their God in thankfulness for the enjoyment of their pleasures with their Minions but wise men have offered sacrifices in thankfulness for the pleasures of their minde as he instances in Pythagoras A third argument that he uses That we never heard of any so given to their appetite that would boast of their pleasure that they had devoured so much or given to their lusts that would boast of their lust how they had satisfied it although if he lived in these days he might hear of such men it seems men are grown more sensual then they were in those times but for the pleasures of the minde many would break forth in rejoycing and glorying expressions that they had had them as he instances in Archimedes when he had found out a Phylosophical experiment that he was so filled with joy that he ran up and down crying I have found it I have found it A fourth argument That no man would so prize their pleasures in belly-chear as to be willing presently to dye that they might be filled therewith for the pleasures of the minde many have so delighted in them so prized them as they have been willing presently to dye for the enjoyment of them as he instances in Eudoxus who would be willing to be burnt up by the Sun presently upon condition he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it Thus Heathens could argue against the slightness and vanity of sensual pleasures and the solidness and excellency of the pleasures of the minde Seventhly as they are slight for the present so they are soon gone they are not onely vain but vanishing First they vanish in us even in the enjoying Secondly they vanish from us so that we cannot enjoy them long For the first The fashion of this world passeth away and the lust of it it does not onely pass away at the last but the lust of it passeth away before the thing it self be gone Although at first sensual things delight yet within a while they come to be used as necessaries not as delights the delightfulness is over and yet they cannot be without them in this such are more miserable then other men for those things that are superfluous to others are necessary to them The more things a man wants that he cannot be without the more miserable he is It is Gods infinite happiness that he hath need of nothing out of himself and the less need a creature hath of any thing out of its self the nearer it comes to happiness all their pleasurable things do but serve to make up that imperfection in them which is not in others their pleasures now are but to help against the diseases of Nature now these cannot be so delightful as the true natural delights that are surable to the principles of Nature which others enjoy But secondly they vanish from us presently Solomon compares all the prosperity of the wicked to a candle How soon is the candle of the wicked blown out All are like a mountain yea like a little hill of snow that melts away presently Pleasure gives us a deadly wound and is gone it makes us miserable and then it leaves us Eighthly if they should not be soon gone from me yet I must be soon gone from them It were something if thou mightest abide by them and they abide with thee but within a while thou and all thy pleasures together must vanish away you must be dragged from them if death draw the curtains and look in upon thee then thou must bid a farewel to all never laugh more never have merry meetings more never be in jollity more All All now is gone as the Pope Adrian said when he was to dye O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never jest it sport it out more when thou shalt be called to eternity then all thy delights will leave thee and bid thee farewel for ever if you should call to them O now go with me now I have most need of you alas they cannot all now is but a shadow but a dream that is passed away Alas I was made for eternity and what good is it for me to have such pleasures for a season What is it to be jocund to trifle up and down a year or two and there an end O how doleful will this sound be to you Your season is done you have had your time it is gone it is past and cannot be recalled And yet this is not the season neither that should be for pleasure Son remember in thy life time thou hadst thy pleasure it should not have been then St. James cap. 5. lays it as a great charge upon those in his time that they lived in pleasure upon the earth this is a charge of folly This is a time for vertuous actions to do the great business for which we were born It is a notable expression we finde in that Tractate in Plutarch's Morals before quoted he puts this case there Suppose says he any man were to dye and either God or the King who had power of his life should lengthen it out one hour that he might make use of that hour either to do some famous action or to spend it in pleasure and when that hour is at an end then to dye again What is it like that this man would do What would he rather have his lust with Lais that was in those times a famous Whore or would he rather drink strong and delightful Wine or not rather do some famous exploit for his Countrey as to slay Archias and to deliver Athens and he determines the case I am perswaded says he no man in such a case but would rather chuse the latter Surely our lives are in Gods hands we know not whither so much as an hour be granted us or not we may be gone to our long home the next hour but what do we choose to do Certainly did we know that our eternity depended upon this little uncertain time of our lives we would not think sensual pleasures to be in season now this time should be spent in seeking to make our peace with God to humble our souls to get off the guilt of sin this is a time of suing out our pardon of mourning of sorrow and trouble of spirit and not the time for jollity and fleshly delights If a condemned man had two or three days granted him that he might sue out his pardon were that a time for pleasure and sports thus it is with thee the sentence of death is upon thee onely a little uncertain time is granted thee to get a pardon know then what is thy work thou hast to do and apply thy self to it And were it that thou hadst thy pleasure freely it were another matter but they must all be called for again and thou must give a strict account for them all Eccles 11. 19. Rejoyce O yong man in thy youth walk in the way of thy
promises of direction says Christ Take no thought when you are called before rulers for my names sake how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Thirdly there are promises of assistance I will be with you to the end of the world Fourthly there is a promise of acceptance He that forsaketh houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive a hundred fold and inherit eternal life Fifthly a promise of blessing Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all maner of evil falsly on you for my sake Sixthly a promise of a Kingdom If we suffer with him we shall likewise reign with him Luke 22. 28 29. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me the appointing of a Kingdom follows upon their continuing with Christ in temptation Brethren God promises much to those that shall be sensible of the reproaches of others much more when thou thy self sufferest in the cause of Christ In Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn Assembly time was when the solemn Assemblies of Gods people their gathering together to hear a Sermon was their reproach and they were contemned by many were you ever in any place where the Assemblies of Gods people were reproachful and was this a burthen to your souls and grievous to you mark the blessed promise I will gather them together but to be reproached our selves and to bear our reproaches in a Christian maner great and rich promises are made unto it Seventhly in reproaches and sufferings for Christ there are rich consolations never such consolation let out to a gracious heart as when it is under reproaches and sorest persecutions if ever Christ does turn water into wine it is the tears of Gods people that are turned into wine of consolation Basil in his Oration for Barlaam that famous Martyr says He delighted in the close Prison as in a pleasant green meadow and he took pleasure in the several inventions of tortures as in several sweet flowers And Vincentius the Martyr speaking of the great things he suffered for Christ hath this expression I have always desired these dainties Luther reports of that Martyr St. Agatha that as she went to Prisons and Tortures she said she went to Banquets and Nuptails And Iames Bainham said when they kindled the fire at his feet Me thinks you strew roses before me And Mr. Saunders hath a most full expression of his consolation he felt a wonderful sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the members of his body and from all the parts of his body to his heart again And that Martyr Hawks lifts up his hands above his head and claps them together when he was in the fire as if he had been in a triumph this is a special fruit of the Spirit of God and of glory of which St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye suffer reproaches happy are ye the Spirit of God and glory rests upon you and one consolation one beam of Gods face is worth all the riches of the world The Sun enlightens the world says Cyprian but he that made the Sun is a greater light to you in prison that darkness which is the horrible deadly darkness of the place of punishment to others he irradiates to you with his bright and eternal light Vobis idem qui Solem fecit majus in carcere lumen fuit horribiles caeteris atque funest as paenalis loci tenebr as aeterna illa candida luce radiante Cyp. Ep. 16. Eighthly in reproaches and sufferings there are riches of glory both before the day of Judgement and after riches of glory before if so be that opinion of some be true which I dare not altogether deny of Christs coming to reign in the world here before the day of Judgement though I will not affirm it as a truth yet if there be not a truth in it I confess I cannot make any thing of many places of Scripture Rev. 20. 5. But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years I know this is ordinarily interpreted of the resurrection from sin to grace and reigning with Christ a thousand years that is reigning with him in Heaven but this cannot be the meaning of the Text this thousand years must be before the day of Judgement because Satan must be loosed after now if this prove to be true O the riches of glory that those that suffer for Christ shall have all those that have suffered for Christ they especially shall be raised up to reign with Christ on the earth and therefore you have it in ver 4. And I saw thrones and they sate upon them and judgement was given unto them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and reigned with Christ a thousand years Suppose it to be so then the more any do suffer for withdrawing himself from Antichrist the more glory they shall have when Christ comes to reign upon the earth Some are loth to receive the mark of the Beast upon their foreheads openly to appear for Antichrist yet they will have the mark of the Beast in their hands but here is a promise to them that shall refuse both and it is not meant onely of those that suffer death in their lives the death in our liberties and death in our estates and other kinde of deaths shall not go unrewarded it is a point that was spoken of in the Primitive times and afterward it was condemned upon this ground because many grew to be sensual and thought the Kingdom of Christ should be for a thousand years in pleasure to the flesh but take the Kingdom of Christ to be spiritual in the glory of his Ordinances as I am confident that Christ shall reign Personally in his flesh I will not say but Spiritually farre more gloriously then he hath done But then at the day of Judgement O the glory of those that suffer for Christ they shall have Crowns upon their heads and Palms in their hands and all their persecutors stand as base creatures before them O the imbracings that there shall be then If a father send his childe abroad about business and the childe meet with much difficulty and comes home in a rainy tempestuous day how gladly his father receives him and all are
for the encouragement of those who are willing to part with any thing for Christ even there perfecution is annexed for so the words are Mark 10. 29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this life houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Persecutions come in amongst all those great things that are there promised Israel is a people afflicted from their youth Psal 129. 1. When God appeared to Moses to send him a deliverer of his people he appeared to him in a burning bush to set out the afflicted estate of his people If the people of God might have a Herald to give Arms to them as some other Professions and Societies have the best and most sutable would be such as Mr. Hooper that holy Martyr had when he was made Bishop of Worcester A Lamb in a flaming bush with rayes of the Sun from Heaven shining on it a Lamb for meekness in a bush burning amongst wicked men who are as brambles and thorns burning with malice and yet the sweet influence and comfortable light of heaven let out upon it When Ignatius came to the wilde beasts to be devoured of them and his bones crushed between their teeth Now says he I begin to be a Christian Blessed Mr. Bradford writing to the Town of Walden to encourage them to suffer saith that that Christian hath not learned his A. B. C. in Christianity who hath not learned the lesson of the Cross A. Christian is a Cross-bearer says Luther As God made the evening and the morning to be the first day and so the second c. So the day of Gods people God hath made to be the evening of troubles here and the everlasting morning of glory and happiness hereafter It is an expression of Mr. Calvin The godly says he have their dark shadow of troubles before them and their brightness of glory behinde to come hereafter but the men of the world have their brightness before them Men use to bring out their best first and reserve the worst till afterwards but Gods dealing with his people is otherwise their worst is first with them The way to Canaan is through the wilderness even after a sore and tedious bondage yea and when God brought his people into Canaan he brought them into the worst part of Canaan first into the southern part which was the most dry and barren part of the land The way to Zion is through the valley of Baca Psal 84. 6. Many are the troubles of the righteous saith David Psal 34. 19. According to that of the Apostles Acts 14. 22. Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God Psalm 22. is a prophetical Psalm of Christs sufferings and the title is upon Aijeleth Shehar which signifies the morning Hart or Stag such a one as the Huntsmen sever out in the morning from the rest to hunt for that day Such was Christ and such is his Church as the morning Stag severed out to be hunted and worried by the world In the world ye shall have tribulation saith our Savior to his disciples John 16. 33. we cannot follow Christ and be his Disciples but upon these terms Mat. 16. 24. Others use to invite Followers with promises of honors and riches but Christ tells the worst at first what we are like to finde we must be content to take up our cross not to endure it by compulsion and constraint but to take it up willingly and cheerfully Secondly not what cross we will we must not choose our cross but what is appointed for us He must take up his cross But this cross it may be shall be but now and then Yes Luke 9. 23. He must take up his cross daily But if every day I hope it is an easie cross Nay it is a killing cross 1 Cor. 15. 31. I dye daily saith St. Paul But yet I hope there may be refreshings some part of the day Not so neither Rom. 8. 36. For thy sake are we killed all the day long that is in regard of the danger of death Secondly in regard of some beginnings that we suffer Thirdly in regard of our willingness to undergo it Since the days of John Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. this is ordinarily taken for the greediness of the peoples embracing Johns Ministery but it rather seems to be spoken of another kinde of violence namely the violence of opposition and persecution in which the enemies of the Gospel seek to lay violent hands upon it for he tells them presently Verse 16 17 18. that the Jews were as wayward children that nothing would please them but said that John had a Devil they were therefore rather violent against his Ministery then violent in embracing of his Ministery 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly must suffer persecution First all Every one must expect it although it is true God calls not all to the like sufferings yet he exempts none from some degree or other let him be as wise and as discreet as he will yet if godly he shall not escape Christ was the best Preacher that ever was he lived the most inoffensively that ever any did and yet while he was preaching the Pharisees blew their noses at him in scorn and derision for so the word signifies in the Original Luke 16. 14. which is translated derided him And at another time they would have broke his neck by casting him from a steep hill after he had done his Sermon Saint Paul the most famous Preacher next to Christ that ever was and yet he was accounted a babler a pestilent fellow his Sermons were accounted factious and seditious Secondly He that will live godly The Devil will let a man have many wishes and desires these are not persecuted but he that will if he be set upon it absolutely resolved that he will and nothing shall hinder then he must make account to suffer When the woman in the Revelations Chap. 12. was ready to bring forth her Childe the Dragon sought to devour it he medled not with her all the while she was a breeding Thirdly he that will live If he keep his godliness in his heart and not discover it in his life he may go on well enough but these shews of godliness the world cannot endure Wickedness must appear with open face but godliness must keep within doors Wickedness trades openly but godliness must keep in as a bankrupt that dare not be seen Fourthly he that will live godly Not civilly onely for a man to live fairly lovingly justly amongst men to keep from crying sins and here to rest this man perhaps may escape sufferings but if he begins to
to death the same day All the twelve Apostles after many sore and grievous afflictions endured suffered many violent deaths John onely excepted who yet as the Scripture testifieth was banished into Patmos and as some Histories that he was by Domitian thrown into a Tun of scalding lead yet as they say delivered by a miracle Peter was crucified with his heels upward because he would not be as Christ was thinking himself unworthy of that honor Andrew was crucified by Egeas King of Edessa Iames was slain by the sword of Herod as we finde Acts 12. the beginning Philip was crucified and stoned to death at Hieropolis a City in Phrygia Bartholomew after divers persecutions was beaten down with staves as he was preaching in a City of Armenia and then crucified and after his skin flead off and beheaded Thomas was slain with a Dart at Calamina in India Matthew was run through with a sword or as some write slain with a spear Iames the son of Alpheus who was called the just man was set upon the pinacle of the Temple and thrown down and yet having some life left in him he was brained with a Fullers club some Histories say that Paul before his conversion had a special hand in this Lebbeus was slain by Agbarus King of Edessa Simon the Canaanite was crucified in Egypt or as others say he and Iude was slain in a tumult of the people Matthias that came into the number in stead of Iudas was stoned and then beheaded Paul was beheaded at Rome under Nero. Those ten fearful Perfecutions in the Primitive times from the time of Domitius Nero unto Constantine doth set out fully unto us the truth of this argument for three hundred years together the name of a Christian was death except now and then the Churches had some little breathings Brightman speaking of the stories of those times says that every page and leaf is as it were all red coloured in blood the Covenant of grace is a bloody Covenant both in regard of the blood of Christ first sealing it and the blood of the blessed Martyrs adding likewise their seals in confirming of it In that Treatise that goes under the name of Cyprian de duplici Martyrio speaking of that place 1 Iohn 5. 8. Three bear witness on earth the Spirit water and blood the third is applyed to the blood of the Martyrs in those times It is a most heart-breaking meditation to consider the ragings madness and fury of the Heathens against the Christians in those times Ierome in an Epistle to Cromatius says that there was no day in a whole year unto which the number of five thousand Martyrs cannot be ascribed except onely the first day of Ianuary Vincentius reports that at Aquileia the Emperor gave leave to every man that would to kill the Christians All the policy wit strength of invention of men and devils were exercised and stretched out to the utmost for devising the most miserable torments and exquisite tortures as plates of Iron burning hot laid upon their naked flesh pinsers red hot pulling off the flesh from the bones bodkins pricking and thrusting all over their bodies casting into lime kilns and into caldrons of scalding lead whippings until almost all the flesh was torn off their bodies and their bones and bowels appeared and then laid flat upon sharp shels and knives their skins were flead off alive and then their raw flesh was rubbed with salt and vineger their bodies were beaten all over with clubs until their bones and joynts were beat asunder they were laid upon gridirons rosted and basted with salt and vineger one member was pulled from another by fastening them to the boughs of trees they rent their bodies apieces they were tossed upon the horns of Bulls with their bowels hanging out they were cast among dogs to be devoured they were put under the Ice naked into Rivers they were tortured on the rack on the wheel and on the gibbet with flaming fire under them they made it their sports to see them devoured by wilde beasts and in the night in stead of torches they burnt the bodies of the Saints to give them light for their pastimes To give you an instance or two that you may see the miserable extremities the Saints of God in former times passed through I read of one Sanctus upon whom when such intolerable tortures were inflicted as the Persecuters thought surely they should have heard some words of blasphemy coming from him yet they could get nothing but this Sum Christianus I am a Christian at which they being mad they clapt on plates of brass red hot to the most tender parts of his body wherewith although his Spirit shrunk not but still continued constant yet his body was so drawn together that it lost the proper shape of a man and after he lying in prison a while they brought him forth again to the common scaffold in the face of the people and put him to all kinde of torments they could devise as though he had been put to none before as scourgings tearings by wilde beasts his body being thus torn they brought an iron chair red hot with fire and set him in it and so fryed and scorched him as upon a gridiron Thus he being made the whole day a spectacle to the people in stead of their games and sights they could get nothing from him but his firt confession Christianus sum I am a Christian The example of Romanus who was of noble birth but more noble in his Martyrdom is very famous he was first whipped with knaps of lead at the ends of the cords he desired them not to spare him for his Nobility Not the blood of my progenitors says he but Christian profession makes me noble then they lanced him with knives until the bones appeared white his face was buffeted his eye-lids torn with their nails his hair pulled from his face the Captain being astonished at his constancy commanded them to cease from tortures he was after brought forth and scourged again upon his old sores they plucked out his tongue by the roots the Captain being yet more astonished to see him continue constant commanded him to be brought into prison and there be to strangled The example of Vincentius is as remarkable as any he was first wracked all his joynts being stretched out of their place then his body was indented with grievous and deadly wounds then they tortured his flesh by saking upon it with iron combs sharply filed and then they laid his body upon a grate of iron opening his flesh with iron hooks they seared it with fiery plates sprinkling it with hot burning salt then they drew him into a dungeon where the floor was spread with the sharpest shells that could be gotten they laid his body upon them and so left him without all succor Take an example of a woman or two one Blandina was miserably whipped tortured by wilde beasts tormented and scorched upon a gridiron and then put
Here is the Sword which is an emblem of thy place and here is the Gospel choose the one you must have but one Then his heart gave in and so left the Sword and chose the Gospel The wisdom of God this day hath stood and still stands before you pleading with you crying to you to come in and embrace her to make a happy choice for thy soul folly likewise hath her pleadings and perswasions to draw thee to the lusts of the flesh both make their offers unto thee as they say of Hercules when he was yong he saw vertue and vice in the likeness of two Virgins wooing him vice like a painted Harlot and vertue like a sober chaste Virgin both presenting themselves with wooing offers unto him It is very observable that we finde Prov. 9. concerning wisdom and the foolish woman both pleading to draw the hearts of men to them and they begin in the same maner they both make offers to draw the heart ver 4. Who so is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him and verse 16. the foolish woman useth the same words to draw after her and as wisdom is upon the high places of the City ver 3. so is folly ver 15. yet wisdom is above the foolish woman for the Text says of wisdom she is upon the highest places and of the foolish woman it is onely said she is in the high places And observe further Wisdom calls to eat her bread and drink her wine ver 5. and the foolish woman makes her offer her delights are sweet she says but they are but sweet waters and that stoln too and her bread she says is pleasant but it is secret such as she is even ashamed of her self In the choice that wisdom presents and that which folly presents you have life and death set before you as Moses therefore said to the people so I to you I have set before you this day life and death Now what answer will you give to God Will you go on in the ways of the pleasure of the flesh Are your hearts so bold and venturous that you dare venture to go on in these ways Wo unto you for the cursed hardness of your hearts Were it indeed that you never heard the ways of God opened to you it were another matter but in that you have and yet you go on in your choice after this Sermon God may say Be it unto thee as thou hast chosen God may set to his seal thou hast chosen vanities and a lye and base pleasures and vanities and a lye and base pleasures to thy flesh thou shalt have Wherefore that thou mayest be delivered from this seal this night O consider what a mercy of God it is that thou hast yet time to make thy choice How many hath God cast off And now it is too late to choose God hath determined the business O that yet there should be time O that this would move your hearts We are fain thus to labor and strive with mens spirits to take them off from vain pleasures to urge the strength of all arguments we can with all our might were it that mens hearts were not very sensual and hardened in their sensuality it would not be needful thus to strive the very propounding some one argument might be sufficient to prevail It was a speech of Gregory Nyssen who lived almost thirteen hundred years ago He that does but hear of Hell is without any further labor or study taken off from sinful pleasures Mens hearts are grown harder since But what if I should come in now I who have given so much pleasure to the flesh would God accept of me and regard me Be it known unto thee thou that hast given thy self liberty in injoying the pleasures of the flesh to the utmost thou that hast been most wretched if thou hast a heart to come in this day and turn thy choice God is yet ready to embrace thee we have commission to offer grace and mercy to thee upon thy recalling thy self yea we have a promise you shall have abundance of mercy if you have a heart to come in Prov. 1. 22 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you If any of you have gone so far when we have spoken against the pleasures of the flesh and for the ways of godliness you have scorned the word of the Lord if you have been scorners and contemners yet turn and make your choice better Behold I will pour out my Spirit to you When God pours forth his Spirit he pours forth his grace and mercy and goodness you see the offer of God if you have hearts yet to make choice of his ways And consider the longer you have stayed in the satisfying your selves in the pleasures of the flesh the more unfit will you be to suffer hard things for God O give in your answer and say The Lord forbid I should go on in my former ways I see other things I have to regard peace with God pardon of sin that I have to look after let God reveal to me what his good will and pleasure is and though I should never enjoy good day in the flesh yet I give my self up to that way of God O that there might come this voice up to Heaven this night that your souls may be blessed for ever in this days choice And if God do begin to stir your hearts now take the opportunity choose the things that please him and take hold of the Covenant if you be convinced of the good ways of God now close with them cleave to them let your hearts fasten take such fast hold of the Covenant as you may never let it go Observe how these two are joyned together Isaiah 56. 4. Choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant Take hold now for it is your life CHAP. XV. The true pleasantness of all the ways of godliness NOw that you may be further convinced that in the choice of the ways of godliness you shall not lose but change pleasures you shall finde pleasures sweet and satisfying of a higher nature in them then ever before your souls were acquainted with consider what Solomon saith of the ways of wisdom Solomon who had experience of all other pleasures whatsoever yet of them he saith Proverbs 3. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness That the yoke of Christ was an easie yoke and the ways of godliness had ease in them we have spoken largely As they have ease so they have pleasantness all the ways of godliness are pleasant to that at this time Ordinarily we cannot expect any dependence in these Proverbs but yet in this you have there is a dependence of these words upon the 13.
the highest things that a body can be in without any weariness Thirdly there must be a great deal of power to be able to bear the weight of glory that shall be put upon them 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory such a weight as certainly if the body were not by the power of God upheld it were impossible it should bear it here we finde when there is great joy in the heart the body is not able to bear it but then there shall be a power to bear the weight of glory they shall have And the last is that which I finde expressed in Luther namely The bodies of the Saints shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains in the world like a Ball. And I finde it in an expression of Anselem It shall be such power as they shall be able to shake the whole earth at their pleasure and we cannot think this incredible upon that ground that was named before there is not so much difference between the raising a thing from the lowest degree of power to the highest possibility as in raising a thing from nothing to the lowest degree of power Suppose a creature had but so much power now as to stir the least mote that is in the Sun to raise this power so high as to stir the whole earth does not require so much power as to make a thing out of nothing and if God do intend to manifest his power in glorifying the Saints and in making of them powerful why should we not think that God will extend that possibility of power that is in the body to that heighth certainly glorious shall be the power of the bodies of the Saints and that is the third thing Fourthly it is sowen a natural body and it shall be raised a spiritual body not that it shall be turned into a spirit It shall remain a body but the spiritualness consists in three particulars First that it shall be in a spiritual condition they shall have no more need of meat or drink or clothes or marriage or the like that now the body stands in need of the Angels themselves shall have as much need of meat and drink and clothes as their bodies shall so says Christ They shall not be married nor given in marriage but they shall be as the Angels in Heaven Secondly the spiritualness of the body consists in the absolute subjection of the body to the spirit as to be fully and absolutely serviceable to the spirits of the Saints which here they are not Here many times is a strife between the spirit and the flesh the spirit is willing when the flesh is not but then there shall be an absolute subjection of the body to the spirit As here the spirit of a carnal man is called flesh because his soul is serviceable to the flesh to make provision for the sins of the flesh his soul is counted carnal the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God As the soul now is as it were carnal because it is serviceable to the flesh so the body shall be spiritual because it shall be serviceable to the spirit for you to have such a body as to be serviceable to your souls as you would desire it were a great blessing time will come when it shall be so Thirdly the spiritualness of the body consists in the agility of the body the ability it shall have to move up and down which way it will and that suddenly they shall move in the Heavens as the birds do in the ayr I remember an expression that Luther hath that the body shall move up and down like a thought And Augustine saith They shall move to any place they will as soon as they will These words we do not finde in Scripture but lay this for a ground that whatsoever we can expect for the excellency of a body it is that we speak of or beyond it and then we have a great deal of liberty to invent what expressions we can for our comfort certainly there shall be that happiness of the body that shall come to that we speak of or to more Fourthly some make the spiritualness of the body to consist in the transparency of it Aquinas says It shall be so clear and transparent that all the veins and humors and nerves and bowels shall be seen as in a glass Now brethren the reasons why God will reward the Saints in this part are First because humane bodies as well as humane souls have an hypostatical union with the second person of the Trinity and therefore God rejoyces to raise humane bodies as well as humane souls unto happiness Secondly Christ suffered so much in his body therefore God will glorifie the bodies of the Saints Thirdly our bodies are part of the members of Christ our bodies are joyned in a mystical union with Jesus Christ Fourthly our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost and God will glorifie his own temples Fifthly our bodies are in part sanctified as well as our souls and therefore shall also be glorified Lastly our bodies shall be glorified for the further terror and confusion of the damned because they in their bodies shall see the glory of the Saints and be confounded Here you see a way to get your bodies in a blessed condition here is a stir for clothing of our bodies but there shall be a cloathing with immortality you that have sickly and weak bodies remember this you shall one day receive your bodies in another maner then you have them now Eusebius tels us of one of the children of the Macchabees that were put to death for the profession of the truth when they cut off his members says he I have received these from Heaven and now I do give them unto the God of Heaven and I hope I shall have them again Let us be willing to put our bodies to pain if our bodies suffer hunger or thirst or nakedness or be tyred or suffer Imprisonment or any violence be offered to our bodies in the cause of God What great matter is it we shall receive our bodies in another maner The overcoming of the flesh is the destruction of it but the overcoming the flesh is the glory of it When we speak of the happiness of our souls we are not so capable of it but when we speak of the happiness of our bodies we are sensible of that Now certainly there shall be much more for our bodies here is a way to provide for your bodies Lay up provision for your flesh is spoken as an argument of a carnal heart in Rom. 13. 14. the Apostle exhorts them not to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but there is a way of laying up provision for the flesh that is lawful and that this day I exhort