Believers by vertue of which union his Resurrection doth assure theirs Christ and Believers constitute but one Mystical Body it is the Spirit of Holiness which thus unites them of which they both must necessarily tho not equally Partake He is the Head they are the Members and therefore must have Communion with him in his Resurrection and Life Whatsoever Glorious or Inglorious Change the Head suffers the Members must feel something of the same in a proportionate Degree And this is so Infallible that the Apostle argues not only from the Negation of Christs Resurrection to the Negation of ours but from the Negation of our Resurrection to the Nullity of Christ's 1 Cor. 15.13 This Union is continued even while Believers are under the Power of the Grave The Relation of Christ to the Father did not cease when he was detained by Death in the Bowels of the Earth tho the Comforts of that Relation were suspended yet the Relation it self never brake of So in a State of Death the Union between Christ and Believers remains It is the Man who dies not the Christian Both parts of the Human Person are separated from each other but neither of them separated from Christ Hence it is that when their Spirits are returned to God their flesh doth rest in Hope and their Bodies take a joiful and quiet Repose in their Beds of Dust because He to whom they are so dearly and Indissolvably United will not leave them under the power of Death for ever But 2. The Spirit dwells in Believers not only as a bond of Vnion between Christ and them but as a Principle of Power for their Resurrection Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you The Resurrection of Christ is ascribed in the Scripture to all the Persons in the Trinity It is ascribed to God the the Father because he is the Fountain of action in the Deity as at Acts 3.15 and it is ascribed to him as he is the God of Peace as invested with that Title because he was the Person to whom satisfaction was made as at Heb. 13.20 And it is ascribed to the Son himself because all that he did as Mediator was to be his own Joh. 2.19 and chap. 10.18 But the efficiency is ascribed to the Holy Spirit Whether we consider him as given by the Father or giving himself a Sacrifice for our Sins he is said by the Eternal Spirit to offer up himself Heb. 9.14 so whether the act of his Resurrection be spoken of as done by the Father or by himself yet it is by the Spirit which proceeds from both 1 Pet. 3.18 Now the Spirit that dwelleth in Jesus dwelleth in Believers And as it abode in him and acted in him to the offering up himself to the Death of the Cross and afterwards presided over his Body in the Grave and put forth its Power in raising him So far doth it act in Believers while here and preside over their dead Bodies to the same purposes And thus to ascribe the Resurrection of Believers to the Spirit of Christ is but congruous with other acts of Divine Goodness and the precedent workings of the Spirit For as he quickens the Souls of Believers and raises them from Death in Sin and conforms 'em to the Image of Christ so 't is requisite that He should be the Author of their Corporeal Resurrection and likeness to Christ also Now the Resurrection of Believers being fixed on these Grounds We shall next briefly consider its Necessity When Death which was introduc'd by Sin hath been reigning and acting the part of a Conqueror over Mankind and bringing all both just and unjust under its Dominion it is necessary that sooner or later it be overcome and swallowed up of victory 't is necessary that some of its Captives be released that some Souls be Redeemed from its Power Otherwise 1. The Glory of Christ Redeemer would suffer a great and perpetual Eclipse And 2. The Felicity of Believers would never be Compleat and Perfect 1. The Glory of Christ Redeemer would suffer a great and perpetual Eclipse The Perfection of Beings in their several Kinds was the Glory of the Creator To be redeemed from the Power of Sin and be left under the Power of the Grave were it supposeable would be such an imperfect Redemption as we cannot but apprehend to be inconsistent with the Wisdom and Power and Love and absolute Perfection of the Redeemer That Creatures capable of Immortality should be left in a State of Discipline and Probation here and that their Future State should be according to their present Behaviour and Deportment carries nothing of inconsistency in it But that these Creatures capable of Immortality when they have demeaned themselves aright and gone through their State of Tryal with Approbation should be left under the Power of Death and not entred into their Masters Joy is such a dealing as we cannot conceive worthy of God That Death and He who hath the Power of Death that is the Devil should perpetuate their Authority over the sincere Servants of Christ and take their Reward from them How Inglorious a Person would this bespeak our Redeemer to be Moreover as he is the Head of the Mystical Body his Honour suffers a visible Diminution by the Absence of any Member There is so much lost of his Praises as should belong to those that are thus kept back For who can declare his Righteousness in the Grave Or Praise him in the House of Silence Psalm 88.11 12. Psalm 115.17 We are not to imagine our Lord so careless of his own Glory when he hath already done so much for that end and when it is still in his own Power as he is absolute Lord of the whole unseen World to perfect his own Praise As surely as he hath triumphed over Death and all Principalities so surely will he make all his Members to Triumph over them and that for his own Glory And none shall be detained under their Dominion unless such as by their own choice while here remained in an inviolable Union with Death and the Prince of Darkness that is the Devil 2. The Felicity of Believers would never be Compleat and Perfect The Perfection of their Personal Felicity necessarily requires the Concourse or Union of all that is essential to or constitutive of the Person The Body and the Soul from their first setting out in the World to the Grave run the same Race therefore they must enjoy the same Reward There is 't is true a great inequality in their Operations as respecting Holiness so there will be a great inequality in their Enjoyments but both must have their proper share And it would not be beseeming the Divine Goodness to deal so differently as that the Soul should be Everlastingly Happy and the Body lost in forgetfulness
from its Bonds if there could be none found that might be par negotio competent for such a work Or if 2. They were such as were not to be redeemed but to be left under the power of Death so that their dying out of this World should be a certain introduction of the second Death which is Eternal if they were found without those qualifications that might Rank them among that number to whom the Almighty Redeemer hath appropriated and confined his Care and Power In either of these cases Christians cannot without inexpressible Grief behold the Conquest Death makes over Apostate Creatures and Lament the Exit of a Sinner because it is his Entrance into a place of Torment from whence there is no Redemption In either of these Cases Relatives may with some colour of Reason abandon themselves to sorrow and Mourn as those without hope because they really are such But this is not the case here Death and the Grave in our present View is not so mournful a Spectacle Their aspect which is always various according to the State of the Person related to is not so Frightful and Horrid Inexorable Death its true hath suddenly snatched away one from us and the Grave hath swallowed Her up But Help is laid on one that is mighty to save There is one that hath destroy'd him that hath the power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 And therefore can redeem a soul from the power of the Grave and swallow up Death and the Grave in Victory As he hath absolute Power over this Visible World of ours and doth measure out the time which each of its Inhabitants is to spend here So Death and the Grave are also within the limits of his Dominion and an Authority of emitting thence is conjunct with his Authority and Power of commanding our Entrance into it Neither is it to be questioned but that Person on whom Death hath now laid its hand and transmitted to the Grave is interested in and under the custody of that Benign Power which will in a seasonable time bring her up from thence The supporting Vertue of this and such like Truths to the Deceased under her Chronical Distempers and the Consolatory use of it to her Surviving Consort hath given him just Reasons for the Recommendation of this Text to be spoken to on this occasion But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah The Adversative Particle But refers us to something that was spoken before The Doctrine of the Resurrection is insinuated as a most effectual remedy against inordinate fears and dejection of mind in an evil time This hath an advantage above other remedies because it suits with the natural Disposition of Mankind to draw relief under trouble from a pre-apprehended Deliverance Those who erroneously built their hopes of a Resurrection upon their Wealth and the multitude of their Riches made it to serve for this purpose but the unservicableness of their Wealth and Wisdom and the vanity of their Trust thereon is detected by their daily subjection to Death who not only cuts them down as at verse 7.8 9 10. but afterwards feeds on them v. 14. And therefore tho the Doctrine be true and of soveraign and infallible use in such cases yet because the Foundation of their Hopes is false they can have no safe retreat hither from their forementioned guilty Fears But I build my Hope upon a truer bottom tho their fears in an evil Day or Hour of Death may reasonably remain yet I have no reason to fear for it is God one that can and one that will redeem my soul from the power of the Grave and receive me Selah This is the plain connexion of the words with the precedent part of the Psalm I shall enquire into the true Import of both Phrases and then look upon them in their Mutual respect and the light they cast upon each other But God will deliver my soul from the power of the Grave The word Soul must be taken in an accommodate Sense and without enumerating the various Expositions it seems most properly to signifie the Humane Life not the Soul or Body singly but the Union between both because this is that that suffers the Intercision by Death And this Metonymical Construction is justified by many Places of Scripture where the Circumstances of the Text do at first view determine this to be the true and only Sense of the Word Isa 53.12 He hath poured out his Soul unto Death compared with Matth. 20.28 And to give his Life a Ransom for many From the Power of the Grave The Original Word is comprehensive of the whole unseen World both in its Upper and Lower in its Happy and Miserable Regions The known Controversie in which this Word is concerned hath occasioned a fuller search into its Primitive and Ancient Signification And though it be of that Latitude yet its Sense is peculiar according to the Circumstances of the Place wherein it is used And here I conceive it is most properly understood of the State and Place of the Dead so that the import of the Expression God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave is That he will not leave me in that State wherein Death lodges me Death will separate my Soul and Body and turn my Body to Dust but God will not suffer it to keep me always in that State He will not suffer it to Exercise a perpetual Dominion over me Tho' I am captivated by it yet He who is stronger than Death will break its Bars and give me a seasonable Release The Word Redeem seems to govern and direct us in Understanding the whole Phrase and leads us so to conceive of the Power of the Grave and our being in or under it as that with Reference to it the Word Redemption might be properly applicable and used And this Construction is confirmed by that Parallel Text Hosea 13.14 where the Captivity of the Jews is called a Death a being under the Power of the Grave But saith God I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem from Death O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction But more fully by that of the Psalmist Psalm 16.9 10. which though spoken by David concerning our Lord Christ as the Apostle Peter determines Acts 2.25 26 27. Yet may truly and properly be spoken of every sincere Christian that is his Member My Flesh shall rest in Hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy one to see Corruption For He shall receive me i. e. He shall take me entirely to himself The Form of our Covenant between us is that I should give up both Body and Soul to him and that he should receive both that where he is I in my whole Person may be He hath received me into his Grace and Favour He hath accepted me in the Beloved He hath adopted
That the one should be glorified in Heaven and the other remain in the Dust Besides this we may justly conceive of a fixed innocent Inclination in the glorified Soul to her former Dear Associate and therefore the satisfying such an Inclination by their Re-union must contribute to the Felicity of the Person Their Relative of Mutual Happiness would be likewise impaired if any that truly belonged to their Number were wanting and still kept under the Power of Death For they are all inviolably United in Love which as it were transforms one into another and causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all And every one both adds to and shares in the Felicity of the whole Here there are many Vitious Allays of Love among true Christians and they do not duely sympathize with one another in their Conditions of Life But in Heaven they are of one Heart and one Soul there is an exact Agreement of Tempers and Inclinations so that could we suppose the Body of one detained as an Eternal Prisoner of the Grave and such a ones Happiness thereby impaired the whole would suffer therein But I come now to the Use Now as this Doctrine of the blessed Resurrection of Believers being fix'd on the fore-mentioned Grounds and Reasons must needs be acknowledged a great Truth and one of the true and faithful Sayings of God So upon strict Enquiry it will appear a very comfortable Truth And that 1. With respect to the present Afflictions and Sufferings of this Life and particularly the Frailties and Diseases and Weakness and Vileness of these Bodies The Dictates of Reason and the Prescriptions of Moralists are ineffectual to form the Soul to true Patience and Contentment under bodily Sufferings But Faith and Hope in a blessed Resurrection administers powerful Support And as this excels all natural Topicks so all the consolatory Points in Revealed Religion do ultimately center and terminate in this For if our Hope was only in this Life whatever may be propounded to us we were of all Creatures most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 To know that our Bodies shall be raised to an immortal incorruptible Glory and changed into the likeness of Christ's Body makes us more unconcerned about their Condition and more contented that God should have the entire Disposal of them here This sweetens the most bitter Cups alleviates the most heavy Burdens and renders all bodily Distempers and Pains supportable and easie And furthermore it directs us so to behold so to account of so to improve these present momentary Afflictions as that they might Work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 2. With respect to our own Personal Dissolution This is the thing which Nature so much abhors to come under the Power of Death to be divulsed from all the Enjoyments of Life to be confined to the dark solitude of the Grave to see Man no more in the Land of the Living this is a frightful and disquieting Thought And inasmuch as this is a thing universally known it is also universally feared There is a lawful fear of Death when this Passion is regular both as to its Object and Degree it is excellently Useful As a wise Counsellour or faithful Guardian it keeps Reason awake and active so as that it might sustain the Evil in the best manner which it could not prevent And there is an inordinate fear of Death which as a Tyrannous Master doth continually disquiet and torment the Soul and keep a Man all his Life time under Bondage The Philosophers attempted to moderate and govern these anxious Fears but in vain * Bates Har. of Attr. cap. 17.355 p. Octa. All that they could oppose against this cruel Enemy while they were without the Knowledge and Belief of a glorious Resurrection was ineffectual But the Gospel furnishes us with real Remedies Christians cannot be afraid to Die when they know they Die in the Lord and belong to one who will redeem them from the Power of the Grave and swallow up Death in Victory Were we to be Eternal Captives to Death and Prisoners of the Grave for ever there were some Reason to dread it But when God speaks to us as to Jacob descending into Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again So that hereby we are as sure of overcoming Death as suffering it as sure of being Conquerors as of being Combatants how are all excruciating fears hereby expelled In our own Strength indeed and acting separately from God we cannot overcome No one can save himself from going down to the Grave or by Price or by Force procure his Releasement and Discharge from its Captivity any more than from its War But in Relation to God we are more than Conquerors To be more than Conquerors is to be Triumphants Christians may thus Triumph in this Perswasion that tho' they tast Death the common Lot of every Man yet they shall be redeemed from it so as not to be hurt by the second Death and neither Death nor Life c. shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38 39. Neither is this Doctrine of a blessed Resurrection only an Argument of Support and Comfort under the Apprehensions of Death but also a Just and Rational Incentive to Desire our Dissolution How willingly did Elias let fall his Mantle that he might ascend to Heaven How willing was Paul to be dissolved that he might be with Christ How desirously and boldly did the valiant Martyrs encounter with Death that interposed between them and their glorified State This upbraids our backwardness who profess to be enlightened and perswaded of that blessed and perfect World A loathness to Die in Christians is directly repugnant to their Hopes and a reproach to their Christianity it self We are not to obtain Heaven by an immediate Translation to it Death is a necessary intermediate way and there is a natural bitterness in it which makes it unpleasant 'T is a dark Passage from this to the other World though under the Custody and Dominion of our gracious Redeemer * How 's Domin Redeem over the Invis World p. 49. Yet notwithstanding this Believers are still to reckon their Mortality their Advantage and to bless God that they are not to spend their Immortality in the present State But you will say We should not fear Dying if we did know our Interest in Christ if we were assured that we were of that number whom he will redeem from the Power of the Grave and receive to himself It must be confessed there are but some whom God will thus Redeem others are to be left under the conquest of Death and of him that hath the Power of Death for ever And these have reason to fear and Tremble at the thoughts of Death and much more at its approach but then consider none are among that
A Funeral Sermon ON THE DEATH OF Mrs. Mary Paice Late Wife of Mr. Joseph Paice Merchant OF CLAPHAM Who Died April 8th 1700. By Edmund Batson LONDON Printed by Samuel Bridge in Austin-Fryers 1700. Academiae Tantabrigiensis Liber To His much Respected Friend Mr. Joseph Paice Merchant SIR THO' no Man can put asunder whom God hath joyned together yet if He who makes the Union will make a Separation Who durst say what doest thou The absolute Soveraignty of God and his irresistable Power considered hath repressed the Exorbitant Passions of Heathens under Temporal Evils Though the Gospel assists us with divers more special and consolatory Arguments yet we often come short of their Sedate Temper and Self-Government Your Affliction must be confessed Great in the loss you sustain And though the Advances of Death were from Time to Time apprehended yet its Arrest was sudden and this gives no small Accent to the Calamity But the Subject of the ensuing Discourse is capable of affording Relief Great and Suitable The Doctrine of a Glorious Resurrection is propounded by the Apostle as a particular Lenitive to moderate Sorrow upon the Departure of our dearest Friends who die in the Lord 1 Thess 4.13 14. It s Efficacy and our Advantage by that Article depends upon our believing it If ye believe that Christ died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him There is great Reason to believe your departed Relative among the number that sleep in Jesus so that your Peace and Comfort will be according to the Degree of your Faith in his Death and Resurrection I confess it owing to your Self that I insisted on this Subject or rather a Particular Interposure of Divine Providence which without praevious Thoughts or Inspection fixed both your Eye and Mind together on this Text. I cannot omit to mention it as a thing which deserves a thankful Remark that in so dark and sad a Season you should be led to so bright and Joyful an Argument What could have been suggested more Great and Supporting The direct Influence this Truth hath upon the Life of Man in General renders it useful to all As there is no Man liveth and shall not see Death Psalm 89.48 So no Man that dieth and shall not be raised And since the kind of our Resurrection will be answerable to our Manner of Living and Dying this necessarily claims our best Circumspection and Diligence Our natural State is that of Apostates or Revolters from God The Great Business of such Creatures is Conversion or Re-union with God through Christ When we thus return and enter our Selves into the number of His Covenanting Renewed ones we becomes entituled to Redeeming Grace in all its Parts And who is there that would not be redeemed That would not how slight soever his Present Thoughts are when it comes to the utmost Point give the whole World were it his to be saved from Wrath and Hell That would not rather with the assured Christian commit his departing Spirit into the Hands of God and his Flesh to a hopeful Rest in the Grave than to fall under the Seizure of the Devil and the Arrest of Death together The great Danger is least Men deceive themselves by separating between the Effects and Benefits of Renewing and Redeeming Grace and therefore I have taken some Care to Guard against this as the limits of the Time and Discourse would allow I know Men are secretly dissatisfied with the Terms of God they would be Redeemed but not subject to the Redeemer they would live to themselves and when they can live no longer would Die in the Lord But this is so Gross they dare not utter it and so full of Guilt as that it will effectually consign them to an irreversible State of Dissatisfaction and Torment for ever I am Glad that while I comply with your Request in the Publication of this I can also testifie the great Respect I bore to the Person whose Decease occasioned it and contribute in this way to the Embalming Her Precious Name I shall not fail to direct my best Desires to God that He who alone can would fill up every Relation vacated by Her removal by more plentiful Communications of Himself that Her Humble and Pious Example may live in your Memory that Her hopeful Descendants may tread in Her steps that you may all attain to the same full Assurance of Hope that God will be your God and Guide unto Death and afterwards Redeem You from the Power of the Grave and receive You that you may all together with Her be for ever with the Lord In whom I am Dear Sir Your most Affectionate Servant Edmund Batson A Funeral Sermon Psalm 49.15 But God will redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah IT is generally known on whose and what account we are now to divert from our usual Course and Subject If the Determination of Events had been in our Judgments and Wills our present assembling had been rather to have adored and praised Divine Goodness for the Recovery of our Deceased Sister than as now mournfully to solemnize Her Funeral But our Exit no more depends on our Judgments or Wills than our Entrance into this World which is not at all but the Keys of Life and Death are in the Hands of One who worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and whose Judgment and will is as much more kind and beneficial to us as more true and Impartial than ours can be And tho we should suppose as we are too apt to do our Understandings and Desires altogether free from Irregularity and Mistake Yet our Impotency keeps us unfit for such a Province as determining events especially the Grand and comprehensive events of Life and Death to which Omnipotency is equally necessary with Unerring Wisdom No less a power can continue Life than that which can create or give it By all our Thoughts and Labour and Substance we can no more add a Year or a Day to our Time than a Cubit to our Stature the bounds of both being immutably fixed Who can stop the Conquests of Death Notwithstanding the summoned Advice of Man the Use of all things which Wisdom or Skill may direct and Wealth procure and sanctified too by incessant Supplications to the supreme Being Death is still Victorious It irresistable introduces it self whether we are willing or unwilling ready and prepared or not Such as conversed with us took sweet Counsel together with us in the House of God delighted themselves with us and gave us delight become Death's Captives before our Eyes are bound in its Bonds And we can no more save our selves than rescue or redeem them And this indeed would be a most Mournful Case if either 1. There was no one that could redeem them if there was no power Superior to their own that could effectually break the Gates of Death and lose them
me into his Family that I am no more under the Dominion of Satan as one of his Houshold or Slaves And this is a Pledge and Earnest that he will receive me to himself into the Mansions of his Glory where I shall no more fear the Arrest of Death or be molested with any other natural Evils Now having seen the Sense of the Words there is something material to be observed if we look on them in their Mutual Aspect and Relation to each other And 1. The latter Part of the Words doth direct and confine our Apprehensions of the former There is a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust Acts 24.15 These are specified by their different Ends One is a Resurrection unto Life the other unto Damnation John 5.9 And it is determined which Resurrection must be here meant by that which is added For He shall receive me All must be rais'd and though it is by the same Almighty Power yet not to the same ultimate Purpose and End Some are rais'd that they may be sent into the most remote and reimpassible Distance from God Others that they may be taken into the nearest Union with him 2. There is a Mutual Security inferred from the Expressions on each other But God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me He must first redeem me from out of the Hands of Death before he can receive me My final Blessedness consists in my Reception with him This Blessedness must reach to the Body which is an essential Part of the Man as well as the Soul otherwise it is not Compleat and Perfect And 't is his Word whereon he hath caused me to Hope that where he is his Servants shall also be John 12.26 This makes it necessary that the Body be raised Good Actions and whatsoever is a part of Divine Service or belongs to us to do as his Servants though designed by the Counsel and Resolution of the Spirit yet are performed by the Ministry of the Flesh And the Body is the Consort of the Soul in all its Obedience and Sufferings They must be both offered as one living sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 They must both concur to render us his Servants therefore their Concourse is necessary that his Servants may be where he is And because it is a God one who is infinitely powerful and faithful that is to make me thus finally and perfectly Blessed I have no Reason to doubt But he will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave His rewarding Goodness as well as his revenging Justice must be made manifest And how can that be unless the Body be raised that the entire Person may be capable of a just Recompence If I am one of those whom he will receive it is impossible that I should be held under the Power of Death or remain its Captive any longer than for such a Season as the Method and Order of his working makes needful And there is an equal Necessity inferred also on the other side Because He will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave therefore He shall receive me to himself There is a Mutual Insurance because it is equally impossible for a Believer to be redeemed from the Power of the Grave and not be finally and perfectly Blessed as to be perfectly Blessed without being first redeemed 3. This Mutual Relation between the Words doth intimate a Manifestation of my belonging unto God Resurrection alone simply considered doth not prove me to be his but when he shall both raise me and receive me it is thereby manifestly determined whose I am Here it is still liable to Question both as to my self and others To whom I belong and though I find this weighty Question sometimes comsortably resolved yet at other times I cannot discern or take the Comfort of any such Answer But then it will be finally decided Redemption from the Grave is a demonstrative Argument of his Interest in us to which we cannot but Assent As the Jews professed a readiness to believe that Christ belonged to God and was his Son if as a Father he would deliver him from the power of Death on the Cross Matth. 27.43 The Honour of our Lords Relation to the Father was much eclipsed by his poor Life and ignominious Death And though his darkest Nights were enlightened with some discoveries of his Deity yet they were vanishing and transient But in his Resurrection he was declared to be the Son of God with Power Rom. 1.4 And the Father publickly owned him in the Face of a contradicting World The glorious Resurrection of Believers will be an illustrious and convincing Evidence that God is their God and that they are his People The Doctine or general Proposition from the words is this True believers tho they die yet shall not perpetually remain in a state of Death but be raised and received up into Glory That they die as well as others tho they are delivered from the Sting of Death is necessary for divers reasons * Bates of Death cap. 4. namely for the more Eminent Exercise of their Grace and Illustration of the Divine Glory for the preserving a due and just difference between the Militant and Triumphant State of the Church And that the sinful frailties which cleave to them here may be abolished and they prepared for the Caelestial life of which the Natural Body is uncapable And 't is likewise necessary that they remain under the power of Death for a time that the established Order of Providence might be preserved †Bates ut supra and that the Glory of our Redeemer at his second appearance might be greatned together with their own Glory by their simulraneous Resurrection and Glorification and Triumphant Entry with him into Heaven But it is not of this that we are to speak All are equally subject to the stroke of Death but all are not again redeem'd from its power Death and the Grave is not universally Overcome as to all It still remains a Conquerer over Multitudes and will be finally victorious over them But tho Death worketh in Believers and surronds them on every side and at last gains a temporal conquest over their bodily Life Yet hereafter that Vanquished Life shall revive and that more Noble Life which is hid with Christ in God shall be consummate and made perfect In this present State Christians may vanquish the fears of Death But 't is at their Resurrection when their corruption shall have put on Incorruption and their mortals shall have put on Immortality that the saying shall be brought to pass which is written Death is swallowed up in Victory O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who giveth us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56 57. I shall briefly State the Grounds of the blessed Resurrection of true Believers and shew you its necessity and then make some Application of this
Point The Ensuring Grounds of a Believers Resurrection are principally two 1. The Resurrection of Christ 2 Cor. 4.14 Knowing that he who raised up Jesus from the dead will also raise us up by Jesus 1 Cor. 6.14 1 Thess 4.14 for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Christ rose not as a Private but as a Publick common Person Our Nature was raised in his Person and therefore in our Nature all true Believers He rose as the First Fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 11.20 And upon this account our Resurrection is secured and not our Resurrection meerly but in all its happy Modifications and Issues as the First Fruits offered to God did not only assure but sanctifie the whole following Harvest And this security tho of something future is so strong that that the Apostle illustrates it by an opposite Instance wherein the security is actually and most lamentably felt as at 1 Cor. 15.21 22. for as by Man came Death so by Man comes the Resurrection from the Dead As in Adam we all die so in Christ shall we be made alive but every man in his order Christ the First Fruits afterwards them that are Christs at his coming so that as our Death and the Death of all that shall come into Being is secured by Adam's so with an equal but more joiful certainty the Resurrection of Believers is secured by Christ wherefore because he lives they shall live also John 14.19 This inferring a believers Resurrection from Christ is grounded on three reasons 1. He is the Meritorious Cause of our Resurrection The Prayer of the Prophet as it engaged the Divine power raised the Shunamites Child 2 Kings 4.33 34. the dead Souldier revived at the touch of the Prophet's Bones chap. 13.21 How much more shall the will of Christ and the power of his Death raise us * Baxter 's Sts. Rest p. 1. cap. 5. Sect. 2. He was our Surety when under the arrest of Death and making full satisfaction to the Justice of God merited not only our Impunity but our Advancement Now having finished the work of our Redmption by his sufferings and Death his Resurrection is but the just consequent of his Passion and Discharge or Acquittance upon this our Justification is grounded Rom. 5. ult Now the price being paid and the Acquittance received there is no Barr against our happy Resurrection any more than against his because the Price was paid in our stead and the Acquittance received is for the use of the principal Debter whoever receives it Furthermore the Redemption of Christ extended to the Body as well as to the Soul otherwise he had been but an incompleat Saviour therefore Christians who have experienced the vertue of his redeeming Grace are said to wait for the final act of his Redeeming Power in the Redemption of their Bodies Rom. 8.23 * Athanas. de Inearnat verbi Whether there should have been no Resurrection of the Body at all if Christ had not died and whether he died so far for all both just and unjust to raise them as some think Or whether there should have been a Resurrection of the Body if Christ had not died and Man should have still suffered both Temporal and Eternal Death in toto supposito in his whole Person as others think †Cocceus de faedr Cap. 2. Sect. 2. yet certainly in the present order the Resurrection of Believers must be ascribed to the Merits of the Cross and looked upon as the fruit of Christs Death so that it remains as sure as the vertue and efficacy of his Passion 2. He is the effective Principal or cause of our Resurrection All power is given him in Heaven and in Earth He is the support of our Bodily Life and the Author of that Spiritual Life we live as Believers and by him all things are upheld and do consist therefore t is requisite that all things should be likewise beholden to him for their Restitution It must be a Mediating Power the power of a Mediator to preserve things in being where their being is forfeited and Annihilation deserved and likewise to heal the disorders Sin hath introduced among all kind of Beings that relate to the Use and Comfort of Apostate Man And as he is the Author of this Restitution among the Creatures so likewise of the Resurrection of Man which will be accompanied therewith By his General Power and Agency wicked Men shall be raised He is Lord of the whole unseen State who as he can commit so can bring forth having the Key of Death as well as of Life He will exert his Power to recompact the scattered parts of their Bodies and as a Judge Authoritively Summon them to appear before him But Believers are raised tho not by an Inferiour yet by a more benign and advantageous power His own Resurrection put him in the Possession of that Power which do effectually secure ours Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both died and rose and Revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living 3. Christs Resurrection is the Example or Pattern of a Believers because he arose therefore they shall rise and shall so arise as he did and be restored to Life according to his Pattern Phil. 3.21 Our vile Bodies shall be changed into the likeness of his most Glorious Body His Body was raised the same so shall ours and yet his Body was improved by the Resurrection so shall ours too and so much the more improved than his as they need it more whereupon as to our Bodily State we shall become like the Angels that are in Heaven Mat. 22.30 As we shall be purged from all our present Infirmities so we shall no longer need the means of bodily Sustentation for the Children of God which are the Children of the Resurrection are equal unto the Angels and can die no more Luke 20.36 Our Lord was raised that he might ascend and be glorified so shall we God will redeem our Souls from the Power of the Grave that he might receive us to himself The Second Ground is 2. The Inhabitation of the Spirit And this is a more immediate or proximate Foundation of this blessed Priviledge Resurrection simply considered hath its dependance only on the Will and Power of God but it is of a Glorious Resurrection that we here speak The meer Resurrection of the Body is absolute but a Resurrection unto Glory is conditional and therefore appropriate to some only and the Author of this Glorious Resurrection hath determined to whom it shall be vouchsafed He himself hath confined it to such as have a work of Grace effectually wrought by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them Now the Inhabitation of the Spirit in Believers will more clearly appear as the Ground of their Resurrection by considering these two things 1. The Spirit of Holiness is the vital bond of Vnion between Christ and