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LECTURE XCI.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE RESURRECTION

ANSWERED.

1 COR. XV. 35-49.

35. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

36. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.

37. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain :

38. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Men who scoffed at the doctrine of the resurrection, would be sure to ask, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? How is the form to be again put together, which has been once dissolved? Or the body which has crumbled into dust, to recover its shape and substance? This might easily be made to seem incredible. Yet the apostle reminds us, that great changes are constantly passing before our eyes, which may justly teach us to be careful in pronouncing that impossible which appears improbable. We sow a seed in the ground. The seed soon ceases to be a seed: it dies, its substance is destroyed, that it may be quickened into a new substance: and that which springs up from it, is different from that body which was sown, though

still the same. The oak-how unlike the acorn! And yet the acorn which was sown, is now the oak which spreads its branches far and wide. The grain dropped by the husbandman is not that body which shall be it is very unlike the blade of wheat: and yet the green and growing blade was once the lifeless shrivelled seed. And this, through the power of God. He giveth the body, as it pleased him, when he said, (Gen. i. 11,) "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth." Thus God has ordered, that every seed shall have a body belonging to it, and every seed his own body, suited to the purpose it is to answer, and the element in which it is to dwell. For in this respect also there is a great difference among the beings with which the world is peopled.

39. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

40. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power :

44. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Here again our thoughts are led to contemplate

the resurrection, by reflecting on the mighty and various works of God. He has suited one class of beings to the water, and another to the air, and another to the earth: and some to both. He has placed some bodies in the heavens above, and others on the earth below: and these differ from each other in greatness and splendour. Even of those things which are most splendid, all are not the same; the sun is brighter than the moon, and the moon than the stars; and all the stars are not alike in glory.

So it is with respect to the resurrection of the body. It will be effected by the power of God, of which these instances may give us some conception. It depends on him, whether things shall be mean or glorious. The body, like the sced, is sown in the ground and it is sown in dishonour, weakness, and corruption. Nothing can have less of majesty about it, than the corpse which is returned to the earth from whence it came. But what should prevent God from raising that up in power, and beauty, and incorruption, which had been buried in weakness and deformity? Is this too much for him who is "before all things, and by whom all things consist ?” Cannot he who made the animal or natural body, suited to its abode and functions here on earth, raise up also in its stead a spiritual body, suited to another sphere, a different state of being? To doubt or deny this, is to "err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God."1 "The Lord Jesus Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself."

Matt. xxii. 29.

Phil. iii. 21.

And this is another point in which he resembles our first earthly parent, Adam.

45. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

48. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

As it is written, as we know from Scripture, that the first man Adam was made a living soul, and so became the father of all mankind, who bear "his likeness," are frail,corrupt, and mortal as he became : so likewise the second or last Adam was a quickening spirit, able to revive the natural body, and transform it into a spiritual body. "For as the Father hath life in himself," and breathed into the first Adam "a living soul;" so also "hath the Son life in himself, and quickeneth whom he will."5

And according to the author of the work, so is the work that is produced. The body derived from Adam was of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven; and the body which he will raise, will

be spiritual, heavenly. Now indeed we partake of the nature of the element from which we were formed: we bear the image of the earthy. Very different is the prospect offered to those who shall be "accounted worthy to attain that world, and the resurrection of

3 Gen. ii. 7.

4 Gen. v. 3.

5 John v. 21.

the dead." They "are as the angels of God in heaven."6 "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more:" "the sun shall not scorch them by day, neither the moon by night :" "neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things shall have passed away.”

Only one conclusion can follow these reflections; Seeing that we look for these things, "what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" The body which is to be raised up "in glory and honour and immortality," must have been kept under subjection to the will of God. For "if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Even here, there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. There is an indulgence of the animal appetites, which defiles a man; and there is a restraint and a self-command, which dignifies and exalts a man. And they who aspire to be clothed hereafter with that body which is heavenly, spiritual, and incorruptible, must have also put on that "new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness:" must bear, even on earth, the image of him who hath called us to "be holy as he is holy," and to "purify ourselves even as he is pure.'

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7 Rev. vii. 16; xxi. 4.

Matt. xxii. 30. 8 2 Pet. iii. 12.

9 Rom. viii. 13.

1 Eph. iv. 24.

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