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hast grace enough already to qualify thee for a happy departure; but, Soul, the day is at hand, put on the whole armour of light. Thou must soon go into the invisible world; if thou have not faith, thou wilt not be bold to adventure when the hour of departure comes; nor must every measure of faith be sufficient, but thy faith must be fruitful, it must make thee love God and man; yea, and thy faith and love must be such as will make thee full of the hope of glory. Now, therefore, forget what is behind, and reach unto what is before. Thou must be adding grace unto grace. Thou must be living a great deal more in heaven. My soul, thou must not be weary in well-doing; if thou wilt reap, thou must not faint. Christ went unto the place of separate spirits; art thou ready? art thou willing to go thither also? What! art thou not yet prepared? Art thou desiring a further respite? Then be diligent, make all things sure. Art thou afraid of going into the untried estate, where spirits only dwell? Think more of Christ's descent. Be more persuaded there is no danger in the way he trode before thee. Have it more upon thy heart, that this is the only way to heaven. To-day, said Christ to the thief, thou shalt be with me in paradise: and wilt thou be afraid of being in paradise also? Thus am I determined to exercise myself in body and soul, preparing for my state of separation. And, were I not thus employed, I could not persuade myself that I had any real belief of Christ's burial and descent into hell in the discharge of his office, and as the representative of believers.

You see here what is the real meaning of this, as you have before of the former points of faith. And if the article before us mean all this, may we not well take up Christ's words and say, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Be pleased to observe, that the end of hearing sermons is not to pass an hour in what is called a good way, but that we may enter into the reproofs, the corrections, the instructions, that are ministered to us. God expects, therefore, we should consider that we have heard this day, examine ourselves by it, lay it up in our hearts, and be the better for it. Let us look to it, I beseech you, for God will not be mocked; and it is easy to see who will be the losers in the end, if we will not take heed

how we hear. Give us grace, therefore, O Lord, seriously to consider before thee what we have heard from thee; and grant, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continually mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him, and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrection, for his merits, who died and was buried, and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XXII.

ACTS xvi. 30, 31.

What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

THE argument, upon which faith in Jesus as an all-sufficient Saviour does stand steadfast and unshaken, lies in the united efficacy of his qualifications and transactions. Knowing him to be Christ, the only Son of the Father, our Lord, and knowing also that he has done, is doing, and will do, all that the glory of God in the salvation of us his fallen creatures could require, we remain satisfied that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. We have been for some time considering the latter part of this argument, and bringing forth the grounds of fact upon which, in concurrence with the qualifications of Jesus, we rest assured of his being Jesus a Saviour; and now proceed in that view to his resurrection from the dead.

We have seen him as the man of sorrows, and have attended him to the cross, the grave, and hades. Henceforward we are to view him in a more splendid character, to see his divine nature displaying itself in a more glorious manner, and his human nature highly exalted, his reasonable soul enriched with all knowledge and grace possible to a creature, his body spiritualized and glorified, and his whole person advanced to the highest honour at the right hand of God.

That circumstance of his exaltation which relates to his resurrection is now to be considered. Concerning which our believer proceeding in his profession would be understood to mean,

First.-I am satisfied of it as an unquestionable matter of fact, proved to be such by the most incontestable evidence, that

both Jesus did rise again from the dead, and also that he did so on the third day, according to the Scriptures. "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so was the Son of man to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." But his soul was not to be left in hell, neither his flesh to see corruption. And I have the most undoubted testimony that on the third day he actually rose from the dead; for on the third day in the morning the women cannot find him in the sepulchre, an angel assures them he is risen from the dead, presently they see him alive, as do his disciples in a body that very evening, unto whom then, and frequently afterwards, he gives the most evident proofs that it is he himself, not a spirit, but that very same person whom they so well and familiarly knew upon long acquaintance; that same body, which they knew had been crucified and left in death, now again joined unto that same soul which before informed it. Nor is there wanting a standing testimony of fact to the truth of his resurrection unto this very day. For if he be not risen from the dead, he cannot be in heaven; but yet that Holy Ghost, who was promised solely upon his going to the Father, was not only poured out in miraculous gifts on the Apostles and others, but on them and all believers since in all sanctifying operations, as the declared consequence of his life and dominion at the right hand of God. He rose from the dead. And no wonder, since even while dead he was the Son of God; the union of the two natures still subsisted; and though the two parts of the human nature were separated, yet neither part was for one moment disunited from the divine. Wherefore I do not say, he was raised from the dead (although raising the dead be evidently a work of divine power), but he rose from the dead, as being possessed of that divine power in himself whereby he rose. Nor, although I find his resurrection ascribed to the Father, have I reason therefore to question that he raised himself, since I find him taking this work unto himself in these plainest words of his, "Destroy this temple (speaking of his body), and in three days I will raise it up." Acknowledging therefore the unity of the eternal Trinity, I find myself under no difficulty to say, he rose again from the dead, while also I say, God the Father effected and wroughtthat work. Thus I declare myself perfectly satisfied of the truth

of this important action. But this is not all my meaning: for when I say, "He rose again the third day from the dead," I do,

Secondly.—Intend to express my belief of certain glorious benefits which are hereby held forth and secured to me. For hereby I plainly see, not only that he is the Son of God, evidently approving himself such by this divine act of rising from the dead, but that as the Son of God rising from the dead in the discharge of his office he has made the most public declaration,

First. Of the justification of the ungodly by his death.

Secondly. Of his being Lord of all things.

Thirdly. Of the resurrection of all the members of his body. Wherefore,

First. When I say, he rose again the third day from the dead, I profess my belief of there having thereby been made the most public declaration of the justification of the ungodly by his death. He died for our sins. And the way whereby I am assured that, by the sacrifice of his death, he took away sin in respect of its guilt and punishment, is, that I see him rise again from the dead because, inasmuch as I know that death is the wages of sin, I am assured he could not have risen again from the dead unless by his death he had made satisfaction to the justice of God for sin, whereof death was purely the wages. I know him to be a public person; that he undertook for sinners, putting himself in their place; and that our sins, with all their consequences, were imputed to him. But now I see him who thus was made sin for us risen from the dead. Hereupon I ask myself, was not death one of the consequences of our sins? And if it was, how is it that I see him that was charged with our sins rising out of the grave? Could this possibly be if the atonement had not been satisfactory? This I dare not deny, unless I would assert that he was not made sin for us (in which case I could not find the least imaginable cause of his death), or unless I would insist that. death was not a consequence of sin. Wherefore, when I see Jesus alive from the dead, I discern the most public testimony of God the Father to the availableness of his satisfaction, and Jesus not only proclaiming publicly the justification of ungodly sinners, but also, as it were by a legal procedure, when he had satisfied the demands that justice had against them, taking out

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