IV. What grounds there are to facilitate our belief and hope of the resurrection.
1. It is a work of omnipotency. We are apt to say, How can it be that when our bodies are turned into dust, and that dust mingled with other dust, and hath undergone many transmutations, that every one should have his own body and flesh again ? Why, consider the infinite and absolute power of God, and this will make it more reconcilable to your thoughts, and this hard point will be of easier digestion to your faith. To an infinite power there is no difficulty at all. The text saith, ' According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself.' How much can God's power outwork our thoughts ? For he were not infinite if he might be comprehended. We are no fit judges of the extent of his power. Many things are marvellous in our eyes which are not so to God, Zech. viii. 6. Therefore we must not confine God to the limits of created beings, or our finite under- standings. Alas ! our cockleshell cannot empty an ocean ; we do no
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more know what God can do than a worm knoweth a man. He that made the world out of nothing, cannot he raise the dead ? He that made such multitudes of creatures out of the dark chaos, hath he for- gotten what is become of our dust ? That Almighty, he that gave life and being to that which before was not, cannot he raise the dead ? He that turned Moses's rod into a serpent, and from a serpent into a rod again, cannot he raise us out of the dust into men, and turn us from men into dust, and from the same dust raise us up into the same mea and women again ?
2. We have relief from the justice of God. All nations will grant that God is, and that he is a rewarder of good and bad. Now in this life he doth not dispense these rewards. Many 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 rewards and punishments. You will say, So they are, by having an immortal soul. Ay ! but the soul is not all of 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 pleasures of sin for a season, the body which hath endured the pain and trouble of faithful obedience to Christ ; and therefore there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust, that men may receive according to what they have done in the body. God made the whole man, and therefore glorifieth and punisheth the whole man. The apostle urgeth this to the godly : 1 Cor. xv. 29, ' Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead ? If the dead rise not at all, why then are they baptized for the dead ? '
3. God's unchangeable covenant-love, which inclineth him to seek after their dust after it hath been so long buried in oblivion. God hath taken a believer into covenant with himself, body and soul ; there- fore Christ proveth the resurrection from God's covenant-title : Mat. xxii. 31, 32, 'But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 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.' To be a God to any is to be a benefactor : Geu. ix. 26, ' And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.' Not blessed be Shem, but blessed be ' the Lord God of Shem/ To be a benefactor belongs to an infinite eternal power; if he had not eternal glory to bestow upon us, he would not justify his covenant-title : Heb. xi. 16, ' Wherefore he is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.' Now God 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 where- ever it is disposed, he will look after it ; their death and rotting in the grave doth not make void his interest, nor cause his care and affection towards them to cease.
4. The redemption of Christ, which extendeth to the bodies of saints, as often interpreted in scripture, as where Christ speaketh of his Father's charge ; this was a special article in the eternal covenant : John vi. 39, 'And this is the Father's will that hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
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day ; ' not so ranch as a leg, nor a piece of an ear. Christ hath engaged himself to this; he is the guardian of the grave; as Rizpah kept the bodies of Saul's sons, 2 Sam. xxi. 10. Christ hath the keys of death and hell ; Christ hath the charge of the elect to the very day of the resurrection, that he may give a good account of them when all perils and hazards are over, and may not lose so much as their dust, but gather it up again. Where the intention of his death is spoken of : 1 Thes. v. 10, ' Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him ; ' that is, whether dead or alive, for they that are said to be dead in the Lord, are said to be fallen asleep. Whether we live here or die, we should live a spiritual life here and an eternal life in glory hereafter. So where the obligation is urged : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' For ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' There would be no conse- quence if Christ had not purchased the body as well as the soul ; and Christ will not lose the least of his purchase. If he exact duty from the body, you may expect glory for the body. So redemption is parti- cularly applied to the body : Rom. viii. 23, ' Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.' The body is bought with the blood of Christ