This sermon was preached by John Donne, the Dean of St Pauls, at Lincoln’s Inn, London in 1620
Job 19: 26 –
‘And though, after my skin, worms destroy the 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 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 resurrection of the flesh; Athanasius’ Creed does
mention the resurrection, but not the Catholic church, nor the communion of the
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
my 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 yrodieris, [i] Upon thy belly shalt thou
go, we shall soon see a serpent go upright, and not crawl as, after that
judgement, In pulverem reverteris, To dust 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 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 his, 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 came, 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 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 crudunt 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 Jews will 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.[ii] 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 dust.[iii] 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 live, they are deceased, they
shall not rise.[iv]
The Jews only, say they shall rise; but, not all they; but only the righteous
among them. And, to that purpose, they abuse that place of the prophet Zachary,
[v]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, 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 [vi] 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 [vii], 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 who 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 judgement, 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 though none but 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, at 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 [viii], 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. [ix] 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 [x];
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 more, but that, as Peter’s
compassion before Christ’s death made him dissuade Christ from going up to Jerusalem
to suffer [xi],
so their extreme passion after Christ’s death, made them less attentively to
consider those particular Scriptures, which spoke of the resurrection. For the
Jews in general, (much more, they) had always an apprehension, and an acknowledgement
of the resurrection of the dead. By what light they saw this, and how they came
to this knowledge, is our next consideration.
Had they this
by the common notions of other men, out of natural reason? McIancthon, (who is
no bold, nor rash, nor dangerous expresser of himself) says well, Articulus
resurrectionis propria ecclesiw vox; It is the Christian church, that hath
delivered to us the article of the resurrection. Nature says it not, philosophy
days it not; it is the language and the idiotism of the Church of God, that the
resurrection is to be believed as an article of faith. For, though articles of
faith be not facto ecclesiw, they are dixit et facto sunt, God
spake, and so things were made; in the gospel, the way is, Fecit, et dicta
sunt, God makes articles of faith, and the church utters them, presents
them. That manifeste verum, evidently, undeniably true, that nature, and
in philosophy say nothing of articles of faith. But, even in nature and
philosophy, there is some preparation a priore, and much illustration a
posteriore, of the resurrection. For, first we know by natural reason, that
it is no such thing, as God cannot do; it implies no contradiction in itself,
as that new article of transubstantiation does; it implies no defectiveness in
God, as that new article, the necessity of a perpetual vicar upon earth, does.
For things contradictory in themselves, (which necessarily implies a falsehood)
things arguing a defectiveness in God, (which implies necessarily a degradation
to his nature, to his natural goodness, to that which we may justly call even
the God of God, that which makes him God to us, his mercy) such things God
himself cannot do, not things which make him an unmerciful, a cruel, a
precondemning God. But, excepting only such things, God, who is that, Quod
cum dictur, non potest dici[xii] , whom if you name you
cannot give him half his name; for, if you call him God, he hath not his
Christian name, for he is Christ as well as God, a Saviour, as well as a
Creator; Quod cum wstimatur, non potest wstimari, If you value God,
weigh God, you cannot give him half his weight; you can put nothing into the
balance, to weight him withal, but all this world; and, there is not a single
sand in the sea, no single dust upon the earth, no single atom in the air, that
is not likelier to weigh down al the world, than all the world is to
counterposo God; What is the whole world to a soul? says Christ, but
what are all the souls of the world, to God. What is man, that God should
be mindful of him, [xiii] that God should ever
think of him, and not forget that there is such a thing, such a nothing? Quod cum definitur, ipsa definitione
crescit, says the same father, If you limit God with any definition, he
grows larger by that definition; for even by that definition you discern
presently that he is something else than that definition comprehends. That God,
Quem omnia nesciunt, et metuendo sciunt, whom no man knows perfectly,
yet every man knows so well, as to stand in fear of him, this incomprehensible
God, I say, that works, and who shall let it?[xiv] can raise our bodies
again from the dead, because to do so, implies no derogation to himself, no
contradiction to his word.
Our reason
tells us, he can do it; doth our reason tell us as much of his will, that he
will do it? Our reason tells us, that he will do, whatsoever is most convenient
for the creature, whom, because he hath made him, he loves, and for his own
glory. Now this dignity afforded to the dead body of man, cannot be conceived,
but as a great addition to him. Nor can it be such a diminution to God, to take
man into heaven, as it was for God to descend, and to take man’s nature upon
him, upon earth. A king does not diminish himself so much, by taking an
inferior person into his bosom at court, as he should by going to live with
that person, in the country, or city; and this God did, in the incarnation of
his son. It cannot be thought inconvenient =, it cannot be thought hard. Our
reason tells us, that in all God’s works, in all his material works, still his
latter works are easier than his former. The creation, which was the first, and
was a mere production out of nothing, was the hardest of all. The specification
of creatures, and the disposing of them, into their several kinds, the making
of that which was made something of nothing before, a particular thing, a
beast, a fowl, a fish, a plant, a man, a sun or moon, was not so hard, as the
production out of nothing. And then, the conservation of all these, in that
order in which they are first created, and then distinguished, the
administration of these creatures by a constant working of second causes, which
naturally produce their effects, is not so hard as that. And so, accordingly,
and in that proportion, the last work is easiest of all; distinction and
specification easier than creation, conservation, and administration easiest
than that distinction, and restitution by resurrection, easier of all.
Tertullian hath expressed it well, Plus est fecisse quam refecisse, et
dedisse quam rediddisse; it is a harder work to make, than to mend, and, to
give thee that which was mine, than to restore thee that which was thine. Et
institutio carnis quam destitutio; it is a letter matter to recover a sick
man, than to make a whole man. Does this trouble thee, says Justin Martyr, (and
Athenagoras proceeds in the same way of argumentation to, in his apology) does
this trouble thee, Quad homo d piscem, et piscis ab homine comeditur,
that one man is devoured by a fish, and then another man eats the flesh of that
fish, eats, and becomes the other man? Id nec hominem resohit in piscem in
hominem, that first man did not become that fish that eat him, nor that
fish become that second man, that eat it; sed utriusque resolutio fit in
elementa, both that man, and that fish, are resolved in their own elements,
of which they were made first. However it be, if thine imagination could carry
thee so low, as to think, not only that thou wert become some other thing, a
fish, or a dog that had fed upon thee, and so thou couldst not have thine own
body, but therewithal must have his body too, - but that thou wert infinitely
further gone, that thou wert annihilated, become nothing, canst thou choose but
think God as perfect now, at least as he was at first, and can he not as easily
make thee up again of nothing, as he made thee of nothing at first. Recogita
quid fueris, antequam esses; think over thyself, what wast thou before thou
wast anything; Meminisses utique, sifuisses, if thou hadst been anything
then, surely thou wouldst remember it now. Qui non eras, factus es; Cum
iterum non eris, fies; thou that wast once nothing, wast made this that
thou art now; and when thou shalt be nothing again, thou shalt be made better
than thou art yet. And, Redde rationem qua foetus es, et ego raddam rationem
qua fies; do thou tell me, how wast thou made then, and I will tell thee
how thee shalt be made thereafter.
And yet as
Solomon sends us to creatures, and to creatures of a low rank and station, to
ants and spiders, for instruction, so St Gregory sends us to creatures, to
learn the resurrection. Lux quotidiè moritur, et quotidiè resurgit; that
glorious creature, that first creature, the light, dies every day, and every
day hath a resurrection. In arbustis folia resurrectione erumpunt; from
the cedar of Libanus, to the hyssop upon the wall; every leaf dies every year,
and every year hath a resurrection, Ubi in brevitate seminis, tam immensa
arbor latuit? (as he pursues that meditation.) If thou hadst seen the
bodies of men rise out of the grave, at Christ’s resurrection, could that be a
stranger thing to thee, than, (if thou hadst never seen, nor heard, nor
imagined it before) to see an oak that spreads so far, rise out of an acorn? Or
if churchyards did vent themselves every spring, and that there were such a
resurrection of bodies every year, when thou hadst seen as a many resurrections
as years, the resurrection would be no stranger to thee, than spring is. And
thus this, and many other good and reverend men, and so the Holy Ghost himself
sends us to reason, and to the creature, for the doctrine of the resurrection;
St Paul allows him not the reason of man, that proceeds not so; thou fool,
says he, that which thou sowest, is not quickened except it die; [xv] but then it is. It is
truly harder to conceive a translation of the body into heaven, than a
resurrection of the body from the earth. Num in hominibus, terra degenerat,
quw omnia regenerare consuevit? [xvi] Do all kinds of earth
regenerate, and shall only the churchyard degenerate? Is there a yearly
resurrection of every other thing, and never of men? Omnia pereundo
servantur,[xvii] all other
things are preserved, and continued by dying; Tu homo solus ad hoc morieris,
ut pereas? And canst thou, O man, suspect of thyself, that the end of thy
dying is an end of thee? Fall as low as thou canst, corrupt and putrefy as
desperately as thou canst, sis nihil, think thyself nothing; Ejus est
nihilum ipsum cujus est totem, even that nothing is as much in his power,
as the world which he made of nothing; and, as he called thee when thou wast
not, as if thou hadst been, so will he call again, when thou art ignorant of
that being which thou hast in the grave, and give thee again thy former, and
glorify it with a better being.
The Jews then,
if they had no other helps, might have, (as natural men may) preparations a
priore, and illustrations a posterior, for the doctrine of the
resurrection. The Jews had seen resurrections from the dead in particular
persons, and they had seen miraculous cures done by their prophets. And Gregory
Nyssen says well, that those miraculous cures which Christ wrought, with a tolle
grabatum, and an esto sanus, and no more, they were prwludia
resurrectionis, half-resurrections, prologues, and inducements to the
doctrine of the resurrection, which shall be transacted with a surgite
mortui, and no more. So these natural helps in the consideration of the
creature, are prwludia resurrectionis, they are half-resurrections, and
these natural resurrections carry us half way to the miraculous resurrection.
But certainly, the Jews, who had that, which the Gentiles wanted, the
Scriptures, had from them, a general, not an explicit knowledge of the
resurrection. That they had it, we see it by that practice of Judas the
Maccabee [xviii],
in gathering a contribution to send to Jerusalem, which is therefore commended,
because he was therein mindful of the resurrection. Neither doth Christ find
any that opposed the doctrine of the resurrection, but those who though they were
tolerated in the state, because they were otherwise great persons, were
absolute heretics, even amongst the Jews, the Sadducees. And St Paul, when,
finding himself to be oppressed in judgement, he used his Christian wisdom, and
to draw a strong party to himself, protested himself to be of the sect of the
Pharisees [xix],
and that, as they, and all the rest in general did, he maintained the
resurrection, he knew it would seem a strange injury, and an oppression, to be
called into question for that, that they all believed; though therefore our
Saviour Christ, who disputed then only against the Sadducees, argued for the
doctrine of the resurrection, only from that place of the Scriptures, which
those Sadducees acknowledged to be Scripture, (for they denied all but the
Books of Moses) and so insisted upon those words, I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, [xx] yet certainly the Jews
had established that doctrine, upon other places too, though to the Sadducees
who accepted Moses only, Moses was the best evidence. It is evident enough in
that particular place of Daniel,[xxi] Many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame, and everlasting contempt. And in Daniel, that word many,
must not be restrained to less than all; Daniel intends by that many, that how
many soever they are, they shall arise; as St Paul does, when he says, by one
man’s disobedience, many were made sinners,
[xxii] that is, all; for,
death passed over all men; for all have sinned. And Christ doth but paraphrase
that place of Daniel, who says, multi, many, when he says, omnes,
all; All that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth;
[xxiii] they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life, and that have done evil to the
resurrection of damnation. This then being thus far settled, that the Jews
understood the resurrection, and more than that, they believed it, and
therefore, as they had light in nature, they had assurance in Scripture, come
we now, to that which was our last purpose in this first part, whether in this
text, in these words of Job, (though after my skin, worms destroy my body)
there be any such light of the resurrection given.
It is true,
that in the New Testament, where the doctrine of the resurrection is more
evidently, more liquidly delivered, than in the Old, (though it be delivered in
the Old too) there is no place cited out of the Book of Job, for the
resurrection; and so, this is not. But it is no marvel, both upon that reason
which we noted before, that they who were to be convinced, were such as
received only the Books of Moses, and therefore all citations from this Book of
Job, or any other had been impertinently, and frivolously employed, and,
because in the New Testament, there is but one place of this Book of Job cited
at all. To the Corinthians [xxiv] the apostle makes use
of those of those words of Job, God taketh the wise in their craft [xxv] ; and more than this one
place, is not, (I think) cited out of this Book of Job in the New Testament.
But, the authority of Job is established in another place, You have heard of
the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, says St James.[xxvi] As you have seen this,
so you have heard; seen and heard one way, out of Scripture; you have heard
that out of the Book of Job, you have seen this out of the Gospel. And further
than this, there is no naming of Job’s person, or his book, in the New
Testament. St Hierome confesses, [xxvii] that both the Greek
and Latin copies of this book, were so defective in his time, that seven or
eight hundred verses of the original were wanting in the book. And, for the
original, he says, Obliquus totus liber fertur, et lubricus, It is an
uncertain and slippery book. But this only for the sense of some places of the
book; and that made the authority of this book to be longer suspended in the
church, and oftener called into question by particular men, than any other book
of the Bible. But those who have, for many ages, received this book for
canonical, there is an unanime acknowledgement, (at least, tacitly) that this
piece of it, this text, (When, after my skin, worms shall destroy my body,
yet in my flesh I shall see God) does establish the resurrection.
Divide the
expositors into three branches; (for so the world will needs divide for them)
the first, the Roman church will call theirs; though they have no other title
to them, but that they received the same translation that they do. And all they
use this text for the resurrection. Verba viri in gentilitate posti
erubescamus, [xxviii] It is a shame for us, who have the word of
God itself, (which Job had not) and have had such a commentary, such an
exposition upon all the former word of God, as the real, and actual, and
visible resurrection of Christ himself, erubescamus verba viri in
gentilitate posti, let us be ashamed and confounded, if Job, a person that
lived not within the light of the covenant, saw the resurrection more clearly,
and professed it more constantly than we do. And, as this Gregory of Rome, so
Gregory Nyssen understood Job too. For he considers Job’s case thus; God
promised Job twofold of all that he had lost, and in his sheep and camels, and
oxen, and asses, which were utterly destroyed, and brought to nothing, God
performs it punctually, he had all in a double proportion. But Job had seven
sons, and three daughters before, and God gives him but seven sons, and three
daughters again; and yet Job had twofold of these too; for, post nctti cum
prioribus numerantur, quia omnes Deo vivunt; those which were gone, and
those which were new given, lived all one life, because they lived all in God; nec
quicquam aliud est mors, nisi vitiositatis expiatio; death is nothing else,
but a divesting of those defects, which made us less fit for God. And
therefore, agreeably to this purpose, says St Cyprian, Scimus non amitti,
sealprwmitti; Thy dead are not lost but lent. Non recedere, sedprwcedere;
They are not gone into any other womb, than we should follow them into; nec
acquireendw atrw vestes, pro iis qui albis induuntur, neither should we put
on blacks [i.e. morning clothes], for them that are clothed in white,
nor mourn for them, that are entered into their Master’s joy. We can enlarge
ourselves no father in this consideration of the first branch of expositors,
but that all the ancients too occasion from this text to argue for the
resurrection.
Take into your
consideration the other two branches of modern expositors, (whom others
sometimes contumeliously, and themselves sometimes perversely, have called
Lutherans and Calvinists,) and you may know, that in the first rank, Osiander,
and with him, all his, interpret these words so; and in the other rank,
Tremellius, and Pellicaus, heretofore, Polanus lately, and Piscator, for the
present; all these, and all the translators into the vulgar tongues of all our
neighbours of Europe, do all establish the doctrine of the resurrection by
these words, this place of Job. And therefore, though one, (and truly for any
thing I know, but one) though one, to whom we all owe much, for the
interpretation of the Scriptures [xxix] , do think that Job
intends no other resurrection in this place, but that, when he shall be reduced
to the miserablest state that can be in this life, still he will look upon God,
and trust him for his restitution, and reparation in this life; let us with the
whole Christian church, embrace and magnify this holy and heroic spirit of Job;
Scio, says he; I know it, (which is more in him, than the credo
is in us, more to know it then, in that state, than to believe it
now, after it hath been so evidently declared, not only to be a certain truth,
but to be an article of faith) Scio Redemptorem, says he; I know not
only a Creator, but a Redeemer; and, Redemptorem meum, my Redeemer,
which implies a confidence, and a personal application of that redemption to
himself. Scio vivere, says he; I know that he lives; I know that he
begun not in his incarnation, I know he endeth not in his death, but it always
was, and is now, and shall be for ever true, vivit, that he lives still.
And then, Scio venturum, says he too; I know that he shall stand on the
last day to judge me and all the world; and after that, and after my skin
and body is destroyed by worms, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And so
have you as much as we proposed for our first part; That the Jews do now, that they
always did believe a resurrection; that as natural men, and by natural reason
they might know it, both in the possibility of the thing, and in the purpose of
God, that they had better helps than natural reason, for they had divers places
of their Scripture, and that this place of Scripture, which is our text, hath
evermore been received for a proof of the resurrection. Proceed we now, to
those particulars which constitute our second part, such instructions
concerning the resurrection, as arise out of these words, Though after my
skin, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
In this second
part, the first thing that was proposed, was, That the saints of God are not
privileged from this, which fell upon Job, this death, this dissolution after
death. Upon the morte morieris, that double death, interminated by God
upon Adam, there is non onstante; revertere, turn to God, and thou shalt
not die the death, not the second death. But upon that part of the sentence,
In pulverem reverteris, To the dust thou shalt return, there is no non
obstante, though thou turn to God, thou must turn into the grave; for he
that redeemed thee from the other death, redeemed not himself from this. Carry
this consideration to the last minute of the world, when we that remain shall
be caught up in the clouds[xxx], yet even that last fire
may be our fever, those clouds our winding-sheets, that rapture our
dissolution; and so, with St Augustine, most of the ancients, most of the
latter men think, that there shall be a sudden dissolution of body and soul,
which is death, and a sudden reuniting of both, which is resurrection, in that
instant; Quis homo, is David’s question; What man is he that liveth
and shall not see death? [xxxi] Let us add, Quis
deorum? What god is he amongst the
Gentiles, that hath not seen death? Which of their three Jupiters, which of
their thousands of other gods, have not seen death? Mortibus moriuntur;
we may add to that triple death in God’s mouth, another death; the gods of the
Gentiles have died thrice; in body, in soul, and in fame; for, though they have
been glorified with a deification, not one of all those old gods is at this day
worshipped in any part of the world, but all those temporary, and transitory
gods, are worn out, and dead in all senses. Those gods, who were but men, fall
under David’s question, Quis homo? and that man who was truly God, falls
under it too. Christ Jesus; he saw death, though he saw not the death of this
text, corruption. And, if we consider the effusion of his precious
blood, the contusion of his sacred flesh, the extension of those sinews, and
ligaments which tied heaven, and earth together, in a reconciliation, the
departing of that intelligence from that sphere, of that high priest from that
temple, of that dove from that ark, of that soul from that body, that
dissolution (which as an ordinary man he should have had in the grave, but that
the decree of God, declared in the infallibility of the manifold prophesies,
preserved him from it) had been but a slumber, in respect of those tortures,
which he did suffer; the Godhead stayed with him in the grave, and so he did
not corrupt, but, though our souls be gone up to God, our bodies shall.
Corruption
in the skin, says Job;
in the outward beauty, these be the records of vellum, these be the parchments,
the indictments, and the evidences that shall condemn many of us, at the last
day, our own skins; we have the book of God, the law, written in our own
hearts; we have the image of God imprinted in our own souls; we have the
character, and seal of God stamped in us, in our baptism; and, all this is
bound up in this vellum, in this parchment, in this skin of ours, and we
neglect book, and image, and character, and seal, and all for covering. It is
not a clear case, if we consider the original words properly, That Jezabel
did paint [xxxii]
; and yet all translators, and expositors have taken a just occasion, out of
the ambiguity of those words, to cry down that abomination of painting. It is
not a clear case, if we consider the propriety of the words, that Absalom
was hanged by the hair of head [xxxiii] ; and yet the fathers
and others have made use of that indifferency, and verisimilitude, to explode
that abomination, of cherishing and curling hair, to the inveigling, and
ensnaring, and entangling of others; Judicium patietur wternum, says St
Hierome, Thou are guilty of a murder, though no body die; Quia vinum
attulisti, si fuisset qui bibisset; Thou
hast poisoned a cup, if any would drink, thou hast prepared a
temptation, if any would swallow it. Tertullian thought he had done enough,
when he writ his book De Habitu Muliebri, against the excess of women in
clothes, but he was fain to add another with more vehemence, De Cultu
Fwminarum, that went beyond their clothes to their skin. And he concludes,
Illud ambitionis crimen, There is vain-glory in their excess of clothes,
but, hoc prostitution is, there is a prostitution in drawing the eye to
the skin. Pliny says, that when their think silk stuffs were first invented at
Rome, Excogitatum ad fwminas denudandos; It was but an invention that
women might go naked in clothes, for their skins might be seen through those
clothes, those thin stuffs; our women are not so careful, but they expose their
nakedness professionally, and paint it, to cast bird-lime for the passenger’s
eye. Beloved, good diet makes the best complexion, and a good conscience is a
continual feast; a cheerful heart makes the best blood, and peace with God is
the true cheerfulness of heart. Thy Saviour neglected his skin so much, as that
at last, he scarce had any; all was turn with the whips, and scourges; and thy skin
shall come to that absolute corruption, as that, though a hundred years after
thou art buried, one may find thy bones, and say, this was a tall man, this was
a strong man, yet we shall soon be past saying, upon any relic of thy skin,
this was a fair man; corruption seizes the skin, all outward beauty, quickly,
and so does the body, the whole frame and constitution, which is another
consideration; After my skin, my body.
If the whole
body, were an eye, or an ear, where were the body, says St Paul [xxxiv] ; but, when of the
whole body there is neither eye nor ear, nor any member left, where is the
body? And what should an eye do there, where there is nothing to be seen but
loathsomeness; or a nose there, where is nothing to be smelt, but putrefaction;
or an ear, where in the grave they do not praise God? Doth not that body that
boasted but yesterday of that privilege above all creatures, that it only go
upright, lie to-day as flat upon the earth as the body of a horse, or of a dog?
And doth it not to-morrow lose his other privilege, of looking up to heaven? Is
it not farther removed from the eye of heaven, the sun, than any dog, or horse,
by being covered with the earth, which they are not? Painters have presented to
us with some horror, the skeleton, the frame of bones of a man’s body; but the
state of a body, in the dissolution of the grave, no pencil can present to us.
Between that excremental jelly that thy body is made of at first, and that
jelly which thy body dissolves to at last; there is not so noisome, so putrid a
thing in nature. This skin, this outward beauty, this body, this whole
constitution, must be destroyed, says Job, in the next place.
The word is
well chosen, by which all this is expressed, in this text, Nakaph, which
is a word of as heavy a significance, to express an utter abolition, and in
annihilation, as perchance can be found in all the Scriptures. Tremellius hath
mollified it in his translation; there it is but confodere, to pierce.
And yet it is such a piercing, such a sapping, such an undermining, such a
demolishing of a fort or castle, as may justly remove us from any high
valuation, or any great confidence, in that skin, and in that body, upon which
this cofoderint must fall. But in the great Bible it is contriverint,
thy skin, and thy body shall be ground away, trod away upon the ground. Ask
where that iron is that is ground off a knife, or axe; ask that marble that is
worn off of the threshold in the church-porch by continual treading, and with
that iron, and with that marble, thou mayest find thy father’s skin, and body, contrita
sunt, the knife, the marble, the skin, the body are ground away, trod away,
they are destroyed, who knows the revolutions of dust. Dust upon the king’s
highway, and dust upon the king’s grave, are both, or neither, dust royal, and
may change places; who knows the revolutions of dust? Even in the dead body of
Christ Jesus himself, one dram of the decree of his Father, one sheet, one
sentence of the prediction of the prophets preserved in his body from
corruption, and incineration, more than all Joseph’s new tombs, and fine linen,
and great proportion of spices could have done, O, who can express this
inexpressible mystery? The soul of Christ Jesus, which took no harm by him,
contracted no original sin, in coming to him, was guilty of no more sin, when
it went out, than when it came from the breath and bosom of God; yet this soul
left this body in death. And the Divinity, the Godhead, incomparably better
than that soul, which soul was incomparably better than all the saints, and
angels in heaven, that Divinity, that Godhead did not forsake the body, though
it were dead. If we might compare things indefinite in themselves, it was
nothing so much, that God did assume man’s nature, as that God did still cleave
to that man, then when he was no man, in the separation of body and soul, in
the grave. But fall we from incomprehensible mysteries; for, there is
mortification enough, (and mortification is vivification, and edification) in
this obvious consideration; skin and body, beauty and substance must be
destroyed; and, destroyed by worms, which is another descent in this
humiliation, and exinanition of man, in death; After my skin, worms shall
destroy this body.
I will not
insist long upon this, because it is not in the original; in the original there
is no mention of worms. But because in other places in Job there is, They
shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them [xxxv]; The womb shall forget
them, and the womb shall feed sweetly on them; [xxxvi] and because the word
destroying is presented in that form and number, contriverint, when they
shall destroy, they and no other persons, no other creatures named; both our
later translations, (for, indeed, our first translation hath no mention of worms)
and so very many others, even Tremellius that adheres most to the letter of the
Hebrew, have filled up this place, with that addition, destroyed by worms. It
makes the destruction the more contemptible; thou that wouldst not admit the
beams of the sun upon the skin, and yet hast admitted the pollutions of sin;
thou that wouldst not admit the breath of the air upon thy skin, and yet hast
admitted the spirit of lust, and unchaste solicitations to breathe upon thee,
in execrable oaths, and blasphemies, to vicious purposes; thou, whose body hath
(as far as it can) putrefied and corrupted even the body of thy Saviour, in an
unworthy receiving thereof, in this skin, in this body, must be the food of
worms, the prey of destroying worms. After a low birth thou mayest pass an
honourable life, after a sentence of an ignominious death, thou mayest have an
honourable end; but, in the grave canst thou make these worms silk worms? They
were bold and early worms that eat up Herod before he died [xxxvii] ; they are bold and everlasting worms, which
after thy skin and body is destroyed, shall remain as long as God remains, in
in eternal gnawing of thy conscience; long, long after the destroying of skin
and body, by bodily worms.
Thus far then
to the destroying of skin and body by worms, all men are equal; thus far all is
common law, and no prerogative, so is it in the next step too; the resurrection
is common to all; the prerogative lies not in the rising, but in the rising to
the fruition of the sight of God; in which consideration, the first beam of
comfort is the postquam, after all this, destruction before by
worms; ruinous misery before; but there is something else to be done upon me
after. God leaves no state without comfort. God leaves some inhabitants of the earth
under longer nights than others, but none under an everlasting night; and those
whom he leaves under those long nights, he recompenses with as long days after.
I were miserable, if there not an antequam in my behalf; if before I had
done well or ill actually in this world, God had not wrapped me up, in his good
purpose upon me. And I were miserable again, if there were not a postquam
in my behalf; if, after my sin had cast me into the grave, there were not a
loud trumpet to call me up, and a gracious countenance to look upon me, when I
were risen. Nay, let my life have been as religious, as the infirmities of this
life can admit, yet, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are, of
all men, most miserable. For, for the worldly things of this life, first,
the children of God have them in the least proportions of any; and, besides
those children of God, which have them in larger proportion, do yet make the
least use of them of any others, because the children of the world are not so
tender conscienced, nor so much afraid, lest those worldly things should become
snares, and occasions of temptation to them, if they open themselves to a full
enjoying thereof, as the children of God are. And therefore, after my wanting
of many worldly things, (after a pernicious life) and, after my not daring to
use those things that I have, so freely as others do, after that holy and
conscientious forbearing of those things that other men afford themselves,
after my leaving all these absolutely behind me here, and my skin and body in
destruction in the grave, after all, there remains something else for me.
After; but how long after? That is next.
When Christ was
in the body of that flesh, which we are in, now, (sin only excepted) he said,
in that state that he was in then, Of that day and hour, no man knoweth, not
the angels, not the Son. Then, in that state, he excludes himself. And when
Christ was risen again, in an incorruptible body, he said, even to his nearest
followers, Non est vestrum, it is not for you, to know times and
seasons. Before in his state of mortality, Seipsum annumeravit ignorantibus,
He pretended to know no more of this, than they that knew nothing. After, when
he had invested immortality, per sui exceptionem, (says, that father) he
excepts none but himself, all the rest, even the apostles, were left ignorant
thereof. For this non est vestrum, (it is not for you) is part of the
last sentence that ever Christ spake to them. If it be a convenient answer to
say, Christ knew it not, as man, how bold is that man that will pretend to know
it? And, if it be a convenient interpretation of Christ’s words, that he knew
it not, that is, knew it not so, as that he might tell it them, how indiscreet
are they, who, though they might seem to know it, will publish it? For thereby
they fill other men with scruples, and vexations, and they open themselves to
scorn and reproach, when their predictions prove false, as St Augustine
observed in his time, and every age hath given examples since, of confident men
that hath failed in these conjectures. It is a poor pretence to say, this
intimidation, this impression of a certain time, prepares men with better
dispositions. For they have so often been found false, that it rather weakens
the credit of the thing itself. In the old world they knew exactly the time of
the destruction of the world; that there should be an hundred and twenty years,
before the flood came [xxxviii] ; and yet, upon how
few, did that prediction, though from the mouth of God himself, work to
repentance? Noah found grace in God’s eyes; but it was not because he mended
his life upon that prediction, but that he was gracious in God’s sight before.
At the day of our death, we write Pridie resurrectionis, The day before
the resurrection; it is Vigilia resurrectionis, our Easter eve. Adveniat
regnum tuum, Posses my soul of thy kingdom then; and, Fiat voluntas tua,
My body shall rise after, but how soon after, or how late after, thy will be
dome then, by thyself, and thy will be known, till then, to thyself.
We pass on. As
in massa damnata, the whole lump of mankind is under the condemnation of
Adam’s sin, and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from that
condemnation, so, at the resurrection, all shall rise; but not all to glory.
But, amongst them, that do, ego, says Job, I shall. I, as I am the same
man, made up of the same body, and the same soul. Shall I imagine a difficulty
in my body, because I have lost an arm in the east, and a leg in the west?
Because I have left some blood in the north, and some bones in the south? Do
but remember, with what ease you have sate in the chair, casting an account,
and made a shilling on one hand, a pond on the other, or five shillings below,
ten above, because all these lay easily within your reach. Consider how much
less all this earth is to him, that sits in heaven, and spans this world, and
reunites in an instant, arms, and legs, blood, and bones, in what corners
soever they be scattered. The greater work may be seem soul, that that soul
which sped so ill in that body, last time it came to it, as that it contracted
original sin then, and was to the slavery to serve that body, and to serve it
in the ways of sin, not for an apprenticeship of seven, but seventy years
after, that that soul after it hath got loose by death, and lived God knows how
many thousands of years, free from that body, that abused it so before, and in
the sight and fruition of that God, where it was in no danger, should
willingly, nay, desirously, ambitiously seek this scattered body; this eastern,
and western, and northern, and southern body, this is the most inconsiderable
consideration[xxxix],
and yet, ego, I, I the same body, and the same soul, shall be recompact
again, and be identically, numerically, individually the same man. The same
integrity of body, and soul, and the same integrity in the organs of my body,
and in the faculties of my soul too; I shall be all there, my body, and my
soul, and all my body, and all my soul. I am not all here, I am here preaching
upon this text, and I am at home in my library considering whether St Gregory,
or St Hierome, hath said best of this text, before. I am here speaking to you,
and yet I consider by the way, in the same instant, what is likely you will say
to one another, when I have done; you are not all here neither; you are here
now, hearing me, and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better sermon
somewhere else, of this text before; you are here, and yet you think you could
have heard some other doctrine of downright predestination, and reprobation
roundly delivered somewhere else with more edification to you; you are here,
and you remember yourselves that now ye think of it: this had been the fittest
time, now, when everybody else is at church, to have made such and such a
private visit; and because yon would be there, you are there. I cannot say, you
cannot say so perfectly, so entirely now, as at the resurrection, ego, I
am here; I, body and soul; I, soul and faculties: as Christ said to Peter, Noli
timere, ego sum, Fear nothing, it is I; So I say to myself, Noli timere;
my soul, why art thou so sad, my body, why dost thou languish? Ego, I,
body and soul, soul and faculties, shall say to Christ Jesus, Ego sum,
Lord, it is I, and he shall not say, Nescio te, I know thee not, but
avow me, and place me at his right hand. Ego sum, I am the man that hath
seen affliction, by the rod of his wrath [xl]; ego sum, and I
the same man, shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade.[xli]
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[xlii] ; till I see eternity,
the Ancient of Days [xliii] , I shall see no more;
but then I shall: now, why is Job gladder of the use of this sense of seeing,
than 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
habetit potentiw sensitive ad animam quam corpus [xliv] ; 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
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 [xlv]; we see a creature; and
from that there arises an assurance that there is a Creator, we see him in
wnigmate, 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 a riddle.
Do I see him a priori, (I see that I am elected, and therefore I cannot
sin to death.) Or do I see him a 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 these rocks in
divinity, come to be smooth alleys; I shall see prophesies untied, riddles
dissolved, controversies reconciled; 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 I have 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 hall pulled off, and I see brick bowels within. I hath seen
beauty, and a strong breath from another, tells me, that that complexion is
from without, not from a sound construction 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 [xlvi], we shall see 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 came,
in the flesh, which is another degree of exaltation in mine examination.
I shall see him,
in came 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 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 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 came mea, in my flesh I shall see God.
It was the
flesh of every wanton object here, that would allure it in 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 person 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 [xlvii], and Idem spiritus,
the same spirit with it [xlviii] , 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 resurgeret [xlix], 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 immortalitateni suam
participes sui [l] , 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 [li] . But this is not in
consummation, in full accomplishment, till this resurrection, when it shall be caro
mea, my flesh, so, as that 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 matter) 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 men, as well as God.
[i]
Genesis 3: 14
[ii]
Numbers 16: 31, 32
[iii]
Isaiah 26: 19
[iv]
Isaiah 26: 14
[v]
Zachariah 8: 8, 9
[vi]
Genesis 47: 29
[vii]
Jeremiah 20: 6
[viii]
John 11: 24
[ix]
Luke 14: 14
[x]
Mark 6: 14
[xi]
John 20: 9; Matthew 16: 22
[xii]
Gregory of Nazianzus
[xiii]
Psalm 8: 4
[xiv]
Isaiah 43: 13
[xv] 1
Corinthians 15: 36
[xvi]
Ambrose
[xvii]
Tertullian
[xviii]
2 Maccabees 12: 43
[xix]
Acts 15: 5
[xx]
Luke 20: 37; Exodus 3: 15
[xxi]
Daniel 12: 2
[xxii]
Romans 5: 12, 10
[xxiii]
John 5: 28
[xxiv]
1 Corinthians 3: 19
[xxv]
Job 5: 13
[xxvi]
James 5: 11
[xxvii]
Preefat. In Job
[xxviii]
Gregory
[xxx]
1 Thessalonians 4: 17
[xxxi]
Psalm 89: 48
[xxxii]
2 Kings 9: 30
[xxxiii]
2 Samuel 18: 9
[xxxiv]
1 Corinthians 12: 17
[xxxv]
Job 21: 26
[xxxvi]
Job 24: 20
[xxxvii]
Acts 12: 23
[xxxviii]
Genesis 6: 3
[xxxix]
i.e. not able to be conceived
[xl]
Lamentations 3: 1
[xli]
1 Peter 5: 4
[xlii]
Revelation 10: 7
[xliii]
Daniel 7: 9
[xliv]
Aquin. Sup. q. 82. ar. 4
[xlv]
1 Corinthians 13: 12
[xlvi]
1 John 3: 2
[xlvii]
1 Peter 1: 4
[xlviii]
1 Corinthians 6: 17
[xlix]
Athanasius
[l]
Cyril
[li]
Romans 8: 11
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