and in so extraordinary a way, Lord, fays the, by this time he stinketh, and this notwithftanding her avowed belief that whatsoever our Saviour would ask of God, God would give it him, and his declaration that he was himfelf the refurrection and the life, yet when Lazarus actually came forth, neither she nor the many Jews who were present shewed the leaft fign of amazement. It does not appear that they were in any degree aftonished at this mode of his restoration to life; and therefore we may justly prefume they were perfuaded that in the refurrection at the last day "all men fhall rife again with their bodies," through the operation of that omnipotent power which, in the twinkling of an eye, is able to infpire life and vigour into duft and ashes, and animate corruption itself.

The fuppofed refurrection of John the Baptift may be confidered in the fame point of view. Herod, hearing of the fame of Jefus, faid unto his fervants, as the Evangelist acquaints us, this is John the Baptift, he is rifen from the dead, and therefore mighty

works

works do fhew forth themfelves in him. Herod hardly thought these works were done by the fpirit or apparition of the Baptist; and if not, we must conclude that he believed him to be rifen indeed, according to the notions entertained by the Jews. The facred hiftory informs us the Sadducees were grieved that the Apostles preached through Jefus the refurrection from the dead. And is it not as plain as implication can make it, that their doctrine was, that the followers of Jefus, and indeed all men, fhould be raised in like manner as he was?

The truth is, of this kind of implied evidence we have plenty in the facred volume. I will only produce one piece more of Gofpel-history, in prefumptive proof that Gentiles as well as Jews understood by a refurrection what we do at this day. St. Paul concludes his difcourfe to the Athenians with infisting on the certainty of a future judgment from the affurance which God had given to all men of it, by his having raised that man, whom he had ordained to be their judge, from

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from the dead. And when they heard of the refurrection of the dead, fays the hiftorian, Some mocked; but others faid, we will hear thee again of this matter. * Now St. Paul's audience confifted chiefly of Stoics and Epicureans; and the latter most undoubtedly were the party that derided the doctrine which the former did not conceive to be altogether extravagant, or ridiculous. But had the Apostle meant only to inculcate the general doctrine of a future ftate, the Stoics in all probability would have been fatisfied as to that point without a farther hearing; and the Epicureans would have no more mocked, or infulted, than if a Stoic had preached it.

Indeed there is one circumftance in the evangelical hiftory which at first glance may be thought to militate against what has been laid before you. When our Saviour came down from the mountain after his Transfiguration, with Peter, James, and John, and charged them that they should tell no man what things they had feen, till the Son of man were rifen

* Acts xvii. 32.

from

from the dead, they kept that faying with themfelves, queftioning one with another, what the rifing from the dead should mean. But that they could not poffibly doubt what was to be understood by the expreffion, or the thing itself, is demonftrable from preceding confiderations; and therefore the cafe must have been this. They were perplexed with the account our Lord had given of himself; they could not conceive how their Master, whom they still regarded as a temporal deliverer, should suffer and be put to an ignominious death, (as he had affured them he should in the 31 v. of the last Chapter ;) or how the expected deliverance would be effected by, or after fuch refurrection: this was probably the subject of their enquiry; they questioned one with another, not what THE, but what HIS rifing from the dead should mean. All this is perfectly confiftent with a parallel paffage in St. Luke. He took unto him the twelve, and faid unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerufalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man fhall be ac

St

complished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and fhall be mocked, and Spitefully intreated and Spitted on; and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he fhall rise again. And they understood none of thefe things: and this faying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. 31.

Luke xviii.

What has already been advanced will obviate a common affertion, or infinuation, that there is a very material difference between the cafe of a body which has been dead few days, or months, or even years, and of one which has been buried in the earth many centuries fince; and that the fame Power which is able to effect a refurrection in the former cafe, cannot be conceived adequate to the like operation in the latter. And indeed it deserves to be remarked, that to maintain, or to intimate this, is at beft to make extremely free with Omnipotence, and in fact only begs a question instead of satisfying it. Befides, this expedient will appear to be heavily encumbered with ftrange inconveni

ences;