N00830:36
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus…
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by Timothy Green for Nicholas Boone, 1701
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Blessed HOPE, And Glorious Appearing of JESUS CHRIST. › Sermon 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Believers hope that at the Appearing of the Great God our Saviour Jesus Christ, their dead bodies shall be restored to Life again. Isa. 26.19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise. As for dead Believers, when the dead Bodies of the Prophets shall arise they shall arise too. The Resurrection of the Body is a special object of the Believers Blessed Hope. It was therefore a principle thing in the Doctrine Paul Preached, & that he was Persecuted for, Act. 23.6. For the Hope of the Resurrection of the dead am I called into Question. And again, Act. 24.15. I have Hope towards God, that there shall be a Resurrection from the dead. Notwithstanding, their immortal Souls must be separated from their Bodies for some time, they know not how long, and in the mean time their bodies consumed in the rotting Grave. Believers hope that then they shall have the very same Bodies restored to them again, which their immortal Souls were in before Death made a separation, but wonderfully and gloriously Changed as to the qualities thereof. 'Tis true also concerning Unbelievers, wicked ⟨p. 13⟩men, that they shall rise out of their Graves, and enjoy the very same Bodies that they had in this world. We may not think, that the Bodies that have sinned, shall escape the Fire of Hell, and that another Body that never sinned, shall suffer instead of it. Thus as to Believers, they shall have the very same Bodies. That Body that did serve God and Glorify Him in this world, shall be made to live again in that Day. As the Body of Christ now in Glory, is the very same which did lye in the Grave. That very Body that was Crucified, is now at the Right-hand of God. So shall it be as to Believers on Christ, 1 Cor. 15.53. For this Corruptible, must put on Incorruption, This Corruptible and not another. And the Resurrection of the Body which is the Blessed Hope of all Christians, will be at the Appearing of Christ, 1 Cor. 15.23 We shall rise every one in their own order, they that are Christs at His Coming. It will be at the Last Day. Martha said to Christ, when He told her that her Brother should rise again,