viour did so, and what we ought to believe concerning this great fundamental article of our religion, as it is revealed in God's holy word, I shall just mention some of the great uses that are to be made of this doctrine. First, therefore, ye may hence learn, whensoever you remember your Saviour's resurrection, to think likewise of your own, and consider that as certainly as he rose again from the dead, so shall you too; that although your bodies shall return to the earth out of which they were taken, and perhaps lie there in dust for many years together, yet they shall one day be raised up and quickened, so as to live again as really as we are now alive; and that as Christ therefore rose again that he might be judge both of quick and dead, so you shall rise again that you may be judged by him, and either advanced to eternal glory or condemned to everlasting punishment, aecording as you have or have not believed in him and obeyed him, while you lived upon the earth; which I heartily wish you would not only believe, as I hope you all do, in general, but that ye would live with a constant sense of it upon your minds, so as to be always thinking with yourselves, that ye hear the trumpet sounding in your ears, 'Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!' for ye will one day as certainly hear it, as ye are now in this place and hear me speak.

From hence we may also see, how much it concerns you all to take care how ye now live in the body. If ye were to die like beasts, ye might live like beasts: if ye had no other world to live in but this, it would be no great matter how ye lived in it; but seeing that when your souls leave their bodies, they still live without them, as really as

they lived before in them, and seeing at the last day your bodies also will be raised again, so that you shall then live in them again as ye now do, and that too not only for some time but to all eternity, either in a state of perfect joy and happiness, or else of extreme misery and torment, according as ye lived here in obedience or disobedience to the commandments of God your Maker; if ye firmly believe this, as ye ought to do, you cannot but be sensible how much it behoves you to endeavour all ye can, to live in the true faith and fear of God whilst you are in this world, that so ye may live happily in the next; which, blessed be God, ye may all do if ye will but take care and pains about it, such as a matter of so great consequence requires; for ye have an Almighty Saviour, the only begotten Son of God, who having been delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification, is now the propitiation for our sins, and the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, which I therefore heartily wish you would all do.

Strive all ye can to live for the future, in sincere obedience to all that he hath taught and commanded, and then you will find, by your own experience, that he will not only direct and assist you in doing his will all the while you live in this world, but at the last day he will raise you up to life everlasting, that ye may live with him, his saints and angels in perfect joy and bliss for ever.

Lastly, from what ye have now heard, you may learn what infinite cause ye have to thank God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as upon many other accounts, so particularly for that ye are thereby assured, that your bodies shall not always lie rotting in the grave, nor be scattered about in

dust and atoms, but that they shall one day be raised to life again; and that if ye now fight the good fight, finish your course, and keep the faith, there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give you at that day; and not to you only, but to all them that love his appearing." For when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is;' and ever live with him, who liveth with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God blessed for

ever.

12 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

21 John, iii. 2.

SERMON VII.

CHRIST'S TRIUMPH IN THE RESUR

RECTION.

BY DR. DONNE.

[JOHN DONNE, born 1573, was made Dean of St. Paul's in 1621, and died in 1631.]