forts of Thinking there are, nor indeed what it is to Think. The Matter of Beafts and Man, as they fay, organized, can think as much as Beafts think, and the Effence of the Soul can think in that Manner which Beafts cannot think; and if Memory, retaining or recovering the Impreffions of Senfation be a Part of Thinking, then Beafts, or the Body can remember fuch things, and in fuch Manner as are ufeful for them, and Souls fuch things, and in fuch Manner as is useful for them. But we know that weighing or comparing things by Ideas, and by borrowed Ideas, is peculiar to the Soul exclufive of Body. And 'tis not Satisfaction to talk of God's giving Power to Matter to think in that Degree we call Perception, &c. Nor is it enough to hear that God has given Power to the Effence of the Soul, to think and reason, as we perceive that in ourself does, 'till one can, by Help of the Manner of Perception, form a comparative Idea of another Syftem or Power, which supports the Action of Reafoning in our Souls; for, doubtless, there are fome Concomitants in that Syftem, which, because we do not understand the Syftem, we do not underftand, which contribute to the Actions of created thinking Beings, as there D 4

is,

is, in this Syftem, to the Motions of moving Beings, and Perceptions of fenfible Beings; and the (what to call it I know not) Condition of the Body must, at the Refurrection, be adapted to the next State, so that the Beings may live eternally. As the Body of Man is kept alive by the Light and Spirit in this Machine, and as when 'tis to rife again, Job xiv. 12. the Machine of the Air is to be laid afide, that Body must then be fupported by the ineffable Light and Spirit, as the Soul is, Thence of Christ, John i. 4. In him was Life, and the Life was the Light of Men. Thence, Ifa. lx. 19, 20. Jehovah fhall be their Shemofh.

I think innate Ideas could not be proper for the Soul of Man; his Ideas were to be freely and evidently raised, either from Revelation or Senfe, or deduced, whence he had a Power of chufing. As, for Example, the Belief of a God was to be the chief Condition of his Salvation: If that had been innate, it could have been no Mark of Choice, and so no Article of a Condition; and as the Belief of a God, with all his Attributes, once fixed in Men, would have fet him right, by the Affiftance of Reafon, to have deduced all neceffary Knowledge, fuch as that no o

ther

ther Being, or Thing, could be, or have any Powers or Properties, but from him,, that all Things were fubject to him, Man had not been a free Agent.

If Man had a Power in him, of knowing what has not come into his Senfes, or by Deduction, he would know as God knows; nay, I think I may fay, more; because God has created, formed, and fees every Thing: This was the Bait Satan tempted Man with; and if we fuppofe there is innate Knowledge in him, of fome principal Things, how fhall Man know which thofe Things are, or when he knows, and when he imagines; or how fhall another know how to believe any Thing from fuch a Man, except he give his Evidence?

The Works, that is, the Agents of God, in this material Syftem, are fuited to the fenfitive Part, as God is to the Soul or Mind; fo that there was to be fomething, Distances confider'd, near an Equality, to captivate the Soul by the Senfes, as God was to captivate the Mind by Reafon; that it might be for the Honour of God, that the Compound-Creature, called Man, owned him. All other Temptations are common to Beafts and us, except that which produces Covetoufnefs, which Vice

is below them; few of them hoard, none hoard for more than the Winter Seafon.,

If the Body were but an Inftrument to procure Ideas for the Soul, viz. of the Machine, the Agents in this Syftem, of their Actions, of Creatures and their Actions, to enable the Soul to reafon about them, and by its Neceffities, and fo its Ties, or by its Senfations, and fo by its Appetites, to put the Soul upon Trial, whether it could keep the Body, thofe Parts framed to procure Supplies, to propagate, &c. within the Bounds of Property and Rules of Reason in Society; fo that it were but a cloathing of the Soul: Then the Machine which actuates this Syftem, carries on Vegetation, Production of Animals, &c. is only to feparate, collect, and prepare proper Matter for cloathing, and repairing the Cloaths cf Souls. But if the Body be a Being which is to have its Appetites, &c. refined, and is to accompany the Soul hereafter, and is to exift, perceive, and act, in another World; and the Machine, the Air be a Vice-Roy, and be framed to fhew Power, Perfonality, &c. and the Body be to furnish the Soul with Ideas of it, to enable the Soul, from these borrowed Ideas, to frame other higher Ideas, and to make Deductions about their Creator, and

the

to

to put compound Man upon the Trial, whether he will follow the Senfe of his Body, and conclude the Machine a Party or Supream, or the Reafon of his Soul, and acknowledge God; and that this was the Teft which determined the Fate of Man: It will put us upon new Enqui

ries.

Whether the Angels are unbodied, and each only fuch as the Soul in a Man will be when feparated, and when they are fent hither, and employ'd here, only affume Bodies to become vifible to Man, or to take in Ideas of Matter here, or they have, befides Spirit, fuch Bodies always annexed, as the Bodies of Men will be; we muft fuppofe, that the Effence fupplies them with Life, and with Power of acting, receiving, and conveying Ideas of fuch Things or Actions as are of Use to them to know: Because, I think, there can be no Mean between the Power of the ineffable Influence of that Effence, and the Power of Irradiation and Circulation of Matter in Mechanifm; and because it is fufficiently revealed, that Men, whofe Bodies want the Air for Life, and other Neceffaries for Supplies here, will hereafter receive their Life and Supplies immediately from God; and as the Organs

and