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1....

THOUG

HOUGH I fpeak with the tongues. of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as founding brafs, and as a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all myfteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, fo that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

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

3... Dath not behave itfelf unfeemly, feeketh not her own, is not eafily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but in truth; beateth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

4...Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they fhall fail; whether there be tongues, they fhall ceafe; whether there be knowledge, it fhall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part fhall be done away.

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5.... When I was a child, I fpake as a child, I underflood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we fee through a glafs darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then fhal! I know even as alfo I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, thefe three; but the greatest of thefe is charity.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE CHRISTIAN'S PROSPECT BEYOND THE

Now

GRAVE.

OW is Chrift rifen from the dead,

and become the fift fruits of them who flept.

For

fince by man came death, by man came alfo the relurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even fo

in Chrift fhall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Chrift the firfruits; afterwards they who are Chrift's at his coming.

2....But fome men will fay, How are the dead railed up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou foweft is not quickened except it die. And that which thou foweft, thou foweft not that body that fhall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of fome other grain but God giveth it a body as it hath pleafed him, and to every feed his own body.

3....All flfh is not the fame flfh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beals, another of thes, and another of birds. There are alfo celeflial bodies, and bodies terreftrial: but the glory of the celeftial is one, and the glory of the terreftrial is another.

4....There is one glory of the fun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the Bars; for one flar differeth from another ftar in glory. So alfo is the refurrection of the dead: it is fown in corruption, it, is raifed in incorruption: it is fown in difhonour, it is raised in glory: it is fown in weaknefs, it is railed in power it is fown a natural body, it is raifed a fpiritu al body.

5....There is a natural body, and there is a fpiritual body. And fo it is written, The firft man Adam was

made a living foul, the laft Adam was made a quickening fpirit. Howbeit, that was not firft which is fpiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is fpiritual.

6.... The fift man is of the earth, eartby; the fecond man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they alfo who are earthy and as the heavenly, fuch are they alfo who are heavenly. And as we have borne. the image of the earthy, we fhall alfo bear the image of the heavenly.

7....Now this I fay, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I fhew you a myftery; we fhall not all fleep, but we fhall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the laft trump; (for the trumpet fhall found;) and the dead th ill be raifed incorruptible, and we fhall be changed. For this corruptible muft put on incorruption, and this mortal mut put on immortality.

8....So when this corruption fhall have put on incorruption, and this mortal thall have put on immortality, then thall be brought to pafs the faying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory. O death! where is thy fling? O grave! where is thy victory? The fling of death is fin; and the firength of fin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth as the victory, through our Lord Jefus Chrift.

9....Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye ftedfaft, anmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forafmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1

OR,

A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE WHOLE.

THE internal marks and features of the Chriftian religion plainly manifeft its divine origin, even as the fun is diftinguifhed from all other bodies by its own light. It is a fyftem of religion fo fingular, fo contrary to worldly craft, and to the prevailing ideas of mankind; and withal, fo pure, fo excellent and divine, that one cannot, without very great abfurdity, afcribe it to human invention.

Some of the internal evidences of the divine origin and excellent nature of the Chriftian religion, are brief ly comprized in the following heads.

Firftly. The gofpel history bears the marks of plain, fimple, undifguifed truth. Let any fenfible, unprejudiced perfon read the Evangelifts, containing sketches of the actions and difcourfes of Jefus Chrift; and alfo the acts of the apoftles, which give an account of the firft fpread of the Chriftian religion, and he will perceive that the whole narration is remarkably fimple; and without the leaft appearance of any art, intrigue, defigned impofture, or wilful mifreprefentation.

Secondly. A leading doctrine of the gofpel, name. ly, Salvation by the Cross, is a doctrine, which (as the ftate of the world was) no mortal could ever have thought of inventing. The Gentiles, while they deified their heroes and conquerors, thofe fhedders of human blood, poured contempt upon the poor, and the unfortunate. The Jews, on the other hand, miflaking their feripture prophecies, expected their Meffiah to be a mighty earthly prince, who fhould found his fame upon conquest.

Under thofe circumftances, remote from every human mind must have been the expectation, that the Saviour of men fhould be born in poverty; fhoulálive a life of reproach and fuffering: Should be executed as a vile malefactor; that the shedding of his blood fhould be for the remiffion of fins; and that he who died on a cross fhould judge the world. This was a myflery, which the apostles themfelves, even after it was told them, were very hard to believe and comprehend. And to fuppofe that this was a piece of human invention, or a fiction, by which mankind were cheated into a belief of the Chriftian Religion, is to fuppole as great a miracle as any that the Golpel ittelf records.

Thirdly. The Chriftian Morality, being moft pure and fublime, tends to ennoble the human nature, and to render us better and happier in all the relations of life. Compare the Chriftian laws with the frigid precepts of philolophy; compare the Chriftian fcheme of relative and focial duties, with Chefterfield's maxims of politenefs, profeffedly founded on diffimulation and bypocrify of heart; how firiking is the,contraft! You immediately fee the divine origin of the one: and that the other is the mean and felfish offspring of that wifdom which is from beneath.

The Chriftian laws are addreffed to the heart: they reach and bind us even as to our thoughts, and the fe. Gret motives of action, They inculcate Love as the great principle of human conduct. Supreme love to God, and univerfal benevolence to men, are the great commandments in the Chriftian code.

This love, like the influence of the magnet, would attrall mankind to one another, and caule each toeftee.m the intereft of another, as if it were his own. And if this love might be univerfal,injuries of every kind would

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