of the text, which occur in the Epistle for next Sunday, can scarcely be discussed within the narrow limits of a single short Sermon. It shall suffice, to-day, to have thus opened the subject, —one of the most awfully interesting, doubtless, which can possibly engage human attention.

The Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.-PART II.

PHILIPPIANS iii. 20, 21.

We look for the SAVIOUR, the LORD JESUS CHRIST; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious Body.

WE concluded our former discourse by remarking, that in proportion as we may be able to apprehend rightly the nature of the change which passed over the Body of our risen LORD, we shall attain to a notion of what is in reserve for ourselves. Accordingly, we ventured to propose the inquiry,-What then was the nature of change which ensued upon His Resurrection?

Now, we may not perhaps presume to draw any conclusion from His offering His limbs to be handled; nor from his partaking of food with His Disciples; except indeed that memorable conclusion to which the words of CHRIST Himself guided them,—namely, that He was not a Spirit. In other words, we are not perhaps to

* St. Luke xxiv. 42, 43. Acts x. 41.

infer that the risen body can, of necessity, be handled; still less, that it requires food; because our SAVIOUR, in order to convince His astonished Disciples that it was no spectral illusion which they beheld, invited them to handle Him, and partook of their 'broiled fish and honeycomb.' He was risen, indeed; but He was not yet ascended and some hard questions here arise which are very perplexing. But as our SAVIOUR entered the chamber where the Apostles were assembled, though the doors were shut, so will the reality of our bodily Resurrection prove quite compatible with freedom of moving whithersoever we will, whatever obstacle may stand in our way. As He ascended with His Body into Heaven, so shall we be borne upward from the earth, to meet the LORD in the air; and be no longer subject to the laws of matter which, in our present state, weigh us down. As His features experienced a wondrous alteration, so that those who beheld Him, while they knew that it was the LORD, yet failed to recognise Him, (Mary Magdalene, the two going to Emmaus, and the seven Apostles at the sea of Tiberias ;)—so also shall we, in some mysterious manner, experience a like transformation: the self-same persons,—yet, how different from the men we were!

Above all are we reminded of one unearthly attribute which will then belong to the redeemed: I mean, the addition of Glory. The HOLY SPIRIT, speaking by the mouth of St. Paul, declares in the text that our bodies shall be transfigured, and 'fashioned like unto CHRIST's glorious Body: and this word of His reminds us of what was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the fashion of our LORD'S countenance was altered.' But how altered? Probably in respect of the unearthly lustre which rendered every feature bright and dazzling. St. Matthew says'His face did shine as the sun;' and His raiment,' (says St. Mark,) 'became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.' These glories were not displayed on our LORD's person immediately after His Resurrection; because as yet He walked the earth, and human eyes could not have endured the sight: but at a later period we know that it was otherwise. When the vision of the risen SAVIOUR was vouchsafed to St. Paul, At midday, O king,' (he said,) 'I saw in the way a light from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me.' And when St. John, 'in the Spirit, on the LORD's Day,' 'in the Island called Patmos,' beheld the

SAVIOUR'S form, it was in wondrous Glory that he beheld Him :-' I saw,' (he says,) 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 white 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 His countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength.'—We will not seek to heighten all this. We will content ourselves with observing that what may be gathered from all these accounts' seems to be that the form of the glorified SAVIOUR, when human eyes were suffered to behold it, resembled that which He bore upon earth; with this most important difference, that a dazzling light struggled forth at every part of His sacred person; penetrating the transparent features, and dissipating the earthly appearance of flesh and blood. Every part of His Risen Body was rendered luminous by Divine powerd.'

'And we know,' (says St. John, in a text already quoted,) that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'-'The resurrection bodies of the Saints will Dr. Goulburn.

Rev. i. 13-16.