Chapter 35: Of the Honor of Human Bodies by Creation and Resurrection

And now, that this particular of immortality may further redound both to the honour and comfort of man, I must fall upon a short digression touching man's body: wherein I intend not to meddle with the question, how man's body may be said to be made after the image of God (which sure is not any otherwise, than as it is a sanctified and shall be a blessed vessel, but not as some have conceited, as if it were in creation Imago Christi futuri, nec Dei opus tantum, sed & Pignus: as if Christ had been the pattern of our honour, and not we of his infirmity, since the Scripture says, He was made like to us in all things, and that he assumed our nature, but never that we were, but that we shall be like to him) not, I say, to meddle with this, I will only briefly consider the dignity thereof in the particular of immortality, both in the first structure, and in the last resurrection of it. The creation of our bodies, and the redemption of our bodies, as the apostle calls it. What immunity was at first given, and what honour shall at last be restored to it. In which latter sense it shall certainly be Secundum Imaginem, after his image, who was Primitiae the first fruits of them that rise. That as in his humility his glory was hid in our mortality, so in our exaltation our mortality shall be swallowed up of his glory. And for the first estate of man's body, we conclude in a word: that it was partly mortal, and partly immortal: mortal in regard of possibility of dying, because it was affected with the mutual action and passion of corruptible elements: for which reason it stood in need of reparation and recovery of itself by food, as being still Corpus Animale, and not Spirituale, as St. Paul distinguishes, a natural, but not a spiritual body. But it was immortal, that is, exempted from the law of death and dissolution of the elements, in virtue of God's covenant with man, upon condition of his obedience. It was mortal Conditione Corporis, by the condition of a body; but immortal Beneficio Conditoris, by the benefit of its creation; else God had planted in the soul such natural desires of a body wherein to work as could not be naturally attained; for the soul did naturally desire to remain still in the body. In the natural body of Adam there was no sin, and therefore no death, which is the wages of sin.

I come now to the redemption of our bodies already performed in Pignore & in [reconstructed: Primitiis], in our Head, and in some few of his members, Enoch, [reconstructed: Elias], and (as is probable) in those dead bodies which arose to testify the divine power of our crucified Saviour; and shall be totally accomplished at that day of redemption, as the same apostle calls the last day: that day of a full and final redemption, when death, the last enemy, shall be overcome. And well may it be called a day of redemption, not only in regard of the creature, which yet groans under the malediction and tyranny of sinful man: nor yet only in respect of man's soul, which, though it be before admitted to the purchased possession of the glorifying vision, and lives no more by faith alone, but by sight, shall yet then receive a more abundant fullness thereof, as being the day of the manifestation and full discovery both of the punishing glory of God in the wicked, and of his merciful and admirable glory in the saints: but also and (as I think) most especially in respect of the body. For there is, by virtue of that omnipotent sacrifice, a double kind of redemption wrought for us: the one vindicative, giving us immunity from all spiritual dangers, delivering us from the tyranny of our enemies, from the severity, justice, and curse of the law; which is commonly in the New Testament called simply [illegible] and [illegible], a deliverance from evil; the other purchasing, or munificent, by not only freeing us from our own wretchedness, but further conferring upon us a positive and a glorious honour, which St. John calls [illegible], a power, privilege, prerogative, and title to all the glorious promises of immortality: which likewise St. Paul calls [illegible], the redemption of a purchased possession, and a redemption to the adoption of sons. Now then the last day is not totally and perfectly a day of redemption to our souls in either of these senses, since they are in this life delivered from the malediction of the law, from the wrath of the judge, from the tyranny of the enemy, from the reign of sin, and by death freed not only from the dominion, but from the possession, or assault of the enemy; not only from the kingdom, but from the body of sin; and is withal in good part possessed of that bliss, which it shall more fully enjoy at last. But our bodies, though before that great day they partake much of the benefits of redemption, as being here sanctified vessels, freed from the authority and power of the Devil, world, flesh, and from the curse of death too, wherein they part not only with life, but with sin; yet after all this do they lack some part of either redemption: as namely to be raised and delivered from that dishonour and corruption, which the last enemy has brought upon them: and to be admitted into those mansions, and invested with that glory, whereby they shall be totally possessed of their redemption. In a word, the soul is in its separation fully delivered from all enemies, which is the first; and in a great measure enjoys the vision of God, which is the second part or degree of man's redemption. But the body is not till its resurrection, either quite freed from its enemy, or at all possessed of its glory. I mean in itself, though it be in its Head, who is Primitiae & [reconstructed: Pignus] Resurrectionis, the first fruits and earnest of our conquest over death.

Touching the dignity of our bodies, though there be more comfort to be had in the expectation, than curiosity in the inquiry after it; yet what is usually granted, I shall briefly set down. And first, it shall be raised a whole entire and perfect body, with all the parts best fitted to be receptacles of glory; freed from all either the ushers in, or attendants and followers on the grave, age, infirmity, sickness, corruption, ignominy, and dishonor: and shall rise a true, whole, strong, and honorable body. For though every part of the body shall not have those peculiar uses, which here they have, since they neither eat, nor drink, marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels of God: yet shall not any part be lost: Licet enim officiis liberentur, judiciis [reconstructed: retinentur]: Though they are freed from their temporal service, for which they were here ordained, yet must they be reserved for receiving their judgment, whether it be to glory, or to dishonor.

The second dignity is that change and alteration of our body from a natural to a spiritual body, whereby is not meant any transubstantiation from a corporeal to a spiritual substance: For our bodies shall, after the resurrection, be conformable to Christ's body, which, though glorious, was not yet a spirit, but had flesh and bone, as we have. Nor is it to be understood of a thin, aerial, invisible body (as some have collected) since Christ says of his body, after he was risen, Videte, Palpate. Wherever it is, it has both its quantity, and all sensible qualities of a body glorified with it. It is a strong argument, that it is not there, where it is not sensible; and therefore the doctrines of Ubiquity, and Transubstantiation, as they give Christ more than he is pleased to own, an immensity of body; so do they spoil him of that, which he has been pleased for our sakes to assume; extension, compacture, massiness, visibility, and other the like sensible properties, which cannot stand with that pretended miracle whereby they make Christ's body (even now a creature, and like to ours in substance, though not in qualities of corruptibility, infirmity, ignominy, animality) to be truly invested with the very immediate properties of the Deity. True indeed it is, that the body of Christ has an efficacy and operation in all parts of the world, it works in heaven with God the Father by intercession; among the blessed Angels by confirmation; in earth, and that in all ages, and in all places among men, by justification, and comfort; in hell among the devils and damned, by the tremblings and fears of a condemning and convicting faith. But operation requires only a presence of virtue, not of substance. For does not the sun work wonderful effects in the bowels of the earth, itself notwithstanding being a fixed planet in the heaven? And why should not the Sun of Righteousness work as much at the like distance, as the sun of nature? Why should he not be as powerful absent, as he was hoped? Or why should the not presence of his body make that ineffectual now, which the not existing could not before his Incarnation? Why should we mistrust the eyes of Stephen, that saw him in heaven, at such a distance of place, when Abraham could see him in his own bowels through so great a distance of time?

That speech then, that the body shall be a spiritual body, is not to be understood in either of those former senses: but it is to be understood first of the more immediate union and full inhabitation of the virtue and vigor of God's Spirit in our bodies, quickening and forever sustaining them without any assistance of natural or animal qualities, for the repairing and augmenting of them in recompense of that, which by labor and infirmity, and the natural opposition of the elements, is daily diminished. Secondly, it shall be so called in regard of its obedience and total subjection to the Spirit of God, without any manner of reluctance and dislike. Thirdly, in respect of those spiritual qualities, those prerogatives of the flesh, with which it shall be adorned, which are

First, a shining and glorious light, with which it shall be clothed as with a garment: for the just shall shine as the sun in the firmament. Now, this shall be wrought first by virtue of that communion, which we have with Christ our Head, whose body, even in its mortality, did shine like the sun, and had his clothes white as light. And secondly, by diffusion and redundancy from our soul upon our body, which by the beatific vision, filled with a spiritual and unconceivable brightness, shall work upon the body, as on a subject made thoroughly obedient to its power, to the production of alike qualities.

The second spiritual property shall be impassibility, not in respect of perfective, but in respect of annoying, disquieting, or destructive passion. There shall not be any war in the members, any fighting and mutual languishing of the elements; but they shall all be sustained in their full strength by virtue of Christ's communion, of the inhabitation of the Spirit, of the dominion of the glorified soul. There shall be no need of rest, or sleep, or meat, all which are here requisite for the supply of our infirmities and daily defects, and are only the comforts of pilgrimage, not the blessedness of possession. For although Christ after his resurrection did eat before his disciples, yet this was none otherwise done, than that other, the retaining of his wounds, which was only for our sakes; that our faith touching the truth of his body, might not be without these visible and inferior witnesses, by which he was pleased to make his very glorified flesh a proportioned object to our frail sense and faith, that so we might from there learn confidently to rely for ourselves as well on the benefit of his exaltation, as of his humility. Or it was done (as Saint Augustine speaks) Non ex Necessitate, sed ex Potestate: as the sun is said to draw and suck up standing waters: Non Pabuli Egestate, sed Virtutis [reconstructed: Magnitudine], not to nourish, but to manifest its virtue.

Thirdly, the body shall be a strong and beautiful body, thoroughly able to minister to the soul any service, wherein it shall employ it, and shall be no longer, as it is now, the clog and luggage thereof. It shall likewise be free from all blemish and deformity (which ever arises out of the distemper and discord of the elements) (as it is by good probability conjectured) reduced to a full, comely and convenient stature, even in those, who were in their death contemptible, infants, lame, dismembered, or any other way dishonored with the miseries of corruption; Naturae, non injuriae reddimur, we shall be restored to our nature, but not to our shame; the dust shall still retain and bury our dishonor, and it shall be one part of our glory to be made fit for it.

The last quality of our bodies, which I shall observe, is a perfect subtlety and agility, best befitting their service for the soul in all speedy motion; which surely shall be there so much the more requisite, than here on earth, by how much Heaven is a more ample and spacious country. And thus while the body is made an attendant on the soul's glory, it is likewise a partaker of it. To these, add the sweet harmony of the affections, the exact and exquisite operation of the senses, the bodily communion and fellowship of the saints, and, above all, the eternal corporeal vision of that most sacred body, from where all ours derive their degrees of honor, whose presence were truly and without any hyperbole able to make Hell itself a place of glory: how much more that country, and those mansions, where the soul likewise shall be swallowed up with the immediate vision and fruition of divine glory. Our souls are not here noble enough to conceive what our bodies shall be there.