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SERMON IV*.

ON THE SUPERIOR ASSURANCE AND COMFORT WHICH CHRISTIANITY GIVES TO

THE HEART IN THE PROSPECT OF

DEATH.

1 Cor. xv. 53-57. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ir was natural, in the polished and fastidious inhabitants of Corinth, to turn, with some

disgust,

*This Sermon was preached in the meeting-house at Newington-Green, on the death of Dr. Towers, and pub

disgust, from that plainness of speech, and simplicity of manners, which eminently distinguished the apostles of Christ. The Greeks expected, in the publication of a new doctrine, the same elegance of language, and the same arts of eloquence, to which philosophers in their schools, and orators in their forums, had so long accustomed them. But in this expectation the Christian converts were not indulged. It was not fit, that a religion, coming immediately from God, attested by simple facts, and revealing simple, but important truths, should be debated like a system of Pagan ethics, or depend for its success upon the efforts and inventions of human ingenuity. No. The faith of Christians was to stand, not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God-not in the strength of an oratory, which

lished at the request of that congregation, of which he was pastor. Single sermons are soon forgotten; and the author thinks this worth preserving in a more permanent form, especially as it connects so well with the preceding and following discourse. That part which was peculiar to the occasion on which it was first preached, is of course omitted,

often

often dazzles, and misleads, but in the evidence of a divine authority-in the declarations of od by Jesus Christ, confirmed by his death and resurrection, and by those signs and miracles, which the apostles, by the spirit of God, were enabled to perform. Accordingly Paul tells the Corinthians, that he preached the gospel, not with excellence of speech, not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. He left to teachers of a different stamp the desire of that fame, which has been aptly called a fancied life in others' breath. -His ambition was to gain, not the palm of eloquence, but the higher glory of instruct ing ignorance, and of saving immortal souls, through the influence of divine principles, from vice here and misery hereafter.

But though, in the pursuit of this great object, he despised the artificial eloquence, which was so prevalent, at that period, both in Greece and Rome, he shews on several occasions, where his subject demanded it of him, that he was richly furnished with all the endowments, which are essential to the highest

kind of oratory, and without which the arts of mere rhetoric are but the trifling of vainglory. There is in many parts of his writings, and particularly in this chapter, a correctness of discrimination, a strength of argument, an animated appeal both to the judgment and the heart, that, considered merely in a critical view, is not exceeded by the most admired productions of ancient or of modern times. And it is only because we read these writings from our infancy without reflection, only because through use they have lost that charm of novelty, which is necessary to beget attention, and excite admiration, that their merit, even in this view, is not more generally acknowledged, and their effect more deeply

felt.

The chapter from which the text is taken, contains an argument, upon the leading and most important doctrine of the Christian revelation, which fully verifies these remarks— This argument the apostle supports throughout with great strength of reasoning. It is illustrated and embellished by the powers of a rich and well regulated fancy; and it is closed

closed with a dignity and pathos, not inferior to the noblest passages of ancient eloquence.

The subject of the apostle is indeed of all subjects the most interesting to man. It is the certainty and the glory of the resurrection. of the just, upon which he argues, with the fulness of personal conviction, and with the ardour that accompanies a sincere desire of impressing conviction upon others. Having urged his own proofs, and answered the objections of those, who opposed or perverted the Christian doctrine upon this point, he breaks out into an animated and sublime apostrophe, exulting over the last enemy of man, and offering praise to God, who had given him the victory through Jesus Christ. "This corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be fulfilled the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the

strength

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