by a testimony, that stamps unbelief with impiety as well as folly—the testimony of God.

Behold this testimony in the virtues which the Apostles exercised; and which, considering their low birth, their obscure situation, their ignorance, and their timidity, and the principles common to them with all men, of aversion to danger and suffering and death must have had a divine origin. God alone could have inspired, and God alone could have preserved the unconquerable courage, the unparalleled patience, the extreme self-denial which the timid and ignorant and obscure fishermen of Galilee displayed in proclaiming the truth, that a crucified malefactor had risen from the dead. Thus did God speak in their testimony.

But more powerful still his attestation in the supernatural gifts, which he bestowed upon the Apostles. By these they bore witness to this great event, and converted to the belief of it, myriads of the nation by whom Christ was slain, and of Gentiles, to whom no truth could be more offensive, than that an obscure Galilean, the victim of an ignominious punishment, was exalted from the grave to the throne of the universe. This fact, the conversion of the world to the belief of this most unpopular and improbable truth, proves the agency of that divine power by which alone this conversion could have been effected. But it is particularly important to notice, that the supernatural gifts by which the resurrection was attested,

were never denied by the bitter infidels of the first ages. These gifts they ascribed to diabolical agency. But the subterfuge refutes itself. That supernatural gifts exercised in the confirmation of doctrines which condemned, under the severest penalties, all falsehood, and all impurity, and which enforced by the strongest motives the practice of truth and universal holiness; that supernatural gifts, which were thus exerted for the subversion, and the successful subversion of the kingdom of the prince of darkness, should be the result of his agency, is a supposition as impious as it is ab

surd.

But, finally, we have the testimony of God to the resurrection of Christ in those prophecies which were delivered, and which were fulfilled, and were fulfilling, in respect to the holy city of Jerusalem, and to the dispersion, and yet the preservation, in their distinctive character and principles, of the Jewish nation. These are a standing evidence, that Jesus who delivered them, and who was crucified, has risen from the dead.

Thus then, brethren, the resurrection of Christ is attested by the strongest human evidence, and by the unerring testimony of God. We must renounce all those principles that regulate our belief of events which we have not witnessed; and we must resist the voice, and disregard the finger of the Most High, if we do not embrace, with the full assurance of faith, the doctrine, that Christ who

died for our sins, has risen for our justification; and that thus proclaimed to be the Lord of life and death, and the Judge of the world, he will come again to exalt his faithful followers to those mansions which he hath gone before to prepare for them.

1

But, brethren, if we would enjoy the blessed effects of Christ's resurrection, we must be buried into the death of sin, and rise to newness of life". "The spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, must quicken and sanctify our souls." For "he was raised for us, that henceforth we should not live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again." They who "live after the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof;" they, whose supreme object is the gratification of their worldly passions, whatever may be their temporal prosperity, are, in a spiritual sense, dead in sin. They reject the justification which Christ procured for them by his rising again; and the only effect of his resurrection to them will be-a resurrection to the pains of the second death-the resurrection of damnation.

Now, then, let us beseech him, who by his rising again, became our Lord and Saviour, to raise us "from the death of sin to a life of righteousness," that hereafter we may enjoy with him the life of glory. In that holy sacrament where we celebrate his victory over death, let us implore him to clothe

z Rom. vi. 4. 2 Cor. v. 15.

our souls with the garments of righteousness, that hereafter our bodies may be invested with the robes of immortality. Let us present, at the altar of him who for us died and rose again, the oblations of grateful and holy hearts, and the offerings of charity for the poor members of his fold.. Let us especially implore him, that he would grant us that faith in him as our glorified Redeemer and Master, which will bring forth the fruits of righteousness; and by which we shall triumph over sin, over death, and over hell, and rise to the session of the inheritance of glory.

pos

SERMON XXX.

་་་.

THE EFFECTS OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

[EASTER.]

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 20.

Now is Christ risen from the dead.

My brethren-had you been among those who accompanied your Saviour in every stage of his passion; had you seen him suspended on the cross, and heard the exclamations of the anguish with which he poured forth his soul unto death; had you beheld his body committed to the tomb; and had you known and realised that on his rising again, depended all your hopes of happiness in the world, of comfort in death, of a resurrection from the darkness and corruption of the grave, to the glory and bliss of an immortal life-what a period of anxious suspense would that have been to you, during which your Saviour remained in the tomb. And what a day of triumph, would that day have been, when you beheld him burst