Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	nature_n	reason_n	1,625	5	4.6916	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39675	Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man wherein the divine original, excellent and immortal nature of the soul are opened, its love and inclination to the body, with the necessity of its separation from it, considered and improved, the existence, operations, and states of separated souls, both in Heaven and Hell, immediately after death, asserted, discussed, and variously applyed, divers knotty and difficult questions about departed souls, both philosophical, and theological, stated and determined, the invaluable preciousness of humane souls, and the various artifices of Satan (their professed enemy) to destroy them, discovered, and the great duty and interest of all men, seasonable and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the salvation of their souls, argued and pressed / by John Flavel ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1685 (1685)	Wing F1176; ESTC R5953	379,180	504

And Paul went higher than that in a glorious excess of Charity to the Community or Body of Gods People preferring their Salvation not only to his own Body but to his Soul also Rom. 9.3 but to these extraordinary Cases we are seldome called and if we be the Gospel furnisheth us with an higher Rule than Self-love Iohn 13.34 But by this principle of Self-love in all ordinary Cases we must proportion and dispence our Love to all others by which you see what deep rooted fixed Principle in Nature Self-love is how universal and permanent alone this is which else were not fit to be made the measure of our Love to all others Two things will deserve our Consideration in the Doctrinal part of this point I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body II. What are the Grounds and Fundamental Causes or Reasons of its love to it and then apply it I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body and that it doth in divers respects 1. In its Cares for the things needful to the Body as the Text speaks in Nouri●●ing and Cherishing it i.e. taking care for Food and Rayment for it This Care is Universal it 's implanted in the most Salvage and Barbarous People and is generally so excessive and exorbitant that though it never needs a Spur yet most times and with most Men it doth need a Curb and therefore Christ in Matth. 6.32 shews how those Cares torture and distract the Nations of the World warns them against the like Excesses and propounds a Rule to them for the allay and mitigation of them v. 25 26 27. So doth the Apostle also 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To speak as the matter is most Souls are over-heated with their Cares and eager pursuit after the concerns of the Body They pant after the Dust of the Earth They pierce themselves through with many Sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 They are cumbred like Martha with much Serving. 'T is a perfect Drudge and Slave to the Body bestowing all its time strength and studies about the Body for one Soul that puts the Question to it self What shall I do to be saved a Thousand are to be found that mind nothing more but What shall I e●t what shall I drink and wherewith shall I and mine be cloathed I do not say that these are proofs of the Souls regular Love to the Body no they differ from it as a Feaver from Natural Heat This is a doating Fondness upon the Body He truly loves his Body that moderately and ordinately cares for what is necessary for it and can keep it under 1 Cor. 9.27 and deny its whineing Appetite when Indulgence is prejudicial to the Soul or warms its Lusts. Believers themselves find it hard to keep the Golden Bridle of Moderation upon their Affections in this matter 'T is not every Man hath attained Agurs cool Temper Prov. 30.8 that can slack his pace and drive moderately where the Interests of the Body are concerned the best Souls are too warm the generality in raging Heats which distract their Minds as that word Matth 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If the Body were not exceeding dear to the Soul it would never torture it self Day and Night with such anxious Cares about it 2. The Soul discovers its Esteem and Value for the Body in all the Fears it hath about it Did not the Soul love it exceedingly it would never be affrighted for it and on its account so much and so often as it is What a panick fear do the dangers of the Body cast the Soul into Isa. 7.2 When the Body is in Danger the Soul is in Distraction the Soul is in Fears and Tremblings about it These Fears flow from the Souls tender Love and Affection to the Body if it did not Love it so intensely it would never afflict and torment it self at that rate it doth about it Satan the professed Enemy of our Souls being throughly acquainted with those Fears which flow from the Fountain of Love to the Body politickly improves them in the way of temptation to the utter ruine of some and the great hazard of other Souls he edges and sharpens his temptations upon us this way he puts our Bodies into danger that he may thereby endanger our Souls he reckons if he can but draw the Body into danger fear will quickly drive the Soul into Temptation It is not so much from Satans Malice or Hatred of our Bodies that he stirs up Persecutions against us but he knows the tie of Affection is so strong betwixt these friends that Love will draw and Fear will drive the Soul into many and great Hazards of its own Happiness to free the Body out of those Dangers Prov. 29.25 The Fear of Man brings a Snare and Heb. 11.37 tortured and tempted Upon this ground also it is that this Life becomes a Life of Temptation to all Men and there is no freedom from that danger till we be freed from the Body and set at liberty by Death Separated Souls are the only free Souls They that carry no Flesh about them need carry no Fears of Temptation within them 'T is the Body which catches the sparks of Temptation 3. The Soul manifests its dear Love and Affection to the Body by its Sympathy and compassionate feeling of all its Burdens Whatever touches the Body by way of Injury affects the Soul also by way of Sympathy The Soul and Body are as the strings of two Musical Instruments set exactly at one height if one be touched the other trembles They laugh and cry are sick and well together This is a wonderful Mystery and a rare Secret as a Learned Man observes how the Soul comes to sympathize with the Body and to have not only a knowledg but as it were a feeling of its Necessities and Infirmities how this Fleshly Lump comes to affect and make its deep Impressions upon a Creature of so different a Nature from it as the Soul or Spirit is But that it doth so though we know not how is plain and sensible to any Man If any Member of the Body though but the lowest and meanest be in Pain and Misery the Soul is presently affected with it and commands the Eyes to watch yea to weep the Hands to bind it up with all tenderness and defend it from the least injurious touch the Lips to complain of its Misery and beg pity and help from others for it If the Body be in danger how are the Faculties of the Soul Understanding Memory Invention c. imployed with utmost Strength and Concernment for its deliverance This is a real and unexceptionable Evidence of its dear and tender Love to the Body As those that belong to one Mystical Body shew their sincere Love this way 1 Cor. 12.25 26. Ephes. 4.19 So the Soul 4. The Soul manifesteth its Love to the Body by its Fears of Death and extream Aversation to a Separation from it On this account Death is called in Iob

because there 's nothing in sight that hath a tendency to their deliverance no prepared matter for their Salvation why let them consider who it was that created the Heavens and the Earth yea and their Souls also which are so perplexed with doubts out of nothing the same God that did this can also create Deliverance for his people though there be no praeexistent matter to work it out of R●sol●it So●omon utramque ●ominis partem in su● prima principia Ut ergo corpus in terram unde s●mptum est resolv●t ita etiam si anima ex ●●abl●●tia c●l●●ti vel ex anima ut ●lato ait m●●di esset facta in eam resol●isset Solomon 〈…〉 simp●icite● de ipsa dicit ea● redit●ram ad De●m qui ded●t illam docet eam è nihito in quod resolvi non poss●t crea●am esse Zanch. Add to this that excellent place of Solomon in Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Where he shews us what becomes of Man and how each part of which he consists is bestowed and disposed of after his Dissolution by Death And thus he states it These two constitutive parts of Man are a Soul and a Body These two parts have two distinct Originals The Body as to its material cause is Dust the Soul in its nature is a Spirit and as to its Origin it proceeded from the Father of Spirits 't is his own creature in an immediate way He gave it He gave it the being it hath by Creation and gave it to us i.e. to our bodies by Inspiration Now qualis Genesis talis Analysis When death dissolves the union which is betwixt them each part returns to that from whence it came dust to dust and the Spirit to God that gave it The Body is expressed by its material cause dust the Soul only by its efficient cause as the gift of God because it had no material cause at all nor was made out of any praeexistent matter as the Body was And therefore Solomon here speaks of God as if he had only to do with the Soul leaving the Body to its material and instrumental causes with whom he concurrs by a general influence 'T is God not Man alone or God by Man that hath given us these bodies but 't is not Man but God alone who hath given us these souls He therefore passeth by the Body and speaks of the Soul as the gift of God because that part of Man and that only flows immediately from God and at death returns to him that gave it All these expressions The Father of Spirits the former of the spirit in Man the Giver of the Spirit how agreeable are they to each other and all of them to the point under hand that the Soul flows from God by immediate Creation You see it hath no principle out of which according to the order of nature it did arise as the body had and therefore it hath no principle into which according to the order of nature it can be returned as the body hath but returns to God its efficient cause if reconciled to a Father not only by Creation but Adoption if unreconciled as a creature guilty of unnatural Rebellion against the God that formed it to be judged II. God created and infused it into the body with an inherent inclination and affection to it Anima quae est corporis organici perfectio corpus necessari●● est non est enim forma separata i e. propriè forma est itaque materiam requirit usque ad●o ut anima à corpore s●j●●cta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tamen inclinationem retine ●t suam quam corporis resurrectio co●se●uitur The nature of the Soul and Body are vastly different there is no affinity or similitude betwixt them but it is in this case as in that of Marriage Two persons of vastly different Educations Constitutions and Inclinations coming under Gods Ordinance into the nearest relation to each other find their affections knit and endeared by their relation to a degree beyond that which results from the union of blood So it is here Whence this affection rises in what acts it is discovered and for what reason implanted will be at large discovered in a distinct branch of the following Discourse to which it is assigned Mean while I find my self concerned to vindicate what hath been here asserted from the Arguments which are urged against the immediate Creation and infusion of the Soul and in defence of the opinion of its Traduction from the Parents To conceal or dissemble these Arguments and Objections Cameronis praelect in Matth. p. 121. would be but a betraying of the truth I have here asserted and give occasion for some jealousie that they are unanswerable To come then to an issue and first It is urged Object 1. that it is manifest in it self and generally yielded that the souls of all other creatures come by generation and therefore its probable that humane souls flow in the same Chanel also There is a specifick difference betwixt rational souls Sol. and the souls of all other creatures and therefore no force at all in the consequence A material form may rise out of matter but a Spiritual rational Being as the Soul of Man is cannot so rise being much more noble and excellent than Matter is What Animal is there in the world out of whose Soul the acts of reason spring and flow as they do out of humane Souls Are they capable of inventing or which is much less of learning the Arts and Sciences Can they correct their senses and demonstrate a Star to be far greater than the whole Earth which to the eye seems no bigger than the rowel of a Spurr Do they foreknow the Positions and Combinations of the Planets and the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon many years before they suffer them And if they cannot perform these acts of reason as it is sure they cannot how much less can they know fear love or delight in God and long for the enjoyment of him These things do plainly evince humane Souls to be of another species and therefore of an higher Original than the souls of Brutes If all have one common nature and Original why are they not all capable of performing the same rational and Religious Acts Object 2. But though it should be granted that the Soul of the first Man was by immediate Creation and Inspiration from God yet it follows not that the souls of all his posterity must be so too God might create him with a power of begeting other souls after his own Image The first tree was created with its seed in it self to propagate its kind and so might the first Man Sol. 1. Trees Animals and such like were not created immediately out of nothing as the Soul of Man was but the Earth was the praeexistent matter out of which they

there are of the rude and ignorant multitude who are bred themselves much like the Beasts they daily converse withal and so they are fitly described Iob 30.6 7. Go into their houses and you may sooner find in the window or upon the shelf a Pack of Cards than a Bible or Catechise their Beds and Tables differ little or not at all from the Stalls and Cribs where beasts lye down and feed in respect of any worship of God among them or if for fashion sake a few words be hudled over in the evening when their bodies are tired the man saith something he scarce knows what the wife is asleep in one corner the children in another and the servants in a third This is the Education multitudes of Parents give their Children all the week and when the Sabbath comes the most they learn to know at Church is where their own seat stands and that it is necessary to speak with such a Neighbour after Prayers about such or such a bargain or business for the next week And others there are who breed their Children as prophanely as these do sottishly teaching them by their Examples the newest Oaths that were last minted in Hell and to revile and scoff all serious Godliness and the sincere Professors of it smiling to hear with what an Emphasis they can talk in the Dialect of Devils and how wittily they can droll upon godly Ministers and Christians Such Families are Nurseries for Hell and though God by an extraordinary hand of Providence now and then snatch a Soul by conversion from among them as a brand out of the fire yet generally they die as they live going to the generation of their Fathers where they shall never see light Psal. 49.19 I know Education and Regeneration are two things but I also know one is frequently made the instrument of working the other Quo semel est imbuta recens c. and that the savour of what first seasons our youth generally abides to old age Prov. 22.6 We may observe all the World over how tenacious men are of that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered to them by their Parents O what a cut must it be to the heart of that Father whose Sons life shall tell his Conscience what a profane Sons lips once told his Father to his face Si malè seci à te didici If I have done evil I have learnt it of you Had they felt more of your prudent correction it might have prevented their destruction Prov. 23.14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell That this is a common beaten path to Hell is beyond all question but how to bar it up and stop the multitudes that are engaged in it to their own ruine this is the labour this the work I cannot be large but I will offer a few weighty Considerations The first way to Hell barr'd 1. Let all Parents consider what a fearful thing it is to be the instruments of ruining for ever those that received their Beings instrumentally from them and to seek whose good they stand obliged by all the Laws of God and Nature In vain are all your cares and studies for their bodies whilst their Souls perish for want of knowledge You rejoyced at their birth but they will have cause to curse the day they were born of you and say Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which I was conceived You were solicitous for their bodies but careless of their Souls earnest to see them rich but indifferent whether they were gracious You neglected to teach them the way of Salvation but the Devil did not neglect to teach them the way of sin You will one day wish you had never been Parents when the dol●ful cries of your damned Children shall ring such Notes as these in your Ears O cursed Father O cruel merciless Mother whose examples have drawn me after you into all this misery You had time enough and motives enough to have warned me of this place and misery whilst my heart was tender and my affections pliable Had it not been as easie to have put a Bible as a Play-book before me To have chastised me when I provoked God by sin as when I provoked you about a trifle One word spoken in season might have saved my Soul one reproof wisely given and set on by your example might have preserved me Had it not been the same pains to have asked me Child what wilt thou do to be saved as what wilt thou do to live in the world Or had I but observed any serious Religion in you had I but found or heard my Father or Mother upon their knees in prayer it might have awakened me to a consideration of my condition in my youth I was shame fac'd fearful credulous and apt to imitate had you had but wisdom as other Parents have to have taken hold of any of these handles in time you had rescued my Soul from Hell Nay so cruel have you been to your own Child that you allowed me no time if I had had a disposition for any exercise of Religion yea you have quenched and stifled the sparks of convictions and better inclinations that sometimes were in my heart O happy had it been if I had never been born of you or seen your faces This must be the result and issue of your negligence except God by some other hand which is no thanks to you rescue them from their impending ruine 〈…〉 ldren whose unhappy Lot it is to be born of 〈…〉 carnal and irreligious Parents consider God hath endued them with a Reason and Conscience of their own to enable them to make a better choice than their Parents did and that there is no taking Sanctuary from the wrath of Go● in their Parents examples We read in 1 Kings 14.13 of a good Abijah in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Ieroboam Here was a Child that would not follow his wicked Father to Hell though he had both the authority of a Father and of a King over him Amandus genitor sed praeponendus Creator You must honour your Parents but still you must prefer your God before them God will never lay it to your account as your sin but place it to the account of your duty and comfort that you refused to follow them in paths of sin and destruction No Law of God no tye of Nature binds you to obey their commands or tread in their steps farther than they command in Gods Authority and Name and walk in his ways Your temptations indeed are strong and disadvantages great but the greater will the mercy of your deliverance be It will be no Plea for you at the Judgment-seat to say Lord my Father or Mother did so and so before me and I thought I might safely follow them or thus and thus they commanded me and I thought I

its nature as all material and compounded Beings have It hath nothing within it tending to dissolution No jarring Elements no contrary qualities are found in Spirits as there are in other Creatures of a mixed nature Physicians and Philosophers have disputed and contended eagerly about the true causes of natural Death * Litigamus de via interim ad termiminum rapimar and whilst they have been contending about the way they have come to the end The ingress of the Soul is obscure and its egress not clear But this seems to be the thing in which they generally centre that the expence and destruction of the † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de lo●g brev vit Dum flammat micat calidum nativum corporis nostri in humido primigenio ej●s humidi substantia consumitur non ●liter quà● in lampade o●tum à flamma exhauritur Heurnius Aphor 1. Tam diu durat vigor vitae quam diu stat calidum nativum donec ad morte● fuerit deventum Et quantum à calido humido receditur tantus ad mortem fit acc●ssus J. Bapt. Montanus Ortus nostri primordia caloris humoris nativi habent summum complementum c. Fernelius liber de spir cal natural moisture or radical balsam as others call it which is as the Oyl that maintains natural heat or the Bridle that restrains that flame of life from departing as others express it this is the cause of natural Death Others * Vergente aetate inaequalis adm●dum sit reparatio aliae partes reparantur satis faeliciter sed aliae aegrè in pejus u● ab eo tempore corpora humana subiri incipiunt tormentum illud McZen●ii ut viva in am●lexu mo●t●orum immoriantur Verulam in adita Hist. vitae mortis assign the unequal reparation of the parts of the body as the cause of death But be it one or other 't is evident the Soul which consists neither of contrariant qualities nor of dissimilar parts must be above the reach and stroke of Death For if the Soul dye it must be either from some seeds and principles of Death and Corruption within it self or by some destructive power without it self In it self you see there is no seed or principle of death and if it be destroyed by a power without it self it must be either by the stroke of some Creature or from the hand of God that first formed and created it But the hand and power of no Creature can destroy it creature power reaches no farther than the body Matth. 10.28 they cannot kill the Soul And though the Almighty power of God that created it out of nothing can as easily reduce it to nothing yet he will never do so For besides the Designation for Eternity which is discernible in its very nature as before was observed and which speaks the intention of God to perpetuate it the threatnings of Eternal Wrath and promises of everlasting life respectively made to the souls of Men as they shall be found in Christ or out of Christ puts it beyond all doubt that they shall never dye as will be more fully evidenced in the following Discourse Well then I hope so far our way is clear in the search of the nature of the Soul that it is a Substance a Spiritual Substance and being so it is also an immortal Substance No doubt remains with me as to either of these Let us then proceed to the consideration of its faculties and powers by which it may be yet more fully known and we shall find that V. It is a vital 5 Endued with Understanding spiritual and immortal Substance endued with an understanding This is the noble leading faculty of the Soul we are not distinguished from Brutes by our senses but by our understanding As grace sets one man above another so understanding sets the meanest man above the best of Brutes Strange and wonderful things are performed by the natural instinct and sagacity of Beasts but yet what is said of one is true of them all God hath not imparted understanding to them Job 39.17 This is a Jewel which adorns none but rational Creatures Men and Angels It is a Faculty of the reasonable Soul What the Understanding is by which a man apprehends and judgeth all intelligible things The Object of it is every Being so far as it is true in it self and apprehensible by Man It hath a twofold use in the life of man viz. 1. To Distinguish truth from errour and falshood by this candle of the Lord lighted up in the Soul of man he may discern betwixt duty and sin good and evil 't is the eye of the Soul by which it seeth the way in which we should go and the dangerous precipices that are on either side It is the souls Taster and discerns wholesome food from baneful poyson Iob 12 11. D●th not the 〈◊〉 i.e. the understanding by the ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat It brings all things as it were in the lump before it and then sorts them and orderly ranks them into their proper Classes of lawful and unlawful necessary and indifferent expedient and inexpedient that the Soul may not be damnified by mistaking one for another And this judgement of Discretion every man must be allowed for himself No man is obliged to shut the eyes of his own Understanding and follow another man blindfold 2. To direct and guide us in our practice This faculty is by Philosophers rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading faculty because the will follows its practical dictates It sits at helm and guides the course of the Soul Not impelling or rigorously inforcing its dictates upon the will for the Will cannot be so imposed upon but by giving it a directive light or pointing as it were with its finger at what it ought to chuse and what to refuse To this Faculty belong two other excellent and wonderful powers of the Soul viz. 1. Thoughts 2. Conscience * What a Thought is 1. The power or ability of Cogitation Thoughts are properly the actings and agitations of the mind or any actual operation of the understanding They are the musings of the mind which are acted in the speculative part of the understanding It is observable that the ●●●ro●a cogitatio est mentis agitatio Pa●or vel actio mentis zanch. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum puncto sinistro locutus est o●e aut corde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est sermocinari intra se i. e. apud se in a●imis suis. Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suach which is used for meditation or thinking signifies both to think and to speak in the mind When the understanding or mind revolves and meditates the things that come into it that very Meditation is an inward speaking or a hidden word in the heart Deut. 15.9 Beware lest there be a thought in thy wicked heart as some render it In the

Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word in thy heart so Matth. 9.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they spake within themselves i. e. they thought in their hearts Matth. 21.25 The Objects presented to the mind are the Companions with whom our hearts talk and converse Thoughts are the figments and Creatures of the mind They are formed within it in 〈◊〉 innumerable The power of cogitation is in the mind yea in the spirit of the mind * Phantasia m●nti offert phantasmata Picol The fancy indeed whilst the Soul is embodied ordinarily and for the most part presents the appearances and likenesses of things to the mind but yet it can form thoughts of things which the fancy can present no Image of as when † When we think of God saith ●●rx Tyr. Diss. 1. we must think of nothing material 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul thinks of God or of itself This power of cogitation goes with the Soul and is rooted in it when it is separated from the body and by it we speak to God and converse with Angels and other spirits in the unbodied State as will be more fully opened in the process of this Discourse 2. The Conscience belongs also to this faculty What Conscience is for it being the judgement of a man upon himself with respect or relation to the judgment of God it must needs belong to the understanding part or faculty Thoughts are formed in the speculative but Conscience belongs to the practical understanding Iudicium appello conscientiam ut ad intellect●m eam 〈◊〉 oste●●am Ames It is a very high and awful power it is solo Deo minor and rides as Ioseph did in the second Chariot The next and immediate Officer under God He saith of Conscience with respect to every man as he once said of Moses with respect to Pharaoh See I have made 〈◊〉 a God to Pharoah Exod. 7.1 The voice of Conscience is the voice of God for it is his Vicegerent and Representative What it binds on earth is bound in heaven and what it looseth on earth is loosed in heaven It observes records and bears witness to all our actions and acquits or condemns as in the name of God for them Its Consolations are most sweet and its Condemnations most terrible so terrible that some have chosen death which is the King of terrours rather than to endure the scorching heat of their own Consciences The greatest Deference and Obedience is due to its Commands And a man had better * Quas nos oportet mortes praeeligere quod non supplicium potius ferre immo i● quam profundam infe●ni Abyssum ●o● intra●e quàm co●tra conscientiam atte●tari Zuing● indure any rack or torture in the world than incur the torments of it It accompanies us as our shadow whereever we go and when all others forsake us as at death they will Conscience is then with us and is never more active and vigorous than at that time Nor doth it forsake us after death but where the Soul goes it goes and will be its Companion in the other world for ever How glad would the Damned be if they might but have left their Consciences behind them when they went hence but as Bernard rightly * Ipsa judicat ipsa imperat ipsa observat ipsa judicat ipsa to●to● ipsa carcer Bern. lib. de Conse cap. 9. It is both Witness Judge Tormentor and Prison it accuseth judgeth punisheth and condemneth And thus briefly of the understanding which hath many Offices and as many names from those Offices It is sometimes called Wit Reason Vnderstanding Opinion Iudgment And why we bestow so many names upon one and the same faculty the learned Author of that small but excellent † Nosce Teipsum p. 48 49. Tract de Anima gives us this true and ingenious account THe Wit the Pupil of the Souls clear eye And in mans world the only shining Star Looks in the Mirroir of the Phantasie Where all the gatherings of the Senses are And after by discoursing to and fro Anticipating and Comparing things She doth all universal natures know And all Effects into their Causes brings When she rates things and moves from ground to ground The name of Reason she obtains by this But when by reason she the truth hath found And standeth fixt she Understanding is When her Assent she lightly doth incline To either part she is Opinion light But when she doth by principles define A Certain truth she hath true Judgements fight And as from Senses Reasons work doth spring So many Reasons Vnderstanding gain And many Vnderstandings Knowledge bring And by much Knowledge Wisdom we obtain VI. 6 Endued with a Will What the Will is God hath endued the Soul of man not only with an Vnderstanding to discern and direct but also with a Will to govern moderate and over-rule the actions of Life The Will is a faculty of the rational Soul whereby a man either chuseth or refuseth the things which the understanding discerns and knows This is a very high and noble power of the Soul The understanding seems to bear the same relation to the Will as a grave Counsellour doth to a great Prince It glories in two excellencies viz 1. Liberty 2. Dominion 1. It hath Freedom and Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno. it cannot be compelled and forced Coaction is repugnant to its very nature In this it differs from the understanding that the understanding is wrought upon necessarily but the will acts spontaneously This Liberty of the Will respects the choice or refusal of the means for attaining those ends it prosecutes according as it finds them more or less conducible thereunto The Liberty of the Will must be understood to be in things natural which are within its own proper sphere not in things supernatural It can move or not move the Body as it pleases but it cannot move towards Christ in the way of faith as it pleaseth it can open or shut the hand or eye at its pleasure but not the heart True indeed it is not compelled or forced to turn to God by supernatural grace but in a way sutable to its nature it is determined and drawn to Christ Psal. 1.10.3 It is drawn by a mighty power and yet runs freely Cant. 1.4 Draw me we will run after thee Efficacious grace and victorious Delight is a thing very different from compulsive force Pelagiu● as a late * Dr. Manton in Psal. 119. v. 36. Author speaks at first gave all to nature acknowledged no necessity of divine grace but when this proud Doctrine found little countenance he called nature by the name of grace And when that deceit was discovered he acknowledged no other grace but outward instruction or the benefit of external revelation to discourse and put men in mind of their duty Being yet driven farther he acknowledged the grace of Pardon and before a man could do any thing

were produced by the word of Gods blessing and power but mans Soul was immediately breathed into him by God and had no praeexistent matter at all And besides all humane souls being of one species have therefore one and the same Original The Soul of the poorest child is of equal Dignity with the Soul of Adam And if we consult Iob 33.4 we shall find Elihu giving us there the same account and almost in the same words of the Original of his Soul that Moses in my Text gives us of the Original of Adams Soul The Spirit of God hath formed me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life But it is evident Sol. 2. souls spring not from the Parent as one Plant or Animal doth from another For they have their seed in themselves apt and proper to produce their kind but the seed of souls is not to be found in man It is not to be found in his Body for then as was said before a spiritual and nobler Essence must be produced out of a material and baser matter i.e. the matter must give to the Soul that which it hath not in it self Nor is it to be found in his Soul for the Soul being a pure simple and indivisible Being can suffer nothing to be discinded from it towards the production of another Soul A spirit as the Soul is is Substantia simplex impartibilis an uncompounded and indiscerpible or impartible Being Nor can it spring partly from the Body and partly from the Soul as from con-causes for then it should be partly corporeal and partly incorporeal as its causes are So that there is no Matter Seed or principle of Souls found in man and to be sure as Baronius strongly argues * Pate● neque producit animam filii ex aliqua re prae●●ilente neque producit eam ex nulla 〈◊〉 praeexistente h●c enim●est creare e●go nullo modo eam producit Baronius dissert secunda de Origine Animae p. 120. he cannot produce a Soul without praeexistent matter for that were to make him Omnipotent and assign a creating power to a creature Besides that which is generable is also corruptible as we see Trees Animals c. which are produced that way to be but the Soul is not corruptible as hath in part been already proved and will more fully in the following Discourse So that Adam's Soul and the Souls of his posterity spring not from each other but all from God by Creation If the Soul be created and infused immediately by God Object 3. either it comes out of his hands pure or impure if pure how comes it to be defiled and tainted with sin If impure how do we free God from being the Author of sin If the question be Sol whether souls be pure or impure as soon as they are united with their bodies the answer is They are impure and tainted as soon as united For the union constitutes a child of Adam and consequently a sinful impure creature But if it respect the condition and state in which God created them I answer with Baronius † Ani●●●●strae à Deo creante 〈◊〉 a●cipiunt puritatem s●u justitiam neque imparitatem propensionem ad malum Se● tant●m essentiam spiritualem proprie●ates ab essentia diman●●tes Baron exerci● p. 103. They are created neither morally pure nor impure they receive neither purity nor impurity from him but only their naked essence and the natural powers and properties flowing therefrom He inspires not any impurity into them for he cannot be the Author of Sin who is the Revenger of it Nor doth he create them in their original purity and rectitude for the sin of Adam lost that and God justly withholds it from his posterity Who wonders saith one Ienkins on Jude Vol. 1. p. 559. to see the Children the Palaces and Gardens of Traitors to droop and decay and the Arms of his House and badge of his nobility to be defaced and reversed That which is abused by man to the dishonour of God may justly be destroyed I add in this case or withheld by God to the detriment of man Adam voluntarily and actually deprived himself and meritoriously deprived all his posterity of that original righteousness and purity in which he was created As an holy God he cannot inspire any impurity and as a just and righteous God he may and doth withhold or create them void and destitute of that holiness and righteousness which was once their Happiness and Glory Object 4. But how come they then to be defiled and tainted with original sin It 's confessed God did not impure them and the body cannot for it being matter cannot act upon a spirit yea of it self it 's a dead lump and cannot act at all Sol. What if this be one of those mysteries reserved for the world to come about which we cannot in this state solve every difficulty that may be moved Must we therefore deny its divine original What if I cannot understand some mysteries ●an sin●e the 〈◊〉 bein● 〈…〉 understands no● him●e●● nor will 〈…〉 restored to himself in glory 〈…〉 p. 33● or answer some questions about the Hypostatical union of the two natures in the wonderful Person of our Emmanuel must I therefore question whether he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-Man We must remain ignorant of some things about our own souls till we come into the condition of the spirits of just men made perfect Mean time I think it much more our concernment to study how we may get sin out of our souls than to puzzle our brains to find how it came into them But that the Objector may not take this for an handsome slide or go-by to this great Objection I return to it in a few particulars 1. That I think not original sin follows either part singly The Soul say some in the moment of 〈◊〉 creation and infusion by God being united with the Body by the plastick and formative vertue of the parental seed the Parent may be truly said to generate the man though he do not produce the form Because proper generation consists in the union and not the production of parts So that Original sin is not propagated from Body to Body no● yet from Soul to Soul but from man to man it comes in neither by the Soul alone nor by the body alone a part from the Soul but upon the union and conjunction of both in one person 'T is the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam and as such only we are capable of being infected with his sin 2. And whereas it is so confidently asserted in the Objection That sin cannot come into the Soul by or from the body because it being matter cannot act upon a Spirit I say this is gratis dictum easily spoken but difficultly proved Cannot the Body act upon or influence the Soul Pray then how comes it to pass that so

first Seal opened Ver. 2. gives the Church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the Victories Successes and Triumphs of Christ notwithstanding the Rage Subtilty and power of all its Enemies He shall ride on Conquering and to Conquer and his Arrows shall be sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies whereby the People shall fall under him And this chearing Prospect was no more than was needful For Seal 2. The second Seal opened ver 3. and 4. represents the first bloudy Persecution of the Church under Nero whom Tertullian calls Dedicator damnationis nostrae Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. He that first condemned Christians to the Slaughter And the Persecution under him is set forth by the Type of a red Horse and a great Sword in the hand of him that rode thereon His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a Lion 2 Tim. 4.17 Paul Peter Bartholomew Barnabas Mark are all said to dye by his cruel hand and so fierce was his rage against the Christians that at that time as Eusebius saith * Adeo ut videret repletas humanis corporibus civitates jacentes mortuos simul cum parvulis senes foeminarumque absque ulla sexûs reverentia in publico rejesta Cadavera a man might then see Cities lie full of dead Bodies the old and young Men and Women cast out naked without any reverence of Persons or Sex in the open street Tacit. lib. 15. Annal. And when the day failed Christians saith Tacitus were burnt in the night instead of Torches to give them light in the Streets Seal 3. The third Seal opened v. 5.6 sets forth the calamities which should befal the Church by Famine Yet not so much a literal as a figurative Famine as a grave and learned Commentator * Durham in Loc. expounds it like that mentioned Amos 8.11 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan The former directing the Persecution especially against Ministers in which many bright Lamps were extinguished The latter expresly condemned all Christian Meetings and Assemblies by a Law The Type by which this Persecution was set forth is a black Horse A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor Saints when they eat the bread of their Souls as it were by weight for he that sate on him had a pair of ballances in his hand Then did Iohn hear this sad voice A measure of wheat for a Penny and three measures of Barley for a penny That quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man a live for a day And a Roman Penny was the ordinary wages given for a days work to a labourer The meaning is that in those days all the Spiritual food men should get to keep their Souls alive from day to day with all their travel and labour should be but sufficient for that end The fourth Seal opened Seal 4. ver 7.8 represents a much more sad and doleful state of the Church for under it are found all the former sufferings with some new kinds of trouble superadded Under this Seal death rides upon the pale Horse and Hell or the Grave follows him 'T is conceived to point at the presecution under Dioclesian when the Church was mowed down as a Meadow The fifth Seal is opened in my Text Seal 5. under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant Iohn the state and condition of those precious Souls which had been torn and separated from their Bodies by the bloudy hands of Tyrants for his name sake under all the former persecutions The design whereof is to support and encourage all that were to come after in the same bloudy path I saw under the Altar c. in which we have an account I. Of what Iohn saw II. Of what he heard I. First we have an account of what he saw I saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Souls in this place are not put for the Bloud or the dead Carcasses of the Saints who were slain as some have groundlessly imagined but are to be understood properly and strictly for those Spiritual and immortal substances which once had a vital Union with their Bodies but were now separated from them by a violent death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima proimmortali Spirit● hominis capitu● sicuti Matt. 10.28 ho● sensu dicit hîc Iohannes se vidisse animas c. Marlorat in loc yet still retained a love and inclination to them even in the state of Separation and are therefore here brought in complaining of their shedding of their blood and destruction of their Bodies These Souls even of all that dyed for Christ from Abel to that time Iohn saw that is in Spirit for these immaterial substances are not perceptible by the gross external senses Anim● Co●●oribus exutae invisibile● sunt occulis corpo●●is vidit ergo ●as Iohannes Spiritu Paraus in loc He had the priviledge and favour of a Spiritual representation of them being therein extraordinarily assisted as Paul was when his Soul was rapt into the third Heaven and heard things unutterable 2 Cor. 12.2 God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy Souls and that under the Altar he means not any material Altar as that at Ierusalem was but as the holy place figured Heaven so the Altar figured Jesus Christ Heb. 13.10 And most aptly Christ is represented to Iohn in this figure and Souls of the Martyrs at the foot or basis of this Altar thereby to inform us 1 that however men look upon the death of those persons and though they kill their names by slanders as well as their persons by the Sword yet in Gods account they dye as Sacrifices and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God which he highly prizeth and graciously accepteth Suitable whereunto Pauls expression is Philip. 2.17 2 That the value and acceptation their death and blood shed hath with God is through Christ and upon his account for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the gift Matth. 23.19 and 3. it informs us that these holy Souls now in a state of Separation from their Bodies were very near to Iesus Christ in Heaven They lay as it were at his foot Once more They are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this World and that was For the word of God and for the Testimony which they held i. e. They dyed in defence of the Truths or will of God revealed in his word against the Corruptions Oppositions and Innovations of Men. As one of the Martyrs that held up the Bible at the Stake saying This is it that hath brought me hither They dyed not as Malefactors but as Witnesses They gave a threefold Testimony to the truth a lip Testimony a life Testimony and a blood Testimony whilst the Hypocrite gives but one and many Christians but two Thus we have an account of what

comes down with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far far better But here falls in * Mr. How in Mrs. Margaret Baxter's Funeral Sermon as an Excellent Person observes a Rubb in the way there are in this case two Judges the Flesh and Spirit and they cannot agree upon the values but contradict each other Nature saith It 's far far better to live than to die and will not be beaten off from it What then I hope you will not put blind and partial nature in competition with God also as you do life with death but seeing Nature can plead so powerfully as well as Grace let us hear what those strong reasons are that are urged by the flesh on lifes side and what the Soul hath to reply and plead on deaths side for the Body can plead and that charmingly too though not by words and sounds and then determine the matter as we shall see cause but be sure prejudice pull not down the Balance I. The Pleas of Nature for life and against dissolution And here the doleful voice of Nature laments pleads and bemoans it self to the willing Soul O my Soul What dost thou mean by these thy desires to be dissolved Art thou in earnest when thou saist thou art willing to leave thine own Body and be gone Consider and think again ere thou bid me farewel what thou art to me and what I have been and am to thee thou art my Soul that is my Prop my Beauty my Honour my Life and indeed all that is comfortable to me If thou depart what am I but a Spectacle of Pity an abhorred Carcass in a few moments A prey to the Worms a Captive to Death If thou depart my Candle is put out and I am left in the horrours of darkness I am thy House thy delightful habitation the House in which thou hast dwelt from the first moment of thy Creation and never lodgedst one Night in any other every Room in me hath one way or another been a Banquetting-room for thy entertainment a Room of pleasure all my Senses have been Purveyors for thy delight my Members have all of them been thine Instruments and Servants to execute thy Commands and Pleasure if thou and I part it must be in a showre thou shalt feel such pains such travelling throes such deep emphatical groans such Sweats such Agonies as thou never felt'st before For Death hath somewhat of anguish peculiar to it self and which is unknown though guessed at by the Living Beside when ever thou leavest me thou leavest all that is and hath been comfortable to thee in this World thy House shall know thee no more Iob 7.10 thy Lands thy Money thy Trade which hath cost thee so many careful thoughts and yielded thee so many Refreshments shall be thine no longer Death will strip thee out of all these and leave thee naked Thou hast also since thou becamest mine contracted manifold Relations in the World which I know are dear unto thee I know it by costly experience How hast thou made me to wear and wast my self in Labours Cares and Watchings for them But if thou wilt be gone all these must be left exposed God knows to what Wants Abuses and Miseries for I can do nothing for them or my self if once thou leave me Thus it charms and pleads thus it layeth as it were violent hands upon the Soul and saith O my Soul thou shalt not depart It hangs about it much as the Wife and Children of good Galeacius Carracciolus did about him when he was leaving Italy to go to Geneva a lively Emblem of the Case before us It saith to the Soul as Ioab did to David thou hast shamed my face this day in that thou lovest thine Enemy Death and hatest me thy friend O my Soul my Life my Darling my Dear and only one let nothing but unavoidable necessity part thee and me All this the Flesh can plead and a great deal more than this and that a thousand times more powerfully and feelingly than any words can plead the case And all its Arguments are backt by sense Sight and Feeling attest what Nature speaks II. The Pleas of Faith in behalf of Death Let us in the next place weigh the Pleas and Reasons which notwithstanding all this do overpower and prevail with the Believing Soul to be gone and quit its own Body and return no more to the Elementary World And thus the power of Faith and Love enable it to reply My dear Body the Companion and Partner of my Comforts and Troubles in the days of my Pilgrimage on earth great is my love and strong are the Bonds of my affections to thee Thou hast been tenderly yea excessively beloved by me my cares and fears for thee have been unexpressible and nothing but the love of Jesus Christ is strong enough to gain my consent to part with thee thy interest in my affections is great but as great as it is and as much as I prize thee I can shake thee off and thrust thee aside to go to Christ. Nor may this seem absurd or unreasonable considering that God never designed thee for a Mansion but only a temporary Tabernacle to me 't is true I have had some comfort during my abode in thee but I enjoyed those Comforts only in thee not from thee and many more I might have enjoyed hadst thou not been a snare and a clog to me 'T is thou that hast eaten up my time and distracted my thoughts ensnared my affections and drawn me under much sin and sorrow However though we may weep over each other as Accessories to the sins and miseries we have drawn upon our selves yet in this is our joint relief that the Blood of Christ hath cleansed us both from all sin And therefore I can part the more easily and comfortably from thee because I part in hope to receive and enjoy thee in a far better condition than I leave thee It is for both our interest to part for a time for mine because I shall thereby be freed and delivered from sin and sorrow and immediately obtain rest with God and the satisfaction of all my desires in his presence and enjoyment which there is no other way to obtain but by separation from thee and why should I live a groaning burthened restless life always to grantifie thy fond and irrational desires If thou lovedst me thou would'st rejoice and not repine at my happiness Parents willingly part with their Children at the greatest distance for their preferment how dearly soever they love them and dost thou envy or repine at mine I lived many Months a suffocating obscure life with thee in the Womb and neither thou nor I had ever tasted or experienced the Comforts of this World and the various Delights of sense if we had not cast the Secundine and strugled hard for an entrance into this World And now we are here alas though thou art contented to abide I live in thee but as we

Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my Friends for the Hand of God hath touched me and not melt into Compassions over them Is there a word of Wisdom in thy heart let thy Tongue apply it to the relief of thy distressed Brother whilst his heart meditates terrour let thine meditate his succour It is not impossible but thou who lendest a friendly hand to another maist ere long need one thy self and he that hath ever felt the terrours of the Almighty upon his Soul hath motive enough to draw forth the Bowels of his pity to another in the like case Alas for poor distressed Souls who have either none about them that understand and are able and willing to speak a word in season to their weary Souls or too many about them to exasperate their sorrows and persecute them whom God hath smitten You that have both ability and opportunity for it are under the strongest engagements in the World to endeavour their relief with all faithfulness seriousness compassion and constancy Did Christ shed his Blood for the saving of Souls and wilt not thou spend thy breath for them Shall any man that hath found mercy from God shew none to his Brother God forbid A Soul in Hell is out of your reach but these that are in the Suburbs of Hell are not the Candle of intense sorrow is put to the thread of their miserable life and should they be suffered to drop into Hell whilst you stand by as unconcern'd Spectators of such a Tragedy will have little peace Your unmercifulness to their Souls will be a wound to your own Inference VII BE hence inform'd of the evil that is in sin be convinced of the evil that is in it by the eternal misery that follows it If Hell be out of measure dreadful then sin must be out of measure sinful the torments of Hell do not exceed the demerit of sin though they exceed the understandings of men to conceive them God will lay upon no man more than is right sin is the Founder of Hell all the miseries and torments there are but the Treasures of wrath which sinners in all Ages have been treasuring up and how dreadful soever it be it is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the recompence which is meet Rom. 6. ult The Wages of sin is death We have slight thoughts of sin Fools make a mock of sin but if the Lord by the convictions of mens Consciences did but lead them through the Chambers of death and give them a sight of the wrath to come could we but see the Piles that are made in Hell as the Prophet calls them Isaiah 30.33 to maintain the flames of Vengeance to eternity could we but understand in what Dialect the damned speak of sin who see the treasures of wrath broken up to avenge it surely it would alter our apprehensions of sin and strike cold to the very hearts of sinners Cannot the extremity and eternity of Hell Torments exceed the evil that is in sin What words then can express the evil of it Hell flames have the Nature of a punishment but not of an atonement O think on this you that look upon sin as the veriest trifle that will sin for the value of a Penny that look upon all the humiliations broken hearted confessions and bitter moans of the Saints under sin as Frenzy or Melancholy slighting them as a Company of half-witted Hypochondriack persons You that never had one sick night or sad day in all your lives upon the account of sin let me tell thee that breast of thine must be the seat of sorrow that frothy airy Spirit of thine must be acquainted with emphatical sobs and groans God grant it may be on this side Hell by effectual repentance else it must be there in the extremity and eternity of sorrows Inference VIII WHat enemies are they to the Souls of men who are Satans instruments to draw them into sin or who suffer sin to lie upon them When there were but two persons in the World one drew the other into sin and among the Millions of Men and Women now in the World where are there two to be found that have in no case been snares to draw some into sin Some tempt designedly taking the Devils work out of his hands others virtually and consequentially by examples which have a compelling power to draw others with them into sin the first sort are among the worst of Sinners Prov. 1.10 the latter are among the best of Saints see Gal. 2.14 Whose Conversation is so much in Heaven that nothing falls out in the course thereof which may not farther some or other in their way to Hell Among wicked men there are five sorts eminently accessary to the guilt and ruine of other mens Souls 1 Loose Professors whose lives give their lips the Lie whose Conversations make their Professions blush 2 Scandalous Apostates whose fall is more prejudicial than their Profession was ever beneficial to others 3 Cruel Persecutors who make the Lives Liberties and Estates of men the occasion of the ruine of their Consciences 4 Ignorant and unfaithful Ministers who strengthen the hands of the wicked that they should not return from their wickedness 5 Wicked Relations who quench and damp every hopeful beginning of conviction and affection in their friends of all which I shall distinctly speak in the next Discourse to which therefore I remit it at present And many there are who suffer sin to lie upon others without a wise and seasonable reproof to recover them O what cruelty to Souls is here The day is coming when they will curse the time that ever they knew you 't is possible you may repent but then it may be those whose Souls you have help'd to ruine are gone and quite out of your reach The Lord make you sensible what you have done in season lest your repentance come too late for your selves and them also Inference IX HOw poor a comfort is it to him that carries all his sins out of this World with him to leave much earthly treasure especially if gotten by sin behind him It is a poor consolation to be praised where thou art not Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest Tertul. and tormented where thou art to purchase a life of pleasure to others on earth at the price of thine own everlasting misery in Hell All the consolation sensual voluptuous and oppressing Wordlings have is but this that they were coached to Hell in pomp and state and have left the same Chariot to bring their graceless Children after them in the same Equipage to the place of Torments There be five Considerations provoking pity to them that are thus past into a miserable eternity and Caution to all that are following after in the same path First That fatal mistake in the practical understanding and judgment of man deserves a compassionate lamentation as the cause and reason of their eternal miscarriage and ruine

as Grace doth Cheat not your selves therefore in so important a concern as Salvation is with an empty shadow 3. Civility is not only found in multitudes that are out of Christ but may be the cause and reason why they are Christless Mistake not I am not pleading the Cause of Prophaneness nor disputing Civility out of the world I heartily wish there were more of it to be found in every place it would exceedingly promote the peace order and tranquility of the world but yet it is certain that the eyes of thousands are so dazled with the lustre of their own Morality that they see no need of Christ nor feel any want of his Righteousness and this is the ruine of their Souls Thus Christ brings in the Pharisee with his proud boast that he is no Extortioner Adulterer nor unjust or such an one as that Publican Luke 18.11 O what a Saint doth he vote himself when he compared his life with the others Well then beware you be not deceived by thinking you are safe because you are got out of the dirty road to Hell when all the while you are only stept over the hedge into a cleaner path to damnation You have had a short account of some few of those many ways in which the precious Souls of men are eternally lost let us briefly apply it in the following Inferences Inference I. IF there be so many ways of losing the Soul and such multitudes of Souls lost in every one of them then the number of saved Souls must needs be exceeding small The number of the saved may be considered either absolutely or comparatively In the first consideration they appear great and many even a great multitude which no man can number Rev. 7.9 but if compared with those that are lost they make but a small remnant Isa. 1.9 a little flock Matt. 12.32 For when we consider how vastly the Kingdom of Satan is extended who is called the God of this World from the world of people who are in subjection to him how small a part of this earthly Globe is enlightned with the beams of Gospel-light and that Satan is the acknowledged Ruler of all the rest Eph. 6.12 But when it shall be farther considered that out of this spot on which the light of the Gospel is risen the far greatest part are lost also O what a poor handful remains to Jesus Christ as the Purchace of his Blood 'T is of trembling consideration how many thousands of Families amongst us are meer Nurseries for Hell Parents bringing forth and breeding up Children for the Devil not one word of God except it be in the way of blasphemy or prophaneness to be heard among them How naturally their ignorant and wicked Education puts them in the course and tide of the world which carries them away irresistibly to Hell How one sinner confirms and animates another in the same sinful course till they be all past hope or remedy How the rich are taken with the baits of sensual pleasures and the poor lost in the brake of distracting worldly cares except here and there a Soul pluckt out of the snare of the Devil by the wonderful power and arm of God On the one side you may see multitudes drowned in open prophaneness and debauchery and on the other side many thousands securely sleeping in the state of Civility and Morality Some key-cold and without the least sense of Religion others Hell-hot with blind zeal and superstitious madness against true Godliness and the sincere Practitioners of it Some living all their days under the Ordinances of God and never touched with any conviction of their sin or misery others convinced and making some faint offers at Religion but their convictions like blossoms nipt with a frosty morning fall off and no fruit follows And as Rubies Saphires and Diamonds are very few in comparison of the Pebbles and common stones of the Earth so are true Christians in comparison of multitudes that perish in the snares of Satan Inference II. HOW little reason have the Vnregenerate to glory and boast themselves in their earthly acquisitions and successes whilst mean time their Souls are lost they have gotten other things but lost their Souls 'T is strange to see how some men by rolling a small Fortune up and down the World as Boys do a Snow-ball have increased the heap and raised a great Estate they have attained their design and aim in the world and hug themselves in the pleased thoughts of their happiness but alas among all the thoughts of their gains there is not one thought of what they have lost O if such a thought as this could find room in their hearts I have indeed gotten an Estate but I have lost my Soul I have much of the world but nothing of Christ Gold and Silver I have but Grace peace and pardon I have not my body is well provided for but my Soul is naked empty and destitute such a thought like the Sentence written on the wall would make their hearts quail within them What a rapture and transport of joy did the sight of a full Barn cast that Worldling into Luke 12.19 20. Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry little dreaming that death was just then at the door to take away the cloth guest and all together that the next hour his Friends would be scrambling for his Estate the Worms for his body and the Devils for his Soul O how many have not only lost their Souls whilst they have been drudging for the world but have sold their Souls to purchase a little of the world parted by consent with their best treasure for a very trifle and yet think they have a great bargain of it Surely if poor sinners did but apprehend what they have lost as well as what they have gained their gains would yield them as little comfort as Iudas his money did for which he sold both his Soul and Saviour Instead of those pleasing Frolicks of wanton Worldlings what a cold shiver would run through all their bones and bowels did they but understand what it is to lose a gracious God and a precious Soul and both eternally and irrecoverably The just God remains still to avenge and punish the sinner but the favour of God that friendly look is gone the peace of God that Heaven upon Earth is gone the Essence of the Soul remains still but its purity peace joy hope and happiness these are gone and these being gone what can remain but a tormenting piercing sight of those things for which you have sold them Inference III. HEnce let us estimate the evil of sin and see what a dreadful thing that is which men commonly sport themselves with and make so light of it is not only a wrong and injury to the Soul but the loss and utter ruine of the Soul for ever It is said Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul And if this were all the mischief sin did

signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc flux●runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not

except as was before limited Object 5. Object 5. But the matters they discover are found to be true and the causes in which they concern themselves are just real Murthers are detected by them and real frauds and injuries corrected and rectified but the Devil being himself a lyar and Deceiver would never do it 't is not his interest to discover or discourage such things Sol. Sol. Though it be not his interest meerly to discover it yet it is certainly his interest to precipitate wicked men and hasten their ruine by the hand of Justice and he will speak the truth and seem to own a righteous cause to bring about his great design of ruining the Souls and Bodies of men I will shut up with three Cautions Caution I. Strain not Conscience to enrich Posterity be true to the trusts committed to you by the Dead or by the Living remembring that though they be dead and cannot avenge the wrong yet the Lord lives and will surely do it in a severer manner than they could should they appear in the most terrible and frightful forms to you Beside your own Consciences will haunt you worse than a Ghost Be just and true therefore in all your Promises and trusts for God is the Avenger Caution II. Finish your work for eternity before you die for as the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7.9 10. Your Souls will be fixed in eternity soon after they are loosed from your Bodies when death comes away you must go willing or unwilling ready or unready but no returning hither how willing soever Caution III. Keep your selves from that heathenish and accursed practice of consulting the Devil about your absent or dead Relations a practice too common in Sea-port Towns and of deep and heinous guilt before God Isa. 8.19 And when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar Spirits and unto Wizards that peep and muter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead You need not call the Devil twice that subtil and officious Spirit draws the living into his Net by such a bait as this You meet your Mortal enemy under the disguise of your dead friend QUERIE V. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven have any converse or communication with each other and how that can be seeing all the Organs and Instruments of speech and hearing are laid aside with their Bodies It seems impossible that separated or unbodied Spirits should converse together seeing the instruments by which the thoughts are communicated from one to another are perished in the Grave Suppose the Tongue of a man to be cut out his eyes and hands perished or made useless whilst the Soul remains in the Body it may enjoy its own thoughts within it self but it is impossible to signifie them to another by words or signs Or suppose a man in a deep sleep wherein the Senses are only bound for a little time he may indeed exercise his own fancy in a pleasant Dream but another cannot understand how it is entertained but in death the Senses are not bound but extinguished Beside we must not think the felicity of the departed holy Souls to consist in mutual Converses one with another but in their ineffable Visions of God and Communion with him To him who is Omniscient and understands their most inward thoughts they can freely communicate them and receive his as well as pour forth their own love but to do it to their fellow Creatures who see not as God doth seems impossible Indeed it was never doubted but after the Resurrection they shall both know and talk with one another in a more excellent and perfect manner than now they do but till that time the Reasons above seem to perswade us that all the Converses above are only betwixt God and them which indeed is enough to make them happy and indeed if this ability be allowed to separated Souls it seems to render the Resurrection of their Bodies needless for they are well enough without them But certainly the Spirits of just men are not Mutes such an August Assembly of holy and excellent Spirits do not live together in their Fathers House without mutual Converse and fellowship with each other as well as with God That acute and judicious Divine Mr. Ioseph Symonds in the Epistle to his Book entitled Sight and Faith expresseth himself about this matter thus I often think saith he of the Communion of the Spirits of men which certainly is more than many are acquainted with though we act one upon another in our present state by the help of sense yet we are wrought and designed to a more excellent way Angels and the Spirits of men made perfect converse and trade in a mutual Communication not without sense but without such sense as ours This as eternal life begins here and is found in some degrees in this Mortal State though not in so visible appearances as to lie open to much observation Angels good and bad do act upon our Spirits and our Spirits hold converse with them and with the Father of Spirits which may be discerned in secret Parlies and Discourses betwixt them and us much of this appears in David's Psalms and there passeth not only an inward speech but there are invisible approaches entertainments and touches which Paul found when bound in the Spirit and under the working of God which wrought in him mightily Col. 1.29 it is also most certain that our Souls are not mute and shut out from all mutual Traffick with each other except what they have by the mediation of Senses Instances are found that as they say of two Needles toucht with the Loadstone the Spirit of one at a distance hath found it self affected with the motion and state of another And this we are all sensible of that there is a strong desire in us to Communion of Spirits and that because the way most ready and convenient to our bodily state is by sense we are carried with much inclination to maintain intercourse of our minds and Spirits by sense but as being made to a better way our Souls are not satisfied with this present way as being both painful and short we cannot give an exact Copy of our Apprehensions Desires Designs Delights and other affections by these two great Mediators of Communion the Eye and the Ear but because we are in so great a measure confin'd to this course our Souls as it were stand in these two gates to send and receive mutual Embassies each from other Which way as it is short in it self so it is much shortned by distances disaffections impotencies and disparities I cannot imagine that men in the state of imperfection should have so many ways to communicate their minds as by speaking writing c. Yea that the