Heavenly your bodies in due time shall be rendred Spiritual and Heavenly also 2. If your Bodies be an Earthly house a Frail and Temporary Tabernacle then do not put your happiness on the Tabernacle state of the body Will you confine your Comforts to Minutes and Moments and not extend your hopes to Eternity Take heed that you live not by sense walk not after your Eyes indulge not your Flesh give not the Reins to Corrupt Affections You have Members on Earth Col. 3.5 and these are to be mortified and not gratified Oh do not as Esau Heb. 12.16 for one morsel of Meat sell your Birth-right do not for short and momentary Pleasures betray your Souls to Eternal Torments and Misery Forbear to give satisfaction to sensual desires put restraints on your Lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 Gen. 3.23 24. curb your Appetites and Carnal Inclinations abstain from fleshly Affections that war against your Souls God banished our first Parents out of Paradise into the Earth and World at large and shall we choose our Heaven and seek our Happiness in the place of our Exile and Confinement should we not seek after a higher state and better place for the body than this earth God hath made our dayes here as an hands breadth would not that man be counted to have a dim sight that could see no further than a hands-breadth and shall we look no further Shall all our Thoughts and Desires be confined to and all our endeavours be imployed about a life of a Hands-breadth Will you not look out of a vile Tabernacle into a World of Glory and be raised above a momentary to an Everlasting Life But I shall not stay on this but pass on to the second Doctrine Doctrine 2. That the Earthly house of this Tabernacle must be dissolved The whole Fabrick of man must be taken to pieces the Soul must part with its dear and intimate friend the Body and put off that garment of Flesh that cleaves so close unto it Thou changest his Countenance saith Job and sendest him away Job 14.20 As in the fourth of Numbers we read of the taking down of the Tabernacle after it had been set up in the Wilderness so this Earthly Tabernacle must be taken down And Ainsworth makes a Parallel between the taking down of the Mosaical Tabernacle and the dissolving of this Earthly Tabernacle In the pulling down of the Tabernacle first the Holy things were removed Numb 4.5 6 7 8 9 10. and then the Curtains Numb 4.25 and then the Boards were loosed and unpinned Numb 4.31 So in the dissolving of this Earthly Tabernacle first the Soul that is the most Holy thing dislodges and removes and then the Curtains of our Skin and Flesh are eaten and consumed by Worms and then the bones that are as the Boards and Timber-work of our Earthly house and Tabernacle are separated from each other This Tabernacle must be dissolved Death will soon Plant its batteries against this weak house the King of Terrors will storm it with Troops of Pains and Diseases and entring as a Conquerour will dispossess and eject the Soul from its house This is not a by-law that binds some few but an Universal Royal Statute that stands in forde against the whole World It is appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 This Road to the grave is called the way of all the Earth 1 Kings 2.2 And the grave itself is styled The house appointed for all living Job 30.23 Here the Travellers must lodge yea here the Pilgrims must for a great while dwell and therefore it is called their long home Eccl. 12.5 The dissolution of this Tabernacle especially in the People of God is very remarkable if we consider these three things following 1. That though their bodies are such a curious Piece of Divine Needle-work and Architecture Psal 139.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acupictus artificiosè confectus so embellished with Veins Sinews and Arteries so drawn out into beautiful Limbs so adorned with excellent Features and Comeliness yet he that hath Raised this excellent structure will Raze it he that hath Cast and Fashioned this Beautiful Vessel will dash it to pieces he that hath laid out so much Art and Skill on this Choice Piece will unravel and undo yea spoil and mar his own Workmanship We may say as Job Chap. 10.8 Gods hands have made and fashioned us round about It is an allusion to an excellent piece of work that the hand of the Artist hath often gone round polishing and perfecting of it to the highest degree yet saith he thou dost destroy me Oh how wonderful is this that God should be so displeased with and severely turn against his own work 2. The bodies of the Saints have been the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Yet though they have entertained and harboured so glorious a Guest though the Divine Majesty hath resided and dwelt in them by a special Presence yet this will not ward off the blow or guard them from the fatal stroke of Death God dwells Christ lives in this Tabernacle by his Spirit yet it must be dissolved 3. Though the Members and Bodies of Saints have been put to a Holy Use and have been imployed as Vessels of the Sanctuary yet this will not secure them from death Though their Life hath been spent in service though their Bodies have been worn out in Labour and wasted in sufferings for God yet they must be dissolved That Tongue must be struck dumb that hath praised God those Eyes must be closed that have been spectators of the glory of God in the Frame of Heaven and Earth and have read the wisdom power and goodness of God in the Pages of this great Book Those Members that have served God and ministred to his Saints must yet be bound with the fatal bonds of Death and be given up to rot and putrify in the dust this seems hard and harsh in the eye of Sence and Carnal Reason that the Sacred Lamps of the Sanctuary should be put out and those that have been most devoted to God should be delivered over to Worms and Corruption and the sheep of Christ be pen'd in Deaths Fold Quest But what is the Cause of this Severity why is the Creator so displeased with his Creatures why doth his Anger smoak against the very sheep of his Pasture Answer I Answer All Men have sinned in Adam and therefore die in him Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.22 in him we contracted guilt in him we became liable to Penalties and Punishment We descend from a Traytor and Rebel against God and have derived from him a Corrupt and Rebellious Nature It is but Righteous that they should be broken to pieces that broke off themselves from God Mans Soul by its Fall was divided from God its Life and thereby deserved to be turned out of the Body as its Habitation Sin is the Worm
might have adjudged and sent us to hell as our own place We are at best but as VVorms and Grass-hoppers Job 25. last Isa 40.20 compared with God and did a King ever build a Palace to entertain Worms and Grass-hoppers in By sin we were become as Rebels and Traytors and do Emperors use to build Royal Houses to Treat and Entertain those that have struck off their Authority and sought their lives O wonderful Mercy that God should build and furnish a Palace for us that might have been shut up in the eternal Prison and Dungeon Vse 2. Exhortation From this Truth I would draw several Exhortations 1. Hath God prepared such a house Oh labour and strive to be prepared for it Col. 1.12 seek to the Father to make you meet to partake of this inheritance Hath God built such a glorious house and will he take Swine and Lepers into it hath he laid out such curious workmanship on the Place and must not the Persons be Refined Perfumed Beautified and Adorned that shall inhabit it As the Place is the work of God so must not those that shall enjoy it be in a peculiar manner his Workmanship Eph. 2.10 Rev. 19.7 8. The Spouse of Christ is said to have made her self Ready and to come to the King in Raiment of Needle-work Psal 5.14 15. That Israel that is Gods glory Isa 46. last shall only enter into this house that is the habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory Isa 63.15 2. This should make the People of God willing to die and long to remove from hence Do we profess that so many years we have been seeking a City and Country Above and shall we be unwilling to find and enjoy what we have been so long seeking Shall we not long to possess the inheritance that is reserved for us should our Mansions above still stand empty should that house God hath built remain Un-Tenanted Why like worms are we so in love with our holes why do we go to the Threshold and door of our Fathers house with Sorrow and Tears with Moans and Complaints as if we were rather entring into the Prison than stepping into the Palace of God Oh! why do we dote so on an Earthly house why are we so Fond of a Frail Tabernacle why is our love so inordinate to a vile Cottage and our desires so weak and languishing after our Fathers house is the Footstool better than the Throne are our Hutts and Sheds to be preferred before the Mansion House of the Lord of Heaven and Earth 3. Moderate your sorrow for the death of godly Friends and Relations Our loss is their gain Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain they gain a better House better Company a better Country as they were Heirs in Reversion by the death of Christ so they are Heirs in Possession by their own death 2 Sam. 10.37 As Barzillai willingly parted with Chimham his Son sending him to live with King David in his Royal City and Palace at Jerusalem so we should freely dismiss our Christian Friends when they are to cross the Jordan of death enter into the True Canaan and live with the King of glory in heavenly Jerusalem If a man should strip our Children or Friends of Rags and cloth them with Royal Robes pull down their Cottages and give them strong and stately Houses in the place of them would we complain Our godly Friends do make a better Exchange may not we then command our Souls to return to their Rest because the Lord hath dealt so bountifully with our Friends which he hath taken to himself Their Souls enjoy a present Harvest though it be yet but seed-time with their Bodies and these very Bodies that now are sowed in the dust shall spring up again to life and immortality As the Tabernacle was taken down in the Wilderness but set up again in Canaan so this Tabernacle of our Bodies that is taken down by death shall be set up again and being turned into a strong house shall stand for ever in the heavenly Canaan God favours the dust of his spiritual Temples and will build them out of their Ruins that his Spirit as well as our Souls may inhabit them for ever Doctrine 4. Saints do or may know that when their earthly House and Tabernacle is dissolved they have a building of God an Eternal House in the Heavens But how can they know this have they a door opened to them into Heaven can they see their Names written over the Mansions taken up for them have they a window into the Breast of God can they read the book of Life search and peruse the Mysterious Rolls of Eternity Is not this a vain Boasting or foolish Bragging of things that cannot be understood or known I Answer True Christians are not mistaken or deluded they have ground for what they assert and they may come to know this 1. By Believing Faith is one kind of knowledge It is the knowing of things by the Testimony and Record of God and his Word is a sure Foundation to build Faith on God hath left us a Promise of the Everlasting Rest Heb. 4.1 he hath set matter of Hope before us in his Testimony and Oath Heb. 6.17 18. he that believes takes God at his Word he that comes in with his Eccho and Amen of Faith to the offers of God sets to his Seal that God is true John 3.33 Joshua and Caleb believed Gods Promise that he would give them the Earthly Canaan and it befell them according to their Faith Other Israelites distrusted Gods Power and rejected his Promise and it happened to them according to their Unbelief they were shut out of the Earthly Canaan Numb 14.8 9 28 29 30. So those that by the mouth of Faith do kiss the mouth of God speaking in the Promise Heb. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greâ—k word signifies to salute and that by Kissing the Patriarks thus saluted the Promises by the mouth of Faith shall not be disappointed according to their Faith it shall be to them As in the division of the World of old he that as the first occupant did set his foot on a Country did thereby get a Right to it even by his taking Possession of it therefore Land was passed from one to another among the Hebrews by taking off the shoe thereby as it were disclaiming and renouncing the right that he had gotten by setting his Foot first on the Land Ruth 4.3 7. So truly whatever we can set the foot and lay the hand of Faith on we make to be our own we Claim Challenge and et a Right in the Promise by believing This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.11 12. Receiving Christ the greatest gift of God we become intituled to all the other gifts and Promises of God that in him are
that kills the gourd of this Natural Life Rom. 8.10 The body is dead by reason of sin the Plague of Spiritual Leprofie infects this house and provokes God to pull it down The heavenly Husbandman is displeased with that Soil that will still nourish and feed Satans Tares The Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is resolved and bent against the old Frame of Nature he will pull it down and destroy it and that in his own and best People God hath ingaged in and is pursuing of a most gracious and excellent design and hath drawn an exact draught and idea of the New Creation viz. Rev. 3.14 Jesus Christ to which all the Saints must be conformed This Natural Frame was destroyed and utterly abolished in his own Son by Death and God will not uphold that in the Members which he hath taken down and abolished in the Head The Spiritual and Glorious Body of Christ is the great Pattern and Example according to which all the Bodies of the Saints must be Framed and Fashioned Vse 1. Information From hence we may learn Gods Hatred of and Severity against Sin God threatned the first Adam that if he did offend and transgress he should surely die and he will not repeal his Sentence or reverse his Decree The Righteous Judge is fixed in his determinations and inexorable as to the Doom he hath passed on the Natural bodies of sinners As Numb 14.29 30 31. God sware against the old Men that came out of Egypt that they should die in the Wilderness but the New and Young generation they should enter into and possess Canaan So God hath resolved that the Old Man shall Perish 1 Cor. 15.50 that Flesh and Blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God it is the New Man that shall enter into the heavenly Canaan and be heir of the Eternal inheritance Vse 2. If this House and Tabernacle must be dissolved reckon upon it and expect it The Master will shortly take away your Stewardship your great Landlord will warn you out of this Earthly house The Lord of Hosts will call you to March out of this into another World live in expectation of that fatal word Return you sons of Men to your earth and dust Ps 90.3 Isa 38.12 13. Hezekiah says that he had as a weaver cut off his Life and that he reckoned that God would shortly make an end of him Consider you are upon the brink of the Pit and on the borders of Eternity Is it not past high-water with some of you doth not your strength and vigour Ebb do not your Lamps burn dim doth not Death make its near Approaches to you and begin to seize on the Posts and Out-works of your Senses is it not entred already at your Eyes and Ears as Posts did run to tell the King of Babylon that his City was taken at one end so Jer. 51.31 may I not say that this City of the Body is already taken at one End hath not Death already invaded and possessed the Cinque Ports of your Senses and shall your thoughts settle and your affections Centre on that place from whence you are removing will you not provide a better habitation being warned out of this house of Clay will you not seek out a New World to plant and settle in are there not numerous Colonies of healed and sanctified Souls already seated in it and will you not desire a Lot and Place among them you have no abiding City here and will you be wholly destitute by neglecting to seek one to come are you setting in the Horizon of Time and will you not make sure that you shall Rise and Shine for ever in the Horizon of Eternity Send out Faith as a Spy into the Heavenly Canaan Labour to enter into Rest Lay hold of the Hope set before you Improve Time before the spiritual Market is done before the Ladder that joins Earth and Heaven be drawn up and the door of the Bride-Chamber be shut for Ever Doctrine 3. When Saints depart out of their Earthly House they have a Building of God a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Two things I shall here insist upon First What this house is Secondly What grounds there are to conclude that departing Saints have and shall enjoy this House First Quest What is to be understood by this house I Answer these two things I. The glorious Place * Of this place I did speak before but I shall now speak something of the state as it is comprehended in the word House and blessed State of the Souls of Saints separated from their Bodies II. This house comprehends the Recovery and Happiness of their Bodies 1. By this house we are to understand the glorious Place and State of the Soul it shall mount up to the highest Heavens and dwell there with God and Christ 1 Thes 4.17 We shall be for ever with the Lord. The glory of God is as a Covert and House over the Spirits of Just men Rev. 22.3 it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall dwell with them but Rev. 7.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall dwell or tabernacle over them Oh what a happy change is this to go out of a vile Tabernacle of flesh into a Place where the excellent glory of an infinite Majesty will be as a Tabernacle or Tent over us The immediate Presence of God will be as a Tent and House to guard us and keep off all Evils and as a living Fountain to derive all good to us Rev. 7.15 17. 2. This house takes in the Body and its happy State Saints do groan earnestly and desire to be clothed upon with their house from heaven and by a house from heaven the Apostle means the Recovery and Resurrection of the Body when the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 shall beget it from the dead When by the arm of the second Adam stretched out from heaven it shall be plucked out of the Jaws of Death The Soul shall not live still as a naked ejected Spirit as dis-seized of its habitation but it shall be housed in the body and seated in its former and ancient dwelling Though Soul and Body be divorced yet they shall be joined together again these two Friends though long parted shall have a joyful meeting The grave is a Womb that must Travail and bring forth the bodies of the Saints their seed-time shall be followed with a harvest Death shall vomit up its Morsels this Whale shall spue out God's Jonah's and then it shall itself be swallowed up for ever The body that lies in the lowest grave shall sit in the highest heavens that which dwells for a time in darkness shall dwell in glorious Light for Eternity that which fed Worms shall feast with Angels on the delicious Fruits of the heavenly Paradise and though this was to be accomplished at the distance of some hundreds if not thousands of Years yet the Eagle-Eye of Faith seeth it as