or heavenly body immediately after his refurrection; the fubtilty and tenuity of which was fhewn by his entering into the place where his difciples were affembled when the DOORS WERE SHUT, &c; "however its glory were for the time fufpended, "partly for the better convincing them of the "truth of his refurrection, and partly because they "were not then able to bear the fplendor of it."

But there are many reasons why we should not humour this child of a fruitful imagination. When our Lord, after his converfation, &c, with the two difciples at Emmaus, vanished out of their fight, had he not that body with which he was crucified? Had he not that body when he shewed his disciples his bands and his feet; when he called upon them to handle him, &c, and affured them that it was he himself who addreffed them? The truth is, he could appear or disappear at pleasure, by virtue of his divine power; and therefore it was by no means necessary he should be invested with a spiritual or heavenly body for that purpose. The refurrection of that body which was crucified, which rofe from the dead, and with which Jefus Chrift converfed upon earth forty days, is the proper pledge and earnest of our refurrection; his glorious body, ftrictly fo called, being probably affumed at his Afcenfion.

St. Ignatius, in his epiftle to the Smyrnæans, expreffes himself very emphatically upon this fubject.

In his note on the paffage I allude to, the learned Voffius fays as follows. Refurrectionem Chrifti vocat (Ignatius) ovanov quia nobis hæc data commune reJurrectionis futuræ fignum. The Most Rev. Translator, I obferve by the way, renders run by the word token, which I need not inform the critical reader is not fully adequate to the original: the Greek term denoting a token, or fign given in confequence of an agreement between party and party. Our Saviour had pledged himself, both to his disciples, and to the Jews, to rise again; and by fo doing at once fulfilled his engagements, and gave ample fecurity for the general refurrection.

From that paffage in St. Paul's 2d. Epift. to the Cor. Ch. 5. which speaks of our being clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, &c, fome have inferred, fays Dr. Cudworth, that "bodies come "not out of graves:" but as this matter is cleared by commentators, and Dr. S. lays no stress on the place, I fhall wafte no time upon it.

JENKINS's Reafon. of Chriftian. v 2. p. 447, &c. GROT, de Verit. l. 2. c. 10. IGNA. to the Smyrn. Sect. 1. See Vossius's note p. 257. CUDWORTH's Intell. Syf.ch. 5. p.796, 799. See WHITBY's Note at John

20. V. 19.

Page 244. (bb) in the flesh.] This paffage in St. Clement is not to be over ftrictly, or literally understood. The Apostle expressly declares, that flesb and blood fhall not inherit the kingdom of God. That

body

body which shall be raised up at the last day, that material substance which, when re-united to the foul, will conftitute the identical person who died, and was buried, fhall be changed, fhall even be fafhioned like unto the glorious body of Chrift, previously, as it fhould feem, to its appearance before his judgment-feat. For we shall all be changed in a moment &c, at the last trump, when the dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and this mortal fhall put on immortality.

It has been obferved by many, that the good fathers from whom paffages are extracted on this fubject, together with St. Paul before them, in his 15th. Chap. of the ft. Epif. to the Cor., speak only of the refurrection of the just: but it is at the fame time to be noted, that, with refpect to this principle of incorruption, the change in the general refurrection will undoubtedly be the fame both of the just and the unjust.

Weak reasoning, like a weapon which falls short of its aim, will be returned upon us by our adverfary. St. Chryfoftom's argument, and that of fome other fathers, and of many modern Divines, for the refurrection of the fame body, drawn from the fuppofed abfurdity of one body's finning and another's fuffering, is obviously a futile one, and may be rendered ferviceable to the intereft of the enemy. The body undergoes a great variety of changes in the course of life; and, it might be asked, would not every imaginable purpose of retri

Bb

retribution be fully anfwered by a future ftate of happiness, or misery, to foul and body, whencefoever that body might be fuppofed to come? Ut juftum eft, fays Wollebius, ut quædam peccata poft banc vitam puniantur; ita eft quoque, ut quod focium fuit peccatorum fit quoque pænarum.

Compend. Chrif. Theol. p. 193.

Page 251. (ii) be once bad.] "How far, fays “Dr. S., they (Athenag. &c.) fucceeded is not the

point at prefent; they might have shewn that the "refurrection of the flesh is no where taught in Scrip"ture." But what if this was left to be fhewn by Dr. Sykes? What, if their design was to prove the refurrection of the flesh to be a Scripture doctrine, and that upon rational grounds? I venture to think this is put out of doubt by what has been fubmitted to the reader; though luckily Dr. S. himself will help us out if we have any how failed in our argumentation upon this fubject. For in his account of Tertullian's third form, or rule of faith, in his book De Præfcriptione Hæreticorum, the Dr. thus expreffes himself. " Nor is his third Form "or Rule, &c, any Creed of any Church, but only "a fummary of the doctrines of the Gofpel." This father then intended his Form or Rule, as a fummary of Christian doctrine, even according to Dr. S's account of the matter; and in it, as it is quoted by himself, we have mention in plain terms of the refurrection of the flesh. The words of Tertullian

tullian are these: that Christ shall come in glory to judge the world, facta utriufque partis refufcitatione, cum carnis reftitutione. *

Page 254. (kk) the first time.] Notwithstanding the explicitness of these paffages, Mahomet's theory of the refurrection is fometimes not a little whimfical, according to what we learn from Mr. Sale of it. He acquaints us, that this falfe prophet fuppofed the whole human body would be corrupted, except the rump-bone, which is first formed, (the os coccygis, as he terms it ;) and that this is to be a fort of feed from whence the whole will be renewed at the last day, after a rain of forty days, (viz. a great dew, according to the Jews, from whom Mahomet took this hint,) which will impregnate the earth, and "cause the bodies to sprout like plants." The Jews, it feems, call this bone Luz. Cudworth appears to have an eye to this particular in his 5th Chapter. p. 799.

SALE'S Prelim. Difc. p. 81.

Page 254. (1) been difcuffing.] The story which Mahomet introduces into the fecond book of the Koran of the miracle God was pleased to work, for the confirmation of Abraham's faith in the article before us, is extraordinary indeed, and well worth tranfcribing. God faid to Abraham, take four birds, cut them in pieces, and difperfe them in four different mountains; and then call them, and you fall fee all