bodies so re-compact, shall not be able to hear a voice. They shall be then but such bodies, as they were when they were laid down in the grave, when, though they were entire bodies, they could not hear the voice of the mourner. But this voice of the archangel shall enable them to hear; the archangel shall re-infuse the several souls into their bodies, and so they shall hear that voice, Surgite mortui, Arise ye that were dead, and they shall arise. And here we are eased of that disputation, whether there be many archangels, or no, for, if there be but one, yet this in our text, is he, for, it is not said, In the voice of An archangel, but of The archangel; if not the only, yet he who comprehends them all, and in whom they all consist, Christ Jesus. And then, the power of this voice is exalted to the highest in the last word, that it is, Tuba Dei, The trumpet of God. For, that is an Hebraism, and in that language, it constitutes a superlative, to add the name of God to anything. As in Saul's case, when David surprised him, in his dead sleep, it is said, that Sopor Domino, The sleep of the Lord was upon him", that is, the heaviest, the deadest sleep that could be imagined, so here, The trumpet of God is the loudest voice that we could conceive God to speak in. All these pieces, that it is In clamore, In a cry, in a shout, that it is In the voice of the archangel, that it is In the trumpet of God, make up this conclusion, That all resurrections from the dead, must be from the voice of God, and from his loud voice; it must be so, even in thy first resurrection, thy resurrection from sin, by grace here; here, thou needest the voice of God, and his loud voice. And therefore, though thou think thou hear sometimes God's sibilations, (as the prophet Zechary speaks) God's soft and whispering voice, (inward remorses of thine own; and motions of the Spirit of God to thy spirit) yet think not thy spiritual resurrection accomplished, till, in this place, thou hear his loud voice; till thou hear Christ descending from heaven, (as the text says) that is, working in his church; till thou hear him, In clamore, In this cry, in this shout, in this voice of penetration, of persuasion, of power, that is, till thou feel in thyself in this place a liquefaction, a colliquation, a melting of thy bowels under the 25 Coloss. i. 16. 20 2 Sam. xxvi. 12. commination of the judgments of God upon thy sin, and the application of his mercy to thy repentance. And then, this thou must hear In voce archangeli, In the voice of the archangel. St. John in the beginning of the Revelation, calls every governor of a church an angel. And much respect and reverence, much faith, and credit behoves it thee to give to thine angel, to the pastor of that church, in which God hath given thee thy station; for, he is thine angel, thy tutelar, thy guardian angel. Men shall seek the law at the mouth of the priest, says God in Malachi"; (of that priest that is set over him) For, the lips of the priest, (of every priest, to whom the souls of others are committed) should preserve knowledge, should be able to instruct and rectify his flock, Quia angelus Domini exercituum, Because every such priest is the angel of the Lord of Hosts. Hearken thou therefore, to that angel, thine angel. But here thou art directed above thine angel to the archangel. Now, not the governor of any particular church, but he Who hath purchased the whole church with his blood", He who only is head of the whole church", Christ Jesus, is this archangel; hear him. It is the voice of the archangel, (that is, the true and sincere word of God) that must raise thee from the death of sin, to the life of grace. If therefore any angel differ from the archangel, and preach other than the true and sincere word of God, Anathema, says the apostle 30, Let that angel be accursed. And take thou heed of over-affecting, over-valuing the gifts of any man so, as that thou take the voice of an angel, for the voice of the archangel, anything that that man says, for the word of God. Yet thou must hear this voice of the archangel in the trumpet of God. The trumpet of God is his loudest instrument; and his loudest instrument is his public ordinance in the church; prayer, preaching, and sacraments; hear him in these, in all these; come not to hear him in the sermon alone, but come to him in prayer, and in the sacrament too. For, except the voice come in the trumpet of God, (that is, in the public ordinance of his church) thou canst not know it to be the voice of the archangel. Pretended services of God, in schismatical conventicles, are not in the trumpet of God, and therefore not the voice of the archangel, 30 Gal. i. 8. 27 Mal. ii. 7. VOL. I. 28 Acts xx. 28. 29 Ephes. v. 23. 21 and so, not the means ordained for thy spiritual resurrection. And, as our last resurrection from the grave, is rooted in the personal resurrection of Christ, (For, if Christ be not raised from the dead, we are yet in our sins31, says the apostle;) But why so? (Because, to deliver us from sin, Christ was to destroy all our enemies now the last enemy is death; and last time that death and Christ met, upon the cross, death overcame him, and therefore, except he be risen from the power of death, we are yet in our sins) as we root our last resurrection in the person of Christ, so do we our first resurrection in him, in his word, exhibited in his ordinance, for, that is the voice of the archangel in the trumpet of God. And as the apostle says here, This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that thus the last resurrection shall be accomplished by Christ himself, so, this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, (by the harmony of all the Scriptures) thus, and no other way, by the pure word of God, delivered and applied by his public ordinance, by hearing, and believing, and practising, under the seals of the church, the sacraments, is your first resurrection from sin, by grace, accomplished. So have you then those three branches, which constitute our first part; that they are dead before us, shall not be prevented by us, but they shall rise first; that they shall be raised by the power of Christ, that is, the power of God in Christ; that that power, working to their resurrection, shall be declared in a mighty voice, the voice of the archangel, in the trumpet of God. And then, then when they were formerly dead, are first raised, and raised by this power, and this power thus declared, then shall we, who shall be then alive and remain, be wrought upon; which is our second, and our next general part. When the apostle says here, Nos qui vivimus, We that are alive, and remain, would he not be thought to speak this of himself, and the Thessalonians to whom he writes? Do not the words import that? That he, and they should live till Christ's coming to judgment? Some certainly had taken him so; but he complains that he was mistaken; We beseech you brethren, be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, by word or letter, as from us, that the day of the Lord is at hand; so at hand, as that we 311 Cor. xv. 17. 32 Ver. 15. 33 determine it in our days, in our life. So that the apostle speaks here, but hypothetically; he does but put a case, that if it should be God's pleasure to continue them in the world, till the coming of his Son Christ Jesus, thus and thus they should be proceeded withal; for, thus and thus shall they be proceeded with, says he, that shall then be alive. Our blessed Saviour hath such a manner of speech, of an ambiguous sense, in St. Matthew, That there were some standing there, that should not taste of death, till they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom". And this might give them just occasion to think, that that kingdom into which the judgment shall enter us, was at hand; for, the words which Christ spoke immediately before those, were evidently, undeniably spoken of that last, and everlasting kingdom of glory, The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, &c. Then follows, Some standing here shall live to see this. And yet Christ did not speak this of that last kingdom of glory; but either he spoke it of that manifestation of that kingdom which was showed to some of them, to Peter, and James, and John, in the transfiguration of Christ, (for the transfiguration was a representation of the kingdom of glory) or else he spoke it of that inchoation of the kingdom of glory, which shined out in the kingdom of grace, which all the apostles lived to see, in the personal coming of the Holy Ghost, and in his powerful working in the conversion of nations in their lifetime. And this is an inexpressible comfort to us, that our blessed Saviour thus mingles his kingdoms, that he makes the kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of glory, all one; the church, and heaven, all one; and assures us, that if we see him in this his glass, in his ordinance, in his kingdom of grace, we have already begun to see him face to face, in his kingdom of glory; if we see him sicuti manifestatur, as he looks in his word, and sacraments, in his kingdom of grace, we have begun to see him, sicuti est, as he is, in his essence, in the kingdom of glory; and when we pray, Thy kingdom come, and mean but the kingdom of grace, he gives us more than we ask, an inchoative comprehension of the kingdom of glory, in this life. This is his inexpressible mercy, that he mingles his kingdoms, and where he gives one, gives both. 34 Matt. xvi. 28. So is there also a fair beam of comfort exhibited to us in this text, that the number reserved for that kingdom of glory, is no small number. For though David said, The Lord looked down from heaven, and saw not one that did good, no not one3, (there it is less than a few) though when the times had better means to be better, when Christ preached personally upon the earth, when one centurion had but replied to Christ, Sir, you need not trouble yourself to go to my house, if you do but say the word here, my servant will be well, Christ said in his behalf, Verily I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel; when Christ makes so much of this single grain of mustard-seed, this little faith, as to prefer it before all the faith of Israel, surely faith went very low in Israel at that time; nay, when Christ himself says, speaking of his last coming, after so many ages' preaching of the Gospel, When the Son of man comes, shall he find faith upon earth, any faith, we have I say, a blessed beam of comfort shining out of this text, that it is no small number that is reserved for that kingdom; for, whether the apostle speak this of himself and the Thessalonians, or of others, he speaks not as of a few, but that by Christ's having preached the narrowness of the way, and the straitness of the gate, our holy industry and endeavour is so much exalted, (which was Christ's principal end in taking those metaphors of narrow ways, and strait gates, not to make any man suspect an impossibility of entering, but to be the more industrious and endeavorous in seeking it) that as he hath sent workmen in plenty, abundant preaching, so he shall return a plentiful harvest, a glorious addition to his kingdom, both of those which slept in him before, and of those which shall be then alive, fit, all together, to be caught up in the clouds to meet him, and be with him for ever; for these two armies imply no small number. Now, of the condition of these men, who shall be then alive, and how being clothed in bodies of corruption, they become capable of the glory of this text, in our first distribution, we proposed that for a particular consideration, and the other branch of this second part, and to that, in that order, we are come now. I scarce know a place of Scripture, more diversely read, and 35 Psal. xiv. 2. 36 Matt. viii. 10. 37 Luke xviii. 8. |