4. When we can blefs GOD for all Things, Job i. 21. 1 Theff. v. 18.

MOTIVES.

1. We daily pray that the Will of GOD may be done, S. Matt. vi. 10.

2. Whatsoever we fuffer, tho' it be more than we would, yet it is less than we deferve, Lam. iii. 39. Ezra ix. 13.

3. GOD's Will muft ftand, whether we fubmit or no, Ifa. xlvi. 10. Prov. xix. 21.

4. The End of Troubles is to try us, whether we will fubmit to His Will or not, Job i. 11.

5. There is no Mifery we can undergo, but by this Submission it is turn'd to a Mercy.

6. This Submiffion is the best Evidence of true Grace.

7. It is the best Means to an happy and comfortable Life.

8. We are unfit to choose any Thing ourfelves;

1. By Reafon of the Ignorance of our Understandings.

2. By the Perverfenefs of our Wills, Rom. vii. 19.

9. We cannot be fav'd, unless we fubmit to GOD's Will.

10. Chrift fubmitted,

S. LUK.

S. LUK. xxiv. 6.

He is not here, but is rifen.

S without Faith in Chrift, we can never come to the Enjoyment of Him, fo without the Knowledge of Chrift, we can never come to Faith in Him; fo that it as much concerns us to know Him here, as to look after the Enjoyment of Him hereafter. Now there is a twofold State of Chrift, neceffary to be known by us, in order to our Enjoyment of Him; His State of Humiliation, and His State of Exaltation, in which the Execution of His threefold Office, and the whole Difpenfation of our Salvation confifteth..

Of His Humiliation there are three Degrees, His Sufferings upon Earth, His Burial under the Earth, and His Defcent into Hell; and fo likewife in His Exaltation there are three Degrees too, His Refurrection from the Earth, His Afcent into Heaven, and His Sitting at the Right Hand of GOD.

It is the first which we this Day celebrate, and therefore the first we shall at this Time speak a little to; even, that He is not here, but is risen. They are the Words of two Angels, in the Shape of Men, to fome Women that came to anoint Chrift's Body in the Sepulchre; who finding the Stone rolled away, and no Body in the Sepulchre, are much perplex'd at it, till at length the Angels ask them, why they feek the Living amongst the Dead, and tell them, He is not here, but is rifen.

DOCT.

DOCTRINE.

Chrift is rifen from the Dead.

That Chrift was crucify'd, dead and buried, it was the Jews Faith and Derifion; but that He rofe again the third Day, is only a Chriftian's Faith and Perfuafion. And obferve, we are not only to believe, that He rose again, but that He rofe the third Day. Tho' He that came to bring others to the Joys of Life, was Himself brought into the Pangs of Death; yet it was not in the Power of Death, long to detain the Lord of Life; tho' Worms had Power to fend Him to the Grave, yet they had not Power nor Time to feed upon Him there. No, He had lain but one whole Day, and two Pieces, before the Angels cry out, He is not here, but is rifen.

He lay three Days, that we might believe He was not alive but dead; He rofe again the third Day, that we might believe He is not dead but lives, lives now to make Interceffion for our Souls in Heaven as really, as once He died to make Satisfaction for our Sins on Earth. He is not therefore here, He is rifen.

This Truth I fhall fhew you, both the %T and ♪i'r of; first, that it was fo; and then why it was fo, that Chrift rofe from the dead.

I. That Chrift rofe from the Dead. It is an Article of our Faith, which all true Chriftians are perfuaded of, but none can be too much confirm'd in; for this Article of our Faith is the Foundation of our Religion, and the Ground of all our Comfort, the Bafis of Christianity, the Sum of the Law and the Gofpel; and if we were fully perfuaded of this Article of our Faith, what a wonderful Change would it make in all the Actions

Actions of our Life? Did we verily believe, that He is rifen from the Dead, and that all Power is given Him in Heaven and in Earth, and that He is at this very Moment making Interceffion for us; how active should we be in Duty, how zealous for His Glory, how conftant in our Attendance upon Him, how scornful of all Things in Comparison of Him?

Now there are four Things which may convince us of the Certainty of it.

1. The Old Testament foretold it.

2. The New Teftament afferts it.

3. There were many Eye-Witnesses of it. 4. The Spirit of GOD gives Testimony

to it.

1. The Old Teftament foretold it, that it fhould be fo: It is no new Doctrine brought of late into the Church of GOD, but as old as Mofes and the Prophets; fo that the very Scriptures, which the Jews fo zealously maintain, and fo conftantly affert to be the Word of GOD, may condemn them of their Error in this Point, foretelling the Refurrection of Christ.

2.

1. Typically, in Ifaac's Deliverance from Death, Gen. xxii. 12. In Joseph's Redemption out of Prifon, Gen. xli. 14. And in Jonah's Preservation in the Whale's Belly, and his being brought out of it the third Day, Jon. ii. 10. Exprefly, Pfal. xvi. 10. A&t. ii. 31. Ifa. liii. 10. Pfal. ii. 7. A&t. xiii. 33. Ifa.ix.7. Indeed, this was fo evidently known, even under the Old Teftament, that Job could ftedfaftly fay, Job xix. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; so that we may fay, as

it

it is, A. xxvi. 22, 23. Having therefore obtain'd Help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, faying none other things than those which Mofes and the Prophets did fay fhould come. That Chrift should fuffer, and that he should be the first that fhould rife from the dead, and should fhew Light unto the People, and to the Gen

tiles.

2. The New Teftament afferts it, Rom. vi. 9, 10. and xiv. 9. 1 Cor. XV. 20. this was the great Doctrine which the Apostles taught, A&t. ii. 24.

And as for the Evangelists, tho' there be some things which only One of them records; fome things which Two only; fome which Three fet down, yet about this Article of our Faith, they All agree, as we may fee, S. Matt. xxviii. S. Mar. xvi. S. Luk. xxiv. S. Joh. xx. Indeed, that His Body was not upon the Day after the Sabbath in the Grave, where it was laid the day before, the Jews themselves cannot but acknowledge; but only to falve the matter, they fay He was stoln thence by fome of His Difciples; which how true it is likely to be, let any one judge, that doth confider how ftrict a Watch was fet at the Door of the Sepulchre, S. Matt. xxvii. 65. But, faith the Watch, He was ftoln away while we flept; a likely matter, that fuch a Stone as that was, which two Women were confulting how to get roll'd away, themselves, it seems, not being able to do it; a likely matter, I say, that fuch a Stone should be roll'd away, and not waken the fleepy Watch that fat hard by; or if they were asleep all the while, How do they know he was folx away, or that it was His Difciples