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CHAPTER II.

PROOF FROM THE BIBLE OF THE CORPOREAL NATURE ANI MORTALITY OF THE SOUL OF MAN, AND THE NATURE OF HIS SPIRIT.

"I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made." Isa. 57: 16.

In tracing the word soul through the authorized ver sion of the Bible, we find it occurs five hundred and thirty two times-four hundred and seventy-six times in the Old Testament, and fifty-six times in the New. God is represented as having a soul sixteen times. "Your new moons and appointed feasts my soul hateth." Isa. 1: 14; Lev. 26: 11, 30; Judges 10:16: Job 23: 13; Ps. 11:5; Isa. 42: 1; Jer. 5:9, 29; 6:8; 9:9; 12:7; 14; 19; 32: 41; Zech. 11: 8; and Heb. 10: 38.

The word soul occurs five times in King James's version of the Old Testament, where nephesh is not the original term; for the word nedivothee, which the margin calls darling, is rendered soul in Job 30: 15: it probably means munificence; and in 2 Saml. 13: 39, and P's. 16· 2, the word soul is added by the translators, there being no corresponding word in the Hebrew Text.

The word neshomoh, or nesme, is once rendered soul, in Isa. 57: 16, the text we have chosen for our motto Taylor, in his Hebrew Concordance, says, that "neshomoh, or nesme, signifies the chameleon, a kind of lizard, which has its mouth always open, gaping for the air, on which it was once supposed to live. Nesme is rendered breath, spirit, and life."

It is rendered breath and spirit in the following texts, and expresses the idea of natural life, whether in man o: beast. Gen. 2: 7; 7: 22; Deut. 20: 16; Jos. 11: 11, 14; 1 Kings 15:23; 17: 17; Ps. 150:6; Isa. 2: 22; 42:5.

But nesme cannot ever mean an abstract intelligence, or soul, or spirit; for it would be absurd to translate Josh. 11: 11, There was not any (nephesh) soul, left tc (nesme, to soul, instead of to) breathe. Here nesme un doubtedly means breathe, and is so rendered. And in every other place where it occurs, it either means breath, or a breather, or life sustained by means of breathing the breath of lives; that is, it signifies the chameleon or any other creature that lives by breathing. Our motto, then, should be understood thus, "lest the (ruah) spirit, or living creature, should fail before me, and the nesme, breather, that I have made." And so in Ps. 150: 6 "Let every nesme, breather, praise the Lord." We conclude, therefore, that nesme nowhere means soul independently of our bodily organization.

Nephesh is rendered soul four hundred and fifty-four times; and psuche is so rendered fifty-seven times, mak ing five hundred and eleven times that nephesh and psuche are rendered soul, when applied to man; and seventeen times in the original we find these terms applied to beasts. There are more than three hundred other places where the same terms are rendered life, person, or body, &c.; for, had they been rendered soul in all such places, then the reader must have perceived that the word soul never could mean a something that could live separately from the man himself, neither as an "immortal soul," or "deathless spirit." Parkhurst says, that "nephesh, as a noun, hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, or what we commonly call his soul. I must confess," says he, "that I can find no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning."

We say the true meaning of soul is, a creature that lives by breathing; and as the essential endowment of such a creature is life, so life will stand often as a correct meaning of soul. When soul is applied to man, it may be translated life, soul, man, you, yourself, person, my self, thyself, &c., according to the text.

But some of our trans'ators, more honest than the rest.

have ventured, in a number of these places, to insert the true word, soul, in the margin; but none of them were honest enough to give us the word soul in every place where nephesh and psuche occur. We shall endeavor to

supply their deficiency.

In pursuing this subject we shall give the Bible answer to the following questions:

1. Is the soul as great as theologians assume it to be? 2. What is a soul ?

3. Is the soul immortal so that it cannot fail, or cease to exist as a living being before God?

4. What is a spirit?

5. Is the spirit immortal, so that it cannot cease to anımate the man?

6. We shall show that every text in the Bible will harmo nize with our answers; even the very texts from which a contrary inference has been erroneously drawn.

Our motto most certainly implies, that if God were to contend forever, or to be always wroth, that the spirits and souls of men would fail, die, or cease to exist as living. beings before him. But waiving this, we proceed to an swer the first question:

1. IS THE SOUL AS GREAT AS THEOLOGIANS ASSUME IT TO BE?

To this question we give an unqualified negative. For, 1st. The word soul when applied to man, does not mean a ghost or independent entity. Because man and beast would in this respect be on a level with God. For if a man's soul is a ghost, or spirit, because the soul of God is a ghost or spirit, as Luther Lee argues, then we say that a beast's soul is a ghost also. Now, allowing beasts to possess souls, as Mr. Lee admits, then upon this reasoning, surely all are up to a level with God, as all have souls: "For in his hand is the soul of every living creature, and the breath of all mankind." Job 12: 10.

Again, if a man's soul is a ghost, because it goes by the same name as the soul of God, then, not only beasts and every creeping thing being souls, are ghosts; and then, too, the soul of sheol (the grave, or death,) is likewise a ghost, because it goes by the same name, Isa. 5: 14, "Therefore sheol, (the state of death, or grave,) hath enlarged her nephesh, (soul or being,) and opened her inouth

without measure. The same reasoning would show that man himself, as existing in this life, is a ghost, for God is called a man, Exo. 15: 3, "The Lord is a man of war." The same principle of false reasoning would convert a man's heart and eyes, as well as the heart and eyes of beasts into so many ghosts, for they are called by the same name as the eyes and heart, hands, and feet of God. And a tree must have sense and feeling, because it is said to have life as well as men. But what sort of theology is this? Cannot God possess an attribute that may be entirely spiritual, yet called by the same name as one in man that may be entirely corporeal? If he cannot, then how shall he be able, out of these stones, to raise up children unto Abraham? Matt. 3: 9. Surely the souls of these children would be corporeal, if made out of stones. Again, God's soul cannot be separated from himself; for if it can, then is he two Gods. "But to us there is but one God." 1 Cor. 8: 6. Allow God's soul to be himself, as nephesh when applied to God, is twice translated. Jer. 51: 14, "The Lord of hosts hath sworn by his ne phesh," (by himself). Also in Amos 6:8; or him, as in Pro. 6: 16. "These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination of his (nephesh,) of him ;" and we obtain the correct idea. As nephesh, the soul, comprehends the whole being of God, so does the same term comprehend the whole being of man; and never means a principle that can live independently of the man or beast, to both of which the term nephesh is indiscriminately applied; and is twenty-five times correctly translated "themselves." Let two examples suffice for the present. teareth (his nephesh) himself in his anger." Job 18: 4. Did Job tear his immaterial and immortal ghost? "Backsliding Israel hath justified herself, (her nephesh) more than treacherous Judah." Jer. 3: 11. Has a nation a ghost?

"He

It is

Nay, but every nation has a being. Here, then, the arguments of Luther Lee, and those of like ("precious?") faith, are overthrown by the translators themselves, though they were believers in the immortal-soul theory. vain to endeavor to array the soul, which is the man him. self, with the attributes of independent conscious existence, spirituality, immateriality, and immortality, against the plainest declarations of God's Word.

2dly. The soul of man is no part of God. Because if every soul is a part of God, or of the essence of Deity, as some theologians contend, then God is not one and indivisible, but is a multitude, and these multiplied millions of parts sin and die. "For the soul that sinneth IT shall die." And if so many parts of God sin, then these sinning parts are opposed to the other parts of him; and thus this absurd theory divides God against himself; "How then shall his kingdom stand ?"

Again, as the soul is sometimes unhappy, it would fol low upon this theory, that God is sometimes unhappy. And if the dogma of the endless misery of the wicked were true, then millions of parts of God would be tormented for ever; and, as some theologians represent, these souls of the wicked, as parts of God, will be eternally cursing the other parts of God!!! unless these wicked shall cease to become parts of God. But if so many parts of God can be annihilated, or converted into that which is not a part of God, then when God swore by himself"As I live," the stability of his oath is overturned, because if one part of God may die, all may die!! Into such absurdities does this vain philosophy lead its profes

sors.

Again, it is presumed that all will admit, that God, and all that constitutes his being, is uncreated, for he did not create himself, and there was none before him to create. If any part of God was created, then that part had a beginning, and is not eternal. But man, soul and spirit, was created, "as the Lord liveth that made us this soul." Jer. 38: 16. "Lo, he that formeth the mountains and createth the spirit" (ruah). Am. 4:13. "The Lord which formeth the spirit (ruah) of man that is in him." Zech. 12: 1. The last two examples, refer to the ruah, as the principle of life. As soul and spirit were created and had a beginning, therefore they are not parts of an uncreated and eternal God.

Again, the soul is not only created, but created of the dust; for the same man that is called a living soul was made of the dust of the ground: "And God said, dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3: 19. And Paul says, that the same living soul is of the earth, earthy. 1 Cor. 15: 47. Words cannot make it more plain than do these texts, that the whole man is a soul, and is