it over again in a new mould; so doth the Lord with the bodies of the saints.

3. Powerful and strong, ib. There will be no more feebleness and weakness. The weak shall be as David, and the house of David, shall be as God. They shall be able to bear out in continual exercise without wearying, and to bear the weight of glory, which the flesh and blood of a giant would now be too weak for.

4. Lastly, Spiritual, ver. 44. That is, like spirits. (1.) In that they shall need none of the now necessary supplies of nature, meat, drink, &c. Mat. xxii. 30. full without meat warm without cloaths, healthful without physic. (2.) Active and nimble like spirits. So they shall meet the Lord in the air, and like so many eagles gather together, where the

carcase is.

Inf. 1. Fearful will the doom of persecutors be. (2.) The saints may be encouraged to suffer for Christ. (3) Faith and holiness is the best way to beauty. (4.) Let this allay the believer's fear of death, Gen. xlvi. 3, 4. (5.) Let this comfort him against sickliness of body; (6.) and under the death of godly relations. (7.) Rise from sin, and glorify God with your bodies and souls.

SECONDLY, We are now to consider that better resurrection in the consequents thereof, or what shall follow thereupon, the which the martyrs in this text had in their view. Here I shall shew,

1. The consequents thereof before the judgment. 2. At the judgment.

3. After the judgment.

First, I shall shew the consequents of this better resurrection before the judgment. There are two benefits which believers shall have from Christ betwixt the resurrection and the judgment. We left them raised up out of their graves in glory. Now,

1. They shall be gathered together from all corners of the earth by the ministry of angels, Mat. xxiv. 31. By the glorious gospel having its efficacy on them, they were sepa rated from the world in respect of their state and manner of life, but still abode among them as to their bodily presence. and some of them at a great distance from the rest: but then they shall not only be visibly distinguished from the reprobate by the shining glory upon them, while the faces of the

rest are covered with blackness; but these fair ones shall all be gathered together into one glorious company, out from among the wicked, by the ministry of the holy angels, Matth. xiii. 48, 49.

2. While the wicked are left on the earth, they shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17. Those who are found alive, and those who are raised out of their graves, shall ascend in one glorious body; by what means, the Lord himself knows; but he who made Peter walk on the water, can cause them make their way like eagles through the air. And they shall meet the Lord there to welcome him at his second coming, while others shall be filled with dread of the Judge and also to attend him for his honour, as the angels also do.

Who can sufficiently conceive the glory of these benefits, by which their happiness is so far carried on?

Secondly. We shall view the consequents of this resurrection at the judgment.

The throne being erected, and the glorious man,, Christ, the Judge of the world, being set down upon it, and the parties sisted before him to be judged, the wicked as well as the godly.

1. The glorious company of believers, being separated from the black howling company of the wicked in that day, shall be set on the right hand of the Judge, while the wicked shall be set on his left hand, Mat. xxv. 32, 33. They shall then have the most honourable place; and then will there be a mighty turn; many of the right hand-men of the world will get the left hand, and contrariwise.

2. They shall be openly acknowledged by Jesus Christ, their Lord and Judge, Mat. x. 39. Consider,

1st, What it is for Christ to acknowledge them. It is to own them for his own, to acknowledge the relations they stand in to him, Mal. iii. 17. They shall be mine,' i. e: owned to be so. To the wicked he will say, he knows them not;' he will reject all their pretensions to him: but as for believers, he will own and acknowledge them in all the relations wherewith faith invested them; he will acknowledge the fair company for his contracted spouse, his children, his members, even them, and every one of them.

2dly, How he will acknowledge them then. He will do it openly, most publicly and openly. Consider here.

(1.) Our Lord Jesus acknowledges all that are his, even now in this life, not only in his own breast, by looking on them as his; but before his Father, in whose presence he appears making intercession for them as his own, John xvii. 9, 10. He does it also by the testimony of his Spirit to their sonship, Rom. viii. 16; by the seal of his own image set upon them, and by many signal appearances of his providence for them.

(2.) He will then acknowledge them in a quite other and open manner, before many witnesses, so as men and devils shall be obliged to understand, that these are they whom the King on the throne delights to honour. He will do it before his Father, and the angels of heaven, Rev. iii. 5. in effect saying to his Father, Behold me, and the children thou hast given me.' He will acknowledge them in their own hearing, and the hearing of all the world, Matth. xxv.

34.

3. They shall be openly acquitted by the Lord in that day, by the sentence solemnly passed in their favour, whereby also they are adjudged to life, Matth. xxv. 34. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Consider here,

1st. What they shall be acquitted from. They shall be acquitted from all the guilt of all their sins, and for ever discharged from all punishment for them, Acts iii. 19. The mouths of all accusers shall be finally stopt, and the white stone shall then be given in a way of eminency.

2dly, Are they not acquitted now? Yes, they are in the first moment of believing acquitted of the guilt of eternal wrath for ever, Rom. viii. 1; and on their fresh application to the blood of Christ for their after sins, they likewise are blotted out, 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' And at death they get their acquittance too, Heb. ix. 27. Yet at the general judgment they are acquitted likewise.

3dly, Wherein doth their acquittance now and at that day agree and differ.

(1) They agree, [1.] In the substance of the acquittance, which is the same now and hereafter, from the guilt of sin, and punishment thereof. [2.] In the ground of it; it proceeds in both upon the merits of Christ, Eph. i. 7. and no VOL. II.

on works, which are brought in at the last day as evidences of their faith, not as causes of their justification.

(2.) They differ, [1.] In respect of openness. Now they are acquited in the world, Rom. viii. 1. where yet they have much ado to read it sometimes; in their own consciences, 1 John iii. 21. which they themselves only can understand; but then from the throne, in the presence of angels and men. [2] In respect of assurance and comfort. Of the former a believer may doubt, but not of the latter. [3.] In respect of fulness. In the last day they are acquitted from all ef fects of sin whatsoever, their bodies being raised, never to die more and joined to their souls, never to be separated more; but not so in the former.

4thly, Why shall they be openly acknowledged and acquitted at the last day? He will do it,

(2.) To wipe off, with his own fair hand, all the foul aspersions which the hypocrites and profane did cast upon them in this world, Isa. lxvi. 5. Many a time the Lord's dearest children are made to lie among the pots, blackened with ill names, reproaches, &c. But then they shall be 'like doves whose wings are covered with silver, and their feathers with yellow gold.'

(2.) To give them a reward of grace, for their confessing of him before the world, cleaving to his truths and ways, in the midst of an adulterous generation, and their not sustaining to deny him on whatever temptations, Matth. x. 32. "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.' Compare 2 Tim. ii. 12, 'If we deny him, he also will deny us.' The prospect of this made the martyrs cleave to him in the face of cruel deaths.

(3.) To seal the end of all their own doubts, jealousies, and fears, 1 Cor. iv. 4. Many a time it is a question with the believer, whether he belongs to Christ or not: even when he has in all sincerity embraced the covenant, yet these like so many ghosts haunt him. No doubt by that time they wil lall be gone, but by this acknowledgement their departure will be sealed.

(4.) For the increase of their joy, and the shame of their enemies, Isa. lxvi, 5.

4. They shall be adjudged to everlasting life, and solemnly invited to enter to the possession of the kingdom, Matth.

xxv. 34. 'Come ye,' &c. in which every word has a weight of glory.

5. Lastly, They being themselves absolved, shall be honoured to be Christ's assessors in judging of the wicked, 1 Cor. vi. 1. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? They shall judge them by way of communion with Christ their head, this work being a part of the Mediator's honour redounding to all his members: By way of approbation of the Judge's sentence against them, saying Amen to the doom of the wicked, even the godly parent to that of the wicked child, the holy husband to that of the unholy wife, &c. Rev. xix. 1, 3. See Rev. iii. 21.

Thirdly, We shall consider the consequents of the resurrection after the judgment. Believers shall be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity: Here I shall shew,

1. Wherein perfect blessedness lies.

2. What shall make believers perfectly blessed.

1. I am to shew wherein perfect blessedness lies. It lies in two things.

1st, Freedom perfectly from all evil whatsoever, whether of sin or misery. Thus blessed shall believers be then, perfectly free from sin, Eph. v. 27. and free from suffering any manner of way, Rev. xxi. 4;

2dly, Full satisfaction to all the desires of the soul, Phil. xvi. 11. Their desires shall be fully satisfied; they shall have that beyond which they can crave no more. For where there is any want, there can be no perfect blessedness.

2. I am to shew what shall make them thus perfectly blessed. It is the enjoyment of God. They shall have his glorious presence with them, Rev. xxi. 3. They shall see him as he is, 1 John iii. 2. the man Christ with their bodily eyes, and the invisible God with the eyes of their minds, called the beatific vision, the most perfect knowledge of God which the creature is capable of. They shall be knit to him gloriously, Rev. xxi. 3. just quoted. Love then will be at its height. And they shall enjoy him to their full happiness. (1.) Immediately; not in the use of means and ordinances, but there they sit down at the fountain-head, Rev. xxi. 22. (2.) Fully; God will with-hold nothing of himself from them they shall be stinted to no measure but what their