X.

SER M. poffible for us to determine, so neither is it neceffary for us to know: Sufficient it is to all wife and good purposes, that we believe and affirm with St Paul, that as out of a grain of corn fown in the earth there Springs an ear of the fame kind; fo from a mortal and corruptible body buried in the ground, there fhall be raised an immortal and incorruptible one. For 2dly, Tho' in the whole the fame body that died shall be raised again, yet fhall it rife with very great alterations: As thou foweft not that body that shall be, but bare grain, fuppofe of wheat or of fome other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleafed him; fo alfo is the refurrection of the dead. What thefe alterations fhall be, the Apostle tells us in the 42, 43 and 44Verses of this xvth Chapter of 1 Cor. It is fown in corruption it is raised in incorruption; it is fown in difbonour, it is raised in glory; it is fown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is fown a natural body, it is raised a fpiritual body. Ift. It is fown in corruption, it is raifed in incorruption; i. e. The body which has now in it fuch manifest prin

I

n

ciples of mortality and corruption; which S ER M. confifts now of fuch brittle and tender X. parts, that every the leaft violence difturbs and unfits them for their operations; which is now fubject to fo many cafualties, and has its continuance depending upon the fit difpofition of so many little and easily disordered parts, that 'tis a greater wonder how we continue to live a day than why we die after so sew years space; this body shall at the resurrection be perfectly refined and purged from all the feeds of mortality and corruption; fhall be made up of fuch parts and fo conftituted, as fhall neither in themselves have any tendency to diffolution, nor be capable of being any way difordered and unfitted for their proper functions, in a word, fhall fpring up into an incorruptible and immortal fubstance, which fhall be fitted to indure as long as the Soul to which it is to be united, even to all eternity. Again, it is fown in dif honour, it is raised in glory; i. e. That body, which at death feems fo base and abject, fo vile and contemptible, shall at the refurrection be transformed into a

SER M. bright and beautiful and glorious body. X. Neither ought it at all to feem strange to us, that it should be capable of receiving fo great a change; For if even in this mortal life the motions of the Soul, joy and hope, innocence and an affurance of the favour of God, can fhew forth themfelves with fo remarkable a Vigour, and as it were with a luftre, in the countenances of men; if St Stephen's innocence and joyful affurance, could make his face to appear as it had been the face of an Angel; and Mofes's converfing with God upon the Mount, could make his face fo hine, that the Children of Ifrael were not able to look upon him for the brightness and glory of it; how much greater change must the strong aud powerful operations of a glorified Soul, ravished with the beatifick vifion of God, make in a fubtle immortal and incorruptible body? But befides this, we are moreover affured, that Our Saviour shall also by his immediate power, even by that mighty working whereby be is able to fubdue all things unto himself, change this our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, Phil.

X.

iii. 21. And what fort of body his glo- S ER M. rious body is, may in fome measure be gathered from the Hiftory of his transfiguration, where his face is described to have fhined like the Sun, and bis raiment to have become shining, exceeding white as fnow, fo as no fuller on earth could white them, St Matt. xvii. 2. compared with Mar. ix. 3. and from the defcription of his appearance to St John, Rev. i. 14. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as fnow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. Such therefore shall be the glorified bodies of the Saints at the refurrection; namely, made like unto the glorified body of Chrift. And this perhaps is what is intimated by our Saviour in that promise, St Matt. xiii. 43. Then shall the righteous Shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father; and in that Prophecy of Daniel, ch. xii. v. 3. They that be wife fball fhine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to rightequfness as the Stars for ever and ever ; and by the Author of the Book of Wisdom,

SER M. ch. iii. 6, 7. As gold in the furnace has be X. tried them, and received them as a burntoffering: They shall shine, and run to and fro like fparks among the ftubble: They fball judge the nations, and have dominion over the people; and their Lord shall reign for ever. Further, it is fown in weakness, it is raised in power; i. e. that body, which is now fo weak and feeble, so subject to diseases and indifpofitions, fo flow, heavy and unactive, that it clogs the foul and retards its spiritual flights and operations; fhall then become fo ftrong and powerful, fo active and vigorous, as even to be affifting to the moft fpiritual motions of the foul, to become every way a fit Organ and Inftrument of its most exalted operations, and fhall continue in that perfect health, ftrength and vigour for ever: For God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are paffed away, Rev. xxi. 4. Laftly, it is fown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; i. e. That body, which is now fitted only for this animal