XXXVIII

words be to be understood only of the immortality of the soul, they prove not at all that which our Saviour intended to prove, which was the resurrection of the body, that is to say, the immortality of the man. Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those patriarchs were immortal; not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of mankind; but by the will of God, that was pleased of His mere grace to bestow “eternal life” upon the faithful. And though at that time the patriarchs and many other faithful men were “dead,” yet as it is in the text, they “lived to God”; that is, they were written in the Book of Life with them that were absolved of their sins, and ordained to life eternal at the resurrection. That the soul of man is in its own nature eternal, and a living creature independent on the body, or that any mere man is immortal otherwise than by the resurrection in the last day, except Enoch and Elias, is a doctrine not apparent in Scripture. The whole of the 14th chapter of Job, which is the speech not of his friends, but of himself, is a complaint of this mortality of nature; and yet no contradiction of the immortality at the resurrection. “There is hope of a tree,” saith he (verse 7), “if it be cast down. Though the root thereof wax old, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet when it scenteth the water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” And (verse 12), “Man lieth down and riseth not, till the heavens be no more.” But when is it that the heavens shall be no more? St. Peter tells us that it is at the general resurrection. For in his second Epistle, 3:7, he saith that “the heavens and the earth that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men”; and (verse 12), “looking for, and hasting to the coming of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire and shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we according to the promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Therefore where Job saith “man riseth not till the heavens be no more”; it is all one as if he had said the immortal life (and soul and life in the Scripture do usually signify the same thing)