But the awful paffage I have juft read to you, is hiftory of a different kind. It takes up the hiftory of man, where the worldly' hiftorian. leaves him. Here the hiftory commences after death. Here we are told what are the transactions, in which we shall be engaged after our bodies lie down in the duft; when we shall be called out to live-not through the few fleeting years of a mortal life-but through the expanse of eternity. Here too is contained not only the hiftory of others, but of ourselves. Howeyer low we are, we fhall figure in this hiftory. For here the fplendid actions, and partial distinctions of mankind are all loft. The inhabitant of the palace, and of the cottage, are equally concerned. The peasant and the monarch make a figure in this hiftory equally confpicuous.- -Let us then turn over this awful page with fear, and trembling. Let it imprefs us all with its vaft and amazing contents-but let it chiefly impress the proud man with this inftructive leffon, that he will now find all the objects of his scorn on an equality with himself.

THE firft expreffion, that demands our attention, is the folemn introduction. The hour is coming. One of the fhorteft periods of time is mentioned,

mentioned, to fhew, how speedily, (as far as we ourfelves are concerned) God would have us suppose these great events will take place. We are not told the year is coming-or the day is coming but the hour is coming; which intimates to us, that we should accuftom ourselves to measure our lives by the fhorteft fpan. The longeft life is divided into hours, which foon fleet away one after another. It appears indeed the intention of God, through every part of his revealed will, to inculcate upon us, and recommend to our conflant confideration-the fhortnefs of a mortal life. All the images by which it is represented in scripture, are of the decaying, tranfitory kind. It is grafs, that withereth-it is a flower, which fadeth-it is a vapour, which vanifheth. The meaning of all which images, is, that God would remove from us all ideas of confidering this world as our home; and therefore, in his holy revelation he always reprefents it as fhort. All 'thefe images therefore of vanishing time, are leffons of mortality. They proclaim the hour is coming, which will put a fhort period to every thing here.--Confider therefore this fhort period in the light only of time lent to you; and confider for what purposes it is lent-that each fleeting hour may be eftimated

mated as a portion of that time, which is to lead you to a happy eternity. Let us not then fuffer our hours to fleet paft us, one after another, unnoticed. In all cafes an hour may be improved-in fome it may be of the firft importance. When we talk therefore of the shortness of an hour, we mean not to depreciate its value. If we neglect our hours, we can have no value for our time.

BUT let us proceed in this awful history of the dead; and fee what is to enfue, when the hour cometh. St. Peter introduces the fcene with wonderful grandeur.-The day of the Lord will come, in which the heavens fhall pass away with a great noife, and the elements melt with fervent heat: the earth alfo, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up.-Then, as the text tells us, all who are in the grave shall hear his voice, and fhall come forth.

The paffage all who are in the grave, feems immediately to refer to the refurrection of the body-a doctrine, which the gofpel very plainly inculcates. Where our fouls take their flight, when our bodies lie down in the duft, till the general refurrection, is a question, which hath much employed the conjectures of mankind.

Some

Some have supposed them to remain in a state of fleep till that time; and that, as we read a thoufand years are with God, only as one day, a perfon may die and yet his foul may awaken as it were, inftantaneously into judgment, though ages may have paffed between his death and refurrection. Others again have thought, the foul will immediately enter a ftate of happiness, or mifery; though it may not experience fo full a degree of either, as after the judgment of the great day: while others have fuppofed it to remain in fome middle state.--After all, it is best to refer fuch curious questions to a future time. If God had thought it neceffary for us to have been acquainted with them, he would have revealed them plainly. It feems however to be the decifive doctrine of fcripture, that whatever may be the immediate ftate of our fouls, our bo. dies, in fome fpiritualized form which we underftand not, fhall be again united to them. And in fome parts of fcripture a reason feems to be given, that as the foul and body had finned or acted uprightly together in this world; they might in the next be united, in reward, or punishment. As to the difficulty of gathering up all the particles of human bodies, however difperfed through air, earth, or fea, and other difficulties with regard to the fluctuation of parts,

and

and fameness of each body; they can only be difficulties with thofe, who have not properly confidered the omnipotence of that God, who originally created man out of duft, and can no doubt as easily reftore him.The expreffion therefore, all who are in the grave, feems to include all who are dead; and when the hour cometh, this union of foul and body will take place.

This is an hour indeed of awful vifitation to all-of dreadful vifitation to numbers. All who are in the grave; fhall hear his voice, and fhall come forth. Come forth they muft: but with what different feelings! When the hour cometh, and that awful voice, Come forth, shall found through the regions of the dead; how, think you, will the guilty finner appear; who has led his life in all the corruptions, and wickedness of the world? How will his spirit fink within him, when the very grave itself can no longer afford him refuge; when his many fins, which had always been thrown behind his remembrance, now rife to his confcience, with every circumstance of recollected guilt? Then fhall be completely fulfilled that pathetic prophecy, which our bleffed Saviour pronounced over Jerusalem; and which had reference, probably to the end of the world, when he tells the guilty finner, he thould

on