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Life-time, Jubject to Bondage: But it is one great Advantage of Religion, that it tends to raise us above the Fears of Death, and caufeth us to look upon it in a different View than before. And this is, in a particular Manner, the Glory of the Chriftian Religion: It teacheth us to look upon Death as, through Chrift, a difarmed Foe: It openeth a new and glorious Scene before us in a future State, that difpels the Darkness and Horrors of Death: It affu

reth us of a glorious Refurrection and a blefed immortal Life, which God will, in his infinite Grace and Mercy, confer upon us, through Jefus Christ, as the Reward of our fincere, though imperfect, Obedience.

Thefe Words of the Apostle Paul are remarkable to this Purpose. After having obferved, that God hath faved us, and called us with an boly Calling, not according to our Works, but according to his own Purpofe and Grace, which was given us in Christ Jefus, before the World began; he adds, that it is now made manifeft by the Appearing of our Saviour Jefus Christ, who bath abolished Death, and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gofpel.

I fhall at prefent more particularly confider that Part of the Words where it is declared,

declared, that our Lord Jefus Chrift bath abolished Death: And, for fetting this in a proper Light, I would obferve,

First, That it was the Sin of our first Parents that brought Death into the World; and, in Confequence of this, Death hath ever fince reigned over the whole human Race. As to this, the Scripture is very clear. We are expreffly told, that by one Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and fo Death paffed upon all Men, for that all have finned. Rom. v. 12. And again, ib. Ver. 15, that through the Offence of one many are dead. And, Ver. 17, that by one Man's Offence Death reigned by one. And, Ver. 18, that by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation, i. e. fo as that they are all liable to the Sentence of Death. And to the same Purpose, 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22, That by Man came Death; and that in Adam all die. I do not think, that Words can poffibly be ftronger to fhew, that the Death, to which the human Race is obnoxious, was originally brought upon us by Adam's Tranfgreffion, who, having himself finned, derived a corrupt and mortal Nature to his Pofterity. Death therefore is not to be regarded as, merely, the natural unavoidable Effect of the original Constitution of the human Frame, as it first came out of

it's

it's Maker's Hands; but it is to be confidered as the Effect of Sin, and of the Curfe. We find that, even after the Fall, till the Time of the Flood, notwithstanding the Alteration brought upon the human Body, and upon the Earth, Air, and every thing by which Man was to be nourished and fupported, yet Mens' Bodies continued to be ftrong and ftable; they feemed built for fo long a Duration, that they were able to fubfift in Life near a thoufand Years; and there have been, ever fince, particular Inftances, from Time to Time, of Perfons that have lived much beyond what is now the ordinary Period of human Life. How much more may we fuppofe, that, if Man had never fallen, his Body would have continued fo perfectly well conftituted, fo admirably tempered, and the whole Frame and Conftitution of Things about him fo excellently fuited to fuftain and preferve it, that it would have been upheld in perpetual Health and Vigour; the Divine Goodnefs could easily have fo ordered it, that, instead of decaying, it might have grown more ftrong and fprightly, and have become more and more pure and refined, and perhaps, after many Ages, have been tranflated to a nobler Region? Or, whatever Change it might at any Time have undergone, it would not have feen Death; the

vital Union between Soul and Body would never have been diffolved: For the Wages of Sin is Death, as the Apoftle affures us, Rom. vi. 23. If therefore Man had not finned, he had not died: But Sin brought the Sentence of Death upon the human Nature: Through the juft Judgment of God, and perhaps, as fome probably fuppofe, through the pernicious" poisonous Quality of the forbidden Fruit, the Crafis of the human Body was fo corrupted and altered, that it became immediately subject to Diseases and Death. And what mightily ftrengthens the Power of Death over us is, that, as we are all defcended from finful Parents, fo we are all Sinners in our own Perfons: We have all in many Inftances tranfgreffed the Divine Law, and have rifen up in Oppofition to his fupreme Authority; and, if we had been left under the Guilt of unpardoned Sin, if God had entered into ftrict Judgment with us, we could have had no Profpect of being reftored to forfeited Life and Happiness. Our Bodies must have lain under the Curfe and Stroke of Death, without Hope of a Refurrection; our Souls under the dreadful Effects of the Divine Wrath, bound over to Punishment and Mifery: Thus muft we have continued in a miferable and hopeless State, from which we were abfo

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lutely

lutely unable to deliver ourselves, if God had not, in his great Goodness and Mercy, provided a glorious Remedy for us. This leads me to add,

Secondly, That, to heal this Ruin, God did, in his infinite Wisdom and Grace, provide a Saviour for us, through whom we should be recovered from the Power of Death, and raised to a bleffed Immortality. It seemed fit to his Wifdom to fix upon this Method, that, as by Man, the firft Adam, came Death, fo by Man, the fecond Adam, who was not a mére Man, but the Lord from Heaven, fhould come the Refurrection of the Dead. It pleafed God, from the Beginning, upon a Forefight of our Apoftacy, and our loft and ruinous State, by Reafon of Sin, to appoint that his own Son fhould, in the Fulness of Time, take upon him the Office and Character of Saviour and Mediator between God and Man: And it was agreed, in the Councils of the Divine Wisdom and Grace, that, upon his performing the Work affigned him, i. e. upon his taking upon him our Nature, and in that Nature yielding a perfect and Spotlefs Obedience and Righteoufnefs, an Obedience whereby the Divine Law should be highly honoured, and difplayed in all the Majefty of it's Authority, and all the Beauty and Excellency of it's Precepts;

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