and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES; `&c. 28,g having vanquifhed the power of death, and opened the tremendous portals of the grave, he again repeated his falutatidri Peace be untoyou; adding, The fame cot4; miffion that my Father bath given unto me, I give unto you : go ye therefore into every part of the world, and preach the gofpel to all the childrenofmen.. Then breathing on them, he faid, Receive ye the Holy Ghoft, to direft and affift you in the execution of your commiffion ; whofo- ever embraces your doarine, and fincerely repents, ye (hall remit his fins, and your fentence of abfolution (hall be ratified and confirmed in the courts of heaven : and whofoever either obflinately rejeas your doarine, di(òbeys it, or behaves himfelf unworthily, after he hath embraced it, his fins (hall not be forgiven him ; but the cenfure ye (hall pafs upon him on earth, (hall be confirmed in heaven, to his con- demnation. At this meetingof theapoftles, Thomas, otherwife called Didymus, was abfent; nor did this happen without the fpecial direc- tion of Providence, that the particular and extraordinary fatisfaaion which was after- wards granted him, might be an abundant and undeniable teftimony of the truth of our bleffed Saviour's refurref;tion, to all fucceeding generations. The reit of the apo(tles therefore told him, that they had feen the Lord, and repeated to him the words he had delivered in their hearing : but Thomas replied, This event is of fuch great importance, that unlefs, to prevent all poffibility of deception, I fee him with my own eyes, and feel him with my own hands, putting my fingers into the print of the nails whereby he was fattened to the crofs, and thrui my hand into his fide which the foldier pierced with his fpear; I will not believe that he is rifen from the dead in reality and truth, as ye affirm. We have now enumerated, in the molt explicit manner, the tranfa&ions of that day on which the great Redeemer of man- kind arofe from the dead ; a day highly to be remembered by the children ofmen throughout all generations ; a day, in which was fully completed and difplayed the conceptions lodged in the breafl of Infinite Wifdom from all eternity ; even thofe thoughts of love and mercy, on which the falvation ofthe world depended. Chriflians have, therefore, the higheft rea- fon to folemnize this day with gladnefs each returning week, by ceafing from their labour, and giving up themfelves to prayer, pious meditations, and other exercifes of religion. The redemption of mankind; which they weekly commemorate, affords matter for eternal thought; it is a fubjeét impoffible to be equalled, and whofe Nitre, neither length of time, nor frequent re- viewing can either tarnifh or diminifh : it refembles the fun, whichwe behold always the fame glorious and luminous objeft ; for the benefit we celebrate is, after fo many ages, as frefh and beautiful as ever, and will always continue the fame, flou- ri(hing in the memories of all reafonable beings through the endlefs revolutions of eternity. Redemption is the brightefi mirror in which we contemplate the good- nefs of the Almighty, other gifts are only mites from the divine treafury; but re- demption . opens, we had almoft faid, ex- haufls all the flores of his grace. May it be conftantly the favourite fubjef of our meditations, more delightful to our mufing minds than applaufe to the ambitious ear ! May it be the darling theme, of ou' dif- courfes ; fweeter to . our tongues then the droppings of the honey-comb to the tafle ! May it be our choiceft comfort, through all the changes of this mortal life, and the reviving cordial, even in the lath extre- mities of diffolution itfelf, and upon the vergeof the grave ! After our great Redeemer had been rifen eight days from the dead, he (hewed himfelf again to his difciples while Tho- mas was with them, and upbraided that difciple for his unbelief; bit knowing that it did not, like that of the Pharifees, pro- ceed from a wicked mind, but from an hone(t heart, and a fincere defire of being fatisfied
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