CHAPTER II.

ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

WHETHER the soul, after it is dislodged from the body, shall, at some future period, be invested with a material organization, or whether such a thing be necessary for the perfecting of human nature in the next stage of our existence, are questions to which unassisted reason can give no reply. But though it were to place the matter beyond all doubt, it could not determine whether the future corporeal structure shall be formed out of the body, which was the instrument of the soul in this world; or, in other words, whether the body which is laid in the grave shall be raised to life again.

The appearances which the human frame assumes, and the state into which it goes shortly after life is extinct, prevent any one from supposing-if he had no other means of arriving at a knowledge of the fact -that it contains within itself the elements of another organization fitted for a different and higher mode of being. It seems, when consigned to the dust, to be lost for ever, and its reanimation to be an impossibility. Hence, the greatest, and wisest, and most enlightened men who lived in the heathen world in

ancient times, seem not to have hazarded even a conjecture about the probability of such a thing. Or, perhaps, they considered it useless to speculate upon the subject, from a notion which, to some extent at least, was entertained, that it is not desirable that the soul should be invested with a corporeal frame, because, instead of assisting it in its operations and increasing its happiness, it would be a mere cumbrous appendage which would prevent it from arriving at a state of perfection suited to its nature and capabilities. Although they had considered the reanimation of the body to be within the limits of possibility, this opinion, originating no doubt in false conceptions or utter ignorance of the mode of existence to which man is destined, was sufficient to disincline them from thinking about the body as a part of the man at all, after it is laid in the tomb. It seems, however, to have been more generally imagined that it is impossible.

So fully, indeed, were many of them confirmed in this belief, that when the doctrine of the resurrection was first propounded in some parts of the heathen world, it was listened to with contempt and derision as a dogma unworthy of a moment's consideration. This was the case at Athens. When Paul "preached Jesus, and the resurrection" there, some who heard him considered him to be a mere babbler" who spoke about a thing of which they could form no conception; whilst others imagined that the avaσraσis— that is the resurrection-was some strange god"

whose claims upon their homage he was endeavouring to set forth. Such feelings and sentiments expressed respecting "this new doctrine" in that seat of learning and expressed, it is likely, by those who were acquainted with all that was known in the heathen world respecting another life-it is not too much to infer, that it formed no part of the popular belief; and that it was, in the estimation of the most enlightened, absolutely "incredible." This remarkable incident would almost lead us to imagine, that the matter had never been thought of by them; or at all events, that if it had come within the range of their contemplations, it was not for the purpose of forming any conjecture respecting its probability, but as a thing beset with such difficulties as to exclude any ray of hope about its taking place, even if it were desirable. It seemed to be so far remote from their apprehension, as to render it improbable in the highest degree, that it ever would have been discovered had it not been made known by a revelation from heaven.

It is readily admitted, that no one who possesses such a knowledge of the attributes of God as may be derived from the scriptures, will consider it " a thing incredible that God should raise the dead." But when the belief of his existence is not fully settled in the mind, and no means is enjoyed of acquiring a knowledge of his perfections but what the works of creation afford, it is not surprising that the doctrine of the resurrection should be unknown, and that men, in these circumstances, should be unable to bring it

forth to light. The correctness of this representation, I am aware, is questioned by some who seem to imagine, that one or two processes which come under our observation in the vegetable and animal kingdom, might, when the secrets of nature are more fully laid open by the investigations of scientific men, lead to the discovery of it. These processes, it will be generally acknowledged, bear but a very obscure and remote resemblance to the reanimation of a dead body after it has been completely decomposed, and its constituent parts incorporated with other animate and inanimate substances; and, it is not unworthy of remark, that they were not perceived to bear upon the subject at all till "life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel." When once the truth of the doctrine is fully established, they furnish very apt and striking illustrations of it; but no one ever could perceive in them anything to warrant the belief that the dead shall be raised, even if they might suggest the notion of such a thing to the mind. Although they are, perhaps, familiar to the reader, it may not be altogether useless to glance at them for a moment in this place.

The manner in which plants are derived from each other is one of them. We may not be able very minutely to trace the process, or to explain fully the way in which the plant springs up when certain external agencies are applied to the seed after it is cast into the ground; but enough comes under our cognizance to show, in the most satisfactory manner, that

the seed must die and be decomposed in order that the staminal particle may be disengaged, and nourish. ment afforded to it in the first stages of the process of vegetation. After the seed remains a considerable time in the earth, and is, in a great measure dissolved, the germ which survives its dissolution begins to appear, and the plant arrives at maturity when the organization in which it was incepted is utterly destroyed. The purpose which the Creator designed should be answered by its going to decay, is the development of a latent organization possessed of the form and other properties which belonged to the one that is dissolved. Now, whilst this case affords an exhibition sufficiently clear, of one body when it goes to corruption transmitting to another an organization similar to its own, and retaining all its qualities; it bears but a very imperfect analogy to the reanimation of a dead body after it has been completely decomposed.

But, perhaps, the changes or transformations which some species of insects undergo at different periods, exhibit a somewhat closer resemblance to it. Many families of them pass through different states during the brief period of their existence, and the mode of existence in each of these states is essentially different from the mode of existence in the others. The caterpillar-a well-known instance-affords an illustration of this remark. That animal, after it continues for a season in a vermicular form, retires in the autumn to a place of safety; and there it passes into a chry