or dyed, and according to Divine Revelation, went to Heaven; the Scripture always speaks by the Word Perfon, and not Soul , as if divefied of the Body, to be receiv'd into thofe Heavenly Manfions; as Elijah, Enoch, and our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross; thou, not thy abstracted Soul, &c. Here are Two Cafes inftanc'd in; the one the Cafe of thofe that went to Heaven without Death; the other of those that, by Divine Appointment, were receiv'd into it, between Death and the Refurrection. As to the First Cafe; Is it not a fhrewd Obfervation towards demonftrating the Falfity of this Heathenifh Notion, That the Scripture, making Mention of fome that went, Body and Soul together, to Heaven; fhou'd, at the fame time, make no Mention of the Soul, as divefted of the Body? It's true, the Souls of Enoch and Elijah were not actually divefted of their Body, but nevertheless the Scripture might have us'd the Expreffion, tho' inconfiftent with the Fact, had it defign'd to establish the Pfychomuthifts Doctrin. This is the true Senfe of the Obfervation, and how it will relish with fome Readers, I cannot tell; but truly I am of Opinion, that cou'd any thing efcape fo comprehenfive an Obferver as Eftibius is, this Cafe had full as well been left unobferv'd. To the other Cafe, of

cur

our Lord's faying thou, not thy abstracted Soul, fhalt be with me in Paradife, I answer, that the Soul chiefly fignifies Perfon, I have been inform'd by Eftibius already, Pag.178. and why therefore Perfon fhou'd not fometimes fignifie Soul, I am yet to learn; for there are two forts of Synecdoche's in my Rhetoric: Or if this Answer be not fatisfactory, let it be confider'd, that in the Soul we place the Seat of Happiness, of Understanding, and of Life, and then it will appear, that he who fpeaks to the Perfon, does, in the most strict and proper Sense, speak to the Soul. I cannot here forbear putting in my Obfervation too, that Eftibius, just after mentioning this Promise of our Saviour to the Thief; and that other Text, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him, fhou'd let the following Words fo unfeasonably drop from his Pen; Now Surely it is wonderful ftrange, that in all these Cafes, there is no mention of the Separate State of Existence of the Soul of Man, no not the least glimmering of it, that I can find in the whole Scripture. For thefe very Texts, which were just faln from his Pen, and full in his Sight, do ftrike a very confiderable Light, as I fhall fhew by and by, into the Subject; tho' it feems the whole Scripture cou'd not afford him the least Glimmering

of it: But we know who found Fault with the Sun, and where the Fault lay.

Whatever the Reader may think of these Obfervations, I doubt not but they took the Author of them fo very much, that, for fear of lofing them when they might come in with fome fort of Coherence, they are here inferted, where they have nothing to do, amongst the ufual Significations of the Words Soul and Spirit.

We pass on to the Grammatical Signification, or Etymon of thefe Words, which he proposes to unfold in the HePag. 198. brew, Greek, and Latin Tongues : But I always thought Unfoldings of this Kind, made no great Discoveries, fince I found the best Critics of my Acquaintance, lay fo little Stress upon bare Grammatical Derivations; finding, as I prefume, that a Word has but one Etymon, tho' it may be difputed which; but often has many Significations: But let us see whether Eftibius, by better Management, can make more of his Etymons.

He tells us, the first, and most proper Word, according to the Rabbins, that Ibid. fignifies Soul, and more particularly Human Soul, is Nefhamah, mention'd principally in the Production of Man, Gen. 2. 7. Man became a Living Soul. But Transcripts,

and

and Second-hand Quotations, are very liable to Mistakes; the word now is not us'd there for Soul, or Living Soul; but

-in that Place, al לנפש היה for it is נפש:

tho' before, in the fame Verfe, w is
us'd; but to fignifie God's breathing into
Man the Breath of Life; and indeed, the
Radix of it ow properly fignifies to
Breathe; but is not in that Place put
I do not take no-
for Human Scul.
tice of this Mistake for its own fake, but
because the rectifying of it is of Ufe here:
For as we may obferve, that a pro-
perly fignifies Breath (and therefore from
that Figurative Expreffion of the Action
of God upon Man, when he gave his Soul,
the Soul is alfo figuratively call'd Breath;
which utterly defeats Eftibius's whole
Defign in this Place) fo alfo I observe,
that the word w does properly and
primarily fignifie only Human Soul. I will
not conceal it from my Adverfary, that some
Grammarians have endeavour'd to make
it originally fignifie Breath too,by deriving it.
from w by a Tranfpofition of Letters,
which fignifies to Breathe, or EU to Blow;
but this is altogether a groundless, and
impertinent Piece of Etymology: It has
no other Ground imaginable, but this, that
wa is us'd in Scripture for Breath, which
is no Ground at all for that Account;

but

but the Use of it must be accounted for thus: As we fignifies originally Breath, and is borrow'd to fignify Human Soul, fo W which originally fignifies Human Soul, is borrow'd in another Place to fignify Breath; fuch a mutual Change of Words being very frequent in the Hebrew, by reafon it has fo few Original Words, and not uncommon in any other Language. And the fame Account is the only true one, why the word w is afterwards us'd for the Soul of a Brute, for Life; and by a Catachrefis, for a Dead Body: Which last Estibius has lit of, and finding it the most remote Sense from that of a Rational Soul, has let it pafs amongst his Genuin Significations, to take its Fate with the Reader; without hinting, that it was there Figuratively us❜d.

Now if any the leaft Weight, is to be fix'd on the Grammatical Sense of Words, it is not unworthy our Obfervation, that in the first Formation of Man, a Word is us'd to denote his Soul; which properly denotes nothing elfe, and has no Allufive Signification to any thing Material.

The other Word us'd for the Soul in Scripture, is n which undoubtedly derives from the Radix n to Breath, &c. The only Difference between Eftibius and me, in this Word is, whether or no it must