full of great matter, our apostle unfolds the

whole story.

"Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

Hence we learn, and from every other part of scripture, that our primary obligation for every thing is to God. Christ and all other beings are but his instruments, employed by him to convey his favours to us.

He it was that appointed Christ to die for us, as our Lord himself tells us; John iii, 16. "God so loved the world, that he gave his well-beloved Son (to die,) that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John x. 11. 14, 15. 17. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me, and as I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life."

Philip. ii. 8. "Because he was obedient to death, even the death of the cross :—therefore God hath highly exalted him, who was made a little lower than the angels:" i. e. the state in which all mankind are made.

Heb.

Heb. ii. 9, 10. "We see Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he, by the favour of God, should taste death for every man," i. e. should be made the means of saving all mankind from it. "For it became him (i. e. God), for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering."

These declarations of our Lord himself and his apostles teach us;

That there was no hatred of God to sinners shown in his appointing Christ to die for our salvation, but his great love and mercy.

And therefore what Christ has done, was not by bearing the vengeance of the Almighty for us, but by being willing and ready to obey his will, however painful to himself, so that he might but be serviceable to us, and teach us effectually the ways of holiness and virtue, and how to secure the divine favour. He did not suffer in our stead, but suffered for our good. And we are told, 1 John iii. 16. " that as he laid down his life for us, so ought we to lay down our lives for the brethren."

And the Almighty Father and lover of righteousness puts such a mark of honour on

his most holy and faithful servant Jesus, on account of his piety and benevolence, as to reward him with the power of raising the dead to life, and determining their future condition.

But then, the victory over death for you and for me, my brethren, is still incomplete; Christ our Master's virtuous sufferings and death, his being raised to life, and high exaltation and powers, will be of no avail to us, if we remain under the dominion of sin, or slaves to the world and its evil ways.

For our sins cannot be done away by Christ, or by any means whatsoever, without our own actual forsaking of them. We cannot be made holy or virtuous by any thing that he or any one can do for us.

No: he himself tells us, That if we will share in his triumph over death, we must also be conquerors ourselves in our turn. (Rev. iii, 21.) "To him that overcometh, will I give to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (ii. 10.) "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

Surrounded with various enemies, in this day of our trial, from our own passions and the world without us, to draw us from our loyalty

loyalty to God and his sacred laws; threatened perhaps with dangers and suffering terrifying to human nature; or soothed and flattered by the more dangerous blandishments of ease and soft indulgence, to give ourselves wholly up to them, instead of devoting ourselves, after the example of our Lord, to serve others, and to promote virtue and holiness, and the knowledge of God among men ;-we are to watch always, that we be not surprised so as to fall by the temptation, and to exert all our powers in the noble contest: a contest, not for crowns, or sceptres, or worldly dignities, or false pleasures, which leave a bitterness behind them ; but to be great in the sight of God, and to taste of those pleasures that are at his right hand for ever more, which flow from an increasing knowledge of his works and of himself, the source of all excellence and felicity; and from the improving society of the wise and good, the spirits of just men made perfect; and from various other avenues, whereby he is capable of making his favoured creatures happy, unknown to us at present, and most probably incomprehensible by us.

And thus, our lives formed and governed by the precepts of the gospel, and animated

VOL. II.

K

by

by Christ's example to overcome the world and the evil of it, his resurrection and victory over death are a pledge and assurance of our And of that fact itself we have every desirable evidence, of which our apostle gives us a short summary in his entrance on the subject before us.

own.

Pretended philosophers may ask, as some he tells us did very early, (ver. 35.) "How are the dead raised up; and with what body do they come ?" and may deny the possibility of it. We have met with many of this cast. But in Christ we have a proof from fact of the dead being made alive, level to the сараcities of the lowest among the unlearned, and satisfactory to the most scrupulous and inquisitive. And, by being raised to life, exactly according to his own prediction, the truth of the gospel had a further seal set to it by Almighty God, and the future resurrection of all men confirmed, of which he had so often declared himself to be the intended instrument. (John vi. 40.) "This is the will of him that sent me: That every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, (i. e. who receive and follow my holy doctrine,) may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the

last