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With regard to the resurrection of the body, Tertullian insists on the power of God to rebuild the tabernacle of the flesh, in whatever manner it may be dissolved. "If we even suppose,' says he, "that it is annihilated, He who created all things out of nothing can surely raise the dead body again from nothing. Nor is there any absurdity in supposing that the members of the human body, which may have been destroyed by fire, or devoured by birds or beasts, will nevertheless, at the last day, be re-united. Such a supposition, on the contrary, is countenanced by Scripture." But he further contends that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is rendered credible by innumerable instances of a resurrection in the natural world; and, among other illustrations of this, the case of the phoenix is adduced, of which the early fathers appear to have been enamoured. Having established the power of God to raise the dead body, Tertullian next enquires whether any reasons exist which should induce him to exert that power; on which he observes, that as he intends to judge mankind, and to reward or punish them according to their conduct in this life, it is evident that the ends of justice will not be attained, unless men rise again with the same bodies which they had when living. The body co-operated with the soul in this world; it carried into effect the good or evil designs which the soul conceived: it ought, therefore, to be associated with the soul in its future happiness or misery. He contends, further, that the very term resurrection implies a resurrection of the body; for that alone can be raised which has fallen; and it is the body, not the soul, which falls by the stroke of death :-man dieth not with reference to his soul, which is immortal, but his body.

It was demanded, by the heretics whom Tertullian opposed, "if the body is to be raised, is it to be raised with all the infirmities and defects under which it laboured on earth? Are the blind, the lame, the deformed, those especially who were so from their birth, to appear with the same imperfections at the day of judgment?" "No," replies Tertullian; "the Almighty does not do his work by halves. He who raises the dead to life will raise the body in its perfect integrity. This is part of the change which the body will undergo at the resurrection; for, though the dead will be raised in the flesh, yet they who attain to the resurrection of happiness will pass into the angelic state

and put on the vesture of immortality, according to the declaration of the apostle Paul, that this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality :'-and again, that our vile bodies will be changed that they may be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ.' We must not, however, suppose that this change is incompatible with the identity of the body. Continual changes take place in the substance of man, from his birth to his death: his constitution, his bulk, his strength, are perpetually changing; yet he remains the same man. So when after death he passes into a state of incorruption and immortality, as the mind, the memory, the conscience which he now has, will not be done away, so neither will his body; otherwise he would suffer in a different body from that in which he sinned, and the dispensations of God would appear to be at variance with his justice, which evidently requires that the same soul should be re-united to the same body at the last day."

"The body," therefore, say the heretics, "after it is risen, will be subject to no sufferings, will be harassed by no wants: what then will be the use of those members which at present administer to its necessities? What offices will the mouth, the throat, the teeth, the stomach, the intestines, have to perform, when man will no longer eat and drink?" "We have said," answers Tertullian, " that the body will undergo a change; and, as man will then be free from the wants of this life, so will his members be released from many of their present duties. But it does not therefore follow that they will be wholly without use: the mouth, for instance, will be employed in singing praises to God. Nor will the final retribution be complete, unless the whole man stands before the judgment seat of Christ-unless man stands there with all his members perfect."

To follow Tertullian in all his pursuit of the heretics, especially their reasonings against the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, would carry me far beyond the limits of a Lecture, and therefore I must content myself with having produced a specimen of his masterly refutation, only observing, further, that the heretics sometimes laboured, like our modern mystics, to convert the language of Scripture, in reference to the resurrection, into a figure, contending that it meant no more than a moral or spiritual resurrection-a resurrection of the soul from the grave of sin-from

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a death in ignorance to the light of truth and to the knowledge of God. "Man, therefore, rises again," said they, according to the meaning of Scripture, in baptism."

These objections afforded Tertullian an opportunity of making some pertinent observations on the marks whereby to determine when the language of Scripture is to be figuratively understood. "In the present instance," says he, "we cannot so understand it, because the whole Christian faith hinges upon the doctrine of a future state; and surely God would not have made the Gospel to rest upon a figure." He adduces several texts of Scripture, and reasons from them in proof of the literal resurrection of the body. Such as where Christ says, "I came to save that which was lost." On which he asks, "What was lost?-the whole man, both soul and body. The body therefore stands in need of salvation as well as the soul; otherwise the purpose of Christ's coming will not be accomplished."

Again: "when Christ enjoined his hearers to fear HIM only who can destroy both soul and body in hell, he evidently assumed the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. So also in his answer to the Sadducees, respecting the woman who had been seven times married." Both parties appealed to the miracle of Christ's raising Lazarus from the dead. Tertullian contended that he performed it in order to confirm the faith of his disciples, by exhibiting the very mode in which the future resurrection would take place. The heretics described it as a mere exercise of power, which could not have been rendered cognizable by the senses had not the body of Lazarus been raised as well as the soul.

But, not to detain you longer on Tertullian's controversy with the heretics of his time on the subject of the resurrection of the body, we shall now proceed to his APOLOGY, addressed to the governors of the Proconsular Africa-a treatise which supplies us with much information respecting the state of Christianity, and the causes which contributed to its rapid growth during the latter part of the second century. From this source we ascertain that, by the pious zeal and diligence of the friends of Christianity, powerful engines had been set at work to promote the diffusion of the Gospel. Of these engines Mosheim has noticed two in particular, viz. the translation of the New Testament into different languages, and the composition of numerous Apologies for the

Christian faith. The writings of Tertullian, which contain quotations from nearly all the books of the New Testament, render it highly probable that a Latin translation existed in his day. By such a translation the history of the Saviour and the doctrines of the Gospel would be rendered accessible to a large portion of the subjects of the Roman empire, who had previously heard of these things only from the report of friends or foes. They were now, however, enabled to judge for themselves on subjects so intimately connected with their present peace and their eternal happiness. Among the apologies for Christianity, that of Tertullian has always held a distinguished place; and there is perhaps no better mode of conveying to the mind of my readers an accurate notion of the general condition of the Christians in the second century, the difficulties which they had to contend with, and the principles on which they acted, than by submitting a brief summary of its contents.

The Apology of Tertullian, as hath been already observed, was addressed to the governors of the African province, of which Carthage was the metropolis. And we learn from the commencement of it that their attention and jealousy had been excited by the increasing number of the Christians; but that, instead of being induced to enquire into the nature of a religion which attracted so many proselytes, they suffered themselves to be hurried away by their prejudices, and condemned it unheard, Tertullian exposes with great power of argument and of eloquence, the injustice of punishing Christians merely because they were Christians, without enquiring whether their doctrines were in themselves deserving of hatred and punishment. He complains that in their case alone all the established forms of law were set aside, and all the rules usually observed in the administration of justice violated. Other criminals were heard in their own defence and allowed the assistance of counsel; nor was their own confession deemed sufficient to their condemnation. The Christian, on the contrary, was simply asked whether he was a Christian, and either his sentence was pronounced as soon as he had admitted the fact, or, such was the strange infatuation of the judges, the torture was inflicted in order to compel him to retract his confession and deny the truth; whereas, in all other cases, torture was applied in order to extract the truth and compel the sus

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pected party to confess his guilt. Tertullian dwells at length on the gross injustice of these proceedings, and upon the inconsistency exhibited by the emperor Trajan in his letter to Pliny, in which, at the very moment that he forbade all search to be made after the Christians, he ordered them to be punished as male factors when brought before the tribunals.

The Apology furnishes many striking proofs of the unreasonableness and blindness of the hatred which the enemies of the Gospel had conceived against its professors. The Christians were accused of the most heinous crimes of atheism, infanticide, and of holding nocturnal meetings in which they abandoned themselves to the most shameful excesses. In vain did they challenge their opponents to make good these horrible charges. In vain did they urge the utter improbability that any body of men should be guilty of such atrocious, such unnatural acts; especially men the fundamental article of whose belief was that they should hereafter be summoned before the judgment seat of God, there to give an account of the deeds done in the body. "You are determined," says Tertullian, "to close your eyes against the truth, and to persist in hating us without a cause. You are compelled to witness the salutary influence of Christianity, in the reformed lives and morals of those who embrace it: but you quarrel with the effect, however beneficial, in consequence of your hatred of the cause from which it proceeds. Even virtue ceases in your estimation to be virtue, when found in a Christian; and you are content that your wives shall be unchaste, your children disobedient, and your slaves dishonest, if they are but careful to abstain from all communication with this detested sect."

The extravagance and absurdity of the heathen mythology open to Tertullian a wide field for the exercise of his eloquence and wit; and while at one time he ironically apologises for the readiness with which the magistrates and people gave credit to the scandalous reports circulated against the Christians, on the ground that they believed stories equally horrible respecting their own deities, at another he warmly inveighs against the gross inconsistency of imputing to a Christian as a crime that which, according to their religion, was not deemed derogatory to the character of a God.