his brother Ioseph to lye with his mistresse Saul to persecute the Church and Felix to tremble at the mention of a future judgement if the soule be mortall Admit but such Lucretian doctrine you may shake hands with heaven and hell Esse aliquos Maneis subterranea regna Iuven. Sat. 2. Et contum Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras Atque unâ transire vadum tot millia cymbâ Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum are lavantur Here I had ended but that I have now lighted on a Sect. 16. Mans mortality Pamphlet by chance the Scribler of which was ashamed to put to his name his cause is so bad He undertakes to prove the soules mortalitie but so weakly that I should lose too much time and spend too much paper to answer him according to his folly For there is nothing in it but the froth of a luxurious wit wantonly abusing Scripture and obtruding a cloud in stead of Iuno shadowes of reason in stead of solid arguments As first when hee will prove the death of the soule out of Scripture hee brings those places that speake of the metaphoricall or spirituall death of the soule which is the defiling of her by sinne and her separation from God and so hee confounds the life of nature of grace and of glory as he doth death spirituall and corporall Secondly hee abuseth the Synecdochicall speeches in Scripture when he will have those phrases which are spoken of man to bee understood of the soule and bodie dis-junctively And so when the Scripture speakes of mans dissolution and death hee will have the soule die as well as the bodie but by this meanes hee must affirme that the soule eates drinkes playes sings weeps because these things are spoken of men What were the soules of the Egyptians drowned in the red sea and the soules of the Chaldeans burned in the fiery fornace or the soule of the disobedient Prophet torne by the Lion because these men died such deaths Many things are spoken of the whole man but not wholly the totall compositum is the subject of such predications but not totally Christ died was buried was borne was crucified and yet his Divinity suffered none of these things Hee is a bad Divine that knowes not that by the communication of properties that is spoken of the person of Christ which is proper onely to either of his natures and so that is spoken of man which is proper onely to either of his essentiall parts Thirdly he confounds the act and the habit concluding that the habit is lost because the act ceafeth as that there is no habit or faculty of reason in a mad man because the act of reasoning is hindered As if you should say that a Musician hath lost his skill in Musick when he ceaseth to play Fourthly some old objections hee hath inserted which wee have already sufficiently answered and the rest of the passages in his Pamphlet are so frivolous that they are not worth the answering or reading for Magno conatu magnas nugas dicit And so he that shall diligently read this former Discourse of ours and shall make use of these foure Observations which now I have set downe will find that this irreligious Rapsodie of his is but froth a vapour or one of his dreames Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno Virgil. and which I thinke will little prevaile with any rationall man much lesse with him who is truly sanctified with grace For he that was led meerely by reason confessed that the fatall houre of death was the last houre to the body onely not to the soule Decretoria illa hora non est animo suprema sed corpori Seneca For even reason will teach us that the soule which in her selfe is immortall I exclude not here the generall but the speciall or miraculous concourse of the Almighty may naturally subsist by her self after separation for if her subsistence from the body were violent then her returne to the body should be naturall as if the holding of a stone in the aire be violent the falling downe of that stone upon the removing of the impediment must needs be naturall But her returning to the body is an not miraculous and of supernaturall power for though the soule as she is the forme of the body hath a naturall propensity or innate appetite to a reinforming of or re-union with the body yet is she not againe conjoyned with the body but by a speciall and supernaturall worke of God in the resurrection Neither againe must we thinke that the soule subsists after separation by any speciall or supernaturall power for then we shall make the soule so subsisting of no better metall then the yron so swimming on the water both being sustained not by their owne but by a speciall and miraculous power and by this meanes the soule of a dog may as well subsist after death as the soule of a man but he that thinks so that the soule hath no other being after this life may be in name a Christian professor but is indeed a Cynick Philosopher or Epicuri de grege porcus fitter to dwell in the Isle of dogs then among men Therefore as it was naturall for the childs soule to subsist in the mothers wombe and it is as naturall for the same soule to subsist without it so is the subsistence of the same soule in and without the body essentiall and naturall to her and not violent or supernaturall But to leave these men whose soules are fitter Sect. 17. to dwell with Nebuchadnezzars in a beasts body then in their owne I will conclude this Discourse with an acknowledgement and confession of that solace and true comfort which I take in these dismall and calamitous times in which we live from the consideration of my soules immortality that however she be now tossed upon the proud and lofty billowes of the turbulent sea of afflictions in this life with Noahs Arke yet a higher mountaine then those of Ararat is prepared for her to rest upon and however this weary Dove flutter upon these boysterous waters that she can find no rest for the soales of her feet yet she sees a window in that celestiall Arke which is above ready open to receive her Christ hath not in vaine gone to prepare a place for us he hath prepared it that we may enjoy it and to what end should he shed his blood for our soules and redeeme them at so deare a rate if they be mortall and can not enjoy that which they long after as earnestly as the Hart brayeth after the rivers of water Doth God mock us when by his Prophet he tels us of fulnesse of joy in his presence and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Is God our Father and Heaven our Inheritance and must we be put off from the enjoyment of either We are here miserable Pilgrims and strangers if after our tedious journey we have
which is in Christ by which he justifieth Rom. 12. many in respect of which he is called the Wisdome of the Father for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Or had you meant that which wee have of Christ by illumination and in respect of which the Apostle accounted all things lost desiring to know nothing but Christ crucified If I say you had meant such guides I had approved of your judgement and I had been your fellow-traveller for indeed by these onely our wants are supplied and our accounts made up And in this respect naturam sequi est Deo obsequi The Conclusion wherein is asserted the Soules Immortality and Objections answered THus Sir Kenelme I have briefly run over your voluminous Discourses of the nature of Bodies and of the Soules immortalitie in which though you have shewed much wit and good language yet your arguments and descriptions of the Soule are not of that evidence and validitie which I have shewed as to convince our understanding and to vindicate our beliefe in assenting to all your dictats in this your laborious Work therefore give mee leave without prejudice to your paines to point briefly at such reasons and arguments as I conceive will be more evincing and pressing and more prevalent both with Christians and Pagans then those which you have imparted to us 1. We will first then begin with divine Testimony which is of greater authority then all humane capacity God tells Moses Exod. 3. that he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob by which words our Saviour proves the soules immortalitie in affirming that God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. and consequently that these were not dead but alive in their soules Solomon tells us Eccles. 12. that the spirit returnes to God that gave it The Scripture tells us that Samuel's soule was alive after her separation 2 Sam. 28. which place though it be controverted whether it was truly Samuel's soule or not yet that apparition which was beleeved by the Iewes shewes that they doubted not of the soules immortalitie Christ tells us of Lazarus his soule that was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome and the rich Gluttons into hell Luke 16. Hee tells us also of that rich mans soule which after his barnes were full was to be taken from him Luke 12. But if she perished with the bodie how could she be taken away Hee assures the good thiefe that his soule should be with him that night in Paradise Luke 23. And hee will not have us feare them that can destroy the bodie but cannot kill the soule Matth. 10. by which he intimates that the soule is not liable to death as the bodie is 2. Wee prove it by arguments grounded on the Scripture as first The soule of Christ was immortall when it was separated therefore our soules are so The consequence is evident because Christ was like to us in all things except sin The antecedent no Christian will deny except he will deny the hypostaticall union of the Divinitie and the Humanitie which was not nor could not be dissolved by death for the Divinitie was not separated from Christs bodie in death much lesse from his soule to which it was immediately united 'T is true Christs bodie died because the soule was separated by which the Divinity gave life to the bodie to wit effectively not formally but God being united immediately and principally to the soule shee could not die And though God hath not so united our soules to himselfe as he did Christs yet hee is so neerly united to our spirituall soules being a spirit himselfe that they cannot die except hee should forsake them which hee will not doe for he will not leave our soules nor forsake them nor suffer them to see corruption Secondly man was made to the image of God Gen. 1. which image consisteth partly in hyperphysicall graces as righteousnesse and true holinesse and partly in five physicall gifts 1. understanding 2. will 3. dominion 4. liberty 5. immortality Thirdly mans soule was not educed out of the earth and water as the soules of other creatures were but immediately inspired by God Genes 1. by which it is plaine that the soule of man is of a farre more excellent condition and nature then the soules of beasts are and that shee hath immediate dependence from God not from the bodie therefore not mortall Fourthly if the soule die with the bodie there can be no resurrection and so 1 Cor. 15. our hope and faith are in vaine Now there can be no resurrection of the bodie if the soule its forme be not pre-existent For how can the soule be re-united to the bodie or informe it againe if it be extinguished with the bodie Fifthly the Kingdome of Christ the joyes and Luke 1. Matth. 25. happinesse of the Saints and the torments of the wicked are eternall therefore the soules of men which are the subjects of Christs Kingdome and the inheritors of joy or paine cannot be mortall for what subjects shall this eternall King have or to what end are the rewards and punishments eternall if the soules which are the chiefe subjects and chiefly interessed in these rewards and paines perish and die Sixthly Moses shewes that the Sun Moon and Stars of heaven were made for the service of man Deuteron 4. which argueth that man is of a more excellent nature then they Now this could not be if he were not spirituall and immortall in his soule for in his bodie hee is inferiour to them in regard they are incorruptible and unchangeable substances 3. We prove that the soule is not onely immortall by Divine power but also of her owne nature First she is made to the image of God but this image as I have shewed consisteth not onely in supernaturall graces but also in naturall powers and faculties of the soule Secondly the soule is a spirit of her owne nature therefore of her owne nature immortall for spirits are free from the prime qualities which are the causes of corruption Thirdly the soule is a simple uncompounded substance therefore cannot be corruptible for how can that be dissolved which was never compounded And though Tertullian held the materiality yet he acknowledgeth De resur c. 34. the soules immortality to be naturall to her Salva erit anima natura sua per immortalitatem Fourthly if the soule were not in her selfe immortall how should the Heathen Philosophers who knew not God nor the Scriptures dispute so accurately as they do in defence of her incorruptibility But when I say that the soule is immortall by nature my meaning is not that she is the efficient cause of her owne immortality or that she is not mortall and dissoluble by externall power for so God is onely immortall as the Apostle sheweth and as the sixt Tim. 6. Sess. 11. Synod hath defined and some Fathers have proved so that the Angels in this respect
and diastole sec. 59. Paine is not compression but the effect of it All hard things breed not paine nor soft things pleasure The heart is more active then passive because hot Feare sorrow and stupidity how they differ Passion is not the motion of the bloud and spirits but of the sensible appetite Every passion is not motion The division of passions Why birds more musicall then other creatures sec. 60. There are sympathies and antipathies in nature of which we can give no reason which is the punishment of Adams pride sec. 61. Of impressions made in the embryo and of the formative power sec. 62. Substances could not be knowne were it not for qualities No action passion and motion without qualities Alterations from them sec. 63. All bodies are not meerly passive Rare and dense not the primary division of bodies sec. 64. Aristotle not the author of atomes but Democritus sec. 65. The necessity of metaphysicall knowledge Privations and negations conceived as positive entities by Aristotelians how sec. 66. Qualities are not dispositions of parts Beauty is neither composition nor proportion Health is not temper Agility is not proportion nor strength Science is not ordered phantasmes sec. 67. Sir Kenelme modestly reproved for mocking at Aristotelians sec. 68. How and why accidents are in their subjects Accidents are entities Aristotelians vindicated from tautologies Nature aimes at unity why Of similitudes and the ground thereof How man is like to God not God to man sec. 69. The CONTENTS of the second part containing 28. Sections ARistotelians make not heat and cold indivisible qualities Not they but the Masse-Priests turne bodies into spirits sec. 1. Not the nature but the similitude of the thing apprehended is in the man apprehending and therefore the understanding is not the same with the thing understood proved by ten reasons sec. 2. All relations are not notions but reall entities proved by ten reasons sec. 3. Existence is not the property of man but of entity or rather its formality in God onely it is one with essence sec. 4. The soule is more then an active force She sleepeth not in the grave c. sec. 5. Being hath no great affinity with the soule it is neither the end nor the Idea of the soule sec. 6. Things are understood rather by way of similitude then of respect or relation sec. 7. Mans knowledge how finite and infinite God onely absolutely infinite How he is knowne by us here and hereafter How infinity can be knowne sec. 8. Things lose not their being by reason of quantity but by the privation of the forme sec. 9. Mathematicians consider not the natures of things but bare accidents abstracted from sensible matter sec. 10. All life consisteth not in motion Life is not an action but the act How motions come from without how not sec. 11. How the soule is perfect In her no privative but negative imperfections There are accidents in the soule sec. 12. Place is not a body it is neither forme nor matter Whatsoever hath existence hath ubiety even Angels and soules How soules are in their bodies They are not no-where nor are they every-where sec. 13. How time is the measure of motion Time and motion different things When the heavenly motions shall cease there will be time how understood Things below would move though the heavens stood still sec. 14. What things are in time chiefly and primarily How spirits are not in time and how in time Tempus aevum eternitie God onely exempted from time Discrete time sec. 15. The soule is no accident She knoweth not all things There is no exteriour and interiour soule Phantasmes are not bodies All soules have not the same amplitude of knowledge Life is not motion Neither the soule nor the life becomes to be a spirit sec. 16. Both Angels and soules stand in need of externall and internall helps of knowledge Memory remaines in separated soules How the species depend from the phantasie Divers habits left in the soule separated The soules in their understanding differ from the Angels What things they know not God is not understood by species sec. 17. The phantasie worketh not upon the soule but the active intellect upon the passive How the phantasie helps the understanding The phantasie workes in sleep How the soule worketh upon her selfe by meanes of her divers faculties sec. 18. In Angels and departed soules there are actions and perfective passions The want of action argues death rather then life Some actions cease after death not all All actions not corruptive Sir Kenelm contradicts himselfe sec. 19. The soule the subject of memory recordation reminiscence and of oblivion too What habits are left actually and potentially in the soule 'T is a happinesse to be forgetfull of some things sec. 20. Rhetoricall flourishes uselesse and hurtfull in Philosophicall disputes sec. 21. Perfection of knowledge makes not the substance of the soule more perfect The soule ceaseth not to be a soule though shee brings knowledge with her False judgements and erroneous opinions are a part of the punishment of damned soules in hell sec. 22. All effects doe not immediately follow upon the working of the efficient Opus and Operatio The act of entity and of causality are to be distinguished The effect which is the property of the cause followeth immediately God an eternall entity not an eternall cause sec. 23. That the soule is not a materiall but a spirituall substance infused not traduced proved by twenty arguments Of the operations knowledge and liberty of the soule in willing Of her excellency above the senses and corporeall substances this is proved by Scripture In what sense the soule is called corporeall by some Fathers She is no part of the divine essence as some hereticks thought sec. 24. The specificall perfection or excellency of soules is alike in all There may be some difference in accidentall perfections in respect of the organs and phantasie sec. 25. The neerer the Intelligences are to God the more they know The superiour have a greater similitude with God then the inferiour and stand in need of fewer intelligible species All behold Gods essence but not in the same measure Neither is their knowledge equall nor infinitely unequall sec. 26. The soule is not made complete in or by the body but rather incomplete because she is then a part of the whole sec. 27. Nature reason and knowledge are but blind guides to heaven without Christ proved by Scripture and reason What we are by nature How Christ may be called nature reason and knowledge sec. 28. The CONTENTS of the Conclusion containing 17. Sections THe immortality of the soule proved by Scripture sec. 1. The same proved by six reasons grounded on the Scripture sec. 2. That the soule is immortall of her owne nature proved by foure reasons and how this phrase is to be understood sec. 3. The soules immortality proved by thirteen naturall and morall reasons The Gentiles by natures light were not ignorant of this truth
cannot be a notion for Metaphysick tels us that identity is reall And what will you say of that similitude which Adam had with God or which a regenerated man hath consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse Is this image of God in man which by us was lost and now by grace is repaired a bare notion then will our happinesse and joy and hopes and religion consist rather in conceit then in reality Dii meliora piis erroremque hostibus illum Sect. 4. Cap. 1. p. 360. BEING or a thing the formall notion of both which is meerly being is the proper affection of man This anigma would trouble Oedipus or Sphynx himselfe for in your margin by this word being you understand existence But is this the proper affection of man what becomes of other creatures have they no existence If they have then it is not proper to man quarto modo If they have not then they are but entities in possibility for existence is the actuating and restraining of the essence which in it selfe is indeterminate and in possibility to actuality which we call existence therefore existence is not the proper affection of man but of entity as it is in act or rather the formality of actuall entity Besides if existence be the proper affection of man what shall we say of Angels and other spirits nay of God himselfe Is there no existence in them Againe existence is not an affection or propertie for it is no accident but the very essence of the thing actuated which before was in possibility and therefore by Philosophers 't is called actus primus to distinguish it from properties and operations which are called second acts for a thing is first actuated by its existence and then by its properties and operations But what you meane by the formall notion of both Pag. 361. which and of their meerly being I know not Sibylla's leaves are not more obscure to which you may adde your stock of being and the grafts inoculated into it for Pag. 361. with such mists of metaphors you involve your Philosophy against the rules and custome of Philosophers and so you leave your Readers as Sibylla left hers unsatisfied thus Inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae I wish M r. White had helped you here whose aid hath not beene wanting to you at a dead lift hitherto I should trifle away too much time and paper if I should insist or name all your fancies of the tribes as you call them of predicaments whose office you will have to comprehend all the particular notions that man hath and how you will have all entities to be respective and all notions to be grafted on the stock of being c. Abundance of such stuffe with which your booke is fraughted I passe over as being not worth the expence of time and indeed they refute themselves As likewise that you make essence and existence the same whereas they are one and the same in God onely but not in the creatures in whom the essence and existence differ for whilst a thing is in its causes it hath an essence but no existence till it be produced by its causes and as it were quit of them All the knowledge we have of our soule is no more but that Pag 368. c. 2. it is an active force in us I hope you know more of the soule then this to wit that it is an immortall immateriall substance infused by God into the body created of nothing consisting of the intellect and will capable of beatitude You know also I hope that the soule had no being till it was infused into the body and that it is not in a place as bodies are by way of circumscription and that it is all in all and all in every part of the body and that after death it immediatly goeth to hell or heaven not lingring about the grave or sleeping in the dust till the resurrection But it seemes you have not very great knowledge of the soule when you say that a thing apprehended by the soule becomes a part or affection of the soule for neither hath the soule any parts nor can that be an affection of the soule which comes from without In your 5. Chapter you make 1. Being to have a very Sect. 6. Pag. 395. c. 5. neere affinity with the soule 2. To be the end of the soule 3. To be the soules patterne and Idea For the first there is small affinity betweene the soule which is a substance and Being which is neither substance nor accident but a transcendent Being or existence is the generall affection of entity so is not the soule the body hath existence before the soule is infused and when the soule is gone it hath existence still the body hath no more existence from the soule then the soule from the body 2. If being be the end of the soule then it moved God to create it for the end moveth at least metaphorically but sure nothing moved God except his owne goodnesse and glory and how can that existence which God gave to the soule in the creation be the end of its creation Is creation the end of creation and the giving of being the end why being is given what can be more absurd And wereas being is internall and essentiall to the soule how can it be the end which is an externall cause 3. Being is not the patterne or Idea of the soule for Being is intrinsecall to the soule so is not the patterne or Idea but extrinsecall As the Idea or patterne of a building is in the mind of the builder but not in the house which is built and if being is the end of the soule how can it be the Idea for the end excites the action of the agent but the Idea determinates that action and these are very different You will not have the understanding to be the objects it Sect. 7. Pag. 404. c. 6. understands by way of similitude but by way of respects Understanding is by way of similitude not of respect for your son who hath a neere respect or relation to you doth not the more for that understand this your Booke I beleeve he understands books written by strangers to whom he hath no respect better then these your intricate mysteries There are relations and respects between inanimate or senslesse creatures and yet no understanding it is not therefore the respect but the reception of the species into the intellect and its assimilation or similitude with the intellect that makes understanding Besides there are some respects grounded upon similitudes then I hope there are some things understood by way of similitudes I may truly say all things for nothing is understood but what is in the understanding and nothing can be there but by way of similitude every thing is intelligible actually if its similitude be in the intellect actually The amplitude of the soule in respect of knowledge is absolutely Sect. 8. Pag. 405. c. 6.
passive intellect to receive the species being purified and cleered from materiality and those accidents which neither conduce to the essence nor to the intellection if there were not an active power altogether impatible immateriall immortall using neither corporeall organs nor being mixed with corporeall senses which we call the active intellect and which irradiats illuminats intelligible things making them actually intelligible which before were potentially only as the light makes these colours actually aspectable which in the dark were invisible Sect. 19. Pag. 432. c. 10. In the state of a soule exempted from the body there is neither action nor passion which being so the soule cannot die for all corruption comes from the action of another thing This is but a weake argument to prove the soules immortality for actions and passions do neither hinder nor further it In departed soules there remaine loco-motive actions for they move from the body to their ubi where they remaine till the resurrection and then they shall move again to their bodies so the actions of understanding and will remaine in them Shall any then conclude that the soules are mortall because they are the subjects of action and of passion but their passion as I said is perfective The same actions are in Angels both in moving and removing Were the Angels that carried Lazarus his soule into Abrahams bosome mortall or that Angell that carried Habakkuk because of this action Are there not also in Angels the actions of intellect and will Nay action and passion do rather prove immortality and the cessation of these corruption For whilst the body is the soules patient it lives but when it ceaseth from suffering and the soule from acting in it and by it followes immediatly its corruption What think you of the first matter which is the first subject of passion and yet it is eternall à parte post And if you take away all action and passion from departed soules you must abridge them of the joyes they have in the fruition of Gods presence and of their duty in praising him so you rob God of his honour and them of their happinesse Againe we have shewed that habits remaine in departed soules but to what end if there be no action for Habitus est propter actionem and indeed actions are more excellent then habits Againe if there be neither action nor passion in the departed soules they are in the state of death rather then life for life consisteth in action though it selfe be no action and the soule is an act therefore cannot be without action but death is a cessation and rest from all action If you had said that some actions cease in the soule after her departure as generation nutrition and such as are the actions of the whole compound you had said somewhat but to exempt her from all action is to make her a dead body not a living soule and though corruption as you say is the effect of action or indeed rather of passion yet it will not follow that all action is the cause of corruption for there are actions of creation generation conservation c. Lastly you contradict your selfe for here you deny actions in separated souls but in the next Chapter cap. 11. p. 439. you say that the body hinders the soules operations and that her actions will be far greater and more efficacious when she shall be free from the burthen of her body To put forgetfulnesse in a pure spirit so palpable an effect Sect. 20. Pag. 433. c. 11. of corporiety and so great a corruption is an unsufferable errour I do not think oblivion to be an effect of corporietie for as the soul is the subject of memory which is one of her faculties of recordation which is the work of the intellect viewing over the species of reminiscence which is a disquisition or unfolding of the same species if they be clouded or confused so likewise is the same soule the subject of oblivion as the same eye is of sight and blindnesse the same aire of light and darknesse there being the same subject of habit and privation Now there are habits in the soule departed as I have said some actually there as the habit of knowledge some potentially as in their roote and originall such are the sensitive habits where the habit is actually there is the privation potentially but where the habit is potentially there the privation is actually as the habits of seeing hearing c. in the separated soule make it cleere And what we have said of the habits we may say of memory which is a power and faculty in the soule by which she retaines the species why then may there not be in her a deletion losse or abolition of such species the memory whereof will make her rather miserable then happy therefore the blessed soules in heaven remember not the vanities nor infirmities of their former life if they did they could not be truly happy and joyfull and so the oblivion of such things is not in them a corruption as you say but a perfection rather Therefore Albertus Magnus before his death prayed that he might obtaine the oblivion of all former vaine knowledge which might hinder his happinesse in the knowledge of Christ. Sect. 21. Your Rhetoricall descriptions which are both uselesse in and destructive of Philosophy make the soule sometimes equall with God sometimes no better then a corruptible body for to a separated soule you give those attributes proper to God as freedome of essence and subsisting in it selfe a comprehension of place and time that is of Pag. 439 440 441. c. 11. all permanent and successive quantity and the concurrence of infinite knowledge to every action of hers So you give to the soule independency ubiquity infinity which three are Gods due If you lay the fault of this upon your Rhetoricall expressions I must answer you that Rhetorick in such a subject may be well spared use your Rhetorick when you will work upon the affections but not when you will informe the understanding for in this regard you do but cloud not cleere the intellect Rhetorick is like fire and water a good servant but a bad master therefore ought not to be used but with great discretion especially in abstruse questions For this cause Logick was invented to curb and restraine the exorbitancy of Rhetorick If you will dispute like a Philosopher you must lay aside Rhetorick and use Philosophicall termes otherwise you 'l do as the fish Sepia to wit you 'l so thicken the waters of your discourse with that liquor that cometh out of your mouth that you will make your selfe invisible and delude the Reader which is the fashion of those who dare not confide in the strength of their arguments whereas naked truth cares not for such dressings nor seeks she after such corners And indeed you are too much in extremes for you do not more extol a separated then you do abase an incorporated
the mind are not one with those of the body and so in the ninth and tenth Chapters of his Ethicks we may see how he affirmes the immortality of the soule by her desire of beatitude And whereas some think that he held the soule mortall because he saith she depends on the phantasie in her operation they are mistaken for he speaks of the soule as she is united to the body and so she depends on the Phantasie but yet onely objectively instrumentally and occasionally as the Philosophers speake and not efficiently or formally for it is true that the Intellect receives its species from the phantasie and therefore in the body depends antecedently from the phantasie otherwise the Intellect is meerly inorganicall and no waies depending on the phantasie as a proper mover and of it self but onely the passive Intellect thus depends on the active and the act of understanding is altogether independent And so when he sayes that the passive Intellect is corruptible he meanes nothing else but the phantasie or cogitative faculty which because it is in some sort capable of reason he cals the Intellect as he cals the passive Intellect sometimes by the name of phantasie because it is moved by the superiour Intellect And so when he sayes that remembrance and love perish in the soule he meanes that their dependence the one from the phantasie the other from the appetite perisheth because these are corporeall faculties and perish with the body but otherwise recordation and love in respect of their entity remaine in the soule as in their subject So likewise when he saith that the Intellect is in the possibility of the matter he meanes that it is in the possibility of the matter in respect of introduction not of eduction as the matter is capable to receive it when by a superiour power it is thither induced The soule then is in the possibility of the matter by way of reception but not by way of extraction So likewise when he sayes that the dead are not happy he meanes the happinesse of this life which consisteth in operations flowing from the compositum of which the soule is not capable And lastly when he sayes that all have ending which had beginning he meanes of those things which had beginning by generation and so it is true but the soules originall is by creation Out of all then that wee have said it is apparent to any man who is not a wilfull Saducee or Arabian that the soule is every way incorruptible both in respect of grace and in respect of nature both in respect of externall and internall agents both in respect of annihilation and dissolution There is onely an obedientiall power of dissolution in the soule as there is in Angels and in the heavenly bodies by the infinite power of the Almighty and that rather by the negative act of his influx then any positive act of resolving that into nothing which he made of nothing so that the soule hath no parts principles or causes in her selfe of corruption nor of annihilation Such reasons and arguments I take to be more evincing then these far-fetched notions of Sir Kenelm's which he hath clothed with too many words whereas Philosophicall arguments sort not well with Rhetoricall flourishes and Tullian pigments Now let us see what hath of old been or can of late be objected against this knowne and generally acknowledged truth by the impugners thereof Sect 6. Object 1. First they say that the soule is immortall by grace not by nature To which I answer that shee is immortall by both by grace in that the soule hath her dependence from God the first and sole independent entitie of whom and by whom she is what she is and so by that entitie as I said shee may be deprived of that being which of his bounty she obtained for though she be free from subject and termination yet she is not free from the causality of the first agent Shee is also immortall by nature in that there is nothing either in her owne or in the universall created nature that can destroy or dissolve her Our bodies are destroyed either by externall agents or by internall the naturall heat wasting our radicall moisture as a candle that is either wasted by the wind or by its owne heat but in the soule which is a spirit there is no such thing Secondly they alledge Solomons words for them Eccles Sect. 7. Object 2. 3. 19. where hee saith There is one end of man and beasts as man dieth so doe they Answ. Here is no comparison between mans soule and that of beasts but between the death of the one and of the other so that both are lyable to death and corruption and to outward violence and inward distempers which procure death in both and both are so lyable to the law and dominion of death that from thence there is no redemption or returning by the course of nature So that it 's no more possible for man to avoid death or its dominion of himselfe then it is for a beast Secondly Solomon speakes not this in his owne person but in the person of the Atheist who will not forgo his earthly pleasures because hee beleeves not any heavenly or any life after this Thirdly they would make Iob plead for them when Sect. 8. Object 3. he sayes there is more hope of a tree cut downe then there is of man Iob 14. Answ. Iob speakes not there in his owne person but in the person of a wicked man Secondly though hee did speak this as from himselfe yet this will not availe our moderne Saducees for by the course of nature man cannot revive againe though the tree may sprout again after it is cut which the Poet intimates when he sayes Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit mox Horat. lib. 4. od 7. Bruma recurret iners Damna tamen celeres reparant coelestia Lunae Nos ubi decidimus Quò pius Aenaeas quò Tullus dives Ancus Pulvis umbra sumus Thirdly man shall not returne againe to live that life or to performe those functions which he did in this world when he lived here but hence it will not follow that man shall not be raised by that power which gave him being at the first or that he shall enjoy no life because he shall not enjoy this life Fourthly they would faine draw in Austin to their Sect. 9. Object 4. side because sometimes he doubts of the manner of the soules production whether it is by creation or traduction Answ. 'T is true that sometimes hee doubted of the manner how the soule entered into the bodie because he doubted of the manner how originall sin is propagated but will this prove that therefore hee doubted of the soules immortalitie which hee strongly maintaines throughout all his Workes And so hee doth also the soules creation and infusion although in a few places he speaks doubtfully of traduction so farre as it hath relation
no other home to rest in but a cold and stinking grave and no other companions but wormes better is the condition of beasts then of Christians Surely the place of our future rest should not be called the Land of the living if our soules there must die And why should the Angels be so carefull of us here if they must be debarred of our company hereafter In vaine are our soules fed here with the Bread that came downe from Heaven if they must not enjoy that same bread againe in heaven Our condition will be far worse then that of the Prodigals if we shall be fed with husks here and not have accesse when we returne by death to eat bread in our Fathers house where is such exuberant plenty Can Christ the Bridegroome of our soules suffer himselfe to be perpetually separated from his Bride whom he hath bought with so high a price as his owne blood Our life is a warfare what encouragement have we to fight the good fight if we enjoy not the Crowne of righteousnesse Hath Christ no other reward for his souldiers but a crowne of thornes then indeed we fight as one that beateth the aire and we were better with Caligula's souldiers spend our time in gathering of shels and pebble-stones then fight under the standard of such a Generall But indeed we need not feare for he that permitted the soule of the penitent thiefe into Paradise and by the ministery of his Angels conveyed the soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome and when himselfe gave up the Ghost recommended his soule into the hands of his Father will not leave our soules in hell nor will he suffer his holy ones to see corruption Though the shell of our bodies be broken the precious kernell of our soules shall not be lost these earthen pots may crack but the jewels in them shall be preserved There lieth a hid Mannah within not our golden but our earthen pots which is not capable of wormes and corruption Let that proud insulting Conquerour who rides upon the pale horse bruise the satchels of our bodies as the Tyrant did that of Anacharsis unto dust yet over our soules which are our selves he hath no power Be not dismaid though our mistresse Nature strip us of the garment of our body as Potiphars wife did Ioseph yet of our soules she cannot rob us she gave us the garment it is her owne she may challenge it but the soule was no gift of hers she hath no title to it she cannot claime it Diseases infirmities and injuries like so many Sodomites may beset these houses of our bodies but they cannot injure our soules which are the Angels lodged within us The celestiall fire of our soules shall never be extinguished though the temples of our bodies in which they burne shall be destroyed That fire which consumed the Temple of Peace at Rome did no hurt to the Palladium that was in it neither shall the conflagration of our bodies in a Calenture or Burning-feaver prejudice or hurt our soules The Vestall Virgins were not more carefull to rescue the Palladium from the flame then the good Angels our ministring spirits shall be to convey our soules out of these flames unto a place of refreshing Therefore my soule shall not be dismaid though she be carried in this weake and leaking ship of an infirme body on the waves of the Red sea of persecution for even from hence she smels by faith the sweet odours of her heavenly Arabia though as yet with her bodily eyes she cannot see it The hot firy furnace of affliction shall no more consume and annoy her then the flame did consume the firie bush or the firie furnace of Babylon did the three Children The Presteres live in the fire and are not burned fresh waters spring out of the salt Sea and yet are not thereby infected nor are the fishes salt which live in salt water neither shall our Soule either suffer by sicknesse in the body or die with the body but after she hath fought the good fight like a Conquerour or Emperour she shall be carried out of this campus Martius upon the shoulders not of Senators but of Angels And as an Eagle flew out of the funerall pile when it was set on fire leaving the body of the Emperour to be consumed so shall our soules flye up unto their Maker leaving their bodies to be wasted by time and corruption For as it is impossible for the body to die till the soule forsake it which is the life of it so much more impossible is it for the soule to die untill God who is her life forsake her and that will never be till God himselfe cease to be for he hath promised never to forsake us his love like himselfe is unchangeable A mother may forget the fruit of her wombe fathers and mothers may and will forsake us but the Lord will never forget or forsake us but when friends and all leave us he will then receive us therefore let our soules magnifie the LORD and let our spirits rejoyce in God our SAVIOUR FINIS