redemption may be called, Did we know, which probably it is not proper we should, more of the foundations and connections of the various parts of that fublime fcheme, we fhould then know nothing ufeful to us, but our duty. That we know now; and with fuch clearness, as will render us wholly inexcufable, if we be not found in the full and faithful performance of it. The doctrine of the future refurrection of the body may, as properly as any one, be faid to be peculiar to revelation. For there is no reafon to think, that even the more civilized heathen nations had generally any notion of it. On the contrary, we find the enlightned Athenians, in the apoftolic times, startled at it, as altogether new to them. But, to use the words of the great apostle of the Gentiles to his hearers, "Why "fhould it be thought a thing incredible, that "God fhould raife the dead?" To give life and being at first to what was once nothing, is certainly at least as difficult, as to restore a bodily vehicle from a state of corruption, and to re-unite to it the mind, which had ftill preserved its exiftence during the ftate of feparation. And the fame omnipotence, which was equal to the former, may be fairly concluded equal to the latter. The precife modus, in which this re-union of the material and fpiritual parts of the human nature at the refurrection, will be executed, is to us, as well as innumerable other effects of the Divine power, wholly unknown. The following hypo thefis, thefis, or conjecture, (the author of which I cannot recollect) has been thought ingenious. That there may be originally difpofed, in the ftructure of the human frame, a fyftem of stamina, in miniature, of the future aerial or ætherial refurrection-body, fo enveloped, or wrapt up, as to continue incorruptible, till the confummation of all things; at which time, by a pre-established law of nature, it may unfold itself, in a manner analogous to conception, or vegetation, and the foul being re-united to it, the perfect man may again. appear, renewed in his nature and ftate, and yet in general the fame compound being he is at present, confifting of foul and body, or, perhaps more properly, of body, foul, and fpirit. The apostle Paul's comparison of the death and burial of the body, to the fowing of a grain of wheat; and the resurrection of the future body, to the fpringing up of the stalk, which we know to be nothing else, than the unfolding of the minute stamina originally difpofed in the grain fown; gives countenance to this conjecture, and probably furnished the first hint of it. It is not my purpofe to establish any one hypothefis whatever. The only end answered by mentioning a conjecture for folving this difficulty, if it be a difficulty, is to fhew the doctrine of a future refurrection to be conceivable, without any abfurdity. It must even be owned, that the fcheme of a restoration, or renovation, of the whole human nature is incomparably more beautiful and regular, and confe quently quently more likely to be the true one, than that received by the heathen world, which fuppofed the total lofs or deftruction of one effential part of the nature, I mean the body; and made the future man a quite different being, an unbodied fpirit, instead of an embodied one. Whereas the Christian scheme represents the diffolution and feparation of the body for a time as the effect and punishment of vice; and its restoration as the effect of the kind interpofition of our glorious Deliverer; by which means the whole existence of the human fpecies (I mean, of that part of them, which fhall be found fit for life and immortality) appears uniform and of a piece; and after the conclufion of the feparate ftate, goes on as before, only with the advantage of being incomparably more perfect, though ftill the fame in kind. The views held forth in Scripture of the future restoration, glory and happiness, of the peculiar people of God; of the univerfal establishment of the most pure and perfect of religions; of the millennium, or paradise restored, with the general prevalency of virtue and goodness; by which means a very great proportion of those, who fhall live in that period, will come to happinefs; all these views are fublime, worthy of the Divine revelation, which exhibits them, and suitable to the greatnefs of the moral oeconomy. But, as the future parts of prophecy are, and ought ought to be, difficult to understand in all their minute particulars, as is evident from the diverfity of opinions given by the commentators on those parts of holy writ; while they generally agree, that the above-mentioned particulars are in Scripture held forth as to be hereafter accomplished; as this, I fay, is the cafe, it may not be neceffary, that I attempt to fix any one particular scheme of the completion of those parts of prophecy. The doctrine of a future general judgment of the whole human race, by the fame Divine perfon, who, by the power of the Father, made the world, and who redeemed it; is held forth in Scripture in a manner fuitable to the pomp, with which fo awful a fcene may be expected to be tranfacted. That the whole Divine oeconomy, with respect to this world, fhould conclude with a general enquiry into, and public declaration of, the character, and fo much of the past conduct, as may be neceffary, of every individual of the fpecies; and that, in confequence of the different behaviour of each, during the ftate of dif cipline and probation, their future existence should be happy, or miserable; that every individual fhould be difpofed of according to what he has made himself fit for; all this the perfect rectitude of the Divine nature indispensably requires. And without this conclufion of the whole oeconomy, the moral government of the world must be imperfect; or rather, without it, the very idea of moral moral government is abfurd. That the decifion of the future ftate of men will turn chiefly upon their general prevailing characters; the habits they have acquired; the difpofitions they have cultivated; their attachment to virtue and obedience, or to irregularity and vice; seems probable both from Scripture and reafon. So that, as, on one hand, a few errors, if not perfifted in, but repented of, and reformed, being confiftent with a prevailing good character, may be overlooked; fo, on the other, a thousand acts of charity, or virtue of any kind, if done from indirect views, or by perfons of hypocritical or bad hearts, will gain no favour from the genéral Judge. Of what confequence is it then, that we be fure of our own integrity! And how dreadful may the effects prove of going out of the present state of difcipline, with one vicious habit uncorrected, or with a temper of mind defective in refpect of one virtue! Whether all the more fecret errors of perfons of good characters, of which they have fincerely repented, which they have for years lamented with floods of undiffembled tears, and which they have thoroughly reformed; will be difplayed to the full view of men and angels; feems a questionable point. For, it does not to reason appear abfolutely neceffary. It being easily enough conceivable, that the character of a perfon may be determinable by Divine Wisdom, and capable of being fet forth to the general view in a manner |