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"foul alfo, from this height, fhall have a

pleafant and fairer. profpect of the globe of "the earth, the difpofition of whofe parts "will then lie before it in one view: that it is hard to determine what conformation, "fize, and place, the foul has in the body: "that it is too fubtle to be feen: that it is in' "the human body as in a houfe, or a veffel,

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or a receptacle. All which are expreffions

that fufficiently indicate that he had not in "his mind feparated materiality from the idea' "of the foul." To thefe remarks of Mr. Locke, I will add that, had any fuch opinion as that of an immaterial principle, in the modern fenfe of the word, been known in the time of Cicero, who has collected and difcuffed all the opinions of the Greek philofophers on that, as well as on almost every other queftion of importance, it would certainly have been found in his writings.

It is much doubted, however, whether, in reality, Cicero did not give into the Epicurean and atheistical notions of his time; fince he expreffes himfelf very much to that purpofe in his private letters; and it is remarkable that Cæfar, speaking in open senate, confiders all the accounts of what became of men after death as entirely fabulous, and in fuch a manner as if he well knew he spoke the sentiments of all his hearers.

The Stoics fometimes adopted the common philofophical doctrine, and fometimes departed from it; but upon the whole they may be ranked

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ranked with thofe who adopted the principles of the Oriental fyftem on this fubject, as well as on feveral others. Mrs. Carter fays, "they "held both fuperior intelligences, and like"wife the fouls of men to be a portion of the "effence of God, or parts of the foul of the

world, and alfo to be corporeal and perifh"able. Some of them, indeed, maintained "that human fouls fubfifted after death, but they were, like all other beings, to be con"fumed at the conflagration.

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Cleanthes taught that all fouls lafted till that time; Chryfippus only thofe of the good. Se"neca is perpetually wavering, fometimes

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fpeaking of the foul as immortal, and at "others as perishing with the body; and in"deed," the fays, "there is nothing but con“fusion, and a melancholy uncertainty to be "met with in the Stoics on this fubject." P. II.

"M. Antoninus, on the fuppofition that "fouls continue after death, makes them to "remain for fome time in the air, and then "to be changed, diffused, kindled, and re"fumed into the productive intelligence of "the universe. But in another place he vin"dicates the conduct of providence on the hypothesis that the fouls of good men are extinguished by death." "In geP. 12. "neral, however, he holds the language of "other philofophers on this fubject, call" ing the foul, νους, μέτοχος θειας απομοιρας, and απρροια, and αποσπασμα το διος. See Suicer.

"Thus

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"Thus alfo Seneca, Dei pars eft; and Ma"nilius, Pars ipfe deorum eft." Nothing," fays Mrs. Carter, p. 17, "can excufe their "idolatry of human nature (on this fuppofi66 tion) which they proudly and inconfiftently fuppofed to be perfect and felf-fufficient. "Seneca carries the matter fo far as, by an "implied antithefis, to give his wife man the

fuperiority to God. Even Epictetus fome"times informs his readers that they are not "inferior to the gods."

Galen declares he was quite ignorant of the nature of the foul, but that he much suspected that it was corporeal. Leland, vol. ii, p.

281.

Hitherto we have certainly found nothing like a proper immaterial foul, as it is defcribed by modern metaphyficians; and it is remarkable that when we come to the opinions of the chriftian Fathers, we find that, inftead of their. ideas being more spiritualized on this subject, they were confiderably more grofs than those of many of the heathens, as we have seen to have been the cafe with refpect to their opinions concerning the divine effence. But before I recite their opinions, I fhall take fome notice of thofe of the Jews.

Presently after the time of our Saviour, and not much, I imagine, before, the more fpeculative of the Pharifees began to adopt the doctrine of the heathens concerning the foul, as a fubftance distinct from the body. If we judge by the history of the gospel, we

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cannot but conclude that this was not then the common belief. At least Martha, the fifter of Lazarus, does not appear to have known any thing of it; nor does it appear from that part of the hiftory, that even the Pharifees in general had adopted it. And though it be faid of the Sadducees, fo late as the year A. D. 60, as diftinguished from the Pharifees, Acts xxxiii. 8, that they fay there is no refurrection, neither angel, nor Spirit, it is not certain that by spirit (a) in this place is meant the foul of a man, efpecially as it is faid of the Pharifees that they confefs both, ra aμçolepa, as τα αμφότερα, if there had been in fact but two articles mentioned before.

Nor is it quite certain that even the opinions of the Pharifees in general, in the time of Jofephus, were quite fo conformable to the notions of the Greeks as he has reprefented them. That himself, Philo, and others, had adopted that fyftem is evident enough; but the difpofition of Jofephus to accommodate his history to the tafte of his readers, and his defire to recommend his nation and religion to his mafters, are well known.

There can be no doubt, however, but that after the age of Jofephus the philofophizing Jews went into all the depths of Oriental myfticism. Philo Judæus calls the human foul, αποσπασμα, or απαυδασμα, from the Deity. Gale's Philofophia Generalis, p. 370. The Cabbalifts, as I mentioned before, fuppofed that fpirits are made not from nothing, but

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from the Holy Ghoft: and that fpirits produce fpirits, as ideas produce ideas. Beaufobre, vol. i, p. 588, 590. They also thought that the foul, being an emanation from the Deity, had the power of multiplying itself without end, because every part of the Deity is infinite; fo that they believed that all fouls were contained in that of Adam, and finned with him. ib. vol. ii, p. 288. Like the Greeks, the Jews in general, in the time of Jofephus, thought that the place of departed fouls was under the earth.

PART. II.

The Opinions of the CHRISTIAN FATHERS to the fixth Century.

WE find nothing said by any chriftian writer concerning the foul before Juftin Martyr, who had been a Platonic philofopher, and who, ufing their language, fpeaks of fouls as emanations from the Deity. Beaufobre, vol. ii, p. 350.

But as this doctrine of the high defcent of the foul has not the leaft countenance in the fcriptures, we foon find that it did not meet with a hearty reception among chriftians, and that it was abandoned by all who were not peculiarly addicted to philofophy. Irenæus exprefsly denied the tranfmigration of fouls; he believed that they were immortal only through

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