of Christ and free grace; but if a few dead works make conscience lie quiet, then pride and selfwill contradict all that conscience said: this appears throughout all their writings. Thus they rebel in the face of truth, and oppose the verdict and sentence of their own thoughts and conscience. It requires a greater power to raise a dead soul to the life of faith, than to raise a dead body to life and action.

Lazarus, come forth!" The command was instantly obeyed, though the body was fettered with a winding sheet. "He that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin," John xi. 43, 44.

Ahimaaz. According to your account of popery and Arminianism, which you seem to view as one system, they are under the same contest that Nicodemus was, his conscience told him that Jesus was the great Messiah; this he owned. "We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." And yet his pride opposed his conscience; "Haye any of the rulers believed on him?" and if I go to him for tuition, what becomes of my infallibility and reputation? Thus he stands at the strait gate, and his own pride made the strait. Had he obeyed the voice of the inward testimony that the Saviour's miracles produced, without consulting his reputation, he would have been removed out of that strait into a broad place, where

there is no straitness, Job xxxvi. 16. But in order to keep up his reputation, and palm his conscience too, he acts the part of Guy Faux, goes by night, until he sees the crucifixion of the Saviour, and the judgments that attended his dying cry. Then he appears, and publicly owns the dead temple, though before ashamed to own the living God, that for above thirty years had dwelt in it, and displayed no less than omnipotent power from it. His pride procured him just cause for cutting regret.

Ahimaaz. Indeed, my brother, "the fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." And I believe thousands have been, and still are, taken in that snare; they love, as the Saviour says, "the praise of men more than the praise of God," John xii. 43. This is awful; as the Lord declares that, "whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. But do let me hear a little more of the Lord's proceedings with Prodigalis, for I dearly love to hear of converting work going on.

Cushi. Why, blessed be God, he is alive from the dead; as the Scripture says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power," Rev. xx. 6.

Ahimaaz. Pray what do you suppose the Holy

Ghost means by that text? Does he mean the preeminence of the saints at the general resurrection? or does he mean the saints rising to newness of life by the quickening power of the Holy Ghost at regeneration?

Cushi. Doubtless, the pre-eminence of the saints at the general resurrection is implied, because it is revealed, that "the dead in Christ shall rise first," 1 Thess. iv. 16. The saint shall have the pre-eminence in that day. "This their wicked way is their folly, yet their postesrity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning," Psalm xlix, 13, 14. Thus, you see, the dead in Christ shall rise first; the upright shall have dominion in that morning when the Sun of righteousness shall arise; "as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be," Matt. xxiv. 27. Ahimaaz, Pray what is meant by the dead in Christ?

Cushi. There are two heads who represent all the offspring of Adam; and every individual dies a member in union with one of those heads. The man that believes in Christ, hath righteousness and being joined to Christ, is

strength in Christ; and, of one spirit with him.

"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit," 1 Cor. vi. 17. By virtue of this spiritual union, he is a part of the mystical body of Christ, and a member in particular, 1 Cor.

xii. 27. This union was from all eternity between Christ and the elect; but it is not revealed till regeneration. Blessed are they that follow the Lord in the regeneration; they shall sit on thrones, Matt. xix. 28.

As members of Christ by grace, and in union with him by the spirit, they live in this world; and as his members in union they accordingly die: hence they are said to die in him. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them," Rev. xiv. 13. Persons thus departed are called by the apostle, the dead in Christ.

Christ is called the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, the quickening spirit; and those that die members of this heavenly head, are to be like him; as is the heavenly head, such are they also that are heavenly members. And as we have borne the image of the earthy head before conversion, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly head being converted, 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49.

On the other hand, Adam is the fallen head of all that are in the flesh, or in their first born state; never born again of the Spirit; hence they are called fleshly children; "that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God," Rom. ix. 8.

Christ and Adam are the two heads, the representatives of all the children of men. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a

living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit," 1 Cor. xv. 45. These are the two heads; one is called spiritual, and the other natural. Christ is the head of all the elect, they were chosen in him; and Adam is the head of all the reprobate. "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." Those that die in their first-born state, die members of fallen Adam, and are in the flesh, being destitute of the Spirit; such are not the children of God, but of the flesh; and "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

believer. "If ye

These are said not to fall asleep in the Lord, but to die, yea for ever. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," Rom. viii. 13; and if so, they die in their sins. This is the case with every unbelieve not that I am, ye shall die in your sins," John viii. 24. These expressions, I am, signify the self-existence, self-complacence, independence, and eternity of Jehovah the Saviour. The pronoun 'I' excludes all others in point of dependence; and the word, am, excludes both the past and the future tenses, and is expressive of his eternity. This name was revealed before the human nature was assumed; "And God said unto Moses, I am THAT I am; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the