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The Resurrection of Jesus
242. Christian Religion. The Glorified Christ. It would not
have been proper for Christ constantly to dwell among men after his
resurrection. Men would be exceedingly apt to fall into idolatry, and
because they saw the man Christ Jesus with their eyes, [they] would be
apt to worship him, as directing their worship to the human nature.
Therefore we are not to see the man Christ Jesus till we are perfected
and are not liable to temptation on such occasions. For this reason,
probably, it was not convenient for Christ to appear in great majesty
and glory when on earth, but the contrary. For this reason, Christ
endeavored to hide his transfiguration, and many other miracles, till
after he was risen. And for this reason, he did not converse constantly
with his disciples after his resurrection, as before. All these things
were done in a manner the most wise and fit that can be imagined.
590. The Resurrected Christ. Question: Why was not
Christ, after he rose from the dead, during his stay upon earth with his
disciples, as he was before? Why was he not with them, constantly
dwelling with them and going in and out with them? Answer: The
very different states that Christ and his disciples were now in, would
not allow of it. Christ, before his death and while in a state of
humiliation, was in a like state with them. He was subject to hunger and
thirst, as they were. He needed sleep as they did, and he needed the
like defense from the weather that they did. He was in a state suitable
for a cohabitation with them. But when he was risen from the dead, the
case was exceedingly altered. He no longer continued in a state of
humiliation but then began his exaltation. He put off mortality and all
the infirmities of his body. The nature of his body was exceedingly
different from theirs, as things celestial differ from things
terrestrial. Mortal beings are not apt for a cohabitation with immortal,
nor terrestrial with celestial, nor corruption with incorruption.
Besides, if Christ had been constantly with his disciples (dwelt among
them and gone in and out with them as before), then he must have
appeared either in his former mean state or his glorified state. If he
had appeared in his former mean state, that would have been to have
continued his state of humiliation after his resurrection, his finishing
the work of redemption, and his triumph over the powers of darkness. He
must have remained still in the form of a servant. He must still have
remained empty of his glory or with his glory veiled. The circumstances
of the disciples, yet in this corrupt and mortal state, and the state of
this world, would no way admit of his appearing as an inhabitant of this
world and dwelling here with them in his glorified state. The disciples
were not meet to dwell with a glorified Savior. That would have been to
have exalted them to a glorified state as to their objective glory and
happiness, while they, the subjects, remained still in their corrupt,
infirm, and mortal state, which would have been no way suitable. God
will not thus mix and confound heaven and earth.
1228. Christ’s Resurrection. If sin, universally spread,
brought universal death into the world, if it was worthy of a
compassionate God to send someone into the world to take away sin, if
miracles were the best proof of his mission, if his own resurrection was
the most convincing miracle that could be wrought and at the same time
carried with it the most experimental assurance of an happy victory over
all the effects of sin and a comfortable renovation of the moral world,
and if it was as easy with God to raise up his Son from death as it is
for one man to wake another out of sleep — then I think the resurrection
of Christ very far removed from improbability.” Deism Revealed,
vol. i, p. 24.
1231. Christ’s Resurrection and Miracles. “If the fact of
Christ’s resurrection, on account of its unusualness, appears
improbable, it will on account of its expediency appear in a higher
degree probable if duly considered. Seeing philosophy and other ordinary
means had proved insufficient to retrieve mankind from ignorance,
wickedness and misery, if God has mercy on mankind and has not utterly
forsaken the world and cast it off, then recourse must be had to
extraordinary and supernatural means, that is to revelation. For we
cannot possibly conceive any other effectual expedient for such a
purpose, nor can we conceive how the person by whom the revelation
should be made could prove himself to be a messenger from God, without
working miracles. Were he vested with no higher signs of power than
other men, his plainer dictates would appear to be no more than the
obvious suggestions of common sense or at most of philosophy. And if he
delivered any doctrines undiscoverable by the force of reason, they
would appear to be less. In either respect, he could only teach in his
own name, not in that of God, and consequently without authority or
effect. That it is highly probable God would send us an instructor thus
qualified and empowered, and that this is not a probability only
invented by divines to serve the purposes of Christianity, appears
evidently from hence: that Plato fell into the same way of thinking long
before our Savior came into the world. He was strongly of opinion that
God would send some person or being into the world, who should teach
mankind how they ought to serve the supreme Being. But had such a person
appeared in Plato’s time, that philosopher would, no doubt, have
expected from him the signs and credentials of a divine commission,
which could have been nothing else but miracles. For without miracles,
the pretended messenger could have had no right to dictate to Plato, nor
to assume any higher character that that of a philosopher.” Deism
Revealed, vol. ii, p. 16-17.
1333. Christ’s Resurrection. Concerning the objections
against the reality of Christ’s resurrection: that he was not
immediately known, that his body was not always visible, and often
vanished out of sight, etc.
I
observe that Christ’s body rose as much the same body that it was
before, as was consistent with that state which it was requisite his
risen body would be in.
It
was no wonder the form of it was considerably changed when it rose not
in its former infirmity, but was raised in power and to immortality and
to impassability.
No
wonder it was not always visible and the constant object of men’s
external senses. For if it had been so, it would have remained still in
some connection with this wicked world of mankind, still connected with
the society of the polluted, depraved inhabitants of the earth, and so
still within the reach of their malignity and reproach and the exercise
of their enmity in other respects.
It
was necessary that his risen body should not be connected universally
with this earthly, changeable, corruptible world, as is the case with
respect to bodies which belong to this mortal state of existence. For if
so, his body must still remain liable to suffering and decay, would
waste by perspiration, would need the constant repairs of food and
sleep, would be liable to suffer injury by the weather, heat and cold,
rains and dews, and would be incommoded by darkness, etc. But this was
not proper. For his body did not now belong to this world as it did
before, but was an heavenly body, though the change of it might not be
so perfected as to fit it for its heavenly state till his ascension.
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