"

Death and the grave answer the latter proposition: if from God, surely "depart from me ye cursed answers the former; or is it necessary to ask "Lord to whom shall we go, for thou hast the words of Eternal Life?"

Let us see then what is the scripture account of man's nature, and how it can be maintained that it is immortal. In the 2nd chapter of Genesis, it is said, "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."

This

"And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." being said of no other creature, leads us to conceive not only that the soul of man is a distinct thing, of a different original from his body, but that a more excellent spirit was put into him by God, (as appears by its operations) than into other animals. For though the simple speech of inspiring him with the breath of life would not prove this, yet Moses, speaking in the plural number, that God breathed into him the breath, or spirit of lives; it plainly denotes, not only that spirit which makes man breathe, and move, but think also, reason, and discourse." (Patrick on Genesis.)

+"And he became a living soul." This is the immediate result of the union of the soul with the body." (Then the dissolution of the union, or death, would destroy the living soul.) "Moses shews the difference between his soul and body; his soul being an intelligent substance, made after the image of God: his body only an earthly covering of the soul, to which Moses adds a third, a certain vital breath, whereby the others are united and linked together by a powerful bond, or strong tie." (Let any one read this text, and say, whether Moses says any thing about the soul being a substance dis tinct from the body; still less of a third, a certain vital breath: it is man became a living soul.") 66 His soul it is manifest did not come out of the earth, or any power of matter, but from the power of God, who infused it into him by His divine inspiration." (Patrick, page 12.)

"I begin with inquiring into the nature and frame of a human soul; in the first place, it plainly appears to be a simple, uncompounded, indivisible being." (Balguy's Sermon on the Excellence and Immor tality of the Human Soul.)

16. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat; 17. But of the tree of knowledge, of good and

To this I will oppose the account God, his maker, has given us of the nature and frame of a human soul: "God formed MAN of the dust of the earth, and breathed into HIM the breath of life, and MAN became a living soul."

"That the soul, which is immortal and incorruptible, cannot be said to rise again, resurrection implying a reproduction: whereas, that which after it was, never ceased to be what it was, cannot be reproduced; and so the resurrection of the dead can only signify the resurrection of the bodies of the dead, with the reunion of them to those souls to which they were before united; which makes this resurrection advance into a resurrection of life. And seeing that which never fell cannot be said to be raised up, that which did never die cannot be restored from death." (What says the apostle"And you hath He quickened, who were DEAD in trespasses and sins.") Men cannot properly be said to rise again from the dead, but in respect to that part, or that state, which had fallen and was dead. And as for a man to be born at first, signifies the production and union of the essential parts of an individual man, his body and his soul; so, to be born again, or born from the dead, implies the restitution and reunion of his body and soul: a man only by that becoming the same entire person he was before." (Whitby on the New Testament, page 108,)

Then if the soul of man, after it was, never ceased to be, it cannot be said to rise again; very logically argued if the premises are sound. But it was the man formed of the dust of the earth, who having, from sin and death, ceased to be what he was, that is the subject of resurrection: and the metaphysical stilts whereby man is made to raise himself out of the corrruption of death, and say, "I am a living soul, only I want my body," will not establish the independent existence of the soul, in opposition to the plain word of God: which declares that man was formed of the dust of the earth, and that by the breath of life HE (not the breath of life, but HE) became a living soul. He, therefore, by death, did cease to be what he was, that is, a living soul; and a spiritual body is necessary to his immortality: but as are the "earthy, so are they that are earthy."

evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.*"

iii. 1. "And the serpent said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. 6. And she did eat. 17. And unto Adam God said, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. † 22. And the Lord God said, behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore, the Lord God sent him

"Thou shalt surely die." In the Hebrew" dying thou shalt die," to shew the certainty of it as we rightly translate it, which doeth not signify, as appears by the event, that he should instantly die, but become mortal; lose the immortality wherewith he was invested. Genesis, c. iii. v. 19. And as Athanasius thinks, the doubling the expression denotes he should not only die, but remain in the corruption of death; as we should all have done, had not the second Adam obtained for us a HAPPY resurrection.” (Patrick, Genesis, c. ii. v. 17.)

“Till thou return to the ground; that is, till thou diest, and inoulderest into dust." (Patrick.)

"And now lest he put forth his hand, &c." This seems an abrupt kind of speech, something being kept back; as, let us turn

forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24. So lle drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Compare with this, Revelation, c. ii. v. 7. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

66

From these texts I venture to deduce, that Adam, whose nature we inherit, was mortal; because he is

him out, (or some such like words) "lest he take also of the tree of life and live for ever," which many of the ancient fathers look upon as a merciful dispensation, that man MIGHT NOT BE PERPETUATED IN A STATE OF SIN." (So Ireneus, L. 3. Cap. 37. Greg. Naz. Ora. 38. p. 619.) "God thus ordered, that sin might not be IMMORTAL; and the PUNISHMENT might be a KINDNESS." (So Epiphanius.) "When man had spoiled himself, God UNMADE him, that he might make him better; and Methodius that DEATH was not sent upon him out of any evil design to him, but as a MERCY." (Patrick.)

How luminously commentators have treated this passage, let the following extract shew: "And therefore these latter words are spoken sarcastically, and as if God had said, lest the man should vainly fancy in himself, that by eating of the tree of life he should be enabled to live for ever, let us remove this conceit from him, by removing him from this place, and for ever debarring him from any hopes of coming at that tree again." (Estius in diff. loca.)

A cherubim with a flaming sword that turned every way, to drive a conceit out of Adam's head. What would this commentator have required to set him right, had he by chance gone wrong in some "conceit ?"

"The consequence of this loss of righteousness, was loss of happiness: man thus disordered and averse from God, could not but be miserable. His Maker, therefore, in justice deprived him of those blessings in paradise which were the entertainment of his innocence; and not without a mixture of pity too, excluded him from the opportunity of reaching to the tree of life, lest he should eat and live for ever, and so IMMOrtalize a sinful and MISERABLE BEING." (Gloster Ridley, on Holy Spirit.)

declared liable to death, that is, the loss of the life God imparted to him, which essentially depended on the breath of life animating his body; for God said, "dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Having incurred the penalty of death, God expressly declares that he drove him out of paradise, because there was the tree of life, destined to have made him immortal if he had not sinned. Now as God removed him from paradise, lest he should eat and live for ever, he could not possess an immortal nature then. Yet the nature he possessed after having sinned, is that which we inherit from him; and death, the wages of sin, as the extinction of the life which God had given to Adam, is the fate of all who have not eaten of the tree of life; which Christ, having re-opened to us the gates of paradise, gives only to His faithful followers to partake of.

The mortality of the soul, as meaning the spirit that animates us, is not the doctrine here contended for, (that, being the Holy Spirit, is incorruptible, but not inalienable,) but the mortality of the man; which the words of scripture clearly establish, and which will be further elucidated, by reference to the use of the word soul in holy writ.

If a word be used in scripture, in a variety of senses, there must be one general meaning under which they are all comprehended; since it would have a tendency to mislead, rather than to enlighten, to use the same word with an opposite or inconsistent meaning. Now the word soul in scripture (Genesis, i. 20. Job, xii. 10.) is used for all living creatures ; unless it means something that is common to all, its meaning when applied to brutes is essentially different from and contradictory to its meaning when applied to man; yet we cannot be bound to believe