Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

IV. The doctrine of the resurrection may be improved as the subject of many useful reflections.

1. It places the human body in the most interesting light.

Men are naturally, sufficiently prone to pay attention to those objects which gratify bodily appetite. They look at the things which are seen; and neglect their own souls. The fault, however, consists not in regarding too much the interest of the body, but in mistaking entirely that interest, and in pursuing with criminal perseverance those objects which tend to deprive the body itself, for ever of its happiness and glory in Heaven.

The doctrine of the resurrection assures us, that the material part of man shall be redeemed from death, and shall become endowed with unfading beauty. It ought of course to be an object of our care. The whole frame of nature, and the whole organization of man, alike declare that heaven requires of us great attention to it. If the body is neglected the mind cannot fare well. The interests, the true interests of both, are inseparably connected, and must be pursued and neglected together. The only use which worldly property can serve the possessor personally, is the preparation of a body which shall arise to everlasting life. And by this principle a rule is established for the direction of our wishes and pursuits.

He, who keeps it in view, will endeavour to depend humbly on his God for all that he needs in life. He will ask, day by day, of his heavenly Father, his daily bread. He will live by faith and walk by faith. He will study temperance and honesty, and strive to repress every emotion of avarice and pride. He will anxiously pray for a new covenant-title to the goods which he possesses; and eating his meat in singleness of heart, he will readily bestow upon God thanks, and praise, and glory. Striving to preserve his members from becoming, in any sense, the instruments of

unrighteousness, he contemplates his own body as the temple of the Holy Ghost, as the purchase of Jesus Christ, and as destined to unfading glory before the throne of God.

2. The doctrine of the resurrection, affords an additional argument in defence of the wisdom of God, in the creation and government of the material world. Whatsoever is subservient to the formation of those bodies, which are to live for ever in resplendent glory, along with God manifested in the flesh, and partaking of his image, is certainly worthy of being created and preserved by him whose wisdom is infinite. And such is the principal use of the material Heavens and this earth, with all the host of them. They, it is true, display the glory of God, and show forth his handy works; but the Son of man is alone the image of the invisible God, and Zion is the perfection of beauty. The glorified body of Jesus Christ, and the celestial bodies of the saints, are those portions of matter which Occupy the highest grade of dignity and beauty. They are the vessels of clay which the potter raiseth to the highest honour.

.

The world was made for a tenement to man, whom God formed after his own image; and it is in heaven, man appears in his perfection. Philosophers express themselves frequently, as at a loss to determine with precision, the boundaries which separate from one another the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; but the dependence of the higher upon the lower is universally admitted*.

Whether the hypothesis of M. Mirbel*, adopted as unexceptionable by Dr. Smith, the president of the Linnean Society, London, that plants alone have the power of deriving nourishment from inorganic matter, be absolutely correct or not; it is certain, that the principal ali ment of animals is derived from the vegetable kingdom.

Traité d'Anatomie et de Physiologie Végétales. † Introd. Phys. and System. Botany.

Vegetables were created in order to prepare the particles of inorganic matter for animals; and those animals are appointed to assist man in his journey through life; and to furnish him with food, from the other parts of the material world, or from their own bodies. This is their most important use. Other ends are at least inferior, if not perfectly subordinate.

[ocr errors]

The opinion of some divines, that there shall be also a resurrection of the brute creation, is unsupported by Scripture, and appears to be unphilosophical. The inferior animals have answered the full purposes of their creation, during their residence on earth. They have furnished the materials of which the bodies of men are composed. They have yielded up to the use of man, the parts of which they were formed; and those parts, which enter into the organization of the bodies of the saints, shall be exalted to the highest possible dignity in the New Jerusalem.

3. The doctrine of the resurrection inspires a hope which supports believers under the ills of life.

Were it not for the doctrine of a future state, dependent on the fact of Christ's resurrection, and implying the raising up of us also from the dead, we should be of all men the most miserable. But this hope will not make ashamed. It affords a supply in the day of want. It pours balsam into every wound. It disarms death of all his terrors; and it dispels from the grave its gloom. The afflictions of the present life, are, in view of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, light afflictions which last but for a moment, and not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed.

Should any of the saints be tried, like the man of Uz, he may have recourse to a similar subject of consolation. Job had lost his wealth, his children, his friends, and his health. Seated upon the earth, tempted by the adversary, and misrepresented by men ;

while humbled and forlorn, his body was covered with putrified sores and rapidly wasting, he expressed the soundness of his faith, and seemed to emerge from the depths of his affliction. I know that my Redeemer liveth-and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

4. This doctrine strongly inculcates the duty of application to HIM who is both the resurrection and the life.

There is no safety, but in union with Jesus Christ by a living faith. For lo! they that are far from him shall perish. It is good to draw near to God.

There shall indeed be a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just. Terrible, however, shall be that event to them who reject salvation by a Redeemer. Look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. The honours which may have encircled their brow on earth, shall then be no more. The monuments of their greatness, and the eulogies of their flatterers shall perish together. They shall arise, but it is to shame and everlasting contempt. The upright shall have dominion over them. Yes, the dead in Christ shall awake to everlasting life. Let then, the sinner speedily betake himself to this great salvation, and no longer trifle with the concerns of eternity. Let him admire and adore that Saviour who died on the cross, that those who believe in him may live for ever. Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE TRUE IDEA OF PROPHECY

REV. xix. 10.

The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.

(Continued from p. 564. Vol. III. and concluded.)

THE great scheme of redemption we are now con

sidering, being the only scheme in the plan of Providence, which, as far as we know, hath been prepared and dignified by a continued system of prophecy, at least this being the only scheme to which we have seen a prophetic system applied, men do not so readi

apprehend the doctrine of double senses in prophecy, as they would do, if they saw it exemplified in other cases. But what the history of mankind does not supply, we may represent to ourselves by many obvious suppositions; which cannot justify indeed such a scheme of things, but may facilitate the conception of it.

Suppose, for instance, that it had been the purpose of the Deity, (as it unquestionably was,) to erect the FREE GOVERNMENT of ancient Rome; and that, from the time of Æneas' landing in Italy, he had given prophetic intimations of this purpose. Suppose, further, that he had seen fit, for the better diseipline of his favoured people, to place them, for a season, under the yoke of the regal government; and that, during that state of things, he had instructed his prophets to foretel the wars and other occurrences which should distinguish that period of their history. Here would be a case somewhat similar to that of the Jews under their theocratic regimen; not exactly, indeed, because prophecy, as we have seen, was essential to the Jewish polity, but had nothing

[merged small][ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »