position; which gave the Socinians occasion to assert, that the same body shall not be raised; namely, that if the bodies of men should be the same as they are now, they would be rendered incapable of that state of immortality which is in heaven. For by the same method of reasoning, by which, as has been before observed, they argue that man would have been liable to mortality, though he had not sinned, viz. that death was then the consequence of nature, inasmuch as the body was to be supported by food, breathe in proper air, and be fenced against those things that might tend to destroy the temperament thereof, or a dissolution would ensue, they conclude that we must not have such bodies as we now have, but etherial. And to give countenance to this, they refer to the apostle's words in 1 Cor. xv. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: And ver. 40. where he speaks of celestial bodies as distinguished from terrestrial, and of the body's being raised a spiritual body, ver. 44. And there is another scripture generally referred to, wherein our Saviour speaks of believers, in the resurrection, being as the angels of God, Matt. xxii. 30. which is to be understood, at least, as signifying that their motion will be no more hindered by the weight of the body, than the motion of an angel is; therefore their bodies must be of another kind than what we suppose they shall be in the resurrection.

Answ. 1. As to what respects the inconsistency of bodies like ours, living in the upper world, as being contrary to the nature of gravitation: It may be answered, that according to the generally received opinion of modern philosophers, gravity arises from an external pressure made upon bodies which are said to be heavy or light, according to the force thereof; and therefore those bodies that are in the upper regions, above the atmosphere, are equally adapted to ascend or descend; which sufficiently answers that part of the objection. This a learned writer takes notice of *: And if this be not acquiesced in, he advances another hypothesis; which, because it has something of wit and spirit in it, I shall take leave to mention, though I must suspend my judgment concerning it, whether it be true or false. He says, perhaps, our heaven will be nothing else but an heaven upon earth; and that it seems more natural to suppose that, since we have solid and material bodies, we shall be be placed as we are in this life, in some solid and material orb; and this he supposes agreeable to the apostle Peter's words, when he speaks of a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Pet. iii. 13. From whence he concludes, that either this world shall be fitted to be the seat of the blessed, or some other that has a solid basis like unto it. And to give counte• See Hody on the resurrection, &c, Pag. 205-208.

nance to this opinion, he refers to some ancient writers; and particularly tells us, that Maximus speaks of it as the opinion of many in his time; and Epiphanius brings in Methodius in the third century, as asserting the same thing.

2. As to what concerns that part of the objection, that bodies, like those we have now, are unmeet for the heavenly state, inasmuch as they cannot be supported without food and other conveniences of nature, which tend to the preservation of life in this world. To this it may be answered, that it is not necessary to suppose that the body shall be raised with such qualities as that it will stand in need of food, rest, or other conveniences of nature; which, at present, tend to the support of life: The apostle seems to assert the contrary, when he says, Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them, 1 Cor. vi. 13. There is certainly a medium between asserting, with some, that we shall be raised with an etherial body, in all respects unlike to that which we have at present; and maintaining, that we shall have such as are liable to the imperfections of this present state, and supported in the same way in which they now are.

As to what the apostle says concerning flesh and blood not inheriting the kingdom of heaven, he does not mean thereby that our bodies shall be so changed, that they shall in no respect consist of flesh and blood: And when he speaks of celestial and spiritual bodies, it is not necessary for us to suppose, that hereby he intends ærial or etherial bodies. But this will be more particularly considered under a following head, when we speak of the circumstances in which the bodies of believers shall be raised from the dead. As for that other scripture, in which they are said to be as the angels of God in heaven, that respects their being immortal and incorruptible; or as the context seems to intimate, that they need not marriage, to perpetuate their generations, in that world: Therefore we have no occasion to strain the sense of the words, so as to suppose that our Saviour intends in his saying they shall be as the angels, that they shall cease to be like what they were when men on earth.

Objec. 4. The last objection which we shall mention, is taken from its not being agreeable to the goodness of God, extended to those who are made partakers of the resurrection to eternal life; inasmuch as it is a bringing them into a worse condition than the soul was in, when separate from the body. This objection is generally brought by those who give into that mode of speaking often used by Plato* and his followers, that the

* Vid. Plat. in Cratyl, who brings in Socrates as gravely punning on the word oxfa, q. d. oñμa, sepulchrum; and supposing that this name, was given to denote that the soul suffers punishment fur its faults, by being detained or shut up in prison.

body in this world, is the prison of the soul, which at death, is set at liberty: therefore they suppose, that its being united to the body again, is no other than its being condemned to a second imprisonment, which is so far from being a favour conferred, that it rather seems to be a punishment inflicted. Others, with Celsus, reckon it a dishonour for the soul to be reunited to a body that is corrupted.* And others speak of the body as being a great hindrance to the soul in its actings; and frequently inclining it to the exercise of some of those passions that tend to make men uneasy, and thereby unhappy; and that this may, some way or other, take place in a future state.

Answ. It is no great difficulty to answer this objection, in which there is not a due difference put between the present and future state of believers. The only thing which might give occasion to men to conclude that their souls are imprisoned in this world is, because they are abridged of that happiness which they shall be possessed of in another; which the apostle calls The glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom. viii. 21. And as for the reproaches which some of the greatest enemies to Christianity have cast on this doctrine, these are not sufficient to beget the least dislike of it in the minds of serious and uns prejudiced Christians. What though the body be turned to cor ruption? It shall be raised incorruptible, and in glory; and therefore shall be a palace fit to entertain its noble inhabitant: what though it has, in this world, offered many temptations to the soul to sin, by which it has been sometimes overcome and exposed to those passions that have defiled, and made it very uneasy; is this to be objected against its being raised from the dead in such a state of perfection, that it shall never more contract any guilt, or render the soul unhappy, by any inconvenience arising from it? But this will farther appear, when we speak of the condition in which the body shall be raised under a following head. We shall therefore proceed,

VI. To consider the resurrection of the dead as universal, including in it all who have lived, or shall live, from the beginning of time, till Christ's second coming, excepting those who shall be found alive; on whom a change shall pass which is equivalent to a resurrection.

1. That all the dead shall be raised: this is expressly mentioned in that vision, I saw the dead both small and great, standing before God; and the books were opened; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were

And Seneca speaks to the same purpose: corpus hoc, animi ponclus, & poena est, permanente illo urgetur, in vinculis est. Vid. Sen. Epist. 65,

Vid. Orig. in Loc. supra citat.

in them; and they were judged every man according to their works, Rev. xx. 12, & seq. where the Judge is represented as demanding the bodies of men of all ranks, conditions, and ages, out of those places where they have been lodged, with a design to reward or punish them according to their works: therefore, if the justice of God is to be displayed in this solemn and awful transaction, and the bodies as well as the souls of men, are the subjects on which this judgment must pass; then it follows, that it will be universal: thus our Saviour says, All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, John v. 28, 29. This is so evident a truth, founded on the divine perfections, as well as express words of scripture, that it is strange to find that any, who allow that the dead shall be raised, should deny the universality thereof.

However, we meet with several expressions in Rabbinical writers, which seem to speak of it as a peculiar privilege belonging to some, but not to all; and therefore they have a proverbial expression, that though the rain descends on the just and on the unjust, yet the resurrection of the dead belongs only to the just:* and this they infer from the words of the prophet Daniel, in chap. xii. 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; which words contain a difficulty which most have found it an hard matter to account for, agreeably to the sense of the prophet, who speaks, in the words immediately following, of the consequence hereof, as, some shall awake to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt; whereby he divides the world into two parts, and considers one as happy, the other as miserable; therefore he must, doubtless, speak of an universal resurrection. But the great difficulty lies in these words; Many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise; from whence, some conclude that this expression contains an exception of others who shall not arise: thus some Jewish writers seem to have understood it; but I rather think, that the word many, there, imports nothing else but the multitude, q. d. the whole number of those that sleep shall awake.†

• Beneficium pluvia ad omnes spectare, resurrectionem mortuorum ad justos tan

tum.

†The words are, 'W'D D'97, multi ex dormientibus. Now it is certain that D`", is often translated a multitude, or multitudes, and signifies the same with 1, or the Greek word vo rados, as in Gen. xvii. 5. P'sal, cix. 30. and in several other places. But the principal difficulty lies in the sense of the particle Mem, which is prefixed to the following word; and is generally supposed to be taken distributively; and accordingly the sense must be, Many, that is, a great number, or part, taken out of them that sleep, shall awake; though, I am apt to think, that the prefix Mem here, is not taken distributively; but denotes the following word to be in the Genitive case, as Lamed and Beth often do; and if so, the words may be rendered, The multitude of them that sleep, shall awake; that is, the whole number of them that sleep shall

It is somewhat hard to determine what the Rabbinical writers intend when they seem to confine the resurrection to the Israelites; and some of them to exclude, not only the wicked from it, but those that had not addicted themselves to the study of the law, whom they call the Gnam Haaretz: thus they are represented in scripture as giving them but a very indifferent character, The people that knoweth not the law are accursed, John vii. 49. by this means they bring the number of those that shall be raised from the dead into a very narrow compass: nevertheless they speak of future rewards and punishments in another world; therefore some have thought, when they exclude all but the Israelites, and, of them, all but those who were in the greatest reputation amongst them, that they understand nothing else by the resurrection, but that which they fancied would happen in the days of the Messiah; in which, they suppose, that some of the Jews shall be raised from the dead before the general resurrection at the last day; and in this sense we may easily understand their exclusive account, when they speak of many that shall not be partakers of this privilege; and if it be extended to the resurrection at the last day, then I am apt to think, that they intend hereby a resurrection to eternal life, and so some understand that common proverb but now mentioned, concerning the rain's descending upon all; but the resurrection's belonging only to the just, in this sense; that though the rain descends upon the wilderness, and barren ground; yet it is only some places which are made fruitful thereby accordingly, though the resurrection be universal, both of the righteous and wicked; yet the resurrection to eternal life belongs only to the just.*

All that I shall observe at present is, that this is not altogether disagreeable to the scripture-mode of speaking; which, though in some places it asserts the resurrection of the whole world, in others, by the resurrection, we are to understand nothing else, but a resurrection to eternal life: thus the apostle Paul, when he speaks of his attaining unto the resurrection of the dead, Phil. iii. 11. intends hereby his obtaining a glorious resurrection. And our Saviour, when speaking concerning the awake; and so it is the same with what is mentioned by our Saviour in the text but now referred to; all that are in their graves shall come forth, and be disposed of in a different way, as he particularly expresses it; which contains the sense of the prophet's prediction in this place. There is a scripture, in which the word many plainly signifies re Tands, the multitude, or all mankind: thus the apostle speaks, Rom. v. 15. of many, as being dead by the offence of one, and by one man's disobedience, many being made sinners; which none, who allow all the world to have fallen in Adam, will suppose to be taken in any other sense. See other instances of the like nature in Glas. Phil. Sacr. Lib. v. Tract. 1. Cap. xv.

Vid. Poc. Not. Misc. in Maimon. Port. Mos. Cap. vi, who treats largely on this subject, and gives an account of the opinions of several Rabbinical writers concerning this matter; which renders it needless for me to refer to particular places.