Night and day, the sun returning to the same point of east, every change of species in the same matter, generation and corruption, the eagle renewing her youth, and the snake her skin, the silk-worm and the swallows, the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name, winter and summer, the fall and spring, the Old testament and the New, the words of Job, and the visions of the prophets, the prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim, and the return of Jonas from the whale's belly, the histories of the Jews and the narratives of Christians, the faith of believers and the philosophy of the reasonable; all join in the verification of this mystery. And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration, that there was never any good man, who having been taught this article, but if he served God, he also relied upon this. If he believed God, he believed this; and therefore S. Paule says that they who were λídа μὴ ἔχοντες, were also ἄθεοι ἐν κόσμῳ, ‘they who had no hopes (meaning of the resurrection) were also atheists,' and 'without God in the world.' And it is remarkable what S. Augustined observes, that when the world saw the righteous Abel destroyed, and that the murderer outlived his crime and built up a numerous family, and grew mighty upon earth, they neglected the service of God upon that account, till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to heaven to recover them from their impieties by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal union. But Christ the first-fruits is gone before, and Himself did promise that when Himself was lifted up He would draw all men after Him. "Every man in His own order; FIRST CHRIST, then they that are Christ's at His coming.-And so I have done with the second particular, not Christ only, but we also shall rise in God's time and our order. But concerning this order I must speak a word or two, not only for the fuller handling the text, but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the article of the resurrection. III. First Christ and then we: and we therefore because Christ is already risen. But you must remember that the resurrection and exaltation of Christ was the reward of His perfect obedience and purest holiness, and He calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness, prepares a way for us to the same resurrection. If we by holiness become the sons of God as Christ was, we shall also, as He was, become the sons of God in the resurrection; but upon no other terms. (So said our blessed Lord himself, "Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel.") For as it was with Christ the first-fruits, so it shall be with all Christians in their own order: as with the head, so it shall be with the members. He was the Son of God by love and obedience, and then became the Son of God by resurrection from the dead to life eternal, and so shall we; but we cannot be so in any other way. To them that are Christ's, and to none else shall this be given. For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the world to be a great example and demonstration of the economy and dispensation of eternal life. As God brought Christ to glory, so He will bring us, but by no other method. He first obeyed the will of God, and patiently suffered the will of God; He died and rose again, and entered into glory; and so must we. Thus Christ is made via, veritas, et vita, 'the way, the truth, and the life; that is, the true way to eternal life. He first trod this wine-press, and we must insist in the same steps, or we shall never partake of this blessed resurrection. He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner, and we by Him, by His merit, by His grace, and by His example; but other than this there is no way of salvation for us. That's the first and great effect of this glorious order. IV. But there is one thing more in it yet, "Every man in his own order; first Christ, and then they that are Christ's" but what shall become of them that are not Christ's? Why there is an order for them too: first, "they that are Christ's;" and then they that are not His.' "Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection":" there is a first and a second resurrection even after this life, "The dead in Christ shall rise firsts:" now blessed are they that have their portion here, for "upon these the second death shall have no power.' As for the recalling the wicked from their graves, it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a resurrection, than taking a criminal from the prison to the bar is a giving of liberty. When poor Acilius Aviola had been seized on by an apoplexy, his friends supposing him dead carried him to his funeral pile; but when the fire began to approach, and the heat to warm the body, he revived, and seeing himself encircled with funeral flames, called out aloud to his friends to rescue, not the dead, but the living Aviola from that horrid burning but it could not be, he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death, and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment. Just so shall the wicked live again; they shall receive their souls, that they may be a portion for devils; they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning: they shall see Christ, that they may "look on Him whom they have piercedi:" and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable f [Rev. xx. 6.] i. 8. 12.] i [Zech. xii. 10.] g [1 Thess. iv. 16.] sentence; they shall come from their graves that they may go into hell; and live again, that they may die for ever. So have we seen a poor condemned criminal, the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul, hath benumbed him into a deep sleep, till he hath forgotten his groans, and laid aside his deep sighings; but on a sudden comes the messenger of death, and unbinds the poppy garland, scatters the heavy cloud that encircled his miserable head, and makes him return to acts of life, that he may quickly descend into death and be no more. So is every sinner that lies down in shame, and makes his grave with the wicked; he shall indeed rise again, and be called upon by the voice of the archangel; but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man, weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the valley of Hinnomk. These indeed are sad stories, but true as the voice of God, and the sermons of the holy Jesus. They are God's words, and God's decrees; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these, would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the article of the resurrection, then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body,.. whether it be good or bad'.' It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed; for if we glorify God in our bodies, God shall make our bodies glorious. It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure, or eat nothing but bitter herbs; the body that 'lies in dust and ashes m' 'that goes stooping and feeble",' that lodges at the foot of the cross, and dwells in discipline, shall be 'feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb.' And ever remember this, that beastly pleasures, and lying lips, and a deceitful tongue, and a heart that sendeth forth proud things, are no good dispositions to a blessed resurrection. Οὐ καλὸν ἁρμονίην ἀναλύεμεν ἀνθρώποιο. It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution, for that's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body. Καὶ τάχα δ ̓ ἐκ γαίης ἐλπίζομεν εἰς φάος ἐλθεῖν, said Phocylides; for we hope that from our beds of darkness we and an entire piety, that when by this first resurrection you have made this way plain before your face, you may with confidence expect a happy resurrection from your graves. For if it be possible that the spirit, when it is dead in sin, can arise to a life of righteousness; much more it is easy to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restored again: and this is a consequent of S. Paul's argument", "If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by His death, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life;" plainly declaring, that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God, than for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of His glory. The first resurrection is certainly the greater miracle: but he that hath risen once, may rise again; and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again, and die for ever. But he who partakes of the death of Christ by mortification, and of His resurrection by holiness of life and a holy faith, shall, according to the expression of the prophet Isaiah', 'enter into his chamber of death;' when nature and God's decree shall shut the doors upon him, and there he shall be hidden for a little moment: but then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing, with Christ's dead body shall they arise;' all shall rise, "but every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits, then they that are Christ's, at His coming." Amen. I have now done with my meditation of the resurrection; but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider. It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the account of all God's servants; but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens, every Christian must twice exuere hominem, 'put off the old man,' and then lie down in dust, and the dishonours of the grave, it is vinum myrrhatum', 'there is myrrh put into our wine;' it is wholesome, but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation: but no man can escape it. After that the great Cyrus had ruled long in a mighty empire, yet there came a message from heaven, not so sad it may be, yet as decretory as the hand-writing on the wall that arrested his successor Darius. Evσκευάζου, ὦ Κῦρε, ἤδη γὰρ εἰς θεοὺς ἄπει", “prepare thyself, Ο Cyrus, and then go unto the gods';' he laid aside his tire and his beauteous diadem, and covered his face with a cloth, and in a single linen laid his honoured head in a poor humble grave. And none of us all can avoid this sentence; for if wit and learning, great fame and great experience; if wise notices of things, and an honourable fortune; if courage and skill, if prelacy and an honourable age, if any thing that could give greatness and immunity to a wise and prudent man, could have been put in bar against a sad day, and have gone for good plea, this sad scene of sorrows had not been the entertainment of this assembly. But tell me, where are those great masters, who while they lived, flourished in their studies? (Jam eorum præbendas alii possident, et nescio utrum de iis cogitent"; other men have got their prebends and their dignities, and who knows whether ever they remember them or no?) While they lived they seemed nothing; when they are dead every man for a while speaks of them what they please, and afterwards they are as if they had not been. But the piety of the Christian church hath made some little provision towards an artificial immortality for brave and worthy persons; and the friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive, require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can; but they expire in monthly minds*, or at most in a faint and declining anniversary; ἐπεὶ φίλος ὅστις ἑταίρου Μέμνηται κταμένοιο καὶ ἄχνυται οὐκ ἐτ ̓ ἔοντος. And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most reverend primate, whose death the church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore: and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised church. S. Paul made an excellent funeral oration, as it were instituting a feast of all saints, who all died having obtained a good report:' and that excellent preacher in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews made a sermon of their commemoration. For since good men, while they are alive, have their conversation in heaven; when they are in heaven 'tis also fit that they should in their good names live upon earth. And as their great examples are an excellent sermon to the living, and the praising them when envy and flattery can have no interest to interpose, as it is the best and most vigorous sermon and incentive to great things; so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them, is great unthankfulness to God and to good men. When Dorcas died, the apostle came to see the dead corpse, and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the coats that she, whilst she lived, wrought with her own hands. She was a good needle-woman and a good housewife, and did good to mankind in her little way, and that itself ought not to be forgotten; and the apostle himself was not displeased with their little sermons, and that evpnuouòs which the woman Inade upon that sad interview. But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable father and brother, and if there remains no more of that envy which usually obscures the splendour of [Thomas à Kempis, de imitatione Christi, lib. i. cap. 3.] * [See vol. v. p. 511.] |