But this question which St Paul propounds, 1 Cor. xv., in what estate our bodies shall rise at the last day, cannot be answered but with a dis- tinction. The bodies of the godly rise in an estate of glory, the bodies of the wicked rise in an estate of shame and disgrace ; so ^both rise, but in a diflferent estate, as Gen. xl. 20, we read Pharaoh's two servants were both delivered out of prison, but in a diverse manner, the one to stand before the king, and give the cup into his hand, as formerly, the other to be executed and hanged. Even so it is with the godly and wicked at the last day, both of them shall be raised out of the grave, but the one to honour, to stand in [the presence of God, the other to shame and perpetual con- tempt. So the bodies of the saints, though now weak, shall be glorious then; as Paul shews, 1 Cor. xv. 37, of corn, which, when it is sowed, it is but bare corn, but God giveth it a body at his pleasure; so, saith he, is the resurrection of the dead. Our bodies are sown in corruption, but raised in honour; it is sown in weakness, and is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, and is raised a spiritual body. So St Paul shews, ' Christ shall change our vile bodies, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body;' for look, in what estate Christ's body rose again, in the same estate shall all the bodies of the saints rise in ; for the members must be con- formable to the head ; but Christ's body did rise in a far more glorious estate than ours are now. Therefore, when we look on our bodies, and see them weak, and poor, contemptible, crooked, and deformed, we should live well, and then comfort ourselves with this, that in the kingdom of God our
328 THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.
bodies shall be made glorious and beautiful, and all deformities taken from them. One says well, that as the goldsmith melts his gold, and so frames a cup to serve the king, so the Lord only melts and refines us by death, to fit us to bo vessels of glory hereafter. Therefore it is an excellent medita- tion to think often of the glory to come, to strengthen us against the terrors of death ; as Job doth, chap, xix., when he was covered with griefs and sores ; ' I am sure,' saith ho, ' that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand [at] the last on the earth ; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God with my flesh,' &c. So must we comfort ourselves in the like extremities. Now this glory shall not be from the redundance of the spirit only, but it shall be also in regard of the blessed and happy estate that the body shall be in at that time; which appears in
Six things, wherein the glory and excellency of the body shall consist after the resun-ection.
1. First, That all the parts of the body shalUte then perfect and entire, and sliall leant nothhuj. Howsoever now a man may be maimed and deformed, wanting a hand, eye, leg, arm, finger, or the like, yet all shall be supplied unto him then at that day ; and that for two reasons.
(1.) First, Because all things then shall be reduced to their former estate ; as Peter shews, Acts iii. 21, speaking of Christ, ' Whom,' saith he, ' the heavens must contain until the time cometh that all things shall be restored.' But in the beginning, man's body was made perfect and entire, wanting nothing either for beauty or comeliness ; therefore to this estate it shall be restored again.
(2.) Secondly, TertuUian fetches it from another ground, Piev. xxi. 4, where it is said, ' There shall be no more death then.' ' Always,' saith he, * in the greater is inferred the lesser. Now the lameness or deformedness of any member is the death of that member. Now if death be expelled from the whole man, so also must it be from every particular member ; therefore the bodies of the saints shall rise again perfect and entire at the last day' (i).
Use 1. Therefore, in any of the wants and imperfections of ourselves or our friends, ive must labour to lire a holy life, draw them on also in goodness, and then be comforted, j ^Whatsoever our imperfections are, God will help all at the last day.
Use 2. Again, seeing at the day of judgment all parts shall be perfected and restored, we should not now be afraid to give any of them for the name of Christ; for he that did restore the ear of Malchus, who was his enemy, much more will restore any part which his friends shall lose for his name's sake. Therefore we read, Heb, xi. 35, how those holy men there men- tioned endured, and would not be delivered from those pains and torments which they endured of wicked men, that they might receive a better resur- rection.
2. Secondly, The glory of the body consists in this, that it shall be beaut if id and lovely, though now deformed and ill-favoured; being dead especially, which made Abraham desire to buy a place to bury his dead out of his sight. Gen. xxiii. 4 ; for these reasons :