MIND. 43 



not that we are naturally immortal, but that " in Adam (by 

 nature) all die 8 , have our being utterly extinguished 4 , and in 

 another order of things, when the fashion of this world shall 

 have passed away and time shall be no more, that in Christ (by 

 the free, additional, gift of God, granted through the obedience 

 of Christ, but, consequently, by a miracle, not by our nature") 

 we shall all again be made alive. St. Paul declares the resurrec- 



there are many things wherein we have very imperfect notions, or none at all ; 

 and other things, of whose past, present, or future existence, by the actual use 

 of our faculties, we can have no knowledge : these, as being beyond the discovery 

 of our natural faculties, and above reason, are, when revealed, the proper matter 

 of faith. Thus, that part of the angels rebelled against God, and thereby lost 

 their first happy state, and that the dead shall rise and live again : these and the 

 like, being beyond the discovery of reason, are purely matters of faith, with 

 which reason has nothing directly to do. " Locke, Essay on Human Under- 

 standing, iv. ch. 18. 



Reason's province is only to examine the proofs of the authenticity of a reve- 

 lation, and faith should thus be founded on reason. But how few of the human 

 race ever think, or are even capable, of carefully examining them ! And of those 

 who do examine them, how few do not commence the examination with their 

 minds unconsciously half made up ! And yet the greater number look down with 

 a self-complacent and uncharitable feeling upon even good men, whose opinions 

 differ in any respect from their own ; forgetting that good conduct is the only 

 test of goodness, that grapes cannot come from thorns, nor figs from thistles. 



The question of the authenticity of Scripture is altogether foreign to this work. 



s Bishop Watson, Apology for the Bible, Letter x. near the end. 



* Idem, Miscellan. Tracts, 1. c. Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, in his Theory 

 of Religion, &c., which went through seven editions, asserts that the sentence of 

 death passed upon Adam and Eve meant nothing less than a total destruction of 

 existence ; and that the idea of its implying a continuation of consciousness and 

 real existence in some other place than earth, is not sanctioned by Scripture, but 

 is the philosophy of after-ages. p. 345. He adds, that Bishop Tillotson, though 

 a patron of this notion, confesses it is not found in the Bible : and, after a critical 

 and elaborate examination of the words used in Scripture to denote soul and 

 spirit, and their various applications, he sums up the enquiry thus : " But 

 neither do these words, nor any other, so far as I can find, ever stand for a 

 purely immaterial principle in man, or a substance, whatever some imagine they 

 mean by that word, wholly separable from, and independent of, the body." 



Bishop Sherlock employs strong expressions : " Scholars may reason on the 

 nature of the soul, and the condition of it when separated from the body: but the 

 common hopes of nature receive no support from such enquiries. We die and moul- 

 der to dust ; and in that state, what we are, or where we are, nature cannot say." 

 Discourse ii. p. 85. and vol. iv. p. 79. 



M Bishop Watson, Apology, 1. c. 



