her into the world of
spirits. On this view, there is no difficulty in rising to the
conception of higher spiritual intelligences; and the variety and
gradation that are observable in all the works of God on earth may
impart to that sublime conception such a measure of verisimilitude as to
make it easily credible on the authority of Revelation. But the theory
of Materialism, especially as advocated by Dr. Priestley, plainly
excludes the existence of any order of "spiritual beings" other than the
uncreated Mind; for if that only is to be termed "spirit" which
possesses omniscience and the power of producing anything at pleasure,
it is clear that the highest angels and seraphims are no more "spirits"
than the souls of men.

Such being the relation which subsists between the theory of
Materialism, and some of the most important doctrines of Natural and
Revealed Religion, it is not wonderful that a serious consideration of
the latter should lead reflective men to abjure the former, or that
their aversion to it should increase in proportion as their views of
Divine truth are extended and enlarged. Not a few have yielded, in early
youth, to the charm of speculative inquiry, and fondly embraced the
idea of "unisubstancisme," who have lived to exchange it for a more
Scriptural faith. For just in proportion as men are brought under the
influence of serious views of God, of the soul, and of an eternal world,
in the same proportion will they become alienated, and even averse, from
a theory which confounds "spirit" with "matter," obscures their
conceptions of God and of the world of spirits, and degrades men to the
level of the beasts that perish. This effect of new, or, at least, more
vivid views of "things unseen and eternal" was instructively exemplified
in the case of the late Robert Hall. Like many an ardent speculatist, he
had embraced in early life the system of Materialism; and even after he
had entered on the work of the ministry, he could write to a professedly
Christian congregation in the following terms: "I am, and have been for
a long time, a Materialist, though I have never drawn your attention to
this subject in my preaching, because I have always considered it
myself, and wished you to consider it, as a _mere metaphysical
speculation_. My opinion, however, on this head, is, that the nature of
man is simple and uniform, that the thinking powers and faculties are
the result of a certain organization of matter,--and t