20 The Evil and Folly of Covetoufnefs. SE R M, of which we have the preceptions of exter- XI. nal objedts, and its members are moved by the foie determination of our wills ; com- pounded I fay, of this corporeal fyftem and a thinking active principle which animateth it. By thefe different parts of the compofition, life comprehendeth a great variety of inter refts and affairs, which we confider as ours, and they are of importance to us ; inward perceptions, the exercife of underftanding, memory, will, and affe &ions, with a cop - fcioufnefs of them all ; at the fame time the proper difpofition of the bodily organs, each holding its own place and performing its funCtion in the machine ; and by this exte- rior part life is related to and dependeth up- on the ambient air, materials for nourifh- ment, and other external things which are obvious to all. Life is to be confidered as the fundamental capacity of all animal ope- rations, and of all rational actions in the prefent ftate, together with the important confequences which follow them : by it we are attached to the earth, and engaged in its various concerns, in families, nations, and other communities formed for the pur- poles of the prefent ftate, and in the purfuit of the various interefts belonging to them ; and upon it as a neceffary preparation and introduátion
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