SER. CLXV.]

sufficiently evident, that mankind will know each other in the future world, and that their bodies will so far be the same, as to become the means of this knowledge.

Against the Resurrection itself there is no presumption, and in favour of it a strong one, from analogy. Many works of God naturally, and strongly, dispose the mind to admit the doctrine without hesitation. In this climate, almost the whole vegetable world dies annually under the chilling influence of winter. At the return of spring the face of nature is renewed; and all the plants, shrubs, and trees, with which it was adorned, are again clothed with verdure, life, and beauty.

In the insect creation, we find a direct and striking example of the Resurrection itself. Animals of this class begin their existence in the form of worms. After continuing some time in the humble state of being, to which they are necessarily confined by their structure, they die, and are gone. In the moment of death, they construct for themselves a species of shell, or tomb; in which they may with the strictest propriety be said to be buried. Here they are dissolved into a mass of semi-transparent water: the whole which remains of the previously existing animal, exhibiting to the eye no trace of life, and no promise of a future revival. When the term of its burial approaches to a period, the tomb discloses; and a winged animal comes forth with a nobler form, often exquisitely beautiful; brilliant with the gayest splendour; possessed of new, and superior powers; and destined to a more refined, and more exalted life. Its food is now the honey of flowers; its field of being, the atmosphere. Here it expatiates at large in the delightful exercise of its faculties, and in the high enjoyment of those sunbeams, which were the immediate means of its newly acquired existence.

Could there be a rational, or even a specious, doubt concerning the power of God, and his sufficiency to raise the body from the grave; this change in the world of insects, accomplished before our eyes, and for these animals, not less extraordinary, than that, which we are contemplating, is for man, puts an end to every such doubt; and places the possibility of this event beyond debate. In truth, this change is nothing less than a glorious type of the Resurrection.

Whatever sameness may attend the body at the resurrection, it is clear from the Scriptures, that, in many important particulars, it will be greatly changed; so much changed, as to wear in various respects an entirely new character. These I shall now proceed to mention.

1. The body will be raised incorruptible.

It is sown, says St. Paul, in corruption; it is raised in incorrup

tion.

One of the most striking characteristics of the human body, in its present state, is its universal tendency to decay. This tenden

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 will be raised immortal.

When this corruptible, says St. Paul, shall have put on incorrup tion, and this mortal immortality.

Incorruption 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 sown in weakness, it is raised in power: verse 43. In the future world, the Righteous serve God day and night in his temple: Rev. 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 αναστασις, or future state of existence, be ισάγγελοι; 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 employments 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 regions, shut to us, hitherto, by an immoveable 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 pleas ure, 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 appeared 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 whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. In stricter language, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may become of the like form with his glorious body, according to the energy, whereby he is able, also, to subdue all things unto himself.

On the mount of Transfiguration, Christ appeared to Peter, James, and John, in his glorious body; then, as we are told by the Evangelists, his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became white and glistering. In Rev. i. 9, we have a more ample exhibition 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 golden 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 while as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto fine 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 countenance 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 coveted 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 a spiritual body: there is a natural (or animal) body; there is a spiritual body.

By an animal body, is intended, as you well know, the present body of man; depending for its continuance upon the principle of animal life; the subject of innumerable frailties; and making a regular progress to dissolution.

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

In the 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 quickening spirit; that the first was of the earth, earthy: the second, the Lord from Heaven; that they, who are earthy, are like the earthy Adam, and 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 heavenly. 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.

Thirdly; 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.

Fifthly; That, generally, the attributes of the body will so resemble 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.