of a Resurrection For the thoughts of a Resurrection can never be sufficient to fortifie our Minds against the Fears of Death if after we are risen again Death will still take its turn to carry us to our Graves For in this case there is nothing after Death to bear up our Minds against so great an Evil. But this is not the Life we shall rise to but a Life that Death shall have no more power over This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.54 55. And among all the other advantages of that Life we shall then enter upon St. John reckons this That there is no more Death Rev. 21.4 But the great Question is How we can be said to begin to live an Immortal Life then when the Soul that lives in these Bodies is an Immortal Principle now and does not lose its Life by being separated from the Body but does continue to live when the Body is returned to Dust To this I say that though the Soul be Immortal and does not cease to live after it has left the Body yet the Man that consisted of a Body and a Soul does And the Life that the Soul lives is not that Life which a Man by Dying loses For though the Soul be a principal part of us yet it is but one part and the Body is another and it is in the vital Union of these two parts that the Life of Man consists And as it is this Life that Death deprives us of so it is this Life that the Resurrection will restore us And this Life will then begin to be Immortal It is not the Soul that will then begin to be Immortal For Immortality is the privilege of this part of us even while it is now in the Body But the Immortal Life we shall then begin to live is the Life we now live only made Immortal i.e. When the Resurrection has united the Soul and Body together again this Union will never more be broken So that an Immortal Soul shall then live in an Immortal Body for ever And it is in this sense we are to understand the Scriptures when they speak of our putting on Immortality and the Gospels bringing Immortality and Life to light For if we consider the Immortality of the Soul that was a Principle acknowledg'd and believed long before the Gospel was preach'd So that it cannot be the making our Souls Immortal when it tells of our putting on Immortality Now is it the Soul's Immortality that is brought to light by the Gospel for that was known long before But the Immortality and Life that we owe our knowledge of to the Gospel is that indissoluble Union of Body and Soul which will begin at the Resurrection And now from hence we may observe 1. That it is then only we shall begin to live We date our Lives from the time we come into the World and reckon that we have lived through so many Ages of our Infancy our Childhood our Youth our Manhood and Old Age when we arrive to three or fourscore Years This is a Life that we account very long and when so many Years have not drawn it off we reckon it deserves a great deal of respect and reverence And yet all this Life which makes such a noise among us and is of such mighty repute with us is only the Dregs and Relicks of that Life which the Curse that is come upon us has taken from us That liveliness and vivacity that belong'd to innocent Man is sinn'd away and gone And the Spirits that are left us are the very Refuse and Bottom of what we were once stored with And because these serve to feed Life and are not run off sometimes till three or fourscore Years we persuade our selves that we live a great while And yet if we arrive to the utmost length of Life the truest account that can be given of it is this That we have been so many Years a Dying For the first step we take into the World is toward our Graves And though we live to see Thousands fall beside us and Ten thousand at our right hands before it come nigh us yet all that can be said of us is this That we die a more lingring Death than others And besides a Life of fourscore or a hundred Years is so short in comparison of that which is Eternal that it does not in the style of Scripture deserve the name of Life It is styled Vanity and compared to a shadow to instruct us that it has nothing of Reality in it And when it is once spent what is become of all those Years that we are said to live Though Man be so strong that he comes to fourscore Years yet is his strength then but labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away Psal 90.10 But when the Resurrection gives us Life again then it is that we shall in the most proper sense be born to live For then we shall receive all that spirit and vigour that we have lost so much Spirit that Eternity shall never waste it And if we account a Life of fourscore Years venerable how much Reverence ought we to have for a Life that has no Death at the end of it Now this is the Life we shall be born to and begin to live when at the Resurrection our Souls take possession of our Bodies again And could we but with steadiness enough apply our Minds to the consideration and meaning of Immortality this Life would appear so much like a Vapour or a suddain Flash that gives us no time to consider whether it be any thing or no as would abate of that respect and value we have for it For 't is sure we can then only be said to begin to live when we begin to feel our selves free from Corruption and the Approaches of Death 2. We shall then begin to live that Life we are appointed to For a mortal and corruptible Life was not that which God design'd and made us for But it is the Curse that Sin has let in upon us the Punishment God has subjected us to for Adam's Transgression By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin saith the Apostle Rom. 5.12 i.e. The Mortal state we are now in is owing to Adam's Disobedience For had not he disobey'd the Command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge we had not known what Death meant In his state of Innocency he was a Probationer for Immortality and the Law that threatned him with Death in case of his Disobedience did implicitly at least assure him of Immortality if he did not disobey For it implies that as while he was innocent he was not condemn'd to a Mortal condition so on the other hand he was not
to a sensible Creature But that which is most grievous in it is That it comes upon us as a Punishment and that we die by the just Judgment of God upon us And how much comfort must it give us to think that we are discharged from that Condemnation which is the severest Consideration in Death How may it revive our Spirits and raise our Heads to think That though in Adam all die yet in Christ shall all be made alive To know that we are justified in the Resurrection of him who died for our Offences is such a healing Consideration to our Minds as leaves nothing in Death that is troublesome but those little Aversions that Nature has to a Dissolution It is 't is true and always will be difficult matter to meet Death without concern and something of consternation because there is something praeter-natural in it But yet how unwilling soever Nature is to submit to so hard a fate yet we know we must and since the Law that has appointed us to die is irreversible the only wise thing we have to do in such Circumstances is to reconcile our selves to the thoughts of dying as well as we can that we may go out of the World with as little disquiet and aversion to a thing that we cannot help as is possible And the only Consideration that is sufficient in this case is this of our being in a Justified state and that we know the Reason of that Hope which alone is sufficient to bear up our Minds For with what peace and satisfaction may we go to our Graves when we know that the place our Souls go to will not be an Eternal Prison to them and that Death is not inflicted as an Eternal Punishment 5. Let us consider with how much care we ought to live while we are in this World For since we are acquitted from Condemnation we are not in so hopeless a Condition as those that must die without Mercy For the Grace and Favour of God that has remitted to us that Sentence has favour'd us with an opprtunity of escaping from the Wrath that is Eternal This is the favour that he publishes to the World in the Gospel and that which he calls upon us to do is to lay hold on this opportunity and to make a good use of it The grace of God i.e. the Gospel which brings or acquaints us with this Salvation teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 For it sets Life and Death before us i.e. it lets us know that God is willing to try us once more and therefore favours every Man as he did Adam with the Liberty of chusing for himself which of these two he pleaseth And surely it is but a just and reasonable Expectation that we should lay hold of the opportunity that is put into our Hands of escaping for our Lives That if Death be so terrible a thing to us as we make it and we cannot very easily brook being condemned for a fault that is none of ours we should be very carefull for the future not to do any thing that may provoke God to condemn us for our own faults and be extremely fearfull of offering Violence to our selves and having our own Hands in the blood of our Souls It might be judg'd a hard Law by us that the fault of others should be charged upon us and that we should be under a Condemnation to Death because our first Parents sinn'd Therefore he calls upon us to look to our selves and tells us there is no more occasion for complaint as if the Children's teeth were set on edge by the sowre Grapes that our Fathers have eaten For he has remitted to us that Sentence that assigned us over to the power of Death and has privileg'd us with the liberty of taking care of the Life we are so unwilling to lose And if Life be so precious a thing to us as by our Apprehensiveness of Death we would be thought to account it what a wretched Madness is it while we are complaining of the hardship of our Circumstances as we are condemn'd in Adam to take so little care of it now it is put into our own hands to secure it as if it was all one to us whether we lived or died If Death be an indifferent thing to us why do we tremble at it Why does the near approach of it put us into terrible Agonies Why do we seem to account it a hard fate to be doom'd to die for a fault that was not in our power to help But if it be as really frightfull as it appears why should we neglect so favourable an opportunity of providing for our future safety as it put into our hands This will be a very great Aggravation of the Folly and Misery of wicked Men when they come to be condemn'd to a second Death that there will be no altering of that Sentence no more Mercy to be expected for the delivering them from the Wrath that their own faults will then bring upon them Oh how many sad Reflections will it occasion to think that they have twice forseited Life and that it is in spight of Mercy and Grace that they have destroy'd themselves by their own saults That they have been tried a second time whether they would chuse Life and Immortality but have made no better a choice for themselves than their first Fathers did So that the Mercy that deliver'd them from the Death they were condemn'd to in Adam was thrown away upon them and which will not a little add to the Misery of the second Doom as much as they fear'd dying they have yet made it their choice And since this will be the Fate of all Men that neglect so great Salvation ought we not to be carefull how we use it Surely after such an escape as this is there is great reason that God should expect that we should look well to our Ways and be very watchfull over our selves for the future That when-ever any sensual Appetite begins to be over-craving or the Riches Pleasures or Honours of this World do tempt us to Covetousness or Oppression to Sensuality or Intemperance to Pride or Ambition we should call to mind the Danger we have escaped and that we shall perish with scorn and contempt if we let our Love of our Bodies undo us twice This use we ought to make of our being in a Justified state for since the Sentence of Death is remitted we have a fair opportunity put into our Hands of securing a Life that is Immortal But if we lose this opportunity we shall sorfeit our Lives again and all the Mercy that would save us 2. His being raised for our Justification does imply his receiving Power and Authority to justifie us And here we are to consider Two things 1. That he is invested with Power and Authority to deliver us from Death 2. That this Power he received when he rose from the Dead 1. That he is invested with
that he went down into Hell i.e. During the time that his Body was in the Grave his Soul was in the place where separate Souls do live after Death But although the Soul when it ceases to live in the Body does still live yet when it leaves the Body we who consist of a Soul and a Body do die And so long as the Soul does live without its Body so long we are under the power of Death And even that Soul that still lives is in the state of the Dead So that the Resurrection which is design'd to be a Remedy of that Calamity Death is to us must be the freeing the Soul from that Vagabond state that the Displeasure of God makes it to suffer out of its Body It is the bringing the Soul that lives when we are dead out of that state where it lives in a preter-natural condition without its Body to live as the Soul of a Man was by God appointed to do when he breathed it into a Body of Flesh I call the separate state of our Souls a vagabond and preter-natural Condition because when they go out of the Body they leave their own proper Habitation and wander into unknown Regions And therefore St. Paul styles our being in the Body a being at home and when we die in his style we travel out of the Body or go abroad 2 Cor. 5. And according to the import of that Curse by reason of which we die and go out of the Body we should for ever like Vagabonds that leave their native Soil and roam about the World have continued abroad but that God in great Goodness to us has provided us a mercifull Saviour whose business it is to take care of our Souls when they leave their own Habitations and in his due time to bring them back again to their homes And therefore St. Paul though he speaks of this separate state as a thing no way desirable in it self That no Man how little reason soever he has to be in love with this World does groan for that he would be uncloathed v. 4. Yet considering the safe hands our Souls are committed to when they are abroad does upon that reason speak of this state as a thing much more Eligible than to stay always here in the Body though it is our home We are always confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord v. 6 8. i.e. Though we do leave our Habitations we are well pleased with our condition because we shall be under the immediate care of him who at the last will brng us out of this exiled State and restore us to our own Habitations again Hence the Resurrection is spoken of as our triumph over Hades that receptacle or prison of separate Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Hades where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 The Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell or Hades delivered up the Dead that were in them And Death and Hell or Hades were cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.13 14. i.e. Death will deliver up our Bodies which lie imprison'd in the Grave and Hades will deliver up our Souls that are there imprison'd and then an Everlasting Being shall succeed The Resurrection then does not only respect our Bodies which see Corruption but that Immortal part of us which by Death is forced out of the Body and driven like an Exile to live from home in a foreign Country contrary to the Laws of its Nature For the Resurrection restores us that which Death deprives us of and brings back our Exiled Souls to their old native Dwellings Although the Resurrection will bring our Dead Bodies out of their Graves yet this is not all that we are to understand by the Resurrection because the raising a Dead Body to life will not be the raising the Man that died unless the same Soul and Spirit that was separated from it by Death be re-united with it again To breathe a New Soul into a Body that is raised out of the Dust is rather the creating a New Man than the raising an Old one For the same Man that died cannot be said to be raised to life again unless the Soul be brought out of its Prison as well as the Body out of its Grave For so long as the Soul is kept a Prisoner in the place where separate Soul live we are as much in the state of the Dead as while the Body does lie in the Grave This re-embodying the Soul that by Death is compell'd to quit the Habitation it is at first born with and to live abroad in an unknown Region is the thing in which our Conquest over Death does consist and consequently is the Resurrection that the Gospel speaks of 'T is true the Resurrection has most usually a respect to the Body and does denote its leaving its Prison whither it is conveyed But besides this the Holy Scriptures do speak of the Resurrection with a respect to the Soul and that alteration of its state when it shall of a separate Spirit become embodied a second time i.e. When it shall be brought out of its confinement and returned to its own Habitation This is the meaning of that place where the Sadducees are said to have denied the Resurrection i.e. They were as is plain from our Saviour's Answer persuaded that Death does as well reduce the Soul to nothing as the Body to Dust And that since after Death there is no part of us remains alive there is nothing lest to ground our hopes of a Resurrection upon because there is nothing of us left in respect of which the Resurrection will be a Blessing and consequently that there is no state of life to be expected after this because Death does not only dissolve but destroy the very Principles of our Constitution Our blessed Lord therefore to prove to them that there is a Resurrection makes use of an Argument that proves that the Soul is alive after Death and consequently that there is another state in which as Men we must live an Immortal life God is not the God of the dead but of the living saith our Saviour i.e. The Souls of the great Patriarchs are alive somewhere else God could not properly style himself The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and therefore they must rise again Wherein the strength of our Saviour's argument lies I shall not now enquire For it is enough to my present purpose that he proves there will be a Resurrection because the Soul is still alive For this implies that the Resurrection will not only bring the Body out of its Grave but the Soul out of its Prison and return it to its ancient Habitation Otherwise the Soul 's being alive after we are dead would no more prove a Resurrection than if
Power by which he was raised was the Power of God And what should hinder but we may believe that he could do that by vertue of his Divine Power which no Man can believe that he could do by the Power of a Man For it is as agreeable to Reason to believe that he who has the Power of God and do all that God can do as that he who has no more than the Power of a Man can do no more than a Man can do Let us but allow him to be what he was the Son of God according to the Spirit of Holiness and it will be no astonishing thing that he who was God as well as Man could do that which none but God can do 2. Let us consider how much Reason we have to believe that he is able to raise us likewise He himself has told us That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 i.e. That the design of his Life and Death was to reverse the Sentence of Death that we are fall'n under and to provide a safe retreat for our Souls in the other World where when they come thither they shall live under his protection in hopes of being restored by him to their Bodies again Upon which account he styles himself the Life of the World and the Resurrection and the Life to teach us that we are to ground our Hopes of living again after Death upon him And accordingly he informs us that the Power of raising the Dead as well as of judging the World is committed to him Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice And shall come forth they that have done good into the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5.28 29. And the Apostle makes the general Resurrection of the Dead to the effect of Christ's descending to judge the World The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trumpet of God and then the Dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thess 4.16 Those Expressions of his descending with a shout the Voice of the Archangel and the Trumpet of God denote the Magnificence of his appearing and the mighty Power wherewith he shall raise the Dead For in these Expressions the Apostle alludes to the several ways of gathering Assemblies and especially to Tribunals to denote that when Christ appears again he will give a general Summons for all Flesh to appear before him Now the Hopes of a Resurrection is so agreeable to us that the Scriptures frequently make use of it as the best support for the bearing up our Minds under the pressures of this life And what better assurance can we have of this than that it is committed to him whose Errand into the World was to restore Life unto it and who in his own Resurrection has given us a proof of his Power to do it Let the unreasonable Sceptick start Objections to perplex our Faith Let the Atheist like those at Athens mock at the Doctrine of a Resurrection Let both the one and the other pretend it never so impossible that our Souls when they have left our Bodies should be brought back again into them or that our Dust when it is scatter'd and has suffer'd so many changes as they talk of should be gather'd together again yet we know and have had a proof of the Power of him in whom we believe We have seen his Triumph over Death and Hell in his own Resurrection And what Difficulty can it be to him who has spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumph'd over them who has conquer'd Hell or Hades and of a Prison has made it a place of Safety and Refuge for departed Souls to give them the fruits of his Victory and to summon them before him when he appears the second time What Difficulty can it be to him who has a Divine Power to find out that which is not lost as certainly the Dust of our Dissolved Bodies is not 'T is a Divine Power that we depend upon for our Resurrection and he who has promised us that he will raise us up at the last day has given us a proof of his Conquest over Hell and the Grave That which he bids us hope for is not beyond the Power of his Spirit for he has that powerfull Spirit that can quicken a Dead Body and make it habitable again For that Spirit by which he raised himself is able to quicken and raise us likewise And therefore that portion of his Spirit that he here communicates to us is styled the Earnest of our Inheritance as a pledge given us in hand to assure us of what he will do for us And since it is a portion of that Spirit by which he rose from the Dead we are to consider it as a security he has given us that we shall rise too If Christ be in you though the Body be dead because of sin i.e. Though it is a Body that Death has the Power of that we now live in because Sin has corrupted it yet the spirit is life because of Righteousness Rom. 8.10 i.e. The Spirit is our security that we shall live again because its Office is to heal our Nature and to take away that which is the cause of Death And if the spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you i.e. If you have the same Spirit of Holiness that was in him he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you v. 11. For that Omnipotent Spirit by which he rose will produce the same Effect upon all in whom it dwells CHAP. III. The Assuured Principle upon which Christianity teaches us to ground our Hopes of a Resurrection viz. As Christ rose for our Justification III. THE Third thing that the Certainty of a Resurrection depends upon is that Assured Principle that God has furnish'd us with by raising Christ for our Justification And in considering the Import of this and how assuredly it satifies us that we shall rise again I shall do these Two things 1. Consider what Justification means 2. In what sense Christ rose for our Justification SECT I. 1. I shall consider what Justification means But I shall not here concern my self to give an account of the several Acceptations of this word among other Writers but only to state its proper signification as it is a principal Doctrine of the Christian Faith and what that peculiar Privilege is which St. Paul who does mainly and more fully insist upon it in his Writings than any other of the Sacred Writers intendeth by it And for the better understanding it we must consider that it is a Juridical Term and is properly the Act of a Judge and has a respect to his
Sentence And accordingly in Scripture it sometimes signifies to do Justice in general whether by acquitting or condemning a person that stands charged with a Crime according to the true and strict Merits of his Cause In which sense the Prophet Isaiah useth it chap. 43.9 Let all the Nations be gather'd together and let the People be assembled i.e. Call a Court and let them bring forth their Witnesses that they may be justified i.e. that Justice may be done them In other places it signifies the acquitting or discharging an accused person from the Punishment that the Law threatens the Crime with that he is charged with This Justification or acquitting an accused person is either Legal according to the Rules of strict Justice or it is of Favour and Grace The former is the acquitting and Innocent person or the declaring him who has stood his Tryal not to be guilty of the Crime charged upon him In which sense it is taken in the following Texts Deut. 25. If there he a Controversie between Men and they come into Judgment that the Judges may Judge them then they shall justifie the Righteous and condemn the Wicked i.e. They shall proceed according to strict Justice and give Sentence according to Right the same Sentence as the Law gives in the Case without any partial respects to the Persons whose Cause is before them He that justifieth the Wicked and condemneth the Just even they both are an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 17.15 The latter is the dispensing with the Rigour of the Law and remitting the Punishment that a guilty person has deserved in favour or in respect to the Mediation of an acceptable person And of this nature is that Justification which St. Paul speaks so frequently of and which the Christian Religion which is a Law of Grace does make known to the World For if God's justifying us did mean no more than his declaring those to be Just who Legally are so there would be no standing before him If thou Lord should'st mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130.3 There would be no escaping from Death when once it has laid hold upon us if there was not forgiveness with God for he that transgresses a Law that threatens Death must die by that Law unless Mercy interposes The Law that condemns him does for ever determine of his Condition And it is not possible that such a person should be Justified but by a Pardon When therefore God justifies a Sinner he does not Pass the same Sentence upon him as the Law he has transgressed does For then there could be no such thing as Justification at all in our Circumstances For whom the Law condemns God must do so too if his Judgment be Legal But when he justifies a Sinner he justifies him whom the Law condemns And when he does this it must be by remitting the Severity of the Law and sparing the Life of the Offender out of mere Grace and Mercy And of this nature is the Justification that the Gospel speaks of only with this difference That it does not only respect us as Sinners such as by Transgressing the Divine Law have deserved to die but such as for our Disobedience are already condemned to die So that it is God's Act of Mercy towards Adam's condemn'd Race whereby through the Mediation of his Son he is pleas'd to remit the Sentence of Death that in Adam we are fall'n under and to restore us to a state of Probationership for Immortality and Glory For my part I know of no other Justification that the Gospel which is designed to be a Remedy to the Mischief that by the first Transgression is come upon us speaks of as a Blessing we are already possess'd of but this of acquitting us so far from the Sentence that is already pass'd upon us that we shall not die Eternally because we are already condemn'd to die but shall assuredly live again I know indeed that in our Gospel-state we stand in need of Mercy for innumerable Sins that we are daily guilty of and for all the Sins that we do commit the Gospel does assure us of Pardon upon our sincere Repentance i.e. that God will justifie us But it is not upon account of this Mercy that we are in a justified state but of that favour alone that has remitted Adam's fault to us and assures us of a Resurrection to Life again But after this we must expect to undergo another Trial whether we deserve the Forgiveness that is with God i.e. Whether our Repentance for our own Sins and our Endeavours to do the Will of God in our Gospel i.e. Our justifying state have been so sincere that he will accept of it And this will be when the Author of our Religion shall come to try whether we deserve the Life that he will raise us to Then he will justifie all his sincere Followers but his Justifying at that day means his accepting and approving of the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance according to the very Terms of the Law of Mercy that he has given us to live by But then this supposes that we are in a justified state as we are discharged from the Eternity of the Punishment that Adam's Transgression has exposed us to otherwise we could not rise again nor would there be any need of a second Judgment to be pass'd upon us By being thus justified our Gracious Redeemer puts us into the state of Probationers for Immortality So that so long as we are in this World we are in our state of Trial whether we will chuse Life or Death not in such a justified state that we may assuredly say of our selves that we shall undoubtedly be glorified For thus we shall not be justified till our Lord comes the second time to try what use we have made of that Mercy that set Life and Immortality before us But for the clearing this matter I shall observe 1. That our Justification is a delivering us from a state of Condemnation For nothing is more plain in the Holy Scriptures than that it does suppose a Judgment to be already pass'd upon us and that we are in a condemn'd condition For it is that Mercy whereby we are discharged from some punishment which we have deserved and are adjudged to It is not God's declaring our Innocency or a Legal adjudging us to an Immortal state because the Law whereby we should have been thus Justified is Transgress'd and we are condemned to die for that Transgression Thus indeed Adam would have been Justified for if he had not sinned he would not have deserved to die and if he had not merited Death according to the Law of entire Nature by which he was to live he must have lived an Immortal life i.e. He would have been made Immortal without being justified from Death as now we must In this case there would have been no need of Mercy to assure Immortality to him that had no Crime for Mercy to pardon nor no
him the liberty of atoning for his fault by doing something that shall carry Merit in it does put it into his own Power to escape the Punishment Now God's justifying us is not by declaring that though we have done that which his Law condemns yet we have done that which according to the Terms of his Law must acquit us but by declaring that though he has condemned us for Transgressing a Law that threatned us with Death yet he will not inflict the Punishment upon us in its utmost rigour but of his own Goodness will give us our Lives again And accordingly the Apostle informs us That after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal life Tit. 3.4 5 7. In which words he informs us that we are not justified as Innocent persons or such as having merited our own Lives cannot be condemn'd without Injustice Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done i.e. Not because we have done nothing worthy of Death or having deserved to die have expiated our faults by some meritorious Works For Justice it self is no dreadfull thing to those that have not deserved to die or that have merited their Lives The former way we all should have been Justified if we had not lost our Innocency for then it would have been by rewarding an innocent and sinless Creature with a legal Recompence the adjudging a Creature who had not merited Death to an Immortal state And the latter was the way that the Jews depended upon who were persuaded that their legal Services were highly meritorious in the sight of God The Vanity of which persuasion St. Paul does frequently expose and lets us know that we are Heirs of Life upon no other account but because the kindness and love of God our Saviour hath appear'd to us and because Mercy and Grace have interposed in our favour and the forfeiture of Eternal life is remitted to us And accordingly the Gospel is not only styled The Gospel and Word of Grace i.e. That Dispensation wherein God does make known his abundant Goodness to us whom his Justice had doom'd to die or that Revelation wherein he acquaints us with his good will to us in remitting the rigour of that Punishment we are condemned to suffer But Eternal life i.e. The life we shall live after the Resurrection has united our Souls to our Bodies again is styled the Gift of God to inform us that all the Hopes we have of living after Death does depend upon the good pleasure of God The Immortality 't is true which was to have been the Reward of Adam's Innocency was the Gift of God too For no Creature can be Immortal but whom God makes so But yet an innocent Man was both capable of Immortality and would have had a legal Right to it as the Reward of his Innocency But God's justifying a Criminal Condemned Race is his removing a legal incapacity for Eternal life before we can be in a condition of receiving it as a Reward for any thing we can do Obj. The Scripture 't is true ascribes our Justification to Faith And if Faith be the Reason or Condition of our Justification how can that be the sole Act of God's Mercy which is not granted us but upon such a Condition Ans To which I reply That our Justification is of two kinds The one is from the Judgment that is come upon us to Condemnation The other is to that Eternal life which in this we are Probationers for The former is by way of mere Grace and Favour not by Works of Righteousness which we have done and is the foundation of that Hope which is the Motive wherewith our Religion persuades us to a Holy Life And this our Saviour styles a passing from Death unto Life or to a Liberty to take care of our Lives again The other is in a legal way by those Works of Righteousness that the Law of Grace we are obliged to live by does require of us The benefit of the former we enjoy in this Life as it puts us into such a Condition that we may labour in hope The other is what we expect when our Lord shall come the second time unto the Everlasting Salvation of his faithfull Servants And this is the meaning of the Apostle when he saith The free gift is come upon all Men unto Justification of life Where by the free gift we are to understand God's mercifull acquitting us from the Judgment that in Adam came upon all Men And this free gift is come upon all Men that by living according to the Gospel we might provide for Eternal life and at the last be justified or declared meet to be partakers of Eternal life according to the Terms of this New Covenant by which we are to work out our Salvation The summ then of this matter is this 1. That upon the account and for the sake of his Son's Death God of his mere Goodness has remitted the Sentence of Death that we as Adam's Posterity are born under And thus we are in a Justified state here in this Life Thus St. Paul tells us We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is by Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 4.25 26. Where the Apostle makes our Justification to be that Act of his Goodness whereby through the Mediation of his Son he discharges us from the Obligation to suffer Eternal Death that his Justice had laid us under The only difficulty in these words is That the Apostle seems to make Faith the Condition of our Justification saying Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood But the meaning is not That God does only pardon those that believe for how then could our Saviour tell us That all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and that those that have done ill shall come forth as well as those that have done well Which implies that all Men are thus far Pardon'd For none that are condemn'd to die can have their Lives given them again but by vertue of a Pardon But the meaning is That God set forth his Son to render him so propitious to us as to accept of the Righteousness that is by Faith to our Everlasting Justification So that 2. Being thus by the Divine Mercy put into a Justified state God has given us a new Law by which he expects for the time to come we should govern our Lives 3. That the Righteousness which God accepts of and will reward with Eternal life is the Conformity of our Lives to this new Law of Faith that he has given us 4. That at
Power and Authority to deliver us from Death 1. By raising us again out of our Graves And in this respect he is styled the second Adam in whom all shall be made alive in opposition to the first in whom all died to denote him to be the Author of Life to a condemn'd World as the first Adam was the Author of Death to a race that was designed for Immortality But yet he is not the Author of Life and Immortality only as he was merited it as Adam's Offence has entailed Death upon us but as he is that Person whom the Father has constituted to be the Dispenser of that Grace and Mercy that pardons the Offences for which we die and to communicate that Spirit of Life by which we shall rise again at the last day In which respect it is that he so often styles himself the Life of the World and the Resurrection and the Life by which he informs us of the great Authority the Father has put into his hand and that the Nature of that Office which as the Mediatour between God and Man be executes is for the discharging us from that Obligation to die Eternally which was the fruit of Sin As the Father hath life in himself so has he given to the Son to have life in himself Joh. 5.26 i.e. He has made him the Lord of Life and given him Power to bestow it For as the Father raiseth up the dead so the Son quickneth whom he will i.e. He as well as the Father has the Power of Life in his Hand We are not to understand this Expression as if there were some whom he would not restore Life unto but that the Power of giving Life which he has received is unlimited so that he can give and take away Life to and from whom he pleases Verily verily I say unto you the Hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Thus the Scripture does constantly represent the Power of abolishing Corruption and Death to be in the Hands of the Son of God And that Renovation of all things when the Creature that now groans under Corruption shall be redeemed from Vanity and Corruption and restored to an indissoluble state will be the work of him that came to redeem us from Death For as the Father is the first Fountain of Life from whom all Creatures received Life and Being in the first Creation of all things so the Son is appointed to be the Fountain of Life to all things again when the World shall be created a-new and put into such a state as shall endure for ever For we are to consider that when God first made the World it was a much more excellent thing than now it is being designed to be the Habitation of Innocent Man But when Man fell and lost his Innocency all this visible Creation suffer'd with him and was accurs'd for Man's sake i.e. It was put into a state proper for a Creature that was doom'd to Labour and Sorrow to dwell in Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee Gen. 3.17 18. Of what nature this Curse was is not easie to tell But however thus much it plainly imports that the Nature of this World was much alter'd for the worse and that it does not nourish us now as it would have done had we not been doom'd to a laborious and mortal Life But this is not all For the Scriptures represent it as such a Change as that which we our selves have undergone when instead of Immortality Mortality and Corruption seiz'd us And that at the last this World must undergo a purgation by Fire by means of which it will be restored to its ancient incorruptible State The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 2 Pet. 3.12 13. Which is the thing that St. Paul means when he tells us That the earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 i.e. The visible Creation waits for that time when we shall become the Sons of God being the Children of the Resurrection at which time it will be freed from its Curse as well as we shall be deliver'd from the Wrath that is come upon us For the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him that hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be deliver'd from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God v. 20 21. i.e. As it does partake of our Curse so it shall of our Blessing when we rise to an Immortal life being new made And as the first Creation was the work of the Father who has Life in himself i.e. from whom all that Life that is in the World is Originally derived So the second Creation when all things shall be put into a lasting incorruptible State will be the work of the Redeemer of all things For he came to give Life to the World and to be the restorer of all things i.e. to take away the Curse under which we and all this visible World do suffer The Authority that is conferr'd upon him is for the repairing those breaches that Sin has made in our Nature and for the putting a disorder'd World into its right indissoluble Frame And therefore the account he gives us of himself and his Errand is the giving Life to the World I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly Joh. 10.10 or in a more perfect and excellent degree than here they have He does 't is true give us a Specimen of his Power in the Renovation of our Souls in this Life which is the first beginning of that Life that he came to bestow upon the World But the great Exercise of his Authority will be at the Resurrection when all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and come forth which will be his great Act of justifying us personally from the Sentence that has appointed us to die The Spirit that he communicates for the raising us to a new and holy Life is styled the Earnest of our Inheritance For nothing can be a more lively Emblem of our future Resurrection when we shall be deliver'd from Death than that New life we are raised to here by the Power of his Spirit For it is every whit as great an Instance of his Power to quicken and revive a dead Soul to its own Spiritual life as to raise a dead Body to life again And this is a great Evidence that God has given him Power to justifie a condemn'd World because that Spirit by which we begin to live again to God
is derived from him For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8.11 i.e. The Spirit whereby Christ does now raise us to a New life will likewise quicken our mortal Bodies and give New lise to us after Death But this is not all that is meant by his Power to justifie us For 2. He has Power and Authority given him as the Supreme Judge of the World to acquit us Eternally from Death or when we are risen to give us Eternal life And this is a distinct thing from God's justifying us from the Sentence pass'd upon Adam His raising us to life again after we are dead is owing to our Justification from that Sentence For had not he by dying satisfied the Justice that takes away our Lives we should not rise again to Life But whether we shall live for ever after we are risen or die again does depend upon that Sentence that as our Judge he will pass upon us God has appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained saith St. Paul Act. 17.31 i.e. God has given him Power to take an account how Mankind has used the Mercy that he has favour'd us with and to declare who according to the Gospel are worthy of Eternal life and who are not and accordingly to determine of our Eternal condition either by justifying us to Eternal life or condemning us to a second Death And this he intimates to us in the fore-mentioned Text I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly That they might have life i.e. That I might by raising them from the Dead restore them the Life that Death deprives them of And that they might have it more abundantly i.e. That I might justifie them to a Life that is Eternal when at the Resurrection they are Judged a second time His Resurrection 't is true does assure us that we are now in a Justified state i.e. That we are acquitted from the Sentence that has pass'd upon Adam and that in respect of this Justification we shall certainly rise to Life again But though we be absolved from that Sentence we must expect another to be pass'd upon us which will finally and eternally save us from Death if when we appear before that great Tribunal he that is to Judge us does find we have not neglected so great Salvation and sinn'd away the favour that has been granted us And this Power to absolve us for ever from Everlasting Death is given to him who came into the World to suffer for our Offences and rose again for our Justification And therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us That as it is appointed unto Men once to die and after Death the Judgment So Christ was once offer'd to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.27 28. i.e. Though we die by vertue of that Sentence that God gave upon us in Adam yet Christ having undergone the Punishment for us we shall not die Eternally by vertue of that Sentence For Christ who bore our Sins will come again to Judge us and then shall all his faithfull Servants be Eternally acquitted from that more dreadfull Curse that he will denounce against all that have lost their opportunity to save their Souls 2. This Power to justifie us i.e. to deliver us from Death by raising us to Lise again and acquitting us as our Judge at the last day he received when he rose from the Dead For then it was that he enter'd upon the publick Administration of the Affairs of his Kingdom and was made of God both Lord and Christ Then it was he received a Name that is above every Name and was dignified with the Honour of being Head over all things Thus he himself told his Disciples after his Resurrection That all Power was given unto him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 By which he means the Power of that Kingdom that by vanquishing him that has the Power of Death he has obtained The Power of pardoning Sin and raising the Dead and giving Eternal life to all that faithfully and sincerely serve him The God of our Fathers saith St. Peter raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Act. 5.30 31. In which words the Apostle informs us that the Power God has given him is the Power of dispensing that Grace and Mercy that he has obtain'd for us The Power of delivering us from Death and of justifying us as our Judge to Eternal life And that this Power God advanced him to when he raised him from the Dead 'T is true while he was in this World he styles himself the Resurrection and the Life and tells us That God had given him Authority to execute Judgment because he is the Son of Man But yet in these Expressions he means no more than that he was the Person who was designed by his Father to this Eminent Dignity and Power of abolishing Death and Judging the World and giving Life and Immortality to mortal Men. And of this he gave a convincing proof by raising Lazarus from the Dead But yet the Life he restored Lazarus to was not that Immortal life which he will give his sincere Followers when he utterly destroys Death but the same Mortal life that he was possess'd of before But the Power of raising us to an Immortal life which he gave a proof that he was designed to be instated in by raising Lazarus from the Dead was not conferr'd upon him till he was risen from the Dead Then it was that he enter'd upon his Regal Office and was invested with that Power and Authority by which he has put all Enemies under his feet He is sat down on the right hand of God saith the Apostle expecting till his Enemies be made his foot-stool Heb. 10.12 13. Designing at the End of all things to subdue Death which is the last Enemy he is to destory and in a most solemn and glorious manner to deliver his faithfull Servants from their Captivity and all Power of Death for the suture and to put them into an actual possession of that immortal life that they live in an expectation of srom him And now if Christ be thus risen for our Justification or that he might receive Power to justifie us Let us consider 1. What Reason we have to depend upon him for Everlasting life This is that Faith that he expects from us and which in the Gospel we are so frequently exhorted to A believing that Death is vanquish'd by the Power of our Mediatour when he rose from the Dead and
that we shall assuredly rise again to Life because our Redeemer who has over-come Death has the Power of raising us to Life again and of justifying us to Eternal life in his Hands It is not a believing that there is a God For though such a Faith does much contribute to the comfort of our Lives when we know that he is reconciled to us yet it serves only to fill us with terrour and astonishment if his Wrath does still lie upon us Nor is it a believing only that he employ'd a great Prophet to make our Duty more plain and to give us the best Rules and the most excellent Example of a Holy Life For such a Revelation can be of no advantage to us if our former Offences for which we are condemned are not pardon'd Neither is it a believing that though Sin be strong and prevalent in us yet we are not one jot the less Just because we commit Sin as some speak but by being united to Christ who has fulfill'd all Righteousness we have all Righteousness that is needfull to possess us of Everlasting life i.e. That God has put all into the Hands of his Son and that we have nothing more to do for the gaining Eternal life but to believe that Christ has done all for us For all that we can do will not make us one jot the more Just and Righteous in the sight of God i.e. Nothing more qualified for Eternal life than we are without it Now that this is not the Faith that the Gospel requires of us is evident from hence That the Gospel does all along suppose us to be in a state of Probation for Eternal life which this Faith does not For it supposes we are as safe as we can be by believing the things that Christ has done and suffer'd for us and that by means of this Faith his Righteousness is ours and that this Righteousness which is ours by believing is the only Righteousness we have to trust to for Eternal life Now if this be so we must deprive Christ of two of his Offices viz. his Prophetick and Regal Offices For having fulfill'd all Righteousness for us there was no need of his discharging the Office of a Prophet by interpreting the Mind of God and prescribing Rules of Life to us nor of executing the Office of a Prince in governing us by Rules of Righteousness who have all Righteousness in him And besides To what purpose are all the Motives and Exhortations to do Righteousness which we meet with in the Gospel Why is a Day of Judgment appointed to take an account of our Doings if believing that he has done all for us be all the Duty that our Eternal Happiness depends upon St. Paul tells us That we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And if we must be Judg'd for all that we our selves do in this Life it is certain that we have somewhat more to do than to believe that Christ has done all for us The true account then of this Matter is this That Christ by suffering Death having born the Punishment that in Adam we were doom'd to has procured us a full discharge from that Punishment i.e. God has justified us so that there is no need of our doing Righteousness that we may rise again from the Dead because that which Christ has done and suffer'd has procured us this Mercy and we may depend upon him for it Of this Mercy God has given us an Assurance by raising him from the Dead For his Resurrection is for our Justification or a certain Evidence that God has justified us as his Death was for our Offences or the Punishment that the Justice of God has doom'd us to But then though this Justification be only owing to the Merits of Christ yet we must do Righteousness that we may for ever enjoy the Benefits of it and if we do not this our Mediatour himself will condemn us again So that being discharged from the Obligation to die as Malefactours we are to take care of our Lives lest we die again by the Sentence of our Redeemer i.e. We must add to our Faith all Christian Vertues which are necessary to qualifie us for Everlasting life lest the Gospel condemn us again This is that Mercy that the Gospel declares to us And accordingly the Faith that it requires of us is the believing that God sent his Son into the World upon this Errand and that being justified by his Death we shall not only assuredly rise again but by obeying the Gospel we shall assure to our selves Everlasting life So that the Faith that the Gospel requires of us does suppose we are in a Justified state i.e. discharged from the Sentence of Death that passed upon us in Adam and is required of us not as the only Righteousness whereby we are to make our selves Immortal but as an Encouragement to perfect Holiness that we may be justified to Everlasting life when we are Judged by our Gracious Redeemer And it is by this Faith that God makes a Trial of the Sincerity of our Hearts whether we dare depend upon the Power he has given his Son to raise us again and to give us Eternal life For he expects that we should leave this World as Abraham did his native Country and his Father's House though we know not the World we go to when we leave this with a firm belief in his Promise of being raised to a better life And for the better confirming our Faith the performing it is committed to the care of him that is risen and has received Power to destroy Death For his Resurrection is an Instance that Death is not an Enemy too powerfull for him to vanquish And since he is invested with that Power by which his own Body was raised what greater assurance can we have that Death shall be abolished than this That he who has undertaken to abolish it has that Power which can destroy Death But especially our great Certainty in this case does arise from hence That the doing of this is committed to his care the business of whose Life and Death was to deliver us from Death And is there any Reason to fear lest he who has loved us and laid down his Life for us should at last fail us of the Blessings that he came to mediate for us and which he has dearly purchased If he will suffer his Blood to be vilely cast away and the Price of our Redemption to be lost we may question whether he will finish the Salvation that he came to procure us But if he has any value for his own Blood any sense of his own Sufferings any regard to his own Merits we cannot but believe that he who has gone through the Tragical part of his Undertaking will undoubtedly Triumph at the last in the total destruction of
Death For what better and safer hands can this Power to deliver and save us be lodged in than the hands of our Saviour For he to be sure will suffer nothing to be lost that he came to save and which he has Power to save This I have insisted on because some who believe that Christ rose again cannot see any Reason from thence to believe that we shall rise again too Now there are but Two things that I can think of that can be an occasion of distrust in the case 1. That this Power was not given him to this purpose 2. If it was we are not certain that he will make use of it Now we are sufficiently secured against any fears of this nature For 1. If he has any Power at all given him it must be to this purpose For none can be said to have a Power to do a thing given him which he is not to do by the use of that Power A Power which is not to be made use of is no Power at all and it could not be said that Christ has Power given him to raise us if this Power that is given him be sufficient to do this and yet he is not permitted to use this Power to this purpose Now that he has such a Power his own Resurrection is a sufficient proof For upon the same Reason that we believe he rose from the Dead we must believe that he has Power to raise the Dead because the Scriptures that teach us the one do teach us the other also So that if he has the Power of raising us committed to him it must be to this purpose that he may raise us And 2. We have great Reason to believe that he will make use of this Power to this purpose For will not he accomplish his own undertaking Will he not finish the thing that he has been sollicitous for Has a Malefactour any reason to doubt whether his Life shall be saved when his friend that has with Cost and Charge been long suing for his Pardon has it at last in his own hands No we are secured by the Love of our Redeemer that the Power he has received will be made use of for our deliverance For where can such a Power be better lodged than with him whose great concern it is to have us saved Thus the Apostle does argue upon this matter If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Rom. 5.10 i.e. If he loved us so much when we were Enemies as by dying to reconcile us to God can we believe that he loves us the less now for having loved us so much before Or that after he has procured such a Power of delivering us from Death he will not do what he was so desirous should be done He who died that we might live will undoubtedly give us Life now that he has the Power of giving Life conserr'd upon him This is the Faith that the Gospel requires of us and it is so well grounded that nothing can be more reasonable But 2. Since Christ has received Power to justifie us by raising us from the Dead and giving us Eternal life This may insorm us wherein the Mercy of the Gospel does consist This is a Matter worthy our Consideration because there are so many that mistake it There are few or none so little acquainted with the Circumstances of our Nature but are sensible that we stand in need of a great deal of Mercy to save us And this Universal acknowledgment that it must be Mercy that saves us is an acknowledgment likewise that no other Religion but such a one as is sounded upon Mercy is suited to the Natural condition of Mankind A Religion that only teaches us our Duty and what improvement is necessary to qualifie us for Immortality is not now so adapted to our Nature as when Man was Innocent For because there are strong Aversions in us to that which is good Sensual inclinations that render man Sins very gratefull to Flesh and Blood and by that means give Sin such a power over us that the Conquest of one Sin is many times the labour of a Man's life we are not in a Condition to improve our selves for Immortality as Innocent Man might But though this is the Acknowledgment of all Men and the Gospel upon that account does contain the best Religion we can be under the Government of yet the Mercy of the Gospel which is the Mercy we want is not so well consider'd but that many who believe it is Mercy must save them do rest upon such Mercy as will not save them For that which many found their Hopes upon is the simple Consideration of the mercifull Nature of God without any regard to any particular Instance wherein he has Exemplified to us the Mercy he would have us depend upon For because Mercy is an Attribute that belongs to the Divine Nature they persuade themselves that nothing severe can be dreaded from a God of Mercy Thus bad Men bear up their Spirits under the pressure of their guilt and put by those Terrours wherewith the Consideration of God's Justice would affright them into an amendment of Life and at last make a shift to go out of the World without any great sense of their Danger For if they must appear before a Just and Holy God yet the God that will Judge them has the Bowels and Compassions of a Father And this Thought lays all frightfull Apprehensions of his Justice They consider not that Death is the Wages or the just desert of Sin and that by carrying their Sins along with them into the other World they carry that along with them that the Justice of God has already condemn'd and does punish them for when they die They think not that while they do wickedly they despise the Mercy that God has shown us and even throw away their own Lives which the Divine Mercy by justifying them from a Sentence of Condemnation has put into their own power to save It is evident indeed that their own Consciences being witnesses they do that which deserves Death I mean the Eternal loss of their Souls when they have a recourse to Mercy for their hopes of recovering them again when they are lost i.e. When they are separated from their Bodies and sent into the other World to live among Cursed Spirits For why else should they expect to receive their Souls again from the Hands of Mercy rather than of Justice if they were not conscious to themselves that they justly lose them And since they are conscious of this in their own Minds what reason have they to think that God will not do that which their own Consciences tell them they have deserved And there is this further to prove the Folly of such a Hope that they see the Mercy they trust to does not save them from the Punishment of Sin But Death
deprives them of their Souls and Justice sends them into the other World and no Mercy but such as is Revealed can assure them that they who die by the Hand of Justice shall have their Souls restored to them again when once they have lost them For those who were not informed of this matter by any Divine Revelation never thought of such a thing as a Resurrection though they did believe that Mercy was an Attribute that belonged to the Divine Nature Neither does the Mercy of the Gospel consist only in revealing to us that God is Mercifull For there needs no Revelation to such a purpose And a Revelation of this nature would be of no great use to us if the Extent of his Mercy was not made known to us in some particular Instance that might encourage us to depend upon it and assure to us the Certainty of the Blessing that we hope for from his Mercy i.e. If he had not Reveal'd to us what we are to Hope for and upon what grounds we are to build our Hopes For to hope in his Mercy only because he is Mercifull is to hope for nothing that is certain and that can afford but cold comfort to Creatures that know they must be miserable for ever unless he shows 'em such a special Favour and Mercy as they stand in need of And it is observable that they who build their hopes of Mercy at large do talk very much at random as if they knew not what to hope for and were altogether unskill'd in the state and condition of another life Further it does not consist in prescribing to us the most perfect Vertue in the Rules and Example of our great Lord. For though this be an Eminent part of the Gospel-Mercy and Goodness yet it would be no Mercy if we were not put into a condition of obeying the Gospel with Hope For what Mercy is it to have the most exalted Vertue set before us if we cannot attain unto it and yet must perish if we do not Or if though we could attain unto it we must die by reason of a former Sentence For it is too late for a Malefactour to apply himself to that Obedience that the Law requires when he is already condemned for transgressing it Neither can he receive any Benefit from the best Informations concerning his Duty till he is acquitted from the Sentence he is fall'n under And therefore Zacharias in his pious Hymn celebrated the Mercy of the Gospel upon this account That being deliver'd out of the hands of our Enemies we may serve God without fear Luk. 1.74 Once more It does not consist only in God's Revealing to us that he will forgive us our Sins upon our Repentance and not charge the many Errours of our Lives upon us if we do our best to perfect Holiness None must deny but this is a very great degree of Mercy and that the Gospel does acquaint us that there is such Mercy with God For it encourages us to turn from Satan to the living God by the Promise of Forgiveness and assures us of Everlasting life upon the Sincerity of our Obedience So that he who applies his Mind with the greatest care and industry to improve himself according to the Rules of the Gospel will be acquitted even by the very Justice of his Redeemer when he comes to be Judged though he has not a Righteousness every way compleat to plead at that day But though this be a very mercifull Condescention yet it does not set before us the utmost height of that Mercy that the Gospel sets before us For it further lets us know That God's just Sentence of Death upon us is remitted without which all his other Mercy would have been to no purpose And that as upon this account St. Paul exhorted the Corinthians 1 Epist 15.58 We may be stedfast unmoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord i.e. Because we are assured we shall rise again from under our former Sentence and be rewarded with Everlasting life And therefore this is styled the Hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 to denote it to be the peculiar Mercy wherewith it encourages us to live according to the Laws of Christ The grace of God which brings Salvation or makes known our being discharged from Death as a Punishment and that therefore we shall rise to Life again teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present World looking for that blessed hope Tit. 2.11 12 13. i.e. That Immortal life that this Mercy encourages us to labour for For he that has this hope which no Man could have unless he was freed from Condemnation i.e. Justified purifies himself as God is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 And still for our greater encouragement the Gospel lets us know that this Mercy is merited and that the Hopes of rising to Life again which we are begotten to is founded upon the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ and the price of our Mediatour's Blood That there is forgiveness with God because Divine Justice is satisfied and the Power of Justifying us to Eternal life is committed to him who has suffer'd the Punishment of our Sins This is that height of Mercy that the Gospel reveals to us 'T is Mercy that is procured for us by the Death of our Redeemer and Exemplified to us in his Resurrection And therefore we know what it is that we are to expect from him 'T is Mercy that we have a right to upon the account of the Price that has been paid for it and therefore we know that it is just with God to restore us the Lives we lose In a word it is Mercy that is in the Hand of our Mediatour that has conquer'd and triumph'd over Death and on that account we have a full Assurance that he will remember his own Mercy and compell Death and the Grave to give up the Dead that are in them The Mercy of the Gospel then is a sufficient encouragement to us to do our Duty because it does not leave us at Uncertainties as those Hopes do which are grounded only upon the Mercifull Nature of God It is owing to the Mercifull Nature of God that we have the Hopes of Immortality But that Resurrection to Life which is the great Grace of the Gospel is not a thing that we are still to depend upon the Will and good Pleasure of God for For it is already granted us And though it is the Gift of God it is a Gift in the Hands of our Surety who is entrusted with the Power of giving Life 3. Since he has received Power to Justifie i.e. to Raise us and to give Eternal lise to his sincere Disciples This may inform us what Honour and Reverence is due to him And this is a Matter well worth our Consideration because there are a sort of Men that discourse as
has received this Power we may observe upon what Reason it will go worse with wicked Christians at the last than with ignorant Heathens That it will do so our Saviour has assured us in those dreadfull Denunciations against Chorazin Bethsaida and Capernaum the Cities where he frequently taught and wrought his Miracles Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty Works that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted to Heaven shalt be brought down unto Hell For if the mighty Works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained untill this day But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for thee Matt. 11.21 22 23 24. And that there is a great deal of Reason it should be so is evident from hence That wicked Christians sin against that Mercy and despise that Salvation that the Heathen part of the World know nothing of For all the Mercy that Heathens have by the Death and Resurrection of Christ is that they shall assuredly rise again from Death because Christ who died for our Offences has discharged all Mankind from Death as it is a Punishment of Sin But how the great Judge will deal with them when they are risen we know not because the Mercy that shall be shown them is not revealed Christ by the Power he has received will raise them to Life again though they know not of it But when they are risen they will not be Judged for not improving this Mercy because they know nothing of it neither Neither have they that Revelation that ascertains to Christians both their Duty and Reward and therefore shall not be condemn'd for not improving themselves to that height of Vertue that the Christian Religion teaches But now the case of wicked Christians is quite otherwise For they must rise to answer for all the abuse of that Mercy that the Gospel acquaints them with And they must die again because they have despised that Life that they must then lose when it was in their Power to have secured it Though they have the means of knowing that they shall not for ever lose their Souls upon the account of the Judgment that came upon all Men to Condemnation in Adam and that they are favour'd with a new Trial whether they will chuse Life or Death they lose the time of their Trial and must die because they chuse Death And this will aggravate their Condemnation that when they were favour'd with the care of their own Souls they foolishly lost the time in which God put them to their choice whether they would live or die So that when they are condemn'd again it will be a startling Consideration to them that they must die for their own neglect of themselves and that they have taken no warning by their former Condemnation but have to no purpose been pardon'd the fault for which they lose this present life And besides it will beget terrible Reflections in them when they come to consider that the Judge before whom they stand is he that came into this World to deliver them from Death by vanquishing that subtil Enemy that betray'd us into Mortality That it is he that will condemn them that when he appears the second time comes with Power to save i.e. to conferr upon us the fruits of his bloody Victory And that he will condemn them because they have taken their Souls out of his hand when he had deliver'd them and have deliver'd them up again to the slavery of those Evil Spirits out of whose power he had rescued them So that their Condemnation will be with the greatest Indignation for disappointing the Hopes and thwarting the Design of him that has procured a Power from his Father to save It will be with bitter Wrath and Vengeance for deserting the protection of a Saviour after all the Sweat and Blood that he was at the expence of to deliver them Those mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Luk. 19.27 And oh with what Consternation and Agonies in their Souls will they then be tortured when they see the direfull Executioners of that terrible Sentence coming upon them to seize them and that they must lose their Lives again which they have but just received and which is worse to lose them within the sight of Immortality He will condemn all that do Unrighteousness but a wicked Heathen will not fall under so much Wrath as a wicked Christian because he sins only against the Light of his own Mind and loses the Benefit of that Salvation that he never heard of But that which will heighten the wicked Christian's Condemnation is this That he has received the Grace of God in vain and must be condemn'd by him whose Kindness they have been frequently told of and whose Mercy they have been courted to accept of and to improve Oh! with what weight will the Wrath of a Redeemer fall upon the Heads of wicked Christians How scorching will that Justice be which the Love and Mercy of a Saviour will be forced to give way unto Because you would none of my Counsel but have despised all my Reproof and trampled on my Blood and turned my Grace into Wantonness Therefore shall ye eat the fruit of your own Ways and be filled with your own Devices Go ye cursed into everlasting burnings Such a Sentence out of the Mouth of a Saviour will come with such Astonishment and Horrour as no Heathen has any reason to dread Neither is this the worst of their case For every one that calls himself a Christian does profess to have put himself under the protection of their Redeemer's Mercy And therefore every Christian that does wickedly must expect to die without pity because he renounces his Trust in that Mercy without which when he embraced the Christian Religion he declared he could not be saved and repenting of his subjection to his Saviour revolts from him who alone has the Power to justifie The case of the Heathens is pitiable because of their Ignorance And therefore the Apostle tells us God winked at the time of the Heathen Ignorance He seem'd to over-look their Follies and out of mere pity to take no notice of their Mistakes But what Mercy can they expect who make light of that Mercy that calls them to Repentance and puts it into their Power to provide better for themselves than their first Parents did 5. We may hence likewise observe how little reason we have to dread a future Judgment There are a great many Considerations that are sufficient to remove those Fears that the thoughts of that Great Day are apt to terrifie us
with For he who is appointed to Judge us is the Man Christ Jesus He is a Man that is sensible of all the Infirmities that we labour under and does carry in his Bowels the Affections and tender Compassions of a Man toward us In that he has suffer'd being tempted he is able or very inclinable to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2.18 For what severe or terrible thing can we fear from a Man like our selves What unkind or hard Sentence have we reason to dread from him who is our Brother Will not he who took part of Flesh and Blood be very tender to the Infirmities of his own Nature Though it be a terrible thing to appear before a Just and Righteous God because the Justice of a God is very frightfull yet it can be no very frightfull thing to appear before a God made Man because we are well acquainted with the Tendernesses that are in the Nature of a Man Or if this Consideration be not enough to reconcile our Thoughts to a Judgment to come because we too often see that the Passions of Men make them violent and injurious cruel and oppressive toward each other Yet he is a Man not subject to the like Passions as we are nor tainted with those Vices as corrupt our Nature and render it a difficult thing oftentimes to converse with those of our own kind But he is a Man famed for Meekness and Humility for Love and Charity for Mercy and Compassion So that he is qualified with all those soft and tender Vertues that we our selves would desire should be in him that is to Judge us And since we must be Judged we would wish for such a Judge as he is But this is not all for the most comfortable Consideration of all is this That the Power to Judge us that is committed to him is a Power to justifie and acquit us from Death He has merited a Power to give Life to the World and therefore when he appears the second time it will be to the Salvation of all that wait for him by raising them from the Dead and giving them Eternal life So that his Judging the World will be an executing of that Power of giving Life that he has received It will be with the Pardon that he has mediated in his hand and for the delivering us who now are appointed to die from any more fear of Death for the future He will 't is true when he appears be cloathed with that Majesty that will be terrible to his Enemies and as a Righteous Judge give a very dreadfull Sentence upon all the workers of Iniquity But yet though he will condemn to a second Death those that he finds not worthy of Life and as well concern himself for the Interests and Reputation of his Father's Justice as our Everlasting Welfare Yet it is plain that the giving so severe a Sentence is besides his purpose and as well contrary to the Office as the Inclinations of a Redeemer because he will raise even those to Life again whom he thus condemns His raising them to Life again will demonstrate even to those that must die again that it is for the dispensing of Mercy and the acting like a Saviour that he does then appear That the primary End of his appearing is for the restoring Lise to Mortal Creatures For why else will he raise them to Life whom he will afterwards condemn to another Death but to let the World see that he designs Life for all if Mercy it self can but save them The true and proper find then of his sitting in Judgment will be the displaying the Mercy of a Redeemer the distributing the price of his Blood and the communicating the Everlasting Grace of the Gospel He came to save that which was lost and to be sure he will not cast away any that he came to save nor easily condemn when his business was to destroy Death He will Judge us who will raise us to Life again And to be sure he who then gives us our Lives will not easily and without very great Reason take them away again And now how terrible soever it is to us to think of undergoing a Trial of our Actions before a just Judge Yet is it not enough to ease our Thoughts to think that this Judgment will be terrible to none but such as have no Reason to hope in his Mercy but that all whom Mercy can save the Bowels of a Mediatour will deliver from Condemnation What more favourable Judge can we expect than such a one as has purchased us and has purchased Eternal life for us Such a one as comes with Power to justifie and save all whom Mercy can deliver and who lets us see his Inclination to give us Life by freeing us from a Sentence of Condemnation when he raises us out of our Graves The Conclusion HAving consider'd the Nature and Certainty of the Resurrection all that I shall observe from the whole is the Necessity that is upon us to live like those that do believe we shall rise again I mean that we do nothing now that will lose us our Lives again when they are restored to us at the Resurrection To live in this World as if we should never live more after Death has taken us out of it is very excusable in those who know not that they shall rise again because they take care of all the Life they know of But for a Christian who believes he must live again to do this is an extremity of Folly and Madness for it is to be thoughtfull only for an inconsiderable part of our Lives And surely it is not to act wisely for our selves not to take care of all the Life we are to live It is in the Opinion of all Men a very great imprudence not to take care of our Lives And therefore that Labour and Toil those vexatious Cares and Solicitudes wherewith Men wear out their Bodies and vex their Minds are justified upon this account that they are for the maintaining of Life And they are lookt upon as Men of little understanding who live without any kind of fore-cast or thoughtfulness for Life Now what Men do and make a great Mark of their Prudence in doing for the support and preservation of this life is much more needfull to be done for the preserving the Life we shall rise to because that is the Life that it principally concerns us to look after When Men neglect the Duties of Religion the general Answer wherewith they satisfie themselves and wherewith they expect that all Men should be satisfied is that they have not leisure The business of this World takes up their time and if they have hardly time sometimes to Eat and Sleep they cannot think but the Cumber and the Urgency of their Affairs will as well excuse them from their Religious Services as it obliges them to a neglect of their Bodies But when Men talk at this rate one would think they were
A DISCOURSE OF The Resurrection SHEWING The Import and Certainty of it BY WILLIAM WILSON M. A. Rector of Morley in Derbyshire LONDON Printed by J. H. for William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV IMPRIMATUR Geo. Royse R. R. in Christo Patriac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep. Cantuar à Sacris Domest April 26. 1694. Advertisement LAtely Printed A Discourse of Religion shewing its Truth and Reality or The Suitableness of Religion to Humane Nature By the same Author TO THE Right Reverend Father in God RICHARD Lord Bishop of Bath Wells My Lord IT is not above a day or two since I thought of recommending this Discourse unto the World under the Patronage of some Great Name not that I believed it sufficient of it self to walk abroad without such a support but because I was unwilling to lay the Burden of its faults upon such a one as had not Fame and Reputation enough to bear the weight of them and on the other hand I did believe it too great a Crime to charge any person with them that had And had not Your Lordship obliged me so much as of late you have done I should not have thought of doing it now much less of doing it under Yours Men had need be well assured of the Goodness of those Discourses which they publish under the Name of some known Friend because Dedications detract from those whom they design to Honour if what is offer'd to the World under their Protection be mean and trifling But this is not the worst of my case For though I know Your Lordship by the report of Your Exemplary Piety and Vertue yet I am so altogether unknown to You that I am ashamed to think that That which gives a Lustre to Your Goodness should be an Aggravation of my Crime in defaming Your Judgment so publickly and that too while I tell the World I am bound in Gratitude to confult Your Honour The Subject My Lord I here present You with is great and worthy the most serious Consideration of every Christian For it sets before us the Glad-tidings of the Gospel and the indispensible Necessity of a Holy Life Two things of that vast moment that were they well consider'd it would not be a very easie thing for Men to do themselves so much mischief as to forfeit their Hopes of an Immortal Life merely for the sake of a Bodily Lust when they judge it a hardship upon us to be condemn'd to a Mortal condition for Adam's fault And though I know my own Defects too well to believe I can write any thing upon a Subject of so lofty a Nature suitable to the Dignity of it yet if it will but contribute any thing towards the awakening Men to a sense of that Obligation to Holiness that our Religion by acquainting us with the ground of that Hope we are begotten to le ts us know we are under I shall presume upon Your Lordship 's known Goodness for a Pardon for the weakness of my Performance And the World I hope will believe that at least I meant well when I ventured this way to own my self Your Lordship's Most Faithfull and Obliged Servant Will. Wilson THE Introduction AS in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.22 In which words he sets before us the Reason of that Mortality we are subject to and the great advantage of the Christian Religion upon the account of the Hopes of a glorious Immortality after Death that we are restored to If we take a view of our own Nature nothing can be more unaccountable than that a Creature who carries an Immortal Principle in him should die And therefore the Apostle acquaints us that Death is not a Natural Calamity but the Effect and Consequence of that Condemnation that in Adam we fell under In Adam all die i.e. It is upon the account of Adam's Sin that Humane Nature is corruptible and that Death has any Power over us Whereas had he maintain'd his Innocency Immortality according to the Divine Constitution had been the reward of his Perseverance But the Calamity which Justice doom'd us to Mercy has provided a Remedy for And the Design of the Gospel is to acquaint us with the wonderfull Method whereby Life and Immortality are brought to light That for the conquering Death and delivering us from the Power of it God appointed his only begotten Son to bear our Sins and to became a Curse for us Such a Person he chose to die for us as could rise again from under the Wrath that would have lain for ever upon us and who by rising from the Dead has given the World an Instance of the Mighty Power of that Life and Spirit which he communicates to his sincere Disciples and in respect of which he is styled the Resurrection and the Life So that though in Adam all die yet in Christ shall all be made alive i.e. We shall not suffer an Eternal Death our Souls shall not for ever be separated from our Bodies upon the account of that fault that at first subjected us to Death But though we die because Adam sinned yet we shall rise to another Life because Christ who is our Life had appeared to take away Sin This is that comfortable and joyous Message that our Religion does publish to the World And it is the only Tidings that could revive our Spirits since Nature within us droops and languishes upon the account of the Mortality we are doom'd to And therefore for the delivering poor Mortals from those fears that all our life-time keep us in Bondage as St. Paul speaks Heb. 2. the main subject of the Apostle's preaching was Jesus and the Resurrection That indeed is an Article so little accountable to our Reason that some Men are upon that very account apt to look upon Faith as a very unreasonable Duty because it consists in the taking such things for granted which we have no Natural knowledge of But now that which the Enemies of Believing do find fault with Faith for is the very thing which God accepts and is pleas'd with it for Thus it was in the case of Abraham who upon the account of the Excellency of his Faith is styled the Father of the Faithfull For when God promis'd him a Son that which he took so well from him was his believing this Promise against Hope If he had consulted his own Reason what he should have believed in the case it would have been as much against Believing that he should have a Child when Old Age had wasted his strength and Sarah's Womb was dead as it can be pretended to be against a Resurrection But when he did not ask his Reason what was possible or what was fit to be believed but did depend upon the Divine Promise notwithstanding all the Difficulties he might have urged God was so well pleased with him that he accepted him as an approved Servant And thus God by
promising we shall come out of our Graves and live again after Death makes a Trial of us whether we can believe as Abraham did against Hope This is it that makes our Believing necessary and it is for this Reason that the Gospel does lay so much stress upon our believing in the Son who is the Person that has received Power to give us our Lives again For hereby God proves us whether we dare trust the concerns of our Life in the hands of his Son and are persuaded that he who undertook to restore Life and Immortality to us can raise us up at the last day In this Promise does mainly consist the Grace of the Gospel for it at once gives us a view of all that Mercy we have by Jesus Christ For it is an evident proof that he who will raise us up again has procured us a Pardon of those Offences which have brought Death into the World and that the God who has sentenced us to Death is fully satisfied with the Atonement that is made For it is not possible we should rise so long as that Wrath that kills us does lie upon us or the Offences for which we die are unremitted In Discoursing then of this Doctrine which is so considerable an Article of our Faith and makes Christianity so acceptable to Mortal Creatures I shall 1. Consider what we are to understand by it 2. What Assurance we have that we shall rise again A DISCOURSE OF THE Resurrection c. PART I. The Import of the Resurrection consider'd THE Doctrine of the Resurrection is so plainly deliver'd in the Sacred Writings of the New Testament that there are no sort of Christians but in some sense or other do assert a Resurrection or however would not be believ'd to deny a Doctrine that is so plainly deliver'd But yet there have been and still are such as do not believe such a Resurrection as the Gospel speaks of St. Paul tells us of Hymenoeus and Philetus that they erred concerning this Truth saying That the Resurrection was already past 2 Tim. 2.18 And there are still such as with them believe no other Resurrection but that which consists in the Renovation of the Soul which St. Paul speaks of Rom. 6.4 5. when he styles our walking in newness of life a being planted together in the likeness of his Resurrection But now they who understand nothing more by the Resurrection but our Baptismal Renovation or such a Change of our Conversation from a sinfull to a Holy way of living which the Apostle makes our imitating Christ's Resurrection to consist in do not believe the Resurrection of the Body which is the Resurrection that we are taught to expect And because the Scriptures speak of the Resurrection of the Body others by the Resurrection of the Body understand no more but our living again in a Body after Death not the same Body that dies but a heavenly Body But neither does this Notion of a Resurrection answer to the account that the Scriptures give us of it And therefore since there are such mistaken Notions of a Resurrection among Men it is necessary we should consider the true Nature and Import os it And 1. It implies that we shall return from a state of Death and live again or that the Soul which is separated from the Body by Death shall return from its state of Separation to live in a Body again 2. That we shall live in these very Bodies that are mortal and die 3. That we shall begin then to enter upon an Immortal life CHAP. I. 1. IT implies That we shall return from a state of Death and live again Or that the Soul which is separated from the Body by Death shall return from its state of Separation to live in a Body again When we die these Earthly Tabernacles fall down and go to the Dust and our Souls which dwelt in them take their flight and go to the place of unbodied Spirits This separation of Soul and Body is an effect of the Divine displeasure upon us It is to deprive us of that Particle of his Breath or Spirit by which when he made Man he became a living Soul Gen. 2.7 And accordingly when he resolved upon the Destruction of the Old World he threatned them That his Spirit should not always abide in those Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 6.3 i.e. Should not always lodge or inhabit in the Bodies of those Men as in a sheath as it is in the Original My Spirit i.e. The Breath or Soul that I breathed into Man when I made him But I will surely punish them with Death by taking from them the Spirit which they abuse by making it a Servant to the Flesh And now if this be a true account of the Nature of Death it is plain that in the Notion of it it does not imply either a Destruction or that sleep of the Soul which some Men dream of For all that this denunciation teaches us is That God when we die does withdraw the Soul out of the Body And this he may do though he assign it another place to live in after he has taken it out of the Body Now this we may much rather conclude from this Threat than that it is put into a state of Insensibility by Death For it being a Threat to deprive Man of the Blessing he had given him when he made him the most Natural sense must be this I will punish these Men by taking away their Souls from them and making them live a Vagabond life out of the Body which I designed at first to be their proper habitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall not abide or dwell in the Body but it shall still abide or live though out of the Body And this notion of Death the Scripture does in other places take notice of As in that mournfull Saying of Jacob Gen. 37.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall go to Hades to my Son mourning i.e. To the place where his Soul was gone for he believed that his Body was devoured by wild Beasts And the hopes of dying the same Death could not be the thing that he comforted himself withall So likewise that Expression of the Psalmist is to be understood Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption Psal 16.10 i.e. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hades the place where separate Souls live out of their Bodies nor my Body in the Grave And accordingly our blessed Lord told the converted Thief That that day he should be with him in Paradise which cannot be so understood as if he should that day go with him into Heaven because our Lord did not ascend to his Father till forty days after his Resurrection And therefore the Creed does not only teach us that he died and what manner of Death he died but that he was buried i.e. His Body was disposed of as the Dead Bodies of all other Men are and
adjudg'd to Immortality but that Life and Death were set before him to be the Rewards of his doings Whether Immortality was a natural Privilege of innocent Man and the Mortality that we are now subject to was a natural Effect of his Eating the forbidden fruit or no i.e. Whether his Body which was made out of the Dust was naturally subject to those decays which at last turn ours into Dust again Or whether it was so built that no Time or Age could possibly have impair'd it if he had not eaten of a fruit that tainted his Vitals is a question that we need not much trouble our selves about For what-ever we believe in this case yet it is certain that Mortality and Death even according to this nice Speculation came upon him and us by his transgressing the Law that upon pain of Death forbad him to eat of such a Tree Those who suppose he was made Immortal i.e. That Immortality was conferr'd upon him in his very Creation do understand no more by the Command not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge but only a Caution to avoid a fruit that would kill him of it self Now as to this matter it may seem reasonable enough to believe that a Body that was not created Corruptible as Adam's was not would not have dissolved to Dust again as ours do if he had not corrupted it by sin For though his Body was made of the same matter as ours are yet it was in a far more perfect state In us the Appetites of the Body are broken loose and grown extravagant and the Principles of our Constitution are not so equally pois'd at to prevent those decays and languishings which at last issue in Death The rage of our Appetites often destroy us by being the occasion of Intemperance and Excesses in Eating and Drinking and bodily Pleasures And the predominancy of some of those Humours that belong to our Bodies is the occasion of Diseases in us and a natural reason why we die But while Man was innocent though he did stand in need of Meat and Drink to nourish and sustain his Body yet his Food was wholsome and his Appetites so temperate that he was in no danger of dying either through the illness of his Body or by an extravagant Excess And since the several Humours of his Body were at peace the good and sound Constitution of Body with which he was created did exempt him from those decays and infirmities that let Death in upon us He was 't is true made out of the Dust as we are and needed the supports of Meat and Drink as we do And on that account it is plain that he was not Immortal but that there was one way at least that it was possible for him to die though not so many as do destroy us Hunger and a want of food would certainly have kill'd him as well as it will us or else there needed not such a provision of food have been made for him in Eden But yet as he was so well provided for that there was no danger of his dying this way So his Body though formed out of the Dust was so well built that Age and Infirmity would have made no Impressions upon it And besides we are to consider that the Ground being not under a Curse as it is now his Body could naturally be no more subject to Vanity than the Earth out of which he was made For why may we not suppose that the Earth was not then what it is now as it is suited to the Condition of our Mortal sinfull state no more than it will be the same it is now when we come out of our Graves to live in that New World that will be prepared for us when we have shook off our Corruption And as the Renovation of our Bodies does require that there should be New Heavens and a New Earth for us to live in So the Earth in which innocent Man lived was such as was proper for him to inhabit It was not surely such as now it is since a Curse has come upon it for the sake of Man i.e. Even out of Charity to Man that he who is under a Curse might have a proper Habitation to live in And when the Earth out of which Adam was taken was not subject to the Bondage of Corruption under which it now groans his Body though framed out of the Dust was not for that reason to resolve into Dust again But though he was not naturally Mortal neither was he naturally Immortal For a Creature that is made Immortal does not stand in need of Meat and Drink that he may live neither could it have been in the power of the forbidden fruit to have kill'd an Immortal Creature because what-ever is naturally Immortal cannot die And therefore is not in danger of being hurt by Poyson or the Sword or any other Instrument of Death So that it is not good sense to say He was naturally Immortal and yet that the Fruit he was forbidden to Eat of could naturally kill him For what can kill that which cannot die And besides Why was the Tree of Life planted in the Garden if Adam was created Immortal It was not surely for show only but for use as all the other Trees even that of Knowledge undoubtedly were For though there was good Reason to prohibit a Tree of Knowledge to a Creature that was by his own industry and endeavour to improve himself in Knowledge and Vertue yet perhaps he was at last to have been allowed the liberty of Eating that Fruit as the Reward of his Labour and for the highest improvement of his knowing Faculty if by Care and Diligence he applied himself to that which was his great Duty and Business It is not to be thought surely that God planted the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden merely for the hurt of his Creature or to become a Temptation to him to ruine himself but rather for his good had he waited the time that God in his Wisdom had appointed to reward him with that fruit whereby all his further search after Knowledge should have been ended by having this Wisdom and Knowledge he by his own Industry had acquired secured and perfected But when by a hasty step he endeavour'd to gratifie his Appetite of Knowledge by becoming like unto God knowing Good and Evil at once without any labour of his own his Appetite became vicious and his Attempt was such a Breach of the Order and a Transgression of the Method that God had appointed him that he denied him the benefit of the Tree of Life and condemn'd him to a Mortal condition And therefore the subtil Serpent when he tempted Eve to Eat of this Fruit spoke a Truth when he told her God does know that in the day you eat thereof your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Gen. 3.5 He knew the vertue that was in this Tree and therefore it is said
that when they had eaten their Eyes were opened v. 7. But the mischief of the Temptation lay in this That they were prevailed upon to Eat of it before their time before they were prepared and qualified for it or fitted for so great a Benefit as was designed them in it And therefore it was that God turned them out of the Garden lest they should Eat likewise of the Tree of Life and live for ever i.e. Lest they should make themselves Immortal when by setting their Appetites at liberty they had made their improvements in Vertue more difficult than they would have been and when in the Condition they were in Immortality would have been no Blessing For I don't suppose that the Tree of Life was planted in Eden to repair the decays of a mortal Body but that by Eating of it they might be made Immortal when by a course in Vertue and Piety they were become fit for a Translation to that place where they should no more need Meat or Drink to support their Lives And therefore St. John tells us that in the New Jerusalem that glorious City we shall after the Resurrection dwell in for ever There is the Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the Healing of the Nations Rev. 22.2 i.e. Whose Fruit shall make us Immortal as the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise should have made Adam had he not disobey'd the Divine Command The Sum of all is this Adam was created in so sound and healthfull a State that Age and Infirmities could not Naturally have prevail'd over him But as he was not Naturally subject to Death so neither was he Created in an Immortal Condition But Life and Death were set before him and as he was a Probationer for Immortality so God having created him Innocent left it to his own choice whether he would live or die i.e. Whether by Obeying he would procure to himself when the time of his Tryal was over a grant to Eat of the Trees of Knowledge and of Life or whether by disobeying God he would be debarr'd of this privilege and instead of being translated to a state where he should live without Food as the Angels do be doom'd to a Life of Sorrow and Labour So that as Mortality was the Judgment that came upon him for his Sin so Immortality was the gift God would have bestow'd on him for his Obedience had he improved himself for it This then being that perfection of Life that God when he made Man innocent design'd him for The Resurrection 't is plain is design'd to restore us to that way of living that God in our Creation fitted us for For although Man was not created Immortal yet it is plain he was created for an Immortal Life because God put an Immortal Principle into these Bodies of Clay which now are Mortal For why should he unite two such Principles together and make it Natural for an Immortal Soul to live in a Body if he did not design they should live always together And if this was the way of living that Man was intended for in his Creation the Life that the Resurrection is designed to give us is the same Immortal Life that we were Created for For he that over-cometh i.e. maketh those Improvements in Vertue as Adam should have done shall after he is risen again for the confirming of Life to him eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 i.e. We shall be made Immortal as Adam should have been The Life we now live which is subject to Diseases and Death is not the Life that God gave us but the sorry Remains of that Life which he appointed us to It is only so much as has been left us But at the Resurrection we shall begin to live like Men. For then our Immortal Souls shall be united to Immortal Bodies And the Life we should have lived if we had never sinned will then Commence when Corruption and Mortality which are the Punishments of Sin shall be changed into Incorruption and Immortality which are the glorious Privileges of the Sons of God 3. We shall then be freed from the Reproach of Mortality and Corruption The Reproach I call it for there can be no greater Reproach to a Creature that was made for Immortality than to die And especially when we consider that Death is the Punishment of Sin and that we die for our Disobedience to our Creator and Soveraign Lord. In this case Death puts us to open shame in the sight of all the World We seem to have a Natural sense of the fault that is the occasion of it when we lament the Funerals of our Friends and Relations And the natural dread and horror of Death that is in all Men does express a mighty Regret that such a thing as Mortality and Corruption should belong to us who have an Immortal Principle within us We go out of the World like Criminals and can any thing grate more upon an ingenuous Mind than to think we die because we are under an offence and we condemned to die And had not our gracious Redeemer born our Shame for us and appeas'd the Wrath that is come upon us and made it a more easie thing to enter upon another state with what shame and horror with what confusion and disorder can we imagine that our Souls would have crept out of these Bodies For in this case they would have been dragg'd like Apprehended Malefactors to that separate state whither they go when they leave the Body as to a Gaol over which the Devil has the power For according to St. Paul's Expression he has the power of Death Heb. 2.14 i.e. Death would have deliver'd our Souls into his hands as a condemn'd Criminal is put into the hands of an Executioner They would have been consigned over to him who has the power over that State whither Death sends us And oh with what Vexation and Anguish would they have been tormented to think that all this was come upon them by the just Judgment of God! Think with how much shame a Man that was born to a plentifull Estate appears among Men or is haled to a Prison when by his Folly he has reduced himself to Beggary and Rags and the common Reproach of all that knew him is See the Man that has undone himself by his Extravagancies And how much more grievous would it have been to us had not Christ by dying and rising again taken away our Reproach to have been pointed at by Angels when we had gone into the other World without the Bodies that by the Law of our Creation we were appointed to live in and when we had fall'n under the Power and Dominion of Evil Spirits to have had it said of us That we were the Spirits of Men and had brought our selves into that Condition by our own Folly and want of Consideration But Christ by Death has destroyed him that had the power of Death
and by going to the place of separate Spirits has taken possession of it as his own Kingdom in right of his Conquest over the Devil And the Resurrection he has assured us of will free us from our shame For then Death will be swallowed up of Victory and we shall appear in the World and live like our selves again This will be the day of our Triumph and Joy when that which is sown in dishonour and weakness shall rise in glory and power And because we go out of this World with the expectation of a Resurrection we may appear before the Inhabitants of the invisible World without any dread or shame because we shall there live in hope under the protection of a mercifull Redeemer 4. This may inform us of the Difference between this Life and that we shall then live We shall live in the same Bodies indeed but not in Bodies that carry such marks of dishonour and shame in them as now they do nor such a Life as now we live For the great difference between them is this That now our Bodies are frail and brittle and we carry the great valuable Treasure of Life in Earthen Vessels that are subject to decay and which erelong will be broke to pieces and lose the Treasure that is put into them But then they will be purified to a Heavenly frame and no longer subject to those innumerable Chances that beat upon and at last break them down Here it is only that little scantling of Life which Sin and the Divine Wrath have left us that we enjoy but there we shall have that full portion that God in our Creation set before us and what through the Redemption of his Son we are restored to the Hopes of Here we live subject to a thousand Miseries and Infirmities and are put to daily trouble to repair the decays of a corruptible Nature and at last after all the supports and refreshments of Meat and Drink or the Remedies of Physick our Spirits run off and the Grave becomes our Habitation But then we shall have a Life unless by our own folly we treasure up so much Wrath as will not suffer us to live and we our selves carry Misery along with us a Life I say that no Sorrow shall embitter no Wants weary and disquiet with Labour and Solicitude and which will be able to sustain it self for ever without any of those Succours and Remedies that our present Necessities call for There will be none of that thoughtfulness for to morrow which now often breaks our Rest and embitters our Lives no sweating for Bread to maintain Life nor any of those Anxieties which here the fears of losing what we have do perplex us with For there the Reason of all this will be taken away because we shall then enter upon a World replenish'd with all that Humane Nature can desire and the Life we shall live will have none of those Exigences that suppose imperfection in us That which makes this Life so full of vexation and sorrow is the Curse that is come upon our selves and that which is come upon the Earth for our sakes For it was but fit that the Earth should be changed when Sin had alter'd the Nature of us that were to live upon it And since a Mortal and Corruptible Creature must live a Life of Sorrow and Labour it was requisite the Earth should be despoiled of that fertility that gave innocent Man an easie Maintenance and be Cursed to bear Briars and Thorns for a Creature that was to fetch his Food out of it with Sweat and Sorrow Now what wonder is it that the Life of Man which is not to be sustain'd but by his own Labour should begin to be over-run with Cares and Solicitudes when that fertility which fed him with Ease began to leave the Earth and instead of the Fruits of Paradise he saw Briars and Thorns spring up all about him 'T is Natural when our Bread fails and we see a scarcity of Provision begin to appear to have our Cares heightned and our Heads fill'd with Thoughtfulness So that our Solicitudes and Anguish for the things to sustain Life are but like the scramblings of Children when they are afraid the things they value should all be snatch'd from them For when the Earth began to fail Man of that plentifull and easie Provision with which in Innocency he was fed it is no wonder that like Men afraid lest the whole World should fail us our Desires grew impatient and made us restless and thoughtfull But now in the other World when we live again we shall not want the things that are needfull to us now and all that we shall need to make that Life perfectly Happy will be abundantly provided for us Then the Curse that took away our Blessings will it self be taken away And the New Heavens and New Earth that God will then create will no more be an occasion to us of those vexatious Solicitudes that the Poverty of this World begets in us than any Exigencies in our Nature will We shall rise with Bodies renewed i.e. Freed from all the ill Consequences of our first Apostasie and we shall live in a World renew'd too i.e. Freed from the Effects of that Curse that brought forth Briars and Thorns in it I mean which is the Cause of all the Miseries and Sorrows of this Life For they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead can die no more for they are equal unto the Angels Matt. 26.36 What that means we cannot tell because it is little that we know as yet of the state and condition of the other World But this it teaches us That we shall be Immortal and live just such a Life as they do Not such a Life of Labour and Toil and Misery as now we do because the Curse that is the cause of it will then be taken off 5. Let us consider how much Reason we have to prepare our selves for another Life Life is so valuable a thing to us that we judge it worth all the tiresome Journeys we take and the irksome Labour we are at to lay up something for the sustaining of it 'T is for the sake of Life that we even chuse to Drudge our Bodies in continual Toil and to expose Life it self to very great Dangers For had we none of those wants that put us to pain and create Thoughtfulness in us could we live without Labour and Industry we should chuse to sit still and to enjoy Life with ease And if we are content to undergo so many Hardships for a Life that is Mortal if we believe there is a Necessity upon us to follow our Callings and to be intent upon our worldly Interests that we may provide those Necessaries of Life without which we shall certainly die and which when we have them will not long preserve the Lives we labour for With how much greater care ought we to lay up
Mankind Upon which account the full Discovery of it was reserved to him who by conquering Death was to ascertain the Truth of it to us If it be enquired whence then good Men of old had their Notice of it I answer 1. That it was contained in the Promise made to Adam that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head For the Expression of breaking the Serpent's Head must mean that he who was promised should by dispossessing the Devil of that power he had gain'd over the Souls of Men deliver us from the Calamity that by the Serpent's subtilty we were fall'n into Now this Calamity was Mortality and that Power of leading the Captived Souls of Men to that invisible state where the Devil exercises a Tyrannical Authority that he had gain'd over us And because the Serpent by his Subtilty had brought this mischief upon us God promises that the Seed of the Woman should bruise his Head i.e. He would out-wit him by the Seed of that Woman whom he had deceived and deprive him of the fruit of his Subtilty by restoring Immortality to Man whom he had brought under a Curse Thus no doubt Adam understood this Promise which assured him of a Deliverance from the Curse he was fall'n under For how could he be freed from the Curse that Sin had brought upon him but by having the Life which the Justice of God sentenced him to lose assured to him again Or how could the Serpent's Crafty design to deprive him of an Immortal Life be disappointed but by a Promise that gave him hopes of rising again to Life And therefore St. Paul observes That as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive Implying That as Death was the Curse that came upon us by the first Transgression so it was a Resurrection from the Dead that was promised to Adam Because that Promise not only teaches us in general That God designed us some great Blessing by the Seed of the Woman but that the Blessing should be a Remedy to the Mischief that by the Serpent's Subtilty was fall'n upon us 2. The Promise made to Abraham of giving him and his Seed the Land of Canaan does imply it For this Promise was not made to his Posterity alone but to him also All the Land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed after thee Gen. 13.15 Now though this Promise was not made good to him nor his Sons who were the Heirs of the Promise but as the Apostle saith they sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country Heb. 11.9 Yet God made himself known to him and to Isaac and Jacob to be their God By which he would have them to believe him to be that faithfull God that keepeth Promise And accordingly it was by Faith that they sojourn'd there though as Strangers believing that though they did not live to see the Promise made good yet there would come a time when God would be mindfull of them and put them into a full possession of it These all saith the Apostle died in faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth v. 13. And therefore when they were dead God still styled himself The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob to let their Posterity know that he was mindfull of them and of the promise he had made them From which Text our Blessed Saviour convinced the Sadducees that they should rise again i.e. Though they did not receive the Promise in this Life yet because God had assured them he was their God they should assuredly live again and enjoy the Benefits of it The design of the Argument was to teach that Sect that denied a Resurrection that in this Text God had given the Jews a sufficient ground for the Belief of a Resurrection because God is not the God of the dead but of the living It is not sufficient to style him the God of the living though there be no Resurrection only because the Souls of Men do live in a separate state For though the Soul of Abraham be alive yet Abraham is dead And if Abraham was not to live again he could not with a Respect to Abraham be styled the God of the living The meaning of our Saviour's Argument is this That though Abraham Isaac and Jacob be dead by vertue of that Curse that is come upon all Men yet they must rise again from under this Curse because though they are dead they are not consigned over to the Power of that Evil Spirit who has the Power of Death For God still styles himself their God which implies that their Souls are in a place of safety under the protection of God where they rest in hope of seeing the accomplishment of the Promise made to them For the least that we are to conclude from hence is That God has reserved some special favour for them But what friendship could he be supposed to bear them if he was resolved they should bear the Curse for ever that took away their Lives He could not surely style himself their God if he had forsaken them for ever For to be a God to any one does at least signifie that he designs some great Good to such a person But what great Good can he design for those whom he has forgotten and leaves to bear those Marks of his Displeasure with which they go out of this World If then God has not totally forsaken them as his being their God does imply that he has not though they be dead because of the Doom that was pass'd upon Adam yet they are not by Death deliver'd as Captives into the hands of him that has the Power of Death but shall be deliver'd out of that state of the Dead where they live under the protection of God because he is their God Or we may take the design of our Saviour in order to the asserting the Doctrine of the Resurrection to have been only to over-throw that Belief of the Sadducees concerning the Annihilation of the Soul upon which they grounded their disbelief of a Resurrection And indeed to them who believed there was no Resurrection because they believed the Souls of Men are extinguish'd by Death it was sufficient for the proving there is a Resurrection to prove That the Souls of Men do live in a separate state after Death Because this was to destroy the foundation on which they grounded their Belief And 't is sure if our Souls did not remain alive after Death there would be no part of us that could be sensible of the Mischief that Death is to us nor of the Blessing a Resurrection will be to us But since our Souls do continue alive the Hopes of a Resurrection does speak so much favour toward them who do not live like themselves while they are out of the
of the Grave when God had given him Life again But this comes far short of our Saviour's meaning who in this Expression had a respect to such a Miracle and Sign as should sufficiently prove him to the Jews to be the Messiah But what great matter is it for a Man when he is restored to Life to come out of his Grave What greater Power could this prove to be in him than in any other Man that shall rise at the last day Now that he spoke of quickening his dead Body will appear if we consider the words Destroy this Temple i.e. Take away my life and I by taking it up again will give a convincing proof of a Divine Power in me The Words thus taken are a very proper Answer to the Jews who ask'd a sign of him For no greater sign of his being the Son of God could be given than this That he is the Lord of Life and that when he was dead and buried he would raise himself to Life again This is indeed beyond the reach of Humane Reason and so surely that which he designed for a sign ought to be For what sign would it have been to the Jews if it had been accountable to them But yet it is the same Truth that he has with a great deal of care inculcated upon us I lay down my life that I might take it up again No Man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Joh. 10.17 18. And upon the account of this Power he is styled the Resurrection and the Life i.e. That person that has power to give Life to the World In these Texts then it is as plainly ascribed to himself that he raised himself as in others that he was raised by God But the great Dissiculty is How he who was raised by God can be said to have raised himself For can that which is done by another be properly said to he done by a Man's self Or if it was done by himself how could it be done by another Can the Scripture be true both when it saith he was raised i.e. by God and that he did rise i.e. by his own Power Here Reason is at a loss as well as to know by what Power he could raise himself when he was dead Now the Design of the Holy Scriptures is to teach us these things 1. That it was by the Divine Power that he rose And to this purpose it is said That he who was dead and buried was raised again because the raising a dead Body is the Work only of an Omnipotent God 'T is no less Power can give Life to a Man when he is dead than that Infinite Power which at first made him a living Creature It must be the same hand that puts the Machines of our Bodies together again when they are fall'n in pieces as at first framed them Upon which reason the raising Christ from the Dead is ascribed to God because it belongs only to him to give Life who has Life in himself and is the Author of Life and the raising a Dead Body can only be the Act of Omnipotence This is no more than Humane Reason does easily apprehend a great deal of probability in For why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the Dead But the great Difficulty is How he who was Dead could raise himself 2. Therefore this instructs us That he had the Power of an Omnipotent God The Resurrection is in St. Paul's style the working of the exceeding greatness of the Divine Power Eph. 1.19 And since Christ did rise by his own Power what Power could this be less than that exceeding greatness of Power that is in God When therefore he tells us that he rose by his own Power and that he had Power to take up his Life again he would have us to consider him to be more than a Man That however he humbled himself to the Death of the Cross when he was deliver'd for our Offences yet he had that Infinite Spirit and Power that is able to quicken a Dead Body and which would not suffer his Body when laid in the Grave to see Corruption And therefore the Apostle observes that he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 i.e. Since the raising a dead Body to life again is the Act of Omnipotency his raising himself from the Dead is a proof of his having that Omnipotent Power that can raise a dead Body It was by the Power of God that he rose but this Power was in himself and therefore it was by his own Power that he raised himself So that the Holy Scriptures in these different ways of speaking teach us what to believe concerning him That he was not only a Man subject to the same Infirmities as we are in which respect none but God could restore him to Life again when he was dead but that he was equal to the Father being the Son of God according to that Spirit of Holiness which can quicken a dead Body in which respect he had Power-both to lay down his Life and to take it up again And now since it was by this Power that can raise a dead Body that he rose and this Power was in him 1. Let us consider how little reason we have to stand astonish'd at this thing That Christ when Dead should raise himself to Life again It is indeed but very fit that they who know not who or what manner of person he was should stumble at this Doctrine For nothing can be more difficult than that they who believe he was no other than a mere Man though a very Holy Man should believe that when he was Dead he could raise himself to Life again For to believe this of any Man though never so Holy is to believe that he has Power to do that which none but God can do And yet at the same time to believe that he has not that Power of God by which alone this can be done And no Man can blame them for not believing things that are contradictory to Reason But what Contradiction is it to believe that he who has the Power of God can by vertue of that Power do all that the Power of God can do If it does not exceed the Power of God to raise a dead Body what difficulty can there be in believing That he who had this Power could raise himself 'T is not expected that we should believe that a Man by his own Power much less a dead Man that has lost even the Power of a Man should raise himself because this is above the Power of a Man to do Neither does the Scripture teach us any such thing But that which it teaches us is this That Christ laid down his Life and took it up again by his own Power and yet this
Punishment for Grace to save him from But the case is not thus with us For the Scripture saith he has concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 i.e. He has already given Judgment upon us and therefore his Justifying us cannot be by declaring us Righteous according to the Law of Integrity but by acquitting us of the sin he has concluded us under And what other Judgment is it that the Apostle has a respect to in this Expression but that which he gave upon Adam when for his Disobedience he condemn'd him to die God 't is true does in a secret and invisible way govern and judge the World in all Ages of it He hurls contempt upon Princes he humbles the proud and makes a Land barren for the wickedness of those that dwell therein And when he does any thing of this nature he concludes that sinfull People under their own Sins whom he punishes for their Wickedness But yet these and such-like Calamities though they are the Judgments of God and argue him to have pass'd a doom upon such a People Yet it is secret and does not determine of Men's state and condition any further than as to the Temporal comforts of this life But the sin that the Scripture tells us we are concluded under does respect all Men and the Judgment it speaks of had finally determin'd of our state had not Mercy interposed And of this nature was the Sentence that God pass'd upon Adam For his Judging him was of the same nature as the great Judgment at the End of the World will be It was open and by way of Process and Accusation Adam was cited charged admitted to plead for himself and at last convicted and condemned And this Sentence did determine of the final condition of Mankind appointing him and his Posterity irrevocably to Death So that he had died immediately and this Wrath of God would have lain upon us for ever had not the Divine Mercy contrived a means to justifie and save us And since it is by vertue of that Sentence we all die we are concluded under the guilt of Adam's sin i.e. We know our Doom and what we are to expect upon the account of that corrupt and mortal Nature that we receive from him If then Justification be from some punishment that we are already condemned to suffer it must be from this of Dying because no other Sentence is as yet pass'd upon us And unless we be discharged from this it is in vain that we have a new Law given unto us For we are not capable of Immortality till we are pardon'd the fault for which we are condemned and no Man can qualifie himself for a Blessing that he is not capable of This is the account of Justification that St. Paul gives us when he opposes it to Condemnation and makes it to consist in the Abolishing of Death Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their life-time suject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. i.e. The reason of Christ's Incarnation and Death was that he might bear our Punishment and set our Minds at rest which upon the account of that Sentence that doom'd us to die are full of Anxiety and Trouble at the thoughts of losing a Life that we are so fond of He under-went all that we account an Evil in Death His Body was turn'd to a Carcase and his Soul went to Hell or the place whither Death transports our Souls that state where the Devil designed when he robb'd us of our Immortality to erect a Tyranny over the Souls of Men where having vanquish'd that wicked Spirit he return'd triumphant with the spoils of our Enemy to his Body again And therefore as St. Paul saith there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 In which words he has not a respect to the last Judgment in which all Flesh shall be Eternally sentenced either to an Immortal Life or an Eternal Death as if no Christian need to fear being condemn'd at that day For there are no doubt many vicious and leud Chrisitians that will be judg'd unworthy of the Name they bear and of the Hopes that belong to it But his meaning is that they are absolved and acquitted from the Sentence of Death that Adam and his Posterity long since received that their Souls being rescued out of his hands who has the Power of Death shall at the Resurrection return in a Triumphant manner to their Bodies again which is the great Privilege we have by Jesus Christ For these words are an Inference from what he discoursed in the foregoing Chapter where he consider'd and complain'd of the Misery of Man's Natural state as we are obnoxious both to Sin and Death Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7.24 And sets before us the Goodness of our Christian state which assures us of pure and glorious Bodies Bodies perfectly deliver'd from Mortality and those corrupt Affections and Appetites which Adam's Sin has let loose upon us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord v. 25. So that they who are in this state and take care to approve the things that are Excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ are in as good a condition as if Sin and Death had never enter'd into the World For there is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus i.e. By Christ we are deliver'd from the Body of this Death or this Mortal sinfull Body And shall for ever enjoy the benefit of this Deliverance if we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And in this respect Jesus Christ is styled the second Adam in opposition to the first from whom Sin Mortality and Death are derived to us That as by the Apostasie of the first we are condemned to die by the Obedience of the second we are discharged from so dreadfull a Punishment and restored to the Hopes of living again And this he discourses more fully in the fifth Chapter where having observed the Calamity of that Mortal condition we are doom'd to by reason of Adam's Transgression he magnifies the Grace of God in this respect That through the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ we are deliver'd from this Effect of Adam's Offence As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to condemnation i.e. As all Men were condemned to die for Adam's sin even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to justification of life v. 18. i.e. All Men were discharged from the severity of this Sentence and allowed the liberty of providing for a Life that is Eternal as if they had never sinn'd nor ever been condemn'd to die It is true the Apostle discourses as if it was
not Adam's sin alone but our own too are the Reason why we die and consequently that our Justification is not from Adam's Offence only but from those many that we are guilty of By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned v. 12. i.e. All Men die as well as Adam because all have sinned as well as he For untill the Law sin was in the World And again Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression v. 13 14. i.e. All that lived between Adam and Moses died though they did not Transgress a positive Law as Adam did but only sinn'd against the Law of Nature But if we look a little narrowly into the Apostle's discourse the contrary will be evident For when he instanceth in a time when there was no Law that condemn'd Men to die for their own Offences his design is to prove that the Sin and Judgment that pass'd upon Adam does reach to all Men For what account else shall we give saith he of the Death of those that died before the Law of Moses was given They sinn'd 't is true but that could not be the Reason why they died because they were not under any Law that threatned them with Death if they sinned and therefore since they died it could be by vertue of no other Law but that by which Adam was Judg'd and Condemn'd He does say indeed that Death pass'd upon all Men for that all have sinned Yet Sin is not imputed where there is no Law which was the case of all that lived between Adam and Moses The summ then of the Apostle's discourse is this That Adam's Sin and the Judgment that was pass'd upon him is the Reason why all Men die but we are not to think that Men die only for Adam's Sin in such a sense as if themselves were not Sinners For though all have sinned yet all die because of Adam's Sin Obj. But if this be the meaning of the Apostle how comes it to pass that he tells us afterwards that the free gift is of many offences unto Justification Ans To which I reply That though by the undertaking of our gracious Mediatour we are justified from our own particular Offences i.e. Are put into such a state that we have no reason to fear being condemned when we come to answer for our own Actions if with sincerity we conform our Lives according to the Rules of the Gospel though we be guilty of many Errours and Mistakes Yet it is plain from what he discoursed before that it is Adam's Offence alone is the reason why we die because it is for Adam's Offence alone that we are born Mortal and are under a Sentence of Condemnation But by being justified from Adam's Sin and Condemnation we by sincerely submitting to the Law of Grace are acquitted of all those particular Sins that in our Natural state we are guilty of Because Adam's Sin being the Root and Original cause of our own particular Offences by being discharged from the Punishment that Adam's Sin brought upon Mankind we upon our embracing the Law of Grace are accepted by God to a liberty of working out our own Salvation notwithstanding our own Sins The many Offences that the Apostle here speaks of are those that in their Natural state Men are guilty of For of these alone he spoke in the foregoing Verses when for the proving it was for Adam's Transgression that we all die he instanced in those that lived between Adam and Moses who were not under the Government of any other Law but that of Nature and therefore did not die for their own particular Offences And of these he tells us the free gift is to Justification as well as of Adam's Sin because by being discharged from the Punishment of Adam's Transgression we shall not be condemned for those that no positive Law does threaten with Death But as for those Sins that in our Christian i.e. our Justified state we are guilty of we must be justified or condemned for them by the Sentence of our Mediatour according to the very Voice of the Law that he has given us to live by 2. Then Justification puts us into a possibility of living again after Death for ever For since it is the taking off from us the Curse that is come upon our Nature for the publick Transgression of our first Parents it takes away that which is the Cause why we die and which if it was not taken away would for ever hold us in a state of Death The Reason why we die is because God has doom'd us to it and that which is the Reason why we die would be a Reason too why we should never live again if God in Mercy had not pitied our Condition and absolved us from the Guilt for which we are condemned to die For as it is upon the account of God's Wrath that we die if we had for ever lain under that Wrath we must for ever have continued in a state of Death i.e. according to the Sentence God had pass'd upon us we had forfeited the Immortality of that Life that consists in the vital Union of the Soul and Body So that the import of the Sentence of Death we fell under was nothing less than an Eternal separation of the Soul and Body A Doom that adjudged the Body to Dust for ever and the Soul to live without its Body under the Dominion of that Evil Spirit that seduced us and the dreadfull Marks of the Divine displeasure for ever And as this is the meaning of that Judgment to Condemnation that is come upon all Men so the meaning of that free gift that is come upon all Men to Justification of Life is the hopes of rising again to that Immortality we lost For by Justifying us God acquits us from the Punishment he had condemn'd us to and by withdrawing that Wrath from us which sentenced us to an Eternal Dissolution of the Soul and Body he puts us into a hopefull condition of living again for ever As when he condemn'd us his Justice laid us under an obligation of satisfying his Wrath by a perpetual separation of our Souls from our Bodies So when he justifies us his Mercy re-instates us in his Favour and by discharging us from the Curse we are fallen under gives us an Assurance that Death shall not be Eternal but that there will come a time when our Bodies shall come out of their Graves and our Souls and Bodies shall happily by united again So that 3. Justification is an Act of mere Mercy and Goodness It is mere Grace and Favour that spares the Life of a Criminal when he is condemn'd to die For in such a case he can have no hopes of living unless he who has the Power of Life and Death does by reversing the Sentence save him from the Punishment Whereas a Law that allows
that could have been concluded would have been this That if at any time after there should be any Man that lived as Holily add deserved Death as little as he did Divine Justice would do them the same right as it did him if their Lives should be violently torn from them as his was But since he undertook to deliver a sinfull Race from Death by becoming a Curse for us he rose as our Triumphant Redeemer not for his own Justification only but ours And his Resurrection does not only proclaim to the World that Divine Justice will not suffer an Innocent person who is unjustly condemn'd and with Violence put to Death to lie for ever under the Power of so unjust a Sentence But that Divine Mercy has pardon'd the Offences for which we who are under a Sentence of Codemnation do die and will not suffer us who die for our own faults as Criminals to lie for ever under the Sentence that is pass'd upon us For 1. His Resurrection was a Justification from guilt For since he bore our Sins when he died we are not to consider his Resurrection as the Justification of an Innocent person only but of a person laden with Iniquity And if we may inferr That it is agreeable to Divine Justice to restore a person that lives as much without Sin as he did his Life again if it should be wrongfully taken from him because he thus justified the Innocence of his beloved Son the least that we can conclude from his rising from under a Curse and the burthen of our Sins is That our Sins and the Curse that is come upon us are not of that weight but that we may likewise hope to rise from under them But further 2. It informs us that our whole Nature is Redeem'd and Hallowed And therefore the Holy Scriptures represent him as another Adam to inform us that he bore the same Relation to us in all he has done to restore Life to the World as Adam did when by his Fall and Punishment Sin and Death came upon us As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 i.e. As Humane Nature was corrupted and made Mortal by Adam's Transgression and the Sentence of Death that he fell under came upon us who are his Posterity so Humane Nature is quickned and revived in Christ and his Resurrection is the great Instance of that Grace that remits to us the Punishment we are condemn'd to He is as well the Root from whom Immortality and Life are derived to us as Adam was the Root from whom came Mortality and Death And upon this Reason he is styled the first-fruits of the Dead Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead v. 20 21. i.e. A Resurrection to another Life is come by Man in the same manner as Death came by Man For as we are all condemned in Adam so we are all acquitted from Death and made alive in Christ So that he is the first-fruits of them that sleep not only as he was the first Man that after Death rose to an Immortal Life but as his Resurrection is the consecrating Humane Nature afresh or the taking of the Curse that in Adam came upon us In this Expression the Apostle alludes to the Jewish Custom of offering the first-fruits of all their Encrease unto God which Oblation did not only sanctifie the Fruits that were offer'd but consecrated the whole Harvest And that which he informs us is this That God by raising up Jesus from the Dead has Hallowed us to an Immortal Life Obj. If it be objected that this is to put wicked Men into a Justified state Ans I reply That without doubt they have this advantage be the Death of Christ that with the rest of Mankind they are acquitted from the Condemnation that is come upon us in Adam else no reason can be given why they rise from the Dead and why they must be judg'd and condemn'd again for their own faults which supposes that here in this Life they are in a state of Probation That they shall rise again is as plainly revealed to us as that every good Christian shall Marvel not at this saith our Saviour for all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5.28 29. All that die the bad as well as good must rise again because the bad as well good do die And if the bad as well as good must arise it must be because they are freed from the Condemnation that came upon all Men in Adam For if they still lie under that Curse the Wrath that kills them would for ever give Death a power over them Neither would there be any reason why they should rise again to receive another Sentence if they be not freed from the former and restor'd to a possibility of saving their Souls So that since they must rise to receive another Sentence for their own faults it implies that they were in the same condition in this Life with those that made a better use of the Mercy that is granted us i.e. That they were pardon'd as to the Sentence that was given upon Adam but that they must be condemned because their own Sins will not suffer them to live when they are risen which will be so much the more dreadfull as it will be the Sentence of a Redeemer that came to save them And now let us consider what improvement we may make of this And. 1. Let us consider how comfortable a state we are restored to It is as I have observed a state of Pardon and Forgiveness A state that frees us from the Terrours of Divine Justice and puts us under the favourable influences of Grace and Mercy and gives us the liberty of a second Trial whether we will chuse Life or Death And therefore the Apostle takes notice of it as the peculiar Privilege and Blessing of our present Condition that we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 We are not under the Dominion of Justice that condemns but under the Rule of Mercy that justifies us The Law has condemn'd us and it is certain justly enough because it gives no other Sentence upon us than what by corrupting our Nature sin does naturally oblige us to suffer For it is naturally impossible that a Creature that is corruptible should not see Corruption But being justified by the Divine Grace we are put into a Condition of gaining that Immortal life that we are condemned to lose So that though Corruption and Mortality be the Natural fruits of Sin yet the Mercy that is procured us by the Mediation of Jesus Christ does give us a comfortable prospect of rising to an Incorruptible and Immortal state He who