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no less from us than he did from them. It was for us, no less than for them, that he endured reproach, and was content to die as a malefactor, though he was innocent.

*

SERMON XXV.

MESSIAH RISING FROM THE DEAD.

PSALM XVI. 10.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

THAT the Gospel is a divine revelation, may be sum

marily proved from the character of its Author. If an infidel was so far divested of prejudice and prepossession as to read the history of Jesus Christ recorded by the evangelists, with attention, and in order to form his judgment of it, simply and candidly, as evidence should appear; I think he must observe many particulars in his spirit and conduct, so very different from the prevailing sentiments of mankind, as to convince him, that man, in his present state, could not possibly have conceived the idea of such a character. Poets and historians have often employed their powers in delineating what appeared to them the great and the excellent in human conduct. But how different are the pictures of their admired heroes, sages, and legislators, from the portrait of the Saviour, as it is drawn with the utmost simplicity by plain unlettered men, who, without art or affectation, only describe what they profess to have seen and heard! I fix at present upon a single

consideration, which perhaps cannot be expressed more properly or forcibly than in the words of an ingenious writer now living :-"He is the only Founder of a re"ligion, in the history of mankind, which is totally un"connected with all human policy and government, and "therefore totally unconducive to any worldly purpose whatever. All others, Mahomet, Numa, and even "Moses himself blended their religious institutions with "their civil, and by them obtained dominion over their "respective people. But Christ neither aimed at, nor el would accept of any any such power. He rejected* every object which all other men pursue, and made choice of "those which others fly from and are afraid of. He re"fused power, riches, honours, and pleasure; and courted

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poverty, ignominy, tortures, and death. Many have "been the enthusiasts and impostors, who have endea"voured to impose on the world pretended revelations; "and some of them, from pride, obstinacy, or principle, "have gone so far as to lay down their lives rather than "retract: but I defy history to show one, who ever made "his own sufferings and death† a necessary part of his original plan, and essential to his mission. This Christ "actually did; he foresaw, foretold, declared their necessity, and voluntarily endured them."

The death of our Lord was indeed essential to his plan; as such, it was constantly in his view, and he often spoke of it. Probably it was the whole of his enemies' plan; and when they saw him dead, buried, and the sepulchre sealed, they triumphed in their success, and expected to hear of him no more. But the

* John xviii. 36.

↑ John xii. 24. 32, 33. Jenyns' Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, p. 33, 34. Edit. 3.

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Scriptures, which were read in their synagogues every sabbath-day, foretold his resurrection from the dead. The text before us, if there were no other, is a sufficient proof of this, to those who acknowledge the authority of the New Testament, since it is expressly applied to him by the apostles Peter and Paul.

The word in the Hebrew text, rendered in our version soul, is used in different senses. According to the connexion in which it stands, it signifies breath, life, soul, or spirit, and sometimes the dead body. The corresponding Greek word, where the apostle quotes this verse*, has likewise various significations. And the original words answering to hell, signify both the invisible world, or the state of the dead, and sometimes the grave. Notwithstanding this seeming diversity, we are at no loss here for the precise sense. the best interpreter of itself. tle's design to prove that the Psalmist foresaw, and foretold, the resurrection of that body which was taken down dead from the cross, and laid in Joseph's tomb. With this body our Lord arose on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

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Though MESSIAH was, for our sakes, treated as a malefactor, all who were immediately concerned in his death, were constrained, (as we have seen,) to declare his innocence. But he was worthy of a more solemn and authoritative justification. Accordingly, "He was "declared to be the Son of God, with power, by his "resurrection from the dead t."

The apostle expounds "thine Holy One" by the word flesh. The human nature, the body formed by the immediate power of God, and born of a virgin, was holy.—

Acts ii. 27.

↑ Rom. i. 4.

Acts ii. 26.

It was "A holy thing*." Perfect and pure, and therefore naturally not mortal, though subject to death for us. In this nature the Son of God was charged with sins not his own; he became willingly responsible for manyt. Whatever was necessary on the behalf of sinners, to render their forgiveness consistent with the honour of the law, justice, truth, and government of God, was exacted of him, and he performed, and paid to the utmost. He made a full atonement for sin; and though he had power over his life, he hung hour after hour in agonies upon the cross, till he said, "It is finished." Then he resigned his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father. He was afterwards buried. But having finished his whole undertaking, destroyed death, and him that had the power of it, and opened the way to the kingdom of heaven, in favour of all who should believe in him, "it

was not possible that he should be detained in the "gravet." He had power likewise to resume the life he had laid down for his sheep; and he arose the third day, to exercise all power and authority in heaven and in earth.

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His resurrection therefore is the grand principal fact upon which the truth and importance of Christianity rests. For though Christ died, if he had not risen again, your faith and our preaching would be in "vain ;" we should be "yet in our sins§.' And though it was not necessary that his resurrection should have been so publicly known, at the time, as his crucifixion, the evidence of it is strong and decisive. No one point of ancient history is capable of such clear accumulated proof. The apostles frequently saw him, con

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versed with him, eat and drank with him, and were assured that it was he, by many infallible proofs. They could not be deceived themselves, nor could they have any temptation to deceive others. They declared his resurrection to the very people who put him to death, and they confirmed it by many indisputable miracles, which they performed in his name. They persevered in this testimony, in defiance of the malice of the Jews, and the scorn of the Heathens. And by this doctrine of a crucified risen Saviour, though unsupported by the patronage of human power, yea, though opposed by it in every place, they effected that change in the moral world, wherever they went, which the philosophers had not been able to produce, by all their instructions, in a single instance; turning men, whom they found under the strongest prejudices of education and habit, “from "darkness to light, and from the worship of dumb idols, to serve the living and the true God*."

But there are proofs of this point which depend not upon arguments or history, which require neither learning, genius, nor study, to comprehend; but are equally adapted to persons of all capacities, and in all circumstances. These are the effects which this doctrine produces on the hearts of those who truly receive it upon the authority of Scripture, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to open the eyes of the mind, to take of the things of Jesus, (what the Scripture reveals of his person, offices, and glory,) and to present them, with infallible light and evidence, to those who humbly yield themselves to his teaching. These are made partakers" of the power of his resurrectiont." It delivers them from guilt and fear, animates them with

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