find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction: for the Judge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction, and they who are to be judged being, by reason of their spirituality, in a condition to attend to every one's trial while they are undergoing their own, I see no reason we have to imagine, that they shall be tried successively one after another; and if not, why may we not suppose, that we shall all be tried together at the same time, and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one. And that they shall all be tried together is very probable, since it is apparent from scripture, that they shall all be sentenced together, for thus Matt. xxv. 34. Then shall the King say to those on his right hand, i. e. to them all together, Come, ye blessed, &c. Having first by an accurate and impartial trial manifested their integrity to all the world, he shall arise out of his flaming throne, and, with an audible voice and smiling majesty, pronounce their sentence all together in these or such like words; Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: to which welcome sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful choir of hallelujahs through heaven and earth; Allelujah, salvation, and glory, and power be to the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments; salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb; for wonderful are thy works, O Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, O thou King of saints. And now all their business being finished here below, they shall from

henceforth be no longer detained in this vale of tears and misery, but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever. For,

go

5. And lastly, another thing implied in this their judgment, is their assumption into the clouds of heaven. For their blessed Lord having thus publicly acquitted and pronounced them blessed, they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it; for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the bar, but from thence will call them up to his tribunal, there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person, and more intimate participation of his glory. At which powerful call and invitation of his, they shall in an instant all take wing together, like a mighty flock of pure and innocent doves, and fly aloft into the air, singing and warbling as they to meet their Redeemer in the clouds of heaven. For so the apostle, in 1 Thess. iv. 17. Then (that is, after their resurrection and judgment) we which are alive and remain, who never died, but only have been changed and glorified, shall be caught up together with them, who shall be raised from the dead, into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be ever with the Lord. For to be sure that rapturous love which the sight and sentence of their Saviour hath by this time kindled in their pious breasts will wing their souls with vehement desire to be with him, and then being clothed with glorified bodies, that are as vigorous and active as their souls, as nimble and expedite as their thoughts and wishes, it will be in their power soon to accomplish their desire, and fly from hence up to the throne of their Lord.

And now this being the first general meeting of

the blessed Jesus and his church, the first interview that ever was between the heavenly Bridegroom and his holy bride; O the dear welcomes, the infinite mutual congratulations that will pass between them! How will they now melt in love and dissolve in mutual flames! now when, like long absent lovers, they are safe arrived into each other's arms, never, never to be parted more.

And now this joyful meeting being consummated, they begin to prepare for a most dreadful solemnity, and that is the judgment of the wicked. In order to which the Judge will reassume his throne, and place his saints all round about in shining circles, ten thousand thousand together, that so, as his assessors, they may bear a part in the ensuing judgment: for this the apostle asserts as a notorious principle of our Christian faith; Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? 1 Cor. vi. 2. that is, that they shall not only accuse and condemn the wicked world by the holy example of their lives, but also that they shall give their votes and suffrages to that dreadful sentence which Christ shall pass upon them. And now the Judge and his assessors being set, proceed we to the

II. Second judgment, which is that of the wicked; in which there are also five particulars included: first, their citation; secondly, their personal appearance; thirdly, their trial; fourthly, their sentence; fifthly, their execution.

1. Their citation: for the first judgment being finished, it is probable a new summons will be given by the voice or trump of the archangel to assemble the wicked world to their judgment. Upon hearing of which, all those wicked souls that have left their

bodies, and been hitherto confined in some dark prison of the creation, shall be forced to leave their dismal habitations, in which they would a thousand times rather choose to continue for ever, if they might have their own option, than to undergo that fearful judgment whereunto they are cited; but being dragged into the open light again by those devils who have been hitherto their jailors, they shall every one be forced to put on those old accursed bodies of theirs in which they contracted those crimson guilts, which now they must expiate in eternal flames. And now the souls of the dead being shut up in their bodies again, like prisoners in a sure hold, and there secured by an immortal tie from ever making another escape, the bodies of the living shall by a miraculous change be rendered at once so tender and sensible, that the least touch of misery shall pain them, and yet so strong and durable, that the greatest loads of misery shall never be able to sink them: and thus being all of them put into an immortal capacity of suffering, and thereby prepared to undergo the fearful doom which awaits them, they shall from all parts of the world be driven before the judgment seat of Christ. For,

2. This judgment of the wicked implies also their personal appearance at our Saviour's tribunal : for so St. John, in his prophetic vision of the day of judgment, saw the dead, both small and great, standing before God, Rev. xx. 12. and in Matt. xxv. 31, 32. we are told, that when the Son of man sits down upon the throne of his glory, all nations shall be gathered before him; that is, the impure goats as well as the innocent sheep, as he afterwards explains himself. And now, good Lord, what a tra

gical spectacle will here be! An innumerable number of self-condemned wretches assembled together before the tribunal of an almighty and implacable Judge, quaking and trembling under the dire expectations of a fearful and irrevocable doom, and with weeping eyes, pale looks, and ghastly countenances, aboding the miserable fate that attends them. For thus it is represented, Rev. i. 7. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him; they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him: and well they may, considering how they treated him, and what little reason they have upon that account to expect any favour at his hands; for to be sure the sight of him must give a dreadful alarm to their consciences, and suggest to them the sad remembrance of the innumerable provocations they have given him. Look up, O ye miserable creatures! see yonder is that glorious Person whose authority you have so insolently affronted, whose name you have so impiously blasphemed, whose mercies you have so obstinately rejected; behold with what a stern and terrible majesty he sits upon yonder flaming throne, from whence he is now just ready to exact of ye a dreadful account for all your past rebellions against him. But, O unhappy and forlorn! see how they droop and hang their heads, as being both ashamed and afraid to look their terrible Judge in the face, whose incensed eye sparkles upon them with such an insufferable terror and indignation as they are no longer able to endure, but are forced, in the bitterest anguish and despair that ever human souls were seized with, to cry out to the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, and to hide them from the face