that human Arts have so far prevailed as to communicate to dead and hard Matter a fixed and regular Motion Witness Architas his Dove and Regiomontanus his Eagle both made of Wood and a Fly of Iron made by the last who all flew at their full liberty in the Air to a certain and considerable distance and returned in a regular manner to the places from whence they first set out and this Men would not then believe could be done without an Immaterial Spirit that these Engines therefore were moved by Daemons and the Artists were Conjurers was a common opinion of those times and hitherto Artists are with Difficulty defended from such Imputations Dr. Willis in his Anima Brutorum p. 40. De illis redarguendis solicitus non sum qui viventium sensus facultates quascunque perceptivas non nisi à substantia immateriali immortalique obire posse contendunt he says He did not think such Thinkers worthy of any answer and this perhaps might be his reason for it he knew that our Preacher's Affertion was maintained by several learned Men but after a different mode of Argumentation for when they were press'd by the Argument taken from the Actions and Faculties of the Brutes viz. that they have and act as many Senses as Men have and use them as perfectly that they have as strong and active Affections Passions Appetites and local Motions as Men have that they have Phansie Memory and Perceivance like those of Men tho in far lower degrees than those of Men are Upon averment that all these Faculties in the Brutes were acted by a material Spirit and a demand why the same might not be effected amongst Men the Maintainers of Immateriality seem much put to it for an answer to this Objection and they are divided upon it some of them say that Brutes have neither Senses nor Affections nor Appetites nor any sort of Perceivances at all and that they know no more of what they do than the Organ-pipes know when they make Musick or a pair of Bellows that they blow the Fire whence they would infer that they have not and need not any sort of Soul for that they neither use nor have any sensible Faculty at all But this Argument appears to me as I suppose it did to Dr. Willis argumentum ducens ad absurdum and therefore but a Fallacy For what can lightly appear more absurd to the common sense of Mankind than boldly and seriously to affirm that a Dog or a Horse doth neither hear see smell taste nor even feel when they are whipt spurr'd or beaten and that Beasts have neither Love Wrath Fear Expectation or Desire these Assertions appear so contrary to Mens daily experience and therefore so absurd as to make Dr. Willis think such Arguers deserve no answer and yet Des Cartes and Sir K. Digby profess to argue on that side and thereby to support the necessary Immateriality of a human Soul Others there are who to support the necessity of such an Immateriality take a quite different and even a contrary course for observing the infirmity and absurdity of the forecited Argument they agree and acknowledge that Brutes have and use all their Senses Affections Passions Appetites and local Motions as Men use them and that they have and use Phanfie Memory Perceivance and Choice like but in a much lower degree than those of Men but say they the Brutes cannot thus act without the assistance and guidance of Spirits or Souls nay and that it is not a Material Soul which can serve for such purposes but that Brutes must of necessity be reputed to have Immaterial Souls praeexistent before they came into their brutal Bodies and that shall subsist in a state of Separation after the death of such brutal Bodies And this they say and affirm with design to persuade that there is an absolute necessity for Men to have Immaterial Souls because say they the very Brutes cannot act their Senses and Faculties without such Souls And these were such Arguers as Dr Willis thought not to deserve his Answer and yet Dr. More asserts this opinion in terminis and Baxter follows the same very near altho not altogether so fully But they are all eagerly bent to establish the Immateriality and Immortality of Human Souls for fear that otherwise there would not be a sufficient ground or foundation for the expectation of Rewards and Punishments future to this Life not enough remembring or considering the Article of the Resurrection and the last Judgment appointed by God for that very purpose of distributing Recompences according to the behaviour which Men have used in passing through the Trials and Temptations of this World Our Preacher insists That if Sensation were inherent in Matter Stocks and Stones would be Percipient and Rational Creatures To this I say that may be competent to and inherent in one sort of Matter which is very incompetent to and incoherent with another sort of Matter But he seems to intend a confounding all sorts of Matter together as if Logs Metals and Stones were of the same nature with Flesh Blood and Brain or those of Water Air and Fire amongst all which sorts of Matter I say there are very great Differences and some of these sorts of Matter are capable of such Effects and Operations as others of them are not P. 15. Aimed only against Atheists and such as deny there are any Spiritual Substunces I say thereunto I am not of that Belief or Opinion P. 17. He says Matter cannot acquire Motion of it self This I deny For I say that Wind and Fire are Matter and yet Self-movers nor do they or can they ever lose their Motion or cease moving so long as they continue to be Wind or Fire And if we shall consider the Dust of which Adam was made we may find that it may be so comminuted and refined as when pounced through a fine Searce the smallest part of it will rise up again like a thin cloud ascending upwards of itself and apt to be moved with every little Breath resembling and fine as those Atoms which we call Motes in the Sun and which of their own nature maintain a perpetual Motion It seems a Compositum of such active Particles impregnated with rorid Steams and Juices apt to ascend by adhering to any solid Body are not apt alone for Motion but that by the hand and skill of a Divine Artist there may be made of such like Ingredients a Cogitative Matter For an instance of which we may propound the Insects who have nothing but mere earth and dust impregnated for their Originals and yet act regularly and according to the Rules and Directions of Art and Science witness the Bees the Ants and the admirable Textures of the Spiders God thereby revealing to us that he can out of mere Matter produce Arts and Sciences and especially for the preservation and benefit of his Creatures but far beyond the Practise or Knowledge of Men to perform and
opinion seems to be a very clear mistake For every days Experience shews that Corn ground and made into Bread is one of the strongest supports of Life both for Man and Beast that concocted in the Stomach is converted into Blood in the Liver purified in the Heart sent thence by the Arteries into the Head and Brain where becoming a Spirit inflam'd and lucid it acts in all the Organs the Powers of Life Motion Senses and Understanding And if such Corn be Brewed into Drink we know it may be made so spirited as a little of it will very much revive quicken and cherish the Natural Faculties of Man and Beast and particulary the discerning and rational Powers of Mankind in increasing activity and mettle both in Body and Soul We say of Wine Moderate sumptum acuit ingenium 1 Esdras 3. Wine makes the mind of a Beggar equal to that of a King and turns every thought into jollity This grows from the subtilty and activity of that Liquor and the many and strong Spirits which are in it apt to take fire and be inflamed and to burn till the whole Spirit of it be consumed And the Soul Material is not only refresh'd and strengthened by Corn and Wine as well as the Body but the Soul generally of any sort material or immaterial cannot live or continue in the Body without Breath Blood and daily or sufficient Nourishment For the Blood Moses calls it the life of the creature and says the life is in the blood and as the life it makes atonement upon the Altar As to the Breath all Men know that if it be stopt but for a few moments the Soul if Material will be extinguished and if Immaterial will be dislodged and driven away from its Body not able to subsist there even for a short time without breath which how it should be so very needful for an Immaterial Soul I cannot conceive Well but farther the Man must have daily or sufficient Nourishment or else the Soul as well as the Body will find want of it and the Man will decay by degrees till for want of a supply death and dissolution must follow if a supply be not had in time competent We read 1 Sam. 30. that David at Ziklag found an Egyptian in the field famished for he had neither eaten nor drunk in three days and three nights but they gave him Fruit and Water upon which the Man's Spirit came again to him so Judg. 15. Sampson ready to die for thirst pray'd and God clave a hollow place in the Jaw-bone and there came water thereout and when Sampson had drunk his Spirit came again and he revived In both these cases if necessary Nourishment had not come in due time the Persons had died for upon nourishment they revived and Sampson's Spirit came again to him and he revived I demand what sort of Spirit was this which came again and revived Sampson it seems not one that was Immaterial because that needs not nor is capable of nourishment and therefore I conclude it was a Material Spirit which needed Nourishment and was capable of being refreshed and revived by it as adding new Fuel for supporting the flame of Life almost extinguished for want of needful Nourishment And yet upon this revival we find the Egyptians Understanding Memory and Senses were presently recovered of which before his eating he had little or no use at all Whence it appears that rational Powers are acted by this Spirit which depends upon Nourishment as failing and reviving with it And from all this it seems one may venture to conclude that Corn may be converted into a living and rational Activity as being a proper Nourishment for Man and Beast and for their Bodies and Souls one as well as the other as being so for the Man who is a Contexture of both His six next Pages viz. from 22 to 28 are intended to confute those who affirm that the great or little Worlds were not created by God but that they derive themselves from an accidental Concourse and Cohesion of Atoms That all were the Works of God I am ready to grant and to maintain as well as he but in his design to prove God's Providence and Creation by the Immateriality of human Souls I judge he hath taken a wrong Sow by the ear The Creation of the World by God I grant to be true that the human Soul is Immaterial I hold not to be true and I can but be sorry to find our Preacher fallen into the Inconvenience of endeavouring to prove that which is true by that which perhaps is not true P. 28. He says Men will object the Powers and Actions of some Brutes nearly approaching to human Reason and with some visible Glimpses of Understanding and say they if these things can be performed by the pure Mechanism of their Bodies then it is but raising our Conceptions and supposing Men to be Engines of a finer make and contexture and the business is done for then the Objectors will say there needs no Immaterial Soul nor any Soul at all for the acting of human Faculties but the Mechanism of human Bodies should be enough to act their Faculties and perform all that by Men is usually and naturally performed P. 29. He quotes the other Opinion viz. That Brutes have degrees of Reason and their full Senses and Affections and Motions and therefore have Souls and those Immaterial Our Preacher passes over both these Opinions as very indifferent things to him which of them be true or whether either or neither of them be so I have shewn before that both these Opinions are erroneous which he thought not fit to assert here where it seems he properly ought to have done it altho I doubt not but that he believes them to be so He says We need not be concerned about the Truth in this point viz. whether the Brutes are Machines or have Immortal Souls but I say if either of these Opinions be true the whole Fabrick of Nature and Science would thereby be drawn into very great Differences and Alterations and the point is not indifferent to others whatsoever it be to him Well but says he if Men be Machines they can have neither Reason nor Sense He should have gone on and said but we know that Men have Sense and Reason and therefore they are not bare Machines as some pretend to make men believe but instead of that fairer and truer Inference it pleases him to deliver a Paradoxical and fallacious Axiom of his own uncoherently enough introduced viz. Omnipotency it self cannot create cogitative Body because of an Incapacity in the Subject I have before spoken concerning Earth pulverized and rarified into the tenuity of a Cloud impregnated with steams and juices no less but more fine and active than the Vegetable Souls or Spirits of Plants mixed and irrigated and as it were steep'd and soak'd by and with innumerable Rivages and Sources proceeding from Fountains and Cisterns with which the outward
World daily communicates for supplying the daily Decays of them I conceive Matter thus constituted impregnated irrigated and enlivened may by Divine Power be made cogitative That the Insects work according to Rules of Art and Science I know none who can observe them and deny it that Brutes have their Senses Affections Passions Appetites and Motions all Men do grant but the most blind and wilful among the Cartesians also that they have Phansie Memory and Perceivances acted in and by their Brains and Dr. Willis dict lib. p. 59. says in Hominibus Brutis eadem prorsus est conformatio organorum animalium And the Evidences that Cogitation and all other rational Acts in Men depend upon the Brain and are performed in it and by it seem to me so clear and undeniable as that joined to the rest it may pass for a strong Proof that the Brain of Man is cogitative Matter or very like it And as to his phrasing it that Omnipotence it self cannot make cogitative Body there may be applied a Saying of Dr. Willis p. 5. such Men it seems do think quod Deus nihil amplius fabricare valeat quam quod homo possit concipere aut effingere Well but our Preacher says this cannot be done because of the Incapacity of the Subject to this I answer that Aaron's Rod laid upon the Tabernacle was dry Wood and seemed to be under an incapacity of bearing Fruit and yet in the morning by Divine Power it had budded and brought forth Blossoms and yielded Almonds the Red Sea stood like Walls and Jordan staid its Waters from running downwards the Chaldean Fire forbore to burn God's Servants or so much as to singe their Cloths all which are Acts beyond the natural Capacities of the Agents of them and so was the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes under the Gospel and what will our Preacher say to Matth. 19.24 Hath a Camel the Capacity of going through the Eye of a needle Christ says with Men this is impossible but not with God for with him all things are possible whence it seems possible with him to make cogitative Body notwithstanding our Preachers assurance to the contrary That the cogitative Power very much depends upon the good Disposition Soundness and Temperament of the Brain is a thing so well known as it seems to need very little confirmation David Psal 146.3 says When the breath of man goeth forth he shall turn again to his earth and then all his thoughts perish the new Translation reads Mans breath goeth forth he returns to his earth and that very day his thoughts perish The perishing of his Thoughts may be expounded his Intentions or Designs but more literally and fully it seems to intend the Man's power and faculty of Thinking for the Man dead can think no more But what is it that dies our Preacher will deny that his Soul dies and yet by Death the Man's Faculty of Thinking is certainly destroyed viz. by Death of the Body and the Parts and Organs of it ergo the Body or some Organs of it are materia cogitativa And the same may be further proved ex principiis for during Childhood and whilst the cogitative Parts and Organs are immature we think like Children but grown to maturity we put away childish Thoughts or modes of Thinking and yet then if the Brain happen to be clouded with Fumes from the Spleen or other Distempers or even by those from Wine or Strong-drink the Man cannot think orderly or rationally and in phrenetick Distempers Mens Thoughts rave and rove without Order or any Coherence or Connexion at all in Diseases where the Head is stupified as Apoplexies the Man becomes temporally incapable of any Thoughts at all From all which I collect that the Particles of Blood inflamed ascending from the Heart unto the Head are there further rarified and made lucid irradiating the Brain and the Ventricles thereof and that to these Spirits and Organs God hath imparted a discerning Faculty or Power and that when these Organs are sound and perfect and the flaming Particles clear bright and lucid they work to a perfection of degrees in the Minds Reason and Thoughts of Men unto which God adds when he pleases afflatum divini numinis and that accumulates an excellency of Perfection to Man and in him of thinking inventing and discerning P. 31. Our Preacher says he hath sufficiently shewn that Sense and Perception can never be the product of any kind of Matter or Motion And if this be true let our Readers make themselves the Judges Well but says he if this cannot be corporeal it must come from an incorporeal Substance within us If he will take a material Spirit for an incorporeal Substance we are agreed but if he will have this incorporeal Substance to be an immaterial intelligent angelical Spirit I answer he hath not proved the necessity of its being so nor that the thing is so nay here he confesses we cannot conceive the manner of our Souls Action and Passion nor what hold it can lay on the Body when it voluntarily moves it this is what we cannot conceive of such a Soul But I desire him to tell us what he doth conceive or know concerning such a Soul that he will evince to Reason quod sit quid sit unde oritur quando ingreditur ubi residet quomodo operatur an separatim subsistit quo avolat deficiente corpore If he can teach scientifically concerning these Points his word will be better taken in many other things and yet even then I could hardly credit his next Assertion viz. tho we cannot conceive the Soul nor its Actings yet we are as certain of them as of any Mathematical Truth whatsoever which I both can conceive and may be easily demonstrated to me The Truth and Reasonableness of this Assertion shall be left to those who are at leisure to consider of them P. 32. He confesses his Ignorance in causes of Mens Pleasure Pain Sleep Activity he says this Knowledge exceeds Man's narrow Faculties and is out of the reach of our Discovery he discerns excellent Final Causes of the vital Conjunction of Body and Soul but the Instrumental he knows not nor how they are united or tied together he resolves all into God's good Pleasure but he shews us no Evidence that it is or ever was his Pleasure to inform Mankind by an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit which is capable of living in a State of Separation from the Body And if Corporeal Powers be confessedly too hard for him it may seem strange he should attempt upon the Disquisition concerning the Being and Operations of an Immaterial Soul in Man without so much as offering to make any positive proof of the Thing from the Grounds either of Reason or Scripture I am not able to credit his bare Word for it nor his negative proof that it must be so because he thinks it cannot be otherwise These persuasions seem of small force with those who think the