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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 feet 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

mountable by skill. No lamp illumines the midnight within. No crevice opens to the eye a glimpse of the regions which lie beyond. In absolute despair, he calls upon Philosophy to cheer his drooping mind: but he calls in vain. She has no consolations for herself; and can therefore administer none to him. "Here," she coldly and sullenly cries, "is the end of man. From nothing he sprang : to nothing he returns. All that remains of him is the dust, which here mingles with its native earth."

At this sullen moment of despair, Revelation approaches, and with a command at once awful, and delightful, exclaims, Lazarus, come forth! In a moment, the earth heaves; the tomb discloses; and a form, bright as the sun, and arrayed in Immortality, rises from the Earth; and stretching its wings towards Heaven, loses itself from the astonished sight.

3. These considerations teach us to entertain the highest apprehensions concerning the future Glory of the Mind.

Of how little value, even in our own view, are these earthy, frail, perishable bodies! Yet what great and delightful things are to be done for them at the Resurrection! What, then, must we suppose will be the future allotments of the mind, in its nature imperishable and eternal? The future glory of the body, as revealed in the Scriptures, outruns all the efforts of the human imagination. How exceedingly abundantly above all that we are able to ask, or think, will the mind be exalted, adorned, and enraptured, by Him, whose glory and delight it is to bless, and who has already enstamped it with his own image, loveliness, and beauty!

4. We learn, from these considerations, the true way of providing for the Welfare of our Bodies.

The human frame is here shown to possess an incalculable value, in the distinction to which it is entitled beyond the grave. If, therefore, we love our bodies, and desire to preserve and cherish them; we shall with the most effectual care secure their revival to all that distinction, and the happiness, with which it is connected. This is to be accomplished, not by adorning and pampering them, here, in obedience to the calls of pride and luxury; but by seeking effectually the immortal life of those minds by which they are inhabited. The body necessarily follows the destination of the mind. He, therefore, who gains a title to endless life, makes complete provision for the welfare of the whole man. In the Christian system, all good is united; our duty and our interest, the well-being of the soul and that of the body, the blessings of time, and those of Eternity. He therefore, who neglects the life of the soul, casts away his present good: he who refuses to do his duty, squanders his all.

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SERMON CLXVI.

THE REMOTER CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH.-THE FINal judgment.

2 PETER iii. 10.-But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.

IN the three preceding discourses, I have considered Death; its Immediate Consequences; and the first of its Remoter Consequences; to wit, the Resurrection. I shall now proceed to the consideration of another of these consequences; to wit, the General Judgment.

The day consecrated to this great transaction, is in the text styled the Day of the Lord. The Christian Sabbath is in the 118th Psalm, said to be the day which the Lord hath made; and is called in the first chapter of the Apocalypse, the Lord's day. On that day Christ arose from the dead, finished the work of Redemption, and rested from his labours, as God did from his. In honour of this wonderful event, Christ consecrated the first day of the week for ever to himself, as a season of public, religious worship, to all the nations of men. On this day, He has ever been peculiarly present with all his followers, and commanded the blessing to descend upon Zion, even life for ever more.

But the day, mentioned in the text, is his day, in a still higher, and more solemn sense. It is selected from all the days of time, as the Sabbath from those of the week.

It is the final Day; the period of this earthly system; the dying-day of this great world; on which its last groans will be heard, its knell sounded through the Universe, and its obsequies celebrated with most awful pomp, and supreme, as well as melancholy grandeur.

It is the Day of universal Judgment; on which the personal concerns of angels, and of men, will be brought to the last trial, before the Judge of the quick and dead, and irreversibly settled for Eternity.

It is the Day in which the Mystery will be finished. All the wonderful, and perplexing, events of providence towards this world will, at this time, be explained to the full conviction of the assembled Universe; so that God will appear just, when He judges, and clear, when he condemns. The secrets of the human heart, the mazes of Providence, and the wonders of the Divine character, displayed in these events, will be unfolded in such a manner, as to stop every mouth, and murmur, for ever.

It is the Day on which the Catastrophe of this earthly system will arrive. The plot immensely great, and wonderful, comprising

innumerable important scenes, and an endless variety of actors, will now be unravelled. The Theatre is a World; the duration of the action is Time; the Actors are all the millions of the race of Adam; the Subject is Redemption; the Hero is the Messiah; the End is the final triumph of Virtue, and the irrevocable overthrow of Sin. The Catastrophe, on this day, will be completed, and disclosed; and all the efforts, windings, and intricacies, find their termination. "IT IS DONE," will be proclaimed by the divine Herald to the Universe; and the curtain will be drawn for

ever.

It is the Day on which Christ will be glorified. In this world he appeared as a man, humbled, persecuted, suffering, dying, nailed to the cross, and buried in the grave. Now He will descend from Heaven with the glory of his Father; and will come to be admired by all them that believe, with wonder, and reverence, inexpressible. No more the Babe of Bethlehem; no more a prisoner before a human Judge; no more an expiring victim on the cross; no more a lifeless corpse in the sepulchre; He will sit upon the throne of the Universe, invested with the sceptre of infinite dominion. He will judge both Angels, and men; dispose of all nations at his pleasure; and open, and shut, both Heaven and Hell. Eternity, to all beings, will now be suspended on his nod; and life and death, which will know no end, will be conveyed by his voice. All beings will be as nothing before him; and will be justly counted unto him as less than nothing, and vanity. He will speak; and it will be done : he will command; and it will stand for ever.

On this Day He will glorify his Justice, in the sight of the Universe. He will show, beyond denial, to the consciences of impenitent beings, that their ruin was derived from themselves; that their sin is just as evil and odious, as he has declared it to be in the Scriptures; and that it is equitably punished with everlasting destruction from his presence, and the glory of his power.

On this Day He will glorify his Kindness, in the deliverance of all his followers from guilt and perdition. His compassion to this ruined world; his overflowing mercy to them, who believed in him, chose him as their Saviour, and obeyed his voice; will now be manifested with supreme, and eternal splendour. The universe will perceive, that he chose them as his own, with perfect propriety while they with astonishment and rapture will remember the love, with which he loved them, and gave himself for them; the tenderness, with which he preserved them from temptations, and enemies; the affection, with which he still bears them on his heart; and the Divine promises, which, while they lived in the present world, conveyed to them immortal life, and are now to be fulfilled in a manner, which no eye hath seen, and no mind conceived.

On this Day He will glorify his Omniscience. He will show, that from the beginning he hath searched the hearts, and tried the reins of all the children of men. The sins which they have committed, the virtues which they have exercised, the motives by which they have been governed, and the rewards which will constitute an equitable retribution for their various conduct, he will set in the light of his countenance; as objects, intended to be clearly seen, are by ourselves placed in the sunbeams. It will then appear, that he knew all his works from the beginning; and is that ocean of knowledge, whence innumerable streams have flowed, and will forever flow, to his Intelligent creatures.

On this Day, He will glorify his Immutability. Now he will clearly discover, that he is Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, today, and for ever. Truth, the moral Immutability of his character, will be found to have been the only language of his Word; of his law, his promises, and his threatenings; of the system of Redemption, and of the terms, on which it is proffered to man. Of course, the Universe will distinctly see how wisely his followers have trusted in him, and how foolishly sinners have refused to believe his declarations.

Finally, On this Day, He will glorify his Power. The most awful and convincing evidence will be furnished, that He has the keys of Death and of Hades. Heaven, at his command, will open all its infinite blessings to the eternal enjoyment of his children; and the doors of hell, at his bidding, will close on its guilty, and miserable inhabitants. None will be able to stay his hand, or dare to say unto him, What doest thou? From his face the heavens and the earth will flee away; and at his word, new heavens, and a new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell for ever, will spring up in their stead.

This awful Day will come, as a thief, in the night. A thief comes in the hour of peace and security; when the house is defenceless, and the family buried in sleep. The first notice of his arrival is the sound of his breaking up, or the noise of his ravages. He comes, also, unexpectedly: he comes only to invade, distress, and destroy. In this unexpected, and dreadful manner, will the Day of the Lord come.

Mankind, according to the representations of St. John, will, at the period which precedes the final Judgment, be sunk in degeneracy and pollution. The glorious effects of the millennium will have ceased; and the world returned to a degeneracy, like that, which existed immediately before the deluge. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, will have regained their full dominion over the human race; and Religion prepared her final flight to her native heaven. Strong in their numbers, their power, and their pride; sunk in sense, and profligacy; and burning with intense hatred to God, and his children; the nations who are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, will be

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