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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51787	The immortality of the soul asserted, and practically improved shewing by Scripture, reason, and the testimony of the ancient philosophers, that the soul of man is capable of subsisting and acting in a state of separation from the body, and how much it concerns us all to prepare for that state : with some reflections on a pretended refutation of Mr. Bently's sermon / by Timothy Manlove.	Manlove, Timothy, d. 1699.	1697 (1697)	Wing M454; ESTC R6833	70,709	184

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL Asserted and Practically Improved SHEWING By SCRIPTURE REASON and the Testimony of the ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS That the SOUL of Man is capable of subsisting and acting in a State of Separation from the Body And how much it concerns us all to prepare for that State With some REFLECTIONS on a Pretended Refutation of Mr. Bently's Sermon By TIMOTHY MANLOVE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Phaed. LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for Nevill Simmons Bookseller in Sheffield Yorkshire And sold by George Coniers Bookseller at the Ring in Little Britain London 1697. To the Candid and Impartial READER § I. IT seems an Argument equally convictive and deplorable of the monstrous degeneracy of the Spirit of Man that it should doubt its own Spiritual Nature and be in suspence unto which Class of Beings to annumerate it self Whether it be more a-kin to Mind or Dust and whether as the latter it should count it self more ally'd to this World which it is but to pass through or the other where it is to design for it self an everlasting abode that it should suspect its Nature to be less similar to the Inhabitants of Heaven than to Particles of Earth Or that it should any-where be found debased to so low a pitch as to think it self more fit to be sorted with Clods here below than with Angels above § II. We are indeed carefully to distinguish in the consideration we ought to have of our selves between what we are in natural and what in moral respects We cannot upon the latter account think too meanly of our selves as having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God But upon the former account we cannot judge of our selves more meanly than our proper rank in the Creation allows without reflecting injuriously upon our Maker Here a mean Self-despiciency is most ingenerous and ungrateful And when upon this natural account we are God's Off spring and in stiling himself the God of the spirits of all flesh and the Father of spirits he intimates our near alliance to himself and calls us his Sons we call our selves Sons of the Earth we cannot herein vilify our selves without reproaching him And in this respect it might amaze one to think it should be needful to write a Book to prove that a piece of Clay cannot reason deliberate lay Designs form Thoughts deduce one Thought from another raise Thoughts far above the whole Sphere of Material Beings even so high as to reach unto the Supream being it self Or that it should be requisite to confute a Book that if it have any meaning at all must be understood to mean as absurd a Paradox as this Inasmuch as no mortal man can prove that a Clod of Clay is not resolvible into as fine Particles as any the finest Matter whatsoever But since such an Antidote was become necessary against so stupifying a Poyson and that there is reason to think too many minds may be prepared to receive so poysonous Sentiments as the Pamphlet here animadverted on contains by a stupidity in reading equal to that wherewith it was writ we congratulate the Age that it hath produced the one so opportunely for the other But we cannot in the mean time but further pause and bethink our selves and with astonishment cry out § III. Whither is Human Nature sunk and gone that any persons can so solicitously brutify and degrade themselves and be as in pangs of travel till they have ranked themselves amongst those Creatures which God himself hath set so much below them and so evidently hath formed to be subjected to their use and pleasure 2 Pet 2.12 Souls so demonstrative of the Existence of a God so expressive of his Eminencies so receptive of his Favours so apprehensive of his Works and Will so useful and significant in his Creation so fit to know to govern and possess themselves and to make such great and wonderful improvements of what occurs in the whole frame and course of things Yea and so formed to and capable and ambitious of Immortality and so accommodated for it Are these only or ultimately given to keep a little Flesh from stinking to do some Artificial Feats and Tricks therein and then to perish with it These men are great strangers to themselves and inobservant of their own Faculties and Capacities and mind not the provisions which the great Original of all things hath produc'd abundantly and suited to every Faculty Sense and Member belonging to them § IV. Essences lie deeper than their Principles and Principles deeper than their Actions or Effects And every man is nearer to himself than any other Beings are or can be to him save his God And he that reads concerning Human Souls and minds not the powers and actings of his own Soul cannot but be a stranger to himself and the more fit to be impos'd upon both by himself and by others He that forgets and doth not mind and heed himself whilst he consults his Books can never be such a Proficient in Self knowledge as otherwise he might be It cannot be denied but that the Inordinacies and Immoralities of men professing Godliness and zealous in Polemical defending the Soul's Immortality have ministred greatly to the propagation of this dangerous Error That the Soul of man is mortal And when men are sunk in guilt and find their own Convictions troublesome to themselves to make themselves more easy in their course of Soul-neglect they judge themselves the more concern'd to baffle their belief of the Existence of God of the Extent and Exercise of his Providence of the Immortality of the Soul and of Eternal Judgment And when they have extirpated this Persuasion they can more easily contrive Principles and order Practices to serve their own particular purposes and turns But things are not always what and as men think they are or would have them be § V. It is true some of the Patrons and Promoters of this Fundamental Error are Men of admirable Parts and Learning and fit to make considerable Figures and to do great service to the Publick and eminently to serve their Generations in Consistories Courts Camps Navies or in other Stations through their Sagacity Courage Generousness and all the obliging Civilities of Conversation which the advantages of their Education might dispose them unto But he that can believe he hath no God to adore and please no Soul to save or lose no final Reckoning to make to a Supream Judge and so no Eternal Retribution to expect can have no reverence to his Conscience no great and noble end to influence and beautify his Actions nor indeed any thing fully fit and cogent to secure him against the most accommodate and strong Temptations in the severities and briskness of their assaults upon him His Interest Honour or Humour and his adventitious helps from men are now his strongest holds but when these things are likely to be ravish●d from him either his heart must sink and break or he will violate all

that your Souls are no such Earthly Material Things as you are ready to imagine The thoughts of a glorious Immortality will be refreshing to you and you will have some Anticipations of it in the serenity of a vertuous Mind and the testimony of a good Conscience You will quickly see that Vice and Wickedness debase the Soul and that Goodness and Piety are things too noble to be subjected so meanly as in a few corruptible perishing material Spirits If your Souls have once the Image of the Divine Holiness imprinted upon them it will dispose you to discern and acknowledg that Natural Image of the Spiritual Immortal Deity which is antecedent to the other because there must be an agreeableness between the Faculty and the Object and such Divine Qualities must be seated in a Subject suitable to them 6thly Take notice of that certain and full evidence which we have of a world of Spirits How near many of them are to us and how oft concerning themselves about us The Books which have been written about Witchcrafts Possessions Apparitions c. do all prove That there are multitudes of Malignant Spirits which seek the Ruin and Destruction of Mankind and carry on a Warfare against the Interest of God and Religion in the World They know well enough that the Souls of Men are Immortal elfe they would not take so much pains to destroy them I need not name the Authors who Treat of those things Fernelius Wierus Glanvill More Baxter and many more And on the other hand Ambrose Lawrence Zanchy c. will shew you That there are benign Spirits which guard and watch over good Men and Minister for them If you disbelieve all the Testimonies which these Learned Persons have given in the Case you forfeit your own Credit and cannot reasonably expect that any Man should believe you As to the Matter of Apparitions even about Monuments and Sepulchres Socrates makes mention of them Phaedo 117. and supposeth them to be the Souls of bad Men in a State of punishment for the wickedness of their Lives 118. and Cicero in his Tusc Quaest takes notice of such Apparations Visis quibusdam saepe movebantur hisque maxime nocturnis ut viderentur ii qui vita excesserant vivere St. Austine makes mention of one Gennadius a Physician and an excellent Natural Philosopher and withal very charitable to the Poor who falling into doubt concerning the Immortality of the Soul was instructed concerning it in a Dream by a conspicuous young Man that appear'd to him The famous Story of Evagrius the Philosopher who appear'd to Synesius the Bishop after his Death you may find in Baronius's Annals ad Annum 412. where he also relates the Story of Michael Mercatus and Marsilius Ficinus intimate Friends and both addicted to the Platonick Philosophy Who after many Debates about the Immortality of the Soul and a Future State mutually agreed That whether soever of them died first should if the Laws of the Invisible World would admit of it appear to the Survivor and give him an account of these things Thus says Baronius they swore to one another Not long after Marsilius dies and appears to his Friend and tells him those things were true which the Christian Faith taught concerning the Immortality of the Soul This Baronius says he had from the Grandson of the fore-mentiond Mercatus And the same is reported by many other Writers A like account you have of the Apparition of Major George Sydenham to Capt. William Dyke who had made such an agreement as the former telling him That there was a God and a very just and terrible one and that if he did not turn over a new Leaf he will find it so See Glanvill's Sadduc Triumph 408. But those that regard not the Sacred Records will not be convinc'd tho one come to them from the load However such passages as these have been believed by wise Men in all Ages and by Persons as capable of discerning Truth and distinguishing it from Impostures as any of the Pretenders of this present Generation who care not for hearing any news from the Invisible World 7thly If your Genius incline you to Philosophy you may easily find nobler things than Matter and Motion to entertain your selves with if you will but consult the Writings of Plato Plotinus Epictetus Cicero Seneca Antonine c. But above all if you believe that God regards the Affairs and Actions of Mankind then look unto him for Direction and Light in this matter and he that so seeks after the Truth will hardly miss of it in its more weighty and important Instances CHAP. X. Directions to such as believe the Immortality of the Soul shewing how they ought to improve so important a Doctrine THUS far I have proved that the Soul is Immortal and laid down some Directions for those that hesitate in the Matter in order to their better receiving of the proof that has been given But since there are many who profess to believe this great Truth and yet live as if they believ'd it not and so encourage those of the contrary Opinion and harden them in their Impiety I must not let go this point till I have drawn some more practical Inferences from it which if those that believe it would live up to 't would conduce more effectually to the Conviction of the Irreligious sort of Philosophers than the most accurate Reasonings are like to do There is somewhat in an holy Life which commands Awe and Reverence from the worst of Men. Thus Herod feared John the Baptist knowing that he was a just Man and an holy Mark 6.20 Good Examples many times prove more powerful than either Doctrines or Precepts What will it avail any Man to believe well and to live ill to be Orthodox in his judgment and Scandalous in his practice to own the Dignity of Humane Nature and yet live as if Man was only a more subtil kind of a Beast to rule the rest To this purpose you have a very observable passage in the Preface to Mr. Baxter's Reasons c. I oft think what one told me That an Infidel answer'd him when he asked him How he could quiet his Conscience in such a desperate State saith he I rather wonder how you can quiet your Conscience in such a common careless course of life believing as you do If I believ'd such things as you do I should think no care and diligence and holiness could be enough And the late E. of Rochester told an intimate Acquaintance of his There was nothing that gave him and many others a more secret encouragement in their ill ways than that those who pretended to believe lived so that they could not be thought to be in earnest when they said it See his Life by Dr. Burnet pag. 120 For he was sure Religion was either a meer Contrivance or the most important thing that could be So that if he once believed he would set himself in great earnest to live

punishments of Wicked men after Death and tells us in his Timaeus That the Soul of a good man shall be kindly received by his Creator but the Soul of a wicked man shall be cast into Hell The truth is the Platonists have improved the Doctrine of the Soul's Immortality better than many of our own Writers notwithstanding their greater helps have done though sometimes they speak too high as if they would even deify the Soul as do some of the Stoicks Plotinus discourseth excellently upon this Subject and shews that if we would seriously view the Soul in its own naked essence we shoul● 〈◊〉 doubt of its Immortality Let a man says he contemplate himself in his own pure and truly Intellectual Nature divesting it of all that is alien to it and he will certainly know that it is immortal He will then observe that his Understanding is not properly directed to things sensible and mortal but by an eternal Virtue doth contemplate Eternal and Intelligible Objects and becomes as it were an Intelligible lucid World to it self And again he tells us That by how much the Soul is more abstracted from the Senses by so much it reasons better so that when it shall be wholly separate from the Body it will know intuitively without elaborate Ratiocinations That now it deliberates when it doubts it doubts when 't is hindred by the Body but will neither doubt nor deliberate when free from the Body but will comprehend the Truth without any hesitation See his Enneads and elsewhere Maximus Tyrius Dissertat 41. handles that Question viz. Whether the Diseases of the Soul or Body be more grievous and tells us That degenerate Souls are buried in their Bodies like Insects in their Holes and are in love with those lurking Places p. 495. And withal That the health of the Body is but uncertain and temporary that of the Soul solid and immortal pag. 491. It were easy to mention more of the Platonists who all to a man maintain the Immortality of the Soul But I proceed The Stoicks say That the Souls of Good men separated from their Bodies are Heroes as Laertius informs us in Zenon Plutarch says That they call all separate Souls Heroes promiscuously and so distinguish Heroes into good and bad De placitis Philosophorum lib. 1. cap. 8. Epictetus calls the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near a-kin to God Antoninus styles the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in his 9th Book Sect. 39. Wilt thou say to thy mind thou art dead or become like a Beast Seneca speaks too high Quid aliud vocas c. What will you call the Soul but a Deity dwelling in an Humane Body And perhaps such boldness was one Original of Heathen Idolatry And elsewhere Animus si propriam ejus Originem aspexeris c. The Soul if you consider its true Original descends from that heavenly Spirit Sursum Animum c. Its beginnings call it upward there Eternal Rest remains for it And comforting Martia concerning her dead Son Ipse quidem aeternus he is Eternal and in a better State now than he was before The Body is the Prison of the Soul The Soul it self is sacred and eternal Happy is thy Son O Martia who being dead knows such things as these Nec est Ratio aliud quam in corpus pars Divini Spiritùs mersa Idem Plutarch says That the Providence of God and the Immortality of the Soul are so connected that the one necessarily follows the other de serâ Numinis vindictâ And therefore by the way Epicurus made thorough-work in denying both Come we now to Cicero a moderate middle-way Philosopher He disputes at large for the Immortality of the Soul in the First Book of his Tusc Quaest de contemnendâ Morte as also in his Dialogue de Senectute c. I will cite some Passages out of him to the shame of those Christians who stand in need of such Instructions from an Heathen Tu cum tibi sive Deus c. Wilt thou when God or Nature hath given thee a Soul than which nothing is more excellent and Divine so debase thy self as to suppose that there is no difference between thee and a Beast Cic. Paradox pag. 217. Ii vivunt qui c. These Men live who are escaped from the Prison of the Body but that which you call Life is Death De Somn. Scip. 233. Haec Coelestia semper spectato illa Humana contemnito Ibid. Reckon with thy self that thou art not Mortal but only thy Body the Mind is the Man and not that Bodily Figure which you can point as with your Finger Ibid. And to the same purpose he brings in that of Cyrus mention'd by Xenophon I could never perswade my self that our Souls live in the Body and dye when they go out of it Nec vero tum animum esse insipientem cum ex insipienti corpore evasisset sed cum omni admistione corporis liberatus purus integer esse caepisset tum esse Sapientem This is purely Platonick De Senect 211. Except God deliver you from this Prison of the Body you can never come to Heaven Idem And elsewhere he argues from the Worship which was paid to their departed Heroes That the Souls of all Men are Immortal but the Souls of good Men Divine de Legib. Also Tusc lib. 1. Ipsi illi Majorum Gentium Dii qui habentur hinc à nobis perfecti in Coelum reperientur pag. 329. And so infinitely fond is he of this Opinion that he thus concludes de Senect pag. 213. Quod si in hoc erro c. If in this I be mistaken that I believe the Souls of Men immortal I am willingly mistaken Nor will I suffer this Error in which I am delighted to be extorted from me as long as I live But if after Death I shall have no Sense as some diminutive Philosophers think I fear not lest those dead Philosophers should deride my Error In a word both Cicero Seneca and several of the Platonists and Stoicks speak of the Soul as if it were an Incarnate Deity That it has many bright Resemblances of God stampt upon it Deum te scito esse Somn. Scip. Because as the Great God rules the World so thy Soul rules and governs thy Body as an inferior kind of Deity It must indeed be acknowledged that Aristotle speaks sometimes dubiously and is not consistent with himself in this matter But his greatest Admirers have generally believ'd it And some of them take it ill that any should question whether their Master was of the same mind However the Authority of that Philosopher needs not much to move us since he is also inconsistent with himself concerning the Deity as Lactant. observes And again Aristoteles Deum nec coluit nec curavit See more to the same purpose in Lips Manuduct ad Stoic Philos lib. 1. pag. 18. Nevertheless there are not wanting even in him some fair acknowledgments of this great