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the Honourable Society, at whofe defire I appear here; a Society, that hath long and justly been. distinguished, by a wife and well directed zeal to promote the best and greatest interests of their fellow creatures in this world, and their everlafting peace and happiness in the next.

In the subject before us, there are four things that chiefly deserve our serious confideration.

1. The divine power and authority which our Lord here claims, and afferts.

2. The happiness of those who shall be blessed with the refurrection, and the life, which he alone can bestow.

3. The character of the perfons who fhall enjoy this great happiness.

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4. The full and effectual fecurity given to them, that this great felicity fhall be their final and everlasting portion. Jefus faid unto her, "I am the refurrection, and the life he that "believeth in me, though he were dead, yet "fhall he live."

First, Let us confider the divine power and authority, which our Lord claims, and afferts, in the verfe before us: "Jefus faid unto her,

vernment of God, the refurrection of the dead, and the enjoyment of eternal life. Though the men of genius and learning in ancient Greece and Rome, have fhewn many great inftances of civil and political wifdom; though their works of philofophy, oratory, and poetry, have transmitted their names with honour to posterity, and are fubjects of admiration and delight; yet their minds were exceedingly involved in the darkness. of ignorance and error, with refpect to the two important doctrines here fet before us, as well as to the other principal truths of religion. Of the refurrection of the dead, they knew nothing at all and when it was fpoken of in their hearing, as it was by the Apoftle Paul at Athens, they treated it as a mere chimera, as a vain and wild fancy, that had no foundation in truth. It was referved for our Lord alone to bring life and immortality fully to light by the gospel. Under this difpenfation of divine truth and grace with which the world is now bleffed, the refurrection, and eternal life, are no longer fubjects of curious and ingenious fpeculations; they are matters of fact, in which, as reasonable and accountable creatures, as men and Christians, we are deeply interested: and, like other matters of fact, they admit of proof from teftimony.

Accordingly, our bleffed Lord hath condefcended to establish the truth of his doctrine on thefe important fubjects, by clear and incontestable evidence. Not to mention the refurrection of the daughter of Jairus, and of the widow's fon at Nain, there is, in this very chapter, a most decifive proof, that our Lord Jefus Chrift is, indeed, what he here declares himself to be, "the "Refurrection, and the Life." The fact and teftimony to which I refer, is the refurrection of Lazarus. "Then they took away the stone "from the place where the dead was laid. And "Jefus lifted up his eyes, and faid, Father, I thank "thee that thou haft heard me. And I knew "that thou heareft me always: but becaufe of "the people which ftand by, I faid it, that they

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may believe that thou haft fent me. And "when he thus had fpoken, he cried with a loud. "voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was "dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound about "with a napkin. Jefus faith unto them, loose him, and let him go." This miracle alone is fufficient to prove, not only all that our Lord hath faid in the text, but his whole divine miffion.

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vernment of God, the refurrection of the dead, and the enjoyment of eternal life. Though the men of genius and learning in ancient Greece and Rome, have fhewn many great inftances of civil and political wifdom; though their works of philofophy, oratory, and poetry, have tranfmitted their names with honour to pofterity, and are fubjects of admiration and delight; yet their minds were exceedingly involved in the darkness of ignorance and error, with respect to the two important doctrines here fet before us, as well as to the other principal truths of religion. Of the refurrection of the dead, they knew nothing at all: and when it was fpoken of in their hearing, as it was by the Apoftle Paul at Athens, they treated it as a mere chimera, as a vain and wild fancy, that had no foundation in truth. It was reserved for our Lord alone to bring life and immortality fully to light by the gospel. Under this difpenfation of divine truth and grace with which the world is now bleffed, the refurrection, and eternal life, are no longer fubjects of curious and ingenious fpeculations; they are matters of fact, in which, as reasonable and accountable creatures, as men and Chriftians, we are deeply interested: and, like other matters of fact, they admit of proof from teftimony.

feparation of the foul from the body at death, which is, or ought to be, an object of terror to the wicked, is the caufe of joy and triumph to the righteous: "Then fhall the duft return

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to the earth as it was; and the spirit fhall re

turn unto God who gave it." "When abfent "from the body, it fhall be prefent with the

Lord." As the eternal life into which the righteous fhall then enter, is to them" the gift of "God through Jefus Christ our Lord," fo it is the purchase of his infinitely precious blood, who '' once fuffered for fins, the juft for the unjust, "that he might bring us to God *." Then shall the righteous appear in the Divine prefence, and fhall dwell for ever in their Father's houfe, as his beloved and dutiful children, "who have been

washed, and fanctified, and juftified in the tz name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of "our God f." Then fhall they know, and feel to their unfpeakable joy, that the eternal life referved for them in heaven, is the completion. and perfection of the fpiritual and divine life. with which they were bleffed on earth. They fhall receive and enjoy it too, as proceeding from the fame caufe, the love of God in Jefus Chrift

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*Rom. vi. 23. 1 Pet. iii. 18. † 1 Cor. vi. 11.

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