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SER M. expressly inform us; at the last day our bodies will be raised from the grave, at the sound of the trump of the archangel, they will be united again with our souls, and we shall live. If you ask me, how it is possible that the flesh, part of which has been eaten by worms, part blown about in dust by the four winds, that of some men consumed by fire, and of others buried in the ocean; if you ask me how it is possible that all these scattered fragments and particles can be collected and joined together, I ask you, in return, whether it be not as easy for God to do this, as it was for him to form man from the dust at his first creation? To revive a dead man appears to require no greater exertion of power than originally to have made him. You may form some idea of the possibility of our being revived again, by what you experience every year:-"That which "thou sowest is not quickened, except it

"die ;"

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"die;" the grain you place in the earth SERM. first rots, and is afterwards enlivened, and arises, clothed with a beautiful verdure. And if God so clothe the grass of the field, how much more shall he clothe your mortal bodies with a glorious immortality!It seems probable that men will be first revived in the same bodies in which they died, but that an instant change will take place: This corruptible will put on in

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corruption, and this mortal will put on immortality."-Christ gave a specimen of the nature of the change our bodies are to undergo, to Peter, James, and John, when he was transfigured on the mount; he appeared all glorious, his face shone like the sun, and his raiment became white as snow. Such a change will take place with respect to the righteous at the resurrection; for St. Paul tells us, that "Christ "will change our vile body, that it may "be fashioned like unto his glorious body."

You

SERM. You will observe, that when this glorious I. change in the bodies of men at the resurrection is spoken of, it can only be meant of the bodies of the virtuous, although it be mentioned in general terms,-St. Paul bing desirous of taking for granted, that all those to whom he writes would be in that number. The bodies of the wicked will certainly be raised at the same time, but whether they will undergo any change, is uncertain; but it seems probable, that as many of the crimes of the wicked have arisen from their bodies, that they shall, together with their souls, share in the eternity of punishment which has been denounced.

The last article in the creed is our profession of belief in "the life everlasting." -Life is often put in scripture for happiness, and it is possible may mean so here. I believe, that if I am pious and virtuous in this world, I shall be for ever happy in

the

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the next; or probably it may have a more SER M. extensive signification, that of existence, and may mean, not only the everlasting bliss of the righteous, but the everlasting misery of the wicked: in either case our belief is supported by scripture, which assures us, in various places, that as the religious and good man shall be eternally happy in the presence of God, so the profane and immoral man shall, for the same endless time, undergo the most terrible disgrace and torment. Such are the great truths to which we are called on to give our assent; it is, however, to little purpose that we obey the call, unless we join to a sound faith, a good life and conversation: what this chiefly consists in we may learn from the commandments, to which I should now pass; but this I must defer to a future opportunity.

VOL. II.

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SERMON

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