corruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, (verses the forty-second and forty-fourth).

Through the preceding illustrative comparisons, which St. Paul had introduced, and the masterly application which he has made, we discover, so far as the scantiness of our ideas and the limitation of our capacities will afford, the important changes which await our bodies beyond the grave. The process of vegetation is still in view; and a state of dissolution seems to be that great alembic, through which our present bodies are to be refined, in order to that perfection which lies in a future state. To ask why these things are not more clearly revealed, is only to ask why God has not given to us those refined capacities, which are inapplicable to our condition; and which, if actually bestowed upon us, would make us no longer man. To comprehend, with minute exactness, the subject before us, and to form conceptions which are at once accurate and appropriate, may be reserved for us in that state, which will shortly be our portion, when mortality shall be swallowed up in life.

That our bodies are sown in corruption, is a fact so evident, that it requires no comment. And we may naturally conclude, from the expression of verse the forty-second, that the incorruption in which our bodies shall be raised, stands opposed to that corruption in which they are said to be sown

As therefore corruption implies decay, and a total separation of those parts which appear, when deposited in the earth; so we may naturally conceive, that incorruption implies an exemption from that dissolution and decay, which are inseparable from all compounded bodies in our present state of existence. And, as a separation of all the component parts of our bodies, implies either a previous tendency in the parts themselves, or a certain power in some external cause, which communicates its impulses to produce these effects; so we may naturally infer, either that this internal tendency shall be totally removed, or that the body which shall be raised, will be placed beyond the influence of that power through which a separation of the parts was wrought.

That the body shall be placed beyond the influence of those external causes, which now impel it, has been proved in section the sixth, of the sixth chapter. And, as our future bodies must be material, and as matter in itself can have no tendencies, when placed beyond the reach of all external causes either to motion or rest; no given particle, which shall then be placed in our bodies, 'shall ever remove from its station. And therefore the body, though composed of separable parts, shall be raised and preserved in a state of incorruption...

On these accounts we may easily conceive, how this body, which is sown in dishonour, shall be raised in glory; and why, though sown in weakness it shall be raised in power. Its state of incorruption

is a state of glory, to the bodies of the righteous; and perpetuity of life, implies vigour and power, which never can decay. A removal from the influence of all external causes, must place the particles, of which our bodies shall be composed, beyond the reach of all constraint; and even give to each of them the power to adhere for ever. Thus weakness shall be exchanged for power, and dishonour for glory; when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.

That there is a natural body, and that there is a spiritual body, we are expressly told in verse the forty-fourth; but in what they shall specifically differ from each other, it is difficult to know. Of a spiritual body, in its strictest sense, we can certainly form no accurate, no consistent idea. The two words seem inapplicable to each other, and naturally introduce confusion into our thoughts; I am therefore inclined to imagine, that the expression is not to be taken in an absolute, but only in a comparative sense.

That matter can never become spirit, any more than spirit can become matter, will admit of no question; because according to those notions which we have of these substances, essences can never be exchanged with each other, any more than identity can be supposed to be transferred from one substance to another. A removal of the essence must be a destruction of the being; and a destruction of the being must inevitably prevent an exchange of nature. In fine, to suppose that matter can become

spirit, or that spirit can become matter, its original nature still remaining, is an evident contradiction, and therefore never can be admitted.

But, though the supposition that matter can become spirit, and that spirit can become matter, involves an evident contradiction; it is not to be presumed, that we have any real knowledge of the internal essence of either. Many latent qualities may be concealed in both substances, which may unfold themselves in eternity, and point out an approximation to each other, in their sensible qualities, of which And perat present we can have no conception. haps through those latent qualities, which have hitherto eluded the researches of philosophy, their nominal affinity may be so great, as to leave no distant qualities for finite discrimination.

Whether the nominal essences of substances can be so far changed, as to have no specific quality, through which we shall be able to distinguish the distinct identity of these substances, is a question It which we feel ourselves incompetent to decide. is, however, not improbable, that something analogous thereto will be the case. For, since we sow not that body which shall be, the change must be amazingly great; not only in the modification of its being, but also in its component parts. And therefore, when the resurrection of the body shall take place, all the known properties of matter may retire from our future perceptions, which without doubt, will be considerably changed, and become as invi

sible and unknown, as those latent properties now are, which are included in both matter and spirit.

The changes, which our organs and powers of perception must undergo, will without doubt considerably contribute towards the concealment of those sensible qualities, which, I have presumed, will undergo a change. If then our modes of perception shall be changed; if our bodily organs shall be changed; if our bodies themselves shall be changed, as well as all external objects, who can say what effects may not be produced? Sensible qualities, without all doubt, will vary; and a variation of sensible qualities in matter, in its approaches towards perfection, must increase its affinity towards spirit, and conduet it to those exalted regions, in which our contemplations are lost.

But, notwithstanding those important changes which our bodies shall undergo; they will without doubt be chiefly confined to those sensible qualities through which the identity of matter is at present known. Amidst these changes of our bodies, the real essence must be preserved entire; because our bodies will remain the same. The qualities may be changed, through the causes which have been mentioned, without affecting the essence of matter, whatever it may be; its refinement may render it so subtle, that to touch it will be difficult, and it may, though material, approximate to spirit.

The germ of future life, which we have already considered, dilated in all its parts, and diffused through those spaces which now bound the extremities of our corporeal being, may contain all the