Christ's sake, tliat tlicy may be thus glorious. Let us abase them in labour and pains in our calling ; in suflering, ayc do no more than he did for U3 first. Was not his body first vile and then glorious ? And do we think that our bodies must not be vile before they be glorious ? Not only vile whether we will or no, but we must willingly make them vile. We must be willing to be disgraced for Christ's sake, to carry his death about us, to ' die daily ' in the resolution of our souls. How was he abased before he was glorious ! He took on him our bodies at the worst, not in the perfection as it was created, but he took the body of man now fallen. Again, what pains did he take in this body ! And how was he disgraced in this body ! That sacred face was spit upon ; those blessed hands and feet were nailed to the cross ; that blessed head, that is reverenced of the angels, it was crowned with thorns. How was his body every wa}-, in all the parts of it, abased and made vile for us ! He neglected his refreshings for us : it was ' meat and drink ' to him to do good. If he became vile for us, if he abased his body for us, certainly we should be ashamed if we be not content that our bodies should be made vile for him, that afterwards they may be made like his glorious body. Awa}' with these nice Christians that ai'e afraid of the wind blowing on them or the sun shining upon them, that are afraid to do anything or to suffer anything, and so in sparing their bodies destroy both body and soul. Consider, whoever thou art, this is not a life for thy bod}'. This present life is a life for the soul. We come now to have the image of God in our souls in this life especially, and to have in our souls the life of grace here, but the life and happiness of our body is for this second coming of Christ, the glory of the body. This life is not a time for the body. Do what we can, it will be a vile bod}^ : cherish it, set it out how thou canst, those painted sepulchres that would out-face age and out-face death, and by colours and complexions, &c., hide those furrows that age makes in the face, they are but vile ; and age and death willj be too good for them ; to dust they will. AVhy should we regard our bodies ? This life is not for them though we be dainty of them. Let us use this bod}^ here so as it may be glorious in the world to come. We should sutler our souls to rule our bodies, and to do all here, that both body and soul may bo glorious after. For indeed all that the body hath here it is beholding to the soul for. Why, therefore, should it not be an instrument for the soul in holy things ? Doth not the soul quicken it ? Hath it not its beauty from the soul ? When the soul is gone out of the body, where is the life ? Where is the beauty ? Where is anything ? The body is a loathsome carcase. Now, therefore, while the soul is in this body, look to the soul especially, that when the soul shall go to heaven, the soul be mindful of, and speak a good word for, the body, as Pharaoh's butler did for Joseph ; that the soul there may think of the body, that it may think of the pains, of the suffering ; as the soul doth, it hath an appetite in heaven, a desire to be joined again to the body which it useth to labour in, to pray to God in, which it used to fast in, which it used as an instrument to good actions. Let us use it so here that the soul may desire to meet it again, that Christ at that day may bring body and soul together to bo glorious for ever.
' That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.'
We see here, then, that the best is to come. The best change, after
which there shall be no change, is to come. The weakest is the first, and
the second is better. The second Adam is better than the first ; and the
second life shall be better than the first. Our bodies, as they shall be
170 THE REDEMPTION OF BODIES.
glorious, shall be better than they were in the first creation. They shall be glorious bodies, like unto Christ's. Oh, the comfort of a Christian ! There is nothing that is behind, nothing to come, but it is for the better. There shall bo a change, but it shall be a change for the better. A Chris- tian is a person full of hope. He is under a glorious hope, under a hope of glory of soul and body. He is ahvay under hope, the ' hope of glory.' Therefore ' he joys under this hope,' Rom. v. 2.
' That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.'