of God That ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him which is your reasonable Service Seeing That all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of GOD wherein the Heavens being on Fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with servant heat Nevertheless we according to his Promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Wherefore Seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless As sure as Christ is risen these dry Bones shall live as well as those did which the Prophet spake of in a Political Sense meaning by them the House of Israel which God promised to Restore It should therefore be our Care not to put this vile Body into far worse Condition but to consult the good of it seeing the more Heavenly its Frame be made the Felicity of the Soul in it will be the greater Men of light and desultory Humours affect Alterations without considering the Events of them Wise Men chuse them also when they foresee plainly they will turn to their exceeding Benefit And here they have a plain prospect of a most considerable advantage of changing Corruption for Incorruption and Mortality for Immortality If any are extreamly concern'd at Deformities of the Body as so many marks of Shame tho' nothing which is not of our own doing can be a just reproach to us why have they not the innocent Ambition of desiring a Celestial Body which will be without wrinckle or blemish And the way to procure so decent a a Body is to rectifie the distractions of our Reason and the monstrous choice of our ungovern'd Wills and to subdue all dishonourable Passions and Vices and to keep our selves unspotted from the World If divers are very Covetous of Life in this Body as burthensome as it is and wish their Years were not so many as they are and that they would still be many more even then when the Wheel is almost broken at the Cistern and the Blood can scarce creep on in its Circle why are they averse to Christian Piety which will provide for them an Immortal Body You will permit me to use the Exhortation of the great Apostle Awake thou that Sleepest and rise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Life Say not as the Epicures mentioned in this Chapter Let us Eat and Drink for to morrow we die But rather let us be Sober and Vigilant that when ever we die the first Death we may overcome the Second Seeing Christ is risen and we shall rise and be changed by his Power say not upon any difficulties about Christian Religion Why stand we in Ieopardy every hour Why do we die daily Why do we Fight with Beasts or Men as Savage as they Why do we not rather consult the ease of Flesh and Blood but rather as St. Paul in the Conclusion of this Discourse Let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for asmuch as we know that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Finally Let us glorifie him with our Bodies and with our Souls that he may glorifie both Then may we upon good and comfortable grounds joyn with the same Apostle in these words of Spiritual Triumph O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen FINIS 1 S. Iohn 5. 29. Acts 24. 15. 51 52. 53. M. Fel p. 10. putes co jam revixisse †v. Gennad Massil de Eccl. dogmat c. 6. p. 5. c. 7. p. 6. Psal 13â— 1â— S. Mat. 13. 43. St. Luke 20. 35 36. 2 Cor. 5. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 44. 49. S. Mat. 17. S. Mark 9. 2 3. S. Luk. 9. 29. Artic. 4 Heb. 4. 14. Philip. 3. 21. 1 Cor. 15. 50. 1 Cor. 15. 40. v. 41. v. 42. v. 43. v. 44. Wisd. 9. 15. Corpus hoc Animi pondus ac poenaest quod equidem non aliter adspicio quam vinculum libertaâ—i meae circumdatum Hebr. 1. 10 11 12. 2. Pet. 3. 3 7 12 13 6. Vers. 12 13 14. Wisd. 9. 15. Wisd. 1. 4. Psal. 77. v. 7. v. 8. v. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess. 4. 16 17. Hosea 13. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 54. Isai. 25. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 2 3 4. Ver. 10. Wisd. 1. 15 Ch. 6. 18 19. 2 Cor. 5. 15. Gal. 6. 8. â— Cor. 5. â—0 Rom. 12. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12 13. Ezek. 37. 3 11 14. Eph. 5. 14. Ver. 32. Ver. 30 31 32. Ver. 58. Ver. 55 56 57.
which God will raise out of the Ruins of this It is a World expected as a wonderful Blessing from the Promise of God Now in this World the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things and it is from the grossness of the Organs of it that we think so little and discern so little of the Beauty of Nature and Providence And the more the Eye is help'd by Art the more it raiseth Admiration in him who considers the Works of God It letteth in a New World of Creatures and an infinite agreeable Variety of Motions Figures and Contextures which we discern nothing of by our naked Sight And in such Contemplation there is more true and useful Pleasure than in all the Brutalities in which Sensual Men consume their Time Substance and Health and waste their Conscience too Now it will be necessary for the Body to be Coelestial that it may be capable of considering those extraordinary Stamps and Characters of the Divine Power and Wisdom which will be found upon a Coelestial and Incorruptible World the observing of which will I believe be one of those Exercises in which the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect shall be most happily employ'd For if these Heavens declare the Glory and Handy-work of God those will much more do so and a Saint cannot be such if he delights not in that Manifestation 3 dly Another Privilege arising from our Deliverance from the grossness of this Body is the removal of a great hindrance of Piety and Devotion It cannot but be an extreme Mortification to those who would lift up their Hearts to God and have their Conversation in Heaven to feel such a pressure and dulness upon their Spirits as damps and deadens them in their Holy Admirations Praises and Prayers This especially will be an extraordinary Grief to them when they set themselves with all their Heart and Soul and Might to answer with the Degrees of their Devotion the most solemn Occasions of Publick Worship such as those of this Day on which all that is within us should bless the Name of God who hath begotten us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Iesus from the Dead But when the Body is not Restive and the Spirits move as Handmaids to the Soul then even here on Earth it is ravish'd with Religious Joy The second Advantage which Christians obtain by changing an Earthly for an Heavenly Body is Deliverance from the disorderly Motions to which this Body is liable as it is a Corruptible Body whether the Spring of them be within or from without and upon which account it may be called as it is in the Book of Wisdom a Body that is subject unto Sin Here frequently Sickness and violent Torture render Life not worthy the Name of Life and provoke the Patients to think sometimes that Death moves very slowly towards them Here it many times happens that one corrupt Member must be cut off for the Preservation of the rest though with certain Pain and uncertain Hope In this Body the Warmth which is subservient to Wit and Elocution carries frequently with it a mixture of Extravagance and Indiscretion How often does this Corruptible Frame bring such Decays upon the Memory that all things are almost forgotten even Injuries themselves tho of this sort of Oblivion we have no reason to complain What is more common to Man than the raging and swelling of unruly Passions and Affections which are troublesom both to the Person so highly moved and to the World to which he gives Disturbance How often do unreasonable Appetites and Inclinations become so impetuous and war with such force against the Soul in Men who are not yet grown up into strong Habits of Grace that the Good which they would do that they do not and the Evil which they would not do that they do How often do Flesh and Blood prejudice the Understanding by Enthusiastick Heat which represents to it Dreams and strong Delusions and flashes of Madness in the Fancy as immediate Illuminations from God How frequently does it form a dark Cloud of Melancholy in the Imagination and fashion that Cloud into all the Shapes of Terror and Affrightment in good though scrupulous Men Upon this account they cry out in their haste and in the anguish of their Souls Will the Lord cast off for ever and will He be favourable no more Is his Mercy clean gone for ever Doth his Promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in Anger shut up his tender Mercies These through the fumes of the Blood rather than the guilt of the Conscience are for a season in this Life of all others the most miserable for such a troubled Spirit who can bear Nevertheless upon the whole their Condition is much safer and better than theirs who sport with their Misfortunes and mock at their Griefs and at the same time wallow in Sin without any Reflexion upon either the Criminalness or the Peril of their own Sensuality For these latter at the dreadful Day shall have their Bodies made the most Dishonourable and Unprofitable of all Vessels whilst those of the former shall be chang'd into Vessels of the highest Honour and the greatest Use that Humâ—ne Nature is capable of and such they shall remain for ever And that is The third sort of Advantage which those who are Christ's will be happy in that is to say a freedom from the perishing nature decay and fall of this Body as a corruptible mortal Body for this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality There are two things which all Men naturally desire to know an end of their Sufferings and to have no end of their Happiness The way to the Accomplishment of these Desires is not shewn in the Schools of Zeno or Plato It is confess'd there was taught by them a celebrated but false Doctrine of Restitution of the World This they would have to be brought to pass in the Revolution of a certain Period of Time in such sort that all things should come about again and be as they had been before for a like quantity of Duration and so in Vicissitudes for ever From whence it would follow that this Corruptible Body after it had put on Incorruption for a season should become corruptible again and mortal again But in the School of Christ we learn a Proposition which is most Confortable as well as most True to wit that after the Resurrection Ascension and glorious Change of this Body all Grossness all disorderly Motion all Pain and Trouble shall cease but of the Felicity of the Christian Man's Soul dwelling in it there shall be no End The Apostle assures us That Death their last Enemy shall it self be then destroy'd For the Lord Jesus shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ
shall rise first then those which are alive and remain shall be caught up in the Clouds together with those that have been raised to meet the same Lord in the Air and so shall they be ever with the Lord. The Sting of Misery is the Continuance of it and Hell is the more Hell for that Continuance also is the Heaven of Joy It is made Perfect by our possessing it without any Shadow of Suspicion of being ever bereaved of it And thus it will be after the Resurrection of the Just. Then shall be entirely fulfilled the Words of the Prophet Hosea He will ransom thee from the Power of the Grave He will redeem thee from Death O Death he will be thy Plague O Grave he will be thy Destruction Then shall be made good those Words of St. Paul Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Or as he expresseth it in the Words after the Text When this Corruptible shall have put on Incorruption and this Mortal shall have put on Immortality Then shall be brought to pass the Saying that is written written of old by the Prophet Isaiah Death is swallowed up in Victory These which I have recounted are you will say very great Advantages which a Christian shall gain by changing this Earthly for a Heavenly Body But it may be you will add Why cannot the Soul be fully happy in it self without any Body at all and happier than in a Body though Incorruptible and Immortal To this I think it is proper to answer no more than thus much in this short Discourse which is design'd not for nice Dispute but solid Edification That is to say That God who framed his Creatures in divers Orders made Man a Creature consisting of Soul and Body and that it belongs to his Rank in the Creation to have them at last united again Also that by the perfectest Union of them a Creature of that Order is as such compleated both in his proper Being and in the happiness of it To this purpose are as I conceive the words of St. Paul In this Tabernacle we grow earnestly desiring to be Clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so be that being Clothed we shall not be found Naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do Groan being burthened Not that we would be Uncloathed but Cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life He would not be without a Body at That day for of that time he speaks but he is desirous that a Celestial Form should be put upon Terrestrial Matter These is a Question less curious than that which has been put but exceedingly more useful and it is this What shall we do that we may come at these several great Advantages of living at last in an Heavenly body And this is the Third Consideration and very fit for the Exercise of our Thoughts For in vain do we Philosophize about a Celestial Paradise and a Spiritual Body and an Heavenly Word without knowing and using the means of being happy in them all Those means are the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace to which Christians on their Parts have solemnly consented and which by the assistance of God's Grace they may and must perform by their sincere Obedience to Him The way to have better Bodies is to have more Virtuous Souls God hath put us into this Body as into the Habit of a Pilgrim on Earth as Probationers for a more excellent Cloathing And according to our Patience our Self-denial our keeping the Body in Subjection to the Mind our governing the Appetites and Passions of it so shall the Resurrection and Ascension of it be Righteousness saith the Book of Wisdom is Immortal and the giving heed to her Laws is the assurance of Incorruption and Incorruption maketh us near unto God And he that will not awake to Righteousness shall not ascend to a state of Incorruption God will not receive such a Violater of his Laws into his especial Presence He will not admit so brutal a Creature into his Kingdom where there is nothing to gratifie the Inclinations of Flesh and Blood Such a Creature would still be desirous to Eat and Drink and to enjoy the Pleasures of a corruptible Body We rise to Glory as Members of Christ who saith the Apostle died for all that they which live should not live to themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again His true Members we cannot call our selves with any Propriety if we fulfil not the holy Vow we made to him when we were initiated into his Church by renouncing and forsaking all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh. St. Paul hath told the World in express Terms That he who Soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh Reap Corruption He shall die after all the pampering of the Body with Epicurean Art and for that it may be much the sooner He shall fat himself for Slaughter but He who Soweth to the Spirit who Feeds and Cultivates the Soul with Wisdom and Holiness shall of the Spirit Reap Life everlasting the Life of an Immortal Soul in an Immortal Body Can it ever be imagined or if it be is it any other than mere imagination and a very false and gross one too that Christ shall raise the Temple of this Body to a Celestial House making that second Temple much more glorious than this first after it has been wilfully Desecrated by Man and put to the vilest uses of Insobriety and Lust. Such Sensualities render this Body more Earthly still and bury the Soul in it so far are they from promoting it to an Heavenly Estate The impenitent Sinner hopes against all grounds of hope if he has expectation of seeing God face to face with Eyes which have been full of Adnltery and of praising God in Heaven with a Tongue that has been set on Fire from Hell that has Insolently blasphem'd him on Earth and bitterly revil'd his Servants perhaps because they were his Servants or for reviling sake The like may be said of every Wickedness done by the Soul in this Earthly Tabernacle For we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ that every Man may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be Good or Evil. This is part of the Confession of our Faith which we have this day made in these words At Christ's coming all Men shall rise again with their Bodies and give account of their own Works and they that have done good shall go into Life everlasting and they that have done Evil into everlasting Fire Wherefore Fourthly Knowing the Terrors of the Lord which will seize upon the Ungodly and bring them to Destruction both of Body and Soul and the joyful Estate of a happy Soul in a Celestial Body which shall be the Portion of all those who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit We beseech you both by the Severities and Mercies