God's heritage is now laid waste. Our pining souls no bread can get ; With wantons God has justly met. AVhen we were fed unto the full, This man was tedious, that was dull : But they are gone, and there remain No such occasions to complain. Stai's are not now for lights, but signs, God knows of what heart-breaking times. Sure heaven intends not peace, but wars, In calling home ambassadors. How long did Sodom's judgment stay, When righteons Lot was snatch'd away ? How long remain'd that stately hall. When Samson made the pillars fall ? When horsemen and commanders fly, Woe to the helpless infantry. This is a sad and fatal blow, A public loss and overthrow. You that so long have wish'd them gone, Be quiet now, the thing is done : Did they torment you e're your day ?
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God hath reinov'd them out o' th' way. Now sleep in sin, and take your ease ; Their doctrine shall no more displease. But, Lord ! what shall become of us ? Our teacher's gone, and left us thus : To whom shall we ourselves address, When conscience labours in distress ? Oh ! who shall help us out at need ? Or pour in balm when wounds do bleed ? Help, Lord! for unto thee our eyes Do pour our tears ; our groans, our cries Shall never cease, 'till thou restore The mercies which we had before ; 'Till Sion's paths, where grass now grows, Be trodden by the feet of those That love thy name, and long t' enjoy The mercies they have sinn'd away,
Upon the Corruption of the Seed before it springs.
Seeds die and rot, and then mustfresli appear ; Saints' bodies rise more orient than they were,
AfTFR the seed is committed to the earth, it seems to perish and die, as our Saviour speaks, John xii. 24. " Except a corn of " wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, " it brings forth much fruit." The death of the corn in the earth is not a total death, but only the corruption or alteration of it : for if once the seminal life and virtue of it were quite extinguished, it could neither put forth blade or ear without a miracle. Yet because that alteration is a kind of death, therefore Christ here uses it as a fit illustration of the resurrection. And indeed there is nothing in na- ture more apt to illustrate that great mystery. Wliat a fragrant, green and beautiful blade do we see spring up from a corrupted seed ? How black and mouldy is that ! How beautiful and verdant is this ?
JLiVEN thus shall the bodies of the saints arise in beauty and glory at the resurrection : " They are sown in dishonour ; they " are raised in glory ; they are sown natural bodies ; they are raised « spiritual bodies," 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. The husbandman knows,
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that though the seed rot in the earth, yet it will rise again. And the believer knows, " that though after his skin worms destroy his " body, yet in his flesh he shall see God,'' Job xix. 25, &c. And the resemblance betwixt the seed sown, and springing up; and the bodies of the saints dying and rising again, lies in these following par- ticulars.
1. The seed is committed to the earth from whence it came ; so is the body of a saint ; earth it was, and to earth it is again resolved. Grace exempts not the body of the best man from seeing corruption, Rom. viii. 10. Though Christ be in him, yet the body is dead ; that is, sentenced to death because of sin, Heb. ix. 27. " But it is '• appointed for all men once to die.""
2. The seed is cast into the earth in hope, 1 Cor. ix. 10. Were there not a resurrection of it expected, the husbandman Avould never be willing to cast away his corn. The bodies of saints are also com- mitted to the grave in hope, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. ^ But I would not *' have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those which are '* asleep, as they which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus '' died, and rose again, so even also them which sleep in Jesus, " shall the Lord bring with him.'"' This blessed hope of a re- surrection sweetens not only the troubles of life, but the pangs of death.
3. The seed is cast into the earth seasonably, in its proper season : so are the bodies of the saints. Job v. 26. " Thou shall come to thy *' grave in a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in, in its season.'^ They always die in the fittest time, though sometimes they seem to die immaturely : the time of their death was from all eternity pre- fixed by God, beyond which they cannot go, and short of which they cannot come.
4. The seed lies many days and nights under the clods, before it rise and appear again : " even so man lieth clown, and riseth not *' again until the heavens be no more,'' Job xiv. 12. The days of darkness in the grave are many.
5. When the time is come for its shooting up, the earth that co- vered it can hide it no longer ; it cannot keep it down a day more ; it will find or make way through the clods. So in that day when the great trump shall sound, bone shall come to its bone, and the grave shall not be able to hold them a minute longer. Both sea and earth must render the dead that are in them. Rev. xx. 13.
6. When the seed appears above-ground, it appears much more fresh and orient, than when it was cast into the earth : God clothes it with such beauty, that it is not like to what it was before. Thus rise the bodies of the saints, marvellously improved, beautified, and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments ; in respect whereof they are called spiritual bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 43. not properly but analogically spiritual ; for look, as spirits subsist with-
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