'Mátt.' xxii. 31, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

We who have the happiness to live in the days of the Messiah, know more than all the ancient prophets were acquainted with, and understand the word of their prophecies better than they themselves; for they searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow, i Pet. i. 11. But we read all this fairly written in the gospel. Do you think that good David could have explained some of his own Psalms into so divine a sense, or Isaiah given such a bright account of his own words of prophecy, as St. Paul has done in several places of the New Testament, where he cites and unfolds them? Could those illustrious ancients have given us such abundant consolation and hope through the Scriptures, which they themselves wrote aforetime, as this apostle has done? Do you think Job could have read us such a lecture on his own expressions in this text, or in that bright prophecy in the xixth chapter, as the very meanest among the ministers of the gospel can do by the help of the New Testament? For in point of clear discoveries of divine truths and graces, the least in the kingdom of the Messiah is greater than John the Baptist and all the prophets, and our blessed Jesus has told us so, Matt. xi. 11-13. And by the aid and influences of his Spirit we may be taught yet further to search into these hidden mines of grace, and bring forth new treasures of glory.

Reflection. "Awake, O my soul, and bless the "Lord with all thy powers, and give thanks with

holy joy for the gospel of his Son Jesus." It is Jesus by his rising from the dead has left a divine light upon the gates of the grave, and scattered much of the darkness that surrounded it. It is the gospel

of Christ which casts a glory even upon the bed of death, and spreads a brightness upon the graves of the saints in the lively views of a great rising-day. O blessed and surprising prospect of faith! O illustrious scenes of future vision and transport! when the Son of God shall bring forth to public view all his redeemed ones, who had been long hidden in night and dust, and shall present them all to God the Father in his own image, bright, and holy, and unblemished, in the midst of all the splendours of the resurrection! O blessed and joyful voice, when he shall say with divine pleasure, "Here am I, and "the children which thou hast given me; we have both "passed through the grave; and I have made them all "conquerors of death, and vested them with immortality, according to thy divine commission! Thine "they were, O Father, and thou hast given them into my hands, and behold I have brought them all safe "to thy appointed mansions, and I present them "before thee without spot or blemish.”

And many a parent of a pious household in that day, when they shall see their sons and their daughters around them, all arrayed with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, shall echo, with holy joy to the voice of the blessed Jesus, "Lord, here am I, and "the children which thou hast given me. I was "afraid (as Job once might be, when his friends sug"gested this fear) I was afraid that my children had "sinned against God, and he had cast them away "for their transgression; but I am now convinced, "when he seized them from my sight he only took "them out of the way of temptation and danger, and "concealed them for a season in his safe hiding-place: "I mourned in the day-time for a lost son or a losť “ daughter, and in the night my couch was bedewed "with my tears: I was scared with midnight dreams "on their account, and the visions of the grave ter"rified me because my children were there: I gave Ι

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up myself to sorrow for fear of the displeasure of my God both against them and against me; but "how unreasonable were these sorrows, how ground"less were my fears, how gloriously am I disap"pointed this blessed morning! I see my dear offspring called out of that long retreat where God "had concealed them, and they arise to meet the "divine call. I hear them answering with joy to the happy summons. My eyes behold them risen in "the image of my God and their God; they are near me, they stand with me, at the right hand of "the Judge; now shall. we rejoice together in the "sentence of eternal blessedness from the lips of my Lord and their Lord, my Redeemer and their "Redeemer." Amen.

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Among my papers I have found a speech spoken at a grave, which I transcribed almost fifty years ago, and which deserves to be saved from perishing. It was pronounced many years before, at the funeral of a pious person, by a minister there present, supposed to be the Rev. Mr. Peter Sterry; and the subject of it being suited to this discourse, I thought it not improper to preserve it here.

CHRISTIAN friends, though sin be entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; yet it seems not wholly suitable to our Christian hope, to stand by and see the grave, with open mouth, take in and swallow down any part of a precious saint, and not bring some testimony against the devourer. And yet that our witness may be in righteousness, we must first own, acknowledge, and accept of that good and serviceableness that is in it.

For through the death and resurrection of our dear Redeemer, death and the grave are become sweetened to us, and sanctified for us: so that as death is but a sleep, the grave, through his lying down in it and rising again, is become as a bed of repose to them that are in him, and a safe and quiet hidingplace for his saints till the resurrection.

And in this respect we do for ourselves, and for this our dearly beloved in the Lord, accept of thee, O grave, and readily deliver up her body to thee; it iş a body that hath been weakened and wearied with long afflictions and anguish, we freely give it into

thee; receive it, and let it have in thee a quiet rest from all it labours; for thus we read it written of thee, There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.

Besides, it is, O grave, a body that hath been sweetly embalmed by a virtuous, pious, peaceable conversation, by several inward openings and outpourings of the spirit of life, by much patience and meekness in strong trials and afflictions: receive it, and let it enjoy in thee, what was once deeply impressed on her own heart, and in a due season written out with her own hand, a sabbath in the grave: for thus also we find it recorded of our Lord and her Lord, that he enjoyed the rest of his last sabbath in the grave.

But we know thee, O grave, to be also a devourer, and yet we can freely deliver up the body into thee. There was in it a contracted corruptibility, dishonour, and weakness; take them as thy proper prey, they belong to thee, and we would not withhold them from thee; freely swallow them up for ever, that they may appear no more.

Yet know, O grave, there is in the body, considered as once united to such a soul, a divine relation to the Lord of life; and this thou must not, thou canst not dissolve or destroy. But know, and even before thee, and over thee be it spoken, that there is a season hastening wherein we shall expect it again from thee in incorruption, honour, and power.

We now sow it into thee in dishonour, but expect it again returned from thee in glory; we now sow it into thee in weakness, we expect it again in power; we now sow it into thee a natural body, we look for it again from thee a spiritual body.

And when thou hast fulfilled that end for which the Prince of life, who took thee captive, made thee to serve, then shalt thou, who hast devoured, be thyself also swallowed up; for thus it is written of thee,