refurrection. The prophet was carried in his vifion to a valley (the earth) full of dry bones. He was or-. dered to "prophecy upon thefe bones," and to fay unto them, "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the "Lord. I will caufe breath to enter into you, and 66 ye fhall live; and I will lay finews upon you, and "will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with Jkin, and put breath in you, and ye fhall live: " and ye, even ye, whether righteous or wicked, "fhall know I AM THE LORD." And the prophet further tells us, that, while he was prophefying to the dry bones, there was a "noife and a shaking," to denote the convulfions of nature at the refurrection, "and the bones came together, bone to his bone, "and the finews, and the flesh, came upon them, "and the skin covered them above; but there was no "breath in them." And he is now again "ordered to "prophecy unto the breath, and fay, Come from the "four winds (the four fpirits of God ruling the "whole earth), O BREATH, and breathe upon thefe flain (thefe dead bones, now bodies covered with "finews, flesh, and skin), that they may live. And "the breath came into them, and they lived, and " flood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” And God tells the prophet exprefsly, that " thefe "bones are the whole houfe of Ifrael;" meaning the whole church of God, whether Jews or Gentiles, reformed by Chrift, and now united in one whole house, under the dominion of the Son of God, as it would be eafy to fhow, from the fubfequent part of this prophetic chapter. From the prophecies of the old, thus only briefly mentioned, let us pafs to thofe of the New Testament, on the fame great doctrinal truth. Here it is taught and impreffed on the minds of the true believers, in more than thirty places. I fhall, however, lay before the Chriftian reader a few of them only, referring Y 3 referring to others in a note. Chrift expreffly tells the Jews, when they fought to flay him*, " Marvel "not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all "that are dead in the graves fhall hear his voice and "come forth, they that have done good unto the "refurrection of life, and they that have done evil ❝unto the refurrection of damnation." Again, to the Sadducees, who attempted to enfnare him with a question, he fays, "As touching the dead, "that they rife, have ye not read in the Book of "Mofes, how in the bufh God fpake unto him, fay 66 ing, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of "Ifaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God "of the dead, but of the living." And again, when Martha feemed to doubt his power to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead, Chrift said to her, "I "am the refurrection and the life. He that believeth "in me, though he were dead (temporally), yet "fhall he live; and whofoever liveth and believeth "in me, fhall never die:" meaning " the fecond "death," which will be the punishment of the wicked,when he shall judge the world. This truth was not only thus delivered by Chrift himself, to all the apostles, but preached by them as an effential article of the Chriftian faith. St. Paul is fo clear and copious, that I fhall only take notice of what he fays upon the fubject. In his Epiftle to the Theffalonians, he says, "If we believe that Jefus died and rofe again, even "fo them alfo which fleep in Jefus (who fhall have "died in faith in Chrift, and thereby found favour "with God) will God bring with him. For this "we fay unto you, by the word of the Lord, that "we which are alive, and remain at the coming of "the Lord (meaning those that fhall live on the "earth when he fhall come to reign, although they * John, v. 28, 29. ‡ John, xi. 25, 26. Mark, xii. 26. §1 Theff. iv. 14, 15, 16, 17. "fhall "fhall not die a natural death), fhall not prevent "them that are afleep" that are under a temporal death, from rifing afterwards at the great day of judgment." For," fays he further, "the Lord fhall "defcend from heaven with a fhout, with the voice "of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and "the dead in Chrift shall rise first ;" that is, when he fhall come to reign upon earth: but that this firft refurrection fhall not prevent a future refurrection of the dead who fhall not come with Chrift, at the last awful day, when he fhall come, after he has reigned, to judge all mankind. "Then (referring to the first "refurrection of the dead) we which are alive and "remain (all thofe who are alive and remain on "earth, and have believed in Chrift at his fecond "coming) fhall be caught up with them (the faints "that had come with him) in the clouds, to meet the "Lord in the air; and fo fhall we ever be with the "Lord." In his Epiftle to the Corinthians he is yet more explicit and copious upon this great doctrinal truth, of the refurrection of the dead. He reprefents it as the leading principle of the Gospel of Chrift, in which all true believers place their faith and hope. "For," fays he, if in this life only we have hope "in Chrift, we are of all men moft miferable." He then, by a great variety of arguments, afferts this great truth. He tells us," Since by man came "death, by man came alfo the refurrection of the "dead. For as in Adam (by Adam's transgression) "all die, even fo in Christ fhall all be made alive." That Chrift muft reign until he hath put all "enemies under his feet, even death itself." He then paffes to the refurrection of the dead. To those who may doubt refpecting it, he fays, "Thou fool, "that which thou foweft, is not quickened except it 99 "die; "die; and that which thou fowest, thou foweft not σε that body that fhall be, but bare grain; but God giveth it a body, and to every feed its own body:" that "fefh and blood cannot inherit the king"dom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" and therefore, that although "we (meaning the human race) fhall not all sleep (die a "natural death, for fome are to be alive even at the day of judgment), yet we fhall all (both the living and the dead) be changed; in a moment, in the twm"kling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet "fhall found, and the dead shall be raised incorrupti ble, and we fhall be changed" (from our corrupted terreftrial bodies into fpiritual, incorruptible, and never dying bodies), in order that Chrift may reward thofe that have loved the truth, and feared God, through faith in his Gofpel, with eternal life, and punish the reprobates, who fhall have died in their infidelity, with everlafting mifery, or the fecond condemnation and death. So when this corruptible fhall have put on incorruption, and this mortal fhall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pafs the faying that is written-Death is swallowed "up in victory:t" and, laftly, that then fhall they; who fhall be made alive and redeemed through the BLESSED AND ETERNAL SON OF GOD, with thankfgiving and praife, exclaim in rapturous ecftacy, "O DEATH, where is thy fing? O grave, where is thy it victory έσ مالی 66 66 Thus much, from the doctrine of the prophets, apoftles, and of Chrift himself, refpecting his coming to judge the world, the laft refurrection, and his triumph over all his enemies, even death and the grave. I have thought it not an improper introduc tion to what St. John fays upon the fame fubject: * 1 COF. XV. 50%. Ifai. xxv. 8. Hofea xiii. 14. Rev. xx. 14. for for it not only confirms the truths of his prophecy, but will affift us in understanding it. Having foretold the destruction of the world, and with it all the race of Adam, he proceeds to the immediate confequences of that awful event: for, during the agonics and convulfions of expiring nature, he tells us, *And the fea gave up her dead," &c.; that is, as I humbly apprehend, in this dreadful convulfion, the particles of matter of which the dead bodies confifted, when in the grave, fhall be separated and loofened from thofe particles of the earth which had been defined to other purposes; and being thus feparated, thofe which had formed the dead bodies hall be gathered together by the almighty fiat of that God, who not only created them out of nothing, but made the heavens and earth, and the fea and "fountains of waters;" and thus gathered together, thofe which had been bones fhall become bones; and those which had been finews, finews; and flesh, flesh; and those which had been skin, fhall be fkin; and the bodies of the race of Adam being thus formed a fecond time, the fame Almighty power which breathed the breath of life into the dead bodies of our firft parents, fhall breathe into them the breath of life, however difperfed, “ that they may live" again in their mortal bodies, according to the literal fenfe of the prophetic parable of the dry bones, I have before cited from Ezekiel. Thus rifen from the grave, and thus reanimated, according to St. Paul, their bodies fhall be changed from their mortal, and yet corrupted fiate, into a ftate of immortality, incorruption, and a life which fhall never end. In this ftate, the prophet tells us he faw" the fmall and great frand before God;" and in this ftate, according to St. Matthew §, the Son of Man fhall come, in * Ver. 13. + Chap. xxxvii. "the |