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ous kinds. The celebrated Wickliffe, styled the morning star of the reformation, died and was buried. After forty years, his enemies, to gratify their malice, dug up his bones and burnt them; and to make an effectual end of the good man, they cast the ashes into a running brook. Where is his body now? What becomes of the particles of a body after it has been consumed in the flames! It cannot be annihilated; but converted into smoke, it is taken and driven round the earth by the winds of heaven; and the little handful of ashes which remain, goes to fertilize the earth. And yet thousands of human bodies have been consumed in the flames. How many perished thus, when God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes? How many among the Jews passed through the fire unto Moloch? How many have been burnt to ashes on the funeral pile in India? "Ten thousand women annually," says Dr. Carey, "are burnt with the dead bodies of their deceased husbands." In view of these facts, we are almost ready to ask, can these bodies ever be found? Can the particles of which they were composed ever be collected? Were we left without divine revelation, well might we ask, "How are the dead raised? And with what bodies do they come?" But nothing is impossible with God. And what he has declared respecting a general resurrection, will certainly come to pass.

Such will be the state of the dead, as it respects their bodies. But where are the souls which once inhabited these bodies? The righteous when they die, pass immediately into glory. Lazarus was "carried by angels into Abraham's bosom." To the penitent thief our Saviour said, "To-day shalt thou be with me

in paradise." "Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." It is evident, therefore, that when the soul of the believer quits the tabernacle of clay, it immediately joins the general assembly above. On the other hand, when the impenitent sinner dies, his soul passes immediately into the world of despair. "The rich man died and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment"-while his five brethren were yet living on the earth. The inhabitants of Sodom, are "set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." The antediluvians are now "spirits in prison."

Thus it appears, that souls are continually ascending into heaven, and descending into hell. Thus it has been from the death of Abel down to the present time. Some have been in heaven, and some in hell, for hundreds, and others for thousands of years. And there they will continue till Christ shall come to judgment. At this period, the number of the saints in heaven will be great. They are thus spoken of in the Revelation. "I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."-" And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes; and whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the

blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

This is a description of the state of the saints between death and the resurrection. But the souls of all unbelievers who have died, are shut up in the prison of hell, with devils, "whom God hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Here their souls will remain in a state of separation from their bodies, in fearful expectation, until Christ shall come to judgment. Such will be the state of the dead, when that great day shall come.

Here I would pause-and ask what will then be the state of my hearers-of this whole assembly? If the day of judgment does not come until after the millenium, then these bodies will have lain in the grave more than a thousand years. During this whole period our souls will have dwelt with the general assembly and church of the first born, or with the devil and his angels. In one or both of these companies, all our souls will be found. Probably some in one, and some in the other. If so, some of us shall have been in heaven, and some of us in hell more than a thousand years. Solemn thought! Who would not pray with David, "Gather not my soul with sinners."

SERMON XV.

The same subject Continued.

When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him ; then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations.-MATTHEW XXV: 31, 32.

IN discoursing from these words on a former occasion, I proposed to consider

I. The certainty of Christ's coming to judgment.
II. The time when he will come.

III. The manner of his coming.

Having considered the first two heads, I proceed to consider

III. The manner of Christ's coming to judgment. 1. He will come in his human nature. He will come in the same body in which he appeared in the days of his humiliation-the same body that was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, that was arraigned before the bar of Pilate, scourged, spit upon, and crowned with thorns--the same body that was nailed to the cross, and pierced with a soldier's spear; that yielded up the ghost, arose from the dead, and ascended to heaven. This same body that was treated with such indignity, will again appear with all the scars of crucifixion.

"Now resplendent shine the nail-prints,
Every eye shall see the wound.”

When our Lord ascended to heaven, two angels appeared and spake thus to his gazing disciples. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." But how immensely different will be his appearance from what it was in the days of his humiliation. Once he was arraigned before a human tribunal as a criminal;-now he is the judge of the world.

2. He will come in his glory. A bright splendor will surround the body of the Saviour. Such a glory as to mortals is now inconceivable. Something of this glory was witnessed by the apostles, Peter, James and John, on the mount of transfiguration. They were eye witnesses of his Majesty, and they testify that "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." In something of this glory, he appeared to Saul of Tarsus. His brightness put out the noonday sun. "At mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them that journeyed with me." So bright was his appearance, that Saul could not see for the glory of that light. The vision of this glory caused the beloved disciple to fall down at his feet, as dead. This can give us but a faint idea of the glory in which Christ will come. He will appear not only in his own glory, but in the glory of his Father. The Father will judge the world by him, having committed all judgment unto the Son. He is now "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." His coming will be like the lightning, seen from one end of heaven to the other. "He shall

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