38. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
What is deposited in the earth is very different from that which springs from it. Every seed produces its own plant. The product depends on the will of God. It was determined at the creation, and therefore the apostle says that God, in the continual agency of his providence, gives to each seed its own appropriate product, as he willed^ i. e. he originally pur- posed. The pomt of this is, if God thus gives to all the pro- ducts of the earth each its own form, why may he not determine the form in which the • body is to appear at the resurrection ? You cannot infer fi'om looking at a seed what the plant is to be ; it is very foolish, therefore, to attempt to determine from our present bodies what is to be the nature of our bodies hereafter.
39. All flesh (is) not the same flesh : but (there is) one (kind of) flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, an- other of fishes, (and) another of birds.
If even here, where the general conditions of life are the same, we see such diversity in animal organizations, flesh and blood appearing in so many forms, why should it be assumed that the body hereafter must be the same cumbrous vehicle of the soul that it is now ?
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.
There is no limit to be set to the possible or actual modifi- cations of matter. We not only see it in all the diversified forms of animal and vegetable life, but in the still greater di- versities of heavenly and earthly bodies. What Paul here means by bodies celestial^ is doubtful. 1. Many suppose the reference is to angels, either on the assumption that they too have bodies, or that the apostle refers to the forms in which they appear to men. When they become visible they must assume some material vehicle, which was always luminous or glorious. Of the angel Avho appeared at the sepulchre of Christ it is said, " His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow," Matt. 28, 3. There is a great con- 15*