that though the feed rot in the earth, yet it will rife again. And the believer knows, "that though after his fkin worms destroy his bo"dy, yet in his flesh he fhall fee God," Job xix. 25, &c. And the resemblance betwixt the feed fown, and fpringing up; and the bodies of the faints dying, and rifing again, lies in thefe following parti culars. 1. The feed is committed to the earth from whence it came; fo is the body of a faint; earth it was, and to earth it is again refolved. Grace exempts not the body of the best man from feeing corruption, Rom. viii. 10. Though Chrift be in him, yet the body is dead; that is, fentenced to death, because of fin, Heb. ix. 27. "But it is ap"pointed for all men once to die." 2. The feed is caft into the earth in hope, 1 Cor. ix. 10. Were there not a refurrection of it expected, the husbandman would never be willing to caft away his corn. The bodies of faints are alfo committed to the grave in hope, 1 Theff. iv. 13, 14. "But I would not "have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those which are "afleep, as they which have no hope; for if we believe that Je"fus died, and rofe again, fo even also them which fleep in Jefus, "fhall the Lord bring with him." This bleffed hope of a refurrection sweetens not only the troubles of life, but the pangs of death. 3. The feed is caft into the earth seasonably, in its proper season : fo are the bodies of the faints, Job v. 26. “Thou shalt come to thy "6 grave in a full age, as a fhock of corn cometh in, in its feafon." They always die in the fitteft time, though fometimes they feem to die immaturely: the time of their death was from all eternity prefixed by God, beyond which they cannot go, and fhort of which they cannot come. 4. The feed lies many days and nights under the clods, before it rife and appear again; "even fo man lieth down, and rifeth not "again until the heavens be no more," Job xiv. 12. The days of darkness in the grave are many. 5. When the time is come for its shooting up, the earth that covered it can hide it no longer; it cannot keep it down a day more; it will find or make way through the clods. So in that day when the great trump fhall found, bone fhall come to its bone, and the grave fhall not be able to hold them a minute longer. Both fea and earth must render the dead that are in them, Rev. xx. 13. 6. When the feed appears above-ground, it appears much more fresh and orient, than when it was caft into the earth: God clothes it with fuch beauty, that it is not like to what it was before. Thus rife the bodies of the faints, marvelloufly improved, beautified, and perfected with fpiritnal qualities and rich endowments; in respect whereof they are called fpiritual bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 43. not properly, but analogically fpiritual; for look, as fpirits fubfift with out food, raiment, fleep, know no laffitude, wearinefs or pain; fo our bodies, after the refurrection, fhall be above thefe neceffities and diftempers; for we fhall be as the angels of God, Matth. xxii. 30. Yea, our vile bodies fhall be changed, and made like unto Chrift's glorious body; which is the highest pitch and afcent of glory and honour that an human body is capable of, Phil. iii. 21. Indeed, the glory of the foul fhall be the greatest glory; that is the orient invaluable gem: But God will beftow a diftinct glory upon the body, and richly enamel the very cafe in which that precious jewel fhall be kept. In that glorious morning of the refurrection, the faints fhall put on their new fresh fuits of flesh, richly laid and trimmed with glory. Those bodies, which in the grave were but duft and rottennefs, when it delivers them back again, shall be shining and excellent pieces, abfolutely and everlastingly freed. (1.) From all natural infirmities and diftempers: Death is their good phyfician, which at once freed them of all difeafes. It is a great affliction now to many of the Lord's people, to be clogged with fo many bodily infirmities, which render them very unferviceable to God. The fpirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. A crazy body retorts and shoots back its diftempers upon the foul, with which it is fo clofely conjoined: But though now the foul (as Theophraftus fpeaks) pays a dear rent for the tabernacle in which it dweils; yet, when death diffolves that tabernacle, all the difeafes and pains, under which it groaned, fhall be buried in the rubbish of its mortality; and when they come to be re-united again, God will bestow rich gifts and dowries, even upon the body, in the day of its re-efpoufals to the foul. (2.) It fhall be freed from all deformities; there are no breaches, flaws, monftrofities in glorified bodies; but of them it may much rather be faid what was once faid of Abfalom, 2 Sam. xiv. 25. "That from the crown of "the head to the fole of his foot, there was no blemish in him." (3.) It fhall be freed from all natural neceffities, to which it is now fubjected in this its animal state. How is the foul now difquieted and tortured with cares and troubles to provide for a perishing body? Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with: What shall it eat? And what fhall it drink? And wherewithal fhall it be clothed?" But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; God "fhall deftroy both it and them," 1 Cor. vi. 13. i. e. as to their prefent ufe and office; for as to its exiftence, fo the belly fhall not be destroyed. But even as the mafis, poop and ftern of a ship abide in the harbour after the voyage is ended, fo fhall thefe bodily members, as Tertullian excellently illuftrates it. (4.) They fhall be freed from death, to which thenceforth they can be fubject no more; that formidable adversary of nature shall affault it no more. "For they "which fhall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the re"furrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage;" "neither can they die any more; for they shall be equal to the anVOL. V. N "gels, and are the children of God, being the children of the refur"rection," Luke xx. 35, 36. Mark it (equal to the angels) not that they fhall be feparate and fingle fpirits, without bodies as the angels are but equal to them in the way and manner of their living and acting. We fhall then live upon God, and act freely, purely, and delightfully for God; for all kind of living upon, and delighting in creatures, feems in that text (by a fynecdoche of the part which is ordinarily in fcripture put for all creature-delights, dependencies, and neceffities) to be excluded. Nothing but God fhall enamour and fill the foul; and the body fhall be perfectly fubdued to the spirit. Lord, what haft thou prepared for them that love thee! The healthful faint's reflection. REFLECTIONS. 1. If I fhall receive my body again fo dignified and improved in the world to come, then Lord let me never be unwilling to use my body now for the intereft of thy glory, or my own falvation! Now, O my God, it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of ferving and honouring thee I have loft, under pretence of endangering my health! I have been more folicitous to live long and healthfully, than to live ufefully and fruitfully; and, like enough, my life had been more ferviceable to thee, if it had not been fo fondly overvalued by me. Foolish foul! hath God given thee a body for a living tool or inftrument? And art thou afraid to ufe it? Wherein is the mercy of having a body, if not in fpending and wearing it out in the fervice of God? To have an active vigorous body, and not to employ and exercife it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one fhould give thee a handfome and fprightly horfe, upon condition thou fhouldft not ride or work him. O! if fome of the faints had enjoyed the bleffing of fuch an healthy active body as mine, what excellent fervices would they have performed to God in it? The fickly faint's reflection. 2. If my body fhall as furely rife again in glory, vigour, and excellent endowments, as the feed which I fow doth; why should not this comfort me over all the pains, weakneffes, and dulnefs, with which my foul is now clogged? Thou knoweft, my God, what a grief it hath been to my foul, to be fettered and entangled with the diftempers and manifold indifpofitions of this vile body: It hath made me figh, and fay with holy Anfelme, when he faw the mounting bird weighed down by the ftone hanging at her leg, Lord, thus it fares with the foul of thy fervant! Fain would I ferve, glorify, and enjoy thee, but a diftempered body will not let me. However, it is reviving to think, that though I am now forced to crawl like a * Ισαγγέλως Βιωνίες. worm, in the difcharge of my duties, I fhall fhortly fly, like a feraphim in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping foul; the time is at hand when thou shalt be made more willing than thou art, and thy flesh not fo weak as now it is. The dying faint's reflection. 3. And is it fo indeed? Then let the dying faint, like Jacob, rouze up himself upon his bed, and encourage himfelf against the fears of death by this refreshing confideration. Let him fay with holy dying Mufculus, why trembleft thou, O my foul, to go forth of this tabernacle to the land of rest? Hath thy body been fuch a pleasant habitation to thee, that thou shouldst be fo loth to part with it, though but for a time, and with affurance of receiving it again with fuch a glorious improvement? I know, O my foul, that thou haft a natural inclination to this body, refulting from the dear and ftrict union which God himfelf hath made betwixt thee and it; yea, even the holiest of men do fometimes fenfibly feel the like in themselves; but beware thou love it not immoderately or inordinately; it is but a creature, how dear foever it be to thee; yea, a fading creature, and that which now stands in thy way to the full enjoyment of God. But fay, my foul, why are the thoughts of parting with it fo burdenfome to thee? Why fo loth to take death by its cold hand? Is this body thy old and dear friend? True, but yet thou partest not with it upon fuch fad terms as fhould deserve a tear at parting. For mayeft thou not say of this departure, as Paul at the departure of Onefimus? Philem. ver. 15. "It therefore departeth for a feafon, that thou mayeft receive it for "ever." The day of re-efpoufals will quickly come; and in the mean time, as thy body shall not be fenfible of the tedious length of interpofing time, fo neither fhalt thou be folicitous about thine abfent friend; for the fruition of God in thine unbodied ftate, fhall fill thee with infinite fatisfaction and reft. Or is it not fo much fimply for parting with it, as for the manner of thy parting, either by the flow and lingering approaches of a natural, or the quick and terrible approaches of a violent death: Why trouble not thyself about that; for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious ficknefs, yet at the end of it is thy Father's houfe. And for a violent death, it is not fo material whether friends or enemies ftand weeping or triumphing over thy dead body. Nihil corpus fenfit in nervo cum anima fit in cœlo. When thy foul fhall be in heaven, it will not be fenfible how the body is ufed on earth. 4. But oh! what an uncomfortable parting will mine be! and how much more fad our meeting The ungodly foul's again! how will this foul and body blufh, yea, reflection. tremble when they meet, who have been co-partners in fo much guilt? I damned my foul to pleafe my flesh, and now have ruined both thereby: Had I denied my flesh to ferve Chrift, worn out my body in the fervice of my foul, I had thereby happily provi ded for them both; but I began at the wrong end, and fo have ruined both eternally, B THE POEM. ARE feeds have no great beauty, but, inhum'd, Ne'er view'd on earth. The fparkling beauties here, Than glimmering glow-worms do the fairest ftar Where, with diftempers clogg'd, thou mak'ft thy moans, Haft often fu'd: Cheer up, the time will be When thou from all these troubles fhall be free; |
