dry bones; no longer able to disguise or disown its original; brought at last to know itself, and introduced to an acquaintance proper for it, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Here then, O thou, whosoever thou art, that delightest to contemplate the dignity and rectitude of human nature, here sit down, and begin thy meditations. Is it thus, that virtue is its own reward? Or say, is the body no part of the man? If it be, why is it in this state? Or how is it to be changed? Men talk much of the moral sense. Can the moral sense acquaint us with the resurrection of the dead? Reason is placed on the throne, and her kingdom, it is said, ruleth over all. Can reason discover the change of corruption into glory? We know she cannot; and when she spake upon the subject at Athens, her language was, "What will this babbler say?"

Nay, since that time, we have heard her muttering from the dust, by the mouth of certain philosophers-" How are the dead raised up, and with what

body do they come?" With what body, O man, should they come, but the body with which they went? What body should be raised from the grave, but the body that was laid in the grave? Had we seen Joseph of Arimathea deposit the Redeemer of the world in a sepulchre, and been told that Redeemer should rise again, could any one have thought of asking, "with what body he should come?" whether with the body which he had when he went with his parents to Jerusalem, at twelve years old; or the body he had at twenty; or the body he had at thirty, when he began his ministry? Upon this subject two men,

of equal abilities, might dispute, if they were to live so long, till Christ came in the clouds to judgement, and found them doubting whether he were risen or not, because they could not conceive with what body he should rise, or how it was consistent with the justice of God, to raise and reward one body only, when, as they apprehend, he was born in one body, lived in another, and suffered in a third; because it is said, the body undergoes a thorough change in a certain term of years. This metaphysical argument, therefore, though seemingly no more than a difficulty proposed as to the manner of our resurrection, really strikes at the truth of the article of Christ's resurrection, and is calculated to darken the counsel and revelation of the Most High by words without knowledge: so much without knowledge, that the plain matter of fact is a sufficient answer. Jesus Christ was laid in the sepulchre, and the same Jesus Christ arose out of the sepulchre. And if it were so with his natural body, why should it be otherwise with his mystical? The Scriptures are clear that it will

not.

For as they who are alive at Christ's coming, are to be "changed in the twinkling of an eye;" and, consequently, that body must be changed which is found at the instant of his coming, and no other; so they that are in their graves shall come forth to be changed likewise, and, consequently, those bodies only must be changed that were laid in the graves. "Who shall change our vile body," says the text: therefore the vile body must be there to be changed. Otherwise it would not be a change ; μετασχηματισις a transformation, or transfiguration, of vile into

you

glorious, but a substitution of glorious for vile, It is this mortal, and this corruptible; TOUTO To Dvyrov; this very mass of mortality and corruption. "Ir is sown, "IT is raised." The same, in short, may be said to these objectors, which Christ said to the Sadducees upon a like occasion; "Ye do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." For if knew the power of God, you would know that he can do it; and if you knew the Scriptures, you would know that he will do it. And if they say he will do it, all the objections in the world show but one thing, namely, "an evil heart of unbelief" in the objectors. For since the Scriptures (and particularly the process in Ezekiel's vision of the resurrection) plainly show that the body is first to be raised, and all the parts of it put together, before the change takes place, nothing remains, but an atheistical denial of the power of God to collect the parts, and put them together; a denial that he who made all things of impalpable dust, and beheld the substance of the world before two atoms of it were joined; who formed the body of man out of those created for that purpose, and dissolves and disperses them at pleasure; a denial that he can collect them again when dispersed; a denial that the Almighty can do this. Only suppose a man not ignorant of the power of God, and all difficulties vanish. For then, whether the dust lie quiet in the grave, or be blown to the four winds, or be entombed in a whale, or buried in the great deep, it is equally under the eye of the Omniscient, and the power of the Omnipotent. These are all the storehouses and repositories, to be opened

by him who has the keys of hell and death, when the sea shall deliver up the dead that are in it, and death and hell shall deliver up the dead that are in them: when, as the same Jonas came out of the whale, and the same Son of man from the heart of the earth, so the same bodies of saints, that lay down at night, shall arise in the morning. God is not unrighteous, that he should forget the body's work and labour of love. From those eyes, which have poured forth tears of repentance, shall all tears be wiped, and they shall be blessed with the vision of the Almighty. Those hands which have been lifted up in prayer, and stretched out to the poor, shall hold the palm of victory and harp of joy. Those feet which have wearied themselves in going about to do good, shall stand in the courts of the Lord, and walk in the garden of God, and in the streets of the new Jerusalem. That flesh which has been chastised and mortified, shall be rewarded for what it has suffered; nay, the very hairs of our heads are all numbered; how much more, then, the parts of our bodies? "This," says the Resurrection himself, "is my Father's will "that has sent me, that of ALL which he has given me, "IIAN dedwxe μo, I should lose nothing, but raise.

IT up at the last day"." We might, indeed, follow the objectors to the resurrection into the cold obscure of metaphysics. But what has been alleged from the Scriptures, and the power of God revealed in those Scriptures, (the only topics of argumentation upon subjects of this nature,) overturns the foundation of

" John, vi. 39.

every thing the objectors have to offer; and it will, I presume, be much more profitable to lay open from the Scriptures the manner in which this change is to be wrought.

The greatness of the change appears from this, that "our vile body is to be fashioned like unto "Christ's glorious body." Of this he was pleased to give a specimen to Peter and James and John, and, in them, to all his disciples who, by faith and devotion, will accompany their Master, in "the body "of HIS humiliation," to the top of mount Tabor. There they may behold an ensample of this most amazing change; the power of the Highest, which dwelt in Christ, diffusing itself outwardly, till he appeared all over exceeding glorious; his face shining like the sun, and his raiment becoming white as the light". Who is not ready to say, "It is good " for us to be here, to behold the fair beauty of the "Lord, even the glory of God in the face of Jesus. "Christ?" But here we must not stay, because he did not. For though, at the brightness before him, the cloud passed, and the sun for a little while appeared in his strength, the cloud soon returned and overshadowed him, and he entered into it. He descended from the mount of transfiguration to the heart of the earth, and then "there was darkness over all the land;" but he soon went up to an higher mountain than Tabor, was again transfigured, and

See the resurrection of the body in an ingenious and beautiful manner illustrated from the transfiguration of Christ, by the Reverend Mr. HOLMES, in his excellent sermon on that subject.