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This doctrine teaches us to think highly of Jesus Christ, as God over all, blessed for ever, as possessed of all Divine perfections; since he is the resurrection and the life, the first-fruits of them that slept; he is the efficient cause by whom, and the meritorious cause through whom, and the exemplar according to whom, the resurrection of the saints will be. The concern which the Holy Spirit has in our resurrection, may serve to endear him to us, and teach us not to grieve him, by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption, i. e. of our bodies from corruption and death; he not only sanctifies our bodies, and dwells in them, but has the care of our dust, and will quicken it at the last day. What an instruction is this doctrine to faith and trust in God, Father, Son, and Spirit? If God can and will raise the dead, what is it he cannot do? Faith should not stagger at any thing which God has promised to perform, or be discouraged at any difficulties in its way, or at any trials and afflictions it meets with. The consideration of this, that God quickens the dead, Rom. iv. 17-20, quickened Abraham's faith, so that he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, though there were difficulties attending it insuperable to nature. And when the Apostles had the sentence of death in themselves, they were directed not to trust in themselves," but in God, which raiseth the dead, who, say they, delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us,' 2 Cor. i. 9, 10. Moreover, this doctrine may teach us, that all due and proper care ought to be taken of our bodies, both whilst living, and when dead. All proper care ought to be taken of them whilst living; though they are not to be pampered, they are not to be starved. They are to be fed and clothed, according to the blessings of life, which God bestows upon men, provided the bounds of moderation and decency be observed; for to transgress these by luxury and intemperance, is not to use our bodies well, but to abuse them. And when the body is dead, care ought to be taken that it be decently interred, which may be con.

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firmed by the examples of Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea, and others.

2. This doctrine is of use for consolation. The day of the resurrection will be a day of consolation to the saints. Hence the Syriac version reads those words of Martha, "I know that he shall rise again, in the resur rection at the last day," John xi. 24, thus, "I know that he shall rise again, in the consolation at the last day." Then will be the consummation of the saints' joy and comfort, and a believing view of it now must be very delightful to them; as they are waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, so they may lift up their heads with joy, because this their redemption draweth near. The consideration of this doctrine must be a great support to saints under trials and afflictions, under diseases and distempers of body, in the views of death, and the several changes the body shall undergo after death; I say, it must be a very comfortable consideration, that, in a little time, all these trials will be ended; there will be no more diseases, nor death. And though the body, for a while, shall be. the food of worms, and return to its original dust, yet it shall be raised immortal and incorruptible, powerful and glorious; "This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruption must put on incorruption ;" and in our flesh shall we see God, and enjoy the company of angels and saints. To conclude: This doctrine must be of great use to support persons under the loss of near relations; when they consider, that though they are dead, they shall rise again; though they have parted with them, it is but for a time; and therefore they should not sorrow, even as others, which have no hope," 1 Thess. iv. 14, 17, 18, for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him; wherefore we may comfort one another with these words, and so shall we be ever with the Lord."

VINDICATION

OF THE

EVANGELICAL DOCTRINE OF MAN'S SALVATION BY THE FREE GRACE OF GOD,

FROM THE

CHARGE OF PROMOTING LICENTIOUSNESS,

By MR. ABRAHAM TAYLOR, Minister of the Gospel.

ROM. v. 20, 21, vi. 1, 2,

Where sin abounded, grace much more abounded; that as sin has reigned to death, so grace might reign, through righteousness, to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid: how shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer in it?

WHEN rational creatures rebel against their righteous and mighty Maker, they cut themselves off from all right to claim any benefit or blessing at his hands. They deserve nothing from him but wrath and indig nation; and if they are recovered from the ruin they have brought on themselves, and are made partakers of salvation, it is from the good pleasure of his will; and it must be in a way that does not injure his perfections. God foreknew the fall of his creatures, indued with reason; and it lay entirely in his breast, whether he would provide for their rescue, or for the deliverance of any number of them, or whether he would leave them, to feel the bitter consequences of their apostacy. If the last is supposed, he acts no injustice, for he gives

them no more than their deserts. When a numerous company of the mighty potentates of heaven, conspired against the Highest, under Satan's banner, proudly thinking to be more glorious than God had made them, he, who brought them into being, by the word of his power, cast them out of those thrones of honour, in which they sat exalted, banished them his presence, and doomed them to suffer eternal years of woe and pain. He had not a thought of mercy towards the princes of light, when rebellion rose among them, but entirely cast them off, and has reserved them in everlasting chains, under darkness, to the judgment of the great day, at which time, fulness of torment will be inflicted upon them, and they will not be suffered to range about the world, as they do at present, but will be shut up in that prison, where sorrow will take up its abode, and where despair will for ever keep up the horrors of its gloomy reign.

No one, who owns the Scriptures, ever had the face to charge God with injustice, for condemning the morning stars to blackness and darkness. He might, without any stain to his honour, have left the whole race of sinful men to destruction; for they, after transgression, have no more claim to his favour than the devils: but he was pleased to choose a remnant of them, in whose salvation he might make known the riches of his grace. That this might be done, without injury to his other perfections, he appointed Christ to be the Redeemer, to satisfy his justice, and so to procure for those for whom he died, a freedom from all evil, and a title to all good. The salvation of sinners, whether we regard it in its platform from eternity, or in its being actually brought about in time, or in its entire completion at the great rising day, is all by the grace of God, and on account of what Christ has done and suffered, and is not in the least owing to any thing which is in man, or is done by him. The revelation which gives an account of man's salvation by grace, is what is properly styled the Gospel of God; and when men hear the evangelical doctrine opened and unfolded,

unless the Holy Spirit leads them to the knowledge of the truth, they either rise up with rage against it, or they abuse it. Conceited mortals, who are for working out their salvation by their own strength, cannot bear that the glory of it should be given entirely to the grace of God, and not partly to their feeble endeavours; therefore they are filled with hatred against the doctrine of grace, and wickedly and maliciously charge it with opening a door for licentiousness; and in drawing this spiteful indictment, against the glorious Gospel of the blessed Jesus, it is to be feared, they have been not a little strengthened by the odious consequences which are sometimes attempted to be deduced from it, by such as wrest it, to countenance their immoralities. These, because they do not care to leave their sins, or to practise the difficult duties of repentance, self-denial, and mortification, have been ready to say, that if salvation is by grace, they shall certainly be saved, seeing they are elected, however they live; but herein they discover their great ignorance of the design of God, in the Christian scheme of salvation, which was not barely to debase man, and to exalt Christ, but to advance holiness.

The great Apostle of the Gentiles, in the words which have been chosen to speak from, declared, that when sin had brought men under the desert of eternal destruction, and so had abounded and reigned to death, grace much more abounded, to bring about the salvation of men, and so reigned to eternal life; but that it only reigned in a way of righteousness, because God would not dishonour his perfections; and that therefore it could reign to life no other way than by Christ, who could, by his active and passive obedience, satisfy the offended justice of God, and procure eternal life for sinners. He was sensible, that when he had asserted, that the grace of God was glorified, in the salvation of them who had transgressed, some perverse creatures might plead, that the more men sin, the more the grace of God is glorified in their salvation; and might hence infer, that they may abound in sin,

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