PART III. OF THE RESURRECTION. Marvel not at this: for 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.-JOHN v. 28, 29. THESE words are part of the defence which our Lord Jesus Christ makes for himself, when persecuted by the Jews, for curing the impotent man and ordering him to carry away his bed on the Sabbath; and for vindicating his conduct, when accused by them of having thereby profaned that day. On this occasion he professes himself not only the Lord of the Sabbath, but also Lord of life and death; declaring, in the words of the text, the resurrection of the dead to be brought to pass by his power. This he introduces with these words, as with a solemn preface, "Marvel not at this," namely, at this strange discourse of mine: do not wonder to hear me, whose appearance is so very mean in your eyes, talk at this rate; for the day is coming, in which the dead shall be raised by my power. Observe in this text, 1. The doctrine of the resurrection asserted, "All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." The dead bodies, which are reduced to dust, shall revive, and evidence life by hearing and moving. 2. The author of it, Jesus Christ, "the Son of man," ver. 27. The dead shall hear his voice, and be raised thereby. 3. The number that shall be raised, "All that are in the graves," that is, all the dead bodies of men, howsoever differently disposed of, in different kinds of graves; or all the dead, good and bad. They are not all buried in graves, properly so called some are burnt to ashes: some drowned, and buried in the bellies of fishes; but, wherever the matter or substance of which the body was composed is to be found, thence they shall come forth. 4. The great distinction that shall be made between the godly and the wicked: they shall both rise again in the resurrection. None of the godly shall be missing; though, perhaps, they either had no burial, or a very obscure one; and all the wicked shall come forth; their vaulted tombs shall hold them no longer than the voice is uttered. But the former have a joyful resurrection to life, whilst the latter have a dreadful resurrection to damnation. 5. The set time of this great event: there is an hour, or certain fixed period of time, appointed of God for it. We are not told when that hour will be, but that it is coming; for this, among other reasons, that we may always be ready. DOCTRINE. There shall be a resurrection of the dead. In discoursing of this subject, I shall-1. Shew the certainty of the resurrection. II. I shall inquire into the nature of it. And, Lastly, make some practical improvement of the whole. I. In shewing the certainty of the resurrection, I shall evince, 1. That God can raise the dead. 2. That he will do it; which are the two grounds or topics laid down by Christ himself, when disputing with the Sudduces, Matt. xxii. 29, " Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." I. Seeing God is almighty, surely he can raise the dead. have instances of this powerful work of God, both in the Old and New Testament. The son of the widow in Sarepta was raised from the dead, 1 Kings xvii. 22; the Shunammite's son, 2 Kings iv. 35; and the man "cast into the sepulchre of Elisha," chap. xiii. 21. In which we may observe a gradation, the second of these miraculous events being more illustrious than the first, and the third than the second. The first of these persons was raised when he was but newly dead; the prophet Elijah, who raised him being present at his decease. The second, when he had lain dead a considerable time; namely, while his mother travelled from Shunem, to mount Carmel, reckoned about the distance of sixteen miles, and returned from thence to her house, with Elisha, who raised him. The last, not till they were burying him, and the corpse was cast into the prophet's grave. In like manner, in the New Testament, Jairus's daughter, Mark v. 41, and Dorcas, Acts ix. 40, were both raised to life, when lately dead; the widow's son in Nain, when they were carrying him out to bury him, Luke vii. 11-15; and Lazarus, when putrid in the grave, John xi. 39–44. Can men make curious glasses out of ashes, and cannot the great Creator, who made all things of nothing, raise man's body, after it is reduced into the dust? If it be objected, "How can men's bodies be raised up again, after they are reduced to dust, and the ashes of many generations are mingled together?" Scripture and reason furnish the answer, "With men it is impossible, but not with God." It is absurd for men to deny that God can do a thing, because they see not how it may be done. How small a portion do we know of his ways! How absolutely incapable are we of conceiving distinctly of the extent of almighty power, and much more of comprehending its actings, and method of procedure! I question not, but many illiterate men are as great unbelievers as to many chemical experiments, as some learned men are to the doctrine of the resur : "the rection and as these last are ready to deride the former, so, Lord will have them in derision." What a mystery was it to the Indians, that the Europeans could, by a piece of paper, converse together at the distance of some hundreds of miles! How much were they astonished to see them, with their guns, produce as it were thunder and lightning in a moment, and at pleasure kill men afar off! Shall some men do such things as are wonders in the eyes of others because they cannot comprehend them, and shall men confine the infinite power of God within the narrow boundaries of their own shallow capacities, in a matter no ways contrary to reason! An inferior nature has but a very imperfect conception of the power of a superior. Brutes do not conceive of the actings of reason in men; and men have but imperfect notions of the power of angels: how low and inadequate a conception, then, must a finite nature have of the power of that which is infinite! Though we cannot conceive how God acts, yet we ought to believe he can do above what we can think or conceive. Wherefore, let the bodies of men be laid in the grave; let them rot there, and be reduced into the most minute particles: or let them be burnt, and the ashes cast into rivers, or thrown up into the air, to be scattered by the wind: let the dust of a thousand generations be mingled, and the steams of the dead bodies wander to and fro in the air: let birds or wild beasts eat the bodies, or the fishes of the sea devour them, so that the parts of human bodies, thus destroyed, pass into substantial parts of birds, beasts or fishes; and then let our modern Sadducees propose the questions in these cases, as the ancient Sadducees did in the case of the woman who had been married to seven husbands successively, Matt. xxii. 28. We answer, as our blessed Lord and Saviour did, ver. 29, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." We believe God to be omniscient and omnipotent; infinite in knowledge and in power and hence, agreeably to the dictates of reason, we conclude the possibility of the resurrection, even in the cases supposed. Material things may change their forms and shapes, may be reduced to the principles of which they are formed: but they are not annihilated, or reduced to nothing; nor can they be so, by any created power. God is omniscient, his understanding is infinite; therefore he knows all things; what they were at any time, what they are, and where they are to be found. Though the countryman, who comes into the apothecary's shop, cannot find out the drug he wants; yet the apothecary himself knows what he has in his shop, whence it came, and where it is to be found. And, in a mixture of many different seeds, the expert gardener can distinguish between each of them. Why then may not Omniscience distinguish between dust and dust? Can he, who knows all things to perfection, be liable to any mistake about his own creatures? Whoso believes an infinite understanding, must needs own, that no mass of dust is so jumbled together, but God perfectly comprehends, and infallibly knows, how the most minute particle, and every one of them is to be matched. Therefore he knows where the particles of each dead body are; whether in the earth, sea, or air, however they are now scattered. It is certain the bodies of men, as of all other animals or living creatures, are in a continual change: they grow and are sustained by daily food; so small a part whereof becomes nourishment, that the most part evaporates. It is reckoned that much of the food evaporates insensibly by perspiration. Yea, the nourishing part of the food, when assimilated, and thereby become a part of the body, evaporates by perspiration, though the pores of the skin, and is again supplied by the use of other food: yet the body is still reckoned one and the same body. Whence we may conclude, that it is not essential to the resurrection of the body, that every particle of the matter, which at any time was part of a human body, should be restored to it, when it is raised up from death to life. Were it so, the bodies of men would become of so huge a size, that they would bear no resemblance to the persons. It is sufficient to denominate it the same body that died, when it is risen again, if the body that is raised be formed in its former proportions, of the same particles of matter, which at any time were its constituent parts, however it be refined just as we reckon it is the same body that has pined away by long sickness, which becomes fat and fair again after recovery. Now, to this infinite understanding join infinite power, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself; and this gloriously great work appears most reasonable. If Omniscience discover every little particle of dust, where it is, and how it is to be matched, cannot Omnipotence bring them, and join them together, in their order? Can the watchmaker take up the several pieces of a watch, lying in a confused heap before him, and set each in its proper place; and cannot God put the human body into order, after its dissolution? Did he speak his world into being, out of nothing: and can he not form man's body out of its pre-existent matter? If he calleth those things which be not, as though they were, surely he can call things that are dissolved, to be as they were before the compound was resolved into its parts and principles. Wherefore, God can raise the dead. And "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" Acts xxvi. 8. 2. God will do it. He not only can do it, but he certainly will do it, because he has said it. Our text is very full to this purpose, "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." These words relate to, and are an explanation of, that part of Daniel's prophecy, 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." Which appears to be calculated to confront the doctrine of the Sadducees; which the Holy Ghost knew was to be at a great height in the Jewish church, under the persecution of Antiochus.-There are many other texts in the Old and New Testament, that might here be adduced; such as Acts xxiv. 15, "And have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." And Job xix. 26, 27, "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." But I need not multiply testimonies, in a matter so clearly and frequently taught in' sacred Scripture. Our Lord and Saviour himself proves it, against the Sadducees, in that remarkable text, Luke xx. 37, 38, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him."-These holy patriarchs were dead; nevertheless, the Lord JEHOVAH is called their God, namely, in virtue of the covenant of grace, and in the sense thereof; in which sense the phrase comprehends all blessedness, as that which, by the covenant, is secured to those who are in it; Heb. xi. 16, "God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city." He is not called the God of their souls only; but their God, the God of their persons, souls, and bodies; which, by virtue of his truth and faithfulness, must have its full effect: now, it cannot have its full effect on the dead, who, inasmuch as they are dead, are far from all blessedness; but on the living, who alone are capable of it. Therefore, since God is still called their God, they are living in respect of God, although their bodies are yet in the grave; for, in respect of him, who by his power can restore them to life, and in his covenant has declared his will and purpose so to do, and whose promise * Their souls are actually so, and enjoy communion with him, and with saints and angels. |