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SERMON XIX.

An Expofition of the second Part of the Leffon appointed for the Burial Service.

I COR. XV. 20.

Now is Chrift rifen from the Dead, and become the firft fruits of them that flept.

IN

the preceding difcourfe I laid before you the fubftance of St. Paul's arguments in the earlier part of the chapter under our confideration; together with fuch reflections tending to your edification and your comfort as appeared naturally to flow from the fubject. The apostle had earnestly infifted on the truth of the resurrection of Christ as the groundwork of Chriftian faith, and the pledge of the future refurrection of all men at their appointed time and in their proper order. He had reminded the Corinthians of the leading

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feature in the divine plan of redemption; that the great Deliverer who should provide the means of restoration for fallen man should himself be man that the victorious enemy of the human race fhould be defpoiled of his fovereignty, should be caft into everlafting perdition, by a Being who should manifeft Himself in the flesh, who fhould. be clothed in that nature, which the tempter by his triumph over our firft parents had corrupted and enslaved. He had enlarged on the import, the extent, and the duration, of the mediatorial kingdom of our Lord: and had marked with particular energy that complete demonftration of the Redeemer's univerfal power, that fource of inexpreffible confolation and inextinguishable happiness to His fervants, the total deftruction of death. He proceeds unto the conclufion of the chapter ftill to prefs thefe awakening truths. on the Chriftians to whom he addreffed his epiftle; and by that epiftle, being dead, be yet Speaketh to us, and fhall continue to speak the words of falvation to the extremities of the earth, until his Lord fhall return in the clouds to call the living and the dead to judgement. He confirms the doctrine of the refurrection by additional reafonings; and vindicates it from the cavils of objectors by

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perfpicuous and familiar illuftrations. He enters at confiderable length into the nature of the change, which fhall be experienced by the glorified bodies of just men made perfect : fuddenly breaks forth into a triumphant strain of gratitude to God, who giveth us through our Lord Jefus Chrift the victory over our laft enemy armed with the mortal dart of fin and strong in the penal fanctions of the violated law and clofes the fubje& with a fhort but impreffive and animated exhortation to that fledfaftnefs, that joyful patience in faith and holiness, to which, by the promife and through the blood of Chrift, the reward of everlafting happiness is enfured.

Thefe, my brethren, are the leffons which I would attempt to unfold for your encouragement in your pilgrimage through an evil world, in your paffage through the valley of the fhadow of death.

Elfe what fhall they do, which are baptifed for the dead; if the dead rife not at all? Why are they then baptifed for the dead? And why Stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Chrift Jefus our Lord, I die daily. If, after the manner of men, I have fought with beafts at Ephefus: what advantageth it me, if the dead rife not? Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die!

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In the nineteenth verfe St. Paul had already affirmed concerning himself, and the other apoftles and preachers of the gospel: If in this life only we have hope in Chrift; we are of all men moft miferable. Most truly might he make this declaration. What was their fituation as you find it reprefented in the Acts of the Apoftles, and incidentally defcribed in the Epiftles of St. Paul and of the other facred writers? One continued scene of toil, forrow, anxiety, danger, and perfecution. Chased from region to region, odious alike to the Jews and to the Romans, in afflictions, in neceffities, in diftreffes, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in faftings, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the fea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness (a), and under perpetual hazard of a violent and torturing death; if they were not juftified in looking forward through Chrift to a future recompence, they were indeed the most miserable of mankind. If then they knowingly and willingly expofed themselves to uninterrupted dangers and fufferings by preaching the refurrection of their crucified Mafter; by preaching a gospel depending on the truth of His re(a) 2 Cor. vi. 4, 5. xi. 26, 27.

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furrection, and announcing the future refurrection of all men what was the neceffary conclufion? That they knew whom they had believed; that they knew that Jefus Christ had arifen, that all men should rise, that the gospel was true. To this argument St. Paul now recurs. What confideration, he enquires, except a firm conviction that there remaineth beyond the grave a hope for the righteous, could induce men to encounter a certain profpect of wretchednefs in the prefent life, and to be baptifed for the dead: to be baptifed into a religion established on the doctrine of the refurrection; or, as this difficult expreffion is not unfrequently interpreted, to be baptifed in the place of thofe who are dead to take upon themselves the Chriftian profeffion which had proved before their eyes the cause of deftruction to numbers, and eagerly. to offer themselves to fill up those vacancies which martyrdom had occafioned in the ranks of the foldiers of Chrift? What other confideration, he demands, could perfuade us, the apoftles, to ftand in jeopardy, cheerfully to expofe our lives to extreme danger every hour? To strengthen his reasoning, St. Paul appeals to his own fufferings, to his own perils. On ano ther occafion we find him applying to himfelf and his affociates the prophetical expref

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