new character. They will be incorruptible, immortal bodies, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption; and this mortal shall have put on immortality. As they will serve God day and night in his temple, so will they be raised in power, and endowed with faculties suited to the never ceasing employments and enjoyments of the heavenly world. At the resurrection the bodies of the saints will be arrayed in glory and beauty. The Saviour will change their vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body. When the Archangel shall sound his trump, in the twinkling of an eye the earth will heave; tombs disclose; and myriads of spiritually arrayed forms, bright as the sun, arise and ascend to heaven. Are believers often affected in view of their frail, perishable bodies? What consolation! How sublime, how delightful the doctrine of the resurrection! The future glory of these animal frames, when changed into spiritual bodies, will exceed the utmost conceptions of human imagination. They will be exalted, adorned, and enraptured as suitable mansions for glorified spirits. Though our mortal frames are a subject of interesting contemplation, yet how inferiour, compared to their future incorruptable, immortal, and spiritual attributes! The constitution, arrangement, and qualities of glorified bodies, will doubtless be truly delightsome, astonishing, and inconceivably glorious. Amen,

SERMON XVI.

A MAN'S RELIGION MAY BE HIS RUIN.

ISAIAH XXVIII. 20.

For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

MANKIND are subjects of the highest prosperity and affluence, and of the lowest depths of adversity and poverty. Uniformity is by no means the common lot of the human race; but diversity and contrast are peculiarities, as it respects the condition of man. There are not only the high and low, rich and poor, bond and free; but innumerably varied are their situations and circumstances. Through the journey of life, some make use of an elegant cane; while others are assisted by an old and crooked staff. Some are cheered with the enjoyment of a comfortable degree of health, all their days; and others are scarcely ever exempt from disease. Some live in great style as it respects their houses and equipage; but others have their residence in an uncomfortable hut, and scarcely obtain the necessaries of life. Dives fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus enjoyed but few of the good things of this present world. But whether mankind, in their pilgrimage state, travel a road comparatively smooth and pleasant, or rough and unpleasant, they are soon entombed in the silent grave; their bodies intermingled with the common dust, and their souls in a world of spirits. Hence, the manner of our journeying through this vale of tears, is of little importance, compared with our future destiny-our

eternal home.

The words of the text, are a proverbial saying, and their most literal meaning is expressive of a state of uneasiness and distress. When a bed is too short, a person cannot lie at his ease, but is perplexed in the hours of rest. When the covering is too narrow, he is exposed to the severities of a cold night. The moral, or lesson of instruction to the Jews, was to teach them that their confederacy with the Egyptians could not protect them against the Assyrians and Chaldeans; nor could their numbers and fortifications defend them against the Romans, when God should forsake them and become their enemy.

"Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner Stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth, shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it." We are figuratively taught, that a man's religion may be his ruin.

In the illustration of this subject, it is my design to bring to view some of those kinds of religion that are founded not on a sure, but false foundation; and to show that they are essentially deficient, and ruinous to the soul. Among the different varieties and sects of religion in the world, there are strictly but two kinds, the true and false. The one will support a man in the solemn and trying hour

of death, and lead to joys on high; but the other then forsakes the soul, when it is destroyed suddenly, and that without remedy.

1st. Infidelity is a religion essentially defective. By infidelity, is meant deism, or a rejection of the Saviour, as the only Mediator between God and man, and as the only possible way of salvation. Persons of this description, glory in the light of nature as being sufficient to lead to the true knowledge of God, and to teach all those ways which are necessary to glorify him. But through the depravity of the human heart, and the consequent blindness of the mind, where mankind have been left to nature's light, they have formed strange ideas. concerning a God, and their worship has been a scene of the most degrading infatuation. Some have been content with a god of clay; others, of wood. Some have had a silver god, and others have had one formed of gold. Creatures have been worshipped as the Creator, and natural objects adored as Deity. But how essentially defective such views and service! How abominable in the sight of a holy God, and how degrading to man, considered as a rational and immortal being! Surely nature's light is become darkness in consequence of our apostacy. It leads none of the human race to know, to love, and serve the true God; for all pursue their own vain imaginations, and their foolish heart is most strangely darkened.

Wherever is deism, there is a land of darkness and of the shadow of death. Instead of a system of superiour light, its tendency is to banish the Bible from the face of the earth, to take from the bosom of the believer his only hope of immortality, and to shroud him in his dying moments in overwhelming darkness. Can that be called a benevolent religion, which blots out of existence the angels; deprives all the redeemed of eternal life; and which would pluck from the head of the Divine Redeemer every crown except that of thorns?

But let the deist have the light of divine revelation; let him have the Bible in his hand, and form consistent and exalted views of the character and designs of God. Is he not now built on a rock, and not on a sandy foundation? No: for when he knows there is a God, he glorifies him not as God. And as to the sins of his heart and life, reason is insufficient to lead him to true repentance; and the influence of the Holy Spirit he resists, and denies its necessity. To godly sorrow, and that repentance which is unto salvation, he is an entire stranger; and that he is a transgressor, not only the word of God, but his own conscience bears witness. When stung with guilt, and alarmed at his condition, he denies the Lord Jesus; and there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. When the law condemns, of the gospel he is ashamed. To what then can his hope be compared, except to that of the hypocrite's, which perisheth? Shall we say, he hopes for pardon on the account of repentance? But infidelity is opposed to a penitent life, and makes its boast in a self-justifying spirit. Notwithstanding sin has entered the world, and death by sin; and death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But the advocates for deism may reply, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. Alas! how has the hour of death blasted the expectations of thousands, and too late convinced them that their hopes were a most delusive and wretched dream!

Reason is too short; in its greatest extent, it is far too narrow to point out to a world lying in wickedness, the unerring way of salvation. Those who reject divine revelation as the only sure guide to eternal life, do frequently have their minds distressed, and they have no efficient comforter. In vain do they attempt to make their beds smooth and easy; for they frequently lie down on their pillows with anguish in their souls. All the covering which they