no Ground for Hope. There was no Probability that his Seed, who was a Stranger and Pilgrim on Earth, fhould inherit the Land of Canaan, poffeffed by great and powerful Nations. The Promise of a Son to him, when he and his Wife were both too far advanced in Years to expect one in the ordinary Courfe of Nature, was contrary to Experience and to natural Probability. But what fays the Apostle? Abraham, not being weak in Faith, confidered not his own Body, now dead, when he was about an hundred Years old, neither yet the Deadnefs of Sarah's Womb. But he Staggered not at the Promife of God, - being fully perfuaded that what he had promifed he was able to perform. This Reliance on the Promises of God, against all the Presumptions of human Experience and Probability, was the very Thing, as St. Paul tells us, that was imputed to him for Righteousness. Compare now this Cafe with the Cafe of Christians. We have great Promises made to us by God in Chrift Jefus, the Promifes of a Refurrection to Life. Inquire of the World; they know of no fuch Thing, the Ages past have afforded no Inftance of this Kind, and, as far as they can fee and judge, daily Experience is a Witness against this Hope. Under Under thefe Difficulties, whither shall we go for Refuge and Support ? whither! but to the Promises of God, and to this full Perfuafion, That what he has promifed he is able to perform. If we hold fast this Persuasion, and stagger not through Unbelief, then shall we indeed be the Children of the Faith of Abraham, whofe Faith was imputed to him for Righteoufnefs: For, as St. Paul tells us, this Teftimony of Abraham's Faith was not written for his fake alone, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up fefus our Lord from the Dead. Here then is the great Article of Chriftian Faith, even of that Faith which will be imputed to us for Righteousness: It is a firm Confidence and Reliance upon God, under this peculiar Character, That he is the Raiferup of the Dead, and will, according to his Promife, raife us to Life eternal. For the Confirmation of this Hope and Faith God raised his own Son from the Grave; who for that Reafon is faid to be raised for our Juftification, fince upon the Authority and Credit of his Resurrection depends that great Article Faith by which alone we are to be justified. As the bleffed Fruit of this Faith is to all true Believers Life and Immortality, fo it highly concerns us to confider what the Event of Unbelief muft be. Many would without the perhaps content themselves Hopes of Glory and future Happiness, if that was all. But that is not all: For the Dead fhall be raifed, whether you like it, or like it not; all who are in the Grave fhall come forth, fome to Life, fome to Condemnation, according to the Things done in the Body. Nothing can fecure to us more effectually an happy State in Futurity, than a conftant and steddy Belief and Expectation of the Refurrection of the Dead. This will convince us that what we are now doing are not fuch trifling Things as to be foon forgotten, or attended with Confequences only for to-day or to-morrow; but they are Things long to be remembered, Things noted down in God's Book, and will be exposed to View at the great Day in the Prefence of Men and of Angels, and be attended with Confequences through all the Ages of Eternity, to our great Honour and Happiness, or to our great Confufion and Mifery. ROMANS viii. 16. The Spirit itfelf beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God. 753 T O be the Children of God is the greatest Privilege under the Gofpel, and, confequently, implies in it all the Advantages that belong to, and all the Qualities neceffary to make, a good Chriftian. Thus our Apostle argues: If Children, then Heirs; Heirs of God, and Joint-beirs with Christ. As this is a new State, which belongs not to us by Nature, fo our Entrance into it is ftyled a new Birth; and we are faid to be born again, and to be begotten again, to these Hopes: He, from whom we receive these Hopes, is the Father that begets us, and his Q? Children |