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prive it of these. The foul, therefore, "must be percipient and active in its own nature, independent of matter." Again he fays, "matter, when beft difpofed, must "limit the power and activity of the foul, " and when difordered and indifpofed, may "quite obftruct or impede its operations, but

can in no manner aid or affift its power "and energy, otherwise than by confining " and determining them to one manner of "exertion. Hence the foul, when separate "from matter, must be freed from indifpo"fition, and the confinement be taken off " from its natural activity."

The manifeft contradiction between these two accounts of matter, hardly needs to be pointed out. The immaterial principle, it feems, is to be initiated in the elements of knowledge by its union to a dead and torpid fubftance, which is fo far from giving it any life or power, or any degree of them, that we cannot name a greater abfurdity, than fuch at supposition; a substance which, when beft difpofed, muft limit the powers and activity of the foul, and when difordered and indifpofed, as. it is evidently very liable to be, and indeed is. hardly ever otherwise, may quite obftruct and impede all its operations; and can in no manner aid or affift its powers or energy.

If the foul, as this ingenious writer fays, be percipient and active in its own nature, and when feparate from the body must be freed from indifpofition, and have a confinement;

taken off from its natural activity, it would certainly have been very happy for it never to have been fubject to fuch a confinement, and a great advantage never to have been affected by fuch a contagion.

The only shadow of confiftency that is preferved in this account is hinted at where he fays, that "matter can no otherwise aid and "affift the powers of the foul, than by con

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fining and determining them to one man66 ner of exertion." This, however, is but a shadow of consistency, for, by the very famé way of reafoning, it might be proved that a man is a gainer by the lofs of his eyes or ears, and indeed of all his fenfes except one; because his fentient powers being by this means confined and determined to one manner of exertion, be becomes more perfect in the exercise of it; whereas he is certainly a loser upon the whole, by having his senses and faculties thus curtailed. But allowing that fome small advantage might poffibly accrue to the foul from this great limitation of its percipient and active powers, what chance is there for its receiving any benefit upon the whole; when the thing that is employed to confine it is fure to become, if we judge from fact and experience, exceedingly difordered? fo that, by this writer's own confeffion, it must quite obftruct and impede all its operations; and when, by its union to this contagious principle, it is liable to be contaminated in fuch a manner as to be utterly ruined and loft to

every valuable end of existence. Great, indeed, we fee, is the risk that the immaterial foul runs by its union with this grofs material body, and small, very small indeed, is the advantage that it may happen to derive from it.

It seems, however, that when the chriftian, after having long ftruggled, and maintained a very unequal combat in its present ftate of confinement, in which his foul çan have little or no use of its native powers and faculties, has, by the benevolent conftitution of nature, at length got rid of this incumbrance of clay, thefe fetters of matter, and this dreadful contagion of flesh and blood, and with all the privileges, and all the powers of action and enjoyment, naturally belonging to an unembodied fpirit, has ranged the regions of empyreum for fome thousands of years, thefe powers are to be again clogged and impeded by a fecond union to matter, though better tempered than before, and therefore a less, though a real and neceffary incumbrance. And what is most extraordinary in the case is, that this fecond degradation takes place at a period which chriftianity points out to us as the great jubilee of the virtuous and the good; when (all mankind being judged according to their works) they fhall receive the plaudit of their judge, and fhall enter upon the inberitance of a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world; at which time,

and

and not before, they are to be admitted to be for ever with their Lord Jefus Chrift.

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Mr. Baxter, in his Efay on the Soul, p 304, fays, that "after the refurrection, the re-union of fouls to their bodies may be no punishment, or diminution of the happiness designed them, if we conceive it to "be within the reach of infinite power tơ bring this union to a state of indolence, or "inoffenfiveness on the part of matter. For

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to have no trouble or uneafiness at all "from matter, is precifely the state of happiness with respect to it, that spirits have "which are entirely free from it. "no attentive man,"

But

66 he adds, ever "thought that there confifted any real felicity in being united to material fub"ftance."

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That this account of the effects of the union of the mind with matter is inconsistent with the other quoted from his Matho, needs no pointing out. In the one cafe, matter muft neceffarily limit and fetter the foul, whereas in the other, it is poffible, though barely poffible, that it may not fetter it. Upon the most favourable fuppofition, however, the christian refurrection is barely no difadvantage. But can this be that ftate towards which all chriftians are taught to look with the most eager expectation, when only their joy is to commence, and to be full. Looking, as the apoftle Peter lays, for that blefjed hope. One would think

that

that fuch writers as thefe had been but littlé converfant with the New Teftament, to the uniform language of which their notions are totally repugnant.

Such have been the prepofterous effects of mixing these heathenifh notions with the principles of our holy religion, which difclaims all connection with them, and militates againft them in every article.

On the other hand, the fyftem of materialifm, which revelation uniformly fuppofes, is clogged with none of thefe difficulties, or rather abfurdities. Man, according to this fyftem, is no more than what we now fee of him. His being commences at the time of his conception, or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, inhering in the fame fubftance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and whenever the system is diffolved, it continues in a ftate of diffolution, till it shall please that Almighty Being who called it into existence to restore it to life again.

By the help of the fyftem of materialism, alfo, the chriftian removes the very foundation of many doctrines, which have exceedingly debafed and corrupted chriftianity; being in fact a heterogeneous mixture of pagan notions, diametrically oppofite to those on which the whole fyftem of revelation is built. The chriftian fyftem provides no reward for the righteous till the general refurrection of the juft, nor any punishment for the E wicked,