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and that of other men . The analogy holds aa far as their circumstances ate alike and no further . We are mortal , and designed for immortality ; therefore we shall die and rise like him . Our mortal frame is of the same general structure as his ; therefore it will undergo the same general process . We are not appointed to prove any ulterior fact through the proof of our identity after death , and therefore our gross remains will he left to decay , and we shall not come to survivors in a visible and tangible form .
We must resist our inclination to go into the consideration of the many Scripture facts related to those we have mentioned , and of the speculations on a local heaven , &c , &c , and pass on to the reasonings of the New Testament respecting the doctrine of a resurrection and future life , adverting to them only for the sake of illustrating the supposition now before us . The two principal parts are 1 Thess . iv . 13 , to the end , v . 1—12 , and 1 Cor . xv . In considering these passages , it is clear , first , that Paul expected an event which
did not come to pass ; viz . that before his generation passed away , the end of the mortal state of humanity should arrive ; that the departed should come with Christ , that his living disciples should be taken , without dying , into a state of incorruptibility , and that the whole race should then have entered upon the future life promised by Christ . It is easy to account for this erroneous expectation of the Apostle by reviewing the prophecies of Christ respecting his kingdom and its close on the overthrow of the Jewish statethe end of the age , as it was emphatically called—and by remembering how
different a thing it is to interpret a prophecy , however distinct , before its accomplishment , and to recognize its fulfilment after the event . Nothing is easier than to separate what relates to this false expectation from the philosophical reasonings on death and resurrection , which are in no way invalidated by it . It is clear , in the second place , that the whole chain of reasoning is worthless and unintelligible on the hypothesis of a separate soul , and that it gives no intimation whatever , as a whole , or in any separate part , of a simultaneous resurrection of mankind ; while it is perfectly consistent with the last of our three suppositions .
Nothing is more natural than that Paul should describe the dead as those who sleep , because there is certainly no stronger analogy to the apprehensions of the living than that between death and sleep ; an analogy which remains apparent to the survivors long after it has , according to our doctrine , ceased to the departed . It should be remembered how perpetually Paul at the same time represents the state of the departed as a state of consciousness , of activity , and enjoyment . It is , indeed , possible to interpret
these representations as having a prospective meaning ; but while such an interpretation is unnecessary , and while it destroys in a great measure the analogy between the case of Christ and that of men in general , we shall scarcely be inclined to adopt it . As for the rest , it can be necessary for our readers only to institute a comparison between our doctrine and the reasoning of Paul on death and revival , to admit their perfect consistency . We
were about to go over the several points of his argument , the question whether Christ arose , the application of his case to all others , the contrast of the states under Adam and Christ , the reply to objectors on physical grounds , the triumphant anticipation of the final issue to humanity—but this our readers can do for themselves , almost at a glance , and be thereby more disposed than they could be by any suggestions of ours to wonder how the belief of a separate soul could ever have been held in conjunction with concurrence in the Apostle ' s argument ; or how grounds of belief in a simul-
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Physical Considerations connected with Man s Ultimate Destination . 223
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/7/
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