God shall make them wings like eagles, whereby they shall fly upon the face of the waters.-Again, as this present body is called, in Scripture, an earthly body, so is the future body of the righteous styled by St. Paul, as well as the Pythagoreans, a heavenly body, and they, who shall then be possessors thereof, iπоvρávio avoρwTot, heavenly men(1 Cor. xv.) "As is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly." Besides which, as philosophers supposed both demons (or angels), and men, to have one and the same σώμα αυγοειδές, οὐράνιον and ailégiov, or a like lucid, heavenly and ethereal body; so from that of our Saviour, when he affirmeth, that they, who "shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, will neither marry, nor be given in marriage; nor can die any more; for they are wayyedo, equal to the angels."-From hence, I say, we may venture to call this resurrection-body of the just also an angelical or isangelical body; and the rather because the ancient Hebrews (as we learn from Nachmonides, in Shaar Haggemul), styled it waan nas On the angelical clothing of the soul;-and Tertullian himself, "angelificatam carnem," angelified flesh. But, lastly, St. Paul is not only Thus St. Aus- positive in his doctrine here, but also netin, Corpora gative; b "Now this I say, brethren, that angelica; and Qualia sunt flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingangelorum. dom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.". Which place being undoubtedly not to be allegorized, it may be from thence inferred, that the happy resurrection-body shall not be this foul and gross body of ours only varnished and gilded over on the outside of it, it re המלאכותי a Luke xx. 36. b 1 Cor. xv. 50. maining still nasty, sluttish, and ruinous within, and having all the same seeds of corruption and mortality in its nature, which it had before, though by perpetual miracle kept off, it being as it were by violence defended from being seized upon and devoured by the jaws of death; but that it shall be so inwardly changed in its nature, as that the possessors thereof cannot die any more. But all this, which hath been said of the resurrection-body, is not so to be understood, as if it belonged universally to all, that shall be raised up at the last day, or made to appear upon the earth in their own persons, at that great and general assizes: that they shall have all alike (wicked as well as good) such glorious, spiritual and celestial bodies: but it is only a description of the ἀνάστασις τῆς ζωῆς, the resurrection of life;—which is emphatically called also by our Saviour Christ," ανάστασις ἡ ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, the resurrection from the dead,—or to a happy immortality; as they, who shall be thought worthy thereof, are likewise styled by him vioì ȧvaoráσɛwS, the children of the resurrection. Of which resurrection only it is that St. Paul treateth in that fif teenth chapter of his to the Corinthians. And we say, that this Christian resurrection of life is the vesting and settling of the souls of good men in their glorious, spiritual, heavenly and immortal bodies. The complete happiness of a man, and all the good that can be desired by him, was by the heathen poet thus summed up; "Ut sit mens sana in corpore sano," That there be a sound mind in a sound body:-and the Christian happiness seems to be all comprised in these two things; first, in being inwardly regenerated and renewed a Luke xx. 25. in the spirit of their mind, cleansed from all pollution of flesh and spirit, and made partakers of the Divine life and nature; and then, secondly, in being outwardly clothed with glorious, spiritual, celestial and incorruptible bodies. The Scripture plainly declareth, that our souls are not at home here, in this terrestrial body, and these earthly mansions, but that they are strangers and pilgrims therein; which the patriarchs also confessing, plainly declared, that they sought a country, not that which they came out from, but a heavenly one. From which passages of Scripture some indeed would infer, that souls being at first created by God pure, pre-existed, before this their terrene nativity, in celestial bodies; but afterwards straggled and wandered down hither, as Philo for one," aπoλιποῦσα μὲν γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ τὸν οὐράνιον τόπον, καθάπερ εἰς Eévnv xúpav ñλ0ɛto σwμɑ Our soul (saith he), having left its heavenly mansion, came down into this earthly body, as a strange place.-But thus much is certain, that our human souls were at first intended and designed by God Almighty, the maker of them, for other bodies and other regions, as their proper home and country, and their eternal resting-place: however, to us, that "be not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual." Now, though some, from that of St. Paul," where he calls this happy resurrection-body, οικητήριον ἡμῶν τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, that house of ours, that is from heaven-or which cometh out of heaven-would infer, that therefore it will not be taken out of graves and charnel • De Agricult. p. 197, et in libro, quis divinarum rerum hæres, p. 519, et alias. 2 Cor. v. 1. houses; they conceiving, also, that the individuation and sameness of men's persons does not necessarily depend upon the numerical identity of all the parts of matter, because we never continue thus the same, our bodies always flowing like a river, and passing away by insensible transpiration; and, it is certain, that we have not all the same numerical matter, and neither more nor less, both in infancy and in old age, though we be for all that the self-same persons: yet, nevertheless, according to the best philosophy, which acknowledges no essential or specifical difference of matter, the foulest and grossest body that is, merely by motion may not only be crystallized, but also brought into the purity and tenuity of the finest ether. And, undoubtedly, that same numerical body of our Saviour Christ, which lay in the sepulchre, was after his resurrection thus transformed into a spiritual and heavenly body; the subtilty and tenuity whereof appeared from his entering in when the doors were shut, and his vanishing out of sight; however its glory were for the time suspended, partly for the better convincing his disciples of the truth of his resurrection, and partly because they were not then able to bear the splendour of it. We conclude, therefore, that the Christian mystery, of the resurrection of life, consisteth not in the soul's being reunited to these vile rags of mortality, these gross bodies of ours, (such as now they are;) butin having them changed into the likeness of Christ's glorious body, and in this mortal's putting on immortality. Hitherto have we seen the agreement, that is betwixt Christianity and the old philosophic cabala, concerning the soul, in these two things: First, that the highest happiness and perfection of the human soul consisteth not in a state of pure separation from all body; and, secondly, that it does not consist neither in an eternal union with such gross terrestrial bodies, as these unchanged; the soul being not at home, but a stranger and pilgrim in them, and oppressed with the load of them: but that at last, the souls of good men shall arrive at glorious, spiritual, heavenly and immortal bodies. But now, as to that point, whether human souls be always united to some body or other, and consequently when by death they put off this gross terrestrial body, they are not thereby quite divested, and stripped naked of all body, but have a certain subtle and spirituous body, still adhering to them, and accompanying them? or else, whether all souls, that have departed out of this life, from the very beginning of the world, have ever since continued in a state of separation from all body, and shall s continue forwards till the day of judgment or general resurrection? we must confess, that this is a thing not so explicitly determined, or expressly decided in Christianity, either way. Nevertheless, it is first of all certain from Scripture, that souls departed out of these Death, called terrestrial bodies are therefore neither sleep in Scrip- dead nor asleep, till the last trump and ture, only general resurrection, but still alive and μισμόν. awake; our Saviour Christ affirming, that they all live unto God; the meaning whereof seems to be this, that they, who are said to be dead, are dead only unto men here upon earth; but neither dead unto themselves, nor yet unto God, their life being not extinct, but only disappearing to us, and withdrawn from our sight; for κατ ̓ εὐφη |