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world than the present. But we might know that Jesus did not teach thus; for by showing that the so-called dead are "living," he claims to show that they "are raised"; and then, by declaring that "all live", he lets us know that by "the dead," He means all the dead; - and we, by putting that and that together, could not well avoid seeing that His doctrine truly was that all the dead are raised, and, of course, have all been accounted worthy to obtain that world so different from this.

3. If it would have been inconsistent for Christ to say, in plain terms, "those who shall be," &c., how much more inconsistent for him to say that by mere construction — using language which requires to be interpreted in a future sense, though, to sound and sight, seemingly expressive of time past! It is totally incredible, then, that the real import of His language is such as is indicated by the Common Version.

VI. It may now be urged, as against a present resurrection, that even if the proper rendering of the phrase in question is really such as is herein argued, "those having been [or who have been] accounted worthy ",- still the infinitive, "to obtain," may denote future time, its time being certainly subsequent to that of the antecedent verb; so that the passage may teach an exclusively future resurrection after all.

This argument, if not far-fetched, is at least farstretched. An infinitive, following a verb or participle in present time, may naturally enough have a future sense; but following a verb or participle in past time, it will hardly transcend the present. But this needs not be insisted upon; for the time of the infinitive, in this case, is demonstrably present. "Those having been account

ed worthy to obtain " the boon mentioned, are represented by the Saviour as "being" actually in possession of it.

To be "children of this world" or "aion", is, manifestly, to be living entities in the present mode of being. "To obtain that world" or "aion ", is, as manifestly, to come to be livers in the after-death or resurrection mode of being. So, also, it is entirely manifest that to be "children of the resurrection", is to have been raised is to have been subjects of the process denominated anastasis.

Does now the blessed Redeemer here promise that by-and-by, in the lapse of ages, after the expiration of a length of time known only to the Omniscient One, all the dear "children of God" those "accounted worthy to obtain that world," &c., shall, by virtue of being raised, become, what they are not to be till then,-" children of the resurrection"? Nay, verily. So far from even intimating the existence of such a state of things, he positively and unequivocally affirms that those "accounted worthy to obtain that world," &c., "are the children [or sons] of God, being the children [or sons] of the resurrection." We may thus see that the resurrection is as it were the door into the spirit world; and that those having entered that world, "are raised."

In continuation of the argument for a present resurrection, as drawn from the passage in Luke which we have been considering, two circumstances may now be worthy of notice:

1. Whatever the authors of the Common Version may have meant by the forms of speech which they employ in this place, the plain, grammatical import of their language is, that all such persons as, at some future time," shall be accounted worthy

to obtain" the resurrection world, do not, now, enter into matrimonial relations. There are few who hold that marriage is inconsistent with Christianity; and to all except such, it can not but be perfectly obvious that the absence of marriage affirmed in this text, is meant to be affirmed of those who have gone to the spirit world, and not of those who are to go some time or other. But the entrance to that world is through the resurrection, as we have seen; consequently the affirmation of the Saviour in the text in hand, was not concerning those who shall be accounted worthy, but concerning those who have been thus accounted, or who are. It therefore is literally true that the so-called dead "are raised."

2. It is also affirmed of the persons mentioned, "Neither can they die any more." As with the declared absence of marriage, so with the declared impossibility of death, there can be no doubt that it applies to the resurrection world, and not to this. The death intended is clearly the death of the body. But the declaration that they can not thus die, is obviously equivalent to saying that they are immortal, and therefore that they have departed from this mode of being, and of course have been deemed worthy of the immortal state. Again. They can not "die any more".

This

supposes, indisputably, that they had died, and therefore that they had been mortal, but were then quite otherwise. Of whom did the Saviour here speak of whom could He be speaking- unless there were some of the human race who even then had been raised to immortality?

VII. It is also objected that, in a certain text, we are informed that "David is not ascended into the heavens." From this it is argued that at that time David was not raised, therefore not others. The

text is often quoted, " For David is not yet ascended," &c.; and the import is taken to be the same as saying, in modern popular phrase, "David is not yet gone to heaven." But "heaven" and "the heavens" may not have precisely, the same import; and besides, there is not the least intimation, in either the text or context, that David was ever to ascend in the sense there intended. The reference of the text is not to a resurrection, but to a subsequent Regal exaltation.

The text occurs in Peter's sermon at the day of Pentecost. He declares the resurrection of Jesus; cites the words of David, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," &c.; and teaches that David's words as thus cited do not apply to David, but to Jesus. He then announces the exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God, quotes also from David, "The LORD said to My LORD," &c., and sets forth that it was-not David, but Jesus who was thus to ascend:

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"For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on My right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts ii. 34-36; Ps. cx. 1

To a Jewish auditory, in whose Scriptures David is addressed as "my lord the king," and expressly styled "the Lord's anointed," which is the same as to say, "the Lord's Christ," the argumentation of Peter on the occasion referred to, however it may now seem to us, was doubtless perfectly appropriate and of the kind which, in those circumstances, was imperatively neces

sary.

12 Sam. xiv. 17-19; xix. 19, 21; 1 Kings i. 27, 31, 36, Ps. lxxxix. 38, 51; Luke ii. 26.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

A PRESENT OR PASSING RESURRECTIOŃ

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CONTINUED

IN conversation with some of the Jews, on a certain occasion, our Lord claims to have received from God the capability of rewarding all true believers with everlasting, spiritual, or religious life: or, as He also expresses it, of bringing them to a resurrection of life; also, on the other hand, the "authority to execute judgment upon the unbelievers of that age, or to bring them to a resurrection of punishment, judgment, condemnation, or as the Common Version has it" of damnation." (See Chaps. xv, xx, of this work.) He claims also, to be doing the same or the like things as His FATHER, alleging that "what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

In specifying the acts of his Father and himself, he, in the course of his remarks, observes thus:

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." John v. 21.

It really seems to the writer of this, that the work here ascribed to the Father is the raising of the deceased to an immortal celestial life; also, that that claimed by the Son is the bringing of some into a state of spiritual or religious life on

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