last day." (Ver. 28, 29.) "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation."

Suffer me further to remark to you, that there is a peculiar satisfaction and greater confidence of our own being to be raised to life, resulting from our Lord being a man as we are. Had he been one of the angelic order, or a mighty preexistent spirit, he might be supposed by his own energy and power to have raised the body to which he was confined. Nor could his resurrection, then, be so properly called a pattern of ours: St. Paul, therefore, is careful to inform us, that (ver. 20.) " since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as by Adam all die, so by Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order. Christ, Christ, the first fruits; afterwards, they that are Christ's at his coming." i. e. As all the descendants of Adam die and follow the fate of their first parent, as partaking of his imperfect constitution; so all the faithful followers of Christ shall, after him, be restored

2

to life, and be conformed to the image of their glorious leader. But each one in his natural order. Christ, as the first fruits of slumbering dust, and the earnest of a plentiful harvest in the first place; afterwards, all his true disciples, who shall be raised to life at the time of his second appearance, at the day of judge

ment.

At which period, what most concerns us, all those in particular to whom the gospel has been made known, and who have embraced it, and sincerely laboured to act up to its precepts, shall be publicly acquitted and honoured by the great appointed judge, who has declared, (Luke xii. 8.) "Whosoever shall confess me before men, shall not be ashamed of the truth of my religion, notwithstanding all the discouragement he may meet with in the world, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven.'

But, as hinted before, the apostle speaks not in this chapter of the resurrection of all mankind in common, good and bad, but only of the resurrection of righteous persons, Christ's true followers. And though he calls it The

resur

resurrection of the dead, he explains himself, that it is the dead in Christ only, or true christians, that he intends.

Of the wicked, who were afterwards to be made alive, how they were to be raised, or what was to become of them, he says nothing, as being beside his purpose; which was to ascertain to all true believers a happy resurrection by the resurrection of Christ, and thereby to engage the Corinthians, to whom he writes, to be steady in the truth, in full assurance that their labour would not be in vain.

IV.

We may now, in the last place, consider the prospect which the sincere christian will have of death, when placed upon this advantageous ground.

Wide as the empire of that fell destroyer of mankind still remains, and will remain, we shall not view death as an evil, or any thing hostile to us, but as a kind appointment of the heavenly Father, for those who have here no abiding place, to hinder us from fixing our hearts too much upon it.

And as all the distinctions of this world, titles, riches, dignities, drop at the grave and

go

go not beyond it; for (Job i. 21.) "naked we came into the world, and naked must we go out of it;" this teaches, if any thing can teach, the small value we ought to put upon what is of so little duration.

The general idea under which our Lord describes and speaks of death, is that of falling asleep thereby to intimate, that we shall not utterly cease to be when we die; that it is but a temporary cessation of thought and labour; and we shall awake again on the morning of the resurrection, unconscious of the interval that has passed, be it longer or shorter, with all our active powers and thoughts about us, as we awake now after a good night's rest and repose.

That which made death so much dreaded by those who have not been favoured with the light of a divine revelation, was the thought of its putting an utter end to their existence; from which they had nothing, no consideration that could effectually relieve them. And the writings of the ancient heathens are overspread with a melancholy and sadness from this source, to a degree that they can have no conception of, who have not perused them. "Suns may rise and set again," says one

of

of them; "but when our sun is once set, then nothing but one long eternal night of sleep remains for us."

But how totally is the scene changed to the christian!

You must not now lament, as those that have no hope, like the heathens, of ever seeing those that are taken away before you again; the beloved child, the dear relation, the intimate friend, the solace of life, that you are deprived of: they are only departed a little before you; soon you will follow, and will recover all you lost, and meet with and rejoin all worthy of your love and esteem, with thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand besides them, equally, or more worthy.

Neither does death hurt any of our nobler faculties, but will tend to improve them to the

utmost.

It destroys nothing but what we cannot but long earnestly to be delivered from, in putting an end to this corruptible frame of flesh and blood, the seat of so much pain and torment; but worst of all, one cause of sin and the misery that belongs to it.

We shall rise again with our love of truth

and