be all collected together; all whofe names are written in heaven, the whole church of the firftborn. And this will be the grand convocation, or the general affembly. Heb. xii. 23.

Now the apostle tells us that we are fealed by the Holy Spirit unto this day of redemption; which fhews that none but fealed perfons will rife in the refurrection of the juft. None but those that are of faith, and who, upon thus believing, are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promife, can rife in the first resurrection; for they, and only they, are bleffed and holy perfons-Bleffed and holy is he that hath part in-the first refurrection: on fuch the fecond death has no power. Rev. xx. 6. Being of faith, they are bleffed with faithful Abraham; and, being fealed with the Holy Spirit, they are holy. Hence this fealing us to the day of redemption is to affure us of a part and lot in this first resurrection; it is a pledge and an earnest of it. It is the Holy Spirit fanctifying and fealing of us that makes us meet to partake of it. And this is a truth, that the Holy Ghoft never will quicken and change any one mortal body, and fashion it like unto the glorious body of Chrift, unless he dwell in it, and make it his temple in this life.Know ye not (faith the apoftle) that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost? Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath faid, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. And this temple is holy;

and

and, being bleffed and holy, it must rife in the refurrection of the just; and truly bleffed and holy fhall it be when it rises. Chrift raised up the temple of his own body; and the Holy Ghost will raise up the church, which is his temple, and fashion it like unto the glorious body of Chrift. To these things, which are not feen, must we look. This, and what follows upon it, is the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Jesus. So run ye may obtain.

that ye may

In the path of the just that leads to life, and in this race that is fet before us, and in hope of the prize, this leaves me-faint, yet pursuing.

Ever yours in undiffembled love,

W. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

LETTER XVIII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS, at the new Vicarage,
Lewes, Suffex.

To my own Son in the faith.

BELOVED, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to ftir up thy pure mind by way of remembrance, that after my decease these things may remain with thee. Meditate upon these weightier matters; give thyfelf wholly up unto them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Do the work of an evangelift; make full proof of thy ministry. Bring them off from their old fandy bottom, from all trust in the flesh, and from their four lees of legal righteoufnefs. Difcharge truth in all its naked force and naked fimplicity; and observe and watch its operations, its fruits and effects, and thou wilt find it fufficient, in the hand of the Spirit, to fubdue the most stubborn, to change the most obdurate, to filence a gainfayer, and to furnish the man of God for every good word and work. But I fhall proceed,

16. To treat of the Holy Spirit as an earnest of the inheritance. For we that are in this tabernacle

do

do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be fwallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the felf-fame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 2 Cor. v. 4, 5. The apostle here calls our earthly bodies a tabernacle ; which is a portable dwelling, set up, taken down, and removed, juft as it pleafeth the owner of it to do. This tabernacle, as it now ftands, is not to continue, because of the mifery which attends the inhabitants of it in its prefent ftate-We that are in it do groan, being burdened. There is in it the plague of leprofy, and therefore it must be pulled down. There is a body of fin, a body of death in it; and this has made it corruptible, and corruption is the feed of death—It is appointed unto all men once to die; God has made it fubject to this vanity, not willingly; for death, abftractedly confidered, is not welcome to us-but God bath fubjected it in hope. Death, difarmed of its sting, which is fin; and of the ftrength of fin, which is the law; and of the curfe of the law, which is wrath and damnation; all which attend death as a penal evil: death, being difarmed of these, it is not death, nor the king of terrors; but the fhadow of death, and the gate to life; for all things are ours, whether life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come. 1 Cor. iii. 22.

2. The apostle calls thefe our earthly bodies. clothes, which a man puts on in the morning. So we come into this world with thefe corruptible bodies; and, as a man puts off his clothes at night and goes to

bed, fo there is a night coming on (in which no man can work) for the Lord's fervants, when they fhall be paid; they who labour under the cross, in faith and love, and in felf-denial, at which time they will put off their clothes, go to reft, or fall afleep in Jefus. But this is not all that hope is converfant about.-Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be fwallowed up of life. In the refurrection morning, when the marriage of the Lamb is to be confummated, these bodies of ours fhall not only be put on again upon our fouls, but these corruptible bodies themselves fhall put on incorruption, and these mortal bodies fhall put on immortality; and this is to be done when he who only bath immortality fhall appear. This will be the finishing ftroke to the new creation, and is the laft transforming view that we are looking for.-Looking for that blefed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jefus Chrift. Tit. ii. 13. We have already put on the Lord Jefus Chrift, and have walked in him; namely, by putting on his righteousness, the garments of falvation, and the covering of the Lord's Spirit. But at this time we fhall put him on with a witness, and that for good and all. The Holy Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies, and infufe divine life throughout every member of them, when Christ, who is our life, fhall appear. The Spirit will purge away, not only all our fins, which is called changing our vile bodies, Phil. iii. 21; but will eradicate