On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
selves were amongst the living , and the God of the living was their God , Secondly , For such is the mighty power of God exerted towards the righteoets dead , who are worthy of
a part in the first resurrection , that when this mortal state of things is over , there is no further increase by marriage , therefore marriage ceases , and the righteous dead become like the messengers of God in heaven .
This reply of Jesus is much illustrated by the transfiguration on Mount Tabor , when Moses , one of the righteous dead , who had been buried in the land of Nebo , appeared as a messenger of God to Jesus , with Elias the prophet , another messenger , and conversed with Jesus on his
crucifixion that was to be . ± his is also farther illustrated by Rev . xix . 10 , xxii . 9- In both which places we find , that the angel or messenger of Jesus , sent to make known future events to John , expressly tells John ,
* ' I am thy fellow-servant , and of thy * brethren the teachers , and of them who keep the sayings of this book . " Probably a James or a Stephen , one of the first martyred teachers of Christianity ; whosoever he was , at least his resurrection and office shew that
there has been , and still is , a first resurrection prior to the general resurrection from the dead : and , that stuch resurrection is not the raisins : of the body , but the raising of the vital , mental conscious principle ; and of
which principle Jesus said , Matt . x . 2 S , " Fear not them who are able to kill the body , but are not able to kill the living principle , but rather fear him who is able to destroy both living principle and body in the grave . "
Passing from the New Testament to the Old Testament , there the language for death is , ** he slept , he slept with his fathers , he was gathered to his fathers , " all speaking of the dead as in a state of existence , though their bodies were in general "passed away . if we may be permitted to take the language of the historians as evidence
of their ideas concerning things , it may be said that tlie history of ancient times by Moses , confirms the language of Jesus , where he tells the 8 adducees that the righteous dead are , in che » tate called heaven , as the mesirengersor angels of God . Thus Moses , itt the XTiii . and xix . chapters of
Untitled Article
Genesis , in different places of the same account , speaking of the persons who appeared , he sometimes calls them angels and sometimes men , using the words synonimously with each other , which he could not do if they were
as they appear to have been , supernatural agents , but on the ground of the righteous dead being employed as divine messengers , when the Deity thought proper to appoint such extraordinary intercourse on any occasion with his creature man . This
synonimous use of the word is also to be found in Judges xiii . when the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah s wife ; and again in the appearances at the sepulchre of Jesus , by comparing John xx . 12 , Luke xxiv . 4 , Matt , xxvinu 2—5 , Acts i . 10 .
See also the appearance to Lot , Gen . xviii . xix ., and Simpson ' s admirable Essay on Angels . From this evidence , and that in my
former Letters , I conclude , that seeing all living existence is formed , ab origine , by a union of the vital principle to matter , there is not any ground for supposing that this vital principle does not exist at the death of the
body , and completely independent of it , with a capacity of animating with all its recollections such spiritual body , as may be appointed for it , seeing that original life , by its recollections , continues , though the matter is momentarily changing .
Against this doctrine , Dr . Priestley has justly been considered as the most formidable antagonist . If I understand his arguments they may be reduced to these four objections : — 1 , All ideas have come from corporeal senses ; thought cannot exist without an organic body ; the induction , therefore , from these allowed facts is ,
that the organic body thinks . 2 , That the reason , why it is contended that the mind and body are distinct is , that the mind may be proved capable of living after the death of the body ; but if jt was capable of such separate existence , it would also continue its activity when the body swooned or slept .
3 . If the mental faculty is immaterial and immortal , all its particular faculties would be so too ; but every faculty is liable to be impaired , and death renders them all extinct . 4 , If the sentient principle istrnma-
Untitled Article
604 On Vitality .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/32/
-