all page 18. With God all things are possible and it seems he who made Matter out of nothing can make any thing out of Matter And to the same purpose page 14. he enumerates several Miracles As of Aaron 's blossoming Rod the staying of the Waters of Jordan the multiplication of Loaves and Fishes c. Thus you see he is so conscious of the weakness of his own Hypothesis that he is forced to fly to a miraculous Power to uphold it This is a ready way of explaining the Phaenomena of Nature But I reply 1st Is not the same Almighty Power able to uphold the Soul in a State of Subsistence separate from the Body 2dly Are the ordinary works of God in Nature and his extraordinary miraculous Works to be confounded 3dly Is it a valid way of arguing from the Power of God to his Will I readily grant That he can do all things which are Works of Power He can do all things which his infinite Wisdom sees fit to do he can do all things that he will do But doth it therefore follow that he will do all things that he can do Is it not horrid prophaneness to prostitute the Doctrine of the Divine Power to serve the ends of every trifling Hypothesis falsly called Philosophy Do we not know that ordinarily God works upon and by his Creatures in a way agreeable to the Natures which he has given them And what is there in a little Wheat-meal suitable to the production of Sense or Reason or Religion It is the part of a Philosopher humbly to contemplate what God hath done and to admire his Perfections shining forth in his Works and not to lay down Hypotheses contrary to the common Sense and Reason of Mankind and then to tell us that God can if he please make these Suppositions good Thus you see that our Author's Philosophy Anatomy and Theology are all alike absurd and that he hath made Miracles so common as will render them in a great measure useless for those extraordinary purposes whereunto they have mostly been designed and that he owns his Philosophy to be weak and impertinent when he is forced to have recourse to a supernatural miraculous Power to support it CHAP. V. Some subservient Considerations for the further establishment of the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality BEsides the forementioned Arguments there are several other Particulars which may justly render the Opinion of the Soul 's dying with the Body odious to all Men who have either the due use of Reason or any sense of Religion 1st This Opinion is highly injurious to Human Nature carrying in it a vile Depression of that whole Species or rank of Beings to which we belong What an unnatural thing is it for a Man to abuse his Reason in vilifying and degrading the reasonable Nature it self as if he repented that God had made him a Man and was ambitious to herd himself among the more ignoble Animals Praeclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt qui didicerunt se cum tempus mortis venisset totos esse peritos Cic. Tusc lib. 1.339 This is to bid defiance to the Common Interest of Humanity and such a Person should be looked upon as a Traytor against the Prerogative and Dignity of all Mankind And which is more it is contrary to that Obligation and Duty which we owe to the Common Parent and Author of our Beings an ungrateful contempt of that Power Wisdom and Goodness which hath given us so excellent a Nature a casting Dirt upon the Master-piece of the visible Creation and so a robbing God of that Honour which belongs to him upon the account of so noble a Production Let us therefore be more just to our selves more thankful to our Great Creator than so bruitishly to abandon our hopes of Immortality and basely desert the Common Interest and Honour of Humane Race 2dly The whole frame of this unmanly Philosophy is built upon the most precarious unsatisfying Principles imaginable They beg the Question all along and then pretend they have solved the Phaenomena of Nature Cicero told their Predecessors long ago That they assigned Provinces to Atoms without proof And Gassendus is fain to confess that Objection to be true And Dr. Willis himself in whose Authority our Philosopher seems so much to acquiesce rejects the Atomical Hypothesis because it supposeth its Principles without proof and is not suited to the Solution of Natural Appearances See his Book de Fermentatione But because these are but General Charges we will descend to Particulars and shew briefly what a knack they have at Philosophizing upon difficult Points If you ask them how the Soul comes to be so quick and active in its Operations and to turn it self with such wonderful vivacity and readiness from one Object to another Democritus Epicurus and after them Lucretius will tell you That the Atoms prepared for this purpose are of a smooth Spherical Figure See Diog. Laert. in Democ. Epicur Lucret. lib. 3. de Natura rerum and so you know they must needs be very fit for quick motion If you desire an account of Sensation according to their Hypothesis they will tell you of a vis Mobilis Motus sensiferi and something else which they confess they know not what to call from whence it proceeds If you would have the Liberty of the Will explained they tell you It ariseth from a Motion of Declination whereby the Atoms always moving downwards by their own weight towards the Center of the World are carried somewhat obliquely towards some Point different from it And this you must know is the Clinamen Principiorum as Lucretius calls it Ac nos ideo conati sumus declinationem motuum asserere Atomis ut deduceremus qui posset fortuna humanis rebus intervenire ac illud quod in nobis est sive Liberum arbitrium minime periret In a word if you ask what the Soul is they can tell you It is Efflorescentia Materiae and compare it to the Spirit of sweet Oyntment or that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some sort of Spirit they know not what Nihil enim est apud ipsos quod non Atomorum turba conficiat Cic. Tusc Quaest lib. 1. Such nonsensical Gibberish as this they call Philosophy and pretend to explicate the great Works of Nature by it and would needs forsooth be accounted Wits into the bargain when they have amused their inconsiderate Admirers by such an empty sound of unintelligible words But can any Sober Impartial Enquirer be satisfied with such Answers as these And must we let go the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality that we may fall down and worship that Image of Philosophy which these Men have set up No surely we ought rather to be affected with a generous resentment of so vile an Indignity done to the Nature of Man and with just abhorrence to oppose such wild and impertinent Extravagancies 3dly Such absurd Notions as these expose Philosophy it self to
Truth in his lucid Intervals He confesseth the Soul is something distinct from the Elements and makes it to be quintam quandam Naturam And the like they speak concerning the matter of the Heavens which yet the Peripateticks look not upon as corruptible In his Book de Generatione Animal lib. 2. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It remains that the Rational or Intellectual Soul only enter from without as being only of a nature purely Divine with whose Actions the Actions of this gross Body have no Communication Here he speaks like an Orthodox Scholar of his excellent Master Plato to whose footsteps the closer he keeps the less he ever wanders from the Truth Dr. More Immort Soul page 115. Elsewhere he says That the mind is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an impassible thing Xenocrates is fully of the same mind That all Souls are Immortal and that he who lives piously and holily on Earth shall certainly be blessed in a future State and shall enjoy more pure pleasures than he was capable of in this Prison of the Body Antisthenes from whom were derived both the Cynicks and Stoicks tells the Athenians glorying That they sprung from the Earth that they were no more noble than Snails and Locusts He exhorts to Piety and Justice as the way to Immortality Ejusmodi sibi viaticum dicebat comparare oportere quod Naufragium facienti simul enatare posset And amongst many other things he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the Invisible State Laert. in Antist I mention not the Gymnosophists Brachmans Druids c. What the Poets both Greek and Latin held in this matter is obvious even to School-Boys The Elysian Fields the Infernal Judges the Torments of Hell whereof they speak are so many Attestations to this great Truth Thus you see how generally the belief of the Immortality of the Soul obtain'd among the Ancient Ethnicks and shall any one who professeth to believe the Gospel deny it Who would not say Sit anima mea cum Philosophis I mean rather than with such Christians as these Object Some of the Philosophers whom you mention as Cicero Seneca and even Socrates himself speak sometimes doubtfully concerning the Immortality of the Soul Answ So much the more reason have we to be thankful for that clearer light by which Life and Immortality are so plainly set before us But yet you must remember it was only a certainty which these Philosophers professed to want and not a probability or Opinion that it was true As for Cicero he says he dares swear the Soul is Divine Tusc lib. 1.343 Seneca often asserts its Immortality And so did Socrates when he had to do with such as were capable of receiving and understanding that Doctrine as has been already proved And besides such was the modesty of that Philosopher that he was not wont to be positive in his Assertions but still upon all occasions to acknowledge his Ignorance As for the Epicureans Cicero tell us That all Learned Men contemned them And Austine says Quod ipsi Philosophi Epicurum Porcum nominaverunt Eusebius declares That Lucretius wrote his Poems in the Intervals of Madness Your Friend Dicaearchus is particularly derided by Cicero himself Tusc 335. I might easily mention many more of the Sayings of Ancient Philosophers which further hold forth their belief of the Soul's Immortality Anaxagoras was so intent upon his Philosophical Contemplations that he regarded not the Affairs of the Publick and when one asked him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have you no care of your Country Yes said he the greatest care of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pointing towards Heaven Laert. pag. 34. Thraseas said Nero might kill him but could not destroy him And the like said Socrates long before concerning his Accusers Anaxarchus told the Tyrant You may break in pieces the Prison of Anaxarchus himself you cannot hurt Laert. 252. Epicarmus as cited by Clemens Alexandrinus says If thou be a good Man Death cannot hurt thee Thy Spirit will live happily in Heaven CHAP. VII Our Author's Objections considered and answered THAT our Philosopher may not think himself slighted I am obliged in civility to take some notice of his Objections such as they are though sufficiently answered in what hath been already said Object 1. The Brutes act sensibly and knowingly by a Material Spirit ergo Man may perform all his Natural Functions by the means of a like Spirit page 2. Answ 1. As for the Nature of Matter I shall shew you by and by how little it is understood by the wisest of you all and that while you are talking so confidently concerning it you do but wrangle in the dark about you know not what 2. I cannot but observe how poorly you shift off the most difficult part of your Work In the first Page we are encountered with a daring Assertion viz. That the Soul falls with the Body But if we seek for proof as 't is all the reason in the world we should there is scarce so much as a shadow of it Parturiunt Montes Not one of the Arguments which have been used both by Ancient and Modern Philosophers and Divines is answered Perhaps they were not worth taking notice of by so transcendent a Genius Did you expect that your bare Word must pass for an Answer or that any Man of Brains would be amused with two or three obscure Quotations out of Aristotle and Pliny You were not born soon enough thus to impose upon Mankind Ipse dixit is quite out of doors 3. As for the Souls of Brutes you say they are Material and take it for granted that they are Mortal from whence you would infer that the Soul of Man is so too But have you well considered the Answers which have been given to this Objection by many great Philosophers If not you are not fit to write about these Controversies If you have you ought to give some satisfactory Reply and not to put it off by saying Dr. W. thinks that such Arguers deserve not an Answer This is but a mean way of Philosophizing Some of the Platonists assign to the Brutes Souls Immaterial Beings diverse from the Body And the Peripateticks say They have Substantial Forms distinct from Matter And Porphyry is peremptory for their Immortality Besides what is said of an Anima mundi But however these Controversies be determined I think 't is easy to demonstrate that the Souls of Brutes are much more noble than the Material Spirits of their Blood But the Immortality of our own Souls depends not upon such Speculations as these We need not run to the Brutes for Arguments Let them do so whose Principles require it If you think you can fairly answer the Reasons which I have given from Scripture and Natural Light in this Point and when you have so done undertake to prove I do not say meerly to assert That the Souls of Brutes are Material and Mortal and by consequence that the Souls of Men are so
made them Keep it not so high as to make it Masterless nor so low as to unfit it for duty A Servant when he ruleth is one of the things which the Earth cannot bear The Body is a good Servant if well managed but a bad Master Keep your Minds as much as you can above the power of Corporeal Impressions Let not the Objects of Sense and Appetite prevail too much upon you These two will quickly plead prescription and put in for Sovereignty if too much indulged They have ever been disposed to rebel since our First Parents gave them that fatal advantage and the sway they bear over their degenerate Posterity carries in it the mark and brand of that first Apostacy 'T is this which threatens our ruin a second time And shall we split upon the same Rock again after so dreadful a warning Suspect all those pleasures in which the Body is much concern'd lest the Spirit be debased by them and begin to put too high a value upon them and so contract a terrene sensual disposition and disrelish those noble delights which are perfective of its Nature Make not your Prison too strong Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside as useless and offensive Why then will you cherish it and make an Idol of it a◠if you thought you must never leave it What relief will it be to your miserable Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good things Or if it were reasonable to suppose as some have done that the Souls of the wicked hover about the places of their Bodies Interment what satisfaction would it be to such a Soul to think Here lies Dust which while I studied to pamper I forgot and lost my self A cutting Reflection to a desolate forlorn Spirit stript of all those Vanities which before inveigled it and destitute of those Virtuous Principles which would have enabled it to mount aloft into a purer Region It is therefore a great point of Wisdom to sit loose to the accommodations of this present Life And if at any time we find our Minds disposed as they are too apt to be to an over-great pleasure in our worldly enjoyments 't is fit that we remember this is not our home our highest Interests are above and the Relation which we bear to the world of Spirits whither we are going should make us look more shily upon these temporary perishing things as foreign and extrinsick to us and no way suitable for the Immortal Spirit to rest in And if the least thought should insinuate it self That it is good for us to be here we ought to reject it with disdain and turn our Minds to nobler Objects till the powerful sense of them hath awak'd us out of our dream and shew'd us the vanity and emptiness of it Neither should we be over-much concern'd at any crosses or disappointments which may meet us in our passage through this world Do not give them the way suffer them not to come too near you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epictet Enchir. Cap. 10. It is not the things themselves which trouble men but their Conceits and Opinions about them At least they grow heavier by weighing and so we create and multiply troubles upon our selves by our anxiety and sollicitude about these things which to a calm serene temper would have been but light afflictions Are your Circumstances low and mean in the world you are less in danger of growing in love with it and so being ensnared and undone by it Besides Nature is content with a little though mens Lusts are insatiable Are Friends and Relations unkind selfish unfaithful or otherwise unsuitable to you Who bad you over-value them or promise your selves too much from them or repose too great confidence in them you may thank your selves in this case as in most others if you be answer'd according to your Idols Is your Body afflicted with pain sickness or languishing you knew it was mortal before and to what purpose have you liv'd all this while if not to prepare for such a time as this Are you vilify'd and reproach'd by men as it oft falls out for keeping close to your Duty You ought no more to stop at it than a man in a race for his Life should be daunted at the braying of an Ass or the gagling of Wild-geese Our Life on Earth is but a dream It passeth away as a vision of the night Men are startled at phansied dangers but not duly apprehensive of real ones 'T is not amiss sometimes to suppose as Marsilius Ficinus directs forsitan haec non vera sunt forsitan in praesentiâ somniamus and as there is more of truth in such a supposition than most men consider so it will prevent our being over-much lifted up with prosperity or dejected with adversity since they are both alike parts of a dream and the invisible World of realities is so very near us whither when we are once arrived we shall think as contemptibly of the far greatest part of the Transactions of this world as men are wont to do of their dreams after they are well awake The CONCLUSION THUS I have endeavoured to prove That the Soul is Immortal and laid open the Absurd and Mischievous Consequences of the opposite Hypothesis and withal I have shewed what improvement ought to be made of so important a Doctrine A great deal more might have been said on this occasion but what some will think too little others will think too much and therefore to prevent misunderstandings on both hands I shall only add Two or Three particulars more 1st If any say That I have undertaken a needless piece of work and that such a Discourse deserved not to be answer'd but with scorn and contempt I must tell them That the degeneracy of this Atheistical Age is a sad but sufficient Apology for what I have done It can never be unseasonable to put men in mind of a Future State much less now And though I look upon our Author's Cause to be stark naught yet his management of it perhaps is not so contemptible as some may think However I am sure the effects of it upon others are not so 2dly Others it may be will think I have been too severe in the Remarks which I have made considering the Quality of the person with whom I have to do To which I answer I hope they will not accuse me of any rude personal Reflections and as for his Opinion to answer it is to expose it He has publickly debased all Mankind and himself among the rest and therefore ought not to think much at any rational endeavours to right both him and them And the figure he bears in the world makes an answer so much the more necessary When a person of considerable Note a sober Life and one that has the reputation of a studious thinking man shall vent such Opinions as these the Infection is like to spread so much further Nullis Aconita bibuntur Fictilibus Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet quanto Major qui peccat habetur 3dly Some perhaps will object That I have not laid stress enough upon the Immateriality of the Soul in the present Controversy I would have such to consider that over-doing is undoing and to argue à minus notis is not the way to defend the Truth but to open the Mouths of its Adversaries If I have proved that the Soul is no such perishing corruptible Matter as our Author supposeth this is what I undertook and if the use of the word Material will please him let him take it for me so long as he draws no bruitish Conclusion from it And as for those that have more refined Notions of Immaterial Substances I envy not their improvements let them rejoice in their greater Light provided they take not up with Arbitrary Conceits instead of solid Knowledge nor injure more plain and certain Truths by pretending to know these things which to a Soul in Flesh are hardly if at all intelligible how true soever It seems clear to me that our Author hath over-shot himself by pretending to prove the Soul Mortal because he fancied it was hard to prove it immaterial and this he thought gave him the advantage but to use his own phrase pag. 12. I judge he hath taken a wrong Sow by the ear And tho' I desire not to contend with any man yet if he himself or any of those who have espoused his Sentiments shall think it convenient to Answer what I have written they may expect a Reply if they deserve it For as on the one hand I think not my self obliged to follow any one who impertinently rambles from the matter and seeks sorry little Shifts and Evasions to avoid the force of plain evidence So on the other hand I think it worth my while to allot a considerable part of my remaining Life if just occasion be given me to the Defence of the Soul's Immortality and the running down of these unmanly Notions which ought to be exploded and hiss'd out of the World by the meanest of Human Race FINIS
Supernatural Revelation I mean the Doctrine of the Resurrection at the sound of the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God The truth is Our Author hath advanced so far into the Tents of Epicurus Lucretius Hobs and others of our trifling Atomists that it is a wonder he went no further and who knows but he may yet be within call or at least that we may prevent others from being infected with the like Contagion Let us now see how far these Philosophers and he are agreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Soul says Epicurus is certainly a Body consisting of thin subtil parâ—s and at our dissolution is dissipated and hath no longer the same Faculties no motion nor sense Diog. Laert. in Epicur pag. 281 282. The same you have over again in Gassendus's Syntagm Philos Epicur pag. 136. And moreover pag. 137. Exortum ergo Anima habet à quo usque ut adolescit vigescit que cum corpore sic tendat oportet ad Interitum cum eodem senescens ac sensim deficiens That is The Soul riseth grows decays and falls with the Body It is needless to tell the Learned how much Lucretius and Hobs c. have endeavoured to cultivate and recommend this sort of Philosophy See Hobs of the Kingdom of Darkness Leviath part 4. chap. 44. and Gassendus himself hath too much encouraged it Thus you see how far they are agreed Nevertheless there are not wanting in our Author's Book some Concessions which I think will be sufficient to overthrow all that part of his Hypothesis which savours more of the Epicurean than the Christian As for Example 1. He would not be taken for one who denies that there are any Spiritual Substances pag. 6. but rather supposeth that the Angels are Immaterial Intelligent Spiriâ—â— pag. 15. and in this I must acknowledge he is more refined than Mr. Hobs who cannot endure to hear of any Substances but corporeal and explodes the rest as mere Phantasmes and Idols of the Imagination Leviath part 3. cap. 34. pag. 208. and so did his Master Epicurus see Diog. Laert. in Epicur pag. 282. where he endeavours to make us believe that nothing can be understood as incorporeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except a Vacuum an Inanity or Empty Space for Bodies to move in and therefore says he they who say the Soul is incorporeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk vainly Now thus far our Author agrees with him that the Humane Soul is corporeal but yet he denies not the Angels to be immaterial And this I say is somewhat odd if we consider that the Soul of man is made to know love and delight in God as the Angels themselves are and indeed what can they do that is higher than this yet our Author supposeth them to be Immaterial but the Soul to be no better than corruptible matter Surely it is much more rational to say Ex operationum similitudine colligi potest similitudo essentiae Anima autem vim intelligendi volendi cum Angelis habet communem ergo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentiae as Alsted observes from the likeness of Opeâ—â—â—ion we may gather the likeness of Esseâ—â—e c. which Consideration will weigh the more with those who consider at how great a rate the Soul of man was redeemed by him who took not upon him the Nature of Angels And therefore I must take leave to conclude with Mr. B. Nulla mihi obvia est ratio quae prohibere videtur ne Naturam totam mentalem nobis notam Angelorum scilicet Hominum ad unam speciem in sensu generaliore quasi in classem unam benè redigam Meth. Theol. part 1. cap. 4. pag. 134. 2dly He owns the Being and Perfections of the Deity and speaks with Reverence of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ 3dly He speaks well of the Holy Scriptures and cites several passages out of them which he thinks make for his purpose and moreover is willing that the Point of the Soul's Immateriality should be tried by their Authority pag. 19. And therefore I must say sans ceremonie if he refuse to submit to the determination of the Scripture as to the Soul's Immortality the Appeal which he hath made is no better than trifling Prevarication ill becoming a Philosopher and worse a Christian And besides if he imagine that he can prove the Article of the Resurrection as laid down in his Position without â—â—e help of Scripture I think he would do well to give the World a Specimen of his Transcendent Sagacity in that matter but if he fly to Scripture-Authority where it is on his side it will justly be accounted a piece of Partiality and Impiety too if he yield not to it where it makes against him In a word If the Scripture may be Judge in the case it will be easy enough to disprove the former part of his Assertion viz. That the Soul falls or dies with the Body And again If he renounce the Scripture he will never be able to prove the latter part of it viz. That the Body riseth again at the voice of the Arch-angel So that the two parts of his Hypothesis seem to mix together like Oyl and Water They want a tertium quid to unite them which yet must be neither Reason nor Scripture These things being premised what I have to say at present upon this occasion shall be digested into the following Method First I shall evince by plain Scripture-proof That the Soul of man is immortal and doth not fall dye or perish with the Body 2dly I shall prove the same by the Light of Natural Reason for the conviction of such as will not submit to Scripture-Authority 3dly I shall shew That the most considerable amongst the Ancient Philosophers did assert and maintain the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality 4thly Our Author's Objections shall be considered 5thly Something shall be said to the point of materiality and immateriality which our Author harps so much upon 6thly Some Directions shall be given to such as question the Soul's Immortaâ—ity that they may arrive at a certainty in this matter 7thly I shall shew how those who believe the Immortality of the Soul ought to improve so momentous a Doctrine CHAP. II. The Immortality of the Soul proved by Scripture SO full and clear is Scripture-Evidence in this matter that he who owns the Authority of those Sacred Records and yet denies the separate subsistence of the Soul after Death seems to be as inconsistent with himself as those Philosophers against whom Aristotle disputes Metaph. Lib. 4. who affirmed That a thing might be and not be at the same time I shall therefore under this Head make it appear That the Scriptures do frequently speak of the Soul as a Substance distinct from the Body and capable of subsisting acting and suffering in a state of separation from it and do further assure us That the Souls of good men shall be happy when so separate even before
can never be reconciled to or explicated by the rigid Laws of Matter and Motion but all our Actions must either arise from the fortuitous dances and friskings of Atoms up and down the Brain and Nerves or else be necessitated by the irresistible impulse of some Superior Cause and so there is a fatal determination which sits upon the Wheels of these Corporeal Motions And thus Mr. Hobs will have it That our Volitions are necessitated by Superior or Natural Causes as much as any motion in a Clock or Watch and that it is unconceivable that any Act or mode of Act can be without a necessitating Efficient Cause Thus he also affirms a certain connexion betwixt all our Thoughts and a necessary Fate in all things If this be true we must no more say that the Will cannot be compelled but rather that it is always so and by consequence the man that kills another is no more blame-worthy than the Sword wherewith he kills him both their Motions being alike necessitated and the Dog acts philosophically when he bites the Stone but considers not the Hand that threw it Neither is it to any more purpose to persuade men to Virtue than it would be to make a Learned Discourse of Harmony to a Lute instead of putting it in Tune As you like these Consequences you shall have more of them at another opportunity If you say your Opinion is not so gross as that of Mr. Hobs's I answer it had ill hap to be so like it Your words are pag. 2. We see in a Musical Organ every Pipe has its proper sound and function and the same Breath acts them all and therein appears a great effect and power of Matter and Motion rightly fabricated and acted by the hand of Artists and what then may not God do with them and by them when he pleaseth So that if our Material Spirits be inordinate in their motions you are in a ready way to make God the Author of sin by your Philosophy It were much better to say with Cicero Sentit animus se moveri quod cum sentit illud únà sentit se vi suâ non alienâ moveri nec accidere posse ut ipse unquam à se deseratur Ex quo efficitur aeternitas c. Tusc Qu. lib. 1.341 so be it we overlook not the Universal concourse of the First Cause with his Creatures but in a way suitable to their Natures 3dly If the Hypothesis which I am writing against be true no man can rationally believe a Future State of Retribution You have heard already how Individuation and Personality are overthrown by it and by consequence there can be no just room for Rewards and Punishments hereafter because the Person when he died had not the same Soul that he had a month before and why should one Soul be punished for another's Crimes and that other go free Our Author indeed owns the Articles of the Resurrection and Future Judgment 't is likely to serve a turn but what he builds up with one hand he pulls down with the other He says That Soul and Body as they fall together so shall rise again together Whereupon Judgment Rewards and Punishments shall ensue according as men have behaved themselves in this present world pag. 6. But the difficulty returns upon him Why should that Soul which according to his Hypothesis was no better than a little Wheat-flower Malt or it may be some Cordial Julap or other a few days before the man died be judged and punished for all the Faults which were committed long since Will you say that all the rest are past by and that he is only accountable for the Sins of the last Week or ten Days of his Life This would be to turn the Solemnity of the Resurrection and Final Judgment into a meer piece of Pageantry Moreover the Doctrine of the Resurrection cannot be known but by Supernatural Revelation and therefore 't is an Article of meer Belief There is much in it above the reach of Natural Reason and therefore I ask What must the poor Heathens do who know not that God has revealed any such thing Are they obliged to believe and prepare for a Future State or no If you say they are not they themselves will contradict you and so will the Scripture too which makes them inexcusable for their neglects Rom. 1.20 and that they could not be if there lay not upon them an obligation to the contrary Duties If you say they are so obliged you will be ill set to prove it according to your Hypothesis For if the Soul die with the Body and the Resurrection cannot be proved by Natural Reason how shall they believe without Objective Evidence 'T is true they commonly assert a Future State of Retribution and ground their belief of it upon the Immortality of the Soul which if your Opinion be admitted is an unsound Foundation Whence it appears that Natural Light taught them better things than you have learnt from Supernatural and it together And whatever uncertain hints may be found in any of their Writings as to the Resurrection derived perhaps by Tradition from the Jews or inserted afterwards by the pious Frauds as they call them of some well-meaning Christians we are sure they speak solidly and distinctly concerning the Soul's Immortality 4thly Our Author's Hypothesis makes such a sudden descent from the Angelical Spirits to meer matter and motion denying all the active Natures that are between as is absurd and not to be endured Such Jumps as these are not usual in Nature which is wont to act by due and orderly Gradations and not to take precipitous leaps from one extream to another He would not be thought to deny that there are Immaterial Intelligent Angelical Spirits pag. 6 15. And how unreasonable is it to suppose that there are no other Spirits or active Natures inferior to the Angels and differing in their several kinds and degrees of Perfection and Virtue from each other answerable to the several Operations whereunto they are designed by the Author of Nature But that all the great and wonderful Phanemena which we daily behold must be reduced to and solved by the supposed power of Matter and Motion How much doth the Wisdom of God shine forth in that admirable variety which is observable in the visible Corporeal World And are not spiritual or active Natures as noble as Bodies Why then should there not be a proportionable variety in the Spiritual Invisible World Especially when we observe such Vistigia or Images of the higher Natures in those that are lower Thus there is something in Plants like Sense and in Bruits like Reason and in Men there is somewhat which resembles the Deity Must we therefore say that God and the Creature are all one Or must we confound the inferior Orders of Creatures with those that are Superior and deny those active Natures which animate the visible World and distinguish one Species of Creatures from another While