Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_437.TXT

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{.2HAP. IV.                          OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.                                                              437

words were now written / &c. and what he had in view
appears to be future, at a great distance, after death,
the consumption of his body by worms, and was his
comfort under his afflictions; and was an answer to
what Bildad said, chap. xviii. 12, 13,.14. and the vi-
sion, with the eyes of his body he expected, is not
suited to any state iu this life; but rather to the state
after the resurrection, when the saints shall see God in
Christ, and Christ in the flesh, with the eyes of the
body. To which may be added, Job speaks of the
awful .judgment, between which and death there must
be a resurrection from the dead, v 9-9. Upon the
whole, it is an observation of an ancient writer {},
"No one since Christ speaks so plainly of the resur-
rection as this man did before Christ." Though Spi-
nosa {} foolishly says, the sense of the text is con-
fused, disturbed, and obscure.--4. From Isa. xxvi.
19. Thy dead men shall live, &c. which words are an
answer to the prophet's complaint, v 14. They are
dead, they shall not live, &c. and which answer is made
by the Messiah, to whom the characters given, v 4.
1'2, 13. agree; assuring the p.rophet, that his people,
though dead, should live again, either at the time of
his resurrection, or in virtue of it; for the words are
literally true of Christ's resurrection and of theirs by
him; With .my dead body shall they arise, as many of
the saints did, at his resurrection; or, as my dead body,
after the exemplar of it; or, as sure as my dead body;
Christ's resurrection being the pledge of his people's;
and the following phrases confirm this sense; Awake,
ye that dwell in the dust, &c. see Dan. xii. 2. Thy
dew is the dew of herbs, compared with lsa. lxvi. 14.
The earth shall cast forth her dead; see Rev. xx. 13.
The Jews {} refer this prophecy to the resurrection of
the dead.       .5. From Dan. xii. 2. And many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; which is
generally understood of the resurrection of the dead,
both by Jewish and Christian interpreters; only Gro.
tius, after Porphyry the heathen, interprets the pas-
sage of the return of some of the Jews to their cities
and habitations, after the generals of Antiochus were
cut off: but surely this return was not of any of them to
everlasting shame and contempt, but the reverse; nor
of any of them to everlasting life, seeing they are all
since dead: nor is it true that the Jewish doctors,
from that time, shone illustriously; but, on the con-
trary, their light in divine things became dim, and
they taught not the doctrines of the scriptures but the
traditions of men. On the other hand, the whole
agrees with the resurrection of the dead, as described
by our Lord, John v. 28, 29. And when the bodies of
the saints will be raised in incorruption, power, and
glory, they will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Besides these, there are other passages
of scripture referred to by the apostle, in I Cot. xv.
5a,, 55. as proofs of this doctrine; as Isa. xxv. 8. Hos.
xiii. 14. which will have their full accomplishment at
the general resurrection. The passages out of the

=s Hieron. ad Pammach. tom. '2,. p. 59.1.
~ Philosoph. S.S. Script. c. 8. p. 10~.

New Testament are too numerous to recite, and so
plain as to need no explanation; and many of them
will be made use of in other parts of this subject.
Secondly, This truth may be proved from various
doctrines contained in the scripture; as fi'om the doc-
trine of elcction, which is of the persons of men, souls
and bodies, unto everlasting happiness; and therefore
their bodies must be raised, that they, united to their
souls, may enjoy that happiness, or the end will not be
attained: from the gift of the same to Christ, and who
was charged, when given to him, to lose none, but raise
them up again at the last clay; which must be done,
or his trust not discharged, nor his Father's will be
fulfilled: from their union to Christ, whose bodies are
members of hinz, and a part of his mystical body, by
virtue of which union they wifl be rdised; or else he
must lose a constituent part of those who are his
mystical body and his ridhess: from the redemption of
them by Christ, which is both of soul and body; both
are bought with the price of Christ's blood, and there-
fore their bodies must be raised from the dead, or
Christ must lose part of his purchase: also from the
sanctification of the same persons, in soul and body,
by the Spirit of God, in whose bodies he dwells, as in
his temple; and therefore, unless raised, he will lose
that which he has taken possession of as his dwelling-
place, and a considerable part of his glory as a sane,
tifier. Moreover, the general judgment, which is a
most certain thing, requires the resurrection of the
dead, as necessary to it: nor will the happiness of the
saint's be complete, nor the misery of the wicked pro-
portionate to their crimes, without the resurrection of
their bodies: but the grand and priucipal argument
used by the apostle, I Cot. xv. in proof of this doe-
trine, with so much strength, is the resur,'ection of
Christ. To which may be added, that there will be
need of and uses for some of the m'embers of the body
in heaven; as the eye, to see Christ in the flesh, and
one another; the ear, to hear the everlasting songs of
praise; and the tongue, to sing them: as well as we
read of men being cast into hell with two eyes, two
hands, and two feet; yea, even the whole body. NOr
may it be improper to observe, the translations of
Enoch and Elijah, soul and body, to heaven; and the
saints that rose at our Lord's resurrection, and went
to heaven in their risen bodies; and the saints who
will be alive at Christ's coming, and be caught up into
the air to meet him, and be for ever with him. Now it
is not probable that some saints should be in heaven
with their bodies and others without them; and there-
fore a general resurrection must be asserted and al-
lowed ss. I proceed,
II. To consider the subjects of the resurrection,
who they are, and what that is of them that shall be
raised.
First, Who they are that shall be raised; not the
angels, who die not, and therefore cannot be the sub-
jects of the resurrection; nor the brute creatures, as

as Of the proof from scripture passages and doctrines more largely,
see my Sermons on the Resurrection, serm. l.

~ Aben Ezra et Kimchi in loc. T. Bab. 8anhedrin, fol. 90. e.