thing more than the total diffolution of this tie, occafioned, in a natural way, by fome alteration in the material frame; not in the mind; whereby that which formed the nexus, or union, whatever that may be, is removed or difengaged. It is probable, that the anxiety and diftrefs, under which the mind commonly feels itself at death, is owing rather to the manner and process of the diffolution, than to the diffolution itself. For we obferve, that very aged perfons, and infants, often die without a ftruggle. The union between foul and body, being already weak, is easily disfolved. And if fleep be, as it feems, a partial diffolution of this union, or a fetting the mind and body at a greater diftance from one another, the reason why it gives no disturbance is, that it comes on in fuch a manner as not forcibly to tear in pieces, but gently to relax, the ligatures, whatever they are, between the material and spiritual natures. That there is an analogy between sleep and death, is evident from obferving, that fleep fometimes goes on to death, as in lethargic cafes, and in the effects of ftrong opiates. And it is remarkable, that the life of a perfon, who has taken too large a dose of opium, cannot be faved but by forcibly waking him; as if the mutual action of the mind and body upon one another was the medium of the union; and that, if their mutual action upon one another comes to be leffened to a certain degree, they become indifferent to one another, and the union between them ceases of

courfe,

course, as two companions walking together in the dark may come to lofe one another, by dropping their converfation, and keeping a profound filence.

It is probable, that the condition, in which the mind, juft difengaged from the body, feels itself, is very much like to that of dreaming; all confufion, uncertainty, and incoherence of ideas; and that, in fome measure, like the infant-mind newly entered upon a ftate wholly unknown, it finds itself greatly at a loss, and exerts itfelf with much difficulty and difadvantage; till a little time and habit qualifies it for a new and untried fcene of action *.

If the true account of the human nature be, that the fpiritual, active, thinking principle is united to a fubtile etherial vehicle, whose refidence is in the brain, and that death is the departure of the foul and fpirit from the body; which was the notion of the Platonic philofophers,

*The author is not aflamed to confefs, that he now thinks his former opinion concerning the state of the dead, as reprefented in these paragraphs, erroneous; though he chooses not to alter the text on that account; thinking it hardly fair to leffen the value of former editions, by adding to fucceeding ones, what is better laid before readers in feparate publications. The author is now inclinable to think Doctor Law's opinion, in his Theory of Religion, more rational, as well as more fcriptural, than the generally received notion, of the foul's being in a full ftate of confcioufnefs and activity, between death and refurrection. It is a point of mere fpeculation, no way materially affecting either faith or manners.

and

and Jewish rabbi's, and feems to be countenanced by the apostle Paul; if this be the true account of the human make, there is no difficulty in conceiving the poffibility of the mind's thinking and acting in a state of total feparation from the grofs terrestrial body, notwithstanding the feeming difficulty of a fufpenfion of thought in profound fleep, or in a fainting fit. For the embodied and separate states are fo very different, there is no reasoning from one to the other on every point. It may be impoffible for the mind, while imprifoned in the body, in a great diforder of the animal frame, to join ideas together, for want of its traces in the brain, and other implements of reafoning, to which it has all along been accuftomed, and which it cannot do without; and yet, it may be poffible for the fame mind, when freed from its dark prifon, to go to work in a quite different manner, to receive impreffions immediately from the objects themselves, which it received before by the intervention of the fenfes, and to contrive for itfelf memorial traces, and the other neceffary apparatus for improvement, in a much more perfect manner. It may then be able to penetrate into the internal fubitance, and examine the minute arrangement of the smallest corpufcles of all kinds of material systems. By applying its ductile and delicate vehicle, which may be confidered as all fenfation, all eye, all ear, and touch, it may accurately take off not only the real form, but the internal nature, and

ftate

ftate of things, with all their properties, and prefent them to the immediate intuition of the perceptive principle, juft as they are in themfelves; whereas at prefent the mind apprehends things only as the dull and imperfect bodily fenfes exhibit them to it. It may be able to contract itself to the examination of the internal structure of the body of the minuteft animalcule; and it may, as it goes on to improve and enlarge its powers, come to fuch a perfection, as to diffufe its actual prefence and intelligence over a kingdom, or round the whole globe, so as to perceive all that paffes in every fpot on the face of it. It may enter into, and examine, the fublime ideas which are treasured up in the mind of an angel, and as now, by perufing a book, it acquires new views, and by flow degrees perfects those it had before acquired; fo it may hereafter attain fuch a capacity of comprehenfion, as to be able to take off at one intuition a whole new science. Thus new powers and faculties, for which we have at present no names, may be for ever springing up in the mind, which will ever find new employment in examining and enquiring into truth. For the object of the mind is infinite.

That our species fhould have another state to enter upon, wholly different from the present, is fo far from being unreasonable to expect, that it is analogous to the whole fcheme of nature. For there is no fpecies, as far as we know, that do not live in different fucceffive ftates.

But to

inftance

inftance only in the infect tribe, many of that fpecies, befides their animalcule ftate, before they be propagated from the male, in which they differ in nothing from the whole animal creation, appear first as eggs, and afterwards as living reptiles, capable of motion and feeding; then they enter upon their nymph or aurelia ftate, and continue for several months as it were coffin'd up in their flough, and totally infenfible. At laft they burst their prison, expand their wings, and fly away in the shape of butterflies, dragon-flies, or other winged infects, according to their several fpecies. This fucceffion of ftates, of which the laft is the most perfect, has been confidered as emblematical of our mortal life, our intermediate ftate, and refurrection to immortality.

But the most irrefragable proofs for the future immortality of the human fpecies, feparate from those which revelation yields, are taken from the confideration of the perfections of the Maker and Governor of the world, who designs all his works according to infinite wifdom and goodness, and according to the true ftate of things. No one can suppose that the God of truth would have allowed that a whole order of rational creatures fhould, by any means whatever, be mifled into an univerfal perfuafion of a state, for which they never were intended. For it is evident, that if we are not formed for a future immortal state, we can have no more concern with any thing beyond death, than with the world in the moon,

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