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rendered Him an object of such deep affection: and that in His [glorified] state, He still retained that same personality of character to which their imagination clung so fondly. This may in some degree be looked on as a discovery, as a truth not merely conveyed to us in a new and more impressive manner, but one which would have been comparatively unknown to us, except for the circumstance of the Resurrection. It does then, in some degree alter the condition of all Christians, inasmuch as it puts them in possession of a fact respecting their relation to the Supreme Being, of which they must otherwise have remained in ignorance. Yet, on consideration, it will appear that in this respect too, as well as the other, the mercies of God have been thrown away, and rendered ineffectual, in the case of those who would have neglected their previous privileges.

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For the advantages which we derive from this knowledge may be summed up in the language of St. Paul; Seeing," says he, "that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we are... Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need."

The only practical and substantial blessing which

this knowledge can effect, is the disposition to comply with the Apostle's exhortation, the disposition to come boldly to the throne of grace. And the means through which it effects this disposition, is the assistance it gives to the habit of devotional reliance on God, by presenting a definite object to our religious meditation.

Now if this be true we may form a tolerably correct estimate of the degree in which we are personally benefited by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by examining ourselves as to the satisfaction we feel in these religious exercises, I mean more particularly in our private prayers, which are most strictly our medium of intercourse with the unseen God. The practical comfort which we derive from these, is the only real advantage which the knowledge that Jesus Christ is in heaven can be supposed to confer on us; and in proportion as each person's conscience tells him that this comfort is enjoyed by him, in that proportion alone is he entitled to account himself the better for the event which we this day commemorate.

It is not my purpose to enforce this melancholy consideration by dwelling on the sluggishness with which this duty is generally executed: what I wish to insist upon is this;-that this sluggishness arises necessarily out of such a course of life as would indispose a person to attend to "Moses and the Prophets;" and that none can feel the peculiar appeal which is made to us by Him, "who has

come unto us from the dead," unless their whole temper and affections are so regulated, that even without this appeal they would walk in His ways.

Consider then, seriously, what is that way of life which disposes a person to seek shelter and consolation in the presence of the unseen God. It needs but little discernment and self-knowledge, to make one aware that such a disposition is wholly inconsistent with a life of ease and enjoyment. Those whose affections range at large over the world of present pleasures will but little understand that hunger and thirst which Jesus Christ has promised to satisfy. Those who will not leave houses and lands, and brothers and sisters, for His sake, must remain in ignorance whence the manifold greater blessing is to proceed.

This is no more than what common sense tells us in the ordinary affairs of life. It is precisely what we feel with reference to absent friends, whose memory is in no way so effectually cherished as by abstinence from the pleasures and amusements which might fill the vacancy that their absence causes. The ceremonies of mourning, superficial as they generally are, yet prove how the common feeling of mankind requires self-denial as a tribute of affection; and what in common decency we pay to our earthly friends, religion too demands for our heavenly Guardian. We must lead lives of voluntarily endured privation, if we would ever give Jesus Christ that place in our affections which He

has promised to supply for those who seek Him earnestly.

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It appears then that in the two respects in which we can be conceived to be benefited by the circumstance that one has come from the dead," none either are or can be partakers of the blessing, except in the degree in which their minds are set on God's service. That the knowledge of it is not calculated to excite, but to reward religion; and that its practical effect, as a motive to exertion, can only arise from habits which render its influence comparatively unnecessary.

Thus then it appears, that in this last and most wonderful of God's miraculous dispensations, the one which of all others seems at first sight most likely to force mankind into God's service, our obstinacy can and will frustrate God's goodness. Previous to our experience of its efficacy, we might have excused ourselves as the rich man did his brethren: "Nay, father Abraham, but if one come unto them from the dead, they will believe." But now that they have this experience, it is but selfdeceiving folly to hope for favourable circumstances, and neglect those in which we are placed.

God may say to us, in the dreary language of the Prophet, "What could I have done more for My vineyard? lo, I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes!"

SERMON V1.

THE GOSPEL THE COMPLETION OF NATURAL
RELIGION.

JOHN iii. 12.

"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"

THE doctrines which the New Testament inculcates on us are of two sorts. One sort consists of those simple rules for virtuous conduct, which all good men had known and endeavoured to act upon in all ages, and which the heathens ought to have known as well as the Jews; for instance, such as veracity, purity, charity, piety, in short, all that is called natural religion; all that human reason, assisted by the natural light of conscience, might have taught to persons anxious after the truth. And it is of this class of doctrines that our Lord here speaks under the title of earthly things.

The other class of doctrines, which are opposed to these under the title of heavenly things, are those

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