Page:A brief discussion of some of the claims of the Hon. E. Swedenborg.pdf/28

 sual. The Scriptures teach no such a speculation. They assign no such disorderly work for the execution of Omnipotence, and they are perverted whensoever they are quoted to favour so preposterous a conceit. The Scriptures, indeed, are plentifully stored with declarations proving the Resurrection from the Dead; but this is a very different thing from the resurrection of a carcase. We believe the former with an imperishable faith; but we reject the latter as an unutterable error. To go into this subject at any length would be foreign to our object. The exposition of a leading passage and a single fact will be sufficient for our purpose.

In Isaiah it is written, "Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise." Now this is supposed to be the strongest passage in the Scriptures upon the subject of a material resurrection; but its plausibility is considerably assisted by the interpolations of the translator. Verbal criticism, however, need not be dwelt upon. The context sufficiently proves that the subject of a future resurrection of dead bodies is not the matter in hand. This must be evident from a preceding verse, where it is declared, "They are dead, they shall not live: they 'are deceased, they shall not rise." Now if the former passage be understood to assert the resurrection of the dead body, the latter is equally strong in declaring that no such resurrection shall take place. The passages, if taken in their merely literal sense, appear in opposition to each other; and it is for those who so interpret them to reconcile their seeming disagreement. We do not so understand them: we regard them as revealing certain spiritual circumstances that are to distinguish the progress of the church. The 14th verse treats of the rejection of all those who are in the falses of doctrine and evils of life, and their consequent inability to ascend into heaven: the 19th verse, on the contrary, treats of the spiritual life of goodness and truth, which will be communicated to all those who will receive it, and their consequent preparation for life eternal. Thus the two passages beautifully harmonize with each other, and we are encouraged by the simplicity and instructed by the usefulness of their signification.

The argument for the resurrection of the natural body, attempted to be set up from the circumstance of the resur-