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the world fhould fee, who they have fo difpifed and difregarded: Who it was, that came to redeem the world and be facrificed for the life of it. It is meet, he should come to acknowledge his friends and give them leave to rejoyce in him; to call his implacable adverfaries to an account, and render vengeance to those that would not obey him. 'Tis meet, that every eye fhould fee him; even they that pierced him, and trampled upon his blood, and would not be faved thereby. Accordingly, this judgment has the Father committed to the Son, that he may right himself, and vindicate his cause, and teach men to honour the Son as they honour the Father. All hearts, and wills, and knees, will be ready to bow to him, in that day.

V. Being thus righteously constituted univerfal judge, he will in all the state aud grandeur, fuitable to his office. He will appear in appear the glory of his human nature, unconceivably fplendid and magnificent. The angels muft attend him, and be minifters to his love and juftice. The fpirits of holy men, that are gone to him, must come along with him, to behold his triumphs, and receive the promifed crown. The arch-angel muft march before them and found the trumpet to startle the dead, and awake the fleepers in the grave. The clouds muft form his travelling chariot, and bring him to his tribunal. The fallen angels must stand at a distance, trembling and howling at the approaches of the judge. The fhout that attends him, will fhake the foundations of the fyftem. The flaming heavens will affright the earth and astonish the new-waked fpectators. The fun will flee for fhame before the rays of the approaching glory. The earth will quake, and caft up all the human prey, that was lodged within her bowels. All nature will diffolve, and be ready to drop to pieces, before the face of him that comes to take his pavilion: in the air. All things confess their confternation. What a day of terror and amazement is here!

God made man of the

VI. The body pertains to the human nature. duft of the ground. He was defigned to be an imbodied fpirit. The body, has been employed in fin and duty, and has been an inftrument of

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religion or unrighteoufnefs. The body we love, and are loath to be par ted from it. The Redeemer has purchased it and will not lofe it. He will have the man to be whole and intire for the retribution he comes to award. Accordingly death must be destroyed; the graves must be disbowelled; there must be a jail-delivery of all the prisoners of death; a relcafe of all the captives of the grave. The fouls muft return to their union with their bodies, and earth and feas muft refign their dead. The religious will be raised in honour and power and glory. The irreligious will come forth with deformity, horror, and confufion. They will not know what to do, nor whither to fly. The earth trembles beneath them; the mountains melt for fear; the grave will not longer hold them; the heavens flame about them; the Judge's eye (the eye of jealousy and vengeance) is upon them; and the angels are ready to gather and bind them as tares for the unquenchable fire. O, the joys and dolours of that day!

VII. The religious and irreligious, being thus raifed from the dead, must, by the ministry of angels, be diftributed into two vaft companies, to be for ever feparated. The religious must be sent for, and conveyed, by clouds, to meet their Lord in the air. They must stand on his right hand; be acknowledged and approved by him, in the prefence of angels, devils, and the human world. They must be adjudged to the crown and kingdom prepared for them and promised to them, in the glory of the Father. The congregation of the irreligious will be covered with confufion and defpair. They must be fet by themselves at the Judge's left hand; must have all their fins expofed to their face and confcience. Muft be doomed to an eternal abode with devils, in their flaming dungeon; whom here they gratified and ferved. Such must be the iffue of the morality and immorality of this world!

VIII. Then this world, that has been fuch an idol to the inhabitants of it, shall be fet all in a flame. This (poffibly) it will be, in the beginning of the day, and upon the first approaches of the Judge. He will be revealed in, and by, flaming fire. It may well be a signal of

his approaches. An emblem of the flaming indignation and juftice, he comes to execute. He will be revenged on the inftruments of iniquity. He will confume the images of jealoufy; the provoking things, that have drawn fo many hearts and fouls from him, from his love and their own falvation. The globe fhall burn, with all its furniture and fullness. No help, no hope for the idolatrous, earthly-minded crew. They fhall fee their idols, their hopes and joys perish before their eyes. Their chofen portion and inheritance will be laid in afhcs. And afterward what will become of the materials, we know not. Aftonishing conclufion of this world! And this great and laft day is haftening on.

It will be a vindicative, vindictive day. A day, in which the great God will vindicate his name, and honour, his authority and government and laws, which have been fo difregarded and defpifed; his Son and his Son's grace, and priesthood, and kingdom, and salvation, against all the proud, ungrateful refufers and abusers of them. A day, in which divine veracity will be vindicated. The promises shall be fulfill'd; the threatnings fhall be executed. Behold, I come quickly (fays the Judge) and my reward (or retribution) is with me, to give to every one as his work fhall be. It will be a remunerative day. The faithful profelites fhall be crowned for all their love and service and sufferings for his name. It will be a vindictive day. Vengeance will be poured on the heads of all the enemies of God and his Christ, and on all the workers of iniquity. Here's a conclufion of this world, worthy of the majesty, holiness, and righteousness of God! Suitable to the digni. ty of man and his prefent treatment in time! Agreeable to the phæ nomena of divine providence and government; and to the inforcement of all religion piety and virtue, while the world continues!

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ས་མ་་་་

SECT. XXVII.

The Chriftian Inftitution gives us the beft Account of the unfeen Worlds, fo far as they have Reference to us, or we to them.

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NTO how many diftinct and different fyftems, the vaft creati

on may be divided, it is not neceffary we fhould now know. It is enough to be inform'd of thofe that are concerned about us, or those that we ought to be concern'd about, as being defigned for the future abodes of the natives here; and into which there must be tranfitions or tranflations from this world of ours. Since natural light fhews us, that the fpirit of man is incorporeal and immortal, and capable of future retribution; fince conscience and religion have a refpect and reference to another world; fince all religions allow a future ftate of retaliation; fince the goodness and rightcoufnefs of God require, that the good and bad should not be treated equally and alike in the other world; there must be very different abodes, for the two feveral ranks of inhabitants that leave this world and retire into the other. Vaft feparation must be made of thofe that love God and are beloved by him, from thofe that hate God and are hated by him, without hope of reconciliation. Some light into thefe different ftates and worlds will be exceeding expedient and useful. The poor Gentiles had their Elifian fields, and pains of hell. Mahomet has his fenfu. al paradife, and place of deprivation fuitable thereto. And though fome would expound his enjoyments by way of allegory; yet they that confider the Impoftor's difpofition and practice, will be apt to think, he intended no fuch allegory. But how low and defective are all the Accounts of the future ftates or worlds, that are not fetch'd from

from the chriftian revelation! Here all is grand and pure! fuitable to all the other parts of the inftitution! And fo

I. Confider we the state of the happy world; the mansion of the bleffed. This is called Heaven, the Third Heaven and (as it fhould feem the fame) Paradife. It seems reprefented as beyond the Stars, and all the vifible Heavens; the vast territory of pureft light and glory. Why fhould we fuppofe, that those most spacious regions are an intire vacancy, or lye waft, and defert and uninhabited? There may the Creator's wisdom, power and goodness be incomparably more richly display'd, than here below. Thither we direct our eyes, and hearts, and devotions, as to God, that most confpicuously dwelleth there. Thither (we fuppofe) the Saviour afcended, when he left the earth and mounted up through the air and clouds. And from thence we expect his return at the great retributive day. ons, we may confider the inhabitants and their employments (fo far as any of them may be said to be employed).

But in these happy regi

I. The inhabitants: They are most excellent, amiable, and attrac tive of our most facred ambition and ardent aspiration. For

1. Here is the most glorious, blessed God. The high and lofty one, that inhabits eternity. The immenfe occean of all boundless perfection. The unimpaired fource, from which all created perfection fprang. He, whose wisdom, power, and goodness founded and framed the vast universe of extrinfic Being, and ordered and disposed the vast variety of its parts, and inhabitants, and furniture. He, who made all thefe things for himself; for the difplay of his own excellencies, and the complacency or accomplishment of his own will. He, who is abfolutely perfect and happy in himself; and yet will rejoyce in the execution of his own counfels, and in the operation of his own hands, for ever. He is indeed abfolutely immenfe, and unconfined in his nature, and effence, and effential glory. He is not limited to the Heavens, as fome would fuppofe, or to any orb or precinct there. But in

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