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    ceived probably the best- education , * which Tarsus , the Athens ot . tho IvasJ :, and Jerusalem , ( where ho was a disciple of the liberal and tolerant , or at least politic , Gamaliel , ) could afford . Since

    this apostle has made a very important distinction between what he spake of himself and what he received from the Lord , 1 Cor . vii , 6 . 8 . 10 . 12 , &c . whether he referred only to marriages , divorces or to the general scheme ot the Christian doctrine , this distinction may justify Unitarians on rational grounds in not admitting that plenary inspiration for which the Churchman seems to plead .

    There may be many Unitarians , who are materialists , but the opinions of these classes or sects have no necessary connexion . Vet the Unitarian materialist , it mny be useful to observe , believes , that the resurrection of the dead will be effected by as proper a nWacle as any , which have ever occurred . Will the immaterialist affirm , that it will be produced like events in the ordinary course of nature ? Or does the spirit , as distinct from the breath , literally -depart at the hour of death to God , who gave it ? What appearances are there of a soul ' s taking its ili «; ht , when the body

    dies . \ v hat became ot Christ ' s soul , between the period of his death and that of his resurrection ? Where is the human mind during a swoon , ojr in instances of suspended , yet with difficulty awakened , animation ? What is the precise moment of its departure ? In short , what is . this spirij ., which , qg- nstitutvs identity or consciousness ? Is not it also continually changing ? It has con ..

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    fessedty neither length , breadth nor thickness , nor any of the properties of matter . What then is it ? The power or principle of thoni ; ht . Farther we cannot <* o

    More we cannot learn . It maj be the germ wrapped up in the body , as the seed is in the bud or the butterfly in the caterpillar .

    The difficulty of accounting for these phenomena is not greater to the materialist than to his ad . versary . Indeed , they are both obliged to refer them to the in . terposing providence of God , and to take refuge in divine revelation . However this may be , the ac

    cusation ot irrationality from a Churchman may seem to some like Satan ' s correction of sin ! For when , in certain liturgic

    ser-\ ices , we rend creeds , the spawn of times later than apostolic , which almost flatly contradict one another , one of which denounces everlasting perdition against those who believe not that the Father is eternal , the Son eternal and the Holy Ghost eternal ; a second declares , that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son , n third affirms that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost—when

    we are told , that the body and blood of Christ are actually in the elements of the communion ; when we peru « e >* 9 nicies , o ' n the meaning of which few who sijm them are agreed , which , according to many others besides Air . Stone , are very inconsistent with one another , and uhich therefore few cuu profess , to believe without a salvo to their . conscience , it is natural to a ~ k your correspondent the Churchman , who lays a foundation upon dust and ashes ?

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    410 A Rational Christians Answer to the Churchman .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/10/