tho I have been conftrain'd to plead with thee, yet thy Dread hath made me afraid. Who can bring Ver. 4. aclean thing out of an unclean? not one. The Seed of Believers are polluted, as well as the Children of Infidels I own (as if he should fay) that I am originally defil'd; but fince tis the common Lot of all Men, let my Mifery rather move the Divine Pity, than excite the Rigours of inflexible Juftice to punilh me in a peculiar and terrible manner. Seeing his Days are deter- Ver. 5, 6. min'd, the number of his Months are with thee, thou haft appointed his Bounds that he cannot pass; turn from him that he may reft, till he has accomplifh'd, as a Hireling, his Day: q. d. Relax and abate the Troubles I groan under, till I have finish'd my Courfe, and liv'd out the refidue of my limited Time. And when that is come, Man lieth down, and rifeth not till the Heavens ver. 12. be no more; they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their fleep. The Heavens fhall not abfolutely cease to be, but to be as they now are. The Apostle Peter indeed fpeaks of the Heavens paffing away with a great noife; and affures us that 2 Pet. 3. 10. they fhall be diffolv'd by Fire, i. e. they shall be ver. 12. wonderfully refin'd. I fee no reason to conclude that their Subftance fhall be annihilated, tho they may pafs under a confiderable Change in regard of their Qualities; when Man fhall Pfal. 102. awake from his mortal Slumber, and fpring 26, 27. from his Bed of Duft. Upon which Job utters a very pathetick Wifh; O that thou wouldst Job 14. 13. bide me in the Grave, that thou wouldst keep me fecret until thy Wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a fet time, and remember me! In which words he defires that God would either afe him of his Afflictions, or put an end to his Life and them together. In the beginning

of the next Verfe, he proposes a Matter by way of Query, which may carry in it an Affirmation accompanied with Joy; If a Man die, fhall be live again? As if he fhould fay, Is it true? Yes I find it is, he fhall undoubtedly live again. Some indeed give the words a quite different turn, and make the Question equivalent to an abfolute Denial: If a Man die, Shall be live again? i. e. (fay they) he shall not, namely in this World. And accordingly they understand the Change that Job fpeaks of in the Text, to be no other than the Change of his Condition in this Life, from a low and adverfe, to a flourishing and profperous State. Which Sense feems forc'd and not genuine : For we do not read that God ever reveal'd any fuch thing to Job; and no doubt, if there had been fuch a Revelation, he would have fpoken of it to his Friends, which would have repel'd the Force of their Cenfures, and not a little tended to his own Vindication. Moreover, upon the fuppofition that Job had fuch a difcovery concerning the end of his Afflictions, and future Advancement even in this Life, he would not have been fuch a remarkable Inftance of Patience. Nor can I think we fhould have heard from him any Expreffions inconfiftent with fuch a Revelation, as there are feveral scatter'd through this Book. Finally, This Senfe does not accord with the Context, which fpeaks plainly of a natural Death, and a proper Refurrection. I therefore chufe to understand the former part of the Verfe according to the firft Senfe I mentioned, viz. That if a Man died, 'twas certain he fhould rife again. But then follows the Text All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my Change come. There

There are two Senfes in reference to this Change mention'd in the Text, which I fhall diftinctly confider and improve. First, Some by this Change in the Text, understand that Change that fhall be made upon the Body at the Refurrection; and then 'tis as if Job should have faid, "All the Days that are appointed "for my lying in the Grave, fhall my Soul wait "in Heaven for the revival of my Body, which "fhall pass under a mighty Change at the "Refurrection of the Juft." And of this mind are some very* Learned and Judicious Interpreters. And if the words are understood in this Sense, then this waiting must refer to that Difpofition which is in the Spirits of just Men made perfect: which Defire does not in the feaft create any Uneafinefs or Impatience, for that would damp their Joys, and interrupt their Felicity; but it is fuch an Expectation, and fuch a Waiting, as confifts with the ease and pleasure of an happy Spirit. And certainly 'tis very agreeable to the Rational Nature of this Immortal Substance, to wait for the change of that Body it was created to inhabit: feeing 'tis affur'd it fhall be endow'd with a vast acceffion of new Qualities, when 'tis rais'd from the Dead to be put on a fecond time.

I shall therefore briefly recite a few things with respect to the Properties of the raised Bodies of the Saints, to fhew that 'tis rational for a happy Human Spirit to wait for fuch a Body.

Firft, The Bodies of the Saints at the Refurrection shall be spiritual; fo fays the Apostle,

* Mercerus and Scultetus in Loc. See also Mr. How's Blessednefs of the Righteou, P. 210, 211. &c.

It'

Cor.15.44. It is fown a natural or * animal Body, it is rais'd a fpiritual Body. Obferve, 'tis a Body ftill, 'tis a material Substance, only fublimated or rais'd to a higher degree of fineness. Our Bodies now are grofs and fluggish, and do very much hinder the Aspirations of our Souls; but hereafter they fhall be refin'd from the Dregs of Matter. I do not mean that they fhall commence Spirits, but that they shall be greatly purified. There is a vast difference betwixt certain Portions of Matter now; for inftance (as I have elsewhere fhewn) betwixt the animal Spirits in the Brain, and the groffer parts of the Body; betwixt a Lump of Clay, and the refin'd Matter of the Air; betwixt the Earth, and the Sun that shines upon it; yet all these are material Subftances. And if we can discover fo great a difference in material things now, we may conclude we fhall difcern a much greater hereafter, when the Bodies of the Saints hall be rais'd and refin'd to that degree, as to answer the Description of the Apostle, who affures us they fhall be fpiritual Bodies. And this not only on the account of the Improvements that fhall be made on fuch Bodies by the accession of new Qualities; but on the account of their being better fitted to ferve the Spirits that shall govern them. Here our Bodies are heavy Weights, and great Incumbrances to our Spirits; but the time is haftning when the Noble Machines fhall be as ferviceable to our Souls, as was Elijah's fiery Chariot, which convey'd him into that Prefence where Spirits fhine with the Beauties of Holinefs, and burn with the Ardours of Divine

* ψυχικόνα

Love. The natural Groffness of our Bodies now, is the occasion of much * Ignorance and Sin: They are as thick Veils to hinder our profpect, but at the Refurrection they'l be as transparent Mediums to promote our Knowledg. They fhall be fit Vehicles to ferve our Spirits, and agreeable Helps to our Devotion. That our Contemplations now on the Material and Intellectual World, are mightily hinder'd by the groffness of the Organs of our Bodies, is too evident to be deny'd; for when the Eye is affifted by Art (as a † Learned Man remarks) it is let into a new World of Creatures, and an infinite agreeable variety of Motions, Figures, and Contextures, which we can difcern nothing of by our naked Sight: But this, and much more, after the Refurrection fhall be discover'd by the naked Eye. O what admirable Traces of Wisdom and Power fhall we discover in the other World, where God and Saints fhall refide! Here with what confufion and diforder do we both think and reafon about abstracted Truths! But hereafter, how clear and ravishing Views fhall we take of the most perplex'd Phanomena of Nature, and the deepest Mysteries of Grace, when our Bodies fhall be elevated and made fpiritual, as well as the Capacities of our Souls enlarged! To how great a degree they fhall be rais'd and refin'd, I dare not determine; tho I think 'tis a very probable account which is given by an Ingenious Man, viz. "That our Bo

See Mr. Jofeph Stennett's Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Belcher, P.29,30,31,32. and alfo P.57.

Dr. Tennifon now ABp. of Can. in bis Serm. on 1 Cor. 15.53.. Pag. 14.

Dr. Hody's Refurrection of the (fame) Body afferted, Pag. 203.

dies