SERMON XXXI.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

ACTS xxvi. 8.

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead.

MANY are the interesting enquiries which occur to the mind of man, when he examines his own nature, and speculates concerning the objects around him. When he surveys the sublime and beautiful fabric of the world; the heavens spread abroad as a curtain, glittering with innumerable orbs of light, and affording a circuit to the sun, running his course as a giant, and to the moon walking forth in brightness; when he looks abroad through the earth, loaded with every thing good to the taste, and pleasant to the eye, "full of the goodness of the Lord," he is naturally led to enquire what is the final destiny of this glorious structure of the world?

Here, instead of the absurd notion embraced by a vain philosophy, that this world, eternal in its origin, is eternal also in its duration, revelation unfolds the most interesting scenes. It announces the dissolution of the world. The sun, now dispensing light and life to universal nature, will become black as sackcloth of hair. The moon, now diffusing comfort during the dreary watches of night, will undergo a change appalling to the nations, will be "turned into blood." The heavens, now declaring the glory of God, and affording to the contemplative and pious mind, an exhaustless subject of wonder and delight, will on a sudden " depart as a scroll, when it is rolled together." The elements, now ministering to the support and comfort of man, will "melt with fervent heat." And the earth, with all that it contains, all its sublime and beautiful productions, all the ingenious and magnificent works with which man has adorned it, shall be "burned up." Awful catastrophe of nature! But revelation comforts her desponding children, with the glorious prospect of " a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness and where the sun shall no more give light by day, neither for brightness by night shall the moon unfold herself; but the Lord shall be an

b 99

b 2 Peter ii. 13.

everlasting light, and God himself the glory" of this new creation.

Truths equally glorious and interesting does revelation disclose concerning the destiny of the soul. When she contemplates her own nature, is carried by her vigorous powers to the utmost bounds of creation, and penetrates into the most secret recesses of knowledge; when she stretches beyond the bounds of space, and the periods of time, and urges her way to immortal regions; she is naturally led to enquire-Are these desires and hopes real, or,' are they only illusions? Do I indeed live beyond the tomb? Am I to pass into a perfect and glorious existence? Or have I nought to hope, nought to fear, beyond the precincts of the grave? Here where human reason can suggest only feeble hopes, and can only partially dissipate the shadows that rest upon the world to come, revelation pours the full blaze of light; proclaiming life and immortality, rest and peace, happiness without end, to those who continue in welldoing.

But the solicitude of man is not confined to his soul. That body which has been her companion, the instrument by which she has swayed the sceptre of dominion; which has shared her joys and sorrows; which notwithstanding its infirmities and corruptions is still endeared to him as

Isaiah lx. 19.

part of his nature, must it sleep for ever in the dust, and remain for ever in corruption? Here, where human reason, dubious even of the future existence of the soul, consigned the body to mingle for ever with its parent dust, revelation unfolds brighter hopes,-declaring a resurrection of the dead; when" this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality." Revelation fears not to refer the resurrection of the body to the tribunal of reason; enquiring in the words of my text, the words which Paul arraigned at the tribunal of Festus and Agrippa, addressed to his judges, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?”

The resurrection of the dead is the truth assured to us, by the glorious event of this day. For "Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive "."

The resurrection of the body, the change of these mortal and corruptible tabernacles in which the soul sojourns, into immortal and incorruptible habitations, where she will dwell for ever-is the important and interesting truth now proposed to your consideration.

I. It may be regarded as a truth to be established and explained.

b 1 Cor. xv. 20.

II. And as a truth from which result many important instructions and consolations.

These are the two points of view in which it is proposed to consider the resurrection of the body. It is a truth to be established and explained.

I. It is a truth in itself possible-by the analogy of nature and reason probable, and by the declarations of revelation, certain.

1. The resurrection of the body is in itself a truth possible.

For "why should it be thought a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead?" The resurrection of the body, is not a task more difficult than its creation. Man at first sprung from the dust. Surely it is not impossible that his mortal part, dissolved by death, into its primeval principles, should again as at its first creation, be formed into a body, a fit habitation for the soul. There is nothing in this, which reason can pronounce impossible; for there is nothing in it, which implies a contradiction.

Impossible, indeed, would be the resurrection of the body but to that all wise and Almighty Being, who at first formed it. To deny the possibility of the resurrection, when God is the agent, supposes a defect in him of knowledge or of power. But that Father of our spi