Therefore let iis look to him, and be thankful to God for him. When we thank God for ourselves, let us thank God first for giving Christ, who is the pattern to whom we are conformed. Let us give thanks for him, as St Peter doth, ' Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' 1 Peter i. 3. If he had not been his Father, he had not been ours. We cannot stand before God of ourselves, but in one that is perfect in himself, God- man. Therefore when we bless God for grace and glory that belongs to us, let us bless him for giving Christ, that in him we are happy. He con- forms us in grace here and in glory hereafter, in body and soul, to our glorious Saviour.
And as it is a ground of thankfulness to God for Christ, so it yields us a rule for meditation. When we would think of anything in ourselves, let us go to our head, to Christ, in whom we have all we have and that we hope to have. ' Of his fulness we receive, not only grace for grace,' but glory for glory. Of all the glory he hath, we have answerable to him ; and surely it is a transforming meditation to think of Chi-ist's glory, and to see our- selves in him ; to think of grace in Christ, and of our interest in grace in him. We must not think of him as an abstracted head severed from us, but think of his glory, and our glory in him and by him. He is glorious, and we shall be glorious likewise.
Again, You see here that howsoever our bodies are vile for the present, yet they shall not be so for ever. They shall be ' glorious bodies,' like to Christ's body. The point then is that,
As Christ is the i^attern of the glory of our body, so our body undoubtedly shall he glorious as his body is.
This vile body shall be glorious, even like Christ's glorious body. I need not stand to prove it. I proved it before. What should this afford us ? Then let us use them to a glorious end ; let us not use these base bodies to base purposes. Let every member of this vile body, while we live here, be a weapon of a sanctified soul ; a weapon of righteousness ready to do good. Let us put honour upon these bodies that shall be thus honoured ; let us use them for honourable purposes. Let us lift up our eyes to heaven ; let us reach forth our hands to good works. Let our feet that have carried us to ill heretofore, carry us to the service of God ; for these very vile bodies shall be glorious bodies. The very same eyes that have been lift up to God in prayer ; those very hands that now are instruments of good works ; those very knees that are humbled to God in prayer ; and those feet that have carried us to holy exercises ; and those spirits that are wasted and
THE REDEMPTION OF BODIES. 1G7
spent in holy meditation : even these, this vile body that is thus holily used, shall be a glorious body. Therefore let us use it answerably.
And labour to lay it down with honour in the dust, to leave it with a good report to the world, considering it shall be so glorious afterward. Do those think of this that use their bodies for base purposes ? whose eyes are full of adultery, whose hands are full of rapine, whose feet carry them to base places where they defile themselves, whose bodies every member is a weapon and instrument of sinning against God ? How can these dare to think of that glorious day, wherein our vile bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ ? Can they hope that those hands and those feet of that body shall be made glorious that have been defiled, that have been instruments to make others likewise sin ? Can such a bod}' look for glory ? Let us not deceive ourselves. This vile body indeed shall be a glorious body. Ay, but it must be used accordingly, unless we have a pre- sumptuous hope.
This body shall be glorious ; this very vile body, ' this corruptible shall put on incorruption,' the same body, as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv. 54. I believe the resurrection of this body, as we say in the creed. St Paul pointed to his own body : this body, ' this mortal shall put on immor- tality.'
If this body shall be glorious, how base soever it be in this world, then again let us honour jMor Christians, though we see them vile and base, and honour aged Christians and deformed. Alas ! look not on them as they are, but as they shall be ; as they are in the decree of Christ, and as they shall be ere long by the power of Christ, He will make them like his glorious body. Let us not despise weak or old or deformed persons. These vile bodies shall be glorious. Those that died in martyrdom, whose bodies were cast into the fire and cast to wild beasts, &c., they shall be glorious bodies. The Emperor Constantine would kiss the very holes of the eyes of those that had their eyes pulled out, that had been martyred (a) ; so even our vile bodies, when they are used in the service of God in suffering, they shall be glorious bodies. Let us honour our bodies, or theirs that suffer for Christ. St Paul made it his plea, and a ground of his confidence, because his body w^as vile for Christ. ' I Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, the dying of Christ, that the life of Christ might be made manifest,' 2 Cor. iv. 10, and Gal. vi. 17. He carried! Christ's marks in his body, making this an argument of re- spect, that he was a prisoner. So when any are abased for Christ's sake, let us think these are such as shall have glorious bodies, however they are esteemed of the world. But to enlarge the point a little farther. These bodies shall be made like the body of Christ.