tisfy for this Original Sin, as well as Actual Tranfgreffion, and fo to fave his People from the Second Death; yet fays he to Adam, and in him to his Pofterity and Defcendants, Duft Gen. 2. 19. thou art, and to Duft thou shalt return.

Secondly, Tho the Satisfaction of Chrift be compleat, and he has purchas'd for his People a compleat Happiness; yet fuch is the Divine Constitution, that we must continue for fome time here under a great many Weaknesses, and Troubles, and Temptations. Now People may as well object these to the Satisfaction of Chrift, as that of the Saints dying.

Thirdly, The Satisfaction of Chrift has a great Influence into the Death that a Righteous Man paffes under, inafmuch as Death is alter'd in its Nature, it is difarm'd of its Sting, and approaches him as a Friend. So that tho Believers must die as well as other Men, yet every thing in Death that was most hurtful, is taken away by the Lord Chrift: Hence Rom, S. 1. fays the Apostle, There is no Condemnation to them that are in Chrift Fefus. And the fame

Apostle puts Death among the number of the Believers Privileges; 1 Cor. 3. 22. Death is yours.

Fourthly, Sin is fo interwoven with our Nature, that without throwing down the Fabrick of the Body, there is no putting an end to it. Death came into the World by Sin; but Sin is finifh'd or abolish'd, as it were, by Death. We shall not wholly part with the Relicks of Sin, till that moment the Body and Soul is parted afunder. When a righteous Man gives up the Ghoft, his Sins expire with him; for his filthy Raiment drops from him with the Rags of his Mortality.

Fifthly,

Fifthly, The Righteous, by being expos'd to Death, have the highest trial of their Graces, and the fittest feafon to exercise them for the Honour of God the Redeemer. It hath been an Obfervation of the Antients, as well as of the Moderns, that Faith, and Love, and Patience, are declar'd in their most powerful Operations, in our encounter with Death.

Our Faith is tried to the uttermoft, when the Terrible of Terribles ftares us in the face, when his Forerunners feize our Vitals, and put the whole Body into a Convulfion and Agony.

Then is alfo the time for the perfecting of Patience, and exerting and evidencing our Love to God, by being willing to be at his difpofe in this World, fo that we may injoy him in the next. If it were as eafy (fays one) to get into Heaven, as to move from one Country to another; if it were only to step up into Elijah's Chariot, and fo drive away in an inftant, Body and Soul together to the Regions above; then thefe Graces would not be fo much exercis'd and tried.

Sixthly, The Righteous muft die as well as the Wicked, that they may be capable of being fully rewarded; for this dull, heavy, grofs Flesh and Blood that we carry about with us, without refining, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God: this is fo neceffary, that thofe Perfons that fhall be alive when Christ comes to judg the World, must pass under a Change equivalent to Death. Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderfully display'd (as a Learned Man remarks) that Death, which by the Covenant of Works, was the deferv'd Penalty of Sin, by the Covenant of Grace

H 4

fhould

* Dr. Bates.

should be the Inftrument of Immortality. Thus as Jofeph, by a furprizing Circuit, was brought from the Prifon to the Principality, so a Believer by the Grave afcends to Heaven. Immortality in this Veil of Tears would not be defirable, for I cannot conceive how a Perfon under the establish'd Oeconomy and Order of things, could be compleatly happy here.

Seventhly, The Righteous being fubject to Death, is a Method very proper to indear Christ to a Believer's Soul, and to add a sprightly Accent to his Everlasting Hallelujah's. Chrift is always precious to them that believe; but he is never fo much valu'd as when they are upon the Borders of Eternity, and in the Agonies of Death: then to think upon their Deliverer, then to hear the Father fay, Spare Job 33. 24. them from going down into the Pit, for I have found a Ranfom; are words which, when attended with an Energy of Divine Power, have enough in them to revive thofe that are fainting and dying, and cause them to fly from this World to the next, in Triumph, and with a Song, But,

Laftly, The Glory of the Redeemer will be the more Illuftrious at the End of the World, by the raising of the Dead, to make up his magnificent Retinue, when he fhall come the Seçond Time without Sin to Salvation, and to be admired in all those that believe. Then for him to exert his Power to raise all these in an inftant, will be much more for his Glory and Honour, than if from the time of our Saviour's Death to the End of the World, the Righteous fhould have been caught up to Heaven, Body and Soul together, after they had tarried their appointed time upon Earth, one after ano

ther;

ther ; for this must have been done often in private and at Midnight: And it would not have been half fo much for the Glory and Triumph of our Lord Chrift, as it shall then be, when the Bowels of the Earth, and the Bottom of the Sea, fhall throw up their Dead at his irresistible Command and his Almighty Word. Then to fee the Saints fpring out of the Dust like fo many Stars at the Sound of the laft Trumpet, how will this advance the Glory, and the Honour of the Redeemer! But I fhall not stand to infift any longer upon this Head, but fhall go on now to the

Second thing, which is, Job's Hope and Af furance of the Resurrection of the Body; Tho after my Skin, Worms deftroy this Body, yet in my Flefh fhall I fee God. I know there are fome modern Interpreters, who do understand these Words of a metaphorical Refurrection, as St. Chryfoftom had done long before; yet I cannot confent to it, for more reasons than I have time to name. Job fpeaks of feeing God in his Flesh, and with his Eyes; and this was to be after the Worms had confum'd his Body; which was an illuftrious Specimen of his Faith, with refpect to the Article of the Refurrection: For if he had only meant a providential Refurrection, then his faying that he fhould fee God with thefe Eyes, were no ftrange thing. Therefore I rather take them in a proper and literal Senfe, as holding forth the Refurrection of the Body; and of this mind were moft of the * Antients, and particularly Jerom has these

* Augustin, Cyprian, Gregory, Caffiodorus, Hierom, &c.

words:

Words: No body fo plainly speaks of the Refurrection after Chrift, as Job does before Christ. And St. Clement, who was a Companion and Fellow-Labourer with St. Paul the Apostle, in an Epiftle of his which he wrote to the Corinthian Church, does urge this very Text in Job to prove the Refurrection of the Body. His Words are thefe: *And again, Fob fays, Thou shalt raife up this Flesh of mine, that has fuffered all these things.

Therefore taking it for granted that we are to understand the Refurrection in a literal and proper fenfe; I fhall fpeak a little to this Point. And,

First, State my Notion concerning the Refurrection.

it.

Secondly, Affign fome Arguments to prove

Firft, State my Notion concerning the Refurrection, in thefe following Propofitions.

(1.) The Refurrection is a Change, not a new Creation. If God fhould annihilate all human Creatures, and make fome other human Creatures out of nothing; this would not be to raise them from the Dead, but to create them anew. This indeed would be a Restitution of the fame Species or Kind of Beings, that did exift before: but it would not be a proper Resurrection, because it is not a mere Change, but totally a new Production.

† Hieron, hæc habet: Nullus tam aperte poft Chriftum, quam ifte ante Chriftum de Refurrectione loquitur, Vid. Poli Synop, Crit. * Καὶ πάλιν, Ἰὼβ λέγει, καὶ αναςήσεις των σάρκα με ταυτίω, τὰ ἀναντλήσασαν ταύτα πάντα, P. 66.

Ep. 1. ad Cor.

(2.) The