Christian Churches continued throughout the World and therefore Men must have very strong Arguments if they hope to prevail in rejecting this Opinion I answer and grant that this Argument is good and strong for the proving of his Opinion and seems to be of more Power and Strength than all that he hath said before for the maintaining of it but yet I do not perceive that Strength in it which may be able to support his Tenet against those Reasons and those Scriptures which may be brought against the Rationality and Truth of it and of which I intend to make a short detail when I come to his following Head where he makes and delivers Objections against his own Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. begins to relate certain Sayings or Speeches of Reformed Martyrs who it seems died in the Opinion of the Souls Seperate Subsistence which may be admitted to add some small Strength to his former Arguments drawn from the Opinion of the more Ancient Fathers I do not find it strange that Men should retain to the end of their Days divers Opinions which they had before imbibed in their Youth and by their Education hath been radicated in them especially such as do not appear to have an evil effect upon their Practices And I think that divers Learned Men of most high Esteem even in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches have delivered some Doctrines to their Disciples which upon strict examination may be found inconsonant to the stream or current of Scripture and the natural reason of Mankind which Doctrines I conceive the Writers of them did believe to be true upon the ground of such Tradition as they had received and which by Education and Custom had obtain'd an absolute assent of their Minds in such Cases And tho' I shall here name only the Millenary Opinion yet if I thought fit here to digress to that purpose I could add divers other particulars thereunto P. 153. Mr. W. proceeds to make farther Proof of his Opinion by some Representations in Dreams and others in Shades or Shadows of Persons departed unto which I have in a former Treatise made Answer that I do not deny there may be verity in divers of those Relations and yet I do not conceive any thing of that kind hath ever been performed by departed Souls thinking it probable that there are no such Beings in the World but I am willing to ascribe such Actions to the Powers and Performances of inferiour Spirits without pretending to determine whether good or bad and that they jussu aut permissu superiorum do represent and act according as the occasions wherein they are imploy'd may require P. 158. Mr. W. produces divers Objections which he says are made against the Souls Seperate Subsistence amounting to the Number of Fourteen divers of which I a gree not to be very material and tho' I intend to mention each of them that I may not seem to disregard any thing that he hath Written yet very little shall be said concerning them my Design being only to insist upon those which I think material and to add unto them such other Objections as Mr. W. in his Catalogue hath omitted P. 158. Mr W's first Objection says That what of the first Adam it was that sinned that of Adam died but both the Soul and Body died therefore c. To this he Answers That he must not take Life and Death here in their proper Sense but that the word Death here only intends a miserable Life which however he doth not deny to be Life and I do not conceive how Death and Life can stand together in the same subject and therefore I think his Description of Death by a miserable Life is not reasonable nor allowable in this Case conceiving it agreeable to Reason that the Curse pronounced against Sin should extend to the Person that sinned and accordingly the Persons which sinned did both die for it or after it without any appearance of leaving Souls to survive after the Death of their Persons P. 159. Mr. W. will not agree that their Souls did die as well as their Bodies because God says That Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Then he assumes the Soul was not made of Dust which is a thing before disputed between us I pretending there was no such Soul made as he says there was I say my sort of Soul is material and may return to the Dust and Air as it was which he will deny and thereupon we must examine all that has been spoken which neither of us can design to do in this place but leave this Objection to be farther discussed Mr. W's second Objection from Eccles 3. where Solomon compares Men with Beasts P. 161. He pretends that Text says The Spirit of Man goes upward and the Spirit of a Beast downward which I think it doth not say but makes a doubt whether the truth of the thing be so or no it seems Solomon speaks more deliberately concerning Mens Souls in this Text than he does in his Twelfth Chapter and yet I pass this Objection lightly over without laying any great weight upon it P. 162. Mr. W. raises a third Objection from Matth. 26.38 where our Lord says My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death from whence some Men may pretend to inferr that his Soul might die I profess to be none of those who make this Objection for I conceive that Christ by the word Soul intended his Person or himself in the same Sense as if he had said I am sorrowful unto Death and therefore I pass this over as a weak Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 164. Mr. W. raises a fourth Objection against himself from Acts 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy one to see Corruption Here he says some will have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be meant and by Hell or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grave to be meant I profess to be none of those some who would have Christ's Intellectual Soul to be here meant but I do rather conceive that by my Soul in this place is intended my Person or my Self and as if he had said thou wilt not leave me in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Grave without intention to speak of an Intellectual Soul or any other Soul at all and therefore I pass this over as a very light Objection against Mr. W's Opinion P. 169. The fifth Objection which Mr. W. brings against his own Opinion is raised from 2 Cor. 5. Where Paul speaks of being cloathed upon with his House from Heaven I have said before that this Expression respects that Translation of their Bodies which the Saints who are alive upon Earth at Christ's coming shall receive when they shall be disrobed of their Earthly Bodies and have them chang'd into Heavenly or Spiritual Bodies and yet I do not find any great Strength in this Objection against Mr. W's Opinion but pass it away as a very weak one without
Go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee St. Luke relates it thus This Centurions servant was ready to die and when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the Elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant And they came to Jesus desiring him to do this Kindness for the Captain because he was a worthy Person and a Lover of the Jews and Jesus went with them towards the Captain's House and when he was not far from thence the Centurion sent Friends to him saying unto him Lord trouble not thy self for I am not worthy that thou should'st enter under my Roof wherefore neither thought I my self worthy to come unto thee but say in a word and my Servant shall be healed And Jesus thereupon turn'd him about and discours'd with those that followed him and they that were sent returning to the House found the Servant whole that had been sick Upon reading these two Relations I think it plainly appears That either this Centurion came Personally to our Lord to request his Servant's Cure or he did not come Personally to Christ for that purpose but sent the Elders of the Jews to request that favour upon his behalf Without that himself came either to Sight or Speech of our Lord upon that occasion I find no ground or reasonable guess which of our Texts deliver the absolute Truth in this Circumstance of the Fact which they relate but from this Variance and the other Instances before recounted I think it may reasonably be collected That Men are not bound to take and perhaps ought not to take every Saying or Sentence which they find written in the Scriptures to be an irrefragable Truth and the very Word of God And I am ready to apply this Tenet to the Sayings now in dispute with Mr. W. viz. Are not able to kill the Soul and have no more that they can do We find an apparent Variance between these Two Sayings and that the Words of St. Luke are adaequate and answerable to the Intent of our Lord's Doctrine in this place whereas those of St. Matthew have a double Aspect and look as it were two ways For one way it insinuates that Persecutors can do no more harm after they have killed Another way it seems next to an Assertion that Mens Souls live and subsist in a state of Seperation from their Bodies I do not by the Context or any other ways conceive that our Lord did speak or had any Intent to speak of the state of Men after Death in this Doctrine whence the Words Are not able to kill the Soul in that Prospect of intending to teach the state of Men after Death seems quite besides our Lord's Meaning in this Doctrine and if not quite out of it yet very plainly collateral to it And yet from this side-wind the Maintainers of Seperate Subsistence draw the strongest Proof which they can find for maintaining their Opinion of the Seperate Subsistence I think that upon perusal of this Argument it will appear the strength of this Proof is much weaken'd and abated and will be found to be of much less force than it seems to have at the first reading or hearing thereof and in this state of debilitation I leave it to prosecute my Observations upon Mr. W's Pages as I did before P. 64 Mr. W. pretends to take the disputed Words as Comments one upon another and says that by Construction they may be made to intend one thing And I am ready to grant that by Construction they may both of them be made to serve the Meaning of our Lord in this Doctrine but then in our Collateral Point which St. Luke doth not meddle with there is a very great Variance between these two Expressions for that the one proves strongly the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence and the other proves it not nor meddles with it at all Which proves that our Lord's Doctrine did not intend to speak of that Point in this place And therefore our Question thereupon is In what Words our Lord delivered this Doctrine And the Conclusion is That if he delivered this Doctrine in the Words of St. Matthew then they are a strong Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence but if his Doctrine were delivered in the Words of St. Luke then there is no Proof at all in it of the Souls Seperate Subsistence And I have before enough Argued on the side of St. Luke and for the Probability that his Text sets forth to us the very Words wherein our Lord delivered this Doctrine Mr. W. confesses That Luke expresseth less than Matthew but says He never meant less Which I think intends that the Meaning of Luke in his Text was That those who kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul Which Meaning doth not at all appear in the Words of Luke's Text which do not say so And how then Mr. W. should come to know that he meant so I do not understand and therefore I reject this Gloss upon that Text as Mr. W's own Invention or Fiction The Fifth Argument PAg. 65. Mr. W. raises an Argument for the Soul 's Seperate Subsistence from the Appearing of Moses and Elias and discoursing with our Lord upon Mount Tabor and says That Moses could not appear there in his Person Soul and Body because Deut. 34.6 says Moses died in the Land of Moab and He the Lord buried him in a Valley there over-against Beth-Peor but no man knoweth of his Sepulchre unto this day P 66. Mr. W. discoursing upon this Text says That Moses appearing at Mount Tabor must be either alive in Spirit only or else his Body was raised Adding I know that some conjecture that his Body was rais'd but they cannot prove that Conjecture from Texts of Scripture And therefore he thinks it more likely that Moses appeared in Spirit only intending I suppose in his Soul subsisting in a state of Seperation after Death Which I think to be no more than a Conjecture which he is not able to prove by Texts of Scripture any more than the former Conjecture can be so Proved And to these Two Conjectures I pretend to add a Third viz. That Moses may not have died in the Mount but might be translated or transported to Heaven in Person as Enoch and Elias had before been Which I offer to Prove by his Appearing with Elias at Mount Taber It seems they appeared both after a like manner and the one as much in Person as the other Mr. W. grants that Elias did appear in Person and Arguendo a simili it appears most likely that Moses did so too As to the Text which says Moses died and was buried I think fit to consider by whom this Book of Deuteronomy might be written and if the Promises thereof might be written by Moses or his Direction yet this closing Passage of it about his own Death and Burial it seems could not be so It appears not from whence the Opinion
other Man may possibly say Having now confounded and implicated the Meaning of this Text by my Exposition I am enough by that means enabled to prove thereby the Souls Seperate Subsistence which from the Text it self without such handling of it I should not be able to have done P. 88. He pretends to prove The Soul not subject to Death because nothing is so that is not subject to the Power of Death and the Soul of the Believer is not so I look upon this as a vain sort of Argument and begging of the Question increasing the Bulk of his Treatise but adding no strength to his Proof Here again he speaks of the Soul by the Term of Her and She as if he had prov'd her a Seperately distinct thing from the Man or Person a thing neither granted to him nor proved by him P. 89. He says again The Spirit of a Believer is not subject to the Law of Death Which is the very Point in Question and denied by his Opposers P. 90. He pretends That by what he hath said it appears that the Law of Death is executed only on the Body of a Believer I Answer that to me appers no such thing but that the Law of Death is executed upon the Persons both of Believers and Unbelievers and that Death pass'd upon all for that all have sinned and do Agree with him that not only the Body shall be rais'd at the Last Day but that the whole Person shall be so rais'd to appear in Judgment before the Tribunal of Christ And withal I conceive that our Author goes far for Arguments to prove his Tenet when he catches at and seems to rely upon such precarious Constructions as he hath offered in this Argument The Tenth Argument PAge 90 Mr. W. quotes in proof of his Opinion 2 Cor. 5 6 Therefore we are always confident knowing that whil'st we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are consident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord P. 91. Hereupon Mr. W. with good reason places the difficulty in the meaning of St. Pauls doubled Expression of being in the body and absent from Christ and being out of the body and present with Christ and then saith That when Paul says We are confident that here by the We that are always confident he intends the Soul or Spirit of himself and the Soul and Spirit of the rest of the Believing Church And if this be the true meaning of our Apostle in this Case viz. That here is intended the Souls of him and his brethren which at death will be absent from their bodies and be present with the Lord Then says he it proves the Souls of Men Seperate and are Immortal but the former says he is true therefore the later Then he offers to prove that by the We who would be absent from the body the Apostle intends the Souls only of himself and other Believers for what else is that of the Saints that is absent from the body and present with the Lord Name the thing if you can for says he it cannot mean the body nor the whole person not the whole person for that the whole man cannot be said to be at home in one part of the man viz. his body or absent from it for the whole of anything cannot be contained in a part of it P. 93. Then Mr. W puts a weak Objection against himself and answers it Upon this Argument I Agree with him that the Difficulty lies in finding out what St. Paul intends by the We that would be absent from the Body and present with the Lord Whether it intends the Souls only of the Faithful or their whole Persons He says It can only intend Mens Souls But I conceive that it intends their Persons And first I Argue from the Apostles Terms of Expression and do think that if by the Term We he only intended Mens Souls he hath very improperly express'd such a Meaning for that if there be many Persons in an Assembly or Company and one of them speaking for the rest says We decree or expect or desire such a thing how can it possibly be imagined that the Speaker intends only the Souls of those Persons do expect or desire And therefore if our Apostle by his Term We did intend only the Souls of Believers I conceive it would have been hard for Men to have found out that Meaning without such an Assistance and Direction as Mr. W. here offers them I think the proper Signification of the Word We in such Cases is to denote the Men or the Persons who are said to do any thing and not any one Part or Parcel of such Persons as it must do in this place if it intended only the Souls of Believers I take it for an old and good Rule amongst Expositors that they should cast their Eyes upon the Contexts of those Places which they mean to Expound that thereby they may discover the whole Scheme or Plat-form of the Writer's Intention and then to employ their Talent in drawing all that the Writer says to prove his Meaning or fortifie his Assertion And therefore I proceed to search what our Apostle says in his next fore-going Chapter concerning this Matter Chap. 4.10 We are cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the Body the dying of our Lord Jesus By Body I think the whole Person is here intended The Text adds That the Life of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body or Person Ver. 14. We know that he which raised up the Lord JESVS shall raise up us also by JESVS and shall present us with you Ver. 16. Though our outward Man perish yet the inward Man is renewed Day by Day Intending the whole Man degenerated or regenerated Chap. 5.1 We know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthen'd not for that we would be uncloath'd but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord And we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad These Quotations have been transcribed for making it appear that the Intent of our Apostle in these Texts was to discover to his Readers Matters concerning the Resurrection and the Last judgment In the beginning of his Discourse he professes to
Come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter and immediately he was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven And from thence he prosecutes his Revelation of things afterwards to be performed Our Apostle doth not say here That his Spirit was transported into Heaven or that he was there in his Soul only but says Immediately I was in the Spirit I my self was there my Person was there in the Spirit So that all which was there revealed was so revealed to himself or Person without Mention of any Seperation of his Soul from his Body any more than St. Paul hath mentioned it in his proving Text. Whence I conceive that during the space of this Revelation St. John was in a Rapture or Transport of his Mind as other Prophets had been before him and yet he had so perfect a Perception of the things revealed and was so well assured of the Truth of them and remembered them so well as if he had perceived and known them with his Bodily Senses of Seeing and Hearing and remembered them as well and he might possibly be as uncertain as St. Paul was whether this was a Rapture of his Person into Heaven or that it was only a Rapture of his Mind wherein this Revelation was made to him I have quoted these Four Parallel Texts of Scripture to evince or perswade that St. Paul in our Proving Text did not doubt whether his Soul was actually seperated from his Body but whether his Rapture into the Third Heaven was a Transport of his Person thither or whether this Transport was only a Rapture of his Mind I am by what hath been said satisfied in my own Understanding that St. Paul did not intend in this Text to teach concerning the Seperation of the Soul from the Body or that the Soul could subsist in such a State of Seperation and therefore I think that the Argument which Mr. W. draws from this Text for Proof the Souls Seperate Subsistence is unsound and fallacious and is by no means a good Proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence The Twelfth Argument PAge 97. Phil. 1.21 23. To me to die is gain for I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Hereupon Mr. W. argues That if St. Paul's Soul was Immortal then are all Mens Souls Immortal But Paul's Soul he says was Immortal Ergo He proves Paul's Soul to be Immortal by saying If Paul's Soul was in a better Condition at the Death of his Body than when it lived therein then was his Soul Immortal But he says Paul's Soul was in a better Condition after his Death than when alive which he proves by â—aying That which gained by the Death of the Body was much better out of the Body than in the Body But Paul's Soul gained by the Death of his Body and therefore was in a much better Condition out of it than before This he proves by Paul's saying To die was gain Secondly because the Soul at the Death of the Body he says would obtain such a Being with Christ as it had not in the Body Hence he Concludes the Souls of good Men are more happy out of the Body than in it and they cannot be so except they subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body P. 98. Mr. W. Objects thus against his own Argument That Paul in this Text speaks not a Word of his Soul but only of himself or his whole Person and that it is not fair for Mr. W. to argue a greater happiness of his Soul only at Death from St. Pauls speaking of a better condition that himself should enjoy at Death To this Objection he answers That Paul must in this Text when he speaks of himself only be understood as intending his Soul because Death could not possibly be again to his Body nor could Death bring him to a more blessed presence with Christ than he had whilst alive And against his own Doctrine he puts another Objection P. 99. as if some had said That Pauls desire to be with Christ after Death was only in expectation of happiness at the Resurrection Then Mr. W. answers this Objection which is not owned by me or any other which I have heard or read of and therefore it passes with me for another Man of Straw set up by himself to be batter'd down again by the same hand Phil. 20. I hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain but if I live in the flesh this is the fruit of my labour what I should chuse I wot not but am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you I observe upon this Text that there is no mention of the Soul made in it although there is mention of the Body that Christ shall be magnified in it intending his Person by the Name of his Body In all the rest of the Text there is nothing else denoted but by the Terms of I and Me both which do properly denote and signifie the Person and all that which Mr. W. has raised out of this Text concerning the Soul or its Subsistence in a Seperate State from the Body seems to be the proper effect of his own Invention and not really founded upon St. Pauls Text before quoted Mr. W. hath said from the Text That to die is gain and that to die is better than to live here These two Sayings may I think be very properly applied to the Person that it may be gain for some Persons to die rather than live and consequently that it is better for such Persons to die than to live here Thirdly he says St. Paul gives the Reason why it is better for him to die than to live here because in departing hence he shall be with Christ I Answer We do not read in this Text That Paul chose rather to die because then he should be with Christ but says That if he did die he should be with Christ He had other Reasons for chusing Death rather than Life and took that for a Comfort and Support in obtaining this Choice that after Death he should still be with Christ in a State of Rest and Quietness which would be far better for him than that State which he now endured in this World Coloss 1.24 I Paul do now rejoice in my Sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church We know that Christ's Sufferings for his Body sake the Church were great to which Paul in this place compares his own Sufferings and therefore we have reason to think they were great also Eph. 3.13 I desire that ye faint not
at my Tribulation Philem. v. 9. This Apostle was then Paul the Aged and a Prisoner of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 4.6 Paul says I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Ver. 16. At my first Answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me but God stood with me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Philip. 4.14 The Philippians had sent a Present to supply St. Paul's Wants and in return he says Ye have well done that ye did communicate with my Affliction and supply my Wants and prays God to bless them for their so doing The several Texts thus collected seem to declare to us the State of St. Paul's Person at that time He was Paul the Aged a Prisoner under a necessitous and wanting Condition ready to be offered up by a dolorous Death having but lately escaped out of the Mouth of the Lion and that he lay continually under great Afflictions for the Church's sake and had the Care of all the Churches lying upon him All which Particulars considered our Apostle had great Reason to chuse Death rather than Life in all such Respects as did only concern himself for that by Death he should be delivered from the manifold Afflictions and Tribulations before-named and thereby attain a state of Rest and Blessedness in the Lord. Rev. 14.13 John heard a Voice from Heaven commanding him to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Chap. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the Love of Christ Ver. 38. I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus ' our Lord. Here we may observe Life and Death are made indifferent things to Believers such as seem neither to hinder nor further the State or Condition of them or to be either of them greatly desired by Christians in this World but rather ought to be referr'd to the Will and Appointment of God Luk. 20.38 God calls Himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and yet the Text says He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Which to my Apprehension proves what before is said That whether we live or die we are the Lord's during Life we live and move in Him and when we die we rest and sleep in Him in expectation to be raised by Him at his Second Coming And from the Premises I Argue That all Mr. W's Suppositions and Surmises concerning the Soul and the Seperate State of it are ill grounded and unsound We read of many Persons whose Conditions were so much distress'd that with Job they have heartily desir'd Death and would be ready with him to dig for it as other Men would do for hidden Treasure the very Aged and Sickly one of which I am will easily be perswaded to think Death a Gain to them and to desire it accordingly The present Time affords a rare Example of a young rich and otherwise happy Lord who by a Pistol Bullet took away his own Life at the Bath meerly to rid and free himself from such sharp Pains of the Gout and Stone as then oppress'd him And daily Experience assures us that the Consideration and Hope of Death is one of the greatest Supports under Mens present Sufferings and is by such Persons accordingly desired and thus they are at apparent Agreement with St. Paul's Opinion That for them to die is Gain although their Expectations of future Happiness may be nothing so well grounded as his was It may be also observed I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better Not saying He desir'd to depart that he might be with Christ but that though he did depart he knew he should still be with Christ so as his Departure and being with Christ do both stand well together he had a Being with Christ whil'st he was alive and he doubted not of having a like Being with Christ when he was dead and that a more peaceable and quiet Being than he had whil'st he was here and therefore that Estate was the more desirable and the more gainful If a Person go to his Friends or his Father's House he may truly he said to be with such a Friend or Father either sleeping or waking and we know Death is compared to a Sleep the Scripture usually calls it so and really and truly it is no other but a sound and lasting Sleep to continue unto the Sound of the last Trumpet at whose Summons the Dead shall be raised and those who are alive upon Earth shall have their Persons changed St. Paul does not say that he or any other Person is more present with the Lord when dead than alive but that in both Estates Men are alike present with the Lord For If we live we live unto the Lord and if we die we die unto the Lord so as whether we live or die we are the Lord 's Neither Death nor Life can seperate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus So it seems whether we live or die we are alike with Christ and have no more Being with him dead than when alive but that in both these States we have alike Being with him This Exposition of St. Paul's present Text I conceive to be sound and true and that Mr. W's is Erroneous For that this my Construction applies St. Paul's Terms of I and Me to denote and intend his whole Person as in their proper Signification they do whereas Mr. W. applies them to signifie only one Part of his Person viz. our Author's sort of Soul concerning which our Dispute is Whether there is any such thing in the World or not Next Mr. W. takes up the Bulk of his Argument in a Discourse concerning the Soul its Seperate Subsistence after Death and its enjoying Happiness in that Estate whereas in St. Paul's whole Text there are no words which mention any of these things or give us any Information concerning them or any of them I leave therefore his Construction as a Mistake of the Apostle's Meaning and think I have Reason to conclude That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Subsistence of the Soul in a State of Seperation from the Body The Thirteenth Argument PAge 100. Colos 1.19 20. It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell and having made Peace through the Blood of the Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven P. 101. Mr. W. says There were Souls of Men in Heaven when St. Paul
and Salvation at the General Day of Judgment Thirdly Concerning the Prayers or Cries of these Souls for Vengeance upon their Persecutors Mr. W. and I are hotb agreed that they made no other Cry in this Text then the Blood of Abel made to God for Vengeance on his Murtherer and I conceive there was no real Prayer or Cry in either of these Cases but that God himself had taken special Notice in both these Cases and that whensoever they came before him hy Remembrance or any sort of Re-presentation his Intention always continued firm to take Vengeance for those Facts upon all those who had therein acted and continued in such wicked Practices without Saving Repentance until the time of their Deaths I have Inclinations to think that this Exposition of our proving Text is more sound and true than that which Mr. W. hath before made of it and hence I think the Consequence will be very clear That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Separate Subsistence of Souls The Eighteenth Argument PAge 118. Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them P. 119. Mr. W. says By Blessedness in this Text must needs be meant Happiness and all Happiness implies Joy and all Joy implies Life and when he has rais'd Blessedness in this manner he infers from the Word henceforth that it must Commence presently upon the death of the Person wresting the signification of the Words from Henceforth which do properly signifie from the time of that Prophesie to signifie the time of every Man's Death which I do not find to be mentioned or intended by the Text And he adds The meaning of the Text being thus opened he seems to direct his following Discourse only to those who will accept the true Sense of the Text to be as he hath opened it and to them he thus argues If the Dead in the Lord do from the time of their being dead commence a Blessedness not only in resting from their Labours but likewise in being rewarded for their Works then do they continue to live in some part of them which is their Spirits and consequently their Spirits die not with their Bodies but are Immortal P. 120. Mr. W. offers to us That this Blessedness is said by the Spirit to be given from the time of Mens Deaths this he collects from the signification of the Words from Henceforth as if that intended from the time of their Death's whereas it appears in this Text to intend no more but that from the time of this Prophesie the Dead which die in the Lord shall have a blessed Rest and their Works do follow them P. 121. Then Mr. W. pretends That the dead Saints do not only enjoy a blessed Rest but that they also enter upon and enjoy Rewards for their Works as soon as they are dead but I find no Ground for this Opinion in the Text but conceive he thought it was there because he had a great Mind it should be there as a thing that would have done him more Service than any thing that he can find in the Text besides Mr. W. says further If no Rewards of active Happiness and Joy followed immediately after Death it would be wonderful the Spirit of God should pronounce a Blessedness on such as die in the Lord above those who live on Earth in the Lord and this would be contrary to the Sense of all God's People and specially to the Sense of such as Administer Comfort to dying Persons from this Topick by telling them that immediately after Death their Souls shall by Angels be transported into Heaven or Paradise or Abraham's Bosome or some such Place where they shall not only be at rest but have present Joys and Happiness conferr'd upon them and I grant that if such Doctrine prove otherwise than true many Persons may have been deceived of their confident Expectations and more may still in future happen so to be And therefore I think it needful to take further Consideration and so make a stricter Scrutiny concerning the Truth of this Doctrine than in former Times and Ages hath been commonly done amongst Men. Mr. W. says He thinks there are none of God's People who would not rather chuse to live upon Earth tho' under Persecution then to die and be buried in the Earth He says it is evident That from the time of dying the Saints are blessed with Rewards for their Work as well as from their Labour I reply I am very sorry that I am not able to find in this Text an Argument or any of his former the thing which he says is so evident intending I presume to himself and some such other Persons as may be strongly fixed in his Opinion and Belief touching this Point concerning which and this Text I intend to make a little more large Examination The Words therefore are And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I do not find in this Text any Words which signifie or import that Men shall be rewarded for their Works presently after Death otherwise than by a Blessed Rest from their Labours It is said indeed That their Works do follow them but there is no time mention'd when they shall overtake them And I desire Mr. W. and his Party from henceforth that they will cease from perverting the Sense of the Word from Henceforth in this Text by applying its Energy to the time of Mens Deaths whereas in the words of our Text it stands clearly apply'd to the time when this Prophesie was revealed to St. John and whereas Mr. W. says That none of Gods Saints upon Earth would willingly embrace Death but rather chuse a longer Life upon Earth altho' under a state of great Persecution if they did not expect Heavenly Rewards presently upon the death of their Persons and he says You shall never perswade People to a contented departure out of this World by telling them they shall presently enjoy a blessed Rest in the Lord and therefore they must be told of and perswaded to expect Glorious Rewards in Heaven presently after their passing out of this World I confess thereupon that Mens mistakes upon this Account may be very great and very universal but do by no means believe the first part of his Assertion viz. that there are no Saints or People upon Earth who are willing to accept of Death whensoever God shall appoint it to come upon them under a great contentment of Mind and the Satisfaction which they may receive from this Text That they shall have a blessed Rest in the Lord safe from all the Temptations and Tribulations of this World and from the Power and Malice of wicked Men
and Spirits expecting thereby to be delivered from Pains and Sicknesses Poverty Oppression Imprisonments Banishments and many other Miseries which during this Life may be inflicted upon them by outward and inward Maladies and Sufferings and then also to be set at Liberty and made free from all Temptations Allurements and Provocations to Sin which by the World and the wicked Men and Spirits of it may be offered to them And Lastly from the wicked Inclinations of their own Hearts and the traiterous and deceitful Dealing which they too often find therein subjecting them by strong Inclinations to prosecute that Nimium or excess of their Affections and Lusts to which all Mankind are strongly inclin'd by the bent of that Nature which I think God planted in them at the very Creation of our first Parents to such Ends and Purposes as are best known to his Godly Wisdom That some of the best of God's Servants have desired Death for the very Avoiding of Worldly Troubles and Sufferings may thus be proved Numb 11.15 Moses was very highly grieved with the bitter Complaints that the Jews made against him for bringing them out of Egypt into a Barren and Desolate Wilderness and expostulates thereupon with God That the Burthen of providing for all this People was too heavy for him so as he was not able to bear it and thereupon says to God If thou deal thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favour in thy sight and let me not see my Wretchedness 1 Kings 19.4 The Prophet Elijah received a Message from Jezebel that he should the next day be slain upon which Message he fled for safety of his Life into the Wilderness of Judah and there sat him down under a Juniper-Tree and requested of God for himself that he might die and said it is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers Job 3.11 Job's Sufferings are famous in the World and need not be specified and this Text and Chapter evidences the great desire he had to obtain a speedy Death as the great Remedy for all his Sufferings He wishes to have died from the Womb for then says he should I now have lain still and been at quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest with Lords and Princes or as a hidden untimely Birth for the Great and Small are there there the wicked cease from Troubling there the weary be at rest wherefore is Life given to him that is in misery and bitterness of Soul which long for Death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hidden Treasure which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the Grave By these and the like Instances we may perceive that Death as a state of Rest is preferred by the best among Men before a state of Life subject to great Sufferings in this World and we find it not only to be desired by Men but to be promis'd and given by God with intent to prevent such worldly sufferings as would fall upon his Favourites if they should continue to live longer in the World Isaiah 57.1 The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to Heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come He shall enter into Peace They shall rest in their Beds each one resting in his Vprightness According to this Rule we find some Examples 1 King 14. Abijah the Son of Jeroboam was sick and God pronounceth by his Prophet that he shall die and that he only of Jeroboam in Peace shall Die be Buryed and Mourned for because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel After which a lamentable Affliction should fall upon the whole House of Jeroboam no other Person whereof should come to the Grave in Peace 2 Kings 22.20 Josiah received this Message from Huldah the Prophetess that God would bring great Miseries and utter Destruction upon the Jewish Nation of those times but that because he was in God's Favour God will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in Peace and thy Eyes shall not see all the Evil which I will bring upon this Place whence it seems God by his Death did intend him the Benefit of being delivered by Death from the greatest Sufferings and Calamities which were intended to fall upon his Kingdom soon after this time and which accordingly took Commencement from his Death Philip. 1.21 Paul says To me to live is Christ and to die is Gain and I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better yet my living in the Flesh is more needful for you and this put him in a strait which to chuse Death he knew was better for him but his Life might be more helpful to them And the reason why Death was better for him seems to have risen from the Troubles Wants and other Afflictions which he suffer'd in the World and yet had great assurance of a Blessed Rest in the Grave and that there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge would give him at that Day and not to him only but to all those that love Christ's appearing and wait for his second coming and so Paul prays for one Onesiphorus that he may find Mercy of God in that day And so John 6. Our Lord repeats it four times That those who serve him shall be rais'd up to a state of Happiness at the last Day whence those who die in such a State or Condition are freed from the Labour of working out their own Salvation with Fear and Trembling and such as now think they stand from the Fear and Danger of falling And for these Reasons to die and to be with Christ in the Sense of resting or sleeping in him is better and more eligible than to live in Christ in the World and specially in an afflicted and suffering Condition And conclude from my Argument before rehearsed that the Eighteenth Argument or Mr. W. is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Souls Separate Subsistence P. 122. Mr. W. farther quotes Acts 1.25 The Apostles appointed two persons of their Company and cast Lots upon to decide which of them should be put into the Rank of the other Eleven Apostles and thereupon they prayed to God and said Thou Lord which knoweth the Hearts of all Men shew whether of these thou past chosen That he may take part of this Ministry and Apostleship from which Judas by Transgression fell that he might go to his own place And they gave forth thiir Lots and the Lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbred with the Eleven Apostles Mr. W. applies the Words that he might go to his own Place unto the Person of Judas which he says intends into Hell and not only into the Grave because every Man goes thither as well as he
I answer That if Mr. W. think truly an infinite number of other Persons go to Hell as well as Judas and therefore Hell is no more the proper place of Judas than the Grave may be Secondly I say That altho' the Grave be a place of Rest and Blessedness to those that die in the Lord yet to those who die in a state of Enmity with him the Approaches of Death seem terrible and the Grave is not a sufficient shelter for them from the wrath of God and of the Lamb when Christ shall come to give Judgment upon the quick and dead Thirdly It seems the very words of the Text do naturally require a different Construction from that which Mr. W. hath put upon them by applying the words might go to his own Place unto the Person then to be chosen who might with assurance go to his own Place of a Twelfth Apostle into which by Lot he should then be chosen and Matthias we read did go to his own place and was numbred with the other Eleven Apostles I do not know whether Dr. Hammond apply the words after this manner or not but if he do I think he is in the right of it and give my Consent thereunto And thus it seems to me no reasonable Argument can hence be drawn to prove the Souls Separate Subsistence Mr. W. for further proof of his Opinion quotes Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication are set forth for an Example suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Hereupon Mr. W. says This Text intends the Sufferings of the Sodomites Souls after Death I answer that to those who already believe there are Souls so suffering Mr. W's Sense of the Words may be well enough admitted but to those who stand unconvinc'd of Mens Souls suffering soon after their Deaths this saying seems to have no strength of Proof in it for they will expound it otherways and say that for the wickedness of the People those Cities and the whole plain of Sodom do suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire they did so at the time of that Destruction and they do so still and are likely so to continue to the end of the World turn'd into a Sulphureous and Bitumenous Lake the matter whereof is apt to take Fire upon all occasions and as to the word Eternal we find it in Scripture divers times used to signifie things of a very long Continuance as the Priesthood of Aaron the Royalty of David the Establishment of Jerusalem their being establish'd for ever And yet we have seen them all destroy'd long ago And hence I infer that no good Argument can be taken from his last quoted Text for proof of the Souls Separate Subsistence With this Quotation Mr. W. closes Eighteen or Twenty Arguments for proof of the Souls Separate Subsistence to each of which I have given a distinct Answer and such as doth very well satisfie my own Understanding with submission therein to the judgment of such intelligent Persons as may happen to peruse both our Endeavours for the proof and disproving of our Apprehensions in this Question P. 123. Mr. W. here proceeds in his endeavour to main tain the Souls Seperate Subsistence by inferring absurd Consequences from the other Opinion of the Souls extinguishment at the Death of the Person P. 123. Mr. W. thinks it an absurd Belief that Men should suffer for their Sins no more than Temporal Death but says If his Soul have not a Seperate Subsistence he can suffer no more than a Temporal Death except we had Ground to believe a Resurrection of the Body of which the Scripture is silent and we likewise deny it I say to this that I do not therein apprehend his Meaning I cannot believe that he intended to deny the Resurrection of the Dead which I offer as a full Answer to his pretended Absurdity and tho' in words he denies it yet I cannot conceive his meaning to be so P. 124. Mr. W. says secondly the same things which he said before in his first and must have the same Answer viz. That the Resurrection of the Person removes and and alters all this second pretended Absurdities P. 125. Thirdly Mr. W. says The Beasts are Sick and Groan and Die for Man's Sin or Sinfulness I reply That I cannot grant him this conceiving that if Man had not sinned yet the Beasts should have been sick and groaned and dyed as well and as much as they do now and the Doctrine of the Resurrection is a full Answer to this pretended Absurdity His Fourth pretended Absurdity is to be answer'd after the same manner His pretended Fifth Absurdity is answer'd by the Resurrection as before is said P. 126. Mr. W. says That without a Revelation from God concerning the Resurrection of the whole Man Men could not expect the Rewards or Punishments after Death unless their Souls have a Seperate Subsistence and this I am ready to agree to him and if there be no Resurrection I do also agree that Men have been very much deceived in their Expectation of Recompences after this Life and that upon the supposal of no Resurrection they have been Wiser who indulg'd themselves in their Pleasures than those who have restrained their Appetites in consideration of Recompences expected after this Life 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we Christians are of all Men most miserable but the Dead shall rise as certainly as Christ was rais'd and if these Resurrections of Christ and the Dead be not both true then all Christian Religion is Vain and all those who are fallen asleep in Christ are Perished P. 127. He says If the Heathens had no reason to believe the Immortality of the Soul and had no Revelation at all of a Resurrection given them how then says Mr. W. Could they be brought to a Reformation in their Manners I put the Question concerning the Gospel of Christ If there be no Name given under Heaven by which Men can be saved but that of Jesus Christ and the vastest numbers of Men in the World never heard of that Name and other vast Numbers who have heard of it do not yet believe it nor have the Faith propounded to them in such manner as they have reason to believe it I may demand of Mr. W. what shall become of all these People as well as he demands of me How Men should order themselves who never had the Resurrection revealed to them And I think that in both these Cases alike Men must order their Works according to the best of their Knowledge and God will make such Allowances to them as their Cases may require P. 127. Mr. W. pretends to perswade Men That the World hath been kept in Awe by pretence of Recompence after this Life whereas the Scripture tells us the Patriarchs as well as the Jews under the Mosaical Law were more practically good and had fewer great Faults among
a Conviction strong enough to oblige all People to a Concurrence in that Opinion because all these Evidences are resolvable into an Humane Authority upon which I have no Inclination to found such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen i.e. such a Belief as concerning which there is neither Doubt nor Question Mr. W. gives us here a long Testimony out of Josephus from whence we may collect that some Jews held one thing and some another concerning Souls Some thought of them that one sort liv'd in perpetual Prison after Death and another sort rose very shortly and Mr. W. says The generality of the Jews were of that Mind and says The Sadduces denied the Souls Immortality and shews that Josephus was no Friend of theirs Then Mr. W. quotes Joseph a Speaker saying That Mens Souls go to Heaven and then after a certain Revolution or Period are again commanded to live in Bodies Another Speaker says It is Misery to live and not to die for Death freeth our Souls from Prison into their most pure and proper Place so as whilst they are in the Body they may properly be said to be dead but this passes with me for a Platonick Fable concerning which enough has been spoken This Jew says The Soul comes secretly into Men without being perceived and so departeth from them again I reply De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio I say also That where ever the Blood passes freely in the Body the Parts and Members are fresh and lively but where Obstructions hinders the rivage of Blood from passing the Bodily Parts and Members become withered and useless Mr. W. concludes It is clear that the Church of the Jews always held the Opinion of the Souls Immortality forgetting the Texts which I have before quoted which prove the Patriarchal and Mosaical Opinion to have been That the Life of Sensative Creatures lies in their Blood and other Opinion of the antient Jews hath he quoted none till that which he seems to collâ—ct out of the Discourse betwixt Saul and the Witch of Endor and which I do not agree to be proving nor do Job or David make any mention of Spiritual Souls so that Solomon's Writings are the first wherein we find mention of this sort of Souls of Mr. W. In his Third Chapter he doubts and in his Twelfth Chapter he says in few Words and Transiently The Spirit returns to God who gave it and there he is speaking of the dissolution of the humane Person and says The Body returns to the Dust as it was what became of the Spirit he did not perceive and therefore contented himself to say The Spirit return'd to God who gave it These are all the Arguments Mr. W. hath collected out of the Old Testament whence I am apt to inferr that he found no other Text in that Testament which made for his purpose but I think fit to mind him of the History in the second of Maccabees concerning the Martyrdom of the Seven Brothers by Antiochus there he shall find several of them declaring the Hope they had of being restored to their mangled Limbs at and by the Resurrection without mentioning their building of any Hope upon the Souls Seperate Subsistence whence I collect that Opinion had not yet prevailed amongst the Jews of those times It is also true that a Relation of this Martyrdom is subjoyned to the Works of Josephus as if it were of his Writing but I think the very great Verbosity of that Writing proves it to be none of his but it relates divers Sayings of these Brothers shewing the dependance of their Comfort upon the Souls Separate Subsistence and its immediate going to Heaven and this Difference proves to my Understanding that the Jews had alter'd their Opinion concerning their State after Death between the time of the Maccabees Writing and that wherein Josephus writ his Relation if the same be truly of his Writing P. 145. Mr. W. begins his Quotations of the Ancient Fathers for proof of the Souls Seperate Subsistence I have not the opportunity of examining his Quotations with the Originals and therefore do not find it reasonable to deny or question the verity of any of them taking them therefore for veritable I agree they give very strong Testimony that those Writings of the Fathers by him quoted prove the Belief of the Writers to have been much consonant to his Opinion and I proffer only this Gloss upon the last of them viz. that of St. Ambrose who remembers our Lord went to prepare a place for his Disciples unto which I would add that which follows next after in the Text When I have prepared fitting places for you I will come and receive you to my Self that where I am ye may be also This coming of Christ I conceive to intend his second coming to Judgment and then and not till thâ—n that which our Lord says in this Text may be accomplished It seems his words quoted out of Iraeneus do not prove the Souls immediately going to Heaven after Death but to a Paradise or place of Pleasure distinct from Heaven and yet I allow them to be a good Proof that Iraeneus by them intends a Belief of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His second Author which he quotes he calls the Author of the Responses Apud Justin This I do not think fit to accept as the Opinion of Justin Martyr Thirdly For the saying of Polycarpus he quotes no Author from whence he took it whence it possibly may be taken from Baroneus His Fourth Quotation out of Origen seems no strong Proof because he was a perfect Platonist both before and after his Conversion to Christianity Fifthly His Quotation out of Tertullian speaks of such a place for the reception of departed Souls as is far above the Infernal places and a place of refreshment of the Souls of the Just when they are departed out of this Life where they shall abide to the Resurrection yet takes it for a different place from Heaven and I agree it proves his Agreement to the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Sixth Quotation out of Cyprian seems very full to his Purpose that the Martyrs Souls went immediately to Heaven In his Seventh Quotation concerning the Oration of Constantine I find no Expression in it that proves strongly for him save that Emperour 's discoursing concerning the Souls Immortality upon which I think he might very well dispute without making any certain Conclusion thereupon His Eighth Quotation out of Gregory Nyssen seems to me partly Platonick Ninthly What Prudentius says seems but to be rendring the Parable of Dives in Verse Tenthly Gregory Naz. who calls the Body and this Life the Prison of the Soul follows therein the Platonick Doctrine P. 152. Mr. W. says He has thus given us the Judgment of the Primitive Church for the Four first Centuries of it which is no small Argument of the Truth of the Souls Immortality and of the same Opinion have the
Animal wherein it acted before and it seems consequent that if the Blood and its particles be the Spirit of Life in Man and can act all his Faculties as before hath been expressed then there is no need to imagine the being of an immaterial intelligent Spirit in Man quia frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pautiora natura nihil facit frustra Wherefore I conclude that the Blood and its Particles inflamed or glowing are the Spirit of Life in Man as well as in Brutes and that there neither needs nor probably is in him such an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit as Mr. W. and those who maintain his Tenet have supposed In Confirmation of what God said before to Noah we read Levit. 7.11 The Life of the Flesh is in the Blood and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an Atonement for the Souls intending your selves Vers 13. He that hunts or kills a Beast or Fowl he shall even pour out the Blood thereof and cover it with Dust for it is the Life of all Flesh the Blood of it is for the Life thereof Secondly I object against Mr. W's Opinion from Job 3.11 Why died I not from the Womb why did the Knees prevent me or the Breasts that I should suck For now should I have lain been quiet and have slept or as if a hidden untimely Birth I had not been Vers 17. In Death the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together and hear not the Voice of the Oppressor and the Servant is free from his Master This Text declares to us Job's Opinion concerning the state of dead Persons they all sleep and rest together in Death Great and Small Strong and Weak Prisoners and Free-men Servants and Masters Death reduces them all to a like Estate of Freedom Peace and Rest without any disturbance amongst them He makes no mention here or in any other place of Rewards or Punishments until the Resurrection and then he professes to expect to see his Redeemer with the Eyes which he had but concerning an Intermediate State he is utterly silent which it seems likely he would not have been if he had known of such an Intermediate State of Souls as Mr. W. and his party pretend to maintain We see that Job seems to make Death a rest from all such Sufferings as were known to him and had he known or believed such Rewards after Death as Mr. W. pretends we may reasonably expect he should have made mention of them and from his silence about Rewards and his Opinion of Rest from Sufferings I conclude he knew of no such things to be found of Men soon after their Deaths And I infer from this Argument that the Souls Seperate Subsistence and the great Rewards and Punishments thereof to be expected immediately after Death was unknown to Job and the Men of his time and is therefore a later Opinion taken up and yet generally accepted in the times which came after him and wants much of that Authority which its Derivation from the Primitive times of the World might have given it A Third Objection against Mr. W's Doctrine I take from King David Psalm 146.2 Put not your Trust in Princes or in any Child of Man for when the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth and then all his Thoughts perish Psal 49.10 Wise Men die and perish together as well as the Ignorant and Foolish Vers 12. Man will not abide in Honour seeing he may be compared to the Beasts that perish Vers 20. He repeats again Man being in Honour hath no Vnderstanding but is compared unto the Beasts that perish In the first proving Text David says When the Breath of Man goeth forth he shall turn again to his Earth whence his Son Solomon may have taken his Saying Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Here it seems to me that David's Breath which at Death goeth forth intends the same thing with Solomon's Spirit returning to God who gave it but thereunto David adds That when this Breath is gone forth and thereby the Man is returned to his Earth all his Thoughts perish whence it seems there is not one Thought left in him but we know that the Faculty of thinking can never continue without some Thoughts arising in it and therefore if all a Mans Thoughts perish with his Death I infer his Faculty of Thinking must do so too which it cannot do if there be such a Seperately Subsisting Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. strongly asserts And if my Opposers should contend that the Thoughts which are here said to perish do mean the Intentions and Designs of the Person when alive I answer That there is no need in this place to alter the plain Sense of the Words for that the plain Sense of them may very well stand in this place conceiving that in their plain Sense they are as true as in that other Sense which my Opposers would put upon them without any just occasion so to do And hence I am apt to conclude upon this Text that there is not such a Seperable Intelligent Soul in Man as Mr. W. hath all along pretended In our second Text David exhorts not to be afraid of the Riches or Glory of any Man for when he dies he shall carry nothing away with him he counted himself and other Men counted him happy whilst he liv'd but his Happiness ends with his Life for Man being in Honour hath no Understanding but is compared to the Beasts that perish Let Men be as Rich Wise and Happy and as much in Honour as this World can afford yet all these Preheminences ends with his Life and it seems so also do his Miseries and dying or dead he may be compared to the Beasts that perish his Breath goeth forth and he turns again to the Earth from whence he was taken and so also it is with the Beasts that perish Hence it seems That Solomon should have been the first Person who started the Question Whether the Spirits of Men go upward and the Spirits of Beasts downward or not And after not knowing well what became of the Spirit or Breath which goes forth of a Man at Death he says Transiently and without any Deliberation that appears this Spirit or Breath returns to God who gave it but of such a Spirit or the return thereof we meet with no mention in Scripture before his time that I have yet found out and I am therefore ready to conclude with my quoted Texts out of David that tho' Men be had in Honour during their Lives yet at and after Death they may as concerning their Natural Estate be truly and reasonably compared to the Beasts that perish My Fourth Objection against Mr. W's Tenet I take from Solomon Eccles 4. That Wise King saw great and remediless Oppressions imposed on
there is no need to express they will not give such things at other times nor can there be a warrantable expectation of them at other times except such a thing be also expresly declared which is not done in this or these Texts or any other 〈◊〉 Texts of Scripture which I can find and therefore I think Mr. W's Answer to this Objection is clearly insufficient and as such I leave it and proceed further to object against Mr. W's Opinion from all the Texts last before quoted I say then that all these Texts concur strongly in their Evidence That the Resurrection and Last Judgment are the time when all men may warrantably and certainly expect to be rewarded or punished according to their Works and Actions in this World because that is evidently declared by a strong concurrence of Scripture Testimonies and because there is no other time plainly declared in any other Text of Scripture when men may warrantably expect such recompences after their Departures out of this World and thence I conceive the Texts before quoted are a strong Objection against the Expectation of Rewards or Punishments being given to the Souls of Dead Persons immediately after their Departures out of this World A Seventh Objection I make in the same manner that Mr. W. hath put his Seventh Objection against his own Doctrine Where he says If the Souls of Men past their Tryal as soon as they are dead what needs any other day of Judgment Will Christ try Men after Sentence To this Objection Mr. W. says I have proved already The Souls of Men cannot be kill'd and so cannot die and that the Souls of Men at death do return to the Lord and other things relating to its partial Judgment which it shall receive To this I reply His proof of the Souls not dying remains sub judice his Text that the Soul returns to God proves not its going before him for Judgment and for proof of his partial Judgment he hath produc'd no Text of Scripture at all nor do I think a Text that so proves can be quoted out of the Bible Mr. W. proceeding asks Who art thou that reasonest against God wilt thou teach God how he shall govern the World or what Judgments he shall use upon Men It is enough that God hath intimated his Will there shall be such Judgments and we are humbly to believe he hath reason for his so doing although our shallow brains cannot comprehend it To this I reply That I am ready to do as Mr. W. directs viz. That if God do declare to us his mind and intnet to have divers and different Trials and Judgments of Men I am ready to submit to the belief thereof altho I am not able to apprehend the congruity or reason thereof But Mr. W's Answer sets out no proof at all of Gods design or meaning to pass such several Trials and Judgments upon Men as he supposes nor doth his whole Book give us good proof thereof and himself doth not require men to believe that God proceeds in ways not congruous to the Reasons of Men except God doth somewhere declare that he doth or will do so Whereas Mr. W. hath no otherways proved Gods Will so to do then from his own Expositions Collections Inferences and Conclusions which all seem to be the proper fruits of his own Invention Upon which the Old Rule must take hold Posito quolibet sequitur quidlibet and so if we suffer him to lay the Cards he will always deal them to his own advantage but I have no inclination to bear with such dealing and therefore do reject his Answer to this Objection as infirm and insufficient Well but then says Mr. W. If this Answer will not satisfie you I doubt not but the righteous Judge will satisfie you of the reason of that Great Day notwithstanding particular judgments upon Men and the spirits of Men before that Day I find no manner of proving force in these words of Mr. W's they seem rather a Threat than a Proof and a product rather of his own Will than of his Knowledge or a reasonable Inference from any Text of Scripture Lastly he bids his Opposers be silent least God reprove them And having made this Reply to his Answer I am content to be silent and proceed no father thereupon but as to the Incongruity charg'd by the Objection upon Mr. W's Opinion I say that it seems very incongruous to my Reason that God should call Men to a Solemn Tryal at their Deaths and there pass Judgment and award Execution thereupon and after they have long continu'd in this condition then to call them to a new Tryal and give another Judgment upon them with a like award of Execution on as before this seems a very unlikely Proceeding of God towards Men and yet if Mr. W. or any of his Partakers have proved or can prove from any plain or clear Text or Texts of Scripture that God will use this Course of Proceeding amongst Men I am ready to submit my own reason and opinion thereunto but not to the many words or conjectures which Mr. W. farther offers in his Answer to this Objection We read Mat. 25. Our Lords Sentence at the Last Judgment runs thus Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels not saying Return ye blessed unto the happy Mansions of Heaven from whence ye came or Return ye cursed into those dark and dreadful Regions where ye were before but come ye and go ye to such Places and Regions as it seems probable they were not acquainted with before whence it seems inferrable that those Intermediate Tryals Judgments and Executions which Mr. W. maintains have something of the Chimerical and Imaginary without having that real truth in them which Mr. W. and his Party endeavour to maintain and the Objection before made against them seems strong enough to shake and oppose their Pretensions An Eighth Objection I raise from 1. Cor. 15.12 If Christ be Preached that he rose from the Dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the Dead but if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen and if Christ be not risen then is the Christian Religion both vain and false vers 18. and then they also which are faln asleep in Christ are perished vers 32. If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the Dead rise not Let us eat and drink for too morrow we die Then the Apostle finds fault with Communications which call in Question the Belief of the Resurrection of the Dead vers 52. At the last Trump the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible and we who are then alive shall be changed and then shall Death be swallowed up in Victory vers 58. And therefore my beloved Brethren be ye
upon parting from their Bodies either return to God who gave them and are received into Heaven and Happiness or they shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom and there enjoy at least a blessed Rest from their Labours and all future Sufferings I doubt not but that the Divines of our time would readily have administred such Comforts as these to the Friends of dead People or even to the dying Persons themselves but in our quoted Text we find St. Paul did not so proceed with his Correspondents upon this like Occasion for the only Comfort which thereupon he propounds to them is drawn from the Doctrine of the Resurrection which in this Place he somewhat at large delivers as knowing that to be sufficient for Mens Comfort in such Cases without remembring or believing our late comfortable Doctrine or Opinion of the Souls going to Heaven immediately after Death and hereupon I conclude that this Doctrine was either not known to him or not believed by him and that therefore it is an Error and no certain Truth or the very Truth of God A Tenth Objection against Mr. W's Opinion I raise from the concurrent Testimonies of many Scripture Texts referring the expectation of future Rewards or Punishments looked for after this Life unto the time of the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment without finding and such Expectation at the time of Men's Deaths referred to or mention'd in any Text of Scripture In the Catalogue of Mr. W's own Objections he hath made this the Sixth and propounds it thus The Scriptures say my Opposers do frequently make mention of the Great and General Day of Judgment and refer all the Rewards of the Saints to that Day and so all the Punishments of the Wicked therefore the Souls of Men die with their Bodies as being uncapable of Rewards or Punishments till then To this Objection he answers concessively and says I do partly acknowledge the first part of what ye say that Scriptures do frequently make mention of that great Day and again that the greatest Rewards and Punishments are reserved to that Day but I deny the later part of what ye say because the Scripture speaks of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and of the Soul of the Thief being in Paradise that day he died and of the Spirit of every Man returning to God at Death to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body and this he says is enough to blunt the edge of his present Objection And hereunto I reply That what he hath said concerning the Spirits of just Men made perfect hath before been answered and so hath that of the Thief 's Soul being in Paradise that day and proved to be invalid Testimonies of the Souls Seperate Subsistence His Third Testimony of the Spirits returning to God seems to be mis-recited for the Text doth not say it returns to God to be dealt with according to what they did in the Body which Words he adjoins with as much Confidence to the Text as if they might be there found written and were part of the Text it self so as unwary and unexamining Readers might soon be mistaken thereupon In what manner and to what purpose Solomon might intend this return of Souls to God hath been before disputed and I still confide that Mr. W. and his Party will not be able to prove that these words of Solomon intended the Souls of dead Persons going before God to Judgment as here he hath without any hesitation deliver'd it And therefore I conclude that his Answer hath very little blunted the edge of our present Objection I observe it as an Art in Disputing that it may be advantageous to grant in an easie and transient fashion such Objections as Men find themselves utterly unable to answer and I think Mr. W. hath used this Art in transiently granting the first part of this Objection viz. That the Scriptures do frequently refer the expectation of Rewards or Punishments after this Life and unto the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment and whereas I have said before that there is no mention in Scripture of such Expectations at or soon after the time of Mens Deaths he gives us here three of the most pregnant Instances which he could find in Scripture for proving that Rewards and Punishments are bestowed by God at the time of Mens Deaths but the force of these Instances hath before been obstructed by those Answers which have been severally given them in their proper places I am not without some Temptation of drawing out of the Scripture a Catalogue of such Texts as do with great Evidence and Strength set forth and prove that the time of the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment are not alone the principal but the only times whereat or wherein Recompences future to this Life are warrantably and certainly to be expected by Mankind but because I have said much and quoted divers Texts of Scripture upon that Subject before and am now willing to save my self and my Reader the tedium of such a long Repetition I will refer the Examiners of this Objection unto those Texts which have before been quoted to that purpose and to such others as themselves may meet with upon the perusal of the Scripture And with this round number of Ten the Objections which I make against Mr. W's Opinion out of Scripture shall be finished Yet I farther intend to add thereunto two or three Objections against Mr. W's Opinion derived from Natural Reason and the Experiences of Men. And first I begin from the Nature and Composition of the Humane Person and thereupon I observe that there are three things principally and absolutely necessary for the Subsistence and Life of the Humane Person viz. Blood Breath and Nutriment and thereupon do agree with Moses that the Life the Animals is in the Blood or that the Blood is the Life thereof whose inflamed Particles are the Spirits which act the Person and as well the Head as the Members so long as Life continues in the Body Next to which the Breath hath a Principal and absolutely necessary Faculty and Power of fanning and inflaming such Particles of the Blood as are imployed in every part of the Body and for refrigerating the internal parts of the Body with a perpetual Refreshment which keeps the Paristaltick Motion always in action amongst the inward and most vital parts of the Body whence daily Experience assures us that by stopping of the Breath but for some few Moments the Spirit of Life in Man becomes absolutely suffocated and extinguished and without Breath no Humane Art or Power can prolong the Life of the Person or other Animal whatsoever Concerning Nutriment it is only so far necessary to the Life of the Creature as the Blood thereof wastes and is consumed by the Circular Continual Motion and the Inflammation thereof In some long continuing and weakening Diseases the Motion of the Blood hath been so weak and the Inflammation thereof