very frequently to Chrift our Lord, whom alone we have hitherto made the Author of

this admirable Work. In that folemn Differ1 Cor. xv. tation of St. Paul, concerning the future Refurrection of the Body, he makes Christ the Author of our Resurrection, both in the Beginning, Middle, and End of his Difcourfe; to which he gives fo ftrict a Connexion with the Refurrection of our Lord, that they both must be granted or denied together: If Ver. 12. Chrift, fays he, be preached that he rofe from the Dead, how fay fome among you that there is no Refurrection of the Dead? where he fuppofes our Refurrection to be the undeniable Confequence of the Refurrection of Christ: Ver.13,16 But then, fays he, on the other Side, If there be no Refurrection of the Dead, then is Chrift not rifen: And therefore he very justly, in the Beginning of this Difcourse, proves the Resurrection of Chrift by Abundance of Teftimonies, as the Foundation of his Doctrine and Institution concerning our own Refurrection.

BESIDES, he places the Root of all celestial Life in Chrift, as in Adam the Root of all Mortality, whom, therefore, he makes the Ver.21,22 Type, or the avrisayov of Chrift: For as in Adam all Men die, fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive; whom, therefore, he fays, was made its va (woroisy, a quickning Spirit. Laftly, by the fame Jefus Chrift, he infults over Death and Hell, now conquer'd both, and difarm'd, O

Ver 45.

Death!

Death! where is thy Sting? O Grave! where Ver.55,57 is thy Victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the Victory through Jefus Christ our Lord. For he had faid before, For he must reign till Ver.25,26 he hath put all Enemies under his Feet: The laft Enemy that shall be deftroy'd, is Death; but Death cannot be destroy'd but by an univerfal Refurrection.

9.

NOR is it only in this Chapter, but in others, as often as Occafion offers itself, that he teaches us that the Caufe and Origin of our Refurrection is founded in that of Chrift, and that he, by his Refurrection, was confti- Rom. xiv. tuted Lord of the Living and of the Dead, Acts xvii. and of the future Judgment that is to fuc- 31. ceed the Refurrection: For ye are dead, and your Life is bid with Chrift in God; but when Chrift, who is our Life, fhall appear, then Shall ye alfo appear with him in Glory, fays the fame Apoftle to the Coloffians, Chap. iii. ver. 3, 4. And he fays likewise to the Philippians, For our Converfation is in Hea- Chap. ii. ven, from whence alfo we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jefus Chrift, who shall change our vile Body, that it may be fashion'd like unto his glorious Body, according to the Working whereby he is able to fubdue all Things to bimfelf.

I

20, 21.

I fhould be tedious if I fhould here 1 Pet. i. produce more Paffages, (efpecially fince 3,4 they are fufficiently known,) to prove from 14. Christ our Head, the First-born of the

2 Cor. iv.

Dead, 1 Joh. v. (Col.

II, 12.

1

(Col. i. 18.) the first Fruits of those that sleep, (1 Cor. xv. 20.) to prove, I fay, that from his Influence and his Power the Hope of our Refurrection depends; nor yet does it fo far depend upon Chrift, that it does likewife Joh.v. 26. depend originally upon God the Father; both & xvii. 2. Chrift and his Apoftles often affirm that, Act. ii. 24. & 32. Gal. i. 1. Eph. i. 19. I Cor. vi. 14. Heb. xiii. 20. It depends alfo in fome Manner upon the Holy Ghost, and both concur in this divine Operation. the Apostle to the Romans teaches us, Chap. viii. II. "But if the Spirit of him that rai"fed up Jefus from the Dead dwell in you, he "that raised up Chrift from the Dead shall "alfo quicken your mortal Bodies, by his Spi"rit that dwelleth in you."

So

NOR do I at all wonder, that the Father, the Sor, and the Holy Ghoft, should, in fome manner, co-operate in the Refurreetion of the Dead, fince 'tis like a new Creation, when numberlefs Souls are all at once, from an invifible State, brought forth into Light, as it were, from nothing, and all of them re-invefted with Bodies of their feveral Kinds; nay, the Souls themfelves have, as it were, a Regeneration, or a wanıyleveoia, a new Life, and a new World, and all Things around them new : And therefore the Apoftle does, with a mighty Emphafis of Words, fet forth all the mighty Power of God, as

employed

employed and exerted in producing this wonderful Work, Eph. i. 19.

35.

HITHERTO We have set forth the Certain ty or Stability of our Refurrection, and the efficient Causes of it from the facred Writings: And all these are clearly reveal'd. Let us now proceed to Things that are less clearly and lefs exprefly determin'd. And here the Question firft offers itself which is propos'd by the Apostle, viz. With what Sort 1 Cor. xv, of Bodies Men Shall rife again? Πῶς ἐγείρονται δι νεκροί; ποίῳ ἢ σώματι ἔρχονται; How are the Dead raised up? or with what Body do they come? That we may answer this Question, and discover the Qualities of that Body with which we are to be cloath'd at the Refurreetion, we muft obferve, in the first Place, what Powers and what Qualities the facred Writers attribute to fuch a Body. Upon this allowing thefe, which, upon the Testimony of the Scripture, we know belong to thofe Bodies, we are to enquire farther what other more particular Qualities, by a just Reasoning, may be deduced from them, and which may more nearly and intimately discover the Nature and phyfical Conftitution of those Bodies. Laftly, we must confult the Nature of Things, which must be call'd in to our Aid, when we are enquiring into corporeal Beings, that we impute nothing, through our Ignorance, to the facred Oracles, that is incongruous or abfurd,

BUT

4

BUT that we may act compendiously, that Question of the Apoftle, With what Bodies are we to arife? feems chiefly to include two Things: Firft, with what Body? that is, whether with an organical Body, and a Body like that which at prefent we carry about us; or whether with a Body that is inorganical, and of another Form, and another Order from that which we have at prefent. But fecondly, with what Body? that is, whether with a grofs and closely compacted Body, fuch as we now have, or with a thin, a loose, and a light one, refembling Air or Æther. One of thefe doubtful Points, you fee, refpects the Form of our future Body, and the other the Matter; and if we can give a good Account of both thefe, we fhall, I prefume, give a fatisfactory Answer to the propounded Question.

Now 'tis from the facred Writings that we must bring the Answer to both Parts of the Question; and not only from this Chapter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, but from every Paffage where either Chrift or his Apoftles explain the Conditions of thofe Bodies which we shall enjoy in the Heavens. Of these Conditions fome are general and common, which can discover nothing certain or definitive in this kind: Others are fpecial and proper, which may be call'd Characters, or Characteristical Tokens to which, if we diligently attend, they will bring us to a Discovery of the Form or the

Matter