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As to the qualities of the bodies of the wicked at the resurrection: I find the Scripture speaks but little of them. Whatever they may need, they shall not get a drop of water to cool their tongues, Luke xvi. 24, 25. Whatever may be said of their weakness, it is certain they will be continued for ever in life; that they may be ever dying: they shall bear up, howsoever unwillingly, under the load of God's wrath, and shall not faint away under it. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. And they have no rest day nor night." Surely they shall not partake of the glory and beauty of the saints. All their glory dies with them, and shall never rise again. Daniel tells us, They shall awake to shame, and everlasting contempt," chap. xii. 2. Shame follows sin, as the shadow followeth the body: but the wicked in this world walk in the dark, and often under a disguise: nevertheless, when the Judge comes in flaming fire, at the last day, they will be brought to the light; their mask will be taken off, and the shame of their nakedness will clearly appear to themselves and others, and fill all their faces with confusion. Their shame will be too deep for blushes: but "all faces shall gather blackness," at that day, when they shall go forth of their graves, as malefactors out of their prisons to execution; for their resurrection is the resurrection of damnation. The greatest beauties, who now pride themselves in their comeliness of body, not regarding their deformed souls, will then appear with ghastly countenances, a grim and death-like visage. Their looks will be frightful, and they will be horrible spectacles, coming forth of their graves like infernal furies out of the pit. They shall rise also to everlasting contempt. They shall then be the most contemptible creatures, filled with contempt from God, as vessels of dishonour, whatever honourable uses they have been employed to in this world; and filled also with contempt from men. They will be most despicable in the eyes of the saints, even of those saints who gave them honour here, either for their high station, the gifts of God in them, or because they were of the same human nature with themselves. But then shall their bodies be as so many loathsome 66 carcases, which they shall go forth and look upon with abhorrence: yea, they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh," Isa. lxvi. 24. The word here rendered "an abhorring," is the same which in the other text is rendered 66 contempt;" "and Isaiah and Daniel point at one and the same thing, namely, the loathsomeness of the wicked at the resurrection. They will be loathsome in the eyes of one another. The unclean wretches were never so lovely to each other, as then they will be loathsome; dear companions in sin will then

be an abhorring, each one to his fellow: and the wicked, great and honourable, men, shall be no more regarded by their wicked subjects, their servants, their slaves, than the mire in the street.

ye sorrow

USE I. Of comfort to the people of God. The doctrine of the resurrection is a spring of consolation and joy unto you. Think on it, O believers, when ye are in the house of mourning, for the loss of your godly relations or friends, "that not, even as others which have no hope," for ye will meet again, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. They are but lain down, to "rest in their beds," for a little while, (Isa. lvii. 2.) but in the morning of the resurrection they will awake again, and come forth of their graves. The vessel of honour was but coarse, it had much alloy of base metal in it: it was too weak, too dim and inglorious for the upper house, whatever lustre it had in the lower one. It was cracked, it was polluted: and therefore it behooved to be melted down, that it may be refined and fashioned more gloriously. Do but wait a while, and you shall see it come forth out of the furnace of earth, vieing with the stars in brightness; nay, as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Have you laid your infant children in the grave? You will see them again. Your God calls himself "the God of your seed;" which, according to our Saviour's exposition, secures the glorious resurrection of the body. Wherefore, let the covenant you embraced for yourself, and your babes now in the dust, comfort your hearts, in the joyful expectation that, by virtue thereof, they shall be raised up in glory; and that, as being no more infants of day, but brought to a full and perfect stature, as is generally supposed. Be not discouraged by reason of a weak and sickly body; there is a day coming when thou shalt be every whit whole. At the resurrection, Timothy shall be no more liable to his "often infirmities;" his body, that was weak and sickly, even in youth, shall be raised in power: Lazarus shall be hale and sound, his body being raised incorruptible. And although, perhaps, thy weakness will not allow thee, now, to go one furlong to meet the Lord in public ordinances; yet the day cometh, when thy body shall be no more a clog to thee, but thou shalt "meet the Lord in the air," 1 Thess. iv. 17. It will be with the saints coming up from the grave, as with the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, Psal. cv. 37, "There was not one feeble person among their tribes." Hast thou an uncomely, or deformed body? There is a glory within, which will then set all right without; according to the desire of thy heart. It shall rise a glorious, beautiful, handsome, and well proportioned body. Its uncome

liness, or deformities may go with it to the grave, but they shall not come back with it. O that those who are now so desirous to be beautiful and handsome, would not be too hasty to effect it with their foolish and sinful arts; but wait and study the heavenly art of beautifying the body, by endeavouring 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 shalt get the first fall: but thou shalt rise again, and come off victorious at last. 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 shall hear the voice of Christ there. Thou mayest be carried thither with mourning, but shalt come up from it rejoicing. Thy friends indeed will leave thee there, but thy God will not. What God said to Jacob concerning his going down to Egypt, (Gen. xlvi. 3, 4,) he says to thee, anent thy going down to the grave: "Fear not to go down-I will go down with thee-and I will also surely bring thee up again." O solid comfort! O glorious hopes! Wherefore comfort yourselves, and one another, with these words," 1 Thess. iv. 18.

USE II. Of terror to all unregenerate men.

Ye who are

yet in your natural state, look at this piece of the eternal state; and consider what will be your part in it, if ye be not in time brought into the state of grace. Think, O sinner, on that day, when the trumpet shall sound, at the voice of which, the bars of the pit shall be broken asunder, the doors of the grave shall fly open, the devouring depths of the sea shall throw up their dead, the earth cast forth hers; and death every where in the excess of astonishment, shall let go its prisoners; and thy wretched soul and body shall be re-united, to be cited before the tribunal of God. Then, if thou hadst a thousand worlds at thy disposal, thou wouldst gladly give them all away, upon condition thou mightest lie still in thy grave, with the hundredth part of that ease, wherewith thou hast sometimes lain at home, on the Lord's day: or (if that cannot be obtained) that thou mightest be but a spectator of the transactions of that day; as thou hast been at some solemn occasions, and rich gospel-feasts: or (if even that be 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 (almost) as little concern about death, as if they were like the beasts that perish! Some will be telling where their corpse must be laid, while yet they have not seriously considered, whether their graves shall be their beds, where

they shall awake with joy in the morning of the resurrection; or their prisons, out of which they shall be brought to receive the fearful sentence. Remember, now is your seed-time; and as ye sow, ye shall reap. God's seed-time begins at death; and at the resurrection, the bodies of the wicked that were sown "full of sins that lie down with them in the dust," (Job xx. 11,) shall spring up again, sinful, wretched, and vile. Your bodies, which are now instruments of sin, the Lord will lay aside for the fire, at death; and bring them forth for the fire, at the resurrection. That body, which is not now employed in God's service, but is abused by uncleanness and lasciviousness, will then be brought forth in all its vileness, thenceforth to lodge with unclean spirits. The body of the drunkard shall then stagger by reason of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out to him, and poured into him, without mixture. These who now please themselves in their revellings, will reel to and fro at another rate; when, instead of their songs and music, they shall hear the sound of the last trumpet. Many toil their bodies for worldly gain, who will be loth to distress them for the benefit of their souls; by labour, unreasonably hard, they will quite disfit them for the service of God; and, when they have done, will reckon it a very good reason for shifting duty, that they are already tired out with other business: but the day cometh, when they will be made to abide a yet greater stress. They will go several miles for back and belly, who will not go half the way for the good of their immortal souls; they will be sickly and unable on the Lord's day, who will be tolerably well all the rest of the week. But when that trumpet sounds, the deed shall find their feet, and none shall be missing in that great congregation. When the bodies of the saints shine as the sun, frightful will the looks of their persecutors be. Fearful will their condition be, who sometimes shut up the saints in nasty prisons, stigmatized, burned them to ashes, hanged them, and stuck up their heads and hands in public places, to fright others from the ways of righteouness, which they suffered for. Many faces now fair, will then gather blackness. They shall be no more admired and caressed for that beauty which has a worm at the root, that will cause it to issue in loathsomeness and deformity. Ah! what is that beauty, under which there lurks a monstrous, deformed, and graceless heart? What but a sorry paint, a slight varnish, which will leave the body so much the more ugly, before that flaming fire, in which the Judge shall be "revealed from heaven, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel," 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments,

and not have a rag to cover their nakedness; but their carcases shall be an abhorring to all flesh, and serve as a foil to set off the beauty and glory of the righteous, and make it appear the brighter.

Now is the time to secure for yourselves, a part in the resurrection of the just. The which if ye would do, unite with Jesus Christ by faith, rising spiritually from sin, and glorifying God with your bodies. He is "the resurrection and the life," John xi. 25. If your bodies be members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, they shall certainly arise in glory. Get into this ark now, and ye shall come forth with joy into the new world. Rise from your sins; cast away these grave-clothes, putting off your former lusts. How can one imagine that those who continue dead while they live, shall come forth at the last day, unto the resurrection of life? But that will be the privilege of all those, who having first consecrated their souls and bodies to the Lord by faith, do glorify him with their bodies, as well as their souls; living and acting to him, and for him, yea, and suffering for him too, when he calls them to it.

HEAD IV.

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.

When the Son of Man shall come in his Glory, and all the holy Angels with him, then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory. And before him shall be gath ered all Nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats. And he shall set the Sheep on his right hand, but the Goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed, &c. Unto them on his left hand, Depart from me ye cursed, &c. And these shall go away into everlasting Punishment: but the Righteous into Life eternal.-Matth. xxv. 31, 32, 33, 34. 41. 46.

THE dead being raised, and those found alive at the coming of the Judge, changed, follows the general Judgment, plainly and awfully described 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 shall come in his glory," &c. The Judge is Jesus Christ, the Son of Man; the same, by whose almighty power, as he is God, the dead will be raised. He is also called 'the King,' ver. 34, the judging of the world being an act of the Royal Mediator's

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