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21 For since by man came death, || the first-fruits; afterward they that A. M. 4063. by man came also the resurrection are Christ's at his coming.

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24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ delivered up the kingdom to God, even the shall all be made alive. Father; when he shall have put down all 23 But every man in his own order: Christ rule, and all authority, and power.

a Rom. v. 12, 17. John xi. 25; Rom. vi. 23. Christ's resurrection, we expose ourselves to every|| possible present evil, and if there is to be no resurrection of the dead, there is no future state in which we can enjoy any thing. This argument is levelled against the Sadducees, who, believing the soul to be material, affirmed that it perishes with the body; and will have no existence after death, the body being never to be raised. The apostle's argument is equally conclusive on supposition that the soul is immaterial, and that it will exist and enjoy [happiness] after death, although the body is not raised. For if the apostles were false witnesses and impostors, they could look for no happiness from God after death."

© Verse 20; 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16, 17.- d Dan. vii. 14, 27.

revive, (as naturally as they die,) but shall be made alive, namely, by a power not their own. See on Rom. v. 18, a passage which is a good comment on this verse.

Verse 23. But every man-Shall be reanimated, raised, and glorified; in his own order-Or in his || own band, as 79 idi rayμati more properly signifies, denoting a band of soldiers, a cohort, or legion; the word for order being rather rasis. According to this || interpretation, it is here intimated that the righteous will be raised by themselves, and the wicked by themselves; that is, according to the next verse, the righteous are to be raised at Christ's coming, or are to be first raised, even before the living are changed, and much more before the wicked are raised. See 1 Thess. iv. 15–17.

Verses 20-22. But now is Christ risen-Here the apostle declares that Christians have hope not in this || life only. His proof of the resurrection lies in a Verse 24. Then-After the resurrection and the narrow compass, verse 12-19. Almost all the rest general judgment; cometh the end-Of the world, of the chapter is taken up in illustrating, vindicating, the grand period of all those wonderful scenes that and applying it. The proof is short, but solid and have appeared for so many succeeding generaconvincing, namely, that which arose from Christ's tions; when he shall--Publicly and solemnly; have resurrection. Now this not only proved a resurrec delivered up-Greek, оrav naрady, when he shall tion possible, but, as it proved him to be a divine deliver up; the mediatorial kingdom to God, even teacher, it proved also the certainty of a general the Father-By whose commission he had held it, resurrection, which he so expressly taught. The and to whose glory he had always administered it; first-fruits of them that slept-The pledge, earnest, when he shall have put down-Orav karapynoŋ, when and assurance of the resurrection of those who sleep he shall have destroyed all adverse rule, authoin him, even of all the righteous, of the resurrection rity, and power-That had opposed itself to his of whom, at least chiefly, if not only, the apostle government, and shall have triumphed over all the speaks throughout the chapter. As to the term efforts which either men or devils could ever make first-fruits, in explanation thereof it may be proper against his dominion. This mediatorial kingdom to observe, that "the Israelites were commanded to which Christ will deliver up, is represented, Matt. bring on the morrow after the sabbath, with which xxviii. 18, to be his possessing all power in heaven the passover week began, a sheaf of the first-fruits || and in earth; "that is, power over angels as well of their harvest to the priest, to be waved before the as over men. This kingdom our Lord received in Lord, who, by accepting it, made it an example and the human nature, as the reward of his humiliation, a pledge of the future harvest. In allusion to that and was solemnly installed in it after his resurrecrite, Christ, who arose on the very day on which the tion, when he ascended into heaven, and was invited 'first-fruits were offered, is called the first-fruits of by God to sit at his right hand till he should make them who slept, because he is the first who was his enemies his footstool. Further, because it is raised from the dead to die no more, and because his said, Col. i. 17, He is before all things, and by him resurrection is an example and an earnest of the all things consist; and because we are told, Heb. resurrection of the righteous." For since by mani. 3, that the Son, while he spake the gospel, upheld came death-Since death came on the whole human all things by the word of his power; it is believed, race by means of one man, who brought mortality on that besides the mediatorial kingdom which the Son all his posterity in consequence of one great and administered in the human nature, and which he wilful transgression; by man came also, &c.-That will deliver up to the Father after the judgment, he 1s, by means of another man came likewise the possessed the government of the universe from the resurrection of the dead-And our happy relation beginning, in his character as Creator: and that, to him abundantly repairs the damage we sustain by after the mediatorial kingdom is delivered up, the our fatal relation to the former. For as in Adam all kingdom which he holds as Creator, will remain -Even the righteous; die, so in-Or through; Christ with him as from the beginning. So that after the shall all these be made alive-He does not say shall || judgment, the righteous shall enter still into the

Christ must reign until

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25 For he must reign, till he hath || it is manifest that he is excepted A. M. 4063, put all enemies under his feet. which did put all things under him.

26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him,

e Psa. cx. 1; Acts ii. 34, 35; Eph. i. 22; Heb. i. 13; x. 13. 12 Tim. i. 10; Rev. xx. 14.

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28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Psa. viii. 6; Matt. xxviii. 18; Heb. ii. 8; 1 Pet. iii. 22. h Phil. iii. 21.- iChap. iii. 23; xi. 3.

being subject to the Son, was intended to prevent us from interpreting what is said of the extent of the Son's dominion, in such a manner as to fancy that he is in any respect superior to the Father.

everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ, as they are Father; is excepted, who did put all things under represented to do, 2 Pet. i. H."-Macknight. In- || him-This declaration concerning the Father's not deed, the divine reign, both of the Father and the Son, is from everlasting to everlasting. And only so far as the Father gave the kingdom to the Son, shall the Son deliver it up to the Father, John xiii. 3. Nor does the Father cease to reign when he gives it to the Son, neither the Son when he delivers it to the Father; but the glory which he had before the world began, (John xvii. 5; Heb. i. 8,) will remain even after that is delivered up. Nor will he cease || to be a king even in his human nature, Luke i. 33.|| If the citizens of the New Jerusalem shall reign for ever, (Rev. xxii. 5,) how much more shall he!

Verse 28. When all things shall be subdued-Or, rather, subjected, (as vñoraуn properly signifies,) unto him, and there is no longer need of a prophet to teach, nor of a priest to make atonement and intercede, nor of a king to deliver, protect, and govern under God, the Father will resume the government; and then, even the Son himself shall be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God—Or the Godhead; may be all in all-May be over all beings, in all places, and the immediate object of their worship and service. Or rather, may be all things in and to his intelligent creatures, saints, and angels, by a full communication of himself to them, and an intimate union with them. He saith not," observes Dr. Whitby, "that the Father, mentioned verse 24, but that God may be all in all; and so he seems to lead us to that interpretation of the Godhead which comprehends Father, Son, and Holy || Ghost; and then the import of the phrase, that God may be all in all, will be this: That the Godhead may govern all things immediately by himself, without the intervention of a mediator between him || and us, to exact our obedience in his name, and convey to us his favours and rewards, we being then to render all our duty immediately to him, and derive all our happiness immediately from him. So that, as now Christ, God-man, is all in all, Col. iii. 11, because the Father hath put all things into his hands; || does all things and governs all things by him; when this economy ceases, the Godhead alone will be all in all, as governing and influencing all things by himself immediately." "On supposition that this.

Verses 25-27. For he must reign-Because so it is written, Psa. cx. 1; till he—God the Father; hath || put all enemies under his feet-That is, till he hath utterly subdued them to Christ, that he may destroy them. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death-That enemy which continues, in some measure, to hold the subjects of Christ under his dominion, even when the temptations of the world, and the malice of Satan, can hold them no longer, and when every remainder of corrupt nature and human infirmity has long since ceased in the perfect holiness of the intermediate state. Macknight, who renders this verse, the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed, observes, that "the common version of this passage implies that there are some enemies who shall not be destroyed, which is wrong: for all enemies shall be destroyed, verse 25." Nor is it true in every sense, that "because death is called the last enemy, it is to be last destroyed: for if the destruction of death is to be accomplished by the resurrection, the devil and his angels, and wicked men, are to be judged and punished after the dead are raised. In Chrysostom's opinion, death is called the last enemy, because he entered into the world after the devil and sin entered." For Satan brought || is a proper interpretation of the passage, and that in sin, and sin brought forth death. There is a sense, however, in which it may be affirmed that death is the last enemy that is destroyed; for when Christ engaged these enemies, he first conquered Satan, namely, in his temptation, then sin in his death, and lastly, death in his resurrection. In the same order he delivers all the faithful from them, yea, and de- || stroys their power. Death he so destroys, that it shall exist no more; sin and Satan, so that they shall no more hurt his people. For he hath put all things under his feet-Agreeably to what is said, Psa. viii. 6. But-As is sufficiently evident; when he saith all things are put under him-In the last-mentioned passage, and as is implied in many others; he-The

the Son or Word, John i. 1, in conjunction with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is to govern, two questions will occur: 1st, How the apostle came to speak of the Son's subjection to the Father, seeing he is to reign in conjunction with the Father. 2d, How the Son, under the government of the Godhead, can be subject to himself. To remove these difficulties, it is generally said that the Son is to be subject to the Father in his human nature only. In the present state of mankind, it is suitable to the majesty and purity of God, that all his intercourses with them, whether in the way of conferring blessings on them, or of receiving their worship, be carried on by the intervention of a mediator. But after

If there be no resurrection,

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I. CORINTHIANS.

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faith in Christ is vain. 29 Else what shall they do, which || fought with beasts at Ephesus, what A. M. 4063. are baptized for the dead, if the dead advantageth it me, if the dead rise rise not at all? why are they then baptized for not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we the dead? die.

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2 Cor. i. 8. Isa. xxii. 13; lvi. 12; Eccl. ii. 24; Luke xii. 19.—P Chapter v. 6.- - Romans xiii. 11; Eph. v. 14. 1 Thess. iv. 5.—— Chap. vi. 5.

sinners are completely reconciled to God, and made and reads the clause, who are baptized for the resurperfect in holiness, and are introduced into heaven, rection of the dead, or are immersed in sufferings, God will bestow his favours on them, and receive because of their believing in, and testifying the doctheir worship, immediately, without the intervention trine of the resurrection of the dead: for which of a mediator. And thus the offices of mediator and interpretation he adduces solid reasons. If the dead king, becoming unnecessary, shall cease. Yet even rise not-If the doctrine I oppose be true, and the in this state, the Son in [or in union with] the hu- dead are not raised at all; why are they then bapman nature, though no longer king, [in the sense tized for the resurrection of the dead? And why in which he was king before,] will still retain the || stand we—' -The apostles; also in jeopardy—And are glory of having created all things, described Col. exposed to so much danger and suffering; every i. 15; Heb. i. 2, 3, and the glory of having saved hour-In the service of a Master from whom, it is mankind, and of having destroyed the kingdom of evident, we have no secular rewards to expect. Satan, and Satan himself. So that, in respect of personal perfection, and of the veneration due to him for the great things he hath accomplished, he will continue superior to the highest angels, and be acknowledged by them as their superior through all eternity. Now this superiority being considered as a kind of reigning, it is perhaps what the apostle || meant when, 2 Tim. ii. 12, he said, If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. See also Rev. iii. 21."-Macknight. So also Doddridge: "The union of the divine and human natures in the person of the great Emmanuel, the incomparable virtues of his character, the glory of his actions, and the relation he bears to his people, with all the texts which assert the perpetuity of his government, prohibit our imagining that he shall ever cease to be illustriously distinguished from all others, whether men or angels, in the heavenly world, through eternal ages."

Verses 29, 30. Else, or otherwise, what shall they do-What will become of them? what shall they do to repair their loss, who are exposed to great sufferings in consequence of being baptized for the dead-That is, say some, "In token of their embracing the Christian faith in the room of the dead, who are just fallen in the cause of Christ, but are yet supported by a succession of new converts, who immediately offer themselves to fill up their places, as ranks of soldiers that advance to combat in the room of their companions, who have just been slain in their sight." Others say, "In hope of blessings to be received after they are numbered with the dead." Many other interpretations are given of this obscure and ambiguous phrase, νñερ τwv vekрwv, for the dead. But perhaps that of Dr. Macknight is the most probable, who supplies the words τng avaçaσews,

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Verses 31-34. I protest by your rejoicing-Greek, νη την υμετέραν καυχησιν ην εχω, by the boasting concerning you which I have, namely, on account of your faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the clause is interpreted by some critics. I die daily— That is, I am daily in danger of death, for bearing testimony to the resurrection of Christ, and to a general resurrection through him. If, to speak after the manner of men-That is, To use a proverbial phrase expressive of the most imminent danger; I have fought with beasts at Ephesus— With the savage fury of a lawless multitude, Acts xix. 29, &c. What advantageth it me—What have I gained by such sufferings; if the dead rise not? And I have nothing to expect after death. Let us eat and drink, &c.—We might, on that supposition, as well say, with the Epicureans, Let us make the best of this short life, seeing we have no other portion to expect. Be not deceived-By such pernicious counsels as this. Evil communications corrupt good manners-He opposes to the Epicurean saying a well-known verse of the poet Menander. By evil communications, is meant conversation contrary to faith, hope, or love; or familiar intercourse with worldly and carnal people, which tends to destroy all holiness. Awake-An exclamation full of apostolical majesty. Shake off your lethargy! To righteousness-Evangelical and divine righteous. ness, flowing from the true knowledge of God, and implying that the whole soul be broad awake and watchful: the righteousness through which grace reigns unto eternal life, Rom. v. 21; and sin not -That is, and you will not sin, for sin supposes sleepiness or drowsiness of soul. There is need to press this; for some-Among you; have not the knowledge of God-With all your boasted know

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35 But some man will say, 'How || not that body that shall be, but bare A. M. 4063. are the dead raised up? and with grain; it may chance of wheat, or of what body do they come ? some other grain;

36 Thou fool," that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die:

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest

Ezek. xxxvii. 3.

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38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

39 All flesh is not the same flesh; but there

"John xii. 24.

ledge, you are ignorant of what it most concerns which, by a wonderful process, the effect of the you to know; I speak this to your shame-For no- power of God, ends in the reproduction of the same thing is more shameful than sleepy ignorance of kind of grain, not bare as it was sown, but richly God, and of the word and works of God; to them, || adorned with blades, stalk, and ear." Thomas especially, it was shameful, considering the advan- || Paine, in his "Age of Reason," and some other motages they had enjoyed. dern infidels, have maintained, against the apostle, Verse 35. But some man possibly will say, How "that the seed does not die in vegetation, because are the dead raised up-After their whole frame is the germe lives and expands itself, and only the exdissolved? And with what kind of bodies do they traneous matter corrupts. But in fact the seed, as come?-From the dead, after these are mouldered such, doth die: it ceases to be a grain of corn; into dust. By the apostle's answer to these inqui- though a part of it springs, as it were, into new life, ries, it appears that he considered the inquirer as by a process which we can no more comprehend not so much desiring to have his curiosity satis- than we can the manner of the resurrection. Even fied, respecting the nature and qualities of the Lucretius, the Epicurean atheist, says, 'Whatever bodies raised, as suggesting the impossibility of the change transfers a body into a new class of beings, resurrection in question taking place. He therefore || may be justly called the death of the original subbegins with proving the possibility of the resurrec- stance: for what is changed from what it was, that tion, by appealing to the power of God displayed in dies.'"-Scott. And that which thou sowest is not raising grain from seed which is rotted in the ground, the body that shall be-Produced from the seed and in giving to each of the kinds, when it is grown committed to the ground; but bare, naked, grain— up, the body proper to it: also in making bodies Widely different from that which will afterward rise celestial and bodies terrestrial, each having its own out of the earth. But God-Not thou, O man, nor properties by which it is distinguished from all the grain itself; giveth it a body-In the course of others. And from these instances of the power of his natural operations, by certain laws of vegetation, God, he infers that the resurrection of the dead is with which thou art entirely unacquainted; as it possible, verses 36-42. As to the inquiry, with || hath pleased him—With such a variety of parts as what kind of bodies men will be raised, his answer he hath thought fit to determine for that particular is given from the middle of verse 42-54. But what species; and to each of the seeds-Not only of the he advances respects only the properties of the fruits and plants, but animals also, to which the bodies of the righteous, which he contrasts with the apostle rises in the following verse; its own body properties of the bodies which were laid in the grave. Not only a body of the same sort, but that And with respect to the righteous, who are found which, by virtue of some connection it had with alive on the earth at the coming of Christ, he de- this or that individual grain, may properly be called clares that their bodies will be changed in a moment, its own, though in its form much different, and much and rendered incorruptible and immortal, because more beautiful. It is justly observed by Dr. Macflesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. knight here, that, "having such an example of the Verses 36-38. Thou fool-Greek, appov, without divine power before our eyes, we cannot think the mind, or understanding. Or, thou inconsiderate reproduction of the body impossible, though its and thoughtless creature, who thinkest a matter im- parts be utterly dissipated. And although the very possible, of the possibility of which thou hast an numerical body be not raised, which the apostle inexample in the very seed thou sowest. Macknight timates when he affirms that the grain produced thinks the apostle here addresses the false teacher from the seed sown is not the very body which is at Corinth, "giving him the appellation of fool in || sown, yet the body is truly raised; because what is the same sense, and for the same reason, that our raised being united to the soul, there will arise in Lord himself called the Pharisees fools, namely, on the man, thus completed, a consciousness of identity, account of their ignorance and wickedness, Matt. by which he will be sensible of the justice of the xxii. 17." What thou sowest is not quickened ex-retribution which is made to him for his deeds. cept it die "To illustrate the possibility of the resurrection, the apostle appeals to a thing which men every day behold, and which is little less wonderful than the resurrection itself, the reproduction of grain from seed sown, which does not grow unless it be rotted in the ground. But after its body is destroyed, something springs out of it,

Besides, this new body will more than supply the place of the old, by serving every purpose necessary to the perfection and happiness of the man in his new state. According to this view of the subject, the objection taken from the scattering of the particles of the body that die, has no place, because it does not seem necessary that the body to be raised

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A. M. 4053. is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and

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another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies
terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one,
and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

the raised bodies of the saints.

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41 There is one glory of the sun, A. M. 4063. and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: x Dan. xii. 3; Matt. xiii. 43.

should be composed of them; for the Scripture which he has already formed, and in the diversity of nowhere affirms that the same numerical body is to their configuration, that person must be a fool inbe raised. In the opinion of some, indeed, the ex-|| deed, (verse 36,) who takes upon him to affirm that ample of the grain which first dies, and then revives, God cannot raise up bodies for his saints at the last is mentioned to intimate, that in the human body day, in form and use similar to their present bodies, there is a seminal principle, which is not destroyed and perfectly adapted to the faculties of their minds, by death; and which, at the appointed season, will and to the new world in which they are to live." reproduce the body in a more excellent form than This last observation is peculiarly worthy the before, through the quickening influence of his reader's attention. Our new bodies, what qualities power. But is a seminal principle any thing differ- soever they may possess, will doubtless be perfectly ent from that power? What occasion then have adapted to the faculties of our minds, and to the we to carry our thoughts in this matter beyond new world in which we shall be placed: as our preGod's power? Besides, as there is no inextinguish- sent bodies are adapted to the faculties we now able principle in plants, the analogy doth not hold. possess, and to the world in which we now live; I therefore suppose this wonderful, though common and as we see the bodies of all creatures are suited instance, is mentioned, to show that the resurrection to the instincts God hath given them, and to the of the body is not beyond the power of God to ac-element or place in which they have their abode, complish; and that it may certainly be expected according to Christ's promise."

whether fish in the water, fowls in the air, or cattle and creeping things on or within the dry land. Verses 39-41. All flesh, &c.—As if he had said, Accordingly, when any living creature is destined There is an immense variety in the works of God, to change the place of its abode, it receives a even in those which fall under the inspection of our new body, adapted to its new situation: as, for senses, feeble and limited as they are, while we example, the silk-worm, when it is no longer to be dwell in flesh and blood. For we see even earthy confined to the leaves of the mulberry-tree, but to bodies differ from earthy, and heavenly bodies from have the freedom and pleasure of roaming at large heavenly. What wonder then if heavenly bodies in the spacious regions of the air, is furnished with differ from earthy? or the bodies which rise from a new and winged body, adapted to its new state those that lie in the grave? "As in the preceding || and element. And here arises a question: Is it not verse," says the author last quoted, "the apostle probable that at least one important reason why we directs us to consider the greatness of the power of are to receive new bodies, and are not always to God, displayed in the production of that endless remain disimbodied spirits, (as we shall be in the variety of vegetable substances for food to man and intermediate state between death and judgment,) beast, with which we are surrounded; so in this is, because we are destined to remove into a new verse he directs our attention to the same power of world, far more perfect and glorious than this fallen God displayed in that wonderful diversity of animal || and disordered one in which we now are?—a world. substances, which it hath formed into different sorts in which there will be no more curse, but the throne of organized bodies, each with members properly of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his seradapted to the instincts of its inhabitant, and to the vants shall serve him, and shall see his face. In manner of life for which it is designed;" men, this new world, God, who never sinks, but always beasts, fishes, fowls. There are also celestial bodies,|| rises to higher and higher perfection in his works, &c.-As if he had said, The greatness of his power will certainly make a far more glorious display of God hath likewise showed, in the formation of other his wisdom, power, and goodness, and other attribodies which are inanimate, both celestial, as the butes, than he has done in this present world; and sun, moon, and stars, and terrestrial, such as fossils it is therefore necessary that we should have bodies and minerals. But the glory of the celestial is one,|| furnished with senses and other members adapted &c.-Different indeed is the glory of the one from to that world, and enabling us to hold connection that of the other, and the brightest lustre which the and intercourse with it, and to apprehend, enjoy, terrestrial can have, falls very short of that of the and be instructed in the further knowledge of our celestial. There is one glory of the sun, &c.-Yea, glorious Creator, by the excellences of it, so supeand the heavenly bodies themselves differ from each rior to any we had witnessed in this present earth, other. From the whole of these principles, the the abode of our infancy and childhood. But sufaposte draws this conclusion;-that since God's || fice it at present to have given a hint of this. power has been so "gloriously manifested in the Verses 42-44. So also is the resurrection of the greatness and variety of the material substances | dead-So great is the difference between the body

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