pointed in his wonderful wisdom, he will draw them out again by his infinite power, and will say to us all, "Come forth, and appear to judgment."

Secondly, The people of Israel went down into Egypt, and dwelt there 100 years or thereabouts, as in a kind of sepul chre; but God delivered them at last, and caused them to go up to the land of Canaan, as by a blessed resurrection.

Thirdly, The Red Sea, into which the people went down, and in which Pharaoh with all his host was drowned, is an image of our grave; and the great power of God discovered to make this people pass through that dreadful sea, and to go up out of its depth as by a miracle, shews to the blindest understandings, that omnipotence which God will one day manifest in drawing his people out of the depths of death, that we may be able to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.

Fourthly, When the ark of God's covenant was taken captive by the Philistines, and shut up in the house of Dagon, it was a type of those bodies which God hath chosen for his ark, and which are to remain for a time in Satan's prison, under the command of Death. But when the Philistines sent back again this ark, and that the children of Israel received it with outward expressions of great joy, it is a plain description of that which shall happen when God shall oblige Death to open all its prisons, and release all its pri soners; a description, I say, of the wonderful joy of the inhabitants of the celestial Canaan.

Fifthly, Babylon also, where the church of Israel remained captive threescore and ten years, is a symbolical representa tion of the grave, where these miserable bodies are to continue in captivity. Therefore in allusion, the prophet styles it a lake without water; but the deliverance of Israel from the

Babylonish

Babylonish captivity, is a type of our glorious resurrection. For that reason the holyman of God speaks of it in such terms. as have respect to the resurrection of our bodies from the grave.

Sixthly, Solomon's temple, that was demolished and pulled down by Nebuchadnezzar, and that lay many years in a de. solate condition, is another type of the bodies of believers destroyed by the devil, and remaining for a time in the dust. But when the Jews were returned from Babylon, they reared up the walls of this temple, and built it again. This represents the resurrection of our bodies, the temple of our living God. Our Saviour had an eye to this allusion, when he told the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and I will build it up again in three days." For his beloved disciple adds immediately after, that he spoke of the temple of his body.

Seventhly, You may find the types and images of the same thing in many of the faithful, in Joseph, Daniel, and Jonas. For as the prisons of Egypt, the lions' den, and the whale's belly, represent the graves; likewise, when Darius caused Daniel to be taken out of the den, and when God ordered the whale to cast up Jonas upon the dry ground, the resurrection is thereby described.

Eighthly, But there is no passage, type, nor figure, more plain in the Old Testament, concerning the resurrection, than that of the xxxviiith of Ezekiel. For that the children of Israel might understand the greatness of God's power, able to free them from the Babylonish captivity, he caused the resurrection of the dead to appear before his prophet. He carried him away into a large field, covered all over with dead and dry bones. At God's command these bones drew near to one another, and began to be joined; afterwards the sinews appeared, the flesh covered them, and the skin was stretched over them: then a breath came from the four winds

upon

upon these dead bodies, entered into them, and they rose up alive upon their feet, so that they seemed as a great army.

But God hath not only represented the resurrection by many illustrious and excellent types, but he hath also expressly foretold it by the holy prophets. Isaiah speaks of this mystery in an excellent manner : "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they rise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead," Isa. xxvi. And there can be nothing plainer than the prophecy of the prophet Daniel," And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt," Dan. xii.

Therefore, in hopes of the resurrection, the patriarchs were very careful of their tombs. Abraham, the father of the faithful, had no inheritance in the land of Canaan, and yet he was very desirous to buy for himself and family a burying-place. When Jacob lay upon his death-bed, he commanded his son Joseph, "Deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt; but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place," Gen. xlvii. And when Joseph was ready to yield up his soul unto God, he told his brethren, "That God would surely visit them; and that they should carry his bones from thence," Gen. 1..

All the faithful of the Old Testament have publicly declared their expectation of this blessed resurrection from the dead, as it may appear by that notable passage of Job, "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; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another's."

Job

Job xix. As may also appear by the magnificent words of David, "I will behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness," Psa. xvii.

Those blessed martyrs, mentioned in the book of Maccabees, were so well persuaded of this doctrine, that they had the courage willingly to offer their bodies to death and torments the most dreadful. You may hear one speaking boldly to king Antiochus, that most cruel tyrant, who would have forced him to break the law of God, "Thou murderer, thou deprivest us of life; but the King of the world shall raise us up at the resurrection to an eternal life, since we die for his laws." Another, animated with an holy zeal and an heroic spirit, delivers his tongue and hands to be cut off, with this saying, "I have received these things from heaven; but I now despise them for the laws of my God; for I hope he will restore them to me again." A third, slighting the tyrant's threats and promises, uttered this excellent saying, "It is better for me to leave the expectations of men, to look for what God promises, that I may again rise by his power.” But nothing appears more admirable than the mother of those illustrious children: when speaking to the seventh, theyoungest of all, she uses this language," I know not how you were formed in my womb; for I never gave you a spirit, nor life, nor gathered together your limbs into a body; but the Creator of the world, the Author of nature, who by his power and goodness has formed the beginning of all things, he will of his mercy restore to you again your spirit and life, because you now value not yourselves for the sake of his laws."

Martha, the sister of Lazarus, was well acquainted with this mystery, as is to be proved by what she told our Saviour Christ, "I know that my brother shall rise again at the resurrection at the last day." And the Pharisees maintained the belief of the resurrection from the dead against the Sad

ducees,

ducees, who denied the resurrection and immortality of the soul. Therefore when St. Paul was to answer for himself before the Jews' tribunal, where half were Pharisees, and half were Sadducees, he made this profession, " I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee; for the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question." And when he made his apology before Felix the governor, he spoke in this manner: "This I confess unto thee, that, after the way which they call heresy, I worship the God of my fathers, be lieving all things which are written in the law and the prophets; and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust."

...As the Jews of our time have forsaken God, God hath also forsaken and given them over to a reprobate sense; for as they set aside the infinite merits of the death and passion of Jesus Christ, they vainly persuade themselves, that their sins are sufficiently expiated by their own deaths; notwithstanding the grievous corruptions that are to be found in their doctrines, they depart out of this life in hopes of rising again one day. For that reason they are careful in washing their dead bodies, in burying them with honour and decency; and when they have thus laid them in their graves, they bow themselves three times towards the earth, and cast behind them grass newly plucked up from the ground. By which ceremony they would have us understand, that corpse which they lay in the earth shall one day rise again, and push forth; according to the prophet's expression, "Your bones shall grow as the grass."

But this article of the resurrection of our bodies, which is found in some few passages of the Old Testament, is to be seen almost in every page of the New; and the texts concerning this truth are so plain and express, that it is not pos