Death considr'd as a door to a life of glory penn'd for the comfort of serious mourners, and occasion'd by the funerals of several friends, particularly one who dy'd at Easter, and of the author's own funeral in atecessum.

DEATH consider'd as a DOOR TO A Life of Glory .

The INTRODUCTION .

§ . 1. LOoking out for a fit subject of Meditation at a Funeral , I saw it had been the great Wisdom of the Established Church of England , ( than which I knew nothing Wiser , and whose Appointments I ever thought it my greatest Wisdom to observe , ) that the same Portions of holy Scripture , which tend to Establish us in the Belief of our Lord's Bodily Resurrection , and of our Own , should still be Read at the Solemnity of All Christian Burials . Besides , I still found the best and greatest Comfort I could administer either to Others or to my self , at the Funerals of the Best and the Greatest Friends , arose from this Consideration , ( being sufficiently improved and dwelt upon , ) That Jesus Christ being Risen would Raise Us also from the Dead . A Subject equally in Season both at a Funeral and a Feast ; at a Solemn Time of Mourning , and holy Mirth . Very suitable to a Funeral at any season of the Year , but more suitable than at any , to One at Easter ; because the Blessedness , and Goodness , and Desirableness of Death , to such as die in the Lord unto whom they liv'd , does not only consist in This , That they Rest from their Labours ( it is not only Good as the End of Evil , ) but in This most especially , That their Death is but the Door to a Life of Glory , and that the last Day of their Lives is but the First of their Immortality . So that the Benefit of their Death lies chiefly wrapt up in a Resurrection . This is the Ground and Foundation of every Pious Man's Comfort in All his Sufferings . And as such 't was recommended by Paul the Aged to his Son Timothy , as an Amulet or Preservative to be still carried about him , and apply'd by True Faith upon All Occasions . Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead . ( 2 Tim . 2. 8. ) For if we be Dead with him , we shall also live with him , ( v. 11. ) if we suffer , we shall reign , ( v. 12. ) The same Receipt or Prophylactick he carefully prescribes to the Thessalonians . For having set forth the Method of our Lord's second Coming to judge the World , Descending from Heaven with a shout , with the voice of the Archangel , and with the Trump of God , when the Dead in Christ shall Rise first , and the Faithful yet living shall be caught up with them in the Clouds , to meet the Lord in the Air , and so shall be ever with the Lord ; 1 Thess 4. 16 , 17. he concludes with a Wherefore , v. 18. Comfort one another with these words . St. Peter also in his Epistle to the New Christians of the Dispersion , begins with Thanksgiving to God Almighty for having begotten us into a lively and a never-dying Hope , by and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead : 1 Pet . 1. 3. which there he lays as the Foundation of all their Unspeakable and Glorious Joy ; v. 8. amidst the various Tribulations , ( v. 6. ) which as Followers of Christ they were sure to suffer . And what was The Saving of their Souls he set before them for their Incouragement , But the Reward of their Faith in the Resurrection ? v. 5. So Tertullian's pious Descant upon St. Paul's Christian Caveat concerning Them which are asleep , that we sorrow not as others who have no hope , is built upon the sole Ground of a Resurrection ; and is as rational , as 't is ingenious . Cur enim doleas , si periisse non credis ? cur impatienter feras subductum , quem credis Reversurum ? Tertull . de Patien . c . 9. Profectio est , quam credis mortem , &c. Why should any man grieve at a Friend's Departure , whom he believes not to have perished , but to have been translated only , or for a certain time withdrawn ? What we commonly call Death , is nothing more than a Removal from Place to Place : and why should any one repine at a Friend's going Before to a state of Bliss , whom he heartily prays , and hopes , and expects to Follow ? we contumeliously use our Saviour , when we deplore their Condition whom he hath called unto himself ; or when we envy Their state of Life , which is vastly happier than our own . Cupio dissolvi , and God's will be done , is , or should be , every True Christian's Vote : and why should any man grieve , that his Prayers are Heard ?

§ . 2. From which Descant of Tertullian , in full accordance with St. Paul , It remains that a good Christian , who lives by Faith , is to enjoy in his own mind as full Acquiescence and Serenity , as that of Seneca's Wise man is suppos'd to be ; which he compares , not unfitly , Talis est Sapientis animus , qualis Mundi status supra lunam . Semper illic Serenum est . Sen. Ep. 59. to the state of the World above the Moon ; never obnoxious to the least shadow of Cloud or Tempest . And therefore at the Exequies of such as sleep in Christ Jesus , ( be they the Dearest and Best of Friends , ) Nothing can be more in Season , than That exhortative of St. Paul to the Thessalonians , ( in his 1 Epistle and 5. Chapter ) Rejoyce evermore , And in every thing give Thanks . Rejoyce evermore ( v. 16. ) as well in Affliction , as in Prosperity ; And in every thing give Thanks , ( v. 18. ) not only in the Best , but the Worst Condition . Hard sayings at the first Hearing ; But such as other Scriptures have softned to us . Rejoyce evermore ; that is confirmed by our Saviour , Matt . 5. 12. And in every thing give Thanks ; That is seconded by St. Peter , 1 Pet . 4. 13 , 14 , 16.

§ . 3. This Flower of Paradise ( pretended to by the old Stoicks , as a thing growing in their own Garden , though no where obtainable out of Christ's , ) can never flourish or be well Rooted , unless it be in the Love , and the Faith of Christ : in Love without Dissimulation , and Faith unfeigned . Such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen ; and the Substance of things hoped for : and the Victory which overcometh the World ; that is , the World of Temptations , or the Temptations of the World ; the Enmity , and Friendship ; the Pains , and Pleasures ; the frowns , and favours ; the frights , and flatteries ; the Crosses , and Injoyments ; the Pomps , and Vanities of the World . For that a True Christian Faith is still Victorious over All These , is proved already by One Induction in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews ; and may be proved by another , to wit , a Vastly Great Number of Saints , and Confessors , and Martyrs , whom the Annals of the World , and especially of the Church , do oblige us with . And as there 's no Sounder Arguing than Ab Actu ad Potentiam ; so is there no readier way ( as far at least as I can judge ) whereby to fortifie our Belief of the two last Articles in the Creed , The Resurrection of the Body , and the Life Everlasting , ( the Reviviscence of our flesh , and Immortality of our Spirits , ) than by contemplating the Importance of our Apostle's Assertion to the Corinthians ,

Christ is risen from the Dead , and become the First-fruits of them that slept . 1 Cor . 15. 20.

CHAP. I.

§ . 4. THE latter end of this Text may very well be made the Subject of a fit Preface to the beginning . For Death it seems is but a Sleep , since Christ is risen from the Dead . God the Son has chang'd its Nature ; and God the Holy Ghost has chang'd its Name too . Though it continues its wonted Tyranny , as to all other Creatures ; yet as to Us , it is Reform'd . There having been put upon it by Grace a much more gentle disposition , than by Nature it ever had . For Us to dye , and to be buried , is but to lay our selves down , and to take our rest . Even so saith the Spirit of them that dye in the Lord , not that they perish , Rev. 14. 13. but that they Rest from their Labours . The great Reformer of Death is Christ ; ( The immaculate Lamb slain from the Foundations of the World ; ) whose Conquest over it was the Epocha , from whence it 's Reformation did take its Date . Our blessed Saviour said of Lazarus ( by a kind of Prolepsis ) though he lay buried till he stunk , ( even no less than four days , ) our Friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go to awaken him out of sleep ; Joh . 11. 11. which when the Disciples misunderstood , thinking he had spoken of a natural sleep only , and thereupon answer'd , if he sleep he shall do well , ( v. 12. ) Jesus said unto them plainly , Lazarus is Dead . ( v. 14. ) Yet when Jairus his Daughter lay as dead as this Lazarus , our Saviour said unto the Mourners , as they were weeping and bewailing her , {αβγδ} , weep not : she is not dead , Luke 8. 57. but sleepeth . Now how can we salve our Saviour's words from implying a Contradiction , unless it be from this pertinent and most pleasant Consideration , that he intended to shew the difference between the Dissolutions of men , and Brutes ? In respect of the former , Death and Sleep are {αβγδ} , two expressions for the same thing ; and are accordingly made use of in many passages of Scripture ; in particular by our Apostle , no less than four times in This one Chapter . Of those five hundred Brethren at once , who saw Christ risen , the greater part were alive , but some ( saith he ) are faln asleep . ( v. 7. ) so He saith of Saints and Martyrs ; not that they are perished , but only faln asleep in Christ . ( v. 18. ) Behold , ( says he again ) I shew you a Mystery ; we shall not all sleep , but shall all be changed . And in my Text , Christ the first-fruits of them that slept . All which we owe to the first part of it , Christ is risen from the Dead .

§ . 5. For if Christ had not risen , Death had been a meer Destruction , and not a Sleep : A perpetual Banishment from the Territories of Nature ; not a Door ( as now 't is ) to a Life of Glory . The Form and Matter of every man had been eternally divorc'd ; never to injoy a second meeting . And when our dearest friends dye , we might have reason to be sorry as men without hope . Funeral Sermons would be Dirges , and Dismal things , very fit to be preached , not in Sable only , but Sackcloth ; if our dearest friends departed were wholly shut out of the World . And yet so they must have been , if Christ himself had not risen .

§ . 6. But now ( God be thanked ) the Case is quite alter'd . For Christ is risen from the Dead : and not only so , but he is risen the first-fruits too ; a word of intimate relation to all the dead sheafs of the general Harvest . And being so risen , He hath trodden down Death , that we might also trample on it . Which tho' a long sleep indeed , yet 't is not endless . For in case nothing else will awaken us out of it , the last Trump will . So says our Apostle towards the end of this Chapter , we shall be changed in a moment , in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump , when the Trumpet shall sound , and the dead shall be raised incorruptible , and we shall be changed . v. 51 , 52. Changed with a Witness , and the most to be imagin'd to our Advantage . For what is now sown in weakness , shall be raised again in Power . What is sown in Corruption , shall be raised in Incorruption . What is sown in dishonour , v. 42 , 43. shall be raised again in Glory . Or to express it in other words of our Apostle to the Philippians , Christ shall change our vile Body , that it may be like unto his Glorious Body . Philip . 3 20 , 21. So true it is what is said by a kind of Proverb , That as Sleep is nothing better , than the Elder Brother of Death ; so Death it self is nothing worse , than the younger Brother of Sleep . For Christ is risen from the Dead , and become the first-fruits of them that slept .

§ . 7. This Text I may say is the Double Hinge , whereupon the whole Chapter does seem to turn . For it does not only assert our blessed Saviour's Resurrection , but asserts it as an Argument for the inforcement of our own . And the whole Door of Hope opened to us by a Redeemer , does seem to hang more especially on these two Hinges ; that Christ is Risen , and ( by a Consequence unavoidable ) that we must Rise . I say we must , on a supposal that Christ is Risen . Because there is such an essential Tye , between the Head and the Members of the very same Body , between the Root and the Branches of the very same Tree , between the Former and Later Fruits of the very same Harvest ; that the First , being granted , infers the Second . A thing the fitter to be made out in every popular Congregation , not upon Easter Sunday only , but every Sunday in the year , ( if occasion serves ) because amongst all the principal Doctrines of our Religion , or the Twelve important Articles of our Creed , there is not certainly any One , either believ'd with more difficulty , or doubted of with more Danger , than that we shall rise out of our Graves , and see God in our Flesh , not with other , but with these same Eyes . Job 19. 25 , 26 , 27.

§ . 8. First 't is so difficult to believe it for Flesh and Blood , that it was one of the last mysteries ( or rather the very last of All ) which found Admittance with the Apostles ; though there were greater means us'd , and more pains taken , to teach them this lesson , than any other . And when the learnedst of the Greeks were first converted to Christianity , which they received by degrees , ( as little Children do learning , ) by line upon line , precept upon precept , here a little and there a little , first one part , and then another ; Though they believ'd ( whilst they were Heathens ) the Immortality of the Soul , yet they would sooner admit of any thing , than the reviving of a Dead Body . This was still the last Article in each particular Man's Creed ; and was one of the very last the Fathers put into the Nicene : It having been Niceph . Callistus Eccl. Hist . l. 12. c 13. & Platina ad an . 381. added by Gregory Nyssen at the Appointment and Direction of the Second Council of Constantinople . But when I say the last Article in the Neophyte's Creed , I mean 't was That they believ'd the latest ; or That to which they surrendred their last Assent . In so much that Synesius was made a Bishop in the Greek Church , ( for the greatness of his Learning , and the goodness of his life , ) before he could absolutely believe , that humane Bodies , as well as Souls , shall ( by a general Resurrection ) be made Immortal . For considering how many Bodies have been burnt down to Ashes , which Ashes have been dispersed by all the Two and Thirty Winds ; how many Bodies have been drown'd , and made a Feast for the Fishes , which Fishes have made a Feast for the use of Men ; how many Bodies have been moulder'd into the Element of the Earth , which Earth becomes fruitful for Sheep and Oxen , which again are for the sustenance and food of Men ; how many Bodies have been mangl'd for the Instruction of the Physician , who makes a Skeleton of the Bones , a piece of leather of the skin , a drinking Cup of the skull , a Perriwig of the Hair , Mummy of the Muscles , and several Med●cines of that Mummy , all which are for the service and use of Men too ; Lastly , considering how many men are devour'd by Canibals ; how many Children by their Parents ; and Parents by their Children ; ( as in the Famin at Jerusalem besieg'd by Titus ; ) and the Body of Mausolus by the Wife of his Bosom Artemisia , ( who in the excesses of her Affection Drank up the Ashes of her Husband instead of Spice , ) so as the Bodies of some have been the Sepulchres of others ; I say , considering These things , Men were difficult in believing the Resurrection of the Body , and objected such things as these , against the Gospel and the Creed of the primitive Christians . Pliny himself was such a Fool , ( however learned in other points , and notwithstanding He had written De his qui Flati Plin . Nat. Hist . l. 1. c 52. revixerunt , ) as to deny that God Himself can l 2. c . 7. revive a dead man , or crown a Mortal with Immortality . The Epicuraeans and the Stoicks despis'd St. Paul for his Doctrine , as New , Act. 17. 18 , 19 , 20. and strange Hymeneus and Philetus would needs have had the Resurrection already past . The 2 Tim . 2. 18. Seleuciani or Hermiani contended as much to have it Present ; and that in the daily Procreation Augustin . Haeres . 59. of men and women ; whereby the Parents were said by Them , to live again in their Posterity . This was all the Resurrection Those Hereticks would allow . Nor was it only deny'd in gross by the Sadducees and Herodians , by Simon Magus , and the Manichees ( as it is at this day by the Disciples of the Leviathan , ) But the very first tidings which were brought of Christ's Rising , by Mary Magdalen , and Joanna , and Mary the Mother of James , did seem to Christ's own Apostles as idle Tales ; and they believed them not ; Luk . 24. 10 , 11. tho' immediately after they believ'd their own Senses , their Act. 4. 20. Eyes , their Ears , and their Fingers ends too . Even Cleophas and his Companion ( St. Luke himself in probability , ) even whilst Christ was talking to them , were slow of heart to believe Vers 25. him risen . Festus thought that St. Paul was beside himself , and that over-much learning had made him mad , ( how patient soever he had Act. ●6 . 23. 24. been of the precedent part of his speech , ) as soon as he spake of Christs arising from the Dead . And lastly some of Those Corinthians whom our Apostle writes to , tho' in all other points they had espoused the Faith of Christ , and had been admitted into the Church by the Sacramental Laver of their Regeneration , did yet professedly disbelieve the Resurrection of the Dead . ( V. 12. ) These were the men , who gave occasion to our Apostles whole Discourse of a Resurrection ; and so we may thank their Incredulity , for this additional assistance of our Belief ; by all the Arguments and Reasons which our Apostle strictly presseth all Christians with .

§ . 9. Secondly , as it is Difficult to believe the Resurrection I now contend for ; so not to believe it , is just as Dangerous . For it leads us to a suspicion , that Christ himself is not Risen ; and that the Scriptures themselves are false , which do so frequently affirm it . It makes us obstinate in our Sorrow for the Death of dear Friends ; and either too fearful or too fearless of our own . It emasculates and enervates our care of Vertue ; and makes us abandon our selves to Vice . For what Man living would cast his Wheat into the ground , if he did not believe its Resurrection , and withal its Improvement in time of Harvest ? There is nothing more vexing , than Labour in vain . Would the Merchant adventure all his stock upon the Ocean , did he not hope by that means to advance his Wealth ? or would the very hard Student out-watch his Candle , and prevent the early Sun with his Lucubrations , if he did not well hope to increase his knowledge ? and to be paid for That knowledge , either in the present , or future World ? Would the Souldier court hardships , or covet dangers the most affrighting , and so as to sight away Both his Hands on the stage of Honour , if he were not led on by a Great Commander ? I mean the General Commander of humane Actions and Exploits , a strong and steady Expectation of some proportionable Reward ? No , 't is a Maxim in Philosophy which never fails , or grows false ; Omne agit propter finem . Every Motion implies a Center , and every Action must have its End. Even they who most study to squander away their precious Time , to lose the hours they should employ and negotiate with , have something or other in Design , which makes them most industriously and elaborately Idle ; it makes them earnest and diligent in doing Nothing . Expectation of Advantage , in one kind or other , is universally the whetstone which sets an edge on all Appetites , and makes them keen after Action , both Good , and Evil . Did ever any Man spread a Net , without a purpose to catch some Prey ? or with a set purpose of catching none ? Who goeth a warfare at his own Cost , says our Apostle ? Who planteth a Vineyard , 1 Cor . 9. 7. and eateth not ( if he can ) of the fruit it yields him ? Does God indeed take Care for Oxen , in his forbidding them to be muzzl'd whilst they are Vers . 9. treading out the Corn ? or is it registred in Scripture for our sakes only ? No doubt for our sakes this thing is written , that he who plougheth should Vers . 10 plough in Hope , and he who thrasheth in hope should be partaker of his Hope . If we did not live in Hope of a Redemption from the Dead , from the Land of Forgetfulness , the dark Retirements of the Grave ; and did not stand in some Awe of a Day of Judgment ; We should run upon Damnation , ( as many do , ) without the least Touch of Regret , or Scruple ; yea with greediness , and delight , because with carnal Security . We should not macerate our selves with Mortification and Self-denial . We should not beat down our Bodies , and keep them under . We should not crucifie our flesh , with the Affections and Lusts , as St. Paul injoyns . But rather crown our selves with Rose-buds ; and drink Wisd . 2. 7 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 12. Wine in Bowles ; and stretch our selves upon beds of Ivory ; and oppress the Poor man for being righteous ; and poison the Husband , to find access unto the Wife ; laugh at Conscience , and Sin , as nothing else but a couple of Ecclesiastical Words ; and call our strength the Law of Justice . In a word , we should say with the incredulous Corinthians , v. 32. ( if we deny'd the Resurrection , as some of them it seems did , v. 12. ) Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we dye .

§ . 10. Now in such Times as These , wherein the Sadducees and Herodians do walk about in new Names , how can we better bestow our Thoughts at any season of the year , but more especially at This , than on an Article of our Religion , which is so eminently proper as well for Comfort , as for Instruction ? and which as 't is difficult to believe , so 't is as dangerous to doubt of . Our Apostle in This Chapter does lay in Provisions against them Both . Whilst he indeavours by many Arguments to make the Difficulty Null ; and in the doing of that , to prevent the Danger . For the removing of the Difficulty , He first of all proves that Christ is Risen , and Thence he argues that we must Rise . The present Text I am upon is fitly resolv'd into an Enthymeme , in order to it . That Christ is risen from the Dead , is the Antecedent ; and his being the first-fruits of them that slept , contains within it This Sequel , that we must Rise . For 't is plain , the First-fruits is a word of Relation to all the Sheafs of the Harvest ; and does evidently allude unto the Sheaf of First-fruits in the Law of Moses , which was to be brought unto the Priest , as soon as Harvest was begun , that in behalf of the People who were to reap , He might wave it before the Lord upon the morrow after the Sabbath . Upon which very day of their waving the Sheaf , an He-lamb without blemish was to be offer'd unto the Lord . This significant Institution of God by Moses ( Levit . 23. 10 , 11 , 12. ) was clearly alluded to by Abigail in that excellent Address she made to David ; wherein she told him that his Soul should be bound in the Bundle of Life before the Lord , 1 Sam . 25. 29. And what else could be the end , or final Cause of this Ceremony , which God was pleas'd to have perform'd by all that would enter into Canaan , but that the Harvest might be all sanctified in the particular Sanctification of that one sheaf ?

§ . 11. And ( that out of this Legal or Levitical Sheaf we may thrash out some Christian Evangelical Wheat , ) we must know that All This was but a shadow of Things to come ; and This day is that Scripture fulfilled in our Ears . For Yesterday was the Sabbath , which This Day advanced from Last to First , and from Bodily to Ghostly . That was a weekly Commemoration of the Creation of the World ; This of the Redemption , or Re-Creation , and in particular of our Saviour's Resurrection from the Dead . Every Sunday in the Year is Commemorative of This , and therefore call'd the Lord's Day , but not the Sabbath ; ( unless by a few well-meaning people , for want of Knowledge , or Consideration ; ) For Easter-Day ( by way of Eminence , ) is the Morrow after the Sabbath , ( Levit . 23. and The He-Lamb without Blemish is Jesus Christ . He is the Offering , and the Priest , and the Sheaf of First-fruits . And so intimate is the relation between the Sheaf of First-fruits , and all the rest of the Crop or Harvest , that our Apostle thinks fit to argue both backwards and forwards , in the negative and the affirmative , from the one unto the other . First on the one side in the Negative ; If there is no Resurrection of the Dead , Then is Christ not risen . ( v. 13. ) And again , If the Dead rise not , Then is not Christ raised . ( v. 16. ) Next on the other side in the affirmative ; if the first-fruit is holy , the Lump is also holy : and if the Root , then the Branches . ( Rom. 11. 16. ) Whereof the meaning must needs be this ; that Christ is risen from the Dead , not as a private and separate person , only for himself , and his own single Interest ; but he is risen the First-fruits of the general Harvest ; that as by Man came Death , so by Man might also come the Resurrection of the Dead : ( v. 21. ) that as in Adam All dyed , so All in Christ might be made alive . ( v. 22. ) 't is therefore added by our Apostle , He is become the First-fruits [ {αβγδ} ] of them that slept . Whereby He gives us to understand , that as the Death of our Lord has destroy'd Death , so his Rising from the Dead has given us All a Capability to triumph over it : the Grave is now but our Dormitory , which had been otherwise our Bed of Death ; or Beth Abaddon , the House of the Destroyer . {αβγδ} in Greek , Coemeterium in Latin , Cemetiere in French , and Cimitiero in Italian , do each of them literally import , not so much a Church-yard , as a Place to Sleep in : our Bodies , lying in the Grave , do not perish , but lye Dormant , like Trees in Winter ; and like Trees do take Root too . The Place which is consecrated for Burials ( we may say ) is God's Nursery ; wherein our Bodies are conserved for His Plantation . For what is our Rising from the Dead , but our being Transplanted from thence to Paradise ? to flourish as Trees of Immortality about the River of Life ? ( Rev. 22. 1 , 3. ) The Grains of Corn which a man soweth cannot possibly be quickned , except they dye : Their Death Joh . 12. 23. is evidently their Privilege ; and a necessary step to their Improvement . What are the Furrowes but the Sepulchres , wherein the Grains do lye buried ? Nor can any Trees live , unless their Roots have their Interment . And thus it is with us too , who are as Trees with the Root upwards . We cannot rise from the Dead , unless we dye : Unless our Heads are under Ground , we cannot shoot upwards to life eternal ; for which our Death and Dissolution are unavoidable Qualifications : So that we cannot but confess , if we contemplate our Resurrection , that whilst we are lying in our Graves , ( as I said a little before ) we do but sleep like Trees in Winter , when their Sap goes to the Root , where it lies dormant till the Spring ; which yet , as soon as the Spring begins , do straight awake , and look up , as it were opening their Blossoms , instead of Eyes . Fitly therefore is it said by our Apostle in this Text , and as fitly is it consider'd on this Occasion , ( this Anniversary Feast of our Saviour's Rising , ) Christ is Risen from the Dead , and become the First-fruits [ {αβγδ} ] of them that slept .

§ . 12. But in as much as Our State depends on Christ's , so as if Christ is indeed risen , we are sure that we shall ; and if Christ is not risen , we are sure we shall not ; and that the Sequel is nothing worth , without the Truth of the Antecedent ; let us first of all attend to the Proof of That .

That Christ is risen from the Dead , ( the first part of the Enthymeme , ) St. Paul evinceth in but one Chapter , from Five several Topicks , or Heads of Arguing . First from the Verdict of Confer Luk . 24. 27. Act. 3. 24. & C. 28. v. 23. Act. 26. 22 , 23. Act. 2. 32. the Scriptures ; ( v. 3 , & 4. ) Next from the Testimony and knowledge of the whole Act. 10. 39 , 40 , 41. Act. 1. 3. College of the Apostles , who saw him after he was risen ; ( v. 5. ) and more than saw him , for they conversed with him at large ; some by Discoursing , some by eating and drinking with him , one by feeling and thrusting his fingers into his Sides , to whom in particular is ascribed the Eleventh Article of the Creed , as fitter for His Interposition , than any other's . Thirdly , 't is argued by St. Paul from the Suffrages and Experiences of above 500 Eye-witnesses at once ; ( v. 6. ) Fourthly from the Credit he ought to give to his own Eyes ; ( v. 8. ) Fifthly from the Absurdities , which needs must follow the Supposition of Christ's not rising : which Absurdities he shews us are gross , and many . For if Christ is not risen , Then our Preaching is in vain , and as vain is your Faith . ( v. 14. ) Yea upon this profane hypothesis , That Christ is not risen , we who are Preachers of the Gospel , are ( if not Forgers , yet ) False-witnesses of God . ( v. 15. ) and ye are yet in your Sins . ( v. 17. ) And all the Men we call Martyrs have lost their Sufferings . ( v. 18. ) It had been much better for them to have slept in whole skins , than to be torn with wild Beasts , and broken upon Wheels , and broyled on Grid-irons , and brayed in Mortars , and sawn asunder with rugged Swords , and tormented with an {αβγδ} , a being flea'd alive from head to foot , and all in hopes of injoying by so much a better Resurrection . And therefore on a supposal ( a blasphemous supposal ) that Christ is not risen , the most sincere-hearted Christians , who have the most hope in Christ , and have the most reason for it , and choose to be persecuted in This , because they look for a Reward in another World , are the veriest fools , and madmen , and in the miserablest Condition of all Mankind . ( v. 19. ) But because , whilst we are Christians , we cannot admit of such Absurdities , as would destroy the very Foundations of Christianity it self , we cannot choose but conclude , that Christ is Risen .

§ . 13. Thus we have St. Paul's Topicks , from which he proves his Antecedent . But tho' to us , who are Christians , These are cogent , and irresistible ; yet they are not so to Others , who take St. Paul for a Deceiver ; or at least to have been deceiv'd ; and think no better of our Religion , than we do of Theirs . Professed Enemies must be won by other ways of Conviction , and more compulsive of their Assent : Whether Jews , or Gentiles ; and whether those Gentiles are Greeks , or Romans . Against the Jews we are to argue the certain Truth of Christ's Rising , from that which they acknowledge for the Infallible Word of God : From the Types , and the Predictions , and the Examples of the old Testament , fully accomplished , and fulfilled , and clearly parallel'd in the New . Sufficient Types of it they have in the Lyon's Den , and the fiery Furnace ; Daniel rising out of the first , and the three Children out of the Second . They have a clear Type in Gen 22. & Hob . 11. Isaac , in Gen. 37. & Ch. 39. & Ch. 41. Jon . 1. &c. 2. Matt . 12 , 39 , 40. Joseph somewhat a clearer , and the clearest of all in Jonah ; in whom was typified both the Substance , and the Day of Christ's Rising . Amongst their manifold Predictions , I shall but instance in two or three . First in that of the Prophet Hosea . After two days will he revive us , and the third he will raise Hos . 6. 2. us up , and we shall live in his sight . Next in that of the Prophet David , My flesh shall rest in Psal . 16. 10. Act. 2. 25. hope . Thou shalt not leave my Soul in Hell , nor suffer thine Holy one to see corruption . Unto which Act. 13. 33. Psal . 2. 7. that of Esay may well be added ; Thy dead men shall live , together with my dead Body shall they arise ; Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust . Isa . 26. 19. They have Examples from the Old Testament , 2 Kings 13. 21. in the Man who was revived , and even raised out of his Grave too , by being hastily cast down into the Sepulchre of Elisha . Such a Mysterious force there was ( by the will of God ) in the very dead Bones of that holy Prophet . 2 Kings 4. 34. In the Shunamite's dead child , rais'd to life by Elisha , whilst Himself was yet living . And long before in the dead Son of the Widow of Sarepta , who by the Prayers of Elijah was raised 1 Kings 17. 21 , 22 , 23. to life . To these Convictions of the Jews we may add the confessions of Josephus himself , ( one of the learnedst of all their Writers ; ) that Jesus Christ , having been crucified , was seen alive the third day after : And that he doubted whether J●seph de Antiq . Jud. l. 18. 4. 6. 't were lawful , to reckon Christ a meer Man . Yea the profess'd and sworn Enemies of our Saviour's Resurrection did clearly prove it , and preach it up , by their utmost Indeavours to cry it down . And this may be easily made appear from Matters of Fact related to us , in the two last Chapters of St. Matthew . Upon which I shall Matt . 27. 63 , 64 , 65 , 66. & ch. 28. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. the rather insist awhile , the more advantageous I think it is , to catch an Enemy in his own Trap ; to make his own Weapon worst him ; to condemn and countermine him with his own beloved Lyes .

§ . 14. The first Indeavour of the Jews was quite to hinder Christ's Rising , by fraud , and force . And when they found That project vain ; they next indeavour to conceal it from common Knowledge . Had not their Care been very singular to bury his Rising , as well as Him , They had not found the Truth of it , as by that means they did ; and might have said , with some colour , he had been stoln out of his Grave . But ( by the providence of God's confounding the subtilty of these Serpents , ) see the Folly of their craft ; the Inadvertency of their care ; and the general Benefit of their Envy . The Priests and Pharisees come together unto Pilate . They Matth . 27. 62. confess they do remember , Jesus had said being alive , that after three days he would rise again . Matth . 27. 63. They pretend an apprehension , a fear , and jealousie , that his Disciples would steal him away by night ; and give it out among the people , that he is risen from the Dead . Which if the People should once believe , they would presently turn Christians ; and so the last Error should be worse than the first . Therefore they ask ( what Pilate 64. grants them ) a Band of Soldiers to guard the Sepulchre ; and to keep it from plunder until the third day . Nor contented with this Provision , 65. they roll a Stone over the Sepulchre of exceeding great weight ; and make it sure with 60. plates of Iron ; and seal it up with their private Seals too ; that if it shall possibly be rifled , it may not yet possibly escape their knowledg . By all which means it comes to pass , that they themselves are made sure of our blessed Saviour's Rising ; to which their Stone , and their Seals , and their Plates of Iron , and especially their Watchmen , do all bear Witness . The Watchmen tell the chief Priests what things had hapned . Matth 28. 11. They make relation of the Earth-quake , 2. and the Angel ; and how for fear of the Angel they quak'd themselves too . In such an exigence 4. as this , What should the Pharisees and chief Priests do ? They are shamefully driven by the necessities they are in , to bribe the Watchmen 12. into a Lye . To bribe them ( I say ) not with large money alone ; but with a Promise of 14. Impunity from Pontius Pilate . And what but This should their Lye be , ( which carries its Traytor in its own Forehead , ) His Disciples came by night , and stole him away whilst we slept . Mark 13. their confession that Christ is risen , in the Act of their denying it : And a discovery of their Malice , in their Indeavours of concealment . Their Tongues betray them , whether they slept , or slept not ; for if they slept in good earnest , how could they tell , ( being awake , ) what was done whilst they were sleeping ? But if they slept not ; what was it which induced them to Say they slept ? They did not lye , only to lye ; but as thinking it was expedient . Did they see the Disciples stealing Christ out of his Grave ? or did they not ? First , if they did ; then they were either broad awake when they pretended to have slept , which is one Contradiction ; or else they had a faculty to see in sleeping ; which is another : or if secondly they saw it not ; ( and that for this reason , because they slept ; ) how could they testifie as Watchmen , what was done , and who did it ? Again , either All , or only some of their Number slept . If only some ; why did not they who were awake , if not strong enough to resist , rouze up their fellows to their Assistance ? or if they were strong enough of themselves ; why would they suffer to be done , what they watcht on set purpose to keep the weaponless and the weak from the doing of ? But if they say , they All slept ; Then their Testimony is null ; and the utmost that they can do , is to relate their own Dreams . They dreamt ( forsooth ) whilst they were sleeping , that Christ was stoln out of his Sepulchre ; and they dreamt his Disciples stole him . Tho' they were sleeping all the while , yet they dreamt what was done , and they dream't who did it . Let the Case be what it will , we see it every way tends to our Advantage , though 't is most for our Advantage , they did not sleep ; and were brib'd with large mony , to say they slept . Poor wretched Hirelings ! they only said , as they were order'd . They only did , as they were hired . They only perform'd what they had promis'd , and had been very well paid for . And this Bribery of the Sanhedrim was commonly reported among the Jews , until the Time wherein St. Matthew compos'd his Gospel . ( Matt . 28. 15. )

§ . 15. Against the Gentiles we are to argue , by other ways of Conviction , than have hitherto sufficed against the Jews . They must be argued with from their own Principles , whether of Nature , or of Philosophy , of humane Reason , or common Sense . From the Confession of their own Writers , that the Thing is not Impossible ; and from some , that it is True . All in reason to be referr'd to another Subject of Discourse . I only add at this present , that Justin Martyr , and many others , the most incomparably learned amongst the Heathen , have been effectually converted to the Discipleship of Christ , and to a belief of Christ's Rising , even by reading his Divinity in the Lives and the Deaths of such as own'd him . The Blood of Martyrs has been found very often , as well the Gospel Cement , as the Seed of the Church . How many Multitudes have been wrought upon by the Act. 4. 33. working of Miracles ; or by the powerful operations of invisible Grace ; the Holy Acts of the Apostles have made apparent ; and so have all the following Histories of the Church . Even the Emperour Euseb . Hist . l. 2. c . 1. Tiberius was so convinc'd of Christ's Rising , by some Accounts he had of it from Pontius Pilate ; that he proposed Jesus Christ to the Roman Senate , as very worthy of being numbred among their Gods . But having spoken enough already in behalf of the Antecedent , [ That Christ is risen from the Dead , ] especially speaking , as I do , to a Christian Audience , a Congregation of Believers , who are not now to be converted , but only established in the Faith ; I shall deliberately abstain from other Topicks of Discourse , until the Sequel of St. Paul's Enthymeme shall have its due Place in our Consideration : Which being sit to be the Subject of a whole hours Discourse , must by consequence be deferr'd till another Time ; whilst I conclude with some good Lessons from what already hath been deliver'd .

§ . 16. If Christ is risen from the Dead , in spite of all their fraud and force , who , as soon as they had kill'd him , us'd their utmost Indeavours to keep him down ; Then it concerns us to contemplate his infinite Power and All-sufficience , as well as his wisdom and goodness in it . To kill , is easie ; ( every Toad can do That ; ) But it is not so easie to make alive . This is one of God's Works ; not communicable to any , unless by Miracle . Such a Miracle it is , for any one Man to raise another from the Dead : and This by miracle has been communicated to Some . But for any meer man to raise himself from Death to life , is communicable to None ; no not by Miracle . This is so much the Privilege of God alone , He cannot give it to any other ; and so our Saviour's Resurrection is a strong proof of his Divinity , against the Arians , and Socinians , who are so rife in these days . Three I noted under the Law , who being Dead were rais'd to life , by the Prophets of the Old Testament . And besides a great number who are not specified in the New ; we read of Five such examples as are particularly nam'd . Our Saviour rais'd his Friend Lazarus ; the young Joh . 11. 39. Luk . 7. 12. man of Naim ; and the Daughter of Jairus . Luk . 8. 55. But 't is more to our purpose , ( because our Saviour was more than Man , ) that Dorcas was raised Act. 9. 40. by St. Peter ; and Eutychus by St. Paul ; who Act. 20. 10. were meer men assisted by the miraculous Gift of God . Yet None of these Thaumaturgicks , neither Elijah , nor Elisha , neither St. Paul , nor St. Peter , ( no , no more , than either Eutychus , or Dorcas , ) could raise Themselves out of their Sepulchres , or state of Death . And accordingly when our Saviour reviv'd the Dead man at Naim , ( being laid out upon the Bier , ) the people Luk . 7. 14 , 16. trembled with astonishment , concluding Christ a great Prophet ; and that was all . They did not from thence infer his God-head . But for one and the same Person to raise himself out of his Grave , demonstrates That Man to be no meer Mortal ; It demonstrates That Man to be God Incarnate ; God manifest in the Flesh ; God and Man in one Person , by an union hypostatical ; God who spake by the Prophets ; not a Great Prophet only , as some esteem'd him .

§ 17. Now from a Serious Contemplation of so much Power , as was extended to our Lord in his Resurrection , we ought to gather unto our selves a Christian Considence and Courage in all our fallings , how great soever our Falls may be ; not into Poverty only , or Sickness , but Death it self . If Christ is risen from the Dead , malgré the utmost opposition of Men and Devils ; as easily breaking the Bands of Death , as Samson did his green With s ; it follows then that we Christians , ( that is , Imitators of Christ , ) are of all men the most happy ; as having the least cause to fear , what Men or Devils can do unto us . 't is true , in reference to the Danger of doing evil , happy is the man that feareth always . But in reference to the danger of Suffering evil , and that because we refuse to do it , woe be to the man that is most afraid . For he either distrusts God's Power , or suspects his special providence , or despairs of his Love , or doubts at least of his Promises , and makes some Question of his Veracity ; forgets the Precept of the Almighty , however frequently promulg'd both in the Old and New Testament . First in the Old , Fear ye not the reproach of men , nor be afraid Isa . 51. 7. 8. of their revilings : and that for this reason , because the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment , and the Worm like wooll . And again in the New , Fear not them that can kill the Body : and that for this reason , because they are not able to hurt the Soul . 't is a thing worthy of observation , how God upbraids his People's Cowardize , and seeks to shame them out of their fears . Who art thou that should'st be afraid of a man that shall dye , and be made as grass ? And forgettest thy Maker , who hath stretched out the Heavens , and hath laid the Foundations of the Earth ? ( Isa . 51. 12 , 13. ) for a Servant , and a Soldier , and withal a younger Brother of Jesus Christ , ( who is not ashamed to call us Brethren , says the Apostle , ) to be afraid of his fellow-Creature , whose life is in his Breath , and whose Breath is in his Nostrils , and whose Foundation is in the Dust ; to fear a Man that shall dye , and be food for Worms , and not at all to fear Him , or to fear him less , who can kill , and make alive , and destroy for ever , and make us feel our selves dying to all Eternity , without the benefit or the hope of a Dissolution ; This is such an unworthiness , as ought not in justice to be indur'd . For 't is implicitly to deny , that Christ is risen from the Dead ; and to abet the Jewish Slander , That his Disciples stole him away whilst the Watchmen slept . Yea to stand in more fear of our Lord's Enemies , than of Himself ; cannot but come within the Notion of flat Idolatry , and is a practical Abjuration of His Divinity . To disbelieve our Lord's Death , or to doubt of his Rising from it , or of his Rising as the First-fruits of a General Harvest ; And so to doubt of these things , as to sink under the load of our sufferings for him , or else to cast it from off our Shoulders , as if we suspected that Christ himself can neither succour us in this World , nor requite us in the Next ; This is such a Disparagement to the Immensity of his Power , and the Veracity of his Word , that I cannot tell how we can more provoke him . This may therefore suggest a reason of that strange thing at the first appearance , why St. John in his Revelations does rank the fearful and unbelieving as the great Ringleaders in Hell , preceding the Murderers , and Sorcerers , and Idolaters , and Liars , who yet are all to have their portion of Fire and Brimstone ; because a Man's Fearfulness and Distrust are apt to be the Causes of all the rest ; his Misbelieving and Disbelieving , are universally the Flood-gates of all Impiety . Not to believe that Christ is risen , or so faintly to believe it , as to have but a kind of Suspicion of it , betrays the Succours of the Soul , and stands in an absolute opposition to Ghostly strength ; and makes a Man to be as wicked , as the World , and the Flesh , and the Devil will have him . For in the feebleness of a Man's Faith the principal strength of Sin lies . And when we have Traitors within our City , as well as weak parts in our very Walls , Temptations take us by way of Storm ; and break in upon us like Conquering Torrents .

§ . 18. There are multitudes of People who seem to have a strong Faith in the Death of Christ ; ( believe he suffer'd for their Sins ; That he did by all means , and for theirs alone ; ) but do not seem to have an Interest , ( nor to believe that they have any , ) in the Power and strength of his Resurrection . For if at any time they are troubled , they are distress'd too : if persecuted a little , they straight conclude they are forsaken : or if a little cast down , they poorly reckon they are destroy'd . All in a perfect Contrariety to the Christians of the first Times , who were Christians in deed , and not in a naked Profession only . For St. Paul speaking of Them in a conjunction with Himself , We are troubled ( says He ) on every side , yet not in distress . Sufficiently perplexed , but not at all in 2 Cor . 4. 8 , 9. Despair . Persecuted we are , but not forsaken . And however cast down , yet not destroy'd . Now from whence had they this Constancy , Support , and Courage , but ( as St. Paul does there say ) Verse 13. from the Spirit of Faith ? or from the stedfastness of their Belief , that Christ is risen from the dead ? for so he speaks in the next Verse , Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus from the 14. Dead , shall raise up us also by Jesus , and shall present us with you . This was the use St. Paul made in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians , even of this very Doctrine which he teacheth them in the First . Christ is risen from the Dead . That 's his Doctrine . From which he raises this use , ( a use of Comfort and Christian Courage , ) Not to faint in Tribulations , altho' the outward man perish . Verse 16. Be it so that we are always bearing about in 2 Cor . 4. 10 , 11. our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus ; Be it so that we are daily deliver'd unto Death for Jesus sake ; yet since the Raiser up of Jesus shall raise up Us also , and shall present us unto himself in the Face of Jesus , therefore we faint not , ( says our Apostle ; ) but tho' our outward man perish , our Inward man notwithstanding is renewed day by day .

§ . 19. This is That our Lord Loves , our making a right and proper Use of his Resurrection : Not only believing it as a story ; but trusting to it , as a Support . He cannot indure to have his Faithfulness suspected , or his Truth call'd in question , or his Omnipotence doubted of . His being Risen from the dead , he would have us still 2 Tim . 2. 8. Remember , and often revolve within our selves ; He would have us often ruminate , and chew upon it by Meditation ; lest at any time we be wearied , and faint in our Minds . Had he only been Crucified , Dead , and Buried , Then all our Comfort had been crucified ; all our Faith had been as dead ; and our Hope buried . For even a Dog , being alive , does far surpass a dead Lyon . How sad and Hopeless were the good Women , whilst they only look 't downwards , and saw the Body of Christ interr'd ? All their Hope was , in their looking upwards ; in seeing their Master when he was Risen . And this will be our own best method ; not to look on his Grave , unless it be as it is empty ; and to inforce upon our selves the Angels saying to the two Maries , Why seek ye the Living Matt . 28. 6. among the Dead ? He is not Here ; for he is Risen . The surest way to run with Patience the Race of life that is set before us , is thus to be looking up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith , who for the Joy that was set before him , Heb . 12. 1 , 2. endured the Cross , despised the shame , and now is sitting on the right hand of the Throne of God : Incessantly interceding for us , as a well-beloved Son with a Father of Mercies , to whom be Honour and Adoration for ever and ever .

§ . 20. Again , if Christ is so risen , as hath been hitherto made apparent ; and if we believe it , without the least doubt , or Hesitation ; Then let us consider the chiefest ends of his Resurrection , in which our selves are most concern'd . That so we may examin , and prove our own selves , whether those ends have been accomplished in us , or not . Now the Apostle tells us plainly , That to this very end Christ dyed , and rose , and revived , that he might be Lord both of the dead and living , &c. Rom. 14. 9. All the fruit which he reap't in his own behoof both in his suffering of Death , and in his rising from the Dead , was , that he might have the full prerogative to lord it over us , and in us : that we might not live unto our selves , nor dye unto our selves ; ( v. 7. ) but that whether we live , we might live unto the Lord ; or whether we dye , we might dye unto the Lord : and the reason of it is evident , because whether we live , or dye , we are the Lord's , ( v. 8. ) not ours , but his ; for he hath bought us with a price . ( 1 Cor . 6. 20. ) Our life , and our death , whatsoever we have , and whatsoever we are , whatsoever we are able to do , or suffer , we ought not to value them at all in any other consideration , than as by them we may be serviceable in some good Measure to Jesus Christ . When we live in a course of Sin , we flatly say by our works , what the Jews did in words , Nolumus hunc , we will not have this man reign over us . ( Luke 19. 14. ) He shall not be a Lord for us ; we will not keep his statutes , nor be observant of his Laws . We like the statutes of Omri , and will live by the Law which is predominant in our members . This is the language of our Doings ; when we walk , and walk on , in a Tract of Sin . Let our Forms of Godliness be what they will , we do frustrate the end of his Dying for us , and defeat him of his purpose in rising up from the dead . The proper ends of Christ's Death and his Resurrection are very fitly represented in the two parts of Baptism ; both alluded to by St. Paul , Colos . 2. 12. We are buried with Christ in Baptism , and in Baptism are risen with him . But Both through Faith of the operation of God , who hath raised him from the dead . The going into the water , relates to Christ's Burial ; and shews us our obligation of dying to Sin ; nailing the Body of our Corruptions to our Blessed Saviour's Cross ; and not only so , but laying them down in his Grave too ; never so to rise again , as to have any Dominion , or Power over us . The coming out of the water , relates to Christ's Resurrection , and shews us our obligation of rising again to the life of righteousness ; never returning again to Sin , any more than Christ Jesus did return into the Grave ; but still ascending higher and higher , by improvements of Grace , till we ascend ( as he did ) unto a perfect consummation of Bliss and Glory . Thus we see our very Baptism does teach us the uses we are to make , both of the dying of Christ , and of his rising from the dead . It is a way of Accommodation , with which St. Paul is so well pleased , that he is pleas'd to repeat it in his Epistle to the Romans . We are buried with him by Baptism into Death ; that like as Christ was raised from the Dead , so we also should walk in newness of life : Rom. 6. 3. Now when as Christians we are baptiz'd , we do not dwell under the water ; we are not down'd . Just as when our Lord was buried , he did but sojourn in the Grave ; did not lye in it so long , as to see corruption . Rom. 6. 12. Let not Sin therefore reign in our mortal Bodies ; That 's the Use we are all to make of it . If unhappily we have dipp't into Sin ; let us not consentingly lye under it , till we are drown'd . Or if it proves so that we are dead in trespasses and Sins ; yet let us rise by repentance to newness of life . Again , when once we are baptiz'd , we are not baptiz'd any more ; we do not pass a second time under the water ; and Christ being raised from the Dead , dyeth no more ; Death hath no more Dominion over him . ( Rom. 6. 9. ) We therefore being rais'd from the death of Sin , must sin no more ; Sin must have no more Dominion over us . This is the Use we are to make of that Allusion . And when these Uses are duly made , we have hit the end of Christ's dying , and of his rising from the Dead . And therefore ,

Thirdly , we may know by this , our ghostly state and condition ; whether or no we have an Interest in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ . If not in the later , we can have none in the former to do us good . For our Sins by Christ's Death are made but apt to be pardon'd ; they are not actually pardon'd , unless by force of his Resurrection , and of his mediating for us at the right hand of God . He dyed for our sins , that is , because we had sin'd , and he would Satisfie the justice we sin'd against . But he Rom. 4. 25. rose again for our Justification , to procure to us Act. 5. 31. Repentance and Remission of Sins . Yet this the Apostle hath taught us for our Instruction , that if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's Death , we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection . ( Rom. 6. 5. ) Which is as much as to say , That if we have sincerely forsaken sin , ( in imitation of Christ's Death , ) and thereby have been grafted into the Body of Christ Jesus , becoming part of the same Tree with him , and partaking with him who is the Root of the very same Juice ; we shall certainly bring forth the very same fruits ; and so at last we shall partake of the very same Harvest . I say the same fruits , as I say the same Harvest , though not in perfection , at least in kind . Our fruit will be unto holiness , and the end everlasting life , Rom. 6. 22. The Love of Christ will constrain us ( if it abide in us indeed ) not to live unto our selves , but unto him who dyed for us , and rose again , 2 Cor . 5. 14 , 15. That was St. Paul's way of trying , whether or no we love Christ , and have attained unto the Power of his Resurrection . From whence it follows , ( which is a sad , but unavoidable Consequence , ) that if we live unto our selves , and not intirely unto Christ , we fall short of the End for which he dyed and rose again . If we are not Purified in the sense of St. John , and become zealous of good works in the sense of St. Paul , we are not Christ's peculiar people , Tit . 2. 11. If we are not new Creatures , we are not in Christ , 2 Cor . 5. 17. What then remains for the avoiding of these sequels , and for the certain Attainment of that high privilege of being Christ's peculiar people , but that we become as new Creatures ? that we purifie our selves ? that we be zealous of good works ? that we live no longer unto our selves , but unto him who dyed for us , and rose again from the dead ?

To him therefore who is able to keep us from falling ; and to raise us when we are down ; and to present us being risen before the presence of his Glory with exceeding Joy ; To the only wise God our Saviour , who dyed for our sins , and rose again for our Justification , and became the first-fruits of them that slept , be ascribed by us and by all the World , Blessing , and Glory , and Honour , and Power , and Wisdom , and Thanksgiving , from this day forwards for ever more . Amen .

CHAP. II .

§ . 1. IN the former Chapter I treated concerning a Change in the Body of Christ ; and took my Rise for that purpose , from 1 Cor . 15. 20. Christ is risen from the Dead . Now in as much as he is risen , that we may rise ; And that if we rise not , we are no whit the better for His being risen : I have thought it most useful , as well as most pertinent and Methodical , to transfer my Meditations from our Lord's Body unto our own ; and so to shew the great Advantage , which the Change of His Body shall make in ours . Not a Change , quatenus ipsum , or meerly as it is a Change ; for even All shall be changed , without exception , or reserve : whether children of the Devil , or Sons and Daughters of Grace and Glory . Herod , as well as John ; and Simon Magus , as well as Peter ; and Hymenaeus , as well as Paul ; All mankind shall have a Change , but not a change unto the Better ; for most will find it unto the worse . Our Saviour's Flock is a little one , compared with the greatness of Satan's Herd ; and the way to Heaven is but narrow , in comparison with the broad one which leads to Hell ; the Most will rise , only to fall : They will rise out of a Pit of but seven foot deep , that they may fall into a Bottomless , and Boundless Pit . Expressed to us by a Lake , which ever-more burns with Fire and Brimstone . A most tremendous Resurrection , ( and more to be deprecated than None , ) which makes so lamentable a Change in the Body of Man . To be changed therefore by Christ , as Christ was changed by Himself , from the Torments of the Cross , and the Obscurity of the Grave , unto a ravishing Condition of Bliss , and Glory , we must be qualified and season'd with the Duties here injoyned throughout this Chapter . We must rejoyce in the Lord , ( v. 1. ) and so keep Easter as a good Time , or as an Holy ▪ day indeed . We must beware of evil workers , ( v. 2. ) must not have the least fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness . We must not have confidence in the flesh , but worship God in the Spirit , ( v. 3. ) must reckon all things but Dung , for the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ , ( v. 8. ) we must learn to know Christ , and the power of his Resurrection , and the fellowship of his sufferings , being conformable unto his Death , ( v. 10. ) forgetting those things that are behind , and reaching forth unto those things that are before , we must press towards the mark , for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus , ( v. 13 , 14. ) In a word , we must be men whose Conversation is in Heaven , ( v. 20. ) St. Paul's words are , {αβγδ} the word {αβγδ} does import , that Heaven it self is that City , which we in Christ are made free of . And by consequence we must live as so many Citizens of Heaven , in opposition to the Muckworms , whose God is their Belly , and whose glory is in their shame , and who mind earthly things , ( v. 19. ) Here indeed we have a City , but not a City to abide in ; for we seek one to come : even a City having Heb . 13. 14. Foundations , the Mystical Mount Sion , the City Heb . 12. 22. of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem . There dwells our Saviour , and our Prince , There sits our Advocate , and our Judge . There we ought to be already , at least in our Minds , and Meditations . We must contemplate those things which will lead us Thither . We must regulate our Lives by the Laws of that City . Our Christianity must be the Practice , not only the Profession of heavenly life and Conversation . And when once we have attain'd to this degree of Perfection , ( by making use of that Grace our Lord has given us , ) then we may say touching our selves without Vanity or falshood , ( as once St. Paul of his Ephesians , ) we are not strangers , and foreigners , but {αβγδ} , Fellow-Citizens of the Saints , and of the Houshold Eph. 2. 19. of God ; Then we may boast with Anaxagoras , and with Seneca's Wise Man , Potiore nostri parte Senec . Epist. 41. illic sumus unde descendimus : Our Better part is still There , from whence we derived our Original ; and from whence we look with longing , ( not with Terror , or Consternation , ) for the most glorious and final Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall change our vile Body , that Phil . 3. 21. it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body .

§ . 2. A Promise carrying with it its own Assurance : for 't is founded in his Omnipotence , his mighty Power , who is able ( saith St. Paul in the next words after this Text ) to subdue all things unto Himself . And 't is a Promise made up of as many Parts , as Logicians commonly reckon in the whole Predicament of Action . As ,

First , the Action it self : {αβγδ} , he will transfigure , ( so the Greek ; ) or he will change , ( so the English . )

Secondly , the Agent : and That is briefly imply'd in the Pronoun Who ; but expressed to us at large in the Verse precedent , by {αβγδ} , the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ .

Thirdly , the Patient , or the Subject , or the Recipient of the Action : and That is {αβγδ} not the Spirit , but the Flesh . Many Heathens did belive the Immortality of the Soul ; But {αβγδ} , he shall change our Body .

Next the Terminus à quo , the abject Term or Condition , from which our Body is to be changed : {αβγδ} , ( for {αβγδ} , ) from its state of Humility , ( so the Greek , ) or of its Vileness , ( so the English . ) A Vile Body it is , as being evermore abnoxious to all the miseries upon Earth ; and again , a Vile Body , as being sown in Dishonour , and in Corruption , wherein the 1 Cor . 15. 43. Maggots and other Vermin will have the picking of its Eyes out , and make their Nests within its skin .

Lastly , the Terminus ad quem , the Glorious Term , or Condition , into which 't is to be changed : {αβγδ} , into a likeness or conformity with the Body of Christ's Glory , ( so the Greek , ) or like unto his Glorious Body , ( so the English . )

Thus we see what shall befall us at the general Resurrection . A miraculous Change shall be wrought upon us . We see by whom , and from whence , and to what admirable Advantage , and after what manner we shall be changed .

§ . 3. But I must first of all speak to the change it self , without relation to any Circumstance wherewith the change is to be cloath'd . And I must render such Reasons for it , as may serve for so many Arguments or Corroborations of our Belief . For when St. Paul preaching at Athens , did but nakedly affirm the Resurrection of the Dead , without an addition of Reasons for it , most of his Auditors fell to mock him . All their use of the Sermon was their Derision Act. 17. 32. of the Preacher . And considering we live in an Iron Age ; an Age whose very Iron has gather'd Rust too ; which is a sign that we are fallen into those last dregs of Time , whereof 't was said by our Saviour by way of Prophecy , when the Son of Man cometh , shall he find Faith upon the Earth ? ( that is to say , He shall Not ; ) I say considering these things ; the World has need of being convinced , that there is really such a thing as a Resurrection . Men are such Sadducees in their Actions , such arrant Herodians in their Lives , that 't is hard to think them Christians , in Heart , or Head , or in any thing more , than the bare Profession . For Faith and Manners do hold proportion with one another . When Faith is very well rooted , not only in the Heads , but the Hearts of men , it will infallibly shoot forth into excellent good Fruit , as well as Branches . But do we not live amongst some , whose Hearts are so full of Infidelity , and so much more than Brimfull , as not to be able to contain it from running over ? Are there not some , whose very Hearts are breaking out often at their Mouths , and their Fingers ends , whilst they stick not to say and write , that they were born at all adventure , and that they shall dye as they were born ? that their Bodies shall become Ashes , and their Souls vanish as the soft air , and that Both shall be hereafter , just as if they had never been ? Such as These are to be humbled , and kept in Awe by dreadful Assertions and Defensatives of the two last Articles in our Creed , the Resurrection of the Body , and the Life Everlasting .

§ . 4. Others on the other hand are to be constantly fed with Hope , that what they now sow in Tears , they shall reap in Joy : And that their Body shall be as Precious , as now 't is Vile . That he who at present goeth on his way weeping , shall come again with great Gladness at the general Harvest , and shall bring his sheaves with 1 Cor . 15. 19. him . If in this life alone we had hope in Christ , ( as St. Paul argues to the Corinthians , ) we were of all men in the worst Condition ; especially when we suffer the greatest evils , rather than consent to commit the least . As good be any thing , as a Christian ; were it not for this change . A persecuted Saint would be good for nothing . 2 Macc . c . 6. &c 7. Heb 11. 35. Unto what end did Eleazar refuse the offers of a Deliverance , if ( after all ) he may not injoy by so much a better Resurrection ? or to what purpose did our Apostle fight the good sight of Faith through all imaginable hardships , if there is no such thing at last , as a Crown of 1 Cor . 15. 32. Righteousness ? we might call the Mal . 3. 15 , 17. proud happy , and bless the workers of Iniquity , in case there were not a Day to come , when God will bind up his Jewels . Death would indeed be the King of Terrors , ( as Bildad told his friend Job , ) if to dye were to Perish , and to be shut out of the World . Lord ! what a melancholick Reflection Job 18. 14. should a Man make upon his Grave , wherein he cannot escape his being a loathsome {αβγδ} , ( eaten of Worms when he is dead , as Herod was whilst he was living , ) were he not able to look beyond it , and say with the Confidence of Job to his insulting friend Bildad , I absolutely Know my Redeemer liveth ? It Job 19 25 , 26 , &c. being revealed to me from Heaven , and deeply imprinted upon my Heart , that he shall stand ( as a Triumpher ) in the last day upon the Earth : and tho' Worms , after my skin , shall destroy this Body , yet in my Flesh shall I see God : and not with other , but with these same Eyes . This was spoken by a Gentile , ( for such was holy Job in the Land of Uz , ) not from the meer strength of Reason , or the Reserches of Philosophy ; but from the Dictates of Divinity , and supernatural Revelation , which made him infallible in his Believing ( what he therefore call'd his Knowing , ) the Resurrection of his Flesh in the Day of Judgment . So that in Job we have an Instance of that divine Faith , which is said to be the Evidence of things not seen , and the substance of things hoped for , Heb . 11. 1. Had he not spoken as an Enthusiast , and from the whisperings of the Spirit , St. Jerome could never have said with truth , what yet he did with great Confidence , that no man living since Christ has so Nullus tam apertè post Christum , quàm ista ante Christum , de Resurrectione loquitur . S. Hieron . in locum . explicitly and so plainly expressed this Article of our Creed [ the Resurrection of the Body , ] as He who liv'd an Idumaean , as well before Moses , as before Christ , who was not born of the Virgin till 1600 years after .

§ . 5. Now to establish our own Assurance of Faith and Hope , that our Bodies shall not be lost , but rather safely laid up , and kindly committed ( as to a Guardian ) to the close Custody of the Earth , and only dissolv'd into the Elements as certain Repositories or Vessels , from which they will be forth-coming upon the sounding of the last Trumpet , exactly marshalled and disciplin'd in Rank and File , at the great and general muster of the Lord God of Hosts , who will no more make us a Militant , but ( from thenceforth ) a Triumphant Army , no longer to sight , but to be crown'd ( for having fought under Christ's Banner ; ) Let us premise a few Arguments as Fortifications of our Belief .

§ . 6. The first of these is to be drawn from the Consideration of our Creation : Concerning which God said to Adam , Thou shalt return unto the Ground , for out of it wast thou taken . Gen. 3. 19. Dust thou art , and to Dust shalt thou return . There we see how our Beginning affords us an Embleme of our End : and how our End yields us an Argument , whereby to assert our New Beginning . For if once out of the Ground , why not again ? if created out of the Earth , why not restor'd ? It cannot certainly be so hard , Difficilior est mutatio à non esse simplici , quàm à non esse Tali . or so strange a thing , to be recover'd out of the Dirt , into which ( before we were ) we could not have had a Dissolution . Admit our Death were a Reduction into an indigested Chaos ; and from thence into that ancient and primitive Nothing , out of which the Rude Chaos was first Created ; yet still a Second Result from Nothing , would be as possible as a First : And if we acknowledge a fesibility in the Creation of our Bodies , a Recreation of the same , we can never stick at . He who could make us out of Nothing , can out of Nothing remake us . This is a Consequence undeniable from the Hypothesis premis'd , in case 't were every whit as true , as we know 't is false . But we are taught by plain Experience , ( the Irresistible Mistriss of our Assent , ) that what we commonly call Death , is indeed nothing more than a Dissolution . A Dissolution is nothing more , than an unloosing of the Compages ; not a Nulling of the Ingredients , whereof a Body is made up . A taking asunder of our materials ; not a total cessation of them . We have a clearer comprehension of what we shall be when we are Buried , than 't is possible for us to have of what we were , e're we were Born . And with This the generous Mother ( in the second Book of the Maccabees ) excited her Children to their Martyrdoms , which Antiochus the Tyrant prepared for them . I cannot tell you ( my dearest Sons ) how ye came into my womb . 2 Macc . 7. 22 , 23 , &c. I neither gave you your Breath ; nor form'd your Members . Neither is it I , but the Creator of the World , by whom ye are what ye are ; by whose assistance from above , ye regard not your lives for his Laws sake ; and who will also , of his own mercy , give you Breath and life again . O my Sons , have pity on me ; and suffer bravely those Torments , Ver . 27 , 28 , &c. which now attend you . Look on the Heaven and the Earth , and consider God made them of things that were not ; and fear not this Tormentor . Now I proceed , with that woman , to argue Thus : When Earth was taken out of Nothing , and a Man's Body out of the Earth ; 't is plain the Body of Man was Nothing , at one or two Removes at most : And 't is much a greater step from Nothing to Something , than from one thing to Another , or from the Same unto It self . So that if we can believe the Creation of the Body , sure its Resuscitation we cannot doubt of . We have the word of God affirming , as well the one , as the other . And the later ( to common Reason ) is less astonishing , than the former .

§ . 7. A second Argument is to be drawn from the Dignity of a Man above other Creatures . God was pleas'd to make Man but little lower than the Angels , giving him Mastery or Dominion over the work of his hands . Touching the other Creatures , he said , Let there be light , and there was light . Let there be a Firmament , and so it was . He did not say , Let there be Man , and there was Man ; But faciamus , Let us make him ; and let us make him after our Likeness . Gen. 1. 26. Nor did he only form Man of the Dust of the Ground ; But also breath'd into his Nostrils the Gen. 2. 7. Breath of life . And can we imagin it to be likely , that God will suffer his Noblest Creature to perish for ever in the Earth ? to lose one part of his two Essentials ? That Vaginam Afflatûs Dei , ( as Tertullian somewhere calls it , ) That choice Repository , or Case , in which he was pleas'd to sheath his Breath ? That goodly Tabernacle , or Tent , wherein it pleased himself to dwell , by an Incarnation ? No sure ( says Job , concerning God , to God himself , ) He will have a Desire unto the work of his own Hands . He who Job 14. 15. Breathed into our Nostrils the Breath of life , will never so blow upon us with the Breath of his Displeasure , as wholly to blast what he has planted in this his low and inferiour Nursery ; But will infallibly transplant us ( in due time and season ) to flourish as Trees of Immortality about the River of Life . Rev. 21. 1.

§ . 8. A Third Argument may be taken from the changes which are wrought on Inferiour Creatures : {αβγδ} , the world without us is full of changes ; and many Changes we observe of the world within us . Things go out , and come in , shifting their Properties , or their Places , and many times their very Shapes ; and then return ( as in a Circle ) to the Condition they were in , at their setting out . The Scripture tells us , Isa . 40. 6. 1 Pet . 1. 24. All Flesh is Grass . Experience tells us , All Grass is Flesh . There being a change and Resurrection of the one out of the other . For all manner of Flesh , being putrified and corrupted , does serve to fatten and feed the Earth . The Earth becomes fruitful , and brings forth Grass . The Grass becomes Food for the Flesh of Beasts . The Flesh of Beasts becomes Food for the Flesh of Men . And we know the Flesh of Men is again turn'd into the Earth . Thus we see there is a Circle of several changes ; all as remarkable , as they are obvious . All flesh is grass , at the first setting out ; and again at long running , all grass is flesh . Such Circular motions and mutations we might observe ( if we had Time ) in most things else : Not only in all the Families , but Forms of Government in the world . There is observable in Polybius an {αβγδ} , a Circulation of Conditions or Forms of Politie , whereof the first and best is Monarchy ; which sooner or later is corrupted into Tyranny ; That again into Oligarchy ; and This into Democraty ; out of which comes Ochlocraty ; and Cheirocraty out of That . Brutish strength in This last gives Law to Justice . And the sole measure of Right , is either the length of a Man's Sword , or the strength and the skill of the Hand that holds it . This Cheirocraty is indeed Anarchy ; ( a word invented by Polybius to import the same thing ; ) of which when Men are sick enough , not to be able to indure it ; then they flye by way of Refuge to the Wings of a Monarch for preservation . Such are the Changes which we observe , ( taught by the wisest of Historians amongst the Heathen , ) in the Cycle of Societies and Commonwealths . And Thus the Seasons of the year do ever fall , and rise up , into one another . The Day dyes every Night , and is renewed every Morning . The Spring expires into the Summer ; and This into the Autumn ; That is lost into the Winter ; which again perisheth into the Spring . Thence the Year got its Title of {αβγδ} , ( a thing becoming endless , by still expiring into It self ; ) and thence a Snake is made its Embleme , by taking his Tail into his Teeth . Nor is the Vicissitude of the Seasons of more Remarque in this Case , than the Multitude of Creatures peculiar to them . For ( not to instance in other Things , ) How many Thousands of Inanimate or Senseless Creatures , which have been buried in the Earth since last December , do now injoy a Resurrection this present April ? Say then thou Sadducee , thou Jenxuan , thou Stupid Sinner . Dost thou imagin that when thou dyest , thy Grave is thy Dwelling-place for ever ? And that thy Bed is there made in perpetual Darkness ? Thou Fool ( saith the Apostle ) That which thou sowest , is not quicken'd except it dye . That which thou takest to be the End , is but the begining of its Existence ; or at least a Transition , from a very much worse , to a better state . Is it not pity a Man of Reason should be thus sent to School to the meanest Creatures ? A Grain of Wheat is able to Teach thee the hardest Article of thy Creed . For tho' thou shalt bury it every Autumn , yet it will Rise every Spring ; yea as soon as it is putrified , it will peep out of its Furrow ; and that as well to thine , as its own Advantage . Nor could it perpetuate its being what now it is ; did it not live , and dye by Turns . After the very same manner , our Graves are so many Furrows ; wherein our Bodies , as so many Grains , are not only Interr'd , but also sown ( says St. Paul ) by the hand of 1 Cor . 15. 42 , 43 , 44. Providence ; in expectation to be gather'd at God's Great Harvest ; gather'd as Wheat into his Garner , whilst the Chaff is burnt up with unquenchable Fire . Whilst we live in This world , the case is plain , we are all Mortals ; But we are far from being such in the world to come . From whence it logically follows , that we are qualified by our End , for a new Beginning . And that our Death is but a Door to a Life of Glory . It is our Saviour's own Doctrin both in the Protasis , and Apodosis : and with much more advantage , than I have given it . Except a Corn of Wheat fall into the Ground and dye , it abideth alone : It is a fruitless , and worthless , monastick thing ; like a Barren dry Tree which incumbereth the Ground ; fit for nothing , but to be burnt . But if it dye , it bringeth forth much fruit : ( Joh . 12. 24. ) There lyes its Interest , and its honour ; Its Dying is its Introduction to its Fertility , and Increase . This he applies unto himself , and calls his being murder'd , his being glorified on Earth : ( v. 23. ) which cannot be without a reference to the Conversion of the Gentiles , ( whose Posterity we are , ) and other glorious effects , as well of his Death , as his Resurrection . He did not Rise , till he was down . Nor can we be quick'ned , except we dye : And what we vulgarly use to call the Last day of our Life , is indeed the very First of our Immortality . So far it is from being a Miracle , for so miraculous a Change to be wrought upon us ; that a Want of This Miracle , would of all miracles be the Greatest .

§ . 9. A fourth Argument may be rais'd from the Consideration of our Redemption ; which God was pleased to bring about , by humbly taking upon him the Nature , not of Angels , but of Abraham , and by consequence of Adam , Heb . 2. 16 , &c. and in Him of all Mankind . Nor did He take it on him by Halves ; not the Nature of half a man ; not one part , without the other ; But he assum'd the whole Nature ; the Nature of the Body , as well as of the Soul . The Word was Joh . 1. 14. Act. 2. 30. 1. Pet . 3. 18. & 4. 1. made Flesh , and dwelt among us . He suffer'd for us in the Flesh . It was his Flesh , which was Crucified , dead , and buried . And what was it but his Flesh , which rose again the Third day ? yea even after his Resurrection , the most Incredulous of the Twelve did thrust his Fingers into his Flesh ; Handle me , and see , ( said our Lord to Thomas ) for a Spirit hath not flesh and bone , as ye see me have . Now such as was Christ's Resurrection , such must be the Resurrection of them that are Christ's . For he became the First-fruits ; which shew the Nature of the whole Crop . And the First-fruits of them that slept ; Nor is it the Spirit , but the Flesh , in reference to which we are said to sleep .

§ . 10. A fifth Argument ( like the former ) does offer it self from our Adoption ; and from the intimate Relation between the Head , and the members . In the sixth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians , we find as great a share of Honour , done by St. Paul unto our Bodies ; as may very well satisfie the highest Ambition of our Souls . The Body is for the Lord , and the Lord for the Body . ( v. 13. ) Know ye not that your Bodies are Members of Christ ? ( v. 15. ) Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost ? ( v. 19. ) Nay ye are not your own , but are bought with a Price : therefore glorifie God in your Body , because it is not yours , but God's ( v. 20. ) From all which Premises we may well argue Thus . 1st , If Christ is that Head , whereof our Bodies are the members ; the Body of Christ cannot be perfect , without the Addition of our own . Head and Members are Relata secundum esse ; whereof the one cannot subsist without relation to the other . Next , if our Body is for the Lord , and the Lord for the Body ; Then must our Body be raised up , if not for our sake , yet for the Lord's . 3dly , If our Body is the Holy Ghost's Temple ; Then he will not destroy it , unless it be to rear it up ; that so the Glory of the later Temple ( in this sense also ) may much exceed that of the former : That what is sown in Corruption , may be raised in Incorruption ; that what is sown in Dishonour , may be raised in Glory ; that what is sown in much weakness , may be raised again in Power ; that what is sown a natural Body , may be raised a Spiritual body . The second Temple of Jerusalem did not so much excel the first , as a man's Body , being raised , will excel its old self . 4ly , and lastly , if God expects to be glorified both in our Body , and in our Spirit , and that because they are Both His ; Then God Himself must needs glorisie , as well the one , as the other . But the Grave cannot praise him ; Death cannot celebrate him ; They that go down unto the Pit cannot shew forth his Truth ; if there is no such thing at all as a Resurrection . We might expostulate , like the Psalmist , were it not for this Change ; Dost thou show wonders among the Dead ? or shall Psal 88. 10 , 11 , 12. the Dead give thanks unto thee ? shall thy loving kindness be shewed in the Grave ? or thy Faithfulness in Destruction ? shall thy wond ' rous works be known in the Dark ? or thy righteousness in the Land where all things are forgotten ? Psal . 6. 5. No man remembreth thee in Death ; and who will give thee thanks in the Pit ? It follows therefore unavoidably ; that seeing God will be glorified , as well in our Body , as in our Soul , He will change our vile Body , that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body . And we may say with our Apostle , that as the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain until now , so we our selves do also groan within our selves , waiting for the Adoption , to wit , the Redemption of our Body . ( Rom. 8. 23. )

§ . 11. A sixth Argument is to be urged ( to All who are not Antiscripturists ) from the several Testimonies and Pledges , which are exhibited to us in Scripture , of a Corporeal Resurrection . In the Epistle to the Hebrews , we read of Women who received their Dead raised to life Heb . 11. 35. again , {αβγδ} ( says the original ) by way of Resurrection . She of Sarepta was one ; and the 1 King . 17. 21. Shunamite was another . Dorcas was raised by 2 Kin . 4. 34 , 35. St. Peter ; and Eutychus by St. Paul ; the Youth Act. 9. Acts 20. Luke 7. 14. of Naim by Christ Himself ; who called Lazarus out of his Sepulchre , from a state of Putrefaction , Joh . 11. 43 , 44. as well as Death . These he raised when he was living , but many more when he was Dead ; as St. Matthew tells us . For many Matth 27. 51 , 52 , 53. Graves were then opened , and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose . Yea no sooner was our Lord Risen , than the Dead Bodies so reviving went as far out of their Graves , as the Holy City ; Notum est Illud Thaddaei apud Euseb . Hist . l. 1. {αβγδ} . and there appeared unto many , who were qualified to attest their Death and Burial . These were the Earliest of that later Crop , or that Harvest of men reviv'd , who followed Christ the First-Fruits . For however some of These , in point of Time went before him according to the Flesh , yet they were raised by His power , who was the Lamb slain from the Foundations of the World . Add to this our Saviour's parable in the 16. of St. Luke ; where Dives seeing Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom , ( for so the Jews express't Paradise ) desired the Cooling of his Tongue with Lazarus his Finger . Both inferring the Resurrection of all Men's Bodies ; which a Tongue and a Finger must needs import . So we are bid to fear Him who can cast both Body and Soul into Hell . And if there are Bodies of men in Hell , much more in Heaven ; in as much as the Reward of God's Loyal Subjects , must rather exceed , than fall short , of the Punishments inflicted on his Rebellious ones .

§ . 12. A seventh Argument for the proving a Resurrection of the Body , ( and that without the help of Scripture , or supernatural Revelation , ) may be naturally supply'd from the Immortality of the Soul . For if the Soul and the Body must fare alike , ( which from the Justice of the Almighty 't will not be difficult to evince ; ) then either the Soul ought to be mortal , to fare no better than the Body ; or else the Body must be Immortal , to fare as well as the Soul . The Immortality of a dead Body cannot possibly be effected , but by the means of a Resurrection . The Immortality of the Soul will appear from hence ; that every thing in the World must have a Center . That alone is our Center , which gives a Rest and satisfaction to all our Tendencies , and Desires . And nothing less can give us That ; than an eternal and exceeding weight of Glory . An absolute endlesness of life ; and consummation of Injoyments ; wherein are Pleasures unexpressible for ever more . But no such thing in This World , is to be had , or hoped for ; and therefore such there must be in the World to come . It 's true , the Schoolmen are at odds , what kind of Appetite it is , which all men have to a Summum Bonum ; to a Perfection of Beatitude ; to an Eternity of Happiness , or endless Bliss . Whether such an Appetite is supernatural , or natural ; whether elicit , or innate ; whether potential only , or actual ; Durandus and Scotus going one way ; Paludanus , and Sotus quite another ; ( which yet they take to be the same , ) Cajetan a Third ; Ferrarius a Fourth ; and Vasquez somewhat differs Vasquez in 1. 2dae . Tom . 1. Q. 5. Art. 8. from All before him . But all agree upon the Main ; that all rational Creatures have a Tendency of their Appetites to endless Bliss ; An Abhorrence of Extinction ; and a Desire of Immortality ; as that is ever-more attended with the perfection of Delight . And no Vacuum being allowable , in Grace , or Nature ; 't is plain our Souls cannot be adequate unto the Object of our Desires , unless by being as Immortal , as that is Infinite , and Immense .

§ . 13. But because I put a stress upon the Justice of the Almighty , in saying our Bodies and our Souls are to fare alike ; therefore this our seventh Argument is to be fortified with an eighth . And because Divine Justice is both Vindicative , and Distributive , as it respects its Two Objects , whereof the one is of Punishment , and the other of Reward ; Therefore This my last Topick is to consist of Two Branches ; and I must argue from both apart .

In respect of the former , Abraham took upon him his Confidence to expostulate with his Maker ; tho' in a modest and meek Acknowledgment of his own being but Dust and Ashes . Gen. 18. 23-25 . Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the wicked ? That be far from thee . Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right ? And by a parity of reason , we our selves who are also but Dust and Ashes , may reason the Case with our Creator in fear and reverence . Will not God punish the wicked with the wicked ? Will He be rather an Accepter of any man's Parts , than of his Person ? Shall not the Body be a Partaker , as well in Suffering , as in Sin ? The Flesh is accessary at least to All the Sins that are committed ; and it seems in many of them to be the Principal Malefactor . As when the Flesh lusteth against Gal. 5. 17. the Spirit : and when a Law in the Members does wage a War against a Law in the mind . Rom. 7. 23. There are ( apparently enough ) {αβγδ} , peculiar Sins of the Body ; such as Drunkenness , and Whoredom , which the Devil cannot commit , because of his being All Soul . And {αβγδ} , peculiar sins of the Soul ; such as Envy , and Maliciousness , Pride , and Arrogance , and Ambition , which are the filthiness of the Spirit , as carnal uncleanness is of the Flesh : And these were the sins of the lapsed Angels , which had no Bodies at all ; for they were sinners even in heaven , before they were or could be doom'd to be Devils in Hell . And the Rule in our Law , [ that no legal Process can be made against an Accessary , in case the Principal Offenders cannot be caught or apprehended , because The Principal in the Offence ought to be first in the Inditement , ] does thus far hold in the Court of Heaven ; that the Spirit of a man shall not go solely into Hell , for the Lustings of his Flesh against his Spirit . His mind shall never be tormented to all eternity without his Members , for the Warring of his Members against his mind . The Righteous Judge of all the World will neither punish the Accessary , and let the Principal go free ; Nor suffer the Spirit as a Principal to bear the whole Brunt in the Condemnation , when the Flesh as an Accessary has had its Share in the Transgression . Neither the Flesh nor the Spirit shall suffer singly , for Sins committed by Both conjoyn'd . So that the Bodies of the Impenitent must needs be rais'd out of their Graves , that they may have an equal share in the sad eternity of their Souls . That God may render to every Man , ( who is compounded of Soul and Body , ) according Rom. 2. 6. to his Deeds . That Sinners having Mar. 9. v. 43. to v. 48. Hands and Feet may be cast into Hell . That every one may receive the things done in his Body , 2 Cor . 5. 10. where 't is observable how much the Greek is more emphatical than the English . Our English Bibles do only read , [ that every one may receive the Things done in his Body , ] as if the Soul only had done them , and the Body had been the Work-house wherein she acted . But the original says better , {αβγδ} , that every one may receive , or carry away as his Reward ( for That is imported by {αβγδ} ) the Things done by his Body , as by a very special Instrument , and cause of working ; Not a meer Work-house , or Shop to work in . Yea there are not only Manuscripts , but Printed Copies , ( and particularly that of Se the most Learned Dr. Hammond , on 2 Cor . 5. 10. the Complutenses , ) which have in stead of {αβγδ} , that is to say , the peculiar and proper things of the Body ; as when the Body is the Principal , not a meer Accessary in Sin . And Thus a Bodily Resurrection may be inferred from the former , the Almighty's Corrective , or Vindicative Justice , to whom alone Vengeance of right belongs .

In respect of the Later , his Justice Distributive , as he is {αβγδ} , a Rewarder ( by way of eminence ) of them who diligently seek him , we are not only to argue His raising up our Vile Bodies , But his advancing them to the Better ; from the state of their Vileness to that of Glory . For shall not the Judge of all the world do what is equitable , and Right ? Is it not equitable and Right , ( in regard of That Covenant which God in Christ has made with us , ) that every one of our Bodies should have its Part in the Wages , as well as in the Work of our Master Christ ? Shall the Body of St. Peter be shamefully Crucified in This world , and shall it not be glorified in That to come ? Shall the Bodies of other Martyrs who were condemned to the Grid-iron , be made to shine no whit the brighter for being burnt ? when we crucifie our selves by a Mortification of our Affections , whether with Watching , or Fasting , or other Austerities of Life , what is it but the Body which is deprived of its Delights ? for we know the Pale Cheek , and the Hollow Eye , the akeing Head , and the shirt of Sackcloth , are things too gross , and too passive , to touch the Soul ; unless it be by her Partnership in the Concernments of the Body . And shall our Bodies be rewarded for all their Watchings , with nothing more than an endless sleep ? or be imprison'd within the Grave , as a Recompence sufficient for all their Bonds ? Shall the Absence only of Pain become the uttermost Amends for their loss of Pleasure ? It cannot be . For God is swift to shew Mercy , and slow to wrath : Nor is He said to be a God ready to punish , but a God ready to pardon , Nehem . 9. 17. His Punishments are commonly below our Merits , whereas his Rewards are still above them . When 't is said by the Psalmist of those two Attributes , God's Mercy , and his Justice , that the one reacheth unto the Heavens , and the other unto the Clouds ; Tho' 't is not meant that one Attribute is more extensive than the other , ( for Both being Infinite , must needs be equal ; ) yet it implies He 's more delighted in exhibiting the one , than in executing the other . And All I argue from it is This , that if the Bodies of the Impenitent shall be raised up in Justice , to be cast into Hell ; much more will God in Mercy , raise up the Bodies of the Repentant , to the end they may receive their Reward in Heaven . 't is true He is ( what he is call'd ) A Consuming Fire . 't is true , that Vengeance is His , and He will repay it ; enough to keep us ( one would think ) from Carnal Security , and Presumption . But 't is as true , that to defend us from too much Dejection , and Despair , He sets Himself out in the most winning , and most exhilarating Expressions to be imagin'd : As the Father of Mercies , the God of All Consolation , the Lord God that Healeth us , the Saviour and Deliverer in whom we Trust ; In a word , the Rewarder of such as diligently seek him . This is the Office He delights in ; He loves to be laying up Crowns of Righteousness ; He loves to be saying , Well done good and faithful Servants , enter you into the Joy of your Lord ; and so by a consequence unavoidable , He loves to change our Vile Body , that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body , according to the mighty [ Irresistible ] working , whereby he is able to Subdue All things unto Himself .

§ . 14. And this would lead me ( if I had Time , or if 't were useful to be tedious , which I think can never be , ) from the Change we hope for , to the Author of it . From the Action to the Agent , briefly imply'd in the Pronoun Who , the first syllable of the Text ; and expressed to us at large in the next words going before . But that being reserved for another Exercise of your Patience , I shall conclude and dismiss the present Subject of my Discourse , with indeed a very short , but yet a very sufficient Use , and Application of the whole . This I shall ground in a Reflection on what I said in the Beginning ; that Men as Men shall have a Change of their Moulder'd Bodies , But not a change unto the better . Every Body shall be rais'd by the Power of Christ , as of a Judge ; But every Body shall not be rais'd by the Love of Christ , as of a Saviour . Many Bodies shall so be raised , as ardently to wish they had never risen . They will be found to be so vile , by being polluted with Impenitence , and obduration , as not to be capable of the Change which now we speak of . And therefore They will long to have the Mountains fall on them ; and will intreat the Hills to cover them ; to hide them from the Face of Him that sitteth upon the Throne , and from the wrath of the Lamb . Now to the end we may escape such a deplorable Resurrection , as well as attain unto a better ; we must consider that Jesus Christ is but Conditionally a Saviour , who will change our Vile body , and fashion it like unto his Glorious Body , Not by a peremptory Volition to make us happy , let our Life and Conversation be what it will : He will not do it so irresistibly , as in spite of our selves , and our own Impenitence , and even whether we will or no ; But he will do it irresistibly with this proviso , that we prepare our selves for it , and begin the Great work of our last Change whilst we are here . ( as for example . ) He whose Body is made Vile , either by Drunkenness , or Swearing , by Fornication , or Adultery , by Rebellion , or Sacrilege , by Hypocrisie , or Fraud , or any other the like uncleanness , ( whether carnal , or spiritual , ) must not stay for his change until the general Resurrection ; but Presently change his Vile body , ( from this very instant wherein I speak , ) and make it like the Queen's Daughter , all glorious within ; by eminent Temperance , and Sobriety ; by inoffensive Communication ; by words which are edifying , and useful , and ministring Grace unto the Hearers ; by chast and exemplary Converse ; by regular , and honest , and upright Dealing .

§ . 15. Which change of Body cannot begin , but by a change of Soul first . For as the Lines in any Body of any figure in Geometry , do not naturally flow from the Perimeter to the Center ; but from the Center to the Perimeter ; so the Thoughts of our Hearts come not first from our Actions ; but our Actions are first derived from the Thoughts of our Hearts . And by consequence our Thoughts must be bestow'd from hence forwards , upon Objects more heavenly , and more divine than heretofore . We must be at Enmity with the World , whose favour and friendship for the time past we may have coveted and courted with too much zeal : and we must settle our Affections on Things above . We must be all of such changed and transfigured Minds , as to love the good things we have at any time loath'd ; and so as to loath the ill things we have ever lov'd . This is properly {αβγδ} , to change our Minds , in the Gospel-Notion of Repentance ; which of all words in Scripture is best express't by {αβγδ} , says the Baptist , Repent , or change your minds , for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand . {αβγδ} , ( says our Saviour ) Repent , or change your minds , and believe the Gospel . {αβγδ} , says St. Peter , Repent , or change your minds , that your Sins may be blotted out . If any man is in Christ ( says St. Paul to his Corinthians ) he is a new Creature : That is to say , he has changed his 2 Cor . 5. 17. mind . Old things ( says he again ) are passed away , and behold all things are become new . ( v. 18. ) Here 's a change , with a witness , of every man and woman who is in Christ : And in Christ we must be , before our Bodies can be glorified ; or so much as be rid of their present Vileness . Our state of Glory must be founded in one of Grace . The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is not only a sign , but a means of Grace . We do not only receive it , as a token that we have some ; but also to the end we may abound more and more . What we call a Communion commonly , is indeed a Communication ( as the word {αβγδ} does most significantly import , ) of the 1 Cor . 10. 16. Body and Blood of Christ , with all the Benefits of his Passion . It is not only an Index , but also an Instrument of Conveyance . It helps to change our vile body , through the Vertue which it derives from the body of Christ . It is not only a Seal of our Christian Faith ; But also an Earnest and a Pledge of our Resurrection . If we approach the Lord's Supper , with a Serious Repentance of all our Sins ; with a particular Repentance of all we know , or can remember ; and with a general Repentance of all we know not , or have forgotten ; ( for when we have repented the most we can , we must be fain to cry out with the holy Psalmist , O cleanse thou us from our Secret Sins ; ) with love and charity to our Neighbours , ( as well our Enemies as our Friends ; ) and with unfeigned Resolutions of Better life ; ( which must consist in fearing God , and in keeping his Commandments ; ) If I say we thus approach , and thus receive the Lord's Supper ; He will so spiritually feed us with his Crucified Body , as to crucifie in us also the body of Sin . And having removed so great a Weight , as would otherwise press us down to the lowest Hell ; He will transform us into Citizens , and Saints of Heaven .

Where with Angels , and Arch-Angels , and all the Hierarchy of Heaven , we shall spend our whole Time ( I should rather have said our Whole Eternity ) in singing Hosannahs and Hallelujahs ; Blessing , Glory , Honour , and Power , to Him that liveth for evermore .

CHAP. III .

§ . 1. HAving discoursed in the first Chapter , of the Change which was made in the Body of Christ ; I proceeded in the second , from our Lord's Body , unto our own ; thereby to shew the great Advantage , which the Change of his Body shall make in ours . A Change which I proved by many such Arguments and perswasives , as I did hope would All suffice for Fortifications of our Belief .

It now remains that I advance , from The Change we hope for , to the Author of it : from the Action , to the Agent , briefly imply'd in the Pronoun Who , the first syllable of the Text ; and expressed to us at large in the next words going before : {αβγδ} , our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ . If the eight Arguments going before have not won our Assent , we have a Ninth still behind which will compel it . Our greatest Assurance of the Action is from the Condition of the Agent ; who being {αβγδ} The Lord , si therefore Able to do the work ; and being {αβγδ} The Saviour , is therefore Willing . His being the Christ , speaks his Power ; His being the Jesus , his Propensity . Tho' Christ does signific a Lord , and Jesus a Saviour ; yet without fear of a Tautology , St. Paul expresseth the Agent's Nature , by All Four Names ; our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ . 't is He shall change our Vile Body ; 't is He shall make it like to his Glorious Body .

't is He shall do it in Three Respects . First , He , as he is God . Secondly , He , as he is Man . Thirdly , He , as Mediator 'twixt God and Man . He , in respect of his Divine ; and He , in respect of his Humane Nature ; and He , in respect of his Single Person , into which his two Natures are Both united . As he is God , we have his Power ; as he is Man , his propensity ; as God and Man in one person , his peculiarity to the work . He is , as God , the Efficient Cause of our Resurrection ; as Man , the Exemplary ; as Both united , the Meritorious . And thus we have the subdivision of the first syllable in the Text , the Pronoun who . So that now I am to argue , from the Three-fold Capacity of the Agent ; both that he can , and that he will , and that 't is fit he should raise up our mouldered Bodies . The first as God ; the next as Man ; the third as Mediator . After which when I shall prove , not only that it may , but must be Thus , by vertue of an Obligation which he in mercy hath been pleased to lay most strictly upon himself ; I shall ( I think ) have done the All which Flesh and Blood can desire , in order to our having a full Assurance .

§ . 2. First to consider him as God , is ipso facto , to stop the Mouth of all our Diffidences , and Doubts . For that God ( who was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ) hath obliged himself by promise , to be the Author of our last and our greatest Change ; and that the Thing which he hath promis'd , He can perform and bring to pass ; cannot but satisfie us more ( if we have any Christian Faith ) than a Thousand Reasons . When God was about to promise Abraham , that He would make him the Father of many Nations , and that Kings should come out of him ; He prepared Abraham's Faith with this Expression of Himself , I am the Allmighty Gen. 17. 1. God . Where the word Almighty does carry a world of weight with it ; enough to dissipate the Doubts of the weakest Didymus . So when Sarah could not believe that she should bring forth a Son , being already as good as Dead , ( both old , and barren ; ) The Angel upbraided her Incredulity , by putting her in mind of God's Omnipotence : Is any thing too hard for the Lord ? Gen. 18. 14. where 't is observable , how he answers one Question with Another . Sarah laughed within her self ; shall I have pleasure now I am old , my Lord being old also ? But why ( saith the Angel ) did Sarah laugh ? and laughing , ask such a Question ? Is there any thing in the world too hard for God ? hath he not promis'd ? and is he not able to make it good ? Dares Sarah measure his Power , by the pitiful narrow limits of Her Conception ? Let it suffice that he is God ; and that by being God , he must needs be True . Let it suffice that being God , he must needs be Almighty , as well as True . Let it suffice that he has said it , who can do above all we can ask or think . So the Angel thought fit to argue ; and so must we . If we find our selves doubting the Resurrection of the Flesh ; and as loth to have our Bodies again committed to the Dust , as if we thought they should never Rise ; we must encounter our own Distrusts , just as the Angel encounter'd Sarah's : And reason thus within our selves , Can any change of our Bodies be too difficult for the Almighty ? Or can he who is Almighty , be any other than All-sufficient ? Cannot he call us out of the Earth , who call'd the Earth out of Nothing ? What was Sarah in her old Age , but a Clod of unfruitful and barren Earth ? a great deal fitter to bury Isaac , than either to breed him , or bring him forth . From whence 't is obvious thus to argue . If God was able of such a Stone , to raise up Children unto Abraham ; He is as able out of the Earth to raise up Abraham unto Himself . Abraham ( says the Text ) was as good as Dead , ( {αβγδ} , flatly Dead as to the office of Generation ; in this particular respect , he was as dead as the Dirt he trod on , ) when yet an Issue sprang from him , as numerous as the Stars . Heb . 11. 12. And thence it was he did not scruple , to offer up his Dear Isaac at God's Command ; because he knew that God was able to raise him up from the Dead . ( Vers . 19. ) yes he knew it by experience ; as having received him from the Dead . ( v. 12. & 19. ) From whence it follows unavoidably ; that Abraham's Resurrection is no whit stranger than Isaac's Birth ; because in the first is nothing more than a Miracle ; and in the second nothing less . For let us go on to make Demands , in imitation of the Angel . Cannot he who makes the Phoenix to flourish out of her own Funerals , and bids the Tulip spring forth from the noysomest Dunghill , put such a Spirit into our Ashes , as shall be able both to unite , and refine them too ? Not only Raise our vile Bodies ; but Change them also as they are rising ? Cannot he who has ordain'd , that Clouds shall rise out of the Ocean , And falling down into the Rivers , shall return into the Ocean from whence they Rose , command our Souls to reinspirit our Moulder'd Bodies ? Cannot He who could do every thing in the five last Chapters of Job , do This one thing in the Third Chapter to the Philippians ? Methinks that Enoch's Translation , and Elias his mounting up in a fiery Chariot , and the wonderful Reflorescence of Aaron's dead Rod , yea every Tree dying in Winter , and living again the next Spring , should be sufficient to convince us of God's Ability even with Ease , to raise again our dead Bodies ; and that with a greater force of reason , than this last Instance ; For we have a great Accompt to give ; whereas Aaron's dead Rod and the Trees have None . He who buries each Day in the shadow of Death , ( for such is the darkness of the Night , ) and again does convert the shadow of Death into the Morning , is the very same He , who turneth Man to destruction ; and saith , Come again ye children of Psal . 90. 3. Men .

§ . 3. But let us argue from this Topick of Christ as God , a little more fully , and by degrees . First as God he is omniscient , and therefore knows where to find us ; whether drown'd , or burnt , or deeply Hid within the Earth , or else hung up in the Empty Air , as Malefactors and Martyrs are wont to be . Although our Bodies are made a Prey to the Crows and Harpyes , and being crumbled into Dust , are scatter'd abroad by the four Winds ; yet he who is Psal . 139. 6. every where according to his Essence , and cannot choose but see every thing according to his Omniscience , does keep a Register of our Ashes ; as well as of our Actions , and idle words . If the hairs of our head are number'd by him , ( as our Saviour tells us they are , Matt . 10. 13. ) he cannot sure but keep account of the several noble parts of the Head it self . If the Tears of God's Servants are said to be put into his Bottle ; sure the members of our Bodies must needs be recorded in his Book . And for this we have Scripture , as well as Reason . For as one Prophet says , He has a Book of Remembrance ; so Mal . 3. 16. Another does assure us , That all our Members are written in it . That we have from Malachi ; Psal . 139. 16. and This from David .

§ . 4. Again , as God is Omniscient , and Omnipresent , whereby to know and to find out our Scattered Atomes ; and find them out without seeking ; so is he equally Omnipotent , and All-sufficient ; whereby to rally them all up into Rank and File , in excellent unity , and order . That Almighty one , who is able to subdue all things unto Himself , ( in the next words after my Text , ) can kill Destruction ; can bury Death in a Regress , of parts deprived , to former Habits ; can lead Captivity it self a Captive . And here perhaps I may fitly note , ( before I argue any farther from this Topick , ) that setting aside God's Omnipotence for a Time ; Some would make the Resurrection a kind of Natural Change ; supposing an Aptitude in the Body , to be re-united unto the Soul ; and an Appetite in the Soul , to be re-married unto the Body . As if having formerly been acquainted by long and intimate Converse there were in Both a Disposition to meet again in one Person . And truly the reason of the Conceipt does not want its Plausibility . For besides that the Soul may find its way back into the Body with greater ease , by being much more Intelligent from after the Time of her Separation ; we know the Matter and the Form being taken asunder , cannot add to the Completion of Common Nature ; as they do being united into the dignity of a Person : because the End of their Being is to be mutually helpful by their conjunction ; and assisting to the Universe of order'd Bodies , by adding a prop to its Perfection . Others had an opinion , that after a notable Revolution of 49000 years , Every Creature shall return into That very State , wherein it was in its beginning . So that , according to This Hypothesis , ( when that Platonick Year is come , which is called by the Platonists , Annus Magnus , ) I again shall be speaking These very words ; and you again shall be attending in Those very Places you now are in . Which , however but a Conceit , and the meer child of Imagination , does shew in the Heathens a Disposition to the Christian's Belief of a Resurrection : and that All shall grow Young , by being buried in reality ; as Aeson did by being boyl'd in the Poet's Bath .

§ . 5. But notwithstanding , in respect of the two Essential Parts to be Re-united , the Restauration of our Persons may seem agreeable to Nature ; yet we cannot find out a Principle , from whence This union may be effected , unless we return to the point we left ; and with the strangeness of the work , compare the omnipotence of the Author . For then 't is the fitter to be believ'd , the harder 't is to be comprehended . It being natural to our Faith , ( if truly Christian , and divine , ) to be the Evidence of things Not seen . Else there would not be such Heb . 11. 1. a difference , as 't is evident there is , betwixt Philosophy , or Science , and True Religion . God is omnipotent as to All things , which are not evil ; and do not imply a Contradiction . But a change of our Vile Bodies from a very much worse to a better state , is so far from being evil ; that 't is excellently Good : and so far from implying a Contradiction , that 't is naturally convenient ; ( for several reasons already given ; ) yea 't is morally Necessary , ( as hath already been made apparent , ) and supernaturally easie ; altho' Miraculous . For Miracles are Natural , to him who is above Nature . And all our human Impossibilities are reconcileable with Facility ; to him at whose will and pleasure they owe obedience . Therefore change us he can , who is Omnipotent ; and Jesus Christ is Omnipotent , in regard of his Divinity . 't is He shall change our Vile Body . 't is He shall do it as he is God , the first Capacity of the three I lately mention'd .

§ . 6. Next consider him as he is Man ; and so we have his Propensity to this great work , which to the act of our Changing , is just as requisite as his Power . For 't is one thing to be able to do this or that ; and quite Another to be willing : It is as weak arguing à potentiâ ad actum , as 't is good and true Logick , to argue ab Actu ad Potentiam . Tho' God can create a Thousand worlds , besides This ; it does not follow , that he will : And so from Christ as he is God , we can only evince that we may be chang'd ; whereas from Christ as he is Man too , we prove we shall be . We are taught by his God-head , not to doubt of the Possibility ; But the Conjunction of his Manhood gives us assurance of the Act. As God , He is easily the Efficient , if He sees fit ; But as Man , He saw it fit to be the Exemplary Cause of our Resurrection . For as Man , he was touched with a feeling Heb . 4. 15. of our Infirmities . As Man , he was qualified to be made like unto his Brethren ; and in that He himself hath suffer'd being tempted , he is willing , as well as able , to succour Them that are Heb . 2. 17 , 18. tempted . As man he dyed , and rose again ; that being lifted up , He might Joh . 12. 32. draw us up after him ; and become the First-fruits of them that slept . As God indeed he had an Active ; but as Man , a passive Power : And so he proved by an Example , that our Bodies can be raised ; as well as by his God-head , that he can raise them . 't is no Diminution to his Omnipotence , that He Himself cannot do , what cannot possibly be done . And therefore to shew us a passive power which lies in our Bodies , of being rais'd , by raising up his own Body , whose Nature was the same with ours ; must needs facilitate our Faith of a Resurrection . There is a passage in St. John of great remark on this occasion ; where 't is said by our Lord Himself , the power of executing Judgment is given by the Father to the Son ; because he is the Son of Man . ( Joh . 5. 27. ) And at the hearing of his voice , ( as the Son of Man , ) the Dead shall come forth out of their Graves . ( v. 28 , 29. ) And indeed there was a fitness , that what we lost by the First Adam , we should recover by the Second : That as in Adam all dyed , so All in Adam too ( the second Adam I mean ) should be made alive . That as by man came Death , so by man might come the Resurrection of the Dead . 1 Cor . 15. 21.

§ . 7. Having thus argued from the Agent , implyed by the word who , in two respects , to wit of his divine , and his humane Nature ; I am to argue in the third place , from his whole individual Person ; into which his two Natures are Both united . For if we consider our Blessed Saviour in Both Capacities Conjoyn'd ; and as a fit Mediator 'twixt God and Man ; we shall find , in conjunction with his Power , and Propensity , his more especial propriety and peculiarity to the work of our Resurrection . For as he is such , he is our Head ; and 't is natural for the Head , to consult and procure the Conservation of the Members . Indeed the Members can never perish , whilst their Head is alive ; because of the Intercourse and Amity which is reciprocated between them . 't is true , if the Head be under water , a man must inevitably be drown'd , tho' all his Body should be above it : But how can a Man be ever drown'd , so long as his Head is above the Water ? After the very same manner ; if Jesus Christ , who is our Head , had suffer'd his Body in the Grave to see Corruption ; and had left it quite behind him when he ascended into Heaven ; Death would have triumph'd over our Bodies ; Nor could we have said without shame , O Grave , where is thy Victory ? But now let our Bodies lye never so low in the cold Bosom of the Earth ; we cannot possibly be lost , whilst Christ our Head is above the Heavens . That things may live whilst they are buried , we are able to demonstrate by Worms , and Fishes , which live the better by being buried . Yea there are several living Creatures , which , unless they be buried , can never live . And whilst our Head is out of the Earth ; our Grave can be no more , than a Bed of Rest . Sleep there may be , but not Destruction . ( for Then to dye , were to perish , ) Nor can the lastingness of our Sleep make it cease to be sleep , so long as it is not everlasting . The Death of Beasts is Destruction , because their Souls are as material , and so as mortal as their Bodies ; and because they are not accountable for Vice , or Vertue . But in Christians as Christians , and Men as Men , whose Souls are immaterial , and so immortal , and who have a future account to give of what is done in the Body ; what greater difference can there be , betwixt the short Death of Sleep , and the long sleep of Death , than what is meerly numerical betwixt two Brothers ? whereof the one is of a nobler , and longer Duration than the other ? if Sleep is good in it self , It cannot possibly be the worse for being durable ; and uniterrupted with an Awake , until the general Resurrection . Duration and Quietness do rather add to the Value of it . Were Glass as durable as Silver , it would perhaps be as precious too . 't is fitly said of St. Stephen , not that he dyed , but fell asleep , Act. 7. 60. And as Sleep is refreshing , not only harmless unto our Bodies ; so when the Trumpet shall sound its last Alarm , we shall awake out of our Graves , like so many Giants refreshed with Wine , ( as the Psalmist speaks ; ) and good Reason too . For Jesus Christ as Mediator has highly merited our Rising ; tho' we have not . He having perfected on his Cross , the Redemption of our Bodies , as well as Souls . Tho' we deserve not at all to be united unto our Head ; yet our Head deserves richly , to be united unto his Members . He arose for Our Rising ; not for his own . Alas , Blessed Saviour ! it had been much better for Him , to have left his Body in the Grave , and that for ever ; were it not that He was to raise it , to become the First-fruits of them that slept . The Hypostatical Union being a Dignity , not to His , but our Nature . For Him to be cloathed with Flesh and Blood , would be at least a Disparagement , tho' not a Detriment to his God-head ; were it not that he is Joh . 12. 23-28 . glorified by our Salvation . But having once assumed our humane Nature , ( becoming flesh of our flesh , and bone of our bone ; ) he will as naturally attract our Bodies unto his own , as a Load stone draws the Atomes of Steel or Iron , however lost and unseen in an Heap of Ashes . The Reason given is from a Sympathy between those Minerals : And a Sympathy still ariseth from a mutual Participation of the very same Spirit . Now that Jesus Christ our Head does sympathize with his Members , the Scripture tells us most expresly , Heb . 4. 15. {αβγδ} , is the word there us'd to express it by . And that his Members do partake of the very same Spirit , is very sufficiently imply'd by that of St. Paul unto the Romans , If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in us , He who raised up Jesus from the Dead , shall also quicken our Mortal Bodies . ( Rom. 8. 11. )

§ . 8. Being now satisfied of the Agent , as God , and Man , and Mediator ; both that he can , and that he will , and that 't is fit he should raise up our Moulder'd Bodies ; There is but one thing more remaining which Flesh and Blood can desire , whereby to establish a full Assurance ; to wit an Absolute Necessity , not only that it may be , but over and above that so it must be . And that the freest of all Agents hath been pleas'd to put himself under an Absolute Necessity , may appear even from hence ; that he hath given us such a Promise , as makes the thing promised to become a due Debt . For He hath enter'd into a Covenant ; and put himself under an Obligation . He hath set his Seal to it , even the blood of the new Testament . He hath committed it to writing ; and that in two distinct Testaments ; the Old , and New . It is recorded in the Old by two Authentick and publick Notaries , Isaiah , and Daniel ; first by Isaiah ; Thy Dead men shall live , together with my dead Isa . 26. 19. body shall they arise ; awake , and sing ye that dwell in Dust . Next by Daniel ; They that sleep Dan . 12. 2. in the Dust of the Earth shall awake ; some to everlasting life ; some to shame , and everlasting Confusion . Thus by Writing in the old Testament ; and thus in the New by word of Mouth . For from our Saviour's own Mouth These words were taken ; All that are in the Graves Joh . 5. 29. shall hear his Voice , and come forth : And this is recorded by St. John , an authentick Notary of Heaven . Now because it is impossible for God to lye ; therefore his giving us a Promise , is the binding of himself to a full Performance . For if the Promise is absolute , it must be absolutely performed . And if conditional , it must as certainly be performed upon the performance of the Conditions on which the promise was made ; as if it were made without condition . And seeing it was his good pleasure , to put himself under an Obligation ; He not only may , but must discharge it . {αβγδ} , we expect it . We seize on Bliss by a Prolepsis . We take it for granted . Our Eyes and Hearts are set upon it . I will not say in this sense , what was said by our Saviour in quite another , The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence , and the Violent take Matth . 11. 10. it by force ; but this I will say , without immodesty , or scruple ; that through Faith which is the Substance of things hoped for , our Dependances and Hopes take hold of Heaven . {αβγδ} , from whence we look for the Saviour , the Lord Jesus Christ , who shall change our Vile Body , that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body .

§ . 9. And so I pass from the Agent to consider of the Subject on which he acts : to consider it ( I say ) not simply in it self , but in conjunction with its two Terms ; à quo , and ad quem , from which , and to which , our Body is to be changed . The Term from which , is a state of Vileness ; the Term to which , is a state of Glory . We have them Both expressed plainly in the two clauses of the Text ; He shall change our vile Body , there 's the first : and fashion it like to his Glorious Body ; there 's the second . And first let us consider it in its Nadir ( as I may say , ) or its Hypogeum ; in the state of its vileness , or Humiliation : that our deep consideration of what it is , may make us piously Ambitious of what it shall be .

§ . 10. Our Body is Vile , and Contemptible , in Six respects . First in respect of its Original ; For it was taken out of the Ground : and so was Gen. 3. 19. the Daughter of the same Dirt , into which was first breathed the Breath of life . Those walls Gen. 2. 7. of Mudd which keep up our Cottages and our Barns , are exceedingly near of kin to the most delicate of our Bodies : they being descended of the same Parent ; tho' not indued with the same Power . The Dust we shake from off our Feet with the greatest scorn , may justly flie into our Faces ; and plead equality of Extraction with All that scorns it . 't is true indeed we have a Treasure ; But we have it ( saith our Apostle ) in Earthen Vessels . Which Earthen Vessels are derived 2 Cor . 4. 8. from no higher Principle ; ( that is ) They are made of no better stuff , than the Pitchers which are design'd for the most despicable Employments . Tho' in regard of our Immodesty our Foreheads may be of Brass ; and tho' our Hearts may be of Iron , in regard of our Obduration ; and tho' in regard of our Inhumanity , our Bowels may be of steel ; yet in regard of our Original , our Feet ( like Dagon's ) are of Clay : and , like Dagon , they are as liable to fall in pieces . The Top of our Building is but Rottenness ; and our Foundation is in the Dust . We may fitly sit down with Job , on the noysom Dunghill ; and say to Corruption , Thou art our Father ; to the Worm , thou art our Mother ; to Putrefaction , Job 17. 14. thou art our Sister ; and to the Mire , thou art our Niece .

§ . 11. Next , the Body of Man is vile , in respect of the means of its Derivation : as being polluted in its Birth , and Conception too . It has a certain degree of Vileness , which cannot lawfully be express't , unless it be by a Concealment ; ( as Sem went backwards , and cast a Mantle upon his Father ; ) for even This is a kind of Expression too ; because the modesty of our Silence imports the Vileness to be so great , that 't is shameful to discover how great it is . 't is but agreeable then to reason , that we should All be born weeping ; and not arrive without Crying , at a Valley of Tears ; for that our Souls are embarqu'd in so vile a Bottom , in so turbulent a Vessel , as makes our life to be subjected to Storms and Tempests : Which yet would not be , were it not that our Souls have such a confinement unto our Bodies . For we are born to such Troubles of Storm and Tempest , ( even as naturally says Job ) as the sparks fly upwards ; and were it not for the Body , we could no more be born , than see Corruption . In which respect also it is a Vile Body .

§ . 12. Again , the Body of Man is Vile , in respect of its Duration ; which is exceedingly uncertain , as well as short . Short it is even by Nature ; for as soon as we are Born , we presently draw towards our End. And how many ways are there , whereby to frustrate the Intentions and Ends of Nature ? How many are there in the World whose very Alpha is their Omega ? How many who have their Exit , before their Entrance into the Theatre ? who are not born till after their Burial , in the Sepulchre of the Womb wherein they draw their first Breath ? How many come into the world , ( as Cato did into the Theatre , ) as 't were on purpose to go out of it ? And even to us , who live longest , ( as weary of the world , as the world of us , ) the term of life is so uncertain ; that our Souls have not a Lease , but are Tenants at Will unto our Bodies ; Apt to be turn'd out of their Tenements , at very little or no warning : even at what hour soever our Landlord pleaseth . A Term so secret , and so uncertain , that tho' we know it to be short , and to fade away suddenly like the Grass , ( as the Psalmist speaks , ) yet we know not how short it is . For hence we pray that God will teach us how to number our days ; that he will certifie and inform us , how much or how little we have to live . Hence it is we pray Psa . 90. 3. & 12. so often , ( by the Appointment of our Church , ) against sudden Death : that so we may feel our selves dying , and not be taken by a Surprize : and that at what time soever our Judge shall serve us with an Arrest , he may find us well provided and duly preparing to receive him ; that he may find us upon our knees ; in the Exercise of our Faith , and the Act of Prayer . And is not That a Vile Body , which makes us liable to an uncertain and sudden Death ?

§ . 13. Fourthly , 't is a Vile Body , in respect of the Diseases ; ( to wit the Anguish of some , and the loathsomness of others , ) which are naturally born and bred within ●s . For ( not to insist on such Diseases as are the Meazles , and the Pox , Erysipelas's and Oedema's , Carbuncles and Cancers , Biles and putrefying Sores , ) There is not an Artery , or a Vein , which is not a room in Nature's Work-house , ( {αβγδ} was Plato's word for it , ) wherein our Humours ( like so many Cyclopses ) are forgeing Instruments of Mortality ; Such Instruments of Mortality , as every moment of our lives are able to carry us into our Graves . An ordinary Apoplexy , or Epilepsie , a little Impostume in the Brain , or but a Rising of the Lights , ( which is as sudden , and as surprising , as either of them , ) is as sufficient as a Blunderbuss , to kill a Man of sound Health ; and to lodge him ex tempore in Heaven , or Hell , even before he has the leisure to cry for Mercy . And is not That a Vile Body , which makes a Man obnoxious to All the Miseries upon Earth , and at last , without Warning , sends him possibly to Hell ?

§ . 14. Fifthly , 't is a Vile Body , in respect of its Dissolution ; wherein 't is so much more noisom than other Bodies , that it confessedly stands in need of a deeper Burial . For tho' 't is said , a Live Dog is better than a Dead Lion ; yet the Body of such a Lion , and most other Bodies of other Beasts , are good for something when they are slain ; and accordingly yield Mony , alive , or dead . Whereas the Dead Body of man is nothing but Rottenness and Stench ; fitly kept under Ground , for fear the Air should be infected , and so become unsafe to breath in . The Worms indeed will feed sweetly on it , ( Job 24. 20. ) But hardly any thing else will indure to touch it . And is not That a Vile Body , but for which we could not dye , much less be subject to putrefaction ? Yes , but we are not yet arriv'd at the utmost Degree of the Body's Vileness . For in the five respects aforesaid , the Body of Man is not simply , but comparatively Vile . And so is Heaven , which is God's Throne , in case we compare it with God Himself . The Stars of the Firmament are not Pure in His sight : In which 't is Isa . 6. 2. said the Flaming Seraphim did cover their Faces , and their Feet ; The first importing their fear to see him , the second their shame to be so much as seen by him . Both expressing , by an Hebraism , the Absolute Glory of the Creator , and a Comparative kind of Vileness in all his Creatures . And therefore notwithstanding what I have hitherto said against it , the Body of Man is no otherwise , than comparatively Vile ; It is not absolutely so , because it is of God's making . For God saw every thing that he had Gen. 1. 31. made , and behold it was very Good . But nothing is absolutely Vile , which is very good . From whence it hitherto follows , that our English Translation is too severe for the Original . It being There , {αβγδ} , not our Vile Body , but the Body of our Humility , or rather of our Humiliation . And therefore ,

§ . 15. Sixthly , as well to justifie our English Translation , as to convince the Body of Man of its Real Vileness ; we must consider it as it is sullied with the leprosie of Sin . For That is it which makes it filthier than filthy Rags ; It 's being put unto the vilest and filthiest Uses . Our Body indeed is extreamly Vile , not as God , but as We have made it . As made by God , it is a Temple , or House of Prayer ; We are They who have made it a Den of Thieves ; A Cage of unclean and filthy Birds ; ( I mean ) of dishonourable and vile Affections . What said St. Paul to the Corinthians ? Know ye not that your Bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost ? 't is true , the Body is a Temple , as to its primitive Designation ; But so much of it is now imploy'd in making Provision for the Flesh , ( to fulfil the lusts thereof , ) that there is hardly room left for any Sacrifice ; excepting That only , which is still offer'd unto the Belly . By too much eating , we pervert this primitive Temple into a Kitchen ; by too much drinking , into a Cellar ; by too much of Both into a Sink ; by too much Pride , 't is made a Theatre of Vanity ; and by an excess of Sensuality ; a very Charnel-house of Lust . In a word , the Devil himself does never lay siege unto the Soul ; He could not out-wit or over-reach us , did he not plough with our Heifer ; And did he not fight with our weapons , He could not hurt us . So that the Members of our Bodies are truly Vile , in being yielded up as Instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin : the word is {αβγδ} , not so properly the Instruments , as the Weapons of unrighteousness . Rom. 6. 13. And this alone was the Vileness , to which the Body of our Saviour could not possibly be obnoxious . He could hunger , and thirst , and weep , and bleed , and faint , and dye , and suffer all our Infirmities , This one excepted . This alone was that Vileness , for which St. Paul did beat , and buffet , and bring his Body into Subjection . This alone was that Vileness , by which the Body of the rich Glutton , however cloath'd in fine linnen , as well as Purple , became incomparably fouler than that of Lazarus ; however apparel'd in noysom Sores . In that Parable of our Saviour , the Body of Lazarus , full of Sores , was clean enough to be carried by the Angels of God into Abraham's Bosom ; which yet was utterly inaccessible to that of Dives . The reason of which is very obvious . For no man living can be really ( that is morally ) defiled , by what is cast upon the Body ; nor by what is put into it . But Those things ( saith our Lord ) which proceed out of the mouth , and come forth from the Heart , Those are the things which defile a man : Matt . 15. 18. For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts , Murders , Adulteries , Fornications , Thefts , False-witness , Blasphemies : And such as These are the Things , by which the Body is made Vile . ( v. 19. & 20. ) If Poverty in France may be called by a Proverb a kind of Leprosie , because it is as much shun'd , as any Leprosie is , or can be ; how much better may we say it touching the Leprosie of Sin ? which , tho' it is not , yet it ought to be , much more loathed . And wherewith if any Brother shall be infected even to Scandal , we may not sit with him at Meals ; 1 Cor . 5. 11. nor so much as keep him company ; no nor bid him God speed , 2 Thess. 3. 14. And such was the Psalmist's Resolution ; I will not sit with vain Persons ; I will not have Fellowship with the ungodly . He that telleth Lies shall not tarry in my Sight . For as the great Sin of Scandal is like a Pest , so the Scandalous Sinner is like a Pest-house ; not to be touch't with a pair of Tongs ; and hardly to be seen without an Amulet . He who is of a poor and a contrite Spirit , whose Religion does not stand in a form of Godliness without the Power , who Visits the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction , and keeps himself unspotted from the World , has the cleanest , and the purest , and so the beautifull'st Body to be imagin'd . Whereas the Body of the most delicate Corinthian Harlot ( such as was the famous Lais , ) how lovely soever it may appear to a carnal Eye , is nothing better than a putrid , tho' painted Sepulchre . That it appears to be so beautiful , is but a Deception of the sight . For He who cannot see rightly , having his Eyes full of Dirt , can much less do it , having his Eyes full of Adultery .

§ . 16. Now by how much the Viler the Body of Man is , ( in this chief Notion of the word Vile , ) the fitter 't is to become fewel for the unclean fire of Hell ; which , as it never consumes , so it never purifies . And therefore such a Vile Body shall only partake of a Resurrection ; not of that Blessed Change which here is promised in the Text . There is a very wide Difference between the Twofold Resurrection in the fifth Chapter of St. John , whereof the one is of Life , the other of Damnation . The Vilest Body is good enough , to be cast into a Lake of fire and brimstone : But to be qualified and fitted for an Inhabitant of Heaven ; 't is plain the Body must be changed , as well as rais'd . It must be changed in such a manner , as to have nothing at all left of its former Vileness . It must be changed so far forth , as to be perfectly transfigur'd . It must be transfigur'd in such a manner , as to be fashioned or conformed to the Body of Christ : and transfigur'd in such a measure , as to resemble Christ's Body in point of Glory : Not as it came unto the Earth , but as it ascended into Heaven . That is the Terminus ad quem , the utmost Point of Perfection , into which our Vile Body shall be Transferr'd ; and deserves to be the Subject of our last Consideration .

He shall change our Vile Body , that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body : ( so the {αβγδ} . English : ) or He shall transfigure the Body of our Humiliation , to be made fashionable or conformable unto the Body of his Glory : ( so the Greek . )

CHAP. IV . Touching the Terminus ad Quem of the Resurrection .

§ . 1. THough difficult Subjects are seldom pleasant ; yet the state of our Bodies from after the Time of their being glorified , must needs be matter of as pleasant , as 't is of difficult Consideration . The Consideration must needs be pleasant , because 't is a kind of Prepossession of Things Invisible , and future : It does accelerate our Happiness ; It anticipates , and attracts , and draws Heaven towards us ; as 't were Anticipates the Performance of the Rich Promises of the Gospel ; God alone knows how long , before they can possibly be accomplish'd . The very shadow of Real Happiness yields a Man pleasure for a Season . And 't is a shadow at least of Happiness , to Pass by Heaven in a Dream ; much more is it to insist , and dwell upon it by Contemplation . If every Grain of pure Gold , and every stricture of perfect Diamond , may be thought not unworthy of our Consideration ; How much more may each Glimpse of the Glory of God ? The utmost Beauty in the Best Creature , is the Beauty of Holiness : Which yet is but a faint Ray , or humble Derivative of God's ; and every Flash of God's Beauty , is more to be valued than all the World . It put St. Paul into such a Trance ; that He knew not whether his Soul was in , or out of his Body , 2 Cor . 12. 2. He was so absolutely ecstatical , and as it were out of Himself , that he seemed unto himself caught up into Paradise , ( v. 4. ) He was so giddy as 't were with Happiness ; as that it made him divinely Mad . Mad I am bold to say he was , as authorized by Himself , and his own Expression . He tells us he was not sui Compos ; he could not say he was Himself . But yet he was divinely such , ( aestro quodam divino percitus , ) because he was able to say for certain , ( as soon as he came to Himself again , ) that when he was not Himself , he was wholly Christ's . And when he was beside himself , it was because he was in Christ . Thence he spake of Himself , as of quite Another Creature . I knew a man ( says he ) in Christ , about 14. years ago , ( whether in the Body , or out of the Body , I cannot tell , God knows ; ) Not a man in Himself , but a man in Christ : or transported in a Vision by the Spirit of Christ . For this I take to be the meaning of That Expression . And the rather do I so take it , because of what is said in the first Verse of that Chapter . It is not expedient for me to glory . I will come to Visions and Revelations of the Lord . To meditate deeply upon Heaven , and on the ravishing Mansions prepared for us , ( in That House of our Father which is in Heaven , ) is to try before-hand , and to make an Essay , what it is to be throughly Happy : and what it was for St. Paul , to have been cast into a Trance . Act. 22. 6 , 7 , 17. To have been snatch't , or caught up into what he calls Paradise . ( Paradise in one place , v. 4. and the third Heaven in another , v. 2. ) As when a Man intends a Voyage to Spain , or Italy , or any other foreign part , which he longs to see , he finds it matter of Satisfaction , first to be travelling thither in Maps , and in many delicious meditations ; loves to be reading , and discoursing , and thinking of it ; goes all over it in his Wishes ; prepossesseth it in his Hopes ; and makes it Present unto himself in his Contemplations ; so with a greater force of reason , It is to every Real Christian the greatest Happiness upon Earth , to be able to Think himself to Heaven ; to gaze upon God with the Eye and Telescope of Faith ; as 't is the Evidence of things not seen ; {αβγδ} , ( as 't is said of the Patriarchs , ) to embrace him from a far off , in the Arms of Hope , and Heb . 11. 13. Expectation . For Us to remember him in our Beds , and think upon him when we are waking , ( as David speaks ; ) for our Spirits to thirst , and for our Flesh to long after him ; yea for our Souls to hang Psal . 63. 2 , 7 , 9. upon him , ( All which are the Expressions of the 63. Psalm , ) as it were cleaving to him in love , and holding him fast with divine Affection ; what else can This be , but even to go out of our selves ? to be snatch'd or caught up ( with St. Paul ) into Paradise ? For where can any Man more properly be said to be , than in the proper place of his Conversation ? and St. Paul says expresly , in the next Verse before my Text , Our Conversation is in Heaven ; from whence we look for the Saviour , the Lord Jesus Christ . It must be therefore a great Accession unto the faint measure of Happiness which now we have , to be profoundly made sensible of the full measure of Happiness which here we hope for . Men esteem themselves Rich in a good degree , when , though at present they have but little , they have yet the Reversion of great Revenues . And as 't is an honour to our Bodies in their present state of Vileness , that they are capable of a Change , or a Glorisication ; so we dispel the black Vapours which may arise from our Thinking on what we Are , by our most serious Apprehension of what we shall be .

§ . 2. But , as the state of our Bodies from after the time of their being Glorified , is to every faithful Christian a matter of Pleasant Consideration ; so is its pleasantness much abated by the Difficulty we find in our Thoughts about it . For St. John tells us expresly , that tho' we are Now the Sons of God ; It doth not yet appear what 1 Joh . 3. 2. we shall be . This indeed ( saith He ) we know , that when he shall appear , we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is . We know already in Thesi , we shall be like him ; ( that 's true enough ; ) But in Hypothesi , what it is to be like him ; or how far forth we shall be like him ; is a thing we know not . We know that when Christ who is our life shall appear , we also shall appear with him in Glory : Col. 3. 4. When we shall come to be uncloathed , to be cloathed upon with an house from heaven , we know our Souls shall be apparell'd with new-fashion'd Bodies ; and that the fashion of our Bodies shall be the same that is worn by Christ ; who shall change our Vile Bodies , and fashion them like unto his Glorious Body . But for the Nature and Degree of the Glory of Christ's Body , That remains a {αβγδ} , a difficult thing to be understood ; or rather not so difficult , as incomprehensible . Our Recourse in This case must be to rational Conjectures ; and those Conjectures are to be made by what we find in God's Word of the Body of Christ . ( Not from Aristotle , or Plato , or meerly human Reason ; ) For such as is , in point of Quality , the Body of His Glory ; such the word of God has promised shall be our own . And because opposites put together do help to illustrate one another , let us consider the Body of Christ in the lowest pitch of its Abasement , and observe in what measure 't was glorious Then ; before we judg of the same in its Exaltation . For ,

§ . 3. During the Time of His Mortality , ( whilst yet he emptied himself of Glory , ) his Body was Glorious in This respect , that indeed it was full Joh . 1. 14. of Grace . For Grace is the Preamble of Glory ; the Life of Grace is a Preface or Introduction to That of Glory . When the Word was made Flesh , and dwelt among us ; his Flesh in This respect was glorious , that it was pure , and spotless , and as immaculate as a Vers . 36. Lamb : yes and in this respect also , that it was able to work wonders ; as being sometimes Invisible ; sometimes walking upon the Sea ; sometimes curing the most inveterate Diseases , sometimes raising up the Dead ; sometimes over-ruling and casting out Devils ; once communicating Vertue to the Hem of his Garment ; which when a Woman had but touch't , He found that Vertue was gone out of him ; and she was healed in that very Matt . 9. 20. Instant . Let us go but a step higher , I mean to Mount Tabor ; and we shall find him Transfigur'd in such a manner , that his Face did shine as the Sun , and his very Raiment was white as the light . Let Matt . 17. ●● . us advance higher yet , from Mount Tabor unto Mount Sion ; where ( having purged our Sins ) He sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high ; and there ( if we can ) let us imagin , how bright his Body must needs be , who Himself is the Brightness of his Father's Glory , and the express Image of his Person . Heb . 1. 3. Here it may therefore be fitly argued à Minori ad Majus , If his Body was so Glorious whilst here upon Earth , whilst he was yet but in his Nadir , his state of Exinanition ; what must the Glory of it be in his Apogaeum ? now that his Body is in its Zenith , the utmost pitch of its sublimity ? To say it shines as the Sun , is a poor Expression ; for so it did on Mount Tabor . To speak it glorious as the light , is at least as short , and an arrant Meiosis ; for so was the Garment of his Body upon the very same Mount . It must content us therefore to say , ( with St. Paul to the Corinthians , ) that now we know but in part ; only This is our Comfort , that when That which is perfect is come , then 1 Cor . 13. 9 , 10. that which is in part shall be done away .

§ . 4. Come we now in the next place from our Lord's Body , unto our own . Which that 't will certainly be transfigur'd , as well as rais'd , is told us expresly in This Text , and deducible from the words wherewith St. John declares his VISION . I saw ( saith He ) a new Heaven , and a new Earth : ( Rev. 21. 1. ) and he who sate upon the Throne , said , Behold , I make all things new . ( v. 5. ) Nor can we think that our Bodies shall alone remain Old , when all things else are made New , both Heaven , and Earth . No , they shall be so renew'd , and in a manner so amazing , that being sown in Corruption , they shall be raised in Incorruption ; being sown in Dishonour , they shall be raised again in Glory ; being sown here in weakness , they shall be raised again in Power ; and being but Natural Bodies Now , they shall be then Spiritualiz'd . In a word , This Corruptible 1 Cor . 15. 43 , 44 , 53. must put on Incorruption ; and this Mortal must put on Immortality . And this we are told by That Apostle , who was caught up to the 2 Cor . 12. 2 , 4. Third Heaven : Nay , we are told farther yet , By the only begotten of the Father , who came from Heaven , that Mat . 13. 43. Dan . 12. 3. the Righteous ( in That Day ) shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father . As the Sun in point of Quality ; but far more glorious in Degree . For the Sun which is at present so far advanced over our Heads , will then be dignified enough , in being as far under our Feet . The Light St. Paul saw on Earth , was above the brightness of the Sun ; not only equall'd , but excell'd it , Act. 26. 13. What then would he have seen , had he been in Heaven ? when we hereafter shall have heard the beatifick Invitation of God the Son , [ Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom prepared for you , enter ye into the Joy of your Lord , ] we shall look down upon the Sun , as a Thing below us ; and below us in lustre , as well as Place . For we shall see the Face of God ; and whilst we see , we shall be like him . This is Glory in its Altitude , for the Righteous man to shine like the Sun of Righteousness ; in comparison with whom , the Created Sun of Nature , is but as Sackcloth . And here again we may argue à minori ad majus , If the Face even of Moses did so exceedingly shine forth by seeing God in Mount Sinai , that He was fain to wear a Veil when he went again down to his people Israel ; and if the Face of St. Stephen ( even in the Eyes of his bitter Enemies ) was like the Face of an Angel , before he saw the Heavens Act. 6. 15. & Ch. 7. v. 55 , 58. opened , and Jesus standing on the right hand of God ; How much more shall we shine , ( on a supposal of our being Sons of God , ) when we shall drink of His Fulness , to whom the Sun in the Firmament is but a shadow ? Even a Candle in a dark Night is so glorious a Body , as to make in some measure a kind of Artificial Day , whilst it illustrates the Medium through which we see : whereas the same Candle at Noon , when the Sun becomes Vertical , waxeth so Vile , and insignificant , so far from helping us to see , that 't is hardly so much as seen . So tho' the Sun , when he is culminant , does even dazle us with his brightness , whilst we inhabit Vile Bodies , and our Foundation is in the Dust , yet when our Bodies shall be made heavenly ; when Christ shall change our vile Bodies , and fashion them like unto his glorious Body ; Then the Sun will gather blackness , and be in the nature of a Cloud . For so dazling is the Glory of the Lord God of Hosts , to whatsoever Glory it is which is less than Infinite ; that we may say with the Psalmist in This Sense also , Clouds and Darkness are round about him . So very far does the Creator out-shine his Creatures ; that as shadows are to pictures , and Foils to Diamonds , and Clouds to the Sun , so the Sun , and the Moon , and All other Luminaries of Heaven , are but as Clouds , and thick Mists in the sight of God . Clouds and darkness are round about him , tho' righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his Seat . We have it from St. John in his Revelations , that the Sun in God's presence does Rev. 22. 5. cease to shine ; after the manner of a Candle in the presence of the Sun : Or rather as a Glow-worm does cease to shine at Noon-day . Now This we know ( saith St. John ) supposing our selves the Sons of God , that when he shall appear , we shall be like him . And that for this reason , because we shall see him as He is . And St. Paul to the same purpose : Now we see through a Glass , darkly ; But Then face to face : Now we know only in part ; who then shall know , even as 1 Cor . 13. 12. also we are known .

§ . 5. But what is the Reason of St. John's Reason , that we shall he therefore like him , because we shall see him as he Is ? The plain reason is , because the Reflexion of his Beauty shall be imprinted upon our persons , whilst we behold him . For every Subject which is made capable , ( as Then the Body of Man will be , ) does receive the very Image of That which sees it ; as well as the Image of what it sees . As for Example ; or to speak more exactly , for Illustration , ( since no Example can be given of such a Beatifick Vision as now we speak of ; ) when we look upon a Glass , which by being Polite , but not transparent , reflects the Image of our persons , 't is called a Looking-Glass very fitly ; because in our looking upon It , It seems to be looking upon Us too . Face does so answer Face , in point of Motion , form , and figure ; that exactly such as we are , ( whether fair , or foul , ) even such a True Glass will represent us . Yet every Glass is not a Mirroir : For we look through it , if pellucid ; and if lucid but unpolish'd , we look upon it as on a Wall ; or any other Opaque Body . But when there is quick-silver on one side , and politure on the other ; Then to look upon the Glass , is to beget ones own likeness by its Reflexion . The like to which may be said ( and perhaps with greater fitness ) of the Sun shining upon a River ; which being clear , and deep enough , becomes as a Looking-Glass to the Sun. The Sun , if he had Eyes , might see his Face in that River ; I mean the Reflexion , or Image of it .

§ . 6. Apply we This now ( with fear and reverence , and as far as lawfully we may , ) to the Case in hand . When God Almighty shall appear after the general Resurrection , and we together with Him in Glory ; we shall not be able to look on God , without his looking upon us too ; For so whosoever eyes the Sun , must have the Sun in his eye ; and so we may be to one another , at once the Object , and Agent too . As when any two Men do mutually gaze on each others eyes , they do project each others Face to and fro at the same Instant . Now our Persons in Heaven will be so polished , ( when this Corruptible shall have put on Incorruption , ) that we shall be in respect of God , what Looking-Glasses are in respect of Us ; we receiving his likeness , as they do ours . We reflecting His Beauty , as they do our wants of it . We shall be Mirroirs exactly made ; a kind of Looking-glasses with Eyes ; whilst by seeing as we are seen , and representing the Image of what we see , we shall therefore be like unto God himself , because we shall see him as he Is. This is what I have to say of St. John's Expression .

§ . 7. But if to look upon God , is to be like him , ( some may tacitly here object , ) not only We , but All things else shall be like him , on which his Glory shall be objected . To which I answer , it does not follow : For every object is not capable of Reflexion . Diaphanous Bodies ( as the Air ) do not terminate , but transmit our Rayes . Nor is every Reflexion of the same Nature , or Degree . For tho' the Beams of the Sun may be reflected from a Dunghill ; they cannot be so , as from a Diamond . The more excellent the object , the more of Glory it will receive . Here our Eyes are but earthy ; and tho' Refined earth indeed , yet they are but once refined : And by reason of that , ( we being now drawn to the Dregs of Nature , ) we cannot well look upon the Sun , unless it be through a Veil . Much less are we able to see the Glory of God , without the Ruin of the Organ by which we see . This the Heathens represented by the Imaginary meeting of Jupiter and Semele . But we are taught more exactly by the stupendous ( tho' Real ) Interview , of God and Moses . I beseech thee ( said Moses to God himself ) shew me thy Glory . To Exod . 33. 18. whom God answer'd , Thou canst not see my Face ; for there shall no man see my Face and live . When my Glory passeth by , I will put thee in a Cleft of the Rock , and I will cover thee with my Hand whilst I pass by . And I will take away my hand , and thou shalt see my Back-parts , but my Face shall not be seen . A passage of Scripture , which stands in great need of an Explication , as being wholly spoken by the figure Anthropopathia ; wherein the Face of Jehovah imports the Causes and Reasons of God's dispensing his Benefits and Blessings to us ; and these are known to God only . But the Backparts seem to signifie the Blessings and Benefits Themselves , whereby we see Him , who is Invisible , in his effects . ( as the Heavens declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work . ) Nor do we see only hear of his wonderous works , but do every day taste of his Goodness to us . 't is the expression of Holy David , speaking of God in his Effects to the Sons of Men . We see our Bodies are here so vile , that our Faculties are destroyable by the Transcendency of their Objects . And tho' we hope to live hereafter by seeing God ; yet whilst we are groveling here below , 't is Death to see him .

§ . 8. From hence we may make a good conjecture , how far our Bodies must be changed in the general Resurrection , as well as rais'd . Our Eyes must be changed in such a measure of strength and Brightness , as to be able to see our Maker without a skreen , or a Partition . All our Organs must be proportion'd to the Transcendency of their objects , that the Exuberances of Glory may not be able to overcome them ; and that the same , in that Day , may become a Beatisick , which would be now a Destructive Vision . A little wind ( we all know ) will fill the Sails of a little Boat ; when a great deal will over-turn it . A little Dose of the Grand Elixir will quicken a Man when he is dying ; when the same over-dosed will but kill him with a Recovery . They say the Cataracts of Nile , which may be heard many Miles off , are much too loud to be heard at hand . They whom they deafen , cannot perceive such unproportionable Noises . For Sensibile supra sensorium tollit sensationem . As when a Book of any writing is brought too near to a Man's eye , he is not able to read a Line . So a Competent Light does refresh our eyes ; when too much of it does but annoy them . The Sun is but a dim thing , in comparison with its Creator ; and yet it has a Brightness will strike us blind : Suntque oculis Tenebrae prae tanto Lumine obortae . Even Darkness is the Product of too much Light . And therefore our Eyes must needs receive such an unspeakable Alteration , when we come to appear face to face before God ; as that we may live , and be made happy , by the sight of That Glory , which now would kill us by being seen .

§ . 9. Of the many momentous Lessons which may be drawn from This Doctrine , let us content our selves with such , as are short , and obvious .

First if our Bodies are here so Vile , as in several respects they have been made appear to be ; then let us not value them over-much ; let us not love them over-dearly ; let us not carry our selves towards them with over-much fondness and delectation . Let us not hate our own flesh , nor yet be amorous of its features ; or foolishly indulgent to its Desires . Let us love it in such a manner , as we are bound to love our Children ; so far forth as to correct it , and keep it carefully in Subjection . Nothing can be truer than that of Solomon ; and nothing more of use to our present purpose . He that spareth his Rod , hateth his Child ; Pro . 13. 24. But He that loveth him , chastizeth him betimes . It is as much a Parent's Duty , to give his Child due Correction ; as Food , and Rayment . The later being no more needful unto the Being of a Child , than the former to his well Being . For want of the former more especially , the fruit of a Man's Body tends to the Ruin of a Man's Soul . Nor is he said with more Truth to be the Father of his Child , than he is of his Child's Destruction . Is there any Ground so good , as to need no weeding ? or will it bring forth Corn enough , without the Severity of the Plough ? No , there 's so much of a Brute Beast , in the best of Flesh and Blood , by depraved Nature , as many times to stand in need of a very strong Bridle ; and as many times possibly of a very sharp Spur . Now this Comparison is to inform us , with what a severe , but wholesom kindness , we ought to love our own flesh in its state of Vileness ; to make it capable and fit for a state of Glory : We must strictly watch over it ; and keep it within an hourly Discipline . If we find it grows Idle ; we must be Taskmasters to it , and make it work for its living . If we find it reluctant , and loth to labour ; we must feed it for a while with the Bread of Scarceness , and beget in it an Appetite , to make it capable of more . If we find it grows wanton with too good usage ; we must carry a strict hand over it . We must take St. Paul's Rod , and {αβγδ} , so beat the Body black and blue , ( for that is the meaning of the word , ) as to keep it under , and at Command . Whether by fasting , or watching , or other austere Administrations ; as Reason shall dictate , and need require . As Vile a Body as it is , we must not let it want any thing , which we find by experience will do it good ; whether it be for its Incouragement , or for the keeping of it in Awe . We must allow it its Times of Pleasure , when we think it may tend to its greater profit ; I mean to its proficiency in the doing God Service . As there is sure to be a time when we must necessarily punish , so there may be a Time to reward it also . For tho' the Body of a Man is the worst Master in the world ; yet being well disciplin'd , 't will make a very good Mule ; by patiently bearing any Burden , which our heavenly Lord and Master shall lay upon it ; whether it be the Yoke , or the Cross of Christ . And therefore the Beast must have its Provender , that it may not sink under its Load . But still we must have it in our Remembrance ; that God appointed the Spirit to be its Rider .

{αβγδ} ,

As the College of Pythagoreans ( however they were Heathens ) were taught to teach us . We must not therefore , even for shame , permit the Soul to hold the stirrup , whilst the Vile Body of our Affections ( the {αβγδ} , as Aristotle words it , ) hath unworthily leave given it to mount the Saddle . 't is true the Flesh must be kept as clean and sweet , as it is possible ; and nourished for labour , tho' not for Lust . But still the Cost , and the Care , must be proportioned unto its Vileness . The Back and Belly must not put us to unproportionable Charges ; tho' the one must have food , and the other rayment . Having these two , Let us therewith be content , saith St. Paul to 1 Tim . 9. 8. Timothy . The shortest way and the surest to lessen the Vileness of the Body , and withall to make it fit for a glorious Change , is both to feed it and to cloath it with the Body of Christ . First to feed it . For his Flesh is meat indeed , Joh . 6. 55. So said he touching himself , who is himself the Bread of life which came down from Heaven . ( v. 50. ) Secondly to cloath it . Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ ; ( said our Apostle to the Christians who dwelt at Rome . ) That is provision for the Rom. 13. 14. Spirit ; to feed upon Christ , is to put him on . But to make any for the Flesh , for the fulfilling of its Lusts , and the gratification of its Ambitions ; is so to provide for the Vile Body , as to render it so much the Viler .

§ . 10. But pass we onwards from the first to the second Use of this Doctrin . For seeing whatsoever the Body shall be , It is at present exceeding Vile ; we must not stand in fear of Them who can destroy the Body only , but are not able to hurt the Soul . We must only fear Him , who is able to cast both Soul and Body into Hell . It is not Vile only in This , that it was taken out of the Dust ; and is a Nursery of Diseases ; and fit for nothing after Death , unless to be cast unto the Dunghill ; ( if at least it is fit for That ; ) But it has a Moral Vileness ; a filthy Leprosie of Sin ; which makes it liable to the Death which is call'd Damnation : And who would care to be bereav'd of such a Despicable Body , as is not worthy the Preservation ? or having a just Ground of Hope , that the Vile Body shall be Changed ; and changed for the better in all respects ; and so ineffably for the better , as that we shall injoy an Impassibility of our Senses ; a 1 Cor . 15. 43. Spirituality of our members ; an imperceptibility of our motions ; an impeccability of our Affections ; a strange immensity of our Knowledge ; and an eternity of our Duration ; Who would not say of his Destroyers , in case of Martyrdom for Christ , and the Christian Faith ; what Socrates said heartily touching his Anytus , and Melitus ; {αβγδ} . Arrian . Epict . l. 1. c . 29. Kill us they may , but they cannot hurt us ? Who would not be contented , with what St. Paul was desirous of ? to be dissolv'd , and to be with Christ ? Who would grumble or repine at his being uncloath'd on a good account , when St. Paul groaned earnestly , to be cloathed upon with an house from Heaven ? and when the later cannot be had , without the former ? For Death is the Door to a Life of Glory . Immortality cannot begin , till this Life is ended . Nor is it said by St. John in his Revelation , Blessed are the Living , who live in Plenty , and Pleasure , and great Applause ; But Blessed are the Dead who die in the Lord . — Rev. 14. 13. — ultima semper Expectanda dies esto ; dicique Beatus Ante obitum Nemo , supremaque funera debet . There are so many things do happen between the Cup and the Lip , that no Man living can imagin what a Day may bring forth . Nor can he call his life happy , until he knows how he shall dye . Who would not then be contented to sowe in Tears , upon condition of an assurance to reap in Joy ? Who would not think it an easie Cross , for a Christian ( whilst he is here ) to go on his way weeping , that he may come again with Joy , and bring his sheaves with him ? Who would not say with the Prophet Jonah , it is better for me to dye than to Jonah 4. 3. live ? And with the Royal Ecclesiastes , The Day of Death is more precious , than the day of ones Birth ; It is better to go into the house of Eccles . 7. 1 , 2 , 3 , 8. Mourning , than to abide in the house of Mirth ; Sorrow is better than laughter ; and better is the End of a thing , than the Beginning ; who ( I say ) would not close with all These Paradoxes in Scripture , whose Conversation here is such , as becomes the Gospel ? And to which he knows is Philip . 1. 27. consequent a Crown of Righteousness laid up ? That is the word of our Apostle , 2 Tim . 2. 8. {αβγδ} , henceforth is laid up for me , &c. laid up safely , as in a Treasury of all good things ; concerning which St. Paul saith , ( with the Prophet Esa , ) Eye hath not seen , nor Ear heard , neither hath the heart of man been ever able to conceive , Isai . 64. 4. Philip . 2. 9. ( and much less the Tongue to utter , ) the things which God hath prepared for Them that love him . Who then would place his whole Felicity in a Valley of Tears , and in the miserable Contentments of outward Sense , like Esau in the old Testament , and like Dives in the New , when with Jacob , and Lazarus , he may be lodged by the Angels in Abraham's Bosom ? where God shall wipe away all Tears from our Rev. 21. 4. Psal . 16. 11. Eyes ; where Joy will shew it self in its fulness ; and where there will be pleasures for evermore ; where Jesus Christ the faithful witness , the first begotten of the Dead , who hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own blood , shall Rev. 1. 6. make us all Kings and Priests unto God and his Father ; shall cloath us all in white Robes ; and put his Palmes into our hands ; and having swallow'd up Death in Victory , shall teach us to sing an {αβγδ} , even a New Rev. 5. 9 , 13. & 7. 9 , 10. Song of Triumph , Salvation unto our God ; for thou wast Slain , and hast redeemed us to God , by thy blood . Blessing , honour , glory , and power , to him that liveth for ever and ever .

FINIS .