when he came in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory, then all those who were dead, . and in literal graves, rose into an immortal state, before the Christians who were literally alive felt the sweet coming of their Lord, and the Christians felt the change immediately after; this is plainly declared by St. Paul, 1. Cor. Xv, 61, 52, and 1. Thess. Iv, 14, on to 17, "Behold I shew you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them that are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend, &c. and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive shall be caught up with them," &c.; which shows that all the dead arose to immortality at the second coming of Christ. And I calculate that as soon as any man dies now under the reign of Christ, his resurrection to immortality immediately begins by the same power.

I am aware that the common ideas of many Christian people are,

1st. That the resurrection of the dead will not take place till the end, or destruction of this world. And, 2ndly. That the same bodies which die, will rise again, only they will be raised spiritual bodies.

To the first idea I reply, that there is, I think, no evidence in Scripture, nor in reason that this world will ever be destroyed. It is obvious, to be sure, that this world is now in a state of disorder; but the prophecies of both Testaments travail with declarations of its restoration to order, and purity. And I have elsewhere shown sufficiently, I hope, that those passages of Scripture which have been taken as prophecies of the end of this

world, are all figurative declarations of the overthrow of political and religious establishments in the world, &c. And, of course, I cannot see that Holy Scripture has prophesied of any particular future time when we may expect a resurrection of all the dead.

And to the second, I reply, that St. Paul shows plainly that the same body which dies, will not rise again. I. Cor. Xv, 36, "That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." That is, it must be entirely dead when it is quickened, verse 37, "And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be," verse 38, "But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him." As we all know that the new body which springs out of wheat, &c. after it is sown, is not the same body that was sown, verse 42, "So also is the resurrection of the dead, verse 44, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body, &c.

From the above it is obvious that after these bodies of flesh are dead, the power of Christ will quicken, and bring forth spiritual, glorious, immortal bodies out of them.

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If any person should object thus, that according to the above idea, the resurrection of an individual may be as long in its process as grain is in growing I answer, it may be much longer, and l will add, I have no doubt that Christ will bring every one forth into the eternal world with such a growth as shall be most salutary to our weak abilities of perception: I now return to the main point.

God took counsel to give his only begotten son, the first-born of every creature, to take upon him the flesh and blood of man, so that he might take all the sins of man upon him, and die with all the sins of the world upon him, that he might die unto sin for them all, and enter the prison of death and hell where all the prisoners were, and take the keys of hell and death from them, and burst

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their bands, and loose their pains, so as in due time to release all their prisoners by opening the prison, and proclaiming liberty to the captives, and that having risen from the dead, he should live unto God for all men as their brother and head, and as the first fruit of them that slept, so as to warrant the resurrection, and eternal life of all them that slept, that is, of all men, that he should appear among men for this glorious purpose, as it were, in the middle of the ages, that is, after many generations were in Hell, and while many generations were yet unborn, thereby shewing that his redemption was for the past, present, and future generations; all this being "according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," therefore God was pleased in the ages before his appearance, to give the promises of this redemption unto Prophets and wise men of old, some of which I have already quoted. And in order to establish the point I have in view, it becomes needful to show that the "nature of the gospel testimony," admits of no bad news, or bad tidings, as you cannot find a passage in the book where the word "Gospel" is associated with any unpleasant word, such as the Gospel of death, the Gospel of damnation, the Gospel of misery or the like. But always to the reverse, we have frequent expressions like the following, the Gospel of peace, the Gospel of salvation, the Gospel of the grace of God, &c.

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You may see, also, if you will take notice, that holy men of God who wrote the Scriptures understood the term, "good tidings," to be synonymous with the term, the Gospel," as for instance, in Isaiah Lxi, 1, "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach "Good Tidings," &c. This passage was read by Jesus Christ himself, Luke Iv, 18, "Thus, the spirit of the Lord upon me, because he hath pointed me to preach the Gospel," &c. Again,

see Isaiah LII, 7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth Good Tidings," &c. This passage is quoted by St. Paul, Rom. X, 15, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel," &c.

It must now be conspicuous that the nature of the gospel testimony is nothing else but to proclaim to man his eternal salvation through the grace of God, which is well worthy of the name of good tidings, as it is the best tidings that man ever heard.

To effect this salvation was the work of the Redeemer in his first advent, and in order to effect it, it was indispensable that sin should be destroyed, because sin, (which the Scriptures figuratively call "the devil,") is the very ruling power of death and hell, where we were all in prison. I have hinted before that Jesus Christ took on him the sins of all men, and died with them upon him, so dying unto sin for all men, sin, or the devil, of course, was destroyed by his death, and his rising from the dead without sin, of course, spoiled the principalities and powers of sin, or the devil, death and hell. These particular points I shall now immediately attempt to substantiate by plain Scripture Testimony that he took upon him the sins of all men and died with them all upon him, see ISAIAH LIII, 6, 12, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us All, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sins of many." 1. Pet. Ii,

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24, Who his own self bare Our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye are healed." 1. John Ii, 2, "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the Whole World." The following passages show that when he died, he died unto sin for all

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men, Rom. Vi, 10, "For in that he died, he died unto sin once." 2. Cor. V, 14, 15, "For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead," (that is, all dead to sin.) 1. Tim. Ii, 6, "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."—By the following passages which I shall quote, it will plainly appear that Christ not only died for all men, but that by his death he destroyed the enmity which was in man, which separated man from God, and which separated man from man; thereby himself becoming the atonement, the reconciliation, or the covenant of peace between man and man, and between God and You will see also by these following passages, if you will take notice of what they say, that this was the design of Christ's death, viz. to destroy sin, or the devil, or the enmity which is the same thing, and to destroy death and hell, and give an eternal release to all the prisoners. Heb. Ii, 9, 14, 17, "That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful highpriest in things to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Eph. 11, 14, 15, 16, "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." I. Thess. v, 6," For God hath not appointed us to