140 
IMMORTALITY of the SOUL. 
LETTER XLVII. 
7 0 the fame . 
Madam, 
Y O U demanded next what notions I entertained of the 
immortality of the foul. I told you that I endevored 
to adopt a principle which might relieve the anxious refearches 
of my own heart, whether it correfponded with the general 
received opinions of other men or not. ’Tis with difficulty 
we colled! our thoughts on this important fubjedl. By a habit 
of acting inconfiftent with this belief, our hearts, I am forry 
to fay it, do not feem to have an exadl correfpondence with our 
TONGUES. 
But from what I remark of others, from whit I obferve of 
the operations of my own mind, with all the attention I am 
capable of fupporting ; when my senses are compofed, and 
the avenues to my heart guarded ; when my foul makes her- 
felf her own objedl, I rife fuperior to all earthly concerns ; I 
forget I have a body ; I feel the influence of a power which 
tells me I am immortal 1 
The arguments drawn from my reason co-operate with my 
faith, neither of which will fuffer my understanding to doubt 
of the authority of divine writ ; whilft the purity and confifl- 
ency of revelation draws my heart alfo to fubfcribe to it. As 
fure then as we are thinking beings ; as fure as the chriftian re- 
ligion is not a fraud, to delude mankind, the foul is immor- 
tal : it can and does exift after its feparation from the body. 
Without 
