x. While Christ remained on the earth, however, his body was not advanced to that full perfection of glory, which it has possessed ever since its exaltation above the heavens. From condescension to the weakness of the disciples, he suffered it to be somewhat obscured, so as 12 not visibly to shine forth in all its brightness, during the forty days he conversed with them. They must, otherwise, have been incapable of looking stedfastly upon him, and far less able to behold his splendour, than were the Israelites of old, to behold the radiant face of Moses.s XL. It was another instance of kind and judicious condescension, that, with a view the more clearly to establish the certainty of his resurrection, he requested some food; and that the Apostles " did eat and drink "with him, after he rose from the dead." This must not be attributed to his body being then in a state of mortality, or to its standing in need of nourishment, but to the voluntary concealment of the rays of his glory. Augustine nobly says: "To be incapable of "taking food, and to stand in need of food, would be "equally an evidence of imperfection in the resurrec 66 tion-body. The parched earth swallows up water, in The one a manner very different from that in which it is swal"lowed up by the burning rays of the sun. "does it from need, the other, by power."* His de sign is to show, that our Lord's eating after his resurrection, was an evidence, not of weakness, but of power; and that the food was not digested in the stomach, but absorbed, as moisture is absorbed by the heat of the XII. It was no dishonour, besides, to the body of Christ, that after the resurrection it bore visible marks of his wounds in his hands, feet, and side; nor will it disgrace it in the least, if he shall be pleased to bear them on the great day of final judgment: For those marks are indications of his glorious triumph over death, as a conquered enemy. XIII. The CAUSE of the resurrection of Christ, is, in general, God; as we are informed in many passages of Scripture. Sometimes, however, it is ascribed particu larly to the Father, as in the following words: "The "God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," displayed" the working of his mighty power in Christ, "when he raised him from the dead."w But elsewhere it is attributed to the Son himself; and not without reason: "For as the Father hath life in himself, so "hath he given to the Son, to have life in himself.” The same Divine essence is common to both,-that ever living, ever active essence, which is the source of all the life that all other living beings enjoy, and in particular, of the blessed life possessed by a nature so closely united to the divinity. XIV. It cannot admit of a doubt, that the same lifegiving power, which belongs to the Father and the Son, belongs also to the Holy Spirit. Yet I do not recollect of reading in Scripture, that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, raised Christ from the dead. In Rom. viii. 11, it is not ascribed to the Holy Spirit, but to Him whose Spirit dwelleth in us, namely, the Father. In 1 Pet. iii. 18, Christ is indeed said to be" quickened by the Spirit;" but since "the Spirit" ▾ Acts ii. 24. iii. 15. iv. 10. Rom. x. 9, &c. w Ephes. i. 17, 19, 20. * John ii. 19. x. 17, 18. y John v. 26. is there opposed to "the flesh," it is more proper to understand it of Christ's divine nature, which possesses "the power of an endless life."z 30 The phrase "jus"tified in the Spirit,"a is of the same import; and so, too, is the expression, "declared to be the Son of God "with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by "the resurrection from the dead." But, since at the very beginning of the world, the Holy Spirit cherished the rude mass of matter by moving upon it, since he is expressly called " the Spirit of life," and since God shall quicken our mortal bodies by him,e it would be totally unreasonable to represent the resurrection of Christ as accomplished without the power and energy of the Holy Spirit. xv. Our Lord's resurrection, it is worthy of notice, is much more frequently spoken of, as effected by the Father, than by Christ himself. For this, two reasons may be given. First, That the Father's calling of Christ to glory might not be obscured; for it became him not to take this honour to himself, that though once dead, he should become alive for evermore, and be the Prince of life; but being "called," to receive it from him who said, "Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee."f Secondly, that it might be manifest, that this glory of a new life is assigned to him justly, and in conformity with his own merit, by the sentence of the Father; who justifies him, and adjudges to him a glorious re 'Heb. vii. 16. a 1 Tim. iii. 16. * Κατα πνεῦμα ἁγιωσύνης, Rom. i. 4. "I choose rather," our Auther adds, " to render it Sanctimonia, of holiness, than Sanctificationis, of sanctification. The Greek word for sanctification is "aspes." See Beza's version, Rom. 1. 4. T. * Gen. i. 2. Verse 11. d Rom. viii. 2: f Heb. v. 4, 5. 50 See NOTE XXX. ward, in consequence of his having endured the condemnatory sentence of the law, and rendered ample satisfaction to justice. Our Lord makes this the subject of his glorying, and comforts himself with the prospect of that glory which was immediately to succeed a short period of suffering. "He is near that justifieth me; "who will contend with me? Behold the Lord God "will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?"s XVI. But whether the resurrection of our Saviour be considered as the work of the Father, or of Christ himself, it affords us, in either view, an incontrovertible argument for his eternal Deity and Sonship. The unbounded efficacy of Divine power, as we have just learned from Paul, was displayed in this work; and therefore, if Christ exerted it in raising himself, it is clear that he is armed with Omnipotence, and so is the eternal and co-essential Son of the most high God, who has, equally with the Father, life in himself. XVII. The Father, too, could not raise him without openly acknowledging him as his own Son. He was accused of blasphemy, and condemned to death by the Jewish Council, on this ground, that he boldly professed himself to be the Son of God,h "making him"self equal with God." When, therefore, after he had expired on the ignominious cross, and gone down to the dust of death, the Father brought him forth again from the darkness of the grave to the land of the living and the light of day, he condemned the Jewish Council, and absolved Christ. By thus raising him from the dead, he made it indisputably evident, that the Saviour's profession respecting himself was true. In every view, Is. 1. 8, 9. h Mat. xxvi. 64-66. then, Christ is "declared to be the Son of God with "power - - - by the resurrection from the dead.” XVIII. With regard to the TIME of the resurrection, four things are to be noticed. 1st, That it took place in the season of Spring, at the feast of the passover, in the month Abib. This month derives its name from the new ear of corn; for in those warm climates, the fruits of the earth, necessary to human sustenance, were nearly matured in that month: and, by divine appointment, it was the first month of the sacred year. And truly the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, brought happier times to the Church after a long and severe winter, and introduced a new year of grace, in which "the mountains brought "forth peace to the people, and the little hills by "righteousness ;"--so that every where there was "a "handful of corn in the earth, upon the top of the "mountains, the fruit whereof shaked like Lebanon, "and they of the city flourished like grass of the "earth.”k а XIX. 2dly, That it took place on the third day after his death and burial; which was the time foretold by Christ, and which, after his resurrection, was carefully noted by the Apostles, in order to demonstrate the truth of the prediction. It pleased God so to adjust the time of Christ's continuance in the sepulchre, that it might be sufficiently long to evince the reality of his death, and sufficiently short to correspond with the purpose respecting the preservation of his body from corruption. Of the manner in which the three days divine are to be computed, we have formerly spoken.* * Dissert. xvii. sect. 26-30. Exod. xii. 2. comp. xiii. 4. 'John ii. 19. Mat. xvi. 21. xx. 19. Ps. lxxii. 3, 16. |