SERMON XXIX.

ON EASTER DAY.

LUKE xxiv. 5, 6,

Why feek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.

HE melancholy scene of forrow and fuf

THE

fering, which we lately commemorated, is now changed! Hufhed therefore be the voice of lamentation, and the tears wiped away from all faces. We no longer bewail a Redeemer afflicted and oppreffed by a barbarous band of ruffians, the fcoff of infolence, the derifion of fools, the victim of a blood-thirsty nation, but hail him as a triumphant conqueror. For, fee! he breaks the barriers of the grave, and triumphs over all the malice of his enemies. Haften not, therefore, ye daughters of forrow, to weep over and anoint the body your Saviour. The Lord of life cannot be held by the bonds of death, the holy one of

of

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God cannot fee corruption.

Why seek ye the

He is not here,

living among the dead?

where. ye expect to find him, in the dark manfion of the grave: he is risen from the dead, and become the firft-fruits of them that slept.

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Such was the language of the angels to the women who came to anoint and to weep over the body of Jesus. A language how widely different from what we commonly find at the mansions of mortality! "Here lieth, mingled with his kindred duft," is the last poor panegyric of human greatness, the common memorial of the triumphant conqueror and the humble peafant. But, where man's glory ends, there Chrift's began. It was faid by Isaiah of old, “his rest shall be glorious." And what Ifaiah foretold, our Redeemer fulfilled. The grave was his triumph, and the fepulchre the throne of his glory. In weaknefs he became ftrong, in humiliation he was exalted: though he fubmitted to death, he saw no corruption: he brake the bonds of death in funder, and triumphed over all the malice of his bitter and implacable enemies,

That event, which we are this day afsembled to commemorate, is certainly the greatest and most stupendous, which can occupy the thoughts and attention of man. The refurrection of a human body from the grave is a thing fo new and unheard of before the christian æra, that we may well fay, "this is "the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in "our eyes." But it is not only matter of admiration to us, as a great and wonderful event, but also is a fubject deferving our warmeft gratitude and affection, fince it is the pillar of our faith as Christians, and the ground of all our hopes as men. For not only now is Christ risen from the dead, but also he is become the firft-fruits of them that Лlept!

That we may therefore be fully confirmed in our Christian confidence of rising from death to immortality, I fhall endeavour to fhew, firft, that our Saviour's refurrection is an undeniable proof of his divinity; and therefore is an inconteftible confirmation of our

faith:

Secondly,

Secondly, That we have the most full and fatisfactory evidence of the truth of our Saviour's refurrection; and

Thirdly, That his refurrection is a pledge and affurance of our own; and therefore is a moft comfortable foundation of our hopes.

And ift. If the evidence of St. Paul can have any weight in this matter, he expressly tells us, that the refurrection of Christ was a confirmation of his Godhead; or, as he himself better expreffes it, "Chrift was declared "to be the Son of God with power, by the "refurrection from the dead." And this is agreeable to what the fame Apoftle says, in his addrefs to the people of Antioch: "we "declare unto you glad tidings," fays he, "how that the promise, which was made "unto the Fathers, God hath fulfilled the

fame unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jefus from the dead again:" as it is written in the second pfalm, “thou "art my Son; this day have I begotten "thee." This day, by making thee the first born from the dead, I have declared thee my Son with power; that all nations may acknowledge

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knowledge thy divine authority, and honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.

Agreeably to this, we find that our Saviour himfelf conftantly appeals to his refurrection, as the particular proof of his divinity. Thus he tells the Jews, when they fought for a fign from him, as an evidence of his divine miffion: an evil and adulterous generation feek"eth after a fign, and there fhall no fign be given it, but that of the prophet Jonas: "for as Jonas was three days and three nights "in the whale's belly, fo fhall the Son of

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man be three days and three nights in the "heart of the earth." Thus alfo, when he drove the buyers and fellers out of the temple, that is, out of the court of the gentiles adjoining to it, which as well as the Sanctuary itfelf was called the temple, and the Jews faid unto him," what fign fhewest thou, "feeing thou doest these things?" his anfwer was, "deftroy this temple of my body,

and in three days I will raise it up again." His other miracles did indeed abundantly demonstrate his divine power; for no man could give feet to the lame and eyes to the blind, except God were with him: but the

refur