the Doctrines of our Religion yet this more especially The ingenious though Atheistical Dialogist makes himself merry more than once upon this subject It would be too tedious to recount the like behaviour of Porphiry and Celsus and other the professed adversaries of Christianity in this matter I shall therefore give it you in a lump and whole-sale from the known Testimonies of Tertullian and St. Austin The first tells us there was not one sect of Philosophers whatsoever but oppos'd it The last assures us There was no one point of our Religion so vehemently so pertinaciousty so stifly so contentiously rejected they entertain'd some other Doctrines with respect and favour but for this of the Resurrection they are not meal-mouth'd they no sooner hear it but it raises their indignation they instantly reject censure condemn it and with open mouth boldly proclaim it impossible in Psal 88. CHAP. III. NOtwithstanding all those Sarchasms and Contradictions of Sinners this Heavenly Doctrine is fixt on immovable Foundations and will and must stand impregnable amidst all the shocks and assaults made against it 'T is built on a Rock against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail We are as strongly secur'd here as of any one Article of our Faith and that without being beholden to the Ludicrous stories of the Jews or the Idle and Fabulous Reports of Pinto and the Heathens which do the Doctrine no kindness but disservice rather 'T is supported on the unanimous Testimonies of the Fathers of the Councils of the Creeds The plain and undeniable Authorities of the Old and more especially the New Testament The word and Promise of an Alknowing Infallible Omnipotent God So that all or at least the most considerable Objections that have been brought against it are dash'd in pieces and laid even with the Dust from the consideration of the Veracity and Alsufficiency of that God who has bound himself and his Attributes for the performance I am not ignorant how many learned and ingenious Men have taken much pains to solve from the principle of Philosophy the Arguments brought against it I honour and admire them for their preformances but I must freely say I much question whether the attempts of this kind come up to the point whether they are not too low and inferiour to give it satisfaction My Reason is this The Resurrection is confessed by all to be a work above Nature and how it can be made out by Natural Philosophy I cannot understand Our Reason must be beholding to Revelation in this matter and call in the assistance of Faith without which there can be no Assurance In short if we believe the Creation I cannot see any stumbling block here that Power who made the World and Man at first out of nothing must be readily acknowledged able to raise him from the Grave and to joyn together the scattered Particles of his dissolved Body The one seems more easie than the other This is the great the Common Argument of the Ancients and has without doubt been more effectual to the purpose than a Cart-load of Chimical Experiments than all the notions of the most subtile Philosophers But this I have said to make way to my Design which is to enquire into the strength of the Argument for the Resurrection from a principle of Justice In which I shall take this Method 1. I shall briefly lay down the State of the Argument 2. I shall shew how it has been the Great the Principal the most Topping and Chiefest Argument of all Ages 3. I shall offer to answer the Objections which are levied against it 4. I shall Examine his Reasons of the Resurrection Vlt. I shall endeavour to establish the Doctrine by such considerations as I hope will secure it CHAP. IV. THE State of the Argument in short is The Body and the Soul are here joyned together as sharers in all the Concerns and Actions of this Life which is a state of Probation and therefore they are to stand or fall together in the next which is a state of Remuneration The Body of the Saint and Good Man concurs with his Soul in the exercise of Vertue and Piety in this World and can there be any thing more equitable than that they should be joyned together in that which is to come On the the other hand the Body of the Sinner must be allowed a Partner with the Soul in Evil and is there not all the reason in the World that it should stand forth at the Bar and be joyned with it in the punishment The contrary must be pronounced downright Injustice Can we have such hard thoughts of the most Righteous Judge that he should admit the Soul of the Martyr upon his dissolution to that Glorious Crown which he has promised in the highest Heavens and mean while have no regard to the Crucified Tortured Body that has born the heat and burthen of the Day been the saddest Patient in all the Tragedy but suffer it to lie neglected in the Grave Vlt. How can we imagine that the Soul of the Reprobate should be condemned to the Torments of Tophet for those sins it committed in conjunction with the Body and that the Body it self should escape scot-free sleep undisturbed in the Grave and neither know nor feel any thing of those Flames In this case have we not reason to cry out with the Prophet Malachy 2. 17. Where is the God of Judgment For Justice carries in the very Nature of it a due and impartial distribution of Rewards and Punishments If two work together both have a right to the Wages 't is downright injustice to give all to One and nothing to the Other This is the substance of the Argument of which I must take leave further to acquaint the Reader that it has been the great the standing Argument of all perswasions of Men in all Ages In the first place I affirm this was the great reason which the Jews still used and applyed to the same purpose I would not boast of what I have not I cannot pretend to Rabbinical Learning yet I am sure of what I assert because many learned Men have told me so and I have seen Maimonides their second Solomon their Renowned Epitomizer in Latin and many times met with the famous Fable of the Rabbins which because it comes home and pat to the purpose I here insert There was a great Lord who planted a delicious Garden wherein he placed two Keepers a Blind Man and a Lame Man that he might be secure of his Fruit on all hands but so it was that after some time he found himself Robb'd He charges the Keepers with the Theft they both offer very plausible excuses the Blind Man pleads he could not see the Fruit and therefore could not Steal it The Lame Man alledges the Infirmity of his Feet he could not reach it and so could not take it away At last the fallacy was found out viz. 'T was done by the mutual combination of
of Confession that the Body properly speaking is not capable of Sinning or of doing well considered in its own Nature abstractively in its self 't is a passive principle and can pretend to no Life Energy Sense or Motion in a single state 'T is likewise granted that the Body without the Soul is a Dull Stupid Senseless Clod of Earth a Stinking Carcass a Sink of Rottenness and Corruption uncapable of Acting Doing Suffering Injoying all whatsoever or more than the Doctor can suggest but in a state of Conjunction with the Soul 't is far otherwise so that it injoys Life Sense and Motion shares and ingages with it in all its concerns So that in the two first Reasons there is a manifest Fallacy of Division which runs through every part visible to every common Eye and is no sooner deâ—â—rted but the whole Fabrick of his subtile Argumentation sinks and falls even with the dust Though the Body alone cannot yet in conjunction with the Soul it may When a Noble Lord takes to Wife one of the meanest Extraction who has no pretensions of her own to any thing that is great yet upon her Marriage she is Dignified and Indowed with all the Privileges of her Right Honourable Spouse This as near as I can represent it is the Case of the Soul and Body The Heaven-born Bridegroom stoops to the Earth for a Partner Advances Exalts the Beggar confers Life Sense Motion on her admits her to Bed and Board allows her a share in all his Dignities and Injoyments The Body without the Soul can neither Sin nor do Well But the happy wedlock has ennobled this piece of Clay and empowered it in conjunction to act with it So that I fancy the Doctor to be under a mistake when he calls the Body only the Instrument of the Soul Certainly 't is more 't is an essential Part and the Man can as well be without the Soul as without the Body to call the Body therefore an Instrument is too low a Term when 't is manifestly the Collegue and Companion of the Soul and together with it constitutes the Great Prince and Lord of the Creation I shall challenge the most Acute of Philosophers to give me the definition of a Man without a Body Nec caro sine anima Homo quae post exilium Cadaver est saith Tertullian The Soul without the Body is no more the Man than the Body without the Soul If then it must be acknowledged a Physical Indispensible Principle of his constitution the one half of the Man What a disparagement is it to call it an Instrument only Now that it is so the Learned Doctor himself expresly tells us Pag. 218. 'T is a great mistake to imagine that the Identity or Sameness of Man consists wholy in the Sameness of the Soul if Euphorbus Homer and Ennius had had one and the same Soul yet they would not have been one and the same but three distinct Men. It seems then it is the constituting the essential and most distinguishing Principle it can make three Men of one Soul and so by consequence threescore And how worthily 't is called an Instrument only let the World judge I confess 't is often by Philosophers and Divines set out by this Expression The Instrument of the Soul to denote as I suppose the transcendent excellency of the Soul above it and all that Life Sense and Activity it can pretend to as derived from the Soul and dependent on it yet That it is more than an Instrument is acknowledged by the Learned Author who calls it pag. 198. The Collegue and Companion of the Soul and pag 204. Her old Acquaintance and is undeniably proved from 1 Cor. 6. 18. He that comitteth Fornication Sinneth against his own Body Here it is manifestly a Party and so interpreted and understood by Commentators on the place The like might be observed of other sins as of Gluttony Drunkenness c. which are properly called the Lusts or Sins of the Flesh But 't is farther Objected That the Arm that stabs sins no more than the Sword Here then is a good plea for Criminals at the Bar and 't is much it has never been made use of but I believe the Homicide suspects that it would do him no kindness it would be received by the Court with Laughter and rejected with Scorn and Indignation and reason good for the Sword is a Tool in its self Innocent and Harmless 't is the Arm that weilds it that impresses it that ' gives it Force and Vigour to destroy so that if to gratifie the Objection we allow the Arm to be an Instrument yet that it is no more concerned in the Matter than the Sword is notoriously false because the one is a dead the other a living Instrument and there must be a vast difference between these The Arm considered a-part is no more able to kill than the Sword nay less able because that has not so fit a disposition to pierce thro' the Bowels as the other being made acute for that purpose But the Arm united to the Body has Strength Vigour Motion in every part and must be allowed the true efficient Cause of the Murther whereas the other is the Means the Weapon to effect it And here also the Fallacy of Division is very plain and visible CHAP. VI. BUT the Objector adds 'T is the Soul only that is the Murtherer If it be so I wonder then what the Judge Jury and Executioner the Gaol or Gallows have to say or do to the Body if it be so there is an horrible Scene of Injustice all the World over if so Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi was not the single Case of the poor Grecians who went to pot for the Miscarriages of their Generals but the common and deplorable Fate of all Mankind Certainly if the Soul only be the Murtherer the Body is free ought not to be touch'd is by all Laws whatsoever discharg'd both from the Guilt and Punishment of that Crime in which it had no hand For as 't is Injustice on one side not to punish the Guilty so 't is no less on the other to punish the Innocent If this quaint Notion of the Philosopher could be made good before the Bench it would bring him in more Gain than all the Preferments beside But alas this nail will never drive He will never be able to perswade the World of the truth of it And indeed it does exceedingly labour For 't is not the Soul but 't is the Man that is the Murderer And here also is a manifest Tang of the old Sophism True indeed the Soul is the first chief and principal Actor in the Tragedy but we can by no means excuse the outward Part. 'T is the Soul that bestows on the Body Life and sense without which it could not possibly lay claim to either and even here 't is Ridiculous to imagine that the more Spiritual and noble Part uses the Terrestrial and earthy as a
Punishment in order whereunto t is observable how that the greatest part of the Torments of Hell which we find mentioned in its Black Catalogue seem in a peculiar and proper manner to be marked out and intended to this very Purpose as most Offensive and displeasing to them For example here is Darkness than which nothing can be more offensive to the Sight and to make it full here is utter Darkness Is Fire injurious to the Touch Here t is with a Witness most frequently assigned as the greatest severest Part of Hell And that the Smell should not escape scotfree here is an addition of Brimstone And farther to affect the Organs of seeing and hearing there are two other Punishments expresly assigned to the Damned viz. weeping and wailing which unless we will interpret all these Metaphorically contrary to the Judgment of all must be applyed to the Body In a Word the Argument is clearly on our side it being the Doctrine of all without exception that there are in that Dungeon below Punishments provided for and appropriated to both Parts Lastly The elaborate Treatise of the Learned Author seems to me a full Answer and confutation of the Objections He has proved the Resurrection of the same Body from the Antidiluvian Patriarchs the Jews the Abissines Peruvians Prussians Brasilians c. from all the Heathens he has proved it to have been the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers of the Councils of the Creeds of the Scriptures Answered all the Objections against it and can it be supposed that he should take so much pains to no purpose does he in all this Learned undertaking contend de lana Caprina It must be confessed and allowed nothing less if the Body be barely an instrument a Machine if it be not Sensible Materiam superabat opus certainly he has stooped his noble Pen to too ignoble a Subject he might very well have spared his Labour To what end should the same Body arise if it never were capable of doing Good or Evil neither can be of Rewards or Punishments No verily by this accomplished Work he has obliged the World and done the Church good Service effectually Proclaimed aloud the Truth which is here contended for The Resurrection of the same Body carries in the very bowel of it a Judgment together with the consequences of it And if it be necessary that the same Body should appear the Actions of the former Life are unavoidably fastned to it together with the sutable Rewards of that which is to come CHAP. XV. IF these Sentiments were not as we conceive them to be the suggestions of Reason to mount in the Argument a little higher come we to Divine Revelation and to enquire what Authorities we can find here for the support of it For if our reason of the Resurrection receive any countenance from the Sacred Oracles it s above the shock of the Philosopher and can no more be impressed by all his Notions than the Creation of the World could be overturned by the known Axiom of the great Stagyrite ex nihilo nihil fit out of Nothing Nothing can be made I begin with two noted Authorities of our Saviour which because of a near affinity to each other I shall join here in one That of our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5. 30. together with that of the Twelve Apostles when he gave them their Commission and instructed them in their Duty Mat. 10. 28. For if thy Right Eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not thy whole Body should be cast into Hell And if thy right Hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole Body should be cast into Hell And in the Second Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell in both which places we are again and again assured that the Bodies of Men as well as Souls are liable to the Punishments of Hell unless we can imagine that Christ here intended to alarm the World with a Brutum fulmen an ineffectual Threat which is most impious to conceive To what purpose should he give such frequent advertisements as those if Hell were not to be the Portion of evil Bodies The casting into Hell and destroying in Hell are applied to Bodies it can be understood in no other Sense but as a commination or affirmation that they shall be doomed upon their miscarriages here to the severest Torments in that Region below If Men do not pluck out their Right Eyes cut off their Right Hand they are in danger of implunging the whole in the Lake that burns with Fire If Men do not fear God above Men their Bodies as well as Souls are in danger of Hell Fire So that from these two places all those Conclusions follow and appear as clear as Chrystal diametrically contrary to what the Learned Author would have us to believe viz. First That our Bodies are capable of Punishments because liable to be cast into Hell Secondly That they are capable of doing Evil at present because that portion of misery is here denounced against them Hell being provided for none but the wicked And the two opposites to these are altogether as apparent First Our Bodies are capable of doing well here we can cut of our Right Hand we can fear God or else it had never been here intimated as our Duty And Lastly If we live in the discharge of our Duty our Bodies shall be admitted to glorious enjoyments in the other World For this in the Antithesis is manifestly applied The first Authority that I produce shall be that of the Apostle Rom 2. Where after he had pronounced the sinner inexcusable who committed the same Sins which he condemned in others and charged him with the sure Judgment of God which is according to truth from his impenitency and perseverance in it tells him verse 5. That he thereby treasureth up to himself Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God who will render to every Man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life But to them that are contentius and do not obey the Truth Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But Glory Honour and Peace to every Man that worketh Good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for there is no respect of Persons with God If this Text be well considered it will afford a good Argument in order whereunto it is worthy our observation First How that the Man is through the whole course of it charged both with the