meaning of the Resurrection of the Body is nothing else but this to persuade Vulgar people that though they seem to perish when they die and their Bodies rot in the Grave yet notwithstanding they shall have a real Subsistence after Death by which they shall be made capable either of future Happiness or Misery But because the apprehensions of the Vulgar are so gross that the Permanency or Immortality of the Soul is too subtile a Notion for them who commonly count their Bodies for Themselves and cannot conceive how they should have any Being after Death unless their very Bodies should be raised up again therefore by way of Condescension to vulgar Understandings the future Permanency and Subsistence of the Soul in Prophetical Writings is expressed under this Scheme of the Resurrection of the Body which yet is meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which conceit how well soever it may befit a Mahumetan Philosopher I am sure it no way agrees with the Principles of Christianity The Scripture here and elsewhere assuring us that the Resurrection of the Body is to be understood plainly and without a Figure and that the Saints departed this life in the Faith and Fear of Christ shall not be mere Souls without Bodies to all Eternity as Avicen Maimonides and other Philosophers dreamed but consist of Soul and Body united together Which Bodies though as the Doctrine of the Church instructeth us they shall be both Specifically and Numerically the same with what they were here yet notwithstanding the Scripture tells us they shall be so changed and altered in respect of their Qualities and Conditions that in that sense they shall not be the same V. 36 37. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Thou sowest not that Body that shall be but bare grain it may chance of Wheat or of some other grain but God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own Body The Apostle here imitating the manner of the Jews who as appeareth from the Talmud were wont familiarly to illustrate the business of the Resurrection of the Body by the Similitude of Seed sown into the Ground and springing up again Accordingly he goes on It is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption sown in dishonour it is raised in glory sown in weakness raised in power sown a Natural Body raised a Spiritual Body Which Epithet was used also in this case both by the Philosophers and the Jews for Hierocles upon the Golden Verses calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehicula Spiritualia Spiritual Bodies and R. Menachem from the ancient Cabbalists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Clothing Lastly the Apostle concludes thus Now this I say Brethren that Flesh and Bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption For which cause he tells us elsewhere that they which do not die must of necessity be changed And indeed if men should be restored after death to such gross foul and cadaverous Bodies as these are here upon Earth which is the very Region of Death and Mortality without any change at all what would this be else but as Plotinus the Philosopher against the Gnosticks writes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be raised up to a Second Sleep or to be entombed again in living Sepulchres For the corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that 〈…〉 seth upon many things Wisedome 9. 15. Wherefore we must needs explode that old Jewish conceit commonly entertained amongst the Rabbinical Writers to this day That the future Resurrection is to be understood of such Gross and Corruptible Bodies as these are here upon Earth to eat drink marry and be given in marriage and which must needs follow afterward to die again Nachmanides in his Shaar Haggemul is the onely Jewish Author that ventures to depart from the common rode here and to abandon this Popular Error of the Jews endeavouring to prove that the Bodies of the Just after the Resurrection shall not eat and drink but be Glorified Bodies but Abravanel confutes him with no other Argument then this That this was the Doctrine and Opinion of the Christians Let us therefore now consider how abundantly God hath provided for us by Jesus Christ both in respect of our Souls and of our Bodies Our Souls in freeing us by the Spirit of Christ if we be not wanting to our selves from the Slavery of Sin and the Bondage of the Law as it is a Letter onely Our Bodies in that this Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal Immortality and that these Vile Bodies shall be made like to Christ's glorious Body In both which the compleat Salvation of Man consisteth the Perfection and Happiness both of Soul and Body For though our Salvation consist chiefly in the former in the Victory over Sin and in the Renovation of the Mind yet without the latter which is the Victory over Death and the immortalizing of our Bodies it would be a very lame and imperfect thing For Righteousness alone if it should malè habitare dwell alwaies in such inconvenient houses as these earthly Tabernacles are however the high-flown Stoick may bragg it could not render our condition otherwise then troublesome sollicitous and calamitous Wherefore the Holy men in Scripture not without cause longed for this future Change Rom. 8. 23. We grone within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies 2 Cor. 5. 2. In this we grone earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven But there is no obtaining of this future Victory over Death and Mortality except we first get a Victory over Sin here For this is that Crown of Life that Christ the First-begotten from the dead will set upon the Heads of none but those that have here fought a good Fight and overcome For as Death proceeds onely from Sin and Disobedience so the way to conquer Death and to arrive at Life and Immortality is by seeking after an inward Conquest over Sin For Righteousness is immortal Wisd. 1. 15. and will immortalize the entertainers of it and as the Chaldee Oracle speaks ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HAving hitherto shewed what are the great things we hope for by Christ and are to endeavour after namely to procure an Inward and Real Victory over Sin by the Spirit of Christ that so we may hereafter attain a Victory over Death and Mortality We cannot but take notice briefly of some Errors of those that either pretending the Impossibility of this Inward Victory over Sin or else hypocritically declining the Combate make up a certain Religion to themselves out of other things which are either Impertinent and nothing to the purpose or else Evil and noxious For first Some as was intimated before make to themselves a mere phantastical and imaginary Religion conceiting
to say That the inward sense of every true and sincere-hearted Christian in this Point speaks the same language with the Scripture For a true Christian that hath any thing of the Life of God in him cannot but earnestly desire an inward Healing of his sinful Maladies and Distempers and not an outward Hiding or Palliation of them onely He must needs passionately long more and more after a new Life and Nature and the Divine Image to be more fully formed in him insomuch that if he might be secured from the pains of Hell without it he could not be fully quieted and satisfied therewith 'T is not the Effects and Consequents of Sin onely the External Punishment due unto it that he desires to be freed from but the Intrinsecal Evil of Sin it self the Plague of his own Heart As he often meditates with comfort upon that Outward Cross to which his Saviour's hands and feet were nailed for his Sins so he impatiently desires also to feel the virtue of that Inward Cross of Christ by which the World may be crucified to him and he unto the World and the Power of Christ's Resurrection in him still to raise him farther unto newness of Life Neither will he be more easily persuaded to believe that his sinful Lusts the malignity and violence whereof he feels within himself can be conquered without him then that an Army here in England can be conquered in France or Spain He is so deeply sensible of the Real Evil that is in Sin it self that he cannot be contented to have it onely histrionically triumphed over And to phansy himself covered all over with a thin veil of mere external Imputation will afford little satisfactory Comfort unto him that hungers and thirsts after Righteousness and is weary and heavy laden with the Burthen of his Sins and doth not desire to have his inward Maladies hid and covered onely but healed and cured Neither can he be willing to be put off till the hour of Death for a Divorce betwixt his Soul and Sin nor easily persuaded that though Sin should rule and reign in him all his Life-long yet the last parting grone that shall divide his Soul and Body asunder might have so great an Efficacy as in a moment also to separate all Sin from his Soul BuT that we may not seem here either to beat the Air in Generals and Uncertainties or by an indiscreet zeal to countenance those conceited and high-flown Enthusiasts of latter times that forgetting that example of Modesty given us by the blessed Apostle Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect But this one thing I doe forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the Mark boldly arrogate to themselves such an Absolute Perfection as would make them not to stand in need of any Saviour nor to be cleansed by the Bloud of the Lamb which therefore they allegorize into a mystical sense we must declare that we speak not here of Inherent Righteousness and a Victory over Sin in a Legal or Pharisaical sense but in such an Evangelical sense as yet notwithstanding is true and real The First Degree whereof is a Principle of New life infused into the Soul by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which the Apostle calls Semen Dei the Seed of God inclining it to love God and Righteousness as a thing correspondent to its nature and inabling it to act freely and ingenuously in the waies of God out of a living Law written upon the Heart and to eschew Sin as contrary to a vital Principle For the true Gospel-Righteousness which Christ came to set up in the world doth not consist merely in outward Works whether Ceremonial or Moral done by our own Natural power in our Unregenerate state but in an inward Life and Spirit wrought by God Which those very Philosophers seemed in a manner to acknowledge that denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Vertue could be taught by outward Rules and Precepts like an Art or Trade and Aristotle himself also when he inclines to think that men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that their being Good depends upon some extraordinary Divine Influence and Assistence Which I the rather take notice of because some late Pretenders to Philosophy have prophanely derided this Doctrine after this manner as if it made Good Thoughts and Vertuous Dispositions to be POURED and BLOWN into men by God But there is a Second Degree of Victory over Sin which every true Christian ought not onely to look upon as possible but also to endeavour after and restlesly to pursue which is such a measure of Strength in the Inward man and such a degree of Mortification or Crucifixion of our sinful Lusts as that a man will not knowingly and deliberately doe any thing that his Conscience plainly tells him is a Sin though there be never so great Temptations to it Whether or no this be that Evangelical Perfection which was the Mark that S. Paul pressed towards and which he seems mystically to call the Resurrection from the Dead or any thing further I leave it to others to make a Judgement of But doubtless they that have attained to such a Principle of New Life and such a measure of inward Strength as is already mentioned that is to the Perfection of unfeigned Sincerity may notwithstanding the Irregularities of the first Motions violent Assaults and Importunities of Tentations sudden Incursions and Obreptions Sins of mere Ignorance and Inadvertency which are all wash'd away in the Bloud of Christ in a true Evangelical sense be said to have attained to a Victory over Sin Wherefore I demand in the next place Why it should be thought impossible by the Grace of the Gospel and the Faith of Christ to attain to such a Victory as this is over Sin For Sin owes its original to nothing else but Ignorance and Darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every wicked man is ignorant And therefore in that sense that other Maxime of the Stoicks may have some Truth also that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men sin against their will because if they knew that those things were indeed so hurtful to them they would never doe them Now we all know how easily Light conquers Darkness and upon its first approch makes it flie before it and like a guilty shade seek to hide it self from it by running round about the Earth And certainly the Light of God arising in the Soul can with as much ease scatter away the Night of sinful Ignorance before it For Truth hath a cognation with the Soul and Falshood Lies and Impostures are no more able to make resistence against the Power of Truth breaking forth then Darkness is able to dispute with Light Wherefore the Entrance in of Light upon the Soul is half a Conquest over our Sinful Lusts. Again though Sin have had a long and customary Possession in the
Vulgar minds and make more palpable impressions on them and be alwaies of more present and ready use then any Philosophical Reasons and Demonstrations And the Scripture is herein very harmonious and agreeable to itself both in the Old and New Testament for as in the one it makes the original of Death's entrance into the world to be the Sin and Disobedience of the First Adam who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth earthy so in the other it attributes the recovery of Life and Immortality to the meritorious Obedience of the Second Adam that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord from heaven heavenly who by his Death vanquished destroyed Death For as Sampson who was a Type of our Saviour when he was besieged by the Philistines in the City Gaza Judges 16. rose up at midnight and pulled up the Gates of the City and the Posts and laying them upon his shoulders carried them up to the top of the Hill in like manner Christ our Lord when he was environ'd and encompass'd by Death after he had been awhile detain'd under the custody thereof he ascended victoriously out of the Power of the Grave and carried the Gates of Hell and Death upon his Shoulders along with him triumphantly into Heaven he slighted and dismantled that mighty Garrison whose Walls were stronger then Brass and Gates harder then Adamant that it should no longer be a Prison with doors and barrs to shut up those that believe in him but an open and free passage and a broad High-way to Life and Immortality He is the Resurrection and the Life John 11. 25. and he that believeth in him though he were dead yet shall he live For he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore even he hath the Keys of Hell and of Death Revelat. 1. 18. But that which I chiefly aim at at this time concerning Jesus his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven is this That by and after it he was made Lord and Christ King and Saviour and Sovereign of his Church Not but that Christ's Humanity was alwaies hypostatically united to the Divinity but because the Oeconomical Kingdome of Christ as Mediatour according to the Scripture-calculation seems not to commence till after his state of Humiliation was over and so begins its Epocha from Christ's Resurrection or his Exaltation to sit at God's right hand in heaven Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Acts 5. 31. Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted on his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour c. Philip. 2. 9. Who humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross Wherefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And that Article of our Creed concerning Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven signifies thus much unto us That Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth all things being made subject to him excepting him onely that hath put all things under him He being for the Comfort of his Church and Members here upon Earth according to his Humanity made God's Vicegerent and seated in his Father's Throne and having a Mediatorious Kingdome bestowed upon him that shall continue till he hath put down all Authority and Power and hath subdued all his Enemies under his feet and then hath delivered up this Oeconomical Kingdome to God the Father that God may be all in all And this is an unspeakable Consolation that Christian Religion affords to us and a most gracious Condescension of the All-wise God That forasmuch as we that dwell in these houses of Clay are so far removed from the pure and abstracted Deity and so infinitely disproportioned unto it that there should be such a contrivance as this set on foot That we should have one of our own Flesh and Bloud that was in all things tempted like unto us and had experience of all our difficulties and calamities who demonstrated his infinite love to us in laying down his Life for us and therefore we cannot doubt but hath a most tender Sympathy and fellow-feeling with us in all our infirmities I say that we should have such a one exalted to God's right hand and invested with all Authority and Power both in Heaven and in Earth that he might administer all things for the good of his Church and Members and supply them in all their wants and necessities Which consideration must needs be farre more comfortable chearing and reviving to every true Christian then it was to the Sons of Jacob when they went down to Egypt to buy Corn and provision for their necessities to think that Joseph their Brother was made Ruler over all the Land And yet notwithstanding this is wholly eluded and evacuated by those high-flown Spiritualists of these latter times that slight and reject the Letter of the New Testament as a mean and carnal thing and will acknowledge no other Death and Resurrection of Christ no other Ascension and Sitting at God's right hand nay no other Day of Judgement nor Resurrection of the Body but what is Mystical and Allegorical Whereby they do not onely impudently slurre the Gospel according to the History and the Letter in making it no better then a Romantical Legend or a mere Aesopick Fable that contains a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral under it but also plainly defeat the Counsel of God against themselves and mankinde by antiquating Christianity and bringing in instead thereof old Paganism again disguised under a few canting Phrases of Scripture-language For though Moses had a Veil over his face though there were many obscure Umbrages and Allegories in the Law the Children of Israel being then not able to bear the brightness of that Evangelical Truth that shined under them yet now under the Gospel we do all with open face behold as in a Glass the glory of the Lord nakedly represented to us being changed into the same image from glory to glory But to let pass these and still to improve our former Meditation further Let us in the next place consider that Christ who received all this Power after his Resurrection and Ascension did not receive it in vain and to no purpose either taking no notice of our humane transactions here below as having removed his Pavilion too farre into those Regions of Light and Glory from us or else remaining notwithstanding an idle Spectator and no way concerning or interesting himself in the Issues of our humane affairs Which will be so much the more improbable if we consider what the Scripture and experience tell us that the
and Living Faith that worketh by Love which is the very Essence of the New Creature or Regenerate Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be imputed or accounted for Righteousness under the Gospel-dispensation where God will not proceed according to Legal Rigour and Severity with his fallen Creatures but according to that Equity and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Philosopher tells us is the Truest Justice But our onely design is to caution against that Antinomian Error which is too often insinuated under the Notion of Imputed Righteousness as if there were no necessity of Inherent Righteousness and a Real Victory over Sin in order to Salvation but that an Imputed or Imaginary one might serve the turn Which Error springing up very early amongst the Gnostick-Christians S. John gives a seasonable Antidote against it 1 John 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous and in Chap. 2. v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him To which purpose is that also in his first Chap. v. 5. This is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and doe not the Truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Wherefore the same Apostle in that Epistle tells us of overcoming the Wicked one Chap. 2. 14. and of overcoming the World by our Faith in Christ Chap. 5. 4. And in the Apocalyps he propoundeth from Christ himself divers remarkable Promises to him that overcometh That he shall eat of the Tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God c. 2. v. 7. That he shall not be hurt of the Second Death v. II. That he shall have the hidden Manna and a white Stone with a new Name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it v. 17. That he will give him the morning Star v. 28. That he shall be clothed in white Raiment and his name shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life c. 3. v. 5. That he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God v. 12. and That he shall sit with Christ in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne v. 21. The Condition of all which Promises being Overcoming we may well conclude from thence that there is a Real and not an Imaginary Victory onely to be obtained over the Power of Sin as well as the Guilt of it Nay it is true and very observable that those Places which are usually quoted as the Foundation of an Imputed Righteousness in some other sense then what we have before mentioned are indeed no otherwise to be understood then of a Real Inward Righteousness that is wrought or infused by the Spirit of Christ. As that principal one Philip. 3. v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord that I may win him and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Where Christ whom the Apostle desires to win and to be found in and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness which is of God through Faith are no External Imputed Righteousness but the Real Inward Righteousness of the New Creature wrought by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which is opposed here to our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of the Law that is the Righteousness of outward Works done by our own Natural power according to the Letter of the Law in our Unregenerate state for so the following words explain the meaning That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead And this same Inward and Real Righteousness is often elsewhere called Christ and the New man that is said to be In us and which we are exhorted to Put on not by Conceit or Imagination onely but by real Conformity to his Nature and Participation of his Spirit And whereas the Magnifiers of Free Grace in an Antinomian sense and the Decriers of Inherent Righteousness commonly conceive that the Free Grace of God consists in nothing but either in the Pardon of Sin and Exemption from Punishment or the Imputation of an External Holiness and accounting men Just freely without any Condition but onely the mere Believing of this that they are so accounted and that Faith is no otherwise considered in the Gospel then in order to the Believing of this Imputation and that our own Works when they are comparatively undervalued to Grace and Faith are to be taken for all Inherent Righteousness and Holiness even the New Creature it self That all these are Errors as it might be abundantly proved from sundry other places of Scripture so it may sufficiently appear from that one Ephes. 2. v. 4 c. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of Works left any man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works For when we are here said to be saved by Grace it is plain that the Apostle means by Saved inwardly Quickned and Sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Grotius well here is Purgari à Vittis which inward Sanctification is here attributed to God's Free Grace and denied to our selves and to Works the meaning whereof is that it is not effected by our own Works whether of outward Morality or Legal Ceremonies done by our Natural power in the Unregenerate state but by the quickning and enlivening Spirit of Christ inwardly creating us a-new And lastly Faith is plainly made the Instrument of this inward Sanctification that is not wrought by our own Works but the Grace and Spirit of Christ. Whence we may well conclude That the true Object of the Christian Faith is not onely the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross for the Remission of Sin but also the renewing Spirit of Christ for the inward conquering and mortifying of it and the Quickning or Raising of us to an Heavenly Life And I dare be bold