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yourselves unreservedly to his service and glory; it is by obeying all his commandments; it is by cultivating a temper and spirit like his own, and walking as you have him for an example; it is by adorning his religion, and using all your means and influence to gain others to embrace it; it is by living as citizens of heaven-holding communion with your Redeemer now, and anticipating the happy period when you shall see him as he is, be in your measure like him, and dwell for ever in his presence, in the mansions which he has gone to prepare for his people. Amen.

LECTURE XXV.

Wherein consists Christ's exaltation?

"Christ's ex

We are now to enter on the important subject of Christ's exaltation-It is thus stated in the catechism. altation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in his ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day."

When we speak of the exaltation of Christ, you are not to understand by it that any new glory was conferred on his divine nature-that was impossible; for as God, his glory was infinite and unchangeable. But this glory, as we have seen, was eclipsed and hidden, while he assumed our nature, and appeared in our world in the form of a servant. His exaltation therefore, properly and strictly consists in a manifestation in the human nature, which for a time had veiled the divine, of the same glory which he had eternally possessed as the Son of God. This we are taught in his own intercessory prayer-" And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee, before the world was."

It was with a manifest and most impressive propriety, that this exaltation should succeed immediately to his humiliation. Such is the representation of scripture. "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Thus it was that the Sun of righteousness, on passing from under the dark cloud of his humiliation and suffering, shone and astonished with the most striking and glorious lustre. The ignominy of the cross was thus wiped away; and God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, gave to his people also the evidence, that when their reliance and expectations are placed on him, their faith and hope shall be in God."

Let us now consider the several particulars of our Redeemer's exaltation, as they are stated in the answer before us.

1. He "rose again from the dead on the third day."

We have already had occasion to observe, that it was a part only of three days, during which our Redeemer lay in the grave. The time of his continuance there indeed, was not equal even to the space of two whole days. Yet as our Lord was in the tomb a part of three days, and it was customary with the Jews and agreeable to the language of scripture, to represent an event as extending through all the days on which any part of it took place, there was a complete fulfilment, according to the then current use of language, of the declaration, that "the Son of man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Our Redeemer was put to death on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath, Friday afternoon, and rose very early on the morning of the first day of the week, called from this circumstance, the Lord's day; and which, from the age of the apostles to the present time, the great mass of Christians have observed as a day of sacred

rest, in place of the Jewish Sabbath-The reason and propriety of this will be explained, if we are spared to discuss the fourth commandment.

In the mean time, let us give a few moments of our most engaged attention, to that essential article of a Christian's faith and hope, the resurrection of Christ. That this was an event to take place in the person of the Messiah, was prefigured to Abraham, in his receiving his son Isaac, as it were from the dead. It was foretold to the fathers, as is expressly affirmed by the apostle Paul in his discourse to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, who quotes a passage from the second Psalm, in proof of the fact-Acts xiii. 33. Our Lord himself, not only alluded to it on several occasions, but told his disciples of it in the most explicit terms. Mark ix. 31."He taught his disciples and said unto them-The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day." Again he said, "After I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." The Jews therefore attempted to discredit the resurrection of Christ; and modern infidels still attempt the same thing; knowing that if they succeed in this, they unsettle at once the whole Christian system. On the other hand, the advocates of Christianity defend this point, as the citadel of their faith. Nay, if this one point be maintained, the Christian religion is indisputably established as of divine authority. Sherlock has written an able little work, entitled "The Trial of the Witnesses," in which he has examined the evidence of our Lord's resurrection, on the strict principles and forms of taking testimony in the English courts of law; and has shown, that on those principles, and agreeably to that procedure, an upright judge and jury would be obliged to pronounce that Christ had indubitably risen from the dead. But the ablest piece on this subject, with which I am acquainted, is the production of Gilbert West.* It is known

Since this lecture was delivered, the author has seen announced a treatise, which he has not perused, that is said to set the evidence of our Lord's resurrection, as given by the evangelists, in a still clearer light than was done by Mr. West.

to all who read their Bibles carefully, that the accounts given of the resurrection of Christ by the different evangelists, seem, at first view, to be hardly consistent with each other. It is said that West had doubted or disbelieved the truth of revelation, and that he first gave his attention to this subject, with a view to prove that the historians had contradicted each other, and therefore that the fact which they all asserted was unworthy of credit: that, however, on examining and comparing the evangelists, critically and closely, he found there was no contradiction: that, on the contrary, he perceived there was the most perfect harmony, and that the variety in their accounts was only a palpable proof that they did not write in concert, but like honest witnesses, each told the facts which he knew in his own way in a word, that on a careful comparison of the facts of the case they all went to establish the same point, by various, but yet concordant and incontestable evidence. In whatever way he was led to it, he has certainly settled this point, beyond reasonable controversy I advise you all to read the two books I have mentioned-The Trial of the Witnesses, and West on the Resurrection.

A summary of the evidence of our Lord's resurrection may be given thus-It rests on testimony; the testimony both of angels and of men. The angels testified to the women who came to the sepulchre, that he was not there, but was risen as he had told them. The apostles all asserted the truth of his resurrection, and the most of them laid down their lives in attestation of this fact. They unanimously declared that "God raised him up, on the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God; even to us, says Peter, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead." This testimony, at the risk of life, was delivered before that very Sanhedrim who had put our Lord to death; and by that very disciple (as the mouth of the rest) who had before denied him.

Our Lord often appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, and gave them such proofs of his identity, as no mortal

could rationally disbelieve or doubt. He not only ate and drank with them, showed them the print of the nails in his hands and feet, and of the spear in his side, and made the unbelieving Thomas examine with his hands as well as his eyes, the scars of his wounds; but what was still more unequivocal, if possible, he adverted to what he had told them before his death, and to things which only he and they could possibly know. At one time he showed himself to no less than five hundred brethren.-He remained forty days on earth, that by his appearing frequently, and conversing familiarly and freely with his disciples, they might have the fullest conviction and satisfaction as to his resurrection, and that he might also instruct them in the nature of his kingdom, and in the manner in which it was to be extended, established, and governed.

It was surely one of the most contemptible artifices ever practised-and no doubt it was practised because a better could not be devised-which the chief priests and elders of the Jews employed, when they bribed the Roman soldiers to say, that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while they slept. The soldiers would never have said this, had they not been secured against punishment from the governor, if he should hear it: For in saying it, every one confessed himself guilty of a capital crime; because the Roman discipline made it death, in all cases, for a sentinel to sleep on his post. Beside, the thing in itself, was both incredible and self contradictory-Incredible, that they should sleep through the great earthquake which accompanied the rolling away of the stone by the angel; and self contradictory, because if they were asleep, they could not possibly know that his disciples had taken him away. But something must be said: and this was the best that his enemies could find to say.

You will remember, my children, that Christ rose from the dead as a publick person, representing all his spiritual seed, and as claiming in their behalf a complete discharge from the penalty of the divine law. Having fully paid the debt for

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