proper own Body in the fimple and naked folid Parts thereof.

SECT. XXIV. The own Body confifts either of a Stamen or Principle unfolded only; or else of a Stamen, that grows and increases by the Addition of Foreign Particles.

VIII. Now to treat more closely of these folid Parts.

It is very well kown to thofe that are verfed in the Inquiries of the prefent Age, that as the Plants and Animals, fo likewife Man does confift of a first Principle or Stamen, which may therefore be denominated the own Body, or at least fomething that contains the fame; as has been already fhewn in the XVIth Contemplation.

The Parts of this Stamen are in the Growth of it, and from time to time expanded, or unfolded, and cloathed as it were, and filled up with other Particles continually, till the visible Body of a bigger, and at least of a full grown Creature, refults from it.

Now fince this Stamen, during the Growth of a Body, is clad and stuffed with other Matter in and about it, and fince it contains all the folid Parts of the Body in Proportion to its Bignefs, either this fimple expanded Stamen, without any other adventitious Matter, must be admitted and allowed to be the own Body, or elfe the fame Stamen filled and cloathed with that Matter, which afterwards becomes Bones, Fiefh, Ligaments, Membranes, &c. fo far as those compofe the folid Parts of a Body, must be reckon'd the own Body; one of these is certainly true.

We shall therefore, in both these Cafes, one of which must needs be admitted, endeavour to folve the Objections of Atheists; and firft, those which they

they are used to bring from Nature, and next from the Holy Scriptures.

SECT. XXV. How a Man may be faid to rife again with his own proper Body, in the firft Cafe.

IX. IF it be fuppofed that the bare Stamen, expanded according to the Bignefs of the Body, without the Acceffion of any other Matter to fill and cloath the fame, be the own Body, and which is to continue fo in all Men from their Birth to their Death; there will be nothing more required, that fuch a Perfon fhould rife with his own Body, than that only this Stamen, feparately from the Particles that cloath and fill the Body, fhould remain, and be continued in its own little Subftance, and that the great Author of our Refurre&tion fhould, after Death, unfold, fill and cloath the fame into a vifible Body, with the fame Matter that belonged to it before, and in its Life-. time, when it was a vifible Body; or else with fuch other Matter as He fhall be pleafed to use. We fhall not speak of the altered or changed Properties and Faculties, fince they do not affect the Matter thereof, nor do change the own Body as to its Effence; but refer it to the Word of God, touching the fame.

SECT. XXVI. The own Body, tho' filled with other Matters, remains the own proper Body of the fame Perfon.

X. BEFORE We proceed any farther, let me add two Things that may obviate all Objections against what has been lately faid.

Firft, That an own Body, tho' filled and cloathed into a vifible Body with other Matter that ne-ver belonged to it, does nevertheless remain the

own

own proper Body of the fame Perfon; nor does this want much Proof, fince any one that has fallen away by Sicknefs or Pain, if after his Recovery. he becomes bigger and fatter, and for that Purpofe has used Food that was never any part of his own Body, will always be reckon❜d to have been the fame Person, and confequently to have been alter'd by becoming fo much more visibly bigger and fatter.

SECT. XXVII. When any one dies, a great deal of that Matter which belonged to the vifible Body, will be feparated therefrom.

XI. Secondly, That when a Man has lived fome Years, a great Quantity of that Matter which belonged to his vifible Body, may be separated from it, and he ftill remain the fame Perfon; infomuch that the own Body undergoes no Change by the Lofs or Acceffion of fuch Matter that helpt to make it a vifible Body.

To prove this, Let us again fuppofe a Man that is 80 Years old, and that weighs 160 Pounds, and who, reckoning one Day with another, after Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper, unites but one Ounce every Day of the Food he uses, to the fluid and folid Parts of his Body, in order to repair what he lofes by Perfpiration, and other Ways; according to which, without reckoning the Weight of his whole Body as foon as he was born, there would be 80 times 365, which is 29,200 Ounces, or 1825 Pounds of nutritious Matter, that has gone towards the Compofition of his vifible Body in the Space of 80 Years; from which if we fubftract those 160 Pounds, there will still remain 1665 Pounds, which during his Life time, when they were at firft nothing but Wheat, Rye, Fish, Flesh, &c. did not belong to

his

his Body, but were quite foreign to it, and might have as well have gone towards the Compofition of any other Man's vifible Body, as of his; and which afterwards have ferved to nourifh his vifible Body for fome Time, and finally have been feparated again from it; in all which Cafes none can deny that it has been the fame Person, and therefore always preferved his own Body, from which, what has been faid before is fufficiently demonftrated.

S&C T. XXVIII. The three Objections of Sea.XIV. anfwer'd, in cafe the own Body confifts of a bare Stamen.

XII. Now to return a particular Answer to the particular Objections ftarted by the Atheists, Sect. XIV and XV. and which they pretend to raife from Nature, upon this Foundation, that the bare Stamen does only remain the own Body, and is only expanded or unfolded from itself into a larger Size, by extending the Parts of it farther from each other (of which an Example may be feen in the XVIIth Contemplation) there is no need of any other Argument than the following:

If a Child were to rife again as a Child in its own Body, the Matter of its Stamen need only be preferved and be again filled up at the Resurrection by other or by the fame Particles by which it had been increafed before.

If a Perfon is to be raifed as full grown, the aforefaid Stamen needs only to be expanded after the fame manner as it would have been in the Life-time, and then filled up and cloathed with Matter, which, when it remained alive, and increased in Bulk, would have ferved for filling up the fame; in which Cafe, every one must acknowledge, that the fame Perfon would have rifen again in his own proper Body.

The

The fame may likewise be said, if any one that is now a Man, and had loft a Leg or an Arm in his Childhood, fhould die; for here it is only requifite, that that Part of the Stamen which was to compofe the Arm or Leg, fhould be expanded, filled up, and cloathed, in Proportion to the bigger Body, as has been fhewn before concerning the smaller.

Moreover, if any one dies lean and wasted, and at the Resurrection his Body is filled with Matter, which did either never belong to him, or otherwife, with fuch as had before filled up his own to a vifible Body, why fhould he, at the Refurrection, be lefs accounted the fame Perfon, and be reckoned lefs to enjoy his own Body, than Job is faid to remain the fame Job, and to have retained his own Body, as well, when by the Goodness of God he was reftored to his former Strength and Health, as when he was fo wafted, as to be able to fay of himself, Chap. xix. ver. 20. My Bone cleaveth to my Skin and to my Flefb, and 1 am escaped with the Skin of my Teeth? Now it is very probable, that that which render'd his vifible Body bigger and heavier after his Recovery, confifted of fuch Food and Matter as did not before belong to the fame.

SECT. XXIX. The Objection in Sect. XV. anfwer'd upon the fame Foundation.

XIII. FINALLY, if now even a Canibal had, during his whole Life, fed upon nothing but the Matter of the vifible Bodies of Men, and it had only pleased God to hinder that the Stamina of all thofe whom he had devoured fhould have been converted into Food, but that they fhould have paffed thro' his Body with other excrementitious Matter; what Impoffibility is there that the par

ticular