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Sublime and important argument for the truth of the gospel , and for a future state of * retribution , from the actual resurrection of its great Author and Head . Having , therefore , first stated the fact 9 partly , from his own
experience , he proceeds to shew the absurd' consequences of the contrary supposition . If we have indeed followed " cunningly devised fables , " and have no real grounds for what we assert , if we have preached only an ideal Saviour , who was neither raised
from the dead himself , nor had any power to raise his followers ; if the gospel be nothing but a solemn imposition ; then , in this case , you have hitherto been wretchedly deceived , " our preaching , " as the apostles of Christ , "is vain , and your faith is
also vain , " and those who have been < either baptized into the belief of a risen Christ , if he be indeed finally dead , or who are " fallen asleep in him , " are baptized in Tain ; and'have died , as far as their hope was thus founded only , in the possession of a
vain and fruitless expectation . Further , you must consider us , in this view , as * false witnesses for God , " contending with " wild beasts" ( wicked men ) and exposing ourselves to a daily death and continual persecution ,
to no manner of purpose : nay , the idea is little better than atheistical , and you may , in this case , almost adopt the maxim of the Sensualists , " ¦ let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die f' But , be assured , we have
, not preached an ideal baviour , for now is he indeed " risen from the dead , and become the first fruits of them that slept . " Perhaps , this may not be the exact sense of the apostle ; but whatever it be , of one thing we may be assured , that if , as we contend , the gospel was not intended to set aside our natural notions of the
Deity , but to exalt and confirm them ; if , from things known and apprehended , we are to rise to the contemplation of things unknown , and partly incomprehensible ; so it is impossible that the apostle could contradict , his own reasonings , elsewhere ,
and that we must not wrest things 4 * hard to be understood , " to hasty or improper meanings , but interpret them by those which are plain and unequivocal , agreeably to the nature of things , and " the analogy of the faith . 11 Words must ever bend to
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things , and , " speaking with reverence , even sacred terms to sacred doctrines , because words and terms may be mistaken , but doctrines , that . is those which are obvious and truly fundamental , change not ; though we
arrive at the knowledge of them by different stages , and in different degrees . Moreover , we may observe , that in this sublime illustration of the resurrection , the apostle does not appear to glance at the natural arguments
for a future state , which stand upon their own proper ground ; but merely shews the inconsistency of an external profession of the gospel , without a belief in this grand fundamental , the resurrection of Christ , and the
consequent resurrection of his disciples , in their proper order , and then of the whole race of mankind : and he delicately insinuates , that their foolish doubts arose , not from want of sufficient evidence , but from bad com * pany . 4 C Be not deceived * evil communications corrupt good manners , "
Furthermore , we may observe respecting this position , « ' No resurrection ; of the body , no future state , " that , as the Almighty cannot be supposed to be limited to means , nor a separate state proved an impossibility , if the belief of an after life be a dictate
of reason , and revelation assures us of a resurrection of the body , or of a , body , which , by some law to us unknown , may be justly considered as springing from the ruins of the former one ; if personal identity be nothing but a restoration to the same
consciousness , in whatever vehicle that consciousness may reside ; then , the doctrine of a future state , in every view , remains upon the most durable basis ; we are , as just observed , to consider the resurrection of our Lord ,
as an additional fact , and most interesting assiirance of this great event , and the general resurrection , as the grand and . decisive means of its consummation .
We are to distinguish also between the doctrine of a future state , simply considered , and the doctrine of eternal life : and yet Dr . Balguy hath observed , that as the former " is morally
certain from the light of nature , so the perpetuity of it probable . " And Dr . Duchal , that there can be only three reasons assigned why good men , if once put into the possession of a future life , should not continue tber «
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, ?© 0 On Natural Rvligion .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1815, page 700, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1766/page/36/
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