perfect at the first instant as ever afterwards therefore it must be saved or damned if there be any for others but no man knows how or which way except it can be proved Christ dyed for bare souls souls without bodies which will puzzle the cunningest soul that ever was made in the marring and mar'd in the making Further it is objected Creatures propagated out of kinde as by buggery as Apes Satyres c. are supposed are not endowed with reasonable souls Ergo souls are created immediately or however of necessity Gods superficient power is joyned to the propagation thereof Answ As I will not altogether confidently affirm they have rational souls so will I not altogether deny it For in man it is some organical deficiency more or less that is the cause that some men are less rational then others for some have abundance of wisedome and some are meer fools and in children whose Organs are not come to perfection there is not so much as there is in an Ape This premised why in some measure as far as by those improper Organs can be expressed may they not be rational though not in the same degree as is capable of God as well as Infants who are as uncapable pro tempore as Apes But perchance it will be replyed that then Christ dyed for Apes as well as for Infants I answer Christ dyed not for the rational part separated from the material nor the material from the rational if there should be such Buggery-births or if by that unnatural course they should meet in one which is impossible for the blessing of procreating any thing in its kinde is to the kinde for that neither but for the natural production by the conjunction of both Sexes legitimate from Adam and not such unnatural by-blowes As for births out of kinde they come within the compass of the Curse and cannot any wayes claime priviledge in the Restoration but must expect with Thornes Briers and all manner of Vermine and Filth which breedeth on corruption to be done away when mortality is swallowed up of life For all other Creatures as well as man shall be raised and delivered from Death at the Resurrection my Reasons and grounds for it be these First that otherwise the curse in Adam would extend further then the blessing in Christ contrary to the Scriptures For as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 Therefore Death coming upon all the Creatures by the sin of Adam no death being before sin life shall come upon all by Christ Secondly the Beasts were not given man to eat in the Innocency but to all flesh wherein was the breath of life was given the green herbe for meat Therefore the death of the Beasts c. was part of the Curse and so to be done away by Christ Thirdly If the other Creatures do not rise again then Christ shall not conquer death but when it is said O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory it will be answered In Beasts because they are still captivated under its bondage But as by one man death entered into the world Rom. 5.12 and by man came Death by man shall come resurrection from Death and the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death and Death shall be swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15.21 54. Therefore Death shall not retain them but they must be delivered out of its Jawes Fourthly these ensuing Scriptures do clearly prove it Col. 1.15 to the 23. All things were created by him and for him whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and be not removed away from the hope of the Gospel which yee have heard and which was preached to every Creature under Heaven And Mar. 16.15 Go yee into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature that is Glad Tydings life and Resurrection from the bondage of corruption to every Creature by Christ therefore is he said to be the First-born of every Creature the First that 's born or raised from the Dead so that those whereof he is the First must follow that is every creature else could he not be the First-born from the Dead of them all And Rev. 21.5 after the dissolution of all things he saith Behold I make all things New And Psal 104. David reckoning up Men Cattel c. saith Thou takest away their breath and they die thou sendest forth thy spirit and renewest the face of the Earth and Psal 102. speaking of the Heavens saith as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed and Isaiah saith in the New Earth the Wolfe and the Lambe shall feed together and the Lion shall eate straw like a Bullocke and Paul saith Rom. 8.19 20 21. The earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifectation of the sons of God For the Creature was made subject to vanitie not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God for we know that the whole Creation groaneth and traveleth in pain till now Therefore the Gospel or Glad Tydings is unto all all are under hope and all things men beasts c. shall be made new or restored at the Resurrection and so Death shall be swallowed up in victory and mortality of life or Death having given up her dead shall be cast into the Lake Rev. 20.13 15. Thus much by the by Now to our matter in hand But be it granted that those births are not endowed with reasonable souls yet doth it not follow that God createth immediately the soul or immediately assisteth nature in it's production more then the body for this is an instance out of kindâ— therefore cannot expect the blessing of the kinde but be as it self is unnatural and cursed for to the kinde is required Sexes of the kinde thereto God hath given the blessing to beget its kinde as well for man to beget perfect man as for the beasts to beget perfect beasts so that whatsoever is born of man naturally is man though one be ennobled with more excellencys then another A born Fool would have been a better instance for if to them rational Souls were denyed it might be thought Nature naturally begetteth meer irrational brutish inhumane bodies and rationality or humanity is a meer supernatural worke To prevent such a cavil I answer that by the Soularies grounds there can be no born fooles Infants new born yea an Embryo should be as actually rational as men of ripeness of years for they say the soul is rationality it self and that rationality is no more of the body then inke is of the pen and the soul is absolutely perfect at the first instant yea 't is forma
shall be burnt up with fire 2 Pet. 3.10 Therefore whole Man is corruptable for as in Adam all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 even so in Christ shall all be made alive what fell in Adam shall be raised by Christ what was mortalized by the earthly Man shall be immortalized by the Heavenly man wherefore All not a part of Man was mortalized by Adam or else onely the fallen part must be redeemed and not the whole man for no more of man then fell was redeemed and if the body onely fell and his formal part his soul continued immortal then that part of man his body onely was purchased not his constitutive or better part his Soul So that the bodies onely of the Reprobate according to this fancy shall be damned for nothing of Adam but what fell of Adam can be made lyable to condemnation and what of him stood shall stand as well as the Angels that never fell But in Christ we are compleat Col. 2.10 Therefore in Adam totally fallen Further If Adams fall was not a compleat change of his whole manhood from immortality to absolute mortality of the whole then in the day that he did eate the forbidden Fruit he did not surely die for He implyes his Man-hood and my very Opposites confess the Soul the very Essence and Being of Man-hood and in the day and surely dye imply Execution as well as Transgression to be then for both have equally relation to the Day In the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye so as well may we say he did not eate as did not die That Day And if nothing dyed that is became mortal but his Body then that dyed his Soul lived that is must be as it was at first before God breathed life into it that is a dead corps and indeed was never other if the Soul were a distinct Being of self and all life in it self and the Body but an Instrument to it whereby it performeth all motion and action as Nemesius on Mans Nature p. 266. with others maintain And thus it must needs follow that this death threatned was a meer Scar-crow even nothing at all for He that is his constitutive part his Soul continued immortal and unchanged and used his body instrumentally as it did before the Transgression And if it be answered It became sinful and subject to sin and so of final Condemnation in Hell at the length I Reply That before he sinned he was subject to sin or else he could not have sinned for quicquid est in actu prius fuit in potentia and if the wages of sin be death then he must be of necessity subject to death the effect as well as sin the cause at the same time And so consequently the Souls possibilty of sinning being producted into Actual sin the Soul must have its wages Actual mortality Further if the Souls Death be onely that of Hell so then principal or efficient cause deepest in the Transgression was less punished then the instrument the Body being but the Souls instrument whereby it acts and moves as if a Magistrate should hang the Hatchet and spare the Man that beat a mans brains out with it and so the Soul suffer the last death and scape the first which is as preposterous as if this Death should be received before this Life Moreover Condemnation in Hell is not properly but remotely the reward of Adams Fall For properly Condemnation is the wages of Infidelity or unbeliefe in Christ as Salvation is of Beliefe So that none can be condemned into Hell but such as are actually guilty of refusing Christ because immortality or the Resurrection cannot be by Propagation or Succession as mortality from Adam to his Issue and so the Child though temporally yet shall it not eternally be punished for his Fathers sin but his Condemnation shall be of himself If the Soul as they say be the very life or have all life in it self and the body but its instrument then the body now hath no more life in it then when it is reduced to the earth but is as dead as a dore-naile And so at the Resurrection cannot be raised from death for that which never had life cannot be raised from death and the union of it to the Soul at the Resurrection they Fabulate on is but an addition of corpulency or gross matter to the Soul which in truth is no Resurrection at all from the dead no more then the restoration of flesh lost by Famine sickness c. For Resurrection from the death is not the addition of gross matter to life but the Restoration of life from death So that the restitution of lost flesh now to the soul is in quality as much a Resurrection from the dead as the addition of the whole body to the soul at the Last day which is to say with the Sadduces there is no Resurrection from the dead But the Soularies I know are loth to be branded for Sadduces which how they will avoid I cannot see for if the soul live separated from the body the body cannot be raised from the dead except the body had a life of its own differing from that of the soul and so a man must have two lives as they say a Cat hath nine the one mortal the other immortal and at the Resurrection have two immortalities If the soul be of a distinct being from the body and sinned as the body and thereby incurred the condemnation of Hell then must the soul have a particular redemption from thence as the body from the grave or else it must perish there for ever And if Christ redeemed us from thence then he must suffer the same eternal Torments that is the worme of conscience despaire everlasting chains of darkness c. But those he never suffered as witnesseth Doctor Ames to Bellarmine Ergo. If you urge that in his agony and sweating of blood he suffered equally with the Torments and therefore might be said to suffer eternal toments though he was never personally in hell then may we as well say that by his agony c. he suffered paine equivalent to death and therefore might be said to have suffered the death of the grave though personally he had never been in the grave for there is a greater equivalency betwixt those sufferings and the grave then betwixt his sweating of blood and the torments of the damned Spirits in hell CHAP. III. Scriptures to prove this Mortality JOb 3.12 13 16. Why did the knees prevent me or why the breasts that I should sucke for now I should have lien still and been quiet I should have sâ—ept then had I been at rest Or as a hidden untimely birth marke I had not been as an Infant that never saw light Job 4.19 21. How much less on them that dwell in Houses of clay whose Foundation is in the Dust which are crushed before the moth Doth not their excellency which is in them goe away they die even without Wisedome
Job 14.1 2. Man that is borne of a woman is of few days and full of trouble he cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not and vers 7 8 9 10 11 12. For there is hope of a Tree if it be cut downe that it will sprout againe and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the roote thereof wax old in the ground and the stock thereof die in the earth yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant But Man dyeth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the ghost and where is He As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and dryeth up so Man lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake out of their sleepe Psal 103.15 16. As for man his dayes are as grass as a flower of the field so he florisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more From these places compared we may see that man not his flesh onely for that makes not man but flesh and Spirit sensu conjuncto make Man is not as a Tree when He is cut down whose Spirit liveth and sprouteth forth and continueth but as the flower of the field not the stalke but the bare flower which totally fadeth and perisheth Therefore Man is wholly mortal he shall die and the Son of Man shall be made as grass Isa 51.12 Ezekiel 13.19 To slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls that should not live Psal 7.1 2. Save me c. Lest he teare my soul like a Lion renting it in pieces c. Psal 89.48 Who can deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Psal 19.10 Lev. 21.1 11 and 19.28 Numb 5.2 and 19.11 13. Hag. 2.13 in all which places the words dead body in the Original is soul See Jun. Annot. Lev. 21.1 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. there out Being after death is called a building of an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens with this the Apostle desires to be clothed and what it is he defines viz. mortality swallowed up of life whence it is most evident that all his hope of future life was grounded upon the Resurrection and that his hope was altogether grounded thereon he confirms 1 Cor. 15 arguing if Christ be not risen the dead should not rise and vers 18. They which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished and vers 14. Then is our faith also in vaine whose end 1 Pet. 1.9 is the Salvation of our Souls How should then all be in vaine if our souls as soon as breath is out of the body enter into glory and salvation For by that though there were no Resurrection of the flesh we should receive the end of our Faith the Salvation of our Souls Nay further he maketh all our hope to be in this life if there be no Resurrection for vers 19. having showne the evils that follow the denyall of the Resurrection faith If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable vers 32. Saint Paul said If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus what advantageth it me if the dead rise not whence plainly appeares that the denyal of the Resurrection confines all our hopes and advantages within this life and so all our sufferings persecutions prayers faith c. were to no purpose which could not be by this Soulary fancy of present reward of beatitude after this life 1 King 2.2 David saith to Solomon I goe the way of all the earth that is as the earth must see corruption so must he and if his Soul were part of him yea himself so must it else should he not go the way of all the earth And the expression in Joshua 2.13 Deliver our lives from death importeth absolute mortality for if Death be not dissolution of life or its deprivation how can it be said to suffer death not by a bodily separation for that is but as the laying down of a burthen wherewith it was clogged and tyred whereby it is made more lively ten thousand times as my Opposites confess and so can no more be said to be dead then a Porter when he is disburthened of his Load Job 34.15 All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again unto dust That which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 and flesh and blood cannot inherite the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 But this Spirit the soul so Idoliz'd if such a thing be is borne of the flesh for in the wombe a Child is a living soul and is so borne of the mother that is flesh Therefore this soul is fleshly and cannot enter into the Kingdome of glory till corruption have put on incorruption which cannot be but by death Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die 1 Cor. 15.36 Eccl. 3.12 That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as one dyeth so dyeth the other they have all one breath so that they have no preheminence above a Beast for all is vanitie Wherefore if their Breath be all one then God breathed no other Breath that is life or soul into Man then he gave to Beasts So that if Man be Fallen and the Beasts be cursed for his sake Man must be equally mortal with them 1 Tim. 4.8 I have fought a good fight I have funished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crowne of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at THAT DAY and not to me onely but to all them that love his appeareing Here from the finishing of his course a Crowne being laid up which is even the same which Peter Epist 1 cap. 1.9 maketh the end of our faith the Salvation of our souls to be given at THAT DAY concludes an intermission to him and us till then 1 Tim. 6.14 16. Keepe this Commandment until the appeareing of our Lord Jesus Christ who onely hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seene nor can see Whence appeareth that none ever entered into Heaven since the Creation And it is in vaine for my Opposites to say it is meant of the corpulent matter onely for they make the Soul the very manhood and none that enter therein enter by halfes and peecemeal and this is confirmed by Joh. 3.13 And no man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven Psal 6.5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal 89.11 12. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction shall thy wonders be known in the darke and thy righteousness in the Land
Drunkards persons with the Falling-sickness c. nay all of us spend a great part of our dayes without our Souls for while we are in sound sleep our Rationality ceaseth pro tempore Thus this immortal Spirit goes and comes as occasion serves That which is finite and mortal ceaseth from the time of the grave till the time of the resurrection But whole man is finite and mortal Ergo. Minor proved That which is elemental is finite and mortal But whole man is elemental Ergo. Minor proved All that is created is elemental But whole man is created Ergo. Major proved That which is material is elemental But all that is created is material for that which is not material is nothing Major proved two ways First If that which is matter be not compounded of the four elements then that which is no matter must be compounded of them else no composition at all and besides the four elements there is nothing else to compound with or to make this or that matter or thing of But no matter is uncapable of composition for of nothing comes nothing Therefore that which is matter is compounded of the four elements Secondly If matter created be not Elementary then the Heavens and the Earth with the things therein contained which are infallibly Matter Created are void of the elemental properties to wit heaviness lightness thickness thinness heat coldness moysture dryness But experience teacheth that the Heaven and the earth with the things therein contained are not void of those properties but are essentially consistent thereof Ergo Matter created must needs be elementary And so whole man being matter created is elemental finite and mortal and so ceaseth from the time of the grave till the time of the Resurrection Another Argument disproving any actual immortality to be in fallen Man If there be an immortal Soul as is imagined in man then it must be neither hot nor dry nor cold nor moyst neither thick nor thin nor heavy nor light for all such compositions in fallen nature are mortal and finite as before proved for they are elemental But every thing in nature must be one or some of those or all those together for in nature nothing can be but it must be hot or dry cold or moyst thick or thin heavy or light for of those radical Qualities the whole creation consisteth that is not a creature that is not composed thereof If there can be any thing in Nature void of those qualities let it be named where it is how it can be what and whereof it is and that shall be called the immortal Soul but such a thing to be in nature is past Imagination yea absolutely impossible Therefore no immortality in fallen man as he is wholly elemental so is he wholly dissoluble Every element returnes to its Centre his earthly part unto the earth his moysture or watery part unto the water his warmth or firy part to the seat of fire his airy part unto the air and thus the composition Man returneth to his simples and so ceaseth from his Being and is become as before that composition or elemental conception Imagine how it was before he was formed conceived or born and even so is it with him when he is dead for as before his conception he was in his elements even so after his death he returneth to the same and hath no more being nor otherwise after death then before life and so there is no more time to him after his death to the Resurrection or recomposition of his elements then there was to him from the creation to his birth which is none at all Another Argument That which is not partly immortal as well as mortal doth cease from life or Being from the time of the grave till the Resurrection But man is not partly immortal as well as mortal Ergo. Minor proved That which is partly immortal partly mortal hath two lifes or Beings But man hath not two beings or lifes Therefore man is not partly immortal partly mortal Major and Minor proved and first the Major If that which is partly mortal partly immortal have not two lifes or Beings then that being must be all a mortal being and then whole man dies or else all an immortal being then whole man lives for ever or else his flesh is no more part of him then a tree is part of an house and so when the Heads-man chopt off the Bishop of Caterburies head he cut off no part of the man Therefore man must either be all mortal or all immortall or that which is partly mortal partly immortal must have two beings or lifes Minor proved to wit that man hath not two lifes or beings If there be two distinct lifes or beings in man then one creature is two creatures for the distinction of Beings is the distinction of creatures But for one creature to be two creatures is impossible Ergo there cannot be two beings in man That the distinction of beings is the distinction of creatures I prove thus If the distinction of beings be not the distinction of creatures then a man is a Bull a Beare a Lion a Dragon c. yea all things is one thing and one thing is all things But man is not a Bull a Bear a Lion c. Therefore the distinction of Beings is the distinction of Creatures The consequence proved If my being did not distinguish me from an owl and a woodcock and thy being the same then an owl and a woodcock were both writer and reader But an owl and a woodcock is neither writer nor reader Therefore the distinction of beings must needs be the distinction of creatures And so it is impossible for one man to have two Beings except one man be two men Therefore if he have not two beings he hath either none or but one and if but one that must be all mortall or all immortal For contraryes cannot possibly be in one object Now if he be all mortal then he must all die if all immortal then he must all live for ever but our dying natures witness against that therefore this must be the sum of all That whole man is mortal Therefore well saies Tertullian in his Book de Anima that the Soul and Body of man are both one which saith Saint Jerome in his Epistle to Marcellina and Anapsychia was the opinion of the greatest part of the Westerne Churches And Saint Austine in his four Books of the original of Souls leaves the question undecided neither dares he rashly determine any thing And his second Book of Retractions Chap. 56. doth witness that he continued in that opinion to his death As testifieth Moulin in his Anatom pag. 67. Chap. II. Considerations from the Creation Fall and Resurrection of man disproving the Opinion of the Soul imagining the better part of man immortal and proving him as a reasonable creature wholly mortal HAving had some consideration concerning the state of the Question in hand from
of forgetfulness Isa 38.18 19. For the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that goe down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy truth Hence it is plain that during this Death Man is void of actual Being for had he then an incorruptible or present actual Being in glory he should be more capable of the praise and remembrance of the Lord then he was before he dyed Job 3. from the 11. to 20. Why dyed I not from the womb c. for now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept and then I should have been at rest as a hidden untimely birth I had not been as Infants that never saw light there the Prisoners rest together they heare not the voyce of the Oppressour Hence followeth that during this Death there is no more present Being to man then to an hidden abortive Embryo in this life and no more capability then light to unborn Infants nor more oppression or torment then where there is none to oppress which is to say He absolutely IS NOT Answerable to that of Jacob Me have ye bereaved of my children Joseph is not and Simeâ—n is not Gen. 42.36 to this adde Psal 146.2 Job 7.21 For now shall I sleepe in the dust and thou shalt seeke me in the Morning but I shall not be 2 Pet. 1.25 Isa 26.14 Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I goe hence and be no more Job 4.17 19 2O 21. Whose foundation is in the dust they perish for ever that is cease to Be till the resurrection Luke 20.37 38. Now that the dead are raised c. relating to Exod. 3.6 I am the God of Abraham c. From whence Christ proveth the resurrection But if Abraham Isaac c. had then lived in their souls it had been no Argument to prove the Resurrection for he had been the God of living souls Abraham Isaac and Jacob though there had been no resurrection Besides he saith all live unto him and this saying is ascribed unto the dead therefore as well may we argue from thence that they lived in their bodies as say they were dead in body but alive in soul unto God for it is impossible to be potentially and actually living at the same time Joh. 12.24 Except a corne of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit compared to 1 Cor. 15. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die Therefore the soul not dying as the Soularies fabulate nor falling into the ground must abide alone and cannot bring forth fruit at the Resurrection but must abide a bare soul without a body and the body having no life in it falling into the ground cannot die for both vegetative sensitive and rational life is ascribed to the soul but must likewise abide alone and cannot be quickned which is a flat denyal of the Resurrection yet though fundamentally the Soularies thus deny the Resurrection yet verbally they say there is a resurrection which must needs be a strange one and as ridiculous as strange stated after their Imagination For the soul not falling into the ground nor dying must needs abide alone therefore if the body be raised after their conception man would be divided into two immortalities and both alone one might be in the North the other in the South the soul in one place and the body in another yea the soul in Hell and the body in Heaven for the body by their grounds is as innocent from sin as the knife wherewith a man is stabed is free from murther and the soul as guilty of all sin as the murtherer is of the murther the Scripture condemneth the guilty saveth the innocent adjudgeth one for heaven and the other for hell O monstrous Resurrection I hope the Soulary Champions the Priests of the Church of England may be ashamed longer to assert the soul to have all life in it and the body to be but the souls instrument whereby it acts and moves and henceforth cease to delude and stop the mouthes of the people with a bare verbal Resurrection that the end of their faith may be sutable to Christ Jesus the foundation on which it is to be built both real and infallible John 11.43 44. And Jesus cryed with a lovd voyce Lazarus come forth and he that was dead four days vers 39. came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes c. If Lazarus soul were in heaven them four dayes he received dammage and not vantage by that Resurrection but it is idle to thinke that he which purchased heaven by his blood should fetch any out after they were in and once there it is impossible to come from thence for should they it were point-blank against the nature of his death who could not worke against himself no more then God can lye 1 Pet. 1.5 7 9 13. compared as Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the Last time that the trial of your faith c. might be found unto Praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ whence it is plain that the end of our faith the salvation of our souls is referred to the day of judgment And Luk. 21.28 then is our Redemption Rom. 8.23 our Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body one with that which Peter calls the salvation of our souls Act. 23.6 24.21 26.6 7. Paul maketh the end of all his hopes and faith to be onely in the Resurrection and 1 Cor. 15.18 saith If the dead rise not believers of all men are most miserable which could not be if they had souls which went presently into glory and the wicked had souls went into Torment though there were no Resurrection yea the day of Judgement throughout the whole World is made both the day of Salvation to the Righteous Rom. 2.16 1 Thes 1.5 7. 1 Pet. 1.5 9 13. 2 Pet. 3.7 Joh. 5.29 Mat. 25.34 Then shall he say Come ye blessed therefore not before then And the day of Condemnation to the wicked Rom. 25 9. 2 Thes 1.6 8 9. Job 21.30 Pro. 16.4 Acts 3.19 1 Pet. 1.10 Luk. 21.28 Joh. 5.29 Mat. 25.41 Then shall he say Depart c. therefore not before then Mat. 7.23 John 3.5 Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven compared to Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised
from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life c. and to these adde 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all Why are they baptized for the dead These places joyntly holding forth the external Ordinance of Baptism or signe of the new Covenant which carieth the full representation of the whole worke of Redemption or perfect figuration of the new Covenant do manifestly set forth this Mortality for the death burial resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot in the external ordinance of bapâ—isme be represented as those places â—old forth it doth but by baptizing that is dipping or submerging the whole man into the water the evidence that whole man shall die and whole man be raised again by the total death and total Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drinke this Cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come The bread and wine signifying his Body and blood as a sign of his death shew plainly that his death was total which could not be if his life shrunk into his soul and still lived But from hence is plain that not onely body but life it self was offered and dyed for Lev. 17.24 The life of all flesh is the blood thereof compare Gen. 2.4 5. But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall you not eat and surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require and at the hand of man c. will I require the life of man whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed To these adde 2 Sam. 1.16.8.27 28. and 16.8 Mat. 23.30 35. with various such-like places all which plainly shew the life of all flesh as well of man as of beast is in the blood else Christs death by the representation of his blood could not be set forth nor could any by the effusion thereof die but his Soul blood or life was poured out unto death therefore his death was not in part but of the whole man Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Acts 1.13 He seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption Eccl. 4.1 2 3. doth shew that the living do suffer oppression but to the dead is none and chap. 9.4 5. they know not any thing For a living dog is better then a dead Lion Therefore Psal 146.2 David saith I will sing praises unto my God while I have any Being implying that in death there is no humane being James 4.14 Our life is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Rev. 16.3 Every living soul in the sea died chap 20.4 5. dead souls lived again CHAP. IV. Objections extorted from Scripture Answered OBject 1. Therefore we are alway 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 to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Whence is inferred a present injoyment of Glory immediately after death I Answer that both the foregoing and subsequent matter deny such an Interpretation or consequence for before wishing to be clothed with our House from Heaven on which is this expression of being present with the Lord he expounds that his meaning is thereby that mortality might be swallowed up of life or as he saith 1 Cor. 15.53 that this corruptable man might put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortalty And the following matter of the said words being laid down as the reason or ground why he so spake prove that by his presence with the Lord he meant nothing else but his state after the Resurrection for saith he We must all appear before the iudgment-seat of Christ that every one c vers 1. Object 2. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is much needful for you Phil. 1.23 14. I answer This is of the same nature therefore must have the same Interpretation for Paul did not preach one thing to the Philippians and the contrary to the Corinthians Besides such manner of expressions are not contradictory to this mortalitie for though there be long time to the Living till the Resurrection there is none to the Dead for from Adams death to his Resurrection at the end of the World will be to him as the twinkling of an eye to the Living yea the twinkling of an eye to the living is more time then a thousand yea ten thousand yeares is to the dead For Being onely commensurates with Time or length of days not to Be cannot possibly be capable thereof So that the Livings tedious anniversary expectation of the Resurrection and end of their faith is not a twinkling to the grave the livings Future is the deads Present Therefore it is well figurated in Scripture by sleepe as slept with his Fathers 1 Kings 11.43 fallen asleepe in Christ 1 Cor. 15.18 c. not that it is so long a time to the dead but that in nature there is nothing so represents death or non-being as sleepe So that this may take away all carnal security for who would not watch and pray over-night that knows he must dye in the morning live well and be wary to day that must rise and answer to morrow believe to day that would not be damned but saved to morrow This administers comfort to the righteous but terrour to the wicked Therefore Christ speakeing of his coming to Judgment saith I come quickly my reward is with me to let all men know that in death there is no delay their reward is present he will not stay an instant And further to confirm it saith again Surely I come quickely Amen even so come Lord Jesus Object 3. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Luke 12.20 Answ The life of the whole person and not such as is fancied of the soul except it had a mouth to eate drinke c. as vers 9. Object 4. And it came to pass as her soul was in departing Gen. 35.18 Ergo there is such a thing as the Soul which continueth it's Being after death Answ No such matter for the sence of words is as she was dying or life a departing for the following words say she dyed which could not be if her soul her constitutive part lived still no more then a man can be said to lose his hand when he loses a finger Object 5. And he stretched himself upon the Child three times and cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my God pray thee let this
a one caught up into the third Heavens how that he was caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 12.2 4. there Paradise is put for the third Heaven And to this compare Christs Answer to the thiefe upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Therefore Paradise is the third Heaven the place for the souls of the righteous whither the Thiefes soul went that day Answ Christ was not there that day himself for he was three days and three nights in the grave after his death during which time all the soul he had was there detayned by death as is evident by Psal 16.10 compared with Acts 2.31 for if it were not so then Christs humane nature tasted of death not wholly but partially onely and thereby wrought not a whole but a partial redemption to humane nature because the soul the most considerable part thereof dyed not being immortal as is fancied which if true Then believers will not be compleat in or by Christ as Saint Paul affirms them to be Col. 2.10 having immortality onely to their bodies by Christ but not to their souls these being immortal before And then Christ by the Gospel brought life and immortality to light onely for the bodyes of men and not for their souls 2 Tim. 1.10 and then believers at the Resurrection will have two several and distinct lives and immortalities the one of their souls by nature and the other of their bodyes by Christ which is absurd to imagine Besides if the Thiefe's souls was that day with Christs Soul in Paradise a place of glory and exaltation Then humane nature had reward and exaltation before Christs Resurrection or his conquest over death even whil'st the Salvation of all man-kind was in suspence yea and before its justification for Christ dying for our sins rose again for our justification Rom. 4.25 And further if Christs soul was that day in Paradise then the Apostles Creed may be questioned as untrue which together with Scripture affirms that Christ that day was both dead and buried neither of which can be true if his soul the principalest part of his humanity remained alive and ascended that day into Paradise Besides if that fancy had been true then it ought and without doubt should have been put as an Article of the Creed to have been believed by all Christians and had been as necessary a point to have been known and believed by them as any other Article there put concerning Christ Object 10. But the meaning of the words may be that the thiefes Soul was that day in Paradise with the God-head and not with Christs Soul Answ If so then this will follow namely that the theifs humane nature was exalted before Christs humane nature which will contradict St. Paul Col. 1.18 where he saith that Christ was the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence and Christs own reward exaltation went not before but followed after as an effect of his sufferings and conquest over death as many Scriptures do witness For when he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 we see Jesus was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death Crowned with glory and Honour Heb. 2.9 Christ being found in the fashion of a man humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given Him a name above every name c. Psal 2.8 9. And no man in his wits can be so sensless as not to understand his Resurrection to intervene his suffering and this his exaltation Besides since the God-head is everywhere how could the Thiefe be absent from it anywhere Wherefore by no means may it be granted that the thiefe was in Paradice that day or can be there before his restoration or Resurrection unless he were or can be there with his broken leggs for Christ said not Thy Soul but Thou i. e. Thou Theife or Thou man shalt be with me And he that can make a Thiefe of him in the sence for which he suffered or a man either without his body is a better work-man then I know any And if the soul as they say have all life in it self and it not subject to death and be the humanity and constitution of Man and the corpulent matter the bulke of the body be but an instrument whereby the soul acts and moves and all the action and motion of the body be meerly instrumental then neither Christ nor the Malefactor died that day nor can any man as man die for thereby his Man-hood that which makes him man his Soul is made immortal unsubject to death But the Scripture speaking of the resurrection of Christ Acts 2.31 saith His soul was not left in Hell neither his flesh did see corruption and Acts 8.33 For his life is taken from the earth and Isa 53.8 He was cut off out of the Land of the living All which could not be by the fabulous conceit of the soul for the first place as Act. 2.31 doth shew that not onely his flesh but life and being was subject or conquered by death and the second it was taken from the earth shews it returned thither else could it not be raised from thence the third he was cut off out of the land of the living shews no life remained in the soul for if his soul retained his life and entered Paradise which the Soularies make to be the Land it self of the living he never dyed But his soul even all the soul he had was made an offering for sin yea he poured it out unto death Isa 53.10 12. Therefore this opinion of the soul cannot stand in competition with the sufferings of Christ but flatly denyeth his death So that from the expression of This day shalt thow be with me in Paradise a present Soulary enterance into glory cannot be wrested under or without the denyal of his death Object 11. It is said Heb. 9.24 That Christ entered into heaven it self what 's that but the third heaven or Paradice into which Saint Paul was caught up before mentioned and whereinto the Thiefes soul entered the day of his death Answ This place of the Hebrews hath reference to Christs ascention after his Resurrection and to his enterance into the highest heaven and Tabernacle of God not made with hands whereof the Holy of holies into which the high-Priest entered once a yeere was a figure made with hands according to the patern of this heavenly house or Tabernacle which was shewed to Moses in the Mount as by comparing Heb. 6.20 Heb. 8.1 5. Heb. 9.1 23 24. and Act. 7.44 with Exo. 25.9 40. may be seen and is the same wherein Christ tells his Disciples are many mansions and that he will goe and prepare a place there for them and that he will come again and receive them to himself John 14.1 2 3. And in the
of the grave Selah Psal 89.48 Object 17. And it came to pass the Beggar dyed and was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome c. Luke 16. from the 22. to the end Answ There was never such a man as Dives or Lazarus or ever such a thing happened no more then Jothams Trees did walk and talke Judg. 9.8 but it was a Parable to prove that nothing is more effectual for conversion then the ordinary preaching of the Word by the true Ministers or Ambassadors of God such as Moses and true Prophets of old and as Christ his Apostles and Prophets and true ministers since Further the consequence concerning the soul is but drawn from the literal sence in which sence I shall deny it canonical Scripture for it makes in that sence more for bodys then the souls present being in Heaven or Hell v. 23 24. maketh Abraham the Father of the Damned vers 24 25 27 30. and vers 22. Dives dyed and was buried and yet vers 23. he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham c. and vers 25. he cryed for Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger to coole his tongue which in the literal sence thus applicated must needs be contradictory unless his eyes tongue and Lazarus finger was not buried or their souls had corporeal corpulent members which to conceit is ridiculous Therefore from this place the Resurrection of the body before the day of Judgment even as soon as a man is buried may better be proved then such a present Soulary enterance into Heaven or Hell Object 18. By which also he went and preached to them in prison Answ By which that is by that whereby he was quickened or raised from the dead his divine Spirit as the foregoing words whereon the sence of those depend doth evidence vers 18. Christ once suffered c. dead in flesh but quickened by the spirit vers 19. by which also he went c. So that he went and preached by that whereby he was quickened or raised Therefore the preaching here meant was not by that which was raised but by that which did raise which was ministerially as the following words further evidence shewing to whom he preached even those which were disobedient in the days of Noah on whom the long-suffering of God waited while the Arke was a preparing those were the spirits here meant the wicked of those days which are now in prison that is dead or imprisoned in the Elements Here the grave or death is called a prison as indeed it is for therein all that dye are reserved in the chaines of death the Elements not to be delivered till Judgment Rev. 20.13 according to Job 3.18 there the prisoners rest together Object 19. Joh. 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die Answ Whosoever liveth doth not in this place import the state of this life for should it believers should not die this death but relateth to the state or life at the Resurrection as the foregoing words on which the sense of these depend evidence viz. I am the Resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live to which these words are annexed And whosoever liveth believeth in me c. which is to say Every believer though dead shall live or be raised again and living or raised again shall never dye any more that is shall scape the second death Joh. 5.24 Secondly This life may be reckoned from the action of belief for God calleth things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 yea all even the dead live unto him Luke 20.38 And so the believer never dyeth in Gods account Rom. 14.7 8 9. None of us liveth to himself and none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Object 20. Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirits 1 Cor. 6.20 Answ Before he called the body the Temple of the holy Ghost vers 29. and vers 15. the members of Christ which needs must be the whole man and not his bare carcass for in death who can praise the Lord in it can be no habitation for the holy Ghost and therein were they to glorifie God to make Christ the head of such members were to make God the God of the dead and not of the living therefore by body and spirit is meant whole man aiming at a thorough and perfect sanctification as well in that which respecteth thought the spirit as in that which respecteth action the body inwardly to gloryfie God as well as outwardly to flee fornication c. Object 16. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slaine for the word of God c. and they cryed with a loud voyce c. Rev. 6.10 11. Answ They were such souls as lay under the Altar slaine or sacrificed or as vers 11. hath it were killed these therefore being dead souls or martyred Saints their crie must be as the crie of the blood of Abel And the like vision of dead Saints confirms it as cap. 20. vers 4 5. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand yeares but the rest of the dead lived not again till c. whence it is plaine that he beheld the Resurrection or restoration of life unto dead souls even of them that were beheaded but the rest lay dead or lived not again till c. Thus much of illegitimate Objections from Scripture Now to the probation hereof from Procreation or Generation and as neer as I can to resolve all occurrent Objections thereon that shall confront CHAP. V. Of procreation how from thence this Mortality is proved IT is supposed as I conceive by none that what naturally proceedeth from Man simply by the course of nature can be immortal but must first taste of mortality And therefore there are two sorts of Opinions to maintaine this Heathenish Invention about the soul whereon it's immortalitie is grounded which I shall chiefly encounter the one that it is created and infused at the conception and so onely Gods worke The other that it is concepted by the woman through the concurrence of the seed of both sexes but not simply by the course of nature but by the supernatural and extraordinarie assistance or efficacie of God in conception more then in other creatures and so partly mans and partly Gods worke But that I may utterly demolish the structure of this Invention I shall turn up the foundation of each kinde in it's place But first I shall speak a word or two in general of Procreation it self That whole man is generated by man Observe That as the whole Tree is potentially in the seed
born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Here is the natural birth by nature and the spiritual birth by grace declared each in his kinde the one a meer natural the other a supernatural worke It is therefore inavoydablely true otherwise the Soul cannot be saved for what is not born again cannot be saved as the immediate words testifie except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God So then the Soul as well as the body is born that is proceeds from the flesh except we be born without it Wherefore they are no more twaine but one flesh I might declare how Purgatorie Limbo Patrum Infantum Prayers unto dead Saints to the Virgin Mary and a World of such-like fancies are grounded upon the Invention of the Soul but that I shall leave it to the conception of the ingenious Thus having found Mans Foundation to be wholly in the Dust from thence taken and thither to return Let this then be the use of all That man hath not wherewith at all to boast no more then of the dirt under his feet but is provoked wholly out of himself to cast himself wholly on Jesus Christ with whom in God our lives are hid that when he who is our life shall appeare we might also with him appeare in glory to whom be the honour of our immortality for ever and for ever Amen THere are many places of Scripture omitted in this Treatise which import man to be wholly mortal whereof I will here commend these few to the serious consideration of all such as desire to finde out truth The Prophet Isaiah Prophesying of Christ in chap. 53. vers 10. saith Yet the Lord would break him and make him Subject to infirmities When he shall make his soul an offering for sin vers the 11. he shall see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied vers 12. Therefore will I give him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death c. By Saint Matthew it is also recorded chap. 26. vers 38. Then said Jesus to them My soul is very heavy unto the death Tarry ye here and watch with me speaking to Peter and the two sons of Zebedeus ver 37. Rev. 16.3 where it is Recorded And the second Angel poured out his Vial upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea Psal 66.9 He holdeth our soul in life Here note That Soul and Life are distinct the Soul of all are held in Life by Christ else would they die Psal 22.29 For all that go down into the dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth it shall die Vers 20. The same soul that sinneth shall die Job 33.18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat 22. His soul draweth neer unto the grave and his life to the destroyers 28. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light 30. To bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living The diligent Reader is desired to correct the mis-quotations escaped in this little book as followeth Page 33. line 13. adde Gen. 1. p. 34. l. 23. read 1 Cor. 15. p. 46. l. 21. r. Eccl. 3.19 20. p. 47. l. 6. r. 2 Tim. p. 48. l. 14. r. Psal 88. p. 49. l. 5. adde 4. p. 56. l. 10. r. Lev. 17.14 l. 11. r. Gen. 9. p. 57. l. 7. r. Acts 2.31 p. 59. l. 15. r. Phil. 1.23 24. p. 63. l. 6. r. Jer. 53.12 p. 68. l. 2. r. Rev. 19. p. 69. l. 16. r. Mat. 8.29 p. 72. l. 22. r. Prov. 15.24 p. 93. l. 1. r. Object 21. p. 98. l. 17. r. Heb. 4.15 p. 118. l. 24. r. 11 12. The Postscript IN some ancient Chronicles of England we read of King Druis so addicted to learning that a Sect of Philosophers succeeded him named Druides and that this King the better to encourage his Subjects without dread of death to fight his battles taught them that their Souls were immortal not subject to death Hence as some think came the opinion that the Souls of men are immortal but others conceive it to have another rise namely The general Doctrine of the Philosophers being That Vertue was to be rewarded and Vice punished and these usually seeing Men to die without either punishment or reward and being ignorant of any Resurrection taught thence that mens Souls after death remained alive to receive the same yet this was contrary to the judgement of many of the Ancients who nevertheless deemed men to be wholly mortal as is cleerly proved by Pliny in the 55 chap. of the 7 th Book of his Natural History where treating of Ghosts or Spirits of Men departed he saith thus viz. After men are buried great diversitie there is in opinion what is become of their Souls and Ghosts wandering some this way and others that but this is generally held that in what estate they were before men were born in the same they remain when they are dead for neither Body nor Soul hath any more sence after our dying day then they had before the day of their nativity but such is the folly and vanity of men that it extendeth still even to the future time yea and in the very time of death flattereth it self with fond imaginations and dreaming of I know not what life after this for some attribute immortality to the Soul others devise a certain transfiguration thereof and there be again who suppose that the Ghosts sequestred from the Body have sence whereupon they do them honour and worship making a God of him that is not so much as a man as if the manner of mens breathing differed from that in other living Creatures or as if there were not to be found many other things in the world that live much longer then men and yet no man judgeth in them the like immortality But shew me what is the substance and body as it were of the Soul by it self what kinde of matter is it apart from the body where lieth her cogitation that she hath how is her seeing how is her hearing performed what toucheth she nay what doth she at all how is she imployed or if there be in her none of all this what goodness can there be without the same but I would know where she setleth and hath her abiding place after her departure from the body And what an infinite multitude of Souls like shadows would there be in so many ages as well past as to come Now surely those be fantastical foolish and childish toyes devised by men that would fain live alwayes and never make an end Qualis in novissimo vitae die quisque moritur Talis in novissimo mundi die judicabitur The Contens CHAP. I. Considerations from natural reason disproving the common opinions of the Soul and proving Man wholly mortal p. 1. CHAP. II. Considerations from the creation fall and resurrection disproving the opinion of the Soul imagining the better part of Man immortal and proving him as a reasonable creature wholly mortal p. 28. CHAP. III. Scriptures to prove this mortality p. 41. CHAP. IV. 21 Objections extorted from Scripture answered p. 58. CHAP. V. Of procreation how from thence this mortality is proved p. 94. CHAP. VI. Testimonies of Scripture to prove that whole man is generated and propagated by nature p. 117. FINIS The Argument lies in fallen nature for the dispute is not of creatures which kept their first station but of man that is fallen from it Acts 7.60 and 13.36 1 Thes 4.13 and Psal 76.6 it is a Dead sleepe No Hell till the Resurrection * Living Soul