Part 1.5 - 2nd Chapter - (v. 35)

Now begins the second half of the chapter, which deals with questions arising out of this primary truth.

They are chiefly two.

I. WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES, OR MANNER, OF RESURRECTION?

II. WHAT is THE KIND OF BODY WHICH THE RISEN ARE TO BEAR?

These are answered in inverse order - the second first. After the truth of resurrection has been settled, these are questions which naturally arise.

35. But some one will say, How are the dead to be raised up ? and with what body are they coming ? By the mode of Paul’s reply we gather, that these questions were not put in the proper spirit of persons enquiring God’s mind about these high matters, but in the tone of the scoffer, who believes that no answer can be given, and that it is folly to expect one. This is generally the case. The most ignorant are the most self-conceited. They are wiser, as Solomon says, in their own eyes, "than seven men that can render a reason." " With what body ? " Death is our unclothing. In that condition we are not fit for the presence of God, or for an abode in His heaven. This truth is overlooked, by those who suppose the separate spirit at once to enter heaven. We must be clothed doubly in order to see Him. We must be clothed with righteousness as to our spirit; but with a body also. For this the Christian, whether alive or dead, has to wait. "Waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body." That they are to return with a body has been already established. Now arises a further question.

"With what body are they coming?" The dead are coming back to the world, and to the land of the living when Christ comes. Now, in His absence, the living are going away among the sleepers, or the dead. So in 1 Thess. iv., we have the words, " Shall God bring with Him." For the millennial kingdom of Christ has earth for one of its centres. " With what kind of body?" The Sadducees of old thought that the risen bodies would be in all points like our present ones. Are they to be nourished, and sustained by air, food, and sleep? Thence they derived their difficulty. It was solved by a denial of their assumption, 36. Senseless man, that which THOU sowest does not come to life except it die. The word " fool " here is not the word used in the Sermon on the Mount, to which the Saviour attaches blame, when used by one believer to another. Many are devoid of reflection in the things of God. Around us, in the works of nature, are things taking place which might give us clear ideas of the future and remove difficulties, if we but considered them. From this rebuke let us learn, that believers may be made ashamed both here and hereafter. Let us seek to escape that ! ’

You stumble at the idea of life springing out of death, and a new body out of the old. Have you never considered how the vegetable world yields you examples continually of God’s doing that with respect to seeds, which you exclaim against as impossible when foretold of men. What ! is a man of less importance than a mustard-seed?’ Our Lord uses the same comparison (John 12:23-25). Before His death, which He foretold, He declared that He should rise again; and compared Himself to a grain of wheat, which was to die, to be buried, and rise. ’ Your sowing of seeds- what is it but a burial of them in the earth, that they may die, and that out of them may spring another body in another life?

So, then, the body of man committed to earth is the seed which is, by God’s power, one day to be made to spring out of the earth in new and eternal life.’

Herein notice the opposition between the ideas of the Spiritists and the testimony of God. They suppose, that death is resurrection. ’ As soon as the man breathes out his soul, he rises. He rises out of his body; his body is not to rise, but to rot and be scattered for evermore.’

Now, if so, Paul’s argument is nothing to the point. There is no likeness between sowing a seed and the resurrection of the dead. Paul compares the dead and buried man to the seed sown. As out of the seed’s burial comes up the living plant, after an interval of some days’ patience, so the buried dead will come out of their tombs into new and eternal bodies. But the Spiritist’s idea is very different. His resurrection has nothing to do with burial. It turns on death, which precedes burial. Paul’s resurrection is a something coming, not only after death, but after burial ; after the dissipation of the body in the tomb.

Between the seed’s burial in the earth and its arising out of it, some unknown time elapses. So, between the man’s committal to the tomb and his arising, there is an equally unknown, only naturally far longer period. The idea of the Spiritist presents no difficulty to the faith of men. He affirms something which has been going on ever since the fall - the severance of the soul and spirit from the body. But Paul is affirming some- tiling which staggered the believers at Corinth - the rising into life and action for evermore of the man, that being of body and soul - his body taken up anew by his soul at some distant date. They affirm as resurrection what is the result of Adam’s sin.

Paul asserts the new truth, resulting from the new fact of Jesus’ resurrection.

What Scripture means by resurrection is seen in the case of Jesus. And His resurrection was not the soul’s parting from the body at death. Nor was His body left behind in the tomb to corrupt there, never more to be used. On the contrary, it was not allowed to corrupt; it was resumed by the Saviour, presented to the apostles as the proof of His mission and His victory, and as the great truth, new and startling, which they were to carry everywhere as the proof of God’s work in redemption.

These two systems, then, are in perfect contrariety the one to the other. The one is the reasoning of unbelief; the other the testimony of God accepted by faith. Paul is not telling us what is the ordinary course of things as it regards man’s resurrection, but from the ordinary course of vegetable growth he is drawing a similitude to confirm the doctrine of what is to befal man in another day by the power of God.

God’s plan is, first death, then burial; then the rising up of the buried out of the abodes of the dead.

So, in the seed there is its burial in order to die, and then its coming out of the earth into air and light. The plant that springs up is another form of the very seed you sowed, and you can predict what it will be ere it rises. Yet how different ! Here, then, in the same body are identity and diversity. "To everyseed its own body." The identity of the body does not consist of its being composed of the same matter. This is seen in the case of the seed.

There will be a body corresponding to the difference of the seeds sown. So, how different will be the awakening, how different the bodies, of the saved and the lost ! The resurrection of the plant occurs not till after its burial. So with man. His resurrection is not to occur till after his burial. ’ But how long after ? ’ We cannot say. There is a like unknown interval between the burial of the seed and the resurrection of the living plant. But if we reckon one day to be a thousand years, the buried bodies of men will spring up in less than two days, or at the third day. We stand in the interval of patience during which resurrection is not taking place. It is now the trial of faith. Will the dead arise in masses, by the power of God, out of the tomb ?

37. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that is to be, but a naked grain^ it may chance to be of wheat or some other kind. This same analogy tells us something further, something with regard to the character of the body of resurrection. The question of resurrection is besieged with great difficulties, which have stumbled

F many, because there are two seemingly opposite truths which attach to the resurrection-body.

(1.) It is, in one sense, the same body that was committed to the earth.

(2.) In another, the body that rises is very different from the body buried. Here the difference between the buried body and the rising body is brought into view. In verses 42-44 the identity, fundamentally, of the buried body with the raised one is taught : " It is sown in corruption ; it is ra1sed in incorruption." The grain sown is a yellow roundish body; it comes up the green blade. May not our future resurrection body be to our present one, as the green blade ’ to the yellow grain ? ’ The seed sown is a " naked " grain. This, then, is a wise and quiet reply to an objection which might else prove very difficult to answer : ’ If the bodies of the dead are to rise, they will rise naked. Whence are they to derive clothing?’ This is met by the case of the seed. ’ You sow a naked seed. But God clothes it when it rises ; yes, adorns it with beauteous flowers. Cannot, then, the God who so clothes the seed of the flower of the field, clothe His children when they rise ? ’ To this point the words of the Saviour with respect to the lilies, though spoken at first with regard to the living, may apply (Matt, xxviii. 30).

38. But God giveth it a body as it pleased him, and to each of the seeds its own body. " But God ! " Here we are brought to our true resting-place and centre of unity. Death came from God as the Judge ; not from chance, or from the laws of nature. So also resurrection is to come from Him.

It is to proceed from no law of nature, but from the Lawgiver ; for whom nothing is too small, nothing too great. What sort of body it is to take, depends upon the power and will of God - yea, it is already arranged. He gives to each seed a suited body.

How much more, then, shall He give to His sons a body suited to their eternal home, pursuits, and world !

It would seem as if the dissolution of death were God’s purposed way to raise the bodies of His people to a higher organization and life. Certainly, if we carry out the apostle’s analogy, we may say: ’As the burial of the seed is God’s preparation for its arising as the plant, so the dissolution of the corpse in the tomb is God’s way towards restoring it.’ It is purposely put beyond the power of any one but Himself to do so. The plant is of the same nature with the seed sown, but of a different form and colour, and composed of different particles. And God unfolds out of that small circle a whole system of root, stalk, leaf, flower, fruit !

How unlike is the sprouting acorn to the oak of a hundred years of age ! The resurrection of Jesus is to us the point whereto to recur when any difficulty on this subject presents itself.

(1.) Now, His body was the same. The very body which was nailed to the cross, and laid in the tomb, came out thence. It was recognized by the disciples. There were the marks of death.

Mary Magdalen recognizes the features and voice of Jesus. The women who clasp His feet see the same person they had known before death.

(2.) Yet His body was different also. It was not subject to confinement in the tomb. It could take on new forms; it could pass unhindered through walls or floors. It could disappear and leave the spot ; it could, and did, mount upwards to heaven.

Most Christians stumble against one of these two sides and pillars of the truth. The wise and learned of this world seek to do without God, and they are continually talking of " laws," and of the course of nature being ordered by laws, which are not to be infringed ; so that at length they drive God out of the world He has made and sustains. To them unintelligent laws are every- thing, and many deny at length that God is a free Person, a Sovereign of Infinite Wisdom, carrying out His own purposes alike in great things and in small. But God’s Book treats things very differently. And they alone are truly wise, who take His account of the matter ; and see in the course of things around us the actings of a Father who loves, and who moves all for the good of His own elect. Leave the ignorant-wise of this world to look upon nature as a great steam- engine, whose ponderous arms strike blindly and without pity, and whose strokes cannot and must not be stopped or turned aside, even though they would destroy me. We will leave them without a sigh their chilly creed.

God is at work daily in each seed. He has not left the world He has made. " God giveth it a body."

It is not a law that makes the seed rise. Law has no power. Law has no intelligence. Laws are nothing, save as at first devised by the law-maker’s intelligence, and carried out into execution by his power. What would be the laws of England, if there never had been king or parliament? What would become of them after they were decreed, if there were no police and no magistrates? no prisons, no courts of justice, no judges, no juries? Law supposes a law-giver to enact, and an intelligent being to perceive it.

Many seem to look on God as if He were like themselves; as if He could not carry out the infinity of details all around. They regard Him somewhat as we might a generalissimo set over a hundred thousand men. He cannot attend to the movements of each soldier, so he assembles his generals of division, and gives them orders ; the execution of which they are to commit to their inferior officers, till the whole army is moved. But God is not distracted or overwhelmed with the infinity of details. In each He is working after a settled plan. And it is only our massing together these orderly arrangements that leads us to talk of ’laws.’ Laws are generalizations made by man.

God is at work on every blade of grass, on every breeze that blows, on every wave that rolls, and on every sparrow that falls. The Most High, then, is at work, carrying out His own arrangements, which do not bind Him, though they do bind us. Wherever a rain-drop falls, or a blade of grass is springing, O Christian, your God and Father is at work ! We must fall back on the goodness, power, and promises of God ! But He does not change His order of procedure rashly, or without good reason. At the creation He uttered His decree about the seeds. The grass, herb, and tree He created at first so that each should carryIts seed in itself, and propagate its kind. This cont1nues to the present day. In it we see His glory. In it we read His will. "As it pleased Him." The course of nature is dependent on His good pleasure ; the part or the whole can in a moment be altered, if He wills. This view alone is worthy of God, and a comfort to His children. God is not like poor Darius, bound, hampered, troubled by his own word and law- " the law of the Medes and Persians " - which must not be altered ; though his chief statesman is to be put to death by a foolish and wicked edict, and though his own rest is taken away.

Moreover God’s power is so great, so great His - wisdom, that He is at no loss for variety of bodies which he may impart to His various plants. It is said there are upwards of one hundred thousand species of plants. To each of these God has given different green, differently shaped leaves, odours, flowers, fruits, and different qualities within.

Each kind stands apart from every other. Moreover, although there are different species of plants, yet every individual of each tribe differs in some respects from every other individual of that tribe. Each elm- tree » Hyde-Park differs from every other. So is it in human faces now. So will it be in the resurrection to come. In this, God’s minute and fatherly care and love, let us rejoice ! We are not wanderers at random in some huge factory, amidst spindles and wheels, cranks and pistons, which may in a moment blindly knock us down and crush us. We are in our Father’s hand !

39. Not every flesh is the same flesh; but that of men is of one kind, that of cattle another, that of birds another, that offish another.

We have examples round us of various kinds of bodies, not in the vegetable creation alone, but in the animal. The great classes of animate nature differ. The inhabitants of the air differ from the finny tribes of the waters ; those which tread the earth differ from them; and man from all. In the resurrection, then, my body may still be of flesh; but of so different a quality that it shall be perfectly suited to my new mode of being, and to the necessities of eternal life. There will be a retaining of all the present body’s perfection ; a removal of all its imperfection. The naked grain of wheat would not be suited to the upper air ; accordingly, disorganized below, it takes on a new body suited to its new life. So God will give a body suited to the heavenly mansions ; one never more to be overborne by pain, disease, or death.

. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies ; but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, that of I he earthly is of another. ’

Unity with plurality,’ or order with variety, is the rule of God’s procedure in creation. This appears not in the earth alone, but in the heavens also.

Thus Paul leads on to another point more closely connected with resurrection. For the saved in resurrection of this and of previous dispensations are to have bodies of heavenly quality. In fact, this points onward to the millennial kingdom of Christ, with which, as we have seen, the resurrection is so closely connected. The millennial kingdom is the heaven opened over earth : " the days of heaven upon the earth," as Moses says. It is also the heavens ruling the earth - the power which God bestows on His risen ones to govern the earth.

Hence it is called " the kingdom of heaven," or, ’ of the heavens.’ Peter, in the vision of the Great Sheet, was permitted to see the cleansed creatures of earth taken to dwell in heaven ; or the believing Gentiles prepared to abide with God on high (Act x.).

Paul ttils us of the counsel of God which He has made known to us, in the coming dispensation of the fulness (" the seventh day " - ’ seven ’ Leing in Hebrew " fulness "/ of times to gather up in one into Christ as Head, all things, both in heaven and earth (Eph.i. 9, 10). All things, as Paul has been telling us, are to be subjected to the feet of Christ. Jesus also instructed Nathaniel, that in a day to come heaven should be opened over Him, and the ladder of Jacob’s dream be fulfilled in Himself. As Son of man He should be the ruler of earth ; as Son of God, the chief in heaven. Upon Himself the angels of God would ascend and descend, fulfilling His messages, as those of the Lord of Hosts. And those accounted worthy to partake with Him in that day, are to have their ’reward great in heaven,’ and to inherit and ’ rule over the earth.’ The heavenly and the earthly are in that day to attain their respective glories. But the glory or beauty of the things of earth, centred round the Old Jerusalem, will be very different from the brightness and beauty of those risen from the dead, dwellers in the heavenly places. Mortal bodies of flesh will not be able to compete with the far superior splendour of the heavenly bodies of those who have for ever passed beyond death. There will be glory on Israel and the Gentiles, as Isaiah witnesses : - " The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing ; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon ; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God" (xxxv. 1, 2). "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary ; and I will make the place of my feet glorious" (Ix. 12, 13). "But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord : men shall call you the Ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves " (Ixi. 6). "

Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her : rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her ; That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream : then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees" (Ixvi. 10-12). But the risen are to dwell in bodies of light, or glory. For the heavenly bodies are distinguished from the earthly as possessed of brightness. But even among the heavenly bodies there is variety ; variety in the nature and colour of the light they diffuse.

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

Observe, that in the heaven and the earth, thus presented, we find the sacred seven ; divided, as usually, into four for the earth, and three in the heaven. On earth are the bodies of ’men, beasts, fishes, birds.’ In heaven the ’ sun, moon, and stars.’ The principle of variety holds good even among the heavenly bodies. The light of the sun is pre-eminent, and swallows up that of the moon and stars. His is direct light thrown off from his own body ; the light of the moon is derived from the sun; much paler, and scarcely possessed of any heat. The stars, again, differing in size, and in distance from us, show differences of light; the planets’ light differing from that of the fixed stars.

Moreover, among the fixed stars there are great differences in apparent size, colour, and degree of light. Astronomers distinguish twelve magnitudes of stars. The apostle says " stars " not " star ; " because between the individuals that make up that numerous class there are characteristic differences, enabling us to recognize them. So will it be also with the risen.

Their belonging to one class of glory will not prevent our recognizing the individuals by their special differences as now.

42. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

I understand, then, the apostle to have cited these three examples of the different lustres of the stars, with the purpose of hinting to us, that among the saved in resurrection-bodies there will be three great classes, answering to God’s three great dispensations.

(1.) By the glory of the stars is, I believe, to be understood the brightness of the risen patriarchs. So the twelve stars round the head of the Woman in heaven (Rev. xii.) point to the twelve patriarchs.

(2.) She is clothed with the sun, which answers to the glory belonging to those clothed with the righteousness of Christ. The chief glory belongs of course to Christ. That glory, like the sun, beamed out from His face on the Mount of Transfiguration. " His face did shine as the sun" (Matthew 17:2). With a brightness beyond that of the sun, He made Himself visible to Paul, and threw him to earth (Acts 26:13). In the same brightness did He show Himself to John ; when, as the Heavenly Risen Priest, He dictated messages through His apostle to the Churches. Now, in the day of the kingdom, the righteous of this dispensation are to " shine out from the heaven as the sun in the kingdom of their

Father."

(3.) The brightness of the moon is a borrowed glory, even as the Law borrowed all its value and light from Christ. Then the saved of the Law, it seems to me, will shine with the light of the moon.

Thus the Spirit leads us to recognize the great differences of the vegetable and animal creation, the difference between the bodies of earth and heaven, the differences of the heavenly bodies as to their classes of light, and finally the difference of individuals in each of those classes. Thus it will be among the risen. There will be different heavenly glories, appropriated to different classes of the risen from the dead ; and differences individual amongst those who belong to the same class. Paul’s glory will be greater than that of Apollos, Stephen’s greater than that of

Demas.

Ordinary ideas, I know, class together all the saved as one, as without difference, as all alike "the Church." But that results from a hasty view of Scripture, and cannot stand examination. Variety holds good among the risen, as well as among the remnant still in bodies of flesh on earth. The patriarchs have been educated by God under one system of truth ; the men of law under another ; the men of the Church under another system and another principle quite the opposite. Shall all these have the same functions? and occupy the same sphere? Does not the education of the lawyer fit him for one sphere? the education of the man of commerce for another? and the education of the soldier for another? and that of the minister of the Gospel for another?

Man, it is true, may mix and confound things; but God does not ! May we not, then, gather from the difference of the principles and systems of education which God has given to His saved ones of different dispensations, that He is hinting thereby the difference of the employments and spheres of service which these are respectively to fill ?

• Regard, Christian, the peculiarity of your calling !

Israel’s was an earthly calling. God in calling Israel, left heaven for earth, and spoke to Moses out of the earth and its bush. He would deliver from the slavery of men His people after the flesh ; and would lead them to the possession and enjoyment of one of the best portions of earth. Their rule was strict law and justice - the rendering to God and to man their respective dues ; and exacting in turn their own. If their heritage of earth were invaded by the hand of the criminal, or by the foot of an enemy, they were empowered to right themselves by the sword. But we, Christians, are called with a heavenly calling. Our Lord and Leader is gone up to the heavens ; and thence calls us to His heavenly kingdom and its glory. Our portion is not to be of the earth. God does not offer to us as to Israel, fields and vineyards, wells and houses. Our promises are not of the fruits of the ground, and the fruits of the body, of rams or sheep, bullocks or goats. We are invited to the heavenly glory of Christ; and to the heavenly department of His kingdom (1 Thessalonians 2:12 ; 1 Peter 5:10).

Seek glory, then ; only not from earth and man ; and not now ! The coming kingdom of the heavens is the day when Christ shall distribute crowns and thrones. We are taught by our Lord Himself to covet and to attain them. He gives us the principles.

He sets before us the example (Romans 2:7; Romans 2:10; Luke, xiv.). These rewards Paul sought with ardour : earnestly as the racer in pursuit of the crown that fadeth, he sought the crown of glory which fadeth not away. Our principle of present service, under which we are educating for the kingdom of glory, is the strange, unworldly one, of grace : of doing good tothe unthankful and the evil; of praying for persecutors and foes ; of not avenging, but committing ourselves, and our property and character, into the hands of our Father in heaven. As this is the more difficult course, one indeed impossible to the flesh, so will its glory and reward be greater in the coming day. That which gives it its foundation and its value is, that this is the course which the Son of God took through earth. To us it is given to tread in His steps, to do well and to suffer for it now, in the assurance that it shall be more than made up to us in the age to come (1 Peter 2:20-21). The kingdoms of earth have had their glory of arts and arms, of mighty architecture, of great cities, of greatness of wisdom, and greatness of commerce. But what shall be the glory of the coming kingdom of God, for which all these have been but the poor preparations? for which the Son of God shall come from heaven with His hosts of angels, and with His ransomed in their resurrection-bodies of glory? Let us seek to have part in that !

42-44. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonour ; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in strength: it is sown an animal body ; it is raised a spiritual body.

GThe opening words of this verse seem connected with both the foregoing and the after-coming context, ( 1.) The resurrection of the dead will resemble the glories of the heaven, in being threefold in its main divisions. (2.) It will take place with difference of glories, among the individuals of each of the three classes of glory. Some will have more, some less, of the glory which belongs to the class in which they are found. This results at once from the principles on which the glory is distributed - ’to each according to his works.’ If all had been arranged according to the work of Christ for us, all must have been alike in glory, and station, and so on. But God has in His wisdom determined, that while the work of Christ for us introduces us to the heavenly glory, yet the place which we take amongst others in the class to which we belong, shall depend on our lives, and our work, after our reception of Christ. The immediate consequence of this is the introduction of differences. None do exactly the same kind of work for God, or the same amount. " To each his work," is the principle Christ has laid down. As in a palace there are many servants ; some out-of- door, some indoors; some on the farm, some in the garden, some at the stables ; so is it with the present time of service. No two do exactly the same work :

99 no two do the same amount with equal degrees of diligence, devotedness, intelligence, love. "

It is sown." This remarkable word is used instead of "buried"- and is several times repeated.

Why? Because it takes up the apostle’s previous argument, that burial answers to the sowing of the seed. The corpse is to God’s eye the seat of the coming resurrection. To the eye of nature, interment is the final disposal of that part of man. As far as the horizon of sight goes, it is done with. But faith looks at it in the light of God. It is to be followed by a " sing up out of the earth into which it is lowered.

It is the strange seed of a marvellous arising. Hence it appears to follow, that, as the disorganization and dissolving of the seed is really a movement onwards, in order to its coming up out of the soil; so the corruption which fastens on the corpse is not its destruction or the road to annihilation, but a process leading on to its reconstruction.

_ "Jit is sown ; it is raised." Here we have the two views which were previously stated- the sameness and the difference of the resurrection body, (1.) it is the same body. The plant that comes up is one with the seed that goes down. Such as the seed sown, is the plant that comes up. The corrupting body becomes in resurrection the glorious body.That which rises is that which is laid down ; or there is no resurrection. .

(2.) But now the Spirit proceeds to speak of the diversity of the body laid down, from the body that is to come up. He first gives its characters of humiliation as a corpse. " It is sown in corruption." As soon as the soul leaves the body, the body begins to be acted on by the chemical forces around it.

While possessed of life it resisted those forces, and retained its own appearance and organization. But after death the taking down of the bodily structure begins. It assails unpleasantly the nose and eyes. Its animal compounds begin to be dissolved into the dead elements which surround us. No love or zeal will prevent this continual process going on, till at length the body becomes a heap of dust, or is dissolved into the earth. This is the result of sin - as the awaking is the effect of righteousness. But quite opposite to this process of decomposition is to be the awakening. It is not unlikely that the objectors to resurrection supposed that the body at its restoration would be just the same as now ; built up only for a longer life ; but to be taken down again. The Holy Ghost therefore corrects this false impression, and so removes any objections that might be rested thereon.

"It is raised in incorruption" This is the same truth which is re-stated in verses 52, 53, as about to take place at a future day.

"It is ’ raised in incorruption." Four different respects are given in which the risen body will be not only unlike, but a contrast to, this present one. The body that comes forth from the tomb will be an incorruptible one. The body and soul are never to be severed ; the body is no more to be acted on, to grow old and vanish away. This it was which Jesus first exemplified in His own person : all other resurrections having been only a temporary restoration of the old body. He brought by the Gospel the good news, not exactly of the immortality of the soul, but of the incorruptibility of the resurrection-body. "

It is sown in dishonour." God compels the surv1vors to get rid of the best beloved from before their sight. It must be shut away into darkness, unfit to be seen. It must be abandoned, "to the meanest of reptiles a peer and a prey." Abraham must bury his beloved Sarah out of his sight. However great or noble among men, dishonour visits the dead. Men may seek to forget this truth, or to surround with pomp and ceremony the corpse; but the victory at present is with Death. The body is a prisoner of war, the result of spiritual degradation.

But it shall be but a brief time thus. For the Lord has prepared through His own righteousness and victory the triumph of resurrection. Let us then wait not for death, but for eternal life, realized by the coming of the Son of God from heaven. Our bodies shall then be made like to His.

Notice, again, how the Spirit of God is refuting the theory which is gaining ground in our day, that ’ death is resurrection.’ That belongs to a religious system quite opposed to the Christian. ’In that false system ’ the body is a prison, an encumbrance, a clog, from which at death the believer is freed with joy.

Then he enters on his real and perfect eternity; then he begins to live. The body is only the spirit’s shell, to be dissolved and left for ever. It is an old and worn-out garment, never more to be worn.’ Against this observe, that the apostle cannot be speaking of the soul’s coming forth from the body as our resurrection. For the soul is not buried, does not corrupt, and so is not to be raised in incorruption. The true analogy with resurrection is found in the burying of a seed. The kernel of wheat does not rise as soon as we take it out of its ear, and strip it of its husk. It rises only after it is buried, at some unknown time after its committal to the soil. Even thus it is with man. His resurrection is to be at some unknown interval after his burial.

It has not yet taken place. It is to take place at a period when God shall put forth His life-giving power in a way quite opposite to anything seen now.

Now God abandons to corruption, and to " the slavery of corruption," the bodies of his best- beloved ones. Fetters hold them fast which we cannot undo. The iron eats continually deeper, not into their souls, but into their bodies. But then He shall turn His hand, and the chains will in a moment snap; and the prisoner escape, God’s freeman for evermore ! "

It is raised in glory" This will be the most prominent of all the characters of the living body- - " glory." Our present bodies absorb light, but reflect no brightness. It was to the honour of Moses, that his face, after forty days’ intercourse with God, shone. But it was so strange to those who beheld him, that they were afraid to come nigh. But then these dull bodies will be changed into bodies radiating light on all sides. Thus it is with our Lord’s body, who is our forerunner on the way of resurrection and immortality. His body, His face shine as the sun. When a specimen of His honour was to be given on the Mount of Transfiguration, both His person and His dress shone. And to Paul and to John He appeared with a brightness beyond the sun’s.

It is, however, worthy of note, that this brightness did not make its appearance immediately upon His rising again. No luminousness of His body is mentioned at the disciples’ interviews with Him after His resurrection, and up to His ascension. This was wisely done; for the brightness of glory would have made Him unfit to commune with His disciples. When John so beheld Him, he fell at His feet as dead. The proof of His being the same person would therefore have been sadly marred. The disciples would have feared such astonishing light, more than Israel feared the inferior brightness of Moses’ face. Moreover, it would have been a further stumbling- block to enquirers after the truth of resurrection; and would have upheld the cause of those who affirmed that Jesus was not a real man. This glory, then, did not attach to the Saviour’s body till His ascent to His Father. "

It is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power."

Power ebbs fast from the strong upon the bed of death; till at length the warrior cannot lift his arm, the orator cannot make his whisper heard. All flesh is grass : how easily it is withered !

Regeneration of the soul does not alter the body.

Some of the ungodly have died wrestling fearfully and despairingly with death. ’ I can’t die ! I won’t die ! I am not ready to die ! ’ A sense of the dismal result awaiting the terrified soul was upon them. But the strong messenger tarried not; he arrested the culprit in the midst of the struggle. The silence of Scripture is as worthy of note as its testimony. I read nothing concerning the beauty of the deathless body. Yet this is a point oft rising in our thoughts, as is testified by hymns and the prose descriptions of the glory to come - " On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

Again - ’ When I stand before the throne, Dressed in beauty not my own." The characteristic of the corpse is relaxation, and weakness. None can retain his spirit. The corpse can repel no assault, though in life it were the body of Samson himself. The bearer away of the gates of Gaza cannot now lift his hand. It cannot repel the fly or the worm. We see something of this in the history of the Two Witnesses (Rev. xi.). There those men of power are laid powerless in the streets. But that is only for a while. At the hour of resurrection the body arises the entire opposite of this - clothed in a frame of perpetual vigour, like the angels that excel in might. God’s hand is the right hand of power. The arm of the risen will partake of the power of God. Christ has become weakness, that we might obtain power. At present, frail flesh could not see God and live. But then it shall be fortified, to dwell ・with Him evermore. " It is sown an animal body; it is raised a spiritual body." * *Literally " sonlish body " - We know what an " animal " body is. It is that which the creatures around us possess ; nourished by food, dependent on the breathing of air, and recruiting by sleep. A body which begins to live at birth, and is liable to be deprived of life by a thousand accidents ; or which, at any rate, gives up the ghost through old age. It is that body which has three main centres of life, the brain, the heart, the lungs ; and the ceasing of any one of these to play entails the ceasing of both the others. The meaning of the contrasted terms "animal" and "spiritual," is that each describes the ruling principle of the respective bodies, and the purpose they are designed respectively to serve. By a "steam- engine" you do not mean an engine composed of steam as its material, but an engine in which steam is the ruling principle. Suppose now, it were found

107 that like results could be attained by electricity as the ruling power applied to the engine, then we should call it an " electric-engine ; " and there would be certain new adaptations necessary in order to fit it to drag the train along its rail, though in the main its wheels and pistons might be allowed to remain. An " animal body " - literally a " soulish body " - a body designed to serve the purposes of an animal soul, like that of the beasts. We have here lost much light on Scripture, through the translators neglecting to render the Hebrew by one English word. The ’ soul ’ (or vs:) as distinguished from the ’ spirit,’ is a real, an abiding part of man’s threefold nature -"

Spirit, soul, and body" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). To it belong those appetites which the living creatures around us feel. We are apt to speak of hunger, thirst, etc. as bodily affections. Scripture speaks of them as affections of the soul (Genesis 34:3, Proverbs 13:25, Isaiah 29:8, liii. 12, Numbers 11:6, xxi. 5). The soul is that which moves the body. At its departure the body becomes motionless. The soul imparts warmth. At its departure, the body soon becomes and abides cold. Its return to the body is renewed life. At present, there is a struggle between the lower soul and the superior spirit, as to which shall use the body in its purposes. The body more readily yields to the animal soul, than to the wants of the spirit. The regenerate man is more easily led by nature to eat when hungry, than to prayer when his spirit leads him to it. At the spirit’s call for prayer and praise, the soul pleads weakness, sleepiness, weariness. But while now the body is fitted especially to receive from without the impressions which affect the soul, and to go on its errands, it shall hereafter be adapted to carry out the purposes of the spirit as its ruler. The soulish body is a body designed for a passing life like the present; a body in which the soul, or inferior power, rules and guides; pressing us away from higher duties by the imperious calls for eating, drinking, sleeping. But the resurrection is to send the body forth constituted on a new pattern, or at least for another world ; to be subject entirely to the will and guidance of the spirit, the higher power and part in man - "a spiritual body." That expression does not chiefly mean, that it will be of rarer character, like the ghost, capable of being seen, but unable to be handled. Our Lord’s body is here again the pattern to which we must make appeal.

It will not be plied with hourly recurring wants of             

109 the flesh. It will be independent of things which are now the needful fuel of life. " A soulish body." So we call vessels by the purpose they serve, or the liquids they hold. Yonder is a " wafer-bottle " - there is a " wine-bottle." We do not mean, that the vessels are made of water or wine ; but that they are adapted to hold the one liquid or the other. And so, if we determined that a certain bottle, which hitherto had been destined to hold water, should henceforth hold wine only, we should call it a "wine bottle." This may illustrate in part the apostle’s use of the terms, " animal " and " spiritual" body.

How much the usual views of Christians have wandered from the truth of the Scripture regarding resurrection, may be seen in popular hymns - "

More happy, but not more secure, Are the glorified spirits above." The idea of " glorified spirits " is quite unscriptural.

It supposes that the soul of the saved at once enters heaven and glory : that death, and not resurrection, is the victory. So again - "

Then in a nobler, sweeter song [after death] I’ll sing thy power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave."

This supposes that the soul is in glory while the body lies in corruption; and that it is singing to God praises of victory, while redemption is yet to be waited for.

It is of the utmost moment, against the Spiritism fast coming in, to testify that the resurrection of the body is the Christian’s hope. Corporeal existence is our final destiny. All systems which ignore or refuse this are not Christian. For Christ’s resurrection is a type of ours. And the Lord is for our body, and will raise it by His own power. He keeps it and retains it by the Spirit’s indwelling. While the body is under corruption, the separate spirit cannot be in glory. We are " waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." The body of the living believer is already judicially dead because of sin. Its mortality means only that death is deferred. ’ But as Adam’s sin and our own bring it death, so Christ’s righteousness shall bring it life. Nay, our spirit is not only alive, but "life, because of righteousness"

(Rom. viii.).

Burial, in the sentence of God on the guilty pair, seemed to be the end of man. For sin alone was before the Judge. But now life has come through death and burial ; because righteousness has entered, in the person and work of Christ. Burial and its corruptionis a humbling thing to proud man ; but it is knit to hope. ’ Sinful ’ is the word traced upon the features of the dead ; but, if they be Christ’s, they shall be redeemed from corruption and all its traces. Incor- ruption of the body is the fit answer to eternal life bestowed by Christ on the soul. The body of the saint is the Lord’s, no less than the spirit; and He will leave the enemy no spoils of victory. "

If there is an animal body, there is also a sp1ritual body:’

All must grant, that there exists an animal body ; a body which resembles those of the beasts that perish. But if so, there is also a higher kind of body, of a far superior pattern and principle of construction. Do we find ourselves now in possession of a body of flesh and blood, fitted to enjoy, and to act upon the present world ; to minister to whose wants this world was framed ? It is certain, then, that God will provide us another body, suited to the better world on which we are soon to enter : a body fitted to our higher and eternal employments. God’s adaptation of the one to the present world is to us a pledge of another adapted to the future world.

Then he is to put forth His power, and will be seen to be the God of the men of faith. Men of unbelief deny His power to raise the dead. But believers in a God who raises the dead, in a God who has raised His Son from the dead, are His children ; and He will put forth His power and goodness in giving them a body worthy of the dwellers in His presence. The apostle is now, and ever since the 36th verse, treating of the resurrection of the saved. The " spiritual body," then, does not mean ’ a body composed of spirit;’ but a body (1) in which the spirit is the ruler, and (2) to the purposes of which spirit it is designedly adapted by God. It will be adapted also to the new world in which it is to act, as well as to the inward processes and outward agencies of the man. Now the strong calls of nature drive off the spirit from its appropriate exercises. The headache, or toothache, extreme heat or cold, weariness, or insanity, unfit for thought, or speech, or action suited to the renewed spirit. But these disadvantages shall be overcome in the new body which God will then bestow, a body adapted to the new wants and new faculties of the risen.

Still, a body belongs to the resurrection-state. It shall not be something gaseous and ghostly only, incapable of being handled or held. In spite of any inward or outward changes we shall feel it to be still our own body. Here is a piece of charcoal. If any chemist should light on the discovery how diamonds are made, he might change this block of coal into a diamond. It would indeed be a wondrous change, and yet there might be there only the old particles : in a very intelligible sense it would be the same body. The two bodies are connected with the two great Heads of men. Paul gives proof, that there is both an animal and a spiritual body. On Christ as the pattern, the new body is moulded.

45. So also it is written, The first man (Adam) became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. "

It is written." How much is made of that by God ! How much should be made by us ? It is not an oral tradition, or a story handed from mouth to mouth, that is the basis of our faith. It rests on unchangeable and written words inspired of

God. A written promise binds a man. A written cheque gives a strong hold on money. Much more does God’s word give us a hold on God. But this has a double aspect. How joyful to the man who accepts it ! How terrible to him who refuses it ! How awful to be made an example of the truth of God in His justice, in eternal fire ! “In eternal punishment," as it is written. Hold fast against all deceits and threats of man and Satan, God’s note of hand. ’It is written,’

H is our authority. May we cleave thereto ! It was enough for the Son of God : it may well be enough for us.

Adam and Christ are the two great heads of their respective races, the two great forms of human nature ; and these are, as far as we can see from Scripture, both to abide for ever. Men in the flesh and the risen of mankind are both to live side by side during the millennium. This all are agreed on who own a millennium. But what happens at the close? Satan, let loose, deceives a large portion of men : they come up against Israel, his land and city, and are cut off by instant death in judgment from God. Then earth is burnt up, and the dead are judged (Rev. xx.). But what becomes of Israel - the nation of men living in the flesh? What becomes of the nations of Europe and America, and of the islands of the seas, which go not up on this impious expedition ? They are not cut off by death. They are not judged among the dead, for they are still alive. What becomes of them ? They are transferred while still in the flesh from the old earth to the new; on which new earth are seen "the nations " as the staple of the population. " The nations " mean the same thing on the new earth, that they did on the old. Save that only the elect of the nations enter the new world, and no more can they fall.

They dwell outside the city of God, and are those over whom the risen saints rule as kings. The connexion of this verse with the previous one is not easily seen, for the links formed in the original have in the translation been snapped. It would be necessary, in order to present them to an English reader, to render it - "There is a soulish body, and there is a spiritual body. So it is written, ’The first Adam became a living soul.’ " Swedenborg and his followers assert, that the body is no part of the man - that man is by nature a spirit, and that he appears in his true character only when the body is thrown off at death. Hence they say that we have never really seen any of our living friends, but only their outside, not their real selves. Now this is contrary to reason and Scripture. Men speak of the corpse of a man sometimes as the man ; sometimes they speak of the soul of the departed as the man. The two parts into which the man is divided are called indifferently by his name. We say, " Pitt and Fox are buried in Westminster Abbey." We say also, "Whitefield is now a departed spirit." So does the Scripture. It calls the corpse the man. "As they were burying a man .... they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha, and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on hisfeet" (2 Kings 13:21). "Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him ( Samson), and brought him up, and buried him" ( Judges xvi. 31). "Where have ye laid himl" says our Lord of Lazarus. "There (in Machpelah) was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife" (Genesis 25:10). And yet Jesus says, of the soul of Lazarus and of the soul of Abraham, "The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom." " He seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom "

(Luke 16:23).

Adam is called ’man’ when he was simply the moulded form of dust (Genesis 2:7); shewing God’s design, that the body should be an integral part of man. He took his name, Adam, apparently from the red earth. The first and second Adam are distinguished, first, as to standing in the scale of existence, then as to origin. This refers us back to the record of Adam’s creation. As the result of God’s breathing into the clay frame, Adam became a " living soul," the superior animal of earth, and the ruler of animals. For this is the description in the Hebrew of the other animals of earth (Genesis 1:30), " To every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heaven, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein is (margin) a living soul, I have given every green herb for food." A living soul ’ - that indicates that there may be also ’ a dead soul.’ We use the phrase indeed often, but understand it to signify a spirit dead to the things of God. Scripture, however, means by it ’a dead body.’1 Man living in the flesh is a ’ living soul.’ But in death he becomes ’ a dead soul.’ This surely speaks of the body as being an integral part of man.

Take some examples - " Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the soul" (of the dead) (Leviticus 19:28) ; "

Neither shall he go in to any dead soul" (Leviticus 21:11);

"All the days that he separateth himself to the Lord he shall come at no dead soul" (Numbers 6:6). Our present body, then, is ’ a soulish body,’ derived from him who was originally created a ’living soul.’ But a second Head of our race has come to bring in something far superior. " The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." This last sentiment is not a Scripture quotation, as the first quotation might lead some to suppose. But it is the apostle’s inspired statement.

Why is not Christ called "the second Adam?" That was the natural designation. But He is called " the last Adam," lest any deceiver should introduce the idea of a third Adam, superior to any of the former. That cannot be ; for the Second Adam is the Son of God, the Creator and Preserver of all creatures. Than Him there can be no superior: hence in Him man attains his highest point. And as, after that, he is not to lose his standing of glory, it is justly said, " the last

Adam."

Jesus, then, in His quality as Head of the new type and specimen of man, is " the life-giving spirit." On both counts He is superior to Adam : even as the spirit is above the soul of the beast, and as the Giver of life is superior to that which only possesses life of His gift.

Thus the two bodies and the two answering lives are connected with the two great heads of men - the first and second Adam. As surely as the first and second Adam have been on earth, and as the Saviour possesses still His resurrection-body, so surely shall Christ introduce His people to their superior bodies. When is Christ "the life-giving spirit?" He was at first the man after Adam’s type, in the likeness of flesh of sin. But in resurrection He has taken up the new body, never to be touched by death. And He proclaims Himself to Martha as " Resurrection and Life" - able and willing to impart the life for evermore, which shall be granted to His own at His coming.

Thus, then, Paul’s doctrine of the two kinds of bodies and patterns of men is confirmed by what is related of God’s creation of man at the first. But the second great Head had afterwards to come and to shew how, instead of unrighteousness and death, life eternal and resurrection could enter through the righteousness and resurrection of the second great Head of men. Greatly will the saved of this dispensation be elevated above the position which Adam by disobedience lost. Our fall has thrown us in the way of a great Deliverer, and out of it have sprung victory and eternal inheritance. Suppose a poor woodman, wandering on a wintry night, to have fallen into a pit in the forest belonging to the Queen of England. The Prince hears his despairing cries, discovers where he is, bestirs himself to procure ropes and to hoist the man up out of his dangerous, dark, damp, and cold abode. It is not enough for the Prince to rescue him ; finding that he is bruised and faint with hunger, having been there two days, he sends him a physician, prepares him food, appoints him to a post in the royal household. He is a made man. The fall was not pleasant, the feelings of hunger and fright and powerlessness to escape were sore trials. But the end makes more than amends. It is so with the saved. The reference here is to Adam while unfallen. He was a "living soul," capable of being overtaken by death. The Saviour is referred to as the life-giving Spirit, in view of His present attitude and power in resurrection. The citation is made from Genesis to prove that Adam’s was an animal or "soulish" body. As his body at that time was suited to this world and its life, so is it not suited in many points to the new sphere into which eternal life in resurrection is to introduce us. The spiritual body, or the new one suited to the new and eternal employments of the risen, comes to us through the righteousness of Christ, and it will partake of Jesus’ eternity and power. Jesus is " the life-giving Spirit." For He will raise up those that are His at the last day. " I give unto them eternal life, and they shall not perish for ever." " Because I live, ye shall live also." This is fully declared - " Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is even able to subdue all things unto himself" (Php 3:21). Jesus did what Adam had not done - He obeyed in perfection. He undid what Adam had done - for Adam transgressed.

Jesus first wins life for us, then imparts it to us. Out of the essential superiority of the new Adam springs the eternal superiority of the resurrection-body. Christ has become the last Adam in resurrection. Not till then did His body, of the seed of the woman, connected with that of the old and fallen family, cease to be mortal. He put on the body of humiliation and weakness first, before He put on the body of eternal glory in which He now dwells.

Christ first gives life to the soul; we are now waiting His giving life to the body. If the spirit be renewed first, the renewal of the body shall follow. The discord that now is felt between the renewed soul and the fallen body shall soon be removed, and the man shall feel at unity throughout. Joseph’s old and dirty raiment might suffice for his prison-lot; but, if he is to stand before Pharaoh, his dress must be quite changed.

46. But not first (comes) the spiritual, but the animal; then the spiritual. That is, the plans of God are going forward, continually advancing. It is the boast of modern times, that we are progressing. This is the character of God’s plans. We see that it is to His glory they should be so. Yet this must be learned from Himself, with His promises and designs. For in general His plans have ended in apparent discomfiture. There was progress in creation from light to the dry land, the vegetables, the animals that peopled the new earth, and finally to man. But when Satan came in, and ruined our first parents - was that progress?

There was progress when God smote Egypt with His plagues, and at length drew His ransomed out of the kiln and the furnace and from the lash, and knit them to Himself as a covenanted people. But was that progress - when the people turned God their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth hay ? There was advance when the Son of God came down in grace and power, and the Spirit of God descended in light and might, raising up churches in Israel and among the Gentiles. But was that progress, when the Church under Constantine, allied itself with the world, and when the worship of dead men and their bones came in, instead of faith in Christ and His Spirit ?

There is now going on, side by side with progressive knowledge of Scripture and of the Mind of God in Christ, a progressive refusal of His truth, and cleaving to Satan’s opposing falsehood. The wheat is advancing toward the ripe ear. But the darnel is also progressing to its last unmistakeable difference from the wheat. False spirits are leading on to the entire falling away from Christianity. Beware, then !

Enquire, in which direction you are progressing? Is it in likeness to Christ, in obedience to Him and His Word ? or is it advance in the confidence of the flesh ; in man, and in his powers of reasoning and action !

There has, then, been on God’s part continual advance in His plans. They have been successively broken, but when broken He has not restored them,

123 but has introduced something new and better. For He has brought in the Great Restorer, who shall Himself carry out completely the plans previously ruined. The millennium will be the knitting together in Christ of what has been broken by man and Satan.

All things, then, are, as far as God is concerned, moving onwards in their right and blessed order of progress. First comes Adam, the living soul that falls; then Adam, the life-giving Spirit, who raises the fallen.

First come God’s people of the flesh, then the people of the spirit. This is the carrying out of Christ’s principle - the last first. God’s after-creation is an advance on the former. But we must beware of progress, in a sense in which it is customary to talk of it now. It is true that science, and manufactures, and the engines of war are advancing. But do not imagine that in things spiritual the changes now enacting are ’ progress.’ There are those who are scouting or debasing the Scriptures of God, as if inspiration were possessed by us now as much as by Paul and Peter. No. There is progress in understanding God’s Word now, compared with the views of the third century, or even of the Reformation. But man cannot add to the perfection of the Word of God, unless He can improve on God Himself. There is really a falling-back since the days of the apostles, since we have not the Spirit in inspiration or in miracle. " Whosoever progressed, and abideth not in the doctrine of the Christ, hath not God " (2 John 1:9). This is the true reading.

There are, then, two great types or forms of man. The First man, the animal man, as seen in Adam un- fallen. The Second, Christ the Righteous, the Risen One, possessed of a glorious, powerful, eternal body. And it was fitting that the inferior of these should come first.

47. The first man is out of the earth earthy (dusty); the second man is out of heaven. The idea that Christ had in heaven a heavenly human body before He appeared on earth, and that this passed indeed through Mary, but was not of her substance, is an awful error : but it has made its appearance once and again. Now, if so, there is no Incarnation. Christ was not a man as we are; He was not, as promised, the Seed of the Woman, the Son of Adam or of David. He did not really atone by His death in our nature, or rise for us. This verse leads us to the account of Adam’s creation.

It was out of the dust of the earth. After sin, the parts of man, as foretold, were severed by death. And God told Adam he should return to the dust ; as out of it he was taken, so to it he should return. As

125 the composition of his body was of earth, so his soul ranged among the things of earth, and found here his home and resting-place. He was ruler of earth ; and here was his domain, here rested his desires. " But the second man is out of heaven." The words, " the Lord," have been added. They are omitted in the best manuscripts. To what time does this sentiment relate? To Jesus’ becoming flesh for us? or to His coming again in His glorified body ? Be it first observed, that the parallel is not exactly kept up. It is not said, ’ The second man is out of heaven heavenly? This it would have been natural to expect ; but, if so stated, it would have countenanced the Gnostic idea that Jesus’ body, as born into the world, was of another quality than ours : not fleshly, but heavenly ; not human, but spiritual.

Perhaps we may say, that both times are alluded to.

Christ, or the new man - the God-Man - is, as to His person, from (or out of) the heaven. He says Himself - " And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13). He says again - "

I am from above, and ye are from beneath. I came down from heaven. I proceeded and came forth from

God." The point insisted on is the different original placesof the two types of mankind. They are respectively earth and heaven.

48. Such as the earthy one, of such a character are the men of the dust, and such as the Heavenly One are the heavenly ones also.

Thoughts, acts, life, desires, spheres - all throughout speak of man’s previous original, the ground. The stream does not rise above its fountain. Adam begat a son in his own image, after he was fallen from God ; and to this day his posterity are like him, and unlike

God. But Christ has come as the Head and Leader of another class of men, the renewed in spirit by the Spirit of God ; who do not here find their heritage or their resting-place, who are looking for the day when God’s heavenly family shall be assembled together in their Father’s home above. The two classes, though shaken together in daily life, still remain distinct in spirit, as one day they are to be in habitation and employment. It is now like the memorable night when Israelite and Egyptian were crossing the depths of the sea. They were near in locality, but hostile in spirit; and the one was overwhelmed in wrath, the other led onward to glory and victory.