gQ`Z. ESSAY 'FOWAYD THE CSSG'T.:ILI. L 2.krat. x. "8. " Fear not. them, which kill the body, but are not able to bill the soul ; but rattier fear him, wk-to is able to destroy both body:awl soul in hell." Every common reader, as well as every man of learning, who reads this text with a. sincere mind, and without preju- dice, I think, will acknowledge at least, that the most obvious and easy sense of the words implies, that there is a soul in man, which men cannot kill, event though they bilk the body. It is to very little purpose of writers to say, that the Greek word. liUxn, which, we translate soul here, Both in other places, in scripture, and even in the 39_ verse of this :very chapter, signify life, and consequently here it 3&Ejy,. also,. signify the animal life, or the person of the man ; for it is manifest, that, in this place, it must sig- p<>rf some immortal principle in, man that cannot die ; whereas, when the body is killed, the animal life dies too, and dares not exist till the body is raised again : But the soul, is a principle in this place; which men. cannot kill, evenAhough they destroy the life of the body: And w..batsoeverother senses the word uxn mayobtain in other tufts,; that cannot preclude such a sense. of it, in this. text, s is most ursual_ in itself, andwhich the context makes .necessary in this. place. .Nor will it avail the supporters of the mortality of the soul to say, that this scripture means: only, that men can- not kill the soul for ever, so that it shall for ever perish, and have no future life hereafter by a. resurrection.: for, in this sense, men. cannot kill the body, so that it shall never revive,, or rise again: But, here .is a plain distinc- tion in the text, that the body may be killed, but the soul cannot. And I think this scripture proves also, that, though the body may be laid to sleep in the grave, yet the soul cannot,be laid' to sleep.; for the substance of t e bodyy still exists, and is not utterly destroyed by killing it, but only: laid to sleep for a time, as the scripture often de- scribes death : But the soul cannot be thus laid. to-sleep for a time, with its substance still existing, for that would be to have nopre-eminence. above the body, which is contrary to this assertion of our Saviour. H. Luke xvi.: 2.27-28. "The. beggar died; and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. The richmari
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