MIND. 47 



brought life and immortality to light. z They should reflect that 

 the belief of an immaterial substance removes no imagined dif- 

 ficulty, as it is the peculiar doctrine of scripture, in distinction to 

 that of most heathen philosophers and people a , that the resurrec- 

 tion will be positively of body, that in our flesh we shall see 

 God b , and that therefore our minds, according to the scripture 

 doctrine, must appear as much a property of body hereafter as at 

 present. 



Only this the Christian account of a future state is reason- 



stance of our faith hangs upon a thread upon the literal interpretation of some 

 word or phrase, against which fresh arguments are springing up from day to day ! " 

 1823, April, p. 163. 



The Theory of Religion, by the learned, able, and enlightened Bishop Law, 

 already quoted, deserves to be read by every one, as proving that by the words 

 soul and spirit, no immaterial, immortal principle in man is meant, but merely 

 person, the superior and inferior mental faculties, living creature, &c. ; by death, 

 a total cessation of existence ; by the life hereafter, a second bodily existence. It is 

 to this admirable divine that Paley dedicates his Principles of Moral and Political 

 Philosophy, and says " Your Lordship's researches have never lost sight of one 

 purpose, namely, to recover the simplicity of the Gospel from beneath that load of 

 unauthorised additions, which the ignorance of some, and the learning of others ; 

 the superstition of weak, and the craft of designing men, have (unhappily for its 

 interest) heaped upon it. And this purpose, I am convinced, was dictated by 

 the purest motive ; by a firm, and, I think, a just opinion, " that whatever ren- 

 ders religion more rational, renders it more credible : that he who, by a diligent 

 and faithful examination of the original records, dismisses from the system one 

 article which contradicts the apprehension, the experience, or the reasoning of 

 mankind, does more towards recommending the belief, and, with the belief, the 

 influence of Christianity, to the understandings and consciences of serious en- 

 quirers, and through them to universal reception and authority, than can be effect- 

 ed by a thousand contenders for creeds and ordinances of human establishment." 



For an account of all the hypotheses that have been taught upon life and mind, 

 see An Enquiry into the Opinions, ancient and modern, concerning Life and Or- 

 ganisation. By John Barclay, M.D., Edinb. 1822. 



z 2 Timothy, i. 10. 



a " Errant exsangues sine corpore et ossibus umbrae." Ovid. Metam. iv. 



b Job. 



c It is the doctrine of the Church of England, that all men shall rise with their 

 bodies* Enoch and Elijah are represented to have been translated bodily. Nay, 

 our church has so little of this horror of matter, that it declares that Christ, " the 

 very and eternal God" (Article ii.), ascended into heaven, and there sits, with 

 " his body, vfithjlesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's 

 nature. ' ' Article iv. 



