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Untitled Article
Surely not . The restoration of the youth and maiden of the gospel history was effected by a word spoken , and was therefore unquestionably miraculous ; all that we mean to intimate is , that the internal change was probably less than in the other cases to which we are about to turn ; probably only such as we might understand if our knowledge of chemical processes were what it promises to become . The case of Lazarus is a more difficult one . Whether there was obvious decay , as his sister apprehended ; whether in so
peculiar a case the process of change was retarded ; or whether the time required for this process varies with the varieties of bodily constitution , we know not . Any of these suppositions are probable . The first two are perfectly consistent with the miraculous character of the entire event , and the fast has in its favour very strong presumption from analogy . Any one is more probable than that the separate soul of Lazarus was taken from among the blessed , steeped in some nameless Lethe , and restored to its prison ** newly swept and garnished" for its reception .
As the time required for obvious change in the dead body varies extensively with the circumstances of natural constitution , climate , the nature of the mortal disease or accident , &c , it seems very probable that the change of death is in proportion rapid or slow in its completion . In Jesus , it appears to have been completed in forty hours ; in Lazarus , to have been unfinished in four days , if he was indeed unconscious during the whole time that he was in the sepulchre , which , as we have before said , we do not
doubt . This difference between the two cases makes no difficulty as long as other obvious differences in the state of the inanimate body exist likewise . A more important part of the inquiry is as to their comparative state when they came forth from their dark and cold abodes . Lazarus was as before , a mortal . He lived , as formerly , among mortals , destined to die like them ; and he died , as tradition relates , thirty years after his first restoration . With Jesus , all was different . He came and went , he appeared and withdrew ,
but dwelt no more in the abodes of men , and was manifestly no longer subject , though he benevolently condescended , to the conditions of mortality . In order to prove to doubters and to those who were to testify of his resurrection that it was indeed himself in bodily presence , he allowed his followers to convince themselves by tangible evidence , and he ate before them ; but it does not follow that his frame was unchanged . The manner in which the story is related of his appearance after the doors were closed , seems to
intimate that his approach was not in the usual manner ; and the same may be said of his mode of quitting the disciples at Emmaus , when he had broken bread with them . The accounts of his various appearances , added to that of his ascension , suggest the belief that he rose from the short sleep of deatli invested with a " spiritual body , " perceived by his followers to be more pure and glorious than that which sustained this change , and known to be immortal .
Thus far the case of all who die is probably the same as his . What there was peculiar in the case of Jesus was in consequence of the peculiarity of his office . It was the necessary conclusion of his mission that he should prove the resurrection by submitting himself to the gross senses of his followers ; and therefore no mortal remains , as in other cases , were left behind , but he
underwent that change of the gross into the etherealized body which Paul anticipated for those who , as he believed , would remain alive at the coming of Christ . It seems that this peculiarity was shared by Elijah , and perhaps by Moses ; and it presents no difficulty whatever in the way of our determination how far the analogy holds between the mode of Christ ' s resurrection
Untitled Article
222 Physical Considerations connected with AIan s Ultimate Destination .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 222, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/6/
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