which have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption; to wit, the redemption of our bodies." During the present life, we are taken into God's family, in the quality of his children; but the most solemn act of our adoption shall be at the last day. In this there is a similitude betwixt Christ and his members: for although he was the Son of God by his marvellous conception, and owned by him while he performed his ministry upon the earth; yet all the testimonies of God's favour to him, were not comparable to the declaration of it in raising him from the grave: then in the face of heaven and earth, he said, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." So in this life God acknowledges and treats us as his children, he clothes us with the righteousness of his Son, feeds us with his word, defends us from our spiritual enemies; but the most public declaration of his favour shall be in the next life, when all the "children of the resurrection" shall be born in a day. Add further, although the souls of believers immediately upon their separation are received into heaven, and during the sleep of death enjoy admirable visions of glory; yet their blessedness is imperfect, in comparison of that excellent degree which shall be enjoyed at the resurrection. As the Roman generals, after a complete conquest, first entered the city privately, and having obtained licence of the senate, made their triumphant entry with all the magnificence and splendour becoming the greatness of their victories: so after a faithful christian "hath fought the good fight," and is come off "more than a conqueror," he enters privately into the celestial city; but when the body is raised to immortality, he shall then, in the company and with the acclamations of the holy angels, have a glorious entry into it. I will briefly consider why the bodies of the saints shall be raised, and how the divine power will be manifested in that last act.

1. The general reason is from God's justice. As the economy of divine providence requires there must be a future state, when God shall sit upon a judicial throne to weigh the actions of all men, and render to every one according to their quality; so it is as necessary that the person be judged, and not one part alone. The law commands the entire man composed of essential parts, the soul and body. And it is obeyed or violated by both of them. Although the guilt or moral goodness of actions is chiefly

attributed to the soul, because it is the principal of them, yet the actions are imputed to the whole man. The soul is the guide, the body the instrument: * it is reasonable therefore that both should receive their recompence. We see the example of this in human justice, which is a copy of the divine. The whole man is punished or rewarded. The soul is punished with disgrace and infamy, the body with pains: the soul is rewarded with esteem and honour, the body with external marks of dignity. Thus the divine justice will render to every "one according to the things done in the body, whether good or evil." 2 Cor. 5. 10.

2. The special reason of the saints' resurrection is their union with Christ: for he is not only our Redeemer and Prince, but our second Adam, the same in grace as the first was in nature.. Now as from the first, the soul was destroyed by sin, and the body by death; so the second restores them both to their primitive state, the one by grace, the other by a glorious resurrection. Accordingly the apostle saith, 1 Cor. 15. 21. "that by man came death, and by man came the resurrection from the dead." Christ removed the moral and natural impossibility of our glorious resurrection: the moral by the infinite merit of his death, whereby divine justice is satisfied, that otherwise would not permit the guilty to be restored to eternal life: and the natural, by his rising from the grave to a glorious immortality. For his infinite power can do the same in all believers. It is observable, the apostle infers the resurrection of believers from that of Christ, not only as the cause but the original example. For the members must be conformed to the head, the children to their father, the younger to the elder brother. Therefore he is called "the firstfruits of them that slept," I Cor. 15. "and the first-begotten of the dead." Rev. 1. In Christ's resurrection ours is so fully assured, that the event is infallible. Now no less than infinite power is requisite to raise the bodies of the saints from the dust, and to transform them into the similitude of Christ's.

(1.) To raise them. Nothing is more astonishing to nature, than that the bodies which after so many ages in the perpetual circulation of the elements have past into a thousand different forms, one part of them being resolved into water, another evaporated into air, another turned into dust, should be restored to

* Animi imperio corporis servitio magis utimur. Sat,

their first state. * What wisdom is requisite to separate the parts so mixed and confounded? What power to recompose them? What virtue to reinspire them with new life? It may seem more difficult than to revive a dead body whose organs and matter is not changed, of which we have examples in the scrip

When the spirit of the Lord placed Ezekiel in the midst of a valley covered with bones, and caused him to consider attentively their number, which was very great, and their extreme dryness, he asked him, "Whether these bones could live ?" Ezek. 37. 4. 5, 6. upon which, as one divided and balanced between the seeming impossibility of the thing in itself, and the consideration of the divine power to which nothing is impossible, he answered, "Lord, thou knowest." Upon this God commanded him, "to prophesy upon those bones, and speak to them," as if they had been endued with sense and understanding: "0 ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring in flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” And immediately there was a general commotion among them, they joined together, the sinews and flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them. And upon a second prophecy they were all inspired with the breath of life, and stood up an exceeding great army. Now whether this was really represented to his outward senses, or only by the efficacy of the spirit to his imagination, no doubt so strange a spectacle vehemently affected him; as with joy in hope of the miraculous restoration of Israel, which that vision foretold, so with admiration of the divine power. But when the trumpet of the archangel shall sound the universal jubilee, † and call forth the dead from all their receptacles, when the elements, as faithful depositories, shall effectively re

* Imperfectæ in homine naturæ, precipua solatia, ne deum quidem posse omnia, nam nec sibi potest mortem consciscere, nec mortales æternitate donare, nec revocare defunctos. Plin. Lib. 2. c. 7.

+ Tu perire deo credis si quid oculis nostris hebetibus subtrahitur. Corpus omne sive arescit in pulverem, sive in humorem solvitur, vel in cinerem comprimitur, vel in nidorem tenuatur, subducitur nobis, sed deo elementorum custodia reservatur. Arnob. Lib. 11.

store what was committed by them, how admirable will the power of God appear?

(2.) No less than infinite power is able to change the raised bodies into the likeness of Christ's. The apostle speaks with an exaggeration of it: for "our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself." This resemblance "will be only in the person of believers." All men shall rise to be judged, but not all to be transformed. There is a resurrection to death as well as to life. Unhappy resurrection! which only serves to make the body the food of eternal death. But the saints who endeavour to be like to Christ in purity, shall then have a perfect conformity to him in glory and immortality. How glorious the body of Christ is, we may conjecture in part by what the apostle relates to Agrippa, Acts 26. 13. "At mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me;" which was no other but the light of the face of Christ that struck him with blindness. One ray of this reflecting upon the first martyr St. Stephen in his sufferings, gave an angelical glory to his countenance. And St. John tells us, 1 John 3. 2. "When he appears, we shall be like him." He alludes to the rising of the sun, but with this difference: when the sun appears in the morning, the stars are made invisible; but the bodies of the saints shall be clothed with a sun-like lustre, and shine in the midst of Christ's glory. Omnipotency alone that subdues all things, can raise and refine them from their dross unto such an admirable brightness. The angels will be surprised with wonder to see millions of stars spring out of the dust. The Lord Jesus Christ will be admired in "all them that believe." 2 Thes. 1. 10.

Their bodies shall be raised to a glorious immortality. In this the general resurrection is different from that which was particular, as of Lazarus. By the one death was overcome and put to flight, only for some time; for his second life was no more exempt from death than his first: but by the other, "death shall be swallowed up in victory," 1 Cor. 15. 54. and lose its force for ever. Then shall our true Joshua be magnified in the sight of the whole world, and the glorious number of saints shall cast

"Thor

their crowns at his feet, and sing the triumphant song, hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," and rescued us by thy power from all our enemies, and "art worthy of honour, and glory, and blessing for ever."

CHAP. XXII.

Inference. The extraordinary working of the divine power is a convincing proof of the verity of the christian religion. The internal excellencies of it are clear marks of its divinity, to the purified mind, The external operations of God's power were requisite to convince men in their corrupt state, that the doctrine of the gospel came from God. The miraculous owning of Christ by the whole divinity from heaven. The resurrection of Christ the most important article of the gospel, and the demonstration of all the rest. How valuable the testimony of the apostles is concerning it, That it was impossible they should deceive, or be deceived. The quality of the witnesses considered. There cannot be the least reasonable suspicion of them. It is utterly incredible that any human temporal respects moved them to feign the resurrection of Christ. The nature of the testimony considered. It was of a matter of fact, and verified to all their senses. The uniformity of it assures us there was no corruption in the witnesses, and that it was no illusion, They sealed the truth of it with their blood. The miracles the apostles did in the name of Christ, a strong demonstration that he was raised to a glorious life. That power was continued in the church for a time. The conclusion, how reasonable it is to give an entire assent to the truth of christianity. It is desperate infidelity not to believe it; and the highest madness to pretend to believe it, and to live in disobedience to it.

FROM what hath been discoursed concerning the extraordinary working of the divine power, we have a most convincing proof of the verity of the christian religion. For since God hath by so many miraculous effects, the infallible indications of his favour to the person of Jesus Christ, justified his doctrine, no reasonable doubt can remain concerning it. Indeed the internal excellencies of it, which are visible to the purged eye of the soul,