But he revives only on the third day. He had, as it were, been killed after his death, by the opening made in his side with a lance, which pierced him to the heart, and would have put him to death, if he had not then been beyond receiving it.
When he resuscitated Lazarus,[[445]] he waited until he had been four days in the tomb, and began to show corruption; which is the most certain mark that a man is really deceased, without a hope of returning to life, except by supernatural means.
The resurrection which Job so firmly expected,[[446]] and that of the man who came to life, on touching the body of the prophet Elisha in his tomb;[[447]] and the child of the widow of Shunem, whom the same Elisha restored to life;[[448]] that army of skeletons, whose resurrection was predicted by Ezekiel,[[449]] and which in spirit he saw executed before his eyes, as a type and pledge as the return of the Hebrews from their captivity at Babylon;—in short, all the resurrections related in the sacred books of the Old and New Testament, are manifestly miraculous effects, and attributed solely to the Almighty power of God. Neither angels, nor demons, nor men, the holiest and most favored of God, could by their own power restore to life a person really dead. They can do it by the power of God alone, who when he thinks proper so to do, is free to grant this favor to their prayers and intercession.
Footnotes:
[[445]] John xi. 39.
[[446]] Job xxi. 25.
[[447]] 1 Kings xiii. 21, 22.
[[448]] 2 Kings iv.
[[449]] Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2, 3.