Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 14
SERMON XIIII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
JOB 19. 26.
And though, after my skin, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
AMongst those Articles, in which our Church hath explain'd, and declar'd her faith, this is the eight Article, that the three Creeds, (that of the councell of Nice, that of Athanasius, and that which is commonly known by the name of the Apostles Creed) ought throughly to be received, and embrac'd. The meaning of the Church is not, that onelyonly that should be beleev'd in which those three Creeds agree; (for, the Nicen Creed mentions no Article after that of the holy Ghost, not the Catholique Church, not the Communion of Saints, not the Resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius his Creed does mention the Resurrection, but not the Catholique Church, nor the communion of Saints,) but that all should be beleev'd, which is in any of them, all which is summ'd up in the Apostles Creed. Now, the reason expressed in that Article of our Church, why all this is to be beleeved, is; Because all this may be prov'd by most certaine warrants of holy Scriptures. The Article does not insist upon particular places of Scripture; not so much as point to them. But, they who have enlarged the Articles, by way of explanation, have done that. And when they come to cite those places of Scripture, which prove the Article of the Resurrection, I observe that amongst those places they forbeare this text; so that it may seem, that in their opinion, this Scripture doth not concerne the Resurrection. It will not therefore be impertinent, to make it a first part of this exercise, whether this Scripture be to be understood of the Resurrection, or no; And then, to make the particular handling of the words, a second part. In the first, we shall see, that the Iews always had, and have still, a persuasion of the Resurrection. We shall look after, by what light they saw that; whether by the light of naturall reason; And, if not by that, by what light given in other places of Scripture; and then, we shall shut up this inquisition with a unanime consent, (so unanime, as I can remember but one that denies it, and he but faintly) that in this text, the doctrine of the resurrection is established. In the second part, the doctrine it selfe comprised in the words of the text, (And though after my skin, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God) we shall see first, that the Saints of God themselves, are not priviledged from the common corruption and dissolution of the body; After that curse upon the Serpent, super pectus gradieris, Gen. 3. 14.upon thy belly shalt thou goe, we shall as soon see a Serpent goe upright, and not craule, as, after that Judgment, In pulverem revertêris, to dust thou shalt returne, see a man, that shall not see death, and corruption in death. Corruption upon our skin, says the text, (our outward beauty;) corruption upon our body, (our whole strength, and constitution.) And, this corruption, not a green palenesse, not a yellow jaundise, not a blue lividnesse, not a black morpheu upon our skin, not a bony leannesse, not a sweaty faintnesse, not an ungratious decrepitnesse upon our body, but a destruction, a destruction to both, After my skin my body shall be destroyed. Though not destroyed by being resolved to ashes in the fire, (perchance I shall not be burnt) not destroyed by being washed to slime, in the sea, (perchance I shall not be drowned) but destroyed contemptibly, by those whom I breed, and feed, by wormes; (After my skin wormes shall destroy my body.) And thus farre our case is equall; one event to the good and bad; wormes shall destroy all in them all. And farther then this, their case is equall too, for, they shall both rise againe from this destruction. But in this lies the future glory, in this lies the present comfort of the Saints of God, that, after all this, (so that this is not my last act, to dye, nor my last scene, to lie in the grave, nor my last exit, to goe out of the grave) after, says Iob; And indefinitely, After, I know not how soone, nor how late, I presse not into Gods secrets for that; but, after all this, Ego, I, I that speak now, and shall not speak then, silenced in the grave, I that see now, and shall not see then, ego videbo, I shall see, (I shall have a new faculty) videbo Deam, I shall see God (I shall have a new object) and, In carne, I shall see him in the flesh, (I shall have a new organ, and a new medium) and, In carne mea, that flesh shall be my flesh, (I shall have a new propriety in that flesh) this flesh which I have now, is not mine, but the wormes; but that flesh shall be so mine, as I shall never devest it more, but in my flesh I shall see God for ever.
In the first part then, which is an inquiry,1. Part. whether this text concerne the Resurrection, or no, we take knowledge of a Crediderunt, and of a Credunt in the Iews, Iudhi credunt.that the Iews did beleeve a Resurrection, and that they doe beleeve it still. That they doe so now, appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud, where we find, that onelyonly the Iews shall rise againe, but all the Gentiles shall perish, body and soule together, as Korah,Numb. 16. 31. 26. 19. Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed all at once, body, and soule into hell. And to this purpose, (for the first part thereof, that the Iews shall rise) they abuse that place of Esay; Thy dead men shall live; awake and sing, yee that dwell in the dust. And,14. for the second part, that the Gentiles shall not rise, they apply the words of the same Prophet before, They are dead, they shall not live, they are deceased, they shall not rise. The Iews onelyonly, say they shall rise; but, not all they; but onelyonly the righteous amongst them. And, to that purpose, they abuse that place of the Prophet Zachary, two parts shall be cut off, and dye, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring that third part,13. 8. through the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and try them, as gold is tried. The Iews onelyonly of all men, the good Iews onelyonly of all Iews, and of these good Iews, onelyonly they who were buried in the land of promise shall have this present, and immediate resurrection; And to that purpose they force that place in Genesis where Iacob, upon his death-bed, advised his sonne Ioseph, to bury him in Canaan, and not in Egypt, 47. 29.and to that purpose, they detort also, that place of Ieremy, where the Prophet lays that curse upon Pashur, That he should dye in Babylon, and be buried there. For,20. 6. though the Iews doe not absolutely say, that all that are buried out of Canaan, shall be without a resurrection, yet, they say, that even those good and righteous Iews, which are not buried in that great Churchyard, the land of promise, must, at the day of judgment, be brought through the hollow parts of the earth into the land of promise at that time, and onelyonly in that place, receive their resurrection, wheresoever they were buried. But yet, though none but Iews, none but righteous Iews, none but righteous Iews in that place, must be partakers of the Resurrection, yet still a Resurrection there is in their doctrine.
It is so now; it was so always. We see, in that time, when Christ walked upon the earth,Crediderunt. Iohn 11. 23. when he came to the raising of Lazarus, and said to his sister Martha, Thy brother shall rise againe, she replies to Christ, Alas, I know he shall rise againe, at the Resurrection of the last day, I make no doubt of that, we all know that. So also, when Christ put forth that parable, that in placing of benefits,Luke 14. 12. we should rather choose such persons, as were able to make no recompense, he gives that reason, Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. The Resurrection was a vulgar doctrine, well knowne to the Iews then, and always. For, even Herod, when Christ preached and did miracles, was apt to say,Mat. 6. 14. Iohn Baptist is risen from the dead; And when it is said of those two great Apostles, Iohn 20. 9.(the loving, and the beloved Apostle, Peter, and Iohn) that as yet they knew not the Scripture, that Christ must rise from the dead, this argues no more, but that as Peters compassion before Christs death, made him disswade Christ from going up to Ierusalem, to suffer,Mat. 16. 12. so their extreme passion after Christs death, made them the lesse attentively to consider those particular Scriptures, which spoke of the Resurrection. For, the Iews in generall, (much more, they) had always an apprehension, and an acknowledgment of the Resurrection of the dead. By what light they saw this, and how they came to this knowledge, is our next consideration.
Had they this by the common notions of other men,An exratione. out of naturall Reason? Melanothon, (who is no bold, nor rash, nor dangerous expressor of himselfe) says well, Articulus resurrectionis propria Ecclesiaevox; It is the Christian Church, that hath delivered to us the article of the resurrection. Nature says it not, Philosophy says it not; it is the language and the Idiotisme of the Church of God, that the resurrection is to be beleeved as an article of faith. For, though articles of faith be not facta Ecclesiae, they are dicta Ecclesiae, though the Church doe not make articles, yet she declares them. In the Creation, the way was, Dixit & facta sunt, God spake, and so things were made; In the Gospell, the way is, Fecit, & dicta sunt, God makes articles of faith, and the Church utters them, presents them. That's manifestè verum, evidently, undeniably true, that Nature, and Philosophy say nothing of articles of faith. But, even in Nature, and in Philosophy, there is some preparation A priore, and much illustration A posteriore, of the Resurrection. For, first, we know by naturall reason, that it is no such thing, as God cannot doe; It implies no contradiction in it selfe, as that new article of Transubstantiation does; It implies no defectivenesse in God, as that new article, The necessity of a perpetuall Vicar upon earth, does. For, things contradictory in themselves, (which necessarily imply a falshood) things arguing a defectivenesse in God, (which implies necessarily a derogation, to his nature, to his naturall goodnesse, to that which we may justly call even the God of God, that which makes him God to us, his mercy) such things God himselfe cannot doe, not things which make him an unmercifull, a cruell, a precondemning God. But, excepting onelyonly such things, God, who is that,Grog. Narianz. Quod cum dicitur, non potest dici, whom if you name you cannot give him halfe his name; for, if you call him God, he hath not his Christen name, for he is Christ as well as God, a Saviour, as well as a Creator; Quod cum astimatur, non potest aestimari, If you value God, weigh God, you cannot give him halfe his weight; for, you can put nothing into the balance, to weight him withall, but all this world; and, there is no single sand in the sea, no single dust upon the earth, no single atome in the ayre, that is not likelyer to weigh down all the world, then all the world is to co… pose pose God;Mat. 8. 36. What is the whole world to a soule? says Christ; but what are all the soules of the world, to God? What is man, that God should be mindefull of him, that God should ever thinke of him,Psal. 8. 5. and not forget that there is such a thing, such a nothing? Quod cum definitur, ipsa definitione crescit, says the same Father; If you limit God with any definition, hee growes larger by that definition; for even by that definition you discerne presently that he is something else then that definition comprehends. That God, Quem omnia nesciunt, & metuendo sciunt, whom no man knows perfectly,Idem. yet every man knows so well, as to stand in feare of him, this incomprehensible God, I say, that works, and who shall let it? can raise our bodies again from the dead, because, to doe so, implies no derogation to himselfe,Esay 43. 13. no contradiction to his word.
Our reason tells us, he can doe it; doth our reason tell us as much of his will, that he will doe it? Our reason tells us, that he will doe,Anvelit. whatsoever is most convenient for the Creature, whom, because he hath made him, he loves, and for his owne glory. Now this dignity afforded to the dead body of man, cannot be conceived, but, as a great addition to him. Nor can it be such a diminution to God, to take man into heaven, as it was for God to descend, and to take mans nature upon him, upon Earth. A King does not diminish himselfe so much, by taking an inferior person into his bosome at Court, as he should doe by going to live with that person, in the Countrey, or City; and this God did, in the incarnation of his Sonne. It cannot be thought inconvenient, it cannot be thought hard. Our reason tells us, that in all Gods works, in all his materiall works, still his latter works are easier then his former. The Creation, which was the first, and was a meer production out of nothing, was the hardest of all. The specific ation of Creatures, and the disposing of them, into their severall kinds, the making of that which was made something of nothing before, a particular thing, a beast, afowle, a fish, a plant, a man, a Sun or Moon, was not so hard, as the first production out of nothing. And then, the conservation of all these, in that order in which they are first created, and then distinguished, the Administration of these creatures by a constant working of second causes, which naturally produce their effects, is not so hard as that. And so, accordingly, and in that proportion, the last worke is easiest of all; Distinction and specification easier then creation, conservatio…, and administration easier then that distinction, and restitution by resurrection, easiest of all. Tertullian hath expressed it well, Plus est fecisse quam refecisse, & dedisse quam reddidisse; It is a harder work to make,Tertull. then to mend, and, to give thee that which was mine, then to restore thee that which was thine. Et institutio carnis quàm destitutio; It is a lesse matter to recover a sicke man, then to make a whole man. Does this trouble thee, says Iustin Martyr, (and Athenagor as proceeds in the same way of argumentation too, in his Apology) does this trouble thee,Just. Mart. Athenago. Quòd homo à piscibus, & piscis ab homine comeditar, that one man is devoured by a fish, and then another man that eats the flesh of that fish, eats, and becomes the other man? Id nec hominem resolvit in piscem, nec piscem in hominem, that first man did not become that fish that eate him, nor that fish become that second man, that eate it; sed utriusque resolutio fit in elementa, both that man, and that fish are resolved into their owne elements, of which they were made at first. Howsoever it be, if thine imagination could carry thee so low, as to thinke, not onelyonly that thou wert become some other thing, a fish, or a dogge that had fed upon thee, and so, thou couldst not have thine owne body, but therewithall must have his body too, but that thou wert infinitely farther gone, that thou wert an…ilated, become nothing, canst thou chuse but thinke God as perfect now, at least as he was at first, and can hee not as easily make thee up againe of nothing,Tertull. as he made thee of nothing at first? Recogita quid fueris, antequam esses; Thinke over thy selfe; what wast thou before thou wast any thing? Meminisses utique, si fuisses; If thou hadst been any thing then, surely thou wouldst remember it now. Qui non eras, factus es; Cum iterum non eris, fies; Thou that wast once nothing, wast made this that thou art now, and when thou shalt be nothing againe, thou shalt be made better then thou art yet. And, Redderationem quâ factus es, & ego reddam rationem quâ fies; Doe thou tell me, how thou wast made then, and I will tell thee how thou shalt be made hereafter. And yet as Solomon sends us to creatures, & to creatures of a low rank & station, to Ants & Spiders, for instruction, so Saint Gregory sends us to creatures, to learne the Resurrection. Lux quotidie moritur, & quotidie resurgit; Greg.That glorious creature, that first creature, the light, dyes every day, and every day hath a resurrection. In arbustis folia resurrectione erumpunt; from the Cedar of Libanus, to the Hyssop upon the wall, every leafe dyes every yeare, and every yeare hath a Resurrection. Vbi in brevitate seminis, tam immensa arbor latuit? (as he pursues that meditation.) If thou hadst seen the bodies of men rise our of the grave, at Christs Resurrection, could that be a stranger thing to thee, then, (if thou hadst never seen, nor hard, not imagined it before) to see an Oake that spreads so farre, rise out of an Akorne? Or if Churchyards did vent themselves every spring, and that there were such a Resurrection of bodies every yeare, when thou hadst seen as many Resurrections as years, the Resurrection would be no stranger to thee, then the spring is. And thus, this, and many other good and reverend men, and so the holy Ghost himselfe sends us to Reason, and to the Creature, for the doctrine of the Resurrection; Saint Paul allowes him not the reason of a man, that proceeds not so; Thou fool, says he, that which thou sowest, is not quickned except it dye; 1 Cor. 15. 36.but then it is. It is truly harder to conceive a translation of the body into heaven, then a Resurrection of the body from the earth.Ambr. Num in hominibus terra degenerat, quae omnia regenerare consuevit? Doe all kinds of earth regenerate, and shall onelyonly the Churchyard degenerate? Is there a yearely Resurrection of every other thing, and never of men?Tertull. Omnia pereunde servantur, All other things are preserved, and continued by dying; Tu homo solus ad hoc morieris, ut pereas? And canst thou, O man, suspect of thy selfe, that the end of thy dying is an end of thee? Fall as low as thou canst, corrupt and putresie as desperately as thou canst,Idem. sis nihil, thinke thy selfe nothing; Ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum, even that nothing is as much in his power, as the world which he made of nothing; And, as he called thee when thou wast not, as if thou hadst been, so will he call thee againe, when thou art ignorant of that being which thou hast in the grave, and give thee againe thy former, and glorifie it with a better being.
The Iews then, if they had no other helpes,Anex Scripturis. might have, (as naturall men may) preparations a Priore, and illustrations a Posteriore, for the doctrine of the Resurrection. The Iews had seen resuscitations, from the dead in particular persons, and they had seen miraculous cures done by their Prophets. And Gregory Nyssen says well,Greg. Nyss. that those miraculous cures which Christ wrought, with a Tolle grabatum, and an Este sanus, and no more, they were praeludia resurrectionis, halfe-resurrections, prologues, and inducements to the doctrine of the resurrection, which shall be transacted with a Surgite mortui, and no more. So these naturall helps in the consideration of the creature, are praeludia resurrectionis, they are halfe-resurrections, and these naturall resurrections carry us halfe way to the miraculous resurrection. But certainely, the Iews, who had that, which the Gentiles wanted, The Scriptures, had from them, a generall, though not an explicite knowledge of the resurrection. That they had it, we see by that practise of Iudas the Maccabee, 2. Macab. 12. 43.in gathering a contribution to send to Ierusalem, which is therefore commended, because he was therein mindefull of the Resurrection. Neither doth Christ find any that opposed the doctrine of the Resurrection, but those, who though they were tolerated in the State, because they were otherwise great persons,Act. 15. 5. were absolute Heretiques, even amongst the Iews, The Sadduces. And Saint Paul, when, finding himselfe to bee oppressed in Judgement, hee used his Christian wisedome, and to draw a strong party to himselfe, protested himselfe to bee of the sect of the Pharisees; and that, as they, and all the rest, in generall, did, he maintained the Resurrection, he knew it would seem a strange injury, and an oppression, to be called in question for that, that they all beleeved; Though therefore our Saviour Christ, who disputed then, onelyonly against the Sadduces, argued for the doctrine of the Resurrection, onelyonly from that place of the Scripture, which those Sadduces acknowledged to be Scripture, (for they denied all but the bookes of Moses)Luke 20. 37. and so insisted upon those words,Exod. 3. 6. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob, yet certainely the Iews had established that doctrine, upon other places too, though to the Sadduces who accepted Moses onelyonly, Moses were the best evidence. It is evident enough in that particular place of Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, 12. 2.some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And in Daniel, that word many, must not be restrained to lesse then all; Daniel intends by that many, that how many soever they are, they shall all arise;Rom. 5. 19. 12. as Saint Paul does, when he says, By one mans disobedience, many were made sinners; that is, All, for, death passed over all men, for all have sinned. And Christ doth but paraphrase that place of Daniel, who says, Multi, many, when he says, Omnes, all; All that are in the grave shall heare his voyce and shall come forth; They that have done good,Mat. 5. 28. unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evill to the resurrection of damnation. This then being thus far settled, that the Iews understood the resurrection, and more then that, they beleeved it, and therefore, as they had light in nature, they had assurance in Scripture, come we now, to that which was our last purpose in this first part, whether in this text, in these words of Iob, (though after my skin, wormes destroy my body) there be any such light of the Resurrection given.
It is true, that in the new Testament, where the doctrine of the resurrection is more evidently,An ex hâc Scripturá. more liquidly delivered, then in the old, (though it be delivered in the old too) there is no place cited out of the book of Iob, for the resurrection; and so, this is not. But it is no marvaile; both upon that reason which we noted before, that they who were to be convinced, were such as received onelyonly the books of Moses, and therefore all citations from this booke of Iob, or any other had been impertinently and frivolously employed, and, because in the new Testament, there is but one place of this booke of Iob cited at all.1. 3. 19. 5. 13. To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in Iob, God taketh the wise in their owne craft; And more then this one place, is not, (I thinke) cited out of this booke of Iob in the new Testament. But, the authority of Iob is established in another place; you have heard of the patience of Iob, and you have seen the end of the Lord, 5. 11.says Saint Iames. As you have seen this, so you have heard that; seen and heard one way, out of the Scripture; you have hard that out of the booke of Iob, you have seen this out of the Gospell. And further then this, there is no naming of Iobs person, or his booke in the new Testament. Saint Hierome confesses,Praefat. in Iob. that both the Greeke, and Latine Copies of this booke, were so defective in his time, that seven or eight hundred verses of the originall were wanting in the booke. And, for the originall it selfe, he says, Obliquus totus liber fertur, & lubricus, it is an uncertaine and slippery book. But this is onelyonly for the sense of some places of the book; And that made the authority of this book, to be longer suspended in the Church, and oftner called into question by particular men, then any other book of the Bible. But, in those who have, for many ages, received this book for Canonicall, there is an unanime acknowledgement, (at least, tacitely) that this peece of it, this text, (When, after my skin, wormes shall destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God) does establish the Resurrection.
Divide the expositors into three branches; (for, so, the world will needs divide them) The first,Partes. the Roman Church will call theirs; though they have no other title to them, but that they received the same translation that they doe. And all they use this text for the resurrection.Greg. Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus; It is a shame for us, who have the word of God it selfe, (which Iob had not) and have had such a commentary, such an exposition upon al the former word of God, as the reall, and actuall, and visible resurrection of Christ himselfe, Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi, let us be ashamed and confounded, if Iob, a person that lived not within the light of the covenant, saw the resurrection more clearly, and professed it more constantly then we doe.Greg. Nyss. 42. 10. And, as this Gregory of Rome, so Gregory Nyssen understood Iob too. For, he considers Iobs case thus; God promised Iob twofold of all that he had lost; And in his sheep and camels, and oxen, and asses, which were utterly destroyed, and brought to nothing, God performes it punctually, he had all in a double proportion.12. But Iob had seven sonnes; and three daughters before, and God gives him but seven sonnes; and three daughters againe; And yet Iob had twofold of these too; for Postnati cum prioribus numerantur, quia omnes deo vivunt; Those which were gone, and those which were new given, lived all one life, because they lived all in God; Necquicquam aliud est mors nisi viti, ositatis expiatio; Death is nothing else, but a devesting of those defects, which made us lesse fit for God. And therefore, agreeably to this purpose, says Saint Cyprian, Scimus non amitti, sed praemitti; Cyprian.thy dead are not lost, but lent. Non recedere, sed praecedere; They are not gone into any other wombe, then we shall follow them into; nec acquirendae, atrae vestes, pro iis qui albis induuntur, neither should we put on blacks, for them that are clothed in white, nor mourne for them, that are entred into their Masters joy. We can enlarge our selfes no farther in this consideration of the first branch of expositors, but that all the ancients tooke occasion from this text to argue for the resurrection.
Take into your Consideration the other two branches of moderne expositors,Lutheran. Calvinist. (whom others sometimes contumeliously, and themselves sometimes perversly have call'd Lutherans and Calvinists, and you may know, that in the first ranke, Osiander, and with him, all his interpret these words so; And in the other ranke, Tremellius, and Pellicanus, heretofore, Polanus lately, and Piscator, for the present; All these, and all the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe, do all establish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words, this place of Iob. And therefore, though one, (and truly for any thing I know, but one) though one, to whom we all owe much, for the interpretation of the Scriptures,Calvin. do think that Iob intends no other resurrection in this place, but that, when he shall be reduc'd to the miserablest estate that can bee in this life, still he will look upon God, and trust in him for his restitution, and reparation in this life; let us with the whole Christian Church, embrace and magnifie this Holy and Heroicall Spirit of Iob; Scio, says he; I know it, (which is more in him, then the Credo is in us, more to know it then, in that state, then to believe it now, after it hath been so evidently declar'd, not onelyonly to be a certain truth, but to be an article of faith) Scio Redemptorem, says he; I know not onelyonly a Creator, but a Redeemer; And, Redemptorem meum, My Redeemer, which implies a confidence, and a personall application of that Redemption to himself. Scio vivere, says he; I know that he lives; I know that hee begunne not in his Incarnation, I know he ended not in his death, but it always was, and is now, and shall for ever be true, Vivit, that he lives still. And then, Scio venturum, says he too; I know hee shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world; And after that, and after my skinne and body is destroyed by worms, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And so have you as much as we proposed for our first part; That the Jews do now, that they always did believe a Resurrection; That as naturall men, and by naturall reason they might know it, both in the possibility of the thing, and in the purpose of God, that they had better helpes then naturall reason, for they had divers places of their Scripture, and that this place of Scripture, which is our text, hath evermore been received for a proof of the Resurrection. Proceed we now, to those particulars which constitute our second part, such instructions concerning the Resurrection, as arise out of these words, Though after my skinne, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
In this second part, the first thing that was propos'd, was, That the Saints of God,2. Part. Sancti non eximuntur. are not priviledg'd from this, which fell upon Iob, This Death, this dissolution after death. Upon the Morte morieris, that double death, interminated by God upon Adam, there is a Non obstante; Revertere, turn to God, and thou shalt not dy the death, not the second death. But upon that part of the sentence, In pulverem reverteris, To dust thou shalt return, there is no Non obstante; though thou turn to God, thou must turn into the grave; for, hee that redeem'd thee from the other death, redeem'd not himself from this. Carry this consideration to the last minute of the world,1 Thes. 4. 17. when we that remain shall bee caught up in the clouds, yet even that last fire may be our fever, those clouds our winding sheets, that rapture our dissolution; and so, with Saint Augustine, most of the ancients, most of the latter men think, that there shall be a sudden dissolution of body and soul, which is death, and a sudden re-uniting of both, which is resurrection, in that instant; Quis Homeo, is Davids question; What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Let us adde, Quis Deoram? What god is he amongst the Gentiles,Psal. 89. 48. that hath not seen death? Which of their three hundred Iupiters, which of their thousands of other gods, have not seen death? Mortibus morjuntur; we may adde to that double death in Gods mouth, another death; The gods of the Gentiles have dyed thrice; In body, in soul, and in fame; for, though they have been glorified with a Deification, nor one of all those old gods, is, at this day, worshipt, in any part of the world, but all those temporary, and transitory Gods, are worn out, and dead in all senses. Those gods, who were but men, fall under Davids question, Quis Home? And that man who was truly God, fals under it too, Christ Jesus; He saw death, though he saw not the death of this text, Corruption. And, if we consider the effusion of his precious blood, the contusion of his sacred flesh, the extention of those sinews, and ligaments which tyed heaven, and earth together, in a reconciliation, the departing of that Intelligence from that sphear, of that high Priest from that Temple, of that Dove from that Arke, of that soul from that body, that dissolution (which, as an ordinary man he should have had in the grave, but that the decree of God, declar'd in the infallibility of the manifold prophesies, preserv'd him from it) had been but a slumber, in respect of these tortures, which he did suffer; The Godhead staid with him in the grave, and so he did not corrupt, but, though our souls be gone up to God, our bodies shall.
Corruption in the skin, says Iob; In the outward beauty,In pelle. These be the Records of velim, these be the parchmins, the endictments, and the evidences that shall condemn many of us, at the last day, our own skins; we have the book of God, the Law, written in our own hearts; we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls; wee have the character, and seal of God stamped in us, in our baptism; and, all this is bound up in this velim, in this parchmin, in this skin of ours, and we neglect book, and image, and character, and feal, and all for the covering. It is not a clear case, if we consider the originall words properly, That Iesabel did paint; and yet all translators,2 Reg. 5. 30. and expositors have taken a just occasion, out of the ambiguity of those words, to cry down that abomination of painting. It is not a clear case, if we consider the propriety of the words, That Absolon was hanged by the hair of the head; 2 Sam. 18. 9.and yet the Fathers and others have made use of that indifferency, and verisimilitude, to explode that abomination, of cherishing and curling haire, to the enveagling, and ensnaring, and entangling of others; Iudicium patietur aeternum, says Saint Hierome, Thou art guilty of a murder, though no body die; Quia vinum attulisti, si faisset qui bibisset; Hieron:Thou hast poyson'd a cup, if any would drink, thou hast prepar'd a tentation, if any would swallow it. Tertullian Tertul.thought he had done enough, when he had writ his book De Habitu muli…bri, against the excesse of women in clothes, but he was fain to adde another with more vehemence, De cultu foeminarum, that went beyond their clothes to their skin. And he concludes, Illud ambitionis crimen, there's vain-glory in their excesse of clothes, but, Hoc prostitutionis, there's prostitution in drawing the eye to the skin. Pliny says, that when their thin silke stuffes were first invented at Rome, Excogitatum ad faeminas denudandas, It was but an invention that women might go naked in clothes, for their skins might bee seen through those clothes, those thinne stuffes: Our women are not so carefull, but they expose their nakednesse professedly, and paint it, to cast bird-lime for the passengers eye. Beloved, good dyet makes the best Complexion, and a good Conscience is a continuall feast; A cheerfull heart makes the best blood, and peace with God is the true cheerfulnesse of heart, Thy Saviour neglected his skin so much, as that at last, hee scarse had any; all was torn with the whips, and scourges; and thy skin shall come to that absolute corruption, as that, though a hundred years after thou art buryed, one may find thy bones, and say, this was a tall man, this was a strong man, yet we shall soon be past saying, upon any relique of thy skinne, This was a fair man; Corruption seises the skinne, all outward beauty quickly, and so it does the body, the whole frame and constitution, which is another consideration; After my skinne, my Body.
If the whole body were an eye, or an ear, where were the body, says Saint Paul; but,In corpore. 1 Cor. 12. 17. when of the whole body there is neither eye nor ear, nor any member left, where is the body? And what should an eye do there, where there is nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse; or a nose there, where there is nothing to be smelt, but putrefaction; or an ear, where in the grave they doe not praise God? Doth not that body that boasted but yesterday of that priviledge above all creatures, that it onelyonly could goe upright, lie to day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse, or of a dogge? And doth it not to morrow lose his other priviledge, of looking up to heaven? Is it not farther remov'd from the eye of heaven, the Sunne, then any dogge, or horse, by being cover'd with the earth, which they are not? Painters have presented to us with some horrour, the s…cleton, the frame of the bones of a mans body; but the state of a body, in the dissolution of the grave, no pencil can present to us. Between that excrementall jelly that thy body is made of at first, and that jelly which thy body dissolves to at last; there is not so noysome, so putrid a thing in nature. This skinne, (this outward beauty) this body, (this whole constitution) must be destroy'd, says Iob… in the next place.
The word is well chosen, by which all this is expressed, in this text, Nakaph, Destroyed.which is a word of as heavy a signification, to expresse an utter abolition, and annihilation, as perchance can be found in all the Scriptures. Tremellius hath mollifyed it in his translation; there it is but Confodere, to pierce. And yet it is such a piercing, such a sapping, such an undermining, such a demolishing of a fort of Castle, as may justly remove us from any high valuation, or any great confidence, in that skinne, and in that body, upon which this Confoderint must fall. But, in the great Bible it is Contriverint, Thy skinne, and thy body shall be ground away, trod away upon the ground. Aske where that iron is that is ground off of a knife, or axe; Aske that marble that is worn off of the threshold in the Church-porch by continuall treading, and with that iron; and with that marble, thou mayst finde thy Fathers skinne, and body; Contrita sunt, The knife, the marble, the skinne, the body are ground away, trod away, they are destroy'd, who knows the revolutions of dust? Dust upon the Kings high-way, and dust upon the Kings grave, are both, or neither, Dust Royall, and may change places; who knows the revolutions of dust? Even in the dead body of Christ Jesus himself, one dram of the decree of his Father, one sheet, one sentence of the prediction of the Prophets preserv'd his body from corruption, and incineration, more then all Iosephs new tombs, and fine linnen, and great proportion of spices could have done. O, who can expresse this inexpreffible mystery? The foul of Christ Jesus, which took no harm by him, contracted no Originall sin, in coming to him, was guilty of no more sin, when it went out, then when it came from the breath and bosome of God, yet this soul left this body in death. And the Divinity, the Godhead, incomparably better then that soul, which soul was incomparably better then all the Saints, and Angels in heaven, that Divinity, that God-head did not forsake the body, though it were dead If we might compare things infinite in themselves, it was nothing so much, that God did assume mans nature, as that God did still cleave to that man, then when he was no man, in the separation of body and soul, in the grave. But full we from incomprehensible mysteries; for, there is mortification enough, (and mortification is vivification, and aedification) in this obvious consideration; skinne and body, beauty and substance must be destroy'd; And, Destroyed by wormes, which is another descent in this humiliation, and ex…anition of man, in death; After my skinne, wormes shall destroy this body.
I will not insist long upon this, because it is not in the Originall, In the Originall there is no mention of wormes. Vermes. 21. 26. 24. 20.But because in other places of Iob there is, (They shal lye down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them) (The womb shal forget them, and the worm shal feed sweetly on them; & because the word Destroying is presented in that form & number, Contriverint, when they shall destroy, they and no other persons, no other creatures named) both our later translations, (for indeed, our first translation hath no mention of wormes) and so very many others, even Tremell…s that adheres most to the letter of the Hebrew, have filled up this place, with that addition, Destroyed by worms. It makes the destruction the more contemptible; Thou that wouldest not admit the beames of the Sunne upon thy skinne, and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sinne; Thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the ayre upon thy skinne, and yet hast admitted the spirit of lust, and unchast solicitations to breath upon thee, in execrable oathes, and blasphemies, to vicious purposes; Thou, whose body hath (as farre as it can) putrefyed and corrupted even the body of thy Saviour, in an unworthy receiving thereof, in this skinne, in this body, must be the food of worms, the prey of destroying worms. After a low birth thou mayst passe an honourable life, after a sentence of an ignominious death,Acts 12: 23. thou mayst have an honourable end; But, in the grave canst thou make these worms silke worms? They were bold and early worms that eat up Herod before he dyed; They are bold and everlasting worms, which after thy skinne and body is destroyed, shall remain as long as God remains, in an eternall gnawing of thy conscience; long, long after the destroying of skinne and body, by bodily worms.
Thus farre then to the destroying of skinne and body by worms, all men are equall; Thus farre all's Common law, Post.and no Prerogative, so is it also in the next step too; The Resurrection is common to all. The prerogative lies not in the Rising, but in the rising to the fruition of the sight of God; in which consideration, the first beam of comfort is the Postquam, After all this, destruction before by worms; ruinous misery before; but there is something else to be done upon me after. God leaves no state without comfort. God leaves some inhabitants of the earth, under longer nights then others, but none under an everlasting night; and, those, whom he leaves under those long nights, he recompenses with as long days, after. I were miserable, if there were not an Antequam in my behalfe; if before I had done well or ill actually in this world, God had not wrapped me up, in his good purpose upon me. And I were miserable againe, if there were not a Postquam in my behalfe; If, after my sinne had cast me into the grave, there were not a lowd trumpet to call me up, and a gracious countenance to looke upon me, when I were risen. Nay, let my life have been as religious, as the infirmities of this life can admit,1 Cor. 15. 19. yet, If in this life onelyonly we have hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most miserable. For, for the worldly things of this life, first, the children of God have them in the least proportions of any; and besides that, those children of God, which have them in larger proportion, do yet make the least use of them, of any others, because the children of the world, are not so tender conscienced, nor so much afraid, lest those worldly things should become snares, and occasions of tentation to them, if they open themselves to a full enjoying thereof, as the children of God are. And therefore, after my wanting of many worldly things, (after a penurious life) and, after my not daring to use those things that I have, so freely as others doe, after that holy and conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves, after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here, and my skin and body in destruction in the grace, After all, there remaines something else for me. After; but how long after? That's next.
When Christ was in the body of that flesh, which we are in,Quando? Mar. 13. 32. now, (sinne onelyonly excepted) he said, in that state that he was in then, Of that day and houre, no man knoweth, not the Angels, not the Sonne. Then, in that state, he excludes himselfe. And when Christ was risen againe, in an uncorruptible body, he said, even to his nearest followers, Non est vestru…, Act…. 17. Basil.it is not for you, to know times, and seasons. Before in his state of mortality, … ignor antibus, he pretended to know no more of this, then they that knew nothing. After, when he had invested immortality, per sui exceptionem, (says that Father) he excepts none but himselfe; all the rest, even the Apostles, were left ignorant thereof. For this non est vestrum, (it is not for you) is part of the last sentence that ever Christ spake to them. If it be a convenient answer to say, Christ knew it not, as man, how bold is that man that will pretend to know it? And, if it be a convenient interpretation of Christs words, that he knew it not, that is, knew it not so, as that he might tell it them, how indiscreet are they, who, though they may seem to know it, will publish it? For, thereby they fill other men with scruples, and vexations, and they open themselves to scorne and reproach, when their predictions prove false, as Saint Augustine observed in his time, and every age hath given examples since, of confident men that have failed in these conjectures. It is a poore pretence to say, this intimation, this impression of a certaine time, prepares men with better dispositions. For, they have so often been found false, that it rather weakens the credit of the thing it selfe. In the old world they knew exactly the time of the destruction of the world; that there should be an hundred & twenty years,Gén. 6. 3. before the flood came; And yet, upon how few, did that prediction, though from the mouth of God himselfe, work to repentance? Na… found grace in Gods eyes; but it was not because he mended his life upon that prediction, but he was grations in Gods sight before. At the day of our death, we write Pridi…r…surr…ctioni…, the day before the resurrection; It is Vigilia resurectionis; Our Easter Eve. Adveniat regnum tuum, possesse my soule of thy kingdome then: And, Fi… voluntas tua, my body shall arise after, but how soon after, or how late after, thy will bee done then; by thy selfe, and thy will bee knowne, till then, to thy selfe.
We passe on.Ego. As in Massa damnata, the whole lump of mankind is under the condemnation of Adams sinne, and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from that condemnation, so, at the resurrection, all shall rise; but not all to glory. But amongst them, that doe, Ego, says Iob, I shall. I, as I am the same man, made up of the samebody, and the same soule. Shall I imagine a difficulty in my body, because I have lost an Arme in the East, and a leg in the West? because I have left some bloud in the North, and some bones in the South? Doe but remember, with what ease you have sate in the chaire, casting an account, and made a shilling on one hand, a pound on the other, or five shillings below, ten above, because all these lay easily within your reach. Consider how much lesse, all this earth is to him, that sits in heaven, and spans all this world, and reunites in an instant armes, and legs, bloud, and bones, in what corners so ever they be scattered. The greater work may seem to be in reducing the soul; That that soule which sped so ill in that body, last time it came to it, as that it contracted Originall sinne then, and was put to the slavery to serve that body, and to serve it in the ways of sinne, not for an Apprentiship of seven, but seventy years after, that that soul after it hath once got loose by death, and liv'd God knows how many thousands of years, free from that body; that abus'd it so before, and in the sight and fruition of that God, where it was in no danger, should willingly, nay desirously. ambitiously seek this scuttered body; this Eastern, and Western, and Northern, and Southern body, this is the most inconsiderable consideration, and yet, Ego, I, I the same body, and the same soul, shall be recompact again, and be identically, numerically, individually the same man. The same integrity of body, and soul, and the same integrity in the Organs of my body, and in the faculties of my soul too; I shall be all there, my body, and my soul, & all my body, & all my soul I am not all here, I am here now preaching upon this text, and I am at home in my Library considering whether S. Gregory, or S. Hierome, have said best of this text, before. I am here speaking to you, and yet I consider by the way, in the same instant, what it is likely you will say to one another, when I have done, you are not all here neither; you are here now, hearing me, and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better Sermon somewhere else, of this text before, you are here, and yet you think you could have heard some other doctrine of down-right Predestinations and Reprobation roundly delivered somewhere else with more edification to you… you are here, and you remember your selves that now yee think of it. This had been the fittest time, now, when every body else is at Church, to have made such and such a private visit; and because you would bee there, you are there. I cannot say, you cannot say so perfectly, so entirely now, as at the Resurrection, Ego, I am here; I, body and soul; I, soul and faculties: as Christ sayd to Peter, Noli timere, Ego sum, Fear nothing, it is I; so I say to my selfe, Noli timere; My soul, why art thou so sad, my body, why dost thou languish: Ego, I, body and soul, soul and faculties, shall say to Christ Jesus, Ego sum, Lord, it is I, and hee shall not say, Nescio te, I know thee not, but avow me, and place me at his right hand. Ego sum,Lam. 3. 1. 1 Pet. 5. 4. I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath; Ego sum, and I the same man, shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade.
Ego, Videbo.I, the same person; Ego videbo, I shall see; I have had no looking-glasse in my grave, to see how my body looks in the dissolution; I know not how. I have had no houre-glasse in my grave to see how my time passes; I know not when: for, when my eylids are closed in my death-bed, Apoc. 10. 7. Dan. 7. 9.the Angel hath said to me, that time shall be no more; Till I see eternity, the ancient of days, I shall see no more; but then I shall: Now, why is Iob gladder of the use of this sense of seeing, then of any of the other? He is not; He is glad of seeing, but not of the sense, but of the Object. It is true that is said in the School,… quin. sup. q. 82. …. 4. Viciniùs se habent potentiae sensitivae ad animam quàm corpus; Our sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul, then to the body; but yet to some purpose, and in some measure, all the senses shall be in our glorifyed bodies, In actu, or in potentiâ, say they; so as that wee shall use them, or so as that we might. But this sight that Iob speaks of, is onelyonly the fruition of the presence of God, in which consists eternall blessednesse.1 Cor. 13. 12. Here, in this world, we see God per speculum, says the Apostle, by reflection, upon a glasse; we see a creature; and from that there arises an assurance that there is a Creator; we see him in aenigmate, says he; which is not ill rendred in the margin, in a Riddle, we see him in the Church; but men have made it a riddle; which is the Church, we see him in the Sacrament, but men have made it a riddle; by what light, and at what window: Doe I see him at the window of bread and wine; Is he in that; or doe I see him by the window of faith; and is he onelyonly in that? still it is in a riddle. Doe I see him à Priore, (I see that I am elected, and therefore I cannot sinne to death.) Or doe I see him à Posteriore, (because I see my selfe carefull not to sin to death, therefore I am elected) I shall see all problematicall things come to be dogmaticall, I shall see all these rocks in Divinity, come to bee smooth alleys; I shall see Prophe…ies untyed, Riddles dissolved, controversies reconciled; but I shall never see that, till I come to this sight which follows in out text, Videbo Deum, I shall see God.
No man ever saw God and liv'd; Deum.and yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him I shall never dye. What have I ever seen in this world, that hath been truly the same thing that it seemed to me? I have seen marble buildings, and a chip, a crust, a plaster, a face of marble hath pilld off, and I see brick-bowels within. I have seen beauty, and a strong breath from another, tels me, that that complexion is from without, not from a sound constitution within. I have seen the state of Princes, and all that is but ceremony; and, I would be loath to put a Master of ceremonies to define ceremony, and tell me what it is, and to include so various a thing as ceremony, in so constant a thing, as a Definition. I see a great Officer, and I see a man of mine own profession, of great revenues, and I see not the interest of the money, that was paid for it, I see not the pensions, nor the Annuities, that are charged upon that Office, or that Church. As he that fears God, fears nothing else, so, he that sees God, sees every thing else:1 Iohn 3. 2. when we shall see God, Sicuti est, as he is, we shall see all things Sicuti sunt, as they are; for that's their Essence, as they conduce to his glory. We shall be no more deluded with outward appearances: for, when this sight, which we intend here comes, there will be no delusory thing to be seen. All that we have made as though we saw, in this world, will be vanished, and I shall see nothing but God, and what is in him; and him I shall see in carne, in the flesh, which is another degree of Exaltation in mine Exinanition.
I shall see him,In carne. In car…e suâ, in his flesh: And this was one branch in Saint Augustines great wish, That he might have seen Rome in her state, That he might have heard S. Paul preach, That he might have seen Christ in the flesh: Saint Augustine hath seen Christ in the flesh one thousand two hundred yeares; in Christs glorifyed flesh; but, it is with the eyes of his understanding, and in his soul. Our flesh, even in the Resurrection, cannot be a spectacle, a perspective glasse to our soul. We shall see the Humanity of Christ with our bodily eyes, then glorifyed; but, that flesh, though glorifyed, cannot make us see God better, nor clearer, then the soul alone hath done, all the time, from our death, to our resurrection. But as an indulgent Father, or as a tender mother, when they go to see the King in any Solemnity, or any other thing of observation, and curiosity, delights to carry their child, which is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, with them, and though the child cannot comprehend it as well as they, they are as glad that the child sees it, as that they see it themselves, such a gladnesse shall my soul have, that this flesh, (which she will no longer call her prison, nor her tempter, but her friend, her companion, her wife) that this flesh, that is, I, in in the re-union, and redintegration of both parts, shall see God; for then, one principall clause in her rejoycing, and acclamation, shall be, that this flesh is her flesh; In carne meâ, in my flesh I shall see God.
It was the flesh of every wanton object here,Mea. that would allure it in the petulancy of mine eye. It was the flesh of every Satyricall Libeller, and defamer, and calumniator of other men, that would call upon it, and tickle mine ear with aspersions and slanders of persons in authority. And in the grave, it is the flesh of the worm; the possession is transfer'd to him. But, in heaven, it is Caro mea, My flesh, my souls flesh, my Saviours flesh. As my meat is assimilated to my flesh, and made one flesh with it; as my soul is assimilated to my God,2. Pet. 1. 4. 1. Cor. 6. 17. and made partaker of the divine nature, and Idem Spiritus, the same Spirit with it; so, there my flesh shall be assimilated to the flesh of my Saviour, and made the same flesh with him too. Verbum caro factum, ut caro resurgeret; Therefore the Word was made flesh,Athanas. therefore God was made man, that that union might exalt the flesh of man to the right hand of God. That's spoken of the flesh of Christ; and then to facilitate the passage for us, Reformat ad immortalitatem suam participes sui; Cyril.those who are worthy receivers of his flesh here, are the same flesh with him;Rom. 8. 11. And, God shall quicken your mortall bodies, by his Spirit is that dwelleth in you. But this is not in consummation, in full accomplishment, till this resurrection, when it shall be Caro mea, my flesh, so, as that nothing can draw it from the allegiance of my God; and Caro mea, My flesh, so, as that nothing can devest me of it. Here a bullet will aske a man, where's your arme; and a Wolf wil ask a woman, where's your breast. A sentence in the Star-chamber will aske him, where's your ear, and a mouths close prison will aske him, where's your flesh? A fever will aske him, where's your Red, and a morphew will aske him, where's your white? But when after all this, when after my skinne worms shall destroy my body, I shall see God, I shall see him in my flesh, which shall be mine as inseparably, (in the effect, though not in the manner) as the Hypostaticall union of God, and man, in Christ, makes our nature and the God-head one person in him. My flesh shall no more be none of mine, then Christ shall not be man, as well as God.