Ng ESSAY TOWARD THE (SECT. Ir: Let this matter, I say, be determined either way, yet the great point seems to be evident, even beyond proba- bility, that there is a conscious being spoken of, which is very distinct from its tabernacle, or house, or cloth- ing, and which exists still, whatever its clothing, or its dwelling be, or whether it be put off, or put on ; and that when the earthlyhouse, or vesture, is dissolved, or put off, the heavenly house, or clothing, is ready 'at hand to, be put on immediately, to render the soul of the Christian fit to be present with the Lord. 2 Con xii. 2, 3. " I knew a man in. Christ, above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth : how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words." I grant, this ecstacy of the apostle, does not actually shew the existence of a separate state, after death, till the resurrection; yet it plainly manifests St. Paul's be- Iief, that there might besuch a state, and that the soul Alight be separated from the body, and might exist, and think, and knów, and act in paradise, in a state of se- paration, and hear, and perhaps, converse in the un- speakable language of that world, while it was absent from the body. J And, as I acknowledge, I am one of those persons, who do not believe, that the intellectual spirit, or mind of man, is the proper principle of animal life to the body, but that it is another distinct conscious being, that generally uses the body as a habitation, engine, or in- strument, while its animal life remains; so I am of opi- nion it is a possible thing, for the intellectual spirit, in a miraculous manner, by the special order of God, to act, in a state of separation, without the death of the animal body, since the life of the body depends upon breath, and air, and the regular temper and motion of the solids and fluids of which it is composed *. And St, * It would be thought, perhaps, a little foreign to my present purpose; if I should stayhere to prove, that it is not the conscious principle in man that gives or maintains the animal life of his body. It is granted, that, according to the course of nature, and the general appointment of God therein, this conscious principle, or spirit, continues its communications with thebody, while the body has animal life, or is capable of its natural motions, and able to obey the volitions of the spirit; and 6n this ac count, the union of the rational spirit to the body, and the animal life of the body, are often represented as one and the sanie thing. 5
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