fubftance, thus fwallow'd up and changed by one of the most fretting and PHYSICS. destroying substances known in the world, fhould not only retain the effential qualities of its nature, but be restorable to its obvious and fenfible ones in a minute, and that by fo unpromifing a medium, as common water, will appear by pouring the folution into a large proportion of that fluid, to whofe upper part there will immediately rife white, brittle, ftrong-fcented, and inflammable camphire, as it was before. 'Tis here a principal confideration, that all bodies being but parcels of the univerfal matter mechanically different, they may fucceffively put on forms, in a way of circulation, till they return to their original form, whence they first begun; by having only their mechanical properties alter'd. That all bodies agree in one common matter, the schools themselves allow; making what they call the Materia prima to be the common basis of them all; and their fpecific differences to fpring from their particular forms: and fince the true notion of body confifts either alone in its extenfion, or in that and impenetrability together, it will follow, that the differences which make the varieties of bodies we fee, must not proceed from the nature of mere matter, of which we have but one uniform conception; but from certain attributes, fuch as motion, fize, pofition, &c. that we call mechanical affections. Hence a determinate proportion of matter being given, if we suppose that an intelligent and otherwife duly qualify'd agent were to watch this portion of matter in its whole progrefs thro' the various forms it is made to put on, till it come to the end of its course or series of changes; and that this intelligent agent should lay hold of this portion of matter, cloth'd in its ultimate form; and, extricating it from any other parcels of matter wherewith it may be mix'd, make it exchange its laft mechanical properties for those which it had when this agent firft began to watch it in fuch a cafe, I fay, this portion of matter, how many changes and disguizes foever it may have undergone in the mean time, will return to be what it was; and if it were before part of another body to be reproduced, it will become capable of having the fame relation to it, that formerly it had. Thus, fuppofe a man to cut a large sphere of foft wax into two equal parts, and of the one to make cones, cylinders, rings, fcrews, &c. and kneading the other with pafte, make an appearance of cakes, vermicelli, wafers, biskets, &c. 'tis plain, that one may, by diffolution, and other ways, feparate the wax from the paste, and reduce it in a mould to the fame hemisphere of wax it was before; and fo we may destroy all that made the other part of the wax pafs for cones, cylinders, rings, &c. and reduce it in a mould to one diftinct hemifphere, fit to be re-conjoin'd to the other; and fo to recompofe fuch a sphere of wax, as they conftituted before the feparation was made. And to view precipitate, carefully prepared per fe, one would think that art had here made a body extremely different from common mercury; this being confiftent, like a powder, very red in colour, and purgative, and for the moit part vomitive in operation, tho' given but in the quantity of four or five grains: yet if you but urge this powder with Hh 2 a due PHYSICS. a due heat; by putting the component particles into a new and fit motion, you may re-unite them together, fo as to re-produce the fame running mercury you had before the precipitate per fe was made of it. 4thly, But the chriftian doctrine doth not afcribe the refurrection to nature, or any created agent, but to the peculiar and immediate operation of God; who has declared, that he will raise the dead. Wherefore, when I mention chymical ways of recovering bodies from their various difguizes, I am far from defiring, that fuch ways fhould be thought the only ones, or the best that can poffibly be employ'd to such an end. For, as the generality of men, without excepting philofophers themselves, would not have believed or thought, that by eafy chymical ways, bodies, which are reputed to have pafs'd into quite another nature, should be reduced or reftored to their former condition; fo, till chymiftry, and other parts of natural philosophy, be more thoroughly understood, and farther promoted, 'tis probable, that we can scarce now imagine, what expedients to re-produce bodies, a further discovery of the myfteries of art and nature may lead us to. And much lefs can our flender knowledge determine, what means, even of phyfical ones, the moft wife author of nature is able to employ, to bring the refurrection to pafs; fince 'tis a part of the imperfection of inferior natures, to have but an imperfect apprehenfion of the powers of one that is incomparably fuperior to them. And even among ourselves, a child, who is endow'd with a reasonable foul, cannot conceive how a geometrician should measure inacceffible heights and distances; much lefs, how a cofmographer can determine the whole compafs of the earth and fea; or an aftronomer fhew how far 'tis from hence to the moon; and tell many years before-hand, what day and hour, and to what degree, fhe will be eclipfed. And, indeed, in the Indies, not only children, but rational men, could not perceive how 'twas poffible for the Europeans to converse with one another, by the help of a piece of paper, at a hundred miles diftance; and in a moment produce thunder and lightning, and kill men a great way off, as they faw done by guns; and much lefs, how they fhould foretel an eclipfe of the moon, as Columbus did, to his great advantage: which things made the Indians, even the chiefeft of them, look upon the Spaniards as perfons of more than human nature. Now, among those who have a true notion of a Deity, a Being both omnipotent and omniscient, that he can do all, and more than all, that is poffible to be perform'd by any way of difpofing of matter and motion, is a truth that will be readily acknowledg'd; fince he was able at first to produce the world, and contrive fome part of the univerfal matter of it, into the bodies of the firft man and woman. And that his power extends to the reunion of a foul and body, which have been separated by death, we may learn from the experiments God has been pleased to give of it, both in the old teftament and the new; efpecially in the raifing Lazarus and Christ again to life of the latter of which, particularly, we have proofs ftrong enough to fatisfy any unprejudiced perfon, who defires but competent arguments to convince him. Since then a human body is not fo confined to a determinate bulk, but PHYSICS. that the fame foul being united to a portion of duly-organiz'd matter, is faid to constitute the fame man, notwithstanding the vaft differences of bignefs that there may be, at feveral times, between the portions of matter whereto the human foul is united: fince a confiderable part of the human body consists of bones, which are bodies of a very determinate nature, and not apt to be deftroy'd by the operation either of earth or fire: fince of the less stable, and especially the fluid parts of a human body, there is a far greater expence made, by infenfible tranfpiration, than even philofophers would imagine: fince the small particles of a refolved body may retain their own nature, under various alterations and difguizes, of which 'tis poffible they may be afterwards ftript: fince, without making a human. body cease to be the fame, it may be repair'd and augmented by the adaptation of fitly-difpofed matter to that which pre-exifted in it: fince these things are fo, why fhould it be impoffible, that a most intelligent agent, whofe omnipotence extends to all that is not truly contradictory to the nature of things, or to his own, fhould be able fo to order and watch the particles of a human body, that of thofe remaining in the bones, of those that plentifully fly away by infenfible tranfpiration, and of thofe that are otherwife difpofed of upon their refolution, a competent number may be preferved or retrieved; so that stripping them of their disguizes, or extricating them from other parts of matter, to which they may happen to be conjoin'd, he may re-unite them betwixt themfelves, and, if need be, with particles of matter fit to be intervoven with them; and thereby reftore or reproduce a body, which being united with the former foul, may, in a sense agreeable to the expreffions of fcripture, re-compose the fame man, whose foul and body were formerly disjoin'd by death. 5thly, Hitherto we have taken the doctrine of the refurrection in a more ftrict and literal fenfe, because I would fhew, that even according to that, the difficulties of anfwering what is mention'd againft the poffibility of it, are not infuperable; tho' it would much facilitate the defence and explanation of so abftrufe a thing, to allow, that as the human foul is the form of man, fo that whatever duly-organiz'd portion of matter is thereto united, it therewith conftitutes the fame man; the import of the refurrection is fulfill'd in this, that after death there fhall be another ftate, wherein the foul fhall no longer perfevere in its feparate condition, but be again united, not to an ethereal, or the like fluid matter, but to such a substance, as may, with tolerable propriety of speech, be call'd a human body. They who affent to this account of the poffibility of the refurrection of the fame bodies, will, I prefume, be much more eafily induced to admit the poffibility of the qualifications the chriftian religion afcribes to the glorified bodies of the raised faints. For, fuppofing the truth of the fcripture, we may observe, that the power of God has already extended itself to the performance of fuch things, as import as much as we need infer; fometimes by fufpending the natural actions of bodies upon one another, and fometimes by endowing human and other bodies with preternatural qua lities. PHYSICS. lities. And indeed lightness, or rather agility, indifference to gravity and levity, incorruption, tranfparency, opacity, figure, colour, &c. being but mechanical affections of matter; it cannot feem incredible, that the most free and powerful author of thofe laws of nature, according to which, all the phenomena of qualities are regulated, may, as he thinks fit, introduce, establish, or change them, in any affign'd portion of matter, and confequently in that whereof a human body confifts. Thus tho' iron be a body above eight times fpecifically heavier than water; yet in the cafe of Elifba's helve, its native gravity was render'd ineffectual, and it afcended from the bottom to the top of the water: and the gravitation of St. Peter's body was fufpended, whilft his mafter enabled him to walk on the fea. Thus the operation of the most active body in nature, flame, was fufpended in Nebuchadnezar's fiery furnace, whilft Daniel's three companions walk'd unhurt therein. And thus the body of our Saviour, after his refurrection, tho' it retain'd the very impreffions that the nails of the cross had made in his hands and feet, and the wound of the fpear in his fide, as the hiftory of the gofpel affures us; was endow'd with far nobler qualities, than before its death... And, as the apoftle tells us, that this great change of schematifm in the faints bodies will be effected by the irrefiftible power of Chrift; we fhall not fcruple to allow of fuch an effect from fuch an agent, if we confider how much the bare flight mechanical alteration of the texture of a body, may change its fenfible qualities for the better. Thus, without any vifible addition, I have feveral times changed dark and opake lead, into finely-colour'd tranfparent glass, of a Jefs fpecific gravity; and thick fetid fmoke, into a bright and fcentless flame. THE Christian Virtuofo. T HE Propofition I fhall here endeavour to establish, is, that a Experimental man may be a virtuofo, or experimental philofopher, without philofopby forfeiting his christianity. leads to reli gion, in gene And firft, 'tis certain, that a due courfe of experimental phi-ral, lofophy greatly conduces to fettle in the mind a firm perfuafion of the exiftence, and several of the chief attributes of God; which persuasion is, in the order of things, the first principle of that natural religion we allow as the very foundation of reveal'd religion in general. That the confideration of the vastnefs, beauty, and regular motions of By discovering the heavenly bodies, the excellent ftructure of animals and plants, befides the exiftence of a multitude of other phenomena of nature, and the fubferviency of moft God. of these to man, may juftly induce him, as a rational creature, to conclude, this vaft, beautiful, orderly, and admirable fyftem of things, which we call the world, was framed by an author fupremely powerful, wife, and good, can fcarce be deny'd by an intelligent and unprejudiced perfon. And this is strongly confirm'd by experience, which witneffeth, that in almoft all ages and countries the generality of philofophers and contemplative men were perfuaded of the existence of a Deity, from the confideration of the phenomena of the univerfe; whofe fabric, and conduct, they rationally concluded; could not be juftly afcribed either to chance, or to any other cause than a divine Being. But tho' God hath manifefted himself, even to fuch as confider things but fuperficially, by ftamping upon feveral of the more obvious parts of his works fuch confpicuous impreffions of his attributes, that a moderate degree of understanding and attention may fuffice to make men acknowledge his being; yet this affent is greatly inferior to the belief which the fame objects are fitted to produce in him, who with care and skill confiders them. For, the works of God are fo worthy of their author, that, befides the impreffes of his wifdom and goodnefs, left, as it were, upon their furfaces; there are a great many more curious and excellent tokens, and effects of divine artifice, in the hidden and innermoft receffes of them: and these are not to be difcover'd by the flight glances of the lazy, |