SERMON XX.

THE CONNEXION OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST WITH A GENERAL RESURRECTION.

1 Thes. iv. 14.

FOR IF WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN, EVEN SO THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS WILL GOD BRING WITH HIM."

We learn, from the seventeenth chapter of the Acts, that the Apostle, after a residence of a few weeks at Thessalonica, was driven from thence by a furious tumult of the unbelieving Jews, by whom he was also obliged to quit Berea for Athens. After a short residence there he removed to Corinth; from which place he wrote an epistle to his Thessalonian converts, for whom he had conceived a great esteem and tender affection; for whom, therefore, he was under concern lest they should be discouraged by the difficulties to which they were exposed. He had, indeed, sent Timothy, who it should seem was less obnoxious than himself, to comfort and establish them: and when on his return he reported favorably of them, he was filled with thankfulness, and earnestly prayed that he might be permitted to complete his instructions. But since he

had not as yet any prospect of this, he attempts by this epistle to supply the want of his personal preaching ; and gives them such consolations, admonitions, and further instructions, as their particular circumstances appeared more immediately to require.

The doctrine which he sets himself more especially to inculcate, was the resurrection of the faithful from the dead; for want of a full persuasion of which they seem to have still continued to be overwhelmed with sorrow on occasion of the death of their friends like the rest of their heathen neighbors, they indulged in extreme grief, and studied every extravagant expression of it. He, therefore, endeavors to confirm his converts in this most supporting and comfortable doctrine. "" I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, that ye sorrow not as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."

This is indeed a doctrine of vast concern and joyful consequence to mankind, who have from nature a great delight in life, an earnest desire for its continuance, and an invincible aversion against the thought of parting with it; who, therefore, look upon death, with all its attendants and effects, with inexpressible dejection and dismay. The utmost force of unassisted reason had never got beyond some obscure opinions and wavering conjectures; but for the grand and astonishing but glorious and joyful discovery of a future life, we are wholly indebted to the gospel revelation; a discovery which quite alters our ideas of death, takes off the greater part of its horrors, and greatly abates our apprehensions of it. To die is not now to perish and be lost;

but only to fall asleep, that we may awake to immortality.

But as our faith in this doctrine is wholly founded on the gospel revelation, we ought to confine our sentiments concerning it within the boundaries of what is there revealed, and not to presume to indulge in conjectures and fancies of our own. We shall find enough revealed to convince us of the certainty, and give us all necessary satisfaction respecting the circumstances, of this great event. Let us, therefore, give a serious attention to this amazing subject, in which we are all so deeply interested.

First, the Apostle intimates in the text, that the surest ground of our belief and expectation of a general resurrection is the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we are convinced of and firmly believe this fact, it will undeniably follow, that those who are asleep God will bring with him by Jesus. In the fif teenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle enlarges upon it in a very particular manner, in answer to some who denied the possibility of a resurrection. He observes, that the grand article insisted on by the first preachers of the gospel was not a matter of speculation, but a fact; with respect to which they could not be mistaken when they bore their personal testimony, but must have known whether it were so or not: but if there be no such thing as a resurrection, then this event which they asserted to be a fact must be false, and the preachers themselves must be convicted of imposture; an imposture for which they could have no earthly motive, since they got nothing for it but cruel treatment, imprisonment and death; so that if the

fact were not true, they were of .all men most miserable. "Therefore," says he, "Christ is risen from the dead," and if so, then there must be a general resurrection for Christ is risen as "the first fruits" of those 1; who sleep, as an earnest that the general harvest shall in due time be gathered. For as by one man, Adam, death was introduced, so by one man, Christ, a resurrection is introduced, and through him shall all men be made alive again. Thus does the Apostle treat the subject of the connexion between Christ's resurrection and a general resurrection.

Now for the truth of this fundamental fact we have the strongest proofs, that such a fact could admit of. He was crucified and died before a vast assemblage of people; all of whom, Jews, Romans and his own disciples, were fully satisfied of the reality of his death; indeed never once called it in question. That he rose from the dead is a fact attested by great numbers of persons who had a perfect knowledge of him; all of whom declared that they saw him, conversed and ate with him, felt and handled him, and had every other proof that their senses could give them, that he was really alive again. These men persisted in affirming this fact, uniformly, not during a temporary enthusiasm, but made it the cool deliberate object of their whole lives; notwithstanding the grievous sufferings to which we have before referred. In the bearing, too, of this testimony, and for the express purpose of enabling them to bear it, God himself bore witness to the resurrection of Jesus, by endowing them with miraculous gifts, and enabling them to work innumerable miracles, which they always wrought in confirmation of the re

surrection.

Thus, we have the strongest proof, both human and divine, to the truth of this fact, that could be given; or that ever was given to ascertain the truth of any fact since the creation of the world.

Let us then proceed to inquire, Secondly, into the connexion between this fact, and the certainty of a future general resurrection.

In the first place, the fact of Christ's resurrection proves beyond contradiction the possibility of a resurrection; there may be, for there has been, such a thing as a resurrection from the dead. One person has been raised from the dead; why then may not all? This person was raised by the power of God; and is not that power sufficient to raise all that are dead? By the power of God man was originally created out of the dust of the ground; and is it not for the same power to raise up all men to life again out of the dust? The fact of an actual resurrection is ascertained; a sufficient power is assigned which produced the effect; and which is sufficient for producing a like effect with regard to all the dead. The heathens concluded the impossibility of a resurrection, because they could not observe any tendencies in nature towards such an event, or discover any natural powers sufficient, or had ever seen an instance of it: but here is a case in fact that proves its possibility; here is a divine agency produced as the cause of it; that power by which all nature was created, and all its laws established! Since this fact, a resurrection from the dead is no new or unheard-of thing; it is no longer "incredible that God should raise the dead:" if He designs it, undoubtedly he can effect it; He who gave life, can restore it; He who formed our bodies so admi