Soul how much more uncapable were they to judge of the Souls future estate Erasmus concerning the Immortality of the Soul saith Hoc mihi persuasit non humana Ratio sed Fides However I think there may be much more said for the Immortality of the Soul than can be urged against it There is not any opinion in the World hath been more generally receiv'd in the hearts of men than this of the Souls future estate and how should it have been so long rooted in our minds were there nothing of truth in it Nature which makes nothing in vain hath implanted in Man a desire of Immortality which desire is vain if he be not capable of it Nothing is corrupted but by its contrary and therefore that which hath no contrary as the Soul must be free from corruption The Harmony of the World which permits not things to pass from one extreme to another without some mean requires that as there are pure Spirits and Intelligences which are immortal and Substances corporeal and mortal so there is a middle nature between these two Man call'd by the Platonists on this account the Horizon of the Universe because he serves for a link and medium to unite the Hemisphere of the Intellectual Nature with the inferiour Hemisphere of the Corporeal Nature Also since the Soul can know all sorts of Bodies it must be consequently exempt from all corporeal Entity As the Tongue to judge aright of sapours must it self have none the same may be said of the eye to discern well of colours To say that the Soul is mortal because it acts only by the help of its Organs were to draw a conclusion from an uncertainty it being never yet prov'd that the Soul cann't act of it self without its Organs The Law of all Nations is the Law of Nature and the belief of the Souls Immortality is a dictate of it But the opposers are as rare as Earth quakes which if there were no other Reasons would be a miserable Argument to prove the motion of the Earth Remorse of Conscience and Gods Justice not punishing all sins in this life presupposes another Pomponatius under pretence of defending the Souls Immortality hath sought against it and professing himself a Peripatetickâ—… hath in this particular embraced the sentiment of Epicurus saying that although the Soul of man should be mortal yet Vertue would sufficiently recompence it self thereby designing to render the belief of the Immortality of the Soul unnecessary But supposing this to be true of Vertue yet would it not be equally true of Vice that they which addict themselves thereunto are sufficiently punished by doing so Nor was there ever yet such a Law-giver heard of that established a constitution to punish a man for Robbery by forcing him to commit Adultery Cyrus on his death bed declared to his two Sons that he could never believe that the Soul all the while it is contain'd in this mortal Body should live and afterwards die and be senseless but rather after death the Soul is most wise An excellent speech and worthy of himself If in the behalf of this Article my Arguments prove not so effectual as at first I design'd them my excuse may be the same as Plato made for himself upon the like occasion viz. 't is sufficient if any speak but probably in so difficult a subject XXIX There is an ancient Maxim in Philosophy viz. Nihil est in Intellectu quod non prius fuit in Sensa All our knowledge arises out of the Experience which our Senses give us and therefore a man born throughly deaf can have no apprehension of Musick But the Soul is of a spiritual nature and so in it self utterly imperceptible by our senses the Soul it self alone can reflect on its own acts and conceptions 'T is indeed very unsafe any farther than it can be made appear we are guided by the clue of Divine Revelation to guess and discourse over-boldly concerning the nature of the Soul or peremptorily to determine of its future condition Wherein among all the Ancients Pliny hath been esteemed the most cautious who to direct our Prognostication therein calls us back to observe the time past and from thence to conjecture what will become of us hereafter According to that of the Tragâ—…dian Quaeâ—…is quo jâ—…ceas post obitum loco Quo non naâ—…a jâ—…cent As if the wheel went rather round than forward As Seneca the Philosopher who blindly surmis'd the Doctrine of future â—…oys to be magis optantium quam docâ—…m and by the same reason the Tâ—…rours of the Infernal Lake to be magis 〈◊〉 quam probantium But every man's Conscience tells him another tale surdo verbere caedit objecting the terrour of a Judgment to come XXX Yet for as much as in all Ages there were sound some Monsters of Men who having no sense of Divine Goodness or Natural Juâ—…tice would confound all Humane Society as not having in themselves any restraint either from Nature or Religion For such the Heathen Law-givers did wisely provide a Pluto a Whip and a Gallows of all which the Gallows prov'd most effectual on those that were debauched beyond all fear of punishment hereafter so they could but escape in this life And even among us where the Light of the Gospel shines so bright and where there is such excellent Preaching a man that frequents the Sessions-house will soon find how great a share of our preservation we owe to the Publick Executioner XXXI The Heathen Philosophers as I shew'd you were much divided in their Opinions concerning the Souls future estate some held it mortal others immortal Of those that held the mortality of the Soul the Epicureans were the chief Sect who notwithstanding their impious Doctrines yet some of their lives were vertuous Cardan had so great a value for their Moral actions that he appear'd in Justification of them It appears says he by the Writings of Cicero and Diogenes Laertius that the Epicureans did more religiously observe Laws Piety and Fidelity among men than either the Stoicks or Platonists and I suppose the cause thereof was that as Galen tells us a man is either good or evil by custom but none confideth in those that do not profess sanctity of life Wherefore they were compelled to use greater Fidelity thereby the better to justifie their prosession from which reason it likewise proceeds that at this day few do equallize the fidelity of Usurers notwithstanding they are most base in the rest of their life Also among the Iews whilst the Phariseâ—…s that confess'd the Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul frequently persecuted Christ the Sadduces who denyed the Resurrection Angels and Spirits meddled not with him above once or twice and that very gently too Thus if you compare the Lâ—…ves of Pliny and Seneca I do not mean their Writings you shall find Pliny with his mortality of the Soul did as far exceed Seneca in honesty of manners as Sâ—…a
suppos'd them turn'd into Nothing whereas if Nature did admit of any Annihilation the World says Ocellus Lucanus had long ago vanish'd Aristotle Xenophon Cicero Averroes and others make the World eternal and void of all corruption for not being able to comprehend whether the Egg or the Bird were first generated since no Bird could be without an Egg nor Egg without a Bird therefore they conceiv'd that the World and the beginning of every begotten thing together with the end thereof must be by perpetual revolution sempiternal So that this not admitting of any Annihilation caus'd their opinion of the Worlds Eternity And the Stoicks who believ'd a final Conflagration did not believe any Annihilation any more then of a Faggot when it was burnt but that there should be a new Heaven and a new Earth or rather that the Almighty Wisdom would produce some new Fabrick unconceivable by us who are not able to conceive any thing whereof we have no experience Genitum nihil emoritur Sed transpositum ultro citroque Formam priorem alterat For say they as Nature cannot create by making something out of nothing so neither can it annihilate by turning something into nothing From whence says Dr. Hackwell it follows by consequence that as there is no access so can there be no diminution in the Universe no more then in the Alphabet by the insinite combination and transposition of Letters or in the Wax by the alteration of the Seal stamped upon it Ocellus Lucanus upon this subject writes That if any should conceive the World to have been made he would not be able to find into what it is corrupted and dissolved since that out of which it was made was before the Universe as that into which it shall be corrupted will be after the Universe As for those things which are contain'd in the World they have communion with the World but the World hath communion with nothing else besides it self for all other things have not such a nature as is sufficient of it self but stand in need of communion with other things as living Creatures need respiration the Eye light and the other Senses their several objects Plants need the juice of the Earth for their growth Nay the Sun Moon Planets and fixed Stars require a certain portion of the Universe only the Universe stands in need of no other thing but it self Now as Fire which is able to give heat to other things is of it self hot so that which is the cause of safety and perfection to other things must of it self be safe and perfect Again if the Universe be dissolved it must be dissolv'd into something or nothing not into something for the Universe would not then be totally corrupted for something must be the whole Universe or a part of it nor will it be annihilated sor says Ocellus it is impossible that something should be made of nothing or reduced into nothing Dr. Hackwell hath well observ'd that no Prophets ever foretold the end of the World would ensue till many years after their own deaths being sure not to be proved Lyars according to the Epigram Cur mundi sinem propiorem non facis ut non Ante obitum mendax arguerere sapis For they who prophesie the Worlds destruction are upon sure grounds viz. that till it comes to pass it may be expected Iosephus speaking of the Greeks and other Nations affirms that every State and Kingdom have reported him that was the first Founder of them to be the first of the World each Nation reckoning their Antiquity but from some great change which happen'd among them And thus we are to understand the Original of the Greek History from Inachus the Argive not that he was the Original thereof as some make him but because a most memorable alteration did then happen some were so ignorant as to make that construction thereof For my own part I who believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God do in this point as in all others resign up my poor Judgment to that sacred Oracle but if I did not Iosephus his Arguments would prove altogether uneffectual unto me For after he hath in his discourse against Appion spent many lines in magnifying his Countreymen the Iews that they were the first Inhabitants of the Earth He at the last does in a manner confess that he dares not nevertheless compare the Monuments of the Iews with those of the Aegyptians Chaldees and Phoenicians who dwell in such Countroys as were not so subject to the corruption of the Air and have carefully preserv'd the Records of their Countrey Which is as if he had said that for as much as no other Nations but the Aegyptians Chaldees and Phoenicians have cortain Records of their Originals therefore I will not with them contend for Antiquity but only with such as have no Records to shew Also in the same Treatise Iosephus makes use of Manethon when it is for his advantage and to justifie the Iews Antiquity but in othermatters that are to his disadvantage he rejects his Authority But to return to the Heathen Opinion of the Soul VI. The most plausible Arguments they had to justifie their wicked Opinion of the Soul's mortality or unrewarded condition proceeded from their contemplation of Man whose Body when he dies they plainly saw was by putresaction mingled with the Body of the World from whence it was And by the same reason they were so credulous as to believe his Soul mingled with the Soul of the World from whence that was Their Priests also agreeing herewith though in another form of words taught that in death the Soul went to God who gave it and the Body to the Earth of which it was composed therefore as when the Sun-beams shine into a dark room and enlighten it you may easily exclude it from shining into the room but can never intercept or cut those beams off from their original the Sun the like relation they conceiv'd the Soul of Man had to the Soul of the World whereto it ever hath an inseparable conjunction the same also they held to be in all other Creatures according to their several degrees of animation from one and the same general Spirit and that by reason of its spirituality such passage could be no more hindred then the Walls of a Castle can hinder you from thinking what is within VII Ebencora an Arabian Philosopher observing that Nature makes no sudden transition from one extreme to another and ever by some preparative degrees fitting them to be invested into one another so he willing to advance the Soul into a more coelestial condition pretends that when it leaves the gross carnal Body it first mixes with some more subtil Body perhaps the Air and so by being more and more refined receives a gradual capacity of a coelestial condition not considering that the Spirit when it is in any thing is much more spiritual then Air. But Hippocrates went further then this
this Doctrine there have risen up several men both Ancient and Modern who have affirm'd the contrary it hath been disputed for above these 2000 years That the Globe of the Earth moved was of old the opinion if not of Orpheus of Thales Aristarchus and Philolaus the Pythagorean and is maintain'd by Copernicus Kepler Zongomontanus Origanus c. They held that the Sun like the Heart of Man is plac'd in the midst of the Body of the Universe as the most convenient seat to heat and animate the whole and that the Earth mov'd about it For say they we do not place a Candle in the corner but in the midst of the Room when we would have it give most light Besides the circular motion of the Planets round about the Sun seems to argue that the Earth doth the same and the Sun stands still Further it is more reasonable to believe that the Earth which hath need of light and heat should go to seek what it wants than that the Sun should go to seek what it wants not The Fire doth not turn before the Roast-meat but the Roast-meat before the Fire Again 't is urged Rest and Immobility is a more noble condition than Motion wherefore more proper for the Sun a type and resemblance of God And then they observ'd heavy things were kept up in the Air only by virtue of motion as a Stone mounted in the Air by a Sling and therefore how do we know say they but that the Earth like a Child's Humming-Top may be kept up by its own motion and the swiftness of that motion like that of the Tops might make it seem immovable They who deny the motion of the Earth must also deny it to hang in aequilibrio which were an absurdity Lastly it may seem much more credible that the Earth moves five Leagues in a minute than that the eighth Sphere in the same time moves above fourty millions which it must do if it be true that the extent of the Heavens be infinite so that to have all the Heavens move round in twenty four hours were to measure an infinite by a finite XIX But to return to our Anima Mundi The dullest sort of the Vulgar People used this word Soul as we do that of Materid Prima or the Philosophers Stone they thought it be some strange excellent Thing but had no particular form'd Notion thereof And so did not conceive of being Alive in any thing beside their living Body and as soon as that was in the Grave Actum est they were at an end To which effect Seneca speaks Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil c. There were another sort clean contrary to them as holding the Soul to be the Man considering it as inhabiting this Tabernacle of Clay or cloath'd with this Mortal Body which in death they shed as the Stag doth his Horns or the Snake her Hackle Sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere ut Anguis Gauderet praelonga sâ—…nex aut cornua Cervus Whereupon the more easie sort advised with their Heathen-Priests to learn what kind of Renovation they should have when the time came Which Priests aiming at their own Gain and to render themselves necessary did ever invent some Tale agreeable to that purpose As Varro himself ingenuously confesses That it is convenient that the Vulgar should be ignorant of many Things that are True and believe others that are False Quum veritatem qua liberetur inquirat credatur ei expedire quod fallitur Nay and Plato himself in his Republick acknowledges That for the Benefit of Mankind it is often necessary to deceive them So as it seems their Religion serv'd but as a Curb wherewithal to ride the Commonalty From whence we may observe that the Religion of Nature when corrected only by a Temporal Interest doth but like Antimony prepared and made Stitium become more Poisonous by its Correction and Preparation The Pseudo-Fathers of their Church being such as brought Religion to their Interest and not Interest to their Religion fulfilling that Verse of the Poet 's Atque ipsa utilitas justi prope Mater Aequi. Nevertheless there were others among them who being more opinionated of their own Abilities would not so easily suffer themselves to be imposed upon but using their own Reason consulted Nature upon that point and in so doing took into our more usual way of searching Knowledge à Notioribus ad Ignotiora When finding their present Souls not to be kept in any separate Immaterial Estate but all their Life long to have been very agreeably lodged and entertain'd in a bodily Subject did conceive it probable that they might in like manner be disposed of here-after XX. Now this last sort of Men as well in former Ages as at this day are thought to be the most numerous and greatest part of Mankind that is the People that believe the Transmigration of Souls from one Body to another which is by some restrain'd within the same Species by others not The Soul of a Tyrant they thought after his death would go into a Lyon Tyger or some other Beast of Prey because they equally thirst after Blood and by the same Reason the Soul of a Poet into a Grashopper who sings till he starves Pythagoras writes of himself That he was first Euphorbus then Callidus then Hermotimus then Pyrrhus and last of all Pythagoras This Doctrine as we may learn from the Holy Scriptures and Iosephus had tainted not only the Pharisees but Herod himself and almost the whole Nation of the Jews as appears in that they held Christ to have been Elias or one of the antient Prophets Nay some of the Apostles themselves as St. Cyril observes were misled by this Errour as is evident by their Question touching the Man that was born blind Master Who did sin this Man or his Parents For How could they conceive that he could sin before he was born unless in some other Body which his Soul actuated before in another Life But what was more strange many of the Iews thought Christ to be St. Iohn Baptist who had not then been dead full three Years So as by this it may appear that the Transmigration of a New Soul was by them supposed to be not only at the time of ones Birth but sometimes in ones Liâ—…e also and this Conceit perhaps they might receive from observing how strangely Men are often-times changed either for better or worse both in Mind and Body from what they were before XXI This Progress of the Soul seem'd to many to be better disposed for Reward and Punishment when not restrain'd into any one species but of more free Dissolution and more suitable to that variety wherein Nature delights as better befitting and more approaching to its Infinity And by this Liberty they thought it often pass'd from a Man to a Beast from thence to a Plant and next to
espousing any new Opinions And in those times all the great Innovations and Embroilments among men were set up by the Stoicks and Platonists who were highly possess'd with the desire of Immortality and Glory Which thing being observed did great violence in those days to the belief of the Souls Immortality making men the less willing to censure those for Atheists who doubted or denyed it but sociably to admit them into business and Trusts of the highest importance The Chineses have a Religious Sect call'd the Nantolines who preach up publickly the Souls Mortality Also at this day in the East-Indies where the greatest swarms of Man-kind live and those of many Sects and Religions it is found by our Merchants trading thither that not only the far greatest number are of those which believe no other rewards or punishments for the Soul except what it shall after death meet with in a new Body upon Earth but also they find by Commerce with them that they are the most eminently remarkable for their honesty above any of the other Sects From whence Postellus observes that few men can debauch Nature in themselves to such a degree as to commit all the wickedness they were capable of notwithstanding they believ'd no reward or punishment hereafter For says he you must either acknowledge Superstitions unnecessary or else defile your own Natures and consess men to be worse then Beasts who can live without those terrours and yet not devour one another unless in cases of necessity XXXIII Thus if you seriously recollect the Heathen Opinions concerning the Souls estate after death we shall find that the most inquisitive among them had but a slender conceit of the Souls eternal condition or at best they thought as Bernier says the Inhabitants of 〈◊〉 believe that it would mix with the Soul of the World again like Water taken out of the Ocean in a Bottle and swims therein for a while till by some accident or other being broke it returns back to the Sea from whence it was taken or else passing from one Body to another and then in either case its condition whether good or bad would be of no concern to its former Owner Which made Seneca so little value his future state as to speak of it with a Quid mihi curae erit Transfuga So that upon what I can find they look'd upon Man to be made up of Soul and Body together not Body without Soul nor Soul without Body but Man to be the Result of both viz. Soul and Body With whom according to their vain Opinion it fares after death as with a Parliament after Dissolution which being made up of three Estates Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Commons remain a Parliament whilst the King pleases to grant them his Fiat But when the King gives his word to Dissolve it the three Estates remain still but the Parliament is gone And thus they held Man to be the Result of Soul and Body till God pleases to command his dissolution after which the Soul and Body remain in a separate Being only that the Man as well as the Parliament is lost in the Dissolution And to proceed further with this comparison as the Parliament represents the Kingdom of which they are a smaller part so did the Heathens believe that Man in some kind represents the Almighty of whom he is a portion So as by this we may see the effect of all their impious Tenents concerning the Souls future estate was that Man is but a Passenger in this life and the World his Inne till sickness brings up the Reckoning and Death comes in with an All is paid XXXIV These were the most considerable Opinions of the Heathen Philosophers yet for as much as there was never any Sect but had some defect either in Theory or Practice Some have thought it best not to espouse any but to imitate the Bee ' and to gather what is good out of each Which was the way of Potamon of Alexandria who as Diogenes Laertius records sounded a Sect called Elective which allow'd every one to chuse what was best in all Philosophies When I seriously reflect upon many of these gross erroneous Tenents recited in this discourse I cannot but acknowledge with Cicero That there is no Doctrine how absurd and foolish soever which hath not had some Philosopher sor its Champion not that I have so mean an opinion of Philosophy it self which is indeed the true knowledge of causes and effects especially the Moral part of it as to believe it altogether unnecessary in the Government of Mankind Some there be that have damn'd all other Philosophers for Epicurus his sake as thinking them no Friends to Religion But such persons do ad pauca reâ—…picere and theresore judge accordingly For though a lawful acquaintance with Events and Phaenomena that appear on this Theatre of the World would contribute much to free mens minds from the servitude of Superstition Arctis Religionum animos nodis exsolvere yet it would breed a sober and amiable belief of the Deity as it did in the Pythagoreans Platonists and other Sects of Philosophers if we may take their own word for it He is a superficial Philosopher who adheres to Atheism as a Noble Philosopher speaks to this purpose Philosophy and Religion being like two wheels in a Watch though they move contrary yet are both conducive to the regular motion and government of Mankind XXXV Now to all these various Opinions there have been opposed various Objections As first If the Soul be a portion of the Divine Spirit inseparable from that its Original and acted thereby men would then indulge themselves by thinking all the Evil they committed would go upon Gods Score rather than their own Et mallant emendare Deum quam seipsos That all Industry were discourag'd all blame or praise taken away Therefore Tully calls this Ignava Ratio Who blames the Sword for a murder and not the hand that imployes it Nay in Creatures sensible if a Lion or a Serpent kills a man they but act according to their Natures To all which their usual Answer was by a constant allowing unto the Soul of Man a freedom of Will not subject to be forced out of its own Conduct Wherefore men are said to be tempted into vicious courses but not dragg'd or compell'd And besides this freedom Nature saith the Philosopher hath implanted in the heart of man before he debauches himself by evil customs a harmless and kind disposition not willing to destroy or hurt other men unless it be upon an absolute Necessity for his own Preservation and then when enforced by such Necessity though he choose to do it as of two evils the least yet he cannot act it without regret unless by evil Converse he hath poison'd that inbred Goodness which he brought with him into the World And upon such one may observe the Justice of Divine Vengeance the courses these vitiated Spirits take end in Poverty or some other
he had been informed of the same from his Mother and Wife Also Zamolxis whom Laertius and Herodotus call Pythagoras his Disciple though Suidas and others oppose it deliver'd those Laws to the Scythians which he pretended to have receiv'd in a certain Cave where he had been conversing with the Gods Nor did Epimenides get himself less reputation by his pretence of having slept fifty years And last of all Mahomet having in the same manner retir'd himself into the Mountains of Arabia did there by the assistance of Sergius and two Iews compose that fabulous Law which he after divulg'd unto the World as coming from the Angel Gabriel with whom he pretended himself very familiar And thus we see with what Arts each Law-giver endeavoured to establish their Laws among men thinking thereby to purchase that immortal Fame which their Ambitions so much desir'd For as one of the Ancients well observ'd Amari coli diligi majus imperio est But oh the Impiety of these Heathens who father'd all their Follies upon their Gods not considering that whosoever speaketh in the name of the Gods intituleth them to whatsoever he publisheth and consequently if his Doctrine be false as that of theirs must needs be by reason of the absurdities found therein intituleth the Deities to false Doctrines III. The next thing I shall insist upon is their impious Opinions concerning the Deity which deserve the same reproof that a late ingenious and noble Writer gave a rigid Predestinarian affirming that God delighted in the death of Mankind Speak worse of the Devil if you can For there was hardly any thing so mean or base as was not by some of them rever'd for a Deity nor any Vice so great but some of their Gods were guilty of it Wherefore Origen speaking of the Aegyptians says thus to Celsus When you approach their Sacred places ye shall meet with stately Groves Chappels and Temples with magnificent Gates also with variety of mysterious Ceremonies but when once you are entred and got within their Temples ye shall behold nothing but a Cat or an Ape a Crocodile Goat or Dog whereto they pay the most solemn veneration But of this I shall treat more at large in my discourse concerning Sacrifices and therefore now will return to that subiect which the Title of my Book promises to treat of IV. In the first place to discover the foundation of their Opinion concerning the Soul it was this Iovis omnia plena and of the World Mens agitat molem They held God to be all in all to be Infinite and therefore but One thinking that if there could be found any real thing though but an Atom which were no part of God or any place wherein God were not then they could not esteem him to be Infinite and every-where present but thence excluded and consequently limited upon which account they denied a Vacuum Hence also they did not conceive the World as some now do to be a great Body by it self set apart from the Infinite God but to be signified under that name whose Being was in part visible and expos'd to our senses and partly invisible as in its Spirituality not perceptible by our gross corporeal Organs otherwise then in its outward effects and productions and that therefore no more of the invisible things of God was known unto them then what seem'd of clear inference from the visible that in plain meaning the Spiritual part of the World was not by them discovered further then was evidenc'd by its acting on the Corporeal part whereof though in the common form of speaking when they said God they meant only the Spirit of God and when they said World they meant grosly the material Globe Yet the more knowing sort of Heathens did by the World mean all corporeal Beings both above and below not allowing plurallty of Worlds but only one infinite Body govern'd by the Divine Spirit acting all in all Spiritus intus alit So as when they mention'd Gods in the plural number they meant only divers faculties which their Soul of the World viz. God had infus'd into several Creatures peculiar to them Hence they call'd every particular a Microcosm or Little World in some sort the Progeny or imperfect Copy of the Universe as consisting of Body and Spirit some more perfect as Man and all animated Creatures others less as Plants Minerals and Stones according as their several mixt bodily Temperaments were prepared to receive a more or less pure degree of the Anima Mundi not allowing more Souls then one although men gave them divers names according to the various kinds of Creatures so animated And this some held too Spiritual to be any more defiled by any diseas'd nasty or wicked Body wherein it dwelt then the Sun-beams by shiniug into a Dungeon or Pest-house V. Now this Doctrine of the Soul seem'd but ill to provide for Justice either in this life or another however they allow'd it Immortality in general but undertook not for its disposal in any peculiar way only that it lives here as long as it hath vigour enough in it self to draw and digest to its own support fit and sufficient Nutriment out of the great World But when its Organs are either enfeebled or by some accident disorder'd that it can no longer prey on the great World then that preys upon it and at death receives back its Body and Spirit into it self by which alternative Emanation of the Universe into particulars and their Restitution into the Universe without any annihilation the World say they enjoys a perpetual rejuvenescency They did by daily experience see composita dissolvi and in their dissolution nothing perisht but that which was made up of the conjunction of those parts As when by death the Body and Soul were parted the Man they thought was gone but the Spirit remain'd in its Original and the Body in its Earth from whence it came and they when wrought again by Nature separately into new mixtures entred into a new state of Being which they supposed no way concern'd or related unto the former as we may see by the lines of the Poet Et si jam nostro sent it de corpore postquam Distracta est animi natura animaeque potestas Nil tamen hoc ad nos coitu qui conjugioque Corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti Nec si materiam nostram conlegerit aetas Post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sit a nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel cum sit retinentia nostri Et nunc nihil ad nos de nobis attinet ante Qui fuimus c. But only thought themselves assured and held for an eternal verity that there never was nor could be in Nature any Annihilation however gross people when things disappear'd consider'd not that they were dissolved into their first Principles but
have this And this Chimaera of theirs is by one of their own Writers compar'd to Clouds gathering together under the representation of various shapes as of a Castle Gyant Mountain or the like In which appearances they often produce real effects as Thunder Lightning Winds Rain c. till by their separation the Gyant Castle or Mountain vanish as also the real effects soon pass away but still the same Clouds remain though in new Conjectures and Appearances which vain opinion is express'd in these verses As Clouds in shape of Men dispers'd by Wind The vanish'd Men do leave the Clouds behind So 's Man of Soul and Body made in one Which sever'd each have Being but he none Pure Natures mix and part without decay But what from them results quite fades away Thus in sad earnest true th' old Proverb 's found A man betwixt two Stools doth fall to th'Ground XXV In answer to this wicked opinion I shall only recite that ingenious Argument which Tertullian long since us'd upon the same occasion O man that makest this objection to me think what thou wast before created thou wast nothing for if any thing thou couldst not but remember it Thou then that wast nothing before thy Creation and when ceasest to live shalt return to nothing why canst thou not once again be brought out of nothing by the will of the same Creator who at first created thee of nothing Will there come any new thing unto thee seeing he made no difficulty to create thee what thou wast not thou oughtest not to suspect but that he can as easily re-make thee what thou wast We see every day the light after it hath lost its darkness reassumes it the Stars lose their light and recover it again Time begins at the same term it finished Fruits drop off from the Trees and yet come again in their season The Corn after its beaâ—…d is grown long with age falls to the ground and corrupts but it wants not its Resurrection therefore why should we think that Man should be less worthy of another life then any of these things which are made but for his service Although we cannot Mathematically demonstrate the same any more then they can the contrary yet the belief of the Resurrection is I am sure more for the Honour of God and safety and happiness of Man XXVI Now these kind of Heathenish Souls seem too Airy to raise any foundation whereon to build the Principles of Vertue or Moral honesty One Motive which induc'd them to believe mens Souls to be such Phantomes was their observing men to be so much delighted and obstinately taken with the Fictions and santastical Inventions of Poetry and Superstition which have neither truth or so much as possibility in them and therefore no fit food for any thing that hath a real Being but their waking Dreams are far from deserving credit upon this pretence unless that be a sufficient Reason which an ancient Writer delivers in these words Credibile quia Impossibile according to that old saying Quanto absurdius tanto melius XXVII Epicurus perceiving the number of Sensual men to exceed by far that of the more Spiritual laid the foundation of his Sect in sensual Pleasures and held a Corporeal Soul the better to fit it for those Corporeal Pleasures and then to secure this Anima against those severe after-reckonings the apprehensions whereof he perceived God and Nature had implanted in the hearts of all men he gave it a Quieta est by pretending that the Soul is extinct in death or at least to vanish into an eternal insensibility as unconcern'd as if it had never been The finer sort of wits unwilling to fall so low could not admit of this total mortality of the Soul however they were so weak as to acknowledge that his Reasons seem'd very powerful to assert it As first to behold the Soul in its Infancy very weak and then by degrees with the Body to grow daily more and more vigorous till it arrives to its perfection from which estate together with the Body it declined till the decrepitude of the one and dotage of the other made it seem to them probable that they should both likewise perish together Gigni pariter cùm corpore unà Crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem As also that the many abominable passions of mans Soul seem'd to be its diseases and to argue its mortality as plainly as bodily diseases do that of the Body and that the imputing them only to the irascible or concupiscible parts thereby hoping to keep the rational part safe was say they as if one should fancy that an Ulcer in the Heart or Liver could not by consequence destroy the Brain Mentem sanari corpus ut agrum Cernimus flecti medicina posse videmus Moreover that in old age men felt their minds oppress'd with cares to faint into a kind of despondency and as fit for a Grave as one that is tired with a long and wearisom Journey is for a Bed and even in its strongest estate a Fever Apoplexy or little bite a of mad Dog destroys all its most glorified scientifical faculties Corpoream naturam animi esse necesse est Corporeis quoniam telis ictuque laborat The last Argument they held was as vain as any of the rest viz. They could not apprehend how two things of so different natures as mortality and immortality Body Soul should mix and associate together so long Quippe etenim mortale aeterno jungere unà Consentire putare fungi mutua posse Desipere est c. By these and such like symptoms they suspected the Soul to be of a mortal condition although of a Divine off spring and as at the Seige of Troy Sarpedon Iupiter's own Son was knock'd on the head as well as the ordinary Trojans so they ignorantly thought the Soul though of a Diviner extraction then the corporeal parts might in such base company be crush'd Simul aevo fessâ—… fatiscit But these and the rest of their Arguments are soon answered in laying all the fault on the corporeal Organs which being by Age or other disorders made to fail caused a proportionable failing in the faculties Whereupon they conjectur'd that in a total failing of the Organs occasion'd by death there must consequently follow an equal failing as they thought of the faculties as it fares with a Watch which if it happens by fall or other accidents to have a Wheel broken however the Spring remain intire yet it becomes useless and the Motions cease These were the most plausible Arguments for their vain Opinion of the Souls mortality which deserve rather the name of blind Conjectures then convincing Arguments XXVIII The Nature of the Soul is so obscure that the most discerning Philosophy could not tell what to make of it some holding it to be Fire others Water some one thing some another and if they were so divided in the Nature of the