new heavens and a new earth, wherein | sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual dwelleth righteousness. He will gather to- body. There is a natural body, and there is a gether in one the children of God that were spiritual body." scattered abroad. "O Death! he will be thy plagues. O Grave! he will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from his eyes.' "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Secondly. Here is the model to which it will be conformed: "It shall be fashioned "like unto his glorious body." The comparison does not regard his body in "the days of his flesh." It was then possessed of all our sinless qualities and feelings. But, after his resurrection and ascension, it was deprived of every thing animal and humiliating. It was incapable of hunger or weariness. It could move with the ease of thought, and was invalnerable and eternal as the soul. It was glorified. A glimpse of this glory was given by way of anticipation to the disciples, in the transfiguration, when "his face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." In this glory he appeared to Saul: he shone "above the brightness of the sun," and struck him blind. When John saw him, "his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength," and though he had been once familiar with him, and had leaned often on his bosom, he fell at his feet as dead. How glorious must that body be in which he now governs the world! In which he will judge the universe! In which we shall hold all our intercourse with Deity for ever! Yet a conformity to this glory is not a privilege too great for our hope. As sure as we now resemble the Saviour in disposition, we shal be like him in person: and the same mind will be followed with the same body.

III. His final DESTINY. "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Three things are observable.

First. The subject changed. "This vile body." Much of the wisdom and power of God is displayed in the formation of the human frame. And when we consider the multiplicity and delicacy of its parts; the connexion of its members; the proportion and adaptation of its organs to each other, and to the whole; we need not wonder that David should say, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" In this sense, it is not a vile body.

Thirdly. We are informed of the omnipo tent agency by which the work is to be ac complished; "according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." It is obvious that such a renovation is nothing less than a miracle, and the most stupendous of all miracles; and therefore that it demands in him, who is to effect it, something more than kindness. "We cannot by taking thought add one cubit to our stature." We cannot replace a leaf; or revive a blade of grass. Oh! if love could bring back the dead-if cries and tears could be heard-how soon would our breaches be repaired, and our wounds healed!-Such power is not ours; it is not ours by nature, it is not ours by dispensation. But it belongs to the Saviour. He is the mighty God." He has "power given him over all flesh. He is Lord of the dead, as well as of the living." And he fainteth not, neither is weary. reanimation and organization of millions of dead bodies will not exhaust him. He could do infinitely more. He is "able even to subdue all things unto himself."

The

But when we view it as degraded by the Fall; as prostituted to the purposes of sin; when we think of the sordidness and lowness of its appetites and infirmities; when we view it under various kinds and degrees of disease, requiring all the interest of reward or vigour of friendship, to discharge towards a fellow-creature the common duties of humanity; when we are compelled by the approach of putrefaction to bury our dead, however once loved and valued, out of our sight; when we go and open a grave, and witness the intolerable disgrace of our nature; we acknowledge with what propriety it is called "the body of our humiliation." But this body is not to be annihilated, though reduced-it From this subject we should learn, First, will be only changed. "So also is the resur- to be thankful for the discoveries of revela rection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. The notions of the heathen philoso tion; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown phers, even concerning the immortality of the in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown soul, were very confined and confused; and in weakness; it is raised in power: it is it is to be observed that they never laid stress

not parted with them for ever. Thy brother, thy sister, thy child, thy mother will rise again. "Be not ignorant concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."

upon it, as a principle and a motive. But the resurrection of the body never entered their minds. The history and experience of mankind had furnished no ground for such an expectation. They had always followed the body to the grave, and had seen it return to its original element. The doctrine of its revival and transformation was so new at Athens, that the preaching of it by the Apos Lastly. Are you children of the resurtle was turned into mockery. But the poor-rection? Let me earnestly entreat you not est and most illiterate Christian can open his to elude the inquiry. For though the resurBible, and say, "I know that my Redeemer rection, as an event, is universal; as a priviliveth, and that he shall stand at the latter lege it is limited. "All that are in their day upon the earth: And though after my graves shall hear his voice, and come forth; skin worms destroy this body, yet in my they that have done good unto the resurrecflesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for tion of life; but they that have done evil myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not unto the resurrection of damnation." And another; though my reins be consumed can that be called a deliverance that raises within me." a man from a bad state, and consigns him to Secondly; observe the importance the a worse? This will be the case with the Scripture attaches to the doctrine of the re- wicked and the worldly; this will be the case surrection. With what severity does the with all those who have not been raised from Apostle speak of those who endeavour to ex- the death of sin to the life of righteousness. plain it away metaphorically; and "said the The pit of corruption will resign its charge resurrection is past already, and overturned into the pit of destruction. O dreadful doom! the faith of some.' ." The Gospel certainly Those bodies for which you have disregarded admits of an intermediate state between death your souls; those bodies upon which you and the resurrection; but whenever the bless- have expended all your time and attention; edness of the future world is spoken of, it is, those bodies which you have nursed in sickwith few exceptions, placed not immediately ness, and pampered in health-those bodies after death, but after the resurrection. "Thou-death will surrender to the worms; and— shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the resurrection to the flames.

the just. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. A crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing." It would be unnecessary to multiply passages to prove the remark. But does not all this imply, that whatever the intermediate state may be, compared with the present, it is a defective one compared with the final state of the believer?-And it cannot be otherwise. Man was imbodied in his original creation; and so he will be in his ultimate condition. Till the resurrection, he wants an essential part of human nature; and a medium of connexion and intercourse with material things, from which a large proportion of the happiness of our compound being results.

Thirdly. Let this truth be always combined with the thought of death. Remember it in view of your own dissolution; and as you look towards the grave, and tremble, take courage, and drink in the heavenly intelligence which the Saviour communicates: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die."

Remember it when you are called to lose your pious friends and relations. You have

In a day of rebuke and blasphemy, in which we see so many of an infidel and profligate character, and so few, even of those who profess the Gospel, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, it is peculiarly pleasing and useful to be able to contemplate an instance of genuine, decisive, impartial, persevering, unrebukable religion before God and the Father.

And such an one we have in the example of Daniel. He had doubtless his infirmities: "for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not:" but nothing is alleged against him. This is the more remarkable, since the sacred writers freely mention the faults as well as the excellences of good men; and I do not remember that

any other individual, recorded in the Scriptures, has entirely escaped censure.

ledge old ones: while we implore deliverance, we should be grateful for alleviations and sup ports. I am sorry to say, that this is too com

But let us attend to the words which I have
read, and in which we have to consider-monly neglected. We are very selfish; and
THE EMPLOYMENT OF DANIEL-THE CIRCUM-
STANCES OF THE ACTION—AND THE KNOW-

LEDGE THAT ENHANCED THE VALUE OF THE
PERFORMANCE.

I. THE EMPLOYMENT OF DANIEL. It was pious. He prayed and gave thanks before his God. He was not one of those who are satisfied with morality without godliness. He well knew that our greatest connexions are with God; and that with him we have principally to do. He was a good neighbour, a good citizen, a good master, and a good magistrate; but this did not excuse him from the worship of God. "He prayed-and gave thanks-before his God."

First. He prayed. Prayer is the breathing of the desire towards God. Words are not essential to the performance of it. As words may be used without prayer, so prayer may be used without words: he that searcheth the heart "knoweth what is the mind of the spirit;" and when we cannot command language like some of our fellow-christians, it is well to be able to say, "Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid

from thee."

The expediency, the necessity of prayer, results from our indigent and dependent state. We have enemies to overcome and how are we to conquer them? we have trials to endure and how are we to bear them? We have duties to accomplish-and how are we to perform them? We need mercy and grace to help us and how are we to obtain them? God has determined and revealed the method in which he will communicate the blessings he has promised. "For all these things will I be inquired of by the house of Israel. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find." And, as he is a sovereign, and under no obligation to favour us at all, he has surely a right to appoint the way in which he will be gracious: but, in this appointment, his wisdom appears as conspicuous as his Sovereignty; and his goodness as clearly as his wisdom. Nothing can be so beneficial to us as prayer is, not only by the relief it obtains, but by the influence it exerts; not only by its answers, but by its energy. Beyond every thing else that is instrumental in religion, it improves our characters, it strengthens our graces, it softens and refines our tempers, it contributes to our spirituality, and promotes our holiness. The more we have to do with God, the more we shall resemble him. "It is therefore good for us to draw near to him."

Secondly. He gave thanks. This should always attend prayer. Whenever we go to God for new favours, we should be careful to acknow

it appears even in our devotional services. We are too backward to every duty of religion; we are backward to pray, but still more to praise. Pressed by our difficulties, and urged by our wants, we are constrained to pray; but when we have succeeded, we become unmindful of our benefactor. Thus of the ten lepers that were cleansed, "one only returned to give glory to God." And even of good Hezekiah it is said, when his health was restored, and his adversaries destroyed, that "he rendered not according to the benefit done him." A sad blemish! "Oh," says David, "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" And that he did not wish to enforce upon others what he neg lected himself, appears from his own resolu tion: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth." And let us not think that he was undertaking more than could ever be accomplished: for the injunction of the Apostle is, "In every thing give thanks." There is no state that does not require gratitude. There is always much more to be grateful for than to complain of, however afflicting our circumstances may be. Yea, even those things which seem the most unfriendly to our wishes and our welfare, did we know all, would probably draw forth our highest praise. For who has had not reason to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted?" Daniel, you would naturally conclude, had much to pray for-but though a captive, in a strange land, and labouring under the most cruel persecution, he did not forget to give thanks.

Thirdly. He did all this before his God. By which we are to understand, that he placed himself, in his religious exercises, under the eye of Jehovah, and realized his presence. Abraham was commanded to "walk before God:" and it would be well for us to remember, that wherever we go, and whatever we do, God is with us, as our observer, our witness, our judge. But when we engage in devotional services, whether public or private, we are considered as withdrawn from the world, and appearing more immediately before God. And to impress our minds with this truth is the way to secure our profit. It will banish hypocrisy, and formality, and carelessness; and unite our hearts to fear God's name.

II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ACTION. The First regards the place. He "went into his house." God does not confine his regards to the great congregation; but "where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he is in the midst of them." He dwelleth not in temples made with hands;