The same is more evident in the body with which we converse, and are more sensibly acquainted with, seems wholly uncapable of either, &c. For all bodies are material, and matter it self is not capable of multiplication, but of being changed. Therefore Nature cannot multiply bodies, but changeth them; as some bodies arise, others perish. Natures expense in continual Productions being constantly supplied by the dissolution of other Compounds: were it otherwise, her Store-house would be exhausted; for its by continual Circulations, Heaven and Earth is maintained; and by her even Circular motion, she keeps her self employed on the same stock of matter, and maintains every species. There is no body the same to day it was yesterday, matter being in a continual flux; neither immediately on the dissolution of a Compound, and Corruption ⟨p. 18⟩of the body, doth the earth thereof retain any specific difference of that body it once was, but is immediately bestowed by Nature, and ordered to the new production of other things. That part of matter therefore which constituteth a humane body, in a short time is putrefied, and made earth, which again produceth either other inferior Animals, or Grass, or Corn, for the nourishment of Beasts and Fowl, which again are the nourishment of men. Thus circularly innumerable times round, Nature continually impressing new forms of the same matter. So that that matter that now constitutes my body, it may be a thousand years ago was the matter of some other mans, or it may be of divers mens, then putrefied; which in this time hath suffered infinite changes, as it may be sometime Grass, or Corn, or an Herb, or Bird, or Beast, or divers of them, or all, and that divers times over, before my body was framed; who then can say, why this matter so changeable, should at last be restored, my body rather than his, whose formerly it was, or the body of a Bird, or other Animal? For by the same Reasons that the body of man is proved to arise again, may, I think, be proved the Restoration of all other bodies, which is equally incredible to me (if understood at one time). For Natures ⟨p. 19⟩stock of matter being all at first exhausted, she could not employ her self in new Productions, without destroying some of the old; much less can she at once fabricate out of the same quantity of matter, all the bodies that ever were, are, or shall be;
The same is more evident in the body with which we converse, and are more sensibly acquainted with, seems wholly uncapable of either, &c. For all bodies are material, and matter it self is not capable of multiplication, but of being changed. Therefore Nature cannot multiply bodies, but changeth them; as some bodies arise, others perish. Natures expence in continual Productions being constantly supplied by the dissolution of other Compounds: were it otherwise, her Store-house would be exhausted; for its by continual Circulations, Heaven and Earth is maintain'd; and by her even Circular motion, she keeps her self imployed on the same stock of matter, and maintains every species. There is no body the same to day it was yesterday, matter being in a continual flux; neither immediately on the dissolution of a Compound, and Corruption ⟨p. 18⟩of the body, doth the earth thereof retain any specifick difference of that body it once was, but is immediately bestowed by Nature, and ordered to the new production of other things. That part of matter therefore which constituteth a humane body, in a short time is putrified, and made earth, which again produceth either other inferior Animals, or Grass, or Corn, for the nourishment of Beasts and Fowl, which again are the nourishment of men. Thus circularly innumerable times round, Nature continually impressing new forms of the same matter. So that that matter that now constitutes my body, it may be a thousand years ago was the matter of some other mans, or it may be of divers mens, then putrified; which in this time hath suffered infinite changes, as it may be sometime Grass, or Corn, or an Herb, or Bird, or Beast, or divers of them, or all, and that divers times over, before my body was framed; who then can say, why this matter so changeable, should at last be restored, my body rather than his, whose formerly it was, or the body of a Bird, or other Animal? For by the same Reasons that the body of man is proved to arise again, may, I think, be proved the Restoration of all other bodies, which is equally incredible to me (if understood at one time). For Natures ⟨p. 19⟩stock of matter being all at first exhausted, she could not employ her self in new Productions, without destroying some of the old; much less can she at once fabricate out of the same quantity of matter, all the bodies that ever were, are, or shall be;
