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And the term is correctly rendered breath, in the early part of Genesis, in the relation of the covenant with Noah. "Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the BREATH (spirit) of life: from under heaven, and every thing that is in the earth, shall "die." (Gen. vi. 17). So, in perfect accordance with this understanding of the word, the apostle Paul describes the Deity to the heathen philosophers as a "God that made the "world, and all things therein, and giveth to ALL" (beasts, in common with man) "life, (soul) and breath, (spirit) and all "things." Acts xvii. 25.

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(b) LIFE. The word soul, which should have been rendered life, occurs, among other instances throughout the scriptures, in the book of Job thus, in the reply to Zophar. "I am as one mocked of his neighbour; the just and upright man "is laughed to scorn: but ask now the beasts, and they shall teach "thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; and the fishes of the sea, they shall declare unto thee-the hand of the "Lord hath wrought this, in whose hand is the SOUL” (life) “OF "EVERY LIVING THING." (Job xii. 10.) And such life, or soul, or spirit, is represented as existing in the blood. Hence Noah and his sons are commanded not to eat flesh which contained blood: thus, "Flesh with the LIFE (soul) thereof, "which is the blood thereof, ye shall not eat." (Gen. ix. 4.) And in the levitical service, the blood which is commanded to be poured out on the altar of burnt-offerings, and some of which would necessarily run under the altar, is described as being the life (soul or spirit) of the animal which had been offered in sacrifice. Zenophon likewise uses the Greek term, rendered soul, in a corresponding meaning

"Ye have preserved your SOULS" (lives)—

"He hath deprived my dear and only son of soUL" (of life.)

And in a corresponding sense the Latin term anima is used by Virgil

"He vomits forth his purple soul" (blood-life.)

(c) PERSON. In the triumph of the Israelites over the five kings, Joshua relates, that "the Lord delivered them "into the hands of Israel, who smote them, and left none remaining: and he smote all the SOULS," (persons) "utterly destroying them, and there was not any left to breathe." (Joshua xi. 11, &c.) See also in the book of Numbers, when Eleazar the priest commands the Jews in what manner they shall divide their spoil, in which place the word soul is used

as applicable equally to beasts and to men.

"Divide the

prey into two parts; between those that went out to battle, "and between all the congregation, and levy a tribute unto the Lord; one SOUL out of five hundred of the persons, of "the beeves, of the asses, and of the sheep." (Numb. xxxi. 28.)

In the New Testament the same line of remark is in an equal degree applicable, as when Peter is addressing the Jews in the temple; he warns them, that as Moses had taught, "The Lord your God would raise up unto you a "prophet; him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you; and it shall come to pass that every "SOUL" (person)" that will not hear that prophet, shall be "destroyed." (Acts iii. 23.)

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(d) BODY. In the Mosaic law, relative to the vow of the Nazarites, the Jews are commanded-" All the days that they separate themselves, they shall come at no dead BODY;" (in Hebrew NEPHESH, dead soul.) And in the book of Numbers, where commands are given at greater length not to touch dead any person, we shall, for the of more purpose clearly shewing the absurdity which attends the use of the term soul, insert the greater portion of the law upon that subject. "He that toucheth the dead body of any man, shall be "unclean seven days;" (in Hebrew, and in the marginal readings, "the dead soul of any man.") "Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead," (dead soul that is dead)" and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord; and "that SOUL" (person) "shall be cut off from Israel. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain, or a DEAD BODY" (dead soul) or a bone of him" (bone of a soul) shall be unclean seven days; for an UNCLEAN PERSON" (unclean soul) “ shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer for the purification for sin; but "the man that shall not purify himself, THAT SOUL" (that man) "shall be cut off from among the congregation; and "whatsoever the unclean person" (unclean soul)" toucheth "shall be unclean; and that SOUL" (person) " that toucheth it, "shall be unclean until even." (Numbers xix. 11 to end.)

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(e) WIND, or AIR. The powers of the Deity are thus described by Amos :-Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel! for lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the "WIND;" (in Hebrew RUACH, the soul or spirit) "the Lord, "the God of hosts is his name." (Amos iv. 13) So, in Zechariah's vision the four spirits there described are the four winds. Then I answered, and said unto the angel," (messenger)" that talked with me, what are these? and the angel" (messenger)" answered, these are the four spirits" (or four winds)" of the heavens." (Zechariah vi. 5.)

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In a similar sense the Latin phrase spiritus, whence the English word spirit is immediately derived, is used by Virgil"When the northern blast (spiritus)

"Roars in the Egean."

And the English word ghost, being of the same root with gust of wind, is often used in such a sense by our old writers. Thus Sydney represents Lucretia as having been precipitated into such a love fit, that in a few hours "she ghosted;" and in the same sense, in the received version of the scriptures and elsewhere, to "give up the ghost," is used for the giving up of life, and the ceasing to breathe, as the means of life.

(f) MIND, AND THE AFFECTIONS. Thus Jesus, when quoting the prophecy of Isaiah, concerning himself—" Be"hold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom "my SOUL" (mind)" is well pleased." (Matt. xii. 18.) So in the Acts-" The multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one SOUL" (mind.) (Acts iv. 32.) Also, as descriptive of the affections of the mind-" Shechem's SOUL "clave unto Dinah, and he loved the damsel." (Gen. xxxiv.8.) "The SOUL of Jonathan was knit with the SOUL of David, "and Jonathan loved him as his own SOUL." (1 Sam. xviii. 1.) "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, "and let your SOUL delight in fatness." (Isaiah lv. 2.) also Paul's address to the church at Thessalonica-" We "were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of "God only, but also our own SOULS, because ye were dear to "us." (1 Thess. ii. 8.)

See

From these several cases, thus classed, it will appear that the phrases rendered soul and spirit, are all of them capable of a translation which does not imply or give the least support to the doctrine of an immortal, immaterial principle in man, distinct from his body, and from what may be called his animal life. It has, indeed, been well said, on what is considered orthodox authority," that this word in scripture, especi"ally in the style of the Hebrews, is very equivocal;"* such then being the fact-we ask, why have not our translators, in rendering such a word into English, selected terms which are not "very equivocal," as such were clearly at their disposal? Or why have they sometimes retained the words soul and spirit, together with the superstitious ideas which custom

* Cruden's Concordance. Article "soul."

has attached to those words, and at others, the sense and context being precisely similar-rendered them, as we have seen above, by intelligible phrases as life, breath, &c.? At any rate, to have been consistent, they should either always have avoided the use of these phrases, (soul and spirit) or have always employed them. One inference, however, flows directly from the above classification; namely, that the mere terms soul or spirit, thus arbitrarily adopted by our translators, ought not, and cannot be esteemed to teach, or in any way to support the doctrine of the immateriality and immortality of the soul.

Having thus cleared the way, by ascertaining the meaning of the terms so frequently employed in this controversy, we can now, with advantage, proceed to the investigation of that class of passages which comes under the first position--"That God, at the creation of man, imparts to, and, at his death, withdraws from the body, an immate"rial and immortal soul." Taking first the history of the creation, as recorded in the book of Genesis, when, after the heavens and the earth were formed, God having made every living thing after its kind, then man was called into being, and allowed to have dominion over all other animals, we are told that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of "the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, "and man became a living SOUL." (Gen. ii. 7.) That is, a living person-a living body-a breathing, living man; any of these forms of expression being, not merely allowable, but actually more faithful to the idea in the original, than is the term SOUL, as must, from the preceding remarks, be self-evident; but had our translators, in their use of this word, only been consistent even throughout these two first chapters of the book of Genesis, we should not anticipate that a defender of immaterialism would resort for argument to the Mosaic account of creation: for eight verses only previous to the one just quoted, we are informed, that God said, "let the waters bring forth abun"dantly the moving creatures that hath LIFE;" in Hebrew the same term elsewhere rendered soul-and the margin of even the old English translation more consistently reads "that hath soul." And, in the 30th verse of the first chapter, every green herb is offered for meat " to every BEAST of the earth, and to every FOWL of the air, and to every thing that "creepeth upon the earth wherein there is LIFE." In the Hebrew the same word as that rendered soul, and in the margin of our old Bibles"To every thing that creepeth upon the earth

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"which hath a LIVING SOUL." But, without placing, which we well might do, our reliance upon, first, the acknowledged meaning of the term in the original; and, secondly, the application of the words "a living soul," equally to every thing which creepeth upon the earth," as to man, we look at what is supposed the most difficult passage, the 7th verse of the 2d chapter, as it stands in the common translation : God, we are told, out of the dust of the earth, "formed man;" that is, the whole man; not a part of him, not a mere shell, but the entire and perfect machine: the materials with which this machine was formed are described as being, not in part, but solely the dust of the ground:" they were material therefore, and perishable-not immaterial and immortal. "And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life:" the formation of the machine proceeding (for the relation is given in accordance with human language, as though there had been three stages in man's becoming a living person or soul) the air entering into the nostrils-the lungs become inflated-the heart beats-the blood circulates-and this organized machine, as a natural consequence," becomes a living person or soul." The process of creation in the vegetable world is described in a similar manner—“ These "are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they "were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth " and the heavens; and every plant of the field BEFORE it was "in the earth, and every herb of the field BEFORE it grew." Thus far the earth, the heavens, the herbs, and the plants, are described as having, like man, been " formed" but a something additional is still, in both cases, required for perfecting the thing so made. In regard to the former, the Lord God had NOT caused it to rain upon the earth;"? consequently though made, it was not fertile; and the "plant of the field,” and “the herb of the field,” could not vegetate or grow, but "there went up a mist from the earth, "and watered the face of the earth :" then, but not till then, the earth brought forth plenteously, and the plant and the herb "grew;" consequently this "mist," and the rain which ensued, were to vegetables the cause, or principle, of life, in the same way that the breath, which passed through man, was so to him; for as it was the rain which caused the plants and the herbs already formed, to grow-so it was likewise the breath, or vital air, and not any immaterial immortal principle, which, passing through the lungs of man, already created, caused him to breathe, and move, and live, and he forthwith became a living being. The process