the fame Power that does all thefe Things, cannot bring about the fame Effects in the Parts of a Man, whofe Body has been united as Food to the Body of a Canibal? SECT. XII. Conviction and Poffibility of a Refur rection. I KNOW very well, that fome ingenious and acute Philofophers may not be at a lofs to fancy Hypotheses, in order to folve the Caufes of all those Experiments we have produced, and it may be fuch as may feem to have fome Analogy therewith; and that even all the Chymical Phænomena are accounted for, by one this way, by another, that; but it is not neceffary either to admit or to reject the whole: First, because we do not here undertake to inquire into the Truth of those Principles upon which each Man builds his Syftem of natural Knowledge. Secondly, Because it is fufficient to our Purpose if the Experiments be only true, let People deduce them from fuch Causes, as they fhall judge most confiftent with their own Hypothefis: Forafmuch as no Body can pretend to prove from fuch Pores, fuch a Figure, fuch a Determination of Motion, fuch an attractive Force in the Parts of Matter (from which Principles most Causes are derived in this Age) whether it be poffible that each of these are likewife to be found in others; and that the fame Power which has adapted the first to these Properties, does likewife do the fame in others, by changing them every time according as it fhall judge it to be most serviceable to its great Ends and Purposes. SECT SECT. XIII. Tranfition to another kind of Threefold Objections. I MIGHT have made an end here of the Proof of the Poffibility of the Refurrection in the fame proper Bodies, were it not that fome Atheists pretend to defeat the fame after other Manners : Namely, First, by unadmittable Confequences, which they think they can draw from thence. Secondly, By the Suppofition of Things that are poffible, which notwithstanding the Resurrection of the fame Bodies, makes impoffible according to their Notions. Thirdly, By comparing the Bible with itself (from whence all Christians prove the Certainty of their Refurrection) and by quoting fuch Texts out of it, which, as they would make us believe, seem to have very little Agreement with a Refurre&ion in the fame Body. And I hope we shall not appear tedious to the Learned, if we ftill add fomething here to obviate these Difficulties, especially if we ufe no other Proofs therein, than fuch as are founded upon daily Experiments. SECT. XIV. Three Objections of the firft Kind. THE Firft Confequence then, which they think must appear abfurd and unadmittable to every one, is, That in cafe the Refurrection be made in the fame proper Body, a Child dying foon after its Birth, will rife again likewise as a Child, and with an imperfect Body. The Second is, That if any one whilft he is yet a Child, lofes a Leg or an Arm, and lives afterwards fome Years, and grows bigger, he must believe that when he dies, he fhall rife again maim'd, and without Arm or Leg; or in cafe his Body be fupply'd with thofe Limbs that are wanting, wanting, they will be wholly difproportional to the reft. The Third is, That if a Man is to rife with his own Body, it feems to them a necessary Confequence, that almoft all Bodies will be entirely fpent and wafted, and much fmaller and lighter than they ought to be naturally at the Refurrection: Since moft Men before they die, fall away fo much through Sicknefs, and fome are fo exceedingly wafted by Confumptions, as to fall far fhort of that Weight and Size which belong to their Bodies in Health. SECT. XV. Objections of the Second Kind. THE Fourth Thing which they Object, and which, tho' poffible in itself, they think the Belief of Christians renders impoffible, is the following: If a Canibal or Man-eater fhould live a Number of Years, and in all that time should use no other Food than human Flefh, it seems impoffible to them that both the Canibal himself, and at the same time all that have been devoured by him, can rife again with their own perfect and proper Bodies. SECT. XVI. Objections of the third Sort from the Holy Scriptures. THE Objections which they themselves produce from the Holy Scriptures, are first, such Texts where exprefs mention is made of a Refurrection in the fame Body; as Job xix. ver. 26, and 27. Tho' after my Skin Worms deftroy this Body, yet in my Flefh fhall 1 fee God, whom I shall fee for my Jelf, and mine Eyes fhall behold, and not another. And Paul, Rom. viij. ver. 11. He that raised up Christ from the Dead, fhall alfo quicken your mortal Bodies ; as VOL. III. Ttt alfo allo Phil. iij. ver. 21. Who shall change our vile Body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body. We shall not repeat all the reft that are of the fame Tenour. Against these Texts they oppose some Expreffions of the faid Apoftle, 1 Cor. xv. ver. 35, 36, -37, 38. which they think cannot be understood confiftent with the former; for when before, he introduced an Objector ufing thefe Words, ver. 35. But fome Men will fay, how are the Dead raised up? and with what Body do they come? He answered the fame by a Comparison of a Grain of Corn, ver. 36. Thou Fool, that which thou fcweft, is not quickened except it die; ver. 37. And that which thou foweft, thou foweft not that Body that shall be, but bare Grain, it may chance of Wheat, or fome other Grain, ver. 38. -But God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him, and to every Seed his own Body. From which Words therefore they conclude, that we fhall not affume at the Refurre&tion the fame Bodies which are put off at Death; but that they will be other, and different, and fuch as God gives according to his Pleasure. So that according to them, this Text feems to contradi&t the former, and likewife itself, because if a Man fows any Thing else than the Body that shall be, and that God gives to the thing fown, a Body as it hath pleafed him, 'tis impoffible in their Opinion to be the fame Body of that Seed. Befides this, fome of 'em urge other Difficulties against a Spiritual Body, ver. 44, and 46. and especially because in ver. 50, it is faid, that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. This feems to them contradictory to the former Paffages quoted from Jib. SECT. SECT. XVII. Our Defign here is not to defcribe the Manner of the Refurrection, which we must leave to God. BEFORE I pafs on to answer thefe Difficulties, I find myself obliged, for the Inftruction of fuch Chriftians as may happen to read this, to premife: I. THAT Our View here is not to account for the Manner of the Refurrection of the fame Body, which great Myftery we must leave to the Wif dom and Power of God only; nor have we undertaken any Thing more, than to fhew that such a Refurrection involves no Impoffibility in it; and that the foregoing Objections raised by fome Atheifts, even from the Holy Scriptures, in order to footh and quiet their own Confciences against the Terrors of this Refurrection, may be easily cleared up and removed, from what we find daily paffing in the World by our own Experience. SECT. XVIII. A General Answer to all the Objections against a Refurrection, taken out of Scripture. II. To return a general Anfwer to all that thefe unhappy Cavillers, and deplorable Biblereaders (I mean fuch as only fift the Scriptures to discover Abfurdities therein, as I have known fome fuch) fancy they have found in that Holy Word, which they can neither reconcile with their own Notion, nor with other Texts that treat of this Refurrection. I fay, nothing more is required to answer thefe People, than what we find to be exprefly affirmed in the faid Scriptures; namely, that in order to understand the true How, and other Circumftances of the Refurrection, we muft according to the before-quoted Reply of our Lord to the Saducees, not only know the Scriptures, VOL. III. Ttt 2 but |