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jealousy and fear^ what hope ami desire, what won- 

 drous instances of lave and joy, of gratitude and re 

 renge ? What amazing appearances of this nature 

 are observed in birds -and beasts of the more docile 

 and domestic kind ? Such as puzzle the wisest of 

 philosophers to give a plain, fair, and satisfactory ac. 

 count how all these things can be performed by me. 

 chanism, or the mere laws of matter and motion I 

 But h >w many actions soever may be performed by 

 brute creatures, without any principle of sense or 

 consciousness, reason or reflexion, yet these things 

 can never be applied to human nature. It can never 

 be said, that man may be an engine too, that man m.:y 

 be only a finer sort of machine, without a rational and 

 immortal spirit. And the reason is this. Each of 

 us feel and are conscious within ourselves, that we 

 think, that we reason, that we reflect, that we con. 

 triye and design, that we judge and chase with free 

 dom, and determine our own actions ; we can have 

 no stronger principle of assent to any thing than 

 present, immediate, intellectual consciousness. If I 

 am assured of the truth of any inference whatsoever, 

 it is because I am sure of my consciousness of the 

 premises and of my consciousness that I derive this 

 infeivnc;' from them. My consciousness of these pre- 

 mises therefore is a prior ground of assurance, and 

 the foundation of all my certainty of the inferences. 

 Let a thousand reasons therefore be laid before me, 

 to prove that I aoi nothing but an engine, my o\vn 

 inward present consciousness of this proposition, that 

 1 have thoughts, that I have reasoning powers, and 

 that 1 have a will and free choice, is a full evidence 

 to me that these are false reasonings, arid deceitful 

 arguments; I know and am assured, by what 1 feel 

 every moment, that 1 have a spirit within me capa- 

 ble of knowing God 5 and of honouring or dishonour- 

 ing my Maker, of causing good or evil, of practisi ; g 

 "vice or virtue, and that 1 hereby am bound to ap. 

 prove myseli to the Almighty Being, that made and 

 governs me, who will reward me in some future state, 

 or other, according to iy behaviour in this. 



