THE GENEEAL EESUKEECTION. 321
will be with thee,' &e., Gen. xlvi. 3. So faith in death hears this comfort- able voice of God, Fear not to go into the ground, to sleep in the grave a while ; for behold I will go do^n with thee, keep thy ashes there, and raise thee up again ; for death dealeth no otherwise with us, than David did by Saul when he was asleep : he took away his spear and his water-pot, which he restored unto him when he was awake. Even so death, he takes away our spear and our water-pot, our strength and a weak fi'ail life, and when we awake again it is restored at the day of refreshing in a more excellent and more abundant manner.
Use 2. Secondly, Seeing the dead shall rise again, this must comfort us in regard of our dead friends departed, that although death have sundered us for a time, yet we shall cdl vieet together again. So Martha here : ' I know that my brother shall rise in the resurrection of the just ;' and, 1 Thes. iv. 14, the apostle saith, ' For if we beheve that Jesus died and rose again, even so those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him ;' and then he adds, ver. 18, ' Wherefore comfort one another with these words.' Chrysostom says well, ' If a man take a long journey, his wife and children do not usually weep, because they expect his return ere long home again' (d). Even so it is, our friends who die in Christ, they are gone but a long journey, we must comfort ourselves that we shall meet again.
Use 3. Thirdly, Seeing the dead shall rise again, this must make «s care- ful therefore to spend our time uell lihilst ice are here ; for if a man did not rise again, he might live as he list ; but because we shall rise agaiu with these bodies which have sinned, therefore we should be careful to pass our time here in holiness and righteousness, which is the use St Paul makes of it, Acts xxiv. 16, that because there shall be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust, ' herein,' saith he, ' I endeavour myself to have a clear conscience towards God, and towards man.' So should we in this case do. "When Peter heard it was the Lord who was near him on the water, he girded his coat unto him, for he was naked. One would have thought that rather he should have put off his garment and have laid it aside ; but Peter had this consideration, that when he came on the other side he should stand before his Master, and therefore he girded himself, that he might stand seemly and comely before him. Even so, seeing when we have passed the glassy sea of this world, we are to stand before God, therefore we are to have this consideration, that we gird ourselves and make everything ready, that we may come seemly and holily before God at the last day.
Point 2. The second main point is, that ire believe that ice shall rise again at the last day with the same bodies. So Job xix. 25, ' I know that my Eedeemer liveth, and he shall stand [at] the last on the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom. I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ; though my reins be consumed within me.' And Ezek. xxxvii., there is shewed that life and sinews came into the same dry bones, and flesh grew upon them ; which, though it be a parable, yet it enforceth that that which falleth being dead, shall rise again, because the strength of comfort therein set forth unto his people, is taken from the similitude of the resurrection. So Pievel. XX. 12, John saith, ' And I saw the dead both great and small stand before God,' &c. Thus Tertullian says, that ' he will pray that the same body may rise again ; for the resurrection is not of another body, but of the same that falleth : not a new creation, but a raising up '(<>). St Jerome says, * that it cannot stand with equity and right that one body should sin and another body be punished' (/). Neither will a just judge suffer
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322 THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.
a victorious person to die and another to have the crown of his deservings. Therefore the same body that sinned shall bo punished, the same that hath gotten the victory shall be crowned, and that same body shall rise again. We see in Christ's resurrection, the same body that was wounded, the same body did rise again ; he could, if ho had pleased, in three days have cured his wounds, seeing that he could heal all sicknesses and diseases with a word, or a touch, but he let them alone to confirm his disciples, and to shew that he had the very same body which was crucified. Thus Thomas was bid, John xx. 27, to reach his finger and behold his hands, and reach his hand to put in his side, whereby appeared the same body and wounds remaining. Therefore, as in the head the same body which died rose again, so shall it be with all his members. Against this doctrine there be some objections.