is to be forever disfigured with the cruel wounds inflicted on it by his persecutors, then the bodies of his faithful martyrs, who have suffered all manner of abuse on their bodies, for his sake, must remain in the same condition, or they cannot be like their master: and if this is to be the case, what a grotesque figure must they make in Heaven!

4. It must appear quite inconsistent with the established laws of living animal bodies to be capable of transformation, so as to appear, at will, in different forms, and to pass through material substances without making any breach, and to vanish instantly from the natural sight. This power is generally believed to be peculiar to spiritual bodies only. Yet it is evident that Jesus Christ not only appeared to his disciples in a variety of characters, such as a gardner, a travelling stranger, an unbodied spirit, in his natural appearance when with them, and with his wounded side and other marks of his crucifixion; but he also appeared suddenly in the midst of them, while the doors were shut, and as suddenly vanished from their sight. He also appeared to John as a Lamb having seven horns and seven eyes.' All these different appearances are evidently far more consistent with the doctrine of a spiritual body, than with that of a natural one, and afford a conclusive evidence that there was no natural body there.

5. The declaration of the Almighty to Adam, concerning the forbidden fruit, was positive: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." All must admit that this death was spiritual, and not natural; for, according to the record, Adam lived to the advanced age of nine hundred and thirty years. And it will doubtless be admitted also, that Christ is the resurrection, according to his own testimony; and that he came to redeem man from the death of the fall, from that death which he suffered by transgression; to raise him from a death of sin to a life of righteousness; hence this resurrection must of necessity be spiritual, and not natural. What authority then have we to believe that the natural body of man will ever have any share in this resurrection ?

We have the authority of Job, replies an objector. Job says, "Tho after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh "shall I see God." But it is well known that this translation is disputed by those who are acquainted with the Hebrew original. They say the particle there translated in is more properly rendered out of or from. And we find in the margin of some of our large Bibles, that the whole verse is thus translated; "After I shall "awake, tho this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I "see God." The translators of the Bible doubtless had the same ideas of a carnal resurrection which so generally prevail at the present day; and therefore it was natural for them to translate this † Job xix. 26,

* Rev. v. 6.

passage according to their own belief and understanding, in preference to giving it a different sense, especially as the words were susceptible of different constructions, and the real meaning might have appeared dubious to them.

6. The established order and progressive growth, maturity, decay and dissolution of all things in the natural creation, is a continual and striking proof that nothing which becomes old and decays or dies, can ever revive and be renewed again. Altho the old creation, with all its established order, is to be superseded by the new; yet God never designed that the order of the new should be established on principles contrary to the established order of the old; because this would at once defeat the object and design of the old, which was to be a figurative representation of the new, and from the spiritual substance of the old, the new was to rise. But if the old natural body is to be raised up again from the dust, and established in its original form, in the new creation, it must be on principles directly contrary to the established order of the old creation, and must therefore defeat its original design. This would render God's plans inconsistent with each other, which cannot be; because God is a consistent Being, and all his plans are perfectly consistent with each other.

Let us suppose, for instance, that instead of raising up a new oak from an acorn, which is the natural seed of the old, God should raise up the old oak; which had fallen down and rotted, and mingled with the dust of the earth, and should establish it again a living tree; would not such a resurrection of the old be directly contrary to the original order and laws of nature? And would such a manner of operation bear the least shadow of comparison with any of the works of God? Yet a new and beautiful oak may be raised from the seed or acorn, which is the only living remains of the old; and it may also be formed, by the hand of cultivation, into a far more beautiful tree than the old; and be fitted and prepared for a more exalted station than the old tree ever had, or ever could have, without the same care and operation. The same observations will apply to any other tree or plant whatever, as well as to many other things: for the whole of the old creation, in its natural state, is filled with figurative representations of things in the new and spiritual creation of God.

Altho the language of the apostle Paul is very clear and explicit on this subject, yet it seems that the generality of professing christians are so far prepossessed in favor of a reanimation of the same material body, that they really suppose the apostle is supporting that principle, when in truth he is arguing against it. "Thou sowest not that body that shall be.' It is generally, but erroneously supposed that the apostle here had reference to the burial of a dead corpse in the grave; but even admitting that to be his mean

ing, it seems strange that any one should imagine that the apostle meant to say the same body should rise again, when his words so plainly imply the contrary. "Thou sowest not that body that shall be." Had he omitted the negative adverb not, and said, “Thou sowest that body that shall be," we might then suppose that, in this expression, he advocated the resurrection of the same body; but then he must have contradicted himself; because in other parts of the chapter he talks very differently.

But the truth is, the apostle, in this expression, had particular reference to the act of depositing seed in the earth, as a figure to show the nature of the resurrection. For as it is with seed which is put into the ground, having a principle of life in itself, and being quickened by the power of vegetation, the body of it dies and rots in the earth, before a new body of the same species can rise from it, and come to maturity; so it is with the natural man when sown in the gospel field, his spirit must be quickened by the renovating power of Christ, and all that belongs to that earthly nature in which he was born and brought up, must die in him; and the soul must be renewed and grow up into the heavenly nature of Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. When it is thus raised, it is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, but not before.

Again: "Some will say, How are the dead raised up, and with "what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is "not quickened except it die." If we are to understand by this sowing, the act of putting the dead body into the grave, as some suppose, then we must also understand that the dead body dies after it is put into the grave, which is a most glaring absurdity. But if this be not granted, then the dead body can have no part in the resurrection: "for that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die."

“It is sown a natural body." The apostle, in this expression, evidently alluded to the sowing of the seed of man, which produces a mortal being, in which is a spiritual substance clothed with a mortal body, composed of the elements of this world, and in a fallen, depraved, corrupted and feeble state, subject to death and exposed to sin and misery. And this spiritual substance is that which constitutes the real man, which, as the apostle says, "is sown "in corruption and raised in incorruption-is sown in dishonor, "and raised in glory-is sown in weakness, and raised in power❝is sown a natural body (that is, in a natural body) and raised a "spiritual body:" for it is evident, and well understood, that while the soul is in a fallen state, it is considered and accounted natural. Its life is natural; and this life must die before it can be raised to a heavenly life. Thus it is plain that, "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” As

the sowing alludes to the introduction of the natural man into the natural world by generation; so the raising alludes to the rising of the soul into the heavenly world by regeneration, and thus it becomes a spiritual body. Hence it is not the natural, but the spiritual body which is the subject of the resurrection. This may be clearly seen and understood in the close of the apostle's discourse on this subject, where he respectively points out the descent and order of the natural man from the first Adam, who was "of the earth, earthy;" and the descent and order of the spiritual man from the second Adam, who was "the Lord from Heaven, a quickening spirit.”*

"There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial," saith the apostle; "but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." The terrestrial bodies of men and women, like the terrestrial bodies of other animals, are composed of the temporal elements, and are created for time. But the celestial or spiritual bodies of mankind are composed of spiritual elements, and are created for eternity. The true glory of the former consists in their operating in their proper places and order, in doing the work required of them in this terrestrial world; while the true glory of the latter consists in their operating in their proper places and order, in doing the work required of them in the heavenly world.

Thus we may see that the true resurrection consists in the rising of the spiritual part of man from the terrestrial elements, into which it has been sown by generation, to the celestial. By the operation of the Spirit of Christ, in the work of the regeneration, it is formed into a celestial and heavenly body, endowed with immortality and eternal life, and thus it becomes an everlasting inhabitant of the celestial world; and thus it is that, "this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality." This glorious work of the resurrection has commenced, and will continue with increasing power and progress, until all souls shall have experienced its effects, either by coming forth to the resurrection of life, or to the resurrection of damnation.

CHAPTER VI.

The Day of Judgment.

THE Day of Judgment is inseparably connected with the Resur rection; and tho the belief in both is probably as extensive and universal as the profession of the christian religion; yet mankind appear to be as much in the dark with respect to the former as the latter. But that "God hath appointed a day in which he will

* See 1 Cor. xv. 45. &c.

Cc

judge the world in righteousness," and render impartial justice to every rational soul, is a truth which cannot reasonably be disputed. Such a judgment was frequently alluded to, by the patriarchs and prophets, from the earliest ages of the world; and was afterwards more fully declared and confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. Indeed such a judgment is indispensably necessary from the very nature of righteousness and justice in God.

But what is this day of judgment? and in what manner is it to be brought about? These are questions of no small concern to mankind, and especially to those who profess the christian religion. Many who call themselves christians, are firm and confident in the belief, that the day of judgment is a certain appointed day, yet future, in which the whole creation will be put in the most terrible commotion; when the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly descend from beyond the starry regions, and personally appear in the natural elements of clouds and flaming fire, surrounded with myriads of saints and angels, and with a voice surpassing ten thousand thunders, will call up all the dead bodies of Adam's race from their graves, and their souls from the eternal world, and cause them to appear, soul and body, in full form and stature, and in all their former life and sensation, before his awful throne in the skies, there to receive their final and irrevocable sentence of salvation or damnation.

But we would ask, how these ideas of the day of judgment can be reconciled with the opinion generally entertained, by these same sort of christians, that the final and everlasting fate of the soul is decided at the hour of death? If the soul of a man or woman who falls a victim to the grim messenger of death, is thenceforth immediately adjudged and consigned to eternal happiness or misery, without the possibility of a reversal, why should it be called up again to receive a second sentence, which, upon these principles, must necessarily be the same as the former? If the day of probation ends at death, and the fate of the soul is then unalterably fixed, according to the opinion of these christians, what can be the object of a day of judgment of the preceding description? Such a resurrection would undoubtedly afford a miraculous display of power to the view of the natural man; but if those who were thus raised from the dead had already received their final sentence, what advantage is to be derived from such a day of judgment? The resurrection may be needful to answer their plan; but of what use is the judgment, since their fate is already decided?

But we view the day of judgment in a very different light from all this. We view it as a work which has already commenced; a work which we ourselves have seen and felt, and can therefore testify from our own experience, that it is a work which, the unseen by the natural man, is real and substantial; and tho gradual