meer Magnitudes, Figures, Sites, and Motions, is, in the ordinary Courfe, and therefore in a proper sense, to fetch fomething out of nothing. Mr. Lock may avoid this, by recurring to the Power of God; but Eftibius has had the Misfortune to drop that, after the Creation of Adam; and to derive the rest of Mankind, from a Power in generated Matter; and therefore he must stand and fall in this Notion, with the Democritic and Epicurean Atheists. And tho' with them he may find better Philosophy, he will meet with more abfurd Atheism, than with those that philofophiz'd in the way of real Qualities, generable and corruptible in Matter, of which Number they made Life and Understanding; and cou'd thus account for the Production of it, without a Contradiction, which the Atomic Philofophy could

not.

But the Abfurdity of this Notion is farther obvious, even to ordinary Observation. Spontaneous Motion is an Ingredient, according to Eftibius, of Life; now we may eafily observe that neither has the whole Body fpontaneous Motion in it, nor have any of its most agil and refind Parts: It fares with our best Spirits, as with other Bodies in Motion, they are retarded, and grow fluggifh by external Refiftance; and where ever Motion can be diminish'd, in that Subject,

Dd

Subject it may be destroy'd; but the Power of fpontaneous Motion can neither be diminish'd nor destroy'd, by phyfical Caufes, however it may appear to be fo in Human Body. For if we fuppofe the Soul to act immediately, only upon the fpirituous and subtle Parts of the Body, we must grant it neceffary, that thefe be duly qualify'd to communicate Motion to the groffer Parts, because they do that mechanically; and this is a fufficient Reafon why our fpontaneous Motion is obftructed in its Operation, and alfo why this Obftruction does finally reach every part of the Body: But on the other hand, this proves that a vital Flame, in a literal Senfe, is as great an Abfurdity, as to make all Fire alive. Nor is it reafonable to avoid this, by faying thofe Parts of the Body in which Life confifts, can never be depriv'd of their Motion, but by Death; for befides that this is only to retreat from one Abfurdity to another, this continu'd Motion comes never the nearer the Idea of spontaneous Motion, nor accounts at all for it.

But ftill the Communication of Life is a more grofs Abfurdity, than the Original of it. Do these self-moving Particles, in which the Life of the Parent confifts, branch out into the Offspring? If so, all Mankind was, properly and strictly speaking, in Adam, as the part is in the whole; and here's an easie Account,

Account, if 'twere but probable, of the Fall of Man. Or do these Particles communicate to others their Faculty of fpontaneous Motion? We do not find that a Body commences felf-moving, from any Impulfe; but on the contrary, that the moft active Parts of our Body may be laid afleep, and the moft rapid Motion of our Spirits ceafe. In short, it is impoffible that the Will to move the Body, fhould be lodg'd in the Body it felf; and the Gremium Materie, Matter's Lap which Eftibius fomewhere talks of, is as incapable of receiving it, as Matter's Br-h.

Laftly, he is not more abfurd in making Man wholly mortal, than he is in denying that he makes him fo. He fays, Pag. 209. Mortality properly relates to a pe

rishing Subftance, which by its returning to Corruption, returns to its primitive Matter, and generates another, as all Bodies do; but Life or Soul cannot be properly faid to be mortal or corruptible, but it truly returns to God that gave it, &c. it, &c. But tell me, fo long as your Name is Eftibius, how Life can, in any' other Senfe, or more properly, be faid to return to God, than any other Accident belonging to the Carcafs, which yet returns to Corruption, & eris mihi magnus Apollo.

II. I come now to confider this Notion of Human Soul as a Doctrine of Religion; and tho' Eftibius has confin'd the Difpute to the Christian Religion, and calls every other Argument an Heathenish Invention; yet I fhall, in the first place, propofe fome Confiderations from natural Religion, which will, I hope, be of Weight with those that truly understand Religion, and the general Foundations of it.

We have more than once mention'd the Immortality of the Soul, as believ'd by all Nations, in fuch a Senfe, that an Exception cannot be urg'd as an Objection to this Rule. We are now to confider this as an Objection against Eftibius. And here, as a good Teftimony ought always to have Weight with a wife Man, fo of all other Testimony, that of the wisest and far greatest part of Mankind, in all Ages, concurring without the Poffibility of Concert or Contrivance, in the Belief of any Principle, is the strongest and most convincing. It is like a Quality diffus'd thro' a whole Species of Beings, which cou'd come only from the immediate Hand of the Creator. Thus Tully, upon this Argument, lays it down as an Axiom, Omni in re concenfio omnium Gentium, Lex Natura putanda eft. And proving that this was the uni

Tufc.qu.

lib. 1.

Ibid.

Ep. 117.

verfal Opinion of the most ancient Nations in History, ab omni antiquitate, adds, que quo propius aberat ab Ortu, & Divina Progenie, hoc melius fortaffe quæ erant vera cernebat. And Seneca, Cum de animarum Æternitate differimus, non leve momentum apud nos habet confenfus omnium, aut timentium inferos, aut colentium. And therefore, in the Opinion of these wife Men, nothing less than Demonstration indeed can embolden a confiderate Man, to fet himself against the general Senfe of Mankind.

But this Argument will be more cogent, if we examin into the Grounds of this Opinion, and the reasons, if we can affign any, why it became univerfal. These two I think are confiderable; 1ft, The natural Appetite and Expectation of Mankind; and, 2dly, The Administration of Providence in this World.

ift, I have proved, Part 1. Set. 13. that the proper and adequate Happiness of Human Nature, to which by a neceffary Impulse it ever afpires, must be of eternal Duration; and that without the Addition of Eternity, we are made to be miferable fo long as we have our Being. This therefore may properly be affign'd as a Reason why the Belief of the thing became univerfal, because the Appetite and Expectation of it is fo; for Mankind having entertain'd Dd 3

the