he will derive them from the memorable hiftories which thofe records contain of righteous men protected, delivered, and rewarded by that God whom they ferved and glorified; or of rebellious defpifers of the divine law condemned to fhame, anguish, and deftruction. Sometimes he will fix his thoughts on a fingle verfe; and will explain with minutenefs of investigation, and enforce with copiousness of reafoning the religious truth which it involves. Sometimes he will felect a paffage of greater length; point out the bearing and connexion of the arguments employed by the infpired prophet, evangelift, or apoftle; and apply them, fo far as they may be lawfully applied, to the edification, the fupport, and the comfort of Chriftians of the prefent day.

The last of thefe various methods of obtaining inftruction from the word of God is that which I propofe now to purfue. In the present and in a fubfequent difcourfe, (for the fubject is too extenfive to be compreffed with advantage into the compass of a fingle fermon), it will be my object to direct your minds to that portion of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, which opens with the verfe felected for the text and extends to the conclufion of the chapter. It is a portion of Scripture in the highest degree

interesting on account of the momentous truths which it difclofes. And it is rendered peculiarly impreffive by the folemn and affecting nature of the occafions on which it is publicly employed. It is a portion of Scripture which we have frequently heard pronounced over the lifeless bodies of our friends. It is one which others within no diftant period fhall hear pronounced over our own. The Church to which we belong has wifely and pioufly endeavoured to render the interment of the dead a fource of edification to the living. When pride is humbled and the heart softened by affliction; when the coffin flowly borne to the house of God, pausing there awhile on its way towards the grave, or placed within its narrow manfion and receiving the laft looks of furviving forrow, proclaims with a voice which cannot be misunderstood, the speedy and inevitable end of all earthly poffeffions and enjoyments: the mourner is taught to look to Chrift the Redeemer, the Refurrection and the Life, in whom whofoever believeth, though he were dead, yet fhall he live. He is taught that, if the Lord has taken away; He has taken only what He gave. He is taught that, though man walketh in a vain fhadow; yet his hope is truly in the Lord. He is taught that, if

God turneth man to deftruction; again He faith, "Come again, ye children of men." He is taught fo to number his days, that he may apply his heart unto wisdom. He is taught that a voice from Heaven hath proclaimed, "Blessed are the dead, which die in: "the Lord: even fo, faith the Spirit; for they reft from their labours." He is taught not to be forry as men without hope, for them who fleep in Chrift. He is taught that the fouls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are with Christ in joy and felicity. He is taught that though earth be committed to earth, afhes to afhes, duft to duft it is in fure and certain hope of the refurrection of the juft to eternal life, through our Lord Jefus Chrift, who fhall change our vile body that it may be like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to fubdue all things to Himself; and fhall then pronounce that benediction to all that love and fear God, Come, ye bleffed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. In the paffage from the first Epiftle to the Corinthians appointed to form

a

part of the funeral service, this fundamental doctrine of our faith, this glorious and inestimable hope, this unfailing fupport to the righteous

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righteous under all the labours and afflictions of mortality, is established by irresistible arguments; guarded against cavils and mifconceptions; difplayed under the most animating representations; and practically applied to purposes the most noble.

Let us proceed, in reliance on the blessing of Him under the guidance of whofe Spirit all Scripture has been recorded, to the full confideration of this portion of holy writ.

In the earlier part of the chapter the apoftle difclofes the circumftance, which had convinced him of the neceffity of the leffon which he was about to inculcate. If Christ, faith he, be preached that he rose from the dead: bow fay fome among you that there is no refurrection of the dead? Though the Old Testament contains, especially in the writings of the prophets, many forcible intimations of a. future existence: the Sadducees, a powerful and numerous fect among the Jews, denied that there remained a life beyond the grave. Among the heathens, all was obfcurity and doubt, or darknefs and unbelief. When they beard of the refurrection of the dead, fome liftened with prejudice, contempt, and reluctance: others openly fcoffed and mocked at the novelty and strangeness of the doctrine.

Hence

Hence among the early Chriftians, whether of Jewish or of Gentile race, there was found a favourable opening for falfe teachers, who were adventurous enough to undermine and oppofe the hope of a future life. Two heretical declaimers of this defcription, Hymeneus and Philetus, are specified by St. Paul in his fecond Epiftle to Timothy as having erred concerning the truth, faying that the refurrection is past already: affirming the promised refurrection to be of a figurative nature; a refur rection to be accomplished in the prefent world; a refurrection, as they probably explained themselves, from a ftate of vice to a ftate of virtue. Though Hymeneus, according to the pofitive declaration of the fame apofile, had, in this fundamental point made Shipwreck concerning faith, because he had firit put away a good confcience: though both thefe corrupters of the truth as it is in Jefus, having emancipated themfelves from the dread of a judgement to come, would naturally plunge with little reftraint into flagitiousness, and might thus have been expected to bring general difcredit on their opinions even in the eyes of common obfervers; yet their word did eat as doth a canker, and overthrew the faith of fome. Teachers infected with the fame fenfelefs and pernicious prin