Chapter X (continued, part 2)
here, let us never go down to the world again ; and yet, poor men, they were half asleep, they awaked on the sudden, and they heard Moses and
Elias talking with Christ, and they heard them talking of his sufferings, an
unpleasing subject, yet, say they, Let us go down no more ; and yet they themselves were not made glorious, nay, they were astonished, and that
allayed their joy. How much then shall we be affected when we shall
see Jesus Christ as he is, and be made like to him, and have our bodies
transformed, able to bear all the glory, and to view him with open face, as the apostle saith, with an allusion to it, 2 Cor. iii. 18, But we all,
OF THE CKEATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Here you see now, my brethren, what a great glory it was ; yet let me tell you this too, that this glory which Christ had at his transfiguration falleth short of that glory he hath now in heaven ; and that is as clear many ways it was but a mere resemblance of it, a mere symbolical representa tion of it, in comparison of what that is. For,
(1.) He did not let the glory of his body shine out to the full ; for if he had, these poor disciples had not been able to have borne it. Paul, you know, his eyes were put out with seeing it, Acts xxvi. 13 ; therefore he kept it in from what now shineth forth, and breaketh forth in heaven. And,
(2.) It was but a transient glory ; whereas that glory which is in his
glorified body in heaven, it is a permanent quality, that hath unchangeableness and unalterableness for ever, whereas this was but a blush of it. What saith the apostle in 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8 ?
< But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his counte nance, which glory was to be done away ; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious ? He argueth that therefore Moses his glory was no glory in comparison of the glory of Christ. By what ? Be cause, saith he, the glory of Moses his countenance was to be done away ; and therefore it was no glory in comparison of the glory of Christ which contmueth. So do I argue, the glory which appeared here upon the mount in Christ s transfiguration, is no glory in comparison of that he hath in heaven. Why ? Because it was to be done away, for, when the cloud had taken up Moses and Elias, Christ was the same man he was afore. There-
fore^now, the glory which Christ had in the mount, which Peter magnified
so, in comparison of what he hath in heaven, it is but like^the joy of the Holy Ghost, which, in comparison of what the soul shall have in heaven, is but a little flushing of it. Yet you see how mightily it did affect, and what a glory it was. Consider,
_ (3.) His body was still subject to infirmities, and therefore was not glo rified ; for Moses and Elias did talk of his dying while he was in this glory, and therefore now it was by a miracle ; it was not in that connatural way it shall be in the world to come, when his body shall be steeled, nay, it is steeled with glory. For, my brethren, the glory that is now in heaven put upon him, ^it hath changed his body, so that it is impossible he can suffer from anything, and death hath no more dominion over him, nor anything tending to death, not the least alteration ; but here he was to come down off the mount and to be crucified when he had done. And then,
(4.) These disciples here could tell what they saw, and they could tell what the speech was between Moses and Elias and him. But go, take Paul rapt up into the third heavens, and he telleth us that he heard words that were unlawful and impossible to utter ; and so he saw sights, he saw the^human nature of Christ in his glory certainly; but when he came down
again, that vision which he had, he could tell no news of it. But these here, they could tell what they saw, and who they were, and what they said,
They heard a voice from heaven, saying, This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
(5.) Christ, in this transfiguration of his, did but give an instance of one property of glory, namely, shining brightness, such as is in the body of the sun ; but there is likewise other as glorious properties of a spiritual body, that it can move up and down, as he did when he ascended up into
CHAP. X.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 109
heaven ; he was not long a-going certainly, though it is a mighty vast space from earth to heaven ; and he moved up and down after his resurrection ; and then he was impassible. But I will not stand upon that. Thus I have shewn you what a great glory must needs he in the human nature of Christ, in his body. The grounds are in the text ; the instance
is this which I have given you out of the story of his transfiguration ; and so I have despatched the second thing. Before I come to the third and
last, I will make a use or two of this, and then proceed.
Use 1. In the first place, my brethren, will you see and value the infinite love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? As I said before, the glory of
his human nature is founded upon the union of that nature with the Son of God ; it was his due as soon as ever he should assume a human nature, and therefore he is called the man from heaven, for it was his due to be there ; it was a condescending for him to take upon him our frailties, our
infirmities, and to have a passible body as he had. And therefore now
for him that was thus in God s decree in the very form of God, and was the image of the invisible God, for so in his very human nature he is, he could have challenged all this glory as his due the very first moment that he should first subject himself, and that human nature of his, to all those
sufferings and debasements that he subjected it unto ; how infinitely should
this raise up our hearts to see the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ! I shall but make this a little clear to you out of the very story of his transfiguration. You shall find that when he was transfigured, the
evangelists tell us, that Moses and Elias did talk to him of his death and of his sufferings ;
* they spake of his decease, saith Luke, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Our Saviour Christ, to shew what was his due instead of this suffering, he transfigureth himself; and whereas Moses and Elias went up to heaven in their bodies again to that glory which they had before, he is left behind here below, and all his glory is
gone, and to Jerusalem he must go, and there he must suffer. Why ? He should have been in heaven first if he had had his due. This glory of his, I say, and his death, were both represented at once ; Moses and Elias spake to him about his death at the same time when his transfiguration was, on
purpose to set a value upon it, to take the hearts of the sons of men. This
Christ, that was so glorious upon the mount, he might then have gone to heaven as well as descended, and then where had been our salvation ? But he letteth Moses and Elias go to heaven : Go you, saith he, and pos sess your glory ; but as for his own glory, he sheweth what was his due, but layeth it aside for a while that he might suffer.
Use 2. Again, secondly, See whence the valuation of the bodily suffer
ings of Christ before God doth arise. There were the sufferings of his
soul, and there were the sufferings of his body. The sufferings of his soul the Scripture speaks least of, though they were the greatest sufferings of
all the rest ; as the Scripture speaks but little of the glory of the soul, but speaks much of the glory of the body, and would have us argue from that to the greatness of the glory of the soul in the world to come. Learn, I say, to value the sufferings of Christ at a due rate, consider whose body it was that suffered ; it was the body of him in whom the Godhead dwelt
bodily and fully ; of him that was life itself, was a quickening Spirit (he was so in assuming human nature), his body was ordained to another world ; and the valuation of the person was it that put a valuation upon everything he suffered. Therefore, my brethren, whenever you would put a value upon the bodily sufferings of Christ, I will tell you what to do :
HO OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
first, look upon him as lie is now crowned with glory and honour in heaven, and then think with yourselves that all this was due to him when he was
here below, when he was in the mount, yea, when in the womb, to have
taken that body up and made it so glorious ; and when you have brought him down from all the glory he hath in heaven, do but think what a man
he was when he hung upon the cross. This should make us put a valua
: this makes us see what it is that God doth
tion upon all his sufferings
value his bodily sufferings for ; they were the sufferings of his body, whose
due it was to be thus glorified, and never to have suffered ; but God so
ordered it that he must first suffer, and then rise and enter into, and pos
sess his glory.
CHAPTEK XL
What a more glorious condition than was Adam s in innocence Christ will
raise us up unto, proved in the lowest instance of it, viz., the glory our
bodies shall have at the resurrection. Wherein that glory shall consist. A
comparison between that glory our bodies shall then possess, and what Adam s
: and in what resrject ours shall far excel his.
had in paradise
3. THE third thing that I am to handle is this, to shew you that our
bodies shall be conformed to Jesus Christ s body, that as we have borne
the ima^e of the earthly (which we all do in the bodies which we now have),
so we shall bear the image of the heavenly ; for so the apostle reasoneth,
ver. 49. For the apostle s scope in these words is to argue that there is
a spiritual body which the saints shall have in the other world after the
resurrection ; and he argueth it from this, because that Christ, who is our
head, he shall have a spiritual body ; and he argueth that Christ shall have
a spiritual body, by comparing Adam s body and Christ s together. Adam, he saith, was Christ s type and shadow, and therefore by way of eminency,
if Adam was a living soul, that is, had a reasonable soul that dwelt in a
body of clay, which advanced it to such a dignity as all this world was made for it, then, saith he, Christ shall be a quickening Spirit ; that is, he shall have the Godhead to dwell in him, and quicken the human nature, and raise it up in a proportion to a higher degree of glory, than the rea
sonable soul of Adam raised up his body unto. And having proved this, he argueth from thence, that our bodies shall be like unto Christ s. Why ?
Because those two were two common persons and roots of mankind, and
they were to propagate the like condition, the like state and qualification
that should be in either of them, to those that should come of them : As
< such are those that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, namely Christ, the Lord from heaven, such are
is the earthy, saith he, namely, Adam,
they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the
earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. This, I say, is the
apostle s scope ; his scope is not so much to hold forth the state of Adam s
soul, taking it as having the image of God upon it, having communion
with God, for that is held forth sufficiently and abundantly in other Scrip
tures, but rather to compare that animal condition, that is, that state that
this soul had in this body, as it was suited to earthly things, as it was a
living soul, quickening and giving life to an earthly body, partaking of all
the comforts of things here below ; to compare, I say, the state of this
body, and this soul living in it, with the state of that glorified body which
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. Ill
Jesus Christ hath in heaven, and which he will raise up our bodies unto
at latter day. That I may distinctly express myself to all your appre hensions, let me say this in a word : Adam, you see, here is made a typo of Christ ; his condition wherein he was created, it is a type or a shadow
of that glorious condition that Christ will raise up his members to. Now
the glory of heaven lies in two things, and the happiness of Adam lay in two things, whereof the one answereth the other. The glory of heaven doth lie first in that immediate communion with and vision of the God head which the soul hath, and whether it hath the body about it or no it would have ; for, saith Paul, when he was rapt up into the third heavens, in 2 Cor. xii.,
* Whether I was in the body, or out of the body, I cannot
tell ; nor was it any matter. But, in the second place, because that this
soul, that thus seeth God immediately without the help of the body, hath a
body that must be carried up thither to it, hence, besides the happiness that
the soul hath by immediate communion with God, the body hath a happi ness and glory, as the soul dwelleth in it, and the Holy Ghost in both, that is
proper and peculiar to itself. Just so it was with Adam : he had an immortal soul that was created with the image of God in it, the image of
holiness, by virtue of which he had communion with God ; and his soul thus having communion with God, answereth to that vision of God which the soul hath in heaven, although joined with the body after the resurrec
tion. But then, secondly, as this soul dwelling in this body, beside the communion it had with God, it had an animal state, a natural, an outward
state of life, taking in the comforts of things here below, in and through the senses, both inward and outward, which here the apostle calleth tho natural body, and interpreteth it by that in Genesis, a living soul, that is, a soul living or dwelling in an earthly body, having all the creatures in the world suited to this body to comfort it, and tho soul by it. Answerably there is in the world to come something that answereth to this spiritual body, and the spiritual state and condition of it. Now then, the scope of the apostle, I say, it is not to compare the state of Adam s soul, as he had the image of God upon it, having immediate communion with God, to make him a type of Christ therein, or of his elect in heaven ; but to shew,
ev>en from that animal, natural, earthy estate that his soul had in his
body, what glorious spiritual estate the very bodies of the saints shall have
hereafter.
My brethren, the design I had is this, to compare the state of Adam s body in innocency with the glorious estate that the body of Christ hath, and that the bodies of the saints shall have after the resurrection. And I have endeavoured to shew how the state and condition of Adam s body, in which he was first created, it was a type and a shadow of the state and condition both of Christ s body and ours. To demonstrate this I have,
First, Shewed what condition Adam s body was advanced unto by his
being made a living soul, what an high estate that piece of earth, that lump of clay which God made Adam s body of, was advanced unto by being united to that reasonable soul which God put into him at first. I have, Secondly, Shewn what a glorious condition the human nature of Christ, by being united to the Godhead, which is here in the text called a quicken ing Spirit, this Godhead raiseth up this human nature unto. And now I am,
Thirdly, To shew that the state and condition of the bodies of the saints hereafter at the resurrection shall be made conformable unto Jesus Christ s body ; and there I must also make up a comparison betwen the state of
112 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
Adam s body at his first creation, and our bodies when they are thus raised
up at latter day, and shew how the one was but a type and an imperfect shadow of the other.
That our bodies at latter day shall be conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ s body, the Scripture is clear for it. I will give you but a place or
two, instead of many others. In 1 John iii. 1-3, Behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God ! Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, wo shall be
like him; for we shall see him as he is. Now, how is it that we shall see
Christ ? Not only with our souls, but we shall see him with our eyes ; so saith Job, chap. xix. 26, 27. And seeing of him with these eyes, we
shall be made like unto him ; as we shall see him with the sense of our
bodies, our bodies shall be made also like unto him. Another place you have is in Philip, iii. 21, We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. As what to do ? Who shall change our vile bodies, or our body that, in comparison of that body, is contemptible ; so I have opened it afore, it is not a vileness in itself, but it is spoken comparatively, that it may be
fashioned according to his glorious body, according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Our bodies they have two patterns propounded in Scripture that they shall be conformed unto. The one is, they shall be like the angels. The
sons of the resurrection, saith Christ in the evangelist Matthew, they shall be like the angels. And there is a second pattern
: we shall be con formed into Christ s glorious body. How glorious that was you have heard : We shall be like him. It is not in equality, but it is only in respect of
the same qualities that his body had. I would clear one mistake that some run into. When it is said, We shall bear the image of the body and human
nature of Christ in heaven, and that Christ is a quickening Spirit, some have run into this conceit, that as the Godhead is united in a personal manner to the human nature of Christ, so it shall also be united to our
bodies. But that is not the meaning, my brethren ; and my reason is this, because if we come to heaven by virtue of Christ, it is impossible we should
ever be raised up to the same union with .the Godhead he hath. The
hypostatical union is a thing of so high a nature as it can never be merited ; but all that can be done is this, that we shall be made like unto him. He
by virtue of being God, his body is made so and so glorious, as I have
described it unto you ; that, as I said, suppose the sun should dwell in a
crystal glass, how glorious would that glass be ! So the Godhead dwelling in the human nature, he is the Lord from heaven, raised up above angels ; therefore his body is glorious. Now we shall not be raised up to the same
height and degree of glory he is. No ; let Christ for ever enjoy that to him
self ; but all our happiness lieth in this, we shall be conformed to him, even
in our bodies we shall be made like unto him.
Now the reason why I insist first upon this of the body is this, because
the Scripture speaks little of the glory of the soul, neither can it be con
veyed to our senses ; but it would have us raise up our thoughts, how
glorious the soul shall be, by laying open how glorious our bodies shall
be. And so now I come to open to you the glory of that spiritual body we
shall have after the resurrection.
In laying open this, I shall do these four things by way of premise
1. To shew you that it shall be the same body which we now have that
our souls shall then dwell in.
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 113
2. That tins body shall have all its parts and members that now it hath.
3. That all these parts and members shall have some use or other in heaven. And then, 4. That this body shall be a spiritual body ; and open and interpret what
is meant by a spiritual body ; and so I shall come to make out the com
parison between the state of Adam s body at his first creation, and our bodies when they are thus raised up at latter day.
1. In the first place, it is the same body for substance ; for, my brethren, when Adam s body, the natural body we now have, is said to be a type of our bodies in heaven, the meaning is not that it is a type of another kind of body for substance. He calleth both the one and the other a body, only he saith the one is a natural body, and the other is a spiritual body. He doth not say our bodies shall be turned into spirits, as some have
thought, but they shall be made spiritual. As for example
: go take a piece of iron and put it in the fire ; it is one thing to have this iron to be turned
into fire, and another thing to have it filled with fire, and to be fiery, that
if you look upon it you shall not see iron, but see fire ; yet iron it is still. So is it here ; it is the same body, it is not changed into spirit ; it is only made spiritual, it hath new properties, new qualities put upon it, as iron hath when it is mightily heated with fire ; it is malleable when it is heated with fire you may bow it or bend it or work it which way you will, though it is stiff naturally; and it is hot if you touch it you shall not feel cold iron but fire, though it is cold naturally. Therefore, in Scripture it is not said we are made angels, our bodies are not made spirits, but they are made as the angels. I speak thus much, the rather because it is a great heresy that is risen up in these latter times, that we shall not have the same bodies
in heaven for substance that we have here below. The apostle plainly saith the contrary. He saith not that our bodies shall be made spirits, but
spiritual, and that the very same body that we have now, and bear about with us, even that very body shall be glorified. How is that proved ? Out of this very chapter, in verses 53 and 54. This same corruptible, saith he (mark the phrase, in the Greek it is most emphatical), must put on incorruption ; it shall not be another body. Now he must needs mean the same body for substance ; for to say a corruptible thing, qua corruptible, shall be incorruptible, is a contradiction. And he addeth also,
* And this same mortal must put on immortality. And he is not content with that, but he saith further, When this same mortal shall put on immortality, and this same corruptible have put on incorruption. There are four
the sames. The same mortal, the same corruptible, is that that shall be
glorified hereafter.
And, my brethren, else we were not conformed unto Christ ; for what
body hath Christ in heaven ? The very same body he rose in. We must
rise as he rose, for he is the first fruits of them that sleep. Now it is
clear and evident that Christ rose in the same body he died ; for he saith
his body should not see corruption ; it was kept in the grave, it rose again.
4 Feel, saith he. It is certain that he did ascend with the same body he rose in. Acts i. 11, say the angels there to the apostles that beheld him
ascend, This same Jesus (it is a very emphatical place), the very same whom you see taken up into heaven, shall so come in like manner ; he
expresseth it every way, the sameness of the one and the other. I will not stand to mention or open that place, which is commonly known, Job
* With these eyes I shall see him ; I myself (saith he), and not
xix. 25,
another. That is the first thing, the same body riseth. VOL. VII. H
114 OF THE CKEATUEES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
2. Secondly, The same body shall have all its parts and members that now it hath, and that is plain and evident from our conformity to Christ,
for still you see here, our bodies are to be conformed unto 4his, we shall bear his image at the resurrection. Now it is clear that Jesus Christ rose with every part of his body that he had when he died ; there was not a member that saw corruption. And in Heb. xi. 35, compared with ver. 37,
it is said of them that were sawn asunder, one piece of their bodies broken from another, they shall rise a whole body. Why ? Because, saith he,
they shall obtain a better resurrection. Now it was not a better resur
rection if that all the parts did not rise again, and if that all these parts were not mended, or if they had any imperfection in them. And if you mark it, he speaks it of the resurrection of the body, for he speaks of their
being tortured, limb pulled from limb, sawn asunder ; well, saith he, they shall not only have a resurrection, but a better resurrection one day.
3. Thirdly, It is as evident, too, that all these parts shall have an use in
heaven, some or other, in a spiritual way, and have objects suited to them.
I shall make this plain unto you.
(1.) By instancing in some particulars. It is evident that some parts of
* With these eyes, saith Job,
the body have an use in heaven. It is evident in seeing.
* shall I see him. It is evident in speaking. In that trans
figuration which I have spoken of before, it is said that Moses, and Elias, and Christ did talk together. And at latter day it is certain that Christ
will speak so as all the world shall hear him ; he shall so judge all men as
that every man shall be able for to judge, therefore he shall do it audibly ; for in 1 Cor. iv. 5 saith the apostle, Judge no man before the time, until
the Lord come, and he cometh as a man to judge, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart ;
implying, judge no man s heart aforehand, for one day you shall judge. And how shall you come to judge ? Because the Lord will bring them all
to light, and he will do it as a man ; for he hath appointed the man Christ Jesus to judge the world. And when I say he shall pronounce the sentence with a voice that all the world shall hear, it is not to be conceived that he
shall speak so as to thunder, but he shall have a spiritual voice, and they shall have spiritual ears, and how we know not, as I shall shew you by and
by. Stephen s eye, his bodily eye, could see up into heaven, and he saw
the heavens opened, and the Son of God standing on the right hand of his Father. To see a man of Christ s stature so far off, he must have the eye
spiritualised ; and so Stephen s was. And so for all the world to hear the
voice of Christ at latter day, it is because they shall have ears spiritualised. Now, I say if all these parts of the body remain, why should those have a
privilege and a prerogative more than all the rest of the parts of the body, which certainly shall serve for some use or other ?
(2.) I shall give you the reason which some divines give for it, viz., that else it is not a resurrection unto life. The resurrection is called a
waking ; for death, you know, is a sleep. Now if there were not an
employment for all the parts of the body in a spiritual way (what we know
not), there were a resurrection of some of them to sleep, rather than to
waking, rather than to life : When I awake, saith he,
* I shall see thy
face, Ps. xvii. 15.
(3.) I shall propound you this reason likewise for it, that the principal aim
of God in decreeing men to salvation, it did fall upon their bodies as well as
their souls. He chose not the soul only to heaven, and the body to come
thither accidentally, but he pitched upon this soul as dwelling in this body,
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 115
and therefore makes the soul stay for its full glory till the body is joined unto it ; and therefore he hath as well ordained that which shall be for the
happiness and glory even of the body, objects suitable to it, being made
spiritual, as he hath done for the soul itself.
Thus having explained, 1. That for the substance, it is the same body ; and 2. That it is the same body with all the parts of it ; and 3. That all
these parts have their use ; I must, 4. Explain what is meant by a spiritual body, and so make out the
comparison between the state of Adam s body in his first creation, and our
bodies when they shall be raised up at latter day. There are three inter
pretations, which being put altogether make up the full scope and intent of what is here meant by a spiritual body.
(1.) Some say it is therefore called spiritual, because that all earthly, animal uses of it shall cease, such as the body hath now. The eye shall not be suited to colours or beauty, nor the ear to sounds, such sounds as
now, nor the mouth and stomach to meats and drinks. There is a very
plain place for this in 1 Cor. vi. 13, Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats : but God shall destroy both it and them ; that is, that suitableness
that is between the body and meats, the eye and colours or beauty, the
fancy and the things here in this world fancied ; all this suitableness wherein God hath made the one for the other, as faculties for objects, belly for
meats, and meats for the belly, God will dissolve ; he will destroy, he will
evacuate, he will make void all this suitableness, that the mouth nor the stomach shall not desire meats or drinks, &c. Why ? Because God will
destroy this suitableness, he will destroy both the belly and the meats in
the world to come. As the angels, they are not taken with bodily pleasures, with beauty, nor any such thing, no more shall our bodily senses, other wise than as to that use they shall be then put unto. If you could suppose a man to be taken out of heaven in the body, he would find no pleasure in
anything here, he would not be taken with meats, or beauty, or pleasures, or any such thing ; he would be as an angel. Here in this world God hath
suited one to the other ; there this suitableness shall be dissolved. There
* That they are as
fore you know our Saviour Christ saith, Mat. xxii. 30,
the angels of God in heaven, they neither marry nor give in marriage ; and
the pleasures that depend thereupon they shall not have, nor any such
carnal thing, for their bodies are spiritual ; though they have all the same
parts and senses they had before, yet they are turned unto other objects, and put unto other uses. And hence therefore it is said, that
* flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven ; that is, take these poor
earthly bodies of ours, we are so unsuited to that glory that it would sink
us, so that if a man could be put into heaven with this body as it is now, that glory would kill him, he were not able to bear it, he were not able to
inherit. It is then a truth that they are called spiritual bodies in this
respect, that look as spirits cannot find a suitableness between worldly
things and them what do the angels care for all the beauty in the
world, or for all the pleasures of meat and drinks ? &c. Nothing at all no more shall these bodies of ours, when they shall be raised up at the
latter day. God will destroy both it and them ; that is, the suitableness between the one and the other.
(2.) Others interpret a spiritual body to be a body able to pass, pierce, or move as spirits up and down ; that our bodies shall be able to move from earth to heaven presently. Popish interpreters say, That Christ s
body did move even through the gravestone, while the stone lay upon the
116 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
mouth of the sepulchre. But whether that be true or no I will not stand to dispute ; our protestant divines are against it. Yet this is certain, that that is not the whole meaning of the apostle here, when he saith our bodies
shall be spiritual, and that for this reason clearly, because he doth oppose
spiritual to the whole animal life, the natural life that Adam s soul had in
his body in all the operations of it whatsoever ; therefore to restrain a
spiritual body only to nimbleness and agility, it is too narrow an inter
pretation ; it is but to take in one property instead of all the rest. But
then,
(3.) That which I especially pitch upon (though I take in all these in
their degree) is this ; it is called a spiritual body, because that the whole
body it shall be in a spiritual way suited to spiritual objects made for it ; and so now I shall come to make out the comparison between the state of Adam s body in innocency, and our bodies as they shall be after the resur
rection, and shew you how the one was a type of the other.
The first excellency of Adam s body, which is called a natural body, I
told you was this : it had a whole world made for it, meats for his belly, colours for his eyes, sounds for his ears, &c. ; and as he had an animal
body, so he had a world suited to it. So now, likewise, there is a spiritual body we shall have, which shall be so changed, and have new qualities put upon all these senses of ours, that there shall be spiritual objects suited thereunto ; that as the suitableness between earthly objects and it shall be taken away, meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, shall both be
destroyed, so there will be spiritual objects which the body will be suited
to. Thus you shall find in nature, and you shall find it to hold in grace too, that God hath always suited objects and faculties one to another. If he hath made an eye, he hath made colours for it ; if he hath made an ear, he hath made sounds for it. And such as the faculty is, such are the
objects. If the faculty be spiritual, the object shall be spiritual also. If he makes belly, he makes meat ; and if he makes meat, he makes belly ; and if the meat be earthly things, the belly shall be earthly too. If you could suppose a spiritual belly (but we cannot tell how to speak in such a
language), you should have something spiritual suitable unto it. The
apostle, in 1 Cor. ii. 13, he saith of the Holy Ghost (he speaks it, indeed, of teaching men how to preach the word), that as he hath made spiritual things to be taught, so he teacheth men to express those spiritual things in
spiritual language ; he suiteth (so the word signifies), he fitteth spiritual things to spiritual. So in heaven, if God have made a spiritual body, which takes up all the parts of it, he hath suited spiritual objects to it. There are two instances in Scripture of the glory of the body : the one is of Christ s when he was transfigured ; the other is of Stephen, when his face shined as it had been the face of an angel, and he looked up to heaven, and he saw two things
: he saw Christ, and he saw the glory of God ; there was a spiritual glory which he saw with his bodily eyes made spiritual.
Now, I know you will ask me this question, If that a man s body, and
all the parts of it, shall be carried up to heaven, and shall have objects suited thereunto, what manner of objects shall these be ? and what manner of senses shall these be ? and to what uses shall all these be turned ? What senses we have here we know ; what we shall have there, can you tell us ?
The truth is, my brethren, I cannot tell you, I profess it. I can no more
tell you than I can tell you, if God should say from heaven that he would add a sixth sense to your bodies, and create an object suitable to it, what
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 117
this sense, nor what the object of it should be ; neither could all angels and
men, if they laid their heads together, tell you what sense and object thereof
that should be. Paul, you know, saith that he heard words, when he was
rapt up into the third heavens, that were unutterable, 2 Cor. xii. When he came down from heaven, they were things of another kind, of such a
nature, that he was not able to speak them, or make any impression what
they were upon any man s understanding in the world. Therefore, in 1 Cor.
ii. 9 (though it is meant principally of the things of the gospel, yet as
evidently too of the things of heaven), The ear hath not heard, nor the
eye seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God
hath prepared for them that love him. I may as well tell you how it is
possible that our bodies should be spiritual ; the truth is, it is in nature a
contradiction ; for to say a spiritual body, it is as if you should say, a wooden stone. Were not this an absurdity ? You would all think so. And therefore, now, to tell you what shall be the spiritualness of this body, and yet a body still, and what shall be the objects suited to this spiritual
body, for my part I cannot ; but out of the clear word of God and this very
text, it is plain that as there was an animal body that Adam had, suited to animal things, so here shall be a spiritual body, suited to spiritual things ; and so much we may safely say in the general. Luther, when he took into
consideration this phrase, a spiritual body, saith he, Hie sermo est plane
! Yet
inauditus, Here is a speech never heard of. What, a spiritual body
* glory shall be revealed ; that is the phrase, Rom. viii. 16.
so it is. It is a
I bring it for this purpose, to shew that we know not what glor}^ it shall be,
for it shall be revealed. And that he speaks of the glory of the body is
clear by ver. 11, If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. And likewise, at ver. 28, he saith, We wait for the
redemption of our bodies. It is a glory, therefore, to be revealed, and for my part, I cannot tell you what it is ; only we argue one thing out of
another, and so raise up our thoughts to think what it may be. My brethren, suppose the angels had stood by (as it is likely some of them did, for the morning stars sang, as I shewed out of Job), and beheld when God was making Adam s body
: they saw him take a piece of earth, and mould it to a head, to eyes, to nose, to mouth, and all those parts ; what
this body, while it was thus a-making, should be made for (suppose the
body was first made, as it seems it was, for God did then breathe the breath
of life into it), what those eyes, and that nose and mouth should serve for,
all the angels in heaven could not tell. Ay, but when once God breathed
a soul into it, then they saw that the eyes could discern colours, and the mouth could taste meat, and the ears could hear sounds. So will God do
: he will take up our bodies, and make them spiritual ; put new senses upon them, as I may say, or rather spiritualise these senses we
at latter day
have, and then what these shall serve for in the other world, we no more know than, indeed and in truth, in this supposition, the angels could have known. But when the Holy Ghost shall come as a soul into these bodies
(as he will do, for we are all the temples of the Holy Ghost ), and shall
act all these, then those things that are in heaven they will know and see, and we shall find and feel them suited as truly to these spiritual bodies of
ours that we shall have there, as our animal bodies are to the things of this
world. Let a poor, plain man come into an artificer s shop, and there see
a great many tools, it may be two or three hundred several tools, as some
curious artificers have what this tool serveth for he knoweth not, and what
118 OF THE CEEATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
that tool serveth for he knoweth not ; the artificer he hath a use for them
all. So when we come to heaven, what all the parts of these bodies of ours shall then serve for, we know not now ; but he that made them, and made them principally not for this world (mark what I say), your bodies were not made for this world chiefly ; that is clear in all the Scripture ; this text holds it forth, That which was natural, saith he, is first : first, indeed, in
execution, and afterward that which is spiritual ; God s eye was upon the
spiritual. Now he that did order our very bodies for heaven, as well as our
souls, and doth not bring the body to heaven by accident only because the soul is there and will not part company, but he pitched upon the one as well as the other ; he knows what to do with all these tools, though we do not. Our own experience will tell us that there may be a great change in the use of things; we eat, and drink, and take in nourishment every meal. Is
it not a strange thing that all this meat we eat should within four or five hours after, hear, and see, and feel, that it should beget spirits that shall do all this by the instruments of it ? Is not here a strange spiritualising of these poor creatures ? Thus will God spiritualise eyes, ears, and all, and advance them to more noble objects ten thousand times there than here. So that, my brethren, as God will make a spiritual body at the resurrec
tion, so he hath suited spiritual things in the other world for this spiritual body, as he made and suited this world to Adam s animal body in the first creation ; and there is nothing in the other world that is corporeal or
bodily (and there must needs be many things corporeal there, for the place is a body), but it shall be suited to the body of man when it is thus made
spiritual.
If you ask me more particularly, what one object there is that shall be suited to our bodies, for us to have happiness in our bodies by it ?
I answer, The human nature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is a notion that the schoolmen had of old, that the body of Christ is the happiness of heaven, and is suited to our bodies in heaven, to be the happiness of them, as seeing of the body of Christ shall be the happiness of that sense ; and how he is otherwise suited to all our other senses, we know not. I shall give you a place or two for it : 1 Cor. vi. 13, 14,
| Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats : but God shall destroy both
it and them. 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 us up by his own power. The apostle here speaks against unlawful pleasures and sensual lusts, and his argument lies upon a twofold ground :
first, it is taken from a common argument, Why should you give up your selves to these lusts, saith he, seeing your bodies were made for other things ? Suppose inordinate eating and drinking were lawful, it is but for the belly, saith he, it is but for this world,
< God will destroy both belly and meats. Then there is a special argument, The body is not for
fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Now then, look, as the belly is for meats, and meats for the belly here in this world, so, in a spiritual way (which we know not of), is the Lord for the body, and the body for the Lord in the other world. There are other inter
pretations given of this ; I will but name them, and give you reasons
against them.
First, Say some, the meaning is this, that the body is made to serve the Lord, and therefore, because you are to serve the Lord with your bodies, give not yourselves up to such lusts. That that is not the only meaning is clear by this, because he doth not say only that our body is for the Lord,
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 119
but he addeth, and the Lord is for the body. Now, Jesus Christ is not ordained to serve the body, that is certain. And then again, secondly, he
speaks of our bodies what they shall be at the resurrection. How do you prove that? By two reasons; for first, he saith, The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, when the belly and meats shall be destroyed.
* Meats for the belly, saith he,
* and the belly for meats : but God shall
destroy both it and them ; and then afterward he saith, The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Secondly, it is evident that he meaneth what correspondency and suitableness shall be between the body of Christ and our bodies in the world to come, it appears by this which he
saith, And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his own power, implying that as God did make the belly for meats, and meats for the belly, in a corporeal way, in an animal way here, so he hath
suited, in a spiritual way, our bodies for Christ, and Christ for our bodies
in the other world ; and therefore that God that made this ordination, he
that hath raised up Christ already and given him a spiritual body, he will
raise us up too, that so we being ordained one for another, our bodies may be for him, and his body for us.
Secondly, Others give this interpretation, that the apostle s argument against these lusts is grounded upon the resurrection ; because your bodies
shall be one day raised up again, therefore do not thus abuse them. But
it is clear that the reason here given why God doth raise up our bodies as he hath raised up Christ s body, is because he had first ordained in his decree the body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Hence, there
fore, my brethren, Christ s human nature being spiritualised, and the same
spirit that dwelleth in him dwelling in us, raising up our bodies and human
natures, and so spiritualising them, there will be some way whereby the
body will be refreshed in and by the Lord Jesus Christ ; the body is made
for Christ, saith he, and Christ for the body, even as here in this life the world is made for our bodies and our bodies for the world, to take in com
forts from it. If you ask me, how shall this be ? Truly, I say only we
shall be conformed to the glorious body of Christ thus, and spiritualised by that power that hath subdued all things. It is Calvin s saying upon the
text, God hath fitted and suited his Son for us ; the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Now, do but think with yourselves, how happy we in heaven shall be, whenas our bodies, having new spiritualised qualities put upon all the parts of them (which we know not what they will be suited to, nor how), and whenas all things in heaven, the human nature of Christ in an eminent
manner, the angels and all things here (being all spiritual) shall be suited
to these spiritual bodies, for us to have comfort and happiness from them some way or other.
I will give you but one other place of Scripture for this ; it is in Ps.
xvii. 15, When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thine image. He speaks there of the resurrection ; he calls it an awaking, for you know death is
< Those that are asleep in the Lord shall rise first. He had spoken before of those that had put their happiness in the comforts of
called a sleep
this life, suitable to their bodies, to the animal state of their bodies ; that
is clear by the 14th verse, Deliver me from the men that are thine hand, Lord, who have their portion in this life, whose belly thou fillest with
thy treasure : they are full of children, and leave to them outward things,
* But as for me, saith he, I will behold thy face in the
bodily things.
righteousness (there is the vision of God which is his happiness in his
120 OF THE CEEATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
* with thine image. It is not the image of God only upon himself that he means
: and I shall be satisfied, when I awake (when I arise again),
soul)
here. Why ? Because that doth not satisfy a holy heart, but it is that
image of the invisible God which the human nature of Jesus Christ is, who,
in opposition to all these outward pleasures, will be all in all to us ; he is a
spiritual creature, his human nature is spiritualised, made glorious, and our bodies shall be made spiritual likewise. The body is made for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body, and this when they are both raised up ; Christ is raised up already, and because he hath ordained the one to be
serviceable to the other, he will also raise up our bodies : and when he doth raise me up, saith David, though other men have their bellies full
here, and have animal pleasures they delight in ; yet when I shall awake
at latter day, and shall see this image of thine, shall see thy Son, I shall be satisfied : When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thine image. Thus you see what a glorious state God would raise up our bodies unto
at the resurrection. All this hath been said to this purpose, to compare Adam s body, that had a world made for the animal state of it, and our bodies as they shall be at latter day, when they shall be made spiritual bodies, and have likewise provision for them in the world to come. Now
to make up the comparison, in respect of this first excellency that Adam s
body was advanced unto, yet more full, I shall only add one thing more
in a word, and that is this, that as our God did make this visible world, made it complete before ever he brought Adam into it, for whom it was made and to whom it was suited, so hath God prepared a glory in heaven, and he hath prepared it from the beginning of the world for his elect for whom it is appointed. In Gen. i. 1 it is said, that on the first day God created the heaven and the earth ; by earth is meant the confused chaos, the matter of sun, and moon, and stars, and men, and beasts, and fire, and
water, and earth, and all. The earth, saith he, was without form, and
void, so that the matter of all those creatures we see with our eyes, they are called earth. And by heaven here, in this first verse, is meant that heaven above where the saints shall be for ever. And that it is so to be understood is clear in the text, for if you read the work of the fourth day, at the 14th verse, you shall find that God created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, which are the visible heavens, after he had created heaven and earth in the first day. And therefore, by heaven in the first day is meant the glorious heaven which God will bring the souls and bodies of all
his elect unto when they are raised up at latter day. Now as he made a world for Adam afore he brought him into it, so he made heaven, that
glorious heaven, the first day, and all the things in it (and what is in it we do not know) ; he made all these from the foundation of the world for his
elect. You have a plain place for it, Matt. xxv. 34, Come ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. And if you observe the words, he tells us that this kingdom in heaven was
prepared for us. Now read ver. 41, when he speaks of wicked men, whom he meaneth to throw to hell, that stood on his left hand, saith he, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Mark the difference ; hell, my brethren, was not made primarily for men, but
for the devil ; for he sinned and his angels. Now if Christ would have kept the proportion, he would have said,
* Inherit the kingdom prepared for the
holy angels. He doth not say so ; but he saith, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you, suited to you ; the things in heaven being made as
primarily, if not more primarily, for Christ and the elect of mankind, than
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 121
for the holy angels, though hell was made primarily for the devil and his
angels ; we do but go into what was prepared for them. But when we
are carried into heaven, bodies and souls (for he speaks of the resurrection), we are carried to that place which was prepared immediately and primarily for us ; Inherit the kingdom prepared for you, as much for you, and as
primarily for you in God s intentions, as for the holy angels that were made
in it the first day. That which I quote and allege it for is this, for it is
pertinent to my scope, that as God did first make this visible world, and then brought Adam into it six days after, and when he came into it he found all things in it suitable to him, to that body and soul that God had made, so God, to whom all his works are known from the beginning, he made this glorious heaven the first day ; he then prepared it they are
* prepared from the beginning of the world, Mat. xxv. 84
called the things
this heaven hath stood empty of the bodies of men, and doth to this
day ; there is Christ s body indeed now, and some few bodies else, Elias, and Moses, and Enoch, who perhaps are there now in their bodies ; but the shoal and the flush of mankind, whom all the things there are prepared
for, and prepared from the beginning of the world, they shall not come into
it till after the resurrection ; not bodies and souls they shall not till then ; and they shall find then that all things in that world are prepared for them as truly as all things in this world were made for Adam. And so now I have despatched the first thing, the excellency of Adam s body ; it lay in
this, that he had a world prepared for him, into which he was brought at
last ; so hath God prepared another world, heaven, even from the founda
tion of the world, which the godly, the elect shall, when they arise again, be brought into, and find all things prepared for them. What these are I do not know, for, as he saith in 1 Cor. ii. 9,
* Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, what he hath prepared for them that love him. And add to it that
place, with which I will end this, 1 Peter i. 4, he saith, We have an
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us, ready to be revealed (mark the phrase, verse 5) in the last times, when we shall be
raised up at latter day ; but prepared it is already, and God brings us
into it at last, even as he did Adam at the last, when he had made the world and all creatures else in it.
The second thing wherein the excellency of Adam s animal state of body consisted, I told you, was beauty. He had a native beauty, as I may so
call it, an inbred beauty ; he needed no clothes, nor no such thing to set
it out ; and in that respect you find, that though they were naked, and had
nothing to adorn them, yet they were in a glory ; for when they had sinned, then they fell to shame by reason of their nakedness. Adam had a beautiful
body, and so had Eve ; it is said he built the woman, that expression is used. But yet all that beauty that Adam s body had, it is but a shadow
to that beauty and that glory which Christ will put upon the bodies of his
saints at latter day, upon these spiritual bodies here in the text. We no where read that the beauty of Adam is called glory, but here we find it is
called glory. Mark the expression in verse 43 of this 15th chapter of the first to the Corinthians : It is sown in dishonour (the body, namely), it is raised in glory. The word ylory here hath a special relation to that
beauty, that excess of beauty, which God will put upon the bodies of the
saints in heaven. You must know this, that in Scripture the excess of any
excellency is called glory. We say that fire hath a light in it, but we do not call fire glorious ; but because that the sun hath an excess of light in it, we call the sun glorious. We rejoice in outward things, but if this joy doth
122 OF THE CREATURES, AND THE CONDITION [BOOK II.
grow to an excess, it is called a glorious joy ; as in 1 Pet. i. 8, We
rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Thus whatsoever is such
an excellency as super-excelleth, is in Scripture called glory. Now answer-
ably the beauty of the body, in heaven, because it shall super-excel, it is
called glory. When Christ "saith of Solomon, that in all his royalty he
was not like to a lily, the word we translate royalty is, in all his glory ;
that is, take all the outward pomp and splendour of Solomon that his
body was adorned with when he sat upon his throne, it was not like the
beauty and the glory that is put upon a lily. I quote it for this, that
glory it is taken for excellency of beauty. So likewise when he saith,
1 Pet. i. 24, For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. ^ He
calleth beauty there glory; so doth he here, 1 Cor. xv. 43, It is raised,
< in glory. If you would know how much the glory of the bodies
saith he,
of the saints in heaven shall exceed the glory of what they have now, read
: There are celestial bodies, saith he, and bodies terrestrial : but the glory, or the beauty, or the excellency, of
verses 40, 41, of this 15th chapter
* of the terrestrial is an
the celestial is one, and the glory, or the beauty,
other. And even amongst the celestials themselves there is a differing
: There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the
glory
stars. So also, saith he, is the resurrection of the dead. His meaning
is this, that look how a clod of earth doth differ in glory from the sun or
the moon, how the glory of a terrestrial body differeth from a celestial, so
doth the glory of the bodies of the saints in heaven differ from that glory
that was put upon the body of Adam, he being in all his glory but an earthly
man, as the text hath it. Take the beautifulest man or woman that ever
was in the world, they have but the glory of a clod of earth, but of a
terrestrial body, in comparison of that celestial glory that shall be put
upon the bodies of the saints at latter day. And to shew the degrees of
glory that shall be in heaven amongst the saints, comparing one celestial
body with another, he saith, There is one glory of the sun, another of
the moon, &c. Now, when I opened the transfiguration of Christ, I did
shew you then that Christ s face did shine as the sun. Now, in Mat.
* Then shall the right eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father ; who hath ears
xiii. 84, he saith the same thing of all the saints :
to hear, let him hear. Then, saith he ; namely, after the resurrection,
for of that, and of the day of judgment, he had discoursed in the former
words. And they shall shine as the sun, saith he, although among them
selves there shall be degrees of glory, as in that place in the Corinthians
even now quoted, one may shine as the sun, another as the moon, another
as the stars, one in comparison of another. Jesus Christ will ^be as the
sun, Paul and those eminent saints will be as bigger stars ; yet if you will
compare the glory of the least of the saints in heaven with this sun, they
shall all shine, saith he, as this sun ; and because Christ speaks a very
high word, therefore he addeth (as usually he doth so), Who hath ears
to hear, let him hear ; for, saith he, it is a thing people will not believe,
but it is true.
Yea, my brethren, it is most certain that the bodies of the saints shall
so shine as to put down or eclipse the glory of the sun ; that look, as a
candle waxeth pale in the presence of the sun, or as the fire is put out^ by
the sun shining upon it in the summer, so shall the bodies of the saints
do. In Isa, xxiv. 23, Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
shall be ashamed, just as you see a candle looks pale, or as the fire
CHAP. XI.] OF THEIR STATE BY CREATION. 123
draws in its own beams of light before the sun, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients
gloriously. Now, although this place may not be meant of the complete
fulfilling of the glory of the saints at latter day, yet it is an allusion to it. This sun and moon shall be all ashamed and confounded ; and as a candle now appears before this sun, so shall this sun appear before that glory that
shall be put upon the body of Christ, and upon the bodies of the saints.
I shall only add this to it, that this glory and beauty (for indeed glory is but an excess of beauty), which shall be thus put upon the bodies of the
saints, it shall not be of the same kind with that of the light of the sun ; I may very well and truly say, that the light of the sun is but terrestrial, but that is celestial, for it is the light of another heaven than what the sun is
placed in; therefore the Scripture doth not say that we shall have the
light of the sun, but we shall be as the sun, having no higher thing to compare it to ; and the reason is plain
: for the light of the sun, it is indeed the light of fire, for upon the fourth day God created light, that is, the element of fire (for you shall find earth, fire, air, and water, created
then), and he took that light, that fire, and crushed it, as I may say, together into one body, into one globe, put it into the body of the sun, and therefore it is but indeed the element of fire in the excess of it, in the
strength of it, therefore the light of the sun heateth, fireth bodies ; but this glory of the bodies of the saints shall not do so, it is not of the same kind. The light of the sun it is but an elementary light, it is but fire con
globated and made condense and thickened together, it is but a natural
light, and terrestrial light, whereas this is supernatural and heavenly, and therefore it is of a higher kind. And therefore, now in Phil. iii. 21, the text telleth us, that we shall be conformed not to the glory of the sun, but to the glory of the glorious body of Christ ; that look as the sun is the fountain of all that glory which the stars have, so shall our Lord and Saviour Christ s glory be of all the glory we have. It is, I say, a glory of a higher kind than that of the sun ; in Rev. xxi. 11, the new Jerusalem is said to have the glory of God upon it, not the glory of the sun : and at ver. 23, It hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. That I quote it for is this, that the glory that is put upon the bodies of the saints, though it is likened to that of the sun, because we know