SERMON CXXEI, Ofthe Immortality ofthe Sou]; as difcover'd by Nature, and byRevelation. 2 T I M. I. IO. The Thirei Sermon on But is nowmade manifeß by the appearing of our Saviour Jefws Chri/t, thin Tear: who hath abolifhed Death, andhath brought Life and Immortality to light, through the Gofpel. TH E Vih and laft Argument is, That this Suppofition of the Soul's Immor- tality, gives the faireft account and eafieft folution of the Pha:nomena, of humanNature, of thofe feveral A&ions and Operations which we are contemns to our felves of, and which, without great violence to our Reafon, cannot be refolved into a bodily Principle, andafcribed to meer Matter ; fuch are Perception, Memory, Liberty, and the feveral Ads of Lfnderfkanding and Reafon. Thefe O- perations we find inour felves, and we cannot imagine bow they fhouldbe per- formed by meer Matter; therefore we ought in all reafon to refolve them into fome Principle of another nature from Matter, that is, into fomething that is im- material, and confequently Immortal, that is, incapable.in its own Nature ofCor- ruption and Diffolution. And that the forceof this Argument may the better appear, I (hall fpeak fome- thing ofthefe diNn&ly, and fhew that none of thefe Operations can be perfor- med from meer Matter. I beginwith the r. And loweft, which is fenfitive Perception, which is nothing elfe but a con- fcioufnefs toour felves of our own fenfations, an Apprehenfion of the Impreffi- ons which are madeupon us ; and thisFaculty is that which conftitutes the diffe- rence between Senfitive and Infenfitive Creatures. A Stone mayhave feveral Im- preffions made upon it, as well as the living Creature endowedwith fenfe : but with this difference, that whatever Impreffions are made upon aStone, by knock- ing, cutting, or any other kind of Motion or Aáion, the Stone is ftupid, and is not in the leaft confcious of any of thofe Impreffions, does not perceive what is done to it; whereas thofe Creatures which are endowed with fenfe, do plainly perceive their own and others Motions, they are affected with the Impreffiona which are made upon them. Nowwe can give no account of this Operation from meer Matter. If is plain, that Matter is not in its own Nature fenfible for we find the greateft part of the World to confift of infenfible parts, and fuch as have no Perception. Now if Matter be granted in it felf to be infenfible, it is utterly unimaginable, . how any Motion or Configuration of the partsof it, fhould raife that which bath no fenfe to a Faculty of Perception. Epicurur fancied thole Particlesof Matter, of which Souls were framed, tobe the fineft and fmalleft ; and for their fmoother and caller Motion, that they were allof a round Figure. But fuppofing Matternot tobe natu rally and of it felf fenfible, whocan conceive what that is which fhould awaken the drowfieparts of it, to a lively fenfeof theImpreffions madeupon ir? It is every whit as eafie to imagine how an Inftrumentmight be framed and tuned fo artificially, as tó hearitsown"founds, and to be marvelloufly delighted with them ; or that a Glafs mightbe polifh'd to that finenefs,as to feeall thofeObjets whicharerefle&edupon its But there is one difficulty in this: for for it may be laid, if Senfitive Percepti- on be an Argument of the Soul's Immateriality, and confequently Immortality, then theSouls of Beafts will be Immortal, as well as the Souls of Men. For anfwer to this, I (hall fay thefe things. (a) That the moil general and common Philofophy of theWorld, bath always acknowledged fomething in Beans betides their Bodies, and that the Faculty of Sense
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