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good, and delight in it after the inward man," yet they are renewed but in part. They "feel a "law in their members warring against the law of "their minds. They cannot do the things that

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they would, nor as they would: for when they "would do good, evil is present with them.”* They are conscious of a defect and a defilement attending their best services. Their attainments are unspeakably short of the desires which love to the Redeemer has raised in their hearts. They are ashamed, and sometimes almost discouraged, They adopt the apostle's language, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But with him they can likewise say, "I thank God through Jesus Christ "our Lord." They know he is on their side, and expect that he will at last "make them more than conquerors:" yet, while the conflict lasts, they have much to suffer, and much to lament.

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Secondly, They are subject, like other people, to the various calamities and distresses incident to this state of mortality; and they have, more or less, troubles peculiar to themselves, arising from the nature of their profession and conduct (if they are faithful to their Lord), while they live in a world that lieth in wickedness. But the curse and sting is taken out of their afflictions, and they are so moderated and sanctified by the wisdom and grace of him whom they serve, that in the event they work for their good. But though they "yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness,"† in themselves, and at the time, they are not joyous, but grievous.

Thirdly, They are still subject to the stroke of death, the separation of soul and body. But this

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death has lost its sting as to them. And therefore they are said not to die, but to sleep in Jesus. Death is not their enemy, but their friend. To them, instead of being an evil, it proves a deliverance from all evil, and an entrance into everlasting life.

2. That new life to which they are raised, is surely connected with life eternal; the life of grace, with the life of glory. For Christ liveth in them, and being united to him by faith, they shall live while he liveth. They only shut their eyes upon the pains and sorrows of this world to open them immediately in his presence, and so "they shall be for ever with the Lord." How wonderful and happy is the transition! From disease and anguish, from weeping friends, and often from a state of indigence and obscurity, in which they have no friends to compassionate them, they remove to a state of glory, honour, and immortality, to a mansion in the realms of light, to a seat near the throne of God. In the language of mortals, this ineffable honour and happiness is shadowed out to us, by the emblems of a white robe, a golden harp, a palm branch (the token of victory), and a crown, not of oak or laurel, of gold or diamonds, but "a crown of life." Such honour have all the saints. However afflicted or neglected, despised or oppressed, while upon earth, soon as their willing spirits take their flight from hence, they shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Thus Lazarus lay for a time, diseased, necessitous, slighted, at the rich man's gate. Yet he was not without attendants. A guard of angels waited around him, and when he died, conveyed his spirit into "Abraham's "bosom."* The Jews thought very highly of * Luke, xvi. 22.

Abraham, the father of their nation, the father of the faithful. Our Lord therefore teaches us, by this representation, that the beggar Lazarus was not only happy after death, but highly exalted by him who seeth not as man seeth; for he was placed in "Abraham's bosom," a situation which, according to the custom of the Jews, was a mark of peculiar favour, intimacy, and distinction. Thus the beloved disciple was seated in the bosom of our Lord, when he celebrated his last passover with his disciples.*

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3. Their dead bodies shall be raised at the great day, not in their former state of weakness and corruption, but that which was "sown in weakness “shall be raised in power," and the "mortal shall put on immortality. He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned according to the "likeness of his own glorious body." So that his own resurrection is both the pledge and the pattern of theirs. I have only farther to observe upon this subject at present, that as Adam is the root and head of all mankind, from whence they all derive a sinful and mortal nature; so Jesus, the second Adam, is the root of a people who are united to him, planted and ingrafted in him by faith. To these the resurrection, considered as a blessing, is to be restrained. There will be a resurrection of the wicked likewise, but to condemnation, "shame, and everlasting contempt." But the connexion is close and indissoluble between Christ the first-fruits, and them that are Christ's at his coming.

May we be happily prepared for this great event, that when he shall appear we may have "confidence in him, and not be ashamed before

John, xiii. 22-25. + John, v. 29.

↑ Dan. xii. 2.

"him."* Happy they who shall then be able to welcome him in the language of the prophet, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, "and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have "waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in "his salvation." But how awful the contrast of those (many of them once the great, mighty, and honourable of the earth), who shall behold him with horror, and in the anguish of their souls shall call (in vain) "to the rocks and mountains to fall "on them and hide them from his presence, say'ing, The great day of his wrath is come, and "who shall be able to stand ?"‡

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SERMON XLII.

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.

1 CORINTHIANS, xv. 51, 52.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but

we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

AN object in itself great, and which we know to be so, will appear small to us, if we view it from a distance. The stars, for example, in our view, are but as little specks or points of light; and the tip of a finger, if held very near to the eye, is suffi1 John, ii. 28. † Isa. xxv. 9. Rev. vi. 16, 17.

cient to hide from us the whole body of the sun. Distance of time has an effect upon us, in its kind, similar to distance of space. It diminishes in our mind the idea of what we are assured is, in its own nature, of great magnitude and importance. If any of us were informed that we should certainly die before this day closes, what a sudden and powerful change would take place in our thoughts! That we all must die, is a truth, of which we are no less certain, than that we are now alive. But, because it is possible that we may not die to-day, or to-morrow, or this year, or for several years to come, we are often little more affected by the thoughts of death, than if we expected to live here for ever. In like manner, if you receive the Scripture as a divine revelation, I need offer you no other proof, that there is a day, a great day, approaching, which will put an end to the present state of things, and introduce a state unchangeable and eternal. Then "the Lord will descend with "a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with "the trump of God. The earth, and all its works, "will be burnt up." The great Judge will appear, the tribunal be fixed, the books opened, and all the human race must give an account of themselves to God, and, according to his righteous award, be happy or miserable in a degree beyond expression or conception, and that for ever.

If we were infallibly assured, that this tremendous scene would open upon us to-morrow; or if, while I am speaking, we should be startled with the signs of our Lord's coming in the air, what confusion and alarm would overspread the congregation! Yet, if the Scripture be true, the hour is approaching, when we must all be spectators of this solemn event, and parties nearly interested in

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