word, the grace and gift whereby Christ is the Author to us of Regeneration as well as of Justification-of Justification by the shedding of His blood for us in His death; of Regeneration by the imparting to us of His Spirit, the life of His resurrection.

:

And this life-giving Holy Spirit in us, as in Him, is the ground and earnest of our Hope to be raised hereafter in incorruption and in glory. Not of resurrection simply for all shall be raised. But not all in the same way or in like nature. For not of all is it written, "this corruptible must put on "incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor"tality," (1 Cor. xv. 53); as is sufficiently evident from what follows-" So when this corruptible shall "have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall "have put on immortality, then shall be brought to "" pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed "up in victory." And whence the difference? The question is answered in the same chapter, ver. 42-45, where, having stated that "there are bodies "celestial and bodies terrestrial" which differ one from the other in "glory," the Apostle adds-" 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 power." (This is the difference; and now follows the cause) :-" It is sown

a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There "is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. (Literally, as before remarked, "a body proper-tothe-soul and a body proper-to-the-spirit."+) And 66 so it is written, The first man Adam was made a "living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening

spirit." Or, as the same truth is stated Rom. viii. 11,-"If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus "from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up "Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal "bodies by (Marg. because of) His Spirit that "dwelleth in you."

And, because quickened by the same Spirit, raised also in the same image: as we read again, Phil. iii. 21,-"who shall change our vile body that it may "be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according "to the working whereby He is able even to subdue "all things unto Himself." And again, Col. iii. 4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then "shall ye also appear with Him in glory." And again, in 1 Cor. xv. in continuation of the former quotation, ver. 47,-"The first man is of the earth, "earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. "As is the earthy such they also that are earthy: "and as the heavenly such they also that are

* ψυχικὸν πνευματικού

Η ψυχην ζώσαν ᾧ πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν.

"heavenly.* And as we have borne the image of "the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the "heavenly."

And now, in conclusion,-What shall we say to these things? to these so great present privileges and still greater promises here revealed to us? We may best draw the inference and make the application in the words of the Apostle-in the sequel of a passage but just quoted-Rom. viii. 12, 13, "Therefore, "brethren, we are debtors: not to the flesh, to live "after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh ye shall "die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put "to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live:" in sequel, observe, of ver. 11, which had said "If the

Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead "dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the "dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." Yes: the Resurrection-apprehended in this its scriptural ground and principle-is a holy Hope. Holiness was its cause in Christ; and Holiness-the partaking of His Holiness-is the earnest of it now in us. And the denier of this truth, the unbeliever, is therefore not only the man who says (as did some in the Apostle's days) that "there is no resurrection of the dead" or that "the resurrection is past

* The translation inserts are "such (are) they:" but quere should it not be "such (shall be) they &c." i.e. in resurrection?

already," but the man who, professing to live in the Spirit, walks after the flesh; who, born and baptized for Eternity, lives for Time; and, called with a heavenly calling, the subject of heavenly promises, "MINDS EARTHLY THINGS."

THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

XX. THE FORTY-DAYS' INTERCOURSE WITH HIS

DISCIPLES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.

Acts i. 3.

"To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many "infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

66

THIS being the last Sunday after Easter and the Sunday next before the commemoration of the Ascension, it seems to be the fit occasion to notice the Interval between these Events in our Lord's history -the "forty days" during which, as this passage informs us, He was seen by His disciples after He rose from the dead.

We observe, then, that there are two purposes here assigned for which this intercourse was vouchsafed by Him: First, To afford them-the Apostles who should be witnesses of His resurrection-abundant evidence of the fact; and Secondly, For the purpose of giving them the further instruction