the coming of Chrift to judgment: or, than that we must all appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad'.

4. If we render the words as they may be rendered, thus, He shall fand at the latter day against the earth, they may intend the general resurrection of the dead by Chrift. The bodies of men are laid, imprisoned, and detained in the earth, nor is it in the power of any creature to release them; but Chrift will appear, and ftand against the earth in the latter day; he will contend with it, and get the victory over it; death and the grave will be obliged to furrender up their dead to him, who has the keys of hell and death, and can at his pleasure open the gates of the grave, and fet the prifoners free; deftroy the power of death, and quicken the duft of men. This now is, and ought to be, an article of our creed, which was one of Job's, of the Old Teftament faints, and the ancient Jews in general, and of Chrift and his apoftles, namely, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust'.

III. The third article of Job's faith is his own mortality and diffolution; he knew and believed that he should die, return to the dust, and be confumed by worms. Though he puts an if upon man's dying in one place, if a man die" ; yet it was no queftion with him, whether he would die or no, for in the fame chapter he says, man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble; be cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; be fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not: Man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is be"?" Nor had he any doubt about his own mortality and death, he knew that God would bring him to death, and to the boufe appointed for all living°; he looked for it, he expected it in a little time; when a few years are come, fays he, then I fball go the way whence I fhall not return P.

Death is the fruit of fin; God threatened it in case of disobedience to his will; it entered into the world by it, is the just wages of it; and fince all have finned, none are exempted from it, or what is equivalent to it; It is appointed unto men once to die; no man can fecure himself from it, or bath power over the fpirit to retain the spirit; neither bath be power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver fuch who are given to it. Such who are hardened in fin, and would out-brave death and hell, who say, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; their covenant with death hall be difannulled, and their agreement with bell fhall not ftand". And indeed, the righteous are as liable to the stroke of death as the wicked; Your fathers,

1 2 Cor. v. 10.

where

So by is often rendered, as in Ifai. xxix. 8. Jer. xi. 19. Ezek. xxix. 2. and in many other places.

where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? It may, perhaps, feem ftrange, that these should die, fince Chrift bas died for them, and abolished death, and him that had the power of it: And indeed, though they do die, they do not die like other men, there is a difference between the death of the righteous and of the wicked; Chrift by dying has took away the fting of death, removed its curse, and turned it into a privilege and bleffing; death is yours': It is not inflicted on them as a penal evil, or by way of punishment for fin, but that they may be entirely rid of it; and that when their bodies are raised immortal, incorruptible, fpiritual and glorious, these, with their fouls, may enjoy an eternity of happines.

Death is here expressed by a destruction of the body by worms, and by a confumption of the reins; after, or befides my skin, worms will deftroy this body, and my reins will be confumed within me". Death is properly a separation of foul and body; the confumption of the body in all its parts, internal and external, skin and reins, is the fruit and effect of death and the grave; where the body lying a little while, is fubject to corruption and rottennefs. Now by this destruction of the body we are not to understand an annihilation of it, for though the body returns to duft, and fees corruption, yet it is not reduced to nothing. The dead indeed are not; they are not in the land of the living, exifting among, and converfing with men, as formerly, yet they are in being. God will deftroy not only meats, but the belly; not as to its substance, but as to its prefent ufe, when it will be no more employed in the fervice it now is. If the body was annihilated by death, Chrift would lofe part of his purchase, yea, part of his mystical felf, and the Spirit his dwelling-place; for the bodies of the faints, as well as their fouls, are bought with the price of his blood, and are members of him, and temples of the Holy Ghoft. Befides, the refurrection would not be properly a refurrection, but a new creation".

IV. A fourth article in Job's confeffion of faith is, the refurrection of the fame body. This he firmly believed, though he knew his body would be deftroyed by worms, and his reins be confumed within him; otherwife he could not have said, or believed, or hoped, that he should see God in his flesh, and for himself; and, that his eyes fhould behold him, and not another. When he fays, in another place, If a man die, fhall be live again? which, according to the usual sense of fuch interrogations, without a negative particle, must be anfwered, No, he shall not live again; his meaning is, that he fhall not live again in this world, he shall not live a natural mortal life again, fupported in the manner it now is. And when he says of himself, that in a little time he shall go

• Zech. i. 5.

1 Cor. iii. 22.

■ Job xiv. 14.

So Noldius, p. 12. n. 80.

▾ See my fecond fermon on the Refurrection, in the fecond volume of the Lime-ftreet fermons, P. 451-453.

go to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death, from whence he should not return; he means, that he should return no more to his boufe, neither should bis place know him any more", nor to a mortal state, or to the business and employments of this life; for, that being once laid in the grave, he should not rife again until the heavens be no more ˆa; that is, until the end of the world, when there wil be an univerfal refurrection of good and bad. Job had no fcruple upon his mind about the refurrection, nor do these paffages imply any; no man more firmly believed it, or more clearly afferted it. Two things are to be observed in this article ;

1. That he believed he fhould rife with true flesh; in my flesh fhall I fee God. The bodies of men at the refurrection will not be airy, etherial, or celeftial bodies, destitute of flesh, blood, and bones; they will not be turned into fpirits, but will be like the body of Chrift after his refurrection; who faid to his disciples, being terrified, fuppofing they had feen a fpirit, Behbold my bands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and fee; for a Spirit hath not fleb and bones, as ye fee me have. It is true, the bodies of the faints will be raised spiritual ones; they will be fubject and fubfervient to the foul or spirit, employed in spiritual service, and delighted with spiritual objects, and live without natural helps, as fpirits; but then they will not be changed into fpirits, or lose their former true nature and fubftance. The apoftle indeed fays, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; by which he means, not flesh and blood fimply confidered, but as either finful or mortal, or both; therefore this mortal must put on immortality, and this corruption must put on incorruption.

2. That he believed he should rife with the fame body; otherwife, he should fee God, not in his own flesh, but in another's; not for himself, but for another; not with his own eyes, but with the eyes of another, a ftranger, as the word fignifies; a ftrange body, to which he was not united, in which he never dwelt, and which he never was acquainted with before. If the fame body is not raised, it will not be properly a refurrection; nor are the figurative phrases just, by which it is fometimes expreffed, as quickening the feed fown in the earth, awaking out of fleep, and the like. Befides, the places from whence the dead will be fummoned; the fubject of the refurrection; this vile and mortal body; the several instances of refurrections paft, prove the identity of raised bodies: And indeed, it is inconfiftent both with the justice and goodness of God, to punish or glorify other bodies than those we carried about with us here. But I proceed to;

y Job x. 21.

z Chap. vii. 1o.

a Chap. xiv. 12.

b Luke xxiv. 39, 40.

Alienus, extraneus a radice

с 1 Cor. xv. 50-53. Alienari, Abalienare. Buxtorf.

V. The

* See these arguments at large in my fecond fermon on the Refurrection, in the fecond volume of

the

V. The fifth and last article of this creed, and that is, the beatific vifion of God, which Job firmly believed he should enjoy; concerning which may be obferved the following things:

1. That the vision of God he believed, and expected he should have, when raised from the dead, would be a corporal one; hence he fays, In my flesh shall I fee God, and mine eyes, my fleshly eyes, shall behold him. Therefore, by God we are to understand, not God effentially confidered, but God perfonally confidered in the Son, or God manifeft in the flesh. God will be feen through the Mediator; in heaven much of the glory of the Deity will shine through the humanity of Chrift; the human nature of Chrift will be a glorious object for the faints to look at. To fee Chrift on earth was the defire of kings and prophets. It was one of Austin's three wishes, which were thefe, to see Christ in the flesh, Paul in the pulpit, and Rome in its glory. In heaven faints will fee Chrift as he is, as crowned with glory and honour; raised to the higheft dignity in the human nature, shining with the brightest majefty it is capable of: and when they are thus bleffed with this delightful, defirable, and everlasting fight, they will have their wishes, and Chrift his prayers answered; fuch as, Father, I will, that they also whom thou haft given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. I would not be understood, as though I thought this corporal fight will be all the faints will have of God; no, the intellectual vifion of him, with the eyes of the mind, will be enlarged to the highest degree it is capable of, and the understanding will be everlastingly employed in fuch contemplations of the being, perfections, and glory of God, as are now inconceivable to us, and inexpreffible by us.

2. This vifion will be very distinguishing; it will be fuch an one as many others will not be bleffed with; mine eyes fhall behold him, and not another, or a Stranger. Such who are ftrangers, both to themfelves and Chrift, are unacquainted with the new birth, know nothing of the grace of God in truth, shall never see him; Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall fee God, and none but them. As a ftranger does not now intermeddle with the joy of faints, fo neither shall he hereafter: A stranger, an hypocrite, fuch an one as Balaam, shall see bim, but not now; fhall behold him, but not nigh"; fuch may fee Christ in his human nature, but not fo as to enjoy his prefence, and be delighted with his glory: The fight of him will throw horror into their minds, and confufion in their faces; every eye fall fee him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds

of

the Lime-street fermons, from p. 457 to 468, and in my first fermon, p. 398, 399, &c. I have fhewn, that these words of Job are not to be understood, as they are by most Jewish, and fome Christian writers, of a metaphorical, but a real refurrection; which is the true reafon why I have taken no notice of it in this discourse.

f John xvii. 24.

Matt. v. 8.

Numb..xxiv. 17.

of the earth shall wail because of him. But the fight the faints will have of Chrift will be of a different kind, and produce different effects.

3. This fight will be an appropriating one; whom I shall fee for myself, says Job; I fhall fee my own intereft in him very clearly; this will turn to my own account; it will iffue in my own pleasure and delight, profit, and advantage. Saints in the refurrection-morn, and when in heaven, will fee Christ for themfelves, and not for others; they will be able to appropriate him to themselves, and fay, My Lord, and my God. Now, very often they can see him as a Saviour and a Redeemer for others, but not for themselves; they can believe for others, but not for their own fouls; but in heaven they will see him for themselves, and that for ever; their fun fhall no more go down, neither fhall their moon withdraw itself: The Lord fhall be their everlasting light, and the days of their mourning sball be ended

4. This fight will be an affimilating and transforming one. Views of Christ in the glafs of his gofpel, promises, and ordinances, change the faints into the fame image, in fome measure, in this life; how much more will clear views of him hereafter? The true reason why the faints shall be so perfectly like Christ in the other world, is, because they shall see him as he is.

5, and lastly, This fight is exceeding defirable, will be greatly delightful, wonderfully fatisfying, and will last for ever. This is the reason why faints are fo defirous of departing out of this world, and to be with Chrift, that they may fee his glory, and enjoy his presence, the confequence of which is fulness of joy; for if a fight of Chrift by faith now, fills the foul with joy unspeakable and full of glory, what must a sight of him do in the world above? Here the eye is not fatisfied with feeing, but then it will be, both the eye of the body and of the mind; as for me, fays the Pfalmift, I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be fatisfied when I awake with thy likeness'. And, to conclude, this vifion will be an everlasting one, free from all clouds and darkness, obfcurity and imperfection, and will not fuffer any interruption. The faints shall be for ever with the Lord, and behold his glory.

Thus have I gone through the several articles of this creed, and confidered the feveral parts of this portion of fcripture, in compliance with the request of my deceased brother, and fellow-labourer in the gospel, whofe remains we shall shortly commit to the grave, in hope of the refurrection of the juft. His character may now be expected from me. I shall give a brief account of him (as I am able) chiefly as the faint and minifter.

It pleased God to bless him with a religious education, under parents, who chearfully and joyfully took the spoiling of their goods for the cause of Christ. When,