accounts, affirming in the same direct manner their character, stations and employments; together with their appearance and agency, often repeated in the affairs of this world. If he thought this the easier task of the two, as he evidently did, it is clear that the latter, viz. the proof that angels are material, was in his view a task absolutely hopeless. In truth, every thing attributed to angels in the scriptures, refutes and destroys every supposition of their materiality.

But, if God, if angels are thinking beings, and at the same time immaterial, the argument from analogy strongly leads us to conclude, that all other thinking beings are immaterial also. Nor is there one valid objection against the immateriality of the human soul which will not lie with equal force against that of angels, and that of the Creator. It is true, neither of these beings is united to a body; but both God and angels are possessed of the power of acting upor matter, and controlling it to a far greater extent than we. This being admitted, as it plainly must be without a question, the only real difficulty concerning the connection of soul and body is removed, and there can remain no solid objection against the immateriality of the soul. derived from this

source.

2. The souls of men are in the Scriptures declared to be immaterial.

The Scriptures exhibit this doctrine in two ways;-in express Assertions, and in Facts.

(1) In express Assertions.

In Psalm xxxi. 5, David says, Into thine hand I commit my spirit.' These words were repeated by our Saviour on the cross, immediately before he expired. In the same manner St. Stephen, immediately before his death, prayed to Christ in these words; Lord Jesus receive my spirit.' That both these forms of phraseology have a real and important meaning, cannot be disputed; nor that those who uttered them understood what that meaning was, and used them with the most exact propriety: one of them being Christ; the other two, David, an inspired prophet, and Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost.' Let me then ask; what is this meaning? What does the word Spirit, in these passages, signify? Certainly it does not signify the body. It will not be pretended that this can be the meaning.

Much less does it

signify that organization of the body, which Dr. Priestly considers as being especially the soul. Certainly it does not intend the breath; for it cannot be supposed that either of these persons wished to commend to God the last portion of air which he breathed. What then does it intend? There is no other alternative but this; that it intends the immaterial soul; the thinking, conscious being.

This is completely evinced by that remarkable phraseology, with which the Hebrews customarily declared the death of a man; He gave up the ghost.' That this phrase denoted, in the mouths of those who used it, the yielding up of the immaterial spirit into the hands of God, cannot be doubted, unless it be voluntarily doubted. Should it be doubted, Solomon has determined the point beyond a debate. Then,' says he (that is, immediately after death) shall the dust,' or body, ' return to the earth as it was, and the spirit into the hands of God who gave it.' Here the whole Hebrew doctrine is declared on this subject, and the distinction between the soul and the body completely established: for of the one it is asserted, that it shall return to the earth;' and of the other, that it shall return to God.' As the dust or body contains all that is material in man so it is certain that all this, after death, 'returns to the earth.' But it is equally certain that the spirit' does not return to the earth, but unto God;' and is therefore something totally distinct from the body, or the material part of man. This is therefore, unquestionably, the true meaning of the Hebrew phrase, 'giving up the ghost;' and of these expressions of our Saviour, David, and Stephen. This phraseology, it should be remembered, is always used by the Spirit of truth; and is chosen by him to convey to us just ideas concerning this subiect. It is therefore really just, and is exactly expressive of that which is true.

In Isaiah xxxi. 3, the prophet says, For the Egyptians are nien, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit.' Here the distinction between flesh, or body, and spirit is so plainly, as well as intentionally marked, that the passage can need no comment.

In Genesis xxv. 8, it is said, Then Abraham gave up the ghost-and was gathered to his people.' This by a thoughtless reader may be supposed to mean, that Abraham was buried with his fathers. But this is an entire misconception: for

the fathers of Abraham were buried several hundred miles from him; some in Chaldea, and Terah in Haran in Mesopotamia: whereas Abraham was buried in the cave of Macpelah, in Canaan. The true meaning of the passage is, that he was gathered to the assembly of the blessed, and particularly to those good men among his ancestors, who were united to that assembly. In this manner the prophets themselves explain it. Job says, The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered.' Christ, in Isaiah xlix. 5, says Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord." In the same manner is the phrase explained by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But the body of Abraham was changed to dust, in the cave of Macpelah: while something beside that body, that is, the immaterial spirit, was gathered to this divine assembly. Accordingly, Christ announces to his disciples, that they shall sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob;' concerning each of whom it was also said, that he was gathered unto his people.' Accordingly also, God says to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Christ alleges these words as unquestionable proof of the avaσraois, or future sepa rate existence of spirits; and subjoins to his proof this unanswerable argument, which the Sadducees, the materialists of that day, durst not attempt to dispute; for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were living beings, when this declaration was made by God to Moses.

Accordingly also, Christ, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, informs us that Lazarus was, after his death, carried by angels to Abraham's bosom :' Lazarus being gathered to his people, as Abraham was to his; and both being united to the assembly of the blessed.

This parable is itself the most explicit declaration of the doctrine for which I contend. In it Dives and Lazarus are both asserted to have died, and to have entered the future world as separate spirits, while the five brethren' of Dives were living, and of course, while their bodies were both masses of putrefaction in this world. No exhibition can be clearer, or more unexceptionable than this.

It has however been objected, that this is a parabolic representation; and that therefore it is not to be considered

as decisive on this point. Nothing could more strongly prove the decisive influence of this parable on the question, in the eye of the objector himself, than his recourse to this pitiful subterfuge. It is acknowledged on all hands, that the truth of a parable does not demand the reality of the persons, or the historical facts which it contains. But that the doctrines contained in it are equally true with those of the literal texts, must be admitted by every man who does not choose to say, that Christ in his parables is a teacher of falsehood. The doctrine therefore, that spirits exist in a separate state, is as certainly declared here as it can be by words.

To the Thief, just ready to expire on the cross, our Saviour said, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' The body of the thief was that day either on the cross, or in the grave. Of course, his soul or spirit was that which went to paradise with the Redeemer. The objectors to this doctrine have attempted to escape from the irresistible force of this text by two comments, still more pitiful than the subterfuge above mentioned. The first is that the word, to day,' refers to the time of our Saviour's speaking, and not to the time when the thief was to be with him in paradise. On this I shall only ask my opponent, Whether he really believes that our Saviour said thus: I speak to thee to-day, and not yesterday, nor to-morrow? The other explanation is, that as in the eternity of God one day is the same thing as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, Christ meant by the word to day' the same thing with that eternity. On this comment I shall only ask, Whether the dying Saviour spoke to the dying man language which he intended he should understand, and which he could understand; or whether he spoke to him language which he could not possibly understand, and by which Christ knew he would certainly be deceived?

St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians v. 6, says, 'Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' In this passage the apostle declares expressly, that to be at home in the body' is to be absent from the Lord;' and that to be absent from the body' is to be 'present with the Lord.' But according to the scheme which I am opposing, the body is the whole man: and therefore, if

the man is ever to be present with the Lord, his body must be present; and if his body be absent, the man must be absent also; in direct contradiction to the assertion of the apostle. To be absent from the body is, on this plan, phraseology without meaning; because there is nothing but the body. This passage is therefore an explicit declaration, that man is something beside body; distinct from it; capable of being separated, or absent from it; and in consequence of this separation, of being present with the Lord.' This something also he elsewhere declares to be conscious, and capable of enjoyment: for he says, that to be thus present with Christ is a far better state than the present. This something, therefore, thus capable of being absent from the body, is an immaterial spirit: for beside body or matter, my opponents will agree that there is nothing except spirits.

(2) The Scriptures give an unanswerable proof by Facts, that the soul is immaterial.

The Revelation of St. John furnishes many specimens of this nature. In the fourth chapter of this prophecy, he saw 'four and twenty elders,' surrounding the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. In the seventh chapter he informs us, that he beheld a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palms in their hands,' uniting with the Angels, the Elders, and the four Living Ones, in the worship of God, and the everlasting ascription of praise and glory to his name. Upon this he asked the angel interpreter who these persons were? The angel informed him, that they were those who came out of great tribulation, and who had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; that therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; that they shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor suffer any more; but shall be fed by the Lamb with living bread, and led unto fountains of living waters.' No ingenuity of interpretation, no skill at evasion will enable any man to satisfy even himself, if he will take all the parts of these accounts together, that they can mean any thing less or more, than that these persons were all separate spirits. Elders are men; those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb are men, and can be no other than men. Men who