ged, fhall ftill be the fame. Let us firft determine how that body, which was once an infant, is the very fame when it becomes a full grown man, or a man in extreme old age. Let us explain the tranfmutation of a caterpillar or filk-worm, which, from a reptile becomes a butterfly. What a wonderful change is this both in appearance and in powers? Who would fuppofe it to be the fame creature? Yet who can deny it? It is fafest and most comfortable for us, to refer to the wisdom and power of God the accomplishment of his own word. III. These great events will take place unexpectedly and fuddenly. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. We have reafon to believe, that a part at least of mankind will be employed as they are now, and as they were in the days of Noah and Lot *, eating, drinking, buying, felling, building, and planting; having nothing lefs in their thoughts than the calamity and destruction which shall overwhelm them without warning. For while they are promising themselves peace, the day of the Lord fhall come upon them, like a thief in the night, unlooked for, and, like the pangs of a labouring woman, unavoidable. In that day the lofty looks of man fhall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone fhall be exalted +. So large a part of divine prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled, that I apprehend it is not probable that any of us shall be alive when this great and terrible day of the Lord fhall be revealed. But are not fome of us expofed to a fimilar dreadful furprise! If you die in your fins, the confequences will be no lefs deplorable to you, than if you faw the whole frame of nature perifhing with you. Alas, what will you do, whither will you flee for help, or where will you leave your glory, if, while you are engroffed by the cares or pleasures of this world, death fhould arreft you, and fummon you to judgment? H 3 • Luke xvii. 26,―30. † If. ii. 6. The The rich man in the gospel is not charged with any crimes of peculiar enormity. It is not faid that he ground the faces of the poor, or that he, by fraud ot oppreffion, kept back the hire of the labourers who had reaped his harveft; he only rejoiced in his wealth, and in having much goods laid up for many years, and that therefore he might, fecurely eat, drink, and be merry. But God faid unto him, Thou fool, this night fhall thy foul be required of thee *. Awful difappointment! Thus will it be, fooner or later, with all whofe hearts and portions are in this world, but are not rich towards God! Confider this, you that are like minded with him. Tremble at the thought of being found in the number of those who have all their confolation here, and who, when they die, must leave their all behind them. Now is the acceptable time, the day of falvation. Now, if you will feek the Lord, he will be found of you. Now, if you pray for grace and faith, he will anfwer you. But when once the Mafter of the house fhall arife, and with his own fovereign authoritative hand fhall but the door of his mercy, it will then be in vain, and too late, to fay, Lord, Lord, open unto us †! IV. The great fcene will be introduced by a fignal. At the last trump; for the trumpet shall found. Thus the approach of a king or a judge is ufually announced; and the fcripture frequently borrows images from our little affairs and cuftoms, and, in condefcenfion to our weakness, illuftrates things in themselves too great for our conceptions, by comparing them with those which are more familiar to us. It will indeed be comparing great things with fmall, if I attempt to illuftrate this fublime idea by local cuftoms which obtain in this kingdom. At a time of affize, when the judges, to whom the adminiftration and guardianship of our laws are entrufted, are making their entrance, expectation is awake, Luke xii. 20. ↑ Luke xiii. 25% awake, and a kind of reverence and awe is felt, evèn by those who are not immediately concerned in their inqueft. The dignity of their office, the purpose for which they come, the concourfe of people, the order of the proceffion, and the found of the trumpet, all concur in raising an emotion in the hearts of the fpectators. Happy are they then upon whom the inflexible law has no demand! But who can des fcribe the terror with which the found of the trumpet is heard by the unhappy criminal; and the throbbings of his heart, if he be already convicted in his own confcience, and knows or fears that there is fufficient evidence at hand to fix the fact upon him, and to prove his guilt? For foon the judge will take his feat, the books will be opened, the cause tried, and the criminal fentenced. Many circumstances of this kind are alluded to in the fcripture, to affift us in forming some conception of what will take place, when all the race of Adam, fmail and great, fhall ftand before the Sovereign Judge, the one Lawgiver, who is able to fave and to deftroy. But the concourse, the folemnity, the fcrutiny, the event, in the most weighty caufes that can come before a human judicature, are mere fhadows, and trivial as the fports of children, if compared with the business of this tremendous tribunal. The Lord himself will descend with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. What a trumpet will that be, whofe found. thall diffolve the frame of nature, and awaken the dead? When the Lord is feated upon his great white throne*, the heavens and the earth fhall flee from his prefence; but the whole race of mankind fhall be affembled before him, each one to give an account of himself, to him, from whofe penetrating knowledge no fecret can be hidden, and from whofe unerring inflexible fentence there can be no appeal. Where then hall the wicked and the ungodly appcar? * Rev. Ix. II. H 4 But But it will be a joyful day to believers: they fhall be feparated as the wheat from the tares, and arranged at his right hand. When the Lord fhall come, attended by his holy angels, his redeemed people will reaffume their bodies, refined and freed from all that was corruptible; and thofe of them who fhall be then living will be changed, and caught up to meet him in the air. He will then own them, approve and crown them, before affembled worlds. Every charge that can be brought against them will be over-ruled, and their plea, that they trufted in him for falvation, be admitted and ratified. They will be accepted and juftified. They will fhine like the fun in his train, and attend, as affeffors with him, when he fhall pafs final judgment upon his and their enemies. Then he will be admired in and by them that believe. Their tears will be for ever wiped away, when he shall fay to them, Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from. the foundation of the world*. Beloved, if these things are fo, what manner of perfons ought we to be in all holy converfation and godli nefs? Should we not give all diligence to make our calling and election fure, that we may be found of him in peace? He who will then be feated upon the throne of judgment, is to us made known as feated upon a throne of grace. It is time, it is high time, and bleffed be God it is not yet too late, to seek his mercy. Still the gospel invites us to hear his voice, and to humble ourselves before him. Once more you are invited, fome of you perhaps for the laft time; how know you but fickness or death may be at the very door? Confider, Are you prepared? Examine the foundation of your hope,-and do it quickly, impartially, and earneftly, left you should be cut off in an hour when you are not aware, and perish with a lie in your right hand. SER Matt. xxv. 34. † 2 Pet. iii. II. 377 SERMON XLIII. Death swallowed up in Victory. I COR. XV. 54. Then fhall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory! EATH, fimply confidered, is no more than a that what was once living lives no longer. But it has been the general, perhaps the univerfal cuftom of mankind to personify it. Imagination gives death a formidable appearance, arms it with a dart, fting, or fcythe, and reprefents it as an active, inexorable, and invincible reality. In this view Death is a great devourer; with his iron tongue he calls for thousands at a meal. He has already fwallowed up all the preceding generations of men; all who are now living are marked as his inevitable prey; he is ftill unfatisfied, and will go on devouring till the Lord fhall come. Then this deftroyer fhall be destroyed; he fhall swallow no more, but be swallowed up himself in victory. Thus the fcripture accommodates itself to the language and apprehenfions of mortals. Farther, the metaphorical ufage of the word fwallow ftill enlarges and aggrandizes the idea. Thus the earth is faid to have opened her mouth and fwallowed up Korah and his accomplices *. And thus a pebble, a millftone, or a mountain, if caft into the ocean, would be fwallowed up, irrecoverably loft and gone, as though they had never been †. Such fhall be the triumphant victory of MESSIAH in the great day of the confum Numb. xvi. 32. H 5 mation |