profess Christianity? and do you question the resurrection of the body? Do you not know, that the resurrection of the body and glory to follow, is the very quintessence of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you ignorant of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? And do you question the power and faithfulness of God, both to his Son and his saints, because you say, there shall be no resurrection of the dead? You are ignorant of God; of what he can do, of what he will do, and of how he will by doing glorify himself.

As it argueth very great ignorance of God's power, promise, and faithfulness; so it argueth gross ignorance of the tenor and current of the scriptures. "For," as touching the dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses (saith Christ) how that God said unto him in the bush, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ye do therefore greatly err." To be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is to be understood of his being their God under a new covenant relation; as he saith, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Now, thus he is not the God of the dead, that is, of those that perish, whether they be angels or men.

Now, I say, they that are the children of God, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they are counted the 'living,' under a threefold consideration. 1. In their Lord and Head. And thus all the elect may be said to live; for they are from eternity chosen in him, who also is their life, though possibly many of them yet unconverted: yet, I say, Christ is their life, by the eternal purpose of God. 2. The children of the new covenant do live; both in their spirits in glory, by open vision, and here by faith, and the continual communication of grace from Christ into their souls. 3. They live also with respect to their rising again; "for God calleth those things that are not, as though they were." To be born, dead, buried, risen, and ascended, are all present with

THE NATURE, NOT THE CORRUPTION, RISETH. 311

A thousand years And again, “One

God. He liveth not by time, as we do. to him are but as the day that is past. day is as a thousand years." Eternity, which is God himself, admitteth of no first, second, and third. All things are naked and bare before him, and present with him; all (his) live unto him.

"There shall be (then) a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." A resurrection, of what? of that which is sown, or of that which was never sown? If of that which is sown, then it must be either of that nature that was sown, or else of the corruption that cleaveth unto it; but it is the nature, not the corruption that cleaveth unto it, that riseth again. And verily, the very term "resurrection" is a forcible argument to prove that the dead shall come forth of their graves; for the Holy Ghost hath always spoken more properly than to say, "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," when yet neither the good nor the bad shall come forth of their graves, but rather something else to delude the world withal.

CHAPTER III.

MANNER OF RISING OF THE JUST.

HAVING thus, in a few words, showed you the truth of the resurrection of the dead, I now come to the manner of their rising.

And first (as I said before) of the rising of the just.

The apostle, when he had (1 Cor. xv.) proved the truth and certainty of the resurrection, descends to the discovery of the manner of it. And to the end that he might remove those foolish scruples that attend the hearts of the ignorant, he begins with one of their questions, "But some man will say," saith he, "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" To which he answereth, first, by a

similitude of seed that is sown in the earth. In which simitude he inserteth three things.

1. That our reviving, or rising, must be after death: "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die."

2. That at our rising, we shall not only revive and live, but be changed into a far more glorious state than when we were sown: "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be," &c. "But God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him;" that is, he giveth the body more splendor, lustre, and beauty, at its resurrection.

But, 3. Neither its quickening, nor yet transcendent splendor, shall hinder it from being the same body (as to the nature of it) that was sown in the earth; for as God giveth it a body for honor and splendor, as it pleaseth him, So, "to every seed his own body."

And indeed, this similitude by which he here reasoneth the manner of the resurrection of the just, is very natural,

MANNER OF THE RESURRECTION.

313

and fitly suiteth each particular. For as to its burial. 1. The corn of wheat is first dead, and afterward sown and buried in the earth; and so is the body of man. 2. After the corn is thus dead and buried, then it quickeneth and reviveth to life so shall also it be with our body; for after it is laid in the grave and buried, it shall quicken, rise, and revive.

Again, as to the manner of its change in its rising, this similitude also doth fitly suit; as, 1. It is sown a dead corn; it is raised a living one. 2. It is sown dry, and without comeliness; it riseth green and beautiful. 3. It is sown a single corn; it riseth a full ear. 4. It is sown in its husk; but in its rising it leaveth that husk behind it.

Further, Though the kernel thus die, be buried, and meet with all this change and alteration in these things; yet none of them can cause the nature of the kernel to cease it is wheat still. Wheat was sown, and wheat riseth. Only it is sown dead, dry, and barren wheat; and riseth living, beautiful, and fruitful wheat. It hath this alteration then, that it doth greatly change its resemblance; though yet it hath this power, still to retain its own nature. "God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him; but to every seed his own body."

The apostle having thus presented the manner of the resurrection of the saints, by the nature of seed sown and rising again; he proceedeth, for further illustration, to three more similitudes. The first is, to show us the variety and glory of flesh. The second is, to show us the difference of glory that is between heavenly bodies, and those that are earthly. The third is, to show us the difference that is between the glory of the light of the sun, from that of the moon; also how one star differeth from another in glory: and then concludeth, "So is the resurrection of the dead." As if he should say, At the resurrection of the bodies, they will be abundantly more altered and changed, than if the flesh of beasts and fowls were made as noble as the flesh of

men; or the bodies of earth were made as excellent as the heavenly bodies; or as if the glory of the moon should be made as bright, and as clear, as the glory of the sun; or as if the glory of the least star was as glorious and shining as the biggest in the firmament of heaven.

It is a resurrection indeed; a resurrection every way. The body ariseth as to the nature of it, the self-same nature; but as to the manner of it, how far transcendent is it! There is a poor, dry, wrinkled kernel cast into the ground, and there it lieth, and swelleth, breaketh, and one would think, perisheth; but behold, it receiveth life, it chitteth, it putteth forth a blade, and groweth into a stalk; there also appeareth an ear; it also sweetly blossoms, with a full kernel in the ear; it is the same wheat, yet behold how the form and fashion of that which now ariseth, doth differ from that which then was sown; its glory also when it was sown, is no glory when compared with that in which it ariseth. And yet it is the same that riseth that was sown, and no other; though the same after a far more glorious manner: not the same with its husk, but without it. Our bran shall be left behind us when we rise again. The comparison also between the bodies heavenly, and the bodies earthly, holds forth the same. "The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestial is another." Now mark it, he doth not speak here of the natures of each of these bodies, but of the transcendent glory of one above another. The glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. Wherefore, I say, at our rising, we shall not change our nature, but our glory; we shall be equal to the angels; not with respect to their nature, but glory. The nature also of the moon is one thing, and the glory of the moon is another; and so one star also differeth from another in glory.

A beggar hath the same nature as a king, and gold in the ore hath the same nature with that which is best re