Allow

that Jesus really did rise from the dead. the Jews' story to be true. You account for the disappearance of the body of Jesus: but how do you account for the sudden change in the whole manner and disposition of his disciples? Whence had those men, before so timid, suddenly acquired such constancy and courage? How is it that they, who not long before his death wished to dissuade their Lord from going into Judea, because the Jews sought to stone him, now themselves braved danger and death, in defence of that, which was, by this supposition, untrue; and if untrue, must have been known to be so by them? On whose side then, we may ask again, on whose side is the credulity?

q

When we preach the resurrection of Christ, we have not followed cunningly devised fables. We know and are well assured, that as on this day "Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," was also "declared to be the Son of God, with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."r

II. But it is not only as an historical fact, that the resurrection of Christ affects the assurance of our faith. It is also most important as intimately connected with our own resurrection. Rom. i. 3, 4.

9 John xi. 8.

Y

To bring life and immortality to light, was the great end of the gospel revelation. And the events of this day having indisputably established the divine authority of Christ's mission, thereby placed upon the sure foundation of truth all that he had ever declared, respecting the general resurrection. They established, fully and finally, declarations such as these. "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." At the same time, the resurrection of Christ, by an instance of the most striking kind, proved it to be no incredible thing that God should raise the dead. Accordingly, the disciples of Christ continually unite, in their discourses, the fact of the resurrection of Christ, with the doctrine of the general resurrection.

The rising of Christ from the dead was not an isolated miracle of wonder. As it was the triumphant conclusion of his earthly ministry, the completion of the prefigurations exhibited under the patriarchal, and Mosaic dispensations,

and of the prophecies, whether recorded in the Old Testament, or delivered in the discourses of our Lord; so it was an example of that resurrection from death, which every soul of man shall experience. Not only "is Christ risen from the dead:" but he is also "become the first-fruits of them that slept;"u the first who so rose from the dead as to die no more, "death having no more dominion over him:"" opening the way to the resurrection of life, unto as many as shall be members of his spiritual body; as the offering of the first-fruits, under the law, sanctified the whole produce of the year.y He is "the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence."z "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living."

a

Before the coming of our Lord in the flesh, even a future life, and much more the resurrection of the body, were facts, respecting which a great part of the world was in doubt. They who studied the Scriptures of the Old Testament might, indeed, collect sufficient intimations to encourage their hopes, upon this

u 1 Cor. xv. 20.

x Rom. vi. 9.

* Col. i. 18.

y Rom. xi. 16.

a Rom. xiv. 9.

b

important point; but full assurance was still wanting. That assurance has now been given. We are told, on the infallible authority of revelation, that "God hath both raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise us up by his own power." We are taught, that the similarity which existed between the human form, assumed by our Lord, and our mortal bodies, shall be continued, by our being made like unto him. That "he which raised up Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus." The resurrection of Christ is made also the foundation of accurate reasoning, as well as of express assertion, to confute those who said that there was no resurrection of the dead. The apostle of the Gentiles proves, by a train of argument most convincing, expressed in language of the most energetic character, that from the fact of the resurrection of Christ, that of our own resurrection necessarily follows; that the one cannot subsist without the other; that "if Christ be not raised, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." He proceeds to shew, by illustrations drawn from the order of the natural world, how great shall be the change which shall take place, when that, which is sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption: when that, which is sown in dishonour,

b

1 Cor. vi. 14.

с

e2 Cor. iv. 14.

shall be raised in glory: when that, which is sown in weakness, shall be raised in power: when that, which is sown a natural body, shall be raised a spiritual body.d

It is true, that upon this most awful and interesting subject, although there is sufficient to exercise our most ardent faith, and to raise our desires after a fuller knowledge, there still remains much of which we must at present be ignorant. We cannot know clearly-for we have no experience which can enable us to judge—in what that change shall consist, which at the resurrection shall take place upon our corporeal frame: how it shall be fitted for an endless duration, yet preserving its identity. We know not by what mysterious power the remains of our mortal bodies, which have been dispersed by the winds, or dissolved in the ocean, or mingled with the dust, shall again be united: we cannot conceive how the bones, which lie "scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth," shall come together, bone to his bone, and be clothed again with flesh, and covered with skin from above, and be breathed upon with the breath of life, and those dry bones shall live.' Such knowledge is too

е

d 1 Cor. xv.

↑ Ezek. xxxvii.

e Psalm cxli. 7.