of old looked forward, as to their greatest happiness, to the time, when after their bodies were committed to the earth, they should pass the remainder of an eternal existence in the hall of Odin, quaffing ale or metheglin from the skulls of their earthly enemies. The Mahometan is taught to expect that immediately after death he will be received into Paradise, and enjoy the most exquisite sensual delight in the arms of the beautiful Houris. To this day the savage North American calmly suffers death, even under the greatest torture, with his eyes steadily directed towards that blessed region, to which he considers his soul as immediately about to be transported. And let it be observed, that the belief of the heathen in the immortality of the soul is precisely equivalent to the belief of the Christian in an intermediate state. For the heathen has no such future event to which he can look forward as the resurrection of the body; he, therefore, by the immortality of the soul, means. simply that the self-consciousness of the soul will not be interrupted by death. And in this respect the belief of a heathen is much more correct and perfect than that of the Christian who draws an inference from Revelation never contemplated by it's divine author; imagining that because there will be a resurrection, that, therefore, there may be a long and indefinite interval when the soul, in it's nature

essentially immortal, shall to all intents and purposes be dead.

But so natural to man is the belief of the soul's immortality, that, as Leland observes, the infidel patrons of natural religion have made use of this circumstance as an argument against the necessity of the Christian Revelation; asserting that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and a state of future retribution, is so obvious to the common reason of all mankind, that there needs no divine revelation either to discover it to us, or to strengthen our belief in it.

Of the doctrine of the resurrection and of future rewards and punishments, it is not the object of the present work to treat;—the belief of most persons on those points is sufficiently established. The enquiry will be narrowed, as far as may be, to the simple question of what is usually termed, the separate state; the state of the soul while separated from the body. The first step towards a belief of this separate state, will be to consider well the nature of the soul itself.

*The sublime faculties and operations of the human soul; it's power of rising above material and temporal objects, and contemplating things spiritual

Leland on the Christian Revelation; from which work much will be taken in the following pages.

and invisible, celestial and eternal; appear to be the properties of something of a far nobler and higher kind than this corruptible flesh; and, therefore, there is no reason to think it can cease to retain it's consciousness on the death of the body; but that being of a quite different nature; essentially active, simple, and indivisible, it is designed by the Creator who made it so, for an immortal existence. That the belief of the never-ceasing self-consciousness of the soul obtained among mankind in the earliest ages, has been acknowledged by some who are otherwise no great friends to that doctrine. Lord Bolingbroke owns, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul began to be taught before we have any light into antiquity. And when we begin to have any, we find it established; that it was strongly inculcated from times immemorial, and as early as the most ancient and learned nations are known to us. And let it be again observed, and the observation constantly borne in mind, that the belief of those not enlightened by Christianity in the immortality of the soul, was, for the reason above given, precisely the same with a Christian's belief in a separate state. Every argument then, drawn from the ancient traditional belief in the soul's immortality, applies in full force to the point now under consideration;viz.-the state of the soul immediately after the

death of the body. Now the idea that the soul is immortal equally obtained (as was before observed) among the most barbarous, as among the most civilized nations. The ancient Scythians, Indians, Gauls, Germans, Britons, as well as the Greeks and Romans, believed that men shall live in another state after death. There were scarce any of the American nations, when the Europeans first came among them, but had some notion of it. The most ancient Greek poets, who represent the manners and customs of their own and other nations, still speak of this as their popular opinion and belief. It appears that in Homer's time, probably about 900 years before the Christian æra, this doctrine was received from ancient tradition; and how great must be the antiquity of that which was an ancient tradition in the time of Homer! Socrates, as represented by Plato, speaks of this notion as a most ancient and venerable tradition. "I am in good hope," says he, " that there is something remaining for those that are dead;—and that, as has been said of old, it is much better for good than for bad men."-Plato in this agreed with his great master. "We ought always," says he, "to believe the ancient and sacred words "-(which plainly points to some traditions of great antiquity, and supposed to be of Divine original)-" which shew both that the soul is immortal; and that it hath Judges; and suffers

the greatest punishments when it is disengaged from the body." Aristotle, cited by Plutarch, speaking of the happiness of men after their departure out of this life, represents it as a most ancient opinion; so old that no one knows when it began, or who was the author of it; that it has been handed down to us by tradition from indefinite ages. Cicero, speaking of the immortality of the soul, supposes it to have been held by those of the best authority, which in every case is and ought to be of great weight; and that all the ancients agreed in it; who were the more worthy of credit, and the more likely to know the truth, the nearer they approached to the first rise of mankind, and to their Divine original. He also observes, that the ancients believed in it, before they became acquainted with natural philosophy, which was not cultivated till many years afterwards; and that they were persuaded of these things, by a kind of natural admonition, without enquiring into the reasons and causes of them. He afterwards argues in support of this doctrine from the consent of all nations concerning it. And Seneca represents this universal consent as of no small moment in this argument. Plutarch not only approves the passage of Aristotle produced above concerning the great antiquity of this tradition, but represents it as an opinion delivered by the most ancient poets and