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    consistent , Mr . Shadwell contended , with the doctrine of the Christian religion , as laid down in the Holy Strip tares ; while , on the contrary , - the doctrine of the immortality of the soul , as a distinct and independen t principle , was quite foreign from our church . There was not a single passage in Scripture recognizing the

    existence of the soul in the intermediate period from the death of the hody to its resurrection ; while there were many which went to confirm the belief in the total suspension of the sentient principle during that interval . The words of the Apostles' Creed , " to judge the quick and the dead , " implied this notion , as did those of the Nicene Creed , " both the

    living and the dead ; " they , however , left it doubtful ; but the Creed of Athaiiasius left it wholly unambiguous , for it said , " at whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies , and shall

    give account for their own works . " Mr . Shadwell then quoted several passages from the New Testament in support of his position . In the first book of Josepirns' Antiquities , he alludes to the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac , and

    saying that " the soul of the son would hover round the father and protect him ;" from which it appeared that he believed in the immortality of the soul ; but St . Paul , in his Epistles , shewed that he was wrong . Our Saviour was described as having risen " in body ; " and the bodies of the saints who had been dead to have

    appeared to many in the Holy City . In the 15 th chapter of Corinthians , St . Paul , talking of our Saviour being seen of 500 ot the brethren at once , says , " of whom the greater part remain unto this present , hut . sonic are fallen asleep ; " and again , " <> f them which are fallen asleep . " From which one must infer a state of

    non-existence before their resurrection . The ^ surre . ction of the dead is talked of , but there is not a single passage in revelation HH'ntionhitf a distinct spirit , independent o | the body ; and , indeed , the Book of Genesis applies the term " soul" to the l ) r 'ites and fishes . In our English translations that term is not used ; the

    pas-^ ge is , And God said , let the waters hll"g forth the moving creature that hath l'Jp > & (• . ; but in the original Hebrew the W ( 'Hi is nvphesh ; and in the Septuagint Vsuvhv , each of which signifies soul ; and l ( was therefore impossible to make out

    ] the soul was separate from the living principle : so that it was perfectly consent with Scripture to say that the S (» tietit princi ple of man cannot be sepa-Ij UwI fro m his body : nor did that deny ( { v doctrine of his accountability hereafrr > when the resurrection of the body ()<> k place . Mr . Shadwell , after refer-

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    ring to the second volume of Locke , Where he held it to be im ) possH > le for human reason to discover these points without the assistance of the inspired writings , spoke -of the wisdom of our" church in laying down no doctrine which might not be simply reconciled with what was stated in Scripture , excluding all metaphysical

    positions ; and therefore nowhere setting forth that the soul was immortal , or had a separate existence from the body . There might be some passages found , which would seem to imply its existence in the intermediate period , between the death of the natural body , and its resurrection ; but there was not one which

    asserted it . The learned counsel then quoted passages from the works of several eminent divines in support of his argument . Bishop Law said that no man could quote passages from Scripture to prove that the soul existed unconnected with the body * Mr . Taylor asserted , that all natural arguments to prove the

    existence of the soul separate from the body were vain : experience shewed the contrary ; and as to the faculties of a dying man retaining their vigour to the latest moment of life , when the body was nearly powerless , it was only beause the

    brain was the last part of the system which was attacked by death . Bishop Butler had endeavoured to give metaphysical reasons for a separate existence of the soul , from the strength of a dying man ' s faculties when his body had nearly failed : but Mr . Pitt declared that that

    doctrine of the learnejl Bishop raised more difficulties than it solved . Dr . Bayly ' s doctrine went still further than that of Mr . Lawrence ; for the latter confined himself to the formation of man as a zoological creature . Archdeacon

    Blackburne said that the New Testament always spoke of the interval between death and the resurrection as a state of sleep . He ( Mr . Shadwell ) did not believe it was so : but St . Paul , in alluding to it , constantly used the word " slept . " It would be useless to waste the time of the Court

    in ([ noting passages from Drs . Watson and Warburton ' s works . He had done sufficient to shew that great and eminent men in the church had entertained , if not avowed , the doctrine which had been denominated the poison of the present work . It was a work containing 600 pages , on phvsiological and scientific subjects ; the

    readers of which were more likely to have their attention attracted by its learning and Science , than by an abstract point of doctrine contained in an insulated passage . It was not like a work of a light nature , easily read , and therefore extensively circulated , like the one which came before his Lordship the other day : he

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    Inteliigcnce >~ Laid Report : Ltzwrenve v « , Smiths 317

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 317, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/61/