Part 43

But supposing this scripture be not reckoned sufficient to evince the truth of this doctrine, there is another which has more weight in it, _viz._ that in Job xix. 25-27. _I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And 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._ Job, as is generally supposed, lived in Moses’ time; therefore, if it can be made appear that he professes his faith in the doctrine of the resurrection, we may conclude that the church was acquainted with it in the early ages thereof; and nothing seems more evident, from the plain sense of the words, than that he here professes his faith in, and encourages himself from the hope of future blessedness, both in soul and body, at Christ’s second coming in the last day.

It is with a great deal of difficulty that they who deny this doctrine, are obliged to account for the sense of this text, so as to evade the force of the argument taken from thence to prove it. These suppose that Job intends nothing hereby but a firm persuasion which he had, that he should be recovered from that state of misery in which he then was, which not only affected his mind, but his body, as it was _smitten with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown_, Job ii. 7. _his flesh_ being _clothed with worms_, and his _skin broken and become loathsome_, chap. vii. 5. and accordingly he says, I shall be redeemed from this affliction, and brought into a happy state before I die; and so they suppose that the words are to be taken in a metaphorical sense; and therefore do not prove the doctrine of the resurrection. But this will appear to be a very great perversion of the sense of this text, if we consider,

1. In how solemn a manner he brings it in, in the verses immediately foregoing. _Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in the rock for ever!_ Which seems to import that he had something to communicate, that was of far greater moment than the account of his deliverance from the afflictions he was under in this world. Therefore it seems more agreeable to understand the sense of the words, as denoting that great and important truth, in which all believers are concerned, relating to Christ’s second coming, and the happiness that his saints shall then enjoy in soul and body; this deserves to be writ with a pen of iron, that it may be transmitted to all generations. But,

2. It is evident that he is here speaking of something that should be done, not whilst he lived, but in the end of time; for he considers his Redeemer, as _standing in the latter day upon the earth_. The person whom he here speaks of as his Redeemer, is, doubtless, our Saviour, who is frequently described, both in the Old and New-Testament, under that character: And, if at any time God the Father is called the Redeemer of his people, it may farther be observed that he is never said in redeeming them to make himself visible to their bodily eyes, or to stand upon the earth, much less to do this in the latter or last day, in which Christ is said to come again in a visible manner, to raise the dead and judge the world: And this Job intends when he says, _In my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another_.

3. It is evident also that he intends hereby something that should befal him after his death, and not barely a deliverance from his present misery in this world; for he speaks of his _skin_ or body as devoured by _worms_, and _his reins consumed within him_; which can intend no other than a state of corruption in death.

4. It does not appear that Job had any intimation concerning the change of his condition in this world, before God turned his captivity, having first made him sensible of his error, in _uttering that which he understood not_, when he testified his reconciliation to his friends, notwithstanding the injuries he had received from them, by _praying for them_, chap. xlii. 3, 10. And, indeed, he was so far from expecting happiness in this life, that he says, _Mine eye shall no more see good_, viz. in this world, chap. vii. 7. and hereupon he takes occasion to meditate on his own mortality in the following words; _The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more; thine eyes are upon me, and I am not_: And after this he prays, _O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave_, chap. xiv. 13. &c. And immediately before he speaks of his Redeemer as living, and the deliverance which he should obtain in the latter day, in the text under our present consideration, he earnestly desires the compassion of his friends: _Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me_; which does not well agree with the least expectation of a state of happiness in this world; in which case he would not need their pity; he might only have convinced them of the truth thereof, and it would have given a turn to their behaviour towards him; for we find, that, when God blessed his latter end more than his beginning, every one was as ready to comfort him concerning the evil that the Lord had brought upon him, and shew their very great respect to him, by offering him presents, as any were before to reproach him. Therefore upon the whole, it is very evident that Job is not speaking concerning his deliverance from his present evils in this world, but of a perfect deliverance from all evil in the great day of the resurrection: Accordingly we must conclude, that the doctrine of the resurrection is plainly asserted in this scripture; and indeed, Jerome says, that no one who wrote after Christ has more plainly maintained the doctrine of the resurrection than Job does in this scripture, who lived before him[172].

There is another scripture, by which, if I do not mistake the sense thereof, Job appears to have had a steady faith in the doctrine of the resurrection, and was firmly persuaded concerning his happiness, when raised from the dead, namely, in chap. xiv. 13, 14, 15. in which he says, _O! that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past_; that is, till a full end is put to all the afflictive providences which men are liable to in this present world, namely, till the day of Christ’s second coming; or, _that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me_; namely, that thou wouldst deliver me from the evils which I now endure. As to the former of these expedients, to wit, his deliverance by death, that he counts a blessing, because he takes it for granted that _if a man die he shall live again_, ver. 14.[173] and therefore says, _all the days of my appointed time_, that is, not of the appointed time of life, but the time appointed that he should lie in the grave, in which he desired that God would hide him; there, says he, I shall wait, or remain, _till my change come_, that is, till I am changed from a state of mortality to that of life. And he goes on in the following words, _Thou shalt call_, that is, by thy power thou shalt raise me, _and I will answer thee_, or come forth out of my grave; and hereby thou wilt make it known that thou _hast a desire to the work of thine hands_.

If it be objected to this sense of the words, that Job says, ver. 12. that _man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more; they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep_; therefore he is so far from expecting relief from his misery in the resurrection, that he seems plainly to deny it. To this I answer, that he doth not deny the doctrine of the resurrection in those words wherein he says that they _shall not be raised from the dead, till the heavens be no more_; which seems to intimate that he concluded that the dead should rise when the frame of nature was changed, as it will be, at the last day, in which the heavens shall be no more. I confess this sense is not commonly given of these verses, nor any argument drawn from, them to prove a resurrection from the dead; therefore I would not be too tenacious of mine own sense thereof; but I cannot but think it more probable than the common sense that is given of the words, and if so, it may be considered as a proof of the doctrine that we are maintaining.

There is another scripture which plainly proves the doctrine of the resurrection, namely, Dan. xii. 2. _Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt._ This scripture is brought by several Rabbinical writers, as a proof of this doctrine; and the words are so express, that it will be very difficult to evade the force of them; though, it is true, some modern writers, who are ready to conclude that the Old Testament is silent as to the doctrine of the resurrection, take the words in a metaphorical sense, for the deliverance of the church from those grievous persecutions which they were under in the reign of Antiochus; and so _sleeping in the dust_ is taken, by them, for lying in the holes and caves of the earth, the Jews being forced to seek protection there from the fury of the tyrant: But this cannot be properly called _sleeping in the dust of the earth_; and their deliverance from this persecution is not consistent with the contempt that should be cast on some that were raised out of the dust; nor could the happiness that others enjoyed in this deliverance, be called _everlasting life_, it being only a temporal salvation, that according to them, is here spoken of; and it must be a straining the metaphor to a great degree, to apply the following words to their wise men and teachers, after this deliverance, that they should _shine as the brightness of the firmament_; therefore this sense has such difficulties attending it, that every person who is not prepossessed with prejudice must give into the literal sense of the text; and confess that it is an argument to prove the doctrine of the resurrection.

The only difficulty that is pretended to be involved in this sense of the text is its being said, _Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake_; whereas the doctrine that we are defending, is that of an universal resurrection. But since we shall have occasion to speak to that under a following head, we shall rather choose to refer it to its proper place, in which, according to our designed method, we are to consider that all who have lived from the beginning to the end of time, shall be raised.

There are other scriptures in the Old Testament that might be brought to prove this doctrine, such as that in Deut. xxxii. 39. in which God says, _I kill, and I make alive_; and that parallel text, in which the same thing is confessed, and farther explained, by Hannah, in her song, in 1 Sam. ii. 6. _The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up._ I know that death and life are sometimes taken for good and evil; but why should deliverance from the miseries of this present life be represented by the metaphor of a resurrection, and this attributed to the almighty power of God, if the doctrine of the resurrection was reckoned by the church at that time, no other than a fiction or chimera, as it must be supposed to be if they had no idea of it, as not having received it by divine revelation?

We might, as a farther proof of this doctrine, consider those three instances that we have in the Old Testament of persons raised from the dead, namely, the Shunamite’s child, by the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 35. and the man who was cast into his sepulchre, that _revived and stood on his feet_, when he touched his _bones_, chap. xiii. 21. and the widow of Zarephath’s son, by the prophet Elijah, on which occasion it is said, _He cried to the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee let this child’s soul come into him again_; and accordingly the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, 1 Kings xvii. 21, 22. From hence we must conclude, that this doctrine was not unknown to the prophet; for if it had, he could not have directed his prayer to God in faith. And these instances of a resurrection of particular persons could not but give occasion to the church at that time, to believe the possibility of a resurrection at the last day; so that it might as reasonably be expected that God will exert his power by raising the dead then, as that he would do it at this time, unless there was something in this possible event contrary to his moral perfections; but the resurrection appeared to them as it doth to all who consider him as the governor of the world, and as distributing rewards and punishments to every one according to their works, as not only agreeable to these perfections, but, in some respects, necessary for the illustration thereof. Therefore we must conclude, that as they had particular instances of a resurrection, which argued the general resurrection possible, they might easily believe that it should be future; which is the doctrine that we are maintaining.

To this we may add, that the patriarch Abraham believed the doctrine of the resurrection; therefore he had it some way or other revealed to him, before the word of God was committed to writing. This appears from what the apostle says when speaking concerning his offering Isaac, that _he accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead_, Heb. xi. 19. From hence it is evident that he was verily persuaded when he bound him to the altar, and lifted up his hand to slay him, that God would suffer him to do it, otherwise it had been no trial of his faith, so that his being prevented from laying his hand on him was an unexpected providence. Now how could he solve the difficulty that would necessarily ensue hereupon; had he expected that God would give him another seed instead of Isaac, that would not have been an accomplishment of the promise which was given to him, namely, that in Isaac his seed should be called; therefore the only thing that he depended on, was, that when he had offered him, God would raise him from the dead, and by this means fulfil the promise that was made to him concerning the numerous seed that should descend from him; therefore it cannot be supposed that Abraham was a stranger to the doctrine of the resurrection.

There are other scriptures by which it appears that the doctrine of the resurrection was revealed to the church under the Old Testament dispensation, either from the sense of the words themselves, or the explication thereof in the New, which refers to them: thus it is said in Psal. xvi. 10. _Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption_; which the apostle Peter quotes to prove the resurrection of Christ, in Acts ii. 24-27. If David therefore knew that the Messiah should be raised from the dead (which, as will be considered under a following head, is a glorious proof of the doctrine of the resurrection of the saints) we cannot suppose that he was a stranger to this doctrine himself.

Again, it is said in Isa. xxv. 8. _He will swallow up death in victory_; and this is mentioned immediately after a prediction of the glorious provision, which God would make for his people under the gospel-dispensation, which is called, by a metaphorical way of speaking, ver. 6. _A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined_; and of the gospel’s being preached to the Gentiles, ver. 7. which is expressed by his _destroying the face of covering, and the veil that was spread over all nations_: therefore it may well be supposed to contain a prediction of something consequent thereupon, namely, the general resurrection: and there is another scripture to the same purpose, viz. Hos. xiii. 14. _I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction_; and both these scriptures are referred to by the apostle, as what shall be fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead; when he says, _Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?_ 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55. Therefore we cannot but think that the prophets, and the church in their day, understood the words in the same sense.

There is another scripture in the Old Testament, in which the premises are laid down, from whence the conclusion is drawn in the New for the proof of this doctrine, namely, when God revealed himself to Moses, Exod. iii. 6. which our Saviour refers to, and proves the doctrine of the resurrection from, against the Sadducees. _Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living_, Luke xx. 37, 38. which argument was so convincing, that _certain of the Scribes_, said, in the following words, _Master, thou hast well said; and after that, they_, that is, the Sadducees, _durst not ask him any question at all_; so that it silenced, if it did not convince them. There are some, indeed, who, though they conclude that it is a very strong proof of the immortality of the soul, which the Sadducees denied, since that which does not exist cannot be the subject of a promise; yet, they cannot see how the resurrection can be proved from it; whereas it is brought, by our Saviour, for that purpose: therefore, that the force of this argument may appear, we must consider what is the import of the promise contained in this covenant, that God would be the _God of Abraham_; which is explained elsewhere, when he told him, _I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward_, Gen. xv. 1. He was therefore given hereby to expect, at the hand of God, all the spiritual and saving blessings of the covenant of grace; but these blessings respect not only the soul, but the body; and as they are extended to both worlds, it is an evident proof of the happiness of the saints in their bodies in a future state, and consequently that they shall be raised from the dead. This leads us,

2. To consider those arguments to prove the doctrine of the resurrection which are contained in the New Testament, in which it is more fully and expressly revealed than in any part of scripture. Here we may first take notice of those particular instances in which our Saviour raised persons from the dead in a miraculous way, as the prophets Elijah and Elisha did under the Old Testament dispensation, as was before observed. Thus he raised Jairus’s _daughter_, whom he found dead in the house, Matt. ix. 25. and another, to wit, the _widow’s son at Nain_, when they were carrying him to the grave; which was done in the presence of a great multitude, Luke vii. 11, 14, 15. and there was another instance hereof in his raising Lazarus from the dead, John xi. 43, 44. which he did in a very solemn and public manner, after he had been dead four days, his body being then corrupted and laid in the grave, from whence Christ calls him, and he immediately revived and came forth. These instances of the resurrection of particular persons tended to put the doctrine of the general resurrection out of all manner of doubt; and, indeed, it was, at this time, hardly questioned by any, excepting the Sadducees: therefore before Christ raised Lazarus, when he only told his sister Martha that he _should rise again_, she, not then understanding that he designed immediately to raise him from the dead, expresses her faith in the doctrine of the general resurrection; _I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day_, John xi. 24. upon which occasion our Saviour replies, _I am the resurrection and the life_, ver. 25. denoting that this work was to be performed by him.

Moreover, this doctrine was asserted and maintained by the apostles, after Christ had given the greatest proof hereof in his own resurrection from the dead: thus it is said, that _they preached through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead_, Acts iv. 2. And the apostle Paul standing before Felix, and confessing his belief of all things which are written in the law and the prophets, immediately adds, that he had _hope towards God, which they themselves also allow_; that is, the main body of the Jewish nation; _that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust_.

And he not only asserts but proves it with very great strength of reasoning, in 1 Cor. xv. and the argument he therein insists on, is taken from Christ’s resurrection, ver. 13. _If there be no resurrection, then is Christ not risen_; which is a doctrine that could not be denied by any that embraced the Christian religion, as being the very foundation thereof; but if any one should entertain the least doubt about it, he adds, ver. 17. _If Christ be not raised from the dead, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins_; that is, your hope of justification hereby is ungrounded, _and they also which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished_; but this none of you will affirm; therefore you must conclude that he is risen from the dead: and if it be enquired, how does this argument prove the general resurrection, that he farther insists on from ver. 20. _Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept?_ Christ’s resurrection removes all the difficulties that might afford the least matter of doubt concerning the possibility of the resurrection of the dead; and his being raised as the _first-fruits of them that slept_, or, as the head of all the elect, who are said to have communion with him in his resurrection, or to be _risen with him_, Col. iii. 1. renders the doctrine of the resurrection of all his saints, undeniably certain. As the first-fruits are a part and pledge of the harvest, so Christ’s resurrection is a pledge and earnest of the resurrection of his people. Thus the apostle says elsewhere, _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_, Rom. viii. 11. And our Saviour, when he was discoursing with his disciples concerning his death, and resurrection that would ensue thereupon, tells them, that though after this he should be separated for a time from them, and _the world_ should _see him no more_, yet that _they should see him_ again; and assigns this as a reason, _because I live ye shall live also_, John xiv. 19. _q. d._ because I shall be raised from the dead, and live for ever in heaven; you, who are my favourites, friends, and followers, shall be also raised and live with me there; so that the resurrection of believers is plainly evinced from Christ’s resurrection.