Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Secondly, They shall be glorious bodies; not only beautiful, comely, and well proportioned, but full of splendour and brightness. The most beautiful face, and best proportioned body that now appears in the world i• not to be armed in comparison with the body of the me•nest saint at the resurrection; for then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, Matth. xiii. 43. If there was a dazzling glory on Moses's face, when he came down from the mount; and if Stephen's face was as it had been the face of an angel, when he stood before the council, how much more shall the faces of the saints be beautiful and glorious, full of sweet agreeable majesty, when they have put off all corruption, and shine as the sun? But observe, this beauty of the saints is not restricted to their faces, but diffuses itself through their whole bodies: for the whole body is raised in glory, and shall be fashioned like unto their Lord and Saviour's glorious body: in whose transfiguration not only did his face shine as the sun, but also his raiment was white as the light, Matth. xvii. 2. Whatever defects or deformities the bodies of the saints had, when laid in the grave, occasioned by accidents in life, or arising from secret causes of their formation in the womb, they shall rise out of the grave free of all these. But suppose […] of the Lord Jesus, the scars or prints of the wounds and bruises some of the saints received while on earth, for his sake, […] remain in their bodies after the resurrection: likeas the print of the nails remained in the Lord Jesus's body, after his resurrection; these marks will rather be badges of distinction, and add to their glo•y, than d••r•ct from their beauty. But howsoever that be, surely Isaac's eye shall not then be dim nor will Jacob halt; Leah shall not be tender eyed, nor M•phi•oeth l•ene of his legs For as the goldsmith melts do in the old crazy •essel, and casts it over again […] a new mould, bringing it forth with a new lustre; so shall the vle body which lay dissolved in the grave, come forth at the resurrection in perfect beauty and comely proportion.