BODY. An Assembly or Community is 1 Cor. x. 17.called a Body; for Example, all the Faithful make but one Body: Unum corpus multi James iii. 6.sumus. S. James says, that the Tongue pollutes the whole Body, maculat totum corpus, the whole Body of our Actions; or that in all the Sins which we commit, it influences us by the other Members of the Body. Thus our Saviour in the Gospel, If Matt. vi. 22.thine eye be single, thy whole Body shall be full of light. If thy Intentions are right, thy whole Conduct will be agreeable to God. Or otherwise, If thine eye be single, if thou art liberal and beneficent, all the rest of thy actions will be good; at least thou wilt avoid many Sins, which are the consequence of Avarice, and a too great fondness for earthly things.
1 Cor. xv. 44.S. Paul speaks of a spiritual Body, in opposition to one which he calls animal, Seminatur corpus animale, surget corpus spirituale. The Body which we animate, and returns to the Earth, is an animal Body; but that which will rise again will be spiritual, will be no more gross, heavy, frail, &c. nor subject to the wants which we are now sensible of.
Body is opposite to Shadow, Figure, Colos. ii. 17. Colos. ii. 9Which are a shadow of things to come, but the Body is of Christ. The Ceremonies of the Law, the Festivals of the Jews are but Figures and Shadows, which are realized in Jesus Christ, and the Christian Religion. The Jewish Passover for example, is but the Figure of the Christian Passover; the Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, is but a Shadow of the Sacrifice of Christ; the fulness of the Godhead resides bodily in Jesus Christ. In ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter, really, essentially. God dwells in the Saints as in his Temple; he dwells there by his Spirit, his Light, his Grace, but in Jesus Christ, the whole fulness of the Godhead dwells, not allegorically, figuratively, and cursorily, but really and essentially. The Body of any thing in the Stile of the Hebrews is the very reality of the thing. The Body of Day, the Body of Purity, the Body of Gen. xvi. 13. xvii. 23. xii. 17. Lev. xxiii. 4.Death, the Body of Sin, signify broad day, Innocence itself; the substance, reality, force of Sin; or our Body begotten in Sin. The Body of Death, signifies either our mortal Body, or the Body which vio lently engages us in Sin by Concupiscence, which fets up its Empire in our Members.
Ubicunque fuerit corpus, illic congregabuntur & aquilæ. Matt. xxiv. 28. This is a fort of Proverb made use of by our Saviour in the Gospel, and borrowed from the Book of Job xxxix. 30. where it is said, that the Eagle hath its dwelling on the highest Rocks, viewing its prey at a great distance; and that as soon as there is a dead Body any where, it immediately resorts thither to devour it. Our Saviour compares the Nation of the Jews to a Body, which God in his wrath hath given up to Birds and Beasts of prey; wherever there shall be any Jews, there will be likewise Enemies to pursue and pillage them. Corpus in good Latin Authors is sometimes used to signify a Carcase or dead Body.
Exod. xxi. 3.To come in with his Body, and go out with his Body, are Expressions, by which is meant a Servant’s coming to, and going from his Master alone, without Wife and Children. If a Slave enters the House with his Wife, he shall depart out of it with her in the Sabbatical Year. S. Jerom translates it, Cum quali veste introierit, cum tali exeat. But the best Interpreters understand it as we have just now shewn: Gaph in Hebrew signifies the Body, and the Lappet of a Garment.
Body is often used in the way of opposition Rom. viii. 10.to spirit. The Body is dead because of Sin, but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness. We are born Sinners and mortal, but Jesus Christ restores us to Life, and merits eternal Happiness for us by his Death, and Grace if we persevere in the practice of what is good.