These Sections teach —

1st. That at the last day there will be a simultaneous resurrection of all the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.

2d. That those who then remain living on the earth shall not die, but be changed.

3d. That the very same bodies that are buried in the earth shall be raised and reunited to their souls, their identity preserved, although their qualities will be changed.

4th. That the bodies of believers shall be made like Christ's glorious body — " a spiritual body."

5th. That the bodies of the reprobate shall be raised "to dishonour.

1st. At the last day there will be a simultaneous resurrection of all the dead, both of the just and the unjust. " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Dan. xii. 2. " Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all who are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and thej^ that have done evil unto the

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resurrection of damnation." John v. 28, 29. The two classes are to be judged simultaneously, immediately after their resurrection upon the second coming of the Lord. The sheep shall stand on the right side and the goats upon the left. '* And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.'' Matt. xxv. 31-46 ; Rom. ii. 6-16 ; 2 Tim. i. 6-10; Rev. xx. 11-15.

2d. Those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not outstrip them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the I^ord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. iv. 15-17. " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.

3d. The very same bodies that are buried in the earth shall be raised and reunited to their souls, their identity preserved, although their qualities are changed. This is explicitly declared in Scripture : " Our vile body is to be changed." Phil. iii. 21. "This corruptible is to put on incorruption." 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54. "All who are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." John V. 28. "They who are asleep, . . . the deaa in Christ shall rise." 1 Thess. iv. 13-17. Our bodies are now members of Christ, and they are to be raised in a manner analogous to his resurrect 'on, which we know

to have been of his identical body, by the print of the nails and of the spear. It was seen and handled for the space of forty days in order to establish this very fact, liuke xxiv. 39 ; Acts i. 3 ; 1 Cor. xv. 4.

There are many changes in the material elements and form of the human body between birth and death, and yet no one can for a moment doubt that the body remains one and the same throughout all. There is no difficulty in believing, upon the authority of God's word, that, in spite of the lapse of time and of all the changes, whether of matter or of form, it undergoes, the body of the resurrection will be in the same sense and to the same degree one with the body of death as the body of death is one with the body of birth.

4th. These changes will doubtless be very great. The body of the believer is to be made like unto Christ's glorious body. Phil. iii. 21. The body of man now is "an animal body'' (1 Cor. xv. 44), unhappily translated " a natural body." It is suited to the present wants of man, to his present stage of development, intellectual, moral, social and spiritual, and to the physical conditions of the world he inhabits. But " flesh and blood," bone, muscle and nerve, ^' cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. xv. 50. But this shall be " changed." Not a new body substituted for the old, but the old changed into the new. As the seed gives birth to a new organism, so the corruptible will give birth to the incorruptible. For " there is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body." The spiritual body will be still material and identical with the body which was once animal, but it will be suited to the new wants of the spirits of just men made

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perfect — to their new stage of development, intellectual and spiritual — to their social relations, and to the physical conditions of the " new heavens and the new earth' wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13. 5th, The bodies of the reprobate shall be raised to dishonour. "All that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, . . . they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. John v. 5-29.

I. Such as remain alive upon the earth at the last day shall not die. but undergo a wonderful change. This truth was first revealed to the Church in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (xv. 51): "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." When Christ shall descend from heaven to judge the world, some will be found alive upon the earth ; these shall not die, and sleep for a short time in the dust of the earth ; but they will experience a change equivalent to that which shall pass on those who shall then be raised from the grave; and, as we are informed, the dead saints will be raised before the living are changed. " The dead in Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord."— 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.

II. There shall be a general resurrection of the dead. Tills is a doctrine which unassisted reason could not discover. The wisest of the heathen philosophers derided it.

318 CONFESSION OF FAITH. []CHAP. XXXII.

When Paul preached at Athens, which was called the Eye of Greece, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers mocked when he spake of the resurrection of the dead. But it cannot be reckoned an incredible thing that God should raise the dead. If he be omnipotent and omniscient, as he certainly is, otherwise he would cease to be God, this cannot be considered impossible. He who formed the human body out of dust, and breathed into it the breath of life, must be able to raise and animate it again after it has been reduced to dust. To the power of God our Saviour referred, as an answer to all the cavils which might be brought forward against the doctrine of the resurrection. To the Sadducees, a sect of the Jews who denied this doctrine, he said : " Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." — Matt. xxii. 29. But it is only by the revelation of the will of God that we are infallibly assured of the certainty of the resurrection. It was revealed in the writings of the Old Testament. Job expressed the strongest confidence of the resurrection of his body. — Job xix. 25. The prediction of the Prophet Daniel is equally explicit. — Dan. xii. 2. This doctrine held a prominent place in the discourses of our Lord and his apostles. Nothing could be more explicit than our Lord's declaration : " The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth," &c. — John v. 28, 29. After our Lord's ascension, this was the grand theme of the testimony of his apostles, as upon it the truth of the whole system of Christianity rested. Hence Paul thus argued with the Corinthians : " Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." — 1 Cor. xv. 12-14. The resurrection of the saints is firmly established by the resurrection of Christ himself. In the chapter to which we have now referred, the apostle show- the infallible evidence which he and his brethren had for thv resurrection of Christ, and then argues that the resurrection of believers necessarily follows from the admission that Christ their head is risen. The grave cannot always retain what is so intimately connected with the living Redeemer. " Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." — 1 Cor. xv. 20. See also 1 Thess. iv. 14; Rom. viii. 11.

. III. The dead shall be raised with the selfsame bodies, although with very difi^erent qualities. The very term resurrection implies that the same bodies shall be raised that fell

by death ; for if God should form new bodies, and unite them to departed souls, it would not be a resurrection, but a new creation. Our Saviour declares: " All that are in the graves shall come forth;" this certainly implies that the same bodies which were committed to the graves shall be raised; for, if new bodies were to be produced, and united to their souls, they coidd not, with tnith, be said to come out of their graves. The Apostle Paul affirms, that the same body shall be raised which is sown in corruption, and declares: " This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality;" pointing, as it were, to that corniptible and mortal body which he then carried about. But, though the bodies of the saints will be the same in all essentials as to substance, they will be vastly changed as to qualities. " Flesh and blood," in their present state of grossness and frailty, " cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorniption." The resurrection-body, therefore, shall be wonderfully changed, in respect to qualities, that it may be fitted for . the employments and felicities of the heavenly state. " 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 isr raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." — 1 Cor. xv. 42-44. With regard to the wicked, the Scriptures give us no specific information with lespect to the state and qualities of their bodies. All that we learn is, that they shall rise "to shame and everlasting contempt;" from which it is evident that they shall be raised to dishonour.

How solicitous should we be to obtain the resurrection of the just ! This was Paul's great desire, and the object of his earnest pursuit. — Phil. iii. 11. If we would attain to a blessed resurrection, let it be our concern to be " found in Christ.'* United to him by the inhabitation of his Spuit and by a living faith, we need not be slavishly afraid of death or of the grave ; for Christ is " the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth in him, though he v/ere dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die."

320 CONFESSION OP FAITH. [CHAP. XXXIII.