tui,' to die to the Lord, to fall asleep in Christ; (1 Cor. xv. 18) that when he comes, we may be found in him, and so may be ever with him. (1 Thess. iv. 17) This the first qualification of the subject for deliverance, to be mortui tui,' "the Lord's dead men."

2. The next is, that it is 'Cadaver meum:' 1. Mine, as the words of Christ; Being my body, they shall surely rise :' 2. Mine, as the words of the church;-" Every member of my dead body shall rise in the unity of the whole."

1. Then my dead body, being members of a head that lives for ever, and hath the keys of hell and the grave, shall certainly rise: his life is the foundation of ours: Because I live, ye shall live also.' (John xiv. 19) If death had held him, it would much more have held us: but because in him the mercies of David are sure, therefore his resurrection is an assurance of ours. (Acts xiii. 34) Christ will not be incomplete, and the church is his fulness. (Eph. i. 23) The feet under water are safe, when the head is above it. Christ is said to be the first that rose from the dead; (Acts xxvi. 23) the first-begotten, the first-born from the dead. (Rev. i. 5. Col. i. 18) For though some were raised before him, yet not without him, but by the fellowship of his resurrection: as though light rise before the sun, yet it doth not rise but from the sun. The mace goes before the magistrate, but it doth so only in attendance upon him. He the only conqueror of death; and as the first-fruits did sanctify the whole mass, (Rom. xi. 16) so Christ, by his resurrection, did consecrate all such as die in the Lord, to be a kind of firstfruits, and first-born; (James i. 18. Heb. xii. 23) and therefore it is said, that they "shall rise first." (1 Thess. iv. 16) His resurrection is unto all his members,

1. Arrhabo,' a pledge and earnest of theirs. He having paid our debt, death cannot detain us in prison for it: his resurrection hath justified us against the claim of death, and will glorify us against the power of death. What he did purchase by the merit of his death, is made applicable to us by the power of his resurrection. (Rom. viii. 34)

2. Exemplar;' his the pattern of ours: he taken not only from prison, but from judgement, death had no more to do with him. (Isa. liii. 8. Rom. vi. 9) In like manner, we shall rise victors over death, never any more to be subject unto it:

this the apostle calleth the image of the heavenly Adam.' (1 Cor. xv. 49. Phil. iii. 21)

3. Primitiæ: the beginning of the future resurrection; for he rose not barely in a personal, but in a public capacity. Though it were a damnable heresy of Hymeneus, that the resurrection was past, (2 Tim. ii. 18) yet it is a truth to say, that it is begun. He first, then we at his coming. (1 Cor. xv. 23) By what is past in the head, we are assured of what is expected in his members.

2. All the particular members of the church shall rise in the unity of one body, as mystically joined unto one head, and as one family; (Eph. iii. 15) and all one in Christ; (Gal. iii. 28) not barely the persons singly considered, but as a church and body shall rise.

1. Then be careful to be found in Christ at his coming: for though all men shall rise, yet with a great difference: the wicked, 'potestate Judicis,'-as malefactors are brought out of prison to the judge to be condemned:-the godly, 'virtute capitis;' the life of Christ shall be manifested in their bodies. (2 Cor. iv. 10)

2. A Christian must not only believe, 'Thy dead men shall live,' but further, My dead body shall arise too.' Herein is the life of faith in bringing down general promises to our own particular cases, interests, and comforts. (2 Cor. iv. 13, 14. John xx. 28. Gal. ii. 20)

3. Since we shall all rise as one, we should all live as one. As we have all one head, one spirit, one faith, one hope, one inheritance, one common salvation; so we should have one heart and one soul; (Acts iv. 32) love as brethren, have the same care as fellow members one of another; weep with them that weep, rejoice with them that rejoice; that our life of faith on earth may, in some measure, express our life of vision in heaven; and since we shall agree there, not to fall out in our way thither. (Eph. iv. 1-6. Phil. ii. 1, 2, 3. Col. iii. 12, 13) And thus much of the dispositive cause, qualifying the subject of this deliverance.

2. The efficient follows, the word and command of God, being like dew to the tender herbs,' to revive them when they seem dead. Whence we observe,

1. The facility of the last resurrection in regard of God, to whom miracles are as easy as natural operations, a miracle

being nothing but a new creation. It is as impossible to us to cause rain, as to raise a dead body. He therefore who (we see) doth cause the one, we may believe on his word, that he will the other. We find rain and dew used as arguments to prove the omnipotency and greatness of God. (Psalm cxlvii. 5, 8. Job v. 9, 10. Jer. xiv. 22. Zech. x. 1)

And this teaches us a very useful point, to observe the wisdom and power of God in the ordinances of heaven and course of nature; and from thence to argue for the settling our faith in such things, as exceed the course of nature; for there is no less omnipotency required to govern natural causes, than to work those that are supernatural. He therefore that keepeth his law, and sheweth his power in the one, will do so in the other too. The Lord strengtheneth our faith by the consideration of natural things; the bow in the clouds, (Gen. ix. 12. Isa. liv. 9) the stability of the mountains, (Isa. liv. 10) the multitude of stars, (Gen. xv. 5) the height of the heavens, (Psalm ciii. 11) the beauty of the lilies, (Matth. vi. 28, 30) the ordinances of the moon and stars, (Jer. xxxi. 35, 36) the covenant of day and night. (Jer. xxxiii. 20, 21) Thus the Lord teacheth us to make use of the rudiments of nature to confirm our faith in him.

I go quietly to bed, and am not frighted with the horror of the night. I know the day will return; it is God's covenant. I put my seed into the ground in winter; I know it will grow into a harvest; the sun will return; it is God's covenant.-And why should not I trust him, as well in his covenant of grace as of nature? why should I not believe, that that power which quickens dead corn, can quicken dead men, and can provide as well for my salvation as for my nature?

The truth is, all unbelief doth secretly question the power of God. Things past and present all can believe, because they are seen. But things promised, when they oppose reason, and transcend the course of natural causes, and the contrivances and projections which we can forecast, we many times stagger and falter about. Israel confessed what God had done, and that omnipotently, "He smote the rock, and the waters gushed out ;" and yet in the same breath they question his power; "Can he furnish a table in the wilderness? can he give bread also and provide flesh for his

me?"

people ?" (Psalm lxxviii. 19, 20, 22) Moses himself staggered, when the Lord made a promise which seemed to exceed the power of ordinary causes. (Numb. xi. 21, 22) And therefore when God will confirm the faith of his servants, he draweth them off from viewing the greatness and strangeness of the promises in themselves, to the consideration of his power. "Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?" (Gen. xviii. 14) "I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for me ?" (Jer. xxxii. 27) "If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts ?" (Zech. viii. 6) And therefore in all cases of difficulty, when sense and reason, flesh and blood, dictate nothing but despair; we should, by faith, look up to the truth of God promising, and to the power and name of God giving being to his promises, whose ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts. (Isa. lv. 8, 9) So did Jehoshaphat; (2 Chron. xx. 12) so David; (1 Sam. xxx. 6) so the prophet Ezekiel, (xxxvii. 3) so Abraham, (Rom. iv. 19, 20, 21) so Peter: (Luke v. 5) so we should all do, when we walk in darkness and have no light, still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon our God. (Isa. 1. 10)

2. We hence learn the original of the resurrection; it is a heavenly work, as dew which comes from heaven to revive the grass. The Lord resolves the lineage and genealogy of corn into heaven; (Hos. ii. 21) takes it to himself to be the Father of the dew. (Job. xxxviii. 28) It comes from him whose body did shed drops of heavenly dew in the garden, and by them did slay death, and revive the herbs of the grave.

We must labour, therefore, by a heavenly conversation, to have our bodies, temples of the holy Spirit; that this heavenly virtue, when it hath drawn us out of our graves, may then carry us to heaven. For as that which is earthly, when it is out of its place, never leaves descending till it goes to earth; so that which is heavenly, will never cease rising, till it get to heaven. Earthly vapours may be drawn up; but they fall again in rain and wind. Wicked men, though raised, will fall again. Any thing of heaven will go to heaven; any thing of Christ will go to Christ.

CONCERNING this dear and worthy lady, though my

custom be to be very sparing in funeral elogies, yet many things were in her so remarkable, that the mentioning of them cannot but tend to the edification of others.

I shall not mention her mere externals; the worth, credit, and dignity of her family; the gentleness and sweetness of her disposition, and all amiable accomplishments which rendered her lovely to those that knew her: nor set forth the proportion between her and the present text. I shall only name such things, as commended her to God as well as to men.

She looked after heaven very young: would frequently bless God for the religious education, which she had under her parents. She was even then assaulted with temptations unto atheism, and to think that there was no God: but took the best course to repel and resist them, that the most experienced Christian could have directed her unto: immediately betaking herself by prayer unto that God, whom she was tempted to deny.

She was a woman mighty in the scriptures; read them over once a year; and searched after the sense of difficult places out of the several annotations before her. She was (as it were) a concordance directing usually to the book and chapter, where any place of scripture, mentioned in discourse, was to be found.

She was constant in reading substantial authors of dogmatical and practical divinity; and by that means grew greatly acquainted with the whole body of wholesome doctrine.

She was unweariedly constant in the performance of private duties insomuch that it is verily believed by him, who had best reason to know it, that for twelve years together she never intermitted her morning and evening addresses unto the throne of grace. When she was suddenly surprised with the pangs of this last child, she ran into her closet to be first delivered of her prayer, and to pour out her soul to God, before she was delivered of her child.

She had a singular delight in the public ordinances, and was a most constant frequenter of them, with very serious and devout attention; calling her memory to an account when she came home; and if any particular slipt from her forgotten, she would enquire of her husband in bed, to recover it for her.