Two discourses I. of the punishment of sin in hell, demonstrating the wrath of…

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These things premised, I come to the Argument to be raised out of them, to prove the Point in hand.

First, that Grace or Holiness, because they are immediately wrought in the Soul, that therefore when the Body dies the Soul shall be taken up into Life. That this is a meet and congruous Ordination of God, the Scripture it self owns, and seems so to pitch the reason of it, in Rom. 8. 10, 11. And if Christ be in you, the Body is dead, because of Sin: but the Spirit is Life, because of Righteousness. But 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, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. He gives an account of what is to become hereafter, both of the Bodies and Souls of them in whom Christ is. (1.) First, for the Body that is condemned to die, The Body is dead because of Sin. By Body I understand the same which he in the 11th Verse terms the mortal Body to be raised up; which (says he) is dead, that is, appointed to die; as one sentenced to Death you term a dead Man. And this [because ⟨p. 276⟩of Sin.] It was meet that that first threatening of dying should have some effect to evidence the Truth of God therein. Only God is favourable in his Ordination in this, that he arresteth but the Body, the less principal Debtor; but that (to be sure) shall pay for it: It is appointed to all Men once to die, even for Men that are in Christ, as this place of the Romans hath it. Then (2.) follows, what remains the Soul of such an one when the Body dies. [But] says he, (speaking by way of exception, and contrary fate too,) The Spirit is Life, because of Righteousness. The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body; this, when the Body dies, is Life: He says not Living only, or immortal, but is swallowed up into Life: And why? because of Righteousness, which is Christ's Image; and so preserves, and by God's ordination upon dying, elevates the Soul, which is the immediate and original Subject of it, (which is the Point in hand.) For this thing it is, God hath wrought it. But then because the Query would be, Shall this Body for ever remain dead, because of (this first) Sin, and bear this Punishment for ever? No: Therefore (3.) he adds, He that raised up Christ from the Dead, shall also quicken your mortal Bodies.