Answ. It is no great difficulty to answer this objection, in which there is not a due difference put between the present and future state of believers. The only thing which might give occasion to men to conclude that their souls are imprisoned in this world is, because they are abridged of that happiness which they shall be possessed of in another; which the apostle calls The glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom. viii. 21. And as for the reproaches which some of the greatest enemies to Christianity have cast on this doctrine, these are not sufficient to beget the least dislike of it in the minds of serious and unprejudiced Christians. What though the body be turned to corruption? It shall be raised incorruptible, and in glory; and therefore shall be a palace fit to entertain its noble inhabitant: what though it has, in this world, offered many temptations to the soul to sin, by which it has been sometimes overcome and exposed to those passions that have defiled, and made it very uneasy; is this to be objected against its being raised from the dead in such a state of perfection, that it shall never more contract any guilt, or render the soul unhappy, by any inconvenience arising from it? But this will farther appear, when we speak of the condition in which the body shall be raised under a following head. We shall therefore proceed,
VI. To consider the resurrection of the dead as universal, including in it all who have lived, or shall live, from the beginning of time, till Christ’s second coming, excepting those who shall be found alive; on whom a change shall pass which is equivalent to a resurrection.
1. That all the dead shall be raised: this is expressly mentioned in that vision, I saw the dead both small and great, standing before God; and the books were opened; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works, Rev. xx. 12, & seq. where the Judge is represented as demanding the bodies of men of all ranks, conditions, and ages, out of those places where they have been lodged, with a design to reward or punish them according to their works: therefore, if the justice of God is to be displayed in this solemn and awful transaction, and the bodies as well as the souls of men, are the subjects on which this judgment must pass; then it follows, that it will be universal: thus our Saviour says, All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, John v. 28, 29. This is so evident a truth, founded on the divine perfections, as well as express words of scripture, that it is strange to find that any, who allow that the dead shall be raised, should deny the universality thereof.
However, we meet with several expressions in Rabbinical writers, which seem to speak of it as a peculiar privilege belonging to some, but not to all; and therefore they have a proverbial expression, that though the rain descends on the just and on the unjust, yet the resurrection of the dead belongs only to the just:[[180]] and this they infer from the words of the prophet Daniel, in chap. xii. 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; which words contain a difficulty which most have found it an hard matter to account for, agreeably to the sense of the prophet, who speaks, in the words immediately following, of the consequence hereof, as, some shall awake to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt; whereby he divides the world into two parts, and considers one as happy, the other as miserable; therefore he must, doubtless, speak of an universal resurrection. But the great difficulty lies in these words; Many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise; from whence, some conclude that this expression contains an exception of others who shall not arise: thus some Jewish writers seem to have understood it; but I rather think, that the word many, there, imports nothing else but the multitude, q. d. the whole number of those that sleep shall awake.[[181]]
It is somewhat hard to determine what the Rabbinical writers intend when they seem to confine the resurrection to the Israelites; and some of them to exclude, not only the wicked from it, but those that had not addicted themselves to the study of the law, whom they call the Gnam Haaretz: thus they are represented in scripture as giving them but a very indifferent character, The people that knoweth not the law are accursed, John vii. 49. by this means they bring the number of those that shall be raised from the dead into a very narrow compass: nevertheless they speak of future rewards and punishments in another world; therefore some have thought, when they exclude all but the Israelites, and, of them, all but those who were in the greatest reputation amongst them, that they understand nothing else by the resurrection, but that which they fancied would happen in the days of the Messiah; in which, they suppose, that some of the Jews shall be raised from the dead before the general resurrection at the last day; and in this sense we may easily understand their exclusive account, when they speak of many that shall not be partakers of this privilege; and if it be extended to the resurrection at the last day, then I am apt to think, that they intend hereby a resurrection to eternal life, and so some understand that common proverb but now mentioned, concerning the rain’s descending upon all; but the resurrection’s belonging only to the just, in this sense; that though the rain descends upon the wilderness, and barren ground; yet it is only some places which are made fruitful thereby: accordingly, though the resurrection be universal, both of the righteous and wicked; yet the resurrection to eternal life belongs only to the just.[[182]]
All that I shall observe at present is, that this is not altogether disagreeable to the scripture-mode of speaking; which, though in some places it asserts the resurrection of the whole world, in others, by the resurrection, we are to understand nothing else, but a resurrection to eternal life: thus the apostle Paul, when he speaks of his attaining unto the resurrection of the dead, Phil. iii. 11. intends hereby his obtaining a glorious resurrection. And our Saviour, when speaking concerning the happiness of the saints in another world, expresses it on this wise; that they shall be counted worthy, or meet, to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, Luke xx. 35. so that whatever is said by Jewish writers, tending to limit the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, to some particular persons, it does not appear but that even they held, in other respects, a general resurrection, both of the just and unjust; which is as demonstrable as is the resurrection in general.
2. They who are found alive at Christ’s second coming, shall undergo a change; which, though it cannot be called a resurrection, will be equivalent to it. The apostle Paul gives an account of this, as what was before unknown to the church; Behold I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. And elsewhere he speaks of them when thus changed, as caught up in the clouds together with other saints, that are raised from the dead, to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17. This is no less an effect of almighty power than a resurrection; for hereby their bodies, though never separated from their souls, are brought into the same state as the bodies of others shall be, when re-united to them, and thereby be rendered incorruptible and immortal, as the bodies of all other saints shall be, and made partakers of the same glory with which they are said to be raised. We have an emblem of this in Christ’s transfiguration, when there was such a change made, for the present, on his body, that his face shined as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And there was not only a resemblance, but a kind of specimen hereof, in the translation of Enoch and Elijah, whose bodies were before this, liable to corruption, and all other infirmities that attend this present life, but were made, in a moment, celestial and glorious. And the body of our Saviour, though it was raised from the dead incorruptible and immortal, yet, during the space of forty days, while he continued on earth, it was not made so glorious as it was immediately after the cloud received him into heaven, when it underwent such a change as was agreeable to the place and state into which he then entered; even so the bodies of the saints, at last, shall, by this change, be made meet for heaven, and received, with other saints into it.
VII. We shall now consider the condition in which the body shall be raised. And,
1. Those circumstances of honour and glory which respect more especially the resurrection of the just: this the apostle mentions, and describes them as raised in glory, 1, Cor. xv. 43. It is the same body indeed, that is raised, which he illustrates by a grain of wheat springing up, and changed into a full-grown ear; which, though it be greatly improved, and very much altered from what it was, when cast into the ground, yet every seed, as he observes, has its own body, ver. 38. From whence we may infer, that the same body shall be raised from the dead, though with very different qualities. There are several things mentioned by the apostle, in the account he gives of the bodies of the saints after the resurrection; which some have attempted to explain in such a way, as is hardly consistent with a resurrection of the same body. The Socinians generally maintain that the body shall be altogether new, as to its substance, as well as its qualities: and others speak of it as an aerial body; as supposing that the gross and heavy matter, of which it formerly consisted, is not adapted to an heavenly state, and would render it not altogether free from a liableness to corruption. This opinion a late writer mentions, as what was espoused by some of the Fathers, which he speaks very favourably of; and inasmuch as the apostle calls it a spiritual body, 1 Cor. xv. 45. and seems to distinguish it from flesh and blood, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, ver. 50. he thinks that though the same flesh and blood may rise from the grave, it will then or afterwards, receive such a change, as will render it spiritual and incorruptible; and so, perhaps, when it comes to heaven, will not be flesh and blood; or, that it will clothed with such an heavenly body as will keep it from a possibility of corruption; and accordingly he supposes that the apostle is to be understood in this sense, that flesh and blood unchanged and unclothed with its heavenly body, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; and that this body with which it shall be invested, will be thin, aerial, spiritual, bright, and shining; and, in that respect, may be called celestial.[[183]] The reason he assigns why flesh and blood, namely, such as is subject to corruption here, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, is, because the flesh may be cut and divided, and the blood let out, which would subject it to corruption; therefore it must be changed, and put on incorruption.
This account of the bodies of the just after the resurrection, seems, indeed, to be a medium between the two extremes, either of those who suppose that the body shall differ but little from what it was whilst here on earth, or of others, who conclude it to be nothing else but an aerial body; yet it contains several things taken for granted, without sufficient proof, which I cannot readily give into: nevertheless what he farther adds on this subject is undeniably true, viz. that the body, which before was subject to filth and deformity, is raised in glory and splendor, shining like the sun, Matt. xxiii. 43. That which was once vile, is fashioned like Christ’s glorious body, Phil. iii. 21. and is freed from all defect or deformity in its members, and from any dishonourable parts. Not subject to weakness by labour, decays of age, to impotency and wasting by diseases; but nimble, strong, active, and that without reluctancy or molestation, grief, pain, or lassitude; it is raised a spiritual body, possessed and acted by the Holy Spirit; and advanced so far to the perfection of spirits, as to be free from grossness, ponderosity, from needing rest, sleep, or sustenance, and is fitted for a spiritual and celestial state in which our bodies shall wholly serve our spirits, and depend upon them, and therefore may be styled spiritual. If we stop here, without giving too much scope to our wit and fancy, in advancing things too high for us, and confess that we know not, or, at least, but a little of the affairs of an unseen world; or, as the apostle says, what we shall be, Phil. iii. 21. we say enough to give us an occasion to conclude that it is a glorious and desirable state, and the change wrought therein, such as fully answers our most raised expectations, and is agreeable to a state of perfect blessedness. Thus concerning the condition and circumstances in which the saints shall be raised.