fions of the Pfalmift: For thy fake are we killed

all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the
flaughter (b). And now he folemnly records his
proteftation that he was in daily hazard of
death for preaching the gospel. And he refers
to a special inftance of perfecution, well known
to the Corinthians, which had overtaken him
in Afia, and is recorded in the nineteenth
chapter of the book of Acts; and is again
mentioned by St. Paul in his fecond Epiftle
to the Corinthians (c), as a danger in which
he was preffed out of measure, above his
ftrength, infomuch that he despaired even of
life, regarded the sentence of death as about
to be executed upon him, and had no hope
remaining except the fure and never-failing
confidence that God would raife the dead.
If, faith he, after the manner of men, to adopt
a proverbial form of expreffion in ordinary
ufe among you, I have fought with beafts at
Ephefus: if I have dared the ungovernable
fury of a frantic multitude, outrageous and
cruel as favage beafts: What advantageth it
me, if the dead rife not? What poffible benefit
could I derive from all the labours and af-
flictions, which I bring upon myself by
preaching Christianity; by what poffible in-
ducement could I be impelled to incur them;
(c) 2 Cor. i. 8, 9.

(6) Rom. viii. 36. .

1

your you to fet

if there were no refurrection? If there were no future life, after this fhort fcene of exiftence; we, the apoftles of Chrift, fhould employ our perfonal exertions, we should recommend it as the only rational object of the exertions of others, to make the moft of the present state of being. We should not exhort affections on things above, to be crucified unto the world, to be dead unto its pleasures. Our language would be the language prevalent in the mouths of your unbelieving and fenfual philofophers. Let us eat and drink, we should fay; for to-morrow we die. Life is fhort; life is uncertain. Seize every gratification of the paffing hour. Lofe not prefent enjoyment in the hope of future blifs for beyond the tomb no futurity remains.

But be not deceived, the apoftle continues: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and fin not: for fome have not the knowledge of God. I fpeak this to your fhame. He admonishes the Corinthians. to be upon their guard against the deceitful influence, the enfnaring fociety, and the corrupting conversation of their false teachers, who maintained that there was no judgement nor life to come. He excites them to a vigilant felf-examination, to an unshaken adherence

Whatever is requifite

herence unto found doctrine, to an abhorrence of unfcriptural principles, and of fin, to which unscriptural principles neceffarily lead. He reproves them for that want of the knowledge of God, that fhameful deficiency in religious information and attainments, to which alone could be afcribed their endurance for a moment of a doctrine fubverfive of the very foundations of Christianity. The reproof, as St. Paul well remarked to the Corinthians, was to their fhame. My brethren, if we remain ignorant of any of the great doctrines of our religion; it is to our fhame. The Scriptures and the house of God are open to every one of us. to falvation is placed before the humble enquirer diftinctly, and within his reach. The nature of God; the corruption of man; the office of our Redeemer; the unceafing neceffity of divine grace; the imperfection and the attendant finfulnefs of all human works; the confequent impoffibility of pardon and falvation except through faith in the atoning blood of Chrift; the indifpenfable obligation to ftedfaft holinefs and good works as the fure fruits and only evidences of justifying faith; the certainty of a future judgement, of a refurrection of life or of damnation : thefe are truths fo plainly, fo energetically

ftated

ftated in that volume which, if we fincerely love God through Chrift, will be our conftant study, that, if we continue ignorant of them, we shall defervedly be covered with confufion.

The apoftle, in the next place, expofes the abfurdity of those cavils against the poffibility of the refurrection of the body from its duft, which by the unconverted heathen were frequently brought forward. But fome man will fay; How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? The folly of this objection St. Paul manifefts by directing the thoughts of the perfon reprefented as urging it to a fimilar example of the power of God. displayed before the eyes of all men every day: an example which our Saviour had already applied to illuftrate a parallel truth (d). Thou fool! That which thou foweft is not quickened, except it die. O blind and proud selfdeceiver! Why fhould it be thought a thing impoffible with thee that God fhould raife the dead? In every feed which thou fowest a change is wrought of the fame nature with that transformation which shall take place in the refurrection of the human body. The corruption and decay of the original feed are neceffary to the developement of the futurre plant. In that

which thou foweft, in every feed which thou committeft to the earth, thou foweft not that body which shall be, but bare grain; it may chance of wheat, or of fome other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleafed Him; and to every feed its own body. Thou fowest a naked lifeless feed wholly different in outward appearance, in organization, in fenfible qualities, from the living herb, which by experience thou knoweft fhall fpring from its diffolution. But God beftoweth on it a new body, provided for it by Him conformably to its kind: He raiseth it up into a beautiful plant furnished with powers and endowed with properties fuited to the new and more noble state of existence, which He appoints it to fill. The hand which, from a buried and perishing grain of wheat can raise up the blade and the ear; can call forth from the duft into which man's mortal body is diffolved a frame fit to partake of the inheritance of the faints in light. Do you require additional arguments and illustrations? God has abundantly supplied them. He has already written them in His works. He has already manifefted Himself able to create bodies of flesh severally differing according to their generic diftinctions; and bodies of other natures, varying each from the other in glory.

All