Agent that can deprive him of his Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He only hath Immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 All things owing their Existence to him there is both a Power and a Right resident in him of depriving them should he judg it fit of their Beings Whatsoever is derived from his Power and Bounty he may take away at his pleasure Yet I reckon it absurd to think that he doth annihilate our Souls it being contrary to the Method which he observes in other parts of the Universe No substance yet ever perished Under all the Mutations that Matter undergoes by which this and that Individual body comes to be destroy'd there is not so much as one single Atome lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No substantial Entity is totally destroyed saith the Philosopher Non perit in tanto quicquid mihi credite mundo Ovid. By the Immortality of the soul then we mean no more but that it includes no principles in its self by which it can be brought to decay And this it derives from it being Immaterial No spiritual substance is capable of that dissolution which a Body is lyable to and suffers For seeing Material subjects come to be corrupted only by a separation of their conjoyned parts The Soul being Immaterial and so void of parts is in danger of no such dissolution Now in discoursing the Immortality of the Soul I think fit in the beginning to discharge my self from an exception or two which though hugely insisted on by those who will have the soul to be meerly corporeal and consequently corruptible yet are in themselves absurd and irrational The first is this that there is no such thing in the World as an Incorporeal Being and that Existence is not to be affirmed of any thing but what is perceivable by sense and that we cannot have assurance that any thing is but what we have ocularly beheld To which I reply 1 That they miserably beg the question which they ought to prove They have not been able to assign any contradiction that lyes against an Incorpoâ—eal Being more than against a Corporeal 2. Their Objection doth equally militate against the Being of God as against the Immaterial Nature of the Soul For if God be at all he is Incorporeal a Corporeal God being pregnant with Contradictions 3. We are not to require more proof of any thing than it is capable of According to the diversity of Objects we are furnished with distinct faculties in order to the perception of them and there are different lights in which they are seen Who questions the being of Sounds Odours c. because they are not discerned by the same Organical Faculty that Colours are To require that an Immaterial should fall under the perception of sight is to demand that an Immaterial should be a Material There are Innumerable things whereof we have the most convincing Certainty and yet they were never the Objects of Sense No man ever saw a Thought and yet we are fully assured that we have Thoughts How many things do the Gentlemen that make this exception believe which yet they never saw 4 Though Incorporeal Beings be not Immediately perceived by sense yet through diverse of their operations which affect our Sensitive Organs we have a mediate assurance of their Existence by our very Senses The second exception is taken from the inexplicableness of Union betwixt a Material and an Immaterial There is no Cement say they by which the one can be knit to the other Incorporeals are of a penetrating Nature and consequently cannot take hold of Matter so as to make a Whole consisting of two constituent parts so vastly different To this I answer 1. That there is nothing more Unreasonable than wholly to question the Existence of things because we do not Understand the Modes according to which they Exist To discharge a Cause out of the precincts of Being because we cannot give a reason of all its particular effects ought to be justly reckon'd amongst the greatest of absurdities Whatsoever is prov'd by Reason we are firmly to believe it though there may be many things in the Theory of it that are wholly inconceivable While we have all imaginable assurance of the conjunction of the soul with the body and that the soul cannot be corporeal our Faith ought no ways to be weakned though we know not the Physical way of their coalition and how they come to be United 2. There is as much difficulty in apprehending the connexion of one part of Matter with another as in Understanding the Incorporation of the Soul with the Body and yet no man questions but that there are bodies in which the particles of matter are united I hope to make it appear Châ—pt 3d. that there is not any Hypothesis of Philosophy yet extant by which the Union of the parts of Matter in contâ—nuous Bodies can be solved and yet we are very well assured they are connected together A 3d. Exception is raiâ—ed from the Sympathy that is betwixt the Soul and the Body from which they would conclude an Identity of Nature between them To which I briefly return to these things 1. There are many cases in which our Souls are affected without the least impression either from bodily Objects without us or any previous excitation of the Spirituous Blood within us For not to mention the impression which the Soul receives from the consideration of things purely Spiritual and Divine which do no ways immediately affect the Body all the Influence imaginable which they have upon it proceeding primarily from the mind it self and its dominion over the Animal Spirits I shall only name Troubles of Conscience which arise only from Moral Causes and the exercise of our Reasons about what we have done I may add that there are many cases wherein the Soul and Body seem to have no Communion with one another and that not only in Ecstasies when the Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a manner for a season separated from the Body but even in other Hence men upon the borders of Grave when without strength vigor or pulse yet even then they have their thoughts more refined and their understandings more spritely than at other times And which is more strange are so little affrighted at death though they fully understand it that they lay down the Body with the same compoâ—edness and more delight than if they were only putting off their Cloaths Nor are they only persons tired with the miseries of the World that do so bâ—t such many times who have enjoyed all the delight that this earthly state can afford 2. We find our Souls frequently determining themselves in way of chusing and refusing contrary to the provocations of sense and the cravings of the bodily Appetite Though our Intellectual Faculties have a perception of sensual Delights yet they often chuse both that which is contrary to fleshly pleasures and which no Corporeal Faculty is able so much as once to apprehend
can resolve us how it comes to pass that one part more indiscerptibly cleaves to another than if they were fastned together by Adamantine Chains I see no reason why the Incomprehensibleness of the Manner of our Union with Christ should any ways obstruct or weaken our belief of it having all the assurance that Divine Revelation can give us concerning our being United to Him As we assent to an Evident Object of sense or to that which is plainly demonstrated by Reason though there occurr many things in the manner of their Existence which is Unconceiveable So the Quod sit and reality of our Vnion with Christ being attested by Him who cannot lye it becomes us to embrace it with all steadiness of Belief though we cannot conceive the Quomodo or Manner how it is For my part I have often thought that through God's leaving us pos'd and Non-plust about the most ordinary and certain Phaenomena of Nature he intended to train us up to a Mancipation of our Vnderstandings to Articles of Faith when we were once assured that he had declared them though the difficulties relating to them were Vnaccountable Nor is the manner of the Coherence of the parts of Matter the only difficulty in Nature relating to Union that perplexes and baffâ—'s our Reason but the Mode of the Mystical Incorporation of the Rational Soul with the Humane Body doth every way as much entangle and leave us desperate as the former That man is a kind of Amphibious Creature allied in his Constituent parts both to the Intellectual and Material Worlds and that the several Species of Beings in the Macrocosm are combined in him as in a Systeme Reason as well as Scripture instructs us That we have a Body we are fully assured by its Density Extension Impenetrability and all the adjuncts and affections of Matter and that we have an immaterial Spirit we are demonstratively convinced by its reacting on it self its consciousness of its own Being and Operations not to mention other Mediums whereof we have spoken elsewhere And that these two are United together to make up the composition of Man is as plain from the Influence that the Body hath upon the Soul in many of its perceptions and which the Soul hath upon the Body in the motions of the Spirits Blood withall that ensues and depends thereupon Nor could the affections and adjuncts of the Material Nature nor the Attributes and properties of the Immaterial be indifferently predicated of Man were not the Soul and Body united together in the Unity of Mans person But now how this can be is a knot too hard for Humane Reason to unty How a pure Spirit should be cemented to an earthy Clod or an Immaterial substance coalesce with Bulk is a Riddle that no Hypothesis of Philosophy can resolve us about How this intellective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should come to be button'd to this corporeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a mystery the unvailing whereof must be reserved to the Future state For our Indagations about it hitherto do leave us altogether unsatisfied 1 The Aristotelick substantial uniter and cement will not do For besides its repugnancy to Reason that there should be any substantial ingredient in the constitution of man save his Soul and Body the Unition of it self with the Soul supposing it to be Material or with the Body admitting it to be an Incorporeal will remain unintelligible And to affirm it to be of a middle Nature partaking of the Affection and adjuncts of both is that which our Reasonable Faculties will never allow us to subscribe to the Idea's which we have of Body and Spirit having no alliance the one with the other And to style it a substantial Mode is to wrap up repugnancies in its very notion For though all Modes be the modification of substances yet they are Predicamental Accidents And how essential soever thâ—s or that Modification may be to a Body of such a species yet 't is wholly Extrinsecal and Accidental to Matter it self In brief the voluminous Discourses of the Aristotelians both about Union in General and the Union of the Rational Soul to the organical Humane Body in particular resolve themselves either into Idle Tattle and Insignificant Words or obtrude upon us contradictions and Nonsense 2 To preclude all Union betwixt the Soul and Body on supposition that they are not distinct constituent parts of Man is plainly to despair of solving the difficulty For not to dispute whether the Soul and Body may in Philosophick rigor be called parts or whether man with reference to them may be styled a Compositum 't is enough that the one is not the other but that they are different principles and that neither of them considered separately is the Man Though the Soul and Body be perfect substances in themselves and though the Soul can operate in its disjunct state in its separation will be no less a Person than Soul and Body now together are yet there are many Operations belonging to the Soul in this conjunct state of which it is uncapable in the separate and there are many things predicable of the Soul and Body together which cannot be affirm'd of them asunder How close and intimate soever the Union betwixt the Soul and Body be and how great soever their mutual dependences in most of their Operations be upon one another yet not only the intellectual Spirit and the duely organised Matter remain even in their consociation classically different their Essences Affections Operations admitting a diversity as well as a distinction but there are some operations belong to each of them upon which the other hath no Influence For as the Mind is Author of many cogitations and conceptions to which the Body gave no occasion so the Body is the spring and fountain of several Functions over which the Soul hath no Dominion nor any direct Influence They remain as much distinct notwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done should we suppose them to have had an existence previous to their confederations or as they shall be after the dissolution of the League between them From all which it may be scientifically concluded that they are distinct and different Principles in mans Constitution But whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum or they to be styled parts will be resolved into meer Logomachie chat about Words Though to speak my own mind I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the appellation of Compositum and the Soul and Body be allowed for Constituent parts Nor Thirdly doth the Cartesian Hypothesis though the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon fully satisfy an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us Their Hypothesis is briefly this That God in his Infinite sapience chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Beings some purely Material which yet through difference of the Figure Size Number Texture and Modification of
Were we constituted of meer Matter all our operations should be produced by a fatal Impulse and in every act we should be under the like Necessity as Matter is when forcibly determined to Motion While we find our selves endowed with a faculty determinative of it self We may rationally infer that the impulses of outward Objects upon the bodily Organs and the continuation of their Motion to the Brain and Heart do only solicite and not force out Assent and that the Soul it self is of an Immaterial Nature 3. All that sympathie which we observe between the Soul and Body ariseth meerly from the close connexion of the one with the other and is necessary both in order to the Souls governing the Body its being engaged to take care of it and provide against its necessities And as a Lutanist loseth not his skill because he cannot play melodiously upon an Instrument whose strâ—ngs are either broken or ill tun'd No more is the Soul prejudiced in her self by bodily Maladies though she be hindred discomposed in her operations through the distemper of those Organical Instruments which she is forced to use That we are too much affected with every passion and irregular motion of the blood and Animal Spirits doth not prove that our Souls are Corporeal or that our irregular actings upon those inordinate motions are the results of fatal Impulses but only shew that we do excite our Intellectual powers to the preventing those violent Motions and the keeping the Body Sedate and to the curbing and restraining them when excited and that we do by sloth neglect suffer our selves to be depressed by those Terrestrial encumbrances and hurried by those Motions which if we were not wanting to our selves we might easily tame and subdue Having free'd our selves from these exceptions we now proceed to the thing it self and in the mentioning the Arguments which offer themselves in Nature to prove the Immoâ—tality of the Soul I shall not insist on that Argument which is so vigorously urged by some Modern as well as Ancient Writers Namely that if the Soul were Corporeal we should not be the same to day that we were yester day We remain the same at sixty Years of Age that we were at twenty though in the mean time we have worn away many bodies and therefore say they there must be something Immaterial in us which is the foundation of this Identity This I shall wave for they who contend for the Corporeity of the Soul will reply that we are no otherwise the same this Year that we were the last than Brutes and Vegtables are Nor shall I press the Argument that is drawn from sensation because what ever is in it for the Immateriality of the sentient and percipient Principle in us concludes in behalf of Brutes that they have the like For the Hypothesis of Des-Cartes that Beasts are meer Machines I look upon it as altogether indefensible But though I decline and wave the using of this Medium for the reason I have now suggested yet I dare not censure it as trifling much less disclaym it as Sophistical These then being lay'd aside there are others to be produced and seeing that whatsoever is Incorporeal is upon the very score of its being so incorruptible and excepted from dissolution also I shall mainly inquire what reasons there are in the Light of Nature whereby we may be induced to believe that our Souls are Immaterial First if the Soul were only a Crasis of the Body it were capable of no other distempers but what arise from the compression or dilatation of matter or from the obstruction and inflamation of Humours while we therefore find it subject to Maladies which spring meerly from Moral causes and which are no more curable by the prescriptions of Physicians than the Stone or Gout are to be removed by a Philosophy Lecture we have sufficient Cause to believe that it is of an incorporeal Nature 2 dly The essences of things are best known by their operations and the best guess we can make of the Nature and Condition of beings is from the quality of their Actions While therefore by contemplating our selves we find that we do elicite actions which exceed the power of matter and the most subtile Motion of Corporeal particles we have all imaginable ground to think that we are possessed of a principle that is Immaterial as well as Intellectual He who considers that there is not one perfect Organ in the Human Body but the parallel of it is to be met with in the Noblest sort of Brute Animals and yet that there are diverse operations performed by men that no Beast whatsoever is capable of doing the like must need apprehend that the Soul is not a Corporeal Faculty nor a contexture of Material parts Here all the Acts of Intellection may be insisted on 1 Acts of simple Apprehension We are endowed with a Faculty that frame 's Notions and Ideas of things which exceed the Sphere of Sense which are no ways capable of sensible Representation nor were the Notions of them conveyed into us by the help of Terrestrial Images Such are the Notions of Immaterial Beings infinite Space the Habitudes of one thing to another Moral Congruities and Incongruities abstract and Universal Natures Proportions of Figures Symmetry of Magnitudes yea the notion of perception it self 2 Acts of judgments whereby we contemplate the several Natures and properties of things compare them in all their respects rank them in their distinct orders and dependencies frame distinctions and divisions of Beings connect and disjoyn Subjects and Predicates and accordingly say that this appertains to the other or it doth not and affirm or deny one thing of another as we observe them to agree or disagree 3 Acts of Ratiocination whereby we infer one thing from another by Syllogisms deduce Consequences of longer or shorter Trayns 4 Acts of Reflection in which the Soul becomes it own Object perceive's that it doth perceive passeth a sentence upon its own judgements which no matter though it be never so fine and howsoever modified and agitated can do 5 Acts of Correcting the Errours and mistakes of Imagination whereby having viewed all the representations of the Senses it compares them together makes a judgement of them forms apprehensions contrary to those which are suggested to us by sensitive Organs rejects the phantasms of Imagination as insufficient Indications of the Truth of External Objects Not that our Senses are deceived for they only declare their own Passions and communicate their Motions to the Brain according to the Impulses which they really receive from ambient Matter but these representations being made without judgment the Soul examines them perceives that it should be deceived should it always pronounce according to the Images conveyed to it by the Senses and accordingly apprehends corrects and determineth contrary to them 6. Acts of Volition whereby it Chuseth and Refuseth by a self-determinating-Power according as things are estimated remaining exempt
q. 5. and they will satisfie them This is all that I shall offer at present in opposition to Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis nor should I have said so much but that it is here where we have his most Heroick adventures and where he seems all along to speak as strutting and standing on his tiptoes 'T is here that he flings down the Gantlet to all the World and treads the Stage with no less state and majesty than as if he intended to erect lasting Trophies to himself for having baffled the received Opinion of the whole Christian Church And 't is here that most particularly I have accepted his Challenge and bid him battel on his ground and at his own weapons and as to the issue of the Encounter I leave it to the Reader to pronounce betwixt him and me This I do affirm that as I have not declined him in any thing where he seem'd to argue like a Man and a Schollar so I must beg his pardon if in some things I have forborn him and given back forasmuch as I was not willing to be under the temptation of exposing him too much And upon this very inducement I thought once to have overlookt his Argument taken from the Nature of the Sacraments which he brings in proof that all the Union between Christ and Christians is meerly political but upon second thoughts I am resolved to say something to it least by being left in the way it should put some to a stand though it should put none to a retreat We have already encountered the same forces in another field and being defeated there there is the less likelyhood of their standing it long out here As we have disabled this Medium from serving our Author against the Immediate Union of Christ with Believers so we will now venture to see what strength is in it against the common Opinion of the Christian Church about the Nature quality of the Union that is between Him and them Now I take it for granted says he that there can be no better way to understand the Nature of our Union with Christ than to consider the Nature of those Sacraments which were designed as the Instruments and signs of our Union with Him and if we will take that account the Scripture gives of them all the Union they signifie is a publick and visible profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to Him as our Lord and Saviour and a sincere conformity of our hearts and lives to the Nature and Life of Christ. Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ own his Authority and submit to his Government And the Lords Supper is a Federal Rite which answers to the Feasts or Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with the Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him c. For answer Baptism and the Lords Supper being Ordinances instituted by Christ in a Habitude to the whole tenour of the New Covenant as it mutually obligeth both on Gods part and outs accordingly they may be considered either as they respect us or as they respect God who hath instituted and ordained them As they respect us they are both Symbols of our Profession and solemn engagements upon us to Duty As they respect God who hath appointed them they are representations of the mercies of the Covenant and Ratifying seals of it But to speak a little particularly to each of them First to Baptism Baptism as it is the outward way and means of our Initiation into the Lord Jesus Christ and of our matriculation into the Catholick Visible Church so it is the great representation of the inward washing of Regeneration and of our being renewed by the Holy Ghost The effusion of the Spirit being often likened to the pouring forth of water See Isa. 44.3 4 5. Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Joh. 3.5 Joh. 7.38 Heb. 10.22 So in Baptism it is most excellently signified and represented The Spirit saith Dr. Patrick is very well signified by water for as that cleanseth purifieth from filth so the Spirit of God is the sanctifier of Gods people purging and cleansing their hearts from all impurities Now the Spirit being no otherwise the spring and principle of all our Sanctification but as he is the Bond and Vinculum of our mystical Union with Christ out of whose fulness we receive all the Grace which we are made partakers of therefore Baptism being a representation of the effusion of the Spirit it is also an adumbration of the Union which we plead for 2ly As to the Lords Supper As the Lords Supper is a visible Symbol and Badg of our abiding in Christ into whom by Baptism we were Initiated and an obligation to all the Duties of growth and progress in Christianity so it is really exhibitive of Christ to us and a representation of our Spiritual Union with Him As the Bread and Wine could not in any congruity of speech be called the Body and Blood of Christ if they were not exhibitive of them so our eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in a Sacramental sense can signifie no less than our being spiritually incorporated with him The Cup of Blessing saith the Apostle which we bless is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And as by one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body so we are all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Our very Author tells us not aware that thereby he overthrows his whole Hypothesis that the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ an eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone Eph. 5.30 The Apostle in the place that Mr. Sherlock refers to doth in way of illustration of the Union between Christ and Christians allude to the Oneness which was between Adam and Eve Now that was greater than the Oneness between any other Husband or Wife in the World for she was not only of the same specifick Nature with Him and knit to him in a Matrimonial tye by God himself but she was extracted and formed out of his very Body and so is the fitter Symbol of the Intimate Union that is between Christ and Believers And thus I hope I have not only wrested this weapon out of Mr. Sherlocks hand but struck through his cause with it § 13. It being acknowledged on all sides that there is an Union between Christ and sincere Christians and it being now declared and made manifest what it is not I might here wind up without proceeding any further or undertaking to assign the true and just Notion of it Nor is Religion exposed by our affirming some of its Mysteries to be incomprehensible Our Reason fails us when we attempt to give an account of our selves and the obvious phaenomena of Nature and therefore we may well allow it unable to