concurrent suffrages of the best philosophers, that the most genuine and perfect state of the human soul, which in its own nature is immortal, is to continue for ever, not without, but with a body; and yet our high-flown enthusiasts generally (however calling themselves Christians), are such great spiritualists, and so much for the inward resurrection, (which we deny not to be a Scripture notion also; as in that of St. Paul, *"If ye be risen with Christ," &c. And again, "If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead,") as that they quite allegorize away, together with the other parts of Christianity, the outward resurrection of the body; and, indeed, will scarcely acknowledge any future immortality, or life to come, after death, their spirituality thus ending in Sadducism and infidelity, if not at length in downright Atheism and sensuality.

But, besides this, there is yet a further correspondence of Christianity with the forementioned philosophic cabala, in that the former also supposes the highest perfection of our human souls, not to consist in being eternally conjoined with such gross bodies as these we now have, unchanged and unaltered for as the Pythagoreans and Platonists have always complained of these terrestrial bodies, as prisous, or living sepulchres of the soul; so does Christianity seem to run much upon the same strain, in these Scripture expressions: "In this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:" and again, "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be un

clothed (that is, stripped quite naked of all body), but so clothed upon, that mortality might be swal lowed up of life:" and, lastly, a.“ Ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (sonship or inheritance), namely, the redemption of our bodies;" that is, the freedom of them from all those. evils and maladies of theirs, which we here lie oppressed under. Wherefore we cannot think, that the same heavy load and luggage, which the souls of good men, being here burdened with, do so much groan to be delivered from, shall, at the general resurrection, be laid upon them again, and bound fast to them, to all eternity: for, of such a resurrection as this, Plotinus (though perhaps mistaking it for the true Christian resurrection), might have some cause to affirm, that it would be but avάoraois eis ädλov úπvov, a resurrection to another sleep ;the soul seeming not to be thoroughly awake here, but, as it were, soporated with the dull steams and opiatic vapours of this gross body. For thus the author of the Book of Wisdom, "The corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind, that museth upon many things." But the same will further appear, from that account, which the Scripture itself giveth us of the resurrection: and first, in general, when St. Paul, answering that query of the philosophic infidel, "How are the dead raised, or with what body do they come?" replieth in this manner, Thou fool (that is, thou who thinkest to puzzle or baffle the Christian article of the resurrection, which thou understandest not), that which thou sowest is not quickened (to the production of any b Chap. ix. 15.

a Rom. viii. 23.

thing), except it first die to what it was." And "thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain,” as of wheat, or of barley, or the like; but God (in the ordinary course of nature), giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him (that is, a stalk, and an ear, having many grains with husks in it, and therefore neither in quantity nor quality the same with that, which was sowed under ground), nor does he give to all seeds one and the same kind of body neither, but to every seed its own correspondent body; as to wheat one kind of ear, and to barley another. As if he should have said: Know that this present body of ours is to be looked upon but as a kind of seed of the resurrection-body, which therefore is accordingly in some sense the same, and in some sense not the same with it. Besides which general account, the particular oppositions, which the Scripture makes betwixt the present and future body, seem very agreeable to those of the philosophic cabala: for, first, the present body is said a tỏ besowed "in corruption," but the future "raised in incorruption." For the children of the resurrection cannot die any more. And then "mortality shall be swallowed up of life." Wherefore the Christian resurrection-body, as well as that of the philosophic cabala, is owμa álávarov, and aidov too, (2 Cor. v. 1.) an immortal and eternal body. Again, the body sowed is said to be a dishonourable, ignominious, and inglorious body; and therefore called also by St. Paul, τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν, the body of our humility, or humiliation;-a body agreeable to this lapsed state of the soul, but the body, which

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shall be raised, shall be a glorious body; and ovμμορφον τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ, “ conformable to that glorious body of Christ;" who, when but externally transfigured, his face "did shine as the sun," and his "raiment was white as the light." The glory of a body consisteth only in the comeliness of its proportion, and the splendour thereof: thus is there" one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars;" that is, a different splendour of them. Wherefore the future body of the righteous, according to the Scripture also, as well as the philosophic cabala, will be owμa pwτELνὸν, and σῶμα αὐγοειδές, and σώμα ἀστροειδές, a glorious, splendid, luciform, and star-like body:-(Wisdom iii. 7.) ἐν καιρῷ ἐπισκοπῆς αὐτῶν ἐκλάμψουσι, “ The righteous, in the time of their visitation, shall shine forth."―(Dan. xii. 2, 3.) "They, that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they, that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." And (Matt. xiii. 43.) "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And therefore probably this future glorious resurrection-body is that "inheritance of the saints in light," which the Scripture speaks of, Col. i. 12. Moreover, there is another difference betwixt this present and that future body of the righteous, wherein St. Paul and Hierocles do well agree; the first being called by both of them σώμα ψυχικόν, “ an animal body the second σώμα TYEVμatikov, “a spiritual body."-Which latter exπνευματικὸν, "a pression, in Scripture, not only denotes the subtilty and tenuity thereof; but also as this present body is called an "animal body," because it is suit

c Comment. in aurea Pythag. carmina, p. 214. edit. Needhami.

able and agreeable to that animal life, which men have common with brutes, so is that future called spiritual, as bearing a fit proportion and correspondency to souls renewed in the spirit of their mind, or in whom the Divine Spirit dwelleth and acteth, exercising its dominion. "There is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body." And, "the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit." And thus are yuxuoi, in the Scripture, taken for oi Tveva un éxOUTES, “they who have not the Spirit." And "uxuôs avopuπos où déxεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ, “the animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." Which Spirit is also said, in Scripture, to be the earnest of that our future inheritance, (Eph. i. 14.) and the earnest of this spiritual and heavenly body, (2 Cor. v. 5.) It is also said to be that, by which (efficiently) these mortal bodies shall be quickened. (Rom. viii. 11.) "If the Spirit of him, that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he, that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you." Neither doth Hierocles fall much short of this Scripture notion of a spiritual body, when he describes it to be that δ τῇ νοερᾷ τελειότητι τῆς ψυχῆς συνάπ- P. 297. Terat, which is agreeable to the intellectu- [p. 217. edit. Needhami.] al perfection of the soul.-This spiritual body is that, which the ancient Hebrews called

eagle's wings-we reading thus in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin, (c. 11. fol. 92. col. 2.)

אם תאמר אותן שנים שעמיר תקבת לחרש בהן את תעולם צריקים מה הן עושן תקכה עישה להן כנפים כנשטין על פני המים

If you ask, What shall become of the righteous, when God shall renew the world? the answer is,

a 1 Cor. xv. 45.

b1 Cor. ii. 14.