as they are, by the original purpose and decree of God so chosen and adopted in Christ Jesus. And this view of them will at once explain how they are necessarily the children of the resurrection," from their first and eternal connection with Him, who is Himself "the resurrection and the life.”

And let me detain you, if but a moment longer, just to observe, that the blessedness contained in the very bosom of this great and leading truth of our most holy faith, is such as to endear it to the warmest affection of every regenerate child of God. The appellation of children, not only implies a perfect equality in all of that description in a family, but also of all being alike passive in the appointment. Children, born to an inheritance, are equally born, and equally obtain it as a gift. The heir of a kingdom, or the child of a cottage, are alike begotten to it without any act of either : and very eminently so in the heirs of grace, they are all alike declared to be born, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John i. 13.)

And let me add farther, and especially for the comfort of the little ones, that amidst small or great attainments, "the children of the resurrection" are not considered by any thing of what they are in themselves, but wholly as they are in Christ. The Lord Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, is equally such to all. They are buried with him, and must arise with Him, when the time arrives for their deliverance from the body of corruption, into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." This makes the everlasting security of the Lord's people, being all equally united to their Almighty Head; so that when Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, shall appear, the whole redeemed family of the Lord" shall appear with Him in glory!"

I begin with the former branch of the subject as

was proposed; namely, to shew who are the children; for as our Lord hath stated it, "they are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." And here I might enlarge, in shewing how they are children; and from everlasting by the eternal purpose of God, "being predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephes. i. 5.) And hence being thus predestinated by the Father, married by the Son, and anointed in Christ by the Holy Ghost; the whole persons in the GODHEAD concurred and co-operated in the vast design; and the adoption character of the church is completely proved and established. All the wonderful events which followed by One of the glorious persons in the GODHEAD, even the Son, taking into union with his divine nature that holy portion of our nature, and thereby becoming the visible Jehovah ; laid the foundation for all the subsequent acts he wrought in the great work of redemption. Hence all we read, and all that is recorded in the Scriptures of eternal truth, are bottomed on this one great basis. Children from all eternity, and decreed to be so to all eternity, could not lose that sonship by the fall, neither by any corruption derived from that fall, in their na- ture. Children they continue, though sinful children, and by sin justly exposed to divine wrath. Nevertheless their relationship could not be alienated by any after acts in time, who had been decreed and predestinated to the adoption of children, from and to all eternity. United to Christ, they were always one with Christ; and the fall gave occasion for redemption, thereby affording the means and opportunity for the glory of Christ; and both by death and the resurrection, raising up a greater revenue of praise to the Almighty Author of salvation than had the fall of man never taken place. Yea, this process of divine grace, as it concerns the church, must and will produce such

praise to Jehovah, in his trinity of persons, in the wonders and depths of wisdom and love and power, as are displayed, as could not have been shewn in the creation of others, and worlds without it. Hence we see the blessedness of the doctrine in the children of God being the children of the resurrection;" and who they are, by the original purpose and decree of God, "which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began."

And from this plain and scriptural statement, who "the children of the resurrection" are, we can easily discover, through divine teaching, under the second branch of our subject, how they are necessarily "the children of the resurrection," and how they are known.

Their entrance into a state of grace, by the divine operation of the new-birth, manifests their adoption in Christ; and their being made partakers of the divine nature by this sovereign act of God, opens and keeps open a communicable life, from their glorious head, of all spiritual blessings during their warfare through the world. Hence in death they are not as others who have no hope, for they sleep in Jesus, and are "the children of the resurrection." And as Jesus died and rose again, so they, as members of his mystical body, must die and rise with him, that where he is they must be also. (Rom. viii. 29. Phil. iii. 10, 11.) And this almighty act of raising every individual of his mystical body, is for the personal honour and glory of Christ, who having been crucified in weakness declared himself to have been "the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead:" (Rom. i. 4.) and in their being raised with him are also shewn to be "the children of the resurrection."

One observation more on this branch of the subject must not be omitted, which, from its vast importance,

makes a most interesting appeal to the heart of every regenerated believer among "the children of the resurrection," namely, that at this great day of our God, "the children of the resurrection" will arise by the sovereign power of our God, virtually the same identical persons as they died. Changed, wonderfully changed they will be from corruption to incorruption, and from mortality to immortality; but in respect to identity, precisely the same persons; that is to say, the very I that I now am, and the very you that you now are such we shall then both be. For otherwise, if it were a change of person, it would be another person; and then it would not be a resurrection but a creation. I hope you see the very great blessedness that is contained in this divine truth, that "the children of the resurrection" will arise substantially in person the same. Such did our most glorious Lord; he had said to the Jews before his death: "Destroy this temple (meaning the temple of his body) and in three days I will raise it up." (See John ii. 18. to the end of 22.) And such must it be to his people who are in all things to be conformed to his image, where they can be alike. (Phil. iii. 10.) Hence Job triumphed in this view: "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, though my reins be consumed within me." (Job. xix. 25-27.)

And now what is the result of all that I have been saying? Do any present feel the accompaniment of the Spirit in the ministry of his Holy Word, to believe the record which God hath given of his Son? If so, the Lord give grace to close the whole in prayer, and let us humble our souls at his footstool for his blessing.

"O Lord! the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, "give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of our uuderstanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints: and what the 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, and set him on his own right hand in heavenly places." Lord! help us to have a spiritual apprehension of Christ's resurrection, and our own resurrection secured in him; that when thou shalt be pleased to bring us down to the house appointed for all living, we may❝ rejoice in hope of the glory of God," perfectly satisfied from our oneness and union with our glorious Head, that "whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Amen.