splendour It is sown in dishonour but it is raised in glory 1 Cor. 15. 43. The body is not so miserable under the curse as it is blessed in the promise As in the state of corruption it is abased lower then all created bodies so in the state of glory it is exalted higher then all other bodies For the righteous shall shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdom of their Father Not that they shall not out-shine the Sunne but because there is no more shining body visible to us therefore are the bodies of the Saints in glory compared thereunto The glory of the body saith one will exceed all the beauty and splendour of Gems Pearls Heavens Sunne Moon and Starres yea even the Heaven of Heavens though all were put together This Text tells us that our vile bodies shall be made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} conformable to the glorious body of Christ This is abundantly sufficient to set out the glory of our body at that day for the body of Christ now in Heaven is unexpressibly glorious We have a specimen of this in the transfiguration Matth. 17. 2. Peter James and John were not able to bear the sight of the glory there manifested which yet was but a glimpse of that glory which he now hath in Heaven Some Divines are of opinion that the brightness which Paul saw when he was strook blinde and fell to the earth was the brightness of the body of Jesus Christ Sure I am that Christs body is the light of Heaven And if Stephens face in this life was seen as the face of an Angel if Moses his face did so shine in being fourty dayes with God that the people could not behold it how glorious shall our bodies be when we shall be for ever with the Lord and when our bodies of vileness shall be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ 4. The fourth endowment is beauty and comeliness The bodies of the Saints shall be perfectly compleat in all their parts if maimed and defective here it shall be suppâ—ied at that day which is a day of restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. And not only so but all crookedness lameness and ill-favouredness which are the fruits of sinne shall be removed Jacob shall halt no more nor Mephibosheth complain of lameness nor Isaac of dimness As the body of Adam in innocency was lovely and beautifull compleat in all its parts so shall ours be at the resurrection 5. The fift is majesty Great shall be the majesty of the body at the resurrection If a good man in this life hath such a majesty in his countenance as to cause men to fear to sinne in his company If Valens the Emperour said of Basil That he never looked upon him but his countenance strock an awe and terror into him oh what majesty will be in the faces and countenances of the Saints in that day 6. The sixth is spirituality It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body 1 Cot. 15. 44. Not spiritual for substance but for qualities For 1. It shall have no need of meat or sleep c. but shall be as the Angels of God Matth. 22. 30. Non quoad Angelicam essentiam sed Angelicas proprietates Tertullian saith That the Saints shall have corpora reformata Angelificata If Moses was fourty dayes upon the mount without meat and without sleep upheld by the power of God in the state of mortality much more shall we be upheld for ever in the state of immortality 2. It shall be a spiritual body because it shall be absolutely subject to the spirit In the state of glory the soul shall not depend upon the body but the body upon the soul In this life the soul is as it were carnall because so serviceable to the flesh but then the body shall be spiritual because so serviceable to the spirit 7. The seventh is Agility and nimbleness It shall be able to move upwards and downwards like a bird in the aire Luther saith That the body shall be able to move up and down like a thought Austin saith It shall move to any place it will as soon as it will The Scripture saith some such thing 1 Thes. 4. 17. We shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayre as so many AEgles flying up to their blessed Carcass Upon this account also it is said That we shall be as the Angels because we shall be able to move as they do If the Saints shall be like the Sunne in its brightness why not saith one in its motion also which the Learned allow to move a Million and one hundred sixty thousand miles in an hour If so swift may be the motion of natural how swift the motion of glorified bodies shall be we shall know when we come to make use of it The eighth endowment is Powerfulnes It is sown in weakness but it shall rise in power 1 Cor. 15. 43. The power that the body shall have will be wonderfull Luther saith That it shall have a power to be able to tess the greatest mountains in the world like a ball Anselme saith They shall be able to shake the whole earth at pleasure How true this is we shall know hereafter Sure I am for the present That the weakest in glory shall be stronger then Sampson in his greatest strength and that the bodies power shall be so great as to be able to be the souls instrument in the enjoyment of God in all the highest operations without intermission In this life when the soul is busied about high and sublime matters the body presently faints Dan. 8. 27. but then it shall attend without any faintness or weariness In this life the eye is dazeled at the brightness of the Sunne but then it shall be strengthened to behold glorious sights and not be dazeled at it the body shall be elevated and strengthened by God to bear that exceeding eternal weight of glory that shall be put upon it Unto all these glorious perfections and excellent indowments I might add An admission to behold with our bodily eyes the sight of Christ as man That we shall see Christ as man with these eyes Job manifestly testifieth Job 19. 25 26 27. And that this sight will add much to our happiness is easily evinced For the sight of Christ as man is the next object unto the beatificall vision it self For the fullness of the Godhead dwels in him bodily and this doth as it were radiate through his body hence there must needs arise as one saith great joy unto the beholder both from the eminency of and our interest in this object Christ in glory and Christ in glory ours As much of the Creator as is possibly visible in the nature of man will be to be seen in Christ as much contentation as the creature can be made partakers of by the sight
righteousness if enriched with the jewels of the Spirit thy body shall be everlastingly beautifull and glorious for the happiness of the body depends upon the souls happiness If when thou diest thy soul goeth to hell thy body at the resurrection must go thither also If to Heaven thy body will follow it thither also according as thy soul is beautifull or deformed so shall thy body be happy or miserable So much in answer to the five Questions Vse 1. To you that are the Saints of the most high God who have your conversation in Heaven while you are upon earth who are reall members of Christs mysticall body whose souls are adorned with the robe of Christs righteousness To beseech you to consider the blessed and happy condition that your bodies shall be in at the resurrestion for then your vile bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of Christ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} then shall you shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of your Father All sinne and all sorrow and all bodily deformities shall be utterly removed you shall be as the Angels of God in heaven your bodies shall be honourable glorious powerfull spirituall perfectly beautifull lovely and majesticall and as Aquinas saith transparent like glass Let the consideration of this 1. Comfort you against the fear of death As God said to Jacob Gen. 46. 3 4. Fear not to go down into Egypt for I will go down with thee and I will also surely bring theo up again c. So let me say to you Feat not to go down to the house of rottenness fear not to lay down your heads in the dust for God will certainly bring you out again and you shall come out in a most glorious manner Fear not to have this house of your body pulled down for God will rear it up again and make of it a most glorious structure 2. Let this comfort you against the death of your godly friends for when a godly man dies nothing dies totally and finally in him but sinne Death to a Saint is nothing else but sepultura vitiorum a burying of his sinne Non homo sed peccatum hominis moritur the man dies not but his sinne for the soul doth not die at all but is immediately taken up into the bosome of God and the body though it be turned into dust yet even this dust is pretious in Gods sight this dust is part of Gods elestion this dust is united to Jesus Christ and therefore when a Saint dies he is said to fall asleep in Christ 1 Cor. 15. 18. and to be dead in Christ 1 Thes. 4. 16. and at the last day it shall be raised up again It is sown in corruption but it shall be raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it shall be raised in glory it is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown a naturall body it shall be raised a spirituall body There is a Text in Job which our Reverend Brother did mention often in his sickness and with which he did seem to be much refreshed it is Job 21. 33. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him Which words though spoken of the wicked yet are in a more eminent manner applicable to the true Saint who sleeps quietly and sweetly in his grave as in his bed free from all trouble and molestation 3. Let this comfort those that have diseased or deformed bodies that are troubled with the Stone Gout Strangury disiness in the head or any other disease whereby they are made unserviceable or at least not able to do that good they would there will a day come wherein they shall be perfectly healed and cured The Resurrection is the Saints best Physitian 4. Let this encourage you to be willing if God call you to it to part with your ears eyes leggs hands or head it self for the keeping of a good conscience for you shall have all your limbs restored to you again at the great day of restitution of all things Famous is the story that Josephus tells of one of the seven Children in the Maccabees who when he was to have his tongue cut out and his ears cut off he said to his Mother These members I have received from Heaven and for the Law of my God I despise them and trust that I shall receive them again I shall have a better tongue at the resurrection of the just 5. Let this exhort you especially that are true Saints whose bodies by grace are become the Temples of the holy Ghost to labour to glorifie God in your bodies as well as in your spirits for they are Gods and they are bought with a price as well as your souls To labour to keep under your bodies and to bring them into subjection To yeeld your members as instruments of righteousness unto God and as servants of righteousness unto holiness Let me beseech you by the mercies of Jesus Christ who hath redeemed your bodies that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Think not any service too much for God with those bodies which shall one day be made so beautifull and glorious Let godly Ministers be encouraged to wear out their bodies in their Ministeriall imployments for they that turn many unto righteousness shall shine as starres for ever and ever Vse 2. To you that are wicked that is who are members of the devil whose souls are beleapred with sinne who minde earthly things whose God is your belly whose glory is your shame To beseech you to consider the sad and miserable condition you shall be in at that day Your bodies indeed shall rise but they shall rise unto everlasting cindemnation Joh. 5. 24. and unto everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12. 2. your vile bodies shall then be cursed bodies and your sinfull bodies shall be tormented for ever with the worm that never dieth and the fire that never goeth out Vse 3. A divine project how to make your bodies beautifull and glorious If there were a Physician here upon earth that could cure all your bodily diseases and deformities and make them immortall how would you prize him I have told you this day of such a Physician even the Lord Jesus Christ who shall one day come from Heaven on purpose to make our vile bodies like unto his glorious body Oh that this word were mingled with faith Methinks if any Motive could prevail with you that are Gentlewomen and great Ladies this should Behold a way how to make your bodies eternally beautifull What trouble and pain do many women that are crooked endure by wearing Iron bodies to make themselves strait What vast expences are many at for the beautifying of their rotten carcasses Hearken unto me thou proud dust and ashes thou guilded mud that labourest to beautifie thy body by vain foolish and
had been cast upon the stone then every thing weighed down the stone The Morall is tâ—ue though the History prove a fable as one of his Wisemen told him This stone said he sheweth what thou art oh Alexander Whilest thou livest thou weighest down all that oppose thee the whole World cannot new content thee when a little dust is cast upon thee that is when thou art dead then every man will outweigh thee minor eris quam quicquid mundi thou wilt be lesser then any man in the world Such another story is reported of the Father of Alexander that he kept a boy on purpose to come to him every morning and to bid him Remember he was a man Let us be alwayes mindfull that we are but dust dust we are and to dust we must return Let us cast dust upon our silks and velvets upon our gold and silver upon our beautifull faces Let the great Ladies make this Doctrine their Lookingglasses to dress themselves by every morning Remember thy body is a vile body and therefore be not proud of it 2. A Lesson of Mortification This vile body of ours is subject to be abused by the devil to vile abominations and therefore let us go to Jesus Christ to get power to mortifie and crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts There is a body of sinne in all men and this is that which makes this body of ours to be so vile Let us by a lively faith make application of the death of Christ that the old man being crucified with him the body of sinne may be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne Excelledt is that expression of the Apostle 1 Cor. 9. 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection least that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway Upon which words Austin hath this saying Si aries de grege quid tener agnus c If the great Ram of the flock hath need to beat down his body and to bring it under subjection how much more should we tender Lambs use all means for the keeping of it under The body is called by Hierom jumentum animae the beast of the soul and when this beast begins to kick against the soul we must labour to subdue it by fasting and prayer and say as Hilarion did Faciam Asine ut non calcitres 3. A Lesson of Contentation Let us be contented with our condition though never so Poor Though thy apparel be mean and thy diet mean mean things become a vile body And if for a good conscience thou be put into a vile prison into a dark and stinking dungeon as the Martyrs have been let us be contented with it for our bodies for the present are vile bodies Thou canst not be poorer then thou wert at first and wilt be at last for naked we came into the world and naked we must return again And though thou hast a diseased and sickly body and hast met with many losses and crosses yet be contented remember that the bodies of the best of Saints in this life are vile bodies I have read of Themistocles that he invited many Philosophers to dinner and that he borrowed divers dishes of one Amyntas in the midst of dinner Amyntas comes and fetches away half his dishes the Philosophers asked Themistocles how he was able to bear this affront He answered mildly He might have took away all If God hath taken away half thy children half thy estate be contented all is his and he might have taken away all 4. Let this Epithete teach us a lesson of heavenly courage and fortitude let us not fear what the worst of men can do unto us for they can but kill this vile body This our Saviour teacheth Matth. 10. Fear not them that can kill the body and after that can do no more If a Tyrant could kill the soul then indeed he might be feared but he cannot reach that he can but hurt the body ths vile body a body subject to a thousand diseases and to innumerable abominatious a body that will shortly dye of its own accord and why then should we fear what vile man can do against this vile body especially if we consider that when he hath done his worst against it it shall in spite of him rise again and of a vile body become a most glorious body Oh let us not make shipwrack of a good conscience to preserve this vile body let us not destroy our precious souls to save this vile carcass 5. If the body be vile in comparison of the soul then let us be encouraged unto soul-diligence Let us not set the servant on horseback and suffer the Master to go on foot let us not preferre the handmaid before the Mistress the box before the Jewel the vile body before our pretious and immortal souls The body is made of dust and who ever advanced dust we use to sweep away dust from off our clothes and out of our houses The body is but a lump of earth a rotten carcass without the soul oh let us not preferre it before the soul let us not bestow that time that heart those affections and endeavours upon the body which are due unto the soul It is a sad thing to consider how most people even those that beleeve the Doctrine of the souls Immortality do Jacob-like though upon a different occasion put their right hand upon the youngest Sonne and their left hand upon the eldest spending the best of their dayes and strength and affections upon these vile bodies and in the mean time neglecting to provide for their eternal souls Give me leave to illustrate this by a similitude Suppose a man should invite a Nobleman to his house and only provide provender for the Noblemans horses without any provision at all for himself only such as his horses feed on would not this be a course entertainment and yet so do most men deal with their immortal souls The soul is as this Nobleman lodging in a body of clay as in a poor cottage the body is as you have heard jumentum animae the souls beast and when you consume your dayes in pampering and cloathing your bodies taking no care for your noble souls this is but as it were providing provender for the horses without any provision for the Nobleman for the soul is never the richer for all our worldly wealth never the fatter for our delicate fare nor ever the finer for our silken clothes I read that St John in 3 Joh. 2. prayeth for Gaius That his body might prosper and be in health even as his soul prospered But if we should make such a prayer for many of our people we should rather curse them then pray for them for if they had no better bodies then they have souls they would have very poor lean and naked bodies Let Christians labour so to live that this prayer
may be fit for them that we may cheerfully put up this petition for them That their bodies may prosper even as their souls prosper Let the chiefest part have the chiefest care the best part the best of our strength and dayes 6. Lastly Let us from this Epithete learn a lesson of thankfullness Our bodies are bodies of vileness and therefore if God hath given thee a body more handsome and more healthfull then others have if God hath made any of us ex meliore luto of better earth if he hath made us golden vessels in regard of our outward condition if he hath raised any of us from the dust and set us in high places especially if God hath made us elect vessels vessels of mercy in regard of our eternal condition as I doubt not but there are many such here oh give God a great deal of glory and give him all the glory If he hath made thy vile body an instrument of righteousness unto holiness if he hath sanctified it and made it a Temple fit for the holy Ghost to dwell in then let me speak to you in the language of the holy Ghost Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ will you take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot God forbid Know you not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you c. And If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy Will you abuse that body that is the Temple of the holy Ghost to sinne and iniquity God forbid I shall now pass from the first Observation to the second with which our worthy and dear brother was much refreshed and did often repeat in my hearing and upon that account I made made choice of this Text at this time The Observation is That the Lord Jesus Christ at the great day of judgment shall raise these vile bodies and change them into the likeness of his own glorious body This Doctrine is an Alablaster box full of pretious consolation It was a great comfort and support to our dear brother when he was going out of this world and oh that it might be a like pretious Cordial to us when we shall be in his condition For the better understanding of the Doctrine I shall propound these five Questions 1. What is that change that Christ shall make in our vile bodies at the resurrection The bodies of the Saints when dead and separated from their souls are not separated from Jesus Christ and therefore are said to be dead in Christ while dead they are united to Christ and by virtue of this union Christ as their Head will raise them at the last day and at their resurrection they shall be changed non quoad substantiam sed quoad proprietates the substance of their bodies shall not be altered but only the qualities As wool when it is died into a purple or scarlet die is the same wool for substance though it be made more glorious so the bodies of the Saints at the resurrection shall be the same for substance though made more excellent and more glorious This was Jobs comfort that with those very eyes of his he should see his Redeemer and that he himself should see him and not another The Apostle tells us That this mortall body must put on immortality and this corruptâ—ble body must put on incorruption The ancient Christians when they rehearsed that article of the Creed Credo resurrectioneme carnis I beleeve the resurrection of the flesh were wont to add Etiam hujus carnis even of this my flesh It cannot stand with Gods justice saith Hierom that one body should sinne and another body be damned that one body should serve him and another be crowned this is contrary to the justice of God and to the very nature of the resurrection for a resurrection is when the same body that dieth riseth again otherwise it is rather a new creation then a resurrection As the body of Christ after his resurrection was the same for substance though much more excellent and glorious so shall the bodies of the Saints be at their resurrection As a Goldsmith saith Chrysostome takes a little gold and puts it into a refining pot and melts it and then out of that gold forms a golden vessel fit to be set before Kings so the Lord Jesus Christ melts the bodies of his Saints by death and out of their dead ashes and cinders will form a vessel of gold a glorious body fit to live with God and sing Hallelujahs in Heaven to all eternity 2. What are those transfigurations and transformations that Christ shall make in our bodies at this day what is this metamorphosis wherein doth it consist It is impossible to set out all the glorious excellencies with which Christ will adorn our bodies in the great day of the resurrection Quae sit quam magna spiritualis corporis gloria quoniam nondum venit in experimentum vereor ne temerarium sit omne quod de illâ profertur eloquium How great the glory of our spirituall bodies shall be because we have no experience of it I fear it will be rashness for any man saith Austin to speak peremptorily about it It will be the marriage day between Christ and his Saints and he will endow their bodies with glorious qualities as well as their souls for he assumed their bodies as well as their souls suffered in body as well as in soul died for their bodies as well as for their souls and therefore will glorifie their bodies as well as their souls Give me leave to mention some of those glorious perfections with which our vile bodies shall be beautified at that day 1. The bodies of the Saints at the resurrection shall be free from all sinne Paul shall not then complain of a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde nor cry out Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death we shall at that day not only have a posse non peccare a possibility not to sinne as Adam had in innocency but a non posse peccare an impossibility of sinning 2. Our bodies shall be made immortall and incorruptible 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. This mortall shall put on immortality as a garment never to be put off again Death shall be swallowed up in victory Adam in innocency as he had a power not to sinne so also not to die but the Saints at the resurrection shall have an impossibility of sinning and of dying Not but that our bodies are naturally corruptible even at the resurrection but by the presence of God filling them they shall be made like the Angels immortall And if embalming the body can preserve it from putrefaction for many years much more will the presence of God preserve it from death for ever 3. The third endowment is brightness and
of any one visible object will be the portion of the beholders of Christ as he is man All this is in answer to the second Question 3. How is it possible that ever these bodies of ours should rise again and these vile bodies be made like unto the glorious body of Christ With man this is impossible but with God nothing is impossible My text tells you how this shall be done even according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself The Lord Jesus Christ is almighty and therefore he is able to do it He that can make a man being nothing out of the dust of the earth can certainly repair him out of that dust when he is something It is as easie to God to give a body to a soul at the resurrection as to breathe a soul into a body at the first creation Both Philosophers and Divines write of the Phoenix that first she is consumed to ashes by the heat of the Sunne and that afterwards of her ashes ariseth a young one which is the same Phoenix risen from the dead The Apostle tells us That the corn must first be cast into the ground and there die and rot before it will spring up which sheweth that a resurrection from the dead is possible even in nature What is every night but the grave as it were of the dayes light What is the morning but the resurrection of the day What is winter but the death as it were of fruits and what the spring but the resurrection of them What is death but a pulling down of the house of our bodies and what is the resurrection but the building up of the same house more gloriously And cannot the Almighty God do this We see by experience that our most curious glasses are made by art even of ashes and cannot the omnipotent and everliving God raise mens dead bodies out of ashes The earth and sea are Gods stewards with whom he hath betrusted the bodies of men and when God shall call them to give an account of their stewardship they will faithfully discharge their trust and will not keep back one dead body The grave is but the bodies withdrawing-room or sleepiâ—g-place and the time will come when they that are asleep in the dust of the earth shall awake c. Dan. 12. 2. And it is as easie for God to distinguish between dust and dust and to give to every man his own dust as it is for a gardiner that hath divers seeds in his hand to sever them and know them one from another A curious Watch-maker can undo his Watch and put it together again A skilfull Alchymist can extract one mettall out of another much more can Almighty God distinguish one dust from another as well as one man from another In a word It is as easie for God to make our vile bodies glorious as it is for a beggar to put off his raggs and to put on the apparrel of a King Our dear and Reverend Brother did fully beleeve this and therefore he three times in my hearing repeated these words According to his mighty power his mighty power even his mighty power he is able to change this vile body of mine and make it like unto his glorious body 4. Shall all bodies be made thus glorious No The bodies of the wicked shall rise at the last day but it shall be to their everlasting shame ruin and confusion They shall be immortall but they shall be immortall fuell to immortall flames The bodies of the wicked shall come out of their gravos as out of their prisons and as so many malefactors to appear before an angry Judg. They shall come out of their graves as the chief Baker did out of prison to be hung in chains in hell for ever where they shall endure all kind of extremities figured out unto us by the sad condition of Dives who could not get a drop of water to cool his tongue The bodies of the wicked shall be as ugly loathsome carcasses to look upon and their faces shall gather blackness and darkness Isa. 66. 24. They shall arise with great fear and trembling and shall call to the hils and mountains to cover and hide them from the presence of the Lamb Oh the horror and astonishment that shall be at that day when the foul of a wicked man shall come out of hell and be again united to the body How will the body curse the soul and the soul the body How will they befool one another Certainly this greeting will be very terrible the Lord grant we may never come to have experience of it 5. What are the Characters of those men and women whose vile bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of Christ 1. There is one Character of them in the text If thou art one that hast thy conversation in Heaven then thy body shall be made glorious For our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body c. If thou beest a man that mindest earthly things if ambitious covetous or voluptuous if given over to fulfill the lusts of the flesh thy body shall rise but it shall rise to everlasting condemnation But if heavenly-minded if thy disposition and conversation be heavenly when Christ comes from Heaven he will make thy body heavenly and glorious 2. If a reall member of Christs mysticall body thou shalt be made partakers of the glory of Christs natural body Christ hath a double body a body mysticall and a body naturall If thou beest a reall member of Christs mysticall body I say a reall member not only a member by outward profession but by a holy conversation if truly united by a heart-purifying faith unto Christs mysticall body thou shalt be conformable in glory to Christs naturall body And therefore it is said That at the day of judgment Christ shall be glorified in his Saints Here he is glarified by his Saints but then he shall be glorified in his Saints that is in the glory that the members of his mysticall body shall have at that day For Christ shall then have a double glory 1. A personall glory for he shall come with power and great glory Matth. 24. 30. 2. A sociall glory a glory which he communicates to his Saints and by which glory he shall be glorified For when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we appear with him in glory And the glory of the members shall redound to the glory of the head Therefore the Saints are called the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23. If a member of Christ though but as the toe in his body thou shalt be filled brim full of glory at the resurrection 3. If thy soul be gracious here thy body shall be glorious hereafter If cloathed with Christs