Job 14.1 2. Man that is borne of a woman is of few days and full of trouble he cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not and vers 7 8 9 10 11 12. For there is hope of a Tree if it be cut downe that it will sprout againe and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the roote thereof wax old in the ground and the stock thereof die in the earth yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the ghost and where is He As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake out of their sleepe Psal 103.15 16. As for man his dayes are as grass as a flower of the field so he florisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more From these places compared we may see that man not his flesh onely for that makes not man but flesh and Spirit sensu conjuncto make Man is not as a Tree when He is cut down whose Spirit liveth and sprouteth forth and continueth but as the flower of the field not the stalke but the bare flower which totally fadeth and perisheth Therefore Man is wholly mortal he shall die and the Son of Man shall be made as grass Isa 51.12 Ezekiel 13.19 To slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls that should not live Psal 7.1 2. Save me c. Lest he teare my soul like a Lion renting it in pieces c. Psal 89.48 Who can deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Psal 19.10 Lev. 21.1 11 and 19.28 Numb 5.2 and 19.11 13. Hag. 2.13 in all which places the words dead body in the Original is soul See Jun. Annot. Lev. 21.1 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. there out Being after death is called a building of an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens with this the Apostle desires to be clothed and what it is he defines viz. mortality swallowed up of life whence it is most evident that all his hope of future life was grounded upon the Resurrection and that his hope was altogether grounded thereon he confirms 1 Cor. 15 arguing if Christ be not risen the dead should not rise and vers 18. They which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished and vers 14. Then is our faith also in vaine whose end 1 Pet. 1.9 is the Salvation of our Souls How should then all be in vaine if our souls as soon as breath is out of the body enter into glory and salvation For by that though there were no Resurrection of the flesh we should receive the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Nay further he maketh all our hope to be in this life if there be no Resurrection for vers 19. having showne the evils that follow the denyall of the Resurrection faith If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable vers 32. Saint Paul said If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not whence plainly appeares that the denyal of the Resurrection confines all our hopes and advantages within this life and so all our sufferings persecutions prayers faith c. were to no purpose which could not be by this Soulary fancy of present reward of beatitude after this life 1 King 2.2 David saith to Solomon I goe the way of all the earth that is as the earth must see corruption so must he and if his Soul were part of him yea himself so must it else should he not go the way of all the earth And the expression in Joshua 2.13 Deliver our lives from death importeth absolute mortality for if Death be not dissolution of life or its deprivation how can it be said to suffer death not by a bodily separation for that is but as the laying down of a burthen wherewith it was clogged and tyred whereby it is made more lively ten thousand times as my Opposites confess and so can no more be said to be dead then a Porter when he is disburthened of his Load Job 34.15 All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again unto dust That which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 and flesh and blood cannot inherite the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 But this Spirit the soul so Idoliz'd if such a thing be is borne of the flesh for in the wombe a Child is a living soul and is so borne of the mother that is flesh Therefore this soul is fleshly and cannot enter into the Kingdome of glory till corruption have put on incorruption which cannot be but by death Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 Eccl. 3.12 That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as one dyeth so dyeth the other they have all one breath so that they have no preheminence above a Beast for all is vanitie Wherefore if their Breath be all one then God breathed no other Breath that is life or soul into Man then he gave to Beasts So that if Man be Fallen and the Beasts be cursed for his sake Man must be equally mortal with them 1 Tim. 4.8 I have fought a good fight I have funished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crowne of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at THAT DAY and not to me onely but to all them that love his appeareing Here from the finishing of his course a Crowne being laid up which is even the same which Peter Epist 1 cap. 1.9 maketh the end of our faith the Salvation of our souls to be given at THAT DAY concludes an intermission to him and us till then 1 Tim. 6.14 16. Keepe this Commandment until the appeareing of our Lord Jesus Christ who onely hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seene nor can see Whence appeareth that none ever entered into Heaven since the Creation And it is in vaine for my Opposites to say it is meant of the corpulent matter onely for they make the Soul the very manhood and none that enter therein enter by halfes and peecemeal and this is confirmed by Joh. 3.13 And no man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven Psal 6.5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal 89.11 12. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the darke and thy righteousness in the Land
shall be burnt up with fire 2 Pet. 3.10 Therefore whole Man is corruptable for as in Adam all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 even so in Christ shall all be made alive what fell in Adam shall be raised by Christ what was mortalized by the earthly Man shall be immortalized by the Heavenly man wherefore All not a part of Man was mortalized by Adam or else onely the fallen part must be redeemed and not the whole man for no more of man then fell was redeemed and if the body onely fell and his formal part his soul continued immortal then that part of man his body onely was purchased not his constitutive or better part his Soul So that the bodies onely of the Reprobate according to this fancy shall be damned for nothing of Adam but what fell of Adam can be made lyable to condemnation and what of him stood shall stand as well as the Angels that never fell But in Christ we are compleat Col. 2.10 Therefore in Adam totally fallen Further If Adams fall was not a compleat change of his whole manhood from immortality to absolute mortality of the whole then in the day that he did eate the forbidden Fruit he did not surely die for He implyes his Man-hood and my very Opposites confess the Soul the very Essence and Being of Man-hood and in the day and surely dye imply Execution as well as Transgression to be then for both have equally relation to the Day In the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye so as well may we say he did not eate as did not die That Day And if nothing dyed that is became mortal but his Body then that dyed his Soul lived that is must be as it was at first before God breathed life into it that is a dead corps and indeed was never other if the Soul were a distinct Being of self and all life in it self and the Body but an Instrument to it whereby it performeth all motion and action as Nemesius on Mans Nature p. 266. with others maintain And thus it must needs follow that this death threatned was a meer Scar-crow even nothing at all for He that is his constitutive part his Soul continued immortal and unchanged and used his body instrumentally as it did before the Transgression And if it be answered It became sinful and subject to sin and so of final Condemnation in Hell at the length I Reply That before he sinned he was subject to sin or else he could not have sinned for quicquid est in actu prius fuit in potentia and if the wages of sin be death then he must be of necessity subject to death the effect as well as sin the cause at the same time And so consequently the Souls possibilty of sinning being producted into Actual sin the Soul must have its wages Actual mortality Further if the Souls Death be onely that of Hell so then principal or efficient cause deepest in the Transgression was less punished then the instrument the Body being but the Souls instrument whereby it acts and moves as if a Magistrate should hang the Hatchet and spare the Man that beat a mans brains out with it and so the Soul suffer the last death and scape the first which is as preposterous as if this Death should be received before this Life Moreover Condemnation in Hell is not properly but remotely the reward of Adams Fall For properly Condemnation is the wages of Infidelity or unbeliefe in Christ as Salvation is of Beliefe So that none can be condemned into Hell but such as are actually guilty of refusing Christ because immortality or the Resurrection cannot be by Propagation or Succession as mortality from Adam to his Issue and so the Child though temporally yet shall it not eternally be punished for his Fathers sin but his Condemnation shall be of himself If the Soul as they say be the very life or have all life in it self and the body but its instrument then the body now hath no more life in it then when it is reduced to the earth but is as dead as a dore-naile And so at the Resurrection cannot be raised from death for that which never had life cannot be raised from death and the union of it to the Soul at the Resurrection they Fabulate on is but an addition of corpulency or gross matter to the Soul which in truth is no Resurrection at all from the dead no more then the restoration of flesh lost by Famine sickness c. For Resurrection from the death is not the addition of gross matter to life but the Restoration of life from death So that the restitution of lost flesh now to the soul is in quality as much a Resurrection from the dead as the addition of the whole body to the soul at the Last day which is to say with the Sadduces there is no Resurrection from the dead But the Soularies I know are loth to be branded for Sadduces which how they will avoid I cannot see for if the soul live separated from the body the body cannot be raised from the dead except the body had a life of its own differing from that of the soul and so a man must have two lives as they say a Cat hath nine the one mortal the other immortal and at the Resurrection have two immortalities If the soul be of a distinct being from the body and sinned as the body and thereby incurred the condemnation of Hell then must the soul have a particular redemption from thence as the body from the grave or else it must perish there for ever And if Christ redeemed us from thence then he must suffer the same eternal Torments that is the worme of conscience despaire everlasting chains of darkness c. But those he never suffered as witnesseth Doctor Ames to Bellarmine Ergo. If you urge that in his agony and sweating of blood he suffered equally with the Torments and therefore might be said to suffer eternal toments though he was never personally in hell then may we as well say that by his agony c. he suffered paine equivalent to death and therefore might be said to have suffered the death of the grave though personally he had never been in the grave for there is a greater equivalency betwixt those sufferings and the grave then betwixt his sweating of blood and the torments of the damned Spirits in hell CHAP. III. Scriptures to prove this Mortality JOb 3.12 13 16. Why did the knees prevent me or why the breasts that I should sucke for now I should have lien still and been quiet I should have sâ—ept then had I been at rest Or as a hidden untimely birth marke I had not been as an Infant that never saw light Job 4.19 21. How much less on them that dwell in Houses of clay whose Foundation is in the Dust which are crushed before the moth Doth not their excellency which is in them goe away they die even without Wisedome
a one caught up into the third Heavens how that he was caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 12.2 4. there Paradise is put for the third Heaven And to this compare Christs Answer to the thiefe upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Therefore Paradise is the third Heaven the place for the souls of the righteous whither the Thiefes soul went that day Answ Christ was not there that day himself for he was three days and three nights in the grave after his death during which time all the soul he had was there detayned by death as is evident by Psal 16.10 compared with Acts 2.31 for if it were not so then Christs humane nature tasted of death not wholly but partially onely and thereby wrought not a whole but a partial redemption to humane nature because the soul the most considerable part thereof dyed not being immortal as is fancied which if true Then believers will not be compleat in or by Christ as Saint Paul affirms them to be Col. 2.10 having immortality onely to their bodies by Christ but not to their souls these being immortal before And then Christ by the Gospel brought life and immortality to light onely for the bodyes of men and not for their souls 2 Tim. 1.10 and then believers at the Resurrection will have two several and distinct lives and immortalities the one of their souls by nature and the other of their bodyes by Christ which is absurd to imagine Besides if the Thiefe's souls was that day with Christs Soul in Paradise a place of glory and exaltation Then humane nature had reward and exaltation before Christs Resurrection or his conquest over death even whil'st the Salvation of all man-kind was in suspence yea and before its justification for Christ dying for our sins rose again for our justification Rom. 4.25 And further if Christs soul was that day in Paradise then the Apostles Creed may be questioned as untrue which together with Scripture affirms that Christ that day was both dead and buried neither of which can be true if his soul the principalest part of his humanity remained alive and ascended that day into Paradise Besides if that fancy had been true then it ought and without doubt should have been put as an Article of the Creed to have been believed by all Christians and had been as necessary a point to have been known and believed by them as any other Article there put concerning Christ Object 10. But the meaning of the words may be that the thiefes Soul was that day in Paradise with the God-head and not with Christs Soul Answ If so then this will follow namely that the theifs humane nature was exalted before Christs humane nature which will contradict St. Paul Col. 1.18 where he saith that Christ was the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence and Christs own reward exaltation went not before but followed after as an effect of his sufferings and conquest over death as many Scriptures do witness For when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 we see Jesus was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death Crowned with glory and Honour Heb. 2.9 Christ being found in the fashion of a man humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given Him a name above every name c. Psal 2.8 9. And no man in his wits can be so sensless as not to understand his Resurrection to intervene his suffering and this his exaltation Besides since the God-head is everywhere how could the Thiefe be absent from it anywhere Wherefore by no means may it be granted that the thiefe was in Paradice that day or can be there before his restoration or Resurrection unless he were or can be there with his broken leggs for Christ said not Thy Soul but Thou i. e. Thou Theife or Thou man shalt be with me And he that can make a Thiefe of him in the sence for which he suffered or a man either without his body is a better work-man then I know any And if the soul as they say have all life in it self and it not subject to death and be the humanity and constitution of Man and the corpulent matter the bulke of the body be but an instrument whereby the soul acts and moves and all the action and motion of the body be meerly instrumental then neither Christ nor the Malefactor died that day nor can any man as man die for thereby his Man-hood that which makes him man his Soul is made immortal unsubject to death But the Scripture speaking of the resurrection of Christ Acts 2.31 saith His soul was not left in Hell neither his flesh did see corruption and Acts 8.33 For his life is taken from the earth and Isa 53.8 He was cut off out of the Land of the living All which could not be by the fabulous conceit of the soul for the first place as Act. 2.31 doth shew that not onely his flesh but life and being was subject or conquered by death and the second it was taken from the earth shews it returned thither else could it not be raised from thence the third he was cut off out of the land of the living shews no life remained in the soul for if his soul retained his life and entered Paradise which the Soularies make to be the Land it self of the living he never dyed But his soul even all the soul he had was made an offering for sin yea he poured it out unto death Isa 53.10 12. Therefore this opinion of the soul cannot stand in competition with the sufferings of Christ but flatly denyeth his death So that from the expression of This day shalt thow be with me in Paradise a present Soulary enterance into glory cannot be wrested under or without the denyal of his death Object 11. It is said Heb. 9.24 That Christ entered into heaven it self what 's that but the third heaven or Paradice into which Saint Paul was caught up before mentioned and whereinto the Thiefes soul entered the day of his death Answ This place of the Hebrews hath reference to Christs ascention after his Resurrection and to his enterance into the highest heaven and Tabernacle of God not made with hands whereof the Holy of holies into which the high-Priest entered once a yeere was a figure made with hands according to the patern of this heavenly house or Tabernacle which was shewed to Moses in the Mount as by comparing Heb. 6.20 Heb. 8.1 5. Heb. 9.1 23 24. and Act. 7.44 with Exo. 25.9 40. may be seen and is the same wherein Christ tells his Disciples are many mansions and that he will goe and prepare a place there for them and that he will come again and receive them to himself John 14.1 2 3. And in the
Man wholly Mortal OR A TREATISE WHEREIN 'T is proved both Theologically and Philosophically That as whole Man sinned so whole Man died contrary to that common distinction of Soul and Body And that the present going of the Soul into Heaven or Hell is a meer Fiction And that at the Resurrection is the beginning of our Immortality and then actual Condemnation and Salvation and not before With Doubts and Objections answered and resolved both by Scripture and Reason discovering the multitude of Blasphemies and Absurdities that arise from the fancy of the Soul Also divers other Mysteries as of Heaven Hell the extent of the Resurrection the New-Creation c. opened and presented to the Trial of better Judgment By R. O. The second Edition by the Author corrected enlarged That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them all as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that Man hath no pre-eminence above a Beast for all is vanity Eccl. 3.19 Printed at London Anno 1675. To the READER Judicious Reader THy serious perusal but the scorne and devision of the multitude hereof is my expectation Startle not thou be patient reade ponder and Berean like-try whether these things be so or no If any thing in it be worth thy owning take it it is thine as well as mine and I have my end thy benefit I wish it well to all but I feare it will be a Parable so most however I have unbosom'd my duty freely as I have received I give it freely to the World it is my faith as I believe so have I spoken I expect an Answer if it it be such as will not hold tryal it is likely I shall vindicate my self but if by force of Argument it shall convince I shall be ready and free thankefully to embrace it and renounce my errour whether it be in part or in whole though in the maine I am nothing jealous had I therein doubted my weakeness had not been thus visible to the World Whereas in several places scattered thorow the Book the use of the word Soul may seem to some to imply that which I deny let such know it is for Argument sake not intending in the least any self-distinct being by it Thus desiring my endeavours may have a faire and equal tryal by Scripture and solid Reason I commit thee to the blessing of God in the perusal thereof and rest Thine in the love of the Truth R. O. Man's Mortality OR A Treatise proving MAN as he is a Rational creature a Compound wholly mortal CHAP. I. Considerations from Natural Reason disproving the common opinions of the soul and proving man wholly mortal IF we will rationally argue concerning the Soul it is necessary to define what that is to which this immortality is ascribed But since it is defined by some one way by some another way I shall produce some Opinions about it and then bring the most rationall to tryall omitting the more frivolous viz. The Stiocks held it a certain blast hot and fierie or the vitall spirit of the blood The Creatins Blood Gallen a certain exhalation of the purest blood Zeno Cleanthes Antipater and Possiodonius a hot complection or corporeall quality diffused through the whole body Democritus Firc and his opinion was the round atomes being incorporated by aire and fire do make up the Soul Pythagoras opinionated it a Number moving of it self Plato a substance to be conceived in the mind that received motion from it-self according to Number and Harmonie Aristotle the first continual motion of a body natural having in it those instrumental parts wherein was possibility of life Dinarchus an Harmonie of the four elements Nemesius divides it into Phantasie Judgment Memorie Aristotle in his Physicks into vegetative sensitive motive appetetive intellective And Ambrose Parey p. 895. saith the soul is the inward Entelechia or the primative cause of all motions and functions both natural and animal and the true Form of a man It seeth heareth smelleth toucheth tasteth imagineth judgeth c. And more exactly pag. 83. Lib. 3. Cap. 1. he saith the soule is commonly distinguished into three Faculties Animal Vital Natural The Animal into Princial Sensitive motive The Principal into Imaginative seated in the upper part of the braine Reasonable the middle part of the brain Memorative Cerebellum or after-braine The Sensitive into Seeing the eyes Hearing the eares Smelling the nose Tasting the tongue pallet Touching the body The Motive into Progressive legges Apprehensive hands The Vital into Dilative or parts for Respiration weazon lungs Concoctive or parts for vital motion heart and arteries understood by the Pulsificke Facultie The Natural into Nutrative Active Generative which three are performed by the helpe of the Attractive the gullet Retentive lower passage or the stomack Concoctive body of the ventricle Assimulative three small guts Expulsive three great guts Augustine and Athanasius say it is a substance created a spirit intelligent invisible immortal incorporeal like the angels And there be several Opinions of it's Body Lucippus and Hipparchus say it hath a fierie Body Critias and Anaxemines Woolnor and others an aeriall body Hesiod an earthly Epicurius fierie and airie Zenophon watry and earthly Drone a midle betwixt the spirit and the body Didimus and Origen a third substance Divers other conceptions and fancies there be to uphold this ridiculous invention of the Soule traducted from the Heathens who by the Booke of Nature understood an immortality after Death but through their ignorance how or which way this invention reported to be Plato's was occasioned and begot a general beliefe and so they and after them the Christians have thus strained their wiâ—s to such miserable shifts to define what it is but neither conclude any certainty or give satisfaction therein Yet since it is generally concluded to be in man and of man but what where or how no man knowes though such several opinions of it be if but examined I le pitch upon those which afford most conceptory definition that is that of Aristotle Nemesius or Ambrose Parey which make the Soule to be all the internal and external Faculties of man joyntly considered or Man Anatomized and thereto Reply thus All the Faculties of Man severally or together are all and each of them mortal as well those that are peculiar to man as those that are common to Beasts and if all those with his corpulent matter compleating Man be proved mortal then the invention of the Soule upon that ground vanisheth which I thus prove All elementary compositions or Temperatures are mortal and transitory But mans Faculties from the least to the greatest are Temperatures Ergo mortal The Minor is thus proved That which is subject to increase and diminish is a Temperature But all mans Faculties yea those of Reason Consideration Science c. all that distinguish Man from a Beast are augmented by Learning Education c. lessened by negligence
the Dictates of Nature and Reason let us repair to the unerring rule of the Scriptures to see how this mortality is either proved or disproved thereby And first we may consider that the Scripture saith that when God had molded formed and compleatly proportionated Adam of the dust of the ground he breathed in his face the breath of life and man became a living Soul Gen. 2.7 Here first we are to consider that we are not to speak of Man as the title or word man may be ascribed to the humane shape or carcasse as in this place it seemeth it is by way of distinction from other forms but of such an humane shape or carcasse as is a living soul and so alwayes when we speak or treat of man in this point of difference we are not to mean his carcase in humane form or shape onely but as he is a rational living soul in that form and so call'd man for the text ascribeth the title of Man to him both before and after the breathing in his face the breath of life and man became a living Soul therefore that living Soul was Man That which was formed or made of the earth became a living soul or creature by the breathing or communicating the breath of life a communicative rational Faculty or property of life in his kinde That liveless Lumpe became a living soul and not such a living soul another creature a distinct being of it self was infused into that formed matter that had its Being before that Infusion and can be when the body ceaseth as is vulgarly supposed That which was breathed before it was breathed was not a living soul but that which was breathed upon became the living soul no living soul was ascribed to man before that so that man was formed and man became a living soul as Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.45 The first man Adam was made a living Soul which was his natural body as vers 44. of whom was the woman both innocent free from sin and so from Death and mortality For the wages of Sin is Death Romans 6.23 therefore before sin there could be no death but as by one man sin entered into the world even so death by sin Rom. 5.12 and by the offence of one man Judgement came upon all men unto death vers 18. and 1 Cor. 15.21 by man came death therefore man was created free from the power of death so to continue but in the day he did eat the forbidden fruit he became mortal and as he was made a living soul 1 Cor. 15.45 so by transgression a dying soul Gen. 2.17 that is in dying to die or by becomming mortal be dissolved or return to what he was the dust Gen. 3.19 namely his Elements Thus Man was gloriously immortal yet no longer a Creature incorruptible then during innocent For Gen. 2.17 God said Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye or dying thou shalt die that is thy immortality shall be changed for mortality Immortal Adam shall be made mortal not apart of thee but Thou shalt surely dye even whole man without the least exception of any the worst or noblest part of him unless God had a mental reservation but even the same Thou that livest Thou shalt surely die that must die wherein was life then surely if he had an immortal Soul which is the life of the body that must be made mortal The result of all which is this That what of Adam was immortal through Innocency was to be mortalized by Transgression But whole Adam quatenus Animal rationale was in Innocency immortal Ergo all and every part even whole Man was lyable to Death by Sin And so consequently if Adam had then such an indefinable thing in him of him without which he was not Man as is vulgarly supposed and zealously meintained by the Church of Rome England c. as an Angelical Spirit that neither could nor can be subject to mortality Then he had that he had not which made him be what he was not he sinned with that with which he could not which made him fall when he did not for if Adam sinned and that not it was no part of him so that Adam was a living Soul when he was not And if Adam sinned with that which he had not he sinned with that with which he could not which made him fall when he did not which Bo-peepe in impossible For if Adam was mortalized and That not It was no part of him this they must confess or else the otheer follows Now whereas many from the expression of God's breathing into man the breath of life and he became a living soul conceive an Angelical Entitie a supernatural spiritual infinite Existence to be couched in the flesh or mens corpulency whose being doth not depend on it but is proper and peculiar to it self let such know that so weake is the ground from whence it is concepted that by the same reason the like may be said of fish birds and beasts for the breath of life and a living soul is ascribed to them as well as to man Gen. 7.21 to which read the margent in R. Jatran compared with vers 28. and vers 30. And to every beast of the earth and to every Foul of the Aire and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is a living soul see the margent This being thus cleared and proved from Adams Creation and Innocency let us proceed to his Fall Restitution and Resurrection who eating of the forbidden fruit God fulfilled his threatned Curse upon him saying Gen. 3.19 In the sweate of thy face shalt thou eate bread till thou return unto the Ground for out of it wast thou taken for Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return Here he is plainly disrobed of all his immortality he must to Dust without the least mention of any being thereafter either of part or whole till the Resurrection for then and not before Mans immortality is in Actual Being whose beatitude and infelicity comes through Faith and infidelity So that Death reduceth this productio Entis ex Non-ente ad Non-entem returnes Man to what he was before he was that is not to Be Psal 115.47 the Dead praise not the Lord neither they that goe downe into silence And Psal 116.4 His breath goeth forth he returneth to the Earth in that very Day his thoughts perish see more pag. 5 6 7 8. But Christ the second man Adam who is made a quicking Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 at the Resurrection restoreth this non-ented Entitie to an everlasting Being 1 Cor. 5.42 It is sowne in corruption it is raised in incorruption Thus Mortality is derivated to all Adams posteritie The first man quatenus homo is of the Earth earthly as is the earthly such are they that are earthly 1 Cor. 15.47 48. But the Earth of which Man is is corruptable and
from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life c. and to these adde 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all Why are they baptized for the dead These places joyntly holding forth the external Ordinance of Baptism or signe of the new Covenant which carieth the full representation of the whole worke of Redemption or perfect figuration of the new Covenant do manifestly set forth this Mortality for the death burial resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot in the external ordinance of bapâ—isme be represented as those places â—old forth it doth but by baptizing that is dipping or submerging the whole man into the water the evidence that whole man shall die and whole man be raised again by the total death and total Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drinke this Cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come The bread and wine signifying his Body and blood as a sign of his death shew plainly that his death was total which could not be if his life shrunk into his soul and still lived But from hence is plain that not onely body but life it self was offered and dyed for Lev. 17.24 The life of all flesh is the blood thereof compare Gen. 2.4 5. But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require and at the hand of man c. will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed To these adde 2 Sam. 1.16.8.27 28. and 16.8 Mat. 23.30 35. with various such-like places all which plainly shew the life of all flesh as well of man as of beast is in the blood else Christs death by the representation of his blood could not be set forth nor could any by the effusion thereof die but his Soul blood or life was poured out unto death therefore his death was not in part but of the whole man Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Acts 1.13 He seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption Eccl. 4.1 2 3. doth shew that the living do suffer oppression but to the dead is none and chap. 9.4 5. they know not any thing For a living dog is better then a dead Lion Therefore Psal 146.2 David saith I will sing praises unto my God while I have any Being implying that in death there is no humane being James 4.14 Our life is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Rev. 16.3 Every living soul in the sea died chap 20.4 5. dead souls lived again CHAP. IV. Objections extorted from Scripture Answered OBject 1. Therefore we are alway confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whence is inferred a present injoyment of Glory immediately after death I Answer that both the foregoing and subsequent matter deny such an Interpretation or consequence for before wishing to be clothed with our House from Heaven on which is this expression of being present with the Lord he expounds that his meaning is thereby that mortality might be swallowed up of life or as he saith 1 Cor. 15.53 that this corruptable man might put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortalty And the following matter of the said words being laid down as the reason or ground why he so spake prove that by his presence with the Lord he meant nothing else but his state after the Resurrection for saith he We must all appear before the iudgment-seat of Christ that every one c vers 1. Object 2. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is much needful for you Phil. 1.23 14. I answer This is of the same nature therefore must have the same Interpretation for Paul did not preach one thing to the Philippians and the contrary to the Corinthians Besides such manner of expressions are not contradictory to this mortalitie for though there be long time to the Living till the Resurrection there is none to the Dead for from Adams death to his Resurrection at the end of the World will be to him as the twinkling of an eye to the Living yea the twinkling of an eye to the living is more time then a thousand yea ten thousand yeares is to the dead For Being onely commensurates with Time or length of days not to Be cannot possibly be capable thereof So that the Livings tedious anniversary expectation of the Resurrection and end of their faith is not a twinkling to the grave the livings Future is the deads Present Therefore it is well figurated in Scripture by sleepe as slept with his Fathers 1 Kings 11.43 fallen asleepe in Christ 1 Cor. 15.18 c. not that it is so long a time to the dead but that in nature there is nothing so represents death or non-being as sleepe So that this may take away all carnal security for who would not watch and pray over-night that knows he must dye in the morning live well and be wary to day that must rise and answer to morrow believe to day that would not be damned but saved to morrow This administers comfort to the righteous but terrour to the wicked Therefore Christ speakeing of his coming to Judgment saith I come quickly my reward is with me to let all men know that in death there is no delay their reward is present he will not stay an instant And further to confirm it saith again Surely I come quickely Amen even so come Lord Jesus Object 3. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Luke 12.20 Answ The life of the whole person and not such as is fancied of the soul except it had a mouth to eate drinke c. as vers 9. Object 4. And it came to pass as her soul was in departing Gen. 35.18 Ergo there is such a thing as the Soul which continueth it's Being after death Answ No such matter for the sence of words is as she was dying or life a departing for the following words say she dyed which could not be if her soul her constitutive part lived still no more then a man can be said to lose his hand when he loses a finger Object 5. And he stretched himself upon the Child three times and cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my God pray thee let this
of the grave Selah Psal 89.48 Object 17. And it came to pass the Beggar dyed and was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome c. Luke 16. from the 22. to the end Answ There was never such a man as Dives or Lazarus or ever such a thing happened no more then Jothams Trees did walk and talke Judg. 9.8 but it was a Parable to prove that nothing is more effectual for conversion then the ordinary preaching of the Word by the true Ministers or Ambassadors of God such as Moses and true Prophets of old and as Christ his Apostles and Prophets and true ministers since Further the consequence concerning the soul is but drawn from the literal sence in which sence I shall deny it canonical Scripture for it makes in that sence more for bodys then the souls present being in Heaven or Hell v. 23 24. maketh Abraham the Father of the Damned vers 24 25 27 30. and vers 22. Dives dyed and was buried and yet vers 23. he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham c. and vers 25. he cryed for Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger to coole his tongue which in the literal sence thus applicated must needs be contradictory unless his eyes tongue and Lazarus finger was not buried or their souls had corporeal corpulent members which to conceit is ridiculous Therefore from this place the Resurrection of the body before the day of Judgment even as soon as a man is buried may better be proved then such a present Soulary enterance into Heaven or Hell Object 18. By which also he went and preached to them in prison Answ By which that is by that whereby he was quickened or raised from the dead his divine Spirit as the foregoing words whereon the sence of those depend doth evidence vers 18. Christ once suffered c. dead in flesh but quickened by the spirit vers 19. by which also he went c. So that he went and preached by that whereby he was quickened or raised Therefore the preaching here meant was not by that which was raised but by that which did raise which was ministerially as the following words further evidence shewing to whom he preached even those which were disobedient in the days of Noah on whom the long-suffering of God waited while the Arke was a preparing those were the spirits here meant the wicked of those days which are now in prison that is dead or imprisoned in the Elements Here the grave or death is called a prison as indeed it is for therein all that dye are reserved in the chaines of death the Elements not to be delivered till Judgment Rev. 20.13 according to Job 3.18 there the prisoners rest together Object 19. Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die Answ Whosoever liveth doth not in this place import the state of this life for should it believers should not die this death but relateth to the state or life at the Resurrection as the foregoing words on which the sense of these depend evidence viz. I am the Resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live to which these words are annexed And whosoever liveth believeth in me c. which is to say Every believer though dead shall live or be raised again and living or raised again shall never dye any more that is shall scape the second death Joh. 5.24 Secondly This life may be reckoned from the action of belief for God calleth things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 yea all even the dead live unto him Luke 20.38 And so the believer never dyeth in Gods account Rom. 14.7 8 9. None of us liveth to himself and none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Object 20. Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirits 1 Cor. 6.20 Answ Before he called the body the Temple of the holy Ghost vers 29. and vers 15. the members of Christ which needs must be the whole man and not his bare carcass for in death who can praise the Lord in it can be no habitation for the holy Ghost and therein were they to glorifie God to make Christ the head of such members were to make God the God of the dead and not of the living therefore by body and spirit is meant whole man aiming at a thorough and perfect sanctification as well in that which respecteth thought the spirit as in that which respecteth action the body inwardly to gloryfie God as well as outwardly to flee fornication c. Object 16. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slaine for the word of God c. and they cryed with a loud voyce c. Rev. 6.10 11. Answ They were such souls as lay under the Altar slaine or sacrificed or as vers 11. hath it were killed these therefore being dead souls or martyred Saints their crie must be as the crie of the blood of Abel And the like vision of dead Saints confirms it as cap. 20. vers 4 5. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand yeares but the rest of the dead lived not again till c. whence it is plaine that he beheld the Resurrection or restoration of life unto dead souls even of them that were beheaded but the rest lay dead or lived not again till c. Thus much of illegitimate Objections from Scripture Now to the probation hereof from Procreation or Generation and as neer as I can to resolve all occurrent Objections thereon that shall confront CHAP. V. Of procreation how from thence this Mortality is proved IT is supposed as I conceive by none that what naturally proceedeth from Man simply by the course of nature can be immortal but must first taste of mortality And therefore there are two sorts of Opinions to maintaine this Heathenish Invention about the soul whereon it's immortalitie is grounded which I shall chiefly encounter the one that it is created and infused at the conception and so onely Gods worke The other that it is concepted by the woman through the concurrence of the seed of both sexes but not simply by the course of nature but by the supernatural and extraordinarie assistance or efficacie of God in conception more then in other creatures and so partly mans and partly Gods worke But that I may utterly demolish the structure of this Invention I shall turn up the foundation of each kinde in it's place But first I shall speak a word or two in general of Procreation it self That whole man is generated by man Observe That as the whole Tree is potentially in the seed
out his brains for halting If it be said the soul comes pure from God and it is the body that corrupteth it I answer that this to excuse God one way makes him like the tyrant Mezentius that bound living men to dead bodyes till the putrefaction and corruption of the stinking corps had killed them Besides the mind may sin without the Action of the body but not the body without the mind for a man may covet in his mind and not act with his body and yet sin but if he do with his body and not consent with his mind he sinneth not as for example a man may accidentally and ignorantly kill a man by a blow which was never intended or aimed at him and yet he not guilty of murther but if he intend it in his mind though he never do it he is guilty Therefore the body may be made sinful by the soul but not the soul by the body Now to the other kinde who say that this supernatural worke by nature is effected by Gods special supernatural assistance operating or applicated to this natural aptitude in whose mutual concurrence this immortal substance is concepted and in conception united to the flesh the whole in the whole and the whole in every part To which I Answer that there is no more special supernatural efficiency from God in mans procreation then in other creatures but that special gift or natural instinct to every kinde of creature given in the Creation to produce it's kinde whether vegetative sensitive or rational Gen. 1.25 1 Cor. 15.38 for the gift or blessing is all one and the same and alike unto all according to their kindes as appeares Gen. 1.22 God blessed the Fowls and Fish saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let the Fowles multiply in the Earth And vers 28. the self-same he speaks of man and woman And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and replenish the earth and by this blessing or Natures general instinct equally unto all men and all other creatures continue their multiplications and procreations So that the Fowles Fish c. have as great and special assistance as man in their conceptions and procreations equally mediate and natural Therefore if by mans conception an Angelical immortal Soul is producted so likewise is there the like in other creatures The result of all which is this that as Fish Birds and Beasts each in their kinde procreate their kinde without any transcendency of nature So man in his kinde begets man corruptable man begets nothing but what is corruptable not halfe mortal halfe immortal halfe Angel halfe man but compleat man totally mortal for through mortal organs immortality cannot be conveyed or therein possibly reside If it be scrupled that this destroyeth the hope of our faith I Answer It doth but remove it from a false principle to a true from a deceitful fancy to an infallible object the Resurrection For though I ascribe nothing actually to nature but corruption yet potentially I ascribe incorruption as to the kernel of an Apple a Tree may not actually yet potentially be ascribed So I grant that nature produceth the Seed to which when she hath done her elementary worke even all that she can do and in all things transient finished her course even from that corrupted seed Christ supernaturally raiseth an incorruptable body 1 Cor. 15.36 Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die it is sowen in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sowen a natural body it is raised a spiritual body Therefore nothing of man can be immortal but what first hath seen corruption So that if that which is made the better and most excellent part of Man without which he is NO MAN as is held titled the Soul shall not see corruption it shall not participate of the immortality purchased by Christ but must needs perish except there be Ens extra Deum as that strange invented Entitie must needs be And so consequently NO MAN shall be saved And as before it incur'd this Absurditie that the Souls of the Damned shall not perish but stand as well as the Stative Angels So by this the Souls both of the righteous and wicked shall for ever cease and never be immortalized at the Resurrection And thence the denyal both of Resurrection Condemnation and Salvation Heaven and Hell God and Christ is inavoydable After rusheth in the Epicurean Blasphemy Let us eate and drinke for to morrow we dy And so so many bellyes so many Gods and no other It is Objected That the rareness of conception argues a supernatural immediate assistance essential without which the soul cannot be Answ That commeth by a natural defect and not by with-holding of Gods immediate hand else he should have a special and immediate hand in Adultery And so Whoremongers and Adulterers set God a worke to create Souls for their Bastards which is to make God a slave to their lusts Further it is Objected That God hath from eternitie decreed concerning man above all creatures both who should come into the world and at what time Therefore accordingly he must have a worke in mans conception above other creatures Answ No such thing followeth for time and number may be appointed and yet the due course of nature proceed as well without as with an immediate assistance towards man in his kinde as in Beasts in their kinde Moreover Woolner in his Treatise on the Soul pag. 115. saith That the more spiritual parts and chiefly the Soul is but partly mediately partly immediately conceived at the first instant or union of the seed of both Sexes For by it pag. 127. he saith the corporeal parts are prepared and perfected Therefore it must of necessity be at the first instant or else no conception And pag. 129. That all Souls as well of Beasts as of men are essentially as perfect at the first instant of conception as ever afterwards And pag. 97. he saith The Soul can live without the body and cannot be corrupted by it Answ That then it followeth If a woman miscarry immediately after that very instant that the Soul of that Effluction or unshapen deformed peece of congealed blood being immortal must needs continue its immortality and that Effluction as well as perfect bodyes shall be raised again for if degrees of corporal perfection hinder then those that are born imperfect as without legges armes or hands or any other member as divers are they shall never be raised again and so out of the compass of Christs death and though it should be granted that Christs death is denyed an Embryo yet that souls immortality cannot be nullified for immortality once begun must never have an end and he saith it cannot suffer with the flesh therefore if not with the whole mass of mans corpulency grown to it's full perfection much less with an Embryo that is ten times less imperfect and invalid for he saith it is as
formans therefore naturam expellas furca licet usque recurres it is made action which cannot but appeare for all action is apparent and they say it is an immortal spirit therefore cannot cease and if not cease it must shew it self Now why are not Infants then as rational as others nay let me ask one Question If this endless soul be forma formans the maker of our bodyes why have we not endless bodies for omne tale generat tale every like brings forth its like so then if one be immortal the other must be immortal if one mortal the other mortal Secondly I answer that though some are fooles from their birth yet it doth not follow that Gods immediate hand is required to mans procreation but rather the contrary for imperfections in a thing argue the mediate generation thereof because no imperfection of any kinde can come immediately from the hand of God imperfections are accidental or from the curse therefore not of creation but of procreation Now seeing all this while we have had to do with this immortal Soul we cannot find or the Soularies tell what it is such likewise is its residence for if we ask where it is they slap us i'th'mouth with a Riddle tota in toto tota in qualibet parte the whole in the whole and the whole in every part that is the whole immortal Soul in the whole body and the whole Soul wholly in every part of the body To which I answer that this extends immortality or impossibility of death to the body for if immortality be in every part then no part of man from the crown of the head to the soal of the foot can be excepted so we are all Soul all over and every part a whole Soul immortal So that it must either be held to be ubiquitarie which is an Attribute peculiar to God or else multiplicable by a corpulent division and so were a man minced into Atomes cut into innumerable bits there would be so many innumerable whole Souls else could it not be wholly in every part Monstrum horrendum ingens cui quot sunt corpore crines Tot vigiles Animae subter mirabile dictu And thus the Riddle is unfolded CHAP. VI. Testimonies of Scripture to prove that whole man is generated and propagated by Nature THat this is true secundum actum naturae observe the sence of these ensuing Scriptures viz. Gen. 1.17 18. comparted with the 22 vers where man and beast have an equal blessing and charge to propagate their like Eccl. 3.19 there is no distinction betwixt them c. Gen. 17.7 I will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee here by seed must be meant persons and not bare carcasses else he had been the God of dead clots and not of living souls Gen. 46.26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Aegypt which came out of his loynes c. Job 31.15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us in the womb Ergo if his soul were immediately created so was his body for he that is his Entity person even all that went to make him man was formed and shapen in the wombe both Epithites for procreation and not for creation Job 10.10 11.22 Hast thou not poured me out as milke and curdled me like cheese thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit Here Job sets forth exactly the manner of mans procreation from the act of generation even to his breathing First poured out as milke that is the seminarie evacuation of both Sexes in conjunction then curdled me like cheese that is the changing of that to a grosser matter congealed blood then clothed me with flesh and skin that is the incarnation of that condensed blood then fenced me with bones and sinews that is that carnated matter was formed into humane shape and grew into members then grantedst me life that is began to breath whence observe that in ascribing the whole worke to God he doth ascribe it to one kinde onely and not partly mediate partly immediate for he ascribeth even the evacuation of seed in carnal copulation and the conception of flesh and bones in as high a measure yea to take away all cavil rather a greater as he doth his life poured clothed and fenced imply a more absolute act then granting which is but a sufferance permission or assenting therefore his conception was meerly and wholly natural according to that of David Psa 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me And to this adde that of Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him Whence it is clear that whole man flesh and spirit is a second act formed in the wombe otherwise flesh as well as spirit must be created which all deny Children are the blessing of the breast and wombe Gen. 49.5 That came out of the Loynes Exod. 1.5 Heb. 7.5 the fruit of the body Deut. 18.4 came out of the bowels 2 Sam. 10.11 see Gen. 16.11 38.25 Mat. 1.18 Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a son in his owne likeness Psal 139.15 16. My Substance was not hid from thee when I was made in a secret place and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth thine eyes did see my masse yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet was none of them whence is evident that his whole Person was an act of nature in his mothers wombe or secret place what of him was in the Book of Gods providence he declareth was made not created in a secret place to wit his substance or masse all that went to the subject man and I hope the Soularies will not blot his Soul out of the Book of Gods providence or say it was no part of him Luke 1.31 Thou shalt conceive in thy wombe and bring forth a son whence observe that what she was to bring forth she was to conceive to wit a son and none will deny Christ was born compleat man in all things as we are sin excepted And if any scruple arise from Rom. 1.3 He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh I Answer That it is a distinction from other men in respect of that anointing he received from the Father above his brethren and fellowes Gen. 4.1 She conceived and bare Cain see the like cap. 38.3 4 5. Judg. 13.3 5 7. And Job 3.3 There is a man-child conceived And Gen. 17.6 And Kings shall come out of thee vers 17. twelve Princes shall he beget And Judg. 8.30 Gideon had 70 Sons out of his body begotten And Num. 5. Then she shall be free and shall conceive seed and Heb. 11.11 compared with Gen. 17.8 and such like plainly shew mans procreation wholly natural Joh. 3.6 That which is
born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Here is the natural birth by nature and the spiritual birth by grace declared each in his kinde the one a meer natural the other a supernatural worke It is therefore inavoydablely true otherwise the Soul cannot be saved for what is not born again cannot be saved as the immediate words testifie except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God So then the Soul as well as the body is born that is proceeds from the flesh except we be born without it Wherefore they are no more twaine but one flesh I might declare how Purgatorie Limbo Patrum Infantum Prayers unto dead Saints to the Virgin Mary and a World of such-like fancies are grounded upon the Invention of the Soul but that I shall leave it to the conception of the ingenious Thus having found Mans Foundation to be wholly in the Dust from thence taken and thither to return Let this then be the use of all That man hath not wherewith at all to boast no more then of the dirt under his feet but is provoked wholly out of himself to cast himself wholly on Jesus Christ with whom in God our lives are hid that when he who is our life shall appeare we might also with him appeare in glory to whom be the honour of our immortality for ever and for ever Amen THere are many places of Scripture omitted in this Treatise which import man to be wholly mortal whereof I will here commend these few to the serious consideration of all such as desire to finde out truth The Prophet Isaiah Prophesying of Christ in chap. 53. vers 10. saith Yet the Lord would break him and make him Subject to infirmities When he shall make his soul an offering for sin vers the 11. he shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied vers 12. Therefore will I give him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death c. By Saint Matthew it is also recorded chap. 26. vers 38. Then said Jesus to them My soul is very heavy unto the death Tarry ye here and watch with me speaking to Peter and the two sons of Zebedeus ver 37. Rev. 16.3 where it is Recorded And the second Angel poured out his Vial upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea Psal 66.9 He holdeth our soul in life Here note That Soul and Life are distinct the Soul of all are held in Life by Christ else would they die Psal 22.29 For all that go down into the dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth it shall die Vers 20. The same soul that sinneth shall die Job 33.18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat 22. His soul draweth neer unto the grave and his life to the destroyers 28. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light 30. To bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living The diligent Reader is desired to correct the mis-quotations escaped in this little book as followeth Page 33. line 13. adde Gen. 1. p. 34. l. 23. read 1 Cor. 15. p. 46. l. 21. r. Eccl. 3.19 20. p. 47. l. 6. r. 2 Tim. p. 48. l. 14. r. Psal 88. p. 49. l. 5. adde 4. p. 56. l. 10. r. Lev. 17.14 l. 11. r. Gen. 9. p. 57. l. 7. r. Acts 2.31 p. 59. l. 15. r. Phil. 1.23 24. p. 63. l. 6. r. Jer. 53.12 p. 68. l. 2. r. Rev. 19. p. 69. l. 16. r. Mat. 8.29 p. 72. l. 22. r. Prov. 15.24 p. 93. l. 1. r. Object 21. p. 98. l. 17. r. Heb. 4.15 p. 118. l. 24. r. 11 12. The Postscript IN some ancient Chronicles of England we read of King Druis so addicted to learning that a Sect of Philosophers succeeded him named Druides and that this King the better to encourage his Subjects without dread of death to fight his battles taught them that their Souls were immortal not subject to death Hence as some think came the opinion that the Souls of men are immortal but others conceive it to have another rise namely The general Doctrine of the Philosophers being That Vertue was to be rewarded and Vice punished and these usually seeing Men to die without either punishment or reward and being ignorant of any Resurrection taught thence that mens Souls after death remained alive to receive the same yet this was contrary to the judgement of many of the Ancients who nevertheless deemed men to be wholly mortal as is cleerly proved by Pliny in the 55 chap. of the 7 th Book of his Natural History where treating of Ghosts or Spirits of Men departed he saith thus viz. After men are buried great diversitie there is in opinion what is become of their Souls and Ghosts wandering some this way and others that but this is generally held that in what estate they were before men were born in the same they remain when they are dead for neither Body nor Soul hath any more sence after our dying day then they had before the day of their nativity but such is the folly and vanity of men that it extendeth still even to the future time yea and in the very time of death flattereth it self with fond imaginations and dreaming of I know not what life after this for some attribute immortality to the Soul others devise a certain transfiguration thereof and there be again who suppose that the Ghosts sequestred from the Body have sence whereupon they do them honour and worship making a God of him that is not so much as a man as if the manner of mens breathing differed from that in other living Creatures or as if there were not to be found many other things in the world that live much longer then men and yet no man judgeth in them the like immortality But shew me what is the substance and body as it were of the Soul by it self what kinde of matter is it apart from the body where lieth her cogitation that she hath how is her seeing how is her hearing performed what toucheth she nay what doth she at all how is she imployed or if there be in her none of all this what goodness can there be without the same but I would know where she setleth and hath her abiding place after her departure from the body And what an infinite multitude of Souls like shadows would there be in so many ages as well past as to come Now surely those be fantastical foolish and childish toyes devised by men that would fain live alwayes and never make an end Qualis in novissimo vitae die quisque moritur Talis in novissimo mundi die judicabitur The Contens CHAP. I. Considerations from natural reason disproving the common opinions of the Soul and proving Man wholly mortal p. 1. CHAP. II. Considerations from the creation fall and resurrection disproving the opinion of the Soul imagining the better part of Man immortal and proving him as a reasonable creature wholly mortal p. 28. CHAP. III. Scriptures to prove this mortality p. 41. CHAP. IV. 21 Objections extorted from Scripture answered p. 58. CHAP. V. Of procreation how from thence this mortality is proved p. 94. CHAP. VI. Testimonies of Scripture to prove that whole man is generated and propagated by nature p. 117. FINIS The Argument lies in fallen nature for the dispute is not of creatures which kept their first station but of man that is fallen from it Acts 7.60 and 13.36 1 Thes 4.13 and Psal 76.6 it is a Dead sleepe No Hell till the Resurrection * Living Soul