ask all things, we ask nothing but what is well and truly paid for by our Lord Jesus.

3dly, All the blessings purchased and bought by Christ's blood, are bequeathed to us, and left, by him that shed it. Christ's blood is a testamentary bequeathing blood and be-, lievers in their coming to the throne of grace may come as suers for the execution and fulfilment of the last will and testament of our Lord Jesus. For Christ by his death turned the gospel and new covenant into a testament, Heb. ix. 15, 16, 17. His death confirms his testament. His last will is, that all the blessings his blood purchased, might be secured and laid up for, and in due time given forth to them they were purchased for, and bequeathed to. The whole legacy of grace and glory, and all the legatees, are and were well known to the testator and executor, (though not to us particularly); and the testament will be punctually fulfilled.

So much for the assistance to faith that Christ's death affords. Learn to feed on it. He that cannot make a soul meal, and take a soul fill of a slain Saviour, is a sorry Christian. A true Christian is a poor starving sinner, digging in Christ's grave for eternal life. There it only is, and there he surely

finds it.

5. We find further in our Lord Jesus, (and indeed every thing in and of him helps forward our confidence in coming to God), that this great person the Son of God in our nature, this great officer that lived so holily, and died so virtuously, that he also rose again from the dead. The resurrection of our Lord is also a mighty ground of boldness: 1 Peter i. 3. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If Christ had lain still in his grave, our hope had lain there but because he rose, our hope also riseth with him. So 1 Pet. iii. 21. where the apostle hath an elegant similitude. He compares Christ to the ark of Noah. All that were in this ark, were saved, and they only; the deluge drowned all the world besides. They that were saved in the ark, were saved from drowning in the water, and quere saved by water. The like figure whereunto, baptism, nor saveth

too;

84743 A

1

100

us, (Will bare water-baptism save? No: Not the ping away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience to wards God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As if the apostle had said, "He that by faith hath sucked in the virtue ❝of Christ's resurrection, and can by that faith plead it be "fore God, is a saved man. "deluge of God's wrath, this man is in the ark, and nothing If all the world perish in the "shall hurt him." But, alas! Christ's resurrection is looked upon by many professors as a part of gospel history and truth, that it is a shame for any to be ignorant or doubt of; and therefore they profess the faith of it. But they consider not, that a great part of the food of our souls, and of our faith, doth lie in this point of truth. This I would shew in three things.

eyes to

1st, Christ's resurrection was a demonstration of the divine dignity of his person: Rom. i. 4. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. The glorious rays of his Godhead did appear in his word and works; and some had behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even when he dwelt among men, John i. 14. But his glory was under an eclipse till his resurrection. How stately and how sweetly doth he himself express it! Rev. i, 17, 18. I am the first and the last, (high names of a divine eternal person): I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. They that saw him dead, could hardly believe he should ever live again; and they that saw him alive, had need of faith to believe he had ever been dead. He asserts both, and we should believe both. Since death entered into the world by sin, never was there a man more truly, really, and fully dead, than the man Christ was, who died for our sins: and there is no man on earth more truly alive, than the man Christ is now a living man in heaven. He in his rising gave proof of his divine power. cified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, 2 Cor. He was cru There was never such an appearance of weakness in the man Jesus, as when he expired, and lay cold dead in his grave. Never did sin reign so unto death, nor the law's power more appear, than in slaying the second Adam. As

xiii. 4.

great, and greater, was the appearance of his divine power in his rising again: John x. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. Christ died that he might rise again. He went amongst the dead that he might rise from the dead: ver. 18. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. Christ was bid both die and rise again. Blessed be the commander, and blessed be the obeyer; for our everlasting life is in this commandment, John xii. 50. Never any but Christ had this power of his own life. We must yield our life when God calls for it, and till then we must keep it; and when that call comes, we must obey. We die, because we can live no longer, and because our times are in God's hand. And when it shall please the Lord to raise up our bodies at the resurrection, we receive our life again; but have no power to take it up again, till the powerful word of Christ come, Arise from your graves; and that word gives us our life again. None, but Christ had power of his own life, both to lay it down, and to take it again. We dare, we can, we should do neither; but only obey, and submit to the sovereign will of our high landlord, at whose pleasure we are tenants in these clay cottages.

2dly, Christ's resurrection was a demonstration of the acceptance of the sacrifice of himself; that the blood he shed, and sacrifice he offered, was savoury, and acceptable with God; that the debt was fully paid, and the payment accepted, when the surety was discharged of his prison. Therefore we find it so often written, that God raised him from the dead, Acts ii. 24, 32. even when it is said, that it was not possible that he should be holden of death. Death and the grave are strong and cruel, Song viii. 6. They have taken, or will take all mankind prisoners, and are able to keep them: only they took one prisoner, Jesus Christ, who was too hard, too strong, for them. Death had dominion over him but for a little while, and by his own consent, Rom. vii. 9.; but it hath no more dominion over him. But he hath dominion over it: I have the keys of hell and of death, Rev. i. 18. Courage, believers in, and heart-lovers of Jesus Christ! Death and hell

are indeed dreadful jails; but as long as Christ keeps the keys, (and that will be till he cast them both into the lake of fire; Rev. xx. 14), no believer shall ever be locked up in them. If hell were searched never so narrowly, amongst all the con demned prisoners there, no man or woman could be found in it, in whose heart there was ever one spark of true faith in, or love to the Lord Jesus, Heb. xiii. 20. God brought again from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Christ is also often said to rise by his orn power. Christ put forth his divine power in his resurrection : the Father declared his full satisfaction with his undertaking of the work, and payment of the price of redemption, by discharging of him in, and by his resurrection. The angels work was only to roll away the stone; but by his own divine power, his blessed soul did take possession of his dead body; and he did rise up immediately, a truly living man. And this he did by his Father's leave and will; and the angels served only as serjeants and officers, to unlock the prisondoors of the grave: for Christ could easily have removed the stone by his own power, as he did greater things in his resurrection. No wonder the apostle Paul made it one of his great aims in Christianity, to know the power of Christ's resur rection, Phil. iii. 10. It is not to know the history of his resurrection, nor is it to know the mystery of his resurrection, but it is to know the power of it. The same power that Christ raised himself from the dead by, is put forth, (and no less is needful) for the raising of a dead sinner. The same power that raised the Saviour, dead for sin, is needful for raising a sinner dead in sin: Rom. vi. 4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life, Eph. i. 19. There is an exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, &c. How loth are men to admit this, that the saving quickening of a sinner requires the same divine power that quickened the dead Saviour? All saving conversions are the fruits of Christ's resurrection, and of almighty power.

3dly, Christ's resurrection is the pledge and earnest of our resurrection, and of eternal life. How great things doth Paul build upon it! 1 Corinthians xv. He proves our resurrection from Christ's resurrection. He argues for Christ's resurrection, by enumerating of absurdities that must follow on the contrary; as, ver. 14. If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Ver. 15. We (the apostles) are found false witnesses of God. Ver. 17. Ye are yet in your sins. Ver. 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. Ver. 19. We are Ver. 19. We are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. Ver. 20. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. The first Adam was made a living soul, ver. 45. But when he became a sinner, he became a killing head to all his posterity, Rom. v. 12. The second Adam is a quickening Spirit, and gives eternal life to all his seed. And he took possession of this eternal life in his human nature, and in our stead, at his resurrection. He conquers and subdues that death the first Adam brought in, and reigns over it by his grace, Rom. v. 21. Christians, would you aspire after the resurrection of the dead, as Paul did? Phil. iii. 11. direct all your aims, build all your hopes on Christ's resurrection: Because I live, ye shall live also, John xiv. 19. This living head will in a little time have no dead members; with his dead body shall they arise, Isaiah xxvi. 19.

6. Christ's ascension into heaven, is a ground of boldness in coming to the throne of grace. So in the context, ver. 14. He is passed into the heavens. This is great ground of faith, that Christ is in heaven, and for us hath entered within the vail, Heb. vi. 20. How dare a sinful man adventure into God's presence? Because there is a sinless man there, that went thither on purpose to mind our business, who are on earth. No man ever went thus into heaven, and on this errand, but our High Priest, John iii. 13. All others go thither to get for themselves: Christ ascended to get, and to give, Psalm lxviii, 18. Eph. iv. 8. How kindly did our Lord deal with his disciples about this, and how hardly were they persuaded to submit to his going away? He told them whither he was