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felt in thy person thy infinite power. Its purpose was to devour thee, but thou hast overcome it in a glorious manner. Thou hast yielded to die, but art returned to live for ever and ever, and hast in thy custody the keys of hell and of death, to open and shut, to kill and make alive, at thy pleasure. Lord Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life! I know that thou art both willing and able to deliver this body out of the power of death, and awake my sleeping dust with the sound of the archangel's trumpet, as thou hast promised. I I expect to see that glorious day of thy triumph, when, accompanied by all the mighty angels of heaven, thou wilt set at liberty all the prisoners of death, and restore to us again all the blessings forfeited by sin. The sea and the earth shall surrender unto thee the bodies they have in their custody, and obey thy com mands. O omnipotent Word, that made the heavens and earth! thou shalt be heard, and operate effectually in our graves, that we may march out, and stand before the dreadful tribunal. We shall then appear, not wrapt in our winding-sheets, as Lazarus, nor with any relics of infirmity, but with bodies more beautiful, perfect, and glorious, than formerly: so that we may have good cause to admire the glory of that second building, which by thine almighty power thou wilt rear out of the dust, and which will be far greater than the present. For this infirm body shall be made conformable to the celestial body, this corruptible shall put on incorrup tion, and this mortality shall be swallowed up by immortality, and an eternal life. I am therefore fully persuaded, my glori. rious Redeemer! that with these languishing eyes I shall behold thy magnificent coming in a cloud, surrounded with fames of fire, and sitting on a throne. With these ears I shall hear the terrible and loud voice of the archangel's trumpet, and the songs of the blessed companies of heaven. With this tongue I hope to tune forth thy divine praises; with these dying hands to embrace thee, my blessed Saviour; and with these trembling feet, already in the grave, I shall follow thee

into thy heavenly Jerusalem; and this same body, condemned to rot in a tomb, shall one day shine in thy heavenly kingdom. I am ready, Lord, to depart hence; my breath fails me, death appears before me, threatening to strike the last stroke; but, notwithstanding all difficulties and objections, I know I shall rise again to behold thy magnificence and glory. Amen.

CHAP. XXIV.

The twelfth Consolation: The Destruction of Death, and the eternal and most blessed Life which we shall enjoy both in Soul and Body after our Resurrection.

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E have sufficiently treated of that happiness which is prepared for our souls at their departure from their bodies, and of the glorious resurrection promised to these bodies when Jesus Christ shall come down from heaven in his glory to judge the quick and the dead. It seems that we have nothing more to say; but as Moses, when he had made the ark of shittim-wood, and lined it with fine gold, he put round about a crown of gold upon the top; in the same manner, now that we have declared to you the incorruption and future glory of our bodies, which are to be looked upon as a sacred ark, where God's majesty shall dwell for ever; now that we have shewn how, by the almighty and gracious power of God, they shall become more incorruptible than the shittim-wood, and more glorious than fine gold: I will now, with God's assistance, draw about them a crown more precious than the purest gold, and richer than all the jewels in the world. I ⚫ mean to crown this work, and intend to end it with as perfect

a picture as I am able to draw, of the eternal glory and happiness which we expect to enjoy both in soul and body, after our resurrection. But, first, I shall say something of the en

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tire and perfect destruction of all our enemies; and represent to you the overthrow and the final conquest over death.

: When Jesus Christ shall appear again to judge the world in righteousness, he shall sit upon a glorious and most splendid throne. Solomon's magnificent throne was but its shadow, and imperfect type. He shall then send forth his angels, who shall gather together the elect, with the sound of a trumpet, from the four parts of the world, and from one end of the heavens to the other. The sight of this glorious Saviour shall then fill us with an unspeakable joy, and cause us to burst forth into this language, Isa. xxv. "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." But when all the kindreds of the earth shall behold this magnifi cent King in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, they shall lament and strike their breasts in great despair, they shall call to the mountains and rocks, Rev. vi. "Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come: who shall be able to stand?"

Then the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall manifest the thoughts of the heart, with the most secret contrivances. The books shall be opened, not only of the guilty consciences, where Satan's image and deeds shall be engraven, but also the other books, where God himself hath written, with his own finger, all our actions, words, and our most hidden thoughts. All men shall be judged according to the things written in the books. St. John declares this, in the xxth of the Revelations: "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was no place for them; and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is

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the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Unto this St. Paul agrees," We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive in his body according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil.”

There are three sorts of persons who are to stand before this glorious tribunal. Such as never had any other tutor but nature, who were not acquainted with any other works of God, but of creation and providence; for God hath not left himself without witness in doing good. The second sort have been assisted with a divine revelation from above, under the law, which hath distinctly taught them what works are pleasing to God. These may have, heard something of a Messiah from the ancient prophets, they may have seen his portraiture in the types and shadows of Moses's ordinances. The other sort have had the grace of God clearly and plainly revealed to them, to whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. There are none of these persons, if they have lived in impiety and debauchery, and are dead in impenitency, that shall be able to excuse themselves in this dreadful day of judgment. But some are more guilty than others, therefore they shall be condemned to greater punishments.

The knowledge that God hath bestowed upon man bath been obscured by the prince of darkness, but it hath not been. totally extinct; and that law which God hath engraven in the soul of man, hath not been altogether blotted out, but there remain yet some relics; so that no man living can affirm that he hath done all the good deeds which his conscience was persuaded that he ought to perform, and that he hath omitted all the evil acts of which his conscience convinced him. They who have lived and are dead without any law of God revealed to them, shall be judged without the law. Such shall be condemned

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demned for having taken pleasure in extinguishing the remains of their natural light, and in smothering the good and rational dictates of their consciences. They shall be condemned because they have abused heaven's favours, and filled themselves with God's good creatures, without returning to him due thanks; and because they have not meditated as they ought, upon so many stately and noble works of nature, nor learned by that means to know God, who has left in these works so many impressions of his eternal power and Godhead; and because that knowing God, they have not glori fied him as God. This St. Paul teacheth in these words, "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law; (for when the Gentiles, which have not the law,do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another,) in the day when God shall judge thesecrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel," Rom.ii,

They that profess to know the law, shall be judged by the law; such as have already heard the thunders of Mount Si nai, they shall one day feel the thunderbolts. They shall understand by experience, what it is to rebel against God, and to draw upon themselves, and their guilty heads, the dreadful curses of God's law, Deut. xvii. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. ii. There is no doubt but that the Jews, upon whom Moses and the prophets have spent so many fruitless exhortations to live well, shall be punished with sharper torments than the poor savages, to whom God never sent any message, who never had any acquaintance with the commonwealth of Israel, being strangers from the covenant, having no hope, and being without God

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