March 27

But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming.—1 Corinthians 15:23.

FIRST Christ, and then we; and we, therefore, because Christ is already risen: but you must remember, that the resurrection and exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness; and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience, and the same perfect holiness, prepares a way for us to the same resurrection. If we, by holiness, become the sons of God, as Christ was, we shall also, as he was, become the sons of God in the resurrection: but upon no other terms. So said our blessed Lord himself: "Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel." For as it was with Christ the first-fruits, so it shall be with all Christians in their own order: as with the head, so it shall be with the members. He was the Son of God by love and obedience, and then became the Son of God by resurrection from the dead to life eternal, and so shall we; but we cannot be so in any other way. To them that are Christ's and to none else, shall this be given: for we must know that God hath sent Christ into the world to be a great example and demonstration of the economy and dispensation of eternal life. As God brought Christ to glory, so will he bring us, but by no other method. He first obeyed the will of God; he died and rose again, and entered into glory; and so must we. Thus Christ is made "the way, the truth, and the life;" that is, the true way to eternal life: he first trod this winepress, and we must insist in the same steps, or we shall never partake of this blessed resurrection. He was made Son of God in a most glorious manner, and we by him, by his merit, by his grace, and by his example; but other than this is no way of salvation for us: that is the first and great effect of this glorious order.

But there is one thing more in it yet: "Every man in his own order; first Christ, and then they that are Christ's:" but what shall become of them that are not Christ's? Why, there is an order for them too: first, "they that are Christ's; and then they that are not his." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:" there is a first and second resurrection, even after this life; "the dead in Christ shall rise first;" now blessed are they that shall have their portion here; "for upon these the second death shall have no power." As for the recalling the wicked from their graves, it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a resurrection, than the taking a criminal from the prison to the bar is a giving of liberty. When poor Atilius Aviola had been seized on by an apoplexy, his friends supposing him dead, carried him to his funeral pile; but when the fire began to approach, and the heat to warm the body, he revived, and seeing himself encircled with funeral flames, called out aloud to his friends to rescue, not the dead, but the living Aviola from that horrid burning: but it could not be, he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death, and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment. Just so shall the wicked live again; they shall receive their souls, that they may be a portion for devils; they shall receive their bodies, that they may feel the everlasting burning; they shall see Christ, that they may "look on him whom they have pierced;" and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence; they shall come from their graves, that they may go into hell; and live again, that they may die for ever. So have we seen a poor condemned criminal, the weight of whose sorrows, sitting heavily upon his soul, hath benumbed him into a deep sleep, till he hath forgotten his groans, and laid aside his deep sighings; but, on a sudden, comes the messenger of death, and unbinds the poppy garland, scatters the heavy cloud that encircled his miserable head, and makes him return to acts of life, that he may quickly descend into death and be no more. So is every sinner that lies down in shame, and makes his grave with the wicked; he shall indeed rise again, and be called upon by the voice of the archangel; but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man, weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the valley of Hinnom.

These indeed are sad stories, but true as the voice of God, and the sermons of the holy Jesus. They are God's words, and God's decrees; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these, would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the article of the resurrection, then you know, that, in your body you shall receive what you did in the body, whether it be good or bad. It matters not now very much, whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed; for if we glorify God in our bodies, God shall make our bodies glorious. It matters not much, whether we live in ease and pleasure, or eat nothing but bitter herbs; the body that lies in dust and ashes, that goes stooping and feeble, that lodges at the foot of the cross, and dwells in discipline, shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this, that beastly pleasures, and lying lips, and a deceitful tongue, and a heart that sendeth forth proud things, are no good dispositions to a blessed resurrection.

If any of you have lost the life of grace, and so forfeited all your title to a life of glory, betake yourselves to an early and an entire piety, that when, by this first resurrection, you have made this way plain before your face, you may with confidence expect a happy resurrection from your graves. He who partakes of the death of Christ by mortification, and of his resurrection by holiness of life and a holy faith, shall, according to the expression of the prophet Isaiah, "enter into his chambers of death;" when nature and God's decree "shall shut the doors upon him, and there he shall be hidden for a little moment:" but then shall they that dwell in the dust awake and sing; with Christ's dead body shall they rise; all shall rise, but "every man in his own order; Christ, the first-fruits, then they that are Christ's at his coming."