i28 .0f the Inrnaortality of the Soul, Voi. II. Settle and Perception which is in them, is founded in a Principleof a. higher Na- ture than Matter. And as this was always the common Philofophy of the World, fo we find it to be a fuppofitionof Scripture, which frequently attributes Souls to Beafts as well as toMen, thoof a muchinferior Nature. And therefore thofe par- ticular Philofophers, who havedenied any immaterialPrinciple, or aSoul to Beafts, have alto denied them to have fenfe, anymore than a Clock, or Watch, or any other Engine; and have imagined them to be nothing elfe but a finer and more complicated kind of Engines, which by reafonof the curiofity and tendernefsof their Frame, are more eafily fufceptible of all kind of motions and imprefiions from without, which Impreffions are the Caufe of all thofe A&ions, that refem- ble thofe fenfations which we Men find inour felves 5 which is to fay, that Birds, and Beafts, and Fifties, are nothing elfe but amore curious fort OfPuppets, which by certain fecret and hidden Weights and Springs do move up and down, and çounterfeit the A&ions of Life and Senfe. This I confefs feems to me to be an odd kind ofPhilofophy and it bath this vehement prejudice againft it, that if this were true, every Manwould have great caufe to queftion the reality of his own Perceptions , for to all appearance the SenfationsofBeafts are as real as ours, and in many things their Senfes much more exquifìte than ours; and if nothing tan be a fufficient Argument to a Man, that be is really endowed with Senfe, be- tides his own confcioufnefs of it, then every Man hath reafon to doubt whether all Men in the World betides himfelf be not meer Engines; for no Man hath any other Evidence, that another Man is really endowed with Senfe, than he hath that Brute Creaturesare fo ; for they appear to us to fee, and hear, and feel, and fineli, and tafte things as truly and asexa3ly as any Man in the World does. (2 ) Suppofing Beafts to have an Immaterial Principle diftin& from their Body, it will notfrom hence follow, that they are Immortal, in the fenfe that we attri- bute Immortality to Men. For Immortality, whenwe afcribe it to Men, figni- fies two things. I. That the Soul remains after the Body, and is not corrupted and diffolved to- gether with it. 2. That it lives in this feparate Rate, and is fenfible of Happinefsor Mifery. 1. Immortality imports that the Soul remains after the Body, and is not corrup- ted or diffolved together with it. And there is no inconvenience in attributing this fort of Immortality to the Brute Creatures. And here it is not neceffaryfor us, whoknow fo little of the ways and works of God, andof the fecrets ofNature, tobe able to give a particular account what becomes of the Souls of Brute Crea- tures after death; whether they return into the Soul and Spirit of the World, if there be any fuch thing, as fome fancy ; or whether they pafs into the Bodies of other Animals which fucceed in their rooms; I fay, this is not neceffary to be par- ticularly determined; it is fufficient to laydown this in general as highly probable, that they are filch a fort of Spirits, which as to their Operation and Life, do ne- ceffarily depend upon Matter, and require Unionwithit, which Unionbeing dif- folved, they lapfe into an infenfible condition, and a flare ofina&ivity. For be- ing endowed only with aSenfitive Principle, the Operations of which do plainly depend uponan Organical di fpofition ofthe Body, when the Body isdifl'olvedall their a&ivity ceafeth ; and when this vifible Frameof the World (hall be diffolved, and this Scene of fenfible things shall pats away, then it is not improbable that they (hall be difcharged out of Being, and return to their firft nothing: for tho in their own Nature they would continue longer, yet having ferved theEnd of their Being, and done their Work, it is not unfutable to the fame Wifdom that made them, andcommanded them into Being, to let them fink into their firft (late. 2/y. Immortality, as applied to the Spirits of Men, imports that their Soulsare not only capable of continuing, but living in this feparate ftate, fo as to be fenfi- bie of Happinefs and Mifery. For the Soul of Man beingof an higher Nature, and not only endowed witha Faculty ofSenfe, but likewife other Faculties which have no necefl'arydependanceupon, or'connexion with Matter, having a fenfeof God, and of Divine and Spiritual things, and being capable of Happinefs in the Enjoyment of God, or of Mifery in a feparation from him; it is but reafonable to imagine, that the Souls ofMen (hall be admitted to the exercife of chele Facul- ties,
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