used both by the vulgar and learned with fuch latitude, that an argument cannot be properly founded upon the ufe of a fingle expreffion; except where it is placed technically, or with avowed precision. And it is no where declared, that man's being formed of the duft of the earth and becoming a living foul is the whole account of his nature, if we leave out the principal circumstance, mentioned in the former chapter, and explanatory of the reft, that he was created in the image of God. Now that God is a Spirit (Jo. iv. 24.) we are informed by our Saviour, who thence directs us to worship him in spirit and in truth; in opposition to the heathens, who were guilty of offences against morality in honour of their gods, and in diftinction from the Jews, who relied upon ceremonies that were only types of inward rity.

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And excepting this account of the firft formation of man, we have no reason to expect from the fcriptures a full revelation of his nature, till the time of the gospel, which

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But

which brought life and immortality to light. Though even under the law Mofes cautions the Ifraelites not to degrade the idea of God by making a material image to be worshipped as a representation of his person or nature; fince they faw no fimilitude, when he defcended in glory upon Mount Sinai. notwithstanding the inferiority of the Jews in religious knowledge, there appear evident traces, that they believed fome principle to be in man fuperior to duft and ashes, and that they expected a more complete discovery of our nature and duty. That death did not destroy the whole man, they must conclude from the appearance of Samuel to Saul, when he foretold his deftruction for difobeying the word of the Lord, which could not be known in all its circumftances by any evil spirit. And the very application of Saul to the woman of Endor fhewed it to be the general opinion, that something furvived the grave. The teftimony of Solomon is strong to the fame purpose: Then, fays he, fhall the duft return to the earth as it was: and the spirit fhall return unto God who

gave it. (Eccl. xii. 7.) And it is no contradiction to this, that every imagination of man is fometimes reprefented as ceafing at death; fince an impartial review of those paffages would evidently fhew, that they mean his worldly schemes and pursuits, or the power of making known the excellence of his Creator amongst mankind.

In the doctrine likewife of our Saviour and his apoftles, which contains every article of knowledge that is necessary to salvation, we find two different principles plainly mentioned ; one enabling us to receive the knowledge of God, and the other as the chief fource of fin and difobedience.

St. Paul makes an evident diftinction between the body and spirit in the fixth chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, (v. 20.) where he exhorts his converts to glorify God in their body, and in their spirit, which are God's. To affert that our Saviour and his apostles used the word fpirit in conformity with popular opinion, though they

knew

knew that man had no spirit diftinct from the organization of his body, would be to take an unwarrantable liberty with the language of fcripture. It is true that the words belonging to other fciences are used by our Lord and the inspired writers in their common acceptation; as the fcriptures were neither intended to instruct us in natural philofophy, nor claim any fupport from its teftimony. They are not the wisdom of man; but the power and revelation of God. But in all doctrines, that are neceffary to the knowledge of religion, we may depend upon as full an account of every particular, as our nature is capable of receiving at prefent. When therefore in his Epiftle to the Romans (vii. 23.) St. Paul speaks of a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and tells the Galatians, (v. 17.) that the flesh lufteth against the fpirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and that these are contrary the one to the other, he plainly confirms the general opinion of christians, that man is compofed of two principles; one of which would acknowledge, that the law is holy, and the commandment

boly,

boly, juft, and good, (Rom. vii. 12.) if the connexion, which it has with the world by its union with the other, did not frequently lead us into temptation.

And that the foul of man is capable of acquiring knowledge by revelation, without the affiftance of the bodily fenfes, is plain from the information of the fame apostle. I knew a man, says he, in Chrift, above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth) fuch an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew fuch a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth) how that he was caught up into Paradife, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, 4.) Had he believed, that a man's body is the whole of his perfon, it appears impoffible that he could have any doubt of the concurrence of his body in this vifion. And if St. Paul had known, that the capacity of thought could arife from the organization of the brain without any other principle, we