Some considerations about the reconcileableness of reason and religion by T.E., a lay-man ; to which is annex'd by the publisher, a discourse of Mr. Boyle, about the possibility of the resurrection.

Some Physico-Theological CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT The POSSIBILITY OF THE RESURRECTION. (Book 2)

THe Question about which my thoughts are desired being this; Whether to believe the Resurrection of the Dead, which the Christian Religion teaches, be not to be∣lieve an Impossibility? I shall, before I proceed any further, crave leave to state the Question somewhat more clearly and distinctly; that, being freed from Ambiguities, you may the better know in what sense I understand it in my An∣swer; in the returning whereof, your Friend need not desire me to insist but

upon my own Thoughts, unless he could do me the favor to direct me to some Author, which I have not yet seen, that has expresly treated, upon Philosophi∣cal grounds, of the Question he pro∣poses.

First then I take it for granted, that he does not mean, whether the Resur∣rection is a thing knowable, or directly provable by the meer Light of Nature. For, if God had not, in the Scripture, positively revealed his purpose of Rai∣sing the Dead, I confess, I should not have thought of any such thing, nei∣ther do I know, how to prove that it will be, but by flying, not only, to the Veracity, but the Power of God; who having declar'd that he will raise the Dead, and being an Almighty Agent, I have reason to believe, that he will not fail to perform what he has foretold.

Nor do I (secondly) understand the Question to be, Whether the Resur∣rection be possible to be effected by meerly Physical Agents and means. For that it is not to be brought to pass ac∣cording to the common course of Na∣ture, I presume; after the universal ex∣perience of so many Ages, which have afforded us no instances of it. And

though perhaps in Speculation it seems not absolutely repugnant to Reason, that the scatter'd parts of a dead Body might be reconjoin'd, soon after the death of the Man; yet I think you will easily grant it to be morally impossible, that this should happen to any one per∣son, and much more, that it may, nay, that it will, happen to all the persons of Mankind at the worlds end: So that when I treat of the possibility of the General Resurrection, I take it for grant∣ed, that God has been pleas'd to promise and declare, that there shall be one, and that it shall be effected, not by or accord∣ing to the ordinary course of Nature, but by his own Power. On which oc∣casion, I remember, that when our Savi∣our, treating of the Resurrection, silenc'd the Sadduces that deny'd it, he conjoins, as the causes of their Error, the two things I have pointed at in this Observa∣tion, and in the first that preceded it: You err, says he, not knowing the Scri∣ptures, nor the Power of God. And when an Angel would assure the blessed Vir∣gin, that she should bare a Child with∣out the intervention of a Man, (which was a case somewhat akin to ours, since 'twas a production of a Humane Body

out of a small portion of humane sub∣stance in a supernatural way,) he con∣cludes his speech by telling her, That nothing shall prove impossible to God.

In the third place, I suppose, that the Article of the Resurrection, taught by the Christian Religion, is not here meant by the Proposer in such a lati∣tude, as to comprize all that any parti∣cular Church or Sect of Christians, much less any private Doctor or other Writer, hath taught about the Resurrection; but only what is plainly taught about it in the holy Scriptures themselves. And therefore, if besides what is there so de∣liver'd, the Proposer hath met with any thing that he judges to be impossible in its own Nature, he hath my free consent to deal with the Authors and Abettors of such unreasonable Opinions, (which I declare my self to be not only uncon∣cern'd to defend, but sufficiently dis∣pos'd to reject,) as rashnesses unfriend∣ly to the growth of Christianity.

4. And now, that I may yet further clear the way for the Discourse that is to follow, and obviate some Objections and Scruples, which I think 'tis better seasonably to prevent, than solemnly to answer; I shall desire your leave to lay

down in this place a couple of Consi∣derations; of which I shall begin with this, that 'tis no such easie way, as at first it seems, to determine what is absolute∣ly necessary and but sufficient to make a portion of Matter, consider'd at dif∣fering times or places, to be fit to be reputed the same Body.

That the generality of Men do in vulgar Speech allow themselves a great latitude about this affair, will be easily granted by him, that observes the re∣ceived forms of speaking. Thus Rome is said to be the same City, though it hath been so often taken and ruin'd by the Barbarians and others, that perhaps scarce any of the first houses have been left standing, and at least very few re∣main in comparison of those that have been demolished, and have had others built in their stead. Thus an Ʋniversi∣ty is said to be the same, though some Colledges fall to ruine, and new ones are built; and though once in an Age all the persons that compos'd it, de∣crease, and are succeeded by others. Thus the Thames is said to be the same River, that it was in the time of our Forefathers, though indeed the water that now runs under London-bridge, is

not the same that ran there an hour a∣go, and is quite other than that which will run there an hour hence. And so the Flame of a Candle is said to be the same for many hours together, though it indeed be every minute a new body, and the kindled Particles, that compose it at any time assign'd, are continually putting off the form of flame, and are repaired by a succession of like ones.

Nor is it by the Vulgar only that the Notion of Identity has been uneasie to be penetrated. For it seems, that even the ancient Philosophers have been puzled about it, witness their Disputes, whether the ship of Theseus were the same after it had (like that of Sir Fran∣cis Drake) been so patch'd up from time to time to preserve it as a Monument, that scarce any Plank remain'd of the former ship, new Timber having been substituted in the place of any part that in length of time rotted. And even in Metaphysicks themselves, I think it no easie task to establish a true and ade∣quate Notion of Identity, and clearly determine, what is the true Principle of Individuation. And at all this I do not much wonder; for almost every Man that thinks, conceives in his mind

this or that Quality or Relation, or Ag∣gregate of Qualities, to be that which is essential to such a Body, and proper to give it such a Denomination; whereby it comes to pass, that, as one Man chiefly respects this thing, and another that, in a Body that bears such a name; so one Man may easily look upon a Body as the same, because it retains what he chiefly consider'd in it, whilst another thinks it to be chang'd into a new Body, because it has lost that which he thought was the denominating Quality or Attribute. Thus Philosophers and Physitians disa∣gree about Water and Ice, some taking the latter to be but the former disgui∣sed, because they are both of them cold and simple Bodies, and the latter easily reducible to the former, by being freed from the excessive and adventitious de∣gree of coldness; whil'st others, look∣ing upon fluidity as essential to Water, think Ice upon the score of its solidity to be a distinct species of Bodies. And so Peripateticks and Chymists often dis∣agree about the Ashes and Calces of burnt Bodies; the first referring them to Earth, because of their permanency and fixtness, and divers of the Spagyrists taking them to be Bodies sui generis,

because common Ashes usually contain a caustick Salt, whereas Earth ought to be insipid: And the like may be said of some Wood-ashes and Lime-stone, and even Coral, which, when well-calcin'd and recent, have a biting taste, besides that some of them that are insipid may be reduc'd into Metals, as may be easily enough try'd in the Calces of Lead and Copper.

These difficulties about the Notion of Identity I have therefore taken no∣tice of, that we may not think it strange, that among the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, whose Languages were so remote in several regards from ours, the fami∣liar expressions employ'd about the sameness of a Body should not be so precise as were requisite for their turn, who maintain the Resurrection in the most rigid sense. And this leads me from the first of my two Considerations to the second.

That (then) 'tis not repugnant or unconsonant to the Holy Scripture, to suppose, that a comparatively small quantity of the matter of a Body, be∣ing increas'd either by Assimilation or other convenient-Apposition of aptly disposed matter, may bear the name of

the former Body, I think I may reasona∣bly gather from the three following Expressions, I meet with in the Old and New Testament.

For first, St. Paul in the 15th Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he professedly treats of the Re∣surrection, and answers this Question; But some Man will say, How are the Dead raised up? And with what Body do they come? ver. 35: He more than once ex∣plains the matter by the similitude of Sowing, and tells them, Ver. 37. That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that Body that shall be; but bare Grain, it may chance of Wheat, or of some other Grain. Adding, that God gives this seed a Body as he thought fit, to each seed its own Body, ver. 38. Now, if we consider the multitude of Grains of Corn, that may in a good Soil grow out of One; inso∣much that our Saviour speaking in the Parable de Agro Dominico, of a whole Field, tells us, that the Grain may well bear a hundred for one: We cannot but think, that the Portion of the matter of the Seed that is in each of the Grains (not to reckon what may be contained in the Roots, Stalk, and Chaff,) must be very small.

I will not now consider, whether this Text justifies the supposition of a Pla∣stick Power in some part of the matter of a deceased Body; whereby, being divinely excited, it may be enabled to take to its self fresh matter, and so sub∣due and fashion it, as thence sufficiently to repair or augment itself; though the Comparison several times employed by St. Paul, seems to favour such an Hypo∣thesis. Nor will I examine, what may be argued from considering, that Leaven, though at first not differing from other Dough, is by a light change of Quali∣ties, that it acquires by time, enabled to work upon and ferment a great pro∣ment a great Proportion of other Dough. Nor yet will I here debate, what may be said in favour of this Conjecture from those Chymical Expe∣riments, by which Kircherus, Querce∣tanus and others, are affirmed to have by a gentle heat been able to repro∣duce in well-closed Vials the perfect Idea's of Plants destroyed by the fire: I will not, I say, in this place enter upon a Disquisition of any of these things, both because I want time to go thorow with it; and because, though the Resus∣citation, supposing the matter of Fact,

may give no small countenance to our Cause; yet I do not either absolute∣ly need it, or perhaps fully acquiesce in all the Circumstances and Inferences that seem to belong to it. But one thing there is, that I must not leave unmen∣tion'd in this place; because I received it, soon after the Tryal was made, from two eminent Persons of my Acquaint∣ance, Men of great Veracity as well as Judgment; whereof one made the Ex∣periment, and the other saw it made in his own Garden, where the Tryer of the Experiment, (for he was so mo∣dest, that he would not confess himself to be the Author of it,) took some Ashes of a Plant just like our English red Poppy, and having sow'd these Al∣calisate Ashes in my Friends Garden, they did, sooner than was expected, pro∣duce certain Plants larger and fairer than any of that kind that had been seen in those parts. Which seems to argue, that in the saline and earthy, i. e. the fix'd Particles of a Vegetable, that has been dissipated and destroyed by the violence of the fire, there may re∣main a Plastick Power inabling them to contrive disposed Matter, so as to repro∣duce such a Body as was formerly de∣stroyed.

But to this Plastick Power, residing in any portion of the destroyed Body itself, it will not perhaps be neces∣sary to have recourse; since an Exter∣nal and Omnipotent Agent can without it perform all that I need contend for: As I think I might gather from that o∣ther expression of Holy Scripture, that I meet with in the second Chapter of Genesis, where 'tis said, That the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his Ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the Rib which the Lord God had taken from Man, made he a Woman, and brought her unto the Man, Ver. 21, 22. For, since it cannot be pretended, that either the whole or any considerable portion of Eve's Body was taken out of Adams, which was depri∣ved but of a Rib: And since it cannot be probably affirm'd, that this Rib had any Spermatick Faculty, both because the Text assigns the Formation of the Woman to God, and because the Semi∣nal Principles in Animals requires the commixture of Male and Female, the latter of which the Text supposes not to have been then made; Why may I not conclude, That, if it please God by

his immediate Operation to take a Por∣tion of the Matter of a Humane Body, and add to it a far greater quantity, ei∣ther of newly created, or of pre-ex∣istent, Matter; the new Body so framed may, congruously enough to Scripture-expressions, be reputed to be made of the former Body. And accordingly Adam (Ver. 23.) gives the reason why he called his Wife Isha, which our Translation renders, Woman; because she was taken out of Ish, which in our Version is render'd, Man.

The other Text that I consider to my present purpose, is the mystical Resur∣rection describ'd in Ezekiel's Vision, where all, that remain of the dead Men that were to rise up an Army of living Men, was a Valley full of dry Bones, which being by the Divine Power ap∣proach'd to one another, and made to join together in a convenient manner, were afterwards by the supernatural Apposition of either newly created, or extrinsecally supplied, Matter, * 1.1 furnish'd with Sinews, (by which I suppose it meant not only Nerves, but Vessels, Tendons, * 1.2 Ligaments, &c.) and Flesh cover'd with skins; and last of all a

vivifying spirit was convey'd into them that made them stand upon their feet alive, * 1.3 an exceeding great Army. Whence I gather, that 'tis not unconsonant to the expressions of Scripture, to say, that a Portion of the Matter of a dead Body, being uni∣ted with a far greater Portion of Mat∣ter furnish'd from without by God him∣self, and completed into a Humane Bo∣dy, may be reputed the same Man that was dead before. Which may appear both by the tenor of the Vision, and particularly from the expression set down in the 10th verse, where God cal∣ling for the enlivening Spirit, names the completed, but not yet revived, Bodies, These slain, as if he now counted them the same, that had formerly been kill'd,

These preliminary Considerations be∣ing thus laid down, we may now pro∣ceed to examine more closely those dif∣ficulties, which are said to demonstrate the Impossibility of the Resurrection; the substance of which difficulties may be compriz'd in this Objection.

When a man is once really dead, di∣vers of the parts of his Body will, ac∣cording to the course of Nature, resolve themselves into multitudes of steams

that wander to and fro in the Air; and the remaining parts, that are either li∣quid or soft, undergo so great a cor∣ruption and change, that 'tis not possi∣ble, so many scatter'd parts should be a∣gain brought together, and reunited af∣ter the same manner wherein they exist∣ed in a humane Body, whil'st it was yet alive. And much more impossible 'tis to effect this Reunion, if the Body have been, as it often happens, devoured by wild Beasts or Fishes; since in this case, though the scatter'd Particles of the Cadaver might be recover'd as Particles of Matter, yet having already past into the substance of other Animals, they are quite transmuted, as being informed by the new form of the Beast or Fish that devoured them, and of which they now make a Substantial part.

And yet far more impossible will this Redintegration be, if we put the case, that the dead Body be devoured by Can∣nibals; for then the same Flesh belong∣ing successively to two differing per∣sons, 'tis impossible that both should have it restored to them at once, or that any footsteps should remain of the Re∣lation it had to the first Professor.

In answer to this (indeed weighty)

Objection, I have several things to offer.

And first, I consider, that a Humane Body is not as a Statue of Brass or Mar∣ble, that may continue; as to sense, whole ages in a permanent state; but is in a perpetual flux or changing conditi∣on, since it grows in all its Parts, and all its Dimensions, from a Corpusculum, no bigger than an Insect, to the full stature of Man; which in many persons, that are tall and fat, may amount to a vast bulk, which could not happen but by a constant apposition and assimilation of new Parts to the primitive ones of the little Embryo; and since Men, as other Animals, grow but to a certain pitch, and till a certain age (unless perhaps it be the Crocodile, which some affirm to grow always till death,) and therefore must discharge a great part of what they eat and drink by insensible trans∣piration, which Sanctorius's Statical Ex∣periments, as well as mine, assure me to be scarce credibly great, as to Men and some other Animals, both hot and cold; it will follow, that in no very great compass of time, a great part of the sub∣stance of a Humane Body must be chan∣ged: And yet 'tis considerable, that the

of a stable and lasting Texture, as I found not only by some Chymical Tryals, but by the Sculls and Bones of men, whom History records to have been kill'd an exeeding long time ago, of which Note we may hereafter make use.

Secondly, I consider, that there is no determinate Bulk or Size that is necessary to make a humane Body pass for the same, and that a very small portion of Matter will some times serve the turn; as an Embryo, for instance, in the Womb, a new born Babe, a Man at his full stature, and a decrepit Man of perhaps an hundred years old, notwithstanding the vast difference of their sizes, are still reputed to be the same person; as is evident by the custom of Crowning Kings and Emperors in the Mothers belly, and by putting Mur∣derers &c to death in their old age for Crimes committed in their youth; and if a very tall and unweildy fat Man should, as it sometimes happens, be reduced by a Consumption to a Sce∣leton, as they speak, yet none would deny, that this wasted Man were the same with him that had once so enor∣mously big a Body.

I consider also, that a Body may ei∣ther consist of, or abound with, such Corpuscles, as may be variously associ∣ated with those of other Bodies, and exceedingly disguised with those Mix∣tures, and yet retain their own Nature; of this we have divers instances in Me∣talline Bodies: Thus Gold, for exam∣ple, when dissolved in Aqua Regis, pas∣ses for a Liquor, and when dexterous∣ly coagulated, it appears a Salt or Vi∣triol: By another operation, I have ta∣ken pleasure to make it part of the Fu∣el of a Flame: Being dexterously con∣joined to another Mineral, it may be re∣duced to Glass: Being well precipita∣ted with Mercury, it makes a glorious transparent Powder: Being precipita∣ted with Spirit of Urine, or Oyl of Tar∣tar per deliquium, it makes a fulminating Calx that goes off very easily, yet is far stronger than Gun-powder: Being pre∣cipitated with a certain other Alkali, the Fire turns it to a fixt and purple Calx. And yet in spight of all these and divers other disguises, the Gold re∣tains its Nature; as may be evinced by Chymical operations, especially by Re∣ductions. Mercury also is a greater Pro∣teus than Gold, sometimes putting on

the form of a Vapor; sometimes ap∣pearing in that of an almost insipid wa∣ter; sometimes assuming in that condi∣tion the form of a red Pouder; some∣times that of a white one, and of a yel∣low one, or of a Chrystalline Salt, of a Malleable Metal; of what not? And yet all these are various dresses of the same Quicksilver, which a skilful Artist may easily make it put off, and re-appear in its native shape.

And though it be true, that instances of the permanence of Corpuscles, that pass under successive disguises, may be much easier found among Metals and Minerals, than Vegetables and Animals; yet there are some to be met with a∣mong these: For, not to mention Hippo∣crates his affirmation about purging a Child with the Milk of an Animal that had taken Elaterium, (if I misremember not the Drugg,) not to mention this, I say; I remember, that when I once pas∣sed a Spring in Savoy, I observed, that all the Butter that was made in some places, tasted so rank of a certain weed, that at that time of the year abounds there in the Fields, that it made stran∣gers much nauseate the Butter, which otherwise was very good. If it be con∣sider'd,

how many, if I may so call them, Elaborate Alterations the rank Corpus∣cles of this weed must have undergone in the various digestions of the Cows Stomach, Heart, Breasts, &c. and that afterward two Separations at least were superadded, the one of the Cream from the rest of the Milk, and the other of the unctuous parts of the Cream from the Serum or Butter-milk; it will scarce be deny'd, but that vegetable Corpuscles may by association pass through divers disguises, without losing their Nature; especially considering, that the essential Attributes of such Corpus∣cles may remain undestroyed, though no sensible quality survive to make proof of it; as in our newly mention∣ed Example the offensive Taste did. And besides what we commonly observe on the Sea-coast, of the Fishy taste of those Sea-birds, that feed onely upon Sea-fish, I have purposely enquired of an observing Man that lived upon a part of the Irish Coast, where the Custom is to fatten their Hogs with a Shell-fish, which that place very much abounds with, about the taste of their Pork: To which he answered me, that the Flesh had so strong and rank a taste

of the Fish, that strangers could not en∣dure to eat it. There is a certain fruit in America, very well known to our English Planters, which many of them call the Prickle-Peare, whose very red juyce being eaten with the pulp of the fruit, whereof it is a part, doth so well make its way through the divers strain∣ers and digestions of the Body, that it makes the Urine red enough to per∣suade those that are unacquainted with this property, that they piss Blood; as I have been several times assured by un∣suspected Eye-witnesses. But more odd is that which is related by a Learned Man, that spent several years upon the Dutch and English Plantations in the Charibe Islands, who speaking of a Fruit, (which I remember I have seen, but had not the liberty to make tryal of it,) called Janipa, or Junipa, growing in several of those Islands, he tells us, among other things, that au temps, &c. which is at the season when this Fruit falls from the Tree, the Hogs that feed on it, have both their Flesh and Fat of a violet colour, as Experience witnes∣seth, (which colour is the same that the juyce dyes;) and the like happens to the Flesh of Parrots and other Birds

that feed upon it. I shall by and by give you an instance of a Vegetable substance, which, though torn in pieces by very corrosive Liquors, and so dis∣guised as to leave no suspition of what it was, does thereby not only not lose its Nature, but is in an immediate capacity of re-appearing cloathed even with the sensible qualities of it, as colour, taste and smell.

Having thus shewn, that the Par∣ticles of a Body may retain their Na∣ture under various disguises, I now pro∣ceed to add, that they may be stript of those disguises, or, to speak without a Metaphor, be extricated from those Compositions wherein they are disgui∣sed, and that sometimes by such ways as those that are strangers to the nicer operations of Nature, would never have thought upon, nor will not per∣haps judge probable when propos'd. 'Tis not unknown to expert Chymists, that, in despight of all the various shapes, which that Proteus, Mercury, may be made to appear in, as of a Christalline Sublimate, a red Precipitate, a yellow Turbith, a Vapor, a clear Water, a Cin∣naber, &c; a skilful method of Redu∣ction will quickly free it from all that

made it impose upon our senses, and reappear in the form of plain running Mercury. And though Vitrification be looked upon by Chymists as the ulti∣mate action of the Fire, and powerful∣lest way of making inseparable conjun∣ctions of Bodies; yet even out of glass of Lead, for instance, (made of Sand, and the ashes of a Metal,) though the Transmutation seems so great, that the dark and flexible Metal is turned into a very transparent and brittle mass; yet even from this have we recover'd opa∣cous and malleable Lead. And though there be several ways, besides Precipi∣tations, of divorcing substances that seem very strictly, if not unseparably, united; (which though I may perhaps have practised, it is not now convenient I should discourse of;) yet by Precipita∣tion alone, if a Man have the skill to choose proper Precipitants, several Se∣parations may not only be made, but be easily and throughly made that every one would not think of: For, 'tis not necessary, that in all Precipitations, as is observed in most of the vulgar ones, the precipitant Body should indeed make a Separation of the dissolved Bo∣dy from the mass or bulk of that Liquor

or other Adjunct, whereto 'twas before united, but should not be able to per∣form this without associating its own Corpuscles with those of the Body it should rescue, and so make in some sense a new and further Composition. For, that some Bodies may precipitate others without uniting themselves with them, is easily proved by the Experiment of Refiners, separating Silver from Copper; for, the Mixture being dis∣solved in Aqua Fortis, if the Solution be afterward diluted by adding fifteen or twenty times as much common water, and you put into this Liquor a Copper∣plate, you shall quickly see the Silver begin to adhere to the Plate, not in the form of a Calx, as when Gold is preci∣pitated to make Aurum fulminans, or Tin-glass to make a fine white Powder for a Fucus; but in the form of a shi∣ning Metalline substance that needs no farther reduction to be employed as good Silver. And by a proper Precipi∣tant, I remember, I have also in a trice (perhaps in a minute of an hour) redu∣ced a pretty quantity of well disguised Mercury into running Quicksilver. And if one can well appropriate the Preci∣pitants to the Bodies they are to reco∣ver,

very slight and unpromising Agents may perform great matters in a short time; as you may guess by the Experi∣ment I lately promised you: Which is this, that, if you take a piece of Cam∣phire, and let it lie awhile upon Oyl of Vitriol, shaking them now and then, it will be so corroded by the Oyl, as to∣tally to disappear therein without re∣taining so much as its smell, or any ma∣nifest quality, whereby one may suspect there is Camphire in that Mixture; and yet, that a Vegetable substance, thus swallowed up, and changed by one of the most fretting and destroying sub∣stances that is yet known in the world, should not only retain the essential qua∣lities of its Nature, but be restorable to its obvious and sensible ones, in a mi∣nute, and that by so unpromising a me∣dium as common water, you will readi∣ly grant, if you pour the dissolved Camphire into a large proportion of that Liquor, to whose upper parts it will immediately emerge white, brittle, strong-scented, and inflameable Cam∣phire, as before.

One main Consideration I must add to the foregoing ones, namely, that Body and Body being but a parcel,

and a parcel of universal Matter Me∣chanically different; either parcel may successively put on forms in a way of Circulation, if I may so speak, till it re∣turn to the form whence the reckoning was begun, having only its Mechanical affections alter'd.

That all Bodies agree in one com∣mon Matter, the Schools themselves teach, making what they call the Mate∣ria Prima to be the common Basis of them all, and their specifick differences to spring from their particular forms: And since the true Notion of Body consists either alone in its Extension, or in that, and Impenetrability together it will follow, that the differences, which make the varieties of Bodies we see, must not proceed from the Nature of Matter, of which as such we have but one uniform Conception; but from cer∣tain Attributes, such as Motion, Size, Position, &c. that we are wont to call Mechanical Affections. To this 'twill be congruous, that a determinate porti∣on of Matter being given, if we sup∣pose that an intelligent and otherwise duly qualified Agent do watch this por∣tion of Matter in its whole progress, through the various forms it is made to

put on, till it come to the end of its course or series of changes; if, I say, we suppose this, and withal, that this intelli∣gent Agent lay hold of this portion of Matter cloath'd in its ultimate form, and extricating it from any other parcels of Matter wherewith it may be mingled, make it exchange its last Mechanical Affections for those which it had when the Agent first began to watch it; in such case, I say, this portion of Matter, how many changes and disguises soever it may have undergone in the mean time, will return to be what it was; and if it were before part of another Body to be reproduced, it will become capable of having the same Relation to it that formerly it had.

To explain my meaning by a gross Example; suppose, a Man cut a large Globe or Sphere of soft Wax in two equal Parts or Hemispheres, and of the one make Cones, Cylinders, Rings, Screws, &c. and kneading the other with Dough, make an appearance of Pie-crust, Cakes, Vermicell•• 〈…〉〈…〉 the Italians call Paste squeezed through a perforated Plate into the form of little Worms,) Wafers, Biskets, &c. 'tis plain, that a Man may by dissolution,

and other ways, separate the Wax from the Dough or Paste, and reduce it in a Mould to the self-same Hemisphere of Wax it was before, and so he may de∣stroy all that made the other part of the Wax pass for several Bodies, as Cones, or Cylinders, or Rings, &c. and may reduce it in a Mould to one distinct Se∣mi-globe, fit to be reconjoined to the other, and so to recompose such a Sphere of Wax as they constituted, be∣fore the Bisection was made. And to give you an Example to the same pur∣pose in a case that seems much more dif∣ficult; if you look upon Precipitate, carefully made per se, you would think, that Art has made a Body extreamly different from the common Mercury; this being consistent like a Powder, very red in colour, and purgative, and for the most part vomitive in operation, though you give but four or five grains of it, and yet if you but press this Pou∣der with a due heat, by putting the component Particles into a new and fit motion, you may reunite them together so as to re-obtain or re-produce the same running Mercury you had, before the Precipitate per se was made of it.

Here I must beg your leave to recom∣mend more fully to your thoughts, that which soon after the beginning of this Discourse, I did but (purposely) touch upon, and invite you to consider with me, that the Christian Doctrine doth not ascribe the Resurrection to Nature, or any created Agent, but to the peculiar and immediate operation of God, who has declar'd, that before the very last judgment, he will raise the dead. Where∣fore, when I lately mentioned some Chy∣mical ways of recovering Bodies from their various disguises, I was far from any desire it should be imagined, that such ways were the only or the best that can possibly be employed to such an end. For, as the generality of Men, without excepting Philosophers them∣selves, would not have believed or thought, that, by easie Chymical ways, Bodies that are reputed to have pass'd into a quite other nature, should be re∣duc'd or restor'd to their former condi∣tion; so, till Chymistry and other parts of true Natural Philosophy be more throughly understood and farther pro∣moted, 'tis probable, that we can scarce now imagine, what Expedients to re∣produce Bodies a further discovery of

the Mysteries of Art and Nature, may lead us Mortals to. And much less can our dim and narrow knowledge deter∣mine, what means, even Physical ones, the most wise Author of Nature, and absolute Governor of the World is able to employ to bring the Resurrection to pass, since 'tis a part of the imper∣fection of inferior Natures to have but an imperfect apprehension of the pow∣ers of one that is incomparably superior to them. And even among us, a Child, though indowed with a reasonable Soul, cannot conceive, how a Geometri∣cian can measure inaccessible heights and distances, and much less how a Cos∣mographer can determine the whole compass of the Earth and Sea, or an Astronomer investigate how far 'tis from hence to the Moon, and tell many years before, what day and hour, and to what degree, she will be eclipsed. And indeed in the Indies, not only Children, but rational illiterate Men, could not perceive, how 'twas possible for the Eu∣ropeans to converse with one another by the help of a piece of Paper, at an hundred Miles distance, and in a Mo∣ment produce Thunder and Lightning, and kill Men a great way off, as

they saw Gunners and Musqueteers do, and much less foretell an Eclipse of the Moon, as Columbus did to his great ad∣vantage; which things made the Indi∣ans, even the chiefest of them, look up∣on the Spaniards as persons of a more than humane Nature. Now among those that have a true Notion of a Dei∣ty, which is a Being both omnipotent and omniscient; That he can do all, and more than all, that is possible to be performed by any way of disposing of Matter and Motion, is a Truth, that will be readily acknowledged, since he was able at first to produce the world, and contrive some part of the universal Matter of it into the Bodies of the first Man and Woman. And that his pow∣er extends to the Re-union of a Soul and Body that have been separated by Death, we may learn from the Experi∣ments God has been pleased to give of it both in the Old Testament and the New, especially in the raising again to life Lazarus and Christ; of the latter of which particularly we have Proofs co∣gent enough to satisfie any unprejudi∣ced Person, that desires but competent Arguments to convince him. And that the miraculous Power of God will be,

as well as his Veracity is, engaged in rai∣sing up the Dead, and may suffice if 〈◊〉〈◊〉 be so, we may not difficultly gathe•• from that excellent Admonition of ou•• Saviour to the Sadduces, where he tell•• them, (as I elsewhere noted) that th•• two Causes of their Errors are, their no•• knowing the Scriptures wherein God hath declared he will raise the Dead, nor the Power of God, by which he is able to effect it. But the engagement of Gods Omnipotence is also in that place clearly intimated by St. Paul, Act. 26.8. where he asks King Agrippa and his other Audi∣tors, why they should think it a thing not to be believed (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,) that GOD should raise the Dead. And the same Truth is yet more fully exprest by the same Apostle, where speaking of Christ returning in the Glory and Power of his Father to judge all Mankind, after he has said, that this divine Judge shall transform or transfigure (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) our vile Bodies (speaking of his own, and those of other Saints,) to subjoin the Account on which this shall be done, he adds, that 'twill be according to the powerful working (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) whereby he is able even to subdue all things to him∣self, Phil. 3.21.

And now 'twill be seasonable to ap∣ply what has been deliver'd in the whole past Discourse to our present purpose.

Since then a Humane Body is not so confin'd to a determinate Bulk, but that the same Soul being united to a portion of duly organized Matter, is said to con∣stitute the same Man, notwithstanding the vast differences of bigness that there may be at several times between the portions of Matter whereto the Humane Soul is united:

Since a considerable part of the Hu∣mane Body consists of Bones which are Bodies of a very determinate Nature, and not apt to be destroyed by the ope∣ration either of Earth or Fire:

Since of the less stable, and especially the fluid parts of a Humane Body there is a far greater expence made by insen∣sible Transpiration than even Philoso∣phers would imagine:

Since the small Particles of a resol∣ved Body may retain their own Nature under various alterations and disguises, of which 'tis possible they may be after∣wards stript:

Since, without making a Humane Bo∣dy cease to be the same, it may be repai∣red and augmented by the adaptation of

congruously disposed Matter to that which pre-existed in it:

Since, I say, these things are so, why should it be impossible, that a most in∣telligent Agent, whose Omnipotency ex∣tends to all that is not truly contradi∣ctory to the nature of things, or to his own, should be able so to order and watch the Particles of a Humane Body, as that partly of those that remain in the Bones, and partly of those that copi∣ously flie away by insensible Transpira∣tion, and partly of those that are other∣wise disposed of upon their resolution, a competent number may be preserved or retrieved; so that stripping them of their disguises, or extricating them from other parts of Matter, to which they may happen to be conjoined, he may re∣unite them betwixt themselves, and, if need be, with particles of Matter fit to be contexted with them, and thereby re∣store or reproduce a Body, which, being united with the former Soul, may, in a sense consonant to the expressions of Scripture, recompose the same Man, whose Soul and Body were formerly disjoined by Death.

What has been hitherto discours'd, supposes the Doctrine of the Resurrecti∣on

to be taken in a more strict and lite∣ral sense, because I would shew, that even according to that, the difficulties of answering what is mentioned against the possibility of it are not insupera∣ble; though I am not ignorant, that it would much facilitate the defence and explication of so abstruse a thing, if their opinion be admitted, that allow themselves a greater latitude in ex∣pounding the Article of the Resurrecti∣on, as if the substance of it were: That, in regard the Humane Soul is the form of Man, so that whatever duly organi∣zed portion of Matter 'tis united to, it therewith constitutes the same Man, the import of the Resurrection is fulfilled in this, that after Death there shall be an∣other state, wherein the Soul shall no longer persevere in its separate condi∣tion, or, as it were, Widowhood, but shall be again united not to an etherial or the like fluid Matter, but to such a substance as may, with tolerable propri∣ety of speech, notwithstanding its dif∣ferences from our houses of Clay (as the Scripture speaks) be call'd a Humane Body. * 1.4

They that assent to what has been hitherto discours'd of the Possibility of

the Resurrection of the same Bodies, will, I presume, be much more easi••y induc'd to admit the Possibility of the Qualifi∣cations the Christian Religion ascribes to the glorified Bodies of the raised Saints. For, supposing the Truth of the History of the Scriptures, we may ob∣serve, that the Power of God has alrea∣dy extended itself to the performance of such things as import as much as we need infer, sometimes by suspending the natural actings of Bodies upon one an∣other, and sometimes by endowing hu∣mane and other Bodies with preterna∣tural Qualities. And indeed Lightness, or rather Agility, indifferent to Gravity and Levity, Incorruption, Transparen∣cy and Opacity, Figure, Colour, &c. being but Mechanical affections of Mat∣ter, it cannot be incredible, that the most free and powerful Author of those Laws of Nature, according to which all the Phaenomena of Qualities are regulated, may (as he thinks fit) introduce, esta∣blish, or change them in any assign'd portion of Matter, and consequently in that whereof a Humane Body consists. Thus, though Iron be a Body above eight times heavier, bulk for bulk, than Water, yet, in the case of Elisha's helve,

its native Gravity was render'd ineffe∣ctual, and it emerg'd from the bottom to the top of the water: And the gravita∣tion of St. Peters Body was suspended, whilst his Master commanded him, and by that command enabled him, to come to him walking on the Sea. Thus the Operation of the activest Body in Na∣ture, Flame, was suspended in Nebuchad∣nezar's fiery Furnace, whilst Daniels three Companions walked unharm'd in those Flames, that in a trice consum'd the kindlers of them. Thus did the Is∣raelites Manna, which was of so perish∣able a Nature, that it would corrupt in little above a day, when gather'd in any day of the Week but that which prece∣ded the Sabbath, keep good twice as long, and when laid up before the Ark for a Memorial, would last whole Ages uncorrupted. And to add a Proof, that comes more directly home to our pur∣pose, the Body of our Saviour after his Resurrection, though it retained the very impressions, that the Nails of the Cross had made in his hands and feet, and the wound, that the Spear had made in his side, and was still call'd in the Scri∣pture his Body, as indeed it was, and more so, than, according to our past

discourse, it is necessary that every Bo∣dy should be that is rejoin'd to the Soul in the Resurrection: And yet this glo∣rified Body had the same Qualifications, that are promised to the Saints in their state of Glory; St. Paul informing us, that our vile. Bodies shall be transform'd into the likeness of his glorious Body, which the History of the Gospel assures us was endow'd with far nobler Quali∣ties than before its Death. And whereas the Apostle adds, as we formerly noted, that this great change of Schematism in the Saints Bodies will be effected by the irresistible Power of Christ, we shall not much scruple at the admission of such an effect from such an Agent, if we consider how much the bare slight Mechanical alteration of the Texture of a Body may change its sensible Qualities for the better. For without any visible addita∣ment, I have several times chang'd dark and opacous Lead into finely colour'd transparent and specifically lighter glass. And there is another instance, which, though because of its obviousness 'tis less heeded, is yet more considerable: For who will distrust, what advantageous changes such an Agent as God can work by changing the Texture of a por∣tion

of Matter, if he but observe, what happens meerly upon the account of such a Mechanical change in the light∣ing of a Candle that is newly blown out by the applying another to the as∣cending smoke. For in the twinkling of an Eye, an opacous, dark, languid an stinking smoke loses all its stink, and is changed into a most active penetrant and shining Body.

FINIS.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ezek. 37.
• * 1.2

  Ver. 7, 8.
• * 1.3

  Ver. 9, 10.
• * 1.4

  Job 4.19.