understanding is enabled to apprehend divine truth, and our will inclined to obey it : and, without him, the soul would be as dead as the body without the soul.]
Let us now prosecute our inquiries into,
II. That which respects his people —
There is a remarkable correspondence between the two latter, and the two former clauses of the text ; the latter declaring the operation of the powers ex- pressed in the former.
1. As being " the resurrection," he will raise the bodies of his people —
[Judging of things according to our weak reason, we are ready to think that the restoi'ation of bodies, which may have undergone so many changes, is impossible. But cannot He who formed the universe out of nothing, collect the atoms that constitute our identity, and reunite them to their kindred souls? He can, and will ; yea, that very Jesus, who died upon the cross, has the keys of death and of hell'1, and will effect this by his own almighty power1.
This clause might further intimate, that by the first act of faith in him our souls should be made partakers of spiritual life. And this would accord with other passages of Scripture k, and prepare us for the next clause, which, rising in a climax, delares the benefits that shall result from a continued life of faith upon him.]
2. As being " the life," he will preserve the souls of his people unto everlasting life —
[The bodies of the saints must undergo the sentence denounced against sin1 ; (though death to them is scarcely worthy the name of death ; it is rather a sleep, from which they shall be awakened at the morning of the resurrection1",) but their souls shall never die : none shall prevail against them n ; none shall pluck them out of Christ's hands0 ; their life is hid in him beyond the reach of men or devils11; the vital principle within them is an ever-living seedq, an over-flowing fountain r: as long as Christ liveth, they shall live alsos. The separation that will take place between their souls and bodies will only introduce them to a higher state of existence, which they shall enjoy until the day that their bodies shall be awakened from their slumbers, to participate and enhance their bliss.]
h Rev. i. 18. i Phil. iii. 21.
k John vi. 33, 35. and vii. 38. and x. 10. • Rom. viii. 10.
m ver. 11. Acts vii. GO. 1 Thess. iv. 14. » Isai. liv. 17.
" John x. 28. p Col. hi. 3. n 1 Pet. i. 23.
r John iv. 14. s John xiv. If).