up for them in the life of Christ, who is now sitting at the right hand of God. They are so joined to the Lord as to "be one Spirit with him;" one and the same Spirit belongs to both; and they are members of that body of which he is the Head. As the soul is the life of the body, so Christ and his Spirit are the life of the soul. And though nothing is to be seen in them, as they walk up and down in the world, but what appears in other men, yet they have a life which others have not, in right of Christ; and in virtue of that life are now with him in heaven. Strange as it may seem, the Scripture expressly says, of all those who are quickened together with Christ, that God hath raised them up together, and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Hear St. Paul once more: "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit which dwelleth in you." From whence we may observe, that there is this remarkable difference betwixt the resurrection of the godly and the wicked; the latter will be raised by the sole power of God, to hear that dreadful sentence finally pronounced upon them, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" the godly, or all believers, will rise from their graves by virtue of Christ's life, and the Spirit which now dwells in them, as corn and other fruits spring up in their season. By their being in Christ they have the root and seed of a new and heavenly life in them, which, like all other seeds, has a natural power in itself of springing and rising again in God's time, by being laid in the earth. How should it warm and transport our very souls, to think we may be thus raised and quickened together with Christ, that we may have the life of heaven, Christ's own life, begun in us now in a real, though hidden manner;

and that when it is in us, we can no more be held under the power of death than he was! What a comfortable security is here given us for the performance of these words of Christ; "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand!"

And in this sense, more especially, I conceive it is, that "life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel," viz. by its revealing the precise manner in which mankind, dead in trespasses and sins, and under a sentence of death, are restored to life; that is to say, in Christ, and only in virtue of our union with him. It has been thought a matter of some difficulty to account for the assertion, that "life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel;" since the doctrine of a future state was not only believed by the Jews, but generally received and inculcated in other nations. It may, indeed, truly be affirmed, that it was placed in a stronger point of light by Christ and his apostles, than ever it had been before; and their authority, to all who own it, is decisive. But neither that, nor the more clear discovery of the way and means of attaining to a happy immortality, as laid down in the Gospel, seem to me to be the thing here intended, as not answering to the plain meaning and full import of the expression. It seems, therefore, to be well explained by the words immediately preceding, which are, "that Christ hath abolished death," i. e. by his resurrection; by which he was made a quickening spirit to all his members, and had power given him to give eternal life to as many as the Father had given him. That is the method, then, of God's ordaining and appointing to convey life and immortality to us, by the resurrection of our nature in Christ, which is asserted. This, it must be owned, was a new discovery, and is an article peculiarly Christian; and as it is repeatedly delivered by St. Paul as his

knowledge of the doctrine of Christ's resurrection, so it is worthy of our attention and belief; gives light to many passages of Scripture, and manifests Christ as all in all to us in the work of our salvation.

II. Which leads me to take notice of this great work of power; and of the glory of Christ in the accomplishment of our resurrection.

It is here ascribed to God the Father as his work of power in Christ, and as if Christ was wholly passive in. it, and could do no more towards it than you and I can in raising ourselves from the dead. But, nevertheless, as the actions of the Godhead are equally the actions of all the three Persons; and Christ is, therefore, said to be quickened and brought again from the dead by the eternal Spirit, as well as by the power of the Father; so he arose from the grave by his own power, it being impossible that, as God, he should be holden of it. And when he said to the Jews, "Destroy this temple"-meaning the temple of his body—" and in three days I will raise it up again," he gave them to understand what he afterwards told them, " that he had power" in himself to take his life up again, as well as he had to lay it down, by speaking the breath out of his body. He arose, therefore, and was raised in the power and by the will of the whole Trinity, ordaining and working life for lost mankind through his resurrection, as the first-fruits of that large harvest which was to follow in God's appointed time, and has ever since been ripening in the world. The Lord grant unto us that we may all be growing up to it in the belief and experience of our quickening to an eternal life by Christ. And the single point I would turn your thoughts to, under this head, is his glory in the work of our salvation; as the Author and Finisher of it, accomplishing it himself from first to last. Who was

of

it that took our nature, that in it he might do the will of God, bear our sins in his own body, wash out the foul stains, and take away the curse of them by the blood of his cross? The Lord Jesus Christ. Could you do this by any will, work, or power, any repentance or obedience your own? Could you, a sinner in every thought, word, and deed, pay the vast debt you owed, provide a ransom for your soul, and stop the course of almighty justice? You have lost the image of God, and with it your true life as the fallen children of Adam, you are under a sentence of eternal death, and have made that death your own by sin, and by your own personal transgressions, every day of your lives. Can you reverse that sentence; can you raise up yourselves from this death; can you restore to yourselves the life you have lost? No; but you think, verily, God can; and that it is as easy for him to bring your dead bodies out of the grave, as it was to breathe into man the breath of life, and make him a living soul at the first. He can, he will, he has declared his purpose of doing it; and you and I, though we must shortly die and be turned to dust, shall stand before his judgment-seat as sure as we are now assembled together; but you must also know, according to the light of Scripture, how believers in particular are to be raised: if it is to be a happy time to us, and a happy resurrection, we must be of the number of those who were quickened together with Christ, rise in him from the tomb in which Jesus laid them, and have their life now hid with him in God. For he is " the resurrection and the life," in the sense I have already told you; the life of heaven comes to us only by him, and in this manner; and because we are first alive in him, the Spirit of God taking possession of our souls and bodies, and lying down, as it were, with us in our graves, will raise up all, at the last day, who are to have a share in the resurrection of the just. Christ's

members virtually rose with him all at once; and, by his right, and their union with him, have the same life in themselves which he has, and can no more die than he can. Behold your hope, your comfort, your safety; behold the glory of your Saviour: for it is all his, the act of his love, the work of his mighty power; and when you repeat these words of the Creed, "He rose again the third day from the dead," remember that his rising was your rising, his quickening your quickening, his life your life; and that none but those who are made partakers of it, can have the benefit of his prayer, "to be with him where he is, to behold his glory;" none can ascend into heaven as their own place, and stand at the right hand of God, but in the life he has given them, and the power of his resurrection. It is wonderful to think what a difference there is, even now, betwixt believers and unbelievers, the children of the kingdom and the men of this world; far greater than betwixt the brightest star and a clod of earth. The servants of God are sealed, and have his name written on their foreheads; those who are not, get up and lie down, and do all their business in the world, with the devil's mark upon them; in one, God sees the never-dying life of Christ; in the other, death everlasting. O Jesus! it is by thy conquest of death and the grave that any are made alive unto God; it is thy will that all should be partakers of the glory of it; and thou art now calling to all here present to hear the voice of the Son of God and live. Oh! call to us effectually, that we may desire, above all things, to know a passing from death unto life, and give ourselves no rest till we are,

III. In the way of attaining to the power of thy resurrection. Do you inquire what is to be done in us, and by us, that we may attain to it? You must repent and