III. The in the resurrection of the body, as additional to the future life of the spirit, rests on revelation. Swedenborgians (and some others in part agree with them) hold that man in this life has two bodies, one external and mate rial, which dies and is buried, never to rise again; the other internal and psychical, which, incapable of death, passes in union with the soul into the invisible world as its spiritual body: the resurrection, therefore, in their view occurs at the of The Scriptures, in their obvious sense, plainly teach an actual resurrection of the dead. "All that are in the-graves shall come forth." - "That which. is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body." "The corruptible must put on incorruption, and the mortal immortality." In some true and noble sense, the body raised will be personally representative of that deposited in the grave; for St. Paul, denying the identity of the two—" thou sowest not the body that shall be," and declaring the divine mystery " God giveth to the seed a body as it hath pleased him," asserts the reciprocal pertinence of the two, each to each—" and to every seed his own body." Zoologists teach that with every living germ there is an immaterial principle by which one species is distin guished from another. In like manner, some suppose that as the soul is created to be incarnate, it is endowed with forces to that end; that, besides its rational, voluntary, and moral faculties, it has what may be called a vital force, which secures the formation of a body suited to its necessities and sphere. Concerning the nature of the spiritual body, nothing can now be known except what Scripture has revealed. From this source we learn that it will be an organism not of flesh and blood, but specially suited to the new state of being in which man is to live and act. Yet it is probable that it will be the glorified likeness of the human form as it existed in this life—the ideal human organism actualized.
IV. The Final Jitel,qment.—The consciences of men affirm that God as the judge of all the earth must do right, and also that his moral government, as administered iu.this present world, does not fully render unto all according to their character and desert: "There are just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; and there are wicked men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the right eous." Consequently, reason, even among the heathen, calls for a settlement of the destinies of men, so that the juslce of God may be vindicated. The Scriptures declare that a final settlement will be made: "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." This judgment is repre sented as a definite future event, in which the destiny of men and of angels will be determined and manifested: " God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." The word " day, ' while not to be taken literally, implies, it is claimed, a definite and limited period. Christ, as God manifest in human person ality, and as having made atonement for the sins of mankind, will be the judge: "The i Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man." The ground of judgment will be the deeds done in the body; and the charac ter and life of each man will be judged according to the light that be had, and (if he knew the gospel) according to the relation (determined by his own choice) which lie sustains to Christ: " IIe that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me bath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
V. The End of the Scriptures teach that the existing heaven and earth are to be replaced by a new creation: "They shall wax old as a garment, and be changed." " The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent beat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." "I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea." 2. In the Scriptures, the abode of the saved is sometimes called the better country, even the heavenly; sometimes "the city which bath the foundations;" and sometimes a "house not made with hands," as when the Savior said, "In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you." 3. The blessedness of the heavenly state may be conceived of as arising, in part, from the vision of God in his glory as seen in the Lord Jesus, from the experience of his love, from the enlargement and glorification of the mental faculties, from the absence of sin and sorrow, from intercourse and fel lowship with the holy and happy society of heaveii, and from the possession of all good. 4. The wretchedness of the lost—of which, as to its nature or modes. little appears in the Bible, while its certainty and reality are abundantly declared—is conceived of as con sisting, partly, in eternal separation from the society and influence of the good, and from fellowship with God's glory, blessedness, and love; in the presence and influence of ungodly and wicked beings; in remorse of conscience and in the power of sin in the soul. Some claim scriptural authority for conceiving of it as consisting in the ulti mate and utter extinction of the personal being, sinking under sin. 5. The blessedness of the saved and the wretchedness of the lost appear in the Scriptures as without end. After much debate as to exegesis of the texts involved, the drift of the most recent critical scholarship may be said to be unmistakably towards this decision—that while the Greek language did not possess, as the Greek thought did not require, terms which necessarily carried the meaning of absolute eternity, as we now employ that word (e.g., in reference to the being of God), Christ and his apostles used, in reference to future reward and retribution, such words expressive of unlimited duration as were furnished by the language of their time; and that the whole manner and bearing of their speech on this point seems to intend an avoidance of any suggestion of an end. Especially in regard to retribution, the fact is recognized that the most decisive utterances concerning it are not from the apostles, but from Christ himself, who as the "light of the world, and the professed Savior of men, would have been quick to supply the hope of limited duration, had any such hope been within his thought. There is, however, to be noted a tendency towards statements on this point far less sweeping and dogmatic than were formerly advanced, and a, distinct enlargement of the bounds of admitted variations of belief concerning it among the denominations called evangelical.