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are around the throne of God, and before his throne;' who are brought out of great tribulation;' who serve him day and night in his temple;' who hunger, thirst, and suffer no more;' who feed on the bread, and drink the water of life;' and who sustain all these characters, and do all these things, while the world yet remains, and many ages before its termination, are men in the heavens. They are therefore the bodies of men, or their separate spirits. I leave my antagonists to choose which side of the alternative they please.

But if a doubt can remain, St. John has himself settled it; for in the sixth chapter and ninth verse, he says, ' And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and white robes were given unto every one of them.' The like phraseology is also used, Revelations xx. 4. Now let me ask, what was it which John saw? That they were persons, or intelligent beings, cannot be doubted; that they have been once slain, and are therefore men, is equally certain; that they are glorified persons is also certain ; that they are souls,' or separate spirits is certain; because the apostle has said so, and the Spirit of God has said so. It is therefore true. It is also certain, from the whole account given by the Scriptures at large concerning this subject; for we know,' that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.' Should it be said, that these things passed in vision, and that they were not real exhibitions of facts; the book being a symbolical representation, and not a real account of facts: I answer, that I have no difficulty in granting it; although I have not a doubt, that every one of the things which I have mentioned, was strictly a matter of fact. At the same time, the argument stands on the same basis upon either scheme. If the representation be considered as strictly symbolical, still the doctrines which it contains are all exactly true. This is all for which I contend; and this must be conceded by my opponents, unless they are willing to charge God with having taught falsehood to mankind.

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In exact accordance with these observations, St. Paul observes, 1 Thessalonians iv. 14, For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again; even so them also who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him;' that is, when the Lord shall descend,' as he mentions in the next verse but one, from heaven

with a shout,' with the innumerable company of angels; God shall bring with him to this world the spirits of just men made perfect, and re-unite their bodies to them; and they, and those followers of Christ who shall remain alive' at the end of the world, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.' A great multitude of these very persons are those glorified saints, whom John saw when he was admitted to that happy world.

I shall not insist on the facts specified in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, as an example under this head; although I think they might be fairly insisted on as furnishing such an example. Instead of dwelling on this, I shall proceed to another specimen, which is certainly secured. if in the view of prejudice any thing can be secured, from evasion and cavil.

When Christ was transfigured on the Mount, there were present with him Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and talked with him, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.' The body of Elias was changed, when he was conveyed to heaven in a chariot of fire. But the body of Moses was buried by the hand of God in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-Peor;' and will rise hereafter with other bodies of the saints, at the general resurrection. Yet Moses was actually on this Mount in company with Elias. If Moses when he thus appeared was not a separate spirit, I leave it to my antagonists to tell us what he was.

Thus I have summarily considered this subject, as it is presented to us both by Scripture and reason. If the things which I have said have the same weight and conclusiveness in the minds of others which they have in my own, it must be admitted by them as unquestionably evident from both sources of proof, not only that the soul is not material, but that the doctrine of its materiality is sustained by no solid argument whatever. Reason furnishes none: the Scriptures furnish none. I cannot help adding, that had the doctrine been considered by itself only, and not been thought necessary for the support of some system, it would probably never have been adopted by any man living. I know not that it was ever adopted by itself, or on account of any evidence which was supposed to attend it, when considered singly, or as unconnected with other doctrines. It seems always to have

been taken up, either as subsidiary to the support of other parts of a systém, or as necessarily flowing from other doctrines, considered as already established, and as being inconsistent in themselves with the immateriality of the soul. Dr. Priestley appears to have adopted this scheme for the former of these reasons; viz. because he thought the materiality of the soul necessary to the support of those parts of his system, which respect the character of the Redeemer. is the fact, if I understand his own language. embraced this doctrine, because they were the fundamental principles of their system. a rational suspicion concerning the soundness and evidence of doctrines taken up on these grounds.

This at least

Atheists have driven to it by There is always

A single observation shall conclude this Discourse.

We see here, one remarkable instance of the agreement of the Scriptures with common sense.

All nations have united in the opinion, that the human soul is an immaterial being, wholly distinct from the body. I do not intend, that ignorant nations have formed a system or a science on this subject; nor that a savage could correctly define or explain his views of it, so as to leave them unobjectionable in the eye of a philosopher. But I intend, that immateriality, and distinction from the body, are essential parts of all his opinions concerning the soul. When I mention this as the doctrine of all nations, I would be understood to mean, not that there are no exceptions, but that the existing exceptions are, at least so far as hitherto known, few and insignificant with respect to this question. The Aborigines of this country, for example, believed that, although they buried the body of a friend, and left it to moulder into dust, the friend, the man lived still, and went to a happier world. This man therefore was not the body, for that was in the grave; but was an immaterial and separate spirit; the living, thinking thing, which controlled and actuated that body.

Exactly the same in substance, and altogether more perfect in manner and degree, is the doctrine of the Scriptures. This harmony between the Scriptures and common sense was indeed to be presumed; for God is the origin of both. Hence in all cases, so far as the views of common sense extend, they are exactly accordant with the Scriptures. Philosophy has

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opposed the Scriptures often common sense never. : Accordingly the common people' of the Jewish nation' gladly heard Christ,' in the great body of instances, and his apostles after him; in spite of all their prejudices, and the influence of their rulers; and often awed those rulers, so as to restrain them from the violence which they intended. On the other hand, the Scribes and Pharisees, and still more the Sadducees, rejected their doctrines almost absolutely, notwithstanding the confirmation of them by their own Scriptures. In the same manner have the common people in Christian countries generally, when left to themselves, adhered to the genuine scheme of the gospel while the numerous heresies which have disturbed the church, and misled mankind, have been, almost without an exception, the offspring of Philosophy.

SERMON XXIV.

THE SOUL NOT A CHAIN

OF

IDEAS AND EXERCISES.

AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE, AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL.

GENESIS II. 7.

IN my last Discourse, I proposed to consider the Nature of the human Soul. Concerning this subject I remarked, that there were three entirely different opinions.

The first of these, in the order in which they were then mentioned, is, That man is an immaterial substance, an intelligent, voluntary being; the subject of attributes, the author of actions, and destined to immortality.

The second is, That man is a material, thinking, voluntary being; differing in nothing, but his modification and its effects, from other material substances. Some of those who hold this scheme believe him immortal, while others limit his existence to the present world.

The third is, That man is neither of these, but a mere succession or chain, as the abettors of it express themselves, of ideas and exercises.

In discussing this subject, I proposed the following plan,

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