his Providence, as if it did not extend to the fmalleft Things, as if God did not know all Things he had made, and had them not always in his View, and perfectly under his Command; whereas infinite Knowledge understands the moft minute Things, and infinite Power can order them as he pleases.

Q. But how can Bodies, that have been devoured by Cannibals, who chiefly live on human Flesh, or Bodies eaten up by Fishes, and turned to their Nourishment, and then thofe Fishes perhaps eaten up by other Men, and converted into the Subftance of their Bodies, how should both thefe at the Refurrection recover their own Body?

A. In order to fatisfy this Objection, it must be confidered, that the Body of Man is not a conftant and permanent, but a fucceffive Thing, which is continually spending and renewing itself, lofing fomething of the Matter it had before, and gaining new; fo that it is undeniably certain from Experience, that Men frequently change their Bodies, and that the Body a Man hath at any Time of his Life, is as much his own Body, as that which he hath at his Death. So that if the very Matter of the Body, which a Man had at any Time of his Life, be raifed, it is as much his own and the fame Body, as that which he had at his Death; which does clearly folve the forementioned Difficulty, fince any of thofe Bodies he had at any Time before he was eaten, is every whit as good, and as much his own, as that which was eaten. It hath been moreover obferved, that fcarce the hundredth Part of what we eat is digefted into the Subftance of our Bodies, that

all

all the rest is rendered back again into the commor Mass of Matter by fenfible or infenfible Evacuations; therefore what should hinder an Omnipotent Power from raising the Body a Cannibal hath devoured out of the ninety-nine Parts which return into the common Mafs of Matter? Others, to answer this Difficulty, think it not improbable 'that the Original Stamina, which contain all and every one of the folid Parts and Veffels of the Body, even the minuteft Nerves and Fibres, are themselves the intire Body; and that all the extraneous Matter, which, coming in by Way of Nourishment, fills up and extends the minute and infenfible Veffels, of which all the vifible and fenfible Veffels are compofed, is not strictly and properly Part of the Body; and that confequently while all this extraneous Matter, which ferves only to fwell the Body to its juft Magnitude, is in continual Flux, the Original Stamina may remain unchanged, and fo no Confufion of Bodies will be poffible in Nature. They have farther fuppofed, otherwife to folve the Difficulty, that in like Manner as in every Grain of Corn there is contained a minute infenfible seminal Principle, which is itself the intire future Blade and Ear, and in due Season, when all the rest of the Grain is corrupted, unfolds itself visibly into the Form? fo our present mortal and corruptible Body may be but the Exuvia, as it were, of fome hidden and at present infenfible Principle, which at the Refurrection fhall difcover itfelf in its proper Form, by which Way also there can be no Confufion of Bodies poffible in Nature. And it is not without some Weight that St. Paul made

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ufe of the fame Comparison, and that the antient Fathers of the Church have alledged the fame Similitude.

Q. What Confiderations make the Refurrection of the Body appear to be probable?

A. If we confider the Principles of human Nature, the Parts whereof we confift, it is not conceivable that this prefent Life is proportionable to our Compofition: The Body is framed by God as a Companion for our immaterial and immortal Souls; but by Reason of the Shortnefs of our Lives they are quickly feparated, fo that many ignobler Creatures have a much longer Duration; therefore it is very probable, that this is not the only Life that belongs to the Sons of Men, and that therefore the Soul continues fo fhort a Time with the Body, becaufe it fhall re-affume it. Farther, if we confider ourselves as free Agents, capable of doing Good or Evil, and fo thereby liable to Rewards and Punishments, it seems probable we shall rife to enjoy the one or fuffer the other; for it is not reasonable to think the Soul alone hall be happy or miferable, because the Laws that are given to us have not only a Refpect to the Soul, but to the Body alfo, without which in this Life the Soul can neither do nor fuffer any thing. And then the Confideration of Things without us, the natural Courses of Variations in the Creatures, raife the Probability of our Refurrection. The Day dies into Night, and rifes with the next Morning; the Summer dies into Winter, when the Earth becomes a general Sepulchre; but when the Spring appears, Nature revives and flourishes ; the Corn lies buried in the Ground, and being corrupted,

revives and multiplies; and can we think that Man, the Lord of all thefe Things that die and revive for him, fhould be kept under the Bands of Death himself? And though this appeared impoffible to many of the Heathens, yet fome of the wifeft of them thought it not only poffible but probable; as Zoroafter among the Chaldeans, Theopompus among the Followers of Ariftotle, and almost all the Stoics, as they are quoted by Grotius.

De Ver.

Q. What Proof is there for the Refurrection Ch. Rel. of the Body from Divine Revelation ?

A. God hath promised it in the Holy Scripture, and hath in feveral Inftances exemplified it by his Power. For though we may conclude the Resurrection of the Body to be poffible, from that Immensity of Power infeparable from a Being infinite in all Perfections, yet the infallible Certainty of the Refurrection must be built upon the Declaration of God's Will and Pleasure to effect it.

1. 2. c. 10.

Q. What Notices of this Doctrine of the Refurrection of the Dead appear in the Old Teftament? A. It may fairly be concluded from the Book of Job, and it is plainly afferted by the Prophet Daniel. I know, faith Job, that my Re- Job 19. deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter 25, 26. Day upon the Earth; and though after my Skin Worms deftroy this Body, yet in my Flefh fhall I fee God, &c. And the Prophet Daniel tells us, That Dan.12.2. many of them that fleep in the Duft of the Earth fhall awake, fome to everlasting Life, and fome to Shame and everlasting Contempt. The Jews indeed interpret the Words of Job to relate to the Happinefs of the next Life, without any Reference to the Refurrection, becaufe they will not here discern

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difcern the promised Redeemer: Though this Doctrine of the Refurrection was agreeable to an antient Tradition that was current among them, as appears from all their Writings, and particularly from the Tranflation of the laft Verse of the very Book of Job itself, which according to the Seventy runs thus: So Job died, being old and full of Days; but it is written, that he fhall rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. Some modern Commentators underftand them of Job's Expectation to be restored to his former temporal Felicity; but he expreffes himself with too much Affurance and Certainty for a Matter of that Nature, and of which he was fo far from having any Expectation, that towards the latter End of the Book he feems to despair concerning it. The Words therefore being introduced with fuch a remarkable Preface, Ver. 23, 24. and being fuch a pertinent Answer to the Objections of his Friends who accused him as a Sinner, upon which Account he pleads a Redeemer, whom he describes Standing on the Earth as the Judge of Quick and Dead at the laft Day; it is most reasonable to apply them to the Refurrection, in which Sense Clemens Romanus, Contemporary with the Apofles, understood them, as did many of the Fathers after him; and by Conformity to primitive Antiquity, they are so used by our Church in the Burial Office. The Teftimony from Daniel is conftantly by the Jews themselves applied to the Refurrection; and though Heathens and Socinians refer it wholly to the Deliverance from Antiochus, yet that can have no Affinity with the everlasting Life and everlasting Contempt in the latter Part of the Verfe.

Q. How