into an absolute apostacy, and infidelity, that make a mock of Christ, and crucify him again, as it is expressed there, who under value, and despise the church of God, and those means which Christ Jesus hath instituted in his church for renewing such as are fallen. To such it is impossible, because there are no other ordinary means possible, but that is not thy case, thy case is only a doubt, that those means that are shall not be applied to thee, and even that is a slippery state to doubt of the mercy of God to thee in particular, this goes so near making thy sin greater than God's mercy, as that it makes thy sin greater than daily adulteries, daily murders, daily blasphemies, daily prophanings of the Sabbath could have done, and though thou canst never make that true in this life, that thy sins are greater than God can forgive, yet this is a way to make them greater than God will forgive. Now to collect both our exercises, and to connex both texts, Christ judgeth all men and Christ judgeth no man, he claims all judgment, and he disavows all judgment, and they consist well together; he was at our creation, but that was not his first sense; the Arians who say, Erat quando non erat, There was a time when Christ was not, intimating that he had a beginning, and therefore was a creature, yet they will allow that he was created before the general creation, and so assisted at ours, but he was infinite generations before that, in the bosom of his Father, at our election, and there in him was executed the first judgment of separating those who were his, the elect from the reprobate, and then he knows who are his by that first judgment: and so comes to his second judgment, to seal all those in the visible church with the outward mark of his baptism, and the inward mark of his Spirit, and those whom he calls so, he justifies, and sanctifies, and brings them to his third judgment, to an established and perpetual glory. And so all judgment is his. But then to judge out of human affections, and passions, by detraction, and calumny, as they did to whom he spoke at this time, so he judges no man, so he denies judgment: to usurp upon the jurisdiction of others, or to exercise any other judgment, than was his commission, as his pretended vicar doth so, he judges no man, so he disavows all judgment: to judge so as that our condemnation should be irremediable in this life, so he judges no man, so he forswears all judgment, As I live, saith the Lord of Hosts, and as I have died, saith the Lord Jesus, so I judge none. Acknowledge his first judgment, thy election in him, Christ his second judgment, thy justification by him, breathe and pant after his third judgment, thy crown of glory for him; intrude not upon the right of other men, which is the first, defame not, calumniate not other men, which is the second, lay not the name of reprobate in this life upon any man, which is the third judgment, that Christ disavows here, and then thou shalt have well understood, and well practised both these texts, The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, and yet the Son judges no man. SERMON XCV. PREACHED AT LINCOLN'S INN. JOB XIX. 26. And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. AMONGST those articles, in which our church hath explained, and declared her faith, this is the eighth article, that the three creeds, (that of the Council of Nice, that of Athanasius, and that which is commonly known by the name of the Apostles' Creed) ought thoroughly to be received, and embraced. The meaning of the church is not, that only that should be believed in which those three creeds agree; (for the Nicene Creed mentions no article after that of the Holy Ghost, not the Catholic church, not the communion of saints, not the resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius' Creed does mention the resurrection, but not the Catholic church, nor the communion of saints,) but that all should be believed, which is in any of them, all which is summed up in the Apostles' Creed. Now, the reason expressed in that article of our church, why all this is to be believed, is, because all this may be proved by most certain 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 forbear this text; so that it may seem, that in their opinion, this Scripture doth not concern 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 Jews 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 natural 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 itself comprised in the words of the text, (And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God) we shall see first, that the saints of God themselves, are not privileged from the common corruption and dissolution of the body; after that curse upon the serpent, Super pectus gradieris', Upon thy belly shalt thou go, we shall as soon see a serpent go upright, and not crawl, as, after that judgment, In pulverem reverteris, To dust thou shalt return, 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 paleness, not a yellow jaundice, not a blue lividness, not a black morphew upon our skin, not a bony leanness, not a sweaty faintness, not an ungracious decrepitness 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 1 Gen. iii. 14. washed to slime, in the sea, (perchance I shall not be drowned) but destroyed contemptibly, by those whom I breed, and feed, by worms; (after my skin worms shall destroy my body.) And thus far our case is equal; one event to the good and bad; worms shall destroy all in them all. And farther than this, their case is equal too, for, they shall both rise again 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 die, nor my last scene, to lie in the grave, nor my last exit, to go out of the grave) after says Job; and infinitely, after, I know not how soon, nor how late, I press not into God's 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 Deum, 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 worms; but that flesh shall be so mine, as I shall never divest it more, but In my flesh I shall see God for ever. In the first part then, which is an inquiry, whether this text concern the resurrection, or no, we take knowledge of a crediderunt, and of a credunt in the Jews, that the Jews did believe a resurrection, and that they do believe it still. That they do so now, appears out of the doctrine of their Talmud, where we find, that only the Jews shall rise again, but all the Gentiles shall perish, both body and soul together, as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed all at once, body, and soul into hell. And to this purpose, (for the first part thereof, that the Jews shall rise) they abuse that place of Esay, Thy dead men shall live; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust3. And, 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 lice, they are deceased, they shall not rise. The Jews only, say they shall rise; but, not all they; but only the righteous amongst them. And, to that purpose, they abuse that place of the pro 2 Numb. xvi. 31, 32. 3 Isaiah xxvi. 19. Isaiah xxvi. 14. phet Zachary, two parts shall be cut off, and die, but the third shall be left therein, and I will bring that third part, through the fire, and will refine them, as silver is refined, and try them, as gold is tried. The Jews only of all men, the good Jews only of all Jews, and of these good Jews, only 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 Jacob, upon his death-bed, advised his son Joseph, to bury him in Canaan, and not in Egypt, and to that purpose, they detort also, that place of Jeremy', where the prophet lays that curse upon Pashur, That he should die in Babylon, and be buried there. For, though the Jews do 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 Jews, 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 only in that place receive their resurrection, wheresoever they were buried. But yet though none but Jews, none but righteous Jews, none but righteous Jews 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, when he came to the raising of Lazarus, and said to his sister Martha, Thy brother shall rise again, she replies to Christ, Alas, I know he shall rise again, 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, 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 known to the Jews then, and always. For even Herod, when Christ preached and did miracles, was apt to say, John Baptist is risen from the dead 10; and when it is said of those two great apostles, (the loving, and the beloved apostle, Peter, and John) that as yet they knew not the Scripture, that Christ must rise from the dead", this argues no 5 Zach. xiii. 8, 9. Gen. xlvii. 29. Luke xiv. 14. 10 Mar. vi. 14. 7 Jer. xx. 6. |