all the fulness of God? The Elyfium of which the heathens dream; the carnal paradife of which Mahomet fables; and the crying and howling over the reprobate which the Arminians feign, will be as far removed from this ftate as the belly of hell from the throne of God. No one thing of the present heaven, nor of the present earth; nothing that has transpired under the fun, will ever enter either the mind or the memory of a child of God more. When this laft trumpet is founded old things fhall pafs away for ever and ever; and fo fays the Lord himself: "Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth; and the former fhall not be remembered, nor come into mind," Ifa. lxv. 17. This heaven and earth are to be fo completely banished from mind and memory, as never more to enter either. We fhall drink fo freely and fully of the river of God's pleasure as to forget our former poverty, and remember our mifery no more. And fo it follows: "But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerufalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerufalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping fhall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying," Ifa. lxv. 18, 19.

This trumpet that proclaims our release, calls us alfo to the banquet of heaven, to the marriage fupper of the Lamb, in the beft, the higheft, and the fulleft sense. We read of eating and drink

ing in this blissful state. "Bleffed are thofe fervants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching; verily I fay unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to fit down to meat, and will come forth and ferve them," Luke xii. Here is fitting down to meat, and we read of drinking alfo. "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne fhall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes," Rev. vii. 17. Thefe fountains appear to be the fame as the wells of falvation, and are no other than the eternal love and full enjoyment of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft. And that our meat will be the fame for fubftance then as it is now; feafting our eyes and hearts upon the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himfelf for us; feeing him as he is, and being like him: only now we live by faith, but then by fight; now we fee through a glafs darkly, but then face to face clearly. And this fight will be affimilating; we fhall fee him as he is, and be like him, bearing his image both within and without. We shall enjoy a fulness of life, and a fulness of knowledge; joy will be full, and love abundant; light will be inconceivable, and comfort unutterable; and as immenfity and infinity know no bound nor bottom ; fo our difcoveries, amazement, admiration, and wonder, will know no end. But

I must come down, and not exercise myself in great matters, in things too high for me.

Hence I conclude that the fhout is eternal victory over every foe, and proclaimed by Halleluia.

That the voice of the archangel is the lifegiving voice of the Son of God, for no other can raise the dead but his.

That the trump of God is the eternal jubilee, the faints' final release, which reinftates them in the love, in the favour, and in the glorious liberty of the children of God. That Chrift will utter his voice, and the Holy Ghoft will attend his word, and in one moment quicken our mortal bodies, and free them from the bondage of corruption for ever and ever. But my text tells us that the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft.

Being in Chrift is oppofed to our being in the flesh, for the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, Rom. ix. 8. It is oppofed to being in fin; if ye die in

your fin, where I am, fays Chrift, ye cannot come Being in Chrift is alfo opposed to being under the law, for fuch are under the curfe. Faith, that faith which is of the operation of God, leads us out of ourselves to embrace and confide in Chrift Jefus to them that receive him, to them he gives the power to become the fons of God, even to them which believe on his name. It is faith

in Chrift that makes our pre-adoption manifeft; and our believing is an undoubted evidence of our being pre-ordained to life; for as many as were ordained to eternal life believed, and none else; others believe not, because they are not of Chrift's sheep. We must be fons, or we cannot be heirs; legal fervants, ftrangers, and bastards, cannot inherit; they are fons that Chrift brings to glory. Where genuine faith comes the Spirit's cry will attend it, fooner or later. The Spirit cries, Abba, Father, and faith fubfcribes the evidence; and when in exercife, fets her hand to that feal, without an if or a but fullying the paper. Add to this, the good Spirit, the benign Comforter of miferable fouls, bears witness both to his own cry and to faith's act, which will gradually, or elfe all at once, filence all gainfayers, and all the heart-piercing clamours of law, devil, and confcience, which will be attended with peace and quietude.

Moreover, we muft, as well as Paul, be found in Chrift his righteousness. None can be admitted into Chrift's nuptial chamber without a bridal drefs. It is by our being juftified by his grace that we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, Titus iii. 7. The righteousness of faith gives us our title; whom God juftifies, them God glorifies. The fentence of juftification being once paffed in the court of confcience by the Holy Ghoft, fets us out of the

reach of all crimes, all accufations, all charges, and all condemnation for ever; for who can lay any thing to the charge of God's elect, whom Chrift hath redeemed, and whom God hath justified?

To be in Chrift Jefus is to be in the love of him; I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love; and if ye keep my commandments, ye fhall abide in my love. Love fulfils all law, it cafteth out fear, and banishes all fhame, and is our internal holiness in the presence of God. For we are to be holy and without blame before God in love. Happy they who are in the faith of Christ, interested in the atonement of Chrift, and who are found in the righteoufnefs of Chrift, and who hold fast their profeffion of Christ, and abide in the love of Chrift; fuch die in the Lord, and being the dead in Chrift, they fhall rise first.

According to Paul, the first work which respects the elect, will be raising the dead. The dead will be raised before the living faints will be changed. The trumpet fhall found, and the dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This account of the dead in Chrift being first raised is hinted at in the Old Teftament. The pfalmift, fpeaking of the wicked, fays, like fheep they are laid in the grave; death fhall feed on them, and the upright fhall have dominion over them in the morning, Pfalm xlix.