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are usually mere skeletons when they die; so that there is no reason to suppose (or, at least, not to insist) that the very matter of which our bodies consist at the time of our death, shall be that which shall be raised, that being commonly the worst and most imperfect body of all the rest.

"These two things being premised, the answer to this objection cannot be difficult. For as to the more solid and firm parts of the body, as the skull and bones, it is not, I think, pretended that the cannibals eat them; and if they did, so much of the matter, even of these solid parts, wastes away in a few years, as, being collected together, would supply them many times over. And as for the fleshy and fluid parts, these are so very often changed and renewed, that we can allow the cannibals to eat them all up, and to turn them all into nourishment; and yet no man need contend for want of a body of his own at the resurrection, viz. any of those bodies which he had ten or twenty years before, which are every whit as good, and as much his own, as that which was eaten 16"

Thus far I have been led by a desire to convince you that the resurrection of the body is not impossible, and therefore that it ought not to be ridiculed or denied, even though the belief of it had not been authoritatively proposed to us in Scripture. You will expect me to offer you a few thoughts relative to the kind of body that will be raised; but on this topic I shall be brief, as I have no wish to carry you far into the regions of conjecture.

We are assured by the great Head of the church, that "the hour is coming in which all that are in their

16 Tillotson's 194th Sermon. The Archbishop is here of an opinion diametrically opposite to that of Bishop Stillingfleet, as to the resurrection of every particle of the body buried. He has Mr. Locke, however, on his side. For a summary view of the controversy between Stillingfleet and Locke, and an attempt at compromising their dispute, you may consult the eighth of Dr. Watts's Philosophical Essays.

See also Dr. Clarke's remarks on this interesting inquiry, as quoted in Bishop Watson's Theological Tracts, vol. iv. p. 235-237.

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graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." At that great and solemn event, when we shall "all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," "the dead shall be raised incorruptible:" and it is probable that the bodies of the righteous and the wicked, though each shall in some respects be the same as before, will each be in some respects not the same, each undergoing some change conformable to the character of the individual, and suited to his future state of existence; but both, as the passage just quoted clearly teaches, are then rendered indestructible. Respecting the good, it is said, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory," we shall be like him, our body shall be fashioned like his glorious body "" yet, notwithstanding this, "it doth not yet fully appear what we shall be;" and that for a very obvious reason. Our present manner of knowing depends upon our present constitution, and we know not the exact relation which subsists between this constitution and the manner of being in a future world; we derive our ideas through the medium of the senses; the senses are necessarily conversant with terrestrial objects only: our language is suited to the communication of present ideas; and thus it follows that the objects of the future world may in some respects (whether few or many we cannot say) differ so extremely from terrestrial objects, that language cannot communicate to us any such ideas as would render those matters comprehensible. But language may suggest striking and pleasing analogies; and with such we are presented by the philosophic apostle. "All flesh (says he) is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds;" and yet all these are fashioned out of the same kind of substance, mere inert matter, till God gives it life and activity. 'There are also celestial bodies, and

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17 Col. iv. 4. 1 John, iii. 2. Phil. iii. 21.

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bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and that of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup tion: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown an animal body (ooμa vxikov), it is raised a spiritual body 18"-It is sown an animal body; a body which previously existed with all the organs, faculties, and propensities, requisite to procure, receive, and appropriate nutriment, as well as to perpetuate the species: but it shall be raised a spiritual body, refined from the dregs of matter, utterly impermeable by every thing which communicates pain 19," freed from the organs and senses required only in its former state, and probably possessing the remaining senses in greater perfection, together with new and more exquisite faculties, fitted for the exalted state of existence and enjoyment to which it is now rising. In the present state the organs and senses appointed to transmit the impressions of objects to the mind have a manifest relation to the respective objects: the eye and seeing, for example, to light; the ear and hearing, to sound. In the refined and glorious state of existence to which good men are tending, where the objects which solicit attention will be infinitely more numerous, interesting, and delightful, may not the new organs, faculties, and senses, be proportionably refined, acute, susceptible or penetrating? Human industry and invention have placed us, in a manner, in new worlds; what, then, may not a spiritual body, with sharpened faculties, and the grandest possible objects of contemplation, effect in the celestial regions to which Christians are invited? What 18 1 Cor. xv. 39-44.

19Neither shall there be any more pain." Rev. xxi. 4. The Greek word, Tovoç, here translated pain, comprehends toil, fatigue, and excessive labour of body, as well as vexation and anguish of spirit.

delight would Archimedes have experienced, could he by the aid of a microscope have seen the fluids moving through the vessels of some of our minutest insects;— or viewed with a telescope the belts of Jupiter, or the ring of Saturn? And how would that sink into insipidity when compared with the rapture with which a being, possessing a spiritual body, having its former senses perfected, and new ones communicated, shall explore all the glories and wonders which will be exhibited to it when it shall be admitted into heaven, and enabled to see God?

Here, clogged with animal bodies, and borne down to the earth by gravity as well as our propensities, we are soon tired of bodily exertion, our mental attention flags, and our affections, "cleaving to the dust," may im pede the operation of both body and mind: but there, where the body will be liberated from the influence of gravitation (the causes of gravity being removed), motion may be free and without fatigue, the body may obey with astonishing facility the volitions of the soul, and transmit itself from place to place with the utmost celerity,-there the senses will no longer degrade the affections, the imagination no longer corrupt the heart,-the magnificent scenery thrown open to view will animate the attention, give a glow and vigour to the sentiments; that roused attention will never tire, those glowing sentiments will never cloy but the man now constituted of an indestructible body as well as of an immortal soul, may visit in eternal succession "the streets of the celestial

city," may "drink of the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb;" and dwell for ever in those abodes of harmony and peace, which, though "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of man to conceive," we are assured "God hath prepared for them that love Him 20! "

But I leave you to pursue and improve this train of delectable reflection; and am Truly yours.

20 1 Cor. ii. 9.

LETTER XXI.

On Eternal Existence after Death.

IT is one of the grand peculiarities, and (as I doubt not you will find it, on consideration) one of the great excellencies of the New Testament, that it exhibits both promises and threatenings of eternal existence after natural death. These are presented to the contemplation of mankind under the character of reward and punishment, which are correlatives: the existence of one implies the existence of the other; the belief of the latter is as necessary as the belief of the former: for, without it, the belief of a future state will have little if any influence on the bulk of mankind.

This is not a narrow notion confined to the minds of theologians of a rigid stamp: it is the sentiment of several acute philosophers, and wise politicians; of some indeed who have neither been condemned nor contemned for an undue attachment to what are fashionably termed religious dogmas. Montesquieu, for instance, affirms, "that the idea of a place of future rewards necessarily imports that of a place or state of future punishments; and that when the people hope for the one without fearing the other, civil laws have no force1." Lord Bolingbroke also observes, that “the doctrine of rewards and punishments in a future state has so great a tendency to enforce the civil laws, and to restrain the vices of men, that reason, which (as he pretends) cannot decide for it on principles of natural theology, will not decide against it on principles of good policy." And even Mr. Hume, when speaking of the notions that " the Deity will inflict punishments on vice, and confer infinite rewards on virtue," says, "those who attempt to disabuse persons of such prejudices, may, for aught he knows, be good reasoners; but that he cannot allow them to be good citizens and 'Spirit of Laws, vol. ii. book xxiv. ch. 14.

2 Bolingbroke's Works, 4to edit. vol. v. p. 322.

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