comes propitions unto us, and ordained Christ's death to be a propitiation rs For we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is 'n Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation trough fhis is blood. We have an advocate with the Father, and bestuen tation for our sins. For God loved us, and sent his Son to n for our sins" It is evident, therefore, that Christ did te a pr renat G. & propitious unto us by his blood, (that is, his sufferings unto ere was offerded with us for our sins. And this propitiaJon acathed to a reconciliation, that is, a kindness after wrath. We zast toute ve that God was angry with mankind before he determined to gve nur Savior; we cannot imagine that God, who is essentially just, shund not abonate inspuity. The first affection we can conceive in sm spotte Lapse of man, is wrath and indignation. God therefore was st teraly ended before he gave a Redeemer; and though it be const true, that he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sr ere is no incongruity in this, that a father should be offended ? so wich beveth, and at that time offended with him when be lovich ba N.withstanding therefore that God loved men whom he treated, yet be was offended with them when they sinned, and gave his Scatter ir them, that through that Son's obedience he might be recorded to them.

In vain & is cipected that the Scripture saith our Saviour reconciled men to Govt but nowhere teacheth that he reconciled God to man: for in the hung age of the Scripture, to reconcile a man to God, is in our wigar hamage to reconcile God to man; that is, to cause him, who be fre was angry and offended with him, to be gracious and propitious to

As our Saveur adviseth, *If thou bring thy gift before the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there the before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy reuber "thasis, reconcile thy brother to thyself, whom thou hast injured, render ham by thy submission favourable unto thee, who hath something against thee, and is offended at thee. As the apostle adviseth the wife Separert from her husband, to remain unmarried, or to be reconcuantos har hasband," (1Cor. vii. 11:) that is, to appease and get the favour of the bustani In the like manner we are said to be reconciled unto God when God is reconciled, appeased, and become gracious and faverable unto us, and Christ is said to reconcile us unto God, when he bath mered, and obtained of God to be reconciled unto us, when he hath apceased him, and restored us unto his favour. Thus "when we were eccles we were reconciled to God," (Rom. v. 10;) that is, notwithstanding be was offended with us for our sins, we were restored unto his fraz by the death of his Son.

Nors 2 the second place] any wonder God should be thus reconled to sinners by the death of Christ, who while we were yet sinners žed for us, because the punishment which Christ, who was our surety, endured, was a full satisfaction to the will and justice of God. "The Sen of man care not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his be a ransom for many." Now a ransom is a price given to redeem such as are in any way in captivity; any thing laid down by way of compensation, to take off a bond or obligation, whereby he who before was bour i becometh free. All sinners were obliged to undergo such punishments as are proportionate to their sins, and were by that obligation made captive and in bonds, and Christ did give his life a ransom for them, and that a proper ransom, if his life were of any price, and given as such. For a ransom is properly nothing else but something of price way of redemption, to buy or purchase that which is detair for the releasing of that which is enthralled.

the life of Christ was laid down as

neither is it m
But it is most
ought with a

vi. 20; vii. 23,) saith the apostle, and it is the "Lord who bought us," (2 Pet. ii. 1,) and the price which he paid was his blood; for "we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." Now as it was the blood of Christ, so it was a price given by way of compensation: and as that blood was precions, so was it a full and perfect satisfaction. For as the greatness of the offence and iniquity of the sin is augmented, and increaseth according to the dignity of the person offended and injured by it; so the value, price, and dignity of that which is given by way of compensation, is raised according to the dignity of the person inaking the satisfaction. God is of infinite majesty, against whom we have sinned; and Christ is of the same divinity, who gave his life a ransom for sinners: for God hath purchased his Church with his own blood. Although therefore God be said to remit our sins by which we were made captive, yet he is never said to remit the price without which we had never been redeemed: neither can he be said to have remitted it, for he did require it and receive it.

If then we consider together, on our side the nature and obligation of sin, and on the part of Christ the satisfaction made and reconciliation wrought, we shall easily perceive how God forgiveth sins, and in what remission of them consisteth. Man being in all conditions under some law of God, who hath sovereign power and dominion over him, and therefore owing absolute obedience to that law, whensoever any way he transgresseth that law, or deviateth from that rule, he becomes thereby a sinner, and contracteth a guilt which is an obligation to endure a punishment proportionable to his offence; and God, who is the lawgiver and sovereign, becoming now the party wronged and offended, hath a more just right to punish man as an offender. But Christ taking upon him the nature of man, and offering himself a sacrifice for sin, giveth that unto God for and instead of the eternal death of man, which is more valuable and accepatble to God than that death could be, and so maketh a sufficient compensation and full satisfaction for the sins of man: which God accepting, becometh reconciled unto us, and, for the punishment which Christ endured, taketh off our obligation to eternal punishment.

ON THE CREED.

$10. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY, AND THE LIFE

EVERLASTING.

WHAT are the last two articles of the Creed?

The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. How does man differ from the brutes?

He has a living soul, which shall exist eternally; while the spirit that animates the brute perishes together with its body.

The resurrection unto eternal life is one of the principles of the doctrine of Christ, (Heb. vi. 2,) and one of the privileges of the members of Christ.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Eccl. xii. 7.

What becomes of the bodies of men when they die?

They are dissolved by corruption, and turned again into dust.

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister, when our rest together is in the dust. Job xvii. 14. 16.

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. Job xxxiv. 15.

Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Ps. xxii. 15. If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved.-2 Cor. v. 1.

Death is sometimes in the Scriptures called a sleep:not a sleep of the soul, but a sleep of the body till the last day.

Now shall I sleep in the dust. Job vii. 21.
Lest I sleep the sleep of death. Ps. xiii. 3.
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. John xi. 11.

It is the common lot of all, except Enoch, (Gen. v. 24,) and Elijah, (2 Kings ii. 11,) and there is no escaping it. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 19. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Ps. lxxxix. 48.

Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Rom. v.

12.

It is appointed unto men once to die. Heb. ix. 27.

What becomes of the souls of men at death?

They go to a place of happiness or misery, accordingly as they are prepared for the one or the other.

Lazarus and Dives: the rich man was tormented in hell; and Lazarus was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. Luke xvi. 23.

To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Luke xxiii. 43.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Luke xxiii. 46.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Acts vii. 59.

The spirits of just men made perfect. Heb. xii. 23.

I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, &c., and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long-dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Rev. vi. 9, 10.

How long will the bodies of men continue in the grave?
Till the morning of the resurrection.

The harvest is the end of the world. Matt. xiii. 39.

What is a resurrection?

The re-union of the soul and body.

The valley was full of bones: and they lived and stood up

This is equally as easy to God, as the uniting them together at first.

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? Acts xxvi. 8.

Will the same body rise which we now inhabit?-Will there be no alteration in it?

Our bodies will be the same, but they will experience such a change as will take away from them all tendency to decay, and adapt them for that eternal state of existence, for which we are hereafter destined.

The bodies of the saints will be fitted to bear an exceeding and eternal weight of glory; and those of the wicked to endure unspeakable and everlasting torment.

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 1 Cor. xv. 44.

We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.

This corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Cor. xv. 53.

Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Phil. iii. 21.

The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.

We shall rise with the same tempers and tastes which we had at the time of our death.

The proofs of a general resurrection are many. The prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous in the present life afford a strong presumption of it. The angels who sinned were punished: for God, who is just and holy, cannot permit sin to pass with impunity; and rewards have been promised, and punishments threatened to mankind in general; it follows, therefore, that as there cannot be equal retribution here, there must be a resurrection, "in which every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor. v. 10. Nor is there any thing in the fact itself which should render it improbable.

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John xii.

24.

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. 1 Cor. xv. 36.

The dust out of which Adam was made was as far from

The doctrine of a resurrection is taught both in the Old and New Testament.

[Abraham] accounted that God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead: from whence also he received him in a figure. Heb. xi. 19.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job xix. 25, 26.

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Ps. xvii. 15.

God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for he shall receive me. Ps. xlix. 15.

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Isa. xxvi. 19.

Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Dan. xii. 2.

O grave, I will be thy destruction. Hos. xiii. 14.

The Sadducees denied a resurrection: but the Pharisees, and other Jews, firmly believed it. Matt. xxii. 23. Mark xii. 18. Acts xxiii. 8. 1 Cor. xv. 12.

Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Matt. xxii. 31. Luke xx. 37, 38. Jacob had been dead two hundred years, when Moses thus spake.

The Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations. Matt. xxv. 31, 32. Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke xiv. 14.

Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth. John v. 28, 29.

That of all which [the Father] hath given me, I should lose nothing; but should raise it up again. John vi. 39.

I know my brother] shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. John xi. 24.

They preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Acts iv. 2.

[Paul at Athens] preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Acts xvii. 18.

God, who quickeneth the dead. Rom. iv. 17.

If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Rom. vi. 5.

He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. Rom. viii. 11.

God will also raise us up by his own power. 1 Cor. vi. 14.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 1 Cor. xv.