requiring it. None ever had such opposition made to its accomplishment. Never was any more likely to be defeated by the unbelief of men; all faith in it being at length renounced by Jews and Gentiles, which, if any thing, or had it been suspended on any condition, might have disappointed its event. And shall we think that God will leave any other of his promises unaccomplished? that he will not in due time engage his omnipotent power and infinite wisdom in the discharge of his truth and faithfulness? Hath he sent his Son after four thousand years' expectation, and will he not in due time destroy antichrist, call again the Jews, set up the kingdom of Christ gloriously in the world, and finally save the souls of all that sincerely believe? This great instance of divine fidelity leaves no room for the objections of unbelief as unto any other promises under the same assurance.

1

Αναστάσεώς

σε νεκρῶν.

The third principle, according to the order and sense of the words laid down before, is the "resurrection of the dead." And this was a fundamental principle of the Judaical church, indeed of all religions properly so called in the world. The twelfth article of the creed of the present Jews is, nu,-"The days of the Messiah;" that is, the time will come when God will send the Messiah, and restore all things by him. This under the old testament respected that faith in God which we before discoursed concerning. But the present Jews, notwithstanding this profession, have no interest herein. For not to believe the accomplishment of a promise when it is fulfilled, as also sufficiently revealed and testified unto to be fulfilled, is to reject all faith in God concerning that promise. But this they still retain an appearance and profession of. And their thirteenth article is, o'n n“nn, "The revivification" or "resurrection from the dead." And the faith hereof being explained and confirmed in the gospel, as also sealed by the great seal of the resurrection of Christ, it was ever esteemed as a chief principle of Christianity, and that whose admittance is indispensably necessary unto all religion whatever. And I shall first briefly show how it is a fundamental principle of all religion, and then evidence its especial relation unto that taught by Jesus Christ, or declare how it is a fundamental principle of the gospel. And as to the first, it is evident that without its acknowledgment all religion whatever would be abolished; for if it be once supposed or granted that men were made only for a frail mortal life in this world, that they have no other continuance assigned to their being but what is common to them with the beasts that perish, there would be no more religion amongst them than there is among the beasts themselves. For as they would never be able to solve the difficulties of present temporary dispensations of providence, which will not be reduced unto any such known visible rule of righteousness,

abstracting from the completement of them hereafter, as of themselves to give a firm apprehension of a divine, holy, righteous Power in the government of the universe; so, take away all consideration of future rewards and punishments, which are equally asserted in this and the ensuing principle, and the lusts of men would quickly obliterate all those notions of a Deity, as also of good and evil in their practice, which should preserve them from atheism and bestiality. Neither do we ever see any man giving himself up to the unbelief of these things, but that immediately he casts off all consideration of any public or private good, but what is centred in himself and the satisfaction of his lusts.

But it will be asked, whether the belief of the immortality of the soul be not sufficient to secure religion, without the addition of this article of the resurrection? This, indeed, some among the ancient heathens had faint apprehensions of, without any guess at the resurrection of the body. And some of them also who were most steady in that persuasion had some thoughts also of such a restoration of all things as wherein the bodies of men should have their share. But as their thoughts of these things were fluctuating and uncertain, so was all their religion also; and so it must be on this principle. For there can be no reconciliation of the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, to be righteously administered, unto a supposition of the separate everlasting subsistence of the soul only; that is, eternal judgment cannot be on satisfactory grounds believed without an antecedent acknowledgment of the resurrection of the dead. For what justice is it, that the whole of blessedness or misery should fall on the soul only, where the body hath had a great share in the procurement of the one or the other? or that whereas both concur unto the doing of good or evil, the soul only should be rewarded or punished; especially considering what influence the body hath into all that is evil, how the satisfaction of the flesh is the great inducement unto sin on the one hand, and what it often undergoeth and suffereth for that which is good on the other? Shall we think that God gave bodies to the holy martyrs only to endure inexpressible tortures and miseries to death for the sake of Christ, and then to perish for ever? And this manifesteth the great degeneracy the Jewish church was now fallen into; for a great number of them were apostatized into the atheism of denying the resurrection of the dead. And so confident were they in their infidelity, as that they would needs argue and dispute with our Saviour about it; by whom they were confounded, but, after the manner of obstinate infidels, not converted, Matt. xxii. 23, 24, etc. This was the principal heresy of the Sadducees; which drew along with it those other foolish opinions of denying angels and spirits, or the subsistence of the souls of men in a separate condition, Acts xxiii. 8. For they concluded well enough,

that the continuance of the souls of men would answer no design of providence or justice, if their bodies were not raised again. And whereas God had now given the most illustrious testimony unto this truth in the resurrection of Christ himself, the Sadducees became the most inveterate enemies unto him and opposers of him; for they not only acted against him, and those who professed to believe in him, from that infidelity which was common unto them with most of their countrymen, but also because their peculiar heresy was everted and condemned thereby. And it is usual with men of corrupt minds to prefer such peculiar errors above all other concerns of religion whatever, and to have their lusts inflamed by them into the utmost intemperance. They, therefore, were the first stirrers up and fiercest pursuers of the primitive persecutions: Acts iv. 1, 2, "The Sadducees came upon the apostles, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." The overthrow of their private heresy was that which enraged them: chap. v. 17, 18, "Then the high priest rose up, and all that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison." And an alike rage were the Pharisees put into about their ceremonies, wherein they placed their especial interest and glory. And our apostle did wisely make an advantage of this difference about the resurrection between those two great sects, to divide them in their counsels and actings, who were before agreed on his destruction on the common account of his preaching Jesus Christ, Acts xxiii. 6-9.

This principle, therefore, both upon the account of its importance in itself, as also of the opposition made unto it among the Jews by the Sadducees, the apostles took care to settle and establish in the first place; as those truths are in an especial manner to be confirmed which are at any time peculiarly opposed. And they had reason thus to do, for all they had to preach unto the world turned on this hinge, that Christ was raised from the dead, whereon our resurrection doth unavoidably follow; so that they confessed that without an eviction and acknowledgment hereof all their preaching was in vain, and all their faith who believed therein was so also, 1 Cor. xv. 12-14. This, therefore, was always one of the first principles which our apostle insisted on in the preaching of the gospel; a signal instance whereof we have in his discourse at his first coming unto Athens. First, he reproved their sins and idolatries, declaring that God by him called them to repentance from those dead works; then he taught them faith in that God who so called them by Jesus Christ: confirming the necessity of both by the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead and future judgment, Acts xvii. 18-31. He seems, therefore, here directly and summarily to lay down those principles

in the order in which he constantly preached them in his first declaration of the gospel. And this was necessary to be spoken concerning the nature and necessity of this principle.

resurrec

'Avάoracis vexpãv, "the resurrection of the dead." It is usually expressed by ȧvá oraois, the "resurrection" only, Mark xii. 18; Luke xx. 27, 33; John xi. 24; Matt. xxii. 23, 28. For by this single expression the whole was sufficiently known and apprehended. And so we commonly call it "the resurrection," without any addition. Sometimes it is termed avάoracis ex vexpãv, Acts iv. 2, the " tion from the dead;" that is, from the state of the dead. Our apostle hath a peculiar expression, Heb. xi. 35, "Eλalov & àvaoráσews TOUS vexpoùs airãv,—“"They received their dead from the resurrection;" that is, by virtue thereof, they being raised to life again. And sometimes it is distinguished with respect unto its consequents in different persons, the good and the bad. The resurrection of the former is called ȧvá oraois (wñs, John v. 29, the "resurrection of life;" that is, which is unto life eternal,-the means of entrance into it. This is called avάoraois dixaíwv, the "resurrection of the just," Luke xiv. 14. And so 'n ", the "life of the dead," or the "resurrection of the dead," was used to express the whole blessed estate which ensues thereon to believers: "If by any means I might attain siç rǹv avάoraσiv Tuv vexpv,"—" the resurrection of the dead," Phil. iii. 11. This is dvacíwors, "a living again;" as it is said of the Lord Christ ἀναβίωσις, distinctly, 'Avéorn nai ȧvé(noer, Rom. xiv. 9,-" He rose and lived again," or he arose to life. With respect unto wicked men it is called ȧváoraois xpiosws, the "resurrection of judgment," or unto judgment, John v. 29. Some shall be raised again to have judgment pronounced against them, to be sentenced unto punishment: "Reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished," 2 Pet. ii. 9. And both these are put together, Dan. xii. 2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

This truth being of so great importance as that nothing in religion can subsist without it, the apostles very diligently confirmed it in the first churches; and for the same cause it was early assaulted by Satan, and denied and opposed by many. And this was done two ways:-1. By an open denial of any such thing: 1 Cor. xv. 12, "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" They wholly denied it, as a thing improbable and impossible, as is evident from the whole ensuing disputation of the apostle on that subject. 2. Others there were, who, not daring to oppose themselves directly unto a principle so generally received in the church, would still allow the expression, but put an allegorical exposition upon it, whereby they plainly overthrew the thing intended. They said, "The resurrection is past already," 2 Tim. ii. 18. It is generally

thought that these men, Hymeneus and Philetus, placed the resurrection in conversion, or reformation of life, as the Marcionites did. afterwards. What some imagine about the Gnostics is vain. And that the reviving of a new light in us is the resurrection intended in the Scripture, some begin to mutter among ourselves; but, that as death is a separation or sejunction of the soul and the body, so the resurrection is a reunion of them in and unto life, the Scripture is too express for any one to deny and not virtually to reject it wholly. And it may be observed, that our apostle in both these cases doth not only condemn these errors as false, but declares positively that their admission overthrows the faith, and renders the preaching of the gospel vain and useless.

Now this resurrection of the dead is the restoration, by the power of God, of the same numerical body which died, in all the essential and integral parts of it, rendering it, in a reunion of or with the soul, immortal, or of an eternal duration, in blessedness or misery. And,

Obs. IV. The doctrine of the resurrection is a fundamental principle of the gospel, the faith whereof is indispensably necessary unto the obedience and consolation of all that profess it.

I call it a principle of the gospel, not because it was absolutely first revealed therein. It was made known under the old testament, and was virtually included in the first promise. In the faith of it the patriarchs lived and died; and it is testified unto in the psalms and prophets. With respect hereunto did the ancients confess that they were "strangers and pilgrims on the earth," seeking another city and country, wherein they should live with God for ever. They desired and looked for "an heavenly country," wherein their persons should dwell, Heb. xi. 16. And this was with relation to God's covenant with them: wherein, as it follows, "God was not ashamed to be called their God,"-that is, their God in covenant; which relation could never be broken. And therefore our Saviour proves the resurrection from thence, because if the dead rise not again, the covenant-relation between God and his people must cease, Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Hence also did they take especial care about their dead bodies and their burial, not merely out of respect unto natural order and decency, but to express their faith of the resurrection. So our apostle says, that "by faith Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones," Heb. xi. 22; and their disposal into a buryingplace is rehearsed by Stephen as one fruit of their faith, Acts vii. 15, 16. Job gives testimony unto his faith herein, chap. xix. 25, 26. So doth David also, Ps. xvi. 9, 10, and in sundry other places. And Isaiah is express to the same purpose, chap. xxvi. 19, "Thy dead shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,

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