tomb. The stone also was so sealed and secured, that it required great strength indeed to move it.

And here we will leave the matter, till in my next Lecture I shall shew you, how this great stone was rolled away, and these sixty stout, bold and valiant soldiers driven scampering away into the city. You will find, my friends, that the Lord of life was too strong for death-that neither devils nor men could confine the Son of God in a tomb. "O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things. With his own right hand, and with his holy arm, hath he gotten himself the victory. The Lord declared his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.”

And now to God, &c.

LECTURE LXXXIII.

ST. MATTHEW Xxviii. 5, 6.

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

WE have now come, in the course of our Lectures, to a very important part of our religion. I mean the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is an article of the creed, as you may remember. "I believe in Jesus Christ," you say, "who was dead, and buried, and rose again on the third day." I beg that you will attend

very particularly to me, while I relate the circumstances of this event.

You may remember, that I told you our Lord was crucified on the Friday. He died at three o'clock in the afternoon; and as the custom of the Jews was, that the bodies of persons hanged should not remain all night on the tree, his body was taken down, together with the bodies of the two thieves, who were crucified with him. Joseph of Arimathea (a certain town) begged, as you have heard, his body of Pilate, and buried it in a new tomb, hewn out in a rock; and having rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, departed. Perhaps he thought that there was an end of the blessed Jesus in this world. Some women, whose names are mentioned in Scripture, attended at the burial, determined to return and do for the body according to the custom of the Jews, by rubbing it with spices, and ointments and perfumes. This they could

not do on the Friday evening, because it must have been late before the body was given to Joseph, and buried. Nor could they do it on the Saturday, because that was the sabbath day, and no Jew ever worked at all, or for any purpose, on the sabbath day. They therefore agreed to wait till the Sunday morning, called in Scripture the first day of the week. Sunday, as I informed you, was not the sabbath of the Jews. Accordingly, very early in the morning, these good and pious and affectionate woman set off to do the office of embalming the body of Jesus. They seem to have had no thought of his rising again. They were, it appears, anxious only about getting at the body-about finding a person to roll away the mighty stone from the door of the tomb. They seem to have heard nothing of a guard having been placed there. Their thoughts being thus employed, and their hearts being, no doubt, very sad at the loss of their friend and teacher, they came at

length to the sepulchre. This was about the rising of the sun. They had no occasion to trouble themselves about the stone, for they found it rolled away. And there was no guard to disturb them, for these sixty brave men had been already driven away, half dead with fear, from their watch.-Attend to me, and you will hear how this happened. Very early in the morning, before the women came to the tomb, there had been a great earthquake; and an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, had himself rolled away the stone, and seated himself upon it. Such a sight drove the whole guard away; for we read, that his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment or garments as white as snow, which is the whitest thing in nature. You cannot be surprized to find the Roman guard, which feared not the face of man, frightened away by an angel. At that time Jesus quitted the tomb. Yes! my brethren, your Saviour and mine, the Saviour of all flesh, was not kept in the

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