It is both the companion and the instrument of our good and evil deeds. The righteousness of God: from which we argue the necessity of a future state of retribution, renders it, to say the least of it, probabie, that man, soul and body, shall be the subject of judgment. We know, however, that the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, and that without a resurrection, man is incapable of complete retribution. We are authorized to infer, therefore, from the equity of the divine moral government, of which the Scriptures assure us, that the dead shall be raised to judgment.

4

The doctrine of redemption also affords an argument for the resurrection of the dead. The Redeemer, in assuming our nature, did not neglect the body. "The word was made flesh." In his body he magnified the law, and suffered on our account, as well as in his soul. He bare our sins on his own body on the tree. In his mercy he ministered to the wants of the body. He healed the sick, and opened the eyes of the blind. His Spirit sanctifies the bodies of his disciples, rendering their members instruments of righteousness unto God. And he shed his blood for the purchase of both soul and body from the dominion and damnation of sin. We must accordingly conclude, that his ransomed ones shall arise to everlasting life. "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God: and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price? Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's*."

This mode of reasoning is justified by the example of our Saviour. He proves, against the sophistry of the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, its truth, from the covenant-relation between God and

* 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

his people. As Jehovah is the God of the living only, and proclaims himself the God of Abraham, the necessary inference is, that Abraham must live, and that the body of Abraham must of course arise from death to life. This argument applies with equal force to all those who have the faith of Abraham. "And as touching the dead that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.*"

2. Facts in confirmation of this doctrine abound in Scripture history.

On various occasions Jehovah displayed his power of raising the dead to life. The prophet Elisha miraculously recalled to life the son of the Shunammitet. Jesus Christ recalled Lazarus from his tomb, and restored him in health to his weeping sisters. By the same power, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue arose from the bed of death, to the astonishment of mourning relatives. The charitable Dorcas was revived by miracle in Joppa, and presented by the apostle Peter to the poor widows who had been supported by her bounty. These facts are evidence of God's power over death, and there are others which prove that the bodies of the saints are admitted to the glory of heaven. Enoch, before the flood, was translated, that he should not see death; and without undergoing the pangs of dissolution, his body accompanied his spirit to the full enjoyment of celestial happiness. Elijah ascended in the sight of Elisha from earth to heaven, in a chariot of ethereal fire, and re-appeared along with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, talking with the Redeemer. Jesus himself arose from the dead, and is 2 Kings iv. 37.

*Mark xii. 26, 27.

the resurrection and the life. Many of the saints arose about the same time, and entered into the holy city. Our elder brother is gone before us to the land where death shall never have admission. He is already accompanied with several disciples, glorified in body and in spirit. These facts support our hopes in the final triumph over death, which shall be enjoyed in our own resurrection. We add,

3. Some of the unequivocal assertions of Scripture. They abound in both the Old and New Testament. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt. The apostles preached through Jesus, the resurrection of the dead. God quickeneth the dead. God which raiseth the dead. God both raised up the Lord Jesus, and will also raise up us by his own power. Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. He that raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. The dead shall be raised incorruptible."

(To be continued.)

FOR THE CHRISTIAN's MAGAZINE.

Few biblical students can have gone far into the New Testament, without discovering the importance of the Greek Article in fixing the meaning of innumerable passages. That its uses have not been ascertained long ago, is not a little surprising, when we find, that the earliest fathers have dropped several hints tending to prove its importance. Almost every other topic connected with Greek criticism had been discussed, minutely and profoundly, while the doctrine of the Article, of equal importance

with any of them, to the cause of classical literature, and of far more importance than any of them, when considered in connexion with theology and the philosophy of grammar, was left till of late almost untouched.

Between forty and fifty years ago, Adrian Kluit published a work, entitled, "Vindicia Articuli ro in Novum Testamentum," and which is the earliest work of this kind with which we are acquainted. Some time after, the subject acquired additional attention from an essay of Mr. G. Sharpe. He lays down the rule, "When the copulative xaι connects two nouns or participles of the same case, respecting office, dignity, affinity, connexion, attributes, properties, or qualities, if the article or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person or thing that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle, except the nouns be proper names, or in the plural number," and of course, that such phrases 28 x x are to be interpreted of one individual, thus affording evidence of our Saviour's divinity.

His interpretation was strongly supported by Mr. Wordsworth, who has proved that most of the disputed texts were so understood by the fathers.

Sharpe, however, has made merely an entrance upon the subject. He states a fact-states it as a rule; but as a general rule his fact is too vaguely expressed. The work of most merit on this subject, comes from the pen of Dr. Middleton, who explains. the principle of the rule, and ascertains its limitation; and thus, not merely states a fact, but explains the reason of the fact; a thing which every philologist ought to do, but which is very seldom done. He, accordingly, in the first part of his work, inquires, What is the Greek Article? and after resolving the Vol. IV.-No. I.

C

question, applies the doctrine of the Article to the Greek of the New Testament.

Out of Dr. M.'s work, we have taken the following extract; and we have done it with a wish to introduce our readers to an acquaintance with a work which should be in the hands of every divine. "In the present day, adversaries of the truth seem more than ever inclined to appeal to the original Scriptures, Ministers of the Gospel should be always ready to follow them there, and to show that our adversaries lose more on that ground, than on any other; as the truths of the Gospel are exhibited in the languages in which the Holy Ghost has chosen to indite them, with a clearness and force which it is impossible to infuse into any translation."

The following extract is found in his remarks on 18 v. of the 1 chap. of Matthew.

Since, however, the phrases πνεῦμα and πνεῦμα ἄγιον, both with and without the Article, are of frequent occurrence in the N. T., it may not be amiss in this place to inquire generally into the meanings which they bear, and especially on what occasions the Article is taken or rejected.

"I. The primitive signification of μa is breath or wind: in which senses, however, it is not often found in the N. T. In the sense of breath takes or rejects the Article, as the circumstance may require. Thus, Matt. xxvii. 50. doμE TO Tμa, his breath or life; Part I. Chap. iii. Sect. 1. § 4. but Apoc. xiii. 15. we have a μa, to give life, where To would be inconsistent with the sense for that, which was possessed already, could not now first be given. In the meaning of wind we find, John iii. 8. τὸ πνεῦμα πνεῖ, ὅπε θέλει : where the Article is requisite by Part I. Chap. iii. Sect. 1. § 5.

:

"II. Hence we pass by an easy transition to μa, the intellectual or spiritual part of man, as opposed to his carnal part. Thus, μ is frequently contra