{"number":24,"title":"The resurrection of the flesh","part":"THE FOVRTH PARTE OF the Creede","questions":[],"paragraphs":[],"clauses":[11],"items":[],"text":"## Testimonies out of the Prophets and Apostles\n\nDaniel *12.* verse *2.* And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shal awake, some to euerlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt. Iob *19.* verse *25.* I knowe that my Redeemer liueth, and he shal stand in the last day vpon the earth, and I shal be clothed againe with my skinne, and shall see God in my flesh. I shal see him my selfe & none other for me. Paul (*1.* Cor. *15.*) as it were with the finger pointing at those same bodies which we carrie about, saith on this wife: that this corruptible, that this mortal, this I say and none other, must put on incorruption, and immortalitie.\n\n## The meaning of this article\n\nThe articles that followe, conteine the consūmation or perfecting of those same benefites of Christ, to wit, that same blessed life, which we shal liue, both in bodie and soule in the kingdome of our heauenly Father, beeing fully ioyned with our head Christe, beeing fully regenerate and transformed into his image and glorie, 1. Cor. 15. Philip. 3. For our soules, as soone as they shall passe out of this life, shal enter into the rest of their Lorde: for that whiche was spoken vnto the beleeuing theefe, is also spoken to all the faithfull. Nowe in the end of the worlde their bodies being taken againe, they shall enioy full happinesse. And certainly the verie same bodies, which hauing put off al infirmitie, shal put on incorruption, incomprehensible power, & glorie, a taste whereof Christe gaue vnto his Apostles in the mount: Matth. 17. for he was transformed before them, and his face did shine as the sunne, and his garments were glistering as the light.\n\n## That the dead aswell righteous as vnrighteous must needes rise againe\n\nThe resurrection of the dead hath most sure and certaine foundations. First of all the infinite power of God, whereby he could create our bodies of nothing, and whereby he can bring all thinges vnder subiection to himselfe, Gene. 1. Rom. 4. Philip. 3. Further his vnchangeable will, wherein he hath declared his righteousnes, vpon which foundation, the reason of the Apostle (2. Thess. 1.) leaneth. For it is a righteous thing, with God (saith he) to render affliction vnto them which afflict you, and to you who are afflicted, release together with vs, when the Lorde Iesus shall be reuealed from heauen with the Angels of his power. The righteousnes of God requireth, that not other bodies, but euen the verie bodies, of the wicked be afflicted, and that the bodies of the godlie receiue that promised release: nowe whatsoeuer God can, and will that of necessitie is done.\n\n## That the same bodies, which we beare here, shal rise againe\n\nThese verie same bodies and none other concerning the substance, shall rise againe. For God is the fountaine of life, who hath taken into his couenant not halfe man, but whole man, and therefore shal quicken our bodies that are confederats vnto him. For the God of Abraham of Isaak, and of Iacob, who is also our God, is not the GOD of the liuing, but of the deade, like as Christ himselfe proueth the resurrection by the couenant. Therefore these verie same bodies in respect of the substance, shall rise againe. But if any man will aske concerning the qualities, there is a great diuersitie, and so is that same voice of Christe to be vnderstoode, Matth. 22. that in the resurrection we shal bee as the Angels of God in heauen. And Christ saith, Matthewe 13. Then the righteous shall shine as the sunne. For this cause the bodies of the faithfull are called clarified bodies, of the clearenes of the heauenlie light wherewith they are enlightened: and they are called glorious bodies, of that same glory which appeareth in that same clearenes, (as in the face of Moses) & spiritual bodies of the spirit of Christ by which they are quickened & bewtified, not to returne againe to nothing. Now the cause of this our glorious resurrection is set forth in the third fruite of the resurrection of Christe. Indeede the bodies of the wicked shall also rise againe, as I shewed before when I sette foorth the foundations of the resurrection. And Paule expresseth this: Actes 24. But in a condition and qualitie diuerse from the godly. For infirmitie, shame, corruption and misery shall not be taken from the bodies of the vngodly: but like as they rise in shame, so by the iudgement and power of God they shalbee confirmed in shame and corruption: so that they shalbe made immortall and incorruptible in corruption and death it selfe, not to bee consumed with any tormentes, but as it were hot burning yron, they shall burne for euer, Daniel 12. Some shal rise to euerlasting shame: and Math. 25. The reason is, because not onely the first death, but also the seconde, which is euerlasting, is the punishment of sinne cōmitted aswell in body as in soule against the infinite maiestie of God."}