As for instance, how shall we understand, the coming forth of those that have done evil, to condemnation? Was it their being brought to a state of conviction for sin? If any say it was, I ask what propriety there would be in calling such a state a resurrection? Would it not be rather a sinking than a rising? And besides, have the Jews by the voice of Christ, since his day, been called to a greater sense of their sins, than in their former captivities? If we consider them more sunk in moral depravity and darkness, how have they been raised and come forth from their graves? Let those that are able inform us. Concerning them that have done good, and come forth to the resurrection of life, I would likewise ask how this describes a moral work? They are not brought from a state of sin to holiness; but from doing good works to the resurrection of life. This resurrection is far from describing that process of the divine energy of gospel grace that translates from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Though it be an act of divine power, it gives no change of moral condition or character. What then can the passage describe, but the resurrection of the body? If it describe this, it answers our general question in the negative, that physical operations, though exercised by divine power, are not made the exclusive cause of moral effects. Some have undertaken to urge a spiritual interpretation of the passage from its connexion with the 25th verse of the same chapter. But if they both be intended to describe one event, there is a plain contradiction. One says, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." The other makes a part only to come to the resurrection of life. To say they that hear shall live, and they that have done evil, shall hear his voice and come forth to the resurrection of damnation, are not reconcilable descriptions of the same event. Nor is there any thing in the connexion of the two passages, that makes it necessary to interpret them alike. The 28th and 29th verses seem to express their own meaning, without any particular assistance from the context. In our fourth passage at the head of this Lecture, we have the same sentiment expressed. "And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." The Apostle here mentions the distinction of just and unjust in connexion with the resurrection. The passage clearly carries the idea, that among the dead are the unjust as well as the just. All do not, therefore, experience a saving change at or before death. Some are found unjust at the time of the resurrection. And unless the resurrection effect a moral change as well as physical, they must be unjust, when raised from the dead. If this moral change be effected by the resurrection, could we conjecture what was St. Paul's reasoning, as found in Acts xxiv. 25, concerning a judgment to come? Can we put any rational construction on a variety of passages, which have been consid ered in these Lectures? The scriptures must be consistent in all their parts; or else they cannot contain the revealed will of God. "Behold," says the Apostle, "I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Our natural sleep is a very happy figure to represent death; and awaking from sleep, to represent the resur rection. The Apostle, therefore, in this and some other passages, calls death sleep. To what he alluded by the pronoun we, may be attended with more difficulty. I think he must either have the whole human race in view, from the first man Adam to the latest offspring of his progeny, and refer to the liv ing of that period when he says, "We shall not all sleep ;" or else to the believers of different ages, to the time of the resurrection. If it could be thought, he expected a previous resurrection of believers, he might allude to these, when he said, "We which are alive, and remain." When he said, "We shall all be changed," he clearly embraced the whole human family, or at least all those that come forth to the resurrection of life. He could not suppose that he himself, or any of his brethren then living, would continue in this life until the resurrection. He elsewhere as sures us, he knew that the time of his depar ture was at hand. I am inclined to think that from the first verse to the end of the chapter we are now considering, St. Paul is describing the peculiar favors connected with the resurrection of the just, as likewise in our 7th scripture, found in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians. In both these he seems to consider the believers of different ages in one common union and society. In this manner he addresses them by the use of the term we. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." "Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds." Various are the figures which the works of nature afford, to typify the resurrection. Night being a figure of death, it follows that the morning represents the resurrection. 'Then the birds of the air resume their music, and man from his slumber, the usual employments of life. Then activity, industry, and sociability are seen in a vast variety of beings, that inhabit this spot of the Creator's great dominion. Winter is another figure of death. Then are the trees stripped of their verdure, and bound in frost, cease from growth and beauty. The fructifying earth produces nothing of the vast variety, which she exhibits in the vernal and summer seasons. But spring is a pattern of the resurrection. Many animals, before torpid, leave their wintry retirements, a resume the busy exploits of life. The trees, released from frost, exhibit life and grandeur. The earth yields her increase, and teems with the joy of the myriads of her new born sons. Sleep is likewise a figure of death, and an awakening from sleep, of the resurrection. In sound sleep our thoughts and consciousness are suspended. In awaking from sleep they are immediately restored. Thus we see the works of nature do not deny us the tokens of the resurrection; but to revelation, we are mostly indebted for the assurance of the doctrine. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shalt he live." AMEN. HYMN. 1 "Seasons, and months, and weeks, and days, 2 "But O may our harmonious tongues, 3 The earth once bound in frosty chains, |