already seen. It is true that, to strain it to his purpose, he would translate the last clause, " shall not die for ever," instead of "shall never die ;" but every one who is acquainted with the idiom of the New Testament, knows that the words which, literally translated, are, "shall not die for ever," mean precisely the same as the English phrase, shall never die. By this phrase, therefore, our translators have honestly rendered them, notwithstanding they also had a predilection for the notion, that everlasting life is to have a great chasm in it.* Thus by this divine declaration, the change in the state of existence made by putting off the body is treated as unworthy of any regard; it is represented as not even making a break in the course of existence: and we may be satisfied that the Divine Giver of everlasting life does not mock us with empty words, and call that everlasting life, or living for ever, which is presently to be discontinued, and, after a lapse of thousands of years, is to begin again!

Next we are presented with these words: "And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captains of the people, and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." No allusion here, we see, to any general resurrection of dead bodies: Indeed, this passage only refers to the resurrection of Jesus himself; for according to the original it is," and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead;"—that is, that in the person of Jesus a resurrection from the dead had taken place;-in other words, that Jesus had risen from the dead; which certainly constituted the main burthen of the first preaching of the apostles.-Again: "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoicks encountered him (Paul.) And some said, what will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection." Still

* Dr Doddridge justly observes, in his note upon this passage, "To render the words,-shall not die forever, or eternally, is both obscuring and enervating their sense, and (as I have elsewhere shewn notes on John iv. 14, and John viii. 51, 52) is grounded on a criticism which cannot agree with the use of the phrase in parallel passages." + Ch. xvii. 18.

† Acts iv. 1, 2,

nothing about the resurrection of the body: indeed, this text also seems only to refer to the resurrection of Jesus." And have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.-Except it be for this one voice, that I (Paul) cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead am called in question among you this day."* Still not a word about dead bodies.-" Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection." Here the dead whom the women received again certainly were restored in their bodies; they not only rose again in their bodies, but, as the necessary consequence of such a resurrection, they also died again in their bodies: but they hoped for a better resurrection, that is, better than the resurrection of the body." Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Here, again, no resurrection is spoken of, but that of Jesus Christ.

"But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished: this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." This passage refers to things that were to take place in the spiritual world, not in the natural, at the time of the last judgment, wherefore I shall consider it when I come to treat of that subject; at present I will only quote a little more of it, which our refuter has judiciously suppressed, because, if suffered to appear it would take the whole passage completely out of his list of proofs, and add it to ours. The preceding verse says: "I saw the souls" (mind this-the souls, not the bodies;-" I saw the souls) of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they (not the bodies, mind, but they, the pronoun referring to the souls before mentioned as its antecedent,) lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead," &c. Here then we

* Ch. xxiv. 15, 21.

+ Heb. xi. 35.

Rev. xx. 5, 6.

find that these souls are called the dead, as having passed by death out of the natural word; as well as for another reason that will be mentioned hereafter: and as, while souls are mentioned, not a syllable is said of any bodies, or of the resurrection of the body, it surely is a palpable violation of the sacred text to apply this part of it to confirm such a notion.

say:

The last passage which Mr B. adduces against us is this. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." I wonder he did not add the next verse, which appears still stronger: for the Apostle goes on to "Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:"* But I suppose the reason why Mr B. declined to add this to his quotation, was, because the language is so evidently figurative, that scarcely any can suppose that it is meant to be literally understood: and because, also, the Apostle here undeniably speaks according to certain mistaken notions, which prevailed in the first ages. The fact is, that this text does not so properly belong to the subject of the Resurrection, as to that of the Second Coming of the Lord; and as, according to what has been shewn above, the true nature of the Second Coming of the Lord was not at that time plainly revealed, therefore the Apostles never speak of it but in that prophetical style in which it had been predicted by the Lord himself, and which cannot be understood till spiritually deciphered. Thus we have seen, that all the primitive Christians, and the Apostles themselves, believed that it was to take place in that first age; and the language which Paul here twice uses,- we that are alive and remain," ―evinces, that he, at the time of his so writing, entertained the expectation of living to see it. This, experience has proved, was a mistaken opinion altogether; yet with a reference to this mistaken opinion, assumed as true, all the Apostle's remarks are here framed. The

† See above, p. 9 and 12, and the note, p. 12 and 13; and I beg the reader to bear in mind what was there advanced, as the subject is of great importance, and what is here stated was there, I trust I may say, incontrovertibly proved."

Thessalonian Christians expected to live to witness the Lord's second coming, and then to be admitted into a kingdom of superlative glory, in a new heaven and earth to be created for the purpose after the destruction of the former: and they grieved for their deceased friends, fearing that none could enjoy the happiness of the Lord's new kingdom but they who lived to behold its establishment. Assuming then this expectation of the Lord's appearing, in this manner, and in the life-time of that generation, to be true, the Apostle applies himself to remove their gloomy apprehensions respecting their departed friends. He opens the subject with saying, "But I would not have ye to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope: for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Then he proceeds, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord," [meaning, that he here repeats what the Lord himself had declared] "that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [be beforehand with, or have any advantage over] them which are asleep." The two verses cited above next follow; and they are purely a paraphrase of the Lord's own statement respecting his second coming, with the introduction of a clause respecting those who should be deceased, in regard to whom the Thessalonians were uneasy. The Lord had said, "They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." The Apostle says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first" [or "shall rise before,' or "previously;" as is the sense of the word parov, in Matt. v. 24, ch. xii. 29, Mark ix. 11, 12, John xv. 18, ch. xix. 39, 2 Thes. ii. 3. 1 Tim. iii. 10, &c.]: "then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." What can with certainty be gathered from this language, Matt. xxiv. 80, 31.

* Ver. 18, 14.

† Ver. 15.

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but that, as has been shewn before, neither the manner nor the time of the Lord's second coming were then revealed? Hence, with respect to the manner of it, we find the Apostle repeating, without explanation, the symbolic language in which the Lord had foretold it: and with respect to the time of it, we find him countenancing a most palpable error. Can any doctrine, then, with safety be drawn from his statement, beyond this; that they who "sleep in Jesus," actually are "with him,"that is, that they are awake or alive towards him, though they are asleep towards us; or that the dead in Christ were to rise" before his second coming, even though this was then daily expected,-in other words, that they rise in and with Christ as soon as they die here? And even if we understand as literally as we can the Apostle's words, respecting the dead in Christ rising first and we (which must now be changed into they) which are alive and remain being caught up into the air, still it will not follow that dead material bodies are thus to rise, or that living material bodies are to be thus transported; for, when speaking in a similar manner in another place, to be considered presently, he says, that "we shall be changed," shall change our material bodies for spiritual ones," in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;" evidently teaching that, happen how it may, we are to be dispossessed of that "flesh and blood," which he affirms in the same place "cannot inherit the kingdom of God," and which are so little suited for flying in the air.

This brings me to the famous fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. We think that this portion of the Apostolic writings contains most decided statements in support of our views of the subject; and Mr Beaumont directs his reader to peruse the whole chapter from the 12th verse, saying, that "if, after so doing, he is not convinced of the erroneous doctrine of Swedenborg respecting the resurrection, then neither would he be persuaded though one rose from the dead."* This certainly is perfectly true: for we are quite sure that if any one were to come from the other life to inform us of the nature of that much mistaken country, his testimony would be in agreement with the doctrine of Swedenborg and of Paul, that departed spirits

* Anti-Swedenborg, p. 48.