SERMON V.

I CORINTHIANS, XV. 19.

If in this life only we have hope in Chrift, we are of all men moft miferable.

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V.

HERE is nothing which the foul SERM. of man doth reflect on with greater

pleasure, or contemplate with more real fatisfaction, than the dignity of its own nature, and the delightful, though distant prospect of its own immortality.

To have our felf-love gratified in so high a degree by the continuation of our being, and our ambition by the exaltation of it, can not but be the most natural object of our wishes, the great and ultimate end of all our hopes and defires;

to cherish and encourage these hopes, and

to

SERM. to animate us in the cause of truth and

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virtue, a fecret confcioufnefs is implanted in the breaft of every man, which never fails in his calmer moments to fuggeft to him, that though the grofs and earthly part of him, his corporeal frame, may be liable to change, decay, and diffolution; there is ftill within him a more refined portion, which feems, by its fuperior qualities, capable of much greater perfection, points out its divine original, and aspires to immortality.

The partial and unequal distribution of things in this ftate, the uncertainty and imperfection of all human bleffings, the diftreffes and calamities, the vanity and fhortness of life, are among the most powerful arguments which have been made use of ever fince the beginning of this world to fupport the belief of another.

But

But the conviction of this folemn and SERM.

important truth, was too great a conquest for mere unaffifted, unenlightened reafon to attain unto: the heathen world therefore could form but poor and imperfect notions of it: they had indeed the ftrong and repeated fuggeftions of their own minds in its favour, but who could inform them whether those fuggestions were not merely the delufive flatteries of felf-love?

The councils and determination of the Divine Being, in regard to a future state, could be known by none but himself, and of confequence by him, and him alone, must be declared'; and to this end, in the fulness of time, God of his mercy thought fit to disclose this great fecret to mankind by the mouth of his beloved Son, who defcended from the bofom of

his

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SERM. his father, to bring life and immortality

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to light by the gospel.

But at the fame time, that the beneficent Saviour of mankind conferred this illustrious privilege on his faithful fervants and followers, he required of them in return for fo ineftimable a benefit, and fo comfortable an affurance, an implicit obedience to his will, and a ftrict conformity to his divine commandments: As the religion of Chrift therefore brings with it a nobler profpect and promife of reward, it hath doubtlefs a fuperior claim to our fubmiffion, and a higher title to our esteem.

If we look back upon the state of christianity on the first promulgation of it, we fhall very readily acknowledge that in regard to the things of this world, it was by no means a ftate to be envied

or

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or defired; that it was, on the other hand, SERM. a state of misery, of pain and perfecu- ~~ tion; a continued fcene of uninterrupted forrow and diftrefs; the unequal combat of humility against pride, poverty against riches, weakness against power to root up the strong prejudices of education, to pull down and deftroy the great edifice of paganism, whofe foundations were fo deeply laid, and build a ftructure on its ruins fo different in every part, was a task which required, and which therefore was endowed with more than human affiftance in the execution of it. Though our bleffed Saviour came as a common friend to mankind, yet was he rather received as a common enemy. To the Jews, christianity was a ftumbling block, and to the Gentiles it was foolishnefs; the arm of the magiftrate was lifted up, and the voice of people raised against it: oppreffed therefore as it was

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