When we have this, then when all shall be taken from us, as it will ere long, all the friends we have, and all our comforts ; yet our trust shall not be taken fi'om us, nor om- God in whom we trust shall be taken from us. We shall have God left, and a heart to trust in God. That will stand us in stead when all other things shall fail. ' That we might not trust in our- selves, but in God which raiseth the dead.'
These words have a double force in this place.
First, St Paul might reason thus, I am brought to death, as low as I can be, even to receive the sentence of death ; but I trust in God, who will raise
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 157
me -when I am dead. Therefore he can raise me out of sickness. Though there be no means, no physic, ho can do it himself. Or if it were perse- cution, he might reason, I am now persecuted ; but God will raise mo out of the grave ; therefore he can raise me out of this trouble if it be for my good. It hath the force of a strong argument that way.
And it hath another force, that is, put case the worst, ' I received the sentence of death,' that is, if I die, as I look for no other, yet I trust that God that raiseth the dead, he will raise me ; the confidence of the resurrec- tion makes me die comfortably. As we sleep quietly, because we hope to rise again ; and we put our seed into the gi-ound, with comfort, Why ? w'e hope to receive it in a more glorio^^s manner in the harvest. So though my body be sown in the earth, it shall rise a glorious body. I trust in God,' though ' I receive the sentence of death,' yet I shall sleep in the Lord. As when I go to sleep, I hope to rise again ; so I trust when the re- surrection shall come, that my body shall waken and arise. ' I trust in God that raiseth the dead.' 13ecause he raiseth the dead, he can recover me if he will. If not, he will make this body a glorious body afterward. So every way it was a strong argument with St Paul, ' I trust in God that raiseth the dead.'
The apostle draws an argument of comfort from God's power in raising the dead. And it is a true reason, a good argument. He that will raise the dead body out of the grave, he can raise out of misery, out of captivity. The argument is strong. Thus God comforts his people in Ezek. xxxvii., in that parable of the dry bones that he put life in. So the blessed apostle St Paul, he speaks of Abraham, ' He looked to God who quickeneth the dead, who calleth things that are not, as though they were,' Rom. iv. 17. "What made Abraham to trust in God, that he would give him Isaac again ? he considered if God can raise Isaac from the dead, if he please he can give me Isaac back again ; and though Isaac were the son of promise, yet he trusted God's word, more than Isaac the son of his love. Why ? He knew that God could raise him from the dead, though he had sacrificed him. He trusted in God, ' who quickeneth the dead.'
Doct. The resurrection, then, is an argument to strengthen our faith in all miseries whatsoever.
It strengthens om* faith before death, and in death. I will not enter into the common-place of that point concerning the resurrection ; it would be tedious and unjust, because it is not intended here, but only it is used as a special argument. Therefore I will but touch that point.
Doct. God will raise iis from the dead. ' Nature is more offended at this, than any other thing. But St Paul makes it clear, that it is not against nature, that God should raise the dead, 1 Cor. XV. 35, seq. To speak a little of it, and then to speak of the use the apostle made of it, and of the use that we may make of it. Saith the apostle in that place, speaking to witty atheists, that thought to have cavilled out the resurrection from the dead. Thou fool, thou speakest against nature, if thou think it altogether impossible.
Look to the seed, do we not see that God every spring raiseth things that were dead. We see in the silk-worm, what an alteration there is from a fly to a worm, &c. ? We see what men can do by art. They make glasses, of what ? Of ashes. We see what natm-e can do, which is the ordinary providence of God. We see what it can do in the bowels of the earth. "What is gold, and silver, and pearl ? Is it not water and earth, excellently digested, exquisitely concocted and digested ? That there should
158 COMMENTARY ON
be such excellent lliiiipis of so base a creature ! We sec what art and nature can do. If art and nature can do so great things, why do we call in ques- tion the power of God ? If God have revealed his will to do so, why do we doubt of this groat point of God's i-aising the dead ?