eem it
sufficient to establish the fact that the dead are continually rising
in this _last, this gospel day_. But the question presents itself--
were any of the human family raised immortal before that period? To
this question I give an affirmative answer. I firmly believe, that the
dead have been rising immortal from Adam to the present day, for God
has never changed the established order of the universe. I believe
that the dead are raised without any _miracle_, in the common
acceptance of that term, as much as I believe that we are born, and
die, not by a _miracle_, but according to that constitution of things
which God has immutably established from the beginning. I believe this
doctrine of Christ to be founded upon the unchanging principles of
philosophy but so mysterious, that man in his present existence cannot
comprehend the subtle causes and effects by which he shall put on
immortality. It was, therefore, necessary that this sublime truth
should be established in the world by the miracles Jesus wrought and
by the miraculous power of God in raising him from death. The first
man Adam was made by a miracle, while his posterity are naturally born
into life, according to that constitution of things which God has
established. So Christ, the second Adam, was born from the dead by a
miracle, while mankind from the beginning, have, in succession, been
born from the dead according to that constitution of things which he
has established.

On this principle, it may be stated as an objection, that as none of
Adam's posterity could be born till their parent was created by a
miracle, so none of the human family could be born from the dead, till
Christ the second Adam were raised immortal by the miraculous power of
God. This objection is futile unless it can be proved that Christ
_creates_ life and immortality. In fact, it would even then fail;--
because Christ, as our sacrifice, was slain from the foundation of the
world in the offerings made to God in his stead. The atonement, made
by the high priest throughout the whole Mosaic dispensation, concluded
by raising the Jewish nation in figure on his "breast-plate of
judgment" into the holy of holies, which was a pattern of things in
the heavens. The atonement always involved the resurrection. The
judgment of the Jews, for two thousand years, by Moses only pointed
out the resurrection of man in _figure_, but Christ proved the
_reality_ by a tangible _fact_, and thus revealed it