8: 10. 12: 11. 1 Cor. 2: 11. 5: 3. 6: 20. 7:34. 14: 14, 16. 2 Cor. 2: 13. 7: 1. 12: 18. Gal. 5: 17. Col. 2:5. 1 Thess. 5: 23. 1 Tim. 4: 12. Heb. 4: 12. 1 Peter 3: 4. 4: 6. In the following places we have the phrases my spirit, thy spirit, his spirit. Mark 2:8. 8:12. Luke 1: 47, 80. 2: 40. John 11: 33. Rom. 1: 9: 1 Cor. 5: 4. 16: 18. 2 Cor. 7: 13. Gal. 6: 18. Phile. 25. Heb. 12: 9. These expressions, as repeatedly noticed, are used for the sake of the greater emphasis, to express the person's self. In the following places we have these, among other peculiar phrases; "the spirit of life, spirit of adoption, &c. See Rom. 8: 2. Rev. 11: 11. Rom. 8: 15. 11:8. 1 Cor. 2: 12. 4: 13. Eph. 1: 17. 4: 23. 2 Tim. 1: 7. Heb. 10: 29. 1 Peter 4: 14. 1 John 4: 3, 6. Rev. 19: 10. 1 Cor. 4:21. Gal. 6: 1. 1 Thess. 2: 8. Eph. 2: 2. 1 Cor. 15: 25.

Parkhurst says pneuma means, "the human soul, or spirit breathed into man immediately by God himself; and refers for proof to Gen. 2: 7. Rev. 11: 11. 1 Thess. 5: 23. comp. Heb. 4: 12. Eph. 4: 23. Matt. 26: 41. Luke 1: 47. Acts 7: 59. Heb. 12: 23. 1 Pet. 3: 19. 1 Cor. 2: 11. As the three last of these texts are the passages on which dependance is placed, as proving the existence, suffering, or enjoying of the spirit after death, we shall now consider them with some others. The first we notice is

Luke 8: 55, "And her spirit came again and she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her meat." When it is said "her spirit came again" it is similar to some instances noticed above in the Old Testament. If this maid's spirit went to heaven or hell, it is certain its stay there must have been short, for she had been only a little while dead. But not a word is said about her spirit, that it went to, or came from, either of those places.

Luke 23: 46, "And when Jesus had cried with a

loud voice, he said, father into thy hands I commend my spirit; and having said this he gave up the ghost." See the parallel texts, Matt. 27: 50. John 19: 30. These words are taken from Ps. 51:5. comp. verse 7. What Jesus commended into his father's hands, and what he gave up, he calls "my spirit," which we have seen simply means himself. Jesus' life was not forced from him, but freely laid down, and he commends it to his father, who was to bring him again from the dead. This precisely agrees to what Solomon said, that the spirit "returns unto God who gave it."

Acts 7: 59, "and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The remarks made on the last text equally apply here. The chief difference between the two passages is, Jesus commended his spirit or himself into his father's hands, but Stephen commended his spirit or himself to Jesus. And why? God was to bring Jesus again from the dead; but it is Jesus who is to raise all up at the last day, John 6: 39, 40. If life is hid with Christ in God, why not also received by him, to be restored at the resurrection? It is not said, when Stephen died, what is often said in our day, that, "the spirit winged its way to God in heaven." No; it is only said "he fell asleep," verse 60. Stephen at death, did no more than we are exhorted to do in life, to commit the keeping of our souls, spirits, persons, ourselves, to God, 1 Peter 4: 19.

Acts 23: 8, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection; neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both." Allowing spirit here to refer to man's spirit, what does this prove? It shows that the Pharisees believed in spirits, the Sadducees did not, but proves not the truth of either opinion. Paul shows, verse 6, that he held with the Pharisees, the doctrine of the resurrection, but says nothing

about his agreement with them in any thing else. Why single out this article, if he agreed with them also in the other parts of their creed?

1 Cor. 5: 5. This text is considered in my Second Inquiry, to which I refer the reader. Comp. verse 4, and see Taylor's remarks above.

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Heb. 12: 23. "We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect." It is allowed that Paul could not mean, that he and others were come to the disembodied spirits of just men made perfect in heaven. What then did he mean? We have seen above, that spirit is often put for the person's self. That spirits of men are men themselves. See 1 Cor. 2: 11. Gal. 4: 18. 2 Tim. 4: 22, with many other texts. The apostle simply means we are come to the persons of the just perfected." What persons? I answer, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others, of whom he had spoken, chap. 11. For the nature of the perfection referred to, see Heb. 10: 1, 14, and the Improved Version on this text.. Is it asked how Paul and others were come to them? I answer, that this is explained, chap. 11: 40, "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." They were come to the better thing provided, without which those persons were not perfected.

1 Peter 3: 18, 20, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit; by which also he went and" preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing; wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." This is one of Mr. Hudson's principal texts in proof of a future retribution. See p.

228-236.

He maintains that Jesus Christ went and preached to spirits in prison or in hell.

It is very obvious that the persons to whom Peter wrote were suffering persecution, verse 17. To encourage them to support themselves under it, he reminds them, that "Christ also had suffered," and if they suffered unjustly, he also had suffered, “the just for the unjust." His sufferings were also on their account, for their design was to bring them to God. He had been put to death in the flesh, an extent to which their sufferings had not yet reached. The part of the passage demanding particular attention follows:

"But quickened by the spirit." Quickened from what? Evidently from his death in the flesh. Quickened by what? Quickened by the spirit. By what spirit? By his disembodied spirit, say Mr. Hudson and others, for by it he went and preached to the spirits in prison. But this is assuming as true, several things which ought to be established, of which I shall take notice in the course of my remarks. From this expression-" but quickened by the spirit," it is assumed, that our Lord was quickened or brought again from the dead by his disembodied spirit. But did Jesus Christ bring himself again from the dead? Nothing can be more false or unscriptural, for it is again and again declared, that God raised him from the dead. See Essay 2. Sect. 1. God did not leave his soul in hell, nor suffered his holy one to see corruption. He was "declared, or rather determined to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, or the Holy Spirit, by his resurrection from the dead." Rom.1:4. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. It is a plain case here, that by whatever spirit Christ was quickened, by the very same spirit he went and preached to the spirits in prison, and

1st. It is as

this we have seen was not his disembodied spirit, but the spirit of God, or God himself. But here several things are again assumed as true. sumed, that fulake, rendered prison, refers to a place or state of punishment in a future state. But is it correct to take this for granted? This however is assumed in opposition to the Scripture usage of this word, for in no instance, is the word fulake, prison, ever used in such a sense in the Bible. It is used in the following places to designate a state of ignorance, wickedness, and wretchedness, in which men are in this state of existence, but never the state or condition of men after death. See Isai. 42: 6, 7, and 49: 8, 9. The Scripture usage of this word is entirely against Mr. Hudson.

2d. It is also taken for granted, that the spirits in prison mean disembodied spirits. But this is equally incorrect. It has been seen above, that ruah and pneuma, rendered spirit in the Old and New Testament, occur very often. But numerous as the passages are, it is not once used to designate a disembodied spirit, either suffering or enjoying in a future state. This one fact speaks a volume against Mr. H's views of this passage, yea, his whole system. That the term spirit, both in the Old and New Testament, is used for the person himself, need not be proved here, for it must be obvious to all, from the investigation gone into above of the words rendered spirit. Peter then says in this passage, that Christ went and preached to persons, not disembodied spirits. But Mr. H. and others seem to think, that hell is the place for successful preaching; for say they, Christ went and preached to the damned there. And some have thought that our Lord on this occasion converted all who perished in the flood. But I might ask, why not all the damned? Why leave all the rest? Besides; how came the Antedi