and the matter and fuel of them ia the body, peccant humours and principles of corruption. As wood is eaten out with worms that breed within itself, so there are in our bodies principles of corruption that do at length destroy them ; but there we are wholly incorruptible. Yea, because deformity of the body is a monument of God's displeasure, one of the penal events of sin, introduced by Adam's fall, it is done away. The body riseth in due proportion ; whatever was monstrous or misshapen in the first edition is corrected in the second, like the erratas in a second edition. And for violence without, heaven is a quiet place ; when there are tumults in the world, God is introduced as sitting in the heavens, a quiet posture i Ps. ii. 4, ' He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.' There is nothing to discompose those blessed spirits ; wicked men cannot molest them nor abuse them. Here the very company of wicked men is a burden ; as Lot's righteous soul was ' vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked,' 2 Peter ii. 7. David complains, Ps. cxxx. .5, ' Woe is me that I dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar.' But there ' the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity,' Mat. xiii. 41. The wicked shall be bound hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness ; as when men will not be ruled, they are sent to prison. Here poor saints are sub- ject to a number of infirmities, labour, thirst, hunger, cold, nakedness, and want, which all cease then. It is a rich inheritance, as well as a glorious one : Eph. i. 18, ' That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.'' These distinctions of poor and rich, as they are understood in the world, do not outlive time ; we shall have enough of true riches, which is eternal glory, and the full fruition of God. Labour ceaseth, though there be a continual exercise of grace. All things rest when they come to their proper place, so do they that die in the Lord. We still serve God, but without weariness ; yea, we are freed from the necessities of nature, eating and drinking and sleeping, to which the greatest po- tentates are subject ; though they are exempted from hard bodily labour, yet they are not exempted from the necessities of nature. But there the use of meats and of the belly and stomach is abolished : 1 Cor. vi. 12, ' Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them.' It is a piece of our misery that our life is patched up of so many creatures ; as a torn garment is pieced and patched up with supplies from abroad. The sheep or silkworm supplies us with clothing, the beasts of the earth and fishes of the sea with food, and all to support a ruinous fabric, that is ever ready to drop about our ears. But there we are above meat and drink and apparel ; it will be our meat and drink to do our Father's will ; nakedness will be no shame, we shall have glory instead of a robe. And the body will not be a clog to the soul, but a help. This mass of flesh we carry about with us is now the prison of the soul, where it looketh out by the windows of the senses ; but there it is no longer the prison of the soul, but the temple of it. In short, all that I have to say upon this branch is com- prised in Eev. xxi. 4, * And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former things are passed
192 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. XIV.
awa}^' There is quite another kind of dispensation, no distraction of business ; our whole employment there will be to think of God, and study God, but without weariness, satiety or distraction.
Secondly, In blessedness there is a confluence of all good. To the happiness of the creature it is necessary that his comforts should be full and eternal : Ps. xvi. 11, * In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore;' 2 Cor. iv. 18, 'The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal' That they may be full for parts, full for the degrees and the manner of enjoyment, and that they should continue for ever ; that he may possess this happiness without fear of losing it, let us examine these things.
1. He must enjoy all good for the parts of it ; the whole man in all his relations must be blessed ; for man being ^woy ttoXltikov, a sociable creature, is to be happy not only in his person, but in his company and relations ; so we hope for an estate when our persons shall be happy, both in body and soul conformed to Christ, and we shall be blessed in our company and relations ; we are brought into the presence of God, which is blessedness itself, and into the sight and fellowship of his blessed Son, and into the company of blessed angels and saints,