that proper means and contrivances must have been used by Him who sees through the whole, for keeping those beings to their proper sphere, and bringing them to perform their respective parts, so as to concur to the perfection and happiness of the whole.

The inanimate is the lowest part of the creation, or the lowest order of being. As it is of itself incapable of happiness it it plain that all it is fit for, is to contribute to the happiness of beings capable of enjoying it. To make inanimate matter perform its part in the grand scheme, nothing will answer, but superior power or force, as, by the very supposition of its being inanimate, it is only capable of being acted upon, not of acting. So that every motion, every tendency to motion, in every single atom of matter in the universe, must be affected by the agency of some living principle. And without being acted by some living principle, no one atom of matter in the universe could have changed its state from motion to rest, or from rest to motion; but must have remained for ever in the state it was first created in.

The Supreme Mind being, as we have seen universally present in every point of infinite space, where there is or is not, any created being, material, or immaterial, must be intimately present to every atom of matter, and every spiritual being, throughout the universe. His power is, as we have seen, necessarily infinite, or irresistibe; and his wisdom perfect. It is therefore evidently no more, nor so much, for a Being, endowed with such an advantageous superiority over the material creation, to actuate the vast universe, as for a man to move his finger or eyelid. His presence extending through infinitude, puts every atom of matter in the universe within his reach. His power being irresistible, enables him to wield the most enormous masses, as whole planets at once, with any degree of rapidity, with as little difficulty, or rather infinitely less, than a man can the lightest ball. And his wisdom being absolutely perfect, he cannot but know exactly in what manner to direct, regulate, and actuate the whole material machine of the world, so as it may the best answer his various, wise, and noble purposes. And it is certain, that all the motions and revolutions, all the tendencies and inclinations, as they are commonly, for want

of better terms, called; all the laws of nature, the cohesion of bodies, the attraction and gravitation of planets, efflux of light from luminous bodies, with all the laws they are subject to, must be finally resolved into the action of the Supreme Being, or of beings employed by him, whatever intervening instrumentality may be made use of. Thus the inanimate creation is wrought to the Divine purpose by superior power, or force.

To bring the animal, irrational natures to perform their part in the general scheme, it was necessary to endow them with a few strong and powerful inclinations, or appetites, which should from time to time solicit them to ease the pain of desire by gratifying them; and to give them capacity enough to consult their own preservation by means fit for the purpose, which are easily found. Besides instinct, they seem to be endowed with a kind of faculty in some measure analogous to our reason, which restrains and regulates instinct, so that we observe, they show something like thought and sagacity in their pursuit of their gratifications, and even show some traces of reflection, gratitude, faithfulness, and the like. Their apprehensions being but weak, and their sphere of action narrow, they have it not generally in their power, as creatures of superior capacities, and endowed with extensive liberty, to go out of the tract prescribed them, and run into irregularity. By these means, the brute creatures are worked to the Divine purpose, and made to fill their subordinate sphere, and contribute, as far as that extends, to the regularity, perfection and happiness of the whole.

We come now to what we reckon the third rank of being, the rational creation: which must likewise, according to the Divine scheme, concur with the other parts, and contribute in their sphere to the perfection and happiness of the universal system.

The rational world being the part the most necessary, and of the greatest importance, as their happiness was the principal view the Supreme Being must have had in the creation, their concurrence is what can the least be dispensed with. Should the whole material system run to ruin: should suns be lost in eternal darkness; planets and comets rush out on all sides into the infinite expanse, or the

fixed stars leave their stations, and dash against one another; and should an universal sentence of annihilation be passed upon the animal world; the destruction of both the inanimate and animal creation would not be so great a disturbance of the Divine scheme, would not be such an important breach of the general order and regularity necessary to universal perfection and happiness, as a general defect of concurrence or irregularity and opposition, in the rational world, for whose happiness, the inferior creation was brought into being, and whose happiness, should it totally miscarry, the Divine scheme must be totally defeated.

SECTION III.

Of the Nature of Man, and Immortality of the Soul.

IN order to understand what it is for our species to concur, in a proper manner, with the Divine scheme, and to observe what wise means have been contrived by the Divine wisdom and goodness for bringing us to the requisite concurrence in consistence with our nature and state, it will be necessary to consider a little the human nature and character.

It is commonly said, that we understand matter better than spirit; that we know less of our souls than of our bodies. But this is only a vulgar error. And the truth is, that we know nothing of the internal substance of either one or the other. But we know enough of the properties and state of both, to know how to seek the good of both, would we but act according to our knowledge.

That which raises the human make above the brute creatures, is our having capacities, which enable us to take more extensive views, and penetrate farther into the natures and connexions of things, than inferior creatures; our having a faculty of abstract reflexions; so that we can at pleasure, call up to our minds any subject we have formerly known, which, for aught that appears, the inferior creatures cannot do, nor excite in themselves the idea of an absent object, but what their senses, either directly or indirectly, recal to their memory; and lastly, that we are naturally, till we come to be debauched, more masters

of our passions and appetites, or more free to choose and refuse, than the inferior creatures.

It is impossible to put together any consistent theory of our nature, or state, without taking in the thought of our being intended for immortality. If we attempt to think of our existence as terminating with this life, all is abrupt, confused, and unaccountable. But when the present is considered as a state of discipline, and introduction to endless improvement hereafter; though we cannot say, that we see through the whole scheme, we yet see so much of wisdom and design, as to lead us to conclude with reason, that the whole is contrived in the most proper manner for gaining the important end of preparing us for immortal happiness and glory.

And that it is reasonable to believe our species formed for immortality, will appear first, by considering the nature of the mind itself, which is indeed, properly speaking, the being; for the body is only a system of matter inhabited and actuated by the living spirit.

That the mind may, in a dependence upon the infinite Author of life and being, continue to exist after the dissolution of the body, there is no reason to question. For individuality and indiscerpibility being inseparable properties of mind, it is plain that a mind can die only by annihilation. But no one can show that there is any connexion between death and annihilation. On the contrary, the mortal body itself is certainly not annihilated at death, nor any way altered in its essence, only its condition and circumstances are not the same as when animated by the living principle which is also the case of the mind. But if the mind be a principle originally capable of thought and selfmotion by its own nature; it follows, that it may for any thing we know, think and act in one state as well as another; in a future as well as in the present. If it were possible to conceive of a material, thinking, and self-moving principle, which is a flat contradiction, inactivity being inseparable from the idea of matter; yet it would not thence follow, that the thinking principle must lose its existence at the dissolution of the gross body. The moral proofs for the future existence of the human species would still remain in force, whether we were considered as embodied spirits, or as mere body. Nor is there any contradiction in the

idea of an immortal body, any more than of an immortal spirit; nor is any being immortal, but by dependence on the Divine Supporting Power. Nor does the notion of the possibility of a faculty of thinking, superadded to matter, at all effect the point in question. Though it is certain, that a pretended system of matter with a thinking faculty, must either be nothing more than matter animated by spirit or a substance of a quite opposite nature to all that we call matter, about which we cannot reason, having no ideas of it. Farther, we have reason to conclude, that the body depends on the mind for life and motion; not the mind on the body. We find, that the mind is not impaired by the loss of whole limbs of the body; that the mind is often very active, when the body is at rest; that the mind corrects the errors presented to it through the senses; that even in the decay, disorder, or total suspension, of the senses, the mind is affected just as she might be expected to be, when obliged to use outward instruments, and to have wrong representations, and false impressions, forced upon her, or when deprived of all traces, and quite put out of her element. For, the case of persons intoxicated with liquor, or in a dream, or raving in a fever, or distract. ed, all which have a resemblance to one another, may be conceived of in the following manner. The mind, or thinking being, which at present receives impressions only by means of the material organ of the brain, and the senses through which intelligence is communicated into the brain; the mind, I say, being at present confined to act only within the dark cell of the brain, and to receive very lively impressions from it, which is a consequence of a law of nature. to us inexplicable; may be exactly in the same manner affected by the impressions made on the brain by a disease. or other accidental cause, as if they were made by some real external object. For example, if in a violent fever. or a frenzy, the same impressions be, by a preternatural flow of the animal spirits, made on the retina of the eye, as would be made if the person was to be in a field of battle, where two armies were engaged; and if at the same time it happened, that by the same means the same impressions should be made on the auditory nerve, as would be made if the person were within hearing of the noise of drums, the clangour of trumpets, and the shouts of men;