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at one and the fame thing, namely, the lothfomness of the wicked, at the refurrection. They will be lothfome in the eyes of one another. The unclean wretches were never fo lovely to each other, as then they will be lothfome: dear companions in fin will then be an abhorring, each one to his fellow and the wicked, great and honourable men, fhall be no more regarded by their wicked fubjects, their fervants, their flaves; than the mire in the ftreets..

USE 1. Of comfort to the people of God. The doctrine of the refurrection is a fpring of confolation and joy unto you. Think on it, O believers, when ye are in the house of mourning, for the lofs of your godly relations or friends, that ye for row not, even as others, which have no hope; for ye, will meet again, I Theff. iv. 13, 14. They are but lain down, to reft in their beds for a little while, (Ifa. Ivii 2.) but in the morning of the refurrection they will awake again, and come forth of their graves. The vesel of honour was but coarfe, it had much alloy of bafe metel in it; it was too weak, too dim and inglorious, for the upper boufe, whatever luftre it had in the lower one. It was crackt, it was polluted; and therefore it behoved to be melted down that it may be refined and fashioned more gloriously. Do but wait a while, and you fhall fee it come forth out of the furnace of earth, vying with the ftars in brightness; nay, as the fun when he goeth forth in his might. Have you laid your infant children in the grave? You will fee them again. Your God calls himself the God of your feed; which, according to our Saviour's expofition, fecures the glorious refurrection of the body. Wherefore let the covenant you embraced, for yourfelf, and your babes *now in the duft, comfort your hearts, in the joyful expectation, that, by virtue thereof, they fhall be raifed up in glory; and that, as being no more infants of days, but brought to a full and perfect fature, as is generally fuppofed. Be not difcouraged by reafon of a weak and fickly body; there is a day coming, when thot fhalt be every whit whole. At the refurrection, Timothy fhall be no more liable to his often infirmities; his body, that was weak and fickly, even in youth, fhall be raised in power: Lazarus fhall be beal and found, his body being raised incorruptible. And although, perhaps, thy weakness will not allow thee, now, to go one furlong to meet the Lord in publick ordinances; yet the day cometh, when thy body fhall be no more a clog to thee, but thou fhalt meet the Lord in the air, Theff. iv. 17. It will be with the faints coming up from the grave, as with the Ifraelites, when they came out of Egypt, Pfal. cv. 37 There was not one feeble perfon among their tribes. Halt thou an uncomely, or deformed body? There is a glory within, which will then fet all right without; according to all the defire of thine heart. It fhall rife a glorious, beautiful, handfome, and well proportioned body. Its uncomelinefs, or deformities inay go with it to the grave, but they fhall not come back with it. O, that thefe, who are now fo defirous to be beautiful and handfome, would not

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be too hafty to effect it with their foolish and finful arts; but wait and ftudy the heavenly art of beautifying the body, by endeavour. ing now to become all glorious within, with the graces of God's Spirit! this would at length make them admirable and everlasting beauties. Thou must indeed, O believer, grapple with death, and fhalt get the first fall: but thou shalt rife again, and come off victorious at laft. Thou must go down to the grave, but though it be thy long home, it will not be thine everlasting home. Thou wilt not hear the voice of thy friends there; but thou shalt bear the voice of Chrift there. Thou mayeft be carried thither with mourn, ing, but thou shalt come up from it rejoicing, Thy friends indeed will leave thee there, but thy God will not. What God faid to Jacob concerning his going down to Egypt, (Gen. xlvi. 3, 4) he fays to thee, anent thy going down to the grave, "Fear not to go "down-I will go down with thee-and I will furely bring thee up again." O folid comfort! O glorious hopes! Wherefore com fort yourselves, and one another with these words, 1 Theff. iv. 18.

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USE II. Of terror to all unregenerate men. Ye who are yet in your natural ftate, look at this piece of the eternal ftate; and confider what will be your part in it, if ye be not in time brought into the ftate of grace. Think, O finner, on that day, when the trumpet fhall found, at the voice of which, the bars of the pit shall be broken afunder, the doors of the grave fall fly open, the devour ing depths of the fea fhall throw up their dead, the earth caft forth hers; and death every where in the excess of aftonishment, fhall let go its prifoners; and thy wretched foul and body fhall be re-united, to be fifted before the tribunal of God. Then, if thou hadst a thou fand worlds at thy difpofal, thou wouldftgladly give them all away, upon condition thou mighteft ly fill in thy grave, with the hundredth part of that eafe, wherewith thou haft fometimes lain at home, on the Lord's day: or (if that cannot be obtained) that thou might eft be but a spectator of the transactions of that day; as thou haft been at fome folemn occafions, and rich gofpel feafts: or (if even that is not to be purchased) that a mountain or a rock might fall on thee, and cover thee from the face of the Lamb. Ah! how are men bewitched, thus to trifle away the precious time of life, in (almoft) as little concern about death, as if they were like the beafts that perifh! fome will be telling where their corpse must be laid; while yet they have not seriously confidered, whether their graves fhall be their beds, where they fhall awake with joy in the morning of the refurrection; or their prifons, out of which they fhall be brought to receive the fearful fentence, Remember, now is your feed-time; and as ye fow, ye fhall reap. God's feed-time begins at death; and at the refurrection, the bodies of the wicked, that were fown full of fins, that ly down with them in the duft, (Job XX. 11.) fhall fpring up again, finful, wretched, and vile. Your bo dies, which are now inftruments of fin, the Lord will lay afide for

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the fire, at death; and bring them forth for the fire, at the refurrection That body, which is not now employed in God's fervice, but is abused by uncleanness and lafciviousnets, will then be brought forth in all its vilenefs, thenceforth to lodge with unclean fpirits, The body of the drunkard fhall then flagger by reafon of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out to him, and poured into him, without mixture. Thefe, who now please themfelves in their, revellings, will reel to and fro at another rate; when, instead of their songs and mufick, they fhall hear the found of the laft trumpet. Many toil their bodies for worldly gain, who will be loth to diftrefs them for the benefit of their fouls; by labour, unreasonably hard, they will quite disfit them for the fervice of God; and, when they have done, will reckon it a very good reafon for fhifting duty, that they are already tired out with other bufinefs: but the day cometh, when they will be made to abide a yet greater ftrefs. They will go feveral miles for back and belley, who will not go half the way for the good of their immortal fouls; they will be fickly and unable on the Lord's day, who will be tolerably well all the rest of the week But when that trumpet founds, the dead fhall find their feet, and none fhall be miffing in that great congregation. When the bodies of the faints fhine as the fun, fearful will the looks of their perfecutors be. Fearful will their condition be, who fometimes fhut up the faints in nafty prifons, ftigmatized, burned them to athes, hanged them, and ftuck up their heads and hands in publick places, to fright others from the ways of righteoufnefs, which they fuffered for. Many faces now fair, will then gather ackness. They fhall be no more admired and careffed for that beauty, which has a worm at the root, that will cause it to iffe in lothfomnefs and deformity. Ah! what is that beauty, under which there lurks a monftruous, deformed, and graceless heart? What but a forry paint, a fligh: varnish; which will leave the body fo much the more ugly, before that flaming-fire, in which the Judge (hall be revealed from heaven, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel, 2 Theff.i.7,8. They fhall be fript of all their ornaments, and not have a rag to cover their nakednefs; but their carcafes fhall be an abhorring to all fieth, and ferve as a foil to fet off the beauty and glory of the righteous, and make it appear the brighter.

Now is the time to fecure, for yourfelves, a part in the refurrection of the juft. The which if ye would do, unite with Jefus Chrift by faith, rifing fpiritually from fin, and glorifying God with your bodies. He is the refurrection and the life, John xi. 25. If your bodies be members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost; they fhall certainly arfe in glory. Get into this ark now, and ye shall come forth with joy into the new world. Rife from your fins: caft away thefe grave-clothes, putting off your former lufts. How can one imagine, that thefe, who continue dead while they live, fhall come forth, at the last day, unto the refurrection of life? But that will be

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the privilege of all, thofe, who having firft confecrated their fouls and bodies to the Lord by faith, do glorify him with their bodies, as well as their fouls; living and acting to him, and for him, yea, and fuffering for him too, when he calls them to it.

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MATTH. XXV. 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 46.

When the Son of Man fhall come in his Glory, and all the holy Angels with him, then shall he fit upon the Throne of his Glory:

And before him fhall be gathered all Nations, and he fhall
Jeparate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth
his Sheep from the Goats:

And he shall fet the Sheep on his right Hand, but the
Goats on the left.

Then fhall the King fay unto them on his right Hand,
Come ye blefed, &c.

Unto them on the left Hand, Depart from me ye curfed, &c.

And these hall go away into everlasting punishment: but the Righteous into Life eternal. 1.

HE dead being raised, and these found alive at the coming of

Tthe Judge, changed, follows the General Judgment, plainly and

awfully defcribed in this portion of Scripture; in which we shall take notice of the following particulars. (1) The coming of the Judge, When the Son of man fhall come in his glory, &c. The Judge is Jefus Chrift, the Son of man; the fame, by whofe almighty power, as he is God, the dead will be raised. He is alfo called the King, ver. 34. The judging of the world being an act of the Royal Mediator's kingly office. He will come in glory; glorious in his own Perfon, and having a glorious retinue, even all the holy angels with him, to minifter unto him at this great folemnity. (2.) The Judge's mounting the tribunal. He is a King, and therefore it is a throne, a glorious throne, fhall fit upon the throne of his glory, ver. 31. (3.) The compearance of the parties. Thefe are all nations; all and every one, fmall and great, of whatsoever nation, who ever were, are, or fhall be on the face of L12 the

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the earth; all fhall be gathered before him; fifted before his tribunal. (4) The forting of them: He hall feparate the elect Sheep, and reprobate goats, fetting each party by themselves: as a Shepherd who feeds his fheep and goats together all the day, feparates them at night, ver. 32. The godly he will fet on his right hand, as the most honourable place; the wicked on the left, ver 33. Yet so as they fhall be both before him, ver. 32. It seems to be an allufion to a custom in the Jewish courts, in which, one fat at the right hand of the Judge, who wrote the fentence of abfolution; another at their left, who wrote the fentence of condemnation. (5) The fentencing of the parties, and that according to their works; the righteous being abfolved, and the wicked condemned, ver 34, 41. Laftly, The execution of both fentences, in the driving away of the wicked into hell, and carrying the godly to heaven, ver. 49.

DOCTRINE.

There shall be a general Judgment.

This doctrine I fhall, (1.) confirm, (2.) explain: and (3.) apply. I. For confirmation of this great truth, that there fhall be a general judgment.

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First, It is evident from plain Scripture-teftimonies. The world has, in all ages been told of it. Enoch, before the flood, taught it in his prophecy, related Jude, ver. 14, 15. "Behold the Lord cometh "with ten thousand of his faints, to execute judgment upon all," &c. Daniel defcribes it, chap. vii. 9, 10. "I beheld till the thrones were

caft down, and the Ancient of days did fit, whofe garments was "white as fnow, and the hair of his head like pure wool: his throne "was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery "ftream iffued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands "ftood before him: the judgment was fet, and the books were "opened." The Apostle is very exprefs, Acts xvii. 31. "He hath "appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteouf"nefs, by that Man whom he hath ordained." See Matth xvi. 27. 2 Cor. v. 10. 2 Theff. i 7, 8, 9, 10. Rev. xx. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. God has not only faid it, but he has fworn it, Rom. xiv. 10, 11. "We must all stand before the judgment-féat of Chrift: For it is "written, As I live, faith the Lord, every-knee fhall bow to me, "and every tongue fhall confefs to God." So that the truth of God is moft folemnly plighted for it.

Secondly, The rectoral juftice and goodness of God, the fovereign Ruler of the world, do neceffarily require it, inafinuch as they require its being well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked. Howbeit, we often now fee wickedness exalted, while truth and righteousness fall in the streets; piety oppreffed, while profanity and irreligion do triumph. This is fo very ordinary, that every one, who fincerely

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