AN ESSAY ON THE STATE OF THE SOUL, Between Beath and the Resurrection. SECTION I. 1. THAT the human 'eing consists of a Body and a Soul, the one material, the other immaterial, and that on their separation by Death, the Soul-the immaterial substance--exists, and continues to exist, though the Body be resolved into its original dust ;-seems an opinion entertained from the earliest times in almost every country of the world.* And as the Soul could scarcely be conceived to exist without locality, the notion was not less prevalent, * Cicero says, that all nations, from all antiquity, agreed in the persuasion that the Soui existed after death. Tusc. Disput. p. 27. Edit. Davies. that some place had been assigned for its habitation, or that there was a mansion prepared for disembodied Souls. This place (to "mortal eyes invisible") was so much in the contemplation of the common mind, that its division into two distinct abodes-for the Good and for the Bad-hath been almost every where received as a subject of rational belief:-a persuasion that carried with it the doctrine of rewards and punishments. According to Plutarch, the Egyptians called the subterranean place whither the souls of men were conducted after death, Amenthes. And it is an old opinion" (says Plato) that the souls of men pass from earth to Hades."† It is to such simple ideas that we should carefully confine our view, lest we resort to notions which had their origin in philosophical speculation. And, whilst we advert to the Hades of the Greek and Roman Poesy, it is far from our intention to exhibit the picture of a Tartarus or an Elysium. * Plut. de Isid. p. 362, Edit. Franc. 1610 fol. We would merely assert, that those simple ideas were diffused universally: And, after having traced them among the most polished people to remote antiquity, we should recognize them at the present day even in the religion of the untutored Indian. 2. Whether these notions (which were adopted as outlines not only of Philosophical systems but of Poetic portraits) were primarily derived from reason and fancy, or owed their currency to oral tradition as deduced from the primitive ages, is a question of no trivial moment. That they were neither the conclusions of human wisdom, nor the product of imagination, is almost evident from their universality. What may have been the fundamental or distinguishing principle of one philosophical sect, has very seldom been embraced by another: And its influence over the multitude has never been extensive or permanent. Nor can we think, that the first elements of a popular creed, are, in any instance, attributable to poetic invention; though the Poets may have dressed it up in a variety of fiction, and embellished it with a colouring not its own. It should seem, then, that we must look, for the source of these opinions-perhaps to the Patriarchal age-perhaps to the times immediately after the Fall. That, at so early a period, Man was not abandoned to doubt and conjecture respecting his station in this world as connected with another, but that he was favoured with some instruction from Heaven on the subject of his future destiny ;-is extremely probable, if not certain; as his duties could only be defined aud determined by such knowlege. If created for this life only-if he had no object of pursuit beyond the grave;-his wishes, his desires, his motives of action must have widely differed from those which influence the heir of immortality. That Man, as he died in Adam, was made alive in Christ-that, as before, so after the Fall, his state upon earth was probationary,—that, after a season, his living Soul, disunited from his perishing body, should abide, for a while, in some appointed place, and thence called forth to judgment, should answer for the things done in that body;-was, perhaps, a necessary communication. But little additional information was probably, in the first instance, vouchsafed. Simplicity is more consistent with truth, than amplification, description, or detail, and makes a mere lasting impression. very On these few important facts, the primeval Religion of the countries seems to have been founded. Through Abraham, in particular, this Religion was disseminated amongst the Gentiles. The descendants of Abraham were numerous as "the stars of Heaven," 66 or as the sands upon the sea-shore." The Arabians, sprung from bis son Ishmael, to this very hour revere his memory: and the Persians have some relics, of his Religion. But, perhaps, the truths we have in view, were not merely traditional. It is likely, that written documents, to the same effect, were preserved by a succession of Gentile Priests and Prophets, and through their hands were brought down from ancient times to the blessed era, when "life "and immortality" were displayed in full splendour. The Sibylline books, derived from the first ages, contained the doctrine of the immortality of the Soul, and probably some notices of the place whither it was conveyed immediately after death. To that place the Cumaan Sibyl was supposed, we know, to conduct Æneas. 3. In these preliminary observations, we would intimate little more, than that the ideas of mankind in ge |