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the things done in the Body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Next, The Doctrine of the Refurrection is very Ufeful to fupport us under the Sufferings of this Life; a Life of Cares and Fears, of Dangers and Temptations, which made the wifer Heathens to undervalue it; and no wonder, when they obferved nothing therein, but vanity, and vexation of Spirit; therefore, fays the Apofle, If in this life only, we have Hope in Chrift, we are of all Men most miferable; That is, If here were all our Joys and Confolations, then there were Ground 1 to. Complain, Lord, why haft thou made all Men in vain? and especially Chriftians, whofe Profeffion, as it animated them with the greateft hopes of eternal Glory, and Rewards, The Disappointment whereof, had been more dreadful to them, than Death, or the Shadows of Darkness; fo it expofed them to many cruel Deaths and Dangers, to the Reproaches and Perfecutions of wicked Men; but now Chrift is rifen from the Dead, and become the Firft-fruits of them that flept; this is that Hope which makes us not afhamed in the evil Day; this is that Anchor of the Soul, both fure and fteadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail, whither the Forerunner is for us entred, even Jefus, made an HighPrieft for ever after the Order of Melchizedek.

Why art thou caft down, O my Soul, why art thou difquieted within me; hope thou in God, for I fhall yet praife him, who is the Health of my Countenance, and my GOD: Weeping may endure for a Night, but Joy cometh in the Morning.

Behold how Job Triumphs in his Sufferings, to fee this happy Day, not only of his Temporal Deliverance from his prefent Afflictions, but likewife of Chrift's ReJob 19. furrection, and his own.

23.

O that my Words were now written, fays he, O that they

were

were written in a Book! that they were graven with an Iron Pen and Lead, in the Rock for ever: for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall ftand at the latter day upon the Earth. And though after my Skin, Worms deftroy this Body, yet in my Flesh fhall I fee God: whom Ffball fee for my felf, and mine Eyes fhall behold, and not another; though my Reins be confumed within me.

O Lord Jefus, my Lord, and my God, whom having not feen, I love, and in whom, though now I fee not thy Majefty, yet believing (in my greatest Sufferings) rejoice with Joy unspeakable, and full of Glory.

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Ez.37.

See likewife how the Lord comforts his People, in Ezekiel's Vifion, with Hopes of Delivery from their Ba bylonian Captivity, by that Typical Refurrection of dry and dead Bones, which came together, Bone by Bone, and being covered with Sinews, Flesh and Skin, the Spirit of Life entred into them, and they flood up an exceeding great Army; Therefore thus faith the Lord God, Behold, O my People, I will open your Graves, and cause you to come out of your Graves, and 12. bring you into the Land of Ifrael, and to that promifed Land of Reft, even to the New Jerufalem above; with the fame Confideration the Apoftle comforts himfelf, and all Suffering Believers; for I reckon, fays he, That the Sufferings of this prefent Time, are not wor- Rom.8. thy to be compared with the Glory that fhall be revealed in us,for the earnest Expectation of the Creature, waiteth for the Manifeftation of the Sons of God; For the Creature was made fubject to Vanity, not willingly, but by reafon of him that hath fubjected the fame in Hope, because the Creature it felf alfo fhall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption, into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God; for we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travaileth in Pain together until now, and not only they, but we our felves alfo, which have the Firft-fruits of the Spirit; even we our K

felves

4.

felves, groan within our felves, waiting for the Adopti on, to wit, the Redemption of our Bodies; And again, 2. Cor. For this Caufe, fays he, we faint not; but though our outward Man perish, yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day; for our light Affliction, which is but for a Moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the Things which are not feen, for the Things which are feen, are Temporal; but the Things that are not seen, are Eternal.

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Again, This Doctrine of the Refurrection ferveth to comfort us against the Fears of Death, which the Apoftle here,and the Scriptures elfe-where, compares toSleep, partly by this gentle Expreffion, to foften our ghoftly Apprehenfions of the King of Terrors, but moftly to comfort us with the Hopes of a joyful Refurrection, when fhall be wakened with the Trumpet of God, and the Mufick of Angels; then fhall the Seas, and the Elements, thefe Men-eaters, and other Monsters, that have de voured the Bodies of the Saints,give up their Dead, and restore what they had in keeping; for he fhall fend his Angels with a great Sound of a Trumpet, and they fhall gather together the Elect from the four Luke, Winds, from the one end of Heaven to the other; then21.28. look up, and Lift up your Heads; for your Redemp tion draweth nigh.

Then we fhall Converfe with Mofes and Elias, with the noble Army of Martyrs and Confeffors,with all our Friends and Relations who died before us; or fhall fol low after us For GOD hath not appointed us to Wrath, but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jefus 5. 10. Chrift, Who died for us, that whether we wake, or fleef, we Should live together with him.

1.Thef.

To fay their will be a Refurrection of the Body, and not of the fame Body, and the fame Members, would

be

be an improper Speech, and imply a Contradiction, which was the Herefy of Hymeneus and Philetus, whom, therefore St. Paul did Excommunicate, for denying this Article, and turning it into an Allegory, or Figure, when the Apostle fays in this Chapter, That flesh and Blood fball 2.Tim. not inherit the Kingdom of GOD; He explains himself 2, 17. in the following Words of the fame Verfe, faying, neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption, to fhew that not the Subftance, or Flesh and Blood fimply, but the Corruption and Mortality of Flesh and Blood are excluded from the Kingdom of GOD.

Again, there are Celestial Bodies, and Bodies Terreftrial, as he fpeaks concerning the Body at the Refurrection: But obferve how he argues; The Glory of the Celeftial Body is one, and the Glory of the Terrestrial. another, but the Apoftle does not fay, That the Substance of the Celestial Body is one, and the Subftance of the Terreftial is another; as of two Subftances, but as of one and the fame Subftance, under different Degrees of Glory.

The fame Body,and the fame Members (not thefe accidental Superfluities and Corruptions, which Sin hath made, but the fame Subftance/fhall rife again, and be refined to more excellent Employs, and nobler Offices than formerly, in this Life, when many times they were yielded Inftruments of Unrighteoufnefs, to Sin. Ther is a Natural Body, and there is a Spiritual Body; as we have born the Image of the Earthly, we fhall alfo bear the Image of the Heavenly; there fhall be no blufhing at thefe Parts of the Body, which we think lefs Honourable, because of that Law in our Members, which now Wars against the Law of our Minds, and brings us into Captivity into the Law of Sin; for upon thefe,if we have yielded them Servants,not to Sin, and to Uncleannefs, but unto Righteoufnefs and Holiness, God fhall beftow more abundant Honour, and our Un

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comely

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Job 3.

17.

Heb.

comely Parts, fhall then have more abundant Comeli-
nefs, because the Flefh fhall Luft no more against the
Spirit; but as our firft Parents, in the State of Innocen-
cy, were both Naked, and were not afhamed, fo fhall
we be in the State of Glory, like the Angels in Heaven,
which neither Marry, nor are given in Marriage.

Wherefore, Let us us comfort one another with thefe
Confiderations, and not be afraid of Death, or the
Grave, Where the weary be at rest, and the Prifoners Sleep,
together, where the Servant is free from his Mafter, and
the Poor hear not the Voice of Oppreffion; for fo he
giveth his beloved Sleep.

Chrift, by his Refurrection, hath taken away the Sting of Death, which is Sin; and therefore, Death is not a Curfe, but a Bleffing, to the Godly; becaufe, it doth not deliver them over to Punishment, but Tranflates them to a more happyState, which made thefe Martyrs, that were Tortured for the Faith, Not to accept of 11. 35. Deliverance, that they might obtain a better Refurrection, than either a Temporal Deliverance from their present Sufferings, or again to be raised from the Dead, to a Mortal Life, and after all to die again; Therefore, Jefus wept, not more in Compaffion with Mary and Martha, for the Death of their Brother Lazarus, than in Compliance with their Weakness, that he was to raife him again from the Dead, to the Miseries of this Life.

Thus faith the Lord to every difconfolate Chriftian, as the Prophet once Comforted Rachel, the Mother of thefe Innocents that were flain in Bethlehem by Herod, when she is perfonated as their common Parent, weeping inordinately for them and would not be comforted.

Reftrain thy Voice from Weeping, and thy Eyes from Tears, for thy Work fhall be rewarded, and they fhall come again from the Land of the Enemy, from the Region of Death and Darknefs, for there is Hope in thine End, faith the Lord, that thy Children fhall come up a

gain

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