Incorruption Which Place being undoubtedly not to be Allegorized it may be from thence inferred that the Happy Resurrection-Body shall not be this Foul and Gross Body of ours only Varnished and Guilded over on the outside of it it remaining still Nasty Sluttish and Ruinous within and having all the same Seeds of Corruption and Mortality in its Nature which it had before though by perpetual Miracle kept off it being as it were by Violence defended from being Seised upon and devoured by the Jaws of Death but that it shall be so Inwardly changed in its Nature as that the Possessers thereof Cannot die any more But all this which hath been said of the Resurrection-Body is not so to be understood as if it belonged Vniversally to all that shall be Raised up at the last day or made to appear upon the Earth as in their own Persons at that Great and General Assizes That they shall have all alike wicked as well as Good such Glorious Spiritual and Celestial Bodies but it is only a Description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection of Life which is Emphatically called also by our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection from the dead or to a Happy Immortality as they who shall be thought worthy thereof are likewise Styled by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Children of the Resurrection Of which Resurrection only it is that S. Paul treateth in that Fifteenth Chapter of his to the Corinthians And we say that this Christian Resurrection of Life is the Vesting and Setling of the Souls of Good men in their Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies The Complete Happiness of a man and all the Good that can be desired by him Was by the Heathen Poet thus Summed up Vt sit Mens Sana in Corpore Sano That there be a Sound Mind in a Sound Body and the Christian Happiness seems to be all comprized in these Two Things First in being Inwardly Regenerated and Renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Cleansed from all Pollution of Flesh and Spirit and made partakers of the Divine Life and Nature and then Secondly in being Outwardly Clothed with Glorious Spiritual Celestial and Incorruptible Bodies The Scripture plainly declareth that our Souls are not at Home here in this Terrestrial Body and These Earthly Mansions but that they are Strangers and Pilgrims there in it which the Patriarchs also confessing plainly declared that they Sought a Country not that which they came out from but a Heavenly one From which passages of Scripture some indeed would infer that Souls being at first Created by God Pure Pre-Existed before this their Terrene Nativity in Celestial Bodies but afterwards stragled and wandered down hither as Philo for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul saith he having left its Heavenly Mansion came down into this Earthly Body as a strange place But thus much is certain that Our Humane Souls were at first intended and designed by God Almighty the Maker of them for other Bodies and other Regions as their proper Home and Country and their Eternal Resting Place however to us that be not First which is Spiritual but that which is Natural and afterwards that which is Spiritual Now though some from that of St. Paul where he calls this Happy Resurrection-Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That house of ours that is from Heaven or which cometh out of Heaven would infer that therefore it will not be taken out of Graves and Charnel Houses they conceiving also that the Individuation and Sameness of mens Persons does not necessarily depend upon the Numerical Identity of all the Parts of Matter because we never continue thus the Same our Bodies always flowing like a River and passing away by Insensible Transpiration and it is certain that we have not all the same Numerical Matter and neither more nor less both in Infancy and in Old Age though we be for all that the self Same Persons yet nevertheless according to the best Philosophy which acknowledges no Essential or Specifical Difference of Matter the Foulest and Grossest Body that is meerly by Motion may not only be Chrystallized but also brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Ether And undoubtedly that Same Numerical Body of our Saviour Christ which lay in the Sepulchre was after his Resurrection thus Transformed into a Spiritual and Heavenly Body the Subtlety and Tenuity whereof appeared from his entring in when the doors were shut and his vanishing out of sight however its Glory were for the time suspended partly for the better convincing his Disciples of the Truth of his Resurrection and partly because they were not then able to bear the Splendor of it We conclude therefore that the Christian Mystery of the Resurrection of Life consisteth not in the Souls being reunited to these Vile Rags of Mortality these Gross Bodies of ours such as now they are but in having them Changed into the Likeness of Christ's Glorious Body and in this Mortal's putting on Immortality Hitherto have we seen the Agreement that is betwixt Christianity and the Old Philosophick Cabbala concerning the Soul in these Two Things First That the highest Happiness and Perfection of the Humane Soul consisteth not in a State of Pure Separation from all Body and Secondly that it does not consist neither in an Eternal Vnion with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these Unchanged the Soul being not at Home but a Stranger and Pilgrim in them and Oppressed with the Load of them but that at last the Souls of Good men shall arrive at Glorious Spiritual Heavenly and Immortal Bodies But now as to that Point Whether Humane Souls be always United to some Body or other and consequently when by Death they put off this Gross Terrestrial Body they are not thereby quite Devested and Strip'd Naked of all Body but have a Certain Subtle and Spirituous Body still adhering to them and accompanying them Or else Whether all Souls that have departed out of this Life from the very beginning of the World have ever since continued in a State of Separation from all Body and shall so continue forwards till the Day of Judgment or General Resurrection We must confess that this is a thing not so explicitely Determined or expresly Decided in Christianity either way Nevertheless it is First of all certain from Scripture That Souls Departed out of these Terrestial Bodies are therefore neither Dead nor Asleep till the Last Trump and General Resurrection but still Alive and Awake our Saviour Christ affirming That they all Live unto God the meaning whereof seems to be this that they who are said to be Dead are Dead only unto Men here upon Earth but neither Dead unto themselves nor yet unto God their Life being not Extinct but only Disappearing to us and withdrawn from our sight for as much as they are gone off this Stage which we still continue to act upon And thus is it said also of our Saviour Christ himself
and that after his Resurrection too That he Liveth unto God Romans the 6. the 10. From whence it is evident that they who are said to Live to God are not therefore supposed to be less Alive than they were when they Lived unto men Now it seemeth to be a Priviledge or Prerogative Proper to the Deity only to Live and Act alone without Vital Vnion or Conjunction with any Body Quaerendum saith Origen Si Possibile est penitus Incorporeas remanere Rationabiles Creaturas cum ad summum Sanctitatis ac Beatudinis venerint An necesse est eas semper Conjunctas esse Corporibus It is worth our Enquiry Whether it be possible for Rational Creatures to remain Perfectly Incorporeal and Separate from all Body when they are arrived to the Highest Degree of Holiness and Happiness Or Whether they be always of necessity conjoyned with some Bodies And afterwards he plainly affirmeth it to be Impossible Vivere praeter Corpus Vllam aliam Naturam praeter Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum For any other Nature besides the Father and the Son and Holy Ghost to live quite without a Body Indeed if this were most Natural to the Humane Soul and most Perfective of it to continue Separate from all Body then doubtless as Origen Implied should the Souls of Good men rather After the day of Judgment continue in such a State of Separation to all Eternity But on the contrary If it be Natural to Souls to Enliven and Enform some Body or other though not always a Terrestrial one as our Inward Sense inclines us to think then can it not seem so probable that they should by a kind of Violence be kept so long in an Vn-Natural or Preter-Natural State of Nakedness and Separation from all Body some of them even from Adam till the day of Judgment Again the Scripture also Intimates that Souls Departed out of this Life have a Knowledge of one another and are also capable of the Punishment of Sense or Pain Fear him saith our Saviour who After he hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell Luke the 12. And the Soul of the Rich Man is said to be immediately after Death in Torments before the Day of Judgment as likewise to have Known Abraham and Lazarus And it seems neither agreeable to our Common Notions nor yet to Piety to conclude That the Souls of wicked men departing out of this Life from the beginning of the world in their several Ages till the Day of Judgment have all of them no manner of Punishment inflicted on them save only that of Remorse of Conscience and Future Expectation Now it is not conceivable how Souls after Death should Know and be Knowable and Converse with one another and have any Punishment of Sense or Pain inflicted on them were they not Vitally Vnited to some Bodies And thus did Tertullian reason long ago Dolet apud Inferos Anima cujusdam Punitur in Flamma Cruciatur in Linguâ de digito animae foelicioris implorat Solatium Roris Imaginem existimas exitum illum Pauperis Laetantis Divitis moerentis Et quid illic Lazari nomen si non in veritate res est Sed etsi Imago credenda est testimonium erit veritatis Si enim non habet Anima Corpus non caperet Imaginem Corporis Nec mentiretur de Corporalibus Membris Scriptura si non erant Quid est autem illud quod ad Inferna transfertur post Divortium Corporis quod detinetur in Diem Judicii reservatur Ad quod Christus moriendo descendit puto ad Animas Patriarcharum Incorporalitas Animae ab omni genere Custodiae libera est immunis à Poena à Fovel◠Per quod enim Punitur aut Fovetur hoc erit Corpus Igitur siquid Tormenti sive Solatii Anima praecepit in Carcere vel Diversorio Inferûm in Igni vel in Sinu Abrahae probata erit Corporalitas Animae Incorporalitas enim nihil Patitur non habens per quod Pati possit aut si habet hoc erit Corpus In quantum enim Omne Corporale Passibile est in tantum quod Passibile est Corporale est We read in Scripture of a Soul Tormented in Hell Punished with Flames and desirous of a drop of water to cool his Tongue You will say perhaps that this is Parabolical and Fictitious What then does the name of Lazarus signifie there if it were no Real thing But if it be a Parable never so much yet must it notwithstanding as to the main speak agreeably to Truth For if the Soul after Death have no Body at all then can it not have any Corporeal Image Shape or Figure Nor can it be thought that the Scripture would Lie concerning Corporal Members if there were none But what is that which after its Separation from this Body is carried down into Hell and there detained Prisoner and reserved till the day of Judgment And what is that which Christ dying descended down unto I suppose to the Souls of the Patriarchs But Incorporality is free from all Custody or Imprisonment as also devoid of Pain and Pleasure Wherefore if Souls be sensible of Pain after Death and Tormented with Fire then must they needs have some Corporeity for Incorporality suffers Nothing And as every Corporeal thing is Passive or Patible so again whatsoever is Passive is Corporeal Tertullian would also further confirm this from a Vision or Revelation of a certain Sister-Prophet Miracles and Prophecy being said by him not to be then altogether Extinct Inter caetera ostensa est mihi Anima Corporaliter Spiritus videbatur Tenera Lucida Aerii Coloris Et Formae per omnia Humanae There was said she amongst other things a Soul Corporally Exhibited to my View and it was Tender and Lucid and of an Aereal Colour and every way of Humane Form Agreeably to which Tertullian himself addeth Effigiem non aliam Animae Humanae deputandam praeter Humanam quidem ejus Corporis quod unaquaeque circuntulit There is no other Shape to be assigned to a Humane Soul but Humane and indeed that of the Body which it before carried about It is true indeed that Tertullian here drives the business so far as to make the Soul it self to be Corporeal Figurate and Colorate and after Death to have the very same Shape which its respective Body had before in this Life he being one of those who were not able to conceive of any thing Incorporeal and therefore being a Religionist concluded God himself to be a certain Body also But the Reasons which he here insisteth on will indeed extend no further than to prove that the Soul hath after Death some Body Vitally Vnited to it by means whereof it is both capable of Converse and Sensible of Pain for as much as Body alone can have no Sense of any thing And this is that which Irenaeus from the same Scripture gathereth
Body and its Modifications but yet Generable out of it and Corruptible into it They concluding that as Light and Colours Heat and Cold c. according to those Phancies which we have of them are Real Qualities of Matter distinct from its Substance and Modifications so may Life Sense and Cogitation be in like manner Qualities of Matter also Generable and Corruptible But these Real Qualities of Body in the Sense declared are things that were long since justly exploded by the Ancient Atomists and expunged out of the Catalogue of Entities of whom Laertius hath Recorded that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite cashier and banish Qualities out of their Philosophy they resolving all Corporeal Phaenomena and therefore those of Heat and Cold Light and Colours Fire and Flame c. intelligibly into nothing but the Different Modifications of Extended Substance viz. More or Less Magnitude of Parts Figure Site Motion or Rest or the Combinations of them and those different Phancies Caused in us by them Indeed there is no other Entity but Substance and its Modifications Wherefore the Democriticks and Epicureans did most shamefully contradict themselves when pretending to reject and explode all those Entities of Real Qualities themselves nevertheless made Life and Vnderstanding such Real Qualities of Matter Generable out of it and Corruptible again into it There is nothing in Body or Matter but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion or Rest now it is Mathematically Certain that these however Combin'd together can never possibly Compound or Make up Life or Cogitation which therefore cannot be an Accident of Matter but must of necessity be a Substantial thing We speak not here of that Life improperly so called which is in Vulgar Speech attributed to the Bodies of Men and Animals for it is plainly Aâ—cidental to a Body to be Vitally Vnited to a Soul or not Therefore is this Life of the Compound Corruptible and Destroyable without the Destruction of any Real Entity there being nothing Destroyed nor Lost to the Universe in the Deaths of Men and Animals as such but only a Disunion or Separation made of those Two Substances Soul and Body one from another But we speak here of the Original Life of the Soul it self that this is Substantial neither Generable nor Corruptible but only Creatable and Annihilable by the Deity And it is strange that any men should perswade themselves that that which Rules and Commands in the Bodies of Animals moving them up and down and hath Sense or Perception in it should not be as Substantial as that Stupid and Sensless Matter that is Ruled by it Neither can Matter which is also but a meer Passive thing Efficiently produce Soul any more than Soul Matter no Finite Imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of Nothing Much less can such a Substance as hath a Lower Degree of Entity and Perfection in it Create that which hath a Higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Entities and Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in Way of Ascent from Lower to Higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from Higher to Lower Now to produce any One Higher Rank of Being from the Lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from Downwards to Vpwards and therefore is it Atheistical and by the Same reason that One Higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally Produced from a Lower may all the rest be so produced also Wherefore we have great reason to stand upon our Guard here and to defend this Post against the Atheists That no Life or Cogitation can either Materially or Efficiently result from Dead and Sensless Body or that Souls being all Substantial and Immaterial things can neither be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same but only Created or Annihilated by the Deity The Grand Objection against this Substantiality of Souls Sensitive as well as Rational is from that Consequence which will be from thence inferred of their Permanent Subsistence after Death their Perpetuity or Immortality This seeming very absurd that the Souls of Brutes also should be Immortal or subsist after the Deaths of the Respective Animals But especially to Two Sorts of Men First such as scarcely in good earnest believe their own Soul's Immortality and Secondly such Religionists as conclude that if Irrational or Sensitive Souls subsist after Death then must they needs go presently either into Heaven or Hell And R. Cartesius was so sensible of the Offensiveness of this Opinion that though he were fully convinced of the necessity of this Disjunction that either Brutes have nothing of Sense or Cogitation at all or else they must have some other Substance in them besides Matter he chose rather to make them meer Sensless Machins then to allow them Substantial Souls Wherein avoiding a Lesser Absurdity or Paradox he plainly plunged himself into a Greater scarcely any thing being more generally received than the Sense of Brutes Though in truth all those who deny the Substantiality of Sensitive Souls and will have Brutes to have nothing but Matter in them ought consequently according to Reason to do as Cartesius did deprive them of all Sense But on the contrary if it be evident from the Phaenomena that Brutes are not meer Sensless Machins or Automata and only like Clocks or Watches then ought not Popular Opinion and Vulgar Prejudice so far to prevail with us as to hinder our Assent to that which sound Reason and Philosophy clearly dictates that therefore they must have something more than Matter in them Neither ought we when we clearly conceive any thing to be true as this That Life and Cogitation cannot possibly rise out of Dead and Sensless Matter to abandon it or deny our Assent thereunto because we find it attended with some Difficulty not easily Extricable by us or cannot free all the Consequences thereof from some Inconvenience or Absurdity such as seems to be in the Permanent Subsistence of Brutish Souls For the giving an Account of which notwithstanding Plato and the Ancient Pythagoreans proposed this following Hypothesis That Souls as well Sensitive as Rational being all Substantial but not Self-Existent because there is but one Fountain and Principle of all things were therefore Produced or Caused by the Deity But this not in the Generations of the respective Animals it being indecorous that this Divine Miraculous Creative Power should constantly lacquey by and attend upon Natural Generations as also incongruous that Souls should be so much Juniors to Every Atom of Dust that is in the whole World but either all of them from Eternity according to those who Denied the Novity of the World or rather according to others who asserted the Cosmogonia in the first beginning of the World's Creation Wherefore it being also Natural to Souls as such to Actuate and Enliven some Body or to be as it
Act alone without Vital Union with any Body If Natural to the Soul to Enliven a Body then not probable that it should be kept so long in an Unnatural State of Separation Page 799 800 Again Probable from Scripture That wicked Souls after Death have Punishment of Sense or Pain besides Remorse of Conscience which not easily Conceivable How they should have without Bodies Thus Tertullian He adding That Men have the same Shape or Effigies after this Life which they had here Though indeed he drive the business too far so as to make the Soul it self to be a Body Figurate and Colourate Page 800 801 But Irenaeus plainly supposed the Soul after Death being Incorporeal to be Adapted to a Body such as has the same Character and Figure with its Body here in this Life Page 801 802 Origen also of this Perswasion That Souls after Death have certain Subtile Bodies retaining the same Characterizing Form which their Terrestrial Bodies had His Opinion That Apparitions of the Dead are from the Souls themselves surviving in that which is called a Luciform Body As also that Saint Thomas did not doubt but that the Body of a Soul departed might appear every way like the Former onely be disbelieved our Saviour's appearing in the Same Solid Body which he had before Death Page 802 804 Our Saviour telling his Disciples That a Spirit had no Flesh and Bones that is no Solid Body as himself then had seems to Imply them to have Thinner Bodies which they may Visibly Appear in Thus in Apollonius is Touch made the Sign to distinguish a Ghost Appearing from a Living Man Our Saviour's Body after his Resurrection according to Origen in a Middle State betwixt This Gross or Solid Body of ours and That of a Ghost Page 804 A place of Scripture which as interpreted by the Fathers would Naturally Imply the Soul of our Saviour after Death not to have been quite Naked of all Body but to have had a Corporeal Spirit Moses and Elias Visibly appearing to our Saviour had therefore True Bodies Page 804 805 That the Regenerate here in this Life have a certain Earnest of their Future Inheritance which is their Spiritual or Heavenly Body Gathered from Scripture by Irenaeus and Novatian Which Praelibations of the Spiritual Body cannot so well consist with a Perfect Separation from all Body after Death till the Day of Judgement Page 805 806 This Opinion of Irenaeus Origen and others supposed by them not at all to Clash with the Christian Article of the Resurrection Nothing in this Point determined by us Page 806 The Last thing in the Pythagorick Cabbala That Daemons or Angels and indeed all Created Understanding Beings consist as well as Men of Soul and Body Incorporeal and Corporeal Vnited together Thus Hierocles Vniversally of all the Rational Nature and that no Incorporeal Substance besides the Supreme Deity is Compleat without the Conjunction of a Body God the Onely Incorporeal in this Sense and not a Mundane but Supra-Mundane Soul Page 806 808 Origen's full Agreement with this Old Pythagorick Cabbala That Rational Creatures are neither Body nor yet without Body but Incorporeal Substances having a Corporeal Indument Page 808 809 Origen misrepresented by Huetius as asserting Angels not to Have Bodies but to Be Bodies whereas he plainly acknowledged the Humane Soul to be Incorporeal and Angels also to have Souls He proveth Incorporeal Creatures from the Scriptures which though themselves not Bodies yet always Use Bodies Whereas the Deity is neither Body nor yet clothed with a Body as the Proper Soul thereof Page 809 810 Some of the Fathers so far from supposing Angels altogether Incorporeal that they ran into the other Extream and concluded them altogether Corporeal that is to be All Body and Nothing else The Middle betwixt both these the Origenick and Phythagorick Hypothesis That they consist of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Soul and Body Joyned together The Generality of the Ancient Fathers for neither of those Extreams That they did not suppose Angels to be perfectly Unbodied Spirits Evident from their affirming Devils as the Greek Philosophers did Demons to be Delighted with the Nidours of Sacrifices as having their Vapourous Bodies or Airy Vehicles refreshed thereby Thus Porphyrius and before him Celsus Amongst the Christians besides Origen Justin Athenagoras Tatianus c. S. Basil concerning the Bodies of Demons or Devils being Nourished with Vapours not by Organs but throughout their whole Substance Page 810 812 Several of the Fathers plainly asserting both Devils and Angels to consist of Soul and Body Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Joyned together Saint Austine Claudianus Mamertus Fulgentius Joannes Thessalonicensis and Psellus who Philosophizeth much concerning this Page 812 814 That some of the Ancients when they called Angels Incorporeal understood Nothing else thereby but onely that they had not Grosse but Subtile Bodies Page 814 815 The Fathers though herein Happening to Agree with the Philosophick Cabbala yet seemed to have been led thereunto by Scripture As from that of our Saviour They who shall obtain the Resurrection of the Dead shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Equal to the Angels that is according to Saint Austine shall have Angelical Bodies From that of Saint Jude That Angels Sinning lost their Own Proper Dwelling-House that is their Heavenly Body called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Saint Paul which made them Fit Inhabitants of the Heavenly Regions and thereupon Cast down into the Lower Tartarus interpreted by Saint Austine to be this Caliginous Air or Atmo-Sphear of the Earth Again From that Fire said to have been Prepared for the Devils which being not to be taken Metaphorically therefore as Psellus concludeth Implies them to be Bodied because an Incorporeal Substance alone and not Vitally Vnited to any Body cannot be Tormented with Fire Page 815 817 Now if all Created Incorporeals Superiour to Men be Souls vitally Vnited to Bodies and never quite Separate from all Body then Probable that Humane Souls after Death not quite Naked from all Body as if they could Live and Act compleatly without it a Priviledge Superiour to that of Angels and proper to the Deity Nor is it at all Conceivable How Imperfect Beings could have Sense and Imagination without Bodies Origen Contra Celsum Our Soul in its own Nature Incorporeal alwaies Standeth in need of a Body suitable to the place wherein it is And accordingly Sometimes Putteth Off what it had before and Sometimes again Putteth On something New Where the following words being vitiated Origen's Genuine Sense restored Evident that Origen distinguisheth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul Translated Tabernacle from the Earthly House he understanding by the former a Thin Spirituous Body which is a Middle betwixt the Earthly and the Heavenly and which the Soul remaineth still clothed with after Death This Opinion of Origen's That the Soul after Death not quite Separate from all Body never reckoned up in the Catalogue of his Errours Origen not Taxed
be Immortal and such as will subsist after Death And the chief demonstration of the Soul's Preexistence to the Ancients before Plato was this because it is an Entity Really distinct from Body or Matter and the Modifications of it and no real Substantial Entity can either spring of it self out of Nothing or be made out of any other Substance distinct from it because Nothing can be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from nothing either inexisting or preexisting all Natural Generations being but the various Dispositions and Modifications of what was before existent in the Universe But there was Nothing of Soul and Mind Inexisting and Preexisting in Body before there being Nothing of Life and Cogitation in Magnitude Figure Site and Motion Wherefore this must needs be not a thing Made or Generated as Corporeal Forms and Qualities are but such as hath a Being in Nature Ingenerably and Incorruptibly The Mechanism of Humane Body was a thing Made and Generated it being only a different Modification of what was before existent and having no new Entity in it distinct from the Substance And the Totum or Compositum of a Man or Animal may be said to be Generated and Corrupted in regard of the Union and Disunion Conjunction and Separation of those two parts the Soul and Body But the Soul it self according to these Principles is neither a thing Generable nor Corruptible but was as well before the Generation and will be after the Deaths and Corruptions of men as the Substance of their Body which is supposed by all to have been from the first Creation and no Part of it to be annihilated or lost after Death but only scatter'd and dispersed in the Universe Thus the Ancient Atomists concluded That Souls and Lives being Substantial Entities by themselves were all of them as old as any other Substance in the Universe and as the whole Mass of Matter and every smallest Atom of it is That is they who maintained the Eternity of the World did consequently assert also Aeternitatem Animorum as Cicero calls it the Eternity of Souls and Minds But they who conceived the World to have had a Temporary Beginning or Creation held the Coevity of all Souls with it and would by no means be induced to think that every Atom of Senseless Matter and Particle of Dust had such a Privilege and Preeminency over the Souls of Men and Animals as to be Seniour to them Synesius though a Christian yet having been educated in this Philosophy could not be induced by the hopes of a Bishoprick to stifle or dissemble this Sentiment of his Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall never be perswaded to think my Soul to be younger than my Body But such it seems was the temper of those times that he was not only dispensed withal as to this but also as to another Heterodoxy of his concerning the Resurrection XXXII It is already plain also that this Doctrine of the Ancient Atomists concerning the Immateriality and Immortality the Prae and Post-existence of Souls was not confined by them to Humane Souls only but extended universally to all Souls and Lives whatsoever It being a thing that was hardly ever called into doubt or question by any before Cartesius whether the Souls of Brutes had any Sense Cogitation or Consciousness in them or no. Now all Life Sense and Cogitation was undoubtedly concluded by them to be an Entity Really distinct from the Substance of Body and not the mere Modification Motion or Mechanism of it Life and Mechanism being two distinct Idea's of the Mind which cannot be confounded together Wherefore they resolved that all Lives and Souls whatsoever which now are in the World ever were from the first Beginning of it and ever will be that there will be no new ones produced which are not already and have not alwaies been nor any of those which now are destroyed any more than the Substance of any Matter will be Created or Annihilated So that the whole System of the Created Universe Consisting of Body and particular Incorporeal Substances or Souls in the successive Generations and Corruptions or Deaths of Men and other Animals was according to them Really nothing else but one and the same Thing perpetually Anagrammatized or but like many different Syllables and Words variously and successively composed out of the same preexistent Elements or Letters XXXIII We have now declared how the same Principle of Reason which made the Ancient Physiologers to become Atomists must needs induce them also to be Incorporealists how the same thing which perswaded them that Corporeal Forms were no Real Entities distinct from the Substance of the Body but only the different Modifications and Mechanisms of it convinced them likewise that all Cogitative Beings all Souls and Lives whatsoever were Ingenerable and Incorruptible and as well Preexistent before the Generations of Particular Animals as Postexistent after their Deaths and Corruptions Nothing now remains but only to show more particularly that it was de facto thus that the same persons did from this Principle that Nothing can come from Nothing and go to Nothing both Atomize in their Physiology taking away all Substantial Forms and Qualities and also Theologize or Incorporealize asserting Souls to be a Substance really distinct from Matter and Immortal as also to preexist and this we shall do from Empedocles and first from that Passage of his cited before in part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al. lect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which I find Latin'd thus Ast aliud dico nihil est Mortalibus Ortus Est nihil Interitus qui rebus morte paratur Mistio sed solum est Conciliatio rerum Mistilium haec dici solita est Mortalibus Ortus The full Sence whereof is plainly this That there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Production of any thing which was not before no new Substance Made which did not really Preexist and therefore that in the Generations and Corruptions of Inanimate Bodies there is no Form or Quality really distinct from the Substance produced and destroyed but only a various Composition and Modification of Matter But in the Generations and Corruptions of Men and Animals where the Souls are Substances really distinct from the Matter that there there is Nothing but the Conjunction and Separation of Souls and particular Bodies existing both before and after not the Production of any new Soul into Being which was not before nor the absolute Death and Destruction of any into Nothing Which is further expressed in these following Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this Sence That they are Infants in Vnderstanding and short-sighted who think any thing to be Made which was Nothing before or any thing to Die so as to be Destroyed to Nothing Upon which Plutarch glosses after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Empedocles does not here destroy
Chapter that the Upshot of that Pythagorick Doctrine That Nothing could be Generated out of Nothing preexisting amounted to those Two things mentioned viz. the Asserting of the Incorporiety and Ingenerability of Souls and the Rejecting of those Phantastick Entities of Forms and Real Qualities of Bodies and resolving all Corporeal Phaenomena into Figures or Atoms and the different Apparitions or Phancies caused by them but the latter of these may be further confirmed from this passage of Aristotle's where after he had declared that Democritus and Leucippus made the Soul and Fire to consist of round Atoms or Figures like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Ramenta that appear in the Air when the Sun-beams are transmitted through Cranies he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that which is said amongst the Pythagoreans seems to have the same sence for some of them affirm that the Soul is those very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ramenta or Atoms but others of them that it is That which Moves them which latter doubtless were the genuine Pythagoreans However it is plain from hence that the old Pythagoreans Physiologized by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as Democritus that is Figures and Atoms and not Qualities and Forms But Aristotle's Materialists on the contrary taking it for granted that Matter or Extended Bulk is the only Substance and that the Qualities and Forms of Bodies are Entities really distinct from those Modifications of Magnitude Figure Site Motion or Rest and finding also by experience that these were continually Generated and Corrupted as likewise that Life Sense and Understanding were produced in the Bodies of such Animals where it had not been before and again extinguished at the Death or Corruption of them concluded that the Souls of all Animals as well as those other Qualities and Forms of Bodies were Generated out of the Matter and Corrupted again into it and consequently that every thing that is in the whole World besides the Substance of Matter was Made or Generated and might be again Corrupted Of this Atheistick Doctrine Aristotle speaks elsewhere as in his Book de Coelo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are some who affirm that Nothing is Ingenerable but that all things are Made as Hesiod especially and also among the rest they who First Physiologized whose meaning was that all other things are Made or Generated and did Flow none of them having any Stability only that there was one thing namely Matter which always remained out of which all those other things were transformed and Metamorphiz'd Though as to Hesiod Aristotle afterwards speaks differently So likewise in his Physicks after he had declared that some of the Ancients made Air some Water and some other Matter the Principle of all things he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This they affirmed to be all the Substance or Essence that was but all other things the Passions Affections and Dispositions of it and that this therefore was Eternal as being capable of no Change but all other things Infinitely Generated and Corrupted XV. But these Materialists being sometimes assaulted by the other Italick Philosophers in the manner before declared That no Real Entities distinct from the Modifications of any Substance could be Generated or Corrupted because Nothing could come from Nothing nor go to Nothing they would not seem plainly to Contradict that Theorem but only endeavoured to interpret it into a compliance with their own Hypothesis and distinguish concerning the Sence of it in this manner That it ought to be understood only of the Substance of Matter and Nothing else viz. That no Matter could be Made or Corrupted but that all other things whatsoever not only Forms and Qualities of Bodies but also Souls Life Sense and Understanding though really different from Magnitude Figure Site and Motion yet ought to be accounted only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passions and Accidents of this Matter and therefore might be generated out of it and Corrupted again into it and that without the Production or Destruction of any real Entity Matter being the only thing that is accounted such All this we learn from these words of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence whereof is this And therefore as to that Axiom of some Philosophers That Nothing is either Generated or Destroyed these Materialists admit it to be true in respect of the Substance of matter only which is always preserved the same As say they We do not say that Socrates is simply or absolutely Made when he is made either Handsom or Musical or that he is Destroyed when he loseth those Dispositions because the Subject Socrates still remains the same so neither are we to say that any thing else is absolutely ether Generated or Corrupted because the Substance or Matter of every thing always Continues For there must needs be some certain Nature from which all other things are Generated that still remaining one and the same We have noted this Passage of Aristotle's the rather because this is just the very Doctrine of Atheists at this day That the Substance of Matter or Extended Bulk is the only Real Entity and therefore the only Unmade thing that is neither Generable nor Creatable but Necessarily Existent from Eternity But whatever else is in the World as Life and Animality Soul and Mind being all but Accidents and Affections of this Matter as if therefore they had no Real Entity at all in them are Generable out of Nothing and Corruptible into Nothing so long as the Matter in which they are still remains the same The Result of which is no less than this That there can be no other Gods or God than such as was at first Made or Generated out of Sensless Matter and may be Corrupted again into it And here indeed lies the Grand Mystery of Atheism that every thing besides the Substance of Matter is Made or Generated and may be again Unmade or Corrupted However Anaxagoras though an Ionick Philosopher and therefore as shall be declared afterward Successor to those Atheistick Materialists was at length so far Convinced by that Pythagorick Doctrine That no Entity could be naturally Generated out of Nothing as that he departed from his Predecessors herein and did for this reason acknowledge Mind and Soul that is all Cogitative Being to be a Substance really distinct from Matter neither Generable out of it nor Corruptible into it as also that the Forms and Qualities of Bodies which he could not yet otherwise conceive of than as things really distinct from those Modifications of Magnitude Figure Site and Motion must for the same cause pre-exist before Generations in certain Similar Atoms and remain after Corruptions being only Secreted and Concreted in them By means whereof he introduced a certain Spurious Atomism of his own For whereas the Genuine Atomists before his time had supposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissimilar Atoms devoid of all Forms and Qualities to be the Principles of all Bodies Anaxagoras substituted in
the Tradition of their Ancestors concerning the Cosmogonia But the Egyptians however they attributed more Antiquity to the World than they ought yet seem to have had a constant Perswasion of the Beginning of it and the Firmest of all other Nations they as Kircher tells us therefore picturing Horus or the World as a Young man Beardless not only to signifie its constant youthful and flourishing Vigour but also the Youngness and Newness of its Duration Neither ought it to be suspected that though the Egyptians held the World to have had a Beginning yet they conceived it to be made by Chance without a God as Anaximander Democritus and Epicurus afterwards did the contrary thereunto being so Confessed a Thing that Simplicius a zealous Contender for the Worlds Eternity affirms the Mosaick History of its Creation by God to have been nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Egyptian Fables The Place is so considerable that I shall here set it down in the Authors own Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Grammaticus here mean the Lawgiver of the Jews writing thus In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth and the Earth was invisible and unadorned and Darkness was upon the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the Water and then afterward when he had made Light and separated the Light from the Darkness adding And God called the Light Day and the Darkness Night and the Evening and the Morning were the First Day I say if Grammaticus think this to have been the First Generation and Beginning of Time I would have him to know that all this is but a Fabulous Tradition and wholly drawn from Egyptian Fables As for the Philosophy of the Egyptians That besides their Physiology and the Pure and Mix'd Mathematicks Arithmetick Geometry and Astronomy they had another higher kind of Philosophy also concerning Incorporeal Substances appears from hence because they were the first Asserters of the Immortality of Souls their Preexistence and Transmigration from whence their Incorporeity is necessarily inferred Thus Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Egyptians were the first Asserters of the Souls Immortality and of its Transmigration after the Death and Corruption of this Body into the Bodies of other Animals successively viz. until it have run round through the whole Circuit of Terrestrial Marine and Volatile Animals after which they say it is to return again into a Humane Body they supposing this Revolution or Apocatastasis of Souls to be made in no less space than that of Three Thousand years But whether Herodotus were rightly Catechized and instructed in the Egyptian Doctrine as to this particular or no may very well be questioned because the Pythagoreans whom he there tacitly reprehends for arrogating the first Invention of this to themselves when they had borrowed it from the Egyptians did represent it otherwise namely That the Descent of Humane Souls into these Earthy Bodies was first in way of Punishment and that their sinking lower afterwards into the Bodies of Brutes was only to some a further Punishment for their further Degeneracy but the Vertuous and Pious Souls should after this Life enjoy a state of Happiness in Celestial or Spiritual Bodies And the Egyptian Doctrine is represented after the same manner by Porphyrius in Stobaeus as also in the Hermetick or Tristmegistick Writings Moreover Chalcidius reports that Hermes Trismegist when he was about to die made an Oration to this purpose That he had here lived in this Earthly Body but an Exile and Stranger and was now returning home to his own Country so that his Death ought not to be lamented this Life being rather to be accompted Death Which Perswasion the Indian Brachmans also were embued withal whether they received it from the Egyptians as they did some other things or no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this Life here is but the Life of Embryo's and that Death to good men is a Generation or Birth into true life And this may the better be believed to have been the Egyptian Doctrine because Diodorus himself hath some Passages sounding that way as that the Egyptians lamented not the Death of Good men but applauded their Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being to live ever in the other World with the pious However it being certain from this Egyptian Doctrine of Preexistence and Transmigration that the Egyptians did assert the Souls Incorporeity it cannot reasonably be doubted but that they acknowledged also an Incorporeal Deity The Objection against which from what Porphyrius writeth concerning Chaeremon will be answered afterwards We come in the last place to the Theology of the Egyptians Now it is certain that the Egyptians besides their Vulgar and Fabulous Theology which is for the most part that which Diodorus S. describes had another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arcane and Recondite Theology that was concealed from the Vulgar and communicated only to the Kings and such Priestsand others as were thought capable thereof These Two Theologies of theirs differing as Aristotle's Exotericks and Acroamaticks Thus much is plainly declared by Origen whose very name was Egyptian it being interpreted Horo-genitus which Horus was an Egyptian God upon occasion of Celsus his boasting that he thoroughly understood all that belonged to Christianity Celsus saith he seemeth here to me to do just as if a man travelling into Egypt where the Wise men of the Egyptians according to their Country-Learning Philosophize much about those things that are accounted by them Divine whilst the Idiots in the mean time hearing only certain Fables which they know not the meaning of are very much pleased therewith Celsus I say doth as if such a Sojourner in Egypt who had conversed only with those Idiots and not been at all instructed by any of the Priests in their Arcane and Recondite Mysteries should boast that he knew all that belonged to the Egyptian Theologie Where the same Origen also adds that this was not a thing proper neither to the Egyptians only to have such an Arcane and True Theology distinct from their Vulgar and Fabulous one but common with them to the Persians Syrians and other Barbarian Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What we have now affirmed saith he concerning the difference betwixt the Wise men and the Idiots amongst the Egyptians the same may be said also of the Persians amongst whom the Religious Rites are performed Rationally by those that are ingenious whilest the superficial Vulgar look no further in the observation of them than the external Symbol or Ceremony And the same is true likewise concerning the Syrians and Indians and all those other Nations who have besides their Religious Fables a Learning and Doctrine Neither can it be dissembled that Origen in this place plainly intimates the same also concerning Christianity it self namely that besides the Outside and exteriour Cortex of it in which notwithstanding there is nothing Fabulous communicated to all there was a more Arcane and Recondite
out of Hermaick Writings then extant to this very purpose We shall only set down one of them here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World hath a Governour set over it that Word of the Lord of all which was the Maker of it this is the first Power after himself Vncreated Infinite looking out from him and ruling over all things that were made by him this is the Perfect and genuine Son of the first Omniperfect Being Nevertheless the Author of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Asclepian Dialogue in that forecited Passage of his by his Second God the Son of the First meant no such thing at all as the Christian Logos or Second Person of the Trinity but only the Visible World Which is so plain from the words themselves that it is a wonder how Lactantius and St. Austin could interpret them otherwise he making therein a Question whether this Second God were actively Sensible or no. But the same is farther manifrom other places of that Dialogue as this for example Aeternitatis Dominus Deus Primus est Secundus est Mundus The Lord of Eternity is the First God but the Second God is the World And again Summus qui dicitur Deus Rector Gubernatorque Sensibilis Dei ejus qui in se complectitur omnem locum omnemque rerum substantiam The Supreme God is the Governour of that Sensible God which contains in it all place and all the Substance of things And that this was indeed a part of the Hermaick or Egyptian Theology that the Visible World Animated was a Second God and the Son of the First God appears also from those Hermaick Books published by Ficinus and vulgarly called Poemander though that be only the First of them There hath been one Passage already cited out of the Eighth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World is a Second God After which followeth more to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First God is that Eternal Vnmade Maker of all things the Second is he that is made according to the Image of the First which is contained cherished or nourished and immortalized by him as by his own Parent by whom it is made an Immortal Animal So again in the Ninth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the Father of the World and the World is the Son of God And in the Twelfth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This whole World is a Great God and the Image of a Greater As for the other Hermetick or Trismegistick Books published partly by Ficinus and partly by Patricius we cannot confidently condemn any of them for Christian Cheats or Impostures save only the Poemander and the Sermon in the Mount concerning Regeneration the First and Thirteenth of Ficinus his Chapters or Books Neither of which Books are cited by any of the Ancient Fathers and therefore may be presumed not to have been extant in Jamblichus his time but more lately forged and that probably by one and the self same hand since the Writer of the Latter the Sermon in the Mount makes mention of the Former that is the Poemander in the close of it For that which Casaubon objects against the Fourth of Ficinus his Books or Chapters entituled the Crater seems not very considerable it being questionable whether by the Crater any such thing were there meant as the Christian Baptisterion Wherefore as for all the rest of those Hermaick Books especially such of them as being cited by ancient Fathers may be presumed to have been extant before Jamblichus his time we know no reason why we should not concurr with that learned Philosopher in his Judgment concerning them That though they often speak the Language of Philosophers and were not written by Hermes Trismegist himself yet they do really contain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermaical Opinions or the Egyptian Doctrine The Ninth of Ficinus his Books mentions the Asclepian Dialogue under the Greek Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pretending to have been written by the same hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meaning of which place not understood by the Translator is this I lately published O Asclepius the Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Perfect Oration and now I judge it necessary in pursuit of the same to discours concerning Sense Which Book as well as the Perfect Oration is cited by Lactantius As is also the Tenth of Ficinus called the Clavis which does not only pretend to be of kin to the Ninth and consequently to the Asclepius likewise but also to contain in it an Epitome of that Hermaick Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Eusebius his Chronicon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My former Discourse was dedicated to thee O Asclepius but this to Tatius it being an Epitome of those Genica that were delivered to him Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thus again afterwards mentioned in the same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have you not heard in the Genica that all Souls are derived from one Soul of the Vniverse Neither of which two places were understood by Ficinus But doubtless this latter Hermaick Book had something foisted into it because there is a manifest contradiction found therein forasmuch as that Transmigration of Humane Souls into Brutes which in the former part thereof is asserted after the Egyptian way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the just punishment of the wicked is afterwards cried down and condemned in it as the greatest Error And the Eleventh and Twelfth following Books seem to us to be as Egyptian as any of the rest as also does that long Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Thirteenth in Patricius Nay it is observable that even those very Books themselves that are so justly suspected and condemned for Christian Forgeries have something of the Hermaical or Egyptian Philosophy here and there interspersed in them As for example when in the Poemander God is twice called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and Female together this seems to have been Egyptian and derived from thence by Orpheus according to that elegant Passage in the Asclepian Dialogue concerning God Hic ergo qui Solus est Omnia utriusque Sexûs foecunditate plenissimus semper Voluntatis suae pregnans parit semper quicquid voluerit procreare He therefore who alone is All Things and most full of the Fecundity of both Sexes being always pregnant of his own Will always produceth whatsoever he pleaseth Again when Death is thus described in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be nothing else but the Change of the Body and the Form or Lifes passing into the Invisible This agreeth with that in the Eleventh Book or Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Death is nothing but a Change it being only the dissolution of the Body and the Life or Soul's passing into the Invisible or Inconspicuous In which Book it is also affirmed of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That every day some part or other of it goes into the Invisible or
of That the Vulgarly Received Tradition of Humane Souls after Death going into Hades might be Objected against them For the Satisfying whereof Plotinus suggesteth these Two Things First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That if by Hades be meant nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Invisible as many times it is then is there no more signified by the Souls going into Hades than it s no longer being Vitally united to this Earthy Body and but Acting apart by it self and so hath it nothing of Place necessarily included in it Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if by Hades be understood a Certain Worser Place as sometimes it also is What wonder is this since now where our Body is there in the same place is our Soul said to be also But you will Reply how can this be when there is now no longer any Body left We Answer that if the Idol of the Soul be not quite Separated from it Why should not the Soul it self be said to be there also where its Idol is Where by the Idol of the Soul Plotinus seems to mean an Airy or Spirituous Body Quickned and Vitalized by the Soul adhering to it after death But when the same Philosopher supposes this very Idol of the Soul to be also Separable from it and that so as to subsist apart by it self too this going alone into Hades or the Worser Place whilst that liveth only in the Intelligible World where there is no Place nor Distance lodged in the Naked Deity having nothing at all of Body hanging about it and being now not A Part but the Whole and so Situate nether here nor there in this High Flight of his he is at once both Absurdly Paradoxical in dividing the Life of the Soul as it were into Two and forgat the Doctrine of his own School which as himself elsewhere intimateth was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Our Soul though it shall quit this Body yet shall it never be disunited from all Body Wherefore Porphyrius answering the same Objection though he were otherwise much addicted to Plotinus and here uses his Language too yet does he in this depart from him adhering to the ancient Pythagorick Tradition which as will appear afterwards was this That Humane Souls are always Vnited to some Body or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Souls being here upon Earth saith he is not its moving up and down upon it after the manner of Bodies but it s Presiding over a Body which moveth upon the Earth so is its being in Hades nothing but its presiding over that Idol or Enlivened Vaporoâ—â— Body whose Nature it is to be in a Place and which is of a Dark Subsistence Wherefore if Hades be taken for a Subterraneous and Dark Place yet may the Soul nevertheless be said to go into Hades because when it quits this Gross Earthy Body a more Spirituous and Subtle Body collected from the Spheres or Elements doth still accompany it Which Spirit being Moist and Heavy and naturally descending to the Subterraneous places the Soul it self may be said in this sense to go Vnder the Earth also with it not as if the Substance thereof passed from One Place to Another but because of its Relation and Vital Vnion to a Body which does so Where Porphyrius addeth contrary to the Sense of Plotinus That the Soul is never quite Naked of all Body but hath alway some Body or other joyned with it suitable and agreeable to its own present Disposition either a Purer or Impurer one But that at its first Quitting this Gross Earthly Body the Spirituous Body which accompanieth iâ— as its Vehicle must needs go away Fouled and Incrassated with the gross Vapours and steams thereof till the Soul afterwards by Degrees Purging it self this becometh at length A Dry Splendour which hath no Mysty Obscurity nor casteth any Shadow But because this Doctrine of the Ancient Incorporealists concerning the Humane Souls being always after Death United to some Body or other is more fully declared by Philoponus then by any other that we have yet met withal we shall here excerp some Passages out of him about it First therefore he declareth this for his own opinion agreeable to the Sense of the best Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Rational Soul as to its Energie is separable from all Body but the Irrational Part or Life thereof is Separable only from this Gross Body and not from all Body whatsoever but hath after Death a Spirituous or Aiery Body in which it acteth This I say is a True Opinion as shall be afterwards proved by us And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Irrational Life of the Soul hath not all its Being in this Gross Earthy Body but remaineth after the Souls Departure out of it having for its Vehicle and Subject the Spirituous Body Which it self is also compounded out of the Four Elements but receiveth its Denomination from the Predominant Part to wit Air as this Gross Body of ours is called Earthy from what is most Predominant therein Thus do we see that according to Philoponus the Humane Soul after Death does not meerly exercise its Rational Powers and think only of Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions Abstract things which are neither in Time nor Place but exerciseth also its Lower Sensitive and Irrational Faculties which it could not possibly do were it not then Vitally United to some Body and this Body then accompanying the Soul he calls Pneumatical that is not Spiritual in the Scripture-Sense but Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Let us therefore in the next place see what Rational Account Philoponus can give of this Doctrine of the Antients and of his Own Opinion agreeably thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Humane Soul in those who are not Purged and Cleansed in this Life after its departure out of this Body is acknowledged or rather Demonstrated to go into Hades there to receive Punishment for its evil Actions past For Providence does not only take Care of our Being but also of our Well-Being Therefore is the Soul though lapsed into a Preter-Natural State yet not neglected by Providence but hath a Convenient Care taken of it in order to its Recovery And since Sinning had its Original from the Desire of Pleasure it must of necessity be Cured by Pain For here also Contraries are the Cures of Contraries Therefore the Soul being to be Purged is Punished and Pained in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons in order to its Amendment But if the Soul be Incorporeal it is Impossible for it to Suffer How then can it be Punished There must of Necessity be some Body joyned with it Which being immoderately Constringed or Agitated Concreted or Secreted and Discordantly Moved by Heat and Cold or the like may make the Soul sensible of Pain by reason of Sympathy as it is here in this Life What Body therefore is that which is then Conjoyned with the Soul after the dissolution
of that Earthy Body into its Elements Certainly it can be no other than this Pneumatical or Spirituous Body which we now speak of For in this are Seated as their Subject the Irascible and Concupiscible Passions and they are inseparable from the same nor could they be in the Soul disunited from all Body And that Soul which is freed from these would be forthwith freed from Generation nor would it be concerned in those Subterraneous Judicatories and Prisons but be carried up aloft to the higher Celestial Regions c. After which he endeavours further to confirm this Opinion from the Vulgar Phaenomena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Furthermore that there is such a Pneumatical Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body which accompanieth Souls Vnpurged after Death is evident also from the Phaenomena themselves For what account can otherwise be given of those Spectres or Phantasms which appear Shadow-like about Graves or Sepulchres since the Soul it self is neither of any Figure nor yet at all Visible Wherefore these Ancients say that Impure Souls after their departure out of this Body wander here up and down for a certain space in their Spirituous Vaporous and Airy Body appearing about Sepulchres and haunting their former Habitations For which cause there is great reason that we should take care of Living Well as also of abstaining from a Fouler and Grosser diet these Ancients telling us likewise that this Spirituous Body of ours being fouled and incrassated by Evil Diet is apt to render the Soul in this Life also more Obnoxious to the Disturbances of Passions And here Philoponus goes on to gratifie us with a further Account of some other of the Opinions of these Ancients concerning this Spirituous or Airy Body accompanying the Soul after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They further add that there is Something of the Plantal and Plastick Life also Exercised by the Soul in those Spirituous or Airy Bodies after Death they being Nourished too though not after the same manner as these Gross Earthy Bodies of ours are here but by Vapours and that not by Parts or Organs but throughout the Whole of them as Sponges they imbibing every where those Vapours For which cause they who are wise will in this Life also take care of using a Thinner and Dryer Diet that so that Spirituous Body which we have also at this present time within our Grosser Body may not be Clogged and Incrassed but Attenuated Over and above which those Ancients made use of Catharms or Purgations to the same end and purpose also For as this Earthy Body is washed by Water so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours some of these Vapours being Nutritive others Purgative Moreover these Ancients further declared concerning this Spirituous Body that it was not Organized but did the Whole of it in every Part throughout exercise all Functions of Sense the Soul Hearing and Seeing and Perceiving all Sensibles by it every where For which Cause Aristotle himself affirmeth in his Metaphysicks That there is properly but One Sense and but One Sensory He by this One Sensory meaning the Spirit or Subtle Airy Body in which the Sensitive Power doth all of it through the Whole immediately apprehend all Variety of Sensibles And if it be demanded How it comes then to pass that this Spirit appears Organized in Sepulchres and most commonly of Humane Form but sometimes in the Form of some other Animals to this those Ancients Replied That their appearing so frequently in Humane Form proceedeth from their being Incrassated with Evil Diet and then as it were stamped upon with the Form of this Exteriour Ambient Body in which they are as Crystal is Formed and Coloured like to those things which it is fastned in or Reflects the Image of them And that their having sometimes other different Forms proceedeth from the Phantastick Power of the Soul it self which can at pleasure transform this Spirituous Body into any shape For being Airy when it is Condensed and Fixed it becometh Visible and again Invisible and Vanishing out of Sight when it is Expanded and Rarefied Now from these Passages cited out of Philoponus it further appeareth that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality did not suppose Humane Souls after Death to be quite strip'd Stark Naked from all Body but that the Generality of Souls had then a certain Spirituous Vaporous or Airy Body accompanying them though in different Degrees of Purity or Impurity Respectively to themselves As also that they conceived this Spirituous Body or at least something of it to hang about the Soul also here in this Life before Death as its Interiour Indument or Vestment which also then sticks to it when that other Gross Earthly Part of the Body is by Death put off as an Outer Garment And some have been inclinable to think by reason of certain Historick Phaenomena these Two to be things so distinct that it is not Impossible for this Spirituous Body together with the Soul to be Locally separated from the other Grosser Body for some time before Death and without it And indeed thus much canâ—ot be denied that our Soul Acteth not Immediatly only upon Bones Flesh and Brains and other such like Gross Parts of this Body but first and chiefly upon the Animal Spirits as the Immediate Instruments of Sense and Phancy and that by whose Vigour and Activity the other Heavy and Unwieldy Bulk of the Body is so nimbly Moved And therefore we know no reason but we may assent here to that of Porphyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Blood is the Food and Nourishment of the Spirit that is that Subtle Body called the Animal Spirits and that this Spirit is the Vehicle of the Soul or the more Immediate Seat of Life Nevertheless the same Philoponus there addeth that according to these Ancients besides the Terrestial Body and this Spirituous and Airy Body too there is yet a Third kind of Body of a Higher Rank then either of the Former peculiarly belonging to such Souls after Death as are Purged and Cleansed from Corporeal Affections Lusts and Passions called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Luciform and Celestial and Ethereal Body The Soul saith he continueth either in the Terrestrial or the Aereal Body so long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vntil that having Purged it self it be carried aloft and freed from Generation And then doth it put off both the Irascible and Concupisciple Passions at once together with this Second Vehicle or Body which we call Spirituous Wherefore these Ancients say that there is another Heavenly Body always conjoyned with the Soul and Eternal which they call Luciform and Star-like For it being a Mundane thing must of necessity have some Part of the World as a Province allotted to it which it may administer And since it is always Moveable and ought always to Act it must have a
and no further but the Latter into Terrestial also Now Hierocles positively affirmeth this to have been the True Cabala and Genuine Doctrine of the Ancient Pythagoreans entertained afterwards by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And This was the Doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards declared he resembling Every both Humane and Divine Soul that is in our Modern Language Every Created Rational Being to a Winged Chariot and a Driver or Charioteer both together meaning by the Chariot an Enlivened Body and by the Charioteer the Incorporeal Soul it self Acting it And now have we given a full Account in what manner the Ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended Answered that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Particular Finite Spirits Demons or Angels and Humane Souls that these being all Naturally Incorporate however in Themselves and Directly Immoveable yet were capable of being in some sense Moved by Accident together with those Bodies respectively which they are Vitally United to But as for that Pretence That these Finite Spirits or Substances Incorporeal being Vnextended and so having in themselves no Relation to any Place might therefore Actuate and Inform the Whole Corporeal World at once and take Cognizance of all things therein their Reply hereunto was That these being Essentially but Parts of the Vniverse and therefore not Comprehensive of the Whole Finite or Particular and not Universal Beings as the Three Hypostases of the Platonick Trinity are the Sphere of their Activity could not possibly Extend any further than to the Quickning and Enlivening of some certain Parts of Matter and the World allotted to them and thereby of becoming Particular Animals it being Peculiar to the Deity or that Incorporeal Substance which is Infinite to Quicken and Actuate All things But it would be no Impertinent Digression here as to the main Scope of our Present Vndertaking should we briefly compare the forementioned Doctrine and Cabbala of the Ancient Incorporealists the Pythagoreans and Platonists with that of Christianity and consider the Agreement or Disagreement that is betwixt them First therefore here is a plain Agreement of these Best and most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the most Consummate Happiness and Highest Perfection that Humane Nature is capable of consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls strip'd Naked from all Body and having no manner of Commerce with Matter as some High-flown Persons in all Ages have been apt to Conceit For such amongst the Philosophers and Platonists too was Plotinus Vnevennes and Vnsafeness of whose Temper may sufficiently appear from hence That as he conceived Humane Souls might possibly ascend to so high a Pitch as quite to shake off Commerce with all Body so did he in the other hand again Imagine that they might also Descend and Sink down so low as to Animate not only the Bodies of Bruits but even of Trees and Plants too Two Inconsistent Paradoxes the Latter whereof is a most Prodigious Extravagancy which yet Empedocles though otherwise a Great Wit seems to have been guilty of also from those Verses of his in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And amongst the Jews the famous Maymonides was also of this Perswasion it being a Known Aphorism of his in his Great Work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the World to Come or State of Consummate Happiness there shall be nothing at all of Body but Pure Incorporeity Upon which Account being accused as a Denyer of the Resurrection an Article as well of the Jewish as of the Christian Faith he wrote that Book intituled Iggereth Teman purposely to purge himself and to reconcile those Two Assertions together which he doth after such a manner as that there should be indeed a Resurrection at the First Coming of the Jewish Messias of some certain Persons to live here a while upon the Earth Eat and Drink Marry and be given in Marriage and then dy again after which in the World to come they should for ever continue Pure Souls Ununited to any Body In which it may be well suspected that the Design Maymonides drove at was against Christianity which notwithstanding as to this Particular hath the Concurrent Suffrages of the best Philosophers That the most Genuine and Perfect state of the Humane Soul which in its own Nature is immortal is to continue for ever not without but with a Body And yet our High-flown Enthusiasts generally however calling themselves Christians are such great Spiritualists and so much for the Inward Resurrection which we deny not to be a Scripture-Notion also As in that of S. Paul If ye be Risen with Christ c. And again If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead as that they quite Allegorize away together with other Parts of Christianity the Outward Resurrection of the Body and indeed will scarcely acknowledge any Future Immortality or Life to come after Death their Spirituality thus ending in Sadducism and Infidelity if not at length in Down-right Atheism and Sensuality But besides this there is yet a further Correspondence of Christianity with the forementioned Philosopbick Cabbala in that the Former also supposes the Highest Perfection of our Humane Souls not to consist in being Eternally Conjoyned with such Gross Bodies as these we now have Unchanged and Unaltered For as the Pythagoreans and Platonists have always Complained of these Terrestrial Bodies as Prisons or Living Sepulchres of the Soul so does Christianity seem to run much upon the same strain in these Scripture-Expressions In this We Groan Earnestly desiring to be Clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven and again We that are in this Tabernacle do Groan being burdened not for that we would be Vncloathed that is strip'd quite Naked of all Body but so cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life and lastly Our selves also which have the First Fruits of the Spirit Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption Sonship or Inheritance namely the Redemption of our Bodies That is the Freedom of them from all those Evils and Maladies of theirs which we herely oppressed under Wherefore we cannot think that the same Heavy Load and Luggage which the Souls of good men being here burdened with do so much groan to be delivered from shall at the General Resurrection be laid upon them again and bound fast to them to all Eternity For of such a Resurrection as this Plotinus though perhaps mistaking it for the True Christian Resurrection might have some cause to affirm that it would be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Resurrection to another Sleep the Soul seeming not to be Thoroughly Awake here but as it were Soporated with the Dull Steams and Opiatick Vapours of this gross Body For thus the Authour of the Book of Wisdom The Corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things But the same will further appear from that
have a Building of God a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan Earnestly And Verse the 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given us the Earnest of the Spirit Now how these Preludiums and Prelibations of an Immortal Body can consist with the Souls continuance after Death in a Perfect Separation from all manner of Body till the Day of Judgement is not so easily Conceivable Lastly it is not at all to be Doubted but that Irenaeus Origen and those other Ancients who entertained that Opinion of Souls being Clothed after Death with a certain Thin and Subtle Body suspected it not in the least to be Inconsistent with that of the Future Resurrection as it is no way Inconsistent for one who hath only a Shirt or Wastcoat on to put on a Sute of Cloths or Exteriour Upper garment Which will also seem the less strange if it be considered that even here in this Life our Body is as it were Two Fold Exteriour and Interiour we having besides the Grosly-Tangible Bulk of our Outward Body another Interiour Spirituous Body the Souls Immediate Instrument both of Sense and Motion which Latter is not put into the Grave with the Other nor Imprisoned under the Cold Sods Notwithstanding all which that hath been here suggested by us we shall not our selves venture to determine any thing in so great a Point but Sceptically leave it Vndecided The Third and Last thing in the Forementioned Philosophick or Pythagorick Cabbala is concerning those Beings Superior to men commonly called by the Greeks Demons which Philo tells us are the same with Angels amongst the Jews and accordingly are those words Demons and Angels by Hierocles and Simplicius and other of the latter Pagan Writers sometimes used indifferently as Synonymous viz. That these Demons or Angels are not Pure Abstract Incorporeal Substances devoid of Vital Vnion with any Matter but that they consist of something Incorporeal and something Corporeal joyned together so that as Hierocles writeth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have a Superiour and an Inferiour Part in them and their Superiour Part is an Incorporeal Substance their Inferiour Corporeal In a word that they all as well as men consist of Soul and Body united together there being only this Difference betwixt them that the Souls of these Demons or Angels never descend down to such Gross and Terrestrial Bodies as Humane Souls do but are always Clothed either with Aerial or Etherial ones And indeed this Pythagorick Cabbala was Universal concerning all Vnderstanding Beings besides the Supreme Deity or Trinity of Divine Hypostases that is concerning all the Pagan Inferiour Gods that they are no other than Souls vitally united to some Bodies and so made up of Incorporeal and Corporeal Substance Joyned together For thus Hierocles plainly expresseth himself in the forecited place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Rational Nature in General was so produced by God as that it neither is Body nor yet without Body but an Incorporeal Substance having a Cognate or Congenit Body Which same thing was else where also thus declared by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Rational Order or Rank of Being with its Congenite Immortal Body is the Image of the whole Deity the Maker thereof Where by Hierocles his Rational Nature or Essence and by the Whole Rational Order is plainly meant all Vnderstanding Beings Created of which he acknowledgeth only these Three Kinds and Degrees First the Immortal Gods which are to him the Animated Stars Secondly Demons Angels or Heroes and Thirdly Men called also by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terrestrial Demons he pronouncing of them all that they are alike Incorporeal Substances together with a Congenite Immortal Body and that there is no other Vnderstanding Nature than such besides the Supreme Deity which is Complete in it self without the Conjunction of any Body So that according to Hierocles the Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala acknowledged no such Entities at all as those Intelligences of Aristotle and the Noes of some High-flown Platonists that is perfectly Vnbodied Minds and much less any Rank of Henades or Vnities Superior to these Noes And indeed such Particular Created Beings as these could neither have Sense or Cognizance of any Corporeal thing Existing without them Sense as Aristotle hath observed Resulting from a Complication of Soul and Body as Weaving Results from a Complication of the Weaver and Weaving Instruments nor yet could they Act upon any Part of the Corporeal Vniverse So that these Immoveable Beings would be but like Adamantine Statues and things Unconnected with the rest of the World having no Commerce with any thing at all but the Deity a kind of Insignificant Metaphysical Gazers or Contemplators Whereas the Deity though it be not properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mundane Soul such as together with the Corporeal World as its Body makes up one Compleat and Entire Animal yet because the whole world proceeded from it and perpetually dependeth on it therefore must it needs take Cognizance of all and Act upon all in it upon which account it hath been styled by these Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Mundane but a Supra-Mundane Soul Wherefore this Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala seems to be agreeable to reason also that God should be the only Incorporeal Being in this sense such whose Essence is Complete and Life Entire within it self without the Conjunction or Appendage of any Body but that all other Incorporeal Substances Created should be Compleated and Made up by a Vital Vnion with Matter so that the whole of them is neither Corporeal nor Incorporeal but a Complication of both and all the Highest and Divinest things in the Universe next to the Supreme Deity are Animals consisting of Soul and Body united together And after this manner did the Ancient asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Unextended decline that Absurdity Objected against them of the Illocality of all Finite Created Spirits that these being Incorporeal Substances Vitally Clothed with some Body may by reason of the Locality and Mobility of their Respective Bodies truly be said to be he Here and There and to Move from Place to Place Wherefore we are here also to show what Agreement or Disagreement there is betwixt this Part of the Pythagorick Cabbala and the Christian Philosophy And First it hath been already intimated that the very same Doctrine with this of the Ancient Pythagoreans was plainly asserted by Origen Thus in his First Book Peri Archon c. 6. Solius Dei saith he id est Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Naturae id proprium est ut sine Materiali Substantia absque Vllâ Corporeae Adjectionis Societate intelligatur subsistere It is proper to the Nature of God only that is of the Father Son and Holy Ghost to subsist without Material Substance or the Society of any Corporeal
Angels Post Peccatum in hanc sunt detrusi Caliginem ubi tamen Aer That after their Sin they were thrust down down into the Misty darkness of this Lower Air. And here are they as it were Chained and Fettered also by that same Weight of their Gross and heavy Bodies which first sunk them down hither this not suffering them to reascend up or return back to those Bright Etherial Regions above And being thus for the present Imprisoned in this Lower Tartarus or Caliginous Air or Atmosphere they are indeed here Kept and Reserved in Custody unto the Judgment of the Great Day and General Assizes however they may notwithstanding in the mean time seem to Domineer and Lord it for a while here And Lastly our Saviours Go ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels seems to be a clear Confirmation of Devils being Bodied because First to Allegorize this Fire into nothing but Remorse of Conscience would indanger the rendering of other Points of our Religion uncertain also but to say that Incorporeal Substances Vnunited to Bodies can be tormented with Fire is as much as in us lieth to expose Christianity and the Scripture to the Scorn and Contempt of all Philosophers and Philosophick Wits Wherefore Psellus laies no small stress upon this Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am also convinced of this That Demons have Bodies from the words of our Saviour affirming That they shall be Punished with Fire which how could it be were they altogether Incorporeal it being Impossible for that which is both it self Incorporeal and Vitally Vnunited to any Body to suffer from a Body Wherefore of necessity it must be granted by us Christians that Devils shall receive Punishment of Sense and Pain hereafter in Bodies capable of Suffering Now if Angels in general that is all Created Beings Superiour to men be Substances Incorporeal or Souls Vitally United to Bodies though not always the same but sometimes of one kind and sometimes times of another and never quite Separate from all Body it may seem probable from hence that though there be other Incorporeal Substances besides the Deity yet Vita Incorporea a Life perfectly Incorporeal in the forementioned Origenick Sense or Sine Corporeae Adjectionis Societate Vivere to Live altogether without the Society of any Corporeal Adjection is a Privilege properly belonging to the Holy Trinity only and consequently therefore that Humane Souls when by Death they are Devested of these Gross Earthly Bodies they do not then Live and Act Compleatly without the Conjunction of any Body and so continue till the Resurrection or Day of Judgment this Being a priviledge which not so much as the Angels themselves and therefore no Created Finite Being is capable of the Imperfection of whose Nature necessarily requires the Conjunction of some Body with them to make them up Complete without which it is unconceivable how they should either have Sense or Imagination And Thus doth Origen Consentaneously to his own Principles Conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul which in its own Nature is Incoâ—poreal and Invisible in whatsoever Corporeal place it Existeth doth always stand in need of a Body suitable to the Nature of that place respectively Which Body it sometimes beareth having Put Off that which before was necessary but is now Superfluous for the Following State and sometimes again Putting On something to what before it had now standing in need of some better Clothing to fit it for those more Pure Etherial and Heavenly places But in what there follows we conceive that Origen's sense having not been rightly understood his words have been altered and perverted and that the whole place ought to be read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sense whereof iâ— this The Soul descending hither into Generation Put on first that Body which was useful for it whilst to continue in the Womb and then again afterward such a Body as was necessary for it to Live here upon the Earth in Again it having here a Two fold kind of Body the one of which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by St. Paul being a more Subtle Body which it had before the other the Superinduced Earthly House necessarily subservient to this Schenos here the Scripture Oracles affirm that the Earthly House of this Schenos shall be corrupted or dissolved but the Schenos it self Superindue or Put On a House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens The same declaring that the Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and the Mortal Immortality Where it is plain that Origen takes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul 1 Cor. 5.1 for a Subtle Body which the Soul had before its Terrene Nativity and which Continues with it after death but in good men will at last Superindue or Put on without Death the Clothing of Immortality Neither can there be a better Commentary upon this place of Origen than those Excerpta out of Methodius the Martyr in Photius though seeming to be Vitiated also where as we conceive the sense of Origen and his Followers is first contained in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in St. Paul the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is One thing and the Earthly House of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Another thing and We that is our Souls a Third thing distinct from both And then it is further declared in this that follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this short Life of our Earthly Body being destroyed our Soul shall then have before the Resurrection a dwelling from God until we shall at last receive it renewed restored and so made an Incorruptible House Wherefore in this we groan desirous not to put off all Body but to put on Life or Immortality upon the Body which we shall then have For that House which is from Heaven That we desire to put on is Immortality Moreover that the Soul is not altogether Naked after Death the same Origen endeavours to confirm further from that of our Saviour concerning the Rich Man and Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rich man Punished and the Poor man refreshed in Abraham 's bosome before the Coming of our Saviour and before the end of the world and therefore before the Resurrection plainly teaches that even now also after Death the Soul useth a Body He thinketh the same also to be further proved from the Visible Apparition of Samuel's Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Samuel also visibly appearing after Death maketh it manifest that his Soul was then clothed with a Body To which he adds in Photius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That the Exteriour Form and Figure of the Souls Body after Death doth resemble that of the Gross Terrestrial Body here in this Life All the Histories of Apparitions making Ghosts or the Souls of the Dead to appear in the same Form which their Bodies had before This therefore as was observed is that which Origen understands by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Difference of Matter Page 781 The Third Argument against Un-Extended Substance That to be All in the Whole and All in every Part a Contradiction and Impossibility This Granted by Plotinus to be True of Bodies or that which is Extended That it cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Impossible that what hath no Parts should be a Part here and a Part there Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Whole in the Whole and Whole in every Part to be taken onely in a Negative Sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Undivided The Whole Undivided Deity Every-where and not a Part of it Here onely and a Part There Page 782 783 The Last Objection is against the Illocality and Immobility of Finite Created Spirits and Humane Souls onely That this not onely Absurd but also Contrary to that Generally Received Tradition amongst Theists of Souls Moving Locally after Death into another Place called Hades Two Answers of Plotinus to this First That by Hades may be meant onely the Invisible or the Soul 's Acting without the Body Secondly That if by Hades be Meant a Worser place the Soul may be said to be there where its Idol is But when this same Philosopher supposeth the Soul in Good men to be separable also from this Idol he departeth from the Genuine Cabbala of his own School That Souls alwaies united to some Body or other This asserted here by Porphyrius That the Soul is never quite naked of all Body and therefore may be said to be there wheresoever its Body is Page 784 785 Some Excerptions out of Philoponus wherein the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Soul's Spirituous or Airy Body after Death is Largely declared Page 785 787 Intimated here by Philoponus That according to some of these Ancients the Soul hath such a Spirituous Body here in this Life as its Interiour Indument which then adheres to it when its Outer Garment is stript off by Death An Opinion of some That the Soul may in this Spirituous Body leave its Grosser Body for some time without Death True That our Soul doth not immediately Act upon Bones and Flesh but certain Thin and Subtile Spirits the Instruments of Sense and Motion Of which Porphyrius thus The Bloud is the Food of the Spirit and the Spirit the Vehicle of the Soul Page 787 788 The same Philoponus further Addeth That according to the Ancients besides both the Terrestrial and this Spirituous or Airy Body there is yet a Third kind of Body peculiar to such as are Souls as are more thoroughly purged after Death called by them a Luciform and Heavenly and Aetherial and Starre-like Body Of this Proclus also upon the Timaeus who affirmeth it to be Un-organized as likewise Hierocles This called the Thin Vehicle of the Soul in the Chaldee Oracles according to Psellus and Pletho By Hierocles a Spiritual Body in a Sense agreeable to that of the Scripture by Synesius the Divine Body This Distinction of Two Interiour Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides the Terrestrial Body called by Plato the Ostreaceous no Invention of Latter Platonists since Christianity it being plainly insisted upon by Virgil though commonly not Vnderstood Page 788 790 That many of these Platonists and Pythagoreans supposed the Soul in its First Creation when Made pure by God to be Clothed with this Luciform and Heavenly Body which also did alwaies Inseparably adhere to it in its After-Descents into the Aërial and Terrestrial though Fouled and Obscured Thus Pletho And the same Intimated by Galen when he calls this the First Vehicle of the Soul Hence was it that besides the Moral and Intellectual Purgation of the Soul they recommended also a Mystical or Telestick way of Purifying the Aetherial Vehicle by Diet and Catharms This much Insisted on by Hierocles What Pliny's Dying By Wisedom or the Philosophick Death Page 790 792 But this not the Opinion of all That the Same Numerical Aetherial Body always adhereth to the Soul but onely that it every where either Finds or Makes a Body suitable to it self Thus Porphyrius Plato also seems to have been of that Perswasion Page 792 793 This Affirmed by Hierocles to have been the Genuine Cabbala of the Ancient Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards followed Hierocles his Definition of a Man A Rational Soul together with a Cognate Immortal Body he declaring This enlivened Terrestrial Body to be but the Idol or Image of the True man or an Accession to him This therefore the Answer of the Ancient Incorporealists to that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Created Incorporeals That these being all Naturally Vnited to Some Body or other may be thus said to be in a Place and Locally Moved And That it does not follow that because Created Incorporeals are Un-extended they might therefore inform the whole Corporeal Universe Page 793 794 That it would be no Impertinent Digression here To Compare the forementioned Pythagorick Cabbala with the Doctrine of Christianity and to consider their Agreement or Disagreement First therefore A Clear Agreement of these most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the Highest Happiness and Perfection of Humane Nature consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls Un-united to any Body as some High-flown Persons have Conceited Thus Plotinus who sometimes runs as much into the other Extream in supposing Humane Souls to Animate not onely the Bodies of Brutes but also of Plants Thus also Maimonides amongst the Jews and therefore suspected for denying the Resurrection His Iggereth Teman written purposely to purge himself of this Suspicion The Allegorizers of the Resurrection and of the Life to come Page 794 795 Again Christianity Correspondeth with the Philosophick Cabbala concerning Humane Souls in this That their Happiness consisteth not in Conjunction with such Gross Terrestrial Bodies as these we now have Scripture as well as Philosophy complaining of them as a Heavy Load and Burthen to the Soul which therefore not to be taken up again at the Resurrection Such a Resurrection as this called by Plotinus a Resurrection to Another Sleep The Difference betwixt the Resurrection-Body and this Present Body in Scripture The Resurrection-Body of the Just as that of the Philosophick Cabbala Immortal and Eternal Glorious and Lucid Star-like and Spiritual Heavenly and Angelical Not this Gross Fleshly Body Guilded and Varnished over in the outside onely but Changed throughout This the Resurrection of Life in Scripture Emphatically called The Resurrection Our Souls Strangers and Pilgrims in these Terrestrial Bodies Their proper Home and Country the Heavenly Body That the Grossest Body that is according to Philosophy may meerly by Motion be brought into the Purity and Tenuity of the Finest Aether Page 795 799 But whether Humane Souls after Death alwaies Vnited to some Body or else quite Naked from all Body till the Resurrection not so Explicitly determined in Christianity Souls after Death Live unto God According to Origen This a Priviledge Proper to the Deity to Live and
Generation but only such as is out of Nothing nor Corruption but such as is into Nothing Which as we have already intimated is to be understood differently in respect to Inanimate and Animate things for in things Inanimate there is Nothing Produced or Destroyed because the Forms and Qualities of them are no Entities really distinct from the Substance but only diverse Mixtures and Modifications But in Animate things where the Souls are real Entities really distinct from the Substance of the Body there is Nothing Produced nor Destroyed neither because those Souls do both exist before their Generations and after their Corruptions which business as to Men and Souls is again more fully expressed thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Good and Ill did First us Here attend And not from Time Before the Soul Descend That here alone we live and when Hence we depart we forthwith then Turn to our old Non-entity again Certes ought not to be believ'd by Wise and Learned Men. Wherefore according to Empedocles this is to be accounted one of the Vulgar Errors That Men then only have a being and are capable of Good and Evil when they live here that which is called Life But that both before they are Born and after they are Dead they are perfectly Nothing And besides Empedocles the same is represented by the Greek Tragedian also as the Sence of the ancient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nothing Dies or utterly perisheth but things being variously Concreted and Secreted Transposed and Modified change their Form and Shape only and are put into a New Dress Agreeably whereunto Plato also tells us that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Tradition or Doctrine before his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That as well the Living were made out of the Dead as the Dead out of the Living and that this was the constant Circle of Nature Moreover the same Philosopher acquaints us that some of those Ancients were not without suspicion that what is now called Death was to Men more properly a Nativity or Birth into Life and what is called Generation into Life was comparatively rather to be accounted a sinking into Death the Former being the Soul's Ascent out of these Gross Terrestrial Bodies to a Body more Thin and Subtil and the Latter its Descent from a purer Body to that which is more Crass and Terrestrial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knows whether that which is called Living be not indeed rather Dying and that which is called Dying Living Moreover that this was the Doctrine of Pythagoras himself that no Real Entity perishes in Corruptions nor is produced in Generations but only new Modifications and Transpositions made is fully expressed by the Latin Poet both as to Inanimate and to Animate Things Of the first thus Nec perit in tanto quicquam mihi credite mundo Sed variat faciemque novat Nascique vocatur Incipere esse aliud quà m quod fuit antè Morique Desinere illud idem Cum sint Huc forsitan Illa Haec Translata Illuc Summâ tamen omnia constant Of the Second that the Souls of Animals are Immortal did preexist and do transmigrate from the same Ground after this manner Omnia mutantur Nihil interit Errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quoslibet occupat artus Spiritus éque Feris Humana in Corpora transit Inque Feras Noster nec tempore deperit ullo Vtque novis facilis signatur Cera figuris Nec manet ut fuerat nec formas servat easdem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est Animam sic semper eandem Esse sed in varias doceo migrare Figuras Wherefore though it be a thing which hath not been commonly taken Notice of of late yet we conceive it to be unquestionably true that all those ancient Philosophers who insisted so much upon this Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That no Real Entity is either Generated or Corrupted did therein at once drive at these two things First the establishing of the Immortality of all Souls their Prae and Post-existence forasmuch as being Entities Really distinct from the Body they could neither be Generated nor Corrupted and Secondly the making of Corporeal Forms and Qualities to be no Real Entities distinct from the Body and the Mechanism thereof because they are things Generated and Corrupted and have no Prae and Post-existence Anaxagoras in this Latter being the only Dissenter who supposing those Forms and Qualities to be real Entities likewise distinct from the Substance of Body therefore attributed Perpetuity of Being to them also Prae and Post-existence in Similar Atoms as well as to the Souls of Animals And now we have made it sufficiently evident that the Doctrine of the Incorporeity and Immortality of Souls we might add also of their Preexistence and Transmigration had the same Original and stood upon the same Basis with the Atomical Pysiology and therefore it ought not at all to be wondered at what we affirmed before that the same Philosophers and Pythagoreans asserted both those Doctrines and that the Ancient Atomists were both Theists and Incorporealists XXXIV But now to declare our Sence freely concerning this Philosophy of the Ancients which seems to be so prodigiously paradoxical in respect of that Pre-existence and Transmigration of Souls We conceive indeed that this Ratiocination of theirs from that Principle That Nothing Naturally or of it self comes from Nothing nor goes to Nothing was not only firmly conclusive against Substantial Forms and Qualities of Bodies really distinct from their Substance but also for Substantial Incorporeal Souls and their Ingenerability out of the Matter and particularly for the future Immortality or Post-existence of all Humane Souls For since it is plain that they are not a mere Modification of Body or Matter but an Entity and Substance really distinct from it we have no more reason to think that they can ever of themselves vanish into Nothing than that the substance of the Corporeal World or any part thereof can do so For that in the Consumption of Bodies by Fire or Age or the like there is the destruction of any real Substance into Nothing is now generally exploded as an Idiotical conceit and certainly it cannot be a jot less Idiotical to suppose that the Rational Soul in Death is utterly extinguished Moreover we add also that this Ratiocination of the Ancients would be altogether as firm and irrefragable likewise for the Pre-existence and Transmigration of Souls as it is for their Post-existence and future Immortality did we not as indeed we do suppose Souls to be Created by God immediately and infused in Generations For they being unquestionably a distinct Substance from the Body and no Substance according to the ordinary Course of Nature coming out of Nothing they must of Necessity either Preexist in the Universe before Generations and
he had condemned certain of the old Philosophers as Atheistick Corporealists he subjoyns these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But of the other Philosophers who transcending all the Elements searched after some higher and more excellent thing some of them praised Infinite amongst which was Anaximander the Milesian Anaxagoras the Clazomenian and the Athenian Archelaus As if these Three had all alike acknowledged an Incorporeal Deity and made an Infinite Mind distinct from Matter the First Original of all things But that forecited Passage of Aristotle's alone well consider'd will it self afford a sufficient Confutation of this Opinion where Anaximander with those other Physiologers is plainly opposed to Anaxagoras who besides Infinite Sensless Matter or Similar Atoms made Mind to be a Principle of the Vniverse as also to Empedocles who made a Plastick Life and Nature called Friendship another Principle of the Corporeal World from whence it plainly follows that Anaximander and the rest supposed not Infinite Mind but Infinite Matter without either Mind or Plastick Nature to have been the only Original of all things and therefore the Only Deity or Numen Moreover Democritus being linked in the Context with Anaximander as making both of them alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infinite to be the First Principle of all it might as well be inferred from this Place that Democritus was a Genuine Theist as Anaximander But as Democritus his only Principle was Infinite Atoms without any thing of Mind or Plastick Nature so likewise was Anaximander's an Infinity of Sensless and Stupid Matter and therefore they were both of them Atheists alike though Anaximander in the cited words had the Honour if it may be so called to be only named as being the most ancient of all those Atheistical Physiologers and the Ringleader of them XXII Neither ought it at all to seem strange that Anaximander and those other Atheistical Materialists should call Infinite Matter devoid of all Vnderstanding and Life the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deity or Numen since to all those who deny a God according to the true Notion of him whatsoever else they substitute in his room by making it the First Principle of all things though it be Sensless and Stupid Matter yet this must needs be accounted the Only Numen and Divinest thing of all Nor is it to be wondred at neither that this Infinite being understood of Matter should be said to be not only Incorruptible but also Immortal these two being often used as Synonymous and Equivalent Expressions For thus in Lucretius the Corruption of all Inanimate Bodies is called Death Mors ejus quod fuit ante And again Quando aliud ex alio reficit Natura nec ullam Rem Gigni patitur nisi Morte adjutam alienâ In like manner Mortal is used by him for Corruptible Nam siquid Mortale à cunctis partibus esset Ex oculis res quaeque repentè erepta periret And this kind of Language was very familiar with Heraclitus as appears from these Passages of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Death of Fire is Generation to Air and the Death of Air is Generation to Water that is the Corruption of them And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Death to Vapour or Air to be made Water and Death to Water to be made Earth In which Heraclitus did but imitate Orpheus as appears from this Verse of his cited by Clemens Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides which there are many Examples of this use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other Greek Writers and some in Aristotle himself who speaking of the Heavens attributes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them as one and the same thing as also affirms that the Ancients therefore made Heaven to be the Seat of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being only Immortal that is Incorruptible Indeed that other Expression at first sight would stagger one more where it is said of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infinite that it doth not only Contein but also Govern all things but Simplicius tells us that this is to be understood likewise of Matter and that no more was meant by it than that all things were derived from it and depended on it as the First Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Philosophers spake only of natural Principles and not of Supernatural and though they say that this Infinite of theirs does both Contein and Govern all things yet this is not at all to be wondered at forasmuch as Conteining belongs to the Material Cause as that which goes through all things and likewise Governing as that from which all things according to a certain aptitude of it are made Philoponus who was a Christian represents Aristotle's sence in this whole place more fully after this manner Those of the ancient Physiologers who had no respect to any Active Efficient Cause as Anaxagoras had to Mind and Empedocles to Friendship and Contention supposed Matter to be the only Cause of all things and that it was Infinite in Magnitude Ingenerable and Incorruptible esteeming it to be a certain Divine thing which did Govern all or preside over the Compages of the Vniverse and to be Immortal that is Vndestroyable This Anaximenes said to be Air Thales to be Water but Anaximander a certain Middle thing some one thing and some another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Aristotle in this Passage tells us that it is no wonder if they who did not attend to the Active Cause that presides over the Vniverse did look upon some one of the Elements that which each of them thought to be the Cause of all other things as God But as they considering only the Material Principle conceived that to be the Cause of all things so Anaxagoras supposed Mind to be the Principle of all things and Empedocles Friendship and Contention XXIII But to make it further appear that Anaximander's Philosophy was purely Atheistical we think it convenient to shew what account is given of it by other Writers Plutarch in his Placita Philosophorum does at once briefly represent the Anaximandrian Philosophy and Censure it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaximander the Milesian affirms Infinite to be the First Principle And that all things are Generated out of it and Corrupted again into it and therefore that Infinite Worlds are successively thus Generated and Corrupted And he gives the reason why it is Infinite that so there might be never any Fail of Generations But he erreth in this that assigning only a Material Cause he takes away the Active Principle of things For Anaximander 's Infinite is nothing else but matter but Matter can produce nothing unless there be also an Active Cause Where he shews also how Anaximenes followed Anaximander herein in assigning only a Material Cause of the Universe without any Efficient though he differed from him in making the First Matter to be Air and deriving all things from
of Man-Sacrifices against a modern Diatribist 67. That what Faith soever Plato might have in the Delphick Apollo he was no other than an Evil Daemon or Devil An Answer to the Pagans Argument from Divine Providence 68. That the Pagans Religion unsound in its Foundation was Infinitely more Corrupted and Depraved by means of these Four Things First the Superstition of the Ignorant Vulgar 69. Secondly the Licentious Figments of Poets and Fable-Mongers frequently condemned by Plato and other Wiser Pagans 70. Thirdly the Craft of Priests and Politicians 71. Lastly the Imposture of evil Daemons or Devils That by means of these Four Things the Pagan Religion became a most foul and unclean thing And as some were captivated by it under a most grievous Yoke of Superstition so others strongly inclined to Atheism 72. Plato not insensible that the Pagan Religion stood in need of Reformation nevertheless supposing many of those Religious Rites to have been introduced by Visions Dreams and Oracles he concluded that no wise Legislator would of his own head venture to make an Alteration Implying that this was a thing not to be effected otherwise than by Divine Revelation and Miracles The generally received Opinion of the Pagans that no man ought to trouble himself about Religion but content himself to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Law of that Country which he lived in 73. Wherefore God Almighty in great compassion to Mankind designed himself to reform the Religion of the Pagan World by introducing another Religion of his own framing in stead of it after he had first made a Praeludium thereunto in one Nation of the Israelites where he expresly prohibited by a Voice out of the Fire in his First Commandment the Pagan Polytheism or the worshipping of other Inferior Deities besides himself and in the Second their Idolatry or the Worshipping of the Supreme God in Images Statues or Symbols Besides which he restrain'd the use of Sacrifices As also successively gave Predictions of a Messiah to come such as together with Miracles might reasonably conciliate Faith to him when he came 74. That afterwards in due time God sent the promised Messiah who was the Eternal Word Hypostatically united with a Pure Humane Soul and Body and so a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God-man Designing him for a Living Temple and Visible Statue or Image in which the Deity should be represented and Worshipped as also after his Death and Resurrection when he was to be invested with all Power and Authority for a Prince and King a Mediatour and Intercessour betwixt God and Men. 75. That this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God-man was so far from intending to require Men-sacrifices of his Worshippers as the Pagan Demons did that he devoted himself to be a Catharma Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and thereby also abolished all Sacrifices or Oblations by Fire whatsoever according to the Divine Prediction 76. That the Christian Trinity though a Mystery is more agreeable to Reason than the Platonick and that there is no absurdity at all in supposing the Pure Soul and Body of the Messiah to be made a Living Temple or Shechinah Image or Statue of the Deity That this Religion of One God and One Mediatour or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man preached to the Pagan World and confirm'd by Miracles did effectually destroy all the Pagan Inferiour Deities Middle Gods and Mediatours Demons and Heroes together with their Statues and Images 77. That it is no way incongruous to suppose that the Divine Majesty in prescribing a Form of Religion to the World should graciously condescend to comply with Humane Infirmity in order to the removing of Two such Grand Evils as Polytheism and Idolatry and the bringing of men to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth 78. That Demons and Angels Heroes and Saints are but different Names for the same things which are made Gods by being worshipped And that the introducing of Angel and Saint-worship together with Image-Worship into Christianity seems to be a defeating of one grand design of God Almighty in it and the Paganizing of that which was intended for the Vnpaganizing of the World 79. Another Key for Christianity in the Scripture not disagreeing with the former That since the way of Wisdom and Knowledge proved Ineffectual as to the Generality of Mankind men might by the contrivance of the Gospel be brought to God and a holy Life without profound Knowledge in the way of Believing 80. That according to the Scripture there is a Higher more Precious and Diviner Light than that of Theory and Speculation 81. That in Christianity all the Great Goodly and most Glorious things of this World are slurried and disgraced comparatively with the Life of Christ. 82. And that there are all possible Engines in it to bring men up to God and engage them in a holy Life 83. Two Errors here to be taken notice of The First of those who make Christianity nothing but an Antinomian Plot against Real Righteousness and as it were a secret Confederacy with the Devil The Second of those who turn that into Matter of mere Notion and Opinion Dispute and Controversie which was designed by God only as a Contrivance Machin or Engine to bring men Effectually to a Holy and Godly Life 84. That Christianity may be yet further illustrated from the consideration of the Adversary or Satanical Power which is in the World This no Mâ—nichean Substantial Evil Principle but a Polity of Lapsed Angels with which the Souls of Wicked men are also Incorporated and may therefore be called The Kingdom of Darkness 85. The History of the Fallen Angels in Scripture briefly explained 86. The concurrent Agreement of the Pagans concerning Evil Demons or Devils and their Activity in the World 87. That there is a perpetual War betwixt Two Polities or Kingdoms in the World the one of Light the other of Darkness and that our Saviour Christ or the Messiah is appointed the Head or Chieftain over the Heavenly Militia or the Forces of the Kingdom of Light 88. That there will be at length a Palpable and Signal Overthrow of the Satanical Power and whole Kingdom of Darkness by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God appearing in an extraordinary and miraculous manner and that this great affair is to be managed by our Saviour Christ as God's Vicegerent and a Visible Judge both of Quick and Dead 89. That our Saviour Christ designed not to set up himself Factiously against God Almighty nor to be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 superiour to God but that when he hath done his Work and put down all Adversary Power himself will then be subject to God even the Father that so God may be all in all 90. Lastly having spoken of Three Forms of Religious the Jewish Christian and the Pagan and there remaining only a Fourth the Mahometan in which the Divine Monarchy is zealously asserted we may now Conclude that the Idea of
back again only to him so that this Oracle is irreprehensible and full of our Doctrine And it is very observable that these very same Oracles expresly determined also that Matter was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmade or Self-existent but derived in like manner from the Deity Which we learn from Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus where when he had positively asserted that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing the Cause of all things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Supreme Good being the Cause of all things is also the Cause of Matter he confirms this Assertion of his from the Authority of the Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From this Order also do the Oracles deduce the Generation of the Matter in these words From thence that is from One Supreme Deity altogether proceeds the Genesis of the Multivarious Matter Which unquestionably was one of those very Magick or Chalday Oracles and it may be further proved from hence because it was by Porphyrius set down amongst them as appears from Aeneas Gazeus in his Theophrastus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither was Matter void of Generation or Beginning which the Chaldeans and Porphyrius teach thee he making this the Title of a whole Book published by him The Oracles of the Chaldeans in which it is confirmed that Matter was Made Moreover that there was also in these Magick or Chalday Oracles a clear Signification of a Divine Triad hath been already declared But we shall here produce Proclus his Testimony for it too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus the Divinely Delivered or Inspired Theology affirmeth the whole World to have been completed from these Three Psyche or the Mundane Soul therein speaking concerning that Zeus or Jupiter who was above the Maker of the World in this manner c. For we have already declared that Proclus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Theology of Divine Tradition or Revelation is one and the same thing with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Oracles To which Testimony of Proclus we might also â—upeâ—add that Oracle cited out of Damascius by Patritius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the whole World shineth forth a Triad or Trinity the 〈…〉 a Monad or Perfect Vnity Than which nothing can be plaâ—â—e XVII And now we pass out of Asia into Europe from Zorâ—â—sâ—â—â— to Orpheus It is the Opinion of some Eminent Philologers of Lâ—tâ—er times That there never was any such Man as Orpheus buâ— only in Fairy-land and that the whole History of Orpheus was nothing bâ—â— a mere Romantick Allegory utterly devoid of all Truth and Reality But there is nothing alledged for this Opinion from Antiquity save only this one Passage of Cicero's concerning Aristotle Orpheum Poctam docet Aristoteles nunquam fuisse Aristotle teacheth that there never was any such man as Orpheus the Poet in which notwithstanding Aristotle seems to have meant no more than this that there was no such Poet as Orpheus Senior to Homer or that the Verses vulgarly called Orphical were not written by Orpheus However if iâ— should be granted that Aristotle had denied the Existence of such a man there seems to be no reason at all why his Single Testimony should here preponderate against that Universal Consent of all Antiquity which is for one Orpheus the Son of Oeager by birth a Thracian the Father or Chief Founder of the Mythical and Allegorical Theology amongst the Greeks and of all their most Arcane Religious Rites and Mysteries who is commonly supposed to have lived before the Trojan War that is in the time of the Israelitish Judges or at least to have been Senior both to Hesiod and Homer and also to have died a Violent Death most affirming him to have been torn in pieces by Women For which cause in that Vision of Herus Pamphylius in Plato Orpheus his Soul being to come down again into another Body is said to have chosen rather that of a Swan a reputed Musical Animal than to be born again of a Woman by reason of that great hatred which he had conceived of all Woman-kind for his suffering such a Violent Death from them And the Historick Truth of Orpheus was not only acknowledged by Plato but also by Isocrates Seniour to Aristotle likewise in his Oration in the praise of Busiris and confirmed by that sober Historiographer Diodorus Siculus he giving this Accompt of Orpheus That he was a man who diligently applied himself to Literature and having learn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mythical Part of Theology travelled into Egypt where he attain'd to further knowledge and became the greatest of all the Greeks in the Mysterious Rites of Religion Theological Skill and Poetry To which Pausanias addeth that he gained great authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As being believed to have found out Expiations for wicked Actions Remedies for Diseases and Appeasments of the Divine Displeasure Neither was this History of Orpheus contradicted by Origen when Celsus gave him so fit an occasion and so strong a Provocation to do it by his Preferring Orpheus before our Saviour Christ. To all which may be added in the last place that it being commonly concluded from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Greeks derived their Teletae and Mysteries of Religion from the Thracians it is not so reasonable to think with the Learned Vossius that Xamolxis was the Founder of them and not Orpheus this Xamolxis being by most reported to have been Pythagoras his Servant and consequently too much a Juniour and though Herodotus attribute more Antiquity to him yet did he conceive him to have been no other than a Daemon who appearing to the Thracians was worshipped by them whereas in the mean time the General Tradition of the Greeks derived the Thracian Religious Rites and Mysteries from Orpheus and no other according to this of Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is commonly said that Orpheus the Thracian was the First Inventor of the Religious Mysteries of the Greeks and that Religion was from thence called Threscheia as being a Thracian Invention Wherefore though it may well be granted that by reason of Orpheus his great Antiquity there have been many Fabulous and Romantick things intermingled with his History yet there appears no reason at all why we should disbelieve the Existence of such a Man But though there were such a man as Orpheus yet may it very well be question'd for all that Whether any of those Poems commonly entitled to him and called Orphical were so ancient and indeed written by him And this the rather because Herodotus declares it as his own Opinion that Hesiod and Homer were the ancientest of all the Greek Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that those other Poets said to have been before them were indeed Juniors to them meaning hereby in all probability Orpheus Musaeus and Linus As also because Aristotle seems plainly to have followed Herodotus in this he mentioning the Orphick Poems in
Theologer only Xenophanes his One and All being nothing else but God Whom he proved to be One solitary Being from hence because God is the Best and Most Powerful of all things and there being many degrees of Entity there must needs be something Supreme to rule over all Which Best and most Powerful Being can be but One. He also did demonstrate it to be Vnmade as likewise to be neither Finite nor Infinite in a certain sence as he removed both Motion and Rest from God Wherefore when he saith that God always remaineth or resteth the same he understands not this of that Rest which is opposite to Motion and which belongs to such things as may be moved but of a certain other Rest which is both above that Motion and its Contrary From whence it is evident that Xenophanes supposed as Sextus the Philosopher also affirmeth God to be Incorporeal a Being unlike to all other things and therefore of which no Image could be made And now we understand that Aristotle dealt not ingenously with Xenophanes when from that expression of his that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spheryform he would infer that Xenophanes made God to be a Body and nothing else but the Round Corporeal World Animated which yet was repugnant also to another Physical Hypothesis of this same Xenophanes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there were Infinite Suns and Moons by which Moons he understood Planets affirming them to be all habitable Earths as Cicero tells us Wherefore as Simplicius resolves God was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spheryform by Xenophanes only in this sence as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way like and uniform However it is plain that Xenophanes asserting One God who was All or the Universe could not acknowledge a Multitude of Partial Self-existent Deities Heraclitus was no Clear but a Confounded Philosopher he being neither a Good Naturalist nor Metaphysician and therefore it is very hard or rather impossible to reconcile his Several Opinions with one another Which is a thing the less to be wondred at because amongst the rest of his Opinions this also is said to have been One That Contradictories may be true and his writings were accordingly as Plato intimates stuft with Unintelligible Mysterious Non-sence For First he is affirmed to have acknowledged no other Substance besides Body and to have maintained That All things did Flow and nothing Stand or remain the same and yet in his Epistles according to the common opinion of Philosophers at that time doth he suppose the Prae Post-existence of Humane Souls in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My soul seemeth to vaticinate and presage its approaching dismission and freedom from this its prison and looking out as it were through the cracks and cranies of this body to remember those its native Regions or Countries from whence descending it was cloathed with this Flowing Mortal Body which is made up and constipated of Flegm Choler Serum Blood Nerves Bones and Flesh. And not only so but he also there acknowledgeth the Souls Immortality which Stoicks allowing its Permanency after Death for some time at least and to the next Conflagration did deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Body shall be fatally changed to something else but my Soul shall not die or perish but being an Immortal thing shall fly away mounting upwards to Heaven those Etherial Houses shall receive me and I shall no longer converse with men but Gods Again though Heraclitus asserted the Fatal Necessity of all things yet notwithstanding was he a strict Moralist and upon this accompt highly esteemed by the Stoicks who followed him in this and other things and he makes no small pretence to it himself in his Epistle to Hermodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have also had my difficult Labours and Conflicts as well as Hercules I hâ—ve conquer'd Pleasures I have conquer'd Riches I have conquer'd Ambition I have subdued Cowardise and Flattery neither Fear nor Intemperance can control me Grief and Anger are afraid of me and fly away from me These are the Victories for which I am crowned not by Eurystheus but as being made Master of my self Lastly though Heraclitus made Fire to be the First Principle of all things and hath some odd Passages imputed to him yet notwithstanding was he a Devout Religionist he supposing that Fiery Matter of the whole Universe Animantem esse Deum to be an Animal and God And as he acknowledged Many Gods according to that which Aristotle recordeth of him That when some passing by had espied him sitting in a smoaky Cottage he bespake them after this manner Introite nam hic Dii sunt Come in I pray for here there are Gods also he supposing all places to be full of Gods Demons and Souls so was he an undoubted Asserter of One Supreme Numen that governs all things and that such as could neither be represented by Images nor confined to Temples For after he had been accused of Impiety by Euthycles he writes to Hermodorus in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But O you unwise and unlearned teach us first what God is that so you may be believed in accusing me of Impiety Tell us where God is Is he shut up within the Walls of Temples Is this your Piety to place God in the dark or to make him a Stony God O you unskilful know ye not that God is not made with hands and hath no basis or fulcrum to stand upon nor can be inclosed within the Walls of any Temple the whole World variegated with Plants Animals and Stars being his Temple And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Am I Impious O Euthycles who alone know what God is Is there no God without Altars or are Stones the only witnesses of him No his own Works give testimony to him and principally the Sun Night and Day bear witness of him the Earth bringing forth fruits declares him the Circle of the Moon that was made by him is a Heavenly Testimony of him In the next place Anaxagoras the Clazomenian Philosopher comes to be considered whose Predecessors of the Ionick Order after Thales as Anaximander Anaximenes and Hippo were as hath been already observed Materialists and Atheists they acknowledging no other Substance besides Body and resolving all things into the Motions Passions and Affections of it Whence was that cautious advice given by Jamblichus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prefer the Italick Philosophy which contemplates Incorporeal Substances by themselves before the Ionick which principally considers Bodies And Anaxagoras was the first of these Ionicks who went out of that Road for seeing a necessity of some other Cause besides the Material Matter being not able so much as to move it self and much less if it could by Fortuitous Motion to bring it self into an Orderly System and Compages he therefore introduced Mind into the Cosmopoeia as the Principal Cause of the Universe
delivered down to us from very ancient Times that the Stars are Gods also besides that Supreme Deity which contains the Whole Nature But all the other things were Fabulously added hereunto for the better Perswasion of the Multitude and for Vtility of Humane Life and Political Ends to keep men in Obedience to Civil Laws As for example that these Gods are of Humane Form or like to other Animals with such other things as are consequent hereupon In which words of Aristotle these Three Things may be taken notice of First That this was the General Perswasion of the Civilized Pagans from all known Antiquity downwards that there is One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which comprehends the whole Nature Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Aristotle plainly taken for the Supreme Deity And his own sence concerning this Particular is elsewhere thus declared after the same manner where he speaks of Order Harmony and Proportion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Work of the Divine Power which also conteinâ— this Vniverse Which Divinity Conteining and Compâ—ehending the Whole Nature and Vniverse must needs be a Single and Solitary Being according to that Expression of Horace before cited Nec viget quicquam Simile aut Secundum That which hath nothing Like it nor Second to it The next thing is That according to the Pagan Tradition besides this Vniversal Numen there were certain other Particular and Infeferiour Deities also that is Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to Men namely the Animated Stars or Spheres according to the Vulgar Apprehension though Aristotle's Philosophy would interpret this chiefly of their Immovable Minds or Intelligences Lastly that all the rest of the Pagan Religion and Theology those Two Things only excepted were Fabulous and Fictitious invented for the better Perswasion of the Vulgar to Piety and the conserving of them in Obedience to Civil Laws amongst which this may be reckoned for one that those Gods are all like Men or other Animals and therefore to be worshipped in Images and Statues of those several Forms with all that other Fabulous Farrago which dependeth hereupon Which being separated from the rest the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ancient Tradition of their Pagan Progenitors would remain comprized within those Two Particulars above mentioned namely that there is One Supreme Deity that Conteins the whole Vniverse and that besides it the Animated Stars or their Minds are certain Inferiour Gods also To Aristole may be here subjoyned Speusippus and Xenocrates his Equals and Corrivals they being Plato's Successors together with Theophrastus his own Scholar and Successor Concerning the former of which it is recorded in Cicero that agreeably with Plato he asserted Vim quandam quâ omnia regantur eamque Animalem One Animal and Intellectual Force by which all things are governed by reason whereof Velleius the Epicurean complains of him as thereby endeavouring Evellere ex animis cognitionem Deorum To pluck out of the minds of men the Notion of Gods as indeed both he and Plato did destroy those Epicurean Gods which were all supposed to be Independent and to have no Sway or Influence at all upon the Government of the World whereas neither of them denied a Plurality of Subordinate and Dependent Deities Generated or Created by One Supreme and by him Employed as his Ministers in the Oeconomy of the Universe For had they done any such thing as this they would certainly have been then condemned for Atheists And Xenocrates his Theology is thus represented in Stobaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That both a Monad and Dyad were Gods the one Masculine having the order of a Father which he calleth Zen and Mind and which is also to him the First God the other Feminine as it were the Mother of the Gods which is to him the Soul of the Vniverse besides which he acknowledgeth the Heaven to be Divine that is Animated with a Particular Soul of its own and the Fiery Stars to be Celestial Gods as he asserted also certain Sublunary Gods viz. the Invisible Demons Where instead of the Platonick Trinity Xenocrates seems to have acknowledg'd only a Duality of Divine Hypostases the First called a Monad and Mind the Second a Dyad and Soul of the Vniverse And lastly we have this Testimony of Theophrastus besides others cited out of his Metaphysicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is one Divine Principle of all things by or from which all things subsist and remain XXV The Stoicks and their chief Doctors Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus were no better Naturalists and Metaphysicians than Heraclitus in whose footsteps they trode they in like manner admitting no other Substance besides Body according to the true and proper Notion thereof as that which is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distant and Extended but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resisting and Impenetrable So that according to these Stoicks the Souls not only of other Animals but of Men also were properly Corporeal that is Substances Impenetrably Extended and which differ'd from that other part of theirs commonly called their Body no otherwise than that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more Thin and Subtil Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Hot and Fiery Spirit it being supposed by these Philosophers that Cogitation Reason and Vnderstanding are lodged only in the Fiery Matter of the Universe And though the Generality of these Stoicks acknowledged Humane Souls to have a certain Permanency after Death and some of them till the next Conflagration unless perhaps they should be crushed and broken all to pieces in their Passage out of the Body by the down-fall of some Tower Steeple or the like upon them yet did they all conclude against their Immortality there being nothing at all Immortal with them as shall be afterwards declared save only Jupiter or the One Supreme Deity And as for the Punishment of Wicked Souls after death though some of them seem to have utterly exploded the same as a meer Figment of Poets insomuch that Epictetus himself denies there was any Acheron Cocytus or Phlegethon yet others granted that as the better Souls after Death did mount up to the Stars their First Original so the Wicked wandred up and down here in certain Dark and Miry Subterraneous Places till at length they were quite extinct Nevertheless they seem to have been all of this Perswasion that the Frightning of men with punishments after Death was no Proper nor Accommodate means to promote Virtue because that ought to be pursued after for its own sake or the Good of Honesty as Vice to be avoided for that Evil of Turpitude which is in it and not for any other External Evil consequent thereupon Wherefore Chrysippus reprehended Plato for subjoyning to his Republick such affrightful Stories of Punishments after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysippus affirmeth that Plato in the Person of Cephalus does not rightly deterr men from Injustice
Cogitation or Consciousness much less a Power of Vnderstanding Eternal Verities that therefore these could not be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same Because Forms and Qualities are Continually Generated and Corrupted made out of Nothing and Reduced to Nothing again therefore are they no Entities Really distinct from Matter and its different Modifications but because Souls at least Humane are unquestionably Entities Really distinct from Matter and all its Modifications therefore can they not possibly be Generated out of Matter nor Corrupted into the same For if Humane Souls were Generated out of Matter then must some Real Entity be Materially produced out of Nothing there being Nothing of Life and Cogitation in Matter which is a Thing Absolutely Impossible Wherefore these Philosophers concluded concerning Souls that being not Generated out of Matter they were Insinuated or Introduced into Bodies in Generations And this was always a Great Controversie betwixt Theists and Atheists concerning the Humane Soul as Lucretius expresseth it Nata sit an contrà Nascentibus Insinuetur Whether it were Made or Generated out of Matter that is indeed out of Nothing or else were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From Without Insinuated into Bodies in Generations Which latter Opinion of theirs supposes Souls as well to have Existed Before the Generations of all Animals as to Exist After their Deaths and Corruptions there being properly Nothing of them Generated but only their Union with those particular Bodies So that the Generations and Corruptions or Deaths of Animals according to this Hypothesis are nothing but an Anagrammatical Transposition of Things in the Universe Prae and Post-Existent Souls being sometimes united to one Body and sometimes to another But it doth not therefore follow because these Ancient Philosophers held Souls to be thus Ingenerable and to have Pre-Existed before the Generation of Animals that therefore they supposed all Souls to have Existed Of Themselves from Eternity Vnmade this being a Thing which was never asserted any more by Theist than Atheist since even those Philosophick Theists who maintained Aeternitatem Animorum The Eternity of Humane Minds and Souls together with the Worlds did notwithstanding assert their Essential Dependence upon the Deity like that of the Lights upon the Sun as if they were a kind of Eternal Effulgency Emanation or Eradiation from an Eternal Sun Even Proclus himself that Great Champion for the Eternity of the World and Souls in this very Case when he writes against Plutarch's Self-Existent Evil Soul expresly declaring that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Self Existent Soul but every Soul whatsoever is the Work Effect and Production of God Wherefore when they affirmed Souls to be Ingenerable their meaning was no more than this that they were not meer Accidental Things as Forms and Qualities are nor any more Generated out of Matter than Matter it self is Generated out of Something else upon which account as Aristotle informs us Souls were called also by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principles as well as Matter they being both of them Substances in the Universe alike Original that is neither of them Made out of the other But they did not suppose them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenerate or Vnmade in the other Sense as if they had been Self-Originated and Independent as Plutarch's Second and Third Principles his Evil Soul and Matter were by him Imagined to be but so doubtless as that if the World had had any beginning they should then have been all Created together with it out of Nothing Prae-Existing But as for the perpetual Creation of new Souls in the Successive Generations of Animals this indeed is a thing which those Philosophers were extremely abhorrent from as thinking it Incongruous that Souls which are in Order of Nature Senior to Bodies should be in Order of Time Juniors to them as also not Reasonable that Divine Creation as it were Prostituted should without end perpetually attend and wait upon Natural Generations and be Intermingled with them But as for this Prae-Existence of Souls we have already declared our own sense concerning it in the First Chapter Though we cannot deny but that besides Origen several others of the Ancient Fathers before the Fifth Council seem either to have Espoused it or at least to have had a favour and kindness for it insomuch that St. Austine himself is sometimes Staggering in this Point and thinks it to be a Great Secret whether mens Souls Existed before their Generations or no and some where concludes it to be a matter of Indifferency wherein every one may have his Liberty of opining either way without offence Wherefore all that can be certainly affirmed in this Case is that Humane Souls could not possibly be Generated out of Matter but were some time or other Created by God Almighty out of Nothing Prae-Existing either In Generations or Before them Lastly as for Brute Animals we must confess that If they be not meer Machines or Automata as some seem inclinable to believe but Conscious and Thinking Beings then from the same Principle of Reason it will likewise follow that they cannot be Generated out of Matter neither and therefore must be Derived from the Fountain of all Life and Created out of Nothing by him who since he can as easily Annihilate as Create and does all for the Best no man need at all to trouble himself about their Permanency or Immortality And now have we given a Full and Particular Account of all the Several Senses wherein this Axiom must be acknowledged to be Undeniably True That Nothing can possibly be Made out of Nothing or Come from Nothing namely these Three First That Nothing which was Not could ever bring it self into Being or Efficiently Produce it self Or That Nothing can possibly be Made without an Efficient Cause Secondly that Nothing which was Not could be Produced or brought into Being by any other Efficient Cause then such as hath at least Equal Perfection in it and a Sufficient Active or Productive Power For if any thing were made by that which hath not Equal Perfection then must so much of the Effect as Transcendeth the Cause be indeed Made without a Cause since Nothing can Give what it hath not or be Caused by it self or by Nothing Again to suppose a thing to be Produced by that which hath no Sufficient Productive Power is Really to suppose it also to be Produced from It self without a Cause or From Nothing Where it is acknowledged by us That no Natural Imperfect Created Being can Create or Emanatively Produce a New Substance which was not Before and give it its Whole Being Hitherto is the Axiom Verified in Respect of the Efficient Cause But in the Third Place it is also True in respect of the Material likewise Not That Nothing could Possibly be ever Made by any Power whatsoever but only out of Pre-Existent Matter and Consequently that Matter it self could be never Made but was Self-Existent For the
to be the same with that in another In like manner Simplicius proving that Body is not the first Principle because there must of necessity be Something Self-moving and what is so must needs be Incorporeal writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because what is such must of necessity be Indivisible and Indistant for were it Divisible and Distant it could not all of it be conjoyned with its whole self so that the whole should both actively move and be moved Which same thing seems further Evident in the Souls being All Conscious of It Self and Reflexive upon its whole Self which could not be were one part of it Distant from another Again the same Philosopher expresly denieth the Soul though a Self-moving Substance to be at all Locally Moved otherwise then by accident in respect of the Body which is moved by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul being not Moved by Corporeal or Local Motions for in respect of these it is Immoveable but by Cogitative ones only the names whereof are Consultation and Deliberation c. by these Moveth Bodies Locally And that this was Really Plato's meaning also when he determined the Soul to be a Self-moving Substance and the Cause of all Bodily Motion that moving it self in a way of Cogitation it moved Bodies Locally Notwithstanding that Aristotle would not take notice of it sufficiently appears from his own words and is acknowledged by the Greek Scholiasts themselves upon Aristotle's De Anima Thus again Simplicius elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Since the Soul is not in a place it is not capable of any Local Motion We should omit the Testimonies of any more Philosophers were it not that we find Porphyrius so full and express herein who makes this the very beginning of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Manuduction to Intelligibles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That though Every Body be in a Place yet Nothing that is properly Incorporeal is in a Place and who afterwards further pursues it in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither does that which is Incorporeal move Locally by Will Place being Relative only to Magnitude and Bulk But that which is devoid of Bulk and Magnitude is likewise devoid of Local Motion Wherefore it is only present by a certain Disposition and Inclination of it to one thing more than another nor is its presence there discernible otherwise than by its operations and Effects Again concerning the Three Divine Hypostases he writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Supreme God is therefore Every where because he is Nowhere and the same is true also of the Second and Third Divine Hypostasis Nous and Psyche The Supreme God is Every where and No where in respect of those things which are after him and only his own and in himself Nous or Intellect is in the Supreme God Every where and No where as to those things that are after him Psyche or the Mundane Soul is both in Intellect and the Supreme God and Every where and No where as to Bodies Lastly Body is both in the Soul of the World and in God Where he denies God to be Locally in the Corporeal World and thinks it more proper to say that the Corporeal World is in God then God in it because the World is held and contained in the Divine Power but the Deity is not in the Locality of the World Moreover he further declares his Sense after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor if there were conceived to be such an Incorporeal Space or Vacuum as Democritus and Epicurus supposed could Mind or God possibly Exist in this Empty Space as Co-extended with the same for this would be only Receptive of Bodies but it could not receive the Energie of Mind or Intellect nor give any Place or Room to that that being no Bulkie thing And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Corporeal World is Distantly present to the Intelligible or the Deity and that is Indivisibly and Indistantly present with the World But when that which is Indistant and Vnextended is present with that which is Distant and Extended then is the Whole of the Former one and the same Numerically in Every part of the Latter That is it is Indivisibly and Vnmultipliedly and Illocally there according to its own Nature present with that which is naturally Divisible and Multipliable and in a Place Lastly he affirmeth the same likewise of the Humane Soul that this is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Substance devoid of Magnitude and which is not Locally present to this or that Body but by Disposition and Energie and therefore the Whole of it in every part thereof Vndividedly And as for Christian Writers besides Origen who was so famous an Asserter of Incorporeal Substance that as Socrates recordeth the Egyptian Monks and Anthropomorphites threatned death to Theophilus the Alexandrian Bishop unless he would at once execrate and renounce the Writings of Origen and profess the Belief of a Corporeal God of Humane Form and who also maintained Incorporeal Substance to be Vnextended as might be proved from Sundry Passages both of his Book against Celsus and that Peri Archon we say besides Origen and others of the Greeks St. Austine amongst the Latins clearly asserted the same he maintaining in his Book De Quantitate Animae and else where concerning the Humane Soul that being Incorporeal it hath no Dimensions of Length Breadth and Profundity and is Illocabilis No where as in a Place We shall conclude with the Testimony of Boetius who was both a Philosopher and a Christian Quaedam sunt saith he Communes Animi Conceptiones per se notae apud Sapientes tantum Vt Incorporalia non esse In Loco There are certain Common Conceptions or Notions of the Mind which are known by themselves amongst wise men only as this for example That Incorporeals are in No Place From whence it is manifest that the generality of reputed Wise men were not formerly of this opinion Quod Nusquam est nihil est That what is No where or in no certain Place is Nothing and that this was not look'd upon by them as a Common Notion but only as a Vulgar Errour By this time we have made it unquestionably Evident that this Opinion of Incorporeal Substance being Vnextended Indistant and Devoid of Magnitude is no Novel or Recent thing nor first started in the Scholastick Age but that it was the general Perswasion of the most ancient and learned Asserters of Incorporeal Substance especially that the Deity was not Part of it Here and Part of it There nor the Substance thereof Mensurable by Yards and Poles as if there were so much of it contained in one Room and so much and no more in another according to their several Dimensions but that the whole Vndivided Deity was at once in Every Part of the world and consequently No where Locally after the manner of Bodies But because this
Body Eternally conjoyned with it which it may always Enliven And for these Causes do they affirm the Soul always to have a Luciform Body Which Lucid and Etherial Body of the Soul is a thing often mentioned by other Writers also as Proclus in his Commentary upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Humane Soul hath also saith he such an Ethereal Vehicle belonging to it as Plato himself intimâ—tâ—s when he affirmeth the Demiurgus at first to have placed it in a Chariot For of necâ—ssity every Soul before this Mortal Body must have an Eternal and easily Moveable Body it being Essential to it to move And elsewhere the same Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whilst we remain above we have no need of these Divided Organs which now we have descending into Generation but the Vniform Lucid or Splendid Vehicle is sufficient this having all Senses Vnited together in it Which Doctrine of the Vnorganized Luciform and Spirituous Vehicles seems to have been derived from Plato he in his Epinomis writing thus concerning a Good and Wise man after Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of whom whether I be in Jest or Earnest I constantly affirm that when dying he shall yield to Fate he shall no longer have this Variety of Senses which now we have but One Vniform Body and live a happy Life Moreover Hiâ—rocles much insisteth upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Luciform and Ethereal Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which also saith he the Oracles call the Thin and Subtle Vehicle or Chariot of the Soul he meaning doubtless by these Oracles the Magical or Chaldaick Oracles before mentioned And amongst those now Extant under that Title there seems to be a clear acknowledgment of these Two Vehicula of the Soul or Interiour Induments thereof the Spirituous and the Luciform Body the latter of which is there Enigmatically called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Plain Superficies in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take care not to Defile or Contaminate the Spirit nor to make the Plain Superficies Deep For thus Psellus glosseth upon that Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldaick Philosophers bestow upon the Soul Two Interiour Tunicles or Vestments the one of which they called Pneumatical or the Spirituous Body which is weaved out as it were to it and compounded of the Gross Sensible Body it being the more Thin and Subtle part thereof the other the Luciform Vestment of the Soul Pure and Pellucide and this is that which is here called the Plain Superficies Which saith Pletho is not so to be understood as if it had not Three Dimensions for as much as it is a Body also but only to denote the Subtlety and Tenuity thereof Wherefore when the aforesaid Hierocles also calls this Luciform and Etherial Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spiritual Vehicle of the Rational Soul he takes not the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Sense wherein it is used by Philoponus and Others as if he intended to confound this Etherial Body with that other Spirituous or Airy Body and to make but one of them but rather styles it Spiritual in a higher Sense and which cometh near to that of the Scripture as being a Body more Suitable and Cognate with that Highest and Divinest Part of the Soul Mind or Reason then the other Terrestial Body is which upon that account is called also by the same Hierocles as well as it is by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Animal or Natural Body So that this Spiritual Body of Hierocles is not the Airy but the Etherial Body and the same with Synesius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Divine Body And that this Distinction of two Interior Vehicles or Tunicles of the Soul besides that Outer Vestment of the Terrestial Body styled in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crustaceous or Ostrâ—aceous Body is not a meer Figment of the latter Platonists since Christianity but a Tradition derived down from Antiquity appeareth plainly from Virgil in his Sixth Aenead where though not commonly understood he writeth first of the Spirituous or Airy Body in which Unpurged Souls receive Punishment after Death thus Quin Supremo cum Lumine Vita reliquit Non tamen omne Malum miseris nec funditus omnes Corporeae excedunt pestes penitusque necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris Ergo exercentur poenis veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad Ventos aliis sub gurgite Vasto Infectum eluitur Scelus aut exuritur Igni And then again of the other Pure Ethereal and Fiery Body in this manner Donec Longa dies perfecto temporis Orbe Concretam exemit labem Purumque reliquit Aethereum Sensum atque Aurai Simplicis Ignem Now as it was before observed that the Ancient Asserters of the Souls Immortality supposing it to have besides this Terrestial Body another Spirituous or Airy Body conceived this not only to accompany the Soul after Death but also to hang about it here in this Life as its Interiour Vest or Tunicle they probably meaning hereby the same with that which is commonly called the Animal Spirits diffused from the Brain by the Nerves throughout this whole Body in like manner is it certain that Many of them supposing the Soul besides those Two forementioned to have yet a Third Luciform or Etherial Body conceived this in like manner to adhere to it even in this Mortal Life too as its Inmost Clothing or Tunicle yet so as that they acknowledged the Force thereof to be very much weakned and abâ—ted and its Splendour altogether obscured by the Heavy Weight and Gross Steams or Vapours of the Terrestial Body Thus Suidas â—poâ— the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us out of Isidore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to some Philosophers the Soul hath a certain Luciform Vehicle called also Star or Sun-like and Eternal which Luciform Body is now shut up within this Terrestrial Body as a Light in a dark Lanthorn it being supposed by some of them to be included within the Head c. With which agreeth Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Splendid or Luciform Body lieth in this Mortal Body of ours continually Inspiring it with Life and containing the Harmony thereof The ground of which opinion was because these Philosophers generally conceived the Humane Soul to have Pre-Existed before it came into this Earthly Body and that either from Eternity or else from the First beginning of the World's Creation and being never without a Body and then in a Perfect State to have had a Lucid and Etherial Body either Co-Eternal or Co-Eve with it though in order of Nature Junior to it as its Chariot or Vehicle which being Incorruptible did always inseparably adhere to the Soul in its After Lapses and Descents into an Aerial first and then a Terrestrial Body this being as it were the Vinculum of Union betwixt the Soul
not that the Soul Is a Body but that it Hath a Body after Death conjoyned with it and that of the same Form and Figure with that Body which it had before here in this Life Plenissimè autem Dominus docuit non solum perseverare non de corpore in corpus transgredientes animas sed Characterem corporis in quo etiam adaptantur custodire eundem Et meminisse eas Operum quae egerunt hîc à quibus cessaverunt in Enarratione quae scribitur de Divite de Lazaro qui refrigerabatur in Sinu Abrahae in qua ait Divitem cognoscere Lazarum post mortem Et manere in suo ordine unumquemque ipsorum Our Lord hath most plainly taught us that Souls do not only continue after Death without passing out of one Body into another but also that they keep the Character of Body wherein they are then also adapted the same which they had before as likewise that they remember the Actions and Omissions of their Life past in that Enarration which is written concerning the Rich Man and Lazarus who was refreshed in Abraham 's bosom wherein he affirmeth the Rich Man to have known both Lazarus and Abraham after Death as also each of them to remain in their own Order And thus again in the following Chapter Per haec manifestissimè declaratum est Perseverare Animas non de corpore in corpus Exire habere Hominis Figuram ut etiam cognoscantur meminisse eorum quae hic sint Dignam Habitationem Vnamquamque Gentem percipere etiam antè Judicium By these things it is most manifestly declared that Souls do both Persevere after Death and that they do not Transmigrate out of one Body into another and that they have a Humane Figure or Shape whereby they may be known as also that they remember the things here upon the Earth and their own Actions and Lastly that each kind of Good and Bad have their distinct and suitable Habitations assigned them even before the Judgment Now that Irenaeus did not here mean that Souls are themselves Bodily Substances and consequently have a certain Character Form and Figure of their own but only that they have certain Bodies conjoyned with them which are Figurate is First of all evident from the words themselves Characterem corporis in quo etiam adaptantur custodire Eundem The Natural Sense whereof is this That they keep the Character of Body wherein they are then also adapted after Death the same with that which these Bodies before had here in this Life And it is further manifest from hence because he else where plainly declareth Souls themselves to be Incorporeal as in his Fifth Book and Seventh Chapter Flatus autem Vitae Incorporalis est But the breath of Life is Incorporeal Furthermore Origen was not only of the same Perswasion that Souls after Death had certain Subtle Bodies united to them and that those Bodies of theirs had the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Characterizing Form which these their Terrestrial Bodies before had but also thinks that this together with the Souls Immortality may be sufficiently proved from the frequent Apparitions of Ghosts or Departed Souls in way of opposition to Celsus endeavouring to invalidate the Scripture Testimonies concerning the Apparitions of our Saviour Christ and Imputing them either to Magical Imposture or Fanatick Phrenzy or the Disciples mistaking their own Dreams and Phancies for Visions and Sensations after the Epicurean way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though this might seem to have been smartly opposed by Celsus yet are those very Apparitions of Ghosts notwithstanding a sufficient Argument or Proof of a certain Necessary Opinion that Souls do subsist after Death Neither did Plato vainly conclude the Immortality and Permanency of the Soul besides other things from those Shadow-like Phantasms of the Dead that have appeared to many about Graves and Monuments Whereupon he giveth this further account of these Apparitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these Apparitions of the Dead are not meer Groundless Imaginations but they proceed from Souls themselves really remaining and surviving after Death and subsisting in that which is called a Luciform Body Where notwithstanding Origen takes this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or Luciform Body in a Larger Sense than the Greek Philosophers were wont to do namely so as to comprehend under it that Aiery or Vaporous Body also which belongeth to Vnpurged Souls who do therein most frequently appear after Death whereas it is thought proper to the Purged Souls to be cloathed with the Luciform Body only Besides which the same Origen tells us that the Thing which St. Thomas the Apostle disbelieved was not our Saviour's appearing after Death as if he had thought it Impossible for Ghosts or Souls departed Visibly to appear but only his Rising and Appearing in that same Solid Body which had been before Crucified and was laid in the Sepulchre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thomas also as well as the other Apostles assented to the woman affirming that she had seen Jesus as not thinking it at all Impossible for the Soul of a Dead man to be Seen but he did not believe him to have Risen and Appeared in that self same Solid Body which before he lived In for which cause he said not only Vnless I see him but added also And Vnless I shall put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Where again Origen subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things were said by Thomas not as doubting at all but that the Body of a Soul departed to wit Condensed might be seen with the Eyes of Sense every way resembling that Form which it had before in this Life both in respect of Bigness Figure Colour and Voice and oftentimes also in the same Customary garments Wherefore according to Origen the Jews were at that time Generally possessed with this Opinion that Souls after Death had certain Bodies united to them wherein they might Visibly appear neither is that of any great moment to the contrary which a Learned Critick objecteth that Josephus writing of their Opinions maketh no mention hereof he omitting besides this other Considerable Dogmata of theirs also as that of the Resurrection However this at least is certain from hence that Origen himself took it for granted that Humane Souls departed were not altogether Naked or Unclothed but Clothed with a certain Subtle Body wherein they could also Visibly appear and that in their pristine Form Moreover it might be here observed also that when upon our Saviour's first Apparition to his Disciples it is said that they were affrighted as supposing they had seen a Spirit our Saviour does not tell them that a Spirit or Ghost had no Body at all wherein it could Visibly appear but as rather taking that for granted that a Spirit had no Flesh and Bones no
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no such Solid Body as they might find him to have bidding them therefore handle him to remove that Scruple of theirs As if he should have said Though Spirits or Ghosts and Souls Departed have Bodies or Vehicles which may by them be so far Condensed as sometimes to make a Visible appearance to the Eyes of men yet have they not any such Solid Bodies as those of Flesh and Bone and therefore by Feeling and Handling may you satisfie your selves that I am not a meer Spirit Ghost or Soul Appearing as others have frequently done without a Miracle but that I appear in that very same Solid Body wherein I was Crucified by the Jews by miraculous Divine Power raised out of the Sepulchre and now to be found no more there Agreeable to which of our Saviour Christ is that of Apollonius in Philostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Touch me and Handle me and if you find me to avoid the Touch then may you conclude me to be a Spirit or Ghost that is a Soul departed but if I firmly resist the same then believe me Really to live and not yet to have cast off the Body And indeed though Spirits or Ghosts had certain Subtle Bodies which they could so far Condense as to make them sometimes Visible to men yet is it reasonable enough to think that they could not Constipate or Fix them into such a Firmness Grossness and Solidity as that of Flesh and Bone is to continue therein or at least not without such Difficulty and Pain as would hinder them from attempting the same Notwithstanding which it is not denied but that they may possibly sometimes make use of other Solid Bodies Moving and Acting them as in that famous Story of Phlegons where the Body Vanished not as other Ghosts use to do but was left a Dead Carcase behind Now as for our Saviour Christ's Body after his Resurrection and before his Ascension which notwithstanding its Solidity in Handling yet sometimes Vanished also out of his Disciples sight this probably as Origen conceived was purposely conserved for a time in a certain Middle State betwixt the Craâ—sities of a Mortal Body and the Spirituality of a Perfectly Glorified Heavenly Etherial Body But there is a place of Scripture which as it hath been interpreted by the Generality of the Ancient Fathers would Naturally Imply even the Soul of our Saviour Christ himself after his Death and before his Resurrection not to have been quite Naked from all Body but to have had a certain Subtle or Spirituous Clothing and it is this of St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which being understood by those Ancients of our Saviour Christ's descending into Hades or Hell is accordingly thus rendered in the Vulgar Latin Put to Death In the Flesh bút Quickned in the Spirit In which Spirit also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. So that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit here according to this interpretation is to be taken for a Spirituous Body the Sense being this That when our Saviour Christ was put to death in the Flesh or the Fleshly Body he was Quickned in the Spirit or a Spirituous Body In which Spirituous Body also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. And doubtless it would be said by the Asserters of this Interpretation that the word Spirit could not here be taken for the Soul of our Saviour Christ because this being Naturally Immortal could not properly be said to be Quickned and Made Alive Nor could He that is our Saviour Christ's Soul be so well said to go In this Spirit neither that is In it self the Soul in the Soul to preach to the Spirits in Prison They would add also that Spirit here could not be taken for the Divine Spirit neither which was the Efficient Cause of the Vivification of our Saviour's Body at his Resurrection because then there would be no direct Opposition betwixt Being put to Death in the Flesh and Quickned in the Spirit unless they be taken both alike Materially As also the following Verse is thus to be understood That our Saviour Christ went in that Spirit wherein he was Quickned when he was Put to Death In the Flesh and therein preached to the Spirits in Prison By which Spirits in Prison also would be meant not Pure Incorporeal Substances or Naked Souls but Souls Clothed with Subtle Spirituous Bodies as that word may be often understood elsewhere in Scripture But thus much we are unquestionably certain of from the Scripture That not only Elias whose Terrestrial Body seems to have been in part at least Spiritualized in his Ascent in that Fiery Chariot but also Moses appeared Visibly to our Saviour Christ and his Disciples upon the Mount and therefore since Piety will not permit us to think this a meer Prestigious thing in Real Bodies which Bodies also seem to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luciform or Lucid like to our Saviour's then Transfigured Body Again there are sundry places of Scripture which affirm that the Regenerate and Renewed have here in this Life a certain Earnest of their Future Inheritance which is their Spiritual or Heavenly Body as also the Quickning of their Mortal Bodies is therein attributed to the Efficiency of the Spirit Dwelling in them Which is a Thing that hath been taken notice of by Some of the Ancients as Irenaeus Nunc autem Partem aliquam Spiritus ejus sumimus ad Perfectionem Praeparationem Incorruptelae paulatim assuescentes Capere Portare Deum Quod Pignus dixit Apostolus hoc est Partem ejus Honoris qui à Deo nobis promissus est Si ergo Pignus hoc habitans in nobis jam Spirituales effecit absorbetur Mortale ab Immortalitate Now have we a Part of that Spirit for the Preparation and Perfection of Incorruption we being accustomed by little and little to Receive and Bear God Which also the Apostle hath called an Earnest that is a Part of that Honour which is promised to us from God If therefore this Earnest or Pledge dwelling in us hath made us already Spiritual the Mortal is also swallowed up by Immortality And Novatian Spiritus Sanctus id agit in nobis ut ad Aeternitatem ad Resurrectionem Immortalitatis corpora nostra perducat dum illa in se assuefacit cum Caelesti Virtute misceri This is that which the Holy Spirit doth in us namely to bring and lead on our Bodies to Eternity and the Resurrection of Immortality whilst in it self it accustometh us to be mingled with the Heavenly Vertue Moreover there are some places also which seem to imply that Good Men shall after Death have a Further Inchoation of their Heavenly Body the full Completion whereof is not to be expected before the Resurrection or Day of Judgment We know that If our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul not this Gross Terrestial Body but a certain Middle Body betwixt it and the Heavenly which the Soul after Death carries away with it Now this Opinion of the Learned Origens was never reckoned up by the Ancient Fathers or his greatest Adversaries in the Catalogue of his Errours nor does Methodius the Martyr who was so great an Anti-Origenist where he mentions this Origenick Opinion in Photius seem to tax it otherwise then as Platonically Implying the Soul to be Incorporeal Methodius himself on the contrary contending not that the Soul Hath a Body conjoyned with it after Death as a distinct thing from it but that it self Is a Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is alone is praised as Incorporeal and Invisible but Souls are made by him who is the Father of all things Intellectual Bodies ornamentally branched out as it were into Members distinguishable by Reason and having the same Form and Signature with the outward Body Whence is it that in Hades or Hell we Read of a Tongue and a Finger and other Members not as if there then were another Invisible Body Coexisting with shese Souls but because the Souls themselves are in their own Nature when strip'd naked of all Clothing according to their very Essence such We say therefore if one of these two Opinions must needs be entertained that either the Soul it self Is a Body or else that it Hath a Body after Death the Latter of them which was Origens ought certainly much to be preferr'd before the Former whether held in Tertullian's sense that all Substance and consequently God himself is Body or else in that of Methodius that all Created Substance is such God alone being Incorporeal But we have already showed that Origen was not Singular in this Opinion Irenaeus before him having asserted the same thing that Souls after Death are Adapted to certain Bodies where the word in the Greek probably was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have the same Character with these Terrestrial ones and Philoponus after him who was no Pagan but Christian Philosopher Dogmatizing in like manner We might here add that Joannes Thessalonicensis in that Dialogue of his read in the Seventh Synod seemeth to have been of the same Perswasion also when he affirmeth of Souls as well as Angels and Demons that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Often seen by many Sensibly in the Form of their own Bodies However it is a thing which Psellus took for granted where speaking of Devils Insinuating their Temptations into mens Souls by affecting immediately the Phantastick Spirit he writeth after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When one man speaks to another from afar off he must if he would be heard make a loud cry or noise whereas if he stood near to him he might softly whisper into his ear But could he immediately approach to the Spirit or Subtle Body of the Soul he should not then need so much as to make a Whisper but might silently and without noise communicate whatsoever thoughts of his own to him by Motions made thereupon And this is said to be the way that Souls going out of these Bodies converse together they communicating their thoughts to one another without any Noise For Psellus here plainly supposeth Souls after Death to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a certain Subtle Body adhering to them by Motions upon which they may silently converse with each other It is true indeed that St. Austin in his Twelfth Book De Genesi ad Literam does not himself close with this Opinion of the Souls Having a Body after Death but much less of its Being a Body nevertheless does he seem to leave every man to his own Liberty therein in these words Si autem Quaeritur dum Anima de Corpore exierit Vtrum ad aliqua loca Corporalia feratur an ad Incorporalia Corporalibus similia an verò nec ad ipsa sed ad illud quod Corporibus Similitudinibus Corporum est Excellentius Citò quidem responderim ad Corporalia loca eam vel non ferri nisi cum aliquo Corpore vel non localiter ferri Jam utrum habeat aliquod Corpus Ostendat qui Potest Ego autem non puto Spiritalem enim arbitror esse non Corporalem ad spiritalia vero pro meritis fertur aut ad Loca Poenalia similia Corporibus But if it be demanded when the Soul goes out of this Body whether it be carried into any Corporal Places or to Incorporals like to Corporals or else to neither but to that which is more excellent than both Bodies and the likenesses of Bodies the Answer is ready that it cannot be carried to Corporal Places or not Locally carried any whither without a Body Now whether the Soul have some Body when it goes out of this Body let them that can show but for my part I think otherwise For I suppose the Soul to be Spiritual and not Corporal and that after Death it is either carried to Spiritual things or else to Penal Places like to Bodies such as have been represented to some in Extasies c. Where St. Austin himself seems to think the Punishment of Souls after Death and before the Resurrection to be Phantastical or only in Imagination Whereas there could not be then so much as Phantastick Punishments neither nor any Imagination at all in Souls without a Body if that Doctrine of Aristotle's be true that Phancy or Imagination is nothing else but a Weaker Sense that is a thing which results from a Complication of Soul and Body both together But it is observable that in the forecited place that which St. Austin chiefly opposed was the Souls Being a Body as Tertullian Methodius and others had asserted but as for its Having a Body he saith only this Ostendat qui potest Let him that can shew it He granting in the mean time that the Soul cannot be Locally carried any whither at all after Death nor indeed be in any place without a Body However the same St. Austin as he elsewhere condemneth the Opinion of those who would take the Fire of Hell Metaphorically acknowledging it to be Real and Corporeal so does he somewhere think it not improbable but after Death and before the Resurrection the Souls of men may suffer from a certain Fire for the consuming and burning up of their dross Post istius sanè Corporis Mortem donec ad illum Veniatur qui post Resurrectionem Corporum futurus est Damnationis Remunerationis Vltimus Dies Si hoc temporis Intervallo Ejusmodi Ignem dicuntur perpeti quem non sentiant illi qui non habuerint tales mores amores in hujus Corporis Vitâ ut Eorum Ligna Faenum Stipula Consumantur alii vero sentiunt qui ejusmodi secum aedificiae portaverunt c. non redarguo quia forsitan Verum est If in this Interval of Time
betwixt the Death of the Body and the Resurrection or Day of Judgment the Souls of the Dead be said to suffer such a Fire as can do no Execution upon those who have no Wood Hay nor Stuble to burn up but shall be felt by such as have made such Buildings or Superstructures c. I reprehend it not because perhaps it is True The Opinion here mentioned is thus Expressed by Origen in his Fifth Book against Celsus which very place St. Austin seems to have had respect to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celsus did not understand That this Fire as well according to the Hebrews and Christians as to some of the Greeks will be Purgatory to the World as also to every one of those persons who stand in need of such Punishment and Remedy by Fire which Fire can do no Execution upon those who have no combustible Matter in them but will be felt by such as in the Moral structure of their Thoughts Words and Actions have built up Wood Hay and Stuble Now since Souls cannot suffer from Fire nor any thing else in way of Sense or Pain without being Vitally Vnited to some Body we may conclude that St. Austin when he wrote this was not altogether abhorrent from Souls having Bodies after Death Hitherto have we declared How the Ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended did repel the Assaults of Atheists and Corporealists made against it but especially How they quitted themselves of that Absurdity of the Illocality and Immobility of Finite Created Spirits by Supposing them always to be Vitally Vnited to some Bodies and consequently by the Locality of those their respective Bodies determined to Here and There according to that of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Soul stands in need of a Body in order to Local Motions We shall in the next place declare what Grounds of Reason there were which induced those Ancients to assert and maintain a thing so repugnant to Sense and Imagination and consequently to all Vulgar Apprehension as a Substance in it self Vnextended Indistant and Indivisible or Devoid of Magnitude and Parts Wherein we shall only represent the Sense of these Ancient Incorporealists so far as we can to the best advantage in order to their Vindication against Atheists and Materialists our selves in the mean time not asserting any thing but leaving every one that can to make his own Judgment and so either to close with this or that other following Hypothesis of Extended Incorporeals Now it is here observable That it was a thing formerly taken for granted on both sides as well by the Asserters as the Deniers of Incorporeal Substance That there is but One kind of Extension only and Consequently that whatsoever hath Magnitude and Parts or One Thing Without Another is not only Intellectually and Logically but also Really and Physically Divisible or Discerpible as likewise Antitypous and Impenetrable so that it cannot Coexist with a Body in the same Place from whence it follows that whatsoever Arguments do evince That there is some other Substance besides Body the same do therefore Demonstrate according to the Sense of these Ancients as well Corporealists as Incorporealists that there is Something Vnextended it being supposed by them both alike that whatsoever is Extended is Body Nevertheless we shall here principally propound such Considerations of theirs as tend directly to Prove That there is something Vnextendedly Incorporeal And that an Vnextended Deity is no Impossible Idea to wit from hence because there is something Vnextended even in our very Selves Where not to repeat the forementioned Ratiocinacion of Simplicius That whatsoever can Act and Reflect upon its Whole Self cannot possibly be Extended nor have Parts Distant from one another Plotinus first argues after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What then will they say who contend that the Soul is a Body or Extended whether or no will they grant concerning every Part of the Soul in the same Body as that of it which is in the Foot and that in the Hand and that in the Brain c. and again every Part of those Parts that each of them is Soul such as the Whole If this be consented to then is it plain that Magnitude or such a Quantity would confer nothing at all to the Essence of the Soul as it would do were it an Extended Thing but the Whole would be in many Parts or Places which is a thing that cannot possibly belong to Body That the same Whole should be in more and That a Part should be what the whole is But if they will not grant every Part of their Extended Soul to be Soul then according to them must the Soul be Made up and Compounded of Soul-less Things Which Argument is else where again thus propounded by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If every one of the Parts of this Extended Soul or Mind have Life in it then would any one of them alone be sufficient But to say that though none of the Parts alone bave Life in them yet the Conjunction of them altogether maketh Life is absurd it being impossible that Life and Soul should result from a Congeries of Lifeless and Souless things or that Mindless things put together should beget Mind The sum of this Argumentation is this That either every part of an Extended Soul is Soul and of an Extended Mind Mind or not Now if no Part of a Soul as supposed to be Extended alone be Soul or have Life and Mind in it then is it certain that the Whole resulting from all the Parts could have no Life nor Mind because Nothing can Causally come from Nothing It is true indeed that Corporeal Qualities and Forms according to the Atomick Physiology result from a Composition and Contexture of Atoms or Parts each of which taken alone by themselves have nothing of that Quality or Form in them Ne ex Albis Alba rearis Aut ea quae Nigrant nigro de Semine nata You are not to think that White things are made out of White principles nor Black things out of Black but the Reason of the difference here is plain because these Qualities and Forms are not Entities Really distinct from the Magnitude Figure Site and Motion of Parts but only such a Composition of them as cause different Phancies in us but Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind are Entities Really distinct from Magnitude Figure Site and Motion of Parts they are neither meer Phancies nor Syllables of things but Simple and Vncompounded Realities But if every supposed Part of a Soul be Soul and of a Mind Mind then would all the rest of it besides any One Part be Superfluous or indeed every supposed Part thereof would be the Same with the Whole from whence it follows that it could not be Extended or have any Real Parts at all since no Part of an Extended thing can possibly be the Same with the Whole Again the same Philosopher endeavours further to prove
were Clothed therewith these as soon as Created were immediatly Invested with certain Thin and Subtle Bodies or put into Light Ethereal or Aereal Chariots and Vehicles wherein they subsist both before their Entrance into other Gross Terrestrial Bodies and after their Egress out of them So that the Souls not only of men but also of other Animals have sometimes a Thicker and sometimes a Thinner Indument or Clothing And thus do we understand Boetius not only of the Rational but also of the other Inferior Sensitive Souls in these Verses of his Tu Causis Animas paribus Vitasque Minores Provehis Levibus sublimes Curribus aptans In Coelum Terramque seris Where his Light Chariots which all Lives or Souls at their very First Creation by God are placed in and in which being wasted they are both together as as it were Sowed into the Gross Terrestrial Matter are Thin Aereal and Ethereal Bodies But this is plainly declared by Proclus upon the Timaeus after he had spoken of the Souls of Demons and Men in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And every Soul must of necessity have before these Mortal Bodies certain Eternal and easily moveable Bodies it being Essential to them to move There is indeed mention made by the same Proclus and others of an Opinion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irrational or Brutish Demons or Demoniack Aereal Brutes of which he sometime speaks doubtfully as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any Irrational Demons as the Theurgists affirm But the Dispute Doubt or Controversie here only was Whether there were any such Irrational Demons Immortal or no. For thus we learn from these Words of Ammonius upon the Porphyrian Isagoge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some affirm that there is a certain kind of Irrational Demons Immortal but others that all these Irrational or Brutish Demons are Mortal Where by Irrational Demons Immortal seem to be understood such as never Descend into Terrestrial Bodies and these are there disclaimed by Ammonius but the Mortal Ones such as act also upon Gross Terrestrial Bodies obnoxious to Death and Corruption As if Ammonius should have said There are no other Brutish or Irrational Demons than only the Souls of such Brute Animals as are here amongst us sometimes acting only Aereal Bodies Thus according to the ancient Pythagorick Hypothesis There is neither any New Substantial thing now Made which was not before nor yet any Real Entity Destroyed into Nothing not only no Matter but also no Soul nor Life God after the First Creation neither making any New Substance nor yet Annihilating any thing made He then Creating nothing that was not fit to be Conserved in Being and which could not be well Used and Placed in the Universe and afterward never Repenting him of what he had before done And Natural Generations and Corruptions being nothing but Accidental Mutations Concretions and Secretions or Anagrammatical Transpositions of Prae and Post-Existing things the same Souls and Lives being sometimes United to one Body and sometimes to another Sometimes in Thicker and sometimes in Thinner Clothing and sometimes in the Visible sometimes in the Invisible they having Aereal as well as Terrestrial Vehicles and never any Soul quite naked of all Body And thus does Proclus complain of some as Spurious Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who Destroying the Thinner Vehicles of Souls were therefore necessitated sometimes to leave them in a State of Separation from all Body or without any Corporeal Indument Which Cabbala probably derived from the Egyptians by Pythagoras was before fully represented by us out of Ovid though that Transmigration of Humane Souls there into Ferine Bodies hath not been by all acknowledged as a Genuine Part thereof And the same was likewise insisted upon by Virgil. Georg. L. 4. as also owned and confirmed by Macrobius for a Great Truth Constat secundum verae rationis Assertionem quam nec Cicero nescit nec Virgilius ignorat dicendo Nec Morti esse Locum Constat inquam Nihil intra Vivum Mundum perire sed eorum quae interire videntur solam mutari Speciem It is manifest according to Reason and True Philosophy which neither Cicero nor Virgil were unacquainted with the Latter of these affirming That there is no place at all left for Death I say it is manifest that none of those things that to us seem to die do absolutely perish within the Living World but only their Forms changed Now how extravagant soever this Hypothesis seem to be yet is there no Question but that a Pythagorean would endeavour to find some Countenance and Shelter for it in the Scripture especially that place which hath so puzled and non-plus'd Interpreters Rom. 8.19 For the Earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God For the Creature was made subject unto Vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God For we know that the whole Creation Groaneth and Travelleth in pain together until now And not only they but our selves also which have the First Fruits of the Spirit Groan within Our selves Waiting for the Adoption even the Redemption of our Bodies Where it is first of all evident 〈◊〉 that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Creature or Creation Spoken of is not the very same the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Children or Sons of God but something distinct from them Wherefore in the next place the Pythagorean will add that it must of necessity be understood either of the Inanimate Creature only or of the Lower Animal Creation or else of both these together Now though it be readily acknowledged that there is a Prosopopoeia here yet cannot all those Expressions for all that without difficulty and violence be understood of the Inanimate Creation only or Sensless Matter Viz. That this hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Earnest Expectation of some future Good to it self That it is now made Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Vanity Frustration and Disappointment of Desire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Corruption and Death And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Willingly but Reluctantly And yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too In Hope notwithstanding of some further Good to follow afterward and that it doth in the mean time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Groan and Travel in Pain together till it be at length delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God Moreover in the Generations and Corruptions of Senseless Bodies as of Minerals and Vegetables or when for example Oyl is turned into Flame Flame into Smoke Water into Vapour Vapour into Snow or Hail Grass into Milk Milk into Blood and Bones and the like there is I say in all this no Hurt done to
any thing nor any Real Entity destroyed all the Substance of Matter still remaining intirely the same without the least diminution and only Accidental Transformations thereof made All this is Really Nothing but Local Motion and there is no more Toyl nor Labour to an Inanimate Body in Motion than in Rest it being altogether as Natural for a Body to be Moved by something else as of it self to Rest. It is all nothing but Change of Figure Distance Site and Magnitude of Parts causing several Sensations Phancies and Apparitions in us And they who would have the meaning of this place to be That all such like Mutations and Alternate Vicissitudes in Inanimate Bodies shall at Length quite cease these Groaning in the mean time and travelling in Pain to be delivered from the Toylsome Labour of such Restless Motion and to be at Ease and Quiet by taking away all Motion thus out of a fond regard to the Ease and Quiet of Senseless Matter they would thereby ipso facto Petrifie the whole Corporeal Universe and Consequently the Bodies of Good Men also after the Resurrection and Congeal all into Rockie Marble or Adamant And as vain is that other Conceit of some that the whole Terrestrial Globe shall at last be Vitrified or turned into Transparent Crystal as if it also Groaned in the mean time for this For whatsoever Change shall be made of the World In the New Heaven and the New Earth to come it is Reasonable to think that it will not be made for the sake of the Sensless Matter or the Inanimate Bodies themselves to which all is alike but only for the Sake of Men and Animals the Living Spectators and Inhabitants thereof that it may be fitter both for their Vse and Delight Neither indeed can those words For the Creature it self shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God be understood of any other than Animals for as much as this Liberty of the Children of God here meant is their being Cloathed instead of Mortal with Immortal Bodies of which no other Creatures are Capable but only such as consist of Soul and Body And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Whole Creation which is said afterwards to Groan and Travel in Pain together may be well understood of all That of the Creation which Can Groan or be Sensible of Evil or Misery Wherefore the Pythagorean would interpret this place of the Lower Animal Creation only which is Sensible of Good and Evil That as this was Unwillingly or against its own Inclination after the Fall of man or Lapse of Souls made subject to Vanity and the Bondage of Corruption Pain Misery and Death in those Gross Terrestrial Bodies In the manifestation of the Sons of God when they in stead of these Mortal Bodies shall be clothed with Celestial and Immortal ones then shall this Creature also have its certain share in the Felicity of that Glorious Time and partake in some Measure of such a Liberty by being Freed in like manner from these their Gross Terrestrial Bodies and now living only in Thin Aerial and Immortal ones and so a Period put to all their Miseries and Calamities by him who made not Death neither hath pleasure in the Destruction of the Living but Created whatsoever liveth to this end that it might have its Being and enjoy it self But however thus much is certain that Brute Animals in this place cannot be quite excluded because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Whole Creation will not Suffer that and therefore a Pythagorist would conclude it a warrantable Inference from this Text of Scripture That that whole Rank in the Creation of Irrational Brutish Animals below Men shall not be utterly Annihilated in the Consummation of things or Future Renovation of the World quite strip'd of all this Furniture Men being then left alone in it but that there shall be a Continuation of this Species or Rank of Being And not only so neither as if there should still be a constant Succession of such Alternate Generations and Corruptions Productions or Births and Deaths of Brute Animals to all Eternity but also that the Individuals themselves shall continue the same for as much as otherwise there would be none at all delivered from the Bondage of Corruption And Lastly that these very Souls of Brutes which at this time Groan and Travel in Pain shall themselves be made partakers of that Liberty of the Children of God since otherwise they should be With Child or Parturient of Nothing Groaning not for themselves but others But enough of this Pythagorick Hypothesis which supposing all manner of Souls Sensitive as well as Rational to be Substantial things and therefore to have a Permanency after Death in their distinct Natures allows them certain Thin Aerial Ochemata or Vehicles to Subsist in when these Gross Terrestrial ones shall fail them But let these Aerial Vehicles of the Souls of Brutes go for a Whimsey or meer Figment nor let them be allowed to Act or Enliven any other than Terrestrial Bodies only by means whereof they must needs be immediately after Death quite Destitute of all Body they Subsisting nevertheless and not vanishing into Nothing because they are not meer Accidents but Substantial things We say that in this case though the Substances of them remain yet must they needs continue in a State of Insensibility and Inactivity unless perhaps they be again afterwards united to some other Terrestrial Bodies Because though Intellection be the Energie of the Rational Soul alone without the Concurrence of Body yet is the Energie of the Sensitive always Conjoyned with it Sense being as Aristotle hath rightly determined a Complication of Soul and Body together as Weaving is of the Weaver and Weaving Instruments Wherefore we say that if the Irrational and Sensitive Souls in Brutes being Substantial things also be after Death quite destitute of all Body then can they neither have Sense of any thing nor Act upon any thing but must continue for so long a time in a State of Insensibility and Inactivity Which is a thing therefore to be thought the less Impossible because no man can be certain that his own Soul in Sleep Lethargies and Apoplexies c. hath always an uninterrupted Consciousness of it self and that it was never without Thoughts even in the Mother 's Womb. However there is little Reason to doubt but that the Sensitive Souls of such Animals as Lie Dead or Asleep all the Winter and Revive or Awake again at the Approaching warmth of Summer do for that time continue in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Upon which account though these Souls of Brutes may be said in one Sense to be Immortal because the Substance of them and the Root of life in them still remains yet may they in another Sense be said also to be Mortal as having the Exercise of that Life for a time at least quite suspended From whence it
appears that there is no Reason at all for that Fear and Suspition of some That if the Souls of Brutes be Substantial and continue in Being after Death they must therefore needs go either to Heaven or Hell But as for that Supposed Possibility of their awakening again afterwards in some other Terrestial Bodies this seemeth to be no more than what is found by dayly Experience in the Course of Nature when the Silk-worm and other Worms dying are transformed into Butterflies For there is little Reason to doubt but that the same Soul which before Acted the Body of the Silk-worm doth afterward Act that of the Butterfly upon which account it is that this hath been made by Christian Theologers an Emblem of the Resurrection Hitherto have we declared Two several Opinions concerning the Substantial Souls of Brutes supposed therefore to have a Permanent Subsistence after Death one of Plato's and the Pythagorean's that when they are devested of these Gross Terrestrial Bodies they Live and have a Sense of themselves in Thin Aerial ones The other of such as Exploding these Aerial Vehicles of Brutes and allowing them none but Terrestrial Bodies affirm the Substances of them Surviving Death to continue in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Sleep Silence or Stupor But now to say the Truth there is no Absolute Necessity that these Souls of Brutes because Substantial should therefore have a Permanent Subsistence after Death to all Eternity Because though it be True that no Substance once Created by God will of it self ever vanish into nothing yet is it true also that whatsoever was Created by God out of Nothing may possibly by him be Annihilated and Reduced to nothing again Wherefore when it is said that the Immortality of the Humane Soul is Demonstrable by Natural Reason the meaning hereof is no more than this that its Substantiality is so Demonstrable from whence it follows that it will Naturally no more perish or vanish into Nothing than the Substance of Matter it self and not that it is Impossible either for it or Matter by Divine Power to be Annihilated Wherefore the assurance that we have of our own Souls Immortality must depend upon something else besides their Substantiality namely a Faith also in the Divine Goodness that he will conserve in Being or not Annihilate all such Substances Created by him whose Permanent Subsistence is neither Inconsistent with his own Attributes nor the Good of the Vniverse as this of Rational Souls unquestionably is not they having both Morality and Liberty of Will and thereby being capable of Rewards and Punishments and Consequently Fit Objects for the Divine Justice to display it self upon But for ought we can be certain the case may be otherwise as to the Souls of Brute Animals devoid both of Morality and Liberty of Will and therefore Uncapable of Reward and Punishment That though they will not Naturally of themselves vanish into Nothing yet having been Created by God in the Generations of the Respective Animals and had some enjoyment of themselves for a time they may by him again be as well Annihilated in their Deaths and Corruptions and if this be Absolutely the Best then doubtless is it so And to this seemeth agreeable the Opinion of Porphyrius amongst the Philosophers when he affirmed every Irrational Power or Soul to be resolved into the Life of the Whole that is Retracted and Resumed into the Deity and so Annihilated as to its Creaturely Nature Though possibly there may be another Interpretation of that Philosophers meaning here Viz. That all the Sensitive Souls of Brutes are Really but one and the same Mundane Soul as it were Out-flowing and variously Displaying it self and Acting upon all the several parts of Matter that are capable to receive it but at their Deaths retiring again back into it self But we have Sufficiently retunded the Force of that Objection against the Ingenerability of all Souls and the Substantiality of those of Brutes also from their consequent Permanence after Death we having shewed That notwithstanding this their Substantiality there is no Absolute Necessity of their Perpetuity after Death and Permanency to all Eternity or else that if they do continue to Subsist God Annihilating no Substance unless they have Aerial Vehicles to Act they must remain in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Silence or Sleep Now therefore if no Souls no Life nor Cogitation could possibly be ever Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter they being not meer Accidents but Substantial things which must in this case have come from Nothing then either all Souls Existed of themselves from Eternity or else there must of Necessity be some Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all the other Lives and Minds were derived And that this was the Doctrine of the Ancient Theists That no Soul or Mind no Life or Vnderstanding was ever Generated out of Matter but all Produced by the Deity the Sole Fountain of Life and Understanding might be here proved were it needful at large by sundry Testimonies but it may sufficiently appear from those Verses of Virgil First in his Sixth Aenead where after he had spoken of God as a Spirit and Mind diffused thorough out the whole world he addeth Inde hominum pecudumque genus Vitaeque Volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore Pontus That from thence are the Lives of all Men and Beasts Birds flying in the Air and Monsters swimming in the Sea And again in his Georgicks where after these words Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque Tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum That God passeth through all Tracts of Earths Seas and Heavens He subjoyneth Hinc Pecudes Armenta Viros genus omne Ferarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere Vitas Scilicet huc Reddi deinde Resoluta Referri Omnia nec Morti esse locum And from Hence not only Men but also all manner of Brute Animals and Beasts when produced into this world do every one derive their Lives or Souls as also at their Deaths they render the same back again to him in whose hand or custody they remain undestroyed so that there is no place any where in the world left for Death This was therefore undoubtedly the Genuine Doctrine of the Ancient Theists however some of late have Deviated and Swerved from it That no Life was Generated out of Matter but all Created by the Deity or Derived from it the Sole Fountain of Lives and Souls And it is a Truth so evident That Life being Substantial and not a meer Accidental thing Generated and Corrupted there must therefore of Necessity be Some Eternal Vnmade Life and Mind from whence all other Lives and Minds are derived That the Hylozoick Atheists themselves in this far wiser than the Atomicks were fully convinced thereof Nevertheless being strongly possessed with that Atheistick Prejudice that there is no other Substance besides Body they Attribute this first Original Vnmade Life and Understanding to
by Methodius for asserting Souls to Have Bodies but for not asserting them to Be Bodies there being no truly Incorporeall Substance according to Methodius but the Deity This One of the Extreams mentioned And the Origenick Hypothesis to be preferred before that of Methodius Page 817 820 Already Observed That Origen not Singular in this Opinion concerning Humane Souls Irenaeus Philoponus Joannes Thessalonicensis Psellus and others asserting the same S. Austine in his De Gen. ad Lit. Granteth That Souls after Death cannot be carried to any Corporall Places nor Locally Moved without a Body Himself seems to think the Punishment of Souls before the Resurrection to be Phantasticall But gives Liberty of thinking otherwise In his Book De Civ D. He Conceives that Origenick Opinion not Improbable That some Souls after Death and before the Resurrection may Suffer from a certain Fire for the consuming and burning up of their Dross which could not be without Bodies Page 820 822 Hitherto shewed How the Ancient Asserters of Unextended Incorporealls Answered all the Objections made against them but especially that of the Illocality and Immobility of Created Incorporealls namely That by those Bodies which they are always Vitally United to they are Localized and made Capable of Motion according to that of Origen The Soul stands in need of a Body for Locall Motions Next to be considered their Reasons for this Assertion of Unextended and Indistant Substance so repugnant to Imagination Page 822 That whatsoever Arguments do Evince other Substance besides Body the Same against the Atheists Demonstrate that there is Something Unextended themselves taking it for granted that whatsoever is Extended is Body Nevertheless other Arguments propounded by these Ancients to prove directly Unextended Substance Plotinus his First To prove the Humane Soul and Mind such Either every Part of an Extended Soul is Soul and of Mind Mind or Not. If the Latter That no Part of a Soul or Mind is by it Self Soul or Mind then cannot the Whole made up of all those Parts be such But if every supposed Part of a Soul be Soul and of a Mind Mind then would all but One be Superfluous or Every One be the Whole which cannot be in Extended things Page 822 824 Again Plotinus endeavours to Prove from the Energies of the Soul that it is Unextended Because it is One and the Same Indivisible thing that Perceiveth the whole Sensible Object This further pursued If the Soul be Extended then must it either be One Physicall Point or More Impossible That it should be but One Physicall Point If therefore More then must every one of those Points either Perceive a Point of the Object and no more or else the Whole If the Former then can nothing Perceive the Whole nor compare one Part of it with another If the Latter then would every man have innumerable Perceptions of the whole Object at once A Fourth Supposition That the whole Extended Soul Perceives both the Whole Object and all the Parts thereof no Part of this Soul having any Perception by it Self Not to be Made Because the Whole of an Extended Substance nothing but All the Parts and so if no Part have any Perception the Whole can have none Moreover To say the Whole Soul Perceiveth all and no Part of it any thing is indeed to acknowledge it Unextended and to have no Distant Parts Page 824 826 Again This Philosopher would prove the same thing from the Sympathy or Homopathy which is in Animals it being One and the Same thing that perceives Pain in the Head and in the Foot and Comprehends the whole Bulk of the Body Page 826 Lastly He disputes further from the Rationall Energies A Magnitude could not Understand what hath no Magnitude and what is Indivisible whereas we have a Notion not onely of Latitude Indivisible as to Thickness and of Longitude as to Breadth but also of a Mathematicall Point every way Indivisible We have Notions of things also that have neither Magnitude nor Site c. Again all the Abstract Essences of things Indivisible We conceive Extended things themselves Unextendedly the Thought of a Mile or a Thousand Miles Distance taking up no more room in the Soul then the Thought of an Inch or of a Mathematicall Point Moreover were that which perceiveth in us a Magnitude it could not be Equall to every Sensible and alike Perceive things Greater and Lesser then it self Page 827 828 Besides which they might Argue thus That we as we can Conceive Extension without Cogitation and again Cogitation without Extension from whence their Distinction and Separability is Inferrible so can we not Conceive Cogitation with Extension not the Length Breadth and Thickness of a Thought nor the Half or a Third or Twentieth Part thereof nor that it is Figurate Round or Angular Thoughts therefore must be Non-Entities if whatsoever is Unextended be Nothing as also Metaphysicall Truths they having neither Dimensions nor Figure So Volitions and Passions Knowledge and Wisedome it self Justice and Temperance If the things belonging to Soul and Mind be Unextended then must themselves be so Again If Mind and Soul have Distant Parts then could none of them be One but Many Substances If Life Divided then a Half of it would not be Life Lastly no reason could be given why they might not be as well Really as Intellectually Divisible Nor could a Theist deny but that Divine Power might Cleave a Thought together with the Soul wherein it is into many Pieces Page 828 829 The Sense of the Ancient Incorporealists therefore this That in Nature Two kinds of Substances The First of them Passive Bulk or Distant and Extended Substance Which is all One thing without Another and therefore as Many Substances as Parts into which it can be divided Essentially Antitypous one Magnitude Joyned to another always Standing without it and making the Whole so much Bigger Body all Outside having nothing Within no Internall Energy nor any Action besides Locall Motion which it is also Passive to Page 829 Were there no other Substance besides this there could be no Motion Action Life Cogitation Intellection Volition but All would be a Dead Lump nor could any one thing Penetrate another Wherefore Another Substance whose Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Active Nature Life Self-Activity Cogitation which no Mode or Accident of Extension it having more of Entity in it Nor are these Two Extension and Life Inadequate Conceptions of One and the Same Substance A Thinker a Monad or One Single Substance Not Conceiveable how the Severall Parts of an Extended Substance should Joyntly Concurre to Produce One and the Same Thought Page 829 830 The Energies of these Two Substances very different The one Nothing but Locall Motion or Translation from Place to Place a meer Outside Thing The other Cogitation an Internall Energy or in the Inside of that which Thinks Which Inside of the Thinking Nature hath no Length Breadth or Profundity no Out-swelling Tumour because then it would
but also from thence to Demonstrate the Impossibility of his Existence Though Modern Writers not so much aware hereof yet is the Controversy betwixt Theists and Atheists thus Stated by Plato Whether Soul and Mind Juniors to Sensless Matter and the Offspring thereof or else Substantiall Things and in Order of Nature Before it Accordingly Plato confuteth Atheism no otherwise then by proving Soul not to be Junior to Inanimate Matter and Generated out of the same Evident That Plato by Soul here understood not onely the Mundane Soul but also that Whole Rank of Beings called Soul and That no Life was Generated out of Matter Page 859 860 Those professed Christians who Generate Rationall Souls out of Sensless Matter plain Betrayers of the Cause of Theism Page 860 861 Nor is the Case much different as to others who though they professedly Generate onely Sensitive Souls yet making the Rationall but meer Blanks which have Nothing in them but what was Scribbled upon them by Sense and so Knowledge in its own Nature Junior to Sense and Sensibles Highly Gratify the Atheists hereby Page 861 If any Life and Cogitation may be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter then can no good Reason be given why All should not be Life not partly Accidental partly Substantiall but either All Conscious Life Accidental Generable and Corruptible or else None at all ibid. The Doctrine of Reall Qualities Generable and Corruptible favourable to Atheism also And though the Atheistick Atomists Explode all the other Qualities Because Nothing can come from Nothing yet contradicting themselves again do they make Life and Understanding Reall Qualities Generated out of Matter or Caused by Nothing Page 861 862 There being a Seale or Ladder of Entities in Nature to Produce a Higher Rank of Beings out of a Lower as Life and Cogitation out of Matter and Magnitude is to Invert the Order of this Scale from Downwards to Upwards and so to lay a Foundation for Atheism Wherefore great Reason to maintain this Post against the Atheists That no Souls can be Generated out of Matter Page 862 863 The Grand Objection against the Substantiality of Sensitive Souls from that Consequence of their Permanent Subsistence after Death Cartesius so Sensible thereof that he would rather make Brutes to be Sensless Machines then allow them Substantiall Souls which he granted they must have if Thinking Beings What clearly Demonstrable by Reason not to be abandoned because attended with some Difficulties or seemingly Offensive Consequences Page 863 The Pythagorick Hypothesis That Souls all Created by God not in the Generation of Animals but in the Cosmogonia These therefore first Clothed with Thin and Subtile Bodies Aeriall or Aetheriall Ochemata wherein they Subsist both before their Ingress into Terrestriall Bodies and after their Egress out of them Thus Boëtius and Proclus Ammonius his Irrationall Demons Mortall Brutish Souls in Aeriall Bodies Since the First Creation no New Substantiall thing Made or Destroyed and therefore no Life This looked upon by Macrobius as a Great Truth Page 863 865 That the Pythagoreans would Endeavour to gain some Countenance for this Hypothesis from the Scripture Page 865 867 But if these Aeriall Vehicles of Brutish Souls be exploded for a Whimsey and none but Terrestriall Bodies allowed to them though after Death they will not Vanish into Nothing yet must they needs remain in a State of Insensibility and Inactivity till re-united to other Terrestriall Bodies Wherefore these in one Sense Mortall though in another Immortall Silk-worms dying and reviving in the Form of Butterflies made an Emblem of the Resurrection by Christian Theologers Page 867 868 But no Absolute Necessity That the Souls of Brutes though Substantiall should have a Permanent Subsistence after Death either in a State of Activity or Inactivity Because whatsoever Created by God may Possibly by him be Annihilated The Substantiality onely of the Rationall Soul Demonstrable by Reason or that it will not of it Self vanish into Nothing but not that it is Absolutely Impossible for it to be Annihilated The assurance of this Depending upon a Faith in the Divine Goodness Porphyrius his Assertion That Brutish Souls are Resolved into the Life of the Universe The whole Answer to this Objection against the Substantiality of Brutish Souls That they may notwithstanding Possibly be Annihilated in the Deaths of Animals as well as they were Created in their Generations but if they do Subsist without Aeriall Vehicles they must remain in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility Page 868 869 That this the Doctrine of the Ancient Pagan Theologers That no Life or Soul Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter but all Produced by the Deity as well as Matter Proved out of Virgil though sundry other Testimonies also might be added thereunto Page 869 870 The Hylozoick Atheists themselves so Sensible hereof That there must be some Substantiall and Unmade Life from whence the Lives and Minds of all Animals are Derived That they attribute the same to Matter and conclude That though the Modificated Lives of Animals and Men be Accidentall Generated and Corrupted yet the Fundamental Life of them is Substantiall and Incorruptible These also asserted a Knowledge before Sense and Vnderived from Sensibles Page 870 871 This Hylozoick Atheism again Confuted Absurd to suppose Knowledge and Understanding without Consciousness as also That the Substantiall and Fundamentall Life of Men and other Animals should never Perish and yet their Souls and Personalities Vanish into Nothing That no Organization can produce Consciousness These Atheists not able possibly to give an Account whence the Intelligible Objects and Idea's of this their Knowledge of Matter should spring This Hylozoick Atheism Nothing but the Crumbling of the Deity into Matter Page 871 Concluded That the Phaenomenon of Mind and Understanding can no way possibly be Salved by Atheists without a God but affordeth a Solid Demonstration of his Existence Page 871 872 SECT V. THERE now Remaining onely the Atheistick Objections against Providence their Queries and Arguments from Interests Their First Objection From the Frame of the World as Faulty Or Because Things are Ill Made that therefore not made by a God This directed against the Sense of the Ancient Theologers That God being a Perfect Mind therefore made the World after the Best manner Some Modern Theologers Deviating from this as if the Perfection of the Deity consisted not at all in Goodness but in Power and Arbitrary Will onely The Controversy betwixt these and Atheists but Whether Matter Fortuitously Moved or a Fortuitous Will Omnipotent be the Originall of all things No Ground of Faith in a meer Arbitrarious Deity To have a Will Vndetermined to Good no Liberty nor Soveraignty but Impotency God to Celsus the Head or President of the Righteous Nature This not onely the Sense of Origen but of the Ancient Christians in Generall Plotinus The Will of God Essentially That which Ought to be God an Impartiall Balance Weighing out Heaven and Earth The
the Regurgitation of the Faeces upward towards the Ventricle The First Atheistick Instance of the Faultiness of things in the Frame of Nature is from the Constitution of the Heavens and the Disposition of the Aequator and Ecliptick intersecting each other in an Angle of Three and Twenty Degrees and upwards whereby as they pretend the Terrestrial Globe is rendred much more Uninhabitable than otherwise it might be But this is built upon a False Supposition of the Ancients that the Torrid Zone or all between the Tropicks was utterly Uninhabitable by reason of the Extremity of Heat And it is certain that there is nothing which doth more demonstrate a Providence than this very thing it being the most Convenient Site or Disposition that could be devised as will appear if the Inconveniences of other Dispositions be considered especially these Three First If the Axes of those Circles should be Parallel and their Plains Coincident Secondly If they should Intersect each other in Right Angles and Thirdly which is a Middle betwixt both If they should cut one another in an Angle of Forty Five Degrees For it is evident that each of these Dispositions would be attended with far greater Inconveniences to the Terrestrial Inhabitants in respect of the Length of Days and Nights Heat and Cold. And that these two Circles should continue thus to keep the same Angular Intersection when Physical and Mechanick Causes would bring them still nearer together this is a farther Eviction of a Providence also In the next place the Atheist supposes that according to the general Perswasion of Theists the world and all things therein were Created only for the Sake of Man he thinking to make some advantage for his Cause from hence But this seemeth at first to have been an Opinion only of some strait-laced Stoicks though afterward indeed recommended to others also by their own Self-love their Over Weaning and Puffy Conceit of themselves And so Fleas and Lice had they Understanding might conclude the Bodies of other greater Animals and Men also to have been made only for them But the Whole was not properly made for any Part but the Parts for the Whole and the Whole for the Maker thereof And yet may the things of this Lower World be well said to have been Mâ—de Principally though not Only for Man For we ought not to Monopolize the Divine Goodness to our selves there being other Animals Superiour to us that are not altogether Unconcerned neither in this Visible Creation and it being reasonable to think that Even the Lower Animals likewise and whatsoever hath Conscious Life was made partly also to Enjoy it self But Atheists can be no Fit Judges of Worlds being made Well or Ill either in general or respectively to Mankind they having no Standing Measure for Well and Ill without a God and Morality nor any True Knowledge of themselves and what their own Good or Evil Consisteth in That was at first but a Froward Speech of some sullen discontented Persons when things falling not out agreeably to their own Private Selfish and Partial Appetites they would Revenge themselves by Railing upon Nature that is Providence and calling her a Stepmother only to Mankind whilst she was a Fond Partial and Indulgent Mother to other Animals and though this be Elegantly set off by Lucretius yet is there nothing but Poetick Flourish in it all without any Philosophick Truth The Advantages of Mankind being so notoriously conspicuous above those of Brutes But as for Evils in general from whence the Atheist would conclude the God of the Theist to be either Impotent or Envious it hath been already declared that the True Original of them is from the Necessity of Imperfect Beings and the Incompossibility of things but that the Divine Art and Skill most of all appeareth in Bonifying these Evils and making them like Discords in Musick to contribute to the Harmony of the Whole and the Good of Particular Persons Moreover a great part of those Evils which men are afflicted with is not from the Reality of Things but only from their own Phancy and Opinions according to that of the Moralist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not Things themselves that disturb men but only their Own Opinions concerning things and therefore it being much in our own Power to be freed from these Providence is not to be Blamed upon the account of them Pain is many times nearly linked with Pleasure according to that Socratick Fable That when God could not reconcile their Contrary Natures as he would he Tyed them Head and Tayl together And good men know that Pain is not the Evil of the Man but only of the Part so affected as Socrates also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It goes no further than the Leg where it is But this is many times very Serviceable to free us from the Greater Evils of the Mind upon which all our Happiness dependeth To the Atheists who acknowledge no Malum Culpae No Evil of Fault Turpitude or Dishonesty Death is the Greatest and most Tragical of all Evils But though this according to their forlorn Hypothesis be nothing less than an Absolute Extinction of Life yet according to the Doctrine of the Genuine Theists which makes all Souls Substantial no Life of it self without Divine Annihilation will ever quite Vanish into Nothing any more than the Substance of Matter doth And the Ancient Pythagoreans and Platonists have been here so Kind even to the Souls of Brutes also as that they might not be left in a State of Inactivity and Insensibility after Death as to bestow upon them certain Subtle Bodies which they may then continue to Act in Nor can we think otherwise but that Aristotle from this Fountain derived that Doctrine of his in his Second Book De Gen. An. c. 3. where after he had declared the Sensitive Soul to be Inseparable from Body he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Souls therefore seem to have another Body and Diviner than that of the Elements and as themselves differ in Dignity and Nobility so do these Bodies of theirs differ from one another And afterwards calling this Subtle Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit he affirmeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Only as Galen and S. Austin and others have conceived Aristotle deviated here from the Pythagoreans in this that he supposed the Sensitive Soul it self to be really nothing else but this Very Subtle and Star-like Body and not a distinct Substance from it using it only as a Vehicle Nevertheless he there plainly affirmeth the Mind or Rational Soul to be really distinct from the Body and to come into it From Without Pre-Existing and consequently should acknowledge also its After-Immortality But whatsoever Aristotles Judgment were which is not very Material it is Certain that Dying to the Rational or Humane Soul is nothing but a withdrawing into the Tyring-house and putting off the Clothing of this Terrestrial Body
So that it will still continue after death to live to God whether in a Body or without it Though according to Plato's Express Doctrine the Soul is never quite Naked of all Body he writting thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul is always conjoyned with a Body but sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another which many Christian Doctors also as is before declared have thought highly probable However our Christian Faith assures us that the Souls of Good men shall at length be clothed with Spiritual and Heavenly Bodies such as are in Aristotle's Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Analogous to the Element of the Stars Which Christian Resurrection therefore to Life and Immortality is far from being as Celsus reproched it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Meer Hope of Worms And thus much shall suffice in way of Confutation of the First Atheistick Objection against Providence which is the Twelfth Argumentation propounded in the Second Chapter The Thirteenth Atheistick Argument or Second Objection against Providence is from the Seeming Confusion of Humane Affairs That all things fall alike to all the Innocent and the Nocent the Pious and the Impious the Religious and the Prophane nay That many times the Worser Causes and Men prevail against the Better as is intimated in that Passage of the Poet though in the Person of a Theist Victrix Causa Deo placuit sed Victa Catoni And That the Vnjust and Vngodly often flow in all kind of Prosperity whilst the Innocent and Devout Worshippers of the Deity all their Lives long conflict with Adversity Whereas were there a God and Providence as they conceive Prophane and Irreligious Persons would be presently Thunder-struck from Heaven or otherwise made remarkable Objects of Divine Vengeance as also the Pious Miraculously protected and rescued from Evil and Harms Now we grant indeed that this Consideration hath too much puzled and staggered Weak Minds in all Ages Because Sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily therefore is the heart of the Sons of men fully set in them to do Evil. And the Psalmist himself was sometime much perplexed with this Phaenomenon the Prosperity of the Vngodly who set their Mouths against Heaven and whose Tongue walketh through the Earth so that he was Tempted to think He had cleansed his Heart in Vain and Washed his hands in Innocency till at length entring into the Sanctuary of God his Mind became Illuminated and his Soul fixed in a firm Trust and Confidence upon Divine Providence Whom have I in Heaven but thee c. My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever For as some will from hence be apt to infer That there is no God at all but that blind Chance and Fortune steer all the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God So will others conclude That though there be a God yet he either does not know things done here below How does God Know and is there Knowledge in the most High or else will not so far Humble himself or Disturb his own Ease and Quiet as to concern himself in our Low Humane Affairs First of all therefore we here say That it is altogether unreasonable to require that Divine Providence should Miraculously interpose upon every turn in Punishing the Vngodly and Preserving the Pious and thus perpetually interrupt the Course of Nature which would look but like a Botch or Bungle and a violent business but rather carry things on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Still and Silent Path and shew his Art and Skill in making things of themselves fairly unwind and clear up at last into a Satisfactory Close Passion and Self Interest is blind or short sighted but that which steers the whole world is no Fond Pettish Impatient and Passionate thing but an Impartial Disinteressed and Vncaptivated Nature Nevertheless it is certain that sometimes we have not wanted Instances in Cases extraordinary of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God appearing as it were Miraculously upon the Stage and manifesting himself in taking immediate Vengeance upon Notorious Malefactors or delivering his Faithful Servants from imminent Dangers or Evils Threatned as the same is often done also by a secret and Undiscerned overruling of the things of Nature But it must be granted that it is not always thus but the Periods of Divine Providence here in this World are commonly Longer and the Evolutions thereof Slower According to that of Euripides which yet has a Tange of Prophaneness in the Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deity is Slow or Dilatory and this is the Nature of it For it is not from Slackness and Remisness in the Deity but either from his Patience and Long-suffering he willing that men should Repent or else to teach us Patience by his Example as Plutarch suggesteth or that all things may be carried on with the more Pomp and Solemnity or Lastly for other particular Reasons as Plutarch ventures to assign one why it might not be expedient for Dionysius the Tyrant though so Prophane and Irreligious a Person to have been cut off suddainly But Wicked and Ungodly Persons often times fail not to be met withal at last and at the long run here in this Life and either in Themselves or Posterity to be notoriously Branded with the Marks of Divine Displeasure according to that of the Poet Rarò antecedentem Scelestum c. It is seldom that Wickedness altogether scapes Punishment though it come slowly after limping with a Lame Foot and those Proverbial Speeches amongst the Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mills of the Gods do slowly wind But they at length to powder grind And Divine Justice steals on Softly with Woollen Feet but Strikes at last with Iron Hands Nevertheless we cannot say that it is always thus neither but that Wicked Persons may possibly sometimes have an Uninterrupted Prosperity here in this Life and no visible Marks of Divine Displeasure upon them but as the generously vertuous will not Envy them upon this account nor repine at their own condition they knowing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is neither any thing truly Evil to the Good nor Good to the Evil so are they so far from being staggered herewith in their Belief of a God and Providence that they are rather the more confirmed in their Perswasions of a Future Immortality and Judgment after Death when all things shall be set straight and right and Rewards and Punishments Impartially Dispensed That of Plutarch therefore is most true here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is a Necessary Connexion betwixt those Two things Divine Providence and the Permanence or Immortality of Humane Souls one and the same Reason confirming them both neither can one of these be taken alone without the other But they who because Judgment is not presently Executed upon the Vngodly blame the Management of things as Faulty and Providence as Defective are like such Spectators