Christians before he takes them to himself And thus it was with our Deceased briend of which more presently But. SECT IV. Secondly Let us Consider her Carriage in each Relation There were many things Im table in her Example as a Wife a Mother a Mistress c Her Affection and Reverence to her Husband were very observable When he among many other of the faithful Servants of Christ was Silenced and forbidden to Preach though she had then Children and like to have more and a considerable Maintenance was thereby to be stopped and a growing Family to be cast upon the Providence of God and many urged her to perswade him to comply with the Imposed Terms she wholly declin'd it and would rather trust God in a Suffering State leaving him intirely to his Conscience as the fittest Judge of his Obligations Trust and Duty in that Case When afterwards of Consequents to his Nonconformity he met with any Difficulties by continuing to Preach she patiently submitted and took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods saying often when his Person was in hazard That she was ready rather to adventure her own Life then that his should be in danger as apprehending his to be more valuable to the World and the Interest of Souls than hers or Twenty such This Affection she continued all her Life advising her Children in her last Sickness to be careful of their Father and tender of him in her Absence for by so mild and good a word she spake of her Dissolution then in prospect Advising them withal to Love one another and be kindly affectioned to each other Praying particularly for her Son whom she had the Comfort to see setled in the Sacred Work of the Ministry that God would furnish him with suitable Strength of Body and Spirit and crown his Ministry with an abundant Blessing Not long before she died she thankfully owned the Goodness of God to her in the Spiritual Assistance and Comfort she received by such Relations who had an Interest in Heaven and could plead it for her in Prayer while she was languishing on a Sick Bed O what a Mercy is it said she when her Husband and Son had both been Praying for her with great Fervency and inlargedness of Heart What a Mercy is it that I should have such Relations to plead with God for me And at last when she took her Farewel of her Husband she thanked him for all his Love and all his Prayers as audibly as she was then able to speak Many Memorable things she said by way of Counsel and Advice to her Children As concerning the Deceitfulness of the Heart and the need of searching it again and again for God knows it and will not be mocked Exhorting them to seek God with their whole Heart to Pray fervently and importunately for his Grace and Favour and not in a slight and overly manner as if they were indifferent whether God did Answer or Deny I hope they will remember it and act accordingly At another time in her Sickness she cried out whilst her Children were about her O Love the Lord all ye his Saints Love the Lord ye my Children Love him Fear him She desired that they would Pray for her and she assigned a good Reason why they should For says she I have often Prayed to God for you when you could not Pray for your selves Under this Head I might add somewhat of her Carriage even to Servants to whom she gave the most Seasonable Counsel particularly in her last Sickness to the Servant that attended her to be much in Reading the Holy Scriptures to value Catechising and be diligent in learning the Principles of Religion to be faithful in her Place c. But this leads me SECT V. Thirdly To the Last Scene of her Life to speak of her deportment under Bodily Weakness and Pains under which her Patience and Submission were very becoming and truly Christian VVhen a day or two before she died her Relations seemed more than usually concerned She asked them why they were so saying It is not Death yet I may out-live this and be buffeted by Sathan as a Roaring Lion before I die When she could not sleep in the Night she said the next Morning I thought this would have been a Comfortable night to me but presently recollected her self saying So it is for it is a Mercy I am out of Hell when Ten thousands are cast into the bottomless pit that never sinned as I have done How well she bore her own Sickness and how little sollicitous she was about the Issue of it is evident from her own words O how comfortable is Death when sin is Pardoned and God Reconciled O that I might entertain kind and good Thoughts of God and trust him though he slay me When spoken to about her Recovery She could say I do not hope it and blessed be God I do not desire it When asked Are you not in a streight about it Are you willing to leave Husband and Children and all to be with Christ She declared her Willingness It is true sometime she complained that she had not such vigorous lively melting Affections in Sickness as sometime formerly in Health yet she depended on God still VVhen she was Asked VVhether she kept her Thoughts employed about Heaven She Answered I do what I can And the Night before she died after a little silence when she was questioned concerning her Thoughts VVhat she was thinking of She Answered Three things which are fit for all of us often to think of a Deceitful Heart a Painful Death and a Tempting Devil God restrained the last and carried her above the Fear and Feeling of the Second for though she said She feared a hard Death as many Holy Persons do Yet she added I submit to the will of God he will not lay upon me more than he will enable me to bear VVhen the 17th Chapter of John was Read to her where are those remarkable Consolatory words of Christ Father I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me to behold my Glory though she could hardly speak so as to be heard she made a shift to say O Excellent Excellent expressing her Faith and Hope and Joy as far as her weakness would permit Her Humility and Thankfulness was very conspicuous during this Sickness O what a Mercy is it said she that such a one as I should have Hopes of Heaven of the Pardon of Sin and of an Interest in Christ And yet when any of those holy expressions she used were repeated in Praver to God by those who assisted her She desired no such Speeches of hers should be mentioned to God For says she my Frame is not equal and alike a way I cannot think and speak the same things at one time that I do at another An hour or two before she left this World she testified her desire to be with Christ saying How long O Lord how long if my Work be done Come and deliver me She begged they would pray for her that her Strength might hold out to the last that God would not leave her nor hide his Face in the Agonies of Death She defired rather to be dissolved than to continue in the Body saying I Look I Long I Hope O when will the hour come Must I tarry and endure another Night Come Lord Jesus come quickly Hast thou no Bowels for me Whilst thou wert on Earth thou wert full of Compassion to poor Sinners and art thou not the same in Heaven After this she owned her self refreshed by Prayer and that though her Body was weak her Heart was in a good Frame being much recruited and encouraged by Prayer And so she commended her foul to God calling on him to the very last for his merciful Assistance and Succour through the dark Valley and to accept and receive her departing Soul and so she died in the Lord and slept in Jesus God grant to us as he did to her saving Help in that hour of Darkness and Trouble and enable us to follow the Exemplary Faith and Patience of those who are gone before that with them at last we may receive the end of our Faith and Hope the Salvation of our Souls and the Resurrection of our Bodies in the day of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life in whom whosoever believes shall never die the Second Death but the Spirit that raised Christ from the Dead shall quicken our Mortal Bodies and make them like to his most glorious Body that with Soul and Body we may be for ever with the Lord. To him be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS Books to be Sold by A. Chandler of the same Author THe Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses on Several Texts An Exhortation to Repentance and Vnion among Protestants The Present Correction and Reproof of Sin or a Discourse on 2 Jer. 19. Thine own Iniquities shall Correct thee and thy Backslidings shall Reprove thee A Sermon of St. Peter's Sin and True Repentance Printed for S. Wade at the Bible under the Piaza of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill
consisting of Soul and Body and our Bodies Sanctified by him and are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and therefore shall be raised by him Yea we are said to rise with him and to be set down in heavenly places in and with him It is not more true that he died for our sins than that be rose again for our Justification and if for that he rose for our Resurrection too For the guilt of sin being removed which is the meritorious cause of Death Death which is the Punishment shall not remain but be swallowed up in Victory whereas it lives and reigns and keeps the Field till the Restirrection But we are assured that The Sea and Death and the Vniversal Grave shall give up their Dead Rev. 20.13 And then not only the sting of Death but Death it self shall dye and cease for ever for there shall be no more death Rev. 21.4 Our dead Bodies shall then live so as to dye no more For if we believe on him that raised Christ from the dead the same Spirit that raised Christ shall be the Author of our Resurrection Rom. 8.23 And if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 He that was dead is now alive and behold he lives for evermore and he hath the keys of Death and Hell Rev. 1.18 And he has expresly told us that the hour is coming in the which All that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth They that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28.29 And this is the will of God that sent him that every one who believeth on him shall have everlasting Life and he will raise him up at the last day John 6.40 The like he declares afterwards to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me tho he were dead yet shall he live John 11.25 He is the First born from the dead and Believers are the Children of the Resurrection Colos 1.18 His Resurrection not only proves the possibility of ours but it is the pledge of the performance God having raised him up hath loosed the pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by them Naturally impossible because of his Divine Power and legally impossible because Divine Justice after such a Satisfaction as the Death of Christ required that he should be raised to Life and receive a Discharge and Reward We could hardly believe the Dead should rise to Life if Christ by his own Resurrection and by raising others had not proved it possible and already done But he hath not conquer'd Death for himself alone but for his Members too and to them he has promised that they shall * John 11.26 never see Death or come within the Prospect or Danger of it And not only shall not but cannot dye any more after the Resurrection for they shall be equal to the Angels Luke 20.36 His Victory over Death was declared by his Resurrection and his entrance into Glory did Compleat the Conquest Now as Christ hath carried his Humane Nature into Heaven we are to be made like him and bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam and therefore our Flesh shall be raised too He is the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15 20. And it is * Bishop Vsher observable tha the Rose from the Dead on that Day whereon the Jews observe their Feast of First-fruits That Feast was not stinted to any day of the Month as other Feasts were but was to be always on the Morrow after the Passover Sabbath that so it might fall always on the First day of the Week the Day of Christ's Resurrection Well therefore might the Apostle say Christ being Risen is become the First-fruits of them that sleep As the Offering of the First-fruits amongst the Jews Consecrated all the rest SECT IV. Neither can we suppose our Happiness would be compleat without the Resurrection of the Body As Soul and body concur to the Constitution of man the Soul is in a State of widowhood till reunited to the Body And in this Life the Body has a share in the work and service of the Man which is to be rewarded or punished as executing the designs of the Soul And the members of the Body serve as members of Righteousness or Sin The Law of God commands the intire Man composed of Soul and Body and this Law is obeyed or violated by both though the moral good or evil of our Actions be chiefly attributed to the Soul as the principal Agent But on this Account the Body shall partake in the rewards or Punishment of the next Life if the intire Person be to be recompenced And it is with respect to the Body that seemed to be lost that the Resurrection is promised the Body resolved into dust or swallowed in the Sea or consumed by fire Such promises of the Resurrection are made to Believers for their encouragment and hope Besides there are many Objects in the heavenly State that do suppose a Body and are to be discerned by our bodily senses as the glorious beauty and magnificence of the blessed mansions and the Humane Nature of our glorious Redeemer c. On which and many other accounts the Body shall be raised and changed and glorified SECT V. Reason it self would make this Probable Man being created with a Body and a Soul which have so natural an Inclination to one another that there is an appetite and desire as it seems to be united and co-operate together and many of our Capacities of Joy and Comfort as well as of Sorrow and Grief result from and depend upon this Union In order therefore to the full and final Felicity that God will confer on some and for the greater Misery wherewith divine Justice will punish others it is very probable from principles of Reason that God will raise the Bodys of men That being united to their Souls they may be better capable of enjoying the promised Happiness or suffering the threatened misery of the next World This seems to be the sense of Job 14. Chap. 14. ver where he says that all the days of his appointed time I will wait till my change come Speaking of the Resurrection of the Body There is hope of a Tree he saith if it be cut down that it will sprout again but man dyeth and where is he he lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more If a man dye shall he live again All the days of my appointed Time c. * Mr. Howe of Blessedness p. 210. According to common Apprehension and Appearance the State of man at death is hopeless But he professeth his Expectation that at a set and appointed Time God would remember him so as to recall him out of the Grave And therefore puts the question If a man dye shall he
live again And till the appointed time when God should revive him out of the dust he would wait for that glorious Change when God shall have a desire to the work of his hands i. e. not allways forget to restore and perfect his own Creature There are many Images and Resemblances of this As in the Corn by which we live when it is cast on the earth and buried in the ground that it may corrupt after it is corrupted it revives and multiplies Our Bodys are fed with this constant Experiment And the Apostles similitude of a grain of Corn Sown in the ground that it riseth multiplied augmented and adorned sets out the advantagious difference between the Qualities of our Bodys when they dye and when they shall be raised And herein he imitates the manner of the Jews who were wont familiariy to illustrate the business of the Resurrection by the similitude of leed sown in the ground and springing up again And what can we discern in a small corn or litle seed of a Tree with Body Bark Branches Leaves Flowers Fruit and yet afterwards we behold them when the seed hath been sown in the ground The Apostle at large Insists on this similitude of seed to explain the manner of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.35 So also is the Resurrection of the dead * Dr. Scot of the Christian Lise part 2. chap. 7. So is this mortal Body to be the seed and material Principle of our Resurrection For that which is sown is not quickened except it dye And so is this Seed of our mortal Body to dye and be corrupted before it shall be raised again And Sois this dead corrupted Body to be raised and quickened by the power of God For God gives to every Seed a Body as it pleases him And so are our dead Bodys to be raised again into the proper form and kind of humane Bodys for unto every seed God giveth his own Body And Lastly So is the Resurrection of the Dead that is So are those humane Bodys to be changed and altered by the Resurrection as that which is but bare Seed when it is sown when it is quickened it springs up into a long stalk and ear So the raised Body shall be changed for the better This is further Illustrated by * Mr. Baxter of Self-denial p. 206. another That the dead Body of a man may be supposed to have a living Root as truely as the plants in winter The Soul is the Root of the Body and the Soul is still alive And Christ is the Root of the Soul and he is still alive For though we are dead our Life is hid with Christ in God and when he who is our Life shall appear at the Spring of the Resurrection we shall also appear with him in Glory Colos 3.3 4. There is a Relative Union between Soul and Body and a deep rooted Love of the Soul to its Body and Inclination to it so that it is mindful of it and waits with longing for that hour when the Command of God shall send it to revive that Body Why may not the Living Soul that is the Root and Life of the Body in the dust be the Instrument of God to inform its own Body as it will be the Principle that shall re-inform it The Body in the Grave hath its own Relation to Christ who is still Living and resolved and ingaged by Promise and inclined by Love to revive that Body And when the Hour comes for this Soul that waits to be sent again into the Body what can hinder The very Love of the Soul to its Body and its desire to be re-united is a kind of Natural Cause of the Resurrection A Candle not lighted is as far from Light and as much without it as a dead body is without Life and yet one touch of a lighted Candle will light that which never was lighted before And so may one touch of the living Soul that is now with Christ put Life into the body that lies in the dust And as the lighted Candle makes the other like it and Communicates of its Nature to it so does the glorified Soul Communicate a new kind of Excellency to the Body which it never had before even to be a Spiritual Glorious Incorruptible and Immortal Body And God takes the Soul to Heaven before hand that it may be first Glorified and so be fit to communicate Glory to the body So that there is more reason for the Resurrection of the body though it be turned to Earth than there is reason that a Candle that is gone out should be lighted again by another or than there is reason that I should put on my Cloaths in the Morning which I put off at Night For Nature disposeth me to abhor nakedness and desire my Cloaths and therefore in the Morning I will put them on So Nature teaches the Seperated Soul to desire a re-union with its body And therefore when the Resurrection-Morning comes it will gladly take the word from Christ and give that vital touch to the body that shall revive it and so put on its antient Garment but wonderfully changed for the better c. CHAP. VI. That the Same Body for Substance is to be Raised again at the last day And what the Change will be of these Bodies hereafter from what they now are SECT I. IF it be inquired How can the same Body after so many Changes be raised and re-united to the Soul And what need is there of Asscrting That it shall be the same It ought to be consider'd that the very word Resurrection doth suppose or imply this That the Bodies of Men shall hereafter be truly the same with those that died It is the Body falls to the ground when the Spirit goes upward That Body that then fell is to be raised again and no other Body than that This Mortal Body shall be quickened by the Spirit of Christ that now falls to the ground The same Flesh that was separated from the Soul at death shall be united to it again The same Temple that was destroyed shall be re-built The same Tabernacle that was dissolved shall be raised We are bid to fear God who can destroy Soul and Body in Hell Mat. 10.28 What cause of fear if this very body be not to be raised * Resurgere non est nisi ejus quod cecidit Tert. advers Marc. l. 5. c. 9. This Corruptible must put on Incorruption this Mortal put on Immertality As the Body of Christ which is our Exemplar with which he rose was the same that he deposited in the Grave and as the bodies of those whom our Saviour raised when he was on Earth were the same with those in which they died And how shall the Graves and Sea give up their Dead at the Last Day Rev. 20.13 What need of this if the same Bodies are not to be raised for they can give up no other Bodies than what they received These
follow He desires not so much the end of this Life whatever he now suffered as the blessedness of the next Life which he hoped for It was not an Annihilation to put a period to his present sufferings but a happy Change which he groan'd for Not a Ruin but a temporary dissolution of this earthly House in order to an Eternal Advantage Not a bare privation of this Life but a passage to a better He doth not groan so much from the Sense of present Evil as by reason of the Absence of his most desired Good He was not so much burdened by what he felt and could not avoid or remove as by what he foresaw and expected and could not yet Enjoy He must dye first and have the old House pull'd down before he could reach that compleat Felicity which he so earnestly aspires after SECT VI. 2. It is therefore further exprest as that which he groaned and longed for viz. to be Cloathed upon To lay aside this mean and little troublesome Garment for a more beautiful and commodious one To have this earthly House dissolved and moulder into dust with the Expectation of reassuming Another or the Same with a glorious Change And in that sense the Expression verse 3. may be understood That being thus cloathed that is with such a glorified Body we may not be found Naked or without any Body at all Though * A. B. Cant. 3. Vol. Serm. 6th some carry the expression Desiring to be cloathed upon as wishing not to put off this Body at all but to be in the number of those who shall be found alive at the coming of Christ to Judgment which some of the Disciples of Christ expected by a mistake of what he said concerning St. John If I will that he tarry till I come And so the words may be read If so be that we shall be found cloathed and not naked That is if at Christ's coming we shall be found Alive and not Dead and so have this mortal corruptible Body changed into a Spiritual Glorious and Immortal one without Dying Whether that was the sense of the Apostle or not I shall discourse of these words as the common Sentiment of real Christians who have no hope of Living till the end of the World but expect to dye e're it be long and carnestly desire a future Blessedness for Soul and Body in another Life and therefore when they lay down this Body in the Dust they groan to be cloathed upon to have these vile Bodies made like the glorious Body of Christ or as the Apostle himself expresses it 1 Cor. 15.53 To have this Corruptible put on Incorruption and this Mortal put on Immortality The putting off there is the same with the being cloathed upon here That is they groan to have this present State changed for the Felicity and Glory of that future State which Christ hath given them to expect both for Soul and Body in another Life SECT VII 3. There is yet another Expression which riseth higher That Mortality may be swallowed up of Life That which is Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our mortal Life which is subject to Dangers Afflictions and Death it self That this may be Swallowed up of Life as is that which is Imperfect by that which is Perfect as Infancy and Childhood by Maturity and Manhood or as Darkness is swallowed up in Light The meaning is that our low Animal Life may be changed into an Heavenly one that our frail short and transitory Life may be changed into an Immortal Eternal one that the Corruption and Mortality which our Bodies are liable to and which remain in them while they are in the Grave may be removed Or according to the Apostles Phrase That Death may be swallowed up in Victory may be finally perfectly and for ever Destroyed For so the expression does import and is often rendered in other places * See Dr. Hammond 1 Cor. 15.54 g. for ever And that includes the Resurrection of the Body to an happy State as one part of this Desire For if by Dying we are more miserable than before Death is not swallowed up in Victory it rather is too hard for us and gains a Victory over us But if our state be bettered by Death not only as to our Souls but our very Bodies are also to be raised again to a glorious Life if when Death hath done its utmost our Souls pass into a State of Rest and Bliss to be compleated in a glorious Resurrection of the Body and to be continued and increased to all Eternity we are then Victorious over Death Death may be said to be swallowed up in Victory or Mortality swallowed up of Everlasting Life CHAP. II. The Method and Design of the following Discourse Good men in the present state are burdened with their Sins and Sufferings so as to groan for Deliverance SECT I. After this Paraphrase and Explication of the words that which I design as the Ground of my following discourse is this That it becomes the State and Frame of real Christians while they are burdened in these mortal Bodies earnestly to desire a better an Immortal Life wherein the Body as well as the Soul shall be gloriously Changed In discoursing of this I shall first show That such is the present State of good men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens that may well make them long for Deliverance II. That they have the certain Expectation of a better State and Life after the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle by Death III. That it is agreeable to the Temper of a Christian Spirit so far as renewed and sanctified to long for that better State and Life beyond the Grave IV. That it is not such a State and Life wherein they expect to be without any Body at all but to have their Bodies raised and changed and glorified To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven and to have mortality swallowed up in Life The consideration of these particulars will make way for the practical Application suitable to this solemn Occasion on which I am desired to preach on this Text. SECT II. First That such is the present state of good Men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens which may well make them long for Deliverance I need not run far into the common Theme of the Miseries of humane Life which every one feels or knows of those that do Our Sufferings and our Sins while in this earthly Tabernacle will be sufficient to be considered under this head 1. Our Sorrows and Sufferings while in the Body Our early Tears when we come into the World prognosticate a good share of these to be expected Not to mention the Vexation of disappointment in our Temporal Injoyments as a great part of this Burden the actual Sorrows and Afflictions which all partake of are very many and great heavy and afflictive they are such as extort the Cries and Tears and
upon another Principle he groaned while in this Tabernacle for the glorious State which he believingly foresaw And every renewed Soul has a diposition so to do in his new Nature he is born from above and his very principles have a tendency to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is attempered and suited to the heavenly State by that very Grace whereby we are made Christians we are instructed to look for and wait for the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ at which appearance we hope to be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven For when he who is our Life shall appear he has promised that we also shall appear in Glory They cannot but desire and long for this if they had no burden of Afflictions and Sorrows in the World that made them groan for deliverance For I am perswaded that all the Conflicts and Exercises of the Apostle Paul either by bodily pains or with enraged malicious Enemies never wrung such a sigh from him as the conflict with his own Corruptions O wretched Man that I am All the pressures that he ever met with in his earthly Tabernacle never made him groan so much as the burden of his own impure Flesh and his lamented distance from the Lord. Therefore consider SECT II. First The Disposition of a sanctified Soul as renewed by the holy Spirit does incline and fit for this II. The want of full Conformity to Christ III. The Sense of our Distance from Him while we are here IV. The unequal Communications of Light and Grace and Comfort from God and Christ which a real Christian doth now Experience will assist these Desires and make him groan for Deliverance First There is such a Disposition in the Soul sanctified by Divine Grace from whence such Desires must needs result They have received the first Fruits of the Spirit as the Earnest of more and therefore groan within themselves waiting for the Adoption even the Redemption of the Body Rom. 8.23 They are now taken into Gods Family as his Children are born from above But the most solemn Act of their Adoption is at the last day when there shall be a full and final Deliverance from all penal and afflictive Evil. Called the Redemption of the Body as Death is the last Enemy to be destroyed and the Body till the Resurrection is under the power of Death Called a Redemption because it is done by vertue of the price and ransom which Christ hath paid for us Having received the first Fruits of the Spirit they groan for the Adoption this Redemption of the Body And by this Spirit they are said to be sealed unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 The holy Spirit assures us of such a day We are now the Temples of the holy Ghost and he will not leave his own Dwelling continually in the dust And by this holy Spirit all our Desires and Hopes of a blessed Resurrection are wrought in us And the mighty Change which is made by the Spirit on the Souls of Believers will evidence the possibility of that Change which is expected as to their Bodies For to raise a dead Soul to spiritual Life is at least an equal Instance of glorious Power as to raise the Body from the Grave This they may well groan for as the most solemn act of their Adoption in conformity to Christ their Head who as some observe though he were the Son of God by his marvellous Conception and owned to be so during his Life yet had the highest Declaration of it at his Resurrection Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee In like manner though be Followers of Christ are now owned and treated as Children yet the most publick Declaration of the Divine favour towards them will be at the last day when their Bodies shall be raised and all the Children of the Resurrection shall be born in a day They are now made meet by the Spirit to be partakers of the heavenly Inheritance 1 Coloss 12. they are now changed into the divine Image prepared and fitted for the heavenly State their Spiritual Life is supported by the delights and comforts of the other World as the Animal Life is by those of the present World They know somewhat of the Excellency of it they find something in themselves that makes them value and desire it and by the little Experience they have had of the Pleasure and Joy of obeying God and conversing with him they conclude how unspeakably better it will be hereafter when their Union and Communion shall be compleat The holy Nature they partake of by Regeneration as mindful of its divine Original doth mount the Soul to Heaven tends to the place from whence it came works towards its Center and makes them restless in their desires after it and by frequent lively believing thoughts of the heavenly Inheritance they gradually enter into it and ripen for Glory the nearer they come to the full Possession We read of being changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 by partaking of the divine Image So that as Grace increaseth Glory hasteneth on and every degree of Grace is a step nearer to Glory For the more conformable we are to the divine Image the more meet are we to dwell with God And he that hath fitted the new Nature to the heavenly Life will not fail to bring his Children to it when he has wrought them for this felf same thing and given them the Earnest of his Spirit 2 Cor. 5.6 The new Nature saith one does as naturally ascend to Heaven when uncloathed of Flesh and hath left all the Relicks of Corruption behind it as the pure flame aspires into the Air and seems to long to inbody it self with the Sun the Fountain of Light By this they have a fitness for Heaven and a Disposition for that blessed Life which as it daily increaseth must make their desires stronger to enter upon it For there is a Beauty in the divine Image and a sweetness in our imperfect Graces in the present Actings of 'em that must make us value and desire Perfection There is an Heavenly Sweetness in every Act of love to God and Christ that may make the Soul cry out oh how happy should I be could I but love as much and as long as I would could I be all Love and alway Loving might my God and Saviour be my constant desire delight and Joy I would not envy the Honours or Pleasures of any in this World what then is that blessed State which I now hope for with persocted Graces in the presence of Christ SECT III. If our Faith be true so as to unite us to Christ and make us soundly believe the Gospel Revelation and consent to be his our Affections must needs be kindled to a willingness and desire to be with him And if our Hope be of the right kind it must be an Expectation with desire and pleasure of the great and glorious things
Earthly even all of us in our fleshly State having earthly bodies from an earthly Adam and natural bodies from the natural Adam And as is the Henvenly such are they that are Heavenly For Christ will make them like himself and as he hath an Heavenly Spiritual body and not an Earthly Natural body so shall his Members have that they may be like him And as we have born the Image of the Earthly in having a Natural Fleshly body we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam in having a Spiritual Body not needing the use of Meats or Drinks or any of the refreshments or pleasures of the animal Life or be imployed in any of those Acts whereby the body is now denominated Natural and suited to this Earthly State But our bodies shall then be Spiritual suited to the Life that Angels and Saints live in Heaven every way greatly refined and the Activity of our Spirits improved without the defects and infirmities of flesh and blood shall be invested with Caelestial Qualities depending wholly on the Soul and yielding ready obedience and conformity to its desires and motions executing all its Commands with pleasure and Dispatch Yea the imployment and operations of the body shall be raised above those in the present state as much as the Imployment of a King exceeds that of a Scullion This Spiritual Body one represents by Organized Light as a torch or wood that looseth its drossy and foggy qualities when heightened into a pure flame or minerals heightened into Spirits 3. The Bodies of the Saints shall be changed from weak and passive into Active and Powerful Bodies Sown in Weakness but raised in Power They are now dull and sluggish but then they shall be nimble and active like the Body of Christ that at his Ascension into Heaven being done in one day moved many thousands of Miles in an hour the distance between the highest Heavens and this Earth being computed to be some hundred millions of Miles They shall be raised with Angelical Agility and Strength He that is weak among them shall be as David he that is as David shall be as an Angel of God moving without difficulty and without weariness Now we often find the Body cannot keep Peace with the Soul the Flesh is weak when the Spirit is willing but it shall be raised in Power It is now liable to Diseases and Passions can do little and suffers much but no Diseases or Infirmities shall hereafter hinder its motions or impair its Health A glorified Body will move without weariness and fast without hunger and wake for ever without need of refreshment Herein there will be a suitableness to the Activity of a glorified Soul and without this they could not bear the weight of the Heavenly Glory Besides they are to indure to all Eternity without reparation by meat and drink and fleep 4. They shall be Incorruptible and Immortal It is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption This mortal shall put on Immortality They shall dye no more but live for ever Therefore the day of the Resurrection is called the Redemption of our Bodies They shall not be liable to be put out of tune by infirmities and pains and numberless diseases as now which often make Life it selfe a Burden They shall be Immortal without needing that Labour by day or sleep by night which now we bestow to supply their Necessities and repair their decays and prevent Death Now the Body has the seeds of Mortality and Corruption but shall then be refined from all such Principles There shall not be a tendency to Death in the nature and constitution of the Body such will be the glorious Change that they cannot dye any more 20. Luk. 36. They that were raised by Christ when on Earth they dyed again their second Life was no more exempt from death than their First But at the Resurrection Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life it shall lose its power and force for ever CHAP. VII Inferences of Truth and Duty from the preceding Discourse The Soul doth not perish when the Body dies The Felicity of the Soul is what we principally desire Our Faith should be consirmed in the Believing Expectation of this Glorious Change Our affections and Conversation should be Suitable SECT I. First Let us not then imagin the State of the Dead to be a State of Non-existence or Annihilation that the Soul perishes with the Body and that we are without Hope of its Resurection Whereas when our Soul passes into a state of Rest and Joy with Christ our Flesh rests in Hope that these Bodys shall be raised and reunited to their glorious Souls We are to pass through the Valley of Death to a Blessed Life This is the Desire and Hope of all the Followers of Christ And these very Desires of a blessed Life beyond the Grave will prove the Certainty of it We must have strange Thoughts of the infinitely wise and holy God and of his Love and Goodness to imagin he should give his Creatures such a Knowledge of himself that makes them desire more even a Desire to know and love and injoy him perpetually and yet never intend an eternal Communication of himself answerable to those Desires Can we think the blessed God would deceive and mock those that desire to seek and please him by inabling them to aspire after a Happiness in his presence and by giving them a Capacity for it And then to frustrate and disappoint his own work Can we think that God would excite their Desires after another and a better state and yet never admit them to it Can we imagin that God would raise their Desires from sin and this World to himself and Heaven and that these shall never be answered in a happy Issue Shall the very Sanctification of our Nature prepare for our Torment and help to make us miserable Will the God of Love and Grace inable us by his Grace to hunger and thirst after Righteousness and after the blessed vision of his Face in Glory and yet never design our Satisfaction The more any partake of the divine Image we find that they groan and long the more earnestly after another sort of Happiness than is here to be had after another State and Life than now they enjoy And may we not conclude that such a State there is The natural Desire of Happiness in all mankind will do much to prove that there is such a thing But the holy Desires of the Sanctified influenced by the spirit of Grace will much more prove it That spirit of Christ that hath inabled thee to long and pray for a more perfect State that has conquered thy vain Desires after earthly things and raised them to seek the Knowledge and Love and Fruition of God That Spirit is the Witness of Christ in thy Soul that there is such a State after Death and that thou shalt share in the Blessedness of it He hath framed and wrought and fitted
depart and be with Christ And how faulty are the Causes of it which in * See Mourner's Companion Discourse 3d. The Saints Desire to be with Christ another Discourse I have open'd How is it that so few can say with the Apostle I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Have we not Experienced enough of the Vanity and Vexation of this World to make us willing of a better Abode Have we not sinned and suffered enough in this Body to desire to be uncloathed at least to wait patiently the Pleasure of God for our Removal And so glorious is the Change which Christians expect that one would think there should rather be need of Patience to make a Believer wait till then But whatever the exercise of this Patience under present Burdens may be we need not doubt but one hours Enjoyment will make amends for all our Waiting and Preparing It cannot be long with the Youngest of us Let us not put it at a great Distance for that will quench the Coal of Heavenly Desire if we look upon Heaven as Twenty or Thirty years off We know not how soon God may call us But have great Reason to lament the strangeness of our Thoughts to the Heavenly State and the faintness of our Desires when the Promised Felicity is so attractive Do we think we shall live ever the longer for being unwilling to Dye Can it enter into our Thoughts that our excessive Love of the Body will procure our Continuance in it Is it possible we should imagine that sincerity of Love to Christ is consistent with our Backwardness to go to him and live with him Why then do we not aspire more earnestly after this glorious Change How is it that we groan under the Burdens of this Earthly Tabernacle and yet are loth to be delivered Will a Sick Man be afraid of his Recovery Or a Prisoner tremble at the News of a Goal-delivery No more should a real Christian be afraid of Death or unwilling of it For considering the Death and Resurrection and Ascension and Promise of Christ it is to a Believer a quick Passage from Sickness to eternal Health from Toil and Labour Captivity and Sorrow to everlasting Rest and Liberty and Joy I think says * Mr. Baxter of Self-denial p. 202. one God has purposely cloathed your Soul with so poor a Dress that you should be the less unwilling to be uncloathed and might learn to set more by your Souls than by your Bodies and make more careful Provision for them It seems he has purposely lodged you in so poor a Cottage that you should not be at too much Care for it nor be too loth to leave it You have its daily Necessities Infirmities and Pains and somewhat of its Filth and Loathsomness to tell you of its Meanness And why should you be so unwilling that so frail a Body should be turned to Dust Dust it is and to Dust it is Sentenced When the Soul has left it but a Week Men can scarce indure to see it or smell it And should the breaking of such an Earthen Vessel be so unpleasant a thing to you And for its Vsefulness though so far as it is obedient it was serviceable to your Souls and to God Yet was it so refractory ill-disposed and disobedient that it proved no better than your Enemy Many a Temptation it hath entertained and cherished and many a Sin hath it drawn you to commit Your Senses have let in a World of Vanity your Wandering Eyes have called in Covetousness and Pride and Lust Your Greedy Apperites have been so eager on the Bait that they have too often born down your Faith and Reason and drawn you to Excess in Meats or Drinks for Matter or Manner for Quality or Quantity or both Many a Groan these Sins have cost you and a sad uncomfortable Life you have had by reason of them in comparison of what you might have had and this Flesh has been the Mother or the Nurse of all You were engaged by your Baptismal Covenant to Fight against it when you entered into the Church and if you are Christians this Combate has been your daily Work and much of the Business of your Lives And yet are you loth to have the Victory and see your Enemy under your feet Have you fought your selves into Friendship with it that you are so tender of it Do you not know that when you are the greatest Friends to the Body it will be the most dangerous Enemy to you Do not think that it is only Sin and not the Body that is the Flesh which the Scripture calls your Enemy For it is the Body as inclining to Creatures from which the sinful Soul cannot restrain it It is the Body as having an inordinate sensitive Appetite and Imagination and so distempered as that it rebels against the Spirit and casteth off the Rule of Reason and would not be curbed of its Desires but have the Rule of all its self Was it not the very Flesh it self that Paul says he fought against and kept under and brought into Subjection lest he should be a Cast-away 1 Cor. 9.26 Why should Sin be called Flesh and Body but that it is the Body or Flesh that is the principal seat of those sins that are so called c. How earnestly should we beg of God that Faith and Hope in Vigorous Exercise that may kindle our Desires and Love towards the Heavenly State and make us long to behold the Lord in Glory when we shall put off this Body and our Souls be filled with Heavenly Light and Love Certainly if we do not now desire it we shall never enjoy it For we can never be happy by full satisfaction in that which we do not know enough of to make us desire But the little Knowledge and Love of God which a real Christian now hath must needs make him Importunate in his Requests for more and will make him value his Hopes of a better State beyond all the Pleasures of Sin and all the Possessions of this World O How Passionately have some excellent Persons lamented the weakness of their Desires and Love and cryed out for more of Heavenly Life and Light and Love to God! O * Mr. Baxter's Dying Thoughts p. 184. 212. where is the longing the rejoycing the triumphing Faith VVhere is the pleasant familiarity above that should make a Thought of Christ and Heaven to be sweeter to me than the Thought of Friends and Health or all the Pleasure and Prosperity in the World Do those that dwell in God and God in them and have their Heart and Conversation in Heaven attain to no more clear and satisfying Preception of that blessed State than I have yet attained Is there no more Acquaintance above to be here expected No livelier sense of future Joys No sweeter Fore tastes No fuller silencing of Doubts and Fears Alas How many Christians are less afraid to go