2. At the laft day. The bodies of faints fhall not be left under an everlasting cover of earth, nor their fouls be happy alone; but as they have ferved their Redeemer together, and, it may be, fuffered for him, they fhall alfo be glorified together at laft, and both reign with him. Their flesh rests in hope of this, and fhall not be forgotten, but again reunited to their bleffed fpirits, that they may enter whole and intire men into the joy of their Lord. Having waited all the days of their appointed time, till their change comes, and afterwards refted a while in their grayes, God will have a defire to the work of his hands, and call fo powerfully as that they shall anfwer, and awake and fing that dwell in the duft, Fob xiv. 14, 15. Ijaiah xxvi. 19. Chrift -being rifen from the dead, is become the firft fruits of them that flept, 1 Cor. xv. 20. For if we believe that Jefus died, and rofe again, even fa them alfo which fleep in Jefus, will God bring with him, when he comes to be glorified in his faints, and admired in all them that believe. For the Lord himself shall defcend from heaven with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Chrift fhall rife first: then they which are alive, and remain, fhall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and fo fhall we ever be with the Lord, 1 Thef. iv. 14, 15, &c. With the Lord, and for ever with him, noting the perfection and perpetuity of their bleffedness; with the believing thoughts of which, well may the heirs of falvation be bid to comfort one another, ver. 18, confidering what is implied and carried in them.

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(1.) To

To be with the Lord where he is, as the text fpeaks, is to be in the most bright and glorious place, the mount Sion, the city of the living God, the everlafting kingdom, the celestial paradife, the third heaven, framed by the Moft High for the refidence of his throne, and the temple of his prefence: one filled with the glory of God and the Lamb, which fupply the place of the fun, and make an eternal day, in which the bleffed inhabitants fhall always live, and always rejoice, Rev. xxi. 23, 24. And the city had no need of the fun, neither of the moon to fhine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them that are faved fhall walk in the light of it.

(2.) To be with him where he is, is to be perfectly freed from all evil, which can have no place in the prefence of the glorified Redeemer, where falvation is compleat, and fhall be evidenced to be fo. From thence therefore, fm and forrow, pain, perfecution, affliction, temptation, and all other evils and imperfections fhall be for ever excluded. In this tabernacle of the present body they groaned, being burdened; but shall no more do fo, when once they have laid it down, but mortality is fwallowed up of life.

Their manifold infirmities and heavy burdens, their weakness and wants, doubts and fears, fick. nefs, diseases, and numberlefs calamities, that are their dolorous companio ns in the way to the grave, fhall there be buried, and never rife more. Being called up thither where their Redeemer is, God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying,

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crying, neither hall there be any more pain: · for the former things are palled away, Rev. xxi. 4. Though here they may go forth mourning, the ranfomed of the Lord fhall arrive at the heavenly Sion with fongs, and everlafting joy upon their heads, and forrow and fighing fhall flee away, Iaiah xxxv. 10.

(3.) To be with him where he is, is to be raised to the highest perfection their natures are capable of, that they may be meet to dwell with him, and fuited to the employments and enjoyments of the heavenly ftate. It is to have their minds filled with the cleareft light, and their hearts enlarged. and enflamed with the moft ardent love; to be univerfally holy, and without all fpot, to join with the glorious affembly of the firft-born in contemplating, admiring, praifing. and adoring the fountain of their being and bleffedness for ever.

(4.) To be with him, where he is, is to live under the brighteft difplays of the divine perfections, and the freeft communications of his love and goodness never to be intercepted, nor abated,, nor end. They fhall be with Chrift where he is, viz. in the most honourable and holy place of God's prefence, where there is fulness of joy for them and him, and pleasures for evermore; where eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, nor can the heart conceive what good and great things God hath prepared for them that love him; where they that are admitted to enter and dwell, live. under the light of his countenance never more to be eclipfed or withdrawn. They shall never fin God will never frown or look on them with a difpleafed

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difpleafed eye more; they fhall know him bet-" ter than they can here conceive, and love him more than they can now think; and by knowledge and love have immediate uninterrupted communion with him, to their unspeakable delight, fatisfaction and joy for ever.

(5.) They fhall be with him where he is, and fo must be for ever safe under his and his Fa-' ther's hand. By his everlasting merit, unchangeable promife, and faithfulness and love, fecured to enjoy the bleffednefs he hath raised them to, throughout all eternity. Their God lives for ever their Saviour will never die; and because he lives, they fhall live also.

Laftly, They fhall be with him where he is, to behold his glory.

(1.) His glory, as the Emanuel, God and mant in one perfon: a fhort glimpse of which at his transfiguration, made Peter cry out, as if in heaven, Lord, it is good for us to be here, Matth.

xvii. 4.

(2.) His glory, as that of the only begotten Son of the Father, infinitely dear to him, and beloved by him: The glory which he had with him before the foundation of the world was, and this Shining forth in its fullest luftre.

(3.) His glory, that which he fo freely loft or fuffered to be clouded when he came down to take their nature upon him, and in it to die upon a crofs of infamy and pain: for though he was rich, yet for our fakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich. And under the fenfe of this, believers love him now when they see him not: but when they shall fee what

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what he voluntarily denied himself the glory of, and for their fakes, when he defcended to this earth, and view what he evidently appears to be poffeffed of, when they get to heaven to fee him there, as the most high God, as well as man; how ravishing will be the fight!

(4.) His glory for whose dishonour they have often mourned; and therefore now seeing him fo highly exalted, they must rejoice with joy unSpeakable, and full of glory.

(5.) His glory, which they fhall be always privileged to behold, and by the fight, be transformed into his likeness, and fhine in his beams, and in his light and love be happy for ever.

How low foever our ftate may be at prefent, this is what the meanest given Christ of the Father, fhall be raised unto. His refemblance be

gun here, fhall be perfected above. Here we beholding as in a glafs the glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. 18. And though it doth not yet appear what we shall be, We know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall fee him as he is, 1 John

iii. 2.

And so we are brought to the last thing, viz. III. That the will of Chrift concerning this fhall certainly be fulfilled, as to all that are given him.

Many confiderations might ftrengthen our faith herein. As,

1. Who it is that here fignifies his defire, The eternal Son of God and Saviour of men, in whom the Father is well pleafed, and whom he always hears. 2. To