VII. Equally monstrous is the error of those who imagine that souls will not resume the bodies which at present belong to them, but will be furnished with others altogether different. It was the very futile reasoning of the Manichæans, that it is absurd to expect that the flesh which is so impure will ever rise again. As if there were no impurity attached to the souls, which they nevertheless encouraged to entertain hopes of a heavenly life. It was therefore just as if they had maintained, that any thing infected with the contagion of sin is incapable of being purified by the power of God; for that reverie, that the flesh was created by the devil, and therefore naturally impure, I at present forbear to notice; and only observe, that whatever we have in us now unworthy of heaven, will not hinder the resurrection. In the first place, when Paul exhorts believers to “cleanse” themselves “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,”[647] thence follows the judgment he elsewhere denounces, “that every one” shall “receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad;”[648] with which agrees another passage, “that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”[649] Wherefore in another place, he prays to God that the whole person may “be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” even the “body,” as well as the “soul and spirit.”[650] And no wonder; for that those bodies which God has dedicated as temples for himself, should sink into corruption, without any hope of resurrection, would be absurd in the extreme. What is to be concluded from their being members of Christ?[651] from God’s enjoining every part of them to be sanctified to himself, requiring their tongues to celebrate his name, their hands to be lifted up with purity to him,[652] and their bodies altogether to be presented to him as “living sacrifices?”[653] This part of our nature therefore being dignified with such illustrious honour by the heavenly Judge, what madness is betrayed by a mortal man, in asserting it to be reduced to ashes without any hope of restoration! And Paul, when he gives us this exhortation, “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s,”[654] certainly does not countenance consigning to eternal corruption that which he asserts to be consecrated to God. Nor is there any point more clearly established in Scripture, than the resurrection of our present bodies. “This corruptible,” says Paul, “must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”[655] If new bodies were to be formed by God, what would become of this change of quality? If it had been said, that we must be renewed, the ambiguity of the expression might have given occasion for cavil: now, when he particularly designates the bodies that surround us, and promises that they shall be “raised in incorruption,” it is a sufficient denial of the formation of new ones. “He could not indeed,” says Tertullian, “have spoken more expressly, unless he had held his own skin in his hand.” Nor will any cavil evade the declaration of Isaiah, cited by the apostle, respecting Christ as the future Judge of the world: “As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me;”[656] for he plainly declares to the persons addressed by him, that they shall be obliged to give an account of their lives; which would not be reasonable, if new bodies were to be placed at the tribunal. There is no obscurity in the language of Daniel: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”[657] For God does not collect fresh materials from the four elements for the fabrication of men, but calls the dead out of their sepulchres. And this the plainest reason dictates. For if death, which originated in the fall of man, be adventitious, and not necessary to our nature, the restoration effected by Christ belongs to the same body which was thus rendered mortal. From the ridicule of the Athenians, when Paul asserted the resurrection, it is easy to infer the nature of his doctrine; and that ridicule is of no small weight for the confirmation of our faith. The injunction of Christ also is worthy of attention: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”[658] For there would be no reason for this fear, if the body which we now carry about were not liable to punishment. Another of Christ’s declarations is equally plain: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”[659] Shall we say that souls rest in graves, and will there hear the voice of Christ, and not rather that bodies at his command will return to the vigour they had lost? Besides, if we are to receive new bodies, where will be the conformity between the Head and members? Christ rose; was it by making himself a new body? No, but according to his prediction, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”[660] The mortal body which he before possessed, he again assumed. For it would have conduced but little to our benefit, if there had been a substitution of a new body, and an annihilation of that which had been offered as an atoning sacrifice. We must, therefore, maintain the connection stated by the apostle—that we shall rise, because Christ has risen;[661] for nothing is more improbable, than that our body, in which “we bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus,”[662] should be deprived of a resurrection similar to his. There was an illustrious example of this immediately on Christ’s resurrection, when “the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.”[663] For it cannot be denied, that this was a prelude, or rather an earnest, of the final resurrection, which we expect; such as was exhibited before in Enoch and Elias, whom Tertullian speaks of as “the candidates of the resurrection,” because they were taken into the immediate care of God, with an entire exemption from corruption in body and soul.
VIII. I am ashamed of consuming so many words on so clear a subject; but my readers will cheerfully unite with me in submitting to this trouble, that no room may be left for men of perverse and presumptuous minds to deceive the unwary. The unsteady spirits I am now opposing, bring forward a figment of their own brains, that at the resurrection there will be a creation of new bodies. What reason can induce them to adopt this sentiment, but a seeming incredibility, in their apprehension, that a body long consumed by corruption can ever return to its pristine state? Unbelief, therefore, is the only source of this opinion. In the Scripture, on the contrary, we are uniformly exhorted by the Spirit of God to hope for the resurrection of our body. For this reason, baptism is spoken of by Paul as a seal of our future resurrection;[664] and we are as clearly invited to this confidence by the sacred Supper, when we receive into our mouths the symbols of spiritual grace. And certainly the exhortation of Paul, to “yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God,”[665] would lose all its force, if unaccompanied by what he afterwards subjoins: “He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies.”[666] For what would it avail to devote our feet, hands, eyes, and tongues to the service of God, if they were not to participate the benefit and reward? This is clearly confirmed by the following passage of Paul: “The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.”[667] The following passages are still plainer—that our bodies are the “temples of the Holy Ghost,” and “members of Christ.”[668] In the mean time, we see how he connects the resurrection with chastity and holiness; and so he just after extends the price of redemption to our bodies. Now, it would be extremely unreasonable that the body of Paul, in which he “bore the marks of the Lord Jesus,”[669] and in which he eminently glorified Christ, should be deprived of the reward of the crown. Hence also that exultation: “We look for the Saviour from heaven, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”[670] And if it be true, “that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,”[671] there can be no reason for prohibiting this entrance to the bodies, which God trains under the banner of the cross, and honours with the glory of victory. Therefore no doubt has ever been entertained by the saints, whether they should hope to be companions of Christ hereafter; who transfers to his own person all the afflictions with which we are tried, to teach us that they are conducting us to life. And God also established the holy fathers under the law in this faith by an external ceremony. For to what purpose was the rite of sepulture, as we have already seen, but to instruct them that another life was prepared for the interred bodies? The same was suggested by the spices and other symbols of immortality, which, like the sacrifices under the law, assisted the obscurity of direct instruction. Nor did this custom arise from superstition; for we find the Holy Spirit as diligent in mentioning the sepultures, as in insisting on the principal mysteries of faith. And Christ commends this as no mean office;[672] certainly for no other reason, but because it raises our eyes from the view of the grave, which corrupts and dissolves all things, to the spectacle of future renovation. Besides the very careful observance of this ceremony, which is commended in the fathers, sufficiently proves it to have been an excellent and valuable assistance to faith. Nor would Abraham have discovered such solicitous concern about the sepulchre of his wife, if he had not been actuated by motives of religion, and the prospect of more than worldly advantage; that by adorning her dead body with the emblems of the resurrection, he might confirm his own faith, and that of his family.[673] There is yet a clearer proof of this in the example of Jacob; who, to testify to his posterity that the hope of the promised land did not forsake his heart even in death, commands his bones to be reconveyed thither.[674] If he was to be furnished with a new body, would not this have been a ridiculous command concerning dust that was soon to be annihilated? Wherefore, if the authority of the Scripture has any weight with us, no clearer or stronger proof of any doctrine can possibly be desired. Even children understand this to be the meaning of the term “resurrection;” for we never apply this term to any instance of original creation; nor would it be consistent with that declaration of Christ, “Of all which the Father hath given me, I shall lose nothing, but will raise it up again at the last day.”[675] The same is implied in the word “sleeping,” which is only applicable to the body. Hence the appellation of cemetery, or sleeping-place, given to places of burial. It remains for me to touch a little on the manner of the resurrection. And I shall but just hint at it; because Paul, by calling it a mystery, exhorts us to sobriety, and forbids all licentiousness of subtle and extravagant speculation. In the first place, let it be remembered, as we have observed, that we shall rise again with the same bodies we have now, as to the substance, but that the quality will be different; just as the very body of Christ which had been offered as a sacrifice was raised again, but with such new and superior qualities, as though it had been altogether different. Paul represents this by some familiar examples. For as the flesh of man and of brutes is the same in substance, but not in quality; as the matter of all the stars is the same, but they differ in glory; so, though we shall retain the substance of our body, he tells us there will be a change, which will render its condition far more excellent.[676] The “corruptible” body, therefore, will neither perish nor vanish, in order to our resurrection; but having laid aside corruption, will “put on incorruption.”[677] God, having all the elements subject to his control, will find no difficulty in commanding the earth, the water, and the fire, to restore whatever they appear to have consumed. This is declared in figurative language by Isaiah: “Behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”[678] But we must remark the difference between those who shall have been already dead, and those whom that day shall find alive. “We shall not all sleep,” says Paul, “but we shall all be changed;”[679] that is, there will be no necessity for any distance of time to intervene between death and the commencement of the next life; for “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,” and the living transformed by a sudden change into the same glory. So in another Epistle he comforts believers who were to die, that those “which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep,” but that “the dead in Christ shall rise first.”[680] If it be objected that the apostle says, “It is appointed unto men once to die,”[681] the answer is easy,—that where the state of the nature is changed, it is a species of death, and may without impropriety be so called; and therefore there is a perfect consistence between these things, that all will be removed by death when they put off the mortal body, but that a separation of the body and soul will not be necessary, where there will be an instantaneous change.
IX. But here arises a question of greater difficulty. How can the resurrection, which is a peculiar benefit of Christ, be common to the impious and the subjects of the Divine curse? We know that in Adam all were sentenced to death;[682] Christ comes as “the resurrection and the life;”[683] but was it to bestow life promiscuously on all mankind? But what would be more improbable, than that they should attain, in their obstinate blindness, what the pious worshippers of God recover by faith alone? Yet it remains certain, that one will be a resurrection to judgment, the other to life; and that Christ will come to “separate the sheep from the goats.”[684] I reply, we ought not to think that so very strange, which we see exemplified in our daily experience. We know that in Adam we lost the inheritance of the whole world, and have no more right to the enjoyment of common aliments, than to the fruit of the tree of life. How is it, then, that God not only “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,”[685] but that, for the accommodations of the present life, his inestimable liberality is diffused in the most copious abundance? Hence we see, that things which properly belong to Christ and his members, are also extended to the impious; not to become their legitimate possession, but to render them more inexcusable. Thus impious men frequently experience God’s beneficence in remarkable instances, which sometimes exceed all the blessings of the pious, but which, nevertheless, are the means of aggravating their condemnation. If it be objected, that the resurrection is improperly compared with fleeting and terrestrial advantages, I reply again, that when men were first alienated from God, the Fountain of life, they deserved the ruin of the devil, to be altogether destroyed; yet the wonderful counsel of God devised a middle state, that without life they might live in death. It ought not to be thought more unreasonable, if the impious are raised from the dead, in order to be dragged to the tribunal of Christ, whom they now refuse to hear as their Master and Teacher. For it would be a slight punishment to be destroyed by death, if they were not to be brought before the Judge whose infinite and endless vengeance they have incurred, to receive the punishments due to their rebellion. But though we must maintain what we have asserted, and what is asserted by Paul in his celebrated confession before Felix, “that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust,”[686] yet the Scripture more commonly exhibits the resurrection to the children of God alone, in connection with the glory of heaven; because, strictly speaking, Christ will come, not for the destruction of the world, but for purposes of salvation. This is the reason that the Creed mentions only the life of blessedness.
X. But, as the prophecy of “death being swallowed up in victory,” shall then, and not till then, be fully accomplished,—let us always reflect on eternal felicity as the end of the resurrection; of the excellence of which, if every thing were said that could be expressed by all the tongues of men, yet the smallest part of it would scarcely be mentioned. For though we are plainly informed, that the kingdom of God is full of light, joy, felicity, and glory, yet all that is mentioned remains far above our comprehension, and enveloped, as it were, in enigmatical obscurity, till the arrival of that day, when he shall exhibit his glory to us face to face. “Now are we the sons of God, (says John,) and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”[687] Wherefore the prophets, because they could not describe that spiritual blessedness by any terms expressive of its sublime nature, generally represented it under corporeal images. Yet, as any intimation of that happiness must kindle in us a fervour of desire, let us chiefly dwell on this reflection—If God, as an inexhaustible fountain, contains within himself a plenitude of all blessings, nothing beyond him can ever be desired by those who aspire to the supreme good, and a perfection of happiness. This we are taught in various passages of Scripture. “Abraham,” says God, “I am thy exceeding great reward.”[688] With this David agrees: “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance; the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.”[689] Again: “I will behold thy face; I shall be satisfied.”[690] Peter declares, that believers are called, “that they might be partakers of the Divine nature.”[691] How will this be? Because “he shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.”[692] If the Lord will make the elect partakers of his glory, strength, and righteousness, and will even bestow himself upon them to be enjoyed, and, what is better than this, to be in some sense united to them,—let us remember, that in this favour every kind of felicity is comprised. And after we have made considerable progress in this meditation, we may still acknowledge the conceptions of our minds to be extremely low, in comparison with the sublimity of this mystery. Sobriety, therefore, is the more necessary for us on this subject, lest, forgetful of our slender capacity, we presumptuously soar to too high an elevation, and are overwhelmed with the blaze of celestial glory. We perceive, likewise, how we are actuated by an inordinate desire of knowing more than is right; which gives rise to a variety of questions, both frivolous and pernicious. I call those frivolous, from which no advantage can possibly be derived. But those of the second class are worse, involving persons, who indulge them, in injurious speculations, and therefore I call them pernicious. What is taught in the Scriptures, we ought to receive without any controversy; that as God, in the various distribution of his gifts to the saints in this world, does not equally enlighten them all, so in heaven, where God will crown those gifts, there will be an inequality in the degrees of their glory. The language of Paul is not indiscriminately applicable to all—“Ye are our glory and joy at our Lord’s coming;”[693] nor Christ’s address to his apostles—“Ye shall sit judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[694] But Paul, who knew that according as God enriches the saints with spiritual gifts on earth, so he adorns them with glory in heaven, doubts not that there is in reserve for him a peculiar crown in proportion to his labours. And Christ commends to his apostles the dignity of the office with which they were invested, by assuring them that the reward of it was laid up in heaven.[695] Thus also Daniel: “They that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, for ever and ever.”[696] And an attentive consideration of the Scriptures will convince us, that they not only promise eternal life generally to believers, but also a special reward to each individual. Whence that expression of Paul—“The Lord reward him according to his works.”[697] It is also confirmed by the promise of Christ that his disciples should receive a hundred-fold more in eternal life.[698] In a word, as Christ begins the glory of his body by a manifold variety of gifts in this world, and enlarges it by degrees, in the same manner he will also perfect it in heaven.
XI. As all the pious will receive this with one consent, because it is sufficiently attested in the word of God, so, on the other hand, dismissing abstruse questions, which they know to be obstructions to them, they will not transgress the limits prescribed to them. For myself, I not only refrain as an individual from the unnecessary investigation of useless questions, but think it my duty to be cautious, lest I encourage the vanity of others by answering them. Men, thirsting after useless knowledge, inquire what will be the distance between the prophets and apostles, and between the apostles and martyrs; and how many degrees of difference there will be between those who have married and those who have lived and died in celibacy; in short, they leave not a corner of heaven unexplored. The next object of their inquiry is, what end will be answered by the restoration of the world; since the children of God will want nothing of all its vast and incomparable abundance, but will be like the angels of God, whose freedom from all animal necessities is the symbol of eternal blessedness. I reply, there will be such great pleasantness in the very prospect, and such exquisite sweetness in the mere knowledge, without any use of it, that this felicity will far exceed all the accommodations afforded us in the present state. Let us suppose ourselves placed in some region the most opulent in the world, and furnished with every pleasure; who would not sometimes be prevented by disease from making use of the bounties of God? who would not often have his enjoyment of them interrupted by the consequences of intemperance? Hence it follows, that calm and serene enjoyment, pure from every vice and free from all defect, although there should be no use of a corruptible life, is the perfection of happiness. Others go further, and inquire, whether dross and all impurities in metals are not removed from that restoration, and incompatible with such a state. Though I in some measure grant this, I expect, with Paul, a reparation of all the evils caused by sin, for which he represents the creatures as groaning and travailing. They proceed further still, and inquire, what better state awaits the human race, when the blessing of posterity shall no longer be enjoyed. The solution of this question also is easy. The splendid commendations of it in the Scriptures relate to that progressive increase, by which God is continually carrying forward the system of nature to its consummation. But as the unwary are easily caught by such temptations, and are afterwards drawn further into the labyrinth, till, at length, every one being pleased with his own opinion, there is no end to disputes,—the best and shortest rule for our conduct, is to content ourselves with “seeing through a glass darkly,” till we shall “see face to face.”[699] For very few persons are concerned about the way that leads to heaven, but all are anxious to know, before the time, what passes there. Men in general are slow, and reluctant to engage in the conflict, and yet portray to themselves imaginary triumphs.
XII. Now, as no description can equal the severity of the Divine vengeance on the reprobate, their anguish and torment are figuratively represented to us under corporeal images; as, darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, unextinguishable fire, a worm incessantly gnawing the heart.[700] For there can be no doubt but that, by such modes of expression, the Holy Spirit intended to confound all our faculties with horror; as when it is said, that “Tophet is ordained of old; the pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.”[701] As these representations should assist us in forming some conception of the wretched condition of the wicked, so they ought principally to fix our attention on the calamity of being alienated from the presence of God; and in addition to this, experiencing such hostility from the Divine majesty as to be unable to escape from its continual pursuit. For, in the first place, his indignation is like a most violent flame, which devours and consumes all that it touches. In the next place, all the creatures so subserve the execution of his judgment, that those to whom the Lord will thus manifest his wrath, will find the heaven, the earth, and the sea, the animals, and all that exists, inflamed, as it were, with dire indignation against them, and all armed for their destruction. It is no trivial threatening, therefore, denounced by the apostle, that unbelievers “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”[702] And when the prophets excite terror by corporeal figures, though they advance nothing hyperbolical for our dull understandings, yet they mingle preludes of the future judgment with the sun, the moon, and the whole fabric of the world. Wherefore miserable consciences find no repose, but are harassed and agitated with a dreadful tempest, feel themselves torn asunder by an angry God, and, transfixed and penetrated by mortal stings, are terrified at the thunderbolts of God, and broken by the weight of his hand; so that to sink into any gulfs and abysses would be more tolerable than to stand for a moment in these terrors. How great and severe, then, is the punishment, to endure the never ceasing effects of his wrath! On which subject there is a memorable passage in the ninetieth psalm; that though by his countenance he scatters all mortals, and turns them to destruction, yet he encourages his servants in proportion to their timidity in this world, to excite them, though under the burden of the cross, to press forward, till he shall be all in all.