and last of all, by the Apostle Paul himself. For I Cor. XV. 10 9. 381 was to be expected, not worthy of the leaft Pa- Sect 28. tience: how much lefs worthy of being marked out with fuch diftinguishing Favours muft humbly acknowledge, and I would continually bear it in my Mind, that I am the least of all the Apostles, who am not indeed worthy to be called an Apofile, because I perfecuted the Church of GOD; on which Account, confidering the Transports of my favage Zeal, I think myself hardly deferving to be numbered amongst the meanest Followers of my Divine Mafter, and lefs than the leaft of all Saints. (Eph. iii. 8.). But by the Grace of GOD I am what I am, a Chriftian, an Apoftle, and not inferior to any of my honoured Brethren in that Office; and bis Grace [manifefted] towards me in raifing me to fo high a Dignity, and fo happy a State, was not difplayed in vain : But I laboured more abundantly than they all, confcious that I could never do enough, to balance the Mifchief I merly committed, or anfwer the Obligations, under which fuch rich and diftinguishing Mercy laid me. I exerted myself therefore to the utmoft in my Apoftolical Work; which should, by the Way, shelter me from the Contempt, which fome are ready to throw upon me: Yet, to fpeak more properly, it was not I, but the Grace of GOD that was with me: GOD furnished me for the Work, he excited me to Diligence and Zeal in it to him be the Glory of all. His Grace was the Caufe of all; and whether II therefore I, or they, laboured moft, and to whomfoever we delivered our Meffage, whether among you, or elsewhere, fo we preach, and fo ye believed. All agree in bearing our Teftimony to the Death and Refurrection of Chrift, and ye, with all other Christians, have agreed to receive it, as the great Foundation of our holy Religion. • had for IMPROV E 382 'Sect. 28. Ver. 3. Ver. 4. Ver. 5. Ver. 1. Ver. 9. 'Vel. 10. L Reflections on the Evidence of Chrift's Refurrection. IMPROVEMENT ET it be the daily Joy of our Hearts to think how firm that Foundation ftands, and what various and convincing Evidence we have, that as Chrift became incarnate, vifited this wretched World, and died for our Sins, according to the Scriptures; that as he condefcended to go down into the Caverns of the Grave, and lie there in the cold and filent Tomb, humbled in the Duft of Death; fo alfo, according to the fame Scriptures, he was raifed again on the third Day. Let us be very thankful that fuch convincing Proof was given of his Refurrection, demonftrated by fuch infallible Tokens, and repeated Appearances, to all the Apoftles; who had every Opportunity the moft fcrupulous Doubt could demand, of examining at Leifure into its Certainty. More than five hundred Perfons were Witneffes to it at one Time; and Witneffes, who furvived to many future Years to atteft this important Fact, that our Faith and Hope might be in GOD: In GOD, who quickneth the Dead, and who by this Refurrection of Jefus bis Son, bath begotten us again to a lively Hope of an Inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. As we have received, fo let us ftand faft in this Doctrine; and remember, that our Salvation depends on our ftedfaftly retaining it, and that we believe in vain, and worfe than in vain, if we ever, on any Confiderations, make Shipwreck of Faith, and of a good Confcience. It is Matter of Joy and Thankfulnefs, that St. Paul was added to this Cloud of Witneffes, who attefted the Refurrection of Jefus; that great Apoftle, in whom the Grace of GOD was fo richly magnified; magnified particularly in that Humility, which he here expreffes in fo amiable a Manner; calling himself the leaft of the Apofiles, and declaring that he was unworthy of the Name of an Apoftle, and amidst all the Labours and Glories of this eminent Station in the Church, ftill keeping in his Eyes that Madness, with which in the Days of his Infidelity he had wafted it. Shall we not all learn of him to fay, By the Grace of GOD I am what I am? Let us be folicitous, that his Grace beftowed upon us be not in vain; and ever bearing in Mind the many Sins of our unconverted State, and our great Unprofitableness fince we have known GOD, or rather been known of him, let us labour in our Lord's Service with proportionable Zeal; and when we have laboured to the utmoft, and exerted ourselves with the greatest Fidelity and Refolution, let us afcribe it to that Divine Agency, which ftrengthened us for all, and fay again, tho' fome fhould efteem it a difagreeable Tautology, not I, but the Grace of GOD that was with me. SECT. From hence is proved the Resurrection of the Dead : SECT. XXIX. The Apostle Shews the neceffary Connection between the Refur- CORINTHIANS XV. 12. NOW if Chrift be preached that he rose from the Dead, how fay fome among you, that there is no Refurrection of the Dead? I CORINTHIANS XV. 1.2.. 383 OU have heard, my Brethren, fomething Sect. 29. of the convincing my in You I Cor. XV.. 123 of the convincing Evidence, which attend-d ed this great and important Doctrine of Chrift's Refurrection; but if Christ is thus preached, that he was affuredly raised from the Dead, how do fome among you prefume to Jay, that there is no Refurrection of the Dead? With what Face can any, who allow of Chrift's Refurrection, pretend. to deny the other, whether out of an Attachment to Sadducean, or Philofophical Prejudices? 3 But if there be no For it is certain, that if there is no Refurrrection 13: of the Dead, if that Doctrine be in the general altogether incredible, then neither is Chrift raifed (a). And this would be a Confequence, 14 at once the moft falfe, and the moft melancholy, that can be conceived, for if Chrift be not raised, then our Preaching, which pretends to take its Authority from a Commiffion after his. Refurrection, in a View of declaring the Certainty of it, [is] vain; and your Faith founded chiefly. upon the Teftimony, which Gop then. bore to. him, Refurrection of the Dead, then Chrift is not rifen.. 14 And if Chrift be not rifen, then is our Preaching vain, and your Faith is alfo vain. a) Neither is Chrift raifed] This Argument, in which the Apostle dwells in fo copious a Manner, would appear to be of great Moment, whatever the Principles were by which. the Doctrine of the Refurrection was affaulted. It could not be faid, that was in its own Nature impaffible, which was accomplifhed in Chrift; and it would prove, that the Hope of a Refurrection was not, as the Gentiles reprefented it, a mean and for did Hope, fince it was. accomplished in the Son of GOD. Compare Verfe 1. Note (e). 7 (b) Still 2384 Sect. 29. 15. 15 Yea, and we are found falfe Witneffes of GOD; becaufe we have teftified of GOD, that he raised up Chrift: whom he raised not rife not. ed: 16 For if the Dead rife 17 And if Christ be not raifed, your Faith is vain; ye are yet in your Sins. For if the Dead rife not at all, Christ is not raised : him, [is] alfo vain. Yea, and we the Apostles, notwithstanding all the miraculous Evidences we 1 Cor. XV. give, of the Truth of our Miffion, are found, what I am fure you cannot believe we are, falfe Witnesses of GOD; becaufe you know, that we up, if fo be that the Dead bore this as our most important and folemn Teftimony concerning GOD, that he raised up Chrift, whom neverthelefs be indeed did not raife up, if the Notion of a Refurrection in the general be, as they teach, an Abfurdity, and the Dead rife 16- not all. I repeat it again, as a Point of the highest Confequence; for if the Dead are not not, then is not Chrift raiffinally to be raised, neither is Chrift raifed: 17 And what terrible Confequences would arife from hence? Surely fuch as might be fufficient to ftrike us with Horror: for if Chrift be not raifed, all your Faith in the Gofpel [is] vain, and ye are without any Salvation Ye are in that Cafe ftill in your Sins (b), under the Preffure of their unexpiated Guilt; for with the Doctrine of the Refurrection of Chrift, that of the Efficacy of his 18 Atonement is infeparably connected. And then alfo there would be this deplorable Confequence farther attending, that they, who fleep in Christ, are perished; even all deceased Chriftians, not excepting the most excellent of them, who have died for their Religion. They have loft their go Life and Being together, on this Suppofition, in the Caufe of one, who, if ftill among the Dead, muft have been an Impoftor, and falfe Prophet. 19 アップ And this Scheme, which would reprefent thofe that fleep in Chrift as perifhed, would, I am fure, the Apoftles of Jefus, in fuch a Circumftance as this; for if it were in this Life only, that we have Hope in Chrift, we, who are expofed to fuch a Variety of Calamities and Dangers for his Sake, were of all be a very terrible Doctrine to us Men, 18 Then they alfo which are fallen afleep in Christ, are perished. 19 If in this Life only we have Hope in Chrift, we are of all Men moft mise rable. (b) Still in your Sins.] This plainly fhews, how neceflary it was, that there fhould be fomething more than Reformation, which was plainly in Fact wrought, in order to their being delivered from their Sins; even that Atonement, the Sufficiency of which GOD attefted by raifing our great Surety from the Grave. (c) Of But Christ, being raised, is the First-fruits of them that flept. 20 But now is Christ risen from the Dead, and become Дlept. 21 For fince by Man came Death, by Man came alfo the Refurrection of the .. Cor. XV. 385 Men in the World the most pitiable (c): Since it Sect. 29. is evident, that amidst fuch Evils as thefe, nothing could comfort and fupport us, but the Hopes of Immortality; and we must be at once the vileft, and the most wretched of Mankind, if, while we make fuch Pretences to them, we were indeed governed by any lower Views. 2 I But we will now dwell no longer on these me- 20 the Firft-fruits of them that lancholy Suppofitions, for we affuredly know, that Chrift is indeed rifen from the Dead (d); [and] we are fure, that in this his Refurrection, he is become the First-fruits of them that flept (e); fo that it is the Security of ours. For as Death [came] on the whole human Race by Means of one Man, who brought Mortality on all his Posterity as the Confequence of that one great Offence, fo likewife by Means of another Man [cometb] the Refurrection of the Dead; and our happy. Relation to him abundantly repairs the Dar Dead. (c) of all Men the most pitiable: shesivolspos.] It is quite foreign to the Purpofe, to argue from this Text, as fome have done, that "if there were no future State, Virtue would "make Men more miferable, than they would otherwife be." It is evident, St. Paul here fpeaks, not of the Cafe of good Men in general, if their Hopes of future Happiness should after all be disappointed; but of the Cafe of the Apofties, and other Preachers of Christianity, if amidst all their Hardships and Perfecutions, they were not supported by this Hope. Deftitute of this amidst the extreameft Sufferings, they must have been perpetually fubjected to the Upbraidings of their own Minds, for facrificing every View of Happiness in this World, or another, to advance, what they knew to be, a pernicious Falfehood. Perhaps there never were Men on Earth fo criminal, and fo wretched, as they muft, on this Suppofition have been. See the Thought illuftrated at large in my Sermons on the Power and Grace of Chrift, &c. Serm. ix. pag. 259,-262. (d) Chrift is indeed rifen, &c.] It is a great Miftake to imagine, that the Apostle is em ployed throughout this Chapter in proving the Refurrection. The Proof lies in a very little Room, chiefly Verfes 12,-19: and almost all the rest of the Chapter is taken up in illuStrating, vindicating, or applying it. The Proof is indeed very fhort, but moft folid and convincing that whichsarofe from Christ's Refurrection. Now that not only proved a Refurrection to be in Fact not impoffible, but which was much more, as it proved him to be a Divine Teacher, it proved the Doctrine of a general Refurrection, which he fo exprefsly taught. It was natural for fo good a Man alfo, to infift on the fad Confequences, which would follow with Refpect to himself, and his Brethren, from giving up fo glorious a Hope; and the cordial Manner in which he speaks of this, is a noble internal Argument, which I hope many of my Readers will feel, tho' I have been obliged to be lefs copious in the Paraphrafe, than I could have wished. (e) First Fruits of them that flept.] It is without fufficient Reason, that Mr. Fleming, (Christ. Vol.i. pag. 218.) would render away, Ruler, Governor, or Commander.Kenan where is explained by ones, Verfe 18. and both muft refer to Chriftians, of whofe Refurrection alone, and not of that of the Wicked, he evidently fpeaks in this whole Chapter. VOL. IV. (f) Aba 19r |