be to live in heaven, to live with Christ and angels to the ages of eternity.

I am, thirdly, to shew, in connection with this, and according to the division into which I have cast my text, that as the offspring be the image of the earthy, or first man, from whom they naturally descend, by having a natural body like his; so the offspring of the heavenly Adam, the Lord from heaven, shall bear his image, by having a spiritual body fashioned like unto his glorious body; for "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

These words stand in connection with the foregoing, and belong to such as are in Christ, who already bear his image on their souls by regeneration; and they come in, by way of confirmation, to the foregoing doctrine, declaring, that as truly as we have borne, or as surely as we wear and bear the image of the earthy Adam in our bodies, which now are like his, frail, brittle, earthy, and mean, (which are, strictly speaking, bodies of our humiliation, fitted only for the present state,) so we shall, at the resurrection, as members of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, bear the image of the second man, our Head of glory, by having bodies spiritual, and like his. Christ is the Lord of heaven by right, and inherits it as God-man; he is the heir of all things; heaven and all its glory belong to him,

and are his due; he is a heavenly man, "The Lord from heaven." In the eternal decree of the eternal Three, (in which the essential Word was predestinated to be God-man, the head of his body, the church) the elect were decreed to have bodies like unto his, made spiritual and heavenly. On this foundation the apostle declares, that our souls and bodies shall be raised up to so glorious and spiritual a life and condition, as we had not before in Adam,

Christ, as our Head of grace and glory, who is stiled a quickening spirit, will bestow on us that spiritual and heavenly condition of life, which will conform us, in our measure, to his own glory: "We shall also bear the image of

the heavenly."

To help our conceptions, it will be well to remember, that Christ is stiled, "The Lord from heaven;" and his body is said to be a glorious body; and it is declared, that he will "change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. iii. 21.

With an intent to convey some scriptural ideas of the heavenly Adam, the Lord from heaven, and of his likeness, which the elect will bear, in their spiritual bodies, at his second coming, I would set before you the glory and dignity of his person, and then shew you how glorious

the body of Christ appeared to be on the holy mount, which fell short of the glory with which it now shines forth in heaven.

Christ is God and man united in one person; he is, as such, the fellow of the Lord of Hosts. See Zechariah xiii. 7. In consequence of the union of the human nature to the second person in Jehovah, it became a right and due to that human nature, immediately on its assumption into personal union with the Son of God, to be in heaven, This was suspended for a while, that the work of salvation might be accomplished. A little before it was completed, our Lord said to his disciples, "Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Accordingly, in about six days, or as Luke expresses it, about eight days, from the time Christ uttered these words to his transfiguration, he took up into a mount, Peter, James, and John, and was transfigured before them; at which time, according to Matthew, "His face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white and glistering." Mark says, "His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them." Luke says, "As he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering." They compare the light of Christ's face, and the body of Christ, to that of the sun; and the light

of his raiment to the light of the sun, or of the moon in the air, which makes it white, or to the sun shining on snow. This was such a glory as filled the disciples with dread, they were sore afraid. Our Lord did not let the glory of his humanity shine out to the full, yet it shone so glorious, that Peter says, "We were eye-witnesses of his majesty ;" and John says, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." Moses and Elias appeared in their glorified bodies, to give evidence of the glory which will be put on the bodies of the saints at the last day. Thus the heavenly Adam, the Lord from heaven, shone forth in glory so divinely and inexpressibly, that Peter calls it by the word "majesty," the same word which is used for his great glory in heaven. Heb. i. 3.

Yet the glory of Christ's transfiguration, though it proved itself to the spectators to be such as none could wear, or bear, but he who was the only begotten of the Father, yet it fell short of the glory with which he shines forth in his human nature in heaven. This was a representation of the glory in which he will appear at his coming in his kingdom, as Peter declares in the first chapter of his second epistle. Christ, now exalted in his human nature at the right hand of the Majesty on high, shines forth with greater lustre and brightness before saints and angels, than he did on the holy mount. A beam of

brightness shining on Paul, when Christ appeared to him at his conversion, was above the brightness of the sun, and totally deprived him of his sight for three days; when he was caught up into the third heaven he saw Christ's glorified humanity, yet he could utter nothing concerning it.

This short account of Christ's transfiguration and glorification, is sufficient to prove his body to be glorious: it must be so, it being the subject of all the manifestative and communicative glory of the Godhead. He is "The Lord of Glorythe fellow of the Lord of Hosts-the Lord from heaven;" who, when he descends, it will be in his own glory, and in his Father's, with his angels. And then, as "God-man-the second Man-the Lord from heaven," he will change the bodies of his saints, make them such by spiritualizing them, as they shall have a glorious conformity to his body; he will make them like his glorious body, "according to the mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. iii. 3. Thus the elect, as clothed with the righteousness of the God-man, -purified in his most precious blood,-inwardly clothed with the garment of perfect sanctification, and body and soul clothed with immortality and glory, will shine complete in their glorious Head; their bodies will be like Christ's: his is spiritual, so will their's be: his body is