Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

departed live, as certainly they do, and when the Refurrection fhould be performed, the Bodies fhould be informed with other Souls; neither they who lived before then should revive, and those who live after the Refurrection fhould have never been before. Wherefore being at the latter day we expect not a new creation but a reftitution, not a propagation but a renovation, not a production of new Souls, but a re-union of fuch as before were feparated, there is no queftion but the fame Souls fhould live the fecond life which have lived the first. Nor is this only true of our Souls, but must be alfo made good of our Bodies, thofe houses of clay, thofe habitations of flesh as our Bodies while we live are really diftinguished from all other creatures, as the Body of every particular Man is different from the Bodies of all other men, as no other fubftance whatsoever is vitally united to the Soul of that Man whofe Body it is while he liveth, fo no fubftance of any other creature, no Body of any other Man fhall be vitally reunited unto the Soul at the Refurrection.

That the fame Body, not any other, fhall be raised to life, which died; that the fame flesh which was feparated from the Soul at the day of death fhall be united to the Soul at the last day; that the fame tabernacle which was diffolved fhall be reared up again, that the fame temple which was deftroyed fhall be rebuilt, is moft apparent out of the fame word, most evident upon the fame grounds upon which we beJob xix. lieve there fhall be any Refurrection. Though after my fkin worms deftroy this body, faith Job, yet in my flesh, (in flesh, fhewing the reality, in my flesh, fhewing the propriety and identity) fhall I fee God, whom I fhall fee for myself, and mine eyes fhall behold, and not another, Rom. viii. or a franger, eye. (b) Ile that raised up Chrift from the dead fhall alfo quicken our mortal bodies; after the Refurrection our glorified bodies fhall become spiritual and incorruptible, but in the Refurrection of our mortal Bodies, thofe Bodies, by reafon of whofe mor

26,27,

[ocr errors]

tality we died, fhall be revived. (c) For this corrup-1 Cor. xv. tible muft put on incorruption, and this mortal muft put on 53. immortality. But this corruptible and this mortal is the fame Body which dieth, because mortal; and is corrupted, because corruptible; the Soul then, at the refurrection of that Man which is made immortal, must put on that Body which putteth on incorruption and immortality.

The identity of the Body raised from death is fo neceffary, that the very name of the Refurrection doth include or fuppofe it; fo that when I fay there fhall be a Refurrection of the dead, I must intend thus much, that the Bodies of men which lived and are dead shall revive and rife again. For at the death of Man nothing (d) falleth but his Body, the Spirit goeth upward, and no other Body falleth but his own; and therefore the Body, and no other but that Body, muft rife again, to make a Refurrection. If we look upon it under the notion of revivifcency, which is more ordinary in the (e) Hebrew language, it proves as much; for nothing properly dieth but the Body, the Soul cannot be killed, and nothing can revive but that which dieth. Or to speak more punctually, the Man falleth not in refpect of his Spirit but of his Flesh, and therefore he cannot be faid to rife again but in refpect of his Flesh which fell; Man dieth not in reference to his Soul, which is immortal, but his Body; and therefore he cannot be said to revive, but in reference to his Body before deprived of life; and because no other Flesh fell at his death, no other Body died but his own, therefore he cannot rise again but in his own Flesh, he cannot revive again but in his own Body.

Again, the defcription of the place from whence the Refurrection fhall begin is a fufficient affurance that the fame Bodies which were dead fhall revive and rife again. They which fleep in the duft of the earth, they which are in the (f) graves fhall hear the voice and rife: The fea fhall give up the dead which Rev.xx. 13,

Pp2

[ocr errors]

Dan, xii. 22 John v. 28.

are in it, and death and the grave deliver up the dead which are in them. But if the fame Bodies did not rife, they which are in the duft fhould not revive: if God fhould give us any other Bodies, than our own, neither the fea nor the grave fhould give up their dead. That fhall rife again which the grave gives up; the grave hath nothing elfe to give up but that Body which was laid into it; therefore the fame Body which is buried, at the last day shall be revived

The immediate confequent of the Refurrection proveth the identity of the dying and rifing Body, 2 Cor. v. 10. We must all appear before the judgment-feat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. That which shall be then received is either a reward or punishment, a reward for the good, a punishment for the evil, done in the Body: that which fhall receive the reward, and be liable to the punishment, is not only the Soul but the Body; it ftands not therefore with the nature of a (g) juft retribution, that he which finned in one body fhould be punished in another, he which pleafed God in his own flesh fhould fee God with other eyes. As for the wicked, Mat.x. 28. God fhall defiroy both their Soul and Body in Hell: out they which glorify God in their Body and their Spirit, which are God's, fhall be glorified by God in their Body and their Spirit, for they are both bought with the fame price, even the blood of Chrift. The bodies of 1 Cor. vi.15. the Saints are the members of Chrift, and no members of his fhall remain in death: they are the temples of the Holy Ghoft, and therefore if they be deftroyed they Rom. viii. fhall be raised again. For if the Spirit of him that raifed up fefus from the dead dwell in us, as he doth, and by fo dwelling maketh our Bodies temples, be which raised up Chrift from the dead shall alfo quicken our mortal Bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in us.

1 Cor. vi.

20.

19.

11.

Furthermore, the identity of the dying and the rifing Body will appear by thofe Bodies which fhall never rife because they shall never die. This may be confidered

not

I

not only in the (b) tranflations of Enoch and Elias, but also in those whom Chrift fhall find alive at his coming, whom he shall not kill but change; the dead Theff. iv. in Chrift fhall rise first, then they which are alive, and 16, 17. remain, fhall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall ever be with the Lord. If those which are alive fhall be caught up as they are alive with the fame Bodies, only changed into glorified and spiritual Bodies, that is, with the fame Bodies fpiritualized and glorified; certainly those which were dead fhall rife out of their graves to life in the fame Bodies in which they lived, that they may both appear alike before the fudge of the quick and the dead. Otherwise the Saints which shall be with God and with the Lamb for evermore would be chequered with a ftrange difparity, one part of them appearing and continuing with the fame Bodies in which they lived, another part with others.

Laftly, thofe examples which God hath been pleased to give us to confirm our faith in the Refurrection, do at the fame time persuade us that the fame Body which died fhall rife again. For whether we look upon the three examples of the Old Testament, or those of the New, they all rose in the same Iren. 1. v. Body before it was diffolved: if we look upon those c. 13. which rofe upon our Saviour's death; it is written that the graves were opened, and many Bodies of Saints Mat. xxvii. which flept arofe and came out of their graves, certainly 52, 53. the fame Bodies which were laid in. If then they were to us (i) examples of the Refurrection to come, as certainly they were, then must they resemble in their substance after they lived again the fubftance in which all the rest shall rife. And being Chr ft himself did raise his own Body, according to his prediction, Deftroy this temple, and in three days I John ii. 19. will raise it up, and declared it to be his own body, faying, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, Luke xxiv. being (k) he shall change our vile Bodies that they may 39. be fashioned like unto his glorious Body; it followeth Phil. iii. 21.

Pp3

that

that we shall rife in the fame Bodies as our Saviour did, that every particular person at the Refurrection may speak the words which Chrift then fpake, Bebold it is I myself.

We can therefore no otherwife expound this Article, teaching the Refurrection of the Body, than by afferting that the Bodies which have lived and died fhall live again after death, and that the fame flesh which is corrupted fhall be reftored; whatsoever (1) alteration fhall be made fhall not be of their nature, but of their condition; not of their fubstance, but of their qualities. Which explication is most agreeable to the language of the Scriptures, to the principles of Religion, to the conftant profeffion of the Church, againft the Origenifts of old, and the Socinians of late.

Having hitherto proved the certainty of this Article, that there fhall be a Refurrection, and declared the verity and propriety of it, that it fhall be a Refurrection of the fame Body which was dead; we may now proceed farther to enquire into the latitude of the fame, to whom the Refurrection doth belong. And here we find a great difference between the revelation of this truth under the Law, and under the Gospel; Chrift proved out of the Law that there fhould be a Refurrection, but by fuch an argument as reacheth no farther than unto the people of God, because it is grounded upon thofe words, I am the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Jacob. Job fpeaketh most exprefsly of the Refurrection, but mentioneth no other than his Redeemer and himself. The place of Daniel, which was always accounted the most evident and uncontradicted teftimony, though it deliver two different forts of perfons rifing, yet it seems to be with fome limitation, Many of them that fleep in the duft of the earth fhall awake. From whence the Jews moft generally have believed that fome men fhould live again, and fome fhould not; because it is written, Many fhall awake, but it is not

written,

« PreviousContinue »