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SERM.

IX.

be made publick to the whole World, and tranfmitted to all fucceeding Generations; ufhering it in with this earnest and paffionate Wish, O that my Words were now written! O that they were printed in a Book! That they were graven with an Iron Pen and Lead in the Rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth.

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AND after all, Why fhould it be thought a Thing incredible that God fhould raife the Dead? Surely it is no Contradiction for the fame Body which liv'd once, to live a fecond time; and with God nothing, which doth not imply a Contradiction, is impoffible. This indeed may feem to us a very difficult Work; yet not fo difficult, but that He who is endued with infinite Knowledge and Power may eafily accomplish it. If our Bodies are convey'd to the remotest Corners of the Earth, or lodged in its moft fecret and darkeft Chambers; yet an All-feeing Eye will ken them He who is always prefent in all Places, to whom the Darkness and the Light are

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both alike, will have no Labour to find them out. If they undergo great and numerous Changes, and lurk under a thousand different Forms; yét He, in whofe Book all our Members are written, will certainly know them again, howsoever alter'd or difguis'd. If they be confounded and mingled with common Duft, or with one another; He, whom no Likeness can deceive, will presently difcern them afunder. He, who is fubject to no Forgetfulness, will exactly remember to what Body each Particle of Duft belonged, and what Situation it had in that Body.

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AND the Power of God is as infinite as his Knowledge. We may in fome measure make a Judgment of it by the vifible Effects of it, the Production of the World, and all Things that are therein. All these He not only fram'd and fashioned, and difpos'd in that wonderful Order in which we behold them; but by the Word of his Power call'd them into Being out of nothing. And cannot He, who caus'd that to be which

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SERM.

IX.

.

was not, make a Thing which already hath a Being, to be what it hath been before? Cannot He who created, reftore? Cannot He who gave Life, revive? Certainly He, who can do the greater, can do the lefs. If He hath already done that, which to our Conceptions appears to be the most difficult, we need not scruple to believe that he is able alfo to do what is easier.

ALL fhall not obtain that happy Refurrection which Job expected; but yet all fhall rife. For the Refurrection fhall be as univerfal as Death it felf. The Just shall not be excluded, nor the Unjuft excus'd from it. All forts and Degrees of Men; High and Low, Rich and Poor, the Learned and Unlearned, the Bond and Free, the Civiliz'd and the Barbarians, who were levell'd by the Grave, fhall arife out of it too, without any other Marks of Diftinction, than what for their good or evil Works fhall be fix'd upon them. them. All Ages and Generations paft, prefent and to come; thofe who lie under our Feet, and we who walk

walk over them, and they who fhall
walk over us, fhall all meet Alive in one
general Affembly. They who have been
laid up
in the Heart of the Earth, and
they who have been buried in the
Deeps of the Sea, and they who have
been devoured by wild Beafts, and
they who have been burnt with Fire,
whofe Smoke hath been driven by the
four Winds; fhall all ftand upon their
Feet together, an exceeding great Army,
an innumerable Company of all Nations
and Languages, even all the Sons and
Daughters of Adam that ever departed
this Life, from the Beginning to the End
of the World.

THEY indeed who fhall be found Living at our Lord's coming, fhall not rife, because they fhall not dye; but they fhall undergo a fudden Change equivalent to a Refurrection. This Myftery St. Paul hath fhew'd us, that we shall not all Sleep, but we fhall all be changed in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye, at the last Trump.

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SERM.

IX.

SERM.

IX.

MANY ufeful Inferences might be drawn from what hath been faid; I fhall at this Time mention only two or three. And,

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Firft, THE Confideration of a future Refurrection is of fpecial Ufe to fupport and refresh our Spirits under all Calamities and Afflictions, as it gives us Ground to hope for Deliverance in this Life, or for an ample Compensation in the next. For He who can restore a dead Man to Life, can undoubtedly reftore a living Man to Health, Riches or Honour. If our Affairs be to appearance never fo defperate, they may be retriev'd by Him who can open our Graves, and command our dry Bones to live. But however it may please God to deal with us at prefent, we may affure our felves, that our Afflictions fhall at laft have a bleifed and joyful Ifue. The Day of Retribution fhall more than make us amends; and the Heaviness of our Crofs, if borne with Patience, fhall add Weight to our Crown. This Flefh fhall be purged from its Drofs in the Furnace of Affliction; and having

pafs'd

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