8. More vile after death. When the soul, the inhabitant, is gone,
when it becometh a breathless trunk, it must be removed out of sight ;
it must be buried in some little pit and hole of the earth, where it
may be hidden, to keep others from being offended or infected with its
rottenness, stench, and putrefaction : ' That I may bury my dead out
of my sight,' saith Abraham concerning his beloved Sarah, Gen. xxiii.
4. The presence of our bodies then is noisome to our dearest friends
that most loved us.
1 Qu. ' seat ' ? — Ed.
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 171
This should be often thought of by us —
[1.] To humble us who are but dust and ashes as to our composition, constitution, and dissolution : Gen. xviii. 27, ' Who am I, that am but dust and ashes, that I should speak unto the Lord ? ' ' All the nations are but as the dust of the balance unto God,' Isa. xl. 15. What should we be proud of? should we glory in the nobility of our birth? We are made out of the dust of the earth as the worms are ; yea, the worms are of the elder house, for every creeping thing was made before man. Of our beauty and strength ? Prov. xxxi. 30, ' Favour is deceit- ful, and beauty is vain.' That part we glory in is but dust, and will be dust. Or in pomp of living ? ' High and low shall lie down in the dust alike, and the worms shall cover them,' Job xxi. 26. All of us have bodies subject to the necessities of nature, to the infirmities of nature, to the decays of nature, to the diseases of nature, which will at length totally prevail over us.
[2] If our bodies are vile bodies, let us not seek the present good of the body as our chief happiness. If anything keep us from heaven, it is the love of the body, which should rather invite us thither, for hereafter our bodies shall be in their best estate. But alas ! most men spend their time in caring for the body, to gratify it with daintiness in feeding, costliness in clothing ; all the business of their life is to cherish, deck, and adorn proud rottenness. Now in a body over-cared for usually there dwelleth a neglected soul. This is to adorn the house and slight the inhabitant, to embroider the sheath and let the sword rust, to pamper the mortal body and quite neglect the immortal spirit.
[3.] To comfort those that are decaying more and more as to the bodily life, who are subject to continual pains and diseases, or, as Gains, have a healthy soul in a sick and crazy body, 3 John 2. Why, here it will be a vile body ; it cannot be helped. Beauty will be wrinkled with age, and strength fail and be invaded by diseases. The eternal spring and vigour of youth we look for in the other world.
II. The future condition of our bodies : ' We shall have glorious bodies, like unto his glorious body.' Here let us a little consider what glory Christ will put upon the body, and how Christ will qualify it and fit it for eternal life.
1. It shall be immortal and incorruptible : 1 Cor. xv. 42, 'It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.' Christ will adorn them with immortality and impassibility, that we never may decay, nor be liable to sickness, weakness, and troubles, nor any defects, but endowed with all the perfections a body is capable of.
2. For clarity and brightness it shall be like Christ's glorious body. Therefore it is said, 1 Cor. xv. 43, ' It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.' Christ's body shines with light and brightness, a glimpse whereof we had in the transfiguration : Mat. xvii. 3, ' And he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light ; ' and Christ in Kev. i. is represented as the sun in its full strength. His body is wondrous, glorious, now in heaven. When he appeared to Paul, he could not endure the light that shined to him, Acts ix. Oh, what a glorious time will it be when the body of Christ shall appear, and all the saints with him in glory !
3. It shall be a spiritual body : 1 Cor. xv. 44, c It is sown a
172 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. XVII.
iiiitural body, it is raised a spiritual body.' Now how is it a spiritual body ?
[1.] The least in it is that it shall be subject to the spirit. As the soul while it is subject to the flesh is called carnal, so the body while subject to the spirit is termed spiritual ; it is the full consummation of tlie new birth : Jolm iii. 6, ' That which is born of the Spirit is spirit ! All is spirit then without any mixture of the rebelling flesh. Cer- tainly the infusion of the life of grace is called ' the first resurrection,' as it carrieth a conformity to this estate.
[2.] It standeth in no need of natural supports ; there is no food, raiment, marrying, or giving in marriage : Mat. xxii. 30, ' But they are as the angels of God in heaven.' There they live not as husbands and wives, but as the pure spiritual angels ; we shall not stand in need of meat, drink, and sleep, as now we do. Now what a blessed thing is it to have either privilege, to have bodies wholly obedient to the spirit, and bodies that are not subjected to present necessities !