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A27234 The doctrine of a general resurrection wherein the identity of the rising body is asserted against the Socinians and scepticks : in a sermon preach'd before the University at St. Mary's in Oxford, on Easter-Monday, Apr. 5 / by Tho. Beconsall ... Becconsall, Thomas, d. 1709. 1697 (1697) Wing B1656; ESTC R1506 19,938 35

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from the Dead the Members that are united to him by a spiritual vital Principle his holy Spirit shall certainly be raised for He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Rom. 8.11 Again Christ is expresly styl'd The first-fruits of our Resurrection And as the First-fruits offered to God consecrated or blessed the whole Lump so this First-fruit having purchased to himself a vital Principle by fulfilling the Divine Compact it will be convey'd to all those that have an interest in him so that the Resurrection of the Just or Faithful is in a spiritual Sence or the way of Grace derived from that of our Saviour as absolutely as Light or Warmth from the Sun in the way of Nature But then here 's the Foundation of the Miscarriages of our Adversaries the Rock which they carelesly split upon For since they are not able to discern any such Connexion between the Resurrection of our Saviour and that of the Wicked they are apt to imagine he can have no just Right or Title to it and consequently there 's no real Foundation for it But the Mistake is extremely obvious For as our blessed Saviour became a Mediator between God and Man and this Mediation in the original Design of it extends to all the Sons and Daughters of Adam he challenges an unquestionable Right of Dominion over the whole Species upon the Performance or Execution of it For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.9 This is so clear that it extends even to Heathens and Unbelievers for by virtue of it he becomes their proper Judge and as he 's their Judge he can rightfully summon 'em from their very Graves in their proper Bodies or Persons And therefore he hath an uncontroulable Authority to rouze even once the most potent Sinner and oblige him to account for his Actions with those Eyes and Hands and Heart that so grosly dishonour'd him And since in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments he has signified a special regard to the Body as well as Soul we might without St. Paul's express Declaration conclude That there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust Act. 24.15 It is true they move upon a different Foundation the first is an Act of infinite Grace and Mercy an Act that carries the most joyful Invitations in it for its the glorious Consummation of Christ's Espousals with his Church but the second an Act of sovereign Power and Justice and implies a kind of forcible Entry on the Tombs of the Wicked who shall be haled forth to receive the Sentence of Disobedience in a personal and bodily Appearance And thus much for the Extent of the Resurrection I proceed to examine the Second General which respects the Manner of it and 't is That we shall all be raised in our own proper Bodies And for the clearing of this Argument I shall first evince it from the Nature of the Thing from Scripture and Antiquity And for as much as the Resurrection of our own proper Bodies will appear from these Authorities I shall in the Second Place endeavour to state the Nature of Humane Identity and consequently the Identity of our rising Bodies and from both these conclude what is proper to be Believ'd and make some returns to the Possibility of such a Resurrection And First That we shall All be raised in our own proper Bodies This is a Position which the Socinians unanimously reject It s true Schlictingius places humane Identity purely in the Identity of a Rational Spiritual Soul and tho' he doth not expresly deny the Resurrection of the Body yet he makes the Identity of the Body no way material in the Resurrection See Comment on Rom. 8. v. 11. As for the Nature of humane Identity I shall speak to it in its proper place and therefore I shall prosecute my present Design and prove that the Christian Faith is We shall be raised every one in his own proper Body And first this is indisputably evident from the very Notion of a Resurrection and the receiv'd use of the Word Now certainly a Resurrection is the restoring a dead Creature to its former State of Life by a Re-union of its first Principles The constituent Principles of a Man are a Soul and a Body and Death primarily consists in the Separation of 'em or rather as Death is the Fore-runner of Corruption in the Dissolution of one or both of 'em If therefore Lazarus or any other Person is to be raised again those Two numerical Principles of which he was originally compounded must be united and then and not till then is Lazarus raised from the Dead The Notion sufficiently discovers it self in the Case of Lazarus and our Blessed Saviour where the Body was not dissolved and the same is absolutely required where the corruptible Principle is actually dissolved Man is certainly compounded of a corruptible and incorruptible Principle the incorruptible Principle cannot suffer Death or Dissolution and therefore Men are chiefly said to be Dead in respect of their corruptible Principle that usually suffers Corruption certainly then if any particular Person is to be raised from the Dead that Principle which properly dies and is corrupted is to be restored to its former State and united to the incorruptible Principle without which there can be no Resurrection For if the corruptible Principle which properly dies and is dissolved is not restored but a new one formed or created in the room of it and united to the incorruptible Principle it may be properly esteemed a new Production but by no means a proper Resurrection and to assert the contrary is to confound received Terms as well as Notions In a word when a new Body is formed out of the common Mass of Matter and united to the Soul of any particular Person it s in reality no more but the Pythagorean Transmigration which tho' perform'd after a new manner yet by no greater a share of Divine influence than that which gives a plastick Power to form a Body in the Womb and unites a particular Soul to it Shall the Socinians then those pretending Masters of Reason call this a Resurrection This is to obtrude a Notion contrary to the sence of Mankind when the great Argument for rejecting the true Resurrection is because they cannot reconcile it to their scanty Measures of Reason But that what hath been hitherto asserted was the true Notion of a Resurrection not only the Testimony of Scripture and Christian Antiquity but the joint Suffrage of the Learned Heathens abundantly assures us For it was on this account the Doctrine of the Resurrection was loaded with so much Contempt and Scorn when they considered so many various Transmigrations of Matter they esteemed it impossible for Omnipotence it self to range every Particle into its own peculiar Place and Order so as to restore and make up
every individual Body Hence it was they triumphed in their Barbarities exercis'd upon some of the Martyrs of Christ since they designedly committed 'em to the Jaws of wild Beasts to defeat as they thought Omnipotence and infinite Truth at the same time in disabling him from performing what he had solemnly promised Indeed had the Resurrection in the most strict and proper Sence of it implied a Restitution of the same individual Body it could not have extorted such severe Censures from most of the Learned Heathens for since they allowed the Immortality of the Soul and a natural Tendency to assume a new Vehicle they might easily allow that Omnipotence could without any difficulty prepare a new Body if that had been sufficient as the Socinian would have it to give it the Denomination of a Resurrection For in a word This would have passed off as a specious kind of Transmigration and consequently a Doctrine that would have met with a very easy Reception in most of the Greek Schools But to proceed Let us in the next place examine what Scripture says to this Matter whereby we shall prove our main Design as well as confirm this very Notion And first from the Passages already cited on another Argument where the Resurrection is said to be made from the Grave from the Sea and Hell and Death where the Dead are said to stand before God and Death and Hell are said to give up their dead See Rev. 20 12 13. Joh. 5.28 I think its indisputably evident the Holy Spirit directs us to the corruptible Principle the Body which alone suffers Death and is committed to the Grave and consequently the Resurrection must imply a Restitution of this very Principle in Conjunction with the incorruptible Principle the Soul Indeed it seems absurd to send us to all the Repositories of the Dead to establish the Belief of a Resurrection if a new Corporeal Part is to be framed or rather if the Mortal Part that was laid in the Prison of the Grave is not to be given up again and actually restored The Argument is so obvious and convincing that neither Socinus nor Crellius upon these Passages of Scripture are able to make any other Reply but Non sequitur or it does not appear that the rising Body is the same numerical Body with that which fell It s true Socinus appeals to a Passage of St. Paul which proves nothing as will appear by and by but what we freely grant that our corruptible Bodies cannot inherit Incorruption See Comment o● Joh. 5.28 And therefore it concludes nothing against the present Argument But the Identity of our rising Bodies is evinced from yet more express Authorities of Scripture in one place we are assurred that the holy Spirit shall quicken our mortal bodies Rom. 8.11 In another that our Saviour shall change our vile bodies that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 In a third that This corruptible shall put on incorruption 1 Cor. 15.53 Here we have the Notion of a Resurrection asserted in express Terms as well as the Identity of the rising Body For is it not that mortal corruptible Principle or that Body which suffered Corruption in the Grave that is said to be quickened or restored to Life Crellius I know has the Face to affirm that they are not our mortal Bodies that are quickened but new ones assigned us See Comment on the Place But can a new Body substituted in the room of my mortal Body without Solecism and Nonsence be called my mortal Body or this New Body quickened the quickning of my mortal Body But to proceed the remaining Passages carry the Absurdity higher Can a new Body as to Matter or Substance plac'd in the room of my corruptible Body be fairly reconciled with this Corruptible Or can my corruptible Principle or dead Body tho' never to be restored be said to put on Incorruption only because my Soul is after a certain Period united to a new incorruptible Body diametrically distinct from my corruptible Body My Soul in such a case puts on Incorruption but by no means my corruptible Body that still rots and moulders in the Dust Again our vile Bodies may be fashioned or changed into the likeness of Christ's glorious body by reducing 'em from a natural to a spiritual and from a corruptible to an incorruptible Frame but if perfect new Bodies are to be fashioned and substituted then our vile bodies are not the things fashioned or changed into the likeness of glorious bodies but exchanged for ' em We therefore freely grant that the Substance is transform'd by a Change of Qualities from natural to spiritual and from corruptible to incorruptible Bodies And this is all the Apostle intends when he tells us That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Heaven A great Truth no doubt as it is encompassed with humane Infirmities and corruptible Qualities for the Close of the Verse gives us the sence of the whole nor corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15.35 the place cited by Socinus But now we have gone thus far it would be highly absurd to affirm that a vile corruptible Body puts on Incorruption or is fashioned or changed into a glorious Body when it remains in an eternal State of Corruption Therefore the Resurrection which changes a vile and corruptible Body into a glorious and incorruptible one must imply a Restitution of the corruptible Principle and consequently the same numerical Body is the undoubted Subject of the Resurrection But farther that I may not dwell too long on this General I shall only have recourse to Scripture for one Argument more it s The Resurrection of our Saviour's Body Now it s well known the History of all the Evangelists the Print of the Nails in his Hands and Feet and of the Spear in his Side demonstrate That our blessed Saviour rose in that very Body which was Crucified Dead and Buried but now it s on all hands agreed that our Saviour was a Type and Pattern of our Resurrection yes he 's more to the Righteous for its Christ's the first-fruits afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming The Apostle all along carries the Analogy between him and us and therefore As Christ rose in his own proper mortal Body so we shall all rise in ours The Socinians are pressed here and therefore endeavour to evade the force of it by pretending That tho' our Saviour rose in his Crucified Body yet upon his Ascension he received a glorious and spiritualized Body But this Evasion proves nothing unless it appear from Scripture that Christ deposited his Crucified Body and assumed a new Body in the room of it But this is a Conceit that 's destitute of all Foundation from Scripture and indeed so much that I do not find any Socinian that peremptorily asserts it Therefore this Glorified Body can be nothing but the Crucified Body refin'd adorn'd and beautify'd and it s no more but what we allow in the