14. He then who doubts the sincerity of this testimony, or rejects it as incredible, must instead of it admit stronger incredibilities: these fully shown. 15. To these things we may add that God himself did signally countenance and ratify this testimouy, by extraordinary powers and graces conferred on the avowers thereof, as well as by a wonderful success bestowed on them. 16. All these things considered, it is sufficiently apparent that this testimony is above all conception: compared with other matters of fact. Conclusion. he rose again from the Dead. SERMON ΧΧΙΧ. ACTS, CHAP. 1.-VERSE 3. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. THE most proper and most usual way of God, in confirming any truth of high moment in special manner revealed by him, is by lending unto them whom he employs as messengers thereof his powerful arm, for the performance of works supernatural or miraculous. Of such works there is none more certainly such, than raising a dead person to life; the doing which on several accounts plainly surpasseth the power of any creature; not only as exceeding the ordinary law and course of nature established and upheld by God, but for that the souls of men departing hence do return into God's hand, or into a state by high sentence determined, whence no creature is able to fetch them down, or raise them up; because also God hath reserved the prerogative of doing this unto himself; he holding' (as it is expressed in the Revelation) 'the keys of hell and of death ;' he having said, 'I am he, and there is no God beside me; I kill, and I make alive.' There could also particularly be no more proper way of confirming our religion to come from God, whether we consider the persons whom it was designed for, or the doctrines it propounded. The Jews were uncapable of conviction by any other way than by miracle; no other reason would have been apprehended by them, or would have had any force on them: 'the Jews,' saith St. Paul, 'require a sign;' and, 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe,' said our Saviour to them. The Gentiles also had been so used to the winding off and on the subtilties and the plausibilities of disputation, that nothing probably in that kind would have sufficed to persuade them; and therefore somewhat miraculous in the highest kind might be needful to convert them: also the most peculiar and eminent doctrines of our religion (such as are, Our Lord Jesus being the Messias, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world; the future resurrection, general judgment, and dispensation of rewards, answerable to men's practice in this life) cannot more immediately and directly be assured, than by the resurrection from the dead of him who principally did reveal them. Wherefore Almighty God in confirmation of our religion did perform this great work in raising Jesus our Lord from the dead; and withal (for the conviction of the world, for rendering our faith reasonable and our infidelity inexcusable) he did take especial care that the fact should by very sufficient testimony be conveyed unto us; to which purpose he did, as St. Peter saith, προχειροτονεῖν, predesign, pick out, and appoint a competent number of persons, in all respects capable and fit to assert it: thus is that which St. Luke in our text doth in way of historical narration affirm. And because the truth thereof is in its kind the principal argument, whereby the truth of our religion in gross may be evinced, we shall for the confirmation of our faith against all impressions of this incredulous (and therefore impious) age, endeavor by God's assistance now to declare and maintain it. That Jesus truly died, all the world could testify; no death was ever more solemn or remarkable; nor do any adversaries contest it; that he after that death was by divine power raised again to life is that which we believe and assert. Now whoever with reason shall doubt thereof or deny it, must do it, either because of some repugnance in the fact itself, implying that it could not well be done; or from deficiency of the testimony proving it, as to its authors or circumstances: but neither of these exceptions may reasonably be admitted. As for the fact itself, or the notion of a resurrection in general, there cannot, (admitting that, which, as capable of antecedaneous proof, and as acknowleged by all persons owning any religion, may be presupposed, the power and providence of God, together with his chief attributes of wisdom and goodness incomprehensible,) there cannot be any repugnance therein, or any incredibility. For it was neither in its nature impossible to God, or in its design unworthy of him; it contained nothing apparently either beyond the power of God, or presumeable to be against his will. 1. To raise a dead man to life is indeed, we confess and avow, a work surpassing the power of any creature not assisted by God; but no reason can be assigned why it should go beyond the divine power. The doing it doth not involve contradiction, and is therefore an object of power, and at least is achievable by Omnipotence: let the soul be what it will, and in whatever life may be supposed to consist, nothing can hinder that God may reduce the parts of a man into the same state they sometime before were in. And very easily it is conceivable that he who (according to the general notions and current traditions of mankind) did first inspire the soul of man into his body, may reinfuse it being separated; that he who after death keepeth it in his hand, may thence restore it; who also (according to histories received in all the principal religions that have been in the world) hath often actually performed it. Pliny indeed doth reckon this among instances of things absolutely impossible; ' It is,' saith he, 'a great solace of our imperfect nature, that even God cannot do all things; for neither can he bring death on himself, if he would, nor bestow eternity on mortals, nor recal the dead to life:* but it is no wonder that he, who thought the soul quite to perish by death, should conceive the restitution thereof impossible; although even supposing that, his opinion was not reasonable; for even any thing, how corruptible soever by dissolution of its ingredients, or alteration of its temperament, may, by recollecting and rejoining those ingredients, or by re-establishing the causes of such a temperament, be restored (as a house whose materials are dispersed may be re-edified, or as a liquor by a new fermentation may be revived ;) which to effect may not be deemed hard to him that made the whole world: however to such as him we may say, as our Saviour did to the Sadducees, 'Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.' Especially to those who acknowlege the immortality of the soul, or its permanence in a separate state, and who admit the truth of the ancient histories among the Jews, it is not only most evidently possible, but very credible, that God on any considerable occasion should perform it: with such St. Paul might well thus expostulate; 'What? doth it seem incredible to you, that God should raise the dead?' to you that have such previous notions and persuasions about God's omnipotency; (such as the prophet Jeremiah expresseth when he saith, Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:') to you who avow God to be the Father of spirits, who 'formeth the spirit of man within him,' and that when man dieth, 'his spirit returneth to God who gave it:' to you who believe that our souls are spiritual substances, like unto angels, subsisting after death, and destined to future rewards: to you, in fine, who may in your holy records find so many experiments of this power exerted by God in his Prophets; such as that of Elias's restoring the widow of Sarepta's son; of Elisha raising the son of the Shunamite; that of the dead man reviving when his body touched the prophet's bones : to you therefore this fact cannot be in itself incredible; nor indeed can it, for the reason suggested, to any man reasonably seem impossible. * Plin. ii. 7. 2. Nor was it apparently in its design unworthy of God, or inconsistent with his holy will: for the ends thereof (such as were pretended by the attesters of it) were, as very great and important, so most good and reasonable; it aimed at no slight or trifling matter, but such as in appearance highly concerned the glory of God, and conduced to the welfare of mankind; it professing itself to be a credential of the greatest embassy that ever came down from heaven to men, importing the complete revelation of God's will and procurement of salvation to the world; and did therefore in that respect well become the wisdom and goodness of God to use it. It pretended to confirm a doctrine containing most true and worthy |