we learn from these words of the Apostle to Timothy; "Be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead:" [1] words no doubt, addressed not only to Timothy, but to all who have care of souls. But the meaning of the Article is, that after Christ the Lord had expired on the cross, on the sixth day and ninth hour, and was buried on the evening of the same day by his disciples, who with the permission of the governor Pilate, laid the body of the Lord, when taken down from the cross, in a new tomb, in a garden near at hand; his soul was reunited to his body, early on the morning of the third day after his death, that is on the Lord s-day; and thus he, who was dead during those three days, returned to life, and rose from the embraces of the tomb. By the word resurrection, however, we are not merely to understand that Christ was raised from the dead; a privilege common with him to many others: but that he rose by his own power and virtue, a singular prerogative peculiar to him alone; for it is incompatible with our nature, nor was it ever given to man to raise himself, by his own power, from death to life. This was an exercise of power reserved for the omnipotent hand of God, as these words of the Apostle declare; " for, although he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God." [2] This divine power, having never been separated, either from his body whilst in the grave, or from his soul whilst disunited from his body, existed in both, and gave to both a capability of reuniting; and thus did the Son of God, by his own power, return to life, and rise again from the dead. This David foretold, when, filled with the spirit of God, he prophesied in these words: " His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his arm is holy." [3] This we, also, have from the divine lips of the Redeemer himself: "I lay down my life," says he, " that I may take it again; and I have power to lay it down, and power to take it again." [4] To the Jews he also said, in confirmation of his doctrine: " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." [5] Although the Jews understood him to have spoken thus of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem, built of stone: yet, as the Scripture, testifies in the same place, " he spoke of the temple of his body." [6] We sometimes, it is true, read in Scripture, that he was raised by the Father; [7] but this refers to him as man; as those passages, which, on the other hand, say that he rose by his own power, relate to him as God. [8]
It is also the peculiar privilege of Christ to have been the first who enjoyed this divine prerogative of rising from the dead, for he is called in Scripture the first begotten of the dead:" [9] and also, " the first born from the dead;" [10] the Apostle also says, " Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep: for by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection
