This wicked world must be reformed and converted to God, or millions of human souls will go down to eternal perdition. The friends of God and man must arise in the strength of their great Redeemer, and exert themselves in this glorious enterprise.

The grand instrument by which this gracious work is to be accomplished is the word of God. That instrument is in your hands, and the principles of it must be diffused through the community; and extended all over the world. Parents must teach their children, masters their servants, school teachers their pupils, and Christians their friends and neighbors, the fear of the Lord. The numerous benevolent and Christian societies, which have for their object the conversion of mankind, must go on in their labors of love, and increase in their benign operations, till the world is evangelized.

The gospel of the kingdom must be preached through all nations, and the Gentiles must be enlightened, and brought to bow to the Prince of peace. Let its messengers rise higher and higher into the spirit of their heavenly mission; let them spread abroad through the tribes of the earth, bearing the glad tidings of salvation, till the "people who sit in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death, shall see a great light," and place themselves under the government of the Son of God. All who love our Lord Jesus Christ must pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and cease not, "until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."

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The promise has gone forth,-" Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." "The heathen," the infidel, and the skeptic, "may rage, and the people imagine a vain thing," but the work of the Messiah will go on, and his conquests and kingdom shall be extended till the King of Zion shall reign over all nations. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

This earth was never made for sin and Satan; they are intruders and rebels on it, they have no right in it, and Messiah, the Prince, will yet drive them from it. Neither are the men who serve sin and Satan to remain here in rebellion for ever; if they will not submit to the Prince Emmanuel," they shall be broken with a rod of iron, they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel." They "shall be driven away in their wickedness," and chained down in the bottomless pit with "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan," who deceived them; but the earth shall be the Lord's, and he shall be the Governor, and shall have millions of holy and happy people to serve and honor him in it. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that

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dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shal' lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him."

What a happy world shall this then be! When the accuser of the brethren shall be cast down! When sin that brought death into our world shall be driven far from it! The righteous shall then no longer be vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. The abominatons which now scourge the world, shall no longer be seen or heard, nor their dreadful consequences torment the inhabitants of the earth. "THE WOLF ALSO SHALL DWELL WITH THE LAMB, AND THE LEOPARD SHALL LIE DOWN WITH THE KID; AND THE CALF AND THE YOUNG LION AND THE FATLING TOGETHER; AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM. AND THE COW AND THE BEAR SHALL FEED; THEIR YOUNG ONES SHALL LIE down togeTHER; AND THE LION SHALL EAT STRAW LIKE THE OX. AND THE SUCKING CHILD SHALL PLAY ON THE HOLE OF THE ASP, AND THE WEANED CHILD SHALL PUT HIS HAND ON THE COCKATRICE'S DEN. THEY SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY IN ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN; FOR THE EARTH SHALL BE FULL OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, AS THE WATERS COVER

THE SEA."

SERMON XVIII.

BY REV. ORANGE SCOTT,

PRESIDING ELDER ON SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT, MASS.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.

THEN SHALL THE DUST RETURN TO THE EARTH AS IT WAS: AND THE SPIRIT SHALL RETURN UNTO GOD WHO GAVE IT.

MATERIALISM has no foundation in Scripture, reason, or sound philosophy. Mind and matter, flesh and spirit, constitute the man. The properties of matter and spirit are totally different. The soul is a substance of one kind, and the body of another; these are united; but death dissolves the union. And then the dust returns to the earth as it was; but the spirit returns unto God who gave it.

The belief of a future state is not of recent origin, nor of limited extent. All nations have united in the opinion, that the human soul is an immaterial substance, wholly distinct from the body. Of this fact, few can be ignorant, who are conversant, to any considerable extent, with the history of man. We can hardly take up the history of any nation, without finding this doctrine as a part of their creed. The savages of different countries have held it with as much confidence as the more enlightened nations. We do not mean that ignorant nations have formed a system, or a science, on this subject; nor that a savage could correctly define or explain his views of it;

"Yet, simple nature to his hope has given,

Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humble heaven."

Immateriality, and distinction from the body, are essential parts of all his opinions concerning the soul. When I mention this as the doctrine of all nations, I would not be understood to mean, that there are no exceptions; but that these exceptions are few, and insignificant with respect to this subject.

This doctrine has not only been admitted by the people at large, but by many philosophers: among whom were Pythagoras, Socrates,

Plato, Cicero, and Plutarch. Many of the oriental sages, also, held the same doctrine. These philosophers, however, held very defective and erroneous opinions concerning the soul. Most of them believed in the transmigration of souls; or, at least, that some souls would successively inhabit different bodies, till they should become purified; and some of them held, that the soul would eventually be united to the divinity. The arguments by which they supported the doctrine of a future state, do not appear to have been, at all times, satisfactory to themselves. Indeed, to the heathen world, a cloud of darkness hung over the whole subject.

Cicero collected many arguments to prove the immortality of the soul; and while he was looking them over, he appears to have been convinced; but when he laid aside the book, and began to reason with himself, his conviction was gone. His arguments gave to the subject a strong probability, but not an absolute certainty. Socrates, one of the wisest and best of all the heathen philosophers, discoursed much upon this doctrine, and appeared to have been firmly persuaded of a future state. Being asked, on the day of his death, by his friend Crito, how he wished to be buried-" As you please," said he, "if you can lay hold of me, and I not escape out of your hand." At the same time, looking upon his friends with a smile, "I can never persuade Crito, that it is Socrates who converses with you, and disposes the several parts of his discourse; for he always imagines, that I am what he is about to see dead in a little while. He confounds me with my carcass, and therefore asks me how I would be interred." At other times, however, he is represented as speaking more doubtfully upon the subject, and as expressing only a hope. "I am in good hope that there is something remaining for those that are dead; and, that good men will then fare better than bad ones."

But there were some philosophers who denied a future state of existence altogether. Aristotle expressly says, that "death is the most dreadful of all things, because it is the end of our being; and the dead experience neither good nor evil." The stoics seem generally to have held, that the soul survived the body, but only for a limited period those of ignorant men, for a little time; those of the wise longer.

It is not at all strange that some have denied the doctrine of a future state, and that others have been confused and defective in their sentiments upon this subject; for it is by the gospel, and that alone, that "life and immortality are brought to light." And as the heathen have not the gospel, it is rather strange, that men have so universally believed this doctrine; as it does not appear to have been the effect of philosophy-for these sentiments were antecedent to philosophers; and are rather weakened than strengthened by philosophy. Cicero considers this general belief of a future state a proof of it; for he

says, "As we know by nature, that there is a God, so we judge, by the consent of all nations, that souls remain after death, and are immortal."

THE OBJECT OF THE PRESENT DISCOURSE, IS TO PROVE THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, AND A FUTURE STATE OF EXISTENCE.

It is unnecessary to prove to the Christian, that his soul will never die; of this, he is well persuaded already. But though not necessary, it may be useful to lay before him some of those arguments by which this doctrine is supported. Whether the soul shall die with the body, or survive it, is the momentous question now to be considered. The immortality of the soul may be argued,

I. FROM THE SOUL ITSElf.

We use the term soul and spirit, in this discourse, as the Scriptures do, indiscriminately. In describing the whole man, St. Paul, in one or two places, uses the Grecian phrase, "soul, body, and spirit," strict accuracy in the use of terms being not always necessary. Some theological writers have undertaken to make a distinction between the soul and spirit; and have considered the spirit the superior, and the soul the inferior properties of the mind; and to the former, they have ascribed the understanding, memory, will, and conscience; to the latter, the passions and appetites. But then, the soul must be either matter or spirit; and must belong either to the body, or the spirit; so that, properly speaking, man consists of but two parts; one returns to the dust, and the other to God.

1. The soul is a spiritual substance. This is evident from the fact, that it possesses all the properties of spirit, and none of those taat belong to matter-such as intelligence, reflection, and volition. The soul thinks and reasons; compares different, objects, and judges of their respective qualities. "That the soul is immaterial," says Mr. Wesley," is clear from hence, that it is a thinking substance. If it be said, that God can endue matter with a faculty of thinking, we answer, No otherwise than he can endue spirit with solidity and extension; that is, he can change spirit into matter, and he can change matter into spirit. But even the Almighty cannot make it think, while it remains matter; because this implies a contradiction." The soul is, therefore, a simple, uncompounded substance; having neither body nor parts, and without any tendency to dissolution.

Various opinions have been entertained by materialists and heathens, with respect to the nature of the soul. It has been supposed to be the breath;-the blood;-the brain;—a part of God;— a succession of ideas and exercises;-subtle air, composed of atoms, or primitive corpuscles;-a flame, or portion of heavenly light, and many other things. But these, and the like notions, may