LASTLY, that I may wind up all this together, there is fomething within us that may be called an univerfal Percipient, or an univerfal conscious Principle, that runs through all the Operations of the Soul, and is diffused through all its Actions and Paffions. Now I would fain know of you what this is: Is it fome Limb, fome Part or Particle of the Body? It is one and the fame Thing that discerns external Objects, that judges and reafons, that wills, refolves, understands; lastly, that receives all Impreffions, and exerts or accompanies all Actions. There is a Neceffity that this univerfal Perceiver should be very fimple, and of an Unity inexpreffible, that it may be capable of receiving fo many Impreffions without Confufion, and of contemplating with one View fo many Reasons and Relations of Things. No Part or Portion of Matter feems to me to be capable of fo much Unity and Simplicity. Whatever is receiv'd, is receiv'd according to the Meafure of the Receiver; and where there are feveral Parts or Particles in the Receiver, the Impreffion must be confufed or diftracted. If the whole Impreffion falls upon the fame Point, there will be Confufion; if upon feveral, there will be Distraction. In Matter there can be no one Part, that can perceive the Whole, or that can be confcious of the whole Impreffion, and the whole Object: But as in the perceiving external Objects, fo, in the com

paring and distinguishing them, there must be fomething one, that comprehends the Reasons of them, and handles, or divides, or connects them, like fo many Threads; and either lengthens them, or breaks them off, and in various Manners winds and works them together. And in all these Variations and Operations, befides the proper Force which is in each of the fingular Operations, there is a certain common Force which runs through them all, and is, as it were, the Soul of the Soul. And this univerfal Perceiver, or univerfal Conscious, muft not be only fomething one, but fomething moft perfectly one, and of the greatest Simplicity; of fo great Unity and Simplicity, as was faid before, that can never be conceiv'd to be in any extended Subftance, divifible and compos'd of parts that are diftant from each other.

"de Subft.

HAVING thus difcufs'd thefe Things "VidSuar. with all poffible Brevity, it appears clear to « xxx. p me, on every Side, that our Souls are of a "213,&c. different Nature from our Bodies, and fuperior to all corporeal Force whatsoever. And this appears evident, whether we contemplate the Ideas of both Natures, or the Motions and Operations of the Soul, or that univerfal Confcious, which is infeparable from the meaneft of them. Many other Arguments, and thofe unanfwerable ones, are us'd by learned Men to prove the Distinction between the Soul and the Body, and any par

ticular

ticular Part of the Body. Certainly, the Soul of every Man is fomething permanent, and is, during Life, the fame numerical Being. But no Part of the Body is, during Life, the fame numerical Thing; but one Part flies fenfibly off, and a new one fucceeds unconscious and ignorant of the Things which the other knew or acted. But there is no Occafion to dwell longer here upon this when the Christian Inftitution hath instructed us clearly and fully in the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul, and the Distinction between that and the Body, as well in Creation, as in Death. Speaking of the Creation of Man, the facred Text diftinguishes between his Soul and his Body, when it tells Gen. ii. 7. us, that God form'd his Body of Earth, and then infus'd his Soul into it. Nor does it lefs upon the Death of a Man, when the compounded Being is diffolv'd, fend each Part of him separately to its proper Original. Eccl.xii.7. Then shall the Duft return to Earth, as it was, and the Spirit to God who gave it. And Christ Mat.x.28. has taught us, that we should not fear them who kill the Body, but are not able to kill the Soul: And he himself, being about to expire, recommended his Soul into the Hand of God, while his Body hung upon the Crofs.

Luke

xxiii. 46.

Mat, xxii.

23.

BESIDES, Chrift has affirm'd, that the Souls of Abraham, and of the Patriarchs are still alive, (or, at least, that they were at that Time.) And gives to pious, or penitent

Souls,

22.

Luke

xxiii. 43

Souls, after they have put off their mortal Luke xvi. Body, a Seat in Paradife or in Abraham's Bofom; but fent the Souls of wicked Men to Hell, or to Gehenna. Mofes and Elias appeared in the Transfiguration of Chrift, many John xi. Ages after they had departed this mortal 43. Life. Christ likewise call'd back departed Mat. ix. Souls to their Bodies, as often as it was his 25. Pleasure, and refum'd his own Body after it had been three Days buried, and afcended into Heaven full of Life, and furrounded with Glory. Thus has Chrift teftify'd, by what he faid, by what he did, by what he fuffer'd, and every Way, that the Souls of Men are diftinguish'd from their Bodies, and live after the others die.

THAT the Dead are faid to fall asleep in the facred Writings, is no folid Objection to the Immortality of the Soul; for neither does the Soul perish in Sleep, nor cease from all Kind of Action; but the Senfes being bound up, is not affected with the external World; which may very well be the Cafe in the State of Death, or in the feparate State, as it is wont to be call'd, when we live to God, and to the intellectual World, till we wake again in the Refurrection, and refuming

It appears clearly in the facred Writings, that the Dead enjoy a fort of Life peculiar to them, or that the middle State between the Death and the Refurrection of the Body, is a State of Life, whatever that Life is, Thef. v. 10.

resuming a visible and corporeal Shape, renew our Commerce with the external World, Rom. xiv. Chrift calling us back to it, who is Lord of the Living, and of the Dead.

9.

But we

fhall have Occafion to treat of this Matter below.

THAT we may finish this Part of our Discourse, we are to obferve, that every Man obferves the Diftinction between the Soul and the Body with Eafe, or with Difficulty, according to his Genius and his Extent of Capacity. If any one could doubt, which, perhaps, fome People may, of the existence of their own Bodies, and of all external Things; that very Man, notwithstanding this, would be certain of the existence of his own Soul. Which fufficiently discovers the Body and the Soul to be two different Things, and that there is no fuch Thing as a neceffary Connexion between them. This doubting Man, I fay, would be certain ftill of the Exiftence of his own Soul, from his very Incertitude and his Doubting; for any fort of certain Operation, let it be what it will, neceffarily demonftrates the Existence of the Thing whofe Action or Operation it is. Nor can the most obstinate Sceptick ever arrive at that Degree of Stupidity, as to deny or doubt of their own Exiftence. Let them take away Motion from the Nature of Things, let them take away Heaven, and the Stars of Heaven, and all the furrounding Objects that ftrike our Senfes, nay,