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
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
who would not have Life rendered unpleasant by any thing ought above all things to startle and tremble at the thoughts of Death as the greatest Enemy to Life All that are persuaded there is another Life after this are taught by this belief to have a very indifferent regard to this life because they know that the loss of this life is not the loss of all the life they hope for But now the Atheist is so much wedded to this life that he places all his Happiness in the delights of it and cares not to think of any other And therefore the thoughts of dying must certainly be very troublesome to him because he is persuaded he shall for ever lose that which he would not have embitter'd and that all his joys and pleasures all that he accounts good for him are thereby for ever gone And now what a wofull condition is this Man in who lives under such a persuasion as this He shows he is no Enemy to Life when he tells the World That all that he aims at is the making Life as pleasant and easie as 't is possible to be And yet that which he so much loves he rallies upon and pleases himself with the thoughts of losing it for ever Now if it be so gratefull to him to think he shall die never to live more why is he so tender at all of Life why does he seek out ways to make it pleasant why does he not live in a continual neglect and contempt of it if it be so ridiculous a thing to live as he would persuade the World it is when he derides the Religious Man's hopes of living again though he dies But if Life be worth all the care and pampering that he bestows upon it he of all Men ought not to make it his scorn He pretends to be a very great friend to Life while he undertakes to teach the World the best way of living And yet at the same time that he professes so much kindness and friendship for Life his Principles make him a perfect Enemy to it He believes that there is no more Life after this but that when once Death has closed his Eyes he shall never wake more and this Thought he so much pleases himself with that he laughs at all that do not believe as he does And yet he tells the World that he is an Atheist purely for the good of Life He is an Atheist because he would not have his Life sour'd with ill-natur'd Restraints as he believes them And yet because he is an Atheist he cannot endure to hear of a life that is Everlasting or of recovering his life again when he has lost it And is it now a wise thing to be an Atheist when every one that is so is taught by his Principles to thwart his own desires and to make it a part of his Wisdom to deride the belief of enjoying that for ever which he pretends to have a greater value for and to consult the good of more than any body else If he be wise in being such a friend to life as he would have the World believe he is when he would have nothing to interrupt or lessen the joys and pleasantries of it why is he such an Enemy to is as to be unwilling the Faith of those that believe an Eternal life should be true But if he be wise in ridiculing and opposing this Faith why does he profess himself a friend to Life Either he must be a fool in being contented that this belief should be false or in loving Life so much as he does Especially when we consider it is for the sake of Life that he chuses to believe as he does Why is Life so precious a thing to him that he cannot endure to think of any thing that is troublesome to it when with a great deal of satisfaction he can think of loving it for ever Atheism then is a very foolish thing not only because it makes a Man an Enemy to his own Life but an Enemy to the Immortality of it only that he may be thought the greatest friend to it by providing extravagantly for it now as a foolish Heir sells the Reversion of an Estate for the present Enjoyment of a small pittance of it The Atheist will perhaps plead for himself that he is no Enemy to a suture Life but to the belief of it without Reason And it is true he is no Enemy to the Life that he now lives nor is there any reason that he should because it is all he hopes for But if he loves Life at all why is he a friend to those Principles that will not suffer him to rejoyce in the hopes of a Resurrection to Life again He saith he sees no reason to believe this Suppose he had well consider'd the matter yet methinks he should not deride those who are persuaded there is good reason to believe it but rather lament it as his misfortune that he cannot discern the reason upon which others ground their belief For he that so loves his Life as to be unwilling to lose it should at least be very favourable towards a Doctrine that promises the Restauration of Life again and wish that he could see good reason to believe the Truth of it But to laugh and make a mock at it as if it was not worth wishing it was true does not savour of that Wisdom which a love of Life should prompt him to 5. We may hence inferr the Reasonableness of a Holy Life Our Religion does wisely command us to set our Affections on things above and not on things on the Earth and to have our Conversation in Heaven because our Life in this World will shortly have an End and it is in Heaven that we must live an Everlasting life Upon which account it is very fit that we should acquaint our selves with the Nature of the place we are going to and how we must live when we come thither And as he who is about to settle in another Country to send those Vertues before-hand thither which may be a maintenance to us when we come thither We to be sure ought not so to live now as if we were to live no more for what will become of us when we do live again if we have made no provision at all for that life The main solicitude that ought to fill our thoughts is not how we may thrive and improve our Fortunes in this World i.e. To put our selves into such a condition that while we live here we need not fear either poverty or the disgrace that accompanies it but what we must do that when we are returned from the Dead we may not be despised for our want of such Vertues as are to support that Life This ought to be the End of our Living now because we must live again For a loose inconsiderate way of living can be reasonable upon no account but either because we shall never be taken away from a World of
we have born the Image of the Earthy have lived in such a Body as Adam had so we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly i.e. We shall have such glorious heavenly Bodies at the Resurrection as Christ now has For flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Flesh and Blood such as now we carry about with us Bodies that cannot live without food and which by reason of the weakness and imperfection of their Senses are oftentimes pained by that which is their pleasure But what is corruptible must put on incorruption and these vile Bodies shall be changed and fashioned like to Christ's glorious Body Phil. 3.21 i.e. Such as his Body is such shall ours be discharged of all that is their burden and shame or that creates vexation or uneasiness here and improved to that height in all its Powers that we who cannot bear the light of the Sun when it travels in its strength whose Eyes water and are offended when too much light pours in upon them shall be enabled to live in such glory as is not yet revealed and to walk in that inaccessible Light to which no mortal Eye can approach This Change is express'd in Scripture by our rising with spiritual Bodies and bearing the Image of the Heavenly which does not mean that our Earthly Bodies shall be turned into Spirits For then the life we should be raised to would not be of the same nature with that which we now live i.e. It would not consist in the vital Union of a Soul and a Body but of two Spirits For a Body turned into a Spirit is no Body But now that which the Scriptures teach us concerning a Resurrection is That our Bodies shall come out of their Graves and that we shall have the same Bodies as well as the same Souls though improv'd in their capacities and qualities That the life the Resurrection is designed to restore us is the life we lose because it is styled the Resurrection of the Dead which could not be if it be a Body turned into a Spirit that our Souls shall be united to For then the Resurrection would not unite it to a Body at all i.e. It would not give us the life of a Man which is the life that Death deprives us of They who contend for such a Rarefaction of our Bodies into Spirits tell us That we shall have the agility and subtilty of Spirits so as to be able to penetrate Bodies and to be in a place not as we are now by filling it but as Angels are who do not exclude any Body thence by being there And this they suppose is the Nature of Christ's glorious Body which is the pattern after which the Resurrection will fashion ours For to this purpose they insist upon that Text of St. John which tells us That our Saviour enter'd into the room where the Disciples were met together when the Doors were shut As if St. John's meaning was That he had passed through the Doors in the same manner as a Spirit does But now the Evangelist saith no such thing nor do I see how any such thing can be concluded from what he does say The Words of the Evangelist are these Then the same day at evening when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst Joh. 20.19 In which he only tells us the time when but nothing of the manner how he appeared whether by passing through or opening the Door or any other way That he came in the Evening when the Doors were shut i.e. At that time of the night when according to the Custom of the Jews who were not wont saith Musculus to shut their doors in the day-time the Doors were shut Or if they give an account of such a Miraculous way of appearing as surprized the Disciples this does not necessarily oblige us to believe that he came into the room as a Spirit by piercing through the Doors For he might present himself among them in a surprizing manner though he did not pierce the Door neither is it known that Spirits do thus appear So that it is no proof that the Resurrection did turn his Body into a Spirit because he enter'd a room at that time in the Evening when the Jews shut up their Doors unless it be made appear that he could no other way enter it but by passing through the Door and that Spirits are wont thus to enter But that our Saviour's Body was not turned into a Spirit and that the Miracle of his Appearance did not lie in his passing through the Door he himself gave his Disciples a sensible proof at this very time when he show'd them his Hands and his Side and bid them Handle him and see that it was he himself i.e. The Man Christ Jesus that was crucified and no Spirit as they believed him to be because a Spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luk. 24.39 When therefore the Scriptures tell us that we shall rise with spiritual bodies the meaning is that our Bodies when the Resurrection has restored us them shall not need those refreshments of Meat and Drink and Sleep that now they stand in need of but shall live as Spirits do without putting us to charge and labour to maintain their life And this our Blessed Lord teaches us in his Answer to the captious Question of the Sadducees whose Wife the Woman whom the seven Brethren had successively married should be at the Resurrection The children of this World where one Generation goes and another comes marry and are given in marriage because in a World where we are mortal this is the only way we have of preserving our Names and of living when we are dead But they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more but are equal to the Angels Luk. 20.34 35 36. i.e. They are equal to the Angels in this That they shall die no more and since they are in this equal to them they shall live like them For because they themselves will be Immortal the reason of Marrying and giving in Marriage will be at an end And indeed there is a necessity that our Bodies should be thus changed because the World we shall then live in will not be the same as this is For whether we shall ascend to the highest Heavens where Christ now sits at the right hand of God or whether we shall have our Habitations in that new Earth that will be made after this old one which has been the Seat of so much Wickedness is destroy'd it is requisite our Bodies should be otherwise fashion'd than now they are that they may be suited to the Nature of the place we shall dwell in It is not a thing that a Christian can find any thing incredible in that our Bodies after they are raised and
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
it was extinguish'd For how is it possible to conclude there will be a Resurrection because the Soul lives in its separate state if the Resurrection means no more than that the Body shall come out of its Grave and that a new Soul shall be breathed into it Our Blessed Lord undoubtedly meant when he urged this to prove a Resurrection That the Soul which after Death subsists without its Body shall come out of its state of Death as well as the Body because it is still alive And by being united to the Body again have a new way of subsisting after Death which second state of Men is that which as the Learned Hammond observes is implied in the Resurrection Obj. If it be enquired how we can be said to rise again if the Soul as well as the Body be not laid to sleep Ans I Answer 1. That the Resurrection does not only import a restoring life to that which is dead but the giving us another kind of subsistence than that which we have after Death has separated the Soul from the Body So that though the Soul does live after Death yet it does not live as it will do after the Resurrection It lives in a separate condition from the Body when Death has broken the Union but the Resurrection will restore it to its ancient way of subsisting in a Body And therefore 2. The Resurrection does respect us as Men and is for the restoring us that Humane Life which we are deprived of by Death For though the Soul does live yet it is not the Soul alone that is the whole Man And as we are said to die when the Soul leaves the Body though the Soul still lives in its separate state so we are said to rise again when the Soul that is Immortal and does not cease to live when it is gone out of the Body is reunited to the Body again And now if the Resurrection does imply our returning from a state of Death and recovering a new life or the bringing the Soul out of its place of confinement to its own proper Habitation Before I proceed let us consider what Reflections this furnishes us with And 1. We may hence inform our selves of the true nature and meaning of Death And this is very necessary to be done that we may not despise and give way to mean and contemptible thoughts of it as if Dying carried nothing in it that was frightfull and amazing It is certain that those of the Heathens whose Names are transmitted down to us for the gallantry of their Minds have generally gain'd this reputation from the slight opinion they had of dying For it was reputed among them as a generous heroick Act to lay violent hands upon themselves and by a draught of Poyson or a sturdy Abstinence to put an end to their own Lives when their Designs and Interests did not prosper according to their Minds or they were in danger of falling by a publick Executioner Now that which brought this way of Dying into so much credit with them was their not knowing what Death is They either were persuaded that nothing of us remains after Death or if they had some dark Notices that the Soul does survive they spoke very doubtfully of it and were altogether ignorant how it lives when it is gone out of the Body but did believe they did themselves a mighty service when they thus escaped from a Temporal misfortune And thus it often happens still that Men when their Affairs succeed ill revenge their ill fortune upon themselves and die rather than feel the smart of their Calamities This is chosen as a Refuge from threatning Ills and fled to as a Remedy of present Pressures But yet both the one and other of these are to be pitied The former because they were governed by a belief that the Soul while it is in the Body is a Prisoner and that it vanishes into nothing when it is let out And the other because a clouded Mind betrays them to desperate Thoughts But besides these there are others that think lightly of Death for no other reason but because they think it a glorious thing to die like a Roman without discovering any signs of fear Such I mean who account it a bravery of Mind to out-face Death who are govern'd by no other Principle than a supposed baseness in Fear and therefore are resolved not to tremble although they know not but that they for ever lose all that they account dear to them This is a Temper that is of great account in the World But what greater baseness is it to fear losing that which we love and cherish than to love and desire that which we account good for us For my part I do not understand what great Vertue there is in living fearless of Death or in being able to meet it without a dejected look or undauntedly to expose a Man's self to the danger of it what-ever horrid shape it appears in if he who thus despises it has nothing out of this World that he can love or take pleasure in especially when we consider that it is as natural to fear that which is hurtfull and destructive to us as to love that which is good and beneficial There is I know a contempt of Death which is a noble Vertue but it is only that which Religion does work the Mind to For he who knows he shall live again has a great deal of reason to be fearless of dying But what account can that Man give of his slight opinion of Death who as little thinks of another Life as he seems regardless of Death and who while he resolves not to fear Dying thinks not and perhaps does not believe he shall rise again These Men undoubtedly know not what it is to die otherwise they who have all the reason in the World to fear it would never make it a Vertue not to be daunted or unconcern'd at it For 1. Death has not only a respect to our Bodies It is not only the closing our Eyes and stopping our Ears and tying our Hands and Feet and the rendring the several Members of our Bodies uncapable of performing the Functions of Life any more It is not the depriving this Earthly Machine which now we see to move and which we feed and cloath with art and care of all sense and motion If Death was nothing else but this I mean if all the hurt it did us respected the Body only such as the letting out our Spirits and congealing our Blood and the turning the Body into a Carcase and sending it to a Grave perhaps it might be as easie a thing for a Man to be fearless as a Beast is inapprehensive of it For why should a Man be more averse to dying than a Brute if he has nothing more to lose But when we cannot cure our selves of that Aversion we have to Death but by Religious Considerations which is the way that good Men take or by hardening our Minds
such delights as now we live in or because when we are once gone out of this World there is nothing more to be expected In either of these two cases a Man might be allowed to provide for this life with all the care and solicitude that he can without thinking of any other But if we must die and after Death must rise to Life again the same reason that obliges us to be carefull for this ought also to prevail with us to provide for another life We are very apt indeed to live here in this World as if we should never leave it i.e. While there is marrow in our bones and vigour in our spirits we are very apt to forget we shall die But yet there is no Man so ignorant or so insensible of the corruptible state we are at present in as to believe he never shall No the Graves they meet with in every Church-yard and the frequent Funerals of their friends or neighbours are so many irresistible Notices of their own Mortality and tell them the sad story that this lovely World they so much doat on and they must part This then is not the reason why Men live loosely but generally they who live wickedly are apt to persuade themselves that they shall never live again And though it is the illness of their Lives does drive them to this persuasion yet they discourse the matter as if the reason why they live no higher than this World was because they were certain there is no other And it is true that if they be right in their belief they are not much to be blamed for their way of living because if there be no other life but this a Man has nothing more to do than to enjoy this the best he can But then this is a tacit confession That if there be another life they ought not to live as they do because a sensual way of living can only be suited to a World that affords no other than sensible delights And then let this Man think with himself whether he does wisely to live so here as to put him out of conceit with another life when all his unwillingness to live again will not hinder him from returning to a new state of life Let him think whether his way of living be such as he can approve of and satisfie himself in when it makes him rather to chuse since he cannot avoid dying never to see nor hear any thing more than to rise and live again afterwards And if a wicked Man can upon no other score go on in his way with any tolerable ease but by wishing he may never see day again when once Death has closed his Eyes how can we chuse but think that a Resurrection to another life does in the opinion of this Man call for another course of life than what he now lives For if we we must rise and live again after this it is surely our interest and concern so to pass through this life as to carry along with us none of those sensual Inclinations and Affections as will not suffer us to live well in the next CHAP. II. The Resurrection as it denotes the raising our Bodies II. I Come now to consider the Resurrection as it imports our living again in these very Bodies A Resurrection is a restoring life to the Body that dies For if it was not the same Body that the Soul now lives in that it shall be united to again by the Resurrection it could not be called a Resurrection To believe that it shall inhabit a Body but not the same Body is to believe that God will make it a new Tabernacle but not erect and raise up the old one And how many subtilties soever Men of wanton Wits may frame to themselves to puzzle this Article of our Faith they ought to consider that they are undermining the very Doctrine of the Resurrection it self at the same time that they attempt to prove it impossible that the same Body should rise again But I shall not examine those curious Questions with which vain Men endeavour to perplex this Doctrine For since it is upon Revelation that the Certainty of it depends we are to have a Recourse to that Revelation that God has given us concerning it to understand the true import of it For what he has revealed he will do it is certain enough that he has power to do And if we know not how it can be done it is because we know not all that God can do 1. Then he has revealed that he will raise up these very Bodies again in which we now live and which see Corruption These Bodies I say which are the Instruments and Companions of our Souls in all the Actions and Labours of this life It is I know insisted on as a thing very congruous to Reason that the Body which is a partner with the Soul in its good or ill in this life should likewise share with it in the same in the life to come But this is a way of arguing that was not thought of till we had received the Notices of this Doctrine another way For the wise Heathens who believed the Soul's Immortality and that when it goes into the other World it is either adjudged to happiness or misery according to our Actions in this life never thought of this argument to persuade them into the belief of a Resurrection And it is very strange that not one of those great Men that have discours'd of the Rewards and Punishments of the other life should not think of this reasonableness that the Body should share with the Soul in these to inferr a Resurrection Neither is it easie to apprehend why it should be thought fit that a clod of Earth should have a reward or punishment for what is done when it can do nothing that is deserving of either I know it is fit and absolutely necessary the Body should be raised since the Man that does vertuously or wickedly must be rewarded accordingly But this Necessity cannot be made appear by any Congruity in the thing that the Body should partake with the Soul of its future Recompence but only from that Revelation that tells us we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body We must all appear we who now live in the Body and every one not the Soul only of every Man must receive the things done in the Body Therefore our Saviour tells us expressly That all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice Joh. 5.28 All that are in their Graves i.e. the same Men that are dead which cannot be true if the same Bodies be not raised that go to the Grave No Bodies go to the Grave but those we now live in and therefore the same Bodies must come out of their Graves otherwise we shall not rise the same Men we die nor will those that are in their Graves hear his voice For if it was
improved by the Resurrection should by the power of that Spirit that raises them ascend into Heaven and be capable of dwelling there For the possibility of this is exemplified to us in the Ascension of a Humane Body that was dead and rose again as we likewise shall die and rise again But now whether our Lord's Ascension be to teach us where we shall live when we are risen again or no i.e. Whether we may conclude from thence that we shall ascend into Heaven as well as we do that we shall rise again from the Dead because he did is not easie to be resolved He told his Disciples indeed that in his Father's house are many mansions And that one reason of his Ascension was to prepare a place for them and that at his second coming he would receive them to himself that where he is they might be also Joh. 14.2 3. But it does not plainly appear from hence that we shall ascend and live with him in Heaven The preparing the place where we shall live with him is the fruit of his Ascension and we are plainly taught in this and other Texts that when he comes again we shall live with him in the place that he has prepared for us now he is in Heaven But it is not evident that by his Father's House and the Mansions therein we are to understand the Heavens whither he is ascended He does intend thereby 't is true the place that he prepares for us now he is in Heaven and where we shall live with him when he descends again from Heaven But why may we not understand by this place the New Jerusalem that St. John saith he saw come down from God out of Heaven Rev. 21.2 And indeed why should St. Peter say we look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness if that new Earth which God will create be not designed to be the Habitation of Men after the Resurrection It seems something more natural and easie to be believed that Man who consists of a material as well as a spiritual Part should rather have his Habitation in that place where he was made and which is suited to the condition of his Nature than to be carried to the place where Angels and pure Spirits have their abode St. Paul tells us that we which are alive and the dead shall when the Lord descends be caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 But his meaning is only this That when he shall come to judge the World we shall go forth to meet him or shall be conducted or conveyed by Angels through the Air to the Judgment-seat and after he has given Judgment upon the World we shall for ever be with him which does not imply that we shall be carried into Heaven and there be with him but where-ever he is whether in Heaven or in the New Earth that as St. Peter saith we look for we shall ever be with him But let this matter be as it will the place where we shall be with him does require a Change in our Bodies If we must go to Heaven with him Flesh and Blood such as it is now cannot inherit or enter into that Kingdom And therefore some have imagin'd that our Bodies must be turn'd into Spirits because the Heavens above is the proper Habitation of Spirits Or if we shall live with him upon Earth it will be upon a New Earth wherein Righteousness is to dwell an Earth renewed on purpose that it may be a suitable dwelling-place for our renewed Bodies And this proves that our Bodies must be exalted to a more excellent state purified from all those corrupt Appetites that make such a World as this is needfull to us For if our Bodies should rise such as they are now this World such as it is would be a Habitation proper enough for it nay such a one as they can only live in But a World discharged from all its Vanity and Corruption does require an Immortal incorruptible Creature to live in it And now if the same Body we now live in must rise again and not only so but rise purified and exalted to a glorious Condition according to the Improvements we now make in Vertue let us consider what Thoughts this ought to furnish us with And 1. How satisfactory ought the Doctrine of the Resurrection to be to us The only reason that Death is so formidable to us now is because it puts an end to the life of these Bodies that we extremely love and doat upon 'T is very uncomfortable to think that we who feel the Benefits of life and have a quick and pleasing sense of the comforts and satisfaction of living in a World that is furnish'd with all things that are delightfull to the Eye and pleasing to the Ear and gratefull to all the Senses that belong to our Bodies must ere-long languish away to a breathless Carcase That our Eyes that let in so many delightfull Objects must be eaten out with Worms our Ears stopt and our Bodies crumbled to Dust and that we shall no longer enjoy either the fruits of our labours or the benefit of those designs we have laid for the raising our Fortunes But must bid adieu to our Estates to our Pleasures to our Companions and Friends never to hear nor see nor rejoyce with them more in this life And now if Death upon this account is so melancholy a Consideration If it damps our Spirits and chills our Blood to think of leaving these Bodies that we are so well accustom'd to and acquainted with and a World where we have so many Interests and Engagements and which we find so well fitted for us to go to live in a place we can give very little account of and without these Bodies which we know not as yet what it is to live without How much contentment should it be to us to have a Doctrine that assures us we shall live again in these Bodies that we leave behind us when we go into the other World with so much reluctancy and unwillingness Upon this account Religion ought to be very dear to us and Atheism lookt upon as the most uncomfortable Opinion that can be thrust upon the World because among other mischiefs it deprives us of the hopes of having our Bodies restored to us again which is the most comfortable thing that a Spirit which by the Law of its Creation is to live in a Body can think of It must be a very uneasie thing for an Atheist not only to think of leaving this World but of losing his Body which is the only part of him that he loves for ever This Man above all others must be extremely afflicted with the thoughts of dying because if his Opinion be true he has nothing to love but his Body and this World He must look upon himself to be only made for this World and therefore
it must be as grievous a thing to be haled out of it to a dark Prison and a stinking Grave where the Body he loves must be a feast to Worms and Vermine and at last corrupt and perish never to live more as it is usually to persons born to plentifull fortunes to be turn'd out of their Houses where they were born and brought up or to see them tumbled into heaps and rubbish So that one would think that if it was only for the sake of his Body which he is so very tender of he should be as much over-joy'd to hear of a time when he shall receive his Body again as a poor Prisoner is when he has liberty given him to return home or he who has seen his House demolish'd by an Enemy to see it by the Charity of a friend to rise again out of its Ruins And so undoubtedly it is to every wise Man because it gratifies a very sensible desire in us and makes up the loss we sustain by dying For it is the general belief of Christians that the Soul after it is departed out of the Body though it be in a happy state as the Souls of good Men certainly are is not so perfectly happy as it will be when at the Resurrection it is united to its Body again Wherein the imperfection of its Happiness does consist or from what Reason it is that it is not so perfectly Happy as it will be then is not for us who know so little of the condition of separate Spirits and how they live to tell But why may we not suppose that it carries along with it into the other World a strong inclination toward the Body it has left behind which is either more or less violent as we either mortifie or indulge to it in this World And so long as such an inclination and desire is not satisfied it cannot be so compleatly Happy as it will be when it carries no unsatisfied desire in it This is certain that Death which divides the Soul from the Body does offer Violence to it and the separate state in which it lives afterwards is preter-natural And when it is rent from the Body against its own inclination why may it not retain an inclination to its own true and most natural way of living again I know indeed that the Souls of good Men by Faith and Resignation to the Divine Will do save themselves from that anguish and vexation that such a preter-natural way of living does vex the wicked Spirits of bad Men with For as they leave the World with a great deal of regret and many violent conflicts so it is very likely that they carry those Resentments for being forced out of a Body that they love along with them as are their torment But though the Patience and Resignation of good Men does make Death more tolerable and a separate state not to occasion that vexation to them as it does to the wicked yet it is the hopes of a Resurrection in them does overcome those natural Reluctancies to Death that are in us and persuades them with a constant Mind to bear with the loss of their Bodies for a time in Obedience to the Divine Appointment But had there been no such promise I do not see how any Man could be content to part with so considerable a part of himself as his Body for ever For in this case Death would be inflicted as a Curse and we should go out of the World as Offenders whom God is not reconciled to i.e. Such Offenders as must bear his Displeasure for ever So that however a good Man may with patience resign himself to the Will of God who has appointed that all Men shall die so long as he knows that God is his friend and has appointed a time too when he shall have his Body restored him again Yet it would be a great difficulty to compose his Mind to such a temper if after all his endeavour to please God he was for ever to lie under his displeasure If there was no Resurrection to be expected he would want the only Motive that could dispose his Mind to such a bearing Temper as will make his spearate State tolerable And although the hopes of rising again does quiet the good Man's Spirit under the loss of its Body yet during its separate State it must ratain a strong Desire towards its ancient Companion because to live in a Body is Man's natural way of living and because he needs a Consideration to bear up his Mind under the thoughts of parting with it But it is not the living in any Body that will satisfie this desire For the inclination that it carries with it into the other World is towards the Body it left behind And if it be not this Body that the Resurrection unites it to again how can this Inclination be laid and its desire of living in its own Body be satisfied by being put into a new Body The Resurrection by assuring us we shall live again does speak a great deal of comfort to us who naturally are afraid of and abhorr Death But it would not be half so comfortable to us as it is if it did not give us hopes of living in these very Bodies that we have taken a love to and are so loth to part with Now this is the great satisfaction that it gives us For it acquaints us that these two intimate and ancient Friends that are so hardly prevail'd upon to bid adieu to each other shall meet again never to part more The Soul is well acquainted with the Body it now lives in and has contracted such an intimacy with it that it is loth to leave it And that alone which can silence this dissatisfaction is the hopes of being united at the Resurrection to the Body it has already made trial of and has such an inclination to whereas an unknown Body can give no relief in the case because it is unknown what it shall be and how we shall live in it And how then ought we to rejoyce in hopes of the Resurrection which will restore us the very Bodies which we have such a fansie for This Doctrine should methinks be received by mortal Creatures with the greatest greediness even out of Love to our Bodies We take a great deal of pains with them now to nourish and sustain them to repair their decays and to keep them alive and yet for all this they must die And why should we not be overjoy'd with the thoughts of a Resurrection when we shall have the Bodies again that we have taken such a liking to 2. It is very requisite we should take that care of them now that we may rise with comfort and that when our Souls come to inhabit them again they may have a quiet and peaceable dwelling in them For otherwise the thoughts of rising again and living in these Bodies after Death will be so far from being comfortable that it will fill us with
terrible Reflections and occasion a World of vexation and trouble Now this will be the case of wicked Men. For there are Two things that will make it a dreadfull thing to them to rise again 1. That they must go into Bodies that will vex and torment them with intemperate Appetites 2. Into Bodies that they will be asham'd of 1. Into Bodies that will vex and torment them with the rage of intemperate Appetites The Souls of such Men are in a very wretched condition For they are straitned with the same unhappy Dilemma as the Leprous Men were when Samaria was besieged If they stay out of their Bodies their inclinations to them will be their torment but if they go into their Bodies again the rage and extravagancy of such Appetites as they can meet with nothing to gratifie them with will miserably disquiet them So that they will neither live at ease with nor without their Bodies The Resurrection will satisfie the inclination they have to live in their Bodies again by restoring them just such Bodies as the sensuality of their tempers can take pleasure in But the Resurrection upon this account will not be gratefull to them because it will restore them to such Bodies as will call for the same enjoyments and gratifications as here in this life they are pleased with in that place where there is not one drop of water to cool a scorched Tongue And oh what will be the Torment of being doom'd to unquenchable thirsts What the misery of a Spirit that is shut up in a Body all on fire within by reason of Appetites that find nothing to allay their fury This is the thing that makes wicked Men averse to the thoughts of another life It is not because there is any thing in a Resurrection that the Reason of Man can find any fault with For nothing can be more desirable to a Man that knows he must die and yet has a mighty fondness for life and the Body he now lives in than the thoughts of living again after Death and living too in those Bodies that Death deprives him of But that which makes bad Men so afraid of a Resurrection is the too great love they have for this World and the pleasures of a sensual life ann that they by their way of living have put themselves into such a condition that they can't live well nor happily any-where else They would live but they would live no-where but here where they find all the pleasures and delights they have any inclination to And was it to such a life that the Resurrection would restore them they would without question be over-joy'd to think of living in their Bodies again such as they are But since by pursuing the pleasures of a sensual life they render themselves unfit for a glorious Resurrection and uncapable of living in a state where they shall meet with none of the delights that they take pleasure in they chuse to wish that they may never live more because they are sensible their bodily Appetites when they have nothing to please them will make them miserable They by gratifying their Senses and studiously providing for the Pleasures of the Body set such an edge upon their Appetites that when they come into that other World where there is neither Meat nor Drink to satisfie their Luxury nor Riches nor Honours to gratifie their Covetousness and Ambition nor fleshly Pleasures to delight a sensual disposition will fill them with as much anguish and pain as the Man who for want of Bread is forced to eat his own Flesh For it is not to be expected that those Appetites that have put a Man to a World of pain and trouble to satisfie them here that by the violence of their cravings would suffer him to take no rest nor spare no cost to give them satisfaction but have compell'd him to consume his strength and impair his health to waste his Time and Estate to wound his Conscience and lose his God should be more modest and temperate more sparing and less vexatious when it is not in his power to gratifie them It will be the same Body he must rise with which here in this life he has indulged and cherish'd and whose Lusts he has fulfilled And how is it possible but the same Body should look for the same Gratifications and for want of them pine away and languish with inward regrets and anguish Such a Body must rise again because Christ is risen for our Justification i.e. As I shall shew hereafter has acquitted us from the punishment due to the first Transgression which is the Power and Eternal Dominion of that Death that we now die But it must rise to die a second Death to receive a second and more fatal Sentence because it wants that Spirit of Life which should preserve it from Death And is laden with so much new Corruption of its own as will not suffer it to live for ever after it is risen again 2. Into Bodies they will be ashamed of Such Bodies as will not rise such pure and glorious Bodies as the Resurrection is designed to make them For it is not to be hoped that a Body that is laden with more Corruption than it brought into the World with it should rise pure and glorified That a Body that is destroy'd by its own Excesses and Debaucheries should rise so strong and vigourous as to be able to live for ever in a glorious and happy State Such as Men make their Bodies here in this World or such as they are when they part with them such will they be when they receive them again The Resurrection will indeed restore those Bodies pure and glorious whose Lusts have been mortified and which by being kept under a strict discipline have been the instruments of Righteousness but those that have been made the slaves of Sin and debauched with a vicious Conversation must arise bloated with Intemperance and deformed with all the marks of Lust and Wickedness that here they have contracted And now with what shame will such Men receive their Bodies with all those marks of Ignominy and Disgrace that here they imprint upon them How will they hang their heads when they see the Righteous cloathed upon with Bodies of Light and Glory beautified with all the Graces and lovely Features that belong to heavenly Bodies and their own loathsome with the stains and filth of foul Impurities They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever But some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 3. They shall call upon the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them when they shall see the vast difference between the glorified Bodies of the Righteous the exalted condition of those that have waited for that solemn day and their own How will it fret and vex their Souls to see their own deformity and to see themselves
lightning the Spirits does too often issue in very great Immoralities Upon the same reason it is that Men let themselves loose to all extravagant Jollities of a sensual life and grow enamour'd of this World because it is a place so well stored with Entertainments for our sensitive Part. But although the Pleasures of this World do appear very considerable to us and are extremely taking with us when we consider our Bodies as they are now yet how meanly would they appear to us if we consider'd that all the suitableness that is in them is owing to the present imperfection of them But that when we receive them again purified and improved nothing of this nature will be delightfull to us How little pleasure should we take in feasting a wanton and luxurious Appetite or in adorning a Carcase that must die and return to Dust or in any of the most delicious Enjoyments of this life did we think that all this Care is laid out upon a Body that is corruptible and mortal And that this same Body when it is raised to its most perfect state will as much loath and abhorr all these things as a Beggar rais'd to a plentifull Fortune does the Rags he was once clad with At the Resurrection though we shall live again in these very Bodies yet there will be no Eating nor Drinking nor any gratifying of Sense with any of those delights that now we reckon the very Comforts of this life But we shall either despise them or be as much despised and scorn'd for our inclinations toward them as the Beggar who being advanced to a great Estate does rather delight in a Barn and a wandring Life than a Palace and the respects that belong to his Fortune And why should we for the sake of these Bodies which then will be above them value and love the delights of this sensible World as the best and only Pleasures we are capable of If we would judge of the Delights of this World from the Capacities of our Bodies the best way would be to take an account of them from their Relation to our Bodies when they are in their best and most exalted Condition And then I am sure they would appear very mean and contemptible We cannot 't is true pass our Lives comfortably here without living upon and enjoying this World But yet it is very fit we should be mortified to this World and enjoy the pleasures of it very sparingly because we must live again in another World and the Bodies that are now pleased with the Enjoyments of this will if they be fit to live there find no more pleasure at all in them And the only way to cure us of our too great fondness for worldly things is to consider how little pleasure we shall take in them when we live again how base and contemptible all the Temptations that here court us to Voluptuousness and Luxury will appear when we are in so good a condition that we shall be able to live without the most needfull Enjoyments that now we have CHAP. III. The Resurrection consider'd as it is an Entring us upon an Immortal Life III. I Come now to consider the Resurrection as it is the beginning of an Immortal Life We shall not only then begin to live again and to live in these Bodies which Death deprives us of but to live an Immortal life 'T is the great reproach of that Life we now live that it is mortal because by receiving it mortal we receive it with the mark of God's displeasure upon it And Mortality does detract so very much from Life that it leaves us very little Life to boast of But when we rise again we shall for ever be freed from that which is so much the reproach of Life And the Life we shall then begin to live will be the same that Adam should have lived had he not brought a Curse upon himself and us i.e. It will be the Life that God in our Creation design'd us for Was the Resurrection only design'd to restore us the Life we lose when we die I mean just in the same imperfect condition we now enjoy it we should be apt to rejoyce in it as a Blessing and to fetch Arguments from thence to lay the Terrours of Death because it is much better to be in a living than a dead State Better is a living Dog than a dead Lion saith the Wise-man Eccles 9.4 i.e. The most contemptible Creature that has Life is in a much better condition than the most noble that wants it For to him that is joyned to all the living there is hope i.e. He that is alive does by virtue of that principle of Life that is in him reap much comfort and satisfaction from a prospect of all the good he is capable of This Notion some have carried so far as to persuade themselves that the Damned who undergo Everlasting Torments are in a much better condition than if they were in a state of Annihilation Because though they live in the most miserable condition yet they live And they who live do enjoy some good whereas they who have no life enjoy no good at all Upon which reason they conclude it is much more Eligible to be than not to be and to live though in the greatest misery than not to live at all But I must confess that I don't apprehend the fineness of this kind of arguing Neither does it appear that any Man does set such a value upon Life as to be content to live the most deplorably wretched life so that he can but live For Misery when there is nothing to allay it does spoil the pleasure and take away the very desire of living But however such a life as we now live is acceptable enough to us though in the course of it we do meet with many troublesome Circumstances Our sensibility of this we make appear by that daily care we take and that great expence we are at to find out Remedies to put off Death as long as we can For though there be vexatious passages in this life yet we generally feel they are tolerable or when they swell to a bulk exceeding our strength almost yet we often see that the greatest of Temporal Evils are not very long and upon that account we hope we may out-live them So that although it was to no better a life than this is that we should rise again yet we should be well satisfied with the thoughts of a Resurrection And the rather because this is a life that we are well acquainted with and know the worst of and by having made a trial of it do know how to pass through it with some tolerable ease and comfort But yet there is one Evil that attends this life which nothing that we enjoy in it can make tolerable and that is the Certainty of Death So that were we only to rise to a Mortal life this thought that we must die again would much abate of our esteem
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
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
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
But that will deprive them of all hopes of living again after it because there is no other World beyond that for them to hope to rise to So that wicked Men when once they are condemned to lose the next life must die Eternally because it is impossible that any Mercy should save them who are condemned both to lose this life and the next too beyond which there is no other life to be expected But after this life there is another and though we are condemned to lose this life for our Offences yet we may hope to live again in another because the Divine Goodness has by giving us a Saviour taken care that we shall not die Eternally in the next World unless we abuse and sin away his favour in this And this possibility of living again which is the thing that is intended at the least by our being justified from Death is exemplified to us in the Resurrection of Christ For he was condemned to die and for the same Offences too for which we are condemned to die And since after he was crucified and slain according to the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God he was raised again it is a proof of the possibility of our rising again to another life though we are condemned to lose this If we be condemned to die for our Offences so was Christ deliver'd for them too and if he who suffer'd the Punishment of our Sins did rise again why may not we hope to live again after Death though we do suffer the Punishment we are condemned to It is certain that it is not impossible we should rise again because we are condemned because he who was condemned to undergo the same Punishment as well as we did rise again For if our being condemned does oblige us to a Death that is Eternal then Christ could not have risen who suffer'd for Sin as well as we There is 't is true this difference between his Death and ours That he died for no Sin of his own as we do But yet it was upon the account of the same Sentence that he died which obliges us to die likewise And this is sufficient to satisfie us that it is possible for us to rise again though we are condemn'd and that the Sentence that obliges us to die is not irrevocable But further 2. His being dischaged from the Punishment of Sin proves that the Justice that condemn'd us is satisfied and that the Divine Mercy will save us For though he died for no Sin of his own but ours yet he died to another End than we should have done if he had not died He died to bear the Malignity of our guilt and to satisfie Divine Justice by making an atonement for us Which if he had not done we must have perish'd for ever under our guilt without any hopes of satisfying the Justice that has condemn'd us Death as inflicted upon us would have been for the satisfaction of Justice but it would have been by bearing the Vengeance of it for ever whereas he died to satisfie it by the Meritoriousness of his Obedience And since he died for this End his Resurrection is a publick Declaration of the Power of that Mercy to Sinners that he has procured for us It not only proves that it is possible for a condemn'd Person to live again though he does undergo the Punishment that he is doom'd to suffer but that as the Apostle saith being justified by his blood i.e. being acquitted from the Obligation to suffer an Eternal Death by his laying down his Life for us we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 i.e. From that Wrath we should otherwise have lain Eternally under For if God commended his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life v. 8 10. i.e. We have good reason to conclude from the Resurrection of Christ that we shall rise again because it gives us a view of the success of his undertaking when he died for us It shows that we are in a state of Mercy and Grace and that though we go out of this World under an Arrest yet our Debt is discharged by him who became our Surety It was but fit that Divine Justice should sentence us to Death when we preferr'd a Mortal before an Immortal condition and so far corrupted our Nature as render'd it impossible we should live For in this case the Justice that condemn'd us took nothing from us but what we had forfeited and lost And besides a Malefactour has no reason to complain of the severity of that Law that takes away his life when by violating it he has render'd himself unfit to live This was our case till Divine Justice was satisfied and since that Justice that condemn'd us is satisfied 't is in the power of Mercy to save us by restoring us the life we had forfeited And what Mercy can do the Resurrection of Christ is a sufficient Assurance that t will do because it is for the satisfying us that the Guilt for which we die is remitted and that we are under the benefit of a Pardon Whether the Mercy of God be of that nature that he could without a satisfaction have given us our Lives that his Justice takes from us and we might depend on it for Salvation though Christ had not died is a question not becoming a Christian to make For we can know no more of the Nature of God's Mercy i.e. how far he will or how far he can in honour extend it than he has revealed to us And if he had no-where reveal'd that his Mercy is of such a nature why should we think it is His Mercy indeed is infinite and it is an infinite Mercy that he should send his only begotten Son upon such an Errand And if this be the Mercy that he has revealed and which he would have us depend upon 't is a vain presumption to fansie either that there is Mercy with him of another nature for Sinners which we may depend upon than that which he has revealed or that his Mercy is not such as we have an account of And if we consider his mercifull Nature without a respect to the Revelation he has given us of it 't is hard to say whether it be so mercifull as to pardon those whom his Justice condemns only for his Mercies sake For though he be mercifull and on that account we may hope he will yet we have as much reason on the other hand to fear he will not upon the account of his Justice And especially when we consider him as the Governour of the World our own Reason will tell us that such Mercy is not to be supposed to belong to him which will render him despised and contemned For in this case we are not to consider what the Compassions of his mercifull Nature may incline him to do but how he may best maintain his own Honour and
is a reasonable and necessary Duty because there can be no Religion at all without it And the believing the Principles of Revealed Religion is as reasonable and necessary because there can be no Christanity without it By Revelation we have a plainer account and a more distinct and certain Knowledge 't is true of all the Principles of Natural Religion than we could have it and in this respect it is of great use for the furthering that Piety and Holiness without which we cannot see God nor live an Immorral life But it was not for the making these things known only that God sent his Son into the World For though it was necessary that when he would once more make a trial of our Faith and Obedience to him he should rectifie those mistakes that we were run into concerning the first Principles o Religion yet it was first of all necessary that he should put us into such a condition that the hopes of succeeding in our Endeavours after Holiness might be an encouragement to us Now this is the thing that he has Revealed to us in the Gospel and 't is the being persuaded of this astonishing Mercy that is the Faith which Christianity presses upon us And besides considering our present Circumstances the belief of the Principles of Natural Religion is not enough for us who have corrupted our Nature This Faith was suited to the state of Innocent Man before he was doom'd to a Mortal Condition But since we feel our selves Mortal and know we must die what encouragement can our knowing there is an Immortal state for such as improve themselves for it be to us to aspire after it when we know we are Mortal and cannot avoid dying Surely something more is needfull to encourage us to do our utmost to prepare our selves for it than the Faith that was the foundation of that Religion whereby Innocent Adam was to have made himself Immortal because we cannot become Immortal as he might have done For unless we believe that we shall live again though we die we are so little concern'd in that Life that is Eternal that we shall never upon the bare believing there is such a Life and that Man was made for it be persuaded to the Practice of Holiness because such a Belief does not persuade us that there is such a Life for us The Soul 't is true is Immortal and will live for ever after Death has separated it from the Body But for ought that any Man knows 't is so much the worse for us that it is if it must always live in such a state as is not Natural to it For it is very plain that it leaves the Body with a great deal of Reluctancy And I don't believe that they who are no friends to the believing the Doctrines of Redemption and Justification as they mean our being restored to the Hopes of a Resurrection by the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ are such friends to Death that they part with their Bodies very easily And this I think proves that they could be very well content that their Bodies were as Immortal as their Souls and that they might live an immortal life in their Bodies It is not the Soul's Immortality that contents them however they may seem to put a good face on 't and make a Vertue of Necessity For they look upon Death as a great Calamity at least which no Man could do was he persuaded that Death would put him into his best State and Condition Now what does all this mean but that a Resurrection is very acceptable to us and that without it we in our Circumstances cannot have that Immortality which Adam by the Principles of Nature was encouraged to hope for I dare say that they can be very well contented that God would raise their dead Bodies again so improved as we believe he will And upon what account then can they except against the Reasonableness of that Faith which they can be contented should be true and own to be necessary to make the belief of another State a compleat and sufficient Motive to a Holy Life The Apostle observes that without Holiness it is impossible to please God and therefore that he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And accordingly he gives us a large Catalogue of brave Men that by Faith subdu'd Kingdoms wrought Righteousness and obtained the Promises Which implies that we shall never be persuaded to deny our selves the present Enjoyments of this life and keep our selves within the measures and bounds of Religion unless we believe there is another Life and a God that will reward us there And therefore so much Faith as this is was a Duty that Adam while he was Innocent was obliged to because though he was Innocent he was a Probationer for Immortality And it was requisite that he who was a Probationer for Immortality should believe there was such a State and that there was a God that would reward him with it if he did improve himself to the perfection it belong'd to for the encouraging him to do his Duty But so much Faith as was sufficient to encourage an Innocent Man is not enough for us who are guilty and condemn'd to die because we are so For Innocent Man might by improving his Nature i.e. by doing his Duty make himself Immortal But we who are guilty and condemn'd can do no such thing because we are not in a state of Trial if we be not freed from the Curse that is upon us And that which is needfull to put us into such a state must be a part of our Faith if we do believe that we have a prospect of Immortality i.e. We must believe that God has justified us that we may apply our Minds like Probationers for Immortality to that Improvement of our selves that is to qualifie us for it 4. This is a further Consideration that ought to reconcile us to the Thoughts of leaving this World I have observed with how much satisfaction we ought to go out of this World because the Resurrection will restore us both our Souls and Bodies again i.e. Will bring our Bodies out of their Graves and our Souls out of that place where they live in a Praeter-natural state out of their Bodies But the thoughts of our being in a Justified state ought to raise our Minds much higher and to fortifie them with more Resolution and Courage when we come do die because it sets before us the Reason and Ground of our Hope and eases our Minds of that which is the most stinging Consideration in Death Death is as I have said very terrible to us upon many accounts It hales us out of a World that cloaths us with solt Raiment and gorgeous Apparel and feeds us with rich and sumptuous Delicacies and furnishes us with delights for the Eye and Ear and every Sense All which must be very troublesome
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
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
again So that Christ's rising for our Justification does imply these things 1. That God discharged him from the Punishment that he bore for our Offences 2. That he has received Power to justifie us 1. His rising for our Justification means his being discharged from the Punishment he suffer'd for our Offences If we consider his Resurrection with a respect to himself and his Sufferings as personal none can deny but God did in a very glorious manner bear witness to his Innocency thereby and acquit him of those Crimes wherewith his Accusers charged him and that unjust Sentence that his Enemies gave upon him When he was taken by wicked hands and haled before a Judge when he was accused condemned and executed upon a Cross between two Thieves he appear'd as a vile Criminal in the Eye of the World according to what the Prophet Isaiah spoke of him long before We esteem'd him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted i.e. That a just Providence had deliver'd him up to suffer a deserved Punishment But when he rose to Life again he was justified in the sight of Angels and Men to be that Holy and Innocent Person that had done nothing worthy of Death This his Enemies were so sensible of that when his Apostles publish'd to the World how that he was risen again they exclaim'd against them and by Threats and severe Usages endeavour'd to silence them because they brought his Blood upon them This was a visible Justification of his Innocence For no other way was more effectual to take away his Reproach and to procure him Honour among Men than by giving him the Life that was taken from him This indeed was his own Personal Justification But it teaches us That it is not agreeable to the Nature of Justice that Death should hold those that are Innocent And although we cannot plead our Innocence to excuse our selves from Dying yet when the Offences for which we die are pardoned Justice can no longer consider us as under an Offence For since Death is a Punishment for our Offences the same Mercy that pardons the Offence does likewise remit the Punishment i.e. it gives us a Right to our Lives And it is but just that we should have our Lives restored i.e. that we should rise again when Justice can no longer treat us as Offenders by keeping us under the Power of Death And in this sense God by justifying his Son has likewise justified us For though he was Innocent yet for the accomplishing the Redemption of Mankind he was content to charge himself with the Sins of the whole World And as it was by Sin that Death enter'd into the World he who would bear our Transgressions was according to the just Judgment of God that doom'd sinfull Man to die appointed to bear our Punishment likewise So that his Resurrection is not only an Argument that God looked upon him as a Righteous Person that had been unjustly condemned to die but as a Person that having sufficiently satisfied for the Offences for which he died Justice had no right to keep under the Power of Death As it was an Attestation of his Innocence and the spightfull Accusations that his Enemies loaded him with it was an Act of Justice i.e. it was Justice that acquitted him from the unjust Sentence of Pontius Pilate But as it was a freeing him from the Punishment of the Offences for which he was deliver'd it was a mercifull Discharge from an Obligation to Punishment So that since he was deliver'd for our Offences and died because a Sentence of Death was pass'd against Offenders his Rising again is a visible Declaration of that Mercy that pardons Offences For he who dies upon the account of Sin must rise from under a Sentence of Condemnation when he returns to Life again And thus it was that Christ rose He rose from under a Curse and was deliver'd from Death not as a Calamity but as a Punishment And since his Resurrection was of this nature let us consider in what respect it is for our Justification Now as to this matter we may observe these things 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again 2. That that Justice which has condemn'd us to die is fully satisfied and therefore we shall rise again 3. That his Resurrection was not a Personal Privilege but the Triumph of our Representative and Mediatour over Death and consequently a publick Discharge of Mankind from the Sentence of Condemnation 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again One of the greatest Difficulties that lies against this Doctrine is this That we are condemn'd to die by the just Judgment of God and undergo it as a Punishment of our Sin For is it possible that a Punishment when it is inflicted a Sentence after it is executed should be reversed A condemn'd Person before the Sentence is executed upon him may be reprieved and pardon'd And if we were not deliver'd over to Death at all i.e. if we did not see Men die it might easily be believed that we could live an Immortal life But when we are condemn'd and die because we are condemn'd it appears too late to hope for a Pardon after the Punishment is inflicted But this will be no such difficulty if we consider that the Divine Mercy provided that the Death we are adjudged to should not be Eternal by promising before Sentence was given upon us That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head So that although Justice did require that we should lose our Lives for ever as Malefactours do and does 't is true inflict such a Death upon us as for ever separates us from this present World what Difficulty can there be in a Resurrection which restores us no more than what Divine Mercy reserved for us when his Justice condemn'd us and is the fulfilling of that Original Promise made to Adam Had we been condemn'd never to live again neither in this life nor in another Mercy could not have saved us when once the Sentence had been executed up us because a Pardon would then have come too late to save us But when it is only a Death that deprives us of the Hopes of living again in this life that we are condemned to our being condemned to such a Death cannot render it impossible that we should live again in another This is the difference between the Death that we are all condemned to already and that which wicked Men will be condemned to in the Day of Judgment This deprives us only of the Hopes of living again in this life but not in another and therefore a Resurrection from the Death we are now condemned to is not impossible upon the account of the Sentence we are fall'n under