Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

4. An Angel ministered to him at his resurrection; An Angel came, ¹and rolled back the stone from the door, and sate upon it. Angels were the first Ministers of the Gospel, the first Preachers of Christ's resurrection; they preached more of Christ than all the Prophets did; they first told the woman that Christ was risen; ²and they did the first service to Christ at his resurrection, in rolling the stone from the doors mouth; O my soul, that thou wert but like these blessed Angels! how is it that they are so ⟨p. 446⟩forward in God's Service, and thou art so backward? One day thou expectest to be equal with the Angels, and art thou now so far behind them? What! to be equal in Reward, and behind them in Service? Here's a Meditation able to check thy Sloth, and to spur thee on to thy Duty. — 5. Many of the Bodies of the Saints arose out of their Graves at His Resurrection; as the Angels ministered, so the Saints waited on Him. In this Meditation, trouble not thy self whether David, Moses, Job, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were some of those Saints, as some conjecture upon some Grounds: It is a better Consideration to look upon them as the Fruit of Christ's Resurrection, and as an Earnest of thy Own: The Virtue of Christ's Resurrection appears immediately, and it will more appear at the general Resurrection Day. As sure as these Saints arose with Him, and went into the Holy City, and appeared unto many; so sure shall thy Body rise again at the Last Day; and (if thou art but a Saint) it shall go with Him into the Heavenly Jerusalem, and appear before God, and His Son Jesus Christ in Glory. —6. Christ rose again with a true and perfect Body, with an Incorruptible and Powerful Body, with a Spiritual and an Agile Body, with a Glorious Body, brighter than the Sun in his utmost Glory. On these things may the Soul expatiate: O it is a worthy, blessed, soul-ravishing Subject to think upon; and the rather, if we consider that Conformity which we believe:³ We look for a Saviour (saith the Apostle) the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile Bodies, that they may be fashioned unto His Glorious Body. O my Soul, that this Clay of thine should be a Partaker of such Glory! That this Body of Dust and Earth should shine in Heaven like those Glorious Spangles of the Firmament;