lated texts, which may be so explained, if they are not compared together and interpreted by each other, as to appear of an opposite tendency, differing from one another and from truth; while, by a more extended search, we may be able to bring the whole to harmonize together.

When some, like the present Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Whately, assure us-" that with respect to an intermediate state nothing is revealed to us,"*-others appear confident that the soul, on leaving the body, goes instantly to the judgment-seat, and from thence, either to that heaven or hell where it is to live throughout eternity;-some believe with the Right Rev. Dr. Law, a Bishop of Chester, that in the interval between death and the resurrection, the soul loses its consciousness, as the body does its life, passing the time in a sleep of insensibility; and that, as a mere quality of the brain, it lives only while the latter is animated with life, (as several eminent Christian physiologists as well as divines have declared their belief in,) and consequently may be said to go to the grave as well as the body;-many, who hold that the soul can exist separately from the body, suppose that it sleeps in senseless torpidity somewhere else ;— while another class think it lives in an intermediate state, without losing any of its mental powers, although it can no longer communicate with the external world by bodily organs, and does not go to the place of eternal happiness or of misery until after its reunion with the altered body, and after it has passed the judgment of the great and only day of account.

I little envy the apathetic feelings which can contemplate with careless indifference whether or not the souls of all the

See Essays on some of the peculiarities of the Christian Religion.

dead are at present in the sleep of total oblivion and unconsciousness, and whether ours shall likewise pass ages in the same state. Certainly, if such were the case, our spirits would not be sensible of the passing time, but now that we are alive as men, it has appeared to many learned and pious Christians, a most dismal prospect to raise up; in the face, too, of such scriptural evidences to the contrary, and I am surprised it has found so many believers, not only among the ignorant, but among the learned and good both of the clergy and laity.

I trust that my readers will join with me in the opinion of the deep importance of the great object of the present inquiry, and will pursue it with that interest and attention it deserves, which, I am convinced, will lead them to be satisfied of the truth of what is brought forward as most agreeable to scriptural doctrine; or that there is a Middle State, in which the disembodied soul awaits that judgment which alone can consign it to eternal happiness or misery, into which it cannot enter until rejoined to a body, changed from its former mortal nature into an immortal one ;-that there is only one time for judgment, which is not yet arrived ;—that it shall be a general one on all human kind, and that, as the earth still holds the bodies of the dead, their souls must consequently be now in an imperfect state as beings; but, nevertheless, alive and awake, capable of thought and of mental pleasure or woe, and also of communicating with each other; which belief can and shall be shown to be nowise connected with the Popish illusion of Purgatory.

One great use, indeed, of such an investigation as the following, is, that it enables us to meet and most effectually to overturn the arguments which Roman Catholics bring in proof of this fanciful place of purification for disembodied

souls. It is not sufficient merely to deny its existence, if we cannot by fair reasoning show it to be unfounded, and if we proceed upon the ground of establishing that there is no Middle State at all,-the soul passing directly and instantly -first to the great tribunal, and then, without an interval, to either heaven or hell,-we assert, in the first place, what is contrary to the plainest interpretations of Scripture, and, in the second, are led into inconsistencies and contradictions, and are unable to answer the arguments which clearly establish it. It is artfully endeavoured by Roman Catholics to blend Purgatory and a Middle State together, as if they both must be the same, and could not be disjoined; which opinion, too many Protestants heedlessly adopt. A Middle State is plainly admitted by the Church of England, and many of her most erudite divines have proved its existence beyond the possibility of denial, by fair and scriptural arguments, proceeding from a competent knowledge of Holy Writ in its original Hebrew and Greek. Several eminent teachers of the Presbyterian Church have also come to the same conclusion, after the most critical and able examination of the Sacred Records, and their works are now read by all students of divinity who endeavour to obtain a necessary acquaintance with the language of Revelation. I allude here to one work in particular,-the very Rev. Principal Campbell's translation of the Gospels, with his preliminary dissertation on the two scriptural Greek words Hades and Gehenna.

The subjects here considered are too deep and mystical for any one man to treat of them all so as to do them justice, trusting entirely to his own abilities, nor has it ever been attempted, and the unsupported opinion of any com

mentator on Scripture could not be entitled to that respect and deference which the concurring testimony of many must carry along with it.

I readily acknowledge my own incapacity, and, sensible of the presumption of such an attempt on my part, I have consulted the most able theological scholars, philosophers, and learned men, whose writings will be found, in the following pages, to explain and defend their several opinions and tenets, while these are most impartially tried by Scripture, Reason, or Science. The opinions of an author derive weight from his character, knowledge, and celebrity, but his arguments ought to be weighed by their intrinsic perspicuity and solidity alone. A person, after a long investigation into any disputed doctrine, has no right to expect that he shall also convince others of the conclusions he has come to, by laying before them a mere summary of his labours, however satisfied he may be of it himself. It is not enough ably to support a doctrine, but every opposing one must be shown to be wrong, in order to ensure conviction even with some who are open to it. Were any of the plausible arguments of an opposite tendency omitted to be examined, some of them might ultimately impose on those who are apt to form their ideas either from the researches or gratuitous opinions of others whom they may think more learned than themselves.

When noticing so many facts and opinions, it would have been extremely difficult in all instances, to have scrupulously distinguished every line or expression which was not entirely original, and the inquiry was prosecuted for a while without any view to publication, so it afterwards became almost impossible to make up for some omissions of this nature, but to my readers, these will be of little consequence,

since ample reference to authorities is made on every point of importance.

It may be objected to some parts of the present work, that after establishing a particular doctrine, both by arguments and quotations from several authorities, the subject is sometimes still further pursued, both by continuing the arguments, and by references to other authors. It should, however, be remembered by those who may think so, that although one person may be convinced by certain arguments, another may not. One reader may hold a favourite author good or conclusive authority, while another at first, does not, but nevertheless may be at last satisfied by reference to the opinions of those on whom he places more reliance, and every reader must be sensible of the advantage furnished to him, as a means of judging for himself,—the having placed before him the very expressions of an author referred to, even although his details are abridged, if there hence arises no misrepresentation of his meaning. Very little argument will be held sufficient by those who before had similar opinions; but all that has been urged may not carry conviction to the minds of those who have long been strongly of a contrary belief. Those, for instance, who believe that the soul does not become insensible after death, may think the facts referred to, and the arguments here used in support of this truth, pursued too far, (although a knowledge of our condition for perhaps thousands of years rests on this point being established ;)—while those who have already given the most positive assurances to the world, either that it does sleep without consciousness, or that we can know nothing certain about it, may insist that all which has been said, does not change their previous ideas. Repetition in some degree is unavoidable from the nature of the work, but it will always