Christs eternal existence, and the dignity of his person asserted and proved in opposition…

1. Possible, the least that we can gather from it is this, that it is not impossible for dead men to rise, for that which hath been may ⟨p. 153⟩be. We have the proof and instance of it in Christ, see how the Apostle reasoneth, 1 Cor. 15.13. If there be no Resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not risen, and then our whole Faith falleth to the ground, For all Religion is bottomed on the Resurrection of Christ, if therefore Christ be risen why should it seem an incredible thing to us, that others should be raised also.

2. It is Easy, for by rising from the dead he hath conquered death and gotten the victory of it, 1 Cor. 15.57. A separation there will be of the soul from the body, but it is not such as shall last for ever. The victory over sin is the victory over death, and the conquest of sin makes death an entrance into immortality: The Scriptures often speak of Christs destroying the power of death, Heb. 2.14, That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death. The devils design was by tempting men to sin, to keep them for ever under the power of death, but Christ came to rescue men from that power by a Resurrection from Death to Life. Again it is said he hath abolished death and brought Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel. He hath voided the power of death by taking a course for the destruction of sin, and made a ⟨p. 154⟩clear Revelation of that Life and Immortality which was not so certainly known before. We look to the natural impossibilities, how what is turned to dust may be raised again, because we do not consider the power of God, but the moral impossibility is the greater, for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law, that which makes sin able to do us hurt is the guilt of sin, otherwise it would be but as a calm sleep, and this guilt is bound upon us by the Law of the righteous God, which threateneth eternal Death to the sinner. Now get free from sin and it is easy to believe the conquest of death: I will prove two things, that Christs Resurrection shows both his victory over sin, and his victory over death.