right hand of the Father, for the justification and salvation of His people, He bears with Him the nature which He had assumed; and is the second head of the human family. In Him and with Him all men have the resurrection of the body. They die as the first Adam died: they shall rise again as the second Adam rose. If, here on earth, they have been morally renewed after His image, they shall rise to everlasting life if they have rejected His mercies, to shame and everlasting contempt.

LXIII.

Body of Christ after his Resurrection.

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"Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart,
Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne
On lofty steed, or loftier prow, we dart

O'er wave or field: yet breezes laugh to scorn
Our puny speed, and birds, and clouds in heaven,

And fish, like living shafts that pierce the main,
And stars that shoot through freezing air at even—
Who but would follow, might he break his chain?
And thou shalt break it soon; the grovelling worm
Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free
As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form

And snowy vest-such grace He won for thee,
When from the grave He sprung at dawn of morn,
And led through boundless air thy conquering road,
Leaving a glorious track, where saints new-born
Might fearless follow to their blest abode."

KEBLE.

MANY questions of vast interest gather around the theme of the resurrection of Jesus. His body was the type of that which shall be received in the general resurrection; for He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body."

In that body He was seen, was heard, was touched. He walked, He ate, He breathed upon the apostles. These offices and functions, natural in the present body, cannot be, in the future body, miraculous. They were performed with the express design of convincing the disciples that they really beheld their Lord in the body, and not an impalpable apparition. "Handle me," said He, "and see; ́for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." The argument was not deceptive;

and such must be the body of the resurrection as was that body which they beheld and handled.

It was recognised, too, as the same which had bled upon the cross. The same wounds were seen in the hands, the same in the side; they were demanded by Thomas as the signs of identity; and as such they were displayed. Had this identity been merely apparent; had the marks of these wounds been assumed, through an exercise of divine power, the proof would have been an illusion. The body which shall rise must thus be distinguishable as the same which here lived. and died.

But in this body many acts were done by the risen Saviour, which exceeded the common functions of our present nature. He was not known, at the first glance, even by the familiar eyes of Mary Magdalene; so that, it should seem, His person must at His will have sustained some change of aspect. He was not known by the two disciples with whom He walked to Emmaus, till He broke bread with His accustomed gestures, and "their eyes were opened." At His pleasure, He appeared, and He vanished. During forty days, He was only manifested from time to time, but commonly remained beyond the reach or sight of enemies or friends. When He at last departed, the manner of His departure transcended the laws which bind all earthly bodies. This moment, He stood amongst the apostles on the hill which they had so often visited together, near the groves of olives; the next, He passed upward, with His hands stretched in blessing; and, while they looked earnestly after, His form was lost in the brightness of the skies.

All these powers, however, though far exceeding all with which our present natural bodies are endued, might

have been exercised by our Lord while He was yet in the present body, through His miraculous dominion over nature. He did walk upon the sea; He passed, as some interpreters have supposed, unseen through the crowd of His adversaries; He was transfigured, so that His face shone as the sun, His raiment became white as the snow and glistering, and the fashion of His countenance was altered. Can it be inferred, from the exereise of such powers after His resurrection that, in any measure, they belong to the body of the resurrection?

The exercise of powers which are miraculous is the exception, even where they most abundantly reside. Our Saviour, before His death, wrought miracles only as exceptions, but commonly acted under the general laws to which corporeal nature is subject. But these wonderful circumstances after His resurrection were not exceptions, but the ordinary operations of each day and hour. If, before His death, He once walked on the sea, He ordinarily lived and moved upon the earth. But if, after His resurrection, He came and went invisibly, appeared or disappeared at His pleasure, was known or unknown as He might desire, stood in the midst of His disciples without warning of His approach, and was borne into the heavens spontaneously, this seemed but the common action of the new life which was now begun. That He should at all appear after death, was something entirely beyond the ordinary course of present nature, but was the commencement of another order of things, which is to be realized hereafter, and is henceforth natural. His life after the resurrection was, in its circumstances, like His life before only so far miraculous as its ordinary course was interrupted for special ends. We know not that any one of those circumstances, which to our present bodies

would be preternatural, was such to His risen body; we cannot conceive it possible that such was the character of all.

Something, then, is proved by the resurrection of Jesus, beyond the mere fact of the future resurrection. It proves that the future body is identical, and can be visibly perceived to be identical, with the present. It proves that the future body can perform the functions of the present. It proves that the future body, however, has other functions, embracing far more commanding relations towards surrounding nature, than those of the present. The character of some of these functions may be inferred from the wonderful appearances and the wonderful departure of the risen Redeemer. When our body, shall be fashioned like unto that in which He went up into heaven, these powers, no doubt, amongst many others, must be a part of its glory.

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