perfons of a fimilar turn of mind; but it is abundantly confirmed to us by the' well attested refurrection of Jefus Chrift, and the promises of the gospel, established on all the miraculous events by which the promulgation of christianity was attended.

ΜΑ

SECTION IX.

Of the VEHICLE of the Soul.

ANY modern metaphyficians, finding fome difficulty in uniting together things fo difcrepant in their nature, as a pure immaterial fubftance, and fuch grofs matter, as that of which the human body and brain are compofed, have imagined, that this connexion may be better cemented by means of fome intermediate material fubftance, of a more refined and fubtle nature than that which is the object of the fenfes of fight or touch. Upon the diffolution of the body by death, they fuppofe that this fubtle vehicle of the foul is fet loofe from its connexion with it, and flies off, unperceived by any of the fenfes, together with the immaterial foul, from which it is infeparable, into the intermediate state.

This, in fact, is nothing more than taking the war of the ancients, or the popular gbost

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1

ghost of all countries, which was all the thinking principle that they had any idea of, and making it a kind of body to fomething of which the ancients and the vulgar had no idea. But this modern vehicle of the foul is altogether a creature of imagination and hypothefis, and in reality without explaining any one phenomenon, or removing one real difficulty. For fo long as the matter of which this vehicle confifts, has what are fuppofed to be the effential properties of all matter, viz. folid extent, its union with a truly immaterial fubftance must be just as difficult to conceive, as if it had been the subject of all our corporeal fenfes. To the vulgar, indeed, the attenuation of matter may make it seem to approach to the nature of spirit; but the philofopher knows that, in fact, no attenuation of matter brings it at all nearer to the nature of a fubftance that has no common property with

matter.

Mr. Wollafton, however, who is certainly a very refpectable writer, and treats pretty largely of this fubject, of a vehicle for the. foul, not attending to thefe obvious confiderations, feems to confider the immaterial foul as, a fubftance capable of the most intimate union. with this fubtle material vehicle. I fhall prefent my reader with this writer's ideas on the fubject, and fubjoin fome remarks upon it. I might quote what many others have advanced, but there is no end of pursuing fuch mere creatures of imagination, and the far

ther

ther difcuffion of the fubject would be inexcufable trifling.

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"The human foul," fays Mr. Wollafton*, "is a cogitative substance, clothed in a ma"terial vehicle, or rather united to it, and as "it were infeparably mixed (I had almost "faid incorporated) with it. Thefe act in conjunction, that which affects the one, affecting the other.-The foul is detained "in the body (the head or brain) by some fympathy, or attraction between this ma"terial vehicle and it, till the habitation is fpoiled, and this mutual tendency interrupted (and perhaps turned into an averfion) by fome hurt or disease, or by the decays and ruins of old age, or the like, happening to the body; and in the interim, by means of this vehicle, motions and impreffions are communicated to and fro." Again, he fays, "If we suppose the foul to be a being by nature made to inform "fome body, and that it cannot exist and "act in a state of total feparation from all "body that body which is fo neceffary to

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it, may be fome fine vehicle, that dwells "with it in the brain, and goes off with it "at death-When it fhall, in its proper vehicle, be let go, and take its flight into the (6 open fields of heaven, it will then be bare to the immediate impreffion of objects. "And why should not thofe impreffions

* P. 364.

+ P. 370

"" which

" which affected the nerves that moved, and "affected the vehicle, and the foul in it, ❝ affect the vehicle immediately, when they "are immediately made upon it, without the interpofition of the nerves. The hand "which feels an object at the end of a staff,

may certainly be allowed to feel the fame "much better by immediate contact, without "the staff."

On this I would obferve, that by whatever confiderations it appears that a vehicle is neceffary to the foul, the body must at least be equally neceffary to the vehicle. For it by no means follows, that because external objects can affect the vehicle through the body, that therefore they would affect it at all, and much lefs better, without its affiftance. It would then follow, that because the auditory nerves are affected with founds, by means of the external and internal ear, that therefore founds would be heard better without the ear, the vibrations of the air acting immediately upon the nerves themfelves; and that because the brain is affected with the feveral fenfations, by means of the nerves, that it would perceive every thing to much more advantage, if it were expofed to the influence of all thofe things to which the nerves are expofed. Whereas thefe are all contrary to fact.

On the contrary, there is the greatest reafon to believe, that nothing is provided for us as a means, or inftrument of fenfation, but

what

what was naturally proper, and even neceffary for the purpofe; and confequently that, if these means were with-held, the end could not be attained. Whereas, therefore, the only means by which we receive our sensations are the organs of fense, the nerves, and the brain, we ought to conclude, that without bodily organs, nerves, and brain, could have no fenfations or ideas.

There is fomething curious in Mr. Wollafton's notion concerning the place of the foul, as determined by the fpecific gravity of the grofs body, or of the vehicle to which it is connected; copied, as it should feem, from Plato or Cicero, who give a fimilar account of the height to which the foul afcends after death, according as it is more or lefs weighed down by its vicious tendency to earthly things.

"That general law," fays Wollafton*, to which bodies are fubject, makes it "fink in this fluid of air, fo much lighter "than itself, keeps it down, and fo deter"mines the feat of it, and of the foul in it, to be upon the furface of this earth, where,

or in whofe neighbourhood, it was first produced. But then, when the soul shall "be difengaged from the grofs matter which now encloses and encumbers it, and either "becomes naked fpirit, or be only veiled in "its own fine and obfequious vehicle, it must

* P. 401.