And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.-1 Cor. xv. 14. THE nature of Christ's office made it necessary that he should rise from the dead. As the economy of our redemption required that he should descend from heaven, the seat of his glory, that by dying he might expiate our sins; so after his lying in the grave, so long as to attest the reality of his death, it was necessary he should rise again, in order to his dispensing the glorious benefits he had purchased. The apostle tells the Corinthians, If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. For the faith of Christians hath a threefold reference. 1. To the person of Christ, that he is the Son of God. 2. To his death, that it is an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. 3. To his promise, that he will raise believers at the last day. Now the resurrection of Christ is the foundation of faith in respect of all these. 1. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. He was the Son of God from eternity as the Word, and from the first moment of his incarnation as God-man; but the honor of this relation was much eclipsed in his poor life, and ignominious death. And although his darkened night was enlightened with some discoveries of his Deity, yet they were transient, and soon vanished. But in his resurrection God did publicly own him in the face of the world; therefore he is represented, testifying from heaven, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. According to the phrase of Scripture, then things are said to be, when they conspicuously appear. All the miraculous proofs by which God acknowledged him for his Son, during his life, had been ineffectual without this. If he had remained in the grave, it had been reasonable to believe him an ordinary person, and that his death had been the punishment of his presumption; but his resurrection was the most illustrious and convincing evidence, that he was what he declared himself to be. For it is not conceivable that God should put forth an almighty power to raise him, and thereby authorize his usurpation, if by robbery he had assumed that glorious title. He is therefore said to be justified by the Spirit, which raised him, from all the accusations of his enemies, who charged him with blasphemy for making himself equal with God: upon the evidence of it, Thomas adored him as his Lord and God. 2. His resurrection is the most pregnant proof of the allsufficiency of his satisfaction. This was special in the death of Christ, that the curse of the law accompanied it, and seemed like an infinite weight to lie on his grave; but in rising again, the value and virtue of his sufferings were fully declared. Therefore the apostle tells us, that he was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Although his death was sufficient to merit our pardon, yet since believers alone actually partake of the benefit, and none could believe if he had not rose from the grave; it is clear his death had been ineffectual without it. 3. Our faith in his promises to give life and glory to his servants, is built on his resurrection. For how could we believe him to be the Author of life, who remained under the power of death? How could he quicken and glorify us, who finally perished? If he had been confined to the grave, all our hopes had been buried with him. But his resurrection is the cause, pattern, and argument of ours. He did not only raise the body from the grave, but his church with him. Now the effecting this is attributed to the divine power, with a note of eminency: Christ was raised by the glory of his Father, that is, by his power, which in that act was manifested in its full splendor; for what is stronger than death, and more inexorable than the grave? Omnipotency alone can break its gates, and loose its bands. "Lift your glad voices in triumph on high, Vain were the terrors that gather'd around him, Loud was the chorus of angels on high, The Saviour hath risen, and man shall not die." Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.—Heb. xii. 11. In what way Christ would have himself preached to you, in that hold ye him, in that write ye him in your heart. It is a wall against all assaults, and all artifices of the enemy. Fear not: he does not even tempt unless by permission: it is plain that he can do nothing unless he has been permitted, or sent. He is sent, as an evil angel, by a power which holds him under control; permitted when he makes some request: and this, brethren, does not occur but that the righteous may be proved, the unrighteous punished. What then dost thou fear? Walk in the Lord thy God; be assured: what he will not have thee suffer, thou sufferest not; what he may permit thee to suffer, is the rod of One that corrects, not the punishment of One that condemns. We are in training for an eternal inheritance, and do we spurn the rod? My brethren, if a boy should refuse a slapping or a whipping from his father, what a proud child would he be called, what a hapless subject, how ungrateful for paternal discipline! And to what end does a human father train a human. son? That he may be able to avoid losing the temporal goods which he has acquired for him, which he has collected for him, which he would not have him lose, which himself who leaves can not keep for ever. He is not teaching a son with whom he is to possess, but who is to possess after him. My brethren, if in teaching a son, a father teaches one who is to succeed him, and teaches withal that he too is destined to pass through all these things in the same way, by which he, who is admonishing him, is destined to pass through the same; how will ye that he train us, our Father, whom we are not as successors to come after, but as inmates to come nigh unto, and abide with him for ever, in an heritage which fadeth not, neither dieth, and where hailstorms are unknown? Himself is both the inheritance and the Father. Shall he be our possession, and is it not our duty to endure training? Then let us suffer the teaching of the Father. Let us not, when our head aches, run to charmers, to fortune-tellers, and remedies of vanity. My brethren, shall I not mourn over you? Every day I find these things: and what shall I do? Not yet do I succeed in persuading Christians that their hope is to be placed in Christ? Lo, suppose one dies to whom one of these remedies has been applied, with what assurance hath his spirit gone forth to God? He hath lost the sign of Christ, he hath received the sign of the devil. Or will any one say, I have not lost Christ's sign? Then thou hast had the sign of Christ and the sign of the devil both together. Christ will have no partnership; he will be the sole proprietor of what he hath bought. He bought at so great a price, that he may be the sole proprietor. Thou makest the devil, to whom by sin thou hast sold thyself, Christ's partner. Woe to the double-hearted; to those who in their hearts give part to God, part to the devil. God being angry that the devil has part there, departs, and the devil will possess the whole. It is not in vain, therefore, that the apostle saith: Neither give place to the devil. Let us learn to know the Lamb, then, know the price with which we have been bought. "For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." "Saviour, where'er thy steps I see, "If rough and thorny be the way, My strength proportion to my day; APRIL 9. HOWE Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.--Phil. iv. 5. THAT lofty soul that bears about with it the living apprehensions of its being made for an everlasting state, so earnestly intends it, that it shall ever be a descent and vouchsafement with it, if it allow itself to be inordinately engaged in or concerned about the affars of this vain and transient world. And if there be a suspicion of an aptness or inclination to intermeddle in them to their prejudice, they can say to every soliciting tempter, as the philosopher to the jealous tyrant, We of this academy are not at leisure to mind such mean things; we have somewhat else to do than to talk of you. He hath still the image before his eye, of this world vanishing and passing away; of the other, with the everlasting affairs and concernments of it, even now ready to take place and fill up all the stage: and can represent to himself the vision of the world dissolving, monarchies and kingdoms breaking, thrones tumbling, crowns and sceptres lying as neglected things. He hath a telescope through which he can behold the glorious appearance of the Supreme Judge; the solemn state of his majestic person; the splendid pomp of his magnificent and vastly numerous retinue; the obsequious throng of glorious celestial creatures, doing homage to their eternal king; the swift flight of the royal guards, sent forth into. the four winds to gather the elect, and covering the face of the heavens with their spreading wings; the universal silent attention of all to that loud sounding trumpet that shakes the pillars of the world, pierces the inward caverns of the earth, and resounds from every part of the encircling heavens; the many myriads of joyful expectants rising, changing, putting on glory, taking wing, and contending upwards, to join themselves to the triumphant heavenly host; the judgment set; the books opened; the frightful amazed looks of surprised wretches; the equal administration of the final judgment; the adjudication of all to their eternal states; the heavens rolled up as a scroll; the earth and all things therein consumed and burnt up. And now, what spirit is there any more left in him toward the trivial affairs of this vanishing world? How indifferent a thing is it with him who bears himself highest in a state of things whereof he foresees the certain hastening end! Though he will not neglect the duty of his own place, is heartily concerned to have the knowledge and fear of God more generally obtained in this apostate world, and is ready to contribute his utmost regular endeavors for the preservation of common peace and order in subserviency hereto; yet abstractedly from these considerations, he is no more concerned who is uppermost, than one would, passing by a swarm of flies, which hath the longest wings, or which excels the rest in sprightliness or briskness of motion. And for himself, he can insert this amongst his most serious |