fore, in offering to your consideration a few reflections on that wonderful change which will take place, when "this corruptible" shall have "put on incorruption, and this mortal" shall have "put on immortality." On entering into such an inquiry, it is necessary to caution ourselves against indulging the vain wanderings of a fanciful imagination, instead of adhering to the written declarations of the word of God, the only source from which any knowledge, on subjects relating to the eternal world, can really be derived. It is also a salutary counsel, that in all such researches, we should lift up our hearts to the great Fountain of Wisdom, the Lord of heaven and earth, beseeching him to bless our feeble efforts to comprehend his goodness, and the glories of the kingdom which he has prepared for them that love him. So will those endeavours promote a higher love to his name, and a more fervent desire to please him in all holy obedience.

In considering the nature of this change in the human body, in the successive stages of its existence, we may first remark, that every thing in this fallen world carries within itself the principle of its own dissolution. All things degenerate and perish in the course of time. The spreading oak loses at length its luxuriant honours: the trunk decays, the branches wither, and it exists the outline only of its former greatness. Such also is the gradual destruction of the human body. Each succeeding year robs it of some beauty, and impresses upon it some mark of mournful decay. The strength fails, the health sinks, the knees totter, the spirits flag, the courage droops, the fire is quenched, the vigour gone. But, on the other hand, we may observe, that the power of God is continually exerted to renovate his material creation. He recals the sun; and the world, long buried in the grave of winter, is revived— and spring, in all the freshness of youth, fills every heart with joy. After the dreary darkness of night, he restores to us the light of morning, to rekindle the painted landscape; and the gilded scene glitters with

brightness, and all nature awakes to life and animation. If we examine the animal world, we may have there also the continual operation of the same renovating power. We see the almost lifeless egg transformed into a creeping insect, and endued with perceptions and faculties, which, after a short season, appear to be extinguished by death. But from this state of seeming annihilation we again behold it: no longer crawling upon the ground, but soaring in the air, with increased beauty and renovated srength. From the analogies of nature we might, therefore, conclude that if God revives at all the lifeless body of man, a glorious improvement in its state would be effected, and his Divine agency manifested in a splendid transformation from death to life, from weakness to power, from dishonour to glory. And revelation confirms this natural anticipation. "He shall change our vile body," says the Apostle, "that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." What expressions are these! What sublime views do they open! What glory do they reveal! "Like unto his glorious body. Like to the glorified body of the Son of God, in which he appears to the blessed angels; in which he sits exalted on the throne of Heaven, at the right hand of God! This body, when St. John beheld it, was bright with light, like the sun shining in unclouded splendour, a body worthy of the person and the place,-like his own Divine nature, incapable of suffering, not exposed to decay, clothed with effulgence, so that even heaven itself is illumined by its splendour! That "city" has "no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof!"-Other kings and potentates anxiously appropriate all external grandeur to mark the distinction between their subjects and themselves: they array themselves in gorgeous apparel and costly magnificence, and endeavour to awe and dazzle the rest of mankind by outward splendour: but the King of kings and Lord of lords, high in that essential glory which no exterior

magnificence can augment, and which no plainness can diminish, distinguished from his subjects as the beneficent Source of whatever blessings they possess, rejoices to communicate to them of all that adorns himself; grace for grace, glory for glory, bliss for bliss! "Because he lives they shall live also;" because he reigns they reign also! He rejoices to impart his own resemblance to them, that as he is glorious they may partake of his glory. The splendour of his kingdom consists in the splendour of his subjects, and in the profusion of that bounty from which their splendour is derived. They were found by him poor, and wretched, and weak, and defiled, outcasts from the dominion of God, with his curse resting upon them. But when the work of his benevolence is completed, he shall present them unto the Father as a "glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing:"-partaking of his perfection, resplendent with his excellencies, and arrayed with the same beauty which adorns and exalts the Son of God. Their perfection constitutes his glory. And how is this perfection attained? It is by rendering them conformable to his own image. He dwelt amongst men in their own garb of flesh, that they might see and imitate him. He was humble that they might learn humility from him. He was full of tenderness, that they might be filled with the same compassion and disinterestedness. He was elevated above this vain and sinful world, he conversed continually with Heaven, and sought only to do his Father's will, that they might learn from him to die to the world and live to God. He forgave all injuries, and bore with patience all sufferings, that they might learn in like manner to forgive and endure. Thus were their motives gradually assimilated to his; their objects to those which he pursued, and their conduct to his example. But in many the conformity did not terminate here: they gloried in being conformed even to his sufferings, and died as martyrs for his sake. Yet the most perfect resemblance which his disciples could attain in

this state of being was incomplete. Though the principles which he instilled into them were identified with those from which he acted, there still remained an infinite distance between the disciples and their Lord. The mighty "working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself," could not fully operate in this scene of humiliation. They had seen their suffering Master, but they were yet to behold their triumphant Lord; they had viewed him hitherto as Man, they were now to behold him as God: they had been partakers with him in his humiliation, they were now to triumph with him in his exaltation. And, as before they were changed into his image, even by the spirit of the Lord; so now beholding his image, they are made like unto him in his glory. They are to be like him. for "they shall see him as he is." By beholding his glory, glory is reflected upon them; by viewing his perfections, those perfections are insensibly communicated to them. They gaze and admire till they discover in themselves the glorious likeness of what they adore in him. "Such honour have all his saints."

And here let us pause, my brethren, to contemplate the amazing extent of this change. The body had been laid in the grave, the victim of the curse, the prisoner of death, the prey of worms, its vanity departed, its glory extinguished! All was dismal solitude and hopeless despair; when lo! at the Saviour's voice, which even in the days of his flesh called Lazarus from the tomb, they spring up to new life, they burst the bars of the grave, they awake with every faculty renewed, exalted, perfected: they see their Lord, and wear his image. What power less than Divine could effect this? But the power of Jesus is Divine. His Divine energy subdueth all things to himself; and to Divine Power nothing is difficult, nothing is great, nothing is impossible. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," they awake and are changed. Let us not, then, my brethren, shudder to be laid in the dark mansions of the tomb: let us cheerfully submit to the disso

lution of our frame, the pangs of dying, the loss of our senses, and the temporary separation of the body and the soul. Faith will dispose us to regard these descending steps of humiliation, as steps in our progress to glory. Let our thoughts be wholly fixed on the infinite power and the boundless goodness of Christ, and upon the glory to which we shall ere long awake. Oh, beloved Saviour, how are we indebted to thee! How does thy name disarm death of its sting, and the grave of its horror! How are we indebted to thy goodness for all we have or hope for! In thee we place our whole trust and confidence: and who would not joyfully resign himself to death, knowing that it is the appointed means of beholding thee face to face, and participating in thy glory?

The particulars in which this great change consists are thus described in Scripture: this corruptible puts on incorruption; this mortal puts on immortality; this natural body becomes a spiritual body; and the body of sin is renewed in righteousness.

1. This corruptible shall put on incorruption.-I would not presume to depreciate the body which God has created. It is a fabric contrived with consummate skill, to answer the purposes for which it is designed. But it was not intended to be perfect; and after the Fall it was doomed to corruption and death, as the just consequence of its condemnation. I would speak with reverence of every work of God, and particularly of this which so much illustrates his power and wisdom. Yet, after all, it is a corrupt body, it is a "vile body;" or, as the original expresses it, a body of humiliation; and carries within it the seeds of decay. It becomes the receptacle of disease. By its very construction it tends to dissolution. It is soon disordered, and affects by sympathy the mind which is the partner of its burdens. At length it falls a victim to its inherent corruption. Disease exhausts its power, and it sinks into the grave. But the renewed body shall be incorruptible;— there shall be found no seeds of decay-no gross corpo