at the sound of the trumpet of the archangel, they will be united again with our souls, and we shall live. If you ask me how it is possible that the flesh, part of which has been eaten by worms, part blown about in dust by the four winds, that of some men consumed by fire, and of others buried in the ocean; if you ask me how it is possible that all these scattered fragments and particles can be collected and joined together,-I ask you, in return, whether it be not as easy for God to do this, as it was for him to form man from the dust at his first creation? To revive a dead man appears to require no greater exertion of power than originally to have made him. You may form some idea of the possibility of our being revived again, by what you experience every year:-" That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die;" the grain you place in the earth first roots, and is afterwards enlivened, and arises, clothed with a beautiful verdure. And if God so clothe the grass of the field, how much more shall he clothe your mortal bodies with a glorious immortality? It seems probable that men will be first revived in the same bodies in which they died, but that an instant change will take place :-" This corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality"-Christ gave a specimen of the nature of the change our bodies are to undergo, to Peter, James, and John, when he was transfigured on the mount; he appeared all glorious, his face shone like the sun, and his

raiment became white as snow. Such a change will take place with respect to the righteous at the resurrection; for St. Paul tells us, that "Christ will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." You will observe, that when this glorious change in the bodies of men at the resurrection is spoken of, it can only be meant of the bodies of the virtuous, although it be mentioned in general terms, St. Paul being desirous of taking for granted, that all those to whom he writes would be in that number. The bodies of the wicked will certainly be raised at the same time, but whether they will undergo any change, is uncertain; but it seems probable, that as many of the crimes of the wicked have arisen from their bodies, that they shall, together with their souls, share in the eternity of punishment which has been denounced.

The last article in the creed is our profession of belief, in the life everlasting."-Life is often put in Scripture for happiness, and it is possible may mean so here. I believe, that if I am pious and virtuous in this world, I shall be for ever happy in the next; or probably it may have a more extensive signification, that of existence, and may mean, not only the everlasting bliss of the righteous, but the everlasting misery of the wicked in either case our belief is supported by Scripture, which assures us, in various places, that as the religious and good man shall be eternally happy in the presence of God, so the profane and

immoral man shall for the same endless time, undergo the most terrible disgrace and torment. Such are the great truths to which we are called on to give our assent; it is, however, to little purpose that we obey the call, unless we join to a sound faith a good life and conversation: what this chiefly consists in we may learn from the commandments, to which I should now pass; but this I must defer to a future opportunity.

SERMON XXIII.

ON THE CATECHISM.

Train up a child in the

PROV. XXII. 6.

way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

In the former part of the xixth chapter of Exodus, are related the orders which the children of Israel received to attend the Lord upon Mount Sinai, and the solemn preparations which they were directed to make for that awful meeting. After that the historian proceeds in this manner :"And it came to pass on the third day (the day appointed for God's descent) in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and thick clouds upon the Mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the bottom of the Mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke

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of a furnace; and the whole Mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice."

Moses then receives orders to charge the people not to presume to ascend the Mount: and after that, God delivered the ten commandments, as we find them in the xxth chapter. You observe that this delivery was originally made to the people of Israel, and undoubtedly the ten commandments were chiefly intended for their use. "I am the Lord thy God (says the Almighty) which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." This is applicable to them only, and relates to their miraculous escape from the oppression of Pharaoh.-But when we consider the prodigious solemnity with which these ten commandments were uttered by God's own mouth, and that they were afterwards written with his own finger; and when we reflect, besides, on their intrinsic excellency, that they contain in them the great heads of duty both towards God and man; and when we observe the veneration which Christians of all ages have paid to them, we cannot but perceive that they are deserving of all our attention, respect, and obedience.

The first commandment is directed against those numerous objects of worship, to which the nations, who lived in and round about the country which the Jews were going to inhabit, paid their