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SERMON XXIX.

THE EVIDENCES OF THE RESURRECTION OF

CHRIST.

[EASTER DAY.]

ACTS xiii. 30.

But God raised him from the dead.

THERE is a striking contrast between the scene of this day, and that which the services of the Church through the past week presented to us. We beheld the Son of God, in his character, as the representative of our guilt, "oppressed and afflicted, led as a lamb to the slaughter." "He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair-he hid not his face from shame and spitting. The ploughers ploughed upon his back, and made long furrows. He was numbered with the transgressors-bruised as in a wine press, he poured out his soul unto death." From the cross we heard a cry which the most dreadful agony of spirit alone could have forced

from the victim that suffered on it-"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." The tomb closed within its bosom him who professed to be the world's Redeemer.

But the Church this day raises the song of triumph. She shakes herself from the dust, and exchanges" the spirit of heaviness for the garments of praise." He whom she beheld, the man of sorrows, the sufferer on the cross, and the tenant of the tomb, is this day proved, by his resurrection from the dead, to be the Son of God, the victorious Saviour, the Lord of life and death.

Momentous also are the consequences of his resurrection in respect to us. He rose to certify to us our justification, the acceptance of the atonement which he made for sin, of which, had he remained under the dominion of death, we could have had no assurance. He rose that he might ascend, in his glorified human nature, to the right hand of the Majesty on high, to assume the office of our King and Ruler; to make us conquerors over death and hell; and to exalt us to honor and glory everlasting.

The resurrection of Christ is the truth on which rests the whole superstructure of our redemption, and it is of the utmost importance therefore, that we should ascertain

The evidences of this great event.

I. The resurrection of Christ was foretold in a series of prophecies.

II. It was presignified by numerous types.

III. It is established by the fullest testimony.

The prophecies and the types that foretold and pre-signified it, excited a reasonable expectation of it-and

The testimony which establishes it, renders it certain.

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." The redemption of man, through the sufferings and death of a divine Redeemer was determined in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. The promise of this Redeemer was delivered immediately after the fall. And it pleased God from time to time to afford to the patriarchs, and to his chosen people, views of the character, life, and offices of that illustrious personage, who in due time was to redeem the world from spiritual bondage. In the scheme of redemption, and in the history of Christ, his resurrection is a most important circumstance, and a fundamental truth. We must, therefore, expect that it was set forth by those types and predictions which announced the coming of the Redeemer of the world. And if set forth by predictions and types, it becomes an event which excites reason

Acts xv. 18.

able expectation, previously to all consideration of the testimony that actually establishes it.

Where would have been the evidence of the truth of the Gospel of Christ, if, contrary to his own repeated declarations, he had not loosed the bands of death? Where would have been our hopes of pardon, of victory over death, of everlasting glory, if he, by whom the atonement that was the pledge of our pardon was made, and by whom the grace that was to achieve our victory and triumph was to be exerted, had remained the powerless tenant of the tomb? Ah, my brethren, with grief and despair we should have been compelled to renounce our hopes of salvation from Jesus Christ.

It pleases God, therefore, to establish our faith in this fundamental truth of the resurrection of his Son Jesus from the dead, by the strongest and fullest evidence.

I. The evidence of prophecy.

The declaration to the tempter concerning the seed of the woman, "Thou shalt bruise his heel," denoted the subjection of the Messiah to the adversary; the dominion of death over the world's Redeemer. But what was the triumphant counterpart of this declaration?" it shall bruise thy head." Here we have foretold the glorious victory of the Messiah over the adversary, his rea Gen. iii. 15.

surrection from the dead, and his thus "destroying, through death, him who had the power of death, that is to say the devil "."

In the psalms, in the prophets, and in the law, we are taught to look for predictions concerning Jesus Christ. For "all things," said our Saviour, "must be fulfilled that are written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning mec."

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In the second Psalm an illustrious personage is represented as the subject of the persecution and the malice of an ungodly world, "the heathen raging against him; and against him, the people imagining a vain thing." Here we behold the illustrious Son of the Highest, the spiritual David, the true King of Zion? Mark the language of the inspired historian, recording the precise fulfilment of this prediction. Against the holy child Jesus, whom God anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever the hand and the counsel of God determined before to be doned." In this Psalm, the declaration is made by the inspired Prophet, in the name of Jehovah, that notwithstanding the rage and fury of the heathen, of the chiefs and rulers of the people, he will set his King upon the holy hill of Zion. The victorious monarch proclaims,-"I

b Heb. ii. 14.

Luke xxiv. 44.

d Acts iv. 28.

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