Reflections on the Principles & Evidences of Christianity.

LETTER VIII

Christ's Resurrection to an Invisible State, compared with Natural Appearances: with additional Evidence.

It cannot be denied, that the two opposite states in which Jesus is represented to have alternately existed, in the period between his resurrection and ascension, are not very consistent with prevailing opinions respecting matter and spirit, at the present day. According to this representation, the body and spirit of a man are inseparably connected, intimately sympathising in the changes to which they are respectively subjected, and even, agreeably to the received ideas of their respective properties, being transmutable into each other. On the contrary, according to some metaphysical reasonings, body and spirit have no properties in common, and no mutual sympathy with respect to their fates and transitions; and many, with the evangelical narratives in their hands, have as little idea of the possibility of the transition of corporeity to spirituality, and vice versa, as those who witnessed the phenomena we have been describing.

The most direct answer that can be made to objections of this nature, is, that facts well supported by evidence, must be far more decisive in the establishment of truth, especially in its application to questions of so much subtilty, than abstruse ratiocinations, in which our gross faculties are ever prone to be bewildered and lost. The future state being altogether withdrawn from our senses, from whence all our present ideas are derived, is also, in a great degree, elevated above our most refined conceptions. Revelation is graciously afforded to aid the operations of the understanding, and correct its aberrations, in relation to this difficult but all-interesting subject. It is pleasing, however, to observe, that the most palpable facts presented to our ordinary observation, and the most ac curate researches of anatomists and philosophers, appear to concur in exhibiting such views of the intimate connection between the mind of man, and his corporeal structure, as seem sufficiently to accord with the above representation. It is to the curious organization of his senses and nervous system, that man is indebted for all those impressions, by which he becomes acquainted with the external world; and it may, at least, be shrewdly questioned,

whether, without any knowledge of the external world, there could be any internal world to contemplate? whether, if knowledge, from every apparent entrance, were totally shut out, it could have any existence, or mind any reality whatever? Surely, without sensation, we must be as senseless as the inanimate clod on which we tread. But does not this dependence of mind upon the organs of sense, and the frame of nature surrounding them, plainly show the intimate and inseparable connec tion between matter and mind? if we may not go further and assert, that matter is transmutable into mind.

Perhaps the present state of philosophy may conduct us one additional step in this difficult investigation. It enables us to show, that the gross observations of our senses often completely deceive us. What is more generally believed, than the existence of contact? And yet, in all the ordinary instances in which it is supposed to exist, the effect which is so termed, can be proved to be the result of repulsion between bodies which are not actually contiguous. The particles of the hardest metal do not touch each other, for they can be brought nearer by lowering their temperature, or withdrawing a portion of their latent caloric. Thus, what is termed contact, appears to be only a principle of resistance; which resistance, even in the ordinary course of nature, can be increased or diminished to an indefinite extent. The most solid substances can be transmuted into the lightest air, if not into the subtlest ether, and that again re-transmuted into the firmest solid. Again, the electric fluid, that most subtle and active species of matter, if such it can be termed, the existence of which can, in many cases, only be discovered by its wonderful effects, pervades universal nature, but is peculiarly active upon the nervous system, so as to be intimately connected with sensation and voluntary motion. If operations, so far from the cognizance of our senses, can be continually carrying forward in the course of nature, what still more subtle and refined effects may not be produced by its Almighty Author? Why may not the whole organization of man, and all its operations, be withdrawn from the sphere of the present system of nature, so as to be liable to none of its decomposing influences, and subject to no dissolution or decay? And again, for the purpose of making known to his "brethren" of this life, the glorious change which he had undergone, why

might not the Lord of human salvation, be enabled to return back to the ordinary state of humanity, in such a manner as to afford indubitable evidence that he had been in a very different state a state, however, in which he retained his essential sameness, and was intimately ac quainted with all their proceedings, and deeply interested in them? Were not they, and are not all mankind through their attestation, in the highest degree, concerned to know the reality of a change which awaits all his genuine disciples; and at some period, with variations, perhaps, proportioned to their moral deserts and demerits, the whole human race?

From the day of the resurrection of Jesus, to that of his ascension, including the latter, four manifestations of his person are distinctly recorded, each of which appears to have been attended with its peculiar advantages, for evincing that his entire person was both restored to life, and translated to a celestial immortality. It will be recollected, that the incredulity of the Apostle Thomas furnished the occasion for the re-appearance of his Master, after the very same manner as on the former occasion, and to his affording him those additional proofs which he had required. The superior calmness with which this second appearance from invisibility would be contemplated, together with the new proofs of the corporeity and identity of Jesus, and the knowledge he manifested of their intercourses when withdrawn from their observation, during an interval of eight days, were all admirably adapted to establish his existence in both states, and that when invisible, he remained essentially the same person. There are few subjects, perhaps, attended with greater difficulty, or which have given rise to more perplexity and diversity of sentiment, than that of the preservation of personal identity amid the great changes which we must necessarily undergo, in passing from the present to the future existence. Now, the repeated alternations of the man Jesus from one of these states to the other, and vice versa, with the proofs he gave of mental sameness, and of great activity in presenting himself when and wherever his visible presence seemed requisite, are practical illustrations of the subject. Let us place ourselves in the situation of the disciples. We experience, that, from the period of his resurrection, he was ordinarily withdrawn from observation; we have every reason to conclude, that he then became invisible, since he eluded the observation of persons whose

office it was to keep the body in custody, but from whom he was released by the appearance of a glorious and powerful personage, from invisibility. By this transfer of the body or person of Jesus into an invisible state, his predicted resurrection is accomplished; the same man is no longer an inanimate corpse, but is translated to a vivified spirit, probably of a kindred nature to that of the celestial messenger who underwent the opposite change on the occasion. That he is the same person, is verified by his repeated returns back to the ordinary state of a living man, exhibiting precisely the same bodily parts and functions, and the same mind and character, as previous to his decease. The apparent opposition of ideas between an invisible nature, and a solid tangible body, rendering it difficult to be conceived, that they can be alternated in the same individual, he embraces repeated opportunities of presenting it under circumstances under which it is impossible there could be any deception, when there could have been no ingress of solid bodies into the room where the witnesses are assembled, and what deserves particular remark, when their minds are in states the very opposite of anticipating the objects which were presented to their view. Invisible as he is, he is prompt to know and to be present at all proceedings of his disciples; he watches. their every movement, their every state and change of mind! Of the sameness of his own mind and character, both when visibly present and when invisible, he affords irrefragable evidence. He discourses with them on the most interesting topics, relating to his past intercourses with them; and his language and actions have often a reference to what passed when they were apparently by themselves, and in conversation respecting him. In short, they appear to receive every evidence that mortals are capable of receiving, that their Lord was essentially the same, whether visible or invisible, corporeal or apparently incorporeal; or rather that, in his invisible state, his nature being elevated to superior vitality and corresponding activity, they were more thoroughly known, regarded, and protected by him at all times and places, with the same or even a purer ardour of affection, than while he constantly sojourned on earth, with the imperfections necessarily appertaining to this animal existence.

At the "third" manifestation of Jesus to his disciples on the lake of Tiberias, he partook with them of food of his own providing, the production of which in such abund

ance, after they had been toiling all night unsuccessfully in search of it, would appear to proceed from a like state of invisibility as that in which he ordinarily existed; while his conversation brought to their recollection, some of the more interesting scenes of his past intercourses with them, and taught them to look forward to their great undertaking as his Apostles.

The appointed meeting in a mountain of Galilee, his native country, and the principal scene of his ministerial labours, but not of their cruel termination, would draw together an assemblage who most intimately knew, and were least prevented by aversion or fear from entering into a calm interview with him. Being by particular appointment, it would afford opportunities for preparation in order to the removing of any remaining difficulties respecting his corporeity, identity, and the great change he had undergone. This probably was the occasion on which more than five hundred persons were present, who were eventually enlisted among the number of his converts.

He lastly met his Apostles at Jerusalem, the scene of their subsequent labours, and after assuring them of the speedy fulfilment of his promise, that they should be aided by a supernatural mental influence in the discharge of their new and great undertaking, he was gradually withdrawn from their view by a glorious ascent to the visible heavens. There appears no solid reason to conclude that in this instance, any more than in the foregoing instances, he was withdrawn from opportunities of knowing what is passing upon our globe, and from what relates to the concerns of his disciples. Heaven is, in all probability, "not a place but a state of existence,"* and, as the Supreme Being is universally and most intimately present with all his works, though, in accommodation to our ordinary habits of thinking, he is occasionally represented as seated on a throne in the heavens, so there appears good reason to believe, that Jesus, in common with other celestial spirits, his associates in blessedness, has a much wider field of knowledge and action in the system of nature, than ourselves. And his last disappearance from his disciples, was probably intended to afford them a deliberate opportunity of witnessing his transition into that invisible and celestial state, in which, though he is withdrawn from the view of his brethren of mortality, he is, nevertheless, intimately acquainted with their proceedings. HOмO.

* See Mr. Belsham's valuable discourse on the Ascension of Christ.'