Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

6. The Senses are subject to languishing and decay, and begin to die before Death. But the Soul many times in the weakness of Age is most lively and vigorously productive. The intellectual Off-spring carries no marks of the decays of the Body. In the approaches of Death, when the corporeal faculties are relaxed and very faintly perform their functions, the workings of the Soul are often raised above the usual pitch of its activity. And this is a pregnant probability that 'tis of a spiritual Nature, and that when the Body, which is here its Prison rather than Mansion, falls to the Earth, 'tis not oppressed by its ruins, but ⟨p. 160⟩set free and enjoys the truest liberty.¹ This made Heraclitus say that the Soul goes out of the Body as Lightning from a Cloud, because it's never more clear in its conceptions than when freed from matter. And what Lucretius excellently expresses in his Verses, is true in another sense than he intended; Cedit item retro de Terra, quod fuit ante, In Terram; sed quod missum est ex Aetheris oris, Id rursus Coeli fulgentia Templa receptant. What sprung from Earth falls to its native place: What Heaven inspired released from the weak tie Of flesh, ascends above the shining Sky.

6. The Senses are subject to languishing and decay, and begin to die before Death. But the Soul many times in the weakness of Age is most lively and vigorously productive. The intellectual Off-spring carries no marks of the decays of the Body. In the approaches of Death, when the corporeal faculties are relaxt and very faintly perform their functions, the workings of the Soul are often rais'd above the usual pitch of its activity. And this is a pregnant probability that 'tis of a spiritual Nature, and that when the Body, which is here its Prison rather than Mansion, falls to the Earth, 'tis not opprest by its ruines, but ⟨p. 160⟩set free and injoys the truest liberty.¹ This made Heraclitus say that the Soul goes out of the Body as Lightning from a Cloud, because it's never more clear in its conceptions than when freed from matter. And what Lucretius excellently expresses in his Verses, is true in another sense than he intended; Cedit item retro de Terra, quod fuit ante, In Terram; sed quod missum est ex Aetheris oris, Id rursus Coeli fulgentia Templa receptant. What sprung from Earth falls to its native place: What Heav'n inspir'd releast from the weak tye Of flesh, ascends above the shining Sky.