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BY REV. JONATHAN BRACE,

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MILFORD, CONN.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."JOHN V. 28, 29.

THESE are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having announced to the Jews that he, as the Son of God, performed the works of God-had all judgment committed unto him, and had life in himself, everlasting life, which it was in his power to confer upon those who believed on him-they were filled with astonishment. Perceiving this, either from his knowledge of what was in man, or from what he saw in their countenances, he proceeded to add still greater things, and uttered the stupendous announcement of the text, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." As if he had said: Let not what I have spoken thrill you with so much wonder; for though death, ravag ing in every age, has filled the globe and ocean with his spoils, I have a key to the caverns where be hides his victims; and at their up my voice these caverns shall open and render who prey, shall come forth-some to rise and shout, and some to sink and wail forever!

The doctrine of the resurrection was one peculiarly dear to the primitive saints. They dwelt upon it with more frequency and interest than Christians of the present day are wont to do. The expectation that their weary, earthy bodies, would spring pure and immortal from the tomb, supported them in all times of persecution, and comforted them in all seasons of tribulation. So animating was this doctrine to them, that their heathen and infidel enemies did all in their power to disprove it, and when they could not disprove it, did all in their power to prevent it from taking effect. Hence in some instances, hewing the bodies of the saints in pieces, they cast them into rapidly rushing rivers, in hopes that they would be thus so mutilated and scattered as to make the future re-union of the several parts impossible. The resurrection of the body is indeed a doctrine which faith alone can grasp, and appropriate to the strengthening of high and holy purposes in the soul. Hence there are not wanting those who have utterly disbelieved it-more who have doubted it, and still others, Christians, even, who from vague ideas respecting it, fail to derive from it that comfort and profit which an intelligent, hearty persuasion of it is designed to impart. "Why should it be thought incredible that God should raise the dead?" exclaims the Apostle; and yet to multitudes the assertion that he will do. so, is viewed, as in the very nature of things, false.

In discoursing upon the resurrection of the body, I observe

First That it is POSSIBLE.

When we consider that the bodies of men moulder back to their original dust, and mixing with the earth, convey nourishment to other bodies which the products of the earth support; when we consider further, that these other bodies are devoured by fish and various animals who grow and fatten thereby; it is indeed wonderful how the dust of our bodies thus scattered and incorporated, can be re-gathered and moulded into the same bodies which it before constituted. But "with God, all things are possible;" and to say that this is not possible, is to err, not knowing his knowledge and power. His understanding is infinite, and his energies are omnipotent energies. He who "telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names"—who readeth the very "imaginations of the thoughts of the heart"—who saw "our substance yet being imperfect, and in whose book all our members were written while as yet there was none of them;" must know the several particles of dust into which our bodies moulder, no matter how numerous the changes through which they pass. And he who created a world out of nothing, spoke it into existence at a breath, and kindling suns and systems to wheel and gravitate amidst immensity, hung and keeps them hung upon nothing-surely can arrange the several parts of our tabernacles in the exact figure and order they were before. He

"who called things that be not, as though they were," can call things which have been, and make them as they formerly have been. He who raised from the dead two children, in answer to the prayers of his two prophets, Elijah and Elisha; He who infused warmth and vitality into a dead body, on its being let down into the sepulchre of one of these prophets, and coming in contact with his bones; He who raised Lazarus from the tomb where he had three days lain; and at the yielding up of whose spirit upon the cross, graves were opened and the bodies of sleeping saints arose and appeared unto many; He who has done this, can surely restore our bodies, though turned to ashes and carried hither and thither by the winds, into their original forms. Nor does the vexed question of personal identity, offer any insuperable obstacle. If the waste and supply of our animal frame is not such as to prevent an individual now from being spoken of as the same individual that he was at the time of his birth; if one bloated by excess, is the same individual that he was when no vicious flesh clothed his bones; if an individual who committed a crime years since, is now apprehended as the identical individual, and punished as such; there can be no difficulty in the operation of divine power, to the raising of the bodies of the human race, sufficiently identical for every purpose which their resurrection is to subserve. The resurrection of the disorganized, dissolved primitive body, then, we may say, is possible.

Secondly: It is PROBABLE.

In all the works of God we behold a harmony. They are all disposed to some end, and this end is seen in the orderly beauty of the whole. Jehovah makes nothing in vain. The human body curiously formed, he made to be the house of the soul. He fashioned it most cunningly, to suit the convenience of the spiritual occupant. He designed them to live in the company and fellowship of each other. Might we not, then, expect, since the soul was not created to be alone, and the body was created as its appropriate companion, that if this soul passed into another region to dwell, its companion, though left behind, would ultimately go there likewise? If "no one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it," why should the Creator of this flesh, who having created it, pronounced it "good," cast it forever aside? We behold, too, many types of its resurrection in nature. If night reminds us of the grave, the emerging sun reminds us of the resurrection. If we behold winter in the tomb, we see the resurrection in the freshness and bloom of spring. Seeds fall into the ground and die, but it is that they may bear much fruit; and hence they sprout again and flourish. Silkworms, having retired into their own graves, come out again, 66 as alive from the dead." Such changes, imaging the resurrection, why should not the body of dust, reduced by death, be built again? Why should not this, also, revive from its ashes?

Besides, since the body is connected with the soul in a probationary state, we might properly suppose that it would be in a state of retribution. Mankind have pleased or offended their Maker through the medium of their bodies. It is through them that the soul has received temptations. Corporeal propensities and passions have inflamed and excited the soul, and the soul has either meritoriously resisted them, or been prompted by them to the contraction of guilt. The body and soul, thus sinning or discharging duty together, should be punished or rewarded together; but to be thus punished or rewarded, the body must be raised. Otherwise, the very individuals rewarded or punished, are not the individuals who have been righteous or wicked in the present life. We are now complex beings; have a soul and a body. The soul is not the man, nor is the body the man, but bath body and soul united constitute the man. Such, individuals have been in this present existence, this probationary state, and to be such-to be the same individuals in the future state-the two constituent parts of their nature, the material and the immaterial, must be combined.

Moreover, the state of the righteous between death and the resurrection, denominated the intermediate state, is represented as less blessed than it will be subsequently to the resurrection. But why it should be thus, except by a re-union of their souls with their bodies, it would be difficult to say. It is not, however, difficult to conceive how new sources of joy may flow into their souls through the medium of their bodies. Further, Christians are now commanded to "glorify God with their bodies." If they do this here, why not elsewhere? These bodies are called "temples of the Holy Ghost"-His property and residence; is it likely that these temples will be allowed to lie in perpetual ruin and desolation? From these and other considerations, we pronounce the resurrection of the body probable.

Thirdly: It is CERTAIN.

We come now" to the law and to the testimony," in accordance with which, if any doctrine speaks, it speaks with clearness, and should speak to conviction. The Bible on this subject is full and explicit. I will quote four passages-two from the Old and two from the New Testament. Says Isaiah (xxvi. 19), "Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing ye that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Says Daniel (xii. 2), "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Exclaims the Apostle (Acts xxiv. 15), "I have hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." And again (1 Thes. iv. 13), "I would not have you 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 which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." No argument can add force to inspired statements like these. There is, then, to be a resurrection of the body. It is possible-it is probable-it is certain. We pass—

Fourthly: To the purpose, or object of the resurrection.

One object may be, to make a signal exhibition of Jehovah's power. This globe is emphatically a field of death-a place of sculls. From the time that death entered it by sin, the earth has been arched with the graves of men, and the ocean paved with their bones. Generation after generation of mankind-the infant, the youth, the middle-aged, and the gray-headed-have marched rapidly to the tomb, and now lie mouldering in dust. What an exhibition of divine power, to behold these, in obedience to a voice pealing and echoing where they lie, starting into life!-these myriads upon myriads, all collected, distinguished, and compoundedatom united to its fellow atom, and bone to its fellow bone, in bonds never more to be dissolved! Another object of the resurrection may be, to perpetuate the human species. The human race composed of matter and mind-blending together the material and spiritual, form, as we may believe, a distinct class of beings. It is hardly consistent with the wisdom of God to destroy such a class. But were the bodies of men not raised, men would be pure spirits like angels. There would then be no peculiar race connecting worlds visible and invisible, and thus a link in the chain of intelligent existences would be sundered. But the great object of the resurrection-paramount to all others, and which may be called the object-is to bring the united body and soul, the entire man, before the judgment seat of Christ. It is, that the actions of all the actors that have ever lived may be manifested, and their final allotments determined; that sentence may be pronounced upon every action, every family, and every individual of all the posterity of Adam, according to their works.

Fifthly:-The time and mode of the resurrection.

The precise hour, or day, of this sublime occurrence, we cannot tell. Nor we only. No angel can mark it with certainty. It is not for them, any more than for ourselves, to know the times and seasons which Jehovah has reserved to himself. We only know that it is not a final act, but immediately precedes the judgment; and that it will come unexpectedly, as a thief in the night. The mode, or manner, will be inconceivably amazing and glorious. There will be a visible appearance of Jesus Christ. With a power and glory worthy his dignity and office, he will come, borne upon the clouds. The Lord shall descend from heaven with a

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