Dan. xii. 2, 3. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever.
THE immediate connexion of the text would lead us to expect something which shall take place when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to destroy all antichristian powers, and to establish his kingdom throughout the world. Of that period St. John speaks, as "the first resurrection3." But at that time the saints alone shall rise (whether really or mystically,
a Rev. xx. 5, G.
we stop not to inquire) : but at the time of which my text speaks, the wicked shall rise to shame and ever- lasting contempt. The prophet, therefore, must be understood as passing over the intermediate space between the destruction of Antichrist and the final judgment ; and as speaking of what shall take place at that awful day, when Christ shall come to judge the world. In this way our blessed Lord introduces his description of the same awful period. He pre- dicts the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and then almost blends with that the general judgment ; so that it is not easy to determine with accuracy the precise point of his transition from the one event to the other. In truth, he seems in one place to quote the words of my text as referring to the last day ; saying, " The hour is coming, when all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good to the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation V Nor can we doubt but that the Jews in general understood Daniel as speaking of that period; and grounded chiefly upon his authority the belief, that " there should be a resurrection both of the just and unjust c."
Assuming this, then, to be the import of my text, I shall proceed to consider,
1. The different states of men in that great deci- sive day —
It cannot be, that all should receive the same doom at the hands of a righteous Judge —
Some will awake to everlasting life and honour — [To the souls of men there is no death. The very instant they are separated from the body, they are transmitted to a place of happiness or misery, and receive a portion at least of that recompence which awaits them at the final judgment. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus this is strongly intimated. It appears also, from the promise made to the penitent thief, that on the very day of his crucifixion he should be with his Lord in Paradise. The body, in the mean time,
b John v. 28, 29. <= Acts xxiv. 15.