ㄣˋ by this we may be enabled to walk in Newness of Life, v. 4. That the Body of Sin, by this, is destroyed, that henceforth we should not ferve Sin, v. 6. And that by this we are dead unto Sin, and alive unto God, v. 11. By all which it is plain, that by the Sacrament of Baptifm, we do receive fuch Advantage and Affiftance of God's Holy Spirit, as may enable us to encounter with the Wiles and · Malice of the Devil, with the ftrongest Temptations which the World or the Flesh can prefent us with, and with the greatest Difficulties we can meet with in our Christian Warfare. This was fo confpicuous in the Primitive Times, that many of the Heathen Profelytes found in themselves an incredible Alteration upon receiving this Sacrament; their Souls were in a manner framed a-new, fo that they feemed not to be the fame Men they were before. Which makes Lactantius to glory thus of the Effects of Baptifm. Give us (fays he) one that is unjust, foolish, and a Sinner, and in an Instant he shall be just, prudent, and innocent, with one Laver all his Wickedness fhall be washed away. And fo for the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper, it is Lord's Sup plain, that by this we obtain Forgiveness of Sins, which per. of Eternal Life, in a proper Senfe, and which would make the Bodies of true Receivers fpring up again from the Duft, But, however, the leaft that can be understood by thefe Paffages is, that God's Holy Spirit does, upon the due receiving the Holy Sacrament, convey to us extraordinary Graces and divine Affiftances. And what Reafon, indeed, is there to think otherwife? For if God has promifed, to give his Holy Spirit to thofe that ask · it, that he will provide us of Grace fufficient for us, even upon Account of our ordinary Prayers, why fhould we think he should not be inclined, to be more than ordinarily Liberal to our Requests, in that most folemn and intense Devotion, which he himself has particularly Inftituted? Phil. Next I except against your Religion, for propofing fuch an odd unconceivable Doctrine, as the Refurrection of the Body. It is contrary to all Rules of Philofophy and common Senfe, that a Body, which has once fubmitted to natural Corruption, fhould again reaffume its priftine Form and Life. Nature then has neg lected its Ancient Work, and is gone on to a new Draught of Operation; fo that to produce the fame Thing again, is as abfurd as to recal Yesterday. Nay, what jejune and operofe Labour does this impose upon the Deity, not to call it an Impoffibility; to make him hunt out, throughout all the Univerfe, the difperfed Particles of diffolved Bodies, that are evaporated into the Air, toffed up and down in the Winds, diffolved in the Water, and rolled down Rivers? And how is it poffible, that all Mens Bodies fhould arife again the fame, when the fame Matter has, in Succeffion of time, compofed it may be half a Score? The fame Herbage, which grows from the Corruption of Human Bodies, is turned into the Nourishment of Animals, which become the Food of other Men. But what fhall Canibals do, who live upon one another? In this Cafe, at your Refurrection, one muft want a Leg, and another an Arm, and fome will hardly have a Finger left to themselves. Now this will make the Refurrection look more like a Sur geon's geon's Shop, or an Hofpital, than a Kingom of Glory. Indeed it may not want fome Probability to fay, that when the Soul fhall leave this Body, it may again have, after a time, fome other Body or Vehicle to move about in; but that it fhould be forced, to have the old rotten Particles picked up to be re-united to, is to me groundlefs and unconceivable Superftition. Cred. It is the conftant Fault of Men of your Per- Poffibility fuafion, to disbelieve every thing that does, any Ways, and Reafoncontradict the ordinary Rules of Nature; but if Na- the Refur ableness of ture be not God, but God governs Nature, I do not rection. fee any Reason, but that God may difpofe of Nature, and and difpenfe with her ordinary Laws, as he thinks fit. There was a Time when Nature had none of these Laws, and, when God pleafes, the may be difpoffeffed of them again. The prefent ordinary Laws of Nature, if they had been proposed to an intelligent Being, before the Creation of the World, when they did not actually exist, would have been altogether as thocking, even to an angelick Mind, as any thing in the Doctrine of the Refurrection is to ours. What could an angelick Nature, that had been acquainted with no-. thing but pure Spirit, think of a material World? What could fuch a fimple Subftance, that never knew any thing, but as uncompounded as it felf, think of fuch a grofs bulky Subftance as Body? What Idea could it have of fuch a Being, which was it self Finite, and yet every Part thereof fhould be infinitely Divifible; that all thofe fmall Somethings which compofed the whole Bulk of Matter, fhould be infinitely diftant from. Nothing? How amazing would it be to that Spiritual Being, to confider the Nature of carporeal Motion; and,, when it had been us'd only to intuitive Knowledge, how ftrange would be the Idea to it of bodily Senfe? Or how could it imagine, that the firft dark Lumps of Chaotick Matter, fhould ever be framed into the beauti ful Mechanifm of this orderly World? Moft certainly, a witty Angel, if he had the ufual Pride of our Unbelie vers, could have made as many Objections against the Kk 4 Creation Creation of a material World, as they do against the Re furrection of a Spiritual Body; But notwithstanding thefe Things were abovethe Compafs of the Thoughts, perhaps of the exalted Angels, yet God Almighty did make fuch a Glorious Material World; and fince we Chriftians are fure, God has promifed to raife fuch a glorious Body out of our dead Ones, we do ftedfaftly believe, he will make good his Word. If the thing be not abfolutely impoffible, there can be no Objection againft it; for if it can be done, God has engaged his Veracity, that he will do it. But it is not impoffible to be done, and therefore it will be done. It would be impoffible for us, and difficult, it may be, to any other finite underftanding, to gather together fo many difperfed Particles of Matter, but it would be no Difficulty or Operofeness to the Deity, for in their prefent Confufion, they all lie as diftinctly in his Knowledge, as if they were ranged into the most methodical Order. God Almighty preferves them every minute in their Being where-ever the lie; and to be fure, he that conferves them, knows them. So that God can, at the last Summons, with as great Facility bring thofe difperfed Particles together again, as he united them in their firft Production. Nay, one may cafily imagine, that God, if he pleased, might imprefs a kind of natural Force upon thefe diffolved Parts, to move to one another as readily as homogeneous Metals do in a Chymift's Furnace, or the Juices of the Earth, which are proper to nourish each Plant, are drawn together by it. What tho' we do not ordinarily behold a Regress to the ancient Form after a Priva tion, or that Things naturally do not return from Death to Life; must therefore God oblige himself, for ever, to the little Laws of this World. These Rules of Nature, are only a Scheme drawn for a World of fix or seven Thousand Years Continuance; but after that, God Almighty ftrikes out new Lines of Providence, and prefcribes to himself new Methods of Operation, the which are unknown to us now. And when you fay, it is as impoffible to revive fuch a dead Body, as to recal Yefterday, that is a great Mistake. For the Parts of Yefterday t fterday are not in Being, but the Parts of a dead hu man Body are. All the Parts of Matter are ftill permanent, after their Diffolution; whilft Time confifts in Flux or Succeffion, the former Part of which muft have perifhed, before the latter has a Being. And 'tis to as Little Purpofe, that you object the Food of Cannibals, and the interfering of one Man's Body with another; for there is no one ever lived altogether upon Man's Flesh, and the very Liquids which are taken in with it, make no incon fiderable Portion of a Cannibal's Body. Befides, we do not know the Dimensions of the Spiritual Body. That the corrupted Particles of the old one is the Foundation of it, is plain by Revelation; but that all the grofs Matter, which they formerly partook of, fhall be taken in again into the angelick Body, is not fo certain. And tho' there fhould be a great deal of it loft by Tranf mutation from one Body to another; yet I am perfuaded, there would be still abundantly enough remaining, to compofe that curious Ifangelick Frame of the glorified Body. Therefore, I don't fee any Reafon, why the Socinians, and their Followers, fhould gratify the Infidels fo far, as to allow the Refurrection of a Body, in general only; when the Scripture fpeaks only of the fame Body, and when the firft Chriftians were reviled for believing the Refurrection of the fame Body. For if no more was meant by their Faith, than the Resurrection of a Body, the Heathens might as well have expofed the Pagan Divinity of Plato' and Pythagoras, who allow'd, That the Soul was again embodied after this Life; and the contumelious fcattering the Ashes of the Chriftians Bodies into Rivers, was then no manner of Exprobration to the Chriftian Doc&rine. Therefore, I fay, when this is the Doctrine of the Scripture, and the conftant Belief of the Chriftian Church, and is a thing fo eafy to conceive an infinite Being to do; I do not fee why Men fhould fall into fpeculative, or fanciful Notions of a Refurrection, only because they may look a little more philofophical. Phil. There is another Doctrine of your Religion, which I cannot fo eafily fubfcribe to, and that is, when you |