On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
spread its wings for flight , and was bidding adieu to suffering and humanity at once ? In cases of gradual decline , it is less easy to the imagination to picture to itself the state of the spiritual essence during the gradual approach of dissolution . We know that the decay of the mind , the relaxation and final suspension of muscular power , the failure of all the organs in succession , are caused b y affections of the brain and the nerves connected with it . Is it the life which fails and decays , or does the immaterial portion of the frame remain in its integrity while all its outward manifestations are obscured ? Can it be that while torpor is stealing over the limbs , and dulness
impairing the ear and the eye , the spiritual principle is awake and observant * —that there is a bright sensibility within , while all is verging upon death without ? We know that it is not so . We have all had experience of sleep , of faintings , of debility ; and we know that if there be a spiritual principle unsusceptible of injury , it is not detected by our experience , our state in sleep and illness being the same as if mind and body were one . If the immaterial portion of the frame be susceptible of disease in exact proportion , with the material part , where is its advantage over matter ; what evidence is there for it ; or rather , what evidence is there not against it ? The facts connected with disease and modes of death certainly afford no evidence of an immaterial principle in man ; and the same may be said of those presented by the various instances on record of translation and resurrection . There is no hint in the case of Elijah of his body being any where
deposited when the spirit left it , and resumed when he appeared to the disciples on the mount of transfiguration ; and if his presence had been wholly spiritual on that mount , it could not have been an appearance to the bodily eyes of the gazers , for pure spirit cannot be visible . In the three cases of restoration to life at the command of Jesus there is no suggestion of any departed spirit being recalled to inhabit the body ; and in the instance of the resurrection of Christ himself , messengers , whose radiance was apparent to the eye , whose voices were audible to the ear , were sent to roll
away the stone , and release the captive of death . Now , as they were recognized by human senses , these messengers could not have been purely spiritual , according to philosophical definitions of spirit : and as these messengers were sent to open the mouth of the cave , it is a fair presumption that matter is acted upon only by matter , except in the case of the One Being whom alone we must necessarily suppose to be spiritual . If the spirit of
Jesus had returned to inhabit the inclosed body , what need would there have been of messengers to assist , if those messengers are supposed spiritual ? And it is monstrous to imagine them material , and man spiritual . The easiest interpretation of the whole case is surely to suppose that all were material agents ( however etherealized ) of the One Spirit through whom all was done .
The other supposition which has divided opinion is , that man , being ^ wholly material , falls into a state of unconsciousness at death , which continues , « nd must continue , till , at some awful future period , there shall be a revivification of every human body . That the first part of this supposition is correct there can be little doubt . The resemblance of death to a deep sleep has suggested the idea almost universally ; and it is confirmed by the silence of all who have ever been restored to life as to their experience of death . It may , indeed , be conjectured that all impressions received in an ulterior state must necessarily be obliterated when the body is reinstated in
its mortal conditions ; but this is a mere hypothesis , and scarcely a tenable
Untitled Article
Physical Considerations connected with Man ' s Ultimate Destination * 219
Untitled Article
R 2
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 219, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/3/
-