15. What will become of changelings in a future state? But,
Secondly, I answer, The force of these men's question (viz. Will you
deprive changelings of a future state?) is founded on one of these two
suppositions, which are both false. The first is, That all things that
have the outward shape and appearance of a man must necessarily be
designed to an immortal future being after this life: or, secondly,
That whatever is of human birth must be so. Take away these
imaginations, and such questions will be groundless and ridiculous.
I desire then those who think there is no more but an accidental
difference between themselves and changelings, the essence in both
being exactly the same, to consider, whether they can imagine
immortality annexed to any outward shape of the body; the very
proposing it is, I suppose, enough to make them disown it. No one yet,
that ever I heard of, how much soever immersed in matter, allowed that
excellency to any figure of the gross sensible outward parts, as to
affirm eternal life due to it, or a necessary consequence of it; or
that any mass of matter should, after its dissolution here, be again
restored hereafter to an everlasting state of sense, perception, and
knowledge, only because it was moulded into this or that figure, and
had such a particular frame of its visible parts.
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