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of Christ; which is also agreeable to that in Apocal.: "And his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength."

Out of all which, I hope, it is plain enough, that as our Saviour hath said, that the sons of the resurrection do become ipso facto, angels in condition, as well for the splendour and constitution of their body, as their immortality. The body of our Saviour, after his resurrection, being so accurately answerable in light and glory to the most illustrious appearances of angels, in either the Old or New Testament; and this alone, one would think, might be sufficient to assure us of the lucidity or luminosity of the body of Christ, as also of all our resurrection bodies.

For the spirituality of this body, see 1 Cor. xv. 44. "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," &c.

I think it is most reasonable to understand the resurrection body to be called spiritual, not for that it is actuated by a spirit, (for the soul is a spirit that actuates the natural body,) but for that the body itself is become spiritual; which I must confess, Calvin seems abhorrent from, but merely out of his ignorance in philosophy; for he reprehends those, qui substantiam corporis putant fore spiritualem, &c. Calvin seems to be afraid of the opinion of the body being spiritual, as implying a substantial change, &c.

There is not any inconvenience to admit, that the resurrection body is a spiritual body; that is to say, that the contexture of it is of more subtile parts than those that constitute the earthly bodies. p. 498.

And so he distinguishes between that terrestrial statue, or body that Adam had, and the spiritual bodies of those that are made conformable to the last Adam, and to his glorious condition.]

Such as are not of a stupid and statue-like condition of themselves, but of such a nature as hath an activity in itself, and doth most wonderfully contribute to the most lively and most divine and enlarged vital operations of the soul.

[In this manner hath he given his distinction upon the words, " It is sown a natural (or animal) body, it is raised a spiritual body."] The resurrection body is heavenly or celestial; as the first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from heaven; as is the earthly, such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And then it follows: "But this I must tell you, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”—not that they shall only have heavenly bodies in a moral sense or spiritual meaning; bodies in which they shall be heavenly minded, [for such slips as these, and dilute senses, are very dangerous, &c.] but that they shall have an heavenly body in that sense that Adam had an earthly, which was not called an earthly body, for that he was earthly minded in it, but because his body was of an earthly substance.

Really and physically heavenly, not only morally; we shall be such in our corporeal constitution as our celestial Lord is in his ;

we shall bear his image of heavenly glory and brightness, not only in a moral, but natural sense-nor can I imagine how interpreters could be carried so forcibly off from so obvious and true a sense, had it not been by reason of some false pre-conceptions in philosophy, that had corrupted their minds, and perverted their judgments, namely, the hypothesis of Ptolemy and Aristotle.

By an heavenly body, I would understand an angelical body. That the heavens are fluid, according to the most ancient and divine philosophy, as the very notion of the Hebrew word intimates. Our resurrection bodies will be furnished with the seeds and principles of light and splendour, and be more beautiful, and more full of lustre and glory, than the heavenly matter itself; as that part of the earth, which becomes a human body, is more precious and beautiful than the earth itself before it be modified into a frame fit for the functions of life: so that whether we consider the angelicalness, spirituality or heavenliness of the body at the resurrection, there is all reason to conclude, that it will be of a bright and lucid nature; which is not only agreeable to reason and the scripture, but also to the sayings of the fathers themselves, as S. Hierom, S. Macarius, S. Ephrem, S. Austin, as you may see in Vossius, in his Theses de Corpore Glorioso.

But nothing more express for our purpose than that of S. Ephrem, in his discourse of the resurrection, viz. "Justorum corpora septuplum supra solis fulgebunt radios."

"How angelical, how spiritual, how heavenly or celestial, how refulgently bright and glorious the bodies of the blessed are," &c. and more particularly the body of our Saviour, that shone about saint Paul, and saint John, as the sun in his strength, &c.

The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man, that is the Lord Jesus, the heavenly man, from heaven. And who should be entirely heavenly if not he? And what has earth to do to either descend from heaven, or ascend thither? Or what body more radient or refulgent than the sun in his greatest brightness can be vitally organized, but it must be of an heavenly nature indeed ?

We have all reason in the world to conclude the body of our Saviour entirely celestial.

The terrestrial modifications of his body were changed-all cloggings thereof were quelled and abolished.

"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ;" and I think there is the same reason of flesh and bones, viz. I understand natu> ral flesh and bones not glorified.

I demand by what creed that hath the assent of the universal church, are we required to believe, that the glorified body of Christ consisteth of flesh, blood and bones? It seeming so contradictory to the express words of the apostle, as well as unsuitable to the nature of the heavens, which the philosophers now-a-days conclude to be universally fluid.

[He admits of a body of flesh and bones, provided they be celestial and spiritual flesh and bones. p. 503.]

If any mortal could get within this so refulgent orb of glory and brightness, and approach so near as to see the frame and feature of so divine a body-no heart could escape from being struck into a

swoon at the sight of so overcoming a beauty and majesty; nor the soul of the beholder from being carried quite away in an extatic fit of love and joy, and transporting admiration. p. 503.

Tauching the sameness of the body.

The atheist makes a fresh assault from the sense of the word resurrectio as it is implied the rising again of the very same numerical body, in the strictest scholastic sense. To which is answered, first, That Resurgere in Latin implies no such thing necessarily ; but that as a city or temple, supposed being razed to the ground, and from the very foundations-is truly said to be rebuilt, and so is both deemed and cailed the same temple and city again, though not a stone were used of the former structure; provided only, that they be rebuilt upon the same ground-though the same numerical matter were not congested together to make the same body at the resurrection, the stable personality being in the soul, &c.

[He placeth the sameness of the body that shall be, upon its vital union with the soul, and saith.] That resurrectio is to be interpreted according to the latitude of the original to which it answers, namely, avaclacis, éyees, which signify only vivification, or erection into life but then considering it is spoken of them that have in some sense ceased to be alive, that in that sense it signifies revivification, whence the atheist's objection from the word resurrectio, is utterly defeated. p. 506.

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The scholastic state of the resurrection is described, namely, that we shall have the same numerical bodies in which we lived here on earth; and that these very bodies, the moulds being turned aside, shall start out of the grave: to which I presently subjoin: this doctrine the atheist very dearly hugs, as a pledge in his bold conceit of the falseness and vanity of all the other articles of religion.

But for those that take any pleasure, or find any ease or satisfaction of mind, in the conclusions or phraseologies of the school-divines, touching this point, they are left free to enjoy their own apprehensions, and may, if they please, either fancy it necessary, that all bodies should rise out of the ground, the moulds being cast aside; or else, conceive only that God will by his omnipotency, gather all the particles of our bodies, whether flying in the air, or floating in the water, and frame them together on the surface of the earth, &c. concerning such things, they may vary their fancies as they please, &c. p. 508.

To the second objection he saith, I answer farther as concerning the scripture itself; That I dare challenge him to produce any place of scripture, out of which he can make it appear, that the mystery of the resurrection implies a resuscitation of the same numerical body. The most pregnant of all is, (Job xix.) which later interpreters are now so wise as not to understand at all of the resurrection: The 1 Cor. 15, that chapter is so far from asserting this curiositiy, that it plainly says, it is not the same body; but that as God gives to the blades of corn, grains quite distinct from that which was sown, so at the resurrection he will give the soul a body quite different from that which was buried, as different as a spiritual body is from a natural body, or an heavenly from an earthly. p. 508, 509.

A POSTSCRIPT

BY WAY OF

ANIMADVERSION AND COUNSEL.

SERIOUS and impartial reader, I have collected these passages that thou mayst not only see how some of these learned men differ about this mysterious and weighty point; but also how unreasonable it is for any of them to be obtruding this or the like unlearned question upon us, viz. "How, and with what body are the dead raised, &c." or to seek occasions to vilify us about this point, which our opposers are not only confounded, but liable to be shaken about. The question is not only unlearned, but impertinent and unnecessary to salvation. It is not necessary that men should imagine, how they shall be clothed, or accommodated with bodies in heaven; but to inquire the way thither, that they may walk in it, and be solicitous to know that power and inward operation, whereby they may be made sons of God, and attain to the resurrection of the dead, as being children of God, and of the resurrection.

If men walk in the true light, and so truly serve and please God on earth, they shall not need to doubt or dispute about their future beings in heaven. Their business is, to get thither, and God will well accommodate them there. Men ought not to be too curious and scrutinous in matters beyond their reach, as to the manner of their future beings, or how they shall be reserved for eternal rewards.

There are two things tend to atheism, or to make men atheists, viz.

First. Some men's curiosity, in studying and searching into matters and things beyond their capacities and reason, being things of another life and prin eiple than they are in.

Secondly. Other men's self-confidence in asserting things contrary to reason and manifest experience; and in particular, in their affirming, that these selfsame terrestrial bodies of flesh, blood, and bones, shall be made spiritual, immortal, and incorruptible, and yet the same matter and substance as now.

It is true, that Henry Moor had finer and more excellent notions about the resurrection than many other learned men, and aimed at the truth and spirituality thereof, from the visions of the holy men recorded in the scriptures. But if any should soar after those notions, how fine, thin, sublime, or desirable soever they seem to be to that aspiring mind that desireth to feed upon the tree of knowledge, such are in danger both to fall short, and miss of the fruit of the tree of life, and of the resurrection of the just.

Therefore, O breathing souls, retire, and sink down to the holy principle of light and life in yourselves, so that that may rend the veil of darkness, open you, and show itself in its own purity, virtue, and efficacy to you; that thereby you may know Christ revealed in you, to be your resurrection and life, your hope of glory, and everlasting reward, your strength, nourishment, and souls' satisfaction: "For this is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent;" that in him each of you may arise to righteousness and peace here, and to glory hereafter. And though it appear not what you shall be, yet it is matter of satisfaction, stay, and comfort, that you have such experience of the love of God, as to be his children, and to have his witness and testimony in you, that his appearance and work will be to your glory and future felicity in immortality, where we shall have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; "for in this we groan earnestly, &c. that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Now, he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing, is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit, gloriRed be his name forever,

GEORGE WHITEHEAD.

A CONCLUSIVE ADVERTISEMENT.

SERIOUS READER,-The many controversies, the great employment of the press, the envious strivings of our adversaries, and their interposing to prejudice and divert the minds of people, with their furious oppositions and perverse gain-sayings, from the reception of truth, (which requ red our more brief and speedy answers,) have occasioned the long delay of publishing this book after it was written; but I hope it will not be unseasonable at length, but of service to many, for the information of such honest minds as sincerely seek to understand the truth about those principal matters of controversy between us and our present opposers, herein unfolded. And if the manner or method of wording any passages of reprehension, &c. seems too harsh or sharp in the eye of any, who have not known, nor been concerned (as we are) with such implacable adversaries, let not this disgust, or hinder them from eyeing the light and manifestation of truth aimed at, really intended, and seriously contended for, in the matter and substance of these discourses; considering also (in the reading) the reprovable occasions given us by those froward spirits we have to deal withal, our zeal being for the truth as made known to us; and that in uprightness and simplicity of heart to God, and love to souls, we have taken this pains, with much more. And we must speak and write matters according to our several gifts, and as we see occasion, as they naturally arise and spring, even in the simplicity of truth received; not as men-pleasers, nor to gratify men's curious fancies and affections; but as those that must give account unto God, whose

we are.

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