said, " Because I live, ye shall live also°." We may be assured, therefore, that, " if we bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus shall be made manifest in our body !>:" if "we be dead with him, we shall also live with him : for as, in that he died, he died unto sin once ; but, in that he liveth, he liveth unto God ; so may we confidently reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord''." " Being planted in the likeness of his death, we are perfectly assured, that we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection^."]
2. Of his determination to raise us to eternal life —
[Frequently did our Lord say, respecting his believing people, "I will raise them up at the last day\" And, in raising up himself, he has given us a pledge that he will do so. For he did not rise as an individual person merely, but as the Head and Representative of all his people ; as it is written, " Now is Christ risen from the dead, and is become the first- fruits of them that slept*." The first-fruits, you know, sanc- tified and assured the whole harvest : and precisely so does his resurrection assure ours : for, " if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us". Indeed this shall be effected by our Lord Jesus Christ himself: for, whilst he was yet upon earth, he declared, that " all who were in the graves should hear the voice of the Son of God, and should come forth ; they that have done good, unto a resurrection of life : and they that have done evil to a resurrection of damnation^."]
Address —
L The unbelieving rejecter of the Gospel salvation —
[Thou dost not believe in Jesus, except as a prophet, a man like unto thyself; who died, indeed, as an example, to confirm his word ; but never rose to carry on his work ; nor is a Saviour to us any more than Moses himself was. Come, then, and inspect the tomb where he was interred : " Come, and see the place where the Lord lay." Tell me, Who removed him thence? Wilt thou adopt the story which the priests invented, and the soldiers were bribed to circulate, that the Disciples came by night and stole him away? What! were all the soldiers asleep, when the penalty of sleeping at their posts was death ? And if they were asleep, how could they tell what was done ? And how came it that Jesus, for the
0 John xii. 32. p 2 Cor. iv. 10. 'i Rom. vi, 8 — 11.
r Rom. vi. 5. s John vi. 40, 54. * 1 Cor. xv. 20.
-» Rom. viii. 11. and 2 Cor. x. U. "^ John v. 28, 29