Lord, at how great a distance foever, fhould make us di ligent, that whenever it shall be, we may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. But it adds a great deal of awe and force to this ument, to confider, that, for ought we know to the contrary, this judgment may furprize us at any time; that this very night we may be awakened by the found of that mighty trumpet, which fhall pierce the ears of all the world, and fummon the living and the dead to judgment. And God, who is the lover of fouls, and defirous to fave us any ways, by hope and by fear, by his mercies and by his corrections, by our knowledge and by our ignorance, hath purposely concealed from us the time of his coming to judgment, to the end we may always be prepared, and that we might continually ftand in awe of it; and for fear our Lord fhould come upon us unawares, might always be in a posture to receive him. -And whatever the fecure part of mankind may think, who put far from them the evil day, how careless and confident foever they may be, it would, for all that, be at terrible thing to them, all on the sudden, to see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with his mighty Angels; to hear the great trumpet found, fummoning the dead to arife and come to judgment; to fee the whole world in a combustion, and the whole frame of nature ready to diffolve and fall in pieces; the fun darkened, and the moon turned into blood, and all the powers of heaven fhaken, the earth, and all the works that are therein, flaming about us; to fee the dead ftarting out of their graves, fome with great joy, others in a mighty amazement and fright; according to their feveral expectations of a happy or fearful doom. What a fürprize would it be to drowsy and careless finners, to be thus fuddenly and unexpectedly overtaken? how will the profane infidel like to find himself so terribly confuted by his own eyes, and forced to believe that which will make him tremble ! It will then be too late for men to think to make their - peace with God, and to prepare for judgment. And if there were any time for it, the horror and amazement that finners will then be in, will hinder them from doing 3 any thing. Thus the fcriptare reprefents the fearful cafe of impenitent finners, who are thus furprized, as not knowing what to do with themselves, nor whither to fly. for fafety, as ready to betake themfelves any whither for fhelter and refuge, as calling upon the mountains and rocks to fall upon them, and hide them from the face of him that fits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; hereby fignifying to us, that finners fhall be int fuch a confternation, and fo deep a defpair of the mercy of God towards them, that, instead of addreffing them-' felves to him, they fhall turn their fupplications to the mountains and rocks, as being more exorable than he. But this, poffibly, may not be our cafe; this dreadful day may not come in our days; and yet it is madnefs to run a venture in a matter of fuch moment: but if it should not, I must tell you, that the cafe of a dying finner is not much different, who hath neglected God and religion in his lifetime, and would never think of betaking himself to him, or making any fubmiffion, till his juftice be ready to cut him off. And how fecure and careless foever finners may be now, no man knows how: foon he may be reduced to the very laft opportunity of making his peace with God, and may be brought into thofe fad and miferable ftraits, that no man that is in his wits would be in for all the world; that he may have nothing left that can give him the leaft hope of being faved from eternal perdition, but a fudden and confused, and, in all probability, an ineffectual repentance; nothing but this one plank to truft to, which it is ten thousand to one whether it ever bring him to shore. Therefore be wife, finner, in time, and feize upon the prefent opportunities of life, and improve them with all thy might, with all poffible care and diligence, left judgment find thee unprepared; or, in cafe God, in mercy to the world, fhould delay it yet longer, left death feize upon thee careless and unprovided. And when that is once in view, it is but very little that can be done by way of preparation for as there is no connfel nor wifdom, no work nor device in the grave, whither we must go; fo there is very little, when we are come near to it; and and therefore, blessed is that fervant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, fhall find watching. SERMON CLXXXIV. The certainty, and the bleffcdnefs of the refurrection of true Chriftians. I THESS. iv. 14. For if we believe that Jefus died, and rofe again; even fo them alfo which fleep in Jefus, will God bring with him. TH HE words which I have read are an argument of the blessed resurrection of good men to eternal life, grounded upon the refurrection of Chrift. In the verfe before, the Apoftle comforts Chriftians, concerning their brethren that were already departed in the faith of Christ, that there was no reason why they fhould fo immoderately grieve for them. But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are afleep, that ye forrow not, even as others that have no hope: that is, as the Heathens do, who mourn for their dead friends in fo grievous a manner, as if they were utterly extinguished by death, and they had no imagination of any life beyond this. And thus we find the Apostle elfewhere defcribing the state of the Heathen world, Eph. ii. 12. that they were aliens from the commonwealth of Ifrael, Strangers from the covenant of promife, having no hope. But Chriftians fhould not mourn for their deceafed friends, as the Heathen were wont to do, who had no hope of a better life; becaufe Chriftians profefs to believe that Chrift is rifen from the dead, and ascended into heaven: For if we believe that Jefus died, and rofe again, even fo them also which fleep in Jefus, will God bring with him. There There are two things to be explained in the words, before we come to confider the matter of them : First, What is meant by those that sleep in Fefus. Secondly, What by God's bringing him with them. Firft, What is meant by thofe that fleep in Jefus. Sleep is a metaphor ufed for death by all forts of writers, profane and facred; and by the ancient Chriftians, the place of burial was called oleov, that is, a fleeping place. This metaphor is fometimes applied to the death of the wicked, but most frequently used of the death of the righteous, because to them it is truly a reft. And fo the Prophet, fpeaking of the death of the righteous, calls it, Ifa. lvii. 2. They shall enter into peace, they shall reft in their beds. And the death of the righteous is very fitly called a fleep, both as it is a reft from labour and pain: blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; for they reft from their labour, Rcv, xiv. 13. And likewife, becaufe fleep is not final, but in order to waking again. The death of the righteous is not an eternal fleep of the body, but that shall be awakened in the morning of the refurrection. But why is the death of good men called a fleeping in» Jefus ? Sia Inos, for Jefus fake; which may feem to have fome particular relation to thofe who died martyrs. for Chrift; as fome likewife understand that text, Rev. xiv. 13. Bleed are the dead which die in the Lord, that. is, that fuffer for his caufe; for they rest from their la-` bours, that is, their fufferings are then at an end. Buti we shall best understand the meaning of this phrase, by comparing it with thofe others which feem to be equiva-i lent to it, as, 1 Cor. xv. 18. They also that are fallen afleep in Chrift; ver. 23. They that are Chrift's at his: coming, that is, they that belong to him, that died in the faith of Chrift. So likewife is this, 2 Theff. iv. 10. The dead in Chrift fhall rife firft; that is, the Chriftians that: are dead before the coming of Christ, shall first be raised, before those that are alive shall be changed, Heb. xi. 13. All thefe died in faith, that is, in firm belief of God's: promife of a better life. So that to fleep in Chrift, to be. Chrift's, to die in Chrift, to die in the faith, do all feem to figuify fignify the fame thing, viz. to die in the ftate of true Chriftians. For fo we understand the like expreffions of being in Chrift, Rom. viii. 1. He that is in Chrift, that is, every fincere Chriftian; and of abiding in Chrift, John xv. 4. He that abideth in me. So to die in Chrift, is to die a true Christian, in the faith and obedience of the gofpel. And it is obfervable, that in the phrase and ftile of the New Teftament, we are faid to die all in, and with Chrift; to be in him, and to live in him, and to walk in him, by our fanctification and obedience; to die with him, by the mortification of our lufts; to rife with him, by our renovation to a new life; to afcend with him into heaven, and to have our life hid with Chrift in God, by our heavenly affections and hopes, and by death to fleep in him. But before I pafs over this phrafe of fleeping in Jefus, there is one difficulty more about the fleep of the foul, which feems to be countenanced from this text, thofe that fleep in Fefus, fhall God bring with him; as if the Apostle fpake here of the fouls of good men which had been asleep, and Chrift fhould bring with him to be united to their bodies, which fhould be raised; as likewife from the whole tenor of the Apostle's difcourfe about the refurrection, 1 Cor. xv. where the Apostle fays nothing of the living of the foul before the body be raised as if the foul, feparated from the body, were in a state of infenfibility till the refurrection. But the true anfwer to this is, that neither our Saviour, in his difcourfe of the refurrection, nor St Paul in the xv. chapter to the Corinthians, nor here in this text, do keep clofely to the proving of the refurrection of the body; but of a bleffed immortality after this life, againft the Sadducees, who faid there was no refurrection, neither angel nor fpirit. But fometimes they prove that there is a life after death; and fometimes that, at the refurrection, the foul shall be joined to a fpiritual and heavenly body, and that the whole man enjoy perfect blifs and happiness. But this opinion, or rather dream, concerning the fleep of the foul from the time of death, that is, from the time of the feparation of the foul from the body till the general refurrection, may be effectually confuted these two ways: |