Christ's certain and sudden appearance to judgment. By Thomas Vincent, sometime Minister of Maudlins…

1. The immediate antecedents of the Judgment of the wicked will be,

1. The Resurrection of their Bodies from the Grave•: all the wicked that are dead, shall be raised, though not so soon, yet as certainly as the righteous, John 5. 28, 29. The hour cometh, that all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, (not only) they that have done good, shall come forth to the Resurrection of life, (but also) they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation. When the wicked die, their bodies ⟨p. 37⟩are clapped up in the Prison of the Grave, where they rot and putrefy under the chains of death, which are laid upon them, and their souls are shut down into the Prison of Hell, where they are bound in chains of darkness, and woe, and reserved unto the judgment of the great day; when the Lord Jesus shall appear to judge the World, he will bring the keys of Death and Hell along with him, and open both these Prison doors, not to give liberty and release to the Prisoners, but as Prisons are opened at assizes, to bring them forth to Judgment; he will open the Prison of Hell, and all the souls of the wicked shall come forth like so many Locusts out of the bottomless Pit: and he will open the Prison of the Grave, and all their bodies shall creep like so many ugly Toads out of the Earth: and then soul and body shall be joined together again, and this meeting will be sad, beyond expression: the meeting of the souls and bodies of the righteous will not be more joyful, than the meeting of the souls and bodies of the wicked will be doleful: possibly some of the wicked had no hands in their death, and their souls went forth of their bodies without much pain or fear; but their entrance▪ into their bodies again, will be with unexpressible horror: and if some of the wicked had their Consciences awakened at death, and they lay down with terror: when they awake and rise again from the dead, it will be far greater terror. The old World dyed in a fright with the Deluge of water, which overwhelmed them, Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their Company, died in a fright, at the cleaving and opening of the Earths mouth, which swallowed them up: Judas and other despairing souls died in a fright, at the apprehensions of the open mouth of Hell, ready to receive their guilty spirits: but none of the wicked could go forth of their bodies in such a fright as they will enter into them again at the last day: