"it is a righteous thing with God to recompence "tribulation to them that trouble you. And to

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you who are troubled rest with us; when the "Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with "his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that o

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bey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who "shall be punished with everlasting destruction "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glo

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ry of his power, when he shall come to be glori"fied in his saints, and to be admired in all them "that believe."

With great reason did the apostle exhort these christians (1 Thess. III. 3.) not to be moved by their affliction. "You yourselves," says he, "know "that we are appointed thereunto. For verily "when we were with you, we told you before, that 66 we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to (6 pass, and ye know."

If it was happy for us that the Thessalonian christians mistook the meaning of the apostle with respect to the resurrection, it is more so that those at Corinth perverted it by a false philosophy; because we derive more advantage from the conceit of the latter, than from the ignorance of the former, as it

gave occasion to the apostle to explain himself still more fully on the subject in his epistle to them. For in this he leaves little that we could reasonably wish to know concerning it.

The christians at Corinth misled by the principles of the Greek philosophy, were disposed to treat the doctrine of a resurrection with contempt, as a most improbable thing, as it also appeared to the Gnostic christians, and imagined that the apostle in announcing it must have had some other than a literal meaning. They held matter, and the body which is composed of it, in great contempt, and thought it a happy circumstance for the immaterial soul to be delivered from it by death, so far were they from wishing for a reunion with it at the resurrection. But the apostle, who, with the Jews, expected no future life but in the supposition of a proper resurrection, paid no attention to this Grecian philosophy; and therefore he considered the disbelief of the resurrection to be the same thing with the disbelief of a future state altogether; saying (1 Cor. XV. 17.) "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins." For he justly observed that, if there be no general resurrection, there are no particular ones, not even that of Christ, whereas there

was the most direct and abundant evidence of the reality of his resurrection, which is the assurance of ours.

On this account he particularly enumerates most of the appearances of Jesus after he was raised from the dead, and especially his appearing to more than five hundred of his disciples at one time, most of whom were then living, and could attest it. But the resurrection of Jesus is a pledge of ours. Consequently, the apostle calls him (v. 20.) the first fruits of them that sleep; the great harvest, to which he alludes by the mention of the first fruits, being the resurrection of all his followers. It has pleased God, he observes, that "as by man came death,

so by man also comes the resurrection of the dead, "and that as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all "be made alive." And as all power is to be put into the hands of Christ, and all his enemies are to be subdued by him, the last of them is death.

After this he proceeds to answer several objections that were made to the doctrine of the resurrection, especially with respect to the kind of body, with which men will rise; and he observes that as every kind of corn that men sow and reap is renewed after being buried in the ground, it will be the same

with men, but with this advantage, that our future bodies will not be like the present ones, liable to corruption, disease and death, for that with respect to it they may be called spiritual, like the glorified body of Jesus.

The same advantageous change he observes will take place in those who shall be alive at the coming of Christ. "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 "sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, "and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." After this, in the language of triumph, he adds, referring to a passage in Isaiah, "O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy "victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the "victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

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On this glorious doctrine he immediately grounds this natural exhortation. Therefore "beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, "always, abounding in the work of the Lord, for"asmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be "in vain in the Lord." Indeed there cannot be any more powerful motive to the diligent practice

of our duty, and a steady perseverance in it.

This was the great encouragement and support to Paul himself under all the trials that he underwent in the propagation of the gospel, as we see in this epistle. "If" he says, v. 32, "after the manner "of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, "what advantage have we if the dead rise not. Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die."

In his second epistle he has recourse to the same animating prospect as that which supported him under all his tribulations. "2 Cor. IV. 8. We are

"troubled on every side" he says "but not distres"sed. We are perplexed, but not in despair; per"secuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de

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'stroyed; always bearing about in the body the dy

ing of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus "might be manifested in our body. For we who live

are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest "in our morta' fesh." ib. 16. "For this "cause we faint not; for though our outer man

perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a "moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding "and eternal weight of glory; while we look not