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naturally consorts with those others of the same sort who are in open rebellion against him, because they may not, cannot be with him, whose portion is the blackness of darkness for ever. If, therefore, the soul [ would gain anything by death, and if it does not, the horrors of the change are unquestionable, it must itself first be "dead unto sin," and thus "freed" from it. The flesh, with its affections and lusts, may hinder" it, may "war against" it, may surround it with incentives to vice; it may not be able to shake off altogether the law of the members, but it must not be consenting unto them, it must die with Christ unto its own sin, it must loathe the bondage it is under, it must be pure, it must be spiritualized; and then the way before it is plain, the death of the body will be its complete emancipation, it will be the destruction of its greatest and most dangerous enemy, of all that hindered its approach to God.

It is the want of these affections, freed from sin, it is the want of this crucified spirit, that prevents men finding consolation in the Lord where consolation is most

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wanted, where one time or another it must be called for. When others depart, it is but cold comfort to the corrupt unspiritualized heart, conscious that it has itself no such hope on which to rest, to say that the dead hath died in the Lord:" and when his own "last bed of languishing" is made, when his own time is come, how, even if it were true, could it console the sufferer in the dark hour of apprehension and mortal dread, to suggest that he was dying to that which in life he most loved, and on which all his affections were irrecoverably fixed? But he will not die to sin, he will live to it; not to its fair outside, but to its internal loathsomeness; not to its beauty, but to its corruption; not to its fruit, but to its sting. Yes, so it is throughout; we cannot give religious comfort to those that are not of God. Without holiness, real spiritual holiness, and sanctification of the affections, the gospel is as nothing to us. Every principle it inculcates, if acted upon, leads to it; every doctrine it teaches, if followed up, enforces its necessity; its ordinances are enjoined for the benefit of those who practise it,

and every consolation it offers presupposes it. Each one who is baptized into its holy religion, if his baptism be effectual, if he be baptized into Christ, is baptized into his death. The old man of sin, subject unto sin, dieth, and the new man liveth, subject unto Christ and unto righteousness.

What manner of men then ought we to be, who have partaken of this precious rite? Who, being enrolled in the number of Christ's flock, have pledged ourselves to follow himn in his life and in his death? Do we wish to prove ourselves worthy of our profession, do we wish to make use of its advantages? If so, shall sin any more have dominion over us? Shall we yield ourselves voluntary servants of unrighteousness? Shall we not rather shake off the cruel captivity? Shall we not rather call in the aid of the Spirit of God, to purify our minds from the taint of inbred corruption; and then with its aid struggle against the desires of the flesh, as against a most malicious foe, who would deprive us of the benefits of salvation, and rob us of all that God in Christ hath given? Oh then, if we have hitherto done it, let us

deceive ourselves no more. Let us examine the spirits of our minds, let us probe our hearts, let us sift our affections, and see whether they be indeed dead unto sin, and thus freed from its yoke. If we voluntarily give way to the corrupt inclination of the flesh, to cast off God's law and gratify its own lusts, they are not so; and if they are not, let us, with that awful hour before us, when they must either live unto sin, or die to it for ever, strive earnestly, and entreat God that they shortly may be. This is the only preparation for death, and it is a preparation which ought to be as universal as death itself is certain. If it were, the destroyer would, even to our mortal apprehensions, be deprived of more than half his terrors; we should say of those who have submitted to the stroke,

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they have cast off their burden, they rest in the Lord;" and though naturally possessed with awe at the prospect of the mighty change, we should ourselves look forward to the hour of dissolution as to the putting off of a galling chain, a final escape from that which was most the object of our fears.

LECTURE IX.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEA D.

CHRIST RISETH.

ACTS XVII. 32.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

HAVING, in the preceding lecture, consigned the body to the grave, with a well grounded hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the dissolution is, to the redeemed and sanctified spirit, a final emancipation from bondage and corruption, let us consider whether there is any thing to look forward to with respect to the body itself which may rescue the work of Deity from its fellowship with clay, and prove it created for a destiny more glorious than, after a few short years of life and motion,