obtaining of an End which he design'd in it He Quotes in this Chapter the Words of the Prophet Zechariah saying Tell ye the daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an asse and a colt the foal of an asse His Quotation shews that this Place of Zechary was known to him and his own Relation of the Story seems to Prove That he intended to make our Saviour's Fact in this Place agree punctually and in terminis with those Words of Zechary which he had before Quoted And the Observer conceives it somewhat likely that he has erred in like manner in delivering the Words our Saviour us'd in the Doctrine before-mentioned where our Lord Teaches his Disciples to Fear God rather than Men And to give a further strength to this Conception he Quotes Matth 28. which delivers many Circumstances concerning our Lord's Resurrection viz. In the end of the sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher And behold there was a great earth-quake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men And the angel answered and said unto the women Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him lo I have told you And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word And as they went to tell his disciples behold Jesus met them saying All hail And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Comparando with this Relation he Quotes John 20. where the Words are The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher Then she ran to Peter and John and saith unto them They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him And the two Apostles were so affected with this Relation that they arose and ran to the Sepulcher to make themselves Eye-Witnesses of the Truth of this Fact And coming to the sepulcher they went into it and saw the linnen cloths used at his Burial but the Body was clean gone Then the disciples went away again unto their own home But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher and seeth two angels who ask'd the cause of her VVeeping She answered Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Then turning her self back she saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was he Jesus saith unto her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away Men that well examine these two Relations will find a great difference and even an incompatibility between them For that if Mary Magdelene had seen the Angel Discours'd of in the Text of St. Matthew and heard such Tidings from him and soon after had seen and spoken with our Lord himself it opposes the common Reason of Mankind to conceive she should so behave her self upon this Occasion as the Relation of St. John has described to us It seems somewhat clear to this Observer That there is error in one of these two Relations and he thinks That the Relation made by S. John is more credible and that the error lies on the side of St. Matthew because St. John was Pars magni facti He tells us what himself saw and knew whereas it is probable That St. Matthew's Discourse was rather grounded upon Relations of some of the frighted Women than proceeding from any thing of his own certain knowledge These two Instances Prove That all the Relations we find in St. Matthew are not Infallible Truths but some of them have need to be searched by Humane Sagacity and the comparing of them with other Scriptures The Observer inclines to take his Wording our Saviour's Doctrine against the over great fear of Men to be like one of the two former Instances and that it may stand in need to be compared with its parallel Text in the Gospel of St. Luke and to be Examined by it But he is resolved to leave this Point to the further Consideration of Mr. M. In this Chapter also he Quotes many other particular Texts of Scripture which he thinks may Prove or Strengthen his Assertion But the Observer finds not one among them whose Proof is so full or so clear as that before Quoted out of St. Matthew All his other Texts except the Parable of Dives and that of the Thief upon the Cross seem to arise from Collections upon Inferences and some accidental Expressions or Forms of Words in Places of Scripture which do not Teach any thing concerning the future State of Mankind nor are spoken in those Places with intent to Teach concerning it In which rank he places Solomon's short Saying The spirit returns to God who gave it He does not wonder that Mr. M's Quotations seem to him such clear and evident Proofs as he pretends they do For the reason thereof may be and very likely is because he Reads and Considers them with the Mind already satisfied and assured That the Soul is Immortal and capable of Subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body But to a Man that is otherwise perswaded the much greater Part of his Quotations will seem to be of very little force for the Proof of that Opinion which he produces them for The Observer can and does inform him That there is not one of them which is not mentioned and discussed in that larger Treatise of the Observer's which is before-mentioned He has no mind in this Place Acta agere but rather chuses to refer Mr. M. in this Point to that Treatise which he has a strong Inclination and Intent to Publish if God please to lengthen the feeble Thread of his Life and give him Opportunity so to do Chap. 3d. He directs Men to expect Proofs of the Soul's Immortality by Arguments and Rules derived from Nature and Reason without enough considering That before he determin'd concerning the Adjuncts he should endeavour to Prove the real Substance of that Subject to which they must belong It seems he has attentively Perused his Pamphlet entituled Observations upon Mr. B's Sermon but does not think fit to take Notice what is there demanded by
expected in a future State All what he saies more of the Soul in this Place the Observer applies to the Mind and Understanding of Man in Statu concreto P. 39 Mr. M. offers an Argument of the Soul's Immortality from the Reflection in can make upon its own Conceptions and Opinions The Observer Replies That it is a Rational Power of the Mind or Understanding of Man to make such Reflections upon it self and its own Conceptions and Conclusions whereby it is enabled to change and alter them as often as it sees cause and the Change of Occasions may require Further Mr. M. saies That indeed we cannot know what the Soul is but by these Circular and Reflex Motions To which the Observer Replies That then indeed we can have no certain Knowledge of it at all We do not doubt concerning a Reflecting Power in the Mind of Man but cannot perceive That it gives Men any more true Knowledge of the State of their Souls than they had before they considered this Reflecting Power And if Mr. M. knew how this Consideration might make them know more of their Souls than they did before he should have assisted them with Directions to attain such Knowledge of it as they are very desirous to obtain P. 35. Mr. M. saies Let the Heard of Materialists muster up their Forces and give us a Rational Intelligible Account of those Operations of the Intellect and how they can arise from the Effects of the Power of Matter and Motion As if in other Words he should ask After what manner the Animal Spirits do or can produce Reason and Intellect in the Heads of Men. Also P. 36. he demands How Matter and Motion can produce even Sense it self To this Demand the Observer Answers That he acknowledges his Ignorance how such things are Acted in the Persons or Heads of Men But he conceives this Demand ought not to have been made by Mr. M. until he had Answered those other Demands which the Observer had before made to Mr. B. concerning his sort of Soul viz. That he should Prove quod sit quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur ubi residot quomodo operatur quo avolat To any of which Propositions Mr. M. has made no Answer altho' without so doing he can with no good Face Demand of the Observer to solve his quomodo operatur Concerning the Material Soul the Observer saies He has given and can give a Rational Account of his sort of Soul in the Things before-named viz. of the quod quid unde quando ubi quo but confesses his Ignorance concerning his Quomodo But things That those who can Prove none of those Things before-mentioned concerning their sort of Soul do very unfitly reproach the Ignorance of the Observer in this onely Point concerning the Quomodo and that their so doing suits well with our Lord's Expression concerning the Practice of pulling Motes out of another Man's Eye whilst they have Beams in their own First let them pull the beams out of their own Eyes before they undertake to charge their Brethren with lesser Failings than may be found in themselves First Let them account for their quod quid c. before they charge their Opponent for his Ignorance in the Quomodo which he esteems to be the Arcanum Artificis and Inscrutable by any Humane Power And things it Reasonable That before they urge him to an Account for the Quomodo in this Question they should make some progress upon Questions of a like but lower Nature which occur to them in the World Let them First walk into their Gardens and Orchards and in the first consider the Herbs and Flowers which they may find there of which there may be a wonderful Variety and Diversity and then inquire within themselves and confer with others concerning the Quomodo of their Production and what the Particular and Special Causes are of their difference in Bulk Height Fashion Colour Lustre Scent and the Quomodo of all their Productions the Particulars of which the Observer things to be Inscrutable In general Men know there is Root Stem and Skin enough for these Productions and that there is Spirit and Sap enough drawn from the Earth for the Enlivening and Growth of them But what the Modifications are of such Matter or Spirit or both of them together and which produce among them so great a Variety or Diversity the Observer conceives was never yet found out nor undertaken by any Man who has given an Account of his Success to the World And the like Question the Observer propounds concerning the Trees of the Orchard Men find amongst them a sufficient Matter of Root Bole Bark Branches and Twigs Also a plentiful Spirit or Sap ascending mostly between the Bark and the Tree enlivening it and fructifying the uttermost Twigs of it and causing the Production of Leaves Blossoms and Fruit but the Quomodo of this Performance he holds also to be Inscrutable And before Mr. M. demand an Account of the Quomodo the Spirits produce Intellingence in the Head of Man let him first account to the Observer or the World for the Quomodo of an Oaken Leaf by what means and after what manner the Spirit and the Matter work together for the producing of it And then consider and account for the great variety of Wood Leaves Blossoms Seed and Fruit from what particular Compositions or Modifications of Matter or Spirit such Things Varieties and Differences do proceed From these lower Inquiries let him ascend to the Consideration of the Brutal Nature and consider by what sort of Operations or Contexture of Spirit and Matter the Powers and Actions of that Nature are derived Men know that there passes a Spirit in the Seed of those Creatures into Receptacles fit for the Fermentaion Fomentation and Coagulation of them and that from those Principles the Bodies and Souls of Beasts do proceed and being afterwards brought to Perfection then to the World in their several Forms and different Structure of Body they live are nourished and grow to their several Perfections and that in their Natural State they enjoy and use Strength and Activity Local Motions Affections Desires Passions Sensations Perceptions Fancies and Memories Men see that they have Matter suitable for those purposes Flesh Bones Nerves Sinews Muscles Arteries Veins Fibres and divers other necessary Parcels of their Material Bodies and that these are enlivened and acted by the Spiritual and yet Material Powers of Bloud and Breath Out of the Mass of Bloud purified and heated in the Hearts of such Creatures there arise pure Particles of Bloud fit and ready to be inflamed and which presently are kindled and tinded by fanning of the Breath in the same or like manner as has been before described in relating the State and condition of Man in such Cases and by the Matter before described Organized and the Material Spirits of the Bloud before specified acted together in a fit and suitable Contexture one with another it is evident all the
in the Liver But he saies not what other Part or Place the later Anatomists have assigned for this Office of Sanguification and till they agree amongst themselves about that Point it seems the Observer may be justly excused for following the Ancient Anatomists in this Expression Mr. M. goes on to a Secondly which in the first Part of it needs on Answer till he comes to his Repeating the Observer's Quotation of Miracles in his Observations upon Mr. B' s Sermon Where the Case stood thus Mr. B. has Asserted in that Sermon That Omnipotence it self could not produce Thought or Intelligence out of meer Matter by any Skill or Power he could used The Observer there absolutely denies this Assertion and maintains the contrary both by Reasons and Examples inferring from God's making Matter out of nothing That he can make whatsoever he pleases out of any Matter And shews by Examples That God has done such Wonderful Things upon other Occacasions as give no less difficulty to the Minds of Men to conceive than the Act of producing Intelligence out of Matter may do Whence it seems he did not produce those Miraculous Examples out of Levity but for a very just Cause P. 65. Mr. M. Asks Is not God able to uphold the Soul in a State of Separation from the Body The Observer Answers He is able so to do and when he declares he has so done or will so do the Observer is ready to believe it 2dly Mr. M. Asks Are God's ordinary Works in Nature to be confounded with his Miracles The Observer Answers No. 3dly Mr. M. Asks Is it a good way of Arguing from the Power of God to his Will And is Answered No. And further Mr. M. here grants as by his enumeration of Particulars That God can make Matter Cogitative if he pleases to do it without acknowledging That therein he departs from Mr. B's Assertion which the Observer had before opposed Here Mr. M. goes on Repeating his Expressions formerly used and Answered He saies That it is the part of a Philosopher to admire the Works which God has done The Observer saies so too but not such Works as Mr. M. saies he has done unless he make better Proof of his doing of them Mr. M. Will not allow the Observer to lay down Hypotheses contrary to the Sense and Reason of Mankind and then to tell us God can make those Suppositions good The Observer Answers That he neither has done so nor ever intends to do it but that this Suggestion Savours of that Spirit which has hitherto much Acted in his Treatise Chap. V Mr. M. begins at P. 67. and from thence to P. 68. may pass for a Peroration little to the purpose of Proving any thing concerning the Question now in Dispute He declaims against the debasing the Humane Prerogative to the Degree of Brutes The Observer Answers That Prerogatives ought to be justly discerned and all those granted which of right ought to be so And whatsoever is not so tho' never so loudly claimed is not to be granted but denied He ought to remember his own Rule de vero nil nisi verum and therefore if it be true That the Humane Soul is Material it is but a just and righteous Act to deny and reject such Prerogatives as have been unduly Arrogated for it and without good reason have been ascribed to it P. 68 69. Mr. M. Discourses concerning the Atomical Doctrines and raising Bodies from their Motions and Cohesions accidentally without the Direction and Assistance of God's Wisdom and Power With which Imagination the Observer has nothing to do P. 70 Mr. M. saies Atomists tell us That the Soul is a Material Spirit extracted to a wonderful fineness reaching to an invisibility The Observer agrees That Dr. Willis delivers that Opinion and saies That the Particles of Blood inflamed in the Lungs and made lucid in the Brain are such Spirits and that he saies may be demonstrated to the Sensations of Men viz. by the strength of Natural Faculties or the powers of Sense and Reason united And thus much the Materialists pretend they know and can demonstrate concerning their sort of Soul But Mr. M. and those that join with him in maintaining the Intelligent Soul neither know nor can demonstrate any thing concerning it nor any particular matter about it neither the Quod nor the Quid unde quando ubi quomodo nor quo But because they cannot imagine some of them how God can others of them how God does so Act the Humane Organs by these Spirits as to produce in them and by them together Life Sense and Intellect they think he must needs have recourse to the means and assistance of an Immaterial Spirit According to the course of Mens common Conceptions who when they see wonderful Things performed by great Artists the true Reasons of which they do not understand either because those Artists will not declare them or being declared such People will not believe them or cannot comprehend them therefore presently impute them to the Effects of an Immaterial Spirit The rest of Mr. M's Words here need no Answer being voces praeterea nihil P. 71. Mr. M. saies That the maintaining the Soul to be Material is a reproach to Philosophy and all sorts of Humane Learning and will be a likely means to bring them into contempt and hatred The Observer Answers That the Terms of Philosophy and Humane Learning are both of them equivocal and each of them may be taken in several Senses Humane Learning may be employed about good Things or bad Things and there are Arts Teaching to deceive and falsify as well as to Teach real Faculties and Truths And the Term of Philosophy may be used in divers and different Senses Mr. M. in this Chap. has given us some Instances of it where he saies That the Epicureans fram'd and defended a Scheme of the World's Production by the Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms Which he calls Nonsensical gibberish and an empty Sound of unintelligible Words Which the Observer thinks do intend the same thing with Canting as it is now commonly understood among us Mr. M. further saies That we must not let go the Opinion of the Soul's Immortality that we may fall down and Worship that Philosophy which those Men have set up The Observer does not know who are meant by the Term of those Men whether the Epicureans or Materialists each by themselves or both of them together If he mean the first alone no opposition shall be made to him in it if the second alone then all that has been before spoken may be used for his Conviction in it and if he mean a mixture of both together the old Rule shall be applied to him dolus versatur in universalibus and he makes this mixture only to mislead his Readers P. 72 He mentions a like Philosophy which Teaches That we have every Week a new Soul and that at length Soul and Body Die together The Observer saies That
desire a sober knowing and Canvas of his Opinion The Primitive Greek Churches Disturbed and Divided by the Heresies of Sabellius Arius and divers others call'd upon Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome to stand up for the Catholick Doctrine and the Peace of the Christian Church So the Observer is desirous to incite and stir up the present Bishop of Worcester whose Light is now great in the Church that as he has lately Written excellently well concerning the Trinity so he will take upon him to Treat fully and purposely concerning this Question if his Age and Infirmity will permit Conferring thereupon with his most able Brethren and communicating to some of them his Labours as they are Written in single Sheets during the course of his Progress which may have a double Advantage First That any thing therein found amiss may be more easily amended or Transcribed Secondly A prevention of its passing forward with a communicative Tincture in any of those Sheets that may follow it Our Lawyers are very cautious in their Proceedings upon Questions of great Moment If the great Counsellors differ amongst themselves in a Point in Law the Matter is brought to Tryal by Process in one of the Courts at Westminster where it is Argued before the Judges of it and if they also differ upon the Point it is carried by Process into the Chequer-Chamber to be there Tryed before all the Judges of England who sit and hear it Argued before them by the ablest Lawyers on either side three four or five times at several considerable Distances Spaces or Terms that there may be time enough given for the full Inspection or Consideration of it And after they have heard what can be spoken on either side then the Judges themselves Argue the Point as largely as they please each declaring his own Opinion thereupon And then if there be a considerable number of Dissenters against the major Opinion they Adjourn the Case yet further propter difficultatem to further Days and Times having sufficient intervals such as map still give more leisure for a fuller Consideration And in fine if the dissenting Party still hold to be very considerable they Adjourn the Case before the Upper-House of Parliament and there it is again Argued by Counsel on both sides as often as the Lords think fit to Appoint Then the Judges Argue again and deliver their Opinions with the Reasons thereof then such of the Lords as please speak to it and it is at last finally Determined by the Majority of Voices in the Lords House after which it passes for Law in all the Courts of Westminster and throughout the whole Kingdom of England and stands for a Rule in the Case Disputed and in all other like Cases The Observer further saies That if the Fore-named Learned Bishop will take the pains to Examine the particulars alledged by him in this and his former larger Treatises and give such Answers to them as upon Conference he shall think fit to do And let the Staff fall which way it will he will hereafter be silent without publickly Disputing or Writing against the said Bishop's declared Opinion so delivered and confirmed as afore-said He knows that the said Bishop has Defended the Opinion of the Immortality in his Writings But he takes the Bishop for a Person of great Integrity and that he is a Old and likely as near Death as himself He knows of himself That the whole Kingdom of England offered him to give a false Verdict in this or the like Case would be utterly despises by him And he conceives full as well of the Bishop and therefore dare remit the Point now in Dispute to his Determination as afore-said P. 63. Mr. M. saies The Material Opinion cannot stand but upon the supposition of a continual Course of Miracles to make it good which is very Absurd and Vnphilosophical The Observer Replies granting the Rule That to Prove by Miracles is unphilosophical and that he holds it convenient in this Place to Examine which of the Two Opinions now in Dispute stand the most in need of Miracles to Prove the Truth of it and which of the opposite Parties make most use of that sort of Argument The Material Opinion he says has only one wonderful Work in it viz. The great Effect of God's Wisdom and Power in producing Life Growth Motion Affection Sensation Perception Imagination Judgment Memory all sorts of Thinking by his Skilful contexture of Matter and Spirit together which our Opponents are pleased to express by the Terms of Matter and Motion Mr. B. denies That the Skill and Power of Divinity can in that manner produce these Effects But Mr. M. obiter or transiently grants That the Skill and Power of Omnipotence can Effect such Things if he pleases by Natural means applicando activa passivis as we see he gives the vast Body of the Sea a Motion with divers variations which Men cannot yet comprehend So has he given the Planets Stars and other Heavenly Bodies a perpetual Motion generally regular but with such variations as Men cannot comprehend or understand Plants and Trees Flourish and Decay alternately they shoot out Leaves Blossom and Fruit in a wonderful variety the next Causes of which Men cannot find out Fowls and Brutes Live Grow Move use their Senses and Affections and such low degrees of Phantasie Memory Estimation or Choice as they have by the Virtue and Activity of the Spirits and Blood before-mentioned without Mens being able to apprehend the Quomodo of it And so we may say concerning the activity of the Wind amongst the Organ-pipes a thing which we every Day see with our Eyes hear with our Ears and handle with our Hands and yet are not able throughly to discuss and resolve the Quomodo of all those Actions and Varieties which are Performed by it The fore-going Instances have been produced to Prove a Simile that such like Things have been made and done by God and are still continued and subject to our view in the World as Wonderful Effects of the great Skill and Power of God and which Men are not able to comprehend or understand We proceed to the Immaterial Intelligent Spirit and require of Mr. M. and other Immortalists some sort of Proofs maintaining their Opinion tho' they should be but a Simile We desire them to produce at least some one Instance in Nature where God acts Matter by an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit And the Observer considers they cannot produce any one Instance of such a Conjunction out of the whole Book of Nature except this one which they have invented concerning the Constitution of Man and therefore it is no wonder that they are put to the coining of Miracles for the maintaining of the same Two of which shall here be examined The Wits of Men have never been able to conceive any more ways for the production of the Soul of Man but these Three viz. by Generation by Pre-existence or new Creation of such Souls upon every
not Determine Points of Doctrine if a great or considerable Number of Voices did refuse to consent to the Agreement of the Major Part But our Dissenters on the contrary like Froward and very Ill-natured Children do utterly Reject the Authority of their Mother the Church She like a tender Parent extends her Arms to receive them sets open the Doors of her Oratories and calls them to her kind and wonted Imbraces exhorting them to enter again into her Communion with a readiness to forgive all that is past and an inclination to heal or even to bear with their Weaknesses and Infirmities and their errors of Opinions in Doctrine or Discipline Whilst they like Wasps better furnished with Stings than Honey seek rather to destroy than cultivate the Hives and Stocks wherein they have been preserved and nourished They repudiate and disown their own Natural Parent because they think they discover some spots and wrinkles in the Ornaments of her fine Linnen pudet hoec opprobia vobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Chap. VI. P. 79. Mr. M. repeats the Names of Aristotle Dicearchus and Pliny mentioned by the Observer in his Quoted Pamphlet not as a Proof of the Materiality but to show there was need of better Proof of the Immortality than Mr. B. had given of it Mr. M. here further mentions Pherecydes as the first among the Philosophers who Defended or Invented this Doctrine of the Immortality as before has been observed and shall here be granted P. 80. Mr. M. Quotes Pythagoras as Pherecydes's Scholar and next maintainer of the Immortality The Observer will mind the Reader of the effect of this Opinion held by the latter and Learned from the former viz. That their sort of Soul had a perfect Pre-existence before it came into the Body of a Man and held that same existence after the departure from the Body whereby it was capable of Animating another Man Horse Camel or Dog Fish Fowl or any other living Creature and that Souls did continually undergo such changes of Habitations throughout the World from the beginning of it This Opinion therefore the Observer saies ought to be rejected quia ducit ad absurdum Mr. M. saies Plato Travell'd into Italy to gather Learning out of the School of Pythagoras there and gather'd from thence his Opinion of the Pre-existence of Souls which he after chang'd so far as to conceive That the Transmigration of Souls was not common to Men and Beasts but that they went only from one Man to another and were put into Bodies for Pennances and Purgatories and were inclosed in them as in Cages or Prisons which they were desirous to leave with the first opportunity An Opinion convinc'd of Falsity and Error by every Man 's Daily Experience Which Proves to us That there is no Union in the World more Natural pleasing and desired than that of Soul and Body nor whose separation is more grievous than theirs Mr. M. Quotes Dr. More 's Verses P. 81. of which no more shall be said but like Lips like Lettice Mr. M. here further Quotes Plato and Cicero both which we give up to him as Gross and Erroneous Immortalists P. 82. He pretends to Quote Socrates when his Quotation is only what Plato puts into Socrates's Mouth who in this feigned Dialogue makes Socrates say what he pleases Mr. M. here gives us Plato's Opinion to the same effect and near in the same Terms that the common Opinions of Men now hold it and hence it seems the Christian Platonists deriv'd it and deliver'd it to the Scholars of their Schools who spread the same accordingly supported by St. Matthew's Words of cannot kill the Soul Wording our Saviour's Doctrine according to that Tenet which he believ'd and was then common in the World P. 83. Here he goes still on to deliver such Words as Plato is pleased to put into the Mouth of Socrates He further Quotes Plotinus's Saying If we could see the Soul in its own naked Essence we should not doubt of its Immortality And this is agreed by the Observer who therefore desires Mr M. to show us this Soul in its own naked Essence or tell us by what search we may come to such a Sight of it His following Words are unpracticable P. 84. He Quotes Maximus whose Words shall be left to the World to consider not believed by the Observer P. 85. Mr. M. Quotes the Stoicks who say The departed Souls are turned into Hero's some good and some bad Believe them who list Then he saies out of Seneca The Humane Soul is a Deity dwelling in a Humane Body Mr. M. saies This is too high an Expression he might as well have said he knew it to be false P. 86. Is Quoted Seneca who calls the Body the Prison of the Soul Like a right Platonist and deriving his Opinions from them The Reader may consider Plutarch was an Heathen Philosopher and likely knew nothing concerning the Resurrection of the Person Mr. M. here further saies That such Christians may be ashamed who stand in need of Instructions from a Heathen concerning the Soul's Immortality The Observer saies That rather such Christians have reason to be ashamed who derive their Opinion of the Immortality from Thoughts of Heathen Idolaters and follow their Instructions concerning it P. 87. Mr. M. delivers That the Opinion of the Immortality was the ground of their Worshipping their departed Hero's Which was their Idolatry and one very bad effect of their conceited Immortality P. 88. Cicero's Words here Quoted seem fit to be put into Mr. M's own Mouth If I be mistaken in this Point of the Immortality I will still maintain it Error though it be nor will I be drawn out of this Error as long as I live because it pleases me and I am delighted with the apprehension of it He saies further That the Platonists and Stoicks the earliest maintainers of this Doctrine speak of the Soul as if it were an Incarnate Deity But it is to be hoped Mr. M. will confess That they Err'd very grossly in it As the Observer thinks they did in the whole Point of the Soul's Immortality P. 89. Xenocrates held There are future Rewards and Punishments and that the Soul is imprisoned in the Body In the First his Opinion is true in the Second false P. 90 Mr. M. has before taken hold of the Opinions of Philosophers believing the Immortality and thence deriving their Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls and the Idolatrous Worship of their departed Hero's And here he prays Aid of the Poets also and their Elysium and Barathrums Old Charon and his Boat all imagined to be in the Bowels of the Earth And from such Fables and Fictions endeavours to support his Opinion of the Immortality as if it were a sinking Cause that needed support by catching hold of those Osiers which grow upon the Banks of Cocytus Mr. M. Demands Shall any who believe the Gospel deny the Immortality of the Soul Yes saies the