallible Custody. The same who of his Infinite goodness hath appointed Christ to be the means of our Resurrection, he having Power and will to produce the deserved Effect, will not fail of his justice and Truth to bring it to pass. If yet you can doubt, consider your own Creatures, the works of man: when a musical air hath been played, is it quite lost, never to be called for again? or what is become of it? is it hid in the bowels of the Instrument, in the pricked or conceived Copy, or in the hand and Power of the musician? in all these? so when the breath of man is expired, he is hid in the mould as in the Matter, with Christ as with our Idea and Pattern, in God as in the Author and harmonious Composer. Again, when a Printer dissolves his Impression, and casts it into the first Elements or Letters, is it quite lost, or what is become of it? is it hid in the Boxes which contain those Letters, or in the book out of which it was copied, or in the hand of the Printer that sets the Letters together? in all these? such is the Case of Man: though all his quarters be divided into the quarters of the world, though his parts be distributed like those of the Levites wife, or digested into other bodies, or scattered into all Elements, they are still within God's Boxes; though his Figure be lost to the memory of men, it remains fresh with Christ, and in his Book are all our Members written; though they cannot meet of themselves, yet God can find them out, and will join them together after his son's likeness, and his particular Register. Who turned the round world, who fashioned the parts of man at first? was not God that Carpenter, and Christ his son? Now which is harder, to make a Table and the Timber too, or to join the parts taken asunder? to create that which was not, or to new cast that which was before? That potential being, which man had within the hand of his Maker before his Creation, the same, and more, remains after his Dissolution. Look on Nature, the Creature is potentially couched under her Power in the Seed; look on Art, so is the frame within the Artificers call in the wood; look up to God, so are they that shall rise, within the mould, before him: how gross is it to believe Nature in her natural Effects, Art in her artificial, and only to mistrust God in his works Divine? Ask not, how the Bodies confounded one with another shall be sifted and severed; for God is the Keeper of Bodies and Elements, he knows where every atom lies, what belongs properly to every Person, and how to call it forth. How vain is it, to question God's Power in things impossible to our scant Apprehension? yet to widen your Apprehension in this particular, and to show you an Answer to more than ever was objected, Though all adventitious matter should be separated, and none should remain but that which issued from the loins of our Parents, and was also derived from our first Parents Adam and Eve, God out of those few drops could raise distinct and proper bodies to all mankind.  
Nihil Deo Impossibile nisi quod non vult, (saith Tertullian) nothing is Impossible to God but what he will not do, and what he will that's necessary. Now God hath revealed his will by appointing and using the means of Raising us, and hath past his promise by his Son Jesus; that through him he will raise us up at the last day. This is the father's will which hath sent me (saith our saviour) that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day, Ioh. 6. 39 v. so that now God's justice and Truth are deeply at stake, till there come a Resurrection. His justice would have stood engaged however, though no such means, no such promise had been revealed; if we grant, there is a God, it may be evinced out of moral principles, that of necessity there must be a Resurrection, though we knew not how: for either there would be no difference of virtue and Vice in respect of Reward and Punishment, and so divine justice would be but a bugbear, or else there would be need of a Resurrection, that they who have been prosperous in their wickedness might be called to account hereafter, and they that have here suffered by virtue might then shine in Glory. But since the means are expressly revealed, since Christ hath paid the price of our Resurrection, and God hath promised to make it good, since many Martyrs have died in defence of this Hope, upon God's word, God is further engaged both to Christ and Them, both in his justice and Truth, to perform his purpose and promise. And we may be sooner induced, to yield, that there is no God, or that he was not at all our Builder, nor Christ his Corner stone, then that he should begin to build and not make an End, or Promise an End and not fulfil it. Wherefore without doubting, let us here rest our Hope, that as the Glory of the Father hath raised his son, so he will perfect his Glory in raising his son's Attendants.  
Thus you have heard the three Degrees of our Comfort; the Safety of Life in Death, in that it is hid; the sure means of safety for that it is bid with Christ; and the strong Author of the means, in that it is hid with Christ in God.  
It remains now on our part, that we be not affrighted with Death, because it is no longer the jaw of Destruction, but the Gate of Life, and a Passage into Everlasting happiness. 
* Cics de contem: morte.  If those bold Spirits, that having heard of the Immortality of the soul, or at least her Rest from misery, presently dispatched themselves out of this World, without any other call, or further warrant, but only this Notion; if those undaunted Venturers had been likewise taught the Resurrection of the Body to a better Life, and had such an occasion to spend their lives, as is now offered to us, the defence of Religion, laws, and Liberties; doubtless their Courage had been so inflamed, that either through too much Valour they would undeservedly have found their seeking, or have gotten such honour, as might stay the desire of death by pursuing the death of others, and by taking content in Acts of Glory. I do not wish any to run this Course unadvisedly; a sober Expectation of Death or Victory, in useful Service, both by charging and sustaining, is Valour sufficient, and not too much, for any soldierly Martyr.  
Further since Christ by the wood of his cross hath sweetened our bitter waters, and died for Sin to make Death easy, since he hath risen again to lead us the way into Life eternal, I cannot too much inculcate this other Lesson; that we walk not disorderly in this our Pilgrimage; lest we turn the Gift of Life into double Death, the joy of our Hearts into Horror and judgement, our Rising into bottomless Falling. In itself, nothing can be so sweet and desirable as the Appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Resurrection. Why should we so confound the Conscience with unrepented guiltiness, that we should need mountains to cover us from his Presence? Let us rather amend our ways, and live carefully, that we may die with Comfort and Rise with joy; that the Hope of a joyful Rising may remain comfortably sealed unto us in the time of our Hiding, by Assurance of the Holy Ghost, through Christ the means, and God the Author. To whom be all thanks, Praise, Dominion, and Glory, now and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.