I begin this fear in this life, here I end this fear in my death, and pass away cheerfully: but the wicked begin this fear, when the trumpet sounds to the resurrection, and then shall never end it; but, as a man condemned to be half-hanged and then quartered, hath a fearful addition in his quartering after, and yet had no ease in his hanging before; so they that have done ill, when they have had their hanging, when they have suffered in soul the torments of hell, from the day of their death to the day of judgment, shall come to that day with fear, as to an addition to that which yet was infinite before. And therefore the Vulgate edition hath rendered this well, procedent, "they shall proceed," they shall go further and further in tor ment. But this is not the object of our speculation, the subject of our speculation now. We proposed this text for the contemplation of God's love to man, and therefore we rather comfort ourselves with that branch, and refresh ourselves with the shadow of that, 'that they who have done good, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life.' Alas! the others shall live as long as they. Lucifer is as immortal as Michael, and Judas as immortal as St. Peter: but vita damnatorum mors est,' that which we call immortality in the damned, is but a continual dying; howsoever it must be called life, it hath all the qualities of death, saving the ease and. the end which death hath, and damnation hath not. They must come forth; they that have done evil must do so too: neither can stay in their house, their grave; for their house (though that house should be the sea) shall be burnt down, all the world dissolved with fire. But then, they who have done evil shall pass from that fire into a further heat, without light; they who have done good, into a further light, without heat. But fix upon the conditions, and perform them -they must have done good:' to have known good, to have believed it, to have intended it, nay to have preached it to others, will not serve-they must have done good.' They must be rooted in faith, and then bring forth fruit, and fruit in season; and then is the season of doing good, when another needs that good at thy hands. God gives the evening rain, but he gave the morning rain before: a good man gives at his death, but he gives in his lifetime too. To them belongs this resurrection of the body to life; upon which, since our text inclines us to marvel rather than to discourse, I will not venture to say with David, Narrabo omnia mirabilia tua, 'I will show all thy wondrous works;' (an angel's tongue could not show them;) but I will say with him, Memmentote mirabilium, 'Remember the marvellous works he hath done;'* and by that God will open your eyes, that you may behold the wondrous things that he will do. Remember with thankfulness the several resurrections that he hath given you; from superstition and ignorance, in which you in your fathers lay dead; from sin, and a love of sin, in which you in the days of your youth lay dead; from sadness and dejection of spirit, in which you in your worldly crosses or spiritual tentations lay dead: and assure yourself that that God that loves to perfect his own 2 Ib. cv. 5; cxix. 18. 1 Psalm ix. 14. |