CHAPTER XI: Upon the Corruption of the Seed before it springs
Our teacher's gone, and left us thus:
To whom shall we ourselves address, When conscience labours in distress?
Oh! who shall help us out at need?
Or pour in balm when wounds do bleed?
Help, Lord,! for unto thee our eyes Do pour our tears; our groans, our cries Shall never cease, 'till thou restore The mercies which we had before; 'Till Sion's paths, where grass now grows,
Be trodden by the feet of those That love thy name, and long t' enjoy The mercies they have sinn'd away.
CHAPTER XI
Upon the Corruption of the Seed before it springs Seeds die and rot, and then must fresh appear;
Saints' bodies rise more orient than they were.
OBSERVATION
AFTFR the seed is committed to the earth, it seems to perish and die, as our Saviour speaks, John 12:24. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." The death of the corn in the earth is not a total death, but only the corruption or alteration of it: for if once the seminal life and virtue of it were quite extinguished, it could neither put forth blade or ear without a miracle. Yet because that alteration is a kind of death, therefore Christ here uses it as a fit illustration of the resurrection. And indeed there is nothing in nature more apt to illustrate that great mystery. What a fragrant, green and beautiful blade do we see spring up from a corrupted seed? How black and mouldy is that! How beautiful and verdant is this?
APPLICATION
EVEN thus shall the bodies of the saints arise in beauty and glory at the resurrection: "They are sown in dishonour; they are raised in glory; they are sown natural bodies; they are raised spiritual bodies,"
1 Cor. 15:43, 44. The husbandman knows, that though the seed rot in the earth, yet it will rise again. And the believer knows, "that though after his skin worms destroy his body, yet in his flesh he shall see
God," Job 19:25, &c. And the resemblance betwixt the seed sown, and springing up; and the bodies of the saints dying and rising again, lies in these following particulars.
1. The seed is committed to the earth from whence it came; so is the body of a saint; earth it was, and to earth it is again resolved. Grace exempts not the body of the best man from seeing corruption, Rom.
8:10. Though Christ be in him, yet the body is dead; that is, sentenced to death because of sin, Heb. 9:27. "But it is appointed for all men once to die."
2. The seed is cast into the earth in hope, 1 Cor. 9:10. Were there not a resurrection of it expected, the husbandman would never be willing to cast away his corn. The bodies of saints are also committed to the grave in hope, 1 Thess. 4:13, 14. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those which are asleep, as they which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, so even also them which sleep in Jesus, shall the Lord bring with him."
This blessed hope of a resurrection sweetens not only the troubles of life, but the pangs of death.
3. The seed is cast into the earth seasonably, in its proper season: so are the bodies of the saints, Job 5:26. "Thou shall come to thy grave in a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in, in its season." They always die in the fittest time, though sometimes they seem to die immaturely: the time of their death was from all eternity prefixed by God, beyond which they cannot go, and short of which they cannot come.
4. The seed lies many days and nights under the clods, before it rise and appear again: "even so man lieth down, and riseth not again until the heavens be no more," Job 14:12. The days of darkness in the grave are many.
5. When the time is come for its shooting up, the earth that covered it can hide it no longer; it cannot keep it down a day more; it will find or make way through the clods. So in that day when the great trump shall sound, bone shall come to its bone, and the grave shall not be able to hold them a minute longer. Both sea and earth must render the dead that are in them, Rev. 20:13.
6. When the seed appears above-ground, it appears much more fresh and orient, than when it was cast into the earth: God clothes it with such beauty, that it is not like to what it was before. Thus rise the
bodies of the saints, marvellously improved, beautified, and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments; in respect whereof they are called spiritual bodies, 1 Cor. 15:43 not properly but analogically spiritual; for look, as spirits subsist without food, raiment, sleep, know no lassitude, weariness or pain; so our bodies, after the resurrection, shall be above these necessities and distempers; for we shall be as the angels of God, Matth. 22:30. Yea, our vile bodies shall be changed, and made like unto Christ's glorious body; which is the highest pitch and ascent of glory and honour that an human body is capable of, Phil. 3:21. Indeed, the glory of the soul shall be the greatest glory; that is the orient invaluable gem: But God will bestow a distinct glory upon the body, and richly enamel the very case in which that precious jewel shall be kept. In that glorious morning of the resurrection, the saints shall put on their new fresh suits of flesh, richly laid and trimmed with glory. Those bodies, which in the grave were but dust and rottenness, when it delivers them back again, shall be shining and excellent pieces, absolutely and everlastingly freed. (1.) From all natural infirmities and distempers: Death is their good physician, which at once freed them of all diseases. It is a great affliction now to many of the Lord's people, to be clogged with so many bodily infirmities, which render them very unserviceable to God. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. A crazy body retorts and shoots back its distempers upon the soul, with which it is so closely conjoined: But though now the soul (as Theophrastus speaks) pays a dear rent for the tabernacle in which it dwells; yet, when death dissolves that tabernacle, all the diseases and pains, under which it groaned, shall be buried in the rubbish of its mortality; and when they come to be re-united again,
God will bestow rich gifts and dowries, even upon the body, in the day of its re-espousals to the soul. (2.) It shall be freed from all deformities; there are no breaches, flaws, monstrosities in glorified bodies; but of them it may much rather be said what was once said of
Absalom, 2 Sam. 14:25. "That from the crown of the head to the sole of his foot, there was no blemish in him." (3.) It shall be freed from all natural necessities, to which it is now subjected in this its animal state. How is the soul now disquieted and tortured with cares and troubles to provide for a perishing body? Many unbelieving and unbecoming fears it is now vexed with: What shall it eat? And what shall it drink? And wherewithal shall it be clothed? "But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; God shall destroy both it and them," 1 Cor. 6:13 i.e. as to their present use and office; for as to its existence, so the belly shall not be destroyed. But even as the masts, poop and stern of a ship abide in the harbour after the voyage is ended, so shall these bodily members, as Tertullian excellently illustrates it. (4.) They shall be freed from death, to which thenceforth they can be subject no more; that formidable adversary of nature shall assault it no more. "For they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for they shall be equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection," Luke 20:35, 36. Mark it
(equal to the angels) not that they shall be separate and single spirits, without bodies as the angels are: but equal to them in the way and manner of their living and acting.* We shall then live upon God, and act freely, purely, and delightfully for God; for all kind of living upon, and delighting in creatures, seems in that text (by a synecdoche of the part which is ordinarily in scripture put for all creature-delights, dependencies, and necessities) to be excluded. Nothing but God shall enamour and fill the soul; and the body shall be perfectly subdued to the spirit. Lord, what hast thou prepared for them that love thee!
REFLECTIONS
1. If I shall receive my body again so dignified and improved in the world to come, then Lord let me never be unwilling to use my body now for the interest of thy glory, or my own salvation! Now, O my
God, it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of serving and honouring thee I have lost, under pretence of endangering my health!
I have been more solicitous to live long and healthfully, than to live usefully and fruitfully; and, like enough, my life had been more serviceable to thee, if it had not been so fondly overvalued by me.
Foolish soul! hath God given thee a body for a living tool or instrument? And art thou afraid to use it? Wherein is the mercy of having a body, if not in spending and wearing it out in the service of God? To have an active vigorous body, and not to employ and exercise it for God, for fear of endangering its health, is, as if one should give thee a handsome and sprightly horse, upon condition thou shouldst not ride or work him. O! if some of the saints had enjoyed the blessings of such an healthy active body as mine, what excellent services would they have performed to God in it?
2. If my body shall as surely rise again in glory, vigour, and excellent endowments, as the seed which I sow doth; why should not this comfort me over all the pains, weaknesses, and dulness, with which my soul is now clogged? Thou knowest, my God, what a grief it hath been to my soul, to be fettered and entangled with the distempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body: It hath made me sigh, and say with holy Anselme, when he saw the mounting bird weighed down by the stone hanging at her leg, Lord, thus it fares with the soul of thy servant! Fain would I serve, glorify, and enjoy thee, but a distempered body will not let me. However, it is reviving to think, that though I am now forced to crawl like a worm, in the discharge of
my duties, I shall shortly fly, like a seraphim in the execution of thy will. Cheer up, drooping soul; the time is at hand when thou shalt be made more willing than thou art, and thy flesh not so weak as now it is.
3. And is it so indeed? Then let the dying saint, like Jacob, rouse up himself upon his bed, and encourage himself against the fears of death by this refreshing consideration. Let him say with holy dying
Musculus, why tremblest thou, O my soul, to go forth of this tabernacle to the land of rest? Hath thy body been such a pleasant habitation to thee, that thou shouldest be so loth to part with it, though but for a time, and with assurance of receiving it again with such a glorious improvement? I know, O my soul, that thou hast a natural inclination to this body, resulting from the dear and strict union which God himself hath made betwixt thee and it; yea, even the holiest of men do sometimes sensibly feel the like in themselves; but beware thou love it not immoderately or inordinately; it is but a creature, how dear soever it be to thee; yea, a fading creature, and that which now stands in thy way to the full enjoyment of God. But say, my soul, why are the thoughts of parting with it so burdensome to thee? Why so loth to take death by its cold hand? Is this body thy old and dear friend? True, but yet thou partest not with it upon such sad terms as should deserve a tear at parting. For mayest thou not say of this departure, as Paul at the departure of Onesimus? Philem. ver. 15. "It therefore departeth for a season, that thou mayest receive it for ever." The day of re-espousals will quickly come; and in the mean time, as thy body shall not be sensible of the tedious length of interposing time, so neither shalt thou be solicitous about thine absent friend; for the fruition of God in thine unbodied state, shall fill thee with infinite satisfaction and rest.
Or is it not so much simply for parting with it, as for the manner of thy parting, either by the slow and lingering approaches of a natural, or the quick and terrible approaches of a violent death: Why, trouble not thyself about that; for if God lead thee through the long dark lane of a tedious sickness, yet at the end of it is thy Father's house. And for a violent death, it is not so material whether friends or enemies stand weeping or triumphing over thy dead body. Nihil corpus sensit in nervo cum anima sit in cœlo. When thy soul shall be in heaven, it will not be sensible how the body is used on earth.
4. But oh! what an uncomfortable parting will mine be! and how much more sad our meeting again! how will this soul and body blush, yea, tremble when they meet, who have been co-partners in so much guilt? I damned my soul to please my flesh, and now have ruined both thereby: Had I denied my flesh to serve Christ, worn out my body in the service of my soul, I had thereby happily provided for them both; but I began at the wrong end, and so have ruined both eternally.
THE POEM BARE seeds have no great beauty, but, inhum'd, That which they had is lost, and quite consumed;
They soon corrupt and grow more base, by odds, When dead and bury'd underneath the clods:
It falls in baseness, but at length doth rise In glory which delights beholders' eyes.
How great a difference have a few days made,
Betwixt it in the bushel and the blade!
This lovely, lively emblem aptly may Type out the glorious resurrection-day; Wherein the saints that in the dust do lie,
Shall rise in glory, vigour, dignity; With singing, in that morning they arise, And dazzle glory, such as mortal eyes Ne'er view'd on earth. The sparkling beauties here,
No more can equalize their splendor there, Than glimmering glow-worms do the fairest star
That shines in heaven, or the stones that are In ev'ry street, may competition hold With glittering diamonds in rings of gold.
For unto Christ's most glorious body they Shall be conform'd in glory at that day;
Whose lustre would, should it on mortals fall, Transport a Stephen, and confound a Paul.
'Tis now a coarse and crazy house of clay;