bTSC. xi.] AND JOY AT THE RESURRECTION. 567 sure, than ever this world could shew them in ! They are not perished, but sent a little before us into God's hid- ing-place, where though they lie in dust and darkness, yet they are safe from the dangers and vexations of life ; but they shall spring up in the happy moment into im mortality, and shalljoin with thee in a mutual surprize at each other's divine change. " Or dost thou feel the corruptions of thyheart work- ing within thee, and the sins of thy nature restless in their endeavours to bring defilement upon thy soul, and guilt upon thy conscience: Go on and maintain the holy warfare against all these rising iniquities ? This thy war- fare shall not continue long: Thou shalt find every one of these sins, buried with thee in the grave, but they shall arise to assault thee no more. The saint shall leave every sin behind hirn when he breaks out of the dust at the summons of Christ, and thou shalt find no seeds of ini- quity in thy body when it is raised from the grave. Ho- liness to the Lord shall be inscribed upon all thy powers for ever. " Or art thou perplexed, O my soul, at the near pros- pect of death and all the terrors and dismal appearances that surround it ? Art thou afraid to lie down in the cold and noisome grave ? Does thy nature shudder at it as a gloomy place of horror ? These indeed are the prejudices of sense : but the language of faith will tell thee, it is only God's hiding-placewhere he secures his saints till all the ages of sin and sorrow are overpassed. Look for- ward to the glorious morning when thou shalt rise from the dust among ten thousand of thy fellows, every one in the image of the Son of God, with their bodies formed " after the likeness of his glorious body ;" Phil. iii. 21. and rejoicing together with divine satisfaction in the plea- sure of this heavenly change. Try whether the medita- tion of these glories, and the distant prospect of this illustrious day, will not scatter all the gloom that hovers round the grave, and vanquish the fiercest appearance of the king of terrors. " What is there, Omy soul, among all the miseries thou hast felt, or all that thou fearest, that can sink thy courage, if the faith of a resurrection be but alive and wakeful ?" But this leads me to the Observation V. " The saints of God, who are resting in the beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their :o4
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