SECTION IV. 35 ground for this objection against a separate state. He begins, verses 13 -23. and argues thus, If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen ; for he rose as the first-fruits, and his followers shall be the harvest, verse 13. but if there were no harvest, there were no first - fruits : And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain; verse 14. " Then we are found false witnesses in matters that relate to God, verse 15. mere imposters, who preach a wicked falsehood, and lead you to hope for a happiness, which ye shall never ob- tain : For if Christ, who died for our sins ; verse 3. be not raised for our justification, as in Rom. iv. 25. then ye are yet in your sins, ye lie under the guilt of sin ; and, if so, then also they, which are fallen asleep in Christ, or have died in the faith of Christ, are perished; ver 18. they must either be condemned, or be utterly lost, both soul and body, having no ground for hope of eternal life, or any life or happiness at all hereafter. Then the hope of christians would he in this lite only, and we are miserable creatures, who suffer so much for Christ's sake, verse 19. It would be better for us, who have senses and appetites as well as other men, to indulge these senses and appetites, and eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, and there is an end of us : There can be no future state of happiness, of any kind, for us to expect, either in soul or body, if we have deceived you -in the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ, and all our gospel be false : We are then such sort of impostors and wicked cheats, as can have no belief of a future state of rewards or punishments, and we had better act like ourselves, and like mere Epicureans, give ourselves up to all present pleasures, than expose ourselves to perpetual sufferings for the sake of a man, who, if there be no resurrection, died, and never rose again, and therefore can- not make us any recompeuce. Now, this sort of arguing, does not at all preclude the separate state of happiness, but rather establish it. I might add here a further answer to this objection, viz. the apostle is representing the snlferin,s of the body for Christ's sake, ver. 30 -32. and therefore he thinks it proper to encourage christians with the reunnpence of the resurrection of the body, without taking any particular notice of the happiness of the sepa- rate state of the soul : And, in this view of things, his argument stands good. If there be no resurrection of the body, there is no recompense for sufferings in the body ; let us then give the body its pleasures of sense ; let us eat and drink while we live, for there is an utter end of us in death. But, saith he, ver. 33. such evil traditions corrupt good manners, and therefore they are not, they cannot be true : There must be a resurrection of c2
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