death of the corn in the earth, is not a total death, but only the corruption or alteration of it: for if once the feminal life and vertue of it were quite extinguished, it could never put forth blade or ear without a miracle. Yet, because that alteration is a kind of death, therefore Chrift here ‘ules it as a fit illuftration of the refurrection. And indeed there is nothing in nature more apt to illuftrate that great mystery. What a fragrant, green, and beautiful blade do we see fpring up from a corrupted feed? How black and mouldy is that! How beautiful and verdant is this?

E

APPLICATION.

VEN thus fhall the bodies of the faints arife in beauty and glory at the refurrection: "They are fown in difhonour they are raised in glory; they are fown natural bodies; they are raised spiritual bodies," 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. The husbandman knows, that though the feed rot in the earth, yet it will rife again. And the believer knows, "that though "after his fkin worms deftroy his body, yet in his flesh he "fhall fee God," Job xix, 25, &c. And the refemblance betwixt the feed fown, and fpringing up; and the bodies of the faints dying, and rifing again, lies in thefe following particulars.

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 Christ be in him, yet the body is dead; that is, fentenced to death, because of fin, Heb. ix. 27. "But it is appointed 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, I 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 Jefus died, and rofe again, even "fo alfo them which fleep in Jefus, fhall the Lord bring with "him.". This bleffed hope of a resurrection sweetens not only the troubles of life, but the pangs of death.

3. The feed is caft into the earth feasonably, in its proper feafon fo are the bodies of the faints, Job v. 26. " Thou fhalt come to thy grave in a full age, as a fhock of corn cometh in, in its feafon." They always die in the fittest time, though

fometimes they seem to die immaturely the time of their death. was from all eternity prefixed by God, beyond which they cannot go, and short of which they cannot come.

4. The feed lies many days and nights under the clods, before it rifes and appears 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 fhooting 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 shall come to its bone, and the grave (hall not be able to hold them a minute longer. Both sea 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 cloaths it with fuch beauty, that it is not like to what it was before. Thus rife the bodies of the faints, marvellously improved, beautified, and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments; in respect whereof they are called fpiritul bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 43. not properly, but analogically fpiritu al; for look, as fpirits fubfift without food, raiment, fleep, know no laffitude, wearinefs or pain; fo our bodies, after the refurrection, shall be above thefe neceffities and diflempers; for we shall 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 bestow a distinct 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 suits of flesh, richly laid and trimmed with glory. Thofe bodies, which in the grave were but duft and rottennefs, when it delivers them back again, fhall be fhining and excellent pieces, abfolutely and everlastingly freed, (1.) From all natural, infirmities and diftempers: Death is their good physician, which at once freed them of all diseases. 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 Spirit in deed is willing, but the flesh is weak. A crazy body retorts and fhoots back its diftempers upon the foul, with which it is fo

1

closely conjoined: But though now the foul (as Theophraftus fpeaks) pays a dear rent for the tabernacle in which it dwells; 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 beflow 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 foal 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 fhall it eat? And what fhall it drink? And wherewithal fhall it be cloathed?" But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; "God fhall destroy both it and them," I Cor. vi. 13. i, e. as to their present ufe and office; for as to its existence, so the belly shall not be destroyed. But even as the mafts, 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 adverfary of nature shall assault 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 angels, and are the children of God, being the "children of the refurrection," Luke xx. 35, 36. Mark it (equal to the angels) not that they shall be separate, and single 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 crea tures, feems in that text (by a fynecdoche of the part which is ordinarily in fcripture put for all creature-delights, dependen cies, and neceffities) to be excluded. Nothing but God fhall enamour and fill the foul; and the body fhall be perfectly fubdued to the fpirit. Lord, what haft thou prepared for them that love thee!

Η Αναγγελώς Βιολετα

REFLECTION S.

ful faint's reflection.

1. If I fhall receive my body again fo dignified The healthand 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 usefully 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 use it? Wherein is the mercy of having a body, if not in spending and wearing it out in the fervice of God? To have an active vigorous body, and not to employ and exercise it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one should give thee a handsome and fprightful horfe, upon condition thou shouldest 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 re

flection.

2. If my body fhall as furely rife again in glory, vigour, and excellent endowments, as the feed which I fow doth; why fhould 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 distempered body will not let me. However, it is reviving, to think, that though I am now forced to crawl like a worm, in the discharge of my duties, I shall shortly fly, like a feraphim, in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping foul; the time is at hand, when thou fhalt be made more willing than thou art, and thy flesh not fo weak as now it is.

3. And is it fo indeed? Then let the dying faint, like Jacob, rouze up himself upon his bed, and encourage himself against the fears of death by this refreshing confideration. Let him fay, with

The dying

faint's re

flection.

holy dying Mufculus, why trembleft thou, O my foul, to go forth of this tabernacle to the land of reft? Hath thy body been fuch a pleasant habitation to thee, that thou shouldft be fo loth to part with it, though but for a time, and with assurance 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 strict 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 ftands 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 parteft not with it upon fuch fad terms, as fhould deferve a tear, at parting. For mayeft thou not fay of this departure, as Paul at the departure of Onefimus? Philem. ver. 15. "It therefore departeth for a season, that thou mayest "receive it for ever." The day of re-efpoufals will quickly come; and in the mean time, as thy body fhall not be fenfible of the tedious length of interpofing time, fo neither shalt thou be follicitous 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 so 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 thyfelf about that; for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious fickness, 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 coelo. When thy foul shall 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 meet

The ungodly foul's reflec- ing again! how will this foul and body blush,

tion. yea, tremble, when they meet, who have been co-partners in fo much guilt? I damned my foul, to please my flesh, and now have ruined both thereby : Had I denied my fleth to ferve Chrift, worn out my body in the fervice of my foul, I had, thereby, happily provided for them both, but I began at the wrong end, and fo have ruined both eternally.