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dying of a confumption. But the cafe I think far different betwixt our Saviour, and those to be raised at the last day.

1. His body faw not corruption, and therefore to give him another body new moulded, mixed with other particles, which were not contained in it as it lay in the grave, whole and intire as it was laid there, had been to deftroy his body to frame him a new one without any need. But why with the remaining particles of a man's body long fince diffolved and mouldered into duft and atoms (whereof poffibly a great part may have undergone variety of changes, and entered into other concretions; even in the bodies of other men) other new particles of matter mixed with them, may not ferve to make his body again, as well as the mixture of new and different particles of matter with the old, did in the compafs of his life make his body, I think no reafon can be given.

This may ferve to fhow, why, though the materials of our Saviour's body were not changed at his refurrection; yet it does not follow, but that the body of a man dead and rotten in his grave, or burnt, may at the laft day have feveral new particles in it, and that without any inconvenience: fince whatever matter is vitally united to his foul is his body, as much as is that which was united to it when he was born, or in any other part of his life.

2. În the next place, the fize, fhape, figure, and lineaments of our Saviour's body, even to his wounds, into which doubting Thomas put his fingers and his hand, were to be kept in the raised body of our Saviour, the fame they were at his death, to be a conviction to his difciples, to whom he fhewed himfelf, and who were to be witneffes of his refurrection, that their mafter, the very fame man, was crucified, dead, and buried, and raised again; and therefore he was handled by them, and eat before them after he was rifen, to give them in all points full fatiffaction that it was really he, the fame, and not another, nor a spectre or apparition of him: though I do not think your lordship will thence argue, that because others are to be raised as he was, therefore it is neceffary to believe, that because he eat after his refurrection, others at the laft day fhall eat and drink after they are raised from the dead; which feems to me as good an argument, as because his undiffolved body was raised out of the grave, just as it there lay intire, without the mixture of any new particles; therefore the corrupted and confumed bodies of the dead, at the refurrection, fhall be new framed only out of thofe fcattered particles which were once vitally united to their fouls, without the leaft mixture of any one fingle atom of new matter. But at the last day, when all men are raifed, there will be no need to be affured of any one particular man's refurrection. It is enough that every one shall appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, to receive according to what he had done in his former life; but in what fort of body he fhall appear, or of what particles made up, the fcripture having faid nothing, but that it fhall be a spiritual body raised in incorruption, it is not for

me to determine.

Your lordship afks, Were they [who faw our Saviour after his refurrection] witneffes only of fome material fubftance then united to his foul? In anfwer, I beg your lordship to confider, whether you fuppofe out Saviour was to be known to be the fame man (to the witneffes that

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were to fee him, and teftify his refurrection) by his foul, that could neither be seen or known to be the fame; or by his body, that could be feen, and by the difcernible ftructure and marks of it, be known to be the fame? When your lordship has refolved that, all that you say in that page will answer itself. But because one man cannot know another to be the fame, but by the outward vifible lineaments, and fenfible marks he has been wont to be known and diftinguished by, will your lordfhip therefore argue, That the Great Judge, at the last day, who gives to each man, whom he raifes, his new body, fhall not be able to know who is who, unless he give to every one of them a body, juft of the fame figure, fize, and features, and made up of the very fame individual particles he had in his former life? Whether fuch a way of arguing for the refurrection of the fame body, to be an article of faith, contributes much to the ftrengthening the credibility of the article of the refurrection of the dead, I fhall leave to the judgment of others.

Farther, for the proving the refurrection of the fame body, to be an article of faith, your lordship fays, But the apostle infiits upon the refurrection of Chrift, not merely as an argument of the poffibility of ours, but of the certainty of it; because he rofe, as the firft-fruits; Chrift the firft-fruits, afterwards they that are Chrift's at his coming. Anfw. No doubt, the refurrection of Chrift is a proof of the certainty of our refurrection. But is it therefore a proof of the refurrection of the fame body, confifting of the fame individual particles which concurred to the making up of our body here, without the mixture of any one other particle of matter? I confefs I fee no fuch confequence.

But your lordship goes on: St. Paul was aware of the objections in men's minds about the refurrection of the fame body; and it is of great confequence as to this article, to fhow upon what grounds he proceeds. But fome men will fay, how are the dead raifed up, and with what body do they come? First, he fhows, that the feminal parts of plants are wonderfully improved by the ordinary Providence of God, in the manner of their vegetation.' Anfwer. I do not perfectly underftand, what it is for the feminal parts of plants to be wonderfully improved by the ordinary Providence of God, in the manner of their vegetation: or elfe, perhaps, I should better fee how this here tends to the proof of the refurrection of the fame body, in your lordship's fenfe.

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It continues, They fow bare grain of wheat, or of fome other grain, but God giveth it a body, as it hath pleafed him, and to every feed his own body. Here, fays your lordship, is an identity of the material fubftance fuppofed.' It may be fo. But to me a diverfity of the material fubftance, i. e. of the component particles, is here fuppofed, or in direct words faid. For the words of St. Paul taken all together, run thus, That which thou foweft, thou foweft not that body which fhall be, but bare grain;' and fo on, as your lordship has fet down in the remainder of them. From which words of St. Paul, the natural argument seems to me to ftand thus: If the body that is put in the earth in fowing, is not that body which fhall be, then the body that is put in grave, is not that, i, e. the fame body that shall be.

the

* 2d Anfw.

+1 Cor. xv. 20, 23.

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But your lordship proves it to be the fame body by these three Greek words of the text, Tò idior ouμa, which your lordship interprets thus, * That proper body which belongs to it.' Answer. Indeed by thofe Greek words ro idio cùμa, whether our tranflators have rightly rendered them his own body, or your lordship more rightly that proper body which belongs to it,' I formerly understood no more but this, that in the production of wheat, and other grain from feed, God continued every fpecies diftinct; fo that from grains of wheat fown, root, ftalk, blade, ear, grains of wheat were produced, and not thofe of barley; and fo of the reft, which I took to be the meaning of to every feed his own body.' No, fays your lordship, thefe words prove, That to every plant of wheat, and to every grain of wheat produced in it, is given the proper body that belongs to it, which is the fame body with the grain that was fown. Answer. This, I confefs, I do not understand; because I do not understand how one individual grain can be the fame with twenty, fifty, or an hundred individual grains; for fuch fometimes is the increase..

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But your lordship proves it. For, fays your lordship, + Every feed having that body in little, which is afterwards fo much enlarged; and in grain the feed is corrupted before its germination; but it hath its proper organical parts, which make it the fame body with that which it grows up to. For although grain be not divided into lobes, as other feeds are, yet it hath been found, by the most accurate observations, that upon feparating the membranes, thefe feminal parts are difcerned in them; which afterwards grow up to that body which we call corn. In which words I crave leave to obferve, that your lordship fuppofes that a body may be enlarged by the addition of an hundred or a thou fand times as much in bulk as its own matter, and yet continue the fame body; which, I confefs, I cannot understand,

But in the next place, if that could be fo; and that the plant, in its full growth at harveft, increased by a thoufand or a million of times as much new matter added to it, as it had when it lay in little concealed in the grain that was fown, was the very fame body; yet I do not think that your lordship will fay, that every minute, infenfible, and incon ceivably fmall grain of the hundred grains, contained in that little organized feminal plant, is every one of them the very fame with that grain which contains that whole feminal plant, and all those invifible grains in it. For then it will follow, that one grain is the fame with an hundred, and an hundred diftinct grains the fame with one: which I fhall be able to affent to, when I can conceive, that all the wheat in the world is but one grain.

And

For I beseech you, my lord, confider what it is St. Paul here fpeaks of it is plain he peaks of that which is fown and dies, i. e. the grain that the husband man takes out of his barn to fow in his field. of this grain St. Paul fays, that it is not that body that fhall be.' These two, viz. that which is fown, and that body that fhall be,' are all the bodies that St. Paul here fpeaks of, to reprefent the agreement or difference of men's bodies after the refurrection, with thofe they had before they died. Now, I crave leave to ask your lordship, which of thefe two is that little invifible feminal plant, which your lordship here speaks of ? + Ibid.

* 2d Anfw,

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Does your lordship mean by it the grain that is fown? But that is not what St. Paul fpeaks of; he could not mean this embryonated little plant, for he could not denote it by thefe words, that which thou foweft,' for that he fays muft die: but this little embryonated plant, contained in the feed that is fown, dies not: or does your lordship mean by it, the body that fhall be ?' But neither by these words, the body that shall be,' can St. Paul be fuppofed to denote this infenfible little embryonated plant; for that is already in being, contained in the feed that is fown, and therefore could not be spoken of under the name of the body that shall be. And therefore, I coufefs, I cannot fee of what ufe it is to your lordfhip to introduce here this third body, which St. Paul mentions not, and to make that the fame, or not the fame with any other, when those which St. Paul fpeaks of, are, as I humbly conceive, thefe two vifible fenfible bodies, the grain fown, and the corn grown up to car; with neither of which this infenfible embryonated plant can be the fame body, unless an infenfible body can be the fame body with a fenfible body, and a little body can be the fame body with one ten thousand, or an hundred thoufand times as big as itself. So that yet, I confefs, I fee not the refurrection of the fame body proved, from these words of St. Paul, to be an article of faith.

Your lordship goes on: St. Paul indeed faith, That we fow not that body that fhall be; but he fpeaks not of the identity, but the perfection of it.' Here my understanding fails me again: for I cannot understand St. Paul to fay, That the fame identical fenfible grain of wheat, which was fown at feed-time, is the very fame with every grain of wheat in the ear at harvest, that fprang from it: yet fo I muft understand it, to make it prove, that the fame fenfible body, that is laid in the grave, fhall be the very fame with that which fhall be raised at the refurrection. For I do not know of any feminal body in little, contained in the dead carcafe of any man or woman, which, as your lordship fays, in feeds, having its proper organical parts, fhall afterwards be enlarged, and at the refurrection grow up into the fame man. For I never thought of any feed or feminal parts, either of plant or animal, fo wonderfully improved by the Providence of God,' whereby the fame plant or animal fhould beget itfeif; nor ever heard, that it was by Divine Providence defigned to produce the fame individual, but for the producing of future and distinct individuals, for the continuation of the fame fpecies.

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Your lordship's next words are, + And although there be fuch a difference from the grain itfelf, when it comes up to be perfect corn, with root, ftalk, blade, and ear, that it may be faid to outward appearance not to be the fame body; yet with regard to the feminal and organical parts it is as much the fame, as a man grown up, is the fame with the embryo in the womb. Anfwer. It does not appear by any thing I can find in the text, that St. Paul here compared the body produced, with the feminal and organical parts contained in the grain it fprang from, but with the whole fenfible grain that was grown. Microfcopes had, not then difcovered the little embryo plant in the feed and fuppofing it should have been revealed to St. Paul (though in the fcripture we find little revelation of natural philofophy) yet an argument taken from a thing perfly unknown to the Corinthians, whom he writ to, could be of no

2d Anfw.

+ Ibid.

manner

manner of use to them; nor ferve at all either to inftruct or convince them. But granting that thofe St. Paul writ to, knew it as well Mr. Lewenhoek; yet your lordship thereby proves not the raifing of the fame body; your lordthip fays, it is as much the fame [1 crave leave to add body] as a man grown up is the fame' (fame what, befeech your lordfhip?) with the embryo in the womb.' For that the body of the embryo in the womb, and body of the man grown up, is the fame body, I think no one will fay; unless he can perfuade himself, that a body that is not the hundredth part of another, is the fame with that other; which I think no one will do, till having renounced this dangerous way by ideas of thinking and reafoning, he has learnt to fay, that a part and the whole are the fame.

Your lordship goes on, * And although many arguments may be used to prove, that a man is not the fame, becaufe life, which depends upon the course of the blood, and the manner of respiration, and nutrition, is fo different in both states; yet that man would be thought ridiculous, that should feriously affirm, That it was not the fame man. And your lordship fays, I grant that the variation of great parcels of matter in plants, alters not the identity: and that the organization of the parts in one coherent body, partaking of one common life, makes the identity of a plant.' Anfwer. My lord, I think the question is not about the fame man, but the fame body. For though i do say, + (fomewhat differently from what your lordship fets down as my words here) That that which has ⚫ fuch an organization, as is fit to receive and diftribute nourishment, fo as to continue and frame the wood, bark, and leaves, &c. of a plant, in which confffts the vegetable life, continues to be the fame plant, as long as it partakes of the fame life, though that life be communicated to new particles of matter, vitally united to the living plant:' yet I do not remember, that I any where fay, That a plant, which was once no bigger than an oaten ftraw, and afterwards grows to be above a fathoin about, is the fame body, though it be ftill the fame plant.

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The well-known tree in Epping Foreft, called the King's Oak, which from not weighing an ounce at firft, grew to have many tons of timber in it, was all along the fame oak, the very fame plant; but nobody, I think, will fay that it was the fame body when it weighed a ton, as it was when it weighed but an ounce, unless he has a mind to fignalize himself by faying, That that is the fame body, which has a thousand particles of different matter in it, for one particle that is the fame; which is no better than to fay, That a thousand different particles are but one and the fame particle, and one and the fame particle is a thousand diffe rent particles; a thousand times a greater abfurdity, than to fay half is whole, or the whole is the fame with the half; which will be improved ten thousand times yet farther, if a man fhall fay (as your lordship feems to me to argue here) That that great oak is the very fame body with the acorn it fprang from, becaufe there was in that acorn an oak in little, which was afterwards (as your lordship expreffes it) fo much enlarged, as to make that mighty tree. For this embryo, if I may fo call it, or oak in little, being not the hundredth, or perhaps the thoufandth part of the acorn, and the acorn being not the thousandth part of the grown oak, it will be very extraordinary to prove the acorn and the grown oak to be the fame body, by a way wherein it cannot be + Effay, b. 2. c. 27. §. 4.

2d Anfw.

A a 4

pretended

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