then thofe hopes, which were confiftent hopes upoп the foot of immortality, become very abfurd, when joined to a state of mortality? And thus the coming in of death obfcured the hopes of immortality.

Laftly, if we confider how our Saviour has enlightened this doctrine, it will appear that he has removed the difficulty at which nature ftumbled. As death was no part of the state of nature, so the difficulties arifing from it were not provided for in the religion of nature. To remove thefe was the proper work of revelation: thefe our Lord has effectually cleared by his Gofpel, and fhewn us that the body may and fhall be united to the fpirit in the day of the Lord, fo that the complete man fhall ftand before the great tribunal to receive a juft recompence of reward for the things done in the body. This account is given in the words preceding those of the text: who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gofpel. Now, if the abolishing of death was the bringing to light life and immortality, it is plain that the coming in of death was that which darkened nature in this great point of religion.

There are two things, as we learn from our Saviour's answer to the Sadducees, neceffary to confirm us in the belief of a refurrection to come; namely, the knowledge of the power of God, and of the will of God: Do ye not therefore err, says our Lord, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? The Scriptures contain the revelation of the will of God; and therefore the words, I reckon, are to be understood as if he had faid,

Ye err, not knowing the will of God and the power of God. If we are fatisfied in these two points, that God both can and will raise the dead, we shall want nothing to affure us of the certainty of a refurrection. The power of God we may learn from reason and nature: for what should make us doubt but that he, who at the first formed man out of duft and ashes into a living foul, fhould be able to call him into life again out of the fame ftate? But the Gospel has declared both his will and his power, which he confirmed in the raifing his own Son from the grave; and better evidence we could not have for the poffibility and certainty of a refurrection. This evidence of the Gospel has reinstated nature in all her hopes, confirmed her right to immortality, and taught her to triumph over death and the grave, which feemed before to be unmoveable bars to all her expectations. This has reftored religion, which had hardly one found foot to ftand on, and made our faith and our reafon confiftent, which were before at too great diftance. Nature indeed taught us to hope for immortality; but it was in spite of fenfe and experience, till the great Prince of our peace appeared, who brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel.

DISCOURSE VII.

ROMANS iv. 25.

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our juftification.

THE manner of expreffion here used is different

from what is generally to be met with in other parts of the New Teftament upon the like occafion. Here we are told that Chrift was delivered for our offences, and raised for our juftification; as if the remiffion of our fins was to be ascribed peculiarly to the paffion, and our juftification in the fight of God to the refurrection of Chrift: whereas in the chapter before this, ver. 25, the Apostle tells us in general, that God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood; and in ch. v. ver. 9, particularly and exprefsly, that, being juftified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him; and ver. 10, that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son. In the twentieth of the Acts, the Apoftle, in his exhortation to the elders of the church, warns them to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood, ver. 28. To the fame purpose both St. Peter and St. John speak; the one telling us, that the blood of Jefus Chrift cleanfeth us from all fin, 1 John i. 7; the other, that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Chrift, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, 1 Pet. i. 19.

It is the conftant tenor of Scripture, that atonement for the fins of the world was made by our great High Prieft upon the crofs; that his death was our redemption, and his blood the price paid for us. So that, when we confider the redemption (which includes our juftification) with respect to Chrift, the author and finisher of it, it must be ascribed to his death and paffion: but, as to ourfelves, our title and intereft in this common falvation being grounded on faith, our juftification, though purchased by the blood of Chrift, must be appropriated to ourselves through faith in that blood for the fame Apostle, who has told us that we are juftified freely through the redemption which is in Chrift Jefus, hath likewife told us that God hath fet him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. For this reafon we are faid to be juftified by faith; not that our faith is the purchase of juftification, which we owe to the blood of Chrift alone; but because through faith we obtain the benefit of the redemption wrought by Chrift Jefus. Now, though the death of Chrift was the reconciling of the world to God, yet the refurrection of Chrift is the great and folid foundation of our hope and faith in him, even of our faith in his blood, by which he made the propitiation for our fins and therefore, although Chrift died for our offences, and by his precious blood made atonement for our fins; yet, fince our faith in his death, our hope in his blood, by which hope and faith we are juftified, are built upon the truth and credit of his. refurrection, it is very properly said, that he rose again for our juftification: for the death of Chrift