THE ANCIENT AND POPULAR
PNEUMATOLOGY.

GOING out from Cartesianism, and ascending from its cloudy mists to the clear mountain-top, on whatever side we turn our eyes, we find the whole world in every age and clime to have been generally of one mind in regard to this momentous subject. But as we neither desire nor expect much credit for our own assertions merely, in order to instruct as well as confirm, we will adduce certain passages, in the first place, from ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. As in every fond theory, however, so in the Intellectual System, appeal has been made to this source, as by Dr. Cudworth; but in vain, when that only has been regarded, which those sages may have said about certain nominal essences, or mere attributes of the soul, (as voos, ɛvredɛxɛia, mens,) instead of the soul itself; (as Пvɛvμœ, anima, n.) The ancients also sometimes apply the terms immaterial or incorporeal to spirit, yet it is well known, that this was a general way of speaking, whereby only a greater degree of subtility is intended: as for instance, where Aristotle calls fire, (De anima,) "the most incorporeal of all the elements." To begin then our deductions here-(ib. lib 2, c. 3.)

"The soul must be a substance, as well as the form of the natural body and possessed of life." Whence the Peripatetic soul is called "the substantial form of the human body"—how like the common idea of a ghost.—(lib. 1, c. 2.) "Some, indeed, say, that the soul is, in a peculiar sense, that which moves -Democritus says, that it is a certain fire and heat-in like manner, Leucippus-both think, that the soul is what affords

motion to animals-and the Pythagoreans appear to hold the same opinion. At least, some of them say, that the soul is that remnant which is in the air.-It appears to some to be a sort of fire. And in fact, this consists of the most subtile composition, and is the most incorporeal of the elements, while also it is moved, and a prime mover of other things. But Diogenes, as some others also, thought it was air, regarding this as the most subtile of all things and a principle-Heraclitus said that the soul was a principle-a thing exceedingly incorporeal and ever moving-he and many others thought it essentially active."

Plato. (Laws, B. 12.) "The soul in the present life causes each of us to be what each of us is; the body follows each of us like an image." So Proclus, his ancient commentator, (on Timeus,) observes, that "as one surveying his shadow in the water-so the soul beholding the image of herself in body -thinks that she suffers though impassive-mistaking her image for herself—and is troubled and perplexed-as infants—or adults in dreaming." Porphyry says (Life of Plot.) of Plotinus, the Platonist, "Happy art thou, O Plotinus, who hast for thy lot a demon, a god of no inferior order, as a familiar director." So Bayle. (Dic. Art. Plot.) "Plotinus, knowing that his familiar spirit was of so eminent an order, directed with greater application the sight of his understanding towards him. He even composed a work concerning familiar spirits-I observe these things, that one may here see a small specimen of the Platonic doctrine concerning genii-and know, that the doctrine of guardian angels, so much spoken of in the church of Rome-is much more ancient than the Christian religion."

Jamblichus, entitled the divine. (De Mysteriis. sec. 2, c. 3.) "You ask, how we may know an apparition, whether it be a god, angel, archangel, demon, a principality, or a soul. I answer the apparition of souls is of various appearance. But the gods shine with a refulgence pleasant to behold; archangels, in a manner terible, yet mild;-demons horrible-heros, milder than demons-souls, similar to heros but fainter.-Gods also

shine forth with incomparable beauty; petrify the beholder with admiration; instil a certain divine joy; display ineffable symmetry, and an indescribable majesty above all comparison. The vision of archangels is beatific, and of great beauty, but not so admirable and ineffable as that of the Gods. Angels are of a pulchritude still more imperfect."

Philoponus. (In Cudworth's Int. Sys. p. 736.) "The ancients affirm, that impure souls, after their departure out of this body, wander here up and down for a certain time in their spirituous, vapourous, and airy body, appearing about sepulchres, and haunting their former habitations.-And if it be demanded why it is, that this spirit appears-generally of human form, yet sometimes in the form of other animals, those ancients replied, that their appearing so frequently in human form, proceeded from their being-enstamped as it were with the form of the exterior body-and that their having sometimes different forms proceeded from the fantastic power of the soul itself, which can at pleasure transform this spiritual body into any shape. For being airy, when it is condensed and fixed, it becometh visible, and again invisible, and vanishing out of sight, when it is expanded and rarefied."

Porphyry. (ib. p. 734.) "Human souls are always united with some body or other. And if Hades be taken for a subterra nean and dark place, yet may the soul be said to go into Hades, because when it quits this gross, earthly body, a more spirituous and subtile body-doth still attend it.—The soul is never wholly naked of all body, but hath always some body or other joined with it, either a purer or impurer one, suitable and agreeable to its own present disposition. But at its first leaving this gross, earthly body, the spiritual body, which accompanieth it, must needs go away polluted and incrassated with the gross vapours and steams thereof, till the soul afterwards purging itself, by degrees, becomes at length a dry splendour, which hath no misty obscurity, nor casteth any shadow." Apollonius. (Life by Philos. and ib. B. 1, c. 5.) "Touch me and handle me, and if you find me

For in

"Ev

to avoid the touch, then may you conclude me to be a spirit or ghost; but if I firmly resist the same, then believe me really to live, and not yet to have cast off the body." Hierocles, (ib.) defined man to be "a rational soul," or being "with a coeval, immortal body," and taught, that "the terrestrial body" or "mortal man' was nothing but "an image of the true man." Let us now proceed to THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. stance. Justin Martyr. (Quest. Grec. ad Christ, &c.) ery substance, which cannot be subjected to another because of its subtility, has nevertheless, a body, which constitutes its essence. If we say, that God is incorporeal, it is not because he really is so, but because we are accustomed to appropriate certain names to certain things to denote in the most respectful manner possible the attributes of the Deity. Thus, because the essence of God is invisible, and does not come within the reach of our senses, we call it incorporeal." Tatian. (Oratio ad Grecos, &c.) "All the demons have bodies, which are not bodies of flesh, but of a spiritual substance, as of fire and air. These spiritual bodies are imperceptible to all except those, to whom God has given the power, and who are enlightened by his divine spirit."

66

Origen. (In Joan.) Every spirit, according to the most exact and simple notion of this term, is a body."—(Poem. ad Princ.) "The term incorporeal is not to be found in any place of the sacred writings.”—(Peri Archon, B. 2.) Thomas," as well as the other apostles, assented to what the woman affirmed, who had seen Jesus, as not thinking it at all impossible for the soul of a dead man to be seen; but he did not believe him to have arisen in his former body, which is the antitype of the soul.Not as though he doubted at all, that the body of a soul departed might be seen with the eyes of sense, wholly resembling that form, which it had before in this life, both in size, figure, colour, and voice; and oftentimes also in the same customary garments."

Tertullian. (Adversus Prax. c. 7.) God is a body, though he is also a spirit?

"Who will deny that

Every spirit is a body,

and has a form and shape proper to itself."-(De Anima, p. 309.) "What is that, which after its separation from this body, is carried down into Hades, and there reserved until the day of judgement? And what is that, which Christ went down unto, when he died? I think to the souls of the patriarchs. But incorporeity is free from all custody or imprisonment, and devoid of pain or pleasure. Wherefore, if souls have any sense-after death-they must have some corporeity.-Nor is there any other than a human shape to be assigned to a human soul: or, indeed, than that of the body, which it before carried about." Tertulian also relates a vision of a certain, sister prophetess, in her own words. "There was, among other things, a soul corporeally exhibited to my view; it was tender, and lucid, and of an aerial colour, and in every way of human form."

St. Ireneus. (B. 2, c. 62.) "Our Lord hath most plainly taught us, that souls do not only continue after death, without passing from one body to another, but also preserve the figure of the body, in which they were before situated, and remember the actions and omissions of their past life, as in the scripture narration of the rich man and Lazarus." St. Gregory Nazianzen. (Orat. 34 and 40.) "Can we conceive of a spirit, without conceiving of motion and diffusion?-The light manifested to the disciples on the mountain was a small specimen of the divine." St. Clement of Alexandria. (Strom. lib. 5, p. 252.) "The Stoics say, that the appearance of a divine body, and a spirit in its essence is, indeed, like the breath which we inhale and exhale." St Augustine calls (Retrac. lib. 2, c. 11.) good angels, "happy and holy souls;" and says, (De gen. lib. 3, c. 10.) that "demons, before their transgression, had celestial bodies, as angels now have, yet afterwards, by way of punishment, they may have been changed into aerial ones, and such as now may suffer by fire."

As to scripture, our limits admit only of a reference to an abundant mass of testimony; such as the whole doctrine of angels and demons, their various appearances and possessions; the