the promises made to the peni- REPROOF, blame or repre tent; and the absolute incapa-hension spoken to a person's face. bility of enjoying God here or It is distinguished from a reprihereafter without it. See Dickin-mand thus. He who reproves anson's Letters, let. 9; Gill's Body other, points out his fault, and of Divinity, article Repentance; blames him. He who reprimands, Ridgley's Body of Divinity, ques-affects to punish, and mortifies the tion 76; Davies's Sermons, ser. 44, offender. In giving reproof, the vol. iii; Case's Sermons, ser. 4; following rules may be observed, Whitefield's Sermons; Saurin's Ser-1. We should not be forward in mons, ser. 9. vol. iii, Robinson's reproving our elders or superiors, Translation; Scott's Treatise on but rather to remonstrate and supRepentance. plicate for redress. What the miREPROACH, the act of find-nisters of God do in this kind, they ing fault in opprobrious terms, or do it by special commission, as attempting to expose to infamy those that must give an account, and disgrace. In whatever cause 1st Tim. v, 1. Heb. xiii, 17.—2. we engage, however disinterested We must not reprove rashly; there our motives, however laudable should be proof before reproof.our designs, reproach is what we 3. We should not reprove for slight must expect. But it becomes us matters, for such faults or defects not to retaliate, but to bear it pa- as proceed from natural frailty, tiently; and so to live, that every from inadvertency, or mistake in charge brought against us be matters of small consequence.-4. groundless. If we be reproached We should never reprove unseafor righteousness sake, we have sonably, as to the time, the place, or no reason to be ashamed nor to be the circumstances.-5. We should afraid. All good men have thus reprove mildly and sweetly, in the suffered, Jesus Christ himself espe- calmest manner, in the gentlest cially. We have the greatest pro- terms.-6. We should not affect mises of support. Besides, it has to be reprehensive: perhaps there a tendency to humble us, detach is no one considered more troubleus from the world, and excite in us some than he who delights in finda desire for that state of blessed-ing faults with others. In receivness, where all reproach shall being reproof it may be observed, 1. done away. REPROBATION, the act of abandoning, or state of being abandoned to eternal destruction, and is applied to that decree or resolve which God has taken from all eternity to punish sinners who shall die in impenitence; in which sense it is opposed to election. See ELECTION TION. That we should not reject it merely because it may come from those who are not exactly on a level with ourselves.-2. We should consider whether the reproof given be not actually deserved; and that, if the reprover knew all, whether the reproof would not be sharper than what it is.-3. Wheand PREDESTINA-ther, if taken humbly and patiently, it will not be of great advan tage to us.-4. That it is nothing || neighbour whatever we have unbut pride to suppose that we are justly deprived him of, Exod. xxii, never to be the subjects of reproof, 1. Luke xix, 8. since it is human to err. Moralists observe respecting restitution, 1. That where it can be made in kind, or the injury can be certainly valued, we are to re RESENTMENT, generally used in an ill sense, implying a determination to return an injury. Dr. Johnson observes, that resent-store the thing or the value.-2. ment is an union of sorrow with We are bound to restore the thing malignity; a combination of a pas- with the natural increase of it, sion which all endeavour to avoid, that is, to satisfy for the loss suswith a passion which all concur to tained in the mean time, and the detest. The man who retires to gain hindered.-3. Where the meditate mischief, and to exaspe- thing cannot be restored, and the rate his own rage, whose thoughts value of it is not certain, we are are employed only on means of to give reasonable satisfaction, acdistress and contrivances of ruin, cording to a middle estimation.whose mind never pauses from the 4. We are at least to give by way remembrance of his own sufferings, of restitution what the law would but to indulge some hope of enjoy-give, for that is generally.equal, ing the calamities of another, may and in most cases rather favourable justly be numbered among the than rigorous.-5. A man is not most miserable of human beings; only bound to restitution for the among those who are guilty; who injury he did, but for all that dihave neither the gladness of pros-rectly follows upon the injurious perity, nor the calm of innocence.act. For the first injury being. RESIGNATION, a submission wilful, we are supposed to will all without discontent to the will of that which follows upon it. TilGod. The obligations to this lotson's Serm., ser. 170, 171; Childuty arise from, 1. The perfec- lingworth's Works, ser. 7. tions of God. Deut. xxxii, 4.RESURRECTION, a rising 2. The purposes of God, Eph. i, again from the state of the dead; 11.-3. The commands of God, generally applied to the resurrecHeb. xii, 9.-4. The promises of tion of the last day. This doctrine God, 1st Pet. v, 7.-5. Our own is argued, 1. From the resurrection interest, Hos. ii, 14, 15.-6. The of Christ, 1st Cor. xv.-2. From prospect of eternal felicity, Heb. the doctrines of grace, as union, iv, 9. See articles AFFLICTION, election, redemption,&c.-3. From DESPAIR, and PATIENCE; Wor- scripture testimonies, Matt. xxii, thington on Resignation; Gros-23, &c. Job xix, 25, 27. Isaiah venor's Mourner; Brooks's Mute xxvi, 19. Phil. iii, 20. 1st Cor. xv. Christian; and Books under AF- Dan. xii, 2. 1st Thess. iv, 14. Rev. xx, 13.-4. From the general judgment, which of course requires it. As to the nature of this resurrec FLICTION. RESTITUTION, that act of justice by which we restore to our VOL. II. 3 D our particular attention, because it is the grand hinge on which Christianity turns. Hence, says the apostle he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. Infidels, however, have disbelieved it, but with what little reason we may easily see on considering the subject. "If the body of Jesus Christ," says Saurin, tion, it will be, 1. General, Rev. xx, 12, 15. 2d Cor. v, 10.-2. Of the same body. It is true, indeed, that the body has not always the same particles, which are continually changing, but it has always the same constituent parts, which proves its identity: it is the same body that is born that dies, and the same that dies that shall rise again; so that Mr. Locke's ob-" were not raised from the dead, jection to the idea of the same it must have been stolen away. body is a mere quibble.-3. The But this theft is incredible. Who resurrection will be at the com- committed it? The enemies of mand of Christ, and by his power, Jesus Christ? Would they have John v, 28, 29.-4. Perhaps as contributed to his glory by counto the manner it will be succes- tenancing a report of his resursive; the dead in Christ rising rection? Would his disciples? It first, 1st Cor. xv, 23. 1st Thess. is probable they would not, and iv, 16. This doctrine is of great it is next to certain they could use and importance. It is one of not. How could they have underthe first principles of the doctrine taken to remove the body? Frail of Christ; the whole Gospel stands and timorous creatures, people or falls with it. It serves to en- who fled as soon as they saw him large our views of the Divine per- taken into custody: even Peter, fections. It encourages our faith the most courageous, trembled at and trust in God under all the the voice of a servant girl, and difficulties of life. It has a tend- three times denied that he knew ency to regulate our affections him. People of this character, and moderate our desires after would they have dared to resist earthly things. It supports the the authority of the governor? saints under the loss of near re- Would they have undertaken to lations, and enables them to re- oppose the determination of the joice in the glorious prospect set Sanhedrim, to force a guard, and before them. See Hody on the to elude, or overcome, soldiers Resurrection; Pearson on the Creed; armed, and aware of danger? If Lime Street Lect., ser. 10; Watts's Jesus Christ were not risen again Ontology; Young's Last Day; (I speak the language of unbeLocke on the Understanding, l. ii, c. lievers), he had deceived his 27; Warburton's Legation of Mo-disciples with vain hopes of his scs, vol. ii, p. 553, &c.; Bishop New-resurrection. How came the diston's Works, vol. iii, p. 676, 683. ciples not to discover the imRESURRECTION OF posture? Would they have hazardCHRIST. Few articles are more ed themselves by undertaking an important than this. It deserves enterprise so perilous in favour of a man who had so cruelly imposed on their credulity? But, were we to grant that they formed the design of removing the body, how could they have executed it? How could soldiers armed, and on guard, suffer themselves to be over-reached by a few timorous people? Either, says St. Augustine, they were asleep or awake: if they were awake, why should they suffer the body to be taken away? If asleep, how could they know that the disciples took it away? How dare they, then, depose that it WAS STOLEN ?" See The testimony of the apostles furnishes us with arguments, and there are eight considerations which give the evidence sufficient weight. 1. The nature of these witnesses. They were not men of power, riches, eloquence, credit, to impose upon the world; they were poor and mean.-2. The number of these witnesses. 1st Cor. xv. Luke xxiv, 34. Mark xvi, 14. Matt. xxviii, 10. It is not likely that a collusion should have been held among so many to support a lie, which would be of no utility to them.-3. The facts themselves which they avow: not suppositions, distant events, or events related by others, but real facts which they saw with their own eyes, 1st John i.-4. The agreement of their evidence: they all deposed the same thing.-5. Observe the tribunals before which they gave evidence: Jews and heathens, philosophers and rabbies, courtiers and lawyers. If they had been impostors, the fraud certainly would have been discovered.-6. The place in which they bore their testimony. Not at a distance, where they might not easily have been detected, if false, but at Jerusalem, in the synagogues, in the Pretorium.-7. The time of this testimony: not years after, but three days after, they declared he was risen; yea, before their rage was quelled, while Calvary was yet dyed with the blood they had spilt. If it had been a fraud, it is not likely they would have come forward in such broad day-light, amidst so much opposition.-8. Lastly, the motives which induced them to publish the resurrection: not to gain fame, riches, glory, profit; no, they exposed themselves to suffering and death, and proclaimed the truth from conviction of its importance and certainty. "Collect," says Saurin, "all these proofs together; consider them in one point of view, and see how many extravagant suppositions must be advanced, if the resurrection of our Saviour be denied. It must be supposed that guards, who had been particularly cautioned by their officers, sat down to sleep; and that, however, they deserved credit when they said the body of Jesus Christ was stolen. It must be supposed that men, who have been imposed on in the most odious and cruel manner in the world, hazarded their dearest enjoyments for the glory of an impostor. It must be supposed that ignorant and illiterate men, who had neither reputation, fortune, nor eloquence, possessed the art of fascinating the eyes of all the church. It must be supposed either that five hundred persons revealing or making a thing public that was before unknown; it is also used for the discoveries made by God to his prophets, and by them to the world; and more par and New Testaments. A revelation is, in the first place, possible. God may, for any thing we can certainly tell, think proper to make some discovery to his creatures which they knew not before. As he is a Being of infinite power, we may be assured he cannot be at a loss for means to communicate his will, and that in such a manner as will sufficiently mark it his own. were all deprived of their senses at a time, or that they were all deceived in the plainest matters of fact; or that this multitude of false witnesses had found out the secret of never contradicting them-ticularly for the books of the Old selves or one another, and of being always uniform in their testimony. It must be supposed that the most expert courts of judicature could not find out a shadow of contradiction in a palpable imposture. It must be supposed that the apostles, sensible men in other cases, chose precisely those places and those times which were most unfavourable to their views. It must be supposed that millions 2. It is desirable. For, whatever madly suffered imprisonments, tortures, and crucifixions, to spread an illusion. It must be supposed that ten thousand miracles were wrought in favour of falsehood, or all these facts must be denied; and then it must be supposed that the apostles were idiots; that the enemies of Christianity were idiots; and that all the primitive Christians were idiots." The doctrine of the resurrection of Christ affords us a variety of useful instructions. Here we see evidence of Divine power; prophecy accomplished; the character of Jesus established; his work finished: and a future state proved. It is a ground of faith, the basis of hope, a source of consolation, and a stimulus to obedience. See Saurin's Sermons, ser. 8, vol. ii, Robinson's Translation; Ditton and West on the Resurrection; but especially a small, but admirable Essay on the Resurrection of Christ, by Mr. Dore. REVELATION, the act the light of nature could do for man before reason was depraved, it is evident that it has done little for man since. Though reason be necessary to examine the authority of Divine revelation, yet, in the present state, it is incapable of giving us proper discoveries of God, the way of salvation, or of bringing us into a state of communion with God. It therefore follows,-3. That it is necessary. Without it we can attain to no certain knowledge of God, of Christ, of the Holy Ghost, of pardon, of justification, of sanctification, of happiness, of a future state, of rewards and punishments —4. No revelation, as Mr. Brown observes, relative to the redemption of mankind could answer its respective ends, unless it were sufficiently marked with internal and external evidences. That the Bible hath internal evidence, is evident from the ideas it gives us of God's perfections, of the law of nature, of of redemption, of the state of man, |