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represented as Incredible, because they cannot account for fuch Difficulties as oppose themselves to it; whilft others have endeavour'd to cancel the Belief of it, in it's Proper fense, by this Suggestion, that the Re-union of the fame Body to the Soul is not Neceffary to conftitute the fame Man, and is no where taught in Holy Scripture.

First, 'tis urged, that though we can readily affent to the Refurrection of our Saviour's Body, which still remain'd Uncorrupted and Entire; yet it cannot be fo eafily conceived, that Our Bodies fhould be Reftored, when they have for many ages lain diffolved in the dust of the earth; when they have gone through many changes; when they have been a prey to the Beafts of the field, and perhaps to other men. But if we do feriously confider the meaning of Almighty Power, and stedfaftly believe it to be a Divine Attribute, all thefe Doubts muft of neceffity vanish. God Almighty can in an Infinite variety of inftances Effect what our narrow capacities cannot Comprehend. Why then should it be thought F 4

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a thing Incredible, that God should raise the dead? It must be acknowledged, that he, who can make the Body out of nothing, can certainly collect it's fcatter'd Particles, after all the changes they have gone through, and range them into their former order, and in conjunction with the Soul conftitute them the fame man. Whilst therefore our knowledge of God's Almighty Power convinceth us of the Poffibility of the Refurrection, we ought firmly to believe the Certainty of it, because it is deliver'd in thofe Scriptures which are undeniably prov'd to be the Word of God. We are exprefly taught, that it fhall be, and plainly capable of apprehending that it may be: For Omnipotence is exclufive of all Difficulties, and admits of no Bounds but Contradiction; and That is no way chargeable upon this Article, notwithstanding the trivial Arguments brought to prove it, which have been fo often and fo fully anfwer'd, that I think it needless to mention them, and fhall therefore go on to those objections, wherein it is fuggefted, That the Re-union of the fame Body to

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the Soul is not Neceffaty to conftitute the fame Man, and is no where taught in Holy Scripture.

The Principal Abetter of this opinion hath informed us, * that we may be able without any difficulty to conceive the fame perfon at the Refurrection, though in a Body not exactly in make or parts the same which he had here, the fame consciousness going along with the Soul that inhabits it. But because he had taken notice, that + every one will always have a liberty to Speak, as he pleafeth, and to apply what articulate founds to what Ideas he thinks fit, and therefore those, who have not maturely weighed his curious remarks about Affected Obfcurity, and all his other instructions concerning the Abuse of words, might be apt to Imagine, that by the fame perfon, in a Body, at the Refurrection nothing lefs could be understood than the fame Man; that he might prevent fuch an Unreasonable conftruction of his words he further obferves, that the foul a

*Mr. Locke's Eff. concerning Hum. Und. B. 2. ch. 27. Sect. 15. † Ibid.

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lone in the change of Bodies, would Scarce to any one, but to him that makes the foul the Man, be enough to make the fame Man, and that the Body too goes to the making the Man; no very large conceffion this, though it be the foundation of an answer to that opinion, which is now to be confider'd; and which to Common readers, might feem to be favour'd by the words above, if fuch a weighty obfervation had not been annex'd to them.

If therefore the Body too goes to the making the Man; then he who is the fame Man in the Refurrection, that hath before lived upon earth, must confift of the fame Soul and the fame Body. For though Confcioufnefs do go along with the Soul, and though the Identity of Perfon be fuppofed and Implied in the Identity of Man; yet 'tis peculiarly requifite to the Identity of Man, that the fame Soul be united to the fame Body, because to the Identity of every Compound Being an Union of the fame Effential parts is required.

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But this Author in his laft Controverfial Letter to a Learned Bishop, wherein he treats of this subject, hath observed, * that it would be hard to determine, if that should be demanded, what greater Congruity the Soul bath, with any particles of matter, which were once vitally united to it, but are now fo no longer; than it hath with particles of matter, which it was never united to. But the Determination of this queftion will not be thought fo extremely Difficult by any one, who is willing to be determin'd by the Common confent of Mankind, and by the Holy Scriptures.

Though Matter be in it felf void of Sensation; yet when it is formed into a Humane Body and united to the Soul, it is not only endued with Sense, but becomes the Source of certain Propenfions and Appetites, which are in Scripture represented as † warring against the Law of the mind, and bringing men into Captivity to the law of fin; And therefore we are faid, as with the mind to ferve the

* 3d. Letter to Bp. Stillingfleet. p. 177. Rom. vii. 23.

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