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SERM." and with what bodies do they come?" This CLXXXIV. was the common objection which the infidels made

against this article of the refurrection: either men fhall rife with the fame bodies which they had in this life; or they shall not. If with the fame bodies which they had in this life, to what purpose will that be? fince in the other world men fhall not eat or drink, or propagate their kind, and confequently have no use of fuch a body as ours now is: but if it be not the fame body, how then are mens bodies raised? To this queftion, the apostle gives a clear anfwer; that the bodies of men which fhall be raised, fhall in fome respect be the fame, and in other refpects not the fame; the matter and fubftance of the body may ftill be the fame, and yet may undergo a mighty change, be fashioned after another manner, and be endowed with quite other qualities than it had before. And this he illuftrates by two inftances.

1. By the difference between the corn which is fown, and that which grows up. And,

2. By the difference of feveral forts of bodies, which are all made of the fame kind of matter.

1. From the difference between the corn which is fown, and that which is grown up, ver. 36, 37, 38. "Thou fool, that which thou foweft is not quick"ned, except it die," that is, unless it be first buried in the earth, and rot, and be corrupted there; "and that which thou foweft, thou foweft not that "body which fhall be; but bare grain, as of wheat or "fome other kind." "But bare grain," that is a naked grain, without either stalk, or blade, or ear: "but GOD giveth it a body, as it hath pleased "him," that is, the author of nature makes it

CLXXXIV.

Ipring up in a blade, which grows up into a ftalk, SERM. which bears an ear that contains many grains of corn; "and to every feed his own body," that is, a body of the fame kind with the feed that was fown.

2. The other inftance is from the difference of feveral forts of bodies, which are all made of the fame kind of matter, put into different forms, fome more perfect and glorious, and others lefs: ver. 39, 40, 41. "All flesh is not the fame flesh; but there is "one flesh of men, another of beafts, another of "fishes, and another of birds;" and yet all these are fashioned out of the fame kind of matter. "There are alfo celestial bodies, and bodies terreftri"al; but the glory of the celeftial is one, and the "glory of the terreftrial is another ;" and the celeftial bodies are of a different luftre and glory; "for there is one glory of the fun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, "and one star differeth from another star in glory." And then he applies these inftances to the refurrection, ver. 42. "So alfo is it in the refurrection "of the dead." The matter which was vile before, when it was buried in the earth, puts on another form, and by the power of GOD is raised up a different thing, and far more glorious than when it was put into the earth: ver. 42, 43, 44. "It is "fown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; "it is fown in difhonour, it is raised in glory; it is

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fown in weakness, it is raifed in power; it is "fown a natural (or an animal) body, it is raised a "fpiritual body." I fhall briefly explain these several expreffions which reprefent to us the difference between our bodies as they now are, and as they fhall be at the refurrection.

VOL. X.

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SERM.

"It is fown in corruption, it is raised in incorCLXXXIV. co ruption." Our bodies, as they are now, are unequally tempered, and in a perpetual flux and change, continually tending to corruption, being made of fuch contrary principles and qualities, as by their perpetual confliction do confpire the ruin and diffolution of it. But when they are raised again, they fhall be fo tempered and refined as to be free from all these destructive qualities which threaten a change and diffolution; "they fhall be raised incorruptible,” fo as not to be liable to decay and death. The body, though it continues ftill material and confists of matter, fhall then partake of the immortality of the foul to which it is united, and be of equal duration with it. So the apoftle tells us, ver. 52, 53. "The dead fhall be raised incorruptible; for this "corruptible muft put on incorruption, and this "mortal muft put on immortality."

"It is fown in difhonour, it is raised in glory." Our bodies, when they are committed to the earth, are vile offenfive carcafes, and therefore we hide and bury them out of fight: but they fhall be raised beautiful and glorious, as different from what they were before, as the heavenly mansions, in which they are to dwell for ever, are from that dark cell of the grave, out of which they are raifed; and they that before were only fit company for duft and worms, shall be admitted into the reviving prefence of GoD, and the bleffed fociety of angels.

"It is fown in weakness, it fhall be raised in power." Our bodies now fall to the ground through their own frailty, and drop into the grave through the weaknefs and infirmity of nature to fupport and bear them up any longer: but though they fall through

weak

weakness, they fhall at the refurrection be endowed S ERM. with fuch a life, and ftrength and vigour, as to be CLXXXIV. able, without any change or decay to abide and continue for ever in the fame state.

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"It is fown a natural body, uxor, an animal

body," an earthly cottage or tabernacle fitted for the foul to lodge in for a little while; " but it is "raised a spiritual body." And this is the fum of all the reft. Our bodies in this world are gross flesh and blood, liable to be affected with natural and fenfual pleasures, and to be afflicted with natural painsand diseases, to be preffed with natural neceffities of hunger and thirst, and obnoxious to all thofe changes and accidents to which natural things are fubject : "but it shall be raised a spiritual body," pure and refined from the dregs of matter; it fhall not hunger nor thirst, be difeafed or in pain any more. Thefe" houses of clay, whofe foundation is in the "duft," are continually decaying, and therefore they stand in need of perpetual reparation by food and phyfick but "our house which fhall be from "heaven," fhall be of fuch lafting and durable matter, as not only time, but even eternity itself fhall make no impreffion upon it, or caufe the leaft decay in it. "They who fhall be accounted "worthy," fays our SAVIOUR, " to obtain "that world, and the refurrection from the dead, "cannot die any more, but shall be like the an"gels, and are the children of GOD;" that is, in fome degree fhall partake of the felicity and immortality of GoD himself, who is "always the fame, " and his years fail not." "It is raised a fpiritual body." We fhall then be as it were all fpirit, and our very bodies fhall be then fo raised and re

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fined,

SERM. fined, that they fhall be no clog, no impediment to CLXXXIV. the operations of our fouls. And furely we cannot

but think this a glorious change, when we confider how our bodies do now crush our fpirits, and what a melancholy and dead weight they are upon them, and how grievous an incumbrance, and trouble and temptation they are for the moft part to us in this mortal ftate. I proceed now to the

we do but " fpeak like children," and "That which is im

IId thing, wherein the bleffedness of the just at the refurrection fhall confift, viz. in the confequent happiness of the whole man, of the foul and body united and purified, the one from fin, the other from frailty and corruption; and both admitted to the bleffed fight and enjoyment of the ever bleffed GOD. But this is an argument too big for our narrow apprehensions of things, whilft we are in this mortal ftate; a subject too unwieldy for fuch children, as the wisest of us all are while we are in this world; and whenever we attempt to fpeak of it, "like children, and understand reafon like children about it. "perfect must be done away;" our fouls must be raised to a greater perfection, and our understandings filled with a stronger and fteadier light before we can be fit to handle fuch a fubject, according to the worth and dignity of it. We must first have been in heaven, and poffeffed of that felicity and glory which is there to be enjoyed, before we can think or talk of it in any measure as it deferves. In the mean time, whenever we fet about it we fhall find our faculties oppreffed with the weight and fplendor of fo vaft and glorious an argument; like St. Paul, who when he was caught up into paradife, faw and heard that, which when he came down into this

world

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