with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. v. 1. This honour have all His saints.

QUESTIONS.

What do ye understand by the word Church?
How long hath there been a Church?
Where was it before Christ was born?

What mean ye by the word Catholic?
What by the Catholic Church?

Why is it necessary to believe the Church to be Catholic?
In what respects is it said to be holy?

Can we be sanctified or saved any where but in the Church?
What is meant by the communion of saints?

Who are saints?

too What communion have they together?

What is sin?

What do ye mean by the forgiveness of sins?
Whose sins are forgiven?

By what means are their sins forgiven?

What do ye understand by their being justified?
How are they justified?

What benefit have they thereby?

The Resurrection of the body, and the Life everlasting.

By the resurrection of the body, I here understand and believe, that every body that ever was informed or endued with a reasonable soul, and is afterwards parted from it by death, although it be then reduced to earth again, or eaten up of worms, or beasts, or fishes, or any other way consumed, and the parts of it scattered abroad and dispersed all over the earth, yet at the last day all the parts and particles of it shall come together again, every one into its proper place where it was before, so as to make up again the

same individual body; to which the same soul that before departed from it, being again united, the same person that before died, shall revive, or rise to life again. So that every human person that ever did, or ever shall die, from the beginning to the end of the world, shall then rise again, and live as really as ever he did before.

That this is possible I cannot doubt, who believe that God is Almighty, and can do what He will. And that He will thus raise up our bodies to life again, I believe, because He Himself hath said He will. We have His own word for it, not only in the New, but likewise in the Old Testament. For there also He hath declared this to be His will so plainly, that they who believed Moses and the Prophets, believed also the resurrection of the dead. As appears in that this was generally believed by all the Jews in our Saviour's time, except some few among them called Sadducees, who denied it, Matt. xxii. 23. Acts xxiii. 8.

But what little reason they had to deny it, appears from the weak question they propounded to our Lord about it, Matt. xxii. 24, 28. who also convinced them of their error by an argument drawn from Moses himself, so as that they had not one word to say for it. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, said He, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Mark xii. 26, 27. For all live unto Him,

Luke xx. 28. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were then dead, and yet God said to Moses, Exod. iii. 6, 15. that He was their God: which could not be, if they should always continue in a state of death. For He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The dead are not in being as men. And then He could not possibly be their God. He could not be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when there were no such persons in the world, nor ever would be, unless they rise again. And therefore His calling Himself their God, was an undeniable arugment that He would raise them up again from death to life. And if He would raise them, then by necessary consequence all others too.

Especially considering that all live to God; they also who are dead to us, live to Him; to whom all things are present, and therefore the resurrection, which being certainly determined by God, He looks upon the dead as if they were already raised and now living: as He plainly shewed, in calling Himself their God. But if the dead should never rise again, they could not live to Him: for they would never live again at all; and so would be utterly incapable of having God to be their God.

Wherefore God, by saying that He was their God, plainly declared that He would raise them up to life again. Which therefore is so clear and evident a proof of the resurrection, that I do not wonder that the Sadducees were put to silence at their first hearing it, Matt. xxii. 34.

There are many other places in the Old Testament, where this great truth is revealed to us. But in the New it is so fully explained and proved, that no Christian can doubt of it, 1 Cor. xv. 20, &c. Rev. xx. 12, 13, &c. insomuch that I believe, that as really as I am now alive, and as certainly as I shall ever die, I shall be raised again to life at the last day: and not only I, but all mankind that ever did or shall die, both just and unjust, Acts xxiv. 15. For, as our Lord Himself hath taught us, the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 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, John v. 28, 29.

And as I thus believe the resurrection of the dead, I believe also the life everlasting, that shall follow upon it. For I believe, that when the dead shall be raised up to life again at the last day, they shall never die any more, but from that day forward they shall live for ever. For they shall be no sooner raised, but they shall all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, who shall adjudge them all to their everlasting state; the wicked to everlasting punishment, and the righteous to everlasting life, Matt. xxv. 46.

To the wicked He will then say, as He Himself hath told us beforehand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, Matt. xxv. 41. So that He will then take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall

be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. They shall be cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. viii. 12. where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, Mark ix. 44. where they shall live with the fiends of hell, and suffer the same inexpres-sible pains and torments which were at first prepared for them, not only for some ages, but to all eternity.

But the saints, or righteous, shall then shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Matt. xiii. 43. for the Judge shall say to them at that day, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, Matt. xxv. 34. Every one of them being a son, and therefore an heir of God, shall inherit a kingdom: a kingdom not newly erected, but prepared for them from the foundation of the world, of all things that were then made: for they shall every one inherit all things, Rev. xxi. 7. a kingdom where there is no night, nor any need of the sun or moon to shine in it; for the glory of the Lord shall lighten it, Rev. xxi. 23. xxii. 5. Under the light of whose countenance shining continually upon them, they being made equal to the holy angels, shall live with them in perfect love, and peace, and joy, and glory, and happiness, for ever. This is that which in the holy Scriptures is called everlasting life, and which I therefore believe shall be conferred

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