Confidence and good conscience towards God; that have, in some measure, regarded the former and performed it, and that desire more and more to be in it; such as have intrusted their souls by faith in Christ's hand, upon the warrant of the promise of the gospel; such as are exercised in living by faith upon the promises of the new covenant; it is upon them that I lay this burden, and a sweet one it is; that you should believe eternal life. The apostle John, chap. v. 13. speaks something to the same purpose: These things have I written unto you (says he) that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. The apostle's meaning certainly was not, to persuade them to believe that they were in heaven, for he and they both knew the contrary sufficiently; but he calls them to believe that they had eternal life, that they had already a hold of it by faith; that they had it in the root by Christ's dwelling in their hearts by faith; that they had it in the foundation of it, by their beHeving the record that God gave of his Son; as is plain from the context.

In prosecuting of this exhortation, there are three things that I shall have some respect unto, and handle.

1. What is to be believed, or how it is that a Christian in the way of duty must answer the faithfulness of God, in the promise of eternal life.

2. What are the difficulties that lie in a Christian's way which makes this believing so rare and so hard.

3. What the grounds of this faith are, that believers should improve, and in the improving of them triumph over all the difficulties that are in the way.

First, What it is believers are to believe, when they are called to believe eternal life. I take it, as you may perceive, strictly, as contra-distinguished from all the covenant-blessings that believers have a right to in this life, and have a begun possession of, that they should live by that faith, of which I spake in the former part. But I shall now respect only the prize of our high calling, the mark that God has set before us to run towards, to chear ourselves with the faith of it before we come at it. And surely the speaking and hearing of hear

ven should be a pleasing subject unto all them that have any hope to be in it; the speaking of it is sometimes blessed by the Lord to make them mind it, that never thought of it before. The sum of it is in these four principles:

1. In the way of duty, in answering the faithfulness of God, believers should believe this, that as soon as the soul departs from the body, it is immediately received by Christ. A believer is to honour God's faithfulness in believing this, that as soon as the soul and body are parted by death, the soul is immediately with the Lord. This the Spirit of God, by Paul's pen, teaches us, in two places, very fully, 2 Cor. v. 1,-8. and Phil. i. 23. In the former the apostle expressly asserts this doctrine: For we know, says he, that if cur earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.-We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. By how many words does the apostle expressly teach us that the state of absence from the body to a believer, is immediately attended with a state of presence with the Lord! And in Phil. i. 23. he says, For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ. Departing and being with Christ, are joined together, as inseparable. As soon as Paul is gone out of this world, he is with Christ. Our Lord gave a very great promise to the believing thief, for he was then a great believer, though once as great a thief, Luke xxiii. 42. To-day, says he, shalt thou be with me in paradise. "Thou art "dying, thou art drawing near to thy end, as I am, but this "day thou and I shall be together in a better state."

2. Believers must believe, and glorify God's faithfulness in believing, that the bodies they leave shall be raised up again glorious bodies, at the appearing of Christ. This is as plain as any thing can be expressed to be in the word, that the body the believer leaves, as it were, in the dust, which death hath dominion over, which rottenness and corruption triumph over, the same body shall live again, and be raised by his mighty power: Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with

you, 2 Cor. iv. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him, 1 Thess. iv. 14. See also 1 Cor. xv. 58. This faith Job also acted, and it is one of the singular expressions of a New Testament faith in the Old Testament times: For I know (says he, chap. xix. 25, 26.) that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. A great part of the meaning of which is: Job had, by this loathsome disease that was sent upon him, in a manner death beginning to prey upon him; now, says the good man, though worms should go on, and after they have destroyed my skin, they should destroy my flesh also, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me, ver. 27. The faith of the resurrection of the dead, though plainly revealed in the word, is not a matter so easily attained, there needs a great deal of faith to believe it firmly. How quietly, how patiently, how cheerfully would believers look upon death seizing them, and coming in upon them, either gradually by age and the infirmities of it, or more violently and speedily by sickness and diseases; how quietly would they look upon the tumbling down of this earthly tabernacle, if they believed this firmly? For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: what will he do when he comes? Here is one thing, says the apostle, he will do, he will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unte himself, Phil. iii. 20, 21. The faith of the resurrection of the dead can never stand, but upon the prop of Divine omnipotency. It is founded upon this, That he has said it that can do every thing. Thereupon when our Lord checks the Sadducees for their infidelity, he saith, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God, Matth. xxii. 29. If you understood the scriptures spiritually, you would not have asked such a question in derision of the resurrection; if you knew the power of God, you would firmly believe that God. can perform it. Our Lord tries Martha with this, John xi.

25, 26. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?

Our Lord, in the questioning of it, hints the difficulty that was in it, and some backwardness unto this believing that he perceived in the good woman. See also Luke xx. 33, 36.

3. That the departed soul and the raised body shall be eternally united together. This is a part of that faith that we owe to the faithfulness of God in the promise of eternal life, that not only the body shall be raised, but that our spirit shall again, by the mighty power of God, take possession of these same bodies. It is the same body the apostle still speaks of, when he saith, It is sorun in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, &c. 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44, &c.

4. That this united soul and body shall be unspeakably blessed in the highest heavens with that that is called the reward of eternal life. This, I say, is the sum of what we are called to believe, and is the duty of every believer to believe, in answering the faithfulness of God in the promise that he hath promised; that when he sees good we shall live here no longer, he will immediately receive our departing souls; Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; that when his appointed time comes, when the morning comes, he will also in power and mercy visit our rottenness and dust in the grave, and raise up a glorious tabernacle, and unite the soul therewith, and bless both body and soul, the whole man, in the enjoyment of himself. These are the common plain truths that are in this promise of eternal life; but this I would not leave thus; therefore we will take a little farther notice of this great blessing, according to what we gather of it from the word; for whoever they be that are called to the exercise of faith, they had need distinctly to know what it is they are to believe for, as well as what is the ground to believe upon. We find this great prize of our calling spoken of to us in the word three ways, and I would handle it a little in all these three respects.

1st, It is spoken of negatively, by removing all the known evils from that state, that we know to be evils in this state;

this is a way, I say, whereby the Lord helps our weak shallow apprehensions about the prize of eternal life, that it is a state separate from, and altogether above all the miseries, calamities, and evils that are afflicting and disturbing in this present state. So we find in Rev. xxi. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Sorrow and cause of sorrow are so inseparable from the state we live in, that in a manner we do not know how to live without them, nor to think of our life, as separate from them; we all know how natural it is for people to frame apprehensions of a happy state, by removing of miseries from their thoughts and desires: Now, take all the heaps of miseries you know, and concerning these you may say, None of these things are there, there is no sin, there is no sorrow, there is no sickness, there is no disturbance without nor within, there is nothing at all of those things, that we are now daily exercised with, and bewail before God and men ; now, this negative notion of it leads no further than we can distinctly know. We know what an evil these things are, but we do not know what a great happiness it is to be quite rid of them all, we know what a trouble pain is, and what a blessing ease is, what a trouble there is in sickness, what a comfort in health, what trouble there is in crosses, losses, disturbances, in this world, we know a little of the misery of them, and the happiness of being rid of them; but we cannot conceive a right notion of that state, wherein all things that are evil shall be quite removed; therefore you may find all along the believer's faith goes beyond his knowledge in the believing of eternal life. We believe what we cannot fully know, 1 Cor. ii. 9. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. It is, but a small portion thereof that we come to attain the knowledge of.

2dly, This prize of our calling is known comparatively, by comparing it with other things. We know it a little negatively, by removing all the evil from it we know. We know it comparatively, when we prefer it to all the good we know: now, there are three things which bear the nam of good, and