kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul :" the body may be killed while the soul is alive. On this principle, to the penitent malefactor he said, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." It was upward of forty days after this when our Saviour ascended thither bodily; and the mortal remains of this criminal were deposited in the earth; consequently his soul was the subject of this speedy transition from an earthly tenement to a celestial mansion.

The Apostle Paul, being caught up into the third heaven, and there favoured with unutterable revelations, on giving a statement of this remarkable event, could not say whether, at the time it happened, he was in the body or out of the body: whence it is evident, that he supposed the soul not only distinct from the body, but capable of subsisting and acting out of it, or he would not have expressed a doubt whether that was not his own case. Under the firm belief of the immateriality and immortality of the soul, such was his prospect of happiness in a future state, that he says, "To me to die is gain ;"-but he could not have said this if he had considered the soul as dying and perishing with the body. Contemplating his own personal advantages in the other world, and contrasting them with the services he might still render to the cause of Christianity on earth, he was brought into this dilemma, "What I shall choose, I wot not, for I am in a strait between two," i. e. borne two different ways; "having a desire to depart, and be with Christ which is far better: but to abide in the

flesh is more needful for you.”

If he had be

lieved in the materiality of the soul, he could not have been thus straitened, but would of course rather have chosen life than death. The term by which he expresses dying, is remarkable; he calls it " departing." The Greek word avalvoaι properly signifies to loose and withdraw, as mariners do from the shore. It seems to be an allusion, says Dr. Doddridge, to a ship stationed at a particular place, and riding at anchor, and at the same time, likely to be forced to sea by the violence of the winds; which presents us with the lively representation of the apostle's attachment to his situation in the Christian Church, and the vehemence of his desire to be unbound; that is, to weigh anchor and set sail for the heavenly country. This indicates that the soul, at death, does not cease to exist, and to act, but only leaves the body, and removes to another place. Thus, from these texts, and from a great variety of other passages, it is plain that the soul is distinct from the body, and of a different nature from it.

The soul is in its own nature spiritual, immaterial, simple, uncompounded, indivisible. All bodies, however refined, are evidently compounded of innumerable particles of matter, and consequently are liable to corruption and dissolution; for the particles of which they consist are always subject to disunion or separation: and hence, every system of matter sooner or later moulders away. But, that the soul is not thus compounded, is manifest from all its per

ceptions and operations. It is capable of abstract notions, mathematical and metaphysical conceptions: it can take in ideas of things spiritual and Divine, which no material being can ever do; it has a power of inferring consequences from premises: it is a subject of moral government, capable of holding intercourse with God here. and of expecting reward or punishment from him hereafter. All this can never be produced by matter and motion: matter is altogether inactive of itself, and, when motion is impressed upon it, the only change produced is in the situation or in the position of its parts.

The profound speculations and reasonings of the soul are vastly beyond the power of matter in any state. Man has a discursive faculty, by which he can frame syllogisms, and make rational deductions. But certainly atoms, or atoms in motion, can never perform such rational acts; therefore, there is in man an immaterial principle, which is neither from matter nor motion, however qualified. For if it were from matter, these absurdities inevitably would follow. That thought is either essential to matter, or it is not; if essential to matter, then every stock and stone would think and be a rational creature; yea, every atom, and every particle of every atom, would think, and be a distinct animal, endued with consciousness and personal sensation of its own. If thought be not essential to matter, then it is acquired; and if acquired, it is either obtained by the rest of its parts, or by motion. The first is absurd, for where the

parts of matter are at rest, they are deprived of action, whereas thought is an act. Neither is thought acquired by motion, through the organical disposition of the particles, or the various modifications of matter; for, however posited, or modified, or moved, matter remains the same thing, is not altered in its properties, loses nothing and gains nothing; it is still divisible, and, therefore, thought would be divisible in proportion to the divisibility of the parts of matter in motion; yea, matter should produce thought in one place, and in another not be able to do it; for what is motion but the translation of matter from one place to another: all of which is most absurd.

The soul is the subject of thought and consciousness, is an intelligent agent, a principle of life and action, which bears a resemblance to God who is an infinite Spirit, and to angels who are pure unembodied spirits: these are powers wholly distinct from matter, and incompatible with it. It must be acknowledged, that we do not know the precise nature of the soul, nor the manner of its union with the body, (which is a great mystery in nature,) nor is it necessary we should. It is sufficient that we know what the sacred Scriptures intend, namely, that noble, spiritual substance, of which God is the Father which is his proper offspring, and his creature capable of thinking and reasoning; which is endued with understanding and will, is susceptible of desire and hope, has the liberty to accept and refuse, and which may be influenced

;

by motives, as the promises of reward or the threatenings of punishment. If a man, with any attention, reflect on his own soul, he may easily perceive it to be of an entirely different nature from the body; that it is simple and indivisible, though the subject of various and distinct powers; and not like the body, which is a composition of innumerable parts, and which may be all disjoined and separated from one another. But that the soul is not thus compounded is manifest from all its perceptions and operations. The powers and affections of the soul, such as thought and reason, judgment and choice, love and hatred, joy and sorrow, can never be the properties or effects of matter, in any possible variation or modification of its parts. Nor can matter ever produce those noble and Divine sentiments, those sublime and generous affections, to which the soul sometimes rises, in its contemplations of God, the order of the universe, and Divine Providence, which sustains and governs all things. And it is certain that all attempts to account for these things, by any laws of nature obtaining in the corporeal world, are absolutely ridiculous.

The soul then, being immaterial and uncompounded, can admit of no division or dissolution: hence it evidently follows, that in its own nature it is incorruptible and immortal, not capable of being destroyed by the operation of second causes. Indeed, God can annihilate it, if he please; but he has assured us in his word that he never will.