tainly appears to be the meaning of the three evangelists,* did not undergo any change of substance, or of form, although it was capable of being in glory, and was actually glorified. We read that "the fashion," that is, the outward appearance, "of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening." Still, though "his face did shine as the sun," and "his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them," He descended from the mount, and His body, and also His raiment, were precisely in the same state as that in which they were before He went up.

3. We find another instance, that, when Moses came down from mount Sinai, "the skin of his face shone," but his body had undergone no preparatory change, the difference in the external appearance of his face, as in the case of our Saviour, being caused by the manifestation of glory, with which he also was pervaded.

4. Thus will it be with all the members when united to their risen and glorified head; and thus will the vile, that is, dead and corrupt body, be

* Matt. xvii. 1; Mark ix. 2; Luke ix. 28.

+ Exodus xxxiv. 29.

changed, not in essential substantive matter or in figure, but from that state of "weakness" and "humiliation," that it may be fashioned, that is, made like unto the glorious body of our risen and ascended Saviour, in life and incorruptibility, immortality and pristine health ;* and every man will be placed in his proper degree of glory, each differing in intensity, as the celestial orbs differ from each other in glory.

Phil. iii. 21.

CHAPTER VI.

CONCLUSION.

1. Having finished the discussion of these topics, I trust that every person who has entered into the subject, and who regards truth as paramount to any preconceptions of opinion, will feel convinced that, at the resurrection of the dead, the body of man will not be changed into thinness, or be sublimated; and that there is no impediment to flesh and blood entering heaven; but that its substance will evidence it to be the same body it always was; and that its flesh and blood will enter heaven; that there having in previous life been no loss of its component particles, and consequently no reparation required, its identity will consist in the whole of its primitive matter without modification; excluding the notion of a germ, which is shewn to be an error; that it will

be raised in fulness of life and pristine health ; without the destruction or loss of any portion of its corporeity, but in its entirety; and that it will in that state, after its reunion with its reinstated soul, be placed in eternal and ineffable glory.

2. The reader will now permit me to subjoin a practical admonitory observation, namely, that only those who by a new birth have become members of the family of which Jesus Christ is elder brother, not by natural generation, nor "by the will of the flesh," but by a spiritual regeneration, and union "pertaining to Spirit," and, being thus joined unto Him in one spirit, are therefore "Christ's at his coming,"* are capable of enjoying the bliss of the revivifying effects of a blessed resurrection. But, possessed of moral eligibility and meetness, the reintegrated body, with its reinstated happy spirit, will "go up and possess the land" flowing with delights adapted to paradisiacal relish far transcending that of sense below; and will there, in the exuberance of health and freshness,

* 1 Cor. xv. 23.

With firm, elastic, agile, holy step,

Now walk, with zest, o'er glory's ample realm,
Or range the banks of rich translucent streams;
There breathe th' attemper'd life-inspiring air;
And eat the fair indigenous tree of life;
Imbibe the spirit of eternal day,

And "triumph in existence "-without end!

3. The Saviour is coming quickly,* and His reward is with Him to give to every man according as his work shall be. He hath taken His royal sceptre in his hand, and "must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet."+ He hath mounted His chariot, and is now on His way. Dost thou not hear the rumbling of the wheels ? and art thou not ready to cry,

66

"O Jesus, ride on, till all are subdued?"

Many are the notices and intimations which relate to His coming. All the rays converge to that grand event. He will soon gather His coheirs to share in His kingdom, those who are begotten again unto a lively hope by His resurrection from the dead, ‡ and will place them in the