LETTERS. 



217 



can unite it with our gross corporeal bodies. The iiesh 

 is like the temporary tabernacle which the soul inhabits, 

 governs, and regulates ; but as it does not consist in any 

 organization of matter, our bodies may die, and return to 

 the dust from whence they were taken, while our souls, 

 incorporeal essences — are incapable of death and anni- 

 Lilation. The spirit is that portion of God's own im- 

 mortal nature which he breathed into our clay at our 

 birth, and which therefore cannot be destroyed, but will 

 continue to exist when its earthly habitation is mingled 

 with its parent dust. We must admit therefore, what 

 all ages, and nations, savage as well as civilized, have 

 acknowledged, that we have souls, and that as they are 

 incorporeal, they do not die with c ur bodies, but are ne- 

 cessarily immortal. The question then naturally arises, 

 what becomes of them after death? Here man of his 

 own wisdom must stop : — but God has thought fit, in his 

 mercy, to reveal to us in a great measure the secret of 

 our natures, and in tlie Holy Scriptures we find a plain 

 and intelligible account of the purposes of our existence, 

 and the things we have to expect in the world to come. 

 And here I shall just remark, that the authenticity and 

 divine inspiration of Moses are established beyond a 

 doubt, and that no learned man can possibly deny their 

 authority. Over all nations, even among the savages of 

 America, cut out as it were from the eastern world, there are 

 traditions extant of the flood, of Xoali, Moses, and other 

 patriarchs, by names wliich come so near the proper ones, 

 as to remove all doubt of their identity. You know man- 

 kind is continually increasing in number ; and conse- 

 quently, if you make a calculation backwards, the num- 

 bers must continue lessening and lessening, until you come 

 to a point where there was only one man. ^Yell, according 

 to the most probable calculation, this point will be found 

 to be about 5800 years back, viz., the time of the crea- 

 tion, making allowance for the flood. Moreover, there 

 are appearances upon the surface of the globe, which de- 

 note the manner in which it was founded, and the pro- 

 cess thus developed will be found to agree very exactly 

 with i\iQ figurative account of Moses. — (Of this I shall 



