Monday, June 27, 2011

The lament of the wicked man's body: "O that I had rather been the body of a toad..."


In Thomas Boston’s discussion of the final resurrection in Human Nature In Its Fourfold State, he speculates as to what the body of a wicked man might say to his soul on that day of condemnation:

Then we may suppose the miserable body thus to accost the soul, ‘Hast thou again found me, O mine enemy, my worst enemy, savage soul, more cruel than a thousand tigers. Cursed be the day that ever we met. O that I had rather been the body of a toad, or serpent, than thy body; for then I had lain still, and had not seen this terrible day! If I was to be necessarily thine, O that I had been thy ass, or one of thy dogs, rather than thy body; for then wouldst thou have taken more true care of me than thou didst! O cruel kindness! Has thou thus hugged me to death, thus nourished me to the slaughter? Is this the effect of thy tenderness for me? Is this what I am to reap of thy pains and concerns about me? ….

JTR

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