The Great Work of Redemption: Delivered in Five SERMONS At St. Paul's, and at the Spittle, April, 1641.  

I. On the Passion of our Saviour: By Dr. Soames Vicar of Stains.  
II. On our Saviour's Resurrection: By Dr. Morton Bishop of Durham.  
III. An Appeal to God's Mercy: By Dr. Potter Bishop of Carlisle.  
iv The Expectation of a Christian: By Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bristol.  
V The Imperfection of a Christian in this Life: By W. Price B. D.   
London, Printed for J. Playford and are sold at his Shop in the Temple near the Church door. 1660.   

The Texts of the following Sermons.  

First, a Sermon on the Passion, Job chap. 7. vers. 20. I have sinned, What shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men.  
Second, a Sermon on the Resurrection, St. Matt. chap. 28. vers. 6. He is not here, for he is risen.  
Third Sermon, An Appeal to God's mercy, Psal. 130. vers. 4. But there is mercy with thee, that thou mayst be feared.  
Fourth Sermon, The Expectation of a Christian, Philip. chap. 3. vers. 20, 21. But our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change, etc.  
Fifth Sermon, The Imperfect state of a Christian here, 1 Cor. chap. 13. vers. 9 For we know but in part, and we prophesy but in part.    

To the READER.  
Christian Reader,  
ALthough we should love the Ministers for the word, yet sometimes, yea very often, men are occasioned to love the Word by the Worth of the Ministers that Deliver it; a cracked Bell is not good to Call men together, nor Ministers of cracked and blemished Reputations fit Instruments to persuade others to Holiness, and therefore it is that the Names of these Reverend and Eminent Divines, who spoke and wrote these following Sermons are prefixed in the Title Page, that the Honour and unblemished Reputation, they have in the Churches of Christ, and amongst all sincere and pious Christians, may the more commend them to thee. Thou hast (Good Reader) here unfolded and opened the Great and Glorious Mysteries of thy Salvation, than which there is nothing more pleasant and comfortable, more animating and enabling, more ravishing and soul contenting to a true Christian, than the frequent and most serious Meditation. Thou hast here the Passion, Resurrection, and the Glorious Expectation of a Christian enlightened to thee, by Stars in the Right hand of Christ of the First Magnitude. Oh! that the Light held forth in the Ignominious and painful Sufferings of thy Saviour, may give thee a true sight and sense of thy sins, and the greatness of them, which nothing could expiate, but the Precious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God, and that with a Broken and Contrite heart, thou mayst cry out with Holy Job, I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men! Oh! that the Light also held forth in the Glorious Resurrection of Christ, which is Arrham Resurrectionis nostrae, which is the Earnest of our Resurrection, may sustain and support thy spirits in these evil and last days, knowing that this Body of thine, now chief subject to many miseries and calamities through the Iniquity of the Times it may be to be cast into some loathsome Prison, or put to a shameful death; yet this same Body of thine shall Rise, and that by a lively faith, thou mayst say with Job, Job 19.25. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that though worms destroy this Body of mine, yet in this Flesh I shall see God with these mine Eyes, and not other, though my Reins be consumed within me; yea thy hope and expectation shall not be cut off, but all those afflictions which it pleaseth thy good God to permit Satan or his Instruments to exercise thee with, shall not be like idle Indifferents, which do neither good nor harm, but they shall all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, work together for the Glory of God, and the Dear Salvation of thy precious Soul; be persuaded therefore seriously to peruse these Sermons, and the God of all Grace and Consolation sanctify the Reading them to thee.   

The Introduction made by Master Price before his Rehearsal of the Subsequent Sermons in Saint Paul's Church, May 2. 1641.  
IT was a Constitution of those admired sons of Justice the Areopagis, that such as pleaded before them should plead without Prefacing and without passion: But I must crave your gracious pardon if at this time I transgress beyond those bounds; For I made account to have been so happy, as to have been an Auditor, but it falls out to be my unhappy lot now to be a Speaker; The Speaker appointed for this day's work being the prisoner of God upon his bed of sickness. His place my great weakness is forced to undertake, and therefore rolling myself upon the Almighty Providence of God, I must endeavour to go through this difficult travel; more fit for an Angel, crowned and invested with eternity, than a mortal man; and I am confident that my first summons to this work was since the preaching of the Passion Sermon in this place; and therefore I hope you will not expect from me that curiosity of Introduction, elegancy of expression, volubility of tongue, or exquisiteness and readiness in delivery, as otherwise you might.  
A review of remarkable words or actions, it is as ancient as it is profitable: When God had done with the first day's work he repeats it the second day. What is the Book of Deuteronomy, but the Law the second time repeated? What are the Books of the Chronicles, but a recapitulation of the Books of the Kings? What is the New Testament, but an open explication of that which is closely comprehended in the Old?  
It was the request of the Jews when they heard Saint Paul preach of the Resurrection (and the Resurrection is the chiefest Argument of the Sermons I am now to rehearse) that they might hear it again the next Lord's day, Phil. 3.1.  
Repetition is like unto the third and last concoction, that turns the meat into wholesome and nourishing sustenance. In a word, Repetition is a recollection, so that I am to make a recollection of these Sermons, whereof I may say as it is recorded of the men of Gibeath, of Benjamin, that they were such good Archers, that they could shoot at an hairs breadth: Such were these men in their several transcendent expressions; though their Sermons were long, I cannot say they were tedious: many are brief and tedious, but these were long and not tedious. As Plinius secundus saith of Cicero, his longest Orations were accounted the best. They were not like Simon Magus, expert in Sorcery, but like Simon Peter, faithful Shepherds. They delivered not any Socinian or Pelagian doctrine in all their discourses; their Bells were like the Bells of Aaron, and so they did sound in our ears; and for the manner of the setting forth of those discourses, they were not affectatious of them, they studied rather for Divinity then Rhetoric; for sanantia rather then sonantia verba, rather sound then sounding words. They were not like false friends, to speak one word for Christ, and two or three for themselves: They would transform a brazen Soul, into a lump of Clay; They would inspire into a stony heart, a soft and melting heart. The memory of Cirus, that knew the names of all the Soldiers in his Army; of Themistocles, that did bear the names of all the Citizens he had, were not sufficient sufficiently to express the excellency of their Discourses. Here was a Field full of Lilies, 〈◊〉 Garden full of Roses, food sent down from Heaven upon you; and first, that that was let down and fell upon you in this place of the Lamb slain for our sins from the beginning of the world, in that elegant feeling and melting discourse, whose Foundation was laid in the 7 th'. Chapter of the Book of Job, and the 20 th'. verse. I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden unto myself?   

The Passion Sermon: OR, A Sermon Preached by Dr. Soames Vicar of Stanes, and Prebend of Windsor in St Paul's Church on Good Friday, April 23. 1641.  JOB 7.20. I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men? 
WHat these words are, and from what spirit they come, I shall not need to declare unto you by a Preface: the very hearing of the Book named, and the reading of the Text, speaking them sufficiently to be the words of that famous mirror of Saints, that old Disciple of Christ, that same Evangelical Patriarch in the Land of Uz, Job, an upright man, unadvisedly though he had sinned, and many an unseeming passion had that occasion brought him unto by the afflicting hand of God upon him. One while you might behold him passionately no less than cursing his own birthday; quarrelling with the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, with the womb that bore him, and the paps that gave him suck. Moreover, you might have heard him challenge God, and to give himself the victory: Nay, more than this, goes to lay violent hands upon himself, wishes he might die an untimely death too, and justifying himself, says, Is there any iniquity in my tongue? therefore I will not hold my peace, nor be restrained.  
In the midst of all these clouds comes this comfortable Sunshine, this Equinoctial. He now lays down the Buckler before him against whom he had lift it up, with a pensive and penitent breast, crying out, I have sinned, what shall I do unthee O thou preserver of men?  
The words considered particularly, the parts are three.  
Here is first, a Confession of sin; I have sinned.  
Secondly, a deploration of his own ignorance, following upon that sin; Quid faciam, What shall I do? Or if you will, of distraction and consultation for the means of atonement; What shall I do?  
Thirdly, an imploration of him against whom he had sinned; O thou preserver of men.  
In the first, he calls to mind what he had done. Secondly, confults what he should do. And Thirdly, finding no comfort in these, he addresses himself to the last, the Preserver of men.  
In the handling of these, I will first look upon the Text in general, as it may serve for an every day's Information. Secondly, as it may serve for a Good-Friday Meditation: For in the choice of my Text I did not forget the day, which being to preserve and keep alive the greatest blessing that ever happened to the sons of men, by him who is the Author and Finisher of our salvation, it will be very acceptable not only to point our finger to this Preserver of ours, but our belief, and to look up unto him, and to cry unto him, peccavi, I have sinned; What better mixture or composition I say, in respect of the qualification of the Comforter, of the Preservers mercy? If I speak not seasonably to the day, the fault is mine, and not the Texts.  
And first to begin with the first, Jobs peccavi, I have sinned; with reference to the person that made it: First, Job cries peccavi; a circumstance I cannot but pause upon, as having something of wonder in it. As Saul said, Is this thy voice my son David? So may I say, Is this thy voice holy Job? Thou that ere while spoke in so different a strain, that so justified himself before his Maker, is it come to no better nor worse than a peccavi? Whence we may learn, that he that pleads with God, be he whom he will, must come home at last with a peccavi. I say, with God, and not with men; with men we must often plead for our innocency: It was samuel's case, 1 Sam. 12.3. Whose Ox or Ass have I taken? It was David's case, I am innocent. And so it was Jobs case here, If I have rewarded evil, etc. he holds his integrity with both his hands; but when he comes to plead with God, than he lets go his hold, than he cries peccavi.  
Holy and righteous Job, a man so miraculous in the Book of God, set up as a pattern of patience; a man in whom the Devil could not find an hole; it was the flower in his Garden, for which he stands upon Record, his managing of this very cause, saith he, I am faulty; and as here, so he is elsewhere; and as with him, so with all mankind: I have sinned here, saith Job, and it is not to be wondered at; and the reasons are.  
First, in that all-ruling direction of God.  
Secondly, in the exactness of that rule by which God doth measure. I seem sometimes, saith Saint Austin, a strait man in mine own eyes, but when thou comest to lay me by the rule of thy Law, I find myself to be very crooked.  
In a word, thirdly, it lies in the unavoidable infirmity that remains in our best actions that ever we have done or can do: I say, the best of us all, take it, and look to it, and consider how coldly, how sinisterly, how disadvantageously to the glory of God, should he compare it with what we should have done, or what we might have done, had our strength been answerable to his design; and we may find reason, as holy Anselm, to say, Potest & non possit placare; It may please God, and it may not please God. If he cannot say as Calvin when he came to die, Alas, that all my sickness hath been so unprofitable! Either of these had not so much favour as Hezekiah, yet he confessed, and that with tears; what his imperfections wanted, he begged with tears. So much for the occasion of the confession of his sin.  
One word more in relation to the matter itself; what it was so troubled him, and which caused that his heart smote him; was it that he had spoken words that were unworthy of God, and thus irreverently spoken of God, and opened his mouth impatiently against him? These are the words I am to speak of. Dost thou speak thus irreverently of God whoever thou be? they will prove sad break to thy heart in the time of affliction, if thou openest thy mouth against him: As Job here, I will lay my hand upon my mouth, I will hear what God will say; for peccavi, I have sinned.  
Whosoever is the sword or the rod, God is the Author: 'Twas the saying of old Eli, 'Tis the Lord, let him do what seemeth good in his eyes; and what unthankfulness it will be in us to God, if that having received so many good things, and but one evil, we should repine at it? Should we not rather with holy Job say, Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and not evil?  
Fourthly, it is bootless to repine against God; like the bird in the net, the more it stirs, the faster 'tis caught; or the fish on the hook, the more it stirs, the more it hurts itself. If to be angry with my brother, doth deserve to be cast into Hell, to speak against God is to shoot an arrow upright, it reflects upon thy own head; upon the head I say, of him that speaks against his Maker. I will leave one word to the consideration of those men, that if all things fall not out to their mind they exclaim against God.  
Indeed we find the Heathens did it (when things fell out crossly) to their Gods. We read of Sylla, that he cursed his gods, and the image of Apollo: of Licinius, that he put away his gods: of Barbarossa, that he did revile his gods. Oh there is a true God in Israel, let us not expostulate and rail against him. But I could wish this humour had passed no farther; but is it not crept amongst us Christians, and that upon slight occasions? We cannot be content with Sylla or Barbarossa, to curse and revile our God, but with Licinius to put him away; yea, we whip him by our blasphemies, we spit on him by our rash speeches. If Jobs heart aches for a few distempered thoughts of God, what a deal of repentance hath the horrid and execrable blasphemer need of? If for a few angry words Jobs heart was so pricked, what will become of the profane swearer at the day of Judgement? Much better were it for them to come in this life before God with a peccavi, as Job here in my Text, I have sinned. So much for the deploration of his misery.  
Secondly, I come to the consultation about the means of atonement with God, Quid faciam, What shall I do? Which words are taken several ways in Scripture; it is taken for the voice of a man perplexed with grief, that is, Vox clamantis. Another while it is taken for Vox trementis, Act. 2. It is said of those that were converted by Saint Peter, they were pricked to the heart, and cried, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? and the Jailor being amazed at the Earthquake comes trembling to Paul and Silas, Act. 16. saying, What shall I do? Sometimes it is Vox inferentis, the voice of an Inquirer, one that looks after help and succour, that is not resolved what to do: So the young man came to Christ, ask, What he should do to be saved? Now these distinctions offer unto us this consideration generally; That the effects that sin at the best works in a man, are sorrow, fear and care: Or to draw three into two; His repentance and turning unto God, till God be at peace with him. To confess is not enough, but we must deplore; to deplore is not enough, but we must inquire; to inquire is not enough unless we seek to him that can preserve us: What shall I do 〈◊〉 thee? And from hence I come to the next part, Oh thou Preserver of men! It is not enough to confess our sins, but we must deplore them and bewail them; and not only so, but when a man hath committed a sin it runs him into a Labyrinth, he knows not what to do, it fills a man's heart with tears and with grief, it puts him upon such a confession that it makes him mourn. This is the nature of sin, where it is truly seen in the breast of Saint Paul, in Peter, in Job, and so in the rest of all those ancient Penitents concerning the necessity of this Quid faciam? In the Primitive times, in Saint Augustine's and Tertullia's times, after any heinous sin committed, this kind of sorrow cast these ancient Christians before the feet of their Bishops, and cost them no less than whole weeks, whole months, and whole years in bewailing their scandalous crimes and apostasies in sackcloth and ashes, beging prayers at the doors of their Congregations, blurring their faces with tears, and their cheeks with mourning; and those that had not the grace to do this were not admitted the Congregation. It is memorable at this day to consider what Antiquity required, what their Injunctions were towards notorious sinners, inhibiting them the use of all God's creatures but bread and water for many days, till they came with a Quid faciam? debarred them a long time from coming to the Lords Table, and not only to cry, peccavi Pater, but peccavi frater, I have sinned brother, by bringing a scandal upon the whole Church of God. If you will ask the reason of this, they thought they came as enemies to invade the Lords Table before thus reconciled; and to let them do less than this was to use a terrible kind of judgement, and to destroy them in a flattering way, as Saint Ambrose saith. Harsh and tender years, and cruel Age wherein we live, wherein we have fancied to ourselves such a repentance as knows nothing of tears, none of these tears, or if any, they tarry but till the minstrels descend, the flagons of wine are filling, their dainty Cates are providing; they wash down their sorrow in cups of wine; they applaud themselves, saying, I thank God I am not in such a case as this man; but no thoughts of their sins, no lamentation for their iniquity.  
I might here show unto you that sorrow is never well bestowed but upon sin, this sorrow will cure no other diseases; I lose my child, and mourn for it, but sorrow will not revive it; I go backward in the world, I am sorry for it, but it makes me never the richer. I am pursued by an enemy, sorrow will make no resistance, but spent upon sin, it is well bestowed, here it cures. If a man cast away his sorrow upon his wife, his closet, his shop, he had as good wash his house with sweet water; but sorrow this way for sin, it will like Aaron's rod eat up all the rest of the rods. If a man forsakes his sin without an hearty sorrow for it, it is no kindly departure.  
In the next place I come unto those that think there is no need of a Quid faciam? When thou sinnest, hither must thou come at last; though you out-swear it, out-drink it, out-play it, yet it will come at last; Citius aut serius: If not in the day of thy prosperity when thou washest it away, yet when thou goest down in the world it will find thee, and like Ahab it will say unto thee, Have I found thee, O mine enemy! And as the Malus genius said to Caius, Thou shalt meet me at Philippi; which was the place where he should die. If thou hearest not of sin by way of sorrow now, it will find thee at the day of thy death; if not here, yet there is a place of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, aut penitentium lachrymas aut damnatorum; if thou hearest not of it here, thou wilt hear of it there; and who would not rather choose to take his part with Job here in my Text, then to die with sorrow? Who would not strive to turn the current of his griefs this way, then to let them run till he come to everlasting torments? In a word, in two things Jobs pattern is to be followed: First, for sins immediately committed against God we must sorrow, I have sinned against thee, what shall I do to thee? which is a point to be considered, God will have it done to him. When you fast, saith God, was it unto me? Against thee only have I sinned, saith David, Psalm 51. Why, Uriah was killed, Bathsheba abused, Israel scandalised? No: But one God is worth a thousand Uriahs, Bathsheba's, and Israel's, and he was dishonoured by it. Our sorrow for sin must be directed to God, for he is the Preserver.  
Now I come to the second point, (from the question propounded in an inquisitive manner, which was the first) which is this; That turning to God is not enough unless we confess, and confession is nothing unless we deplore, and deploration will do us no good unless we inquire; Quid faciam? and not only inquire, but we must put it in execution; careful as well as sorrowful, practical as well as inquisitive, something to be done to get us friends with God. Who can tell whether God will turn and repent? it held up the Ninevites from sinking. When David's faith was like fire in the embers quite covered over, and he crying out, Why art thou disquieted within me? yet he had hope in God. This is that we must look for; but we cannot find this in the breast of most wicked men, to bring them to practise as God prescribes them: For Christ when he came to cure the blind man he had a question to ask him, Visuè sanari? Wilt thou be made whole? There are many on the way side, that if you ask them if they will be cured of their sore arms and legs, they will tell you no; for say they, we can make more of them fore then whole: So there are many that will not be made clean, nor sorrow for their sins, because of losing their joy.  
To speak one word concerning this Quid faciam of Job: With the same breath wherein he pronounces himself willing to do, he pronounces himself at a lost estate, not knowing what to do, especially in the way of satisfaction to God, as Hugo and others do understand it. And so they consider it as if Job had said, O Lord, if I had to do with any but with thee, I could tell how to make satisfaction; but to thee, qui bonis meis non eges, which standest in need of nothing that I have, with thee between whom there is an infinite disproportion, what can I do to thee? What are ten thousand rivers of oil, the seed of my body for the sin of my soul? I can bemoan, I can consult, I can resolve upon what thou wilt direct me, but more than this I cannot do, nor any satisfaction worthy of thee: Giving us to understand, that whatsoever may be thought of satisfaction to God, if we do propose an equivalence, it is a dream. However it may be necessary to make satisfaction fraternal, if we have done him any hurt or wrong, to restore to him; or material, to our Mother the Church, for giving scandalous examples, that the scandal of the Church may be some way repaired: but for the satisfaction to God, it is too great a thing to be done. Job knew not what to do; he makes his query, he turns himself to God, and becomes an humble suppliant for mercy, leaving all hopes of merits or satisfaction: What shall I do unto thee, O thou Preserver of men? So that I come to the third branch, his resolution. We have had Job confessing, bemoaning, bewailing and enquiring, hear him now resolving what to do; he addresses himself to the throne of the divine Majesty, What shall I do, etc.  
These words are not only spoken consultively to God as to an Oracle for advice, but resolutely; whence we have a good point: That in things concerning God it is good to go to, to address ourselves to God, especially in matters of satisfaction; but that's not all, but to go to him as to a Sanctuary. Job here flies to God as to a City of Refuge, to a Castle of defence, as the Malefactors were wont to the horns of the Altar, so doth Job after his sin to the Preserver of men.  
And here it is to be handled whom Job means by the Preserver; doubtless he whom in most places he calls his Redeemer, and here was the object of his faith, without all peradventure the same: It must needs be the same, for how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and so here Job's prayer is preferred to him in whom he had believed, the Preserver of men: And in handling of this there are two things offered to your consideration.  
First, how well this title of Preserver of men doth agree with him to whom Job prays.  
Secondly, how well the meditation of a Preserver did fit Job in the case wherein he was. First, I say, how well this title of Preserver doth suit with God, how well God had deserved it at Jobs hands to be known by the name of the Preserver of men, and how well by the world in general, the whole frame, mass, and pillar thereof; how well at the hands of that part of the world called men; how well, I say, at men, such as Job was. It is admirable to consider how true God is to the title of Preserver of men; he hath not only ordained means to supply the needs of every man, and the care of every man in preservation of himself; also his Angels about us, he gives his Angels charge over us; also the supply of every one to take care of another; and not only so, but the care of our Ancestors to preserve our liberties, they pitched our Tents; not only his care of great men to set them over less; he saith to Magistrates and Ministers, Keep this man safe, thy life shall go for his; he is thy preserver every way, and hath still reserved to himself the name of chief Preserver: He is Archiepiscopus, the chief Bishop of our souls, he hath taken upon him all the names of salvation; he is our Father, and Mother, and Brother, and Husband, and Keeper, to show how true he is to the title of Preserver: and sometimes when God looks like a destroyer, when God comes to destroy us for our sins, he stays and pauses, and strikes, with much lenity, to show to all the world that he fights not with the person but the sin, his Commissions are against the disease, not the patiented; Christ's scourges were not to destroy the Temple, but to clear it. We may compare them to David's battle against Absalon, where there is a charge goes along, Do the young man no harm. God hath given every chastisement this warning, Do the man no harm. I will show one instance; When Joab was sent to take Sheba the son of Bichri, when he came to destroy the City whereto he fled, a wise woman desired to speak with him, and asked him why he would destroy the City? who told her; whereupon she required the head of Sheba to be cast over the wall to him: With the same errand God comes to us when he looks upon us as if he would destroy us, he calls upon us to deliver up the son of Bichri, the sins that are within us, deliver them up, and he will not destroy you. Look upon all his afflictions whensoever that it happeneth, so that he cannot but he must punish; do but consider with what unwillingness God comes, with what reluctancy; when he holds up his hand to strike, he yet stays to see if there be any to stand in the gap, or to hold him, Amos 11.16. How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee? how shall I make thee as Admah or Zeboim? He doth it as though it went against him, he draws and brandishes; nay, when his sword is in his hand he looks about him to see if there be any to hold his hand that he might not destroy; and yet when he doth punish, he doth not suffer his mercy to be quite gone, and when he is cutting, he still preserves. I should have told you how well God deserved the name of Preserver at the hands of Job; in the fail of all Job's comforts, in the failing of all other preservers. His wife that should have preserved him, she counselled him to curse God and die, and his friends that should have comforted him, were miserable comforters. The Devil let lose upon him, his brethren stood afar off, they stood at a distance, his servants they were no preservers, he called, and they did not answer, the very children did mock and slight him: Now God preserved him from his wife, his children, his friends, his servants, from the Devil, yea, from his own self; he was going about to strangle himself, to have laid violent hands on himself, and God preserved him from the Devil that went about to destroy him; well might job know God by that name the Preserver of men; well might the meditation of the Preserver of men become job at this time, in such a condition, when his sins were in his thoughts, when he was in his perplexed condition, in his affrighted condition, it was jobs best way at that time to stir up the meditation of Gods preserving him. What face soever God set upon it, and whatsoever his usage was to him, yet certainly that God with whom he was making his peace, to whom he made his confession, he was a Preserver of all his creatures, of men, and amongst men sinners, Peccavi, I have sinned, and what shall I do? I call this Iob's meditation; these two must depend together; the thoughts of a man's sin, and the thoughts of our Saviour, think of our sin and of our Saviour; at this time 'tis true there are many that think this Preserver doth not so well agree with God, as when they ask me, how I conceive of God that is a flaming fire to render vengeance, and that he must so be remembered. I answer, we must so remember God, as not to forget that he is a merciful God, neither to think so deeply of our sins, as to forget the thoughts of our Saviour; not as judas, when he had betrayed Christ he confessed he had betrayed innocent blood, and restores the pieces, but all ended in strangulavit se; he hanged himself, he had forgotten the Preserver of men; it is no more than needs to be to have our sins always before us. David labours to aggravate his sin, it is to be understood not without the proposal of God's mercy; so we must look upon sin by the light of God's Word, and not by Satan's false glasses. God's manner of revealing sin, and the Devils are contrary. God cures us like a good Physician, that takes a man into a close room and applies medicines; the Devil doth not so, he carries him into the cold air, he goes about to kill him: take heed of looking upon sin with the Devil's glass, unless you have your friends about you, the Gospel, and all the promises of it, that if he offers to wrong you, you may call them in. And therefore the Use shall be, that we look not upon sin with both our eyes, but cast one eye upon sin, and another upon our Saviour, not so as to look through him, or beyond him, but with the faith of Abraham, he can see through a barren womb, and through a kill sword his numerous posterity. A good Christian he can look beyond them all, and see Christ at God's right hand to bring him safely to Heaven. This was Jobs prayer and case upon a dunghill, through the ill counsel of his wife, through the discomforts of his friends, through the despisings of his brethren, through the machination of the Devil, through the slight of his servants, and through the contemning of children, yea, through the evil temptations of his own heart he can see God his Preserver; and this must be our course, when our understandings will go along with the Devil, when our scantling souls shall imagine that we hear God say unto us, Go you unprofitable servants, and go you cursed; and when we can see nothing but death and Hell, then remember to stand still and see the salvation of God, remember him that is the Preserver of men; a duty that invites you to fix your thoughts upon this Preserver of men. I am now come from the date of my Text, and am now to come to the work of the day, and it doth much concern you to fix your eyes and intendments upon this Preserver of men, general contemplations of Gods preserving; you have heard already how well God deserves from the world and the hands of men in particular, the word of Preserver: And thus I have done with it as it is an every day's meditation; but I must not shake hands and take leave of my Text so; you know how well this day's work will agree with it, which hath long since invited me unto it, had I an heart or words answerable unto it: but alas what words can be used, or what tongue can utter it: that which my heart cannot reach to, how can my tongue utter or express: 
* Si mihi sint centum linguae, sint oraque centum●: F●rr●● vox—  Which of you can tell me? Oh my God, saith Saint Austin, Da mihi de misericordia, etc. Give me of thy mercy that I may speak of thee, speak in me that I may speak of thee. A work above any humane power to make any tolerable demonstration of, had I as many tongues as there are stars. Were there a Council called of all the Angels in Heaven to consult of it, and among them one chosen to declare it, all their tongues, understandings, and imaginations infused into him, had he all the learning and eloquence that ever was or can be attained, were he to stand in my place at this time, how should I see him graveled, puzzled, and faulter'd, and foundered, and nonplussed? how should I hear him call for more tongues, for more eloquence? how should I hear him cry with Esay, Quis enarrabit? Who shall show his works? Should I not hear him cry out with Moses, Ego sum puer, I am a child? with David, This knowledge is too wonderful for me? Whether I look upon the work of this day, or upon God positively in the contrivance of it, in the execution or subject, with reference to the object, the parties that it may concern, or with reference to the work itself, or with reference to the manner of working, the condition from whence we were redeemed, and the condition to which we were brought; it is beyond human invention to give any tolerable description of it. I think this matter will do better in application then in amplification 
* Ora mille fluentia melle. .  
If we look upon it first of all comparatively, comparing it with other days, and paralleling it with other preservers: What are they other preservers, and other saviours? We know where to find them. Shall we piddle out the time with the preventions of the sufferings of particular men? what need we make mention of the children of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt? our own deliverance from the Spanish Invasion in Eighty eight, or of the fifth of November. I charge you, as the Prophet Zachary speaks on another occasion, not a word of them, neither of Eighty eight, nor the fifth of November. We may parallel this day's deliverance with the work of the Creation, there Dixit & factum est, He did but speak and it was done, here it cost many sweatings and drops of blood; this was the masterpiece of God's workmanship. There God gave me to myself, here himself to me. There was the work of his finger, here of his arm, With a mighty and outstretched arm hath he gotten himself the victory. There he made me like unto himself, here he makes himself like unto me. There he made me, but here he remade me; this exceeds the whole Creation, take the whole Creation of the world together either in the contrivance of it, or in the execution of it. In the contrivance, had our Saviour gone no farther this day then to have devised the means how we might be restored, it had been mercy enough, but to call the depths of his Counsels, to devise a way how to punish sin, and to save the sinners, to bestow Hell upon the sin, and Heaven upon the sinner, how to compound an infinite Justice and an infinite Mercy: Had our Saviour gone no farther but found out the way, and said, Sons of men, I see you are utterly lost and undone, and I could wish that I could help you, but I counsel you to do thus and thus, see what you can do to appease my Father's justice, I should be very glad to see you do well, and the like; could all the Angels in Heaven have helped us? surely no: But himself to be both the contriver and executor, not only to find out the means, but to be the means, to call the depth of his Counsel together, to save the man, and damn the sin, to send one to Hell, and the other to Heaven: Oh admirable Love!  
Again, consider who is the Preserver, the subject that did it, who would ever have looked to have him come down from Heaven? Who would have thought that he would have clothed himself with the rags of our mortality, and have come down, who was the delight of Angels, the darling of Heaven, the beloved of his Father? It is a greater humiliation then for the greatest Emperor in the world to become a worm, or a fly, or a grain of dust, and all this for a creature so ill-deserving, in whom there was neither beauty, nor comeliness, or favour, the things that make men favourable with Princes; nay more, when we were enemies, and in the acts of hostility, dead in trespasses and sins, worms and no men, yet he came to save us, even us men.  
It was the ground of a worthy meditation of a reverend Father, concerning Sampsons' being brought to so much misery for Dalilah: Oh miserable Samson, (saith he) what made thee to spend thy dearest blood for an harlot, for Dalilah? How can I sufficiently wonder at this mercy, not for an harlot, but for worse than an harlot, for such wretches as we are? and the keeping us from such a state, and bringing us to such a state; from such an estate, an estate of sin, when we lay not only in pulvere, but in sanguine, in the dust, yea in our own blood, not only wounded, but wounded to death, yea dead; was that all? no; pereuntes, perishing, Ezek. 16.6, 9 children of perdition, lost, and the worst kind of lost too, perditi in Dei favore, lost in the favour of God, perditi de benedictione Dei, lost the blessing of God, no hope of any thing, but go you cursed was our next doom; nay, utterly lost, and yet recovered by him out of that condition; and into what a condition from all this miserable and lost condition we were recovered, to our inheritance, recovered from the state of enemies to the state of friends, to the state of favourites, of heirs of Heaven: all these together didst thou do, Oh merciful Preserver!  
In the next place I come to the means by which he did preserve us, and that by the destruction of him that was the preserver, a preservation destructive to the preserver himself, wherein there was a necessity for one to come from Heaven, and he no less than the Son of God, to stand in the place of man, and endure that which he should have suffered for his sin, and that such a suffering, to speak one word of it, that the whole Gospel is little more than a compendious Chronicle of the calamities that Christ endured in his life: Should I but go along from his Cradle to his Cross, the time would fail me, in all places; nor only upon the Cross, but in the Garden, yea in toto progressu, etc. in the whole course of his life, in every action of it, at the hand of every person he conversed withal, every part of his life from the womb, nay, in the womb he was accounted by his supposed father to be but a bastard; in his Cradle cruelly dealt withal, exiled, banished into Egypt, tumbled and tossed up and down, tempted in the wilderness by the Devil. In all places, in the Temple, in the Pharisees house, in the City, in the Country, in the wilderness, within and without, abused by all sorts of men, the Scribes and Pharisees, the high Priests and Rulers, and by the multitude of people; he did suffer in every action: Did he preach, where had he his learning? Did he eat and drink? a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber. Did he keep company? a friend of Publicans and sinners. Did he cast out Devils, 'twas censured to be by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils. In his life, in his death, in all things; and in his sufferings two things are remarkable: First, that he suffered alone, he trod the winepress alone, he suffered solus. Secondly, he suffered totus, he suffered for his Preaching, for his works of mercy, that for which he should have been applauded. The Disciple that before hugged his Master, and lay in his arms, now for haste left his shirt behind him, he ran so hard, that he left his linen garment. Thomas that before would die with Lazarus, he is now gone. The sons of Zebedee that forsooth could drink of the cup that he drank of, they were far enough off; not only his friends on earth, but his best friend in Heaven; he suffered a terrible withdrawing of his countenance, he sees him not as he was wont to be in his glorious Majesty, yet still he cries, Deus meus, My God; his best friends on earth fled, and his best friend in Heaven hid his face from him: he suffered totus; his head buffeted, his face spitted on, his hands nailed, and his feet bored, his side pierced, his glorious temples crowned with thorns, he led Captivity captive, to whom we pray, Lord enter not into Captivity with thy servant; he to whom the Saints cry, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts, he to whom the blessed Spirits sing Hallelujahs to him that sits on the Throne, upon him they cried, All Hail King of the Jews; he that lashed the Nations with a rod of Iron, to have his back beaten with a whip: he suffered in all his outward senses; What tastes he? What sees he? What hears he? What smells he? What feels he? In all his faculties and members, in his understanding, the whole wrath of God; in his memory, what he was, and what he had been; in his judgement, what struggling and irresolution, Let this Cup pass, and let it not pass, he will have his will, and he will not have his will; he was astonished, affrighted, perplexed, in. an agony, such an agony wherein he sweat drops of blood; of the reproaches done to him, if we consider ubi, where, He suffered at Jerusalem, the stage of the world, and where he did display all his works of mercy. Quando, at what time, at the time of the Passeover, at the concourse of most people, that he might be a scorn to all; and cum quibus, with two thiefs, and between them both as the worst of the three; and per quos, by whom this was done, by his own Countrymen, those for whom this was done, so graceless not so much as thanking him for what he did, when he was at his last gasp upon the Cross; beneath beneath him the Devil gaping for him; on the one side a thief reviling him, on the other none but a thief; Hell wide open under him, his friends flying from him: round about him what sees he? the earth trembling and quaking, the rocks rending in pieces, the mountains leaping, the air thundering, the clouds pouring down, the Heavens as it were burning with lightning, the Sun hiding his face, as ashamed to see his Master so used at their hands for whom he thus suffered. What hears he? those that did it, crying, His blood be upon us and our children and if there be any evil in us, not to save us but to damn us, when an Angel durst not show his head, or so much as peep out of Heaven upon him.  
A preservation wrought by such a Saviour, to free us from such a condition, and bring us to such a condition, by such a means he suffered both in body and soul, I think I need not say more of it; doth not this deserve to be prized as a great mercy?  
But because the keeping of a Good Friday doth not consist so much by the making of a Tragical relation of his sufferings, as it doth in something else; this is not all that is to be done. 'Tis true, our presenting him to your eyes is no more than needs, but we must praise the Lord for his wondrous works. Can we with the Israelites, look up to this Brazen Serpent that it may cure our souls? Here is an object of love, of fear, of joy, of grief, of affection, and what not? There is something of the solemnity lies in this, to consider what God hath done for our souls. I gave you a taste at the beginning, how that Job after his sin comes home to the Preserver of men: So this points us to the duty of the day, and that is to make use of Christ's sufferings, and considering that Job in the midst of all his sufferings had his eye to the Preserver of men, he deplored his sins, and cast his eyes upon him. I find the holy Ghost more than once mentioning the duty of the day, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, Zach. 12. and looking to the Author and Finisher of their faith, Hebr. 12. looking with such eyes upon him, as the lame man in the Gospel upon Paul and Barnabas, to have some good from him. Looking upon him as a Preserver, as those Israelites did upon the Brazen Serpent to cure them, not to wink with our eyes; let no man think the work of a Good Friday to see him with our bodily eyes, as the Papists in the sight of the Crucifix, but the eyes we are to make use of are the eyes of our souls, the beholding of Christ crucified in our thoughts. Take him into your hearts and souls, and there preserve him, let him challenge a mansion room in thee, thy whole heart; Christ is to be made the sole object of this day, if you celebrate his crucifying aright. What kind of object Christ ought to be I will deliver in few words: Our Saviour doth present himself as an object of the eye, to behold him, as an object of the ear, as an object of trouble, as an object of joy, as an object of hope; if upon our sin, than he is an object of wonder, an object of fear.  
The motive of Christ's sufferings, it was his love, the merit of Christ's sufferings procures us pardon, and the end of Christ's sufferings was our salvation. Give me leave to point my finger at each of these, and that in a familiar way, without danger of puzzling ourselves.  
He suffered on the Cross, to make good our comforts, he was bound, to purchase our freedom. And here first of all, the work of the day doth challenge at our hands matter of admiration; it is a duty the Heavens are called upon upon a less occasion: Hear O ye Heavens, and be astonished O earth. Who is there that hath any thing of Heaven in him, let him obstupescere, he amazed and wonder, it is a wonder in all the particulars of it.  
First, to wonder at the heinousness of that sin, the nature of which was such that it could not otherwise be expiated but thus. That which threw Adam out of Paradise, the Angels out of Heaven, Saul from his Kingdom, that at this day pulls down Families, and Nations, and Kingdoms; that makes some Nations an hissing and reproach to others; pray God it doth not serve us so: That which doth tumble a Kingdom into the dust, pray God it do not serve us so. It made the Son of God to bleed, and to cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Which of us in the strongest temptation to any sin, that is, remembering the price of it, could choose but be entreated to hold his hand? Consider in the strongest temptation to any sin, it was the price of my Saviour's blood. And secondly, this serves for matter of gratulation, to be thankful for Christ's love, that he would thus suffer, and that we despair not though we find it not in our Warehouses, in our Closets, in our Chambers, in our Chests, in our Cupboards, or the like outward things. Potiphar looks upon Joseph, and sees all things thrive under him, and therefore he loves him; & so Laban for the same reason loves Jacob: But here is God's love, that he gave himself for us; that's the second.  
A third Instruction is for admiration of that obligation God hath cast upon thee: He that could have gloryed in thy destruction, that he should glory in thy salvation, what canst thou do but rejoice? But to wonder is nothing, if we go no farther: Therefore in the fourth place, here is matter of thanksgiving, which is a duty for every Ordinance. Every ordinary blessing it calls for a Trophy, a Pillar, an Altar, a Song, a Sacrifice, a Chronicle; so did David, Moses, and other servants of God. What thanks doth he expect for this day's deliverance?  
If among the Heathen he that delivers his Country from any potent enemies, had such applauses and acclamations, mille annos vivat, he that slew a thousand of our enemies, may he live a thousand years, may his name be precious a thousand years: How can we pour out our hearts before God, without giving thanks for this day's deliverance? Neither is admiration or gratulation sufficient, unless we bless ourselves in this day, in the apprehension of him that was this Preserver, with reference to our sins; the blood of Christ hath a virtue to bind up the bleeding soul, and to make the bones that were broken to rejoice. Is not this a matter of admiration, gratulation, and consolation? therefore in the fear of God these are the thoughts that belong to this day, let your contemplations be upon what he did; these contemplations would preserve us from the sense of temporal calamities. When Jacob saw the Ladders, and the Angels ascending and descending, he said, Haec est porta coeli, this is the gate of Heaven. The gate of Heaven! It is well saith one, that Heaven hath a gate; it is well for God's children that there is a Preserver, that their hopes are above with him whose care is to preserve things perishing here below, among so many destructions from those that cry to our Jerusalem, Down with it, down with it even to the ground. There is one above who is the Preserver, who doth never keep back his mercy; but when things look most desperately upon earth, when the enemies hope to take them at a disadvantage, and to fall upon them when there is none to deliver them, then if we call upon him with David, saying, Remember the days of old, and thy great mercies unto me; than it is for our comfort, that after a time God will have mercy upon us. When the night is at the darkest, the day is nearest at hand. When the throws of a woman in travel are the greatest, her deliverance is nearest. When Moses saw the children of Israel in the greatest danger, Now stand, saith he, and see the glory of the Lord, the enemy that now threatens you shall see him no more. The earth mourned, Lebanon was ashamed, Bashan and Carmel have all lost their fruit, now will I exalt myself: As if he should say, man's misery that's my opportunity. When things are at the worst with God's children and his Church, then will he show himself a Preserver. The comfort of Christ's Cross that's comfort to a soul wounded with misery. Is there any of you here this day that is at his Golgotha, with his strong cries to God in the sight of his sins, and the terrors of God's wrath, at the sight of God's justice? Are any such here? then behold consolation; that his blood this day shed, if thou dost but conceive it, if there be but a true apprehension in thee that that blood was shed for thee, 'tis enough for thy salvation; that thy price is paid for thee by his death on the Cross, when his arms were extended both ways, as well to the thief that despised, as to the good thief; and in that prayer he put up upon the Cross for the worst of his enemies, for them that nailed him, the worst of men; Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Those that nail me, that crucify me, even for them I pray. It is very probable that when the good thief saw Christ's mercy extend so far, to the worst of men, he reasons thus with himself, What! is there mercy for these? why not for me? Though a thief, yet not such a wretch as these are thus to crucify my Saviour; Lord, remember me when thou comest into Paradise; and remember in that prayer of Christ, there is forgiveness for thee, and in those arms stretched out there is a receptacle for thee, in that blood that came out of his wounds, there is cure for thee, rather than thou shalt die he will die for thee.  
But beloved, to enlarge the merits of Christ longer, you will think I spread this plaster too far, in the mean time not knowing whether we have any part in him or no. We must understand the Mystery of Christ as well as the History; there is something to be done by way of examination, to examine what title we have to this Saviour. Look upon thy own sins, bleed for them as well as Christ bled for thee. Christ doth not actually save all: For the resolution of which, I cannot give you a better answer than what I told you of the Israelites, concerning the Brazen Serpent, that which gave them a cure, gives me a capacity of this Preserver; that which gave them a cure, was first, because they were stung. Secondly, that they did submit to that command that bid them look up to the Serpent; the like is required of every one of them that hope to have the Preserver of men to be their Saviour.  
First, a due sense of our sins: And secondly, a clear sight of our Saviour.  
First, a due sense of the sting; the sting of the old Serpent the Devil, the sin that is in our hearts. The malice of those men that crucified our Saviour, was not the Author of it, but our sins; the Author is in thine own bosom. And this is a consideration very requisite and necessary for us, for without a sense of our sins, and a sorrow for them, we are not near to the knowledge of Christ; true sorrow works repentance. 'Tis observed of Job that he would confess his sins to the Preserver of men, because he had sinned, and not for the evil of it in the general, in the gross, but concerning his own soul, Ego, I have sinned. Every man doth not know what belongs to Ego, to find sin in our own bosoms. What need we complain of the evil of the times? it is quickly told whence it comes, even from our sins. They think they are well, because they have no leisure to see whether it be well or ill. Their eyes are so cast abroad, so inquisitive abroad, that they know not how things go at home; if we were true Zelots indeed we might easily see that the way to make the truth known, doth not lie in the aggravation of the sins of others, in the discovery of the nakedness of our fathers, of our mothers, and of our brethren; no, but we must strike impartially, we may not spare any sins, and we ought to rejoice if we see the sword strike at both; and as it cuts Superstitious Papists on the one side, so the Anabaptistical Sectaries on the other side; that we destroy what concerns us, our sins, it is not in any invectives or libels, but the part that belongs to thy share is to sweep before thy own door, the pulling of that brand out of the fire, it lies within thee.  
And then again secondly, as it was in the sting, so it was in following the command, and looking on the Serpent, and so is this the commandment we must follow, we must use the hand that touched the hem of Christ's garment, such a faith as was in Peter, to bring him home to ourselves; an assent to the truth of God, and not only assentire, but applicare, to apply Christ to ourselves, and also adhaerere, to cleave to him, as old Simeon did, not think it enough to see Christ in the arms of his Mother, but in his own arms, he would grasp him there, and hug him there, as Isaac could not but bless his Jacob, till he felt some love, some loyalty, some care; and kiss the son lest he be angry, there must be a care to make good God's image in us.  
There are three or four Meditations I would gladly make use of concerning this Preserver of men: As first, was our Saviour the Preserver of men? then this is in all temptations the most profitable balm; Shall I commit this sin, sin against him that preserved me?  
Secondly, is he the Preserver of med? then in all the inhuman and cruel dealing between thee and thy neighbour, think upon it; how dost thou resemble the Preserver of men, and givest thyself altogether to ruin and destruction? What expectation can you have of preservation by this Preserver, if you be destroyers of your poor Brethren?  
In the third place, is he the Preserver of men? and hath he done so much for our preservation? This then deserves our thankfulness. Did Jesus Christ die for me, and for us all? then let us show our thankfulness by preserving Gods children, Gods Profits, Gods saints, Gods Revenues; let us lend our helping hand to preserve that, and not to think any thing we have too good for them; thy work, thy life, thy labour, and all little enough for them.  
And then lastly, whatsoever we do in thankfulness to God, suffer not his blood, nor the price of it to be spilt in vain, take heed it be not spilt besides us, take heed the Devil doth not go away with it.  
Saint Cyprian hath a sad meditation and representation of this; he brings in the Devil at the last day coming and triumphing against Christ, with his rabble of wicked men, and but a few righteous on our Saviour's side. The Devil speaks thus: Saviour of the world, dost thou see what a number I have, and what faithful servants they have been to me? Ego nunquam, etc. I was never whipped, nor buffeted, nor scourged, nor nailed, nor despised, nor crucified for any of these; I never shed a drop of blood for any of these, I never promised them a Kingdom, or any other reward, yet they were very dutiful to me. I never had a Paradise to premise them, though thou didst show me such a number as here is. Oh what a sad thing will this be! Oh therefore let every one think to do our Saviour this right, let not the Devil carry away this price from us; he suffered enough then, Oh let not him now suffer any more, let him not suffer in his Name, to be blasphemed; in his Revenue, as Sacrilegious persons would have him; let him not suffer in his Worship, as Heretics would have him; let him not suffer in his Prophets, as Saul did, slaying fourscore in a day, but give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name. Oh let us give him this day the honour that is due unto him, that since he hath given us the blood of his Son to preserve us, he may find us one day amongst the preserved; and consider that he that is proud, crowns his head with thorns, he that scoffs at Religion, spits in his face: and think upon these meditations;  
First, in what a miserable condition thou art till thou hast gotten some sign that thou art preserved by him, and that thou hast some part in his sufferings. I wonder that the souls of many men go not out rending and tearing, go not out stark mad, having no evidence of their salvation. There is no comfort without an interest in Christ. What a miserable parting is there both of soul and body, without an assurance that Jesus Christ is thy Redeemer? Whatsoever thou art, or whatsoever thy estate is in this world, thou art a wretch, if thou hast not a part in thy Preserver. As Jacob said, when he saw the Chariots and Wagons that Joseph sent for him, Now I shall see Joseph, let me die, I desire to live no longer, it is enough Joseph is alive: so should we be able to say, Howe'er the world goes in other things, we know that our Preserver is alive; whatever devices Satan hath raised, whatsoever crimes thou hast committed, though the Devil say, nec pars, nec sors in hoc negotio, thou hast neither part nor portion in this Saviour; Oh then bethink yourselves that God is a Preserver.  
The Rabbins tell us of a City of Refuge God had appointed in the time of the old Law, that there should be a City of Refuge, and that the  should flee thither, and there was a care had that at every turning of the way there stood an hand pointing out every particular passage to the City of Refuge, and written at the end of the hand REFUGE, as if it should have said, Fly  for thy life, thou hast the way before thee. What truth is in it I know not, yet it is an excellent representation of every one that are sinners; we are in the case of man-slayers all of us, and God hath appointed at every turning of the way a finger, at every corner of the City there is a voice that calls upon us, Refuge, Refuge, to save ourselves; while the enemy is at our back, the Devil follows us with might and main at the committing of every sin that he may reach us before we get to the City. God hath his voice and his finger to point us thither, it must be our wisdom to go while the finger points and the voice calls. We know not how long we shall hear the voice of God in our Churches, let us bestir ourselves as they that fly for their lives, let us hear the voice of God, and gird up our loins: we see by every day's example the uncertainty of life, let us fly to him that is the refuge of sinners, he that had his arms this day spread on the Cross to save all, will not refuse thee; and that he may show us his mercy who is the Preserver of men, God of his mercy grant us, for his Son's sake, for his mercy sake. Amen.  
And thus this sweet Singer of our Israel, this ravishing Nightingale, or if you will, this Dove, did groan forth unto you the Passion of his Lord; he like a dexterous Physician did clap a plaster of warm blood to your souls, and I hope it will prove like the blood of Goats, qualifying you, that you will afford pliable hearts to God, and obedient hearts to him, and charitable hearts to your brethren, seeing you have a share in this Preserver.  
But there lies no comfort in the death of Christ, if we hear not of his Resurrection. What is it to hear of a Saviour dead, if he be not risen? What is it to have our Surety to be in prison? but he is out. Hence breaks the day both of his triumph and our comfort, that this Samson hath carried away the gates of brass, this rod of Aaron hath devoured all the other rods, this God though he overcame not at the first, yet he overcomes at the last; this Jonah is now cast on the shore; and this happy tidings an Angel of our Church brought from another Angel, and his Text was in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chap. 28. verse 6.   

A Sermon Preached by Dr Thomas Morton Lord Bishop of Durham at the Spittle on Monday, April 26. 1641. before Sir Wright, Lord Major.  Right Honourable, Worshipful, and beloved in Jesus Christ, harken I beseech you with reverence to the Word of God; as it is written in the holy Evangelist Saint Matthew, Chap. 28.6. He is not here, for he is risen. 
THese are the words of the Angel of God unto two devout women that came to visit the Sepulchre of our Saviour, declaring unto them the Resurrection of Christ from the dead: a Fundamental point of Christianity, and the argument of these three day's Festivity is the Resurrection of our Saviour; and this Feast hath obtained from Gregory Nazianzen this acclamation, Oh Feast of all Feasts! Oh Festivity of all Festivities! Oh Celebrity of all Celebrities! And therefore beloved, we are so much the more bound to the discharge of our duties for a solemn and deliberate commemoration of it, and you to a diligent, devout and reverend attention unto those four points and parts which are deduceable out of this Text; He is not here, for he is risen.  
The parts are these: The first is Logical; the second Historical; the third Analogical; and the fourth Moral. The Logical thus, from the word and particle for, He is not here, for, etc. Secondly, Historical, in the words following, he is risen, a declaration of the Resurrection itself. Analogical, from the person he, in the relation that Christ hath as Head unto all Christians that shall be raised again unto everlasting life as the members of Christ. The Moral, that dependeth upon the same words, he is risen, because it doth challenge of every Christian man a conformity of life, in rising unto newness of life conformable to that Resurrection of Christ, as the Apostle will tell us afterwards.  
I begin with the Logical, He is not here, for, etc. His assertion is Negative, He is not here; the proof of it, for he is risen. This for is a causal term, which if it be turned into an illative, it stands thus; He is risen, therefore he is not here: As if a man should say, the stars they are not seen, for the Sun is up. Verte, the Sun is up, therefore the stars are not seen. The conclusion therefore of the Angel should be this, Christ cannot be in the grave and out of the grave, not here and there, not in two places at once; and that is our present Theme. This doctrine that I teach unto you, it was the confession and profession of this our Protestant Church always, it was written in Rubric in the blood of the Martyrs in the days of Queen Mary, both Bishops and others, whensoever they were called to that murderous rack of Interrogation among the Papists, ask them this question, What say you to the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament? They answered, he is not there bedily; they proved it, for he is risen, he is ascended into Heaven; a reason, as you see, Angelical, this being granted that the body of Christ is not in two places at once, then is the foundation of all the Romish Mass utterly ruined, dissolved into rubbish and dust; for then farewell the bodily presence, the feigned and forged Transubstantiation, the gross oral and bodily receiving of it, the sacrilegious sacrificing of it, and that which is the last and worst, the idolatrous adoring of bread in stead of the person of the Son of God, Christ himself.  
Nevertheless we may not imagine that the Doctors of that Church make no answer to this consequence of the Angel, He is not here, for he is risen: Their answer is this, that he spoke not these words Doctrinally, but only Morally, secundum modulum, according to the capacity of the women, who might think peradventure that he was risen not out of the grave, but in the grave: a transparent falsity, as will be proved now to the contrary: As this holy Evangelist, He is not here, (could he walk in the grave to Galilee?) for he is risen; look upon the next verse, He is risen, as he said. What said he? The Evangelist Saint Luke, chap. 24. as he said to you women when you were in Galilee. Then the saying must be taken as it was told them by Christ in Galilee, before he was crucified. What was his saying? He said unto them, I shall rise the third day. What meant Christ by rising? was it rising in the grave, or out of the grave? Certainly out of the grave. Will you have our witnesses? Two Angels, Luke 24.5. Say unto these women, Why seek you the living among the dead? If he be living, he is not among the dead; therefore not in the grave, but out of the grave: It is the conclusion of the very Angels themselves. Come to the next words following here, Go quickly, tell his Disciples that he is risen: Tell his Disciples; then the Angels instructed them so, that they might have a faith that he was out of the grave, to the end they might persuade the Disciples, being now a foundation of the Articles of the Christian Faith: But above all you will see it, Luke 24.6. He renders the words of Christ thus, He is not here, but he is risen. But, that is a particle adversitive, always implying a contradiction from the former; as if he should say, such a one is not dead, but alive; if therefore alive, not dead. Christ saith of his body, I am not spirit, but flesh; flesh therefore, not spirit. Thus in all it is a contradiction in adjuncts: Therefore the truth is, this is an impossibility that the body of Christ can be in two places at once, which is the conclusion drawn from thence. Now beloved, I had not insisted so much upon this, except it had been;  
First, that it was so full in my way, that I could not pass by it.  
Secondly, because of the jealousy of these times, wherein it is suspected that divers of the ecclesiastics are infected with this leaven, or rather leprosy of Popery, to think that the body of Christ can be in divers places at once: Therefore now I shall crave leave to enlarge myself, and the rather because in thus saying, whosoever they be they destroy it.  
I am therefore now beloved, to prove it unto you not by testimonies and allegations only, but to deliver unto you the heads as I may say, the form and the reasons summarily of true Antiquity in the Primitive Church, and that shall confirm unto us this our doctrine to have been not only a Catholic truth, but to have had the degree of a Catholic faith in the Church of God for six hundred years together. Briefly then thus; those holy Fathers taught first, that no creature can be in divers places at once: why? for that this to be in divers places at once, is the Prerogative of God himself.  
Secondly, they prove that the holy Ghost the third Person in the Trinity is God. Why? for that it was in divers Prophets at once: Jeremiah in Jewry, Daniel when he was in Babylon, Ezekiel in Cabar; and also after that when he was in divers Apostles at once, they being dispersed into divers Regions of the world.  
Thirdly, they prove that the Angels are not Gods. Why? Because Angels cannot be in divers places at once.  
Fourthly, they prove that no body, no bodily substance can be in divers places at once. Why? For that it is one body, and to be here and there in one instant, were to divide itself from itself; that it were two and one, and not one, are contradictions.  
Lastly, that we may omit divers others, they prove that the Humanity is thus distinguished from the Divinity, because the Deity, the divinity nature that being in Heaven is in Earth, and every where else; but the humane nature if it be in Heaven, it is not on Earth, if on Earth it is not in Heaven. Thus these holy Fathers: You have their doctrine of truth. Now that it may appear unto you that this doctrine of truth was also a doctrine of faith, and that by two reasons:  
First, because by these for's which are answerable to this for of the Angel here, they urged them against the Heretics of their times, such were the Marcionites, the Manichees, the Neucomitans, and such like.  
Secondly, because they did this to this end that they might confirm unto all the world the doctrine of the Deity, to know that this is a Prerogative belonging to God alone; and secondly, for the preservation of the true nature of the manhood of Christ; for whereas the Manichees might say that the body of Christ was in the Moon and the Deity together; fieri non potest, saith Saint Austin, it cannot be; for by this means you will not make it a true body of Christ. I will conclude, and it shall be in the words of an holy Father that lived six hundred years after Christ, Vigilius by name, who saith thus, Humanitas Christi si in terra tunc non in coelo, etc. The Humanity of Christ if it be on Earth, then certainly it is not in Heaven, if in Heaven bodily, then certainly not on earth. Was this his private opinion only? No; Haec est Confessio Catholica quam, etc.  
This is the Confession, a Catholic confession, saith he, which the Apostles have delivered, the Martyrs of Christ have confirmed, and now all the faithful in Christ do preserve to this day. Beloved, this Vigilius was Bishop of Trent, and he hath delivered unto us a confession as contrary unto the last Council of Trent, as yea and nay, truth and falsity, Antiquity and Novelty; so that if the Primitive Church of Christ was the Catholic Church, certainly the now Romish church it is a stepdame and degenerate. If the Primitive doctrine was a Catholic faith, and a legitimate child, than the now doctrine of the Church of Rome it is a bastard-brat.  
Now then beloved, I have delivered unto you the points concerning the Logical part, wherein if I have been too obscure, if that Logic part be too obscure for some, I may make amends in the Historical, where I shall not make it so plain to your brains, as to your senses. He is not here, for, etc.  
This Historical part will offer unto you 3 observations concerning this doctrine of Christ's Resurrection; the first is,  
1. That it is a truth most evident.  
2. It is a truth Omnipotent.  
3. It is a truth Trimphant.  
For Christ after his Resurrection manifested himself unto all men, all kinds of men that heard him Preach: he manifested himself to two, to twelve, to five hundred at once; to Saint Paul after his Ascension into Heaven, here is all the eyesight: to other senses; he manifested himself to his Apostles by feeling and handling his body; here are three senses. Now beloved, why should not this be a foundation of truth to know and discern, to build our faith upon these things? The Apostl●●aint John tells us that it ought to be so, for saith he, 1 John 1.1. That which you have heard, that which you have seen, that which your hands have handled, that we declare unto you, etc. He lays the faith of Christ on this foundation, hearing, seeing, handling. Here again I am justly occasioned to deal with the Church of Rome, by this light to dispel the darkness thereof, that their great infatuation concerning the body of Christ; they say he is in the Sacrament in these three opinions: First, he is here, say they, and yet his body is invisible. Secondly, it is here impalpable: And lastly, 'tis in Heaven both visible and palpable. It is here invisible, impalpable, and yet it is in Heaven both visible and palpable; three monsters which are now to be expulsed, not by the strength of my wit, but by the authority of this Angel here speaking from Christ, here spoken of, from t●● Church of Christ, their whole voice for a general union for this; the Angel in the next words, even in this Text, this verse, he saith unto the women, Come and see, Come and see where they laid the Lord. I say he is not here, I will prove it unto you, demonstrate it unto your sight, let your sight be Judge; the arbitration of your sight shall satisfy you: Come and see, he is not here; though they laid him here, he is not here; here is the argument of the Angel: But here they will tell us he passed by men out of company to avoid danger, and they saw him not. This is truth, but this is not all the truth; for the reason why they saw him not, it was because their eyes were held that they could not see. How many of you now see this Pulpit? and yet wink with your eyes, you cannot see it. Is this Pulpit ere the less visible, because you do not see it? When men's eyes are held, they cannot see, Christ's body notwithstanding was visible still to be seen. And now to confirm this that I have said unto you, St. John himself shall make it good. There was one of the Disciples (saith he John 20. and he speaks of himself) the other Disciple he looked into the sepulchre, and he saw the linen clothes, he saw not Christ there present; and what doth he but resolve and believe that he was risen out of the grave? And indeed it had been a mockery of these women, for the Angel, if their eyes being held, to bid them to see without their sight. Therefore you have the first point concerning this sense of Seeing sufficiently demonstrated unto you. Come to our Saviour Christ: As the Angel said to the woman, Come and see; so Christ he said to his Disciples, Come and feel, feel, I am I, this body is mine, feel my body, search the wounds, etc. So that now Christ makes this truth even palpable unto them, that they may have their faith from the virtue of their own fingers. This is the doctrine of Christ, the body of Christ is palpably to be seen; Come unto our faith, the Council of Ephesus, one of the first Counsels in the Christian world, for the humane nature of Christ resolves thus; Corpus Christi est & visibile & palpabile ubicunque fuerit. The body of Christ it is visible and tractable wheresoever it is; therefore may we come now to our resolution, and conclude, that the body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Mass, you say it is invisible, I say then it is not the body of Christ: Do you say it is impalpable? it is not the body of Christ. Do you say also it is both visible and invisible? I return to the Fathers, and they say thus: This is, say they, sottish. Why? you may as well say that the same body of Christ can be finite and infinite, it can be created and not created at once, which the distinction of places can never reconcile.  
Oh, but say they unto us, this is natural reason, this is reasoning like Ethnics and Pagans. Nay, we have the Authority, which is the Authority of the Catholic Church, we have the Authority Angelical, we have not only the Authority Evangelical, but of Christ himself. He is not here, etc. Thus I have shown that he is palpable wheresoever he be: Now the evidence being thus plain, let us ascend a little higher, to know, that what if some should say, that notwithstanding these evidences, I doubt whether this doctrine be true or no, that Christ is risen? Our Apostle Saint Paul hath answered this argument long ago, when he said thus; If that Christ be not risen, we are false witnesses: As if he should say, a thing most incredible, for they which were with our Lord and Saviour, and saw, and heard, and felt him, were always ready to lay down their lives for Christ, and for this very Article, he is risen. There Saint Paul speak for himself; If Christ be not risen, what should it advantage me that I fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men, to endanger my life for this Article, Christ is risen? and this was that Paul that could say of himself, 1 Cor. 10. That among all those many troubles and afflictions for this profession, In carcere, etc. I was in death often, oftentimes left for dead, stoned and persecuted, so manifold a Martyr was this one Saint Paul. He speaks also of the rest of the Apostles, 1 Cor. 5. We are in jeopardy every day, every day in jeopardy, even for this Article, and this truth that Christ is risen he stands upon, in that 1 Cor. 15. Well then beloved, for the establishing of our Christian faith in this one point, certainly these Apostles of Christ had been most shameless, if they had published to all that which they saw not; most faithless, if they had not believed that which they all saw; most heartless, if they had not ventured their lives for the profession of that, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, by virtue whereof their bodies should also be reserved to eternal life; and most foolish also, if they should have spent their blood for that they believed not, they having thus seen, thus heard, thus believed, thus Preached, thus dying and suffering death, they may be eyes, and have been to the Christian world, to see by their faith; and so I persuade myself of you all that are here present, to give faith unto this Article of the resurrection of Christ from death; and therefore I am authorised to give unto you the benediction which Christ gave unto such as you, saying, Blessed are they that see not, and yet believe; and so Blessed be you.  
Now you have heard the evidence, this is an evident truth, we have not yet heard the power of it, but that is in the next part, wherein I said that this is a truth which is Omnipotent, an Omnipotent truth, look to our Text; I, but saith the Evangelist, He is risen; he doth not say Agarthes', he is raised, but he is risen, and because it was he that raised himself from the dead: It is he that said, I have power to lay down my life, and to take it up again; lay down my life by dying, to take it up again by rising: as easy to take it up as to lay it down, to lay down my life as man, to take it up again as God. Even as he said of the same body to the Jews, Destroy you this Temple, I will raise it up in three days. Destroy it, than its destructive; but raise it up in three days, there's his Godhead. Thus he spoke once, let us put them together, God and Man, Man and God. How prove we it? The Apostle proves it, Heb. 1.1. of Christ, thus, he was declared mightily to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. Whereupon Saint Austin, Oh miraculum miraculorum! This is a miracle of miracles, the Sun of all Suns, never the like, that one dead should raise himself from the dead; this could not be man, but God; it must needs be as the Apostle to the Colossians, The Godhead dwelling in him bodily which raised himself from the dead: now beloved, from hence it must follow, that it was impossible for him to be detained in the grave; and S. Peter saith, Acts 2. it was impossible for Christ to be detained in the pangs of death; it is a word taken from women travailing in child, when the throws and pangs are upon her she cannot contain her burden, it must go out. Well said Chrysologus of this burden, Concepit mortuum & peperit vivum: Here is a difference then between this womb and all the rest of the world, conceiving dead, and bringing forth alive; and indeed so it must needs be when Omnipotency is the Midwife, as it was with Ionas, a type of Christ, swallowed up of the Whale, the stomach could not digest it, it must be cast out. Of what use must this be to us? the same power that raised him from death to life, the same power will give us resurrection to life everlasting, even our bodies. So the Apostle, Phil. 3. He will change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his glorious body. So much for the second point, that I call it an Omnipotent truth.  
The next is, that it is also a triumphant truth; there are two triumphings of Christ that we read of in Scripture, and they are admirable; the one is of his Passion, and the other not of his, but of the general Resurrection; the one is an Introduction to the other; of his Passion thus, Col. 2. He having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, and triumphed over them on the Cross. Here is his triumph, he becomes a conqueror over principalities and powers; he made a show of them openly, he spoilt them, there's the conquering; sold them openly, there's the preparation for the triumph of the people, and to look upon all as a conqueror, there's his triumph; this triumph thus spokes of it hath allusion unto the triumphs of the world, and especially that of the Roman State, wherein there was first presented a multitude of Trumpeters, sounding out the victory, and resounding; then came in chariots of spoils, spoils of armour, spoils of riches; the conqueror he sits in the midst looking back unto those noble slaves that came behind, their wives, their children, and all their hands bound about them. I will pass no farther in the story, enough for application. Now I beseech you extend your mind as much as you can that we may behold at least some glimpse of this great victory of our Saviour Christ and of his conquest. Here now, where was his sight of Majesty? he was now giving up the ghost upon the Cross, and behold a triumph, why God and Man the Deity never forsook the Manhood, no not in his death; the virtue of his death was the crucifying of the Devil and all his powers: And now I come to the slaves of this triumph, the principalities and powers, namely, the greatest powers that can be conceived in creatures; and who should deal with them but he that is above all power, Christ our Saviour? What doth he spoil them of? of all their designs, be they never so mischievous; he spoils them of all their wiles, and prevents them they can do nothing, never any thing to the prejudice of the children of God regenerate, never any thing that shall work to his overthrow: This is that spoil, and he leads them, as it is here in the other Text, open in view, he goes not out of sight; So that this point is contemplative; here is no Cherubims or Seraphims, Angels or Archangels, but whatsoever can be seen in the world by the mortal eyes, that was visibly performed by Christ. Thus much for that second triumph; and so it shall be in the general resurrection, 1 Cor. 15. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh Hell, or Grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who hath given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; Thanks be to God that he hath given us victory in Christ our Lord. Now mark I beseech you the manifold circumstances of this victory in the day of the resurrection of the holy Saints and Martyrs. What will become of the Law? the Law of God it shall be canceled; no more Law here, and the Law it is the strength of sin; for if there were no law, there were no transgression, the law being taken away, there is no more sin; and as for sins past, they are either pardoned or punished in the day of the resurrection. Well then, but sin it is the sting of death, what becomes of death? Death it is swallowed up in victory: Death's dead, no more giving up of the ghost. Come to the Grave; Grave where is thy victory? When the Trumpets sound, and the Angel gives his voice, arise ye dead, and come unto Judgement, they come out of their Graves, the Graves are empty. But the great enemies are Hell and the Devil: Hell where's thy victory? The conquest being before, as you heard, concerning the passage of the souls of men, the gates of Hell are shut up, no ingress nor egress, but all is shut, they are all detained, as the Apostle saith, in the chains of darkness and torments for ever. And this is our victory; Thanks be to God that hath given us victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen. Thus have I ended the Historical point, which concerned us in the evidence of this truth, that you have heard that he is risen, and of the power thereof: All this while we have not learned the causes of this resurrection, that belongs to the third part which I said was Analogical, and this hath three considerations:  
The first is this; Christ here in the Text is to be considered, in the first place, as the general cause of the Resurrection of the world of men.  
The second consideration is this, That he in this Text is the special cause of the resurrection of all the souls everlastingly blessed.  
The third consideration of him is, as he is risen as an example, That it is possible there may be a resurrection from the death of the body. First, the resurrection of Christ teacheth us a certainty of resurrection, that he is the special effectual cause of the resurrection to life everlasting unto the sons of God that show the actions of the resurrection of Christ. Secondly, there is a generality or universality of Resurrection. Thirdly, the possibility of the body's resurrection unto life. To begin with the universality, all must rise again; by whom? by whose power? why? by Christ's, 1 Cor. 15.6. As by the sin of the first Adam death came upon all men, so by Christ the Resurrection from the dead: all men, all manner of men, all men dying, all men rising, all the sons of men. We have an Apostle for it: All men, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 6. All men must die, all men must appear before the Tribunal Seat of Christ, and give an account of all things they did in this life, be it good or bad. Here's good and bad, all men. This was believed by the Jews before Christ came; so the Apostle Saint Peter, Acts 2. shows unto us, That they believed the resurrection from the dead. They believed the Prophet Daniel, that they should rise, the just and the unjust, Dan. 12. Here's all that Prophet's prophecy, some to honour, and some to shame; here's either honour, or shame: A shame therefore it will be unto us, beloved, if we do not believe that which they believed. That we having before us not a prophecy which Saint Peter saith is a dark light; they believed in a dark light, in a light in a dark place, and we have the very Sunshine of the Gospel to instruct us: But what instruction do we learn from this universality? It commends unto us the general Justice of God, that as he will be both vindicative and remunerative to the bodies of men, they must rise again; vindicative, to punish wicked men, and remunerative, to reward the godly, even in their bodies. Our reason; That as the body hath been an instrument unto the soul for acting either good or evil, so they should be copartners together in weal or woe. We see the same shadowed in the Parable, the finger of the poor man in Heaven, and the tongue of the rich man in Hell, yet notwithstanding it must be the same body: and as Job said of his eyes, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and I shall see him with these eyes, and no other. The same eyes; For beloved, how should it consist with the Justice of God, that one body should glutton, gormandise and swell with excess, and wallow in sensual pleasures, and there should be another body put upon him that should cry out, I am tormented in these flames? Or for the godly, as for example, Saint Stephen, whose name signifies a Crown, that he should suffer Martyrdom for this truth we are now proving, the Resurrection, and afterwards another body be given unto him, which should be clothed with blessedness, which is called the Crown of Righteousness? No, beloved, it is a certain and an infallible truth, that it must be disposed according to the Justice of God. There's a statute for it, Heb. 1.9. Statutum est, etc. It is appointed and statuted for all men to die, and after death comes Judgement; all men first to die, and then comes Judgement, Judgement as sure as death. Here is matter of horror, and matter of comfort; horror to the wicked, that when that great and general Goal-delivery comes, it shall be as it is sometimes at the Assizes; there are two men in prison, and one hath either got his pardon, or else he is innocent, that none can impeach him; and he saith to his fellows, I am going before the Judge for deliverance out of prison. Another he hath Guilty branded in his forehead, and he cries, I am going before the Judge, but it is to receive my condemnation, and to be delivered over to execution: So shall it be in the end of time, and in this general Resurrection; Then as it is in the Apocalypse, the wicked that should appear before the Judge, shall cry to the rocks to cover them, and the mountains to fall upon them, to deliver them from the wrath of the Lamb, and yet to them he is a Tiger; looking upon their guiltiness and desperation, they call and cry for impossibilities, rocks to hid them from the Judge of all Judges, and hills to cover them from the God of all Gods. But as for the godly, they come and say, Now is our Redemption at hand; for that which concerns redemption and comfort it belongs to them. The next consideration is the necessity of the resurrection. Now hear how necessary this resurrection is. We read of many benefits in the Scripture of God concerning all men by virtue of Christ's birth, his life, his merits, his preaching, his passion, his dying. But what if there were no Resurrection? The Apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 15. Then were our faith in vain. Our whole faith were vain, if there were not a resurrection, we preach in vain: And indeed were there no resurrection, though the birth of Christ were never so joyous, the miracles that he wrought in the world never so miraculous, his promises for everlasting life never so gracious, his work and price of Redemption never so meritorious, yet if there were no resurrection, his birth, his life, his miracles, his passion, yea, his death itself put together, the same stone that covered his corpse, should cover all those singular infinite benefits. But now he is risen, this work of the resurrection it is both the perfection and compliment of all the Articles that went before, so it is also the foundation of all the Articles that come after, rising, communion, sitting at the right hand of God in glory: See the necessity of this resurrection, and there is also the like necessity laid upon us, seeing this resurrection is the virtue of our resurrection: So the Apostle to the Colossians tells us, That Christ is the Head of the Church, and the first begotten of the dead. He must have the preeminence, he is the first begotten of the dead, for he ascended first into Heaven, to take possession, there's his pre-eminence; Happy are we if we can come after, as we may come, for he did not take possession for himself alone, but as the head of the whole body, he is the first begotten among the dead. And this for the comfort of all; Be that inseparable union between us and Christ known unto you, I do not say in our souls alone, but in our bodies also; for so the Apostle, Eph. 5. We are flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. Oh beloved, when the holy Fathers of the Primitive Church fell upon this Text, they were ravished with contemplations thereof; to think there was such an individual union between Christ and them, even our bodies. And this union is more than if there were a reality of corporation in body and body, by the virtue whereof he our head is risen, that we may rise again; and sooner shall Christ suffer his flesh to be torn from his body, then that any one regenerate Christian man shall be separated from him in the resurrection to eternal glory. Thus saith the Apostle, 1 Thess. 4. They shall be always with him. Now then thus you see as in the resurrection of Christ himself, so in our resurrection, although that all our joy in the birth of Christ, all our saith in the promises of Christ, and in the virtue of his death, and all our hope of glory to come, it is risen from these words of my Text, by the virtue of this, He is risen. This is the necessity, which is the second consideration I spoke of; and now beloved, methinks I hear the voices of profane men that say, What do you tell us of the resurrection, of the universality, the happiness or necessity of Christ's resurrection, before you can show unto us the possibility thereof? This is the next point which I am to handle unto you, That it is possible that all shall rise again. I prove it from the Text, there's a possibility, and thus it stands, He is risen; if one man be risen from the dead, its possible for another that's dead to rise again. Here's the argument, and yet behold there are two adversaries against this argument. The one is imaginary, and denyeth the consequence; the other is peremptory and pernicious, and denies the antecedent. The consequence is this, ergo another man may rise again. The imaginary man that reads that Text, Thou wilt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption, reasons in his fancy not peremptorily, not certainly, why there is difference betwixt Christ's rising and a Christian man's, for Christ he is that holy One without sin; We sinners, for these reasons: His body felt no corruption, our bodies even putrified unto corruption itself. He the holy One, he could hollow his own grave, so cannot we, for we are corrupt. These are his fancies; now peradventure you may think they deserve no answer; not much indeed, and yet the answer whatsoever it shall be, I hope it shall be pertinent and not unprofitable.  
To the first therefore thus; He it is true had no sin, he was innocent, yea, innocency itself. Now every one of us, whosoever they be that are in the world, that will say they are no sinners, and have no sin, the Apostle Saint John will give him the lie, 1 John 1. There is no truth is him. He hath no part in Christ's resurrection, no affinity with him, and by nature we are born aliens from him: So to consider that he being crucified of men most wickedly, desperately, cruelly, blasphemously handled of sinners, any natural man would think now that he is risen, Theanthropos, God and man, He should abhor all men, and loath the sight of all sinners, and become Misanthropos. But behold and marvel, how he recollects himself in the behalf of sinners immediately after his resurrection. Saint Mark chap. 16. tells us, That Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Note, as much as if he should have said, he appeared first of all unto one that had been a most notorious sinner, she out of whom he had cast seven Devils, this deserves a Marginal Note; and speaks unto her in a mild compellation, Marry, that's for her. The Disciples of Christ they forsook him, and turned apostates from Christ; but did Christ forsake them? No: In the tenth verse of this Chapter he saith unto them, Go and tell them; yea, they were more than forsakers, for among the Disciples there was one Peter, he that had vowed above all the rest not to deny Christ, yet he disclaimed and disavowed him; what's become of him? This Messenger of Christ, this Angel saith, Go and tell the Disciples, and Peter by name, lest he might be missed. But what shall we say for Thomas? message upon message comes unto him, We have seen him, he is risen: Christ comes and gives his blessing to all his Disciples, saying, Peace be unto you; cries, Thomas, Thomas, come and feel and believe. Beloved, behold here the mirror of all mercifulness in our Saviour Christ. Consider what Christ is: An Angel tells us he was therefore called a Saviour, because he should save his people from their sins; this was in his Passion; he died for our sins, and risen again for our justification: So in his Resurrection. But now he is above all principalities and powers, after his conquest of these principalities and powers, when he led Captivity Captive, and will he now vouchsafe pardon unto sinners? It is his profession, If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.  
The next Exception that was taken to the consequence, was this; That he was the holy One that saw no corruption, but we are corrupt and putrified; the best of us all with lying but four days in the grave, will be little better than Lazarus, rotten and stinking. Yet notwithstanding remember that Lazarus being dead, what Christ said to his Disciples, Our brother Lazarus is asleep, let us go and wake him. So it is with all our corpses, though they be turned into dust. Lend me your attentions; Let us all go to Golgotha, the place of dead men's skulls; look upon them with the eye of faith, as those that will rise in the resurrection among the just. But if there be any such here, that Saint Peter speaks of, saying, In the last days there shall come scoffers, denying the resurrection, we may deal with these faithless as Christ with the Fiddlers, turn them out of our company, that we have no conversation with them: So that Christ here being the holy One, and we his members, we shall in the end be holy ones with Christ.  
The last is the hallowing of our Graves; and the Apostle saith, He is the first-fruits of them that sleep. Christ risen, and in Heaven, he is there but the first-fruits of the dead in behalf of us. The first-fruits of them that sleep: Alluding to that in the old Law, where the Priests were to take sheaves out of the field before they were ripe, and to offer them up to God, and by oblation of those sheaves all the field of Corn was sanctified to the people: So it is here, Christ is the first-fruits, wheresoever man's body be, be it in the ditch, or on the dunghill, be it in the maws of birds or beasts, all our bodies through him are sanctified unto God. So having done with this, I come to the Hereticallizer, who denies all possibility of resurrection, the Antecedent. He will stand upon natural reason: Now there is two ways, if I were to deal with a Jew I would easily confute him; If a Jew, I would stand upon the principles of our Saviour Christ, in his answer to the Sadduces; You err, not knowing Scriptures, nor the power of God. The Scripture tells you you shall rise, and where's the power that's in the Scriptures? Also there's Moses leprous hand, and presently healed; there's Aaron's rod, dry, yet presently budded and blossomed; Sarah being barren, shortly after bears a child; Jonah three days and three nights in the whales belly & yet riseth again. Eze. 37. There were dry bones, and yet bones creep unto bones, sinews creep unto those bones, and knit them together, and flesh comes and knits those sinews, and then God puts life, and then they become men. But we are to deal with the man that is merely natural, and stands altogether upon his own reason, and therefore thus: If he will take the pains to go into Arabia, there he may hear of the Phoenix, that consumes itself in the fire, and another riseth out of those ashes. But that's too far: Come nearer hand, to the Bombyx, the Silkworm, he dies, and out of his dust comes a Fly. These are yet remote; will you have them domestical? in our own Land we shall find the like: In some places the Bees, the Flies, the Wasps are produced out of the Hides of Beasts of divers kinds: But except I see a natural reason I will not believe it. Perhaps you will say with Thomas, I will not believe, unless I see it and feel it. Well, seeing these will not serve thy turn, what shall I do unto thee? Even as Solomon sent the Sluggard to the Ant to labour, so must I thee. Saint Paul he sends a Naturalist or natural Fool to learn of a little seed of Corn the resurrection from the dead; Thou fool, when thou sowest, the seed lives not before it dies: and yet you may see it live, you may see it die, after it is turned to dust, it lives again: And by this he foolifies all the generation of Philosophers and Infidels; and as we say, Jannes and Jambres, which withstood Moses by false miracles, were conquered by one true miracle of Lice; So all these are confounded in this one seed; and even here is the finger of God, and as much in this as ever it was in that, to the confusion of those that withstand it. Now beloved, that you have heard all these points opened, there remains the fourth, and that's the Moral point. About which I had studied not a little, but foreseeing I should trespass upon your patience, I have contracted myself into some few Instructions concerning the Moral part; and the first is this:  
That the Resurrection of Christ requires of every Christian a conformity of holiness of life; and the Apostle will make it good, for thus he saith, Rom. 6. That as Christ risen again, so should we walk in newness of life: So that newness of life is a conformity to the Resurrection of Christ. I speak of this newness of life the rather, because it is a resurrection in itself. So Saint John, Apoc. 20. Those that are partakers of the first resurrection, saith he, shall never fall into the second death. By the first Resurrection, newness of life, we are made partakers of the second resurrection; and from hence may arise divers instructions. The first shall be this; That all Christian virtues they take their rising from the doctrine of the resurrection unto eternal life, that comprehends all virtues that can be imagined, Coloss. 1. Saint Paul gives a direction that we should live soberly, justly, holily in this present world. Here's a Triplicative virtue which contains all others; we must live soberly, this requires temperance and sobriety, etc. justly, that extends to all relation we have to Superiors or Governors; and the other is holiness, which brings upon us all the obligations that we have concerning God and his worship in this present world: What follows? looking for the hope of the mighty God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, how should this ravish the hearts of men to live soberly, justly and holily in this present world? When as the true Christian regenerate may say with the holy Apostle, that he hath an expectation, an hope, a looking for the appearance, the blessed appearance, the glorious appearance of God, a mighty God, and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Here you see that our salvation depends upon these triplicity virtues. Again, Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 13. saith thus, there are the three, Faith, Hope, and Charity. What have these to do with the resurrection? Certainly the doctrine of the resurrection is made sure by these: Therefore for Faith first, be it known unto you, I speak of a living faith, not of a dead faith, void of repentance and newness of life. This is a dead faith which he calls a Devilish faith; but I speak of that faith which Saint Paul affirms to work by love: Of this faith our Saviour Christ saith, He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall be live; Here is living of dying. This is a resurrection, and he that believes this, doth believe he shall rise. The next to Faith is Charity; of this St. John speaks, We know we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren. Therefore love the brethren, because we shall be preserved from death to life. Now come to open it, and that in the Old Testament, where it is said, The people of God were tormented, racked, suffered all manner of persecution, because they looked for a better resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body to be better than all the torments and afflictions the world could lay upon them. Surely beloved, we can look for no better resurrection than these holy men did that suffered for the resurrection; but we may better look for it then they, they looked upon it with dim eyes, and they believed, but we have open eyes, we may see it by most evident demonstrations; they never saw Christ raised from the dead, reigning in Majesty, in Eternity and Glory; this doctrine are we made sensible of. Now therefore saith the Apostle, If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him. So much for our Hope.  
The second point is this: That our first resurrection requires that our worship and service unto God in holiness be as well performed in body as in soul. Thus the Apostle, 1 Cor. 1.6. Glorify God in your bodies and souls, you are bought with a price; Glorify God with your bodies; and yet behold greater than these: Let every man say unto himself, I am created by God both body and soul, Ergo, I will glorify him in both: But since I have trespassed against my God, and thereby lost both body and soul; Therefore, thirdly, there comes a Redeemer unto me, and he suffers for me agonies and pangs both in body and soul; therefore by this suffering he hath freed me from everlasting death and torments both of body and soul. This is not all, but besides this, the price spoken of here which is the price of redemption, is also a price purchasing of glory in the Heavens for my body and soul, and therefore let them that have bodies and souls know that there is a duty lies upon them to glorify God in their lives both in their bodies and souls. The next point is this; That the sinful body hath a dead soul; every sinful body wallowing in sin hath a dead soul: So we read, 1 Tim. 1.5. The woman living in pleasure, she was dead though she lived. Again, the Bishop of Sardis, a wicked Bishop, but yet a Bishop, I am sure a Bishop; Thou hast a name that thou livest, but thou art dead. Our Saviour Christ said unto the survivers of those that were dead, Survivers unto them, and go and attend their Funeral and Hearse; Go, (saith he) let the dead in sins bury their dead: So you see that these wicked ones they have but the carcase of Christians. And as nothing is more ugly and odious in the sight of man then the carcase of man; so there is nothing more detestable in the sight of God than a wicked, obstinate and impenitent sinner. Again, the mortified body hath a living soul; It is necessary that this be preached unto all the world, because most of the world have forgot themselves. And the principal part of Christianity consists in this mortification and sanctification. We all live in sins, dost thou live in actual sin, bodily sin? thou art dead, if thou be not mortified in them. Give up your bodies a living sacrifice, that is, mortification; let not sin reign in your mortal bodies. I will give you a pattern of S. Paul himself, 1 Cor. 9 But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; So than you see that this is a matter on which consists eternal life. The Apostle tells us, If you mortify the lusts of the flesh, you shall live, if not, you shall die. It's a matter of life and death, which is to show that those that are mortified men have a living soul. Again, we must take heed of bodily and actual transgressions, for I must tell you that these acts of men done in their bodies, shall have resurrection with them, even with their bodies: This is a profitable point, for God sees all things before him, all things that have been or can be, he sees them all in present, as it were in present, that's the infiniteness of his Science. Now than what saith the Apostle? We all must appear before the Tribunal-Seat of Christ, and every one shall give an account of those things that are done in his flesh; fleshly body: So than whereas the Epicure sings his Ballad, and the burden of his Song is, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die; yet death will come, and then we must give an account of all our actions. So much for my Text.  
Because I was told I should make some application concerning the present occasion, I do therefore address myself and my speech unto you Right Honourable, and to all your reverend Senate, and to all your Associate Worthies: First, we must give an acknowledgement unto God, and bless his great goodness, that hath so sanctified the hearts of our Predecessors of former times to leave such worthy and real Testimonies to the world of their piety and godly devotion; devotion both for the Church and Houses of God, and charity unto the poor; these have received their rewards, the full rewards of all their labours on Earth, in the Heavens, where they shall remain for ever in the highest Seat of Glory; they are now Canonised by God himself, and have left themselves in their memories and examples for you and those that shall be able to walk in their steps. The Roll that I have seen speaks of wonderful blessed Foundations, of Hospitality for the relief of hundreds, and hundreds, and thousands. It doth not need so much to put them here in your Calendar and Paper, for the comfort of men, but that their good examples might stir up others to the like duties of piety and charity, in respect of those that are the Founders, all their names are registered in the Book of Life for all Eternity.  
My Exhortation unto you must be, that you would enlarge your munificence both ways, in duties of piety and charity, but especially of charity, because of the objects before our eyes, the Orphans, that have sung joyfully and comfortably unto God by way of Thanksgiving. I shall not stand to reason with you, I shall only apply those things which are appliable unto the men of the world, as they are worldly men, and apply the promises of God unto them, as they are worldly, though the promises are all Heavenly, and ye with a recommendation to men as worldly men; for you look to have habitation here in the world, behold the poor, that you bestow your charity on, they shall bring you (you know the place of Scripture, I do but name the words) into eternal habitations. You labour for treasure, and the promise is, that you shall have treasure in Heaven. Will you have bags for your treasures? the Gospel is, that these Orphans, and such like, how mortal soever they may be, yet unto God they are bags, those bags that will never wear out. Will you have a trade of life for the best advantage? then without all comparison, it is charitable usury; the promise is, You shall receive an hundred fold, be the poor what they will of themselves; the gift is to God, and to Christ, not so much unto them, for be they wanderers in the world, as we say rogues sometimes, charity is not always suspicious without cause. What faith the Wise man to us, Cast thy bread upon the waters, for after many days thou shalt find it with advantage; that thou givest unto such a man, though unworthy: what saith Job? his loins shall bless thee; thou givest mortal things, and he gives immortal blessings, his loins shall bless thee. Whatsoever thou dost to the poor, their loins, and their back, and their belly shall bless thee, for it comes from God. But withal let us know and remember why it is that the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour would set down the tenure of salvation or damnation upon the giving or not giving unto the poor, it is, because it is such a work if rightly done, that proceeds from a true faith, and therefore God knows that it is a work that proceeds from true charity; and those that do thus, and make conscience of it, as giving it for God's sake indeed, and Christ's sake indeed, certainly they are Christ's, and will walk according to the Precepts of Faith. And now I conclude with prayer, etc.  
And thus this Pillar, this reverend Father of the Church of God, this sound Divine, as heretofore he hath asserted the truth of our Religion by his hand-writing against grand Apostates, and against all the Chaos of Antichrists devises, as then by his pen, so now by his tongue, did vindicate the Resurrection, which is the Fundamental Article of our Religion; for Resurrectio à mortuis est fides Christianorum, the resurrection from the dead is the faith of Christians; and if you will know what fruit there is from Christ's rising from the dead, the third Preacher will inform you, and I shall use no other Introduction than his own. I will show you that it agrees well with the resurrection from the dead (for the mercy of God flows from this resurrection of our Saviour, for he died for our sins, and risen that our souls might be saved) in that melting Sermon of his which was anchored upon that place in the Psalms   

A Sermon Preached by Doctor Potter Bishop Carlisle, at the Spittle on Tuesday in Easter week.  PSALM 130.4. But there is mercy with thee, that thou mayst be feared. 
THE words are an Appeal of the Princely Prophet David from the Throne of Justice to the Throne of Goodness; and are considerable in their Context and in their Text. First, in their Context, and that three several ways: First, they must be considered in way of consequence, as they follow the former verse: First, he speaks of the Judgement of God; If thou O Lord, shouldst enter into Judgement, who could stand? And then he comes in with a discourse of Mercy. And secondly, as in order, so he tempers Justice and Mercy together. Thirdly, as they are a cry of perplexity, he cries in the first verse, complains in the second verse, fears in the third, and here he resolves to set upon Mercy.  
The first point from the first of these is, That we can neither sensibly nor safely Preach mercy in forgiveness of sins, unless as we do acquaint you with the Justice of God, as in the former place; so in the second place we must make and contemper in our meditations the thoughts of mercy with the thoughts of justice. Thirdly, though the action of sin may be short, yet the passion will be long. A sin may be soon committed, but the pardon of sin is not so soon had.  
First, That before we can sensibly or safely Preach the mercies of God in the forgiveness of sins unto you, we must acquaint you with the justice of God, as in the verse before my Text. If thou interest into Judgement, who shall stand? But there is mercy with thee, etc. that thou mayst be feared.  
It was the method that was always used in the Old and New Testament. Our first parents hiding themselves through terror of spirit among the bushes, when God would Preach the Gospel unto them, he first arraigns' them, and then passes a promise of mercy, That the seed of the woman should break the Serpent's head. Thus it was in the Law, before a man could know God, he must come to Mount Sinai, and the Law is a Schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ. Thus it was at the giving of the holy Ghost, there was a rushing of a mighty wind, and then the holy Ghost came into their minds and hearts. This was the method of that Preacher; then in the New Testament, first, men must be weary and heavy laden, and then Christ comes to ease, Matth. 11.8. I came not to call the righteous (those that imagine themselves so) but sinners to repentance, those that are so wise to see it, and so humble to say it. No expectation of healing from the brazen Serpent, but only from those that were hurt and look up. First, see yourselves led into captivity by the Devil, and then you are fit to receive enfranchisement and deliverance from God; and this that good Father applied unto ourselves. First, let it be an Instruction for us to consider, though Hell fire be flashed in our faces, God doth it but as parents to their children, they hold them over the fire to make them afraid of falling into the fire. The Law is a Schoolmaster to Christ. First, Law and then Gospel. First, blow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts, and then sow the word, Jer. 4.4. according to the method of Gods appearing to Elijah; First, a blustering wind, than an Earthquake, after that Fire, and last comes God in a still voice: First, look for Earthquakes, Winds, and Fires in the soul, and after all for comfort. Thus it is Gods most usual way. And then secondly, what shall we say to those carnal Gospelers that are all for the calm doctrines of the times? those that complain they cannot sit quiet in their seats for the threaten of some Ministers, they would have a Gospel of Gold, and Salvation of Silver, and Testaments of precious stones, and go to Heaven upon featherbeds. But beloved, I had rather speak a thousand words to comfort then one to discomfort, but it is for the good of your souls, and for the glory of our Saviour; we cannot, dare not, must not do otherwise; we must come home to your consciences, come home to them; so the Prophets, so the Apostles have done in all ages, they have denounced the judgements of God against all their Auditors; and did you but hear those yells that are now in Hell, those that cry out, I may thank that flattering Preacher for these pains, if he had told me of this I had not come hither. Think of it now, that you feel it not hereafter. In the next place, it is good for us to temper the thoughts of mercy and justice together; not to talk of justice only, but also of mercy. My Song shall be of Mercy and Judgement, saith David, Psalm 101.1. and Deut. 28. Half the Chapter speaks of judgement, and half of mercy, Deut. 11. Blessings on one Mountain, and Curse upon another. Blessings upon Mount Gerizim, and curse upon Mount Ebal: And indeed there are two main rocks between which most men fall, Presumption and Despair; we are between them like Susanna between the Judges; we are between them as between Sylla and Charybdis. We may say of Desperation as of Saul, it hath slain his thousands, but of Presumption as of David, it hath slain his ten thousands; and therefore though we diet ourselves with the mercies of God, we must not glut with them; and this was applied by him unto the souls of Preacher and people: First, to Preachers, we should take a lesson from hence, that when we find that there is mors in olla, death in the pot, discomfort in the heart, than we must take the herb of comfort and put it in. That hand is hewn out of the hardest rock that will not administer comfort to the soul that needs it. We must, like the good Samaritan, pour oil and wine into your sores; wine to open them, and oil to supple them; speak not of judgement alone; God did never intent this unto you, and do not deal all of mercy, but think of judgement also; for if God had never so much mercy in store, there is none for you presumptuous sinners. That was the second consideration. The third consideration was, That though the action of sin be short, yet the passion is long; though a great sin be soon committed, yet a small sin is not so soon remitted. Look upon David, he committed two great sins, adultery and murder, the adultery he committed with the look of an eye, the murder with the turn of an hand, it was but writing a Letter to Joab; but though the story be never so short in Samuel, yet the repentance is long in the 51. Psalms; there● much ado: Cause the bones that thou hast broken to rejoice; Wash me, purge me, cleanse me, purify me with hyssop; the sin of one night did cause the tears of many nights. Behold Manasseh, 2 Chron. 33.12, 13. he did pray and pray, and put up prayer upon prayer, and did humble himself greatly, he prayed and he prayed; this was no vain repetition, but prayer upon prayer, suit upon suit, and all little enough to obtain mercy from God; God is quickly offended, but not so soon pleased; the wound is soon taken, but not so soon cured; our sins are compared to debts in the Lord's Prayer, a man may run more into debt one day, than he can get out of many days; God would have it so that his mercy might come sweeter unto us. See it in Joab and David, Joab entreated of David that Absalon might come and see him, David was content he should go to his house, but he must not see his face. Thou that sinnest, God may suffer thee to come into thy house, nay, into the Congregation, for the present, but there may be a Veil upon his face, he may not suffer us to see his face for anger. Oh than woe be to those that presume as though they had their pardon sealed. As one relates of an uproar among the members, and the will would command the eye and the hand, you shall do this and that; the old Beldame the flesh wondering to hear such an uproar, starts up and asks the reason of it, saying, I have been quiet so long, and so I will be still; you give way to sin, but you know not which way to get out of it again, that's the main thing; the prodigal son after his going from his father, do you think he could think of coming in a day, that was going but half a day? Is it possible we should continue in sin forty, fifty, sixty years and then turn to God presently? no beloved, there's more time goes to this, and therefore be not presumptuous, take heed of trusting too much upon the mercy of God, not having an eye upon the justice of God, and take heed of committing sin upon presumption of an easy cure; we must not think to come to Heaven easier than David did, he cries and he calls, he weeps and mourns like a Dove. Joseph and Mary lost their son but a day's journey, they were finding him two or three days: And thus much for the consideration of the Text, in regard of the context, as it reflects upon the words before. Now of the Text; There is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared; mercy, mercy with thee: There are several kinds of mercy, the word is very large, mercies of prevention, and mercies of assistance, mercies of subvention, and mercies of support; but certainly the mercy of God is especially intended here, and therefore some Translations read it, There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared; it is with thee, it is always at home, God hath it in his hand about him, close unto him, There is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared; and what kind of mercy? not merely pardon of sin, as I pardon a debt or injury, and there's an end, but the propitiation for sins. It is in some Translations, There is propitiation with thee, etc. Thus there is mercy with thee: whence ariseth this Instruction, That God is prompt and ready to have mercy upon and forgive a penitent sinner, when he seeks to him. I say; God is prompt, etc. Though God be a just God, yet there is mercy with him. Now this mercy of God it is to be considered three ways that are very observable: First, consider the mercy of God comparatively. Secondly, consider it absolutely. Thirdly, in the circumstances of it. First, consider the mercy of God comparatively, in respect of his justice. I know if you speak of the Attributes of God, they are all Essential alike, but if you speak of the expression of them towards us, God may be said to be more merciful than just. You see that God when he came to Adam, he came to judge him in the cool of the evening, he stayed long; but he sent labourers into his Harvest betimes. We find that Ninev●● had forty days given it before it should be destroyed; but God made haste, he did run to meet the prodigal child, he made haste. It is easy to pull down, but it is hard to build up, & God takes more delight in building, then in pulling down: you see the mercy of God expressed unto Adam, unto Sodom, unto the Prodigal; and we may make comparison of it unto the Firmament, God made it in one day; but God would not destroy the City of Nineveh under forty days, and many hundred years before he will destroy the world. Again, the world was made in six days, but you see it is six thousand years before he will destroy it; he is more prone unto mercy then unto justice; nay, take it in the executing of justice, he shown justice in destroying Sodom, but mercy in sparing Lot, he shown justice upon the old world, but mercy in preserving Noah; God shown his justice on the Jews in casting of them off, but mercy to the Gentiles in calling of them. There was his justice fell upon our Saviour, but by it his mercy upon us, that from his Cross there should come cure to us. There was justice in sending an Angel to destroy Jerusalem, but mercy in sending another Angel to mark those that mourned in Jerusalem. Thus you see how God doth mingle his justice and mercy together. So Exod. 3.4, 5, 6, 7. The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, abundant in, etc.  
Every word hath its weight. Jehovah, thou hast broke thy promise with him, but he is Jehovah, and will not err, the Lord, mighty and powerful God; it is a work of power to forgive many sins, but he is the Lord mighty to save and to forgive; thou art sinful, but God is merciful; thou art graceless, but God is gracious; thou hast broken thy vows made unto him, but he is true of promise unto thee. And though thy sins be great for quantity, and heinous for quality, he forgives iniquities, transgressions and sins of all sorts. And therefore 2 Cor. 1. God is called the Father of mercy. The natural Bee may make honey naturally, but it doth not sting naturally, that is, not without provocation. See it also of God in his justice upon Sodom; when Abraham did put up a suit for Sodom, that if there were but fifty persons found there, he would not destroy it, and came down by degrees from fifty to forty, from forty to thirty, from thirty to twenty, from twenty to ten; and it is observed that God did never leave granting till Abraham did leave ask. It may be if he had come to less, God would have spared them; he did so in another place; If there be but one to stand in the gap I will spare them. Look upon Manasseh a most abominable Idolater, who cut Esau in pieces with an iron saw, and made the streets of Jerusalem to run with blood, yet when he prayed unto God, God did forgive him. Marry Magdalene that had seven Devils, she washed our Saviour's feet with the hairs of her head, that had been nets to catch fools; bestowed that costly ointment which she had used upon herself, upon Christ. Christ accepts of it, he applauds it, he rewards it; he is prone unto mercy, and more prone unto mercy then unto judgement. The Prodigal son when he returns home to his Father, his Father runs and meets him when he was afar off, and he doth not strike him or chide him, but he falls upon his neck, puts his ring upon his finger. The Shepherd when he finds his sheep that was lost, he doth not beat it, but he lays it upon his neck. Thirdly, consider the circumstances of this mercy. Consider first, who it is that doth forgive. Who? why the God of Heaven and Earth, he that hath Vials of wrath in his hand, and could pour them upon us, we that are his inferiors and his enemies: we though we do bear with our superiors, we will trample upon our inferiors; but God doth not so.  
Thirdly, Consider what God in mercy doth forgive us, and that is sin. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is pardoned. David doth not place his blessings in his Beauty, he was ruddy of complexion; nor in his government, though he was a great King; nor in his preferment, he was taken from the sheep to be head over Israel: But here is his happiness, Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is pardoned. Nay, how often doth God do this? seven times? no, but as often as Christ commands us to forgive our brethren, seventy seven times, as often as we forgive our brethren, so we offend not out of malice, but return and repent, God will have mercy on us. There went but one word to the making of the world, but there go many to the saving of a soul, 1 Pet. 1.8. And now judge and examine if you can imagine what a depth and height there is in this mercy of God. I come to the Application in brief, and so to put an end to this Sermon. This may be an Antidote, a Preservative against desperation unto poor dejected souls and disconsolate sinners, that God is as merciful as just, and delights more in mercy then in justice. What a precious balsam is this for a wounded sinner? And consider first, that desperation it is most injurious unto ourselves, a wound that cannot possibly be healed by us. If a Chirurgeon lays on a plaster, and we cast it away, what hope is there of cure for us? And if God sends us the comforts of the Gospel, and if we sit down sullen and cast them away, what comfort can we have? Desperation is compared to a beast with horns, it bushes against mercy. What for a man to despair of mercy, is it but to spill his blood upon the ground, or to throw it in the air, with Julian, or to hang it on a Tree, with Judas? that God should drink to us in a cup of salvation, and we to pledge him in a cup of damnation, that is derogatory from God: The Devil comes to us, and says, Thy sins are too great, the mercies of God are too precious for thee; shall we believe that liar, rather than he that says, I have been wounded for you, I will take your sins upon me, and heal you? Will you make God a liar, and the Devil true?  
Secondly, look upon the steps of desperation, the several steps of it, he did name divers 
* Ingratitude Infidelity.  steps, but insisted only upon this, to wit, Presumption. The wicked man gins in presumption, but ends in despair. When their flatteries have touled them a long time on, and persuaded them that their case is good, at last their souls are stifled with the consideration of their sins by presumption: what more contrary? and yet presumption it is the very road way to desperation. If I am abroad long, either in the Sun, or in the Snow, my eyes will be so dazzled I shall hardly see. When I have been in the glorious Sunshine of the mercy of God, in the Halcyon days of prosperity, I cannot taste any thing but of a Saviour. A presumptuous man is like unto one that is asleep upon a rock, and dreaming of a rock of Pearl suddenly starts up and falls into the Sea. Take heed the Devil do not find you upon this pinnacle, upon presumption, and so cast you down to eternal destruction. Shall I be bold and presumptuous, because God is merciful? Shall I cut and gash myself, because a good Chirurgeon lives where I live? Shall I use spectacles to go over a Bridge to make the Bridge seem better, and so perish? Look not upon the mercy as if it were greater than it is; no, as God is merciful to penitent, so he is just to impenitent sinners.  
And so this reverend Father of our Church who was in Heaven while he was on Earth, preached against those two main enemies of our salvation, Desperation and Presumption; His words were all excellent, of the justice and mercy of God, and the merits of our Saviour. But what will become of all this? what comfort springs from the mercy of God, from the forgiveness of sins unto us, if our hearts, our thoughts creep still on the ground, if we be taken up with Earthly things, and prefer riches and honour before God? and therefore came to the chance of our fourth and last Divine, to draw up our hearts, (sursum corda) unto Heaven. If you look for mercy lift up your hearts where it is to be had; wherefore should we look down, or kill flies any longer? our conversations must be in Heaven, if our hearts be in Heaven. This was the bag out of which he did fetch treasure new and old, precious treasure.   

A Sermon Preached by Doctor Wesphale, at the Spittle on Wednesday in Easter week.  PHILIPPIANS 3.20, 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven, from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change our vice bodies that they may be like unto his glorious body, according to that mighty word whereby he is able to subdue all things. 
THE words may be read two ways, either For our conversation is in Heaven: or, But our conversation is in Heaven: If For our conversation is in Heaven, it is an argument to enforce a duty set down in the seventeenth verse, That we should not mind the things here below, for Saint Paul and the rest of the Saints have their conversation in Heaven. If you will read it (but) then there's another reference in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses. There were many false Apostles whose glory was their shame, and minded earthly things; but there was a distinction between true and false Apostles: But our conversation is in Heaven, wherever the conversation of false Apostles is.  
Take it which way you will, by way of a motive, or a distinction; it is not so much for us to know what Saint Paul did, but what we ought to do, what we should do. There are four things considerable in the Text: First, that the Christians conversation it is in Heaven. Secondly, his expectation, he looks for our Lord and Saviour there. Thirdly, his happiness, who shall change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his glorious body. Fourthly, the ground of this hope and confidence, according to that mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things.  
Having taken his rise from the first of these, the Christians conversation, But our conversation is in Heaven. The word Conversation is in the Old Testament every where up and down. For Conversation the word here used is Politeuma, and it is a word that concerns those that live in Cities. So Greg. Nazianzen, Beza and Tertullian, do interpret it. Tertullian saith, But our Burgessship is in Heaven; and so Beza, We are Burgesses or freemen of Heaven. But Beza and the rest they have fallen short of this Politeuma: It signifies more than a Burgessship or freedom, but they are Citizens; you make many free that are far from you; you account them only Citizens that inhabit among you. Saint Paul did excus● himself from rods, by saying he was a Roman, but yet he was born at Tarsus; he was free there, but yet he was not a true Citizen there: So there is a medium between these two. So Anaxagoras when it was laid to his charge, that he followed his study so much that he did not care for his Country, no, saith he, but I do, and pointing up his finger, said, that Heaven was his Country, I care for that. So saith David, I am a stranger; he was not only a stranger when he was in Philistia, with the King of Gath, but in this earth, as all my fathers were. When I am at home, I am not at home; though I am in my Country, yet I am not in my own Country: For our conversation is in Heaven. Heaven it is the Haven of the Saints, God hath prepared Heaven for them, and them for Heaven. There are two Cities whereof Saint Paul speaks, the one he calls Heaven, the other Earth, the one Jerusalem, the other. Babylon; Let every man consider to which City he belongs, for all of us belong either to Babylon or Jerusalem, either above or below. Monicha the mother of Saint Austin, when she saw her son converted, cries out, Nescio quid faciam, etc. 'Tis true the time was that I desired some length of time to see thee become a good Christian, but now I see that performed, what if I die, if I die, now I see my son a true Orthodox Christian, and a right honest man? she cared for no more. But if you will ask the Church of Rome, especially the more Ancient, or some others before the Church of Rome came into the world, they will say an Hermit's life is that which is the most Heavenly. As Paul the Hermit prefers a Monastical life, as if Saint Paul had said, In Cellis, and not In Celsis, in Caves, and not in Heaven: But that life though it keeps them from a great deal of evil, so it hinders them from doing a great deal of good: a contemplative life it may be a bleareyed life; A contemplative life were good, if God had no other business for us in this world but to leave our parents and friends, our professions and callings, and to run into Cells; this is not the right conversation. We may use the world, but not love it, saith Saint Paul; use the world, but not abuse it, by riot, gluttony, surfeits, excess, which is a fight with God with his own weapons; if you love the world, you do abuse the world. But now let us consider ourselves, what we are. There are many in the world that have nothing to do in the world but to care for the world: They are of the earth, earthly, as Saint Paul speaks, that think of the earth, talk of the earth, and do nothing but trade in the earth: So that silver and gold may flow in, they desire no more, they see nothing sufficient but that. To whom shall I liken this generation? to Bees and to Ants. The Aunts they are a Nation, a wise Nation, as Solomon calls them, though not a strong, there is an Aristocracy among them. But now there are the Bees, and they have a Monarchy, and they are busy too. So also men are wise in their generation this way, they remember that Summer will not always last, but that Winter will come; that health will not last always, but sickness will come: But Oh who looks for their souls? who provides that when Earth forsakes them, Heaven may find them? I will give you the character of those whose conversations are in Heaven, to characterise them: We use to say of a man that's dead, he is a man of another world; and so true Christians they are men of another world. 'Tis true you find them here, but they are here and not here; while they are below, they are above. They do not slight the favours of God in the world, but they do not use them as though they loved them. They do not hate the world, nor do they fear the frown of the world. A good Christian takes care to shift himself out of the world with faith and a good Conscience, with the peace of God. 'Tis true he is imparted in worldly things, but he hath an heavenly mind. He never ventures upon any worldly business, but his thoughts and his heart are lifted up in the midst of his worldly business, with many ejaculations and short prayers. When things fall 〈◊〉 according to his expectation, he sings Hallelujahs and Hosannas; when things fall out crossly, he looks for better days to come; he hath sorrow here, but joys hereafter: He will lighten himself in any storm, by casting his estate away, one thing one way, and another thing another way, so he may come safe to Heaven. His eyes are upon that Celestial place where the Angels are, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and where the body is, to which the Eagles do resort; and they look for our Saviour Christ from thence: and that leads me from the first part, which is the Christians conversation, unto the second, the Christians expectation. From whence we look for our Lord, etc. And herein there are three particulars considerable:  
First, the person expected, our Lord and Saviour. Secondly, the place from whence he is expected, from Heaven: And thirdly, the act itself, Expectation.  
First, the person expected, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus and Christ, both answer one another; the two latter are but explicable to the former; not to hold you long upon these beginnings of Divinity, although they are profitable: First, he is our Jesus, our Saviour. Our Saviour saith Tully, what word's that? reading it in an Inscription over a door in Syracuse: What mean the words? Non possunt exprimi, it cannot be expressed with one word. Will you say it is Servator, or Salvator? it is a made word. Tertullian in his African Language, will call it Salutifica; but this comes from the former. Well, but saith Saint Austin, he is a Saviour which is a Saviour, and will be a Saviour. He came at the first to save our bodies from sin, he shall come to save our souls, and he shall come from Heaven. This is the name by which we must look to be saved, and there is no other name under Heaven. He is a Lord also as well as a Jesus: Lord is a name of honour, and a name of power. A name of honour, and therefore given unto Kings, unto Priests, unto Prophets, and unto great men. Unto Kings; My Lord the King every where used. Unto Priests; so Hannah unto Elimine To the Prophets; so to Elisha. To great men; so to Naaman the Syrian; My Lord, if the Prophet, etc. And therefore Christ being a greater King than David, a greater Priest than Eli, a greater Prophet than Elisha, doth well deserve this title of Lord. And secondly, in regard of power, there is in Christ a double power; there is potestas innata, and potestas data, a power innate, and a power given. And he is sometimes called the Lord, with addition, the Lord of the world, the Lord of his Church; sometimes he is called the Lord, by way of Appropriation, My Lord 〈◊〉 my God, saith Thomas: The Lord said unto my Lord, saith David. Sometimes in a way of Foundation, My Lord the King; but what's the Lord without his honour? If Christ be a Lord, then in the first place let us honour him. If I be a Lord, where is my fear? Secondly, let us obey him: To give him the name, and to deny obedience, it were to mock him. Thirdly, submit to his Law in all things whatsoever; It is the Lord, saith Eli, let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes. Fourthly, you must part with any thing for this God. They let lose the Foal and the Ass, because the Lord hath need of them. It is the Lords, wherefore wilt thou keep it from him?  
Fifthly, take heed of giving thyself over to any lust to be Lord; Pride would be Lord, (as Tertullian saith) Idleness would be my Lord, Vainglory would be my Lord, but thou only shalt be my Lord.  
Sixthly, we must not use our own means; we cannot say our tongues are our own, our hands are our own, we have a Lord over them and us. You that are Lords on earth, have a Lord in Heaven; You that are Kings on earth, have a King in Heaven.  
And lastly, we must expect this Lord, we must look for him. And so I come from the first particular of this general, the person expected, to the second, the place from whence he is expected, and that's from Heaven; But our conversation is in the Heavens. Out of which Heavens we must expect our Saviour; it is a dissonant in the expression, and it is but a circumstance, but we must pause upon it. Heaven is the place from whence we expect Christ. When Christ is in Heaven, he cannot be on earth: Christ is not upon the earth bodily, as the Papists would have him, but he is now in Heaven, and the Heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things. 'Tis true, Christ is here by his protecting power, by his Word and by his Love, and by his Spirit he walks amidst the golden Candlesticks. I am he, you know the Text saith, but not in a bodily way, he hath not lost the essential property of his Godhead, he is in all places in heavenly things, he hath called us together to sit down with him not only in hope; we are in Heaven even while we are on earth. Securi estis, etc. saith Tertullian: Oh my flesh and spirit be you secure, Christ is gone to prepare Heaven for you; he is gone, he hath left us the pledge of his Spirit that he will come to us, and he hath taken with him the pledge of our flesh to assure us that we shall come to him. What would we have more? What better rock can we rest upon then this, our Saviour is in Heaven? There's a double expectation of our Saviour Christ: First, his first coming was expected; Oh that thou wouldst rend the Heavens and come down! Esa. 66. He is called the desire of the Nations. Heb. 2. The hope of the people of God. We see how Hannah the Prophetess, and the rest, did wait for the coming of Christ; and there's another expectation, and that's of the second coming of Christ: And thus we must expect our Saviour, but how? after what manner? There are many conditions we must expect him in: We must first look for him with faith, and with assurance that he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; he will come in his own time, but we must wait for him. Secondly, we must wait for his coming with the love of his coming. There are many accused as Malefactors, that look for the Judge to come to absolve them, and to deliver them out of prison; Others to condemn them: one looks with an hateful and an angry eye, the other with a loving, expecting, and a longing eye: So the Saints of Christ, they wait and long for his coming, they are sick of love, and desire to be united to him, not with remiss affections, but with ardent love, intensively, and yet patiently expecting him. To him that believes, he will make haste to come and sup with him. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.  
And then lastly, we must look for this coming of our Saviour with care and with Conscience; 1 Pet. 3.11. We look for a new Heaven, and a new Earth, according to his promise. Consider therefore what manner of persons we ought to be, if we look for the Resurrection, for Christ's coming in all holiness. The word in the Original is in all holinesses. There are many have forms of godliness, but they deny the power of it. Oh the swearing, the lying, the Sabbath-breaking, the murdering, the abuse and injuring one of another! doth this fit us for the coming of Christ? with what tongues can we say, Come Lord Jesus, when we live so basely, and entertain such horrid crimes? we must be careful as well as expecting Christians; we must live in heaven, and therefore expect our Saviour thence, that he may change our vile bodies to be like unto his glorious body, when he shall come in glory. The very creatures groan for the coming of Christ, the very creatures desire a dissolution, and much more Christians. It is to put forth the horn and the head as a Watchman out of his Tower, to see who draws near, or whether it be day or no: So we must long and look for the coming of our Saviour, and that we may enjoy happiness of him, that he may change our vile bodies to be like unto his glorious body. And so I come unto the third particular, the happiness of the Saints.  
And first, here we may see what our bodies are; and secondly, what they shall be: They are for the present vanity, they shall be glorious. First, what they are for the present, vile, vile bodies; I may say, bodies of vileness. But you will say, do not I derogate from my God, to call it a vile body? No, I may honour my God, and dishonour my body. It is his glory that he hath put such treasure in earthen and vile vessels, that he should transform a vile into a glorious body. This is his honour: Let me a little set a gloss upon the body, before I call it vile. The body of man it is God's Masterpiece, an Artificial work. The other works of God may be called the works of his fingers, but the body of man is called the work of God's hands. I am curiously wrought, I am wonderfully made: Look upon the embroidery of thy veins, upon thy sinews, how entire, how interwoven and intertwisted; the countenance of man looks upwards, when all beasts look downwards; and though there be many faces, yet all agree in one visage, and yet they all differ in something: the eye of man it is the watchman of the soul, it is a most goodly part, & a prime piece of Architecture; and the hand it is an instrument of instruments, how easily and quickly we can call it from one affair unto another! And yet though this body be so glorious, you see what we have made it, a vile body; a vile body in three respects:  
First of all, in respect of the original of it, and that whereof it is compounded. Secondly, in respect of the accidents unto which it is subject. Thirdly, in respect of the close and conclusion of all, of that into which it shall be once turned.  
First, inspect of the original of our bodies: What are they but earth? The name Adam will mind us of it, it signifies earth, earth comes of earth, nay, it comes of clay, saith Eliphaz in Job; nay, not so properly, our bodies are so many disordered matters, not earth but dust; dust, the worst and most contemptible; nay, not dust, rather out of the dust, if there be any thing worse than dust in dust, of that was man made: You see from whence we come, though that Absalon and Adonijah were never so proper, and tall, and beautiful, yet for all that they come from the earth, they were but a piece of dust and clay; though you be never so beautiful, or never so artificially adorn yourselves, though you do frizzle and circumcise yourselves, you do but adorn a piece of clay, a piece of earth: Suppose you do wear gold, and jewels, and precious stones, yet you cannot make it otherwise then a vile body, a vile piece of earth. Saint Paul gives it the right name, a piece of earth, a vile body. Again, suppose the body were never so seemingly beautiful, or better invested or clothed than others, yet all is earth; the Debtor and the Creditor, the King and the subject, the Noble and the Peasant, all vile, all earth. We have our fair China-dishes, yet we account them but earth, all earth as well as other vessels. Put silver into an earthen vessel, it is still earthen: and this is the nature of our bodies in respect of their original.  
Again, in the second place, in regard of the several casualties to which our bodies are obnoxious; you see how we are subject to hunger, and thirst, and cold, these are natural, the body is invested and shrouded with these. But for casualties; our bodies are subject to be burned, hanged, drowned: by which we may see that man is but mere vanity; and though all things come by the Providence of God, yet we may call them casualties. We are subject to many infirmities: How many diseases are there in this body? Pliny faith in his time there were three hundred diseases; and how many diseases are there in this old and decrepit age? an hundred and twelve diseases of the eyes, in the breast, in the head, in the heart. I cannot stand to instance in all: you see how we are infested and troubled with all these, and for our cures of them trees and berries, herbs, and members, and parts of beasts, and all little enough; beholden to all things for every thing; to the Hart for the horn, to the Ox for the gall; nay, that which we scorn to touch in our health, we are beholding to in our sickness, as Doves dung, poison, and the like. Will you conclude now that these bodies are vile? May I not say with Saint Bernard, that the body it is a Magazine of misery, a sink and puddle of corruption?  
Thirdly, it is vile also in respect of the conclusion, the end and close of it, We are dust, and unto dust we must return, Eccles. 12.7. Sarah though she were never so beautiful in the eyes of Abraham, yet he desires a piece of ground of the Ekronites to bury his dead out of his sight, he could not endure her in his sight. Many times our bodies are buried in the bellies of beasts, as it was with Jezebel, (as your Preacher told you) in the bellies of Fishes, as Pharaoh, and many in the maws of birds, as many slain in battle. When we come to the most honourable burial, the best is to go to the Earth, and what becomes of us then? why than we are food for the worms; sometimes they lay hold upon us before we come to the grave, so on Herod, Theocrates, and Sylla the Dictator, and Maximinus, all eaten of worms. Take heed, there are worms creep out of a man before he dies; There was an Heathen that had this disease, and desired that the Christians might not hear of it. And a King within our memory, in these Western parts, did call his son upon his deathbed, and shown him these beasts upon his breast, which struck him to the heart that he died. Job was troubled with the worms too, Job 7. full of worms; and God threatens to Nabuchadnezzar, Esa. 14. That there should be worms beneath him, and worms above him, worms should be his covering. Consider this, you that do pamper yourselves, as if you should never die, this is all you can do, you do but make the more meat for worms, and the more flesh you have, the more meat you provide for worms. Consider this, you that tumble over in your wardrobes, you do but cloth and adorn that which is worms meat in time. You that boast so of your pedigree and descent, and you will not take it as you have done, go to Job and David, they will tell you what your kindred is; I have said unto a worm, thou art my father, and unto rottenness, thou art my mother. Thus you see what we are, food for worms; but let us take heed we meet not with another worm, and that's the worm of Conscience, it is no matter though other worms eat us. Though I be meat for worms, saith Job, yet I know that my Redeemer lives, and that I shall see him with these eyes, etc. But the worm of Conscience shall never die, the fire of Hell shall never go out. And if your bodies be vile of themselves, make them not viler. The Drunkard he makes himself a swine, and the Glutton he makes it an hogshead, the adulterer makes his body the member of an harlot; yet with a good Conscience, though this be our misery, that they are vile bodies, yet this shall be our happiness, that they shall be made like unto his glorious body.  
And there are four special endowments or privileges of a glorious body, Impassibility, Activity, Spirituality and Clarity: First Impassibility; we shall be passed suffering at the last day; sentire est pati, even to feel is to suffer now, and in every action there is a passion; but it shall not be so hereafter, when our bodies shall be changed, then there shall be no sorrow, no fainting, no crying: Farewell Gout, and Stone, and Strangury, and all; if I shall be brought to happiness, I shall be brought to safety.  
Secondly, there is Activity; here our bodies are dull and slow, these Asses of ours must be beaten, and spurred, and whipped to do any good; our spirit may be willing, when our flesh is weak. It shall not be so hereafter, we shall be vigorous, and active, and lively, and these our bodies which are now so dull, shall be then lively, and go on with cheerfulness.  
And thirdly, it is a spiritual body; corpus spirituale, a spiritual body, but not a spirit; it shall be spiritual, but not a spirit.  
Fourthly, it shall be a clear body, a clarified body, that's the fourth prerogative of a glorified body, Daniel 12.1. The righteous shall shine like the stars in the Firmament, and those that convert many to righteousness, like the Sun for ever and ever; nay, more than this, our Saviour goes farther, they shall shine, sicut Sol in potestate, like the Sun in its strength; yet farther here in the Text, our bodies shall be like unto his glorious body. What sayest thou, Paul, faith Saint chrysostom to Saint Paul here, Dost thou know what thou sayest? What like unto Christ's glorious body? That body that sits at God's right hand? that body that is worshipped by Angels? Yes, like unto his glorious body. Let me then look for the saving of my soul: Let the world weep for what they please, I will weep more for the loss of my body and soul. I wonder, saith Saint chrysostom, That men should give away their souls, throw them away upon trifles, to disrobe themselves of this transcendent glory, to lose such a glory as this is, to be made like unto the glorious body of our Saviour. Wilt thou cast away this soul? what a madness is it of thee? Many men do compare the pain of loss with the pain of sense which the damned have in Hell, and do think the pain of loss to be worse than the pain of sense. To lose the sight of my Saviour, to lose this glory that I should have arrived at, this sticks more at me then all the pains of Hell could do, so I may enjoy my God. O Lord, whatever thou takest from me, take not from me this glory, this eternal glory: Lord, here cut me, and slay me, do what thou wilt with me, only save my soul. There are many losses in this world, of husbands, of children, of goods by unfaithful servants, by fire, by irreligious and prodigal children; but these are not to be named when we speak of the loss of Heaven. And therefore to conclude this point, I lose my father, my mother, my husband, my wise, my children; but from this, this loss, this eternal loss of the soul, good Lord deliver us.  
And thus much the fourth Preacher. He was also even in Heaven while he was on earth, as his Text speaks, Our conversation is in Heaven; and if ever there were a lively Commentary upon the Text, his Preaching was the Commentary itself, he was an example next to the example of Saint Paul, while he preached he spoke as if he had been in Heaven.  
And thus have I run this race, done this task laid upon me, with my small abilities: I hope you will not lay unto my charge the slips, the infirmities which have passed from me.  
The three last, they were old Disciples of Christ, they made among them two hundred and thirty or two hundred and forty years; Christ doth love old Disciples, and he loves young ones; he loves old Disciples, because they hold out so long, and he loves young Disciples, because they begin so soon. Juniores Discipulos Christus diligit, etc. Christ loved his young Disciples best, because they began early; he loves his old Disciples, because they cleave closely unto him. But the Tyrant time requires another discourse of me; but I must tell you before hand that it will be but as a dinner of herbs after a Feast of fat things: Take it as it is.  
You have heard of the death of our Saviour, in the first; of the resurrection of our Saviour, and of his manner of rising, in the second; you have heard of the mercy of God in the forgiveness of sin, propounded to all that serve him in an heavenly conversation, in the third; and of our body by an heavenly conversation transformed to be like unto his glorious body, in the fourth. These are rare mysteries, and when we have said all we can, we must break off with silence, with amazement and stupefaction. These are deep mysteries, we are not able to sound them with our corrupt judgement; Great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh, seen of Angels, etc.  
We are not able to conceive of him, we cannot express him; and therefore I think it will cohere with the matter in hand to display before your eyes the profoundness of these mysteries; which we may see in 1 Cor. 13.9.   

A Sermon Preached by Master Price at S. Paul's Church, on Low-Sunday, May 2. 1641.  1 CORINTHIANS 13.9. For we know but in part, and we prophesy but in part. 
AS the eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews may be called the Triumph of Faith, so this Chapter may be well styled the Triumph of Love. Which triumphant grace, besides that it is invested with admirable qualities, and seconded by glorious effects; and besides that it bears away the bell from the knowledge of the brain, from the prophecy of the tongue, the eloquence of that little member, the munificence of the hand, and the Martyrdom of the whole body. All which we find spoken of in this Chapter. Without love, what is faith but fancy? what is prophecy but a dark mystery? what is eloquence but untunable music? what is munificence but prodigality? what is martyrdom but a rash and unadvised slaying a man's self? Without love they may all hang down in their own weakness and infirmity; and therefore Saint Paul tells us, We know but in part, and therefore prophesy but in part; We know but in part, that's the first, and I fear the time will suffer me to go no farther. We know but in part.  
Take knowledge to be what you will, take it at the largest extent, the wisest men on earth, those that have been in the uppermost chambers of Divinity, and sounded the depths of all Learning, yea, that have gone round all humane Learning, they know but in part. Some things there are that we know not, and there are some things we know but in part; and what we know objectively, it may be full, but subjectively, it is weak.  
First, some things we know not, as the Essence of God, instant in things past and to come, we cannot know it, it is not fit for our understanding. Who knows what God did before the world? Who knows when the Angels were created? who knows? we may collect and conjecture, but who can positively affirm it? who can tell whether the Sun before the Stars were created, did rise and set, or no? those are beyond our knowledge. We know not the end of the world, when all things shall be out of date, when the tongue shall be tied up from prophesying in this world, when faith shall be turned into feebleness, and hope into quaking; and that when hope shall quake, love shall stand still when the rest faint and vanish. This is confirmed in the words near the Text, and in the words of my Text. The Argument stands thus; That which is but in part cannot last; But knowledge is but in part, and faith is but in part; For we know but in part, and we prophesy but in part: And beloved, if so be these Preachers you have heard have fallen short in any particular in the prosecution of their Text; and if I, (as I know I must) being weary of proceeding, and I undervalue my own thoughts, neither will I be so in love with the brood of my own brain, as to trouble you and myself long with it, but only in behalf of all the Ministers that have preached, and of myself, that we know but in part, and prophesy but in part. The head and tongue divide the Text; the head is like unto Heaven, that doth disperse abroad its light and influence by the tongue; and the tongue it is a many-stringed instrument, whereby we do praise God. Here's the knowledge of the head, the tongue, but that this tongue may be tied up from self-commendation, therefore we come to the ignorant terms of antipathy; as, Why doth the Loadstone draw Iron to it? what answer can we give, but that it is the quality? as much as to say, I do not know: And so for the times to come, it is not for us to know the times of God. Prophecies are best understood in the fulfilling of them; there are many things God hath left to his own Cabinet-Councel, and we must not intrude into them; Secret things belong to God, but revealed things to as and to our children.  
And secondly, our knowledge is but imperfect, in respect of the object, We see but through a glass darkly and imperfectly.  
First, what can we say or know of God? Damasin saith, he is not an essence or substance, he is somewhat above; we do not know what to call him; bring in a contribution of all kind of language, there's too much inability to express the nature of Almighty God; our knowledge of God rises not by adding to it, but as a statue rises, by cutting somewhat from it, and we know him by an imperfect knowledge. We see the Sun in a dim kind of way; we see but the backparts of God, as we see a man that is past, we have but a glimpse of it. And so for the Trinity, the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, three Persons, and one God; it is a mystery, that made Hillary cry out, and fall back, and go again, and say, there's a stupidity in my understanding, I know not what to say: and therefore the Nicene Fathers would not have the words of Essence used, they thought there was more in God. And so for the Decree of God, how far is it beyond our knowledge? How unsearchable are his Judgements? they are passed finding out. And if you cannot find out the reason of God's decrees, see the reason of it, it is well for you to be of his Court, though not of his Council. His decrees may amaze a man to consider them; read but Saint Paul's discourse, how shall we puzzle and gravel? what shall we say more than this I will not say: Do thou reason the case how thou wilt, Ego credam, I will believe.  
And then fourthly, for the Creation of the world; what a vast difference is there between nothing and something? We may believe there is a Creation, but we cannot grasp it in our understanding.  
And then in the fifth place, the profanation of sin, That God should create us so holy that the body should have no sin in it, and yet there should now be sin in both body & soul; we know it. But how do we know it? Come to the Person and Offices of Christ, that he that was the Ancient of days should die; that he that was the mouth of his Father, and the Word, should not speak, this is a mystery, and great is the mystery. And then again, the mystery or our bodies, that our bodies should be destroyed, that they should be turned to ashes, or cut in pieces, and one piece many miles from another, and yet the same body to arise gloriously. We may believe it, but we are not able to conceive it. Now to the joys of Heaven, Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the joys that are there. The eye can see far, and the ear can hear far, the one can see the lightning afar off, and the other hear the thunder; yet eye and ear are both dull and heavy, if you bring them to the consideration of this thing; here are things unutterable, I was rapt up into the third Heaven, saith Saint Paul, and I saw things that were unutterable. And so for the Scriptures, though in all things necessary to salvation, the Scriptures are plain and evident; but take many places of the Scripture, how far remote are they from our understanding? what great mysteries are there? One being asked what God was, took first a day, than two, then three days, than four, and so the farther he went to search, the more he was plunged; So in the Scriptures, some places are plain, a Lamb may feed in them. In prophecies, we fix upon one man, he must be the deliverer; we see him taken from the world, and the work left undone. The best Comment upon prophecies is the fulfilling of them. Look upon some other Texts of Scripture; What should they do that are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not up again? Because of the Angels the women must be modest. Saint Austin did not know it, and that's in regard of the Scripture, We know but in part.  
Thirdly, in regard of the subject, what we know, we know after an imperfect partial fashion; and therefore it is, Beloved, that Faith should be embraced by us, because we believe that we cannot understand. Hence it is that we have but an opinion of many things in the world: If there were certain knowledge, what needed opinion?  
Fourthly, because we do admire all things; there's no admiration but where there wants understanding. Thus it is in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 displayed unto you; I might proceed further in several kinds of knowledge among Heathens and Christians: among Heathens, they do worship an unknown God; there was an Altar in Athens dedicated, with this Inscription, To the unknown God, Acts 17. They do worship they know not what, as our Saviour speaks to the Samaritan woman: You worship you know not what; and they do feel and grope after God, if perhaps they can find him. There was one Antonius, that having read Plato's Works of the Immortality of the soul, and having often read them used these words, Nescio, etc. I know not how, but when I am reading I give assent, when I have laid aside the Book all slips from me; so doting is our knowledge, for the earthly man, the carnal man discerns not the things that are Gods, nay, for the best they see but through a glass, they see but in part. Thus you see the points laid open unto you, I will bring it home to your Consciences a little in the application, and then I shall conclude. Some there are that do oppose this truth, others that pervert it.  
Some there are that oppose it, and those are our adversaries the Romanists: First, in setting up the infallibility of the Pope; and secondly, in crying up the Fathers and the Counsels for our Faith. How can this be but false, if this be true that we know but in part?  
First, therefore for the infallibility of the Pope, who will sit like an Emperor and take up any controversy; Beloved, we know controversies on foot which he cannot decide, between the Franciscans and Dominicans, about the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the like; either he cannot or dares not end them for fear of losing either side; but we know but in part. Have not some of their Popes been pronounced Heretics by General Counsels? and yet these men must know all things. One of them could not read Saint Matthews Gospel, and yet these must be saved; they would pluck out their own eyes, and see by other men's; and how can this be, if as Saint Paul saith, we know but in part? And then again, they will cry up the Fathers and Counsels, but when all is done they do but abuse us, and the Fathers will be found to err when all comes to light. Were there not some of them that held dangerous and Heretical opinions? But I am loath to uncover our forefather's nakedness: If I must, I will take you off from adoring it, rising up to it, and too much reverencing it. Cyprian was for rebaptisation, Saint Austin was once of opinion that children should receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as well as others of age; and Origen was of opinion that Spirits had hands, and flesh, and eyes; and Justin Martyr: but I rather cover them in silence, but that the Papists do incite us; the Fathers were but a partial, no infallible rule.  
Again, as some do oppose this point, so some do pervert it: So the Papists they pervert it, and say, Because we know but in part, therefore we must have Traditions, for we know but in part, as Saint Paul saith. In this they do but as we say, bring coals to Newcastle, or light a candle to the Sun, by bringing their Traditions to be proved by this Scripture.  
Secondly, the Anabaptists, they pervert it, and conclude from hence, because we know but in part, therefore we will look for revelation from above; and thereupon they cast by the Book of God, and look for revelations from Heaven. God forbidden we should countenance any such spirits as these are, for what is there to be known but what is fetched out of God's Word.  
Thirdly, others forsooth, that are lazy Christians, will say, If I turn over the Book of God never so much, I shall know but in part, therefore I will know nothing at all: Like little children, if you take away one of their trinkets, they will throw all the rest away: Or, because one man gives me a box on the ear, therefore I will sue him, and because I may not have five hundred pounds damages, therefore I will have nothing at all. This is like the Hangman, that first blinds the malefactor's eyes, and then turns him off. This was it made the Jews crucify the Lord of life, for had they known it they would not have done it. The candle must be put out, or else put into the dark Lantern (say the Papists) we must not see what mischiefs are towards. This ignorance must needs be the way to Hell, to utter darkness.  
If we know but in part, First, let us follow men but in part. Turn over Antiquity, borrow authority from the Fathers, they will be good moral persuasions and inductions to bring us to the truth, but bring all to the Scripture, weigh it by the balance of the Sanctuary, whether it be good or no. And where they speak that which is contradictory to the Word of God, let us prefer Truth before the Fathers. Christ saith not, I am Antiquity, or I am Custom, but I am Truth.  
Secondly, if we know but in part, let us add some cubits to our knowledge. Knowledge is like unto Heaven, it is very glorious if we could see it; and we must first know the will of our Father before we can do it. This is the first step to know what God is, and to know what ourselves are. First, begin with knowledge, then go on with practice: First, know the truth, and then adhere to it, and then defend it to the death.  
Let us add knowledge unto our knowledge, but as we know but in part, let us be wise also, take heed of entering roughly into the cabinets of God, we must not gaze too high.  
I do not say but that we should search the mysteries of the Word of God, and study them freely; but what mysteries God hath reserved unto himself, meddle not with them, we know but in part.  
And then again, make amends for thy want of knowledge by thy faith; believe, if God hath said it, set thy seal of faith unto it. He (saith Luther) that will be wise in Aristotle, is a fool in Christ. And a Pope did once say, that Piscatores and not Philosophers were to be believed; they that say they know much, know nothing, saith Solomon and Saint Paul. The emptiest hogsheads sound most, and the shallowest waters make the greatest noise, Non est, etc.  
This is no true knowledge, but a swelling and excrescency.  
In the sixth place, we must practise what we know; if we know but in part, let us make amends for our partial knowledge in practising what we know, and whatsoever else you know, be sure to know those things that concern your eternal salvation. What is it for men to be scrupulous in leaving out H in Homo, and yet will take away a man. This is the only true Arithmetic, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, that's the true Astronomy. This is it indeed that we must discourse of. What is it then to deserve our Supremacy in Logic, to be overcome in Arithmetic, to talk of Generation, and have not Regeneration? It is not enough to know, but we must practise. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. Beloved, how many Sermons have been lost in this place, and in divers other places of this Kingdom? what will you hear and devour all, and bring forth no fruit at all? for shame make it up by your practice; he that practiseth what he knows, God will make him to know more; some know to instruct others, that's charity; some know to practice, and that's piety; some know for affectation, and that's pride. Knowledge makes a man worse rather than better, unless he practise. Knowledge like the Unicorns horn, doth well in a man's hand, but ill in a beasts head. A man that's ignorant, he carries Uriah's letters in his own bosom. They that know and do not practise, shall be beaten with many stripes. What canst thou say in excuse of thyself? thou seest the Sunshine of the Gospel, thou art not in darkness as many are; if thou dost not practise it, woe be unto thee. We have had the light of the Gospel above these threescore years, and what excuse can we make?  
Lastly, let us hunger and long after that place where we shall see God face to face, where there shall be no darkness without, nor darkness within, where the walls are made of crystal, and the gates of pearl. There is no need of the Sun, nor of the Moon, nor of the Stars, God is the Light, and the Lamb is the Light; of it, and to that place God of his mercy bring us for his mercy sake, for his Son's sake, and for our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.  
FINIS.