Aristotle in this point cleered and vindicated sec. 4. How Angels and mens soules subject to annihilation or dissolution sec. 5. The first Objection against our doctrine answered and is shewed how the soule is immortall both by grace and nature sec. 6. The second Objection answered Solomon compares not mens soules to beasts but the death of mens bodies to that of beasts sec. 7. The third Objection answered Job denieth not the resurrection but sheweth it cannot be effected by the power of nature sec. 8. The fourth Objection answered Austin cleered The way how the soule is infused and originall sin propagated sec. 9. The fifth Objection answered How the soule in under standing depends from the senses sec. 10. The sixth Objection answered how the soule suffers sec. 11. The seventh Objection answered How immateriall grace is corrupted sec. 12. The eighth Objection answered Desire of immortality in man onely sec. 13. The ninth Objection answered The soule understands better being separated then now she doth in the body sec. 14. The many mischiefes that Christian Religion suffers by this opinion of the soules corruptibility sec. 15. The late printed Pamphlet at Amsterdam which undertakes to prove the soules mortality briefly refuted and slighted as a frivolous and irreligious rapsodie having nothing in it but froth Wherein he abuseth Scripture He is refuted in foure observations The soule after death subsisteth naturally not violently nor miraculously sec. 16. A devout and comfortable meditation upon the soules immortality fit for all afflicted Christians sec. 17. THE PHILOSOPHICALL TOUCH-STONE NOble Sir KENELME as I reverence your worth so I admire your paines who being a Gentleman of such eminencie thinks it no disparagement but an honour to spend your time in good literature which giveth true Nobilitie your practice herein is exemplary which I wish the Gentry of our Nation would imitate who think they are born meerly for themselves and their pleasures whose time is spent either idlely wickedly or impertinently as Seneca complaines Eorum vitam mortemque juxta existimo but your mind being of a more noble extraction semine ab aethereo you know that you are not borne for your selfe and therefore by your indefatigable paines doe both eternize your fame and enoble your Countrie but because this life of ours cannot challenge the priviledge of perfection and truth here is accompanied with errour as the light with shades therefore I find that this your Work of the nature of Bodies and of the Soules immortality hath some passages in it Heterodoxall and not consonant to the principles of Divinity and Philosophy which have drawne from mee these sudden Observations for I have here neither time books nor opportunitie to enlarge my selfe in which I promise both brevity and modesty suffering no other language to passe from mee but such as may beseem both your worth and my ingenuitie for my end is not to wound your reputation but to vindicate the truth The first mistake I meet with is That words expresse Sect. 1. Pag. 2. cap. 1. things only according to the pictures we make of them in our thoughts and not as the things are in their proper natures But if our words expresse not the things which we conceive in our minds as they are in their owne natures then our conceptions are erroneous and our words improper or false and if there be not an adequation of our conceptions with the things we conceive there can be no metaphysicall truth in us which consisteth in the agreement of our thoughts with the things as ethicall truth doth in the consent of our words to our thoughts Our conceptions are our internall words which represent reall things and our externall words represent these conceptions and by consequence they expresse things as they are in their natures So Adam in Paradise gave names to the creatures according to their natures and so have wise men ever since The Latines call the sea mare quasi amarum from its saltnesse or bitternesse for it is so in its owne nature Secondly You define quantity to be nothing else but the Sect. 2. Pag. 9. cap. 2. extension of a thing and shortly after that quantity is nothing else but divisibility Thus you confound extension and divisibility which differ as much as in man rationality differs from risibility the one being the effect of the other for therefore things are divisible because they are extensive take away extension divisibility faileth and therefore numbers are not properly divisible because they have no extension but onely in resemblance Secondly extension is not the essence of quantity for if it were all that have quantitie must have also extension but Angels have discrete quantitie which wee call number and yet have no extension Thirdly there is a quidditative or entitive extension by which one part is not another in bodies though there were no quantitative extension at all therefore not every extension is the essence of quantitie There is also the extension of site which is no quantitie Whereas you make heat a property of rare bodies and Sect 3. Pag. 28. cap. 4. Pag. 30. that out of rarity ariseth heat and that a body is made and constituted a body by quantity you speak paradoxically for the rarest bodie is not still the hottest A burning coale is hotter then the flame and scalding lead is hotter then scalding water Secondly rarity is not the cause of heat but heat the cause of rarity that which begets heat is motion and the influence and light of the Stars motion then begets heat heat begets rarity 'T is true that rarefaction prepares the matter to receive heat as heat prepares the matter to receive the forme of the hot element but what prepares is not the cause Thirdly a bodie is not made and constituted by quantitie for this is posteriour to a bodie being a substance and followes the bodie as its accident and therefore more ignoble Every accident hath a subjective dependence from the substance a bodie hath or may have entitie without quantitie so cannot quantitie without the bodie The essence or as you call it the substance of locall motion Sect. 4. Pag 34. cap. 5. doth not consist in division because whatsoever division there is in this motion it is either in respect of the thing moved or in respect of the space in which it is moved but both these are externall to motion and not belonging any waies to its essence therefore in that divisibility which is in them cannot consist the essence of locall motion Besides divisibility is a propertie of quantitie flowing from its essence whereas locall motion is quantitative but by accident and not but by way of reduction in the predicament of quantitie therefore except you be of Scotus his opinion who will have mobile and motus all one division cannot be the essence of locall motion And if you were a Scotist in this yet you cannot prevaile for division being the accident of the thing moved it cannot be
his brother Ioseph to lye with his mistresse Saul to persecute the Church and Felix to tremble at the mention of a future judgement if the soule be mortall Admit but such Lucretian doctrine you may shake hands with heaven and hell Esse aliquos Maneis subterranea regna Iuven. Sat. 2. Et contum Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras Atque unâ transire vadum tot millia cymbâ Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum are lavantur Here I had ended but that I have now lighted on a Sect. 16. Mans mortality Pamphlet by chance the Scribler of which was ashamed to put to his name his cause is so bad He undertakes to prove the soules mortalitie but so weakly that I should lose too much time and spend too much paper to answer him according to his folly For there is nothing in it but the froth of a luxurious wit wantonly abusing Scripture and obtruding a cloud in stead of Iuno shadowes of reason in stead of solid arguments As first when hee will prove the death of the soule out of Scripture hee brings those places that speake of the metaphoricall or spirituall death of the soule which is the defiling of her by sinne and her separation from God and so hee confounds the life of nature of grace and of glory as he doth death spirituall and corporall Secondly hee abuseth the Synecdochicall speeches in Scripture when he will have those phrases which are spoken of man to bee understood of the soule and bodie dis-junctively And so when the Scripture speakes of mans dissolution and death hee will have the soule die as well as the bodie but by this meanes hee must affirme that the soule eates drinkes playes sings weeps because these things are spoken of men What were the soules of the Egyptians drowned in the red sea and the soules of the Chaldeans burned in the fiery fornace or the soule of the disobedient Prophet torne by the Lion because these men died such deaths Many things are spoken of the whole man but not wholly the totall compositum is the subject of such predications but not totally Christ died was buried was borne was crucified and yet his Divinity suffered none of these things Hee is a bad Divine that knowes not that by the communication of properties that is spoken of the person of Christ which is proper onely to either of his natures and so that is spoken of man which is proper onely to either of his essentiall parts Thirdly he confounds the act and the habit concluding that the habit is lost because the act ceafeth as that there is no habit or faculty of reason in a mad man because the act of reasoning is hindered As if you should say that a Musician hath lost his skill in Musick when he ceaseth to play Fourthly some old objections hee hath inserted which wee have already sufficiently answered and the rest of the passages in his Pamphlet are so frivolous that they are not worth the answering or reading for Magno conatu magnas nugas dicit And so he that shall diligently read this former Discourse of ours and shall make use of these foure Observations which now I have set downe will find that this irreligious Rapsodie of his is but froth a vapour or one of his dreames Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno Virgil. and which I thinke will little prevaile with any rationall man much lesse with him who is truly sanctified with grace For he that was led meerely by reason confessed that the fatall houre of death was the last houre to the body onely not to the soule Decretoria illa hora non est animo suprema sed corpori Seneca For even reason will teach us that the soule which in her selfe is immortall I exclude not here the generall but the speciall or miraculous concourse of the Almighty may naturally subsist by her self after separation for if her subsistence from the body were violent then her returne to the body should be naturall as if the holding of a stone in the aire be violent the falling downe of that stone upon the removing of the impediment must needs be naturall But her returning to the body is an not miraculous and of supernaturall power for though the soule as she is the forme of the body hath a naturall propensity or innate appetite to a reinforming of or re-union with the body yet is she not againe conjoyned with the body but by a speciall and supernaturall worke of God in the resurrection Neither againe must we thinke that the soule subsists after separation by any speciall or supernaturall power for then we shall make the soule so subsisting of no better metall then the yron so swimming on the water both being sustained not by their owne but by a speciall and miraculous power and by this meanes the soule of a dog may as well subsist after death as the soule of a man but he that thinks so that the soule hath no other being after this life may be in name a Christian professor but is indeed a Cynick Philosopher or Epicuri de grege porcus fitter to dwell in the Isle of dogs then among men Therefore as it was naturall for the childs soule to subsist in the mothers wombe and it is as naturall for the same soule to subsist without it so is the subsistence of the same soule in and without the body essentiall and naturall to her and not violent or supernaturall But to leave these men whose soules are fitter Sect. 17. to dwell with Nebuchadnezzars in a beasts body then in their owne I will conclude this Discourse with an acknowledgement and confession of that solace and true comfort which I take in these dismall and calamitous times in which we live from the consideration of my soules immortality that however she be now tossed upon the proud and lofty billowes of the turbulent sea of afflictions in this life with Noahs Arke yet a higher mountaine then those of Ararat is prepared for her to rest upon and however this weary Dove flutter upon these boysterous waters that she can find no rest for the soales of her feet yet she sees a window in that celestiall Arke which is above ready open to receive her Christ hath not in vaine gone to prepare a place for us he hath prepared it that we may enjoy it and to what end should he shed his blood for our soules and redeeme them at so deare a rate if they be mortall and can not enjoy that which they long after as earnestly as the Hart brayeth after the rivers of water Doth God mock us when by his Prophet he tels us of fulnesse of joy in his presence and at his right hand pleasures for evermore Is God our Father and Heaven our Inheritance and must we be put off from the enjoyment of either We are here miserable Pilgrims and strangers if after our tedious journey we have
cannot be a notion for Metaphysick tels us that identity is reall And what will you say of that similitude which Adam had with God or which a regenerated man hath consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse Is this image of God in man which by us was lost and now by grace is repaired a bare notion then will our happinesse and joy and hopes and religion consist rather in conceit then in reality Dii meliora piis erroremque hostibus illum Sect. 4. Cap. 1. p. 360. BEING or a thing the formall notion of both which is meerly being is the proper affection of man This anigma would trouble Oedipus or Sphynx himselfe for in your margin by this word being you understand existence But is this the proper affection of man what becomes of other creatures have they no existence If they have then it is not proper to man quarto modo If they have not then they are but entities in possibility for existence is the actuating and restraining of the essence which in it selfe is indeterminate and in possibility to actuality which we call existence therefore existence is not the proper affection of man but of entity as it is in act or rather the formality of actuall entity Besides if existence be the proper affection of man what shall we say of Angels and other spirits nay of God himselfe Is there no existence in them Againe existence is not an affection or propertie for it is no accident but the very essence of the thing actuated which before was in possibility and therefore by Philosophers 't is called actus primus to distinguish it from properties and operations which are called second acts for a thing is first actuated by its existence and then by its properties and operations But what you meane by the formall notion of both Pag. 361. which and of their meerly being I know not Sibylla's leaves are not more obscure to which you may adde your stock of being and the grafts inoculated into it for Pag. 361. with such mists of metaphors you involve your Philosophy against the rules and custome of Philosophers and so you leave your Readers as Sibylla left hers unsatisfied thus Inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae I wish M r. White had helped you here whose aid hath not beene wanting to you at a dead lift hitherto I should trifle away too much time and paper if I should insist or name all your fancies of the tribes as you call them of predicaments whose office you will have to comprehend all the particular notions that man hath and how you will have all entities to be respective and all notions to be grafted on the stock of being c. Abundance of such stuffe with which your booke is fraughted I passe over as being not worth the expence of time and indeed they refute themselves As likewise that you make essence and existence the same whereas they are one and the same in God onely but not in the creatures in whom the essence and existence differ for whilst a thing is in its causes it hath an essence but no existence till it be produced by its causes and as it were quit of them All the knowledge we have of our soule is no more but that Pag 368. c. 2. it is an active force in us I hope you know more of the soule then this to wit that it is an immortall immateriall substance infused by God into the body created of nothing consisting of the intellect and will capable of beatitude You know also I hope that the soule had no being till it was infused into the body and that it is not in a place as bodies are by way of circumscription and that it is all in all and all in every part of the body and that after death it immediatly goeth to hell or heaven not lingring about the grave or sleeping in the dust till the resurrection But it seemes you have not very great knowledge of the soule when you say that a thing apprehended by the soule becomes a part or affection of the soule for neither hath the soule any parts nor can that be an affection of the soule which comes from without In your 5. Chapter you make 1. Being to have a very Sect. 6. Pag. 395. c. 5. neere affinity with the soule 2. To be the end of the soule 3. To be the soules patterne and Idea For the first there is small affinity betweene the soule which is a substance and Being which is neither substance nor accident but a transcendent Being or existence is the generall affection of entity so is not the soule the body hath existence before the soule is infused and when the soule is gone it hath existence still the body hath no more existence from the soule then the soule from the body 2. If being be the end of the soule then it moved God to create it for the end moveth at least metaphorically but sure nothing moved God except his owne goodnesse and glory and how can that existence which God gave to the soule in the creation be the end of its creation Is creation the end of creation and the giving of being the end why being is given what can be more absurd And wereas being is internall and essentiall to the soule how can it be the end which is an externall cause 3. Being is not the patterne or Idea of the soule for Being is intrinsecall to the soule so is not the patterne or Idea but extrinsecall As the Idea or patterne of a building is in the mind of the builder but not in the house which is built and if being is the end of the soule how can it be the Idea for the end excites the action of the agent but the Idea determinates that action and these are very different You will not have the understanding to be the objects it Sect. 7. Pag. 404. c. 6. understands by way of similitude but by way of respects Understanding is by way of similitude not of respect for your son who hath a neere respect or relation to you doth not the more for that understand this your Booke I beleeve he understands books written by strangers to whom he hath no respect better then these your intricate mysteries There are relations and respects between inanimate or senslesse creatures and yet no understanding it is not therefore the respect but the reception of the species into the intellect and its assimilation or similitude with the intellect that makes understanding Besides there are some respects grounded upon similitudes then I hope there are some things understood by way of similitudes I may truly say all things for nothing is understood but what is in the understanding and nothing can be there but by way of similitude every thing is intelligible actually if its similitude be in the intellect actually The amplitude of the soule in respect of knowledge is absolutely Sect. 8. Pag. 405. c. 6.
which is in Christ by which he justifieth Rom. 12. many in respect of which he is called the Wisdome of the Father for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Or had you meant that which wee have of Christ by illumination and in respect of which the Apostle accounted all things lost desiring to know nothing but Christ crucified If I say you had meant such guides I had approved of your judgement and I had been your fellow-traveller for indeed by these onely our wants are supplied and our accounts made up And in this respect naturam sequi est Deo obsequi The Conclusion wherein is asserted the Soules Immortality and Objections answered THus Sir Kenelme I have briefly run over your voluminous Discourses of the nature of Bodies and of the Soules immortalitie in which though you have shewed much wit and good language yet your arguments and descriptions of the Soule are not of that evidence and validitie which I have shewed as to convince our understanding and to vindicate our beliefe in assenting to all your dictats in this your laborious Work therefore give mee leave without prejudice to your paines to point briefly at such reasons and arguments as I conceive will be more evincing and pressing and more prevalent both with Christians and Pagans then those which you have imparted to us 1. We will first then begin with divine Testimony which is of greater authority then all humane capacity God tells Moses Exod. 3. that he is the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob by which words our Saviour proves the soules immortalitie in affirming that God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. and consequently that these were not dead but alive in their soules Solomon tells us Eccles. 12. that the spirit returnes to God that gave it The Scripture tells us that Samuel's soule was alive after her separation 2 Sam. 28. which place though it be controverted whether it was truly Samuel's soule or not yet that apparition which was beleeved by the Iewes shewes that they doubted not of the soules immortalitie Christ tells us of Lazarus his soule that was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome and the rich Gluttons into hell Luke 16. Hee tells us also of that rich mans soule which after his barnes were full was to be taken from him Luke 12. But if she perished with the bodie how could she be taken away Hee assures the good thiefe that his soule should be with him that night in Paradise Luke 23. And hee will not have us feare them that can destroy the bodie but cannot kill the soule Matth. 10. by which he intimates that the soule is not liable to death as the bodie is 2. Wee prove it by arguments grounded on the Scripture as first The soule of Christ was immortall when it was separated therefore our soules are so The consequence is evident because Christ was like to us in all things except sin The antecedent no Christian will deny except he will deny the hypostaticall union of the Divinitie and the Humanitie which was not nor could not be dissolved by death for the Divinitie was not separated from Christs bodie in death much lesse from his soule to which it was immediately united 'T is true Christs bodie died because the soule was separated by which the Divinity gave life to the bodie to wit effectively not formally but God being united immediately and principally to the soule shee could not die And though God hath not so united our soules to himselfe as he did Christs yet hee is so neerly united to our spirituall soules being a spirit himselfe that they cannot die except hee should forsake them which hee will not doe for he will not leave our soules nor forsake them nor suffer them to see corruption Secondly man was made to the image of God Gen. 1. which image consisteth partly in hyperphysicall graces as righteousnesse and true holinesse and partly in five physicall gifts 1. understanding 2. will 3. dominion 4. liberty 5. immortality Thirdly mans soule was not educed out of the earth and water as the soules of other creatures were but immediately inspired by God Genes 1. by which it is plaine that the soule of man is of a farre more excellent condition and nature then the soules of beasts are and that shee hath immediate dependence from God not from the bodie therefore not mortall Fourthly if the soule die with the bodie there can be no resurrection and so 1 Cor. 15. our hope and faith are in vaine Now there can be no resurrection of the bodie if the soule its forme be not pre-existent For how can the soule be re-united to the bodie or informe it againe if it be extinguished with the bodie Fifthly the Kingdome of Christ the joyes and Luke 1. Matth. 25. happinesse of the Saints and the torments of the wicked are eternall therefore the soules of men which are the subjects of Christs Kingdome and the inheritors of joy or paine cannot be mortall for what subjects shall this eternall King have or to what end are the rewards and punishments eternall if the soules which are the chiefe subjects and chiefly interessed in these rewards and paines perish and die Sixthly Moses shewes that the Sun Moon and Stars of heaven were made for the service of man Deuteron 4. which argueth that man is of a more excellent nature then they Now this could not be if he were not spirituall and immortall in his soule for in his bodie hee is inferiour to them in regard they are incorruptible and unchangeable substances 3. We prove that the soule is not onely immortall by Divine power but also of her owne nature First she is made to the image of God but this image as I have shewed consisteth not onely in supernaturall graces but also in naturall powers and faculties of the soule Secondly the soule is a spirit of her owne nature therefore of her owne nature immortall for spirits are free from the prime qualities which are the causes of corruption Thirdly the soule is a simple uncompounded substance therefore cannot be corruptible for how can that be dissolved which was never compounded And though Tertullian held the materiality yet he acknowledgeth De resur c. 34. the soules immortality to be naturall to her Salva erit anima natura sua per immortalitatem Fourthly if the soule were not in her selfe immortall how should the Heathen Philosophers who knew not God nor the Scriptures dispute so accurately as they do in defence of her incorruptibility But when I say that the soule is immortall by nature my meaning is not that she is the efficient cause of her owne immortality or that she is not mortall and dissoluble by externall power for so God is onely immortall as the Apostle sheweth and as the sixt Tim. 6. Sess. 11. Synod hath defined and some Fathers have proved so that the Angels in this respect
and diastole sec. 59. Paine is not compression but the effect of it All hard things breed not paine nor soft things pleasure The heart is more active then passive because hot Feare sorrow and stupidity how they differ Passion is not the motion of the bloud and spirits but of the sensible appetite Every passion is not motion The division of passions Why birds more musicall then other creatures sec. 60. There are sympathies and antipathies in nature of which we can give no reason which is the punishment of Adams pride sec. 61. Of impressions made in the embryo and of the formative power sec. 62. Substances could not be knowne were it not for qualities No action passion and motion without qualities Alterations from them sec. 63. All bodies are not meerly passive Rare and dense not the primary division of bodies sec. 64. Aristotle not the author of atomes but Democritus sec. 65. The necessity of metaphysicall knowledge Privations and negations conceived as positive entities by Aristotelians how sec. 66. Qualities are not dispositions of parts Beauty is neither composition nor proportion Health is not temper Agility is not proportion nor strength Science is not ordered phantasmes sec. 67. Sir Kenelme modestly reproved for mocking at Aristotelians sec. 68. How and why accidents are in their subjects Accidents are entities Aristotelians vindicated from tautologies Nature aimes at unity why Of similitudes and the ground thereof How man is like to God not God to man sec. 69. The CONTENTS of the second part containing 28. Sections ARistotelians make not heat and cold indivisible qualities Not they but the Masse-Priests turne bodies into spirits sec. 1. Not the nature but the similitude of the thing apprehended is in the man apprehending and therefore the understanding is not the same with the thing understood proved by ten reasons sec. 2. All relations are not notions but reall entities proved by ten reasons sec. 3. Existence is not the property of man but of entity or rather its formality in God onely it is one with essence sec. 4. The soule is more then an active force She sleepeth not in the grave c. sec. 5. Being hath no great affinity with the soule it is neither the end nor the Idea of the soule sec. 6. Things are understood rather by way of similitude then of respect or relation sec. 7. Mans knowledge how finite and infinite God onely absolutely infinite How he is knowne by us here and hereafter How infinity can be knowne sec. 8. Things lose not their being by reason of quantity but by the privation of the forme sec. 9. Mathematicians consider not the natures of things but bare accidents abstracted from sensible matter sec. 10. All life consisteth not in motion Life is not an action but the act How motions come from without how not sec. 11. How the soule is perfect In her no privative but negative imperfections There are accidents in the soule sec. 12. Place is not a body it is neither forme nor matter Whatsoever hath existence hath ubiety even Angels and soules How soules are in their bodies They are not no-where nor are they every-where sec. 13. How time is the measure of motion Time and motion different things When the heavenly motions shall cease there will be time how understood Things below would move though the heavens stood still sec. 14. What things are in time chiefly and primarily How spirits are not in time and how in time Tempus aevum eternitie God onely exempted from time Discrete time sec. 15. The soule is no accident She knoweth not all things There is no exteriour and interiour soule Phantasmes are not bodies All soules have not the same amplitude of knowledge Life is not motion Neither the soule nor the life becomes to be a spirit sec. 16. Both Angels and soules stand in need of externall and internall helps of knowledge Memory remaines in separated soules How the species depend from the phantasie Divers habits left in the soule separated The soules in their understanding differ from the Angels What things they know not God is not understood by species sec. 17. The phantasie worketh not upon the soule but the active intellect upon the passive How the phantasie helps the understanding The phantasie workes in sleep How the soule worketh upon her selfe by meanes of her divers faculties sec. 18. In Angels and departed soules there are actions and perfective passions The want of action argues death rather then life Some actions cease after death not all All actions not corruptive Sir Kenelm contradicts himselfe sec. 19. The soule the subject of memory recordation reminiscence and of oblivion too What habits are left actually and potentially in the soule 'T is a happinesse to be forgetfull of some things sec. 20. Rhetoricall flourishes uselesse and hurtfull in Philosophicall disputes sec. 21. Perfection of knowledge makes not the substance of the soule more perfect The soule ceaseth not to be a soule though shee brings knowledge with her False judgements and erroneous opinions are a part of the punishment of damned soules in hell sec. 22. All effects doe not immediately follow upon the working of the efficient Opus and Operatio The act of entity and of causality are to be distinguished The effect which is the property of the cause followeth immediately God an eternall entity not an eternall cause sec. 23. That the soule is not a materiall but a spirituall substance infused not traduced proved by twenty arguments Of the operations knowledge and liberty of the soule in willing Of her excellency above the senses and corporeall substances this is proved by Scripture In what sense the soule is called corporeall by some Fathers She is no part of the divine essence as some hereticks thought sec. 24. The specificall perfection or excellency of soules is alike in all There may be some difference in accidentall perfections in respect of the organs and phantasie sec. 25. The neerer the Intelligences are to God the more they know The superiour have a greater similitude with God then the inferiour and stand in need of fewer intelligible species All behold Gods essence but not in the same measure Neither is their knowledge equall nor infinitely unequall sec. 26. The soule is not made complete in or by the body but rather incomplete because she is then a part of the whole sec. 27. Nature reason and knowledge are but blind guides to heaven without Christ proved by Scripture and reason What we are by nature How Christ may be called nature reason and knowledge sec. 28. The CONTENTS of the Conclusion containing 17. Sections THe immortality of the soule proved by Scripture sec. 1. The same proved by six reasons grounded on the Scripture sec. 2. That the soule is immortall of her owne nature proved by foure reasons and how this phrase is to be understood sec. 3. The soules immortality proved by thirteen naturall and morall reasons The Gentiles by natures light were not ignorant of this truth
passive intellect to receive the species being purified and cleered from materiality and those accidents which neither conduce to the essence nor to the intellection if there were not an active power altogether impatible immateriall immortall using neither corporeall organs nor being mixed with corporeall senses which we call the active intellect and which irradiats illuminats intelligible things making them actually intelligible which before were potentially only as the light makes these colours actually aspectable which in the dark were invisible Sect. 19. Pag. 432. c. 10. In the state of a soule exempted from the body there is neither action nor passion which being so the soule cannot die for all corruption comes from the action of another thing This is but a weake argument to prove the soules immortality for actions and passions do neither hinder nor further it In departed soules there remaine loco-motive actions for they move from the body to their ubi where they remaine till the resurrection and then they shall move again to their bodies so the actions of understanding and will remaine in them Shall any then conclude that the soules are mortall because they are the subjects of action and of passion but their passion as I said is perfective The same actions are in Angels both in moving and removing Were the Angels that carried Lazarus his soule into Abrahams bosome mortall or that Angell that carried Habakkuk because of this action Are there not also in Angels the actions of intellect and will Nay action and passion do rather prove immortality and the cessation of these corruption For whilst the body is the soules patient it lives but when it ceaseth from suffering and the soule from acting in it and by it followes immediatly its corruption What think you of the first matter which is the first subject of passion and yet it is eternall à parte post And if you take away all action and passion from departed soules you must abridge them of the joyes they have in the fruition of Gods presence and of their duty in praising him so you rob God of his honour and them of their happinesse Againe we have shewed that habits remaine in departed soules but to what end if there be no action for Habitus est propter actionem and indeed actions are more excellent then habits Againe if there be neither action nor passion in the departed soules they are in the state of death rather then life for life consisteth in action though it selfe be no action and the soule is an act therefore cannot be without action but death is a cessation and rest from all action If you had said that some actions cease in the soule after her departure as generation nutrition and such as are the actions of the whole compound you had said somewhat but to exempt her from all action is to make her a dead body not a living soule and though corruption as you say is the effect of action or indeed rather of passion yet it will not follow that all action is the cause of corruption for there are actions of creation generation conservation c. Lastly you contradict your selfe for here you deny actions in separated souls but in the next Chapter cap. 11. p. 439. you say that the body hinders the soules operations and that her actions will be far greater and more efficacious when she shall be free from the burthen of her body To put forgetfulnesse in a pure spirit so palpable an effect Sect. 20. Pag. 433. c. 11. of corporiety and so great a corruption is an unsufferable errour I do not think oblivion to be an effect of corporietie for as the soul is the subject of memory which is one of her faculties of recordation which is the work of the intellect viewing over the species of reminiscence which is a disquisition or unfolding of the same species if they be clouded or confused so likewise is the same soule the subject of oblivion as the same eye is of sight and blindnesse the same aire of light and darknesse there being the same subject of habit and privation Now there are habits in the soule departed as I have said some actually there as the habit of knowledge some potentially as in their roote and originall such are the sensitive habits where the habit is actually there is the privation potentially but where the habit is potentially there the privation is actually as the habits of seeing hearing c. in the separated soule make it cleere And what we have said of the habits we may say of memory which is a power and faculty in the soule by which she retaines the species why then may there not be in her a deletion losse or abolition of such species the memory whereof will make her rather miserable then happy therefore the blessed soules in heaven remember not the vanities nor infirmities of their former life if they did they could not be truly happy and joyfull and so the oblivion of such things is not in them a corruption as you say but a perfection rather Therefore Albertus Magnus before his death prayed that he might obtaine the oblivion of all former vaine knowledge which might hinder his happinesse in the knowledge of Christ. Sect. 21. Your Rhetoricall descriptions which are both uselesse in and destructive of Philosophy make the soule sometimes equall with God sometimes no better then a corruptible body for to a separated soule you give those attributes proper to God as freedome of essence and subsisting in it selfe a comprehension of place and time that is of Pag. 439 440 441. c. 11. all permanent and successive quantity and the concurrence of infinite knowledge to every action of hers So you give to the soule independency ubiquity infinity which three are Gods due If you lay the fault of this upon your Rhetoricall expressions I must answer you that Rhetorick in such a subject may be well spared use your Rhetorick when you will work upon the affections but not when you will informe the understanding for in this regard you do but cloud not cleere the intellect Rhetorick is like fire and water a good servant but a bad master therefore ought not to be used but with great discretion especially in abstruse questions For this cause Logick was invented to curb and restraine the exorbitancy of Rhetorick If you will dispute like a Philosopher you must lay aside Rhetorick and use Philosophicall termes otherwise you 'l do as the fish Sepia to wit you 'l so thicken the waters of your discourse with that liquor that cometh out of your mouth that you will make your selfe invisible and delude the Reader which is the fashion of those who dare not confide in the strength of their arguments whereas naked truth cares not for such dressings nor seeks she after such corners And indeed you are too much in extremes for you do not more extol a separated then you do abase an incorporated
are not immortall but my meaning is that the soule is not a subject capable as bodies are neither hath she in her selfe any passive power or possibility of dissolution 4. The soules immortality is proved by naturall and morall reasons thus 1. If the soule perish it must be either by annihilation or dissolution not by the first naturally for nothing of its owne nature can be annihilated God indeed by his omnipotency may annihilate what he made of nothing but there is no entity of it selfe capable of non-entity nor any action tending to it naturally Neither by the second for nothing is dissolved but what had parts dissolution being nothing else but the solution of one part from another but what is not compounded hath no parts and such is the soule as I have shewed For she is independent as she is a substance from any subject as she is a spirit from any created substance therefore dieth not when the body dieth for neither is she compounded of essentiall parts which we call matter and forme nor of integrall which we call members or limbs And hence it appeares that though the soules of beasts may be free from such compositions yet they are not from dependence on the body of which they came and with which they decay 2. The soule is a quintessence and of a more excellent nature then the foure elements are and therefore as she is not of their nature and substance she cannot be capable of their affections and properties but the maine quality and property of elements is to be the subjects of generation and corruption 3. Such as the operation of a thing is such is the subject whence the operation proceeds for operations are emanations of the substance and flow from thence but the chiefe operation of the soule which is understanding is spirituall therefore the soule cannot be corporeall for if the soul were compounded of the elements these operations of the soule must be in the elements for whatsoever is in the compound was before in its principles these being their acts whose principles they are but understanding and will were never in the elements nor are they capable of such operations and so the soule is immortall as she is incorporeall 4. If the soule may be annihilated naturally then naturally she was produced of nothing but such a production is repugnant to the Peripatetick tenents and so by consequence must such an annihilation be 5. Whatsoever is corruptible is corrupted or destroyed by a contrary agent for without contrariety there can be neither generation nor corruption But in mans soule there are no contrarieties for she can receive contrarieties without contrariety because she receives not contrary formes as they are in their naturall but as they are in their intentionall being Hence it is that the heavens though they be compounded are not corruptible because they are not subject to contrarieties 6. The Gentiles by the glimmering light of Nature knew there were some supreme entities by which the world was guided the wicked punished and the innocent rewarded which the Poet acknowledgeth Si genus humanum mortalia temnitis arma At sperate deos memores fandi atque nefandi But they saw that for the most part wicked men enjoyed most outward happinesse here and good men were most wronged and oppressed therefore they beleeved the soules immortality that wicked men might receive their due punishment and good men their reward or else they must confesse that their gods were unjust And as this reason did strongly move them so it must us also to beleeve the soules immortality for it is a righteous thing with God to render vengeance to the wicked and 1 Thes. 1. to you that are afflicted peace with us saith the Apostle 7. It is an undeniable Maxime that God and Nature made nothing in vaine but if there should be in mans soule such a desire and so earnest an affection to immortality and yet not enjoy it that desire which God hath given to her had been in vaine 8. From what proceeds the horrour of conscience in wicked men their trembling at the report and serious thoughts of future judgement on the other side the unspeakable joyes of good men their cheerefulnesse comforts and alacrity even in their paines and afflictions if they did not beleeve the soules immortality and that after this life all teares should be wiped from their eyes 9. God made man for some end and that was to enjoy eternall beatitude which consisteth in the enjoyment of himselfe but if the soule be mortall man cannot attaine to his end and so God made him to no end 10. In extasies and raptures though the body be without sense and motion and seemes as it were dead yet the soule is not but remaines unperished or unextinguished which doth argue her immortality 11. If the soule were mortall as the body is she would grow aged feeble and would decay as the body doth but we see the quite contrary for then she is most active and vigorous when the body is most weake and decrepit 12. If the soule be corruptible she may be separated from her existence and being now this cannot be done but by the worke of an externall and contrary agent which is more powerfull then the soule but no contrary agent abolisheth one forme but by introducing another nor taketh away one existence but by giving another for no action tends to a negative but to some thing that is positive 13. The Gentiles by the light of nature beleeved the immortality of the soule hence sprung the doctrine of transanimation among the Pythagoreans of the Elysian fields and places of torment among the Poets Hac iter Elysium nobis at laeva malorum Aeneid 6. Exercet poenas ad impia tartara mittit Hence Tully concludes that the ancient Romans beleeved the soules immortality because they were so carefull of their dead bodies and funerall ceremonies Tam religiosa De Amici◠jura majores nostri mortuis non tribuissent si nihil ad eos pertinere arbitrarentur c. So Homer acknowledgeth Iliad 23. the soule of Patroclus to live appearing after his death to Achilles The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him and imago by the Prince of Poets is much used for separated soules as Inhumati venit imago Nota major imago Sub Aeneid 1. 2. 4. terras ibit imago c. The barbarous Indians assent to the soules immortality as Acosta Lerius Martyr and others do witnesse and Aristotle who in some places seemes De Anima l. 1. t. 13. l. 3. t. 5. l. 2. de gen Animal c. 3. to doubt yet in other places plainly asserts this doctrine so universally beleeved that the soules can subsist by themselves because they have distinct affections and operations from the body and the understanding or intellect enters from without into the body it is void of passibility and is some divine thing and that the actions of
to originall fin which notwithstanding is propagated though the soule be pure which is infused by reason of the union betwixt the soule and the bodie for originall sin is in the parent as in the efficient in the seed as in the instrument in the soule as in the subject but in the flesh by way of punishment or rather indeed the whole man is the subject of originall sin which with the soule is convayed from the parent to the childe by and in the seed but onely dispositivè not effectivè by disposing and preparing the embryo to receive the soule and not by way of efficiencie producing the soule and so upon the infusion of a pure soule into the prepared and disposed embryo the whole man is made up who becomes the subject of originall sin by reason of the union of the soule and corrupted flesh and in that hee is the issue of such a parent the branch of such a stocke which hath derived corruption in and by the seed and fitted or disposed the bodie to receive a soule though pure in it selfe yet upon the union impure and corrupted and even in it selfe actually void of originall righteousnesse and inclinable or potentially subject to guilt or sin As a leprous father begets a leprous son which leprosie is not in the seed actually but potentially and dispositivè so the privation of righteousness is in the seed actually but concupiscence or inclination to sin dispositivè Fifthly they tell us that mans soule cannot conceive Sect. 10. Object 5. any thing yea not a spirit but under the notion of a bodie therefore shee is corporeall and consequently mortall Answ. Though shee were corporeall yet is shee not therefore mortall for the Sun Moone and Stars are bodies and yet incorruptible Secondly though the soul being in the bodie understands by the outward senses and phantasie yet the act of understanding is inorganicall and that not onely when she is separated but while shee is in the bodie though then in the bodie she stands in need of the phantasie without the bodie shee shall not need it Thirdly the soule not onely understands bodies under materiall notions but searcheth deeper then any corporeall facultie can do even into the natures formes and abstruse principles of bodies so that here shee understands the quiddities and essences of things which a bodily power cannot doe Sixthly they say that the soule can suffer to wit by Sect. 11. Object 6. griefe paine c. therefore shee is corruptible Answ. As the soule is a spirit so her sufferings are spirituall all suffering supposeth not corruptibilitie except it be caused by the prime elementary qualities of which the soule is not capable Secondly there are some sufferings so far from being destructive that they are rather conservative and perfective such are the motions of the heavens Thirdly the soule suffers not but by her selfe in griefe for by her owne agencie she makes her selfe a patient by her thoughts and knowledge of griefe and sorrowes shee grieves and sorrowes and so becomes a sufferer Seventhly they tell us that immaterialitie is no argument Sect. 12. Object 7. of the soules immortalitie for spirituall graces which are infused into us are immateriall yet corruptible Answ. These graces are accidents we speake of the soule which is a substance Secondly these graces are not corrupted by us physically but metaphorically or morally onely Eighthly the desire of immortalitie say they is the Sect. 13. Object 8. affection of the whole man not of the soule alone and yet man is mortall therefore they will not have us inferre the soules immortalitie from her desire thereof Answ. Though this desire be subjectively in the whole man yet it is originally in the soule Secondly it is a good argument to prove that something is immortall in man though not all because he so earnestly desires immortality Thirdly this desire is in man onely and not in beasts which shewes that he not they hath an immortall soule Fourthly though the beasts strive to preserve their naturall being yet man onely aimes at a supernaturall being as having a more divine knowledge and appetite then other creatures are capable of Fifthly how much man desires immortalitie is plaine by the many pyramides obelisks triumphant arches mausolets brasse and marble statues prodigious palaces bookes and other monuments for which who would care if hee thought his soule should perish with the beasts Ninthly mans understanding perisheth after death Sect. 14. Object 9. therefore the soule cannot be immortall Answ. Though the act of understanding did cease yet the power remaines and consequently the soule the subject of that power for actually wee understand not many things here by reason of some defect in the organs yet the soule ceaseth not therefore to be nor the faculty of understanding to be none Secondly the soule doth actually understand and more excellently being separated then shee did in the bodie because not onely doth shee retaine the species which shee carried out with her but also shee receiveth an addition of new species by divine illumination Thirdly though shee understands now by the phantasie yet hereafter by reason of new illumination shee shall need neither phantasie externall object nor any corporeall organ Fourthly the knowledge which the soule shall have after death shall be naturall to the soule though it proceed from God for he is the author both of naturall and supernaturall light These are the chiefe weapons by which the Soules Sect. 15. Antagonists strive to wound and kill her which are of no more validity to hurt her then that dart which old feeble King Priamus flung at Pyrrhus was able to hurt him telum imbelle sine ictu Conjecit summo quod protinus aere pependit These arguments make a sound but have no strength These Arabian Pigmies will never be able with such engines to overthrow the soules immortalitie which is the strong Fort and Citadell of every good Christian in his afflictions Let there be but way given to this doctrine of the Saducees wee must bid farewell to lawes and civility nay to Religion and Christianity We must bid adieu to vertuous actions and to all spirituall comforts Christ died the Apostles laboured the Martyrs suffered but all in vaine if the soule be mortall Our faith our hope our preaching and reading our restraint from pleasures our sorrowing for sins our taking up of our crosse and following of Christ is all in vaine if the soule be mortall And in a word wee Christians are of all men the most miserable if the soule be mortall Why did Abel offer sacrifice Abraham forsake his countrie Ioseph forbeare his mistresse Moses refuse the pleasures of Pharaoh's Court And why have so many thousands endured mockings scourgings bonds prisonment stoning hewing asunder murthering by the sword Why would they wander up and downe in sheeps skins and in goats skins being destitute afflicted tormented if the soule be mortall What needs Cain feare to kill
no other home to rest in but a cold and stinking grave and no other companions but wormes better is the condition of beasts then of Christians Surely the place of our future rest should not be called the Land of the living if our soules there must die And why should the Angels be so carefull of us here if they must be debarred of our company hereafter In vaine are our soules fed here with the Bread that came downe from Heaven if they must not enjoy that same bread againe in heaven Our condition will be far worse then that of the Prodigals if we shall be fed with husks here and not have accesse when we returne by death to eat bread in our Fathers house where is such exuberant plenty Can Christ the Bridegroome of our soules suffer himselfe to be perpetually separated from his Bride whom he hath bought with so high a price as his owne blood Our life is a warfare what encouragement have we to fight the good fight if we enjoy not the Crowne of righteousnesse Hath Christ no other reward for his souldiers but a crowne of thornes then indeed we fight as one that beateth the aire and we were better with Caligula's souldiers spend our time in gathering of shels and pebble-stones then fight under the standard of such a Generall But indeed we need not feare for he that permitted the soule of the penitent thiefe into Paradise and by the ministery of his Angels conveyed the soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome and when himselfe gave up the Ghost recommended his soule into the hands of his Father will not leave our soules in hell nor will he suffer his holy ones to see corruption Though the shell of our bodies be broken the precious kernell of our soules shall not be lost these earthen pots may crack but the jewels in them shall be preserved There lieth a hid Mannah within not our golden but our earthen pots which is not capable of wormes and corruption Let that proud insulting Conquerour who rides upon the pale horse bruise the satchels of our bodies as the Tyrant did that of Anacharsis unto dust yet over our soules which are our selves he hath no power Be not dismaid though our mistresse Nature strip us of the garment of our body as Potiphars wife did Ioseph yet of our soules she cannot rob us she gave us the garment it is her owne she may challenge it but the soule was no gift of hers she hath no title to it she cannot claime it Diseases infirmities and injuries like so many Sodomites may beset these houses of our bodies but they cannot injure our soules which are the Angels lodged within us The celestiall fire of our soules shall never be extinguished though the temples of our bodies in which they burne shall be destroyed That fire which consumed the Temple of Peace at Rome did no hurt to the Palladium that was in it neither shall the conflagration of our bodies in a Calenture or Burning-feaver prejudice or hurt our soules The Vestall Virgins were not more carefull to rescue the Palladium from the flame then the good Angels our ministring spirits shall be to convey our soules out of these flames unto a place of refreshing Therefore my soule shall not be dismaid though she be carried in this weake and leaking ship of an infirme body on the waves of the Red sea of persecution for even from hence she smels by faith the sweet odours of her heavenly Arabia though as yet with her bodily eyes she cannot see it The hot firy furnace of affliction shall no more consume and annoy her then the flame did consume the firie bush or the firie furnace of Babylon did the three Children The Presteres live in the fire and are not burned fresh waters spring out of the salt Sea and yet are not thereby infected nor are the fishes salt which live in salt water neither shall our Soule either suffer by sicknesse in the body or die with the body but after she hath fought the good fight like a Conquerour or Emperour she shall be carried out of this campus Martius upon the shoulders not of Senators but of Angels And as an Eagle flew out of the funerall pile when it was set on fire leaving the body of the Emperour to be consumed so shall our soules flye up unto their Maker leaving their bodies to be wasted by time and corruption For as it is impossible for the body to die till the soule forsake it which is the life of it so much more impossible is it for the soule to die untill God who is her life forsake her and that will never be till God himselfe cease to be for he hath promised never to forsake us his love like himselfe is unchangeable A mother may forget the fruit of her wombe fathers and mothers may and will forsake us but the Lord will never forget or forsake us but when friends and all leave us he will then receive us therefore let our soules magnifie the LORD and let our spirits rejoyce in God our SAVIOUR FINIS