SERMON XXXII.

1 COR. XV. 51, 52.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

THERE are few subjects which so forcibly occupy our attention, or rather our serious meditation, as that of a future state of an hereafter, which is to seal our everlasting misery or everlasting happiness: when, in the language of the Collect for the service of this season, Christ shall come again, in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and dead— and we are to rise to the life immortal. This will be the SECOND and LAST ADVENT; and towards which our celebration, as now, of the first Advent, should invariably incline. The particular manner in which that great and

tremendous scene is to be opened, is in part and most vividly described in the words of my text. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed :" that is, we shall not all be in our graves. All of us will not have paid the debt of nature: the sower and the reaper in the field, as well as the monarch seated on his throne, will equally feel the effects of this change—which the apostle immediately subjoins, will take place, " in a moment-in the twinkling of an eye." A more sudden transition cannot be conceived: and the consequences will be as decisive as they are sudden. The signal for this wonderful and simultaneous change with millions of our fellow creatures will be the sound of the trump-of the last trump-" for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised."

There is something very impressive, as well as unusual, in this description of the signal and summons which is to rouse us from earthly to immortal scenes. A summons, as irreversible as instantaneous !-and thus roused, we crowd together to witness its awful result. And here the apostle gives us a brief but glowing sketch of this result—“The dead (says he) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The first part of these

words is sufficiently explanatory. We are no longer to be subject to corruption, or decay— never perhaps to feel a diminution of our strength-never certainly to have any indication of the approach of dissolution. The latter part," being changed "-has been thought by some to allude to an alteration of person, figure, or form-to an alteration of shape, as well as of spirit,—but upon this, it is of little consequence to dwell. to dwell. If we are to be completely and inconceivably happy—as our organs will be made to enjoy every possible degree of happiness-it is of no consequence how we are moulded, or how we may be changed. The apostle does indeed, in my humble apprehension, go on, in the next verse to explain the present-by making it applicableto a more general change: that is, by contrasting corruption with incorruption, —and mortality with immortality. But in the first chapter of the same Apostle's epistles to the Colossians, and at the 28th verse, St. Paul speaks sentiments somewhat more positively on this subject, as thus-" Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom: that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." "Hence, in another world, he expected that he should

know, and be known to, those his convertsand that their relation should subsist and be retained between them.

In a few verses preceding the text, a more decisive and a most remarkable observation is made, relating to this change-which must, to every thinking, and still more to every virtuous and religious mind, be matter of heartfelt consolation. St. Paul says “ As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And what are the sentiments of the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ, St. John? That Apostle, in the 2nd verse of the 3rd chap. of his first Epistle General, thus remarks: "Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when we shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath thus hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Now, taking these observations collectively, and summing up, as it were, all the detached explanations which have been submitted to you, they amount, seriously and pointedly, to this: The day of judgment will come suddenly—as a thief in the night-says our Saviour. But

*

Paley. See Note A. p. 441. post. See Note B. post.

when? God only knows; none of his angels and ministering spirits being permitted to a participation of that knowledge-so high, so serious, and so awful, it seems to be considered! Some of us, indeed, perhaps as many as are now living, will be awake-will be busied in avocations and pursuits; eager of gain; eager of fame; eager perhaps of every earthly, in exclusion of every heavenly object. We shall then find, that, although sufficiently awake in one sense, we have been most grossly asleep in another. Our bodies will have been sufficiently active, and attentive to the gratification of their wants: but our souls, our better parts, benumbed, stupified, and dormant: untouched by the grace of heaven; unconscious of the work of salvation: ungrateful for all the mercies vouchsafed unto us! And how will it be startled on being thus roused by the piercing sound of the last trump-? What sensations will pervade -what fears, terrors, and anxieties possess it!? But immortality follows—a never ending state of existence :-never again to sleep -and, admitted into the realms of rest, never again to grieve and to mourn. The storms, which agitated us in this miserable and tumultuous ocean of life, will have ceased to and to vex the vessel will have reached

rage