to nothing the understanding of the prudent. The meanness of a preacher does no more prove that he is not sent of God, than the apostles being poor fishermen would prove they were impostors; nor their being not regularly brought up and educated for the ministry and ordained thereto, is any more a reason they are deceivers and false teachers, than the disciples were such, because they were not trained up in the school of the prophets, or called as was Aaron. Let therefore all so act and so do, that with a conscience clear and undefiled they may finish their own course of labouring in the church; and if others in different ways preach Christ, let them rejoice and hope the best, since " many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased, and many be made wise to eternal life."

I shall now speak of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, for that is yet another principle of Christianity. That the dead, small and great, just and unjust, shall rise again and come to life through the resurrection of Jesus, is fully asserted in St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians; and our Saviour himself taught it: "All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth." So the Prophets have constantly taught, "those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;" and therefore is God called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, because though they are dead, he knows they shall live again and arise with his dead body; and as he foresees things that are not as though they were, "All live to him." If the dead were not to rise, we should not so easily part with our Christian friends, but should sorrow as men without hope, since we should never meet again; but now since Christ is risen, and become the first fruits of them that slept," we know we also shall rise again and come with him

at

at his appearing. It is no harm that we rest our bodies in the grave, for sin has so spoiled and weakened our mortal frame that it cannot bear up or support under many years fatigue and labour, but must rest. It would be no blessing to live after sickness and pains have worn us out, and old age made us incapable of being of any more service in our generation; therefore has our wise and good Lord laid in the grave himself, and sanctified the state of the dead that we might go through the dark valley cheerfully, and lie down rejoicing, knowing we shall only sleep, and at Jesus's call shall again lift up our heads and rise to life eternal. But this can be so only to such as have experienced the first resurrection, or have risen again with Christ Jesus to a new life. Our Saviour is himself the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in him, though he were dead in Adam, and in trespasses and sins, shall live for ever; and whosoever has that new life, and continues to believe, he shall never die; he shall not feel those inward horrors and pangs and gnawings of conscience, nor the wrath of God, nor fury of the devil, nor dread eternal burnings; he shall not taste of the second death; his departure shall only be to him like the sweet sleep of the wayfaring man and traveller, who, having reached, tired and wearied, his own house, rests and sleeps in peace: so shall one who partakes of Jesus's quickening Spirit be blessed and holy, the second death shall have no power over him.

When the Saviour's marriage-day comes, and the trumpets are sounding at midnight, "Go ye out to meet him! Behold the Bridegroom cometh! He comes! He comes on clouds!" They shall rise first. Our Saviour's sweet voice, which causeth those that are asleep to speak, will tenderly awake them." I will raise them up, he saith, at the last

day."

day." He will say to their eternal joy, "Rise up, my love, my dove, and come away!" Then shall they open their eyes and see Jesus face to face; their mortality shall be changed into immortality, and their corruption into incorruption: they shall have slept their sleep out and fully rested, shall rise and follow him whom their souls loved: the bride shall go with the Bridegroom into the wedding; that is, they shall be taken up with him and appear in the air with him; then shall their despised and reproached company have honour in the sight of all mankind: then shall those that have used them ill see them at Christ's right-hand; they shall hear him confess them and call them the blessed children of his Father. All that have hated them shall reflect

in that day and say, "These are they whom we had in derision, and as a by-word and proverb of reproach we fools counted their lives madness and their end to be without honour, but now they are numbered with the saints and have their portion with the children of God; then must they worship at their feet, and know that Jesus has loved them. Thus shall it be with all in the resurrection who have a part in Christ, and whose voice awakened them to believe in him unto life eternal.

But far otherwise will it be with the kindreds of the earth, with all who belong to the world, and have lived and died strangers to our Saviour, they also shall rise, and they also "who have pierced him shall see him, and wail because of him." It must be a heavy time to such, a day of gloominess and darkness, a day wherein the mighty man shall weep bitterly, and all faces look pale. These, though they rise again, are dead; and in as much as they did not like our Saviour, they shall feel what it is to be without him; and as they loved not his living and dying, they shall live to die forever, and the resurrection

resurrection shall be no blessing to them at all. How can the dead live, or their dust mouldered away and driven far off by winds, devoured by beasts, wasted in the seas, be again brought together? must not be the question of a believer; for to him that saith and it is done, all things are possible, and to form all things at first out of nothing, or to call men dead some thousands of years to life, are equally easy to the Creator. This also is a manifest proof of the godhead and divine supremacy and almighty power of Christ, that by him all shall be made alive; he shall make death and hell deliver up their dead, and the graves and the seas give back all that are therein, when he shall begin his new creation of the earth, and make us his first-fruits, his harvest, which were sown in weakness, but shall be raised in power; and when this vile body shall be rendered an innocent, righteous, and a glorious body, like his own, and thus "will he do according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself." But in this place it will be proper to treat of another principle of Christianity; and that is

Of eternal judgment, which is the last mentioned by the apostle, and of which I will speak a few words and conclude this discourse. There is no doubt but that the same almighty and long-suffering God, who is now our Saviour, will one day judge righteous judgment, and set all the many difficult and intricate matters in a clear light. All the hidden things of darkness shall be brought to light, and he will manifest the counsels of every heart. All the oppressors and the oppressed shall then appear before him, and whatever has been done wrong shall be set to rights. He shall deal justly, and decide between him that served God, and him that served him not. Hence is this day called the day

of

of decision, the day of judgment, because then every secret thing shall come into judgment, and what has been done in the closet proclaimed upon the housetop. Two things must then be done, the clearing and justifying the souls who believe in Jesus, and the condemning or rather chastening such as have despised the blood of his covenant, and would not come to him that they might have life. The first our Saviour will do before men and angels. Let Satan appear then to accuse the brethren, and seek for their iniquity that he may lay it to their charge, and it shall be hid; our Saviour's wounds have covered it; his grave has buried it; the nails and instruments that tore his flesh, have torn it all to nothing; it shall not be found. Jesus shall then make it appear as the light, and his just dealing as the noon day, that he saved them with righteousness, and all his converts with equity." He will then shew how he paid their debts, endured their chastisement, and drank up their cup, bore their sorrows and curse, and suffered the full due and reward of their sins; that he healed their breach and made them righteous; and should the law and all that was against them appear and accuse, or make it plain, so much owest thou unto my lord, the wounds in Christ's hands shall answer for us: the iron pen that nailed him to the cross filed all our bills and bonds there, and the receipt wherein God has wrote, "I am well pleased," shall be easy to be read on every bleeding nail-print. Therefore we sing now in confidence of this:

My full receipt shall there be shew'd,
Written with iron pens in blood,

On Jesu's hands and side:

I'm safe, O hell! O death! and sin!
Ye cannot bring me guilty in,

For Jesus for me dy'd!

For