the most ample satisfaction to the whole law in their room, it follows that " they who receive the abundance ❝ of grace, and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in "life," in a manner no less glorious than Adam was to have reigned. XIII. Further, the certainty of our resurrection appears, with irresistible evidence, from the resurrection of Christ. With this argument Job consoled himself in the days of old." With this argument, too, our Lord comforted his Apostles, and the Apostles other believers. But what is the nature of the connexion between Christ's resurrection and our's? It may be viewed in various lights. 1st, Christ, when he rose from the dead, became "the first-fruits of them that slept." As therefore the first-fruits were offered to God on the second day of the Jewish passover, in the hope, and even for the consecration, of the harvest which was speedily to follow; so Christ, when he came forth from the sèpulchre, and was exalted to the immediate presence of God, as the first-fruits of them that sleep, consecrated all his people to God, to secure their resurrection to the same immortal life, at the season of harvest, that is, at "the end of the world." 2dly, As Adam's sin is the cause of an eternal death, to which the whole man, soul and body, was obnoxious; so, according to the reasoning of Paul," the resurrection of Christ must be the cause of eternal life to the whole man. Christ was justified,”a too, in his resurrection, having therein received a discharge from the Father, testifying, that the most complete satisfaction had been rendered to his 66 justice. Hence it follows, that our resurrection is inseparably connected with the resurrection of Christ. 3dly, Christ, by rising from the dead, showed that he had conquered and triumphed over all our enemies. When God ariseth, his enemies are scattered. The last of all our enemies is death. Death must, therefore, be destroyed at the last; that, as it was unable, by all its bands and pains to detain the head in the chambers of the grave, so it cannot detain those who are the members of his mystical body. 4thly, From the union which subsists betwixt Christ and believers it follows, that Christ would not account himself completely alive, unless his people lived with him. The Apostle also intimates this, when he says, that God hath "raised Christ from the dead, - - - and given him "to be head over all things to the Church, which is "his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." 'XIV. An argument no less conclusive, is derived from the Spirit's inhabiting and sanctifying believers. Here again the Apostle is our guide: "If the Spirit "of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in 66 you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall "also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that "dwelleth in you." This reason may be urged in several forms. 1st, By the inhabitation of the Spirit, the bodies of believers are sanctified for a temple to God. And who can suppose that the Spirit, who is equally powerful and good, will suffer his temple to remain through eternity a heap of ruins? When the first temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, God caused another to be built more glorious than the former b Ps. lxviii. 1. d Ephes. i. 20, 22, 23. c 1 Cor. xv. 26. e Rom. viii. 11. Hag. ii. 9. Why may we not hope for the same privilege with regard to our mortal bodies,-that though destroyed by death, he will rebuild them in glory? 2dly, This argument will receive additional force, if we rightly consider the nature of that holiness, which the blessed Spirit imparts even to the bodies of believers. It is not a mere relative, but also a real, holiness; and it includes a beautiful resemblance to God. It need not appear very surprising, that the temple of Jerusalem should be so destroyed as to remain eternally buried in its ashes; for the holiness with which the presence of God adorned the walls of that edifice, reached no further, so to speak, than the surface, and consisted merely in its relation to sacred purposes. But the holiness which the Spirit of God infuses into our bodies, penetrates to the affections, pervades our faculties, and actuates all our members. It is a purity which accords with the nature of the Spirit himself, and in fine, is of such a kind that we appear to become, in a sense, one with him; for Peter calls it "the divine nature."h Without doubt, then, he can by no means allow such tabernacles of his Divine majesty to perish eternally. 3dly, The Spirit who inhabits and sanctifies believers, is the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead. Hence we reason thus. The Spirit of God was the cause of the resurrection of Christ your head, both by the efficacy of his unbounded power, and the personal property, so to speak, by which he is the immediate cause of life to all living,-and by the energy of that holiness with which he beautified the human nature of Christ, and preserved it from personal sin, the sole cause of death. If you, then, are partakers of the h b 2 Pct. i. 4. i Ps. xvi. 10. Acts ii. 24. same Spirit, who with all the fulness of his gifts is in Christ as in the fountain, he will in the same manner produce similar effects upon you, as well by his mighty power, as by virtue of that sanctification with which you are blessed. Sanctification is the resurrection of the soul, and must necessarily be followed by the resurrection of the body; for indeed even in the present life the body is a partaker of the blessing of sanctification, receives its sacred seals, and exhibits its excellent fruits. xv. Having now, we think, sufficiently established the truth of the resurrection, let us proceed to consider WHAT body is to rise again, and in what MANNER the resurrection will be effected. To us it appears indubitable from the Scriptures, that the same bodies which we now have are to rise again; to wit, the same in substance, but endowed with qualities widely different. Let us demonstrate each of these assertions. XVI. That the SAME BODIES are to be restored to us, is manifest from the very term resurrection. For, according to the definition of Damascenus, what else is the resurrection* than "a second standing, an erection, "of that which hath fallen." It is not the soul, besides, which rises again; for the soul doth not fall or die: nor is it properly and directly the man: but it is that part of our nature which is called the flesh, that is, the body, which in the present state is animal and mortal. The body only, therefore, is called Tapa, a carcase, or a dead body fallen to the ground, because it is only the body which zíru, falleth. Accordingly, as we have seen above, Paul says, "he shall also "quicken your mortal bodies."j * Αναστασις. + Δευτέρα σε πεπτικότος στάσις. j Rom. viii. 11. d 0 XVII. The Scriptures, too, supply other express testimonies to the same effect. "In my flesh," said Job, "shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and "mine eyes shall behold, and not another." And Paul affirms, that the same body shall be raised, which is sown in corruption, in dishonour, and in weakness, and sown a natural body; and that "this corruptible," which we now carry about, "must put on incorrup"tion." He tells us, in fine, that Christ "shall change "our vile body,”—the same body, to wit, which lay in the grave.n XVIII. We have a specimen of this in them that were raised from the dead by the Prophets, our Lord, and the Apostles. Were bodies created out of nothing, or brought down from heaven, for those persons? Or were not the same bodies restored, which death had formerly removed? Many bodies of the saints which slept " arose." And what are these but beginnings and specimens of that which God will one day accomplish upon us? 66 66 XIX. The same thing is evident from the resemblance which our resurrection bears to Christ's. "As we have "borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." That Christ's resurrection is the pattern of our's, who can doubt ? Most cercertainly, however, Christ did not assume a different and an ascititious or supplementary body, nor did he represent himself as clothed with a new body brought down from heaven; but he brought back from the sepulchre his own proper body, which he showed to his *Job xix. 26, 27. • Mat. xxvii. 52. 11 Cor. xv. 42, 43, 44, 53, 54. P 1 Cor. xv. 49. |