A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

5. Proposition.

The Light and Law of Nature doth dictate that it is man's duty to pray to God, and that not only severally, but conjunctly; and that not only in public Assemblies, but in private Families. For the clearing of this I shall lay down several Positions, including certain truths; and fetch the proof of them from the light of Nature and the testimony of Heathens themselves, and then gather up the Argument from the whole.

The Light and Law of Nature doth dictate that it is man's duty to pray to God, and that not only severally, but conjunctly; and that not only in publique Assemblies, but in private Families. For the clearing of this I shall lay down several Positions, including certain truths; and fetch the proof of them from the light of Nature and the testimony of Heathens themselves, and then gather up the Argument from the whole.

Position 1.

That the Light of Nature doth dictate that the souls of men are Immortal, ¹and do not dye when the body dieth. This the Heathen did gather from the great care that there is naturally in all men, at least that do improve their natural light, and hearken to the voice of sober reason, what shall become of them after death. Though all men do not seriously provide for the soul after its separation from the body, and the light of nature cannot direct us in this matter; yet such cares and fears that there be in men about their state after death, even in such as never had a Bible, is a certain evidence that they believed the Soul's immortality. Reason gathers also the immortality of the Soul from the simplicity and immateriality of its nature, that it is not compounded of material parts, as the Body is, nor hath such contrary qualities combating one with another, as the Body hath, to cause its dissolution or cessation of being; for the destruction of a thing is the tearing asunder those parts, which before such destruction were joined together, the Soul therefore that is not so compounded, hath nothing in its own nature that should cause it to cease to be, nor render it liable to be destroyed by any creature, though it might be annihilated by Divine Power.