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Trump; (for the trumpet shall sound) and the dead shall be raised (not awakened) incorruptible, and we shall be changed."nd I read likewise in the 4th chapter of the same Apostle's

first Ep. to the Thessalonians: "that the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." But in neither of these quotations (nor in any other parallel text of Holy Scripture with which I am acquainted) can I discover as much even as the most faint and remote allusion to the state of men's disembodied spirits.

The glorious change destined to be wrought upon mankind at (not by) the last Trump, is represented by St. Paul as extending equally to the dead and to the living, and consequently can never (without palpable absurdity) be understood as necessarily implying in the subjects of it the previous want of mental consciousness. All that can (with certainty) be collected from St. Paul's account of it, seems to be simply this: That it will consist in the instantaneous conversion of that part of human nature which was antecedently subject to the bondage of corruption, into a substance altogether incorruptible. Unless, therefore, (with the Sadducee of old, and the Socinian in modern times) we assume it as a fundamental article of faith, that the human soul is, in reality, equally obnoxious to dissolution with the human body; or (to express my meaning differently, and perhaps with greater accuracy) that, truly speaking, there is in man but one kind of substance, viz. a material; and that human thought or consciousness is merely the occasional and contingent attribute of such substance,-an attribute which (like any other variable property belonging to it) such substance will be uniformly and necessarily found, at any given time, either to frant, or to possess, according to the manner in which it shall be affected by external circumstances-unless, I say, the truth of this (most unphilosophical and most unscriptural) assump tion be fully acquiesced in, every reflecting mind (I cannot but feel as sured) will readily admit, that from the language of St. Paul, as above cited, the paradoxical and cheerless doctrine of your Correspondent A. H.

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Mr. URBAN, Adlingfleet, March 29.

A. 24th, to the Epistle to the Co

H. 112, refers us to Matth.

rinthians, to the Thessalonians, and to the Book of Revelation, as affording passages in support of his opinion respecting Consciousness after Death, or the Nature of the intermediate State. Formerly I referred him to form his opinion upon this subject, from the condition of our Lord and the penitent Thief upon the Cross, on the day following their Crucifixion, as predicted and assured by our Lord himself. If that condition were not so, would he have in this manner told us? I could multiply proofs from Scripture to this effect, whereas in 24th of Matthew, to which A. H. refers us, I find nothing relating to the subject, and I have looked it over very carefully: his other references are very vague. If A. H. is a Member of the Establishment, I should wish him to consider what is meant by these words in the Burial Service, “ Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in 'the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful after they are delivered from the burthen of the flesh, are in joy and felicity."

The 55th Canon likewise directs all Preachers before their Sermons to commemorate all the faithful who are departed this life, in the faith and fear of God; which appears to me to suppose the Existence of an intermediate State. Let A. H. rest assured that the" public mind" suffers nothing by the "straying" to which he alludes; but that though the issues attaching to a state of Consciousness after Death are awful, yet there are individuals who can contemplate it with humility and a well-founded hope. T. V-B.

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during the short-lived peace in France, 1802, made the tour of that country, in order to ascertain the state of its antient architecture; particularly surveying the Church of St. Dennis, taking therefrom drawings of the West front, North and East ditto; with an internal view, their measures, &c. These have been finely engraved, with an accompanying plau and letter-press illustration, and published by Taylor. Surely, then, the Major may claim a degree of credit, equal to, if not something more than Mr. H. as it does not appear that Mr. H. has ever been out of the Kingdom, or in any wise competent to use his pencil in an artist-like manner. The Major states positively, that the Church was rebuilt a second time, 1282; his authority, William de Nangles. Our histories inform us that the Abbey-church of St. Peter, Westminster, in the choir, transepts, and part of the nave, was erected 1243. Here then is a priority in favour of English art of thirty-seven years: therefore, instead of Mr. H. import ing the said art from France, it is evident that country had condescended to copy from our original conceived designs in the Pointed style. In fact, the elevations of St. Dennis are imitated, in their general parts, on a confined scale, from those of St. Peter's. Mr. H. then, as usual, is siJent upon the detail; but a comparison between Major Anderson's engravings and our Westminster autho rity will soon determine this point of our observations. With reference to Clugny in its complete example" of the latter Gothic, we have nothing but a simple line of Pointed arch to judge from, as necessary to fix, according to Mr. H. the mighty standard of his theory; as all the decorations turn, it should seem, on the Corinthian mode of workmanship, done on an innovatory stamp from that noble order. Thus it is presumed that Mr. H. who has raised all his hopes in having the honour to establish the origin of Gothic on the land of our natural Enemies, must be compelled to humble his lofty propositions, and look in future with more veneration to the heretofore genius of his countrymen, and also to the sublime work of his once admired Abbey-church of Westminster.

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Mr. H. next tells us of the Church

of Sienna 1180, and that of Arezzo 1216, the clustered columns on the latter, enriched with a multitude of animals, &c. the disregard of the architects about the Grecian and Roman proportions and rules, "the same opinion ought to be entertained of the architects of France, Germany, and England." (England still in the back ground.) "About nine years after the commencement of the Cathedral of Amiens, the Church of St. Nicasius at Rheims was, in 1229, begun to be rebuilt;" mentions an engraving of it by Howlett, and described by Major Auderson, who says the date is 1300, and built by the English, as verified by the old Chronicles of Rheims. This Mr. H. would have us believe is of no authority. Upon consulting the elevation, any person conversant with our antient Architec tare, and inclined to do justice to native merit, will directly allow it to be a performance of the fourteenth century, as all the characters of the exquisite architecture of Edward Ill's reign are pre-eminently conspicuous. Mr. H. then kindly lets us understand that when a church was first begun to be erected, giving the Abbey Church of Westminster as an example, 1245, completed 1735, "no rea sonable man would ever think of contending that the age of the church is to be dated from the last period." Sagacious reasoner! Mr. H. in pursu ing his knotted thread of quotations, would have us believe that our Salisbury Cathedral, 1258, is subsequent to the Church of Arezzo, because he has furnished a prior date, 1216, (much to be doubted): but why bring. these piles into comparison, as the Church of Arezzo, by the extravagance "of its decorations," according to Mr. H. but ill assimilates with the pure and uniform majesty of our Salisbury Cathedral Upon this presumption, notwithstanding it is absolutely plain, we have numerous proofs of an earlier use of the pure Pointed style; as at Lichfield, 1140. front of Peterborough Cathedral, 1177. (See Gunton's History,) Mr. H. thus dogmatically maintains, "it cannot justly be hence inferred that this style was used earlier in England than in France. On the contrary, throughout the whole history of Architec ture, it uniformly appears that the style of building in this country, on

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