nourishing the once kindled Flame so long as the Materials shall be able to last or endure and that in Men and Beasts is their old and decrepit Age and the utter Expence of that Humidum Radicale whereby their Flammula Vitalis might be nourished and maintained or that it be corrupted and vitiated by other noxious Humours and thereby rendred improper for the Purposes to which it was designed In Men and Beasts it seems there is a Material Spirit kindled and enflamed and thereby attenuated to so great a degree of Subtilty as to become Invisible and so asserts My Lord Bacon in the Place before quoted And so our Author Pag 72. says Some think that the Soul is Material yet of a purer Substance than things visible and thus thought Tertullian and almost all the Old Greek Doctors of the Church that write of it and so most of the Latines or very many Some thought the Soul an Igneous Body such as we call Aether or Solar Fire or rather of a higher purer Kind and that Sensation and Intellection are those Formal Faculties which specifically difference it from inferiour meer Fire or Aether And there are few of the Old Doctors or Fathers who thought it not some of these ways Material And to all this we do willingly subscribe and agree believing as the Primitive Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latine have by our Author 's own Testimony thought and taught before us And we conceive that the Beasts have a like Material Spirit inflamed lambently but whether altogether so fine and subtile as that in Humane Bodies we find not Ground enough to assert or determine But Solomon tells us what befalls Men befalls Beasts As one dies so dies the other Yea they have all one Breath and a Man hath no Preheminence above a Beast their Bodies go all to one Place they are of the Dust and turn to it again and who knows the Difference of their Spirits that of a Beast goes downward to the Earth viz. dies with the Body and turns to Dust and who knows that the Spirit of a Man doth not do so but goes upward Hence it seems there was an Opinion at that time amongst the Jews that the Souls of Men did not die with their Bodies like the Beasts And we find Solomon in the Close of this Book saying upon a Mans Death The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Now whether he was better resolved in the Point at this time or that he used this Expression to comply with the Opinion of his Countrey we will not pretend to determine But it seems plain that amongst Men and Beasts there is a great Congruity in their Parts Frame and Composition as that all have different Members acting sutable to their Kinds as Head Feet Back Belly and Inward Parts as Heart Liver Lungs Spleen Brain and all the Organs of Sense and Nerves Veins Arteries Ventricles Muscles Joynts and the same Nature of Flesh Bones Blood and Breath which shall be left here and changed for the Consideration of their Internal Powers of Sense Motion Phancy Memory Intellect and of their Affections Passions and Powers of Perception Utterance and the like Faculties Concerning such Faculties we begin from the Senses and do find the Beasts have all the same with those of Men and that they can make as accurate and beneficial Use of them as any Men can do and in the Perceivance by them divers Beasts do excel Men some in the Use of one Sense and some of another and every Beast and Bird have Voices Tones and Notes all serving to warn and direct their Young ones to call for their Food or complain for the Want of it to give warning of Weather or Danger to call for Company of their own Kind to threaten and terrifie their Inferiours in Strength the Birds also to vie with one another in Melody delighting therewith the Ears of other Creatures that can perceive the Suavity and Variety of them The Affections and Passions in Beasts are the same with those in Men. We have named five Principals of them viz. Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear the three last of which are altogether as eminent and active in Beasts as in Men. Ambition is not so and yet Beasts and Birds of all Kinds will fight without giving quite over until there be an acknowledged Mastery amongst them the Stronger will compel the Weaker to give Way and to follow and observe him Nor is Covetousness in Beasts any thing comparable to that in Man some of them do hoard up Provision for their Support in Winter and others for whom it is proper will steal it from them or fight for it if there shall be an Occasion So as in Beasts these Affections are but very feeble in comparison to what they are in Man Whereas Lust Wrath and Fear are equally potent and prevalent in the one Kind as in the Other And for Proof that Beasts have Phantasies their Dreams are Evidence in which sometimes they are vehemently agitated and affected and that they have Perfect Memories is proved by a Horses learning to know a Way but once gone and sooner than ordinary Passengers do by a Cows returning to the Place where her Calf was parted from her although she be driven away many Miles from it by the Docility of Horses Camels Dogs Apes Elephants most knownly but truly of many other Creatures And there seems to be no sufficient Doubt of finding all other Powers that are in Man resident in some Beasts except that of his Intellect which he can imploy in framing many Notions or Propositions and drawing Consequences and Conclusions such we do not know that any Beasts can do nor have they Means of making them known to us Sometimes we light upon Effects which carry a great Semblance of Proceeding from such Causes as in Dogs their Kindness to the Bodies of their dead Masters and discovery of their Murtherers That of Sabinus supported his Master's dead Body in the Tiber till he sunk with it Alexander's Elephant who would never take Food after the Royal Harness was taken from him and put upon another but starved and died upon it Androgeo and his Lion are reported and made famous in divers Roman Histories and other-like Effects are related that might serve to this Purpose but too long and circumstantial to be here related But from the Docility of Creatures Beasts we may with some certainty collect that they have an Intellect of simple or single Notions what and when and how their Directors will have them to act And Hares and Foxes do it seems invent Means to deceive and baffle their Pursuers But of Complex Notions Discourse or Reasoning in their Minds we do not perceive that any Beasts are capable although they are notable Observers of their Masters Eyes and can perceive their Pleasure or Displeasure in them and act according as by them directed Yet that they
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but gives no Aswer to it Says Plato Origen and many Hebrews held Opinion the Adam's Soul and all other Souls did and do pre-exist and are thence called down as new Bodies require viz. from Superior Regions But this he says is both false and absurd And to prove this by Reason he says Pag. 619. cites Aristotle That the Soul is Actus Corporis Organici and therefore the Soul cannot be before the Body To this we easily assent and add That when the Body dies this Actus Corporis must cease for the same Reason He argues also That the Soul is a Spiritual Substance and it was not needful or proper to put that up at the Nostrils and that seems true but makes against his former Assertions Still there rises a new Difficulty viz. Whether this Soul if then created were created first within the Body or first without the Body and then was breathed or blown in The Text favours the later but the Author favours the former to the Intent that Men may not think Souls are still first created and then infused but think rather as he doth that Souls are created in their Bodies and to this end he approves Lombard's Invention of Creando infunditur Cites Essay 2.22 Cease ye from Man Cujus Anima in Naribus ejus est which we read whose Breath is in his Nostrils Pag. 620 The Soul of Man came to him from without although created within him He will have from without to signifie of another Nature or kind of Thing and not proceeding from the Body as the Beasts do But this he only says without offer of Proof for it Says The whole Soul comes together viz. Vegetative Sensitive and Rational whence it must come into the Body at the first Original of Life and there seems no doubt but there is a Vegetative Power and Principle in the Seed and likely for the Sensual and there appears no Reason against a like Course in the Rational these three being all Faculties of the same Soul from which none of them are separable Pag. 621. The Word signifying Spiraculum Vitarum is used as well concerning Beasts as Men. Pag. 624. Souls of Brutes are sometimes called Spirits in Scripture but never said to return to God Pag. 625. As God breathed into Adams Body the Breath of Life who thereupon rose from the Earth where he lay so shall his Breath effect Life in Bodies which shall rise at Sound of the Last Trumpet And as we read Ezek. 37. Pag. 667. Cites Gen. 1.28 God blessed the Man and Woman and said Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth as Ver. 22. he had said to other Creatures This seems to import Men do generate their Like as the Beasts do and the Creation of Souls for every fruitful Coition by Adultery Incest or Buggery is but a Fiction and not a likely or reasonable Contrivance Lib. 2. Cap. 1. Pag. 683. Mans Life consists in Heat and Moisture not simply but in Temperament with Cold and Dry and from the Four Elements The Four Complexions of Phlegm Sanguine Cholerick and Melancholy Health and Sickness Life and Death consist in a good and fit Temperature of these Humors and the Soul uses these as Instruments for Conservation of the Compositum the General Parts are Bones with their Nerves knitting them together and the Flesh with its Veins through which the Blood returns and Arteries through which the Vital or Animal Spirits have their Courses and God hath given to Men a more delicate Flesh and more Nice and tender Skin than to Beast Pag. 685. And the Temperament and Complexion of their Bodies are much finer Pag. 686. There are Three Principal Faculties of the Soul viz. Vegetation Sense and Motion 3. Intellect The Two later viz. Sense and Intellect are chiefly placed and acted in the Head and thence grow the Nerves passing to every Bone and Member Pag. 687. All Anatomists confess That in an Humane Body there are Innumerable Parts and Things which Men cannot find out and which are known only to God Pag. 689. The Common or Internal Sense cannot act without the Animal Spirits and the Soul uses these Spirits both for Understanding and for its other Actions which are to be performed in the Head and the Nerves which serve both for Sense and Motion through the whole Body have their Original from the Brain and are fixed in it or to it There the Soul reigns most effectually and who can express the various Instruments which God hath there provided for her Use Pag. 693. The Heart is the Original and Prime Instrument of Vegetation and Life which it communicates to the whole Body by its Intense Heat Motion and Rarefaction of the Blood and specially it communicates to the Head the Animal Spirits whereby Motion Sense and Cogitation are received and acted Thirdly The Heart is the Seat Fountain and Cause of all the Affections and there are two Principal Motions in it viz. that of the Systole and Diastole or of the Pulse effecting and Declaring Life the other Motion is of the Affections following the Conceptions or Intellect either with extraordinary Dilatation in the whole Body as in Accidents pleasing and joyous or with a like Compression or Contraction in Case of Accidents sorrowful or dspleasing Whence as Motion Sense and Intellect have their Original and Activity from and in the Brain and Head So Life and all the Affections are derived and acted from and in the Heart And betwixt the Heart and Head there is a wonderful Correspondence and Agreement to the Good and Benefit of the whole Compositum From the Heart Vital Spirits ascend to the Brain where they become Animal Spirits and by these Intelligence Cogitations and Notices of Things arise in the Mind from whence again such Cogitations and Notices strike upon the whole Heart exciting and stirring there the Affections and other Vegetative and Natural Motions which are either pleasing or displeasing tending to or towards Joy or Sorrow the one a great Help to and Supporter of Health and Life and the other great Hinderance to or a Destroyer of them both Pag. 694. The Liver is the Fountain of all the Veins and the Arteries through which the Vital Spirits do pass are always and in all Places conjoined with the Veins and upon them depend the Life and Motion of the Animal and the Soul uses the Blood and Spirits to such Purposes The Liver communicates Blood to the Heart and that again Vital Spirits to the Liver Pag. 195. And as Blood is never in the Veins without some Spirits so neither do the Spirits flow through the Arteries without some thin Rivage of Blood with them and as the Veins have need of the Arteries to stir the Blood in them so the Arteries of the Veins for Nourishment of the Spirits Pag. 696. Spirits of the Body are Vital or Animal and the Spirit is a Vapor drawn by Heat and Concoction of the Heart out of the purest Parts of the Blood
and Man Whereas the Fact of our Savage who hath not nor knows any Law may pass well enough without discerning by any Light of Nature that his Fact was Turpe And so may the Case be for Adultery or Incest amongst Persons who neither live under Laws nor have any knowledge of them they cannot naturally discern the Turpe in such Actions and for Theft and Robbery it would be the delight and glory of such Savages and was the common practice of the Savage World and is the common Arabian Profession at this day And we may add to them the petit Pirates and even the great Conquerours and Spoilers of Nations who because they live without Laws or above them do not or will not discover any Natural Turpe in those Ravages which they make upon the to them innocent and harmless people All these Cases or Instances seem to evince that the Discovery of Honestum and Turpe grows not from Nature barely or in its extreamest Simplicity nor without some assistance from Education or Institution Next our opposing Immateriallists do alledge That upon the committing of any known and great Turpe there arises amongst Men a great and tormenting Sense of such Evil flowing from Nature in Man and which is never found in Beasts of any Kind But I do not assent to either of these Assertions First For Conscience in Man I have said the Conscient Powers viz. Understanding Memory and Judgment are Natural and so are the Effects viz. Pleasure and Joy Sorrow and Fear But to compleat a Conscience in Man there must be more than Nature viz. Some sort of Rules or Directions growing from Education or Institution and such may derive themselves from Three Originals First By Revelation from God or Spirits Secondly From Precepts or Examples of other Men. Thirdly From the Person himself concerned in the Inquiry his own Observations Opinions Phantasies Now take any of these Sorts of Rules which any Man hath accepted for his Guides and submitted himself unto if he find his Actions agree with his Rules that Agreement produces Comfort and Joy and the contrary produces Sorrow and Fear the wideâ—â—er they differ the greater the Fear and proportionable to the degrees and duration of Rewards an1Punishments taught and believed to be expected and the reputed certainty of them And it seems the Rule accepted and submitted to be it right or wrong true or false obliges the Conscience of the Believer and strikes him with remorse upon any his irregular Actions as strong the false as the true and this shews the Faculty not to be wholly from Nature for that she is more constant in her Directions and Notices then to be ordinarily liable to such great aberrations We say then a Savage can have no Conscience for want of Rules whence that Power cannot be derived from bare Nature in Man The other Assertion viz. That Conscience is not to be found in Beasts of any kind I do not assent unto yet granting that naturally none of them have it But I conceive that by an Education amongst Men and a Conversation with them some Beasts may attain and have obtained to such Conscient Faculties as are agreeable to the low degrees of their Understanding and I give instance in a Mastiff Dog if he go at liberty without Education and meet with a Sheep hungry he falls on and kills and eats till he have enough and departs without any sign or sense of remorse for his so doing But take one of that kind and give him an Education amongst Men and being taught his Duty in that Case if after this Dog happen to worry a Sheep he becomes so sensible ashamed and afraid togteher that his guilt and fear appear in his whole carriage and the Temper and posture of his Body so as his looks and carriage give evident proof that he is a Sheep-biter So for a Setting-Dog if his over-eager desire carry him into his Game and that he spring it his Conscient Power smites him upon that Fact so that he dare not will not approach his Master or Teacher but will a void and flie from them by all means and for a competent time till their anger may be allwaged and some of them have been thereby so scared as to run quite from their Masters and forsake them for ever We know also that some Horses which have been corrected for tripping upon the High-way it by accident they make a trip they suddenly dart themselves forwards remembring the former Corrections and sometimes do by that means escape the punishment which otherwhiles would have fallen upon them And in like manner the most Docible Creatures Dogs Horses Apes Elephants are made tractable and tâ—ught by Rewards and Punishments and the Desire Fear and Expectations of them the same which are the Grounds and Effects of Conscience in Man And thus Arguendâ— and with hard rubbing it seems there is taken off from the Nature of Man this last Piece of Varnish or Ornament which by divers hath been so hard laid on and fastened as it seemed like a Fixation inseparable and quarto modo peculiar to it in consequence of which I say That we have now laid the Nature of Man as naked and bared of its Ornaments as before we did that of our Organ And as then that Instrument so bared had for its Materials no other then what the Inferiour Instruments were made of viz. Wood or Common-Metal so is it like to fall out with the Body of Man there will appear in it nothing but Skin Bone Flesh Blood Joynts Muscles Nerves Arteries Sinews Veins Heart Head Brain and Breath c. all of the same kind with those of the Inferiour Animals And for the Active Principle in them both as Wind and Breath of the same Nature but stronger or weaker moves and acts as well the Organ as all the other Inferiour Instruments So it seems a Spirit inflamed and of a like Nature is the Active Principle in the whole Animal Kind and Nature viz. both of Man and Beast The Flame may be purer and grosser brighter and dimmer but in all of a Similar Kind and Nature one of them with he other as the Wind and Breath was to the forenamed Instruments And this Conclusion shall close and finish my present Simile and that put end to my intended Argument against the Immateriality and Separate Subsistence of Soul For the publishing of which I offer this Reason That having an Inclination and Desire to find out or learn the Truth in the Point before disputed and having in my Answer to Doctor Bentley's Sermon summoned him to perform his promise of proving the Separate Subsistence of an Humane Soul I thought it requisite to lay before him or any other who being qualified for it shall undertake the Imployment all or the most important of those Grounds and Reasons which moved me in a Mature and Decaying Age to perswade my self that the Opinion of the Immateriality and Separate Subsistence of Humane Souls after Death of their Bodies is an Errour to the intent that having before them the true State of the Malady and the Causes of it they may be the better inabred to direct their Applications for the Cure and take the whole State of the Case together and shall say no more save by way of Caution viz. That hitherto the Fabrick of the Argument is held together as by Nails driven through Boards yet remaining with streight points so as they may be pinched out again with more ease and little damage to the Materials it proper Endeavours shall be used to that purpose viz. By a full strong reasonable and well grounded Answer to the Objections which have been in this Tract or Treatise produced but if pregnant Persons shall enter upon the Undertaking without Direction or Advice and make infirm cholerick or any way insufficient Answers thereunto that will prove like a clenching or rivetting the points of the Nails on the farther side and make them so hard to be drawn out again as there may be great difficulty and some inconvenience in the performance of it My Desire and Prayer to God is That he will by his good Providence and Spirit direct such as out of a Pious Inclination and for Love to Truth shall in Peaceable and Christian Manner undertake the Rectification of those Errours which shall be with clearness detected in this Treatise And that he will finally discover to us what is the very Truth in the Point here disputed And to an Answerer I shall conclude with St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.7 Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in this and in all things especially enable thee for the Discovery declaring and proving of the Truth in this Point FINIS
goes suddenly away in a fright 5. Whether the Soul have a peculiar Place of Residence in the Body and where that is And if that part be ill affected and unfit for her can she change it and go to reside in another Or whether is there more places or another place in the Body that can be fit or can make room for her to reside and act in or that she is Tota in qualibet parte 6. How doth she Act can she do any thing by her self or her own peculiar Power without the Ministry of the Animal Spirits and other Parts of the Body Can she amend any thing that is amiss in the Body or know any thing without such Ministry of the Senses By what force doth she move the Bodily Spirits or can she inflict Pain or Punishment for their Disobedience Can she Govern the Passions by an absolute Sway or how far can she do it and by what Means And so for the Affections and whether is not she rather subjected often to their Power and how far and by what means that comes to pass How or by what means and ways doth she Imagine Judge Understand or Remember Or can any better or more Inteliligible Account be given that she doth and how she doth such things Then how the Spirits Brain and other Organical Parts of the Body do them actuated thereto by the Impulse of Nature and that Flammula Vitalis which pervades every part of the Body and most powerfully Operates in the Heart and Head stimulating and stirring them in and to the performance of Duties and Powers intrusted to them and Imposed or Imprinted upon them by Nature and the Contriver who made them for such purposes and hath appointed their Imployment and the Order and Power by which it seems they may be and are continually easily and naturally performed When the Introducers and Maintainers of a Spiritual Self-subsisting Soul in Man have opened their Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge so largely as to satisfie the Curious Inquirers concerning these and the like particular Queries they may then with better confidence deny the possibillity of the Animal Spirits Blood and Organical Parts of the Body their performing such Actions and producing such Effects as are daily done by us and are continually visible amongst us and thence derive their pretentended necessity of introducing within upon and over us such a Foreign Commander and Government as that of a Perfect Substantial Immortal and Self subsisting Spirit but withal we must desire them to declare why they do allow the boisterous Affections and Passions in Man viz. his Ambition Covetousness Lust Wrath and Fear to be ungovernable by this Imperial Spiritual Power set over Man and his Actions but that such riotous Actors will oppose and over-rule this Spiritual Power and hurry this precious Soul and Potent Governor whether she will or not into very bad and wicked Actions such as her self doth not only resist and condemn but even detest and abhor These Affections and Passions our Spirit-imposers do commonly grant have their Rise and Growth from the Animal Spirits Propensities and Parts of the Body but they have not yet set forth any more rational Account of the Manner how or the Power by which such Effects are performed or produced than they say can be done for those of the Senses Phantasie Intellect or Memory They ascribe indeed the Faculties of the Head and Brain to the Spiritual Power and Government and the Affections and Passions they place in the Heart and suffer their Product and Power to remain with Flesh and Blood but they shew us no Reason of the Difference nor how it comes to pass and by what Mediums Flesh Blood Spirits and Animal Parts do or can produce one sort of these Faculties in Man and not the other It is true that after the Notion of a Living Spirit enlivening and ruling in Man is admitted and taken for true we do then easily conceive and believe the Faculties of the Brain are more suitable to that Nature and the Affections and Passions which sure not therewithal but are apt to resist and over-rule that Government Men do forwardly ascribe to the Production Actuating and Government of Flesh and Blood but perhaps more rightly to the same Flame and animal Spirits which act also in the Head but more refined there and meeting with fit Matter and Organs adapted intended by the Artificer and by him appointed for more Noble Purposes And our Experience tells us That Blood which produces Barking in a Dog will by Transfusion cause Baaing in a Sheep and likely Bleating in a Calf Grunting in a Hog and so will the Sheeps Blood by Transfusion produce Speaking and Singing in a Man according to the Matter and Organs which the Spirits arising from that Blood find in the Places adapted for such Productions This farther Piece of Work being cut out for our Spirit-imposers it shall here be left upon them to perform before they be permitted as a reasonable Course to go on in their Pretences That because Men are not able so fully to understand the Course of Natural Proceedings in the Head and Brain as to give a rational and satisfactory Account thereof that therefore Things cannot be done there as they are without such a Spiritual Power as Men have invented to substitute rather than confess in this Case the Truth of their Ignorance and that God's Works are in this Case particularly past finding out But if they shall give us as rational and satisfactory an Account of the Things concerning the Soul they speak of as they require other Men to give of the Acts performed in the Head by the Brain and the Membranes Arteries and other Parts to the same belonging and continually supplied by Animal and Subtil Spirits from the Heart and quickened and acted by the Flammula Vitalis Nay except they do give a better Account of their Soul and its Power and Manner of Acting than Men can do of the Manner of Acting in the Head and Brain by the Animal Spirits and other Natural Parts and Powers of the Body it seems they are not to be believed or admitted to impose upon-Men their Doctrine of a Spiritual and Self-subsisting Soul as a Distinct Being from that of the Body and it seems they may as well devise Souls for the Beasts upon the same Grounds viz. For that they cannot give a rational or satisfactory Account how and by what particular Means and Powers many of their Actions are framed guided and performed As how they come every one of them to know wherein their Prime Forces of opposing others and defending themselves do consist The Dog in his Teeth the Beasts Sheep Goats Deer in their Horns the Boar in his Tusks Cocks in their Bills and Spurs Porcupines in their Quills and the like and how every Species are taught and guided to use their several Weapons the most dexterously and most to their Advantage by what Power Order or Means the Subtilties of
in it self or of moving any other Matter whatsoever It seems when he made this gross Mistake he did not remember that there was an Element of Fire in the World For we suppose he could have no doubting but that Fire was Matter nor that wheresoever it is found it shews it self to be a Self-moving and an Active Principle in Nature so violent as to disdain Resistance from any thing Fortresses and Castles are ordinarily and easily overthrown by it Rocks and Mountains cannot enough resist the Force of it But it can shake the solid Globe of Earth making Resistance to the Violent Force of its Motion and Activity How extream easie must it then be for a Principle of such Mettle and Vigour to move and actuate and to enliven and quicken the adapted Parts Members and Organs of an Animal or Humane Body wherein those Parts and Organs are fitted by a wise Creator to those Motions and Purposes and for those Offices in their first Formation intended It seems an Opinion of so little Doubt or Question as scarce leaves Matter or Occasion for any farther Dispute about the Verity of the Thing We have spoken before of the Spirits enflamed to a Tenuity so rare as it attains to a Degree of Invisibility And our Dr. Pag. 149. tells us of the Intense Heat that is about the Heart of Man such as that his Blood there is in a manner scalding-hot So Pag. 203. says The Aetherial Matter is that Fire which Trismegist affirms is the Vehicle of the Mind and which the Soul of the World doth most certainly use in all her Acts and Procreations Pag. 212. The Spirits thus fine and active move like Light as that of the Sun to our Sight the Motion is propagated not by Degrees but at once Pag. 214. If one part of the Blood he more Fiery and Subtil than another it will be sure to reach the Head From these Assertions it appears our Dr. was not ignorant of the Principle of Fire and its Activity in the Body and Mind of Man nor did he forget it Why then did he not mention and answer the Objection thence arising against his Position That Matter can neither move it self nor any other Matter there seems no Account or Reason to be given Our Author Baxter takes notice Pag. 21. That Life Intuition and Love are Acts as Natural to the Soul as Motion Light and Heat are Quoad actum to the Fire This Testifies his Opinion That Fire is a a Self-moving Principle and that it is evident and eminent in the Composition of the Body and Mind of Man is too well proved and apparent to be doubted Upon all these Quotations and Arguments it seems we may say as we have done before in the Case of Plants that in Animals Men do find a proper and sufficient Original in their Seed and the Fomentation and Nutriment of it and of its Growth and Tendency to the Perfection of its Kind that there are naturally produced the Parts belonging to such Bodies viz. inward as Heart Liver Lungs Bowels Brains Spleen Kidneys Bladder c. And outward as Head Feet Hands Arms Shoulders Neck c. Also those which under one Name contain many Particulars as the Muscles Nerves Veins Fibres Arteries Films Membranes Tunicles c. Lastly such as go through the Composure and every Part of it viz. Flesh Bones Blood and Breath God by his Hand-maid Nature and that Wisdom described Prov. 8. framed this Compositum at first out of the Dust of the Earth Of which David gives a true Character when he says I am fearfully and wonderfully made and making he endowed it with a Generative Power to be practised and used for the Continuance of their Species till Time and Place shall fail for such Productions and hath made such Performances the most pleasing and delightful Actions of their Lives to the intent the Species of Animals might never fail in the World or be extinguished When their Bodies were perfectly framed and fully finished furnished with Blood and Humours fit to be enkindled by the Promethean or Heavenly Fire He breathed says Moses into Man the Breath of Life which though Moses doth not express it was given and granted to the Beasts of the Field also and to the Heirs and Posterities of them all and by the first Blast and Fanning of this Breath were the pregnant Steems of the newly-created and pullulant Blood and Humours of the Body enkindled and enflamed with a Fire of Heavenly Product Natural and Lambent like those sometimes found in Ancient Urns and Sepulchres ever burning or shining without Consuming or Perception of Consuming their Materials This Fire Flame or Glowing pervades the whole Body and every Part and minute Particle and Member of it whither the Blood and Humours can and do come enlivening and actuating the whole and every Part of the Body to perform those Purposes for which by Nature they were intended But the Power of this Vital Heat and Fire is most apparent in and about the Heart where the Blood is most heated rarified and refined to a Spirit of that Pureness and Subtilty that like a rorid Steem they become thin to an Ivisibility ascending continually from the Heart to the Head as the Sap doth in Plants and the Vegetative Spirit from the Root to the Branches arriving in the Head they replenish the Brain and the Ventricles thereof acting and stirring and enabling all Parts and Organs to and in the Performance of those Parts and Duties for which by Nature they were intended Our Dr. before-quoted P. 298. tells us That by these Spirits the Soul hears sees feels imagines remembers and reasons and can do nothing without them And Pag. 329. The Souls Intellectual Operations depend upon these Spirits and it is the Fitness and Purity of them that invites and enables her to love and look after Divine and Intellectual Objects But we do not perceive more need of such a Soul in the Animal than there was before in the Plant there we found Materials and proper Organs for the Nourishment of it and a Natural Vegetative Spirit or Soul to enliven it to stir and actuate the Sap causing it to ascend and to spread it self in all Places even to the uttermost Branches and Twigs of the largest Trees where it produceth Leaves and Fruit according to its own proper Nature and why not the Blood Humors and Animal Spirits circulating in the Body of an Animal The Blood and Humors actuated with the Flame of Life and the attenuated Spirits actuating and applying to fit Matter and Organs of the Body made proper for their several Purposes and moving and stimulating to act accordingly and acting with them and in them why may not these act in the Natural Course of a Sensitive Animal without an Immaterial Self-subsisting Soul Our Dr. says Because you can shew me no Way how things can be by such Means acted and done in the Senses or Vnderstanding but so as I can make
my Opinion when I found Roccius saying the same things and words and Melanchton apparently to the same Sense and Peter Martyr approaching thereunto and nearer than I do expect other men shall come in any short time Your Quotation out of Dr. Cave was drawn by him out of Euseb Hist lib. 6. cap. 36 and is quoted in my Treatise This Particular finishes your Opposition to my Treatise and shall put an End also to my Defence Yet because I have as you may see some room left upon this Sheet of Paper I am thereby invited to remember what you said in your Second Paragraph viz. That it is not unlikely that my Treatise might be the result of some years Study To set your Imagination right upon that Point I give you this Account of it That in Summer 1690 I practised my Monastick Discipline reading within Doors and labouring the Ground abroad Mutans quadrata rotundis What I read within I ruminated without I considered the close Connection of Soul and Body and even the Contexture of them that Humane Constitutions and Faculties are often alter'd by Diet Air Sickness Accidents that the best Reasons Memories or Judgments may be altered or spoiled by divers like Means and recovered sometimes by Medicines applied to the disaffected Parts or Organs of the Body How this might competere with the Acts and Powers of a Substantial Angelical Spirit as the Soul or Form of Man I found my self unable to comprehend but that rather it seemed there was a Dependency of the Soul upon the Body as well as of the Body upon the Soul Hence I concluded there was a Close and Natural Contexture between them and that likely they were both of one same Nature Connatural to Man viz. his Natural and Constituent Parts Then I considered the Brutes and that they had the same Senses and Affections with Men and some sort of Understanding Phancy and Memory and all liable to like Accidents Also both Sorts lived by Blood Breath and Fewel or Food and if any of these failed the Man must die as well as the Beast so as the Man's Soul could help in such or any other Vital or Natural Necessities no more than the Soul of a Beast can do in like Cases And thus I went on considering all the Summer and coming tube inclined I fell upon a very Natural Course of Proceeding in such Cases followed by St. Paul Acts 17.17 He disputed his Tenets in all Places and with all Persons of his Conversation proper for that purpose and so did I and read Books such as I had or could buy or borrow Lastly One lent me a Book called Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts and the Weak Defence which he and Sir Kenelm Digby and Doctor More made on behalf of that Immortal Opinion fortified my Conceptions to the contrary In Christmass I discours'd with many about it and soon after Candlemass I began to write and finish'd my Treatise about a Week after Midsummer in An. 1691 since which time divers have perused it and I refuse it to none who are like to use it cleanly and are capable of it I know you observe that I begin with Baxter's Book and end with it quoting and examining of it all along nor did I find it difficult to refute all that he says in maintenance of the Immortality except the Texts of Scripture which he quotes And those Texts in him and in you seem to me the only Defences of the Immortality Batteries you perceive are and may be raised against the intention and effects of those Texts which are quoted to that purpose and of what force they will prove Men are not like speedily to determine But my Judgment is not convinced or perswaded that by forbearing the Argument drawn from the Immortality and pressing in its stead that from the Resurrection and the Last Judgement there can any detriment arise to the Progress and Maintenance of the Christian and specially of the Protestant Religion If I had a desire to argue upon this Point and towards the Clearing of it as St. Paul did both in Synagogues Markets and Schools I do it much more desirously with you as professing my self Your much obliged and very humble Servant 8 March 1692. After this Answer to the Opponents Objections he was p1eased to reply thereunto in June following and his Replication was divided into Seven Paragraphs His 1. Parag Insists That I had not made that Proof which he demanded of the Quomodo How a Material Spirit was able to act or did act the Humane Faculties and Powers known to be in Mankind and carried to an excellent Perfection in some Men As this was a repeated Demand so I say that I answer to it as before viz. That there are many other Things and Actings in the World the Reasons and Causes of which Men neither do nor can enough comprehend or perceive Our Lord tells us That if one should watch the Corn Night and Day yet he could not perceive so as to know the Immediate and Proper Causes of its Growth but it will bring forth first the Stalk next the Blade then the Ear and lastly the Full Corn in it Men not perceiving the How or the Why of it and the Case is like for all other Plants How it was or whence it proceeds that they bring forth Fruits and Leaves of wondrous Variety and Diversity in Colour Figure Taste Smell Bulk and Operations We see that each of them have Root Bole Skin or Bark and we perceive and know that each of them hath an active and lively Juice or Spirit ascending from the Root into the Boles Branches and Tops of them and this Composition of Matter and Form in Plants we do reasonably believe to be sufficient and effectual for the production of all that doth ordinarily grow out of them But that Solomon or any other man ever did or can declare to us the manner of their proceedings or the next Reasons of them and of that great Variety in their Natures and Productions I do not know nor believe nor do I think it a Work of Humane Power to do Next Plants we may consider the Insects Solomon points us to the Spiders the Locusts the Ants and the Bees what are the Causes of their Motions and Actions Solomon tells us they do what is proper and best for their Beings but as Wonders to him and us who know neither the How nor the Why of them And so for the Fishes and the Birds we cannot know by what secret Engines and Motors divers particulars are done amongst them Concerning the Quadrupedes we see and know they have the same Flesh Blood Bones and Breath that Men have and in their Kinds sutable Bodily Members as Head Heart Liver Lungs Arteries Veins Fibres Muscles c. that Men have also a Generation and Production all alike I may demand what makes them live and grow in the Wombs of their Dams What forms their Members and how are they made in those