to a stupid contempt of it which is the method that bad Men grow fearless of it by this shows that Death is somewhat more than what our Bodies suffer by it Yet 2. It is not such a state of Insensibility as supposes the Soul as well as the Body to be laid in a profound sleep and that it is out of such a state of Silence that the Resurrection will awaken us For there is nothing more plainly taught us in all the Holy Scriptures than that the Soul does survive the Body and is in a state either of Happiness or Misery from the very time of its departure out of the Body For how else could God in any sense be styled the God of the living and not of the dead if there be no part of us that lives after Death For if the Soul as well as the Body falls asleep when Death puts an end to this lie and so continues to sleep as well as the Body till the Resurrection gives new life unto it the Soul is as much Dead as the Body till the Resurrection does quicken it again And if so God must be the God of the dead and not of the living till at the Resurrection he gives us new life And besides the Parable of Dives and Lazarus does prove that the Souls both of good and bad Men do live in another state after Death For how else could it be said that the one was carried into Abraham's Bosom and the other tormented in Hell if there were not two different States in which the good and bad do live after this life For if the Souls of all Men do sleep from the day of Death till that of the Resurrection then the Souls of Dives and Lazarus must have been in one and the same condition which the Parable does not suppose they were But 3. It is the haling the Soul out of its own proper Dwelling to a Prison or the banishing it from its own home to a strange unknown Region It is not the setting it at liberty by breaking down the Walls of its Prison which has been of old and still is a very prevailing Notion Sumus in his inclusi compagibus corporis Est enim Animus coelestis ex altissimo domicilio depressus quasi demersus in terram locum divinae Naturae aeternitatÃque contrarium saith Tully We are shut up within these fleshly Walls For the Soul was thrown down from its sublime Habitation and forced into an Earthly dwelling a place contrary to the Divinity and Eternity of its Nature which was the Opinion of Plato and his Followers who supposing a Pre-existence of the Soul taught it was thrust out of its Celestial Habitation into an Earthly Body for some fault and therefore that Death did but restore it to its ancient State by setting it at liberty from the Body So Hierocles discourses That it was by leaving the Fields of Vertue and Truth deplumed and thrust into an Earthly Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being banish'd Heaven and made a Vagabond upon Earth And therefore it is no wonder that they made light of Death which they supposed did set them at liberty and restored them to their first and most ancient way of living Ex vita discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo I go out of this life as from an Inn not from home Now according to this Notion of Life and Death we have infinitely more reason to be weary of Life than afraid of Death and to mourn the Birth rather than the Death of our friends But the case is quite otherwise if we take a view of Death without any respect had to those Considerations that Religion furnishes us with For there is nothing more dolefull no greater Calamity can befall a Man and therefore there is nothing that he has more reason to stand in awe of and tremble at It is so far from breaking open the doors of a Prison and restoring our Souls to their pristine liberty that it pulls down its House and drives it like an Exile from its native Soil to live in an unknown place after an unusual manner The Body is not its Prison but its House and Dwelling-place and when Death takes it hence it is not as from an Inn where it never intended to stay long but from the Habitation where it would fain live its Immortal life and where according to the appointment of our Creator it was designed to inhabit for ever Now that Death does mean thus much is plain from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is design'd to bring our Souls out of the Prison whither they are carried to live in a Body again which Doctrine God has made us acquainted with as a wonderfull Instance of his Mercy to us and that great Blessing which is to bear up our Minds against the Apprehensions of and sad Aversions we have to Death But now what Blessing would this be to us and what Comfort would it afford us if the restoring our Souls to their Bodies was to return them to a Prison and for ever to deprive them of their true and native Liberty This would be so far from being matter of joy and comfort to us that we should rise again that we had reason to look upon it as a Menace and bewail it as a Calamity as grievous as the Platonists suppose the first descent of the Soul into its Body to have been For what comfort can it be to us to know that our Souls after they are restored to their liberty if their separate condition be their true and most genuine way of living they shall be caged up again at last so as never to recover their liberty more But if it be an expression of abundant Mercy to us a matter for which we are bound to bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he has begotten us again to a lively hope of rising again by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we have no reason to think that Death does us a kindness by setting our Souls at liberty from the Body as from a Prison It is in one respect a kindness as we shall rise again and live in pure and immortal Bodies but consider'd in it self if the Resurrection will be a Blessing to us it is a Calamity we ought to dread for it imports an Execution of that frightfull Sentence by which we stand condemn'd to lose our Souls that Sentence that suffers not the Breath that God has breathed into us to abide with us So that we have as much reason to be afraid of Death as a Criminal has to dread a Jail or an Exiled person to lament his Misfortune when he is condemn'd to quit the Society of his friends and acquaintance to go into a strange Country perhaps to live among a Barbarous people the Customs and Manners of whom he is unacquainted with 2. We may hence observe what Death is now to us since we have the hopes of a
is risen for our Justification is made Head over all things to his Church i.e. Has a Soveraign Authority given him to dispense the Grace and Mercy that he has purchased with his Blood He has Erected a Kingdom distinct from that which as the Creatures of God we are Members of and in that place too where the wicked Spirit designed to Erect an Everlasting Empire over the Souls of Men. For as he tells us Rev. 1.18 He has the Keys of Death and Hell A Kingdom of Grace which permits us to work out our own Salvation in this life and assure us of an Everlasting deliverance from the hands of our Enemies in the other World and thereby eases our Minds of those Apprehensions which our being under the Dominion of his Father's Justice fills our Minds with For his Rule and Authority is that of a Gracious Lord who has power to forgive Sins and to bestow Life upon those who have deserved to die and who must infallibly have perish'd for ever if we had continued under the strict Government of Justice So that our Condition is of the same nature with that of a condemn'd person who has his Life restored him by Favour and Grace and has the liberty of making his Fortune under the protection of that Authority that he had offended The Kingdom we belong to is not that of Justice that condemns the least Transgression but the Mercy of a Redeemer who calls us to Repentance and assures us he will protect us from the severity of Wrath if we submit to his Authority And then 2. How much reason have we to rejoyce in the Religion that Christ has instituted For it is not only his Institution who rose for our Justification but brings us the Glad-tidings of that Mercy and Grace which alone can compose the Minds of persons that are condemn'd to die It is enough to satisfie us that it must be very favourable to us that it is the Institution of a Saviour For we may be sure that nothing severe can come from him who came into the World to work deliverance for us Who can believe that he who had no other Aim but the propitiating Divine Justice and the interceding for Mercy toward a sinfull condemn'd Race would lay us under any hard Circumstances or publish to the World any other thing than the Mercy he came to procure for us Since his design was Gracious his Religion must be so too for as the design of Natural Religion is to set before us the Nature and to give us the Character of God the Author of it so the design of Christianity is to give us the Character of our Redeemer And therefore it can contain nothing less than the mighty Arguments of Love wherewith he courts our Obedience and the highest Instances of that Mercy that was the End of his assuming our Nature and dying for us It is a Religion indeed that has highly improved our Duty and rescued Holiness from that Corruption wherewith the depraved Minds of sinfull Men had soil'd it But that which does in a peculiar manner recommend it to us is the Tidings it gives us of Gods being reconciled unto us and the Hopes of an Immortal life it presents us with by being deliver'd from that Judgment to Condemnation that Divine Justice has pass'd upon us Had its design been only to rectifie our mistakes concerning our Duty and to give us a fair view of the true Lustre of Holiness it would not have contain'd Mercy enough to save us because the only Mercy that can save a condemn'd Malefactour is that which pardons his fault It is indeed a great Instance of the Excellency of this Religion that it gives us the best and most noble Character of the Divine Nature and furnishes us with the best Rules of Life But the great Grace of it consists in the Hopes it gives us of a Resurrection by acquainting us how our Redeemer was deliver'd for our Offences and raised again for our Justification And if then we believe that we are under an Obligation to any Religion methinks the Christian Religion should meet with an easie Entertainment among Men. For it is the only Religion in the World that can speak satisfaction to the Minds of condemned Wretches as we are Because it does not only ground our Hopes of Mercy upon the Gracious Nature of God but the compassionate Undertaking of a mercifull Mediatour It does not only acquaint us in the general that God is Mercifull but sets before us the Nature of that Mercy that we are to trust in The only Aim of Natural Religion is to acquaint us with our Duty and the Desert of our Actions But what can this signifie to a Creature that is already condemn'd because he is in an Offence to know the Duty he has transgress'd when withall he knows he must die because he has done so And to have the Excellency of that Law revealed unto him by which he might have improved himself to an Immortal condition when he knows he has disabled himself and lost his opportunity for such an improvement Such a Knowledge can only serve to heighten his Affliction and the more lively the Representation of his Duty is the more stinging must his Torment be Before we can be benefited by the plainest Representation of our Duty and the best Rules of Life the Wrath of God that we are fall'n under must be averted and no other Religion but that which assures us it is so can be of any Advantage to us For a Religion that assures us we are in a Justified state as the Christian Religion does gives us encouragement to perfect Holiness by assuring us our Labour shall not be in vain because we are in a state of Improvement It is too late to call upon us to work out our Salvation if we lie under a Sentence of Condemnation for not doing it We must first be saved from this Wrath before we can be in a possibility of securing to our selves an Immortal life And that is the only Religion that suits our present state that importunes us to a Holy life by acquainting us with such Mercy as we stand in need of And there is no Man surely can quarrel with or be an Enemy to such a Religion but who is an Enemy to his own Soul and carries a Mind in him that is disposed for no Religion at all 3. This may persuade us of the Reasonableness of the great Duty of believing which the Gospel so frequently and so earnestly inculcates upon us The believing I mean not only those Principles of Natural Religion the Being of a God and Providence the Immortality of the Soul and a future state of Retributions but those Doctrines of Revealed Religion which acquaint us with the Methods of Divine Wisdom and Goodness for the delivering us from Death As to the Principles of Natural Religion there is none that owns any thing of Religion but does own likewise that the believing them
to a sensible Creature But that which is most grievous in it is That it comes upon us as a Punishment and that we die by the just Judgment of God upon us And how much comfort must it give us to think that we are discharged from that Condemnation which is the severest Consideration in Death How may it revive our Spirits and raise our Heads to think That though in Adam all die yet in Christ shall all be made alive To know that we are justified in the Resurrection of him who died for our Offences is such a healing Consideration to our Minds as leaves nothing in Death that is troublesome but those little Aversions that Nature has to a Dissolution It is 't is true and always will be difficult matter to meet Death without concern and something of consternation because there is something praeter-natural in it But yet how unwilling soever Nature is to submit to so hard a fate yet we know we must and since the Law that has appointed us to die is irreversible the only wise thing we have to do in such Circumstances is to reconcile our selves to the thoughts of dying as well as we can that we may go out of the World with as little disquiet and aversion to a thing that we cannot help as is possible And the only Consideration that is sufficient in this case is this of our being in a Justified state and that we know the Reason of that Hope which alone is sufficient to bear up our Minds For with what peace and satisfaction may we go to our Graves when we know that the place our Souls go to will not be an Eternal Prison to them and that Death is not inflicted as an Eternal Punishment 5. Let us consider with how much care we ought to live while we are in this World For since we are acquitted from Condemnation we are not in so hopeless a Condition as those that must die without Mercy For the Grace and Favour of God that has remitted to us that Sentence has favour'd us with an opprtunity of escaping from the Wrath that is Eternal This is the favour that he publishes to the World in the Gospel and that which he calls upon us to do is to lay hold on this opportunity and to make a good use of it The grace of God i.e. the Gospel which brings or acquaints us with this Salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 For it sets Life and Death before us i.e. it lets us know that God is willing to try us once more and therefore favours every Man as he did Adam with the Liberty of chusing for himself which of these two he pleaseth And surely it is but a just and reasonable Expectation that we should lay hold of the opportunity that is put into our Hands of escaping for our Lives That if Death be so terrible a thing to us as we make it and we cannot very easily brook being condemned for a fault that is none of ours we should be very carefull for the future not to do any thing that may provoke God to condemn us for our own faults and be extremely fearfull of offering Violence to our selves and having our own Hands in the blood of our Souls It might be judg'd a hard Law by us that the fault of others should be charged upon us and that we should be under a Condemnation to Death because our first Parents sinn'd Therefore he calls upon us to look to our selves and tells us there is no more occasion for complaint as if the Children's teeth were set on edge by the sowre Grapes that our Fathers have eaten For he has remitted to us that Sentence that assigned us over to the power of Death and has privileg'd us with the liberty of taking care of the Life we are so unwilling to lose And if Life be so precious a thing to us as by our Apprehensiveness of Death we would be thought to account it what a wretched Madness is it while we are complaining of the hardship of our Circumstances as we are condemn'd in Adam to take so little care of it now it is put into our own hands to secure it as if it was all one to us whether we lived or died If Death be an indifferent thing to us why do we tremble at it Why does the near approach of it put us into terrible Agonies Why do we seem to account it a hard fate to be doom'd to die for a fault that was not in our power to help But if it be as really frightfull as it appears why should we neglect so favourable an opportunity of providing for our future safety as it put into our hands This will be a very great Aggravation of the Folly and Misery of wicked Men when they come to be condemn'd to a second Death that there will be no altering of that Sentence no more Mercy to be expected for the delivering them from the Wrath that their own faults will then bring upon them Oh how many sad Reflections will it occasion to think that they have twice forseited Life and that it is in spight of Mercy and Grace that they have destroy'd themselves by their own saults That they have been tried a second time whether they would chuse Life and Immortality but have made no better a choice for themselves than their first Fathers did So that the Mercy that deliver'd them from the Death they were condemn'd to in Adam was thrown away upon them and which will not a little add to the Misery of the second Doom as much as they fear'd dying they have yet made it their choice And since this will be the Fate of all Men that neglect so great Salvation ought we not to be carefull how we use it Surely after such an escape as this is there is great reason that God should expect that we should look well to our Ways and be very watchfull over our selves for the future That when-ever any sensual Appetite begins to be over-craving or the Riches Pleasures or Honours of this World do tempt us to Covetousness or Oppression to Sensuality or Intemperance to Pride or Ambition we should call to mind the Danger we have escaped and that we shall perish with scorn and contempt if we let our Love of our Bodies undo us twice This use we ought to make of our being in a Justified state for since the Sentence of Death is remitted we have a fair opportunity put into our Hands of securing a Life that is Immortal But if we lose this opportunity we shall sorfeit our Lives again and all the Mercy that would save us 2. His being raised for our Justification does imply his receiving Power and Authority to justifie us And here we are to consider Two things 1. That he is invested with Power and Authority to deliver us from Death 2. That this Power he received when he rose from the Dead 1. That he is invested with
A DISCOURSE OF The Resurrection SHEWING The Import and Certainty of it BY WILLIAM WILSON M. A. Rector of Morley in Derbyshire LONDON Printed by J. H. for William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV IMPRIMATUR Geo. Royse R. R. in Christo Patriac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep. Cantuar à Sacris Domest April 26. 1694. Advertisement LAtely Printed A Discourse of Religion shewing its Truth and Reality or The Suitableness of Religion to Humane Nature By the same Author TO THE Right Reverend Father in God RICHARD Lord Bishop of Bath Wells My Lord IT is not above a day or two since I thought of recommending this Discourse unto the World under the Patronage of some Great Name not that I believed it sufficient of it self to walk abroad without such a support but because I was unwilling to lay the Burden of its faults upon such a one as had not Fame and Reputation enough to bear the weight of them and on the other hand I did believe it too great a Crime to charge any person with them that had And had not Your Lordship obliged me so much as of late you have done I should not have thought of doing it now much less of doing it under Yours Men had need be well assured of the Goodness of those Discourses which they publish under the Name of some known Friend because Dedications detract from those whom they design to Honour if what is offer'd to the World under their Protection be mean and trifling But this is not the worst of my case For though I know Your Lordship by the report of Your Exemplary Piety and Vertue yet I am so altogether unknown to You that I am ashamed to think that That which gives a Lustre to Your Goodness should be an Aggravation of my Crime in defaming Your Judgment so publickly and that too while I tell the World I am bound in Gratitude to confult Your Honour The Subject My Lord I here present You with is great and worthy the most serious Consideration of every Christian For it sets before us the Glad-tidings of the Gospel and the indispensible Necessity of a Holy Life Two things of that vast moment that were they well consider'd it would not be a very easie thing for Men to do themselves so much mischief as to forfeit their Hopes of an Immortal Life merely for the sake of a Bodily Lust when they judge it a hardship upon us to be condemn'd to a Mortal condition for Adam's fault And though I know my own Defects too well to believe I can write any thing upon a Subject of so lofty a Nature suitable to the Dignity of it yet if it will but contribute any thing towards the awakening Men to a sense of that Obligation to Holiness that our Religion by acquainting us with the ground of that Hope we are begotten to le ts us know we are under I shall presume upon Your Lordship 's known Goodness for a Pardon for the weakness of my Performance And the World I hope will believe that at least I meant well when I ventured this way to own my self Your Lordship's Most Faithfull and Obliged Servant Will. Wilson THE Introduction AS in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.22 In which words he sets before us the Reason of that Mortality we are subject to and the great advantage of the Christian Religion upon the account of the Hopes of a glorious Immortality after Death that we are restored to If we take a view of our own Nature nothing can be more unaccountable than that a Creature who carries an Immortal Principle in him should die And therefore the Apostle acquaints us that Death is not a Natural Calamity but the Effect and Consequence of that Condemnation that in Adam we fell under In Adam all die i.e. It is upon the account of Adam's Sin that Humane Nature is corruptible and that Death has any Power over us Whereas had he maintain'd his Innocency Immortality according to the Divine Constitution had been the reward of his Perseverance But the Calamity which Justice doom'd us to Mercy has provided a Remedy for And the Design of the Gospel is to acquaint us with the wonderfull Method whereby Life and Immortality are brought to light That for the conquering Death and delivering us from the Power of it God appointed his only begotten Son to bear our Sins and to became a Curse for us Such a Person he chose to die for us as could rise again from under the Wrath that would have lain for ever upon us and who by rising from the Dead has given the World an Instance of the Mighty Power of that Life and Spirit which he communicates to his sincere Disciples and in respect of which he is styled the Resurrection and the Life So that though in Adam all die yet in Christ shall all be made alive i.e. We shall not suffer an Eternal Death our Souls shall not for ever be separated from our Bodies upon the account of that fault that at first subjected us to Death But though we die because Adam sinned yet we shall rise to another Life because Christ who is our Life had appeared to take away Sin This is that comfortable and joyous Message that our Religion does publish to the World And it is the only Tidings that could revive our Spirits since Nature within us droops and languishes upon the account of the Mortality we are doom'd to And therefore for the delivering poor Mortals from those fears that all our life-time keep us in Bondage as St. Paul speaks Heb. 2. the main subject of the Apostle's preaching was Jesus and the Resurrection That indeed is an Article so little accountable to our Reason that some Men are upon that very account apt to look upon Faith as a very unreasonable Duty because it consists in the taking such things for granted which we have no Natural knowledge of But now that which the Enemies of Believing do find fault with Faith for is the very thing which God accepts and is pleas'd with it for Thus it was in the case of Abraham who upon the account of the Excellency of his Faith is styled the Father of the Faithfull For when God promis'd him a Son that which he took so well from him was his believing this Promise against Hope If he had consulted his own Reason what he should have believed in the case it would have been as much against Believing that he should have a Child when Old Age had wasted his strength and Sarah's Womb was dead as it can be pretended to be against a Resurrection But when he did not ask his Reason what was possible or what was fit to be believed but did depend upon the Divine Promise notwithstanding all the Difficulties he might have urged God was so well pleased with him that he accepted him as an approved Servant And thus God by
that he went down into Hell i.e. During the time that his Body was in the Grave his Soul was in the place where separate Souls do live after Death But although the Soul when it ceases to live in the Body does still live yet when it leaves the Body we who consist of a Soul and a Body do die And so long as the Soul does live without its Body so long we are under the power of Death And even that Soul that still lives is in the state of the Dead So that the Resurrection which is design'd to be a Remedy of that Calamity Death is to us must be the freeing the Soul from that Vagabond state that the Displeasure of God makes it to suffer out of its Body It is the bringing the Soul that lives when we are dead out of that state where it lives in a preter-natural condition without its Body to live as the Soul of a Man was by God appointed to do when he breathed it into a Body of Flesh I call the separate state of our Souls a vagabond and preter-natural Condition because when they go out of the Body they leave their own proper Habitation and wander into unknown Regions And therefore St. Paul styles our being in the Body a being at home and when we die in his style we travel out of the Body or go abroad 2 Cor. 5. And according to the import of that Curse by reason of which we die and go out of the Body we should for ever like Vagabonds that leave their native Soil and roam about the World have continued abroad but that God in great Goodness to us has provided us a mercifull Saviour whose business it is to take care of our Souls when they leave their own Habitations and in his due time to bring them back again to their homes And therefore St. Paul though he speaks of this separate state as a thing no way desirable in it self That no Man how little reason soever he has to be in love with this World does groan for that he would be uncloathed v. 4. Yet considering the safe hands our Souls are committed to when they are abroad does upon that reason speak of this state as a thing much more Eligible than to stay always here in the Body though it is our home We are always confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord v. 6 8. i.e. Though we do leave our Habitations we are well pleased with our condition because we shall be under the immediate care of him who at the last will brng us out of this exiled State and restore us to our own Habitations again Hence the Resurrection is spoken of as our triumph over Hades that receptacle or prison of separate Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Hades where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 The Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell or Hades delivered up the Dead that were in them And Death and Hell or Hades were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.13 14. i.e. Death will deliver up our Bodies which lie imprison'd in the Grave and Hades will deliver up our Souls that are there imprison'd and then an Everlasting Being shall succeed The Resurrection then does not only respect our Bodies which see Corruption but that Immortal part of us which by Death is forced out of the Body and driven like an Exile to live from home in a foreign Country contrary to the Laws of its Nature For the Resurrection restores us that which Death deprives us of and brings back our Exiled Souls to their old native Dwellings Although the Resurrection will bring our Dead Bodies out of their Graves yet this is not all that we are to understand by the Resurrection because the raising a Dead Body to life will not be the raising the Man that died unless the same Soul and Spirit that was separated from it by Death be re-united with it again To breathe a New Soul into a Body that is raised out of the Dust is rather the creating a New Man than the raising an Old one For the same Man that died cannot be said to be raised to life again unless the Soul be brought out of its Prison as well as the Body out of its Grave For so long as the Soul is kept a Prisoner in the place where separate Soul live we are as much in the state of the Dead as while the Body does lie in the Grave This re-embodying the Soul that by Death is compell'd to quit the Habitation it is at first born with and to live abroad in an unknown Region is the thing in which our Conquest over Death does consist and consequently is the Resurrection that the Gospel speaks of 'T is true the Resurrection has most usually a respect to the Body and does denote its leaving its Prison whither it is conveyed But besides this the Holy Scriptures do speak of the Resurrection with a respect to the Soul and that alteration of its state when it shall of a separate Spirit become embodied a second time i.e. When it shall be brought out of its confinement and returned to its own Habitation This is the meaning of that place where the Sadducees are said to have denied the Resurrection i.e. They were as is plain from our Saviour's Answer persuaded that Death does as well reduce the Soul to nothing as the Body to Dust And that since after Death there is no part of us remains alive there is nothing lest to ground our hopes of a Resurrection upon because there is nothing of us left in respect of which the Resurrection will be a Blessing and consequently that there is no state of life to be expected after this because Death does not only dissolve but destroy the very Principles of our Constitution Our blessed Lord therefore to prove to them that there is a Resurrection makes use of an Argument that proves that the Soul is alive after Death and consequently that there is another state in which as Men we must live an Immortal life God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith our Saviour i.e. The Souls of the great Patriarchs are alive somewhere else God could not properly style himself The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and therefore they must rise again Wherein the strength of our Saviour's argument lies I shall not now enquire For it is enough to my present purpose that he proves there will be a Resurrection because the Soul is still alive For this implies that the Resurrection will not only bring the Body out of its Grave but the Soul out of its Prison and return it to its ancient Habitation Otherwise the Soul 's being alive after we are dead would no more prove a Resurrection than if
it was extinguish'd For how is it possible to conclude there will be a Resurrection because the Soul lives in its separate state if the Resurrection means no more than that the Body shall come out of its Grave and that a new Soul shall be breathed into it Our Blessed Lord undoubtedly meant when he urged this to prove a Resurrection That the Soul which after Death subsists without its Body shall come out of its state of Death as well as the Body because it is still alive And by being united to the Body again have a new way of subsisting after Death which second state of Men is that which as the Learned Hammond observes is implied in the Resurrection Obj. If it be enquired how we can be said to rise again if the Soul as well as the Body be not laid to sleep Ans I Answer 1. That the Resurrection does not only import a restoring life to that which is dead but the giving us another kind of subsistence than that which we have after Death has separated the Soul from the Body So that though the Soul does live after Death yet it does not live as it will do after the Resurrection It lives in a separate condition from the Body when Death has broken the Union but the Resurrection will restore it to its ancient way of subsisting in a Body And therefore 2. The Resurrection does respect us as Men and is for the restoring us that Humane Life which we are deprived of by Death For though the Soul does live yet it is not the Soul alone that is the whole Man And as we are said to die when the Soul leaves the Body though the Soul still lives in its separate state so we are said to rise again when the Soul that is Immortal and does not cease to live when it is gone out of the Body is reunited to the Body again And now if the Resurrection does imply our returning from a state of Death and recovering a new life or the bringing the Soul out of its place of confinement to its own proper Habitation Before I proceed let us consider what Reflections this furnishes us with And 1. We may hence inform our selves of the true nature and meaning of Death And this is very necessary to be done that we may not despise and give way to mean and contemptible thoughts of it as if Dying carried nothing in it that was frightfull and amazing It is certain that those of the Heathens whose Names are transmitted down to us for the gallantry of their Minds have generally gain'd this reputation from the slight opinion they had of dying For it was reputed among them as a generous heroick Act to lay violent hands upon themselves and by a draught of Poyson or a sturdy Abstinence to put an end to their own Lives when their Designs and Interests did not prosper according to their Minds or they were in danger of falling by a publick Executioner Now that which brought this way of Dying into so much credit with them was their not knowing what Death is They either were persuaded that nothing of us remains after Death or if they had some dark Notices that the Soul does survive they spoke very doubtfully of it and were altogether ignorant how it lives when it is gone out of the Body but did believe they did themselves a mighty service when they thus escaped from a Temporal misfortune And thus it often happens still that Men when their Affairs succeed ill revenge their ill fortune upon themselves and die rather than feel the smart of their Calamities This is chosen as a Refuge from threatning Ills and fled to as a Remedy of present Pressures But yet both the one and other of these are to be pitied The former because they were governed by a belief that the Soul while it is in the Body is a Prisoner and that it vanishes into nothing when it is let out And the other because a clouded Mind betrays them to desperate Thoughts But besides these there are others that think lightly of Death for no other reason but because they think it a glorious thing to die like a Roman without discovering any signs of fear Such I mean who account it a bravery of Mind to out-face Death who are govern'd by no other Principle than a supposed baseness in Fear and therefore are resolved not to tremble although they know not but that they for ever lose all that they account dear to them This is a Temper that is of great account in the World But what greater baseness is it to fear losing that which we love and cherish than to love and desire that which we account good for us For my part I do not understand what great Vertue there is in living fearless of Death or in being able to meet it without a dejected look or undauntedly to expose a Man's self to the danger of it what-ever horrid shape it appears in if he who thus despises it has nothing out of this World that he can love or take pleasure in especially when we consider that it is as natural to fear that which is hurtfull and destructive to us as to love that which is good and beneficial There is I know a contempt of Death which is a noble Vertue but it is only that which Religion does work the Mind to For he who knows he shall live again has a great deal of reason to be fearless of dying But what account can that Man give of his slight opinion of Death who as little thinks of another Life as he seems regardless of Death and who while he resolves not to fear Dying thinks not and perhaps does not believe he shall rise again These Men undoubtedly know not what it is to die otherwise they who have all the reason in the World to fear it would never make it a Vertue not to be daunted or unconcern'd at it For 1. Death has not only a respect to our Bodies It is not only the closing our Eyes and stopping our Ears and tying our Hands and Feet and the rendring the several Members of our Bodies uncapable of performing the Functions of Life any more It is not the depriving this Earthly Machine which now we see to move and which we feed and cloath with art and care of all sense and motion If Death was nothing else but this I mean if all the hurt it did us respected the Body only such as the letting out our Spirits and congealing our Blood and the turning the Body into a Carcase and sending it to a Grave perhaps it might be as easie a thing for a Man to be fearless as a Beast is inapprehensive of it For why should a Man be more averse to dying than a Brute if he has nothing more to lose But when we cannot cure our selves of that Aversion we have to Death but by Religious Considerations which is the way that good Men take or by hardening our Minds
Resurrection For by this all that is terrible in it is taken away and we may look upon it without terrour and amazement For though it snatches our Souls from us and sends them as Exiles to a strange place yet they go out of our Bodies with a comfortable hope of returning back again That which makes the state of an Exile so extremely melancholy and afflicting is That he is not only deprived of the comfortable Enjoyments of his own Country among his dearest Friends and Relations but doom'd to spend all his days in a wandring condition among strangers without either Home or Kindred But now our Souls when they are commanded out of our Bodies do not leave them with any such sad and sorrowfull Reflections but go to their appointed place with joyous Hopes of being restored again after a time And by this Consideration it was that the Apostle chear'd the Minds of the Thessalonians exhorting them not to sorrow for those that were asleep as others which have no hope 1 Thess 4.13 i.e. Not like the poor ignorant Heathens who had no notice of a Resurrection For in this he makes the joyous condition of our Christian state to consist that we can rejoyce in hope i.e. In that hope of having our Souls which the displeasure of God does not suffer to dwell long in our Bodies here return'd us again which we have by the Gospel Whereas the pitious state of the Heathens lay in this That they were without hope Ephes 2.12 i.e. Without this hope but were either altogether ignorant or in great doubts what became of their Souls when they lest their Bodies But the most comfortable Consideration of all is this That our Souls though they are thus haled out of our Bodies and sent into an unknown World yet they are under the care of a gracious Saviour This is it that alters the condition of separate Spirits from what it would have been had not Death been conquer'd that he who has triumph'd over Death and Hell or Hades has the inspection and custody of all those pious Souls that enter there that he is their Guardian and will not suffer them to be lost for ever Our Blessed Lord makes the goodness of Lazarus's Condition when he died to consist in this That he was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom Luk. 16.22 In which Expression he undoubtedly intimates to us the great security that hereby was given him that even in that condition God was still his God which was the Blessing that was granted to Abraham and by which our Blessed Lord tells us he is assur'd of a Resurrection His being in Abraham's Bosom does denote a participation of Abraham's Privileges For as by the Excellency of his Faith that great Partriarch got the glorious Character of being the Father of the Faithfull so he is an Instance to us of all the good that God designs those that believe as he did And not only so but he was as it were consider'd by the Jews as the great Patron of all that died in his Faith That upon the account of the Covenant that was deposited with him and the Promise that was granted to his Faith God would certainly be a God to all that go whither he is gone The Jews consider'd Abraham as we do Christ to be the Corner-stone in whom all the Building of their Church being fitly framed grew to an Holy Temple and the Head over all things to 'em i.e. That principal Person by means of the acceptableness of whose Faith all the Privileges they enjoyed and the Blessings they hoped for descended to them And that therefore they could no-where be so safe and rest with so much hope as with him For it was a common Opinion among them that the Souls of good Men when they left their Bodies went to the place where Abraham was and that there they lived with him as Children in the House of their Father To this sense may that promise be applied Gen. 12.3 In thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed Which does not only signifie that it should be a Proverbial speech among all people that God would deal with them in this life as he did with Abraham but that in him or by being under the Guardianship of his Faith all pious Souls should be happy after Death So that our Lord when he tells us that Lazarus was carried to Abraham's Bosom spoke in the Language and the common Phrase of the Jews who believed that the Souls of good Men when they left their Bodies went to the place where Abraham as the Father of a Family has the chief place For why is Lazarus said to be carried into Abraham's Bosom rather than the Bosom of Adam Seth or Enoch or of Isaac or Jacob whose Posterity they were but because the Covenant upon which they depended was at first lodged with Abraham and that by being with him he was secured of the utmost Blessing that was intended in it These all saith the Author to the Hebrews i.e. The good Men of old that died having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Heb. 11.39 40. i.e. They did not in their times receive the promise of the Resurrection to an Eternal life or it was not in the times of the Old Testament that God had determined to conferr this Blessing upon them But it was reserved for the times of the Gospel when Christ having by the Sacrifice of himself satisfied for our offences should merit and receive the power of restoring us to an Immortal life So that they did not receive the full of their Hope but though they were secured of it by being with Abraham yet they were to wait the full completion of it till the times of the Restitution of all things This then of old was the thing that sweetned Death to the Minds of those brave Men that died in the Faith of Abraham that they should go to that great Patriarch as Children to their Father's house who was assured of a Resurrection by having the Lord for his God But the Mind of every sincere Christian has a more powerfull consideration to support it who goes out of the World in the favour of a mercifull Redeemer Though the Soul be ravish'd from the Body and carried away under an Arrest as a Criminal to a Prison yet this is no terrible thing to a Christian who not only goes to that Houshold of Faith of which Abraham is the Father but abides under the shadow of the Almighty and is under the protection and care of him who has the power of life and whose second appearing he waits for There he rests in hope and rejoyces in the favour of his Lord who he knows will not suffer him to be lost for ever but will remember him at the last and grant him the Blessing by which he shall be perfected But again 3. This may
serve to cure us of that fondness we have for this life to make us somewhat more indifferent towards it than usually we are It is indeed so considerable a Blessing to us that we can enjoy nothing without it And upon this account it is so dear a thing and so desirable to us that when Age and Infirmities have drawn of our Spirits and made it a burthen to us we generally feel so much sweet in it that we can hardly be persuaded to part with it with any content It is for the sake of this that we rise up early and sit up late and employ the strength of the Body and the vigour of the Mind to find out Provisions to sustain and Remedies to prolong it There are a great many Considerations which if duly thought of would go a great way toward the abating that over-passionate Love we have of it for it is mortal and that is such a disparagement to it as ought to make us somewhat ashamed of doating upon that which we cannot keep And while we have it it is not to be maintain'd but with an abundance of cost and care a great deal of labour and toil both of Body and Mind So that though Life be so valuable a thing that we cannot but love and esteem it yet it is not this life surely that is so desirable Nor would a Wise man set a value upon Life if he was sure he should have no other life but this For who can be in love with Corruption and Misery or limit his Affections to Vexation and Sorrow Who can be fond of a life that is always so chargeable and very often so tiresome a thing to us as this is This indeed might be a consideration to incline us to think well of Death though it does drive our Souls out of our Bodies because the Corruption and Filth of such a Habitation is enough to nauseate and make them glad to be rid of them For what comfort can a Soul take in a House that is ever and anon ready to fall about its Ears and which daily toils and drudges it to find out some means to prop and repair it What pleasure can it be to a Spirit to live in so nasty a dwelling that in every room and corner from the highest to the lowest presents it with nothing but stench and silthiness But if the miseries and follies with which this life is embitter'd be not enough to wean us from it if the Soul be not willing to leave the Body though it is a dwelling that affords it little pleasure because it was not created to live alone yet when we know that after Death has sent it abroad to live we well know not how nor where we shall receive it again at the Resurrection Methinks this is a very satisfactory Reason why we should the less value this present life For the Resurrection does fully answer our desires of life and will for ever put an end to that Regret our Souls have to live out of a Body and therefore it assures us of such a life as is far more worth our having than this is Was this all the life that we have reason to look for perhaps there might be some reason in that why we should love this life with all its troubles and why our Souls should be unwilling to leave our Bodies as unpleasant a dwelling as they have in them because a bad one is better than none at all But when Death which puts an end to this life will it self have an End and our Souls shall not be left in Hell for ever as the Psalmist speaks of our separate condition we ought in reason to have some kind thoughts for that life we shall rise to when Death and Hell are destroy'd Did we know no more of it but this That we shall live again there is this reason why we ought not to be only fond of this life because this is not the only life we have to live But when the life we shall live is Immortal and full of Glory and our Souls shall never more be forced out of our Bodies when we have once received them again if we be found fit to live we who hope to rise to such a life have little reason to doat upon a life of sorrow and vexation and which Death will at last deprive us of We I say have little reason to be fond of this which must end even upon this account because we carry a fondness in us toward life For this inclination ought much rather to be towards a life that is altogether free from all that does discontent this 4. We may hence observe the Folly of Atheism For it teaches Men to deride and make a mock at the very Blessing which of all persons the Atheist either is or ought to be most fond of and for the making the most of which he pretends to believe as he does He believes that it is for the good of life for a Man to be at liberty to follow the swing of his own inclinations and that nothing is a greater enemy to it than Religion which as he discourses does extremely sour and embitter it by those ill-natur'd restraints that it lays upon us And now is there any Man that ought to be so much afraid of Death as this Man who is unwilling that Life should be sour'd with any thing that is unpleasant Is there any thing that he ought to dread more than that which will not only put an end to all his Enjoyments but deprive him of that great Blessing which he is for improving to the utmost and labours with all his Art and Skill to sweeten it with all that is gratefull and pleasant as he pretends It is indeed upon this reason that he persuades himself there is nothing to be look'd for after Death He loves this World so well that he is not willing to believe there is another to be expected after he is taken out of this unless he should live in the other as he does in this Let us eat and drink says he for to morrow we shall die i.e. Let us make much of Life while we have it for we shall not enjoy it long And the dead know not any thing neither is there any device or knowledge or wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest This is the substance of this Man's belief and reasoning But yet I say he of all Men should not believe and reason thus because he speaks against himself and argues against his own Principles For at the same time that he speaks against Religion for being an Enemy to Life he himself speaks very meanly and contemptibly of it The same reason that makes him an Enemy to Religion ought to make him the greatest Enemy to Death and to raise in his Mind the greatest abhorrency of it because according to his Opinion it will for ever take away all that sense in the pleasing of which he places all his happiness He
who would not have Life rendered unpleasant by any thing ought above all things to startle and tremble at the thoughts of Death as the greatest Enemy to Life All that are persuaded there is another Life after this are taught by this belief to have a very indifferent regard to this life because they know that the loss of this life is not the loss of all the life they hope for But now the Atheist is so much wedded to this life that he places all his Happiness in the delights of it and cares not to think of any other And therefore the thoughts of dying must certainly be very troublesome to him because he is persuaded he shall for ever lose that which he would not have embitter'd and that all his joys and pleasures all that he accounts good for him are thereby for ever gone And now what a wofull condition is this Man in who lives under such a persuasion as this He shows he is no Enemy to Life when he tells the World That all that he aims at is the making Life as pleasant and easie as 't is possible to be And yet that which he so much loves he rallies upon and pleases himself with the thoughts of losing it for ever Now if it be so gratefull to him to think he shall die never to live more why is he so tender at all of Life why does he seek out ways to make it pleasant why does he not live in a continual neglect and contempt of it if it be so ridiculous a thing to live as he would persuade the World it is when he derides the Religious Man's hopes of living again though he dies But if Life be worth all the care and pampering that he bestows upon it he of all Men ought not to make it his scorn He pretends to be a very great friend to Life while he undertakes to teach the World the best way of living And yet at the same time that he professes so much kindness and friendship for Life his Principles make him a perfect Enemy to it He believes that there is no more Life after this but that when once Death has closed his Eyes he shall never wake more and this Thought he so much pleases himself with that he laughs at all that do not believe as he does And yet he tells the World that he is an Atheist purely for the good of Life He is an Atheist because he would not have his Life sour'd with ill-natur'd Restraints as he believes them And yet because he is an Atheist he cannot endure to hear of a life that is Everlasting or of recovering his life again when he has lost it And is it now a wise thing to be an Atheist when every one that is so is taught by his Principles to thwart his own desires and to make it a part of his Wisdom to deride the belief of enjoying that for ever which he pretends to have a greater value for and to consult the good of more than any body else If he be wise in being such a friend to life as he would have the World believe he is when he would have nothing to interrupt or lessen the joys and pleasantries of it why is he such an Enemy to is as to be unwilling the Faith of those that believe an Eternal life should be true But if he be wise in ridiculing and opposing this Faith why does he profess himself a friend to Life Either he must be a fool in being contented that this belief should be false or in loving Life so much as he does Especially when we consider it is for the sake of Life that he chuses to believe as he does Why is Life so precious a thing to him that he cannot endure to think of any thing that is troublesome to it when with a great deal of satisfaction he can think of loving it for ever Atheism then is a very foolish thing not only because it makes a Man an Enemy to his own Life but an Enemy to the Immortality of it only that he may be thought the greatest friend to it by providing extravagantly for it now as a foolish Heir sells the Reversion of an Estate for the present Enjoyment of a small pittance of it The Atheist will perhaps plead for himself that he is no Enemy to a suture Life but to the belief of it without Reason And it is true he is no Enemy to the Life that he now lives nor is there any reason that he should because it is all he hopes for But if he loves Life at all why is he a friend to those Principles that will not suffer him to rejoyce in the hopes of a Resurrection to Life again He saith he sees no reason to believe this Suppose he had well consider'd the matter yet methinks he should not deride those who are persuaded there is good reason to believe it but rather lament it as his misfortune that he cannot discern the reason upon which others ground their belief For he that so loves his Life as to be unwilling to lose it should at least be very favourable towards a Doctrine that promises the Restauration of Life again and wish that he could see good reason to believe the Truth of it But to laugh and make a mock at it as if it was not worth wishing it was true does not savour of that Wisdom which a love of Life should prompt him to 5. We may hence inferr the Reasonableness of a Holy Life Our Religion does wisely command us to set our Affections on things above and not on things on the Earth and to have our Conversation in Heaven because our Life in this World will shortly have an End and it is in Heaven that we must live an Everlasting life Upon which account it is very fit that we should acquaint our selves with the Nature of the place we are going to and how we must live when we come thither And as he who is about to settle in another Country to send those Vertues before-hand thither which may be a maintenance to us when we come thither We to be sure ought not so to live now as if we were to live no more for what will become of us when we do live again if we have made no provision at all for that life The main solicitude that ought to fill our thoughts is not how we may thrive and improve our Fortunes in this World i.e. To put our selves into such a condition that while we live here we need not fear either poverty or the disgrace that accompanies it but what we must do that when we are returned from the Dead we may not be despised for our want of such Vertues as are to support that Life This ought to be the End of our Living now because we must live again For a loose inconsiderate way of living can be reasonable upon no account but either because we shall never be taken away from a World of
it must be as grievous a thing to be haled out of it to a dark Prison and a stinking Grave where the Body he loves must be a feast to Worms and Vermine and at last corrupt and perish never to live more as it is usually to persons born to plentifull fortunes to be turn'd out of their Houses where they were born and brought up or to see them tumbled into heaps and rubbish So that one would think that if it was only for the sake of his Body which he is so very tender of he should be as much over-joy'd to hear of a time when he shall receive his Body again as a poor Prisoner is when he has liberty given him to return home or he who has seen his House demolish'd by an Enemy to see it by the Charity of a friend to rise again out of its Ruins And so undoubtedly it is to every wise Man because it gratifies a very sensible desire in us and makes up the loss we sustain by dying For it is the general belief of Christians that the Soul after it is departed out of the Body though it be in a happy state as the Souls of good Men certainly are is not so perfectly happy as it will be when at the Resurrection it is united to its Body again Wherein the imperfection of its Happiness does consist or from what Reason it is that it is not so perfectly Happy as it will be then is not for us who know so little of the condition of separate Spirits and how they live to tell But why may we not suppose that it carries along with it into the other World a strong inclination toward the Body it has left behind which is either more or less violent as we either mortifie or indulge to it in this World And so long as such an inclination and desire is not satisfied it cannot be so compleatly Happy as it will be when it carries no unsatisfied desire in it This is certain that Death which divides the Soul from the Body does offer Violence to it and the separate state in which it lives afterwards is preter-natural And when it is rent from the Body against its own inclination why may it not retain an inclination to its own true and most natural way of living again I know indeed that the Souls of good Men by Faith and Resignation to the Divine Will do save themselves from that anguish and vexation that such a preter-natural way of living does vex the wicked Spirits of bad Men with For as they leave the World with a great deal of regret and many violent conflicts so it is very likely that they carry those Resentments for being forced out of a Body that they love along with them as are their torment But though the Patience and Resignation of good Men does make Death more tolerable and a separate state not to occasion that vexation to them as it does to the wicked yet it is the hopes of a Resurrection in them does overcome those natural Reluctancies to Death that are in us and persuades them with a constant Mind to bear with the loss of their Bodies for a time in Obedience to the Divine Appointment But had there been no such promise I do not see how any Man could be content to part with so considerable a part of himself as his Body for ever For in this case Death would be inflicted as a Curse and we should go out of the World as Offenders whom God is not reconciled to i.e. Such Offenders as must bear his Displeasure for ever So that however a good Man may with patience resign himself to the Will of God who has appointed that all Men shall die so long as he knows that God is his friend and has appointed a time too when he shall have his Body restored him again Yet it would be a great difficulty to compose his Mind to such a temper if after all his endeavour to please God he was for ever to lie under his displeasure If there was no Resurrection to be expected he would want the only Motive that could dispose his Mind to such a bearing Temper as will make his spearate State tolerable And although the hopes of rising again does quiet the good Man's Spirit under the loss of its Body yet during its separate State it must ratain a strong Desire towards its ancient Companion because to live in a Body is Man's natural way of living and because he needs a Consideration to bear up his Mind under the thoughts of parting with it But it is not the living in any Body that will satisfie this desire For the inclination that it carries with it into the other World is towards the Body it left behind And if it be not this Body that the Resurrection unites it to again how can this Inclination be laid and its desire of living in its own Body be satisfied by being put into a new Body The Resurrection by assuring us we shall live again does speak a great deal of comfort to us who naturally are afraid of and abhorr Death But it would not be half so comfortable to us as it is if it did not give us hopes of living in these very Bodies that we have taken a love to and are so loth to part with Now this is the great satisfaction that it gives us For it acquaints us that these two intimate and ancient Friends that are so hardly prevail'd upon to bid adieu to each other shall meet again never to part more The Soul is well acquainted with the Body it now lives in and has contracted such an intimacy with it that it is loth to leave it And that alone which can silence this dissatisfaction is the hopes of being united at the Resurrection to the Body it has already made trial of and has such an inclination to whereas an unknown Body can give no relief in the case because it is unknown what it shall be and how we shall live in it And how then ought we to rejoyce in hopes of the Resurrection which will restore us the very Bodies which we have such a fansie for This Doctrine should methinks be received by mortal Creatures with the greatest greediness even out of Love to our Bodies We take a great deal of pains with them now to nourish and sustain them to repair their decays and to keep them alive and yet for all this they must die And why should we not be overjoy'd with the thoughts of a Resurrection when we shall have the Bodies again that we have taken such a liking to 2. It is very requisite we should take that care of them now that we may rise with comfort and that when our Souls come to inhabit them again they may have a quiet and peaceable dwelling in them For otherwise the thoughts of rising again and living in these Bodies after Death will be so far from being comfortable that it will fill us with
terrible Reflections and occasion a World of vexation and trouble Now this will be the case of wicked Men. For there are Two things that will make it a dreadfull thing to them to rise again 1. That they must go into Bodies that will vex and torment them with intemperate Appetites 2. Into Bodies that they will be asham'd of 1. Into Bodies that will vex and torment them with the rage of intemperate Appetites The Souls of such Men are in a very wretched condition For they are straitned with the same unhappy Dilemma as the Leprous Men were when Samaria was besieged If they stay out of their Bodies their inclinations to them will be their torment but if they go into their Bodies again the rage and extravagancy of such Appetites as they can meet with nothing to gratifie them with will miserably disquiet them So that they will neither live at ease with nor without their Bodies The Resurrection will satisfie the inclination they have to live in their Bodies again by restoring them just such Bodies as the sensuality of their tempers can take pleasure in But the Resurrection upon this account will not be gratefull to them because it will restore them to such Bodies as will call for the same enjoyments and gratifications as here in this life they are pleased with in that place where there is not one drop of water to cool a scorched Tongue And oh what will be the Torment of being doom'd to unquenchable thirsts What the misery of a Spirit that is shut up in a Body all on fire within by reason of Appetites that find nothing to allay their fury This is the thing that makes wicked Men averse to the thoughts of another life It is not because there is any thing in a Resurrection that the Reason of Man can find any fault with For nothing can be more desirable to a Man that knows he must die and yet has a mighty fondness for life and the Body he now lives in than the thoughts of living again after Death and living too in those Bodies that Death deprives him of But that which makes bad Men so afraid of a Resurrection is the too great love they have for this World and the pleasures of a sensual life ann that they by their way of living have put themselves into such a condition that they can't live well nor happily any-where else They would live but they would live no-where but here where they find all the pleasures and delights they have any inclination to And was it to such a life that the Resurrection would restore them they would without question be over-joy'd to think of living in their Bodies again such as they are But since by pursuing the pleasures of a sensual life they render themselves unfit for a glorious Resurrection and uncapable of living in a state where they shall meet with none of the delights that they take pleasure in they chuse to wish that they may never live more because they are sensible their bodily Appetites when they have nothing to please them will make them miserable They by gratifying their Senses and studiously providing for the Pleasures of the Body set such an edge upon their Appetites that when they come into that other World where there is neither Meat nor Drink to satisfie their Luxury nor Riches nor Honours to gratifie their Covetousness and Ambition nor fleshly Pleasures to delight a sensual disposition will fill them with as much anguish and pain as the Man who for want of Bread is forced to eat his own Flesh For it is not to be expected that those Appetites that have put a Man to a World of pain and trouble to satisfie them here that by the violence of their cravings would suffer him to take no rest nor spare no cost to give them satisfaction but have compell'd him to consume his strength and impair his health to waste his Time and Estate to wound his Conscience and lose his God should be more modest and temperate more sparing and less vexatious when it is not in his power to gratifie them It will be the same Body he must rise with which here in this life he has indulged and cherish'd and whose Lusts he has fulfilled And how is it possible but the same Body should look for the same Gratifications and for want of them pine away and languish with inward regrets and anguish Such a Body must rise again because Christ is risen for our Justification i.e. As I shall shew hereafter has acquitted us from the punishment due to the first Transgression which is the Power and Eternal Dominion of that Death that we now die But it must rise to die a second Death to receive a second and more fatal Sentence because it wants that Spirit of Life which should preserve it from Death And is laden with so much new Corruption of its own as will not suffer it to live for ever after it is risen again 2. Into Bodies they will be ashamed of Such Bodies as will not rise such pure and glorious Bodies as the Resurrection is designed to make them For it is not to be hoped that a Body that is laden with more Corruption than it brought into the World with it should rise pure and glorified That a Body that is destroy'd by its own Excesses and Debaucheries should rise so strong and vigourous as to be able to live for ever in a glorious and happy State Such as Men make their Bodies here in this World or such as they are when they part with them such will they be when they receive them again The Resurrection will indeed restore those Bodies pure and glorious whose Lusts have been mortified and which by being kept under a strict discipline have been the instruments of Righteousness but those that have been made the slaves of Sin and debauched with a vicious Conversation must arise bloated with Intemperance and deformed with all the marks of Lust and Wickedness that here they have contracted And now with what shame will such Men receive their Bodies with all those marks of Ignominy and Disgrace that here they imprint upon them How will they hang their heads when they see the Righteous cloathed upon with Bodies of Light and Glory beautified with all the Graces and lovely Features that belong to heavenly Bodies and their own loathsome with the stains and filth of foul Impurities They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever But some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 3. They shall call upon the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them when they shall see the vast difference between the glorified Bodies of the Righteous the exalted condition of those that have waited for that solemn day and their own How will it fret and vex their Souls to see their own deformity and to see themselves
lightning the Spirits does too often issue in very great Immoralities Upon the same reason it is that Men let themselves loose to all extravagant Jollities of a sensual life and grow enamour'd of this World because it is a place so well stored with Entertainments for our sensitive Part. But although the Pleasures of this World do appear very considerable to us and are extremely taking with us when we consider our Bodies as they are now yet how meanly would they appear to us if we consider'd that all the suitableness that is in them is owing to the present imperfection of them But that when we receive them again purified and improved nothing of this nature will be delightfull to us How little pleasure should we take in feasting a wanton and luxurious Appetite or in adorning a Carcase that must die and return to Dust or in any of the most delicious Enjoyments of this life did we think that all this Care is laid out upon a Body that is corruptible and mortal And that this same Body when it is raised to its most perfect state will as much loath and abhorr all these things as a Beggar rais'd to a plentifull Fortune does the Rags he was once clad with At the Resurrection though we shall live again in these very Bodies yet there will be no Eating nor Drinking nor any gratifying of Sense with any of those delights that now we reckon the very Comforts of this life But we shall either despise them or be as much despised and scorn'd for our inclinations toward them as the Beggar who being advanced to a great Estate does rather delight in a Barn and a wandring Life than a Palace and the respects that belong to his Fortune And why should we for the sake of these Bodies which then will be above them value and love the delights of this sensible World as the best and only Pleasures we are capable of If we would judge of the Delights of this World from the Capacities of our Bodies the best way would be to take an account of them from their Relation to our Bodies when they are in their best and most exalted Condition And then I am sure they would appear very mean and contemptible We cannot 't is true pass our Lives comfortably here without living upon and enjoying this World But yet it is very fit we should be mortified to this World and enjoy the pleasures of it very sparingly because we must live again in another World and the Bodies that are now pleased with the Enjoyments of this will if they be fit to live there find no more pleasure at all in them And the only way to cure us of our too great fondness for worldly things is to consider how little pleasure we shall take in them when we live again how base and contemptible all the Temptations that here court us to Voluptuousness and Luxury will appear when we are in so good a condition that we shall be able to live without the most needfull Enjoyments that now we have CHAP. III. The Resurrection consider'd as it is an Entring us upon an Immortal Life III. I Come now to consider the Resurrection as it is the beginning of an Immortal Life We shall not only then begin to live again and to live in these Bodies which Death deprives us of but to live an Immortal life 'T is the great reproach of that Life we now live that it is mortal because by receiving it mortal we receive it with the mark of God's displeasure upon it And Mortality does detract so very much from Life that it leaves us very little Life to boast of But when we rise again we shall for ever be freed from that which is so much the reproach of Life And the Life we shall then begin to live will be the same that Adam should have lived had he not brought a Curse upon himself and us i.e. It will be the Life that God in our Creation design'd us for Was the Resurrection only design'd to restore us the Life we lose when we die I mean just in the same imperfect condition we now enjoy it we should be apt to rejoyce in it as a Blessing and to fetch Arguments from thence to lay the Terrours of Death because it is much better to be in a living than a dead State Better is a living Dog than a dead Lion saith the Wise-man Eccles 9.4 i.e. The most contemptible Creature that has Life is in a much better condition than the most noble that wants it For to him that is joyned to all the living there is hope i.e. He that is alive does by virtue of that principle of Life that is in him reap much comfort and satisfaction from a prospect of all the good he is capable of This Notion some have carried so far as to persuade themselves that the Damned who undergo Everlasting Torments are in a much better condition than if they were in a state of Annihilation Because though they live in the most miserable condition yet they live And they who live do enjoy some good whereas they who have no life enjoy no good at all Upon which reason they conclude it is much more Eligible to be than not to be and to live though in the greatest misery than not to live at all But I must confess that I don't apprehend the fineness of this kind of arguing Neither does it appear that any Man does set such a value upon Life as to be content to live the most deplorably wretched life so that he can but live For Misery when there is nothing to allay it does spoil the pleasure and take away the very desire of living But however such a life as we now live is acceptable enough to us though in the course of it we do meet with many troublesome Circumstances Our sensibility of this we make appear by that daily care we take and that great expence we are at to find out Remedies to put off Death as long as we can For though there be vexatious passages in this life yet we generally feel they are tolerable or when they swell to a bulk exceeding our strength almost yet we often see that the greatest of Temporal Evils are not very long and upon that account we hope we may out-live them So that although it was to no better a life than this is that we should rise again yet we should be well satisfied with the thoughts of a Resurrection And the rather because this is a life that we are well acquainted with and know the worst of and by having made a trial of it do know how to pass through it with some tolerable ease and comfort But yet there is one Evil that attends this life which nothing that we enjoy in it can make tolerable and that is the Certainty of Death So that were we only to rise to a Mortal life this thought that we must die again would much abate of our esteem
of a Resurrection For the thoughts of a Resurrection can never be sufficient to fortifie our Minds against the Fears of Death if after we are risen again Death will still take its turn to carry us to our Graves For in this case there is nothing after Death to bear up our Minds against so great an Evil. But this is not the Life we shall rise to but a Life that Death shall have no more power over This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.54 55. And among all the other advantages of that Life we shall then enter upon St. John reckons this That there is no more Death Rev. 21.4 But the great Question is How we can be said to begin to live an Immortal Life then when the Soul that lives in these Bodies is an Immortal Principle now and does not lose its Life by being separated from the Body but does continue to live when the Body is returned to Dust To this I say that though the Soul be Immortal and does not cease to live after it has left the Body yet the Man that consisted of a Body and a Soul does And the Life that the Soul lives is not that Life which a Man by Dying loses For though the Soul be a principal part of us yet it is but one part and the Body is another and it is in the vital Union of these two parts that the Life of Man consists And as it is this Life that Death deprives us of so it is this Life that the Resurrection will restore us And this Life will then begin to be Immortal It is not the Soul that will then begin to be Immortal For Immortality is the privilege of this part of us even while it is now in the Body But the Immortal Life we shall then begin to live is the Life we now live only made Immortal i.e. When the Resurrection has united the Soul and Body together again this Union will never more be broken So that an Immortal Soul shall then live in an Immortal Body for ever And it is in this sense we are to understand the Scriptures when they speak of our putting on Immortality and the Gospels bringing Immortality and Life to light For if we consider the Immortality of the Soul that was a Principle acknowledg'd and believed long before the Gospel was preach'd So that it cannot be the making our Souls Immortal when it tells of our putting on Immortality Now is it the Soul's Immortality that is brought to light by the Gospel for that was known long before But the Immortality and Life that we owe our knowledge of to the Gospel is that indissoluble Union of Body and Soul which will begin at the Resurrection And now from hence we may observe 1. That it is then only we shall begin to live We date our Lives from the time we come into the World and reckon that we have lived through so many Ages of our Infancy our Childhood our Youth our Manhood and Old Age when we arrive to three or fourscore Years This is a Life that we account very long and when so many Years have not drawn it off we reckon it deserves a great deal of respect and reverence And yet all this Life which makes such a noise among us and is of such mighty repute with us is only the Dregs and Relicks of that Life which the Curse that is come upon us has taken from us That liveliness and vivacity that belong'd to innocent Man is sinn'd away and gone And the Spirits that are left us are the very Refuse and Bottom of what we were once stored with And because these serve to feed Life and are not run off sometimes till three or fourscore Years we persuade our selves that we live a great while And yet if we arrive to the utmost length of Life the truest account that can be given of it is this That we have been so many Years a Dying For the first step we take into the World is toward our Graves And though we live to see Thousands fall beside us and Ten thousand at our right hands before it come nigh us yet all that can be said of us is this That we die a more lingring Death than others And besides a Life of fourscore or a hundred Years is so short in comparison of that which is Eternal that it does not in the style of Scripture deserve the name of Life It is styled Vanity and compared to a shadow to instruct us that it has nothing of Reality in it And when it is once spent what is become of all those Years that we are said to live Though Man be so strong that he comes to fourscore Years yet is his strength then but labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away Psal 90.10 But when the Resurrection gives us Life again then it is that we shall in the most proper sense be born to live For then we shall receive all that spirit and vigour that we have lost so much Spirit that Eternity shall never waste it And if we account a Life of fourscore Years venerable how much Reverence ought we to have for a Life that has no Death at the end of it Now this is the Life we shall be born to and begin to live when at the Resurrection our Souls take possession of our Bodies again And could we but with steadiness enough apply our Minds to the consideration and meaning of Immortality this Life would appear so much like a Vapour or a suddain Flash that gives us no time to consider whether it be any thing or no as would abate of that respect and value we have for it For 't is sure we can then only be said to begin to live when we begin to feel our selves free from Corruption and the Approaches of Death 2. We shall then begin to live that Life we are appointed to For a mortal and corruptible Life was not that which God design'd and made us for But it is the Curse that Sin has let in upon us the Punishment God has subjected us to for Adam's Transgression By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin saith the Apostle Rom. 5.12 i.e. The Mortal state we are now in is owing to Adam's Disobedience For had not he disobey'd the Command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge we had not known what Death meant In his state of Innocency he was a Probationer for Immortality and the Law that threatned him with Death in case of his Disobedience did implicitly at least assure him of Immortality if he did not disobey For it implies that as while he was innocent he was not condemn'd to a Mortal condition so on the other hand he was not
Mankind Upon which account the full Discovery of it was reserved to him who by conquering Death was to ascertain the Truth of it to us If it be enquired whence then good Men of old had their Notice of it I answer 1. That it was contained in the Promise made to Adam that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head For the Expression of breaking the Serpent's Head must mean that he who was promised should by dispossessing the Devil of that power he had gain'd over the Souls of Men deliver us from the Calamity that by the Serpent's subtilty we were fall'n into Now this Calamity was Mortality and that Power of leading the Captived Souls of Men to that invisible state where the Devil exercises a Tyrannical Authority that he had gain'd over us And because the Serpent by his Subtilty had brought this mischief upon us God promises that the Seed of the Woman should bruise his Head i.e. He would out-wit him by the Seed of that Woman whom he had deceived and deprive him of the fruit of his Subtilty by restoring Immortality to Man whom he had brought under a Curse Thus no doubt Adam understood this Promise which assured him of a Deliverance from the Curse he was fall'n under For how could he be freed from the Curse that Sin had brought upon him but by having the Life which the Justice of God sentenced him to lose assured to him again Or how could the Serpent's Crafty design to deprive him of an Immortal Life be disappointed but by a Promise that gave him hopes of rising again to Life And therefore St. Paul observes That as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive Implying That as Death was the Curse that came upon us by the first Transgression so it was a Resurrection from the Dead that was promised to Adam Because that Promise not only teaches us in general That God designed us some great Blessing by the Seed of the Woman but that the Blessing should be a Remedy to the Mischief that by the Serpent's Subtilty was fall'n upon us 2. The Promise made to Abraham of giving him and his Seed the Land of Canaan does imply it For this Promise was not made to his Posterity alone but to him also All the Land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed after thee Gen. 13.15 Now though this Promise was not made good to him nor his Sons who were the Heirs of the Promise but as the Apostle saith they sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country Heb. 11.9 Yet God made himself known to him and to Isaac and Jacob to be their God By which he would have them to believe him to be that faithfull God that keepeth Promise And accordingly it was by Faith that they sojourn'd there though as Strangers believing that though they did not live to see the Promise made good yet there would come a time when God would be mindfull of them and put them into a full possession of it These all saith the Apostle died in faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth v. 13. And therefore when they were dead God still styled himself The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob to let their Posterity know that he was mindfull of them and of the promise he had made them From which Text our Blessed Saviour convinced the Sadducees that they should rise again i.e. Though they did not receive the Promise in this Life yet because God had assured them he was their God they should assuredly live again and enjoy the Benefits of it The design of the Argument was to teach that Sect that denied a Resurrection that in this Text God had given the Jews a sufficient ground for the Belief of a Resurrection because God is not the God of the dead but of the living It is not sufficient to style him the God of the living though there be no Resurrection only because the Souls of Men do live in a separate state For though the Soul of Abraham be alive yet Abraham is dead And if Abraham was not to live again he could not with a Respect to Abraham be styled the God of the living The meaning of our Saviour's Argument is this That though Abraham Isaac and Jacob be dead by vertue of that Curse that is come upon all Men yet they must rise again from under this Curse because though they are dead they are not consigned over to the Power of that Evil Spirit who has the Power of Death For God still styles himself their God which implies that their Souls are in a place of safety under the protection of God where they rest in hope of seeing the accomplishment of the Promise made to them For the least that we are to conclude from hence is That God has reserved some special favour for them But what friendship could he be supposed to bear them if he was resolved they should bear the Curse for ever that took away their Lives He could not surely style himself their God if he had forsaken them for ever For to be a God to any one does at least signifie that he designs some great Good to such a person But what great Good can he design for those whom he has forgotten and leaves to bear those Marks of his Displeasure with which they go out of this World If then God has not totally forsaken them as his being their God does imply that he has not though they be dead because of the Doom that was pass'd upon Adam yet they are not by Death deliver'd as Captives into the hands of him that has the Power of Death but shall be deliver'd out of that state of the Dead where they live under the protection of God because he is their God Or we may take the design of our Saviour in order to the asserting the Doctrine of the Resurrection to have been only to over-throw that Belief of the Sadducees concerning the Annihilation of the Soul upon which they grounded their disbelief of a Resurrection And indeed to them who believed there was no Resurrection because they believed the Souls of Men are extinguish'd by Death it was sufficient for the proving there is a Resurrection to prove That the Souls of Men do live in a separate state after Death Because this was to destroy the foundation on which they grounded their Belief And 't is sure if our Souls did not remain alive after Death there would be no part of us that could be sensible of the Mischief that Death is to us nor of the Blessing a Resurrection will be to us But since our Souls do continue alive the Hopes of a Resurrection does speak so much favour toward them who do not live like themselves while they are out of the
a Spirit is generally with that surprize as frights us into an Apprehension of something unusual And thus it happen'd in this case For the Disciples when first Jesus appear'd to them were so terrified and affrighted supposing they had seen a Spirit that to convince them he was no Spirit he show'd them his Hands and his Feet And it was with much difficulty that he brought them to a belief that it was the very Body that hung upon the Cross that he appear'd to them in And besides it is plain from the whole story that they were not prepared before-hand with a belief that he should rise again for an easie reception of this Doctrine nor did their own Credulity dispose them to it But on the other hand so hard were they to believe that they could not be persuaded that he was risen till by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days they were assured it was he that was Crucified Nor durst they venture upon publishing what they had seen till by the Descent of the Holy Ghost they were animated with new Courage And it is worth our notice by what steps they were led to the Belief of this Doctrine The first account was from the Women that went early on the first day of the Week to Embalm his Body That when they came to the Sepulchre they found it empty and had seen a Vision of Angels that said he was alive But this wrought so little upon them that they looked upon it as an idle report The next was from Peter and Cleopas to whom he joyned himself as they were Journeying to Emmaus and having instructed them out of the Scriptures that he was to rise again he opened their Eyes and made himself known to them in breaking of Bread But neither this account nor his appearing to them afterwards had any other Effect upon them than to fill them with wonder and put them into a fright till being called upon to handle him and see that he had Flesh and Bones which a Spirit has not they were convinced Now it is surely hard to conceive that they who were so hard to believe and so cautious lest they should be imposed upon that they would not take it upon the credit of others and could not be convinced but by undoubted signs should yet at last be deceived 3. As little Reason is there to believe that it was a Contrivance For how can we believe that they who were so much afraid of being imposed on themselves should agree together to impose upon the World or that they should be the forgers of a story which they could hardly be convinced was true I shall not here insist upon it That they were under no Temptation to contrive this story upon the account of Advantage For all the Advantage lay on the other side because the Rulers and those in Authority among the Jews were concern'd in point of Honour and Interest to stifle it and would without question have paid sufficiently to have bought them as well as they did the Souldiers from divulging what they had seen The bringing the Blood of the Messiah upon them was a thing they were very jealous of For they knew that they should for ever lose their credit with the People if it should once be believed that they were the Murderers of their so long expected Messiah And when it was the Interest of those in Authority to prevent the spreading of this Doctrine what advantage could possibly tempt to the forging of it What End could a few poor illiterate persons drive at that should be profitable to them in contriving a story so contrary to the humour and interest of their Rulers Had they sought their own Advantage they would never have framed a Lye to that purpose when they might have compass'd this End much better by speaking the Truth And besides they could not but be sensible that a Contrivance of this nature would be sure to expose them to the spight and displeasure of those who had the Power in their hands And is it likely that they who were afraid to own themselves to be his Disciples when the Jews took him to put him to Death would be the Authors of so dangerous a Lye for his sake But there is one thing further that renders it improbable that this should be forged and that is the great Credit that it quickly gain'd in the World For the Jews who Murder'd him were so nearly concern'd to stifle this report though it was true that they would never have suffer'd it to have pass'd if it had been false They who gave Money to the Souldiers to tell a Lye for the saving their Credit would be sure to sift into this report very narrowly and right or wrong to object all they could against the Truth of it So that when after the mighty Opposition it met with it spread and gain'd Belief among that People who had reason to be afraid of receiving it it is an Argument that all the Wit of these great Men could object nothing that could make it appear to be a Contrivance But we have not only Arguments to persuade us that it is improbable the Disciples should contrive this report but such as will satisfie any reasonable Men that they could not For if there had been a Confederacy the Design must have been laid by them in a General Meeting of them all together But so far from this that the Apostles were not the first that so much as thought of his being risen And when they were first told it they neither gave credit to the Report nor were they all present when the first tidings of it was brought to them For the Two that Travell'd to Emmaus had heard nothing of his appearing to Mary when he appear'd to them but only that certain Women who had been at the Sepulchre had declared that they found not his Body and that they had seen a Vision of Angels which said that he was alive Luk. 24.22 23. And how then could this be a Contrivance when they did not all come to the Knowledge of it at the same time and in the same way Those that stay'd at Jerusalem had their Notice of it from the Women that had seen him and those that were upon their Journey were acquainted with it by his appearing to them So that it could not be contrived at Jerusalem because the Two that Travell'd to Emmaus had not their first Notice of it there nor could they contrive it upon the way because they at Jerusalem knew of it before they return'd back Neither could contrive it because it was known to both in two different places before either of them knew that it was known to the other at all and was believed by the one when the other made light of it But further 2. We have good reason to believe that the greatest Enemies of our Lord were convinced of the Truth of this Doctrine For having taken away his Life as an Impostour
Punishment for Grace to save him from But the case is not thus with us For the Scripture saith he has concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 i.e. He has already given Judgment upon us and therefore his Justifying us cannot be by declaring us Righteous according to the Law of Integrity but by acquitting us of the sin he has concluded us under And what other Judgment is it that the Apostle has a respect to in this Expression but that which he gave upon Adam when for his Disobedience he condemn'd him to die God 't is true does in a secret and invisible way govern and judge the World in all Ages of it He hurls contempt upon Princes he humbles the proud and makes a Land barren for the wickedness of those that dwell therein And when he does any thing of this nature he concludes that sinfull People under their own Sins whom he punishes for their Wickedness But yet these and such-like Calamities though they are the Judgments of God and argue him to have pass'd a doom upon such a People Yet it is secret and does not determine of Men's state and condition any further than as to the Temporal comforts of this life But the sin that the Scripture tells us we are concluded under does respect all Men and the Judgment it speaks of had finally determin'd of our state had not Mercy interposed And of this nature was the Sentence that God pass'd upon Adam For his Judging him was of the same nature as the great Judgment at the End of the World will be It was open and by way of Process and Accusation Adam was cited charged admitted to plead for himself and at last convicted and condemned And this Sentence did determine of the final condition of Mankind appointing him and his Posterity irrevocably to Death So that he had died immediately and this Wrath of God would have lain upon us for ever had not the Divine Mercy contrived a means to justifie and save us And since it is by vertue of that Sentence we all die we are concluded under the guilt of Adam's sin i.e. We know our Doom and what we are to expect upon the account of that corrupt and mortal Nature that we receive from him If then Justification be from some punishment that we are already condemned to suffer it must be from this of Dying because no other Sentence is as yet pass'd upon us And unless we be discharged from this it is in vain that we have a new Law given unto us For we are not capable of Immortality till we are pardon'd the fault for which we are condemned and no Man can qualifie himself for a Blessing that he is not capable of This is the account of Justification that St. Paul gives us when he opposes it to Condemnation and makes it to consist in the Abolishing of Death Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their life-time suject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. i.e. The reason of Christ's Incarnation and Death was that he might bear our Punishment and set our Minds at rest which upon the account of that Sentence that doom'd us to die are full of Anxiety and Trouble at the thoughts of losing a Life that we are so fond of He under-went all that we account an Evil in Death His Body was turn'd to a Carcase and his Soul went to Hell or the place whither Death transports our Souls that state where the Devil designed when he robb'd us of our Immortality to erect a Tyranny over the Souls of Men where having vanquish'd that wicked Spirit he return'd triumphant with the spoils of our Enemy to his Body again And therefore as St. Paul saith there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 In which words he has not a respect to the last Judgment in which all Flesh shall be Eternally sentenced either to an Immortal Life or an Eternal Death as if no Christian need to fear being condemn'd at that day For there are no doubt many vicious and leud Chrisitians that will be judg'd unworthy of the Name they bear and of the Hopes that belong to it But his meaning is that they are absolved and acquitted from the Sentence of Death that Adam and his Posterity long since received that their Souls being rescued out of his hands who has the Power of Death shall at the Resurrection return in a Triumphant manner to their Bodies again which is the great Privilege we have by Jesus Christ For these words are an Inference from what he discoursed in the foregoing Chapter where he consider'd and complain'd of the Misery of Man's Natural state as we are obnoxious both to Sin and Death Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7.24 And sets before us the Goodness of our Christian state which assures us of pure and glorious Bodies Bodies perfectly deliver'd from Mortality and those corrupt Affections and Appetites which Adam's Sin has let loose upon us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord v. 25. So that they who are in this state and take care to approve the things that are Excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ are in as good a condition as if Sin and Death had never enter'd into the World For there is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus i.e. By Christ we are deliver'd from the Body of this Death or this Mortal sinfull Body And shall for ever enjoy the benefit of this Deliverance if we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And in this respect Jesus Christ is styled the second Adam in opposition to the first from whom Sin Mortality and Death are derived to us That as by the Apostasie of the first we are condemned to die by the Obedience of the second we are discharged from so dreadfull a Punishment and restored to the Hopes of living again And this he discourses more fully in the fifth Chapter where having observed the Calamity of that Mortal condition we are doom'd to by reason of Adam's Transgression he magnifies the Grace of God in this respect That through the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ we are deliver'd from this Effect of Adam's Offence As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to condemnation i.e. As all Men were condemned to die for Adam's sin even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to justification of life v. 18. i.e. All Men were discharged from the severity of this Sentence and allowed the liberty of providing for a Life that is Eternal as if they had never sinn'd nor ever been condemn'd to die It is true the Apostle discourses as if it was
the last we must undergo a publick Trial when the Justice of our Mediatour will declare those to be Just and Righteous who live according to this Rule So that the Justification that is by Faith does properly relate to the Sentence of our Mediatour whereby at the Day of Judgment he will declare the sincere Observers of his Will to be Righteous And therefore the Apostle saith We are justified freely by his Grace i.e. Have our Lives which we had forfeited in Adam restored us in Christ that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that believes i.e. That his justifying the sincere Christian at the last might be an Act of his Justice Or that when we come to be Judged at the last day Justice may declare the Righteousness of the sincere Christian So that the Justification that is by Faith denotes a freedom from the Danger of that second Death that the Gospel threatens those that disobey it with It is a second discharge from another kind of Punishment than that we are condemn'd to as the Sons of Adam and does suppose us to be in a Justified state from the Judgment that by one Man's offence is come upon all Men Or rather it is God's owning our Righteousness to be according to the Gospel Rule that Righteousness I mean which has the promise of Eternal life Obj. If it be said that according to this account no Man is justified by Faith at all in this life but that all the privilege we can be said to have by believing is that we shall be justified at the Day of Judgment whereas the Scripture speaks of it as a privilege that belongs to our Faith in this life Ans I answer That it no otherwise belongs to it than as it gives a Right to and assures us of it when our Gracious Mediatour shall come to Judge us Faith I mean the believing the Gospel to be the Rule of our Righteousness and living according to it is the fulfilling of that Law of Grace that our Saviour has instituted and accordingly this Law does justifie those that thus fulfill it in this life i.e. It denounces no Judgment against them But who have this Faith that the Law of Christ approves of and promises Eternal life to and who want it will be the work of the future Judgment to discover So long as we live by the Rules of the Gospel this Law of Christian Righteousness does assure us that the Reward it promises does belong to us i.e. that we have a Right to it But whether we shall receive it does not depend upon the present Sentence it gives of our case but upon that which will be pass'd when the time of our Trial is over For the Faith which is said to justifie us may be renounced and the Gospel disobey'd and in this case we cannot be said to be in a Justified state by vertue of the Faith we once had or the Obedience we once paid to the Gospel It justifies the goodness of our Lives for the time past if they have been according to this word of Faith but whether it will justifie us to Eternal life is not to be said till we have finish'd our Course and stood our Trial. So that this is not the Justification which we have by vertue of Christ's Mediation For that is a State we are already put into and is a Blessing that belongs to us in this life whereas this is a State we shall be put into when we are judged again 4. Then Justification is a state of Trial how we will use so great Mercy as God vouchsafes us therein For had there not been a Reversal of the Sentence that doom'd us to die we must have died without Mercy and without Hopes of ever living again Then all our Prayers and Tears and Repentance would have been of no advantage to us for the bettering our Condition and preserving us from Death But Justice would require that we should suffer the Punishment we were condemn'd to Judgment being given upon us there remained nothing but a fearfull looking for of the Execution of it which all the most earnest Sollicitations and Entreaties we could make would not have saved us from For to be in a Condemn'd state is to be Dead in Law And he that is in such a condition has lost his opportunity of preserving himself by obeying the Law that has already condemned him Such was our case when God had given Sentence upon us for then it was too late to think of preventing our dying Eternally and falling under God's Wrath when we were already under it But by acquitting us from this Sentence he had set Life and Immortality before us again and puts us to a new Trial whether we will grow wise by so great a danger as we have escaped and take warning by the Judgment that came upon us in Adam to save our selves for the future from the Wrath to come It is a very great mistake if we believe our being in a Justified state does certainly assure to us an Immortal life and is a Reason why we may be confident that we shall not be condemned in the Judgment to come There would be no reason of another day of Judgment if Justification did import thus much Neither is St. Paul to be understood in this sense when he saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Rom. 8.33 34. For his design was to encourage the Christians of his time to a stedfastness in the Faith notwithstanding the Rage and Violence of their Persecutours For though they were condemned and put to Death for the sake of Christ yet the Sentence of their Enemies signified nothing to and could do them no great hurt because it took away a life that God would restore them with advantage It is God that justifies and since he has so far remitted his own Sentence that you shall rise again who is he that condemneth or presumes to take away your life He delivers you over to a Death that will not hold you long because God has justified you Justification then assures us that we shall rise again though Divine Justice has condemn'd us to die But it does not assure us that we shall certainly live for ever when we are risen because that depends upon the Improvement we make of the Mercy God has shown us For unless we be so qualified as the Gospel requires we should we must be condemned and die another Death The state that Adam was created in was a state of Trial. For though he was Innocent and consequently free from all the vexation and perplexity that Guilt occasions yet he was neither so perfect nor so happy as God designed he should make himself The Innocence in which he was created does not imply that he was made as perfect and as excellent a Creature as if was possible for him to be I mean that his Soul was so stored
again So that Christ's rising for our Justification does imply these things 1. That God discharged him from the Punishment that he bore for our Offences 2. That he has received Power to justifie us 1. His rising for our Justification means his being discharged from the Punishment he suffer'd for our Offences If we consider his Resurrection with a respect to himself and his Sufferings as personal none can deny but God did in a very glorious manner bear witness to his Innocency thereby and acquit him of those Crimes wherewith his Accusers charged him and that unjust Sentence that his Enemies gave upon him When he was taken by wicked hands and haled before a Judge when he was accused condemned and executed upon a Cross between two Thieves he appear'd as a vile Criminal in the Eye of the World according to what the Prophet Isaiah spoke of him long before We esteem'd him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted i.e. That a just Providence had deliver'd him up to suffer a deserved Punishment But when he rose to Life again he was justified in the sight of Angels and Men to be that Holy and Innocent Person that had done nothing worthy of Death This his Enemies were so sensible of that when his Apostles publish'd to the World how that he was risen again they exclaim'd against them and by Threats and severe Usages endeavour'd to silence them because they brought his Blood upon them This was a visible Justification of his Innocence For no other way was more effectual to take away his Reproach and to procure him Honour among Men than by giving him the Life that was taken from him This indeed was his own Personal Justification But it teaches us That it is not agreeable to the Nature of Justice that Death should hold those that are Innocent And although we cannot plead our Innocence to excuse our selves from Dying yet when the Offences for which we die are pardoned Justice can no longer consider us as under an Offence For since Death is a Punishment for our Offences the same Mercy that pardons the Offence does likewise remit the Punishment i.e. it gives us a Right to our Lives And it is but just that we should have our Lives restored i.e. that we should rise again when Justice can no longer treat us as Offenders by keeping us under the Power of Death And in this sense God by justifying his Son has likewise justified us For though he was Innocent yet for the accomplishing the Redemption of Mankind he was content to charge himself with the Sins of the whole World And as it was by Sin that Death enter'd into the World he who would bear our Transgressions was according to the just Judgment of God that doom'd sinfull Man to die appointed to bear our Punishment likewise So that his Resurrection is not only an Argument that God looked upon him as a Righteous Person that had been unjustly condemned to die but as a Person that having sufficiently satisfied for the Offences for which he died Justice had no right to keep under the Power of Death As it was an Attestation of his Innocence and the spightfull Accusations that his Enemies loaded him with it was an Act of Justice i.e. it was Justice that acquitted him from the unjust Sentence of Pontius Pilate But as it was a freeing him from the Punishment of the Offences for which he was deliver'd it was a mercifull Discharge from an Obligation to Punishment So that since he was deliver'd for our Offences and died because a Sentence of Death was pass'd against Offenders his Rising again is a visible Declaration of that Mercy that pardons Offences For he who dies upon the account of Sin must rise from under a Sentence of Condemnation when he returns to Life again And thus it was that Christ rose He rose from under a Curse and was deliver'd from Death not as a Calamity but as a Punishment And since his Resurrection was of this nature let us consider in what respect it is for our Justification Now as to this matter we may observe these things 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again 2. That that Justice which has condemn'd us to die is fully satisfied and therefore we shall rise again 3. That his Resurrection was not a Personal Privilege but the Triumph of our Representative and Mediatour over Death and consequently a publick Discharge of Mankind from the Sentence of Condemnation 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again One of the greatest Difficulties that lies against this Doctrine is this That we are condemn'd to die by the just Judgment of God and undergo it as a Punishment of our Sin For is it possible that a Punishment when it is inflicted a Sentence after it is executed should be reversed A condemn'd Person before the Sentence is executed upon him may be reprieved and pardon'd And if we were not deliver'd over to Death at all i.e. if we did not see Men die it might easily be believed that we could live an Immortal life But when we are condemn'd and die because we are condemn'd it appears too late to hope for a Pardon after the Punishment is inflicted But this will be no such difficulty if we consider that the Divine Mercy provided that the Death we are adjudged to should not be Eternal by promising before Sentence was given upon us That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head So that although Justice did require that we should lose our Lives for ever as Malefactours do and does 't is true inflict such a Death upon us as for ever separates us from this present World what Difficulty can there be in a Resurrection which restores us no more than what Divine Mercy reserved for us when his Justice condemn'd us and is the fulfilling of that Original Promise made to Adam Had we been condemn'd never to live again neither in this life nor in another Mercy could not have saved us when once the Sentence had been executed up us because a Pardon would then have come too late to save us But when it is only a Death that deprives us of the Hopes of living again in this life that we are condemned to our being condemned to such a Death cannot render it impossible that we should live again in another This is the difference between the Death that we are all condemned to already and that which wicked Men will be condemned to in the Day of Judgment This deprives us only of the Hopes of living again in this life but not in another and therefore a Resurrection from the Death we are now condemned to is not impossible upon the account of the Sentence we are fall'n under
that could have been concluded would have been this That if at any time after there should be any Man that lived as Holily add deserved Death as little as he did Divine Justice would do them the same right as it did him if their Lives should be violently torn from them as his was But since he undertook to deliver a sinfull Race from Death by becoming a Curse for us he rose as our Triumphant Redeemer not for his own Justification only but ours And his Resurrection does not only proclaim to the World that Divine Justice will not suffer an Innocent person who is unjustly condemn'd and with Violence put to Death to lie for ever under the Power of so unjust a Sentence But that Divine Mercy has pardon'd the Offences for which we who are under a Sentence of Codemnation do die and will not suffer us who die for our own faults as Criminals to lie for ever under the Sentence that is pass'd upon us For 1. His Resurrection was a Justification from guilt For since he bore our Sins when he died we are not to consider his Resurrection as the Justification of an Innocent person only but of a person laden with Iniquity And if we may inferr That it is agreeable to Divine Justice to restore a person that lives as much without Sin as he did his Life again if it should be wrongfully taken from him because he thus justified the Innocence of his beloved Son the least that we can conclude from his rising from under a Curse and the burthen of our Sins is That our Sins and the Curse that is come upon us are not of that weight but that we may likewise hope to rise from under them But further 2. It informs us that our whole Nature is Redeem'd and Hallowed And therefore the Holy Scriptures represent him as another Adam to inform us that he bore the same Relation to us in all he has done to restore Life to the World as Adam did when by his Fall and Punishment Sin and Death came upon us As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 i.e. As Humane Nature was corrupted and made Mortal by Adam's Transgression and the Sentence of Death that he fell under came upon us who are his Posterity so Humane Nature is quickned and revived in Christ and his Resurrection is the great Instance of that Grace that remits to us the Punishment we are condemn'd to He is as well the Root from whom Immortality and Life are derived to us as Adam was the Root from whom came Mortality and Death And upon this Reason he is styled the first-fruits of the Dead Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead v. 20 21. i.e. A Resurrection to another Life is come by Man in the same manner as Death came by Man For as we are all condemned in Adam so we are all acquitted from Death and made alive in Christ So that he is the first-fruits of them that sleep not only as he was the first Man that after Death rose to an Immortal Life but as his Resurrection is the consecrating Humane Nature afresh or the taking of the Curse that in Adam came upon us In this Expression the Apostle alludes to the Jewish Custom of offering the first-fruits of all their Encrease unto God which Oblation did not only sanctifie the Fruits that were offer'd but consecrated the whole Harvest And that which he informs us is this That God by raising up Jesus from the Dead has Hallowed us to an Immortal Life Obj. If it be objected that this is to put wicked Men into a Justified state Ans I reply That without doubt they have this advantage be the Death of Christ that with the rest of Mankind they are acquitted from the Condemnation that is come upon us in Adam else no reason can be given why they rise from the Dead and why they must be judg'd and condemn'd again for their own faults which supposes that here in this Life they are in a state of Probation That they shall rise again is as plainly revealed to us as that every good Christian shall Marvel not at this saith our Saviour for all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5.28 29. All that die the bad as well as good must rise again because the bad as well good do die And if the bad as well as good must arise it must be because they are freed from the Condemnation that came upon all Men in Adam For if they still lie under that Curse the Wrath that kills them would for ever give Death a power over them Neither would there be any reason why they should rise again to receive another Sentence if they be not freed from the former and restor'd to a possibility of saving their Souls So that since they must rise to receive another Sentence for their own faults it implies that they were in the same condition in this Life with those that made a better use of the Mercy that is granted us i.e. That they were pardon'd as to the Sentence that was given upon Adam but that they must be condemned because their own Sins will not suffer them to live when they are risen which will be so much the more dreadfull as it will be the Sentence of a Redeemer that came to save them And now let us consider what improvement we may make of this And. 1. Let us consider how comfortable a state we are restored to It is as I have observed a state of Pardon and Forgiveness A state that frees us from the Terrours of Divine Justice and puts us under the favourable influences of Grace and Mercy and gives us the liberty of a second Trial whether we will chuse Life or Death And therefore the Apostle takes notice of it as the peculiar Privilege and Blessing of our present Condition that we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 We are not under the Dominion of Justice that condemns but under the Rule of Mercy that justifies us The Law has condemn'd us and it is certain justly enough because it gives no other Sentence upon us than what by corrupting our Nature sin does naturally oblige us to suffer For it is naturally impossible that a Creature that is corruptible should not see Corruption But being justified by the Divine Grace we are put into a Condition of gaining that Immortal life that we are condemned to lose So that though Corruption and Mortality be the Natural fruits of Sin yet the Mercy that is procured us by the Mediation of Jesus Christ does give us a comfortable prospect of rising to an Incorruptible and Immortal state He who
is a reasonable and necessary Duty because there can be no Religion at all without it And the believing the Principles of Revealed Religion is as reasonable and necessary because there can be no Christanity without it By Revelation we have a plainer account and a more distinct and certain Knowledge 't is true of all the Principles of Natural Religion than we could have it and in this respect it is of great use for the furthering that Piety and Holiness without which we cannot see God nor live an Immorral life But it was not for the making these things known only that God sent his Son into the World For though it was necessary that when he would once more make a trial of our Faith and Obedience to him he should rectifie those mistakes that we were run into concerning the first Principles o Religion yet it was first of all necessary that he should put us into such a condition that the hopes of succeeding in our Endeavours after Holiness might be an encouragement to us Now this is the thing that he has Revealed to us in the Gospel and 't is the being persuaded of this astonishing Mercy that is the Faith which Christianity presses upon us And besides considering our present Circumstances the belief of the Principles of Natural Religion is not enough for us who have corrupted our Nature This Faith was suited to the state of Innocent Man before he was doom'd to a Mortal Condition But since we feel our selves Mortal and know we must die what encouragement can our knowing there is an Immortal state for such as improve themselves for it be to us to aspire after it when we know we are Mortal and cannot avoid dying Surely something more is needfull to encourage us to do our utmost to prepare our selves for it than the Faith that was the foundation of that Religion whereby Innocent Adam was to have made himself Immortal because we cannot become Immortal as he might have done For unless we believe that we shall live again though we die we are so little concern'd in that Life that is Eternal that we shall never upon the bare believing there is such a Life and that Man was made for it be persuaded to the Practice of Holiness because such a Belief does not persuade us that there is such a Life for us The Soul 't is true is Immortal and will live for ever after Death has separated it from the Body But for ought that any Man knows 't is so much the worse for us that it is if it must always live in such a state as is not Natural to it For it is very plain that it leaves the Body with a great deal of Reluctancy And I don't believe that they who are no friends to the believing the Doctrines of Redemption and Justification as they mean our being restored to the Hopes of a Resurrection by the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ are such friends to Death that they part with their Bodies very easily And this I think proves that they could be very well content that their Bodies were as Immortal as their Souls and that they might live an immortal life in their Bodies It is not the Soul's Immortality that contents them however they may seem to put a good face on 't and make a Vertue of Necessity For they look upon Death as a great Calamity at least which no Man could do was he persuaded that Death would put him into his best State and Condition Now what does all this mean but that a Resurrection is very acceptable to us and that without it we in our Circumstances cannot have that Immortality which Adam by the Principles of Nature was encouraged to hope for I dare say that they can be very well contented that God would raise their dead Bodies again so improved as we believe he will And upon what account then can they except against the Reasonableness of that Faith which they can be contented should be true and own to be necessary to make the belief of another State a compleat and sufficient Motive to a Holy Life The Apostle observes that without Holiness it is impossible to please God and therefore that he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And accordingly he gives us a large Catalogue of brave Men that by Faith subdu'd Kingdoms wrought Righteousness and obtained the Promises Which implies that we shall never be persuaded to deny our selves the present Enjoyments of this life and keep our selves within the measures and bounds of Religion unless we believe there is another Life and a God that will reward us there And therefore so much Faith as this is was a Duty that Adam while he was Innocent was obliged to because though he was Innocent he was a Probationer for Immortality And it was requisite that he who was a Probationer for Immortality should believe there was such a State and that there was a God that would reward him with it if he did improve himself to the perfection it belong'd to for the encouraging him to do his Duty But so much Faith as was sufficient to encourage an Innocent Man is not enough for us who are guilty and condemn'd to die because we are so For Innocent Man might by improving his Nature i.e. by doing his Duty make himself Immortal But we who are guilty and condemn'd can do no such thing because we are not in a state of Trial if we be not freed from the Curse that is upon us And that which is needfull to put us into such a state must be a part of our Faith if we do believe that we have a prospect of Immortality i.e. We must believe that God has justified us that we may apply our Minds like Probationers for Immortality to that Improvement of our selves that is to qualifie us for it 4. This is a further Consideration that ought to reconcile us to the Thoughts of leaving this World I have observed with how much satisfaction we ought to go out of this World because the Resurrection will restore us both our Souls and Bodies again i.e. Will bring our Bodies out of their Graves and our Souls out of that place where they live in a Praeter-natural state out of their Bodies But the thoughts of our being in a Justified state ought to raise our Minds much higher and to fortifie them with more Resolution and Courage when we come do die because it sets before us the Reason and Ground of our Hope and eases our Minds of that which is the most stinging Consideration in Death Death is as I have said very terrible to us upon many accounts It hales us out of a World that cloaths us with solt Raiment and gorgeous Apparel and feeds us with rich and sumptuous Delicacies and furnishes us with delights for the Eye and Ear and every Sense All which must be very troublesome
Power and Authority to deliver us from Death 1. By raising us again out of our Graves And in this respect he is styled the second Adam in whom all shall be made alive in opposition to the first in whom all died to denote him to be the Author of Life to a condemn'd World as the first Adam was the Author of Death to a race that was designed for Immortality But yet he is not the Author of Life and Immortality only as he was merited it as Adam's Offence has entailed Death upon us but as he is that Person whom the Father has constituted to be the Dispenser of that Grace and Mercy that pardons the Offences for which we die and to communicate that Spirit of Life by which we shall rise again at the last day In which respect it is that he so often styles himself the Life of the World and the Resurrection and the Life by which he informs us of the great Authority the Father has put into his hand and that the Nature of that Office which as the Mediatour between God and Man be executes is for the discharging us from that Obligation to die Eternally which was the fruit of Sin As the Father hath life in himself so has he given to the Son to have life in himself Joh. 5.26 i.e. He has made him the Lord of Life and given him Power to bestow it For as the Father raiseth up the dead so the Son quickneth whom he will i.e. He as well as the Father has the Power of Life in his Hand We are not to understand this Expression as if there were some whom he would not restore Life unto but that the Power of giving Life which he has received is unlimited so that he can give and take away Life to and from whom he pleases Verily verily I say unto you the Hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Thus the Scripture does constantly represent the Power of abolishing Corruption and Death to be in the Hands of the Son of God And that Renovation of all things when the Creature that now groans under Corruption shall be redeemed from Vanity and Corruption and restored to an indissoluble state will be the work of him that came to redeem us from Death For as the Father is the first Fountain of Life from whom all Creatures received Life and Being in the first Creation of all things so the Son is appointed to be the Fountain of Life to all things again when the World shall be created a-new and put into such a state as shall endure for ever For we are to consider that when God first made the World it was a much more excellent thing than now it is being designed to be the Habitation of Innocent Man But when Man fell and lost his Innocency all this visible Creation suffer'd with him and was accurs'd for Man's sake i.e. It was put into a state proper for a Creature that was doom'd to Labour and Sorrow to dwell in Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee Gen. 3.17 18. Of what nature this Curse was is not easie to tell But however thus much it plainly imports that the Nature of this World was much alter'd for the worse and that it does not nourish us now as it would have done had we not been doom'd to a laborious and mortal Life But this is not all For the Scriptures represent it as such a Change as that which we our selves have undergone when instead of Immortality Mortality and Corruption seiz'd us And that at the last this World must undergo a purgation by Fire by means of which it will be restored to its ancient incorruptible State The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 2 Pet. 3.12 13. Which is the thing that St. Paul means when he tells us That the earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 i.e. The visible Creation waits for that time when we shall become the Sons of God being the Children of the Resurrection at which time it will be freed from its Curse as well as we shall be deliver'd from the Wrath that is come upon us For the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him that hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be deliver'd from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God v. 20 21. i.e. As it does partake of our Curse so it shall of our Blessing when we rise to an Immortal life being new made And as the first Creation was the work of the Father who has Life in himself i.e. from whom all that Life that is in the World is Originally derived So the second Creation when all things shall be put into a lasting incorruptible State will be the work of the Redeemer of all things For he came to give Life to the World and to be the restorer of all things i.e. to take away the Curse under which we and all this visible World do suffer The Authority that is conferr'd upon him is for the repairing those breaches that Sin has made in our Nature and for the putting a disorder'd World into its right indissoluble Frame And therefore the account he gives us of himself and his Errand is the giving Life to the World I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 or in a more perfect and excellent degree than here they have He does 't is true give us a Specimen of his Power in the Renovation of our Souls in this Life which is the first beginning of that Life that he came to bestow upon the World But the great Exercise of his Authority will be at the Resurrection when all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and come forth which will be his great Act of justifying us personally from the Sentence that has appointed us to die The Spirit that he communicates for the raising us to a new and holy Life is styled the Earnest of our Inheritance For nothing can be a more lively Emblem of our future Resurrection when we shall be deliver'd from Death than that New life we are raised to here by the Power of his Spirit For it is every whit as great an Instance of his Power to quicken and revive a dead Soul to its own Spiritual life as to raise a dead Body to life again And this is a great Evidence that God has given him Power to justifie a condemn'd World because that Spirit by which we begin to live again to God
is derived from him For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.11 i.e. The Spirit whereby Christ does now raise us to a New life will likewise quicken our mortal Bodies and give New lise to us after Death But this is not all that is meant by his Power to justifie us For 2. He has Power and Authority given him as the Supreme Judge of the World to acquit us Eternally from Death or when we are risen to give us Eternal life And this is a distinct thing from God's justifying us from the Sentence pass'd upon Adam His raising us to life again after we are dead is owing to our Justification from that Sentence For had not he by dying satisfied the Justice that takes away our Lives we should not rise again to Life But whether we shall live for ever after we are risen or die again does depend upon that Sentence that as our Judge he will pass upon us God has appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained saith St. Paul Act. 17.31 i.e. God has given him Power to take an account how Mankind has used the Mercy that he has favour'd us with and to declare who according to the Gospel are worthy of Eternal life and who are not and accordingly to determine of our Eternal condition either by justifying us to Eternal life or condemning us to a second Death And this he intimates to us in the fore-mentioned Text I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly That they might have life i.e. That I might by raising them from the Dead restore them the Life that Death deprives them of And that they might have it more abundantly i.e. That I might justifie them to a Life that is Eternal when at the Resurrection they are Judged a second time His Resurrection 't is true does assure us that we are now in a Justified state i.e. That we are acquitted from the Sentence that has pass'd upon Adam and that in respect of this Justification we shall certainly rise to Life again But though we be absolved from that Sentence we must expect another to be pass'd upon us which will finally and eternally save us from Death if when we appear before that great Tribunal he that is to Judge us does find we have not neglected so great Salvation and sinn'd away the favour that has been granted us And this Power to absolve us for ever from Everlasting Death is given to him who came into the World to suffer for our Offences and rose again for our Justification And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us That as it is appointed unto Men once to die and after Death the Judgment So Christ was once offer'd to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.27 28. i.e. Though we die by vertue of that Sentence that God gave upon us in Adam yet Christ having undergone the Punishment for us we shall not die Eternally by vertue of that Sentence For Christ who bore our Sins will come again to Judge us and then shall all his faithfull Servants be Eternally acquitted from that more dreadfull Curse that he will denounce against all that have lost their opportunity to save their Souls 2. This Power to justifie us i.e. to deliver us from Death by raising us to Lise again and acquitting us as our Judge at the last day he received when he rose from the Dead For then it was that he enter'd upon the publick Administration of the Affairs of his Kingdom and was made of God both Lord and Christ Then it was he received a Name that is above every Name and was dignified with the Honour of being Head over all things Thus he himself told his Disciples after his Resurrection That all Power was given unto him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 By which he means the Power of that Kingdom that by vanquishing him that has the Power of Death he has obtained The Power of pardoning Sin and raising the Dead and giving Eternal life to all that faithfully and sincerely serve him The God of our Fathers saith St. Peter raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Act. 5.30 31. In which words the Apostle informs us that the Power God has given him is the Power of dispensing that Grace and Mercy that he has obtain'd for us The Power of delivering us from Death and of justifying us as our Judge to Eternal life And that this Power God advanced him to when he raised him from the Dead 'T is true while he was in this World he styles himself the Resurrection and the Life and tells us That God had given him Authority to execute Judgment because he is the Son of Man But yet in these Expressions he means no more than that he was the Person who was designed by his Father to this Eminent Dignity and Power of abolishing Death and Judging the World and giving Life and Immortality to mortal Men. And of this he gave a convincing proof by raising Lazarus from the Dead But yet the Life he restored Lazarus to was not that Immortal life which he will give his sincere Followers when he utterly destroys Death but the same Mortal life that he was possess'd of before But the Power of raising us to an Immortal life which he gave a proof that he was designed to be instated in by raising Lazarus from the Dead was not conferr'd upon him till he was risen from the Dead Then it was that he enter'd upon his Regal Office and was invested with that Power and Authority by which he has put all Enemies under his feet He is sat down on the right hand of God saith the Apostle expecting till his Enemies be made his foot-stool Heb. 10.12 13. Designing at the End of all things to subdue Death which is the last Enemy he is to destory and in a most solemn and glorious manner to deliver his faithfull Servants from their Captivity and all Power of Death for the suture and to put them into an actual possession of that immortal life that they live in an expectation of srom him And now if Christ be thus risen for our Justification or that he might receive Power to justifie us Let us consider 1. What Reason we have to depend upon him for Everlasting life This is that Faith that he expects from us and which in the Gospel we are so frequently exhorted to A believing that Death is vanquish'd by the Power of our Mediatour when he rose from the Dead and
that we shall assuredly rise again to Life because our Redeemer who has over-come Death has the Power of raising us to Life again and of justifying us to Eternal life in his Hands It is not a believing that there is a God For though such a Faith does much contribute to the comfort of our Lives when we know that he is reconciled to us yet it serves only to fill us with terrour and astonishment if his Wrath does still lie upon us Nor is it a believing only that he employ'd a great Prophet to make our Duty more plain and to give us the best Rules and the most excellent Example of a Holy Life For such a Revelation can be of no advantage to us if our former Offences for which we are condemned are not pardon'd Neither is it a believing that though Sin be strong and prevalent in us yet we are not one jot the less Just because we commit Sin as some speak but by being united to Christ who has fulfill'd all Righteousness we have all Righteousness that is needfull to possess us of Everlasting life i.e. That God has put all into the Hands of his Son and that we have nothing more to do for the gaining Eternal life but to believe that Christ has done all for us For all that we can do will not make us one jot the more Just and Righteous in the sight of God i.e. Nothing more qualified for Eternal life than we are without it Now that this is not the Faith that the Gospel requires of us is evident from hence That the Gospel does all along suppose us to be in a state of Probation for Eternal life which this Faith does not For it supposes we are as safe as we can be by believing the things that Christ has done and suffer'd for us and that by means of this Faith his Righteousness is ours and that this Righteousness which is ours by believing is the only Righteousness we have to trust to for Eternal life Now if this be so we must deprive Christ of two of his Offices viz. his Prophetick and Regal Offices For having fulfill'd all Righteousness for us there was no need of his discharging the Office of a Prophet by interpreting the Mind of God and prescribing Rules of Life to us nor of executing the Office of a Prince in governing us by Rules of Righteousness who have all Righteousness in him And besides To what purpose are all the Motives and Exhortations to do Righteousness which we meet with in the Gospel Why is a Day of Judgment appointed to take an account of our Doings if believing that he has done all for us be all the Duty that our Eternal Happiness depends upon St. Paul tells us That we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And if we must be Judg'd for all that we our selves do in this Life it is certain that we have somewhat more to do than to believe that Christ has done all for us The true account then of this Matter is this That Christ by suffering Death having born the Punishment that in Adam we were doom'd to has procured us a full discharge from that Punishment i.e. God has justified us so that there is no need of our doing Righteousness that we may rise again from the Dead because that which Christ has done and suffer'd has procured us this Mercy and we may depend upon him for it Of this Mercy God has given us an Assurance by raising him from the Dead For his Resurrection is for our Justification or a certain Evidence that God has justified us as his Death was for our Offences or the Punishment that the Justice of God has doom'd us to But then though this Justification be only owing to the Merits of Christ yet we must do Righteousness that we may for ever enjoy the Benefits of it and if we do not this our Mediatour himself will condemn us again So that being discharged from the Obligation to die as Malefactours we are to take care of our Lives lest we die again by the Sentence of our Redeemer i.e. We must add to our Faith all Christian Vertues which are necessary to qualifie us for Everlasting life lest the Gospel condemn us again This is that Mercy that the Gospel declares to us And accordingly the Faith that it requires of us is the believing that God sent his Son into the World upon this Errand and that being justified by his Death we shall not only assuredly rise again but by obeying the Gospel we shall assure to our selves Everlasting life So that the Faith that the Gospel requires of us does suppose we are in a Justified state i.e. discharged from the Sentence of Death that passed upon us in Adam and is required of us not as the only Righteousness whereby we are to make our selves Immortal but as an Encouragement to perfect Holiness that we may be justified to Everlasting life when we are Judged by our Gracious Redeemer And it is by this Faith that God makes a Trial of the Sincerity of our Hearts whether we dare depend upon the Power he has given his Son to raise us again and to give us Eternal life For he expects that we should leave this World as Abraham did his native Country and his Father's House though we know not the World we go to when we leave this with a firm belief in his Promise of being raised to a better life And for the better confirming our Faith the performing it is committed to the care of him that is risen and has received Power to destroy Death For his Resurrection is an Instance that Death is not an Enemy too powerfull for him to vanquish And since he is invested with that Power by which his own Body was raised what greater assurance can we have that Death shall be abolished than this That he who has undertaken to abolish it has that Power which can destroy Death But especially our great Certainty in this case does arise from hence That the doing of this is committed to his care the business of whose Life and Death was to deliver us from Death And is there any Reason to fear lest he who has loved us and laid down his Life for us should at last fail us of the Blessings that he came to mediate for us and which he has dearly purchased If he will suffer his Blood to be vilely cast away and the Price of our Redemption to be lost we may question whether he will finish the Salvation that he came to procure us But if he has any value for his own Blood any sense of his own Sufferings any regard to his own Merits we cannot but believe that he who has gone through the Tragical part of his Undertaking will undoubtedly Triumph at the last in the total destruction of
has received this Power we may observe upon what Reason it will go worse with wicked Christians at the last than with ignorant Heathens That it will do so our Saviour has assured us in those dreadfull Denunciations against Chorazin Bethsaida and Capernaum the Cities where he frequently taught and wrought his Miracles Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty Works that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted to Heaven shalt be brought down unto Hell For if the mighty Works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained untill this day But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for thee Matt. 11.21 22 23 24. And that there is a great deal of Reason it should be so is evident from hence That wicked Christians sin against that Mercy and despise that Salvation that the Heathen part of the World know nothing of For all the Mercy that Heathens have by the Death and Resurrection of Christ is that they shall assuredly rise again from Death because Christ who died for our Offences has discharged all Mankind from Death as it is a Punishment of Sin But how the great Judge will deal with them when they are risen we know not because the Mercy that shall be shown them is not revealed Christ by the Power he has received will raise them to Life again though they know not of it But when they are risen they will not be Judged for not improving this Mercy because they know nothing of it neither Neither have they that Revelation that ascertains to Christians both their Duty and Reward and therefore shall not be condemn'd for not improving themselves to that height of Vertue that the Christian Religion teaches But now the case of wicked Christians is quite otherwise For they must rise to answer for all the abuse of that Mercy that the Gospel acquaints them with And they must die again because they have despised that Life that they must then lose when it was in their Power to have secured it Though they have the means of knowing that they shall not for ever lose their Souls upon the account of the Judgment that came upon all Men to Condemnation in Adam and that they are favour'd with a new Trial whether they will chuse Life or Death they lose the time of their Trial and must die because they chuse Death And this will aggravate their Condemnation that when they were favour'd with the care of their own Souls they foolishly lost the time in which God put them to their choice whether they would live or die So that when they are condemn'd again it will be a startling Consideration to them that they must die for their own neglect of themselves and that they have taken no warning by their former Condemnation but have to no purpose been pardon'd the fault for which they lose this present life And besides it will beget terrible Reflections in them when they come to consider that the Judge before whom they stand is he that came into this World to deliver them from Death by vanquishing that subtil Enemy that betray'd us into Mortality That it is he that will condemn them that when he appears the second time comes with Power to save i.e. to conferr upon us the fruits of his bloody Victory And that he will condemn them because they have taken their Souls out of his hand when he had deliver'd them and have deliver'd them up again to the slavery of those Evil Spirits out of whose power he had rescued them So that their Condemnation will be with the greatest Indignation for disappointing the Hopes and thwarting the Design of him that has procured a Power from his Father to save It will be with bitter Wrath and Vengeance for deserting the protection of a Saviour after all the Sweat and Blood that he was at the expence of to deliver them Those mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Luk. 19.27 And oh with what Consternation and Agonies in their Souls will they then be tortured when they see the direfull Executioners of that terrible Sentence coming upon them to seize them and that they must lose their Lives again which they have but just received and which is worse to lose them within the sight of Immortality He will condemn all that do Unrighteousness but a wicked Heathen will not fall under so much Wrath as a wicked Christian because he sins only against the Light of his own Mind and loses the Benefit of that Salvation that he never heard of But that which will heighten the wicked Christian's Condemnation is this That he has received the Grace of God in vain and must be condemn'd by him whose Kindness they have been frequently told of and whose Mercy they have been courted to accept of and to improve Oh! with what weight will the Wrath of a Redeemer fall upon the Heads of wicked Christians How scorching will that Justice be which the Love and Mercy of a Saviour will be forced to give way unto Because you would none of my Counsel but have despised all my Reproof and trampled on my Blood and turned my Grace into Wantonness Therefore shall ye eat the fruit of your own Ways and be filled with your own Devices Go ye cursed into everlasting burnings Such a Sentence out of the Mouth of a Saviour will come with such Astonishment and Horrour as no Heathen has any reason to dread Neither is this the worst of their case For every one that calls himself a Christian does profess to have put himself under the protection of their Redeemer's Mercy And therefore every Christian that does wickedly must expect to die without pity because he renounces his Trust in that Mercy without which when he embraced the Christian Religion he declared he could not be saved and repenting of his subjection to his Saviour revolts from him who alone has the Power to justifie The case of the Heathens is pitiable because of their Ignorance And therefore the Apostle tells us God winked at the time of the Heathen Ignorance He seem'd to over-look their Follies and out of mere pity to take no notice of their Mistakes But what Mercy can they expect who make light of that Mercy that calls them to Repentance and puts it into their Power to provide better for themselves than their first Parents did 5. We may hence likewise observe how little reason we have to dread a future Judgment There are a great many Considerations that are sufficient to remove those Fears that the thoughts of that Great Day are apt to terrifie us
with For he who is appointed to Judge us is the Man Christ Jesus He is a Man that is sensible of all the Infirmities that we labour under and does carry in his Bowels the Affections and tender Compassions of a Man toward us In that he has suffer'd being tempted he is able or very inclinable to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.18 For what severe or terrible thing can we fear from a Man like our selves What unkind or hard Sentence have we reason to dread from him who is our Brother Will not he who took part of Flesh and Blood be very tender to the Infirmities of his own Nature Though it be a terrible thing to appear before a Just and Righteous God because the Justice of a God is very frightfull yet it can be no very frightfull thing to appear before a God made Man because we are well acquainted with the Tendernesses that are in the Nature of a Man Or if this Consideration be not enough to reconcile our Thoughts to a Judgment to come because we too often see that the Passions of Men make them violent and injurious cruel and oppressive toward each other Yet he is a Man not subject to the like Passions as we are nor tainted with those Vices as corrupt our Nature and render it a difficult thing oftentimes to converse with those of our own kind But he is a Man famed for Meekness and Humility for Love and Charity for Mercy and Compassion So that he is qualified with all those soft and tender Vertues that we our selves would desire should be in him that is to Judge us And since we must be Judged we would wish for such a Judge as he is But this is not all for the most comfortable Consideration of all is this That the Power to Judge us that is committed to him is a Power to justifie and acquit us from Death He has merited a Power to give Life to the World and therefore when he appears the second time it will be to the Salvation of all that wait for him by raising them from the Dead and giving them Eternal life So that his Judging the World will be an executing of that Power of giving Life that he has received It will be with the Pardon that he has mediated in his hand and for the delivering us who now are appointed to die from any more fear of Death for the future He will 't is true when he appears be cloathed with that Majesty that will be terrible to his Enemies and as a Righteous Judge give a very dreadfull Sentence upon all the workers of Iniquity But yet though he will condemn to a second Death those that he finds not worthy of Life and as well concern himself for the Interests and Reputation of his Father's Justice as our Everlasting Welfare Yet it is plain that the giving so severe a Sentence is besides his purpose and as well contrary to the Office as the Inclinations of a Redeemer because he will raise even those to Life again whom he thus condemns His raising them to Life again will demonstrate even to those that must die again that it is for the dispensing of Mercy and the acting like a Saviour that he does then appear That the primary End of his appearing is for the restoring Lise to Mortal Creatures For why else will he raise them to Life whom he will afterwards condemn to another Death but to let the World see that he designs Life for all if Mercy it self can but save them The true and proper find then of his sitting in Judgment will be the displaying the Mercy of a Redeemer the distributing the price of his Blood and the communicating the Everlasting Grace of the Gospel He came to save that which was lost and to be sure he will not cast away any that he came to save nor easily condemn when his business was to destroy Death He will Judge us who will raise us to Life again And to be sure he who then gives us our Lives will not easily and without very great Reason take them away again And now how terrible soever it is to us to think of undergoing a Trial of our Actions before a just Judge Yet is it not enough to ease our Thoughts to think that this Judgment will be terrible to none but such as have no Reason to hope in his Mercy but that all whom Mercy can save the Bowels of a Mediatour will deliver from Condemnation What more favourable Judge can we expect than such a one as has purchased us and has purchased Eternal life for us Such a one as comes with Power to justifie and save all whom Mercy can deliver and who lets us see his Inclination to give us Life by freeing us from a Sentence of Condemnation when he raises us out of our Graves The Conclusion HAving consider'd the Nature and Certainty of the Resurrection all that I shall observe from the whole is the Necessity that is upon us to live like those that do believe we shall rise again I mean that we do nothing now that will lose us our Lives again when they are restored to us at the Resurrection To live in this World as if we should never live more after Death has taken us out of it is very excusable in those who know not that they shall rise again because they take care of all the Life they know of But for a Christian who believes he must live again to do this is an extremity of Folly and Madness for it is to be thoughtfull only for an inconsiderable part of our Lives And surely it is not to act wisely for our selves not to take care of all the Life we are to live It is in the Opinion of all Men a very great imprudence not to take care of our Lives And therefore that Labour and Toil those vexatious Cares and Solicitudes wherewith Men wear out their Bodies and vex their Minds are justified upon this account that they are for the maintaining of Life And they are lookt upon as Men of little understanding who live without any kind of fore-cast or thoughtfulness for Life Now what Men do and make a great Mark of their Prudence in doing for the support and preservation of this life is much more needfull to be done for the preserving the Life we shall rise to because that is the Life that it principally concerns us to look after When Men neglect the Duties of Religion the general Answer wherewith they satisfie themselves and wherewith they expect that all Men should be satisfied is that they have not leisure The business of this World takes up their time and if they have hardly time sometimes to Eat and Sleep they cannot think but the Cumber and the Urgency of their Affairs will as well excuse them from their Religious Services as it obliges them to a neglect of their Bodies But when Men talk at this rate one would think they were