SERMON VII.

THE CHRISTIAN LOOKING FOR HIS Saviour.

(SUNDAY After AscenSION.)

PHIL. iii. v. 20.

From whence also we look for the Saviour.

HUMAN nature looks beyond its present existence with solicitude and with apprehensionwith solicitude, for its destiny there, notwithstanding the strong suggestions of reason, and its powerful hopes, may be annihilation-and the possibility, however remote, of the extinction of being, must excite the most painful emotions.

And human nature looks to that futurity which succeeds its present existence with apprehension; for when enlightened by the revelations of the Gospel, it is assured that an immortal state of being awaits it beyond the grave, the sense of sin and of guilt awakens the dread, lest that state of being should prove a state of endless woe.

The same Gospel that reveals an immortal existence so consolatory to the hopes of human nature, announces the truth so alarming to its guilty fears, that in the state beyond the grave, there is "a worm that never dies, and a fire that never will be quenched "--the portion and the punishment of sin and guilt.

a

The ungodly and the impenitent then must look for the coming of that Saviour who surrounded with divine majesty, and armed with almighty power is to judge the world in righteousness, with apprehension and dread.

Not so with Christians-Christians in truth as well as in profession, in deed as well as in name-they who reconciled unto God through penitence and faith in the merits of his Son, have been redeemed from iniquity by the Spirit of his grace, and sanctified in soul and body, serve him in righteousness and holiness-they whose conversation is in heaven; and who live in purity and holiness as the destined inhabitants of this heavenly home. They look for the Saviour with a hope that maketh not ashamed. They look for the Saviour

To raise their bodies from the corruption of the grave, and to invest them with immortal glory. To bring forth their souls from the place of the departed, and to unite them to their glorified bodies.

To pronounce their acquittal,

To vindicate their integrity,

To proclaim their good works, and

To award to them the immortal joys of his heavenly kingdom.

I. Christians look for the Saviour to raise their bodies from the corruption of the grave, and to invest them with glory.

The grave is the dreary place where, for aught that reason can tell, even when she prompts the hope of deliverance and immortality to the soul, corruption mingles for ever the body with the dust of the earth. But Christians, deriving their hopes from a higher source than human reason, from that Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light, know that “ the grave shall give up its dead," that corruption shall release its victims. They hear a voice from heaven say"O death I will be thy plagues-O grave, It is the voice of

ing" I will be thy destruction"." that Saviour who " by that mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things unto himself," will " change their vile bodies and make them like unto his own glorious body."

What a change-from this frail, decaying, diseased tabernacle, the clog of the vigorous spirit with which it is associated, to a body strong, imperishable, perfect, aiding the soul in

b Hos. xiii. 14.

C

Philip. iii. 21.

all its operations-to a body glorious, like the glorified body of the Redeemer, that body with which he will reign for ever as the King of Glory, and from which will be shed forth that radiance which will fill with light, and joy, and transport the countless hosts of heaven. Christians, there is no terror for us in the grave, no dread for us in corruption. The grave shall give up its deadcorruption shall put on incorruption-and shall be changed "."

II. And we look also for the Saviour

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we

To bring forth our souls from the place of the departed, and to unite them to our glorified bodies.

It is the triumphant belief and inexpressible consolation of Christians, that the Saviour, in whom they trust, posseses "all power in Heaven and on earth;" that he is "the Lord of the dead and of the living;" and that, therefore, their bodies sleeping in the grave, and their souls resting in the place of the departed, are under his almighty guard. They know that, while the sepulchre held his body, his soul was in Paradise; for so he declared to the penitent companion of his last agonies-" This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Where the head Where the head was, there shall they, his members, be also. And during that period, which elapses between their death, and

l 1 Cor. xv. 52.

e Matt. xxviii. 18.

f Luke xxiii. 43.

the day when they are summoned to judgment; until which the happiness of heaven, the happiness of body and of soul is not awarded; while their bodies rest in the grave, their souls are in the place of the departed; in that Paradise, where the soul of their Lord went before them; and which, being sanctified and blessed by his presence, must be a place of unspeakable joy and felicity, But Heaven is the final home of Christians—the place where glory awaits their bodies, and the consummation of felicity their souls. To Heaven their Saviour went, to prepare a place for them; and to Heaven he will translate them, when, at the last day, he comes to proclaim complete redemption to his peoplethe redemption of the body from the grave, and the translation of the soul from its state of exalted, indeed, but still inferior felicity, to the fulness of bliss in union with a glorified body, in that Heaven, where they will be for ever with the Lord,

What cause of triumph, Christians! The grave, indeed, receives your corruptible bodies, only to give them up incorruptible and glorious. And the place of the departed, the Paradise of the just, receives your souls to unspeakable felicitya felicity which, like that of Heaven, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither can the heart of man conceive ";" only to send them forth, at the resurrection at the last day, to the consummation

1 Cor. ii. 9.