IMMORTALITY of the SOUL. i 4 r 
Without attempting to puzzle you, or myfelf, concerning the 
immateriality of the foul, as deducible from the nature of its 
powers, what meaning have we when we fay, “ What will be- 
“ come of me when I am dead ?” Common fenfe teaches us to 
confider the foul as very different in fubftance from the body. 
Every peafant, every child knows the body will moulder into 
duft ; but the ruftic who, in a fit of the ftone, faid, “ If I 
“ could once get this breath of mine out of my body, I would 
“ take care it fhould never get in again,” was it not from a 
confcioufnefs of an exiftence after death, feparate from his 
body ? His declaration by no means implies that he ever once 
thought of ceasing to be ; he only wifhed to be free from 
pain, and fuppofed he fhould be happy fome how, or fome 
where. To us, as chriftians, thefe are no difficulties; ’tis enough 
that we resign to heaven, and believe we fhall be happy. 
Whatever the instinct of beafts may be, their powers, tho’ 
they resemble reafon, are furely of a very different nature ; 
they cannot be confidered as creatures which are accountable; 
they give no tokens of any apprehenfion of the being of a god. 
But for the reafons I apprehend they are not accountable, it is as 
plainly deducible, from the nature of my thoughts, and the 
freedom with which I a£l, that I am an accountable being. 
The confcioufnefs of this, convinces me that my foul is immor- 
tal : 
<c Rife whence this pleafing hope, this fond defire, 
‘ c This longing after immortality f 
c< Or whence this fecret dread, and inward horror 
4 1 Of facing, i nt0 nought ? 
Whether 
