The immortality of the soul ...

Section I

Answer to the objection that our theory of the human mind, and our method of proving it from its own phenomena, will prove that brutes have immortal souls . , « . . 159

SECTION IL

Reply to the assumption that the term death expresses annihilation, when applied to the punishment of sinners . . 169

Section III

Reply to the assumption that the word destruction means annihilation, or loss of existence 176

Section IV

Reply to the assumpJion that the word perish signifies annihilation 181

Preface

Tlie author of this little volume judges it no act of vanity to set up the following claims for his work :

1. The subject of which it treats is vastly import-dnt. Whether we have a spiritual nature, or no spiritual nature — whether dying is passing out of existence, or to another state of existence in a world of disembodied spirits— and whether sinners who reject the gospel, are to cease to exist, cease to know, and think, and feel, or to exist, and know, and think, and feel forever, are ;natters of too great importance to be passed by without receiving the most profound consideration.

2. In this little volume will be found all the essential features of these momentous questions, and all the important facts and arguments having an essential bearing upon them. It is believed that so much argument and truth, bearing directly on the one point of the soul's immortality, cannot be found elsewhere, in any one volume. When the author's attention was called to the subject, he expected to find it treated in some one convenient volume, but he searched in vain for

PREFACE.

that volume. Fragments of the subject he could find, Bcattered tnrougn yarious woriis, treating in the main on other subjects, a fragment here, and a fragment there; an incidental allusion to the subject in this volume, and a single direct argument in that, but in no one volume could he find the subject fully and clearly discussed. To supply this deficiency the present volume has been written, and is now presented to the Christian Public, who are invited to examine and judge with what ability the design has been executed. Though many of the views presented are not new, yet the author has no fear that the candid reader will be in the least inclined to deny his little work the merit of a full share of originality.

B. It is believed that the arrangement of the subjects, together with the full alphabetical and scriptural index, will -much increase its value as a book of reference. Any point treated in the work, can be referred to in a moment, by means of the index to the subjects; while the scriptural index will guide to any text quoted, with the remarks that may be made thereon.

4. That such a publication is demanded by the exigencies of the times, the author has no doubt. The errors opposed, the writer regards as one form of infidelity, rendered more dangerous by taking shelter under the name of Christianity, and claiming the sanction of the Scriptures. These views, which embrace one essential feature of infidelity, called materialism.

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received a new and powerful impulse, a few years since, by being hitched on to the car of excitement which swept over the country, on the subject of the immediate second appearing of Christ, to judge the world. ^ The connection between the Second Advent excitement, and a denial of man's spiritual nature, and a belief in materialism, we will not attempt to explain ; but the fact is notorious, that many of the most able Advent lecturers maintained the doctrine that man has no immaterial soul, and that death is the extinction of conscious being ; while the excitement about the immediate appearing of Christ, with which it was connected, gave it wings, and power, beyond what it could otherwise have acquired.

Now that the excitemant has measurably passed away, enabling its subjects to indulge in sober thoughts, this little volume is commended to their attention, 'with the hopeful prayers of the author that it may be instrumental in correcting some of the errors they have imbibed. It may also be useful to young and less experienced Christians, in guarding them against the assaults of infidelity on several points, and in furnishing them with the weapons with which they can defend themselves against its specious reasoning. If its usefulness be in proportion to the author's honest purpose and desire to do good, it will not have been written in vain. The Authob.

Chapter 1. The Immateriality Of Mind — Mind Is Spirit And Not Matter

An argument founded upon the power of volition, self-determination, and self-action.

The soul or mind is not matter but spirit, and of course forms no part of the body. This raises an important issne with one class who deny the immortality of the soul. There are some who deny the existence of a soul or spirit m man, to be contradistinguished from the body, and insist that what we call the mind is a mere function of the brain, and that the brain itself is intelligent.

So far as the researches of philosophy extend, there are but two primary substances in the universe, and these are matter and spirit. All we know of these substances is certain properties and phenomena which they exhibit. Matter is known to possess the properties of Impenetrability, Extension, Figure, Divisibility, Indestructibility, Inertia, Attraction. Spirit is that which thinks, perceives, remembers, reasons, wills^ a.nd Is susceptible of love, hatred, joy, and grief. The former of these properties are found in our bodies, in commo^i with all other matter : the latter constitute the

IjlMGRTALITY OF THE SOUL, phenomena of the mind. It is not reasonable to suppose that properties so opposite to each other, inhere in the same substance, and the only rational conclusion is that matter is not mind, and that mind is not matter. There must therefore be in man an intelligent spirit, which forms no part of the body, and this is what we call the soul. We reason upon the modern and generally admitted principles of natural philosophy, and unless we are greatly mistaken, the whole system of philosophy will have to be exploded to invalidate our arguments.

The admitted properties of m.atter, and the admitted properties of mind, cannot inhere in, and be essential properties of the same substance. A few illustrations will make this plain.

Inertia, which is an essential property of matter^ cannot inhere in the same substance with will or voli^ lion, which is an essential property of mind. Inertia is that property in matter which renders it incapable of self-motion, or self-action ; matter acting only as it is acted upon ; will or volition, is that property of mind which renders it capable of self determination and self-action. Now as matter' can act only a? it is acted upon, and as mind has the power of self-action^ they cannot be the same substance,— matter cannot be mindi and mind cannot be matter. Again, matter can be moved only by physical force ] matter acts upon matter by contact, and one material body has no power to act on another material body, only as their surfaces come in contact ] but mind is acted upon by motives, and acts from motives, and mind acts on mind through the

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medium of motives v/ithout physical contact. This proves as clear as a sun-beam that matter and mind are not the same

To insist in opposition to the above view, that mind is matter ; that intelligence and volition are its inherent properties, and consequently that man has no soul, which forms no part of his body, must subvert the admitted principles of philosophy. Philosophy insists that inertia is. an essential property of mattery man's body is matter, as shown above, and yet it exhibits locomotive povrers, and is seen acting without any visible agent acting upon it, and hence the doctrine of the inertia of matter must be given up, or we must admit that there is a rational soul inhabiting the body, which controls it, moves it, and guides it. We Bee a steam engine in motion, and we know that the power of motion does not reside in any part of the machine; that it acts only as it is acted upon. We know that the steam propels it, but we know at the ' same time, that the steam acts only as it is acted upon that there is an intelligent, reasonable agent that directs the whole.

So with the body ; it is an animal machine, the bones are siuds and braces to support the frame, and are levers for the purpose of mechanical action ) the muscles, by their contractions and distentions, operate on ^the bones and set the machinery in motion j but the muscles, have no intelligence, or volition, and when the machine is in ordsr, they are under the control of and are guided by the mind. The foot or hand cannot will to move ; the eye cannot will to open or shut.

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This our own consciousness proves. Let any man try to will with his foot or hand ; and his own consciousness, which is the highest proof possible, will tell him that there is no power to will in his foot or hand. Man can will, and may be conscious of willing to move his foot, but at the same time he is conscious that his foot does not will, and that he does not will with his foot, but that he, his mind, wills concerning it. The muscles are put in motion by a power superior to themselves, which must be intelligent. Now what is this power ? Those who deny that man has a soul, which is no part of the body, and which is an immaterial spirit, say that the brain is this self-determining, controlling and guiding power. This we deny on' the ground, that itis matter, and only matter, and possesses only the properties and powers of matter. If it be said that there is something in or .associated with the brain which is not matter, which is superior to matter, the whole argument is given up, for that is just what we contend for, and that superior something which is not matter, we call the soul. If it be said that the brain is only matter, then however refined it may be, it possesses only the properties of matter, one of w^hich is inertia, directly the reverse of self-operation. The brain then cannot act only as it is acted upon, and we come back to the question, what is this superior power that sets the muscles in motion, when we will to move the foot or the hand 1 If it now be said that it is the brain, we ask what power acts upon the brain, causing it to act on the muscles ? The brain being matter, can act only as acted upon. We have then got to give up

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the first principles of Natural Philosophy, or seek iot some higher cause of the phenomenon of motion. We allow that the muscles operate on the hones, that the hrain operates on the muscles, through the nerves, all the nerves and spinal marrow terminating in the brain; but we insist at the same time, that there is an intelligent soul which acts on the brain, or it would never act. This doctrine being admitted, the phenomena of matter and mind are made to harmonize without involving any philosophical contradiction, or absurdity; deny it, and the principles of Natural Philosophy, which past ages have developed and matured, are thrown back into chaos, and we have got to begin, de novo, and grope our way in search of first principles.

The above view accords with our own consciousness. Every man is conscious of thinking, but we are not conscious of thinking with any part of our body, not even the brain. That the head is the seat of the intelligence, no rational man can doubt; we are conscious that the thinking operation is carried on within the head, but no man is conscious that his brains think. The rational soul is mysteriously united to the body, and the brain is doubtless the point of union, and constitutes the medium through which the soul holds communion with the physical world without. The fact that this union is mysterious constitutes no objection, for if we deny it, there will be as great a mystery involved in the idea that the whole mental phenomena is the result of properties inherent in matter, and found only in the brain, in contradistinction from all other matter.

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SECTION IL

An argument fonnded on the intelloctnal powers of the mind-* Matter cannot think, is not intelligent.

If matter be intelligent and can think, thought must be an essential property of matter, or, it must be the result of some peculiar modification of matter; neither of which can be maintained. If thought be an essential property of matter, every part and particle of matter must think. If thought be essential to matter, what does not think, is not matter. This is too ababsurd to need a refutation.

Is thought, then, the result of some 'modification of matter ? Certainly not, for thought is now admitted not to be an essential property of matter, and no modification or refinement can add to any substance more than its essential qualities. Matter under every modification is no more than matter, and of course can possess only the properties of matter. Matter is known by the phenomena it exhibits, and all modifications and refinements are but modifications and refinements of these phenomena, without increasing or diminishing their number, and as it is destitute of thought at the commencement, it must remain destitute of thought through every change and modification. If any thing essential to matter be taken away, it must cease to be matter, and if something be added which is not essential, that something must have its own essential properties as a separate identity or substance, and can form no part of matter ] and if that something which is supposed to be added, be thought, it is not matter that thinks, but something that is added to it. This is

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just what we hold ; that in the composition of man, a rational soul is joined to matter, and that it is the soul that thinks, and not the matter. Whatever is essential to matter must be matter, and hence, to say that something not essential to matter, is added to it, so as to become a property of matter, is to say that something is matter which is not matter. This shows that thought, not being a property of matter, cannot become such, otherwise matter without thought would be less than matter, or matter with thought would be more than matter.

The admission that matter is or can be intelligent, must draw after it consequences startling in their nature, if not fatal to our common religion. The intelligence of matter has heretofore been contended for, only by Infidels ; and is in fact the doctrine of Atheism. To meet the argument in favor of the existence of God, drawn from the marks of intelligence everywhere impressed upon the visible creation, they have asserted that matter is intelligent. Those who deny the immateriality of the human soul, join the Infidel, and maintain, that matter may possess a very superior degree of intelligence. If this be so, who can prove that there is any thing but matter in the universe, and that what has been deemed the spiritual world is, after all, only a world of materiality ? There are the same proofs that the human soul is a spirit that there are that God is a spirit.. Let us look at this point in the light of reason. Atheism admits the existence of matter, but denies the existence of spirit, while Christianity insists that "God is a Spirit," not matter, but above

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matter, who created matter, and gave to it its modifications. Now our point is^ that every argument which is commonly resorted to^ to prove the existence of God, vill prove the immateriality of the human soul. To show this let us suppose a conversation between an Atheist and a Christian who holds to the materiality of the human soul.

Christian. — There must be a God, for as nothing can never produce something, the visible creation proves that there must be a Creator who made all these things."

Atheist. — " It is as easy for me to conceive that nature, or what you call the visible creation, is eternal, and that it contains within itself the cause of all the phenomena which it exhibits, as it is to suppose there is another being which is eternal, whom you call God, or a spirit, but whom I never saw and never expect to see."

Christian, — " It is not possible for us to comprehend eternal existence, yet reason tells us that something must be eternal, and that it is not the visible universe that is eternal, as you suppose ] but God who is a Spirit, is proved to be the Creator by the signs of intelligence and marks of design every where to be seen upon the very face of creation."

Atheist. — " Matter itself is intelligent under some of its modifications, as you admit, and hence all the phenomena of the universe may be accounted for without supposing anything superior to matter. If matter may possess one degree of intelligence, it may possess a still greater degree, even perfection of knowledge,

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which you atrribute to your supposed God. The human mind presents the highest degree of intelligence of which we have any personal knowledge j it presents the phenomena of thought, feeling, reason, volition, self-determination, self-action, moral sentiments, love, hatred, &c. These, in kind, are all that you pretend to claim for your supposed God ; you only insist that he possesses them in a higher degree, and as you contend that all these are possessed by matter, the human mind being only matter, the marks of intelligence which the visible universe exhibits are no proof of an intelligent Spirit, prior and superior to matter, whom you call God. Take an illustration: suppose you refer me to the solar system with the sun for its centre, and all the planets revolving around it with the regularity of a well adjusted clock, with comets to note the centuries and other periods, and tell me there must be a Creator who made this machine of the universe, who cannot be matter, but who must be spirit. In reply I exhibit to you a time-piece, and tell you that it is a model of the solar system; it has various and complicated wheels, all moving with perfect order, with the moving power so encased as to be hid from your view ; one pointer tells the lapse of every second ; another points Gift the flight of minutes as they depart one by one ; a third notes the lapse of hours, and still another counts the days as they pass one after another, so that by looking upon its face, you can read the second of the minute, the minute of the hour, the hour of the day, and the day of the month. This curious machine which gives the most clear proof of intelligence and

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design, is not only matter itself, but the designer and artificer were matter and nothing but matter, as you insist that the human mind is not spirit but mattw. If then matter compressed into so small a compass as the human brain, can design and execute after such a manner, it only requires an organization of this matter, on a larger scale, which may exist somewhere as the great soul of the universe, to account for all the phenomena which you consider proof of the existence of a Spirit-God."

It is seen from the above, that when we, as christians, deny that man has a soul which is not matter, but which is an immaterial spirit, we break down the great dividing line between Christianity and scepticism. How a man can prove the existence of God from the works of creation, when he attributes to matter, wrapt up in the small compass of the human brain, every essential attribute in kind, which he attributes to his Grod, we need more light to understand. It appears to lis that we must admit the immateriality of the human mind, or be driven by infidelity to adopt its theory of a material universe, with a material God, mysteriously folded up in its bosom, or equally mysteriously diffused among its living orbs. He who contends for the materiality of the human soul, may say that he relies upon none of these proofs to support his belief in the existence of God, but relies wholly upon the Scriptures. Well, this issue shall be met in due time, when we wiJl attempt to prove that the Scriptures as clearly teach that the human soul is a spirit, as they do that God is a spirit.

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Having urged the doctrine of the immateriality of mind, in an original argument founded upon the fact, that matter is not intelligent, we will, at this point, introduce another argument to the same effect, which we quote from Rev. Richard Watson. We have insisted that to admit that matter can he intelligent, is to give up our strong proofs of the spirituality of God, and hreak down the principal harrier hetween Christianity and Atheism ; and it will be seen that Mr. Watson arrives at the same conclusion, though by a difierent process of reasoning. He is treating of ihe spirituality of God, and remarks as follows : —

" Among the discoveries, made to us by Divine Revelation, we find not only declarations of the existence and unity of God, but of his nature or substance, which is plainly affirmed to be spiritual^ ' God is a Spirit.' The sense of the Scriptures in this respect cannot be mistaken. Innumerable passages and allusions in them show, that the terms spirit and body, or matter, ' are used in the popular sense for substances of a perfectly distinct kind, and which are manifested by distinct, and, in many respects, opposite and incommunicable properties : that the former only can perceive, think, reason, will, and act • that the latter is passive, impereipient, divisible, and corruptible. Under these views and in this popular language, God is spoken of in holy writ. He is spirit, not body ; mind, not matter. He is a pure spirit, unconnected even with bodily form or organs ] the invisible God whom no man hath seen or can see,'' an immaterial, incorruptible, impassable substance, an immense mind or intelligence,

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self-aeting, self-moving, wholly above the perception of bodily sense ; free from the imperfections of matter, and all the infirmities of corporeal beings ; far more excellent than any finite and created spirits, because their Creator, and therefore styled, ' the Father of spirits,'' and ' the God of the spirits of all flesh. ^

" Such is the express testimony of Scripture as to the Divine Nature. That the distinction which it holds between matter and spirit should be denied or disregarded by infidel philosophers, is not a matter of surprise, since it is as easy and as consistent in them to materialize God as man. But that the attributes of spirit should have been ascribed to matter by those who, nevertheless, profess to admit the authority of the biblical revelation, as in the case of the modern Unitarians* and some others, is an instance of singular inconsistency. It shows with what daring an unhallowed philosophy will pursue its speculations, and warrants the conclusion, that the Scriptures in such cases are not acknowledged upon their own proper principles, but only so far as they are supposed to agree with, or not to oppose, the philosophic system which such men may have adopted. For, hesitate as they may ; to deny the distinction between matter and spirit, is to deny the spirituality of God, and to contradict the distinction, which, as to man, is constantly kept up in every part of the Bible, the distinction between flesh and spirit. * To assert that consciousness,

* What is here said, is doubtless true of the English Unitarians, "but it is true of only a part of the Unitarians in this country. We understand some of them, at least, to be firm believers in the immateriality and immortality of the soul.

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thought, volition, &c., are the results of organization, is to deny also what the Scripture so expressly affirms, that the souls of men exist in a disembodied state : and that in this disembodied state, not only do they exist, hut that they think, and feel, and act without any diminution of their energy or capacity. The immateriality of the Divine Being may, therefore, he considered as a point of great importance, not only as it affects our views of his nature and attributes, but because when once it is established, that there exists a pure Spirit, living, intelligent, and invested with moral properties, the question of the immateriality of the human soul may be considered as almost settled. Those who deny that, must admit that the Deity is material • or, if they start at this, they must be convicted of the unphilosophical and absurd attempt, to invest a substance allowed to be of an entirely different nature, (the body of man,) with those attributes of intelligence and volition which, in the case of the Divine Being, they have allowed to be the properties of pure unembodied spirit. The propositions are totally inconsistent, for they who believe that God is wholly an immaterial, and that man is wholly a material being, admit that spirit is intelligent, and that matter is intelligent. They cannot, then, be of different essences, and if the premises be followed out to their legitimate conclusion, either that which thinks in man must be allowed to be spiritual, or a material Deity must follow. The whole truth of revelation, both as to God and his creature man, must be acknowledged, or the Atheism of Spinosa and Hobbes must be admitted.

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" The decision of Scripture on this point is not to be shaken by human reasoning, were it more plausible in its attempt to prove that matter is capable of originating thought,aijd that mind is a mere result of organization. The evidence from reason is, however, highly confirmatory of the absolute spirituality of the nature of God, and of the unthinking nature of matter.

" If we allow a First Cause at all, we must allow that cause to be intelligent. This has already been proved, from the design and contrivance manifested in his works. The first argument for the spirituality of God is, therefore, drawn from his intelligence, and it rests upon this principle, that intelligence is not a property of matter.

*' With material substance we are largely acquainted; and as to the great mass of material bodies, we have the means of knowing that they are wholly unintelligent. This cannot be denied of every unorganized portion of matter. Its essential properties are found to be solidity, extension, divisibility, mobility, passiveness, &c. In all its forms and mutations, from the granite rock to the yielding atmosphere and the rapid lightning, these essential properties are discovered ; they take an infinite variety of accidental modes, but give no indication of intelligence, or approach to intelligence. If, then, to know be a property of matter, it is clearly not an essential property, inasmuch as it is agreed by all, that vast masses of this substance exist without this property, and it follows, that it must be an accidental one. This, therefore, would be the first absurdity into which those Would be driven who suppose the Divine Nature to be

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material, that as intelligence, if allowed to be a pro perty of matter, is an accidental and not an essential property, on this theory it would be possible to conceive of the existence of a Deity -without any intelligence at all. For, take away any property from a subject which is not essential to it, and its essence still remains ; and if intelligence, which in this view is but an accidental attribute of Deity, were annihilated, a Deity without perception, thought or knowledge, would still remain. So monstrous a conclusion shows, that if a God be at all allowed, the absolute spirituality of his nature must inevitably follow. For, if we cannot suppose a Deity without intelligence, then do we admit intelligence to be one of his essential attributes ; and, as it is easy for every one to observe that this is not an essential property of matter, the substance to which it is essential cannot be material.

" If the unthinking nature of unorganized matter furnishes an argument in favor of the spirituality of Deity, the attempt to prove, from the fact of intelli^ gence being found in connection with matter in an organized form, that intelligence, under certain modifications, is a property of matter, may, from its fallacy, be also made to yield its evidence in favor of the truth.

*'The position assumed is, that intelligence is the result of material organization. This, at least, is not true of every form of organized matter. Of the unintelligent character of vegetables, we have the same evidence as of the earth on which we tread. The organization, therefore, which is assumed to be the cause of thought, is that which is found in animals ; and to