similitude not fully expressive of his seeming meaning, for waters and floods that fail may be renewed; and in his Apodosis more openly intimating, man's sleep should be only till the heavens were no more: which till might be supposed to signify never, were it not for what follows, ver. 13. where he expressly speaks his confidence by way of petition, that at a set and appointed time, God would remember him, so as to call him out of the grave and at last, being now minded to speak out more fully, puts the question to himself, If a man die, shall he live again? and answers it, All the days of my appointed time, that is of that appointed time which he mentioned before, when God should revive him out of the dust; will I wait till my change come; that is, that glorious change, when the corruption of a loathsome grave should be exchanged for immortal glory; which he amplifies, and utters more expressly, ver. 15. Thou shalt call, and I will answer; thou shalt have a desire to the work of thy hands: Thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thy own

creature.

And surely that waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust; but though it be spoken of the person totally gone into hades, into the invisible state; it is to be understood of that part that should be capable of such an action; as though he had said 1, in that part that shall be still alive, shall patiently await thy appointed time of reviving me in that part also, which death and the grave shall insult over (in a temporary triumph) in the mean time; and so will the words carry a facile, commodious sense, without the unnecessary help of an imagined rhetorical scheme of speech. And then, that this waiting carries in it a desirous expectation of some additional good, is evident at first sight; which therefore must needs add to the satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it And wherein it may do so, is not altogether unapprehensible. Admit that a spirit, had it never been embodied, might be as well without a body, or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials ; it is no unreasonable supposition, that a connate aptitude to a body, should render human souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations. And how much doth relation and propriety endear things, otherwise mean and inconsiderable? or why should it be thought strange, that a soul connaturalized to matter, should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof? so as that it should appropriate such a part, and say it is mine? And will it not be a pleasure, to have a vitality diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me, have every thing belonging to the suppositum perfectly vindicated from the tyrannous dominion of death? The returning of the spirits into a benumbed or sleeping toe or finger, adds a contentment to a man which he wanted before. Nor is it hence necessary the soul should covet a re-union with every effluvious

particle of its former body: a desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient, not what shall be cumbersome or monstrous. And how pleasant will it be to contemplate and admire the wisdom and power of the great Creator in this so glorious a change, when I shall find a clod of earth, a heap of dust, refined into a celestial purity and brightness? when what was sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption; what was sown in dishonor, is raised in glory; what was sown in weakness, is raised in power; what was sown a natural body, is raised a spiritual body? when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality, and death be wholly swallowed up in victory? So that this awakening may well be understood to carry that in it, which may bespeak it the proper season of the saints' consummate satisfaction and blesssedness. But besides what it carries in itself, there are other (more extrinsical) concurrents that do further signalize this season, and import a greater increase of blessedness then to God's holy ones. The body of Christ is now completed, the fulness of him that filleth all in all, and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in the perfection and reflected glory of the whole. There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner though he have a troublesome scene yet to pass over afterwards, in a tempting, wicked, unquiet world; how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together? The designs are all now accomplished, and wound up into the most glorious result and issue, whereof the divine providence had been, as in travail, for so many thousand years. It is now seen how exquisite wisdom governed the world, and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed methods of providence had, to one stated and most worthy end. Especially the constitution, administration, and ends of the Mediator's kingdom, are now beheld in their exact aptitudes, order and conspicuous glory; when so blessed an issue and success shall command and crown the whole undertaking. The divine authority is now universally acknowledged and adored; his justice is vindicated and satisfied; his grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost. The whole assembly of saints solemnly acquitted by public sentence, presented spotless and without blemish to God, and adjudged to eternal blessedness. It is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation, upon the finishing of all God's works, from the creation of the world, wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all that believe: (2 Thes. 1. 10.) upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediator's kingdom (all the ends of it being now attained) that the Father himself may be immediately all in all. 1 Cor. 15. 28. How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God, the more glorious display of all his attributes, the larger and more abundant effusions of himself, reserved (as the best wine to the last) unto this joyful day! Created

perfections could not have been before so absolute, but they might admit of improvement; their capacities not so large, but, they might be extended further; and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase, and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so?

CHAPTER XI.

1.

I. An introduction to the use of the doctrine hitherto proposed. II. The use divided into. First. Inferences of truth. Secondly. Rules of duty. Inference, That blessedness consists not in any sensual enjoyment. 2. Inference. The spirit of man (since it is capable of so high a blessedness) is a being of high excellency.

I. And now is our greatest work yet behind; the improvement of so momentous a truth, to the affecting and transforming of hearts: that (if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing) they may taste the sweetness, feel the power, and bear the impress and image of it. This is the work, both of greatest necessity, difficulty, and excellency, and unto which, all that hath been done hitherto, is but subservient and introductive. Give me leave therefore, reader, to stop thee here, and demand of thee before thou go further; Hast thou any design in turning over these leaves, of bettering thy spirit, of getting a more refined, heavenly temper of soul? art thou weary of thy dross and earth, and longing for the first fruits, the beginnings of glory? dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described? what is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance. *But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton, rolling eye, hunting for novelties, or what may gratify a prurient wit, a coy and squeamish fancy; go read a romance, or some piece of drollery; know here is nothing for thy turn; and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious spirit; read not another line till thou have sighed out this request, "Lord keep me from trifling with the things of eternity.' Charge thy soul to consider, that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day. It is amazing to think, with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of religion are entertained amongst christians. Things

*Dissoluti est pectoris in rebus seriis quærere voluptatem. It is a mark of a trifling mind to seek amusement in serious things. Arnob.

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15

that should swallow up our souls, drink up our spirits, are heard as a tale that is told, disregarded by most, scorned by too many. What can be spoken so important, or of so tremendous consequence, or of so confessed truth, or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord, as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection; and this by persons avowing themselves christians? We seem to have little or no advantage, in urging men upon their own principles, and with things they most readily and professedly assent to. Their hearts are as much untouched, and void of impression by the Christian doctrine, as if they were of another religion. How unlike is the Christian world to the Christian doctrine? The seal is fair and excellent, but the impression is languid, or not visible. Where is that serious godliness, that heavenliness, that purity, that spirituality, that righteousness, that peace, unto which the Christian religion is most aptly designed to work and form the spirits of men? We think to be saved by an empty name; and glory in the shew and appearance of that, the life and power whereof we hate and deride. It is a reproach with us not to be called a christian, and a greater reproach to be one. If such and such doctrines obtain not in our professed belief, we are heretics or infidels; if they do in our practice, we are precisians and fools. To be so serious, and circumspect, and strict, and holy, to make the practice of godliness so much our business, as the known and avowed principles of our religion do plainly exact from us (yea, though we come, as we cannot but do, unspeakably short of that required measure) is to make one's self a common derision and scorn. Not to be professedly religious is barbarous, to be so in good earnest ridiculous. In other things men are wont to act and practice according to the known rules of their several callings and professions, and he would be reckoned the common fool of the neighborhood that should not do so the husbandman that should sow when others reap, or contrive his harvest into the depth of winter, or sow fitches, and expect to reap wheat; the merchant that should venture abroad his most precious commodities in a leaky bottom, without pilot or compass, or to places not likely to afford him any valuable return. In religion only it must be accounted absurd, to be and do according to its known agreed principles, and he a fool that shall but practice as all about him profess to believe. Lord! whence is this apprehended inconsistency between the profession and practice of religion? what hath thus stupified and unmanned the world, that seriousness in religion should be thought the character of a fool? that men must visibly make a mockery of the most fundamental articles of faith only to save their reputation, and be afraid to be serious, lest they should be thought mad! Were the doctrine here opened, believed in earnest, were the due proper impress of it upon our spirits, or (as the pagan moralist's

'expression is) were our minds transfigured into it; what manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness? But it is thought enough to have it in our creed, though never in our hearts: and such as will not deride the holiness it should produce, yet endeavor it not, nor go about to apply and urge truths upon their own souls to any such purpose. What should turn into grace and spirit and life, turns all into notion and talk; and men think all is well, if their heads be filled, and their tongues tipt, with what should transform their souls, and govern their lives. How are the most awful truths, and that should have greatest power upon men's spirits, trifled with as matters only of speculation and discourse! They are heard but as empty, airy words and presently evaporate, pass away into words again; like food, as Seneca speaks, Non prodest cibus, nec corpori accedit, qui statim sumptus emittitur: that comes up presently, the same that it was taken in; which (as he saith) profits not, nor makes any accession to the body at all. Sen. Epist. A like case (as another ingeniously speaks,) Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ πρόβατα, ἐ χόρτον φέροντα τοῖς ποίμεσιν ἐπιδεικνεύει πόσον ἔφαγεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν νόμην ἔσω πέψαντα,ἔριον ἔξω φέρει καὶ γάλα· καὶ σὺ τοίνυν, μὴ ταχέως βήματα τοῖς ἰδιωταῖς ἐπιδείκνευε, ἀλλὰ ἀπ' αὐτῶν TEрdéνTOV Tà Egya: as if sheep when they had been feeding, should present their shepherds with the very grass itself which they have cropt, and shew how much they had eaten. No, saith he, they concoct it, and so yield them wool and milk. Epietet. And so, saith he, do not you (namely when you have been instructed) presently go and utter words among the more ignorant (meaning they should not do so in a way of ostentation, to shew how much they knew more than others) "but works that follow upon the concoction of what hath been by words made known to them." Let christians be ashamed that they need this instruction from heathen teachers.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them (saith the prophet,) and thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Divine truth is only so far at present grateful or useful for future, as it is received by faith and consideration, and in the love thereof into the very heart, and there turned in succum et sanguinem: into real nutriment to the soul: so shall man live by the word of God. Hence is the application of it (both personal and ministerial) of so great necessity. If the truths of the gospel were of the same alloy with some parts of philosophy whose end is attained as soon as they are known; if the Scripture-doctrine (the whole entire system of it) were not a doctrine after godliness; if it were not designed to sanctify and make men holy; or if the hearts of men did not reluctate, were easily

*Scientiam qui didicit, et facienda et vitanda præcepit, nondum sapiens est, nisi in ea quæ didicit transfiguratus est animus. Though a man have learned moral science and may teach what is to be done, and what is to be avoided, yet he is not a wise man unless his mind is transfigured into his doctrine.