showed that he had command over all the
ills of humanity, and after his death, by resurrection from the grave
the third day, which gave proof of the reality of a power that could
overcome death. The miracles of Christ are an essential part of the
work of his ministry, inasmuch as they were needed to prove that he
possessed power greater than that of his adversaries, and consequently
that he submitted _voluntarily_ to be "led as a _lamb_ to the
slaughter," and to endure all the pain and indignities of the cross.
Out of love towards those whom he vouchsafes to call his brethren, he
showed how they must undergo physical suffering and the pains of death
in order that their spirits might be formed for an endless life. It
was with understanding and belief that the way to life was made sure by
fellowship with Christ in suffering, that some of the most favoured of
his faithful followers, apostles and apostolic men, willingly suffered
after his example.

But pain and death are not in this way efficacious for salvation,
unless they be accompanied by a faith which lays hold of the covenant
and promise of life made and ratified from the beginning by God, and
which looks for the fulfilment in the world to come. Those who, having
this faith, do good works are God's elect, who live again at the first
resurrection, to die no more. The rest of mankind, although they go
through suffering and death, and although their {112} sufferings are
not without effect in forming their spirits for immortality (such is
the virtue of the sacrifice of the Son of God "for the sins of the
whole world"), rise to be judged for their unbelief and
unrighteousness, and to be condemned to undergo a second death. The
Lamb slain is appointed to execute the judgment and take vengeance on
the unrighteous. What better title could there be for his undertaking
this "strange work" (Isa. xxviii. 21), than his having so cruelly and
unjustly suffered at the hands of sinful men? Yet the portions of
Scripture we have had under consideration necessitate the conclusion
that the consecration of the way to life through death by the death of
the Son of God, which applies to the death of believers, applies also
to the second death of unbelievers; so that this death also is followed
by life. But here a difficulty presents itself which needs
explanation. Although Scripture speaks of a first resurrection and a
second death, it makes no mention of a _second resurrection_. T