cy appears, and often fatally, in its earliest existence, and at every succeeding stage of its progress. It is, however, most visible, and affecting, after it has passed the middle point of life. Then decay arrests it in many forms, and with irresistible power: then the limbs gradually stiffen; the faculties lose their vigour; the strength declines; the face becomes overspread with wrinkles; and the head with the locks of age. Health, at the same time, recedes by degrees, even from the firmest constitution; pains multiply; feebleness and langour lay hold on the whole system; and death at length seizes the frame as his prey, and changes it to corruption

and to dust.

A mighty and glorious difference will be made in our nature, when the body revives beyond the grave. All the evils, and accidents, which befall it in the present world, will then have lost their power. Hunger, thirst, weakness, declension, death, and corruption, are bounded by the tomb. Those, who rise to the resurrection of life, will hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. Firm enduring, unassailable by distress, and proof against the undermining progress of years, they will, like gold tried in the fire, remain bright, and indestructible, through the endless succession of ages. 2. The Body be raised immortal.

When this corruptible, says $1. Paul, shall have put on incorrup tion, and this mortal immortaly.

Jacorruption and Immortality are attributes so nearly allied, as not easily to be separated in our discussions. Still they are only kindred attributes; not the same. An incorruptible body, although it cannot perish by decay and dissolution, may yet be annihilated. An immortal body will know no end, either from its own weakness, or from external power. Such, God has been pleased to constitute the bodies of his children beyond the grave. Death to them shall be no more. In defiance of time, and superior to injury, the body will live with him for ever and ever. 3. The body will be raised in Power.

It is soon in weakness, it is raised in power: verse 43. In the future world, the Righteous serve God day and night in his temple: Rov. vii. 15: that is, they serve him without cessation or rest; and need, of course, faculties, fitted for the performance of these services; faculties, whose vigour, the magnitude of no duty shall overcome, and no continuance of action fatigue or impair. Originally destined for an existence of this nature, the pow ers of the body will correspond with the activity of the mind; and will sustain without injury, defect, or decay, and will accomplish with enjoyment, growing out of its exertions, every labour, which it is required to undergo. Instead of being exhausted, or weakened, it seems evident from the Scriptures, that its strength, as well as its other attributes, will, like those of the mind, advance

towards a higher, and higher, perfection, throughout the ages of Eternity.

4. The Body will, at the Resurrection, be endued with great Activity.

In Luke xx. 36, our Saviour declares that the righteous will in the avastais, or future state of existence, be ayyska; literally, equal to the angels; but perhaps intended, here, to denote, like the angels; that is, possessing, in a near, and kindred degree, the attributes, which they possess. Accordingly, in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, we are taught, that the four and twenty Elders, the representatives of the ancient and modern Churches, are placed round about the throne, together with the four Living Ones, the representatives of the angelic host. The resemblance, here exhibited, is such, as strongly to exemplify this declaration of Christ. Their station is substantially the same: their employ

ments are the same.

The activity of Angels is disclosed to us by the Scriptures in many passages, and in language of the greatest force. The ninth chapter of Daniel, particularly, contains, as I observed in the first discourse concerning these glorious Intelligences, a remarkable illustration of this subject. Here we are told, that Gabriel receiv ed a command in Heaven, while Daniel was employed in prayer, to interpret his vision; and that, being caused to fly swiftly, he touched Daniel about the time of the evening oblation. The activity, here declared, is plainly superior both to conception and calculation; and exceeds that of the sunbeams beyond any proportion, perceptible by our minds. Similar to this representation, will be the activity of the righteous in the future world.

To recur to the illustration, adopted in the former part of this discourse; we are now, as we are styled in the Scriptures, worms of the dust; slowly, and humbly, creeping upon the Earth, appointed for our habitation. With these reptiles we die, and are lost in the tomb. Like them, also, we shall revive to a new, and nobler existence; and wander freely, at our pleasure, through regións, shut to us, hitherto, by an immovcable law of our nature, and, to our apprehension, existing only in argument or fancy.

To act is the end of all rational existence, and to act at pleasure, the necessary concomitant of happy existence. Like Moses and Elias, if we obtain a part in the first resurrection, we may hereafter visit distant worlds, with incomparably more ease, than we can now pass from one continent to another; and find the oceans of space, by which they are separated, merely means of illustrating our activity, and furnishing delightful opportunities of expatiating at our pleasure.

5. As all these attributes, united, are a complete establishment of endless Youth; the Body, at the Resurrection, will of course be invested with this delightful characteristic.

On this subject it will be unnecessary to dwell, after what has been already said. I shall only observe, that the angels, who appear to Mary, and the Apostles, after the Resurrection of Christ, were, although created many thousand years before, still young; and were regarded by them, at first, as being young men. On them duration makes, in this respect, no impression. Ages roll their years away; and leave them, as they found them, in the blossom of youth, which shall begin for ever. Such is the character of all

the children of God beyond the grave.

6. The Body will, at the Resurrection, be arrayed in Glory and Beauty.

It is sown in dishonour, says St. Paul, it is raised in glory: verse 43. Who shall change our vile body, says the same Apostle, and fashion it, like unto his glorious body, according to the working wher by he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. In stricter language, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that may become of the like form with his glorious body, according to the energy, whereby he is able, also, to subdue all things unto him: f.

O the mount of Transfiguration, Christ appeared to Peter, James, and John, in his glorious bedy; then, as we are told by the Evangelists, his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment be

white and glistering. In Rev. i. 9, we have a more ample exhition of the same illustrious object, in some respects emblematical, but in all sublime, and glorious beyond a parallel. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the glen candlesticks, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps, with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs, were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto file brass, as if they burned in a furnace. And his voice, as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars ; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And his count nance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Of the supreme splendour of this appearance, how high must our conceptions rise, when we hear the Apostle subjoin, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. In this wonderful change, St. Paul observes, there shall be a display of energy, that is, of power, and skill, like that by which He subdues all things unto himself. What a transformation must that be, which this poor, frail, perishable body will experience, when the full import of this prediction shall be accomplished! How exceedingly is such a change to be cov eted by beings like ourselves; subject as we are to pain and disease, decay and death!

7. The Body raised will be a Spiritual body.

It is sown, says St. Paul, a natural or animal body, it is raised o spiritual body: there is a natural (or animal) body; there is a spiritual Lody.

Fy ex animal vody, is intended, as you well know, the present bode man; depending for its continuance upon the principle of ani fe; the subject of innumerable frailties; and making a reglar progress to dissolution.

O a spiritual body it is not, perhaps, in our power to form an ade. conception. Some of the Ancient Fathers supposed it to be a body, which, having no need of the animal functions, was pressed in life by the mere inhabitation of the mind. This opinion, presume, they derived from the phrase only, and not from any Scr declaration.

Litar view of St. Paul, this subject was plainly of high importance, for he insists on it, in a fervent and sublime strain, in several of the following verses. After declaring, that there is a spiritual body, as well as an animal one, he illustrates the declaration by oberving, that the first Adam was made a living soul, the last a quick mung spirit; that the first was of the earth, earthy; the second, the Lord from Heaven; that they, who are earthy, are like the earthy Add they who are heavenly, like the heavenly Adam; and that, as we have borne the image of the earthy, so we shall bear the image of the peavenly. He then declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Hence he observes, that those, who are alive at the sounding of the last trumpet, must necessarily undergo a change of the same nature with that, which the dead will experience, and which he has described in the preceding part of the chapter. From these observations it may, I think, be asserted without danger of error, in the

First place, That the Body raised will not be composed of flesh

and blood.

Secondly; That it will in its nature possess powers of life totally superior to those which we now possess; being destined to resemble, in this respect, the quickening Spirit, whose image it will bear.

Tardly; That none of its organs will prove temptations to sin ; as in the present world; but all of them aids to holiness; this circumstance being often, in the Scriptures, the professed distinction between that, which is natural, or animal, and that, which is spiritual.

Fourthly; That its organs of perception, and of enjoyment also, will possess a far higher and nobler nature than those with which we are now furnished. Like Moses and Elias, the glorified man may be able, without danger of mistake, to direct his way from the highest Heavens to the distant regions of the Universe.

Fly; That, generally, the attributes of the body will so resem ble those of the mind, as to render the epithet spiritual, the proper description of its nature. Like the mind, it may, not without probability, contain, inherently, the principles of life, and the seeds of immortality.

REMARKS.

1. In this account of the Resurrection, we have one specimen of the consistency exhibited in the Gospel between different parts of the Christian system.

The Gospel every where discloses to us illustrious things, concerning the future happiness and glory of the mind; and at the same time teaches us, that it will be reunited to the body in the future world. The least reflection will convince us, that such bodies as we now possess, must be. very unsuitable mansions for minds, destined to be thus glorious and happy. The mind is prepared to dwell in a palace. Such a body as ours, could only become its prison. The uncouthness, the deformity, suggested when only so much of the scheme is brought before our eyes, is here delightfully done away. Here we learn, that the body shall be fitted to become the habitation of a sanctified and immortal mind; and prove to it a most useful, and delightful, companion throughout Eternity. Here we learn, that the body will be suited to all the perceptions, labours, enjoyments, and glories, of the mind; and that the mind, in the possession of this residence, will become greater, more useful, and more happy. Thus this part of the system is exactly proportioned to the rest, and strongly illustrative of the wisdom and goodness of its Author.

2. The doctrine of the Resurrection is a doctrine of Revelation only.

Of this doctrine not a trace can be found in all the investigations of Philosophy. Paul, when declaring it to the Athenian Philosophers, was pronounced by them to be a babbler. It was, therefore, a doctrine unknown, and unheard of, within the purlieus of their science. No philosopher, to that time, had been so fortunate, as to light upon it by accident; nor so ingenious, as to derive it from reason. Indeed, it must be acknowledged to lie beyond the reach of reason; and, in its very nature, to be hidden from the most scrutinizing human inquiry. The Resurrection itself is an event, depending absolutely on the will, as well as on the power of God; and what he will choose to do, with respect to this subject, no being but himself can determine.

Yet no doctrine, devised by philosophy concerning man, is so sublime, so delightful, or so fitted to furnish consolation and hope to beings whose life in this world is a moment, and whose end is the grave. To this dark and desolate habitation, man, by the twilight of nature, looks forward in,despair, as his final home. All who have gone before him, have pointed their fect to its silent chambers; and not one of them returned, to announce, that an opening has been discovered from their dreary residence to some other more lightsome, and more desirable region. His own feet daily tread the same melancholy path. As he draws nigh; he surveys its prison-walls, and sees them unassailable by force, and insur