who challenges this power to himself, as I have noted before out of the first of the Revelation, where he tells St. John, I have the keys of hell and of deathh. He was no ordinary ambassador, but can do more than any whom God sent into the world ever did or could. He can raise even the dead bodies of his subjects to life again: and when he hath lifted them out of the dust, (if I may apply the Psalmist's words to this purpose,) can set them with princes; even with the princes of his heavenly court, to praise and bless his love among those great ministers, the angelical powers, for ever and ever. Which is a power he doth not assume to himself vainly, but was conferred on him by God the Father; who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory: wherein St. John beheld him when he said, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I live for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

"None can

Great is thy majesty, O thou most mighty Jesus! whose power is not the power of flesh and blood, but the power of God, who raises those to life who are dead. Great was the joy which filled thy disciples' hearts when they first saw thee alive from the dead, and called thee their God. understand the beauty of that sight. O the brightness of that appearing! What a light diffused itself then through the whole creation! What a fragrant smell did the very earthquake breathe forth, when like a public crier it proclaimed the resurrection! What was the savour of the ointment which was then poured out! How was the whole world then transformed and made new! The angels themselves leaped for joy to see it. How sweet was the sound then of their doxologies! With what divine splendours were they then adorned! How beautiful did those preachers of thy resurrection appear! and how great was the glory and the happiness which they came then to proclaim! O those words of theirs, which brought us the news of victory over the enemy! which proclaimed the destruction of death, and published thee to the world, the resurrection and the life!

"O that sweet and above all things desirable voice of thine, which, by the women that were carrying spices to thy grave, sounded joy to the world! The heavens then opened their

h Rev. i. 18.

and that which moved them to undertake so great a task; as St. Paul tells us, when he calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus: appointed by God, that is, to publish the promise of eternal life which he had received from Christ Jesus; who would certainly give it to all that believed on him. And it is the very character which the other great apostle gives of himself, that he was a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. This encouraged him to be a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as he saith just before, and not to be daunted, as he had been, though he followed him to a cross; because now he clearly saw he had a right as a friend of his (so the word kovovòs signifies, Philem. 17d) to a share in that unseen glory where he was, which should one day be revealed.

In this they desired that all mankind might have a portion with theme, by becoming members of their society. And therefore it was the constant strain of all their sermons, to invite them to it, by showing that Jesus will reward well-doers with the crown of life; and be so far from letting their labour be in vain, that he will do for them as his Father hath done for him, viz. bring them into his own joy. So St. John writes in the very beginning of his Gospel, that in him was life, and the life was the light of menf. He brought the promise of eternal life, that is, to mankind, and can himself bestow it; which is the best news, the greatest cordial, that can be thought of, to revive our spirits: like the honey on the top of Jonathan's rod, enlightening our eyes, and making us live most cheerfully and happily, if we believe it, and prepare ourselves for it. This they laid as the very ground and foundation of all Christian piety; unto which St. Paul saith it was his office to call men, in hope of eternal life 8, which God, that cannot lie, promised of old, but did not manifest till the preaching of the gospel, which was committed to him by the commandment of God our Saviour who authorized him to open this doctrine more fully than it had been even by our Lord himself while he was on earth. For St. Paul shows that, at the last day, so often mentioned by our Lord, he himself will appear again in person, after a visible and glorious manner, to consummate all the

b 2 Tim. i. I. tom. v. p. 437.]

CI Pet. v. I.

e I John i. 3.

d Vid. Scipion. Gentil. ibid. [opp. f John i. 4. g Tit. i. 1, 2, &c.

faithful; whose happiness begins as soon as they depart this life. These two weighty truths are notably asserted by this apostle.

I. Who declares by the word of the Lord (that is, a special revelation from our Saviour) the manner of his coming again from heaven, with the attendance of his angels, to raise the dead, and to lift them up to himself, and give them the crown of righteousness; which till that time shall not be bestowed. Read 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16, &c., 2 Tim. iv. 8, where the splendour of that great day, when he will openly appear as the Lord of all, is described no less lovely than magnificently; as I hope to show in another place. It is the day of rejoicingh, because he will then most eminently appear as our life; as our salvation; to the praise and honour and glory of our fidelity'. And therefore for this time Christians are said to wait and look m, as the time that will complete their felicity; which till then, the apostles plainly suppose, wants its crown and perfection. And so the church hath from the beginning understood them who describe souls departed as in a state of expectants, waiting for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will come out of his most holy temple to perfect those who now stand, as they speak, èv проbúρois, in the porch,' or entry of it; in atriis, as the Latin phrase is, in the outward court' of the temple or holy place of God. For as the children of Israel stood in the outward court, (which yet was a part of the iepòv, or temple, as we render it,) expecting the priest every day to come out of the sanctuary, and the high-priest on the day of expiation to come out of the holy of holies, to give them the blessing; in such manner do the ancients describe the now blessed waiting and looking without (though in heaven, of which the sanctuary was a figure,) for that blessed hope of our Lord's coming out of his most holy place, where he now is, without sin unto their salvation. And thus the best of the Jews express their happiness, saying that pious souls are in the bundle of life, (as the most learned Dr. Pocock shows out of Judah Zabara",) in the high place, in the treasury; where they enjoy the splendour of the divine Majesty, being hidden under

6

I Cor. v. 5; Heb. ix. 28. 11 Pet. n Not. Miscell. cap. vi. p. 176. [Theo

R

the throne of glory. Which phrases signify, a state of imperfection in comparison with that which our Lord Christ (with whom, saith the apostle, our life is hid, and kept in safe custody,) will bring us unto at the day of his appearing.

II. But all this time they do not imagine that their souls lie asleep, without any sense of joy and pleasure, no more than the Israelites did, who were at their prayers all the time that the priest was in the sanctuary, desiring God to accept his intercession for them. For what good doth it do them to be in the garden of Eden or pleasure, (as the Jews also call the place where they live,) if they have no taste of its fruits and happy enjoyments? They would be as well any where else as in the bosom of Abraham (by which the same Jews, as well as our Saviour, describe this state) if they do not feast there, as that expression properly signifies, and as the parable of Lazarus supposes he did, when it saith, that now he was comforted, or enjoyed his good things, which made a recompense for all the evil he had here suffered.

The sense of the Christian church in this matter is admirably expressed by St. Greg. Nazianzen: who, comforting himself and others for loss of his brother Cæsarius, concludes with these words: "I am persuaded by the words of the wise, that every soul that is good, and beloved of God, when it is loosed from this body to which it is tied, straightway Oavμaríav τινὰ ἡδονὴν ἥδεται καὶ ἀγάλλεται, ' conceives a certain wonderful pleasure and rejoices exceedingly,' in the sense and contemplation of the good it expects. Which makes it go most cheerfully to its master, because, being got out of its prison, and having shaken off its fetters, which pinioned the wing of the mind, οἷον ἤδη τῇ φαντασίᾳ καρποῦται τὴν ἀποκειμένην μακαριό Tηra, 'it already enjoys, as it were, an image of the blessedness laid up for it. And not long after receiving, out of the earth came, and where it is deposited, its nearly allied body, (in such a way as God, who tied them together and dissolved them, knows,) it shall together with it inherit the glory there P."

τητα,

from whence it

And thus St. Paul also plainly teaches us:

o Vid. Voysin de Jubil. lib. i. c. 16. [p. 180 sqq.]

P Orat. x. p. 173. [ed. Ben. Orat.

vii. §. 21. tom. i. pp. 212, 3.]

1. When he relates how he was transported into the third heaven and into paradise; and, for any thing he knew, out of his body 9. Which evidently shows he believed that souls could act without their bodies, and that they shall enjoy God, and have a sense of heavenly things, as soon as they depart this life. And so much the Jews themselves well conclude from the spirit of prophecy, whereby holy men of God were separated for a time from their bodies, so as to perceive nothing either by their senses or their minds, but only what God presented to them. The phantasms indeed which they had received from this sensible world were commonly used to represent those things which were then offered to them by divine revelation: but without any assistance of the motions of the body, which lay then as if it was dead; while the soul enjoyed converse and familiar discourse with God. In which condition, it is manifest, St. Paul's mind was so intent to what was communicated unto him, that he did not at all observe whether he had a body about him or no. But there is more than this, if you mark it, in St. Paul's transport into Paradise; where God spoke to him аррηта pýμата, mysteries which he could not declare by any words, because no phantasms or images of things he had seen or heard here in this world could express them. Which is a sign he conceived them without any motion of his brain, merely by his spirit.

Of such transports the Hebrews themselves talk, who say four men entered into Paradiser: (that is, by the spirit of prophecy :) one of them was too curious, and died presently; another proved distracted after it; a third plucked up the roots, or denied the foundation of religion, saying, "nyan "N, 'I have already touched the mark,' I am come to perfection, and therefore need not mind the work of the law any longer: a fourth entered in peace, and came out again in peace. Which I recite not as a truth, (for all these stories are told of men who lived since the spirit of prophecy left them,) but to show that they think it not impossible for men to be transported as St. Paul was, (to whom, I imagine, they were ambitious to equal some of their doctors,) but by the power of the Spirit they

q 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3.

r Sepher Cosri, part. iii. § 65. [p. 245.]

Tzemach David. ad An. 4980. [p. 111.]