1. Is thy body which was once hale and vigorous, now become a crazy, sickly, pained body to thee, neither useful to God, nor comfortable to thee ? a tabernacle to groan and sigh in ; and little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper; God hath ordained this to make thee willing to be divorced from it : the less desirable life is, the less formidable death will be.
l.l Is thy estate decayed and blasted by providence, so that thy life which was once full of creature-comforts, is now filled with cares and anxieties ? O it is a weaning providence to thee, and
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bespeaks thee the more cheerfully to bid the world farewell. The less comfort it gives you, the less it shall entangle and engage you. We little know -with what aching hearts, and pensive breasts, many of God's people walk up and down, though for religion, or reputa- tion sake, they put a good lace upon it ; but by these things, God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better state.
3. Is an husband, a wife, or dear children dead, and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust? why this the Lord sees necessary to do to persuade you to come after willingly ? It is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth, that thou mayest fall the more easily. () how many strokes must God give at our names, estates, relations, and health, before we will give way to the last stroke of death that fells us to the ground?
4. Do the times frown upon religion ? Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand ? Are desirable assemblies scattered ? nothing but sorrows and sufferings to be expected in this world? by these things God will imbitter the earth, and sweeten heaven to his people.
5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian society defaced and decayed? Is that communion which was wont to be pithy, sub- stantial, spiritual, and edifying, become either frothy or conten- tious, so that thy soul has no pleasure in it ? this also is a weaning providence to our souls : Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibics theologorum odiis, from the wranglings and contentions that were in his time. Our fond affection to the body requires all this and much more to wean and mortify them.
Inf. 4. Hoiv comfortable is the doctrine of the resurrection to be- Uevers, which assures them of receiving their bodies again, though they part with them for a time !
Believers must die as well as others; their union with Christ pri- vileges them not from a separation from their bodies, Kom. viii. 10. Heb. ix. 27. But yet they have special grounds of consolation against this doleful separation above all others. For,
1. Though they part with them, yet they part in hopes of re- ceiving them again, 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die. Husbandmen cast their seed-corn into the earth cheerfully and willingly, because they part with it in hope ; so should we, when we commit our bodies to the earth at death.
2. Though death separates these dear friends from each other, vet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ, Luke xx. 37, 38. " I am the God of Abraham/' fee. Your very dust is the Lord's, and the grave rots not the bond of the covenant.
3. The very same body we lay down at death, we shall assume again at the resurrection ; not only the same specifical, but the
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same numerical body ; Job xix. 25, 26. " With these eyes shall I " see God."
4. The unbodied soul shall not find the want of its body, so as to afflict or disquiet it ; nor the body the want of its soul ; but the one shall be at rest in heaven, and the other sweetly asleep in the grave ; and all that long interval shall slide away without any af- flicting sense of each others absence. The time will be long, Job xiv. 12. but if it were longer, it cannot be afflicting, considering how the soul is clothed immediately, 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. and how the body sleeps sweetly in Jesus, 1 Thes. iv. 14.
5. When the day of their re-espousals is come, the soul will find the body so transformed and improved, that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more, but a singular addition to its happiness and glory. Now it clogs us : Matt. xxvi. 41. " The spirit indeed " is willing, but the flesh is weak." It encumbers us with cares to provide for it, and eats up time and thoughts ; but then it will be a spiritual body, 1 Cor. xv. 43. like to the angels for manner of subsistence, Luke xx. 35, 36. 1 Cor. vi. 13. and, which is the highest step of glory, like unto Christ's glorious body, Phil. iii. 21. Well therefore might the father say, Resurrectio mortuorem est con- solatio Christianoriim ; the resurrection of the dead is the consola- tion of Christians.
Use second, of reproof.
In the next place, let me press you to regulate your love to your bodies, by the rules of religion and right reason. I must press you to love them, though nature itself teacheth you so to do ; but I press you to love them as Christians, as men that understand the right use and improvement of their bodies. There are two sorts of errors in our love to the body, one in defect, the other in excess ; both come fitly here to be censured and healed.
First, Some offend in the defect of love to their own bodies, who use them as if they had no love for them, whose souls act as if they were enemies to their own bodies ; they do not formally and directly hate them, but consequentially and eventually they may be said to hate them, and that,
(1.) By defiling them with filthy lusts ; so the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. vi. 18. " Every sin that a man doth, is without the body, but " he that committeth adultery sinneth against his own body :" In other sins it is the instrument, but here it is both instrument and object; not only God, but your own bodies are abused and wronged by it. The body may be considered two ways, Either,
2. As the Spirit's temple.
1. As our vessel or instrument for natural and spiritual uses and services: and on that account we should not injure or defile it, 1
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Thess. iv. 4, 5. but possess it in sanctification and honour. The lusts of uncleanness, gluttony, and drunkenness, quench the vigour, blast the beauty, and destroy the health and honour of the body ; and so render it both naturally and morally unfit for the service and use of the soul.