All flesh is not the fame flesh: for there is one kind of flesh of men; another flesh of beafts; another of fishes; and another of birds. There are alfo celeftial bodies, and bodies terreftrial. But the glory of the celeftial is one; and the glory of the terreftrial is another. There is one glory of the fun and another glory of the moon; and another glory of the ftars: for one ftar differeth from another ftar in glory. He who has moulded the duft of the earth into bodies of flesh diverfified in their natures according to the wide diverfity which fubfifts between the different families of the animal world: He who has bestowed on the inanimate workmanthip of his hands, on the orbs which roll through unbounded space, degrees of radiance fo various as those by which the earth, the moon, the fun, and the innumerable ftars of heaven are respectively distinguished: He is able to revive under another form the decayed flesh of man, and for ever to crown it with glory, which it was incapable of fuftaining before. Is not this reprefentation true? Is it not pertinent? Even fo alfo is the refurrection of the dead. It is fown in corruption; it is raifed in incorruption: it is fown in difbonour; it is raised in glory: it is fown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is fown a natural body; it is raised a fpiritual body. Such fhall be the majefty of the righteous, when they shine like the fun in the kingdom of their Father fuch the glorious change experienced by their natural bodies, when they are transformed by the Lord Jefus into bodies fpiritual like His own. For as there is now a natural body; fo there is alfo a fpiritual body, in referve for the children of God. And fo it is written: the first man, Adam, when God breathed into his noftrils the breath of life (e), was a made a living foul. But the laft Adam not only became, like the first man, a living foul but by his own proper power He poffeffed life in himself; and He was able alfo to beftow life on others according to His pleasure. He was a quickening Spirit. For as the Father hath life in himself; fo bath He given to the Son to have life in himself. As the Father raifeth up the dead and quickeneth them; even fo the Son quickeneth whom He will. And all that are in the graves fhall hear His voice, and fhall come forth (ƒ). As every defcendent of Adam has by inheritance received a natural body fimilar to that of his firft parent; fo fhall every true believer in Chrift Jefus receive at the laft day by the quickening power of His Redeemer a body fpiritualifed and glorified like to that of the human nature glorified in (f) John, v. 21. 26. 28, 29. (e) Gen. ii. 7. the the person of the Son of God. Howbeit for this his heavenly transfiguration he must wait in patient hope, until his earthly tabernacle fhall be diffolved. That was not firft which is fpiritual, but that which is natural: and afterward, that which is fpiritual. The firft man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. Adam, our first parent, was formed from the duft of the ground; mortal in his nature, and even in paradise preserved from decay only by the fruit of the tree of life. But the second man Christ Jefus was God manifefted in the fefb: the Son of God, by nature a partaker of the Godhead but for our fakes and for our falvation veiled for a season in a human body, a body first to be fubjected to death, then exalted into heaven, incorruptible and immortal. As is the earthy, fuch are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, fuch are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy; we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. For his appointed season the child of corruption muft bear the body of corruption. Earth must return to earth before it can be clothed with life eternal. But if, while thou art in this tabernacle, thou art renewed in the Spirit of thy mind after the image of the Lord from heaven; : when Chrift, who is thy Lord and thy life, fhall appear, then fhalt thou alfo appear with Him in glory. Now this I fay, brethren, that flefh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Our bodies, if continued in a ftate of impure and perishable flesh and blood, would be unfit for the habitations of the bleffed, unqualified for the glories of eternity. Behold! Ifher you a mystery. I would explain to you through the inspiration of the Spirit of truth the fecrets of the world to come, which God alone can reveal. We shall not all fleep in the grave; but we shall all be changed: all the generations of men who fhall have been depofited in the tomb; and every individual of that concluding generation which Chrift, when he cometh to judgement fhall find alive; all fhall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall found, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal muft put on immortality. So when this corruptible fhall have put on incorruption, and this mortal fhall have put on immortality; when purified for ever from all pollution, difentangled and refined from the feeds of weakness and decay, the glorified frame fhall be re-united to the immortal immortal Spirit: then shall be brought to pafs the faying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory; then shall be fully accomplished in its noblest import the prophetic declaration of Ifaiah: The Lord God fhall fwallow up death in victory; and fhall wipe away tears from off all faces: for the Lord hath Spoken it (g). Then fhall the redeemed of the Lord exclaim in the triumphant rapture of the apostle; O death! where is thy fting? O grave! where is thy victory? In that day shall they take up, and apply to themselves, the song of exultation prepared for them by the prophet in the words immediately following that promife, which is now fulfilled in their refurrection to everlasting life: Lo! this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will fave us! This is the Lord: we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His Salvation! From the contemplation of the glories of the world to come, St. Paul as it were for a moment returns to earth, that he may impress on our hearts a deep conviction of the fituation with refpect to futurity, in which every man, as an inheritor of the mortal and corrupt nature of Adam, and as a finner againft God by wilful tranfgreffion, is placed; of the fituation in which all men would have |