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SERMON VI.

1 Cor. xv. 54, 55.

-Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

THE

HE apostle had just before called the attention of the christians of Corinth, a famous city of Greece, whom he is addressing, to a very extraordinary circumstance concerning the future fate of a great part of mankind never before made known, but which Almighty God had revealed to him; and it was this: That however all men were mortal, and death was common to all, yet all would not be subject to it; but a vast number of the human species would never die; namely, all true believers who should be found alive at the last day; who, we trust, will then be many millions, the greatest part of the inhabitants of the earth; as we have grounds to believe

that

that the gospel will be then the religion of the whole earth; and men be made virtuous and reformed by it, in a much greater degree than has ever yet been experienced. Nevertheless, at that awful period, (as St. Paul proceeds to inform us,) though they were not to die, their mortal frame would undergo a change, to fit them for future happiness, and put them in a state of incorruption, similar to that of the virtuous dead, who would then all be raised to life, and both of them be admitted together to a never-ending felicity. But concerning vicious unholy christians, dead or then living, he is quite silent; speaking only of those who had made due improvement of their great advantages. (ver. 51, &c.) These are his words:"Behold, I declare to you a mystery; We shall not all sleep the sleep of death; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last sounding of the trumpet (for a trumpet shall sound); and both those who are dead shall be raised, and we (or whoever may chance then to be alive,) shall be changed, have the same glorious immortal constitution bestowed upon us. "For this corruptible frame must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written," or Then will be said that which is written; then with peculiar propriety may those triumphant exclamations of the prophets be fulfilled; in Isaiah-" Death is swallowed up in victory!" or swallowed up for ever. And in Hosea," O death, “O` where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Now the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" In other words; O death, what is become of thy mischievous affrighting power? O grave, where are thy trophies, and thy conquests which thou hast so long had over the human race? Thy sting, that which does the mischief in death, and which indeed causes it, is sin; that greatest of all evils, and in comparison with which, other things can hardly be called evil. And the power and force of sin, that mortal weapon with which death is armed, is the law, and its condemning sentence. But thanks be to God, who will give us the victory over death and the

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grave, at the resurrection, by Jesus Christ our Lord, the instrument of his singular kindness and benevolence to mankind.

I need not to say that the subject is most interesting to all of us. If any thing to be suggested to you from it, may make us serious by attending to the great business of this our short probationary state, preparatory to that which will never end; and to aid and confirm us in a steady course of piety and virtue, which alone can qualify us for it,-this our religious assembling of ourselves will have answered its proper end.

I.

end.

And

What is that death, the conquest over which is here represented as the subject of so great triumph?

There could be no hesitation or difficulty in the answer to be given here, if the plain and direct language of the scriptures had been attended to. But it has happened, through the prejudices instilled into us from our cradle, we are made to believe, that to die is not to cease to live, but to go on to live in a separate state in another world. But when the all-bounteous

Creator,

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