st, for it is that
which hath the mighty influence to beget you to a lively hope, 1 Pet. i.
3. Look upon this as the grand intent, and special design of Christ's both
dying and rising again, that he might be the first-fruits to sanctify all
the lump. Nevertheless, it is not the desert of your bodies, for they are
often a great impediment and retardment to the spirit, and lodge the enemy
within their walls, when he is chased out of the mind by the law of the
Spirit of life, but it is the great design of God, through the whole work
of redemption, and the desert of Christ your head, and therefore you may
entertain that hope, but take heed to walk worthy of it, and that it is,
"if we have this hope, let us purify ourselves," let us who believe that
we are risen with Christ, set our affections on things above, else we
dishonour him that is risen in our name, and we dishonour that temple of
the Holy Ghost, which he will one day make so glorious.

Sermon XXXI.

Verse 11.--"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in
you."

As there is a twofold death,--the death of the soul, and the death of the
body--so there is a double resurrection, the resurrection of the soul from
the power of sin, and the resurrection of the body from the grave. As the
first death is that which is spiritual, then that which is bodily, so the
first resurrection is of the spirit, then the second of the body, and
these two have a connexion together, therefore saith the apostle John,
"Blessed are they who have part in the first resurrection, for on such the
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests to God," &c. Rev.
xx. 6. Although death must seize on their bodies, yet the sting wherein
the strength of it lies, is taken away by Christ, that it hath no power to
hurt him whose spirit is raised out of the grave of sin. And truly it is
hard to tell which is the greatest change, or the most difficult, to raise
a body out of corruption to life, or to raise a soul out of sin to grace.
But both are the greatest changes that can be, and shadowed out under the
similitude of the greatest in nature, for our conversion to God is a new
birth, a new creation, and a resurrection in scripture style, and so both
require one and the same power, the almighty power of his Spirit. "You who
were dead in s