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places in the works of Moses; but those which are above quoted have been selected, because they shew most decidedly that he applied the term indiscriminately to man and beast; for in the original, the word which our translators have rendered sometimes "life," and sometimes soul," is the same in every instance, and as in many of the passages quoted (and in numerous others which might easily be added to them) the expression cannot possibly mean any thing but animal life, it certainly must be allowed to be a most unsafe mode of interpreting Scripture, to say, that the same word, in the same sentence, applied, without any apparent distinction, to a human being and a brute-creature, should, as to the former, signify an immaterial essence; as to the latter, mere vitality.

3rd. Powers of the mind-Understanding, Inclinations, Affections, Appetites, Thoughts, Wishes, Desires, Feelings.

Gen. xxvii. 4. Make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

19. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

25. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee.

xxxiv. 3. And his soul clave unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.

8. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter; I pray you give her him to wife.

xlii. 21. And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear.

xlix. 6. O my soul, come not thou into their secret.

Lev. xxvi. 11. And I will set my tabernacle among you; and my soul shall not abhor you.

(30. And my soul shall abhor you.)

15. And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments.

Num. xi. 6. But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes.

xxi. 4. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

5. Our soul loatheth this light bread.

Deut. iv. 9. Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently.

29. If thou seek him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. (Vide also ch. vi. 5; x. 12; xi. 13; xiii. 3; xxvi. 16; xxx. 2-6.)

xii. 15. Thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Gen. xli. 8. And it came to pass in the morning, that his spirit was troubled.

Exod. vi. 9. But they bearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit (όλιγοψυχίας.)

xxxv. 21. And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing.

Many more passages of a similar nature to those before quoted in this chapter might be added, but it is conceived that enough has been said to shew that however general the notion of an immortal principle, distinct from the body, may have been, and is, no argument can be fairly drawn from those passages, or the other similar ones in the Pentateuch, in its favour, since it is

* The Septuagint has oλyouɣnoεv å λaòs, which, perhaps, may be well rendered, "the people were faint-hearted."

clear that Moses uses the term supposed to express it in many different senses, but never in that sense which necessarily indicates a separate immaterial principle in man.

And here it may be remarked, that had there been such a separate principle as the soul is supposed to be, it is incredible, as has been said before, that no trace of any such revelation should be found in the writings of Moses, who records not only his own personal communications with God, but is the historian of all the patriarchs. Thus, in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Genesis, which contain the account of the Deluge, though "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and found grace in the eyes of the Lord," insomuch so, that when God said "the end of all flesh is come before me," and "behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, under heaven," he at the same time says to Noah, "but with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives, with thee." No other intimation is given than the preservation of the natural or animal life of Noah and his family, and that of the creatures which were with them in the ark; the whole tenor of the narrative shews the complete destruction of all life besides. "And all flesh died that moved upon the face of the earth;

both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."-Gen. vii. 21, 22, 23. No distinction is made between man and other animals; their destruction is as universal and uniform as had been the gift of life.

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Next comes the history of Abraham. "Now the Lord God had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." —-Gen. xii. 1, 2, 3. This appears to have been the first divine communication to Abram, which baving obeyed, the Lord (ver. 7) appeared again to him in Canaan, and said, " unto thy seed will I give this land." Again he had a divine communication after Lot had departed from him (ch. xiii. 14, 15, 16, 17,) renewing the promise of the land of Canaan to his posterity, though he

was then childless: then, ch. xv. 4, 5, came the promise of a son, and through him a countless host of descendants, with a prophetic announcement of their condition for 400 years: a renewed gift of the land of Canaan, and a definition of its bounds. Next, (ch. xvii.) when he was ninety-nine years old, and Sarah ninety, by another immediate revelation the covenant of circumcision is established, and the promise of a son by Sarah given, which was fulfilled the following year. Then (ch. xviii.) comes the remarkable appearance of the Lord to him in the plains of Mamre, previous to the destruction of Sodom, when the promise of a son by Sarah was renewed: and, lastly, (ch. xxii.) that most beautiful and most affecting of all compositions, the narrative of God's command to sacrifice Isaac; Abraham's obedience, and its consequences. These are all, or nearly all, the direct communications from the Almighty to Abraham, recorded in the Scriptures, and in no part of them is there an expression which can by any interpretation be construed into an allusion to the human soul as a distinct principle; yet Abraham was to be the father of the faithful; from him was to descend that Seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's head, and re deem the human race from the consequences of Adam's transgressions, for in him were "all nations of the earth to be blessed" (ch. xviii. 8.)