AN

ESSAY

ON THE

IDENTITY AND GENERAL RESURRECTION

OF THE

HUMAN BODY.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE STATE OF MAN BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF MORAL EVIL.

SECTION I.

General View of the Subject.

As no being can be infinite but God, no doubt

can be entertained that all finite intelligences had a beginning; and those which had a beginning, must owe their origin to another. This remark is appropriate to man, and is not confined to any detached light in which we may view him, but is equally applicable both to his body and his soul.

But though both matter and spirit must have had a beginning, it will not thence follow that they must have had an end. They may

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change their modes of being, and their relations to each other, in all the variety of forms which is within the reach of possibility, and yet remain at the same distance from the real absence of being as they were when God first called them into exis

tence.

That a spirit, though created, cannot die, is plainly demonstrated to us by the deathless state of angelic natures, and by the immortality of the human soul. And we plainly discover in these two instances, that beginning of existence does not include an end. We also discover in all the modes which any given portion of matter is capable of assuming, that it is always at an infinite distance from a perfect nonentity. Something and nothing are extremes which never can meet together; and the distance which lies between them, no approaches can possibly fill up and therefore the real absence of being which is a nonentity, must always be at an equal distance from all given substances to which these possible modes of existence are ascribed.

The combinations which the particles of matter form with one another, are indeed, continually dissolving; new unions are constantly taking place in regular succession to each other: and the modifications of matter, seem to undergo perpetual changes. But we can trace no more analogy between the real absence of matter and a world, because a world and an atom must be at an equal distance from the real absence of all that is material. If therefore, neither the infinite divisibility of matter, nor the various modes which it undergoes

and is capable of undergoing, can reach the internal constitution of matter, or otherwise affect it, than by altering its configuration, while its essence remains untouched, and while its substance is entire, we may safely infer, unless God should alter the laws of nature, that matter itself will be as perpetual as spirit; and that it must continue for ever, under such forms and in such modes, as God in his infinite wisdom shall think proper.

That man is formed of matter and spirit, will admit of very little doubt. While in union with each other, these substances partake of one common life, and are cemented together by ties which are at once permanent and unknown.

That the spiritual part of man shall never die, is to be inferred from the properties of the human soul.* The soul therefore, from its superior nature, must be capable of subsisting without the aid of the body, in a distinct and separate state. And that the body, when separated from its union with the soul, must cease to act, we are convinced of by the most unquestionable proof. In that state of separation, all compact seems to be dissolved; the spirit retires into another region, to mix with beings whose natures are analogous to its own; while the body is consigned over, and apparently for ever, to darkness and corruption.

The compact being thus dissolved, all union en

* See my Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Human Soul. 8vo. 1803, 2nd edit.

tirely broken off between the spiritual and material parts of man, and even the constituent parts of the body ceasing to adhere to each other, and the particles of which it was composed incorporating with other particles of matter, it becomes a question of the most serious importance, whether this body shall rise again or not?

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To inquire into this fundamental article of our belief; to know what eyidence we have in favour of this doctrine ;-what the nature of that evidence ought to be, which we might rationally expect on such a subject;-how far difficulties should be permitted to operate against conviction, and to lay an embargo on belief;-to know whether Revelation is our exclusive guide, or whether God has furnished us with strong intimations of a future resurrection from other sources:-to know what these sources are, whence we derive our evidence, and how far the proofs may be deemed conclusive which may be adduced in favour of this important point,-are questions which I propose to discuss in the following sheets, and which will occasionally become the subjects of investigation.

As we admit that man must have had a beginning, and as his material part is the subject of our present inquiry, it is necessary that we first turn our thoughts to his original state. It is in that state alone that we can view him detached from these extraneous circumstances which now involve the evidences which I am about to examine; and which lie scattered over that pathless desert which I shall attempt to explore. In order that the mind may be

detached from its local views and partial perceptions of man, we must take a survey of creation, since we can only infer his primary state, and the real nature of his original condition, from the relation in which he then stood to his Maker. And therefore to those attributes of God, which we conspicuously discern in all his conduct and actions towards his creatures, and particularly in that which applies to man, we must necessarily appeal.

SECTION II.

On the Immutability of God.

THAT the human body cannot have been eternal, is a truth which will admit of no doubt, and can require no proof; it must therefore owe its origin to a superior cause, and that cause must be God.

That God, from his nature and attributes, must profess all possible perfection, it will be needless to prove, because it is a truth which it is useless to deny. And if all possible perfections are possessed by him, immutability must be included among the essential attributes of his nature.

Without entering into any formal proof of this truth I shall assume it as an admitted point, because those by whom it is denied, are under the necessity of undeifying his nature, and ultimately denying his existence. The existence of God is a