[2.] We have a relief from the justice of God. All will grant that God is, and that God is a rewarder of good and bad. Now in this life he doth not dispense these rewards. Many times here instruments of public good are made a sacrifice to public hatred, and wicked men have the world at will ; therefore there is a judgment when this life is ended ; and if there be a judgment, men must be capable to receive reward and punishment. You will say, so they are by having an im- mortal soul ; ay ! but the soul is not all of a man, the body is a part : it hath had its share in the work, and therefore it is most equal to conceive it shall have its share in the reward and punishment. It is the body which is gratified by the pleasure of sin for a season, the body which hath endured the trouble and pain of faithful obedience unto Christ, therefore there shall be a resurrection of just and unjust, that men may receive according to what they have done in the body, God made the whole man, therefore glorifies and punishes the whole man. The apostle urgeth this as to the godly, 1 Cor. xv. 29,
[3.] God's unchangeable covenant love, which inclines him to seek the dust of his confederates. God hath taken a believer into covenant with himself, body and soul ; therefore Christ proveth the resurrection from God's covenant title. Mat. xxii. 31. To be a God is certainly to be a benefactor. Gen. xxv. 26 ; not ' Blessed be Shem,' but ' Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.' And to be a benefactor, becoming an infinite eternal power. If he had not eternal glory to bestow upon us, he would not justify his covenant title, Heb. xi. 16. To whom God is a benefactor, he is a benefactor not to one part only, but to their whole persons. Their bodies had the mark of his covenant upon them, their dust is in covenant with him, and wherever it is dispersed, he will look after it. Their death and rotting in the grave doth not
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make void his interest, nor cause his care and affection towards"them to cease.
[4.] We have relief also from the redemption of Christ, which ex- tendeth to the bodies of the saints, as it is often interpreted in scripture ; as where Christ speaks of his Father's charge — this was a special article in the eternal covenant : John vi. 3d, 40, ' This is the will of my Father, that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.' Christ hath engaged himself to this ; he is the guardian of the grave, as Rispah kept the dead bodies of Saul's sons, 2 Sam. xxi, 10. Christ hath the keys of death and hell ; he hath a charge of the elect to the very day of their resurrection that he may make a good account of them, and may not lose so much as their dust, but gather it up again. What shall I say ? When the in- tention of his death is spoken of : 1 Thes. v. 10, ' That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him ;' that is, whether dead or alive ; for they that are dead in the Lord, are said to be fallen asleep. Whether we live or die, we should live a spiritual life here, and eternal life in glory hereafter. So where the obligation : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Ye are bought with a price.' There would be no consequence if Christ had not purchased the body as well as the soul, and Christ will not lose one jot of his purchase ; if he expect duty from the body, you may expect glory for the body ; so redemption is particularly applied to the body : Rom. viii. 23, ' Waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.' Then is Christ's redemption full, when the body is exempted from all the penalties induced by sin.
[5.] The honour which is put upon the bodies of the saints.
(1.) They are members of Christ : 1 Cor. vi. 15, ' Know ye not that 5'our bodies are members of Christ ? shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot ? God forbid.' No members of Christ can for ever remain under death, but shall certainly be raised up again. When a godly man dieth, the union between soul and body is dissolved, but not the union between him and Christ, as Christ's own natural body in the grave Avas not separated from his person, and the hypostatical union was not dissolved ; — it was the Lord of glory which was crucified, and the Lord of glory which was laid in the grave,— so the mystical union is not dissolved between Christ and his people, who are his mystical body, when they are dead.
(2.) They are temples of the Holy Ghost ; therefore if they be de- stroyed they shall be built up again : 1 Cor. vi. 19, ' Know ye not that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost ? ' As Christ redeemed not the soul only, but the whole man, so the Spirit in Christ's name takes possession both of body and soul ; tlie body is cleansed and sanctified by the Spirit, as well as the soul ; and therefore it is quickened by the Spirit: Rom. viii. 11, 'If the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you.' The Holy Ghost will not leave his mansion or dwelling-place ; the dust of believers belongs to them who were once his temple. So it is a pledge of the resurrection. Now therefore labour with j'ourselvcs, think often of it.