Whenever he they cannot in any Shape efcape his Awake thou that fleepest, and Arife from the Dead Come again ye Children of Men All the Elements at that Day shall Hear and Obey his Voice, and render up their Dead. For fueris, quæcunque te Ubicunque refolutus though his Creatures are fo Materia deftruxerit, Short and Stinted in their hauferit, aboleverit, in 'Nihilum prodegerit Natural Power, yet they all reddet te. Tertull. in of them have what the School- Apologet. { men call an Obediential Power, a Power or Capacity Inftrumentally to fulfill the Commands of their Maker. Or if any Part of our Body fhall happen in all its range of Transformations to become food to another Human Body, it may please God in his All-wife Providence, that it may not at all Concorporate, or elfe, wear off again to be Reftored to its Primitive Owner. Though probably the Same Body ought not to be fo ftrictly taken For when the Body is wafted, and by lingring Sicknefs half Confumed, the more Unneceffary Parts of our Flesh being worn away, yet we ftill account it the Same Body. But in whatever Strictness that Promife of Railing the Same Body is to be taken, God's Veracity is engag'd for the the Performance of his Promise, and therefore if his Providence fhall not Order it according to our Conjectures, he will certainly Do it in fome Other way to us Unknown. For though we may modeftly Enquire, (fo far as we have the Scripture for our Guide,) even into the Particulars, and Manner of the Resurrection; yet if after all we cannot come to a Sober Satisfactory Knowledge, a Modeft and Contented Ignorance will do full as well. But by what has hitherto been faid concerning our Rifing with the Same Body, I would not be grofsly underftood to mean the Same Body in all refpects. All that I mean thereby is This that it fhall at the Refurrection be the Same Body in Substance, but exceedingly Changed in its Qualities and Properties. C. Were we left only to our Reason, we fhould be very much in the Dark, (as we ftill are in great measure,) about all the Circumftances of our Future State, and the Change that shall be wrought in us at the Refurrection. But St. Paul has given us great Light as to that Particular, in that very remarkable Place, 1 Cor. xv. 42, where speaking of the Body he tells us It is Sown in Corruption, it is Raifed in Incorruption; It is Sown in Dishonour, it is Raifed in Glory; It is Sown in Weaknefs, it is Raifed in Power; It is Sown a Natural Body, it is Raifed a Spiritual Body. Here are Four Particulars wherein he makes the Difference to lie betwixt a Terreftrial and Cæleftial, or betwixt an Earthly and Glorified Body. 1. It is Sown in Corruption, it is v. 42. Raifed in Incorruption For This Cor- v. 53. ruptible (fays he,) must put on Incorruption, and This Mortal must put on Immortality. This Earthly Tabernacle that at present the Soul inhabits, is a Weakly Crazy Building; Weak Within from its own Natural Inbred Principles of Corruption, and daily Affaulted from Without, Expofed to a thoufand Accidents and Diseases that will shortly fetch it down: But when Our Earthly 2 Cor. vi Houfe of this Tabernacle fhall be Diffolved, That we look for in the other World fhall be Eternal in the Heavens. 1 Immortality and Incorruption, ftrictly taken for an Eternity of Duration fhall be the Portion of the Wicked alfo in their own Place, a Place of Mifery and Torment; Which is fuch an Immortality of Life, that it is commonly called by the name of Eternal Death. But as to the Children of the 1. Refurrection, thofe that fhall arife to the Refurrection of Life, They, our Saviour Mat. xxii. tells us, not only can Dye no more, but Luke xx. that they shall be as the Angels of God in Heaven, Incorruptible and Immortal, and Live together with them in a Bleffed Immortality. 8.. t 2dly. It is Sown in Dishonour, it shall be Raifed in Glory. When it is Sown in the Grave it is Vile and Loathfome; and fo frightful and ghaftly, that the Gen.xxiii. Dearest Friends are glad to bury their Dead out of their Sight. But it shall be Raifed in Glory It is impoffible for us whilft on Earth to have any Idea, or juft Conceptions of the Glory of the Heavenly State. Our Thoughts are not able to Conceive it; and God never was pleafed fully to Reveal it: Nor did he ever fhow the leaft glimpfe of it to Mortal Eyes, but they were dazzled and overpowered with the Luftre of it. When God, whilft he converfed with Mofes, had communicated to him but one Ray of his Glory, the Children of Ifrael, we are told, could not behold him for the Glory of his Counte-nance. And when our Lord at his Transfiguration on the Mount had array'd his Earthly Body with but a beam of Heavenly Glory, his Apoftles were were ravisht and lost in Admiration of it- His Face did fbine as the Sun, (fays the Evangelift,) and his Raiment was White as the Light. This was a fhort Anticipation of a little of his future glory, which should be in his Spiritualized Body. I cannot fay in what proportion it will be; but the Apostle has affured us in the general, that he Phil. iii. will change Our Vile Body, and make it 21. like unto his glorious Body. Then fball the Mat, xiii. Righteous fhine as the Sun in the Glory of 43. their Father. 3dly. It is Sown in Weakness, it is Raifed in Power. Our Body is here frail and faint and Feeble; conftantly fubject to the Decays of Nature and Infirmities of Age; and ftands in need of Daily Recruits and Repairs, which it always has, yet is always wanting ftill more and more to maintain and Support it. And after all the Care and Pains that we can bestow upon it, yet how Heavy and lumpifh is it, and how unable eth down the Mind to keep pace with the fpright that museth upon ly Motions of the Mind, rather many things. hanging like a Dead Weight upon it? How many Weakneffes, and Wants, and Grievances of feveral kinds, has it ftill to complain of? Which gave R 2 The Corruptible Bo dy prefeth down the Soul, and the Earthy Tabernacle weigh Wifd. ix. 15. the |