Some Pious Treatises, Sermon
A SERMON Proving the Resurrection of the same body committed to the dust: AS ALSO, The not dying of the soul with the body.
Written by Chr. Blackwood, a servant of Christ.
Spes vitae immortalis est vita vitae mortalis.
Job 19.25. In my flesh shall I see God.
JOb had many miseries prest him down; as the apprehension of present terrors from God, vers. 11, 12. estrangement of friends, vers. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19. also consuming diseases, vers. 20, 27. Yet in the midst of all these pressing evils, he draws up a consolation, vers. 25, 26, 27.
Which may be resol…ed into two branches.
1. His faith he had in his Redeemer, vers. 25.
2. His faith he had concerning his own resurrection, vers. 26, 27.
Which hath two branches:
1. That he believed that he should rise again, though he felt a consumption of his reins, in these words, I shall see God.
2. That he believed the same body committed to the earth should rise again.
From which, two Propositions:
1. That the Saints believe there shall be a resurrection.
2. That they believe a resurrection of the same body.
1 Observ. Saints believe there shall be a resurrection of their bodies. Acts 24.15. Joh. 11.24. Apoc. 20.12. 1 Cor. 15.19. Isai. 26.19.
Concerning the resurrection observe three things.
1. The kinds
1. Special: Lazarus, Jairus daughter, Tabitha,
2. General: Joh. 5.28.
2. What this Resurrection is.
3. Why Saints believe it.
First, What it is. It is called foreign, of foreign again, and foreign a stan…ing; when that stands again which had fallen down: so Martyr. Or, Elementorum conservatorum concursus mutuus jussu creatoris. So Aretius loc. 18.
Secondly, Why Saints believed this.
1. Because God hath promised it, Joh. 6.39, 40. Joh. 5.28, 29. All that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.
2. Because God is powerful to raise them up. Gen. 18.14. Luke 1.37. Rom. 4.17. Against all carnal reasonings, oppose Rom. 4.21. What he hath promised, he is able to perform.
3. From the resurrection of Christ, who rose as a first-fruits, 1 Cor. 15.20. He was as a head to the body: the members shall not lie under ground always, being the head is above it.
4. From absurdities if there be none, 1 Cor. 15. then preaching vain, faith is vain, vers. 14. the Apostles false witnesses, vers. 15. Christian… most miserable, v. 19. in vain baptized, v. 29. hazard themselvs in vain, v. 30, 32. yea, then they need not care what they do, v. 32. Eat and drink: for to morrow they shall die.
5. It appears from resemblances in nature; as trees seem dead in Winter, yet revive in the Spring. Job 14.7, 8, 9. If it be said, They were not altogether dead; Answ. No more is man.
Object. The condition of beasts and men is both one, Eccles. 3.19. Now beasts rise not again; ergo, not men.
Answ. 1. Solomon speaks in the person of Atheists. 2. Solomon saith both are a like in dying, but not both in their condition after death: As the one dieth, so dieth the other: And when he says, vers. 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward? (though Gregory Neocaesariensis understand this of Solomon, that wrote this of himself when he gave himself to pleasures, his thoughts began to be so brutish, that he thought there was one and the same end of man and beast.) Yet I take it, Solomon means, that the knowledge, of these things by natural principles is hard to come by.
Use 1. Inform. Of our duty to believe that the souls and bodies of men shall one day be new coupled together, either to be rewarded or punished, Act. 24.15. 1 Cor. 15.52. What though Heathens count this doctrine babbling, Act. 17.18. say that after death is nothing, and that death is immortal? yet we know otherwise, 1 Cor. 15.26. Hos. 13.14.
2. Repr. Of those who are Sadduces in judgment, not onelyonly Heathens, but Christians in pretence; such as Pope John 23. and Pope Paul 3. Boldly they say, that you shall never make them believe that the body shall be raised again. Ready are profane persons to put scoffing questions about it; as the Sadduces, Mat. 22.23. to vers. 31.
3 Exhort. Be careful to keep a good conscience, Acts 24.15, 16. in hope of it.
Object. But seeing all shall rise again, what differcnce 'twixt Saints and others?
A. Great will be the difference.
1. The Saints shall rise by vertue of the union with Christ, and the working of that Spirit, Rom. 8.11. but the wicked by his powerful voice, as he is God, which shall be uttered by the last trump.
2. The Saints shall have a better resurrection, Heb. 11.35. and shall see God for themselves, Job 19.27. tha… is, for their good. Wicked men shall see God against themselves, that as soon as they look out of their graves, they shall say, Mountains, fall on us, Apoc. 6.16.
3. They differ in the ends. The Saints shall awake to everlasting glory, but wicked persons to everlasting misery, Dan. 12.2. This was resembled in Pharaoh's servants: the butler was taken out of prison, and restored to his place: so the Saints: but the baker was taken out to be hanged. Wicked men shall be at the resurrection in a disgraceful estate, Isa. 66.24. Matth. 25. and they shall be clogg'd with all misery and want, as Dives was, Luke 16.29. Hence the Article of the Resurrection is put between the Article of Remission of sins and Eternal life, to shew that resurrection of the body is then onelyonly a benefit, when remission of sins goes before it, and eternal life follows after it. See the different ends, Joh. 5.28, 29.
2 Exhort. To Christians, not to be hopeless concerning your selves or friends, when you come to die. 1 Thess. 4.13, 14, 15. What though Heathens say, Vale spes, Farewel hope, let not Christians say so. If a man take a long journey, his wife and children do not usually weep, because they expect his return ere long home again: no more let us, in regard of our friends. We Saints, when we die, onelyonly go to a pleasant bed, Isai. 57.2. Job 3.17. sweetned by Christ's lying down therein first. What though the grave be a prison-house to wicked men? yet it is a store-house to the bodies of Saints.
3 Exhort. To all Saints, to believe the resurrection. We stand in need to have our faith strengthned herein. Of this Paul had assurance, and speaks of all Saints, 2 Cor. 4.14. In d…ath, we are not destroyed, but dissolved. Souldiers when they destroy a house, they care not where they fling the timber and tyles: but he that dissolves it, takes it down piece by piece, because be means to build with it again. So the Lord he knows where the bodies of men are laid, so that wheresoever they be, they are safe. Are the Saints called The children of the resurrection, Luke 20.36. and shall they not hope for it? Heb. 11.35.
Object. But the difficulty of the resurrection startles my soul.
Answ. Hath not God made heaven and earth, and preserved Noah and his family, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly? brought Israel thorow the Red-sea out of Aegypt, and from Babylon? brought Daniel out of the lions den, and Jonah out of the whales belly? the three children out of the fiery furnace? the Manna from heaven, and water out of the rock? Why should it be then thought a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead?
The second Point from these words, In my flesh shall I see God.
Observ. The Saints believe there shall be a resurrection of the same body: Joh. 2.19. In three days I will raise IT up. 1 Cor. 15. This corruptible (pointing at his body) must put on incorruption. Joh. 11.24. He shall rise again in the resurrection. Now Lazarus had a body as well as a soul. Rom. 8.11. He shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit: no other but them. Isa. 26.19. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Job 19.26, 27. Job saith, In his flesh he should see God, and his eyes should behold him: he means not the eyes of his soul, nor the eyes of his understanding, because he speaks of his skin, of his flesh, and his eyes: yea, he speaks positively: I, and I my self: Ego, ipse ego, non alius: and negatively, or exclusively; not another, not a stranger.
The Reasons are,
1. From the Justice of God: It's just that those that have been partakers of good and evil actions, be partakers of rewards and punishments. But the bodies of men are partners with the soul in good and evil actions: it's equal then, that they be raised up, and not a new body. If Job's eyes have wept tears, it's reason the tears be wiped from them, and not from a pair of new-made cheeks. If they have retained themselves from strange objects, Job 31.1. it's meet they be rewarded with the view of better objects. Shall Paul's body be scourged, and another for it be glorified? Shall he bear in his body the marks of the Lord Iesus, and not bear in the same body the crown of his glory? What comfort were it for the body to abridge it self of much pleasure, and to suffer many afflictions, and another strange body shall step up, and come in, and carry away the crown, Luke 23.25. 2 Thes. 1.6.
2. Because if the same body were not raised up, it were not a resurrection, but the creation of a new: whereas the fore-named places call it a resurrection. Therefore men are not new made of the four element…, as of a new matter. Nor is this samen…ss onelyonly a sameness in respect of the form, viz. a reasonable soul, and therefore to be said to be the same in number, because of the form; but there shall be a sameness of matter, or flesh: so that fai…h believes God will raise up the same body, idem ens, the same being in number, the same individual body.
3. It appears from types and resemblances in nature. Ezek. 37. to the same dead and dry bones life came; sinews and flesh grew on them. This the learned think not onelyonly a prediction of the deliverance of Israel out of Babylon, but also a typical confirmation of the resurrection of our bodies. Such a comparison could not be deduced from bones, unless the same should happen to bones. Besides, Aaron's rod turned serpent, and his serpent rod: he that restores Aaron's rod that vegeti…e life it had before, will much more raise Aaron himself from the dead. Jonah in the whale's belly, was the third day restored, as lively as he was received. At the resurrection of Christ, many bodies of the Saints came out of their graves, and appeared to many, Mat. 27.52, 53.
Object. How is it possible a body which hath lain rotting a thousand yeers, should rise again?
Sol. Though it be above Reason, yet it is not against Reason. We see the flyes that be dead all winter-time, when the summer comes, with the heat of the sun they live again. So the corn rots in the ground, and revives again. Tertullian saith, It seems an harder matter for God to make man, being nothing, out of the dust of the earth, then to raise and repair him out of the dust, being something. Here are some reliques towards a reno…ation: bury it, it will turn to dust; burn it, there will be ashes. Joh. 6.39. Apoc. 20.13.
Object. But the dust of men are mingled together.
Sol. Can a man that hath an handful of several sorts of seeds mingled together, separate one from another? and is not the Lord able to separate one dust from another? Can Chymists draw out of an herb the four elements, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air? and cannot God separate dust? He knows where the materials of every body are.
Object. When one man eats another, then that mans flesh becoms one with another mans flesh; in which case, if one rise, the other cannot.
Sol. The man devoured shall have his flesh restored, the eater his repaired, enough to make them the same individuals. One man eating another, becomes part of the other for the time; but yet he was a perfect man before he eat the other, and the other a perfect man before he was eaten. Every man shall rise with his own flesh, but not with every thing that was once a part of him: as, if a man have a piece of flesh cut off, and new flesh comes in the room of it; or have a tooth struck out, & another come in its place, he shall not rise with both these. Totus homo, but not totum hominis resurge….
Quest. But shall there be no alteration in the body when it shall be raised?
Answ. Yes, it shall be new in qualities; as those blinde men Christ cured, received no new eyes, but onelyonly sight to the eyes they had before. The same body in number shall rise again, another in glory. I shall not be another, but another thing: not alius, but aliud. So that there shall not be a diversity of substance, but of conditions, qualities, and properties. This Christ implies in the Word raise, Ioh. 2.19. I will raise it up in three days. As the body riseth up more fresh after sleep, so shall our bodies after the sleep of death. And the Apostle clearly answering the question, 1 Cor. 15.35. How are the dead ra…sed? with what body do they come? He answers, vers. 36, 37, 38. As a corn of wheat cast into the earth, being rotten, comes forth not naked, dry, hard, and without life, as it was sown; nor rotten, as it was in the earth; but keeping the same substance and kinde, it comes forth with new qualities, with ears, and husks, and stalk, being living, and full of juyce: for, vers. 38. God gives to every seed his own body: So in the resurrection, the same body in number shall rise again, though with more glorious qualities.
Quest. What are those qualities the bodies raised up shall have at the resurrection?
Answ. 1. Immortality. Men keep much ado, to keep their bodies from putrifaction; they wrap them in Lead, and embalm them in spices, and immure them in marble; but this will not perpetuate them. But in the resurrection they shall die no more. Luke 20.35, 36.
2. Impassibility; free from those passions that hurt; as hunger, grief, sickness: not from those that delight; as, the ear is pleased with sounds, the eye with colours: so shall it be then.
3. Spirituality, 1 Cor. 15.44. called a spiritual body, because without contradiction it shall obey the Spirit of God, and because it shall move nimbly like a spirit, being made able to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. 4. Neither let any man say, How shall our heavie bodies be able to abide in the air, or to abide above the clouds? for God's assignement is that which makes the proper place of a thing: as we see the clouds, which are heavie, and full of wet, yet fall not to the ground, because God appoints the air for their proper place. Besides, the spirituality of our bodies will be in this, that they shall not stand in need of physick, meat, drink, or cloathes.
4. Gloriousness Saints bodies shall be raised like the glorious body of Christ, Phil. 3.21. shall shine like stars, Dan. 12.3. like the sun, Mat. 13.43. It would be well, could we raise up our meditations to consider the glory our bodies shall have, against the crawling of worms, and future rottenness. We shall be at that day foreign equal to the angels.
Object. But if the same bodies rise again, they rise with a number of needless parts: What needs teeth, seeing they shall eat no meat? what needs stomach, seeing there shall be no digest…on? what needs bowels, seeing there is no redundance to fill them?
Sol. Though we shall not need our teeth to eat with, yet shall we need them to speak with, in praising God. For the other parts of the body, they are for sight and comeliness, to beautifie the body.
There is a Question proposed, In what sex and age shall persons rise again?
Answ. For the sex, though persons in the resurrection shall not marry, yet shall they rise in the sex they died. The Queen of the South shall rise in her sex, Mat. 12.41. For the age, there is nothing revealed of that: but it's probable our souls shall receive those bodies from which they departed, all imperfections being done away: but however, every age is capable of blessedness.
Use Consol. In life and death. In life, we are troubled with many diseases; in death, we apprehend a future rottenness: yet one day shall this body of thine be raised, yea more glorious then it is for the present. Rom. 8.11. the Apostle to the Objection, vers. 10. You Saints die as well as others, gives a double consolation: 1. vers. 10. Though the body be dead, because of sin; yet the spirit is life, because of Christ's righteousness. 2. Vers. 11. The Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead, will also raise us up. The head being alive, the body shall not be always dead. 1 Thess. 4.14. Phil. 3.21.
I will not speak of other comforts, as the present happiness of the soul in death: for the body, this is enough, that God will raise it again. As God said to Jacob, Gen. 46.4. I will surely go down with thee into Egypt, and I will bring thee up again, the same saith he to our bodies, I will go with them to the grave, and bring them back again.
Exhort. 1. To believe the resurrection of that body thou carriest about thee. Can the art of man of ashes make curious glasses, and of rotten rags make white paper? and cannot the wise God raise up glorious bodies from the dust? What though thou knowst not where the materials be? yet God knows to give to every one their own flesh in the resurrection; not the least limb, vein, or artery shall be wanting.
Exhort. 2. Keep thy body undefiled. What a spectacle wilt thou be before God, Angels, and Men, when those hands that have robb'd, those eyes that have lusted, that tongue that hath slandered, those ears that have listned after filthiness, shall be raised up in the several abominations?
Exhort. 3. To see the dead Saints decently intombed.
4. Wait for the adoption, the redemption of thy body; groan for it, Rom. 8.23.
5. To converse in heaven, in hope of it, Phil. 3.20, 21.
6. To do good to the poor, in hope of it, Luke 14.13.
7. To suffer the cruelties done to thy body, in hope of it, Heb. 11.35.
The thought of the resurrection made Paul keep his conscience void of offence, Acts 24.15, 16.
As it will be a comfort, that thy members have been employed for God; so contrarily, what a discomfort, when they have been employed for sin?
3. Terrour to all ungodly men, That the same body shall rise again. Well were it with wicked men, if their bodies might never rise: but alas! they must all come forth out of their graves, like toads out of their holes. Apoc. 20.12. How terrible is this day to such! Joh. 5.29. Dan. 12.2. 2 Cor. 5.10. The preaching hereof, startled Felix. If a man after his next sleep were to be put to death, how would this astonish! yet worse is the condition of wicked men: after their bodies have slept a while in the grave, they awake to everlasting misery. Devils fear this day, Mat. 8.29.
Confirmation. 1. That when thou diest, thou restest in hope for thy own body, Psal. 16.9. and 90.3. and friends body, 1 Thess. 4.14, 15. Matth. 22.31, 32. Now God could not have been the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's soul, unless their bodies had rose again.
Object. But when will this resurrecton be?
Answ. At the day of judgment, Joh. 6.44. Joh. 11.24. I will raise him up at the last day.
Object. But I may be drown'd in the sea.
Sol. The sea shall give up the dead, Apoc. 20.13.
Object. But perhaps the persecutors may burn my body; and when they have so done, they may cast my ashes into some river, as the heathens cast the bodies of the Saints into the river Rhodanus. to hinder their resurrection.
Sol. Yet see a firm comfort, Joh. 6.39. Nothing given to Christ shall be lost, but he will raise it up again.
Object. But by whom shall my body be raised up, seeing I, being dead, have no power to raise my self?
Answ. Christ will do it, 1. Meritoriously, Joh. 6.39. he by his sufferings hath deserved our resurrection, 1 Cor. 6.14.
2. Efficiently, 1 Cor. 15.20. Joh. 5.28.
Object. But shall all bodies be raised?
Sol. All that are or shall be dead, shall be raised: but for those that then shall be found alive, they shall be changed, 1 Cor. 15.51. We shall all be changed in a moment. 1 Thess. 4.15, 16.
Object. But what shall become of the soul in the mean time? shall that sleep in the body?
Sol. No, The spirit returns to God, Eccles. 12.7. Dives soul was in hell, when his brethren were here on earth. Steven at his death resigned his soul to God, Act. 7.59. The thief on the Cross went the same day into Paradise. 2 Cor. 5.1. As the devils take a wicked man's soul, the same day he dies, and carries it to hell, Luke 12.20. This night do they require thy soul of thee: so the Saints presently go to heaven: Lazarus, as soon as dead, is in Abraham's bosome.
But to speak a little more concerning the souls not dying with the body, because it hath been a great controversie in these times, I shall adde, That the soul dies not with the body, by these Arguments.
1. Grace in the Saints is a continual well of water springing up unto life everlasting, Joh. 4.14. which could not be, if there were any moment wherein a believer were in soul and body dead: for though it might spring up in future, it could not spring up in him at present.
2. It appears from contraries. If unbelievers die in body onelyonly, and not in soul, Luke 12.20. This night shall they (that is, the devils) require thy soul of thee; then it follows, believers die onelyonly in body, not in soul. Dives was in torments, when his five brethren were here on earth, Luke 16. The …i…ies of Sodom and Gomorrha suffer at present the vengeance of eternal fire. These histories were long before the day of judgement.
3. The Scriptures threaten everlasting destruction on the wicked. Joh. 3.36. He that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him, for ever: But how can this be truth when a Preacher preacheth it, if they shall be free from torment till the day of judgment?
4. The Scripture tells us of a present enjoyment of our crown: 2 Cor. 5.1. If our earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we know we have an eternal house in heaven. Phil. 1.23. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is much better. As soon as ever he was dissolved, he was with Christ. If he should not have been with Christ till the day of the resurrection, it would not have been the better condition to have died, much less the much better condition; nay, indeed it had been worse, yea much worse.
5. Assoon as we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.8. Assoon as we are unclothed, we are clothed upon with an house from heaven, v. 2, 4. Assoon as we die, mortality is swallowed up of life, as the rivers of the sea, and time Of eternity. Which could not be, if the soul died with the body. Besides, vers. 6. Whiles we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Wherein Paul shews how long believers are absent from the Lord, even whiles they are at home in the body, and not longer.
6. It appears from the safety of souls departed from the body. Rev. 6.9, 10. Lest the Martyrs should faint because of the bloody face appeared in the ten first persecutions, John tells them, The souls of such deceased Martyrs were safe, they were under a defensive shelter, they were under the defence of Christ, who is called a Christians altar, Heb. 13.10. The comfort runs thus: Though your bodies perish, yet your souls go to Christ. And withal, the Spirit saith, That white robes were given unto them; that is, the crown of glory, wherein was no spot; onelyonly they were to rest for the fulness of their glory, till their fellow-servants were to be crowned.
7. The soul dies not with the body, because persecutors, though they can kill the body, they cannot kill the soul, Matth. 10.28. which they might easily do, yea must necessarily do, if the soul died with the body. But Christ saith expresly, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: where also we see that soul and body are contradistinguished one from another.
8. The principle of the souls dying with the body is contrary to Morality. Were wicked men perswaded that they should be without any feeling of torments till the end of the world, they would do whatsoe…er their inclination led them to: Eccles. 8.11. Because sentence against an evil work is not presently executed, the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to do evil? How much more, when this punishment is deferred to the day of judgement? The Lord's delay of his coming, made that evil servant beat his fellow-servants, Matth. 24.48, 49. Besides, holy mens endeavours would be blunted, when after the race of life is run, they must tarry many days for the prize.
9. The soul is without matter, and therefore cannot die with the body. Reason tells us, that when all body is abstracted, there remains a substance, a thinker, an ego; though liver, lungs, kidneys, tongue, hands, legs, were taken away. Besides, the various answers the soul gives to questions, proves it. Besides, such as the effect is, such is the cause: now there are abundance of immaterial notions in the soul, as concerning God and Angels, the apprehension of Negatives, and the infinity of capacity, in taking in innumerable objects, without dri…ing out one another; and the infinity of accessions; all which do openly dis…laim form, quantity, and matter: for what hath quantity, or is a body, cannot admit a new thing unto it, unless some other thing do first go out, to make room for that which comes. Now the more the soul receives, the more it is able to receive. Besides, though the Fancie be the nimblest of all bodily things, yet the Soul in discoursing contains more in it then is in the fancie.
10. It's a Ruled case in Philosophy, That the soul of man is indivisible. Brutes are destroyed, by parting their blood from their flesh, or by the evaporation, or quenching of the natural heat: but the soul is indivisible, and cannot admit of any quantitative parts; and therefore cannot be mortal.
11. If the soul should die with the body, it would die by degrees, a man's Reason and abilities would be less and less. But we see, when the body is exceeding weak, the soul is so active, that it can order a kingdom, speaks often to astonishment of by-standers. If any soul's abi…ities fail, it is for want of an organ; as when the brain is hurt, the soul cannot exercise its actions: but if it receive a sound organ, it produces the same acts and operations it did before; which proves that the soul remains unchangeable in it se…f. When the soul and body are at the point departure, or point of death, could the body recover it self, the soul would be the same it was.
12. It appears from the distinct actions of soul and body, that the soul dies not with the body. The one is sick, the other well; the one present, the other absent; the body in bed, the soul in America, and in a moment it comes from thence to Euro…e, from thence to heaven: the one weeps, the other …aughs. How shall the same thing be in a million of places at once? yet so is the Sun, when a million of people think of it. How can the quantity of the heavens be shut up in the quantity of a man's brain? How can place and time past be removed in another place, and another time, when in the mean time the body remains one and the same, in one place, and one time? Now all this proves, besides the immateriality of the soul, the distinct actions of soul and body.
Yet I will not deny, but that there are some passages of Scripture that seem to hold out, as if the soul no more then body were to have any crown till the day of the resurrection; as, Job 14.12. Man l…eth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more: they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. 2 Tim. 4.8. there's a crown which the Lord shall give AT THAT DAY, to all that love his appearing. By that day, he means the day of judgement: 2 Thess. 1.6. God will render tribulation to them that trouble Saints, and rest to Saints: But when? even when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Heb. 11.39. They without us shall not be perfect. Besides, the reward or punishment seems often to be respited to the coming of Christ. Col. 3.4. When Christ shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory. Also, Revel. 22.12. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me.
These and many other places must be expounded of the crown in fulness, not of a total delay of reward or punishment till that day, being the far more plain places of Scripture seem to urge so much: though I must needs confess, that divers of the Fathers (as Justin Martyr against Tripho, and others) were of this opinion, that the souls come not into blessedness till the day of the resurrection.