fter, and for the everlasting confolation of his people.. God hath thus wiped off the reproach of the crofs. When the great Mediator not only submitted to endure the common evils of humanity, but was fubjected to the ignominy of a public crucifixion, he commended his Spirit into the: Father's hand; and the claim lay with infinite: justice, to maintain the dignity of the innocent fufferer; to vindicate his honours which might feem to have been tarnished in the fcene of blood; and to raise him to that kingdom which he had merited, and for which he was made perfect, in having learned our trials and our obedience through fufferings. In like manner, when his religion was to be tendered to the world, clogged as it might feem by that ftumbling-block, which. neither Jew nor Gentile knew how to reconcile with the notions of perfonal grandeur, and the majefty of character; it was fit that such extreme humiliation fhould be balanced by a fucceeding. fcene of unrivalled glory that the doctrine of the cross might be juftified as the wifdom of God, fuftained by the power of the refurrection. Thus were his apoftles enabled to glory in the cross of Chrift: and to preach the ti dings of confolation through him who died, yea, rather who is rifen again; and thus were his friends every where taught to regard the transactions on Mount Calvary with admira tion tion and comfort, inftead of confufion and dif may. The whole body of that religious inftitute which Jefus hath delivered, was thus in the events of the refurrection-morning authenticated by the feal of Heaven, and confirmed to men by the most decifive proof, when the Author of our faith was restored from death, and the bars of the grave were broken by the power of God. The refurrection of Jefus reflects peculiar light upon the doctrine of a future ftate, and affords the moft emphatical proof which man could defire, that the foul knows no diffolution, and is invulnerable to the ftroke of death. We are travellers through the wilderness. of life; the king of terrors lurks in ambush near the path, he fends his arrows among the fons of men, and who can refift his power? Before, behind, on the right-hand, and on the *** left, we see our fellow-travellers, one by one, ftruck and falling to the earth. The compa nions of our early days, the friends whom we love as our own fouls, drop by our fides, and leave us folitary in the land; with the certain knowledge, that we in our turn muft yield to the order of nature.. We fee that the body returns to its duft, but the reft is hid from our view. The hopes of nature are strong; they are confirmed by the conclufions of reafon; yet it is the earnest with of the soul, to obtain fame more palpable proof, where its all, its be ing, ing, is the object of inquiry. Your friends depart, and return not with tidings any more.. At times, perhaps, it is with anxious and hefitating expectation that you look towards the land of night: if one should arife from the dead, wouldst thou believe? Come then and obferve the place where the Lord lay: See, the linen cloaths in which his body was wrapt,. together with the herbs and spices, are left in, their place in the tomb: the napkin which bound his head, has there been laid afide with all its folds unruffled. But He is not here, he is rifen the guards faw him come forth from the tomb, they fled to the city in utter confternation, and declared to the chief priests the things which were done; the defcent of the: angel, and the refurrection of Jefus. Herein is our confidence and our joy; the day of his power dawned, and the darknefs of the human. understanding was difpelled before the glories> of the morning. Now we know that our fouls are indepen dent of death; and in the fame fcene we may, difcover the pledge of God, that they fhall be again embodied. The defolation which fin introduced into the kingdom of God. is deftined to meet entire redrefs from him who finished tranfgreffion. The revocation of the doom of death, the re-union of the fpiritual fubftance with its material organ in the glories. of perfection and immortality, is that final reftitution of all things, which the majesty of God feems to require, and of which he hath given affurance to men, in that he hath raifed Jefus from the dead. To our Lord and Mafter are now committed the keys of the grave; he called up many of the bodies of the faints which flept, and fent them into the city, where they appeared to their friends, as trophies of the victory of him who was dead, and is alive for evermore. Even fo them alfo which fleepin Jefus fhall God bring home to him. We crr not, for we know both the fcriptures and the power of God. Our Redeemer liveth, and fhall ftand at the latter day upon the earth: And though this earthly houfe, this tabernacle of flesh, must be diffolved, we have a building of God, a houfe not made with hands, eternak in the heavens. That which is now corruptible fhall put on incorruption, and our bodies being fashioned after the refemblance of his glorious body, fhall be clothed with immortality Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the vicory through Jefus Chrift our Lord. SER. SERMON I On the Duty of attending the Public Inftitutions of Religion. By WILLIAM MOODIE, Minister of St Andrew's Church, Edinburgh.. Preached on the firft Sunday after his admiffion to his prefent Charge. HE B. X 25. Not forfaking the assembling of ourselves toge ther, as the manner of fome is, but exhorting one another and fo much the more, as ye fee the day approaching. IN N the preceding verfes, Paul had ftated the doctrine of our Saviour's mediation. From the view which he had given of that gracious appointment, he had encouraged the Hebrews to approach their Maker in the exercises of religion. Thefe were the means which God had provided for promoting their improvement in knowledge and in virtue. By uniting in the public offices of devotion; they might contribute to inflame each others piety, and to ani-mate each other in the paths of obedience. The argument by which the Apostle enfor-ees his exhortation, is peculiarly adapted to the age in which he wrote; "in fo much the more, |