Moral and Chriftian Immortality of the Soul; and having attempted to carry the Argument so far, there I fhall leave it.

1. As to the Moral Immortality, by which I mean that Expectation of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments in general, which many had from the Light of unaffifted Reason; this was doubtless rais'd upon an antecedent Belief of an Immaterial and Subftantial Soul: And, accordingly, both Plato and Ariftotle, and all the greatest Philofophers, who difputed for the Reality of that State, difputed for this Doctrin too, and went upon the Suppofition of it.

Nor it it easy to imagin how they cou'd account for the former, without the latter; for feeing Life utterly extinct, and the Body turn'd to Duft; and knowing nothing of the Refurrection, and Revivification of it they were oblig'd to affert a Surviving Part of Man, and not only that, but, in order to be punish'd or rewarded, a Part, most properly, Himself; which cou'd be no other Part but that, which had been the Seat of all his Thoughts, in which they knew the Morality of all his Actions confifted; and that must be an Immaterial Part of him; they not being able to conceive any Part of his Body, but what, by Death, loft its Numerical Nature, and ceas'd to be the Part of a Man,

And

:

And as this Doctrin is highly agreeable to the Belief of thofe, who upon other Confiderations, expected a Future State of Retribution; fo is it to the Christian Faith; for this, making the Refurrection to be a Reunion of the Soul and Body, and the Soul (which is the Seat of Life, when united to it) to have furviv'd in the Intermediate State; makes the Immortality, brought to Light by the Gospel, clear and intelligible; whereas the Suppofition that our Body thinks and lives, &c. makes the Intermediate State, a State of perfect Annihilation, Death making a full End of the Perfon But I think this State of Annihilation is fuch an Hiatus, in the Syftem of the Creation, as cou'd never be left unfil'd-up by Him that made all Things in Number, Weight, and Measure; and whofe Attributes of Juftice and Mercy, as they have their Proper Objects, fo it can never be fuppos'd that Omnipotence will fuffer them to lose their Due Objects, in fuch a Sense, that they cannot be recover'd without a new Creation of the Perfon, (for as fuch, he has undergone Annihilation) which I cannot poffibly conceive to be the fame Perfon; but another Perfon (as well as another Creation fuperinduc'd) to fuffer for the Crimes, or be rewarded for the Obedience of one that, by Death, efcap'd Juftice, or loft his Title to Mercy.

So

So that an Heathen Philofopher might admit the Propofition, That Matter Thinks, with more Colour than the Christian can; for he might, poffibly, tho' not rationally, have fuppos'd a Spirituous and Self-conscious Part feparated by Death, from the groffer Parts of the Body: But this is not confonant to the Chriftian Doctrin, which teaches us, That our Body, without exception of any Volatil Parts of it, fhall lye in the Grave and Rottennefs, until the Last Day; and, accordingly, terms it our Mortal Body; which, if it thinks, draws this Confequence immediately after it, That Man is wholy Mortal: And if a Christian cannot, as we have feen he cannot confiftently, admit of this, neither can he of the other.

And yet it must not be deny'd, That some of the Fathers of the Christian Church, held our Souls to be Material, and of themselves corruptible, but made Immortal by the Will of GOD; but nei- ' ther were there any Number that held this, nor is their Error chargeable, as it is in some Moderns; for ftill they all of them held the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection of the Body, as two distinct Articles: For which Reason, a late Adversary to Christianity wou'd seem to throw all his

Second

Thoughts, Ep.

Ded. &c.

Dirt upon them, doubtless foreseeing where fome of it will light.

This therefore is an Argument of great Moment,and fhou'd have been well confider'd by all the Patrons and Abettors of that Principle, the Poffibility of thinking Matter: But yet I shall not urge it farther here, because I fhall have Occafion to fay what I can, in Vindication of Man's Immortality in another Part.

This is fufficient to fhew with what Reafon we contend, as Chriftians, fo earneftly for an Immaterial Substance united to our Body; as alfo how firm and folid a Foundation the Belief of this lays, for the Belief of a Future State, as it stands reveal'd to us in the Gofpel. But I cannot difmifs my Subject, without officiously befpeaking the Reader's farther Confideration, of what the Light of Reason fuggefts to him, in Proof of the Moral, and in Confirmation of the Chriftian Immortality. And I fhall only offer fuch Hints as may deferve, and will need his own Thoughts upon them.

As to the Belief of A Future State of Retribution in General, I fuppofe him (that I may not go too far out of my Way) to believe both a GOD, and the Relation he ftands in to Him, as his Creator and Preferver: Let him then reflect and

con

confider, 1. Whether he is not conscious to himself, that he is a Free-Agent; and withal, Whether this Internal and Selfconsciousness, is not an Invincible Proof of the Thing; tho' he may not be able to reconcile it with more remote, and obfcure Confiderations, to prove him determin'd ab Extra.

2. He may reflect alfo, That he is a Moral Agent; that is, a Being endu'd with the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as they are immutably and eternally fo; and that, he having a Power to act according to the Measures either of Good or Evil, his Actions, relating to thofe Measures, receive the Denomination of being Morally Good or Evil. 3. He will find himself, in Confequence of this, an Accountable Agent; being not only, in common with all Creatures, under the Preferving Power of the Creator; but having a Rule of Action, deriv'd from the very Nature of God, who is Effential Righteoufnefs; and laftly, having a Natural Power of Conformity or Difobedience to that Rule; from whence it is that, upon his doing Evil, Sin lies at his Door,and Guilt naturally cleaves to him. And indeed, had not the Creator defign'd that the Happiness or Mifery of Human Nature, fhou'd have a Retrospect upon our Actions, and depend, in great Measure, on the Quality of them, there cou'd be no Account