Use 3. Thii'dly, Let us labour to assure ourselves of our parts in this change, in this resurrection. This we shall know if we find Christ's Spirit in us. The same Spirit that raised up him, if it be in us, will raise us up also, Rom. viii. 11. For the first resurrection is an argument of the second ; and he that finds his understanding enlightened, his will pliable, his afiections set upon right objects, will easily believe the second resur- rection of his body. Secondly, If we hope for this change, and so hope that we are stirred up thereby to fit ourselves for it, to cleanse ourselves. Thirdh', Ifive groiu in grace, 2 Pet. iii. 18, it is a sign that we have an entrance into Christ's kingdom ; for God doth ever honour growth, with assurance of a blessed estate.
Use 4:. Fourthly, This shoidd comfort tis in time of death, considering we lose nothing but baseness, and our bodies are but sown in the earth ; and this depositum which God committeth to the fire, air, earth, and the water, they must render up again pure and changed by Christ. And, therefore, it was a foolish conceit of the heathen to burn the martyrs' bodies, and to cast their ashes into the water, thereby to put them out of hope of their resurrection, not knowing God is as able to raise them out of fire and water as out of earth.
Use 5. Fifthly, This ought to administer comfort to us at the death and departure of our friends out of this life, knowing that they are not lost ; that the earth is but a house and a hiding-place for them to sleep in ; and that at length God will not forget to raise them up with the residue of his saints. He will change them, and make them like his glorious body ; and this was the use made by the apostle, 1 Thes. iv. 18.
Use 6. And lastly, Pray to God to teach us to number our days, so as we may apply our hearts to wisdom, Deut. xxxii. 29.* But when is the time * Qu. 'P8. xc. 12'?— G.
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of this blessed change ? It is not laid down, only it is implied by the word * shall,' that the time is to come. But out of all question it is meant at the last day, and not before.
First, Because all arc to he f/athercd tor/ether, even those that were buried four thousand years agone, must stay till the number be fulfilled ; and it will make for God's glory that we should all meet together to attend on him, with multitudes of angels, so as they cannot be perfected without or before us, and we shall not prevent those that are asleep, 1 Thcs. iv. 15.
Secondhj, It is /'or the comfort of Christians that are weak, that the martyrs and constant professors of Christ should be pledges of their rising, who continually cry, ' How long, Lord ?' Rev. vi. 9.
Thirdhj, God irills that thi)u/s should now be carried as in a cloud, and that the last day should be a day of revelation ; which could not be, if before there should be this change.
For use. This must teach us to desire that dajj, and pray for the hastening thereof; till when, the souls in heaven are not perfectly happy. For all must be brought in before they can be made perfect. And therefore they desire and hope for, and pray for, to be united to those bodies again, that they lived withal, and so dearly loved.
But who are these that shall be thus changed ? The text saith, ' our bodies ;' that is, our bodies that have had ' our conversation in heaven.' And, therefore, those that have had no part in the first resurrection, they shall have no part in the second. The baker and butler of Pharaoh all shall arise and be lifted out of prison, but some to the resurrection of life, and others to the resurrection of condemnation. But to proceed.
That we may be fashioned like tmto his glorious body.
So that Christ shall be the exemplary cause, as well as the efficient cause of our resurrection. For he is our head and our husband ; and it is' reason we should be suitable to him, and be ruled by him. He came not to make himself hke us, but us like him. He first must be a king, blessed and anointed, and a Son. The head makes us like to him, kings, blessed and glorious. Enoch and Elias, though before his real incarnation, yet they ascended by virtue of his resm'rection, and so shall we. They are glorious like to him ; so shall we in his good time and pleasui'e.
Quest. But how ? . Ans. I answer. In these particulars :
First, As he is immortal, never to die again, so shall we. We shall be freed from all sin ; and so, consequently, from all mortality.
Secondly, We shall be incorrupiihle. We shall have no corruption within us or without us, as it is, 1 Cor. xv. 53. We shall be embalmed with the Spirit, that shall cause us to remain for ever incorruptible.
Thirdly, We shall be unchangeable; always the same, without sickness of body, or indisposedness of mind.