DISCOURSE .XI. 241 rising iniquties ? This thy warfare 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 him when he breaks out of the dust at the sum- mons of Christ, and thou shalt find no seeds of iniquity in thy body when it is raised from the grave. Holiness to the Lord shall be inscribed upon all thy powers for ever. " Or art thou perplexed, O my soul, at the near prospect ofdeath'and all the terrors and dismal appearances that surround it ? Art thou afraid to tie 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-place where he secures his saints till all the ages ofsin and sorrow are overpassed. Look forward 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 pleasure of this heavenly change. Try whether the meditation 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, O my 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 V. " The saints of God, who are resting in the beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their heavenly Father. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee, said holy Job. The command of God creates life, and gives power to the dead to arise and speak. " I come, O Lord, d come. ". When Jesus, the Son of God, as with the trumpet of an archangel, shall pronounce the word which he snake to Lazarus, Arise, and come forth ; John xi. 43. dust and rottenness shall hear the call from heaven, and the clods ofcorruption all round the earth shall arise into the form of man : The saints shall appear at once and answer to that . divine call, arrayed in a glory like that of angels ; an illustrious host of martys and confessors for the truth ; an army of heroes and valiant sufferers for the name and cause of God and his Son an innumerable multitude of faithful servants who have finished. their work, and lay down at rest. How shall Adam, the father of our race, together with the holy men of his day, be surprized, when they shall awake out of their long sleep of five thousand years ? How shall all the saints of the intermediate ages break from their beds of darkness with intense delight ? And those who lay down but yesterday in the dust shall start up at once with their early ancestors, and answer vat. Ott. Q
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