N00830:38
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.
3. Believers hope that at the Appearing of the Great God our Saviour Jesus Christ, their Bodies shall undergo a Blessed Change. Not only that they shall be restored to Life, but be Blessedly Changed from what they are. They are now subject to many infirmities, which will then be perfectly and forever removed from them Phil 3.21 He shall Change our vile Bodies. We look for a Saviour from Heaven that shall Change our vile Bodies: whatever it is makes our Bodies subject to vileness, to meanness, that shall be done away. There are Bodily infirmities which are the fruit of Sin, and some part ⟨p. 15⟩of the Curse. So are all Bodily Diseases. There are some Bodies subject to Chronic diseases, which are Ludibria Medicorum, all the Physicians in the world cannot cure them. Asa was Diseased in his Feet, and sought to the Physicians, and doubtless had the Advice of the Ablest Physicians in the Kingdom, but they could not help him. The Resurrection will Cure all Diseases. The Diseases which the Bodies of Saints carry to the Grave with them, shall not come out of the Grave, again. There are Bodily infirmities also, which are not the effect of Sin, which men would have been subject unto if they never had sinned; such as Hunger, Thirst, want of Sleep, and the like. If Adam never had sinned, his Body would have stood in need of Food, that so it might be continued in Life. Therefore before ever he had sinned, God said to him, Gen. 2.16. That he might eat of all the Trees in the Garden of Eden, one only excepted. And we find Adam subject to Sleep before ever he sinned against God. But after the Resurrection, they shall be freed from the sinless infirmities of Humane nature, Mat. 22.30. In the Resurrection they are as the Angels of God in Heaven. Now the Angels of God in Heaven, never Sleep, Eat, Drink, nor need they any such thing to support their Natures. So shall it be with Believers after the Resurrection. They ⟨p. 16⟩shall Hunger no more, neither Thirst any more. Their Bodies shall then be endowed and adorned with Glorious properties, which the body of Adam in his first Estate had not. They will be more happy in respect of their Bodies, then Adam in Paradise was. They will have a greater Glory on their Bodies than he had.