ly implied in the doctrine of what has been called
"the natural immortality of the soul" is well stated by Dr. S. Clarke,
when he says that, "the soul may be such a substance as is able to
continue its own duration forever, by the powers given to it at its
first production, and the continuance of those general influences which
are requisite for the support of created beings in general." Mr. Baxter,
acute and metaphysical as he was, placed the argument substantially on
the same ground. "It appears," he says, "that all substance equally, as
well material as immaterial, cannot cease to exist but by an effect of
infinite power.... The human soul, having no parts, must be
indissoluble in its nature by anything that hath not power to destroy or
annihilate it. And since it hath not a natural tendency to annihilation,
nor a power to annihilate itself, nor can be annihilated by any being
finitely powerful only, without an immediate act of the omnipotent
Creator to annihilate it, it must endlessly abide an active perceptive
substance, without either fear or hopes of dying through all eternity,
which is, in other words, to be immortal as to the agency of all natural
or second causes, that is, 'naturally immortal.'"[174]

When thus stated and limited, the argument is at once safe and valid. It
is first proved that the Mind is a "substance," living, perceptive, and
active, which is simple and indivisible, and not capable, like matter,
of being separated into parts possessing the same properties or powers;
and then this distinction betwixt mind and matter is applied to prove
that it cannot be _destroyed by dissolution_, as the body may be, but
that if it be destroyed at all, it must be by _annihilation_. But no
substance, material or immaterial, can be annihilated by any _finite or
second cause_; it can be annihilated only by the will of him who created
it; and the question respecting the soul of man remains, What are the
indications of God's will concerning it? When this question is seriously
entertained, we can hardly fail to see in the structure of its powers,
in the grandeur of its capacities, in the moral and responsible
consciousness which belongs to it, a strong presumptive proof of its
being His purpose that it should continue to live after the dissolution
of the body. The Metaphysical argument is sufficient to remove
preliminary objections, the Moral argument furnishes a presumptive
proof.

The theory of Materialism, as it