that are then alive fhall not pafs into eternity through the beaten road of death, but at the last trumpet they fhall be changed, changed into immortals in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. Now all the millions of mankind, of whatever country and nati whether they expect this tremendous day or not, all feel a fhock through their whole frames, while they are inftantaneously metamorphofed in every limb, and the pulfe of immortality begins to beat ftrong in every part. Now alfo the flumberers under ground begin to ftir, to roufe and fpring to life. Now fee graves opening, tombs burfting, charnel-houfes rattling, the earth heaving, and all alive, while thefe fubterranean armies are burfting their way through. See clouds of human duft and broken bones darkening the air, and flying from country to country over intervening continents and oceans to meet their kindred fragments, and repair the fhattered frame with pieces collected from a thousand different quarters, whither they were blown away by winds, or washed by waters. See what millions ftart up in company in the fpots where Nineveh, Babylon, Jerufalem, Rome, and London once ftood! Whole armies fpring to life in fields where they once loft their lives in battle, and were left unburied; in fields which fattened with their blood, produced a thousand harvests, and now produce a crop of men. See a fucceffion of thoufands of years rifing in crowds from grave-yards round the places where they once attended, in order to prepare for this decifive day. Nay, graves yawn, and fwarms burft into life under palaces and buildings of pride and pleasure, in fields and forefts, in thoufands of places where graves were never fufpe&ted. How are the living furprised to find inen ftart-* ing into life under their feet, or juft befide them; fome beginning to ftir, and heave the ground; others half-rifen, and others quite difengaged from the incumbrance of earth, and ftanding upright before them! What vaft multitudes that had flept in a waVOL. II. C tery tery grave now emerge from rivers, and feas, and oceans, and throw them into a tumult! Now appear to the view of all the world the Goliaths, the Anakims, and the other giants of ancient times; and now the millions of infants, thofe little particles of life, ftart up at once, perhaps in full maturity, or perhaps in the lowest class of mankind, dwarfs of immortality. The dead, fmall and great, will arife to Stand before God; and the fea fhall give up the dead which were in it. Rev. xx. 12, 13. Now the many that fleep in the dust shall awake and come forth; fome to everlafting life, and fome to fhame and everlasting contempt. Dan. xii. 2. Now the hour is come when all that are in the grave fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and fhall come forth; they that have done good, to the refurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the refurrection of damnation. John v. 28. Though after our skin worms deftroy this body, yet in our flesh shall we fee God, whom we fhall fee for ourselves; and these eyes fhall behold him, and not another. Job. xix. 26, 27. Then this cor·ruptible [body]fball put on incorruption, and this mortal fball put on immortality. 1 Cor. xv. 53. As the characters, and confequently the doom of mankind will be very different, fo we may reafonably suppose they will rife in very different forms of glory or difhonour, of beauty or deformity. Their bodies indeed will all be improved to the highest degree, and all made vigorous, capacious and immortal. But here lies the difference: the bodies of the righteous will be ftrengthened to bear an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, but those of the wicked will be ftrengthened to sustain an heavier load of misery; their ftrength will be but mere ftrength to fuffer an horrid capacity of greater pain. The immortality of the righteous will be the duration of their happinefs, but that of the wicked of their mifery: their immortality, the higheft privilege of their nature, will be their heavieft curfe; and they would willingly exchange their duration with an infect of a day, or or a fading flower. The bodies of the righteous wilf fhine as the fun, and as the ftars in the firmament for ever and ever; but thofe of the wicked will be grim and fhocking, and ugly, and hateful as hell. The bodies of the righteous will be fit manfions for their heavenly fpirits to inhabit, and every feature will fpeak the delightful paffions that agreeably work within; but the wicked will be but fpirits of hell clothed in the material bodies; and malice, rage, defpair, and all the infernal paffions will lower in their countenances, and caft a difmal gloom around them. O! they will then be nothing elfe but fhapes of deformity and terror! they will look like the natives of hell, and spread horror around them with every look.* With what reluctance may we fuppofe will the fouls of the wicked enter again into a state of union with thefe fhocking forms, that will be everlafting engines of torture to them, as they once were inftruments of fin! But O! with what joy will the fouls of the righteous return to their old habitations, in which they once ferved their God with honeft, though feeble endeavours, now fo glorioufly repaired and improved! How will they congratulate the refurrection of their old companions from their long fleep in death, now made fit to fhare with them in the fublime employments and fruitions of heaven! Every organ will be an inftrument of fervice and an inlet of pleasure, and the foul shall no longer be encumbered but affisted by this union to the body. O what furprifing creatures can Omnipotence raife from the duft! To what an high degree of beauty can the Almighty refine the * How weak, how pale, how haggard, how obfcene, Each gefture mourns, each look is black with care; YOUNG. the offsprings of the earth! and into what miracles of glory and blessedness can he form them! * Now the Judge is come, the judgment-feat is erected, the dead are raised. And what follows? Why the universal convention of all the fons of men before the judgment-feat. The place of judgment will probably be the extenfive region of the air, the moft capacious for the reception of fuch a multitude; for St. Paul tells us, the faints fhall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Theff. iv. 17. And that the air will be the place of judicature, perhaps, may be intimated when our Lord is reprefented as coming in the clouds, and fitting upon a cloudy throne. Thefe expreffions can hardly be understood literally, for clouds which confift of vapours and rarified particles of water, feem very improper materials for a chariot of ftate, or a throne of judgment; but they may very properly intimate that Chrift will make his appearance, and hold his court in the region of the clouds; that is, in the air; and perhaps that the rays of light and majestic darkness fhall be fo blended around him as to form the appearance of a cloud to the view of the wondering and gazing world. To this upper region, from whence our globe will lie open to view far and wide, will all the fons of men be convened. And they will be gathered together by the miniftry of angels, the officers of this grand court. The Son of man, when he comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, fhall fend forth his angels with a great found of the trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other. Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. Their * Mark, on the right, how amiable a grace! miniftry YOUNG. ministry also extends to the wicked, whom they will drag away to judgment and execution, and feparate from the righteous. For in the end of the world, fays Chrift, the Son of man fhall fend forth his angels, and they fhall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity, and fhall caft them into a furnace of fire: there fhall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matt. xiii. 40, 41, 42. What an auguft convocation, what a vast assembly is this! See flights of angels darting round the globe from eaft to weft, from pole to pole, gathering up here and there the scattered faints, choofing them out from among the crowd of the ungodly, and bearing them aloft on their wings to meet their Lord in the air! while the wretched crowd look and gaze, and ftretch their hands, and would mount up along with them; but, alas! they must be left behind, and wait for another kind of convoy ; a convoy of cruel, unrelenting devils, who fhall fnatch them up as their prey with malignant joy, and place them before the flaming tribunal. Now all the fons of men meet in one immenfe affembly. Adam beholds the long line of his pofterity, and they behold their common father. Now Europeans and Afiatics, the fwarthy fons of Africa and the favages of America, mingle together. Chriftians, Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans, the learned and the ignorant, kings and fubjects, rich and poor, free and bond, form one promifcuous crowd. Now all the vast armies that conquered or fell under Xerxes, Darius, Alexander, Cæfar, Scipio, Tamerlane, Marlborough, and other illuftrious warriors, unite in one vaft army. There, in fhort, all the fucceflive inhabitants of the earth for thoufands of years appear in one affembly. And how inconceivably great muft the number be! When the inhabitants of but one country are met together, you are ftruck with the furvey. Were all the inhabitants of a kingdom convened in one place, how much more ftriking would be the fight! Were all the inhabitants of all the king doms |