LECTURE XVIII.

ON THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

1 COR. XV. 14.

If Christ be not raised, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

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THE attention of the Christian church has lately been directed to the important events, by which our salvation was procured; the death of the eternal Son of God for the sins of man. A pause has been made in the frivolity of pleasure, and in the tumult of worldly business, that we might have leisure to concentrate our thoughts, and fix them upon heavenly things. We have been called, in the daily service of our church, to follow our Saviour from one scene of suffering to another; to witness the insults and mockery, which he endured; the persevering cruelty of his enemies; the timor

a This Lecture was delivered on Easter Day.

ous inconsistency of his judge. We have seen him betrayed by one of his own chosen apostles; denied by another; forsaken by all. We have witnessed the triumph of the powers of darkness: we have seen all nature affected by the sufferings of her God: the vail of the temple rent, the earth shaken, the sun darkened by a preternatural eclipse; until, all having been accomplished which was written concerning Christ, he exclaimed, "It is finished;" and bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

It is impossible that these events should have been contemplated, without exciting some feelings of more than usual seriousness. Often as many around me must have reflected upon them, they will have found in such meditations continually some new cause for wonder, some fresh claim for gratitude.

Having dwelt so long upon the humiliation of Christ, the church this day celebrates the first act of his exaltation; his triumphant resurrection from the grave, in which it was not possible he should be retained. However familiar the circumstances attending the resurrection are to our minds, their exceeding importance must ever render the consideration of them an employment of the greatest interest to every Christian for upon the certainty of that event depends the truth of the gospel; all sure

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.

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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." 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

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b Acts ii. 24.

d Acts iv. 33.

f 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. k Matth. xxvii. 62, 63.