that is, his Ifrael or spiritual worshippers, which is marked in the verfe under our view, "let the "fields be joyful, and all that is therein: then "fhall the trees of the wood rejoice before the "Lord, for he cometh, for he cometh to judge "the earth: He fhall judge the world with righteoufness, and the people with his truth. Let the "floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful

66

together, before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness fhall he judge "the world and the people with equity."

At that tribunal, all the dead, without one exception, fhall be tried by one or other of these books, according to their works. However unwilling fome men may be to come to this judgement, none shall be able to abfent themselves, and no barrier fhall detain them. Wherever their dead bodies fhall be depofited, though in the bottom of the depths of the fea, whether they fall have been long in their graves, or shall be newly dead and unburied, they fhall be raised to life. For the fea and death fhall deliver up the dead, which are in them. "And hell fhall deliver up "the dead, which are in it." Ans, the word here tranflated hell, fignifies the invifible ftate of departed fpirits. It comprehends under it the ftates of both good and bad feparate fpirits. Though, by death, the fouls and bodies of men are feparated; though their bodies are reduced to duft in their

graves,

graves, or in the bottom of the fea; and though their spirits are, in their feparate ftates, happy or miferable according to their respective characters; yet before the general judgement shall commence, their dead bodies fhall be raised to life; their fe parate spirits shall be reunited to them, never more to be separated; and the whole man, consisting of foul and body, shall stand before the bar of God to receive his final fentence.

To thofe who either deny the refurrection of the dead, or put cavilling questions on that subject, I reply, in the words of Chrift to the Sadducees, Matth. xxii. 29. “Ye do err, not knowing "the fcriptures, nor the power of God." For the fcriptures, not to mention many other paffages both in the Old and new Teftament, I refer them to I Cor. chap. xv. where this fubject is fully treated. And as to the power of God, it is certainly as easy for omnipotence to raise the bodies of men from the duft, and to reunite their fouls to them, as it was at first to make the body of man out of the duft of the earth, to breath into him the breath of life, and make him a living foul.

The refurrection does not imply in it any natural impoffibility; it is therefore a work which comes within the fphere of divine power. It's poffibility is already proven by fact. The body of Chrift rofe from the dead. This fact is as fully proven as any fact can be. But what hath once happened

happened is not impoffible; and, may happen a gain. We need not trouble our heads about fixing the effential ftamina of every body, nor what it is by which the identity of the body, of the fpirit, and of the man made up of the union of both, fhall be afcertained. These things are not revealed to us in fcripture; they are not neceffary for us to know in our prefent ftate; and they make no part of the fcriptural doctrine of the refurrection of the dead. But we may be certain, that these things are perfectly known to God; and that he, who is omnifcient, fhall be at no loss, at the general refurrection, to afcertain every body, every spirit, and the relation in which they stand to each other. We may be certain, that, when the dead shall arife, every person shall be conscious of his own identity. A wicked man, when fuffering in a future ftate, shall have no doubt that he is the identically fame person that finned in this world, and a faithful fervant of God, rejoicing in heaven, fhall have no doubt that he is the fame person who, on earth, adhered to the word of God, and to the teftimony of Jefus. Then all men, Chriftians as well as others, fhall be judged according to their works. Then it will be of no avail to a mere nominal Chriftian, that he hath been baptifed according to the inftitution of Jefus, that he hath pretended to believe all the doctrines of the gospel, and that he hath paid

an

an external regard to all its ordinances; if his baptifm hath not bound him cheerfully to obferve all things whatsoever Chrift commanded his Apoftles to teach us; if the name of Chriftian hath not been connected with the Chriftian character in him; if his faith hath not purified his heart, wrought by love, and produced in him the peaceable fruits of righteousness; and, if his external regard to the ordinances of religious worship hath not proceeded from, and encreased in him, real piety and devotion of foul to God. In Matth. vii. 21,-23. · Christ faith," not every one that faith unto me,

Lord, Lord, fhall enter into the kingdom of heaii ven: but, he that doeth the will of my Father "who is in heaven. Many fhall fay unto me in "that day, have we not prophecied in thy name? "and in thy name caft out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then "I will profefs unto them, I never knew you

depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

To be caft unto the lake of fire, or in plain terms to be caft into hell, is ftiled the fecond death. Chrift reprefents the torments of hell by the fcorching of fire, Matth. xxv. 41. and Mark, ix. 44. These torments are ftiled the fecond death; because they are preceded, in every perfon, by the firft death both temporal and fpiritual; and, becaufe hell is the ftate of greateft degradation and mifery to thofe beings who are configned to fuch mifery.

3

mifery. As hell is the laft ftate to which wicked men shall be configned, and as revelation gives us no information of any change that fhall take place in them, after they fhall enter into that ftate, when death and hell (s), that is, the feparate state, are faid to be caft into the lake of fire; this symbol fignifies that death and the separate state shall never more be heard of after that time.

Then no man's foul and body fhall any more be diffolved by natural death, nor fhall his spirit any more exift in a feparate ftate. Death fhall be swallowed up in victory. The immortality of the bleffed will crown their bliss, and the immortality of the miserable will complete their wretchedness. All who shall not be then spiritually alive, all whofe natures fhall not be renewed, being totally unfit for heaven, shall be caft unto hell.

CHAP.

1