Man without Design to teach concerning it 2. We may observe that the Retribution expected to be made at the Resurection will be both more compleat and formal than what Men conceive to be in the Procedure concerning a Separately Subsisting Soul We read God would not execute upon Sodom without a full Examination of the Matter and so there shall be in the Resurrection All shall stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Books shall be opened that of Conscience and that of Life That of Conscience hath enough Evidence to condemn the whole World but those whose Names are found written in the Book of Life and those only shall escape by special Priviledge or Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ And as the Proceeding will be more Formal so the Retribution will be more Compleat and made to both the Essential Parts of Man his Soul and his Body which as they have Jointly and Inseparately acted in this Life so shall they Rejoice or Mourn at the Resurrection after the Sentence of a Last Judgment passed upon them 3. We may observe That Death in the New Testament is frequently called and compared to a Sleep and that the most sound and profound and in such a Sleep viz. a sound Sleep whatsoever time passes over the Sleepers head he hath no perceivance of if it be two ten or twenty hours the length or shortness of the passing time doth not at all appear to the Sleeper but at his waking he rises as if he had been but newly fallen asleep Man's Death is such a profound Sleep and his Resurrection such a Waking If during that Sleep there go over the Dead man's head Months or Years to an Hundred or a Thousand this is no way perceivable by the Dead Person but when he rises it will be but as if he had newly fallen asleep We read that a Thousand Years with God are but as one Day nor are they in truth so much And in our present Case we may say that a Thousand Years going over such a Sleeper's head are but as one Day to him or are rather less viz not so much to the Sleeper as one Day to a Man that is Active in the World for that the Dead man is not at all affected with the time which passeth over him but when the Last Trumpet shall sound the Dead World shall awake as if they had then but newly fallen asleep ready to obey the Summons of Rise ye Dead and come to Judgment Whence although the time betwixt Death and Judgment appear upon a sudden Conception to be long or over-long yet upon a better Search it will be found of very small importance either in respect to God or Man And notice it seems may be taken that it would look like a great impropriety to term Death a Sleep if it were true that after Death the better part of the Man viz. his Soul continued Waking and alive and at a greater Liberty and Freedom of Action then ever it enjoyed during its Conjunction with the Body 4. We may observe That the same which dies rises and as the Soul is principal in Man so Man shall be more the same at his rising in respect of his Soul then of his Body for his Body shall be but of the same kind as Wheat comes of Wheat and Barley of Barley but when Providence hath so formed the Body and kindled in it the Flame of Life by breathing into him the Breath of Life to be derived only from Heaven his Humane Powers and Faculties viz. his Senses and Common Sense his Phantasie Intellect and Judgment his Affections and Passions his Knowledge and Memory shall be altogether the same that they were when he died and as much the same as they are at a Man's waking again after a sound and long Sleep taken and the person rising shall be more the same then an Old Man is the same person that he was when he was Young The same Person Soul and Body that died shall be revived and rise again as one who falls asleep wakens and returns to the former Powers Affections and Actions of his Life But if the Soul were in a Separate Being and State of Activity during all that time of the Separation how could it be said to obtain a Resurrection or be conceived to desire a Re-union with that Body which before was but as a Cage or Prison to it And it seems such a Soul should rather fear and resist such a Re-union with its former Body then rejoyce at it or be contented with it 5. We may observe That betwixt the Death and Resurrection of Man no alteration of his Condition can be expected or hoped for but as the Tree falls so it must lie and as Death leaves us so Judgment shall find us The Body is returned to the Dust from whence it was taken and if the Flame of Life and Activity first derived from God and sine propagated by Generation be by Death extinguished there remains nothing for an altering Power naturally to work upon Solomon tells us There is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave but all is rest and peace there And so says Job There the wicked cease from troubling and there the we ary are at rest So Chap. 3.11 Oh that I had died from the Womb I should then have been as though I had not been Solomon again As a Man comes out of his Mothers Womb so shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing with him And so for the Resurrection Men shall rise as they lay down without natural or appearing Possibility of any Alteration We proceed now to the Proof of what we have before asserted viz. That the Resurrection is an Article or Point of the Christian Religion as clearly taught and asserted as well evidenced and attested and as fully and certainly to be believed as any other Point or Article of the Christian Religion whatsoever And for this our Evidence shall begin from the Old Testament There Exod. 3.6 God is stiled The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and from that Stile the Resurrection is proved by our Lord but we must agree that the Proof which it makes rises more from the Authority of him who quoted it as a Proof than in the Evidence of the Words themselves For God might reasonably be so stiled from the great Favour which he had shewed to those Persons and his Covenant and Promises made with them and to them But the Sadduces refused to admit of any other Scriptures save Moses his Writings And to prove the Resurrection out of those Writings our Lord made choice of this Text and from his Authority the same must be admitted amongst Christians to be a good Proof of our Future Resurrection from the Dead And as Ordinary Readers could hardly have drawn a good Proof out of that Text so another Proof of the Resurrection appears not till we come to the Book of Job and there
Material Spirit can act no more for ever without a Miracle Fire from Heaven to re-inkindle it but for want of this Subtil Body within the Gross Body without dies and corrupts and turns to that Dust out of which it was first extracted This either was the Opinion of Heraclitus before specified or very like it Chap. 8. Orpheus and Thales thought that there was a Soul of the Universe resident every where and so in the Elements But Aristotle asks how that can be that Air or Fire should have a Soul without being an Animal Orpheus held that Soul which was in the Air to be more Excellent and Immortal than that which was in Animals But their Tenet seems absurd to say that Fire or Air are Animals or that having Souls they are not Animals They said Animals lived by the Air in which they breathed and in Breathing attracted the Air which being animated caused Life in Animals but the whole Air is of the same Species and Nature with every Part of it therefore the whole Air is animated In Souls says Aristotle there are dissimilar Parts or Degrees viz. Reason Sense and Vegetation but the Air consists of Similar Parts only whence Soul and Air cannot comport together nor can the Soul be in every Part of the Vniverse unless she do consist of Similar Parts Concludes The Soul cannot be known from its Consistence of the Elements nor can it be knowingly or truly said that she is moved We may observe as the Occasion of this Argument that some Old Philosophers held the World to be animated and that the Soul of the World gave to every Nature its ultimate Perfection that made heavy things descend and light to rise upwards and was the Cause that Animals had Life So says Virgil Jovis omnia plena And Infusa per Artus Mens agitat Molem magno se Corpore miscet But this Opinion Aristotle doth disallow and argues against it by this Chapter Chap. 9. By Powers of the Soul Men have Knowledge Sense and Opinion can Consult and Desire and use their Appetites and Local Motion at their own Liking and from Her comes their Growth Continuance and Diminution and from Her our Vnderstanding and the Vse of our Reason and so all other Powers and all that we do or suffer But Men have doubted Whether each of these and their like do flow from Virtue of the whole Soul or some from one Part of it and some from another Also What causes Life in Animals whether one or more Parts or what other Cause it hath also What Part of the Soul Understands and what Part Desires For says he some have thought that with one Part of the Soul Men did the one and with another Part the other So as the Soul was partible And if so says Aristotle What is it that keeps her Parts together Not the Body for that is kept together by the Soul for upon her leaving it ensues Corruption and Dissolution Plato thought that there were divers Souls in a Man Aristotle still proves all is but One Soul Against this some alledged That some Insects cut in Pieces each Piece will move for a Time This he denies to come from a Partition of the Soul and says The Principle of Life in Plants is a sort of Soul and it is common to them with Animals and nothing hath Sense which hath not that We may observe the Subject of this Book to be his History of the Soul declaring the Former Opinions amongst Philosophers concerning it annexing his own Confutations and not absolutely approving any one of them Lib. II. Chap. I. The Word Substance is a common Genus of such Things as have a real Subsistence or Being whose consistent Parts are Matter and Form whence results the Compositum consisting of them both united The Matter is a Power or Capacity of receiving Formation or being informed but the Form is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Active Vigour or Principle of Life and Activity in the Compositum and this in Humane Souls is distinguished by the Terms of Science and Contemplation Bodies compounded of such Matter and Form seem to be the Prime Substances in Nature Of these some have Life and some not Life consists in Nutrition Increase and Diminution growing from their own Natural Powers whence every Natural Living Body is a Substance compounded of Matter and Form and of these the Form is most properly Substantial as having Life in it self whereas the Matter hath only a Capacity Fitness and Inclination to receive that Life which the Form can communicate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Active Principle is the Active Principle of the Body This he changes a little saying The Soul is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first Prime Act of a Living Organical Body Takes Plants to have Organical Bodies thinks it not proper to say That the Body and Soul are one For that Things may be said to be and to be One after a very multifarious Manner says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Souls proper Term or Principal Act or Actor of the Compositum and yet he hath not done with it An Essence consisting in a fitting or reasonable Proportion The Soul is such an Essence and this is the Thing wherein the Top of its Perfection lies and this the Forms of Dead Things as of an Ax or other Tools cannot have but it belongs only to Things which have in them a Natural Principle of Motion If we shall suppose the Eye to be an Animal the Sight would be the Soul Essence or Form and the Eye but the Matter and without the Form the Eye would be useless And as it is in the Parts it is in the whole the Anima Vivens or Sensitiva to the Compositum that hath Life or Sense and as the Eye consists of the firm Pulp and Sight so the Animal of Soul and Body therefore the Soul is not separable from the Body or such Parts of it as remain together and act after the Separation of other Parts from them The Eye may lose its Sight or be pulled out so the Hand its Feeling or be cut off For such Faculties are not general viz. of the whole Body Whether the Soul can be parted from the Body he seems not to determine but if she may be so he thinks she is but in the Body as a Pilot in a Ship We may observe he says as his last and best Definition of a Soul That it is an Essence or reasonable Proportion viz. animating the Body by such a Proportion of the Natural Heat and Radical Moisture Whence the more reasonable just and adequate this Proportion is the more excellent is the Constitution of the Compositum like to be And if he mean thus it is no wonder he says The Soul is no more separable from the Body than Sight is from the Eye In Separation neither can subsist but are thereby extinguished unless as he says we shall think the Soul to be in the Body but
hath no Participation thereof with her or that she doth or can act any thing or produce any Effect without the Spirits Members and Organs of the Body which it seems cannot be excluded from participating with the Soul in all its Affections Operations and Motions no more than the Soul can be unconcerned in the Health Accidents Rejoicings or Sufferings of the Body We come now to the other Question or Query which if it be determined in the Affirmative will strongly inferr the Souls Materiality viz. Concerning the Mode of the Generation of Mankind If the Parents do generate a Child like unto themselves consisting of the same Matter and Form or such a like Soul and Body as themselves are if the Child's Soul and Body be generated by the Parents as well the one as the other if the Thing have been proved or can and shall be proved effectually so to be done a very strong Inference and Argument may thence be drawn That the Soul is of the same Nature and Constitution with the Body Materially and Naturally Extinguishable by Dissolution of the Compositum Man whose Constituent Parts they were For it seems Generation and Corruption do mutuo se ponere tollere What grows from Generation hath a Natural Tendency to Growth Strength Decay and Dissolution If therefore one Man doth generate another like himself and so the Soul as well as the Body it seems likely that what comes from Generation is under a clear Capacity of Corruption if it be not under a Necessity of Terminating by that Means We are in a great Measure convinced that the Parents do procreate Children like themselves both their Souls and Bodies and that therefore both those Parts have in Nature and Reason a Capacity or a Tendency if not a sort of Necessity to terminate in Corruption So as we do not perceive that Arguments drawn from Reason or Nature and hitherto produced are strong enough to evince That the Humane Soul is Immaterial or Self-subsistent after the Dissolution of the Person and Corruption of that Body to which it was knit and which whilst Life lasted it did inform direct and actuate And herewith shall be concluded the Disquisition intended concerning the Soul of Man founded upon the Grounds of Nature and Reason and tried by the Arguments extracted from them We proceed from them to the Second Sort of Arguments offered for Proof of a Soul 's Separate Subsistence drawn by our Opposers from the Ground of Moral Congruity There must be say they a Reward and Punishment future to this Life of this the Corrupted Carkass is by no Possibility in Nature capable and therefore the Soul must needs have a Separate Subsistence that thereby Future Rewards and Punishments may have a proper Subject to work upon And this sort of Argument is propounded and handled by Baxter in his Quoted Book at P. 34. reaching thence to 40. and by Dr. More in his 18th Chap. of the quoted Book Pag. 314. to the End of that Chapter and by Sir K. Digby in the 10th Paragraph of his 9th Chapter And all our Authors have mainly insisted upon this Argument in Places before quoted And it is done by them upon very good and unanswerable Reason such as the Wit of Man grounding it self only upon Nature and Reason is not able to make sufficient Reply unto or to overcome This we look upon as the Potent and Prevalent Argument whereby the whole World and in all the Ages of it hitherto hath been drawn and even forced to consent to the Opinion of a Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul and to invent Elisiums Fortunate Islands and Paradises for the Good also Tartarums and Barathrums and Gehenna's for the Wicked Souls departed The Silly Americans have not wanted their more crude Conceipts viz. That in Places beyond their Mountains the Good Souls Sing and Dance amongst Groves and Fountains and the Wicked ones are relegated to Denns and Caves and other Dark and Disconsolate Places suting with their Demerits Thus from the Necessity of Future Recompences the Opinion of the Souls Separate Subsistence hath been spread and received over the Face of the whole Earth far and wide without stint in place or stay in time All Nations and all Religions have accepted of this Opinion and it hath hitherto prevailed amongst them and thus may their Argument be framed It is Morally Congruous amongst all Men That Good Men and Actions should be rewarded and recompenced and that Bad Men and Actions should be punished But Men find and see it falls out very often that Rewards and Punishments are not so distributed in this World Ergo Moral Congruity requires and that proves there must be a future State wherein Men and their Actions shall be Rewarded and Recompenced according to their Deserts This. Men cannot reasonably refuse to grant and then ex concessis it may be further argued Man is Constituted but of Two Essential Parts viz. his Body and his Soul His Body dying Corrupts and Turns to Dust and so becomes incapable of Reward or Punishment in a future State Ergo If the Man and his Actions be Rewarded or Punished in a future State he must receive the Effects of such Reward or Punishment in that part of him which is reputed capable and may by possibility have a separate Subsistence after the Mans Death viz. in his Soul and that this may be done The Soul must have a separate Subsistence after Death of the Body And the same holds true Negative There is nothing of Man to be Rewarded or Punished in a future State but his Body or his Soul But the Body in a State of Dissolution is not capable of Reward or Punishment and if the Soul extinguish in Death then is there nothing of the Man lest capable of receiving Reward or Punishment in a State future to this Life Ergo That the Rules of Moral Congruity may stand and be maintained in the World the Soul of Man must needs enjoy a separate Subsistence capable of Reward and Punishment after Death and the Dissolution and Corruption of his Body This Argument appears irrefragable not to be confuted or effectually answered by the uttermost strength of Mans Reason And therefore it is nothing strange that it hath prevailed with Jews and Gentiles Mahometans and Christians inducing them generally to belive a Separate State of Humane Souls after Death and it is still used by all our Authors for maintenance of the same Opinion at this time We still agree that the force of this Argument cannot by the bare Wit or Reason of Mankind be Answer'd and Refuted but yet we say that the same may be fully so Answered by Deductions out of the Divine Revelations and Oracles of God and that by Arguments thence to be taken both Negative and Positive and though we do mainly relie upon our Positive Argument on this behalf yet it seems not requisite to pass over in Silence the Negative Argument which may be drawn out of our Holy
viz. Violent Oppression not agreeing with their Law False Accusations and Witnesses Barbarous Exclamations of Crucifie him Crucifie him though they had not proved nor the Judge found any Evil in him By these Fruits the Jewish Zealots might safely and certainly be Judged Of whom St. Paul bears witness That they had a Zeal to God seems true and unfeigned but not according to Knowledge They held the Truth in Unrighteousness and practised the doing of Evil that Good might come And by like Fruits any Persons may be known and that they have not the Spirit of God how eager Pretenders soever to the same they be We do also agree with our Author and those of his Mode That the Spirit of God hath in many or all Ages moved and acted People in a very perceivable Manner and most eminently during the Infant Times or Beginning of the Christian Doctrines and Church Acts 20. The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying that Bonds and Afflictions abide me As if the Spirit of Prophecy were very frequent among them Galat. 3.5 He that ministreth to you the Spirit and worketh Miracles amongst you doth he it by the Law And by Laying on of the Apostles Hands in Nature of a Confirmation the Holy Ghost was frequently given And at the Conversion of Cornelius The Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word And at their first Pentecost The Holy Ghost appeared in a visible Sign and sate upon every one of the Disciples and they spake with Tongues as the Spirit gave them Vtterance not able to use another Tongue at that Time So Cornelius his Guests spake with Tongues and magnified God At Ephesus upon Laying on of Paul's Hands the Holy Ghost fell upon his Converts and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied These Texts are Evidences that these eminent and visible Actings of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples of those Times were very frequent and usual attended with the miraculous Effects of Prophesying Speaking with Tongues and Healing Diseases Casting out of Devils c 1 Cor. 12.4 There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit Healing Miracles Prophecy Tongue also Wisdom Knowledge and Faith The three later Men cannot with any Clearness and Certainty discern but the sour former give Testimony to Mens Senses that they are wrought by the Spirit and Power of God for that none of them are Effects of Natural Powers And when Men behold them done in their Presence they are ready to fall down and worship God and report That God is truly in such Actors and that these are the Effects of God's Spirit in them This sort of eminent and perceivable Endowment with God's Spirit was very frequent and general in the Apostolick Times but in Future Times it diminished decayed ceased and finished by Degrees And for many Hundreds of Years we have seen or believed no Evidences that have been given us whereby the same should be perceived We have heard indeed and read divers Relations and Pretences to that Purpose but never saw or believed any to be Real and Convincing Evidences that any Men since the Primitive Ages of the Christian Church have been endowed with God's Spirit in this Eminent and Perceivable or Extraordinary Manner The Evidences of which are the Miraculous Effects and Operations expected plainly to be manifested for Confirmation of that Opinion or Pretence Whence we require these two Sorts of Proofs from Men pretending to have God's Spirit in a Special or Peculiar Manner viz. If they pretend to the Ordinary Imperceptible Operations of that Spirit upon them we demand Evidence by the Fruits before specified If they reply You shall hear us Pray and Preach Ex tempore with great Vehemency and without Hacking or Extravagancy and this we propose to all that hear us as a Supernatural Power and an Evident Effect and Operation of God's Spirit We agree this to be somewhat Extraordinary when Really and Truly Performed but withal do say Such Power is attainable by the Industry and Practice of Man And of that we give Instance out of Socrates his History Lib. 7. Cap. 2. where Atticus was made Patriarch of Constantinople about An. Christi 410. He was a Man of mean Learning but of Godly Life and great Wisdom and became a painful Student and spent the greater Part of his Night in Reading and became so learned as no Sophistry could puzzle him First viz. As soon as he was made Priest he framed Sermons and with great Labour learned to repeat them without Book and by Diligence and Exercise became so expert that he came to Preach ex tempore and his Manner of Teaching was very plain See here an Ancient Father of the Church obtaining this Faculty of Preaching ex tempore by Diligence and Exercise without Pretence or Mention that it was a particular Operation of God's Spirit We see this Gift may be obtained therefore by Nature assisted with God's ordinary Concurrence requisite to the perfecting of all Man's Designs and therefore it may not pass with us for an undoubted sort of Proof that Persons so able and so doing are therefore endowed with the Spirit of God in a Special and Particular Manner And we say farther That this Faculty of Praying and Preaching is none of those mentioned in S. Paul's Catalogue for Fruits of the Spirit nay and that it is consistent with and often serviceable to the Works of the Flesh We refuse then to admit this Faculty for a Proof that the Actors are Specially endowed with God's Spirit and call for such Fruits as St. Paul hath specified to us as Evidences that God's Spirit resides Specially in Particular Persons working in them in his ordinary Imperceptible and Natural Way proceeding by the Enlightening their Perceptive Faculties inclining their Judgments and so their Wills regulating their Affections quieting their Passions and subduing all to the Rules of Christ's Gospel and Observance of all that is there declared and enjoined And as to the eminent or extraordinary or perceptible Endowment with God's Spirit like those in the Apostles Times and some next Ages to them we expect that all who pretend to be so end owed shall prove and manifest the same by their Miraculous Operations Let us see or hear them Prophesie speak with Tongues unlearnt heal the Sick cast out Devils cleanse Lepers raise the Dead or do some Things that may be like these and clearly above the Power of Nature to perform and less or other Evidence will not be admitted as Proof that any Person is endowed with Gods Holy Spirit in such an extraordinary and perceptible Manner as People used frequently to be in the Apostolical Times and the Ages next unto them And an Instance shall be cited of those Ages next after the Apostles viz. Euseb Hist Lib. 6. Cap. 8. Narcissus became Bishop of Jerusalem about Anno Christi 190. in the Vigils of Easter the Christians then used to be in Nocturnal Celebrations in the great Church Oil was not provided enough
of the Law not known to bare Nature And finally Rom. 4.15 Where no Law is there is not transgression so no Conscience accusing or approving And all this proves That Conscience in Man is not an Act purely Natural but a Complex Act of and Educated Nature under the Direction of some sort of Rules You say That Man hath a kind of Natural Expectation of receiving Rewards or Punishments as soon as he departs this Life I grant only Such a kind of Natural as Education and Custom can make Men expect to receive what they are taught and therefore do believe will be given them if taught to believe receiving as soon as they are dead their Expectation will be sutable if taught to defer their Expectations till the Resurrection and Christ's Second Coming to Judgement it will be as easie and natural to expect the Rewards and Punishments at that time as to do it at the time of our Deaths Either of them is enough effective in us to create an Endeavour of Obtaining the Future Rewards and Avoiding such Punishments by the greatest Endeavours that in this Life can be used Knowing that there is no Work nor Device in the Grave whither we go But as the Tree falls so it is like to lie and as Death leaves Men so Judgment shall find them And we are therefore as much concerned to provide for a good departure out of this World in respect to the time of our Resurrection as if we expected an immediate Reward or Punishment from the time of our Death For that once dead in my Sense we are not are no more concerned in time nor the passing of it but shall rise again as if we had lain down but the hour before You say You cannot believe that the Primitive Martyrs would have died so cheerfully had they not thought that they exchanged this life for a better immediately But I believe they might do it in expectation of a Crown to be given them at that day the Great Day of General Doom or Judgement and so says Peter Martyr in his Common Places This is the consolation of the godly afflicted in this world they have an eye to the Resurrection and thereupon quiet themselves And again Martyrs in death were comforted by belief of the Resurrection And Heb. 11.35 Martyrs were tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection So 1 Thess 4.15 Paul comforts them is sorrow for their dead Friends not by giving them assurance of their being gone to Heaven but by assurance of the Resurrection the manner of which he there describes to them You say You have known some die with great chearfulness and in full expectation of an immediate transportation to Heaven by the ministry of Angels And I doubt not but your Assertion may be true for Men learn to believe and practise as they are taught And I doubt not but the Jews Turks Hereticks and the Old Women before-mentioned may be found dying some of all sorts with great Constancy and a good Assurance and Expectation of Future Felicity each of them in their own Way but my Opinion is that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World by the Man whom he hath ordained and that it is appointed for Men once to die and after that the Judgment at which all must appear and give account for their own Works The happiness which I desire before that day is that it may be said to me as to Daniel Go thy way Leave this life and wait till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days the assured hope of a joyful Resurrection Paragraph 8. You grant that there do not occur in the Scriptures the Terms or Words of a Separately subsisting or Immaterial Soul I had said also not that of Immortal Soul and you might as well have granted that too for that neither you nor I can find it there You say I take the word Soul in Scripture very often to signifie Life or Person and you grant that in Hebrew it doth so But say I we find the like in Greek also for in St. Paul's Shipwrack there were in the Ship two hundred seventy six Souls alias Persons You say That in my Opinion I follow my friend Mr. Hobbs I say I follow nothing but Common Sense and Reason in it and that if Mr. Hobbs have said the same things I see no reason to think that strange but proceeding in both from one Common Principle which makes our Construction obvious to the Reason of Mankind If I had ever had the knowledge of Mr. Hobbs his Opinion or Writings I know no cause to reject or refuse the owning of it but for Truth 's sake I tell you that I never saw the Man but once and that without changing one word nor did I ever peruse any of his Writings to my remembrance nor have I received any light proceeding from him and you are the first Discoverer to me and the only that his Sense and mine agree in it Paragraph 9. You examine Solomon's Expression The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit to God who gave it Concerning this Expression my Treatise shews That Spirit and Breath are often used in the same signification and may pass for Synonyma's Gen. 2.7 God made Man of the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living soul viz. a living person Ante. Roccius in his Book De Anima page 20. says The Souls of Animals or Brutes had a like beginning to those of Men quamvis per Emphasin ob majorem Animae Humanae dignitatem de ipsa id exactius exprimitur Very probable it seems that God gave to Brutes the Breath of Life as well as to Men Although as he says Moses hath not exprest it that by Spirit here may be intended the Breath and Life or the Breath of Life seems to me not unlikely And whatsoever the Sense may be or whether spoken by Solomon according to common conception or that he spake it as you take it for the last result of his Judgment I mean thereupon to follow Sir Walter Raleigh's Direction viz. In all dark and hard Questions the most easie and best end of them is to say I will not dispute that So I will not farther dispute the intent of Solomon in this place but willingly leave you and all men at liberty to think thereof as their Reason or Phancy shall direct and I hope for a like permission from other Men. Paragraph 10. You quote St. Matthew Fear not them who can only kill the Body but not the Soul Also St. Luke's Text in the same point which names not the Soul at all And you say We may perceive that the substance and intent of Christ's Doctrine was the same in both places viz. That the Body being mortal may be killed but the Soul not so Whether this your Assertion be true or
my Opinion when I found Roccius saying the same things and words and Melanchton apparently to the same Sense and Peter Martyr approaching thereunto and nearer than I do expect other men shall come in any short time Your Quotation out of Dr. Cave was drawn by him out of Euseb Hist lib. 6. cap. 36 and is quoted in my Treatise This Particular finishes your Opposition to my Treatise and shall put an End also to my Defence Yet because I have as you may see some room left upon this Sheet of Paper I am thereby invited to remember what you said in your Second Paragraph viz. That it is not unlikely that my Treatise might be the result of some years Study To set your Imagination right upon that Point I give you this Account of it That in Summer 1690 I practised my Monastick Discipline reading within Doors and labouring the Ground abroad Mutans quadrata rotundis What I read within I ruminated without I considered the close Connection of Soul and Body and even the Contexture of them that Humane Constitutions and Faculties are often alter'd by Diet Air Sickness Accidents that the best Reasons Memories or Judgments may be altered or spoiled by divers like Means and recovered sometimes by Medicines applied to the disaffected Parts or Organs of the Body How this might competere with the Acts and Powers of a Substantial Angelical Spirit as the Soul or Form of Man I found my self unable to comprehend but that rather it seemed there was a Dependency of the Soul upon the Body as well as of the Body upon the Soul Hence I concluded there was a Close and Natural Contexture between them and that likely they were both of one same Nature Connatural to Man viz. his Natural and Constituent Parts Then I considered the Brutes and that they had the same Senses and Affections with Men and some sort of Understanding Phancy and Memory and all liable to like Accidents Also both Sorts lived by Blood Breath and Fewel or Food and if any of these failed the Man must die as well as the Beast so as the Man's Soul could help in such or any other Vital or Natural Necessities no more than the Soul of a Beast can do in like Cases And thus I went on considering all the Summer and coming tube inclined I fell upon a very Natural Course of Proceeding in such Cases followed by St. Paul Acts 17.17 He disputed his Tenets in all Places and with all Persons of his Conversation proper for that purpose and so did I and read Books such as I had or could buy or borrow Lastly One lent me a Book called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts and the Weak Defence which he and Sir Kenelm Digby and Doctor More made on behalf of that Immortal Opinion fortified my Conceptions to the contrary In Christmass I discours'd with many about it and soon after Candlemass I began to write and finish'd my Treatise about a Week after Midsummer in An. 1691 since which time divers have perused it and I refuse it to none who are like to use it cleanly and are capable of it I know you observe that I begin with Baxter's Book and end with it quoting and examining of it all along nor did I find it difficult to refute all that he says in maintenance of the Immortality except the Texts of Scripture which he quotes And those Texts in him and in you seem to me the only Defences of the Immortality Batteries you perceive are and may be raised against the intention and effects of those Texts which are quoted to that purpose and of what force they will prove Men are not like speedily to determine But my Judgment is not convinced or perswaded that by forbearing the Argument drawn from the Immortality and pressing in its stead that from the Resurrection and the Last Judgement there can any detriment arise to the Progress and Maintenance of the Christian and specially of the Protestant Religion If I had a desire to argue upon this Point and towards the Clearing of it as St. Paul did both in Synagogues Markets and Schools I do it much more desirously with you as professing my self Your much obliged and very humble Servant 8 March 1692. After this Answer to the Opponents Objections he was p1eased to reply thereunto in June following and his Replication was divided into Seven Paragraphs His 1. Parag Insists That I had not made that Proof which he demanded of the Quomodo How a Material Spirit was able to act or did act the Humane Faculties and Powers known to be in Mankind and carried to an excellent Perfection in some Men As this was a repeated Demand so I say that I answer to it as before viz. That there are many other Things and Actings in the World the Reasons and Causes of which Men neither do nor can enough comprehend or perceive Our Lord tells us That if one should watch the Corn Night and Day yet he could not perceive so as to know the Immediate and Proper Causes of its Growth but it will bring forth first the Stalk next the Blade then the Ear and lastly the Full Corn in it Men not perceiving the How or the Why of it and the Case is like for all other Plants How it was or whence it proceeds that they bring forth Fruits and Leaves of wondrous Variety and Diversity in Colour Figure Taste Smell Bulk and Operations We see that each of them have Root Bole Skin or Bark and we perceive and know that each of them hath an active and lively Juice or Spirit ascending from the Root into the Boles Branches and Tops of them and this Composition of Matter and Form in Plants we do reasonably believe to be sufficient and effectual for the production of all that doth ordinarily grow out of them But that Solomon or any other man ever did or can declare to us the manner of their proceedings or the next Reasons of them and of that great Variety in their Natures and Productions I do not know nor believe nor do I think it a Work of Humane Power to do Next Plants we may consider the Insects Solomon points us to the Spiders the Locusts the Ants and the Bees what are the Causes of their Motions and Actions Solomon tells us they do what is proper and best for their Beings but as Wonders to him and us who know neither the How nor the Why of them And so for the Fishes and the Birds we cannot know by what secret Engines and Motors divers particulars are done amongst them Concerning the Quadrupedes we see and know they have the same Flesh Blood Bones and Breath that Men have and in their Kinds sutable Bodily Members as Head Heart Liver Lungs Arteries Veins Fibres Muscles c. that Men have also a Generation and Production all alike I may demand what makes them live and grow in the Wombs of their Dams What forms their Members and how are they made in those
Faith to Church Ordinances and do you shew me Ordinances of God convincingly such in this point and then I promise you to be obedient to them and there will need no more words in the Case now disputed But if you cannot or which will come to one do not do it you may have some Title to the Term of a False Accuser of your Brethren whose conceits or errours perhaps of weakness you cannot infect or sully by the sowre and tainted Originals from whence you are pleased ignorantly to derive them And for your Conclusion That the Opinion of the Materiality tends to subvert the Fundamentals al 's Religion it is neither proved nor granted but asserted to strengthen the Foundation of Future Rewards and Punishments by fixing them upon very many and very plain Texts of Scripture and the Articles of our several Creeds clearly proving the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment Whereas Proofs of the Immortality are neither plainly asserting nor with any manner of clearness proving the same nor is it made an Article in any of our Creeds nor is any thing of it in the 39. Articles of our Church But there I find Artic. 6. That whatsoever is not read in Scripture nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite to salvation We all perceive that during Life there is a Contexture of Soul and Body and such an Union as they jointly participate of all that befals the Person and act undividedly and inseparably from the Person and from one another That Death is a Separation of them is clear also and What then becomes of the Soul is our Question and that we trace from its Nature as near as we can investigate If it be a small intelligent Spiritual Substance created by God upon every Procreation of Man likely it is to have a Separate Subsistence after Death of the Person but then it cannot be properly said The Man or the Person dies but the Body dies And if the Humane Soul be a Flame of Life kindled by God in Adam when he made him a Living Person and from that time hath passed by generation from one Man to another then more likely it is that this sort of Soul is extinguished in Death or that the Extinguishment of this Flame totally or in every part of the Body is the Death of the Person Originally it seems Men were of kin to Beasts in their Manner and Way of Living and Acting Of the Thracians in Orpheus's time we read Silvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum Caedibus victu foedo deterruit Orpheus Dictus ob id lenire tygres rabidosque leones Our own Ancestors in Caesar's time and many years after were naked as their Beasts and had no other Covering but their Skins their Food Acorns and Wild Fruits and their Manners were much sutable and of late we have heard like things of Wild Irish People Americans Libyans and in divers other parts of Africa who go naked as the Beasts and feed upon Raw Flesh and Snakes and the very Guts and Garbage of the Creatures and are as wild says Lithgow as their four-footed companions in the Libyan desarts In a State of so great Simplicity it seems Mankind may be well enough compared by us as it was by David to the Beasts that perish Since my ending the very last Period came to my hands a little Book written by Naudaeus printed Lond. in 12o. 1637 in page 248 he cites Lactantius asserting that Democritus Epicurus and Dicaearchus would not have so confidently denied the Immortality of the Soul Mago aliquo praesente qui sciret certis carminibus cieri ab inferis animas adesse praebere se humanis oculis videndas loqui futura praedicere I do so little approve of the Fathers Opinion in this that if his Magus should shew me such Souls like the Witch of Endor I should take them for his Conjurati and to be no proof at all of the Separate Subsistence of a Humane Soul P. 38. He mentions Archimedes his Mundane Globe the Moving Tripods of Vulcan made by Daedalus Architas his Pigeon Regiomontanus his Eagle and his Fly Men could not believe these Engines could move as they did without a Spirit which they thought could not be Material because that cannot act upon Hard Bodies as Wood Iron c. therefore they concluded those Motions were acted and guided by an Immaterial Spirit viz. a Daemon and that therefore these Artificers were Magi in the worst Sense very Conjurers But from this Crime our Author defends them and says The things were all feasible by Art Natural although Men do not now know nor did then understand the Rules or the Artifice of making such things or other things like or equal to them And this gives us a good semblance of Reason why Men have been apt to maintain their Souls to be Immaterial because they cannot perceive or learn the means and manner by which a Material Soul can act and govern Common Sense Apprehension Phancy Memory Judgment Conscience and the Affections and Passions incident to Humane Nature P. 299. In conclusion he says Men must take good heed not to be carried away with the current of common Opinions that when we are swayed by example and custom and go with the throng in the way we slip and fall one over another alienis perimus exemplis Besides this Book I have since this writing perused another viz. Mr. Robert Boyle his Experiments printed London 1662 2d Edition there p. 190 he says He inclines to think the Air necessary to ventilate and cherish the Vital Flame continually burning in the Heart And he found a new kind of resemblance betwixt Fire and Life the one lasting no longer than the other P. 190. The Flame of Spirit of Wine will burn long upon fine white linnen or paper without consuming either Eminent Naturalists do esteem the Heat which resides in the Heart to be a true Flame and this says he I do not oppose provided they add that it is such a temperate and almost insensible Fire as that before-mentioned and yet he thinks that to be hardly fine enough I have mentioned before a Tenuity to an Invisibility P. 197. He takes Animals for a kind of Curious Engines set on work and kept in Motion by Heat and Air. Dr. Willis in his oft quoted Book p. 4. tells us That Epicurus taught the Soul to be compounded ex atomis levissimis rotundissimis non multum diversis ab eis ex quibus est ignis compactum ex quodam calido flatuoso aerio P. 38. He says He hath given Reasons Quare haee flamma vitalis non uti flamma vulgaris visibilis destructiva fuerit P. 53. As soon as this flame is extinguished the compages of Soul and Body is dissolved and as long as this Soul is in the Body semper nascitur