place me at his right hand. Ego sum, I am the man that hath seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath; ego sum, and I the same man, shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade".

Ego, I, the same person; Ego videbo, I shall see; I have had no looking-glass in my grave, to see how my body looks in the dissolution; I know not how. I have had no hour-glass in my grave to see how my time passes; I know not when: for, when my eyelids are closed in my death-bed, the angel hath said to me, That time shall be no more"; till I see eternity, the Ancient of Days", I shall see no more; but then I shall now, why is Job gladder of the use of this sense of seeing, than of any of the other? He is not; he is glad of seeing, but not of the sense, but of the object. It is true that is said in the school, Vicinius se habent potentiæ sensitivæ ad animam quam corpus; Our sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul, than to the body; but yet to some purpose, and in some measure, all the senses shall be in our glorified bodies, in actu, or in potentia, say they; so as that we shall use them, or so as that we might. But this sight that Job speaks of, is only the fruition of the presence of God, in which consists eternal blessedness. Here, in this world, we see God per speculum, says the apostle, by reflection, upon a glass "; we see a creature; and from that there arises an assurance that there is a Creator, we see him in ænigmate, says he; which is not ill rendered in the margin, in a riddle, we see him in the church; but men have made it a riddle, which is the church, we see him in the sacrament, but men have made it a riddle; by what light, and at what window: do I see him at the window of bread and wine; is he in that; or do I see him by the window of faith; and is he only in that? Still it is in a riddle. Do I see him à priori, (I see that I am elected, and therefore I cannot sin to death.) Or do I see him à posteriori, (because I see myself careful not to sin to death, therefore I am elected.) I shall see all problematical things come to be dogmatical, I shall see all these rocks in divinity, come to be smooth alleys; I shall see prophecies untied, riddles dissolved, controversies reconciled;

50 Rev. x. 7.

53

53 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

but I shall never see that, till I come to this sight which follows in our text, Videbo Deum, I shall see God.

No man ever saw God and lived; and yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen him I shall never die. What have I ever seen in this world, that hath been truly the same thing that it seemed to me? I have seen marble buildings, and a chip, a crust, a plaster, a face of marble hath pilled off, and I see brick bowels within. I have seen beauty, and a strong breath from another, tells me, that that complexion is from without, not from a sound constitution within. I have seen the state of princes, and all that is but ceremony; and, I would be loath to put a master of ceremonies to define ceremony, and tell me what it is, and to include so various a thing as ceremony, in so constant a thing, as a definition. I see a great officer, and I see a man of mine own profession, of great revenues, and I see not the interest of the money, that was paid for it, I see not the pensions, nor the annuities, that are charged upon that office, or that church. As he that fears God, fears nothing else, so, he that sees God, sees everything else: when we shall see God, Sicuti est, as he is, we shall see all things sicuti sunt, as they are; for that is their essence, as they conduce to his glory. We shall be no more deluded with outward appearances: for when this sight, which we intend here, comes, there will be no delusory thing to be seen. All that we have made as though we saw, in this world, will be vanished, and I shall see nothing but God, and what is in him; and him I shall see, In carne, in the flesh, which is another degree of exaltation in mine exinanition.

I shall see him, in carne sua, in his flesh and this was one branch in St. Augustine's great wish, that he might have seen Rome in her state, that he might have heard St. Paul preach, that he might have seen Christ in the flesh: St. Augustine hath seen Christ in the flesh one thousand two hundred years: in Christ's glorified flesh; but it is with the eyes of his understanding, and in his soul. Our flesh, even in the resurrection, cannot be a spectacle, a perspective glass to our soul. We shall see the humanity of Christ with our bodily eyes, then glorified: but, that

54 1 John iii. 2.

flesh, though glorified, cannot make us see God better, nor clearer, than the soul alone hath done, all the time, from our death, to our resurrection. But, as an indulgent father, or as a tender mother, when they go to see the king in any solemnity, or any other thing of observation, and curiosity, delights to carry their child, which is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, with them, and though the child cannot comprehend it as well as they, they are as glad that the child sees it, as that they see it themselves; such a gladness shall my soul have, that this flesh, (which she will no longer call her prison, nor her tempter, but her friend, her companion, her wife) that this flesh, that is, I, in the reunion, and redintegration of both parts, shall see God; for then one principal clause in her rejoicing, and acclamation, shall be, that this flesh is her flesh; In carne mea, in my flesh I shall see God.

It was the flesh of every wanton object here, that would allure it in the petulancy of mine eye. It was the flesh of every satirical libeller, and defamer, and calumniator of other men, that would call upon it, and tickle mine ear with aspersions and slanders of persons in authority. And in the grave, it is the flesh of the worm; the possession it transferred to him. But, in heaven, it is Caro mea, my flesh, my soul's flesh, my Saviour's flesh. As my meat is assimilated to my flesh, and made one flesh with it; as my soul is assimilated to my God, and made partaker of the divine nature", and Idem spiritus, the same spirit with it; so, there my flesh shall be assimilated to the flesh of my Saviour, and made the same flesh with him too. Verbum caro factum, ut caro resurgeret57; therefore the word was made flesh, therefore God was made man, that that union might exalt the flesh of man to the right hand of God. That is spoken of the flesh of Christ; and then to facilitate the passage for us, Reformat ad immortalitatem suam participes suis; those who are worthy receivers of his flesh here, are the same flesh with him; and, God shall quicken your mortal bodies, by his spirit that dwelleth in you 59. But this is not in consummation, in full accomplishment, till this resurrection, when it shall be caro mea, my flesh, so, as that

55 2 Peter i. 4.

58 Cyril.

56 1 Cor. vi. 17.

57 Athanasius. 59 Rom. viii. 11.

nothing can draw it from the allegiance of my God; and caro mea, my flesh, so, as that nothing can divest me of it. Here a bullet will ask a man, where's your arm; and a wolf will ask a woman, where's your breast. A sentence in the Star-chamber will ask him, where's your ear, and a month's close prison will ask him, where's your flesh? A fever will ask him, where's your red, and a morphew will ask him, where's your white? But when after all this, when after my skin worms shall destroy my body, I shall see God, I shall see him in my flesh, which shall be mine as inseparably, (in the effect, though not in the manner) as the hypostatical union of God, and man, in Christ, makes our nature and the Godhead one person in him. My flesh shall no more be none of mine, than Christ shall not be man, as well as God.

SERMON XCVI.

PREACHED AT LINCOLN'S INN.

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 50.

Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom

of God.

ST. GREGORY hath delivered this story'; that Eutychius, who was bishop of Constantinople, having written a book of the resurrection, and therein maintained that error, that the body of Christ had not, that our bodies in the resurrection should not have, any of the qualities of a natural body, but that those bodies were, in subtilitatem redacta, so rarefied, so refined, so attenuated, and reduced to a thinness, and subtleness, that they were airy inges, and not bodies of flesh and blood; this error made a great be a spec. raised a great dust, till the emperor, to avoid scandal, humanity of Chrisost part arises out of public conferences) was ychius and Gregory dispute this point pri

Moral. xiv. 29.

vately before himself, and a small company; and, that upon conference, the emperor was so well satisfied, that he commanded Eutychius his books to be burnt. That after this, both Gregory and Eutychius fell sick; but Eutychius died; and died with this protestation, In hac carne, in this flesh, (taking up the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there) in this flesh, I acknowledge, that I, and all men shall arise at the day of judgment. Now the principal place of Scripture, which in his book, and in that conference Eutychius stood upon, was this text, these words of St. Paul; (This I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.) And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was, Caro secundum culpam non regnabit, sed caro secundum naturam; sinful flesh shall not, but natural flesh; that is, flesh indued with all qualities of flesh, all such qualities as imply no defect, no corruption, (for there was flesh before there was sin) such flesh, and such blood shall inherit the kingdom of God.

As there have been more heresies about the humanity of Christ, than about his divinity, so there have been more heresies about the resurrection of his body, and consequently of ours, than about any other particular article, that concerns his humiliation, or exaltation. Simon Magus struck deepest at first, to the root; that there was no resurrection at all; the Gnostics, (who took their name from knowledge, as though they knew all, and nobody else anything, which is a pride transferred through all heretics : for, as that sect in the Roman church, which call themselves Ignorantes, and seem to pretend to no knowledge, do yet believe that they know a better way to heaven, than all other men do, so that sect amongst them, which called themselves Nullanos, nothings, thought themselves greater in the kingdom of God, than either of the other two sects of diminution, the Minorites, or the Minims did) these Gnostics acknowledged a resurrection, but they said it was of the soul only, and not of the body, for they thought that the soul lay dead (at least, in a dead sleep) till the resurrection. Those heretics that are called the Arabians, did (as the Gnostics did) affirm a temporary death of the soul, as well as of the body, but then they allowed a resurrection to both soul, and body, after that death, which the Gnostics did not, but to

VOL. IV.

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