verse, confirms this idea by saying, "Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him." From this we learn that heaven was henceforth to be his throne, from which the affairs of his kingdom were to be administered, till all were brought into harmony with the principles of his government.

Again Peter has language recorded in Acts 3: 19-21, which expresses the same idea, and which may, according to good authority, be paraphrased thus: Repent, ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out; so that the times of refreshing of the Gospel may come upon you from the presence of the Lord; and he may send Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel to you; who will occupy the heavens, or the high places of mediatorial power, during the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."*

Thus has God "raised Christ from the dead and sat him at his own right hand, in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Ephesians 1: 20-23. In view of this,

* Dr. Lightfoot.

Peter could say with propriety, that David had not yet ascended into the heavens, or had not been exalted to such a high place of authority and power, from which he would exercise the function of his government. David was a great king no doubt; but in view of the exaltation which Christ was to receive, he could without humility acknowledge himself vastly inferior.

CHAPTER X.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

THERE has been a disposition among theologians to connect the resurrection of the material body with the immortality of man, as though the latter was in some way dependent upon the former; and to such an extent has this idea prevailed that the resurrection of Christ's body is supposed to afford irrefragable evidence of the resurrection of the bodies of all men. Many of those who do not believe in the resurrection of the material body, admit that if Christ's body was really raised from the dead, it would necessarily follow that the bodies of all men will be raised; and to avoid this conclusion they attempt to prove that the body of Christ was never raised. Professor Bush, in his late work on the resurrection, has a long chapter on the resurrection of Christ, in which he labors hard to show that he did not assume his material body when he left the tomb. But Christ says to his disciples, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." What stronger or plainer language than this could Christ have employed to give his disciples to understand, that the body which they saw and handled

was the very same that had been taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb? And were it not the same, did he not deceive them? Did he not tell them what was not true, when he gave them to understand that the body, which they then were examining, was the one which he wore when he was crucified? I can see no way of avoiding this conclusion; and if he deceived them in this particular, how do we know but that he has in many others?

Unless Christ's body was raised from the dead his prophecies in relation to his own resurrection were false. We read, "Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, what sign she west thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body." John 2: 18, 19, 20, 21. This prediction of his resurrection is so clear and direct that it cannot be mistaken. Destroy this temple, he says-meaning his body-and in three days 1 will raise it up. The disciples understood by this language that he would raise up his material body; for "when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." John 2: 22. Here it is very obvious that if Christ's body was not raised, he was a false prophet.

It will be recollected that Thomas was very scep

tical in relation to the resurrection of Christ. He said he would not believe unless he could examine the hands of his master, and put his finger into the print of the nails and thrust his hand into his side. Thomas, eight days after he had uttered this decisive language, had an interview with Jesus, who said to him, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord, and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." St. John 20: 27, 28, 29. This was sufficient for Thomas; he believed. Hence Christ's body was raised from the dead, else he was most grossly deceived miraculously deceived by his master.

Professor Bush very coolly admits that the disciples were deceived-that they believed in the bodily resurrection of Christ-an event which never occurred. If they were thus deceived, then was their faith based upon a stupendous falsehood, and so was the faith of all who followed their instruction. Notwithstanding all this, many of the Professor's Swedenborgian brethren devote much labor, and often whole sermons, to the work of showing that Christ's body was dispersed into its native elements before or at the time he left the tomb, and that consequently the body which his disciples saw, was not the body which was crucified, but a spiritual body—a body which was prepared for immortality and a pattern