AS there is no evil the man in Adam is not the subject of, and liable to in time and eternity, so there is none that the man in Christ is not saved from, and has not an antidote against in the everlasting gospel of the blessed God. Is sin the greatest of all evils, does it defile both soul and body, and introduce misery and death into every faculty of the soul, and every member of the body? This, though awfully true, the man in Christ, the believer in Jesus, is divinely saved from. Jesus bore all his sins, in his own body, on the tree. He was nailed to the cross with the whole body of sin and death. He there purged out the guilt of sin, and abolished the stain of it. There he made an End of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, finished the transgression, and brought in everlasting righteousness: which being imputed by the Father, and apprehended by faith, enables the believer clearly to see that Christ hath loved him, and washed hire from his sins in his own blood. Here is then an antidote against the guilty pollution of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth from all sin, Does the law of God pronounce an eternal curse upon all who have broken it in the least instance? The Lord Jesus delivers believers from it, he himself having sustained the curse for there. Has sill brought with it the sentence of death upon all flesh, so that there is no discharge in that war? Jesus hath abolished death, and with his own voice pronounced from heaven, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Is the grave the house appointed for, all living, and must the body in it be reduced to dust and rottenness? Christ by lying in it, has gained a complete conquest over it. He is the resurrection and the life. And his people are risen in him as their bead, and will, one day by virtue of their union with him, be raised in their own bodies to life immortal. Thus there is not one evil, one misery, or any thing at which nature shudders and fears, but the men in Christ, true believers in the Son of God, are completely saved from in Christ, and may boldly triumph over. Death itself can do then no harm: their being laid in the grave need give them no uneasiness: they will rise from it every way better for lying in it. This honour belongs to all Christ's saints; they are his members, one with him: they will one day be conformed in body and soul to him; they will see him as be is, they will shine as be does. And as they in their bodies have borne the image of the earthly Adam, they shall bear the image of the heavenly Adam in their bodies also. So that the head and members, Christ and the church, shall be conformed to each other, and be complete.

It is good to view and review the glorious revelation made of Christ in the sacred page. He sustains the name and title of Saviour; it being his work to save his people from their sins: and it is his office to bestow upon them every blessing and benefit of it. It is expressly said, " He was made sin for us; that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree; that he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification." The apostle John celebrates his praise, for " loving us, and washing us, from our sins in his own blood." Paul says, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; he is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth." Our Lord himself says, " I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in nee, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die." Blessings on him. " Forasmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself, likewise, took part of the same: that through death he might destroy him that bad the power of death, that is, the devil." He is Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. 1 Thess. i. 10. We have a promise to be accomplished to believers at the article of death; " When an abundant entrance is to be administered into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," 2 Peter i. 11. « When we are absent from the body, we are assured we shall be present with the Lord." 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3. And as it respects the future coming of our Lord from heaven, it is expressly declared, that, " If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." I Thess. iv. 14. And this chapter, out of which I have read my text, presents us with a glorious view and prospect of the eternal triumph of saints, at the resurrection from the grave of death, over mortality for ever: as they will then be raised powerful and glorious, their bodies will be spiritual and incorruptible. " And as we have borne the image of the earthy Adam, we shall also then bear the image of the heavenly." Ever since sin and death entered into our nature, believers have needed all the supports and cordials contained in the first revelation of Jesus Christ; and in the divine light which the Holy Ghost, from time to time, hath been pleased to cast thereon, and reflect thereby on the minds of his regenerate and called ones, they have had their faith and hope increased and maintained.

Thus when death was sent to separate Adam's soul and body, the faithful in that generation saw and read, in a very striking view, their own mortality. Soon afterwards the Lord translated Enoch to himself, without death, to give them a pledge of immortality and life everlasting. There was a glorious proof given concerning the death and resurrection of the Messiah in the typical representation given of it in the sacrifice and deliverance of Isaac, and it might fairly be inferred from hence, that as surely as the head of the elect would be raised up from the power of death, so surely all his members would be in due season, in consequence of their union with him, and interest in his death and resurrection. It was further declared by the angel of the Lord, as the representative of Jehovah, who spake in the name of all the persons in the incomprehensible Godhead, and said, " I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," which was a proof of the resurrection from the dead; " seeing that he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him." The prophet Isaiah, speaking- of our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Hosts, says, " He will swallow up death in victory." He further proclaims, as the representative of the Messiah, an eternal triumph over the grave, saying, " Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise: awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." And Christ, by the mouth of the prophet Hosea, says, " I will ransom them from the power of the grave : I will redeem them from death: 0 death, I will be thy plagues; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction."

These divine supports for faith and consolations against the fears of death, which are all most divinely realized in the person, work, and victories of our incarnate God, are set before us in this chapter : in which the apostle most fully treats of our Lord's resurrection from the grave of death, and of the resurrection of his mystic body in due season. He introduces his subject concerning the resurrection of the just with an account of the gospel which he had preached; the sum of which was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ : all which was according to the scriptures. Then he mentions some persons, who were eye witnesses of our Lord's resurrection, as Peter, the twelve apostles, the five hundred brethren, who saw our Lord on a mountain in Galilee, James the son of Alpheus, and brother of our Lord, afterwards all the apostles, immediately before his ascension into heaven, and lastly himself.

He then proceeds to blame some in the Corinthian church, for denying the doctrine of the resurrection; it being one grand part and doctrine of the everlasting gospel, that Christ was risen from the dead, which could not be true, if there be no resurrection. But the testimonies of those eye-witnesses before-mentioned, are a sufficient proof of it; and the denial of it would be attended with the following absurdities. The preaching of the gospel would be vain, and faith in Christ also ; yea, and the apostles would be found false witnesses of God, in the testimony which they gave concerning his raising up Christ from the dead, which was riot a truth, if it could be proved that the dead rise not.

On this principle, such as believed in him must be yet in their sins, in an unregenerate state, under the power and guilt of sin; not only so, but such as are dead in Christ, or for his sake are lost and perished ; and even such saints as were alive, must be the most unhappy and miserable of all mortals. But it is a clear case and point that Christ is risen, and saints will also be raised; which the apostle argues from Christ's being the first fruits of those which are fallen asleep in him : his resurrection secures theirs. He then shews, that as Adam was a covenant head to all his posterity, and all his posterity die in consequence of their union to him ; so Christ is the covenant-head of all his saints, and they shall be quickened from the grave of death by him ; " For as death came ,by Adam, so life came by Christ." If any objected to this saying, Why did not the saints, who were dead before the resurrection of Christ, rise from the dead when he did, or quickly after; he tells such, that there is an order observed, agreeably to the first-fruits and lump. Christ, the first-fruits, is first, and then they that believe in him. Their resurrection will not be till his second coming. It is then that all the elect will be gathered in and raised, and presented to the Father, complete in soul and body, and all rule and authority among men will cease. In the mean while, Christ must reign until all enemies are subject to him, the last of which is death; which, when effected, then he, as mediator, will give up his kingdom, with an account of it, to the Father, who deputed him to his office, that God in all his persons, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, may be all in all. Then he further proceeds with his subject concerning the resurrection, by shewing the sufferings of the saints, to be an argument to prove it; and their martyrdoms, (figuratively expressed under the notion of a baptism) were in the faith of it. Now their sufferings, and being continually in jeopardy for their lives, and the apostle himself liable to die daily, for the sake of Christ, and the gospel: all this would have been absurd, if there were no resurrection of the dead. And the denial of this doctrine, would likewise have a pernicious tendency on the lives and conversations of men.

The apostle in pursuing his discourse, answers objections, and removes obstacles formed in the minds of a caviling unbeliever and denier of this most important truth.

By what falls under our observation, and is evident to our eyes and senses, he illustrates the resurrection of the body from the grave of death. He observes, that grain sown in the earth, first dies, before it is quickened, and that it does not spring up, and bear grain, as it was sown, but in a different form and shape, with additional circumstances greatly to its advantage; and has a body given to it according to the good pleasure of God., and suitable to the nature of the seed : so, in like manner, the body first dies, and then is raised in a different form, or with different qualities, by the power and according to the will of God. Then he illustrates the difference of the body, when sown in the grave, and when raised from thence, by the difference of flesh in men, beasts, and birds, which, though all flesh, differ from each other; and so will the flesh of the body, in the resurrection, differ from the flesh with which it is now clothed.

He gives a further illustration of this, by the difference there is in the heavenly and earthly bodies in the sun, moon, and stars, and how one star differeth from another star in glory. All which similes, acommodated to this subject, serve to shew the difference there will be in the bodies of the saints, at the resurrection, from what they now are, and will be by death; which, when it has done its office on them, they are sown in weakness, (for a dead body is perfect weakness ;) yet, at the resurrection of the just, they will be raised in power : they are sown in the grave in corruption ; they are raised out of it in incorruption : they are sown, when committed to the dust, in dishonour ; they are raised from it in glory : they are sown in the grave, natural bodies ; they will be raised spiritual bodies : and that the risen bodies of saints will be spiritual, the apostles proves by comparing Adam and Christ together : the one had a natural body, the other had a spiritual body, after his resurrection ; the order of which the apostle gives. The natural body of Adam, was before the spiritual body bf Christ.

These general outlines of the preliminaries going before my text and subject, I have borrowed from Dr. Gill: and thus being brought to my text, I will recite it, ver. 47, 48, 49. " The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy : and as is the heavenly, such are they also which are heavenly and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

Thus the apostle, having laid a foundation in the person, life, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, for an eternal, triumph over sin, the world, Satan, death, and hell ; and the certainty of our resurrection from the grave of death in due season, viz. at the second appearing of our divine Jesus; he proposes to our minds in the text, truths full of unspeakable consolation : in them we have the following particulars.

First. We have here Adam and Christ compared together : the one, the head of nature, the other, the head of grace. And their original is pointed out : the one is of earth, the other is from heaven. "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."

Secondly. We have the offspring of the one, and the other, which are different : the offspring of the first Adam are earthy, like him; the offspring of the second Adam are heavenly, as he was, and will have a body, like his. " As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."

Thirdly. That as the offspring bore the image of the first man, from whom they naturally descended, by having a natural body like his ; so the offspring of the second 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 are the particulars into which the text naturally divides itself: and may the Lord, the Spirit, inspire my mind, and give me so scriptrally to understand the subject before us, that I may set it before you, to Christ's praise, and to your spiritual profit, and exceeding joy,

I am, first, according to the plan laid down, to consider, Christ and Adam, as compared together : the one, the head of nature; the other, the head of grace; with their original, which is here pointed out. " The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord froth heaven."

By Adam and Christ compared together, we understand the one to be the type, and the other the antitype. This is a truth which our apostle intimates in more places than one : he expressly declares it in the fifth chapter to the Romans, and the fourteenth verse, where he says, that °' Adam was a figure of him that was to come." He was a figure of Christ in these following respects : Adam was a public person, and the head of all mankind, in his state of innocency, and hence it was, that he falling, conveyed to all his posterity, the imputation of sin; and there with the total depravity of his fallen nature, his misery, and death : so Christ, as the bead of his church and people, conveys to them righteousness and life.

This is what the apostle treats of in the fifth chapter to the Romans ; but in. the chapter before us, his design in speaking of the two Adams, is to point out how Christ was set forth and represented by the first man, (even in his pure creation state, above the consideration of the fall) as pre-ordained before the world was, to be the head and root of the elect, to convey to them all the blessings of supernatural life, immortality, and blessedness. Our apostle's doctrine in this chapter is concerning the resurrection of the elect dead : this he proves by many arguments, in the beginning of this chapter, the chief of which are drawn from the resurrection of Christ, in whom all the elect must live, as in Adam all die. This is treated of from the beginning of it, to the twenty-first and twenty-second verses. At the thirty-fifth verse he starts the question, as if made by one who yet objected to the doctrine of the resurrection; with what body, or in what state and condition of life shall the dead arise? To which he answers that, for matter and substance, it is the same body they had before. But for qualifications, the condition of their persons and state of life, shall differ from what they now are, as much as a body celestial, does from a terrestrial body.

After this, he proceeds to spew, that God had ordained two such different conditions of life, and of bodies, for the sons of men: the one common for all men ; the other peculiar to the elect. " There is, (says he) a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." To prove which, he quotes a passage from the second chapter of Genesis, and applies it to the present subject, saying, " And so it is written, the first man Adam, was made a living soul ;" and, as well knowing the mind of the Holy Ghost in the passage, he adds to it, " the last Adam was made a quick ening spirit." This is what he deduces from it. Thus he makes Adam a type of Christ. He calls one the first Adam, and the other the second Adam ; and by giving this name to Christ, he plainly declares, that the one was represented by the other, which plainly proves that they were both  public heads: the one the head of nature, the other the head of grace.

All mankind were in the first by creation, and through the channel of generation, receive their distinct personalities, being, and life, and will do so, down to the end of time.

All the elect were in the second, by that eternal act of the mind and will of God, expressed, in the scripture by the phraseology of being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world: and they all receive being, spiritual life, and their new and supernatural creation in him, when they are born again through the almighty energy of the Holy Ghost.

The apostle next shews that God, in his decrees, ordained that Adam should be first, with his natural body, to usher in, (if I may so say,) Christ in his spiritual body. The original of these two heads, is thus pointed out in my text, and they are therein compared together; " The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven."

The comparison between the first man Adam, who is of the earth, earthy; and the second man, viz. Christ, who is the Lord from heaven, stands thus. Adam, the head and root of all mankind, had in him a principle of natural life; so Christ, the head and root of all the elect, has in himself a principle of spiritual life: and, like as Adam conveys his natural life to all his offspring, so Christ conveys his spiritual life to all his seed : and Adam was, says Dr. Goodwin, before his fall, a prophetic type of Christ to come, as the head of the elect, who, as a public person, should advance them to the like glorious condition, as himself had in heaven. The glory of this accomplishment was appointed for him, without the consideration of the fall : that interposing, he came, suffered, and died, to remove the obstacles that the fall had laid in the way of the execution of the work first designed.

A further comparison between the first and second Adam may be taken thus: the formation of Adam's body, was by the immediate hand of God; the union of his body and soul was a shadow of the personal union of our nature, in the person of the Son of God. Adam's body was suited to take in all the pleasures and comforts, which the whole world could afford;-it was the epitome of the whole world, and every creature in it;-it contained the perfections of all creatures ;-it had a natural beauty in it ;and was originally immortal; i. e. it had perpetual vigour ; yet, it was but earth. Because the subject lies out of the road of common observation, I will explain all this before I proceed.

There was a consultation of the Trinity concerning the creation of man. Gen. i. 6. His body was formed out of the virgin earth, so that he was without father, without mother," and is expressly called the Son of God." Luke iii. 38. The union of his soul and body was by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and wholly mysterious. The body of Adam was suited to take in all the creatures in this lower world ;-it was made for him;-his body was suited to it, and fitted to receive pleasure and comfort from every creature in it ;-his body was the epitome of the world, and all things in it;-they were all suited to him, and he to them. There was a majesty, beauty, glory, and excellency in his body, as animated with a living rational soul, so that Solomon, in all his glory, did not shine forth in such majestic brightness and beauty, as the first man did in his native inherent beauty, majesty, glory, and excellency in paradise ; yet his body, though the sum of all created and creature excellencies, suited to take in the comforts of the whole creation, and to receive joy and pleasure from every creature: yet it was but an earthy body formed out of the dust, it was fitted only for a corporeal state. He had, indeed, universal headship, as the father of all rational offspring ; he was also invested with lordship and dominion over every creature in this our world: yet he could never have mounted higher than this state by any dues of creatureship. He was, indeed, immortal, i. e. he had perpetual vigour, and would never have died, had he not sinned. His communion with the eternal Three was suited to this his state, nor could he ever have been advanced to super-creation, communion, privileges, and blessings, by any dues of creatureship. He was placed in paradise by God's special and royal favour, which place was, doubtless, the epitome of the whole world ; it contained all the sweets and perfections of it. Here Adam enjoyed the utmost perfection of happiness of which he was capable, in his state of pure creation. But though the head of nature, and invested with power and dominion over the creatures, yet his original was but earth, " The first man is of the earth, earthy."

Let us now take a view of the " second Man, the Lord from heaven," the antitype of the first.

As it respects him, as the antitype of Adam, in the particulars already mentioned, it is clear -that his body, or human nature, was the immediate formation of the Holy Ghost, and the fruit of the virgin's womb. 11 A body hast thou prepared me," Heb. x. 5. His human nature, united to his divine, by his personal assumption of it, is called the " Son of God," Luke i. 35. The body of Christ was a tabernacle, not made with hands, in which dwelt all the fulness of the God-head, which must be the subject of greater majesty, glory, excellency, beauty, and perfection, than the body of the first man, though it was inhabited by a rational soul.

Christ, God-man, was appointed to be the one immortal, universal, catholic Head of his mystic body, the church. He is Lord of all he has universal empire and dominion over all things, visible and invisible, angels, principalities, and powers, being made subject unto him. He is invested with all power in heaven and in earth. By virtue of the union of the person of the Son of God with our nature, and his dwelling in it, as " God manifested in the flesh," the body of Christ, God-man, was raised up at his resurrection, a spiritual body, and he became a quickening spirit, the principle of life, glory, immortality, and blessedness, to the souls and bodies of all his people, which he will openly display in them at their resurrection at the last day.

As to his origin, he is the Lord from heaven, the Lord of glory. It is his most holy and blessed state and condition in glory, to wear and shine forth in his human nature, with splendor and majesty, above all creatures, whether angels or men ; all the glory, blessedness, perfection, and excellency of heaven, meet and centre in him. His body, as the temple in which the Godhead dwelleth., is the subject of them, and the medium whereby they are reflected on his saints, who surround his throne in glory.

I come, secondly, to observe, that we have, in the words before us, the offspring of the first and of the second man described, which are different. The offspring of the first man are earthy, like him : the offspring of the second man, are heavenly, as he is; and they will, in due season, have a body like his. 11 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."

The apostle's design is to compare the state of Adam's body and his offspring with the glorious body of Christ, and the bodies of his saints at the resurrection, when their bodies will be spiritual in conformity to his. Hence he says, " As is the earthy, such are they also that. are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Adam's body was a mere earthy animal one ; it was suited wholly to earthly things ; it was formed and animated with a rational soul, which the Lord God breathed in at the nostrils. The body thus quickened, was qualified and capacitated to take in pleasure, delight, and comfort, from every creature and object which surrounded it, in this our world. It received life, strength, and motion from the soul, which resided in it. The first man, the head of nature was, as a public head, a living soul, to communicate his whole image to his offspring: he did so; and all his offspring have earthy bodies like his; and in consequence of his fall, they are frail, brittle, and under the sentence of death, and liable to be dissolved by it; they are fit only for this present state and world in which they now are. Though some of theta are the temples of the Holy Ghost, yet, in their present circumstances, with their present qualifications, senses, and perceptions, they are incapable of the joys of heaven. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." The first man, by God's ordinance, conveys his condition of soul and body to all his offspring. Their bodies are made and suited to this present visible system, and to the things of time and sense.

Our apostle shews how these two public heads, the one of nature, the other of grace, the one earthy, the other heavenly, convey their different condition to their offspring. " As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."

The offspring of the second man, the Lord from heaven, partake of a new and heavenly birth in their regeneration. In consequence of their union and relation to the Lord from heaven, and as partakers of a supernatural life, and new creation in him, they are, and shall be heavenly as he is, and shall receive from him, at their resurrection from the grave of death, spiritual and heavenly bodies, and thus be made in soul and body complete and perfectly conformed to him, by having such bodies, as will be fitted and qualified for the full, complete, and uninterrupted enjoyment of the God-man, in the state of glory. He, at his resurrection, had a spiritual body; and they also, at their resurrection, shall have spiritual bodies, perfectly and most exactly suited to all the glory, blessedness, perfection, and enjoyments of heaven. Their bodies will be heavenly ; they will be spiritualized, and so qualified as to receive infinite, holy, heavenly, and unspeakable delight from the body of Christ, which is the standard of all perfections, the mirror in which all the manifestative glory of Godhead will for ever shine forth, and thereby be reflected on the souls and bodies of the glorified. Hence the apostle says, " 0 The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body," I Cor. vi. 13. We shall be conformed to the glorious body of Christ, and receive glory, delight, joy, and refreshment from it. The human nature of Christ, angels, and heaven, will be so divinely suited to the spiritual bodies of saints, and they, in their spiritual bodies, so exactly suited to the human-nature of Christ, and to angels and heaven, that Adam's body was not more fitted by creation for paradise, and to live in this world, than we shall be to live in heaven, to live with Christ and angel's 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, 1` 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 coining 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 eyewitnesses 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 Glory the fellow of the Lord of Hosts-the Lord from heaven;" who, when be 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 theirs be: his body is glorious; so will theirs be: he is in his body heavenly; theirs will also be heavenly. His humanity will shine brighter than ten thousand suns; they will, in their heavenly bodies, shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.

Thus the second man, the Lord from heaven, will raise up the bodies of his saints to so glorious and spiritual a condition, as will be their everlasting perfection.

I conclude with the words of holy Romaine, To be where Jesus is, to see him face to face, to be like him in body and soul, and to enjoy him with every faculty of both, is the fullest blessedness of eternity. For him to dwell in his people, is the heaven of heavens.' May the Lord shine upon the subject, and bless it to all your souls, and make it truly profitable unto you. Amen.