man of a middle nature betweene Formae simpliciter separatae and Formae simpliciter Inseparabiles between Formes that can never be but separate formes that can ne'r be but inseparable and therfore the soule may informe the body and yet subsist without informing it But if the soule depend not upon the body how happens it that if the heart or braine of a man bee wounded or hurt the man dyes I say not therefore that the soule depends not upon the body but that the Rationall Soule depends not upon it For the sensitive and vegetative parts of the soule depend no doubt upon the Heart and braine the Animall upon the Braine the Vitall upon the Heart for these are their proper forges I may say seats and if any of these places bee so hurt that it is made unfit to be their forge or seate any longer they have then no longer any being in the body because no longer any operatiō in the body as wanting their Forges to operate in fit instrumēts to operate with then a man dyes But yet why should not the Rational soule stay in the body though the sensitive be gone for seeing it depends not upon any part of the body why should the hurt of any part of the body drive it away It is not that Quoad Existentiā in corpore as to subsisting in the body the soule is indivisible that if one Faculty bee abolished the other cannot stay at least not the superiour without the inferiour not the Sensitive without the Vegetative not the Rationall without the sensitive For as the Elements of fire and earth could never be joyned in one cōpound if the aire water did not intercede between them so the Rational soule the body could never bee joyned in one subsistence if the sensitive and vegative parts did hot mediate between thē and were the bond of connexion to hold them together the same perhaps which Ecclesiastes calls the silver cord that if this bee loosened there is nothing to hold them any longer toge ther but they are prefently parted from one another And indeede when the Rationall is left alone by it selfe it is then Purè spiritus meerely simply a spirit being such it can not rest any where but either in Heaven or Hell the two proper Centers of all separate spirits And seeing these places are immortall Mansions what should the soule do in either of thē if it were mortall The soule therefore at least the Rationall soule which is also in Habit the whole soule must needes be immortall If it may be made good that the Rationall faculty can exercise its operation without bodily Organs there needes then no other proofe for the immortalitie of the soule seeing Modus operandi sequitur modum Essendi As every thing operates so it is that if the soule can ope◠rate without bodily Organs it may then also sub◠siistwithout them if sub◠sist without them then i◠it separable from the body and thereupon immortall And that the Rationall faculty can exercise its operation with out bodily Organs is a thing of all o◠other the most apparent for what is the proper worke of the Rationall faculty but to contemplate and to view it selfe in it selfe as in a glasse by reflection who can deny but that the soule can doe this of it selfe without the helpe of any other and then certainely without the helpe of bodily Organs The sensitive facultie indeede hath parts of the body made of purpose for the exercise of her operation the eye to see the eare to heare the tongue to taste and for a spring head to them all the braine in the Head but the Rationall faculty hath no parts of the body made for her and why hath it none but because it needes none as that which can exercise its operatiō without them For if the Rationall faculty did use bodily Organs as the sensitive doth what reason can be given why Beasts should not be reasonable creatures as well as men seeing they have as many and all the same parts as mē have that it must be acknowledged some parts of the body to bee either superfluous in Beasts or defective in Men superfluous in Beasts if they have parts proper for understanding and yet understand not or defective in men if they should have parts proper for understanding and have them not which because both of them are in prejudice of Nature therefore neither of them is to be admitted It is true the Rationall Faculty makes use sometimes of the Fantasie an issue from the Braine and may therefore be counted a Bodily Organ at least Germen Organi but this is not of necessity but for convenience whilst it is in the Body and that chiefly if not only In ordine ad sensibilia and if you will say that the Rationall Faculty must needs directly have dependance upō the Brain seeing when the Braine is hurt the understanding is hurt when the Braine is distempered the understanding is distempered as in drunken or Phrantick men May it not be justly answered that the operation of the understanding in this case is not meerely the worke of the Rationall Faculty but rather a mixt worke of the Rationall and Senfitive both together seeing the hurt or distemper of the Braine workes not Primò Per se upon the Rationall Faculty but upon the Sensitive and from thence is transmitted to the Rationall onely Compatiendo by reason of the Sympathy that is betweene them and this is no cause to inferre a necessity of Dependence For when upon the separation of the Soule from the Body the operation of the sensitive Faculty shall absolutely cease this Sympathy betweene it and the Rationall Facultie shall then cease also and neither directly nor indirectly ther shall be then any more dependence upon the Braine Indeed the Soule once separated from the Body hath no more use of the Braine because no more need of the Fantasie at all but moves then upon its owne hinges and exerciseth her operation within her owne Spheare as that which can make its owne objects and as being Speculum sibi ipsi a Glasse to it self by so much the cleerer by how much the freer for though the body be a necessary helpe to the sensitive Faculty yet to the Intellectuall at least Quoad Intelligibilia it is an impediment and a clogge that from hence wee may draw an Argument which drawes an Inference with it greater then it self That to which the Body is no helpe but an impediment not only may subsist without the Body but may subsist the better and if it may then at last it must For Frustra fit potentia quae non reducitur in actum Nature is no such unskilfull Artificer to make a power that comes not into act and so it is for the credit of Nature that the soule be immortall And why hath Nature implanted in the Soule of man a desire of immortality if it be
vegetative may well enough be said to be Ex Traduce from the Parents and with them the concupiscible part which is the proper seate and origin of sin and they being originally tainted with sinne as being transmitted from the Parents set a taint also upon the intellectuall part by the union with them and yet no consequence that this as they should be Ex Traduce from the Parents What though the soule were breathed by God entire at first into the body Is it necessary it should be so continued as it was at first given Why more then that the body was made by God all at once at first and yet now by generation is continued and made up by parts For who knowes not the order of Nature in forming the parts of the Body in the Mothers wombe First the heart is formed and lives anâ— this is yet but the vegetative part of the soule theâ— after the forming of some Ministeriall parts the Braine and this is yet buâ— the sensitive part of the soule and thus farre Ex Traduce from the Parents may not unprobably bee allowed but the Rationall part is behind still as having no part of the body for the Fountaine of her operation This therefore remaines to be infused by God and is perhaps one of the workes which Christ meant when hee said Pater meus usque nunc operatur and differs from the first worke but onely in this that where hee then breathed the whole soule into the Body at once hee now leaves to Nature the two inferiour parts and reserves to himselfe onely the consummating part which is the Rationall But would it not follow by this there should bee two soules in man one generated by the Parents another immitted into the Body by God Indeede no for they make all but one soule onely augmented by a Faculty or rather not a Faculty but the true substance which makes it properly to bee a soule For where onely the vegetative is as in Trees or only the vegetative sensitive as in beasts though they be commonly called soules yet truly considered they are but Faculties of life drawne Eâ—potentia materiae from the power of the matter of which the creatures are made and are but as degrees and stages to the Rationall this only that which consummates and perfits it to be a soule and is so a part of the soule that it makes the wholâ— soule indivisible into parts and as comming immediately from God himselfe 〈◊〉 can never be dissolved but by God himselfe and is therefore by his Decree immortall which the vegetative sensitive could never be if the Rationall did not take them into her society or rather joyne them as unisons in Musick â—nd make them one with â—er owne being That which is a Roofe to a lowâ—r roome is but a Floore â—o a higher and so the â—egetative which was a â—oule in Plants is but a Faculty to the sensitive in Beasts and the sensitive which was a soul in Beasts â—s but a Faculty to the Rationall in man for the Rationall is the supreme Roofe that perfits it to be a soule and makes it fixt and therefore immortall But as the Rationall makes the sensitive immortall in one kinde so the sensitive makes the Rationall mortall in another not in duration but in corruption as tainting it with that fin which brought the sentence of Morte morieris upon Adam and justly in Adam upon all his posterity But whether the corruption of the sensitive before the Rationall come to it which according to the best Writers is not till the fourth month after conceptioÌ„ make the Embryon dying within that space obnoxious to originall sin or no is a depth that exceeds the line of my knowledge and perhaps of any mans else without Divine Revelation For though the soule be not actually perfitted till that time yet it is actually prepared and hath an actuall Praeviam pravam dispositionem in it before that time and who can tell whether this may not serve and be sufficient to make obnoxious For why else should David say I was conceived in sinne when the Rationall is not infused till after the conception Or is it not that to say The soule is Ex Traduce from the Parents and the soule is not Ex Traduce from the Parents are both true in the Disjunctive because the Rationall is not the sensitive is but that the whole Soule is guilty of originall sin not onely when borne but when first conceived universally may passe without disjunctive Or is it not that when God at first created Adam it is said Male and female created hee them and therfore though the soule be Ex Traduce from the Parents yet till the Embryon be so farre growne that it may bee said to be Male or Female which is not till the parts be all formed and that it hath its perfit shape which is not till a certaine time after the conception but that certaine time uncertaine how long it cannot be justly thought to bee obnoxious to originall sin because not be murder in any that shall destroy it And this may appeare by the Law which Moses sets downe Exod. 21. If one strike a woman that her fruit go from her which in some Copies is thus exprest that her fruit goe from her not perfitly shaped the punishment shall be the lighter but if perfitly shaped thâ— punishment shall be death And as long as it is in state not to make it murder iâ— any that shall destroy it so long neither can it beâ— in state to be obnoxious to originall sinne Or may it not perhaps be true thaâ— the whole soule with all its Faculties is Ex Traducâ— from the Parents as hath been held by many and so indeed it will be plaine how originall sinne is propagated But then it will not be so plaine how the soule shall be immortall For if it bee Ex Traduce from the Parents it must be drawne E potentia materiae from the power of the matter and if drawn from the power of the matter then must it be materiall as the soule of a Beast is and if materiall then also corruptible and if corruptible then also mortaâ—â— Indeed no for though 〈◊〉 be drawne E potentia materiae from the power of thâ— matter yet not from thâ— power of the matter simply but E potentia materiae inspiratae à Deo from the power of the matteâ— inspired by God as iâ— was at first in Adam and as in Beasts it never was and though the being drawne from the power of â—e matter would make it â—â—e mortall yet Inspiratio â—â—ei the being inspired by God makes it be as himselfe is immortall When God at the Creation breaâ—ed the soule into the boâ—y of Adam there is â—othing spoken of the â—oule of Eve because shee was taken out of Adams â—ide and if it served her â—or a soule that she was made of a part of Adam body why not as well also for all other Descendents
then it must be an infinitenesse by extension of Magnitude and that the work only of Imagination or conceit where his Infinitenesse is a Transcendent to Quantity and leaves imagination behind it and conceit below it or rather makes Imagination weary and Conceit ashamed I can perhaps apprehend more than he is but not so much for I can apprehend many gods but all of them not so much as he that is but One. And why then would I so faine be thinking of him when I can think of nothing that is worthy of him Yet I must thinke of him or I can thinke of nothing that is worth the thinking of If I thinke of the wisdome of Salomon If of the beauty of Absalom If of the strength of Sampson Alas what are these to think of Great indeede to bee thought of by themselves but compar'd with his wisdome with his beauty with his strength they are lesse then nothing When I can measure out the Sea by dioppes and when I can sum up the Sands with Counters I may then hope to finde out something to thinke of that is worthy of him But though I cannot apprehend him as he is unum integrale One entire being yet I may perhaps apprehend him as Humane Capacity conceiveth him in parts Alas no better at all For if I thinke of his Providence and his Providence is the most visible Character in his Oeconomy of the World I finde my selfe even confounded with the course hee holdeth in it Why he suffers the wicked of the World to prosper and flourish and the godly whom he loveth best and who love him best to be in affliction as though he did mistake either his blessings or them he blesseth taking Ephraim for Manasses and Manasse for Ephraim as old Jacob did If I thinke of his Justice and every one hath a right in Justice I am then confounded to think why Abel that was the first Saint should be the first Martyr and why Cain that was the Murtherer of his brother should have the blessing of long life as though it were justice with him to punish an innocent and to reward an offender If I thinke of his Power and power will alwayes make it self be thought of I am then confounded to thinke how hee could make all things of nothing and why they are said to bee the workes of his hands when yet they were made with a word of his mouth as though Nature were not worthy to be his Apprentice and as though it were with him but a word and a deed But most of all if I thinke of his Mercy and his mercy is over all his workes I am then confounded to thinke how it can be mercy in him to give the life of his Sonne to save the lives of his Enemies an Innocent for Delinquents a Lambe for Wolves a God for men O my soule this may well be thy astonishment seeing it is the wonder of Anâ—els But though his Jutice may be brought in â—uestion by it yet his Mercy certainly it makes â—ut of question for what reater Mercy then to save â—lany by One and many â—hat could not helpe themâ—elves by one that could â—oth save himselfe and oâ—â—ers Neither yet is his â—ustice brought in questiâ—n by it for is it not just that as hee did make man by his word which is his Sonne so hee should save man by his Sonne who is the Word Is it not just he should imploy his Son where most honour might be gotten and is there any greater honor than that which he hath gotten by this imployment to sit at the right hand of his Father and to have a Name at which both men and Angels must bow their knees And now O my soule thou hast found out a thing in God most worthy for thee to thinke of of him to be thought for as his mercy is over al his works so it may justly take up all thy thoughts But can nothing be found in God worthy to be thought of but his Mercy Not his Wisdome Not his Power Not his Justice Yes my soule most worthy to be thought of all of them but not so much or if as much in themselves yet not of us and therefore not so much of us because not communicated so much to us For his Wisedome is to us a secret his Power a transcendent his Justice an abyssus onely his Mercy offers to communicate it selfe to us that if it were not for his Mercy we neither could hope nor durst presume to have Accesse unto him and therfore in all our suites we Pray him not to heare us for his wisdomes sake or for his powers sake or for his Justice sake but only alwaies for his Mercyes sake It is his Mercy that emboldens us when we are fearefull that encourageth us wheÌ„ we are doubtfull It is his Mercy that directs us when wee are Erring that upholds us when we are falling and indeed his Mercy not only is Invocated by us but is it selfe an Advocate for us that we may truly say Of all his Attributes there is none hath Bowells in it but only his Mercy Here therefore My soule Fixeâ— thy Pillar of Thoughts and let this Mercy of God be thy perpetuall Object For as some superstitious in the sect of Mahomet when they have once seen his Tombe at Mecha pull out their Eyes presently as never possible to see so worthy a sight againe so Thou my Soule when thou hast once entred upon this Thought of Gods Mercy thou mayest seale up the doores of thy Heart as never possible to let in so comfortable a Thought againe But if with all thy thinking thou canst not sufficiently apprehend it then at least admire it that by admiring it thou maist bee drawne to love it or rather to love him for it yet not to love him onely for his mercy to thee but for his mercy and not onely for his being Mercifull but for his being for then my soule thou lovest God truely when thou lovest him for himselfe and not for his benefits for how else canst thou say with Job Though thou kill mee O Lord yet will I love thee Indeede to love God apart from his benefits is a worke for the soule when it is parted from the Body for as long as wee live in this world of Vanity our love to God I may say is but Mercenary even David as much a man as he was after Gods owne heart yet saith but this I love thee O Lord because thou hast heard my supplication So this Benefit of God was the Motive of his love to God that if it had not beene for this motive his love to God might have beene as little as anothers O ye blessed Seraphins that burne with an ardour of this love of God how happy are ye in this your ardour and though I cannot wish to be a Seraphin yet I wish at least some portion of your ardour for then I should love God not for his benefits