Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 1
SERM. I.
MATTH. 22. 30.
For, in the Resurrection, they neither mary nor are given in Mariage, but are as the Angels of God in heaven.
OF all Commentaries upon the Scriptures, Good Examples are the best and the livelyest; and of all Examples those that are nearest, and most present, and most familiar unto us; and our most familiar Examples, are those of our owne families; and in families, the Masters of families, the fathers of families, are most conspicuous, most appliable, most considerable. Now, in exercises upon such occasions as this, ordinarily, the instruction is to bee directed especially upon those persons, who especially give the occasion of the exercise; that is, upon the persons to bee united in holy wedlock: for, as that's a difference betweene Sermons and Lectures, that a Sermon intends Exhortation principally and Edification, and a holy stirring of religious affections, and then matters of Doctrine, and points of Divinity, occasionally, secondarily, as the words of the text may invite them; But Lectures intend principally Doctrinall points, and matter of Divinity, and matter of Exhortation but occasionally, and as in a second place: so that's a difference between Christening sermons, and Mariage sermons, that the first, at Christnings, are especially directed upon the Congregation, and not upon the persons who are to be christened; and these, at mariages, especially upon the parties that are to be united; and upon the congregation, but by reflexion. When therefore to these persons of noble extraction, I am to say something of the Duties, and something of the Blessing, of Mariage, what God Commands, and what God promises in that state, in his Scriptures, I lay open to them, the best exposition, the best Commentaries upon those Scriptures, that is, Example, and the neerest example, that is, example in their own family, when, with the Prophet Esay, I direct them, To look upon the Rock, 51. 1.from whence they are hewen, to propose to themselves their own parents, and to consider there the performance of the duties of mariage imposed by God in S. Paul, and the blessings proposed by God in David, Thy Wife shall be a fruitfull Vine by the sides of thy Psal. 128. 3.House, The children like olive plants round about the table; For, to this purpose of edifying children by example, such as are truly religious fathers in families, are therein truly learned fathers of the Church; A good father at home, is a S …ugustin, and a S. Ambrose in himself; and such a Thomas may have governed a …, as shall,… … Egerton … Chancellor grandfathe… to the Brid…. by way of example, teach children, and childrens children more to this purpose, then any Thomas Aquinas can. Since therefore these noble persons have so good a glasse to dresse themselves in, the usefull, as the powerfull example of Parents, I shall the lesse need to apply my selfe to them, for their particular instructions, but may have leave to extend my selfe upon considerations more general, and such as may be applyable to all, who have, or shall embrace that honourable state, or shall any way assist at the solemnizing thereof; that they may all make this union of Mariage, a Type, or a remembrancer of their union with God in Heaven. That as our Genesis is our Exodus, (our proceeding into the world, is a step out of the world) so every Gospell may be a Revelation unto us: All good tydings (which is the name of Gospel) all that ministers any joy to us here, may reveal, and manifest to us, an Interest in the joy and glory of heaven, and that our admission to a Mariage here, may be our invitation to the Mariage Supper of the Lamb there, where in the Resurrection, we shall neither mary, nor be given in mariage, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven.
These words our blessed Saviour spake to the Sadduces; Divisio.who not believing the Resurrection of the Dead, put him a Case, that one woman hath had seven husbands, and then whose wife, of those seven should she be in the Resurrection? they would needs suppose, and prefume, that there could be no Resurrection of the body, but that there must be to all purposes, a Bodily use of the Body too, and then the question had been pertinent, whose wife of the seven shall she be? But Christ shews them their errour, in the weaknesse of the foundation, she shall be none of their wives, for, In the Resurrection, they neither mary, &c. The words give us this latitude, when Christ sayes, In the Resurrection they mary not, &c. The words give us this latitude, when Christ sayes, In the Resurrection they mary not, &c. from thence flowes out this concession, this proposition too; Till the Resurrection they shall mary, and be given in mariage; no inhibition to be laid upon persons, no imputation, no aspersion upon the state of mariage. And when Christ saies, Then they are as the Angels of God in heaven, from this flowes this concession, this proposition also, Till then we must not look for this Angelicall state, but, as in all other states and conditions of life, so in all mariages there will be some encumbrances, betwixt all maried persons, there will arise some unkindnesses, some mis-interpretations; or some too quick interpretations may sometimes sprinkle a little sournesse, and spread a little, a thin, a dilute and washy cloud upon them; Then they mary not, till then they may; then their state shall be perfect as the Angels, till then it shall not; These are our branches, and the fruits that grow upon them, we shall pull in passing, and present them as we gather them.
First then, Christ establishes a Resurrection, A Resurrection there shall be, for, that makes up Gods circle. 1 Part. Resurrectio.The Body of Man was the first point that the foot of Gods Compasse was upon: First, he created the body of Adam: and then he carries his Compasse round, and shuts up where he began, he ends with the Body of man againe in the glorification thereof in the Resurrection. God is Alpha and Omega, first, and last: And his Alpha and Omega, his first, and last work is the Body of man too. Of the Immortality of the soule, there is not an expresse article of the Creed: for, that last article of The life everlasting, is rather de proemio, & poena, what the soule shall suffer, or what the soule shall enjoy, being presumed to be Immortall, then that it is said to be Immortall in that article; That article may, and does presuppose an Immortality, but it does not constitute an Immortality in our soule, for there would be a life everlasting in heaven, and we were bound to beleeve it, as we were bound to beleeve a God in heaven, though our soules were not immortall. There are so many evidences of the immortality of the soule, even to a naturall mans reason, that it required not an Article of the Creed, to fix this notion of the Immortality of the soule. But the Resurrection of the Body is discernible by no other light, but that of Faith, nor could be fixed by any lesse assurance then an Article of the Creed. Where be all the splinters of that Bone, which a shot hath shivered and scattered in the Ayre? Where be all the Atoms of that flesh, which a Corrasive hath eat away, or a Consumption hath breath'd, and exhal'd away from our arms, and other Limbs? In what wrinkle, in what furrow, in what bowel of the earth, ly all the graines of the ashes of a body burnt a thousand years since? In what corner, in what ventricle of the sea, lies all the jelly of a Body drowned in the generall flood? What cohaerence, what sympathy, what dependence maintaines any relation, any correspondence, between that arm that was lost in Europe, and that legge that was lost in Afrique or Asia, scores of yeers between? One humour of our dead body produces worms, and those worms suck and exhaust all other humour, and then all dies, and all dries, and molders into dust, and that dust is blowen into the River, & that puddled water tumbled into the sea, and that ebs and flows in infinite revolutions, and still, still God knows in what Cabinet every seed-Pearle lies,Zech. 10. 8. in what part of the world every graine of every mans dust lies; and, sibilat populum suum, (as his Prophet speaks in another case) he whispers, he hisses, he beckens for the … of his Saints, and in the twinckling of an eye, that body that was fcattered over all the elements, is sate down at the right hand of God, in a glorious resurrection. A D…opsie hath extended me to an enormous corpulency, and unwieldinesse; a Consumption hath attenuated me to a feeble macilency and leannesse, and God raises me a body, such as it should have been, if these infirmities had not interven'd and deformed it.Psal. 150. 6. David could goe no further in his book of Psalms, but to that, Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; ye, saies he, ye that have breath, praise ye the Lord, and that ends the book: But, that my Dead body should come to praise the Lord, this is that New Song, which I shall learne, and sing in heaven; when, not onelyonly my soule shall magnify the Lord, and my Spirit rejoyce in God my Saviour; but I shall have mine old eies, and eares, and tongue, and knees, and receive such glory in my body my selfe, as that, in that body, so glorifyed by God, I also shall glorify him. So very a body, so perfectly a body shall we have there, as that Mahomet, and his followers, could not consist in those heavenly functions of the body, in glorifying God, but mis-imagine a feasting and banqueting, and all carnall pleasures of the body in heaven too. But there Christ stoppes; A Resurrection there shall be, but, in the Resurrection we shall not mary, &c.
They shall not mary, because they shall have none of the uses of mariage;Non nubent. not as mariage is physicke against inordinate affections; for, every soule shall be a Consort in itselfe, and never out of tune: not as mariage is ordained for mutuall helpe of one another; for God himself shall be intirely in every soul; And what can that soul lack, that hath all God? Not as mariage is a second and a suppletory eternity, in the continuation and propagation of Children; for they shall have the first Eternity, individuall eternity in themselves. Therefore does S. Luke assigne that reason why they shall not mary,Luke 20. 35. Because they cannot dy. Because they have an eternity in themselves, they need not supply any defect, by a propagation of children.
But yet, though Christ exclude that, of which there is clearely no use in Heaven, Mariage, (because they need no physick, no mutuall help, no supply of children, yet he excludes, not our knowing, or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in this world, in the next; Christ does not say expressely we shall, yet neither does he say, that we shall not, know one another there. Neither can we say, we shall not, because we know not how we should. Adam, who was asleep when Eve was made, and neither saw, nor felt any thing that God had done,Gen. 2. 23. knew Eve upon the very first sight, to be bone of his bone, Mat. 17. 3.and flesh of his flesh. By what light knew he this? And in the transfiguration of Christ, Peter, and James, and John knew Moses and Elias, and by what light knew they them, whom they had never seen? Nor can we, or they, or any, be imagined to have any degree of knowledge of persons, or actions, though but occasionally, and transeuntly, in this life, which we shall not have inherently, and permanently in the next. In the Types of the generall Resurrection, which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in this world, the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends: when Christ raised the sonne of the widow of Naim, Luke 7. 15.he delivered him to his Mother; when Peter raised Tabitha, Acts 9. 41.he called the Saints and the Widows, Gen. 15. 1….and presented her alive unto them.Deut. 32. 50. So God saies to Abraham, Ibis ad patres, thou shalt goe to thy fathers; he should know that they were his fathers: so to Moses, Iungeris populis tuis, Luke 1. 41.Thou shalt dy, and be gathered to thy people, as Aaron thy brother dyed, and was gathered to his people. Iohn Baptist had a knowledge of Christ, though they were both in their mothers wombes; and Dives of Lazarus, Luke 16. 23.though in Hell; and it is not easily told, by what light these saw these. Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory, or our happinesse, we shall certainly know in heaven: And he that in a rectifyed conscience beleeves that it does so, may piously beleeve that he shall know them there. In things of this nature, where no direct place of Scripture binds up thy faith, beleeve so, as most exalts thine own Devotion; yet with this Caution too, not to condemn uncharitably, and peremptorily, those that beleeve otherwise. A Resurrection there shall be: In the Resurrection there shall be no Mariage, because it conduces to no end; but, if it conduce to Gods glory, and my happinesse, (as it may piously be beleeved it does) to know them there, whom I knew here, I shall know them.
Now from this, In the Resurrection they mary not, flows this also, Till the Resurrection they doe, they may, they shall mary. Nay, in Gods first purpose and institution, They must: For God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. Gen. 2. 18.Every man is a naturall body, every congregation is a politik body; The whole world is a Catholik, an universall body. For the sustentation and aliment of the naturall body, Man, God hath given Meat; for the Politik, for societies, God hath given Industry, and severall callings; and for the Catholik body, for the sustentation, and reparation of the world, God hath given Mariage. They that scatter themselves in various lusts, commit wast, and shall undergoe at last, a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls, as they shal feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted. They that mary not, do not keep the world in reparation; And the common law, the law of nature, and the generall law of God bindes man in generall to that reparation of the world, to Mariage: for Continency is Privilegtum, a Privilege; that is, Privata lex; when it is given, it becomes a law too; for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency, is bound by it: it is Privata lex, a Law, an Obligation upon that particular man; And then Privilegium, is Privatio Legis, it is a dispensation upon that Law, which without that privilege, and dispensation would binde him; so that all those, who have not this privilege, this dispensation, this continency, by immediate gift from God, or other medicinall Disciplines, and Mortifications, (which Disciplines and Mortifications, every state and condition of life is not bound to exercise, because such Mortifications as would overcome their Concupiscences, would also overcome all their naturall strength, and make them unable to doe the works of their callings) all such are bound by the generall law to mary. For, from Nature, and her Law, we have that voice, ut gignamus geniti; Man is borne into the world, that others might be born from him: And from Gods generall Law, we have that voice, Crescite & Multiplicamini: Therefore God plac'd man here, that he might repair and furnish the world. He is gone at Common Law, that maries not: Not but that he may have reliefe; but it is onelyonly in Conscience, and by way of Equity, and as in Chancery; that is, If in a rectified Conscience he know, that he should be the lesse disposed to religious Offices, for mariage, he does well to abstaine: otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body, and Mariage the aliment, that the world is one Building, and Mariage the Reparation. Therefore the Emperor Augustus did not onelyonly encrease the rewards, and privileges which former Laws had given to maried persons, but he laid particular penalties upon them, that liv'd unmaryed. And though that State seem to have countenanced single life, because they afforded dignities to certaine Vestall Virgins, yet the number of those Vestals was small, not above six, and then the dignities and privileges, which those Vestals had, were no other, but that they were made equall in the state to maryed Wives; They were preferred before all that liv'd unmaryed, but not before maryed persons.
This fortification and rampart of the World, Mariage, hath the Devill battered with most artillery, opposed with most instruments: for, as an Army composed of many Nations, more sects of Heretiks have concurr'd in the condemning of Mariage, then in any one Heresie. The Adamites, the Tatians, and those whom Irenaeus cals the Encratites; all within two thousand years after Christ; and more after. And yet God kept such a hook in the nostril of this Leviathan, such a bridle in the jaws of these sects of Heretiks, as that never any of them so opposed Mariage, as that they justifyed Incontinency, or various lust, or Indifferency, or Community in that kinde. Now as in the Pelagian Heresie, those that came to modify and mollify that Heresie, and to be Semi-Pelagians, were in some points worse then those that were full Pelagians, (as truly, in many Cases, the half-papist may doe more harme, and be more dangerous, then the whole Papist that declares himself) so the Semi-Adamites, the Semi-Tatians, and Semi-Encratites of the Romane Church, who, though they doe not as those whole Heretiks did, condemn mariage intirely, yet they condemn it in Certaine persons, and in so many as constitute a great part of the Body of mankinde, that is, in all their Clergy, exceed those very heretiks, in favour of incontinency, and fornication, and various lusts, which those Heretiks who absolutely condemned Mariage, condemned too, as absolutely; whereas in the Roman Church a Jesuit tels us; that there are divers Catholiks of that opinion,Lorinus. Act. 15. 20. That it is not Heresie to say, that Fornication is no deadly sinne: And yet it is Heresie to say, that Mariage in some persons, (onelyonly disabled by their Canons) is not deadly sinne. And when they erect and justify their Academies of Incontinency, and various lust, (various even in the sex) if some Authors among themselves have not injur'd them) when they maintaine publik stews, and maintaine their dignity by them, and make that a part of the Revenue of the Church, what Advocate of theirs can deny, but that these Semi-Adamites, Semi-Tatians, Semi-Encratites, are worse then those Heretiks themselves, that did absolutely oppose Mariage? We depart absolutely from those old Heretiks,Patres. who did absolutely condemn Mariage; and from those latter men, who though they be but Semi-Heretiks in respect of them, because they limit their forbidding of Mariage, to certaine persons, yet they are sequi-Heretiks in this, that they countenance Incontinency, and Fornication, which those very heretiks abhorred; And wee must have leave too, (which we are alwaies loath to doe) to depart from the rigidness of some of those blessed Fathers of the Primitive Church, who found some necessities in their times, to speak so very highly in praise of Continency and Chastity, as reflected somewhat upon mariage it selfe, and may seem to emply some under-valuation of that. Many such things were so said by Tertullian, many by S. Hierome, as being crudely, and nudely taken, not decocted and boyl'd up with the circumstances of those times, not invested with the knowledge of those persons, to whom they were written, might diminish and dishonor mariage. But Tertullian in his most vehement perswasion of Continency, writes to his own wife, and S. Hierome, for the most part, to those Ladies, whom he had taken into his own discipline, and with one of which, he had so near a conversation, as that (as himself saies) the world was scandaliz'd with it. and that the world thought him fit to have been made Pope, but for that misconstruction which had been made of that his conversation with that Lady. Tertullian writing to his Wife, S. Hierome to those Ladies, may either have had particular reasons of this vehement proceeding of theirs in advancing Continency, or they may have conceived that way of persuasion of continency to those persons, to have been a fit way to convey down to posterity the love thereof. As Dionysius the Areopagite sayes, That the Church in those times at funerals, did convey their thankes to God, for the party deceased, by way of Prayer: they seemed to pray that those dead persons might be sav'd; and, indeed, they did but praise God, that they were sav'd. So Tertullian and S. Hierome, when they seem to perswade Continency to those persons, they do but tell us, how continent those persons were. But howsoever it be for that, no such magnifying of Virginity before, as should diminish the honour and dignity of Mariage, no such magnifying of Continency after, as should frustrate the purpose of Mariage after, or the returning to a second Mariage after a true dissolution of the first, can subvert, or contract the Apostles Nubant in Domino, Let them mary in the Lord; where the In Domino, in the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Title and place; nor, In Domino, In the Lord, is not to mary for matter of Lordships, and possessions, and worldly preferment; nor, In Domino, In the Lord, is not in hope to exercise a Dominion and a Lordship over the other party: but In the Lord, is in the feare of the Lord, In the love of the Lord, In the Law, that is, in the true Religion of the Lord; for this is that that makes the mariages of Christians, Contracts of another kinde, then the mariages of other people are; with all people of the world, mariage is as fully the same Reall, and Civill, and Morall Contract, as with us Christians. The same Obligations of mutuall help, of fidelity and loyalty to one another, and of communication of all their possessions, lies upon mariage in Turky,Ephes. 5. 32. or China, as with us. But for Mariage amongst Christians, Sacramentum hoc magnum est, saies the Apostle, This is a great secret, a great mystery. Not that it is therefore a Sacrament, as Baptisme, and the Lords Supper are Sacraments. For, if they will make mariage such a sacrament, because it is expressed there in that word, Magnum sacramentum, Revel. 17. 5.they may come to give us an eight sacrament after their seven; They may translate that name which is upon the mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth, sacrament, if they will, for it is the same word, in that place of the Revelation, which they translate Sacrament in the other place to the Ephesians; And in the next verse but one, they doe translate it so there; I will tell thee, saies the Angel, Sacramentum mulieris, the Sacrament of Babylon. Now if all the mysteries and secrets of Antichrist, all the confused practises of that Babylon, all the emergent and occasionall articles of that Church, and that State-religion, shall become Sacraments, we shall have a Sacrament of Equivocation, a Sacrament of Invasion, a Sacrament of Powder, a Sacrament of dissolving allegeance, sacraments in the Element of Baptism, in the water, in navies, and Sacraments in the Elements of the Eucharist, in Blood, in the sacred blood of Kings. But Mariage amongst Christians, is herein Magnum mysterium, A Sacrament in such a sense; a mysterious signification of the union of the soule with Christ, when both persons professe the Christian Religion, in generall, there arises some signification of that spirituall union: But when they both professe Christ in one forme, in one Church, in one Religion, and that, the right; then, as by the Civill Contract, there is an union of their estates, and persons, so, as that they two are made one, so by this Sacramentall, this mysterious union, these two, thus made one, between themselves, are also made one with Christ himself; by the Civill union, common to all people, they are made Eadem caro; The same flesh with one another, By this mysterious, this Sacramentall, this significative union, they are made Idem Spiritus cum Domino; The same Spirit with the Lord. And therefore, though in the Resurrection, they shall not mary, because then all the severall uses of mariage cease, yet till the Resurrection; that is, as long as this world lasts, for the sustentation of the world, which is one Body, and Mariage the food, and aliment thereof; for the reparation of the world, which is one Building, and Mariage the supply thereof, to maintaine a second eternity, in the succession of children, and to illustrate this union of our soules to Christ; we may, and in some Cases, must marry.
We are come, in our order proposed at first, to our second Part, Erimus sicut Angeli, we shall be as the Angels of God in heaven; 2 Part. Divisio.where we consider, first, what we are compared to, those Angels; And then in what that Comparison lies, wherein we shall be like those Angels; And lastly, the Proposition that flowes out of this proposition, In the Resurrection we shall be like them, Till the Resurrection we shall not, and therefore, in the meane time, we must not looke for Angelicall perfections, but beare with one anothers infirmities.Angeli. Now when we would tell you, what those Angels of God in heaven, to which we are compared, are, we can come no nearer telling you that, then by telling you, we cannot tell. The Angels may be content with that Negative expressing, since we can express God himselfe in no clearer termes, nor in termes expressing more Dignity, then in saying we cannot expresse him. OnelyOnly the Angels themselves know one another; and, one good point, in which we shall be like them then, shall be, that then we shall know what they are; we know they are Spirits in Nature, but what the nature of a spirit is, we know not: we know they are Angels in office, appointed to execute Gods will upon us; but, How a spirit should execute those bodily actions, that Angels doe, in their owne motion, and in the transportation of other things, we know not: we know they are Creatures; but whether created with this world, (as all our later men incline to think) or long before, (as all the Greeke, and some of the Latin Fathers thought) we know not: we know that for their number … and for their faculties also, there may be one Angel for every man; but whether there be so, or no, because not onelyonly amongst the Fathers, but even in the Reformed Churches, in both sub-divisions, Lutheran, and Calvinist, great men deny it, and as great affirme it, we know not: we know the Angels know, they understand, but whether by that way, which we call in the Schoole, Cognitionem Matutinam, by seeing all in God, or that which we call Verspertinam, by a clearer manifestation of the species of things to them,Colos. 1. then to us, we know not: we know they are distinguished into Orders; the Apostle tells us so: but what, or how many their Orders are, (since S. Gregory, and S. Bernard differ from that Designe of their nine orders, which S. Denis the Areopagite had given before, in placing of those nine, and Athanasius addes more to those nine,) we know not; But we are content to say with S. Augustine, Esse firmissimè credo, quaenam sint nescio; that there are distinct orders of Angels, assuredly I beleeve; but what they are, I cannot tell; Dicant qui possunt; si tamen probare possunt quod dicunt, saies that Father, Let them tell you that can, so they be able to prove, that they tell you true. They are Creatures, that have not so much of a Body as flesh is, as froth is, as a vapor is, as a sigh is, and yet with a touch they shall molder a rocke into lesse Atomes, then the sand that it stands upon; and a milstone into smaller flower, then it grinds. They are Creatures made, and yet not a minute elder now, then when they were first made, if they were made before all measure of time began; nor, if they were made in the beginning of Time, and be now six thousand yeares old, have they one wrinckle of Age in their face, or one sobbe of wearinesse in their lungs. They are primogeniti Dei, Gods eldest sonnes; They are superelementary meteors, they hang between the nature of God, and the nature of man, and are of middle Condition; And, (if we may offencelessely expresse it so) they are anigmata Divina, The Riddles of Heaven, and the perplexities of speculation. But this is but till the Resurrection; Then we shall be like them, and know them by that assimilation. We end this branch with this consideration, If by being like the Angels, we shall know the Angels, we are more then like ourselves, we are our selves, why doe we not know our selves? Why did not Adam know, that he had a Body, that might have been preserved in an immortality, and yet submitted his body, and mine, and thine, and theirs, who by this union are to be made one, and all, that by Gods goodnesse shall be derived from them, to certaine, to inevitable Death? Why doe not we know our owne Immortality, that dwells in us still, for all Adams fall, and ours in him; that immortality which we cannot devest, but must live for ever, whether we will or no? To know this immortality, is to make this immortality, which otherwise is the heaviest part of our Curse, a Blessing unto us, by providing to live in Immortall happinesse: whereas now, we doe so little know our selves, as that if my soule could aske one of those Wormes which my dead body shall produce, Will you change with me? that worme would say, No; for you are like to live eternally in torment; for my part, I can live no longer, then the putrid moisture of your body will give me leave, and therefore I will not change; nay, would the Devill himselfe change with a damned soule? I cannot tell; As we argue conveniently, that the Devil is tormented more then man, because the Devill fel from God, without any other Tempter, then himselfe, but man had a Tempter, so may it be not inconveniently argued too, that man may be more tormented then he, because man continued and relapsed, in his rebellions to God, after so many pardons offered and accepted, which the Devill never had. Howsoever, otherwise their torments may be equall, as the Devill is a Spirit, and a condemned soule a spirit, yet that soule shall have a Body too, to be tormented with it, which the Devill shall not. How little we know our selves, which is the end of all knowledge! But we hast to the next branch, In the Resurrection we shall be like to the Angels of God in Heaven; But in what lies this likenesse?
In how many other things soever this likenesse may ly,Simile's. yet in this Text, and in our present purpose, it lies onelyonly in this, Non nubent, In the Resurrection they shall not mary. But did Angels never mary, or, as good, or, at least, as ill, as mary? How many of the ancients take those words,Gen. 6. 2. Drusius in Sulpit. Sever. That the sonnes of God saw the daughters of Men that they were faire, and they tooke them wives of all which they chose, to be intended of Angels? They offer to tell us how many these maried Angels were; Origen saies, sixty, or seventy. They offer to tell us some of their names; Aza, was one of these maried Angels, and Azael was another. But then all those, who doe understand these words, The sonnes of God, to be intended of Angels, who being sent downe, to protect Men, fell in love with Women, and maried them, all, I say, agree, that those Angels that did so, never returned to God againe, but fell, with the first fallen, under everlasting Condemnation. So that still, the Angels of God in Heaven, those Angels to whom we shall be like in the Resurrection, doe not mary, not so much as in any such mistaking; they doe not, because they need not; they need not, because they need no second Eternity, by the continuation of children; for, says S. Luke, they cannot die. Adams first immortality was but this, Posse non mori, that he needed not to have died, he should not have died; The Angels immortality, and ours, when we shall be like them, in the Resurrection, is, Non posse mori, that we cannot die, for, whosoever dies, is Homicida sui, sayes Tertullian; he kills himselfe, and sinne is his sword: In heaven there shall no such sword be drawn; we need not say, that the Angels in heaven have, that we when we shall be like them, in the Resurrection, shall so invest an immortality in our nature, as that God could not inflict Death upon them, or us there, if we sinned: But because no sinne shall enter there, no Death shall enter there neither, for, Death is the wages of sinne. Not that no sinne could enter there, if we were left to our selves; for, in that place, Angels did sinne; (And, fatendum est Angelos natura mutabiles, saies S. Augustine, Howsoever Angels be changed in their Condition, they retaine still the same nature, and by nature they are mutable) But that God hath added another prerogative, by way of Confirmation, to that state; so, as that that Grace which he gives us here, which is, that nothing shall put a necessity of sinning upon us, or that we must needs sinne, God multiplies upon us so there, as that we can conceive no inclination to sinne. Therein we shall be like the Angels, that we cannot die; And the nearer we come to that state in this life, the liker we are to those Angels here. Now, beloved, onelyonly he that is Dead already, cannot die. He that in a holy mortification is Dead the Death of the righteous, dead to sinne, he lives, (shall we dare to say so? yes, we may) he lives a blessed Death, for such a Death is true life: And by such a heavenly Death, Death of the righteous, Death to sinne, he is in possession of a heavenly life here, in an inchoation, though the consummation, and perfection be reserved for the next world; which is our last circumstance, and the Conclusion of all, At the Resurrection we shall be like the Angels; Till then we shall not; and therefore must not looke for Angelicall perfections here, but beare one anothers infirmities.
It is as yet but in Petition,Interim. fiat voluntas, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven: And as long as there is an Earth it will be but in Petition; His will will not be done in Earth as it is in Heaven; when all is Heaven, to his Saints, all will be well; but not all till then. In the meane time, remember all, (especially you, whose Sacramentall, that is, Mysterious, and significative union now is a Type of your union with God in as neare, and as fast a band, as that of Angels, for, you shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven) That the office of the Angels in this world, is to Assist, and to supply Defects. You are both of noble extraction; there's no defect in that; you need not supply one another with Honour: you are both of religious Education; there's no defect in that; you need not supply one another with fundamentall instructions. Both have your parts in that testimony which S. Gregory gave of your Nation, at Rome, Angli Angeli, you have a lovelinesse fit for one another. But, though I cannot Name, no nor Thinke any thing, wherein I should wish that Angelicall disposition of supporting, or supplying defects, yet, when I consider, that even he that said Ego & pater unum sumus, I and the Father are one, yet had a time to say, utquid dereliquisti? My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? I consider thereby, that no two can be so made one in this world, but that that unity may be, though not Dissolved, no nor Rent, no nor Endangered, yet shaked sometimes by domestique occasions, by Matrimoniall encumbrances, by perversnesse of servants, by impertinencies of Children, by private whisperings, and calumnies of Strangers. And therefore, to speake not Prophetically, that any such thing shall fall, but Provisionally, if any such thing should fall, my love, and my duty, and my Text, bids me tell you, that perfect happinesse is to be staid for, till you be as the Angels of God in heaven; here, it is a faire portion of that Angelicall happinesse, if you be alwaies ready to support, and supply one another in any such occasionall weaknesses. The God of Heaven multiply the present joy of your parents, by that way, of making you joyfull parents also; and recompense your obedience to parents, by that way, of giving you obedient Children too. The God of heaven so joine you now, as that you may be glad of one another all your life; and when he who hath joined you, shall separate you againe, establish you with an assurance, that he hath but borrowed one of you, for a time, to make both your joies the more perfect in the Resurrection. The God of Heaven make you alwaies of one will, and that will alwaies conformable to his; conserve you in the sincere truth of his Religion; feast you with the best feast, Peace of conscience; and carry you through the good opinion, and love of his Saints in this world, to the association of his Saints, and Angels, and one another, in the Resurrection, and everlasting possession of that kingdome, which his Sonne, our Saviour, Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible Blood, Amen.