in its former proportions of the same particles of matter, which at any time were its constituent parts, howsoever it be refined; like as, we reckon it is the same body that was pined away by long sickness, which becomes fat and fair again after recovery.

Now, to this infinite understanding join infinite power, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself; and this glorious great work appears most reasonable. If omniscience discover every little particle of dust, where it is, and how it is to be matched; cannot omn potence bring them, and jom thent together in their order? Can the Watch-maker take up the several pieces of a watch, lying in a confused heap before him, and set each in its proper place; and cannot God put the human body into order, after its dissolution? Did he speak this world into being out of nothing; and can he not form man's body out of its pre-existent matter? If he calleth those things which be not, as though they were, surely he can call things that are dissolved to be as they were, before the compound was resolved into its parts and principles: Wherefore, God can raise the dead. And " Wherefore should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead." Acts xxvi. 8.

Secondly, God will do it. He not only can do it, but he certainly will do it, because he has said it. Our text is very full to this purpose: "All that are in their graves 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 damnation." These words relate to, and are an explanation of, that part of Daniel's prophecy, Dan. xii. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." The which appears to have been calculated to confront the doctrine of the Sadducees; which the Holy Ghost knew was to be at a great height in the Jewish church, under the persecution of Antiochus. There are many other texts in the Old and New Testaments, that might here be adduced; such as Acts xxiv. 15. "And have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, of the just and unjust." And Job xix. 26, 27. " And though,

after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." But I need not multiply testimonies, in a matter so clearly and frequently taught in sacred scripture. Our Lord and Saviour himself proves. it, against the Sadducees, in that remarkable text, Luke xx. 37, 38. “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God. of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him." These holy patriarchs were now dead; nevertheless, the LORD JEHOVAH is called their God, namely in virtue of the covenant of grace, and in the sense thereof; in which sense, the phrase comprehends allblessedness, as that which, by the covenant, is secured to them who are in it, Heb. xi. 16. "God is not ashamed

to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city." He is not called the God of their souls only; but their God, the God of their persons, souls, and bodies; the which, by virtue of his truth and faithfulness, musthave its full effect: Now it cannot have its full effect on the dead, who, in as far as they are dead, are far from all blessedness; but on the living, who alone are capable of it; therefore, since God is still called their God, they are living in respect of God, although their bodies are yet in the grave; for in respect of him, who by his power can restore them to life, and in his covenant has declared his will and purpose so to do, and whose promise cannot fail, they all are to be reckoned to live; and, consistent with the covenant, their death is but a sleep, out of which, in virtue of the same covenant, securing all blessedness to their persons, their whole man, they must and shall certainly be awakened. The apostle Paul proves the resurrection at large, 1 Cor. xv. and shews it to be a fundamental article, the denial whereof is subversive of Christianity, ver. 13, 14. "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."

To assist us in conceiving of it, the scripture gives us types of the resurrection of the dead; as the dry bones

living, Ezek. xxxviii. Jonah's coming out of the whale's belly, Mat. xii. 40. And nature affords us emblems and resemblances of it; as the suns setting and rising again; night and day, winter and summer, sleeping and awaking; swallows in winter, lying void of all appearance of life, in ruinous buildings, and subterraneous caverns, and reviv ing in the spring seasons; the seeds dying under the clod, and thereafter springing up again: All which, and the like, may justly be admitted, as designed by the God of nature, though not for proofs, yet for memorials of the resurrection; whereof we have assurance from the scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 36. "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die."

II. I shall enquire into the nature of the resurrection, shewing, 1st, Who shall be raised. 2dly, What shall be raised. 3dly, How the dead shall be raised.

First, Who shall be raised? Our text tells us who they are; namely, All that are in the graves; i. e. all mankind, who are dead. As for those persons who shall be found alive at the second coming of Christ, they shall not die, and soon thereafter be raised again, but such a change shall suddenly pass upon them, as shall be to them instead of dying and rising again; so that their bodies shall become like to those bodies which are raised out of the graves, 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Hence those who are to be judged at the great day are distinguished into quick and dead, Acts X. 42. All the dead shall arise, whether godly or wick ed, just or unjust, (Acts xxiv. 15.) old or young; the whole race of mankind, even those who never saw the sun, but died in their mother's belly, Rev. xx. 12. " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." The sea and earth shall give up their dead, without reserve ; none shall be kept back.

Secondly, What shall be raised? The bodies of mankind. A man is said to die, when the soul is separat ed from the body, and returns unto God who gave it, Eccles. xii. 7. But it is the body.only which is laid in the grave, and can be properly said to be raised: Wherefore the resurrection is, strictly speaking, competent to the body only. Moreover, it is the same body that

lies, which shall rise again. At the resurrection, men shall not appear with other bodies for substance, than these which they now have, and which are laid down in the grave: : But with the self-same bodies endowed with other qualities. The very notion of a resurrection implies this; since nothing can be said to rise again, but that which falls. But to illustrate it a little. First, It is plain from Scripture-testimony: The Apostle tells, it is this mortal which must put on immortality, 1 Cor. xv. 53. and that Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, Philip. iii. 21. Death, in scripture-language, is a sleep, and the resurrection an awaking out of that sleep, Job xiv. 12. which shews the body rising up, to be the self-same that died. Secondly, The equity of the divine procedure, both with respect to the godly and the wicked, evinces this. It is not reckoned equal among men, that one do the work, and another get the reward. Though the glorifying of the bodies of the saints, is not, properly speaking, and in a strict sense, the reward of their services or sufferings on earth; yet this is evident, that it is not at all agreeable to the manner of the divine dispensation, that one body serve him, and another be glorified; that one fight, and another receive the crown. How can it be imagined, that the temples of the Holy Ghost (as these bodies of believers are termed, 1 Cor. vi. 19.) should always lie in rubbish; and others be reared up in their stead: That these members of Christ (ver. 15.) shall perish utterly, and other bodies comes in their room? Nay, surely, as these bodies of the saints now bear a part in glorifying God, and some of them suffer in his cause; so they shall partake of the glory that is to be revealed. And these bodies of the wicked, which are laid in the dust, shall be raised again; that the same body, which sinned, may suffer. Shall one body sin here, and another suffer in hell for that sin? Shall that body, which was the soul's companion in sin, lie for ever hid in the dust; and another body, which did not act any part in sinning, be its companion in torment? No, no; it is that body, which now takes up all the thoughts to provide for its back and belly, that shall be raised up, to suffer in hell. It is that tongue that is now the swearing, lying tongue, which will need water

to cool it, in eternal flames. These same feet, that now stand in the way of sinners, and carry men in their ungodly courses, shall stand in the burning lake. And these now covetous and lascivious eyes, shall take part in the fire and smoke of the pit.

Thirdly, How the dead shall be raised. The same Jesus, who was crucified without the gate of Jerusalem, shall, at the last day, to the conviction of all, be declared both Lord and Christ; appearing as Judge of the world, attended with his mighty angels, 2 Thes. i. 7. He shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel and with the trump of God, 1 Thes. iv. 16. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and these who are alive, changed, 1 Cor. xv. 52. Whether this shout, voice and trumpet, do denote some audible voice, or only the workings of divine power, for the raising of the dead, and other awful purposes of that day (though the former seems probable) I will not positively determine. There is no question but this coming of the Judge of the world will be in greater majesty and terror, than we can conceive: Yet that awful grandeur, majesty and state, which was displayed at the giving of the law, viz. thunders heard, lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount seen; the Lord descending in fire, the whole mount quaking greatly, and the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, (Exod. xix. 16, 18, 19.) may help forward a becoming thought of it. However, the sound of this trumpet shall be heard all the world over; it shall reach to the depths of the sea, and into the bowels of the earth. At this loud alarm, bones shall come together, bone to his bone: the scattered dust of all the dead shall be gathered together, dust to his dust; neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path; and meeting together again, shall make up that very same body, which crumbled into dust in the grave, And at the same alarming voice, shall every soul come again into its own body, never more to be separated. The dead can stay no longer in their graves, but must bid an eternal farewel to their long homes: They hear his voice, and must come forth; and receive their final sentence.

Now, as there is a great difference betwixt the godly