Surely so great and deserved a favourite of heaven, to whom so many and distinct revelations were made, would not have been left in ignorance of so important a fact as the existence of an immaterial soul, had the belief in it been an essential article of faith.

As the same absence of all allusion to an immaterial principle in man pervades the divine communications to the other patriarchs, it would be a waste of time to draw out the argument further; it will be therefore only necessary to add, that had such a principle existed, there are numerous passages where it would naturally have been noticed. For instance, such a belief, if well founded, would have tended greatly to the consolation of Abraham, under the command to sacrifice his son, though it might reasonably have been deemed to abstract much from the merit of his obedience. So when Jacob mourned for Joseph, had he or his family believed in such

principle, they would have surely urged it as a main topic of comfort, and he would have acknowledged its force, and not have "refused to be comforted," nor have said, "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning."

Lastly, there does not appear to be any passage in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy, that can be construed to give countenance to the commonly received opinion. concerning the soul, which, if such opinion be

correct, must be considered to be a most remarkable, or perhaps it should rather be said, unaccountable omission, since those books are full from beginning to end of declarations, precepts, promises, and threatenings, emanating directly from the Fountain of truth, and revealed through the ministry of one who was so highly favoured that (Deut. x. 10.) "there arose not a prophet since in Israel, whom the Lord knew face to face."

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Historical portion of the Scriptures, subsequent to Moses-Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

ALTHOUGH that part of the Sacred writings which forms the subject matter of consideration in the present chapter, does not afford much direct or positive evidence concerning the nature of man, yet its silence on the subject of an immaterial principle in him must be allowed to be a strong argument against the existence of such. For when we consider that these books were the productions of writers inspired by the Holy Spirit, many of them probably among the most favoured servants of the Lord, but, at all events, recording the actions of those who were so that the events they narrate extend over a period of more than a thousand years, and up, or nearly so, to the cessation of prophecy and of inspiration, preparatory to the advent of the

Messiah, and consequently when the spiritual* nature of his kingdom had been more plainly denoted-it certainly does seems very surprising that no direct intimation of the immaterial and distinct nature of the soul, had such been the fact, should be given in them, but that on the contrary, their authors should have gone on successively to consider and speak of mankind in the same light and in the same language as their great predecessor, Moses, had done.

A quotation of all the passages bearing on this question to be found in these historical books, can scarcely be necessary, as upon reference they will be found to bear out the foregoing assertion; and arguments founded on them could be little more than a repetition of those contained in Chapter III. but a few texts of this kind are subjoined, previously to entering on an examination of such as may be supposed to warrant a different conclusion, in order to shew that the whole body of Scripture harmonizes on this, as on other subjects.

Joshua, xxii. 5. Take diligent heed....to love the Lord your God....and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The word spiritual is here, and will throughout this Essay, be used in what appears to be its Scriptural import, namely, as applying to the rational, intellectual, and moral faculties of man, in contradistinction to the mere animal qualities which he has in common with the brutes.

Here the word is used in the same sense as in Deut. iv. 29, and other passages of that book.

Judges, x. 16. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

Here the sense is the same as in Leviticus, xxvi. 11-30.

xvi. 30. And Samson said, Let me (or rather, as in the Hebrew, according to the margin, and also in the Septuagint, my soul) die with the Philistines.

1 Sam. i. 15. I have poured out my soul before the Lord. xxiv. 11. Yet thou huntest my soul to take it.

xxvi. 21. Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day.

xxv. 29. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

2 Sam. iv. 9. As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity.

1 Kings, viii. 48. And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul.

In all these last cited passages the word soul has not of necessity any connexion with an immaterial principle, and in most of them the context shews that it could not have any relation to such.

There remain a few passages to be examined, which may be supposed to countenance the doctrine of the distinct natures of body and soul. The first occurs in 1 Samuel, xxviii. being the story of Saul and the witch of Endor.

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