Clavis mystica a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of Holy Scripture; handled in seventy sermons, preached at solemn and most celebrious assemblies, upon speciall occasions, in England and France. By Daniel Featley, D.D.

THE SECOND ROW.

And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle, a Saphir, and a Diamond.

THat the second Speaker, that sweet singer of Israel, whose ditty was, A∣wake, & sing ye that sleep in dust, made (according to my Text) a row, or Canticum graduum, a Psalme of ascents or degrees, I cannot but even in a du∣ty of thankfulnesse acknowledge, for the help of memory I received from it: had not he made a row, that is, digested & disposed his matter in excellent order, I should never have bin able to present to you the jewels set in this row, which are all (as you see) most orient. Of all red stones the Carbuncle, of all blew the Saphir,* 1.1 of all simply the Diamond hath been ever held in highest esteem: Maximum in rebus humanis pretium adamas habet, non tan∣tum inter gemmas.* 1.2 Carbunculus (saith S. Jerome) videtur mihi sermo doctri∣nae, qui fugato errore tenebrarum illuminat corda credentium, hic est quem u∣nus de Seraphim tulit farcipe comprehensum ad Esayae labra purganda. Whe∣ther this second Preacher (in S. Pauls phrase a Prophet) his tongue were not

touched with such a coale, I referre my selfe to your hearts and consciences, Nonne ardebat cor vestrûm in vobis, cùm exponeret vobis Scripturas? The se∣cond jewel was a Saphir, according to the Hebrew derivation from Sepher, a booke, wherein we may reade both the doctrine and graces of the second Speaker:

Hic lapis (ut perhibent) educit corpore vinctos,

saith Vincentius; and was not his doctrine a Jayle-delivery of all deaths pri∣soners? It is a constant tradition among the Rabbins, that the tables of stone,* 1.3 wherein the ten Commandements were written with the finger of God, were of Saphir. For although Pliny affirmeth,* 1.4 that the Saphir is a stone alto∣gether unfit for sculpture, yet this can be no just exception against this tra∣dition, sith the engraving of the ten Commandements was done by the fin∣ger of God above nature. Moreover, it is cleare out of this Text, that the name of one of the Patriarchs was written in the Saphir. Such a Saphir was the second Speaker, having the Lawes of God imprinted in his heart. The third jewell is a Diamond, in Hebrew called Jahalom, because it breaketh all o∣ther stones; in Greek Adamas, that is, unconquerable, because it can neither be broken by the hammer, nor consumed in the fire: nay, the fire (saith Ze∣nocrates) hath not so much power as to stain the colour, much lesse impeach the substance of this stone. Call to mind among the vertues of a Magistrate, conspicuous in this divine Oratour, his unconquerable courage & unstained integrity, and the comparison is already made. Pliny reporteth, Adamantem sideritem alio Adamante perforari: thinke you not, that if a man could have a heart as hard as the Adamant, this Adamant, pointed with sacred eloquence, could breake it and make it contrite? Lastly, Pliny addeth, that the Dia∣mond is a soveraign remedy against poyson, Et ideò regibus charissimus, iis∣que paucis cognitus, in high esteem with Princes: if, as our gracious Sove∣raigne hath, so all Christian Princes had such Diamonds as this; if such Preachers were their eare-rings, they should be free from the danger of all poysoned and hereticall doctrine.

If as the stones placed in the second row agree with the gifts of the Spea∣ker, so they sort as well with the doctrines of his Text, I am sure you wil all say, that this second order of stones is not out of order. A most remarkable story of the Carbuncle we have, that cast in the fire among live coals, it see∣meth to have no grace in it; but quench the other coals with water, & it shi∣neth more gloriously in the ashes than ever before: so our Saviour in the brunt of his passion, while he was heat by the fire-brands of hell, Scribes & Phari∣sees, Jewes & Romans, seemed to be dead, and lose all his colour & beauty, nay, was indeed dead according to his humane nature (his soule being seve∣red from his body:) but after the consummation of his passion, and the ex∣tinction of the fiery rage of his persecuters with his bloud, in his resurrecti∣on he shewed himself a most glorious Carbuncle, shining in majesty, & burn∣ing in love. After his resurrection, in the day of his ascension, hee taketh pos∣session of his throne in heaven, which,* 1.5 in Ezekiel is said to bee like a Saphir stone, & now sitting at the right hand of God the Father, having conquered sin, death, & hell, & made all his enemies his footstoole, he is become the only true orient Diamond in the world: whether you take the name from the Greek ἄδαμασ, ab ά & δαμαω, or the Hebrew םלהי from םלה, being invin∣cible

himselfe, and overcomming all adverse power, breaking his obstinate enemies in pieces, like a potters vessell, with a rod of iron.

The embossment of gold, in which these gems of divine doctrine were set, was his Text taken out of

* 1.6 ESAY 26.19.

Thy dead men shall live together, with my body shall they rise: awake and sing yee that dwell in dust; for the dew is as the dew of herbes, and the earth shall cast up her dead.

IT would aske the labour of an houre to settle this one only member, I finde such a Babel of tongues at odds about so few words. * 1.7Whereas we reade ter∣ra projiciet, or ejiciet, the earth shall cast up or bring forth, as it doth her herbs and winter prisoners, Junius hath, Dejecisti in terram, Castalio, terram demoliris, the Seventy, Terra cadet, S. Jerome, Dejicies in terram, the Chal∣dee paraphrase, Trades in infernum: and for mortuos, in Hebrew* 1.8 Rephaim, from a word signifying to cure, per antiphrasin the Seventy reade 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the wicked or ungodly; S. Jerome, Gigantes, stout and robustious against God. But to set you in a right and inoffensive way, I reduce almost an infinity of distracti∣ons to two heads. For all of them either speak of the resurrection of the dead in∣definitely, which they doe that say, Terra ejiciet, to wit, postquam in terram dejecisti. For the earth cannot cast up that it hath not: and, Manium terram demoliris; or of the destruction of the wicked, one only species of the dead, which the Seventy call impios, others Giants, mighty to transgresse; both senses, as the Northern and Southern rivers running from contrary points meet in the Oce∣an; so these from sundry and discrepant conceits run into one common place of the generall resurrection, save that the latter adde a straine to the former of Gods vengeance, and wrath prepared for the wicked.

* 1.9Thus having set the letters of my Text together, & accorded the words, it re∣maineth that their scope and intent be freed from question. There is not one of the learned Scribes, old or new, Jew or Christian, whose spirit and pen hath not fallen upon one of these two senses (viz.) that the Prophet either speaketh of the resurrection of the dead at the last day, or of the restitution and enlargement of the people from their present straights: in which (say they) calamity is a kind of death, captivity as the grave, Gods people as the seed in the ground, Gods grace and favour as the comfortable dew, to revive and restore them to their wonted being. Of these two companies some goe after the literall grammaticall sense, lending not so much as the cast of their eye toward the allegory, as Strigelius, Clarius, Brentius: Others on the other side of the banke standing for the sha∣dowed resurrection, are not so peremptory; but si quis aliter sentire mavult, per me liber hoc faciat: and Calvin himself in his commentary layes out as it were a lot, as well for the true as the typicall resurrection: Falluntur Christiani, qui ad extremum judicium restringunt, Prophetatotum Christi regnum ab ini∣tio ad finem usque complectitur. Aquinas equally joyneth them both; Hìc est propositio resurrectionis, vel corporalis in die novissimo, vel à miseriâ capti∣vitatis. To conclude then, as in the 37. chapter of Ezekiel the resurrection of the dead is brought in as an argument by God himselfe, to ascertaine the people of their delivery from thraldome; an argument à majore ad minus: Can he raise and revive the dead? and can he not much more restore the distressed? yet I will

be bold to say, that the proper resurrection of the dead, without the vaile of a me∣taphor in the hardest construction that can be made of the words, is either the scope of the Prophet, or his proofe, his intent or his argument, his maine and principal conclusion, or his strongest principle to demonstrate his conclusion. And M^r. Gualter giveth a good reason why all other comforts are sealed up with this doctrine and promise of the universall resurrection, Quòd nulla alia sit certa & solida consolatio, because all other calmes are temporary, fluxe and mutable, from which there are recidivations and relapses into subsequent stormes. By this time I am secure, that no mist of an allegory can so trouble or dimme your eyes, but that you clearly behold in the true glasse of my Text a faire and un∣doubted image of the resurrection of the dead; which being the proper subject of this feast, I hope I have sufficiently warranted the choice of my theame, and so I proceed to the explication.

Thy dead shall live, with my body shall they rise, awake and sing,* 1.10 &c. Yee see how many members there are in the body of my Text; yet in resolution and in issue they are all but one: It is a totum similare. As the whole water of the sea is but water, and yet every drop of the sea is water too; so the whole bulke and shocke of my Text is the resurrection, and yet every part and parcell thereof is the resurrection also: for marke the words,

Vivent, resurgent, evigilabunt, cantabunt, germinabunt, projicientur. mortui, cadaver, pulvis, habitatores pulveris, herbae, inferi seu manes.

What is this in the whole composition, what in every limb & joynt apari, but the ecchoing and resounding from one to the other the doctrine of the resurrection?

To omit (besides all these which have their tabernacle in the sun, and are evi∣dent and apert professions thereof) many secret & minerall arguments couch∣ed in the bowels and bosome of my Text, which shall be extracted in their due time. Bees are not so like Bees, but that there are individuall differences be∣tween them; neither are the members of my Text so like, but that they may bee distinguished. Thus then by way of objection and answer you may perceive their distinction and order, as also the maine scope to which they tend.

Doth any object, Nihil est post mortem, death is an utter extinction? It is answered, not so: for thy dead shall live. Doth he goe on and say, they may live in their spirits, which never dye; but what for their bodies? It is answered, With my body shall they rise. Rise, doe you say? but by what authority? what shall be the instrument and meanes thereof? The shrill sound of the last Trump awaking them out of their sleep, and the voice of God, Awake yee that dwell in dust. Awake they may and rise, but to no lesse wretchednesse and misery than be∣fore: Answer, They shall awake and sing; it shall be a triumphant and joyfull resurrection. Yea, but shew us any signe thereof, and we will beleeve it: Answer, Thy dew is the dew of herbs; nature hath printed this truth in every garden thou walkest in. Lastly, if they say the earth hath devoured our bodies, how shall we then arise? It is answered, Terra projiciet, the earth shall bee driven to dis∣gorge and cast them up againe.

There are degrees and ascents in my Text: 1. Vivent may be in soule; but 2. Resurgent must be in body. 3. Evigilabunt may be to sorrow; but 4. Canta∣bunt must be to joy. 5. Ros herbarum is but a light from nature; but 6. Terra projiciet is an act of irrisistible compulsory power. The first is the fundamen∣tall

proposition, and sheweth the entity, what is and shall be, Vivent mor∣tui. The second is exposition, and sheweth the manner, Resurgent. The third is confirmation, and sheweth the efficiency, Evigilabunt. The fourth is congratula∣tion, and sheweth the quality, Cantabunt. The fifth is illustration, and sheweth the probability, Ros herbarum. The sixth and last is conclusion, and sheweth the necessity, Terra projiciet. There is a time of gathering, and a time of scatte∣ring. These sixe, either members or remarkable points and joynts of my Text, hitherto severed, sith the Prophet hath construed together, I will reduce to three combinations, and so handle them. The

• 1. Vivent and resurgent.
• 2. Evigilate and cantate.
• 3. Ros tuus and terra projiciet.

The first combination or conjugation is Vivent and Resurgent. There is a difference between them; the former is partiall & incompleat, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive (as is proved by our Saviours argument: Deus non est Deus mortuorum, sed viventium) when their bodies were not living; the lat∣ter is totall and absolute, and addeth the life of the body to the life of the soule. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is of that whereof before there was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 they shal live therfore & rise, but who? Mortui, the dead; the dead is the common genus & sagena, that com∣prehends all sorts good and bad: Moritur pariter doctus & indoctus, in hoc tertio we all agree. In the first and archetypall world, when one man was as nine men, had nine mens ages, yet the end & period of all their acts is, Et mor∣tuus est: and whatsoever the chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel omit besides, they omit not this, Et dormivit cum patribus. Death is that Syncope or Elision, that cutteth not out letters or leaves, but lives; and which not Gram∣mar, but nature shall cause us to understand:

—Mors ultima linea rerum,

our whole life being but linea circumducta rediens ad idem punctum, à pul∣vere ad pulverem, the assured period and full point after all other points, pawses, sections and intersections, changes and vicissitudes of this mortall life: after all our eatings and drinkings the symbolum or shot that must be paid, the centre, to which our corruptible body, which presseth downe the soule, doth by its weight and pronenesse forcibly tend.

Mortui. Consider once for all the subject of this clause, and all the proposition, & how it climbeth; first mortui: secondly, cadaver: thirdly, pulvis: fourthly, ha∣bitatores pulveris: fifthly, inferi and manes; free Denizons among the dead, such as might say to corruption, thou art our father; and to wormes & dust, yee are our brothers and sisters. Yet these dead carkasses, carrion, dust, inve∣terate dust, netherlanders, shall live and rise: Non obstat potentiae Dei diu∣turna putredo, walke but a pace or two backward, yee shall find a negative to this affirmative, the dead shall not live. Is there yea and nay in the Holy Ghost? Yea, and both true. For elucidation whereof take the rule of Brentius in his Nominibus, meum & tuum ••ita est tota vis concionis: Thy dead shall rise, that is, the Lords dead, either mortui propter Dominum, as Martyrs; or in Domino, as all beleevers; or quorum tota vita martyrium, whether they live or dye they are the Lords: Interfecti mei in some readings, in the genuine cadaver meum, the dead being, or which are my body, and then by collection,

as Junius well observeth, cadavera mea quoque, all the bodies of my Saints, which are as it were mine, because they belong to my mysticall body. Now then when it was said Mortui non resurgent, Mortui was put simply, and with∣out addition, as Hyperius saith: but in these propositions mortui vivent, ca∣daver resurget, you have a specificall difference, not omnes mortui, but tui, that is, Gods: cadaver, non omne, sed meum, that is, Christs: opposite where∣unto are mortui Satanae, & cadaver Antichristi. Hence commeth that seeming antilogie, or contradictio linguarum, strife of tongues, Resurgent, non re∣surgent, they shall, they shall not rise. But shall not all live, and rise againe? Doubtlesse they shall, the righteous in a right and reall acception: their life is a life indeed, vitall, immortall, Angelicall, nourished at the tree and foun∣taine of life, animated and perpetuated from the Lord of life, and they rise as the morning Sunne fairer and fairer, to a glorious, joyfull, incorruptible, and celestiall resurrection. Non sic impii, non sic, they live, or rather dye a death, and that the second, and that second a thousand fold; or rather they live a life, a terme without terme, of beeing and not being, corrupting and not ceasing, burning and not consuming: Ignis eorum non interit, they shall never be able to extinguish their fire, nor their fire them; absumit ut servet, servat ut cru∣ciet, the Salamanders of hell fire are kept in torment and vexation for ever∣more: and they rise, ut lapsu graviore ruant; as Jezebel was mounted to the window to be cast downe to the dogs: as Herod to his throne, for a more wofull and spectable ruine: as Lucifer, or rather Tenebrifer (as Bernard calleth him) to the side of the mountaine, for a more astonishable confusion. Our Saviour knits up both in two words: Some shall rise to the resurrection of life, there is the true vivent & resurgent; some to the resurrection of condemnation, there is the opposite.

The second combination is Evigilate & cantate: yee shall observe in this and divers other passages in this Prophet divers interlocutions, prosopopeia's, and changing of persons. First, here the Prophet speaketh to God, or God to Christ, Thy dead shall live: Secondly, Christ to his Father, With my body shall they rise: Thirdly, here is Gods apostrophe to the dead, Awake and sing: Fourthly, the answer of the dead to God, Ros tuus, that is, quem tu irrorasti; or Gods apo∣strophe to his Church, Ros tuus, id est, qui super te cadet, O Ecclesia mea: Last of all, as it were the chorus and consent of all, Terra projiciet.

Awake and sing are Gods alarum to the dead; habitatores pulveris, the houshold and meniall to dust. Now what voice, but the voice of God shall I say, like a Trumpet, or the roaring of a Lion, or the sound of many waters, or a clap or crack of thunder (all come too short) were able to enforme and actuate dust and rubble to audience? Loquor ad Dominum might they say with Abra∣ham, cùm sim pulvis & cinis? Howsoever pulvis & cinis in synthesi may doe it, I am sure pulvis & cinis in analysi cannot. Wee attempt not to rowze up those that are in a dead sleep without loud cries, but is any man so mad as to spend his voice, though a stentorian, and rend his throat against deafe rockes? Behold, God doth more than this by that powerfull instrument of his glorious Word, that gladius delphicus, that is more than Moses rod, wherewith hee wrought wonders: more than Jacobs staffe, wherewith hee prospered: more than Judah's scep∣ter, wherewith hee governed: more than Joseph's cup, wherewith hee

divined: I say, by that powerfull instrument, by which hee said Fiant to hea∣ven and earth, and they were created; Effata to deafe eares, and they were ope∣ned: Tace to the raging of the sea, and it was stilled: Obmutesce to the crying Divell, & he was silenced: Exi foras to the dead carkasses, & they came forth; by that doth he say to these dead and moultred in the earth, Awake and sing.

Awake: but with what eyes to behold the light of heaven? when the windowes of their bodies have bin long since shut downe, their chrystall glasses of nature broken, their seers sunke into the holes of their head, clay dwelleth in their ta∣bernacles, and rottennesse in their circles, and the scorne of the Idoll in Baruch is fallen upon them, They cannot wipe the dust from their eyes.

And sing. How shall they sing in a strange land? what be their instruments to sing to? where is their living harpe, and well tuned cymball? is it hung upon the willowes of Babylon, or rather tyed to the roofe of their mouth? where are their songs of praise and thanksgiving, which they sang in the land of the li∣ving?

—Olim ego longas Cantando memini solitum consumere noctes; Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina.

We are now laid in the land of forgetfulnesse, we have taken up and made our beds in the darke, our mouth is filled with gravell, and the slime of the pit sticketh in our throats: all this notwithstanding, they that are in their tombes & graves shall heare the voice of the Son of man, & earth, earth, earth in Je∣remy winnowed and boulted by death into the smallest dust, shall be effigiated and shaped anew into living men; Et ex his vermiculis & pulvere, saith Saint Bernard, instaurabuntur muri coelistis Jerusalem.

Before I end this second combination, I remember that I noted unto you two things: first, the efficiency in the exuscitation, Awake; where forget not in the meane while to reserve for a latter meditation, that death by the phrase of my Text is a sleep: secondly, the quality; for sith they are willed to sing, that imports a joyfull resurrection: Musica in luctu importuna, and it must be a most joyfull resurrection, when such as shall partake thereof not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (so the Seventy) but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Aquilas) and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Symmachus) and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Theodotian.) Agreeable hereunto is that of our Saviour, Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. And here once more to the wicked we send libellum repudii: Non est vobis pars, ne{que} sors, yee may not consort with us in our blessed harmony, the voices of Ashdod and Canaan cannot tune together: to you belongeth, plangent tribus terrae, & tribulabitur ibi for∣tis, your singing shall be turned to sighing, your Tabrets & Shaumes into ever∣lasting beatings and hammerings on the anviles of your breast, your showting into howling and yelling, your clapping of hands into gnashing of teeth, your praising into blaspheming & cursing, & all your rejoycing shall be as the mour∣ning of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo; yea much more than of Hadradrimmon, because in the valley of Hinnon, is the lake and fornace of endlesse disconsolation. This Prophet shall conclude, Behold my servants shall rejoyce, and ye shall be ashamed: my servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow, and howle for vexation of mind.

The third combination is, Ros tuus & terra projiciet, which giveth a double

proofe of the former doctrine: the one as it were of course, nature and common sense teacheth; the other of force, the creature must and shall accomplish it. Ter∣ra projiciet, that is, saith Rabbie David, Thou (O God) shalt command it. The learned in their Commentaries distinguish these proofes by a discrepancy of words, Elicere proper to the dew, and projicere fatall to the earth: the dew gently allureth, and calleth forth the herbes; so doth the Word & Spirit of God sweetly and easily bring up (may I say) these embryo's of death. But say that the earth withhold them, opposing her lockes and barres, and pleading perhaps the prescription of hundreds or thousands of yeeres, there is then place for projiciet, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, angry and impatient though she be, reddet, non sua, she must cast them up, as the stomach a surfeit, and a woman an abortive fruit. See how God hath furnished us with all sorts of arguments: if Liber foederis will not serve, wee may reade in the booke of nature, or rather Bibliotheca librorum, described with a text hand, in faire and capitall letters, the resurrection of the dead. In∣terroga jumenta, saith Job: Interroga olera, saith my Prophet: Considera Lilia agri, saith our Saviour: looke into the fields, or sit still in your gardens, every one under his owne vine, and behold the growth of the plants and flowers, how after the cold of Winter, when the deadnesse of the yeere had blotted and blurred as it were the face of the earth, and the print of nature seemeth to bee quite razed out; yet (as Esay speaketh of the Oake and Elme) there is a sub∣stance in them, and by the comfort of the vernall sun-shine, and fatnesse of the clouds dropping on them, they garnish and cover the earth againe, as with the carpets of Egypt, and clothe it as with a Josephs coate, with all the variety of colours nature can invent. Nature is full of such demonstrations; I could bring you a band of creatures to strengthen this point. The bird of Arabia that riseth out of her owne ashes, the insecta animalia that spend the Winter season in a sha∣dow of death, the seed that lyeth and dyeth in the earth, our sleepings and a∣wakings, nights and dayes, winters and summers, autumnes and springs; but I leave them all, and cleave to the resemblance in my Text, Thy dew is as the dew of herbes; but when this dew and soft distillation is too weake to worke this effect, God hath a torrent and floud to doe it: Terra ejiciet, & contermina terrae, the sea that is married to the earth & lyeth in her armes & bosome. He shall say to the sea, Give; and to the earth, Restore, and all creatures in them, and in all the world besides that have devoured and swallowed the flesh of his chosen, when that day commeth, shall find that they have eaten morsels like aspes, and dranke a draught of deadly poyson, too strong and hard of digestion for their over weak stomachs. I end with the words of this Prophet, chapt. 66. Quis audivit unquam tale? quis vidit huic simile? nunquid parturiet terra in die unâ? & tota gens parietur simul? at this day it shall be so.

Saphirus aureis punctis collucet, the best kind of Saphir,* 1.11 saith the Natu∣ralist, hath something like points of gold in it: Such were these we now handled; give mee leave to use the Speakers phrase, though not in his sense, spare mee to recapitulate, or rather from recapitulation: for what have I done else all this while?

Mee thinkes the sixe parts of this Text are like the six cities of refuge,* 1.12 to which those that had slain, shall I say? nay, rather those that are slain may flye, to save shall I say? nay, but to recover and restore their lives: and they are all like the wheeles in Ezekiels vision, Rota in rotâ: or as the celestiall

Spheres one in the other, all moving alike to the same purpose: all striving for an Article of faith, one of the twelve flowers in the garland of our Creed, one of the twelve stones in the foundation of the holy City. I remember in the inhe∣ritance of Judah, among the rest there fell to their share sex civitates, & villae earum. Is there any such a desart so barren, so hopelesse, so waste, as death and the grave, desertion of life and beeing, when milke forsaketh the breasts, mar∣row the bones, bloud the veines, spirit the arteries, and the soule the body? yet when you are brought to this desart of desarts, you shall find sex civitates, & villas earum, six maine and eminent proofes of the resurrection, with as many lesse, like suburbs, granges, and appertinent villages. For first, Mortui vivent is a maine argument, grounded upon the Word and Promise, like civitas; but mortui tui is civitas & villa, a maine with an appendant argument drawne from the propriety that God hath in us. Secondly, Cadaver resurget is civitas, but cadaver meum is civitas & villa, a maine argument, with an appendant drawn from the society between the head & the members: he that raised Christ shall quicken us. Thirdly, Awake & sing are civitates, main arguments drawn from the command & power of God, who saith, Returne ye sons of Adam, and they return; but that the nature of the phrase should import a sleep, & no death, no privation of speech, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pythagoricam, for a while, till God loosen the strings of the tongue, and put breath into the organ againe, these are civi∣tates & villae earum. Yet further, by Montanus his collection, pulvis & ha∣bitatores pulveris are villae, appendant arguments, the one from the matter of our creation, when we are at the worst we are but dust, from which our creation was, and why may not from thence our recreation be? the other from the terme of our abode, habitatio; which (saith he) is not of those that take up their man∣sion or long home, but of sojourners and factours, who continue for a while in forraine countries till they have dispatched their affaires. Adde lastly to all these the map of the whole earth, in every leafe of grasse describing the truth of this doctrine:

—inscripti nomine vitae nascuntur flores—

with those insufferable passions, pangs, and angariations, which the common mother to us all is put unto, till shee be rid of us, as the Whale of Jonas.

A word of application, and it shall be the explication, which some very lear∣ned Expositors give upon cadaver meum. Wee have hitherto taken it to be the word of Christ to his Father; they say rather it is the word of the Prophet to his brethren, as if in effect hee had said, I preach to you no other do∣ctrine than that I beleeve my selfe: I teach that the dead shall live, and I am assured that with my body shall they rise. In which sense it is a pa∣rallel to that Magna Charta, that great and memorable record which Job transmitteth to all posterity, I know my Redeemer liveth, and I my selfe shall see him with these eyes, and no other; concionantur profani homi∣nes, the fashion of these worldly men is to prate of the life of the righteous, as Balaam of their death, like men in a trance, without sense or affection after it. The food of the soule is unto them as Barzillai his bodily food was unto him, they eate it without any appetite or rellish: (Hath thy servant any taste in that he eateth, saith he to David?) and the comforts of the Gospel to them as mu∣sicke

to him: (Can I heare the voice of singing men or women?) They be∣hold Canaan from the Mount, and the goodnesse of God afarre off: my mean∣ing is, they can talke of cadavera aliorum, but minde not, or at least hope not for cadaver meum: Odi sapientem qui sibi non sapit; qui sibi nequam, cui bonus? Nequam, saith Saint Bernard, is as much as nequaquam: all that this man knoweth or doth is as much as nothing, sith it availeth not him∣selfe; his case is like that of Tantalus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Plato saith, who hath apples at his lips, and water at his chinne, and yet pines for want. O unhappy man, goe to the prodigall childe, he came to his father with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and to that childe of the world, who came to our Saviour, Magister, dic fratri ut dividat mecum haereditatem, that is, suffer not a goodly inheri∣tance of a joyfull resurrection to be taken away by the violent, but thrust thou in for thy part among them, and when they shall say, corpora nostra, our bo∣dies shall rise, say thou with a fiduciall faith, cadaver meum, so shall my bo∣dy rise: and let every one that heareth mee this day say with the Prophet, Re∣member mee, O Lord, with the favour of thy people, and visit mee with thy salvation, that I may see the felicity of thy chosen, and rejoyce in the joy of thy people, and glory with thine inheritance.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Plin. nat. hist. l. 37.
• * 1.2

  Comment. in Esay.
• * 1.3

  Bellar. l. 2. de Verb. Dei.
• * 1.4

  Nat. hist. l. 37.
• * 1.5

  Chap. 1. V. 26.
• * 1.6

  A Sermon preached by Doctor John King then Dean of Christ-Church, and Vicechancellor of the Universi∣ty of Oxford, afterwards Lord Bishop of London, upon Easter day in Saint Peters Church in Ox∣ford.
• * 1.7

  Variae lectio∣nes.
• * 1.8

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.9

  Sense twofold.
• * 1.10

  Analysis Tex∣tus, partium ordo & divi∣sio.
• * 1.11

  The recapitu∣lation with ad∣dition of ap∣pendant argu∣ments.
• * 1.12

  Deut. 19.