and Destruction, from which no human Power or Cunning can deliver us; yet our Hope is stedfast and unmoveable, being placed in Him who is able to fubdue all Things to himself.

This Belief, That the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God, and arise to Life, is the fundamental Article of a Chriftian's Faith: If this be not well established, our Hope and Confidence are vain, and the preaching the Crofs of Chrift is Foolishness.

Let us reflect a little how our Cafe ftands with respect to the Profpect beyond the Grave; let us confider what Hopes Nature furnishes, and how they are fupported, confirmed, and enlarged, by the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

When we view the World in its present Circumstances, and fee the Mifery and Oppreffion that are in it; when we confider that the Diftreffes and Sorrows arifing from the Weakness and the Wickedness of Men are in Number and in Weight ten times more than all the Sufferings to which we are exposed by the mere Frailty of our Condition; we can hardly imagine that a wife and juft God made the World to be what we find it is. When we look farther, and find that the best Men oftentimes fare worft;

that

that even the Defire and Endeavour to please God frequently expofes them to infinite Sorrows in this World; we ftand amazed, and are ready to doubt whether these Appearances can be reconciled with the Belief that God governs the World. But, fince all Nature proclaims the Being and the Power of God, and the visible Things of the Creation declare in every Language of the World the Wisdom and Goodness of Him who made them; under the Force and Conviction of this Evidence that there is a God, we can find no poffible Way to account for his Juftice and Goodness towards the Children of Men, but by fuppofing that he has appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteoufnefs: And fince this World evidently is not the Scene of this Judgment, we conclude there must be another, in which we fhall ftand before his Tribunal. Thus far Nature goes: All beyond this is vain Philofophy and Imagination, founded in Conceits which are in vogue to-day, and forgot to-morrow. Scholars may reason of the Nature of the Soul, and the Condition of it when feparated from the Body; but the common Hopes of Nature receive no Support from fuch Inquiries. But yet fomething farther feems neceffary to give Ease

to Nature in this painful Search after Life and Happiness. The numberless Instances of Mortality which we hear and see, the Remains of those who left the World Ages before we came into it, and are still mouldering in their Tombs, is undeniable Evidence that Death deftroys this compound Being which we call Man. How to revive this Union Nature knows not; and as for those who make the Spirits of Men in the divided State to be perfect Men, they seem to have got a Conclufion without confulting the Premises.

Look now into the Gospel: There you will find every reasonable Hope of Nature, nay every reasonable Sufpicion of Nature, cleared

up and confirmed, every Difficulty answered and removed. Do the present Circumstances of the World lead you to fufpect that God could never be Author of fuch corrupt and wretched Creatures as Men now are? Your Sufpicions are juft and well-founded: God made Man upright; but thro' the Temptation of the Devil Sin entered, and Death and Deftruction followed after.

Do you fufpect, from the Success of Virtue and Vice in this World, that the Providence of God does not interpose to protect the Righteous from Violence, or to punish

the

the Wicked? The Sufpicion is not without Ground. God leaves his best Servants here to be tried oftentimes with Affliction and Sorrow, and permits the Wicked to flourish and abound. The Call of the Gospel is not to Honour and Riches here, but to take up our Crofs and follow Christ.

Do you judge, from comparing the present State of the World with the natural Notion you have of God, and of his Justice and Goodness, that there muft needs be another State in which Justice shall take place? You reason right; and the Gospel confirms the Judgment. God has appointed a Day to judge the World in Righteousness: Then those who mourn fhall rejoice, those who weep fhall laugh, and the perfecuted and afflicted Servants of God fhall be Heirs of his Kingdom.

Have

you sometimes Misgivings of Mind? Are you tempted to mistrust this Judgment, when you fee the Difficulties which furround it on every Side; fome which affect the Soul in its separate State, fome which affect the Body in its State of Corruption and Diffolution? Look to the Gofpel: There these Difficulties are accounted for; and you need no longer puzzle yourself with dark Queftions concerning the State, Condition, and Nature

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Nature of separate Spirits, or concerning the Body, however to Appearance loft and deftroyed; for the Body and Soul fhall once more meet to part no more, but to be happy for ever. In this Cafe the Learned cannot doubt, and the Ignorant may be fure, that 'tis the Man, the very Man himself, who fhall rife again: For an Union of the fame Soul and Body is as certainly the Restoration of the Man, as the dividing them was the Deftruction.

Would you know who it is that gives this Affurance? 'Tis One who is able to make good his Word; One who loved you fo well as to die for you; yet One too great to be held a Prisoner in the Grave: No; he rofe with Triumph and Glory, the first-born from the Dead, and will in like manner call from the Duft of the Earth all those who put their Truft and Confidence in him.

But who is this, you'll fay, who was fubject to Death, and yet had Power over Death? How could fo much Weakness and fo much Strength meet together? That God has the Power of Life, we know; but then he cannot die: That Man is mortal, we know; but then he cannot give Life.

Confider; does this Difficulty deserve an Answer, or does it not? Our bleffed Saviour