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ocean; and it is indifferent what parts of this are assigned to each individual man. The whole world of substance, which makes the constant change of substance possible, is made over to humanity as a common possession (Acts 4: 32-not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.' )."

(c) That a material organism can only be regarded as a hindrance to the free activity of the spirit, and that the assumption of such an organism by the soul, which, during the intermediate state, had been separated from the body, would indicate a decline in dignity and power rather than a progress. We reply that we cannot estimate the powers and capacities of matter, when brought by God into complete subjection to the spirit. The bodies of the saints may be more etherial than the air, and capable of swifter motion than the light, and yet be material in their substance. That the soul, clothed with its spiritual body, will have more exalted powers and enjoy a more complete felicity than would be possible while it maintained a purely spiritual existence, is evident from the fact that Paul represents the culmination of the soul's blessedness as occurring, not at death, but at the resurrection of the body.

Rom. 8: 23"waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body "; 2 Cor. 5: 4-"not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life"; Phil. 3: 11-"if by any means may attain unto the resurrection from the dead." Even Ps. 86: 11-"Unite my heart to fear thy name"-may mean the collecting of all the powers of body as well as soul. In this respect for the body, as a normal part of man's being, Scripture is based upon the truest philosophy. Plotinus gave thanks that he was not tied to an immortal body, and refused to have his portrait taken because the body was too contemptible a thing to have its image perpetuated. But this is not natural, nor is it probably anything more than a whim or affectation. Eph. 5: 29-"no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.' What we desire is not the annihilation of the body, but its perfection.

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Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 188-"In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the soul reunites itself to the body, with the assurance that they shall never again be separated." McCosh, Intuitions, 213-"The essential thing about the resurrection is the development, out of the dead body, of an organ for the communion and activity of the spiritual life." Ebrard, Dogmatik, 2: 226-234, has interesting remarks upon the relation of the resurrection-body to the present body. The essential difference he considers to be this, that whereas, in the present body, matter is master of the spirit, in the resurrection-body spirit will be master of matter, needing no reparation by food, and having control of material laws. Ebrard adds striking speculations with regard to the glorified body of Christ.

On the spiritual body as possibly evolved by will, see Harris, Philos. Basis of Theism, 386. On the nature of the resurrection-body, see Burnet, State of the Departed, chaps. 7 and 8; Cudworth, Intell. System, 3:310 sq.; Splittgerber, Tod, Fortleben und Auferstehung. On the doctrine of the Resurrection among the Egyptians, see Dr. Howard Osgood, in Hebrew Student, Feb., 1885; among the Jews, see Grübler, in Studien und Kritiken, 1879: Heft 4; DeWünsche, in Jahrbuch f. prot. Theol., 1880: Heft 2 and 4; Revue Théologique, 1881: 1-17. For the view that the resurrection is wholly spiritual and takes place at death, see Willmarth, in Bap. Quar., Oct., 1868, and April, 1870; Ladd, in New Englander, April, 1874; Crosby, Second Advent.

On the whole subject, see Hase, Hutterus Redivivus, 280; Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Auferstehung; Goulburn, Bampton Lectures for 1850, on the Resurrection; Cox, The Resurrection; Neander, Planting and Training, 479–487, 524-526; Naville, La Vie Éternelle, 253, 254; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, 453-463; Moorhouse, Nature and Revelation, 87-112; Unseen Universe, 33; Hovey, in Baptist Quarterly, Oct., 1867; Westcott, Revelation of the Risen Lord, and in Contemporary Review, vol. 30; R. W. Macan, Resurrection of Christ; Cremer, Beyond the Grave.

V. THE LAST JUDGMENT.

While the Scriptures represent all punishment of individual transgressors and all manifestations of God's vindicatory justice in the history of nations

as acts or processes of judgment, they also intimate that these temporal judgments are only partial and imperfect, and that they are therefore to be concluded with a final and complete vindication of God's righteousness. This will be accomplished by making known to the universe the characters of all men, and by awarding to them corresponding destinies.

Passages describing temporal or spiritual judgment are: Ps. 9: 7-"He hath prepared his throne for judgment"; Is. 26: 9-"when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness"; Mat. 16:27, 28-"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom"; John 3: 18, 19-"He that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil"; 9: 39-"For judgment came I into this world, that they which see not may see: and that they which see may become blind"; 12: 31-"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out,"

Passages describing the final judgment are: Mat. 25: 31-46-"But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats.... Acts 17: 31" he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead"; Rom. 2: 16" in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ"; 2 Cor. 5: 10 -"For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad"; Heb. 9:27, 28-"And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation"; 20: 12-" And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works."

1. The nature of the final judgment.

The final judgment is not a spiritual, invisible, endless process, identical with God's providence in history, but is an outward and visible event, occurring at a definite period in the future. This we argue from the following considerations :

(a) The judgment is something for which the evil are "reserved" (2 Peter 2: 4, 9); something to be expected in the future (Acts 24: 25; Heb. 10:27); something after death (Heb. 9:27); something for which the resurrection is a preparation (John 5: 29).

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2 Pet. 2: 4, 9-"God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell. reserved unto judgment the Lord knoweth how.... to keep the unrighteous unto punishment unto the day of judgment"; Acts 24: 25 -"as he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified"; Heb. 10: 27"a certain fearful expectation of judgment"; 9: 27-"it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment"; John 5: 29" the resurrection of judgment."

(b) The accompaniments of the judgment, such as the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the outward changes of the earth, are events which have an outward and visible, as well as an inward and spiritual, aspect. We are compelled to interpret the predictions of the last judgment upon the same principle.

John 5: 28, 29-"Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment"; 2 Pet. 3: 7, 10-"the day of judgment. . . the day of the Lord.... in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat"; 2 Thess. 1: 7, 8-"the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God. . . . . when he shall come . . . . . in that day."

(c) God's justice, in the historical and imperfect work of judgment, needs a final outward judgment as its vindication. "A perfect justice must judge, not only moral units, but moral aggregates; not only the particulars of life, but the life as a whole." The crime that is hidden and triumphant here, and the goodness that is here maligned and oppressed, must be brought to light and fitly recompensed. "Otherwise man is a Tantalus longing but never satisfied"; and God's justice, of which his outward administration is the expression, can only be regarded as approximate.

Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 194 -"The Egyptian Book of the Dead represents the deceased person as standing in the presence of the goddess Maat, who is distinguished by the ostrich-feather on her head; she holds the sceptre in one hand and the symbol of life in the other. The man's heart, which represents his entire moral nature, is being weighed in the balance in presence of Osiris, seated upon his throne as judge of the dead." Rationalism believes in only present and temporal judgment; and this it regards as but the reaction of natural law: "Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht - the world's history is the world's judgment." But there is an inner connection between present, temporal, spiritual judgments, and the final, outward, complete judgment of God.

Dorner: "With Christ's appearance, faith sees that the beginning of the judgment and of the end has come. Christians are a prophetic race. Without judgment, Christianity would involve a sort of dualism: evil and good would be of equal might and worth. Christianity cannot always remain a historic principle alongside of the contrary principle of evil. It is the only reality." God will show or make known his righteousness with regard to: (1) the disparity of lots among men; (2) the prosperity of the wicked; (3) the permission of moral evil in general; (4) the consistency of atonement with justice. "The σvyrédela Toù aiwvos ('end of the world,' Mat. 13: 39) = stripping hostile powers of their usurped might, revelation of their falsity and impotence, consigning them to the past. Evil shall be utterly cut off, given over to its own nothingness, or made a subordinate element."

2. The object of the final judgment.

The object of the final judgment is not the ascertainment, but the manifestation, of character, and the assignment of outward condition corresponding to it.

(a) To the omniscient Judge, the condition of all moral creatures is already and fully known. The last day will be only "the revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

They are inwardly judged when they die, and before they die; they are outwardly judged at the last day: Rom. 2: 5, 6-"treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works "- see Meyer on this passage: not "against the day of wrath," but "in the day of wrath = wrath existing beforehand, but breaking out on that day. 1 Tim. 5: 24, 25-"Some men's sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after. In like manner also, there are good works that are evident: and such as are otherwise cannot be hid"; Rev. 14: 13-"for their works follow with them"- as close companions, into God's presence and judgment (Ann. Par. Bible).

(b) In the nature of man, there are evidences and preparations for this final disclosure. Among these may be mentioned the law of memory, by which the soul preserves the record of its acts, both good and evil (Luke 16:25); the law of conscience, by which men involuntarily anticipate punishment for their own sins (Rom. 2: 15, 16; Heb. 10:27); the law of character, by which every thought and deed makes indelible impress upon the moral nature (Heb. 3: 8, 15).

Luke 16: 25-"Son, remember!"' See MacLaren's Sermons (1: 109–122) - Memory (1) will embrace all the events of the past life; (2) will embrace them all at the same moment;

(3) will embrace them continuously and continually. Rom. 2:15, 16-"they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ" Heb. 10:27" a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. 38, 15" Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the temptation in the wilderness To-day, if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation."

A man who afterwards became a Methodist preacher was converted in Whitefield's time by a vision of the judgment, in which he saw all men gathered before the throne, and each one coming up to the book of God's law, tearing open his heart before it "as one would tear open the bosom of his shirt," comparing his heart with the things written in the book, and according as they agreed or disagreed with that standard, either passing triumphant to the company of the blest, or going with howling to the company of the damned. No word was spoken; the Judge sat silent; the judgment was one of self-revelation and self-condemnation. See Autobiography of John Nelson (quoted in the Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan, 207, by Mrs. E. Charles, the author of The Schönberg-Cotta Family).

(c) Single acts and words, therefore, are to be brought into the judgment only as indications of the moral condition of the soul. This manifestation of all hearts will vindicate not only God's past dealings, but his determination of future destinies.

Mat. 12: 36" And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment"; Luke 12: 2, 8, 9-"there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. . . . . . . Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God"; John 3: 18" He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God"; 2 Cor. 5: 10-"For we must all be made manifest [not: * must all appear,' as in A. Vers.] before the judgment-seat of Christ."

Even the human judge, in passing sentence, commonly endeavors so to set forth the guilt of the criminal that he shall see his doom to be just. So God will awaken the consciences of the lost, and lead them to pass judgment on themselves. Each lost soul can say as Byron's Manfred said to the fiend that tortured his closing hour: "I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey, But was my own destroyer." Thus God's final judgment will be only the culmination of a process of natural selection, by which the unfit are eliminated, and the fit are caused to survive.

3. The Judge in the final judgment.

God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is to be the judge. Though God is the judge of all (Heb. 12 : 23), yet this judicial activity is exercised through Christ, at the last day, as well as in the present state (John 5: 22, 27).

Heb. 12: 23" to God the Judge of all"; John 5: 22, 27-"For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son..... and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man."

This, for three reasons:

(a) Christ's human nature enables men to understand both the law and the love of God, and so makes intelligible the grounds on which judgment is passed.

Whoever says that God is too distant and great to be understood may be pointed to Christ, in whose human life the divine "law appears, drawn out in living characters," and the divine love is manifest, as suffering upon the cross to save men from their sins.

(b) The perfect human nature of Christ, united as it is to the divine, ensures all that is needful in true judgment, viz.: that it be both merciful and just.

As F. W. Robertson has shown in his sermon on "The Sympathy of Christ" ( vol. 1: sermon vii), it is not sin that most sympathizes with sin. Sin blinds and hardens. Only the pure can appreciate the needs of the impure, and feel for them.

(c) Human nature, sitting upon the throne of judgment, will afford convincing proof that Christ has received the reward of his sufferings, and that humanity has been perfectly redeemed. The saints shall “judge the world" only as they are one with Christ.

The lowly Son of man shall sit upon the throne of judgment. And with himself he will join all believers. Mat. 19: 28-"ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"; Luke 22: 28-30-"But ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel "; 1 Cor. 6: 2, 3-"know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Rev. 3: 21-"He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne."

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The persons upon whose characters and conduct this judgment shall be passed are of two great classes:

(a) All men

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each possessed of body as well as soul,—the dead having been raised, and the living having been changed.

1 Cor. 15: 51, 52-"We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed"; 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17-"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

(6) All evil angels-good angels appearing only as attendants and ministers of the Judge.

Evil angels: 2 Pet. 2: 4-"For if God spared not angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment"; Jude 6-"And angels which kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day"; Good angels: Mat. 13: 41, 42-"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that shall cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth"; 25: 31-"But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations."

5. The grounds of the final judgment.

These will be two in number:

(a) The law of God,—as made known in conscience and in Scripture. John 12: 48" He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day"; Rom. 2: 12-"For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law."

(b) The grace of Christ (Rev. 20: 12),—those whose names are found "written in the book of life" being approved, simply because of their union with Christ and participation in his righteousness. Their good works shall be brought into judgment only as proofs of this relation to the Redeemer. Those not found "written in the book of life" will be judged by the law of God, as God has made it known to each individual.

Rev. 20: 12" And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works."

On the whole subject, see Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 456, 457; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 465, 466; Neander, Planting and Training, 524–526; Edwards, Works, 2: 499, 500; 4: 202-225.

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