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monstrosities in glorified bodies; but of them it may much rather be said, what was once said of Absalom. 2 Sam. xiv. 25. "That from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him." (3.) It shall be freed from all natural necessities, to which it is now subjected in this its animal state. How is the soul now disquieted and tortured with cares and troubles, to provide for a perishing body? Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with: What shall it eat? And what shall it drink? And wherewithal shall it be cloathed? "But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, God shall destroy both it and them," 1 Cor. vi. 13. (i. e.) as to their present use and office; for as to its existence, so the belly shall not be destroyed. But even as the masts, poop stern of a ship abide in the harbor, after the voyage is ended, so shall these bodily members, as Tertullian excellently illustrates it. (4.) They shall be freed from death, to which thenceforth they can be subject no more -that formidable adversary of nature shall assault it no more. .-"For they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they shall be equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Luke xx. 35, 36. Mark it, equal to the angels; not that they shall be separate and single spirits, without bodies as the angels are, but equal to them in the way and manner of their living and acting.* We shall then live upon God, and act freely, purely and delightfully for God; for all kind of living upon, and delighting in creatures, seems in that text, by a synecdoche of the part which is ordinarily in scripture put for all creature-delights, de

Isangelos biontes.

pendencies and necessities, to be excluded. Nothing but God shall enamour and fill the soul, and the body shall be perfectly subdued to the spirit. Lord, what hast thou prepared for them that love thee!

REFLECTIONS.

1. If I shall receive my body again so dignified and improved in the world to come, then, Lord,

let me never be unwilling to use my body The healthful now for the interest of thy glory, or my saint's reflecown salvation! Now, O my God, it grieves "tion.

me to think how many precious opportu

nities of serving and honouring thee I have lost, under pretence of endangering my health?

I have been more solicitous to live long and healthfully, than to live usefully and fruitfully; and, like enough, my life had been more serviceable to thee, if it had not been so fondly over-valued by me.

Foolish soul! hath God given thee a body for a living tool or instrument, and art thou afraid to use it? Wherein is the mercy of having a body, if not in spending and wearing it out in the service of God? To have an active vigorous body, and not to employ and exercise it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one should give thee a handsome and sprightly horse, upon condition thou shouldest not ride or work him. O! if some of the saints had enjoyed the blessing of such an healthy, active body as mine, what excellent services would they have performed to God in it?

2. If my body shall as surely rise again in glory, vigor and excellent endowments, as the seed which The sickly I sow doth; why should not this comfort me saint's re- over all the pains, weaknesses and dulness flection. with which my soul is now clogged? Thou knowest, my God, what a grief it hath been

to my soul, to be fettered and entangled with the distempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body; It hath made me sigh, and say, with holy Anselme, when he saw the mounting bird weighed down by the stone hanging at her leg, Lord, thus it fares with the soul of thy servant! Fain would I serve, glorify and enjoy thee, but a distempered body will not let me. However, it is reviving to think, that though I am now forced to crawl like a worm, in the discharge of my duties, I shall shortly fly, like a seraphim, in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping soul, the time is at hand, when thou shalt be made more willing than thou art, and thy flesh not so weak as now it is.

3. And is it so indeed? Then let the dyThe dying ing saint, like Jacob, rouse up himself upon saint's reflec- his bed, and encourage himself against the tion. fears of death by this refreshing considera

tion. Let him say, with holy dying Musculus, why tremblest thou, O my soul, to go forth of this tabernacle to the land of rest? Hath thy body been such a pleasant habitation to thee, that thou shouldst be so loth to part with it, though but for a time, and with assurance of receiving it again with such a glorious improvement? I know, O my soul, that thou hast a natural inclination to this body, resulting from the dear and strict union which God himself hath made betwixt thee and it; yea, even the holiest of men do sometimes sensibly feel the like in themselves; but beware thou love it not immoderately or inordinately; it is but a creature, how dear soever it be to thee; yea, a fading creature, and that which now stands in thy way to the full enjoyment of God. But say, my soul, why are the thoughts of parting with it so burthensome to thee? Why so loth to take death by its cold hand?

Is this body thy old and dear friend? True, but yet thou partest not with it upon such sad terms, as should deserve a tear at parting: For mayest thou not say of this departure, as Paul at the departure of Onesimus ? Phiłem. ver. 15. "It therefore departeth for a season, that thou mayest receive it for ever." The day of re-espousals will quickly come; and in the mean time, as thy body shall not be sensible of the tedious length of interposing time, so neither shalt thou be solicitous about thine absent friend; for the fruition of God in thine unbodied state, shall fill thee with infinite satisfaction and rest.

Or is it not so much simply for parting with it, as for the manner of thy parting, either by the slow and lingering approaches of a natural, or the quick and terrible approaches of a violent death. Why, trouble not thyself about that; for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious sickness, yet at the end of it is thy father's house. And for a violent death, it is not so material, whether friends or enemies stand weeping or triumphing over thy dead body. Nihil corpus sensit in nervo cum anima fit in cœlo. When thy soul shall be in heaven, it will not be sensible how the body is used on earth.

4 But, Oh! what an uncomfortable parting will mine be! and how much more sad our meeting

again! How will this soul and body blush, The ungodly yea, tremble when they meet, who have soul's reflec been co-partners in so much guilt? I dam- tion.

ned my soul to please my flesh, and now

have ruined both thereby. Had I denied my flesh to serve Christ, worn out my body in the service of my soul, I had, thereby, happily provided for them both, but I begun at the wrong end, and so have ruined both eternally.

CHAPTER XII.

UPON THE RESEMBLANCE OF WHEAT AND TARES.

As wheat resembled is by viler tares,
So vile hypocrisy like grace appears.

OBSERVATION.

Ir is Jerom's observation, that wheat and tares are so much alike in their first springing up, that it is exceeding difficult to distinguish the one from the other: These are his words, Inter triticum et lolium quamdiu herba est, et nondum culmus venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo est; et indiscernendo aut nulla, aut per difficilis distantia. The difference, saith he, between them is either none at all, or wonderfully difficult to discern, which those words of Christ, Mat. xiii. 30. plainly confirm. Let them both alone till the harvest, thereby intimating, both the difficulty of distinguishing the tares and wheat, as also the unwarrantable rashness of bold and hasty censures of men's sincerity or hypocrisy, which are there shadowed by them.

APPLICATION.

How difficult soever it be to discern the difference be twixt wheat and tares, yet, doubtless, the eye of sense can much easier discriminate them, than the most quick and piercing eye of man can discern the difference betwixt special and common grace; for all saving graces in the saints have their counterfeits in hypocrites. There are similar works in these, which a spiritual and very judicious eye may easily mistake for the saving and genuine effects of the sanctifying Spirit.

Doth the Spirit of God convince the consciences of his people of the evil of sin? Rom. vii. 9. Hypocrites have their convictions too. Exod. x. 16. "Then Pharaoh

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