invigorate resolution; charity can exert its unfailing influence; patience can have her perfect work; and submission to the will of God be crowned with an everlasting recompense.

Thus, have I showed you the grounds and reasons on which the doctrine of a future state is most surely believed among us; and thus are we all left without excuse, my hearers, if the clear and concurring testimony of reason and revelation fails so to convince us of this fundamental truth, as to bring our lives under its constant influence. To believe this doctrine, and to act accordingly, is to dig deep, and to build upon the rock which cannot be moved; while to neglect it, or to entertain it in the mind as a matter of mere speculation, is to build upon the sand -upon what will give way and deceive, and leave us without support, not only under the afflictions of time, but in that great and dreadful day when the heavens shall flee away with a great noise; the earth, also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up; and the dead, small and great, shall stand before GOD, to receive according to the deeds done in the body.

II. Secondly, I am to consider the nature of that future state. That it must be altogether different from that in which we, at present, subsist, we are in some degree prepared to apprehend, from the separation which takes place at death betwixt the soul and the body, when the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to GOD who gave it. But what becomes of the spiritual part of our frame-where, and in what condition it exists can only be known from what God hath discovered to us in his word, of the invisible state of departed spirits. From revelation, then, we learn that the state of death consists of two stages of existence; one between death and the resurrection of the body, the other after the judgment of the great day.

The first is called the separate state, because the soul is disjoined from the body. It is distinguished in the Scriptures by the name Hades; and is the place into which our blessed LORD's spirit went, during the three days his body lay in the grave. Of this separate state, the Scriptures inform us there are two distinct conditions-that of the righteous and that of the wicked; in which they severally await the righteous judgment of GOD, with a consciousness and foretaste of what that will be,

That the state of the soul after death is not a state of insensibility, as some have held, is plainly set forth to us in many passages of holy writ; as also, that it is a state of consciousness, and happy or otherwise according as that consciousness is affected by the tenour of the past life. Thus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the latter is represented as carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, and comforted there; but the former awoke in hell, being in torments-that is in Hades, or the separate state, with a foretaste of the misery he had brought upon himself, by his sensual, sinful life. For to suppose, as many too hastily do, that he was in the state of the damnedbecause the word hell is now so applied-is contrary to the whole warrant of Scripture, which uniformly represents the place of eternal punishment as subsequent to the general judgment, and consequent on the righteous sentence then to be pronounced.

Thus, also, in our Saviour's promise to the penitent thiefverily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, the proper meaning is, that his soul should accompany that of the Saviour to that division of Hades appropriated to the righteous. St. Paul, likewise, who was caught up into the third heaven long before he died, and being an eye witness, must be considered good authority, had such a clear view of the happiness of the separate state to the souls of the righteous, that he was filled with the desire to depart, and be with CHRIST.

St. John, also, in the view which he had of the invisible world, represents the separate state as one of consciousness and activity. I saw under the altar, says he, the souls of them that were slain for the word of GOD, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O LORD, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. And St. Jude informs us, that even the devils themselves are not yet consigned to the place of eternal torment. For, says he, the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own

habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.

Carelessly, then, do we express ourselves, my hearers, when we say that death consigns us at once to heaven or to hell. It indeed determines what our ultimate condition shall be, for the separate state has no provision for repentance and amendment, annexed to it. The present life is to every man that portion of his being, by which eternity will be determined. As the tree falls, so it lies. As the grave receives us, such will judgment find us. For it is on account of that judgment, and to bring us together to receive its sentence, that the body is kept in the grave, and the soul in the separate state, until all be fulfilled which relates to this world. Then shall that capital doctrine of our faith, the resurrection of the body, be realized; that soul and body once more united, may appear at the judgment seat of CHRIST, to answer for their joint conduct in this life, and according thereto to be jointly happy or miserable for ever. To that end, the body will be fitted for its immortal destiny, being raised incorruptible, no more capable of change or decay.

Such is the nature of that future state, to which we are all fast hastening, my dear hearers, and upon which our departed friend has already entered. In her, no further change can take place, until, once more united to the body in which we knew, we shall again know her, and stand together before our Judge. O how full of interest is such a thought, my brethren! How full of comfort in the loss of dear friends! How is the bitterness of separation sweetened, and death itself converted into a friend, whose welcome stroke shall restore us to all we loved in this poor world, and place us beyond the reach of change or separation, in the presence of God, where is fulness of joy, at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore! Well may we exclaim, my brethren, what hath GOD wrought! Well may the believer exult over the grave, and ask, O Death, where is now thy sting? O Grave, where is now thy victory? Thou mayest, indeed, triumph over us for a season, and wring our hearts with anguish, under thy relentless strokes; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

But it is to the believer only, remember, my dear friends, that

this blessed and glorious hope is given. All, indeed, shall be raised; but it is only those who sleep in JESUS, that he will bring with him, when he comes to judge the world. All shall be raised incorruptible, that is, incapable of any more change or decay of their bodies; but it is the faithful disciples of CHRIST only, who shall be changed into the likeness of his glorious body, while the fearful and unbelieving, the impenitent and ungodly, shall be driven from the presence of the LORD, and the glory of his power, with an everlasting destruction. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; especially, let the gospel sinner, who is dreaming through his day of grace, intent only on the things which perish-who thinks not of the account he has to give to GoD for the mercies of redemption, and the means of salvation through a crucified Saviour-nor of death, nor of judgment, nor of heaven, nor of hell, but only of the world, and its vain delights-O let him stop before iniquity prove his everlasting ruin; and, as we shall surely live again, let him treasure up the warning now given, and instantly set himself, with heart and hand, to prepare for that tremendous change which death makes in the condition of accountable beings.

III. Of which preparation I am now, in the third place, to speak.

However complicated the process may be, from the variety in moral condition among mankind, the preparation itself consists but of two points, viz.: Victory over sin, and the renewal of our souls to that holiness in which the image of GoD consists; for both which, GoD, in his infinite mercy, hath provided, through our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

As sin originally banished us from GoD, it must, if persisted in, continue to exclude us from all hope of his favour and presence-for he is the unchangeable GoD-and deliver us over to eternal death as its only wages. Hence the necessity on the part of man, a sinner, that the guilt of sin should be pardoned, and the love and the practice of sin be destroyed, if he would obtain eternal life. And hence the unspeakable value of the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, revealed in the gospel; by whose sufferings and death in our behalf, alone, can these mighty benefits be obtained. For it is not sufficient, my hearers, that we have power over the outward acts of sin-in other words,

that we be moral in our lives-to prepare us for the presence of GOD, in eternal glory. The corruption of our nature must be removed; the desires and affections of our hearts must be changed; and the fallen powers of the soul renovated, to the apprehension and entertainment of spiritual and heavenly things. And to prepare us for the employment and occupation of inhabitants of heaven, we must acquire a relish, in the present life, for the worship of God; we must learn the language of praise, and the practice of righteousness; and must find delight in contemplating and imitating his glorious perfections, and excellent goodness. This, my hearers, is indispensable to prepare us for the blessed society of heaven. But it is not the work of any human power. It is the work of the HOLY GHOST, to sanctify the sinner to GoD, and fit him for eternal glory. Yet, as we are moral beings, and only as such accountable, it is a work in which we have to bear a part; and our part is, to hear the word of God and to keep it; to believe his gracious promises made to us in CHRIST Our Saviour; to restrain the outward acts of sin and disobedience to his holy laws; to cultivate communion with him by prayer and meditation; and to surrender ourselves to the blessed guidance of his word and HOLY SPIRIT, working in us, whereby he renews our hearts, sanctifies our fallen nature, and prepares us, through the merits and death of his only begotten Son, to inherit eternal life in his everlasting kingdom of never-ending felicity, and unfading glory.

In this mighty work, behold, my dear friends, of how little value this deluding world is. Alas! all its wisdom, wealth, and power, can aid us nothing in the transformation of our souls from sin to holiness. O let it break its hold upon our hearts, thus to see, that in the work of our salvation it is not our friend, but our enemy! that its glory and its pleasures are as nothing, to the glory that shall be revealed to the righteous-to the unfading pleasures which await the faithful, at the right hand of GOD! That its reproach and its frown--yea, all that it can inflict-is as nothing to the loss of God's everlasting favour! That the combined purchase of its wealth cannot give to God a ransom for a single soul, or redeem our dearest friend from the grave! Oh! could wealth bring those dear ones back, over VOL. II.-71