as can hardly be paralleled in history for the abundance of gospel-mercies that this age and nation has enjoyed; that my mother did not bring me forth in the deserts of Arabia, or wastes of America, but in England, where God hath made the sun of the gospel to stand still, as the natural sun once did over Gibeon; and that such a mercy should no more affect my soul-let shame cover my face for this, and trembling seize my heart! Is the gospel indeed departed? its sweet influences restrained? and a famine, worse than that of bread, come upon us? "Alas for the day!" says the deprived Christian; "for it is a great day, so that none is like it; it is even the day of Jacob's trouble!" Wo is me, that ever I should survive the gospel, and the precious mercies of it! What horrid sins have been harbored amongst us, for which the Lord contends by such an unparalleled judgment? Lord, let me justify thee, even in this severe dispensation. The provocations of thy sons and of thy daughters have been very great, and none greater than mine. May we not this day read our sin in our punishment? O what curious and itching ears had thy people in the days of plenty! Manner, tones, and gestures, were more regarded than the excellent treasures of divine truths. Ah, my soul, I remember my faults this day. Little did I then consider, that sermons work not upon hearts, as they are thus elegant, thus admirable, but as they are instruments in the hand of God appointed to such an end; even as Austin said of the conduits of water, 66 Though one be in the shape of an angel, another of a beast, yet the water refreshes as it is water, and not as it comes from such a conduit." By this also, O Lord, thou rebukest the supineness and formality of thy people. How drowsy, dull, and careless have they been under the most excellent and quickening means! Few more than I. Alas! I have often presented my body before the Lord in ordinances, but my soul hath been wandering abroad. I should have come from under every sermon, as a sheet comes from the press, with all the stamps and lively impressions of the truths I have heard upon my heart; but, alas! if it had been demanded of me, as once it was of Aristotle, after a long and curious oration, how he liked it; I might have answered, as he did, "Truly I did not hear it, for I was all the while minding another matter." Righteous art thou, O Lord, in all that is come upon us. I am now, says the silent minister, as a spring shut up, that can yield no refreshment to thirsty souls, ready to perish. Thou hast said to me as once thou saidst to Ezekiel, "Son of man, behold, I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb." This is a very heavy judgment; but thou must be justified and cleared in it. Although men may not, yet God, if he please, may put a lighted candle under a bushel. And herein I must acknowledge thy righteousness. Many times have I been sinfully silent, when both thy glory and the interest of souls engaged me to speak. Most justly therefore hast thou made my tongue to cleave to its roof. Little did I consider the preciousness of souls, or the tremendous account to be given for them, at the appearing of the great Shepherd. I have now time enough to sit down and mourn over lost opportunities. Lord, restore me once again to a serviceable capacity, to a larger sphere of activity for thee, for I am now become as a broken vessel. It grieves me to the heart to see thy flock scattered; to hear the people cry to me, as once to Joseph, "Give us bread; for why should we die in thy presence ?" The word is like fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing. O that thou wouldst once again open the doors of thine house, that there may be bread enough in thine house for all thy children! 2 CHAPTER XI. On the Corruption of the Seed before it springs. Observation AFTER the seed 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 abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth 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 suitable 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 dishonor; they are raised in glory; they are sown natural bodies; they are raised spiritual bodies." 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." 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. Though Christ be in him, yet the body is dead; that is, sentenced to death because of sin. It is appointed unto all men once to die." "But I 2. The seed is cast into the earth in hope. 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. would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, as they which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him," 1 Thess. iv. 13. This blessed hope ofa 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, "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 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 its 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. 6. When the seed appears above-ground, it appears much more fresh, than when it was cast into the earth. God clothes it with such beauty, that it is not like what it was before. Thus rise the bodies of the saints, marvellously improved, beautified, and perfected with spiritual qualities and rich endowments; wherefore they are called "spiritual bodies," not properly, but analogically, spiritual; for 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. 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 honor that a human body is capable of. 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 the 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 from all natural infirmities and distempers. Death is their good physician, which at once frees them from all diseases. It is a great affliction now to many of the Lord's people, to be clogged with so many bodily in firmities, which render them very unserviceable to God. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." But though the soul pays now 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, even upon the body, in the day of its reespousals to the soul.-Then the body 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 is it now vexed with; what shall it eat? and what shall it drink? and wherewithal shall it be clothed? 66 But meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; God shall destroy both it and them," as to their present use and office. Our bodies shall be freed from death, to which henceforth they can be subject no more; that formidable adversary of nature shall assault them 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 xx. 35; 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. The body shall be perfectly subdued to the spirit. Lord, what hast thou prepared for them that love thee! Reflections. 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. 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, likely enough, my life had been more serviceable to thee, if it had not been so fondly overvalued by me. Foolish soul! has God given thee a body for a living tool or |