tempt! Well might the poet bestow on such egregious folly the severity of his censure: "Yet man, fool man! here buries all his thoughts; On life's fair tree, fast by the throne of God." Notwithstanding every endeavour to stifle the voice of conscience, it secretly whispers, in the ears of the unbeliever, Thou must one day rise from the grave, to answer for thy deeds.' The arguments by which impious men try to persuade themselves into a disbelief of the Resurrection, however plausible in appearance, are really fallacious; not only because they contradict the express testimony of God, but have no real solidity, when weighed in the balances of impartial reason. Their objections may be reduced to two heads. í. The first cavil which asserts the impossibility of it, is a reproach to the understandings of those who raise it. It is contended by atheists, that a general Resurrection is absolutely impracticable, on account of the various ways in which human bodies are destroyed; some of which are reduced to ashes by fire; others are drowned and devoured by fishes; and the generality of them moulder into dust, and afterwards contribute to the nourishment of animals. But these, or any other changes which the bodies of men may undergo, do not oppose any insurmountable difficulties in the way of an Omnipotent God; for surely He, who first created man out of the dust of the ground by his mere fiat, can restore their bodies. Young's Night Thoughts: Night i. 135–142. a in a moment, however they may have been destroyed, or into however so many parts they have been divided, or however remotely they may have been scattered. He perfectly knows of how many parts each individual body is composed; and is able to collect and re-unite them "in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpa," so as to make them identically the same bodies as they were before their dissolution. And that he will do so, he has given us the most positive assurance :-"Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves 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 "b" To say, then, that this grand event is impossible, is not only to tax God with direct falsehood, but to deny his omnipotence, and "to limit the Holy One of Israel;" offences so heinous, that a man should tremble to commit them. bb 2. The second objection is urged against the probability of our being raised from the dead. They who boldly venture to pronounce a Resurrection improbable, take different ground from the first class of objectors: they do not presume to question the ability of God to effect it, but only conceive that his power never will be exerted for such a purpose. Their opinion is grounded on a vain imagination, that the Deity is so entirely occupied about the management of his heavenly kingdom, as to have neither leisure nor inclination to take the least notice of the affairs of this world; in fact, that he looks with an equal eye of indifference upon the virtues or vices of finite creatures; that he will not make aa 1 Cor. xv. 52. "Grotius's Truth of the Christian Religion. b John v. 28, 29. the one the subject of his praise, nor the other of punishment hereafter; and, consequently, that men will not rise from the grave. Such hypotheses are as weak as they are impious. They are designedly constructed to exclude God from the government of his own world; and they betray a total ignorance of his justice, which renders a resurrection necessary, in order that, by an investigation into every man's actions, he may confer suitable rewards on the godly, and pursue the wicked with the vengeance due to their crimes. And, moreover, they equally tend to inspire men with unbecoming pride, by misrepresenting their condition, as if they were altogether independent of God; whereas we cannot, without doing the utmost violence to our consciences, believe that he will take no more notice of us than of the brutes which perish. The word of the Lord decidedly confutes such atheistical and blasphemous fancies, by inculcating the solemn truth of our resurrection; and by affirming, what reason cannot disallow, " that God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil"." 3. The same passages which have been adduced to prove that the Church under the Old Testament had distinct notions of the immortality of the soul, will be equally forcible, to shew that they were not left in the dark with regard to the Resurrection; since the one almost seems to pre-suppose and include the other. It will not, therefore, be improper to add to the texts already cited in the foregoing Lecture, a few others, which will still more strikingly elucidate the faith of the Patriarchs, of Moses, and the Prophets, in these momentous doctrines. Eccles. xii. 14. On the above principle, we can see the importance of Jacob's declaration: "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." But what other salvation could this good man expect, in the immediate prospect of death, but the raising up again of his body from the grave, to partake with his soul of that redemption of Christ which ensures to his believing people their eternal glorification in the world to come? Job, in a passage which has been quoted before dd, and in another, where he is speaking of the natural death of the body, professes an entire confidence in its restoration at a future period. "So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. 4. The Psalmist expressed his unshaken belief in the resurrection of the dead, when he expected that a complete separation would take place between the enemies and the friends of God. "Arise, O Lord! disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword; from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likenessf." "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope: for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption "." 5. Isaiah teaches the same doctrine, in a portion of * ib. xiv. 12, 14. Gen. xlix. 18. 'Psalm xvii. 13-15. dd Job xix. 25-28. Scripture, where Christ may be supposed to address his persecuted Church, which is his mystical body: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead"." 6. Passing over the prophecy of Ezekiel h—which, whilst it primarily refers to the deliverance of Judah from the Babylonish captivity, contains a direct allusion to the Resurrection, I shall just advert to the strong language of Daniel, who was honoured with rich discoveries concerning "the things that must be hereafter." "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' i 99 7. The prophet Hosea introduces our Saviour contemplating the triumphant effects of his victory over the hosts of darkness, and the benefits which would result therefrom to his saved people: “ I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death! I will be. thy plagues: O grave! I will be thy destruction"." Thus we see that believers in the ancient Church of God were acquainted with the doctrine of a Resurrection, and of a future state of retribution; in which they were taught to expect punishment or reward, according to their deserts. 8. If we descend to the time of Christ and his Apostles, we shall find that the Resurrection made a distinguished feature of their public instructions. The doctrine was urged on their hearers, as a most powerful incentive to a holy life. And what consi"Isa. xxvi. 19. hh Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14. i Dan. xii. 2. Hos. xiii. 14. |