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At the first Meeting on this folemn Jubilee, SE RM, this Queen of Festivals (as thofe primitive I. Chriftians used to call it) they faluted each other with the glad Tidings, with which the two Difciples haftened from Emmaus to the Apostles at Jerusalem. The Lord is risen : to which they who were faluted, immediately with Transport replied in the Words of the Eleven.-The Lord is rifen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon. In Imitation of which holy and becoming Solemnity, our own Church fuppofing us equally affected with the fame joyful News, is loth to with-hold us longer than is needful from the Pleasure of expreffing it; and therefore, as foon as the Abfolution is pronounced in her Morning Service, and we are fitly qualified for Rejoicing and Triumph, fhe begins her Office with proper Anthems fuitable to the Day, encouraging us mutually to call upon one another to keep the Feast, for that Chrift our Paffover is facrificed for us, and alfo raised from the Dead; raised from the Dead to die no more, Death fhall have no more Dominion over him. Nor has he gained this Conqueft for himself alone; but he makes the Benefits of his Refurrection as extenfive as those of his Death: As he died, fo alfo he rofe again, not in a private,

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SER M. private, but a publick Capacity; not as a I. fingle Person only, but as the Head and Representative of all Mankind. For fo the Church goes on to fing in the Words of my Text-He is rifen from the Dead, and become the Firft-Fruits of them that slept : i. e. of all that fleep in him, who therefore are confecrated by his Resurrection to rise hereafter in due Order and Time, to all the Privileges, which he as the Firft-Fruits has already received. So that you fee the Church chufes my Text; and the Text points out the Subject of my Difcourfe, viz. The Refurrection of Jefus from the Dead, which therefore I fhall confider in the Order which the Words themselves prescribe, viz.

First, As it is a Certainty, or Matter of Fact, with regard to himself: But now is Chrift rifen from the Dead. And,

Secondly, As it is an Earneft, a Pledge and Security with regard to us. But now is Chrift rifen from the Dead, and become the Firft-Fruits of them that flept.

I. First, Then, I am to confider the Refurrection of Christ as it is a Matter of Fact with regard to himself. But now (faith the Apo

ftle)

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ftle) is Chrift rifen from the Dead. A Fact SE RM. that ought in the first Place to be confirmed, fince upon the Truth of it, our Hopes, our Faith, our Religion, our All, most entirely depends. For as the Apostle obferves, 2 or 3 Verfes before my Text,-If Chrift be not rifen, then is our Preaching vain, and your Faith is alfo vain, i. e. We, who in our Preaching have fo ftrongly afferted Chrift's Refurrection, as an infallible Argument for the Divinity, both of his Perfon and his Doctrine, have taught you a vain and idle Dream: And whatever Hopes you build to yourselves upon that Foundation, they are all but meer Imagination and Fancy: For if Chrift be not raifed, your Faith is vain, ye are yet in your Sins. For the Hopes of your Salvation are placed in the Resurrection of Jefus Chrift. If he therefore ftill remain under the Power of Death; ye are ftill under the Guilt of your Sins, ftill under Condemnation: And if fo, then they also, which are fallen afleep in Chrift, are perished: All your Faith and Hope in Jefus is entirely difappointed: And therefore, being dead in your Sins, there can be no Means of Deliverance. Nor were the Apostles and Martyrs the only Lofers and Sufferers in a misplaced Hope; but Chriftians in general, if.

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SER M. Chrift be not rifen, as an Earnest, and Pledge of an univerfal Resurrection, are most wretched and unhappy. If in this Life only, we have Hope in Chrift, we are of all Men moft miferable. Were there no Hopes of a Resurrection and a future State after the ending of this mortal Life, who would undergo fo many Sufferings and Hardships our Religion many Times fubjects us to, and deny ourselves fo many Pleasures and Indulgencies, from which that obliges us always to abftain? But now this is our Comfort, that the Refurrection of Jefus is not of greater Importance than Certainty. But now (faith St Paul) is Chrift rifen from the Dead. And his Resurrection is confirmed and established by the Testimony of numerous Eye-Witneffes of the Fact; of Witneffes by no Means eafy and credulous, but of fuch as ufed Care and Precaution enough not to be deceived.

Not that we pretend to any Witneffes, that faw him directly rife from his Tomb. Such Witneffes indeed there were, I mean the Soldiers who guarded the Sepulchre, but who (poor, fordid, mercenary Wretches!) were fo little awed by the Conviction, as that they took Bribes to deny what their Eyes had seen, and their Tongues had uttered. However,

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their

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their Testimony we can very well fpare: We SER M. have no need of Witneffes that faw him rise, fo long as we have fufficient both for Number and Authority that faw him when risen. For the greatest Enemies to Christianity will allow, that if it can be proved that he was feen alive after his Crucifixion; that will be fufficient to prove that he actually rose from the Dead. For his Crucifixion and Death is what the Adverfaries of our Religion boast of; fuppofing that our Lord, when once laid in the Grave was for ever fecure. All the Teftimonies therefore, that we produce to prove that he was seen alive after the Time that he expired on the Cross, will be Testimonies and Proofs of his Resurrection from the Dead, to all who allow that he really died. And therefore that I may produce convincing Proof that Chrift was really and truly alive after his Crucifixion, I fhall obferve,

First, That he appeared and was feen by credible Witneffes, not only once or twice, but at feveral diftinct and different Times.

Secondly, That he was feen not of one or two only at a Time, upon à fudden, or Surprize: but that he appeared to several, to Numbers at once, when they were beforehand warned and prepared to expect him.

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Thirdly,

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