0A.05. Chapter IV.

Chapter IV. The reason why believers die and are in the state of death for a time, not withstanding the sting of death is taken away.

Sin is abolished by death. Their graces are eminently exercised in the encounter with the last enemy. The natural body is not capable of the celestial life. The resurrection of the saints is delayed until the coming of Christ. The resurrection proved from revelation; and the possibility of it by reason.

How the resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the happy resurrection of the saints.

I shall now resolve an interesting question: How does it come to pass, since believers are freed from the sting of death, that they die, and remain in the state of death for a time? For this there are several reasons:

1. By this means all the sinful frailties that cleave to the saints in this life, are abolished, "The body is dead because of sin." And what is more befitting the wise and holy providence of God, than that as by sin man was at first made subject to death, so by death sin dies entirely forever. Thus, as in Samson’s riddle, out of the devourer comes meat; and our worst enemy is conquered by his own weapons.

2. Death is continued to the saints, for the more eminent exercise and illustration of their graces, for the glory of God, and in order to their future reward. Faith and love, and patience, are declared in their most powerful operations in our encounter with death. If every saint were visibly and entirely translated to Heaven, after a short course of holy obedience; if the wicked did visibly drop down quick into Hell—then faith would be resigned to sight here. This would confound the militant state of the church with the triumphant church.

Therefore now "death happens to the good as well as to the wicked." In the next state they shall be separated by a vast gulf, and an amazing difference.

Now faith, whatever the kind of death be that a Christian suffers, sees through the thickest clouds of disgrace and misery, the glorious outcome—just as the illustrious confessor, who was crucified with our Savior, proclaimed his eternal kingdom in the midst of insulting infidels. Our love to God then appears in its radiance and vigor, when we are ready for the testimony of his truth, and advancing his glory, to suffer a violent death. Or when it comes in a gentler manner, for it is even then terrible to nature, we are willingly subject to dissolution, that we may be united to God in Heaven. Our patience has never its perfect work, and is truly victorious, until this last enemy be subdued. Death is the seal of our constancy and perseverance.

Now the righteous Rewarder will crown none but those "that strive lawfully," and are complete conquerors. And how wise and sweet is the economy of the divine providence in this, that the frailty of our nature should afford us a means of glorifying God, and of entitling ourselves by his most gracious promises to a blessed reward.

3. Our Savior by his invaluable obedience and sufferings, has procured for believers a celestial divine life, of which the natural body is not capable. The apostle says, "flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven." The exigencies and decays of the sensitive nature require a continual relief by food and sleep and other material supplies; but the life above is wholly spiritual, and equal to that of the angels. Therefore until this earthly animal body is reformed and purified, it is not capable of the glory reserved in Heaven. This is so absolutely requisite, that those believers, who are found alive at the last day, shall "in the twinkling of an eye be changed," that they may be qualified for it.

Herein the wisdom of God is astonishing, that death, which by the covenant of works was the deserved penalty of sin, by the covenant of grace should be the instrument of immortality; that as Joseph by a surprising circuit was brought from the prison to the principality; so a believer by the grave ascends to Heaven. This the apostle, in his divine disputation against infidels, proves in a most convincing manner, "You fool, that which you sow, is not quickened unless it dies." As the rotting of the corn in the earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up; so we must die, and the image of the earthly Adam be abolished, that we may be transformed into the image of the Heavenly One. And to the other part of the question—why the saints remain in the state of death for a time? There is a clear answer. The resurrection of the saints is delayed until Christ’s coming to judgment, partly for the glory of his appearance; for what an admirable sight will it be, that the saints of all ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized, to attend upon our Savior in the last act of his regal office, and then to make a triumphant entry with him into Heaven? And partly, that the established order of providence may not be disturbed; for the changing of our nature into glory, in a sudden and inexplicable manner, cannot be without miraculous power; and if every believer presently after death, were in his glorified body translated to Heaven, the world would be always filled with miracles, which were to cease after the sufficient confirmation of the gospel by them. But however long the interval is to the resurrection, it shall be with "them that sleep in Jesus," as it is with those that awake out of a quiet natural sleep, to whom the longest night seems but as a moment; so when the saints first awake from death, in the great morning of the world, a thousand years will seem no more to them than to God himself, but as one day.

I now come to prove, that our Savior will abolish the dominion of death over the saints.

While the bodies of the saints remain in the grave, they seem to be absolutely under the power of death. The world is a Golgotha, filled with the monuments of its victories. And it may be said to this our last enemy, in the words of the prophet to the bloody king, "have you killed, and taken possession?" but we are assured by an infallible word, that the power of death shall be abolished, and the bodies of the saints be revived incorruptible and immortal. The resurrection is a terra incognita (that is, unknown land) to the wisest heathen. The resurrection is a doctrine peculiar to the gospel. The heathen some glimmerings they had of the soul’s immortality, without which all virtue would have been extinguished in the world, but no conjecture of the reviving of the body. But reason assists faith in this point, both as to the will of God, and his power for the performing it. I will glance upon the natural reasons that induce the considering mind to receive this doctrine, and more largely show how "the resurrection of the just is assured" by our Redeemer. The divine laws are the rule of duty to the entire man, and not to the soul only; and they are obeyed or violated by the soul and body in conjunction. Therefore there must be a resurrection of the body, that the entire person may be capable of recompenses in judgment. The soul designs, the body executes; the senses are the open ports to admit temptations. Carnal affections deprave the soul, corrupt the mind, and mislead it. The love of sin is founded in sensible pleasures, "and the members are the servants of iniquity." The heart is the fountain of profaneness, and the tongue expresses it. The body is slavish to the holy soul in doing or suffering for God; and denies its sensual appetites and satisfactions in compliance with reason and grace. The "members are the instruments of righteousness." It follows then that there will be an universal resurrection, that the rewarding goodness of God may appear in making the bodies of his servants gloriously happy with their souls, and their souls completely happy in union with their bodies, to which they have a natural inclination; and his revenging justice be manifest in punishing the bodies of the wicked with eternal torments answerable to their guilt. As to the possibility of the resurrection, the circular and continual production of things in the world, is a clear demonstration of the power of God for that effect. There is a pregnant instance that our Savior and the apostle made use of as an image of the resurrection; a grain of corn sowed in the earth, corrupts and dies, and after springs up entire; its death is a disposition to life. The essays of God’s power in the works of returning nature, flowers and fruits in their season, instruct as how easily he can make those that are in the dust to awake to life. If the art of man, whose power and skill are very narrow and limited, can refine gold and silver to such a luster, as if their matter were not earth dug out of the mines; if from black cinders it can form crystal glasses so clear and shining—then how much more can omnipotence recompact our dust, and reanimate it with a glorious life!

Death that dissolves our vital frame does not abolish the matter of our bodies; and though it is corrupted and changed by a thousand accidents—yet it is unperishing; and under whatever colors and figures it appears, God perfectly discerns, and will separate it for its proper use.

More particularly, I will show how the resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the resurrection of believers to glory. As our surety he was under the arrest of death; it befitting the holy majesty of God, and conducing to the ends of his government, not to derogate from the dignity of his law, but to lay the penalty upon his Son, who interposed for us. Now having finished the work of our redemption by his sufferings, his resurrection was the just consequence of his sufferings and death. And it is observable that his resurrection, though one entire act, is ascribed as to himself, so to his Father, Rom 1:11, by whose consent and concurrence he rose again.

Therefore it is said, "whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, since it was impossible he should be held by it." Acts 2:24. It was naturally impossible upon the account of the divine power inherent in his person; and legally impossible, because divine justice required that he should be raised to life; partly to vindicate his innocence, for he was reputed, and suffered as a malefactor, and principally because he had fully satisfied God. Accordingly the apostle declares, "he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification," Rom 4:1-25.

Having paid our debt, he was released from the grave, and the discharge was most solemnly published to the world. It is therefore said, "the God of peace raised him from the dead," the act is most congruously ascribed unto God invested with that title, because his power was exerted in that glorious work, after he was "reconciled by the blood of the covenant."

Briefly, Our Savior’s victory over death was obtained by dying, his triumph by rising again. He foiled our common enemy in his own territories, the grave. His death was a counter-poison to death itself; as a bruised scorpion is a noble antidote against its venom.

Indeed his death is incomparably a greater wonder than his resurrection. For it is apparently more difficult that the Son of God, who originally possesses immortality, should die, than that the human body united to him, should he raised to a glorious life. It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the human nature some of his divine perfections and immortality, than that he should submit to our lowest infirmities, sufferings and death.

Now the resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy resurrection. For God chose and appointed him to be the example and principle from whom all divine blessings should be derived to us. Accordingly he tells his disciples in a previously cited Scripture, "because I live, you shall live also." Our nature was raised in his person, therefore he is called "the first fruits of those who sleep," because as the first fruits were a pledge and assurance of the following harvest; and as from the condition of the first fruits being offered to God, the whole harvest was entitled to a consecration; so our Savior’s resurrection to the life of glory is the pledge and assurance of ours.

He is called "the first-born among the dead," and owns the race of departed believers as his brethren, who shall be restored to life according to his pattern. He is "the head," believers "are his members," and therefore shall have communion with him in his life. The effect is so infallible, that now they are said "to be raised up together, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph 2:6.

If his victory over our enemies had been imperfect, and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard, "as it were by fire," in the apostle’s expression, then our redemption would not have been accomplished. But his passion was triumphant; and is it conceivable that he should leave the saints, his own by so many dear titles, under the power of death? If Moses, the deliverer of Israel from the tyranny of Pharaoh, Exo 10:26, would not allow anything of theirs, "not a hoof" to remain in the house of bondage; will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his work? Shall our last enemy always detain his spoils, our bodies, in the grave? This would reflect upon his love and power. It is recorded, to confirm our hopes, how early his power was displayed in forcing the grave to release its chained captives, "and many bodies of saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Mat 27:52-53.

What better pledge can we have, that the strength of death is broken? From what he has done to what he is able to do, the consequence is clear. The apostle tells us, "he will raise our vile bodies, and change them like unto his glorious body, by that power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself." Php 3:21. Our redemption "will then be complete," Rom 8:23, and all the bitterness of death past. The redemption of the soul is accomplished from sin and misery immediately after death; but the redemption of the body is the last in order, and reserved to crown our felicity at the great day. Then "death shall be swallowed up in victory"—abolished forever. And O the joyful reunion of the body and soul after such a divorce! when the body that was so long detained in the loathsome grave, shall be reformed with all glorious perfections, and be a fit instrument for the soul, and partaker with it in consummate blessedness and immortality. It is said, that "those that wear rich clothing are in kings’ houses," but what are all the robes of costly folly wherein earthly courtiers appear, to the brightness and beauty of the spiritual body with which the saints shall be clothed, to qualify them for the presence of the King of kings, and to be in his house forever! But O the miserable condition of the wicked in that day! Death now breaks their bodies and souls into an irreconcilable enmity, and how sad will their conjunction be! The soul will accuse the body to have been sin’s solicitor, continually tempting it to sensualities; and the body will upbraid the soul, for its wicked compliance; then the sinner shall be an entire sacrifice burning, but never consumed.

Now from the assurance of a blessed resurrection by Christ, the aforementioned fear of death is conquered in believers. If the doctrine of the transmigration of souls into bodies (the invention of Pythagoras) inspired his disciples with that fiery vigor, as to encounter the most present and apparent dangers, being fearless to part with the life that should be restored—then how much more should a Christian with a holy confidence receive death, knowing that the life of his body shall not be finally lost, but renewed in a blessed eternity?