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CHAP. out assistance? Where was the necessity of striking the keepers of the sepulchre with terror, that they might become like dead men, and of rolling away A. 2, the stone from the tomb's mouth?

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Matt.

4.

Deut. Sxxiv. 6. Jude 9.

Rom. vi

23.

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10. The truth is, no material substance can pass through another without making a breach; and therefore, in order that his spiritual body might enter a close room while the doors were shut, the natural body was taken care of by the angel, who rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre; and thus, in the order and nature of things, one thing was taken out of the way of another, that the everlasting substance might appear,

11. The Lord took care of the body of Moses, and no man knew of his sepulchre unto this day: Yet Satan had the confidence to dispute with the angel about the body of Moses. And in the same manner, at this day, Satan has the confidence to dispute about the body of Jesus.

12. In the accounts given of all the different forms in which Christ appeared after his passion, there is not the smallest hint of his possessing the same natural body. His standing in the midst, the doors being shut; vanishing out of their sight; assuming the appearance of a gardener, then of a stranger; and again, of a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes; these, and many such appearances, were as different from the body which had been nailed to the cross, as any one thing can be from another.

13. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life; therefore death and life cannot both be administered to one and the same, for this would be giving eternal life to sin. But as it is the mystery of iniquity that worketh in man, and merits death as his wages, and as there is nothing but sin that rules and reigns in man, before he receives Christ; so all that reigns in him must certainly die, in order to his receiving the gift of eternal life.

14. Hence the plain conclusion of the apostle, As 1 Cor. xv. in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive: or more properly, As all in Adam die, so all in Christ shall be made alive. Therefore it is not all, nor any thing in old Adam, that is made alive after death; but

VIII.

as every thing in him and of him dies, or in other CHAP. words, as the old man is put off with his deeds, so the new man is put on, which after God, is created in Eph. iv. righteousness, and true holiness.

15. The whole error of Antichrist, concerning the true Resurrection, is founded in a total ignorance of the spiritual world. Let the soul be quickened to a sense of its immortality, and its capacity for an intercourse with a world of Spirits, and the doctrine of a carnal resurrection will appear as it really is, the offspring of darkness and ignorance.

16. Let the man come to himself and find out what he is, that he is not a mere lump of flesh and blood, but an immortal being, that must be seen in his full shape when the clay that he animates is crumbled to atoms, and blended with the common elements of the globe. Let him be convinced of the heinousness of sin, and the enmity of his fleshly nature to the pure and holy nature of God, and he is no longer anxious about what becomes of that mortal frame which he inhabits.

17. Nor is it the far-fetched arguments and pretended evidences of a future resurrection of old useless bones and rotten flesh, that can entertain the soul; but a fellowship and increasing communication with the Resurrection and eternal life that now is, and which is sensibly felt and enjoyed by those who are in it.

22, 24.

1 Cor. v.

18. ".But (according to the apostle) some will How are the dead raised up? And with what body 35-38: do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that whichthou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be ;-but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body."

19. The body of a grain of corn, when put into the earth, hath its own first principle of life in itself; and as the body of the grain dies, so the seed which is the life of the body, is quickened, and comes forth, and produces a body again, whose seed is in itself after its own kind.

20. But this is very far from being the case with a dead corpse, which, when put into the ground, hath

VIII.

CHAP not the least principle of life in itself by which it can ever be re-animated again, or that can ever be quickened and come forth out of it; but it remains a lifeless lump of clay, and, like the dead bodies of all other animals, meets with a total dissolution forever.

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Matt.

53.

21. Therefore, when the apostle saith, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." He hath no allusion to the matter of a dead corpse when it is put into the earth, but to the human soul in its natural state, which, through the operation of God, becomes dead with Christ, from the rudiments of an earthly nature, out of which it ascends, and is raised a spiritual body.

22. Then the soul or seed of both the righteous and wicked, have each their own body. Hence the words of Christ: "They that have done good (shall come forth) unto the Resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the Resurrection of damnation."

23. Who can be so blind and perverse as to imagine that the millions who have suffered unto death, for the truth's sake, endured those extreme sufferings in hopes of being restored again, in some future day, to the same bodies in which they suffered every imaginable torture?

24. It must be acknowledged by all who pay any respect to their testimony, that it was a present love of virtue, salvation and immortal glory, and their faith in a future increase of the same, that animated them to face the most frightful flames and bodily tortures.

25. The blinded Jews denied the Resurrection, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. They supposed their fathers were dead; and would never rise until the last day. But Jesus knew better, and his apostles, after they had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, knew better, because their conversation was in heaven, where they were; and they knew, according to the scriptures, that they had slept, but had not been dead.

26. Hence they testified, that the graves [the xv. 52, states of the departed] were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and went into the holy city, [not bloody Jerusalem,] and appeared They appeared unto such as had eyes

unto many.

to see them.

VIII.

27. Upon the same principle Jesus testified, The CHAP maid is not dead, but sleepeth, but they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. That is, know- Luke vij ing, in their own carnal imagination, that he was a 52, 53. liar and a deceiver.

28. In like manner Jesus knew that Lazarus had John si, fallen asleep, and it was merely in condescension to 11. their dark understanding, that he said plainly, Lazarus is dead; and he could as well have called him forth without his tabernacle as with, had they been possessed with eyes to see him, as the disciples saw Moses and Elias talking with Jesus on the mount.

29. From all which it is evident, that it is the separate state of the wicked only, which is, or ever was counted a state of death, and that of the righteous a state of sleep; and according to the distinction in their state of separation, so is their Resurrection.

30. The rising of those who sleep in Christ, being first in order, is called The first resurrection. And the quickening of the wicked to a sense of their situation, although sometimes called a Resurrection, yet it is more properly denominated, The second death. 31. Then as it is by the power of Christ, that the 1 Cor. xv. dead are raised, and as he was baptized for the dead, with the power of the Holy Ghost, both in his first and second appearing, and therefore quickeneth whom he will, it is beyond all controversy that the dead are raised, and come up out of their graves-out of all Ezekiel their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned.

29.

xxxvii.12

13, 23.

32. And as Christ, who is the Resurrection and the life, dwells in the members of his body, and as he is, so are they in this world; therefore they ask, 1 John iv. and he giveth them life, for them that sin not unto 17. v. 16. death, even eternal life; and they are raised up in this last day, and do enter into the holy city, and are seen and known of many, and serve God day and night in his temple.

33. And while they go forth and worship before God, in the beauty of holiness, they look upon the carcases of them that have transgressed, and continue to worship the beast: for their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.

Isai. Ixvi.

22. Rev.

xiv. ii.

Mark is.

44.

CHAP.
IX.

John xiv.

15.

46.

9.

WH

CHAPTER IX.

The Worship of God.

THATEVER may be called the worship of God, it is certain that no external exercise can be any thing more than an outward expression of an inward spiritual sensation of love and obedience to God, arising from a knowledge and understanding of his will. And as nothing is more expressive of love and respect to God than obedience, therefore the most perfect and acceptable worship is performed by those who keep the commandments of God.

2. Hence the words of Christ, "If ye love me, keep my commandments.—Why call ye me Lord, Lord, Luke vi. and do not the things which I say?--In vain do they Matt. xv. worship me, teaching for doctrines the command. John iv. ments of men.-Ye worship ye know not what→→ 22,23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : Matt. iv. for the Father seeketh such to worship him.-Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'

10.

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3. As man is an active intelligent being, formed for social communion; so in every age, there have always been certain external forms of divine worship, which, in different dispensations, have been various, according to the manifestation of the will of God in each, and the various operations of his Spirit, for the time then present.

4. The manner of worship in the first appearing of Christ, was not reduced to any form, but accord ing as true Believers were moved by the Spirit, in various circumstances. They worshipped God in prayer, vocal or silent, in praise, in thanks-giving, in exhortations, and in feasts of charity, by which they expressed their love and union to each other.

5. This various manner of worship continued, mostly, with all the true witnesses until near the time of Christ's second appearing, when many, like the guards of the night, sat in solemn silence, waiting for the break of day, denying their own wisdom and

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