10. But yet consider, that were you never so tender of the body it self, yet faith and reason should persuade you to be content; For God is but preparing even for its felicity; His undoing it but to make it up again. As in the new birth he broke your hearts and false hopes, that he might heal your hearts, and give you sounder hopes instead of them: so at death he breaketh your flesh and worldly hopes, not to undo you, and leave it in corruption, but to raise it again another manner of body than now it is, and give it a part in the blessedness which you hoped for. If in good sadness you believe the Resurrection, what cause is there for so much fear of death? You can be content that your Roses die, and your sweetest Flowers fall and perish, and the green and beauteous complexion of the earth, be turned into a bleak and withered hue, because you expect a kind of Resurrection in the Spring. You can boldly lie down at night to sleep, though sleep be a kind of death to the body, and more to the soul; and all because you shall rise again in the morning. And if every nights sleep (or one at least) were a gentle death, if you were sure to rise again the next morning, you would make no great matter of it. Were it as common to men to die every night, and rise again in the morning, as it is to sleep every night and rise in the morning, death would not seem such a dreadful thing. Those poor men that have the falling-sickness, do once in a day or in a few days, lie as dead men, and have as ⟨p. 254⟩much pain as many that die: And yet because they use to be up and well again in a little time, they can go merrily about their business, the rest of the day, and little fear their approaching fall. How much more should the belief of a Resurrection unto life, confirm us against the fears of death? And why should we not as quietly commit our bodies to the dust, when we have the promise of the God of heaven, that the Earth shall deliver up her dead, and that this body that is sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption? It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body] So great and wonderful the change will be, as now is unconceivable!
10. But yet consider, that were you never so tender of the body it self, yet faith and reason should perswade you to be content; For God is but preparing even for its felicity; His undoing it but to make it up again. As in the new birth he broke your hearts and false hopes, that he might heal your hearts, and give you sounder hopes instead of them: so at death he breaketh your flesh and worldly hopes, not to undo you, and leave it in corruption, but to raise it again another manner of body than now it is, and give it a part in the blessedness which you hoped for. If in good sadness you believe the Resurrection, what cause is there for so much fear of death? You can be content that your Roses die, and your sweetest Flowers fall and perish, and the green and beauteous complexion of the earth, be turned into a bleak and withered hue, because you expect a kind of Resurrection in the Spring. You can boldly lie down at night to sleep, though sleep be a kind of death to the body, and more to the soul; and all because you shall rise again in the morning. And if every nights sleep (or one at least) were a gentle death, if you were sure to rise again the next morning, you would make no great matter of it. Were it as common to men to die every night, and rise again in the morning, as it is to sleep every night and rise in the morning, death would not seem such a dreadful thing. Those poor men that have the falling-sickness, do once in a day or in a few days, lie as dead men, and have as ⟨p. 254⟩much pain as many that die: And yet because they use to be up and well again in a little time, they can go merrily about their business, the rest of the day, and little fear their approaching fall. How much more should the belief of a Resurrection unto life, confirm us against the fears of death? And why should we not as quietly commit our bodies to the dust, when we have the promise of the God of heaven, that the Earth shall deliver up her dead, and that this body that is sown in corruption, shall be raisedin incorruption? It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body] So great and wonderful the change will be, as now is unconceivable!
