out food, raiment, sleep, know no lassitude, weariness or pain ; sq our bodies, after the resurrection, shall be above these necessities and distempers ; for we shall be as the angels of God, Matth. xxii. 30. Yea, our vile bodies shall be changed, and made like unto Christ's glorious body ; which is the highest pitch and ascent of glory and ho- nour that an human body is capable of, Phil. iii. 21. Indeed, the glory of the soul shall be the greatest glory ; that is the orient inva- luable gem : But God will bestow a distinct glory upon the body, and richly enamel the very casein w^hichthat precious jewel shall be kept. In that glorious morning of the resurrection, the saints shall put on their new fresh suits of flesh, richly laid and trimmed with glory. Those bodies, which in the grave were but dust and rotten- ness, when it delivers them back again, shall be shining and excel- lent pieces, absolutely and everlastingly freed. (1.) From all natural infirmities and distempers : Death is their good physician, which at once freed them of all diseases. It is a great affliction now to many of the Lord's people, to be clogged with so many bodily infirmities, which render them very unserviceable to God. The spirit indeed is willing', hit the flesh is weak. A crazy body retorts and shoots back its distempers upon the soul, with which it is so closely conjoined : But thougii now the soul (as Theophrastus speaks) pays a dear rent for the tabernacle in which it dwells ; yet, when death dissolves that tabernacle, all the diseases and pains, under which it groaned, shall be buried in the rubbish of its mortality ; and wlien they come to be re-united again, God will bestow rich gifts and dowries, even upon the body, in the day of its re-espousals to the soul. (2.) It shall be freed from all deformities ; there are no breaches, flaws, 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 " the head to the sole of his foot, there Vv^as 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 f Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with : What shall it eat ? And what shall it drink ? And wherewithal shall it be clothed ? " 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 pre- sent use and office ; for as to its existence, so the belly shall not be destroyed. But even as the masts, poop and stern of a ship abide in the harbour after the voyage is ended, so shall these bodily members, as Tertullian excellently illustrates it. (4.) They shall be freed from deatli, to which thenceforth they can be subject no more ; that for- midable adversary of nature shall assault it no more. " For they *' which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the re- " surrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; " neither can they die any more ; for they shall be equal to the an-
92 HUSBANDRY SPIRITUALIZED ; OR,
" S'els, and are the children of God, being; the children of theresur- *' rection,*" Luke xx. 35, 36. Mark it (equal to the angels) not that the}'^ 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 (l)y a synecdoche of the part which is ordinarily in scripture put for all creature-delights, dependencies, 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 !
The healthful sahifs L If I shall receive my body again so digni- reftection, fied and improved in the world to come, then
Lord let me never be unwilling to use my body now for the interest of thy glor}^, or my own salvation ! Now, O my God, it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of serv- ing 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 overvalued by me.
Foolish soul ! hath God given thee a body for a living tool or in- strument ? 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 ex- ercise it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one should give thee a handsome and sprightly horse, upon condition thou shouldst not ride or work him. O ! if some of the saints had enjoy- ed the blessings of such an healthy active body as mine, what excel- lent services would they have performed to God in it ?
2. If my body shall as surely rise again in The sickly saint s glory, vigour, and excellent endowments, as the
rejiection. seed which I sow doth ; why should not this com-
fort me over all the pains, weaknesses, and dulness, 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 : Ithath 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
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THE HEAVEXLY USE OF EARTHLY TIIIXGS. 93
"irorm, in the discharge of my duties, I shall shortly fly, like n sera- phim in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping soul ; the time is at hand when thou shaltbe 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 dying saint, The dying sainfs like Jacob, rouse up himself upon his bed, and reflection.