us to believe, that he will one Day make an evident Difcrimination betwixt thcfe who now worfhip and obey him, and thofe who worship him not, but difobey him; that he will infinitely reward and recompenfe the former, and as feverely punish and repay with Vengeance the latter: For feeing that his Omnifcience and Omniprefence render him an exact Knower and Obferver of whatever is done by us here on Earth, and confequently a Being fully furnished and qualified for the calling us to an After-reckoning, and for the proportioning to us Recompences agreeable to ei ther our good or bad Actions, he throughly knowing them all; nay, feeing that God's Juftice, Wifdom, Holinefs and Goodnefs in fome fort ne ceifarily require, that he adjuft fuitably to Mens Performances thefe his Divine Retributions; and yet there being, in the General, no vifible Appearance of any fuch equal Diftribution in this Life, good and bad Events happening here alike unto all or moft Men, to the Righteous and to the Wicked, to the clean and unclean Perfon; nay, Vertue oftentimes now meeting with the Rewards of Impiety, and Impiety enjoying the Fruits and Recompences proper to Vertue. Therefore doth it neceffarily follow, that things fhould be better adjufted fome other time; and that a Difference hould then be put between Vertue and Vice: Which, if not done in this World, 'tis to be expected to be done in another; as certain to be. done then and there, as that Good is Juft, Wife, Holy, and Good: And if an evident Difcrimination of the Godly and Wicked, as to the Fruits of their respective Doings, be certain in another

State,

State, then 'tis as certain that our Souls are Immortal, and furvive our Bodies.

2. I prove there is a future State, or a Life after this; as from the Confideration of the Nature and Attributes of God, fo likewise from a Confideration of the Nature of our own Human Souls, and of their natural Capacity of furviving our Bodies, or fubfifting apart from them; which Immortality of the Soul in Man, I infer from its Spiritual and Incorporeal Subftance: For being of a purely Spiritual Nature, the Human Soul his no extended Parts, and therefore cannot be divided or feparated into any; being alfo a Spirit, it cannot be affailed by any external Violence arifing from material Agents, nor fuffer from any evil Accident which might befal 'it from without; and containing likewife as a Spirit, nothing of the Matter of the Elements, nor of their contrary Qualities, which render all Bodies corruptible, it is out of danger of a Diffolution, through the mutual Conflict of differing Humours and confequently the Soul of Man involving no Seed or Principle of Corruption in it felf, and being unfubject alfo to any external Force, or Injury of fered it, 'tis naturally Incorruptible, Immortal: I fay naturally; because God, no doubt, who gave the Human Soul its Being, and Capacity of out-living its Body, may put an End to its Exiftence, by Annihilation, whenever he pleafes. As the Opinion of fome is, he does fo put an End to the Souls of Bruits, which having Senfe and fimple Perception of Objects, nay, fome kind of Phanfy and Memory, and fomething Analogous to Reafon likewife, are fuppofed by the former Perfons to have a Principle different from Matter

in them, and to be fomewhat more than meer Cartefian Machines.

But not to difpute this now, whatever becomes of the Souls of fenfitive Animals, (fuppofing 'em to have any thing of a Spiritual Nature) whether they naturally perifh of themselves upon Death of the Bruit, or are Annihilated by God Almighty; yet Man evidently having fuch a Principle within him as is immaterial, capable of existing separate from its Body, (as I fhall inftantly prove him to have) we have Reafon to believe God will permit it to exift Immortally, both from the many Promifes he hath made thereof in his written revealed Will, from his Declaration of Judging us in the Life to come, after the Resurrection, and likewife from his effential Attributes of Goodness, Wisdom, Juftice, and Truth.

Now, as to the Spirituality of our Souls, I judge this manifeft from their being understanding and thinking Existences, endued with Self-reflection, a Faculty of Arguing, and of inferring one. thing from another: For as much as 'tis impoffible to conceive, much more to find, how bare Matter, let it undergo never fuch fubtile Refinings, nimble Motions, or various Changes, fhould yet be capable of but fo much as Senfe and Imagination, much leis of Cogitation and Reafoning; we therefore, finding in our felves a thinking Underftanding Mind, muft neceffarily infer 'tis of a different Nature from our Bodies, viz. a Spiritual Being, and as fuch, incapable by any natural Means of Extinction.

From alio the Human Soul's Power of afcending above material Objects and Representations, and its framing fome, tho' imperfect Conceptions

of

of things immaterial, as of God, Angels, and the feparate Souls of Men, from likewife its abftra&ed Spiritual Comparifons of things, compounding, dividing 'em, judging of their Relations, mutual Refpects, Agreements or Difagreements; from moreover the Soul's Metaphyfical Notions wholly feparated from Matter, of Univerfals, Entia Rationis, and the like; from its vaft extenfive Comprehenfion, unlimited by any thing of this vifible material Creation; from the Capacity of our Understandings to comprehend fo many, fo different, nay, contrary things as they do, and yet to keep the Conceptions of them diftinct and unmingled, from the Ability that our Souls have to remember paft things at never fo great a diItance of Time, to connect and compare 'em with the prefent Occurrences, and thence to frame Conjectures of the future, which Conjectures are fometimes fo certain, that they feem almoft Prophefies; from our Souls quick Vivacity or Acutenefs, in finding out fo many excellent Arts, and induftrious Myfteries, in polifhing, improving, and piercing deep into fo many occult Sciences, and difficult intricate Matters; from laftly, the Soul in Man, its giving Life and Motion to the Body, and not receiving them of it, from its having a Capacity of guiding and governing, and not of being guided and governed by it; from its felf-determining Power, by which, when it pleafes, it can contradict and determine quite counter to all Bodily Inclinations and Defires, excited by any material Impreffions; nay, of two material Impreffions entring in at the Senfes, can will and chufe oppofite to the ftrongeft and moft prevalent of them, From all the foregoing Capacities and B 4 natural

natural Endowments of the rational Soul, I infer it to be a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance. For what has Body to do with fuch fublime, penetrating, and excellent Faculties, as thofe of our Minds? Or what have bare fenfitive corporeal Faculties to do with fuch fubtil, fpiritual, and comprehenfive Operations as thofe of our Underftanding? Is not the Principle which is Owner of them, neceffarily more than Matter? All whofe Moti ons are infenfible to it felf, unreflected on by it felf, unavoidable, unchofen, made only by external Force and Impulfion: But to Think and Reafon, to fly beyond fenfible Appearances, and to form Notions of Spiritual immaterial Beings; to compare, compound, and divide things; to chufe or refufe freely, to judge of abstracted Relations, mutual Refpects, Agreements or Difagreements of different Objects; to deliberate on a Train of Confequences not yet in Being, nay, perhaps which never may be; is no immediate Impulfe of Matter, is above its utmoft Power and Capacity, tho' never fo differently modified, refined, and exalted; is the fole Act of a Spiritual Being, and confequently of an Incorruptible, Immortal one.

For if our Soul were Corporeal, how could it have any Conception of Spiritual Substances, of Soiritual abftracted Ideas, and relative Comparifons of things, which are Notions abfolutely feparated from Matter? There is required fome Proportion between the Faculty apprehending, and the Object to be apprehended, to render it apprehenfible: It therefore our Soul the Faculty apprehending were material, how could it apprehend things purely Spiritual? How could it abftract and feparate from Matter in its Cogitations,

and