SERMON VI.

Acts, xxvi. 8.—“Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead ?”

THESE words are part of the defence which Paul delivered in the presence of Agrippa. In the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed, he was not so anxious about the opinion which his royal auditors might form of himself, as to induce them to entertain just sentiments concerning the doctrine which he was engaged in propagating, and for the teaching of which he was now called in question. Instead, therefore, of detailing the circumstances of the unjust treatment he had experienced, and demanding justice, which he had an unquestionable right to do, he proceeds to direct their attention to the leading doctrine of the faith he was employed in establishing, and in defence of which he had periled all that was dear to him as a man and as a citizen. And while this mode of conducting his defence accorded with that generosity and heroism which led him to disregard his own personal feelings in his zeal to advance the honour of his Master's cause, it was the most effectual way of securing a patient attention to his own individual history and claims. By removing their prejudices against the doctrine which had roused the hostility of his per

66

secutors, he would gain their favourable regard to his cause; and having satisfied them that the great truth which he every where preached was neither impossible nor improbable, the way would be prepared for the exhibition of the particular evidence by which it was supported. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" The resurrection of the dead was the great hope which he laboured to awaken and encourage, and which, by reasonings and facts the most satisfactory and convincing, he had been so successful in establishing; and he appeals to the reason of his illustrious audience if there was any thing in it so utterly incredible and preposterous as to preclude the preacher of it from a patient and candid hearing. Although the powers and capacities of man seem extinct in death; although the wondrous frame, on which the wisdom of the Almighty seems lavished, dissolve and moulder in the grave; although man retires from the light of day, and is no more found in the scenes of activity and enjoyment; although he closes his eye on all earthly beauty; although all his loveliness is tarnished and turned to corruption, so that the heart of friendship is glad to hide him in the dust; still "it is not incredible that God should raise the dead." This is the position to the confirmation of which our attention is now to be directed. And may that Saviour who both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living, guide and assist us in asserting this cardinal truth of his holy Gospel!

There is something so sublime and astounding in the idea of a universal resurrection, that man left to the feeble ratiocination of his own imperfect intellect, is in danger of hearing the assertion of it with feelings akin to incredulity. When we bid him look forward to the time when the countless myriads of human beings, who, from the birth of nature, have filled and peopled this lower world, shall all be made alive,-when the forgotten ashes of forgotten generations shall spring to activity and vigour, when the grave shall yield up its unnumbered prisoners,-when the globe shall swarm with all of every clime, who in every age have adorned it by their virtues or darkened it by their crimes,―man is apt, as the mighty prospect bursts on his imagination, to look with incredulous astonishment, and is ready to exclaim with Nicodemus, when another wonder of the Gospel was presented unto him, "How can these things be?" Nor let us turn from the astonished and incredulous wonderer with indifference, as if he were already the victim of a hopeless scepticism; but let us rather meet him with the language of an enlightened reason, and, showing him the grounds on which we build this mighty hope, let us seek to protect him from infidelity and despair. We propose, then, to show you that the resurrection of the dead is possible, probable, and certain. By discussing the possibility and probability of the resurrection before stating that certainty with which the Gospel has discovered it, I design to meet and remove the difficulties with which some reflecting minds have

been embarrassed when they view the desolations of the grave, by showing them that this doctrine of our faith is in the most beautiful harmony with the clearest dictates of a sound philosophy.

In the first place, then, We maintain that the resurrection of the dead is a possible event. The primary and leading prejudice against the resurrection of the human body seems to be, that it contradicts all our observation and experience, and is therefore at variance with the constitution and course of nature. That it is contrary to our present experience, and to the course of nature with which we are acquainted, is readily admitted. But we should certainly reason hastily if we concluded that our present knowledge of the laws of nature was a full development of the resources of Infinite Wisdom; and that the present operation of the powers of nature was all that they could effect. A very familiar illustration may be sufficient to satisfy us of the folly and precipitancy of such a conclusion. Most of you are now acquainted with the wonderful powers of steam, and you would smile if any one should pronounce these preternatural. But had any philosopher ventured some century ago to state the wonders that this agent can effect, the thing would have been declared impossible. It did not accord with the experience and observation of our forefathers, and therefore they would have regarded facts, which our children view as familiar and common, as things incredible and beyond the powers of any agents in nature. This simple illus

tration must serve to show how precipitately we reason from the present to the future, when we exaggerate our imperfect observation of the order of the universe into the sum of all that can be known of the counsels of the Creator. The truth is, our knowledge of the course of nature is limited and partial; and to imagine that we know all the laws by which the great Ruler of the universe effects the manifold operations of his power, would be the most consummate folly which human weakness could exhibit. Yet such is the weakness and folly of the human mind, when it questions the possibility of the resurrection, merely because it does not accord with our present observation. What we see of the Divine operations is limited; it is but a part of his ways that we are permitted to behold,-and to conclude that there are no other powers in nature which the Deity may employ to execute his will than those to which he has introduced us, would be alike presumptuous and impious. To imagine, then, that the resurrection is impossible, because we do not see the manner in which it can be effected, would be to assert, that there are no powers or methods of operation which the Almighty can employ in the execution of his purposes of mercy or of judgment, but those which he has already made known to the creatures of a day; and that he has no other modes of acting but those which the limited capacities of man can comprehend and explain. Does not a better philosophy teach us, that the resources of Divine Wisdom are infinite, and that how remote soever the resurrection of the human body may be