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A42813
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Essays on several important subjects in philosophy and religion by Joseph Glanvill ...
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Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing G809; ESTC R22979
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236,661
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346
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they manag'd their Rebukes of these self-condemn'd men with much judgment and wit without any thing of fierceness or scurrility They shew'd them the Immorality of their spirit and it's contradictions and antipathy to the genius and temper of the Gospel and urged That though they hated debauchery and some gross Carnal sins as the Pharisees did the Publicans Yet they were given up to many other sorts of wickedness to spiritual Pride Malice Envy Avarice Stubbornness Disingenuity and Disobedience That they harbour'd and kept warm these under their pretences of Christs Righteousness and their specious forms of Godliness That though they were always confessing sin in the general with much seeming remorce and trouble of spirit yet they seldom or never made acknowledgements of these That though they lov'd to hear the sins of Drunkenness and Prophaneness vehemently declaim'd against Yet they could not endure to have these throughly detected and reprov'd That even their own Teachers durst not touch here and that when others did it though without naming parties or pointing out persons they call'd it Railing and Persecution and made no other use of those just rebukes That though they shew'd great seeming tenderness of Conscience in other smaller matters of Mint Annise and Cummin Yet they seldom appear'd sensible or troubl'd at their transgressions in those greater matters of the Law ANd because these people were always making complaints and sad moâ—…ns of their sins without endeavouring to amend Those Divines represented to them that such complaints were but forms and a fashion that they followed That sad looks and whinings were but a shew of Humility and Repentance That if they were sensible of their sins indeed they would use the Grace of God to overcome them till at last they arriv'd at victory and not still continue in a state of whimpering and complaining That these men cousened themselves into a false opinion of their penitence and were perswaded that this was enough without conquest and true reformation of heart and life that their remaining sins were but infirmities and the spots of Gods children which were covered with Christs Righteousness and not seen in the Elect By which they deluded themselves into dangerous presumption and security These our Divines endeavour'd to destroy and to pluck away the fig-leaves of all their false and imperfect marks of Godliness and shew'd that their usual complaints were but like the noise of Parrots without an inward sence That when men were only sensible and sorry they were yet but under the Law and a state of bondage That the Gospel aims at Liberty and Victory and that we are but just entred and are yet very imperfect till we have attain'd some considerable measure of that That the great mark of sincerity is to be proceeding and going forwards and towards the conquest of sinful habits and inclinations That we are not to look on these as failings and infirmities and so sit down contented with some tears and customary confessions under the power of them That Infirmities are but single acts and such too as have not the will in them That God hath afforded us sufficiency of means and helps enough to subdue all the evils of our natures and that if we neglect to use those aids and live at rest under any sinful appetites and passions we are Hypocrites and our boasted Faith and spiritualities will signify nothing to us HEre the Governour made a little stop and then said I have run over these things as they offer'd themselves to my mind I might have set them in a better order and have added many other particulars but as to method there is no great need of curiosity in it in such a relation By the things I have told you you may gather what was the Genius of those Divines in many others which for brevity I omit I said that though one might collect the opinion of many matters more by what he had been pleas'd to represent to me yet there were two things which I had a desire to be informed in further viz. Their Notion of Free Grace and Justification by Faith Their Doctrines about these answer'd He might in great part be gather'd from some of those principles I have mention'd but however I shall gratify you with a short account of them For Free Grace it was ever in the mouths of the Ataxites and they seem'd to be transported and ravish'd in the admiration of it But their notion was very perverse and false For they made it an arbitrary kindness bestow'd upon some very few persons for no reason in the world Not for the sake of any vertue or divine qualifications but only for meer uncountable will and pleasure And said That God from this Free Grace as they call'd it chang'd the hearts of the Elect by an immediate irresistible power and created Faith and other Graces in them in the same way of omnipotent operation Against these dangerous conceits they taught That God loves Vertue and Holiness and is no fond Respecter of Persons That those are the proper objects of his special kindness That there was a general Grace which had appear'd unto all men in the light of Reason the Laws written upon our hearts and common aids of the Spirit That it's freedom consisted in it's universal diffusion through the world without let or impediment and in the spontaneity of it This said he may seem somewhat a hard word but I have no plainer to express the fulness of my sense by and I never use a difficult term when the thing can be spoke as well in one that is more easie and familiar I answer'd that I understood it very well and that he meant that Gods Grace was willing and unforc'd flowing from the benignity of his nature still communicating it self to all Subjects that were capable You apprehend me right continued the Governour and thus he hath imparted himself to all Mankind But then added He There is a Grace more special that concerns Christians only without us the declaration of the Gospel and within us those divine vertues that are wrought by them and therefore call'd Graces He said The Gospel perswadeth without force and God works upon us by it in a way proper and sutable to reasonable Creatures by our Reasons and our Interests by our Hopes and our Fears assisting all good desires and endeavours by the operation of his holy Spirit This said he acts as a General Cause according to the dissposition of the Subject our endeavours would be weak and fruitless without it And yet It never works alone by meer omnipotence without our endeavours They operate in conjunction as the Sun and moysture of the earth and seminal principles do in the production of Plants and Flowers each cause doing what is proper to it The Dictates of the Spirit are contain'd in the Gospel and the Spirit enlightneth and teacheth by that And so he came to the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith Here he call'd to my mind
can subsist without it self and real separability cannot consist with Identity and Indistinction 3. The Sacred and Mosaical Philosophy supposeth the Soul to be a Substance that can come and be join'd to another For it tells us That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils the Breath of Life by which generally is understood his infusing a Soul into him And all the Arguments that are alledg'd from Scripture to prove its immediate Creation do strongly conclude it to be a distinct Substance from the Body And 4. The same Doctrine is more than once affirm'd by Aristotle himself for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remains that the Mind or â—…oul comes from without and is only a Divine Thing Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is separate c. a thing apart from the Body For elsewhere he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Operations of the Body do not communicate with its the Soul's Operations He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Substance or Subsistence for supposing which I am reprehended by our Philosopher And affirms further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is a Divine and Impassible Thing It appears then from the Testimonies and I could alledg more if there were occasion that Aristotle taught the real Distinction which I suppose and so according to our Author is one of them that understands not the opposition of one and many Yea 5. Our Philosopher's learned Friend and Admirer Sir Kenelm Digby is another for that ingenious Gentleman affirms in his Immortality That the Soul is a Substance and a Substance besides the Body and almost all that Discourse depends on that supposal 6. This Author himself affirms as much in his Peripatetical Institutions as ever I suppos'd For he saith 'T is most evident that the Mind is something of another kind from Quantity and Matter That 't is a substantial Principle of Man and no mode or determination of divisibility and that there is nothing common to Body and Spirit Besides which in the fifth Book of the same Institutions he discourseth of the Soul's separation from the Body and asserts it to be evident that it perisheth not with it because it hath Actions that belong not to a Body but hath of it self the Nature of a Being and its power of Existence is not taken away when the Body fails the Soul being apart from and besides it and that matter is not necessary to the Soul's Existence Many other Expressions there are in that Discourse to like purpose which speak the Soul 's Real Distinction from the Body in as great variety of Phrase as Diversity and Distinction can be spoken But all this is forgotten and now 't is a most important Error in Philosophy to suppose the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another and of this none can doubt that understand the Opposition of one and many I think now by all this 't is pretty clear that my supposition of the Soul 's being a distinct Substance from the Body is not peccant except all the wiser World both Ancient and Modern have been mistaken and our Author himself But besides all 2. It seems to me evident even from the nature of the things abstracting from Authority And I think it appears 1. From all the common Arguments that prove the Soul Immaterial For Perception Perception of Spirituals Vniversals Mathematical Liues Points Superficies Congenit Notions Logical Metaphysical and Moral Self-reflection Freedom Indifferency and Vniversality of Action These are all Propertiâ—…â—…t all agreeing with Body or Matter though of never so pure and simple a Nature Nor is it conceivable how any of these should arise from Modifications of Quantity being of a divers kind from all the Effects and Phaenomena of Motion 2. If the Soul be not a distinct Substance from the Body 't is then a certain Disposition and Modification of it which this Author in the tenth Lesson of his Intitutions seems to intimate saying That since the Soul is a certain Affection which is introduced and expell'd by corporeal Action Hence he infeâ—…rs something that is not for our purpose to relate And if so since all diversities in Matter arise from Motion and Position of Parts every different Perception will require a distinct order and position of the Parts of the Matter perceiving which must be obtain'd by Motion I demand then when we pass from one Conception to another is the Motion the cause of this Diversity merely casual or directed by some Act of Knowledg The former I suppose no Man in his wits will affirm since then all our Conceptions will be non-sense and confusion Chance being the Cause of nothing that is orderly and regular But if there be a knowledg in us of that directs the Motions that make every distinct Conception I demand concerning that Knowledg whether it be in like manner directed by some other or is it the Effect of mere Casual Motion If the former we must run up in infinitum in our inquiry and the latter admits the alledg'd Absurdities There is no way then of defending the Assertion of the Souls being Matter or any modification of it but by affirming with Mr. Hobbs a certain connection between all our Thoughts and a necessary fate in all things which whoever affirms will find Difficulties enough in his Assertion to bring him to mine that there is a Vanity in Dogmatizing and Confidence is unreasonable I have insisted the longer on this because the distinction of the Soul from the Body is a very material Subject the proof of which is very seasonable for the present Age and by it I have disabled our Author's pretended Solution of the three Difficulties I mention viz. of the Origine of the Soul its Vnion with the Body and its moving of it Concerning whiâ—…â—…st he adds P. 33. That true it is one animated Meâ—…â—…oves another but not that any Substance that is a pure Soul moves immediately any Member in which the Soul is not Which last I know no Body that saith I cannot affirm the Soul moves any Member immediately but 't is like it doth it by the Spirits its Instruments Much less did I ever say That the Soul moves any Member in which it is not But the Seat-of-Sense and Original of Animal Motion is in the Brain or Heart or some other main part of which in particular I determine nothing Thence the Soul sends its Influences to govern the Motions of the Body through all which it is diffused 'T is true one animate Member moves another but the Motion must somewhere begin In Actions purely Mechanical it begins in material Agents that work upon the Body and its Parts but in those that are immediately under our Wills the Motion hath its beginning from the Soul moving first something corporeal in us by which other parts are mov'd But our Author appeals to other Animals in which he saith There 's frankly denyed a Soul independent on the