SERMON XXXV.

JOHN Xi. 25.

I am the Refurrection and the Life.

[Preached at the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.]

I SAW in the right hand of him that "fat on the throne," faid the Prophet of the New Teftament," I faw in the right hand of him that "fat on the throne, a book written within and on "the backfide, fealed with seven feals. And I faw "a ftrong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loofe "the feals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in "earth, neither under the earth, was able to open "the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept "much, because no man was found worthy to open, "and to read the book, neither to look thereon. "And one of the elders faid unto me, Weep not. "Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root "of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and "to loose the seven seals thereof."

- In this mysterious manner, the Apostle, who afcended in the vifions of God, and saw into past and future time, represents the restoration of mankind to life. When man had fallen from his ftate of innocence, and all flesh had corrupted their ways, Almighty God, with eyes that for ever overflow with love, looked down upon the earth. He beheld the world; not as he had beheld it at firft, when the

morning ftars fang together, when all the fons of God fhouted for joy, and when he himself pronounced that all was fair and good; that very world he now beheld involved in confufion and uproar; the original state of things marred; the order of nature destroyed; the laws of Heaven overturned; his once beautiful and happy creation defaced and laid in ruins. He beheld his rational offspring, whom he had adorned with his own image, whom he had appointed to immortality, fallen from their primitive innocence, debafed with ignorance, depraved with guilt, fubjected to vanity, and appointed to dif folution. Following the footsteps of fin, which had thus laid wafte his works, he beheld death advancing with fwift fteps; extending his dominion over the nations, and shaking his dart in triumph over a fubjected world. He saw, he pitied, and he saved.

Although offended with the guilty race, he would not caft them off for ever. His time of vifitation was a time of love. In mercy to mankind he devifed a scheme for our restoration and recovery. But man was not now, as in innocence, in a condition to treat with God by himself. Between finful duft and ashes, and infinite purity, there could be no communication. A Mediator, therefore, was requifite to make peace between heaven and earth, and where was fuch a Mediator to be found?

Accordingly, at the declaration of the gracious purpose of God, for the future happiness of the world, when the book of life fealed with its feven feals was brought forth, a ftrong angel proclaimed with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to take the

book, and to open the feals thereof ?" Who is

worthy to mediate between an offended God and guilty man; to unfold the fecret purpose of the Most High, and to give life to a world that is dead? There was filence in heaven, and filence in heaven there might have been for ever; but in that moment of mercy, the crifis of our fate, the Son of God interpofed; "I am the refurrection and the "life, by me fhall the world live. I will forfake "these mansions of glory, and dwell with men. "They who now wander in darkness, I will bring "to light, and life, and immortality; they are now "under fentence of death; that fentence shall be "executed on me, and I will purchase for them life everlasting; they have now gone aftray into the " paths of perdition, I will point out to them the way "that leads to the heavens."

In this manner did Jefus Chrift become the refurrection and the life. As the Prophet of the world, he gave us the affurance of life and immortality; as the Priest of the world, he purchased for us life and immortality; and as the King of the world, he fet before us the path that leads to life and immortality. In the first place, then, as the Prophet of the world, he gave us affurance of life and immortality.

Curiofity, or the defire of knowledge, is one of the earliest and one of the strongest emotions of the human foul. No fooner does the mind arrive at maturity, but it proceeds to examine the objects around it, and to extend its refearches wider and wider over the whole circuit of creation. With peculiar earneftness man turns his attention to his own nature, and becomes the object of his own contemplation. But here clouds and darknefs furround him. He

perceives himself a stranger in a wide world, where the plan of nature is very imperfectly known, where the system of things is involved in much obfcurity, and where the Author of the univerfe is a God who hideth himself. Life appears to him as an intermediate state, but he is ignorant of what was before it, and is as ignorant of what is to come after it. He obferves fymptoms of decay and marks of mortality on all the productions of nature, the human race not exempted from the general law He fees his friends and companions, one after anffer, perpetually difappearing; he fees mankind,eneration after generation, paffing away; paffing to that awful abyss to which every thing goes, and from which nothing returns. But whither do they go when they depart? Have they withdrawn into everlasting darkness? Or do they still act in another scene? We fee the body incorporate with its kindred elements, and return to the duft from whence it was taken. But what becomes of the foul? Does it, top, cease to exift? Is the beam of heaven for ever extinguished? Is the celestial fire which glowed in the heart for ever quenched? Or beyond the horizon which terminates our present prospect, does a more beautiful and perfect scene present itself, where the tears fhall be wiped from the eyes of the mourner, where the wicked shall cease from troubling, and the weary be at reft?

If we confult our affections, we fhall be inclined to believe in a future ftate. Nature is loth to quit its hold. The heart ftill wishes to be kind to the friends whom once it loved. Imagination takes the hint and indulges us with the pleafing hope of one day meeting, again with the companions whom

we dropt in life. The perfections of the Deity favour these wishes of nature. If God be infinitely wife and infinitely good, he would not have brought us into being only to fee the light and to depart for Would a wife builder have erected fuch a noble fabric to laft but for a moment? On the other hand, if we confult the analogy of nature, the horrors of annihilation furround us. All the works of nature feem only made to be deftroyed. The leaf that falls from the tree revives no more. The animal that mingles with the earth never rifes again. Appearances alfo make against us. mind feems to depend much upon the body. The temper of the one arifes from the state of the other. When the external fenfes decay, the faculties of the foul are impaired. When the blood ceafes to flow, the spirit evaporates, the last ftroke of the pulfe seems to put a final period to the whole man.

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Between these fears and these wishes of nature, no conclufion can be drawn. After the matureft inveftigation, and deepest reasoning, all that we arrive at is uncertainty. We fee the traveller involved in the cloud of night, but we know not of any morning that awaits him. The ocean fpreads before us vaft and dark and awful, but we know not if it will waft us to any.fhore. What a difconfolate fituation is this to a ferious inquiring mind? These thoughts would perplex us at all times, but if they affect us with anxiety in the gay and fmiling fcenes of life, how will they overwhelm us with horror, when our feet stumble on the dark mountains, and the fhadows of the everlasting evening begin to close over our head? In that hour of terror and difmay, how fhall the DD d