Upon the corruption of the feed before it springs,
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
Süreheaven intends not peace, but wars, Incallinghome ambassadors.
How long did Sodom'sjudgments stay, When righteous Lot was snatch'd away?
How long remain'd that stately hall, When Sampion made the pillars fall ?
When horsemen and commanders fly, Woe to the helpless infantry.
This is a sad and fatal blow, A public loss, and overthrow.
You that so long have wish'd them gone, Bequietnow the thing is done:
Did they torment you e'er your day ?
God hath remov'd them out o' th' way.
Now sleep in fin, and take your ease ; Their doctrine shall no more displease.
But, Lord ! what shall become of us ?
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 whenwoundsdobleed?
Help, Lord ! for unto thee our eyes Do pour out tears; our groans, our cries Shall never cease, 'till thou restore The mercies which we had before ; 'Till Sion'spaths, 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.
CHAP.
XI.
Upon the Corruption of the Seed before it springs.
Seeds die and rot, and then mustfresb appear ; Saints bodies rise more orient than they were.
OBSERVATIO Ν.
FTER the feed is committed to the earth, it seems to perish and die, as our Saviour speaks, John xii. 24.
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it a bid- " eth alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." The VOL.VI.
Husbandry Spiritualized ; or, 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 vertue of it were quite extinguished, it could never 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 feed ? How black and mouldy is that ! How beautiful and verdant is this ?
APPLICATION.
VEN thus shall the bodies of the saints arise in beauty and glory at the resurrection : " They are sown in dis- * honour ; they are raised in glory; they are sown natural bodies; they are raised spiritual bodies,"
I Cor. xv. 43, 44.
The husbandman knows, that though the feed rot in the earth, yet it will rife again. And the believer knows, " that though
" after his skin worms destroy his body, yet in his flesh he " shall see God," Job xix, 25, &c. And the resemblance betwixt the feed sown, and springing up; and the bodies of the saints dying, and rising again, lies in these following particulars.
1. The feed is committed to the earth from whence it came ; so is the body of a faint ; earth it was, and to earth it is again resolved. Grace exempts not the body of the best man from seeing corruption, Rom. viii, 10.
Though Christ be in him, yet the body is dead; that is, sentenced to death, because of fin, Heb. ix. 27. " But it is appointed for all men once to " die."
2. The feed is cast into the earth in hope, 1 Cor. ix. 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, I Theff. iv. 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 thatJefus died, and rose again, even
" so 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 feed is cast into the earth seasonably, in its proper season so are the bodies of the saints, Job v. 26. " Thou shalt come tothygrave ina full age, as a thock of corn cometh
" in, in its season." They always die in the fittest time, though
TheHeavenlyUse ofEarthlyThings.
sometimes they seem to die immaturely: the time of their death was from all eternity prefixedbyGod, beyond which they cannot go, and short of which they cannot come.
4. The feed lies many days and nights under the clods, before it rises and appears again ; even so man liethdown, and rifeth not again until the heavens be no more," Job xiv. 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 thatdaywhen the great trump shall found, 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. xx. 13.
6. When the feed appears above-ground, it appears much more fresh and orient, than when it was cast into the earth :
God cloaths it with such beauty, that it is not like to what it was before. Thus rise the bodies of the saints, marvelloufly improved, beautified, and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments ; in respect whereof they are called fpiritulbodies, 1 Cor. xv. 43. not properly, but analogically spiritual; for look, as spirits subsist without food, raiment, leep, know no lassitude, weariness or pain; so our bodies, after the resurrection, shall be above these necessities and dislempers ; for we shall be as the angels of God, Matth. xxii. 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 andhonour that an human body is capable of, Phil. iii. 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 inthegravewerebutdust and rottenness,when it delivers them back again, shall be thining 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 unferviceable to God.
The spirit in deed is willing, but the flesh is weak . A crazy body retorts and shoots back its distempers upon the soul, with which it is so N2
Husbandry Spiritualized; or, closely conjoined: But though now the soul (as Theophraftus 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, monftrofities in glorified bodies; but of them it may much rather be said, what was once said of Abfalom, 2 Sam. xiv. 25. " That from " the crown of the head, to the soal 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 vexedwith : What shall it eat? And what shall it drink ? And wherewithal shall it be cloathed? " But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats ;
"God shall destroy both it and them," I Cor. vi. 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 re- " surrection 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 xx. 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, anddelighting increas tures, 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!
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
REFLECTION S.
1. If I shall receive mybody again so dignified The healthandimproved in the world to come,then Lord let ful faint's meneverbeunwilling to use mybodynowfor the reflection. interest ofthyglory, or my own salvation ! Now,
OmyGod, it grieves me to think how many precious opportunities of serving andhonouring thee I have lost, under pretence of endangering my health !
Ihavebeenmore folicitoustolive 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 fondlyovervaluedbyme.
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 abody, if not in spendingandwearing 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 sprightful horse, upon condition thou shouldest not ride or work him. O! if some of the saints had enjoyed the blessing of such anhealthyactive body as mine, what excellent services would they have performed to God in it ?
2. If mybody shall as furelyrife again in glory, Thefickly vigour, and excellent endowments, as the feed which
I fowdoth ; why should not this comfort me over faint'sreall the pains, weaknesses, anddulness, with which section. my soul is now clogged ?
Thou knowest, my God, what a griefithathbeentomy foul, to be fettered and entangled with thedistempers and manifold indispositions of this vile body :
Ithathmademe sigh; and say, with holyAnfelme, when he fawthe 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 adistemperedbodywill 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 foul; 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 The dying faint, like Jacob, rouze up himself upon his bed, faint's reand encourage himself against the fears of death by this refreshing consideration. Let him fay, with section.
Husbandry Spiritualized ; or, holy dying Mufculus, 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 shouldst be fo 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 immoderatelyor 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 thisbody 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 ofOnesimus ? Philem.
Ver. 15. " It therefore departeth for a season, that thou mayest " receive it for ever."
The day of re-efpousals will quickly come; and in the meantime, as thybody shall not be sensible of the tedious length of interposing time,so neither shalt thou be follicitous about thine absent friend; for the fruition of God in thine unbodied state, small 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 flow 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 deadbody.
Nihilcorpus fenfit in nervo cum anima fit in coelo.
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 The ungodly will mine be ! and how much more fadourmeetfoul's reflecing again! how will this foul andbodyblush, tion. 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 fleth 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.
TheHeavenlyUse of Earthly Things.
The POEM.
ARE seeds have no great beauty, but, in hum'd, B That which they had is lost, and quite confum'd ;
I hey 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 rife in glory, vigour, dignity ; With singing, in that morning they arise, And dazle glory, such as mortal eyes Ne'er viewed on earth.
The sparkling beauties here, No more can equalize their splendor there, Than glimmering glow-worms do the fairest star
That thines in heaven, or the stones that are In every 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 luftre would, thould it on mortals fall, Transport a Stephen, and confound aPaul.
'Tis now a coarse and crazy house of clay ; But, oh ! howdeardo fouls for lodgings pay !
Few more than I : For thou, my soul, haft been Within these tents of Kedar cooped in ; Where, with distempers clogg'd, thou mak'st thy moans,
And, for deliverance, with tears and groans Hast often fu'd: Cheer up, the time will be,
When thou from all these troubles shall be free :
No jarring humours, cloudy vapours, rheums, Pains, aches, or whatever else consumes My days in grief; whilst in the Christian race,
Flesh lags behind, and can'tkeep equal pace With the more willing spirit: None of these
Shall thenceforth clog thee, or disturb thine ease.