CHAPTER XXVII.

PORTRAIT OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY.

1....

HOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and ol angels, and have not charity, I am become as founding brass, and as a linkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all myfteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

2... And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charily suitereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up.

3... Doh no behave itself unseemiy, seeketh not her own, is not cafily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejjiceth not in iniquity, but in ruch; beareth all things, believeih all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

4 ...Chariiy never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall

For we know in part, and we prophecy in

part : : but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

5.... When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a man,

I
put away childish Things.

For now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part; but then fhal! I know even as al. fo I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, chari. ty, thele three; but the greatef of these is charity.

vanish away.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE CHRISTIAN'S PROSPECT BEYOND THE

GRAVE.

1....

OW is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them who ilept. For

man rection

, in Chrift Hall all be made alive.

But every man in bis own order : Chrift the finlfruits afterwards they who are Christ's at his coming.

2....But some men will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do ihey come? Thoo fool, that which thou sowel is not quickened except in die. And that which thou soweit, inou lowest not ihat body that Mall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of fome other grain : but God giver h it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every feed his own body.

3....All fish is not the same fl sh : but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of bealls, another of fihes, and another of birds. There are also celeiliał bodies, and bodies terrestrial : but the glory of the ce. leitial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

4....There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one ftar differeth from another ftar in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead : it is sown in corruption, ki is raised in incorruption : it is sown in difhonour, it is raised in glory : it is lown in weakncís, it is sailed in power : it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

5 ....There is a natural body, and there is a spirirual body. And so it is writren, The firft man Adam was

made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quicken. ing spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is spirit. ual, but that which is patural; and alterward that which is spiritual.

6.... The first man is of the earth, eartby; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also who are earthy ? and as the heavenly, such are they also who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the carily, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

7.... Now this I say, brethren, that flçíh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither dotb. cor. ruption inberit incorruption. Behold, I few yon a myfery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; (for the trumpet shall found;) and the dead thíll be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal mut put on inmortality.

8.... So when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this mortalih all have put on immortality, then shall be brought to país the saying that is written, Death is swallowed

up

in victory O death! where is thy fing? O grave! where is any vittory ? The sting of death is fin; and shs firengili of sin is the law. But thanks be in God who givcih us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Chrift. 3

* 9.... Therefore, my beloved lethren, be ye ledtad, moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, terasmuch as ve know that your labour is ooi in vain in the Lord,

OR,

4 BRIEF REVIEW OF THE WHOLE.

THE internal marks and features of the Chriftian re.

ligion plainly manifest its divine origin, even as the fun is distinguished from all other bodies by its own Fight. It is a system of religion fo fingular, lo contrary to worldly craft, and to the prevailing ideas of man. kind; and withal, fo pure, so excellent and divine, that one cannot, without very great absurdity, ascribe it to human invention, *Some of the internal evidences of the divine origin arid excellent nature ct the Christian religion, are briefe ly comprized in the following heads.

Firstly. The gospel bistory bears the marks of plain, fimple, undi guised iruth. Lét any sensible, unprejudiced person read the Evangelists, containing skeich. es of the actions and discourses of Jesus Christ; and also the acts of the apoftles, which give an account of the first spread of the Christian religion, and he will perceive that the whole narration is remarkably fimple; and without the least appearance of any art, inirigue, designed imposture, or wilful misrepresentation.

Secondly. A leading doctrine of the gospel, name. ly, Salvation by the Cross, is a doctrine, whicb (as the ftate of the world was) no mortal could ever have thought of inventing. The Gentiles, while they dei. fied their heroes and conquerors, those thedders of human blood, poured conteinpt upon the poor, and the unfortunate. The Jews, on the other hand, millaking their scripture prophecies, expected their Messiah to be a mighty earthly prince, who thould found bis fame upon conquest,

Under those cireunalances, temote from every byman mind must have been the expectation, that the Saviour of men frould be born in poverty ; should live a life of reproach and suffering Mould be executed as a vile malefactor ; that the thedding of his blood Jhould be for the remission of fins; and that he ako died on a cross should judge the world. This was a myslery, which the apostles themselves, even after it was told them, were very hard to believe and comprehend. And to fuppose that this was a piece of human invention, or a fiction, by which mankind were cheat. ed into a beliet of the Christian Religion, is to luppole as great a miracle as any that the Gospel itself records.

Thirdly. The Chriftian Morality, being moft pure and fublime, tends to ennoble the hurgan nature, and to render us better ard happier in all the relations of life. Compare the Chriftian laws with the brigid pre. cepts of philolophy; compare the Chriftian (cheme of relative and social duties, with Chesterfield's maxims of politeness, profeffedly founded on dissimulation and hypocrisy of heart; how striking is the contrast! You immediately see the divine origin of the one : and ihat the other is the mean and selflh offspriogol that wif. dom which is from bepeath.

The Christian laws are addrefled to the beart:, they reach and bind us eyen as to our thoughts, and the se. cret motives of action. They inculcate Love as the great principle of human conduet. Supreme love to God, and univerfal benevolence

to men, are the

great commandments in the Christian code,

This love, like the influence of the magnet, would attract mankind to one another, and cause each co.esteem the interest of another, as it it were his own. And if this love might be universal,injuries of every kind, would