and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. St. Paul speaks of the Thessalonian converts as those whom he should recognize in the heavenly state, when he calls them his hope and joy, and crown of rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. Moses and Elias were known and distinguished in the transfiguration on the mount; and in the book of Revelation, the twelve apostles of the Lamb are spoken of as being seated upon thrones, and enjoying a known preeminence in glory. This expectation, that we shall know as we are known, has been a source of joy in all ages of the Church; and it is clearly implied, and indeed furnishes the principal ground of consolation, in that passage in Thessalonians where they who weep for the dead, (or, as they are called, them who are asleep, and who shall therefore awake the same,) are encouraged not to sorrow even as others which have no hope, by this consideration, that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Let us now see in what it is declared in Scripture, that the change of the body shall consist.

It shall be incorruptible. "It is raised in incor"ruption." The body which we now possess is composed of a variety of material elements, and therefore necessarily subject to decay. It is an earthly body, and nothing "lies more open to

corruption, or hastens more readily to it ;" so that, almost without a figure of speech, it may say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. The seeds of dissolution are inherent in our nature. They grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength; and with the gradual increase of disorders and infirmities, we are continually bowing down to the house of silence, we dwell in cottages of clay,* and "every thing sounds death "in our ears." The treacherous enemy turns against us, and converts into the means of destruction the very aliment by which we are nourished, and daily "carries away some spoils of "beauty and of strength."

Every ill which sickness or age brings upon us is "a herald to warn us of our doom;" until that which is emphatically called "the changing "of the countenance" arrives, when the body, weakened, exhausted, and destroyed, is sown in corruption, and returns to dust. But the body which we shall hereafter receive, different far from this, will be simple and uncompounded, free from the grossness of matter, and therefore not liable to decay. It will be an incorruptible body. "This corruptible shall put on incorruption."

Secondly. It will be an immortal body. This seems to follow from its being incorruptible.

* Fern on Glorified Bodies, from whom the passages in brackets are quoted.

We have seen that the tendency of our present body is to decay, and that every advance of life is advance towards death. But they who inherit the risen body shall die no more. There shall be no more death, for the former things are passed away. "This mortal shall put on immor"tality."

Thirdly. It shall be a glorious body. "It is "sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." We may form some idea of what is here meant, by considering the appearance which was exhibited to the three disciples at the transfiguration of Christ, which St. Peter calls his glory. His face, say the evangelists, did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And Saul, when he was on his way to Damascus, was also a witness to the same glory of the Lord; when, as he himself declared in his speech before Agrippa, he saw at midday, in the way, a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about him. Such, in kind, though not degree, will be the glory of the saints. Now indeed, in these weak and mortal bodies, we could not abide so great a splendour. Moses and Elias, themselves in glory, could stand and talk with their glorified Lord; but we, until we arrive at that state, would be overpowered by the sight; and like the three disciples on the mount, or like St. Paul in the way, must fall on our faces to the earth. This makes necessary a fourth quality of

the risen body, which is its strength. "It is sown " in weakness, it is raised in power." In its present state, as we have seen, it could not endure the brightness of the glorified bodies, and therefore could hold no communion with them; but being raised in power, it shall have a fitness for all the wonderous things of the future world. It will have a divine and heavenly vigour, and be enabled to bear the eternal weight of glory which God has prepared for it.

A fifth property of the risen body, is that it is spiritual. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised "a spiritual body." In the present life, much of the unhappiness and danger of Christians is owing to the opposition of the flesh to the Spirit; and if they were to carry with them into the celestial courts, this body of sin and death, from which even here they pray to be delivered, their felicity must be imperfect in heaven itself. Borne down and burdened by the desires of the body, even the soul is now sunk and degenerated. But in the life to come, the body itself shall be spiritual, and shall uphold the soul in its pure and holy purposes. The war of the members will there be at an end; for body and soul will be one and the same; and no longer strive to be contrary to each other. Besides, this spiritual body will, from its nature, possess the qualities of unincumbered mind and thought. It will pass without obstruction, and without fatigue, through boundless VOL. II. 48

realms of space. It will be prepared to visit distant orbs, and to fulfil with alacrity the commandments of God; for in heaven the righteous shall be equal to the angels of God.

Finally. The bodies of the saints shall be like to that of the ascended body of Jesus Christ their Head. "Beloved," says St. John, "now are we "the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear "what we shall be; but we know that when he "shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall "see him as he is." "He shall change our vile

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body," says St. Paul, "that it may be fashioned "like unto his glorious body. And as we have "borne the image of the earthy, we shall also "bear the image of the heavenly."

My brethren, let this suffice. He who gave us, for this life bodies so excellent as those we now have, and so well fitted for our present abode, will, we may be assured, give us, for the life to come, bodies exceedingly surpassing these in glory and beauty; for if these are so well adapted, which are designed only for a short probation, and an earthly state, much more shall they be faultless which are destined to enjoy eternally the delights of heaven.

My brethren, I have very imperfectly set before you something of God's promises respecting our future state. After all, we have reason to say, Lo! these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion of him is known! Hope must come in,