THE CHURCH.

Think not strange of the Lord’s method with his church, in bringing her to so low and desperate a posture many times. Can she be in a condition more seemingly desperate than was her Head,—not only in ignominious sufferings, but dead and laid in the grave, and the stone rolled to it, and sealed, and all made sure? And yet, he arose and ascended, and now sits in glory, and shall sit “till all his enemies become his footstool.” Do not fear for him, that they shall overtop, yea, or be able to reach him who is exalted higher than the heavens; neither be afraid for his church, which is his body, and, if her Head be safe and alive, cannot but partake of safety and life with him. Though she were, to sight, dead and laid in the grave, yet shall she arise thence, and be more glorious than before, Isa. xxvi. 19. and still, the deeper her distress, shall rise the higher in the day of deliverance. Robert Leighton

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