N01272:150
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the…
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the soul of believers, at the instant of their separation from their bodies. II. On the glory of the bodies of God's children, in the resurrection world, when they shall be as the angels of heaven. III. On the glory of both soul and body in the heaven of heavens, after the day of judgment, to all eternity. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston in N.E. printed: : Sold by Benjamin Eliot, at his shop in King Street., 1711
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
PROPOSITION II.
The very same Body which Died shall Rise again. Otherwise it would not be properly a Resurrection; Which is as much as to say, Iterata Surrectio; A rising again of the same which fell; or taking up that which was laid down, and not another thing instead of it. If another Body should be Created and the Soul United to it, that could not be called a Resurrection; because that Body never fell to the Ground. It would be a Creation, and not a Resurrection. And the Soul might then ⟨p. 118⟩say at the Day of Judgment, This is none of my Body; My Body is not raised; I never lived in this Body before Death made a separation between my body & soul. Most true it is, that the Body will be wonderfully changed, from what it was in this world: Phil. 3. 21. He shall change our Vile Body; but there will not be an Essential Change. As a Goldsmith makes a New Vessel of an Old Plate; not by changing the Metal, but by changing the External Form and Fashion of it: So in the Resurrection, the Body will be Materially and Substantially what it was before Death: There will be New Qualities and Glorious Properties in the Resurrection Body, which were not there whilst in their Mortal state; of which we shall speak under the next Proposition; Nevertheless, it will be a Body still; and Essentially the same Body that died. Do we not think, that Enoch & Elijah, have now the same Bodies in Heaven, which they had on Earth; notwithstanding their being Gloriously Changed? And the like is to be said concerning those Saints, whom ⟨p. 119⟩our LORD shall find alive on the Earth, at his Coming to Judge the World. Their Bodies will be wonderfully Changed in the twinkling of an Eye; but they shall not be Annihilated; and New Bodies Essentially differing from the former Created and given to them: I Cor. 15. 51, 52. There have been some pretenders to believe the Resurrection of the Body; but not of the same Numerical Body, which was put into the Grave. So said the Manichees many Ages since: So say the Socinians at this day. So that this has been an Old Error lately revived. As long ago as Tertullian's time; there were some such among Professed Christians, whom he justly calls, Partiarios Sententiae Saducaeorum; Half Sadducees, or Sharers with the Sadducees, in their Opinion of denying the Resurrection.