this that enables us to bear the loss of our dearest friends with patience and hope, and assuages the smart of our sharpest sorrows; for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so we rejoice in hope that they which sleep in Jesus shall be brought with him at his return, and shall appear in brighter and more glorious circumstances than ever our eyes were blessed with here on earth, 1 Thess. iv. 13. This teaches us to triumph over death and the grave in divine language, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?"

REFLECTION. What are thy chief burdens, O my soul? Whence are all thy sighs and. thy daily groanings? What are thy distresses of flesh or spirit ? Summon them all in one view, and see whether there be not power and glory enough in a resurrection to conquer and silence them all, and to put thy present sorrows to flight?

Dost thou dwell in a vexing and persocuting world, amongst oppressions and reproaches? But those who reproach and oppress are but mortal creatures, who shall shortly go down to the dust, and then they shall tyrannize and afflict thee no more : the great rising-day shall change the scene from oppression and reproach to dominion and glory. When they lie down in the grave like beasts of slaughter, death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, when God shall redeem thy soul from the power of the grave. Thy God shall hide thy body from their rage in his own appointed resting-place, and he shall receive thy soul, and keep it secure in his own presence, till that blessed morning break upon this lower creation; then shalt thou arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

Do the calamities which thou sufferest proceed from the hand of God? Art thou disquieted with daily pain, with sicknesses, and anguish in thy

flesh ? Or art thou surrounded with crosses and disappointments in thy outward circumstances? Are thy spirits sunk with many loads of care and pressing perplexities? Canst thou not forget them all in the vision that faith can give thee of the great rising-day? Canst thou not say in the language of faith, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us?" Then the head and the heart shall ache no more, and every circumstance around thee shall be pleasing and joyful for ever.

Or art thou tenderly affected with the loss of pious friends, who have been very dear and desirable? Perhaps thy sensibilities here are too great and painful they are such indeed as nature is ready to indulge, but are they not more than God requires, or the gospel allows? Do not thy thoughts dwell too much on the gloom and darkness of the grave? O think of that bright hour when every saint shall rise from the dark retreats of death with more complete characters of beauty, holiness, and pleasure than ever this world could shew them in! They are not perished, but sent a little before us into God's hiding-place, where, though they lie in dust and darkness, yet they are safe from the dangers and vexations of life; but they shall spring up in the happy moment into immortality, and shall join with thee in a mutual surprize at each other's divine change.

Or dost thou feel the corruptions of thy heart working within thee, and the sins of thy nature restless in their endeavours to bring defilement upon thy soul, and guilt upon thy conscience: go on and maintain the holy warfare against all these rising iniquities! This thy warfare shall not continue long: thou shalt find every one of these sins buried with thee in the grave, but they shall arise to assault thee no more. The saint shall leave every sin behind

him when he breaks out of the dust at the summons of Christ, and thou shalt find no seeds of iniquity in thy body when it is raised from the grave. Holiness to the Lord shall be inscribed upon all thy powers for

ever.

Or art thou perplexed, O my soul, at the near prospect of death and all the terrors and dismal appearances that surround it? Art thou afraid to lie down in the cold and noisome grave? Does thy nature shudder at it as a gloomy place of horror? These indeed are the prejudices of sense; but the language of faith will tell thee, it is only God's hiding-place where he secures his saints till all the ages of sin and sorrow are overpast. Look forward to the glorious morning when thou shalt rise from the dust among ten thousand of thy fellows, every one in the image of the Son of God, with their bodies formed after the likeness of his glorious body, and rejoicing together with divine satisfaction in the pleasure of this heavenly change. Try whether the meditation of these glories, and the distant prospect of this illustrious day will not scatter all the gloom that hovers round the grave, and vanquish the fiercest appearances of the king of terrors.

What is there, O my soul, among all the miseries thou hast felt, or all that thou fearest, that can sink thy courage, if the faith of a resurrection be but alive and wakeful? But this leads me to

OBSERVATION V. The saints of God who are resting in their beds of dust, will arise joyfully at the call of their heavenly Father. "Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee," said holy Job. The command of God creates life, and gives power to the dead to arise and speak. I come, O Lord, I come. When Jesus, the Son of God, as with the trumpet of an archangel shall pronounce the word which he spake to Lazarus, "Arise and come forth," dust and

rottenness shall hear the call from heaven, and the clods of corruption all round the earth shall arise into the form of man the saints shall appear at once and answer to that divine call, arrayed in a glory like that of angels; an illustrious host of martyrs and confessors for the truth; an army of heroes and valiant sufferers for the name and cause of God and his Son; an innumerable multitude of faithful servants who have finished their work, and lay down at rest.

How shall Adam, the father of our race, together with the holy men of his day, be surprized, when they shall awake out of their long sleep of five thousand years? How shall all the saints of the intermediate ages break from their beds of darkness with intense delight? And those who lay down but yesterday in the dust shall start up at once with their early ancestors, and answer to the call of Jesus from one end of time to the other, and from all the ends of the earth. They shall arise together to meet the Lord in the air, that they may be for ever with the Lord.

Never was any voice obeyed with more readiness and joy than the voice or trumpet of the great archangel, summoning all the children of God to awake from their long slumbers, and to leave their dusty beds behind them, with all the seeds of sin and sorrow, which are buried and lost there for ever. Never did any army on earth march with more speed and pleasure, at the sound of the trumpet, to attend their general to a new triumph, than this glorious assembly shall arise to meet their returning Lord, when this last trumpet sounds, and when he shall come the second time in the full glories of his person and his offices, as Lord and Judge of the world, to bring his faithful followers into complete salvation.

REFLECTION. Whensoever, O my soul, thou feelest any reluctance to obey the summons of death, encourage thy faith, and scatter thy fears, by waiting

for the call of God to a blessed resurrection. Jesus himself lay down in the grave at his Father's com- mand, and he arose with joy at the appointed hour as the head of the new creation, as the first-born from the dead; and he has orders given him by the Father to summon every saint from their graves at the long appointed hour. Because Jesus arose and lives, they shall arise and live also. O may my flesh lie down in the dust with all courage and composure, and rejoice to escape into a place of rest and silence, far away from the noise and tumult, the hurry and bustle of this present life; being well assured that the next sound which shall be heard is the voice of the Son of God, "Arise ye dead!" Make haste then, O blessed Jesus, and finish thy divine work here on earth I lay down my head to sleep in the dust, waiting for thy call to awake in the morning.

OBSERVATION VI. God takes delight in his works of nature, but much more when they are dignified and adorned by the operations of divine grace. "Thou wilt have a desire," saith the good man in my text, "to the work of thy own hands." Thou hast moulded me and fashioned me at first by thy power, thou hast new-created me by thy Spirit, and though thou hidest me for a season in one of thy, secret chambers of death, thou wilt raise me. again to light and life, and in my flesh shall I see God.

When the Almighty had created this visible world, he surveyed his works on the seventh day, and pronounced them all good, and he took delight in them all before sin entered and defiled them and when he has delivered the creatures of his power from the bondage of corruption, and has purged our souls and our bodies from sin and from every evil principle, he will again delight in the sons and daughters of Adam whom he has thus cleansed and