The ancients had nuich ado with the pagans about this point. They handled it excellently, as they were excellent in those points which they were forced to by the adversaries, and indeed they were especiiilly sound in those points. I say they were excellent and large in the handling of this : but I will not stand upon that. It is an article of our creed, ' I believe the resurrection of the body.'" Indeed, he that believeth the first article of the creed, he will easily believe the last. He that believes in ' God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,' he will easily believe the resurrection of the body.
But I will rather come to shew the use of it. God will raise the dead. Therefore, God's manner of working is, when there is no hope, in extremity, as I touched before. He raiseth us, but it is when we are dead. He doth his greatest works when there is least hope. So it is in the resun-ection out of troubles, as in the resurrection of the body. When there is no hope at all, no ground in nature, but it must be his power altogether that must do it, then he falls to work to raise the dead.
Use. Therefore our faith must follow his irorkiuf/. He raiseth the dead. He justifies a sinner. But it is v/hcn he is furthest from grace, a sinner despairing of all mercy. Then he hath the most need of justification. He raiseth the dead, but it is then when they are nothing but dust ; then it is time for him to work to raise the dead. He restores, but it is that which is lost. God never forgets his old work. This was his old manner of working at the first, and still every day he useth it, ' he made all of nothing,' order out of confusion, light out of darkness. This was in the creation ; and the like he doth still. He never forgets his old work. This, St Paul being acquainted with, he fasteneth his hope and trust upon such a God as will raise the dead. Therefore make that use of it that the apostle doth. When the church is in any calamity, which is as it were a death, when it is as in that 37th of Ezekiel, ' dry bones,' comfort yourselves. God com- forted the church there, that he would raise the church out of Babylon, as he raised those dead bones. The one is as easy as the other. So in the government of the church continually, he brings order out of confusion, light out of darkness, and life out of death, that is, out of extreme troubles. When men think themselves dead, when they think the church dead, past all hope, then he will quicken and raise it. So that he will never forget this course, till he have raised our dead bodies ; and then he will fhiish that manner of dispensation. This is God's manner of working.
We must answer it wdth our faith, that is, in the greatest dejection that can be, to ' trust in God that raiseth the dead.' Faith, if it be true, it will answer the ground of it. But when it is cai'ried to God, it is carried to him that raiseth the dead. Therefore, though it be desperate every way, yet notwithstanding I hope above hope. I hope in him whose course is to raise the dead, who at the last will raise the dead, and still delights in a proportion to raise men from death, out of all troubles and miseries.
Well ! this God doth, and therefore carry it along in all miseries whatso- ever, in soul, in body, or estate, or in the church, &c.
God raiseth from the dead, therefore we must feel ourselves dead before we can be raised by his grace. What is the reason that a papist cannot be
* Article XL— G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 159
a good Christian? He opposcth his own conversion. WTiat is conversion? It is the first resurrection, tlic resurrection of the soul. But that which' is raised must he dead first. They account not themselves dead, and there- fore oppose this resiuTection. And so, when we are dead in grace or com- fort, let us trust in God that raiseth the dead. And so for outward condi- tion in this life and the estate of the church.
The conversion of the Jews, which seems a thing so strange. When a man thinks how they are dispersed, and thinks of their poverty and dis- grace, he thinks, Is this a likely matter ? Remember what God hath said, he will raise the dead. And because this is a work that seems as hard as the raising of the dead, therefore their calling and conversion is called a kind of resurrection, Eom. xi. 15. Let us hope for that. He that raiseth the body wall raise that people, as despicable as they are, to be a glorious people and church.
And so for the confusion of the ' man of sin.' The revelation of the gospel, when it came out of the grave of darkness, out of the Egyptian darkness of popery, was it not a raising of the dead ?
When Luther arose for the defence of the truth, a man might have said to him, WTiat ! dost thou set thyself against the whole world ? Go to thy cloister, and say, ' Lord, have mercy upon us.' Dost thou hope to reform the world against all the world ? Alas !'^ he trusted in God ' that raiseth the dead,' that raiseth men to conversion when he pleaseth, and that raiseth the chm-ch when he pleaseth, even from death. He raised the church out of Babylon, and he will raise the Jews that now are in a dead state. Why should we doubt of these things, when we believe, or profess to believe the main, the resurrection fi"om the dead ?