Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Part · Sermon 49
The Resurrection of the Body.
Phil. 3.21.
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things un…o himself.
FIducia Christianorum Resurrectio Mortuorum: Tertull.A confidence which the wise men of the World derided, and at the report whereof they stop't their ears.Act. 17.18, 19, 20. The news of the Resurrection was to the Athenians (who had ears ready prepared to drink in all other news) so strange a report, that foreign, they draw their lips aside at it, as at a harange. The assertion of the Resurrection seemed to Festus that wise Romane, Ver. 32. Acts 26.24.manifesta phrenesis, a phrensie of Saint Pauls brain; and the Apostle, when he preached upon this Theme, was for his pains accounted no better than a babler, and his discourse, foreign,Acts 17.17. words that had nothing in them.
What yet hath seemed to the wise foolishness, and to the world a matter of scorn, is to us Christians an Article of faith, preached first by Christ and his Apostles, and after by us on the house-tops. It cannot be denied by any, who believe the Scriptures, but there shall be a Resurrection of the body; and after it is risen, an alteration of it from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from baseness to glory, which is the sum of that the Apostle delivers to us in these words, the subject whereof is the body, which is to be considered in two states, one here, the other hereafter.
1. Here it is foreign, a vile body, of a base alloy, humbled many wayes.
2. Hereafter it shall be in a better condition, not base, not humble, but exalted, and glorious.
3. And glorious in no mean degree, but in a very high manner, the pattern for the glory being no other than Christs glorified body, it shall be like his.
4. The manner how this glory shall be acquired, it shall be a change; a change of what was imperfect; no new created body; in it then there shall be no transubstantiation, but an alteration.
5. And if this seem impossible to flesh and blood, yet let a man think what God can do; to him nothing is impossible, and by his power this shall be done; he shall change this vile body into a glorious body, by that mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.
My discourse then shall be confined in these Propositions.
1. That the present estate of our bodies, is vile and humble.
2. That the future estate of them, shall be glorious:
3. That these our bodies shall remain the same for substance, but altered in qualities.
4. That the cause of this alteration in glory and honour, is the working, ability, and power of Christ.
1. Our vile body, foreign. Corpus humile, Beza. Corpus humilitatis, Tremel.
A vile or humble body it is now; but so it was not at the first, it being the most curious piece that ever God made below. Other Creatures were made by his Word only,Gen. 1.3.2.26. Esdras 3.5. but man by deliberation and counsel; his hand (as I may so say) went upon him, and he formed and framed the clay into an upright shape, as might set forth the Majesty of that Creature which he ordained to be Lord of all. Objected often indeed it is to this part, that it is fetch't from the earth, that base and lumpish, and heaviest of the Elements; earth and ashes, and dust and clay, being everywhere in the Scripture cast in the face of proud man: But if we would consider that it is the Art of the workman gives esteem and honour to the matter, we could not choose but think that body honourable which was immediatly framed by God: The skill of some curious Artisan, put case Phidias or Polycletes, frames out of Ivory, or some knotty piece of wood, an Idol in the fashion of a man, overlays it with vermilion, and beautifies it with the choicest colours; This is thought no longer to be tooth of a slow beast, or the stock of a Tree, but perhaps some reverent Deity. Non quia Elephantus, sed quia Phidias tantus. And shall the work be of so great esteem,Tertul, because it hath passed under the hand of a skilful man, and that which hath been framed by the counsel of the whole Trinity, be of little regard? It is no longer now dust, but another thing; no longer earth and ashes but man. Man framed after the image of God, and the image of God stampt upon any matter, must needs make it Hon…rable. Besides it is no longer inanimate earth,Gen. 2.7. but a living soul; For God breathed into the earth, which he took, made it vigorous by his own Spirit, which Prerogative he would no more bestow upon that, had it been to continue a base and a vile clod, then we will commit our choicest jewels to the trust of rusty, vile, and abject caskets.
Our Body then at the first creation was an honourable piece, frame by Gods own hand, and inspired by his own breath. How then you'le ask,Oecumen. in loc. came it debased and humbled! M…thodius in Oecumenius shall tell you: Adams transgression did it, this brought in corruption, and shame, and misery, and trouble, and infirmity, and deformity, and sorrow, and death, and cast it upon the man whom God hath made. Before this, the body though from the heart was glorious; for else now it could not be said to be a body of humility; foreign for what was first glorious, if humbled, is humbled by a fall. It was transgression then which brought it low: At first it was immortal, but now it can no more continue then be free from wickedness. At first though it had those which we call uncomely parts, yet they needed no cover, now for very shame we are to wear a vail to hide them.Gen. 3.7. At first nor crookedness deformed, nor blindnesse disgraced, nor lameness hindered, nor diseases humbled, nor necessities tired, nor lusts distained, nor pasons disquieted this rich piece of Gods making. Whereas upon the entrance of sin, there entred foreign,Aristophanes. all these and many more incumbrances, which did deflowr the Body, and humble it in a vile and abject manner.
It is well observed by Zanchy, Zanch. in loc.that the Apostle saith not our humble body, but the body of our humility; for from us this proceeds. The body is from God, but the humility and debasement from our selves. We perish by our own darts, by our own folly. Varieties of diseases, sudden death, all incident calamities, banishment, poverty, persecution, prisons: That since that dwels in us, which raiseth the perpetual war betwixt the flesh and the Spirit, all those prostitutions of the body to vile lusts and affections, renders it to be a body humilitatis nostrae of our humbling. For to this low condition it could not, it n…ver had been brought, had we, or could we keep it in that Glory in which God first form'd it.
It is now a Body of sin, and is it then any wonder that it should be a body of humility? Pamper it up with the Tribute of sea and land,Rom. 6.6. feed it with the choicest meats, attire it with the entrals of worms, swathe it with the linnen of Egypt, and crown it with the buds of roses, yet it is but vile corpus, a base and humbled body all this while. Yea for the most part the baser, the more curiously attired, and deliciously fatted: For what do those powdred frizles, and plaistred cheeks, those errant looks, those spots and wanton hair, those new-fangled dresses, and rich jewels? what those extructae mensae, that pile of dishes, and variety of sauces, but increase the bodies sin? and look how far sin is increased, so far still the body is embased and humbled. They then who go about most to grace these bodies, may debase them most. The ready way to free them from this vility, is to cease from sin. Every sin that is refrain'd, is a recovery of some part of our prime Nobility. For he grows neerest to his original beauty, who is most righteous, most holy, most sober, most just.
2. Which when he hath done to the utmost, yet he shall be sure to carry about him too much sin still; and this will never leave, as some evil humour in the body, never I say leave operating, till it make him acknowledge, that his Body is but vile, and hath designed him to corruption. Even we, saith the Apostle, we who have our conversation in heaven, carry about us but a vile body. The ways of God are wonderful and full of equity. Princes do often command the very houses of rebellious Subjects to be demolished, and some inscription upon an Obelisk to be there engraven, to testifie to posterity their base attempt and treason: And the God of heaven seems to deal thus with his rebel Man; he demolisheth and brings to the Grave the house of his body, and sets this Inscription upon it,Gen. 3.19. Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return: upon which no man can fasten his eye, but he must needs confesse, that he hath but a vile body.
But behold the goodness of Almighty God, in the midst of judgement he remembers mercy; of a punishment he makes a remedy, and of poyson a soveraign medicine. He suffered not this body to be base, that it should be embased for ever, but hath ordered that the humility should be a step to Glory. Take a view of the ways and works of God, and you shall find this his course, to give Grace to that which is humble. At the first Creation, his Method was to proceed from the more imperfect creatures to the more perfect: Nothing was before something,Gen. 1. darkness before light, inanimate creatures, the light, the heavens, the elements before the plants and beasts; beasts and plants before Man: And thus it is in his ways of Grace; he brings low before he exalts; to the dust of death, before he sets up. To the body here, we find a promise of Glory, but there is no claim to that, till it hath been in the grave.
1 Cor. 15.42.The Apostle reckons of it, as we do of our seed, which you know must be cast into the earth, plough'd in, and harrow'd, nay be chang'd and die, before it soften, and move, and quicken, and appear above ground: before it be green in the herb, shoot in the blade, grow strong in the stalk, and be crown'd in the ear:ver. 43. Thus it is with the Body, sown it is in corruption before it be raised to incoruption; sowen in dishonour, before it be raised in glory: sown a meer Natural, Ver. 47.a meer earthy body, before it can be either heavenly or spiritual. The first Adam from the earth did embase it, before the second Adam the Lord from heaven will exalt it.
Nazianz. Apolog.That great Divine Nazianzen gives two reasons why it would please God to send down into the Body the soul of man, being of it self foreign from God, and foreign and of a divine nature, and humble it by the Conjunction to so base a peice; This, saith he, was done,
1. First, that this Divine part by little and little might mend and better the earthy; that what God is to the soul, that the soul might be to the Body, impart life, and sense, and motion and instruction to it, and after a fit preparation might at last be rejoyned to it, and seat it in heaven with it.
2. But the other was, that together with the body it should be in conflict before it were crown'd; fast, and pray, and watch, and labour, all which are works of humility, before it could bring the Body its fellow-servant to Glory.
Bern.Can but the soul at the last day put in some such plea as this in behalf of the Body: Lord, when I thy servant was sent by thy command to sojourn in a house of clay, I met with a companion hat did submit unto me, that bowed the knee with me, that spared no pains or me, that wore out it self for my good, in much fasting, in often labour, in watchings above measure, in hunger, and thirst, and cold: Remember therefore this my fellow-servant, let it not lie in the dust, let it not putrifie and rot there for ever, but raise it from thence, and joyn it once more to me, that we both may be joyned in thy glory, which were once joyned in thy service. Such an Apology as this of the soul; will be of great force to the Body, that of a vile, humble and ignominious body, it may be made Glorious like Christs: which is the second state in which we are to consider it.
2. It shall be like Christs Glorious Body.
As those who never were in a strange Country, after much hear-say travailing that way, ask before they arrive, what manner of land it is? how it is situated? what commodities, what pleasures, what profit it yieldeth? So we in this our passage to Gloty, because we are pilgrims, and onward in the way, are still desirous to know what our estate shal… be in that state of happiness. This the learned have taught us shall consist in the beauty of a double robe, that then shall be bestowed upon us; one upon the soul, another upon the Body. The stole or robe which shall then invest the soul, shall be composed first in the manifest vision of God, which is to succeed our faith;1 Cor. 13.12. for we shall see him face to face: then in the perfect fruition of God, which compleats our hope; for we shall nor hunger nor thirst any more: Revel. 7.16. 1 Cor. 13.8.And in the perfect love of God, which will satisfie our Charity; for charity shall never fall away. To see God, to enjoy God, perfectly to be joyned to God in love, must needs be a greater happiness then heart can conceive or tongue express.Greg. Moral. 27, 26. So true is that of Gr…gory, Cum homo mortalis de aeterna gloria disputat, coecus de luce disserit.
But for that Stole and Robe put upon the Body, the Apostle hath said enough to satisfie any sober mind; It shall be like Christs glorious Body, and would you have more: he that shall he like Christ, shall be glorious enough. The particulars of this Glory, cannot be truly known by us in this life, yet may be gathered by Christs words comparing them to the brightness of the Sun; and affirming them to be e…ual with the Angels;Luke 20.36. by the story of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ,Luke 9.28. 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes. 4.17. and his transfiguration on Mount Tabor; as also out of Saint Pauls Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians, that they shall be very glorious. And the wisest Divines and Schoolmen conceive their glory shall consist in these excellencies. In Immortality, Beauty, Impassibility, Agility, Subtilty.
1. The first is Immortality; For this mortal shall put on immortality, 1 Cor, 15.43.and this corruptible incorruption; and if Christ by his death, destroyed sin and death, then the life of the Saints must be immortal. Besides, how could the reward of their works be eternal life, except they should live for ever to enjoy them? evident then it is, that this body which now dies, shall be no more subject to the stroke and sorrows of death, after it is once raised from the grave.
2. The second endowment of these glorified bodies, is Beauty,Rom. 8.18. arising from that splendor, brightness, and clarity that shall be revealed in them. How singular this shall be our Saviour himself declares, when he saith,Mat. 13.43. that the just shall shine like the Sun, that is, some of the just;1 Cor. 15.41, 24. for others shall shine as the Moon and Stars; all shine then, but not all in a like degree. A wonderful and strange thing, that this clod of earth, so thickned and compacted, that it is opacous, should become so light and transparent, as is the most Christal glasse, or clearest Diamond. Of this our Saviour gave us a pattern in the Mount, when his face did shine as the Sun, Mat. 17.2.and his rayment was white as the Light.
3. And as these Bodies shall be beautiful, so shall they be impassible also. Those troublesom affections of grief, and fear, or what else here disturb, shall not fall upon glorified Saints. It is true, they have love and joy in their greatest perfections; for they could not be perfect withou them. But look as God is said to love, and hate, and joy, but in a manner far abstracted from humane sense, so do his Saints also in imitation of him, but far from all infirmity and passion.
Of affections and passions there is not the same judgement to be given. For some there are of a froward nature, which do pine away and trouble the body, as hunger, and thirst, and diseases, and grief, &c. From these and the like incumbrances the Saints in heaven shall be freed. For they cannot be distempered with heat and cold, nor tormented with hunger and thirst, nor afflicted with sicknesse and infirmity. Caro in patria secundum naturam erit, non s cundum desideria passionum: Aug.Our flesh is there, but not our desires, and passions; for we can no more be molested, then we can die; But other passions there are, which do rather help and perfect, then hurt, as the information of the senses, as the eye is not offended with a beautiful colour, nor the ear with harmony, and these shall remain in our glorified bodies, because our happiness could not be perfect without them; but yet so ordered and regulated, that the man from them shall receive no prejudice.
4. The next endowment of a glorified body, is Agility, nimblenesse, and quickness, whereby the flesh is freed from all lumpish heavinesse, with which it is now hindered. The body and the parts shall be so subjected to the soul, that ubi volet Spiritus, August. Rev. 14.4.protinus ibi erit corpus. No motion shall be quicker. For they shall follow the Lamb, wheresoever he goeth; which motion in him being very speedy, the motion of their bodies must be very speedy also: so that no gravity or ponderosity of the flesh shall be able to retard them. Which were it not so, they never could rise with such speed, to meet the Lord in the air, and to be ever with the Lord.1 Thes. 4.17.
5. To these in the last place, they add Subtilty, which is not so to be understood, as if the Bodies of the Saints were converted into a Spirit, or were to be very aery or like the wind, but that their perception of any thing by the senses shall be exquisite, sharp, and subtile, acute; all feculency and grosseness which migh hinder the operation of the soul, being removed, which I conceive is Saint Pauls meaning, when he saith, It is sown a Natural, it is raised a Spiritual Body, 1 Cor. 15.44.that is, a body coming as neer the nature and activity of a Spirit, as a Body can do, both in its knowledge and affections. Ad vitam excitati liberabimur servitute animae, Epiph.& Spiritus administratio continua succedit.
Hitherto as in a glass, I have presented you with the prospect of the future Glory; in the speculation of which if you have taken any content, without question the enjoyment will far more delight you. For all this is as a noise brought afar off to your ear; that will be a pleasing object to ravish your eye. To behold the change, and be partakers of the alteration, will ravish you with so much joy, that you will forget all your labours and sorrows: Of which that I may give you some certainty, give ear again to our Apostle, and he will inform in what manner and by whose hand this shall be done; the manner is by a Change, the power that of Christ; which are the two remaining points, of both which I will now speak in order. First of the Manner.
3. foreign, transformabit, transfigurabit: Who shall change, transform, transfigure, or reformabit, shall reform.
Oecumen. in loc.foreign, &c. The Apostle here gives us a strange and indubitable argument, that this vile body shall be changed and made conformable to his glorious body; for if our Lord Jesus Christ comes for that end, who can doub… but it shall be done?
A change there shall be in the qualities, not the substance of the body; such as was in our Saviours body in Mount Tabor, which was not in the lineaments and proportions, or parts, but in the fashion:Luke 9.29. and our body at that day shall be foreign, conformable to that change. The word used by Saint Matthew and Saint Mark in that transfiguration. The self same corpse that dyed and was dissolved, and laid up either in the womb of the earth, or the maws of wild beasts, or the depth of the Ocean, or any whereelse, shall be set up with the same bones, enlived with the same blood, moved with the same sinews, muscles, arteries, and covered with the same skin. Whatsoever only was imperfect, shall be done away; what was here vile and base, shall be there glorified.
Let not then the Philosopher tell me any more of natures ignorance and disability to make a dead man live; for our Christian profession hath taught me that which will make Nature and Death amazed: Nature; that living men should rise out of the dust and ashes scattered and varyed into a thousand forms: Death, that life would be born out of its bowels. And Death and Nature both strucken with amazement, to behold the same man Virbium, twice born; first a weakling and an infant, then again firm and perfect; first an heir of corruption, and at last a son of glory.
Nor let those wicked off-spring of the old Sadducees, pretend no more the defects or deformities of the body as a colourable argument to scoff down the Truth of the Bodies Resurrection; as if a lame leg, or a blind eye, or a gowty foot, or an infected liver, or putrified lungs, or other imperfections of a diseased man were sufficient allegations to confine the body to an eternal imprisonment. What, say they, shall the body rise again to be vexed with all these? to be anhelous, and dark, and apostemated, and diverse ways necessitated? Better lie in the grave for ever, then to arise to such inconvenience; Better indeed; for,
foreign
foreign.Sophocl. Ajax.
No man desireth many days to see
In which from miseries he's nere set free.
But how foolish and blind these Objectors are,Mat. 22.29. not understanding the Scriptures! For the Apostle saith here foreign, that Christ at that day shall make a change, a change like to that of his own body, glorious like his, perfect like his; all then which was decayed, imperfect, weak and ruinous, shall be changed into such perfection as may beautifie a glorified body. The composition shall be the same, not the deformity.
But they reply, How is it then the same body?Tertul. de resurrect. carnis. as if a sick man recovered were not the same man; or a repaired house or ship, the same vessel or edifice. Will any man say that Moses hand when it was leprous, white as snow,Exod. 14.4. and when it was restored and full of blood, was not the same hand? If a man should set his slave at liberty, because he carries about him the same body, must he of necessity be sub…ect to the same lash, the same torments, the same injuries, or else not be the same man? Give God but the same liberty, that men us…rp over their slaves, and then I hope he may easily alter the condition, though he change not the substance of our flesh; he may make a man aliu…s, though not aliud; another man, though not another thing; take away he may the imperfections, and bestow upon it integrity: make that, which of its own nature is passible, become impassible, because it is manumissed by him.
Nay it must be so; for how otherwise should it be restored to its first integrity, how to immortality? Is not the contusion or infirmity, or defect to any part, a kind of death to that part? do we not call that a dead hand, which in a palsie is of no use, and dead flesh, that cannot be recovered and made useful? Now if the universal sentence of death over the body be reversed, shall it remain in force upon some part? shall an indulgence be granted to the whole,1 Cor. 15.52. and shall any one Member suffer? The dead shall rise incorruptible, saith our Apostle, but how incorruptible, if a hand be dead, or the back be bruised, or a foot be full of ulcers? As we must be changed into Glory, so we must be changed from corruption.
Again, al the maims of the body are but adventitious and outward casualties; Nature intends them not, God made them not; it was the defects, or excess of the matter, or some outward or inward impressions which caused these exorbitances. An entire body was intended by the first Cause, and so God made man perfect after his own image. Prius est genus quam casus. In what perfection then life was bestowed, in the same it shall be restored; naturae non injuriae reddimur, we shall be renewed after the model of our first generation, not to the pattern of our degeneration; rise we shall as we were first created in Adam, not with those hurts, and wounds, and blows, and defects and deformities which sin hath given us.
Further yet, si non nisi integros Deus suscitat, non suscitat mortuos; If God shall raise none but entire men, and without defects, he must raise no dead at all. For what man is there lies entire and uncorrupted in his grave, let him die never so entire and complete in every part? What body is there that receives not some maim, when the soul parts from it, when it lies cold, and pale, and wan in the grave! even those embalmed carkasses in the Egyptian Pyramids laid up with the greatest cost and care against the teeth and injuries of time, are not yet so absolute and beautiful, as when the soul enliv'd them. If then the deformities and decayes of the body should hinder its resurrection, it must needs follow that none should arise, when there is not one, which either alive or dead, contracts not deformity.
But this is contrary to the Apostle, who saith, he shall change our vile Body, and make it glorious. Which how could it be done, should it not arise? The soul is indeed Christs Spouse, and the body is cast in for the dowry: Dot is nomine sequetur animam caro: He that marries the wife, hath right to the portion, and may call for it. The Body then as the dowry laid up in these receptacles below, shall in good time be called for again, and joyned to the soul, and both together be presented to Christ, never to be divorced either from each other, or from him for ever.
And there be these weighty reasons that perswade it.
1. The soul is but the half of man, though the better half. The other half is the Body: so that should Christ be a Saviour of the soul only, and leave the Body in the grave, that great work were done by halfes, and so he should not be a whole Redeemer, which is quite contrary to the order in which …e works, who never did any thing but he made it full, perfect, compleat.
2. This out of doubt is the souls desire. These two old friends that live so many years together, do not part without great reluctancy, never but upon assured promises, and expectation to meet again. The ashes of the dead were not reserved in urns for nothing, nor rheir bodies embalm'd, or their bones carefully laid up to no purpose. It shews that they, for whom this charitable act was done, had a mind this way: One that while he was yet in the body, desired to be dissolved, yet in another place corrects or interprets himself thus,Philip. 1.23. We that are in this Tabernacle, do groan being burdened: not for that we would be uncloathed, but cloathed upon. And this desire shall not be frustrate;2 Cor. 3.4. for God hath decreed that the graves shall open, and Christ hath promised,Rev. 20.13. Joh. 8.51, 52. Chrysost. That if any man keep his word, he shall not see death for ever, but shall pass from death to life. Moritur ergo, moritur omnis, &c. Every man, every man dies who is born of a mortal condition; but every man shall live for ever, who is re-born of an immortal seed.
Thirdly, Suppose the Body should not rise,Epiphan. in in Ancor. the sentence of the Judge at the great day might be evacuated; For if the soul should appear alone, it might answer to the accuser of the brethren; The sin charged upon me rose not from me, but from that corruptible and earthly body; that committed the adultery, that stole, slandred, lived intemperately; for since it was separated from me, it cannot be found that I have committed any such thing; An honest Apology, and seasonable to stay the Judges sentence. On the other side, should the Body appear without the soul, it might plead, It is not I sinned, but the soul; for I never committed any villany since it departed, and to…k leave of me. To remove then all excuse and Apology, God hath decreed to conjoyn both parts of man, soul and Body together again, and set them before his Tribunal, that they who laboured in the ways of holiness, receive a good reward from him; and they who have wearied themselves in the works of wickedness, be judged accordingly; the body together with the soul,Wisd. 5.7. and the soul together with the body.
Fourthly, I add, that this is most agreeable to Gods justice; For shall both parts be co-workers in good and bad, and not both partake in pain and joy? What reason is there that the body should fast, should kneel, do penance, be in want, in torment, in peril, and the soul only rewarded? again the soul draws the body to act her wicked designs, and shall it only be punished?Tertul. de resurrect. carnis. Deum non licet injustum credere Judicem, aut inertem. But unjust he should seem, if he kept the co-partner in the work from the reward: and neglectful, if he should separate the companion of evil from the deserved punishment. Oh be it far from the Judge of the world, but to do right; far from him to take the work of his own hands, the image of his own body, that part which he hath washed with his holy water and Spirit, and set his own seal in Baptism, which sometime fights for him, sometimes dies for him, and cast it to the worms never to be seen again.
Lastly, this argument fetcht from Gods justice, is as powerful for the Identity of the Body: thar must arise the same that was conquered by Death, and no other. The Body with the same eyes, the same lips, the same knees, the same back, the same skin. For what justice were it for one back to be beaten, and another to receive the reward? for one pair of eyes to drop down tears day and night, and another couple of eyes to have the tears wiped from them? Meet it is one would think, that the pay be reserved for that Body, that did the service. Either then flatly deny the resurrection, or grant this indu…gence also. But that no Christian doubt of either, the Scriptu…es speak fully and expresly for both. The Body shall rise, and not at large, but individually. This Body, This corruptible shall put on incorruption. These eyes shall see, and no other.1 Cor. 15.53. Job 19.26, 27. 1 Cor. 15.36, 37. Luke 24.5, 6. Epiphan. in Ancor. Heb. 11.5. 2 Kings 2.11. cap 4.34. Joh. 11.44. Tertul. de Resur. carnis, cap. ult. The same grain, that whole grain which was cast into the earth, not another kind nor a part of it only: as it was with our Saviours Body, which after three dayes was raised whole and the same, which was embalm'd and wrapt up by Joseph in fine linnen, to which ours, saith our Apostle, must be foreign, every way conformable, and then must arise the same, and entirely the same; For what reason can there be given, that God who is no accepter of persons, should raise one part, and cast aside another? Enoch was translated vvholly in his Uncircumcision, Elijah vvholly in his Circumcision; Enoch a Husband, Elijah a Virgin. The Shunamites Son vvas restored to life, the same, and entire; and Lazarus fetcht from his Sepulchre even vvith his grave-clothes about him. But vvhy do I seek proofs for this, since our Apostle teaches us, that it shall be only foreign, a change only? now, that is, when the qualities of a body are altered, and not the substance: and therefore I shall conclude with Tertullian; Resurget igitur Caro, & quidem omnis, & quidem ipsa, & quidem integra. The flesh shall arise, all flesh, the same flesh, and that entire. Are you ready to ask with Mary in admiration, foreign, How can this thing be? Luke 1.34.The Apostle hath put an answer in my mouth, almost the same which the Angel in that place gave, Virtus altissimi, the power of the most High shall do this! Ver. 35.There it was foreign, here it is foreign? there it was the power, here it tis the working of that power; He shall do it, saith our Apostle.
4. According to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.
Christ shall do it, and he shall do it by that power whereby he is able to subdue all things, and then he must be God against Arrius. This power to subdue all things, can be no less than the power of the Deity, among which this is a chief to raise the dead. That Christ was the Exemplar of our Resurrection, ye have heard before; for it was expressed in him, and begun in him, our body being to be reformed according to his body, and to be glorified according to his body. Now we are to look upon him as he is the efficient cause, one that hath power to do it.
Matth. 28.18.All power was after his Resurrection given unto him, and therefore he hath power to subdue Death; and well doth the Apostle use the word foreign for something there is which doth carry a great sway in the World, and brings all things out of order; among which Death is chief, which subdues all things, and brings them to that place where there is nothing but confusion. Well then death it self shall be ordered; as it hath subdued all things,1 Cor. 15.26. so it self must be subdued; 'tis our last enemy, and it shall last be destroyed. Nothing is able to bind this King of fear, but the power of Christ:Albert. magnus. in 4. Senten. Dist. 43. Three great works there are of God, in which he doth manifest his power especially. The Creation of all things; the Re-creation of man, and the Resurrection. The Creation was a work of power; for he said the word only, and all things were created. The Regeneration is a work of power;Job 14.4. Acts 2.2. for who can make a clean thing of an unclean, but the power of his Spirit, that came in a mighty rushing wind? And to raise a dead body from the Grave, can be done by none, but by him that hath power, in which Christ shall come again: The sound of the Trumpet, the voyce of the Archangel, 1 Thess. 4.16.which they in their Graves shall hear, and rise, being of this evident testimonies; for at the last day this potent and unruly Tyrant death shall deliver up her Captives, and bring forth her prisoners, and set every one of them before the Judge; the power of the Lord of Hosts shall do this.
That the body shall arise from the Grave again, and the same body that was laid up in the Grave, there be proofs to be fetched as you have heard, from the justice of God, with whom it is a righteous thing to joyn them in reward, who have been yoked in the work: But it is not an act of justice to raise a dead body, to change a rotttn body, and to glorifie a vile body; there must be power to do this. Justice may reward after it is risen, but power it must be that must first raise. And power it is, that foreign, is working here, the voyce and Trumper of the Archangel, by which the Son of God works;1 Thess. 4.15. that being heard by all these sleepers in their Beds, awakes them, and calls them up.
He that doubts of this change, let him but consider what God can do, and it will stay his diffidence.Rom. 4.19. Numb. 17.8. Sarahs dead womb to conceive a childe; the shrivel'd Rod of Aaron to bud forth in a Night, and bear Almonds; children to be raised to Abraham out of stones; a Prophet to be kept alive in, and fetch't out the belly of a Whale, were all effects of his power,Matth. 3.9. Jonah 2.10. and every whit as strange as this can be. What is any thing impossible to him who is Almighty? He made the whole World out of nothing, and what cannot he do that did that? Plus est f…cisse, quam refecisse. More it is to make, than re-make; more to build an house, than to repair it. No question then, but God is able to repair his building when it is destroy'd, to set it up again, when it is dissolv'd; to beautifie it, when it is defac'd; otherwise we shall at unawares confess, that it is a harder matter to raise a dead body from the Earth, which is somewhat, than to make the World out of nothing. I know well that from h…s power to the effect, necessarily the Argument will not follow, except there be an evidence of his will also: But this he hath signified to us by a Cloud of witnesses, all which have taught us, that he will do it; so that being certain of his will as well as his power, there can be no doubt made of the event.
Cast but an eye upon the examples of Gods will and power conjoyned,Tertull. de Res. carnis. cap. 12. and you will cease to wonder how this can be done; for we have in nature obscure significations, and pawnes as it were of the bodies uprising. The day dies every Evening, and is buried in a pitchy darkness, which Funeral as I may so say, of the Sun, is solemnly observed, every Creature being a Mourner; for all costly vestments are deposed, all creatures are silent, as in the lamentation of Thammuz. There is everywhere a vacation from labour, and a cessation from work;Ezek. 8.14. and yet within the compass of a few houres, this dead and entomb'd day rises again; and shews to the World it self perhaps in more beauty and lustre; in brighter beams and rayes than it departed the night before, taking revenge on the former night that murdered it, and breaking asunder the grave of darkness, in which it was imprisoned. What doth the Moon else, but every MonethMonth suffer (as I may so say) a Resurrection, when the darker parts are again enlightned, and the eclipsed Orb filled up with a full light.
I descend lower; Quippe Terrae de Coelo Disciplina est; the earth is disciplin'd by the heaven above to revive and shew her youth; in which every Tree after a Winters nakedness, appears in a Summer fresh suit; every flower puts forth in a party coloured vest; the earth is mantled w th green; corn that was buried, shoots toward the blade and ear, and Dame Nature, like a careful Nurse, returns back again those seeds and fruits, and sustenance which was exhausted: O wonderful work, this provident mother defrauds us for awhile of these things, that she may preserve them for us the next year; takes them away, that she may return them; devoures, that she may keep; vitiates, that she may make them more entire; seems to waste and destroy, that she may increase them; for in the next year she presents them again in a better hew, and greater plenty than she laid them up, paying us manifold use for our fo…bearance, and large interest for the wrong she seems to do in the burial, and detaining our seeds a great part of the year.
Th…s annual revolution of all worldly things, is no other than a natural emblem of the Resurrection of our Bodies; God writing this Article in fair letters upon his works, before it was book'd in his Word; he would have us first take out this lesson from nature, before he would instruct us by Scripture, that when his Prophets should reach us that of which he had before given us some praecognita, we might the easlier yield our assent. A good Scholar in Nature will not easily deny that principle in Scripture which he hath learned before; but must needs judge that possible, which he sees daily feazable; and upon the self-same ground of Gods omnipotency and power that this is to be done, doubt he will not, but the same hand of God is able, and will raise the body, which can and doth revive all other th…ngs: It is not easie to imagine, that when all things besides have their revolutions and vicissitudes, and innovations for the sustenance of mans body, that that body for which they were ordained, shall fall and dye, and perish for ever.
The APPLICATION.
The comfort of this Doctrine is very cordial, even to that part to which we wish well. Death may wrastle with, cast down, trample upon, and make a prey of this our body; but devour'd by death it shall never be, for it shall be changed; so that our very body may rest in hope, that it shall be restored again, and made like to Christs glorious body. Certain it is that death is a fall, but not like that of a stone into the Sea, that falls, and falls, and falls, and mounts no more. It is more like to that of the seed in our Gardens, which shoots the next Month; or that of our bodies into our Beds, from whence we hope to arise at the appearing of the next Sun. Now that this our hope should be Anchora spei, Anchor-hope, fast, firm, stable, our Saviour hath secured us by a pawn or a pledge. He hath taken a body upon him, humble like ours, mortal like ours, and carried it to heaven, and glorified it there; that this of ours, of the same mould and condition with his might have access thither.
1 Cor. 15.50.Say no more then, flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of heaven; for flesh and blood shall, and flesh and blood doth inherit that Kingdom. The impur…ry and corruption of neither shall ever come there, but the substance shall.Acts 1.9. A man like unto us, sin excepted, is ascended thither, is now there glorified; and therefore why may not we come thither in good time also? For if Christs body be glorified, then there is a glorifying of the body; and if a glorifyifig of one, then flesh and blood can be no impediment, but there may be the glorifying of another. If he be glorified in our nature, then is our nature glorified; and if our nature be, why not our persons also?
O Death, how bitter is thy remembrance to a meer son of nature? which disjoyn'st the dearest friends tyed in the links of love; separatest the nearer brothers cemented by the flow of blood. I have felt thy malice when thou snatched'st away half my soul, when thou gavest a Bill of Divorce to her in my bosome; when thou didst pull away my dear Infants hanging at the breasts; when thou removedst from me my wife, my learned, my sweetest counsel: In a word, when thou tookest from me my sweetest soul, and laidst up my body in a darksome Dungeon; this was thy Tyranny, such thy rage.
Isa. 1.31. Matth. 12.41.But behold, all thy strength is become as Towe, thy fury as flax; all thy nerves are weakned, and thy sinews shrunk, ever since thou hast devoured that Prophet greater than Jonah, whom against thy will thou returnest to life. O Death, 1 Cor. 15.55.where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? We know now that our Redeemer liveth, and that we shall see God; that is, the power of God in our flesh.
Christ is now glorified, solus, non totus; glorified he is with all kind of happiness, essential, accessory; but he is not glorified whole, or all Christ; for his Church bears his Name, and is a part of the whole; till then these bodies of his Saints shall be glorified also, he may be said to be glorified but in part; and that he may be wholly glorified, all we that are members of his body, must be changed from this humbled body, and be glorified also. A type of this he gave us in Enoch, 1 Cor. 12.12. Hebr. 11.5. 2 Kings 2.11.whom he translated, and security for it in Elijah, whom he mounted in a fiery Chariot to Heaven; both these were umbrae futurorum, shadows of things to come; but shadows are but empty things; that therefore we should have real dealing from him, he hath passed over to us for performance of this a greater security, the body of his Son. His body in heaven is our security that our bo…ies shall come thither.
Neither can the foreign, the vility, ignominy, meanness, lowness, baseness, humility (call it be what name you please) of the flesh hinder our glory; for can there any flesh and blood be more humbled, more ignominious than his was? The God whom the heavens cannot contain, in a childs body of a span long, array'd in Clouts, housed in a Stable, laid in a Manger; This was his beginning; as he grew up, so his sorrows: In his body he suffered cold and heat, hunger and thirst, fainting and weariness. But all this was nothing to his end; then we shall find such a body so rent, so torn, so black with stripes, so blew with blowes, so bloody with whips, so scratched with thorns, so pierced with nails, that even they who were by, for very shame turned away their faces from him: His visage was more marr'd than any man; Isa. 53.2. Isa. 52.14.and his form more than the sons of men. Sure I am that you will confess, that here was a body of humility, and yet this was no let or impediment to the glorification of it, neither shall the like be to yours; for the body, which was thus disgrac'd and vilified, is the very pattern for your glory. In heaven, foreign, like to this body yours shall be, and no other.
To conclude then, Enter into those Chambers of the dead, and look upon their Beds with comfort; See where thy Father, thy Mother, thy Husband, thy Wife, thy Child, thy Friend is at rest, and weep for him, yet weep not without hope; 1 Thess. 4.13.for these are all but asleep, there is a Trumpet that will awake them, there's a voyce that will call them up, when they shall be cloathed again, and suited with a clearer skin than they put off; 'twill do you good to behold their glory, and they'le be glad at heart to see yours. Both will stand amazed at each others perfections, and both will joyn together to praise the God of glory.
Look upon death then, not as it is in it self, with a bare skull, hollow eyes, a pale face, and a bony Sceleton; but as thy Saviour hath made it, 1 Cor. 15.55.Death without a sting, Death without the Trophies of Death. At that day it will not be so terrible as comfortable; for it will reduce the soul back to the body, men to their friends, children to their parents, husbands to their wives, all these to the Angels, when the Angels will present them to Christ, Christ to God, with whom they shall live for ever and ever. Amen.
This Sermon is applicable to the close of the Creed.