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SUGGESTED BY HOLY SCRIPTURE, AND TO BE REGULATED BY THE SAME.

THAT "Christ is risen from the dead," as it is one of the most evident truths of Holy Scripture, so is it one of the most unquestionable articles of our Christian belief. That his resurrection is an assurance and a pledge of the resurrection of mankind, is another article equally evident from the Word of God, and equally entitled to our faith. The two articles are distinctly set forth by the apostle St. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians; and their truth maintained, and their mutual connexion argued, and their essential importance to the whole system of the Christian revelation unambiguously affirmed. "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept; for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

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This article of the resurrection of all men divides itself into two members, the one comprising the resurrection of the righteous, the other that of the disobedient, who shall be raised indeed, (for “all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth;") but their resurrection will be "the resurrection of damnation ;" and they will be raised only to be "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power;" whilst to the former their resurrection shall be "the resurrection of life," or the commencement of a new existence of perpetual and everlasting enjoy

11 Cor. xv. 13-22.

2 John v. 25. 29.

32 Thess. i. 9.

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