due time receive us unto himself according to those gracious words of his Jâ—â— xii 26. If any man serve me let him follow me And where I am there shall my servant be also If any man serve me him will my Father honour III. Our assurance lies in that full persuasion of it which is in the hearts of all holy men the friends and lovers of God who live in the expectation of this great and wonderful change and rejoyce in the hope and glory of God 2 Cor. v. 1. We know saith St. Paul in the name of all the faithful that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens We know that is we are assured of it it is not a bare conjecture a mere probability a groundless conceit or opinion no what were this but to build upon the sand but it is knowledge that is a thing truly demonstrable we may see the firmness of this persuasion in the mighty influence it hath upon them both as to piety and as to courage and patience as to piety 2 Cor. vii 1. for having these promises they endeavoar to purifie themselves from all uncleanness both of flesh and spirit 1 Col. 12. and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord that so they may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light as well knowing that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. xv 50. and that corruption shall not inherit incorruption Again as to Courage and Patience it is the full persuasion of this that makes them to ingage upon the most difficult duties and to despise the greatest dangers that are in their way to hazard their persons Mat. x. 39. knowing that if they lose their lives for Christs sake they shall find it Heb. x. 34. to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Now is there such a confident expectation in the hearts of holy men is this persuasion begotten in them by the Word and shall we dare to doubt of it But to conclude Our assurance lies in the first fruits and beginnings of it within our selves But what are these first fruits they are the graces and workings of the Spirit within us whereby we are changed from what naturally we were and created again after the Image of God in righteousness and true holiness This renovation of our minds this restauration of our Souls to their original qualities is a certain pledge of the resurrection of our bodies and their glorious advancement by Christ Râ—â— viii 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you In this respect it is that the Spirit is called the earnest of our inheritance 1 Eph. xiii 14. and we are said to be sealed by the holy spirit of promise until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory To carry this a little farther there are some who tell us that this change is begun in our bodies even in this life they being by vertue of that true and real regeneration that is wrought upon the Soul rectified into a divine temperament and this they think the Apostle doth not obscurely intimate in the five first verses of the fifth Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians But to wave this by what I have already said you may see that we have very good reason to believe and expect this glorious change I come now to the third thing proposed and that is to excite and stir you up to a serious meditation of this great truth think much of your future happiness and of the glory that is to be revealed at the coming of Christ The covetous man is alwaies thinking of the world his heart goeth out after his covetousness as the Spirit of God describes him the voluptuous man is alwaies thinking of his pleasure either he entertains himself with the images of his past delights or he lays the design of some new one The Ambitious man hath alwaies the pleasing Ideas of greatness and honour before him O do you who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free Denizons of Heaven Citizens of the New Jerusalem that City that is above employ your thoughts upon more worthy objects while others mind Earthly things do you mind those that are Heavenly set your affections on things above Col. iii. 2 3. not on things on the Earth for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God It will be of great benefit and advantage to you for I. It will raise and innoble your Souls and make you look down with an holy disdain upon all things that are circumscribed and confined within this sphere of vanity as things that are below you that are utterly unsutable to you he that remembers that life above will never be very fond of this present life he that remembers the fulness of joy that is in Gods presence and the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand for evermore will be ashamed that those imaginary joys and momentary pleasures of sin which the sensual Epicure is so much transported with should ever controll or have any power over him he that often remembers the unspeakable glory with which Christ shall honour those who have been his faithful friends and followers will never have his eyes dazled with any worldly pomp or greatness Nay should we suppose the Devil should deal with him as he did with our blessed Saviour take him up to an high mountain scatter an airy horizon about him and therein according to the best of his skill represent to the utmost advantage all the glory of the world he would presently see through the imposture and discover the cheat for what can be great or glorious to him who by faith hath seen things invisible which do infinitely excell and go beyond whatever is seen 2 Cor. iv 18. For the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal II. The frequent meditation of this glory would quicken our diligence and make us more serious and earnest in our respective duties The Apostle makes this use of it in the close of his excellent discourse concerning the resurrection Therefore my dearly beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable 1 Cor. xv 5â— alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord. What can we do sufficient to express our love to him who hath done such great things for us who hath prepared a state of endless glory for us shall we be careless and slighting and drowsie in the service of such a Master No surely
done unto you As Haman who in his heart despised and hated Mordecai and did what he could to bring him to a shameful end was made to lacquey it at his horse-side and to proclaim through the chief streets of the City Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour so those very persons who now look upon you as the filth and off-scouring of all things and treat you accordingly shall one day admire your excellent glory and be forced not by arguments but by the evidence of the thing it self to cry out as they in the Book of Wisdom Wisd v. 3 4 5. These are they whom we had sometime in derision and a proverb of reproach we fools counted their life madness and their end without honour but how are they new numbred among the Children of God and their lot is among the Saints But though this sense be very applicable to the condition of those first Christians that were contemporary with the Apostles and their immediate Successors yet we conceive with submission that the words are to be taken in the more large and comprehensive sense as expressing that vileness of the body which is common to all which wherein it doth consist I am now to declare unto you I. In the meanness of the matter of which they are constituted and composed we are framed and made out of the Earth We dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust Job iv 19. as Eliphaz in Job speaks we are inclosed and compassed about with mud walls and this is a vile habitation for so quick and sprightly a being as the Soul of man is to dwell in II. In the qualities of them The body of man it is a gross and heavy a dull and stupid a dark and comfortless thing it depresses and bears down the Soul and Spirit that it cannot without great difficulty mount up above this dark atmosphere it pulls us down from our mounts of vision it clouds the serenity of our minds and stifles the joy and pleasure thereof by those clouds and vapours that are continually arising from its lower regions it obstructs and hinders the Soul in its most noble operations and will if great care be not taken to prevent it stupifie it into an utter forgetfulness of its Divine Original In a word as a learned Jew speaks it is instar veli vel parietis apprehensionem creatoris impedientis More Nevoch p. 3. c. 9. like a veil or rather a thick wall intercepting our sight of divine things And in this respect it was that the Apostle saith Whilst we are at home in the body 2 Cor. v. 6. we are absent from the Lord not as though we had no converse or communion at all with him 1 Ep. Job i. 3. for the experience of all holy men speaks the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Phaed. Our fellowship saith S. John is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ But so little are we capable of knowing God so little are we capable of enjoying him whilst here that we may well be said to be absent from the Lord in respect of those more full discoveries and manifestations he shall make unto us when we are released out of the body and disburthened of this cumbersome load of mortality If this be the natural state of the body by reason of its innate qualities how much worse is it with them who render their bodies every day more gross and vile whilst they make provision for them to fulfill the lusts thereof they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether fleshly and carnal or as Simplicius speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are meer lumps of flesh and blood and their Souls in such moist and dissolute bodies are in no better condition than a spark of fire in a clay lake which cannot long continue unextinguished III. The vileness of our bodies consists in this that they have so many necessities that must be satisfied if we would preserve them in any good plight the decays of Nature must be every day repayed with the constant supplies of meat and drink and the frequent returns of rest and sleep Fateor insitam esse nobis corporis nostri charitatem fateor nos hujus gerere tutelam nec nego indulgendum illi serviendum nego Sen. Ep. 14. Now though God not only allows but commands us to have a due regard to our bodies and he that neglects himself in this kind so far as to hazard his health and unfit him for the necessary offices of human life doth thereby contract no small guilt yet surely the Heaven-born Soul of man doth not without some reluctancy and trouble condescend to this mean service especially when it can hardly ever perform its duty without being intangled in some inconvenience or other in the very performance of it There 's none among us but hath had often experience of this whilst we think we are gratifying the lawful desires of Nature we are many times nourishing those lusts which war against our Souls Dum ad quietem satictatis ex indigentiae molestiâ transeo in ipso transitu mihi insidiatur laqueus concupiscentiae Cons lib. 10. c. 31. and for fear of starving a friend feed and maintain a deadly Enemy within us St. Austin speaks excellently well in his Confessions Whilst saith he we pass from the trouble of hunger to the quietness of satisfaction we are insnared in the Cords of our own Concupiscence necessity bids us pass but we have no way to pass from hunger to fulness but over the bridge of pleasure and although health and life be the first cause of our eating and drinking yet as that good man sadly complains Adjungit se tanquam pedissequa periculos a jucunditas dangerous pleasure thrusts her self into attendance and sometimes endeavors to be the principal O this is it that afflicts the Soul and Conscience of many a tender Christian and makes him to cry out not without some kind of impatience Lord why are the days of my Pilgrimage prolonged Wherefore dost thou continue me any longer in this vale of Sin and Misery Psal cxx 5. O wo is me that I dwell in Mesech and inhabit the Tents of Kedar IV. The vileness of the body consists in this that it is subject to so many miseries and calamities to aches and pains to wounds and bruises to diseases and divers kinds of maladies surely however some of us through the kind indulgence of Heaven may be in a great measure free from these things yet we are never secure from the fear of them whilst we have a nature liable to them and see the lives of others whom we have no reason to think worse than our selves so far imbittered by them that they spend their days in sighing and their years in sorrow and heaviness V. To conclude there needs no more be said to the making out the vileness of the body but
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Right Honourable WILLIAM Lord Pagett Baron of Beaudesert c. BY JOHN HEYNES A. M. and Preacher of the New Church WESTMINSTER LONDON Printed for Thomas Fox at the Sign of the Angel in Westminster-Hall MDCLXIX Imprimatur Geo. Thorp Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Gulielmo Archiep. Cant. à sacris domesticis Decemb. 13. 1678. Ex Aedibus Lambethanis A Funeral Sermon ON PHILIPPIANS iii. 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself THE Blessed Apostle having fully declared not only the vanity and falseness but also the dangerous consequences of that Doctrine which mixes the righteousness of the Law with that of Faith in the point of Justification comes in the close of this Chapter to press the more adult and grown Christians among the Philippians whom in comparison with others he calls perfect to a firm belief of Vers 15. and an unanimous adherence to this great and fundamental Article of the Christian Religion giving them good ground to hope that if any that were upright among them were through the craft and subtilty of false Teachers deluded into a persuasion of the necessity of observing the Ceremonial Law or any part of it God in his due time would discover this Error unto them and upon their sincere endeavours after truth effectually reclaim them from it Vers 16. In the mean time he exhorts them to walk orderly to live as becometh the Gospel of Christ in mutual love and amity avoiding as much as may be all contentions and quarrellings that so the Church of God might not through their means be rent into parties and factions and the work of the Lord retarded and hindered In order to this Vers 17. he advises them to be followers of him and such others as were acted by the same Spirit with him and not of those deceivers whose Life was as bad as their Doctrine of whom he had frequently forewarned them Vers 18 19. and could not forbear to do it again with tears for that they were the Enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end without repentance would certainly be destruction and that this saith he is no rash and uncharitable censure will be very evident to any one that shall consider the course and manner of their life for whatever their pretences to holiness be they are mere Slaves to their sensual appetites and under the power of their lusts the whole design of their life being nothing else but to gratifie the immoderate cravings thereof Their God is their belly their glory is in their shame they mind Earthly things Vers 20. but such through grace we are not for our conversation is in Heaven our thoughts are exercised upon and our desires and affections are carried out after Heavenly things even to the neglect and contempt of Earthly things we mind not the concerns of this present life but since our treasure is above our hearts are there also and as our way of living is contrary to theirs so shall our end be likewise for when Christ shall appear he shall publickly own and assert us as such who have been faithful to the trust committed to us he shall in a solemn manner testifie his respects to us Crowning us with glory Vers 21. honour and immortality and receiving us into Heaven where we shall to Eternal Ages dwell under the invigorating rays of his glorious presence which is the highest felicity and happiness our natures are capable of perhaps this may seem strangely improbable to those who have their eyes fixt upon the weakness and infirmities of these bodies that we carry about with us but the difficulty will soon vanish if ye consider that Christ at his coming shall change this vile body of ours that it may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Thus I have cleared the coherence of the words in which we have an account of the present and of the future state of the bodies of holy men Our body is now a vile base abject thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it but hereafter that is at the coming of Christ it shall be raised up and made like unto his glorious body 1 Cor. 15.49 that so as we have born the Image of the Earthy we might also bear the Image of the Heavenly I shall speak to both these particulars beginning with the first concerning the present state of the body in treating of which I shall observe this method First To explain in what sense our body is called by the Apostle a vile body Secondly To enquire how we came to have such vile bodies Thirdly To improve it by a close application of what hath been delivered to our selves As to the first these bodies of ours are said to be vile not as they are the creatures of God and the workmanship of his hands for so considered they are so far from being vile that they are to be admired as one of the greatest instances of the infinite power and wisdom of God certainly he that deliberately considers the stupendious Art that appears in the frame and structure of human bodies must needs break forth into that expression of the raptured Psalmist That they are fearfully and wonderfully made But they are said to be vile in respect of the present circumstances under which they are and the many evils they are obnoxious to whilst in those circumstances The words may be understood either in a more limited and restrained sense with respect to the condition of the Apostles and other holy men at that time or in a more large and comprehensive sense as expressing what 's common to all if we take them in the former they are a high cordial to the suffering Saints these bodies of ours saith he that are now so liable to the injuries and cruelties of wicked men these bodies that are haled and dragged into Prisons these bodies that are scourged and abused by our inhuman Persecutors these bodies that are gall'd with bonds and fetters that are laden with irons and manacles that are broken upon wheels that are rackt with engines that are torn with the teeth of wild beasts that are consumed in flames these bodies that are neglected and starved and pined and famished these bodies that are cast forth as dung upon the face of the earth even these very bodies shall he transform into a likeness to his own most glorious body and therefore let this quiet you let this support and bear up your spirits in the midst of all these afflictive Providences wherewith God sees fit to exercise you look not at the present ignominy but at the future glory think not of the reproach and shame you are now exposed unto but of that honour that shall hereafter be
that it is a corruptible perishing dying thing and hath that within it self which if there were no danger from without would not fail at last to destroy it ye that are of the strongest and most athletick constitution must at last yield to the necessity of Nature Heb. ix 27. for it is appointed for all men once to die this is the Decree and Ordinance of God a Law that shall never be either repealed or altered Eccl. xii 2. The time is coming when the Sun and Moon and Stars shall be darkned and the Clouds return after the Rain Verse 3. When the Keepers of the House shall tremble and the strong Men bow themselves and the Grinders cease because they are few Verse 6. and those that look out of the Window be darkned When the silver Cord shall be loosed and the golden Bowl broken when the Pitcher shall be broken at the Fountain and the Wheel be broken at the Cistern Vehse 7. then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it Thus you see by what hath been said wherein the vileness of the body doth consist S. Paul comprises all in a little room 2 Cor. v. 1. when he calls it our Earthly House of this Tabernacle by which words he intimates unto us that it is a poor mean Cottage so strait and narrow that the Soul is as it were crowded and thrust up in it and cannot inlarge nor stretch forth it self to its just dimensions so dark that it can see nothing but through the chinks and holes thereof and that only that lyes in a strait line before it so weak and ruinous that it is ever and anon ready to drop down on our heads 〈◊〉 11. I come now to the second thing designed and that is to enquire how we come to have such vile bodies The followers of Pythagoras and Plato who held the prae existence of Souls tell us that they are adjudged and condemned to this condition for their ill demeanour in that higher state that the Soul growing impure in it self forthwith loses its vital congruity with the more thin and subtile vehicle of Aether or Air and requires one of a more gross consistency as being more suitable to the moral turpitude and impurity she hath contracted through her sinful Apostasie and turning aside from God But these are the conjectures of men in the dark let us see what account the Holy Scriptures will give us in this matter There we read that Man when he came first out of the hands of God was an excellent Creature and the Masterpiece of the whole visible Creation the Image of God was resplendent in him and the Divine Glory rested upon him his Soul was full of light and purity and his body that was framed out of the uncorrupted Earth was wrought into a delicacy and fineness correspondent to it so that it was as a Crystal Case through whose transparent sides might in a sort be seen the sparkling lustre of that Jewel that was inclosed therein the humors were equally mixt and every part most exactly fitted and proportioned there was no defect nor deformity in him This was the state of Man whilst innocent but alass he sinned and no sooner had he sinned but immediately he found the sad effects thereof within himself the light and joy which was ere while within him was now turned into darkness and sadness his hope and confidence into fear and a dread of the Divine displeasure He who before did familiarly converse with God now flies his presence and would if possible hide his guilty head from him Now it was that death according to the threatning got within him and planted there the principles of corruption now the body became as it 's here called a vile body a necessitous indigent body a passive suffering body a weak and frail body a perishing and corruptible body it was sin that was the true cause of all this misery and infelicity of ours it was sin that spoil'd the harmony that broke the peace that stirred up the humors that discomposed the spirits that clouded the glory and majesty of the body and reduced it to that mean and contracted size that now it is of Through sin it is that we became liable to so many changes to perils from above the malignant influences of the stars and the poysonous blasts of the air to perils from below the deadly productions of the earth which nourish for a while but lay the seeds of death within us to perils and dangers from every thing round about us and with which we do converse It was sin that cast us out of the Paradise of God that drave us from under the shade of the Tree of Life that shut us up in our prisons and seal'd us up in our vile bodies as in a grave had we never sinned we had never been thus restrained by our bodies thus oppressed and burthened with our bodies thus wearied and tired with our bodies had we continued in the condition wherein we were at first created they would have been no more a burthen to us than are feathers to the birds whereby they fly from place to place Thus having clear'd unto you the second particular how we came to have such vile bodies I proceed according to the method proposed to improve the point and that I shall do by way of Information by way of Reproof and by way of Exhortation I. By way of Information and it will inform us of two things 1. Of the great evil of sin in that it hath marr'd and spoil'd one of the most beautiful pieces of the Creation Perhaps we cannot or at least will not see the evil of sin in its own nature and as it is considered in it self O see it in its effects and consequents you may know how corrupt and impure the fountain is by the muddy and polluted streams that flow immediately from it you may know how bad the tree is by the bitter and unwholsome fruits it produceth There is no evil in the world no vanity in the creature no disorder within your selves that doth not owe its original to the sin of man all your deformities all your imperfections all your decays and weaknesses all your pains and griefs and maladies are the effects of sin O think of this whenever you are tired and wearied with a dull and heavy body whenever you are afflicted and troubled with a sickly distempered body and indeavour to work your hearts to a perfect abhorrency and detestation of that which hath been the Author and Occasion of so much mischief to you All men cannot see the disorders and confusions that sin hath wrought upon the Soul to this there is required the special illumination of the Spirit whose peculiar work it is to convince the world of sin but we may all see the fearful work it hath made upon our bodies O take heed of it fly from it as
from the face of a Serpent the more you sin the more vile you will be the more you sin the more gross the more earthy the more sottish and stupid you will be Nay your very Souls themselves though in their nature and substance Spiritual and Immortal beings shall at last be intangled in the same condition with your bodies and when at the coming of Christ holy men Rom. viii 13. who have by the Spirit mortified the deeds of the body Gal. v. 24. and crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Esaiae xl 31. shall mount up as upon the wings of Eagles you shall be forced downwards by the weight of your own carnal and corrupt affections and remain below as the dregs and sediment of the Earth to be burnt though not consumed in those last flames as the filth and ordure of Jerusalem in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom 2. This informs us of the rare harmony and agreement of the Divine Attributes manifestly declared in Gods dealing with fallen man Behold the justice of God in the punishment of man upon his transgression with such a body as this is Behold the wisdom and goodness of God in that he makes the punishment inflicted on him the means of his recovery it was for our sins that our bodies were made thus vile and yet through this vileness of our bodies are our Souls by the powerful grace of God raised and exalted to a state of glory for hereby it is that we are tried and exercised hereby it is that we are made patient and subject to the Divine Will and Pleasure hereby it is that we are humbled and made vile in our own eyes and our humiliation is the way and means of our exaltation Man fell by pride but he is raised by humility he fell by affecting to be like unto God but he is raised by knowing himself to be a poor vile wretched sinful man who is wholly helpless in himself and can do nothing to any purpose in order to his own happiness without the special Grace of God inabling him thereunto II. This Doctrine may be applyed by way of Reproof and it reproves three sorts of Men. First Such as pride and glory in the body Secondly Such as bestow all their thoughts and care on the body Thirdly Such as are unwilling to die and leave the body First Such as pride and glory in the body Why should dust and ashes be so proud Man that is a Worm and the Son of Man that is a Worm Is it because of his strength Yet a little while and his haughty looks shall be abased and his threatning countenance that strikes a terror into the hearts of his fellow creatures be covered with a ghastly paleness his pomp shall be brought down to the grave and his glory laid in the dust Isa xiv 16. They that see him shall narrowly look upon him and consider him saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms cap. xciii 17.18 His remembrance as it is in the Book of Job shall perish from the Earth and he shall have no name in the Street He shall be driven away from Light into Darkness and chased out of the World Again is it his beauty that he pleases himself in Yet a little while and his comliness shall be turned into deformity and that face that men now stare and gaze at not only with admiration but with a kind of adoration also shall become so loathsome that they who were formerly so exceedingly taken with it shall not endure to look at it We may all say to corruption Job xvii 14. thou art our Father and to the worm thou art our Mother and Sister Where 's then the cause of our glorying Secondly This reproves those who bestow all their thoughts and care on the body whose work and business it is to adorn and beautifie it to indulge and pamper it to please and gratifie it in its most unreasonable appetites and desires Perhaps it will be a difficult matter to convince you of the sin and folly of this now whilst your bones are full of marrow and your blood circulates freely in your veins whilst you are well at ease and have nothing to molest and trouble you but tell me what will your thoughts be when you shall stand upon the sides of the grave and are ready to go down into the pit when the foundation begins to sink under you when the pillars of the house tremble when your feet stumble upon the dark mountains when death lays his palsie hands on you but I would not have you tarry so long for a conviction walk forth into the Church-yard enter into the Charnel-house and there view the bodies of thy deceased friends post peractum Sepulchri mysterium Pudeat corpus tantae soeâ—itati reservatum sic amare sic ornare sic colere sic nutrire De Lingend after they are turned into corruption and rottenness and then return to thy self and say As they are so must I shortly be and shall I for such a vile body neglect my God my Soul my Happiness Oh what folly can be greater or more below the reason of a man than this is Thirdly This Doctrine reproves such as are unwilling to die and leave the body This branch of the reproof concerns the Christian only I mean such a one who hath the Spirit of Christ in him and hath hopes towards God through the Mediator Mori timeat sed qui aquâ Spiritu non renatus gehennâ—e ignibus mancipatur Cypr. as for other men who either know not what shall become of them or else being condemned by their own Consciences antedate their torments by their just fears I cannot blame them to be unwilling yea very unwilling to die though the body be a prison yet it is better than the place of Execution though it be a dungeon a place of darkness and horror yet it is much better than the Rack and the Wheel and therefore no wonder if they be desirous to tarry here and cannot endure to think of going forth but for the Christian who hath assurance of the Pardon of his sin and knows that when he goes hence he shall be received into the Paradise of God and be admitted to the participation of those joys that infinitely transcend the highest entertainments of sense is one of the most unaccountable things immaginable What wouldest thou have thought of Joseph if after so long an imprisonment he had been unwilling to come into the presence of Pharaoh or to be advanced in the Kings Court or of Daniel if he had chosen rather to have sate still among the Lions than to be delivered thence and restored to his former dignity or of Jonah if he had preferred the belly of a Whale where the depth closed him round about and the weeds were wrapt about his head before the enjoyment of light and liberty with other
men Why thy folly is much greater inasmuch as thou refusest a greater blessing than any of the forementioned ones and choosest a condition far worse than theirs Search into the causes of it and you shall find that it proceeds from the weakness of your Faith from the remisness of your Love to God from the flatness of your desires from the lowness and darkness of your spiritual apprehensions and from your unmortified affections you are not yet throughly crucified to the world nor is the world crucified to you there is a secret hankering after it a secret delight and satisfaction in it whatever you pretend to the contrary were it not so you would long earnestly for your enlargement and with Saint Paul Phil. i. 23. desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better III. This Doctrine exhorts us to a noble and generous contempt of the body Is it so vile a thing so mean and contemptible a thing in the sense I have explained it O then do not spend thy time thy strength thy substance in providing for it or in the satisfaction of it but think of the poor Soul that is imprisoned in it labour as much as you can to in large its condition here to separate it as much as may be from the body to advance it as far as your present state is capable above the body Would you not think him a mad man that should stop up all both peeping and breathing holes in his Prison that should desire that the walls thereof might be made much stronger and the doors be bolted much faster Such is the folly of those men who mind nothing more than the good habit of their body O transfer your care from the Body to the Soul for that must shortly lie down in the dust and perish but this shall abide for ever Think therefore how thou mayest provide for its security how thou mayest get a mansion in the Heavens that so when thou goest hence thou mayest not be at such an uncertainty as the generality of men are who know not what shall become of them or where their Eternal abode shall be When thou dost disregard and slight thy body upon the design of promoting the health and happiness of thy Soul thou shewest the highest regard to and care for it imaginable for as our Saviour saith He that loveth his life shall lose it John xii 25. and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal So he that expresses his love to his body by studying the pleasure and satisfaction of it doth take an effectual course to destroy it but he that despises and neglects it for the sake of Christ doth hereby infallibly secure its everlasting welfare for whosoever hath an interest in Christ may be assured that at his coming he will change this vile body that it may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself and so this leads me to the second thing contained in the words namely what shall be the state of the body at the resurrection it shall be transformed into the similitude or likeness of the glorious body of Christ In treating of this I shall observe this order or method I. To declare unto you what kind of change this shall be and wherein it doth consist II. To shew what assurance we have of it or what grounds and reasons to persuade our selves that thus it shall be III. To stir you up to a serious meditation of it that you may find the power and influence of this great truth upon your own hearts As for the first what kind of change this shall be it is evident that it shall not be a substantial change from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here made use of by which is intimated unto us that the same substance shall remain only it shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not another shape for the form and figure and lineaments of the body shall not be altered but another appearance as being freed from all those evil qualities that were contracted by sin and adorned with all the excellencies and perfections it is capable of This body of ours that we now carry about with us this vile body that is liable to so many injuries that is deformed with blindness cripled with lameness weakned with sickness pined with hunger dried with thirst scorched with heat contracted with cold this very body shall Christ change that it may be fashioned like unto his own body and that not as it was upon Earth but as it was when raised up by the mighty power of God like to his glorious body Saint Chrysostom when discoursing upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 13. in Ep. ad Philipp could not contain himself but break out into a rapture of joy and admiration Oh wonderful saith he that this vile body this earthy this corruptible body should be made like unto that body wherein Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father like unto that body wherein he is Worshipped and Adored by all the Heavenly Host Who hath heard such a thing who could ever have imagined such a thing it shall be made like unto the glorious body of Christ in the participation of the same excellent qualities This is strange and we cannot but wonder at it but yet we may nay we must believe it for he hath said it and he will do it since he is able according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself If you desire to understand more particularly the nature of this change Scritur 〈…〉 manitum usque quaque vestitum Tertul. de Resur carn the Apostle will inform you fully in the 15. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and the 42 43 and 44. verses It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body O consider this well we shall have spiritual bodies not in the strict and most proper sense of the word for so a spiritual body is a contradiction but we shall have pure refined quick and agil bodies which if compared with these to which we are now restrained may well be called Spiritual We shall have spiritual bodies that is such as the blessed spirits wear when they go upon Heavens Embassies plyant and yielding to all the motions of the Soul like their vehicles of Aether We shall have incorruptible bodies that is such which shall not stand in need to be repaired and kept up by the constant supplies of meat and drink such which shall subsist unchangeably without those helps which nature now requires as necessary to the preservation thereof we shall have incorruptible bodies that is such which cannot be
assaulted with sickness with pains and aches and distempers such which shall never decay myriads of Ages shall not make the flower of our youth to fall or fade nor bring the least wrinkle or deformity upon us there shall be an everlasting spring our greenness and verdure shall never be turned we shall have incorruptible bodies that is we shall never die for where there is no sin there can be no death there shall be none of the causes of death neither natural within us nor accidental from without us There shall be no Serpent in that Paradise of God no Tempter no forbidden fruit there shall be no infectious Air there shall be no death in the land of the living Again our bodies shall be raised in power they shall have a wonderful strength and vigor whereby they may be inabled to bear that exceeding weight of glory We shall have glorious bodies God shall refine them and make them like the purest sky they shall shine like the brightness of the firmament Dan. xii 3. and as the stars for ever and ever Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. xiii 43. as our Saviour tells us adding immediately who hath ears to hear let him hear Fulgtbit anima luce divinae sapientiae ex quâ luce râ—spiendescentia quaedam in ipâ—a quoque câ—pâ—ra transfundetâ—r Now besides what Scripture hath said it is clear and evident to our very reason that there shall be such a change wrought upon the body whether we consider the exalted state of the Soul which is to be united to it or the nature of the place where it is to have its constant residence and abode even the Heaven of Heavens the Court and Palace of the great King where there is no Earth nor Water nor any other of the Elements of this lower World neither any of the Creatures that live in them but pure light of unconceivable brightness now since we are to be in such a place our bodies must have such qualities as shall be correspondent and suitable to the purity of it for otherwise we should not be capable of living in it the grossness and heaviness of our bodies would incline and sway us down to this dull Earth again we should soon be weary of that strange place and groan and sigh to be delivered from it as the pure and holy Souls of good men do from this Now consider seriously with your selves what the advantages of this glorious change shall be it is a thing agreed upon by learned men and approved by experience that the frame and temper of our minds doth much depend upon the prevailing humors of our body nothing is more plain than this the mutability and changeableness of the disposition of our minds may convince us of it how are we at some times prest down with the weight of the body being almost stifled and suffocated with the noysome vapors that do ascend from it insomuch that we can neither think nor act with that force and vigor that is proper to the Soul and Spirit of man we become in a manner meer lumps of clay and 't is an hard matter to discern any thing in us that may distinguish us from the very brute creatures and yet we the very same persons when the cloud is removed when the fog that benighted us is dispersed and scattered what an alteration do we find how serene and clear are our minds how free are our thoughts how nimble and active is the Soul and how quick and lively in all its motions and operations Now think with your selves if a good temper of body can so much promote the pleasure and happiness of our minds whilst we are here what an exalted condition shall we be in when our bodies are become wholly spiritual when there shall be no gross or earthly alloy in our constitution when the clouds arising from these lower regions shall never interpose or come between the Soul and its glorious object But so much may suffice to be spoken concerning the first particular viz. What this change shall be and wherein it doth consist II. I come now to the second thing intended and that is to shew what assurance we have of it or what grounds and reasons there are to persuade our selves that thus it shall be and this I shall dispatch in a few words we have as great assurance as the thing is capable of and it lies in these four particulars First in the promise of God who in his Word hath declared that whomsoever he leads by his Counsels he will bring at last to his glory besides my Text there are divers other passages of Scripture which I have occasionally mentioned already and therefore shall not trouble you with a needless repetition of them only give me leave to shew you what reason you have to acquiesce and rest satisfied in these promises and that both upon the account of his power and of his truth and faithfulness upon the account of his power he is Omnipotent he is Almighty he can do whatever he pleases men may promise and not be able to perform but we cannot conceive any such thing concerning God without doing him the greatest injury imaginable he that made the world of nothing and framed these bodies of ours out of the dust how easie a thing is it for him to change these vile bodies of ours and transform them into the likeness of that of our glorious Redeemer Again we have reason to depend and rely without scruple upon the promise of God if we consider his truth and faithfulness he cannot lye nor deceive his creatures those are weaknesses and imperfections utterly inconsistent with the holy nature of God and therefore the Scripture pronounces them blessed who trust in God in a right manner because it is impossible they should be deceived or disappointed Psal 146.5 6. Happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help In omnibus Deum frielem invenim is in ultimo deficiet faliet August whose hope is in the Lord his God which made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is which keepeth truth for ever Now this God who is just in all his Actions and true and faithful in all his sayings hath told us that he will glorifie these vile bodies of ours 1 Tit. 2. In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lye hath promised unto us II. Our assurance lyes in the resurrection and glorification of Christ which was not only an Example and Pattern of ours but is also the Cause because he is risen we shall rise also because he is glorified we may be sure we shall be glorified together with him This appears from the relation we bear unto him he is our head we are the members of his body now if the head be glorious so shall we his members be also we are his servants and followers and therefore may conclude he will in his