other than Instruments only their appearance is altogether needless of which we have a full assurance by all the methods of Judicature upon Earth To what purpose should almighty God put himself to the expence of a miracle which must be allowed by all equivalent with the Creation To what purpose I say does the omnipotent Power in a more extraordinary and eminent manner exert it self in rallying together ther the confused and scattered Atoms of all Mankind in bringing them back to their Ranks and Files to the same station and order in which they formerly stood would he think you do all this were our Bodies no more than Tools Credat Judaeus Apellâ— ..... Is this suitable to the solemnity of this great Day when all the World shall be present and all the concerns of all Mankind from first to last adjusted What must the Archangel be sent before to prepare the way with his mighty Voice and Trump of God to rouze all out of their Graves to make their Personal appearance What must the Son of God leave the bosom and right hand of his Father and now a second time come down in the Clouds of Heaven attended and environed with Miriads of his Holy Angels exalted on his Throne to sit in Judgment on things altogether insensible altogether incapable of doing good or evil altogether incapable of Rewards and Punishments I cannot conceive how such an imagination should find any the least entertainment with a Man of Reason was there ever such a thing heard of as a most magnificent Tribunal erected with all the most solemn preparations and attendants to Examine Arraign Try and Condemn meer Stocks and Stones Senseless Clods of Earth which never were capacitated either to commit Sin or feel Pain Now the Noâ—ion of Phylosophy with which we are at present engaged seems to charge the Supreme Tribunal with all this for it says expresly and totidem verbis viz. The Body is not capable either of Sinning or doing Well the Arm which stabbs Sins no more than the Sword the Body is not sensible is not capable of any reward or Punishment Page 210. If then it can be made appear that our Bodies are in an especial manner concerned in the Business and Determination of this great and terrible Day there needs no farther Proof to bring the former absurdities home and Fix them here Now that they are so seems abundantly evident and undeniable 1. Because the Souls of all Men departed had passed their Judgment before immediately upon their respective Dissolutions the Eternities of them all were Stated and they accordingly invested tho their Bodies slept in their Dormitories Secondly all the apparatus the concomitants and attendance of this Day proclaim this aloud This the effectual call of the Heavenly Prâ—â—o that commands them out of their â—eds of Dust this that irresistable Power which brings them to the Bar this their Place and Posture of standing there this the examination and inspection into their former Lives this their remuneration accordingly in a Word this the whole Process of the Day doth abundantly testifie When a Person is remanded from the Goal and brought directly before the Bench when his Indictment is Read when he is Impleaded when the Witnesses are Examined when an exact Scrutiny is made when he is found Guilty and Sentence is pronounced against him No one in his right Senses can doubt who was the party concerned at the Tryal Nor is it less than a contradiction in terms to imagine that this Party thus handled thus proceeded against Properly speaking was not capable of doing Good or Evil was not sensible was not capable of Rewards or Punishments Thirdly and Lastly To strengthen what we have here asserted and to secure it from the attack of the Philosopher I desire it may be observed How that the Holy Scriptures are on our side and seem to countenance this Truth St. John does frequently tell us That the Dead were Judged and our Blessed Saviour in no less than three Places is described by this Periphrasis a Judge both of the Quick and the Dead Act. 10. 42. 1 Tim. 4. 1. 1 Pet. 4. 5. there is no need of a comment here The word Dead puts all out of doubt it being properly applicable to our Bodies only Our Souls are by the allowance of all pronounced Immortal and in the Sense of the Scripture here neither are or can be subject to Death So that here if any where the caveat of the Apostle ought duly to be regarded Col. 2. 8. Beware least any Man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit From this passage we are plainly taught that there is a sort of Philosophy both vain and deceitful and how prejudicial it has been to Divinity no one any way conversant with the Learned can possibly be Ignorant Hence Valentinus owes his Heresie hence Marcion his the Jews in our Saviour's time has suckt in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Pythagoras to the corrupting of their Religion And without doubt the Aereal Notions derived from the school of Plato led the most Learned Origen aside in his Doctrine about the Resurrection upon this account it was that the Jews in the Days of the Maccabees enacted a prohibition against Philosophy and the known character that Tertullian gives them Petriarchas Haereticorum can be derived from no other cause Of this stamp if I mistake not is the Philosophy before us Fallacious and Deceitful as I have above Represented it and therefore we ought to be careful and fearful of it the surest way not to be entangled with it is to lay it aside What tho the subtile Philosopher urge me with a Syllogism which I am not able to Answer nor as is by him ingeniously confessed himself neither What tho he by his Logick entangles me in a difficulty which is not easily effoyled I am notwithstanding all his Quirks to be tenaceous of that Truth which I have all the Reason in the World except his Fallacy to believe When the Philosopher urged a strong and as was supposed an irresistable Argument against Motion the Respondent gave him a sufficient Answer and confutation by his Walking The Case comes home the Body is expresly summoned to appear and must be concluded a Party notwithstanding all that the Philosopher has to say against it The Sophister then here labours in the Fire all his deceitful Logick will never be able to perswade Men of understanding that the Body is barely the instrument of the Soul t is as he has been often told a Part an essential Part the one half of the Man which as such is properly and directly concerned in the Negotiations Traffick and Actions of this State of Probation and so unavoidably interested in the account and as a Party together with the Soul to Answer for all and to stand or fall accordingly T is not to be denyed that our Senses are the great inletts of Sin and therefore ought to be allowed the proper Subjects of
am not willing to dispute 't is too sublime a Subject and above our mortal Reach Nor will I eagerly contend for the Place where upon their dislodging here they are dispos'd of But this Opinion I readily embrace That before our Saviour's Ascension they were not admitted into Heaven whatsoever they are since Nor will I presume to determine for what Things the happy Soul is rewarded nor on the other hand for what the Soul of the Reprobate is punished but so far I conceive it to be plain and allowed by the Concurrence of all That Both at present have their different Enjoyments though imperfect So that in my Apprehension the Consequence of the Learned Author does Claudicare stand in need of a Crutch it is and always will be a Cripple The Soul of the Saint is at present admitted to Happiness I see nothing in Reason from hence to infer Therefore 't is capable of being fully rewarded On the other side the Soul of the Sinner is in its Separate State capable of Punishment Ergo 't is capable of being fully punished I must freely say I cannot see the least colour for the Inference Where-ever the Soul of Lazarus now is it must be without doubt allowed by all to be happy but that it is as happy as it will be after the Resurrection I utterly deny On the other side That the Soul of the Rich Glutton is now in a State of Punishment must be readily assented to but that it is in a full compleat State will can must never be granted This Assertion runs against the stream and current of Reason Scripture and Antiquity as will most manifestly appear in the Examination of the other Opinion of Tertullian which I now come to consider Thirdly He seems to affirm in the Passage above-cited That the Soul is not capable without the Body of Pleasure or Pain of Punishments or Rewards and therefore concludes for a Resurrection 'T is beside my intent to attempt the Defence of this Doctrine tho' the Centuriators have undertaken it And if the Fire of Hell be real as I believe no one will deny because constantly so represented in the Scriptures it would gravel the most accomplish'd of Philosophers from the Principles of Natural Philosophy only to resolve how this Fire can affect and reach the Soul how a Material can act upon an Immaterial Beside there are no mean Authorities and not a few neither to be produc'd who have asserted much the same thing Thus Maldonate as Learned a Man as most and incomparably well read assures us in Matt. 8. 29. Mirum quanto consensu plerique veteres Authores docuerint daemones ante diem judicii non torqueri It was it seems the general Doctrine That the Damned were not punished before the Day of Judgment which how it is to be understood he there tells you Notwithstanding all this I think the foresaid Passage in a strict literal gross Sense by no means defensible we must give some Grains of Allowance to the Writings of this Father or else we shall make mad Work We must consider the Drift and Carriage of the Discourse expound one Passage by another and judge charitably of all and then the Meaning will be plain One while he allows the departed Souls according to their different Deserts a present Portion of Pain or Weal Other while he says That the separate Souls are rewarded or punished at present for the good or bad things they did without the concurrence of the Body and that tho' they are capable without the Body of Pleasure or Pain yet they are not so fully capable as when united to it In other places he seems to affirm the quite contrary viz. That the Soul is not capable of suffering at all without the Body that in a divided State it can feel neither Pleasure nor Pain and upon this account concludes the Necessity of a Resurrection Now to a favourable Reader who shall govern himself as in reason he is obliged suitable to the method but now laid down here will upon mature deliberation appear no Contradiction no Inconsistency in all this the one leads us to the understanding of the other The separate Souls tho' in some measure they do now partake of Rewards and Punishments yet they are in a manner nothing in comparison to what they shall be the Height and Accomplishment of both awaits the Resurrection when Body and Soul shall be again united then and then only the Condition of all shall be compleat And that this is the Meaning of this Ancient Writer is abundantly evident not only from the whole Thread of the Discourse but also from some plain Passages in it As ad perfectionem judicii the Body is required to make the Judgment compleat And again Quae proinde illi non sufficiunt ad sentiendum plaenè quemadmodum neque ad agendum perfecté i. e. The Members of the Soul as he expresses it are not of themselves sufficient to enjoy or suffer fully Nay there are many other Passages frequently occurring which as a Key open the door to the Sense here as the places above noted where he again and again allows the separate Souls capable of Pleasure or Grief without the Body That they can feel or suffer any thing licèt exules carnis without the Body I shall neither trouble my self nor the Reader but with two places more and they are both in one Chapter Resur Carn cap. 17. non quâ sentire quid sine carne non possit sed quâ necesse est illum cum carne sentire And again Ad perficiendam autem operam carnis expectat sic itaque ad patiendam societatem carnis postulat ut tam PLAENE per eam pati possit quà m sine eâ PLAENE agere non potuit The blessed Soul to make up its Happiness full requires the Society of the Body and on the other hand the condemned Soul in its Torments calls for the Fellowship of the Body that the Punishment might be compleated in both parts in conjunction of which their Sins were committed This then being allowed to be the Sense of the Father as I do not see how it can well be denied viz. That the Soul is not capable of Rewards and Punishments without the Body but by no means as the learned Dr reports it p. 214 That the Soul is not capable in its own nature without an organized Body of any Perception how that it is not capable without ar humane Body of either Rewards or Punishments This seems to be a too rigid extream and unreasonable Construction of those passages and woud unavoidably involve the Father in the other Errors of the Death of the Soul or the slumber of it But though the Learned Author does represent the Opinion of Tertullian in this matter thus severely yet he confesses this notion very consistent with the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the General Judgment that is to follow after it but he has this to object against it pag.
both The Blind Man takes the Lame Man on his back by whose direction and assistance he is guided to the Trees lifted up to the Fruit and so enabled to take it away whereupon the Master after all their excuses to no purpose gives them their doom Both were joyned in the Sin and Both must share in the Punishment This is the case of the Body and the Soul saith the Jewish Masters The one acts in conjunction with the other one could not Sin without the other and therefore both must stand and fall together And I cannot forbear to add Nec Lex est justior ulla 2. I do affirm this to be the constant profest most solemn reason most often and upon all occasions made use of by most if not all the Fathers without exception The Learned and vastly read Author in his Elaborate Treatise has given us a considerable number of them p. 209. Athenagor as Tertullian Gregory Nazianzen St. Chrysostom Epiphanius Ambrose Theodoret Aenaeas Gazaeus Damascenus Nilus Photius and has cited the places And though I cannot pretend to any degree of the Doctor 's knowledge in the Fathers yet I can easily give him a much larger List and produce the places too but this I industriously avoid because every Common-Place-Book will afford it and because it would be justly liable to Censure and because in the present case 't is altogether needless forasmuch as the Learned Author has liberally granted That all the ancient Greeks and Latins agree in this that God is obliged in justice to reward or punish the Body together with the Soul Nay Origin himself who has set up a different Hypothesis makes use of the same 'T is beside my intention to stuff this small Essay with a multitude of great Names and Quotations In the next place I take leave to say that this is the great and main reason made use of in the present Argument by the Master of the Sentences The Angelical Doctor and the whole Tribe of the Schoolmen as any one that has but look'd into them must acknowledge and the Doctor himself has owned In the last place I affirm this to be the main chief and constant reason urg'd by all Modern Writers Commentators and others not only of our own but other Nations For my part I speak it uprightly I can cast mine Eyes on no Book on the subject but I meet with it and that not among the Scriblers of the lower Rank but amongst the Masters of the Assemblies the most celebrated Authors Men of Renown in their Generations I could easily fill a great deal of Paper here but I shall dismiss this Consideration with one Authority only and that is of the Learned Grotius on Mat. 2. 32. Inter omnia Argumenta quae ad probandam Resurrectionem adhiberi solent c. Amongst all the Arguments which are brought to prove the Resurrection I know none more effectual and proper than that which Clement the Bishop of Rome was wont to urge having received it from St. Peter that if God be just there must be a Resurrection and this Doctrine this great Man approves of and in that place establishes with no mean Authorities Whither not to transcribe I refer the Reader and because he tells us 't was the Doctrine which St. Clement received from St. Peter I could heartily wish that I could find out this passage in St. Clement in order whereunto I must confess I have sought after it and have found it but not to my satisfaction among the Dialogues of St. Peter and Simon Magus the 2d Dialogue which bears the name of St. Clement but no doubt is spurious and therefore not to be insisted on nor recommended however it may bear some consideration that so great a Man as Grotius gives this reason the Right-hand the Priority and Precedency to all others beside we have his word and reputation for it that it was the express Doctrine which the first Bishop of Rome taught his Disciple and Successor and if we were assured that it was thus Delivered down and derived we are bound to believe it notwithstanding all the Quircks and Niceties of Philosophy to the contrary For the great Apostle's Tongue was guided by an Infallible Spirit Upon the whole I take leave to say upon a much better account than Bellarmine did of the Annals of Baronius here 's turris fortium Solomonis a mighty Tower of strong Men which in reason may be thought able to maintain the Argument and secure it Defendit numerus juctaeque umbone Phalanges was thought a strong Allegation in a much lesser Cause Methinks the Authorities of so many Learned Men in all Ages should uphold it and not suffer it to be lost at this time a-day Methinks here the standing Rule of Vincentius Liricensis if any where ought to sway quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus what all Men in all Ages at all Times have asserted must stand CHAP. V. BUT the Learned Author in his Treatise of the Resurrection has been pleased to lay it aside and having paid his Respect and Deference to the ancient Fathers the avowed Patriots of it He immediately Censures and Condemns it in the words following Pag. 210. If we seriously and impartially consider this Assertion we shall find it not to be true and he gives us those Reasons for it 1st To speak properly the Body is not capable either of Sinning or doing Well it is only the instrument of the Soul and the Arm that stabs sins no more than the Sword 't is the Soul only that is the Murderer Neither 2dly Is the Body capable of Rewards or Punishments 't is the Soul that is sensible Nothing but what is sensible only can be capable of Rewards and Punishments 3dly If it be injustice in God to Punish the Soul alone without the Body in Conjunction with which she committed the Sin then all the Matter which constituted the Body when the several Sins were committed must be raised again and reunited to the Soul for if some why not all But what Monsters of Men should we be in the Resurrection if all the substance of which our Bodies consisted from our Childhood to our Death should be gathered together and formed into a Body This is the Sum of the Charge which the Learned Doctor has to lay against the Doctrine which has been allow'd of by all and is the Attempt of this Paper to cover and fecure There are other Passages in the following part of his Discourse which shall be accounted for in their proper place And here I take it for granted that there are no other difficulties that lie in the way no other Objections at least of any moment against it because they come from so accomplished an Author who must be supposed to have said the most that can be against it Without making any Apology I shall endeavour to give satisfaction to all according to the method in which they lye And First I answer by way
in keeping it clean swept and garnished a fit Receptacle and Mansion for the Holy Spirit in a ready Compliance and Conjunction with the Soul in all the Offices of Religion This most evidently appears to be the Doctrine of our Church when we are admitted to the highest and nearest Communion with God in the Eucharist by that Clause which is inserted and repeated in both Forms of Administration when the Priest delivers the Bread He prays That it may preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life and again he uses the same Form when he gives the Cup The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life Now to reason fairly Unless our Bodies are capable of Everlasting Life I know not what sense we can make of the Prayer And if our Bodies are capable of Everlasting Life as must be allow'd they are necessarily imply'd subject to Everlasting Death and by unavoidable Consequence must be allow'd capable of doing good or evil To conclude this St. Paul was so throughly convinced of Both as that he rallies together a multitude of Arguments to prevent the one and engage us in the other First In 1 Cor. 6. 13. The Body is for the Lord i.e. 'T was made by him and therefore ordain'd and devoted to his Service Secondly The Lord for the Body i.e. He redeemed and sanctified it and so has a farther and improved Right to it Thirdly God will raise our Bodies v. 14. i.e. The Resurrection lays a farther Obligation upon us Fourthly Our Bodies are the Members of Christ and therefore they ought not to be the Members of an Harlot We ought to keep them clean and pure for his sake as Parts of that Society whereof he is the Head Fifthly He that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body i.e. Though there are some Sins without the Body yet the Sins of Vncleanness are properly Sins of the Body Sixthly Our Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost ver 19. The Sins of our Bodies turn this Holy Guâ—st out of doors and admit another Master making them the Devil's Brothel-Houses and Styes Lastly Our Bodies are bought with a price ver 20. Therefore not to glorifie God in own Bodies as well as Souls since by a manifold Right they are both his is not simply Sin but Sin of an high Degree and deep Dye no less than the Sin of Sacrilege After all this to corroborate the Argument I might here expatiate upon the great Cost and Expence which the Primitive Christians bestowed in Embalming their dead Bodies of which Tertullian St. Augustine and others give us a large Account which comes home fully to the Point in hand and can be apply'd to no other purpose By this Practice of theirs 'tis plain they look'd upon their Bodies as perfumed with their Graces here smelling sweet in their Dormitories deposited as in a Bed of Spices and resting in full Hope of a Glorious Retribution But I conceive I have no need of it and therefore it may suffice only to have noted it CHAP. IX I Pass to the Examination of the Third and last Objection which as a Bar lies in our way and ought to be removed If it be Injustice in God to punish the Soul alone without the Body in Conjunction with which she committed the Sin then all the Matter which constitued the Body when the several Sins were committed must be raised again and reunited to the Soul for if some why not all But what Monsters of Men should we be in the Resurrection if all the Substance of which our Bodies consisted from our Childhood to our Deaths should be gathered together and formed into a Body Without taking notice of the Severity of the Objection I shall endeavour to give satisfaction to it And First I Answer That the Resurrection depends upon an All-sufficient and Omnipotent Power and though I cannot tell with what Matter the Bodies shall arise yet every good Man ought to rest satisfy'd in this That a God of infinite Abilities will take care to make good his Word For there are an hundred things as the Learned Author has asserted p. 221. both in NATURE and DIVINITY the Existence of which we cannot doubt and yet the Reason of them we cannot comprehend Of which he there gives us a multitude of Instances whereunto I refer the Reader and at last resolves the Resurrection into God's good Pleasure as the Highest Reason 'T is altogether surprizing how he came to be so positive here and in this difficult point impossible to be understood or resolved by the wisest of Men to be so magisterial especially considering that unlucky Passage which drops from his Pen in the Words immediately following p. 222. I fansie my self Philalethes talking to a bold Refiner on the Promises and Decrees of Almighty God and one of those little Nothings that call themselves Philosophers that form to themselves Notions and Idaea's then deal with Revelation as the Tyrant did with the poor Innocents on his Bed either violently stretch it beyond its natural Reach or chop off a part to make it commensurate to their Intentions I will make no Animadversions here though I have a fair Opportunity but I cannot forbear to say that the Learned Author has made Monsters of all Men at the Resurrection if it be founded on Justice contrary to his own Reasoning in the places foregoing where he professes his Ignorance and challenges the World to give an account of as supposing it impossible And yet boldly asserts here That all the Matter which was of the Body of the Man from his Childhood to his Grave must be rallied together at the Resurrection or else there can be nothing of Justice in the Case But Secondly I answer This Assertion runs Counter to the Doctrine of the Schoolmen and Ancients who have with one Mouth determin'd That the Child shall not arise a Child nor the Corpulent Man with his great Bulk nor he who sunk under a Marasmus peep out of his Grave a Skeleton Nor the Old Man appear at the Resurrection with his Grey Hairs or any Symptomes of Age but all shall arise inter Incrementum Decrementum humanae naturae about the Age of 33 in a perfect State staturaÌ„ quam habuit vel habiturus est as Lombard Sent. 4. Dis 44. Aug. Civ Dei Lib. 22. Cap. 14. Thirdly I answer That this is altogether beside the Question We are to consider the Body fallen and to prove the Resurrection of that same Body to be joined to the same Soul in order to a Judgment And this is all that in Reason can be expected We are no ways concerned to look back to its various and different States from his Childhood to his Death if we can produce the same Prisoners before the Supreme Tribunal there can be no Injustice in the Thing for the Learned Author has granted and proved that our Bodies from our Childhood to our Graves notwithstanding
A most Heavenly Prayer this being incomparably the best Shield Buckler the best Antidote and Preservative against the loss of Friends or the Consideration of our own approaching Mortality with respect both to our selves and others to bouy up our Spirits amidst the Melancholy Apprehensions of the Rottentenness and Miseries of the Grave and exalts us above the Worms and Corruption of it directing us assuredly to know and believe that there is a time coming when there will be an happy meeting of both though they are now with Grief and Rluctancy divided when the happiness of both shall be complete And this is an Authority undeniably Authentick and must for any thing I can see to the contrary strongly and irrefragably establish the Doctrine contended for viz. That our Bodies are capable of Cewards and Punishments hereafter of doing Well or Evil here CHAP. XI THE Learned Author having laid aside the Opinions of Tertullian as not serviceable to his purpose not affording him a Satisfactory Reason of this Decree of Almighty God concerning the Resurrection To give a true Accounr of it thinks it necessary to mount a little higher and to look a little farther and passing by many conjectures which he finds in the Schools and in some of our Ancient Writers and among the Jewish Masters p. 217. lays before you his own Thoughts and here he assigns three Reasons why God has been pleased to decree that the Soul in the Day of Judgment shall be again united to a Humane Body In discussing of which I shall beg leave to invert the order of them as more suitable to the method of my Discourse and for the advantage of my present Argument which if I mistake not will gain one of those Reasons over to our side and party as falling over to it and therefore ought to go together The last Reason which I here place first why God will restore us to our Humane Nature and why he will raise up the very same Body is p. 219. HE WILL BECAUSE HE WILL a very bad Reason for the Actions of Man but a very good one for God's he will because he hath Promised Which the Learned Author irrefragably confirms from what follows p. 222. which I conceive my self obliged to transcribe and is as follows I am the Lord I have said it and who can say What dost thou There is nothing that God does but he does for a very good reason And who are we that we should call him to an Account for what he does His Ways and his Counsels are many of them unsearchable to us and as Job tells us Chap. 33 13. He gives not Account of any of his Matterâ— 'T is his part to Act ours to Admire and Submit and as long as our Reason and our Senses are not plainly contradicted we are only to enquire WHAT not How or WHY I would fain know of those who deny the Resurrection of the same Humane Body because they do not know what use we can make of the particular parts in the Life to come whether they deny or doubt the existence of all other things the Reason of which they cannot comprehend I would undertake to quiet the Scruples of these Men and to satisfie all their Queries if they would be pleased to answer a few Questions of mine I could ask them the reason of an Hundred things in Nature and Divinity Which he there supposes unaccconntable and particularly in the case about the Resurrection p. 221. He acknowledges a multitude of difficulties altogether inextricable i. e. for which there is no reason to be given and therefore must of necessity be resolved into this viz. the Will and Pleasure of God I willingly concur with the Learned Author here and presume there is no one that will oppose him For this without paradventure is the highest and most supream Reason which must put to silence all Objections remove all Difficulties whatsoever and make things which seem to us impossible easie Though with Mary we do not know how this can be Luke 1. 34 Though our reason cannot fathom cannot comprehend it yet our Faith must give us an assurance that it will be and teach us with the Mother of the Holy Jesus with submission to conclude Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word This is a Reason above all Reasons allowed and approved of by all and to which all others however Philosophical and plausible must submit This I gladly and readily note because I expect to receive some advantage from it in the subsequent part of this Discourse for I am in hopes to prove the Doctrine I have attempted to defend to be the express determination of God's revealed Will and Word and then all the most powerful Arguments of the Profoundest Philosophers must truckle under and fall to the Ground But if I mistake not this Reason of Gods Word or Decree of the Resurrection of the Body was not in the least the Subject of the Dispute The Question only arose from the Reason of this Decree There can be no doubt but that the Resurrection will be because God hath said and ordained it The Subject of the enquiry can be no other than the Reason of God's Will and Pleasure here Namely why God has Decreed the Resurrection of the same Body and this obliges the Learned Author to look farther and therefore Secondly In the the next place he tells us p. 219. That another Reason why God has been pleased to ordain that the same Humane Body that Died shall Rise again and be reconjoined to the Soul I take to be this and that indeed I take to be the first and chief reason of that Decree we had all been immortal Men if Adam had not sinned 't was God's design that we should never Die but that our Souls should remain for ever united to their Bodies this Gracious design being frustrated by Adam's Transgression he was Graciously pleased to ordain that as in Adam all Die so in Christ the second Adam we should all at last Triumph over Death and be restored to those Bodies and that Humane Nature which he first designed should be immortal by the Death and Resurrection of Christ our losses are to be repaired which Adam's sin occasioned but our losses cannot be repaired unless we are restored to those Bodies which by his sinning we lost To this Second Reason I say First I have no mind to implunge my self or Reader in the Decrees of Almighty God which is an Abyss or Ocean never to be fathomed Nor am I disposed to concern my self about the examination of that Question Whether Adam and his Posterity had Died if they had not Sinned Only I shall briefly and freely deliver my Opinion in this matter That it seems to me very probable that allowing the supposition of his and their continuance in their spotless purity He and his Race after some time like Enoch or Elias or some other way with Analogy and resemblance to
these should have been translated for 't is no way conceivable how that Paradise which was but a Garden as the word imports and by the boundaries and description of it must be acknowledged a very small and inconsiderable part of the Earth should have held and contained him and his numberless issue in the State of innocency which state must unavoidably by all be allowed perfectly and intirely Prolifick absolutely free and dischargeb from all false Conceptions or Abortions all Impediments or Indispositions whatsoever on either side Passing by all this I say that that which the Learned Author takes to be the First and Chief Reason of this Decree of the Resurrection I take to be no Reason at all or at least to be no adequate Reason of the General Resurrection the utmost that it can pretend to as it is here stated is only the Resurrection of the Just the Reason is undeniable for the Learned Author here sets it forth and expresses it by a Gracious Design and the Gracious Pleasure of God Now how this can agree with and include the Resurrection on of the Reprobate let the World judge The Subject of our Discourse is the Resurrection of all Men of which the Wicked are allowed by all to be by far the greater Number And this is a Doctrine that can meet with no Opposition That these are to be called out of their Graves to an Everlasting Death to be taken out of the common Prison to be delivered over to Tormentors to be cast into that Dungeon whence there is no Redemption where the Worm dieth not and the Fire never shall be quenched where there is utter Darkness and uninterrupted weeping and gnashing of teeth In a word The Resurrection of the Wicked is only in order to a Judgment that is altogether insupportable He is like the worst of Criminals taken from the Gaol to undergo a much severer Doom His Resurrection ushers in the tremendous Sentence Depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Here the Designs carry in them the Advancement of Divine Vengeance Justice and Glory without the least Mite or Crumb of Grace or Favour The undone Reprobate placed on the other side of the Great Gulf is for ever excluded from all Hopes of these not all his Cries in his greatest Extremity can prevail for one drop of Water There is no place for Favour or Mercy in Hell so that it seems to me somewhat strange how the Learned Author came to take up this for a Reason and to alledge for Confirmation of it that Passage of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 22. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive I am verily perswaded that this place was never before understood of or applied to the Resurrection of the Wicked but of the Righteous only Neque vivificantur omnes in Christo sed tantum qui Christo adhaeserunt saith the Excellent Cameron Eccl. tom 10. and all Commentatators go the same way And indeed no one without offering manifest Violence to the Sacred Text can put any other Interpretation on it it being the chief Design of the Apostle in that Chapter as is evident from the whole Carriage of it to set forth the Glorious Qualities attending the Bodies of the Righteous at the Resurrection without touching in the least on the other side Beside we have most plentiful Assurance That Christ's Coming his Merits Death and Resurrection are so far from being Advantageous to all that the quite contrary is undeniable These greatest of Favours shall sink those that have despised them into the lowest deepest darkest and most dismal Place of Hell To this purpose the Prophet Isaiah delivers himself expresly chap. 8. ver 24. He Christ shall be for a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel for a gin and a snare to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Which great Truth two Evangelists have left on Record Matth. 21. 44. Luke 20. 18. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall- be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder The very self-same Doctrine is taught us by St. Paul Rom. 9. ult and prosecuted and amplified at large by St. Peter 1 Epist. 2. 6 seq … Beside 't were an easie Province to discharge this also from being a Reason of the Resurrection of the Righteous for 't is a Truth that shineth as clear as the Sun at Noon-day That this Blessed Change advances the Saint to a State of Happiness and Glory beyond what Man could ever pretend to had the still continued in his Primitive Purity But this is not my Business Wherefore I come to consider the Third and remaining Reason assigned by the Learned Author Why the Soul at the Day of Judgment is again to be united to the Body which is as follows p. 218. That as we are Men when we sin or do well so we may be Men when by a judicial Sentence we are punished or rewarded for it But we cannot be Men unless we have Humane Bodies St. Paul tells us THAT WE MUST ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST THAT EVERY MAN MAY RECEIVE THE THINGS DONE IN HIS BODY ACCORDING TO THAT HE HATH DONE WHETHER IT BE GOOD OR BAD And as we are to give an account for what we did in the Body so in the Body we shall give an account if it be reasonable that we should be Men when we are punished or rewarded for what we did when Men it seems much more reasonable that we should be then the same Men But we cannot be the same Men unless we have the same Bodies CHAP. XII I Cannot here forbear with the Philosopher to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with an Extasie of Joy most willingly and gladly receive it This certainly is a Reason which must be allowed approved of and applauded by all A Reason which deserves the Inscription of Capital Golden Letters and as Job speaks To be graven with an iron pen and lead in a rock for ever Job 19. 2. Or as the Prophet Jeremy expresses it tho' in a different Sense To be written with a pen of iron and the point a diamond Jer. 11. 1. This is that Reason which being in love with I do earnestly contend for and am very unwilling to lose THE GREAT AND STANDING REASON OF THE RESURRECTION IN ALL AGES EMBRACED AND COMMENDED BY AEL Which tho' the Learned Anthor has been pleased to censure condemn and throw aside as false and untrue and to give us no less than three Reasons for his Justification yet here he â—akes it up again and notwithstanding his former Reflections on it give it a new Reputation and in his most studied refined and last Reasons of this most important Doctrine of the Resurrection recommends it to the World in the first place as no doubt the Flower and Prime of all Nay what is more he sets it on the Foundation of an Infallible Authority 2