dry bones, Sicca vehementer, (as it is said there) As dry as this dust which we speak of: and he asks him, Fili hominis, Thou that art but the Son of man, and must judge humanly, Putasne ricent ossa ista? Dost thou think that these bones can live? The prophet answers, Domine tu nosti, Thou Lord, who knowest whose names are written in the book of life, and whose are not; whose bones are wrapped up in the decree of thy election, and whose are not, knowest whether these bones can live, or no; for, but in the efficacy and power of that decree, they cannot. Yes, they shall, says God Almighty; and they shall live by this means, Dices eis, Thou shalt say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: as dry, as desperate, as irremediable as they are in themselves, God shall send his servants unto them, and they shall hear them: and, as it is added in that place, Prophetante me, factus sonitus, et commotio, As I prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking; as whilst Peter spake, The Holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word; so whilst the messengers of God speak in the presence of such sinners, there shall be a noise, and a commotion, a horror of their former sins, a wonder how they could provoke so patient, and so powerful a God, a sinking down under the weight of God's judgments, a flying up to the apprehension of his mercies, and this noise and commotion in their souls, shall be settled with that Gospel in that prophet, Dabo super vos nervos, I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath into you, and you shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord; God shall restore them to life, and more, to strength, and more, to beauty, and comeliness, acceptable to himself in Christ Jesus.

Your way is re-collecting; gather yourselves into the congregation, and communion of saints in these places; gather your sins into your memory, and pour them out in humble confessions, to that God, whom they have wounded; gather the crumbs under his table, lay hold upon the gracious promises, which by our ministry he lets fall upon the congregation now; and gather the seals of those promises, whensoever, in a rectified conscience, his Spirit bears witness with your spirit, that you may be worthy

VOL. I.

2 c

receivers of him in his sacrament; and this re-collecting shall be your resurrection.

Beatus qui habet partem, says St. John, Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power". He that rises to this judgment of re-collecting, and of judging himself, shall rise with a cheerfulness, and stand with a confidence, when Christ Jesus shall come in the second and, Quando exacturus est in secundo, quod dedit in primo, When Christ shall call for an account, in that second judgment, how he hath husbanded those graces, which he gave him for the first, he shall make his possession of this first resurrection, his title, and his evidence to the second. When thy body, which hath been subject to all kinds of destruction here; to the destruction of a flood, in catarrhs, and rheums, and dropsies, and such distillations, to the destruction of a fire, in fevers, and frenzies, and such conflagrations, shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers, and malignant impressions, and body and soul so united, as if both were one spirit in itself, and God so united to both, as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God. God began the first world, but upon two, Adam and Eve: the second world, after the flood, he began upon a greater stock, upon eight reserved in the ark; but when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last resurrection, he shall admit such a number, as that none of us who are here now, none that is, or hath, or shall be upon the face of the earth, shall be denied in that resurrection, if he have truly felt this; for grace accepted, is the infallible earnest of glory.

387

SERMON XX.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, UPON EASTER DAY, 1627.

HEB. xi. 35.

Women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting a deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

MERCY is God's right hand, with that God gives all; faith is man's right hand, with that man takes all. David, Psal. cxxxvi. opens, and enlarges this right hand of God, in pouring out his blessings, plentifully, abundantly, manifoldly there. And in this chapter, the apostle opens, and enlarges this right hand of man, by laying hold upon those mercies of God, plentifully, abundantly, manifoldly, by faith here. There, David pours down the mercies of God, in repeating, and re-repeating that phrase, For his mercy endureth for ecer; and here, St. Paul carries up man to heaven, by repeating, and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith; By faith Abel sacrificed, by faith Enoch walked with God, by faith Noah built an ark, &c. And as in that Psalm, God's mercies are expressed two ways, first in the good that God did for his servants, He remembered them in their low estate, for his mercy endureth for ever1: and then again, He redeemed them from their enemies, for his mercy endureth for ecer: and then also, in the evil, that he brought upon their enemies, He slew famous kings, for his mercy endureth for ecer : and then, He gave their land for an heritage, for his mercy endureth for ecer. So in this chapter, the apostle declares the benefits of faith two ways also: first, how faith enriches us, and accommodates us in the ways of prosperity, By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance: and so, By faith Sarah received strength to conceice seed: and then how faith sustains, and establishes us in the ways of adversity, By faith they stopped the mouths of lions, by faith they quenched the violence of fire, by faith they escaped the edge of the swords, in the verse

Ver. 23.

2 Ver. 24.

3 Ver. 8.

4 Ver. 11.

5 Ver. 34.

immediately before the text. And in this verse, which is our text, the apostle hath collected both; the benefits which they received by faith, Women received their dead raised to life again, and then, the holy courage which was infused by faith, in their persecutions, Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might receive a better resurrection. And because both these have relation, evidently, pregnantly to the resurrection, (for their benefit was, that the women received their dead by a resurrection, and their courage in their persecution was, That they should receive a better resurrection) therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day, in which we celebrate all resurrections in the root, in the resurrection of the first fruits of the dead, our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus.

Our parts are two: how plentifully God gives to the faithful, Women receive their dead raised to life again, and how patiently the faithful suffer God's corrections, Others were tortured not accepting, &c. Though they be both large considerations, (benefits by faith, patience in the faithful) yet we shall contain ourselves in those particulars which are expressed, or necessarily implied in the text itself. And so in the first place we shall see first, the extraordinary consolation in God's extraordinary mercies, in his miraculous deliverances, such as this, Women received their dead raised to life again, and secondly we shall see the examples, to which the apostle refers here, what women had had their dead restored to life again; and then, lastly, in that part, that this affection of joy, in having their dead restored to life again, being put in the weaker sex, in women only, we may argue conveniently from thence, that the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that, but that our virility, our holy manhood, our religious strength consists in a faithful assurance, that we have already a blessed communion with these saints of God, though they be dead, and we alive; and that we shall have hereafter a glorious association with them in the resurrection, though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world. And in those three considerations, we shall determine that first part. And then, in the other, the patience of the faithful, Others were tortured, &c., we shall first look into the examples which the apostle refers to; who they were that were thus tortured: and secondly,

the height and exaltation of their patience, They would not accept a deliverance and lastly, the ground upon which their anchor was cast, what established their patience, That they might obtain a better resurrection.

First then, for that blessedness, which we need not be afraid, nor abstain from calling the recompense, the reward, the retribution of the faithful, (for as we consider death to grow out of disobedience, and life out of obedience to the law; as properly as death is the wages of sin, life is the wages of righteousness) if I be asked, what it is wherein this recompense, this reward, this retribution consists, if I must be put to my special plea, I must say it is, in that of the apostle, Omnia cooperantur in bonum, that nothing can befall the faithful, that does not conduce to his good, and advance his happiness: for he shall not only find St. Paul's Mori lucrum, That he shall be the better for dying, if he must die; but he shall find St. Augustine's Utile cadere, He shall be the better for sinning, if he have sinned; so the better, as that by a repentance after that sin, he shall find himself established in a nearer, and safer distance with God, than he was in that security, which he had before that sin. But the title, and the plea of the faithful to this recompense, extends farther than so; it is not only, that nothing, how evil soever in the nature thereof, shall be evil to them; but that all that is good, is theirs; properly theirs, theirs peculiarly. There is no want to them that fear the Lord, says David; the young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord, shall not want any good thing".

The infidel hath no pretence upon the next world, none at all; no nor so clear a title to anything in this world, but that we dispute in the school, whether infidels have any true dominion, any true propriety in anything which they possess here; and whether there be not an inherent right in the Christians, to plant Christianity in any part of the dominions of the infidels, and consequently, to despoil them even of their possession, if they oppose such plantations, so established, and such propagations of the Christian religion. For though we may not begin at the dispossessing, and displanting of the native and natural inhabitant, (for so we proceed but as men against men, and upon such equal

6 Psal. xxxiv. 9.