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mountable aversion; that they could enter as it were into a conspiracy against their own ease, interest, and reputation? And for what? To meet poverty and persecution, reproach and contempt; chains and imprisonment, sufferings and death, without any view of interest, present or future. On the supposition of Christ's not being risen, they must have been sensible that he was a deceiver; that the promises and predictions with which he had amused them, had failed; and that from him consequently they could have no grounds of hope, either here or hereafter. We may be assured therefore that Christ is risen, which leads me to inquire into the certainty of our own resurrection.

Before the gospel revelation, human nature could ill sustain the melancholy reflection, that its prospect might be closed, and its existence terminate in the grave; and that the evening of life might be succeeded by a long eternal night. The vulgar therefore supported themselves with fictions, the wise with uncertain hopes and conjectures of the soul's immortality; but that the body should return from corruption, to a re-union with the soul, was not expected by the wisest. The Jews it is true might have some conception of this from the translation of Enoch and Elias to heaven in their bodies; and from Job's declaration of his assurance, "That in his flesh he should see his God.”* And indeed as our Creator has thought fit in our present state to unite the soul to a corporeal substance, this should seem to intimate, that the nature of the soul is such, that a body suited to the state of its future existence, may be requisite to the due exertion of its powers, and that consequently there may be a resurrection

*Job xix. 26..

of the body; but the clear discovery of this im portant truth was reserved for the Author and the finisher of our faith: we are now assured "that our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we wait for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is able to subdue all things unto himself."* If therefore Christ predicted and affirmed that he would rise from the dead, and in proof of his assertion, subdued the powers of death, and ascended from the grave, there can be no room to doubt, that what he has accomplished in his own person, he will also fulfil in us. If he verified his prediction to the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up ;" if he restored the temple of his own body, doubtless he will also rebuild these earthly tenements of ours.

And in order to give an assurance that he will raise us up, he made his resurrection the pledge of the resurrection of the whole human species: well then might the apostle argue as he does, in this truly irrefragable manner, "Now if Christ be preached that he arose again from the dead, how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God, that he hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, if the dead rise not up again: for if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for

* Philip. iii. 20, 21.

you are yet in your sins. Therefore they also who have slept in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable: but now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep; for by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead."*

Wherefore, brethren, seeing that these our bodies are to become instruments of glory here. after, how ought they to be instruments of grace here? for grace is the dawn of glory, as glory is the meridian of grace. The consideration of our glorious change cannot but make our hearts burn within us, cannot but reconcile us to death, and disarm that last adversary of his terrors, cannot but moderate our fears, when we reflect that though the vital union between soul and body must one day be dissolved, and we must descend into the dark mansions of death, yet that we are not to be for ever imprisoned in those mansions; that death translates us to a happier state of being; that the separation of the soul and body is only for a time, and that too, in order to a more perfect union, which shall never be dissolved. All beyond the grave is no longer an unknown region, a land of darkness, or a state of oblivion. We e may now consider death not only a secure sanctuary, a safe retreat from all the fears and pains, the labours and sorrows of life, but as the gate to immortality, the passage to glory, the avenue to heaven. We are now assured that we shall go whither our Saviour and Redeemer is gone before us, and that where he is, we shall be also. If the awful day is approaching, when "these corruptible bodies shall put on incorruption, and these

* 1 Cor. xv. 20, 21.

mortals shall put on immortality,"* when the grave shall restore its ashes, and the sea give up its dead, how careful ought we to be so to conduct ourselves in this life, that we may be able to look beyond it without terror or apprehension; that we may be prepared to meet our Redeemer and our Judge, and may have hope in that decisive hour, which must determine our everlasting state.

Oh may it be our first, our daily, and habitual care, to render ourselves fit objects of his favour, and not unworthy of his happiness! May we fit ourselves for it, by every expression of pious obedience, by a sacred attention to every duty, every injunction of the Saviour of mankind, who lived, and died, and rose again for us; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge the world, we may be favoured with his approbation, and be deemed worthy to enter into life eternal! Amen.

* 1 Cor. xv. 54.

SERMON XXII.

LOW SUNDAY.

A Sermon preached at a first Communion of young People.

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Luke xviii. 16.

WE read in the sacred Scripture, that Nabuchodonosor, King of Babylon, commanded that as many of the children of Israel, as were of the royal race, and could be found without blemish, should be presented to him, in order that they might partake of his favours. The same command was given by Jesus Christ the King of kings, at the commencement of his mission, in the words of my text: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." You, my dear children, he has chosen to be of this number; you are of a royal race, because you are children of God by baptism; and you are doubly so, by receiving this day his precious body and blood, a favour of all others the most inestimable, a favour which he has not granted even to angels, a fayour which you should never forget during the

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