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reached him before his short prayer was ended. Dan. ix. 21. The bodies of Elijah, and that of our Saviour, were freed from the power of gravitation, endowed with the power of ascending on high, and of traversing space. Why should not our bodies have the same capacity, when once what is sown in weakness 'shall be raised in power? Then it may be literally fulfilled in the case of the saints, "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." The glorified saints, in order to exercise this prerogative, need only to be "equal unto the angels;" for they not only hover around the throne, and range the heavenly realms, but soar to distant worlds on excursions of joy, or on quick errands of mercy and love. O my soul, rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, in the prospect of the glorious destiny which awaits thee, when that which is perfect is come!

SECTION VI.

THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE GLORIFIED BODY.

Ay, there will be then one soul of joy in us and in God. We in Him, He will be in us. We shall be nerves in his infinite blessedness, and forever be thrilled with delight. And perhaps what is done divinely on one side of Heaven, will gladden us on the other. Ay, this-this is the thing to think of.

EUTHANASY.

It is sown a natural body. The word, natural body, is to be taken as the same with animal body. The animal body is one in which the earthly elements preponderate and rule. This is the reason why it must

return to dust, which is the ultimate state toward

which it now prevailingly tends. became the slave of the natural.

By the fall, man "The creature was

made subject to vanity" through sin, by which the Spirit lost its proper lordship and dominion. As sin brought death, it brought with it also that associated weakness and decay of the physical organism which cause the body to be sown a natural body, that it may decay like the seed in the earth, and thus become the womb of that which is better.

Like a seed. Yes; for it is the germ of the body. that shall be. "It is raised a spiritual body."

Spiritual body cannot mean a body of pure spirit. This would be no body at all, and consequently a contradiction in terms. Besides, in that case it would not be proper to speak, as the Scriptures do, of the resurrection, changing, and glorification of the body. It evidently means to represent that the resurrection body is material still; the adjective "spiritual" designates only one of its attributes.

We say, therefore, first, that the words "spiritual body" designates a body merging towards the properties of spirit. Matter, even in this world, exists in various degrees of refinement. "All flesh is not the same flesh." Beyond doubt, in the heavenly world, matter exists with a delicacy of combination that is entirely unknown on earth. We know, by aid of science, that some of the heavenly bodies within reach of astronomical observation, are much more refined in the texture of their matter than others. The Apostle alludes to this fact in direct connection with the resurrection, and by way of answering the question in

reference to the dead, "With what body do they come?" He says, He says, "There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

According to this representation, our future bodies will be constituted of matter having the same quality and consistence as that which exists in the heavenly regions. This is no doubt alluded to by the Apostle when he designates our future body as "our house which is from heaven." 2 Cor. v. 2. So also, in another place, we are assured that while our present animal body is from the earth, and in the likeness of the first Adam, our future body shall be in the likeness of the second Adam, who is Lord from Heaven—who, though he was born from the virgin, was nevertheless without sin, and consequently possessed of a body unfallen in its nature. "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49.

As that heavenly world, after the quality of whose matter our glorified bodies are to be formed, is emphatically the world of spirits, the spiritual body must

be entirely under the power of spirit. "There is," says Dr. Whitby, "an animal body, that is, a body fitted for this low sensible state in which we are at present; and there is a spiritual body, that is, a body fitted for our spiritual and celestial state. In this state we are forced to serve our bodies, and to attend their leisure, and mightily to depend upon them in the operations of the mind; in the other, our bodies shall wholly serve our spirits, and minister to them, and depend upon them, and therefore may be styled spiritual."

That our spiritual bodies are bodies entirely under the power of the spirit seems to be implied in that saying of the Apostle, that our bodies shall be like to the last Adam, who "was made a quickening spirit." It is well said by Dr. Burnett, "The gross, heavy, sluggish bodies, such as we have at present, are in the lowest class of bodies, which immortal minds and rational natures inhabit. Those which consist of a light, subtle, and movable matter, are a much nobler sort of animated bodies, and are readier for motion or dispatch in all the actions, either of the mind or the body. Nay, even in this terrestrial body, the thin, the subtle, and the fluid part, which we call spirit, is the proper vehicle of the soul, as the most nearly allied to it. These it commands, and these are the instruments which it makes use of to move the members of the body and the affections and operations of the mind depend upon the subtilty or the grossness, the plenty or the want, the regular or irregular motion of the spirits, and are accordingly the more or less powerful and vigorous."

Why should not matter in the spiritual body become wholly subject to the will of the spirit? Is it not already so in part in this life? The mind is, in a degree, master of matter. All motion which we behold is an evidence of this. It is an ancient opinion that all motion is the product of mind, either of the Creator or of creatures; and though second causes may lie between the moving will and the motion, yet ultimately the moving cause is mind. "Mind," says Taylor, "incorporate, unconsciously indeed, but as directed by the creative energy, combines or dissolves, takes up or rejects, the elements with which it comes in contact, and thus lives, if we may so speak, by its own discretive act." What can hinder us from believing that this power of spirit, or will, over matter, which manifests its own masterly existence so plainly in the imperfect body here, should assert its prerogatives in perfection and glory in the perfected bodies of the children of the resurrection?

It seems extravagant, and entirely unnecessary to contend, as some have done, that the general organism of the present body will not reappear in the future body. What should hinder its becoming spiritual in the highest sense, even in its present physical order? What should hinder spiritual powers from sustaining and animating what is now replenished and sustained by earthly elements? Besides, it is difficult to see how the identity of the body could be sustained in the abolition of its present order of organization. The organs of the present body can remain without their infirmities. The present physical structure may, by virtue of its glorification, be strong and beauteous in

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