dark And first touching the Body of Man The Epicureans attributed its Original as that of all things else to the Casual Concourse of Atoms and the Stoicks absurdly and injuriously enough but much more pardonably than their follower herein Mr. Hobbs would have Men to spring up like Mushrooms out of the ground and whereas other Philosophers maintain conceits about it too wild to be here recited the Book of Genesis assures us that the Body of Man was first form'd by God in a peculiar manner of a Terrestrial Matter and 't is there described as having been perfected before the Soul was united to it And as Theology thus teaches us how the Body of Man had its first beginning so it likewise assures us what shall become of the Body after death though bare Natural Reason will scarce be pretended to reach to so abstruse and difficult an Article as that of a Resurrection which when propos'd by St. Paul produc'd among the Athenian Philosophers nothing else but wonder or laughter Not to mention that Theology teaches us divers other things about the Origine and Condition of Mens Bodies as That all Mankind is the Off-spring of One Man and one Woman That the first Woman was not made of the same Matter nor after the same Manner as the first Man but was afterwards taken from his side That both Adam and Eve were not as many Epicureans and other Philosophers fanci'd that the first men were first Infants whence they did as we do grow by degrees to be mature and compleat Humane Persons but were made so all at once and That hereafter as all mens Bodies shall rise again so they shall all or at least all those of the just be kept from ever dying a second time And as for the Humane Soul though I willingly grant that much may be deduc'd from the Light of Reason onely touching its Existence Properties and Duration yet Divine Revelation teaches it us with more clearness and with greater Authority as sure he that made our Souls and upholds them can best know what they are and how long he will have them last And as the Scripture expresly teaches us that the Rational Soul is distinct from the Body as not being to be destroy'd by those very Enemies that kill the Body so about the Origine of this Immortal Soul about which Philosophers can give us but wide and precarious conjectures Theology assures us that the Soul of man had not such an Origination as those of other Animals but was Gods own immediate Workmanship and was united to the Body already form'd And yet not so united but that upon their Divorce she will survive and pass into a state in which Death shall have no power over her I expect you will here object that for the knowledge of the Perpetual Duration of separate Souls we need not be beholding to the Scripture since the Immortality of the Soul may be sufficiently prov'd by the sole Light of Nature and particularly has been demonstrated by your great Des Cartes But you must give me leave to tell you that besides that a matter of that weight and concernment cannot be too well prov'd and consequently ought to procure a welcome for all good Mediums of Probation besides this I say I doubt many Cartesians do as well as others mistake both the difficulty under consideration and the scope of Des Cartes's Discourse For I grant that by Natural Philosophy alone the Immortality of the Soul may be prov'd against its usual Enemies Atheists and Epicureans For the ground upon which these men think it mortal being That 't is not a true substance but onely a modification of Body which consequently must perish when the frame or structure of the Body whereto it belongs is dissolv'd Their ground being this I say if we can prove by some Intellectual Operations of the Rational Soul which Matter however modifi'd cannot reach That it is a Substance distinct from the Humane Body there is no reason why the Dissolution of the Latter should infer the Destruction of the Former which is a simple Substance and as real a Substance as Matter it self which yet the Adversaries affirm to be Indestructible But though by the Mental Operations of the Rational Soul and perhaps by other Mediums it may against the Epicureans and other meer Naturalists who will not allow God to have any thing to do in the case be prov'd to be Immortal in the sense newly propos'd yet the same Proofs will not evince that absolutely it shall never cease to be if we dispute with Philosophers who admit as the Cartesians and many others do that God is the sole Creator and Preserver of all things For how are we sure but that God may have so ordain'd That though the Soul of Man by the continuance of his ordinary and upholding Concourse may survive the Body yet as 't is generally believ'd not to be created till it be just to be infus'd into the Body so it shall be annihilated when it parts with the Body God withdrawing at death that supporting influence which alone kept it from relapsing to its first Nothing Whence it may appear that notwithstanding the Physical proofs of the Spirituality and separableness of the Humane Soul we are yet much beholding to Divine Revelation for assuring us that its Duration shall be endless And now to make good what I was intimating above concerning the Cartesians and the scope of Des Cartes's Demonstration I shall appeal to no other than his own Expressions to evince that he consider'd this matter for the main as we have done and pretended to demonstrate that the Soul is a Distinct Substance from the Body but not that absolutely speaking it is Immortal Cur answers that excellent Author de immortalitate Animae nihil scripserim jam dixi in Synopsi mearum Meditationum Quod ejus ab omni corpore distinctionem satis probaverim supra ostendi Quod vero additis Ex distinctione Animae á corpore non sequi ejus Immortalitatem quia nihilominus dici potest illam à Deo talis naturae factam esse ut ejus Duratio simul cum Duratione vitae corporeae finiatur fateor á me refelli non posse Neque enim tantum mihi assumo ut quicquam de iis quae à libera Dei voluntate dependent humanae rationis vi determinare aggrediar Docet Naturalis cognitio c. Sed si de absoluta Dei potestate quaeratur an forte decreverit ut humanae animae iisdem Temporibus esse desinant quibus Corpora quae illis adjunxit solius Dei est respondere And if he would not assume to demonstrate by Natural Reason so much as the Existence of the Soul after death unless upon a supposition we may well presume that he would less take upon him to determine what shall be the condition of that Soul after it leaves the Body And that you may not doubt of
this I will give you for it his own confession as he freely writ it in a private Letter to that Admirable Lady the Princess Elizabeth first Daughter to Frederick King of Bohemia who seems to have desir'd his Opinion on that important Question about which he sends her this Answer Pour ce qui c. i. e. As to the State of the Soul after this Life my knowledge of it is far inferiour to that of Monsieur he means Sir Kenelm Digby For setting aside that which Religion teaches us of it I confess that by meeâ— Natural Reason we may indeed make many conjectures to our own advantage and have fair Hopes but not any Assurance And accordingly in the next clause he gives the imprudence of quitting what is certain for an uncertainty as the cause why according to Natural Reason we are never to seek Death Nor do I wonder he should be of that mind For all that meer Reason can demonstrate may be reduced to these two things One that the Rational Soul being an Incorporeal Substance there is no necessity that it should perish with the Body so that if God have not otherwise appointed the Soul may survive the Body and last for ever The other that the Nature of the Soul according to Des Cartes consisting in its being a Substance that thinks we may conclude that though it be by death separate from the Body it will nevertheless retain the power of thinking But now whether either of these two things or both be sufficient to endear the state of separation after death to a considering man I think may be justly question'd For Immortality or Perseverance in Duration simply consider'd is rather a thing presuppos'd to or a requisite of Felicity than a part of it and being in it self an adiaphorous thing assumes the nature of the state or condition to which 't is joyn'd and does not make that state happy or miserable but makes the possessors of it more happy or more miserable than otherwise they would be And though some School-men upon Aery Metaphysical Notions would have men think it is more eligible to be wretched than not to be at all yet we may oppose to their speculative subtilties the sentiments of Mankind and the far more considerable Testimony of the Saviour of Mankind who speaking of the Disciple that betray'd him says That it had been good for that man if he had never been born And Eternity is generally conceived to aggravate no less the miseries of Hell than it heightens the joys of Heaven And here we may consider first That meer Reason cannot so much as assure us absolutely that the Soul shall survive the Body For the Truth of which we have not onely Cartesius's Confession lately recited but a probable Argument drawn from the nature of the thing since as the Body and Soul were brought together not by any meer Physical Agents and since their Association and Union whilst they continued together was made upon Conditions that depended solely upon Gods free and arbitrary Institution so for ought Reason can secure us of one of the Conditions of that Association may be That the Body and Soul should not survive each other Secondly supposing that the Soul be permitted to outlive the Body meer Reason cannot inform us what will become of her in her separate state whether she will be vitally united to any other kind of Body or Vehicle and if to some of what kind that will be and upon what terms the Union will be made For possibly she may be united to an unorganiz'd or very imperfectly organiz'd Body wherein she cannot exercise the same Functions she did in her Humane Body As we see that even in this Life the Souls of Natural Fools are united to Bodies wherein they cannot discourse or at least cannot Philosophize And 't is plain that some Souls are introduc'd into Bodies which by reason of Paralytical and other Diseases they are unable to move though that does not always hinder them from being obnoxious to feel pain So that for ought we naturally know a Humane Soul separated from the Body may be united to such a portion of Matter that she may neither have the power to move it nor the advantage of receiving any agreeable Informations by its interventions having upon the account of that Union no other sense than that of pain But let us now consider what will follow if I should grant that the Soul will not be made miserable by being thus wretchedly matched Suppose we then that she be left free to enjoy what belongs to her own nature That being onely the Power of always thinking it may well be doubted whether th'exercise of that Power wil suffice to make her happy You will perchance easily believe that I love as well as another to entertain my self with my own thoughts and to enjoy them undisturbed by visits and other avocations I would onely accompanied by a Servant and a Book go to dine at an Inn upon a Road to enjoy my thoughts the more freely for that day But yet I think the most contemplative men would at least in time grow weary of thinking if they received no supply of Objects from without by Reading Seeing or Conversing and if they also wanted the opportunity of executing their thoughts by moving the Members of their Bodies or of imparting them either by Discoursing or Writing of Books or by making of Experiments On this occasion I remember that I knew a Gentleman who was in Spain for a State-crime which yet he thought an Heroick action kept close prisoner for a year in a place where though he had allowed him a Diet not unfit for a Person of Note as he was yet he was not permitted the benefit of any Light either of the Day or Candles and was not accosted by any humane creature save at certain times by the Jaylor that brought him meat and drink but was strictly forbidden to converse with him Now though this Gentleman by his discourse appear'd to be a man of a lively humour yet being ask'd by me how he could do to pass the time in that sad solitude he confessed to me that though he had the liberty of walking too and fro in his Prison and though by often recalling into his mind all the adventures and other passages of his former life and by several ways combining and diversifying his Thoughts he endeavoured to give his mind as much variety of employment as he was able yet that would not serve his turn but he was often reduc'd by drinking large draughts of Wine and then casting himself upon his bed to endeavour to drown that Melancholly which the want of new objects cast him into And I can easily admit he found a great deal of difference between the sense he had of thinking when he was at liberty and that which he had when he was confin'd to that employment whose delightfulness like fire cannot last long when it is as his was denied
ex rebus sublimibus neque item quod ex ipsa morte ne quando nimirum ad nos pertine at aliquid ac nosse praeterea possemus qui Germani fines dolorum atque cupiditatum sint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil Physiologiâ indigeremus Thus far the testimony of Epicurus of whose mind though I am not at all as to what he would intimate That Physiology is either proper to free the Mind from the Belief of a Provident Deity and the Souls Immortality or fit for no other considerable purposes yet this use we may well make of these Declarations that in Epicurus's opinion a Moral Advantage that relates to the Government of the Affections may deserve the pains of making Inquiries into Nature And since it hence appears that a meer Philosopher who admitted no Providence may think it worth his pains to search into the abstrusest parts of Physicks and the difficultest Phaenomena of Nature onely to ease himself of one troublesome Affection Fear it need not be thought Unphilosophical to prosecute a Study that will not onely Restrain One undue Passion but Advance All Vertues and free us from all Servile Fears of the Deity and tend to give us a strong and well-grounded Hope in Him and make us look upon Gods greatest Power not with Terrour but with Joy There is yet another Advantage belonging to the study of Divine Truths which is too great to be here pretermitted For whereas there is scarce any thing more incident to us whilst we inhabit our Batté Chómer Cottages of Clay and dwell in this vale of tears than Afflictions it ought not a little to endear to us the newly mention'd Study that it may be easily made to afford us very powerful Consolations in that otherwise uneasie state I know it may be said that the Speculations about which the Naturalist is busied are as well pleasing Diversions as noble Imployments of the Mind And I deny not that they are often so when the Mind is not hinder'd from applying it self attentively to them so that Afflictions slight and short may well be weather'd out by these Philosophical Avocations but the Greater and Sharper sort of Afflictions and the approaches of Death require more powerful Remedies than these Diversions can afford us For in such cases the Mind is wont to be too much discompos'd to apply the attention requisite to the finding a pleasure in Physical Speculations and in Sicknesses the Soul is oftentimes as indispos'd to relish the Pleasures of meerly Humane Studies as the languishing Body is to relish those Meats which at other times were delightful And there are but few that can take any great pleasure to study the World when they apprehend themselves to be upon the point of being driven out of it and in danger of losing all their share in the Objects of their Contemplation It will not much qualifie our Sense of the burning heat of a Feaver or the painful gripes of the Cholick to know That the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right ones or that Heat is not a real Quality as the Schools would have it but a Modification of the Motion of the Insensible parts of Matter and Pain not a Distinct Inherent Quality in the things that produce it but an Affection of the Sentiment The Naturalists Speculations afford him no Consolations that are extraordinary in or peculiar to the state of Affliction and the Avocations they present him with do rather Amuse the mind from an Attention to lesser Evils than bring it any Advantages to Remove or Compensate them and so work rather in the nature of Opiates than of true Cordials But now if such a Person as Dr. N. falls into Adversity the case is much otherwise for we must consider that when the study of Divine things is such as it ought to be though That in it self or in the Nature of the Imployment be an act or exercise of Reason yet being apply'd to out of Obedience and Gratitude and Love to God it is upon the account of its Motives and its Aim an act of Religion and as it proceeds from Obedience and Thankfulness and Love to God so it is most acceptable to him and upon the account of his own Appointment as well as Goodness is a most proper and effectual means of obtaining his Favour and then I presume it will easily be granted that he who is so happy as to enjoy That can scarce be made miserable by Affliction For not now to enter upon the Common-place of the Benefits of Afflictions to them that love God and to them that are lov'd by him it may suffice that he who as the Scripture speaks knows our frame and has promised those that are his that they shall not be Over-burden'd is dispos'd and wont to give his afflicted Servants both extraordinary Comforts in Afflictions and Comforts appropriated to that state For though Natural Philosophy be like its brightest Object the Stars which however the Astronomer can with pleasure Contemplate them are unable being meer Natural Agents to afford him a kinder Influence than usual in case he be cast upon his Bed of Languishing or into Prison yet the Almighty and Compassionate Maker of the Stars being not onely a Voluntary but the most Free Agent can suit and proportion his Reliefs to our Necessities and alleviate our heaviest Afflictions by such supporting Consolations that not onely they can never surmount our Patience but are oftentimes unable so much as to hinder our Joy and when Death that King of Terrours presents it self whereas the meer Naturalist sadly expects to be depriv'd of the pleasure of his knowledge by losing those Senses and that World which are the Instruments and the Objects of it and perhaps discovering beyond the Grave nothing but either a state of Eternal Destruction or of Eternal Misery fears either to be Confin'd for ever to the Sepulchre or expos'd to Torments that will make even such a Condition desirable the pious Student of Divine Truths is not onely freed from the wracking Apprehensions of having his Soul reduc'd to a state of Annihilation or cast into Hell but enjoys a comfortable expectation of finding far greater Satisfaction than ever in the Study he now rejoyces to have pursu'd since the change that is so justly formidable to others will but bring him much nearer to the Divine Oâ—jects of his devout Curiosity and strangely Elevate and Inlarge his Faculties to apprehend them And this leads me to the mention of the last Advantage belonging to the study I would perswade you to and indeed the highest Advantage that can recommend Any Study or invite Men to any Undertaking for this is no less than the Everlasting fruition of the Divine Objects of our Studies hereafter and the comfortable Expectation of it here For the employing of ones time and parts to admire the Nature and Providence of God and contemplate the Divine Mysteries of Religion as it is one of the
Impressions on the Sensories they variously move the Fibres or Threds of the Nerves wherewith those parts are endow'd and by which the Motion is propagated to that little Kernel in the Brain call'd by many Writers the Conarion where these differing motions being perceiv'd by the there residing Soul become Sensations because of the intimate union and as it were Permistion as Cartesius himself expresses it of the Soul with the Body But now Sir give me leave to take notice that this Union of an Incorporeal with a Corporeal Substance and that without a Medium is a thing so unexampled in Nature and so difficult to comprehend that I somewhat question whether the profound Secrets of Theology not to say the adorable Mystery it self of the Incarnation be more abstruse than this For how can I conceive that a Substance purely immaterial should be united without a Physical Medium for in this case there can be none with the Body which cannot possibly lay hold on It and which It can pervade and flie away from at pleasure as Des-Cartes must confess the Soul actually does in Death And 't is almost as difficult to conceive how any part of the Body without excepting the Animal Spirits or the Conarion for these are as truly Corporeal as other parts of the Humane Statue can make Impressions upon a Substance perfectly Incorporeal and which is not immediately affected by the motions of any other parts besides the Genus Nervosum Nor is it a small difficulty to a meer Naturalist who as such does not in Physical matters take notice of Revelations about Angels to conceive how a finite Spirit can either move or which is much the same thing regulate and determine the motion of a Body But that which I would on this occasion invite you to consider is that supposing the Soul does in the Brain perceive the differing motions communicated to the outward Senses yet this however it may give some account of Sensation in general will not at all show us a satisfactory Reason of particular and distinct Sensations For if I demand why for Instance when I look upon a Bell that is ringing such a motion or impression in the Conarion produces in the mind that peculiar sort of perception Seeing and not Hearing and another motion though coming from the same Bell at the same time produces that quite differing sort of perception that we call Sound but not Vision what can be answered but that it was the good pleasure of the Author of Humane Nature to have it so And if the question be ask'd about the differing Objects of any one particular Sense as Why the great plenty of unperturbed Light that is reflected from Snow Milk c does produce a Sensation of whiteness rather than redness or yellowness Or why the smell of Castor or Assa foetida produces in most persons that which they call a Stink rather than a Perfume especially since we know some Hysterical Women that think it not onely a wholesome but a pleasing smell And if also you further ask why Melody and sweet things do generally delight us and discords and bitter things do generally displease us Nay why a little more than enough of some Objects that produce pleasure will produce pain as may be exemplifi'd in a cold hand as it happens to be held out at a just or at too near a distance from the fire If I say these and a thousand other questions of the like kind be ask'd the Answer will be but the general one that is already given that such is the nature of Man For to say that moderate Motions are agreeable to the nature of the Sensory they are excited in but violent and disorderly ones as jâ—ring Sounds and scorching Heat do put it into too violent a motion for its Texture will by no means satisfie For besides that this Answer gives no account of the variety of Sensations of the same kind as of differing Colours Tastes c. but reaches onely to Pleasure and Pain even as to these it will reach but a very little way unless the Givers of it can show how an Immaterial Substance should be more harm'd by the brisker motion of a Body than by the more languid And as you and your Friend think you may justly smile at the Aristotelians for imagining that they have given a tolerable account of the Qualities of Bodies when they have told us that they spring from certain substantial Forms though when they are ask'd particular Questions about these Incomprehensible Forms they do in effect but tell us in general that they have such and such Faculties or Effects because Nature or the Author of Nature endow'd them therewith so I hope you will give me leave to think that it may keep us from boasting of the Clearness and Certainty of our knowledge about the Operations of sensible Objects whilst as the Aristotelians cannot particularly show how their Qualities are produc'd so we cannot particularly explicate how they are perceiv'd the principal thing that we can say being in substance this that our Sensations depend upon such an union or permistion of the Soul and Body as we can give no Example of in all Nature nor no more distinct account of than that it pleased God so to couple them together But I beg your pardon for having detain'd you so long upon one Subject though perhaps it will not prove time mis-spent if it have made you take notice that in spight of the clearness and certainty for which your Friend so much prefers Physicks before Theology we are Yet to seek I say Yet because I know not what Time may Hereafter discover both for the Definition of a Corporeal Substance and a satisfactory account of the manner of Sensation though without the true Notion of a Body we cannot understand that Object of Physicks in general and without knowing the Nature of Sensation we cannot know That from whence we derive almost all that we know of any Body in particular If after all this your Friend shall say That Des-Cartes's account of Body and other things in Physicks being the best that men can give if they be not satisfactory it must be imputed to Humane Nature not to the Cartesian Doctrine I shall not stay to dispute how far the allegation is true especially since though it be admitted it will not prejudice my Discourse For whatsoever the Cause of the imperfection of our Knowledge about Physical matters be that there is an Imperfection in that Knowledge is manifest and that ought to be enough to keep us from being puffed up by such an imperfect Knowledge and from undervaluing upon its account the study of those mysteries of Divinity which by reason of the Nobleness and Remoteness of the Objects may much better than the Nature of Corporeal things which we see and feel and continually converse with have their obscurity attributed to the weakness of our humane Understandings And if it be a necessary Imperfection