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tions; and with St Paul, let our hearty defire and prayer for Ifrael be, that they may be faved; that there may come out of Sion a deliverer, and he may turn away unrighteousness from Jacob; especially fince St Paul hath given us reafon to hope, that this would be of fo great benefit and advantage to the Gentile world, Rom. xi. 12. If the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, and the diminution of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? and ver. 15. For if the cafting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Intimating, that as the rejection of the Jews was the occafion of publishing the gofpel, that doctrine of reconciliation, to the world, as the fame apoftle doth elsewhere call it; fo the receiving them to favour again fhould be life from the dead; that is, a kind of refurrection to the remainder of the Gentile world, who had fo long lain in darkness and the fhadow of death. Which the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jefus Chrift, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, grant in his due time may be accomplished; that those other sheep, which are not yet of this fold, may hear his voice, and be brought in, that there may be one fold, and one shepherd; and all the ends of the earth may fee the falvation of our God.

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Why Should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God fhould raise the dead?

HE refurrection of the dead is one of the great articles of the Chriftian faith; and yet fo it hath happened, that this great article of our religion hath been made one of the chief objections a gainft it. There is nothing that Chriftianity hath been more upbraided withal, both by the Heathens of old, and by the infidels of later times, than the impoffibility of this article. So that it is a matter of great confideration and confequence, to vindicate our religion in this particular. For if the thing be evidently impoffible, then it is highly unreasonable to propofe it to the belief of mankind.

I know that fome, more devout than wife, and who, it is to be hoped, mean better than they understand, make nothing of impoffibilities in matters of faith, and would fain perfuade us, that the more impoffible any thing is, for that very reafon it is the fitter to be believ ed; and that it is an argument of a poor and low faith, to believe only things that are poffible; but a generous and heroical faith will fwallow contradictions, with as much eafe as reafon affents to the plaineft and most evident propofitions. Tertullian, in the heat of his zeal and eloquence, upon this point of the death and refurrection of Chrift, lets fall a very odd paffage, and which must have many grains of allowance to make it tolerable: Prorfus credibile eft, faith he, quia ineptum

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eft; certum eft, quia impoffibile: "It is therefore very "credible, because it is foolish; and certain, because "it is impoffible:" And this, fays he, is neceffarium dedecus fidei, that is, "it is neceffary the Chriftian faith "fhould be thus difgraced, by the belief of impoffibili,

ties and contradictions." I fuppofe he means, that this article of the refurrection was not in itself the lefs credible, because the Heathen philofophers cavilled at it, as a thing impoffible and contradictious, and endeavoured to difgrace the Chriftian religion upon that account. For had he meant otherwife, that the thing was therefore credible, becaufe it was really and in itself foolish and impoffible; this had been to recommend the Chriftian religion, from the abfurdity of the things to be believed; which would be a ftrange commendation of any religion to the fober and reasonable part of mankind.

I know not what fome men may find in themfelves; but I muft freely acknowledge, that I could never yet attain to that bold and hardy degree of faith, as to believe any thing for this reafon, because it was impoffible : for this would be to believe a thing to be, because I am fure it cannot be. So that I am very far from being of his mind, that wanted not only more difficulties, but even impoffibilities, in the Chriftian religion, to exercise his faith upon.

It is true indeed, Abraham, when he was offering up his fon Ifaac, is faid, against hope to have believed in hope: But he did not believe against a plain impoffibility; for the Apoftle to the Hebrews exprefly tells us, that he reafoned that God was able to raise him from the dead. But had he believed this impoffible, he could not have reconciled the command of God with his promife; the command to facrifice Ifaac, with the promise which he had made before, that in his feed, which was Ifaac, all the nations of the earth fhould be blessed. So that, though God was pleased to try his faith with a great difficulty, yet with no impoffibility.

I premise all this, to fatisfy men how neceffary it is to vindicate the Chriftian religion from this objection, of the impoffibility of any of its articles. And whatever Tertullian might fay in a rhetorical rant, it is very

plain, that the ancient fathers did not think the refurrection to be a thing impoffible; for then they would never have attempted, as they very frequently do, to have anfwered the objections of the Heathens againft it, from the pretended impoffibility of it.

To be fure, St Paul did not think the refurrection of the dead a thing impoffible; for then he would never have afked that queftion, Why Should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God fhould raise the dead? nothing being fo likely to be thought incredible, and upon fo good reafon, as that which is impoffible.

Leaving therefore to the church of Rome that foolhardiness of faith, to believe things to be true, which at the fame time their reafon plainly tells them are impoffible, I fhall at this time endeavour to affert and vindicate this article of the refurrection, from the pretended impoffibility of it. And I hope, by God's affiftance, to make the poffibility of the thing fo plain, as to leave no confiderable fcruple about it, in any free and unprejudiced mind. And this I fhall do from these words of St Paul, which are part of the defence which he made for himself before Feftus and Agrippa, the fubftance whereof is this; That he had lived a blameless and inoffenfive life among the Jews, in whofe religion he had been bred up; that he was of the ftricteft fect of that religion, a Pharifee, which, in oppofition to the Sadducees, maintained the refurrection of the dead, and a future ftate of rewards and punishments in another life and that for the hope of this he was called in queftion, and accufed by the Jews, ver. 6, 7. And now I ftand here, and am judged, for the hope of the promife made unto the Fathers; unto which promife, our twelve tribes, inftantly ferving God day and night, hope to come; for which hope's fake, king Agrippa, I am ac cufed of the Jews. That is, he was accufed for preaching that Jefus was rifen from the dead, which is a particular inftance of the general doctrine of the refurrection, which was entertained by the greatest part of the Jews, and which to the natural reafon of mankind (however the Heathen, in oppofition to the Chriftian religion, were prejudiced against it) hath nothing in it that is in

credible.

credible. And for this he appeals to his judges, Feftus and Agrippa, Why Should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raife the dead?

Which words being a queftion without an answer, imply in them these two propofitions:

First, That it was thought by fome a thing incredible, that the dead fhould be raised. This is fuppofed in the queftion as the foundation of it: For he who asks why a thing is fo, fuppofeth it to be fo.

Secondly, That this apprehenfion, that it is a thing incredible, that God fhould raise the dead, is very unreasonable: For the question being left unanswered, implies its own anfwer, and is to be refolved into this affirmative, that there is no reafon why they, or any man elfe, fhould think it a thing incredible, that God fhould raife the dead.

I fhall fpeak to thefe two propofitions, as briefly as I can; and then fhew, what influence this doctrine of the refurrection ought to have upon our lives.

Firft, That it was thought by fome a thing incredible, that God fhould raise the dead. This St Paul had reafon to fuppofe, having from his own experience found men fo averfe from the entertaining of this doctrine. When he preached to the philofophers at Athens, and declared to them the refurrection of one Jefus from the dead; they were amazed at this new doctrine, and knew not what he meant by it, Acts xvii. 18. They faid, He feemeth to be a fetter forth of frange gods, because he preached unto them Jefus and the refurrection. He had difcourfed to them of the refurrection of one Jefus from the dead; but this bufinefs of the refurrection was a thing fo remote from their apprehenfions, that they had no manner of conception of it; but understood him quite in another fenfe, as if he had declared to them two new deities, Jefus and Anaftafis; as if he had brought a new God and a new goddefs among them, Jefus and the Refurrection. And when he difcourfed to them again more fully of this matter, it is faid, ver 32. that when they heard of the refurrection of the dead, they mocked. And at the 24th verfe of this 26th chapter, when he spake of the refurrection,

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