* me."* All this the flesh can plead, and a great deal more than this, and that a thousand times more powerfully and feelingly, than any words can plead the case. And all its arguments are backed by sense ; sight and feehng attest what nature speaks.
Let us, in the next place, weigh the pleas and reasons, which notwithstanding all this, do over-power, and prevail with the be- lieving soul to be gone, and quit its own body, and return no more to the elementary world.
And thus the power of faith and love enables it to reply : ' My dear body, the companion and partner of my comforts ^ and troubles, in the days of my pilgrimage on earth, great is my ' love, and strong are the boiids of my affections to thee. Thou
* hast been tenderly, yea, excessively beloved by me ; my cares ' and fears for thee have been inexpressible, and nothing but the ' love of Jesus Christ is strong enough to gain my consent to part
* with thee ; thy interest in my affection is great, but as great as ' it is, and as much as I prize thee, I can shake thee off, and thrust ' thee aside, to go to Christ.
' Nor may this seem absurd, or unreasonable, considering tliat ' God never designed thee for a mansion, but only a temporary" ' tabernacle to me : it is true, I have had some comfort during my ' abode in thee ; but I enjoyed these comforts only in thee, not from ' thee ; and many more I might have enjoyed, hadst thou not been
* a snare and a clog to me.
- ' It is thou that hast eaten up my time, and distracted my thoughts, ^ ensnared my affections, and drawn me under much sin and sor-
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. • 10^
* row : however, though we may weep over each other, as accessories « to the sins and miseries we have drawn upon ourselves ; yet in this
< is our joint rehef, that the blood of Christ hath cleansed us both « from all sin.
' And therefore I can part the more easily and comfortably « from thee, because I part in hope to receive and enjoy thee in a
< far better condition than I leave thee. It is for both our interests « to part for a time ; for mine, because I shall thereby be freed « and delivered from sin and sorrow, and immediately obtain rest
< with God, and the satisfaction of all my desires in his presence ' and enjoyment, which there is no other way to obtain, but by ' separation from thee : and why should I live a groaning, burdened, ' restless life always, to gratify thy fond and irrational desires ?
* If thou lovest me, thou wouldst rejoice, not repine at my hap- ' piness. Parents willingly part with their children at the greatest ' distance, for their preferment, how dearly soever they love ' them ; and dost thou envy, or repine at mine ? I have lived ' many months a suffocating, obscure life, with thee in the womb,
* and neither you nor I had ever tasted or experienced the comforts
* of this world, and the various delights of sense, if we had not ' struggled hard for an entrance into this world. And now we ' are here alas ! though thou art contented to abide ; I live in ' thee, but as we both lived in the womb, an obscure, uneasy, and
* unsuitable life ; thou canst feed upon material bread, and delight ' thyself amidst the variety of sensitive objects thou findest here ;
* but what are all these things to me ? 1 cannot subsist by them ; ' that which is food to thee, is but chaff, wind, vanity to me : if I ' stay with thee, I^shall be still sinning, and still groaning; when ' I leave thee, I shall be immediately freed from both, and arrive
* at the sum and perfection of all the hopes, desires, and whatsoever ' I have aimed at, and laboured for, in all the duties of my life.
* Let us therefore be content to part.
' Shrink not at the horrpr o[ a grave ; it is indeed a dark and ' solitary house, and the days of darkness may be many ; but to ' thee, my dear companion, it shall be a bed of rest, yea, a perfumed
* bed, where thy Lord Jesus lay before thee : and let the time of
* thy abode there be never so long, thou shalt not measure it, nor
* find the least tediousness in it ; a thousand years there shall seem
* no more in the morning of the resurrection, than the sweetest nap
* of an hour. seemed to be when I was wont to lay thee upon the
' The worms in the grave shall be nothing to thee, nor give
* thee the thousandth part of that trouble that a flea was wont to
* do ; and though I leave thee, Jesus Christ shall watch, in the
110 A TEEATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
* mean time over my dust, and not suffer a grain of it to be lost :: ^ and I will return assuredly to thee again, at the time appointed ; ' I take not an everlasting farewell of thee, but depart for a time, ' that I may receive thee for ever. To conclude, there is an una* ' voidable necessity of our parting ; whether willing or unwilling, ' we must be separated : but the consent of my will to part with ' thee, for the enjoyment of Jesus Christ will be highly accepta-
* ble to God, and greatly sweeten the bitter cup of death to us ' both;
This, and much more the gracious soul hath to say for its sepa^ ration from the body ; by which it is easy to discern w^here the gain and advantage of death lies to all believers, and consequently, ho.w much must it be every way their interest to be unbodied.
J?'g. 2. To be weary of the body upon the pure account and reason of our hatred to sin, and longing desires after Jesus Christ, argues strongly grace in truth, and grace in strength ; it is both the test of our sincerity, and measure of our attainment and matu- rity of grace, and upon both accounts highly desirable by all the people of God.