DISCOURSE II. 195 great type and figure of him, Jonah the prophet, who livedagain after he had lain three days and nights in the bellyof the whale, in theheart of thesea; Mat. xii. 39, 46. Which was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. 5. By conferringwith, others ofhis own nation, and his own religion, who were well acquainted with Jesus Christ in his life- time, he found the same truthconfirmed by them ; for they had seen Jesus Christ, and eat and drank with him after he rose from the dead : So Peter and James, as Gal. i. 18, 19. And they confirmed the same doctrine by their testimony to him, and by gifts and miracles, as well as by their own personal know- ledge. 6. He saw the blessed and amazing effects of the resurrec- tion of Christ among the Gentiles, whowere once grossly igno- rant idolaters, devoted to gross superstitions, slaves to every lust, and given up toall abominations; as'they are described Rom. i. 18, &c. Gal. iv. 8. Eph. iv. 17. 1 Cor. vi. 11. But they were changed by this gospel, and made new creatures. Before I proceed any further, I wouldmake two or three, Remarks. Remark 1. Which of all the infidels of the Jewishor hea- then 'nations, which of all the unbelievers and apostates in aChris- tian land, ever could pretend to bring such powerful and convin- cing arguments against the resurrection of Christ, as St. Paul had-for it ? Who hath ever attempted or presumed to proye that Jesus Christ continues still among the dead, by such effectual arguments as Paul had to prove that he is alive ? St. Paul's own reason exercising itself on these arguments, could not resist the power of them, but he became a captive to the force of this reasoning, and a rational believer, and a zealous preacher of a risen Jesus. 2. How necessary it is for christians, whose life and hopes depend on the New Testament, to be well satisfied that St. Paul was in the right, and that St. Paul's doctrine is true. For it is evident,that a great part of our religion, at least in the clearness, and fulness, and glory of it, is derived from his writings. His writings make up near half the New Testament. Maneof the articles of our religion would be less plain, and more doubtful, if we did not borrow light from Paul's writings. Many a comfortable expression which our souls rest upon would be lost and useless to us, if we are not satisfiedof the truth of what St. Paul tells us, as one commissioned by our risen Saviour. Many a sweet and powerful promise, on which Christians have lived and died, would lose its sweetness and its force, if wedoubt of the truth and authority of the epistles of St. Paul. What would some of youhave done without several chapters, and many verses in them ? as Rom. iv. andv. 8, 12, 14. I meanparticn- N 2
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