SERMON LXXI.

EASTER.

THE KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
CHRIST A NECESSARY ENCOURAGEMENT TO FORSAKE SIN.

EPH. ii. 4, 5.

24, 25; 11.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He See John 5. loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 25; Rom. together with Christ, &c.

5. 6; 6.4; Eph. 2. 1; 5. 14; Col. 2. 13; 1 John 3. 14;

Rev. 20. 6.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY is that article of our Christian faith, which the Church does, at this time, recommend to our meditation. And that we may receive it with all assurance, the resurrection of Christ is set before us in such circumstances as are sufficient to convince all such as are willing to be convinced, that CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE [1 Cor. 15. 20.]

DEAD, AND BECOME THE FIRST-FRUITS OF THEM THAT SLEEP
IN HIM.

And indeed, it was necessary that Christ's resurrection should be ascertained, beyond any reasonable exception, to men who were to lay down their lives for affirming the truth of it. He therefore told His disciples, before He suffered, that He was to suffer, "and that after three days He would Mark 9. 31. rise again." "I tell you before it come, that when it is John 13. 19. come to pass, ye may believe that I am He." A way of reasoning which our Saviour made use of on many occasions, and therefore thought it a sufficient argument.

And so did His disciples: for after they had seen Him when He was risen, and He had given them all the satisfaction their scruples could suggest; and especially after He had sent down the Holy Ghost, (according to His true promise,) to supply His place on earth, by which they were enabled to work the same miracles which He Himself had done

SERM. when amongst them: this was to them a sure argument LXXI. that the hand of God was in all this; that Jesus Christ was

the beloved Son of God; that they had not been deceived in any thing that He had said, or done, or told them. For they were very sure that God could not give His testimony to a lie, or require them to lay down their lives for an untruth. And therefore, when they affirmed, "that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead," they only said what they knew for certain, what all their senses assured them of; and therefore they did not stick to seal the truth of it with their own blood.

Thus the belief of the resurrection was established.

But

for what end? Was it only to convince us that we shall be raised from the dead? Why, truly, so we may, without being Dan. 12. 2. the better for it. For the Spirit of God tells us, "that they that sleep in the dust shall wake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." So that, in truth, the resurrection of the body is like to be no blessing to such as shall rise only to be for ever miserable.

The knowledge and belief of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, therefore, is necessary upon another account; namely, to conEph. 1. 19. vince us" of the exceeding greatness of the power of God to us-ward that believe;" that we may be encouraged to forsake all our evil ways, and to overcome the corruption of our nature; since we have a power to assist us which is able to raise our dead bodies, and therefore to whom nothing is impossible.

[Eph. 2. 4,5.]

"God, who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." In which words, a great many very important truths are contained or implied.

First; that there is a death of the soul as well as of the body.

Secondly; that sin is the death of the soul, and, consequently, righteousness is its life.

Thirdly; that there must be a spiritual resurrection, or else the soul will remain under the power of everlasting death.

Fourthly; that this spiritual resurrection can only be wrought by the mighty power of God, answerable to that which raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

And the conclusion of the whole will be,-Fifthly; that

it is through faith in this power, that a sinner is raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness.

And these are the particulars, which I pray God I may explain to your and to my own edification.

I. And first, you will observe, that there is a death of the soul as well as of the body. St. Paul tells us of those that live

in pleasures, "they are dead while they live." The father 1 Tim. 5. 6. saith of his prodigal son, "this my son was dead, and is alive Luke 15. 24. again." The sacred Scriptures speak of wicked men, as past feeling; that is, having no sense of good or evil, no more than if they were dead; as being in darkness; not knowing whither they are going, or what will become of them. Nay, as being actually dead-"Even you being dead in your sins," saith [Col. 2. 13.] the Apostle.

Now, all these expressions are made use of to convince us of this truth, that the soul is subject to death as well as the body; or rather, that the very natural state of the soul, since the fall, is a state of death. For we are not able of ourselves to do any thing for which we were created.

We can neither love God who made us, nor fear Him, though He can make us miserable; though happiness is set before us, offered to us, pressed upon us, yet we value it no more than a dead man does dainties.

God publisheth His laws, threatens those that shall break them, executes His judgments upon transgressors; and yet people are as insensible, and as secure, as if there were neither God nor danger.

It is for this reason, and because that men in this condition are not able to help themselves, that the Scripture speaks of men in their natural state, as of those that are dead-dead to all the purposes for which they were created.

II. And now, if we consider what has occasioned this great disorder, we shall find, that sin, and sin only, has done it. "By sin," saith St. Paul, "death entered into the world;" Rom. 5. 12. not only natural, but spiritual death. And this is what we are most concerned to know and to lay to heart; for if we continue in a state of death, which sin has brought us into, we shall be for ever miserable without redemption. We shall neither foresee nor fear any evil, till it will be too late to prevent it.

SERM.
LXXI.

We have too many examples of this before our eyes continually, of people who are as little concerned for what may be their lot hereafter, as those are who are in their graves. They confess that they are sinners, and yet are not sensible Matt. 10. of any danger. They are told, that GOD, "who can destroy 28.] both body and soul in hell," is their enemy, and yet they mind it not.

Such is the bewitching nature of sin, to those that are under the dominion of it, that it makes a man careless of his true interest; blind so that he cannot see before him; nay, as dead to all the purposes for which God made him, as if he had neither breath nor life.

And this is the condition of every man by nature; this is what sin has brought upon us. And it is fit we should know it, that when the Spirit of God awakens us, and raiseth us from the death of sin, we may be thankful for the mercy; not resist His dealings with us, but be ever after fearful of falling again into that sad state.

III. And this brings us to a third particular, which I proposed to explain to you. And that was the spiritual resurrection, without which the soul must remain in a state of eternal death. And here I am very sensible that I must say very many things which many that hear me will not at all understand.

There are carnal Christians, (as well as there were carnal Jews,) who, when they hear of rising from the dead, think of nothing but of the death and resurrection of the body.

And

Now, the death of the body is soon over. It is eternal death that we ought to be most concerned to escape. in order to this, the soul is to be raised from the death of sin unto a life of righteousness, or else both will be miserable. This is what the holy Scripture presses upon us in very many [Eph. 5.14.] places; "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, [Rev. 20.6.] and Christ shall give thee light." Blessed and holy is he that

hath part in the first resurrection;

that is, from the death of

Col. 3. 1. sin. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things

which are above."

In short; this is the end of all religion to restore men to the likeness and similitude of God, from which they are fallen. But, that you may better understand what is meant by a

spiritual resurrection, I must put you in mind of the condition we are in, and how we came into this condition.

Man was at first created in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; that is, he was able to act conformably to any law which God would think fit to give him. We are very sure that it is not so now with us. The holy Scriptures, and they only, can inform us how this came to pass; and they tell us, that man being thus created, there was a cove- Gen. 2. 16. nant of life immortal made with him, by which his natural appetites being restrained, he might the better improve himself in all virtue, until God should think fit to translate him from earth to heaven.

Now man having free will, and consequently a power of choosing evil as well as good, instead of improving in virtue, he gave way to his appetites, he broke the covenant, by which he and his posterity became subject to sin and death; for the Spirit of God forsook him, and instead of an immortal race, we are assured "that he begat a son after his own image," Gen. 5. 3. not after the image of God, "but in his own likeness;" that

is, with such a corrupt and depraved nature as his own was now become.

Now, that this is the very condition of all the posterity of Adam, is plain from experience. And we are so far departed from original righteousness, that we are utterly incapable of conforming to any the most reasonable law that God has set us. And those that think that reason is sufficient to lead us to, and keep us in the right way, are guilty of a double error.

They suppose, for example, First, that men are generally governed by reason, whereas they are rather governed by their passions. Secondly, they must suppose, that men are capable of attending constantly to what is fit to be done. Now it is found by experience, that they are not; that we do not always follow the dictates of our understanding; and that we violate laws which we are convinced are good.

We must, therefore, take the Scripture account of our fall, of our weakness, of our blindness, of our utter incapacity of being restored to the image of God, by any thing we can do.

For this is the spiritual resurrection we are speaking of, and without which God can take no pleasure in us, until His image, His likeness, is recovered in the soul; that is, "until Gal. 4. 19.