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Chrift the Refurrection, and the Life. the duft; when they fee a man attending on faft-days and on feaft-days, they will laugh at him, as if they were the only happy men in the world, while, in the mean time they are

feeding on afhes," and are dancing about the mouth of the pit. This life, it is a royal and a princely life, and it is a life that makes the man live like himself; he hath a princely life when he lives by faith on the Son of God, he lives on the hid den manna, that moft are ftrangers to; he makes them kings and priests to God and his Father; he provides them with royal food, he provides for them a royal crown, kingdom, and fceptre, to "rule the nations," as the expreffion is, Rev. ii. 27. And then,

9. To crown all, the life we have from him, it is an everlafting life. Sirs, Adam's life was but fhort-lived, and our own lives, what are they but a vapour and a fhadow ? and, ere long, you and I that are looking one another in the face, will difappear, and our pofterity fpringing up will fay in a little, Where are they? But this life we have from him that is the refurrection and the life, it is a perpetual life, and a durable life, it is an everlasting life: "He that believeth on him (the Son of God) hath everlafting life." And when the life of grace refolves into glory, the foul comes to the communion of like. nefs, and the communion of everlafting pleasure with the Lord: "In thy prefence is fulnefs of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleafures for evermore So much for the fourth thing I propofed in the method.

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V. The fifth thing was, How this comes about? how Chrift comes to be the refurrection and the life unto dead finners of Adam's family?

1. It comes about by the ordination of his Father's appoint. ment; for he was fet up from the beginning to be our refur rection and the life; he was fore-ordained to it before the foundation of the world was laid. And,

2. It comes about by his own voluntary fufception and undertaking in the council of peace: "Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." As if the Father had faid to the Son, Yonder are a company, a loft company of finners of Adam's family; I will make a prefent of them to thee, providing thou wilt undertake to lay down. thy life for them. Content, Father, fays the Son, I put my name in the volume of thy book, I am willing this my engage ment be registrated, my blood shall go for theirs. And thereupon he becomes the refurrection and the life to us. Then, 3. He is the refurrection and the life by his incarnation; he

links our nature as it were to his own. He became one of our tribe, for he was none of ours originally; he took upon him the human nature, that fo he might be in a capacity to bear the curfe of the law, and to fatisfy juftice for us; of neceffity it behoved him to be our near Kinfman, or else he could not be our Redeemer. As under the law, he that was the avenger of our blood, and he that was to redeem the mortgaged inheritance, behoved to be the nearest of kin; fo Chrift, before he could be the Avenger of our blood, and bruise the head of the enemy, and before he could relieve the mortgaged inheritance of everlasting life, behoved to become our Kinfman. Let us pride ourselves in this Kinfman, in this Lord Immanuel alone. And then,

4. He becomes the refurrection and the life to us by his death and fatisfaction Sirs, our life, it fprings out of the very death and blood of the Son of God; his humiliation is the root of our exaltation, and “by his stripes we are healed:" he was accounted among the "number of tranfgreffors," that fo we might be accounted righteous in the fight of God through him; he was wounded, that we might be healed; he was fmitten, that we might efcape. And then,

5. He becomes the refurrection and the life by his own perfonal refurrection from the dead, he goes down to the grave, that he might conquer the king of terrors within his own ter ritories. Sirs, what was the great plot the devil had in tempt ing man to fin? Why, he knew fin would usher in death, and he knew that would ufher in hell, for death is the very mouth of hell to all mankind. Well, when death is brought in, when the penalty of the law is incurred, and the faithfulness of God is engaged for man's deftruction, what way must he be delivered? What, fays the Son of God, let their curfe be upon me, let me go down to the grave for them; I will wring the keys of death and hell out of the devil's hand; and thus I will make death the gate of heaven instead of hell. By his refur rection we are "begotten to a lively hope." And then,

6. He becomes the refurrection and the life unto us, by his representation of us in heaven, and by negotiating our affairs in that high court. Sirs, all our concerns are transacted in the high court of heaven, our affairs of death or life are all negotiated above. Well, Chrift, he takes on our nature, he dies, he goes down to the grave, rifes again, and afcends into heaven: and he goes there to tranfact our affairs, to fee that

nothing be done against us; we are "raised up, and fit toge ther with him in heavenly places." By virtue of Christ's fitting in heaven, believers, you are fitting there in him, jult as sub

jects

jects fit in parliament, in their reprefentatives. He is our living head, which is more than a bare reprefentative. And then,

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7. He is the refurrection and the life by the power and efficacy of his word. The word is fometimes called "the rod of the Mediator's ftrength;" and, when he sends it forth, he makes a living and a willing people in a day of power; he utters a word like that to Lazarus when lying in the grave, Come forth then the bands and fetters of fpiritual death drop off. Thus he is the refurrection and the life by the power of his word, for his word is a word of life; "To preach all the words of this life," fays the Lord to the apoftles, when they were brought out of prifon: "The hour is coming, (fays Chritt), and now is, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear fhall live." And then,

Lafly, He is the refurrection by the efficacy of his Spirit, "The law of the Spirit of life, in Chrift Jefus, hath made me free from the law of fin and death," faith the apostle, Rom. viii. 2.

VI. The fixth thing I propofed in the method was, to inquire why he becomes the refurrection and the life unto us? I fhall not infift on this; only in fo many words, that I may haften forward to the application.

1. He became our refurrection and the life, because he loved us: "Chrift loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a facrifice to God for a fweet-fmelling favour," that he might be our refurrection and the life, Eph. v. 2. Then,

2. He becomes the refurrection and the life.unto us, because we were gifted of the Father unto him; and he hath fuch a regard to the Father's gift, that he will die before he lofe it. Again,

3. He does it for the manifeftation of his own and his Fa ther's glory, that he might bring men back to their chief end, for which, they were created; man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever. Man, when he fell, he difho noured God, inftead of glorifying God: Well, Chrift's defign is to bring man back to God, to answer the end for which he had a being; and until Christ bestow this spiritual life upon him, he can neither glorify God here, nor enjoy him hereaf ter, but the believer begins even here to afpire after it, with the pfalmift, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befides thee." But I pass this, and go on to,

VII. The

VII. The Application. And what ufe I intend, fhall be comprifed in the following inferences.

1. then, From this doctrine believers are led back to their first original, and have difcovered unto them from whence they fprung. Why, believers, you were among the generation of the dead, before he that is the refurrection and the life paid you a vifit. It were much for the advantage of believers, to be recollecting, and looking back to the ftate from whence they fprung. I remember, God taught Ifrael to fing in the wilderness, when they came to offer up their firft fruits unto him: "A Syrian ready to perifh was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and fojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous," Deut. xxvi. 5. And God by Ezekiel tells them what they were before he vifited them; "As for thy nativity in the day thou waft born, thy navel was not cut, neither waft thou washed in water to fupple thee: thou waft not falted at all, nor fwaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compaffion upon thee; but thou waft caft out in the open field, to the loathing of thy perfon, in the day that thou waft born, Ezek. xvi. 4. 5. Remember, believers, what you were, and what you are; and remember, it is only him that is the refurrection and the life that brought you to any thing you are. But again,

2. From this doctrine we may fee what a bleffing Chrift is to a loft world, to a world of mankind finners, "dead in trefpaffes and fins," Chrift is become the refurrection and the life to them; "I have laid help (fays the Lord), upon one that is mighty; Men fhall be bleffed in him; and all nations fhall call him bleffed." O what a wretched condition had we been in this day, if Chrift had not come into the world to fave us! we had continued among the generation of the dead, if he had not. paid us a vifit: "O Ifrael, thou haft deftroyed thyfelf, but in me is thine help." But again,

3. We may fee, what dignified, what happy and excellent perfons believers are. I remember Solomon fays, that " a living dog is better than a dead lion." As one living man is better than all the race of men lying in the grave; so one living faint, who hath got life from him that is the refurrection and the life, is better than a whole nation of dead men and women lying under the curfe of God. O to what a fad pafs are we come in the judicatories of the church of Scotland, when there is no difference made between the dead and the living! A dead man, if he have a gold ring, he will come farther benn in the election of a minifter, than a living faint, becaufe he wants earthly heritage; it is an earthly church when

it is fo. Alas! a church is come to a fad pafs, when we judge of perfons, not according to their relation to Chrift, but accor ding to their earthly poffeffions. Chrift fays, his "kingdom is not of this world," but the judicatories will have it to be of this world; Chrift has chofen the poor of this world, but they choose the rich of this world to be heirs of his kingdom. Do fuch judicatories deferve the name of being the courts of Chrift? But again,

4. We may fee the difference between the first and the fecond Adam. The firft Adam is the fpring of death to all his pofterity; the fecond Adam is a fpring of life unto all his pofterity; the firft Adam was the head of the covenant of works, the fecond is the head of the covenant of grace; the firft Adam reprefented all his natural pofterity, the fecond Adain reprefents all his fpiritual pofterity; the firft Adam fends the curfe of the law, and the curfe of God along with it, to them, and the second Adam fends all fpiritual bleffings and mercies to his pofterity for evermore. O what a difference

is there between these two! The first Adam was a creature, but the fecond Adam is God-man, God manifefted in the flesh. But then again,

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5. From this doctrine we may fee the intimacy and clofeness of the union between Chrift and his members; why, this is implied in the expreffion, I am the refurrection, and the life. One would think he is taking in only himfelf, but he takes in all believers; it is a relative word, it hath a relation to these that are dead in fins and trefpaffes: "You hath be quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins," that is, all that believe in Chrift; "He that hath the Son, hath life, That connection between Chrift and his members it is very clofe; there is a bleffed oneness between him and them; he and they have but one Father, he is the Son by eternal generation, and they are fons by regeneration; he and they under one decree, he as head of the election, and they elected in him before the world began; he and they included in one bond, they have one and the fame Spirit, the fame Spirit that is in the head is in all the members, O what a bleffed oneness is between Chrift and them? "He that fan&ifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one;" they are one in nature, and they are one in law, and they are comprifed in one marriage-covenant; "He that is joined to the Lord, is one fpirit." But then,

6. We may fee the reafon of that fimilitude and likeness that believers bear to Chrift; they are liker Chrift than all the reft of mankind, they are his living pictures and reprefenta tives upon earth, they carry his name upon their foreheads, fo as every one may know him in them. What is the reason of

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