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fcious of to ourselves, fuch as liberty, or a power of chufing or refufing, and the feveral acts of reafon and understanding, cannot without great violence be ascribed to matter, or be refolved into any bodily principle; and therefore we must attribute them to another principle different from matter; and confequently the foul is immortal, and incapable of corruption, in its own nature. Befides, when all men, tho' diftant and remote from one another, and different in their tempers and manners, and ways of education, when the most barbarous nations, as well as the most polite, agree in a thing, we may well call it the voice of nature, or a natural notion or dictate of our minds: But it is evident from the teftimony of many ancient heathen writers, and the consent of feveral credible hiftories, that they believed that men and women do live after death, and have an existence when feparated from their bodies; and confequently that the foul is immortal. It is true, that fome few inftances may be brought where fome have denied this; but their oppofition is no proof that this notion is not natural: For fome few exceptions are no better arguments against an univerfal confent, than fome few monsters and prodigies are against the regular courfe of nature; because men may offer violence to nature, and debauch their underftandings by luft, intereft, or pride, and an affectation of fingularity. Moreover,

The sense of nature is very evident from the great number of wicked men in the world; who, notwithstanding it is their interest that there fhould be no life after this, cannot overcome the fears of thofe torments, in which the wicked are threatened to be punished for ever. Again, this truth is confirmed by thofe natural notions we have of God, and of the real difference between good and evil; for the belief of a God implies the belief of his infinite goodness and justice. The first, or his goodness, inclines him to make fome creatures more perfect than others, and capable of greater degrees of happiness, and of longer duration; becaufe goodnefs delights in communicating its own perfections: And fince in man are found the perfections of an immortal nature, which are knowledge and liberty, we may infer, that

he is endowed with fuch a principle as in its own nature is capable of eternal life. The latter, or his infinite justice, proves, that he loves righteousness, and hates iniquity: But the difpenfations of his providence in this world being very promifcuous, fo that good men often fuffer, and that for the fake of righteoufnefs; and wicked men frequently profper, and that by means of their wickedness; it is reasonable to believe the fuitable diftribution of rewards and punishments in a future ftate; because, as there is a difference between good and evil founded in the nature of things, it is reasonable to imagine they will be diftinguished by rewards and punishments, not in this world, but in a future state, where all things fhall be fet right, and the juftice of God's providence vindicated; which is the very thing meant by the immortality of the foul. And,

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Lastly, The natural hopes and fears of men cannot well be accounted for without the belief of the foul's immortality: fuch hopes and fears are common to all men. For what would it avail to be defirous to perpetuate a name to pofterity, and by brave actions endeavour to purchase fame, if there was not a belief of an existence in another world to enjoy it? Or, can it be thought that they, who by the virtue and piety of their lives, by the justice and honefty of their actions, have endeavoured to feek the Lord, have not been raised to an expectation of rewards after death? Again, how can any one account for that shame and horror, which follow the commiffion of any wicked action, though covered with the greatest privacy, and unknown to any but the offender? Certainly it can be only the effect of nature, which suggests to them the certainty of an after- reckoning, when they shall be punished for their bad actions, or rewarded for their good; and fo fills the one full of hopes, and the other with fear and dread *.

Thefe are fuch arguments as, in reason, the nature of the thing will bear; for an immortal nature is neither capable of the evidence of fenfe, nor of mathematical demonftration; and therefore we fhould content ourfelves with thefe arguments in this matter, fo far as to fuffer ourselves to be

See the Reasonableness of a laft Judgment in Sunday 4, Sect. vii.

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perfuaded, that it is highly probable. But that which giveth us the greatest affurance of it, is the revelation By Scripof the gofpel, whereby life and immortality are ture. brought to light; and which is the only fure foundation of our hopes, and an anchor for our faith: because the authority of God is above all reafon and human knowledge. The refurrection of Chrift is not only a manifeft proof of his divine authority, and that he was a prophet fent from God; but also that we thall rise again to be reunited with our fouls, and therefore should make us prefer the interest of our fouls before all the advantages of this life; nay, it fhould make us ready and willing to part with every thing that is most dear to us in this world, to fecure their eternal welfare; because, if we lose our own fouls, all the enjoyments of this world can make us no recompence. For, notwithstanding the fall of our first parents has made us all fubject to death, yet our fouls, when feparated from our bodies, fhall live in another state; andeven our bodies, tho' committed to the grave, and turned to dust, shall, at the last day, rise again, and be reunited to our fouls; and being founited, the whole man, body and foul, shall be made capable of eternal happiness or mifery. And, II. Since this is the cafe with all of us, how inconfiderately do men act in spending so much thought about Of the body. the body, which is the feat of pains and the most noisome diseases, whilft it is alive; and which death (which it cannot escape) renders fo intolerably offenfive and odious, that it must be buried out of our fight! To spend all our time and care about this vile part, the body, and to neglect the moít valuable part, the foul, which is of ineftimable worth, on account of its noble faculties, and as it is made after God's own image, and is to exift to all eternity, certainly argues the greatest degree of imprudence and ftupidity. And therefore our greatest kindness for our body is to take care of our soul. Confider whether we are able to live in the midst of everlasting fire! If the burn of a finger, or a small spark of fire be so intolerable to the leaft part of the body, Who can endure the fire that shall never be quenched; and whofe torments after thousands and millions of years are no nearer an end than they were at the first moment they began? Yet, this is the woeful

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and certain end of every one that neglects the care of his own foul. Not that I would be understood to intend, that we must neglect our bodies: but that, which promotes the intereft of our fouls, must be preferred before any intereft of the body, which cannot live without the foul. For Every prefent enjoyment, be it ever fo comfortable, may be loft; and riches, whatever advantage they give us, make themselves wings, and fly away. How bappiness. many are reduced in a few hours from plentiful circumftances toextreme neceffity by fire or water? Befides, if people do imagine themfelves fecure in an inheritance, a fmall obfervation of human life may fhew, that this cannot abfolutely be depended upon; for fraud and violence may turn a man out of his fortune oreftate. And where is the perfon that can depend upon a continued state of health? The most confirmed conftitution is not proof against the affaults of pain or ficknefs; for every member of the body, every bone, joint and finew, lies open to many diforders; and the greatest prudence or precaution, or fkill of the phyfician cannot many times prevent those disorders from coming upon us, much less afcertain to us health, which is the greatest of our outward enjoyments. Again,. we often fee the highest honours exchanged for the lowest abafements and contempt: fo the rich man is frequently reduced to poverty; the healthy man laid upon a bed of languishing; and all the pleafures the finner can receive from the most careful gratification of his fenfual appetites are but of the very fame kind with those that brute beafts are capable of as well as he; only with this difference, that their enjoyments are more affecting, and lefs allayed with bitterness, than his are. But befides, they have far more uneafinefs and trouble in them than of delight and fatisfaction. The covetous, the proud, the envious, the glutton, the drunkard, the whoremonger, the ambitious, the revengeful, can teftify out of their own fad experience, that, when they have fummed up the matter, the contentment, which they receive from the gratification of thefe feveral paffions or appetites, doth no ways countervail the pains and restleffness, the disturbances and disappointments, and the manifold evil confequences both as to their bodics,

bodies and fouls, and good names, and eftates, which they fuffer upon the account of them. Whence we may cry out with the preacher, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, which does not tend to the care of the immortal foul. For the body itself, to which alone fuch gratifications are fuitIs always ed, is ever tending towards the duft, and will foon tending to be stripped of all fenfation of all worldly things, corruption. and intirely lose the relish of those things that once had been most agreeable to it. And yet no man is exempt from this debt: we must all go down to the filent grave, and can car ry none of those things along with us; and all our pleasures and ease, if they should happen to last so long, must then have their end. Whereas,

III. On the other hand, that, which ferves the intereft of

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our fouls, is more lafting, and is never taken from How the us, whose state hereafter will be determined by our state of the behaviour in this life; heaven or hell, happiness or foul is determifery, will be our final portion; just as death finds us: as foon as death ftrikes, we either are in torments, or go to paradife; either become the companions of devils or the affociates of holy angels, fo to remain to all eternity; and therefore our greatest care fhould be to avoid the one and to obtain the other. We are often determined in the affairs of

this life by the hope and fear of things to come; as Motives for all our purfuits, and most of our actions, are for the taking care fake of fomething future, and not yet in fight; that of the foul. is, either to prevent fome evil feared, or to obtain fome good defired; for, in the beginning of life, people apply themselves to become mafters of fome profeffion or trade, or bufinefs, in hopes of a livelihood, or of ferviceablenefs, when they arrive at riper years, though they are not fure they shall ever live to be masters of what they labour after, nor certain of fuccefs in the most prudent steps they can take to accomplish the end of their worldly expectations, of which we have far lefs certainty than of an immortal state. Shall it then be said that we shall be less diligent in the care of our fouls, whose affairs are not fo uncertain? For tho' we therein act upon a future profpect; yet divine promise afcertains us of fuccefs in the way of the gofpel of Jefus Chrift. Wherefore, tho'

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