upon the testimony of consciousness. Consciousness is the mind's recognition of its own exercises or states. I am conscious of thought, volition, emotion, and consciousness is to my own mind the highest possible evidence. It cannot be doubted. Upon this testimony, reason affirms and cannot doubt the fact of my own existence; or that thought implies a thinker; reasoning a reasoner, &c. (3.) This truth is so certainly known by us, that to doubt it implies its truth, because doubt implies the existence of a doubter. (4.) Pretended doubters of their own existence, therefore, always and necessarily assume the fact which they profess to doubt. (5.) We have therefore a right to assume in the outset, the fact of our own existence. (6.) We are conscious of certain mental impressions or states, the causes of which we necessarily refer to objects without ourselves. These states or impressions we call sensations. (7.) Sensation informs us of the existence of those around us who exhibit the same phenomena of which we are conscious. Hence reason affirms, and cannot doubt the existence of our fellow men. (8.) In the presence of this evidence, we can no more doubt their existence, than our own. 2. Nature of man. (1.) Man has a body. a. By consciousness we know that man has a body or a material habitation. b. Of the substratum, or ultimate elements or element of body, we know nothing. c. We call that body or matter which exhibits the phenomena of solidity, extension, form, divisibility, &c. These phenomena are all we know of matter, and our only means of knowing its nature. d. Consciousness forces upon us the conviction that we have a body. e. We can no more doubt it than we can doubt our existence altogether. f. This truth never was seriously doubted, and pretended doubters have taken as much care of their bodies as others. (2.) Consciousness itself implies or presupposes the existence of mind. We are conscious of thought-thought implies a thinker, or something that thinks. Besides, consciousness itself presupposes a subject, or that something is conscious. a. We know nothing of the substratum or essence, or ultimate element of mind any more than of matter. We are in utter ignorance of what the essence of either is. " b. We call that mind, which exhibits the phenomena of thought, volition, emotion. &c. ine. The phenomena of matter and mind are entirely distinct and dissimilar exhibiting no evidence that their substrata are identical. d. The phenomena of matter and mind exhibit the highest evidence that their substrata, or natures, are distinct and diverse. e. We can no more doubt that we have mind, than that we think. f. But some maintain that mind is only thought, volition, emotion, &c., and that these are the result of exquisite cerebral organization. In other words, that the brain, or matter, thinks, when thus organized. Their argument runs thus: 1. No thought is manifest where there is no brain. 2. But where there is living brain, there is always thought. 3. The perfection of thought, intelligence, volition, is in proproportion to the amount and perfection of the cerebral substance. Hence the inference that matter, in the form of brain, thinks. But this only proves what all admit, that brain is the organ of mind, and the only medium through which it can manifest itself in this state of existence-that the capacities of mental development must, and do depend upon the perfection of the cerebral organiza tion. To the fact that the phenomena of mind and matter, are entirely distinct and dissimilar, and that therefore it is unphilosophical to infer identity of essence, they reply, that chimistry affords many illustrations and confirmations of their views. The union of chimical elements, and the action of inorganic affinities often, nay, always result in the production of substances differing entirely from either of the elements of which they are composed. To this it may be replied, 1. That the result, so far as we have any light from chimistry, is always material and therefore does not differ essentially, or in essence from the elements of which it was composed. 2. Consciousness of continued personal identity proves that the brain is not the thinking agent or mind. It is a well settled truth, that the particles of which the human body is composed are perpetually changing, and that the substance of the entire body is changed several times during the period of an ordinary life. If then mind and matter are identical-if the brain or any other part of the hody, or the whole body, is the man, the thinking agent, we are not the same person at any two moments. But consciousness testifies to our continued personal identity. The body then can only be the organ or instrument of the mind, and not the mind itself. 3. That there is nothing in natural science at all analagous to that for which they contend, the unvarying results of all combinations of matter being material and exhibiting only the phenomena of matter and that continually. Man therefore is a compound being, uniting in one person two distinct natures, called Body and Mind. 3. Attributes of man. (1.) Of Body. a. The body of man possesses all the attributes or properties of matter. b. The attributes of an organized being, Natural Attributes of God. A Natural Attribute defined; Moral Attributes of God. A Moral Attribute defined; Some Justice of God. The term Justice defined; The several Mercy of God. What Mercy is not; What it is; In what Unity of God. Meaning of the term Unity when applied to God; Remarks in respect to the manner in which this Trinity or Tri-unity of God. Doctrine stated; The point now under consideration; Sources of evidence; Amount Personality and Divinity of the Holy Spirit. What is not intended by the Divinity of the Holy Spirit; He is truly Providence of God. What is intended by the Providence of God; God administers over the universe a providen- Moral Law. What Law is; Moral Law defined; Moral Law a unit; No being can make law; The will of the Law of God. What is intended by the Law of God; The Commandments declaratory; The Ten Commandments illustrations of this; Sanctions of the Law; First Com- mandment. Its true meaning. Second Commandment. Reasons for it; what it prohibits. Third Commandment. Its true spirit; Reasons for this Commandment. Fourth Commandment. When the Sabbath was instituted; Its design; Its necessity; Its perpetual and universal ob- |