judgments or correct our errors. How the dead are raised, and with what bodies they come, are but remote branches of inquiry; we are more intimately concerned in knowing with certainty the fact itself, than we are in ascertaining how the various changes shall be accomplished. The whole process belongs to God, who giveth to the germ deposited in the grave a body, as it pleaseth him, and to every seed his own body; and after all our conjectural probabilities, when the event shall take place, we, without all doubt, shall acquire more real knowledge of those mysterious realities in one moment, than we can now obtain, though our whole lives were devoted to the investigation of such theories. The evidence of the fact itself, abstractedly from all its circumstances, is however of a different nature, and involves our dearest interests. This evidence arises from distinct sources; some of them we have already explored, and others yet remain for our investigation. These, therefore, which have been unexplored, wilł form the subject of the ensuing chapter.

CHAP. VII.

THAT THE RESURRECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY

IS POSSIBLE, PROBABLE, AND CERTAIN, PROVED BOTH FROM PHILOSOPHY AND SCRIPTURE..

SECT. I.

That the Resurrection of the human Body is possisible, proved from the Nature of infinite Power, and the unobstructing Nature of Matter.

WHEN

Our

HEN we turn our thoughts to the mere possibility of what may or may not be, in any given case, we can only view the subject in connexion with that power to which the action is attributed. knowledge, therefore, of that line which divides possibility from impossibility, will approximate towards the truth, or fall short of it, in due proportion to our knowledge of that power which that Being possesses, who is presumed to accomplish the action.

Among those things which we term impossible, there are some which are only morally, but not absolutely so; while there are many others, which are absolutely impossible; and on that account are not placed within the reach of any power whatsoever. To man those things are morally impossible, which are not placed within the reach of human ingenuity to accomplish; and perhaps the observation will extend to all the different orders of intelligent be

ings; that which is placed beyond their reach to accomplish, may with much propriety be termed a moral impossibility.

But, this impossibility arises not from the subject, but from the inability of the agent. Those things which are impossible to man, may be possible to a higher order of intelligent beings; and those things which are impossible to them are possible to God. The highest orders of created beings have, without doubt, their moral impossibilities, which submit to that power which is infinite; though they must be such as nothing less than infinite power can overcome. But, when we make our appeal to that power, which is unlimited, infinite, and eternal; nothing but that which involves an absolute contradiction can be impossible with it. It is in relation to this power that we must consider the resurrection of the body; and while we form our estimate of those difficulties which attend the fact, we must consider whether they amount to an absolute impossibility, or only to an impossibility which is moral. Because, how much soever the nature of any fact may be placed beyond our ability, either to accomplish or to comprehend, if it include not any contradiction within it, no argument whatever can mili tate against the possibility of the fact, or preclude us from admitting it amongst the number of possible cases, and of giving it a place in our belief.

We have now before us a case, divested of all local prejudices; and we enter a region which rises superior to the sphere of man. the resurrection is the question

The possibility of which we have be

fore us; and this only becomes a question, as it applies to the power of almighty God.

That God has created, we cannot doubt; why then may he not restore? He has preserved through a century, why may he not preserve the same beings through two, through five, or even through eternity? The same power which can preserve a system of matter through any limited duration, can without all doubt preserve it through that duration which is without limits. The power which has preserved the body hitherto in its probationary state, must have been limited to time; but the same being who has limited his operations to time, can without doubt exert the operations of his power during eternity. And, if limited exertions of omnipotent power can preserve a compounded body through a limited period; the same power, if exerted without limits, must preserve the same compounded body through an unlimited duration; and that which is preserved through an unlimited duration, must necessarily continue for ever.

If the resurrection of the body be impossible; the impossibility must arise either from the subject or the agent. It must be either because the materials of which the body is composed, contain within themselves something which is hostile to life, and inconsistent with the perpetuity of duration; or because there is a defect in that power, by which it is presumed to be accomplished. The will of God is not included in the present question; it is a point which belongs rather to the probability, than to the mere possibility of the fact.

That there is nothing in the materials themselves,

hostile to life, and inconsistent with a resurrection, appears evident from what we have already seen; and from the knowledge which we have of matter. A system of organized matter has already been called into existence; and the power which has been exerted, though limited in duration, has been adequate to the preservation of such beings as ourselves in existence, through a limited space. If, therefore, nothing existed in matter which forbade the continuance of man, through any given period; nothing can exist in it which shall forbid its perpetuity, through a longer space than that of the life of man; nothing can exist in matter itself, which can forbid that man should live for ever.

The causes of death, and the natural tendency of all compounded bodies towards dissolution, we have already considered; and we have seen, from the reasons there adduced, that these causes do not essentially inhere in matter, but result from extraneous causes, which, if removed, would leave it in its ori-" ginal and passive state. The body of Adam, without all doubt, was in that peculiar situation, in which the influence of extrinsic causes was counteracted: and no question can be made, though his body was material like our own, that he was totally exempted from dissolution and decay. We may, therefore, from hence make this inference; that, as the human body is now preserved in existence through a limited space, and as the body of Adam, if moral evil had never entered into the world, must have been immortal; nothing inconsistent with perpetual life can be included in those materials of which the human body is composed.