for a bird got out of the fuare or cage, to fly back again to its place of confinement and restraint. Yea, when we confider how loth fome holy fouls, when under the excruciating pains of fickness, and as yet in the fight of this alluring world, have been to hear of a return to it by the recovery of their health; we cannot think, but, being quite out of the fight of this, and in the fruition of the other world, the thoughts of the body muft needs be more lothfome to them than ever.

We read, that when a good man, in time of his sickness was told by his friends, that fome hopeful figns of his recovery began now to appear, he answered, And must I then return to this body? I was as a fheep driven out of the storm almost to the fold, and then driven back into the ftorm again : or as a weary traveller near his home, who must go back again to fetch fomething he had neglected: or as an apprentice, whose time was almost out, and then must begin a new term. Of fome others it hath been alfo noted, that the greatest infirmities they discovered upon their death-bed, have been their too paffionate defires to be diffolved, and their unfubmiffivenefs to God's will in their longer stay in the body. Now, the bodies of the faints being fo cheerfully forfaken, and that only upon a foretafte of heaven by faith; how can it be thought they should find any inclination to a re-union, when they are so abundantly fatisfied with the joys of his face in heaven? Certainly the body hath been no fuch pleasant habitation to the foul, that it should caft an eye or thought that way, when it is once delivered out of it: if it were burdenfome here, a thought of it would be lothfome there.

2. We have fhewed before, that the separate foul wants not the help of the body, but lives and acts at a more free and comfortable rate than ever before. It is true, it is not now delighted with meat and drink, with smells and founds, as it was wont to be; but then it must be confidered, that it is happiness and perfection not to need them. It is now become equal to the angels in the way and manner of its living; and what it enjoyed by the miniftry of the body, it eminently and more perfectly enjoys without it. What perfections can the foul receive from matter? What can a lump of flesh add to a spirit? And if it can add nothing to it, there is no reason why it fhould hanker after it, and incline to a re-union with it. It added nothing of

+ The rational foul receives no perfection from matter, which it could not receive without it; therefore, when it shall be separated from it, it is not faid to have a propenfity to it. Genimb

happiness to it, but much trouble, and therefore becomes justly undefireable to it.

3. The fuppofition of fuch a propenfion and inclination, feems no way to fuit with that state of perfect rest which the fouls of the just enjoy in heaven. The fcripture tells us, that at death they enter into reft, Ifa. lvii. 2. Heb. iv. 9. That they reft from their labours, Rev. xiv. 13. But that which inclines and defires (especially when the defired enjoyment, as in this cafe, is fufpended fo long) must be as far from reft, as it is from fatis faction in the enjoyment of the thing defired. We know what Solomon hath obferved of such a life, (and his observation is experimentally true), that "hope deferred makes the heart "fick," Prov. xiii. 12. Who finds not his own defires a very rack to him in such cases? If we be kept but a few days in earneft expectation, and defire of an absent friend, and he comes not, what an uneafy life do we life! But here we must suppose fome have fuch an unfatisfied life for hundreds, and others for thousands of years already; and how much longer they may remain so, who can tell? We use to say, Lovers hours are full of eternity. These reasons feem to carry it for the negative.

But if the matter be weighed once more, with the following reasons in the counterscale, and prejudice do not pull down the ballance; we shall find the contrary conclufion much more Strong and rational. For,

Arg. 1. The foul and body are the two conftitutive parts of man; either of these being wanting, the man is not complete and perfect. The good of the whole is the good of the parts themselves; and every thing hath a natural defire and appetite to its own good and perfection. It is confeffed, the foul, for as much as concerns itfelf fingly, is made perfect, and enjoys bleffedness in the abfence of the body; but this is only the perfection and bleffedness of one part of man; the other part viz. the body, lies in obfcurity and corruption: and till both be bleffed, and bleffed together, in a state of composition and re-union, the whole man is not made perfect. For this therefore the foul must wait.

* A separate foul has a propenfity to union with the body, for it defires the actual conftitution of the whole compound being, fecing it is for this, as its end, that it exifts, and is found within the com. pafs of real beings. And this is that perfection which the foul obtains by that propenfity: for the good of the whole compound being is the good of the parts themselves. It must therefore be affirmed, that the separate foul naturally defires the resurrection. Alfted. natar, theol, part 1. p. 214, 215.

Arg. 2. Though death hath diffolved the union, yet it hath not destroyed the relation betwixt the foul and the body; that duft is more to it than all the duft of the whole earth. Hence it is that the whole perfon of a believer is fometimes denomi nated from that part of him, namely, his body, which remains captivated by death in the grave. Hence, 2 Theff. iv. 15. dead believers are called thofe that fleep, which muft needs properly refpect the body, for the foul fleeps not, and fhews what a firm and dear relation ftill remains betwixt these abfent friends. Now we all know the mighty power of a relation, if it be at least among entities, yet furely it is one of the greatest things in the world in efficacy.

It is difficult to bear the abfence of our dear relatives, efpecially if we be in profperity, and they in adverfity: As the cafe here is betwixt the spirit in heaven, and its body in the grave; this affociated with angels, that prey'd upon by worms. Jofeph's cafe is the livelieft emblem that occurs to my present thoughts to illuftrate the point in hand. He was advanced to be lord over all Egypt, living in the greatest pomp and splen. dor there; but his father, and brethren, were, at the fame time, ready to perish, in the land of Canaan, Gen. xliii. 29, 30, 31. He had been many years feparated from them, but neither the length of time, nor honours of the court, could alienate his affections from them. O fee the mighty power of relation! no fooner doth he fee his brethren, and understand their cafe, and the pining condition of Jacob, his father, but his bowels yerned, and his compaffions rolled together for them; yea, he could not forbear, nor ftifle his own affections, though he knew how injurious his brethren had been to him, and betrayed him, as the body hath the foul: Yet notwithstanding all this, he breaks forth into tears, and outcries, over them, which made the house ring again with the news that Jofeph's brethren were come. Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour, and plenty, until he had got home his dear, and ancient relations to him. Thus ftands the cafe betwixt foul and body.

Arg. 3. The regret, reluctancy, and forrows expreffed by the foul at parting, do ftrongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it, when it is actually feparated from it: For why should we furmife, that the foul, which mourned, and groaned fo deeply at parting, which clasped, and embraced it fo dearly, and affectionately, which fought, ftruggled, and difputed the paffage with death, every foot, and inch of ground it got, and would not part with the body, till by plain force it was rent out of its arms; fhould not, when abfent, defire to fee, and

enjoy its old, and indeared friend again? Hath it lost its affection, though it continue its relation? That is very improbable: Or doth its advancement in heaven make it regardless of its body, which lies in contempt, and mifery? That is an effect which Christ's personal glory never produced in him towards us, nor a good man's preferment would produce in him to his poor and miferable friends in this world, as we fee in the cafe of Jofeph, just now instanced in. It is therefore harsh, and incongruous, to fuppofe the foul's love to the body was extinguished in the parting hour, and that now, out of fight, out of mind.

Object. But was it not urged before, in oppofition to this af fertion, that the fouls of the righteous looked upon their bodies as their prisons, and fighed for deliverance by death, and greatly rejoiced in the hope, and forefight of that liberty death would restore them to? How doth this confift with fuch reluctancies at parting, and inclinations to re-union?

Sol. The objection doth not fuppofe any man to be totally free from all reluctancies, and unwillingness to die; the holieft fouls that ever lived in bodies of flesh, will give an unwilling fhrug, when it comes to the parting point, 2 Cor. v. 2. but this their willingness to be gone, arifes from two other grounds, which make it confiftent enough with its reluctancies at parting, and inclination to a fecond meeting.

(1.) This willingness to die, doth not fuppofe the foul's love to the body to be utterly extinguished, but mastered, and overpowered by another, and ftronger love. There is in every Chriftian a double love, one natural to the body, and the things below, the other fupernatural, to Chrift, and the things above; the latter doth not extinguish, though it conquer, and fubdue the other. Love to the body pulls backward, love to Christ pushes forward, and finally prevails. This is fo confiftent with it, that it fuppofes natural reluctation, and unwillingness to part. (2.) The willingness of God's people to be diffolved, muft not be understood abfolutely, but comparatively; in that fenfe the apostle will be understood, 2 Cor. v. 8. " We are confident, "I fay, and willing rather to be abfent from the body, and prefent with the Lord," (i. e.) rather than to live always a life of fin, forrow, and absence from God; death is not defirable in, and for itself, but only as it is the foul's outlet from fin, and its inlet to God.

So that the very beft defire is but comparatively, and it is but few who find the love of this animal life fubacted, and overpowered by high-raised acts of faith, and love. The genera

lity, even of good fouls, feel strong renitencies, and fuffer fharp conflicts at their diffolution; all which discovers with what lothnefs, and unwillingness, the foul unclafps its arms, to let go its body. Now, as divines argue the frame of Chrift's heart in heaven, towards his people on earth, from all thofe endearing paffages, and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting; fo we here argue the continued love, and inclination of the foul to its body after it is in heaven, from the manifold demonftrations it gave of its affection to it in this world, especially in the parting hour. No confiderations, in all the world, lefs than the more full fruition of God, and freedom from fin, could pofGibly have prevailed with it to quit the body, though but for a time, and leave it in the duft. Which is our third argument.

Arg. 4. And as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it, fo doth the joy with which it receives it again, at the refurrection. If it part from it fo heavily, and meet it again with joy unfpeakable; fure, then, it still retaineth much love for it, and defires to be re-efpoused to it, in the interval. Now, that its meeting in the refurrection, is a day of joy, to the foul, is evident, because it is called the time of refreshment, Acts iii. 19. and they awake with finging, out of the duft, Ifa. xxvi. 19. If the direct and immediate fcope of the prophet points not (as fome think it doth) at the refurrection, yet it is allowed by all, to be a very lively allufion to it, which is fufficient for my purpose: And, indeed, none that understand, and believe the defign, and bufiness of that day, can poffibly doubt but there was reafon enough to call it a time of refreshment, a finging morning; for the fouls of the righteous come from heaven with Chrift, and the whole hoft of fhouting angels, not to be spectators only, but the fubjects of that days triumph: They come to re-affume, and be re-efpoufed to their own bodies, this being the ap pointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the grave, to endow them with fpiritual qualities, at the fecond marriage to their fouls, that in both parts they may be completely happy. O the joyful claspings, and dear embraces, betwixt them! who, but themselves, can understand! And, by the way, this removes the objection be fore-mentioned, of the miferies and prejudices the foul fuffered in this world, in, and from the body; for now it receives it a fpiritual body, (i. e.) fa fubdued to, and fitted for the ufe of the fpirit, as never to impede, clog, or obftruct its moti ons, and inclination any more, 1 Cor. xv. 44. In this hope it parted from it, and with this confolation it now receives it again.