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ment: "Why should it be thought a thing incredible "with you, that God should raise the dead?" The Wisdom of God seems also to require the resurrection of the body. Since it is his will that all other things which exist, should either remain entire, or should completely perish, is it proper that the human body, when once dead, should never revive, and that the soul should continue for ever in a separate, and, so to speak, a widowed state? The Goodness and the Justice of God lead us to the same conclusion. For as vice and virtue belong to the whole man, and not merely to one part of our nature, so it is reasonable that the appointed retribution, whether punishment or reward, should be allotted to the whole man, and not to a part of him only. And so in making use of this argument too, we but follow the Apostle, who says: “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or "bad."s

XI. The Jewish Talmud contains an elegant apologue intended to illustrate this subject, which it will not be improper to subjoin to what has been said. On a certain occasion, Antoninus, we are told, had a conversation with Rabbi Jehuda Sanctus to the following effect. The body and the soul, said the former, may demand exemption from judgment. How? The body may say, it is the soul that sinned; for ever since it departed from me, behold, I have lain senseless in the grave, like a stone. The soul may say, it is the body that sinned, for no sooner was my connexion with it

• Gemara Sanhedrim, cap. xi.

Acts xxvi. 8.

$ 2 Cor. v. 10.

dissolved, than I began to fly through the air like a bird. To this the Rabbi replied, saying, I will tell you a parable. A certain King, having a delightful garden, the fruits of which were come to muturity, appointed two watchmen to take care of it; of whom the one was lame, and the other blind. The lame one, allured by the sight of the fruits, persuaded his blind companion to take him up on his shoulders, that himself might pluck them, and that thus they might regale themselves together. The lame man, accordingly, having taken his scat upon the neck of the blind, they plucked and devoured the fruits. Some time after, the proprietor of the garden came, and made inquiry concerning the fruits. The blind man alleged that he had no eyes to see them; the lame that he had no feet to go near them. But what measures did the owner of the garden adopt? He commanded the former to be placed on the shoulders of the latter, and judged and punished both of them together. Similar to this will be the procedure of God towards man: he will re-unite the soul to the body, and judge soul and body together.

XII. But another argument, equally powerful, may be added. It is surely reasonable that the reward which believers receive through Christ, who is the Head and Surety of the covenant of grace, the promises of which are represented as incomparably excellent, should not be inferior to that which was held out to Adam in the covenant of works. According to the tenor of that covenant, Adam, had he persevered in his integrity, would have enjoyed a blessed and an everlasting life, in his whole person, soul and body. The same happiness, therefore, must be considered as awaiting those who are Christ's; for since Christ hath given

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.t

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 sepulchre, 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

t Rom. v. 17.

▾ John xiv. 19.

x 1 Cor. xv. 20.

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"Chap. xix. 25.

w1 Cor. vi. 14. xv. 12.

y Mat. xiii. 39.

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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 Death must, therethat, as it was unable,

last of all our enemies is death. fore, be destroyed at the last; 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.”d

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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

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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.s

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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

h2 Pet. i. 4.

i Ps. xvi. 10. Acts ii. 24.

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