he cannot be my difciple. Ponder these things in your hearts, whilst yet God delays the trial.

Infer. 3. If the fouls of men be naturally fo ftrongly inclined and affected towards the body; Then hence you may plainly fee the wisdom of God in all the afflictions and burdens he lays upon hiş people in this world, and find that all is but enough to wean eff their fouls from their bodies, and make them willing to part with them.

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The life of the faints in this world, is generally a burdened and a groaning life; 2 Cor. v. 2. "In this tabernacle we groan, being burdened." Here the faints feel, (1.) A burden of fin, Rom. vii. 24. this is a dead and a finking weight. (2.) A burden of affliction; of this all are partakers, Heb. xii. though not all in an equal degree, or in the fame kind, yet all have their burdens equal to, and even beyond their own ftrength to fupport it; 2 Cor. i. 8. " preffed above measure." (3) A burden of inward troubles for fin, and outward troubles in the flesh both together, fo had Job, Heman, David, and many of the faints.

Certainly this befals them not, (1.) Cafually, Job v. 6. "It "rifes not out of the duft:" (2.) Nor because God loves and regards them not, for they are fruits of his love; Heb. xii. 6. "Whom he loveth be correcteth :" (3.) Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans; Lam. iii. 34. To tread under his feet "the prifoners of the earth,-the Lord hath no pleasure :" it is not for his own pleafure, but his childrens profit, Heb. xii. 10. And among the profits that refult from these burdens, this is not the leaft, to make you lefs fond of the body than you would elfe be, and more willing to be gone to your everlasting reft. And certainly all the difeafes and pains we endure in the body, whether they be upon inward or outward accounts, by paffion or compaffion from God or men, will be found but enough to wean us, and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life. Afflictions are bitter things to our taste, Ruth i. 26. fo bitter, that Naomi thought a name of a contrary fignification fitter for her afflicted condition; call me Marah, i. e. bitter, not Naomi, pleafant, beautiful. And the church, Lamb. iii. 19.. calls them wormwood and gäll.

The great defign of God in afflicting them, is the fame that a tender mother projects in putting wormwood to her breast when the would wean the child.

It hath been obferved by fome difcreet and grave ministers, that before their remove from one place to another, God hath

permitted and ordered fome weaning providence to befal them ; either denying wonted fuccefs to their labour, or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them, which not only makes the manner of their departure more easy, but the grounds of it more clear. Much fo it falls out in our natural death, the comfort of the world is imbittered to us before we leave it; the longer we live in it, the lefs we fhall like it. We overlive most of our comforts which engaged our hearts to it, that we may more freely take our leave of it. 4t were good for Chriftians to obferve the voice of fuch providences as thefe, and anfwer the defigns of them in a greater willingness to die.

1. Is thy body which was once hale and vigorous, now be come a crazy, fickly, pained body to thee, neither useful to God, nor comfortable to thee? a tabernacle to groan and figh in and little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper; God hath ordained this to make thee willing to be divorced from it: the lefs defireable life is, the lefs formidable death will be.

2. Is thy eftate decayed and blafted by providence, fo that thy life which was once full of creature-comforts, is now filled with cares and anxieties? O it is a weaning providence to thee, and befpeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the world farewel The lefs comfort it gives you, the lefs it fhall entangle and engage you. We little know with what aking hearts, and pensive breafts, many of God's people walk up and down, though for religion, or reputation fake they put a good face upon it; but by these things, God is befpeaking and preparing them for a better state.

3. Is an husband, a wife, or dear children dead, and with them the comfort of life laid in the duft? why this the Lord fees neceffary to do to perfuade you to come after willingly? It is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth, that thou mayeft fall the more eafily. O how many ftrokes muft God give at our names, eftates, relations, and health, before we will give way to the laft ftroke of death that fells us to the ground?

4. Do the times frown upon religion? Do all things feem to threaten ftormy times at hand? Are defirable affemblies fcattered? nothing but forrows and fufferings to be expected in this world? by thefe things God will imbitter the earth, and fweeten heaven to his people.

5. Is the beauty and fweetnefs of Chriftian fociety defaced and decayed? That communion which was wont to be pithy, fubftantial, fpiritual, and edifying, become either frothy or contentious, fo that thy foul has no pleasure in it; this also is a

weaning providence to our fouls; Strigelius defired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus theologorum odiis, from the wranglings and contentions that were in his time. Our fond affection to the body requires all this, and much more, to wean and mortify them.

Infer. 4. How comfortable is the doctrine of the refurrection to believers, which affures them of receiving their bodies again, though they part with them for a time!

Believers mult die as well as others; their union with Christ privileges them not from a feparation from their bodies, Rom. viii. 10. Heb. ix. 27. But yet they have special grounds of confolation against this doleful feparation above all others. For,

1. Though they part with them, yet they part in hopes of receiving them again, 1 Theff. iv. 13, 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die. Hufbandmen caft their feed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly, because they part with it in hope; fo fhould we when we commit our bodies to the earth at death.

2. Though death feparates thefe dear friends from each other, yet it cannot feparate either the one or other from Chrift, Luke xx. 37, 38. "I am the God of Abraham," &c. Your very duft is the Lord's, and the grave rots not the bond of the covenant.

3. The very fame body we lay down at death, we shall affume again at the refurrection; not only the fame fpecifical, but the fame numerical body; Job xix. 25, 26." With thefe eyes fhall "I fee God."

4. The unbodied foul shall not find the want of its body, fo as to afflict or difquiet it; nor the body the want of its foul; but the one shall be at reft in heaven, and the other fweet afleep in the grave; and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting fenfe of each others abfence. The time will be long, Job. xiv. 12. but if it were longer, it cannot be afflicting, confidering, how the foul is cloathed immediately, 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. and how the body fleeps fweetly in Jefus, 1 Theff. iv. 14.

5. When the day of their re-efpoufals is come, the foul will find the body fo transformed and improved, that it fhall never receive prejudice from it any more, but a fingular addition to its happiness and glory. Now it clogs us: Mat. xxvi. 41. "The fpirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." It en cumbers us with cares to provide for it, and eats up time and thoughts; but then it will be a fpiritual body, 1 Cor. xv. 43. like to the angels for manner of fubfiftence, Luke xx. 35, 36. Cor. vi. 13. and, which is the highest step of glory, like unto Christ's glorious body, Phil. iii. 21. Well therefore might the

Father fay, Refurrectio mortuorum eft confolatio Chriftianorum the refurrection of the dead is the confolation of Chriftians. Ufe fecond, of reproof.

In the next place, let me prefs you to regulate your love to your bodies, by the rules of religion and right reafon: I must prefs you to love them, though nature itself teacheth you so to do; but I prefs you to love them as Chriftians, as men that understand the right use and improvement of their bodies. There are two forts of errors in our love to the body, one in defect, the other in excefs; both come fitly here to be cenfured and healed.

Firft, Some offend in the defect of love to their own bodies, who use them as if they had no love for them, whofe fouls act as if they were enemies to their own bodies: they do not for mally and directly hate them, but confequentially and eventu ally they may be faid to hate them, and that,

(1.) By defiling them with filthy luits; fo the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. vi. 18. "Every fin that a man doth, is without the bo"dy, but he that committeth adultery finneth against his own "body" In other fins it is the inftrument, but here it is both inftrument and object; not only God, but your own bodies are abufed, and wronged by it. The body may be considered two ways, Either,

1. As our veffel; or

2. As the Spirit's temple.

1. As our veffel or inftrument for natural and fpiritual ufes and services and on that account we should not injure or defile it, i Theff. iv. 4, 5. but poffefs it in fanctification and honour. The lufts of uncleannefs, gluttony, and drunkenness, quench the vigour, bläft the beauty, and deftroy the health and honour of the body; and fo render it both naturally and morally unfit for the fervice and use of the foul.

2. And the injury is yet greater, if we confider it as the Spirit's temple. On this ground the apoftle strongly convinceth, and diffuadeth Chriftians from thefe abuses of the body, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16. He argues from the dignity God will put upon our bodies by the refurrection, ver. 13, 14. They are to be tranfformed, and made like unto Chrift's glorious body; and from the honour he has already put upon the bodies of the faints in their union with Chrift, ver. 15, 16. They, as well as the foul, are ingrafted into him, and joined with him; they are his temples, to be dedicated, hallowed, and confecrated to his fervice. O let them not be made a fink for lufts, or mere ftrainers for meat and drink.

(2.) By macerating them with covetous lufts, denying them their due comforts and refreshments, and unmercifully burdening them with labours and forrows about things that perish. (1.) Some deny their bodies due comforts and refreshments, which the natural and pofitive laws of God both allow and command. Their fouls are cruel step-mothers to their bodies, and keep them too short; not out of a prudent and Christian defign to ftarve their lufts, but to advance their eftates. Of this Solomon speaks, Eccl. vi. 22. “There is an evil which I have seen "under the fun, and it is common among men; A man to whom "God hath given riches, wealth and honour, fo that he want"eth nothing for his foul of all that he defireth; yet God giv "eth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. "This is vanity, and it is an evil difeafe." Tenacity is a difeafe of the foul, like that of a dyfcrafy in the ftomach, which fo indifpofeth it that it cannot receive with any appetite or delight the best refreshments at a plentiful table. (2.) And others there are that wrong and abuse their own bodies, by laying unreafonable and unmerciful loads upon them, efpecially loads of grief and forrow, wafting and weakening them beyond all rules of reafon or religion. If a friend or relation die, they have lefs mercy on their own bodies than a confcientious man hath on the horfe he rides. Cares and forrows are as deadly to the body as a fword, 1 Tim. vi. 10. Intenfe and immoderate griefs about worldly loffes and croffes have flain their ten thousands; and, which is ftrange, the foul feems to take a certain kind of pleafure in loading and tormenting the body. There is a real truth in that ftrange expreffion of * Seneca, "Sorrow itself hath a "certain kind of pleasure attending it."

The fouls of fome mourners do willingly excite and provoke their own grief, when they begin to abate, which is like the whetting of the knife that grows dull, to make it cut the deeper into the body. Thus, as + Seneca obferves, " fome parents that have loft their beloved children, willingly call to "mind their pleafant fayings, and pretty actions to find a kind "of pleasure in a fresh shower of tears for them;" when, poor hearts! Sorrow hath so broken them already, that they need confolations under their prefent forrows, rather than irritations. of new ones. And the foul's unmercifulness to the body, is in such causes farther difcovered by its obftinate refufal of all that

Ineft quiddam dulce triftitia. Ep. 806.

Cum occurrant fermones eorum jucundi, converfatio bliaris, officiofa pietas: tunc oculi velut in gaudia relaxantur. Id. ib.