knowledge of our own resurrection; all confident expectation of future judgment. "If Christ be not raised; then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."

You will be ready, then, I am persuaded, to join with me in serious meditation on the events which we this day commemorate. You will not look for novelty, on a subject, which has engaged the attention of the Christian world from the day when our Lord burst the bands of death, until now. But you will be prepared to call to mind some of the circumstances, and some of the consequences, of the resurrection of Christ.

1. The importance of Christ's resurrection, in the scheme of the gospel dispensation, appears from the prominent part, which it occupies, in the preaching of the Apostles, immediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost.

As soon as Christ was risen from the dead, a wondrous change took place in the behaviour of his disciples. They, who had before forsaken him and fled, became suddenly the intrepid preachers of his religion: and the fact of all others on which they insisted, as forming the foundation of their faith, was that the same Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified and slain, was raised to life from the dead. This was the theme of the energetic discourse, which St.

с

d

Peter delivered immediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost; and of two addresses, which he soon after made. This was the fact to which the Apostles all gave witness with great power. This was the most prominent subject—what was delivered "first of all" in the discourses of St. Paul, whether to the Jews or Gentiles. And when an apostle was to be added to the number of the eleven, he was studiously chosen of those which companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, that he might be a witness with them of his resurrection. And with good reason was this fact thus insisted upon. For it was the fact which conferred infallible authority upon all the words and actions of Christ. Long before he came into the world it was predicted that the Holy One of God should not see corruption.h The resurrection of the Messiah, and the very time which should elapse between his death and his rising again, were historically prefigured in the miraculous preservation of the prophet Jonah. Jesus, during his ministry, had frequently uttered predictions of the same import. "De

b Acts ii. 24.

a Acts iv. 33.

Acts xiii. 30, 33. xvii. 31.

c Acts iii. 15. x. 40.

e 1 Cor. xv. 3.

Acts i. 21, 22.

h Psalm xvi. 10. applied Acts ii. 31.

stroy this temple," said he to the Jews, "and in three days I will raise it up;" and this "he spake of the temple of his body." As the time of his sacrifice approached, he expressed himself still more clearly to his disciples, and to the world.

When, therefore, Jesus by wicked hands was crucified and slain, then was the period, at which was to be for ever decided the important question, whether he were the Christ or not. His enemies were well aware of this: for they endeavoured, with impotent precaution, to prevent the fulfilment of God's designs. "The chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again." They demanded, therefore, a watch; which they might set over the sepulchre, to make it as sure as they could. And this they did; sealing the stone, and setting a watch. The third day came; and how was this question decided? Two different accounts are given. The disciples assert that Jesus is actually risen from the dead; that they have beheld him, conversed with him, seen him going in and coming out among them; shewing himself alive by many infallible proofs; performing miracles, as he was wont; making direct allui John ii. 19, 21. Matth. xxvii. 62, 63.

sion, in his discourse, to events which had occurred before his death:' eating and drinking in their presence: permitting himself even to be handled and felt, that they might perceive that it was no phantom which deluded their senses; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as he had." The Jews, on the other hand, assert, that the disciples had stolen him away while the soldiers slept that the disciples—so timid that they had deserted their Lord in his agony—had suddenly attempted to surprize the strict discipline of the Roman soldiery, and succeeded in their attempt: had dared to brave the indignation of their powerful adversaries; who yet could at once have confuted their imposture, had it been such, by evidence which could not have been gainsayed.

Here, then, it may be asked, as it has been often asked, on whose side lies the credulity? Shall we believe the testimony of men all consistent in their account of an event, which yet they expected not to occur, before it happened— for, with all the warning which they had received, the resurrection in a great measure took the apostles by surprize—Shall we believe men standing forth with one voice in the assertion of a fact, in which they could not be mistaken; and suffering themselves to be persecuted, and

Luke xxiv. 44.

m Luke xxiv. 39.

tormented, and put to death, rather than deny the truth of what they asserted: or shall we give credit to a tale inconsistent and contradictory: a tale evidently got up for a specific purpose, and tacitly abandoned even by those who devised it?

But this is not all. After the day of the He resurrection, Jesus continued upon earth.

was shewed openly, "not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God."" "He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once:"° of whom the greater part remained for several years as living witnesses of the fact. Last of all, he was seen of one who, in consequence of that appearance, changed the whole course of his life; was converted from a persecutor into a most ardent and persevering, yet judicious, preacher of the gospel. As long as any of these witnesses survived, so long they persisted in their assertion. What they had seen with their eyes, and looked upon, and known, and their hands had handled, that they declared and attested, through evil report, and good report; through peril, and persecution, and nakedness, and famine, and the sword.

These facts, which no one dares to dispute, can be accounted for upon only one supposition;