-{) THE PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. Hebrew, no dead soul," that is, nò deadman or woman, of perhaps no dead animal. Since the word soul is taken so often and so commonly to signify the person of a man or woman, no wonder that there is so frequent mention of souls dying in the scripture, when human persons die. And if the soul signify a man or woman when they are dead, as well as when living, here is a fair account why the scrip- tures may speak of the souls going down to the grave, or being delivered from the grave, &c. Ps. lxxxix. 48. " Shall he de- liver his soul from the hand of the grave?" This may either denote his principle of animal life, or his person, that iss himself, Now this account of things is very consistent with the scrip. turai doctrine of the distinction of the intelligent soul of man from his body, and the intelligent soul's survival of the body, nor do any of these scriptural expressions concerning the soul forbid this supposition : For though in some places, the word soul signifies the person of the man, or his body, or that animal principle which may die, yet in other places, it signifies that in- telligent or thinking principle, which cannot die, as we have before proved, where our Saviour tells us, " we should not fear them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." Wheresoever the scripture speaks of a soul's being killed, it only means that the person who was mortal is slain ; that is, the life of the body is destroyed, and the man considered as a compound being made up of soul and body is, in some sense, dissolved when one part of the composition dies. But where the soul signifies the intellectual principle in man, it is never said to die, unless where the word death means a loss of happiness, or living in misery; hut this implies natural life still, for this soul cannot naturally be destroyed by any power but that which made it. If any person object thatsthe apostle in Acts ii. 31. "says, " The soul of Christ was not left in hell, or the grave ;" for so the word in the Hebrew may signify ; Ps. xvi. 10. whence this is cited ; there is a sufficient answer to be given to this two or three ways. It may be construed, that the principle of the animal life of Christ, was not left to continue in death; or that the person of the man Jesus was not left in death or the grave, the soul being sometimes put for the person; or it may be as well con- strued, that the spirit of Christ, or his intellectual soul, was not left in the state of the dead, or of separation from the body, which the word " sheol" in Hebrew, and aáns in the Greek signify. Here it may be observed also, that the words which signify spirit, " roach, pneuma, spiritus," in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and other languages, is used sometimes for air or breath, which
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