triv'd at once to convey the Impreffions of moft numerous, and even moft diftant Objects to them, and to follow their Directions and Actions thereupon,) while thofe Bodies keep in Order, thofe Souls are alive, vigorous, and active; but when the Bodies are diffolv'd, or their Contexture deftroy'd, their Souls return to their former State of Sleep, Silence, and Inactivity; though without a real Annihilation; and fo without any Incapacity of Revival and Reactivity: I mean upon Suppofition, that the Author of Nature, or any of thofe Ministers by whom he Governs the World, affords it another Opportunity for fuch a Revival and Reactivity again. This is, I fay, what I fhould Guess, as to the State of the Immaterial Souls of Brutes, if I would indulge my felf in fuch Uncertainties. And whether the Pfalmift does not favour fuch a Conjecture, where he speaks thus, When God Pfal. civ. bideth his Face from fuch Creatures, they are 29, 30. troubled: When he taketh away their Breath they die, and return to their Duft: When He fendeth forth his Spirit they are Created, and He reneweth the Face of the Earth: I fhall leave to the Reader's Confideration. But as to the Propofition it felf; I mean, that what perceives and acts even in Brutes, is a Being or Agent properly and entirely diftinct from that Body in which it acts, and is truly a Being or Agent Immaterial. This I take to be the natural Refult of Philofophick Reafoning, from Fact and Experience; and by no means to be fet afide, because we are not able to folve all Difficulties thereto relating: Which we are rarely, or indeed never capable of doing, in the laft Refort, in any part of Knowledge whatfoever. But as

to those who, to avoid all fuch Difficulties, pretend that Brutes have no Souls, no Senfation, no Action of their own, and are meerly Corporeal Clock-work, and Machines; they yield me this Point, that if they have Souls, and do really Perceive and Act themselves, thofe Souls, thofe Principles of Senfation and Action, must be Immechanical, and Immaterial: But then, they pretend to disbelieve that, which feems to me almost as plainly matter of Fact and Obfervation, as any of Mr. Boyle's Experiments whatfoever. And 1 care not to answer fuch an extravagant Objection, which it is next to impoffible to fuppofe, that any fober Propofer can, in earnest, believe himself in his own Propofal of it. And when the Scripture affures us, that a Righteous Prov. xii. or Merciful Man regardeth the Life of his Beaft;

and this in Oppofition to the Cruelty, which the tender Mercies of the Wicked or Savage Men are affirm'd to have; it most naturally implies, that thofe Beafts are themfelves really fenfible Creatures, and not incapable of feeling the Effects of the Care, or of the Cruelty of their Masters towards them.

(2.) We hence learn more certainly, that the Souls of Men are Immaterial. For if we have found that the lower Faculties and Operations of the Souls of Brutes, require us to allow them to be Immaterial, how much more must we do fo as to Human Souls? For if we proceed higher to the Rational, the Intelligent, the Penetrating, the Free, the Active, the Sagacious Soul which is in Man; if we confider its vaft Capacities and Faculties; and that it can, and fometimes does, act contrary to all the material Impreflions or Temptations which the fenfitive Soul lays

before

before it; contrary to all worldly Views and Motives, all corporeal and terreftrial Interefts, and that it can and fometimes does freely chufe Poverty, Mifery, and Perfecution in this World, out of regard to God and Religion, and the Happiness of a Future State; This Rational Soul, I fay, muft needs be of fo vastly higher a Nature, of fuch vaftly nobler Faculties, of fuch a vastly fuperior Rank in the Creation, that He who can once fuppofe, that there is nothing in this Cafe but fuch Matter as we have Knowledge of in the World, with its Accidents, is in a fair way to believe any Properties may belong to any Beings, and that there is really no Diftinction between a Square and a Circle; no Difference between Strength of Reason, and the Sound of an Organ; no Preference between the Arguments ufed in a Theological Difpute, and the Collifion of Elaftical Bodies in Motion; between a piece of Clock-work manag'd by Wheels and Springs, and an Human Soul govern'd by Reafon and Religion; which Confufion of Things, entirely different in their own Nature, feems to me fo abfurd and prepofterous, fo wild and aukward, that I have not Patience to fet about a more operofe Confutation of it. Thofe who are under any Temptation to believe fuch Notions, which feems to me no lefs foolish than the wildeft Dreams of Ignorance and Superftition themselves, may confult Dr. Clark's excellent * See his Confutation of a late Writer upon this Head. Letter to Tho', after all, I can hardly think that Writer well, and weak enough to have been in earneft; and if he its four Dewere, I fhould have thought that too much Ho- fences. nour was done him and his crude Notions, when they were vouchfafed the favour of fo mafter

Mr. Dod

Gen. ii. 7.

ly a Confutation. But this is too like a Digreffion to be farther infifted on in this Place. However, we may obferve here, how agreeable this Immateriality of Human Souls is to the Sacred History of their first Original; where after the Lord God had formed Man out of the dust of the Ground, the material Body, perhaps with its fenfitive Soul alfo; He diftinctly, from above, infus'd the Rational: He breathed into his Noftrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a living Soul.

(3) We hence learn not only the Immateriality, but the Immortality alfo of Human Souls; or that the Deftruction and Diffolution of the Body, with its Senfations, will not destroy or diffolve the Rational Soul united thereto; but will leave it ftill capable, not only of exifting, but of acting in another State; if it please God fo to difpofe of it, that it may have proper Opportunities for doing fo. So far, as I take it, true Philofophy carries us here; I mean, it obliges us to put fuch a difference between the rational Soul, and the brute Body, that the Ruin of the one will no way infer the Ruin of the other; and that therefore, fince Divine Revelation affures us of the living and acting of the Soul in the intermediate State, and alfo of its Return to the Body, and acting therein again after the Refurrection, this is all agreeable to found Reafon and Philofophy, to good Senfe and the Laws of Nature: Tho' ftill all this, without afferting fuch a neceffary Immortality, or Eternal Duration in Happiness or Mifery, as is independent on the Power, and Will, and Laws of the Author of Nature; to which all the Enjoyments, and Faculties, and Perceptions of a Human Soul,.

may

may ftill be owing hereafter, altho' the Substance it felf of that Soul fhould, of it self, when once created, continue to exist, as all real Beings feem to do, without any particular Interpofition of Providence for fuch their Continuance. Philofophy, Mathematical and Experimental Philofophy, obliges us to fuppofe, that the Soul will continue to exift after Death, and will therefore be ftill capable of Action and Enjoyment, of Happiness and Mifery. Divine Revelation affures us this feparate Soul shall A& and Enjoy, fhall partake of Happiness or Mifery in a lower State and inferior Degree before, and in an higher State and fuperior Degree after the Refurrection: So that Reafon and Religion fupply, and fupport, and confirm each other, and, upon the whole, affure us of the Truth of this grand Principle of all Religion, efpecially of the Chriftian, That this Life is not the only, or the principal Stage on which we are to Act; that this World is not the only or the principal Time for our Happiness, or Mifery, but that, after this frail and mortal Life is ended, which is only a fhort State of Tryal and Probation, we muft live a longer one of Enjoyment hereaf ter. Which Truth is of that Importance for us to be fatisfy'd in, that nothing of either Natural or Supernatural Knowledge, which tends thereto, ought to be neglected by us. Nor may we here omit the exact Agreement of this Natural Truth of the Immortality of Human Souls with Divine Revelation, particularly with our Saviour's own important Words upon this Head: Fear not them which kill the Body, but are not Mat. x. 28. able to kill the Soul: but rather fear him, whe is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell. (4.) We