48 MIND. 



able. The heathen doctrine was grounded on the supposed in- 

 herent immortality of a supposed substance distinct from the body. 

 The Christian doctrine teaches the resurrection of what we obvi- 

 ously are bodies, and that through a miracle of the Almighty. d 



d Respecting a difficulty which may present itself to the conceptions of some 

 Christians, but which the miraculousness of a future existence, I think, should re- 

 move, I may quote Paley's sermon on the state after death. He concludes, 



" That it is a question by which we need not be at all disturbed, whether the 

 bodies with which we shall arise be new bodies, or the same bodies under a new 

 form: 



" For no alteration will hinder us from remaining the same, provided we are 

 sensible, and conscious that we are so ; any more than the changes which our visible 

 person undergoes even in this life, and which from infancy to manhood are un- 

 doubtedly very great, hinder us from being the same, to ourselves and in ourselves, 

 and to all intents and purposes whatsoever." Sermons on several Subjects, by the 

 late Rev. W. Paley, D.D. serm. 2. p. 96. These are a small system of divinity, 

 and, having been bequeathed by him to his parishioners, probably contain his 

 mature convictions. 



