other proof, that there is a day, a great day, approaching, which will put an end to the prefent ftate of things, and introduce a ftate unchangeable and eternal. Then the Lord will defcend with a fhout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God. The earth and all-its works will be burnt up. The great Judge will appear, the tribunal be fixed, the books opened, and all the human race must give an account of themselves to God, and, according to his righteous award, be happy or miferable in a degree beyond expreflion or conception, and that for ever. If we were infallibly afïured, that this tremendous fcene would open upon us to-morrow; or if, while I am fpeaking, we fhould be startled with the figns of our Lord's coming in the air, what confufion and alarm would overfpread the congregation? Yet, if the fcripture be true, the hour is approaching, when we must all be fpectators of this folemn event, and parties nearly interested in it. But becaufe it is at a distance, we can hear of it, fpeak of it, and profess to expect it, with a coolness almost equal to indifference. May the Lord give us that faith which is the evidence of things not feen, that while I aim to lead your meditations to the subject of my text, we may be duly impreffed by it: and that we may carry from hence fuch a confideration of our latter end, as may incline our hearts to that which is our true wifdom! my inten Many curious enquiries and fpeculations might be ftarted from this paffage, but which, because I judge them to be more curious than useful, it is tion to wave. I fhall confine myfelf to what is plainly expreffed, becaufe I with rather to profit than to amufe my hearers. The principal fubject before us is the refurrection of the dead, in the most pleafing view of it; for my text fpeaks only of thofe those who shall change the mortal and corruptible, for incorruption and immortality. I. The introduction, Behold I show you a mystery. II. What we are taught to expect, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. III. The fuddennefs of the event, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. IV. The grand preceding fignal, The trumpet shall sound. I. The Apostle apprizes the Corinthians that he is about to show them a mystery. As the word mystery has been treated with no fmall contempt, I fhall embrace this occafion of offering you a short explanation of it, as it is used in the fcriptures. We are allowed to fay, that there are myfteries in nature, and perhaps we may be allowed to speak of myfteries in Providence; but though an Apostle asfures us, that great is the mystery of godliness, many perfons will fcarcely bear the application of the word to religion. And a late ingenious writer, who has many admirers in the prefent day, has ventured to affirm, in print, that where mystery begins, religion ends. If the frequency of the cafe did not, in fome degree, abate our wonder, this might feem almoft a mystery, that any perfons who profefs to believe the fcripture, fhould fo openly and flatly contradict what the fcripture exprefsly and repeatedly declares: Or that while, as men of reason and philofophy, they are forced to acknowledge a myftery in every part of creation, and muft confefs it beyond their ability to explain the growth of a blade of grafs; they fhould, in oppofition to all the rules of analogy, conclude, that the gofpel, the most im-. portant concern of man, and which is commended to us as the most eminent difplay of the wifdom and power of God, is the only fubject fo level to our apprehenfions, as to be obvious, at firft fight, to VOL. II. H 1 Tim. iii. 16. the the most careless and fuperficial obfervers. That great numbers of people are very far from being accurate and diligent in their religious enquiries, is too evident to be denied. How often do we meet with perfons of fense who talk with propriety on philofophical, political, or commercial fubjects, and yet, when they speak of religion, difcover fuch grofs ignorance, as would be fhameful in a child of ten years old, and amounts to a full proof that they have not thought it worth their while to acquire even a flight knowledge of its first principles. Can we even conceive the poffibility of a divine revelation that should have nothing in it mysterious to perfons of this character? A mystery, according to the notation of the Greek word, fignifies a fecret. And all the peculiar truths of the gospel may juflly be ftyled myfteries or fecrets, for two reasons. 1. Because the discovery of them is beyond the reach of fallen man, and they neither would nor could have been known without a revelation from God. This is eminently true of the Refurrection. The light of nature, which we often hear so highly commended, may afford fome faint glimmerings of a future ftate, but gives no intimation of a refur rection. The men of wifdom at Athens, the Stoic and Epicurean philofophers, who differed widely in moft parts of their respective schemes, united in deriding this fentiment, and contemptuously ftyled the Apostle Paul a babbler * for preaching it. But this fecret is to us made known. And we are affured, not only that the Lord will receive to himself the departing fpirits of his people, but that he will give commandment concerning their duft, and, in due time, raise their vile bodies to a conformity with his own glorious body. ↑ Acts xvii. 18. 2. Because, 2. Because, though they are revealed expressly in the fcripture, fuch is the groffness of our conceptions, and the strength of our prejudices, that the truths of revelation are still unintelligible to us, without a farther revelation of their true fense to the mind, by the influence of his Holy Spirit. Otherwife, how can the secret of the Lord be restrained to those who fear him*, when the book which contains it is open to all, and the literal and grammatical meaning of the words is in the poffeffion of many who fear him not Books in the arts and fciences may be faid to be full of myfteries to those who have not a suitable capacity and taste for them; or who do not apply themselves to study them with diligence, and patiently fubmit to learn gradually one thing after another. If you put a treatife on the mathematics, or a fyftem of mufic, into the hands of a ploughman or labourer, you will not be furprised to find that he cannot understand a fingle page. Shall the works of a Sir Ifaac Newton, or of a Handel, be thus inexplicable to one perfon, while another peruses them with admiration and delight? Shall these require a certain turn of mind, and a close attention? And can it be reasonably fuppofed, that the Bible is the only book that requires no peculiar difpofition, or degree of application, to be understood, though it is defigned to make us acquainted with the deep things of Ged? In one refpect, indeed, there is an encouraging difference. Divine truths lie thus far equally open to all, that though none can learn them unless they are taught of God, yet all who are fenfible of their own weakness may expect his teaching, if they humbly feek it by prayer. Many people are, perhaps, incapable of being mathematicians. They have not a genius for the fciBut there is none teacheth like God. He ence. H 2 can • Pfal. xxv. 14. † 1 Cor. ii. 10. can give not only light, but fight; not only leffons, but the capacity neceffary for their reception. And while his mysteries are hidden from the wife and prudent, who are too proud to wait upon him for inftruction, he reveals them unto babes. It may perhaps be thought, that a belief of the doctrine of the refurrection does not require the fame teaching of the Holy Spirit that is neceffary to the right knowledge of fome other doctrines of the gofpel. But fuch a belief as may affect, cheer, and animate the heart, must be given us from above, for we cannot reason ourselves into it. Nay, this divine teaching is neceffary to fecure the mind from the vain reafonings, perplexities, and imaginations, which will bewilder our thoughts upon the fubject, unless we learn to yield in fimplicity of faith, to what the fcripture has plainly revealed, and can be content to know no farther before the proper time. II. What we are here taught to expect is thus expreffed-We fhall not all fleep, but we shall all be changed. We are not to fuppofe that the whole human race will die, and fail from the earth, before the refurrection. Some will be living at the time, and among them fome of the Lord's people. Of the living, it cannot properly be faid that they will be raised from the dead but they will experience a change, which will put them exactly in the fame ftate with the others. Their mortality fhall be fwallowed up in life. Thus we conceive it to have been with Enoch and Elijah. They did not die like other men; but their mortal natures were frail and finful, like ours, and incapable of fuftaining the glories of heaven without a preparation. Flesh and blood in its prefent state cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption; but the dead fhall arife, and the living fhall be changed. Here is a wide field for fpeculation, but I mean not to enter it. Curiosity would be glad to know how our bodies, when chan ged, |