will be thy Destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. In which words we are to confider the Prophet as perfonating Chrift, and uttering the Triumphs of a mighty Conqueror: which contain a glorious Promise to all the Elect of a Victory over Death, which shall be partially accomplish'd at the time of their Diffolution, but finally confummated in the day of the Refurrection: for Death hath not fuch a power over the living, nor the Grave over the dead, as Chrift hath over both, to destroy the one, and swallow up the other in victory.

These feveral things laid together, compofe a very folid Argument to diffuade from immoderate Sorrow for those that fleep in Jefus. But this leads to the

Second Argument which the Apostle urges upon the fame account, which is drawn from the great advantage that shall follow the death of the Righteous: Such as fleep in Jefus, will God bring with him.

Which either fuppofes or implies these feveral things:

First, That Jefus Chrift, who is God-Man, will make his fecond Appearance or Coming at the end of the World. I understand God in my Text perfonally for the Son: To them Heb. 9. 28. that look for him (fays the Author to the Hebrews) shall be appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation. There is a double Coming of Chrift mentioned in Scripture; the first in the Form of a Servant, the second with all the Glory of an Incarnate God: At his first coming he was defpifed and rejected of Men, but at his fecond every knee shall bow to him, Phil, 2. 9, of 10, 11.

of things in Heaven, of things on Earth, and things under the Earth; and every Tongue confefs that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. At his firft coming he conceal'd his Glory by the Veil of his Flesh; but at his fecond he defigns to manifeft and display it in the most bright and majestick manner. At his first coming into this World he was entertain'd in a Stable, and when he went out of it he expir'd upon an infamous Tree; but when he comes again, he will appear in the Clouds feated on a great white Throne, the Emblem of his unfpotted Holiness and regal Authority. At his first coming, he was reproach'd and defpis'd of the People; but when he comes a fecond time, his Enemies fhall be ftruck with a defenceless filence. And tho fome may be ready to say, our Lord delays his coming, because he has been conceal'd from their fight for feveral Ages by the Curtains of Heaven, yet know, it will not be long e'er he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; the Curtains fhall fhortly be drawn, and the Scenes of Glory fhall open: 'tis as certain that he will come, as if the Event was paft, or as if we now faw the Heavens open, and he moving towards us in the Chariot of a bright Cloud. But, Lord, what will his Enemies do in the great Day of his Wrath! how will they bear the lightning of his Eyes, the smoke of his Breath, the thunder of his Voice, the weight of his Arm, and the terrors of his Wrath; who have defpifed his Grace, blafphem'd his Perfon, and fpurn'd at the founding Bowels of his Love?

Secondly, It implies the Resurrection of their Bodies who fleep in Jefus. Chrift cannot bring them

them with him in the Clouds of Heaven, unless he first fetch them from the bowels of the Earth, and the bottom of the Sea; for at the found of the laft Trump, all the Elements fhall give up their Dead. Believers fhall not always continue under the power of Death, but shall be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal. Indeed to Reafon, not improv'd by the fupernatural Light of Divine Revelation, it feems an incredible thing that aûs 26. 8. God fhould raise the Dead. Pliny reciting those things which he thought not to be in the Power of God, mentions thefe two, Mortales aternitate donare, aut revocare defunctos; Lib. 2. cap. 7. And tho there are various things in Nature which are fhadows of the Refurrection, yet I am inclined to think they would never have convinc'd us of it, had not the Scripture reveal'd it to us. The Earth has been reprefented as a kind of Grave. or Sepulcher to the vegetable World; where (as one obferves) the vital Powers are fealed Mr. Beconup and ftifled all the Winter, aud yet at fai, Spring are actuated, expand and fend forth a lively Verdure. So a Grain of Corn is not quicken'd, except it rot and die. Our fleep every night is the Image of Death, and our awaking in the morning a Shadow of the Refurrection. Now altho from these circular Revolutions of Nature, a probable Argument for the Refurrection may be drawn; yet thofe that are certain and concluding, are only to be fetch'd from the Fountain of Truth, The fure Word of Prophecy. And if it should be faid, that feveral Heathens believ'd the Refurrection of the Body; that may be accounted for two ways: either Tradition might hand

it

26.

it down from Noah, or they might gain light in this Doctrine by converfing with the Writings of the Old Teftament: for I think nothing is more evident, than that a great many Heathen Authors have borrowed the brighter Notions that adorn their Books, from the infpir'd Writings of Mofes and the Prophets, as feveral Learned Men have abundantly prov'd. So that I fay, the only infallible affurance we have of the Refurrection of the Body, is founded on Divine Revelation.

It will therefore be neceffary that I recite a few paffages of Scripture before I proceed. The first I fhall mention is the words of Job 19.25, Job: I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth. And tho after my skin Worms destroy this Body, yet in my flesh fhall I fee God; whom I fhall fee for my self, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, tho my reins be confumed within

me.

Which Text, tho by fome understood of a providential Refurrection, yet I think not without fome force upon it: for I cannot fee any neceflity of taking it in a figurative and improper fenfe. I am fure that St. Clement, who was not only contemporary with St. Paul the Apostle, but his Companion and Fellow-labourer, in his firft Epiftle to the Corinthians, cites this Text to prove the Refurrection of the Body, and understands it in a literal proper fenfe. But that paffage which is yet more plain and full, is the words of John 5. 28, our Blessed Saviour: Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the Graves fhall hear his Voice, and fhall come forth they that have done good, unto the Refurrection of Life, and they that have done evil,

29.

to

to the Refurrection of Damnation. Which Text is fo expreffive of the Refurrection of the Body, that it needs no Comment. It alfo proves that the very fame Body that fell by Death, shall arife again; for if it be not the very fame Body which was laid in the Grave that is call'd forth by Chrift's powerful Voice, 'tis not properly a Refurrection, but a new Production of the fame fpecifick Being. But when I fpeak of the Refurrection of the Body, I affert that there fhall not only be rais'd the fame fpecifical, but the fame numerical Body; not only the fame Body for kind, but for fubstance not that I affirm that every individual Particle that compos'd the Body when it died, fhall be rais'd up again, but fo much of the Matter that made up the necessary constituent parts of it. Now of what is necessary, I think an ingenious Modern gives a very probable account; his words are thefe: "By neceffary Dr. Hody. "Parts, Says he, I mean those which remain "after the utmost degree of Maceration, " without which the Body would not be in"tegral, but imperfect. And these are chiefly "the Bones, the Skin, the Nerves, the Ten"dons, the Ligaments, and the Subftance of "the feveral Veffels. As long as these and "all that are neceffary to Life remain, the "Body is truly whole, tho never fo much ma"cerated."

But before I go off from this Head, I would make a remark upon one Phrafe, which is within the compafs of my Text, and I think proves the Identity of the dying and rifing Body; and that is Death's being fet forth by Sleep, which would be very improper, if the very Bodies that fleep in Jefus and are dead,

fhould