THE PRAY E R.

LORD! I am here a ftranger with thee, and a fojourner, as all my fathers were. "This is none of my reft; but only the paffage to "that ftate, for which I am made, and where I fhall "be at home, in my own place. O keep me ever "mindful of my journeying condition; and fix

my contemplation on that world to come, where "I must make my everlasting habitation. Suffer "me not fo to forget myself, as here to be taking "root, and setting up my reft: but let me carry,

as belonging to another country; and do all "with reference to that future ftate, which I be"feech thee, O my God, fo to prepare me for; "that my removal to it may be indeed a happy "change, and may give me caufe to praise thee for

THA

MEDITATION XLIII.

Of the refurrection of the body.

HAT that the dead fhould raise themselves, and by any virtue of their own, return from a privation to the former habit; my foul, who can believe it? But that he who at firft made them out of nothing, fhould reftore them again out of their ruins, who can doubt his power? nay, when he hath faid it, who will call in queftion his word? now befides the illuftrations of the refurrection,

that

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that I fee in nature; as the renewing of the face of the earth, every year: and the rifing of another light ftill every day: I have the moft plain and exprefs texts of Holy Scripture for it, to give me affurance of it. Job xix. 26, 27. " Though after my "fkin worms deftroy this body; yet in my flefh "fhall I fee God: whom I fhall fee for myself; "and my eyes fhall behold, and not another." Dan. xii. 2. "Many of them that fleep in the duft "of the earth fhall awake; fome to everlafting life, "and some to shame and everlafting contempt.' John vi. 40. Every one that believes in me, I “will raise him up at the laft day." 1 Theff. iv. 16. The dead in Chrift fhall rife firft." (And that fuppofes the reft to come after.) Yea," Acts xxiv. 15. " there fhall be a refurrection of the "dead, both of the juft and the unjuft." And Rev. xx. 12. “I faw the dead, fmall and great, "stand before God. And the fea gave up the dead "that were in it; and death and hell (or the in"vifible ftate) delivered up the dead that were in "them. And they were judged every man accord"ing to his works."

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If then, my foul, I will be determined, by what the Word of God has revealed, I have no room left to make any doubt of the refurrection, but may be certain, that this very body, which I now bear about me, after death has thrown down, and all demolished it, fhall fpring again out of its rubbifh, and be revived and repaired to ftand for eter. nal ages. As fure as my body lives, and fhall once decay, and languish and die, and go to corruption, fo fure fhall it be raised, and brought to life again, and made immortal and past dying any more for ever. Yea, there fhall be a day of general goal-delivery, when the dead fhall be roufed with the trump of God, and fetched out of the prifon of the grave, to ftand before his judgment-feat. Thať juftice

juftice and mercy may have their courfe, not only upon fouls; but alfo the bodies, which were their companions and partners: by which they acted, and with which they were moft intimately conjoined. And till bodies are fo fet up and raised, how will death be abolished; or the tranfgreffion, which caufed their diffolution, finifhed?

Whatever Sadducees do think, according to their own wifhes; or cavil, after their vain fancies; and fufpend their belief of that, which cannot be demonftrated by reafon, and exceeds the sphere of nature; and though fome, that, with much ado, will allow a kind of refurrection of the very fame bodies which died; (and then, indeed, it would not be a refurrection, but a creation: not a quickening of our mortal bodies, nor this corruptible putting on incorruption; and this mortal putting on immortality that is, the restoration of the former fubftance, clothed with new qualities: which is a proper notion of a refurrection.)

No wonder, my foul, if this fad hearing of the bodies rifing, do arm them against it, who have carried fo, as if they should never fee it. Well may they, who live like the beafts that perifh, defire to perifh with them too; and after death, to be no more. But when they hear of the refurrection of the dead, and anfwering for what they have done in their bodies; though they mock at it, with those Acts xvii. 30. that will not put it a jot further from them; but make it only the fadder, when it comes upon them: to find, that what they did deride, they cannot avoid; but even their dear flesh, which here they were all for pleafing, muft bear its fhare in the future fuffering; and be there far more tormented, than ever here it was comforted.

But,

But, O what reviving news is this to the pious and afflicted members of Chrift Jefus, who do now keep under their bodies, and deny themselves the finful liberties which others do boldly take, and were also, it may be, diftempered and perfecuted in the flesh that all these troublesome matters fhall not only be ended, but mended, with them. That after the heavinefs enduring for the night of this mortal life, joy fhall come in the morning of the refurrection: and their grieving for fin, and humbling themselves in the duft, and patient enduring the crofs, and refifting even unto blood, fhall be changed into perfect health, and eafe, and beauty, and gladness of heart. Then fhall they find, how much better it was, to enter into life maimed; and through the fiery trial pafs into Abraham's bofom, than to go profperous and frolic with Dives, down to the fire that never fhall be quenched.

O my foul, be not caft down within me, at any troubles of the flesh, coming upon me: nor repine at the profperous circumftances, of any jolly finners about me. Envy none of their fportive bouts, and and fleshly triumphs; who feed themselves, as for a day of flaughter: not only for the worms in the grave, but for that never-dying worm in a worse place. Nor let me fear them, that can but kill the body: as long as I have affiance in him, who can and will raise it in power and glory, changing the vile into a glorious body; but weather it out, through the preffures of this fhort time, till all that afflicts fhall be done away; and even the body itself be paft fuffering any more. For when it dies, it fhall not be loft, but reft in hope; and when my good friends die, I will not forrow, as one that has no hope; but reckon to fee their faces again in a better life. And when my poor brethrens bodies call for relief, I will not withhold my kindness from them: but by fome obligations laid upon them, obtain

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their teftimony for me in that final reckoning; when fo much inquiry will be made, how we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, vifited the fick, miniftered to the diftreffed: and the Judge has told us, that he will take what was done to one of the leaft of his brethren, as done to himself.

And let who will ruft their bodies in idleness, overcharge them with exceffes, or pin them down to the earth in worldly mindedness: O with what face will they appear before the great God, in the open eye of the world, in thofe very bodies, which now they fo vitiate, and prostitute to the vileft ufages? and when they make their bodies fuch dunghills, and fhops of uncleannefs, O how may they dread to be caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, that laft receptacle for fuch, as hated to be cleanfed, and would be filthy ftill? O my foul, may I never pamper thofe lufts of the flesh, which would make it fuel for the fire of hell: but now keep under my body; that hereafter it may rife glorioufly and give myself to do fuch things in the body, as I may not be afhamed, but glad, to hear of, in the great day.

THE PRAYER.

Thou that art the refurrection and the life, and quickeneft both the naturally, and the "fpiritually dead! enliven my foul with thy fpirit "of grace, that I may alfo keep my body, in a cafe "hopeful for thy heavenly glory; and not defile "the member of my Saviour: but fo manage and "ufe it, that I may, with comfort, appear before "thee in it. O how many times and places do "teftify against me, the abufes that I have done "to it: which fill me with confufion and dread, to "think of fhewing my face to thy majefty, in this

"body!