a resurrection seems to require it namely that the very same body which died should be raised again Nothing dies but the body nothing is corrupted but the body the soul goeth upward and returns to God and therefore nothing else can be properly said to be raised again but onely that very body which died and was corrupted If God give to our souls at the last day a new body this cannot literally be called the resurrection of our bodies because here is no reproduction of the same thing that was before which seems to be plainly implied in the word resurrection Indeed the word is sometimes used otherwise as when a House or Temple that hath been consumed by fire is rebuilt on the same ground where it formerly stood this is often though improperly and figuratively called the resurrection of it and after the same manner do the Latines use the word resurgere but yet the most proper and literal signification of the word resurrection is that the same flesh which was separated from the soul at the day of death should be again vitally united to it 3. There are many places of Scripture which in their strict and literal meaning do seem plainly to favour this sense of the Article that the very same flesh shall be raised again what more plain and express saith St. Hierome than that of Job Job 19.26 27. Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another But however plain these words may seem to be yet I cannot think that the primary and original meaning of them doth at all relate to the resurrection nor were they ever so understood and interpreted by the Jews as Grotius tells us not but that they might be prophetical of it and so by way of accommodation may be fitly applied to it but the first and most easie sense of the words seems to be this After my skin is consumed let that which remains of me likewise by piecemeals be destroyed yet I am confident that before I die with these very eyes I shall see my Redeemer and be restored by him to my former happy state So that the words are a plain prophecy of his own deliverance and an high expression of his confident hope in God that in time he would vindicate his innocence and bring him out of all his troubles But if this place will not hold there are others in the New Testament of the same importance St. Paul in the 53d verse of this Chapter speaking of our body and the glorious change it shall undergo at the resurrection tells us that this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality now by this corruptible and this mortal can onely be meant that body which we now carry about with us and shall one day lay down in the dust Thus also the same Apostle tells us Rom. 8.11 He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies Now that which shall be quickned and raised to life again can be nothing else but that very body of flesh which is mortal and died though there is some question to be made whether the quickning our mortal bodies by the spirit of Christ dwelling in us should not rather be understood in a metaphorical or moral sense of the first resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness than of the general resurrection at the consummation of all things But farther the mention and description the Scripture makes of the places from whence the dead shall rise doth seem plainly to intimate that the same bodies which were dead shall revive again Thus we reade in Daniel Ch. 12. v. 2. That those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting death Where we may yet farther observe that the Metaphor of sleeping and awaking by which our death and resurrection is here expressed doth seem to imply that when we rise again our bodies will be as much the same with those we lived in as they are when we awake the same with those we had before we laid our selves down to sleep Thus again it is said in St. John's Gospel Chap. 5. verses 28 and 29. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the 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 And in the Revelations Chap. 20. verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell that is the grave delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to their works Now if the same flesh shall not be raised again what need is there of ransacking the graves at the end of the word the Sea can give up no other bodies but the same which it received in nor can the Grave deliver up any but onely those that were laid therein if it were not necessary that we should rise with the very same bodies the graves need not be opened but our flesh might be permitted to rest there for ever To this may be added that St. Paul tells us in the 3d Chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians verse 21. that our Saviour shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Now this vile body can be no other than this flesh and bloud which we are now cloathed with restored to life again 4. If we consider the several instances and examples either of those who did immediately ascend up into Heaven or of those who after death were restored to life again they all seem plainly to confirm this opinion that at the last day we shall rise again with the very same flesh and bloud which we had here Enoch and Elias of old were translated into Heaven in their terrestrial bodies and therefore may be supposed now to live there with the same flesh and parts they had when they were here upon earth And those three that were raised from the dead in the Old Testament and those that were recalled to life by our Saviour or accompanied him at his resurrection all appeared again in the very same bodies they had before their dissolution and these were examples and types of the general resurrection and therefore our resurrection must resemble theirs and we also must appear at the last day with the same bodies we lived in here Even our blessed Saviour himself who was the first fruits of them that slept did raise his own body according to that prediction of his Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up again Nay he appeared to his Disciples with the very prints of the nails in his hands and feet and with all the other marks of his crucifixion Behold my hands and my
Vertue and goodness purifies and exalts a man's natural temper and makes his very looks more clear and brisk 3. Our bodies shall be raised in power This is that which the Schools call the agility of our heavenly bodies the nimbleness of their motion by which they shall be rendred most obedient and able instruments of the soul In this state our bodies are no better than clogs and fetters which confine and restrain the freedom of the soul and hinder it is all her operations The corruptible body as it is in the wisedom of Solomon presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things Our dull sluggish and unactive bodies are often unable oftner unready and backward to execute the orders and obey the commands of our souls so that they are rather hindrances to the soul than any-ways usefull or serviceable to her But in the other life as the Prophet Isaiah tells us Isaiah 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint or as another expresses it They shall shine and run too and fro like sparks amongst the stubble the speed of their motion shall be like that of devouring fire in an heap of dry stubble and the height of it shall surpass the towring flight of the Eagle for they shall meet the Lord in the air when he comes to judgment and afterwards mount up with him into the third and highest Heavens This earthly body is continually groveling on the ground slow and heavy in all its motions listless and soon tired with action and the soul that dwells in it is forced as it were to drag and hale it along but our heavenly bodies shall be as free as active and nimble as our very thoughts are 4. And Lastly Our bodies shall be raised spiritual bodies not of a spiritual substance for then the words would imply a contradiction it being impossible that the same thing should be both a spiritual and a bodily substance But spiritual is here opposed not to corporeal but to natural or animal and by it is exprest as it is ordinarily interpreted the subtilty and tenuity and purity of our heavenly bodies But I would rather explain it thus In this state our spirits are forced to serve our bodies and to attend their leisure and do mightily depend upon them in most of their operations but on the contrary in the other world our bodies shall wholly serve our spirits and minister unto them and depend upon them So that by a natural body I understand a body fitted for this lower and sensible world for this earthly state by a spiritual body such an one as is suited and accommodated to a spiritual state to an invisible world to such a life as the Saints and Angels lead in Heaven And indeed this is the principal difference between this mortal body and our glorified body This flesh which now we are so apt to dote upon is one of the greatest and most dangerous enemies we have and therefore is defied and renounced by all Christians in their baptism as well as the world and the Devil It continually tempts and solicits us to evil every sense is a snare to us and all its lusts and appetites are inordinate and insatiable it is impatient of Christ's yoke and refuseth discipline it is ungovernable and often rebelleth against reason and the law in our members warreth against the law of our minds and brings us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members and when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak so that the best men are forced to keep it under and use it hardly lest it should betray them into folly and misery We are now in a state of warfare and must always be upon our guard and watch continually arming and defending our selves against the assaults of the flesh and all its violent and impetuous motions How doth it hinder us in all our religious devotions How soon doth it jade our minds when employed in any divine or spiritual meditations or how easily by its bewitching and enchanting pleasure doth it divert them from such noble exercises So that St. Paul breaks forth into this sad and mournfull complaint Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Who shall Death shall That shall give us a full and final deliverance When once we have obtained the resurrection unto life we shall not any more feel those lustings of the flesh against the spirit which are here so troublesome and uneasie to us our flesh shall then cease to vex our souls with its evil inclinations immoderate desires and unreasonable passions But being its self spiritualized purified exalted and freed from this earthly grosness and all manner of pollution shall become a most fit and proper instrument of the soul in all her divine and heavenly employments It shall not be weary of singing praises unto God Almighty through infinite Ages It shall want no respite or refreshment but its meat and drink shall be to doe the will of God In these things chiefly consists the difference between those bodies which we shall have at the resurrection and this mortal flesh which we can but very imperfectly either conceive or express but yet from what hath been discoursed on this subject it doth sufficiently appear that a glorified body is infinitely more excellent and desireable than that vile and contemptible flesh which we now carry about with us The onely thing remaining is III. And Lastly to draw some practical inferences from all I have said on this subject I shall but just mention these five and leave the improvement of them to your own private meditations 1. From what I have said we may learn the best way of fitting and preparing our selves to live in those heavenly and spiritual bodies which shall be bestowed upon us at the resurrection which is by cleansing and purifying our souls still more and more from all fleshly filthiness and weaning our selves by degrees from this earthly body and all sensual pleasures and delights We should begin in this life to loosen and untie the knot between our souls and this mortal flesh to refine our affections and raise them from things below to things above to take off our hearts and leisurely to disengage them from things present and sensible and to use and accustome our selves to think of and converse with things spiritual and invisible that so our souls when they are separated from this earthly body may be prepared and disposed to actuate and inform a pure and spiritual one as having before hand tasted and relished spiritual delights and pleasures and been in some degree acquainted with those objects which shall then be presented to us A soul wholly immersed and buried in this earthly body is not at all fit and qualified
the will of God to raise again the same flesh which was laid in the grave and then we may safely have recourse to the Omnipotency of God to confirm and establish our faith of it I conclude this head therefore with that question of St. Paul's Acts 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead The change from death to life is not so great as that from nothing into being and if we believe that God Almighty by the word of his power at first made the heavens and the earth of no pre-existent matter what reason have we to doubt but that the same God by that mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself can also raise to life again those who were formerly alive and have not yet wholly ceased to be And though we cannot answer all the difficulties and objections which the wit of men whose interest it is that their souls should die with their bodies and both perish together hath found out to puzzle this doctrine with though we cannot fully satisfy our minds and reasons about the manner how it shall be done or the nature of those bodies we shall rise with yet this ought not in the least to shake or weaken our belief of this most important Article of our Christian faith Is it not sufficient that an Almighty Being with whom nothing is impossible hath solemnly promised and past his word that he will re-animate and re-enliven our mortal bodies and after death raise us to life again Let those who presume to mock at this glorious hope and expectation of all good men and are continually exposing this doctrine and raising objections against it first try their skill upon the ordinary and daily appearances of nature which they have every day before their eyes let them rationally solve and explain every thing that happens in this world of which themselves are witnesses before they think to move us from the belief of the resurrection by raising some dust and difficulties about it when Omnipotency it self stands engaged for the performance of it Can they tell me how their own bodies were framed and fashioned and curiously wrought Can they give me a plain and satisfactory account by what orderly steps and degrets this glorious and stately structure consisting of so many several parts and members which discovers so much delicate workmanship and rare contrivance was at first erected How was the first drop of bloud made and how came the heart and veins and arteries to receive and contain it of what and by what means were the nerves and fibres made what fixt those little strings in their due places and situations and fitted and adapted them for those several uses for which they serve what distinguisht and separated the brain from the other parts of the body and placed it in the head and filled it with animal spirits to move and animate the whole body How came the body to be fenced with bones and sinews to be cloathed with skin and flesh distinguisht into various muscles let them but answer me these and all the other questions I could put to them about the formation of their own body and then I will willingly undertake to solve all the objections and difficulties that they can raise concerning the resurrection of it But if they cannot give any account of the formation of that body they now live in but are forced to have recourse to the infinite power and wisedom of the first cause the great and sovereign orderer and disposer of all things let them know that the same power is able also to quicken and enliven it again after it is rotted and returned unto dust we must believe very few things if this be a sufficient reason for our doubting of any thing that there are some things belonging to it which we cannot perfectly comprehend or give a rational account of In this state our conceptions and reasonings about the things that belong to the future and invisible world are very childish and vain and we do but guess and talk at random whenever we venture beyond what God hath revealed to us Let us not therefore perplex and puzzle our selves with those difficulties which have been raised concerning this doctrine of the resurrection for it is no absurdity to suppose that an infinite power may effect such things as seem wholly impossible to such finite beings as we are but rather let us hold fast to what is plainly revealed concerning it namely that all those who love and fear God shall be raised again after death the fame men they were before and live for ever with God in unspeakable happiness both of body and soul Thus I have endeavoured to shew the possbility of a resurrection in the strictest sense I now proceed to the second thing I propounded which was II. Since it is certain that the body we shall rise with though it may be as to substance the same with our terrestrial body yet will be so altered and changed in its modes and qualities that it will be quite another kind of body from what it was before To give you a short account of the difference the Scripture makes between a glorified body and this mortal flesh But before I doe this I shall premise this one thing that all our conceptions of the future state are yet very dark and imperfect We are sufficiently assured that we shall all after death be alive again the very same men and persons we were here and that those that have done good shall receive glory and honour and eternal life But the nature of that joy and happiness which is provided for us in the other world is not so plainly revealed this we know that it vastly surpasses all our imaginations and that we are not able in this imperfect state to fansie or conceive the greatness of it we have not words big enough fully to express it or if it were described to us our understandings are too short and narrow to comprehend it And therefore the Scriptures from which alone we have all we know of a future state describe it either first negatively by propounding to us the several evils and inconveniences we shall then be totally freed from or else secondly by comparing the glory that shall then be revealed with those things which men do most value and admire here whence it is called an inheritance a kingdom a throne a crown a sceptre a rich treasure a river of pleasures a splendid robe and an exceeding and eternal weight of glory All which do not signify to us the strict nature of that happiness which is promised us in another world which doth not consist in any outward sensible joys or pleasures But these being the best and greatest things which this world can bless us with which men do ordinarily most admire and value and covet the possession of are made use of to set out to us the transcendent blessedness of
beg your patience whilst I put you in mind of some of those arguments and considerations which seem most proper and effectual to engage men to the imitation of this blessed example to doe all the good they can in the World 1. This of all other employments is most agreeable to our natures By doing good we gratify and comply with the best and noblest of our natural inclinations and appetites The very same sense which informs us of our own wants and doth powerfully move and instigate us to provide for their relief doth also resent the distresses of another and vehemently provoke and urge us to yield him all necessary succour This is true in all men but most apparent in the best natures that at beholding the miseries and calamities of other men they find such yernings of their bowels and such sensible commotions and passions raised in their own breasts as they can by no means satisfy but by reaching forth their helping-hand and to deny our assistance according as our ability permits us is a violence to our very natural instincts and propensions as well as contrary to our religious obligations Our very flesh which in many other instances tempts us to sin yet in this case prompts us to our duty This is a gratious provision God Almighty hath made in favour of the necessitous and calamitous that since his providence for great reasons is pleased to permit such inequalities in mens fortunes and outward conditions the state of some in this life being so extremely wretched and deplorable if compared with others lest the sick and blind and naked and poor should seem to be forgotten or wholly disregarded by their Maker he hath therefore implanted in men a quick and tender sense of pity and compassion which should always solicit and plead their cause stand their friend and not onely dispose us but e'en force us for our own quiet and satisfaction though with some inconvenience to our selves to relieve and succour the afflicted and miserable according to our several capacities and opportunities And this sympathy doth as truly belong to humane nature as love desire hope fear or any other affection of our minds and it is as easie a matter to devest our selves of any other passion as of this of pity and he who like the Priest and Levite in our Saviour's Parable of the wounded man is void of all compassion is degenerated not so much into the likeness of a brute beast as of the hardest rock or marble Thus to doe good is according to the very make and frame of our beings and natures 2. Hence it follows that it must be the most pleasant and delightfull employment we can choose for our selves Whatever is according to our nature must for that reason be pleasant for all actual pleasure consists in the gratification and satisfaction of our natural inclinations and appetites Since therefore the very constitution and temper of our nature sway and prompt us to the exercise of charity and beneficence the satisfying such inclinations by doing good must be as truly gratefull to us as any other thing or action whatever that ministreth to our pleasure and it cannot be more delightfull to receive kindnesses than it is to bestow them A seasonable unexpected relief doth not affect him that stands in great need of it with more sensible contentment than the opportunity of doing it doth rejoice a good man's heart Nay it may be doubted on which hand lies the greatest obligation whether he who receives is more obliged to the giver for the good turn he hath done him or the giver be more obliged to the receiver for the occasion of exercising his goodness When we receive great kindnesses it puts us to the blush we are ashamed to be so highly obliged but the joy of doing them is pure and unmixed and this our Saviour hath told us Acts 20.35 It is more blessed to give than to receive and some good men have ventured to call it the greatest sensuality a piece of Epicurism and have magnified the exceeding indulgence of God who hath annexed future rewards to that which is so amply its own recompence These two advantages this pleasure of doing good hath above all other pleasures whatever 1. That this satisfaction doth not onely just accompany the act of doing good but it is permanent and lasting endures as long as our lives The very remembrance of such charitable deeds by which we have been really helpfull and serviceable to others our after-reflexion upon the good we have done in the world doth wonderfully refresh our souls with a mighty joy and peace quite contrary to all other worldly and corporeal pleasures There are indeed some vices which promise a great deal of pleasure in the commission of them but then at best it is but short-lived and transient a sudden flash presently extinguisht It perishes in the very enjoyment like the crackling of thorns under a pot as the Wise-man elegantly expresses it it presently expires in a short blaze and noise but hath very little heat or warmth in it All outward bodily pleasures are of a very fugitive volatile nature there 's no fixing them and if we endeavour to make up this defect by a frequent repetition and constant succession of them they then soon become nauseous men are cloyed and tired with them Nor is this yet all these sensual pleasures do not onely suddenly pass away but also leave a sting behind them they wound our consciences the thoughts of them are uneasie to us guilt and a bitter repentance are the attendants of such indulging our selves sadness and melancholy comes in the place of all such exorbitant mirth and jollity These are the constant abatements of all outward unlawfull pleasures Whereas that which springs from a mind satisfied and well pleased with its own actions doth for ever affect our hearts with a delicious relish continually ministers comfort and delight to us is a never-failing fountain of joy such as is solid and substantial fills our minds with good hopes and chearfull thoughts and is the onely certain ground of true peace and contentment 2. This pleasure and joy that attends doing good doth herein exceed all fleshly delights that it is then at the highest when we stand in most need of it In a time of affliction old age or at the approach of death the remembrance of our good deeds will strangely cheer and support our spirits under all the calamities and troubles we may meet with in this state By doing good we lay up a treasure of comfort a stock of joy against an evil day which no outward thing can rob us of But now it is not thus with bodily pleasures they cannot help us in a time of need they then become miserably flat and insipid the sinner cannot any longer taste or relish them nothing remains but a guilty sense which in such time of distress is more fierce and raging especially at the hour of death Yet even
aversation and disrespect In a word if you would excell others in point of true worth and excellency endeavour to get your souls possessed with this divine grace of charity which is the onely thing that doth truly ennoble a man that doth exalt and dignify his nature and raise him above the rest of his fellow-creatures A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Seventh Sermon NUMB. XXIII 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his I Shall not now trouble you with enquiring into the strict meaning of these words as uttered by the Prophet Balaam but I shall consider them onely as they are commonly understood viz. as containing in them the secret wish and desire of most wicked and ungodly men who though they are loth to be at the pains of living the life yet would fain die the death of the righteous and would gladly that their latter end should be like his As well as men love their sins yet they would not willingly be damned for them They can't endure to think seriously of passing out of this World in an impenitent state For it is what but a very few can arrive unto wholly to shake off or wear out all sense of good and evil of reward and punishment The fears of another World will ever and anon be stirring and erowding themselves in and will fret and gall the Sinner sorely and make his thoughts troublesome to him An uneasie bed a broken sleep a sudden affliction an hand-writing on the wall will sometimes force us whether we will or no to smite upon our breasts and reflect sadly upon our past dishonourable misdeeds and the satal issue of them and very often our own conscience will fly in our face notwithstanding all our arts to divert it or our charms to lull it asleep nor could a wicked man ever be at quiet in his mind but that he is resolved by God's grace when time shall serve to doe something or other he doth not well know what or when whereby he may obtain pardon for all the follies and miscarriages of his life past I am very confident I now represent to you the secret mind of most wicked Christians who at any time think seriously viz. that that which makes them so hardy and stupidly neglectfull of their immortal concerns and so jocund and pleasant whilst they live in plain known sins is this that they promise themselves and depend on God's goodness for time and opportunity of making amends in a lingring sickness or in a declining age They are now young and healthfull strong and lusty their pulse beats evenly their bloud moves briskly their spirits are active and subtile and they feel no symptoms of any approaching sickness Hereafter therefore they think it will be time enough to look after another life when they shall be nigh leaving this when their bodies shall begin to decline and their strength to decay and death shall make its approaches Thus there are as it were two ways propounded to Heaven one and that is counted a very dull tedious and difficult passage by the constant doing of good by living righteously and godlily and soberly in this present world The other which is a shorter cut and a much broader way by repenting at our death of a wicked life and it is not at all hard to guess which way the greatest part of men will chuse And would this doe it were indeed a very fine and subtile management of things for thus we might swallow the bait and never be hurt by the hook we might have both the pleasure of being wicked and the hopes of being saved We might spare our selves all the trouble of Religion and yet not miss of the reward of it We might spend all our days as we list gratify every vain humour and appetite enjoy this world as much as we can deny our selves nothing that our lusts and passions crave live all our life long without God in the world and yet at last die in the Lord. The great enemy of mankind hath not in all his magazine a more deadly engine for the destruction of souls Nor is there any thing I know of that doth so notoriously frustrate and defeat the whole design of our Saviour's coming into the world and render our Christianity so useless to us as this one presumption that the whole of Religion or all that is necessary to salvation may be performed upon a sick or death-bed For if it may be done as well at the last in good truth what need we trouble our selves about it sooner what need we disquiet our selves in vain about the exercises of vertue and piety or forego the sweet pleasures of this life or constantly maintain a painfull and ungratefull conflict with the inclinations and inordinate cravings of our flesh or renounce our secular interests or undertake a sharp and troublesome service whenas it is but at any time lamenting over our sins and trusting to the performances of Jesus Christ and we shall be as secure of Paradise as if we had all our days kept a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards all men and in so doing shall run no other hazard but that of dying suddenly which doth not happen to one man in five hundred Eternal bliss and happiness is a thing of so very great and weighty consideration of such vast moment to us that to put off the thoughts thereof or provision for it but one day after that we are become capable of thinking and acting like men is certainly a very great and unaccountable indiscretion but for a man to give all his days to himself and to his own pleasure and humour and to reserve for God for whose service he was born but one and that the worst and the last This is surely madness beyond all measure The extreme folly and danger of such practices I shall now indeavour to evince by shewing briefly these three things I. How little all that amounts to which can be done by a wicked man in order to the obtaining the pardon of his sins on a sick or death-bed II. How far short all this comes of what the holy Scriptures require as the indispensable conditions of salvation III. What small hopes or encouragement God hath any where given men to believe that he will at all abate or remit of those conditions he hath propounded in the Gospel or accept of any thing less than a good life I. How little all that amounts to which can be done by a wicked man on his sick or death-bed Now some at this time can doe more some less according as God affords them space and ability but ordinarily the whole of a death-bed repentance is no more than a few good words and wishes a superficial confession of sin and wickedness in general some broken prayers and pious expressions to the Minister who then shall be sure to be sent for in all haste however despised by the sinner all his
for us to stand between us and God's justice and by his dismal sufferings and cursed death to expiate our offences so that we have not onely the infinite goodness of the divine nature to trust to but the vertue and efficacy of that sacrifice which the Son of God made of himself to plead for our forgiveness upon our repentance and amendment Nor was our blessed Saviour onely our propitiation to die for us and procure our attonement but he is still our Advocate continually interceding with his Father in the behalf of all true penitents and suing out their pardon for them in the Court of Heaven If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who deprecates anger mitigates wrath and not onely barely intercedes for us but with authority demands the release of his captives redeemed by his bloud by virtue of God's promise and covenant And in order to the sufficient promulgation of this his gratious willingness to forgive us upon our repentance God hath provided and appointed an order of men to last as long as the world doth to propound to men this blessed overture and in God's name to beseech men to be reconciled to him Nay God condescends to prevent the worst of men by manifold blessings and favours daily obliging them by his grace and spirit and several providences towards them moving affecting and awakening the most grievous offenders to a timely consideration of their ways Though highly provoked he yet begins first with us so desirous is he of our welfare He hath not onely outwardly proclaimed pardon to all that will submit and sent his own Son on this message of peace but inwardly by his spirit and grace he solicites men to comply with it even where it is resisted and despised he forsaketh not men at their first denial he giveth them time to bethink and recollect themselves he doth not lie at the catch nor take present advantage against us but with infinite patience waits to be gratious to us hoping at last we shall be of a better mind he doth not soon despair of mens conversion and reformation he yet extends his grace towards those who abuse it and offers his pardon to those who slight it nothing is more highly pleasing and acceptable to him than for a sinner to return from the evil of his ways nay which is more yet he is not onely upon our repentance ready to overlook all that is past but he hath promised to reward our future obedience with eternal life so that we shall not onely upon our repentance be freed from those dismal punishments which we had rendred our selves liable to but likewise receive from God such a glorious recompence as is beyond all our conception or imagination Now if such love and kindness of Heaven towards us will not beget some relentings and remorse in us if such powerfull arguments will not prevail with us to grow wise and considerate it is impossible any should Let us all therefore smite upon our breasts and say O Lord we are highly sensible of our folly of our unworthiness and foul ingratitude for we have sinned against thee and done evil in thy sight and are no more worthy to be called thy children but we have heard that the great King of the World is a most mercifull King that he delights not in the death of sinners but had rather they should repent and live we cannot longer withstand or oppose such unspeakable goodness we are overcome by such wonderfull kindness and condescention we resign up our selves wholly to the conduct of his good spirit and will never withdraw or alienate our selves from him any more we will now become God's true and loyal subjects and continue such as long as we breathe nor shall any thing in the world be able to shake or corrupt our faith and allegiance to him What punishment can be too sore what state black and dismal enough for those who contemn all these offers and kindnesses of Heaven who will not by any means be won to look after and have mercy upon themselves to consult their own interest and welfare what pity can they expect who obstinately chuse to be miserable in despite of all the goodness of God and grace of the Gospel The Lord grant that we may all in this our day know and mind the things that belong to our everlasting peace before they are hid from our eyes The Eleventh Sermon 1 COR. XV. 35. But some man will say how are the dead raised up And with what body do they come THE Apostle having in the beginning of this Chapter most firmly established the truth and reality of our Saviour's resurrection from the dead proceeds to infer from thence the certainty of our own resurrection v. 12 13. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead But if there be no resurrection of the dead then is not Christ risen It cannot now any longer seem an impossible or incredible thing to you that God should raise the dead since you have so plain and undoubted an example of it in the person of our blessed Lord who having been truly dead and buried is now alive and hath appeared unto many with the visible marks of his crucifixion still remaining in his body And to shew of what general concernment his resurrection was the graves were opened as St. Matthew tells us and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and appeared unto many the same power which raised Jesus from the dead is able also to quicken our mortal bodies Now in my Text the Apostle brings in some sceptical person objecting against this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead But some man will say how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come Two questions that every one almost is ready to start especially those who love to cavil at Religion and it hath not a little puzled such as have undertaken to give a rational account of our faith to give a full and satisfactory answer to them How can these things be How is it possible that those bodies should be raised again and joined to the souls which formerly inhabited them which many thousand years ago were either buried in the Earth or swallowed up in the Sea or devoured by fire which have been dissolved into the smallest atoms and those scattered over the face of the earth and dispersed as far asunder as the Heaven is wide nay which have undergone ten thousand several changes and transmutations have fructified the earth become the nourishment of other animals and those the food again of other men and so have been adopted into several other bodies How is it possible that all those little particles which made up suppose the body of Abraham should at the end of the world be again ranged and marshalled together and
stomach turns into nourishment the far greater part goes away by excretions and perspirations So that it is not at all impossible but that God Almighty who watcheth over all things by his providence and governs them by his power may so order the matter that what is really part of one man's body though eaten by another yet shall never come to be part of his nourishment or else if it doth nourish him and consequently becomes part of his body that it shall wear off again and sometime before his death be divided and separated from it that so it may remain in a condition to be restored to him who first laid it down in the dust And the like may be said of Men-eaters if any such there be that God by his wise providence may take care either that they shall not be at all nourished by other mens flesh which they so inhumanely devour or if they be nourished by it and some particles of matter which formerly belonged to other men be adopted into their bodies yet that they shall yield them up again before they die that they may be in a capacity of being restored at the last day to their right owners But perhaps it may seem to some unworthy of God and beneath his divine Majesty to attend to such little things and to concern himself about such mean and trivial matters or inconsistent with his ease and happiness to trouble himself with such a perplext and intricate business as curiously to mark and observe all the particles of dust into which the several bodies of men are dissolved and exactly to distinguish one from another and to preserve them entire and unmixt and at last to restore them all to their old bodies But such persons should have a care lest under pretence of pleading for God's honour and glory they really lessen him and derogate from all his other perfections It is the great excellency and perfection of the divine providence that it extends it self to all even to the least things and that nothing is exempted from its care and influence And to fansie that to govern the world is a burthen to God is surely to entertain mean and unworthy conceptions of him and to judge of him by the same rules and measures we do of our selves It is very unreasonable because we are of such weak and frail natures as that a little business and employment presently tires us to think the same of God Almighty as if it were any trouble to him or at all interrupted his infinite pleasure and happiness to take care of the world and order and manage the several affairs of it 2. Of this dust thus preserved and collected together God can easily re-make and rebuild the very same bodies which were dissolved And that this is possible must be acknowledged by all that believe the history of the creation of the world that God formed the first man Adam of the dust of the ground if the body of man be dust after death it is no other than what it was originally and the same power that at first made it of dust may as easily re-make it when it is reduced into the same dust again Nay this is no more wonderfull than the formation of an humane body in the womb which is a thing that we have daily experience of which without doubt is as great a miracle and as strange an instance of the divine power as the resurrection of it can possibly be and were it not so common and usual a thing we should as hardly be brought to believe it possible that such a beautifull fabrick as the body of a man is with nerves and bones and flesh and veins and bloud and the several other parts whereof it consists should be raised out of those principles of which we see it is made as now we are that hereafter it should be rebuilt when it is crumbled into dust Had we onely heard or read of the wonderfull formation of the body of man we should have been as ready to ask how are men made and with what bodies are they born as now we are when we hear of the resurrection How are the dead raised up and with what bodies do they come 3. When God hath raised again the same body out of the dust into which it was dissolved he can enliven it and make it the same living man by uniting it to the same soul and spirit which used formerly to inhabit there And this we cannot with the least shew of reason pretend impossible to be done because we must grant that it hath been already often done We have several undoubted examples of it in those whom the Prophets of old and our blessed Saviour and his Apostles raised from the dead Nay our Saviour himself after he was dead and buried rose again and appeared alive unto his Disciples and others and was sufficiently known and owned by those who had accompanied him and conversed with him for many years together and that not presently but after long doubting and hesitation upon undeniable conviction and proof that he was the very same person they had seen expiring upon the Cross Thus I have endeavoured to shew you that in the strictest notion of the resurrection there is nothing that is absurd or impossible or above the power of such an infinite being as God is The onely thing I know of that can with any pretence of reason be objected against what I have discoursed upon this head is this that this way of arguing from God's omnipotency is very fallacious and hath been often much abused for under this pretence that nothing is impossible to an infinits power all the Rabbinical and Mahumetan Fables or which are as incredible all the Popish Legends may be obtruded on us for Anthentick Histories since there is nothing contained in them that is absolutely above or beyond God's power to effect if he pleases to exert it Whence some of the Fathers have observed that the Omnipotency of God was the great sanctuary of Hereticks to which they always betook themselves when they were baffled by reason And indeed so much is certainly true that God's Omnipotency alone is no good argument to prove the truth of any thing for without doubt there are an infinite number of things which are possible to be done or made which yet God in his infinite wisedom never thought fit to exercise his power about nor perhaps ever will and therefore we ought not to conclude because God can raise us again with the very same bodies we have here that therefore he will doe so But supposing that God hath expresly revealed and declared that he will doe it from the consideration of his infinite power we are bound however impossible it may seem to us so long as it doth not plainly imply a contradiction not to doubt of the truth of it but firmly to believe that he that hath promised can also perform We must first therefore be assured that it is
another life though indeed it is quite of another kind and infinitely greater than the greatest worldly happiness These are onely little comparisons to help our weak apprehensions and childish fancies but we shall never truly and fully know the glories of the other world till we come to enjoy them It doth not yet appear what we shall be from the description which the Scripture gives of the other world as from a Map of an unknown Countrey we may frame in our minds a rude confused idea and conception of it and from thence as Moses from the top of Mount Pisgah may take some little imperfect prospect of the land of promise but we shall never have a complete notion of it till we our selves are entred into it However so much of our future happiness is revealed to us as may be sufficient to raise our thoughts and affections above the empty shadows and fading beauties and flattering glories of this lower world to make us sensible how mean and trifling our present joys and fatisfactions are and to excite and engage our best and most hearty endeavours towards the attainment of it whatever difficulties and discouragements we may meet with in this life though all that can be said or we can possibly know of it comes infinitely short of what one day we shall feel and perceive and be really possessed of Having premised this I come to consider what change shall be wrought in our bodies at the resurrection which is no small part of our future happiness now this change according to the account the Scriptures give of it will consist chiefly in these four things 1. That our bodies shall be raised immortal and incorruptible 2. that they shall be raised in glory 3. that they shall be raised in power 4. that they shall be raised spiritual bodies All which properties of our glorified bodies are mentioned by St. Paul in this Chapter verses 42 43 44. So also is the resurrection of the dead It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory It is sown in weakness it is raised in power It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body And the explication of these words will give us the difference between the glorified body which we shall have in Heaven and that mortal flesh and vile earth which we are now burthened with 1. The bodies which we shall have at the resurrection will be immortal and incorruptible verse 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Now these words immortal and incorruptible do not onely signify that we shall die no more for in that sense the bodies of the damned are also raised immortal and incorruptible since they must live for ever though it be in intolerable pain and misery but they denote farther a perfect freedom from all those bodily evils which sin hath brought into the world and from whatever is penal afflictive or uneasie to us that our bodies shall not be subject to pain or diseases or those other inconveniences to which they are now daily obnoxious This is called in Scripture the redemption of our bodies the freeing them from all those evils and maladies which they are here subject unto Were we at the general resurrection to receive the same bodies again subject to those frailties and miseries which in this state we are forced to wrestle with I much doubt whether a wise considering person were it left to his choice would willingly take it again whether he would not chuse to let it lie still rotting in the grave rather than consent to be again fettered down and bound fast to all eternity to such a cumbersome clod of earth such a resurrection as this would indeed be what Plotinus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resurrection to another sleep it would look more like a condemnation to death again than a resurrection to life The best thing that we can say of this earthly house and tabernacle of clay the tomb and sepulchre of our souls is that it is a ruinous building and it will not be long before it be dissolved and tumble into dust that it is not our home or resting place but that we look for another house not made with hands eternal in the heavens that we shall not always be confined to this dolefull prison but that in a little time we shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and being disengaged and set free from this burthen of flesh shall be admitted into the glorious liberty of the children of God Alas what frail and brittle things are these bodies of ours How soon are they disordered and discomposed To what a troop of diseases pains and other infirmities are they continually liable And how doth the least distemper or weakness disturb and annoy our minds interrupt our ease and rest and make life it self a burthen to us of how many several parts and members do our bodies consist and if any one of these be disordered the whole man suffers with it If but one of those slender veins or tender membranes or little nerves and fibres whereof our flesh is made up be either contracted or extended beyond its due proportion or obstructed or corroded by any sharp humour or broken what torment and anguish doth it create How doth it pierce our souls with grief and pain Nay when our bodies are at their best what pains do we take to what drudgeries are we forced to submit to serve their necessities to provide for their sustenance and supply their wants to repair their decays to preserve them in health and to keep them tenantable in some tolerable plight and fitness for the soul's use We pass away our days with labour and sorrow in mean and servile employments and are continually busying our selves about such trifling matters as are beneath a rational and immortal spirit to stoop to or be solicitous about And all this onely to supply our selves with food and raiment and other conveniences for this mortal life and to make provision for this vile contemptible flesh that it may want nothing that it craves or desires And what time we can spare from our labour is taken up in resting and refreshing our tired and jaded bodies and giving them such recruits as are necessary to fit them for work again and restore them to their former strength and vigour How are we forced every night to enter into the confines of death even to cease to be at least to pass away so many hours without any usefull or rational thoughts onely to keep these carkasses in repair and make them fit to undergo the drudgeries of the enfuing day In a word so long as these frail weak and dying bodies subject to so many evils and inconvemences both from within and without are so closely linkt and united to our souls that not so much as any one part of them can suffer but our souls must
be affected with it it is impossible that we should enjoy much ease or rest or happiness in this life when it is in the power of so many thousand contingencies to rob us of it But our hope and comfort is that the time will shortly come when we shall be delivered from this burthen of flesh When God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away When we shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the sun light on us nor any heat for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us and shall lead us into living fountains of waters Oh when shall we arrive to those happy regions where no complaints were ever heard where we shall all enjoy a constant and uninterrupted health and vigour both of body and mind and never more be exposed to pinching frosts or scorching heats or any of those inconveniences which incommode this present pilgrimage When we have once passed from death to life we shall be perfectly eased of all that troublesome care of our bodies which now takes up so much of our time and thoughts we shall be set free from all those tiresome labours and servile drudgeries which here we are forced to undergo for the maintenance and support of our lives and shall enjoy a perfect health without being vexed with any nauseous medicines or tedious courses of physick for the preservation of it Those robes of light and glory which we shall be cloathed with at the resurrection of the just will not stand in need of those carefull provisions or crave those satisfactions which it is so grievous to us here either to procure or be without But they as our Saviour tells us St. Luke 20. verse 35 36. which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to Angels they shall live such a life as the holy Angels do Whence Tertullian calls the body we shall have at the resurrection carnem Angelificatam Angelified flesh which shall neither be subject to those weaknesses and decays nor want that daily sustenance and continual recruit which these mortal bodies cannot subsist without Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them This is that perfect and complete happiness which all good men shall enjoy in the other world which according to an Heathen Poet may be thus briefly summed up Mens sana in corpore sano a mind free from all trouble and guilt in a body free from all pains and diseases Thus our mortal bodies shall be raised immortal they shall not onely by the power of God be always preserved from death for so the bodies we have now if God pleases may become immortal but the nature of them shall be so wholly changed and altered that they shall not retain the same seeds or principles of mortality and corruption so that they who are once cloathed with them as our Saviour tells us cannot die any more 2. Our bodies shall be raised in glory Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father Matt. 13.43 Our heavenly bodies in brightness and glory shall contend with the splendour of the Sun it self A resemblance of this we have in the lustre of Moses's face which after he had conversed with God in the Mount did shine so gloriously that the children of Israel were afraid to come near him and therefore when he spake to them he was forced to cast a veil over his face to cloud and eclipse the glory of it And that extraordinary and miraculous majesty of St. Stephen's countenance seems to be a presage of that future glory which our heavenly bodies shall be cloathed with Acts 6.15 And all that sate in the Council looking stedfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel That is they saw a great light and splendour about him and if the bodies of Saints do sometimes appear so glorious here on earth how will they shine and glitter in the other world when they shall be made like unto Christ's own glorious body for so St. Paul tells us that Christ will fashion our vile bodies like unto his glorious body Now how glorious and splendid the body of Christ is we may ghess by the visions of the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul The former of them when he saw the transfiguration of our Saviour when his face did shine as the sun and his raiment became shining and white as snow was at the sight of it so transported and overcharged with joy and admiration that he was in a manner besides himself for he knew not what he said When our Saviour discovered but a little of that glory which he now possesses and will in due time communicate to his followers yet that little of it made the place seem a paradise and the Disciples were so taken with the sight of it that they thought they could wish for nothing better than always to live in such pure light and enjoy so beautifull a sight It is good for us to be here let us make three tabernacles here let us fix and abide for ever And if they thought this so great a happiness onely to be where such heavenly bodies were present and to behold them with their eyes how much greater happiness must they enjoy who are admitted to dwell in such glorious mansions and are themselves cloathed with so much brightness and splendour The other appearance of our blessed Saviour after his ascension into Heaven to St. Paul as he was travelling to Damascus was so glorious that it put out his eyes his senses were not able to bear a light so refulgent such glorious creatures will our Lord make us all if we continue his faithfull servants and followers and we shall be so wonderfully changed by the word of his power from what we are in this vile state that the bodies we now have will not be able so much as to bear the sight and presence of those bodies which shall be given us at the resurrection Now this excellency of our heavenly bodies the Schoolmen fansie will arise in a great measure from the happiness of our souls The unspeakable joy and happiness which our souls shall then enjoy will break through our bodies and be conspicuous and shine forth in the brightness of our countenances and illustrate them with beauty and splendour as the joy of the soul even in this life hath some influence upon the body and makes an imperfect impression upon the countenance by rendring it more serene and chearfull than otherwise it would be as Solomon tells us Eccles. 8.1 That a man's wisedom maketh his face to shine