remarkable. They would be rendered more literally, " the resur- rection out from the dead." They seem strongly to favour the opinion that there is a first resurrection peculiar to the righteous, (feev. XX. 5, &c.) The expression, " children of the resurrection," in the following verse, seems to point the same way.
36. — [Equal to the angels.! We must not conclude from these words that the glorified saints are exactly like the angels. Angels have not bodies like ours, but are spiritual beings. The meaning appears to be, that in freedom from death and disease, and in complete deliverance from a condition of being in which marri- age and birth are needful to supply the continual waste occasioned by death, the saints shall be like the angels.
[The children of God.] This means evidently, that the saints are introduced into a state of peculiar privilege as members of God's family, and residents in God's house, after a fashion that they know nothing of here on earth.
37. — [That dead raised. ..Moses shewed^ do.] The quotation con- tained in this verse has caused much controversy. At first sight it does not appear to be any proof of a resurrection, but only of a life to come.
Some have thought that stress ought to be laid on the expres- sion in the original quotation, " I am" and not " I was " the God of Abraham, &c.
Some think, with Mede and others, that our Lord refers to the promise of the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed, and to the fact, that this promise, yet unfulfilled, will literally be ful- filled one day by Abraham rising again, and possessing the land.
Some think, with Campbell, that our Lord's object all through is not so much to prove a resurrection as a life to come.
One thing, however, is very clear. The argument which our Lord used completely silenced the Sadducees, and called forth the approbation of the Scribes. Now if the Sadducees had not felt the argument convincing and silencing, they would not have submitted to it so quietly as they did. If we do not see the frill force of the argument, the fault is evidently in ourselves. We do not see the fulness of Scripture as we ought to do. There is depth of meaning in many texts which we have not fathomed.
SS. — [AU Uve unto him.'] This expression is remarkable, and pe- culiar to St. Jjuke's Gospel. It probably means, " In His sight all are living," though long dead, biuied, and removed from this world. There is no such thing as annihilation.
344 BXFOSITOBT TUOt)6HT8.