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men, than a conftant feries of miracles, a continued difplay of the pureft excellence, and than the plaineft predictions of his death had on his immediate difciples. The teftimonies of their refpect were not here terminated; for as foon as the Jewish Sabbath was over, on the dawning of the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to fee the fepulchre. They thought not, any more than his other followers, of his refurrection from the dead; but their love to their Máfter was more ardent; and they came with fweet fpices to anoint his body. "And behold, there was a great earthquake; "for the angel of the Lord defcended from heaven, "and came and rolled back the ftone from the door,

and fat upon it. His countenance was like light"ning, and his raiment white as fnow. And for "fear of him the keepers did fhake, and became as "dead men. And the angel anfwered and faid unto "the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye feek "Jefus, which was crucified. He is not here, for "he is rifen, as he faid: come, fee the place where "the Lord lay."

In thefe words you may obferve the particular ground of encouragement and comfort which the angel gives to thefe difconfolate women;-He is not here; his body is not now in the tomb where you left it. But as this alone would have deprived them of the melancholy confolation of doing the last offices of kindnefs to his dead body, he is in hafte to inform them of his aftonishing victory over the power of death. The word rifen, in the original language, is expreffive of that active power, or felf-animating. principle, by which the Son of God raifed himself from the dead :-But he is rifen, as he faid. His refurrection is the fulfilment of what he himself fo frequently foretold; why then fhould it appear incredible? The request which the angel makes to the two women in the laft part of the verfe, "Come, fee the place where the Lord lay;" although it was extremely natural, yet, were it to stand alone, it could

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afford no abfolute proof of the refurrection. The tomb might be empty, and yet the Saviour of the world not reftored to life. The circumftance, at the fame time, was extremely natural; becaufe, in the fituation in which the women were placed, the empty fepulchre was the firft kind of conviction they would require; for, had he been there, he was not rifen. But, ftill farther, in the connection in which this request ftood, it afforded them the higheft poffible evidence of the fact: After they were convinced that the body of their Mafter was not in the grave, there was no other way of accounting for the earthquake, for the appearance of the angel, and the confternation of the Roman guards, than that he was rifen with power and authority from the dead.

It is of the greatest importance to Chriftians to have their minds well established in the belief of this fact; for the refurrection of Chrift is the great and leading evidence of the truth of our religion; the circumftance on which our faith, our hope, and our happiness, do finally depend.

The Chriftian revelation was the fubject of prophecy under the Old Teftament difpenfation; it was rendered credible by the reafonableness of its doctrines; it was fupported by the miracles which our Saviour wrought; but it was only by this laft and concluding evidence, that it was for ever afcertained to all generations: for if Chrift had continued in the ftate of the dead, all the proofs of his divine miffion would have been of no avail. The prophecies would have appeared wonderful, but never completely fulfilled. The doctrine which he taught would have continued reasonable; but its Author had perished. The miracles of his life would have remained aftonishing, but confuted by his death. His enemies would have continued to infult him in the language of his persecutors, "He faved others, himself he could not fave;" and his friends, who loved his doctrine, and looked for falvation by him, could but have joined with the defponding difciples, "We trufted it had been he

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"who fhould have redeemed Ifrael." In a word, as the apostle Paul expreffes it, "If Christ had not "rifen, our preaching had been vain, and your faith "alfo vain."

The refurrection of Chrift, then, being a fact of fo great importance, it is certainly of the highest moment to our faith in him, and to our comfortable hope of pardon and falvation, that our minds be well affured of its truth.

In difcourfing on this most important and comfortable fubject, I fhall endeavour to lay before you, first, The evidences of our Lord's refurrection. Secondly, The manner and circumftances of it. And, laftly, conlude with a few practical reflections.

I. Let us attend to the evidences of our Lord's refurrection. And, in doing this, I fhall mention a few plain facts, and endeavour to confirm them by fome plain obfervations.

1. The refurrection of Chrift was frequently predicted by himself before his death, both to his difciples and to the Jews. Six days before the transfiguration, "Jesus began to fhew unto his difciples

how that he must fuffer many things, and be killed, "and be raised again the third day." And as he was defcending from the mountain of transfiguration, he charged the three difciples, faying, "Tell the vifion

to no man, until the Son of man be rifen from "the dead." For the fame purpose, on his last journey to Jerufalem, he took the twelve difciples apart in the way, and faid to them, "Behold, we go up to "Jerufalem; and the Son of man fhall be betrayed "unto the chief priests and to the fcribes, and they "fhall condemn him to death, and the third day he "fhall rife again." But, befides thefe plain intimations to his difciples, he gave fome obfcure hints of his refurrection to the Jews at large. When they required of him a fign from heaven, he faid to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise "it up again ;" and when they mistook his meaning,

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and understood it of the temple at Jerufalem, the evangelift informs us, that he spoke of the temple of his body.

Thefe predictions of our Saviour fuggeft feveral obfervations, which tend to confirm his refurrection. He not only informs them that he was to rife on the third day; but, at the very fame time, he informs them that he was to be put to death in a public manner. The truth of this part of the prophecy, as depending on the malice of his enemies, could not be counterfeited; and the fulfilment of this gives credit to the whole. For though you fuppofe, that the mere regard to reputation would make an impoftor concert with his followers the fcheme of a refurrection; yet, in this cafe, he would not blend with the prophecy of his death, thofe circumftances which would make it impoffible for them to carry on the deception. We fee farther, from the hiftory of our Saviour, that this prediction had gained no credit with his difciples. In no part of their lives do they feem to have been capable of conducting any intricate operations of deceit. They were undefigning, illiterate, fimple, but honeft men. And at the prefent crifis, their hopes were extinguished; they were difperfed, and fcattered abroad, as fheep having no fhepherd. There is not the leaft probability, from their character, that, in their prefent fituation, they would make any attempt to impofe on mankind; and if, on the other hand, they gave any credit to their Master's prediction, they would wait the event in anxiety and fufpenfe. But when we confider the hiftory of their conduct, in connection with the prediction of our Saviour, the circumftance moft worthy of obfervation is, that if the whole had been an impofition, their conduct would have been reprefented in a different manner. It would have been much more natural for the inventor of fuch a hiftory, or the abettor of fuch an impofition, to have told us, that his immediate followers gave credit to his prophecy, and firmly expected beforehand that he would rife from

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the dead. The facred regard which every man has to his own character, and the overfinishing of the fcene of falfehood, which has, and which ever will happen in every scene of falfehood, would have produced this account. We find this prediction appearing in its natural effect on the cunning and malicious minds of Chrift's enemies. Attentive to every circumftance which might fecure 'their triumph, they come to Pilate, faying, "Sir, we remember that that "deceiver faid, while he was yet alive, After "three days I will rife again. Command therefore "that the fepulchre be made fure until the third day, left his difciples come by night and steal him away, and fay unto the people he is rifen from the dead; fo the laft error shall be worse than the first. And "they went and made the fepulchre fure, fealing

the ftone, and fetting a watch." This is one of thofe inftances wherein artifice defeats its own purpofe; for this fecurity of the Pharifees and chief priests, is a proof to us, that the thing which they apprehended could not poffibly happen.

2. The refurrection of Chrift is afcertained by a competent number of witneffes. This plainly appears, from the concurring teftimony of the four Evangelifts, who agree in telling us, that he rofe from the dead on the third day: and, as the highest evidence which fuch a matter of fact is capable of receiving, that he appeared to his apoftles and. difciples, not once, but on feveral occafions; and not in a manner which would give them a tranfient view of him, but in a way of the most familiar converfation. Thus he appeared to the women who came to vifit the fepulchre, and comforted them; after this, to two of his difciples going to Emmaus, with whom he familiarly converfed, and expounded to them in all the fcriptures the things concerning himself. The fame evening he appeared to ten of the apoftles,. Thomas only being abfent; and, a week after, to all the eleven, when Thomas was prefent, whofe doubting faith he condefcended to confirm, by fuffering

him

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