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"in him, and not be ashamed before him." Happy they who shall then be able to welcome him in the language of the prophet, "Lo, this is our God, we have "waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, "we have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoice "in his salvationt." But how awful the contrast of those, (many of them once the great, mighty, and honourable of the earth,) who shall behold him with horror, and in the anguish of their souls shall call, (in vain,)" to "the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them "from his presence, saying, The great day of his wrath ❝is come, and who shall be able to stand?"

SERMON XLII.

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 51, 52.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

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N object in itself great, and which we know to be so, will appear small to us if we view it from a distance. The stars, for example, in our view, are but as little specks or points of light; and the tip of a finger, if held very near to the eye, is sufficient to hide from us the

* 1 John ii. 28. † Isa. xxv. 9.

Rev. vi. 16, 17.

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whole body of the sun. Distance of time has an effect upon us, in its kind, similar to distance of space. diminishes in our mind the idea of what we are assured is, in its own nature, of great magnitude and importance. If any of us were informed that we should certainly die before this day closes, what a sudden and powerful change would take place in our thoughts? That we all must die, is a truth, of which we are no less certain, than that we are now alive. But, because it is possible that we may not die to-day, or to-morrow, or this year, or for several years to come, we are often little more affected by the thoughts of death, than if we expected to live here for ever. In like manner, if you receive the Scripture as a divine revelation, I need offer you no other proof, that there is a day, a great day, approaching, which will put an end to the present state of things, and introduce a state unchangeable and eternal. Then "the Lord will descend with a shout, 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 miserable in a degree beyond expression or conception, and that for ever.

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If we were infallibly assured, that this tremendous scene would open upon us to-morrow; or if, while I am speaking, we should be startled with the signs of our Lord's coming in the air, what confusion and alarm would overspread the congregation? Yet, if the Scripture be true, the hour is approaching, when we must all be spectators of this solemn event, and parties nearly interested in it. But, because it is at a distance, we

can hear of it, speak 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 seen, that while I aim to lead your meditations to the subject of my text, we may be duly impressed by it : and that we may carry from hence such a consideration of our latter end, as may incline our hearts to that which is our true wisdom!

Many curious inquiries and speculations might be started from this passage, but which, because I judge them to be more curious than useful, it is my intention to waive. I shall confine myself to what is plainly expressed, because I wish rather to profit than to amuse my hearers. The principal subject before us is the resurrection of the dead, in the most pleasing view of it; for my text speaks only of those who shall change the mortal and corruptible, for incorruption and immortality.

I. The introduction, mystery."

"Behold I show you you a

II. What we are taught to expect, "We shall not all "sleep, but we shall all be changed."

III. The suddenness of the event, "In a moment, in "the twinkling of an eye."

IV. The grand preceding signal, "The trumpet "shall sound."

I. The apostle apprizes the Corinthians that he is about to "show them a mystery." As the word "mys

tery" has been treated with no small contempt, I shall embrace this occasion of offering you a short explanation of it, as it is used in the Scriptures. We are allowed to say, that there are mysteries in nature, and perhaps we may be allowed to speak of mysteries in

Providence; but, though an apostle assures us, that "great is the mystery of godliness," many persons will scarcely bear the application of the word to religion. And a late ingenious writer who has many admirers in the present day, has ventured to affirm, in print, that where mystery begins, religion ends. If the frequency of the case did not, in some degree, abate our wonder, this might seem almost a mystery, that any persons who profess to believe the Scripture, should so openly and flatly contradict what the Scripture expressly and repeatedly declares: or that while, as men of reason and philosophy, they are forced to acknowledge a mystery in every part of creation, and must confess it beyond their ability to explain the growth of a blade of grass; they should, in opposition to all the rules of analogy, conclude, that the Gospel, the most important concern of man, and which is commended to us as the most eminent display of the wisdom and power of God, is the only subject so level to our apprehensions, as to be obvious, at first sight, to the most careless and superficial observers. That great numbers of people are very far from being accurate and diligent in their religious inquiries, is too evident to be denied. How often do we meet with persons of sense who talk with propriety on philosophical, political, or commercial subjects, and yet when they speak of religion, discover such gross ignorance, as would be shameful 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 slight knowledge of its first principles. Can we even conceive the possibility of a divine revelation that

* 1 Tim. iii. 16.

should have nothing in it mysterious to persons of this. character?

A mystery, according to the notation of the Greek word, signifies a secret. And all the peculiar truths of the Gospel may justly be styled mysteries or secrets, for two reasons.

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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 resurrection. The light of nature, which we often hear so highly commended, may afford: some faint glimmerings of a future state, but gives no intimation of a resurrection. The men of wisdom at Athens, the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers, who differed widely in most parts of their respective schemes, united in deriding this sentiment, and contemptuously styled the apostle Paul a babbler for preaching it. But this secret is to us made known. And we are assured, not only that the Lord will receive to himself the departing spirits of his people, but that he will give commandment concerning their dust, and in due time, raise their vile bodies to a conformity with his own glorious body.

2. Because, though they are revealed expressly in the Scripture, such is the grossness of our conceptions, and the strength of our prejudices, that the truths of revelation are still unintelligible to us, without a further revelation of their true sense to the mind, by the influence of his Holy Spirit. Otherwise, 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

*Acts xvii. 18.

* Psal. xxv. 14.

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