388 SERMON LXXVII. PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S, MAY 21, 1626. 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 29. Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? I ENTERED into the handling of these words, upon Easter day'; for, though the words have received divers expositions, good and perverse, yet all agreed, that the words were an argument for the resurrection, and that invited me to apply them to that day. At that day I entered into them, with Origen's protestation, Odit Dominus, qui festum ejus unum putat diem, God hates that man, that thinks any holyday of his lasts but one day, that never thinks of the resurrection, but upon Easter day: and therefore I engaged myself willingly, according to the invitation, and almost the necessity of the words, which could not conveniently, (scarce possibly) be determined in one day, to return again and again to the handling thereof. For they are words of great extent, a great compass the whole circle of a Christian is designed and accomplished in them; for, here is first the first point in that circle, our birth, our spiritual birth, that is, baptism, Why are these men thus baptized? says the text; and then here is the point, directly and diametrally opposed to that first point, our birth, that is, death, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead? says the text; and then the circle is carried up to the first point again, to our birth, in another birth, in the resurrection, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead, if there be no resurrection? so that if we consider the militant and the triumphant church, to be (as they are) all one house, and under one roof, here is first Limen Ecclesiæ, (as St. Augustine calls baptism) the Threshold of the Church, we are put over the threshold, into the body of the church, by baptism, and here we are remembered of baptism, Why are these men thus baptized? and then here is chorus ecclesiæ, the choir, the chancel of the church, in which all the service of God, is officiated and See Sermon xix. vol. 1. executed; for we are made not only hearers, and spectators, but actors in the service of God, when we come to bear a part in the hymns and anthems of the saints, by our death, and here we are remembered of death, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead? and then, here is sanctum sanctorum, the innermost part of the church, the holy of holies, that is, the manifestation of all the mysterious salvation, belonging to soul and body, in the resurrection, Why are these men thus baptized for the dead, if there be no resurrection? Our first day's work in handling these words, was to accept, and then to apply that, in which all agreed, that these words were an argument for the resurrection; and we did both these offices; we did accept it, and so show you, how the assurance of the resurrection accrues to us, and what is the office of reason, and what is the office of faith in that affair; and then we did apply it, and so show you divers resemblances, and conformities between natural death, and spiritual death, and between the resurrection of the body to glory at last, and the resurrection of the soul by grace, in the way; and wherein they induced, and assisted, and illustrated one another and those two miles made up that Sabbath day's journey. When we shall return to the handling of them, the next day (which will be the last) we shall consider how these words have been misapplied by our adversaries of the Roman church, and then the several expositions which they have received from sound and orthodoxal men, that thence we may draw a conclusion, and determination for ourselves; and in those two miles, we shall also make up that Sabbath day's journey, when God shall be pleased to bring us to it. This day's exercise shall be, to consider that very point, for the establishment whereof, they have so detorted, and misapplied these words, which is their purgatory, that this baptism for the dead must necessarily prove purgatory, and their purgatory. So then this day's exercise will be merely polemical, the handling of a controversy; which though it be not always pertinent, yet neither is it always unseasonable. There was a time but lately, when he who was in his desire and intention, the peacemaker of all the Christian world, as he had a desire to have. slumbered all field-drums, so had he also to have slumbered all pulpit-drums*, so far, as to pass over all impertinent handling of controversies, merely and professedly as controversies, though never by way of positive maintenance of orthodoxal and fundamental truths; that so there might be no slackening in the defence of the truth of our religion, and yet there might be a discreet and temperate forbearing of personal, and especially of national exasperations. And as this way had piety, and peace in the work itself, so was it then occasionally exalted, by a great necessity; he, who was then our hope, and is now the breath of our nostrils, and the anointed of the Lord, being then taken in their pits, and, in that great respect, such exasperations the fitter to be forborne ; especially since that course might well be held, without any prevarication, or cooling the zeal of the positive maintenance of the religion of our church. But things standing now in another state, and all peace, both ecclesiastical and civil, with these men, being by themselves removed, and taken away, and he whom we feared, returned in all kind of safety, safe in body, and safe in soul too, whom though their church could not, their court hath catechized in their religion, that is, brought him to a clear understanding of their ambition, (for ambition is their religion, and St. Peter's ship must sail in their fleets, and with their winds, or it must sink, and the Catholic and Militant church must march in their armies, though those armies march against Rome itself, as heretofore they have done, to the sacking of that town, to the holding of the pope himself in so sordid a prison, for six months, as that some of his nearest servants about him died of the plague, to the treading under foot priests, and bishops, and cardinals, to the dishonouring of matrons, and the ravishing of professed virgins, and committing such insolencies, Catholics upon Catholics, as they would call us heretics for believing them, but that they are their own Catholic Donne alludes to the design which James I. entertained at several times during his reign, but especially during his negotiations with Spain and France, of reconciling the Romish and English churches. I cannot find any special ordinance forbidding the treatment of controversies with the Papists. It will be remembered that this sermon was preached in the second year of Charles I., to whom the expressions shortly following belong. His "being taken in their pits" must, I suppose, be interpreted of his being in treaty of marriage with the Infanta of Spain. The expression "pulpit-drums" will remind the reader of Butler's " Pulpit, drum ecclesiastick;" which was probably taken from this authors that have written them) things being now, I say, in this state, with these men, since we hear that drums beat in every field abroad, it becomes us also to return to the brasing and beating of our drums in the pulpit too, that so, as Adam did not only dress Paradise, but keep Paradise; and as the children of God, did not only build, but build with one hand, and fight with another; so we also may employ some of our meditations upon supplanting, and subverting of error, as well as upon the planting, and watering of the truth. To which purpose I shall prepare this day, for the vindicating and redeeming of these words from the adversary, (which will be the work of the next day) by handling to-day that point, for which they have misapplied them, which is purgatory, and the mother, and the offspring of that; for what can that generation of vipers suck from this text, which is not, if there be no such purgatory, but, if there be no such resurrection, why then are these men baptized for the dead? Heaven and earth shall pass away, saith Christ, but my word shall not pass away. But rather than purgatory shall pass away, his word must admit such an interpretation, as shall pass away, and evacuate the intention and purpose of the Holy Ghost therein. How much of the earth is passed away from them, we know, who acknowledge the mercy, and might, and miracle of God's working, in withdrawing so many kingdoms, so many nations of the earth, in so short time, from the obedience, and superstition of Rome, as that if controversies had been to have been tried by number, they would have found as many against them, as with them; so much of the earth is passed from them. How much of heaven is passed from them, that is, how much less interest and claim to heaven they can have now, when God hath afforded them so much light, and they have resisted it, than when they were in so great a part, under invincible ignorance, God only, who is the only judge in such causes, knows; and he, of his goodness, enlarge their title to that place, by their conversion towards it. But how much soever of earth or heaven pass away, they will not lose an acre, an inch of purgatory; for, as men are most delighted with things of their own making, their own planting, their own purchasing, their own building, so are these men therefore enamoured of pur * Matt. xxiv. 35. gatory men that can make articles of faith of their own traditions, (and as men to elude the law against new buildings, first build sheds, or stables, and after erect houses there, as upon old foundations, so these men first put forth traditions of their own, and then erect those traditions into articles of faith, as ancient foundations of religion) men that make God himself of a piece of bread, may easily make purgatory of a dream, and of apparitions, and imaginary visions of sick or melancholy men. It may then be of use to insist upon the survey of this building of theirs, in these three considerations. First, to look upon the foundation, upon what they raise it, and that is prayer for the dead, and that is the grandmother error; and then upon the building itself, purgatory itself, and that is the mother; and lastly upon the out-houses, or furniture of this building, and that is indulgences, which are the children, the issue of this mother, and not such children, as draw their parents dry, but support and maintain their parents; for, but for these indulgencies, their prayer for the dead, and their purgatory would starve; and starve they must all, if they can draw their maintenance from no other place but this, Why are these men baptized for the dead? First then for the first of these three parts, the foundation, the grandmother, prayer for the dead; the most tender mother, the most officious nurse, cannot have a more particular care, how a new-born child shall be washed, or swathed, or fed, when they consider every drop of water, every clout, every pin that belongs to it, than God had of his infant church, when he delivered it over to her foster-fathers, her nursing-fathers, her god-fathers, Moses and Aaron, and bound them by his instructions, in every particular, as he prescribed them. How many directions he gave, what they should eat, what they should wear, how often they should wash, what they should do, in every religious, in every civil action, and yet never, never any mention, any intimation, never any approach, any inclination, never any light, no nor any shadow, never any colour, any colourableness of any command of prayer for the dead. In all the law, no precept for it; and this might imply a weakness in God's government, in so particular a law no precept of so important a duty: in all the history no example; and this might imply ill luck at least, in so large a |