they fay, that it is true, or elfe we make him a liar. What is the record of God? "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life," to us that were loft, ruined, and condemned; "given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." If you would have life, you must be content with what life he lets out upon you; he is the great Steward, and all the bairns of the family muft depend upon him, great and fmall, If. xxii. 24. "They fhall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house, the offspring and the iffue, all veffels of fmaller and greater quantity, from the veffels of cups, even to all the veffels of flagons," they just hang their happinefs where God has hung it. And if this be your way this night, and at a communion-table, you will make a noble hand of it; but if you are difcontented that Chrift is the Steward, unless you get according to your will, depend upon it, you will get a rebuke. Go to him who hath your life in his hand, go ask him whatever he has promised in his word. Beware of limiting him; he will give the children of the family what he fees they need;he will not embezzle the goods or bread of the children; no, no, he gives them all their bread in due feafon; and it well becomes all the younger children to depend upon their elder brother. So much for the first thing.

I fhould now proceed to the fecond thing I proposed to fpeak to; but I do not think it proper to detain you from private and fecret work betwixt God and you upon a preparation evening before our Chriftian paffover. You may remember, that the Lord's fervants, in the former part of the day, were exhorting you to the duty of felf-examination; well, I fecond the exhortation; and one special thing you are to examine, is, Whether you were ever partakers of the first refurrection? whether Chrift be the refurrection and the life to you? I fhall not multiply particulars, only I fhall fay, if ever he was the refurrection and the life to your fouls, there will be a fweet fimilitude betwixt Chrift's refurrection and your refurrection: and no wonder there be a fimilitude between them, for Chrift rofe as the myftical head; for when he revived, we revived. The prophet Hofea, when speaking of the refurrection of the head and members, fays, chap. vi. 2. "After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raife us up, and we fhall live in his fight;" not he, but we; all the mystical members of Chrift role reprefentatively with him. If ye be really rifen with him, there will be a fimilitude between your refurrection and his refurrection on the third day. I fhall only clear this in a few particulars.

1. You know Chrift role by his own power, by the power of his own divine nature; he was declared to be the Son of

God

God with power, according to the Spirit of holinefs, by his refurrection from the dead." Just fo, if ever you were quickened spiritually by him, if you be partakers of his refurrection, if he be the refurrection and the life to you, I am fure you have felt fomething of "the power of his refurrection;" for it is that very power that must raise you, and make you believe that God raised Chrift from the dead, Eph. i. 19. I doubt not of it, yea, I am perfuaded, whenever a man is partaker of Christ, the refurrection and the life, he is cured of Arminianifm; he will not fay, I have a power to repent and to believe, he will acknowledge it is not owing to the power of his own will, but to the power of free, fovereign grace, that hath brought him from death to life. Then,

2. Chrift, by his refurrection, was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness." God the Father speaking of his refurrection from the dead, fays, in Acts xiii. 33. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee:" not as if the generation of the Son commenced at his refurrection; no, no; "Who can declare his generation ?" it was from all eternity: an everlafting Father must have an everlafting Son, it is meant of his effential Deity: but his refurrection from the dead declared him to be the Son of God with power. If ever you have been raised from the dead, your fonfhip hath, in fome measure, been declared unto you. That moment the new creature is formed, and the babe of grace begins to live, it mints to cry, " Abba, Father, to the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift ;" and however it is fuppreffed and fmothered with prevailing unbelief, yet whenever faith begins to lift up its head, the language of the new creature is that, If. lxiii. 16. "Doubtlefs thou art our Father-thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, and this thy name is from Everlasting." Again,

3. You know when Chrift rofe from the dead, he entered into his reft, he refted from the toilfome work of man's redemption; the Sabbath is á day of reft, because Chrift refted. from his great work of redemption. So, Sirs, if ever you have been partakers of his refurrection, you have been made to reft in Chrift; reft your wearied, burdened fouls in him, upon the foundation God has laid in Zion. You have been wearying yourselves in the greatnefs of your way, to find reft in the works of the law, and other lying refuges, and could never find it; but whenever God's reft was discovered unto you, you faid, "This is my reft, here will I ftay, for I do like it well." Again,

4. You know, when Chrift rofe from the dead, he left his grave-clothes behind him. Chrift, when he came out of the VOL. II.

4 C

grave,

grave, he left his grave-clothes there, because he was never to die again: Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, and came out of the grave, he brought his grave-clothes with him, because he was to die again. So, if ye be partakers of Chrift's refurrection, you have been raised out of the grave of fin, and of a natural state, and you have put off the dead garments, and the vile clothing of fin, you have been made to " deny all ungod linefs and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteoufly, and godly in this prefent world." What have I to do any more with idols?" is the language of the foul that hath the life of Chrift in it. Again,

5. When Chrift rofe from the dead, he converfed no more with the gracelefs Jews; he spent his life with them, and he never owned them after. But perhaps fome may afk me, Why Chrift did not fhew himself to the Jewish fanhedrim after his refurrection? Why, he had given them a fufficient evidence of his divine miffion in his life; but they rejected him, calling him "a devil, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and finners," and then crucified him as an impoftor; and therefore, when he rose again, he appeared only to his friends,

he was feen of five hundred of them at once," 1 Cor. xv. 6. So these that are partakers of Chrift's refurrection, they will not frequent the fociety of the enemies of Chrift, a wicked world, but will keep company with the faints, these "excellent ones of the earth." They that are living, do not defire to converse with the dead; fo they that are spiritually alive, do not love to converfe with them that are fpiritually dead, unless it be to tell them their hazard and danger, to flee from the wrath to come. You that love the company of fwearers and curfers, and cabals of wicked and profane perfons, and take pleafure in them, ye are dead, otherwife ye could not ftay in fuch com pany; for the fociety of the dead is a nuifance unto the living. Then,

Lastly, Chrift, when he rofe from the dead, was, I fay, on the wing to afcend unto heaven; fo he fays to Mary, John XX. 17. "I afcend unto my Father and your Father, and to God and your God." So if ye be rifen with Chrift, ye will not be going down the wilderness, but going upward, ye will be "fetting your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth."

my

I conclude with a word of exhortation to dead finners. O dead finners! will you come to Christ, the refurrection and the life! If we be dead, may you fay, to what purpofe do you fpeak to us? can the dead raise themfelves to life? I answer, There is a difference between a perfon's being morally and naturally dead; if ye were naturally dead, our commiffion were

done

done with you, we do not preach the gospel to those who are naturally dead; it is true the finner, dead in fin, is as much unfit for fpiritual action, as the man that is naturally dead is incapable of action with the living. But I have a commission to you from God, to cry to the dead to "hear, that their fouls may live," and upon hearing they shall live, If, lv. 3. "The hour

is coming, and now is (fays Chrift), when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of man, and fhall live." And therefore I caft in this name of Christ among you, I proclaim that he is the refurrection and the l, that dead finners may hear and live; for in hearing of it by faith, you fhall have life; for, fays Chrift, in the latter part of the verfe, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live." But I go no further at present. The Lord bless his word.

JOHN XI. 25.-Jefus faith unto her, I am the refurrection, and the

I

life.

THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

MADE an entry upon these words last night, and after I had divided them a little, I began to fpeak unto the title that is here given, and that our bleffed Lord takes to himself, I am the refurrection, and the life. And in discoursing on it, I propofed,

I. In the first place, to inquire what may be imported or implied in this title?

II. To whom is he the refurrection?

III. Of what is he the resurrection?

IV. To what life is he the refurrection?

V. What way comes he to be the refurrection? and why does he undertake this province for us? And then, VI. Lastly, To apply the whole.

I only spoke to the first of these, and made fome improve

ment.

I told, 1. That it fuppofes and implies, that mankind are dead, dead in law, condemned already by that fentence, "The foul that finneth, fhall die;" and this legal death hath brought on spiritual death on the foul; and fpiritual death it ushers in eternal death, everlafting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord. My friends, I would have you to believe it as a truth, that you are all dead men before God in the first Adam; and I am afraid, that just where you stand at prefent, there is dead

upon

upon dead; there are many dead people lying below you, the dead bodies of men and women that have been fwept away into the grave, where their fouls are God knows; but I fay, there are many of you that are fpiritually dead; and remember, Sirs, that you who are fitting there, in a very little, will be lying as low as your ancestors that are now under your feet, "one generation comes, and another goes ;" let us confider where all our fouls will be throughout eternity. But then,

2. I told, that this title, I am the refurrection, and the life, it implies, that Chrift was fent into this world to give life unto the dead; hence he declares, "he came to feek and to fave them which were loft." Again,

3. I am the refurrection, and the life, it implies, that Chrift, according to his commiffion from the Father, hath abrogated, or abolished the hand-writing or fentence of death that was on finners of Adam's family. Nothing could be done for our refurrection unto life, either fpiritual or eternal, until the fentence of the law was cancelled; and this he doth by nailing it to his crofs, he tears the obligation, destroys and difcharges the debts and bands that were over our heads. then,

And

4. I am the refurrection, and the life, it plainly implies, that the life that was loft in the firft Adam, it is again recovered by Chrift the fecond Adam. O this is glad tidings of great joy. "I live (fays the fecond Adam), and because I live, ye fhall live alfo: As in Adam all" (his natural pofterity)" died, fo in the fecond Adam all" (his fpiritual offspring) "are made alive." And then,

5. It implies, that Chrift himself hath furmounted and vanquifhed death: I am the refurrection, and the life: I am going down to the grave, and I will there fpoil death of its fting and terror. Accordingly he ranfomed us from the power of the grave, and he redeemed us from the power of death; and fays, "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy deftructions, and repentance fhall be hid from mine eyes:" I have faid it, and I will do it, and I will never rue my undertaking. And then,

Lafly, It implies, that the life of the whole myftical body lies in his hand, and every thing that pertains unto it: "Our life is hid with Chrift in God;" it is not hid in Adam, but it is hid in Chrift: "This is the record of God, that he hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son."

II. But now I proceed to the fecond general head that I propofed in the profecution of this fubject, and that was, to in