"arose from their graves," which had been thrown open by the earthquake at his crucifixion, “and went unto "the holy city, and appeared unto many;" (v) thus attesting the truth of his resurrection, and declaring their own rescue from the grave (in which some of them had long lain), by virtue of his power over death and corruption. So that to deny the possibility of the resurrection is to deny the truth of several matters of fact, all at least as well attested as any other facts in history; and that in contradiction to some very obvious modes of reasoning, and some striking analogies.

For, in the first place, the restoring to life a body deprived of motion, animation, and sensation, is not beyond the power of God: since the communication of any qualities to an organized body, or body capable of organization, which it had lost, cannot be imagined to require a greater exertion of power than the original creation of such body with certain appropriate attributes. Indeed, cases occur almost daily in which human efforts lead to a change to all appearance (and it should be remembered that we know little of death, except in regard to its mere appearances) as great as the deliverance of a dead man from the silence and inactivity of the grave. I allude to fainting-fits, and instances of suspended animation by drowning. In these the subject is often for a considerable time so completely void of motion, feeling, and, as it would seem, of life, that no one, who had never previously witnessed or heard of a similar suspension, could avoid concluding that it would be final and eternal. There (v) Matt. xxvii. 52, 53.

is, it is true, a difference in the durations of lifelessness in the cases of swooning and apparent drowning, and of real death; but that is more than compensated in the difference of power and skill in the respective agents of restoration.

Nearly allied to these are the examples of peculiar transformations undergone by various insects, and the state of rest and insensibility which precede those transformations: such as the chrysalis or aurelia state of butterflies, moths, and silk-worms. The Myrmeleon formicaleo, of whose larva and its extraordinary history Reaumur and Roësel have given accurate descriptions, continues in its insensible or chrysalis state about four weeks. The Libellula or Dragon-fly continues still longer in its state of inaction. Naturalists tell us that the worm repairs to the margin of its pond in quest of a convenient place of abode during its insensible state. It attaches itself to a plant or a piece of dry wood: and the skin, which gradually becomes parched and brittle, at last splits opposite to the upper part of the thorax. Through this aperture the insect, now become winged, quickly pushes its way, and being thus extricated from confinement begins to expand its wings, to flutter, and finally to launch into the air with that gracefulness and ease which are peculiar to this majestic tribe. Now who, that saw for the first time the little pendant coffin in which the inanimate insect lay entombed, and was ignorant of the transformations of which we are now speaking, would ever predict that in a few weeks, perhaps a few days or hours, it would become one of

the most elegant and active of winged insects? And who, that contemplates with the mind of a philosopher this curious transformation, and who knows that two years before the insect mounts into air, even while it is living in water, it has the rudiments of wings, can deny that the body of a dead man may at some future period be again invested with vigour and activity, and soar to regions for which some latent organization may peculiarly fit it?

But I may be reminded, that the analogy, to which I have been calling your attention, is not complete, insomuch as dead bodies sink from their organized state into corruption, while chrysales are merely inactive or at most insensible. Let us then advance this step, and we shall find a parallel case in the process of vegetation. "That which thou sowest (says the apostle to "the Corinthians) is not quickened except it die." (w) Seed may be sown, but unless it lose its external configuration, and appear corrupted, no future vegetable will spring from it. The little infinitesimal or germen, which is to spring forth into new life, is fed by the death and corruption of the rest: a fact well known not only to scientific botanists, but to almost every gardener and husbandman you can consult. So that those who deny the propriety and correctness of the analogy traced by the apostle, are as little supported by truth and nature as the Corinthian free-thinkers, whose objection he thus philosophically refuted. The apparent corruption which a grain, when deposited in the earth, undergoes, may be considered as the casting (z) 1 Cor. xv. 37.

of exuviæ, whose removal and decay are necessary to the dawnings of latent life: and thus, in like manner, may the future body be ripening through the mysterious process of dissolution, till the day of the general resurrection, when it shall come forth a glorious body, fitted for new union with the soul from which it had been separated, and so formed as thenceforward to endure for ever. The principal difference in the two cases relates to frequency of occurrence: the process of vegetation from a corrupted grain is observed annually; while the deliverance of a body from corruption in the grave will occur but once. Yet this ought rather to stimulate our hopes than to generate scepticism: the contrast between the sterility and death-like appearance of the vegetable world in the winter, and the gladsome verdure, vigour, and variety of spring, when God "renews the face of the earth," (x) and enlivens us with balmy air and cheerful skies; is admirably fitted to teach us what the Creator and Governor of the universe can effect; to convince us that he can ❝ loosen "the bands of death" as easily as he can educe vegetation from corruption; and, in conjunction with the promises of the Gospel, to excite a lively and rapturous anticipation of that delightful period, when "one un"bounded spring" shall " encircle all.”

Objectors, however, have advanced still farther, and urge that after death the body may not merely become insensible, inactive, and undergo corruption; but may experience dispersion of particles, and union with other bodies. Thus the body of a dead man may be burnt, (z) Psalm, civ. 30.

(as were those of some primitive martyrs by their enemies in derision of the resurrection), its ashes be scattered in the air, blown about by the wind, or exhaled into the atmosphere: or, after it is resolved into earthy or humid matter, it may be taken up by the vessels which supply plants with nutriment, and at length become constituent parts of the substance of those plants. How can particles thus dispersed half over the earth, or thus intimately combined with other bodies, be recalled from their state of dispersion, or separated from the bodies of which they have subsequently formed constituent parts, and re-united so as to form one body? Here again, we may deprive the objection of all force, by contemplating processes of daily occurrence. Chemists can intermix several liquids, of essentially different kinds, in such manner, that the smallest sensible particle of the resulting liquids shall partake of all the constituent liquids; and then they can by analysis separate this compound substance into all the simple liquids of which it was composed. They can detect, separate, and measure, the several simple substances, of which a certain compound natural mass shall be formed. They can, for example, detect and measure the chromic acid, oxide of iron, alumina, and silica, in a given mass of that natural substance chromium ferri; the respective quantities of acidulous water, thick brown oil, thin empyreumatic oil, charcoal and gases, in any proposed portion of guaiacum; or the relative masses and relative weights of the azotic gas, oxygenous gas, aqueous vapour, and carbonic acid gas, in any given volume of atmospheric air and all this, be it recollected, by means