they got nothing in the earth. Got nothing? Nay, they lost by it their living, their life, all they had to lose. They might have saved all, and but said nothing. So certain they were, so certainly they did account of their knowing, they could not be got from it, but to their very last breath, to the very last drop of their blood, bare witness to the truth of this article; and chose rather to lay down their lives and to take their death, than to deny, nay than not to affirm His rising from death. And thus did they know, and knowing testify, and by their testimony came the Romans to their knowing, and so do we. But, as I said before, we to a much surer knowing than they. For when this was written, the whole world stopped their ears at this report, would not endure to hear them, stood out mainly against them. The Resurrection! why it was with the Grecians at Athens, xevaoμòs, a very scorn.' Acts 17. 32. The Resurrection! why it was with Festus the great Roman, pavía, a sickness of the brain, a plain frenzy.' That world Acts 26. 24. that then was and long after in such opposition, is since come in; and upon better examination of the matter so strangely testified, with so many thousand lives of men, to say the least of them, sad and sober, hath taken notice of it, and both known and acknowledged the truth of it. It was well foretold by St. John, hæc est victoria quæ vincit mundum, fides 1 Joh. 5. 4. vestra. It is proved true since, that this faith of Christ's rising hath made a conquest of the whole world. So that, after all the world hath taken knowledge of it, we come to know it. And so more full to us, than to them, is this scientes, "knowing." Now to our particulars, what we know. Our first particular is, That Christ is risen from the dead. Properly, we are said to rise from a fall, and from rather to revive. Yet the Apostle rather useth the of rising than reviving, as serving better to set forth purpose. That death is a fall we doubt not, that it came the dead. with a fall, the fall of Adam. But what manner of fall? for it hath been holden a fall, from whence is no rising. But by Christ's rising it falls out to be a fall, that we may fall and yet get up again. For if Christ be risen from it, then is there a rising; if a rising of one, then may there be of another; if He be risen in our nature, then is our nature risen; and if our nature be, our persons may be. Especially

2.

The par

death ticulars
term. That
his Christ is

quoad nos.

risen from

I.

[Rom. 6.5.]

SERM. seeing, as the Apostle in the fourth verse before hath told us, He and we are σúμouтo, that is, so "grafted" one into the other, that He is part of us, and we of Him; so that as St. Bernard well observeth, Christus etsi solus resurrexit, tamen non totus, that Christ, though He be risen only, yet He is not risen wholly,' or all, till we be risen too. He is but risen in part, and that He may rise all, we must rise from death also.

Jonah2.10.

1 Mat. 12.40.

1

This then we know first: that death is not a fall like that Ex. 15. 10. of Pharaoh into the sea, that "sunk down like a lump of Jonah1.17. lead" into the bottom, and never came up more; but a fall like that of Jonas into the sea, who was received by a fish, and after cast up again. It is our Saviour Christ's own Mat. 25.41. simile. A fall, not like that of the Angels into the bottomless pit, there to stay for ever; but like to that of men into their beds, when they make account to stand up again. A fall, not as of a log or stone to the ground, which, where Isa. 26. 19. it falleth there it lieth still; but as of a wheat-corn into the 1 Cor.15.36. ground, which is quickened and springeth up again.

full. de

Resurrect.

The very word which the Apostle useth, eyepleis, implieth the two latter: 1. either of a fall into a bed in our chamber, where, though we lie to see to little better than dead for a time, yet in the morning we awake and stand up notwithstanding; 2. or of a fall into a bed in our garden, where, though the seed putrify and come to nothing, yet we look to see it shoot forth anew in the spring. Which spring is, as [Vid. Ter- Tertullian well calleth it, the very resurrection of the year; and Christ's Resurrection falleth well with it; and it is, saith Carn. 12] he, no way consonant to reason, that man for whom all things spring and rise again, should not have his spring and rising too. But he shall have them, we doubt not, by this day's work. He That this day did rise, and rising was seen of Joh. 20.15. Mary Magdalene in the likeness of a gardener, this Gardener will look to it, that man shall have his spring. He will, saith Isa. 26. 19. the Prophet, "drop upon us a dew like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall yield forth her dead." And so, as Christ is risen from the dead, even so shall we.

1. That

Our second particular is, That as He is risen, so now He Christ now dieth not. Which is no idle addition, but hath his force and emphasis. For one thing it is to rise from the dead, and

dieth not.

Joh.11.43.

another, not to die any more. The widow's son of Nain, the Lu. 7. 14. ruler's daughter of the synagogue, Lazarus,-all these rose Lu. 8.54. again from death, yet they died afterward; but "Christ rising from the dead, dieth no more." These two are sensibly different, Lazarus' resurrection, and Christ's; and this second is sure a higher degree than the former. If we rise as they did, that we return to this same mortal life of ours again, this very mortality of ours will be to us as the prisoner's chain he escapes away withal: by it we shall be pulled back again, though we should rise a thousand times. We must therefore

The Joh. 5. 24. +

so rise as Christ, that our resurrection be not reditus, but transitus; not a returning back to the same life, but a passing over to a new. Transivit de morte ad vitam, saith He. very feast itself puts us in mind of as much; it is Pascha, that is, the Passover, not a coming back to the same land of Deu.17.16. Egypt, but a passing over to a better, the Land of Promise, whither "Christ our Passover" is passed before us, and shall in 1 Cor. 5. 7. His good time give us passage after Him. The Apostle expresseth it best where he saith, that Christ by His rising hath "abolished death, and brought to light life and immor- 2Tim. 1. 10. tality;" not life alone, but life and immortality, which is this our second particular. Risen, and risen to die no more, because risen to life, to life immortal.

from

"death

hath no

more dominion

But the third is yet beyond both these, more worth the 3. That knowing, more worthy our account; "death hath no dominion henceforth over Him." Where, as we before said, one thing it was to rise again, another to die no more, so say we now; it is one thing not to die, another not to be under the dominion of death. over Him." For death, and death's dominion are two different things. Death itself is nothing else but the very separation of the life from the body, death's dominion a thing of far larger extent. By which word of " dominion," the Apostle would have us to conceive of death, as of some great lord having some large signory. Even as three several times in the chapter before Rom. 5.14. he saith, regnavit mors, "death reigned," as if death were some mighty monarch, having some great dominions under him. And so it is; for look how many dangers, how many diseases, sorrows, calamities, miseries there be of this mortal life; how many pains, perils, snares of death; so many several provinces are there of this dominion. In all which, or some of them,

17. 21.

SERM. while we live, we still are under the jurisdiction and arrest I. of death all the days of our life. And say that we escape

them all, and none of them happen to us, yet live we still under fear of them, and that is death's dominion too. For he is, as Job calleth him, Rex pavoris, "King of fear." Job 18. 14. And when we are out of this life too, unless we pertain to Christ and His resurrection, we are not out of his dominion neither. For hell itself is secunda mors, so termed Rev. 20.14 by St. John, "the second death," or second part of death's Rev. 21. 8. dominion.

Now, who is there that would desire to rise again to this life, yea, though it were immortal, to be still under this dominion of death here; still subject, still liable to the aches and pains, to the griefs and gripings, to the manifold miseries of this vale of the shadow of death? But then the other, the second region of death, the second part of his dominion, who can endure once to be there? There they seek and wish for death, and death flieth from them.

Verily, rising is not enough; rising, not to die again is not enough, except we may be quit of this dominion, and rid of that which we either feel or fear all our life long. Therefore doth the Apostle add, and so it was needful he should, "death hath no dominion over Him." "No dominion over Him?" No; for He, dominion over it. For lest any might surmise he might break through some wall, or get out at some window, and so steal a resurrection, or casually come to it, Rev. 1. 18. he tells them-No, it is not so. Ecce claves mortis et inferni; see here, the keys both of the first and second death. is a plain proof He hath mastered, and got the dominion over [Heb. 2.14.] both "death and him that hath the power of death, that is the devil." Both are swallowed up in victory, and neither death

Which

1 Cor.15.55. any more sting, nor hell any more dominion. Sed ad DomiPs. 68. 20. num Deum nostrum spectant exitus mortis; "but now unto God our Lord belong the issues of death;" the keys are at His girdle, He can let out as many as He list.

Rev. 2. 10.

This estate is it, which he calleth coronam vita; not life alone, but "the crown of life," or a life crowned with immunity of fear of any evil, ever to befal us. This is it which in the Rom. 6.11. next verse he calleth "living unto God," the estate of the children of the resurrection, to be the sons of God, equal to

the Angels, subject to no part of death's dominion, but living)

in security, joy, and bliss for ever.

And now is our particular full. 1. Rising to life first; 2. and life freed from death, and so immortal; 3. and then exempt from the dominion of death, and every part of it; and so happy and blessed. Rise again? so may Lazarus, or any mortal man do; that is not it. Rise again to life immortal? so shall all do in the end, as well the unjust as the just; that is not it. But rise again to life immortal, with freedom from ↑ all misery, to live to, and with God, in all joy and glory evermore ;-that is it, that is Christ's resurrection. Et tu, saith St. Augustine, spera talem resurrectionem, et propter hoc esto Christianus, live in hope of such a resurrection, and for this hope's sake carry thyself as a Christian.' Thus have we our particular of that we are to know touching Christ risen.

And now we know all these, yet do we not account ourselves to know them perfectly until we also know the reason of them. And the Romans were a people that loved to see 2. the ground of that they received, and not the bare articles alone. Indeed it might trouble them why Christ should need thus to rise again, because they saw no reason why He should need die. The truth is, we cannot speak of rising well without mention of the terminus a quo, from whence He rose. By means whereof these two, 1. Christ's dying, and 2. His rising, are so linked together, and their audits so entangled one with another, as it is very hard to sever them. And this you shall observe, the Apostle never goeth about to do it, but still as it were of purpose suffers one to draw in the other continually. It is not here alone, but all over his Epistles; ever they run together, as if he were loath to mention one without the other.

And it cannot be denied but that their joining serveth to 1. many great good purposes. These two, 1. His death, and 2. His rising, they shew His two natures, human and Divine; 1. His human nature and weakness in dying, 2. His Divine nature and power in rising again. 2. These shew His two offices; His Priesthood and His Kingdom. 1. His Priesthood in the sacrifice of His death; 2. His Kingdom in the glory 2. of His resurrection. 3. They set before us His two main 3.