CHAP. corrupted, and against which they took up VI. Rev. xv. and xvi. Mal. iv. 1. 1,-9. 10 to 14. their cross. 41. And therefore, instead of using the blood of Jesus, or any of his followers, to pacify an offended Deity, and reconcile him to the beast, the false prophet or the devil; the whole of that blood is represented as stored up in seven vials, [referring to the ages] and all of it to be poured out, to execute his righteous vengeance on the workers of iniquity; that such as had shed the blood of saints and prophets, should have blood to drink, because they are worthy. 42. Hence the proud and all that do wickedly, are compared to stubble, and it was expressly said, "The day that cometh [referring to Christ's second appearing] shall burn them up,-that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." A day in which God promised to open a fountain for sin and uncleanness, and bring his people through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried, 43. To this period the words of God allude by the Zech. xii. prophet Zechariah: "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him." 44. "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem: And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;-All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart." Here is the Mat. xxiv. true cause why Christ said, "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." 30. Rev. i*7. 45. Therefore, as Christ Jesus, and his apostles and true witnesses, patiently suffered to preserve the cause of truth and righteousness in the earth, and by sealing the truth with their blood, conveyed and confirmed the same to others, unto whom the truth was made effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings; so all the benefit. of their sufferings meet and centre in this day of full redemption, which is the end of their faith, for which they suffered, and in which every one will receive a reward according to his works. 46. Therefore, all who receive the mercy and grace. of God, in this day of his final visitation, are verily beneSted by the sufferings of Christ, both in his first and VII. second appearing, and by the sufferings of all the saints CHAP and martyrs who have ever suffered for their testimony, having with them obtained the end of their faith and promises, and a full and final resurrection into the kingdom of God, which is everlasting righteousness, peace and eternal life. CHAPTER VII. The Resurrection, not Carnal, but Spiritual. HE truth of God, in all things pertaining to the salvation of Mankind, is fully established in this day of Christ's second appearing; in which all things will have their full and final accomplishment, according to all that the prophets and apostles have spoken since the world began. 2. It will be proper, therefore, to take particular notice of what the apostles taught concerning the Resur rection: which, according to what hath been stated respecting the sufferings of Christ, was also founded upon the distinction between the natural body and a spiritual body, the natural world and a world of spirits. 3. The natural bodies of all men are mortal, and subject to a dissolution.se the bodies of all other animals; and when dissolved back to their native elements, they rise no more in the same form. The natural body is called the earthly house of this tabernacle, which is the first part of the natural man, of the earth earthy. Dust it was, and unto dust it returneth. 4. But as every thing was created in its order, to serve some higher purpose than its own self-interest; and as man was peculiarly designed for the service of God, and was endowed with a reasonable soul or spirit for that purpose, capable of immortality; therefore, it is the soul of man alone, that is the proper subject of the resurrection, and is capable of being raised to a higher use, and more noble enjoyments than pertain to the present state. 5. Every thing in nature that hath life and growth, hath a seed in itself, which serveth a two-fold purpose; first, to promote its own species, and second, to bring forth fruit to some higher order of beings. 2 Cor. v. 1. 30. CHAP. 6. Thus God said unto man in his first creation, "Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed,-and Gen. i. 29. every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat." John vi. 35. I Cor. x. 17. Rom. viii. 13. 7. Then as nothing liveth to itself, or merely for its own sake; so it was intended that man should live and bring forth fruit unto God; and this fruit was that which pertained to his living soul, as it is that by which God is truly worshipped and served; and therefore the apostles so frequently speak of a seed, and of every seed having its own body. 8. All nature teacheth, that the stalk or tree, which beareth seed, when it falleth back to the earth, and is dissolved, the same never riseth again into the same form; and no more doth the natural body of man rise again. 9. And it is evident, that the seed which is put into the earth, for the purpose of promoting its own species, never riseth to any thing higher than it was; but that which is gathered as fruit, when it is taken and changed from its natural state, and dressed for food, in such a manner as best suiteth him by whom it is dressed, that alone answereth the highest end for which it was created. 10. And as man, in preparing bread for his own use, doth not raise up the withered stalk upon which the grain grew; but separateth the pure flour from all that to which it had been united: so, in like manner, is the resurrection. It is the soul that is to be redeemed from all iniquity, and purified unto God in a peculiar manner. Thus saith Christ, "I am the bread of life."—And again, the apostle, "For we being many, are one bread, one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread." 11. And further, as seed that falleth back to the earth, and taketh root, and groweth there, is forever lost from any higher use; so it is with the soul that, upon a deliberate choice, rejecteth the gospel, and chooseth to remain in his fallen state, after the common course of the world, and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, 12. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Thus life and death are set before every individual soul, upon the most plain and reasonable terms. 13. As man, by his fall and apostasy from God, became flesh, so as to be wholly captivated by that inferior principle, or law in his members, by which he served himself, and no higher purpose; therefore, until the way of redemption was opened from that self-pleasing, and self-promoting nature, there never could be any resurrection. CHAP. 14. And hence, through all the ages of corruption and depravity, the promise of God had respect to another seed. "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of promise g are counted for the seed." VII. Rom. ix. 1 Cor. XV. 15. And as Christ Jesus was the first who died a final death unto sin, and did not his own will, but the will of his Father; therefore he was the first-fruit of the resurrection, the first-fruit unto God, with which he was well pleased. "Every one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming." 23. 16. Herein then consisteth the true nature of the resúrrection: When man ceaseth from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; when he dieth to himself and liveth to God alone; when he ceaseth from his own works and doeth the work of God; when he renounceth the will of the flesh, and is subject to the will of the Spirit; then he is raised from a death in sin, to a life of righteousness; and this is his resurrection. Such is the seed which God hath chosen, to bring forth fruit unto himself, and such are the branches of the true vine, which he 1Johny will purge, that they may bring forth more fruit. 17. But this precious doctrine of the resurrection, like all others that were taught by Christ Jesus and his apostles, hath been wholly perverted by Antichrist, and instead thereof, a false and senseless superstition hath been imposed upon mankind, which would be too absurd to deserve any notice, had not those dark ages of antiquity, and antichristian authority, in which it was invented, given it a kind of sanction, from which the present age is not altogether released. 2. 18. In direct opposition to the doctrine of Christ, it hath been, and is yet maintained, that it is not the soul of man, but his natural body, which is the subject of the resurrection:-That, "the souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, being still united to Christ, chism. do rest in their graves till the resurrection. Westmin ster Cate СНАР. 1.ph. iv. 15. 32. 19. The inventers of this groundless doctrine, ought to have known that the souls of true believers never do die; and therefore, their being made perfect in holiness, and passing into glory, is not to be dated at their death, nor is it at any time, immediately, but through the medi um of the gospel, (by which they grow up, in all things, into Christ) that they are made perfect in holiness. 20. Nor is it a dead corpse that is united to Christ, Mat. xxii. or to God, "For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Besides, many of the dead bodies of believ ers were not suffered to be put into graves; and if they had been, the grave could never preserve a dead corpse from dissolving, and blending together with the common elements of the globe, being, in this respect, nothing su perior to the bodies of other animals. Luke xx. 34 21. So that such an imaginary resurrection is altogether a lying vanity, in following which, the deceived soul forsaketh its own mercy, and from which it must be delivered, or perish forever in its own corruption: for God never promised to invert his own order of things, nor to revoke his own express declaration in this partiqular: "Dust thou art, and anto dust shalt thou return. 22. And as that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual and eternal; so the apostles' doctrine, from beginning to end, hath the most plain and pointed allusion to the spiritual body, and spiritual world, and not to that whichis natural. 23. When the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the soul, and the very existence of the spiritual world, questioned with Jesus concerning the woman who had been the wife of seven husbands, whose wife she should be in the resurrection; his answer was, “The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." 24. Observe, it was not after they had obtained that world, and the resurrection, but whenever they were accounted worthy to obtain it; that is, when they were begotten by the Word of faith, they began to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, to die unto sin, and to |